My Vision for 2008-09; Part 3

"Who trains where and when, who competes out of province?"

Everyone in the current system will want to now the answers to these questions. First I have to emphasize that if we create a HPTC that it will actually have to be high performance to be taken seriously.

Step #4; Put in place HP training practices. With that distinction comes a minimal amount of training and intensity and the starting point is likely to be 5 team practices per week at a minimum. All LTAD models suggest 9 or more training sessions per week for this level but I am working on a model that allows for a shift to this workload by incorporating additional personal workouts the way I have done the past decade with our Bushido Academy.

Why is it important to follow an LTAD program model and to provide this level of training? Because players here want to compete at National Championships, not just "play" but "COMPETE" and the teams at the top will be training that much so we must too. The LTAD model ensures that players will develop correctly over time the way Breda has; I use her as the example because she is from the first generation of Canadian water polo players who began their careers in a program that was structured on LTAD. Others from her generation that have had success from this model are people like Heather, Jesse, Adam, Karly, Derek, Mitchell, Domo, etc. But, that is a whole other topic for another time.

Another aspect of this program re-branding that many will not understand just yet has to do with the restructuring of Water Polo Canada. It is a given that the past practice of taking all our National team players and moving them to a common centre in Calgary (men) or Montreal (women) is about to end. Training will be localized to a great extent and there will be standards in each of the centres that emerges to fill the role of what was done with a single national centre. If we wish to keep our young athletes here to mentor our developing age group players, and to play on our Junior and Senior teams, we must have a training standard that is accepted nationally.

Step #5; Identify the correct competitions for the correct teams. Trevor and I have already discussed this point as it is easy to agree on. We would like to see local Cadet leagues develop 2 levels of team to travel outside Winnipeg. One high level team that will challenge for medals at all national events and one that is developmental and teaching players about what is involved with success at this level. At the Youth level we would likely only have 1 team traveling at a national level and maybe 2 at a regional one.

We would like there to be competition every month for Cadets and almost as much for Youth. That is an ideal and it will take time to get get there. This is something that will be discussed more with families in the program once it is unveiled.