Related Activities, Beyond Daily Training and Competition
There has to be mention of the role and function of the MWPA in this new club structure and of Provincial level programming. Of course, what I have written about in the past 3 posts should open opportunities for new players and added vibrancy to the current MWPA School Leagues. There will be more energy for volunteer coaches and new blood in the referee pool as we increase the player base on a developmental level through the winter months.
One of the very first things I touched on when I presented my ideas to Trevor was the way this structure could mesh nicely with a summer Provincial Team Program (PT). If we have a HPTC running 10 months of the year there will need to be some monitoring and training in the summer months. Our players involved with National Teams are busy at that time with their international obligations but what about the other elite athletes who want to keep pace with the best in Canada. Well, a summer PT would allow a focussed set of training objectives for a limited group of committed athletes that are not out of the country, province or city. If we establish this summer training group it will provide the basis for a future PT when one is requested by Water Polo Canada for various summer initiatives like the Youth Cup.
The PT being tied into the HPTC allows us to access all sorts of additional services and funds through Sport Manitoba. It also allows for some partnerships like we have established this season with Carolyn Taylor who has been doing bio-mechanical research using Dartfish with us. Many of the components of ongoing Bushido programs do not get recognized by Sport Manitoba right now (Nutrition, Strength, Psychology, Coach Apprentice Program) because we don't offer them as part of a "Provincial Team". That is a quirk of Sport Manitoba that they will not change so it doesn't hurt us to alter our structure a bit and tap into some long hidden resources.
Will the Athletes all Get Along in This System?
So far, so good. By now everyone should know that we are running a pilot of this HPTC right now in Bushido. We have labeled it the Bushido Espoir Program and it initially involved our Youth Women who incorporated a few Neptune players. That success in joint training led to a Cadet Boy being added at the beginning of the year and then 3 Cadet Girls being added a month ago. So, we already have 3 of our 4 Age Group teams involving Neptune players right now. Geoff is fitting in very well with our Cadet Boys each week and even played with our Youth team at the Alberta Open. Heather, Robyn, Olivia, Hannah and Jessica are training well with the Youth Girls and Katie has joined Hannah and Olivia with our Cadets. Sure, there could be a little more social interaction outside of the practice drills but that will come with time, right now there is no fighting so that is the start we wanted given that this is a competitive setting. There is no reason we shouldn't expect that cooperation to grow into actual harmony in time.
So, what are the steps to make this transition? Well, I presented this proposal to Trevor at the beginning of February. I have kept the MWPA up to date on the outline of my ideas since then. Right now I am waiting to have follow up meetings with some Neptune coaches because, as you can imagine, this is more difficult for the Neptunes to embrace than for Bushido since it changes their programs in the most dramatic way. Basically all Bushido coaches support cooperation and growth and Bushido parents support Bushido coaches while they shepherd their children in a pretty positive and supportive way at all times. Hopefully, before the national championships cycle starts, we will have a template agreed upon for the MWPA to acknowledge and report on in a planning update for Sport Manitoba. I'm curious to see how much additional revenue flows to our sport next year.
Showing posts with label Provincial Team. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Provincial Team. Show all posts
Monday, March 24, 2008
Sunday, March 23, 2008
My Vision for 2008-09; Part 1
I will summarize my plans for 2008-09 Manitoba Water Polo programming in parts. This will make the blog entries shorter, less wordy and more likely to be to the point. If there is not enough detail in one entry, wait for the next and see if it is any clearer. At the end, feel free to post whatever questions remain from the ideas I have presented.
Introduction; For several years I have watched our local community be threatened by 2 clubs recruiting young players with a similar pitch. I say threatened because the pitch from each club hinted that the programs were similar and the end point virtually the same. That is threatening in so far as the clubs are very different and the end point nothing similar at all. Bushido has been pushing athletes and programs toward national championship play and national team placement of players. Neptunes have been much more social and have always had a strong participation base to what they do. No value judgments here at all, just observations of reality.
What this has meant is that our competitive player base is too thin to support thriving clubs. Bushido has a strong core of great young athletes who work very hard but we have to entice other players with less passion to join them to make competitive teams for national events. That splits focus and team goals are never unified. The Neptunes on the other hand have a core of fun, social athletes that includes some exceptional players. These exceptional athletes get frustrated with not having teams at high level events or attending those events and never having success. It therefore makes sense to try and unify our approach to developing the sport. Combining the top players under 1 banner takes the pushy approach and competitive pressure off the bulk of the players who are there for less competitive reasons. If we do this right it will mean more players training and playing local games at a developmental level and having less emphasis on national events, more on regional. So, how do we do that?
Step #1; I have proposed creating a Bushido High Performance Training Centre (HPTC) to take the place of what is now the "High Performance Program" within Bushido that develops teams to attend national championships. Programs would be directed toward Cadet teams and older. This Centre would be different in two ways - it would be open to players from outside the current Bushido programs ie Neptunes, and it would involve coaches from the Neptunes programs in it's weekly leadership. This leads to 2 questions: 1) why "Bushido" High Performance and not Neptune and 2) why not do this under a Provincial Team banner? The answers to those questions follow.
Why "Bushido" High Performance: This is going to succeed under the Bushido banner because (a) we have a history of national team athlete placement that is continuous, visible and includes 4 carded athletes since 2000 (Bourne, Shevtsov, Bredin, Vosters), (b) we use the leadership of a professional coach and (c) we have an infrastructure with an established parent volunteer base that has vast experience hosting, managing and facilitating this level of programing. The only changes that need to be made in 2008-09 will involve adding a coach or 2 and extending athlete membership to a small group of hard training new players.
Why not do this under a Provincial Team banner: Pretty simple, our club operating budget dwarfs that of the provincial association. This means that the volunteer ownership of the programs we run is much more intense and professional. People have a stake in program success, it is their money that funds the activities and the model is not democratic in that every opinion does not have a right to be debated endlessly (a problem common with PSO boards). Our focus is much more narrow so it is easier to stick to our mission and goals with low risk of getting sidetracked. You will read much more about how the Provincial Team meshes with this model in a later post.
Athletes will be invited to join this 2008-09 HPTC in the spring of 2008; they will be given training goals for the summer - strength, fitness, psychology and nutrition. In the fall there will be a pre-season camp where ground rules are established, team rosters presented, competition plans laid out and commitments made by athletes and coaches.
next up, Part #2 "What about players not involved in High Performance?"
Introduction; For several years I have watched our local community be threatened by 2 clubs recruiting young players with a similar pitch. I say threatened because the pitch from each club hinted that the programs were similar and the end point virtually the same. That is threatening in so far as the clubs are very different and the end point nothing similar at all. Bushido has been pushing athletes and programs toward national championship play and national team placement of players. Neptunes have been much more social and have always had a strong participation base to what they do. No value judgments here at all, just observations of reality.
What this has meant is that our competitive player base is too thin to support thriving clubs. Bushido has a strong core of great young athletes who work very hard but we have to entice other players with less passion to join them to make competitive teams for national events. That splits focus and team goals are never unified. The Neptunes on the other hand have a core of fun, social athletes that includes some exceptional players. These exceptional athletes get frustrated with not having teams at high level events or attending those events and never having success. It therefore makes sense to try and unify our approach to developing the sport. Combining the top players under 1 banner takes the pushy approach and competitive pressure off the bulk of the players who are there for less competitive reasons. If we do this right it will mean more players training and playing local games at a developmental level and having less emphasis on national events, more on regional. So, how do we do that?
Step #1; I have proposed creating a Bushido High Performance Training Centre (HPTC) to take the place of what is now the "High Performance Program" within Bushido that develops teams to attend national championships. Programs would be directed toward Cadet teams and older. This Centre would be different in two ways - it would be open to players from outside the current Bushido programs ie Neptunes, and it would involve coaches from the Neptunes programs in it's weekly leadership. This leads to 2 questions: 1) why "Bushido" High Performance and not Neptune and 2) why not do this under a Provincial Team banner? The answers to those questions follow.
Why "Bushido" High Performance: This is going to succeed under the Bushido banner because (a) we have a history of national team athlete placement that is continuous, visible and includes 4 carded athletes since 2000 (Bourne, Shevtsov, Bredin, Vosters), (b) we use the leadership of a professional coach and (c) we have an infrastructure with an established parent volunteer base that has vast experience hosting, managing and facilitating this level of programing. The only changes that need to be made in 2008-09 will involve adding a coach or 2 and extending athlete membership to a small group of hard training new players.
Why not do this under a Provincial Team banner: Pretty simple, our club operating budget dwarfs that of the provincial association. This means that the volunteer ownership of the programs we run is much more intense and professional. People have a stake in program success, it is their money that funds the activities and the model is not democratic in that every opinion does not have a right to be debated endlessly (a problem common with PSO boards). Our focus is much more narrow so it is easier to stick to our mission and goals with low risk of getting sidetracked. You will read much more about how the Provincial Team meshes with this model in a later post.
Athletes will be invited to join this 2008-09 HPTC in the spring of 2008; they will be given training goals for the summer - strength, fitness, psychology and nutrition. In the fall there will be a pre-season camp where ground rules are established, team rosters presented, competition plans laid out and commitments made by athletes and coaches.
next up, Part #2 "What about players not involved in High Performance?"
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