Functional Path Training

Lessons I have learned Earning An Advanced Degree From School of Hard Knocks

The following are some lessons that have learned in my years of coaching. I was going through some files yesterday and I found this list that I wrote in 2005 after two particularly negative professional experiences in the previous year. I thought it would be worth sharing. Some these were hard lessons to learn and some were quite apparent from the day I started coaching.

Structure and order are essential in order to have any degree of consistent success.

Money and facilities are not the answer, good qualified coaches are more important.

Without a well-defined plan of training and competition there is chaos and inconsistent performance results.

More is not better. This is true if it is training, therapy gaining weight or losing weight.

One size does not fit all. It is important to consider what each athlete brings to the event in all respects.

It is more than physical talent; the athlete must have athletic intelligence and real mental toughness.

You must coach females differently both from a physical and a psycho/ social perspective

Anorexia is not an eating disorder. Eating or not eating is only a manifestation of much deeper psychological problems.

There is no quick fix, nor is there any thing like instant results.

Treating the symptoms rather than the causes does not work both in training and therapy.

If you spend as long in therapy as in training each day then something is seriously wrong with the training.

Progression is essential. Without a clear progression it is usually a process of one step forward and two steps back.

It is impossible to coach by email, phone, letter or fax. Coaching is a daily personal, labor-intensive process.

Objectively judging and assessing talent is essential for success.

Just because a person was a great athlete does not mean they can coach. Most of the time the great athlete only knows how they did it and what they did, which often will not work for anyone else.

Attempting to reproduce past results is an exercise in futility. The past is gone; it is only a reference point to guide future performance.

Never let your limitations as a coach limit your athletes. If you do not know something admit it, don’t try to bluff your way through it. The athlete will figure you out sooner or later that you do not know what you are doing.

There is no immediate cause/effect relationship between workouts and performance. In fact the relationship may be negative if the athlete is operating at the redline constantly during workouts,

Coaching is more than a workout or a drill. The context of the workout is often more important than the workout itself.

There is no place for performance enhancing drugs in sport, amateur or professional. Coaches have to speak out against it. Any coach who is aware that his athletes take a banned substance should be banned from coaching. There is no fine line in regard to drug use. You are either against it or you condone it.

2011 Lessons Learned - Lesson Five

Lesson Five -10,000 hours is only part of a much bigger picture. Just punching a clock accumulating hours, starting to specialize early and put in your time each day is no guarantee for excellence. You do need some talent, a lot of direction, laser focus and a will to succeed in order to make the practice meaningful. Excellence requires a growth mindset a willingness to risk and make mistakes and the ability to learn from those mistakes. It is a journey where many are called and not as many chose to complete the journey.

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.

Some Lessons from Australia 2011 – Part Three

I concluded my stay in Canberra with two days of professional development with Dean Benton, Performance Director of Brumbies in Super Rugby, his staff and the coaching staff. I have worked with Dean for sometime and it has been great to see his professional growth. He has put together an outstanding program, the eny of any program I have seen in professional or collegiate sport in the US! When I spend five days with him in 2007 I thought what they were doing with the Brisbane Broncos  (Australian Rugby league) was cutting edge but what they are doing now with the Brumbies is light years ahead. He has taken the concepts of Frans Bosch and adapted them and applied them to enable his players to make huge performance gains. He has worked closely with head coach, Jake White to integrate all the athletic development with the rugby. In my opinion this is crucial and a lesson that we need to learn in the US. The performance director and head coach need to work together hand in glove. In addition he has tapped into the resources of the AIS to give the program the latest cutting edge sport science support. This is a very unique situation. It will take them a couple of years to rebuild the program but they will soon be a force to reckoned with in super rugby.

I then moved onto Perth, Western Australia, It was my first visit to that corner of the world. What a beautiful city. I was really impressed with the fields and facilities available around the University of Western Australia. While there I taught a two-day workshop for the Western Australia Track & Field Coaches Association. Perth is definitely an area I want to go back to. It reminded me of southern California forty years ago.

I then spend four incredible days in Melbourne with Phil King. I first met Phil in 1996 when he was concluding his tenure at the head coach for Australian Athletics. Phil is a heck of coach, leader and organizer. He coached his wife Debbie Flintoff- King to the gold medal in the 400-meter hurdles in the 1988 Olympics. He is now coaching Jana Pittman, world champion in the 400-meter hurdles in 2003 and 2007. Phil’s philosophy is to gather a team of experts and act as the CEO coordinating their services all designed to make Jana the best she can be. I was privileged to provide my input on some aspects of the program and closely obverse and participate in the training. Phil has a background in aquatics and he has made excellent use of the aquatic environment in Jana’s training. I must admit that I was skeptical until I saw what they were doing, but I was made a believer. They use the water to mimic land workouts that is not unusual but what I did find unique was the use of the water for lactate production workouts. It was interesting to see how it was sequenced and how it has worked. Getting to spend four days with Phil was informative and motivating. The main lesson I learned was that it is not technical expertise that is the difference; it is people skills and communication ability that is the key to coaching and leading. A very simple concept but yet quite complex in application, because no two people are alike, it was theme that was repeated over and over.

A word about Melbourne, I had never been there before but on all my other trips I had been told it was the sporting capitol of Australia. I thought oh sure they are just saying that. Well when I got there I know learned first hand what they meant. The training and competition venues are amazing. There is a passion there for sport that you can feel. Walking on the “tan” a dirt path around the Botanical Gardens was like being on hollowed ground, this is where John Landy and Ron Clarke trained! It is a sports paradise and you can bet I will return for an extended stay.

I concluded my visit to Australia in Sydney with an old friend and colleague, Lachlan Penfold, performance director for the Sydney Rooster in Australian Rugby league. I did a day of professional development with his staff and an enjoyable day exchanging ideas and sharing ideas with Lachlan. He is a consummate professional. I first met Lachlan twenty years ago at the NSCA convention in the US; when he was a young coach hungry to learn. He came and spent time with me on two different occasions when I was with the White Sox and another visit later on. It has been fun to watch him grow as a professional and to see that he is just as passionate about learning as he was twenty years ago.  He has done some really interesting and unique work using and interpreting GPS data that I am keen to follow it as he develops it further. I found it interesting that they (He and the rugby coaching staff) are working to incorporate some the University of Oregon and Jack Blatherwick “overspeed” concepts to improve game speed.

I am just now getting over the jet lag and trying to absorb everything that I saw and learned but in summary it was an motivating and uplifting three weeks. It made realize how fortunate I am to have the freinds and netowrk that I have. Being invoved in sport is very special, it goes beyond the technical aspects, the training, it is about friendship and people. The visit to OZ only reinforced this, but you don't have to go to Austalia to interact with other professionals. In some cases if you are at a university or with a pro team walk down the hall and talk to someone else open your eyes and ears to the possiblities to learn and grrow that are around you everyday.

Coach Development

For thee days last Friday, Saturday and Sunday I was totally immersed in coaching development. What an expereince! Spending three days with Frank Dick, an icon in coaching brought coaching right back to the center of the athlete development process. Conversations with Frank and the presentations on the weekend at the Scottish Athletics coaching conference were a powerful and timely reaffirmation of the role of the coach. It has become almost trite to say athlete centered, coach driven and administratively supported to describe the process of athlete development. The athlete development pathway is clear. Everyone can recite the stages of long term athlete development, but what about the stages of coaching development. If the process is coach driven then who develops the coach? What is the coach development pathway and process? How do you become a coach? Even more important what is coaching and what is a coach? Mind you I am not talking about going to a course and getting a certificate as a level one, two or three coach or going online and getting a certification. That does not make you a coach. Completing that task may clear you in terms of liability; it may even "qualify"  you to get a job. But that is actually is a small part of it. There is so much more to coaching and becoming a coach. To have the title of coach or be called a coach is one thing, but it is a whole other thing to be a coach. Coaching is not something you do, it is something that your are with every fiber of your being. You coach people, not the sport. Technical details, exercises, drills, sets and reps are the easy part. It is the thought that goes into the selection of the drills, the technique, how they are delivered and communicated that really counts. As coaches we really don’t develop talent, we bring out potential. We help and guide the athlete to develop their potential.

Tomorrow I will share with you the steps in the coaching development process that Frank Dick outlined. The process is a journey of discovery and learning. It is a journey that is not easy with a direct path to the destination. Sometimes the road is narrow and winding, at times there are detours, but the process is clear and the satisfaction great if you will stay the course.

March 1, 1996 – Start of a New Journey

  15 years ago I started on a new journey in professional soccer with the Tampa Bay Mutiny. Not only was soccer new for me, the Mutiny were one of the inaugural teams in the new US professional league, Major League Soccer (MLS). March 1 was the first day of workouts. It was exciting for me and all involved. I have many fond memories of that team, the coaching staff and the front office. Thomas Rongen was the coach; he was one of the best coaches I have ever worked with. I learned so much from him about coaching, communication and the art of it all. The Mutiny were a veteran team, average age 28 years old. Our star player was Carlos Valderrama from Columbia, a veteran of several world cups for his country and in his time one of the top players in the world. El Pebe’, as he was affectionately know by his fans was past his prime, but he could still do magic things with the ball. (Carlos might be one of the most recognizable players of his era because of his distinctive blond fro) Because we had a veteran team and we were training and playing in the heat of Florida, training had be spot on, nothing extra, no fluff. It was always a challenge, but fun and a daily learning experience because the players were so professional in their approach. It was great to be around players who were hungry and wanted to prove something, there was not the sense of entitlement that I had seen creep into baseball my last couple of years. They had a vested interest to make professional soccer in the US work. They all knew that they were pioneers. No one but EL Pebe’ was making much money, but there was bond there, a collective mission to build the league. I really think because the way they played and conducted themselves that first year, they made a major contribution toward what the MLS is today.

My soccer journey continued for another year in 1997 with the Mutiny. In 1998 I was reunited with Thomas Rongen with the New England Revolution. Also in 1998 I was also the conditioning coach for the 1998 World Cup team, a less that great experience, but a time of learning what not to do. In 1999 I was back again with the Mutiny. Since then I have consulted with various professional and college teams, nationally and internationally. Soccer is great sport, which at the professional and amateur level presents many challenges in preparing the player. The challenges are not insurmountable, but they demand a creative approach to keep the players fit and injury free while playing multiple games in a week for as long as ten months a year. It is gratifying to see the growth of the MLS and soccer in the US. I am honored and proud to have been a  small of the start of the league. My connection with the MLS continues today on a personal level through my daughter Kristen, who is the Direcor of Clent Services with the Houston Dynamo.

15 Years Ago and 20 Plus Years Ahead

15 years today was my last day as Director of Conditioning for the Chicago White Sox in MLB. I started in August 1987. The previous two years I worked for Al Vemeil who had a contract to provide the conditioning for the White Sox and the Bulls, so I split my time between the two sports. When I started fulltime for the White Sox I had a leg up because I seen from inside what needed to be done. In essence I had two years of evaluation before I took over. The majority of those two years had been under two different general managers. The new general manager (third in two years) Larry Himes and his right hand man, the farm and scouting director Al Goldis were who hired me. They were baseball people who were innovators and visionaries. They wanted to create a model program to identify, sign and develop the best baseball athlete’s possible. They gave me a unique opportunity and I seized the moment and did not look back for nine years.

I focused on the minor leagues, the developmental system. I knew that this was where we could change the culture, establish sound habits and grow the players into productive major players. The stated objective was to establish a system where physical preparation was part of each player’s daily routine both in-season and off–season. I had no assistants, but I was in charge of the minor league trainers. None of whom were certified as ATC’s when I took over. They were given two years two be certified or they would be released. They also became the conditioning coaches for each team; we had six teams. I did not have any help until I got an intern in the summer of 1991. In 1995 I was able to add three interns for the whole season that was a huge help. We set-up a minimalist weight room at each teams clubhouse. I did not want them going to health clubs, that would just add time to their day and give people an excuse to not train, not to mention the distractions. Each position player was required to weight train. The number of days changed depending on the time of season. During the season before games at 4:00 PM everyday there was a structured warm-up and then a specific workout emphasis either linear speed, agility or core for six days a week. The pitchers had a comprehensive program that included weight training. The pitchers program was based on their role as either a reliever or a starter. Everyone, including the pitchers did their weight training before the games. The players would come in the morning and pitchers would come at 2:00 PM.

Here are some of the things we did that were pioneering at the time:

As Director of Conditioning I was in charge of the minor trainers and oversaw the rehab.

Mandatory supervised in-season training.

I was involved in scouting potential draft choices to evaluate their athleticism and potential for physical improvement.

Set up a sport psych program that involved psychological testing and training programs.

We tested and trained vision.

Established a comprehensive testing program to establish baseline measures of athletic performance and measure progress.

Set up a teaching model for the coaches in terms of teaching baseball skill.

Set up a summer intern program.

Designed position specific training programs.

We brought all our rehab in-house. Injured players were brought to our minor league complex in Sarasota where if they were not working with the rehab trainer, they were working with me.

Each player was given a comprehensive off-season program they were held accountable for.

We started pitchers mini camps in 1989 to check on the off-season progress of our pitchers.

We did biomechanical analysis of our pitchers, base running and running mechanics.

Set up a system of tracking injuries

Determined a productivity metric to measure the effects of the program in terms of player and pitcher days available.

In essence what I setup was what I would today call a Performance Model based system. The focus was on building the complete baseball athlete and rebuilding them in a systematic manner. The system worked. The players got faster, stronger, more explosive and they were injury free. Most importantly they became better baseball players. It was an amazing time. As I look back at what we were able to do I see teams today just starting to implement programs that we did twenty years ago. We were ahead of the game in so many ways. There are still three players in the major leagues today who came out of that program: Maglio Ordonez with the Tigers, Carlos Lee with the Astros and Mike Cameron with the Red Sox.

So why did I leave? There had been a change in administration. The new administration was more “old school” baseball; they did not value the innovations, so there were some fundamental philosophical differences. It was time to move on and looking back I think I was a bit burned out. The year around volume of work and travel wore on me. I needed a change. Symbolically I closed the door to my office, walked out the front door of the complex and got into my car and drove home ready to embark on a new challenge, a new adventure, Major League Soccer. I started with soccer the next day and hardly ever looked back. I am so thankful to Larry Himes and Al Goldis for giving this incredible opportunity to innovate and learn, I also want to thanks the great coaches and trainers I worked with, but most of all the players who did the work. Thanks guys.It was an experience for all of us.

It’s That Time of Year – Making Numbers Lie!

The NFL Combine is going on now. I have mixed feeling about this spectacle. Most of them border on deep cynicism and skepticism. This event has now taken on a life of it’s own, it is another part of the “roman circus” spectacle of the NFL. It is just a marketing event. I was channel surfing last night and came upon the NFL network coverage of the combine. A scout was showing the players the start of the Forty, explaining the timing procedure. The statement that blew me away was: “ the watch starts on first movement”, the first movement of what? Give me a break, this is 2011, why not use a touch pad to start and truly time electronically? (They use sensors at ten yards, twenty yards and the finish to time what they consider “electronic") I think I know why, it is because electronic timing is considered “slower.” Yes it is, because it is accurate, you take out the subjectivity, inter tester reliability is no longer a factor. There is no subjective judgment of what first movement is, it is cut and dried, the times are accurate. This why I call it the CONbine. If you watch some of the position drills, it is borderline ridiculous. Any resemblance to what happens in the game is pure coincidence. It is a big con job and I am not sure who is being coned.

I have my ideas that I have shared at various times, some are quite old school and some are high tech. The key is to have a system for evaluation where any measures made are precise, accurate and meaningful in the context of the game. Anytime electronic timing can be used, it should be used, that eliminates bias and human error. There are very good systems available to accurately time and measure all the combine tests that are currently used. When I was playing in college at Fresno State circa 1966 I distinctly remember the Dallas Cowboys scout coming to test some of our players. The scout had a Dekan timer that was activated by a touch pad. They timed electronically in the 60’s and we are fooling ourselves in the new millennium! The Cowboys found athletes and made them players. They had a plan and system and they knew what they were looking for.

If you want to do it right and truly evaluate the player’s ability to play football, their aptitude for learning, their injury history, the whole nine yards, it can be done. You would need to challenge conventional wisdom and take a close look at the game. If anyone is interested, my consulting services are available. I am not into guarantees, but I do know if you listen and implement the concepts I have developed you will find football athletes who will have a chance to be injury free and adaptable. It demands getting far out of the comfort zone of accepted perfromance measures. I know, we did it in baseball over twenty years ago. Look at the 1988-90 CWS MLB draft and you will see the results. After you draft them you must have a program that will make them better, that is another story for another day.

Random Thoughts and Brain Cramps

No doubt about obesity being a big problem (pun intended) but maybe we are not looking in the right place for the solution. A big emphasis is placed on diet and food – How much and what. We need to put emphasis on the other part of the equation - movement. Movements burn calories. As a nation and throughout the world as technology has advanced we are moving less and less in our daily routines. Look for ways to move and modify the diet. A few examples: Take the stairs instead of the escalator or elevator. Use a push lawn mover. Stand instead of sitting. Rake the leaves instead of using a blower. When you go to the mall, park on the outside edge of the parking lot so you have to walk further. Look for movement possibilities. The calories expended will add up. Sure the diet has to change and yes you must workout, but start simple.

Major league baseball starts spring training in two days. Already reading about getting the arms ready. The arm can be ready but what about the body that puts the arm in position? The arm and shoulder are the last links in the kinetic chain, not sure we still get this.

Ever notice in professional sport how certain athlete’s are coach killers. Wherever they go sooner or later the coach ends up being fired?

Ever notice how teams that have " a players coach" have no discipline. The inmates run the asylum.

Sad to see Jerry Sloan resign. That truly represents the passing of an era. Don’t know him, but have always admired him as a coach’s coach. He did it his way and made it work. Old school maybe, winner yes.

Are S&C coaches redundant? Why not have a sport coach who knows their sport be the strength and conditioning coaching for that sport? This is a radical thought that merits some consideration. I am seeing tremendous disconnects between what the S&C people are doing and the sport demands. As a profession we need to take a long hard look in the mirror and reevaluate what, how, when and where we are doing what we are doing.

Fitness might be an industry, but caoching is a profession. That demands that we be professional.

In both rehab and training focus on what the athlete can do, not what they can’t do.

Don't forget to do the work. You can't taper off a taper.

Medical Model versus Performance Model

Medical model or perfromance model? What’s the difference? Is there a difference? Does it matter? There is a huge difference. The medical model has gained a strong foothold in North America over the last 15 years. It is a vertically integrated structure driven by doctors and usually administered by an ATC or sometimes a physical therapist. There are silos, where narrow specialization is encouraged. Leadership is this model is by command. Everything is over diagnosed. If the player has a hangnail, an MRI is ordered. Of course if you look hard enough for injuries or dysfunctions then surely you will find them. In the medical model it is almost as if people are going out of their way to justify their existence. The S&C coaches are low on the food chain. They are given strict guidelines as to what they may and may not do in regard to training the athletes, even down to being told to include specific exercises and exclude others. They have little input in prevention programs, those are dictated to them from the medical side. There is an emphasis on corrective exercise to the exclusion of training. Much of what is done is protocol driven. They have little or no input in rehabilitation and returning the athlete to the sport after injury. The emphasis here is on what can’t be done, limitations, exclusion and panic reactions.

The performance model is just that, it is a model driven by performance. The focus is on what the athlete can do, on training and preparation for the game. It is a model that is proactive, based on abilities not disabilities, it takes into consideration the big picture connections and provides a broad spectrum of care. The performance director is crucial. That person needs to have great communication skills, and be a consummate generalist in order to connect all elements that comprise performance. The performance director coordinates and facilitates in a horizontal structure where everyone has clear roles and responsibilities but is encouraged to interact with others outside their area of expertise. Everything is criteria based, with baselines established through a specific physical competency assessment that fits the sport. The premium is on cooperation and communication. It is clearly coach driven. It is a model that is robust and dynamic based on accountability for performance of the player in competitive arena. The team is designed to optimize performance, injury prevention is transparent, but a stated objective. If there is an injury the whole team is involved in the process of returning the athlete to full participation from day one.

It does matter which model you choose. Look at where we are in the US. We have adopted the medical model and injuries are off the chart. The medical model results in everyone walking on eggshells, waiting for the next injury to happen and then pointing fingers to place blame when injuries do occur. We need to take a close look at the whole structure. I have a strong bias toward the performance model. I have seen it work. It optimizes the athlete’s abilities and significantly reduces injuries. It empowers everyone in the performance team because they all have a voice and a role in what occurs. It is not a power grab or who is in control; rather it is about producing results. Performance depends on a viable  functional team behind the team with everyone on the same page. Bottom line that is what the performance model is all about.