Functional Path Training

Strength Coach & The Way of the Dinosaur

This piece is a must read for all those interested in coaching athletes. thttp://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/the-unregulated-world-of-strength-coaches-and-college-footballs-killing-season/ Let me preface this post by stating that this is not an impulsive post in reaction to this article. (More extensive discussion of this will be on tomorrows GAINcast, to down load and listen go to http://www.hmmrmedia.com/gaincast/ )The issues raised have been a concern of mine for close to thirty years. The article brought to the fore some huge issues facing us today at the high school and collegiate level regarding the lack of professional training and control over what has been traditionally called strength and conditioning. This article underscores and exposes glaring deficiencies in the system. Let me state my bias and point of view up front – I abhor the name/label of strength coach. It is a very limiting title and is a term and a concept from a bygone area when it was just about getting football players big and strong in the weight room but the name goes to the heart of the issue.

The article makes a big issue of certification, once again I will state my point of view upfront. Certification is not the answer. Certification does not equal qualification. Each of the certifications that are considered gold standard are seriously flawed. The two spokespersons for the CSCS Boyd Epley and Jay Hoffman have huge biases, vested interests as well as conflict of interest. The collegiate Strength Coaches is an organization founded by strength coaches (primarily football) who felt their voice was not being heard by NSCA. The name of the organization tells all “Collegiate Strength Coaches.” To earn the label “master strength coach” means nothing more than you have been coaching 12 years. After 12 years of coaching I had no idea yet what I didn’t know.

We need an organization whose mission is to define a profession with certification only one aspect of that. It is 2017 and we have “strength coaches” hurting players in football and imposing a football program on other sports. Where are we going and what are we doing? These organizations have not served us well. I am concerned as a professional who works in this field having come from a sport coaching background in track & field where I did everything necessary to prepare the athlete for competition with strength training a small part of much bigger picture.

Here is an email I received this week from a college swim coach that is typical of what is going on. I receive at least one of these a week in the form of emails or phone calls from swim coaches, tennis coaches, track & field coaches.

“We have a strength and conditioning coach that does one program for all sports. I believe it is mainly designed for football as that is the team that he mainly works with. In my opinion, Swimmers and Divers are a different breed of athlete and although there might be similarities to what we are doing now, I think that we might be missing out on a more sport specific quality workout.  The other issue is that my athletes are not buying into the workout currently "designed" for them.”

The so-called professional organizations in my opinion have chosen to ignore this problem. What can we do? I propose that we have a meeting of the minds to put all the issues on the table and seek viable solutions. I would be willing to organize and host this. I have no vested interested as I am not certified by anyone or anybody in strength and conditioning area nor do I intent to found a rival organization or certification program. I also propose we eliminate the term “strength coach “and come up with a title/name that clearly defines what should be done. Lest we forget that words create images and images create action. We must take positive constructive action now for the welfare of the athletes. For more in-depth discussion  on this listen to tomorrows GAINcast, to down load and listen go to http://www.hmmrmedia.com/gaincast/

A Doping Primer

Anyone who knows me or has regularly read this blog or followed me on social media knows that I am vehemently anti-drug. So, it may seem strange to have a post on a primer for drug use and how to beat the system but I think this will give you context for looking at the issue. This is what I have seen up close and personal in my 48 years of coaching how athletes and coaches beat the system.

Read the following books (Be sure to read between the lines), they will give you deep insights in how to beat the system:

Wheelmen – Lance Armstrong, The Tour De France, And the Greatest Sports Conspiracy Ever by Reed Albergotti and Vanessa O’ Connell

The Secret Race – Inside the Hidden World Of The Tour De France by Tyler Hamilton and Daniel Coyle

Watch this movie to learn how to lie to the cameras and your accusers (Listen carefully to what is not said):

         The Armstrong Lie (https://youtu.be/0a4qRHY8dQQ)

Practical Tips:

Your national governing body for sure and preferably the international governing body should be complicit. They can protect you.

Have big time sponsor with deep pockets. It is even better if the sponsor is in bed with the national governing body and those in the international federation

Have a doctor and sport scientist that can help you with prescriptions and testing to beat the system – This is essential

Have remote training “altitude” training camps that allow for time to stall the testers or to evade them completely

Have no moral conscience or scruples of any kind, don’t forget it is just about winning, medals and above all money, big money

Using Olympic Style Weight Lifting – A perspective

Olympic lifting is a sport. That sport consists of lifting as much weight as possible in the clean and jerk and the snatch. Those lifts have a high technical demand, but the skill is a closed skill that occurs in one plane through a narrow range of movement. The Olympic lifting movements do produce tremendous power production because of the distance the weight must travel, the weight and the speed requirements. This power production is highly dependent on the technical proficiency of the individual lifter. Essentially, the training of the weight lifter consists of the actual Olympic lifts and some derivative and assistance exercises. There is no running, jumping or other demands on their system. The sole focus is on lifting as much weight as possible.

Olympic lifters traditionally have lifted several times a day. This trend began in the 1980s because of the influence of the Bulgarians who emerged as a dominant power in the 1970s. The Bulgarian weightlifters were reported to have had as many as six lifting sessions in a training day, repeated for up to five or six training days in a microcycle. Each session seldom ever exceeded sixty minutes. All sessions were at very high intensity. All these athletes did was lift, they were not lifting in preparation for a sport. Perhaps the most important underlying factor that enabled them to accomplish this severe training regimen was a program of systematic doping. We know that was a huge factor in the lifters ability to recover and handle the volumes of high intensity work necessary to make the type of strength gains these lifters were making. It also should be pointed out that on the international scene Olympic weightlifting is the “dirtiest” sport in terms of positive drug tests.

The reason for pointing all this out is not to be negative or denigrate the sport; rather it is to put the emphasis on Olympic lifting in perspective. Too many coaches blindly copy the methods of the Olympic lifters without taking these things into consideration. Even if you are an Olympic lifting coach the volumes and intensities reported from the former Eastern bloc countries are beyond anything a drug free athlete can possibly handle for any significant length of time.

Let’s take this a step further. It is very popular among the strength coaching community especially in American football to center their strength training program on Olympic lifting. Many of the football strength coaches continue to blindly copy the volumes and intensities of the Bulgarian and Soviet lifters without considering the previously mentioned facts. This volume and intensity is being applied in addition to the running, agility work, jumping and the sport specific training. It should be easy to see the problems that would arise.

Classical Olympic lifts are very technical in their demands. Typically, in an athletic development setting work the lifting sessions are sequenced after their other work. This is not optimum time to utilize lifts with a significant technical element and high neural demand, because fatigue will compromise technique.

The other factor that must be considered when extrapolating from the world of Olympic weightlifting is body proportions. Olympic lifters, in effect, are pre-selected by their body types. Tall athletes with long limbs are quickly selected out. Smaller athletes with limb lengths that afford a lever advantage succeed. Therefore, to apply Olympic lifting movements without taking into consideration body proportions can severely compromise the effectiveness of the methods. I have seen back injuries occur in tall basketball players and offensive linemen who were required to perform various Olympic lifting movements without modifying the movements for their body proportions.

Another argument given for the use of the Olympic lifting movements is that they help with jumping because in biomechanical analysis of Olympic lifting the pattern of force closely resembled the vertical jump. I may be missing something here, but then why not just jump with resistance. To learn and master the technical complexity of the Olympic lifting movements to improve jumping seems to be a bit of a stretch. In most situations when working with athletes there is not an infinite amount of time available for training. Therefore, I choose methods that will allow me to train the athlete to be better at their sport within the constraints of the available time.

After all this would I recommend using the Olympic lifting movements? Absolutely, I advocate their use across the spectrum of sports because of their potential for power development, but the clear distinction must be made that the movements must be adapted and modified to fit the athlete. It literally must fit the athlete. Body proportions must be carefully considered. Significant modification must be made for the tall athlete. It is important to point out that the Olympic lifting movements do not have to be done with a bar. I have found that Olympic movements with dumbbells to be particularly effective. The factor of body proportions is eliminated because the dumbbell will “fit the body.” The disadvantage of the dumbbell is that you will eventually be limited in the amount of weight that can be lifted so that if you are working with sports that require strength dominated power like football or the throws then it is necessary to use the bar to achieve heavier loading. Dumbbells also allow modification of the pulling movements to be done in diagonal and rotational patterns. The bar essentially locks you into the Sagittal plane. Another interesting modification of Olympic lifting movements is the use of sandbags. Sandbags not only allow you to work multiple planes, but they can be thrown which significantly raises power production.

From a technical perspective make sure that you as a coach know and understand the technique. Master the teaching progressions. Be sure to allow time in the training program for skill acquisition before adding significant loading. Also teach and preferably train the movements in a non-fatigued state. Adapt the method to the athlete, not the athlete to the method. Remember you are not training Olympic lifters; you are training athletes who use the Olympic lifts and derivatives to raise explosive power.

2017 Readiing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Track & Field Omnibook - A Great Resource

This book is truly a classic! It had and continues to have a huge influence on my coaching. Even though the Fourth edition was published in 1985, many of the concepts and principles are as relevant today as they were then. Even though this is a track & field oriented book it is a must read for all coaches who are interested in coaching the person in a systematic and holistic manner. It just underscores how Ken Doherty was an innovative thinker who was way ahead of his time.

If you are interested in looking deeper into his work I recommend his classic textbook Modern Track & Field which was a textbook for my Theory of Track & Field class in 1968. I also recommend Modern Training for Running if you work with middle distance or distance athletes in any sport.

Resources to Learn How to Get Better at Getting Better

I am convinced that going forward in sport the biggest gains and the so called marginal gains too will come from how we get better at getting better. How we can improve our teaching, how we make practice and training more meaningful and effective will be the biggest difference makers. I am going to make this a major focus for the rest of my career. In that spirit, I am sharing with you this list of resources. This is by no means exhaustive, it is just the books I have in my library that I have read. I am now in the process of re-reading some of these books and going through them all and reviewing the annotations and underlinings to put together an action plan of principles we can all use as coaches. It's going to take some time. I am interested in hearing from you about other resources and ideas in this area. We will all get better at getting better by sharing.

Aposhan, Susan. Natural Intelligence – Body-Mind Integration and Human Development. Williams & Wilkins. Baltimore .1999

Berthoz, Alain. The Brain’s Sense Of Movement. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press. 2000

Brown, Peter C., Roediger II, Henry L., Danile, Mark A. Make it Stick – The Science of Successful Learning. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Cambridge, MA 2014.

Butler, David S. The Sensitive Nervous System. Adelaide, Australia: Noigroup Publications. 2000

Carey, Benedict. How We Learn – The Surprising Truth About When, Where and Why It Happens. Random House. New York. 2014

Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. Flow – The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Harper Perennial. New York. 1990

Coker, Cheryl A. Motor Learning & Control for Practitioners (Second Edition). Holcomb Hathaway, Publishers, Scottsdale, AZ. 2009

Connor, Marcia L. Learn More Now – 10 Simple Steps to Learning Better, Smarter & Faster. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Hoboken, NJ. 2004

Coyle, Daniel. The Little Book of Talent. Bantam Book. New York. 2012

Coyle, Daniel. The Talent Code. Bantam Book. New York. 2009

Davids, Keith. Button, Chris. Bennett, Simon. Dynamics of Skill Acquisition – A Constraints-Led Approach. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics Publishing Company. 2008

Doherty, Ken. (1985) Track & Field Omnibook (Fourth Edition)

Duhigg, Charles. The Power of Habit – Why We Do What We Do In Life And Business. Random House. New York. 2012

Dweck, Carol. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. New York: Random House. 2006

Farr, Steven. Teaching As Leadership – The Highly Effective Teacher’s Guide to Closing the Achievement Gap. Jossey-Bass. San Francisco. 2010

Foley, John. Glad To Be Here Debrief – Activating High Performance for Teams. CenterPoint Publishing. 2015

Gawande, Atul. The Checklist Manifesto – How to Get Things Right.  Metropolitan Books. New York. 2009

Gazzaley, Adam and Rosen, Larry D. The Distracted Mind – Ancient Brains in a High-Tech World. The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. 2016

Gilbert, Wade. Coaching Better Every Season – A Year-Round System for Athlete Development and Program Success. Human Kinetics. Champaign, Il. 2017

Gray, Peter. Free to Learn – Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life. Basic Books. New York. 2013

Green, Elizabeth. Better Teacher – How Teaching Works. W.W. Norton & Company. New York. 2014

Goleman, Daniel. Focus – The Hidden Driver of Excellence. Harper Collins. 2013

Halvorson, Heidi Grant and Higgins, E. Tory. Focus – Use Different Ways of Seeing the World for Success and Influence. Hudson Street Press. New York. 2013

Hannaford, Carla. Smart Moves – Why Learning Is Not All In Your Head. Great Ocean Publishers. Arlington, Virginia 1995

Helfand, David J. A Survival Guide to The Information Age – Scientific Habits of the Mind. Columbia University Press, New York. 2016

Herman, Amy E. Visual Intelligence – Sharpen Your Perception, Change Your Life. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Boston & New York. 2016

Hurson, Tim. Think Better – An innovator’s Guide To Productive Thinking. McGraw Hill. New York. 2008

Jensen, Frances E. and Nutt, Amy Ellis. The Teenage Brain – A Neuroscientist’s Survival Guide to Raising Adolescents and Young Adults. Harper Collins. New York, 2015

Johnson, Steven. Mind Wide Open – Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life. Scribner, New York. 2004

Kahneman, Daniel. Thinking Fast and Slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. New York. 2011

Kaufman, Scott Barry – Editor. The Complexity of Greatness – Beyond Talent & Practice. Oxford University Press. New York. 2013

Kaufman, Scott Barry. Ungifted: Intelligence Redefined. Basic Books. New York. 2013

Kelly, Tom. The Art of Innovation. New York: Doubleday. 2001

Knapp, Barbara. Skill In Sport. Routledge & K. Paul, 1963

Lakoff, George. And Johnson, Mark. Metaphors We Live By. University of Chicago Press. Chicago and London. 1980

Lemov, Doug., Woolway, Erica and Yezi, Katie. Practice perfect – 42 Rules for Getting Better at Getting Better. Jossey-Bass. San Francisco. 2012

Leonard, Charles T. The Neuroscience of Human Movement. Mosby. St. Louis. 1998

Leonard, George. Mastery – The Keys to Success and Long-term Fulfillment. New York: Penguin Books USA.1992

Leonard, George. The Way of Aikido: Life Lessons from an American Sensei. New York: Penguin Books USA. 2000

Levitin, Daniel J. The Organized Mind – Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload. Dutton, New York. 2014

Levitin, Daniel J. A Field Guide to Lies – Critical Thinking in the Information Age. Dutton. New York. 2016

Longstaff, A. Instant Notes – Neuroscience. BIOS Scientific Publishers, Taylor & Francis Group. London and New York, 2000

Leslie, Ian. Curious – The Desire To Know and Why Your Future Depends On It. Basic Books. New York. 2014

Medina, John. Brain Rules – 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home and School. Pear Press. Seattle. 2008

Magill, Richard A. Motor Learning and Control – Concepts and Application. Ninth Edition. New York: McGraw Hill. 2007

Meadows, Donella H. and Wright, Wright – Editor. Thinking in Systems – A Primer. Chelsea Green Publishing. White River Junction. Vermont. 2008

Michalko, Michael. Thinkertoys (Second Edition). Ten Speed Press. Berkeley. 2006

Newport, Cal. Deep Work – Rules For Focused Success In A Distracted World. Grand Central Publishing. New York and Boston. 2016

Nater, Swen and Gallimore, Ronald. You Haven’t Taught Until They Have Learned – John Wooden’s Teaching Principles and Practices. Fitness Information Technology. Morgantown, WV 2006

Nidefer, Bob. The Inner Athlete – Mind Plus Muscle For Winning. Thomas Y. Crowell Company. New York. 1976

Peters, Steve. The Chimp Paradox – The Mind Management Programme for Confidence, Success and Happiness. Vermillion, London. 2011

Pink, Daniel H. A Whole New Mind – Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age. New York: Riverhead Books. 2005

Pink, Daniel H. Drive – The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. New York: Riverhead Books. 2009

Ramachandran, V.S. and Blakeslee. Phantoms In The Brain – Probing The Mysteries Of The Human Mind. Quill. New York. 1998

Ratey, John J. and Hagerman, Eric. Spark – The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain. Little, Brown and Company, NY, London, Boston. 2008

Renshaw, Ian, Davids, Keith and Savelsbergh, Geert J.P. Editors. Motor Learning in Practice – A Constraints led approach.  London, England: Routledge Taylor & Francis group.  2010

Restak, Richard. Mozarts Brain and the Fighter Pilot – Unleashing Your Brain’s Potential. Three Rivers Press. New York. 2001

Siegel, Daniel J. The Mindful Brain – Reflection and Attunement in the Cultivation of Well-Being. W.W. Norton & Company. New York. 2007

Stafford, Tom and Webb, Matt. Mind Hacks – Tips & Tools for Using Your Brain. O’Reilly. Sebastopol, CA 2005

Tutko, Tom and Ogilvie, Bruce. Problem Athletes and How to Handle Them. London. Pelham Books.1966 

Vanek, Miroslav and Cratty, Bryant J. Psychology and the Superior Athlete.  Toronto, Ontario: Collier-Macmillan Canada, Ltd., 1970

Vickers, Joan N. Instructional design For Teaching Physical Activities – A Knowledge Structures Approach. Human Kinetics. Champaign, Il. 1990

Vickers, Joan N. Perception, Cognition, And Decision Training – The Quiet Eye in Action. Human Kinetics. Champaign, Il. 2007

Whiting, H.T.A. Acquiring Ball Skill – A Psychological Interpretation. Philadelphia: Lea & Febiger. 1969

Williams, Mark A. and Hodges, Nicola J. Skill Acquisition In Sport – Research, Theory And Practice. Routledge. London and New York. 2004

Wrisberg, Craig A. Sport Skill Instruction for Coaches. Human Kinetics. Champaign, Il. 2007

Wulf, Gabriele. Attention and Motor Skill Learning. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics Publishing Company. 2007