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Day 24 was a recovery day. It was designed this way to follow Tuesday's meet(s) to help kids recover from a night in which the entire team got to compete.
We started the night off with some rolling out and went immediately into RPR. I haven't led a session of RPR in a few weeks and was really looking forward to doing that again. The kids were more focused than ever as many of them are feeling some competition 'pain'.
We went through the entire routine that we use, and for the first time ever I truly felt like athletes were pushing through pain when rubbing the spots that RPR instructs you to massage, slice, push on. This can be very painful, but can be a game changer if done properly. We don't like to touch our athletes so we have them do self-resets. This normally doesn't allow them to do RPR properly because it's hard to reset yourself, and many times individuals don't push as hard as others would. Tonight though, I was very happy with their efforts and focus!
After RPR was completed the boys went to the weight room and the girls went to field events. During this time the girls, Coach Cross, and I discussed breaking down video and the importance of knowing their own personal strengths/weaknesses.
At every meet I try to video as many jumps as I can. Afterwards I upload all of them to my Google Drive account and label each one with the athlete's first or last name. I share all the videos with the team. It is their responsibility to watch and reflect on their needs as a jumper. I do break some of them down, but with such a large team I unfortunately can't do everyone's...
I showed the girls a folder I made to help them better understand their jumps. This folder has a step-by-step breakdown tool, frame-by-frame pictures of jumps, and some videos. I told them to use those visuals and any breakdowns I've done for their teammates to help them in the reflection process of their own videos.
Once we finished looking at the folder, we watched a few videos of jumps I feel are very good from a technical standpoint. The girls were very engaged and seemed to have a few light bulbs light up while watching. It was great to see.
The original plan was to do the "chair landing drill" afterwards, but we had only a small amount of time left during our designated block. So, I had them watch Cameron Gary's chair landing instructional video on YouTube instead. Again, it seemed like a few of them really started seeing things in a new light, and already have a better understanding of what a proper landing looks like.
When our block was completed all athletes on the team (boys and girls) were treated to a mental strength discussion with Coach Frank.
While this was going on the other coaches and I met with the head coach to discuss our upcoming meets, lineups, and spring break. These meetings were something we built in this year to help with better communication between our HUGE coaching staff. It's been really nice to get together with them, and to connect and be on the same page!
TOMORROW:
We have a JV meet. Kids that don't attend will have practice. Looking forward to seeing how our younger jumpers/athletes stack up against others in the conference!
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