Functional Path Training

Drills ≠ Skills

Just doing drills ad nauseum doesn’t necessarily transfer to skill improvement. In fact it can retard skill development and disturb technique. Just being able to do part of a skill broken out into a drill does not transfer to the actual skill or activity. Regardless of the sport or training venue I see drills predominate but you must remember similar is not the same! Certainly some of the drills look really cool, but are they a waste of time? Are they really doing what you think they are doing? That is a question you must ask yourself. I understand you must do more than just the skill of the sport or event itself but is what you are doing making you athletes better at the skill or making you better at the drill? When you ask coaches why they are doing a drill often the stock answer is that so and so does it and he or she is the best so it must be good. In fact drills are often named after the originator the drill. Here we go monkey see, monkey do again. Do you know why you are using the drill? Is it a skill drill or a conditioning drill? I have watched thousands of kids taught intricate soccer drills with no idea or concept of how the drill fit into the game. The same in basketball, and track and field the list is never ending. I doubt Messi grew up doing drills. The same with so-called sprint drills I doubt Usain Bolt was taught drills first. Teach them to sprint not to drill.

If you want to create robotic looking athletes then break your skill into small intricate parts, but if you want them to flow then let them discover the skills. Give them increasingly complex movements problems to solve. They will figure it out and the solutions they find may not fit the norm or look just the way you think it should be. It is acceptable to allow the athlete freedom to create and express their motor ability, don’t take away rhythm, flow and individual expression. Give them the colors, a brush and empty canvas and let them paint their own picture. Some will be masterpieces and others will not. They will have ownership and the movements will be more meaningful to them.

The longer I have coached the less drills I use. I have my “go to” drills that fit certain activities or skills, but more importantly fit the needs of the individual. I have learned what those drills mean within my system. I am very prescriptive in applying the drills. I will problem solve with the athlete and decide if a drill is warranted and they can relate to it. I want to know if they can relate the drill to what they are trying to improve, if they can feel it or it is just another task to get done. Remember coaching is not something you do to the athlete it is something you do with the athlete. Engage them in the process and they will get better with some help from you. Skill them don’t drill them.

Memorial Day – A Time to Remember

This weekend may signify the start of summer and be a three-day weekend but we cannot lose sight of the fact that it is MEMORIAL DAY. It is a day to honor and remember those who gave their lives for our country. I must admit until a September Sunday morning 21 years ago Memorial  Day did not mean that much to me. On that day my wife and children went to visit the Vietnam Memorial. I knew it would be emotional but I was totally unprepared for the impact it had on me. Vietnam was my generation’s war. I never thought it was a just war or a war we should have been fighting. I had never served in the military but I had friends who were in Vietnam. Just walking up to that black stonewall and realizing the enormity of the sacrifice was overwhelming. Then I remembered that a high school classmate had been killed in Vietnam so I decided to look for his name. Even though we had a small class he was not more than an acquaintance certainly not a close friend. I found his name and I was unprepared for what I found. He was killed on Christmas Eve 1967. All I could do was cry; the tears were of sympathy and also a certain rage for a life taken. I couldn’t help but think of what I was doing that Christmas Eve.  I was exchanging presents and I was midway through my senior year in college preparing to get on with a career. He gave his life in a foreign land fighting for us. Ever since that day 21 years ago Memorial Day has had a new meaning for me. War is brutal and senseless, some wars are justified and some are not, but that does not diminish the sacrifice of those who have given their lives so that we can have the freedom and the opportunities that we have. Take a minute today in the midst of your picnic or day at the beach to thank those who sacrificed their lives for us to make the world a better place.

Changing the World

I am an idealist but not that big an idealist to think that you or I as one individual could possibly change the world. That being said you have no option you must work to change the world everyday. You have to and you can. How? It is really quite simple reframe how you think of “the world.” The world is your own world, the place, the thoughts and the people in your immediate sphere of influence. It might be the classroom where you teach, a soccer pitch or a track where you coach – it is your own world. Just imagine if each of us could change our worlds each day then the bigger outside world would also change. Think of it as small wins, influence and changes over what you can control, what you can influence. You can do something everyday to change the world. Sometimes it is easy and sometimes it is a struggle but you can change your world.

Link & Sync to Build and Rebuild the Complete Athlete

Do not think parts, think the unified whole conceptualize how the body works together as a link system. All training should be designed to enhance that linkage. Look for connections and relationships; do not get hung upon minutiae. All systems of the body work together all the time. There are no switches that turn energy systems off or on and there are no switches that turn muscles off and on. You cannot isolate and just train the muscular system or the nervous system, or any other system of the body for that matter, they all work together all the time to produce smooth efficient movement. Train and rehab the connections by using methods that promote linkage. Think of linking the ankle, knee and hip, to the shoulder, elbow, wrist and hand. This is the most effective means of staying on the “Functional Path” and being efficient. Training linkage and enhancing connections transfers to efficient movement, efficient movement transfers to improved performance.

A Foundation in Fundamentals

Effective athletic development is based upon the principle of the development of fundamental movement skill before specific sport skill. In generations past this was something that everyone took for granted because the demands of everyday living took care of fundamental movement. People at all ages were very active. Children grew up moving, free play was a major part of daily activity. It was natural to crawl, jump, hop, run, reach, lift, throw, etc; it was all done in a spontaneous playful environment. Even in the adult world there were less “conveniences” than today. People walked instead of rode. Physical labor was part of society. People generally participated rather than watched. As short a time as thirty years ago there was mandatory physical education from kindergarten through twelfth grade in every state in the nation.

The athletic realm does not exist independent of the rest of society; athletes are a product of the society they grow up in. There is no longer mandatory physical education to provide a foundation of movement skills. There is less free play, more organized sport activity and earlier speacialization. The net effect of all of this is a significant decline in fundamental movement skills and general physical fitness. A sound athletic development program is founded on the basic locomotor skills developed to their highest level. These fundamental skills must be incorporated on a daily basis into the athlete’s training program regardless of the level of development. Obviously as the athletes progresses in training age and skill development fundamental skills should assume proportionally less of the training time but they should always be there. It is ironic that in my work with high level professional athletes that I have to spend a good portion of their training on fundamental movements because they never acquired these skills as part of their foundation. Instead they specialized early and refined their specific sport skills.

Build a strong foundation of pulling, pushing, bending ,extending, running, jumping, and throwing before a major emphasis on sport skill. The FUNdamentals of athletic success are built on a foundation of movement skills.

Functional, Integrated Rehabilitation of the Sprained Ankle: A Practitioners Manual

Joe Przytula is a good friend, professional colleague and a member of the GAIN Apprentorship faculty. I first met Joe when he attended one of my seminars around 15 years ago. From day one he impressed me with his hunger for knowledge and desire to improve himself. Joe is the trainer at Elizabeth high school in New Jersey, one of the largest public high schools in the state. He is the only athletic trainer for over 5,000 students! His facilities are limited so he had to learn to improvise.

Joe has written an eBook - "Functional, Integrated Rehabilitation of the Sprained Ankle: A Practitioners Manual." The ideas and techniques that Joe shares in this outstanding book were born out of necessity. He knows the body and how to properly use a functional approach to both prevent injury and to get the athlete back to full participation after injury. Joe’s book is filled with pearls of wisdom that will help you immediately. This is a tremendous resource by an outstanding professional. It is available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble in eBook format for a very affordable $9.95.

Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Functional-Integrated-Rehabilitation-Practitioners-ebook/dp/B0051BOA1S/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1305724069&sr=1-1
Barnes and Noble:
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Functional-Integrated-Rehabilitation-of-the-Sprained-Ankle-A-Practitioners-Manual/Joseph-Przytula/e/2940012415851/?itm=1&USRI=ankle+sprain

In my estimation a book like this written by a professional who lives this everyday and produces results without fancy equipment and modalities is worth paying attention to. This is not theory, it is about practice and practical methods to get your athletes better after an ankle sprain. I can’t wait until he does one on the upper extremity, it will be a game changer.

Some Basic (Mostly Obvious) Questions

I received this email the other day. I believe this sums many of the issues we face in athletic development today:

"I recently attended a sports specific conference not a personal trainer type of one. Left disappointed. Conference presenters and attendees were primarily college and professional coaches not personal trainers. But, I ended up getting two days of hearing that bilateral squatting is bad for the back and that step ups cause knee pain (presenter), "we have everyone power clean" (presenter and attendees), we use the FMS (presenter and MANY attendees) and one presenter, in particular, was worshipped by many. I left disappointed. I felt like I just attended a personal trainer type conference! One attendee when asked what is the first thing he does with a new athlete said "I take them through the FMS." We also got to go through stations standing on BOSU balls, foam rolling, using the Core X, using some type of TRX band, etc. It was basically a personal trainer/boot camp circuit. Waste of time to me.”

There are so many obvious questions that no one seems willing to ask. Maybe they are not so obvious. It seems we have arrived at a total monkey see, monkey do stage in the athletic development profession. If one guru says something then everyone is like a bunch of bobble head dolls quickly nodding their heads in affirmation without even stopping to think or question.

These are my questions based on what I am seeing and hearing. Here goes:

Why does everyone have to power clean? Aren’t there any viable alternatives?

Why not back squat?

With more emphasis on so-called “corrective exercise” why do we have more injuries than ever before?

Why movement prep what is wrong with warm-up?

What does the functional movement screen really tell you?

Is the body fundamentally symmetric?

I ask these questions not to be provocative or argumentative but to get legitimate answers, not the party line answers and platitudes. Why are you doing what you are doing? Are you doing it because it is what everyone else is doing? Is what you are doing best for your athletes? Does it fit the sport demands and the athlete’s level of development and training age? Folks there are years of experience by many people, not just myself, that lead to this questions. All you young coaches out there take a step back, look in mirror and ask yourself  - Why? Ask yourself where is this information coming from? What are they trying to sell? Does it really work or are you doing it because some "expert" told you it would work. Think critically don’t just change the flavor of the Kool-Aid or buy the next DVD.

Waiting for Superman

This DVD was one of the most disturbing things I have seen a long time. If in fact our children and their education are the future it certainly paints a very dark picture of our future as a nation. What made this so disturbing was that all the arguments of what is wrong with education were gathered together in one place. He has nailed the problems and offered some solutions. The problem as I see it is that the solutions are incredibly uncomfortable. They demand creating a whole new paradigm. Children’s lives are at stake and the future of our nation, as we know it is also in grave jeopardy. We are failing our kids by allowing a substandard educational system! The system is not broken there is no longer a system! There is complete chaos with young lives being wasted. Watch “Waiting for Superman” now and do something. It has spurred me to look into what I can do.

Three Steps to Athletic Achievement

I would like to share my ideas on what it takes to grow as an athlete in order to be able to achieve at the highest levels. I hope you enjoy this. I would be interested in your feedback

 

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.