Six months and counting 1/29/12

January 27, 2012 was significant in that it is exactly six months until the Opening Ceremonies for the 2012 Olympic Games in London, England. Wow!!! This is going to go by so fast and I have this incredible sense of urgency.

We just completed our first 10 days of full time training. As always the first few weeks seem to be an adjustment for everyone. We are now training six days per week. We train twice on Monday, Weds and Friday and once per day on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Below is our schedule for those of you that might want to come out and see a practice.

Monday 8 – 10 am – Weights at CLU 10:15 – 11:45 am Pool at CLU
7 – 9:30 pm – Pool at Oaks

Tuesday 8:45 – 11:45 am – Pool at CLU

Wednesday 8 – 10 am – Weights at CLU 10:15 – 11:45 am Pool at CLU
7 – 9:30 pm – Pool at Oaks

Thursday 8:45 – 11:45 am – Pool at CLU

Friday 8 – 10 am – Weights at CLU 10:15 – 11:45 am Pool at CLU
7 – 9:30 pm – Pool at Oaks

Saturday 9:30 – 12 noon Pool at Oaks

• there may be some changes week to week

It seems that I have been hustling around in meetings just trying to get everything settled. There are more and more demands on all the pools in the area and we are having some challenges to secure all the times that we want. I must say that CLU and Oaks have both been awesome in working with us to get us the times and space we need. We are very fortunate to have these two beautiful facilities to utilize.

The players have been readjusting to the schedule also. In this first phase, we are working on building a base of conditioning. This means hard work for everyone. We are lifting very hard with our program at P3 and we are putting in some pretty good mileage in the water. Water polo is a game that requires the greatest conditioning and we are working to make sure that our team is in the best possible shape.

As we go through our training we are faced now with some new challenges. Our team is older and many of our players are older and now married. A few even have children. We are dong our best to make sure that all members of the family feel like they are important part of this journey.
I am excited about our schedule this year. We are having some big games in the USA. In March we will have World Champion, Italy, powerhouse Montenegro and a very good German team here for a 4 Nation tournament in Thousand Oaks.

We will also have a few exhibition games with Italy after this tournament. Then in May we will host the World League Super Finals (May 10 – 13) and Croatia and Hungary later in the month. Looking at our schedule we have succeeded on scheduling 25 – 30 competitive games this year. As we firm up our game locations, I will send that out with one of my next few blogs.

We are fortunate to have so many great supporters out in this area. I would like to acknowledge a few of these people. Jerry Halweg has worked many hours to help us secure “host families” for most of our athletes. We all appreciate what he has done for the team. All of our host families deserve a big thank you too. These families have agreed to host a team member for the next six months. We could not do it without each of these local families. Finally, I am happy to say that we have received a substantial donation that has allowed us to secure housing for the team members that did not have a host family. Thank you to Ospraie and Dwight and Julie Anderson for this donation. All of you are a giant part of our Olympic journey. We appreciate you all.

That is it for now. We have so much to be thankful for and a great deal to be excited about. It is going to be an amazing year. I am looking forward to it. London here we come.

See you at the pool.

Terry

Pan Pacific Champions 1/14/12

On Friday we struggled to get excited about a game against the Barbarians (Australia”) and we played with little emotion and just slightly more energy. The game ended in a tie but did not have any impact on the tournament seedings. We rested Tony, Merrill, Jesse and Adam and let some of the younger guys play more minutes. The Barbarians played with a lot of energy as they had something to prove. Each and every one of their athletes is trying to prove that they deserve to be on the “A” team. It was difficult to motivate the guys as we have been swimming hard and lifting weights (we had a very challenging workout the morning of this game). All the guys know that the purpose of this trip is training and we have been pushing them hard. At the best, we looked sluggish in the water as we struggled through the game. We made a few bad mistakes that cost us the win. At one point we missed a penalty throw and then on the corner throw (after the goalie block) we threw the ball right to an Australian player who sprinted down and scored to make it a two goal turn around (we did not score and they scored off of our mistake). Anyway, we had some good swimming back and forth in this game and it was truly if nothing else “good training’’.

Yesterday we matched up again with Australia for the championship of the Pan Pacific Tournament. They had a really nice crowd for the game and obviously we were not the fan favorite. The game was close all of the way and sure enough it ended in a tie and went to overtime. We scored a 6 on 5 with a minute left in the second overtime to bring home the gold in the tournament. Tony Azevedo led the way for our team with 6 goals and Layne Beaubien added 3 goals including the game winner on a 6 on 5. Merrill Moses played very well in the goal and came up with some very big saves. The final score was 11 - 10. Not the defensive effort that I would like to see but overall a good team win.

This turned out to be a really good trip for us. Obviously, winning another tournament is great but more importantly spending time together and beginning the journey to London on the road was actually very good. We had no other distractions and all the focus was on the team with meetings, meals together, games and training. It worked out very well and now we all look forward to getting back home.

Today, we return home and prepare for full time training in Thousand Oaks. We will once again be at Cal Lutheran and Oaks Christian for our training. We have a few months on our own and then in late March we will host Italy, Montenegro and Germany for a 4 team tournament in Thousand Oaks. The year is now full speed ahead. It is going to be exciting and I am looking forward to the journey. The team is healthy and hungry. With our win at Pan Pac’s we now have won the last two tournaments we have played in. Obviously a good habit to develop. While the big boys from Europe have not been in these tournaments it is still a very positive step for us. We need to make winning a habit and as we go into this year we really need to believe that we can beat anyone. We need to expect to win.

I am privileged to have this opportunity and I am looking forward to seeing this group gel even more as we build trust, respect and love together.

See you at the pool.

Coach

Playing better 1/11/12

We have had a pretty good run over the past few days. We beat China 15 - 4 on Tuesday in a game that was never close. The Chinese seemed out of sorts and a bit confused. I am sure that they are working on a new offense and defense and they seem to be struggling to make it all work. Anyway, it was a blowout. Our guys took control early and just kept the pressure on the Chinese.

Yesterday, we played Australia in front of a nice crowd. This was a close game the entire way. We are playing better and I have to say that I was pleased with our effort. We played solid on defense and allowed only 6 goals. Australia was 3 for 8 on their 6 on 5 and only scored one counter goal. We fought hard for four quarters and ended up in a 6 - 6 tie. The glaring weak area of our game was our 6 on 5. We scored only 3 of 12. Not a good stat and certainly something that must change if we are to get back to the podium. We actually had a 6 on 5 with 10 seconds left in the game and shot the ball over the goal. Overall, I was happy with the way we played. We swam well with the Aussies and we put ourselves in a position to win the game at the end.

Earlier today, we played Brazil and clobbered them. We started a little slow but came on strong and pulled away at the end winning 17 - 5. We have been rotating players throughout the tournament (only allowed to declare 13 per game) and many of the young guys are playing pretty well. Both young goalies - Chay Lapin and Andy Stevens have played well and Shea Buckner, Jeff Tyrell and Janson Wigo have all contributed with some nice goals.

We now play the Barbarians tomorrow. This is basically the Australian “B” team. We will rest some of our veterans as we have already secured a spot in the final against Australia on Saturday. They are expecting a large crowd and it should be a fun environment.

Overall, the trip has been very good for our team. We have had some good meetings to outline expectations and go over schedule and we have had some very good workouts here. The team is getting along very well and as we go through this process over the next 7 months we will need to build on the trust, respect and love that is already present.

I am looking forward to the journey.

See you at the pool.

Coach

Pan Pacific Update 1/9/12

The tournament is under way here in Melbourne. We are traveling with all 18 players who made our training squad. We will eventually have to get that number down to 13 (the final Olympic team). However, for now we are trying to play everyone equally and evaluate what players can do. We started the tournament with a 17 - 1 win over New Zealand. There was no Haka (that is the New Zealand dance that all their rugby teams do). Next up was Japan. They were certainly stronger but could not stay with us. They actually had a few very good players but just did not have the depth. The final score was 13 - 8. We gave up too many goals against them. The defense was not very strong at times. We have a general rule on our team that we don’t want to give up goals from the counter attack and we don’t want to give up goals from the center. Of their five goals, four were off of the counter attack and one was from center. I was a bit upset because our strength really needs to be our defense and if we do not play disciplined and work hard to play by “our rules” we will surely struggle.

Today we will face China at 4:30 pm (Australia time). They are not a bad team. They also have a few very good players but do not have the depth. It is interesting that their coach is Ricardo Azevedo. Ricardo was the coach of Team USA back in 2005 to 2007. His son, Tony is our team captain. The small world of water polo. China is working hard right now to qualify for the Olympic Games. They will battle Japan, and Kazakhstan later this month is Tokyo in their Olympic Qualifier.

After China, we will play Australia, Brazil and then an Australian “B” team over the next three days. It has been a good starting place for us. We all know that we have a ton of work to do over the next seven months and we are ready for it. I have spent the days having individual meetings with the athletes. We have reflected on the past and then talked about individual areas of improvement that each athlete can focus on over the next seven months. A few months ago, when I met with each of them I had them identify a few weaknesses that they would like to improve on. This meeting was about helping them take ownership of those weaknesses and develop action steps to conquer them. The meetings have gone well and being away without any distractions has allowed us the time to sit and talk.

Time to prepare for China.

See you at the pool.

Coach

G’day Mate 1/7/12

Hello from down under and welcome to our Olympic journey. After our win in the Pan Am Games we took a break from team training. The team spent the last few months doing individualized training. Each athlete was given a specific plan that included our weight training program (called P3) and swim conditioning sets. I believe that this break from the normal intensity and work load that is part of our normal day to day routine will benefit us greatly as we get into this year. Not only do the guys (and the coaches) need a physical break but they also need a mental break. I spent the last few months preparing and planning but also trying to bank as much quality family time as possible.

It was a good break and now it is time to get back to work. We arrived in Australia on Wednesday morning and after checking into the hotel went directly to the pool in Bondi Beach for a match. It was an awesome setting for a game. This pool is built into the cliff on the far end of Bondi and there are multiple levels for the fans to sit and watch. It was a packed house. The waves crash over the pool on the ocean side and the environment was great. They had movie stars there and all kinds of news media. Water polo needs more games and promotion like this. The Aussies did a wonderful job of putting on a good show and promoting our sport.

The game itself was OK. We did not have extremely high expectations. After all, we had not actually played water polo for over two months. Our guys have been swimming but actually playing the game is totally different. We are not in bad shape - just not in water polo shape yet. We will get there soon enough. I believe that the final score was 9 - 7.

On Thursday and Friday night we also had test matches and ended up losing both of those by a few goals too. I am really not too worried about where we are at right now. Australia has been training hard together for the past four weeks and they are in a better place than us right now. I am confident that even as this trip goes on we will get better and better.

Yesterday we flew to Melbourne, which is where we will play in the Pan Pacific tournament all this week. This morning we open up with New Zealand, then we play Japan, China, Brasil and Australia “A” and “B”. It should be good training. We will be lifting weights and swim conditioning during the week too. So we will get into water polo shape pretty fast.

We are now less than seven months away from London and the Olympic Games. Just over 200 days to go... Wow. It is exciting and yet it is a bit scary. The Olympic journey is an exciting one and yet it will be challenging too. It is a very difficult year to keep balance in your life. That is much more of factor now for all of us. So many of our guys are now married. A few have kids. I know that my family is my # 1 priority and I want to make sure that none of our guys get totally disconnected with their families as we go through the year. We need to figure out ways to keep the families involved and the support system strong for all of our guys.

Lori and I recently went to a USOC conference that was entitled “Team is Family, Family is Team”. It was very good. The coaches and their spouses were invited and it was a great way to help the coaches and the spouses look ahead to the joy as well as the stresses that this Olympic year will surely bring into our lives. We were also encouraged to create a plan, stay connected and as balanced as possible through it all. Lori and I both felt it was a very valuable experience. I would like to carry that forward to our team and build in a few family activities along the way to make sure that the wives and families feel like they are a part of our journey. Obviously, they are a vital part of our success.

There is much to do in this Olympic year and that is one of the factors that makes it scary and overwhelming. The key is going to be to take it one day at a time. I need to stay in the moment and enjoy each step of this fantastic journey.

Time to prepare for our game against New Zealand.... Hopefully, we don’t get hypnotized by the Haka...

See you at the pool,

Coach