Functional Path Training

Fire in Babylon

Last night I watched “Fire in Babylon” an excellent documentary film. To call this a documentary about the great West Indies cricket team of the 1970's and 80's does not do it justice. It is a classic example of sport as metaphor and also a window into society. In the West Indies in the 1960’s the former British colonies where all achieving their independence from Britain, it was a time of social and political ferment, sport, cricket was not isolated from this. The rise of the great Windies (The Windies comprise an all-star team of the best players from all the islands of the West Indies, hence the name Windies) team that eventually went undefeated in international test Cricket for fifteen years from 1980 to 1995 is chronicled in this excellent documentary. The vintage game action footage and the training were excellent. The Windies where were one of the first international squads to actually do conditioning, a fact that gave them a huge edge. I thought the interviews with the players on the team were outstanding. These guys were real class individuals who elevated their region, their race and the game to the status it enjoys today in spite of deep racial prejudice. This is a terrific insight in the culture of the region and the culture of the sport, a sport that is exploding in popularity worldwide. It is good to see them get the recognition they deserve as pioneers in their sport and as agents of social change.

Drills

The goal is to put drills or exercises into a context to optimize their effectiveness by choosing the correct drill to use at the correct time and place in the overall training program. To do this consider using the following evaluative criteria:

Why are you doing the drill? Is it just a time filler or does it serve a specific purpose.

What particular athletic component does the drill enhance? Sometimes there is a tendency to try to have a drill will try to do too much. Be very specific in designing the drill to address specific components or athletic qualities.

What is the actual drill? You should be able to describe it in detail in terms that everyone that you work with can understand.

Do you need specialized equipment to do the drill? If so, how specialized? Do you have time within the context of the workout to use this specialized equipment? I know personally that there are many things that I can do using equipment or apparatus that I can do with an individual or a small group that will not work in the context of team training.

How is the drill performed? Correct execution is essential in order to elicit the optimum training adaptation.

What are the ranges of sets and reps? This should be congruent with the purpose of the drill. Quality is more important than quantity.

It is doing what you wanted it to do? Mastery is the goal, so correct execution must be stressed. Mastery entails correct execution of the drill within the context of individual variability and sport demands.

When and where in the program does the drill fit? This is essentially the periodization aspect of the whole process. The timing and sequence of the application of the drill can often be more important that the actual drill.

What level of development is the drill best suited for? Certain drills , by their nature are better suited for the developmental than a more advanced athlete.

Curt Gambetta’s Art Exhibit - Office Light

Parenting is much like coaching. You teach, you encourage, you guide, you get frustrated and then you turn them loose to spread their wings and fly. It was so cool to see my son Curt spread his wings and fly Friday night. Curt presented his art project at the Lawndale Art Center in Houston Texas. It was so neat to see his ideas come to fruition. From when he initially got the idea it was at least six years in the making. Curt is a 2002 graduate of Vassar College where he majored in Political Science. In 2009 he got his masters in Architecture from Rice University in Houston. He is now the Peter Reyner Banham Fellow at the University of Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning for the academic year 2011-12. This project  titled “Office Light” is an outgrowth of some initial work he did with light in 2005. Here are some pictures:

  

Resistance

If in doubt add a load and slow the movement down! If a ten-kilo weight vest is good for weighted sprints then a thirty-kilo vest is obviously three times as good. Why? Adding load is very quantifiable; it makes it easy to measure progress. Adding load slows movement down and makes it easier to see, but does it transfer? If I can perform the run, jump or throw with more resistance certainly there is measurable progress in terms of handling the task with additional load, but what is really happening? There is definitely a point of diminishing returns and a trade-off. Ultimately performance is about expressing speed within the constraints of the technical demands of the skill. Certainly force is part of the equation, but very slow heavy overloaded movements serve to dull the nervous system and interfere with the high speed coordination demanded in performance. Seek optimum loads that match the dynamics of the sport or event, not maximum. Beware of the old beat your head against the wall syndrome – it is hard when are doing it and it always feels better when you stop. Rather than having your athletes feel like elephants after they do a session of sled pulls or harness running they should feel like big butterfly's, light explosive and FAST! Find a load that achieves this. There are no magic formulas; just a good coaching eye and a heavy dose of common sense. Once again are you making them tired or making them better?

Work

Work is a four-letter word. Some people avoid it and other are consumed by it. Anyone can work, but can you translate work into results (performance)? You can if you start with a clear vision of the end result you want to achieve and then delineate the steps necessary to achieve that result. Recognize then that it is a process that systematically masters those steps. It is a process that takes time because training is cumulative. Always keep the work in context, the context of your current stage of development and stage of fitness reconciled with where you want to be. Make sure the work has a purpose. Anyone can make someone tired, but is it advancing your athletes to their goal? Consistent quality work is rewarded over spectacular inconsistent work. Spectacular get attention, consistent gets results.

Jargon

Avoid the use of confusing jargon in coaching and presentations to other coaches. I personally am not impressed with someone who is trying to show off their knowledge, because they are actually showing their ignorance. In coaching and speaking we need to remember the focus is on the athletes and the audience, not on us. Reach them in as few words as possible so that the message is clear and the words evoke action. Be conscious of who you are speaking to and be sensitive to their familiarity with the terms. You may think using big words and obscure technical and scientific terms impresses people but it does not. You are actually confusing them. Pseudo science-speak helps no one. Don’t over complicate, simplify, that is the mark of great teacher or coach. Use clear language that conveys what you need to convey, nothing more or nothing less.

The Movement Symphony

It is easy and convenient to take a reductionist, mechanistic viewpoint that separates the body into parts and systems. We are continually  bombarded with this type of reductionism. The problem and it is a big problem is the failure to recognize that for the body to execute movement, whether it is a sustained endurance activity, explosive busts or fine motor skill that all parts and systems must work together in harmony. Movement is s symphony not a solo. You can’t do a “cardio” workout; just like you can’t do a “neural” workout. You better hope every workout has a cardio vascular and a neural component, because all systems of the body work at all times with the demand on a particular system determined by the intensity of the activity. To continue the symphonic metaphor a section of the orchestra will be featured or highlighted but the other parts of the orchestra are still playing, albeit in the background. Let's also give credit to the conductor, the brain, the muscles and all systems of the body are slaves of the brain. It is the brain that drives, connects and controls movements to enable us to accomplish the desired task. To use Tim Noakes term the brain is the"central governor." So don’t lose sight of the whole, the big picture in the desire to understand the parts. Give the body credit for it’s inherent wisdom and learn to link, sync, connect and coordinate in order to play the beautiful movement symphony we call sports performance.

Simplicity - It's not Complicated

Simplicity is needed in a world that we have made needlessly complicated. Look for the obvious. You will be surprised when you realize how much you can see by looking. Step back and look at the connections and links, see how they coordinate. Think of the essence of what we are trying to do as coaches – help the athlete to discover and explore movement in order to test the dimensions of their abilities. Sometimes simple is considered simplistic, it is not. Complicated coaching is real uncomplicated, uncoach the athletes, sometimes they don’t need more coaching as much as they need better awareness of themselves and the movements they are trying to accomplish. Have the courage to direct them and then let go, sometimes that is the best coaching. The body is complex enough without adding unneeded complexity. Everything is simple and complex at the same time, so don’t try to make it more complicated. Simple is not stupid, it is brilliant. Run, jump and throw! Minimal will produce the maximum.

Proprioception - Use it don't abuse it!

Ultimately the glue that binds movements together is proprioception. I like to think of it as lending quality to the movements we are using in training. Proprioception is awareness of joint position derived from feedback in the sense receptors in the joints, ligaments, tendons, and muscles. It is a highly trainable quality that we tend to take for granted. It is almost too simple.

Perhaps to appreciate proprioception we should look at the extreme case of a stroke victim that is able to return to normal movement patterns and full function. Why can’t an athlete who has all their capacities enhance the quality of their movement by focusing on the same things that the stroke victim has to focus on to get back to function? The key to that is proprioception. I think of athlete's as high level stroke patients. Look at the classical work of Knott & Voss in PNF for guidance, remember that their original work was with polio victims who were paralyzed so much of what they did was is in prone and supine postures. Take those principles and adapt them to standing and moving postures and you will have excellent transfer to performance. The more movement pathways we can open and connect the more efficient the movements will be and the better transfer to skill.

We can constantly change proprioceptive demand in a sensible manner throughout the training program in order to enhance the quality of movement. The actionable word here is sensible - no need to stand on a physioball or use other contrived positions, just use reciprocal and unilateral movements with resistance and assistance, close one eye, or turn your head away from the arm or leg that is moving. Simple modifications will heighten awareness and significantly change proprioceptive demand. Once again tap into the body's wisdom and learn to use it to improve quality of movement.

UKSEM Gambetta Presentation Abstracts

Keynote - The Necessity for Art & Science in Coaching

Effective coaches must be equally conversant with the art and science of performance. The key to effectively apply sports science to performance improvement is a coach driven performance team where the scientist serves the needs of the athlete through the coach. The coach must be a generalist that can guide and direct the sports science to look for and provide the performance edge. Sport science can make a difference, but only if the coaches input is valued and respected. With the plethora of sophisticated monitoring and testing technology available there is more there than the coach can easily assimilate. The coach must know the science in order to pose the questions to the scientist in order to make the numbers and the data translate into performance. At the end of the process in the heat of competition it is the art of coaching that will make the difference. Sports Science is a tool whose effectiveness is determined by the skill, experience and knowledge of the coach & athlete using the tool.

Workshop – The Training Session – Where the Rubber Meets the Road

The cornerstone of an effective training program is the individual training session. The goal is to “win the workout” in order to be able to eventually win in competition. The sequence of the elements of the training session will ultimately determine its effectiveness as a component of the overall training plan. The session must be designed and implemented in the context of the whole plan. It is essentially a pixel in a huge picture that is the annual plan. That being said one training session cannot make an athlete, but one session can certainly break an athlete. The session must be manageable, measureable and motivational as well as practical, personal and proactive. To achieve this requires careful planning so that the theme of the session is consistent with the theme of the microcycle and there are specific measureable goals and objects that are carefully evaluated at the conclusion of the session. Ultimately it is the quality of the session that will determine the contribution of the session to cumulative adaptive response of the athlete or team.

Workshop - Periodization – Nut’s and Bolts

Periodization is a tool to effectively prepare the athlete or team for competition. Periodization is not a model, it is a concept that has traditionally been taught as a model based on time constraints rather than timing of the adaptive responses. There is no magic or crystal ball needed, just a good understanding of training principles coupled with sound pedagogy. Periodization is the timing of the application of the various training stimuli and their coordination into a coherent program that produces competition results at the appointed time.