Deeside 2018

Generic information about Deeside

Team Manager's report

Staff: Iain Embrey (TM; safeguarding), Matthew Vokes (Lead Coach), Janet Vokes (Chef),

coaches: Fiona Petersen (Also cheffing), Rona Lindsay (safeguarding), Phil Vokes, Ben Windsor, John Ockenden, Anne Ockenden, Paul Pruzina, Christine Kiddier, Lachlan Chevasse

Athletes:

One additional athlete was invited; they were a year older than the rest and had already attended last year, so decided to go elsewhere. All but one of these were first year 16s, and none had previously been to Deeside. First-time chef Janet Vokes did a wonderful job, and had substantial help from experienced assistant Fiona Petersen; very many thanks to them both.

A few minor injuries were sustained during tour, although most of these were pre-existing issues. Each was given appropriate treatment and suggestions for rehab – including rest, the use of ice-packs in the forest and back at base, and strengthening exercises. In each case the advice was to err on the side of caution, and rest if in doubt.

The coaching team had a mixture of experience levels and skills, but benefitted from many of the team having worked together on previous Deeside tours. All made valuable contributions. As per the last few years we used a coaching group structure with 2/3 coaches taking primary responsibility for 4/5 athletes between them, which also served well to support the development of coaches who worked closely in these partnerships. The coaching groups were designed specifically to mix genders and regions, and with a mind to avoiding athletes having the same primary coach as during a previous tour. The coaches in charge of each team were also primarily responsible for compiling their athletes’ tour reports. These groups were also then used as the basis for duty teams for the week.

The duties listed below were slightly updated following feedback and reflection on previous years, and worked well. A new aspect was to rotate which two athletes travelled in a car (rather than the bus). This system worked well and avoided any segregation.

Duty Groups

Duties:

A: Clear tables and wash up breakfast and set up dinner (8.30am)

B: Help cooks prep after dinner, and set up breakfast thereafter

C: Clear tables and wash up dinner (after dinner)

D: General Cleaning after dinner – either Showers, or GS/WH toilets + athlete area

Rotas:

Each day maintained the structure of:

8-8:30 Breakfast including making lunch - 9:00 Briefing in dining room - 10:00 in bed - 10:30 quiet lights out, and evening sessions were fitted around this. These times were 1 hour later after the NightO around Templars and 2 hours on Wednesday to facilitate rest after the Crathes NightO.

This year the timings didn’t work as well as they have done in the past because it was rather difficult than usual to get the athletes to go to bed and to be quiet once there, and similarly more difficult to get them to breakfast and the bus on time. Next year I shall exert greater effort into getting athletes to bed, and we shall move morning briefing back to 9:15 to allow more time for washing up and prep. etc. We shall also endeavour to finish the lead part of the evening earlier: the schedule as a whole could have benefitted from greater `chill-out’ time, but partially because these particular athletes were unusually happy doing nothing and unusually unenthusiastic about swimming etc.

The evening sessions again contributed substantially. It was again very useful to have tech/tac/phys/psych facilitating self reflection including a personal draft auto-tour report. Various discussions took place on tour around the key outcomes from other evening sessions: It is valuable to have a physical training talk leading to each athlete producing and consulting on a personal physical training plan moving forwards, and a circuits taster to equip those athletes who don’t do any s&c to incorporate this at a basic level. It might be useful to allocate a further evening to running-style analysis with gopros, since this has been valuable in the past. The final night reflection and postcard to be sent in 5 months’ time as a psychological boost is also valuable. Last year’s SOA gps trackers were both fun and useful in terms of evening coaching/geeking – worth asking whether we can get these again for next year.

The Venue remains extremely cost effective and quite fun – however there were again some dead fleas evident in the white house toilet and 2-bed room on arrival (we fumigated and reported). There is now good 4G coverage by some networks, but sadly we failed to get hold of the password for the wifi – it had changed since last year and I need to pursue this in advance.

Tour tops: “contrast vests” and medals were again sourced from frontrunner.org.uk. Some coaches bought one of these (£9) and all athletes were provided with one. Next year I need to investigate whether there is an alternative to the t-shirts which may no longer be available.

SI equipment, stakes, and large kites were gratefully borrowed from WCOC by Matthew; GRAMP and MAROC were most kind in arranging ocad files and access for us without any charge. Iain supplied training kites, and 9 JROS radios, which, together with 4 from CUOC and 2 from John Ockenden enabled the full team to be connected at all times, with spares for injured athlete radio-0. The JROS first aid kits – one large base and 3 waterproof smaller ones – continue to be very useful and are under ongoing improvement – this year a sam-splint, next year tick tweezers…

The areas used were good on the whole, with the new areas (to the tour) of Potarch and shooting greens being somewhat disappointing. We were again restricted by some embargoes, but next year will certainly consider using glen dye twice.

The tour outline worked very well, and is provided below. All exercises were planned new for this year, with 1 coach taking responsibility for planning each day. Two coaches (Annie and Rona) were successful in completing their lv2 assessments on tour (thanks Iain for making this happen). Next year we will evolve to picture-plan-direction-purpose.

The budget and accounts are shown below. BML printers were duly credited on our tour tops for their continued and valued support. Transport this year was complicated by the fact that we were following the lakes5. Iain therefore organised a minibus from Lancaster, which transported 15 of the athletes and coaches up to tour. This efficiency and other organised lift sharing saw us come in under budget. Thanks to Iain for undertaking minibus training and assessment, and to JROS for funding this.

Athletes were charged £250 upfront; with the expectation of a top-up of up to £50 to cover any excess. The former was £20 greater than the last few years, and therefore allowed us to not require a top-up, but come in closer to budget. (excess largely due to a greater than expected take-up for the minibus travel).

Feedback from others and our (IE & MV) thoughts has been collated into action points for next year:

Ask about night 0 experience in advance

Coaching briefing at start – allocated time – include key to brief/debrief – kids take ownership of their session aims

Controller course, or recruit one – currently only 2nd year 16s get ranking points, so not much point.

Send kids outline plan for the week in advance

Kit list pillows

Athletes Arrive earlier to have more chill time on day 1?

Stress importance of training not racing; yellow jersey just fun – no need to do all exercises

Explain to eat lunch/snacks as and when – explain principle of snacks

Make sure kids asleep on time

Less is more in evenings

Ideally before multi-day, as following a week of racing is not great. Next year we are trialling Tues-Tues; will be interesting to see whether a few days rest helps noticeably.

Morning briefing to 9:15 – timings strict

Tour champs only on final day – no need for added relay etc; time more valuably spent reviewing race and week (esp. if we get hold of trackers…SOA? Shane?). This would also hopefully allow the coaching team to make substantial progress with (finish?!) the tour reports on tour.

Buy 2 training kites to replace those lost.

Wound wipes for big FA and 4 tick tweesers

Ikea pencils – get hold of some more.

Gopro running style

Avoid long walk-ins (eg scolty) - especially following night 0. Is it possible to get a forest key for Scolty?

Selections

Rachel Brown ESOC
Pippa Carcas INT
Rachel Duckworth DVO
Jess Ensoll LOC
Lucy Gibson LOC
Anna Harris DEE
Scarlet Heap SO
Caitlin Irving WCOC
Ellie Simmonds LOC

Jim Bailey BOK
Daniel Campbell MOR
Adam Conway GO
Joe Hudd WCOC
Charlie Rennie WCOC
Joe Sunley WCOC
Oliver Tonge BOK
Frank Townley SN

Selection Policy

Date

The camp will run from   4th – 11th August 2018

Eligibility

The camp is for M/W16’s born in 2002 and M/W15s born in 2003

Numbers

The camp will be for around 18 athletes, the final number being determined by the Selectors and the Team Manager.

Criteria

Athletes wishing to be selected will have achieved the standards set out below in the following races;

Standard for Selection

Athletes will be selected based upon their average percentage of time behind the winner. Their best three results will be considered.

The selectors may choose not to fill all available places.

The tour selectors

The tour athletes will be selected by Susan Marsden (Chair), Pauline Olivant and Sue Roome

Illness or Injury

All cases of illness or injury which may affect an athlete’s ability to compete in one or more of the above selection races should be notified in writing to the athletes Regional Squad coordinator prior to the running of that race, clearly explaining the reasons for their failure to compete. The Regional Squad Coordinator will make the Selectors aware of such notifications.