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Simon Willis/Gordon Brown/BCU changes


Adam Bolonsky

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Willis and Brown discuss the Scottish Canoe Association's role in revamping the BCU rating scheme.

Simon's blog holds lots of podcasts and archives routes in the UK. He's a BBC reporter who produces crisp audio material.

direct podcast link:

http://homepage.mac.com/simon.willis/Podca...ry/Coaching.mp3

It opens the podcast direct.

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...the minute he says anything scottish i just hear something like "lwyngghghgck" poor man sounds like he needs a lozenge. although to his ear maybe we sound a bit off, too.

bottom line is that the bcu 4* requisites are being expanded to include more leadership skills so that the gap between 4* and 5* decreases.

my understanding is that if you've already cert'd at 4 star, there is not a requirement to re-exam.

in all, the change is a good thing i think, it makes the 4 star a little more practical and the 5 star a little more manageable...it smooths out the curve.

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>

>bottom line is that the bcu 4* requisites are being expanded

>to include more leadership skills so that the gap between 4*

>and 5* decreases.

>

Is it also true that the certification standards in the US will not change until later than the implementation in the UK? I wonder if this will lead to folks debating about who has a true or hard or real 4* award. Or maybe a lot of folks trying to get in under the wire...why I don't know.

Ed Lawson

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Latest on the BCUNA site suggests Autumn 2007 as a target timeframe for the new 4* assessment criteria.

http://www.bcuna.com/pages/Main-Pages/Updates.shtml

I'm thinking it would actually be better to hold off on 4* until the new stuff is in place. Many coaches are including a lot of the leadership in their 4* training sessions already.

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>>I'm thinking it would actually be better to hold off on 4*

>until the new stuff is in place. Many coaches are including

>a lot of the leadership in their 4* training sessions

>already.

I think you'll find it a bit of a moot point since most coaches have been pushing the 4* standard upwards for a while. At any rate as long as paddling if a life-long learning process, the relatively subtle changes that are planned will hardly be noticeable.

cheers,

The ability to defend our beliefs with absolute certainty . . .

   . . . is often inversely proportional to our level of experience.

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Why Ed,of course it will lead to debate over who had the "harder" or "easier" 4*, 5*, whatever. Paddlers are known to debate that now depending on who the assessor was, whether it was done at a symposium, whether it was done in Wales or Scotland. Why would you think this would be any different? If people didn't have that to debate, what else would they do when the weather is cold and the launch is frozen...

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> best to not worry

>about it, just paddle, paddle, practice, paddle more,

>enjoy, learn,

To that end:

Sunday...High temp 36....Marine forecast for Portsmouth.

Sun

N winds 10 to 15 kt...diminishing to 5 to 10 kt in the afternoon and evening...then becoming NE 10 to 15 kt after midnight. Seas 2 to 4 ft. A chance of snow.

Time for a SNG?

Ed Lawson

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. . . well, . . in a pinch I guess we can always argue about gear, gear vs skills, speed vs skills, skills vs judgement, g-style vs euro, single vs dual-blades, the actual height of that wave, the "best" roll, kayak color, kayak speed, etc. ;-)

cheers,

ps I ran into a friend of yours in Detroit on his way to St Pete, . . JAllen

The ability to defend our beliefs with absolute certainty . . .

   . . . is often inversely proportional to our level of experience.

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or which boat has the best lift and lowest take off velocity?

as to debate and discourse over the whole who had it tougher on their respective exam...so long as in the end we come to understand that what i did was tougher than what you did and that my dad can beat up your dad, i think debate is good.

what?

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