Our 8 participants (4 women and 4 men) in this year’s Trainer 3-litter have this week been on a study trip to the Mare Nostrum conference in Barcelona. They have been through many learning situations, where we have emphasized two areas in particular:
- Competition preparation
- Competition analysis
On Tuesday night, Tore de Faveri had a review of the timeline for the Coach 3 study, as well as the plan for the gathering. We went through the observation task, before Johan Setterberg explained the analysis task.
On Wednesday morning, the participants, divided into pairs, were to each choose a 100m swimmer that they would observe in their preparations for the final session. They had to be present as soon as the warm-up area opened, to make sure they got to see everything these practitioners did. Everything had to be written down. The athlete was observed both before and after the race.
In addition, based on filming from trials and finals, they were to conduct a competition analysis where they were to look at speed in start / turn / swimming, frequency and cycle path for the same swimmers they had done the observation task on. Johan Setterberg was responsible for all the filming, and had a thorough review of the task on Tuesday night, so that they had a basis for solving it.
On Thursday between trials and finals, the groups presented their answers from the observation task and the competition analysis. They had worked on this both Wednesday night and Thursday morning. Solid effort, and very good presentations from all groups.
We also had a basic review of planning, focusing on the long-term plan and annual plan. The participants will submit an annual plan and period plan at the end of August, and Kay-Arild Paulsen therefore went through important points to include in that task solution.
An added bonus for the participants was visits from Norimasa Hirai (national team coach Japan) and Martina Aronsson (national team manager Sweden), who told about how they work with athletes and clubs in their home countries. Nori talked a lot about working with Kosuke Kitajima, who he was coaching for his entire career, as well as about how they are now preparing for the World Cup later this year. Martina has a strong focus on leadership, which is of course important when you are responsible for athletes, a large support system and many club coaches, and athletes.
There is a committed and interested group in the Coach 3 litter. They only had a collection earlier this year, and it was digital. Therefore, it was very good to have a physical session now. It makes everyone better acquainted with each other, and creates security in the relationship, which makes it easier to participate in discussions, and get more involved.
NSF supports the club with 50% of the participation fee. As part of the project “More female coaches”, NSF with support from FINA has had the opportunity to support female coaches with 100% coverage of participation fees for this litter.