Ken Cools — Camp Cools

September 2010
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April 5, 2010

Today would have been day 2 of the Girls Talent ID camp but its cancelled as its been raining all night and this morning. We had great weather this past week so it finally had to show up. Sorry girls. This past weekend was National Champs here in New Zealand and I will have a full write up later this week.

March 28, 2010

Just a reminder that tonight is the last night of training I will have in New Zealand for this season. Im at Papakura (Monday night) from 5:30pm to 8pm. Last night to get ready for nationals!! This is open to everyone so I hope to see you there.

March 22, 2010

I have had a great time this past week. Over the last 7 days I had 6 kids stay at my house to train and learn more about BMX and how a High Performance athlete lives. Throughout the week we did most of our training on the old Waiuku Sunset Coast track but we also traveled to Papakura, North Harbour and did club night out at Puni. During the down time of training these guys watched DVD after DVD of BMX videos and had a great time. For me it was awesome, as these kids were loving BMX for all the reasons I do. It’s amazing how much food a bunch of young athletes eat too, crazy!

On a bad note, I’ve heard a bunch of negative feedback,through the grapevine, about me putting this camp on. This blows me away as it’s really no ones business who stays at my house. I have athletes stay with me all the time; in fact I have Marc Willers and Mikey Williams on the couch next to me right now and will have others here tonight.

The intention of the camp was to offer an experience to kids who wanted it. I signed up the first 6 athletes who contacted me and I was lucky to have such a great group of kids. But with the negativity I’ve heard I will have to see if I will do this type of camp again. Thanks to the families that were involved as my family had an awesome time, this was a great life experience for everyone who was involved.

March 18, 2010

Sorry to say but this weekends camp in Taupo has been cancelled. Apparently there are only 4 people who are coming. I wish I would have known the Taupo club was not into it sooner, as I would have gone somewhere else. If your club wants a last minute camp then give me a shout today.

I have a group of riders at my house who are training with me this week. Its been great to have them here as we are having lots of fun and have been working hard. We have been training at the Waiuku Sunset Coast track, its small and tight but awesome for training. We were going to head down to Taupo this weekend but will be training up here some more and doing a bit more training on Waiuku. This is the first time I have ever done a private camp like this and its been fun for all of us.

March 17, 2010

Have had a great few weeks here in sunny New Zealand. A few weeks ago I did a camp in Rotorua and it turned out great. Had lots of kids show up and bang out some training over the two days and the vibe was great. I always love going down to Roto-Vegas as it’s a great little town, kids are skillful and fun and the track is awesome. Can’t wait to come back down again next year. Big thanks to all my trainers who helped me out over the weekend, Mike Williams, Kurt Pickard, Nick Fox, Ryan Lewis and our World Champ Sarah Walker. It was awesome to have so many top riders around for the camp.

Last weekend the family went down to Rotorua again for a 4 days mini holiday. Ryan Hollows who has been the newly appointed BikeNZ High Performance assistant Coach got married over the weekend. Congratulations to Ryan and Edith, may you have many happy years together. Lots of big things happening for Mr. Holiday Hollows. Great job!

This weekend I have my final weekend camp of the season. I will be in Taupo for Saturday and Sunday for a camp on their new track. I did get an email the other day from a parent of a young child who was told I would only confuse their rider and they shouldn’t come to the camp. The best part of this is I have never done a camp in Taupo and no one there actually has any idea what I do! For those parents who have never taken a camp, maybe you should keep your comments to yourself.

Over the past month I’ve had a group of 10 riders who have followed me around from WHG to Rotorua and everything in between. I assure you I won’t confuse your kids; I leave that up to you!

Mikey Williams will be joining me as my trainer and so far the camp is really small so if you want to get in some last minute training in and get ready for Nationals then I will see you on Saturday morning.

March 7, 2010

Tonight’s camp in Papakura is cancelled. I have had something come up that I need to attend to. I apologize to all you kids but I will try to reschedule this training session sometime between now and Nationals. Sorry guys.

March 4, 2010

Last weekend I had a great camp up in Whangarei. The track up there is awesome and we had a great group of riders who came out. The weather was a bit damp on Saturday morning but the rest of the weekend was nothing but sun. Thank you to all the people in Whangarei who made the camp possible and make the weekend go by so smoothly. Also a big thanks to all the elites who came up to train over the weekend. It looks like I will be traveling up to Whangarei on the regular once the HP season has cooled off a bit so that I can do some consistent coaching and also training of coaches.

On Monday I was out at Papakura doing an evening camp. I will be out there the next 3 Monday nights from 5:30 to 8:15(ish) and each session will be open to anyone who wants to take part. Each week we will be focusing on a different aspect of winning races, next Monday’s topic of training will be Track Speed.

Tomorrow I’m heading down to Rotorua for this weekends camp. Since it’s pre-nationals at Puni on Sunday, the camp will run Friday night and all day Saturday. Mike Williams, Nick Fox, Kurt Pickard, Craig Pattle and possibly Sarah Walker will be coming to train over the two days. These guys will be setting the tempo so if you are wanting to get in some last minute training before Nationals then come on out. I will be at the track for 5pm to start sign ups.

Here are some pictures from last weekend. I stole them from facebook!
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Looks like Jimmy’s got the pull!
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February 22, 2010

Just a quick update on this weekends camp in Whangarei. The coach’s camp will be on Friday night from 6pm to about 8:30pm. This camp is free of charge and I encourage everyone who wants to learn more about BMX and the proper way of executing skills to come and join the session.

I will be bringing up a few of the HP riders to help out with the camp. This weekends trainers will be:

Kurt Pickard
Mikey Williams
Kurt James
Ryan Lewis

If you want to come out and ride then you can register with me Saturday morning when you sign up. I will be there at about 9:15 to start registration and I do prefer cash as method of payment. See you up North!

February 18, 2010

I have been full-on since my last post with a number of things going on, most importantly I’ve been out at the track with most of the team doing some good training sessions. Last week was the Oceania race in Puni and it went off great as the track turned out perfect. We have been riding it all week and the guys on the team can’t get enough of it, which is great. Hats off to Tony Takaurua and his crew for getting that place dialed and finished for the race. I have been around long enough to see how much Tony, Josh Woodcock, Nick Lush and a few others have been putting into that place over the last year. Awesome! Nothing has been done half way.

My back is still crap and I’m still in a lot of pain and I will be for some time. I have been going to physiotherapy 5 times a week and it’s slowly making me better. Since I was injured for so long, my body had twisted itself all outta wack and I have now developed scoliosis in my back (twisting of the spine). My physio is Malcolm Hood, an old All Blacks therapist who really knows his stuff. He told me the other day that I will be in severe pain for the next 6 months while he gets me functioning right, then after it should become a mild dull pain. After all I have gone thru I can only hope to have dull pain one day! I guess I just have to make the most out of it and deal with what I have and try to make my body as good as possible. I have also been told I’m never allowed to ride BMX again, which I already knew. My garage is full of new BMX stuff I have so I’m going to sell a few things, if you’re my size then I have a few good deals. Listed below are pictures of what I’m getting rid of, mostly XXL O’Neal Carbon Fiber/ Dot approved 9 Series Helmets which are new.

I get requests all the time from parents who want to send me their kids for a week for personalized training. After a recent request I’ve decided I am going to open my house to 4 riders during the week of March 15-22 for private one on one training. The kids will stay at my house for the week and I will provide everything:

-Daily training sessions. This will consist of track, gates, sprints and strength training.
-Video Analysis. I will take video of gates and riding and review with the athletes.
-Camp Cools camp in Taupo on the weekend to ride and train with other kids.
-Testing to see what the athlete’s strength and weakness’s are. A training program will be provided at the end of the week to address these issues.
-Lodging and food for the week. I will teach them what they should and shouldn’t eat and set some new habits during this time while they stay and live with me for 6 days.

I already have someone from overseas coming so the other 3 spots will be given at a first come, first serve base. This is an exclusive opportunity that won’t be happening again for a long time so if you’re interested in some unequaled training then please contact me. ken@kencools.com.

This helmet is XXL and is brand new. $300

These helmets are XXL and new, maybe used a hand full of times. $250

January 30, 2010

It’s been a while since I’ve updated and I think I can say that my head is finally out of the clouds and I’ve awakened from my dungeon of a house. It’s been almost 6 weeks since my surgery and I’m doing all right and starting to feel better day-by-day. It’s been a struggle and I had some hard weeks but I managed to get through it and I’m also off all my hardcore pain meds, which is great as those things are lil’bastards! My wife has been awesome at taking care of me and doing everything, thanks babe I love you! It helps when your home nurse is this hot!

This has been a busy week for me and I’m looking forward to slowing down for the coming weeks, as I’m not ready to do much on my feet yet. It started with a High Performance camp with my team, it was great for my head to get out and do some coaching! The weather was perfect and we had 3 days of throughout training, testing and a few educational sessions with a Nutritionist and a Psychologist. After their riding sessions on the track, which was videotaped and transferred onto a group of laptops so the athletes could get instant feedback, I would review the video with them and we’d assess on what was good and what could be changed up a bit. This seemed to be very helpful and will be a tool that will be incorporated into our training from now on.

Overall the team is doing well and they are making some major gains not only physically but also on their bikes. We still have a few injured riders but those guys are on the mend and starting to get back into full time training. The last casualty was Daniel Franks who crashed on his last lap of the weekend after looking great and going fast. Daniel broke his finger and possibly his wrist; further investigation next week will give us the full story. (Just got word his wrist is not broken, it’s just a space that comes from growing)

The team’s first trip will happen a few weeks after Nationals when we head to Holland in the middle of April to do a training camp with the Dutch team for 10 days. This will be a great experience for our team to be training with no doubt one of the best teams in BMX. This is a great opportunity for them to see how it is when you ride internationally with the big-guns! From there we will head to Italy for Euro Rounds 3 and 4, then off to Copenhagen for the Super Cross race.

For the past two days I have been out at Papakura BMX as on Friday I put on a series of 3 camps to help raise money for the Super Class. It was a long hot day and I had over 100 kids, but I still had a blast. There are some bad ass kids here in New Zealand and some future HP riders I can’t wait to get my hands on! It was cool to help out and get these guys some money as most of them are on my team, and I know how hard they have to work without getting paid, every penny always helps.

Everyone at the track was really awesome to me and helping me out with my back, I even got a massage and acupuncture during the day, thanks Leah. When I showed up I had a nice big chair with my name that had been silk-screened on courtesy of Phil Williams. Cheers for that, I felt like Steven Spielberg all day.

I will be booking camps for mid February and all of March. After that I will not be doing any more camps for a long time, as I will be focusing only on the HP team from April to October. So if you want me to come to your track and do a camp then let me know ASAP! Options for my training include: a 3-hour evening camp during the week, a 1day camp or the best and most popular option, a 2day weekend camp which fill up fast.

So far I will be up in Whangarei on February 27/28 and in Taupo on March 20/21.

On the BikeNZ side, I’m in the process of planning a girl’s talent ID camp. I think this will piggyback the Nationals in Puni and be held on Monday/Tuesday April 5 & 6. This will be open to all girls 12 and older and will be of no cost. Once I get more info together and planning in place I will be sending out info to everyone in BMXNZ.

Here are some pictures of the HP Camp and one of my back.

My new scar!

Ice Bath Recovery

Testing Time. And we actually do something with our data we collect!

Going over Video track side and going over the notes I took on the teams riding.