Lake Park Jumps Coach Tom Kaberna starts his seasonal series on the jumps. Today, Tom talks about his coaching approach for the 2013 season.

Welcome to 2013! Special thanks goes to Mike Newman for getting this all together to make the sport better.

In the past year I have had the opportunity to go to a weeklong multi-events training class in Houston to get better at coaching in the summer for our club and had the opportunity of watching a master coach work with some of my better athletes. I also had the opportunity to host my own clinic where I could share the things that I have learned along the way with other coaches interested in improving or gathering new ideas.

Along the way my brain took in what was happening and in turn I have made some subtle changes to how I coach this year. The seniors I currently have always give me crap that I change everything each year. I think they actually believe what they are saying but in looking back at the training theory and technical piece I have used I am only changing a little. It is easy for anyone to do the same things each and every year especially if you have had success.

I challenge you to take a look in the mirror to see if you are doing what is best for your athletes. If you are a coach of a male team and have been at this a long time and believe you know it all look at the attached excel file which breaks down each event by school with the results at state in the last 15 years (Thanks to Joey Pacione). If you aren’t in the top 5 of your bread and butter then maybe what you are doing isn’t working and you need to make a change. Even if you are in the top 5 or at the very top then strive to stay there because it is easy to get complacent in anything you do and there are always good coaches coming up.

I will talk about my training theory and the technical model I employ and the subtle changes I am going to make this year compared to last year in the upcoming posts as well as let you in on what I am doing daily.

Let’s make this year the best for our athletes so we can look back and know we did everything we possibly could to make sure they are as successful as they can be.