MOST VALUABLE COACH

The Coaching Association of Canada, has teamed up with Campbell's Chunky to recognize great coaches. Athletes, if you have a coach (triathlon, swimming, running or any coach) who has had a positive impact on you and your training & racing, take a moment to nominate them at www.chunky.ca/mvc. The nomination deadline is Jan 29th, 2009.

Happy New Year to everyone, and all the best in 2009.

TRAINING DAY JAN 4TH

We're kicking off the 2009 season with a PTC Training Day on Sunday, January 4th.

If you've attended one of our last three training days, I already have your registration form, so you just need to e-mail me with "Jan 4th Training Day" in the header, to confirm your spot. I will send you a short reply confirming receipt if your e-mail, and confirmation of your registration. The fee for the training day is $20, as per usual.

If you haven't attended one of the last three PTC Training Days, you can e-mail me for the registration forms.

Further info on the training days can be found here.

Important Notes for the Jan 4th Training Day:

1) 10-12 YEAR OLDS: We will offer a cycling session for the 10-12 group, similar to the Nov 30th Training Day.

2) ADULT TRAINING: We will have a parent/adult group for this training day. Normally, registration for the adults would go through the UofG rec office, but since things are shut down right now, we'll have the adults submit the same registration form as the youth/juniors. For the Feb. 1st training day and beyond, registration for adults will be done through the UofG rec office.

3) PARENT SEMINAR: For those parents who couldn't make the Nov 30th Training Day, I'll offer a repeat of the parents seminar. We'll meet for 60-90mins, starting at 10:30am, to discuss youth development, and answer any questions you might have. There is no cost for this seminar, and no pre-registration required.

Happy New Year.

MORE COWBELL

A classic, completely unrelated to triathlon, but it came up in conversation this morning at the pool.....so that's a good enough excuse for me.

THE MAN WITH THE PLAN

From the Triathlon Canada website:

(Toronto, ON) Triathlon Canada is pleased to announce that former Olympic cyclist Kurt Innes has been named as High Performance Director. A 1992 Olympian and six-time national track cycling champion, Innes made a successful transition from athlete to coach, twice winning the Coaches Association of Canada Coaching Excellence Award (1998 & 1999) and has been an Olympic Team cycling coach on two occasions (Canada 2000, New Zealand 2004). Innes brings an expertise in athlete preparation, performance planning, coaching development and long-term athlete development to Triathlon Canada’s high performance program. Kurt joins Triathlon Canada in his new role effective January 19th, 2009 after completing his duties as Lead Performance Planner at the Canadian Sport Centre-Pacific in Kelowna, BC. He will be relocating to Victoria, BC and will be based out of the National Triathlon Centre - Victoria.

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I had the opportunity to work with Kurt during my internship at the NTC in Victoria, and I'm looking forward to working with him again as our HP Director. Welcome aboard Kurt!

A LITTLE INSPIRATION...

....for Ian

IMAGINE...

....if our sport had this kind of exposure in Canada.

Bevan Docherty (NZL)


Vanessa Fernandes (POR)


Kris Gemmel (NZL)


Nicola Spirig (SUI)

RECRUIT, RETAIN, DEVELOP

Some more resources for coaches (and parents). These two articles appeared in a 2003 edition of the IAAF's New Studies in Athletics (vol 18, issue 3). I can't link directly to the articles, but this link will take you to the table of contents, where you can read, download and/or e-mail the articles. The articles focus on swimming and running, but are applicable to all youth sports programs. Coaches should consider if they are incorporating these elements into their programs. Likewise, parents should be able to identify these characteristics in their children's sport programs. NCCP-certified Competition Coaches (aka Comp Intro), will likely find these articles to be further evidence/support for the course content in Part 1 of the Comp Intro program. [NOTE: I'm not a big fan of the term "entrapment" in the second article, but it's only mentioned once (it was probably added for effect), and the intent of the rest of the article is certainly not to 'trap' talent.]



STRATEGIES TO PREVENT DROPOUT FROM YOUTH ATHLETICS
New Studies in Athletics (2003), Vol:18:3, 21-26
By: Suzie Tuffey Riewald

Each year, millions of children in the USA become involved in a variety of youth sport programmes. Unfortunately, each year approximately 35% subsequently withdraw from these programmes. While some athletes withdraw from one sport to ‘try out’ or specialize in another, others withdraw from sport completely. This situation has raised great concern within the sport federations and among those concerned with the health and well-being of the young athletes, especially if withdrawal is influenced by a negative sport experience or by factors that are amenable to change.

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FACTORS IN THE DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF PROGRAMMES THAT WILL ATTRACT, RECRUIT, RETAIN AND DEVELOP YOUNG ATHLETES.
New Studies in Athletics (2003), Vol:18:3, 27-34
By: Lyle Sanderson

The challenge facing athletics today goes beyond talent identification. To assure the continued success of the sport strategies of TALENT ENTRAPMENT, that will get potential athletes involved and keep them involved, must be developed and implemented. Attracting large numbers of children to athletics is obviously important, but the failure to keep those that have been attracted involved through adolescence and early adulthood is the real problem in most nations and systems.

------------------

Happy reading.

THE DON

TRAINING DAYS: OTTAWA AND HAMILTON

A quick reminder of Training Day opportunities in December:

OTTAWA

The Bytown Storm Triathlon Team has training days on Sat Dec. 13th for Juniors and Sun Dec. 14th for Youth.


JUNIOR TRAINING DAY
Saturday Dec 13th
12 noon to 5:30pm
1 hour run/snowshoe, 1 hour strength,1 hour bike, 2 hour swim.
Open to maximum 12 athletes.
Cost $20 per day.

YOUTH DEVELOPMENT
Sunday Dec 14th
9am to 2:30 pm
45 min run snowshoe, 1 hour strength, 1-1.5 hr bike, 1 hour swim.
Open to all athletes, maximum 20, three coaches per session.

Upcoming BYTOWN Training Weekends:
Jan 17/18
Feb 21/22
March 28/29
April 18/19


HAMILTON

The Hamilton Hammerheads are offering a Training Day on Sunday December 21st.

Sunday, December 21

Time: 8AM – 3:30 PM

Schedule:
Swim: 8 – 9:30 AM
Swim session will include lots of work on technique and underwater video analysis

Run: 10 – 11:30
Run session will include special work on technique and drills.

Lunch: 11:30 – 12:30

Seminars(12:30 – 1:30):
We’ll split the group into a number of groups and spend some time on topics of interest to the group. (Please send in suggestions of topics if you have any.)

Circuit and Cycling: 1:30 – 3:30
Athletes need to bring their own windtrainers to the session. Emphasis will be placed on pedaling and spinning technique.

The cost for the training days will be $5 for Hammerhead athletes and $10 for non-Hammerhead athletes. OAT membership is required for all participants.

These sessions are probably best geared for children 10 years and older. We’ll be very careful to make sure we keep the training at an age-appropriate level for all the children.

Please drop me a line or give me a call if you’re planning to attend, or if you have any questions, at kevin@ironnman.com or (905) 973 0884.

PARENT RESOURCES

Some resources for parents (and coaches) of young athletes, building on the parent seminar at the Training Day over the weekend:

For a quick summary of the basics, it's hard to beat USA Swimming's 10 Commandements for Swimming Parents.

For an excellent resource with more depth, download a copy of A Sport Guide for Parents, co-authored by former Triathlon Canada High Performance Director, and Beijing Olympic Team Leader, Dr. Tom Patrick.

Finally, I recommend that everyone read Fun and Games? Myths surrounding the role of youth sports in developing Olympic champions. This is a peer reviewed article, and a nice summary of the relevant research in the area. Usually, only the abstract is available, but the link above will lead you to the whole article. I suggest printing it or saving an electronic copy, as it's usually only available with a MEDLINE account, or by ordering it (price range $5 to $30) through a university library.

Some selected paragraphs from the article (emphasis added):

Not surprisingly, parents and families were perceived to play a critical role in the talent development process. Specifically, parents were very committed to their child and did such things as modelled an active lifestyle, exposed their child to different sports, transported their child, paid for lessons and equipment, attended games and practices, and provided considerable encouragement and unconditional support. While families clearly supported and encouraged participation, in most cases they exerted little pressure to win. Families also emphasised an optimistic belief in the young athletes' ability to succeed or a "can do" attitude.

Families also modelled hard work and discipline, a finding consistent with research by Bloom (1985), who showed that parents of highly successful individuals espoused or modelled values related to achievement such as hard work, success, being active and persistence. At the same time, parents emphasised the notion, "if you are going to do it, do it right". They also held high yet realistic expectations and standards for their children, and "stick to it" and "follow-through on commitments" attitudes.

Finally, in the early phase of these athletes' careers, the majority of the parents did not have winning or the Olympic Games as an objective of participation. Instead, they focused on their children's overall happiness, a balance of fun and development, and the general developmental benefits of sport involvement. While there was some emphasis on winning and success, these were not the predominant objectives of participation. At the same time, parents emphasised working hard, having a positive attitude and discipline. Throughout the middle and elite phases of the athletes' careers, many parents also played an important role in helping keep winning and success in perspective. Parents' roles also changed over time (from leader to follower over three phases), which supports the research of Cote (1999).

THE HISTORY OF DRAFTING

From Steve Fleck's blog:

This is a debate that is almost as old as the sport of triathlon. It goes on and on and on and . . . . . To get some idea of how long and deep the debate is, I would suggest to readers that they head over to the Slowtwich forum and do a search on "Drafting" and you will find likely hundreds of threads that do go on and on and on . . .

Full post here.

IN THE BOOKS

November has come and gone, and I never did catch up on those updates I had planned. Suffice to say that triathletes have made their mark at OFSAA Cross Country, OTFA Cross Country, National Cross Country Championships, and many swim meets - congrats to everyone.

Yesterday we hosted our third Training Day of the year. We had a good group of 28 athletes, and in addition to the swim, bike and run workouts, I was able to spend some time with the parents and talk about youth development. I plan to offer another parent seminar on the same topic at the Jan 4th Training Day for those who couldn't make it yesterday. Thanks to coaches Alan Fairweather, Lynda Magor, Lorri Zagar, Dan McKerrall, and Mike Coughlin (who volunteered his time). Jesse Wetzl gets the athlete award for longest distance traveled (Sault St. Marie - talk about dedication), and Mike Coughlin gets the coach travel award (Sudbury). As I wrote in an earlier post, I'd love to see coaches developing more clubs and training days in more communities in Ontario so that athletes have training opportunities closer to home. We're always thrilled to welcome athletes from far and wide at our training days, but ultimately, I'd like to see them getting support closer to home. To that end, if any coach out there wants to come and observe a training day (or 2 or 3) to pick up some ideas and start a program in their neck of the woods, simply e-mail me and come for a visit. There are also other clubs offering training days, and they are more than happy to have visiting coaches check out their program.

A big thank-you also to coaches Chris VanBeurden, Danielle Dickson and Lorri Zagar for taking care of the coaching duties at the Nov 2nd Training Day. I was away in Calgary for TriCan meetings with our national Development and High Performance coaches, followed by the Sport Leadership conference. We have a good group of coaches across the country, and things look good for future development.

Some quick pics from the Training Day yesterday:

....and the exciting finish to the Junior Men's National Cross Country Championships, held at the UofG on Saturday (below). Check out Flotrack for coverage of all of the races, and Guelph Running for all results.

Visit Flotrack For More Videos

....a nice reminder to run right to the line in workouts and races.

Today in Guelph, the Speed River team is hosting X-Country Nationals. Here's a look at one of their last big workouts before the big race today (borrowed from the Guelph Running site). For updates on the team, and more great videos and interviews, visit the Guelph Running site.

Best of luck to everyone racing today.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

I've been meaning to post this (part of an e-mail, below) for a few months. It was sent by a parent of an athlete new to triathlon, to the OAT office. There are many things we can do to improve the quality of our programs in Ontario, but at the end of the day, we're involved in a great sport, with hard-working athletes, and great people. Thanks to everyone who worked hard to make the 2008 season a success. (Edit: especially the coaches and parents who scrambled to pull the Ontario Games course together at the last minute!)

Dear Linda,

Again, thank-you for all of the hard work you and everyone put into the KOS Series, and more specifically the Ontario Games this season. My son had an absolutely awesome summer. As a parent, when I talk to some of his friends ("How was your summer?", What did you do?", etc.) I got a number of "Oh, not much", "slept till 3", and "played a lot of Xbox".

My son was up biking at 6 - swimming and running and some golf each day. The difference was amazing.

He got to see many places in the province that he had never seen and meet some pretty amazing people - all of whom have a common interest.

PTC TRAINING DAY NOV 30th

Following up on the previous post, just a quick reminder of the PTC Training Day, this Sunday November 30th. Remember that you can find our full schedule of Training Days for 2008-2009 in the right-hand menu, under "TRAINING DAYS".

Please also see the previous post (one below this one) with info on Training Days with the Hamilton Hammerheads (Hamilton, ON) and the ByTown Storm Triathlon Team (Ottawa, ON). Both clubs have excellent coaches and programs.

If the PTC training day is the best fit for you, I need to know you're coming. If you've attended one of our first two training days this year (Oct 19th or Nov 2nd), I already have your registration form, so you just need to e-mail me with "Nov 30th Training Day" in the header, to confirm your spot. If you haven't attended one of the first two training days, you can e-mail me for the registration forms.

TRAINING DAYS

I've become an occasional blogger, mainly because things have been busy for the PTC. I'm not as bad as some however (coughadriancough), and I'll get back to regular posting this week. There's a lot of events, results, and news to report on, so I'll try to catch up on that through the week.

I'll start with Training Days. As I've said before, I'd love to see more 'training day' opportunities across the province for youth and junior triathletes. I think we run a good training day program at the PTC, but in order to grow as a sport and increase the skill level and fitness of our young triathletes, we need more opportunities for athletes to come together for a day of triathlon training on a regular basis, under the guidance of certified triathlon coaches. We also need these opportunities to be available in different parts of the province, so that more athletes can easily access them. So I'm very happy to promote two additional training day opportunities (below), hosted by two very good youth/junior triathlon programs.

NOTE: If there are other clubs or coaches out there who also offer this type of programming, let me know, and I'll post the info. My only requirements are: 1) Targeted to youth/junior triathletes; 2) NCCP certified triathlon coach(es); 3) Club or program sanctioned by OAT.

NOTE 2: If there are coaches out there who are considering offering a training day program in their community, but need some help in getting it organized, please feel free to drop by our PTC training days here in Guelph to observe. Hopefully we'll have some good ideas for you.

From the Hamilton Hammerheads triathlon club:

Just a quick note with more information on the training days that are coming up:

Dates: Sunday, November 30 and Sunday, December 21

Time: 8AM – 3:30 PM

Schedule:
Swim: 8 – 9:30 AM
Swim session will include lots of work on technique and underwater video analysis

Run: 10 – 11:30
Run session will include special work on technique and drills.

Lunch: 11:30 – 12:30

Seminars(12:30 – 1:30):
We’ll split the group into a number of groups and spend some time on topics of interest to the group. (Please send in suggestions of topics if you have any.)

Circuit and Cycling: 1:30 – 3:30
Athletes need to bring their own windtrainers to the session. Emphasis will be placed on pedaling and spinning technique.

The cost for the training days will be $5 for Hammerhead athletes and $10 for non-Hammerhead athletes (Note from CT: Great Deal!). OAT membership is required for all participants.

These sessions are probably best geared for children 10 years and older. We’ll be very careful to make sure we keep the training at an age-appropriate level for all the children.

Please drop me a line or give me a call if you’re planning to attend, or if you have any questions, at kevin@ironnman.com or (905) 973 0884.

Thanks!

Kevin

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Greg Kealey, head coach of the Bytown Storm also offers training days. I've actually missed the first training day (last weekend; sorry Greg), but there will be more in the future. If you're in the Ottawa area, this is a great program, and I highly recommend it.

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Last but not least, the next PTC Training Day will be Sunday November 30th (it's becoming painfully apparent that we need a PTC logo). I'll put up a separate post for the PTC Training Day, but I'd like to reiterate one important point:

For those athletes who are fortunate enough to have great local coaching, especially if they are in a triathlon club, the best thing they can do is train CONSISTENTLY with that club. Your coach(es) know you best, and are able to provide you with a program that ensures technical, tactical and physiological continuity. It's difficult to overemphasize that point. We are always happy to welcome athletes to the PTC training days, and we love having athletes from different communities come together for a great day of training, but we've always envisioned the program as a way to work with athletes who didn't have access to triathlon coaching in their own community. 'Home grown' is almost always the best option. In fact, the PTC training days, Hammerhead training days and ByTown Storm training days are very similar (they should be, after all of the ideas I've stolen from Kevin & Sharon Mackinnon, Greg Pace, and Greg Kealey).

The bottom line is that we are growing our capacity in terms of training opportunities for our younger triathletes in Ontario, and this more than anything will raise our performances across the board in years to come. Ultimately, I'd like to see training days (and later, youth triathlon programs) in each geographical area of Ontario.

A big thanks to the coaches out there offering these opportunities. If there are other programs running, and they meet the requirements I've listed above, drop me a line and I'll put the info on the blog

Train Smart. Have Fun.

OLIVER MAKES STRIDES ON TRACK, IN POOL

Aurora
November 11, 2008 02:35 PM

It has been a pretty good year so far for Kaitlyn Oliver.

And it’s not over yet.

The Aurora Golden Eagles runner has, after all, captured two Ontario Federation of Schools Athletic Association medals, the most recent a silver at the junior girls high school cross-country championships held earlier this month in Sarnia.

That matches rather nicely with the gold medal she won at the Ontario high school track and field championships in the spring in the midget girls 3,000 metres.

“It was a good run,” said Oliver, who also competes for the Newmarket Huskies Track Club. “I was hoping to medal, that was my goal. I’ll just have to work harder to win the next one.”

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Full article here.

Congrats to Kaitlyn on her impressive accomplishments!

BIKE FOR SALE

Kerry Spearing is selling her 2008 Platinum Argon 18, size Small. From Kerry:


Hey all, if any is looking for a sweet road bike in great condition then I have the bike for you!!

It's a 2008 Platinum Argon 18.

Details are as follows:

Shift levers/cables: Dura Ace 7800
Crank Set: FSA K-Force 172.5 39/53 (Carbon crank)
Derailleurs: Dura Ace 7800
Cassette: Dura Ace 12-25
Chain: Dura Ace 7801
Brake Set: Tektro Carbon
Wheel Set: Mavic Ksyrium ES
Size: small
Current Location: Victoria, BC

Looking for $3000 obo.

Email: kerryspearing@hotmail.com

If you want pictures let me know!

BITS & BITES

Back in action.

I was in Calgary last week, attending TriCan coaching meetings, followed by the annual Sport Leadership conference. Lots of good learning to be had at Sport Leadership, including talks by Frank Dick, Jack Daniels, and Joel Filliol. The most valuable sessions however were those spent with the triathlon High Performance and Development coaches from across the country. We have a strong, collaborative group of coaches, which means a solid foundation for future development and performance. Thanks again to Triathlon Canada, and to Coaching Director Larry McMahon.

Some odds & ends from the interweb:

PRINT
Researchers may be getting closer to a valid and reliable urine test for HGH. Go science!


PODCASTS
You can get the following files as free podcasts from iTunes, or directly download the file from the following links. I usually listen to podcasts during my commute, or on those rare occasions when I'm out for a run.

60 Minutes had a good piece on the importance of Sleep back in June ( scroll down to find the June 15, 2008, episode). It's definitely worth a listen, and some reflection on the importance we give to getting adequate sleep on a consistent basis.

On the other end of the spectrum, may I suggest Tri-Talk Episode 60.  I played this during the road trip to PEI with six Ontario juniors, in August. Specifically, I recommend starting 29:38 into the podcast, for a ~16min play-by-play duathlon race report (I strongly urge you NOT to listen to the first 29:37, unless you value incorrect information). I don't think the race report is intended as humour, but it's priceless. It's a virtual goldmine of quotes, caffeine & creatine protocols, HR monitors and GPS gizmos, zone racing, and (poor) parenting. Maybe it will inspire some of you to consider "turning pro" or "make some noise on the duathlon circuit". Oh dear.

VIDEO
Finally, some video.   A nice compilation of local (Victoria and Vancouver) news coverage following the Mens' Olympic Triathlon this summer. 

SIMPLE

I originally wrote about this last April, but I think it's worth revisiting, especially as athletes head into winter training.

Triathlon can get fancy and complicated in a hurry, with three sports, too many toys and gadgets, and new "secret" training methods in magazines or internet forums every week. After spending time and talking with a variety of coaches over the past few years, and through a bit of trial and error, I've moved in the direction of keeping things simple, with good results. One of the simplest principles that coaches and athletes can adhere to is:




As I wrote back in April, this idea came up on the pool deck one day with NTC coaches Neil Harvey and Patrick Kelly. It's something most of us intuitively know, but it seems to be rarely followed. Put simply, athletes have to be healthy (free from illness and serious injury) before they can train consistently, and they need to be training consistently before they concern themselves with performance (hard training, or racing). With the typical fall cold/flu season upon us, and a variety of racing opportunities through the fall and winter, it's common to see athletes chase performances in between bouts of illness, compromising their summer performances.

We did a fairly good job of sticking to this philosophy last year with the PTC squad, with some exceptions. In the one instance where we drifted away from our principles, we ended up with a predictable outcome: prolonged illness, compromised training, and reduced performance. It's not always easy to reschedule training, scratch races, or reduce training load; athletes don't like it, and coaches generally don't either. But the alternative is almost always worse.

Coaches and athletes who prioritize summer (triathlon) performances over 'off-season' results, and commit to health and consistency before performance, give themselves the best chance of improved performance in the short term (next summer) and long term (multiple seasons). Athletes and coaches who place a premium on the next race or training session, without considering the bigger picture, are likely to repeat the injury and illness patterns of previous years and wonder why their performance has plateaued.

Life will keep teaching you the same lessons until you learn them. The majority of athletes will repeat the mistakes of last year, and end up with inconsistent training and compromised performance next year. Those who adhere to the simple "health --> consistency --> performance" model will give themselves the best chance of improved performance next season. It should be clear to any athlete which position they want to be in when they stand on the start line next summer. The hard part is living by this model, but it's worth the effort. Start today.

UofG ON THE PODIUM

Recent UofG success stories:

Last week, the Globe & Mail had an article on the Canadian University Report, which surveyed 43,400 undergraduate students across the country. The University of Guelph scored in the top 3 of medium-sized universities (12,000 - 22,000) in every category except one (ranked 4th for residences). Survey results here.

In a separate survey, the University of Guelph was ranked first (for the 7th year in a row) in the annual list of "Top 50 Research Universities" by Research Infosource.

On the cross-country circuit, the Men's and Women's Varsity Teams continued their win streak by repeating as OUA champions, and coach Dave Scott-Thomas was once again named OUA Coach of the Year. Both teams will look to defend their CIS titles at Laval in 10 days.

LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD

Canadians on level playing field

STEPHEN BRUNT
Globe and Mail
October 28, 2008 at 9:53 PM EDT

Yesterday morning, the fresh faces of Canada's alpine ski team were paraded across a theatre stage in downtown Toronto, celebrating another new corporate partnership — this one with Panasonic — and champing at the bit for the World Cup season to begin.

These are exciting, encouraging times. Entering the fourth year of a five-year master plan devised by the former head of Alpine Canada Alpin, Ken Read, the skiers have plenty of corporate dough, they have money flowing in from the Own The Podium program and not coincidentally, they have a string of excellent results to celebrate stretching back through the Turin Olympics in 2006.

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Full article here.

X-COUNTRY PART DEUX

Some additions to the list of triathletes who have finished near the top of the cross-country results lately:

Matt Druken, 4th Midget Boys, GBSSA (6 seconds between 1st and 4th)

Morgan Bialkowski, 4th, Junior Girls, GBSSA

Sean Splisbury, 3rd, Senior Boys, GBSSA: Healthy Results

And last but not least, Dave Sharrat repeated as the OCAA Cross Country Champion over the weekend.

Congrats to all, and thanks to Len Gushe for the link to the GBSSA results.

COACHES' CORNER

Last weekend, the Coaches Association of Ontario hosted a series of presentations by four successful Beijing Olympic coaches: Wendy Dobbin (Softball: 4th), Pierrre Lafontaine (Swimming Team Leader: Bronze in Men's 1500m), Mike Spracklen (Rowing: Gold in Men's 8), and Joel Filliol (Triathlon: Silver for Simon).

Toronto Star columnist Randy Starkman sat down with the four coaches after their presentations, and published the transcript of their discussion.


While we're on the topic, here's a video piece on Mike Spracklen's program, published prior to the 2008 Beijing Olympics:

TRIATHLETES DOMINATE X-COUNTRY

Ian Donald (#539) on his way to 4th NCSSAA title

Sasha Boulton (right) kicks off her highschool cross-country career with a 4th place finish at GHAC

The highschool cross-country season is coming to a close, with the OFSAA Cross Country Championships this Saturday, in Sarnia. Not surprisingly, some of the top youth and junior triathletes in the province have found their way on to the podium in recent weeks, and will be looking to factor into the top finishing positions at OFSAA.

I'm not sure if there have ever been this many Ontario triathletes finishing at the top of so many regional cross country meets. Here's a quick summary of some of the top results. I've likely missed a few athletes, so feel free to contact me with the details. Here are the results I could find, in no particular order.

Taylor Reid, 1st, Senior Boys, ROPSSAA: C3 Club

Pauline Skowron 1st Senior Girls, ROPSSAA: C3 Club

Connor Hammond, 1st Senior Boys, WOSSA: London Runner

Alexander Hinton, 2nd Senior Boys, EOSSA

Ian Donald, 1st Senior, NCSSAA

Joanna Brown, 1st Senior Girls, NCSSAA: Bytown Storm

Lindsay Anderson, 5th Senior Girls, NCSSAA

Sasha Boulton, 4th Midget Girls, GHAC: Fun2TriClub

Kaitlyn Oliver, 1st, Junior Girls, YRAA: Speedplay Triathlon

Adrian Gavrilov, 5th, Midget Boys, YRAA

Taylor Forbes, 1st, Junior Boys, SOSSA: Hamilton Hammerheads

Austen Forbes, 2nd, Junior Boys, SOSSA: Hamilton Hammerheads

David Mackie, 6th, Junior Boys, SOSSA: Fighting Koalas and OREA Racing

Chelsea Mackinnon, 2nd, Junior Girls, SOSSA: Hamilton Hammerheads

Rui Xu, 1st, Midget Boys, SOSSA: Hamilton Hammerheads

Blair Morgan, 3rd, Junior Boys, EOSSA

Tristan Woodfine, 1st, Junior Boys, EOSSA: Bytown Storm

David Mackie races to a 6th place finish at SOSSA

These athletes have also garnered a fair bit of local media attention. Ian Donald and Joanna Brown are featured in the Ottawa Citizen. Chelsea Mackinnon was recognized at the Athlete of the Week for Westdale Collegiate in the Hamilton Spectator, and several athletes were featured in this Spec article on the SOSSA race. Not to be outdone, the Kingston Whig Standard reported on "Alexander Hinton and his band of brothers".

Local media attention is always appreciated; Thank you Hamilton Spec, Ottawa Citizen and Kingston Whig. Congrats to all athletes and coaches on their performances, and best of luck at OFSAA.

NEW ITU UNIFORM RULES

From the ITU:

Please follow the link below to view the 2009 ITU Uniform Rules. It is very important you do so as there are some changes from previous years (Sections 6.5 & 6.6).

http://www.triathlon.org/docs/uniform-rules-2009-final.pdf

This will also be available in the "Downloads" section of triathlon.org.

Please send all questions to ituhdq@triathlon.org

NOV 2nd TRAINING DAY

Believe it or not, our next training day is only a week away. Since we decided not to host a training day during the busy holiday season in December, we scheduled two training days in November (2nd and 30th). For full details on the training day program, including registration, visit this link.

The big change from the last training day (other than Simon and Luke) is that we'll start cycling next weekend. Regardless of the weather, we'll ride inside, so athletes need to bring their bikes and stationary trainers. We have a small number of trainers for athletes to reserve on a "first come (e-mail), first serve" basis, but we ask athletes to bring their own trainer if they have one.

If you have already submitted your registration forms and signed them at the Oct 19th. training day, you simply need to e-mail me with "Nov 2 Training Day" in the subject line, to let me know that you are coming. I will send you a short reply confirming receipt if your e-mail, and confirmation of your registration. The fee for the training day is $20, as per usual.

THANK-YOU

A proper post is in order to thank our Training Day volunteers and guests.

First off, thanks to Rachel O, Jenn H, Tyler B, Angela Q, and Dorelle H for volunteering their time to help with the registration and organization. Thanks also to Rich for the LCD projector, and Steve Q for taking pictures.

A huge THANKS to Simon and Luke for volunteering their time. I'm not sure if I made it clear on Sunday, but it was Simon who e-mailed with the offer to come to the training day, and then arranged to have Luke come too. If you follow Simon's blog, you'll know that he's given a lot of his time to visit schools, clubs and groups lately. He manages to fit these visits in between his sponsor commitments and training, although he's under no obligation to do so. He's a remarkable role model for young athletes, and an incredible ambassador for the sport. For those who weren't in attendance, Luke and Simon trained with the athletes for the AM swim workout, followed by a 75 minute Q&A session with Simon and 75 minutes of autographs (until every last person had met Simon and got an autograph). At the end of his talk, Simon brought out his medals (one from each pocket) and handed them to the crowd, trusting that they would come back to him at the autograph table (which of course, they did). Luke was peppered with questions about his training and racing over the lunch hour by the juniors. After lunch, we had a run session, consisting of a large six station circuit, and Simon and Luke made sure they trained (or played) with each group. They were so busy that neither one took a break for lunch.

During Simon's talk, I couldn't help but remember the people who posted comments on the CBC and Globe & Mail websites during the Olympics, knocking our athletes and questioning the value of the limited support that they receive; the 'nattering classes' as Bruce Arthur of the National Post called them. I wondered what they were up to while 150+ people enjoyed the opportunity to meet Simon and Luke, hold Olympic medals in their hands, and get inspired to live a healthy lifestyle and test their own limits.

In the days since the Training Day, I've run into a few parents and athletes around campus, and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. I've also received some great e-mails:

Thank - you so much for a terrific day yesterday. My kids and the rest of the Marlin kids had a terrific day training and learning with our Ontario Triathlon stars.
A Marlin parent asked me today how Simon's presentation was and the best way I could describe it was that there was something for everyone to take away or learn from it. Simon did a fabulous job of being technical enough to keep the interest of the serious competitors and keep it simple enough to hold the attention of the younger athletes. Just awesome.

Luke - Thanks for 'training' with Simon and our kids - it will be a day they remember forever.

I just wanted to say that it was great to listen to Simon's talk. The pool staff that were able to make it thought it was amazing

Thank you for setting up the Simon Whitfield training day -- the kids (and I admit it - parents too) were completely blown away.

Thanks for all your work in setting today up with Simon. My kids enjoyed themselves alot. Hard to beat having a two time Olympic medalist training along with you.

Once again, thank-you to our volunteers and coaches, and most importantly, Simon and Luke for their time and effort. Everyone thought it was an amazing experience which will not be forgotten.

[EDIT: I forgot to thank Stefan Timms for his time and effort too. Coach Timms is a former World Cup athlete, with a ton of triathlon knowledge and experience, and he is always willing to support the development of our youth and junior athletes. He's also the only coach fit enough to swim, bike and run with the juniors, so it's always an added bonus to have Stefan alongside the athletes. Thanks Stef.]

NITRO MATHLETES

I haven't been to the Floswimming site lately, but it's an entertaining (and sometimes valuable) resource. I prefer the coach interviews, but viewers can also get new ideas for workouts. I definitely advocate 'borrowing' ideas and looking for inspiration from other coaches and other sports; as a coach, you just want to make sure that you acknowledge your source (thank you Kevin Mackinnon for the ball game we play all of the time), and make sure you know how the workout fits into your program, and why you are using it. Otherwise, you might as well use this to help you write your training plan.

Dorelle sent me the link for this workout on FloSwim. Maybe we'll give it a test drive in the spring.

Visit Floswimming For More Videos

TRIATHLON TRAINING (THE CANADIAN WAY)

Yesterday we were thrilled to welcome two special guests to our first Training Day for 2008-2009.  Two-time Olympic medallist Simon Whitfield (big kid in the middle), and pro triathlete Luke Dragstra (yellow jacket and visor, playing goal) volunteered their time to swim and run and talk to the athletes and parents about their experiences in triathlon.  

I'll write a proper post in a day or two, but I wanted to take the opportunity to thank Simon and Luke for volunteering their time (THANK YOU), and encourage everyone who attended the Training Day to visit Simon and Luke's sites to leave them a quick message of thanks.

TRAINING DAY TOMORROW

All of the athletes registered for the whole day (Swim, Simon's Talk, Run) or half day (Simon's Talk + Run), should have received an e-mail from me in the last two days with the Training Day schedule, directions, and a list of gear to bring. I've also e-mailed everyone who signed up for Simon's talk. Just in case your spam filter held up the e-mail, here are the basics.

DIRECTIONS
Click on the two links on the right hand side menu, under the heading "DIRECTIONS TO THE PTC" for directions to the UofG, and the location of the Athletic Centre on Campus

PARKING
Free on weekends at UofG

SCHEDULE
(it hasn't changed from previous posts)
8:15-10:00 Swim
10:00 - 10:30 Break
10:30 - 11:30 SIMON WHITFIELD TALK
12:00-1:00 Lunch
1:00 - 2:30 Run session
2:30-2:45 Wrap-up


WHAT TO BRING
Athletes should bring the following:
Swim Gear (if registered for the swim session: goggles, cap, towel, suit)
Running Gear (dress for the weather, we'll be outside for the run session)
Water Bottle
Snack
Lunch
Camera (optional)


LUNCH
Athletes can bring their own lunch and eat in the gym, or in the pool gallery. There will be at least one coach in the gym for Lunch to supervise. Alternately, athletes can bring money to buy their lunch at the University Centre (3-4 min walk from the AC). We'll have at least one coach escort a group over to the University Centre.


That should cover the basics. To that athletes who are under the age of 18: bring a parent or a guardian to sign the waivers for you.


See you tomorrow

COACH LIST UPDATE

A few updates to the OAT COACH LIST, which is always available on the right hand side. As I've stated before, this is a list of NCCP certified triathlon coaches in Ontario who have agreed to have their contact information made available to the public. OAT does not endorse any particular coach, but we do value certified coaches, and we try to support and promote certified coaches whenever possible.

Other News:

Training Day planning is going well. I'll be sending out an e-mail this afternoon or tonight with details for the registered athletes. There are no planned changes to the Training Day schedule I posted last week.

Luke Dragstra has also agreed to volunteer some time at the training day. Originally from Bowmanville, ON, Luke trained as a member of the National Development Team at the National Triathlon Centre in Victoria, BC, before moving to long course racing. Drags spends most of his time in Europe and Asia, and brings a wealth of experience as a full time pro triathlete, so I'm excited to have him visit on the 19th.

The PTC squad is coming together, after a campus-wide cough/cold affected almost everyone over the last two weeks. Training has been light, with a focus on consistency, and we're enjoying the great running weather.

BUILDING WEAPONS and FIREFIGHTING

The following is from an older interview, but it's worth reviewing.

John: Today's coaches lack a few qualities. What quality do you see as the most important when coaching children under the age of 18?

Kwame: “When coaching young athletes, the emphasis should be on skill-building. If you listen to Pete Sampras in an interview, he didn’t start seriously consider becoming a professional until he was around 16. Even then, he was more focused on “building weapons” (skills) than on winning right away. He will tell you that this is WHY he became so great. So, all of these coaches and organizations that are focusing on winning at all costs and showcasing 11 year olds to professional scouts are completely missing the point. We play sports because sports are fun. Kids should be coached to create competency. If your child decides at 9 years old that he/she wants to be fireman, would you put them in an intensive firefighting training program? No, because this child will likely change their mind 6 times before they are 18. Same thing with sports. There are only 2 reasons that coaches, organizations, and parents would be that focused on winning and “showcasing” these children: Money and Glory. Period. These are not burdens that we want children being saddled with.”

Full interview here.

You can occasionally find some good info, or at least a few good ideas, at the IYCA website, or the IYCA blog.

ROLLIN' WITH THE RIVER

Speed River maintains a great website, including regular video updates of interviews, training and racing. Check out a recent interview with head coach Dave Scott-Thomas, on the future of the Speed River program (especially the comment at 1:50). Enjoy.

NEW ADDITION

Great news! James Loaring and his wife Breanne welcomed their new daughter, Annika, into the world on Tuesday.  You can read all about it on James' blog. Congrats to the Loaring family from the PTC!

TRAINING DAY UPDATE

(ITU Worlds, back when everyone still raced in speedos)

I'm in the middle of finalizing Annual Plans for the coming year, so that's taking up most of my time. Instead of making athletes and parents wait for me to return e-mails, I thought a quick update would do the trick:

WE'RE MAXED!

The original max registration for the training day was 40.  We hit that limit in two days.  After meeting with the pool supervisor, we decided we could safely add a few more athletes, so we increased the registration to 50.  All athletes were put on the registration list in the order that their e-mails were received. 

...BUT DON'T DESPAIR!

We're maxed for pool space, but not for Simon's talk, and not for the run session.  Simon's talk will be in a gym, and we're running outside (cross your fingers for good weather), so space is not an issue. Therefore, the 50 athlete cap will still apply to the swim, but we can have additional athletes at the afternoon run.  Currently, we have 63 athletes registered in all (double our biggest training day last year). The fee for Simon's talk and the run session will be $10.

  

THAT'S A LOT OF ATHLETES!

We knew we had two options for the training day; 1) keep the registration #'s relatively small to maintain the quality of the training, or 2) allow more athletes to register in order to meet Simon.  Obviously, the opportunity to hear Simon speak and join in a workout or two with him easily outweighed concerns about workout structure.   We're still committed to running great workouts, but it will be a very busy day. 

SCHEDULE?

The tentative schedule is:

7:45-8:15am Arrive and sign-in

8:15-10:00am Swim session (UofG Gold and Red Pools)

10:00-10:30am Swimmers change and have a snack break, others arrive for Simon's Talk

10:30-11:30am Simon's Talk + Q&A (this session may go to noon, we'll see how it goes)

12:00-1:00pm Lunch (bring your own lunch, or visit a campus cafeteria)

1:00-2:30pm Run Session (a large circuit program with a mix of games and short sets)

2:30pm Wrap-up

WHERE DO I FIND A REGISTRATION FORM?

Registration forms are available here. E-mail them to me when they are complete.

NEXT STEPS?

I'll send out a confirmation e-mail next week (Wed or Thurs) with the final details.

THE COACH LIST and COACHING STUFF

( Coach Neil Harvey, NTC Training Camp, Kona 2005)

A few odds & ends:

Quote from Don Burton, Head Coach of the Guelph Marlins and the UofG Gryphons swim teams: "When I was a young coach, I knew everything." We had a good laugh at that one.

I've added a link to some documents, on the right. Blogger doesn't allow document downloads directly from a blog post, but we can link to google docs, which is just as good.

First up, the OAT Coach List. This document will be posted on the OAT Website in the future, but I've posted it in the meantime. Several months ago, I e-mailed all NCCP Certified triathlon coaches in Ontario to ask if they wanted to be included on a published list of coaches. This is a list of the NCCP Certified coaches who replied with interest. This list was borne out of my frustration with people who advertise themselves as certified, when in fact they are not. To be fair, many coaches in this situation are simply the victim of administrative error; their attendance at NCCP courses was not properly entered into the NCCP database, so they are not officially certified, even though they should be. There are however, a few people out there who mistakenly believe that attending one NCCP workshop or seminar qualifies them as a certified coach. It doest not, but due to privacy laws, OAT (or TriCan, or the NCCP) cannot identify these 'coaches'. I recommend that athletes considering a new coach request a copy of the coach's NCCP transcript; it's a simple way of confirming certification. It's certainly true that certification doesn't automatically mean that a certified coach is better than an uncertified coach; there are many athletes who race successfully under the guidance of uncertified coaches. Certification does however give an objective indication of the professional development undertaken by the coach, and with the New NCCP Certification (NCCP Competition Coach) now available, certification means that the coach has been evaluated and found competent.

Ultimately, this issue isn't so much about the uncertified coaches who (perhaps unintentionally) are misrepresenting themselves, it's about the certified coaches who have actually done the work. If we value competent coaching, and the work it takes to become a certified coach, we should make sure that our certified coaches are recognized.

Before I end my rant, a few quick notes:

1) This is a list of certified coaches who wanted to be included in the list. If a coach is NOT on this list, it doesn't necessarily mean that they aren't certified, only that they haven't yet asked to be added to the list.

2) Certified coaches who want to be added to the list can e-mail me with their CC# and permission to review their transcript. I'll update the list quarterly, or as needed.

3) The OAT Coach List includes coaches who are certified as NCCP Level 1 coaches (the highest level ever offered for Triathlon), and/or NCCP Competition Coaches. The "Old NCCP" system of Levels is no longer offered. All future certified coaches will be certified under the New NCCP program as Community Coaches (designated as 'trained', not certified), or Competition Coaches (Intro, Development or High Performance). All current and future certified Competition Coaches are evaluated to determine coaching competency, while Community Coaches attend workshops, but are not evaluated (hence the term 'trained' rather than 'certified'). Level 1 coaches will not be 'grandfathered' into the new system; they must be evaluated to be certified.

4) To better understand the "New NCCP" certification, read this.

5) OAT does not endorse these coaches. We provide the list as a service to OAT members, and to the coaches who have completed their NCCP Certification.

IN THE NEWS

Things have been busy in our first week back, primarily due to Simon's visit to our upcoming Training Day on the 19th. Training for the PTC squad last week could best be described up as sketchy, but we're off to a much better start this week.  In other news, The Record published a story on Karsten Madsen:

Triathlete aims high

October 04, 2008

JOSH BROWN, RECORD STAFF

“I want to go to the 2012 Olympics,” the 16-year-old said. “I know it’s a long shot . . . but nothing is impossible.”

Madsen is seriously dedicated to the sport — which sees athletes swim (750 m), cycle (20 km) and run (5 km) over a gruelling course, at the junior level. He’s been at it since he was a toddler, competing in kids races, training wheels still on his bike.

Full article here. 

SIMON COMING TO TRAINING DAY

EDIT: We are now at our registration limit for the training day. Athletes are welcome to continue submitting registration forms, and we'll start a wait list. CT

We're kicking off the 2008-2009 Season in style, with a visit from two-time Olympic medallist Simon Whitfield. Simon will be visiting the PTC on Sunday October 19th, for our Training Day. The registration limit for the training day is 40 athletes, but Simon will be doing a Q&A session for the athletes, which we can open up to a larger group. Stay tuned for registration details for the Q&A for those who aren't registering for the training day. To register your athlete (age 10-20) for the Training Day, visit this link.

NEW TRI BIKE

DO IT YOUR OWN WAY

By Wayne Goldsmith
www.sportscoachingbrain.com

OK - the Olympics have finished.

Now comes the “GAMES”…………the junkets and fact finding missions the Sporting leaders from most countries are about to embark on to find out what the USA, Germany, Great Britain, South Korea, China and Australia are doing to be successful in the Olympics.

The logic seems simple enough.

“Our country didn’t win any medals at the Olympics” says the Minister for Sport.

“Country XYZ won lots of medals at the Olympics”, says the CEO of the Sports Commission.

“Therefore if we want medals and we copy them we will win medals”, thinks everyone in the room.

“Hooray!!!! Problem solved - let’s buy some air tickets”.

Seems like common sense.

Waste of time.

Waste of money.

Waste of energy.

---------------------------

Interesting article, especially the last part. Full post here.

COACHING WORKSHOPS

OAT is offering two different coaching certifications for 2008-2009; Community Coach, and Competition Coach. For anyone interested in pursuing their NCCP certification, I would recommend starting here (download the linked pdf file) for an overview of the New NCCP program, and some detail on the Competition certification in particular.

You can fine dates and further information on the upcoming workshops here.

Coaches may also want to take a look at the Coaches Association of Ontario Calendar for non-triathlon workshops. Note that you only need to take the workshops offered by OAT in order to become certified as a triathlon coach, but you may find other workshops (ie. Fundamental Movement Skills for those coaches working with KOS athletes) valuable.

COACHES WANTED FOR TRAINING DAYS

CERTIFIED COACHES WANTED

The Ontario Association of Triathletes is seeking NCCP certified coaches (Comp Intro, or enrolled in Comp Dev. preferred, Level 1 accepted) to assist with PTC Training Days for 2008-2009. Eligible coaches must be members of OAT, and must provide a current (less than one year old) “Vulnerable Sectors” police background check.

Training Days are schedule for the following dates:

Sunday October 19th, 2008

Sunday November 2nd, 2008

Sunday November 30th, 2008

Sunday January 4th, 2009

Sunday February 1st, 2009

Sunday March 1st, 2009

Sunday April 5th, 2009

Sunday May 3rd, 2009

Preference will be given to coaches who are able to make an ongoing and consistent contribution to programming. E-mail me for an application form. Coaches are welcome to attach a one page CV in support of their application. Training Day coaches will receive an honourarium of $75 per training day, in addition to a polo shirt to be worn by the coaching staff. Deadline for submission: Friday September 19th, 2008, 5:00pm.

Please Note: that successful candidates will be asked to attend a planning session, in person or via conference call, prior to the first Training Day.

TRAINING DAYS

Training days are monthly one-day triathlon clinics, hosted by the Provincial Triathlon Centre, at the University of Guelph. The primarily goal of the training days is to bring together KOS (10-15) and Junior (16-20) athletes for a day of training and instruction with their peers. Athletes will undertake workouts designed to improve their skills & technique and/or sport specific fitness, depending on the needs of the athlete. Training Days typically start with sign-in at 7:45am, and conclude at 2:00pm (note: the 10-12 group will conclude at 11:00am)

TRAINING GROUP FORMAT

The 2008-2009 Training Days will be expanded to include 10-11 year old athletes. Consequently, we will separate the athletes into three training groups: Group 1 will be the 16-20 year old group, Group 2 will be 12-15 years old, and Group 3 will be 10-12 year olds. We may reassign athletes to different groups, based on an assessment of their skills, fitness and experience. 

Group 1 and Group 2 will Swim, Bike and Run, with an additional core session. These two groups will swim at the same time, but bike and run separately. Both groups will start in the pool at 8:15am, and end at approximately 2:00pm, including breaks between sessions, and a lunch break.

Group 3 will swim and run, with a core session. After the first few Training Days, we will evaluate the possibility of a bike session for this group, although swim and run will be the priorities. This group will start at 8:15am and end at approximately 11:00am, including breaks between sessions.

Coaches will work with the same group throughout the day, across all sessions. 

ON MAKING IT BIG

A quote from Alan Cross' Ongoing History of New Music, from an episode on successful bands that came from very small towns - it's written about musicians, but it could apply to anyone working hard to become world class in any discipline.

It's much easier to be a pessimist than an optimist. And people are always telling others that their dreams are unrealistic, naive or stupid. It can get discouraging. I don't know how you feel, but I think this pessimism is part of the Canadian psyche. I get the feeling that unless we're talking about hockey, the general feeling of this country is that we'd rather have egalitarian mediocrity over celebrating and striving for individual excellence. I think that the twin mottos of Canada should be "who do you think you are?" and "why can't you just be happy with what you have?". Sure the odds at succeeding at certain things may be long - but so what? Doing something awesome is by definition hard to do. It's supposed to be - otherwise everyone would do it and it wouldn't be special. We don't live in a world of kids' soccer where no one keeps score and everyone gets a trophy to preserve their self esteem. In the real world - and in the global scheme of things - you have to compete. And yes, the possibility of failure and disappointment is there. In fact, the chances are that you will fail, especially if you're hoping to make it as a professional musician. Or you might get lucky and get to live your dreams, no matter where you come from. And if it doesn't work out, maybe you'll still have some fun trying. Three chords and the truth. That's your formula.