Functional Path Training

Two Books and a Movie

Physical Intelligence – The Science of How the Body and the Mind Guide Each Other Though Life by Scott Grafton is one of the best books I have read in quite some time.  Very well written in a style that makes a complex subject very understandable without dumbing it down. If you are coach, teacher or therapist this is a must read. I wish I would have had this book years ago, just clarifies mind body relationships and the things we do every day in coaching to improve athletes’ movements.

Another enjoyable book I just finished was Chasing the Bear – How Bear Bryant and Nick Saban Made Alabama the Greatest Football Program of All Time by Lars Anderson. Having played college football in the sixties when every coach was trying to be like Bear Bryant there were many scenes in the book that brought back memories both good and bad. There are good insights into what takes to be the best. Worth reading.

Also recommend a very good documentary by one of my favorite musical groups, The Band. Not sure if it has made to Netflix yet. It is called Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band. Terrific footage of their day in Woodstock, maybe one of the most creative periods by a group in music history. Sad and uplifting at the same time. Some great insights into the creative process. Actually, prompted me to go back and watch The Last Waltz, a documentary of their last performance together.

2019 Best Books - My Picks

These are my picks for the best books I read in 2019. As you can see I am light of sport and heavy on history and biography. 

Coaching Children in Sport – The Carver Framework by Paul Kilgannon

El Norte – The Epic and Forgotten Story of Hispanic North America by Carrie Gibson

The Passion Paradox by Brad Stulburg and Steve Magness

Working – Researching, Interviewing, Writing by Robert Caro

The Patch by John McPhee

Genesis -The Deep Origin of Society by Edward O. Wilson

Churchill – Walking with Destiny by Andrew Roberts

Range – Why Generalists Triumph in A Specialized World by David Epstein

The Dreamant Land – Chasing Water & Dust Across California by Mark Arax

This Land – How Cowboys, Capitalism, and Corruption are Ruining the American West by Christopher Ketchen

Fire & Fortitude – The US Army in the Pacific War, 1941 – 1943 by John C. McManus

The MVP Machine – How Baseball’s New Nonconformists Are Using Data to Build Better Players By Ben Linbergh and Travis Sawchik

Educate – Memoir by Kara Westover

George Marshall – Defender of the Republic by David L. Roll

The Night Fire – By Michael Connelly

Dreams of El Dorado – A History of the American West by H.W. Brands

My Life and Rugby – The Autobiography by Eddie Jones

Science and Application of High Intensity Interval Training – Solution to the Programing Puzzle By Paul Larsen and Martin Buchhiet

Churchill – Walking With Destiny

I highly recommend this book. Not an easy read. It is long and detailed. Very rich in content with many insights into a very complex man. I have always been fascinated by Churchill, after reading this I am no less fascinated. He had his flaws, that was for sure, but somehow under the direst circumstances he led his nation through one of the most difficult times any nation in history has endured. I think there are many lessons in this book that apply to our current world order. “In that sense, Churchill was one of the greatest individualists of modern times, because he approached everything in life completely as an individual rather than part of a group, from the moment he left his officers mess in 1889 onwards. (P.980)” This sums up my appeal of Churchill as a figure in history, he was his own man.

The Passion Paradox (A wake up guide to using your passion)

I know Steve Magness and Brad Stulberg; they are two passionate people, so it seems appropriate that their new book is about the paradoxical nature of passion. I knew they were working on a new book but had no idea what it was about until it showed up in the mail. It was particularly timely as I am at the stage in career/life where I am transitioning and redirecting my passion. For fifty years my passion has driven me, most of the time it was good sometimes it was bad when I lost sight of true north. I am redirecting my passion away from day to day coaching and interaction with athletes to coaching coaches and consulting. It has been a struggle because my passion has been to see people grow and develop day to day and week to week.

I have always said passion is like a high-octane fuel, it is explosive if not handled correctly. Steve and Brad underscore this with meticulous research on the whole area of passion. They clearly portray the upside and the downside of passion, hence the title of the book: The Passion Paradox - A Guide to Going All In, Finding Success, And Discovering The Benefits Of An Unbalanced Life. Personally, I have struggled with colleagues and athletes who did not share my passion. After reading the book, it was comforting to learn that this is not uncommon and is often the cause of mental and physical breakdown and the demise of many relationships. By the way it also made me feel feel better that sometimes life balance is unrealistic and damn near impossible

This book is a user’s manual on how to use passion and what to do when it gets out of control. They have done a super job of weaving the psychological research with stories and personal anecdotes. This book is not a self-help book in the traditional sense of a self-help book, but instead it is a guide and I said earlier a user’s manual on handling that high octane fuel called passion. It sure would have been great to have this resource about fifty years ago. The path might have been a bit smoother, but never too late to learn. Get this, read it, digest it, and take it to heart and passion will be your fuel.

Current Reading

These are two books that have just finished. I highly recommend Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book. It is especially timely in these turbulent times when courageous and inspired leadership is so needed. There are so many lessons and take homes in this book. I especially liked the last four chapters where she focused on the pivotal moments in each of the four presidents (Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, & LBJ). In each of these chapters based on how they handled each of these moments she derived leadership principles.

 

 

 

The second book Good to Go is a worthwhile read. The author weaves a good personal narrative looking the science and pseudoscience of recovery. She raises many good questions, the same questions that many of us have been asking for years. It will make you think differently about all the attention that has been given to recovery lately.

My 2018 Best Books

 Of the 150 books I have read in 2018 these are my selections for the best. It is an eclectic collection reflecting my various interests. Hopefully this will give you some ideas for good reading. This year I did not pick a book of the year. Too many good ones to pick out one book.

The Culture Code by Dan Coyle

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

The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything – Spirituality for Real Life by James Martin SJ

Master of Modern Soccer – How the World’s Best Play the Twenty First Century Game by Grant Wahl

The Playmakers Advantage by Leonard Zaichowsky & Daniel Peterson

On Grand Strategy by John Lewis Gaddis

Human Movement an Integrated Approach by Joseph R. Higgins

Boyd, The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War by Robert Coram

Franklin D. Roosevelt – A Political Life by Robert Dallek

Our Towns – An Ongoing Journey into the Heart of America by James and Deborah Fallows

Thinking in Bets – Making Smarter Decisions When You Don’t Have All the Facts by Annie Duke

The Barcelona Way – Unlocking the DNA of a Winning Culture by Damian Hughes

The Browns of California – The Family Dynasty That Transformed the State and Shaped a Nation by Miriam Pawel

Vietnam – An Epic Tragedy, 1945 to 1975 by Max Hastings

The Laws of Human Nature by Robert Greene

The Wizard of Foz – Dick Fosbury’s One-Man High Jump Revolution by Bob Welch with Dick Fosbury.

You can learn a lot from athletes’ biographies, especially from someone who innovated like Fosbury did. There are many lessons to be learned from this book both about sport and life through the chronicles of his rise to Olympic Champion and beyond. It is well framed in the context of growing up in the fifties and coming of age in the turbulent sixties. Fosbury developed his technique without coaching and in many ways in spite of coaching. This is a little pearl I go from the book regarding Fosbury’s in competition mental approach in preparation for a jump:

“First, the corrective. Fosbury would think: What if anything needs fixing from my previous jump? Often, for example, it was a reminder not to drift into the bar and instead, to jump vertically, not horizontally.” (P. 123)

“Second, the connective. Once he’d determined what needed to be fixed on this coming jump, he would connect the action to the particular part of the body responsible for making that happen, to feel it. To think that thought – more pronounced arch, for example – would help the body rehearse, or memorize, what it needed to do.” (P. 123)

“And, finally, the disconnective. In the final few seconds before the jump, he wanted nothing more on his mind regarding the past. All of his energy needed to feed his now. “I never started forward on my approach,” he said, until was absolutely convinced I was going over the bar.” (P. 124)

Enjoy the book it is an entertaining and informative read that brought back many memories from a bygone era in track and field.

Contemporary Coaching Challenges

This is an excerpt from my book Athletic Development – The Art & science of Functional Sports Conditioning that I thought was particularly timely.

“We do not coach in a vacuum. Within our society we have some contemporary cultural, athletic, educational, and economic obstacles that coaches from past generations did not have to contend with. A colleague of mine, Steve Myrland, has identified and articulated these challenges. Within our culture: We sit too much. We are what we eat, and we eat too much resulting in a lethargic overweight society. We are a result-oriented society with little appreciation for the process, we want it now. Failure (at anything) has a social price tag attached to it. Boys will gladly demonstrate proficiency; but will often quit before having to reveal deficiency. Girls often fear success if it places them “apart.”  Girls must try to resolve the conflict of working to be strong, fit, and fast, and a social order that offers few rewards for these qualities.

Within the context of the athletic arena: We play to train; rather than train to play. We specialize before we develop athleticism and competitive maturity. We emphasize game-skills before and often to the exclusion of fundamental movement-skills. We evaluate before we teach (always trying to find the next prodigy). Physical Education isn’t physical, and it is not educational. In training and competition: We value quantity over quality, more is better. We are (generally) forced into a one-size-fits-all model of drills and exercises, even though one size never does fit all. Play has disappeared, if practice is not organized and there is not coach present, there is no practice. We prefer to watch rather than participate. In marketing health, fitness and sports: We are led to depend on “things” and on venues more than on athletes and coaches. Recognize that in the athletic arena the young athlete may have different goals than we have.”

Read this Book! The Playmakers Advantage

For the past fifteen years I have been focused on what to do to get better at getting better. I have explored cognitive neuroscience, recognizing that the brain and how we train the brain is the key to getting better at getting better. In that pursuit I have read numerous books, devoured research literature, attended seminars and talked to as many experts as possible. The deeper I got into the process I knew I was on the right path. This is why I am encouraging you to read The Playmakers Advantage – How to Raise Your Mental Game to The Next Level. Len Zaichkowsky AKA Dr. Z and Dan Peterson have done a masterful job of compiling the research and their extensive experience into a comprehensive informative guide to the latest information on training the brain to improve sports performance.

This is a terrific resource for coaches. They go into detail as to the what, the how and very importantly the why of training the brain. The material in Playmakers Advantage represents what we have to do as coaches to optimize what we are doing. It is not a simplistic self-help motivational work, there are too many of those and they are ineffective in changing behavior. This has breadth and depth reflecting the latest research and best practice. It is one of the most valuable books I have read in a long time. How often as coaches have we said it is all in your head. Playmakers Advantage shows how to use what’s in our head to our competitive advantage.

Current Reading

Since I last reported on my reading in April I have read fifty-one books. The topics represent a range of interests beyond sport. I find myself reading more history going back to my roots as a social science major. Here are some that stood out for me.

Giant – The Making of a Legendary American Film by Don Graham

The Performance Cortex – How Neuroscience is Refining Athletic Genius by Zach Schonbrun

The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything – A Spiritual Guide for Real Life by James Martin. SJ

Masters of Modern Soccer – How the World’s Best Play the Twenty-First Century Game by Grant Wahl

Jerusalem – The Biography by Simon Sebag Montefiore

The Hope Circuit – A Psychologists Journey from Helplessness to Optimism by Martin E. P. Seligman

Heroic Leadership – Best Practices From a 450-Year-Old Company That Changed the World by Chris Lowney

On Grand Strategy by John Lewis Gaddis

Fact Fullness – Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World and Why Things are Better Than You Think by Hans Rosling, with Ola Rosling and Anna Rosling Ronnlund

Human Movement – An Integrated Approach by Joseph R. Higgins

The Mirage Factory – Illusion, Imagination and the Invention of Los Angeles by Gary Kirst

The Comeback – Greg LeMond, the True King of American Cycling and The Legendary Tour de France by Daniel De Vise’

Boyd – The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War by Robert Coram

Bad Blood – Secrets and Lies in Silicon Valley by John Carreyrow

Sevens Heaven – The Beautiful Chaos of Fiji’s Olympic Dream by Ben Ryan

TAILSPIN – The People and Forces Behind America’s Fifty Year Fall and Those Fighting to Reverse it by Steven Brill

The Square and the Tower – Networks and Power from the Freemasons to Facebook by Nial Ferguson

Who We Are and How We Got There – Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past by David Reich

Measure What Matters – OKRs The Simple Idea That Drives 10X Growth by John Doerr

The Age of Eisenhower – America and the World in the 1950’s by William I. Hitchcock

Franklin D. Roosevelt – A Political Life by Robert Dallek

Our Towns – A 100,000 Mile Journey into the Heart of America By James and Deborah Fallows