Wednesday 30 November 2011

EO Video - Taddymoor Jack

Hello,

The last week or so I have been looking back over the season and decided to plug in my video camera to the computer, and was enjoying looking back at some of our really good runs from what was a very successful season.

So now I have been editing them together and putting them onto YouTube. Now for those who don’t know our internet is via satellite, and the last week I have been trying to upload the first video, I reduced the size many times, and then last night, bang. Straight on and uploaded! No reason for being any better.. it must just be the internet gods playing.

The first video however is from Austria, at the European Open. Of my four runs from the last weekend of July. Jack did his absolute best and I was proud to be a part of team GB.

Now I do look back at my videos, I must have watched it 50 times, and watching it online (once it had actually loaded up) I noticed that there was a somewhat minor inconstancy with my spelling of Austria, apparently I also competed in Austia during the summer also!

Now I tend to hate spelling mistakes. I admit I am truly not a good speller, in fact once I have had to ask how to spell words from someone who’s first language isn’t even English! But I just don’t like spelling errors.

However having finally got this dam video loaded up, it is staying up. Austia or Austria, I’m sure we all get the rough geographical location of where I was competing!

So this hopefully will be the first of a few videos from the summer. I have many of Taddymoor Scotts excellent runs and wins from the summer at KC, and DINAS. It was nice watching them back, partly because it reminded me that we do have nice weather here, and not just rain and wind!

Enjoy and please subscribe to my YouTube account.

Lee



Monday 28 November 2011

Training review: Marc Saunders & Lee Gibson Training Day Sunday 27th November

This weekend has been a really enjoyable one down in the south of England working with Marc Saunders on another of our joint seminars held in Horsham.

On the Friday night we indulged in a bit of social out and about in Crawely town, and on Saturday Marc and I went across London to the Emirates stadium to watch Arsenal v Fulham, Marc is a Fulham fan and I am an Everton fan, but for Saturday I was enjoying watching Fulham gain a valuable point in their bid to avoid relegation!

For the training day Sunday the theme of the day revolved around the type of deceleration and information needed to give your dog maximum efficiency through turns and over the distance between obstacles.

The morning started with an immense rain shower that looked to somewhat dampen everyone’s spirits setting up. I suggest Marc now buys some suitable footwear for training after having wet feet for the day! I was okay in my big ski Jacket and waterproof socks though!

The morning & afternoon groups all worked hard on the exercises we had planned and worked through. We had a summary at the end of each session and the feedback was extremely positive.

Well done to everyone who worked really hard during the day. It was most enjoyable to teach.

My exercises are below, morning and afternoon sessions.


Regards - Lee Gibson

Monday 21 November 2011

Superseminar review Sunday 20th November

Superseminar review Sunday 20th November

Hello,

So for this post no more tales of the supermarket. I haven’t had chance to carry out any new household tasks either, so for now it is all about the agility!

Sunday was the seminar in Worcester. Firstly I would like to say thank you to Alison Naylor and Helen brown for helping me organise the day.

We started at 9.30am with the g3-5 groups split in to two groups of 5, one working with me and the other on free practice on a exercise I had set up. The groups then swapped over.

I then changed the exercise and repeated the process so that everyone on the day got to work 4 exercises, but with specific themes and points being made throughout.

The format for the grades 5-7 session was the same, although the exercises were slightly more advanced for the higher grades.

The themes of the day were

·         Line selection

·         Drive and send away

·         Discrimination

To enable practice specifically on these things I designed sequences that were technically difficult but worked the correct way, enabled a good line and maximum drive, acceleration and deceleration.

Thank you for the great feed back I recieved afterwards. Am always happy that my students go away with hard work done but also a desire to practice whats been learnt, that is a vital part for me.

Course plans were handed out at the end of each of the sessions (morning & afternoon).

Below is a plan of 2 exercises out of the 8 practiced throughout the day.


This week is lessons, followed by a weekend down south with Marc Saunders as we take on our second training day in Horsham, following the success of the first one back in October.

Lee

Friday 18 November 2011

What I learnt this week at the supermarket:

Hello.


This week has been full of lessons which has been good, and also planning the Seminar on Sunday, however to fill the pages on my blog, and maybe a few minutes of your day, I decided to make an account of another kind...


(Thursday) I have just got back from Sainsbury’s, another weekly shop is now done. I am not going to lie, it is never my most enjoyable two hours spent away from the house, but it has to be done.


Since Mum broke her foot and is on crutches it has come down to me to go out every week and bring home the supplies needed for the household. I did suggest internet shopping, however apparently this makes me “a lazy little ***** “


“hmm... okay, well love you too Mum!”


So it seems shopping must be obtained in person these days? They probably wouldn’t find my house anyway.


I feel most weeks that I am actually walking into a battle with the fellow shoppers. They are armed with trolleys and baskets, and even in some cases pushchairs. I am maybe not quite a genius but I thought the orange seats on the trolleys were for infants no? Or just flowers? I see a lot of flowers sitting there. Any how the supermarket was, like every week packed with civilians and selection of school skiving children.


I haven’t given it too much thought, but I find apart from the obvious ample storage space offered by the trolley, another primary use of the humble trolley in the supermarket is to be as aggressive as possible, and drive other isle users off the, well.. how do I say? Isle?  Or out of my way? Maybe that’s a more accurate description.


So I do question why some people decide to arm themselves with a push chair and small child to perform this task. I know as dog lovers we all love our dogs much more than anyone else in the family, but this is surely a cowardly act? Sending your child running up the isle in front of you to trip, confuse and inconvenience other shoppers? Cowardly indeed. However it always makes me laugh that no parent ever is sympathetic to their child in a supermarket. No matter what has happened to make the child cry, the child is given zero sympathy. None whatsoever.


Rightly so in my opinion. I cried once when I fell into a box of onions, my mother didn’t even stop and look. Tough love indeed.


However, I have concluded one thing about asserting authority in the supermarket. Eventually we are all beaten when it comes to dominating the isle... we are beaten by the shop assistant pushing a huge trolley of milk right towards you.


We all have to give way to them, we always do. And do you know why we give way to then? Of course you do. We give way because we know that the milk on their trolley expires a day later than what is already on the shelf! It is VITAL, vital I tell you, that we get this milk because I can make it last until next Friday, and not next Thursday night. Who wants milk that is only in date for 4 days and not 5?! It almost gives you a thrill taking the milk that will last to Friday, because we know (or rather we think) that the milk they were pushing into the store... wasn’t really meant for us! But we got it... Sometimes we even have to lean and stretch past the first trolley of milk and look behind it, but we know its there.


We have achieved a victory like no other, but we pity the soles who missed out on this opportunity. In fact, if I am honest we don’t pity them at all do we? We feel better than them... and it feels good! “Who’s enjoying a cup of tea on Friday then.. yeah baby, I am!”


 I am getting better at this supermarket malarkey now. I know where everything actually is located around the store. Before the recent assignment of weekly shops, I knew where the beer was, where the flowers were (yeah, not from the petrol garage after all eh?!) and the reduced section of the bakery. We all know where that is. It’s more often than not just bagels and stale bread, but occasionally you hit the jackpot! Strawberry donuts, reduced for quick sale. “Hell yeah” Good times.


Well I say I know where everything is, I know where most is. I had to ask for one thing today. I don’t like to ask the staff members where anything is. I know they really don’t want to have to walk the length of the store to show me where none bio washing liquid is located, but they have to because it says “Ask me” on their badge. I was fed up of looking anyway!


 It is a bit similar to when you pay for your shopping, and they ask you “would you like help with your packing today sir?” Of course I would. Who actually enjoys packing their own shopping? But I always say no.


It is a male pride thing I think. I cannot accept that I am unable to complete this seemly simple task. I know that I cannot possibly pack at the speed that the conveyor belt brings my food down, but I will try anyway. I am sure the lady serving me thinks to herself, with a wry smile as she begins scanning my shopping “think you are almost out of here yeah?”


 I think also that they know I am trying to put everything in the correct bag. They know this, everyone does the same right? However as soon as she starts throwing a few curb balls down, maybe a salad item followed by a can of corn beef and then washing liquid.. I am, to put it politely, screwed. I begin to fumble around looking for a new bag to start packing with. “I can’t have bath cleaner with my lettuce! Its defiantly going to leak! (it never has leaked) ahhh”


However by this point the system has gone to pot anyway. Half full bags and food items are everywhere. The poor lady at the till has no choice but to stop, heed your desperate look and begin packing your items too.


 It’s time to admit you lost. She beat you, again.


Reminds me of the computer game Tetras, you always think you’re doing well when you start, but as it speeds up, 1 small mistake (mostly that dam L brick that never rotates the right way!) and the inevitable pile up of bricks starts. You know you are never actually going to win this game... I just like to try and play a little better each week!


“Would you like any help with your packing today sir?”


 “Il do my best with the packing thank you, but I would like some help paying for it?”


 Today I actually made a terrible decision. To be fair I have made a few of those over the years, some very regrettable indeed and this was now way on the same scale it has to be said, but was a pretty naive one all the same.


I didn’t want to play Tetras packing my shopping today. No. I didn’t want to lose again, so I decided in my wisdom, with my complete trolley full of shopping, to use the self service checkout. I hear your gasp. I know, like a dog without a start line wait, indeed. Doomed from the beginning...


I think I will hear those words "unexpected item in bagging area" and “are you using your own bags?” in my sleep tonight. In fact I had so many of these warnings I ended up with had my own personal assistant standing there ready to cancel the error codes as they came flying in. She tried her best not to lose her patience with me, but I felt deep down we both knew what she was thinking. She was thinking the same as everyone else waiting with their baskets! It was probably very similar to mums compliment earlier when I offered to shop online.


I battled on though. I would not let their intense stare phase me out, and after several unexpected items on the floor area, I paid, collected my nectar points and wheeled my trolley outside of the supermarket doors.


Shopping is not an enjoyable experience. I have to say I have learnt that. I have respect for those who make the weekly pilgrimage to the stores. Rather you than me. The highlight for me was a mid-shop free tasting of spicy battered prawns or something similar. The kind shop assistant told me where they could be found in store. Of course we all know I had no actual intention of buying a pack, I was just hungry.


So there we are. That is what I learnt this week.That I am not very good at shopping, that I don’t like shopping, and that self service is not a sign of independence! Next time your shopping, you have been warned!


Lee


Monday 14 November 2011

Norway training weekend plans and exercises

Hello,

This last weekend I have been training on the outskirts of Oslo. I was at a club with a nice indoor hall which gave ample space to hold two training groups at once. You will see from the course plans that they are long and narrow. I was teaching on the left hand section of each course plan.

I travelled out Friday and returned home today. Now I will be at home until 2012, or at least no more flying anyway. I have a training weekend in London and also Olympia to look forward too.

It was nice to see my dogs again and hopefully can get some time to actually train them. Scott hasn’t done any agility since the WC in France. This is his rest time before I start getting him ready for Olympia. Once into 2012 he will rest again before we start preparations for Crufts, way off in March 2012.

Back to the course plans from last weekend, and the important factor was in the detail. We analysed very closely every line we put the dog on during the seminars. I was particularly focusing on tight, efficient turns both on phase 1 and on phase 2 of the turn.

I would like to say well done to the students for working very hard over a demanding weekend, and as requested the course plans are below.




(They appear very small, but if you click on them you can enlarge them and print)
This week will see me doing lessons until Saturday. On Sunday I have the LGT Super seminar in Worcester, which promises to be a fun and high intensity day!

For now, keep working hard in training and focusing on the small elements, these eventually form the efficient effective handling system you are working towards!
www.leegibsontraining.com

Wednesday 9 November 2011

Update & Training Exercise

Hello,

Hope everyone is enjoying their week. In fact I don’t have too much stuff to report this week so far since I last updated. The week has mainly been wet, windy & grey. I have had a few lessons so far, where I mostly have stood with my hands firmly in my pockets as it has been quite cold.

This Friday I fly to Olso to conduct two days of seminars over the weekend. I will certainly be taking my warm clothes there with me.

I am also spending a lot of time sorting out flights, groups, travel arrangements etc for my seminars abroad next year. I am very pleased to be able to announce that the training day on the 28th January 2012 is now full, and has a waiting list which you can still join.

I am hoping to add another date for a new Super Seminar, details will be announced here soon.

Finally, going back to last weekend and another training exercise that I used on the Saturday afternoon, which was specific for small and medium grades 5/6/7 with some very obvious traps! A really good training exercise and reinforced my point’s about Turn phase 1 & Turn Phase 2. Enjoy!

www.leegibsontraining.com for latest training day news and the LGT events!
Lee Gibson

Monday 7 November 2011

Training weekend review

Hello,

So I have just returned from a fun weekend in Falkirk training. The weekend was split into three days of seminars, Friday night, Saturday day and Sunday evening.

All of the handlers on the seminars were grouped up into similar ability (as much as possible) but the sequences I designed were made to test the handlers on their approaches into jumps and “line selection” which is something I have really focused on recently. Speaking from my own experience it is so important to make correct timing decisions and focus on the exit out of a turn. We looked at several versions of this over the weekend.

Below is one exercise, taken from yesterdays first evening session. This can be used for reference and skills building:

The evenings were also good fun, as my hosts took me out into Falkirk to a proper club (I use the term loosely as there was somewhat of a debate about which particular venue to go too!)

On the Sunday we were scheduled to train outside, however seeing the conditions of the ground I made the decision to move the sessions to later in the day and inside the riding school. This proved to be a good decision as the training in the evening was a huge success, and also gave me several hours to sleep Sunday daytime.

Today I flew back to Birmingham and then on to Shrewsbury by train. Tonight I have a huge top of the table clash for my football team.

Next Friday I fly to Norway for seminars in Oslo.

Catch up later in the week

Lee


(2 spaces left grades 3-5 Saturday January 28th 2012)

Thursday 3 November 2011

November 3rd Update

Hello,

Just a quick update from me whilst I pack for my weekend away in Scotland. Well its not really a weekend away, I have seminars on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

I am struggling to talk at the moment due to a swinging elbow that landed in my neck during tonight’s football match, it felt like he nearly took my head off and is very sore right now. The ref didnt even give a free kick so I was not amused!

This week I have had lessons, and also a lot of emails. I am thrilled by the responses to the two training events I advertised, November 20th & January 28th. I have a few spots left on the morning of January 28th, other than that they are all full which is super. The days will be productive and intense, I am looking forward to taking them.

However right now more pressing issues are upon me, like my suitcase and lack of stuff in it. Tomorrow (Friday) I fly from Birmingham to Edinburgh at 12.40pm. I am returning on Monday at Midday.

I have lots of ideas and exercises planned for the sessions, and I am sure we will all have a fun weekend as we have some good social things planned also.

Hope everyone is keeping well and keep safe on Bonfire night. I am sure I will see plenty where I am, lucky my dogs are safely at home and we don’t get too many fireworks where we live!

Lee