Get Coached - S&C for Figure Skating w/c 17/11/2014

It's the final week of preparation for the NISA British Figure Skating Championships 2014 and the excitement is growing! The coaches and athletes I am working with are each beginning to go into their own special places to focus and motivate themselves for the competition.
This got me thinking about how we each plan and prepare for competition, what our thought processes are and how we each motivate ourselves or respond to motivation and advice from others.

Having been a sprinter and a rugby player at a reasonable standard for both sports I can say that my approach to each sport was quite different, and also that the approach by my rugby team mates and other sprinters was also very individual. We are all individuals with different life experiences, opinions and thought processes and this can lead to very different pre-competition plans.

Positive mental attitude, self belief, high intrinsic motivation and a love of competition are all qualities that can be associated with a confident and successful athlete. However, anyone who has worked in high performance sport knows that athletes come with a whole host of different mind sets and baggage which can lead to all manner of issues come competition time!

Even with any negative thoughts put aside we as coaches still need to accept and understand that some athletes will either want company and communication or will want to be alone and undisturbed. The headphones will go on and the whole world ignored, or maybe the opposite in that they will talk and be sociable. Either way we as coaches need to respect this while at the same time ensuring that the athlete is best prepared mentally and physically. 

As a parent this can be particularly challenging as we naturally want to protect our children and make sure they are OK. However, this can sometimes come across as fussing and irritate or upset the athlete, the emotional connection being too close. As hard as it may seem we parents sometimes just need to back off and trust the athlete and the coach.

Thanks again for reading this far and I hope you found it informative? All relevant feedback or comments are appreciated. If you have any suggestions for future blog topics then please let me know here or on my Get Coached Facebook page. 

Get Coached - S&C for Figure Skating w/c 10/11/2014

Over the last few weeks the tension has been building and the detail has been scrutinised as the build up for the NISA British Championships in Sheffield gets closer. It is only a week and a bit away now, starting on Wednesday 26th November.
I am currently working with thirteen skaters from four different coaching groups/clubs and I can't wait to see how they all do. Quite a few are skating against each other but have been training very well on and off the ice together, there is a real sense of camaraderie here which is great to see.
Yes there have been some challenges and upsets but this is competitive sport and feelings will get a little out of control at times.

A coach has a lot of contact time with their athletes and as an S&C coach supporting the Lead Coaches I also get a lot of contact time as well, especially in a sport where strength, power, coordination and flexibility all play a major role in performance.
With this in mind it is vitally important that we coaches communicate regularly and send out the same messages to the athletes. As I have said before I am very lucky to be working with a great group of coaches. We are all learning from each other, respect each others opinions and experiences and are able to have open and honest discussions about the athletes, our ideas for athlete development and they even put up with some of my daft questions that really show my lack of Figure Skating terminology but highlight their patience and understanding!

Off-ice training (S&C) has been going well over the last few weeks across the groups. One senior skater had their taper start early to reduce fatigue and enable higher quality sessions on ice in terms of programme practice, this is going well and whilst the volume of the S&C programme has dropped the overall intensity remains quite high.

High intensity interval training has been programmed in for a few of the skaters over the last few weeks to get them to know what it feels like to push themselves and keep going as much as improving their fitness; a mental gain as much as physical. It is great to see such a mature, committed and dedicated approach to their S&C training from a young group of mostly female athletes, one of which is only twelve years old! I am excited to see what this bunch of enthusiastic skaters can achieve over the years!

As always, thanks for reading if you have got this far! All relevant comments welcome here and on my Get Coached FB page.