Last night was the inaugural “Tuesday” practice and I thought it went very well!

Considering that most skaters in attendance hadn’t done those drills or in that fashion I tried my best to answer as many questions as possible.  There wern’t many though and most of practice involved skating and not much talking.

First up were the rolling 200m’s.  Since it was the first try we only did 4 of the total 5 sets but I think that it was enough for most skaters to get used to accelerating and working on top end speed.  There was also about a minute more rest between each 200m than will be alloted in the future but, again, that was to make sure that it wasn’t too hard the first time.

After a few minutes rest we got straight into the 10km.  I was very, very, very pleased to see that there were multiple packs and that the skaters took chances with passing and attacking.  It really felt like more of a race than just a drill; really awesome.

In the future I would like to see more skaters using the laps where the group is together to their advantage.  In that I mean that I’d like to see everyone try to move up to the front of the pack and make some passes when the pace isn’t as fast.

Tuesdays are going to be your chances to try things in a race environment and not worry about the outcome.  Take chances, put it all out on the track and learn from your success and your hardships!

Everyone did a great job and I was proud to see so much effort put forward to finish each drill.

Jesse and Jade are currently tied at 17.7 seconds for the 200m’s and will have to defend and try to better that time next week.  Hopefully Travis, Dean and Camillo will be there to push them harder.

In the points race Jade stole the show with 16 points, Jesse was second with 7 and Peter close behind in third with 6.  Morgan finished fourth with 3 and Scott fifth with 1.  Scott Pauley, Morgan Williams and Leo Frusteri were extremely active and tried for points often.  Hopefully next week these 3 will team up against the young’ens and give them a run for their money!

Again, great job guys and I look forward to seeing how things play out next week!

Don’t forget to fill out the coaching survey and hand that in at Thursdays practice.

Since Aaron left for the WIC the responsibility of coaching TISC has fallen in to the hands of Eric Gee, Peter Doucet and myself. 

We decided on a new structure with practice that included a dedicated 30-45 minutes of technique/skills development.  Eric Gee and/or Peter run that program and I’ve been getting nothing but good feedback. 

Most of the skaters enjoy the chance to work on technique without feeling as though they are wasting valuable practice time.  Also, having direct and immediate feedback from the coaches is invaluable.

The second “half” of practice, which really runs 1 hour or more, is the “physical” aspect of training.  This is where either Peter or myself take the skaters through a series of challenging drills which are designed to increase fitness, speed and tactical awareness.

I’ve heard some mixed reviews from practice to practice but the general concensus is that things are headed in the right direction.  I think the biggest thing that our skaters have had to get used to is, especially from me, an expectation of higher speeds and a harder work ethic.  I am asking our skaters to skate faster than they are used to and much earlier in the season that they may think is appropriate.  I’m happy to see that everyone is stepping up to the challenge.

I’ve decided to coach from the side of the track.  What this means is that I’ve re-arranged my training so that I can be at TISC practices and watching, interacting and correcting each group of skaters as they do the drills.  This means that I’m not skating and don’t have to only concern myself with the skaters immediately around me; consequently leaving the other groups without the proper attention.

To this end it also allows me the freedom to use the stop watch and record times.  I love to coach using the watch because it quantifies a given effort by the skaters in to something tangeable.  I hate arbitrarily saying “go skate hard” because that doesn’t ever achieve anything.  The skater will most likely go skate at a comfortable ‘hard’ pace for them which usually means that the improvements that the skater will get from the drill will be severely lessened.  Instead you tell the skater what time to skate and then they have to really push themselves past their comfort zone in order to achieve those times and then BOOM! results.

We’ve been skating outdoors for about 4 weeks now and I’ve seen some serious improvements.  Group 1 is skating about 3 seconds a lap faster than when we first started and Group 2 has seen a 4 second improvement as well.  Part of this is due to adjusting to skating outdoors again but it’s also recognising that they can do it.

I think that a huge part of the resistance that I’ve recieved over the winter while suggesting this type of training was that no one believed that they could do what they are now doing.  It’s hard to show someone that they can skate faster than they ever thought they could just by talking about it. 

It was funny when I started Group 2 and said go skate “26s laps” and I got a response that basically said “wth, that’s way too slow!”.  At that point I was quite pleased and now that group is consistantly skating 1-2 seconds faster and most of it is because they believe they can do it.  I want to foster that beliefe that our skaters can do anything they set their minds to and to that end I’m going to run a few drills in the next week or so that will show them just how fast they can go! 

<I can hear Jacky complaining already! lol>

Everyone is doing a great job and I hope that everyone keeps up the hard work!

Oh, and “Tuesdays” start next week!!!!!

Today I went with my sister to get our feet molded for a set of EGC Skates. We were two in a series of five skaters who showed up for today’s casting; it was a long but fun day. We hung out with the other skaters and had a great time chatting in an atmosphere that didn’t involve us actually skating.

I hadn’t seen the method that Eric used to mold our feet before but I now consider it to be superior to the methods that I’ve used in the past. I took some pictures which you’ll see below. Thanks goes to Eric for the trouble and time he’s putting in to his project!

Can’t wait to play with the design!

(The Master Mind’s desk)

(The Master Mind himself, Mr. Eric Gee)

(My feet covered in yards of plaster)

(Georg’s feet pre-op)

(Phil taping up his feet)

(The end result)

Mike Garvin has uploaded a whole bunch of videos from his trip to Mexico.  They are available by following the link on the right side to the ‘Videos’ section of the site.

I am sooo jealous after watching some of the videos.  I think that, if I can make it, I want to attend next year for what seems like an awesome event.