Dutch Team Coach Resigned

[Piaffe11]

I didn’t see any threads already covering this topic - so if there are any, sorry for the duplicate.

Looks like Rien van der Schaft resigned late last week from the Dutch team. Reading the different articles, it appears he felt unnecessary as none of the team was interested in working under his system.

Articles:

https://dressage-news.com/2018/08/23/rien-van-der-schaft-quits-as-dutch-team-coach-with-3-weeks-to-tryon-world-equestrian-games-dressage/

http://www.eurodressage.com/2018/08/23/van-der-schaft-resigns-dutch-team-trainer-effective-immediately

It’s too bad as he was brought in the attempt to move the Dutch team away from using the rollkur method [note: not trying to make this a thread about the pro/cons of rollkur]. I’ve audited a few clinics of Rien’s and I must say he is a fantastic teacher and the riders/horses all seem to improve when he is there.

Not sure who the Dutch team will hire now or if they will try to get someone in before WEG?

[amb]

@Piaffe11

Not sure who the Dutch team will hire now or if they will try to get someone in before WEG?

From the end of one of the writeups: “In agreement with the WEG team riders, there will be no ad-interim team trainer appointed. KNHS representatives Maarten van der Heijden and Ad Wagemakers will assist the Dutch team in Tryon.”

Another bit of news at the end is that they’re not sending a travelling reserve. That sounds more like an economic decision (as did the French decision), but I am guessing.

[BigMama1]

I have audited his clinics here and found him to be an excellent teacher. However he has been clear in the past about the frustration of working with riders who already had their own trainers and systems that weren’t necessarily aligned with his. I’m hoping one of the other countries will snap him up. Canada badly needs to go back to the days where we had a team coach and a single, unified system for developing our top athletes but I doubt there is support here for such a move

[Piaffe11]

It would be nice @BigMama1, but I would agree it does not appear Dressage Canada is looking to make any sort of move that would improve our national team. It’s too bad as we have not been competitive on the world stage (as a team) in quite some time.

[Equibrit]

It’s a problem - having a “system”. A team coach also needs to be a diplomat.
Poor training methods will not disappear until they are “judged” out.