Functional Path Training

Musings on Coaching Excellence

Just like athletic excellence coaching excellence has been a fascination of mine since I was an athlete in high school. I observed teams and individuals that seemed to “over achieve’ or punch above their weight as the saying goes. The closer I observed and analyzed this the common denominator was coaching. Coaching makes a difference. Over my 45-year professional career I have seen great coaches, good coaches and indifferent coaches. The great ones share common characteristic. Here is what I have seen.

Technical Expertise – Knowledge of the sport like talent to the athlete is a given. However I have seen great coaches who are average to slightly above average in this category who have excelled because they made up for in other areas. Technical proficiency can be learned but without a “coaches eye,” which is the art of coaching superior technical knowledge is for naught.

Learners – Excellent coaches are lifelong learners. They leave no stone unturned in the pursuit of broader and deeper knowledge to improve as coaches. The great ones go outside their sport and outside of sport to diverse fields to learn.

Vision – They have a clear vision of what they want to achieve and have a thorough understanding of how to turn the vision into action.

Life Balance – Achieving a balance in all aspects of life is the most difficult part of coaching. It is something that must be constantly worked on. It is a juggling act. Not all great coaches achieve this.

Communicator – This is essential and the characteristic that is shared by great coaches. Understanding that communication is not just talking but listening and observing makes a difference.

Emotionally Intelligent – A basic sensitivity to the athletes needs. Being personable without loss of respect of the athletes. Coaching the person not the athlete. Compassion empathy and humility are all part of being emotionally intelligent.

Flexible – Having a clearly defined system but knowing when to deviate and adapt to different personnel and environments. Just like the great athlete great coaches are adaptable rather adapted.

Core Beliefs – A clear core philosophy that is on display in their day-to-day coaching. Not platitudes but actions that have meaning to the athletes.

Change Engineers – Great coaches lead change they do not react and follow.

Acutely Aware of Strength & Weaknesses – They coach to their strength and understand their weaknesses. They have staff and professional colleagues to complement them.

Persistence/Drive/Determination – These qualities are off the scale in excellent coaches. They never take no for an answer. They will find a way.

Mindset – Just like the athlete a growth mindset is necessary. They think about possibilities not roadblocks, obstacles or failures.

Self-Efficacy – There is a confidence in the ability to exert control over their motivation, behavior, and social environment. They lead by example.

Just like with athletic excellence I am sure there are many more, but these are the ones I have seen in my experience. Coaching is the difference maker, behind every great athlete and team is a great coach.

Musing on Athletic Excellence

Athletic excellence and coaching excellence have been fascinations of mine since I was a young athlete. During the course of my career I have been fortunate to train with, observe and coach some great athletes in both individual and team sports. I have also been able to work with and closely observe some great coaches. In this post I will share my thoughts on athletic excellence and in another post my thoughts on coaching excellence. There is some obvious overlap between athletic excellence and coaching excellence.

Talent and Ability – You can argue what talent and ability are but regardless of how you define them they are a must. The truly excellent athletes make the most of their ability. Sometimes they may not have the most ability but they find ways to exploit what they have to the maximum.

Mindset – Mindset is the current buzzword, 45 years ago I had no idea what it was called, but every great athlete that I have seen has had a growth mindset and the commensurate grit. They are always focused on possibilities. Never fixed in their thinking.

Focus – Athletic excellence demands a laser like focus on the task at hand. No distractions.

Dedication – This is a given and goes along with focus. They know what they have to do and are willing to make the sacrifices to achieve that.

Routine – This is the difference maker. Routine! Routine! Routine! The great ones have training and practice routines that border on ritual. I think this serves as a psychological anchor, a point of reference that gives them a sense a security

Resilience – They have the ability to bounce back from failure or setbacks, learn from it and internalize the lesson to get better.

Lifestyle – An athlete for 24 hours not just the hours of training or competition. It is not possible to be a chump off the field and a champ on the field.

Consistency - The great athlete is consistent, the lows are not too low and the highs are not too high. They operate on an even keel. In other words you know what you are going to get they show up everyday. The spectacular comes from the consistency in training and competition.

Eye on the Prize – Focus on the goal at all times. The goals guide them like a beacon in a storm. The goals keep them on course.

Know Their Strengths – They are acutely aware of their strengths and train and compete to their strength. Over time they have the ability to bring their weaknesses up to the level of their strengths.

Risk – Willing to take calculated risks and occasionally push the envelope. You be willing to risk(not wreckless) to be the best. This demands that they are comfortable with being uncomfortable all the time.

Athletic Intelligence – The great athlete possess an high athletic IQ. They know their bodies; they know when to push and when to back off. They understand their sport. They may not be able to articulate it but they show it in everything they do in training and competition.

There is no doubt more, but these are the qualities that stand out for me.

Definitions to Facilitate Communication & Discussion

In order to facilitate communication it is important to have a common language. These are terms that I think are very important to redirect thinking away from strength & conditioning toward athletic development and to encourage discussion:

Athleticism – The ability to perform athletic movements (Run, jump, throw, twist, turn, roll, fall, bend, extend, etc.) at optimum speed with precision, style and grace within the context of the sport.

Athletic Development – The systematic, sequential and progressive development of all athletic qualities in an integrated manner to develop the complete athlete. It incorporates a balanced development of all components of physical performance: strength, power, speed, agility, endurance and flexibility. No one quality is developed to the exclusion of another.

Strength Training – Coordination training with appropriate resistance to handle body weight, project an implement, move or resist movement of another body, resist gravity and optimize ground reaction forces.

Priority Training

If everything is important then nothing is important. It is necessary to be on target with those components of training that the athlete or teams need to do to improve. It is tempting to try to do everything to insure that all bases are covered. Unfortunately that approach will ultimately dilute the training effect, which limits long-term improvement. In order to prioritize training this is what I consider:

Want to do – This consists of ideas on workouts or exercises that look like they might be useful but I have never used before. File them for use when appropriate.

Nice to do – This consists of useful methods that I can use if there is time or if there is a specific reason. Too many nice to do’s will kill a training program.

Need to do – This is the nitty-gritty, no wiggle room here. These must be done.

Then I carefully assess the sport demands, the position or event demands and the qualities of the individual athlete. In regards to the athlete I pay particular attention to their current level of trainability as well as technical strengths and weaknesses. For me the emphasis is always on what they can do, not what they can’t do. Train the athlete to their strengths and that will pull up their weaknesses. In determining the emphasis in training for each block or mesocycle there are two categories:Major Emphasis and Minor Emphasis. A major emphasis will show up 3 to 4 times in a 7-day microcycle. A minor emphasis will usually occur 2 times in a 7 day microcycle, just enough to stabilize that component. Though that can vary with the time of the training year. I have found it to be a constant balancing act that requires daily observation and feedback from the athlete.

To aid in the prioritization process I also classify competition into three categories:

Developmental – Competition result is not of concern. The goal is work on technical or tactical factors in a competitive situation. No specific rest or preparation for the competition.

Important – This is where the competitive result can matter. Some specific preparation and rest is taken to prepare.

Crucial – Must achieve competition results, this is a championship competition or qualify competition. There is specific preparation and adequate rest to insure sharpness and competitive readiness.

You can’t be at the peak level optimum physical conditioning year around. Priority training can help you achieve continual improvement by changing priorities based on the time of the training year and the state of the athlete. In the words of Greg McKeown in his excellent book Essentialism always “less but better” be on target with training and results in competition will follow.

Join Us - GAIN IX

GAIN started in 2007, but the genesis of GAIN goes back to the start of my coaching career in 1969. It quickly became clear to me that anytime I could meet with professional colleagues to exchange ideas that my performance as a coach improved. It really came together for me in July 1972 at the first AAU Learning By Doing Track & Field Clinic. The clinic went for four days from 7:00 AM in the morning to 9:00 PM at night. We all lived in dorms and ate meals together. There were unlimited opportunities to discuss what we had learned and exchange ideas. I came away from that experience vowing to repeat the experience wherever and whenever possible. It was career changing for me. Now I had a network of coaches I could communicate with. In the 1980’s a group of us would convene at every opportunity, usually at National Championships or conventions with the express purpose to share ideas and cross check each others training programs. These occasions were uplifting and sometimes quite challenging when you did not hear what you wanted to hear.

In 1992,I started teaching the Building and Rebuilding The Athlete seminar. It was a two-day seminar consisting of a broad overview of all the components of training and rehab for the athlete. The volume of content and format only allowed us to barely scratch the surface. Each seminar someone would ask me if I ever was going to initiate something beyond Building and Rebuilding. Because of various factors, I was unable to do so until 2007 when we had our first GAIN. There were twenty brave souls in attendance; I don’t think any of us had a good idea of what it would become.

Nine years later, GAIN has evolved into the career changing experience that I hoped it would be. We have highly motivated attendees who are professionals in their various areas and a superb faculty who are high-level practitioners who have skin in the game. They know through practice-based evidence what it takes to achieve results at the highest levels of sport and they are willing to share their success and failures.

Join us in this learning journey of professional development. GAIN IX will be at Rice University in Houston Texas from June 14 to June 18. There is no experience like this total immersion for five days with other highly motivated professionals. I am a facilitator, a catalyst - the strength is in the network and the subsequent connections into a learning community of highly motivated professionals eager to challenge ideas generate new ideas and take a different look at old ones.

Go to http://tinyurl.com/nb7rx2jto apply, submit your application now, enrollment is limited.

Competition – The Essence of Sport

Records are not the essence of sport, competition is. A bold and broad statement so let me explain. The more emphasis on an incessant search for world records only encourages athletes to dope. The financial incentives are great and we are forcing athletes to push the envelope every outing, which is physically impossible. Let’s shift the emphasis back to competition. Great close competitions are as exciting as a paced world record that no one outside the sport understands.

Competition Results – Getting Beyond Wins & Loses

It is easy to be fooled by competition results both good and bad, wins or loses. Wins can disguise deficiencies and losses can hide progress. The take home point is to always focus on the process and never lose sight of the ultimate long-term goal. Each competition is a stepping-stone to further excellence. Keep each competition in perspective. Each competition is worth at least five training sessions in terms of learning opportunities so learn from the good performances, bad performances, wins and loses.

Change - The Constant

In high-level sport as in life the only constant is change. If you are the best at what you do you must change and adapt to stay the best. The difference maker in coaching is how you manage and lead change. Change represents a tremendous opportunity to improve. Rather than a time of reaction it is an opportunity to take a step back and reflect on the causes for change and then to plan subsequent actions based on the reflections. In elite sport the focus must be on what needs to be done to produce both short and long term results. The following quote from Walter Isaacson in the forward of Team of Teams – New Rules of Engagement For A Complex World by General Stanley McChrystal contains a powerful message for the necessity of continual change and adaption in today’s world:

“Management models based on planning and predicting instead of resilient adaptation to changing circumstances are no longer suited to today’s challenges. Organizations must be networked, not siloed, in order to succeed. Their goal must shift from efficiency to sustained organizational adaptability.”