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.

More Olympic Qualification

Today we revisit the topic of Olympic Qualification and the Senior National Team. I don't do this to inflame passions or invite argument, it is a cultural and educational exercise I am undertaking. Cultural - to illustrate different opinions, Educational - to help athletes I coach see that there are differing opinions in this country than the status quo. If Bushido players are to continue to move on and play professionally, in the NCAA and on the National Team then they will encounter these different perspectives and strong opinions - so, they should be prepared.

On the popular international website "Water Polo World" there was an article yesterday discussing the FAILURE of the Hungarian women's team because they did not make it to the final (ie 1st/2nd) match of the qualification tournament in Imperia. It was a failure even though the team had qualified for the Olympics by winning their division in the round robin much earlier in the week. Here is what the website wrote about the blame for the loss in the semi-final game that went into overtime and then a shoot out.

"In the penalty shoot-out Hungary´s Barbara Bujka and Italy´s Manuela Zanchi missed the fifth shot each. In the second leg Hungary`s second shooter Ágnes Valkay did not score, so that Tania di Mario netted the winning ball for the home team.

The game was really exciting and great to watch. Unfortunately this was partly caused by some easy mistakes of the teams and the officials. The game was interrupted several times, but was finally lost by Hungarian head coach Gábor Godova who was not able to calm the actions of his team in the final seconds of regulation and extra-time. But today it was much more amazing to watch a game like this than a correct boring game."

Not only did they name the player who missed the final penalty shot but they lay the blame for team performance squarely on the shoulders of the team coach who did not control the team emotions and psyche in tense moments. Contrast that to the Water Polo Canada website and their congratulations today to the team that came 5th and did not qualify for the Olympics at all. Some of those comments are here;

".... the young Sr. Women's National team was unsuccessful in their attempt to gain an Olympic berth for Beijing

We are so very proud of the women, their coaches and the other individuals who helped prepare the team for this important event. The effort the players put into their training - both mental and physical - was both remarkable and phenomenal.

As much as it is difficult now to think of positive outcomes, we want all associated with this team to know how supported and cared for they are. We are proud of them and how they represented our country."

Neither one of these approaches to failure is incorrect. In fact, failure is not even measured the same way in the two countries (unless we talk about hockey, then our perspective is more like that of the Europeans). One approach is open and deals with issues, one is closed and avoids issues altogether. However the biggest difference is once the teams get home. The Hungarians will talk frankly about their performance, make quick and open decisions to address their concerns and move on together, unified. The Canadians will have a very different approach, how different remains to be seen.

Water Polo Canada prefaced it's comments by describing the team as "young". Their average age, by "water polo birth year" is 25. If you know human physiology that is pretty close to the peak athletic age for females. Can we expect that any team review will be tempered with age as a major factor now that we have seen it in writing as a performance qualifier? I hope not since every athlete in the country (or the NCAA or Serie AI, Italy) was eligible for selection.

If you are curious about how that team age breaks down it is like this;

@30% are 22 or younger,

@35% are 24,

@35% are 25 or older.

What is surprising is that there are only 2 athletes between the age of 25 and 29 (the same number that are over 30). I'm curious about how the three 20-21 year olds jelled with the three 29-37 year olds. That seems more interesting to me than the majority of the team that was not young and not old.

People who don't know me might think that summary is negative. Not at all, I am more interested in understanding this process, it's disappointing result and then helping make sure it does not happen again. Wonder how many others feel that way too.

So Many Hours at the Pool

Today was a better day for the Girls at the pool, as expected. Dani was confident with her shot, Yahoo, finally using what she has! Jaelyn was a different person, great to see. Shae was 100% accurate when shooting at the posts, amazing when you think how small those things are. But her play, superb. Sarah W had breakaways every single counter, super, but never released to the wing to get the goalie pass and nobody ever fed her the ball to take to the net. That will be a group problem we solve but the opening is there for sure. Breda struggled a bit with referees and missed some offense that was there for her to exploit, but still, so much danger when she has that ball in her hand!

Cadet Boys played a pretty good game to begin the day and challenged the Regina Youth Team, controlling play for 3 quarters. Youth guys were a different story, no idea why they fight so hard to not play well. It's like they enjoy the struggle. Mitch could score at will vs any team but instead gets off by pulling the hat strings of some rec guy who is giving up his Sunday to provide game experience for our talented age group teams. So hard to understand.

It was nice to see the boys play an entire day without my hearing them swear at each other, themselves or the space around them. Maybe having the Regina boys around helped that, it couldn't hurt as they were pretty good at fitting in and following game plans.

Finally heard back from Turbo Canada today, boys suits and robes will be ordered this week. Black and white remain the colours for this crew.

Up and Down at the Pool

What a bizarre day at the pool with male and female teams taking opposite routes to and from success as the day progressed. The girls do not want to accept their abilities as individuals, or collectively, and start off slow before they take control in later games. The boys come out gunning, have easy success, then relax, start to chirp at one another, in-fight, swear and act with ZERO self control.

The girls struggled to unite and play as a unit but found tough ways to win (Cadet and Youth taking different approaches). Then, both teams hit a wall and changed tactics to keep the ball in the hands of only 1 or 2 players who dominated and help win with comfort. That is frustrating since they could win with more ease, less effort, no stress and more pleasure if they brought it all together. Why is it that the Cadet ones want to watch Shae carry the load and the older ones are afraid not to pass to Breda? Hard questions that only they can answer (and they will on Sunday!)

The boys are much different; brilliant, fast, strong, confident in one game and then raving lunatics in the next. It doesn't help that some of them don't bother to show up for games and will not communicate that to coaches or team members, starts everyone off with a bad attitude that just gets worse. The amount of improvisation and refusal to follow simple tactics is mind boggling. We are playing controlled scrimmages vs a team that is here to give us competitive reps to prepare for real matches in March and May. Yet, every tactic is ignored as guys try to burn what they see as weaker opponents only to have the broken tactics explode in their face.

I'm curious to see how they all respond to day 2 after having had billets tonight, should be interesting. I only wish they would all listen to what is said to start each game and believe in themselves.

It wouldn't be right to not mention the great scrimmage that Kaylea had with the Bantams tonight. Talk about applying what you are taught and believing in your coaches direction. Wow!

Olympic Sadness

I don't want this blog to ever be a place for negative venting. But, I have to mention my disappointment in the failure of the Canadian women to qualify for the Olympic Games. This was never the fault of a single person so no blame can be assigned; the structure of the National Team program makes this impossible. However, there are some things that need to be discussed openly and honestly by Water Polo Canada if we hope to right this problem any time soon. If that discussion does not take place then there will certainly be some public negativity, people have been holding their tongues for awhile so as to not upset any recent Olympic hopes.

My observations here are not "wisdom from hindsight"; anyone that knows me knows that I openly talk about the problem of national training centres very honestly and provide credible alternatives. It has been hard to have discussion on this when 100% of the NT staff are from Montreal and 80% of the athletes are from Montreal, or Quebec (to acknowledge where Johanne originates). I love and respect the blood, sweat and tears every one of them has given to the sport that last 4 years, they are not the problem with the sport.

So, why am I saying things that are not empty sympathy? Well, that failure in Imperia Italy today impacts all of us, every club and coach in Canada has taken a hit. The dreams of our female athletes are now more distant and the hill they must climb even more steep and with less secure footing. Funding will be shortened or withdrawn all the way down to our various PSO's. If we had been involved in a partnership with clearly articulated goals, published national tactics, accepted age specific skill sets, intelligent domestic competition, then we could share the failure of the Olympic Qualification. But we were not, so we can't.

I hope we can avoid blaming athletes and coaches. Pat, in particular, has lead us to plenty of international joy so this is no time to forget that. Let's keep the focus on the systemic shortcomings, work to fix them quickly, be open to ideas that have not seen wide discussion in years past. China showed us at last summer's World Juniors that you can make phenomenal strides in a very short time with a focussed, meaningful domestic plan. You don't have to look at too many Canadian championship results at the Cadet and Youth level to see that the past 5 years have provided plenty of great talent from outside Quebec, coaches and athletes, maybe some of them can become part of the family that works to make a more solid foundation.

Agon Suits

Today was a big day for many of the girls as they got to try on the new Agon suits to check sizes. This was important since some have worn Agon suits with only a front lining and we are getting both front and back. That is required with the possible transparency issues we might face otherwise. I didn't order small enough suits for some Bantam girls as they are possibly going down as far as size 22 or 24. Kelsea for sure, others, we don't know.

We worked more on press defense and offensive movement to help passes tonight, something we have not done in over a month as it was all about gaps and drops the past few weeks. It may take a quarter to get them into the right frame of mind this weekend but it will happen pretty fast once there is an opponent they don't know well. Some of the Bantam girls were actually surprised to be told to HOLD on to the offense unless they were driving, too many soft kiddie scrimmages the past month I guess.

I am also interested to see how the billet plans work this weekend. It is not something I generally like to do as it splits focus away from team and onto hosting, sharing, exploring new relationships. Quite the opposite of what a competition is about when they turn their focus inward to their own knowledge, skill and ability to perform with a well known team of their own, sometimes at the expense of that new "billet friend".

Another thing I expect to see happen in a big way this weekend is the Cadet Girls stepping up play to show me how they plan to make it very difficult to let other girls take their pool time away as the season progresses. Having added 3 new Cadet team members last week I know the regulars are all checking how that impacts their own role. No worries there, I know who everyone is and what they are capable of.

If you are following the Women's national team in Italy right now they are 1 win away from qualifying for their 3rd Olympic Games. Friday they play Greece to make it to the medal round of the Olympic Qualification event and that is a huge game in all their lives. Let's hope the western girls on that team, Csikos, Braden and Riddell pay a big role and contribute to a win. Heather should be in the stands for that one, bringing Bushido cheers to the team.

Odds and Ends

Hawaii had another close one tonight, 13-12 over Arizona State. Hawaii is now 3-0 and tied for first in their division (MPSF) but so much is based on rankings in the NCAA that means little right now. Here is an excerpt from the University of Hawaii website about todays game;

"Freshman goalie Serena Bredin had seven stops for the Rainbow Wahine, three of which came in the decisive fourth quarter as UH held off the Sun Devils.

UH trailed 8-7 at the half after surrendering six second quarter goals. Behind Bredin, the Rainbow Wahine shutout Arizona State 3-0 in the third and entered the final period with a 10-8 advantage."

It's possible that the games and margin of victory will be more comfortable once they get to play in the familiar surroundings of their home pool on the island paradise. Nobody else has the crazy travel schedule that Hawaii does.

The boys had a bit of a moment at practice tonight, making demands for a new Turbo suit and even wanting a robe to go with it. This is an alternative to track suits like the girls will buy. Not sure I can agree about the white suit choice 'cause, like I said, Brooks will be invisible. But, full marks for speaking up with a unified voice.

I have to admit Dani and Claire looked pretty good in their new Agon suits today, much better fit than the Turbo ones that just don't get built for a women's body. And it is the Turbo suits that were the problem, nothing wrong with any of the girls wearing them. New sizing suits from Agon will be here this week so girls are all pretty excited.

Ok, yesterday we had a visual summary of blocking from Bushido players 10-17 years of age. Also viewed by several people yesterday was a Water Polo World web shot of a National Team athlete blocking during a game at the current Olympic Qualification event in Imperia, Italy. The pictures appeared on the web on the same day, talk about reinforcing the importance of the skill. If you compare the photos it is obvious the young club players have learned this technique very well.