Functional Path Training

The Good Old Days – Looking Back to Learn & Move Ahead

As I reflect over the past 49 years of coaches there were some things that were cornerstones of a productive system sport that do not exist today. I hope you all realize that I am not living in the past, but we MUST learn from the past, not repeat it.  Here are some areas that I think we could certainly look at and learn from:

Sport was centered in the schools – Therefore teachers were the coaches. Whether they were knowledgeable in the particular sport they had a foundation in pedagogy. Today anyone can coach.

Elementary schools had after school sports – Kids stayed at their neighborhood schools and played. Sometimes it was organized and other times it was supervised. Today you pass an elementary school after school is out and it is a ghost town.

Liability was not an issue – Climbing Ropes, Tramps, Peg Boards were everywhere. All of this has been taken away for “safety” and liability reasons. We are not challenging the kids.

Coaches were the experts – The high school coach was the expert in his or her sport, no special QB schools, you got coaches by your high school coach. Can this be a shortcoming if the coach is not knowledgeable, absolutely, but somehow, we overcame this.

Daily Physical Education was mandatory K through 12 – Need I say more. These PE teachers were also the coaches. They knew how to teach skill and organize, because they did it all day!

Off season Football was track – if you were a football player and did not play baseball you were out for track. You became a better athlete and you learned how to compete.

You played multiple sports – This was the rule not the exception. Seasons were defined so it was easy to do.

No Travel Teams & All Star Select Teams – This is killing school sports

A few ideas from an “OLD” coach; interested in your comments on how we could get some of this back if you think it is important.

Muscle Firing – Where’s the Switch?

"A lot of things weren't firing -- his glutes, his hips, thighs," (Training Guru to the star players – name deleted to protect the guilty) told the newspaper. "I wouldn't say his condition was the most severe, I wouldn't say it was the best. ... But if I were to classify it on a scale of one to 10 with 10 being the most extreme, I'd say he was definitely in the seven, eight category." This is definitely one of my pet peeves. If those muscles were not firing how did this player walk? Let’s get logical rather scientific. If there is an injury the body is very intelligent much smarter than the coaches and therapists who try to intervene by turning muscles on or off. The body will guard and call in substitute, as in most teams the substitutes are not as good as the starters, what we need to need to do is figure how to get the first string back into the game and playing as a team. We don’t do that lying on a training table trying to get individual muscles to fire and then hope we can get them back into sequence. We need to figure out what muscle synergies we can use to coordinate all those muscles to work together as a team. Otherwise it would be so simple, just find the master switch, program the body, turn it on and just like flipping a light switch beautiful motion. Hate to break to the gurus, but there is no switch. We need to understand planes of motion and muscle actions and be able to figure out how to manipulate those variables along with the ground to get the first team players back on the floor playing together. Just remember if they ain’t firing you ain’t moving. It is not about firing it is about coordination and teamwork. Join the team and skip down the functional path to movement bliss. (This is a post I wrote over ten years ago, if anything this thinking is more pervasive now than it was then.)

Formulating Effective Movement Problems

A big part of effective coaching is formulating appropriate movement problems for you athletes to solve. Here are three things I consider:

• Learn when to use explicit learning or implicit learning methods – learning to balance the two is a skill.
• Learn to use constraints that will challenge the athlete and lead them to the solution
• Develop task appropriate cues – Use action words and clear metaphors

Movement problems for an elite athlete will look and feel different than those for a beginner. Ultimately the goal at any level is to reinforce the basics and instill competence and confidence.

Questions & Answers

I don’t know about you, but today I have many more questions than answers. I know when I started in my career 49 years ago I had an answer for every question. The I progressed to the point where I did not have very many questions, but I had all the answers, in fact I was pretty sure that I knew all that I needed to know and I was not shy about telling anyone who would listen. Quickly reality set in – the more I thought I knew the less I knew. This is a lesson that I wished I had learned from the start. The pathway would have been smoother and progress more consistent.

Training Mistakes

The following is a list of some mistakes that I have made in coaching and teaching. If you learn from your mistakes I should be a genius, but unfortunately some of the lessons were only learned after I repeated of these mistakes several times. I hope that by sharing these with you, it will help you to avoid making the same mistakes I have made.

It does not have to be hard to be good - Each workout is part of a larger picture. If you put their backs to the wall in each training session you will quickly lose sight of the picture. Everything must be in context. Remember that different physical qualities adapt at different rates, so they need to be stressed differently.

Too much, too soon - You can’t hurry the adaptive process. The younger athlete can handle a lot both in terms of volume and intensity, but once again if you lose sight of the big picture it is important to remember that not following proper progression and individualizing can stifle long term development.

Overloading the spine – Too often and too young - I think this is obvious, so I don’t know why it took me so long to figure it out. Even with the mature athlete the spine just cannot take the heavy repetitive loading that is imposed on it by too much heavy back squatting and dead lifting.

Too many exercises or drills in a training session - This just leads to confusion from an administrative perspective and poor adaptive response on the part of the athlete. This results in a loss of focus. They get tired, but they do not get better.

Repetitious Exercises - Usually overloads one area or one component, the end result is a poor training response. I always say hunt with a rifle, not a shotgun.

Training to failure - This leads to failure. Each workout becomes an end unto itself and the athlete starts holding back anticipating the failure.

Over reliance on one exercise or training method - This created on trick ponies. You are what you train to be.

Reliance on a machine in training or a modality in rehab - You adapt to that environment, but not the environment you need to perform in.

Quick fixes - There are none! I have learned that it is an easy come, easy go proposition.

Crash programs - Crash programs crash, you can’t hurry the process. Adaptation takes time and the time frames for the various components are quite predictable.

Advice to Young Coaches & Some Old Coaches Who Need to be Reminded

Here is some advice for young coaches from my experiences. I originally posted this in 2012 but it demands to be reposted. This advice reflects lessons that I learned, no need to make the same the same mistakes I made.

Be prepared to pay your dues, you don’t enlist the army as a general.

Practice humility – No matter what your athletic or academic accomplishments you are going to have to prove yourself as a coach. Check you ego at the door.

Keep Learning – Keep a notebook of your ideas and observations. Write in it as often as possible. It will be an invaluable reference as you progress through your career. I have filled Moleskin notebooks in my 49th year of coaching.

Listen and watch - You have two eyes, two ears and one mouth for a reason.

Dress Professionally – That should not need explanation.

Be fit, look the part.

Learn the culture of the sport(s) you are working with ASAP. Do your homework.

Be the first to arrive and the last to learn – Earn your stripes.

Never let anyone outwork you. Forget what you are being paid get the job done.

Do the grunt work, in fact volunteer for it.

If you are working with athletes that don’t speak English learn the language, it will open doors for you.

File the theoretical peer reviewed stuff you learned in class. You are in the real world now, on the job it is about producing results, make the athletes better.

Maintain professional distance from your athletes you are not their friend you are their coach.

Rome wasn’t built in a day learn patience it takes time.

Coaching is a profession - Never lose sight of that.

The head coach is the boss. Be loyal and respectful.

Never forget coaching is not about sets and reps or X’s and O’s it is about people.

If you want respect then show respect.

When it is all said and done be sure that you have had as many experiences as possible not one experience many times.

 

All Periodization is Undulating

Why does periodization or as I prefer to call it Planned Performance Training (PPT) have to be either linear or undulating? Frankly in my application of the principles of planned performance training for 49 years I have observed that adaptation is always undulating. The body does nothing in a linear manner, so therefore all periodization is undulating. I think this distinction is just another exercise in intellectual gymnastics. You may write a linear program, but the response will not be linear. I have analyzed my training results over my coaching career; I have NEVER seen a linear adaptation! Planning is planning; we must remember that it is always about the individual and their adaptive response. Variability and contingency must be built into the plan. Plan, execute the plan, evaluate the plan, revise the plan and execute the revised plan.

Dark Holes

Throughout my career I have observed athletes disappear into dark holes never to reappear or if they did they were a shadow of their former selves. What is an athletic dark hole? It is biased one sided training that emphasizes development of one physical quality to the exclusion of all others. The most frequently occurring dark holes are strength training to the exclusion of everything else or an emphasis on aerobic work to build a base that takes away all explosiveness. Neither is bad unto themselves but without context they possess the potential to kill an athlete. All components of training must be trained during all phases of the training year in the context of the objectives of that phase and the needs of the individual athlete.

Strength Training

Strength Training is coordination training with appropriate resistance to handle your bodyweight, project an implement, move or resist movement of another body, resist gravity and optimize ground reaction forces. Let’s look at the elements of the definition in detail:

Coordination training is that aspect of strength training that Incorporates both intramuscular and intermuscular coordination. The key to efficient movement and effective force application ultimately is intermuscular coordination, which is training muscles synergies to apply force at the correct time, in the correct plane and the correct direction.

Appropriate resistance is determined for each of the following demands:

Handle bodyweight – If the sport demands handling bodyweight then the emphasis is on relative strength working in various percentages of bodyweight resistances. 

Project an implement – The weight of the implement will determine the necessary resistance to develop strength to move that implement at the required speed.

Move or resist movement of another body – This will determine the type of resistance and duration and direction of force application.

Resist gravity – Sports that demand work against gravity necessitate more eccentric and isometric emphasis to express the necessary force.

Optimize ground reaction forces – Sports with high ground reaction forces demands realistic reactive strength

This definition directs the training and incorporates a spectrum of training methods to address the varying strength/power demands of different sports. Remember the goal is develop strength that the athlete can use. Some is measurable and some is not.

Functional Training

Functional training is a label for a concept. As with any label it is subject to various interpretations. I originally conceived it as multi lateral training integrating various training modalities (medicine ball, stretch cord, weight training, dumbbells, body weight etc.) to produce significant adaptation in specific performance parameters. It trains all systems of the body while recognizing and respecting the wisdom of the body. The end result is a highly adaptable athlete who is able to perform without limitations in the competitive environment. Contrast this to biased one- sided training that results in adapted athletes who are inconsistent in performance and prone to injury.