First let me start by saying that I had an amazing
conversation yesterday with Jim Steen, the swim coach at Kenyon College. Under
Jim’s guidance the Kenyon men have won 31 straight Division III championships.
For the first time in his career at Kenyon he will not be coaching the women so
that he can focus on a smaller group. We were talking about how he starts each season;
he starts each season with a clean slate; he starts out as if he
knows nothing. Sure better to start there than to think you have it figured out
and know everything. If there is a secret, this might be it.
He got me thinking, we should do the same with training, start
with a clean slate, and assume you know nothing, start with the basics, the
three movement constants are the most basic place to start. They are 1) The Body 2) Gravity 3) The Ground.
Every time you start with a new training program this is where you must start.
Training is how these constants interact to achieve optimum results.
Start with the body. This is what we are trying to improve. The
body is a self-organizing organism that will respond to the stress placed upon
in training. If the training is adequate, then it will respond positively, if
it too easy there will be minimal adaptive response and if it is too hard it
will shut down. Adaptation takes time and it is cumulative over time.
Gravity is always there; we live in a gravitationally
enriched environment. Gravity loads us. We are in a constant struggle with
gravity. Strength training enhances our ability to work with and against gravity.
Gravity will always win, we may be able to cheat it at certain times and in
certain situations, but it will prevail.
The ground is where we live, work and play. The ability to
use the ground effectively to produce force is crucial to training adaptation
in terms of force production, force reduction, speed and movement enhancement.
I know this seems simple and it is, but it is not
simplistic. It does not take much to mix and match the constants to the demands
of the sport to end up with a complex program. Complexity is not the goal, it is a logical outcome of
working on the three movement constants.