Functional Path Training

Coaching & Communication

To be an effective coach you must communicate clearly with those who you are coaching. Communication completes the feedback loop that gives you and the athlete a sense of self worth. Sometimes it is not so much the content of the message, but the mode and medium of the presentation that ultimately determines the effectiveness of the message. It was Marshall McLuan who said: " that the medium is the message." Be aware of what medium you using to convey the message you want to convey.

Priority Training

It is so easy when designing a training program to include too much “stuff.” I know over the year I have been guilty of this. I want to make sure that I touch all the bases so I end adding an exercise here, a drill there and pretty soon I have so much “stuff” I can’t see the forest for the trees. This shotgun approach aims to hit a little bit of everything but mixed training yields mixed results. The result is that improvement is marginal and you don’t really know what training stimulus caused the improvement that did occur.

The opposite is what I call priority training. Here the training is very targeted; specific objectives are determined based on sport, position or event demands and the needs of the individual athlete. The objectives are always squarely in the target. The focus is on need to do methods that fit with the target. Eliminate the nice do activities, the busy work that makes you tired but does not contribute significantly to getting better. Another way to set the training priorities is to divide the training methods and means into a major emphasis and a minor emphasis. Major emphasis areas are the priority. These will show up two to three times as often as minor emphasis areas. At the end of the process the result should be as complete an athlete as possible, specifically fit, fast and strong for the demands of the competitive arena. Set the priorities in training and stick to them and reap the rewards in competition.

Grabbing the Brass Ring – Are you ready?

This is post number 1,000 since I switched the blog to TypePad, I think it only fitting that this is about grabbing the brass ring, seizing moment, taking advantage of an opportunity. All the hoopla about Jeremy Lin over the past few weeks got me thinking about this. In my forty-three years of coaching and my time as an athlete in high school, in college and post collegiately I have seen many situations where the brass ring was there to grab and the athlete was not ready to grab it. What makes Jeremy Lin so intriguing to me is that he was ready when his moment came and seized the opportunity and has not looked back. Lets not forget this guy did not just show up out of nowhere. He was in the NBA last year, he did play DI basketball, albeit in the Ivy League arguably not a powerhouse conference, but the point is that he had done the work. This is actually the second time he has grabbed the brass ring, the first was when he outplayed number one pick in the NBA in a summer league game to get the attention of the Warriors. We have a pattern here, he is the consummate example of a growth mindset, where others saw failure he saw opportunity. 

You would have to be insensitive not to feel good about his success and be inspired by it but let’s get beyond the warm fuzzy feeling and talk about being ready to grab the brass ring when the opportunity presents itself. If you have done the preparation then you are in control and you have given yourself a chance. If you want to be ready look at how you are preparing. Are you preparing or just hoping that luck and fate will favor you? It doesn’t work that way, it is not the hand of fate that will touch you rather your it is your fate that is in your hands.

I have seen so many athletes and coaches for that matter who speak about “if only” I would have had a chance or the others who had the chance but think they got the shaft. The fact is the bass ring may only pass once. If you are ready you will be a headline like Jeremy Lin, if not you will be a footnote like the numerous other players who got fifteen day tryouts. It is in your hands, be ready, be prepared, and seize the moment.

 

There is Gain Without Pain

No pain, no gain was a very prevalent attitude when I began coaching in the late Sixties and surprisingly it continues to persist today. I have never been able to figure out the appeal of this approach. Proper training in the weight room or on the field demands that the athlete test their limits. Some workouts are very difficult and other workouts will be quite easy. This ebb and flow of hard efforts interspersed with easier efforts is essential to allow for proper adaptation.

I think the no pain; no gain approach is a direct outgrowth of the fact that historically Strength & Conditioning was a field driven by football. It was the football strength & conditioning coach who set the tempo for the programs because they were often the head strength coach. The mastodon mentality that pervaded football in the fifties and the sixties served to reinforce the no pain, no gain approach. In those days players were not allowed to take their helmets off during practice or allowed to drink during practice. The whole goal was to make the players tough, so without pain there was no gain!

That should be changing today with the accumulation of knowledge and experience. I want my players tough on game day. That should be the goal of training. A thoroughly conditioned athlete who is supremely confident in his or her physical preparation will be mentally and physically tough. Physically and psychologically an athlete can only go to the well so many times before it will begin to deplete their reserves. There is no doubt in my mind that a good sport coach or a strength and conditioning coach can get athletes to train and perform beyond levels that the athletes ever thought possible. To achieve this does not mean you have to inflict pain. Certainly pushing the envelope is uncomfortable. Athletes in training must get comfortable with a certain level of discomfort.

As coaches we are teachers. It is our job to teach the athletes how to train. Training is more than feeling the burn. It does not take a genius to devise a workout that can bury someone, that is not training. Good lifts require effort, concentration and intensity. It is not body building. I have found that this is the hardest lesson to get across to today’s athletes. I certainly do not want to discourage an athlete from working hard in the weight room, or anywhere for that matter, but I must teach what training is. Training is cumulative, it is more than one heavy max session in the weight room, it is the cumulative effect of many sessions over a period of week’s and months. I emphasize that the workouts in the weight room must in context of the whole program. It is hard for a young athlete to think ahead and see the big picture so we as coaches have paint a very clear picture so they can see where they are going and the steps they must take to get there.

There is no substitute for purposeful directed work. More is certainly not better. It is important to recognize gains the high school athlete can make. If you understand the growth and development process and follow good progressions it is possible push them to the edge, not over the edge. The key to negating the no pain, no gain mentality is to understand progression. Too much too soon without establishing a good base of general strength will negate the possibility of greater return later on. To make gains it is necessary to achieve certain stimulus threshold. This threshold is dependent on the individual and the objective of the training. Keep the big picture in mind – to achieve the training objective, it is more than one workout. Train, don’t strain, focus on the process and remember time is on your side.

Functional Training Thoughts & Concepts

Functional Training is the systematic progressive integration of training modalities (medicine ball, stretch cord, dumbbells, body weight etc.) to produce significant adaptation in specific performance parameters based on the “Step to Success Model.” The step to success model is based on the following paradigm:

Demands of the Sport - The exercises and methods should reflect the demands of sport.

Demands of the Event or Position - Each event or position in a sport has different demands.

Qualities of the individual athlete - Each athlete is different, different gender, different lever systems as well as different levels of adaptability and recoverability from training.

Pattern of Injuries (Risk Factors) - This must be addressed in the context of the whole kinetic chain.

Functional training is more than just a bunch of exercises thrown together that are different; it is variety with a purpose. The key to a good sound functional training program is progression. You must carefully assess where you are at the present time and carve out a step-by-step progression to achieve specific realistic training objectives. Know where have you been and where are you going. Then fill the gap with logical functional progression that will move forward only when the previous step has been mastered.

In today’s high tech world we sometimes forget the basics. The farther away from the body the less functional we become. The human body is a beautiful finely tuned organism that far surpasses the most finely tuned high performance machine created by man. It is the ultimate high tech machine. Despite all its complexity the body is also incredibly simple. Movement is a beautiful flow. The body has an inherent wisdom. In order to take advantage of the body’s wisdom we must focus on how the body actually functions. We must understand the movements in the sport we are training for in order to understand how to apply functional training .  

The body is a link system; this link system is referred to as the kinetic chain. Functional training is all about linkage – it is all about how all the parts of the chain work together in harmony to produce smooth efficient patterns of movement. Most conventional academic preparation in exercise and movement Science focuses on studying individual muscles based on classical anatomy. This is where the confusion begins as to what is functional movement. First of all we must remember that we do not function in the anatomical position. The anatomical position is static; it provides us with the perspective of mental convenience to arrange of all the individual muscles for ease of study and observation. In order to truly understand functional training we must get away from the focus on muscles and focus instead on movements. It is important to emphasize that the brain does not recognize individual muscles. It recognizes patterns of movement, which consist of the individual muscles working in harmony to produce movements of the sport.

In over ground movement like running and jumping gravity is a major player. In order to completely understand function we must understand the role that gravity plays. The fact that we live, work and play in a gravitationally enriched environment cannot be denied. Gravity has minimal effect on the body in the anatomical position, but maximum effect on the body in movement. We simply cannot ignore gravity, it is essential for movement, it loads the system. Therefore we must learn to overcome its effects, cheat and even defeat it occasionally. Over reliance on machines for training will give us a false sense of security because they negate some of the effects of gravity. Gravity and its effect must be a prime consideration when designing and implementing a functional training program to prepare the body for the forces that it must overcome.

Carefully look at he movement that you are trying to enhance. What are the forces involved? What is the dominant plane of motion? Movement occurs in all three planes of motion simultaneously: Sagittal, frontal, and transverse. Therefore it is important to train movement in all three planes.  It is imperative to understand the movements and then design the training program accordingly.

Avoid the trap of measurable strength. How much you can lift or how many foot-pounds of force you can express on a dynamometer are meaningless numbers. Functional training is not about measurable strength. Quality of movement, rhythm, synchronization and connections are more important. The goal is always to apply the strength that is developed in the actual sport performance. How is the force expressed? Can you produce and reduce the force? Force production is all about acceleration, but often the key to movement efficiency and staying injury free is the ability to decelerate and stabilize in order to position the body perform the desired movement. A good functional training program will work on the interplay between force production, force reduction and stabilization. The end result is functional strength

Understanding and applying a functional approach to training is a challenging process. It is often contrary to conventional wisdom as represented in mainstream sport science research. In order to move forward this should not limit us. We need to use conventional wisdom as a staring point and move forward to think and act outside the box.  Follow your instincts and allow your creativity to be expressed through movement. Follow the functional the functional path to improved performance.

Training and Perfromance Plateaus - Solutions & Suggestions

What are solutions to breaking a plateau or preventing the occurrence of a plateau? The most basic solution is to carefully plan your training and competition. Be sure that built into the plan there are frequent systematic changes in the training stimulus, the training routine, as well as the training environment. In the plan pay particular attention to the sequence of work so that training components are complementary. Carefully control the volume and intensity of the total workload as well as the individual components of training. Plan the competition so that there is a mix of competitions in terms of degree of difficulty as well as adequate time between competitions to allow for recovery time as well as training time.

Remember that training is a cumulative process. No one workout or training method will make the difference, but it is the total of all the components that determines the ultimate training adaptation. In fact training is synergistic so that in reality the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. That is why it is so important to plan and recognize the plateau phenomenon for what it is as part of the normal process of adaptation. Too often we take a microscopic approach that blows one exercise, training session or game out of proportion to the whole training program. A macro or global approach will go a long ways to putting each session in the context of the whole plan. It is important to never lose sight of the ultimate long-term objective.

There are many ways to change a training program to avoid prolonged plateaus or to break a plateau. The key is that each of the changes must have a specific purpose or methodology and be part of the plan not a knee jerk response. When we look at changes in the training program lets look at changes as either big changes or little changes. First the big changes:

Volume – The total training load. Volume can either be increased, decreased or maintained. It is generally agreed that no more than a 10% increase or reduction is acceptable in any one training period.

Speed – Speed can be varied, increased or decreased.

Rest – This variable needs to be considered both intra workout and inter workout. Intra workout referring to decreasing or increasing the rest between exercises or drills will significantly change the training demand and emphasis. Also with inter workout rest look at adding another recovery or an active rest day to the weekly training cycle. Remember that it is during the rest that the adaptation occurs

Training Mode – This can be changed by using a little creativity. For example in squats – You can use body weight, a weight vest, a bar, dumbbells, do jump squats, back squats, front squats or overhead squats. The movements and muscles are all similar but the stimulus is varied enough that the body will perceive it as a different. This will prevent a plateau or break out of a plateau.

Training Sequences – Modify the sequence of training to achieve optimum results. For example within a workout, place your plyometric work after weights or weight train then sprint. Also look carefully at your sequence during the training week. It is important to have several different patterns of work. Change the order of the primary stimulus focus for the days of the week. This change of sequence can have a very significant effect on the control of the plateau

Environment – Move from outdoors to indoors or indoors to outdoors. Change the training surface or the venue of training.

Remember it is important to recognize that plateaus are a normal part of training. Recognize them for what they are and manage them.

Training and Performance Plateaus – What & Why

Once an athlete has been training for any period of time it is inevitable that a plateau in training or performance will occur. Usually the reaction is one of panic. What now? There is no need to panic just realize that plateaus are a normal part of training progression. Performance improvement and training progress are not linear. There are periods of stagnation, just as there are periods of rapid improvement, hopefully there will not be periods of regression, but sometimes there is. If we recognize this as a normal part of the training process and accept it as such, then we will be able to overcome performance plateaus without any negative effects.

What exactly is a plateau? It is a stagnation or temporary decline in performance or training. It is not overtraining. That is a very negative outcome of many factors, which ultimately results in a significant decline in performance and/or the capacity to train. The ideal situation in a training year and an athletic lifetime is to see performance improve as a staircase like series of ever ascending small plateaus leading to a period of sustained high performance. Each step in the staircase is a period of adaptation to the training stimulus of the previous period of training. If we can evaluate our progress in this light and the length of each plateau is controlled then the plateau is a very positive training phenomenon. By controlling the training process, the lifestyle and the competition schedule it is possible to make the plateaus controllable. It requires careful planning and monitoring of day-to-day training as well as execution of a good long-term plan. The athlete must be fully aware of their role in the whole process. They must provide objective feedback on an ongoing basis to help the coach make any necessary adjustments.

What are the causes of plateaus? The most common cause is if too much time is spent in a particular mode, routine or in one training environment. For example carrying out a heavy lifting cycle for six weeks with the same sets and reps done on the same training days. Sports with extended competitive seasons like baseball, basketball and tennis fall into this trap. There is little variety or change of stimulus that will result in extended performance plateaus. The lack of variety or change in stimulus in training will result in stagnation. In general too much of any one component for too long will result in a plateau. The competition schedule can play a significant role in the cause of plateaus. Either too little competition or too much competition can cause a plateau effect. The former tends to make training seem to lack a purpose, while the latter does not allow adequate time to train and prepare. Also competition against inferior opposition will often result in a stagnation of performance because the athlete is not challenged and neither the training nor the competition offers enough stimuli for adaptation to occur.

Tomorrow - Part Two - Solutions and Suggestions

Drills With and For A Purpose

With the instant availability of thousands of drills on the Internet I wanted to give some of my ideas on using drills effectively. My first question always is: Does the drill lead to something? If it just something you learned at a clinic or saw on the internet that looks then think again before using it. No drill is an end unto itself. Can you design a progression involving the drill that will enhance what comes after? The following is an example from a relatively simple lower extremity exercise, the squat. The principle underlying this is body weight before external resistance. There is really no limit to where you could go with this progression. It is dictated to you by the demands of the sport, the position or event within the sport and the qualities of the individual athlete. This particular progression is leading the squat toward the direction of a total body exercise.

Body Weight Squat – Hands interlocked behind the head. Execute a full squat at one rep per second.

Weight Vest Squat (10 % of Bodyweight) – The body receives this as an internal load, otherwise the emphasis is the same as the previous squat.

Sand Bag Squat – A sandbag is draped over the shoulder. This added resistance will slow the movement down, but the sandbag will still be perceived by the body as an internal load.

Dumbbell Squat – Squat while holding a dumbbell at each shoulder.

Dumbbell Squat To Press – Squat down and press the dumbbells up on the ascent.

Dumbbell Shift Squat – Squat down on two legs while shifting the weight to one leg for the ascent. Alternate legs

Dumbbell Shift and Squat to Press – Squat down on two legs while shifting the weight to one leg for the ascent and press up with the opposite arm.

This particular progression would probably take three to four weeks depending on the level of athlete and their training background. It is sequence that is particularly appropriate in the off season, although once each variation of the squat is learned, that variation can be plugged in at other times of the year as needed

There is no shortage of drills. The key is using the drills for a specific purpose within the context of the whole training program. Each drill must fit synergistically within the context of all the other drills and exercises in the training program that are designed to work on the same athletic quality. In addition the drill must enhance the other qualities as well. Drills do not work in isolation. My challenge has always been to make drills fit within a progression so that there is a logical flow from one to the other. One drill comes out of one and almost morphs into the next. This demands a good clear understanding of the objectives of the entire training program as well the application of each drill.

Make the drill fit the individuals, rather than try to fit the individual to the drill. It is desirable to have a hierarchy in the drills to allow progress and well as structured variability and individualization.

Unstable Surfaces for Training - Why and Why not? (Part Two)

What are disadvantages of using unstable surfaces? The inherent disadvantage of using unstable surfaces is that the ground moves under you. This only happens in a few sports. If the surface is too far away from the normal competition surface there is a risk of developing a skill set that makes them able to handle the very unstable surface but has no relationship to the actual activity. The danger is that overuse of the unstable surface will create artificial stability. Artificial stability is a stability that is adapted to the specific task required by the unstable surface, but is of questionable value in regards to transfer to actual performance. The stability gains need to transfer or it is time wasted. Beware of turning the use of unstable surfaces into circus tricks. A good example is standing on a physioball, except for a very few sports that is no carryover, it is a discrete skill that stands alone. There is no need to learn that to improve sports performance. That time would be better spent doing more sport appropriate activities.

A sound approach is to create instability through movement. Is the normal environment enough? Can we simply employ a few environmental modifiers? An environmental modifier is anything that creats an increased propriocpetive demand that elicts a response that is similar to that requires by the movements of the sport. So the questions you must ask are: What will transfer? What will not transfer? What will create a skill set that will not transfer?

There are three clear objectives for using unstable surfaces:

Injury Prevention - Scandinavian and Italian studies prove their value for prevention using unstable surfaces as part of warm-up.

Performance Enhancement – There is not much hard data in this area, the results are basically anecdotal.

Rehabilitation from an injury – This proceeds from very controlled closed skills to open reactive movements that indicate an ability to react and utilize the surface.

There is certainly significant overlap between the three; in essence it is a continuum.

How much should you use unstable surfaces once the sport demand has been assessed? It is best used as remedial work preceding warm-up in an injury prevention mode. For performance enhancement it should probably be placed within the body of the actual workout. It is probably most compatible with agility work or lower body strength training. Success or failure in most over ground sports is determined by how effectively the athletes are able to use the surface they compete and train on. The surface will give back energy or dampen force.

Where possible a good step is to take the shoe out of the equation. Perhaps the simplest way to manipulate the surface is the do some activities barefoot. Because of the abundance of proprioceptors in the bottom of the foot this affords the possibility for heightened sensory input. Explore the simple and obvious before going to the complex. Work barefoot will have a quick and obvious transfer.

The following are unstable surfaces that I have found effective:

Sand - Sand is a viable unstable surface to in both training and rehab. Just like any surface it has some limitations. The primary downside is that the softness of the sand significantly slows everything down. It dampens the elastic response, which is both a plus and a minus. It is a plus because it develops good concentric strength response. It is a minus because it negates elastic response, so it is not real life. That being said sand enables big angles and aggressive movements that allow the athlete to push the edge in terms of lateral movement.

High Jump and Pole Vault Pit - The depth of the pits dampens impact so it is a decision of how much do you want of this. This virtually eliminates any elastic response. The work on the pit is dominated by concentric muscle action. This is a good surface that can be used for canoe or kayak to simulate the training or competitive environment on dry land.

Trampoline - Very responsive, obviously bouncy which is good for body awareness and control. A trampoline is a good surface to work on landing and sticking the position to create stability.

Gymnastics Floor Exercise Floor - There is a very predictable response from the floor. A very springy surface. Good surface to work on barefoot.

Resilite Wrestling Mat - This surface is not as responsive as a floor exercise floor. Good for multidirectional activities because of the size of the mat. Another good surface for barefoot work.        

Foam Pads - Smaller high-density foam pads are good for static balance activities. This represents a very controllable instability.        

K boards - Good to great side-to-side instability. The pivot point of the board only allows movement in the frontal plane.

Wobble Boards - The pivot allows three hundred and sixty degrees of motion, so this creates a rotational instability.

BOSU - (This is not meant as an endorsement of the BOSU.) Using the flat side allow three hundred and sixty degrees of motion as well as a tipping effect. The degree of instability is determined by the inflation level of the BOSU.

Leather Medicine Balls - These are great to step on and off or one onto another in a stepping stones patterns. They are very effective when combined with a several BOSU’s. Excellent tool for ankle and knee stability.

Balance Beams - The edges of the beam should be beveled to create a bit of instability. This allows movements forward back and side to side. Also good apparatus to use for single leg squats.

Remember not all surfaces or apparatus are appropriate for all situations. A good craftsman knows how to effectively use the tools in the toolbox; a hammer cannot replace a screwdriver. These surfaces and apparatus are analogous to the skilled craftsman’s tools for the coach and therapist. Use them sensibly, more is certainly not better, be very specific. It is beneficial to introduce a play element – this will allow the athlete to playfully explore the dimensions of movement required by different surfaces.

Unstable Surfaces for Training - Why and Why not? (Part One)

Lets take a quick look at how using unstable surfaces in training evolved from my personal perspective. About 25 years ago I began to experiment using unstable surfaces with healthy athletes after observing that athletes coming back for ankle sprains and even ACL tears seemed to have better functional balance and control of their bodies. I felt that if we could incorporate what they had done in rehab with healthy athlete’s training that we should be able to see similar gains. Initially this certainly was the case. I did not devote much time to this, perhaps five minutes and occasionally ten minutes a day, we seemed to get good returns. Typically as often happens in coaching I decided that more had to be better, so instead of using a simple K Board or a foam pad I began to seek out even more exotic unstable surfaces. I even did several talks were I stated that when you used unstable surfaces, the more unstable the better, the point being that it was another way to achieve overload.  It was not long before I began to get very uncomfortable with this approach. What I saw that instead of making the athletes better I was taking the athletes farther and farther away from the performance arena. They were learning circus tricks; the exercises became an end to themselves. But by that time, the late nineties, this whole thing had taken on a life of its own. What I want to do with this post is bring a degree of sanity and most importantly logic to this the use of unstable surfaces.

Most of the science regarding the use of unstable surfaces comes from the rehabilitation arena. There is a very good article on ACL prevention using a balance routine to prevent knee injuries in high level soccer player, Cerulli, G. Benoit, D.L. Caraffa, A. Ponteggia, F. “Proprioceptive Training and Prevention of Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injuries in Soccer” Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy. Volume 31 #11 November 2001 pp. 655-660.

The best place to start is with is the surface that you must perform on. Ask yourself why you have to deviate from that surface in your training. What is your goal(s) on using an unstable surface? How are you going to use it? These are very important questions to objectively answer before you even consider using unstable surfaces in training. My fundamental observation is that the majority of people in many sports can make very good use of normal surfaces, just by increasing the amplitude and speed of movement.

Certainly unstable surfaces are not inherently bad. The key is the application. It is legitimate to ask if the movement will transfer. Is the movement sport appropriate? If it is sport appropriate it will have some carryover to the sport. It is not sport appropriate if the athlete has to spend undue amount of time learning a new skill set in order to train with unstable surfaces. What do I mean by a new skill set? I mean skills and movements that exaggerate movement through significantly larger amplitudes and speeds of movement that are not similar to the sport movements. The key is significantly changes, it may look similar, but that is where the similarity ends. By the same token this criterion applies to heavy sled pulls or even to some over speed training. They may look similar, but they either extremely slow the movement down or make it too fast to apply.

What are unstable surfaces? An unstable surface is anything that the body perceives as inherently unstable, to the eye it may not appear unstable but proprioceptively the body perceives it as unstable. It can run the spectrum from a lumpy grass field or a sandpit to a foam pad, or apparatus like a wobble board, k board or a balance beam. It does not take very much for the body to perceive the surface as unstable. The body is sensitive to small changes in surface and usually can quickly self-correct to allow the body to achieve appropriate positions for the movement. These rapid adjustments are based on the proprioceptive input in the body that detects speed and stretch. The body’s proprioceptors act as very sophisticated motion sensors. It is this motion detector function that we are attempting to train by using uneven surfaces. What then are advantages of using unstable surfaces? It certainly will challenge the proprioceptive system; it will improve body awareness and can improve spatial awareness. These improvements are not always very measurable because they can be quite subtle and in many respects they should be quite subtle, because in most movements the body only has to adjust to subtle changes.