Functional Path Training

Figuring It Out

Life is precious and fragile. The passing of Steve Jobs and the outpouring of accolades and the review of his accomplishments and philosophies only served to remind of the fragility of life. How special life is and how important it is to live each day as if it is our last. It took me 62 years to figure this out! Two years ago yesterday, Jed Anderson, my brother-in-law and friend passed away. I got to spend three precious days with him in November 2009, when he was terminally ill. I knew it would be the last time I would see him. Seeing and experiencing the dignity and courage he showed in his illness woke me up. It made realize how special family and close personal relationships with friends. How LOVE is a word not to tossed around lightly or taken for granted. How important relationships, giving and helping other is. Jed may not have been Steve Jobs, but he changed his world with his impact on his family, friends and community. Reflecting on those three days with Jed made me realize how important it is to take a moment each day to stop and reflect on who you are and to reach out and thank someone special to you. When all is said and done the material accomplishments, the wins and loses, the accolades are meaningless. It is how you live your life. Admit your faults and mistakes. Do some small things everyday to make your world and a better place and those around you better. Thank you Jed for opening my eyes, you are with us everyday in spirit.

2011 Lessons Learned - Lesson Nine

Lesson Nine – It is important to stand up for what you believe in and if you are wrong to admit it. Valuing honesty, respect, integrity and professionalism does not make you a bitter old man, it makes you a wise. In today’s world of quick fixes, fast information and instant Internet experts it is easy to lose sight of substance and strong foundational beliefs. Being an excellent coach is being an excellent person, it is not about being the smartest and most verbal, it is about having meaning and purpose in everything you do. One of my core beliefs going back to my first year coaching is that “the pursuit of excellence has it’s own rewards,” everything I have seen and learned this past year has reinforced that.

Ahead in 2012 and beyond I am looking forward to learning and challenging myself to keep getting better. I am forever thankful for my family and my roots and those who have helped me along way.

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:

  

Back in the USA

It is good to be back home even it is only for eight days before I leave for Scotland. The trip down under was wonderful. Over the next few days as I get caught up I will share with you some of the things I learned. I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who was so helpful: Glynnis Nunn of the Australian Track & Field Coaches Association (The winner of first Olympic Heptathlon in 1984 and a wonderful person). My good friend and colleague Dean Benton, Performance Director of the Brumbies for doing the initial legwork to get this trip off the ground. It was an honor to present to his staff and their world-renowned coach Jake White, coach of the 2007 Rugby World Cup winning Springboks. Bill Sweetenham for inviting to present to the Podium Forum at AIS. Getting to finally meet Bill after all these years was very special. He is an icon the coaching world. Thanks to all the folks at the Western Australian Track & Field Coaches Association for finally getting me to Perth, a corner of the world that I definitely will come back to. A special thanks to Phil King for a great four days in Melbourne and allowing me to work with his athlete, Jana Pittman. Lachlan Penfold, Performance Director Sydney Roosters ARL, my good friend and colleague for hosting me the last four day in OZ and allowing me to brainstorm on training with his staff. Rob Medlicott for the wonderful luncheon on Sunday with some old friends. Australia is a special place for me. From my first visit in 1996 I fell in love with the place because of the warm and friendly people, the great coaches eager to learn and share and the national passion for sport. In my little world that is very special. I am already looking forward to the next visit and I have only been home for twelve hours. This visit epitomized what is so special about sport and coaching. The friendships and connections with people are so special, it transcends wins, loses medals and championships.

Catching Up

One of the greatest rewards of coaching is being able to visit with former athletes and see their growth as people. Friday I had a wonderful two-hour visit with two former White Sox players – Kinnis Pledger and Ed Smith. I had not seen them for at least 17 years. I first met them in June 1987 at the draft mini camp in Sarasota. They had just signed with the White Sox after being drafted in the 1987 amateur free agent draft. Kinnis was a year older than Ed having attended a year of junior college. Ed was drafted out of high school in New Jersey. They were just kids starting a journey as professional athletes. For them as for all those kids it was rude awakening, it was now a job, no longer just a game you just played for fun. It was hot and expectations were higher than the Florida heat. They were young immature kids, Kinnis was a little cocky but as he admitted on Friday (something I recognized back then) it was a cover-up for his insecurity – he was an athlete who had not played much baseball. Ed was quiet and determined; he also had not played much baseball. He had been a football standout in high school. They both had to learn the game and they had to learn how to train – that is where I entered into the picture.

They certainly were already very good athletes, but my job was to teach them to be better, how to warm-up, to stay injury free, to get stronger and faster. Just like most young players they did it without any particular buy in at first. But over the next several they began to understand that I was there to help them not punish them and they got bigger, stronger faster and more agile. Kinnis eventually broke the organization record in the 5-10-5 agility test. Ed improved his forty yard time two tenths of a second and his ten yard time down in the 1.66 second range. They also improved as baseball players. They were considered among the White Sox best prospects.

Unfortunately they were unwitting victims of a failed experiment in teaching hitting. The White Sox owner was sold a bill of goods by a hitting guru who imposed a flawed style of hitting on the organization from top to bottom, from the major leagues to rookie ball. Players were forced to conform or they were not allowed to play. They might as well have taken the bats out of the players hands it was so bad. It was tough to watch. In retrospect Kinnis and Ed were probably hurt more than most by this failed attempt at cloning because they were power hitters who were robbed of their power. To their credit they stuck it out. Both ended up with other organizations sometime in my last three years there.

They both advanced as high as Triple A – one step from the major leagues. Kinnis stuck with baseball and played until 2001 even being named MVP of one of the independent leagues along the way. Ed left baseball in 1995 seeking an improbable career change to professional football. The story gets real interesting here, it reads like a sport fantasy tale.

Ed’s brother Erv was a standout tight end at Notre Dame and the first round pick of the New Orleans Saints. Ed became discouraged midway through the season when he saw his baseball career stagnating so he floated the idea of playing football by his brother. His brother encouraged him. He finished the season. Ed said he played some his best baseball ever because he felt like a weight was off his shoulders when he made the decision to play football. Not quite clear on the details of the chronology since was not taking notes, I was astounded at the story, but the bottom line it has been close to ten years since he had played high school football. This was not the typical career path to the NFL. He began preparation in earnest. He got his weight up to 254 and started looking for opportunities. It came in the form of a tryout with the World Football League (NFL Europe) who were already a week into training camp when he got the call. He started out as the fifth tight end and made the team. He played in Europe that year and then went to training camp with the St Louis Rams and was the final cut. He was picked up the Redskins and eventually landed a season or two later with the Atlanta Falcons were he was on their Super Bowl team. You could not write a better story, talk about grit!

They were both in town for the annual gala hosted by Dick Vitale to raise money for the Jimmy V foundation to fight cancer. Dick Vitale invited Ed and Ed invited Kinnis as his guest. It was so great to see them, two young men I admire for their dedication and perseverance and two real good people. I am looking forward to staying in touch. Guy’s thanks for making my day on Friday I am still glowing from the fond memories and the stories.

George Packer

Last night I attended an outstanding presentation by George Packer, staff writer for the New Yorker. The topic was: Is America In Decline? It was quite a wide-ranging discussion in a Q&A format. I went for two reasons 1) The topic appealed to me 2) I wanted to see George after 36 years. I knew George when he was 14 years old. Kenny Kring, a decathlete I had coached and trained with at Stanford lived with the Packer family. The summer after I got my masters George used to come out to the track with us when we trained. We taught him to hurdle. At the same time I was working on my first book (Actually a booklet) Hurdling and Steeplechasing for Runners World. I needed a young athlete to demo the “sticks and bricks” teaching progression so George was the model. It sure was great to see him. I am a big fan of his writing. After all he has accomplished it was neat that he remembered that summer when I went up to him after the presentation. If you get a chance check out his writing, it is thought provoking and informative.

Trinidad and Tobago

What a great trip. My colleagues Dave Joyner and Ed Ryan and I taught a three day seminar

on Following the Functional Path to Build and Rebuild the Complete Athlete. We had 114 coaches, therapists and doctors attend. The last day was Independence Day, a national holiday and there was very little drop off in attendance. The coaches were eager to learn so the questions were really good and challenging. This is a very small country, in geography and population with a rich sport history. With he guidance of the Sports Minister, Gary Hunt, whom we were able to meet and discuss thier development plans they will be a force to be reckoned with again in sports on the world scene. I would like to thanks Mr Trevor Hewitt for organizing the trip through his business Advanced Performance Technologies and the support of the Sports Minister, The Honourable Gary Hunt.

Jim Radcliffe

Saturday I had dinner and visited with Jim Radcliffe in Seattle. Jim is a very good friend and a consummate professional. As many of you know he is the head strength and conditioning coach at the University of Oregon. He is in charge of football and also works with baseball, women’s basketball and is extensively involved helping with track and field with both the collegians and post collegians. He does not have a large staff; in fact his whole staff for all sports is smaller than most DI programs have for football alone. This does not compromise the quality of the work. Football has been consistently in the top 25 the last 15 years. He emphasizes training athleticism. All components are trained appropriate for the demand of the sport. It is not a one size fits all program. Whenever we get together we always seem to talk about how we have seen things change over the years, how fads and quick fixes have trumped good teaching and progressions. We are both strongly influenced by Bill Bowerman. He was a generalist and we both agree that his influence is a big factor in our approach of looking at the big picture. Bowerman taught us that progress in athletic development takes time, there are no quick fixes, good sound training with proper progression yields consistent results.

We are presenting together at the NSCA Convention in Las Vegas on Coaching Excellence. It will be a different talk than we usually give in that it will focus on philosophy and area that we both agree the younger generation needs to hear. Jim will also be teaching at the GAIN Apprentorship in June on strength and power development. We are all looking forward to that. It is great to have a friend and professional colleague like Jim. He has taught me a lot over the years and had been a consistent sounding board.

Comings and Going

Congratulation to my friend and colleague Gary Winckler who is retiring as the Head Women’s Track Coach at University of Illinois. Gary will continue to coach his post collegiate athletes and devote more time to work designing and making western saddles.

Congratulation to Phil Lundin, another friend and great coach, who is leaving University of Minnesota to take over the Head Track and Field Coaching job at St Olaf College. He is returning to his roots at the Division III level. I know this is something that Phil has contemplated for quite some time, I was glad that he was able to do this. Minnesotas loss is St Olaf’s gain.

Dean Benton is leaving the Leicester Tigers to return to the Brisbane Broncos in a new position as Performance Director.

These guys are three great people and professionals; I want to wish them all the best in their new endeavors. I hope that each of you along the way in your careers have the opportunity to associate with professionals like this.