Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose

That was brought on by a request for the UKTRA Coaching Manual from New Zealand.

I had never seen it, the author thought it was well out of date and "the rules have changed a lot since I wrote it in 2003", and besides he didn't have a copy. However, luckily I was able to obtain a copy and we have a happy team racing coach in NZ.

I had a quick look at it, and I thought it was pretty good. What amazed me was that there was only one diagram that needed to be adjusted because of a rule change. Rule 17.2 was deleted in 2009. If you remember it - it should have resulted in Ben Ainsley not winning his medal at Sydney - but no one noticed the breech until a seminar 6 months later!

Perhaps the reason there was so little change was that the manual dealt with the basics rather than rule details. Do the basics mentioned in the manual well,  and success will follow.

The more things change the more they remain the same.