Functional Path Training

The Gray Area

The gray area is a dark shady place with indistinct boundaries to the dark side. If you are choosing to coach in the gray area, looking for new chemicals that will enhance your athletes performance in my world you are a doper. There is no gray area it is either black or white. Why go there when there is so much room for improvement beyond just marginal gains in the white area that we have not explored? Why turn coaching into a big chemistry experiment? It is not necessary. In my 45 years of coaching I have met few athletes who have tapped into their top end physical potential. You can be the best without drugs, take the time to dot all the I’s and cross all the T’s. Meticulously plan, leave no stone unturned in improving your coaching knowledge. Remember less is more and it takes time to be the best; don’t try to rush the process.

Quality Training

The distinguishing factor of an effective training program is quality. Quality is defined as a measure of perfect. Each training session in pursuit of competitive excellence must strive to be as close to perfect as possible. Winning the workout is the precursor to winning a competition. The best place to start the emphasis on quality is to focus on “perfect effort” the concept popularized by De La Sale High School Football team (http://perfecteffort.com/). It does not take any special talent or ability to produce perfect effort. Perfect effort in every training session will insure quality. Quality training will produce an adaptable athlete ready to thrive in any competitive environment. Without a stress on quality your athletes will just be doing work without direction and purpose.

Sport Performance – Tangible Intangibles

You can measure it; you can define it with precise algorithms – But then there is competition day. Competition is random and chaotic; there is the human element that adds tremendous variability and unpredictability to the equation. This all creates a gap between the numbers, the analytics if you will and the final outcome. The human element is highly trainable but very unpredictable. Measure what you can measure. Sense what you can sense and then coach!

Monday Meditations on Excellence

Hard smart work is the price of admission for a chance to be the best

Potential & talent is meaningless unless you do the work to fulfill it

Wise words from Seth Godin:

“Don't try to be the 'next'. Instead, try to be the other, the changer, the new.”

Toughness is how you handle your experiences & what you learn from them

“Courage is being scared to death and saddling up anyway” John Wayne

Each of us as coaches has a chance everyday to change our world. You can YOUR world by doing something that no one else in your world is doing and doing it better. Be a change agent through words, actions and deeds.

Youth Sports Problems – Some Solutions

Here are the conclusions to my presentation on LTAD at the 2015 NSCA Convention in Orlando. We know the problems we need to focus on solutions, here are mine:

Reinstitute mandatory daily physical education K – 12 NOW!

Stop trying to identify the athletically gifted instead lets give them all the gift of athleticism

Declare “Adult Free Zone” where kids can just play

More play days – Les structure along with fewer leagues and tournaments

Some final thoughts:

DO participate in a variety of sports and activities

DO NOT try to “hurry up” the development process

DO NOT specialize too early

DO NOT lose sight of long-term objectives

         What is the final goal?

         Were good life skills taught?

"The Wrecking Crew"

The Wrecking Crew is an amazing documentary http://www.wreckingcrewfilm.com/ about change, innovation, humility, teamwork and sacrifice. This is not a sports documentary, but it very well could be, rather it is a documentary about a group of back-up musicians who changed the game. The old studio musicians were not adaptable. They played the notes as they were written and trained to play. They were very formulaic, stuck in their ways, why should they change it had worked before, but music was changing and the demands were changing. So along came the so-called “Wrecking Crew” a group of younger musicians many of whom had backgrounds in different genre’s of music who were completely adaptable and willing to push the envelope. They went beyond the notes as written, they made connections, looked for rhythms and tempos that other either ignored or had not seen. They realized that they could not change music by playing the same. The results were nothing short of amazing. It was the music my generation came of age on, it was what has become the classic sounds of the rock era. They were Phil Spectors so called "wall of sound." Unbelievable! These guys and gals changed music and they did this all with out public recognition or acclaim. Watching the documentary it is clear that these folks had a real passion and a bond for each other that comes through loud and clear in their music. I found this documentary very inspirational, I could not help but think of all my coaching colleagues who labored in the background and changed sport without recognition. I tip my hat to them and the Wrecking Crew as I listen to the Beach Boys station on Pandora.

These are songs that some of the Wrecking Crew members recorded in Los Angeles in the 50s, 60s and 70s:

5th Dimension
Let the Sunshine In/Aquarius
Stoned Soul Picnic 
Up-Up and Away  
One Less Bell to Answer  

Association
Windy  
Never My Love  

Beach Boys
California Girls  
Don't Worry Baby  
Fun Fun Fun  
God Only Knows  
Good Vibrations  
I Get Around  
Sloop John B  

Byrds
Mr. Tamborine Man  

Glen Campbell
By The Time I Get to Phoenix  
Galveston  
Gentle on My Mind  
Wichita Lineman  

Captain and Tennille
Love Will Keep Us Together

Carpenters
Close to You
We've Only Just Begun

Cher
Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves
Half-Breed

Chipmunks
Chipmunks Theme

Nat King Cole
Ramblin' Rose

Sam Cooke
Twistin' the Night Away
You Send Me

Crystals
Then He Kissed Me
Da Doo Ron Ron
He's A Rebel

Bobby Day
Rock-in Robin

Defenders
Taco Wagon

Shelly Fabares
Johnny Angel

Richard Harris
MacArthur Park

Jan & Dean
Dead Man's Curve
Surf City
Little Old Lady (From Pasadena)

Gary Lewis and the Playboys
Everybody Loves a Clown
Sure Gonna Miss Her
This Diamond Ring

Barry McGuire
Eve of Destruction

Mamas & Papas
California Dreamin'
Creeque Alley
Dedicated to the One I Love
Monday, Monday

Henry Mancini
The Pink Panther Theme

Marketts
Balboa Blue
Outer Limits
Surfer's Stomp

Dean Martin
Everybody Loves Somebody

Scott McKenzie
San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)

Monkees
Mary Mary
Valleri

Chris Montez
Let's Dance

Ricky Nelson
Fools Rush In

Wayne Newton
Danke Schoen

Jack Nitzsche
The Lonely Surfer

Harry Nilsson
Everybody's Talkin'

Partridge Family
Come on Get Happy

Elvis Presley
A Little Less Conversation
Viva Las Vegas

Paul Revere & the Raiders
Indian Reservation

Righteous Brothers
Unchained Melody
You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'

Rip Chords
Hey Little Cobra

Johnny Rivers
Poor Side of Town

Tommy Roe
Dizzy

Ronettes
Be My Baby
I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus

Routers
Let's Go

The Sandpipers
Guantanamera

Lalo Schifrin
Mission Impossible

Simon and Garfunkel
Mrs. Robinson

Frank Sinatra
Strangers in the Night
That's Life

Nancy Sinatra
These Boots Were Made for Walkin'
Drummer Man

Sonny and Cher
The Beat Goes On
I Got You Babe

T-Bones
No Matter What Shape (Your Stomach's In)

Nino Tempo & April Stevens
Deep Purple

Tijuana Brass
The Lonely Bull  
Spanish Flea  
Taste of Honey  
Whipped Cream  
Zorba the Greek  

Ike and Tina Turner
River Deep Mountain High

Ritchie Valens
Donna

Bobby Vee
The Night Has a Thousand Eyes

Ventures
Hawaii 5-O

Mason Williams
Classical Gas

Roger Williams
Born Free

Lessons from GAIN 2015 – Randy Ballard on Trainability Assessment

Randy Ballard is an ATC who works with Volleyball and Track & Field at University of Illinois. Over the past three years Randy has taken elements of Kelvin Giles PCA (Physical Competency Assessment) and combined into a trainability assessment he calls I-FACTS – Illinois Foundational Athletic Competency System. It is a trainability assessment because it is designed to do just that, determine the athlete’s ability to train – where on a continuum of progression will you find kinks in the amour and adjust training accordingly. It is a reference to determine an entry point for programming training.

A statement that Randy made in his presentation really struck home with me: “Once overspecialized, always overspecialized.” The implications of that statement are wide ranging. The athlete will be at University of Illinois for four years, they are expected to compete and achieve at a high level, but so much time is spent in damage control that was done before college that is presents a real dilemma.

The whole I-FACTS is process oriented. Randy stressed that the “Data does not give you answers, rather it helps you ask better questions.” The process consists of the ATC, S&C, and sport coach all working to together to answer the questions and keep asking smarter more pointed questions. Because it is process orientated it is not a “one-off” testathon with the results filed away and forgotten. It is a living working part of the athletes training to constantly improve their athleticism. It is a vehicle to open and maintain lines of communication between the whole performance team working with the athlete. To get the athlete performing at their optimum requires cooperation and communication. It is important to emphasize that Randy has worked hard to involve the sport coach in this process; because of this the buy in has been significant.

Commonalities in Sports

In designing and implementing training programs for the various sports certain commonalities between sports are apparent. In fact once you get away from the nuances of the sport and focus on the movements there will be more similarities than differences. Squatting movements, bending movements, reaching movements are universal. Look carefully for commonalities in movements between sports before looking for differences. Once you find commonalities find as many ways to link them. You will find more commonalities than you thought. By looking for commonalities the differences will be very apparent.

The system of sport classification into Sprint Sports, Intermittent Sprint Sports, Transition Sports and Endurance Sports will point you in the right direction. This is the first step that dictates the selection of the training methods. In selecting exercises for training there may actually be similar exercises or even the same exercises. Even though the exercise may be the same, it can be performed at a different tempo, with or without resistance to adapt the exercises to the respective sport. The message is that it is more than an exercise; it is the context that the exercise is applied that ultimately will matter the most.

The Comfort Zone

The comfort zone is just that a very comfortable place to be, it is a nice warm and fuzzy place that puts no demands on the person. Not much excellence is accomplished there precisely because it is very comfortable. To achieve a high standard of excellence in performance you cannot afford to be in the comfort zone. It is necessary to get uncomfortable, to test yourself and recognize that there are no boundaries. Boundaries and barriers are artificial constructs imposed by those who are comfortable and heavily invested in the status quo. Being limited by boundaries and barriers is letting others define your potential. Working to be the best demands being comfortable with being uncomfortable all the time. 

 

The Creative Process of Coaching

Every composer starts with the same notes. Every author starts with the same alphabet. All artists start with the same palette of basic colors. Then why aren’t there more Beethoven’s, Hemingway’s and Rembrandt's? The answer is genius and the creative process. Coaching is similar; at the heart of coaching is the creative process. The coach is no different than the composer or the artist. The coach’s palette is the human body expressed through movement. Graham, Wallis described the four stages of the creative process. The steps in this process are easily adapted to the coaching environment. It is important to remember that this is not a linear process. 

The four stages that Wallis identified are:

1. Preparation. This is the stage of gathering information. This is the time to define the problem. You must be well prepared and know what you are doing. Make yourself an expert, this will provide the foundation to be creative and innovative. The process of becoming an expert will ignite creative ideas.

2. Incubation – It takes time, creative ideas do not happen overnight. Sometimes a training method that did not work in the past will work now if placed in a different context. Forcing solutions does not work.

3. Illumination. This is when you get it and the light comes on. Sometimes it is reading something, hearing something or seeing a movement that makes things click.

4. Verification. This is the actual application, where the new idea is implemented to see if it actually works.

Great coaches are very creative; it is just that their field of expression is different. You have to see the sport you are working with new eyes.