Functional Path Training

Assessing Physical Literacy

If you want to assess physical literacy then you must systematically look at variety of movements with specific criterion to judge the quality of the movements. How the movements are combined ultimately will determine sport skill. These movements comprise basic physical literacy, the movement ABC’s. As competencies they must be mastered before they can be blended into a sports skill. There are no shortcuts! Movement skill is learned and acquired step-by-step through exploration and discovery. We learn movement by testing ourselves, pushing the envelope of function to see where the movements will take us. It is not segmented and robotic, it is rhythmic flowing and dancelike.

In assessment look at activities that are natural, that stress linkage and connection. It is convenient to put the body in unusual, uncomfortable artificial positions and look for” deficiencies” or “dysfunctions” but there is little or no carryover to actual performance or prediction of injuries. Instead open up to the body’s possibilities to solve movement problems. Assess real movements that provide understanding of the physical literacy of the athlete. There are three movement constants the body, the ground, and gravity. So when assessing look at the effect of gravity on the body and how the body effectively uses the ground to be able to stabilize, produce, and reduce force.

Use assessment to qualify, not disqualify, use it to determine the starting point and appropriate exercise selection. Get away from focus on limitations, dysfunction, deficiency, restriction and injury prediction. Instead think possibilities: starting points, stages and progression, and strengths. Above all find out what the athlete can do and not what they can't do. Look for actionable information to begin training and assess progress in training. Make the assessment meaningful. Assessment is just a starting it is an ongoing process, training is testing and testing is training. It is only a guide to get you started in the correct direction for that individual athlete. How you assess will reflect how you train. How you train should reflect how you play. All must connect simply and logically.

Addressing Physical Illiteracy

There is no question that in today's world of athletic performance that we are at a crisis state. Injuries are off the scale. We have athletes at the elite level who are extremely proficient in their particular sport but lack fundamental movement skills. When they get outside that small envelope where they are highly adapted and have to do unusual movements that are demanded in the random chaotic nature of the game they are at high risk of injury. Why? Because they have poor movement ABCs, they are physically illiterate. We have a crisis of physical illiteracy. We are asking the athletes to write the great American novel and they don't even know the alphabet. It starts with assessment. How and what we assess sends a message. So in assessment what we need to do is assess physical literacy, find out what they can do and use that as a starting point.

A good physical competency assessment looks at the ability to reach, bend, push, pull, squat, rotate, and brace. All of these are key elements of the athletic ABCs, the alphabet we are going to ask the athlete to write their great American novel with. So we want teach them how to combine these movements in coordinated patterns so that they can then produce smooth efficient technique required by their sport. So they are ready to reduce and produce force in random chaotic patterns. Therefore the assessment must incorporate all of these elements to help determine where the athlete falls on a continuum of functional progression. Everybody can’t start at the same place. Use assessment to find out where the athlete is now, what are their strengths and what are their weaknesses and then design an optimal program to fit them as individuals in the context of their sport. This will teach and reinforce the ABC’s of movement and stem the tide of physical illiteracy.

Athlete Empowerment and Ownership

I just came across again the other day when I looking through some files on coaching. I first saw this in a presentation by the coach of the Australian Women’s Field Hockey team Ric Charlesworth in 1996 during my first trip to Australia. Charlesworth is one the greatest coaches you have probably never heard of unless you are a filed hockey fan. He is an MD, a lawyer and has been a member of the Australian parliament in addition to coaching the Australian women’s field hockey team to Gold medals in the Atlanta and Sydney Olympics. He is currently coaching the Australian men’s team and has brought them back to international prominence. His presentation in 1996 left a deep impression on me regarding empowerment of the athlete and athlete ownership of their performance. This mission statement is a great insight into that; the women of the team developed it:

Hockeyroos Mission Statement 1996

“We will win in Atlanta by being the best we can be, because Olympic gold is the ultimate challenge in our sport. We will achieve this by playing beyond our previous performances and by never, never giving up. I will be the best I can be by:

1. Continually challenging myself to go beyond my comfort zone.

2. Making the necessary sacrifices.

3. Believing in my ability and the strength of my purpose.

4. Valuing excellence, determination and dedication in both training and match play.

5. Having faith and confidence in, and being supportive of, my teammates.

6. Not making excuses but taking responsibility for my development, performance and for my life-style.

7. Seeking feedback and making contributions to the program.

8. Being tolerant of differences in others and respecting them for who they are and what they have to offer.

9. Accepting disappointments and frustrations and overcoming them by working together.

10. Having faith in the course of action chosen for the team and being committed to it knowing that it may not always be my preference.

We choose to do this thing NOT because it is easy but because it is hard.”

Their training was hard, intense and competitive with sometimes as many as four sessions in a day!

By the way if you want to read a great book on coaching I recommend Ric Charlesworth’s book – The Coach – Managing For Success. It is full of insights into his philosophy and methods. It is a must read for any coach who wants to improve their tradecraft.

The Right Stuff

You can do stuff in training or you can do the right stuff. Doing stuff is easy. Doing the right stuff is not so easy but it is what will make you better. Sometimes the right stuff is less demanding other times it is complex and very difficulty. The right stuff is the good stuff. It is essential and the things that need to be done to get better. It has purpose in the context of the sport being trained for and the needs of the athlete. The right stuff is certainly not arbitrary. It is not stupid stuff, it smart stuff that challenges the athlete with a purpose. Chances are it is quite basic and not very entertaining. The right stuff is meaningful, measureable and motivational. The right stuff is non-negotiable you have to do it to get better. The right stuff develops the capacity to endure, the speed to outpace, the strength to overcome and the technique to prevail. The right stuff is not complicated, it is basic and unspectacular, but it works because it is yields consistent and reliable results in the competitive cauldron. Are you doing the right stuff?

Going Through the Motions

Nothing bothers me more than to see athletes going through the motions in a training session. Just doing work, mindlessly going from exercise to exercise with one goal – get the workout over with is not training. Training is not punching a clock, just doing the task and moving to the next task and magically getting better. Training is more than putting in the time getting the reps. For training to accrue and have meaning it must be done with purpose and attention. It is not counting reps it is making the reps count. In order for training to have an effect it must be mindful. You can get a monkey to do exercise, but is it meaningful, does the effort have quality?

You are what you train to be. What you do in training will be reflected in what you do in competition so train the way you want to compete. Going through the motions will not get it done in competition so why would do that in training? I had one athlete tell me he would turn it on when lights came on (alluding to the game that night). Well it was pretty predictable what happened when the lights came on that night; the lights went out for him it was like he was not even in the game. Training and practice are essentially building good habits, rehearsing to perform in the competitive arena. Make training count, make each training session a positive step toward competitive excellence.Don't waste an opportunity to bet better, to reach your potential.

Being an Athlete

This is not about being a champion; it is about the process of being an athlete, the things that it takes to get into the game. Over the past few weeks I have been going through files and looking at old workouts and training programs. That is what got me thinking about the process of being an athlete. Looking back on my years of coaching and my time as a collegiate and post collegiate athlete and even back to my high school days there are clearly things that go into being an athlete. These are things you must do and have before you can think about being the best, before winning games or races. Some are attributes and some are actions. They are basic, fundamental and foundational.

Being an athlete is special; you are part of a brotherhood that pursues excellence for it’s own rewards. The medals, trophies and yes even the money are not what drives the athlete. What drives the athlete is that in every training session and in every competition you do your best. You give your best effort.

Being an athlete is not about talent, sure that is part of it, but it is really about potential. It is continually striving to reach your potential. To me that is where the satisfaction of being an athlete comes from, it is an inner satisfaction. Being an athlete is maximizing your potential, using your talent.

Being an athlete does not mean public proclamations about your dedication and desire, it is tquiet inner drive and determination. It is focus on the task at hand, accomplishing that task and then methodically moving on.

Being an athlete is certainly not comfortable physically, psychologically and emotionally. It is taking that extra step, paying closer attention to detail doing that workout when everyone else is taking the day off. It is constantly pushing the envelope of your abilities.

Being an athlete is not something you do it is something you are. It is not a two-hour a day proposition it is a 24 hour commitment.

Being an athlete is about setting goals and goal achievement. The goals must be SMART – Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Relevant and Time Bound. Goals are only words or numbers, you must have a plan to achieve the goals and then execute the plan.

Being an athlete is a mindset. It is a willingness to risk and constantly test your abilities, to try new techniques and training methods. It means being coachable.

Being an athlete is about having athletic intelligence. Knowing yourself and your body. Comparing you not to others but to you. It is constantly reminding yourself that you are the master of your athletic destiny. Remember that if it is to be it up to you, not the coach, the parents or fans.

Never take for granted being an athlete. It is very special. You get to test yourself and constantly reach higher, faster and stronger to be the best you can be. Enjoy the process.

Coaching the Athletically Gifted

When you start coaching everyone’s dream is to coach great athletes, those athletes who are athletically gifted. I know that was my mindset. I had my dream come true in my first year coaching. The best athlete in the school, in fact one of the best in southern California, was a shot putter in the group that I was coaching.  Initially I remember being somewhat intimidated, thinking what could I possibly do to make him better. After all this was my first time coaching and I was only three years older than him. The head coach must have sensed this because before the first practice he took me aside and reminded me that I knew more about the shot put than the athlete did, he told ne to be myself and coach him. It was a great experience; the athlete was the first star I got to work with. He was very cooperative and worked to fine tune his technique and improve his strength. He even helped with the younger shot putters. He was everything a star athlete should be. He won the state championship in spite of my coaching.

It is not always like this. The exceptional athlete achieves that status because they possess superior ability. For many those skills come naturally, they did not have to work exceptionally hard to achieve them. Others were able to achieve that status because they worked very hard. Regardless of how they got to that that high level we as coaches must be prepared to effectively work with this level of athlete. Generally they do have some special needs both physically and psychologically. Their situation is analogous to the gifted student, if not challenged they become bored. In many cases no one has required much from them in terms of extra effort or leadership. Their ability and performance have been good enough. Yet it is our job as coaches to get them better.

Exceptional talent can be a blessing or a curse. In their eyes they may be putting out the effort, yet in your eyes their work is not commensurate with their ability. This is one of the toughest situations I have had to deal with as a coach. I personally have found this common with the young college athlete who had great success in high school and thinks they can step into college competition and dominate like they did in high school, most of the time they are in for a rude awakening. As coaches we can clearly see the folly of their ways, but for the athlete to admit that they now must now work on their deficiencies is a bitter pill to swallow. We must understand where they have come from. Because they were so good no one has confronted them with the reality of being objective about their abilities. You may be the first person that has to challenge them on this.

The gifted athlete probably has never failed. Now you are asking them to do things they are not good at. To them this is failure; it is not work to get them better. Challenge them to challenge themselves. Understand their level of emotional and cognitive development. They just may not be mature enough to conceptualize what you want them to do.

As a coach you must be comfortable with this type of individual. Personally never having been a star athlete it has always been difficult for me to understand a gifted athlete who would not work to get better. I certainly relate more to the overachiever. Because of this I have often had assistants who worked closely with the gifted athletes. I think it is realistic to match coaches up with athletes they can work with more effectively.

One of the biggest difficulties I have seen with the driven exceptional athlete is the perfectionist standard they set for themselves. For those who approach everything so that it has to be perfect are setting themselves up for failure. It is our job to get them to understand and accept their limitations without thinking that we expect less from them. Try to be sure that we are not modeling that behavior ourselves because we know they are the best. Sometimes we need to set up the training as a time to take the pressure off, a time to risk and try new things where there is little or no consequence for not being able to reach their perfectionist standards.

The Volume Trap

Volume used judiciously can be a powerful stimulus for adaptation. But in many ways it is a double-edged sword. It is so easy to get caught in the volume trap. It is a trap that can cause a downward spiral that at the least will lead to performance decrement and at the worst injury. At the beginning stages of an athlete’s career anything the athlete does will result in significant improvement. At this stage there is a direct correlation with more work and subsequent improvement. This is where volume loading begins to weave its seductive spell. Both coaches and athletes make this connection so the temptation is to keep doing more. More weight, more miles, you name it more of everything. Everyone becomes addicted to work, they feel they have to keep adding more to get better, after all isn’t that what got them to where they are.

This is the crossroads, at this point there needs to be a big stop sign. Stop  and assess where there is the greatest potential for improvement going forward. In 99% of the cases it is not more volume loading. Now you can build on what you have done before. Now is the time to be more specific to the individual athlete in terms of their strengths and weaknesses as well as to the demands of their sport. Take into account that training accumulates from day to day, week to week, month to month and year to year.

Volume loading is easy, it is comfortable and secure, on the other hand intensity hurts, it is often very uncomfortable. You need to have a balance between the two to achieve optimum results. It is important to remember that training is not an end unto itself it is a means to an end. That end is competition and competing is uncomfortable. In competition you push the envelope so in training you must prepare to thrive on increasingly higher  levels of discomfort. Don’t end up singing the more is better blues while rehabbing from stress fractures or tendonitis. Balance the training and prepare for success in the competitive arena

Windows of Adaptation

In the beginning stages of an athlete’s career the window of adaptation is huge. Virtually anything you with the athlete at this stage in the developmental process will result in gains in performance. Generally the more you do the better they get thus sowing the seeds of the volume trap. As the athletes grows and advances in training age and gains technical proficiency the window of adaptation narrows. At the point where the athlete reaches an advanced training age the window of adaptation is very small. Progress now comes in small increments. Volume will not have the same positive effect it did at the earlier training ages. So build upon what has been previously been done. Training accumulates, that volume work when the window of adaptation was big is the foundation to build on. Don’t get trapped into thinking it is necessary to keep repeating those volumes that kick started the system when the athlete was young and starting out. The stimulus now is intensity and laser like refinements. More is no longer better.

This is all a process of constant refinement of the training stimuli in order to insure continual adaptation. That is why it is so important to have individualized programs from the earliest stages of the athlete career with careful monitoring to account for different levels of adaptability. Lest we forget there are fast adaptors and slow adaptors. Training is a process that must grow and change as the athlete’s windows of adaptation change. Recognize that and design training accordingly.

You have numbers now what?

You have collected mounds of data. So you have numbers. You have complied the numbers into colorful and intricate graphs. But do you have information that I the coach can use? Numbers are one-dimensional and impersonal they are print on paper.  Performance is three dimensional very human and personal. As a coach my challenge is to turn the numbers into action, into results. I have to admit I am not a big numbers guy. Perhaps it stems from my struggles with math in school. Despite that I can see the value in meaningful numbers. The key is determining what are meaningful numbers? Just because you can count or measure something does not mean that it really counts. I think this is where the whole performance team must collaborate. Look for patterns in the numbers. Don’t throwaway outliers in the data, today’s outlier may well be tomorrows direct performance indicator. Always strongly weigh the human element and correlate the numbers with direct observation. Beware of one off “data dumps” that gather volumes of data with no context or follow-up. Once again it must be a combination of art and science that gets the athlete into the competitive arena.