Functional Path Training

Good Enough?

What are you doing to get better? Are you the best you can be at what you do? How do you know how good you are – How do you measure your performance?  What exactly do you do? Are you doing what you do because everyone is doing it or are your forging your own path? Are you a coach or a supervisor? Are you a good coach when you have talent and average coach when you don’t or are you the same coach regardless of talent level of your athletes? Do you know what you know? Conversely do you know what you don’t know? How good you are is up to you – now do something about it!

Learning to Move

If you want to learn how to move spend some time watching kids play. I mean free non-directed play with no adult supervision or guidance. There are no limits, few inhibitions and no constraints. There is an unbelievable flow to what they do. We can learn from this. The more we encourage our athletes to be kids again the better movers they will be. Instead we start “coaching” them at young ages through explicit learning drills and skill “progressions” that turn them into robots. We tell them what they can’t do and because we are adults they believe us. As coaches and adults, we need to take a giant step back and reassess how we are doing what we are doing with young developing athletes. Let them be more childlike. Turn them free! Let them explore all dimensions of movement, give them a task and let them find the movement solution. It may not look like we want it to look, but then again how should some of this look anyway? We need to see movement through a child’s eyes, it will open up a whole new vista in your coaching.

Anybody Find the Compass?

“Nevertheless, the field of Strength & conditioning still remains susceptible to fads, misconceptions and zealous philosophies that have little to do with sound scientific based knowledge and careful exercise prescription for enhanced sport performance for the athlete.” (Kraemer, William J. and Hakkinen, Keijo. Editors. (2002) Strength Training for Sport. London, England: Blackwell Science, Ltd. Page 1) This was written seventeen years ago, it is just as applicable today as it was then. Somewhere along the way someone lost the compass and is navigating with an outdated map. Has anything changed? It makes me wonder where the field (I hesitate to call it a profession) is going? Are we going the way of the dinosaur and working our way to extinction because it takes too long for the message to get from the small brain to the rest of the body? Or are we like a bunch of lemmings following the leader off the cliff? We all need to wake up and take a close look at what we are doing. We must get beyond the weight room and become professionals that are capable of serving all sports in a manner that that is applicable to each specific sport. There is a plethora of certifications, but who is producing real coaches? Coaches who can adapt, who can think and design and implement sensible appropriate training programs that address all elements of physical preparation. As a field in order to become a profession we need to orient the compass to true north, get an updated map that reflects current reality in sport and gets on a path to relevance or we will be rendered obsolete

Coaching is Teaching

How do you teach? How you teach determines your effectiveness as a coach. It was drilled into me when I was in college and student coaching that coaching was teaching. Fortunately, early in my career I was mentored by and coached with some great teacher /coaches. As I reflect on that I realize how fortunate I was to have those influences. When I look at young coaches today I don’t see the same emphasis on teaching. I see technical knowledge, which is wonderful, but can you impart that to the athlete? As coaches our classrooms and laboratories are the track, fields, courts or the pool. Everything we do as coaches is based on our ability to teach. Make you goal to be a better teacher and you will be a significantly better coach.

The Three L's - Laps, Lines & Lectures

 “Let’s go - take two laps and then we will get started with training.” “If you miss this shot then you will have to run.” Think about it, you see this all the time at all levels of sport, talk about a practice killer! Practice time is precious; it is a daily opportunity to improve skill, tactics and sport specific fitness, and wasting time slogging laps to “warm-up” or extra sprints for punishment does not optimize the opportunity to improve. It does nothing to make the athlete better and a lot to make them tired and diminish motivation. Be creative how you start practice because what you do to start practice sets the tempo for the practice. Start with a brief explanation of the days practice and then do something that is meaningful and mindful to get them into the practice. The same with mindless jogging for a cooldown, do something that will set-up tomorrows training session. Make what you do meaningful and motivational; every step of practice should be directed to making the athlete better. Laps waste time and do not make the athlete better.

Lines are a killer. I was watching a soccer practice recently where 18 players were doing a shooting drill; there were two lines of nine with two balls. Do the math how many times did each player get to practice a shot in a five-minute period? Answer: not enough to be meaningful, not to mention the lack of instruction. Let’s be clear lines are important for organization and efficiency but learn to use lines to be effective. If the drill demands speed and high-quality work then make it a line of five – One athlete executing the drill, the second person in line coaching the drill, third person rehearsing, fourth person observing and fifth person recovering. Everyone should be actively involved in the drill to optimize practice time. If the objective of the drill is game fitness or speed endurance oriented then divide the group into lines of three with one athlete executing the drill, one coaching and one recovering. I stress the important of peer coaching to take advantage of the Mirror Neuron Phenomenon. The brain of the athlete coaching the drill perceives that that are doing the drill, hence it is an opportunity to get better faster – in essence the athlete coaching gets another quality repetition. This also insures that everyone is fully engaged in the practice. Lines can be effective, but it demands thorough practice planning to make the lines or formations fit the objectives of the practice.

Starting practice with a long lecture is a surefire way to ruin the training session. Coaches love to talk, but the start of practice is not the time and place. Recognize that the athletes are there to train, not to listen to a lecture. My rule of thumb is three minutes of talking maximum that consists of very specific instructions pertaining to the training session. We know how long we can hold someone’s attention - not long - so use that knowledge. Make it short, sharp filled with action words that are directed to the desired actions during the training session. It should be information rich and positive. If you don’t know what to say, then don’t say anything. Think of it this way: Know your point, make your point, stay on point and summarize with a clear call to action based on the points of emphasis. Coaches like to talk, that does mean you should. Some of the best advice I got early in my career was to remember that we have two eyes, two ears and one mouth for a reason. Watch and listen more and talk less.

No Secrets

Always good for a laugh when I see a new article or a post on the unveiling of the latest secret training method. I will let you in on a little secret there are no secrets! There are no shortcuts to the podium. You can keep looking if you want but you are wasting your time. Know the basics, master the basics repeat them until they are flawless. Individualize the training and adapt the technique so it fits the athlete; don’t try to fit the athlete to the event. Practice with purpose and direction and realize that it will take time. A little talent helps, but a little talent can go a long way if it is maximized. There are no secrets!

Foundational Beliefs – Guiding Lights

The following are foundational beliefs that make up the pillars of my coaching philosophy. I early in my career as a coach I learned that philosophy is the guiding light, the beacon that guides you through the good times and the bad. These may be of assistance to you in defining how and what you do as a coach:

Coach & Teach the Way You Would Want to Be Coached & Taught

It Is Always About the Athlete

Focus on the Process - The Pursuit of Excellence Has Its Own Rewards

Embrace and Lead Change

Relentlessly Pursue Personal & Professional Growth and Learning

Use All Dimensions of Communication

Embrace the Difference – Nobody Is the Same

Always Ask Why?

Never Take No for Answer

Less Is More - Simplicity Yields Complexity

Be Passionate and Enthusiastic

Be Humble

Testing =Training & Training = Testing

Testing and training go hand and glove. Evaluation through testing is an ongoing process that will determine the direction and content of training. Therefore it is important to build testing into the training plan. The traditional approach has been to schedule specific days for testing, usually at the beginning or the end of a yearly training cycle. This testing usually consists of criteria tests that profile the athlete with respect to the biomotor capacities in a particular sport. They are usually scheduled two times during a yearly training cycle. I have grown increasingly uncomfortable with this approach. Using testing only two times in a yearly cycle gave me good baseline information, but it did not give me information on the ongoing progress of training that I needed to make the day to day and week to week adjustments in the training to obtain optimum adaptive response.

There is a necessity to incorporate testing into the actual training process on a day-to-day basis. The solution is that testing equals training and training equals testing. At various points in each training session there are distinct windows of opportunity to get feedback as to the effect of training. It is imperative in those periods to look for and utilize the feedback. Build testing in the training. We must keep in mind that training is cumulative so it is important to keep the big picture in mind. Ongoing evaluation enables us to keep everything in proportion and perspective. We need to train all the qualities throughout the training year; therefore we must monitor the progress.

The Bowerman Influence – 50 Years Later

Bill Bowerman had a huge influence on my decision to be a track coach. In the winter of 1968; my senior year in college at Fresno State Bowerman came to speak as the featured speaker at the first ever Fresno State Track & Field Clinic, he was brought to Fresno by Red Estes, assistant track coach at Fresno State (later to be head coach) who had competed at the University of Oregon under Bowerman. What can I say; Bowerman was Bowerman, passionate, direct to the point, outspoken and strong in his beliefs. He was obviously very knowledgeable in all disciples of Track & Field even though he was known as a distance coach. After the first night of the clinic as I was walking back to my apartment through the cold wet San Joaquin valley fog I made up my mind to be a track coach. I wanted to be like Bowerman, I was so impressed with his knowledge and passion I could think of no other way to go. Over the next few years I read everything about him and his program, heard him speak numerous times, but that presentation that first night of the clinic still sticks with me. He and my father had a huge influence on my thinking that there are no shades of gray; it is right or wrong, no argument. Not that I have ever have achieved what Bowerman did in his career but that has stuck with me.

These quotes capture a little of Bowerman. The first quote is not directly from Bowerman but you can clearly see his influence. It is from Oregana, 1962 University of Oregon Yearbook “World record shattering potential is not easy to come by, and even after it is found it has to be developed to realize its maximum potential. This potential is diverse in its many forms and a knowledge of the components that make up this potential is essential to successfully exploit it.”

"Victory is in having done your best. If you've done your best, you've won."

“It is quite simple to observe that great middle distances runners have usually been medium to just above average in height, slightly below average in weight, slight of build, with well-defined musculature. They also usually have a somewhat lower pulse rate than average. But to select runners purely on the basis of these characteristics would probably result in little more success than choosing them by the color of their eyes and hair.”

“Champions and potential champions must have an abundance of energy and tenacity. They must be willing to stick to workout procedures that would seem grueling to the average person, to perform them in fair weather and foul. Furthermore, they are eager, not only to defeat opposition, but to push themselves to full capacity on the competitive field.”

“My method of devising a training schedule (specific assignments for workouts) is not very different from a physician's method of arriving at a prescription for a patient. The first step is diagnosis, becoming acquainted with the patients or athlete's abilities and disabilities. The second step is an assessment of what improvement can reasonably be expected and what specific recommendations are needed. The final step is a period of trial and observation to adjust the "dosage" or training schedule to optimum levels for the safest and most rapid improvement of condition.”

If you want to learn more about Bowerman read Kenny Moore’s fine book – Bowerman and The Men of Oregon. What sport needs today is more Bill Bowerman’s who have the passion, courage and knowledge to speak their mind and stand up against drugs and cheating.

My Coaching Journey Continues

January 2018 marks the beginning on my 49^th year of coaching. It has been an adventure every step of the way – a journey of continual learning and discovery that started with Santa Barbara High School Track in 1969.

Coaching is craft that takes time to learn; you can never stop learning if you want to be good at your craft. You cannot learn to coach in a book, on the Internet or sitting in a lecture hall. You must coach to learn to coach. You must get your hands dirty, do the grunt work, make some mistakes, fail forward & keep learning. For me it has been a constant balancing act with staying current with the latest methods and research and doing what I know has worked. You must constantly iterate and fine tune to stay ahead of the game and do justice to your athletes.

Much has changed in 49 years, but the fundamentals have not changed. I learned the hard way not to stray far from the basics. Look for simple solutions to complex problems. More than ever I am a coach of people who play sports. God willing, I am looking forward to many more years. There is so much more to learn and share in my evolving role of a mentor coach. Thanks to all the athletes and coaches I have been fortunate to work with - they were my teachers. I only hope that I was to able to give them as much as they gave to me.