I had hoped to do a blog entry on the lead up to the Alberta Open today or yesterday. That hasn't been possible since I am still waiting for schedule adjustments and clarifications before it is settled. This is a big event but for some reason they are reluctant to limit teams or do an advanced schedule for club input.
There are too many teams at the Alberta Open this year. We don't need 9 Atom or Cadet teams and the 11 Bantam teams is too many as well. 8 or 12 teams in divisions of 4 would be ideal. Some clubs have pushed for "more games is better" and "we want to play LA" so the host tries to give everyone a balanced, meaningful event. I like that accommodating approach but we have past over into the overwhelming. For 12 and unders who are learning to train, exploring skill development, forging psychological patterns it is not possible to play 9 games in 3.5 days and have time to play, recover, enjoy, learn, observe. They will not know how to look after themselves and will burn out, many will return home ill.
So, I will wait to see how things unfold, may be there is a surprise revision in the works.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Friday, March 7, 2008
Olympic Qualification - Positive Story
I can only consider one thing to write about today, Canada qualifying for the Beijing Olympics! This team was flying under the radar, keeping a very low profile while the women were struggling under close scrutiny in Imperia a few weeks ago. The men have now done what they never managed before, Olympic qualification through head to head games with the best in the world.This is so important for many reasons but chief among them is the fact that the team is primarily amateur athletes competing against European pros. That is such a key thing to remember, the sacrifices these guys have made, and there is no doubt that our having had some guys play pro in other countries the past few years was a big part of the success. The other big piece of the puzzle was a coach on deck with a European pedigree who had the respect of the world as a player. Do not underestimate that bit of social reality in that patriarchal part of the world.
Congratulations to Dragan and his staff for taking them the final step to Olympic credibility. And, let me be the first to thank the coaches that contributed to delivering the quality players to Dragan for his finishing touches - Michel Roy, John Csikos, Wing Wong, Mike Morton, Quinn Fairley, Andras Szeri, Scott Smith. There are others but I am not sure of their role so won't try to name everyone.
Insightful Young Women
Tonight I had a wonderful conversation with two insightful young women who were frustrated at the lack of performance from their "teams" at practice today. I put the word teams in quotations because we never have the ideal set up where we can put a full squad together in a training environment and test it's cohesion, confidence and execution. This is because to field a first line Cadet team we must move up Bantams, to field a first line Youth team we need to move up many Cadets. This leaves no squad to challenge the "first line" team we are testing.
So, why the frustration from Shae and Breda? Because they see very capable players not executing, not using their abundant skills, in drills that review and reinforce tactical instruction from weeks gone by. They wanted to know why that was so we talked for a few minutes about that. There was question about improving their execution if we did more drills and less swimming and skills. Well, if they have been taught the tactics and been given 30 minutes to work on them will it make a difference to increase that to 60 minutes or to 90 minutes? Yes, to some extent, and that is why we have entered the Competitive training phase right now, to determine what has been learned and been added to their repertoire.
Then, as we talked about this and I asked questions of them, ie "how would we increase the learning rate or boost the confidence level?". Breda didn't even hesitate to answer "by playing more games" and she is so correct. Smarter at 17 then any of the people who are making decisions for Water Polo Canada about domestic competition. More games during a season under a system that is understood by the whole team and the whole club. For Bantam and Cadet players a meaningful game in this sense is one that they can repeat tactical systems; scores and standings are irrelevant. Youth teams would need a certain standard of opponent for a game to be meaningful but close scores are not even required as long as they get these games more than 2 or 3 weekends per season.
I'm really glad they figured that out so quickly by themselves since that is the direction I am headed with changes that I have proposed for Manitoba Water Polo next season. It is also what I am currently discussing with Cyril, the Provincial Coach from Saskatchewan, who sees the same basic problems on the prairies that I do.
The good news for the girls tonight is that we get to accurately judge team and player performance in Calgary in a week after a few more days of increased focus on tactics. Then we go into a short 7-8 week cycle of recover, rebuild, re-peak before Nationals and that cycle will have a decent competition phase that teaches nothing, just tweeks what is already known. That process of working toward an end point is hard to visualize for players in their teens that are ahead of the group in confidence and/or skill.
So, why the frustration from Shae and Breda? Because they see very capable players not executing, not using their abundant skills, in drills that review and reinforce tactical instruction from weeks gone by. They wanted to know why that was so we talked for a few minutes about that. There was question about improving their execution if we did more drills and less swimming and skills. Well, if they have been taught the tactics and been given 30 minutes to work on them will it make a difference to increase that to 60 minutes or to 90 minutes? Yes, to some extent, and that is why we have entered the Competitive training phase right now, to determine what has been learned and been added to their repertoire.
Then, as we talked about this and I asked questions of them, ie "how would we increase the learning rate or boost the confidence level?". Breda didn't even hesitate to answer "by playing more games" and she is so correct. Smarter at 17 then any of the people who are making decisions for Water Polo Canada about domestic competition. More games during a season under a system that is understood by the whole team and the whole club. For Bantam and Cadet players a meaningful game in this sense is one that they can repeat tactical systems; scores and standings are irrelevant. Youth teams would need a certain standard of opponent for a game to be meaningful but close scores are not even required as long as they get these games more than 2 or 3 weekends per season.
I'm really glad they figured that out so quickly by themselves since that is the direction I am headed with changes that I have proposed for Manitoba Water Polo next season. It is also what I am currently discussing with Cyril, the Provincial Coach from Saskatchewan, who sees the same basic problems on the prairies that I do.
The good news for the girls tonight is that we get to accurately judge team and player performance in Calgary in a week after a few more days of increased focus on tactics. Then we go into a short 7-8 week cycle of recover, rebuild, re-peak before Nationals and that cycle will have a decent competition phase that teaches nothing, just tweeks what is already known. That process of working toward an end point is hard to visualize for players in their teens that are ahead of the group in confidence and/or skill.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Getting Ready for Alberta Open
The new Agon suits look great, girls are really happy with them. Let's hope they last longer than the sketchy ones we got from Turbo last year.
When you see the whole group in them it really looks like a powerful "team" not just a bunch of girls in suits. I guess that is actually what we were going for. The objective now will be for every player to have the white of their suit out of the water with every shot. Shouldn't be a problem for these dynamos.
I've taken a break from writing about the shooting technique from last week. Still waiting to get some concrete biomechanical data to mull over before too many comments. There is no rush on that since I am not encouraging any drastic changes in shooting before we go to the Alberta Open next week.
Speaking of Alberta Open, holy crap! Got the draft schedule today and it is asking us to play 4 games a day on Friday with 2 of our teams, no way! We won't drive all day Wednesday to be available to play Thursday to Sunday and then sit around doing nothing Thursday while waiting to kill ourselves Friday. There is only 1 US team this year, playing teams in 3 divisions, and no eastern teams. Lots and lots of Calgary teams though.
Jesse is planning on taking his laptop to Calgary this year so I may do Blog updates while I am away. Not sure if I will do journals too since that would double up the writing and electronic communication. This could be a problem since I might need to be at the pool 14 hours Friday (7:00-21:00) and longer on Saturday. I shouldn't have any trouble sleeping on the way home!
Monday, March 3, 2008
Shooting Technique Being Revised?
Is there a Canadian standard for water polo shooting technique? No, nothing close to resembling that. Should there be? Well, if national coaches are concerned that the majority of club players are not coming into the national team system with correct shooting technique then there must be a standard set for all to follow. I am discussing this now because the MWPA just had a weekend shooting clinic with the former Men's national team captain, Noah Miller, and the current women's national team captain, Krystina Alogbo. We chose those clinicians to bring us the perspective of the current national coaches on domestic athlete shooting technique.
Of course, with a standard shooting technique would come a standard skill set to support that shot. There would be specific passing technique to set up that shooting skill, specific catching to prepare for the pass and shot. These would be supported by specific strength and flexibility of the upper body and torso. Also needed would be exact legwork needed for support, lunge and recovery. All of that wouldn't take more than a 1 or 2 hour workshop lead by national coaches to create such a family of "basic shooting skills". Delivery of that information would be so simple at a national coaches symposium I won't even bother to discuss it.
So, why isn't this sort of national shooting skill being taught across the country? A skeptic would say that the fewer clubs there are teaching standard technique the fewer athletes (ie clubs) would be involved in the national team system. That idea can not be taken seriously since EVERY national coach must want competition for spaces and want as many great athletes as possible to fight for team spots. No, the reason most likely for this lack of a national system is related to security for those that create it. National coaches believe they have too many things they are responsible for to create this program and oversee it. If they don't oversee it then they don't want it brought forward. More to the point, if a national skill set is created there will never again be a possibility for national coaches to use lack of skills coming into a program to be the reason for lack of program success.
Maybe there is an "it's coming, don't worry" idea out there in Water Polo Canada that this is part of the current LTAD project. If so, it puts too much faith in that program as delivery will still be the obstacle that it is today. LTAD will deal with this sort of hierarchical structure of learning and skill development but what the skills are and how they are delivered are a generation away. Why wait that long?
The basic difference in the way Canadians shoot the ball now and the way Dragan is pushing us, toward a Serbian model, is found in a more vertical torso. There is more forward hip pivot and less torque from a torso twist. I will talk about that in more detail once I have reviewed the Dartfish video that Sports Biomechanist Carolyn Taylor, who has worked with our athletes twice this winter, has provided. Today I post a quick, low quality image of Breda showing her evolution from "old skool" shooting to Serbian influenced method. I am going to get some specific feedback from Darko on her shot in Calgary next week, then will make up my mind on the transition in our club for the balance of the season.
Final thought, I know the video quality is crap but that brand new AGON suit that Breda is wearing is pretty slick and "super heroish". Girls were crazy excited to see those custom made and delivered in 7 days from Spain!
Of course, with a standard shooting technique would come a standard skill set to support that shot. There would be specific passing technique to set up that shooting skill, specific catching to prepare for the pass and shot. These would be supported by specific strength and flexibility of the upper body and torso. Also needed would be exact legwork needed for support, lunge and recovery. All of that wouldn't take more than a 1 or 2 hour workshop lead by national coaches to create such a family of "basic shooting skills". Delivery of that information would be so simple at a national coaches symposium I won't even bother to discuss it.
So, why isn't this sort of national shooting skill being taught across the country? A skeptic would say that the fewer clubs there are teaching standard technique the fewer athletes (ie clubs) would be involved in the national team system. That idea can not be taken seriously since EVERY national coach must want competition for spaces and want as many great athletes as possible to fight for team spots. No, the reason most likely for this lack of a national system is related to security for those that create it. National coaches believe they have too many things they are responsible for to create this program and oversee it. If they don't oversee it then they don't want it brought forward. More to the point, if a national skill set is created there will never again be a possibility for national coaches to use lack of skills coming into a program to be the reason for lack of program success.
Maybe there is an "it's coming, don't worry" idea out there in Water Polo Canada that this is part of the current LTAD project. If so, it puts too much faith in that program as delivery will still be the obstacle that it is today. LTAD will deal with this sort of hierarchical structure of learning and skill development but what the skills are and how they are delivered are a generation away. Why wait that long?
The basic difference in the way Canadians shoot the ball now and the way Dragan is pushing us, toward a Serbian model, is found in a more vertical torso. There is more forward hip pivot and less torque from a torso twist. I will talk about that in more detail once I have reviewed the Dartfish video that Sports Biomechanist Carolyn Taylor, who has worked with our athletes twice this winter, has provided. Today I post a quick, low quality image of Breda showing her evolution from "old skool" shooting to Serbian influenced method. I am going to get some specific feedback from Darko on her shot in Calgary next week, then will make up my mind on the transition in our club for the balance of the season.
Breda Modifying her Shot
If you are interested in coaching science, or education theory, I will touch on supplantive learning when I talk about the alteration of shooting technique in established players. Right now I am allowing this modified shot to be experimented on by just the players who have given up trying to improve their shot through all other methods. Otherwise it is just being experimented with mid-season in some passing drills.Final thought, I know the video quality is crap but that brand new AGON suit that Breda is wearing is pretty slick and "super heroish". Girls were crazy excited to see those custom made and delivered in 7 days from Spain!
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Sport Nutrition
Having a few days without a blog entry tends to create a backlog of topics if you have been in the daily routine of writing about coaching. I am working on three specific topic areas motivated by this past weekends MWPA clinics which covered shooting and, to a much lesser extent, nutrition.Two of these revolve around the techniques being taught by national coaches and being "expected" from athletes coming out of Canadian clubs. One blog will outline the shooting technique favoured in Canada today and hopefully show video and give a simple biomechanical description of the old method and the newer "Serbian" method. The other blog will talk about why this is a symptom of a huge disconnect between the national teams and the clubs developing 100% of the athletes for those teams. This modified shooting is the way Mike G. has been shooting since Darko began working with him as a Cadet 3 years ago.
Today, the topic is nutrition and that jumps ahead of the shooting dialogue thanks to Mike Reid, or club strength and nutrition guru who now advises us electronically from Sweden. Mike has a blog himself (http://michaelreid.typepad.com/) and this weekend it has a wonderful entry about artificial sweeteners. Mike and I see eye-to-eye on so much nutrition and lifestyle information that I am not going to repost his blog entry, I'll just direct you to it.
I love that he has located research about something that supports what I have known intuitively for some time but not been able to articulate due to a limited background in the science of nutrition (and limited hours to research that myself). Here is the conclusion from the research Mike has written about;
"... products containing artificial sweeteners may lead to increased body weight and obesity by interfering with fundamental homeostatic, physiological processes."
It is appropriate to post that link today since so many young club athletes had a great sport nutrition introduction from Jorie Janzen on Saturday. Jorie took a practical approach to this topic with our athletes by dealing with the big picture, avoiding preaching, and giving athletes specific examples of things they could relate to. I particularly liked how she made a differentiation between water and sports drinks and then talked about a sport nutrition plan. These are things the coaches can follow up when planning with the athletes of each team. The follow up will be easy since Jorie has added to our portfolio of support literature that will now be delivered to athletes over a period of time to reinforce the regular inclusion of nutrition planning in their sport lives.
This is the month, March, when all our youngest athletes (Atoms and Bantams) get their first comprehensive introduction to nutrition. We always use the Alberta Open as the test event to give young teams the chance to connect what they learn about nutrition to how they live while on the road. It's so easy when we have them in a hotel and on the bus for 5 days to exercise influence on what they eat and what thoughts they form in that regard. I am also working on a strategy to help bring athlete hydration to the bench during games in a way that is shared between staff and athletes.
Busy weekend
Sorry to those who read this blog on a regular basis, I have been sick this week and am spending the weekend at a shooting clinic put on by a couple of national water polo team members. This has given me a significant topic to deal with in a day or two, talking about the disconnect between clubs and nationals teams. Stay tuned.
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