Twelve Sundays 05/26/12

Through the years, I have learned the importance of beginning with the end in mind. Stephen Covey wrote about this principle in the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. In order for our team to be successful, we have to have a crystal clear vision of what it is we want. Then with the end in mind we can create a good plan to make it happen. This truly applies to all areas of life. Whether you are creating a business plan, planning a wedding or training for the Olympic Games you have to have a clear vision and path to your desired result. Counting today, we have just twelve Sundays left before we reach our goal. That is right, only twelve short weeks to go until we have a chance to stand atop the medal podium in London and become the best team ever in the history of USA Water Polo. In today’s article, I will give you a glimpse of what the next twelve Sundays look like for our team. I have laid it out for you week by week to let you know where we will be and what will be happening on that particular Sunday. As I said, I will begin with the end. Twelve Sundays from today is August 12th, 2012. This is the day we make history and become the best team ever in the USA. On this day we will be playing for the gold medal! I can see our team standing atop the medal podium with our national anthem playing loudly. I have goose bumps as I sit and write this. The only question I have is who will we play? Will it be a rematch of Beijing? August 5th, 2012 – today we will have a light training and spend time reviewing video and going over our game plan for Hungary (we will play them on the 6th) We are coming off a big win against Serbia (Aug. 4th) and this will be a good test run with huge back to back games. The coaches work harder than the players on these “off days”. While the players are recovering our time is spent reviewing video, going over scouting reports and preparing for the next game. July 29th, 2012 – this will be the day of our first game of the Olympic tournament. We will play Montenegro and in order for us to have a good outcome we will have to get over the first game jitters. We are prepared and we should be confident. This is will be a very important and tough game. The top four teams from the preliminary round will play in the quarterfinals later in the tournament and we will want to finish as high as we possibly can in order to secure a good match up in the quarters. For the next two weeks we will be playing a big game every other day so whatever the outcome is we need to go home reflect, learn and prepare for the next game. July 22nd, 2012 – today is the day we will move into the Olympic Village. We will have just spent three days training in Croatia and will be looking forward to moving in and getting settled for the remainder of our Olympic journey. This will be our home. It takes a few days to get used to the new surroundings and excitement. There is almost a buzz in the village all the time. You can feel it. My job is to keep the team focused and calm. July 15th, 2012 – A day of rest. We will spend the day with our families before preparing for the final short week of training at home. These workouts will still be strong and sharp. We can not really taper or rest for the Olympic Games. It is a two week long tournament where we have to play at our best throughout. We depart on July 18th and will spend three days training with Croatia before going into London. July 8th, 2012 - this will be a full week of training at home. We will be doing a great deal of work on the 6 on 5 and 5 on 6. This is a part of the game that will determine who wins the medals. We will still be lifting weights (P3) and swimming although both of these will consist of more velocity and explosiveness. The Games are but a few weeks away and we are all feeling a sense of urgency. July 1st, 2012 – Another good solid week of training at home. We will take off on July 4th to celebrate America. It is a great time to remind the guys about the honor of representing USA and being a part of something that is much bigger than them. June 24th, 2012 – We will have returned home from our trip to Kazakhstan and Montenegro the day before. We will take a couple of days off to be with our families and prepare our minds and bodies for our final three weeks of training at home June 17th, 2012 – This is “Gold Medal Sunday” at the World League Super Final in Kazakhstan. This represents another good test for the Olympics. June 10th, 2012 - On this day we arrive in Kazakhstan after flying half way around the world. I understand that it is 22 hours of actual flying time. We will no doubt be exhausted and have to acclimate a few days before we are ready to begin play. World League is a six day tournament with one game every day. Italy, China and Kazakhstan are in our bracket. Croatia, Spain, Australia and Brazil are in the other bracket. June 3rd, 2012 – this is a day to reflect and rest. We will have just completed a week of training with Hungary and Croatia. We will have played each of these teams two times. It is a big decision week also. We have our Olympic Team naming on June 5th. Making the final cuts means little or no sleep for me… May 27th, 2012 – Today we play Hungary at Newport Harbor High School at noon. If you are up early reading this, then jump in your car and drive to Newport to watch the game. It will be a rematch of the 2008 Olympic Games final. We will also have games later in the week. On Thursday, May 31st we play Hungary again at UCLA at 7:00 pm and then on Friday, June 1st, we will play Croatia at 6:30 pm at the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center in Pasadena. Please come out and support Team USA. It is a great opportunity to watch some Olympic level water polo right here in our backyard. I hope that this has given you a little perspective about what is going through my mind as I look at our calendar and prepare for this final twelve weeks. Happy Sunday! See you at the pool. Coach

Friendly Fire and a Hyperbaric Chamber 5/19/12

The World League Prelims turned out to be a bit of a disaster. Not only was the competition poor – we outscored our opponents 56 – 11 over the four games – but we lost two players to injuries. Two-time Olympian, Layne Beaubien made a shot block in the Friday night game against Canada and felt something “pop” in his left shoulder. This is never a good sign for any athlete. He woke up Saturday in more pain and was out of action for the rest of the weekend. An MRI on Monday showed a tear in his left supraspinatus (part of the rotator cuff). We were all a bit scared as this is potentially a season ending injury. Further diagnostic testing this week showed that the tear was an “old injury” and the source of his pain may be from a less serious minor tear of a different muscle. His prognosis is good but he is day to day as far as how hard he can push it. To make matters worse, 2008 Olympian JW Krumpholz was injured during warm ups for the Saturday night game. He was passing balls out during warm up shooting and one of our own players accidently drilled him in the head (friendly fire) with a 55 MPH fast ball. JW was dazed and immediately came out of the water. He was confused, dizzy and spitting up blood. He was diagnosed with a concussion by our team doctor. This is certainly a scary injury at anytime but with a few weeks to go before we have to name the team it is potentially a big problem. He has been out of the water all week and we are monitoring his progress daily. The team had Monday off and when we resumed training on Tuesday we had eleven players (out of 16) in the water. That is right only eleven players! Merrill Moses and Tony Azevedo were at a USA Olympic media conference in Dallas, Ryan Bailey was still nursing his knee injury and JW and Layne were out. To say that I am concerned is a huge understatement. We have less than 70 days to go until the Games begin in London and our team is looking like a MASH unit. We actually have brought a hyperbaric chamber into my chiropractic office to help aid in our athlete’s healing. The hyperbaric chamber increases the oxygen transport capacity of the blood - theoretically allowing the body to function at a higher level and heal faster. The tissues are basically super oxygenated. Athletes are also using hyperbaric treatment for recovery. Olympian Michael Phelps is sleeping in a hyperbaric chamber every night to help him recovery from his training. I have read that one hour in the hyperbaric equals eight hours of restful sleep. I have already been in the chamber a few times myself. After all, who could not use a few more hours of restful sleep... By weeks end things were looking better, Bailey was back practicing at close to full strength and his knee has held up well. Beaubien was swimming laps with only slight pain in his shoulder and Krumpholz was also in the water swimming, although he is still waking up with a headache. Moses and Azevedo returned from their media event and are back with the team at full power. This weekend, the guys all travel to San Diego where they will play with their respective club teams in the Fischer Cup. This tournament is a twelve team tournament with boasts the best club teams in the USA. Each team will play four games over the weekend and there should be some decent competition as many of our players play for different clubs. All I am hoping for is that everyone returns healthy… This next week is our final week of preparation before Croatia and Hungary come into town. Both teams arrive on May 25th and stay for a week. We will have the opportunity to play each team twice in official games and then have some common training all week long with both teams. This will be the last opportunity at home to see Team USA play a foreign opponent before we leave for London. Both Hungary and Croatia are among the top ranked teams in the world so this should be an excellent test for us. I am excited to see where we are. If you are interested in watching some Olympic level water polo close to home it won’t get any better than this. We will play two games down at Newport Harbor High School over Memorial Day weekend and then on May 31st we are at UCLA against Hungary and on June 1st we will play Croatia at the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center. Please come out and support the team. Also, if you are interested this Tuesday (May 22nd) at 7:00 pm at Buena High School, I am speaking about our team’s journey to Olympic Gold in London. A few of the team members will also be present (Jesse Smith and Merrill Moses) to share their stories. In is a nice opportunity to learn more about our team and the Olympic Games. There will also be some auction items with proceeds used to buy team lunches and dinners. Hope to see you there. See you at the pool. Coach

Flirting with disaster 5/12/12

This weekend we are playing the World League Prelims at Foothill High School in Tustin. It is a three team tournament that includes Brazil and Canada. Neither of these teams has qualified for the Olympic Games so they are both “reloading” so to speak. They have brought young teams that may be the core of their teams in 2016 when the Olympic Games will be in Rio de Janeiro. Unfortunately, this equates to a lower level of competition for us. We blew out Brazil on Thursday night with a 14 – 1 win and last night we beat up Canada by the score of 11 – 2. Our team trained hard in the morning on both days and played fairly well at night. We certainly have not rested for these games. Despite the lopsided scores, we have enjoyed some nice crowds down in Orange County. The challenge for us is keeping the intensity and focus up where it should be for any game we play. We are trying to work specifically on our defense which will eventually be what wins us a gold medal in London. Although, the scores look great on the defensive end we still have a long way to go to get to where we need to be. It is a work in progress. The week began with some bad news. Over the short break when we returned home from Italy, Ryan Bailey (our starting center) was training down in Irvine and he heard a “loud pop” in his knee. The “Machine” (as we call him because of his strength) immediately got out of the pool and went to one of our medical personnel down in Orange County. He was told that he may have torn his meniscus. However, further testing and an MRI revealed that it was not a torn meniscus. Instead, he was diagnosed with a knee sprain and a bone contusion. As a result he has been advised to refrain from doing any leg work (eggbeater) this entire week. Ryan has been swimming with the team every day, however he is very frustrated that he has not been able to do any water polo or play in the games this weekend. While the news was bad it certainly could have been much worse. A meniscus tear could have possibly sidelined him for the Olympic Games. On Monday, we had another close call with disaster. On a simple counter attack drill, Merrill Moses (our all-world goalie) was poked in the eye accidently. When he got out of the water it did not look so good. His eye had involuntarily closed shut and it was difficult for him to even open it at all. Upon examination it did not look so good. His eye was cut on the cornea. Karen Bloch (our trainer who just became a chiropractor) set him up to see an ophthalmologist first thing Tuesday morning. After examination, the doctor told Merrill that if the cut on the cornea had been 1 millimeter deeper, it would have been bad he would have been out of action for awhile. I am not sure what “awhile” meant in this case and I am glad that I do not have to know. As it turns out, Merrill has been able to train this week but we have held him out for the games this weekend as a precautionary measure. Without Merrill and Ryan playing this weekend, we have been able to play Andy Stevens and Chay Lapin (our two younger goalies) and give more playing time to JW Krumpholz and John Mann (the two other centers vying for a spot on the team). In that regard, it has been valuable for evaluation; however I will be very happy when Merrill and Ryan are back in the water at full strength. We have set the date to name our Olympic team! It will be June 5th at the Los Angeles Athletic Club. We have three weeks to go with 16 players and then we will have to cut it down to the final 13, plus one alternate for London. There will be no easy choices. We (the coaching staff) have been evaluating and talking about what the right combinations might be. At this point, there are many players that are on “the bubble” so to speak. We will have some tough choices to make. Each of these players has given so much and the thought of cutting any of them is stressing me out already. I will certainly rely heavily on my assistant coaches and even a few of the veteran players to help me make the final selections. The final decision will more than likely come down to who will fill a certain role that is needed on the team. For example, who might be able to go in and play for a few minutes as a defensive stopper, provide a little speed on the counter attack or be a sharp shooter who might provide an offensive spark? It will also come down to who is going to help the team chemistry the most. This is a huge consideration - in the most critical moments we all have to be able to count on each other. When we head into London, we will be like a family. In order to succeed we need each other. No one can do this alone. As a reminder, for those of you that want to come out and watch the team play – on Wednesday evenings at 7:45 pm we will normally have an intra squad scrimmage. These are held at Oaks Christian High School and are free to the public. See you at the pool. Coach

A seat at the table 5/5/12

After nine days of training in Serbia and Italy we returned home on Wednesday evening. The long flight home is always a great time to sit, think and reflect a bit about the trip. Not much else to do for twelve hours on a plane… After spending the first three days training in Belgrade we moved to Genoa, Italy and trained with the best professional club team in the world – a team called Pro Recco. This team is loaded with water polo superstars and for us it was a perfect situation. The training was intense and physical. We scrimmaged twice a day and had one official match last Saturday. In the official match, the teams were tied up after three quarters and then Recco pulled away in the fourth quarter to win 11 – 7. We certainly did not get much help from the two Italian referees in the fourth quarter but we had our chances and did not convert. In fact, we missed two penalty shots in the fourth quarter that would have kept the game within one goal. After the game, I watched the fourth quarter on video and these are the thoughts that came to mind for our team. First of all, we can have no excuses. In the fourth quarter, we were looking to blame the officials for making it tough on us. We can not be victims. We are going to get our opportunities in every game and we must be ready to make the best out of each one of those chances. Second, we each have to take responsibility. This obviously goes right along with the first point. Each one of us must do his part to help this team win. No one can hide or blame others. We all our going to make mistakes and when we do we own up to it and move on. We must always first look in the mirror and ask ourselves what I could have done better? Third, we must demand excellence from ourselves and from one another. We are not going to win unless we play at our best. Each game is an opportunity to grow and to give your best to the team. We must also challenge our team mates in every practice and in every game to be their best. Finally, we must expect success! If we don’t expect to win we will never win. We have a great team and as we go into this final stage of preparation, this will be a constant thought and message that I will give to the team. We must expect to be successful and reach our goal. One aspect of coaching that I love is connecting life lessons to sport. There are always so many wonderful life lessons that come up in the course of a season or even a game. It is my job to look for these lessons and help to “teach” the team what can be learned. The message from Recco - No excuses, take responsibility, demand excellence and expect success – certainly not a bad lesson or formula for success in any area of life – from sport to the workplace to family. On the final evening in Italy, our staff (Robert, Marco, Rick and I) was asked to go to a nice dinner with the Pro Recco coaches. Representing Recco at the table was Eraldo Pizzo, a gold medalist on the 1960 Italian Olympic team and Guiseppe Porzio, a gold medalist on the 1992 Italian Olympic team. The conversation was light and fun for the most part, however at one point we were talking about my career and how my Olympic teams in 1984 and 1988 finished with silver medals. Guiseppe paused and simply said “what a shame, you must be so disappointed –you came so close”. It was painful to say the least. As I left that evening I vowed to myself to do everything possible to help this team win the gold in London and earn a seat at the “gold medal” table. Please don’t get me wrong. I am extremely proud of my silver medals, however my Olympic dream has always been about reaching the top of the mountain and winning the gold. We have a great deal of work to do before London and I am thankful for this small piece of inspiration that I took with me from Italy. By the way, the meal was excellent too. With the Olympic draw taking place this weekend, we now know our path to the gold! It is an exciting time. We have only 80 days to go and each and every day is critical to our preparation. See you at the pool. Coach