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+--- Thread: Lothians congress/Dalguise (/thread-57.html)
Re: Lothians congress/Dalguise - robin moore - 02-10-2011
Mike,
Yes, basically that would be the long term aim.
Now then, a few points of great interest from our tour yesterday....
We were very impressed with Dalguise. It is a terrific outward bound centre in a beautiful part of rural Perthshire with fantastic facilities including quad biking, zip wire, assault courses and muck in plenty ! The recently built lodge accomodation is excellent, en-suite bathroom for every room etc. The day is made up of team building exercises guided by first class staff that are solely dedicated to your group for the weekend. At 7pm chess starts, when everyone has had dinner and cleaned up. The chess is lower key, 3 allegro rounds on the Friday night, with 3 more on the Saturday night but fits ideally into the framework of the weekend. We had an opportunity to speak to not only establshed older juniors like Sam Gregory and Matthew Thomas, but also rapidly improving younger players like Colin Howie, Leora Wadler and Iona Bryson to name just a few of the 32 juniors that were there. John and Lynsey Shovlin deserve enormous thanks for making this weekend so professional and organised over the last 8 years. David Grant and Vivek Pathi were on hand to give valuable help. A wonderful opportunity for parents to send their chess playing offspring to have a fun weekend, play chess and make new friends in a very professional setup.
It was a good opportunity yesterday also for Paul and I to meet juniors and parents at the Lothians congress. I am obviousy particularly pleased with the fantastic positive feedback we are getting from the Euroyouths in Bulgaria. Paul was most impressed with the overall standard of play of our juniors, some of whom he had not met before. It seemed a shame to us that these two events clashed. I am sure that there must have been a lot of juniors that would have liked to attend both of these excellent events but were unable to do so because of the clash of dates. It is possible that the Lothians congress lost around a dozen or so entries because of this date problem. Perhaps in the future this issue could be resolved to everyone's advantage.
We also have a coaching issue.
Liam Richmond is travelling to Hamilton from Oban for coaching.
Iona Bryson is travelling from Dumfries to Hamilton for coaching.
Declan Shafi is looking for a coach in the Dundee area.
I thought it would be a good idea to put this on here first to make everyone aware of the situation and hopefully some people will come forward once they see this obviously worrying situation. Please get in touch with anyone involved in junior chess like Paul, Phil or myself if you feel that you or someone you know can be of assistance. It would be most appreciated.
Robin.
Re: Lothians congress/Dalguise - Hugh Brechin - 03-10-2011
Quote:Yes if they are focused on actually learning in that environment but the report I got back from those sessions were that some of the juniors were only there for the social jolly.
Possibly true for some, but I think for the vast majority that's at best an exaggeration. I had a great time at some of those events, but the chess was the main focus (though I do remember Neil Berry giving me and David Oswald the sort of looks that he now reserves for our positions in club matches).
I thought they were really good actually: with a relatively low time and money commitment you got small-group coaching sessions with some very strong players in a location that was convenient for just about everyone. I think it's the sort of thing CS should be looking to recreate, frankly.
Re: Lothians congress/Dalguise - robin moore - 03-10-2011
Hugh Brechin, Calum McQueen, David Oswald, Neil Berry. Are you thinking this is a report on the club championship at Slovenia ? No, it's just a few of the players that have been to Dalguise and had a great time. Do you think we will be recommending it to all in the future ? You better believe we will ! A truly fantastic place, professionally and enthusiastically run, fairly priced and a terrific team building chess option for all juniors.
Robin.
Re: Lothians congress/Dalguise - Mike Scott - 04-10-2011
Quote:We also have a coaching issue.
Quote:... is travelling to Hamilton ... for coaching.
Robin - does Michael know that you think that getting coached in Hamilton is bad for your chess?
BTW not sure I follow your follow-up to Hugh's comment on Donna's large squad system - not sure why you were referencing the club champs?
Re: Lothians congress/Dalguise - Phil Thomas - 04-10-2011
Mike Scott Wrote:Quote:We also have a coaching issue.Quote:... is travelling to Hamilton ... for coaching.
Robin - does Michael know that you think that getting coached in Hamilton is bad for your chess?
BTW not sure I follow your follow-up to Hugh's comment on Donna's large squad system - not sure why you were referencing the club champs?
Little bit of clarification needed here chaps
During Summer 2010 when the only local club open was Hamilton I invited the youngest players going to Euroyouth 2011 to come along to the Hamilton club for coaching. Apart from local players the most notable attendees were Liam from Oban and Iona from Dumfries. Robin, don't worry abut the Hamilton influence on the development of these players Michael was catering manager on those occasions
....What this does demonstrate very strongly is the major input put in by our top parents.
I also need to mention that Liam had at that time substantial assistance from Duncan Campbell at the Oban chess club. Which perhaps confirms that once a week training is not enough.
Re: Lothians congress/Dalguise - robin moore - 04-10-2011
Phil,
Thanks for clarifying that. I obviously simply do not want to lose any of our juniors because they or their parents feel they have too far to travel for regular quality coaching (like they have at Hamilton).
Robin.
Re: Lothians congress/Dalguise - Phil Thomas - 04-10-2011
robin moore Wrote:Phil,
Thanks for clarifying that. I obviously simply do not want to lose any of our juniors because they or their parents feel they have too far to travel for regular quality coaching (like they have at Hamilton).
Robin.
Not top quality coaching - it was me =o (mostly).
Hamilton club though do have some excellent coaches but like most adults members attendance is light through the summer months.
Re: Lothians congress/Dalguise - AndrewGreen - 05-10-2011
Like Hugh I thoroughly enjoyed those training days. Instead of travelling just use Playchess and Skype? Maybe we should freshen up the coaching page and push online coaching more?
Re: Lothians congress/Dalguise - robin moore - 05-10-2011
Andrew,
Thank you for the valuable coaching you have already been doing for Scottish juniors. I think I am correct in saying one of them had a fantastic result at the Lothians congress. Paul MacDonald and I would love to hear your views and any others similarly involved in junior coaching, past, present and future. Everything is and will be considered so please explain how you normally work, with advantages and disadvantages. Everyone please feel free to voice their opinion and give suggestions. We want the best workable and available systems in place for our growing number of rapidly improving juniors.
PS I was meant to give you Alan Tate's trainers at the Lothians but I forgot !
Robin.
Re: Lothians congress/Dalguise - robin moore - 05-10-2011
Well, I will start things off. I am not a top class player or anywhere remotely near it. I spent the months before going to the Euros panicking over what I would be capable of doing. Iain Swan at the Czech Open recommended the book Endgame Strategy by Shereshevsky (it was later confirmed by a Russian GM coach at the Euros as being ideal for our purposes). I got the book, and loved the common themes approach that led to forming a plan when assessing an endgame position. It's not rocket science, I feel I am able to come across confidently and from the feedback I have received the squad in Bulgaria loved the training sessions. As we moved on through the event, from about the 4th lesson all were beginning to get a fair idea of the themes/plan approach and by about the 7th lesson some were getting really good at it. As a novice coach I had identified an area where I could work away comfortably leaving the heavy duty daily changeable stuff to Alan Tate. Since coming home I have been trying my coaching out on Paul MacDonald, Gary and David Gillespie, Phil, Daniel and Matthew Thomas and it has gone down really well. I know my limitations and I am sticking to them. We want to use this Shereshevsky book as a standard for our juniors because it doesn't matter what your grade is, as long as you can convey the assessment/ themes/ plan approach consistently it works. I am in the process of inviting parents to bring their children down to my bit in sunny Prestwick by the sea to do endgame training.
Robin.