David’s Friday Breakfast: Judging Excellence/Selection Criteria


An awesome photographer taking a picture, Leslie Threlkeld of the USEA

Friday is the most hectic day at the USEA convention with 2-3 events running simultaneously all day.  I’ll do my best to get to as many as possible, but I won’t be able to get to everything.  Friday started with another high performance seminar.  Incoming US coach David O’Connor addressed selection in Friday morning’s high performance seminar.  Below are my notes from the meeting, as always please forgive typos.

David started by reminding the riders of a theme from Thursday morning–everything starts with ambition.  There are only 6 WEG and 5 Olympic spots that the riders are competing for and David described it as a “fight to stand on the podium.”

The Selection Committee:

–Separation and independence: David stressed the importance of keeping the selectors independent.

–David said that the selectors will not be the primary source of information to the athletes, he will be that primary source of information.

–The selectors will be comprised of 4-5 selectors, plus 4-5 scouts.  David mentioned that the selectors are being…selected…today.  The eligible athletes have input on making recommendations about who they want to be selectors.  The scouts will be based around the world to keep the high performance program appraised of what is going on.

Veterinarians:

–The US program will work under a vet team rather than one head vet this year, especially because there are so many competitions in Europe in 2013.

–No vet evaluations on the Monday morning after CCI’s in 2013.  David said that the evaluations will be made during the training sessions rather than after events for 2013.  He said that this means the focus will be very much about prevention of injuries.

–David stressed that there will be evaluations before public (USEF) money is spent on any horses, ie before grants are given, before flights to Europe are paid for.

–David said that he and the vet team will be in the barns at competitions to assist and watch the horses.

Transparency has to work both ways.  David explained that he wants the vet team to be transparent with the riders and that he wants the riders to be transparent with him about what is going on with their horses.

–David explained the difference between a horse being “hurt” and “injured.”  He said when a horse gets hurt, such as by a heel grab, it can be helped and healed quickly.  An injury would be a more serious situation needing longer recovery.  David stressed that the vet team will be talking about being hurt and injured and that when riders watch other horses jog at team events they shouldn’t be as worried about speculating because a horse might be hurt or injured.

Farriers:

–Veteran farrier Stephen Teichman will continue to head the farrier team for US eventing high performance.  David stressed that Steve will not be the one and only farrier riders can use and that if riders have a good farrier program already then their farriers will continue to shoe the horses.  Steve will be there to help assess each horse and help out when necessary.

–The US squad will use several farriers for trips because there are so many trips planned for 2013 and it would be impossible for any one farrier to make all of the trips while maintaining their home practice.

 

Selection Timeline (Earlier Selections):

–Application deadline for trips up to July 1 will be March 15.  Recall that David said yesterday that he wants the riders to be the driver for pushing their horses to a particular trip because that competition fits their horses.  The theme of a rider-driven program continues.

–David explained that the travel grants for 2013 competitions will be around $20,000.  This will cover the flight and

–Application deadline for events July 1-Nov 1 will be July 1 (approximately).

–David said there are two philosophies: select early or select late.  Early selection allows riders to build continuity and camaraderie before events, while late selection keeps the riders on edge and fighting at their absolute maximum.  David said that he has decided to go with the early selection route because he is such a big believer in team building and morale amongst a team.

–WEG 2014 decisions will be made July 1st (approximately)

–David hopes that four pairs will be sent to Saumur, four sent to Aachen for the nation’s cup team competition, and helpfully 6 for Boekelo.  David said the exact number of pairs for many of the trips are still being set and that they depend on funding and event entry availability.  His hope is for many riders to find ways to fund trips before they receive “public money” so that they can get good experience before they reach the level of getting grants.

–2015 Pan Am Game selections made by June 15th (approximately)

–2016 Olympic Games selection decisions by June (15th)

–The USEF’s Jim Wolf chimed in that the exact selection dates are approximate right now, but the point is that the team has adopted the philosophy of selecting earlier.

–David then said the riders won’t like this next part…He said that the selectors will be able to remove a pair from the team for a subjective reason other than soundness.  He said that the tendency for first time selectees is to get too conservative with their competition program once they have been selected because they want to go so badly.  He said that he wants pairs to prepare the same way for a team competition that they would for any other major competition.  Reasons include loss of form or not preparing a horse to necessity.

–David said that making team selection earlier is a big change.  He said that this is the first time since he has known the US program that things will be done this way.  He is a big believer in this, but if riders challenge it then we will have to revert back to the old system of last minute selections.

 

Expectations:

–Dressage: Better than 70% in the dressage (45.0 in FEI terms).  David explained that he wants the 70% to be a “body of work on every horse at every level.”  He said that he is going to give the riders 4 months on every horse they ride to reach the 70% mark at every level.  He consulted Marilyn Payne to chime in that a 7 for dressage judges means “fairly good.”  He said “I want you to walk out of the ring on a training horse and ask yourself ‘would that have benefited the USA?'”  He wants the riders to put pressure on themselves because we are on an island and don’t have many other nations around us (like Europe) to put pressure on us.

–XC: The ability to be quick and clean in any situation (within 10 seconds).  David said that he knows no one should push their horse for time all the time at national horse trials, but he wants riders to tell him before they leave the box so that they can judge themselves at the end.  He said that he believes in clicking watch at beginning and then not looking at it until the end as an exercise to get a rider better at judging pace.

— SJ: The ability to jump clean in many situations, horse’s comfort level, surfaces and weather (never more than one rail).

–David says that he isn’t looking for pairs that go to a big event, have a problem, and then go and do well and another big event soon thereafter.  He said the Olympics is about one day and that he wants riders who can step up on every big day.

 

Selection System:

David’s selection system is inspired by football and baseball scouting systems.  His goal was to create a scoring system for objective and subjective scoring system.

Objective criteria:

–Dressage score as an average of percentages i.e 7.5 (score of 1-10).

–XC score (1-10) as an average of performances: 0 points if you didn’t finish, 10 points for clear, 2 points off for each stop, 1 point off for every 10 seconds below fastest time of the day.

–SJ score (1-10): 2 points off for one rail, 3 points for the second rail, 4 points for the third rail

–Soundness (1-10): decided by veterinary team

Subjective Criteria:

–Character (1-5): Does a rider have a positive or negative effect in a team environment?  How does a rider handle travel, how do they handle team situations, etc.

–Will and ability to win (1-5): Big day temperament

–Experience in CCI’s and team competitions (1-5)

–Suitability of combination for planned event (1-5)

–Rider instinct and technique (1-3)

–Rider fitness and soundness (1-3).  David says that he wants to build better criteria for riders in coordination with the USOC than just cardio strength, etc.

–Four-star results will have an objective criteria and soundness multiplied by 1.5.  As a result, four stars will be 70% objective and 30% subjective, three-stars will be 60% objective and 40% subjective.  There will be scores for CCI****’s, CCI3*’s, and CIC3*’s as averages over the past 2 years.

David said that this criteria is still a work in progress.  He has spoken with USOC folks and they said that other sports have used numeric processes with considerable success.  He explained that they have tested this system with riders to see how it works and it actually works pretty well.  This will be used as a guide for selection, but perhaps more importantly it will be used to provide riders and owners with feedback on how their programs are working.  David said that there will be some subjectivity particularly because of trends in the final 6 months before selection.  David said that there are only 2-3 people with an average dressage score above 70%–this isn’t nearly good enough and one of David’s big goals is to raise this figure.

Go eventing.

 

In case you missed it, here are recaps of David’s seminars yesterday:

David’s Breakfast: The Road to Excellence

David’s Lunch: Technical Training

Eligible Athletes and Owners Task Force: Much more from David

 

1:58pm Update: I want to make a quick note that all of the changes that David is discussing are pending approval by our friends on the USEF High Performance Committee.  David made this clear at the beginning of his Wednesday seminar, which I missed due to travel.  The High Performance Committee meets at 5pm today, and my hope and expectation is that David will get to implement his new systems without hindrance.

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