Too often too many of us tell athletes “reach it out” or “you’re not reaching far enough” but what we’re probably observing is an athlete not prepared to leave their comfort zone, and involve their core.

This is understandable if the athlete doesn’t appreciate the sequence required for executing core body strokes.

It’s important to impress upon the athlete that effective reach is the result of core body twist and position.

Instinctively, when athletes hear the command “reach”, their focus goes to positioning their hands as far in front of their body as possible (hands being the obvious indicator of reach), regardless, and usually to the detriment, of core body involvement.

So next time you’re looking for a couple more inches at the catch try saying “increase core body twist” or “more core pivot” and you should get more reach with weight and power to support it.

My only concern is the use of the word “twist,” which might be construed as telling the paddler to twist his or her spine in order to achieve the desired rotation.

I like “pivot” or “rotate” instead, as they convey the need to rotate core from the hips up rather than simply twisting the spine, and applaud Hara for finding a new and refreshing way to convey the technique to the crew.

Visit Paddlecore

 

Me: Susie, if you take one more step and face your target, your pass will be right on the money.
Susie hears: You’re a horrible volleyball player.

Me: Betsy, you’re on the right track, just be sure to communicate with your teammates so that they know what you’re going to do.
Betsy hears: Not only do I think you’re a horrible volleyball player, your teammates hate you too.

If either of those scenarios sound a little too familiar, take heart.  According to an article in Psychology Today titled, A Chic Critique (April 2011), “people react strongly to criticism no matter how it’s delivered.”  That being said, I’m sure none of us is out to squish our team’s spirit like a proverbial bug.  Let’s look at how we can critique without being critical.

8 Rules To Effectively Deliver Negative Feedback

1. Always lead with questions. I may not lead with a question, but somewhere in my feedback, I usually ask if they understand what I’m asking of them.  The article says that the hard part about criticism is that it threatens that person’s membership in the group.  So asking questions shows them that they are part of a group effort.  Something as simple as, “Do this.  Does that make sense?”, is a typical exchange in our gym.
2. Never give criticism unless it’s been invited. In my mind, by virtue of being on a team, they’re inviting criticism.  Turns out that I’m onto something!  “When a teacher grades a student, a coach gives a pep talk, or a parent guides a young child’s efforts, there’s a tacit agreement that praise and correction will be part of the exchange.”
3. Make sure you are seen as having the authority to give corrective feedback. Have you ever had a freshman give a senior some advice on how to perform a skill better?  Even if their advice is great, the senior probably won’t receive it because the freshman has no authority yet.  If you’ve got one of those “helpful” freshmen, you should probably pull them aside and have a little chat with them.
4. Distinguish whether a demand reflects your needs or is a valid critique of what they’re doing wrong. I’ll be the first to admit that sometimes I want my team to do something because it’s my preferred method of operation.  My general statement is, “there are a million ways to skin a cat…either way you end up with a cat without skin, so let’s try it my way.”  Sure, that sounds gross, but it gets the point across.  I’m not saying that the student-athlete is doing something wrong per se, just not the way I’d like them to do it.
5. Never give feedback when you’re angry. Easier said than done, right?  If there’s someone on your team that drives you crazy, let them become your assistant’s pet project.  I’ve even been known to tell my assistant to listen to my corrective statements during practice.  Like, “Katie is working my last nerve today, please make sure that I’m not picking on her at practice.”  Hopefully this keeps Katie from being a puddle of tears in the locker room.
6. Know who you’re talking to. As the article says, “Narcissists take any criticism as a personal attack; the insecure lose all self-esteem.”  I’m constantly beating the personality test drum, and that’s because I think it’s a great way to find out how your team is motivated.
7. Know yourself. Personally, I’m less outwardly sensitive to criticism.  Of course it still stings and of course I’d rather receive a steady stream of praise, but I like to receive my criticism without all of the frills.  But everyone isn’t like me and some people really need to hear the frills before they can process the criticism.  Knowing that others aren’t like me will keep me from completely crushing the more sensitive folks on my team.
8. Expect defensiveness. The article says that we tend to “simplify the world by making it bipolar”.  So when you don’t tell Susie she’s the most amazing player in the whole, wide world…well, of course you are saying that she’s terrible.  The good news is that this is just the initial reaction and you can expect a change in behavior to follow.  You can also train your team about the proper response to your feedback.  Do you want them to look you in the eye while you’re talking?  Do you want them to respond with a “yes, Coach.”  Be sure to let them know!

I enjoy Psychology Today, they’ve got great articles.  A lot of our jobs as coaches is to figure out how to motivate our teams and I always find a gem in each magazine.  I hope this one reminded us all about anticipating how our criticism will be received by our teams.

 
Courtesy Coach Dawn Writes

 

49" Champion Club Paddle

I have a limited number of lightweight (630 gr) 49″ Champion Club paddles available to paddlers in the Nanaimo area, at $55 +HST.

These paddles weigh about 180 grams less than a standard Grey Owl, and a few grams less than the Grey Owl wooden racing paddle. The handle can be removed and the shaft shortened to any desired length, and can be wrapped in either hockey or bicycle tape for a small additional fee.

Why pay $60 when you can get a well made and lighter paddle for less?

Call Ken, 250-616-9431 to view.

 

‎2012 Calgary Dragon Boat Race & Festival

Saturday & Sunday August 25-26, 2012
at North Glenmore Park, Calgary

 

The first thing I tried was paddle wax. Several varieties are widely available from outdoor stores and water sports specialty shops. They all work, but I found them inconsistent and unreliable, not to mention dirty, and stopped using waxes after one season.

My next attempt employed electrician’s tape, which works quite well. My only objection here is that it tends to become slippery when wet. It is, in my opinion, vastly better than wax in any case.

Hockey Tape

My favourite method, and the one I’ve stayed with for the past 4 years, is hockey tape. Unlike the electrician’s tape, it doesn’t get slippery. It does tend to fray with prolonged use, but it’s easy enough to replace that fraying isn’t an issue.

Watch this video on YouTube.

Hockey Tape Paddle Grip

Click for Swedish Hockey Grip Tape from Amazon

Wrap the doubled tape around the shaft until you’ve built a nice ridge – its purpose is to keep your hand from slipping downward while paddling. Then wrap the ridge 3 or 4 times with the tape at full width before moving upwards with nice even wraps. I wrap the actual grip area three times to give it some texture, then repeat the doubled-tape routine at the top until you’ve created a snug, non-slip grip.

Bicycle Tape

One paddler has told me that she found hockey tape to be abrasive, causing blisters, and recommended that anyone using it wear full gloves. That hasn’t been my experience, but I haven’t paddled much in the past few years, so recognize she may be right.

I purchased some cork & rubber bicycle tape to experiment with. The downside: It’s 2 to 3 times as expensive as hockey tape, and it does not include adequate adhesive. That means it needs to be secured to the paddle with some other type of tape. Given that some find hockey tape abrasive, I decided to use electrical tape to secure the bicycle tape.

To begin, I removed a few inches of the paper protecting the adhesive strip and secured an inch of the tape to the paddle shaft at an angle of about 45 degrees. The photo below shows the paper strip covering the adhesive, and the application of the cycle tape.

Axion Bicycle Tape wrapped once around shaft

So far, so good, but now we have to secure the cycle tape – the narrow strip of adhesive that is provided isn’t remotely good enough to do the job.

Axion Bicycle Tape ends secured to shaft with Electrician's tape

I secured the end and then created a ridge by twisting the electrical tape as it was wrapped around the shaft:

Twisting the Electrician's tape to create a ridge

After creating the ridge, cover it with a couple of wraps of electrical tape at full width, and you’re done!

The end result...

That’s how my first attempt turned out. I think the width of the ridge area can be improved by adjusting/reducing the angle use to wrap the cycle tape – stay tuned

In the following photo, I was asked to redo a paddle that had been wrapped with red electrician’s tape. I wanted to remove the original tape, but the paddle’s owner said, “Why can’t we just cover the middle part with cycle tape and leave the ridges?” Can’t argue with a lady, so produced this result:

In covering the existing electrical tape, I also experimented a bit by overlapping the cycle tape. The result was this happily fat, incredibly soft paddle grip. All I have to do now is wait for the paddlers to tell me how it works out in the real world. The old ridge has pretty much been overwhelmed by the overlapping bicycle tape…only time will tell whether or not the paddle’s owner liked it

Cheers,

Ken

 

Both offer free parking – no meters to feed, no tickets to worry about. VCKC has a marvellous clubhouse on the Gorge. EBFC offers nothing quite so grand, but their new clubhouse enjoys power, and so can be heated during the chilly months.

Adult memberships are only $40 a year (VCKC offers family memberships at a reduced rate). Members are encouraged to participate in club AGMs, with full voting rights – the paddlers, not some detached corporate board, run the clubs.

VCKC provides dragon boats without any additional fees – that alone can save Victoria teams $3,000 a year. EBFC charges a $200 per month rental fee for their boats, and that paddling fee entitles paddlers to paddle with any club team on any night (assuming the team is willing to take them and has room to spare) without further charge.

That means that EBFC members can potentially paddle 5 nights a week without any additional cost, once they have paid their share of their team’s paddling fee. VCKC would seem to offer the same advantage, given that they don’t charge to use their boats in the first place.

I should also point out that – even though paddlers would never dream of using alcoholic beverages – the EBFC clubhouse is within walking distance of two of Nanaimo’s most popular pubs, Muddy Waters and Millers.

I particularly like the fact that both EBFC and VCKC members can join the club, pay their dues, and immediately vote in the AGMs… paddlers run the clubs, and that’s a major bonus from where I sit.

Your comments invited

 

This is a positive step forward as Island paddlers, who have long been held back from exposure to sport level boats and competition, and the Victoria DB Festival Society board is to be congratulated.

D2s are featured at the Steveston Festival, and often seen in Pender Harbour as well. The hull design is similar to the 6-16s, and offers a more open, spacious interior than the Milleniums. Island paddlers should feel right at home in these boats.

 

By Wayne Goldsmith | In Coaching Tips

It takes 20 years to become an overnight success. Successful coaches have by a combination of experience, skill, education and practice, developed ways and means of getting the best out themselves and their athletes.

Here are 101 Coaching Tips to help you achieve your coaching goals.

1. Plan.
2. Develop communication skills and never stop trying to improve them.
3. Learn to effectively utilise the Internet, social media and email.
4. Never stop learning. Learning is for life.
5. Be open-minded. Never say, never.
6. What you may lack in knowledge, make up for with enthusiasm, desire and passion.
7. Be a role model for your athletes.
8. Accept constructive criticism as a positive. Learn from mistakes, take steps to improve from the experience and move on.
9. Allocate time every day for personal health and fitness.
10. Keep a detailed diary and record work actually done by athletes not just what was planned to be done.
11. Embrace effective change.
12. Use sports science wisely. The art of coaching drives the science of performance.
13. Seek out information – don’t wait for the “secret to success” to fall into your lap.
14. Coach with your heart but don’t forget the basics. Secure adequate training facilities, keep good records, observe O.H. and S principles, and maintain a commitment to safety and equity. Having the “nuts and bolts” organised allows you to focus on what you do best – working with athletes.
15. Believe in your athletes – they believe in you.
16. Steal ideas from others sports (and improve on them).
17. Strive to make yourself redundant – develop coach independent athletes.
18. Listen with your eyes and watch with your ears.
19. Attitude + application + ability = achievement.
20. Coach the person not the athlete. Coach the person not the performance.
21. Develop a network and support structure. Be a resource manager.
22. Best, better, brilliant – there’s always room for improvement.
23. What you believe will happen, will happen. What the mind can conceive it will achieve.
24. Persistence pays – never give up.
25. Learn basic business skills. Understand the basics of insurance. Be familiar with legal liability. Understand the basics of taxation and the tax system. Make coaching your business!
26. Give an ounce of information and a ton of practice.
27. Communicate – clearly, concisely, calmly, constructively, consistently and cleverly.
28. Seek out a critical friend. They are you greatest asset.
29. Help develop your sport not just your current athletes.
30. Mix with successful people. Success breeds success.
31. Delegate, delegate, delegate, give athletes, assistants, parents and officials responsibility for aspects of your (their) program.
32. Enthusiasm, encouragement, energy = Excellence.
33. Look for things to improve in yourself.
34. Have fun. Life is short.
35. It is easy to coach athletes when they are performing well. Do you have the ability to help athletes (and yourself) deal with the tough times?
36. Focus on the long term even when trying to achieve in the short term.
37. Contribute to the development of other coaches. You may learn from teaching and students are often the best teachers of all.
38. Listen to your athletes.
39. Develop peripheral vision – in your mind.
40. Present information at coaching courses and workshops. Be willing to share.
41. Treat athletes like customers – coaching is the ultimate in client service.
42. Read journals from alternative industries and seek out principles that you can apply to sporting situations.
43. Be flexible in your methods and approach.
44. Embrace the principle “For the love of it, not the money in it!”
45. Athletes develop confidence through competence. Nothing develops confidence like a thorough preparation.
46. Constantly challenge yourself and your athletes.
47. Create a safe, stimulating, interesting training environment where athletes enjoy coming to train.
48. In preparing athletes: leave nothing to chance, nothing untested: don’t rely on luck: make your own!
49. Subscribe to this Blog!
50. Do your homework. Know the strengths and weakness of your athletes, yourself, your opposition. Know the standards, what are the world records, national records, state records, regional records, and club records, what are your goals?
51. Look to help

Published with permission of the author, Wayne Goldsmith

http://www.sportscoachingbrain.com/101-coaching-tips/

 

One boat’s on Vancouver Island (Nanaimo’s Nauticals Marina), and the other’s on the mainland at the Dragon Zone:

(The red boat is in Nanaimo)

Feb. 26, 2012:

Asking $7,300 each, fully equipped, as is, where is, “cash & carry.”

Mar 4, 2012 $7,200

Mar 11, 2012 $7,100

Mar 18, 2012 $7,000

Mar 25, 2012 $6,900

Apr 1, 2012 $6,800

Apr 8, 2012 $6,700

Apr 15, 2012 $6,600

Apr 22, 2012 $6,500

Apr 29, 2012 $6,400

May 6, 2012 $6,300

May 13, 2012 $6,200

(Price will drop $100 per week until sold or withdrawn.)

Inquire about the G4 Champions – Orders being accepted now at $10,750, Fully Equipped!

Contact Ken McVay  (250-616-9431 – sales@championdragonboats.ca)

(Prices subject to HST.)

 

10-paddler Champion G3 Model 912s heading for a photo finish

<1> http://www.dashforcharity.com

<2>http://www.fcrcc.com

<3>http://www.falsecreekdragonboat.com

<4> http://www.courtenayfishandgame.org

<5> http://dragonboatbc.ca/race

<6> http://www.harrisondragonboat.com/

<7> http://www.racetheriver.ca

<8>  http://watersedgesportperformance.com/events/whistler-dragon-boat-festival/