Why Do People Train, Part 2

Previously I wrote about the difference between players in an competitive club training "to develop" vs "to compete". This was not an attempt to exhaust the reasons or motivations for training but, rather, to highlight a fundamental difference in program model. Amateur sport is never a simple topic so I wanted to revisit this discussion and cover a broader ground to show how different program structures cater to different athlete motivations.

I will start with an example that is not water polo but gives a good indication of what I am dealing with through a sport structure that is well known. Think of the swim clubs that you know or that you see at local pools. How many Masters groups swim with a competitive age group club? Does Manta in Winnipeg have a Masters program or do they let the many Masters clubs take the adult swimmers? How about in Regina or Calgary or Toronto, how many Masters groups swim in an age group club? You get the point, not many if any. That is not because they are swimming different strokes but because their motivation to train is from a different place.

Am I saying that older athletes, Masters or 19+, are not competitive or that they should stay away from kids? No, not at all. You just will not have success offering a program to adults and their needs if your focus is on skill development, competitive team structure and the fundraising and fees that go with that. Likewise, if you are focused on lifestyle training and social physical activity you will not win many places on national teams or enable too many players to earn post secondary scholarships, or achieve too much team success at an elite level.

In order to have success with a program you have to be able to market it to a specific audience. If the message you send is vague, or conflicts with what you do at the pool, then people will feel a lack of satisfaction in what they have become associated with. There is a way to solve this problem with a water polo club structure but before getting to that I will talk a bit about the things that bring players to the pool in each type of program.

Adult programs can attract players that are primarily looking for a social outlet that involves physical activity. That may mean they want to go for a beer and wings after practice or to extend their social group with people having a common interest. It might include people looking for a mate, a drinking buddy, someone to watch weekend football games with or any other social aspect of group interaction. It could also include people who need a physical outlet to deal with stress or who have to stay active to control their weight or their health (as does everyone!)

The other side of an adult program is one that gives a competitive outlet to people who must compete in a physical game. This usually means people who know the sport and don't want to deal with the teaching of basic skills to young kids when they are at the pool during the few available hours of recreational time they have in a week. These people may also be concerned with their weight, strength and over-all health but they are looking to deal with those in a specific sport setting rather than a primarily social one.

Usually an age group club feeds adult players into one or the other streams of Masters play (competitive or social). Both streams include aspects of the other but people will be "lifers" in a program if it offers an identifiable stream to members. When a program does not choose one mandate or the other it will have players fade in and out of participation on an ongoing basis and this will make it hard to grow as there will not be a direction on which to base a club mission.

It would be possible to offer age group and adult programs in a single club if there was a leader who recognized and valued the role of each and did not see them as conflicting when assigning resources. I am pretty sure we could have a reasonably large group of adult players in our club if we had access to the pool time required to play regular games and have appropriate practices. I know of excellent leaders who could coach such a group within a larger club and I would be happy to use the seasoned players in a variety of mentor roles if they were interested.

Right now we do not have the pool space we need to do this and it is partially due to how the city allocates space. The other obstacle is that I have tried to get another local club to embrace their strengths at adult, social water polo over the years and have not wanted to conflict with that. However, I have failed to convince them to make this a goal so I am now modifying our program to grow into a broader mandate.

Mobilty Drill

Tonight I happened to have my digital camera in my backpack and thought of doing a short video of Shae and Breda (Dani and Claire were in the video too but they are in the background). This occurred to me as they did the Mobility Drill, something we use for transitions between swim, vertical catch, stop/start, give & go, basically for mobility. It is sometimes hard to get young players to imagine the movement pattern and this clip should help that.

Watching this reminds me of how effortlessly these girls move through the water and this was after 30 minutes of swimming fly/free and a 30 minute pre-practice warm up. You can see how quickly and smoothly Shae moves her hips to go from one direction to the other. Breda shows the great power she has in her upper body as she catches left handed and turns with so much authority. I'm not sure if Claire and Dani were aware of being recorded but their form was solid and no drops or crappy passes.

Usually we do this in sets of 10 passes before resting and look for precision. Tonight we went longer, seeing what kind of rhythm they would establish. One of the important parts of this exercise is catching the ball high and rotating so the ball crosses the front of the body before being put in the water ie right handers turn to their left. This does 2 important things, 1) it teaches players to catch the ball and turn rather than tip it blindly over their head and chase it - this forces the head (eyes) to lead the ball and prevent turning into danger (opponent), 2) it provides a plant arm as the body falls from vertical to horizontal and this is what gives the initial pull to start movement forward while maintaining ball control.

The Boys almost got recorded doing the Hot Box drill but no goalie and too much water traffic meant less than ideal set up. That drill is one that works the 4 post players and 3 interior defenders from a 4-2 power play configuration. We use it now mostly as an offensive drill as the defensive movement is not a big part of our current 5 vs 6 defense. The blocking is key but the hip positions are not the same as our stationary blocking that we usually do when shorthanded. We'll tape it another time, maybe when Carson is there.

Random notes;

Tonight at the pool a diver beside us practicing on the 1m board had a nasty board collision on a rapid spin. I only saw it in my peripheral vision until I heard the unnatural thud so I don't know how many rotations she did, 2 at least. A few tears, some blood, maybe a few fractures, who knows; it could have been much worse.

Heather informed me today that she has been asked to be the new centre forward on her pro team in Italy beginning with the game this Saturday vs one of the leagues top teams. That isn't making her too happy since she is one of the leagues (and the worlds) best, most explosive, drivers and her size will not be sufficient to dominate at 2m. I will likely get more on Saturday about how she is boiling over with frustration after her game.

Tactics Taught Thematically

Alliteration in the title seemed to be appropriate for todays topic. Tonight I delivered a 3 stage counter drill to see if the girls could call up past lessons on correct passes for each situation. Some yes, some no, not a surprise but with no clear pattern or reason why some knew what was going on and some didn't.

Stage #1, counter up the middle with a chaser and flip for the ball quickly so the goalie pass is never in danger of sailing over the counter and into the opposing goalie. About a quarter of the girls didn't want to give up the position to he offense to start the drill. Well, without knowing the correct pattern of swim-advantage-pass-finish then doing it later with full defense in a game will not work, no recall of a pattern. Some won't accept that and they are the ones who seem to never recognize the tactic when it pops up in a real situation.

Stage #2, counter with a defender on the left hip and rely on the goalie pass to a relay part way up the pool on the right side. The release was done universally well but receiving the pass with the intent to advance the ball to the ball-side advantage in the centre was seldom automatic. Easy enough to correct as we are doing more give & go drills at this time of the season.

Stage #3, counter advantage is gained by burning the centre forward and a pass to that breakaway is fed late, dry, from a deep wing. The only problem with this stage was the tendency for sharp release of the wing sideways. We were looking for a deep release toward the #1 spot (or #5 to feed the lefty) with a goalie pass wet to the wing and continued movement forward. That way the dry pass to the counter could come from in front and not behind which is just a turnover waiting to happen.

So, this was actually more of a learning practice than I had hoped. There was not as much recall as I wanted but I have identified who the listeners are and who needs some hand holding in future. That was important with this hybrid Espoir team that I was working with tonight.

Tomorrow I will talk about the Give & Go drill that we do to teach fluid movement with passing. Maybe drills and practices are boring for most, I don't really know who reads this blog now that it is an international audience.

Also, later this week, updates on Brendan and Carson who are playing in Florida this week with some US teams they hooked with while at a camp. I encouraged this as we came up empty on a club plan for February travel for all our teams.

PS forgot to mention that Serena stopped another 5m penalty shot vs Stanford this past weekend. It was one of their USA superstars, Lauren Silver. Anyone remember the season a few years ago that Serena went a whole year without letting in a penalty shot?