Functional Path Training

Progress Stoppers

Nothing will stop progress or stifle innovation & change more than these statements:

Been there done that

Let me play devils advocate

We already do that

Over the past several months I have been in meetings and on phone conferences where all of the statements were made sometimes within the same paragraph. You could feel the air being sucked out of the room.

My answers to these statements (trying very hard to not be sarcastic) are as follows: If you have been there and done that then why does you team have more injuries than anyone in the sport? To the devils advocate (usually a naysayer as evidenced by their body language) – What is it you don’t like about the proposal on the table? To the “we already do that statement” – My answer is I not sure why you have me here then. Why don’t you tell what you are doing so I can learn something?

Be aware of these statements. Monitor yourself and see if you or your colleagues are using them. If so then ask yourself why? In 45 years of coaching I have been there and done that many times, but that doesn't mean I can't do it better. I want to learn and do it better the next time. How about you?

4R’s – Rest, Renewal, Reading & Research

I have pretty much gone non-stop without any significant breaks especially from travel for the last two years, some of this by design and some just due to circumstance. I have been home now for two weeks and two weekends in a row. It has been time for me to get some down time to rest, to renew my energy, to sharpen my focus on my goals, to do future planning, to get caught up on research and finally to read (Read eleven books since I have been home). I have a lighter schedule going forward the rest of the fall that will enable me to turn my energies to the two major areas of focus for me in the next year: Growing the GAIN professional development community and begin writing in earnest on my new book – Developing Athletes. I will keep you updated on my progress in the blog, on Facebook and on twitter. Look for an announcement in mid October for the dates of GAIN VIII – 2014. I also plan to get back to blogging on a regular basis. My head is full of ideas based on things I have seen and people I have met in my travels. I also would be interested in ideas from you on what you would like me to write about.

The batteries are almost fully recharged looking forward to continued learning and sharing.

The Coaching Process

Coaching is a process. There are no formulas or algorithms. It is quite straightforward, the process of coaching has a strong foundation in pedagogy, supported by science, forged in practice-based experience, proven & tested in the competitive arena.

What do you expect?

What we are seeing today in big time professional and collegiate sports is no surprise to me. It is the result of a broken sports system and a society that has comprised basic standards of behavior. As coaches and sports administrators we are responsible for what we are seeing. Sport does not exist isolated or separate from society. As coaches we often proudly point out that sport is a microcosm of life, if that is the case should we be surprised by the aberrant behavior we are seeing in top athletes? We have created several generations of athletes with a distorted sense of their importance, not to mention never having to account to any semblance of reality in regard to their behavior. We begin the process young by entitling the stars, allowing them to miss class, miss practice and violate teams rules as long as they deliver performance in the game. It gets worse in the recruiting process where immature youngsters are wined and dined and pumped full of inflated opinions about their self-worth. This all coupled with the decline of the family makes what we are seeing very explainable. This does not make it right or acceptable. As coaches and athletic administrators we need to put development of the person above winning. We must stop accepting this deviant behavior as normal. We need to hold the athletes to a higher standard. A standard of behavior that is expected of a good citizen in the normal world not the distorted world of big time sport.

Million Dollar Question

Are you making your athletes better or are you just making them tired and predisposing them to injury? Don’t forget you play and compete the way you train therefore every training session needs to be close to your event/sport (Neural, Metabolic, Mechanical & Technical) in some form. Training is cumulative; give the training time to work.

Real Rewards of Coaching

As a young coach I knew there was more out there but I was not 100% sure what it was. It was the human element, the emotional intelligence piece, appreciating people and what they offer beyond their athletic skills. I must admit I took that for granted. I was into training, the X’s and O’s of coaching. I was focused on designing better workouts and refining technique. There were championships, big wins and some disappointing loses. As I progressed in my coaching career and climbed the ladder so to speak I saw there was more to it. I gained a balance, a perspective. I realized that that yes the X’s and O’s were still important but it was the people I was coaching, the relationships, the satisfaction of seeing young boys and girls grow into responsible adults and move on with their lives outside of sport.

Monday night I had dinner in Fort Collins with John Rosecrance, one of my former athletes I had not seen for 35 years. John was part of an amazing group of young athletes I coached at Santa Barbara High School from 1975 through 1978. They were amazing because of their athletic accomplishments, but more amazing was their focus and dedication, the togetherness and team unity, the willing to help each other be better. John epitomized what this group was about. He was not especially athletically gifted but he worked hard to get better and maximize his skills, eventually making CIF Finals in the pole vault his senior year. Visiting with John brought back many fond memories of those days. It made me regret that I did not take more time to smell the roses and appreciate those kids for what they were. During our visit we barely talked about track. We talked about the progress of his career and what he had done in the last 35 years. He is still competing in bike races and for a time was doing triathlons and even ran several marathons, this from a guy that I had to cajole in doing cross-country. He has his PHD and is a professor at Colorado Sate University in Fort Collins. Visiting with John reminded of the real rewards of coaching – the people and relationships that endure after the championship trophies tarnish and the medals are stored in a drawer somewhere.

Meaningful Practice

I know the term deliberate practice is the current buzzword but I don’t think it is getting the job done. I have always felt that words create images and images create action, so I use the term meaningful. Meaningful clearly communicates what I want from practice, it leaves little room for nuance. Practice must have a clear plan and purpose that the athlete understands. It must relate to the competitive demands of the sport the athlete is preparing for. It must be relevant to physical and developmental age of the athlete (Adult drills and training methods imposed on children are counterproductive). Mindless repetition does not count as practice. If you want examples go watch a typical tennis academy practice where they hit balls for four hours or watch a baseball infielder take 100 ground balls repetitively. Folks that is the norm just look around, nothing meaningful, just work. Each drill, each exercise must have a purpose that the athlete clearly understands or it is just time on their feet punching a clock accumulating time toward that magic 10,000 hour number. Focused meaningful work that chooses to distort the competitive demands not replicate them is the answer. That is meaningful, the athlete relates to it because they see the relationship of the technique they must master or the game situation they must improve. At the end of the day less is more to make the practice meaningful.

The Basics

Know the Basics

Master the Basics

Don’t Deviate From the Basics

The basics my not be sexy or exciting, but they are necessary. When I say basics I mean starting with fundamental movements as a basis for technique, I mean multilateral lateral training that encompasses all components of training in a systematic manner, not biased one sided training that creates highly adpated athletes who are injury prone. All the great athletes and coaches I have ever been around never stray far from the basics. They approach the basics with as Steve Brown, former coach of Sarasota Sharks termed “mind numbing consistency.” The most spectacular performances & performers are manifestations of the basics done extraordinarily well.

What is Periodization?

Periodization (Planned Performance Training) is the timing, sequence and interaction of the training stimuli to allow optimum adaptive response in pursuit of specific competitive goals. It is: Why you do, what you do, in relation to when you do it. Another way to look to look at it, you are bringing the future into the present so you can do something about it. In one word it is planning – Don’t over complicate it - Apply the KISS Principle - Keep It Short and Simple. Think actions planning.

Old Questions - New Answers

Questions are a major stimulus to drive change. Significant change will not come by spending an inordinate amount of time trying to find new answers to old questions. Real profound change will come from abandoning the old questions. Stop trying to answer them. Leave then alone. Reframe them and ask new questions from a whole different perspective.