Last night we ran a local mini slalom at Langham farm. The first time we'd tried this, and it seemed a great success. I'd be interested if any other clubs do similar, and if you have experiences to share.
The basic idea is to keep it as simple and low key as possible, so we can run a series of three of these over the summer.
Details here, but basically:
- People turned up from 6pm and we wrote their name up on a flipchart.
- Started the runs on a 12 gate short course at 7pm.
- A couple of people with stopwatches shouted "Go" at the top, then followed the competitor down the course to click stop at the end.
- Times were written up on the board and the competitor given their time, and a piece of instant (good) feedback on their run as they crossed the line.
- To keep it really simple the course used a lot of one pole gates, and we didn't record penalties.
Second runs were over in an hour, so most were keen to go on and do a third or fourth timed run.
- Results here
- Photos here
Key success of the evening was a couple of new youngsters to slalom who had just finished their Paddlepower Passport course (where we introduced slalom at the end) on the Weds, and were there competing (and rapidly improving!) in a local slalom on the Friday.
It went really well for us, on a lovely sunny evening.
Anyone else got any similar experiences of more established "grassroots" slaloms? Would love to hear how you do it.
PS - next Mini Slalom = Fri 9th July at Langham from 6PM - All Welcome
PPS - Langham Farm Div 3/4 double next weekend, course looking good, its partly tried and tested!
Local Mini Salaloms - what do you think?
-
Canadian Paddler
- Posts: 1480
- Joined: Tue May 25, 2004 8:31 am
- Location: Peterborough
- Contact:
We run the winter series at Peterborough as mini slaloms, stone run their winter series, and I believe there are ice breakers in the North East. All out of season, and (I believe) all judged.
We do not run events 'in season' as we are too busy going to too many slaloms!! So well done for running one, shame if you have too similar a course, giving locals even more of an advantage.
We do not run events 'in season' as we are too busy going to too many slaloms!! So well done for running one, shame if you have too similar a course, giving locals even more of an advantage.
All spelling errors are intentional and are there to show new and improved ways of spelling old words. Grammatical errors are due to too many English classes/teachers.
Old. Fat. Slow. Bad tempered. And those are my good points
Old. Fat. Slow. Bad tempered. And those are my good points
Thanks for the comments ... appreciate.Canadian PAddler wrote:We do not run events 'in season' as we are too busy going to too many slaloms!! So well done for running one, shame if you have too similar a course, giving locals even more of an advantage.
We've a packed program to, but by fitting a really simple slalom into a couple of hours evening, we seem to have hit on a way of introducing youngsters we might not otherwise have reached. No penalties/judging seems to be the key to KISS, and maybe just reflects the way slaloms going?
Thanks also for spotting the tongue in cheek comment. Rest assured the majority of the gates for the Langham slalom for Sat and Sunday will be completely changed. We have two very different courses planned.
Andy
(D1 K1 1981, D2 C1&C2 2010)
(D1 K1 1981, D2 C1&C2 2010)
we are running one on a monday night in a few weeks, we have organised out of season mini slaloms at abbey rapids, but have had the idea of running a midweek one for a while and we're doing it on 12 July for the school groups that we take.
It is open to anyone and will be run as a short course division 4 slalom, se we can actually get some promotions out of it. As you say it will be a very relaxed event with practice taking place up to 5 pm and competitive runs taking place thereafter. It will be on a set of 12 flat water gates at our usual training site.
We're planning on keeping it going all night and getting the kids to do as many different categories as possible. Part of teh sport unlimited fun which we applied for to fund the course includes an allowance for race fees, so it won't even cost the kids directly!
We see it as a great way to get them hooked!
Nicky
It is open to anyone and will be run as a short course division 4 slalom, se we can actually get some promotions out of it. As you say it will be a very relaxed event with practice taking place up to 5 pm and competitive runs taking place thereafter. It will be on a set of 12 flat water gates at our usual training site.
We're planning on keeping it going all night and getting the kids to do as many different categories as possible. Part of teh sport unlimited fun which we applied for to fund the course includes an allowance for race fees, so it won't even cost the kids directly!
We see it as a great way to get them hooked!
Nicky
-
djberriman
- Posts: 806
- Joined: Tue Apr 03, 2007 8:19 pm
Hi,
Just finished our mini slalom series (great minds think alike?).
I ran it over 6 weeks on Monday nights straight after the club junior indoor and outdoor pool sessions. It was targeted at those juniors who have never paddled slalom. Most have never seen or heard of slalom and had no idea what it was. Convincing them to leave the cosy indoor pool is often hard.
First week I got 3 paddlers, but word soon spread at the club and by the end I had 11 paddlers on the last night. This was helped by buy in from other club coaches encouraging them to have a go and the youngsters bring along friends.
All paddlers substantionally improved their times and paddling with a little help. There was a lot of competitive spirit on show. They were all very keen to know their time after each run.
My initial thought off running it over a number of weeks proved the right one as it allowed time for word to spread and gave the keen ones time to find out that they could improve and slalom was fun.
Simple course of nine gates (6 down, 3 up).
Each paddler was briefed at the start and had 2 runs, sometimes more if time permitted. If required I did a demo run for them.
Most had never paddled anything but a plastic boat so it was their first time in a modern slalom boat. It was interesting to see how beginners found it difficult control their boat and get gates even on a flat outdoor pool. With a little help they all quickly progressed and actually made it through the gates and improved their times and boat control.
I kept coaching to a minimum, provided guiding and feedback where required, paddlers made mistakes but learnt from them quickly. Even over a short period of time with just a couple of runs a week the improvement was amazing.
Turning up and getting asked 'are we doing slalom this week' and to see a queue of kids waiting for the slalom session made it all worthwhile.
Took 3 people to run it (me on water, time keeper, assistant to get them in boats etc)
I'm running a beginners slalom session for the next 3 weeks due to demand in the lead up to Howsham Weir slalom where I hope some of them will compete.
Had a number of positive side effects according to other coaches and has made us all consider that including some gate work in any coaching is very worthwhile.
Will run the event next year! Very worthwhile!
Just finished our mini slalom series (great minds think alike?).
I ran it over 6 weeks on Monday nights straight after the club junior indoor and outdoor pool sessions. It was targeted at those juniors who have never paddled slalom. Most have never seen or heard of slalom and had no idea what it was. Convincing them to leave the cosy indoor pool is often hard.
First week I got 3 paddlers, but word soon spread at the club and by the end I had 11 paddlers on the last night. This was helped by buy in from other club coaches encouraging them to have a go and the youngsters bring along friends.
All paddlers substantionally improved their times and paddling with a little help. There was a lot of competitive spirit on show. They were all very keen to know their time after each run.
My initial thought off running it over a number of weeks proved the right one as it allowed time for word to spread and gave the keen ones time to find out that they could improve and slalom was fun.
Simple course of nine gates (6 down, 3 up).
Each paddler was briefed at the start and had 2 runs, sometimes more if time permitted. If required I did a demo run for them.
Most had never paddled anything but a plastic boat so it was their first time in a modern slalom boat. It was interesting to see how beginners found it difficult control their boat and get gates even on a flat outdoor pool. With a little help they all quickly progressed and actually made it through the gates and improved their times and boat control.
I kept coaching to a minimum, provided guiding and feedback where required, paddlers made mistakes but learnt from them quickly. Even over a short period of time with just a couple of runs a week the improvement was amazing.
Turning up and getting asked 'are we doing slalom this week' and to see a queue of kids waiting for the slalom session made it all worthwhile.
Took 3 people to run it (me on water, time keeper, assistant to get them in boats etc)
I'm running a beginners slalom session for the next 3 weeks due to demand in the lead up to Howsham Weir slalom where I hope some of them will compete.
Had a number of positive side effects according to other coaches and has made us all consider that including some gate work in any coaching is very worthwhile.
Will run the event next year! Very worthwhile!
Nice one djberriman, that sounds really worthwhile. Well done.
Our second mini is this Friday, and I'm experimenting with things like Facebook events as a way of reaching the club members ...
http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?ei ... 2202569145
Looking forward to it, hopefully the sun will shine again.
Our second mini is this Friday, and I'm experimenting with things like Facebook events as a way of reaching the club members ...
http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?ei ... 2202569145
Looking forward to it, hopefully the sun will shine again.
Andy
(D1 K1 1981, D2 C1&C2 2010)
(D1 K1 1981, D2 C1&C2 2010)
Ours is this Monday
Do you reckon your lot fancy a little trip up north Duncan?
I have put a poster on the main website and emailed all of the local clubs. so thought I'd put a little post on here to let everyone know what's going on!
We start at 4:15, but entries will be taken all night and people can turn up when they like! We'll see how it goes and report back!
Please pm me if you're interested and need more details.
Nicky
Do you reckon your lot fancy a little trip up north Duncan?
I have put a poster on the main website and emailed all of the local clubs. so thought I'd put a little post on here to let everyone know what's going on!
We start at 4:15, but entries will be taken all night and people can turn up when they like! We'll see how it goes and report back!
Please pm me if you're interested and need more details.
Nicky