Protection Newbees

When I used to play for the QEII club in Christchurch NZ, they had a set of blue and yellow sticks, (basic shape). If there were red caps spare and we made some yellow gloves (we were having an influx of schools players at the time).

Beginner strikes were also common. It is still amazing to watch a beginner player swim that last 5 metres, further than they have ever done before and score a goal.

it has to be something on the hand/stick to differenciate them

most of the players that can't differenciate between new/expierenced opponents are too dumb to notice even the brightest of caps

Couldn't aggree more Todd, thats why we had the basic sticks, painted blue or yellow, along with the gloves. Both were more important than the hat.

Perhaps I'm in the minority here, but as a newbie myself, I don't like the idea of being patronised because of it. I'f I'm playing in a b-grade team, I expect people should play to their full potential against me. If it's a scratch game with top-level players, I expect that they will use their own judgement as to how to play, knowing that the skill levels in the pool will be varied, not just becuase of a newbie.

I would prefer to know how I really stack up against other players, not score goals becuase people feel sorry for me.

FreediveNZ this is really a complicated topic in some ways. Firstly around most of the world the UWH is scratch games, or pick-up games, where we may or may not have an organized or official club, but we have a pool and a group dedicated to playing once, twice, three times a week. What is considered a newbie will vary from location to location along with the individual. See in most places we are so concerned with just growing the numbers of players, we want to encourage any warm body that shows some interest in the game to keep playing. So we are left with a HUGE disparity in ability and general athletic talent when we talk about "newbies". Sadly in the states anyway, the number of true athletes trying the sport for the first time are greatly outnumberd by the number of non-athletes.

I call two different clubs home and we have drastically different ways of dealing with newbies. My true home club is small and stays that way because of the way we treat them. Basically they have a practice or two to get comfortable in the water and we will most of the time allow them to swim only slightly contested with the puck for a couple times, and then if they show potential try and work with them on an individual baiss more. outside of game play. If they don't show that potential, we let them play, but treat them as anyone else and they will either get better or they won't, they will either keep coming or they leave. Most leave, thus most nights for the last few years we've had totals of like 7 or 8 players show up. But the ones that do keep coming are competitive and show at least some potential.
Club Puck just a few hours away is the team I normally travel to tournaments with and will practice there when I can. They are the largest group in the US. They TRY to encourage and play newbies along the lines of earlier posts. Recently (started since my last post in this thread) they've started training the rookies completely seperatly for a couple hours once a week outside of normal play. When they are experienced enough and show interest they can move up to the normal mixed level games. This is very individualized based on their ability. Still though some of these folks need seperate treatment, to you it is patronizing, but part of the issue is the level of comfort UNDER the water which is new to a lot of these folks who may otherwise be decent athletes, and their ability to kick fins. The fashion in which you came to the sport i'm guessing comfort underwater and kicking fins were something you didn't need to adjust to.

I'm guessing you would fare well in either of our clubs, and may enjoy play in both if this is where you'd started playing, however there are some folks out there that need the soft treatment, some places that is encouraged, some places its not.

BTW: Newbie strikes are critical, everywhere. In some games its the only time they touch the puck.

We started a membership drive with my club in the Netherlands, and this was one of the main problems we identified with retaining the people who show an interest in the game.

Traditionally new players get shown some skills by whoever happens to be injured or feeling guilty for them at the time, and then they are introduced into the social games at the club. It is then pretty much sink or swim for them, and most leave after a time because there are people who do not allow them to participate in the game. Most have to overcome the problems with learning to snorkel at an appropriate level to be able to participate in the game.

I took a leaf out of the book of OVA (Amsterdam), and got hold of their training program which was designed for new players (cost was that I contribute new material/exercises to the package so that they also got some benefit from us using it).
It contained a series of exercises designed to introduce new people to the sport - skills are introduced and the group being trained does some fitness/snorkelling exerciss, some technique and plays a game every training. This continues under the supervision of different people from the club for up to 3 months and then the players are introduced into the feeding frenzy that are our club games.

This worked well, although we needed to give more thought to aftercare once they were introduced into the club game. We ended losing some/most anyway, I think we needed to continue training them and encouraging them to continue to improve. This is the responsibility of the whole club, but I think that most of the club forgot that and left it up to individuals.

If anyone is interested in seeing the set of exercises and schedules that was developed let me know and I will check with OVA whether I can publish it. It is sort of their IP still.

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Faster than a speeding puck...

Freedivenz - newbies differ greatly in water confidence, ability to get to the bottom of the pool, skills, determination, speed and a variety of other things. Some people when the first start playing, struggle to get to the bottom of the pool, and are afraid to touch the puck. These people need to be identified with a bright coloured glove/stick so that when they do get up enough courage to try and touch the puck, they aren't smashed by someone who didn't realise they were a newbie.

When you started you were already extemly water confident, you probably had a better breathold than most people in the pool, and you weren't afraid of the puck, or the people in the water around you. You picked up the idea of the game and some skills pretty quickly and didn't need to be identified as a newbie. Its really a judgement call from whoever is teaching the newbie to play, as to if they think they need the protection of a bright coloured glove or stick. Some people really benefit from it.

In Wellington club games we dont really have a newbie scheme for the protection of newbies. If you had first started playing in Dunedin, you would have been given a red glove on your first night, and everyone would of gone soft against you for awhile until they thought you could handle being beaten up like everyone else.

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If I was given the choice of being able to fly or be invisible..... I would fly.

The key is not to just clear the path and let them score. Let them handle the puck, let them make moves, and let them pass it. But get in front of them and make them earn the goal. If they get in great position for a pass, let the pass go through to allow them a chance to play and to reward the good positioning. If they hold on to the puck too long, take it from them, but first give them a chance. I think back to playing basketball with my older brother's friends as a kid. They were all bigger, faster, and better than me, but they let me pass it to who I was supposed to pass it to and they let me take shots on occassion. I had to earn the rebounds and steals.

One problem that we find with some of our more competitive players is that as the defender is backing off the newbie the competitive teammate will come in from behind and get the back pass then go full tilt into the relaxed defenders and just blow by them. The trailer needs to make a play before picking up the speed again. Respect that the defender let the play happen, don't take advantage of their kindness.

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Just in case you weren't sure, it's official -- CMAS sucks.
Oh yeah, and now they're broke.

Fair comments. As you say, I did come in from a different perspective to most.

However, your difficulties in keeping new players probably don't just stem from treatment during games. From the perspective of an even more fringe sport, getting people to turn up to a freediving course or training session is hard enough, getting them to keep going is another entirely. I did an introductory course with ~25 people, with only three of us still training just three months later. That was considered a good hit-rate. Even with individual coaching of every new member at every session, we lose four out of five. For better or worse, breath hold sports are hard and have a steep learning curve that most people aren't willing to fight through. Some people that have no water confidence may stay with the game, but your retention rate on those that are already comfortable (finswimmers, swimmers, freedivers, spearos) will be higher (but still not high).

Hell, we're struggling to retain the ex-european 50m apnea finswimming champion right now and you can count the number of UWH players that train with us on the fingers of no hands.


Of course, if this does increase hit rates, then feel free to breeze over my comments

i don't mean to be too much of a pedantic prick, but sadly I am one... A steep learning curve means something is easy to learn- not hard. Typical management speak.