Comments on: Structuring Your Practice Sessions

By: Robbie

Robbie — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 16:54:57 +0000

We do virtually no team lineups. In fact, I believe in the
nine months we’ve been in existence, we run team
lineups two times. I think most clubs over-do team
lineups and it becomes boring for the dogs. We just
work the dogs in pairs or fours and focus on specific
things. We may work passing between specific pairs
of dogs that are having trouble or when a green dog
is involved.

We like to schedule focused practice. Like Puppy
Practice, Power Jumping Practice, Box Work Practice.
This allows us to focus on just one element at a time
with less time wasted on equipment changes.

Another thing to remember is that Practice is for
learning/improving your dog’s flyball skills. It should
not be considered to be the sole source of conditioning.
Two five minutes sessions is a lot for a dog at practice
if you are mentally pushing them to do more.
That’s not enough time to get in shape.

By: Beth

Beth — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 15:52:33 +0000

Great ideas. We, too, have had issues in the past on our practice structure and accomodating everyone in the limited time and space we have for our weekly training. We only have two hours (including the time it takes us to roll out mats and set up the lanes)
We typically start everyone out on box work at the beginning of practice time. We then do passing work with the racing dogs – one on one – depending on the lineup for any upcoming tournaments and then we may do some full team runs. We work in the green dogs in between racing dog work while they rest. We have often discussed having a separate time or day for just the newer dogs since they take a bit more time as they are learning new elements of flyball, but right now, we just don’t have a extra night/day or the extra time we can have our facility. If our team grows much more, though, we’ll have to resort to something else.

Beth

By: Larry

Larry — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 15:45:34 +0000

I’m still looking for a publisher!

By: eli

eli — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 13:35:38 +0000

Thanks for yours and other contributors’ comments on this topic.
I have been contemplating “how to” and structure as I start my own flyball team.
This is a good “overall notes” for me as I work on the six classes you have written for your book.
Will you be publishing it in paperback, sort of in workbook fashion?

By: bcollie

bcollie — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 00:52:01 +0000

We make up a practice schedule with tourn line-ups and fill in spaces for box work or other issues that need individual attention. People sign up to box load, time, prop etc. We have a large club and generally have at least 20 dogs at practice. The first time we initiated the schedule we shaved over an hour off our practice time.

I also find a mix of new and old members in training helps. New members that are really interested in the sport tend to do a lot of research and pump some new energy or training strategies into practice, while experienced members can help temper over zealous plans.