Functional Path Training

S&C = Athlete Day Care

The sport coach sends the athletes to do S&C in the weight room without any idea of what they will do. There is little or no accountability of the S&C for the athlete’s performance or the lack thereof. I compare it to taking you preschooler to daycare, they get tired, you get a break for a short time, and they take better naps. You need to expect and demand more than daycare if you are a sport coach.

The Giving Tree

Lately I have many discussions with friends and colleagues about achieving working and life balance. The discussions reminded of a book one of my athletes gave me almost forty years ago – The Giving Tree. I suggest all you coaches and athletes read it and meditate on it. How much can you give? 49 years into this coaching journey I am still try to achieve some kind of balance. It seems the nature of coaching is to give more without consideration for yourself. I hope I have a few more years to figure this out. You young coaches figure it out as early as you can and you will have a long and happy life reflected in your coaching.

Cross Training

Frankly I have never been a fan of the term cross training or the concept. I have seen it used too often as just another way to get tired. By definition Cross Training “… is when an athlete undertakes training in a discipline other than their main sport for the sole purpose of enhancing performance in their primary event.” (Hawley & Burke P. 31) It has been primarily used as a method for retaining training adaptations. What we are really talking about here is transfer of training effect.

It has been my experience that those who utilize cross training the most are those who already have a tendency to chronically overwork and are looking for another way to punish themselves. I feel that this is another training myth that detracts from sound training. It certainly has very little foundation is sports science research. For a runner to get in the pool for anything more than a recovery session is time ill spent. The same is true for biking, that time would be better spent strength training or working on flexibility, both areas that tend to be ignored. Most of the time they are ignored because the runner feels they do not have enough time to fit it in. Yet those same runners can find the time to swim for thirty minutes or bike for an hour. It is all a matter of priorities. Cross training may be OK for the recreational athlete seeking to relive the boredom of training, but for the high-level athlete it is virtually useless. “Specific exercise elicits specific adaptations, creating specific training effects.” (McArdle, Katch & Katch P.394). Less we forget, you are what you train to be.

2018 Current Readings

So far in 2018 I have read 39 books. Here are the books that particularly stood out:

Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker

When – The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing by Daniel Pink

The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle

A Bright Shining Lie – John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam

By Neil Sheehan

Endure – Mind, Body and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance by Alex Hutchinson

The Geography of Thought by Richard Nisbett

Directorate S – The CIA and Americas Secret Wars in Afghanistan & Pakistan by Steve Coll

The Away Game – The Epic Search for Soccer’s Next Superstars by Sebastian Abbot

The Dawn Watch – Joseph Conrad in a Global World by Maya Jasanoff

The Last Man Who Knew Everything – The Life and Times of Enrico Fermi, Father of the Nuclear Age By David N. Schwartz

Fascism – A Warning by Madeline Albright (I highly recommend this book as particularly relevant given the state of the world today.)

Why, Why Not?

Why does the Newtonian, mechanistic reductionist approach that focuses on minutiae and the parts persist? Why not a quantum approach that focuses on relationships and connections, flow and rhythm. The former is comfortable because it allows people cleaner definitions and seemingly straightforward solutions, in some ways it simplistic because all you have to do in that approach is be a technician. If you understand how all the muscles work, what inhibits, what lengthens, what you need to activate and then what you need to integrate it all fits into a neat clean little box. Just follow the algorithm and push a few buttons and everything is fixed. Unfortunately, or fortunately it is not that easy. The body is a self-organizing chaotic system that is highly adaptable. It responds both negatively and positively to use and disuse. It is definitely not a machine. As coaches, trainers, therapists and doctors we must recognize the wisdom of the body and train or treat accordingly. The best way to understand and assess movement is to get the body moving. Closely observe and feel how things connect and how they disconnect. Explore the dimensions that the wisdom of the body offers. As coaches we must prepare the body for the demands of the sport. We do that by stressing the body up to and beyond its limits at times. If we do that in a systematic and sensible manner the body will adapt and be able to thrive in the competitive environment.

We do that!

Great if you do that then why do you have hamstring injuries and ACL tears. Why do your teams run out of gas in the fourth quarter or last part of the season? It’s not the exercise. It’s how you are coaching the exercises that make the exercises meaningful for the athlete. Just doing it is not good enough. It must be done better with intention, direction and purpose.

Is your work working?

Is your work working? How do you know? Look closely at what you are doing? Look even more closely at what you are not doing? Eliminate the fluff, the stuff that makes you tired but does not make you better. Set your priorities based on the need to do, the areas that will provide results. Follow the words of Francis of Assisi “Start by doing what is necessary; then do what is possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”

Dinosaur or Cockroach – Adapted or Adaptable?

Do not look for adversity, look for opportunity. Ask yourself what I can do each day to make the athletes that I work with better. Carefully study the movements of the sports – understand the forces and how they are produced and reduced and train accordingly. Get away from artificial limiting beliefs about what the body cannot do – focus on the infinite possibilities that the body presents to solve movement problems. Train movements to enhance coordination and efficiency of movement. The body is completely adaptable. It has an amazing ability to compensate and solve movement problems. Yes, I said compensate, great athletes are great compensators and it is OK!

Artificial sterile environments or strict “correct” movements do not expand the body’s ability to adapt to the demands of the sport. Sterile and artificial training environments and scenarios result in adapted bodies that cannot change and adjust to the random and chaotic demands of the sport. Open challenging movement enriched environments create adaptable athletes who are able to adjust and modify movements on demand. These adaptable athletes, given a level of talent, are high performers and stay injury free.

Which would you prefer if you were to choose an athlete for competition? Do you want a dinosaur type who is completely adapted and on their way to extinction or a cockroach type athlete who is thriving and highly adaptable? I know who I want – I want the cockroach who can adapt to any environment or under any circumstances. Ask yourself – Are you training your athletes to be dinosaurs or cockroaches? I want adaptable athletes who can solve any movement problem presented to them?

Twenty-Four Hour Athlete

I will hold to my belief that the concept of the 24-Hour Athlete is a valid concept that we should not comprise on. Conceptually and in reality, we need to get our athletes to lead lives that are conducive to athletic excellence. You can’t be excellent two hours during training, or just twelve hours during the day and do things that are counterproductive to excellence the rest of the time. We must raise the bar, not lower it. I agree that the young athlete of today has more going on in their life – so what. They need to be taught to focus and commit. They expect the same rewards, don’t they? We as coaches must set the example and get athletes to commit to an approach to excellence that involves all hours of the day. I know I am getting old and these ideas seem old fashioned, but I know they work; I have lived it as an athlete and a coach. When I first started coaching I was training for the decathlon, coaching track at two schools, also coached basketball that year, taught a full teaching load, was married and had a bit of life. We must teach the young coaches and athletes that it takes total commitment; excellence is not a passing fancy. You must strive to win each workout before you can ever bear the fruits of victory. If we give into this generation then it will only get worse going forward. Is it work, you bet it is. Does it take energy, it sure does, but we must do it.

Some Thoughts to Stimulate Thought

Respect is earned not bought

Knowledge and wisdom eventually win out over hype and promotion

Coaching is special because of the impact you can have lives and the daily lesson you learn

I coached 23 years before I produced my first video – it took me that long to learn something that I could share

I am an idealist. I dream of the way things should be and try to make it happen.

Knowledge without passion is wasted; people do their best when they are passionlessly engaged

There is no set formula for training; there are principles that are highly adaptive and adaptable

Understanding context is essential

There are few new ideas, they are just old ideas repackaged

Specialize in being a generalist

Research and science are wonderful, but they must be tempered with practice and common sense

Coaching is talking, listening, seeing, and doing. It is totally multidimensional. It is not about me, it is about we and us.

Friendship is special, cherish your friends