Coaching trap #1: power-tripping

Thank god I have been well aware of this one before it snuck up on me. It doesn't mean I don't do it. Just saying I'm aware of it. It's a delicate question that has tightrope dancing as an answer.

The biggest tool in navigating this trap is setting goals. Both team goals and individual skater goals. You are there to help the team and the individuals reach their goals. You are not there to create your personal dream team and conquer the world. At least that's the case at our league. All are welcome to join and if you put in the work (and have passed your minimum skills) you are encouraged to play no matter if the work you put in payed off or not. Motivation and fun are key in our league. Inclusiveness.

That means that the coach is only there as a catalyst. The players express their wishes of what they want to accomplish (their goals) and you provide the means for them to get there as long as they themselves bring the motivation.

Ok, sounds as a nice ideal that should eliminate power-tripping coaches, right?

Well, yes and no. I have quite a lot of background knowledge when it comes to training. I combine that knowledge with what I find online, see in games, hear from other coaches and see on our own trainings into drills that I think the team needs to get to those goals. While doing those drills it's me that's holding the whistle, it's me that's registering testing results, it's me deciding (out of safety concern) who gets to participate in which exercise, how to deal with lengthy "water breaks," how to deal with late comers. It's me deciding when I want them to die in a heavy training, or when we'll focus on skills or tactics.

That's where the tightrope dancing comes in. Use and recognize mirrors when they're being held up in front of you. Why did you decide on letting that late comer do those extra speed laps? Why did you decide to give a cold shoulder to a complaint and in stead pushed that girl to push her self even harder: "your legs can't cary you anymore? You're standing here talking to me while your legs are holding you up. Go!"

That's when you use a mirror: was that my ego, enjoying the power rush, or did that have a function towards the goals of the team/skater?

Punishing the late comer with some speed laps has had as a result that the only other time during this season so far that people have been late was when there was a big accident on the main route to get to our venue. That means more effective training time for the hole team which will result in better chances of reaching the team goals.
Pushing the girl to push her self longer, harder and further was done with one of her goals in mind (getting better results at 25 in 5). It showed her that she still had reserves left when she thought she was finished.

That's one of the reasons why goals are so important. They really are your number one tool. You can (or should be able to) always link your decisions to the pursuit of those goals.

I guess this post is making me sound like a drill sergeant, but I'm far from. As I said at the start, I'm just the facilitator for the skaters to get where they want to be and hopefully their will, hard work and motivation and my enthusiasm and knowledge of training will get them there. :)

Wanting to be better

I love the current wind of motivation that blows through our league. Most of the girls want to become better and are able to put words to exactly what it is they want to get better at. That makes my work easier since I can design the trainings based on what they want to improve on and harder because not everybody wants to improve on the same things of course. It's a good thing they don't because a team of 14 skaters with exactly the same skill sets would not be very interesting or successful.

It also gives us a chance to focus on certain skills. The last two weeks we've been focussing on very specific skills that we then put to the test in a series of jams the last half hour of practice last night.

© Carolina Makkula Photography

Fast!

Last night the group trained "fast feet" and "fast feet" only, first 15 or so mins off skates to get a feel for the (new) speed ladder and then 75 mins on skates. Skaters, no matter how good they are can always get better at what ever skill you think of, but fast feet is a skill that is gravely ignored by many. My theory is simply because it's hard. Many things are hard, but fast feet is even harder. I myself used to ignore the skill because I hated it. I had millions of excuses ready to rationalize why I would never ever get fast feet, so it was no use to train it. The most used one simply being: "look at me, I am built to be strong, not to be fast!" LIES! Everybody can get fast(er) feet. ;)

The coolest thing that happened must be MADicken. We were talking at our league's USA-games-watching-party about this dreaded speed ladder. I had posted some vids to the rest of the board to explain what I meant and to get their ok to buy one and MADicken had either watched those or she knew speed ladders from before. She looked at me with a VERY serious expression and said: "you weren't thinking of that ON skates right?" Her eyes saying: "surely you don't want us to break our ankles?"

On the training she flew through the ladder like the wind! ON skates. :)

Hellsparx and Redhot Bitchslap

Trasher Smasher pirouetting around Scary Mary

Cross over madness for all levels

Yesterday night was a very successful evening! We tried out some new cross over drills which gave a super good effect for both the freshies as well as the beginners and intermediates! And it was the first time for me since the operation that I coached while wearing skates again. Which sometimes was funny (can only maintain balance in cross overs to the left, but not to the right, can do backwards cross overs and tomahawk stops but not something as "simple" as a T-stop), but mostly just was good practice. I was dead tired by the end of the training (lots of postural and balance muscles finally get to learn how to work again) but also SO content.

The girls jumped forward in their cross over skills. Freshies started to make the actual cross and started lifting the inner foot without getting on their toestops while beginners and intermediates learned how to get deeper into the cross over and push even more with the inside foot on the outside stride. Inside- and outside edges were found and mental thresholds were dropped. Delicious!

This drill was loved by most as it gave them a good feeling of how to push (harder) with both legs and how to hang in the curves (sorry for the quality of the pic).

Giving a short repetition of all the drills before the girls will take it all to the track and translate it to skating the "diamond" (sorry for the quality of the pic).

Science you said?

Yes I did!

A few months ago I started to prepare my thesis project (for my physiotherapy degree) and since then it's just grown out of proportions! I'm scared to death of it now, even though I am also very much looking forward to the results.

My professors approved the first sketch of my plan before the summer which described how I wanted to map out which injuries happen to who in which situations and why (lots of correlations there, hehe)  so as to create a base line to make the sport safer through well thought out athleticism (you know, doing the right types of training to prevent these injuries as best we can). Of course we already have an idea of how to do this. BUT this idea on how to this is based on studies performed on young (semi) pro male athletes on either shoes or hockey skates. I do not look like them, I don't have their athletic background and I don't put in the hours that they put in (I totally would if I could). Very few of us derby players fit that description and that's why it is important to start mapping and researching our sport and future based on us. And that's what I'm gonna do. Yikes!

It's gotten rather big. Euroderby.org and WFTDA have both promised to help spread the word and the questionnaire, so if all goes well I will be looking at thousands of anonymous answers which would really create such an awesome amount of data that it can (and probably will) create new questions to take derby further into sports science.

Tomorrow the next term is starting and in about two weeks time the questionnaire (that is almost finished now) will be up for scrutiny by both my classmates and professors. After that it will run through a pilot (a small group gets to answer to it, to see if everything is clear and if the questionnaire is actually answering my main questions). After that I'm hoping that you will find it in a link near you! And if you do, please fill it out! I will love you for ever.

Monthly scrimmages!

Yes! yes! yes!

Due to circumstances of babies growing in bellies, people studying in different cities and a sprained ankle here and there, we no longer have a full team of at least 14 players. We have however about 15 Freshies eager to fill up the spots.

Even though we only had 9 skaters available we decided to go ahead with this plan of having a scrimmage a month anyways. Our 7 (!) refs need the practice, Freshmeat learn heaps about the game by NSOing and the skaters can't go a full season without competition. So last Thursday we had our first one. And it was a blast!

Wether it was being on the jammer longer, placing more controlled hits or working more tightly together, all of the girls showed new and improved moves. And I found that I really really liked bench coaching.

Team white: Gaby Grenade, Petra Pak, Trasher Smasher and Cherry Lawless. Bench: Lucy SlayHer.
Refs: Svary Mary (+ passenger) and Major Bitter (head ref for the event).

In the box: Wicked Rosie (probably a back block/forearms) and Badass Babuska (high block)
© Carolina Makkula