GAIN 2011 - Day One

We kicked off precisely at 2:00 PM. The word here is HOT!! Like in 98 degress hot. A bit tough on our attendees from across the pond. One thing we know for sure that at the end of GAIN there will be a definite gain it fitness for the attendees. It is a brisk 15 minute walk from the dorm to the meeting room. We need to do all that walking because the food is great and it is all you can eat. But we are not here for the exercise and the food, we are here for the learning, the intellectual stimulation and growth and the sharing of information. We are off the rousing start on that end. I started out out with an introduction to my coaching journey and a refresher on funtional path principles. Then I handed the baton off to Kelvin Giles who presented on the role of physical literacy in long term athlete development. We broke for dinner and then in the evening I presented a  quick overview of Planned Performance Training principles. The highlight of the evening of Jim Radcliffe from University of Oregon presenting on the preparation for the BCS championship game. Jim also presented on how he starts the athletes out from day one at University of Oregon. John Larralde then presented a case study on peaking using as examples how he prepared two California State High School mile champions. We also started our journey learning the mechanics of the PCA. Today we start with a session on the track to learn active warm-up with the day devoted to Jim Radcliffe presenting on his system and concluding with his wife Janice presenting on Myths & Misconception in Sports Nutrition. The take away gems from yesterday were by 1) Jim Radcliffe - "The best way to get get in great shape is to never get out of shape" and 2) John Larralde " Sometime what you don't do is what is really important."