Training Log Archive: iansmith

Commute via Dupont, Lafferin, Shaw, and Bloor. I stopped at Chipotle.

C • Chipotle 1

Home via Bloor, Shaw, Lafferin, and Dundas.

Humber river run! My legs felt heavy and sluggish for no apparent reason, but I enjoyed the outing. The summer vegetation has filled in, and the valley is alive.

Climbing at Boulderz Climbing Centre (sic) on Dupont St. Since leaving Boston, I haven't done any climbing, and while I was starting to send 5.10 top rope pitches, my technique lacks finesse and relies too much on brute force. Bouldering seems an ideal environment to improve, and Boulderz has some very reasonably priced 10-packs. I plan to go about once per week; it's on my way home. The gym was almost deserted, with only two climbers. My grip strength has waned considerably since I last climbed, but I wandered around on some V0 and V1s.

The OUSA Board had a teleconference meeting yesterday, and its agenda can be found here. In the interest of transparency, for those who read my log, consider this update on our work. I joined the meeting 30 minutes late because I had assumed the meeting was on Wednesday as it had been originally scheduled; this was a failure to use google calendar.

1. A major development was a discussion on the future of the Junior National Coach and program development position, presented by Alex and Erin Schirm, including a proposal for the future. I think Erin's work has been one of the more impactful experiments OUSA has run, and the Junior Programme has benefited enormously. I am curious about ways we can integrate development more broadly - so that clubs would benefit more directly from the national teams and in turn, the national teams would have a larger pool of members.

2. OUSA is still largely broke. While we have enough money in the bank to cover our current commitments, restricted donations, and designated funds, we have about $42k in unrestricted money in the bank. OUSA has about $33k of liabilities, including $11.6k going to the ED, but counting projected income, Pat estimates we will finish the year with $40k unrestricted. Our policy passed in March is that OUSA maintain a minimum balance of 100% of restricted and designated amounts + 25% of annual expenses, so we're still short of that. I'm going to spend a bit of time looking at ways OUSA can further cut expenses and reallocate that money to programming for the 2018 budget - especially relating to growing the sport and club services.

3. The 50th anniversary campaign was run in 2016 to raise funds for a set of four club areas; it raised about $33k. When the funds were raised, there weren't details for what those projects would be beyond the categories, and I think this has been the main obstacle to progress. In March 2017, $1000 was allocated for exploratory work for the club website template, for which Boris and I have been running point. In April, $14.7k was allocated for a Marketing project led by Bob Forgrave and Greg Lennon.

At this meeting, the mapping proposal from Peter Goodwin had $10k allocated to it. This proposal had been brought before the Board in March, but it was not put forward for a monetary allocation because it lacked detail. I was still not satisfied with the amount of detail in the proposal - who will make the webinars, where and when the mapping clinics will be held, how much the clinic money will be allocated to paying instructors and travel fees, and even who will be running the clinics. This doesn't look like a proposal that has had 9+ months to gestate. I considered voting no, but I think it's unlikely further details would be forthcoming, as the previous three months were not revealing. I have no idea how much participation from clubs there will be in this project - for instance, if we make webinars, will anyone use them? That said, the sentiment, chiefly from Peter, was that donors are frustrated with lack of progress on the 50th anniversary. I'm concerned OUSA is spending money without a clear plan simply to show that we're doing something, but it seems late to develop a strategy. Hopefully the program will be productive and useful. I don't like leaving so many of the details up to improvisation by the program director, in this case Peter.

Boris and I also need to move forward on the web template project. Our plan is to have the web template ready by the end of the year, with early adopter clubs using it.

4. While reviewing the finances, the Board voted to give VP Finance Pat Meehan authority to move the books to an online solution when he deems it appropriate. Moving to online accounting is not a panacea - there are underlying problems with our system that have made it virtually opaque to basic accounting questions, but I think an online system that a handful of people can access is reasonable. At present, the Quickbooks accounting exists on one computer with our accountant, Robin. It's not clear when that will be, and as a Finance Committee member, I will provide input.

5. Greg Lennon is stepping down as VP Clubs, and Bob Forgrave of COC has graciously stepped up to take on that role.

6. We still need to improve our communication; I must give this thought. Lots of people are currently contributing - Sandy Fillebrown, Barb Bryant, Boris, and Kris Beecroft among them.

C • Thanks for sharing! 11

Sports psychology and team cohesion is a fascinating area that I'm not that familiar with. For my own athletic pursuits (as they are), I am very much a lone wolf. While I enjoy organized group activities, I find I am more comfortable in situations when I dictate my own activities, when I am the only constraint. I suspect that is a consequence of having small and diverse groups - there aren't enough compatible or like-minded people around me of similar athletic ability, life schedule, and so on. I'm certain that's a limitation - part of athletic training is to be uncomfortable, and that if I had consistently trained with a group daily for the past decade, I would be in a much better state.

But professional athletics gives some interesting insights. I'm not much of a basketball fan, but I did happen to stumble upon the Bulls dynasty from 1995-1998 when I was in middle school. Watching Michael Jordan play was sublime; it was magnificent to behold someone supremely gifted, disciplined, and focused - a true master of his craft. I maintain that the subjective moniker of "Greatest of all time" falls entirely on Jordan in basketball, and I've seen a few documentaries about his career. His defining characteristic was a fanatical desire to win, and accompanying his talent was the discipline and coaching to master fundamental skills and fitness. While that drive by all accounts did positively affect the team, pushing them all to excel, I wonder if a more flexible persona might have yielded even better results. In basketball, I read of other players who were the pillars of their team - e.g. Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and especially contrasting, Tim Duncan.

I imagine the ideal training group composition also varies by sport. Basketball, e.g. is adversarial, whereas running and orienteering are the athlete vs the elements or terrain. Orienteering is also not directly cooperative; the goal of the group is to supply the motivation, the technical environment and lessons, and the reinforcing competitive environment. I have definitely developed more effectively when I had competition near my speed. This is probably a good time to declare a new nemesis or "frenemy," though geography isn't so helpful.

Of course, one absolutely necessary element in virtually all of these iconic athletes is an insatiable pursuit of excellence and mastery. Jordan, Tom Brady, Kasparov, Bruce Fordyce, Thierry Gueorgiou, Kempster, Tove all seem to share this characteristic, and Gladwellian pop-science notwithstanding, it requires inordinate commitment and focus to a craft to master it.

C • . 9