Functional Path Training

Some Coaching Advice From An Old Coach

Here are some tidbits that that I have learned over the years. If you are just staring out on the coaching journey it will get you going in the right direction and if you are an experienced coach it will serve as a reminder of things to do to be effective as well as food for thought.

Clearly define and delineate your core beliefs and make those beliefs the foundation of your coaching philosophy.

Make your coaching philosophy your guiding light – Live it!

Coach the person first, the athlete second.

Know what you know – know it better than anyone else.

Know what you don’t know – systematically reduce this through a directed learning plan.

Don’t be limited by what you do or you don’t know.

Find a mentor who has been doing what you want to do and has been doing for an expected period of time. Make sure it is someone who is willing to share mistakes as well as successes.

Read biographies of coaches and athletes, those that are great and not so great to learn what to do and what not to do.

Practice daily self-reflection.

Beware of false prophets bearing gifts (Especially if you have to pay). There are no secrets, no magic formulas or a secret sauce.

Beware of internet training porn, it is highly addictive.

You don’t enlist the army as a general. Be prepared to pay your dues. It takes ten years to be an overnight success.

Coaching is not an industry it is a profession, so treat it as such and be professional.

Know the science, but don't be ruled by it.

More letters after you name does not make a better coach. Experiences trump certifications.

Eliminate the word can’t from your vocabulary. You can and you will. Find a way!

It’s Always More Than An Exercise

There are many exercises available some good and effective other pure rubbish. How do you choose? You can’t do them all. Ask yourself these questions when you see a new exercise that you are considering using in your training program. What is context? Where will you use it? Is it an absolute need to do exercise or is just nice to do? (Nice to do exercises often just make you tired but don’t make you better.) Does the exercise do what you want it to do? Does it do something better than you are already doing? Is it congruent with the whole training system? Does the athlete relate the need for the exercise? As a note in the last training year I have added eight new exercises to my training menus and removed three.

Daily Challenge

What are you doing different today and everyday to make yourself better that no one else in your world is doing? To do this demands that you get out of your comfort zone and challenge yourself, your colleagues and your athletes. It is making good choices and setting priorities. Are you up for the daily challenge?

Copycat Training

This is the time when coaches and athletes watch great athletes achieve astounding performances at the Olympic games. It is certainly inspiring and interesting to see what these athletes did in their journey to achieve that success. It is tempting to try to copy their training methods in an attempt to imitate their success. I know that because as a young coach and athlete I did that. Needless to say the results were less than spectacular and in a couple of cases disastrous. While what Phelps or Bolt do in training may be interesting in 99.9% of the cases it is irrelevant with your athletes.

Sometimes in the case of great athletes they achieve in spite of not because of what they did. What they did worked for them, in essence a case study of one. It is necessary to know why they did what they did and when they did it. Context is king! Also it is important to note that when looking at training programs form the former Eastern Bloc countries it is necessary to factor the influence of drugs. I have seen training session on paper and then seen the actual training live up close and personal. Any resemblance between what was written was purely coincidental. It was how the session was coached, how the athlete felt that day and the weather conditions etc.

I do not recommend copying training programs from others. However I do think you can get ideas if you have a context for evaluating what you see. Personally over the years I have learned a lot by studying and observing great athletes and coaches training. Notice I said learned not copied. I have taken concepts, not specific exercises or workouts and then applied them where they fit into my system. It is important to remember that each athlete is unique, a case study of one, so make the training fit the athlete do not try to fit the athlete to the training.

GAIN Swimming - September16 to 18, 2016

Coaching Athletic Development for Swimming - Design to Implementation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Are you interested in being challenged as coach to make your swimmers better? Would you like to learn how to systematically make your athletes stronger and keep them injury free? If so, GAIN Swimming network can help.

GAIN is an acronym for Gambetta Athletic Improvement Network; this network was formed in 2008 to connect professionals to facilitate learning and sharing of ideas. Due to the success achieved working with swim coaches and clubs we are now creating a network specifically devoted to swimming with an emphasis on preparation of the total swimming athlete.

The objective is to provide an educational experience that will significantly advance each coach’s expertise by sharing information with other professionals in a setting that encourages an open exchange of ideas. It will be a workshop format consisting of a mixture of lecture, discussions, hot topic panels, practical learn by doing participation and demonstration. If you are sincerely interested in advancing your professional development apply now.

Date & Site

September 16 - 18, 2016 Carmel Swim Club, Carmel Indiana

Benefits

Access to GAIN Swimming Forum on secure web page ($250 Yearly membership fee included in tuition)

Access to GAIN Library including videos of past GAIN Conferences

Cost of Attendance

$1200 for three coaches plus $100 for each additional coach

Register

Enrollment limited. Go to selection labeled open to new members.

https://www.teamunify.com/MemRegStart.jsp?team=incsc&event_id=673958

Deadline for registration is September 1 - Enrollment Limited

For Further Information

Please call or email Vern Gambetta at 941-378-1778 or email at [email protected]

The Faculty

Our faculty is experienced professionals who have been in the trenches working in the field of athletic development for swimming.

Vern Gambetta - Founder of GAIN Network

Chris Plumb - Chris Plumb is the Head Coach/CEO of Carmel Swim Club.

Ian Murray - Associate Head Coach of Carmel Swim Club

Chris Webb - Head coach of the Fort Collins Area Swim Team in Colorado. 

Randy Ballard - Associate Athletics Director for Sports Medicine and Integrated Performance at the University of Illinois

Steve Myrland – District Performance Coach for Athletics and Wellness Director Middleton Wisconsin School District

Topics

Concepts of Dryland Training (Vern Gambetta)

8 to 18 Age Group Progressions in Athletic Development (Ian Murray)

Assessing Physical Competency – Trainability for Swimming – Theory & Practice (Randy Ballard)

Stick Mobility (Learn By Doing) (Steve Myrland)

Strap Strength & Stability (Learn By Doing) (Steve Myrland)

Integrating Dryland Training with Swim Training (Chris Plumb)

Warm-up to Swim (Chris Webb)

Strength Training (Vern Gambetta & Chris Plumb)

Weight Room Without Walls – Getting Stronger on Pool deck (Vern Gambetta)

Equipment & Facilities (Vern Gambetta)

Schedule

Friday September 16

1:00 to 3:00 - Registration

3:00 to 5:00 - Afternoon Session

Concepts of Dryland Training (Vern Gambetta)

5:30 to 7:00 - Dinner

7:00 to 9:00 - Evening Session

         Integrating Dryland Training with Swim Training (Chris Plumb)

Saturday September 17

7:00 to 9:00 - Early Morning - Observation of Carmel Dryland Training

Senior Group Followed by Age Group

9:00 to 10:00 – Breakfast

10:00 to 10:45 - Stick Mobility (Learn By Doing) (Steve Myrland)

10:45 -11:00 - Break

11:00 to 12:30 - Assessing Physical Competency – Trainability for Swimming – Theory & Practice (Randy Ballard)

12:30 to 2:00 – Lunch

2:00 to 3:30 - Age Group Progressions in Athletic Development (Ian Murray)

3:30 to 3:45 - Break

3:45 to 4:45 - Strap Strength & Stability (Learn By Doing) (Steve Myrland)

4:45 to 5:30 - Weight Room Without Walls (Getting Stronger on Deck)

5:30 – 7:00 – Dinner

7:30 – 9:00 – Panel Discussion/Q&A

Sunday September 18

8:30 to 9:30 – Warm-up to Swim (Chris Webb)

9:30 to 9:45 - Break

9:45 to 12:45 - Strength Training (Vern Gambetta, Chris Plumb & Chris Webb)

Selecting Exercises

Coaching Points & Execution

Male Female Differences in Adaptation

Designing Workouts

Weekly (Microcycle) Structure

Yearly Plan – Short Course & Long Course

         12:45 to 1:30 – Wrap-up

Let the “Games” Begin

As the games begin I run the gamut of emotions from the excitement of seeing the best of the best go head to head to deep despair and disappointment. As young coach in 1972 and 76 the Olympics was pure excitement, it was in my mind the pinnacle of athlete excellence. I trained with some Olympians and getting to see them in the big show was special. I got to go to Montreal as a spectator. It was so exciting I was like a kid in a candy store I was oblivious to the politics going on. I was there, I went to the practice track every day from day literally from dawn to dusk until track & field competition began. When the competition began I would watch the warm-ups at the practice track and run to my seat in the stadium for the competition. What an inspirational learning experience. It was heady times for a naïve young coach who thought it was all about technique and training and good coaching. Little did I know what was to come?

Then I got to the higher levels of the sport of track and field. I was now coaching national and international athletes and was serving on various committees of TAC (The precursor to USATF). It was then that the reality of the cheating and corruption hit me. It was not fun to watch. I saw it first hand when the American track and field athletes were offered so-called “educational testing” leading into the 1984 games. In essence they were being educated in how to beat the system. I saw the inner working of what is now USATF, an organization that makes FIFA look like the boy scouts. I know you are thinking that was almost forty years ago, yes and it is the same people and coaches involved today.

That brings us to today with the games set to begin. We have athletes from the US who are considered potential stars of the games who have tested positive more than once. We have the same drug coaches coaching. We are as far from the Olympic spirit as is possible. It is all driven by billions of dollars of sponsorship and television money. All that being said I will still watch selected events and sports there is still something special about this level of competition. I am looking forward to seeing the athletes that I have worked with compete because I know they have not cheated. I wish good luck to the honest and clean athletes and coaches who hopefully will be able to rise above the madness. My dream, a dream I hope to see in my lifetime is truly clean sport where there are lifetime bans and bans for coaches who cheat. I dream about seeing these young 11 & 12-year-old swimmers I am working with now have a chance to compete on a level playing field. Let the games begin and celebrate the true Olympic spirit.

Some Pearls From Recent Reading

From Feynman’s Rainbow page 78.

Leonard Mlodinov talking to Richard Feynman, noble prizewinner: “Let me ask you something,” I finally said. “Do you think it would be wise to work on a theory that almost everyone thinks is nonsense?” “Only under one condition,” he said.

“And what is that?”

“That you don’t think it is nonsense.”

“I am not sure I know enough to tell.”

He chuckled. “Maybe if you knew enough to tell, you would not work on it either.”

“You mean maybe I’m too dumb to know better.”

“Not necessarily. Maybe you just don’t know enough, or know known it long enough, to be spoiled by what you know. Too much education can cause trouble.”

 

From The Science of the Tour De France P. 39

“So it’s always a balance between power output and aerodynamics.”

 

From a real gem written in 1937 by Mabel Todd, “The Thinking Body” a must read for anyone interested in human movement.

“As soon as the body must function as a unit, as in walking or running, or dealing in any direct way with the environment, the structural lines of connection are drawn tighter and the bony and muscular parts are moved toward center so there is as much economy of effort as possible.” P. 17-18

“Posture is incessant.” P. 43

The thinking body stands, moves and performs its skills through knowledge of the natural forces and in its dynamic balances.” P. 295

 

Richard L. Lieber, Skeletal Muscle Structure, Function & Plasticity – The Physiological Basis of Rehabilitation (Second Edition) is one of the richest resources I know, a constant source of reference.

“Therefore, resist the temptation to classify muscles in terms of anatomy. Instead, state that the rectus femoris always acts to generate hip flexion moment and a knee extension moment but reserve creating general categories in the absence of specifying a motion.” P. 27

“Skeletal muscle architecture can be defined as “the arrangement of muscle fibers relative to the axis of force generation.” P. 27

“…Functionally, quadriceps and plantar-flexors are designed for force production based on their low fiber length/muscle length ratios and large physiological cross sectional areas. Conversely, in general, hamstrings and dorsiflexors are designed for high excursions and velocity by nature of their high fiber length/muscle length ratios and relatively small physiological cross-sectional areas.” P. 37

“… the gait cycle is a wonderfully orchestrated sequence of electrical and mechanical events that culminate in the coordinated propulsion of the body through space.” P. 152

“Physiological function may not, therefore, be obvious based only on anatomical configuration.” P. 159

“Muscle fiber types are clearly related to performance, but are not the cause for performance at a particular level.” P. 213

“”Strength” is a very complex phenomenon that has underlying muscular, tendinous, nervous and skeletal components.” P. 258

“Whether the level of use increases or deceases, muscle responds accordingly. As you have seen, muscles ate always “trying” to tailor their structural and functional properties to the level of use they experience.” P. 287