Functional Path Training

Taking A Break

I am going to take a break from writing the blog until August 15. I just need a little time to recharge the creative batteries and work on a couple of major projects. I have an ambitious, some say daunting and my wife says overwhelming schedule over the next several months, not that the last two months have been a walk in the park. I hope there will be opportunities to catch up with some of you during my travels.

Here is my schedule:

July 24 to 28 Working with Trinidad and Tobago Cricket in Trinidad

August 13 – Teaching Rebuilding the Athlete – Return to Play Strategies seminar at Rebound Sport Performance in Topeka, Kansas. If you are interested contact Mike Flynn at 785.271.5533 or [email protected]

August 24 to August 27 I will be in Carmel Indiana with Carmel swim Club

August 28 I will be in Long Beach California presenting at the Perform Better Summit on Teaching Speed – Theory and Practice.

September 24 and 25 I will be in Seattle Washington teaching the Rebuilding the Athlete – Return to Play Strategies seminar, a two day version for Integrated rehab. Contact Jill Glaser for information [email protected]

September 26 & 27 in California visiting friends and family

September 28 to October 17 I will be in Australia. I will start my trip in Canberra at the Australian Track & Filed Coaches Annual convention and then some time in Canberra for professional development at AIS. The rest of my schedule is not quite finalized but it looks like I am going to get to Western Australia for the first time and to also to the state of Victoria for the first time.

October 28 to October 30 off to Glasgow Scotland to speak at the International Festival of Athletics Coaching (IFAC)

October 23 to 26 off to London for the UKSEM Conference to attend and speak.

As you can see I will max the frequent flyer miles and I am sure there will be a couple of more trips to Trinidad squeezed in as well.

 

 

 

 

A Week or Two Off

Will not be posting for the next week or two. I need some time to digest and assimilate everything I have seen and learned over the last six weeks. Right my little brain is full, no bytes free. Will tweet occasionally.

Five Years Later on the Functional Path

It hardly seems like five years since I started writing this blog. Yesterday was the fifth anniversary, it was one of the few days I was actually too busy to post. Something had to give while cramming a five-day work week into two days after being out of the country for eight days. Just like any journey along the functional path this blog has been a learning experience. At times it has been challenging. Challenging not to write more or say more, but to write less and say less. There is so much distortion and pollution of ideas about training that at times I just shake my head. (You should see the posts I have not posted) This is not imply that I have all the answers, but I have seen and experienced many things, I have tried and rejected many methods and refined what works for my system with my athletes. I have made numerous mistakes and hopefully learned from them. One of the goals’ of this blog is to share those mistakes so you don’t have to make the same mistakes. I admit I live in a small world; it is an old fashioned world were there is no bullshit, no hype, marketing, where results count and everyone shares and learns together. It is a world of ideas that get turned into action, a world of rapid prototyping. My world is filled with constant wonder and awe about what the human body can achieve. In my world I have learned that coaching is special, it is not something you do, it is something you are.

 

God willing I plan to write this blog for as long as I am able. Going forward the continuing challenge is to define the field of athletic development unpolluted by personal training and the fitness ”industry.” I hope you will continue to join me and help in this endeavor. You ideas, thoughts and yes your criticisms are valued. I am currently in various stages of planning, development and writing of four books. This blog is a daily jump-start in the writing and research process. I also plan to have a regular feature on “Game Breakers.” I plan on posting more video clips and video casts. It has taken me ten years to get into the new millennium but now I am there and fully engaged – I hope to have the blog reflect this.

 

Thanks for your support and ideas over the past five years. I certainly hope that those of you who read this have drawn as much inspiration  and learned as much from me as I have gained in feedback from all of you.

Pitch Counts

I have always thought pitch counts were an arbitrary random number. When I was with the White Sox we produced a large number of very effective starting pitchers. In their development pitch counts was one factor that was considered. Our philosophy was to condition them to pitch, teach them how to pitch and put them in situations where they had to compete and get hitters out. The record speaks for itself. Saw this article on SI site, maybe baseball is catching up to what we did in the 90's.

 

Tom Verducci - THREE STRIKES

On Wednesday, Max Scherzer, 25, of the Tigers threw 123 pitches and Chad Billingsley, 25, of the Dodgers threw 125 pitches. The next day, Josh Johnson, 26, of the Marlins threw 121 pitches and Justin Verlander, 27, of the Tigers threw 120 pitches. Nobody seemed to get too worked up about it.

There was a time -- OK, it was in the wake of Mark Prior and Kerry Wood breaking down -- when such high pitch counts for young pitchers would have set off deputized pitch-count mobs reaching for their torches and pitchforks. But something very interesting is going on during this pitching renaissance: managers are letting their pitchers ring up high pitch counts more often.

From 2001 through 2008, the number of 120-pitch outings declined every season. But last year there was a 26-percent uptick, which has been followed by another increase this year of nearly 30 percent, based on the current rates.

Here are the number of starts in which a pitcher threw 120 pitches, beginning with 2003, the year Wood and Prior carried the Cubs to within one game of the World Series, only to be hurt the next season:

2003: 226
2004: 186
2005: 135
2006: 120
2007: 81
2008: 73
2009: 92
2010: 119*

* projected

What's going on? Managers, general managers and the media no longer are running so scared. The environment has calmed. There have been fewer high-profile breakdowns, at least anecdotally. Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan, president of the Texas Rangers, has provided a strong, respected voice arguing that the Conservation Movement (fewer pitches equals fewer problems) went too far.

Perhaps most of all, this cycle of young starting pitchers has been good enough to help change the culture. Of the 70 starts this year of 120 pitches, 52 have been thrown by pitchers in their 20s. That's already more than pitchers in their 20s threw just three years ago -- and we still have more than two months left in the season.

Demise of the dinosaurs

There is another trend that becomes obvious when you look at high-pitch count games over the past decade: the pitching dinosaurs are extinct. Remember when old dudes such as Roger Clemens, Mike Mussina, Randy Johnson, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, Curt Schilling and even Woody Williams roamed major league mounds? Those pitchers have vanished so quickly you would think an asteroid struck the game.

In 2004, there were 24 games in which somebody at least 36 years old threw 120 or more. Just four years later? Zip. And this year? Zip, again.

In fact, there have been only two high-pitch-count games thrown by such old pitchers in the past three years combined (by Pedro Martinez and Brian Moehler, both in 2009).

Take a look at the path to extinction for 120-pitch games by guys 36-and-older:

2004: 24
2005: 14
2006: 11
2007: 5
2008: 0
2009: 2
2010: 0

The old masters, a group that also included Greg Maddux (who went the last eight years of his career without throwing 120 pitches in a game), are gone. The generation of starting pitchers right behind them was weak. But this new generation is so deep that it's helping to change how the game is played. There is no doubt that baseball today is a young man's game.

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/tom_verducci/07/23/pitch.counts/index.html#ixzz0ubmZIzN7

If You Are Interested

For may of you that just started reading this blog in the past years or months August 4, 2005 was my first post on

www.functionalpathtraining.blogspot.com

All the posts until May 6, 2008 are on blogspot when I migrated over to present host. I think you will see that I have not changed my tune at all. Always following the functional path to build and rebuild the complete athlete. Sometimes I have been the only one on this path, at other times it has been quite crowed, but there never has been a dull moment. My philosophy for over 40 years is that the pursuit of excellence has it’s own rewards and that knowledge is power. No fads, no frills, just principles and results building a body of work for over 41 years. I sincerely hope you will continue with me on the exploration of the functional path. There are many trails to be explored and many questions to be answers and ideas to be tried.

New Look, New Home, Same Philosophy

Due to circumstances beyond my control (Still Unexplained) my blog was removed from Blogger on Monday morning. Because of this I have switched to Typepad. Nothing will change except for the fact that I will scrutinize the posts more closely and not allow the type of discourse that was was beginning to creep in. This is a blog for professionals who are interested in exchanging and sharing ideas in a sane civilized manner. There is no room for personal attacks or guruism. I want to reaffirm the philosophy and goals of the blog. This blog is about and for you the reader in order to share ideas and stimulate thought. For me it is a labor of love, a change to get feedback and a daily stimulus to creativity in my coaching and life.  I will work to keep the tone positive and I expect the same from the participants. Personal attacks on posts will not be tolerated. Anonymous post will be deleted. Please clearly identify yourself and include your email. I am looking forward to having you join me on a regular basis on this site.