Coaches Centre

This is a new section of our website dedicated to sharing expertise & opinions of a diverse group of Taekwondo coaches in Canada. If you would like to contribute to the Coaches Centre, please contact stacy.malloch@wtfcanada.com.

Building a Taekwondo School with Heart
Master Helbert Porter
Inner Strength Taekwondo Academy
February 27, 2012

Never underestimate the impact a coach will have on our youth, their families and the community. Building your school to be a positive experience for athletes and parents, benefits the entire community. Every athlete’s participation in your program should be valued. Not all athlete’s will reach the higher competitive levels, however, try create high quality taekwondo programs that will inspire members to view taekwondo as a lifelong habit for health and fitness in an encouraging environment with plenty of positive team spirit. Creating a taekwondo family where coach, athletes and parents truly support each other, takes heart and dedication.

A strong taekwondo family will bring a number of benefits to your school including new members, volunteers and sponsors. The priceless benefits are the testimonials from parents and teachers in the community who praise your school, for your role in developing courteous and respectful young people. Coaches often demand more time and dedication from their athlete, however, coaches themselves do not always give the effort and dedication back to their students. Give your taekwondo family, more of your time, not just when they are at the dojang.

It is important that a coach guide parents early how their actions play a positive role in the athlete’s future with the sport. The parent’s role is to praise the athlete. Encourage parents to watch tournaments but refrain from coaching or showing disappointment if the outcome isn’t gold. This extra stress may lead to a negative experience for the athlete. You want the athlete to enjoy decades of training in a healthy positive atmosphere and to have clear mind in the ring. The coach’s role is to coach, critique and focus on the podium result, not the parents.

It is critical to keep positive chatter in and out of your school if you want to create a healthy strong taekwondo family.

Listening is the key in having a great school ambience. Respect your athletes and their parents and you will earn their trust.

The Juggling Act
by Master Greg Bauer
December 15, 2011

The right people make running multiple locations much easier. Lets face it, without key people, running multiple locations is impossible. Unless the programs are running all at different times in each location, and you can actually get there on time to teach yourself. So key people, for me, is one of the things that is essential in running multiple locations. Now here is the shock for new people starting up a second club, not all black belts make great instructors without extensive training. So a word of caution: make sure you have the right people in place before you think about a second or third club.

Time, sounds simple right? If you run a club, you are constantly doing everything you can to keep that club running smoothly and you realize time is very precious. Now add one, or possible two more locations and you wonder where did the time go? So, plan your time and stick to the schedule to the best of your ability. Though life sometimes gets in the way so you must even budget that into your schedule. I personally have not seen a 40 hour work week in a couple of years, well that is not entirely true, I call those 40 hour work weeks holidays. So you need to be very committed as your clubs continue to grow, or you may risk them not growing at all.

Commitment, you need to have the drive to put all your effort into a full time multi club operation, without it you have nothing. And unless you have others that are fully committed, you may find you have over reached your ability to teach while providing quality to your students and their parents. So be fully committed, but realize other instructors may not be as committed, so find out how much time they can help and do not ask them to do too much. Good instructors are hard to find, and all of mine work full time in other fields. So before you get all carried away and say I am opening 5 schools make sure you have the commitment of your instructors. I personally plan out all schedules around my black belts and volunteers time and availability.

Knowledge of the markets, is also very important, and the type of operations you are running. We run one full time club, with day and week-night classes, or your traditional type of club. We also run two YMCA clubs, each has different energy levels, one is more established with many advanced belts, while one is three months old. Our new YMCA had 150 white belts in our first class! My main club has very little interest in the sport of Tae Kwon Do, while our YMCA in Cambridge has up to 80 juniors sparring in one class! These are just some of the differences. You must know your markets and interests of each area. The second is make sure all of your instructors have the knowledge of what they are teaching, train them well, and make sure they understand the system you are running.

Programs, make sure you have a good basic program for all interests and age groups. After that is complete, set up your specialized programs, variety is the spice of life as the saying goes. Remember, not every Tae Kwon Do student wants to get to the Olympics. We run our basic Tae Kwon Do program plus little ninjas for ages three to six, adult and junior classes as well as weapons and self defence classes. Our competition training is totally separate, and honestly in our market, very few show an interest in that type of training. Remember your students are important, make sure you are giving them good basic training, but with some variety as well; this makes for long term retention.

Now turning to writing about training your own children, that is a completely different dynamic. I have had several younger coaches ask, how did you keep your boys in Tae kwon do? The key was I never pushed them, I let them play other sports, and only asked them to train one time per week when they where younger. The boys played hockey and soccer, and did Tae Kwon Do on a very limited basis when they where young. Do not push them when they are young, and if they decide they wish to compete later, the real work will start.

Training two brothers around the same age would be hard enough, now make them competitive twins and watch the fireworks start! No, it is not always easy to keep up a sense of family, a good sense of humour and maintain my patience. The main thing I have learned is never to compare one to the other, they are individuals and each has strengths and weakness, work on these. Like every athlete have a plan for development, and be clear where they are as individuals not as a brother or sister. Try to give each one separate training times, to help work on the things they require to move forward as an athlete, and develop and grow as a person.

Not every training day will work out well, as most, if not all siblings fight. Keep in mind the end goals you and your children have set, and work towards those, keeping in mind that not everyday will go as planned. Always keep an open line of communication. I have a talk with each of my sons as a coach and a dad every week. Tae Kwon Do offers children and young adults the chance to travel and compete, and in my personal opinion this gives them a chance to grow into better people. That is why I have encouraged the boys to stay in Tae kwon do, and even with all the challenges we face, I am glad they continue to train.

Periodization for high performance Poomsae
Master Seoungmin Rim
September 6, 2011

Taekwondo Poomsae (form or pattern) has been evolving from the traditional core curriculum of Taekwondo into a modern athletic sport, and it has been growing internationally for the past couple of the years. As a sport, Poomsae has been included in major international Taekwondo events such as the World Poomsae Championships, the Asian Championships, the European Championships, the World University Championships and starting in 2011, the Pan Am Championships. In addition, it has become an official event in multi-sport games such as the Universiade and the World Masters Games.

Taekwondo Kyorugi (sparring) is a blend of the Oriental martial art of Taekwondo with western sports systems. Since it’s adaptation into Korean national sports festivals and the General Association of International Sports Federation (GAISF), Kyorugi has implemented and modified western sports training methods in order to enhance performance in a controlled environment with westernized rules and regulations.

Poomsae has retained a more authentic form of training, while Kyorugi has been training in more westernized ways, also now in a transition of adapting western sports science for higher performance. Therefore, it is inevitable for Poomsae coaches to implement “Periodization” for high performance poomsae athletes.

Benefits of Periodization for high performance Poomsae athletes

• Physiological adaptation to training

Needless to say, there are many distinctive physiological differences between high-performance Kyorugi and Poomsae athletes, due largely to the nature of competition; however, high-performance Poomsae athletes reach and sustain a high level of physical and physiological preparation. For instance, high performance university Taekwondo Kyorugi and Poomsae athletes in Korea have similar levels of isokinetic strength, including peak torque, peak torque % body weight, and ipsilateral balance ratio of the knee and ankle joints (Kim won ki 2010). In order for Poomsae athletes to be able to perform optimally in competitions, it is necessary to create a training program that develops both the cardio-respiratory systems and the motor abilities necessary for Poomsae (strength, speed, power, and flexibility)

• Skill development

Recently on April 31, 2011, the 22nd General Assembly in Gyengji, Korea added free-style Poomsae (a composition of music and choreography) to its competition. In addition, at the 6th World Poomsae Championships in Vladivostok, Russia, discussions took place regarding increasing the presentation portion of scoring from 50 to 60%. Technicality and presentation is becoming more important in Poomsae competition. Skill acquisition can be more effective during the preparatory season when there is less competition stress or pressure. Athletes with longer preparatory seasons are more likely to improve and acquire new skills necessary for Poomsae competition.

• Psychological qualities

In high-performance Poomsae competition, one movement and one breath can determine the colour of the medal, and the external pressure of the competition is key indetermining the factors of performance. In addition, since Poomsae training requires the detailed adjustment of movements through repetitive sequences, psychological fatigue is common among high-performance Poomsae athletes. Having well-designed periodized training specific for high-performance Poomsae athletes with proper mental preparation will help Poomsae athletes to cope effectively with psychological fatigue, thereby helping athletes maintain their IPS (Ideal Performance Stage).”

The Taekwondo Global Positioning System (GPS)
By: Master Jae H. Park
July 19, 2011

Before I married… long before… I had a superhero girlfriend named Emma Frost.  Emma is a Marvel Comics Superhero and yes my wife knows about our past relationship.  My wife is not the jealous type so she is okay with my childhood crush especially since Emma is always travelling somewhere saving the universe she is not at all threatened by her.  Not that I ever had a chance with her since I believe she has been known to associate with some fellows named Wolverine, Cyclops, etc…   you know, the sidekick types.  Anyways, enough about my childhood crush.  The reason for exposing the skeleton in my closet is to talk about TEAMWORK between a coach and an athlete.  Emma has evolved from my childhood crush to my present day GPS system in my vehicle… Yes, I call my GPS system Emma Frost!

Emma is always there for me no matter where I am going because I always leave her on.  I can be travelling my most familiar route from my house to the Dojung, but she is still always somewhere in the background making sure that I am travelling down the correct path.  Most time I am not even aware that Emma is there, but when I need her she is always there to guide me.  For years she has been there to show me how to reach my destination (goal) in the most effective and efficient manner.  She even has the function to take me on alternate routes based on traffic situations, construction detours and even weather conditions.  She can even direct me to the nearest gas station when I am low on fuel, and she even has a vast database of places I can go to eat and shop.  The places which I have been to with her now seem like second nature and it feels that I do not need her anymore until I have to rely on her to get me through rush hour traffic, accidents up ahead or detours.  I especially realize her importance when I travel to a new destination.  Having to go somewhere I have never been to before, Emma is already prepared with the route mapped out and is ready to guide me to my destination.  On occasions when I neglect to listen to her and miss a turn, she is there immediately to re-route me to my destination.  Again, it is in the most effective and efficient manner.  Has Emma ever steered me wrong?  Yes.  Sometimes, Emma is not able to calculate the correct destination or she loses satellite signal and cannot help me.  That is when l get really lost.  Perhaps this is I need to check for the most updated software for Emma… now we are back on track again.

Athletes:  What do you call your GPS?

Coaches:  When was the last time that you updated your software?

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The Big Picture
By: Master Lim
June 8, 2011

Athletes need guidance throughout their Taekwondo career.  Without guidance they end up getting lost, lose motivation, and end up quitting.  Here are the reasons why most athletes end up in unfavorable situations.

1)   Not having an ultimate goal

2)   Setting an unrealistic goal without consideration of finances, training hours, timeline planning, and choices of correct/beneficial competitions.

3)   Unsynchronized training towards competitions.

4)   Less Specified Individual training vs more Generic Group Training.

5)   Unclear roles of parents, athletes and coach to cultivate an environment necessary to build an athlete.

6)   Being a non-24 hour athlete.

7)   Early/Late physical, mental, tactical and or technical peaking.

8 )   Unknown gap analysis between self and outside margins.

9)   Proper rest/transition towards the next competition training cycle.

10)   Unclear and/or missing any of the five key elements in preparing for competitions.

1) Not having an ultimate goal.

Athletes need to realize their purpose in training.  No matter what level they are, athletes are to understand why they are practicing Taekwondo.  To realize their ultimate goal whether it will only be in a recreational level, provincial level, national level, or international level.

2) Setting an unrealistic goal without consideration of finances, training hours, timeline planning, and choices of correct/beneficial competitions.

Many athletes have dreams of going to the Olympics, World Championships, or even National Championships.  Often times, the action points that will lead you towards those goals are overlooked.

Finances: Training and competitions require funding.  Athletes will need to realize that these costs, and will have to find a way to acquire the finances to pay for these costs.

Training Hours: School, work, and other priorities will have to be realized enable to allot training hours.  Goals can only be attained within ample training hours, but if training hours are not given priority, then it is obvious that goals may not be attained.

Timeline Planning: Taekwondo Career and personal planning is an important part of goal setting.  Short term, long term, 5 year, 10-year goals, and competition cycles are some of the timelines that have to be considered in goal setting.

Correct/Beneficial Competition: With input from the coach, athletes will have to choose which competitions will be beneficial for their careers.  An athlete that chooses a competition that is not beneficial can risk an untimely injury that can further affect their chances with competitions that matter most.

3) Unsynchronized training towards competitions.

The Athlete has to know what to train for towards their next competition.  E.g.:  If the next competition involves certain electronic gear, the athlete should acclimatize himself or herself with the technology to better prepare himself or herself towards the competition ahead.

4) Less specified individual training vs more generic group training.

Athletes increase their abilities with specified training because their training is focused on their advantages, and what they need to improve on.  Generic group training has its limitations since the focus is spread throughout the group.  Since this is happening, certain needs for athletes may be overlooked, and therefore creating an unfavorable situation.

5) Unclear roles of parents, athletes and coach to cultivate an environment necessary to build an athlete.

A clear line between the three parties of the parents, athletes and coach has to be established in order to have a beneficial environment for the athlete.  The parents role is to provide support and finances for the athlete, the athletes’ role is to train, and the coaches’ role is to provide training.  All in all, the three parties are to have transparent communication, in order to promote a setting that will further the athlete towards their goals.

6)  Being a non-24 hour athlete.

Taekwondo training is not only on the 2 hours time you spend in the dojang.  If you are a serious athlete, every hour you spend has to be beneficial towards your goals.  Round the clock athletes have to plan sleeping, eating, training, and personal times.

7) Early/Late physical, mental, tactical and or technical peaking.

Athletes will have to plan out their training regime to suit their goals.  If this is not done, then, it may result in what is called early/late peaking.   Preparatory essentials will have to be mitigated so that a proper peak timeframe for the athlete is met.

8 ) Unknown Gap Analysis between self and outside margins.

Athletes have to realize their physical, mental, tactical and technical advantages, and also in comparison with the top competitor in their division.  This is what is called Gap Analysis.  Prior to competitions, all of this has to be taken in consideration.  If this is ignored, athletes cannot understand what is ahead of them, and leaving room for unknown information that is vital to having an advantage towards competition.

9) Proper rest/transition during or towards the next competition training cycle.

Rest and transition is an essential part of the training cycle.  Without it, the worst-case scenario would be career-ending injuries that defeat the purpose of being a high caliber athlete at the first place.

10) Unclear and/or missing any of the five key elements in preparing for competitions.

• Confidence
• Knowledge (game plan, rules, and ring management)
• Foot works (making your distance, cut off the opponent’s distance and set ups)
• Cardio
• Bad Habits

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Coaching Taekwondo: Raising the bar
by Ken Anstruther
April 14, 2011

For an athlete to reach their fullest potential, they need a wide range of externally supplied inputs, to go with their own input of effort, willingness to learn and perseverance. Those external inputs are either coach or third party expert supplied. Here are some examples:

• nutrition advice
• physical preparation
• benchmarking
• skills development
• psychological support
• tactical and strategic planning
• annual/quadrennial planning
• injury prevention strategies
• physical assessments
• injury management
• goal setting
• life advice
• sport rules
• ethical treatment
• scouting inputs

And there are many others as well. We have coaches who couldn’t competently deliver a number of these inputs. Some will have no idea what they are.

If it is true that many coaches don’t know or, even worse, don’t know what they don’t know, then the best first step is education. But what kind of education should it be? Although we have embarked on a new direction in our National Coaching Certification Program, and we have linked our Long Term Athlete Development program to NCCP, the program is less than 50 % complete, and only fractionally implemented across the country. This is the right direction, but the progress is slow, largely due to logistics. We will have competed in our 4th World Championship and our second Olympic games before we have even created the training and evaluation program for an Olympic coach under the new NCCP.

How many coaches have their high performance athletes physically assessed by professionals at least once a year and build a corrective phase into their annual plan? Do they even make an annual plan? How many athletes are keeping a training log? Do they do a body fat analysis and make weight adjustments based on a program to reach target values? Do they know the strength ratio of quad to hamstrings? What is the right ratio for each athlete? How would they train to correct this? What is the optimal duration for a speed drill? How can they determine this? Do they use slow motion video to help make technical corrections? Do they use over speed training? When is the right age/time to introduce training for explosive power increases? How do they do this? What is the tournament day meal plan? Do you use pre-event massage?

The questions posed above are a tiny subset of what high performance coaches should be able to answer. We need to make sure we can train our high performance coaches so that they easily answer these types of questions, have solutions, or have resources that can quickly supply them.

The answer to getting our coaches to understand the full scope of what is available and how to access it at reasonable cost really boils down to national or provincial associations working together to promote and host inexpensive webinars, seminars, video presentations on free or very inexpensive web based services. In this way, experts can deliver education, introduce resources, and provide leadership. This program can be on a shared cost. As an example, I paid $500 for a certified professional to conduct a one day physical assessment seminar. By video taping this and making it available on a per view basis, it might only cost a viewer one or two dollars. Alternately, these could be on a subscription basis for modest cost. A 10 hour series might cost $ 50.00 per person, but provide $5000 of value if purchased by one person. This removes many logistical problems, and increases potential access to more coaches and athletes. By following up with coach evaluations based on outcome of their coaching, we can have higher confidence in the success of these initiatives.