http://maaml.blogspot.com.au/2012/12/ideas-for-visualisations.html - have a read.  For us, as sprinters, we're not THAT dissimilar to martial artists.  We have skills that we need to master, moves and countermoves that use those skills, and then "tactics" which is essentially the application of the right moves at the right times.  Very similar to martial arts.  I think we can learn a lot from them.

http://thenaturalnutritionist.com.au/

Well worth a look.  I'm trying to see if getting her to give us a talk is feasible.

Nathan Larkin worked with aboc for some years as a coach, but has now moved on to studying art at university and hasn't the time to coach any more riders.  I wish Nathan the very best of luck at uni and in the future with his art and photography.  Nathan's a top guy and a good friend and a talented photographer with a great eye for a shot.  He's contributed a lot to aboc and the culture we're doing our best to encourage, with honesty and integrity.  Thank you big guy, everyone I know appreciates your contribution.

So now I need to find a coach to look after enduro riders as I am only doing sprinters.  If you're keen, let me know. If you're doing a level 1 and want mentored hours etc, I am keen to help.

http://iquitsugar.com/

Let's start a week ago, why not, it's a nice place to start. Before this we had Oceanias, sprint camps etc ...

Wednesday - 11am-7pm at DISC, VSG training

Thursday - 3:30-7:30pm Kids in the powerhaus gym

Friday - 10am-2rpm VSG, 5pm-9:30pm BBN DISC training sessions

Sat - 7am-12:30ish - Vic junior titles ITT

Sun - 7am-4pm - Vic junior titles sprint & keirin, 4pm-7:30pm aboc sprint group

Mon - Day off, powerhaus CLOSED!!!

Tues - 7am-2pm - travel to Adelaide, 3pm-11pm NJTS R4 Adelaide

Wed - 4:45am - 9am travel home from Adelaide, 11am-7:30pm VSG at DISC

Thur - 9am-12:30 DISC working bee, 1-2 visit IT client (make money to pay bills!) 3:30-7:30 powerhaus gym

Fri - morning SLEEP IN!  4pm-9:30pm BBN DISC

Sat - 11am-4pm VSG training, 4pm-6pm pack CV vans to go to Sydney for senior nationals

Sun - 6am? Drive to Dunc Grey velodrome (Sydney) for Senior Aust titles

Mon 'til um ... when're we back?  Senior nationals, 18 hour days

Get back, get J17's ready for junior nationals in late Feb.  Organise SSS R5.  See wife?!

If I haven't returned your phonecalls lately ... I'm sorry!

In the UK :  

youth A u16..6.93m - ~7m, ~same as us, 1 year offset younger kids
youth B u14..6.45m  - bigger than us
youth C u12..6.05m  - bigger than us
youth D u10..5.40m  - ~same
youth E u8..5.10m - do we have U8's?!

They're not falling apart, in fact, Le Poms seem to do pretty well ...

In the US (not so much a powerhouse anymore, but interesting all the same) :

17-18: Unrestricted
15-16: 6.78 meters (22'3")(48x15)
13-14: 6.36 meters (20'10.5")(48x16)
10-12: 6.00 meters (19’8”)(48x17)
For Juniors 16 and under who are competing in Championship team sprint, team pursuit, keirin, or Madison the 17-18 (unrestricted) gear limit applies.

I don't have the rules for other countries yet, watch this space ..

Not everyone's a fan of the 7m rollout for J17's.  I've gone on to discuss this in the past.  We now have our first lot of in competition times from Vic titles to look at.  So let's have a look.  I'm going to just look at sprint, I am not interested in the pursuits!

This year :

Event 3: JW17 Time Trial

2 Laps 500m Final - STANDINGS

No new records.  Reasonably close times. 

Compare to last year

Courtney FIELD(CAR) 38.195
Emily APOLITO(BBN) 39.256 +1.06
Chloe BAGGS(BBN) 39.656 +1.46
Emma BILSTON(B-S) 40.629 +2.43
Zoe NICHOLSON(ART) 41.872 +3.67
Nicole CLARK(WNG) 44.980 +6.78
Rebecca THOMSON(LAV) 45.568 +7.37

Apart from the outlier (Courtney), they're pretty close.  A little faster with the bigger gears, but there's too much variation in te size of the girls fields and the quality of them to make any judgements yet.  There's a lot of depth (relatively) in JW17 this year.

And the F200 :

Event 15: JW17 Sprint Qualifying

Flying 200 Top 8 to Quarter Finals

CF last year :

Courtney FIELD(CAR) 12.466
Emily APOLITO(BBN) 13.308 +0.84
Zoe NICHOLSON (ART) 14.670 +2.20
Rebecca THOMSON(LAV) 15.109 +2.64
 

Here we see some bigger differences - again, if we ignore Courtney as an outlier, the top three girls rode significantly faster this year.  For the girls this isn't a suprise in the F200, they can wind up the gear, rather than have to accelerate it from a standing start (and most of the girls are not very strong, I don't think many of them lift), so I'd expect to see bigger changes here.  What we are seeing is greater density at the top end.  The girls field in 2011-2012 was tiny though, so the sample size is too small to draw any conclusions from, except that we have more JW17's racing sprint this year and that's a really good thing, there's also no (that I have seen) dead bodies on the floor.  The horror of allowing 14 and 15 year olds to rev a little lower has not killed anyone.  If anything, it's leveling the playing field a little, the mashers can keep up with the hummingbirds. AMAZING!

Where do we have depth? The boys.  This is where we don't tend to see outliers so much because the talent pool is much bigger.

This year :

Event 4: JM17 Time Trial

2 Laps 500m Final - STANDINGS

CF last year:

1 Jay CASTLES(SHP) 34.608
2 Mathew ROSS(CAR) 35.419
3 John COCHRANE(BBN) 35.484
4 James DANN(BBN) 35.600
5 Jack HICKEY(CAR) 35.775
6 Jerome BECHAZ(CAR) 36.075
7 Braeden DEAN(BGO) 36.142
8 Jordan STANNUS(CAR) 36.866
9 Angus LYONS(B-S) 37.349
10 Caiden HULL(CAR) 37.580
11 Thomas VERLEYS-DONK(CAR) 37.878
12 Pierce CONNOR(BBN) 38.381
13 Lucas HAMILTON(ART) 38.383
14 David KOROKNAI(CAR) 38.436
15 Jade MADDERN(CSL) 38.764
16 Angus FLOOD(BBN) 38.820
17 Jack WALK(WGL) 39.241
18 Steven CARROLL(PRS) 39.563
19 Nicolas ABELS(BWK) 39.679
20 Hamish HAYNES(SHP) 39.935
21 Ned EFE(CAR) 40.039
22 Tomarsh LOKI(WNG) 40.555
23 Michael STRINGER(BBN) 41.495
24 Jarrod WILSON(BBN) 42.294
25 Lex MUNOZ(CAR) 42.452
26 Stephen DAMM(LAV) 42.841
27 Jacob MUMFORD(BBN) 44.577

Quicker across the board.  Not dramatically, but it's significant.  No dead bodies.

In the F200, we're a little quicker, but interestlingly, a lot denser at the top end.  I wonder if any of the kids can get into the 10's if we find any real outliers?  Wouldn't that be amazing ...

Event 16: JM17 Sprint Qualifying

Flying 200 Top 8 to Quarter Finals

Last year :

Jay CASTLES(SHP) 11.631
Jack HICKEY(CAR) 11.682
John COCHRANE(BBN) 11.733
James DANN(BBN) 11.780
Braeden DEAN(BGO) 11.809
Jerome BECHAZ(CAR) 12.154
Jordan STANNUS(CAR) 12.383
Thomas VERLEYS-DONK(CAR) 12.623
Lucas HAMILTON(ART) 12.659
Angus FLOOD(BBN) 12.791
Nicolas ABELS(BWK) 12.839
Hamish HAYNES(SHP) 13.038
Jade MADDERN(CSL) 13.546
Stephen ELLUL(BBN) 13.635
Jarrod WILSON(BBN) 14.136
Ian HERMAN(BWK) 15.915
 

 Any conclusions to draw?  Not yet, it's too early to tell and I have only done a very quick and cursory look at the times from two Vic titles and I haven't considered atmospheric conditions etc.  We'll see what happens at the Aussies and also when this lot of J17's move up to J19's next year.  Remember the whole aim is to make the J19 -> senior jump less of a killer, and that will take 3-4 years to show itself.  So far, no dead bodies, no velodromes lined with corpses and we saw some really good, close racing on the weekend, in particular in the JW17's sprint and keirens.

They're very new, check them out :

http://www.whittleseacyclingclub.com.au

Wow, it seems like only yesterday that I was working with Neil and Trevor Cameron as my first victims while I got my level 1.  I still get to work with Neil sometimes!  A decade of coaching ... It's been a lot of fun and an amazing journey, but I am still a grasshopper with MUCH to learn!  Bring it on!

Oh, and Neil's lesson to everyone : Wear your gloves eh?

After a pretty pleasing round 2 of the SSS, I've had a few setbacks, a niggling knee twinge, a week at the Oceanias, not much/any training ... And my power is down ~150 watts!  Doh ... Round 4 is coming soon, and I'm feeling better, hopefully it'll be a better day at the races!

http://www.asada.gov.au/media/cycling_investigation.html

This is full of interesting stuff about Keirin in Japan!

Have a read : http://www.cyclingtips.com.au/2012/10/keirin-racing-in-japan-with-shane-perkins/

Saturday November 24 at DISC.

Juniors at 5.30pm, Seniors at 7.30pm.

Entry fee: Juniors $10, Seniors $20 (pay on the night).
Entries close November 18 at kvaroz@bigpond.net.au
Early entries close November 11: Free entry for 4 lucky entrants.

$1810 for Junior program, $3750 for Seniors + $3000 in prizes.

Details on CV’s track fixture or Laurie Norris (0417 550805).

The program is chock-full of keirins!  Go enter it!

SSS round 2, and close to perfect conditions,  I rode a 13.079, which is a big PB for me.  53x15 gearing, I rode a low entry line and it worked.  It put me into A grade.  Second last qualifier, so it was going to be tough ...

I rode a good race against Nic Mark, I had a good gap and had a chance, but flatted (lucky, back wheel!) down the straight with a lap to go, lucky not to bin it, so Nic got that one.  Next up I raced Dino, and again I lead it out, Dino got right on my hip passing me coming into turn 3 and I got spooked and backed off (Dino would have won anyway, this wasn't why he won!), and in the last, Kyle Muir went from 600m and I didn't bother to chase him. 

So, apart from race 1 I was a gumby, but I did ride a big PB for my F200 so the day was good!

Neil Robinson was one of my very first coaching "clients", waaay back in 2003 I think, I use the term coaching loosely, I was getting hours up for my level 1 coaching qualification and I helped him a bit and probably did more harm than good.  To cut a long story short, and to make it clear, I take no credit for this achievement, Neil did this without my help, but certainly with my full support, Neil won C grade in the Warny this weekend past.  Read his story.

Chapeau, Neil, Chapeau.

Everyone wants to go faster, either in sprints, or boost their thresholds for those long, tedious bits before a sprint finish in an endurance race. One way to do this is to cheat, doping works.  It's a fact.  It works. 

Culturally, how do we try and prevent it?  For starters, we don't do what the Peaks coaching group have just done, they're now loudly flogging some magic concentrated beet juice as a miracle performance enhancer, but it's ok because it's natural or something.  It's a supplement and it's not banned (yet, who knows if, like caffeine, it'll be a threshold thing, too much NO and you're busted), that's true,  but it's the wrong thing to be doing (hey, I guess they want to make a buck, and they are the exclusive US distributor of one particular blend, all's fair, right?).  No.  Wrong.  Wrong message. 

"The nitrates in Beet It beet concentrate offer the athlete a competitive advantage, some studies showing up to 16% improvement in endurance! I noticed the difference with Beet It shots after my first use! It's a subtle ability to push harder for longer. Who doesn't want this!?!"

This is right when the fuss about Lance and doping is front page news.  Seriously?!

Some stats :

150kg of mince beef

25kg of tomato paste

1.5kg of oregano(!)

50kg of canned tomatos!

That's a lot of bolla sauce!

Our busiest night had 27 people training at the clubrooms.

The hardest enduro session was the last one (it' a buildup)

It gets quiet once September starts, sprinters come en-mass, but enduros go road riding.

Very cold, wet nights seem to see attendance down a little, which is odd, because you didn't go riding that day, it was awful!

We went through a lot of deck tape on the Kurts with the sprint group using the big flywheels.

We'll be back for more in 2013, thank you to everyone that came, if you do it regularly, performance improves considerably.

I've been thinking a lot about this, as over the past few years with working for Hilton (it's been almost 4 years!) in the Victorian Sprint Group program, we've seen some amazing growth and some brilliant results.  It's not all been perfect, of course, lots of hard lessons have been learned and there's more to come.  One of the things we need to consider is pathways into the VSG.  Until reasonably recently, we'd pretty-much say yes to anyone that wanted to have a go, sprinters being rare animals.  But, these days, we've got a pretty good hotbed of talent here and the VSG is full.

So what do we do with the kids that want to have a go?

We need pathways into the squad.  I very briefly discussed this with Hilts yesterday, and it's softly-softly at the moment, but some ideas to toss around, based mainly on talent ID, where talent isn't just being able to ride quickly as a J15, but also being committed.  We (Hilts and I) put our hearts and souls into the VSG, it's all consuming for both of us, and we expect that riders in the program are equally committed.  If you're committed and prepared to bust your arse for years, we'll move heaven and earth to make the program fit you in.

How do you, as a J15 or a J17, show commitment?  It's easy to see speed, just race fast.  Are you in it for the long haul or just dabbling for a bit of fun before you go and do something else? There's nothing wrong with dabbling, but the VSG is not for that.

Is it realistic to expect a J17 to show long term commitment?  I think it is, to a point.  If you can't ever see yourself as being an Olympian sprinter, then you're dabbling - if it's something that you want, now, then we're interested in you.  We know things change, and life intervenes all the time, but if it's not on the radar, you shouldn't be wasting our time.  The kids I've fed up into the VSG want (at the moment) to be Olympians, Perko and Anna are their heroes.  This is really important.

So, some pathways, I run a sprint group outside of the VSG, which you all know about, the aboc Sprint Squad, it's a bunch of masters guys and developmental kids and some senior riders who for various reasons aren't in state development squads (but may be working towards them).  That's one pathway into the VSG - if you ride in my squad, I'll see you, and see how committed you are as well as if you have physical talent.  If and when the time is right, I feed you up the chain into the VSG.  I've done this with a few riders so far.  This means paying me though, and that's possibly open to suggestions of nepotism, it certainly can't be the only way in and it isn't.

Other pathways - work with another coach, specialise in sprint (if you can find a coach that will let you as a J17 or J15, they're rarer than they should be), get them to speak to Hilts if you're showing the right stuff.  Win sprint at Junior Vics beating the kids in the VSG, that's sure to get our attention!  Get spotted by a coach or testing through Cycling Victoria, as an example Carnegie-Caulfield riders sometimes get pulled up into the VSG if they show enough talent at their club training sessions or testing sessions.

There's others - if you think of some, I want to know!

How Anna won in London ....  Vicky's the best chaser in the world.  Anna didn't want to lead her out.  Watch ... I can't embed it here, but you can go to youtube and see exactly what happens

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkmmXSs-ooQ&feature=player_detailpage#t=371s