Coach Barry Gubman – Tennis – Toronto – 8 Years

“In tennis stamina is extremely important. You are on your feet and moving side to side in the heat which could be for many hours. What I do is that I tell my students how stamina can positively impact your game for the better. On the court, we do many long-distance running drills in which my athletes can develop their stamina a bit better to be ahead of their competition.”

Coach Josh M. – Squash – Toronto

“Constancy. Stamina training is not about extremes, but instead constant disciplined moderate effort training.  Jahangir Khan, arguable the best squash player in history, and holder of the longest winning streak of any professional athlete (5 years and 8 months – 555 matches), used moderate, but consistent, stamina training to gain an advantage.

• Get rest
• Stay hydrated
• Plan for long term development
• Cross train
• Develop the core

And don’t underestimate the value of mental preparation in endurance competitions. Worry and stress can seriously drain your energy. Maintain a clear mind you’ll find an extra well of energy to carry you through to the finish.”

Coach Sarah M. – Soccer – Ottawa

“Talking with other coaches is where I have learned the most about coaching. You get to tap into years, sometimes decades of experience. Especially when struggling with the soft-skills stuff, connect with athletes, team building, etc. Coaching seminars and conferences have probably had the most impact in terms of improving as a coach. “

Coach Sean Ferguson ChPC, RGP – Swimming – Region of Waterloo – 17 Years

“The field of “coaching” is an interesting field to have a professional career in.

In my opinion, coaches constantly try to go above and beyond to obtain any edge they can get, to stay on top of their profession (which is not necessarily a career that is secure, steady, or well paying and can be extremely stressful at times, but can also provide a lot of fulfillment that other roles just can’t fulfill).

For myself, I use my background in sports, recreation and community services, to my advantage as these professions have many governing bodies that I am required to, and/or choose to belong to; this allows me to stay current on certain topics through newsletters, e-blasts, webinars, conferences, magazines, courses & e-learning, etc.

I also, actively seek out news, magazine, & journal articles (within and outside of my specific sport as well as from alternative areas around the world); I believe there’s always something you can learn from others and sport often advances by its leaders (coaches) looking outside their direct sport of choice and seeking information.

You can also find me contributing my own perspective to groups on social media (such as LinkedIn, Facebook and others), and volunteering my time to develop sport policy within one of my chosen professional fields with Canadian Parks & Recreation Association (focusing on things such as Para-sport, Capacity & Leadership, and Physical Literacy).

Inside and outside of my yearly professional development requirements as a coach in Ontario and Canada, I often make it a point to do a few PD courses in a calendar year; this not only builds my qualifications & keeps me current, it also gives me a broader perspective and makes me a much better critical thinker.

Oh, and last, but not least, confer with other professionals by engaging yourself in discussions. *For myself, one person that I often have great discussions with is my sister, as we are both in very similar fields (she has fitness and physical education background), and conferring with each other, often proves to be very helpful.”

Coach Jeff Klein – Hockey – Mississauga – 4 Years

“Well because hockey is so big in Canada, there are so many outlets that hockey coaches can use to learn more about the skills and abilities side. I am involved in hockey in my day-to-day life so I am lucky that I have the opportunity to learn all about the game and the behind the scenes of a hockey team. There are more traditional ways that I improve my skills and abilities through research and the web. I also like to ask other coaches in our league how they make themselves a better coach.”

Coach Michelle P. – Ice Hockey – Toronto – 6 Years

“Ice Hockey is a sport all about power.  Quick accelerations, a slap shot, and puck battles all rely on power.  Ideally, my players are developing their power both on and off the ice.  A good off-season strength and conditioning program are crucial for power development in hockey players as the development of this athletic ability require a lot of training time – first to build the appropriate basic strength and second to get the experience in the techniques that promote power development.

Olympic lifting, complex training, and speed training are examples of just some of the techniques.  When the players are on the ice, it is all about taking those physiological adaptations off the ice and applying them to the game.  High-intensity drills that mimic competition are key.”

Coach Sven K. – Karate – Toronto

“Power movements are central to Karate.

When thinking about power think explosive strength. Power is for when you need a lot of force in a short period of time (Olympic lifter). Movements, like sprinting, leaping, jumping, kicking, throwing, hitting, are also all in this category.

Outside of powerlifting (competitive training), some everyday training could be box jumps, agility ladder, clap pushups, and med ball throws. Try splitting the workout between max effort actions, and max speed actions. Start at the beginning of practice/training (after warm-up) when athletes will have the most energy.

Then combine the two (effort & speed) and build the intensity into the specific skill. With Karate, we do a lot of bag work (punches and kicks into resistance) at full intensity when working on power. We also do the same without a partner (no bag), focusing on correct movement and bringing the whole body (core) into the strike.

Think explosive action!”

Coach Bobby – Volleyball – Toronto – 10 Years

“A coach told us once that if he had a chance to do it again he would start all his athletes on the “agility ladder” program from day one. I incorporate the ladder drills into my warm up and as part of our regular practice. As the season progresses I can observe how fast the athletes are getting. It improves their balance and mobility.

It is very useful to start them early and young. It allows the younger athletes to develop their balance real early in their athletic journey. We deal a lot with very tall and sometimes “spurting” athlete and with the help of agility exercises it allows the “fast” growing athlete to obtain and maintain their balance as they go through their growth spurts.”

Coach Amanda Miles – Basketball – Markham

“I like to do a lot of breakdown drills focusing on activating the hips and turning from the hips and on the balls of your feet as opposed to turning from the knee and ankle. Working in partners helps the athletes to start gaining some observation skills by giving their partners feedback and focus on the skill so in their minds they are taking in what is going on from an observer instead of just as an athlete. Tennis balls are good for theses drills as it gives them something to reach for when making the change of direction (a target location) to get to.”

Coach Lindsay Matthews – Ice Hockey – Toronto – 5 Years

“Has to be one of the first activities of practice after the warm-up. Have to stress the high tempo of the drills, but also allow lots of rest between repetitions.”

Coach Briana Rodrigues – Athletics/Running – Toronto – 4 Years

“It’s so important to set and reset fitness measures throughout a training cycle to ensure you are getting what you need from your training program. Testing is a key component to training for any sport, because it tells you what is working and tells you when something needs tweaking. For marathon training, one of my go-to tests to predict finish time (as well as test aerobic fitness) is the Yasso 800 test. Basically you run 800 meters 10 times, and the time in minutes/seconds you can run it is roughly equivalent to the time in hours/minutes you can run the marathon. It is surprisingly accurate for predicting race finish times, and is great in practice every month – 6 weeks to gauge progress.”

Coach Steven McLean – Sailing – 8 Years

“When I first started coaching I relied mostly on subjective measures (performance compared to the others, approximations on time and speed, and a general ‘how things looked’). I was relying on a strong background in the sport to quantify these guesses and estimations. This worked at first, but as the team improved over the years we ran into problems. It was no longer clear what skills we needed to work on. Eventually we did move to objective measures (drills with stopwatch timing, tracking competition results by individual segments, etc.). We discovered weaknesses in areas we thought the team was strong, and vise versa. The mind can certainly play ticks on you. Getting to the numbers can really clear things up.”

Coach Augustino (Gus) Badali – Ten pin bowling – 35 Years

“Preparation is a large part of the athlete’s commitment prior to the beginning of an event. Since we are unable to meet on a consistent bases it is very important to map out a training schedule. The information and the plan entail the physical and mental development which is required to aid the athlete to train. Video is an important part – not just for the coaches but for the athlete. Many young bowlers between the ages of 8 and 20 years have been natured to deal with softer patterns. Nowadays we train our athlete’s to train on a much tougher lane condition; The patterns are part of the World Governing Body and are specifically selected in most major events both Nationally and Provincially. Our success at the National Competitions is the ability to build team chemistry in an environment that is considered a singular sport.”

Coach Leo Probo Soccer – rep/select – Hamilton – 8 Years

“Understanding the development side of the game is the most important aspect in preparation of all my practices. Through experience, I have grown to understand in how to implement an effective practice session based on the key technical aspects of the program being delivered. In doing so, I have seen consistency within my players development and as well, an appreciation from the boys to learn every aspect of the session. Structured practices will definitely benefit the long run to players development.“

Coach Amanda Miles – Basketball – Markham – 10 Years

“I have found over the years each individual athlete shows fatigue in a variety of different ways. The main one I notice is the players fundamental skills start to dwindle and they start using poor form when shooting and passing. Another one that I notice is that the athletes stop talking to each other and communicating, they are trying to focus their energy on performing as opposed to communication. As I start to see any of these signs, along with some others (decrease in speed and intensity, increase in breathing rates, decrease in attentional focus) I stop the players and give them a water break, or sub them off the court with some fresh minds/legs.”

Coach Joanne Milton – Horseback Riding – Hillsburgh – 35 Years

“Monitoring fatigue is extremely important in horseback riding as muscle fatigue can not only hinder the rider’s ability to cue the horse correctly, it can also reduce the rider’s ability to react to unexpected movement by the horse and result in a fall. The first indication that fatigue is becoming an issue is usually in the performance of the horse……my horses all take their job as assistant coaches very seriously! Their performance will start to become dull, which tells me that the rider isn’t using their seat and leg aids effectively.

At this point, I will usually have the rider take a break (sometimes they are more willing to quit what they are doing if I say the horse needs a break as riders have a great tendency to keep pushing themselves beyond their capability, but would never exert that kind of pressure on their horse)! It can also help if we go on to working on a different maneuver. Sometimes we break for a few mounted stretching exercises before continuing in order to release tension in the muscles. Then returning to the same work we were doing usually shows some improvement which will give me a good opportunity to say that’s enough for today.“

Coach Dallas Price – Rugby – Toronto – 3 Years

“As an experienced personal trainer, I am very aware of what muscle failure looks like. I can watch form on an exercise and know if the athlete’s core and primary muscle groups are too fatigued to do the exercise properly. Also, I have a discussion with my athletes at the beginning of season. I try to explain to them the need for technique as well as intensity. Focusing all on one, you won’t have the other. You need to listen to your body and know where you are on the scale. Using the RPE scale (rate of perceived exertion) is really good with new and young athletes.“

Coach Mike Miller – Soccer – Milton/Halton – 25+ Years

“Monitoring fatigue can be done on many different levels. The simplest is just asking the players “How do you feel today?” You can have them keep journals and record their physical and emotional states. You can use a Profile of Mood States and review them, looking for changes in trends. You can have them measure, log and chart their resting heart rates when they wake up and before they get out of bed. If you want to be sophisticated, you can monitor the athlete’s heart rate variability during exercise and to use that to calculate post-exercise oxygen consumption. It all depends on what level of competition your athletes are competing at.”

Coach Mark Williams – Hockey – Toronto – 1 Year

“In Ice Hockey, the reaction time of the Centre during face-offs can be crucial. One of the ways we improve reaction time is by predetermining how the Centre will win the draw (tie up the opposing Centre, drawing it back to the Defenders or giving it to the wings) in a given situation in advance. This improves reaction time by eliminating any delay in the Centre’s reaction by having to ‘choose’ a play. Another key element to a Centre’s reaction time during a face-off is having them focus on the movement of the Referee’s arm and hand as opposed to the puck. I.e. getting athletes to focus on the correct stimuli can improve their reaction time.”

Coach Colin Walker – Volleyball –Ottawa – 30+ years

“We incorporate speed/ agility & quickness training into our warm-up. We also develop drills that work on reaction time. Finally we create games (low organized games and sport specific) to work on reaction time. One that gets the most laughs and interest is Rock, Paper, Scissors. It is a great game to trigger a visual cue transferred into an explosive physical movement. Start with the simple RPS but the winner must turn and run to a certain ‘home base’ before the loser touches them.”

Coach Pam Collett – Gymnastics – Metro West – 30 Years

“I break it down to improving technique and improving strength … You can move through faster if you’re stronger … You can improve reaction time if technique is great.”

Coach Craig Stead – Soccer – Ottawa – 10 Years

“We must look at their cognitive ability to read the game and make the most appropriate decision. To do so, we must train in a way that promotes decision making, in a reactionary way.”

Coach Patsy Pyke – Basketball / Soccer – Ottawa – 20 Years

“In soccer a drill we have used in soccer is to have three players with a ball and another player facing away about 10 feet away. On the whistle the player facing away turns and the ball is passed from one of the players to her. She must quickly trap the ball and pass back. She then faces away again for the next pass. She doesn’t not know which of the players has the ball or from the exact direction the pass may come so she has to react quickly to receive and trap the ball.”

Coach Mike Miller – Soccer – Milton/Halton – 25+ Years

“Reaction time is about developing the ability to read the visual cues right before an event occurs. It’s about recognizing patterns. Goalkeepers can save difficult shots provided they can see the movements of the player before they shoot, but if they are screened and the ball emerges in flight from a group of bodies, the goalkeeper is beaten. Videotaping, or having access to videotape footage, is useful, especially if it is a “body cam” image. The footage can be played on a screen by the player and blanked out at the critical instance. The player has to determine what happens next and then after a few seconds, the rest of the image is played.”

Coach Jodi Gram – Basketball – Markham – 10 Years

“Apart from the work done in a purely conditioning context that helps to build the technique and power necessary to react quickly from a physical standpoint, I think there is a sport-sepcific component that is just as important if you actually want to see reaction time transfer positively into a competitive context. For example in basketball, we always need to train the decision-making that goes along with reaction time; in other words, what visual cue are you learning to read in different ways to connect your eyes (brain) and muscles (body) together to react appropriately and quickly at the right time and in the right way?”