Hi Dev,
Some good ideas here. Some things are more provincial, but either way. Lots of similarities to USAT issues as well, probably common among many national feds.
Joel
Joel, thanks. I recognize that there is overlap with the provincial federations, but ideally, you have someone at the front of the ship setting the direction. The prov federations assist with the implementation.
A good example is the women’s tri series that they are about to launch in 2005. If we can have a women’s national tri series, why not just a regular “national series”.
Oltriguy, see my list above for some ideas that Trican could be instrumental in spearheading across Canada that would cater to age groupers, which I define as anyone >20 who does not hold a pro/elite card.
Dev,
I agree with your suggestions that some basic information and resources should be made available to athletes. Beyond that though, I don't know that there's much else they could do, or be expected to do. The National Governing Body can't do much in the way of organizing race series or races as that's not their mandate. Maybe they could do more to encourage or facilitate race directors to move in that direction...I think it would be great to have a national race series complete with a points system, however, it seems to me that the sport is moving more towards "participation" rather than "competition".
In BC we’ve had a ProvincialRaceSeries for a few years but the number of athletes interested in competing for series points is pretty small. For a national series, I would think the numbers would be even smaller.
As far as Triathlon Canada goes, I agree they don’t do a whole lot. I would be happy if they would just make a better website with more content, as you suggest , and get more members interested and involved that way for a start.
Dev,
Those are some excellent ideas. I particularly like the suggestion of training tips and articles. The one website that I think does this well would be USA Swimming (www.usaswimming.org). Go to the coach’s tab and you will find lots of great articles.
I’m not so sure about the rankings or National Series. As you indicated, the majority of the growth is in the older age groups where most people are looking to participate. Of course, there’s no harm in trying. Last year they started a National Junior Series and apparently this year they’re going to add an Under 23 Series, so adding an Age Group Series division may be the next logical step.
Perhaps for a focus on Long Course Age Groupers they could include a page highlighting the results and race reports of age groupers at major IM races? Is this the sort of thing you had in mind?
Dan
Dev, I do agree that one needs to have a reason for TriCan to get involved in AG affairs. Quite simply your guests on this email thread don’t know what else is out there or have a competing interest. You have some good ideas there and all have been done elsewhere but not in Canada and from a national perspective. If you look at the way TriCan is structured they have set themselves up as only an elite or developing body. It is true that TriCan does liase with other governing bodies and this is mostly with regards to elite (ish) issues. They do some, albeit minimal, AG NTL team work…always a bit messed up. At present I dare say and likely to many peoples distain, TriCan does a very poor job at what they do profess to do. My recommendation is to disband the lot as it is today and start anew. Presently this group is highly dysfunctional. Bill H and his minions are focused on the power and how to not loose it. No one will rock the boat at TriCan as this would spell disaster. Bill would ostracize them until they quit no doubt. (just speculation) Here are the problems that TriCan has; 1) lousy leadership. 2) no vision. 3) no mandate to change. 4) too much interference from present stakeholders (ITU, prov bodies, coaches, etc) and with the way things are set up this isn’t about to change…so get rid of the bunch of “nincompoops” and start over. The truth be told TriCan doesn’t even do a reasonable job of helping the Elite level athletes and the development program sucks big time. I’m not sure how the Coach selection is done but if we ever want to see a real elite team this selection process has to change. USAT on the other hand is a very good operation for the average athlete to high end athlete (elite or AG). They (USAT) perhaps have too much on their plate and as I understand the USAT vision they do want to download some of the responsibility to the Regions and to the State level. We already have that part set up with the likes of OAT. TriCan should be the vision and the top stakeholder in this venture and all visions should filter down. At present most provincial bodies are going it alone. One asks what would or should TriCan do differently…quite simple really. The AG athletes who BTW contribute to the coffers mightily should have athlete Ranking programs, news, coaching, events, championships, general coordination of programs, and the list goes on. There 's a start. At present none of this exists and what does exist is from the prov level. (Steve is correct to assume that in the future the bulk of Elites will come from a Development program. In any case I think the whole JR development and general development program is backwards but that’s another issue.) TriCan should have a hand at developing the AG talent as does USAT (USAT isn’t perfect either). So to the original question about an AG rep on the TriCan board, great idea and plenty of reasons to support this. Good luck.
Dan, this is exactly the type of direction that I would like Trican to set from the top, and then the provincial federations across the land can do their piece for implementation.
Perhaps even a “participation” ranking, where you get points for just finishing events. For example: your first tri in your life =100 pts, sprint = 20, Olympic = 40, Half ironman = 80, Ironman = 125. This way weekend warriors could automatically see how their points compare against dudes across the country, regardless of speed…and yes, the LC guys get more points, but they also cannot race as much.
There are many low cost high impact items that can be implemented that make age groupers feel included. They see that the folks running the show at the top, care about them and actually acknowledge their existence !
Right now, someone could go to the Triathlon Canada website and for all intensive purposes, they’d get the impression that there is no age group competition/participation going on.
Dev,
I can't understand where you're trying to go with this topic. I'm not a fan of TriCan either, but I think for different reasons than you. Contrary to what you seem to believe, I don't think TriCan has much in the way of resources at it's disposal, financial or otherwise. So I think they best use those on the high-performance end of the sport...helping out the best and best up-and-coming athletes. Unfortunately, I think the way they're doing this at present with the NTTC setup is not working at all. Do you agree with that?
Can you honestly compare tri canada to USAT? I would highly doubt the numbers are close in terms of members (but I don’t know for sure, so I may be wrong?) do you honestly think tri canada has near the amount of money to put into the things that usat does? If you are going to compare, maybe try apples to apples? I am in a bit of conflict of interest as I VOLUNTEER at tri b.c., but honestly we operate very seperate from tri canada. I see problems and hear of problems with tri canada and leadership, but I don’t see that as being the reason for lack of age group support?
Joel,
What is the proper process for getting some of these ideas to the Board?
I think the best place to start might be an electronic newsletter that gets sent out to members or other interested parties. Swimming Canada does this and there’s usually an e-mail every week or so (depending on the time of year). Here are some topics that I think could be included:
- Results from Major Competitions (Elite, Junior & Age Group)
- Athlete Profiles (also Coaches, Officials, Bd member profiles as well)
- Upcoming Events (i.e. Annual General Meeting)
- Volunteer Opportunities
- National Team Information
- training articles or tips from Canadian Coaches
- Rules Updates or reminders
- National Training Centre Reports
- Coaches section (i.e. CBET updates)
This might be a good way to keep members informed, especially those that don’t visit the website on a regular basis.
Do you think this would be feasible and how could we get TriCan to consider it?
Dan
Joel, Canwi and others, it is valid to compare Tri Can to other federations such as USAT. I don’t expect the same output from them given the limited resources.
See Dan’s suggestion about a newsletter. This is low cost and can be done by volunteers. If Trican will endorse it, I’ll even spearhead the newsletter and be the editor as long as we can get things organized to get content from the various fronts for a monthly publication deadline.
Trust me, there are tons of guys and gals willing to roll up their sleeves and do work for free to improve the sport in Canada. Many of us are already involved helping to organize events, coaching folks etc etc. We’re just not on the board, but as members, it does not mean that we don’t care what the board is up to.
As a democracy, we fail when the voters no longer care what the elected officials do. In some sense, I detect this is the case with Triathlon Canada, where the rank and file Triathlete has no interest in what they do. Largely, this is a failure of our structure. Putting something back to the age group masses will only strengthen the sport and our national federation.
So where do we get started. Do I have volunteers to help with a newsletter ?
Dev, I think that there needs to be more work in getting some one in at the board level who could test the waters for AG representation at that level before you run off putting together a news letter. That is unless you want to start up the “Dev Paul chronicles”. I certainly doubt any real success will be realized as this fiefdom is controled by Bill H and he’s not a very open person to any ideas, reminds me very much of Les(s) McDonald of ITU.
With regards to the comparison of USAT and TriCan there really isn’t any. USAT is all things to all athletes. TriCan is barely anything to a limited number of athletes. The resources are certainly not the same. Again it really comes down to vision and leadership. I do understand that TriCan is trying to make their wesite more attractive and easier to navigate but I’m not sure what that would mean to the average athlete.
For those on the email thread, with regards to ranking systems; it’s not done on a provincial level but at a national level. take a look at http://www.usatriathlon.org. As well take a look at what USAT does offer to AG athletes and so on.
I think you have some valid points. fyi kevin mckinnon is trying to put together a newsletter that encompasses canada in general. But not sure if he is getting the financial backing…Maybe contact Kevin?