BAC Coaches Blog

This past weekend was the San Diego County Cup, and we took a team down there. The competition was fierce, but the team never gave up. We chose to focus on four key things during our games. 

 The first was “safe passes,” this was a continuation of what we had been working on in practices and our previous games. To make a safe pass we want to make sure our teammate is looking and knows the ball is coming. To do this we call their name, and then wait until we see their eyes. Then we want to put the pass somewhere where only our teammate can get it. We don’t want to pass a 50/50 ball. By the end of the tournament we were able to withstand the other teams’ hard press and make safe passes to our teammates, ultimately leading to a lot of assists. 

The second was “press.” Our goal here was to make it as hard as possible for the other team to move the ball. Once we started talking in terms of not letting your player get the ball our defense really came together. We often forced our opponents to run out the shot clock which gave us a lot of opportunities on the counter attack. 

 The third was “movement/create.” The movement was particularly important because most of our games were played in a pool much larger than we were used to. During our first game in that pool we were stopping at half a lot, not realizing how much farther we still had to go. However after that game we made a great adjustment and started countering all the way down to the 2M line. This fed into a balanced offense where people could drive and “create” an opportunity to score. 

 The final focus was “head on a swivel.” This means that we want to constantly be looking around instead of focusing on just one person or thing. The idea is to make sure that we can see everything that is going on in the pool whether it is in front of us or behind us. It sounds simply, but it is actually not something that feels very natural. 

The team seemed to have a great time away from the pool as well. As a coach it was very fun to see the kids away from the pool, and get to know them all a little better. The kids also seemed to get to know each other better, enjoying the company of kids form other schools and grades. On Saturday afternoon we were lucky enough to be able to go to the Fearn’s beach house, and the kids were able to play in the ocean for an hour or so and enjoy the lovely weather. 

 All in all, the trip was a great success, and I hope we can go again next year! Thank you to all the athletes for making the trip, and a BIG thank you to Ron Lynch for coming with us! 

Amy 

The 14U water polo teams played great this past weekend. During the week leading up to the competitions we focused on safe and accurate passing, making sure that we take care of the ball on every possession - the ball is gold and we want to treat it as such! And taking that practice into the games it made a HUGE difference in the quality of play. The team did a great job protecting the ball, not panicking, and making passes when they were safe and useful. As a result, we were able to move the ball, work our offense more, and ultimately get great shot opportunities.

 It was a lot of fun to be a part of such vast improvement and I hope to see the team keep building on that success. Great job, everyone!

Hi All,

A lot of you have asked me about summer camps. Here is some information on the camps which Cal will be offering this summer:

CAL HIGH PERFORMANCE WATER POLO CAMP & CORSO GOALKEEPER ACADEMY
Week I: June 13-15,Friday-Sunday
Week II: June 20-23, Friday-Monday
Week III: June 23-26, Monday-Thursday
Week IV: July 11-14, Friday-Monday Sorry, this camp is FULL!
AGE: For those entering Grades 7-12 (One year Varsity or Club experience is required)

Check out http://calbears.cstv.com/camps/womens-waterpolo.html for more information. 

Amy

The world’s first water polo podcast has been launched! The shows will be hosted by CSTV’s Trevor Freeman and Coach Dave Maynard, and will air Mondays at 8:00pm Pacific time. These shows will feature guest speakers and will be listener interactive by allowing people to call, blog, or email in with their reactions and questions. 

 To listen to the podcats either live or as a recording you can visit: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/TrevorRFF 

 Listening will surely keep you on top of your water polo knowledge!

Kirk Everist as won two back to back NCAA Championships at Cal, and now he is revealing his secrets!

 Check out his new DVDs on “Defensive Techniques,” “Offensive Techniques,” and “Defensive and Offensive Game Tactics.” The DVDs can be bought here: http://www.championshipproductions.com/cgi-bin/champ/c/Coaching-DVDs/Water-Polo-992.html?mv_pc=usawp 

Water Polo Planet has posted a few guides on their website. These are free downloads and might be very helpful for some of you new parents and athletes! Among other things, they have a “Spectator Guide for Water Polo Beginners,” as well as a “Beginners Guide to Water Polo.”

 If you sometimes feel lost when sitting in the stands you can check both of these out at: http://www.waterpoloplanet.com/downloads.html.

Hello All,

 Just a reminder that next week is “Bring a Friend Week” for water polo. Everyone is invited and encouraged to bring a friend to the pool for practice. This is a great way for your friends to understand a little bit about what you are doing. And who knows, maybe they will want to join and then you guys can be on the same team!

 Parents, your day is here too! Sunday April 6th is Parent Day! Come and be a kid for a day and learn what it is like to be a BAC athlete!

I hope to see a lot of new faces in the water next week!

 Amy

This past weekend Selby (Gold group) swam an outstanding 1650 Freestyle at JOs. She dropped her time from 22:32.80 to 21:55.35! Great job Selby!!! But what’s amazing was not only because she dropped 37 seconds, but she swam the race with awesome splits:
(1:12.4)–>(1:20.1)–>(1:20.9)–>(1:20.1)–>(1:20.7)–>(1:20.1)–>(1:20.5)–>(1:20.5)–>(1:20.5)–>(1:20.9)–>(1:20.4)–>(1:20.8)–>(1:20.9)–>(1:20.4)–>(1:19.9)–>(1:18.4)–>(36.3)
When swimming distance freestyle, it’s essential to find a comfortable pace and stick to it throughout the entire race. I call this “the flow”. When you look at Selby’s splits, you would see that 1:20 is her “flow”, and she maintained this pace throughout her race.

Did you know that Emma (Silver group) has been to ALL practices for 5 weeks straight? That’s right! That’s Mon – Sat for 5 whole weeks!!! She also has been hitting LBTs (life best times) at practice. Last week at the end of one of our practices, she beat her 100 Freestyle time by 3 seconds!!! WAY TO GO EMMA!!!!!!

The 2008 Men’s and Women’s Junior (born in 1991/1992) and Youth (born in 1993/1994) Zone Team tryouts have been moved back. Try-outs for both the Men’s and the Women’s teams start this weekend. Please go to www.pacificwaterpolo.com, and then click on the schedule link for the exact dates, times, and locations.

To register please go to www.pacificwaterpolo.com/registration.html and click on the link for 2008 Zone Team Tryout and Zone Camp Registration - payment can be made by credit card or Paypal.

This is a great way for athletes to gain experience and meet other people in the water polo world. Athletes will also have a chance to be coached by a variety of coaches.

 I encourage everyone to participate!

 Amy