Okay I have sorted out a couple of small niggles with the blog to do with session information, please let me know if you see any problems.

My next step is to adapt the themes so as to make the blog fit the rest of the site layout. That is my next step.

Hi all,

I am migrating to this new blog, I have added the posted from the bloglines blog to this one as an archive. ( http://www.bloglines.com/blog/LanceW/ )

I need to do some magic to move the feedburner feed etc.

If any posts are missing details and you want to see the original head back to Bloglines. I should point out that I am not moving from Bloglines for any bad reason, merely because I get too little data on who hits it, so moving back to the main site keeps things together.

Well, comments welcomed, etc.

Lance

September 18, 2006
Sync'ing my life.

By LanceW

Over the weekend I managed to get myself sync'ed up (finally) between my phone and Mac laptop.

Bit less easy than I would have liked as I have 4.44 firmware on my Nokia 9500, so syncml (apparently) does not work syncing to iSync 2.3. So... a small investment later I had the appropriate plugin for isync.

Oh look, that doesn't work.
A quick re-read of the website and there it is, you have to install an agent on the mobile (not necessary of 5.x firmware it seems). So on it went and amazingly it all worked.

I am now finally able to sync my calendar in iCal to my mobile. Those of you long-time readers will remember that I have for a long time had my phone sync'ing to schedueworld (www.scheduleworld.com). Which syncs to most things (not iCal though!).

But I'm happy enough now, I can sync my iCal to my Nokia 9500, and my Nokia to Scheduleword. All good!

If anyone wants to do the same thing, do let me know! :-)

Lance

* Posted on: Mon, Sep 18 2006 7:00 PM

September 16, 2006
iTV vs. ITV.

By LanceW

Just a quick one, not searched the blogosphere for this one, but has Apple bothered to check if iTV is going to be possible in the UK where ITV the TV channel lives?

Given the popularity if ITV as a brand, and probably not just in the UK, I would suspect that they would have a good case against Apple using iTV as a brand outside of the UK also.

Anyone seen or heard or thought about this?


* Posted on: Sat, Sep 16 2006 7:32 PM

September 6, 2006
A quick update...

By LanceW

Hi all,
just thought I'd blog. Tonight has been (yet) another night sat with the laptop working on my assignments for the FDSC course. I have really been enjoying this Talent Identification assignment, possibly too much!

I have read way too much, which has made writing the assignment far harder than it might have been if I'd had less content to play with. I really have enjoyed digging and digging and digging! But I have forced myself to stop now and have been filling out all the structure for the assignment.

As of Monday, I'll be 2/3 of the way through my degree.
I am really hoping that the plans to extend the course into masters and maybe even Phd. level do happen. Not sure if my brain is up to the challenge of the higher levels but I'd really want to do it and the Phd. in particular has my attention as it is (I understand) research based.

On that subject, I have a draft summary of the data collected from the Commonwealths completed which I have sent to a cople of people to read through before I post it. Do let me know if you'd like to proof read it.

In other news.... not a lot really!
Just hard work on assignments!

* Posted on: Wed, Sep 6 2006 9:44 PM

August 25, 2006
Wireless hotspots are great

By LanceW

Ok,

it's official wireless hotspots are terrific.
I am presently sitting a Cologne/Koln airport and am able to check email, catch up on other messages, blogs and of course blog here.

My little Mac has earned it's place in my heart this trip.
Bootcamp is terrific, the first time I've really used it for an extended period. The ability to switch to the dreaded Windoze and run applications I need is a big bonus.

I have a demo of parallels workstation installed and forgot to even try that. Damn, that would have been interesting. I am hoping that VMWares Mac beta comes out soon and I'll do a nice comparison hopefully.

Though given the speed that I get rebooting to XP, I suspect that I'll end up just rebooting when I need Windows. I wonder if my VCP entitles me to the (approaching) Mac version of VMWare workstation.

Well, I have surfing to do, catch y'all later.

Lance

* Posted on: Fri, Aug 25 2006 6:08 PM

August 24, 2006
The German One

By LanceW

Gutentag all, here I am writing a blog from Sunny Koblenz in Germany. I am just sitting down to a meal, what it is I am not sure. My German is non-existant! Note to all parents (and self) all kids should do languages. Was supposed to be flying home tonight, but circumstances have worked against me and lo' here I am for a second night. To be fair if I didn't have a cracking headache I would not be complaining Couldn't find a Judo club, sure there must be one, but the Hotel couldn't find one. And I know few German Judo and nine from this area. Oh well.

* Posted on: Thu, Aug 24 2006 5:43 PM

August 5, 2006
FdSc block 2 complete

By LanceW

Hi all,

well the block is over and it was as always an enjoyable, challenging and motivating adventure.

Everytime I go to Bath I come back with so many ideas and new projects, it's terrific. This time all the work on Talent ID has merged with the analysis work from the last block (and commonwealths).
I spent some time working it the research in the first week but the work load in the second week precluded doing so in the second.

We have plenty of homework, but I hope to get at least the basic findings from my research up ASAP.

The experience of doing the webside of our debate project has reminded me that my website looks like death warmed up! So I must MUST update it.

Speaking of which, the www.judoaoch.com/debate website had about 30,000 hits last week, 23,000 on the day of the debate. I should also mention that the initial rough draft video of the debate is also online, go take a look at the webcast.
WARNING: it's 110mb, an hour+ plong and theres lots of people being introduced etc etc.

Anyway... Hot as hades tonight, so sitting with the laptop is becoming uncomfortable.

* Posted on: Sat, Aug 5 2006 9:05 PM

August 4, 2006
Debate over!

By LanceW

Hi All,

another terrific day at Bath.
Today we held our academic debate on Judo Ne-waza. specifically on "This house believes that there should be more Ne-Waza in Judo"

My role as official class geek, was to take care of Audio visual and IT matters. So I organised the powerpoint and cameras and the audio stream & now the webcast, whilst everyone else got on with the debate.

I was so flooded with stuff to do that I onely really got an opportunity to enjoy the debate when I watched it, whilst encoding the video from cameras.

I watching the video footage was so impressed by the speakers, I think each of them during their speeches real caught the audience and carried them with them. It was gebuinely a privaledge to have been part of it.

I have so much respect for the four students who stood up and spoke, I couldn't have done it, let alone done it aswell as they did. I am rubbish at that sort of thing, let alone managing to speak well when you know that the audio is being streamed to at least 7 or 8 countries and that you are being recorded on 3 cameras and that the video is going to be watched by so many people! The hot rate on the site (www.judocoach.com/debate) has been amazing! Hundreds of visitors and thousands of hits.

I have enjoyed being involved in this experience like you can't believe. I feel like a part of history. The debate I hope will become a regular fixture as based on the response we have received it wil certainly be repeated.

To those of you who emailed me directly or via debate@judocoach.com, thank you so much for your support, for your comments and disagreement. The debate has certainly flamed teh spirit of debate and encouraged lots of people to email me with their view, please do keep the emails coming as it's what we were hoping to promote, rational, reason debate on an important Judo topic.

Cheers to all the Year Two FdSc students, its bean one amazing project, three days and look what was achieved!

Lance

* Posted on: Fri, Aug 4 2006 2:34 AM

August 3, 2006
FdSc Update

By LanceW

Whoah....

The blog has been neglected!
Sorry all you avid readers. This week has been mad!
We have had both a group presentation and an Academic Debate to get done this week.

I was lucky to land in the group with Bob, Dave, Simon, Steve & Tony.
We made our presentation this morning and we all felt it went really well. For those of you who have been reading this blog for a while, you'll know that the group presentations have been a disaster for me generally. So it was a really big achievement to walk out feeling like we/I did a decent job.
Wouldn't have happened without our unique group. Cheers guys!

This week has been dominated by the Debate.
All of us on year two of the course are involved in putting together the debate we are holding on Thursday (oh grief thats today!)
As resident geek on the course, I have been busy putting all the techie bits and bobs together. So the website (http://www.judocoach.com/debate) and the powerpoint and today the big achievement was sorting out a server so we can stream the audio from the debate live onto the web!

It's been awesome the response we've had. There is a link on the EJU website, disussion on the judoforum.com website and also on the britishjudo.org forum.

The hit rate is climbing steadily and it's a buzz I tell ya.

It's fantastic to be part of something that is so innovative in Judo terms and that is being supported from Poland to Canada!
Everyone is pulling together and it's going to be great.

Tonight we went out with Simon Jenkins, one of our favourite lecturers . I was really happy that a good group of us made it into Bath and Simon was able to share some good real ale with us.
Simon is leaving the University and I for one shall be sad to see him go!

Anyway, it's now past 3am and I still have one more job to do for the morning, so I need to stop blogging and get back to work!

Please stick your head in the door at http://www.judocoach.com/debate and take a look and even better if you have a comment please email it to debate@judocoach.com

Night all.

* Posted on: Thu, Aug 3 2006 2:14 AM

July 31, 2006
Bath University FdSc course - Year Two, Block 2, Day 6

By LanceW

Hi all,

here I am back in Bath. This week I am staying in student accomodation rather than off campus like ast week.

Today we had two lectures with Dr. Lisa McIver and a sports deelopment session with Wayne and a session working on our debate with Mike & Nick.

Both Lisa's lectures were related to the excellent work she has been doing one the BJS (british Judo Association) LTAD (Long term athlete development).
The first was focussed more on Talent ID, the second more on the pathways of an athlete in the LTAD programme. The BJA is putting alot of work into this concept and personally I think that is a good thing. It's good to see the efforts the BJA is putting into trying to do right by everyone in the sport.

Waynes lecture, by his own admission was dry/dull. Lots of hard yards on the subject of Government agendas and how that filters down through the layers.

We spent some time getting organised on the Debate we are staging this Thursday (please see my previous post). I am tasked with all things geeky which is a nice change/relief. I have designed and uploaded the website, tahts a start.
I am hoping the event goes well and that the debate becomes a much larger and important annual event. It's such an opportunity to promote discussion, reflection and debate about our sport.

Lisa's second (and keynote) lecture was specifically about the LTAD programme. I was very impressed, although somewhere nagging in the back of my mind beyond where I can see/hear it is a doubt or an argument waiting to express itself. I have a nagging feeling that something is not hunky dory with the LTAD, but damned if I could articulate it.

I must crack on with my statistical work, as poeple are showing interest. So shall try to find time to do it this week. That said, this week is getting rather bust what with our group presentations, the debate and an assignment to complete.

I shall struggle on :-)

Lance


* Posted on: Mon, Jul 31 2006 11:05 PM

2006 Bath University Judo Debate

By LanceW

For those of you interested, as part of our course work for the FDSC we are staging a debate.

www.judocoach.com/debate

The above is a link to the site I have quickly thrown together to promote and host the information on the debate. We are looking into streaming the debate if possible, at a minimum it shall be available on the internet afterwards hopefully.

I hope you will al support it and visit the site and maybe even attend the debate this Thursday.

Lance

* Posted on: Mon, Jul 31 2006 7:15 PM

July 29, 2006
Friday FdSc

By LanceW

Hi all,

Friday (yesterday now), was a great day.
Nick took us in the morning through some genetic talent ID which was really interesting.

In The afternoon we had Simon Timson from Bob Skeleton. They have done incredibly well considering they have very little funding and less facilities.

They have a well developed talent identification programme in place and it has been serving them well. He shared some really interesting ideas that I think are of great use to us in Judo.
I think (especially for smaller nations like NZ) that Talent ID can help us considerably, also some efforts on Talent Selection can help make best use of the funding we are able to scrape together.

His later (keynote) lecture on "Polishing Talent" was well received and very interesting. In Bob Skeleton they are putting alot of time effort and resources into team dynamics. Social Cohesion as Simon terms it, was raised also by Kyn Gunson.

I could see the the benefits from my past, the strength of the relationship between myself and my team mates from my Judo club was a key ingredient in our success.

I can see a new way of running Judo perhaps. Modelling on the Bob Skeleton lessons. Smaller "tighter" teams that spend more time overseas together. More effort spent getting a close knit team, so that when they travel they help each other.
It fits with some of my older ideas from last year, those ideas were about creating a support team that is in fact your fellow competitiors.
For example, at the Commonwealth's, I was compiling my statistics all day working away, most of the athletes were not involved in fighting and had no real focus.
I could see a good system where the entire team help with support roles, from taping fingers, to collecting stats, to coaching matside.

I am home again, briefly, back to Bath on Monday. Next week I will be staying on campus which will be much better in terms of full immersion in the Bath environment. I have felt quite removed from everything this last week.

We have quite a bit of work to do next week, so blog postings may be shorter. Which might be a releief to some. ;-)

* Posted on: Sat, Jul 29 2006 11:33 AM

July 27, 2006
Day3, FDSC Year 2, Block 2

By LanceW

Hi all, a good day today. Again much of our time was spent on Talent Identification. Well... actually most of the day was on talent development. Hmmm.... there seems a groowing impression that talent identification for Judo is not possible. I disagree (of course) I think the lecturers have been very honest, they have basically all started the lecture with "I am supposed to talk about Talent ID in Judo, but I'm going to talk about Talent Development. Personally, I think its a shame that the coaches are not being exposed/encouraged to explore talent ID. In New Zealand I think we really did do talent ID. Perhaps it was not a formal system, but every year Ben (National Coach) held a camp for kids, young adults, even squad players. So as a youngster, every year I went to the camp, and Ben got to see me, He saw all the up and coming kids for 3-5 years before they hit their mid to late teens. So by the time our good potential reached the right age to start working with, Ben knew a bit about us. The old saying was that if you had "it" you knew because Ben had nicknamed you. (to his credit Ben gave everyone nicknames!) It is a shame to see Talent ID basically being ignored. Bens method was not scientific, but it was a system and it worked. I liked Roy Inman's take on talent ID under his helm. Unlike Ben/NZ he had system based around creating the idea that the british trials were where Roy spotted talent. So people knew where to get seen, and Roy could know that the potentials would be there. Of course it relies on a pool of fighters showing up and fighting. Much like the Japanese system it was based on results. Later Wayne Lakin, spoke to us about much of the work Leicester Tigers (Rugby club) are doing with there youth academy. The garage gym was excellent "Kiwi Ingenuity". The main message was that as coaches we need to be building physical preparation in at a younger level, so that kids are "trained to train" Last we had Syd Hoare's keynote lecture. It was a repeat with vaariations on the speech he gave last year on the history of Judo. He is such a fountain of historical knowledge, it is such a privelege to meet and listen and speak with him. I should mention that the first Judo book my parents bought me as a child was one of Syd's. Till tommorow folks, goodnight.

* Posted on: Thu, Jul 27 2006 9:01 PM

July 26, 2006
FdScYear2Block2-Day3

By LanceW

Hi all, another interesting day here at the University of Bath. We started with Juergen Klinger, who shared some personal experiences to do with the players he has worked with previously in Germany. He was very candid and I really like his connection to his athletes. He seems very concentrated on the mental/emotional elements of the role of the coach. He seems a believer in the theory that a strong mental/emotional/spirit is the key attribute to look for in athletes. Our second lecture was Mike Callan giving the lecture I asked for in the first or second week of the first year. His lecture was on the development of Team Bath and the Team Bath Judo programme specifically. Personally, I am a huge fan of what exists in Bath. The Judo programme is exceptional and should/could be a model for other universities and in my situation for other countries. I genuinely believe that the TeamBATH model could/should be adapted for New Zealand Judo. We would need to make some changes to suit our kiwi peculiarities of course, but the core concepts in the programme are excellent. The afternoon was with Jonathan Robinson, one of the sports scientists here in Bath. He covered some of the physiological testing barrage that Judo athletes here have the opportunityto use. He also covered some more general concepts in the use of physiology for Talent ID. I found he work really interesting as I have recently been looking at the area of physiological testing and developed my own barrage of field tests. I had intended to test the New Zealand squad at the commomwealth champs last month, but the hour+ it takes to do all the tests semed infeasibile, so I focussed on the notational analysis. However, the process really had be primed to absorb as much of Jonathans work as possible. Lastly I worked with my group on our presentation on a development programme analysis. Which helped get things heading along a good path for next week. During the breaks in the day I was able to work on my data from the commonwealths. It is getting there and I hope to write a web page about it this week. I also was able to share the SJFI - Special Judo Fitness Index spreadsheet with some more coaches which was nice. (do email me if you'd like a copy) After the work was done, I had an opportunity to take my wife and 3-year old twins around the campus and show the the beutiful Dojo at the University. It was another busy and worthwhile day, can't wait till the next one. Lance.

* Posted on: Wed, Jul 26 2006 5:27 PM

July 25, 2006
Judo FdSc Bath Day 2

By LanceW

Day two is over. Tiring day with lots of content packed in. The morning started with Juergen Klinger, who is now based in Bath University. He (as did all our lecturers today) spoke on Talent Identification. He had some interesting insights from Germany. The second lecture of the day was the highlight for me. Lyn Gudron, netball coach and kiwi. She really highlighted to me the lack of real talent Iidentification in Judo. They have scouts, structures and a system that is really impressive. In the afternoon we had two lectures from Takenari Asanuma. He is a Judo Therapist who along with telling us about Judo Therapy also shared his experience and views of the Talent ID / development systems of Japan & the USA. The lack Judo in schools and in particular at College/University seemed to be key when it came to USA vs Japan. His second lecture was on his work wih the USA Judo team as a Judo Therapist. Interesting perspective, particularly interesting was his ethicall decisions in regard to treating athletes who choose to continue against his recomendation. We have quite a bit of work to do whilst here this time. I am kind of hoping it'll become more clear as to what we are supposed to be doing as the week goes on and next week when I am "on campus". Being off campus this time is not a good thing, I feel quite removed from everything and am really looking to9 being fully immersed next week.

* Posted on: Tue, Jul 25 2006 5:31 PM

July 24, 2006
Back in Bath - FDSC Year 2 Block 2

By LanceW

Hi again all, well I am happy to say I am back at Bath University for the second block of residential study of Year 2. (of the Foundation Degree in Sports Performance, for those of you vvisiting for the first time.) It is great to be back and I am really excited by the timetable for this block. Today after getting things organised, welcomes etc we had Nick Willsmer in the morning speaking primarily on Talent Identification and also on strength training for children. The section on strength training for kids was particularly enkoyable for me as it went against my "received opinion" that kids should not do strength work. Further he presented evidence to the contrary that it is in fact rather beneficial. One of the great things about this course is that you have the opportunity to have your ideas challenged by peers and by academics. It is rather too easy to stick with the ideas of the past when new research and ideas are coming up all the time. In the afternoon Mike Callan spoke on Sports Development. He covered mainly the "traditional models" and we discussed the limitations of them along with the strengths. Again given the participants, the discussions are as valuable as the lecture content itself. Mike is giving a lecture later in the block on the TeamBATH model and project. Which Was something he mentioned I had asked him to share last year. I am looking forward to this immensely as the setup in Bath is terrific. It looks as if it shall be a busy two weeks with many many lectures. We also have a group presentation to prepare and deliver and written work to produce prior to our leaving on the 4th. This week, I am in fact not staying on campus but rather in a cottage outside Bath with my wife and kids. So I am disconnected from broadband etc. I am suspicious that being absent from the student dorm and bar may actually improve my productivity!! Stay tuned...

* Posted on: Mon, Jul 24 2006 4:37 PM

July 17, 2006
Back to work...

By LanceW

Today I return to work in Basingstoke. The heat from Minneapolis seems to be following me, so a hot day expected! I eventually got out of Gatwick on Saturday just a few minutes after 11am. The bloke at passport control said that there was no incident or anything like that. His reason for the over 2 hours it took? It was the summer rush! Anysone would have thought they had no idea how many people were arriving. Oh thats right they should have known exactly! Just typical, I presume it was a case of put more staff on or save money and make the passengers suffer.

* Posted on: Mon, Jul 17 2006 7:44 AM

July 15, 2006
Still Queueing!

By LanceW

If memory serves people are looking at buying BAA (the airport operators here at Gatwick). Two thoughts on this as I stand here ALMOST down to the floor where the passport control actually starts. 1. Are you stupid! There is obviously some serious issues at work here. It should not take this long to clear customs. 2. Please do buy BAA, its hard to think of being worse organised under new management. Heck, you never know foreign ownership might apply foreign (less keen on queues) standards!

* Posted on: Sat, Jul 15 2006 9:11 AM

Back in the UK

By LanceW

Ok I am (almost) back in the UK. I am in a queue waiting to re-enter the UK. So far I've been in this queue for an hour! Compared to the USA where I was through customs in about 30 minutes. Same size plane, whats the differerence? Grrr..... kack UK service levels again! BooHoo!

* Posted on: Sat, Jul 15 2006 8:51 AM

July 14, 2006
USA Trip, Thursday.

By LanceW

Hi all,
well my trip is almost over, one day left before I fly back to the UK.
Work wise it has been really good, I think I have a good handle on the software I am here to learn about and am looking forward to getting a test environment setup back in the ofice.

Out of work, I have really enjoyed being here, good people and really interesting cultural differences. Service here is great! Tipping (which pains me!) is much less painful to do when you get servicelike I have enjoyed here.

Tonight I visited the Midway Judo Club, in West St. Paul.
I suffered with the heat and humidity (and lack of fitness).
But enjoyed myself immensely and enjoyed finding that the Judo "family" is as welcoming as everywhere else I have been.

I was invited to teach some technique, which I was flattered to do.
Nothing too outrageous, just my little tsurikomi ashi and my O soto gari variation. I also demonstrated the Neil Adams' rolling Juji Gatame, which they were not familiar with. That was a nice bit of karma, showing Neils technique to Americans, especially as I managed to get intoi the Commonwelth tournament the other week as a result of talking to Neil at just the right moment! :-)

Well, it's late here and I need to pack so I can check out in the morning.
I shall be sad to leave Minneapolis, it's been great to be a tourist again. The US has a lot going for it. I could see myself living here, which is a bit of a suprise. I have to confess to have had some negative preconsptions about the US and it's been good to lose them.

Lance.

* Posted on: Fri, Jul 14 2006 4:30 AM

July 11, 2006
Bootcamp

By LanceW

Hi y'all,

well I installed Bootcamp and XP pro tonight.

So my shiny new Mac can run Doze now. Am curious if Parallels can boot the Windows partition from within OSX, anyone know?

Have also installed Qemu, which runs FAST!

SO must download a couple of ISO's and see what I can do.

Only a couple of days in on the Mac experience, but I may be well on my way to an Apple convert. So far OSX has been really slick, stable and fun!

No Judo yet, must try harder.

Lance

* Posted on: Tue, Jul 11 2006 3:08 AM

July 10, 2006
USA Trip

By LanceW

Strangely my previous post disapeared.
Anyway, I am now in the USA. Not permanently, just for a week.

I am over here for work, I am in Minneapolis, which is home of "Mall of America" which is the biggest damn shopping centre I've ever seen or heard of! I spent much of bothSaturday & Sunday in there. It has a fun park inside it, which is kinda cool!

Anyway, I finally took the plung and "invested" in a Mac.
So this is coming direct to you from a MacBook Pro. Nice piece of kit, tommorow I shall be installing Bootcamp so it'll be dual boot into XP.

I am hoping to find some Judo over here, which would be nice.

Anyway, stay tuned for some impressions on Mac and on Bootcamp and of course on the USA. (which I so far am really liking)

* Posted on: Mon, Jul 10 2006 2:53 AM