Functional Path Training

Reinventing the Wheel

It just amazes me to see how every generation of young coaches have to reinvent the wheel. No need. Connect with people who have been there before and the journey is much easier and direct. These the exact words from coaching legend Tom Tellez to me in 1982 "Why don't you come and spend three days with me, no need for you to make same mistakes I have made." Those three days changed my coaching. The path became more direct and clear. Who will it be for you?

Evidence Based

So your training is evidence based. Who has gathered the evidence? What actually is the evidence? I get it, it is published and peer reviewed – so what? So much research I see is still on untrained college students with a very small number of subjects for six weeks to nine weeks in duration. It always makes me wonder. I am very partial to practice based evidence. Find someone who has been there before, preferably many times, and ask him or her why they do what they do? What mistakes they made and how they corrected them. Learn from others who have a multitude of experiences. Coaches cannot afford to wait for research to tell us what to do. Coaches lead and innovate and science will follow. The ultimate proof is sustained excellence in the competitive arena.

Some Tips to the Top

 

Smart work, very focused and directed to meet individual needs is necessary.

 

Embrace risk and failure – Take calculated chances and learn form the mistakes.

 

Do ordinary things in an extra ordinarily manner everyday. Basics executed consistently win.

 

Focus on the absolute need to do, no fluff.

 

Take one step at a time. When volleyball player Karch Kiraly was asked how he prepared to win a Gold medal he answered ” I never did. I only prepared to win the next play.”

 

One Trick Pony

Are you preparing your athletes to be a one trick pony? What’s a one trick pony? A one trick pony is an athlete who is highly specialized in a narrow range of skill sets and conditioning. They are highly adapted to one way of doing things, very fixed in mindset and highly adapted. They are focused on what they cannot do. The alternative is a versatile athlete that is highly adaptable, has a range of physical abilities and capacities that are finely tuned to match up with the technical proficiencies required in their sport. They are focused on what they can do and optimize those abilities. The multifactor prepared athlete is “bullet proof” when it comes to injuries because they have embraced injury prevention as a transparent part of the training program. They thrive in the competitive arena because they are prepared for the game not for artificial performance factors developed in a sterile training environment. To me it seems like a no-brainer. Go for the versatility – embrace it and step up to the podium!

Odds and Ends

I am enamored on what it takes to be the best, to be great, to sustain excellence. This interview with Smokey Robinson on NPR http://n.pr/1rIZ9Qm gives some insights into what has enabled this man to sustain excellence for forty plus years. He works at his craft everyday. He runs everyday and has been doing yoga for thirty-five years he finds it fuels his creativity. He has a new album Smokey and Friends. Ifind it interesting that he like Willie Nelson and others who have every reason to rest on their laurels continue to produce great work. Powerful inspirational message to keep learning keep growing and keep creating.

Been listening to Bob Dylan’s classic album “The Times they are a Changing.” All I can say is WOW – I have not listened to it in quite a long time, but his words resonate with today’s times as much as they did fifty years ago.

Gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown

And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you
Is worth savin'

Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
Keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again

Don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'

For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they, they are a-changin'

Come senators, Congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand at the doorway
Don't block up the hall

For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it's ragin'

It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
Don't criticize
What you can't understand

Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'

Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend a hand
For your times they are a-changin'

The line it is drawn
And the curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast

As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'

And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'

Well worth the listen. Certainly today the times are changing faster than ever and we have to be ready to adapt to the changes or get left behind.

Your athletes can’t better if you don’t get better as a coach.

Faith based coaching is when you gather an abundance of talented athletes put a heavy training load on them and hope that something good happens.

Don’t let your experience limit you. Constantly look for new experiences, new ways of doing things. Experiment. Look at things differently.

Sound training programs are not based on facilities, equipment, or exercises. They are based on sound training methodology and great coaching grounded in pedagogy. Great programs are coach driven and athlete centered. The coach drives the bus.

If you are easily seduced by fads, influenced by internet training porn, lured by fancy trends and marketing your results will be inconsistent reflective of your information sources.

”An intelligent fool can make things bigger more complex. It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.” E.F. Schumacher

You train to win by winning the training. It is a process - session-by-session, day-by-day, week-by-week, month-by-month, and year-by-year.

More Colleagues Responses to Beware The Keyboard Coaches

Dear all,

The amount of professionals around these days that have the wisdom, balls and credibility to email such a ‘rant’ are few and far between. Thanks Vern.

There always has and always will be short-cutters and frauds around. They have just found a global platform to speak now: social media. We should not let them worry us, but simply outperform them and offer something better.

Frank is right: “I am 100% convinced that we need a group to be brought together to found a properly regulated Profession or Craft of Coaching”

Bill is right: ”The good part is that these type of coaches are easy to beat.”

Run better conferences, build better websites, offer better coach development and coach better.

I’m in.

Regards,Dean Benton, Former Performance Director Brumbies, currently consultant to AIS

I wrote Vern individually, but in the spirit of furthering the discussion I thought I would reply to all here. I couldn't agree more with the comments shared already.

We all see some of the great stuff that can come from online collaboration and sharing of information, but as Vern mentions there are downsides too. Here are a few pet peeves of mine along these lines:

• Stating the obvious in an outrageous way so it will attract hits. Authors will often make bold statements to get readers but in the end they are saying something everyone takes as a given. Ask yourself after you read something: "Have I learned anything?" Most the time it is no.
• Sharing opinions rather than experience. Opinions versus experience: too much writing about what people think rather than what is done.
• Focusing on exercises. It is hard to describe a holistic training philosophy in 500 words. But it is easy to explain an exercise. Therefore many authors write about exercises rather than looking at how to put everything together. This shifts the focus on the wrong topics. This is similar to the you tube training porn topic Vern has written about before.
• Me first. It seems people seem to want to create the next big idea. If you view it as an industry, you need to create the idea since that is where the money is. If you simply say someone else is doing something good, that doesn't sell anything. But most good ideas have already been created. People should spend more time talking about those and less time trying to reinvent the wheel. Open your minds, give credit where it is due, and further the conversation rather than always try to start a new one.

Best regards, Martin Bingisser – Currently an active athlete, hammer thrower and youth coach in Switzerland

Hi Vern,

I spend a lot of time trying to convince the Universities to prepare their students for the workforce, especially those who intend to enter into coaching.

I guess I can somewhat forgive the Universities for their shift towards science and research as many of them receive grants that keep them going financially. But, with the Universities being the main provider of the next generation of coaches I wonder if they have missed the point.

We all view coaching from differing standpoints but there are some views that have stood the test of time:

1. The ability to communicate with the athlete in a way that grows their accuracy of decision-making and their ultimate independence.
2. The ability to sift through all the competing demands and choose the right priorities at the right time.
3. To know what to say, when to say it and when to remain silent.

A coach must provide guidance that is based on scientific fact and at the same time never forget the human element of the dialogue. The ‘scientific fact’ component is dependent upon continued research in the field but I am concerned with this branch of education. The chase for published research has meant a plethora of research nonsense out there. Trying to sift through the enormous amount of poor research; biased research and ‘commercial’ research is a pain to all those who want to remain at the cutting edge of decision-making.

I would suggest that higher education institutions refresh their stance on the training of future coaches and teachers. Stop feeding the marketplace with researchers and pseudo-scientists and send an army of practitioners with the real coaching skills – and an open mind if you don’t mind. Let this next generation know that the training program they have in their mind must be written in pencil – it is the athlete’s adaptation rate and depth that determines where they go next and not how pretty the document looks.

Give them the tools to ‘mend a broken movement’. Give them the tools to act sensibly when something doesn’t work or an athlete struggles to grasp the training direction or load. Give them the tools to develop the person within the athlete as well as the reps and sets and drills. Give them the humility to question their assumptions. Give them the inter-personal skills so they can fit realistically into a multi-disciplined environment.

Just as the Universities are a great source of our coaching manpower so is the general community. The 'Mum & Dad' coaches are such a vital cog in the development process of the athlete that their on-going education and support is vital. The content of the early levels of coach education courses is the key for this layer of the coaching community. Far too much time is spent on the 'scientific, technical and tactical' elements in the rush to create winners at all ages. If this is all they learn then it follows that this is what they will teach / coach. Time to question assumptions on coach education content?

Great topic Vern.

Kelvin Giles. International Consultant in athletic development

I don’t have too much to add to the wise words that are getting shared here, other than to share an observation I have on this issue.  The issues that we are seeing in a lot of these coaches are directly related to the issues we are seeing in today’s up and coming athletes. Its an analogy of sorts.  Some examples on

Today’s coaches, as related to today’s athlete: 

                -Overspecialized: either have only coached one sport, one event, one position, one age group, etc.

                -No athletic development/physical education background-a lot of sport coaches, esp in collegiate and professional setting, only criteria for being a coach is

  they played the sport.   The days of PE majors or BS in pedagogy, etc, are dead in the US. 

                -They seek instant gratification-The days of embracing the building of something, or the grind of the job, are vanishing.  If athletes aren’t good enough, or

  they aren’t successful, it must be someone else’s fault, and its time to move on. 

-The Swag phenomenon-Not sure if this is purely a US young people saying, but it describes the attitude, newness, dress/gear, and hipness a lot of today’s

  athletes try to portrait.  In coaching, I see this as the coach who has to have the ipad, the technology, the shiniest shoes, and build the biggest ego/persona to be successful.

There’s dozens more that apply to both coaches, and today’s athlete, and I think its very telling about the cultures that are being built and permeating some sporting teams and institutions.  Thank you all for your wisdom and insight. 

Randy Ballaard ATC at University of Illinois

 

Wow. Some absolutely fantastic commentary on the state of coaching. Feel fortunate just to be included in this email chain of wisdom.

Echoing Randy's sentiments, from the college world, I see the development of our coaches, and it seems like there is little incentive for learning how to coach. Too many young coaches trying to break into the profession focus on the wrong things because of the way the system is set up. For example, in college track most of the time I see athletes who ran fast or focused on connections take jobs while many true coaches are left struggling.

When kids see this, they focus on what gets them jobs. I have so many friends in the college coaching ranks who never really learned how to coach, learn, or teach. And they continue to do almost exactly what they did as student athletes.

On the learning side, you have two big problems. There's no set up coaching education. No one teaches anymore. We have coaches with very wide ranges of majors, and the PE/coaching degrees are being supplanted by more exercise science type degrees. 

The problem, and this is coming from someone who is heavy in the academia/science world, that those programs create people who never learn the critical skill of application of methods in the real world. You get kids who can recite a bunch of physiological parameters, but don't understand the history of coaching in their sport, or how to translate the information from the science/research world into practical coaching application.

Don't get me wrong. There are many fantastic coaches out there, but it's been my experience that most of them develop and happen in spite of the educational pathway that they follow. Most, like myself, are just fortunate enough to find some great mentors along the way who teach you how to coach, and coach multiple things.

If we want change it will take some sort of organized effort.

Steve Magness, Cross Country Coach University of Houston

 

Wow…LOVE this discussion as it brings to light a developing issue that is probably going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

I believe that main culprit is the lack of professionalization of our field. It is incredibly easy to call yourself a Coach, specifically a S&C Coach in this country. You don't need a degree in the field. You don't need experience. You can pay a minimal fee to have your name printed on a (seemingly random) piece of paper that states you are qualified, and, to the uneducated masses, it would appear you are. Can you imagine if being a dentist were so easy? A surgeon? Of course not. You can't go to a veterinarian school in Venezuela and move to Chicago and call yourself a pediatrician. Ethically of course, but more importantly, LEGALLY! You don't see people going online telling people how to extract a tooth by themselves, or how to perform an appendectomy (well, at least not the website I see). Why? It's not legal to do so.

The organizations that SHOULD have issues with this, who call themselves the leaders in the field, are instead doing the exact opposite and see it as an opportunity for a money grab. These multiple entities- the NSCA, CSCCa, USAW, Crossfit, NASM, etc,  are trying to make the proverbial pie larger and get a larger piece of it at the same time. When suggestions are made to raise the bar on education and experience for coaches, they jump on board, then lower the bar so more people can $ign up and get "certified". It also doesn't help that you now have ONLINE universities offering degrees in Exercise Science. So now, in a people-profession, you can get a college degree with no experience interacting with peers, athletes or clients. Amazing.

I am sure other disciplines went through similar evolutions…it wasn't too long ago that you didn't even need to take a 1^st Aid class to stand on the sideline at a High School football game to tape ankles and diagnose concussions while calling yourself the team's Trainer. Now, to become an ATC, you have to go through specific academic programs and have specific work experience, clinical rotations and the such, to even take the exam! Similar for Physical Therapists. Not saying this is the endpoint, but it sure as heck raised the bar to the point where it separated the people who want to make it a CAREER from those who want to simply add it to their resume (more letters after your name!) to get another job.

I can't blame young coaches for doing what is necessary to get a job as soon as possible. I don't agree with it, but I can understand it. Heck, I have bills to pay just like everybody else. However, there has to be a movement to elevate the standards of the profession, both to improve the quality of the coaches involved and to separate the people who want to make it their career from the people who just want to make a quick buck.

Mike Bahn, Strength & Conditioning Coordinator

US Ski & Snowboard Association (USSA)

 

 

Wow! What a great thread.

Vern - hello again after too long a time. Frank – you are still alive! That’s good to see :)

Bill Sweetenham kindly forwarded Vern’s original email and many of the responses to me and what a rich source of enlightenment and inspiration they are. I am currently in the final throes of a Master’s dissertation in which I examine the “disconnect between theory, practice and performance” in swim coach education, but it appears from everyone’s responses that the problem is systemic across all sports, not just swimming. As Steve said, “those [academic] programs create people who never learn the critical skill of application of methods in the real world,” and “[who] develop ... in spite of the education pathway.”

A few observations: Frank said, “Coach development is a journey which starts with what you can be taught ...” but swimming is not even doing the teaching! Bill said “Both England and Australia are examples of this diseased approach,” where the correct skills and content are omitted from early athlete development. Vern’s original lighting of the blue touch paper said the ‘keyboard coaches’ (great phrase) can “recite the Krebs cycle forward and backward”; I’ve never been able to understand why I needed to learn about Mr. K’s amazing cycle to coach swimming but the present crop of developing coaches wouldn’t even know it existed.

In both England and Canada the swimming certification content at level 1 and level 2 (of 3) ignores all technical aspects of swimming! The certification is actually so mind-bogglingly divorced from the real requirements of coach education that it is difficult to convey the depth of the chasm between what is and what should be.

 The overwhelmingly majority focus is on aspects of social sciences, rather than on the athletes needs of precise tuition related to the ‘hard’ sciences - hydrodynamics, biomechanics, biology, physiology, and mechanics. Quite literally, these are completely absent in the English system and sparsely covered in the Canadian one. Compounding the English issue is the coaches are practically assessed on some of these areas (which have not been taught) and I am told the assessors are paid a bonus for awarding passes!!! Something is rotten ......

 The hard science is left to the ‘supporting’ sports science community but, in many cases (not all, before someone tries to cut off my head!), they are a causative force in the demise of coaching good-practice.

 Many ‘sports’ scientists simply turn up at the pool, record heart rates and times, draw some blood, print out a list of results together with a [usually badly designed, badly presented, badly constructed, badly annotated] graph, take their fee and drive away. There is very little analysis, and evaluation, never mind correlation with training plans and actual training history, and no diagnosis or prescription. The reason? They have information but they know nothing! They have their PhD’s in Ex. Physiology (the curriculum), but they don’t understand exercise physiology (the subject). I have a few thousand words loitering on my hard drive titled “How scientists should talk to coaches” – note to self: complete it!

 Steve points out that “PE/coaching degrees are being supplanted by more exercise science type degrees,” and Randy agrees; “The days of PE majors or BS in pedagogy ... are dead”. Way back in 2001 I did a review of the English swim coach education model when Bill was British Swimming’s NPD. When GBR swim coaching became professionalized in the mid 1970’s the historical route had always been through the PE teaching colleges. Over the next 25 years that route was gradually eroded and every coach I interviewed said it was a disastrous change of direction.

 The combination of a lack of formal sport-wide and pedagogical training coupled with a complete lack of technical content in swim-specific education has resulted in a generation of ‘coaches’ who, to paraphrase Tim Jones of British swimming, are “primarily driven by the stop-watch”.

 ‘Doc’ Counsilman summed up the problem: “"… uninformed coaching is worse than no coaching at all." (Counsilman & Counsilman, 1994:4).

 Will said the relationships are being “compromised by computers and the social media,” which is exactly true but I don’t blame computers or social media. They are amongst us; they are not going away. If we have seen the enemy it is not computers or internet fueled ‘conversation’; the enemy is our attitude towards them. We have to find a way to harness the amazing power, versatility and reach of computing and virtually instant, virtual communication.

 Part of my dissertation is a description of a model which seeks to ‘harness’ the value of these things (like a multi-headed combination of Khan Academy/Facebook/Candy Crush Saga, Twitter and Skype); to use them to teach more and to teach better, and to encourage/coerce/force involvement and communication between Head Coaches and staff, between club staff coaches and other club staff coaches, and between Head Coaches and Head Coaches.

 Kelvin says the “general community” and “Mum & Dad coaches [are] a vital cog in the development process” and emphasizes “their on-going education ... is vital.” He identifies the key for this layer as the early levels of coach education. Rich, simple, informative and accurate content is exactly what is currently missing at this level, certainly for swimming.

 Martin wrote about a shift in focus on the wrong topics and mentioned Vern’s “YouTube training porn” topics – we have to produce YouTube, or similar, content that is not porn but is high-quality cinematic art.

 The current coach education and development scenes are a problem, but they are problems which can be solved.

Clive Rushton, Swim Coach

 

Thanks everyone for the great insights and perspectives. It certainly seems to be a hot button of all of us.

Coaching education seems to have been reduced to short term certification type seminars, many of them on-line. They do not appear to be directed toward practical application on the field.

My experience with these coaching education programs and observing other coaches is that they are very sport specific, with little general athletic development teaching. Everyone comes away with charts, computer software programs and drills, drills and more drills. This method is producing trainers, not coaches.

It would seems that internships with mentor coaches is a possible way to approach coaching as a profession. This brings me to another subject for a new rant thread:
Stagnant coaches. Many of the established coaches I see are locked into one system, one method. I think a necessary step is to encourage continuing education and growth for the old coach as well as the new.

So having suggested mentor or master coaches to assist in education and professional development, I fear that these are few and far between. Anyone with a computer and internet access can be an expert source and an author, a distributor of wisdom.

I think there is a need to start over and rebuild from the bottom up.

Thanks for your patience with my rant.
John Larralde, Assistant Track Coach Westmont College

Colleagues Responses to Beware The Keyboard Coaches

Hi All. I couldn't agree more. We see short cutters in all sport and the arts today. I will answer in depth in a couple of hours. In swimming we observe coaches conducting practices for developing age groupers without the correct measure of SKILLED aerobic backgrounds of technique muscle memory and sustained motor pathway learning. In preference to preparing non sprint white fibered athletes like they are a senior high performance athletes with "entertainment" practices of the multi vitamin tablet approach where there is a little of everything but nothing of anything especially sustained skills and technique under competition pressure and fatigue. Every one wishes to be a sprinter and no sprinters or would be sprinters wish to be endurance athletes. We have compromised our talented middle distance and distance talent and some sprint talent to this concept. 
More importantly our exercise physiologists and sport science people think and even suggest that this is normal and valued Practise. We have just witnessed the Commonweath Games and it is easy to observe without contention that the performances and results at this event in the 200 up category continue to decline due to inaccurate coaching and delivery of the appropriate training mix over the long haul to the athlete. Both England and Australia are examples of this diseased approach. The lure of instant gratification and compromise is the current cancer of achievement across THE performance world. Coaches who are winners know and understand that their experience AND knowledge must grow proportionally and linearly at the level where they plan to achieve. I could go on forever but I choose NOT to work with the quick fix coaches and sport science people of the world. Too old and no tolerance and patience for this type of people. The good part is that these type of coaches are easy to beat.   

Bill Sweetenham, Former Head Australian Swim Coach

 

Love the statement - "a little of everything but nothing of anything".   I saw a study this year by Dr. Angela Duckworth of "Grit" fame:  Deliberate Practice Spells Success:  Why Grittier Competitors Triumph at the National Spelling Bee

It is a very interesting study.  One statement I found very profound: "the most effective preparation activities for developing spelling skill were perceived by spellers as more effortful and less enjoyable than alternative preparation activities."

Another:  "Our investigation suggests that this young victor's flawless march through the words.....

in the final competition was made possible by tremendous passion and perseverance for the long-term goal of becoming the best speller in the nation. Such grit facilitated 5 years of very effortful—and not particularly enjoyable—deliberate practice."

Speaks quite directly to the belief that skill in anything can be accomplished without a great price and the detrimental effect that belief has on a solid, meaningful self-image.

Regards, Jim Richardson, Formerly Head Womends Swim Coach, University of Michigan

 

Hi Vern

When it comes to rants this the most reasonable

I've read. You are right

Coach development is a journey which starts 

with what you can be taught and matures into

what you can only learn.

We are taught the science that constitutes the

tools of our trade; we learn the art that defines

us as coaches.

The latter is about how we translate experience 

into effective practice.

 

As Vernon Law said "Experience is a hard teacher,

because she gives the test first and the lesson after"

 

The people you are referring to know little of the

experience as Bill eloquently points out, so they

never get to the lesson. How on earth, then, can they

afford credible counsel? Worse still, how dangerous

are they to the embryonic coaches by suggesting there

is a coaching version of painting by numbers or some

kind of a ready recipe.

 

Not unrelated to this discussion is the sad truth that

our generation haas been singularly remiss in failing

to set out roles and responsibilities of Performance 

Science and Medicine as supporters of the process

which coaches should surely lead. Moreover we have

allowed coach education to be Academia driven.As a 

consequence, we have the confusion we now have.

 

For sure, there is now an urgent need for clarification

in this. I am 100% convinced that we need a group to

be brought together to found a properly regulated 

Profession or Craft of Coaching. Such must led by

Coaches at the level of those in receipt of your e mail.

Certainly it cannot involve the assholes you have 

caused your "rant'!

Keep smiling

Frank Dick, Former Chief Coach of Athletics, England

 

A couple of other thoughts.

Finding "the answers" as a coach is a process that requires great study, yes,  but also requires much experience at applying a functional training process. It is never a linear process as there are just too many variables to that process. Of course, it is those many variables that make it interesting and challenging for us all.  What concerns me most is that we are losing the engagement with the athlete in that process. It is through engagement and collaboration where both coach and athlete can grow. Many of us have run into coaches who have "the answers" and great knowledge,  yet do not have a sustained record of improving athletes.  I long ago decided to measure coaching success by how much the athlete grows in the process,  both athletically and otherwise. Simply put,  are the athletes improving and growing? If not,  is the actual process then addressed to see if it is functional for that athlete…or perhaps is there something in the coaching that is limiting athlete development? 

Coaching is about knowing the science, yes, but it is more about knowing how to apply the science effectively to a given athlete at a given time.  Trusting our common sense and intuition are part of that and are worthy of some future discussion (the hard scientists would no doubt have a field day with that). How often we have said, after the fact, " I should have listened to gut and done it differently". But then, coaches can get comfortable in what they do.  Any change can be difficult, especially for those lacking in experience. Trusting the textbook gives them something to hang on to in times of trouble.

The science is the easy part.  Just find the resources, read and learn! The art of coaching, on the other hand, does not come so easy as that requires experience and wisdom.  And that takes time…something we are increasingly unwilling to accept due to our increasing tendency toward immediate gratification and quick answers.  There are many a coach who could improve him/herself by putting the latest text down and getting out onto the track.  What happens on the track is the only reality that matters.  It is where the most learning can occur…for both athlete and coach.

This topic is fertile ground for discussion.

Will Freeman, Head Track & Field and Cross Country Coach, Grinnell College

More responses tomorrow

Beware The Keyboard Coaches

(I sent this post to many of my colleagues – over the next few days I will post their comments and reactions. I think you will find it informative and enlightening. Some of these people are icons in coaching; all who responded are coaches who are coaching – no keyboard coaches.)

We have a whole generation of people who claim to be coaches that never get off the keyboards on their computers. They are the keyboard coaches. They measure their success by the number of hits on their website and how many e books they have sold. These are the people that the younger generation of coaches are following and listening to. They have never had to put their ass on the line and get a team or an individual ready to compete but they know it all. They can recite the Krebs cycle forward and backward and talk all about HRV curves and draw neat charts and graphs, but bottom line is they can't coach and most have never coached. The younger generation of coaches looks at coaching as an industry rather than a profession - A fundamentally flawed assumption. What can we do to change this?

I am writing this to all of you as rant out of frustration with what I see. All you have produced at the highest level. You are true coaches. We must speak out and be united to get back to the essence of coaching, which is based on practice based evidence and sound pedagogy. Help me, support me. I am going to blog extensively on the state of coaching and what needs to be done any of your ideas and thoughts would be appreciated.

Future Olympians?

The 2020 Olympians are 14 to 18 years old and the 2024 Olympians are 10 to 14 years old right now. For me that is cause for alarm. Why? Sport does exist independent of society it reflects society. We are a hypokinetic society characterized by exercise deficit disorder. Look around at these age groups and what do you see? You see kids who lack basic physical competencies who are overweight and sedentary. On the other end you see kids who are overspecialized and ready to flameout. We need to wakeup and address this now not to produce Olympians but to have a healthy society. Take a look at this from http://www.fitness.gov/resource-center/facts-and-statistics/ and ask yourself where future Olympians are coming from?

Physical Activity

• Only one in three children are physically active every day.¹
• Less than 5% of adults participate in 30 minutes of physical activity each day;² only one in three adults receive the recommended amount of physical activity each week.³
• Children now spend more than seven and a half hours a day in front of a screen (e.g., TV, videogames, computer).⁷
• Only about one in five homes have parks within a half-mile, and about the same number have a fitness or recreation center within that distance.⁵
• Typical American diets exceed the recommended intake levels or limits in four categories: calories from solid fats and added sugars; refined grains; sodium; and saturated fat.²
• Americans eat less than the recommended amounts of vegetables, fruits, whole-grains, dairy products, and oils.²
• About 90% of Americans eat more sodium than is recommended for a healthy diet.⁸
• Food available for consumption increased in all major food categories from 1970 to 2008. Average daily calories per person in the marketplace increased approximately 600 calories.²
• Since the 1970s, the number of fast food restaurants has more than doubled.²
• Data from 2009-2010 indicates that over 78 million U.S. adults and about 12.5 million (16.9%) children and adolescents are obese.¹¹
• Recent reports project that by 2030, half of all adults (115 million adults) in the United States will be obese.¹²
• Overweight adolescents have a 70% chance of becoming overweight or obese adults.^{13 14}
• Obesity Then and Now²
  • Prevalence of obesity for children ages 2 to 5 years – doubled
    • Early 1970s: 5%
    • 2007-08: 10%
  • Prevalence of obesity for children ages 6 to 11 years – quadrupled
    • Early 1970s: 4%
    • 2007-08: 20%
  • Prevalence of obesity for children ages 12 to 19 years – tripled
    • Early 1970s: 6%
    • 2007-08: 18%
  • Percentage of obese adults – doubled
    • Early 1970s: 15%
    • 2007-08: 34%
  • States with an adult obesity prevalence rate of more than 25%:
    • Early 1970s: Zero
    • 2007-08: 32

Human and Financial Costs of Obesity

• Obesity-related medical conditions cost our nation nearly $150 billion every year and account for 16 to 18 percent of our total healthcare costs (1 in every 6 dollars spent).¹⁷
• Projections estimate that by 2018, obesity will cost the U.S. 21 percent of our total healthcare costs - $344 billion annually.¹⁸

References

¹ National Association for Sport and Physical Education. The Fitness Equation: Physical Activity + Balanced Diet = Fit Kids. Reston, VA: National Association for Sport and Physical Education, 1999.

² U.S. Department of Agriculture. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010. Available at: http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/dietaryguidelines.htm.

³ U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Healthy People 2010. Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/healthy_people/hp2010.htm.

⁴ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey. Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/brfss/.

⁵ U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Healthy People 2020. Available at: http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/default.aspx.

⁶ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC State Indicator Report on Physical Activity. Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/downloads/PA_State_Indicator_Report_2010.pdf.

⁷ Rideout, Victoria J., Foehr, Ulla G., and Roberts, Donald F. Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds. Rep. Menlo Park: Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, 2010.

⁸ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Vital Signs: Where's the Sodium? Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/VitalSigns/pdf/2012-02-vitalsigns.pdf.

⁹ U.S. Department of Agriculture. Creating Access to Healthy, Affordable Food. Available at: http://apps.ams.usda.gov/fooddeserts/.

¹⁰ Nord, Mark, Andrews, Margaret, and Carlson, Steven. Household Food Security in the United States, 2008. Rep. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, 2009; Available at: http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/err-economic-research-report/err83.aspx.

¹¹ Ogden, C.L., Carroll, M.D., Kit, B.K., Flegal, K.M. Prevalence of Obesity in the United States, 2009-2010. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics Data Brief, January 2012; Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db82.pdf.

¹² Wang, Y Claire, McPherson, Klim, Marsh, Tim, Gortmaker, Steven L., Brown, Martin. Health and Economic Burden of the Projected Obesity Trends in the USA and the UK. The Lancet; 2011.

¹³ Hedley, A.A., Ogden, C.L., Johnson, C.L., Carroll, M.D., Curtin, L.R., and Flegal, K.M. Overweight and Obesity Among US Children, Adolescents, and Adults, 1999-2002. Journal of the American Medical Association; 2004.

¹⁴ Flegal, K.M., Carroll, M.D., Kuczmarski, R.J., and Johnson, C.L. Overweight and Obesity in the United States: Prevalence and Trends, 1960-1994. International Journal of Obesity and Related Metabolic Disorders; 1998.

¹⁵ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. 2003-2008. Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/disabilityandhealth/documents/obesityfactsheet2010.pdf.

¹⁶ Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. F As In Fat: How Obesity Threatens America's Future. 2010. Available at: http://www.rwjf.org/files/research/20100629fasinfatmainreport.pdf.

¹⁷ Wang, Youfa, Beydoun, May A., Liang, Lan, Caballero, Benjamin, and Kumanyika, Shiriki K. Will Americans Become Overweight or Obese? Estimating the Progression and Cost of the US Obesity Epidemic. Obesity; 2008.

¹⁸ National Association for Sport and Physical Education. 2010 Shape of the Nation Report. Available at: http://www.aahperd.org/naspe/publications/upload/Shape-of-the-Nation-2010-Final.pdf.

¹⁹ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Vital Signs: Adult Obesity. 2010. Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/AdultObesity/.

²⁰ Dor, Avi, Christine Ferguson, Casey Langwith, and Ellen Tan. A Heavy Burden: The Individual Costs of Being Overweight and Obese in the United States. Washington, DC: The George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services Department of Health Policy; 2010.

²¹ American Heart Association. Teaching America's Kids About A Healthy Lifestyle. 2010. Available at: http://www.heart.org/idc/groups/heart-public/@wcm/@adv/documents/downloadable/ucm_301728.pdf.

Preseason Training

Preseason training & training Camps are usually characterized by multiple practices in a day. In my experience this is the genesis of many more negatives than positives. The resulting residual fatigue carries deep into the season compromising performance and predisposing athlete to injury. Why do we do it? It is quite simple; it is a tradition, a vestige of times past when you used the preseason to “get in shape.” It usually starts with some arbitrary “fitness” test that often has nothing to do with the sport. If the athletes is found to be unfit based on the test results now what do you do? The season is three weeks away. Do you get them fit? Do you punish them?

You prepare in the off-season where you build a strong foundation. The preseason is a time for specific preparation for the impending competitive season. It is a time to refine technique, sharpen speed and top off speed and game fitness. I have experienced two sessions a day and in college as a football player three sessions. I learned that there is a better way.  I have set up training camp scenarios where an athlete only had two sessions in a row and then a recovery session followed by short single sessions. Some of the shorter sessions were teaching sessions of twenty minutes in length with three to five athletes and three coaches. Any testing done was for information as to training status and readiness. A little creativity and understanding of adaptation and laws of learning allow for a better way. The goal is have the athlete “game ready” at the end of preseason not so beat up and fatigued that they can’t perform at their optimum.