Saturday Line up

I finally got my butt in gear and organized a sit down meeting of Bushido Coaches for Saturday. Tough to juggle all schedules but with the older ages having the night off it was easier to get everyone just before the 5:00 practice. We will talk about some missing, or deficient, skills of the Atom and Bantam crew; outline objectives for the Calgary bound teams for the next 5 weeks and then review some roster changes for Cadet and Youth teams.

Today I was very lucky and had a chance to learn some very specific things about our goalies from a sport science perspective. After coaching for 30 years it is not easy to get that much new information in a one hour session. In December we had Serena, Carson and Sandra all video taped and then had a bio-mechanical analysis done. The pictures don't lie, technique is clear, of course, but effort is also obvious and so is flexibility. Carson had exceptional hand positions, just as he has been taught. But out of sight, under water, has been lurking a real lack of hip flexibility. This is holding back his lift by as much as 30%, can you imagine Carson getting 30% higher or getting out to his hips in half the time? Well, give it 12 months and it will be so.

For those keeping score at home, Hawaii is now 3-0 but Serena did not play today. No need, they were only playing a division 3 team and their name is Santa Cruz "Banana Slugs". Really, how serious could they have been.