Category: Coaching blog

A quick guide to quick analysis of videos in a competition situation

Post date 23.4.2020

First, a warning. Carefully consider whether it is worth doing quick video analyses. With an inexperienced or insecure coach, the analyzes may lead to the derailment of both his own and the coach's tactical thinking. It is more important to focus and prepare well for the match than to stare at videos and rewind things that are not necessarily relevant to the match. Remember that you cannot explain any jacket analysis to the athlete before the match, the message must be able to be summarized in three concrete action instructions, which the athlete believes he can and will be able to implement in the match. On the other hand, making analyzes can be practiced dry, and making them and communicating the results develops quickly. All you need to practice is a working internet connection and paper and pen.

In this article, I have outlined the use of video analysis in cadet and junior leagues. For adults, the situation is very different, because the logic of the G-ranking puts forward the world's top 20 athletes in the second round at the latest. In the case of these opponents, a quick analysis does not produce sufficient results, but a deeper analysis of the peaks and special features of the weight class should take place in the longer term already at home, so that it can be used already in training and its planning.

The situation is certainly familiar to all coaches who have toured the G-Games. Lists arrive at midnight and the opponents of the opening rounds are a bunch of unknown names. The wake-up call is before seven and the selection situation is difficult; should I go to sleep or start looking at opponents' videos on the internet. The most important and best advice in this article is this: go to sleep. When you are well rested, you are able to help the athletes the best.

Time is good in the morning. There is weighing, athlete dressing and everything else that is part of the race morning. Use idle moments to your advantage. Go through the opponents from taekwondo data, google search and then videos from youtube. Try to create a picture of the opponent's experience background, the conclusions serve as the basis for the analysis.

First judge the opponent by his general appearance. What is the basic tactic, what situations do you aim for and what is the uncomfortable area. Use your own tactical framework, which you know how to formulate in a way that your opponent can understand. Next, I will present my model that fits my own understanding of the match, which you can use as a starting point in your own work.

Choose the most suitable or at most two of the available clips. Try to find as much new material as possible. If the opponent's resistance in one of the videos matches your opponent's type, use it. Cut out matches where the opponent is a top-5-10 opponent in the world. In these, the underdog has often built a match-specific tactic with which he tries to win and the match does not describe his own match style.

I first examine the athlete's anthropometry and physical characteristics. I will start from here to think about the distances and the basic rhythm of the match. Usually, the match is played at four basic distances, which I call short (approx. 40 cm-clinch), half distance (approx. 40 cm-meter), basic distance (approx. meter between the front legs) and long distance (basic distance + approx. 30 cm). Depending on the weight classes, of course, centimeters are added or subtracted to the distances.

Then I go through the distance at which the opponent is good, i.e. scores points and defends best. And most importantly, how does the opponent get to the distances they want. Up until now, movement has therefore been analysed. This is the most important and often the most fruitful phase, because it is often easiest to find opportunities in the movement.

Next, I will go through the situational solutions, which foot to use, which technique and how to conclude the situation. In addition, it is important whether the contestant scores a point or points or not. You have to know how to distinguish constructive techniques and solution techniques and understand their combinations.

Finally, I make a walkthrough for the defenses. Where are the mistakes, why does the athlete lose points. It is important to watch the whole match. If the opponent is, for example, sensitive to taking warnings in some situation, you have to be able to take advantage of that.

One aspect that comes up from time to time, sometimes not, is the internal rhythm of the match. Some contestants are capable of rhythm changes, some are not. A cautious or aggressive start is important for some, while some are able to turn situations and matches around in the last set. You have to be able to communicate the rhythm to your coachee in one sentence.

The general guideline is to look for repetitions and find opportunities in them. Sometimes it works better, sometimes worse. It is important not to give too much weight to video analysis. It is a good aid, but the tactics must be built on the strengths of the opponent, and by no means based on the events of a single or a few videos.

Coaching blog General

Learning physical skills and different teaching styles from the point of view of a taekwondo coach

Post date 23.4.2020

How does a person learn new motor skills?

A person learns his first motor skills before he is born, and after entering the world, this process accelerates tremendously, just like all other learning. Babies, toddlers and young children are like sponges, absorbing information and skills from their environment and trying to apply these with varying success, linking them to already learned entities. For example, a child learning to walk persistently tries to maintain his balance, and every stumble corrects the performance towards the correct implementation. It is worth noting that the child does not need actual verbal or even repeated visual instruction, but the learning process is self-reinforcing. Of course, the encouragement, help and possible reward of proud parents speed up learning.

Simplified, the learning process is largely the same, whether it's learning to walk or the technique of a roundhouse kick.

First of all, the learner needs some kind of visual, verbal or a combination of these models of motor performance. A child learning to walk has been watching his parents' recording for a long time, and the motivation to be able to do the same himself is obvious. Movement speeds up considerably, it is easier to reach to grasp things, and parents clearly get excited about companies. An enthusiast practicing the round kick, on the other hand, receives verbal instructions from the coach on the different phases and execution of the kick. Almost without exception, a visual model of the finished kick also follows the narration. The hobbyist's attentiveness and motivation to learn new skills significantly speed up or slow down the learning of the skill. The coach and the operating environment are very decisive in this regard.

Already during the model, an outline of the performance is formed in the learner's mind and the nervous system that controls the movement trajectories in question is activated. When learning new skills, new nerve connections are created in the brain, and at the same time, the entity being learned is linked to something already learned. For example, a spin kick is much the same as a front kick, in which case the nerves created with the already learned skill also help in learning the next skill. The impersonation phase is largely unconscious processing, but directing attention and concentration to the subject to be learned will of course greatly accelerate learning, while a weakening of attention hinders learning. A child learning to walk will fall if the working memory is overloaded, e.g. with stimuli from a nearby TV, just as the performance of a learner of a round kick is disrupted if he thinks about the next drink break during the learning phase.

After the brain and nervous system have been worked on the performance of some kind of model, the learner tries it in practice. Small children are constantly doing experiments on how the body behaves and how, for example, shifting the center of gravity affects balance. Similarly, the learner of the round kick may impatiently try the performance a few times while still being instructed by the coach. The most essential stage of all learning, especially motor skills, is doing it yourself. Learning the roundhouse kick by reading the steps of the technique in a book, for example, is quite challenging, although not impossible. For example, imagery training is based on this. In this case, the actual making phase is left out and the training is based entirely on mental images and creating nerve connections through this.

After the motor performance, the learner receives immediate feedback from his body about the quality of the performance. A small child learning to walk notices the effects when he stumbles and automatically corrects the performance on the next attempt. Similarly, the learner of the spin kick immediately notices how the kick feels and in which direction the foot ends up in the end. A learner in the early stages of learning is not yet able to grasp bodily feedback very well or understand how it affects the quality of performance. Through practice and repetitions, self-reflection skills develop and the learner is more and more able to visualize the entirety of their performance, possible shortcomings and various variations. Feedback on the performance is of course also given by the coach and peers.

The learner combines the feedback in his mind into a new model of the correct performance and the cycle starts over. This is how the skill develops through a cycle formed by repetitions and feedback. The neural connections and the physical characteristics needed to perform the skill develop, making the performance constantly easier and more automatic to repeat. In the initial phase of training the spin kick, the learner still has to focus on each sub-component of the kick separately and a large part of the working memory has to be reserved for the performance itself. On the other hand, an enthusiast who has performed thousands of spin kicks knows the execution almost automatically in different versions and is able to combine it with other learned entities, for example a match movement or part of kick sequences. Top athletes make what they do look effortless and easy, even in fast situations. Performances have been trained to be so automatic and nerve connections so strong that significantly more performance capacity is saved for other functions.

Learning motor skills is most intense in childhood, but even as an adult, you can acquire new skills, albeit more slowly. For this reason, children should practice as versatile as possible various physical skills when the sensitivity season is at its peak.

Learning physical skills is always a social process

Almost all learning is always more or less a social activity, and especially in the early stages of learning, the role of the environment and the teacher is emphasized. Phenomenological learning, problem solving, exploratory learning and task-based learning have been strong trends in the pedagogical discussion in recent decades, and their methods have been applied a lot in physical education and sports. The main idea is that the responsibility for learning is transferred more and more to the learner himself and the learning methods are more and more about doing things instead of passive information transfer. However, it is essential that the learner is not immediately thrown into the deep end without support or tools with which learning can be taught in general. For example. reflecting on different applications of the roundhouse kick in small groups can be a good learning task, but the results will be poor if the actual roundhouse kick practice is still at a stage. Learners are not able to connect the skill they are still practicing with other entities or to understand variability in performance methods.

The coach, the learner and the operating environment form a whole, the center of which are the physical skills to be learned.

All factors of the triangle have varying degrees of influence in different situations. For example, a young novice hobbyist needs considerably more support from a coach in learning a new skill than an experienced adult hobbyist. Correspondingly, a beginner needs a clear and learning-supportive operating environment, while a conker can do an independent and learning-supportive exercise even at home with the guidance of a coach.

The learner himself affects the outcome of the learning process by directing his attentiveness and concentration to the teaching and the performance itself. Learning is facilitated by an active and curious attitude towards the learned skill and the operating environment. This can be seen, for example, in asking additional questions to the coach and in active communication with training buddies. you can get much more out of the exercise when the learner consciously puts himself in a receptive and open state of mind.

The operating environment includes e.g. training space, training equipment and training buddies. A good space enables versatile exercises and does not in itself limit the coach's toolbox. Good space can also be limited or expanded as needed. The comprehensive training equipment gives more options for the implementation of the exercises and helps in directing the attention and finding the right ways of performing the exercises. For example, a child practicing a spin kick may understand the trajectory of the technique much better when he has a kick target to direct his attention to. Correspondingly, training buddies and peers contribute to the learning of sports skills when everyone has a positive attitude towards the teaching situation and the subject to be learned.

The coach is responsible for planning the exercise and directing the implementation. The above-mentioned learners and the operating environment serve as boundary conditions for the exercise. The core competence of a trainer is the ability to identify the starting level of the learners or the group and plan the exercise so that it serves their learning goals best. The challenge here is of course the individual differences within the training group.

The exercises should be sufficiently challenging, in which case new nerve connections are created and the skills to be learned are linked to larger entities. Too easy and monotonous practice leads to so-called overlearning, i.e. the practice no longer improves marginally and does not increase the ability to apply the skill in new situations. Instead, exercises that are too difficult eat away at learners' motivation when the skill does not seem possible in light of current knowledge. The best results are achieved when easy and difficult exercises are mixed within a single exercise, and not always linearly from easy to difficult. For example, a round kick exercise can be planned so that always after the technique period, the skill of kicking is tried to be applied as part of a more difficult whole, such as a match technique from a movement. After this, we return to the technique phase with a slightly new perspective.

A coach's professionalism also includes knowing the special features of their own sport and the ability to apply different teaching styles to best serve the learning goals.

Special features of taekwondo as exercise and sports hobby

The rules and technical requirements of the sport form the boundary conditions of training and thereby a unique training culture within the sport. At the grassroots level, training cultures can of course vary widely, for example between clubs or coaches who teach in different styles.

Taekwondo's sport requirements form a very broad and open field of action. Only one club may practice:

Basic techniques
Business series
Kick technique
Match Taekwondo
Crushing
Self defense skills
Acrobatics and freestyle moves
General physical skills
Wide variety of physical properties

Versatility should be seen more as an opportunity than a threat, although sometimes the scope of the sport and the abundance of teaching topics may cause a headache. It is essential to understand that the wide environment provides a basis through which specialization in, for example, competitive matches is implemented. Almost without exception, the best results are achieved through late specialization by providing a varied and stimulating base and emphasizing specialization at a later age. Taekwondo allows late specialization very well. The spectrum of basic skills and physical characteristics to be practiced is so wide that side sports are not needed alongside, although this is not a disadvantage either. Children and young people should be trained in all aspects of the sport and encouraged to compete in both forms of competition, if competing at all motivates the enthusiast. At the junior age, you can already start to shift the emphasis to, for example, more intensive competition training, but on the condition that the basic training has been done with sufficient care.

The whole can be understood by thinking of basic skills and physical characteristics as the center of core training and specialization as part of this whole. The image is an illustration and does not depict the complex entity as such.

Different teaching styles in taekwondo

The teaching style describes the implementation methods chosen by the coach in carrying out the exercise. Roughly different teaching styles can be compared, e.g. based on whether the focus of the activity is the coach, the learner or perhaps the operating environment and social context. The traditional teaching model in both the school and sports worlds has been to favor teacher-led styles, where the role of the coach or teacher is central and the learners are in a relatively passive role of receiver. Taekwondo is no exception in this regard. In a traditional taekwondo exercise, the coach shows the models, gives instructions and then calls out the pace in command style while the learners perform the techniques in unison. In the more applicable parts, the coach defines in advance how the application will be implemented and the trainees try to complete it according to the model.

the good side of coach-oriented teaching styles is that they help the operating environment and the implementation of the exercise to roll in a controlled manner and according to the plan. In addition, the learners receive ready-made models and tools that enable independent completion and application of the skill later on. Because of this, coach-led teaching styles are particularly suitable for teaching elementary groups and children's training groups.

However, a strong coach-led approach has the disadvantage that it does not fully take into account the learners' individual differences, starting levels or self-regulation skills. Faster and more skilled students are not able to move to more challenging performances, while weaker ones may fall off the sled. Correspondingly, the learners' independent thinking and skill-related application ability may remain on a thin foundation, and in the extreme learning and performance of the skill are mainly linked to the coach, instructions and external rhythm. For example, a competitor trained with a command style may find that he is unable to perform a well-practiced solution model in the competition when the context changes from a familiar environment to a different one.

Learner-oriented teaching styles, on the other hand, start from the idea that learners are ultimately always responsible for their own learning and that the most effective way to learn is by experimenting and doing. In learner-oriented teaching, many different tasks and problem solving are used, in which case the learners have to make choices and solutions themselves.

The good side of learner-oriented teaching styles is that they develop creative problem solving and the ability to apply learned skills in very varied situations. The coach also has better opportunities to take the skill level of the group members into account and, if necessary, give more support to those who need it. Those who learn faster, on the other hand, are able to move more efficiently to more challenging tasks.

The biggest challenges, on the other hand, are related to the fact that learners' self-regulation skills or basic knowledge are not necessarily sufficient for working independently with the given goals. In this case, teaching results remain poor and learners have genuine challenges to reach the next level of development independently. It is also significantly more difficult to plan learner-oriented exercises so that the intensity remains hard throughout the exercise. Hard training is not an end in itself, but sometimes, for example, a fighter doing creative situational training also needs training where the pace comes from the outside and the performances are done hard, a lot and they are simple enough.

It is worth remembering that no teaching style is purely coach- or learner-oriented, but actors are always present with different emphases. In terms of teaching styles, it is also not worth looking for the Holy Grail, which would be the one correct way to teach sports skills. The most important thing is to understand the starting level of the group, the differences between individuals and the boundary conditions of the operating environment and shape the exercise based on these. A versatile and self-critical coach is able to test different styles with different groups and find the most optimal ones for different situations. He also remains open to new ideas and is basically ready to take the learners into account, even if the exercise is very teacher-led or command-style. He is also able to offer concrete tools with which to progress in the learned skill to the next level or application phase.

In the following table, the most commonly used teaching styles have been compiled and an example exercise has been given for all of them.

Teaching style	At the center of teaching	Activity and goal	Example exercise
Command-style teaching	Coach	The coach shows and explains the instructions to everyone together. The assignments are usually done at the same time at the teacher's command. The feedback is mainly shared and concerns the entire group. It only takes a little space and is the most effective way to keep the group under control. The learner's role is very small.	In the form of basic technology training. The director shouts the commands.
Task teaching and differentiating teaching	Coach	The coach gives either joint instructions or separate instructions to different small groups, after which the assigned task is practiced at one's own pace. The coach gives feedback to both the group and individuals. Tasks can be effectively differentiated with exercise equipment. The trainer can assign different difficulty levels and progressions to the tasks.	Situational training in match training. Let's practice a prepared situation where A kicks with the back foot and B does a back kick in response. We take turns at our own pace. The coach goes around giving feedback and additional instructions.
Teaching based on self-assessment	Learner	The coach gives the task, but the learner's task is to independently evaluate his performance. The coach must give clear instructions on the evaluation criteria so that the learner has enough tools to correct his own performance. The coach can still be involved in giving feedback.	Complete sets of movements are practiced so that the coach always gives an instruction between the exercises, what to pay attention to. Learners evaluate their own performance and do it at their own pace.
Guided insight and problem solving	Learner	The coach gives the students a problem or a task, but not a direct solution to it. Most of the time there are many solutions and the learner has to think about the implementation method himself. The coach can guide insight with help questions and tips if necessary. The tools can effectively limit problems.	Situational training in match training. The coach assigns A the task of attacking only with front leg spin kicks, and B must develop different defensive solutions for this.
Teaching based on creativity	Learner	The coach gives a task where the learners have to develop something new independently or in small groups based on the skills they have already learned. The coach gives the framework for the task, but otherwise the work is free and the emphasis is on the creative application of learned things and the development of new ones.	The children's group is divided into small groups. The groups independently develop a short taekwondo performance. The task can be limited to certain elements or you can freely develop the display according to your own taste.
Pair or group guidance	Learners together	The coach gives the task or its main features, after which it is practiced in pairs or groups so that others are constantly given feedback and the learners are each other's peer teachers. The exercise can also be based on making the students themselves teachers.	Movement series training in pairs or small groups. One performs the performance and the others give feedback either according to the coach's instructions or independently.
Teaching by example (coach included)	Coach and learner	The coach gives a task, after which you do it yourself in pairs or in small groups. The coach must be able to achieve the performances that are hoped to be achieved with the learners. The feedback is very individual, but it is difficult to monitor the activities of the entire group.	Circuit sparring, where the coach is involved in doing it himself. He always gives individual feedback to whoever he is paired with.

It is therefore worth testing different styles in your own coaching work and honestly evaluating their impact on learning. Even within a single exercise, you can vary from one style to another, and often this is the most effective way to learn something new and apply what you have already learned.

Coaching blog

Thoughts on the ethics of sport

Post date 18.4.2020

At our taekwondo hall in Konala, a large number of young athletes train, whose achievements in training and competitions I have watched not only from the point of view of physical performance, but also from the point of view of these young people's enthusiasm, passion and attitude to victory and defeat. While following the young players of my own club, I have occasionally had various ideas about the development of this athlete's personality, or the mental side - if you want to say it - of guiding the development of this athlete's personality, which are not structured and somewhat unstructured, but intertwined with the same theme. It wasn't on my active mind when I went for a ski run one evening and put the earbuds in my ears.

After the opening music that sets the mood Jari Sarasvuo started talking to me. First, as a warm-up, some soft spring nuggets and SAK's manna, but Sarasvuo's story warmed up as quickly as the skier Petiko in the first ascents of Vitonen and progressed to a topic that was meaningful to me. On 7 March 2016, Jari Sarasvuo spoke in his YLE Puhee program [http://areena.yle.fi/1-3329073] on the ethos of sport. Or actually about ethos, of which he described five archetypes.

Ethos models

Work ethic
The ethos of success
The ethos of virtuosity
The ethos of fun
Ethos of care

Of course, these were not Sarasvuo's own thoughts, and of course he did not claim that. I looked at what was said as a source Kirsi Hämäläinen dissertation [https://jyx.jyu.fi/dspace/handle/123456789/18557] – Athlete and coach in the world of sports: ethos, ideals and education in the stories of athletes” – a preface where these concepts are opened up a bit. (The study itself will definitely have to be read later at a better time.) I didn't recognize myself in anything and I recognized myself in everyone. As in life in general, the manifestations of real life here too are probably not exact descriptions of their theoretical ideas, but combinations and variations of their semi-violently compartmentalized theoretical models.

I'm not going to spoil my subjective experience of the relevance of the models to my own ethos here, or vice versa. And not even about the possibilities for guiding or shaping the ethos of young athletes, we will leave this latter topic for a separate article for later. Now I thought I would write a few of my own thoughts about the structure of the ethos model. As a rule, I'm not the type to think in black and white, and here too I tend to think that none of the ethos is the absolute best, brightest and most aspirational model. An athlete who follows any ethos 100% will hit an invisible wall before realizing his full potential. Instead, could you think of the optimum as some kind of cocktail of these archetypes, for example an ethos pie like the one below?

An optimal ethos model, is there such a thing?

What kind of pieces should the ethos of an optimal athlete - if such a thing exists now - consist of, if none of the ready-made models are perfect when fully realized?

The ethos of work includes the idea of the intrinsic value of work and suffering. Success has no meaning if it has not been achieved through uncompromising effort and endless drilling. Some parts of the work ethic are definitely needed. There are days, even longer periods, when training doesn't feel meaningful, or at least pleasant and fun. Then it's not a bad thing if the ethos of work makes the athlete turn to training, even if at that very moment they don't feel like winning the competition or showing anyone amazing performances. However, in its pure manifestation, the work ethic leads to illness more often than to the podium. So maybe this is not the main component?

The ethos of success is probably the most toxic when fully lived. In this ethos, everything stems from success. All. Up to human dignity. If only winning and being successful matter, such a person's moments of happiness are inevitably rare. The whole remains unhappy. Still, almost everyone who participates in some kind of competitive sport has traces of this ethos. I don't think there is much danger from these ribs, as long as they don't gain a significant foothold in a person's innermost being.

The ethos of virtuosity is morally easy to elevate and put on a pedestal as the single most viable ethos in the field of competitive sports. When a person is driven forward by virtuosity, the desire to perform superiorly, the focus of sports is not training or success, but performance. This is an excellent starting point. At that time, the forces driving this ethos forward may still run out, and there is no harm in a little help, for example, on the fronts of drilling or success.

The ethos of fun also sounds like a fundamentally viable model. When training and performing is fun, it is very easy to follow qualitatively and quantitatively high-quality training, which in turn leads to success. When competing at the top, success often requires, in addition to fun, the final touch of grimacing, which decides the final winners. If hedonism becomes the friend of the ethos of fun, and not, for example, the ethos of virtuosity or success, the victory in the final church struggle very easily turns to someone else.

The ethos of care focuses on community - training and competing in a circle of friends who care for each other. This ethos is undeniably good to be involved in individual sports as well, although in hindsight this is certainly emphasized in team sports. Even with my best will, I can't see a top athlete guided only by this ethos, even though it's probably clear that a fair dose of the ethos of caring is often not a bad thing.

Relationships and interaction of ethos blocks

The flowchart of success in sports should accommodate an insane number of factors influencing the core and background, but as for these ethos blocks, I outlined the structure as follows. Underlying everything is practice (the work ethic), which leads to great performance (the virtuosity ethic), which leads to success (the success ethic). This stack is underpinned by the ethos of care and fun from its edges, which sort of return the threatening to fall off the edge of the stack back to the stack model that leads to success. In this model, the blocks can then be of different sizes according to different personalities.

This article was originally published on Teemu Heino's blog at HOJOMI.ES in the spring of 2016. A heavy thing never gets old!

Coaching blog

Why is competing exciting and how can the excitement be alleviated?

Post date 18.4.2020

What actually causes the competitive tension?

Excitement is certainly a familiar feeling for every athlete, and almost everyone will certainly agree that exasperation does not feel very pleasant. Experiencing excitement and especially reactions and ways of acting vary greatly between individuals. Others are in an overloaded state, unable to stay still for a moment while the other goes limp and the muscles feel heavy. However, it is good to remember that tension is also a good thing for performance, and it is precisely through the tension reaction that the body optimally prepares for performance.

Excitement is a completely natural reaction to a perceived threatening situation. Tension is triggered by a stress reaction, which in turn arises from the fact that we subconsciously interpret that we are in a threatening or dangerous situation. This defense reaction is older than our species and has also been a key survival mechanism for most of modern man's time on earth.

Usually, when examining the phenomenon, we talk about the body's automaticity fight or flight -reaction, the task of which is to automatically and quickly prepare the body for a situation where we have to work at the limits of our abilities. Quick action, for example when a tiger is lurking in a nearby bush, has helped our species survive harsh conditions where dangers are commonplace. Today, we don't have to fear spontaneous attacks from tigers, but our reaction to perceived threatening situations is completely identical to our ancestors.

The stress reaction triggers a spike in cortisol and adrenaline in the body, which in turn direct the nervous system to focus all of our essential resources on activities that help survival. This means, for example, an increase in blood circulation around large muscles and in the areas that control reactivity and perception of the brain. Our heart rate increases, our blood pressure rises and our breathing becomes more rapid. On the other hand, functions secondary to survival, such as digestion or areas that control the more analytical parts of the brain, slow down. Because of this, e.g. on race days, the stomach is often a bit upset and the food doesn't taste good. The thought also doesn't really want to run, which is often reflected in the fact that we forget things and entities during competition performance that we control well in indoor conditions. They just aren't ingrained enough to be automatic functions.

The tension in the races is therefore caused by the fact that you subconsciously interpret the situation as threatening, even though you rationally understand that nothing terrible can happen. However, the reaction is so automatic that you can't just force your body not to tense up, and there's no reason to. As said, the right amount of tension improves the level of performance.

The intensity of tension is especially affected by how we handle the situation and what kind of thought chains it generates. With the help of these, we can also learn to regulate the amount of our tension through training and thereby optimize our competitive mood.

How much is an appropriate amount of tension?

In a stress reaction and state of tension, our body prepares for the performance and competition situation, and trying to get rid of all tension would be a bad solution when thinking about the competition performance. The essential thing is to find the means that suit you, with which you can regulate the amount of tension and feeling so that when the competition comes, you can perform at your best.

The Yerkes-Dodson law describes the connection between the state of stress and the level of performance and was developed already at the beginning of the 20th century by psychologists Robert Yerkes and John Dodson. The model is, of course, a simplification of complex processes, but it has stood the test of time and also illustrates well how to find the optimal state of alertness needed for sports performance.

It is good for the athlete to learn to observe and understand where his stress level usually settles on the day of the competition and what kind of feelings and thought chains arise from it.

For some, the stress level and the amount of tension grow so big that they start to hinder performance. This can be seen as restlessness and difficulty concentrating on things that are essential for performance. Athletes often try to relieve tension with familiar emotion regulation methods. One immerses himself in listening to music that helps the body and mind to calm down, while the other has a compulsive need to warm up all the time and keep the body moving.

For others, the rise in stress levels causes the opposite reaction, i.e. the body starts to feel heavy and depressed. The body goes into an economizing flame, as it were, and lowers the stress level mechanically if it is not able to do so at the level of thoughts. In this case, the athlete should find ways to raise the state of alertness, for example by means of a sharp warm-up.

Learn to recognize your own stress reactions

When it comes to regulating tension, it is essential to first learn to recognize your own standard reactions to a situation perceived as stressful. It's worth starting by considering how tension changes your actions on a mental level, as bodily reactions or changes in behavior.

Mental level (cognitive changes)

Thought chains - what kind of thought chains does excitement create in you. for example, do you go over and over the possible outcomes or mistakes you might make. Do you think a lot about what others think about your performance or result?
Emotional states - What kind of emotional states does race day and race performance cause in you. For example, do you feel scared or maybe excited?
Attention and ability to concentrate - Can you focus on things that are essential for performance. Where is your attention directed and what kinds of things do you notice in particular?
Self-talk - What is your self-talk like on race day? Do you repeat positive sentences to yourself in your mind that help you perform, or is your self-talk more discouraging and preparing yourself for failure in advance?

Bodily reactions (somatic changes)

Sensations in the muscles - Do your muscles feel stiff and heavy or do you feel light and fast?
Increased heart rate and breathing - Monitor your breathing and heart rate
Butterflies in the stomach – A feeling of pressure in the lower abdomen and perhaps an increased need to go to the bathroom.

Changes in behavior

Posture and gaze - Does your posture change when you tense up? Do your shoulders slump or do you look down at the floor?
Activity Rate – Does stress increase or decrease your activity? Do you feel like you should be doing something all the time or rather that it would be nice to curl up for a nap?
Introversion and extroversion – Do you have more or less contact with other people on race day? For others, the support of a group can be important when they are tense, where the other would like to be more at peace.

So many changes take place in the mind and body of the athlete as they prepare for the performance. Some are easier to notice than others, and the whole they form is unique to each athlete. Recognizing your own stress reactions is a useful skill, because only through them can we regulate our overall mood through training.

How do I regulate my own state of alertness?

It would be nice if we could click our fingers to put our bodies in the perfect state of tune for performance. However, this magic trick is not possible, and even top-level professionals have to constantly practice adjusting their tuning. Peaks are also exciting, even if it doesn't always seem so from the outside. However, through experience and purposeful training, they have learned to utilize their stress reaction as part of preparing for competition performance.

Next, we will introduce ways in which you can regulate your level of alertness and tension, but as said, purposeful training of these even outside of competition is the only way to make them part of your toolbox.

Train and compete a lot and a little more

This instruction is pretty self-explanatory. By doing something repeatedly in large quantities, it develops into a routine, and routines are easy to perform, no matter what the state of alertness. It is clear that someone who goes to 40 competitions a year feels the competition situation much more familiar than someone who goes to six competitions. Similarly, self-confidence in competitions is born above all from the feeling that you have trained hard and done everything you can in the gym.

Learn to recognize and name your feelings during the race day

As mentioned earlier, recognizing our own sensations and bodily changes is necessary if we want to regulate them. Naming sensations (labelling) is already a strong tool for self-regulation. The mere fact that we are able to tell ourselves honestly that we are tense at the moment and it feels like this and that helps us to get rid of all the chains of thought and judgments that we automatically attach to the situation.

One effective way to relieve tension is to redefine the sensations it causes as excitement. Physically, these sensations are almost identical, so through self-talk we can, as it were, "trick" ourselves into feeling enthusiasm instead of tension.

Learn to turn negative thought chains and self-talk into positive ones

No matter what our external situation is, our mind tries to structure it in some way in an understandable and controllable form. When a tiger attacks from the mouth, we don't have time for long chains of thought, so we act purely through the stress reaction and automatic functions. However, in a prolonged stressful situation, for example when waiting for our own performance, we have time to reflect on the situation.

However, our thought processes are often unreasonably negative, as is our self-talk. In a threatening situation, our mind prepares for the worst possible outcome, so that it would be easier to accept it in time. However, negative thought chains hinder the competition performance itself and take our attention to things that are beyond our control. In addition, focusing on the negative, e.g. avoiding mistakes, will almost certainly lead to exactly this mistake. For example, if you shout to the opponent in the middle of the match not to look at the scoreboard, he will almost certainly immediately turn his eyes there.

To break negative thought chains, it is enough to be able to recognize them (when they appear) and accept them as they are. In this case, their power ceases automatically. It is also worth learning a few positive self-talk patterns, which are repeated like a mantra, e.g. right before the performance:

"I have practiced hard and I can do this"
"I feel strong" (even though it doesn't feel like it)
"The first thing I do in my performance is..."
"I have prepared sufficiently. We'll see how long it takes this time"
"The only thing I can influence is my own performance"

Focus on things you can influence

Every extra thing that the athlete pays attention to during the competition day is taken away from the resources that he could use for things that are essential for performance. For example, a movement series athlete preparing for his own performance has no reason to intensely watch the performance of his opponents, because they simply cannot be influenced. At worst, they only increase our own anxiety if we evaluate the opponent's performance as good. Correspondingly, when a competitor focuses his attention solely on the characteristics and skills of his opponent, his own performance suffers.

The athlete should develop a basic routine that suits him from race to race, consisting of things that are controllable and not dependent on changing external factors. There will certainly be changes and surprising situations in every competition, but a good basic routine takes these into account. These include, for example, eating on race day, planned warm-up and finishing just before the performance.

Mental preparation:

Almost all top athletes prepare for competition in one way or another, also psychologically. At the very least, you should go through the competition situation in your mind as a process a few times before the event itself. Imagine the whole day in your mind as visually and step-rich as possible. What kind of competition venue is it, how do you warm up, what do you eat at any point, what kind of sensations do you get during the day, how do you feel right before the performance, etc. In this way, it is possible to collect a "competition routine" even when we are not in competitions. Going through the situation intensively in the mind triggers the same mechanisms in our body as the situation itself.

Mental preparation can also be taken much further by making imagery training a regular part of your training routine. In this case, the athlete practices the control of the body's self-regulation mechanisms in advance, and ready-made routines can be created, which can be used to tune in to the optimal state in the blink of an eye before the competition performance. However, you should start practicing these with the guidance of a competent trainer.

Correspondingly, different breathing techniques and mindfulness -exercises regularly gives you new tools for managing bodily and mental sensations.

Something to remember

Tension is a completely natural reaction to a perceived threat, and the right amount of tension improves performance.
Learn to recognize how tension affects you mentally, physically and at the level of behavioral changes.
Develop routines for yourself that you can repeat from competition to competition, even if external factors change.
Train and compete hard to build up your routine.

Coaching blog

JOY - the key to coaching

Post date 15.4.2020

Taekwondo carries with it many traditions and customs. It would be easy to write down platitudes about various connections between sports and spiritual growth and the role of the teacher in the growth of the student.

Modern competitive sports require appropriate thinking.

The athlete's experience is central

The athlete must feel that the sport is meaningful. It is only possible if the athlete is enthusiastic about the things he does. Sometimes sport is hard and in that case the enthusiasm for doing it yourself carries better than, for example, gathering strength from the results.

Enthusiasm is protected by confidence. Trust has two dimensions. The first is trust in the community and especially in its central players. The second is partly born from the first and partly overlaps with learning and success, namely the athlete's confidence that he is doing the right things.

Succeeding and learning as an everyday experience is a more important factor in terms of career success than achieving individual big goals, although they also have their own value.

The coach feeds the athlete's experiences

The coach must strive in his work to help the athlete to be at his best. However, it is reasonable to limit what to do and focus on the experiences that have been found to be central.

The coach inspires the athlete. The key is to understand the drivers of enthusiasm in different age periods. A child and a peak adult can have very different reasons for playing sports. However, there is no reason to value different reasons too much over others, but to feed them and give opportunities to find new ones.

The coach is present in the everyday life and celebration of the athlete's sport and, of course, as a support when the athlete faces difficulties and disappointments. With his presence, the coach creates a safe environment. An athlete can succeed and fail safely when he knows that support is available in all situations and conditions. The coach also takes care of the conditions in which they work together with the athlete.

The coach guides the athlete to do the right things. This leads to experiences of learning and success. Often, traditional coaching education focuses only on developing the physique and teaching the skill, but since the athlete is not a machine, simply tuning the performance is not enough. The coach must help the athlete utilize his mental resources and provide a comprehensive toolkit for working in the field of sports.

A coach needs to develop and develop

A coach must be enthusiastic about his work. He also shares his enthusiasm around him, not only to the athlete, but also to the entire surrounding community. Enthusiasm is a key condition for a coach to continuously develop and, on the other hand, cope with daily work.

The coach must be reliable so that the athlete can commit to doing things together. It is also easy for the surrounding community to commit to supporting the athlete, when the coach is able to give guarantees of continuity and the credibility of the task system.

A coach must know how, but it is even more important to learn constantly. All coaches are bad at first, but only those who have a strong aspiration to learn and develop as a coach can become top coaches.

Coaching blog

Individual training in a group - the coach's role and duties

Post date 15.4.2020

Taekwondo is an individual sport that is almost always practiced as a group. This often seems a bit contradictory to coaches and enthusiasts of other sports, but when you think about it further, it's actually a pretty smart system

Belonging to a team

It is important for a person, and especially a young person, to belong to something. There can be different reference groups at the same time. A sports team as a reference group can be very strong. Its meaning can be reinforced from the outside, for example, with common rituals and common external signs. However, emphasizing the team as the only correct reference group can be detrimental to the athlete's later development, as leaving the team can be a traumatic experience.

However, it is important to strengthen the team's internal cohesion. Problem situations should also be tackled immediately, at least before they grow into crises that undermine the unity of the entire team. It is also worth emphasizing the tolerance of other people's ways and characteristics. When working in a sports team, it is important to understand the usefulness of helping others and reciprocity for your own success.

Team structure

Teams or fixed training groups are generally very heterogeneous. Only the national team groups of the top countries and, for example, the Korean university and professional teams consist of very uniform groups. In Europe, however, the national teams are not, as a rule, the central training environment, but the work is done in one's own club team.

Example of team composition (Finland):
Girl 10 years old, national level, 4 years of training
Girl 13 years old, international competition level, 6 years of training
Girl 12 years old, international competition level, 4 years of training
Boy 15 years old, international level, 5 years of training
Boy 12 years old, international competition level, 5 years of training
Boy 13 years old, international level, 4 years of training
Boy 16 years old, international level, 7 years of training
Male, 20 years old, national level, 6 years of training
Male, 28 years old, international competition level, 12 years of training
Female, 22 years old, international competition level, 9 years of training

The pack is mixed not only by the differences between genders and age groups, but also by the different physical and tactical requirements of the weight classes.

Training content and variation within the training

The coach has to constantly modify the exercises according to individual needs. Every athlete has different needs and situations. The planned content of the exercise is the framework within which the transformation takes place.

The coach is a kind of orchestra leader, but the orchestra does not play Wagner, but heavily improvised jazz. Everyone has to bring out the best of their own sound, fueling virtuosity.

Different roles in the group

Each athlete has his own role in the group. The role is partly situational, i.e. the role can vary in different situations.

The coach must form an understanding of these different roles. An understanding of group dynamics serves as a tool that can be used to strengthen desirable behavior and suppress undesirable phenomena. However, this is only possible if the coach has authority.

It is important to identify the group's opinion leaders and those who have an exemplary role. By influencing their attitudes, the entire group can be influenced. Incentives and punishments are also tools. If the control over the group is good, the incentives are enough to be given responsibility and the punishment is to be ignored in the training situation.

The coach's authority

The coach must build his authority through trustworthiness. Competence is one side of this coin, empathy is the other. Although the worlds of a coach and an athlete can be very different, the coach must sense the reflections of the athlete's reality on training and team activities.

It is impossible for a coach to build authority without good self-knowledge and recognition of one's own weaknesses and strengths. The coach must be honest, even when he makes mistakes and when he is, for example, tired, sad or in a bad mood. Young people can easily spot pretense and fake confidence. When the young people notice the existence of the cardboard backdrops, the first one is already digging out a sytkäri from his pocket.

Requirements for the coach

In training, the coach should:

To know each person to be coached both as a person and as an athlete
Find more general goals that are common or that support most sub-goals
Shows everyone their own perspective on the exercise, so that the exercise retains its meaning for everyone
Takes into account the special characteristics of each athlete in communication
Considers every athlete in a training situation
Gives everyone space and opportunities to develop

Other requirements of the coach:

Must understand group dynamics
Be able to manage a group
Be credible in what you do
Have good self-knowledge and develop it constantly
Know your stuff

Coaching blog

Links

Post date 15.4.2020

There is a lot of coaching information on the Internet, both good and bad. We have compiled a few relevant links below.

General training

First, the International Olympic Committee's athlete portal, where the amount of information you can find is staggering. You should log in as an athlete to get the latest updates and e.g. invitations to online seminars.

https://www.olympic.org/athlete365/

A slightly similar domestic site is Terve Urheilja. A lot of good stuff, although considerably narrower than the previous one.

https://terveurheilija.fi/

You can also find a lot of useful information on SUEK's website. And of course https://puhtaastiparas.fi/ - online training is mandatory for national team groups.

https://www.suek.fi/

Taekwondo

On the website of the Finnish Taekwondo Association you can find a lot of useful, if a bit difficult to find, things. The most important things for athletes and coaches can be found in the Enthusiasts menu, which is a bit confusing. You should check the news every week.

https://www.suomentaekwondoliitto.fi/

In particular, it is worth highlighting the material portfolio, where you can find a lot of material of varying levels.

https://www.suomentaekwondoliitto.fi/harrastajille/materiaalisalkku/julkaisut/

The history part is a tough thing.

https://www.suomentaekwondoliitto.fi/mita-on-taekwondo/historia/

A good package about history in English.

https://karate2sentena4.wordpress.com/2011/12/14/storming-the-fortress-a-history-of-taekwondo/

When looking at international fields, a good starting point is GMS, WT's international membership system. Here you can find international ranking competitions and value competitions as well as the current rankings of athletes.

https://worldtkd.simplycompete.com/

The website of the World Federation also has a lot of useful information, e.g. up-to-date rules.

http://www.worldtaekwondo.org/

The website of the European continental confederation also has necessary information, especially about the European Games.

https://www.worldtaekwondoeurope.org/

If you want to explore the careers of different athletes, the best address is Taekwondodata. The site is a good starting point for opposition analysis in international tournaments.

https://www.taekwondodata.com/

There are few news sites about the sport, but at least MasTaekwondo is worth following.

http://en.mastkd.com/

Inside the Games also produces interesting material.

https://www.insidethegames.biz/sports/summer/taekwondo

Actual coaching knowledge is scarce. Especially in Finnish, the offer is really thin. Kim Sinisalo's blog is an absolute source of information. In particular, it is worth highlighting 4 blog posts that everyone interested in the sport should read.

http://ventrikkeli.blogspot.fi/2012/03/alyn-ja-luovuuden-renessanssi.html
http://ventrikkeli.blogspot.fi/2012/04/painavan-kivijalan-tie.html
http://ventrikkeli.blogspot.fi/2012/06/tekniikan-maailma.html
http://ventrikkeli.blogspot.fi/2013/10/taekwondon-pelivalmennus-yleisesittely.html

Finally, let's raise our club's own tail a little and recommend Teemu Heino's blog, where various aspects of the sport are discussed in well-thought-out writings. The pace of publication is calm, but the content is even tougher.

https://hojomi.es/

Happy reading moments!

Coaching blog

Training-competition-feedback cycle

Post date 31.1.2020

Everyone loses sometimes and everyone wins sometimes. It is important to decide what to aim for and which performances serve as interim goals. Picture above From Aaron Cook's taekwondodata.com athlete card. Cook has lost every third of his recorded matches.

You have to learn from both wins and losses. This is done by analyzing the performances, drawing conclusions from the analysis and modifying the training based on the conclusions.

Feedback from the race

Immediate feedback after the match

Encouraging
1-2 positive things about the performance
No analysis!

Often after the match, the athlete is emotionally overwhelmed and physically tired. In this case, it is good to reassure the competitor and remind them of the feedback about refueling, etc... The important thing is to get through 1-2 things for the next match or after a loss, 2 positive things about the performance.
IMPORTANT: If other coaches or team members have feedback, it is given to the coach in the ring, who filters the messages to the athlete. Of course you can and should encourage and congratulate!

After race day

Encouraging
A short analysis where successes

After the race day, when the situation has calmed down, the coach goes through the day with the athlete. The most important thing is to emphasize the positive aspects of the performance, but also to realistically review the key development points.

Actual feedback

Clear analysis - by a coach
If the analysis is unclear - let's continue the discussion
Let's focus on the analysis

The actual feedback will be given 1-2 weeks after the race, when the performances have been analyzed from the videos. The athlete's support groups should also be present. On the day of the competition, it is good for the coaches to make notes on the points to be taken into account.

The coaches also share their views on the things that need to be taken into account in training with an eye to the future.

Coaching blog

Four key characteristics of an athlete and the main lines of their development in coaching

Post date 31.1.2020

Four key characteristics of an athlete and the main lines of their development in coaching

The terms used in this article are generally used in coaching literature, but even there the terms are not always clear or have been given different interpretations. That is why here we have tried to open up the terms used and explain them in the context of club coaching.

The presented models are rules of thumb, a competent coach can deviate from them drastically if he knows what he is doing.

About the program in general

The physical focus of the training is presented in the program. The same exercises and exercises can develop different qualities if they are implemented in a different way, but the coach should have a clear idea of what is being developed at any given time.

When you want to develop qualities, the athlete must know the exercises. That's why it's good to include partial performances already in the warm-ups. Dividing the exercise into separate teaching and work periods can also make sense, especially in harder exercises. Teaching the skill during exercises is also possible if the intensity of the exercise is low.

1. Species resistance

In this context, sport endurance refers to the specific endurance characteristics needed in competitive taekwondo. Endurance qualities are needed both during the match and in the recovery between matches.

When practicing sport-specific endurance, the rhythm of the work and rest periods of the exercise plays a central role. It is good to use the rhythms used in the competitive performance of the sport. 3×2 min. /1 min. return and 1.30/30” serve as starting points. The pacing can be lengthened if more basic endurance characteristics are sought and shortened when maximum or speed endurance is sought, as the power increases in shorter periods and decreases in longer periods.

Within the work cycle, the power and rhythm of the performances may vary depending on the repetition of the cycles. The more cycles there are, the lower the intensity within the work cycle. After training, the athlete is clearly tired, and is unable to perform full-strength training. Roughly, it can be said that after a good, developing workout, the athlete should focus on restorative exercises and restorative stretching.

Key exercises:

Different task spars or spars for kicking goals.
Different sets of kicks with a rhythm suitable for goals.
Paired exercises in which the given pattern is repeated
Various sprints, possibly combined with sport or skill sections
Various jumping or jumping sets

Skill development:

When doing endurance, the coach should encourage maintaining quality. When doing a lot of repetitions, the technique tends to break down and errors become more prominent. On the other hand, large numbers of correctly performed repetitions establish the methods of performing the technique.

Mobility

It is difficult to develop mobility in connection with heavy endurance exercises. That's why possible developing sections must be placed after the warm-up, before the actual effective work periods. In lighter exercises, you can develop dynamic mobility, e.g. in the form of leg swing fitness circuits.

2. Sport speed

Sport speed in taekwondo consists of two elements. Reaction speed is the time measured from the stimulus to the start of the performance. Movement speed again, time is measured from the beginning to the end of an individual performance. In training, it is natural to combine these and separate them according to the exercise.

When moving on the border between speed endurance and speed training, you can do the limit pull roughly so that the speed endurance training is longer (>approx. 6-10 sec., even 20-30 sec.) and the recoveries are shorter (<20") and there are more repetitions (>5- 10 in a series) so that the muscles get tired during the exercise. Speed training, on the other hand, aims to affect the nervous system and the maximum contraction speed of the muscles. Runs are short (<10 sec) and repeated less in a set (usually max. 10) and returns are long (>20", even 1' or more). Serial returns can be up to 5'. The purpose is to fully return to the active heart rate between sets, and even within the set, the heart rate must stabilize at least somewhat. The higher the heart rate goes, the longer the recovery should be.

Speed training requires a light but sufficient warm-up. Mobility should be brought to at least the level of competition performance. An hour-long exercise can take even less than 15 minutes. a sustainable section that develops speed characteristics, leaving enough time for warming up and cooling down.

The exercises are performed with high power, but paying attention to the relaxation of the performance. There must be sufficient recovery between performances and the performance must be short.

Key exercises:

Reaction exercises for different goals
Reaction exercises with a couple
Short sets of kicks given to goals
Jumps and combinations of kicks and jumps

Skill development:

As a rule, the exercises must be easy enough for the athlete to be able to practice the characteristic. However, a well-controlled technique may require modification, especially in reaction exercises, a good example being changing distance.

Mobility

Mobility can be developed in the preparatory parts of the exercise. In the parts that can be recovered, it is worth remembering that even if the athlete does not necessarily feel tired, his nervous system is strained. For this reason, restorative stretches should not be too demanding.

3. Species strength

Sports power is the ability to produce force during sports performance. This is especially important in terms of the impact force of kicks and punches and when making changes of direction. Strength is also needed to control the body in sports performance as a whole.

Sport strength can be practiced either indirectly or directly. Indirect exercises are very close to sport performance but contain general strength-building exercises. Direct exercises, on the other hand, are sports performances to which resistance has been added in some way. Forms of exercise are, for example, additional resistance exercises using various fitness circuits and aids. The starting angles of different performances can be exaggerated, and different podiums or obstacles can be used as help.

Traditional muscle fitness circuits should always be carried out as sport-specific as possible or using sport-specific sections (squat + kick instead of only squat) and in interval format, due to the interval style of competition performance. Leg swing fitness circuits should also be practiced. The gym has a good selection of rubber bands for additional resistance. Fitness balls and kettlebells can be found in the weight room.

Key exercises:

Fitness circuits
Additional resistance training

Skill development:

When training strength, you have to focus on the right performance methods. Especially when combining sports technique with exercises, you should be careful that the techniques are performed correctly to minimize the risk of injury. It is also important to learn to stick to the techniques even when the muscles are tired.

Mobility

Mobility training goes well with the strength sections. However, it is worth doing restorative sections and shakes between strength sections and developing stretching.

4. Mobility

Mobility is an important feature in taekwondo. Mobility is divided into passive and dynamic mobility. An example of passive mobility can be, for example, splits and dynamic high kick. Passive mobility requires only the mobility of joints and muscles, while active, dynamic mobility requires strength from the muscles and coordination from the nervous system to perform.

Mobility is constantly practiced in all exercises, either developing or maintaining it. Developing mobility exercises are usually connected to otherwise lighter exercises, while maintaining/opening mobility exercises are done in harder exercises where the purpose is to develop other qualities.

Especially in the last few weeks, attention is paid to the development of passive mobility.

Endurance and strength cycles develop dynamic mobility as described above. During speed periods, mobility is maintained during warm-ups and recoveries.

Mobility as a characteristic develops slowly, especially young people in the growth phase may lose their mobility at a certain stage, despite extensive mobility training. However, with regular exercise, mobility improves as long as the body stops growing. Mobility is also a very individual characteristic, some people naturally have it much more than others.