Functional Path Training

Training Do’s and Don’ts #4 – More Work or Less Work

The most common default when making the choice between more work or less work in training is to do more volume. After all it is easier to quantify more jumps, more throws, more runs. Also, when working with developmental athletes they respond quickly to volume, so the temptation is to continue going down that path. What happens when the point of diminishing returns is reached? Now What?

The current mantra is that less is more. This can be good if it is clear what that means. Somewhere you must pay the piper and do the work. I believe confusion arises because of a lack of understanding of the distinction between quality and intensity. We tend to use them synonymously. To be clear quality is a measure of perfect, therefor it tends to be a bit more subjective. Intensity on the other hand is a measure of 100%. It is more quantifiable.

So here is the answer – there is no answer. It’s not more work or less work, it depends. It depends on many factors that must be taken into consideration, so it is not a binary decision. There are perils and pitfalls of more or less. Understand those and design training accordingly. There is a time for more and a time for less both in a training year and training career.

Space and Time

Learning to effectively use space and time is what enables you to perform in the competitive arena. The concept of space is quite simple – you must recognize space, learn to create it, exploit it, deny space, expand it or contract it. In an individual sport  space is the time between steps and strokes.

Time is learning to tap into your internal clock. Time is the sense that tells you when to move or when to shoot or hold the ball. Athletes who master time seem to have the ability to slow the game down – to give them whatever time they need to do what the game requires. They are dialed in, never frantic.

Both time and space are highly trainable. They should be part of every training sessions. Sport is just a big dance.

Free the Kids – Let Them Play

I do not know Nick Willis, but he is a current athlete that I hold in high regard both for his accomplishments on the track, longevity and willingness to share his thoughts/lessons learned throughout his career. He posted this on Twitter yesterday, needless to say it really resonated with me:

“I trained 3 times a day from 7 to 17 years old. Just so happened that 99% of it was playing intense (and I mean intense) games of pick-up sports with school mates.” @nickwillis

In 1971/72 I had five ninth graders run under five minutes in the mile, with the best at 4:33. They trained five or six day a week maybe 28 miles for the highest mileage week. But most importantly they had daily physical education that was physical and educational and they played pick-up basketball or touch football at lunch. They were fit as a fiddle because they played, they rode their bikes, and they had paper routes. That year we also beat York High School in the Track & Field News National Postal two mile. York ninth graders were training six or seven days a week upwards of 75 miles a week.

Oh, for the good old days – when are we going to wake up and realize what we are doing to kids with early specialization and formal high intensity training. It is ruining kids, taking the joy out of it. Let them be kids and play. Champions and age group record holders at eight or nine years old don't have a good track record in fact they most often disappear by age sixteen. Not too hard to figure this out.

Vin Scully – Excellence Personified!

Growing up in California in the late 1950’s and early 60’s Vin Scully was your steady companion on warm summer nights. There was nothing better than listening to Vin Scully on a little transistor radio describe the excellence of Sandy Koufax pitching or the daring of Maury Will stealing a base when everyone in the stadium knew what he was going to do. There was special melodic quality and clarity to his voice, no hyperbole, no screaming, pure class, and the focus was on the game and the players. On Sunday Vin Scully broadcast his last Dodger game bringing to a close a sixty-seven year career! There will never be another like him. He is a man of faith, great character and class. Mr. Scully enjoy your retirement. Thanks for the memories you are a national treasure!

What Are You Really Doing?

Is what you are doing making your athletes better or is it just making them tired and predisposing them to injury? I have asked this question numerous times in this blog. I keep asking it because I see more highly specific work being done without the commensurate return in results and an alarming rise in training related or training caused injuries. The current trend is to be more sport specific in training. I get it to a point, but there are definite perils and pitfalls of uber specificity. You must ask yourself if you trying to be too sport specific?

My approach is and has been for many years to train for the demands of the sport and be sport appropriate not sport specific. The actual practice of the sport is specific preparation. Training should be preparation for the demands of the sport. Too much specific work will add stress to stress and lead to injury and stagnation. Soccer right now is a good example with the overemphasis on small-sided games and highly specific preparation. They are adding stress to stress and not preparing for the higher speed demands of the match.

I think of it as a three-part process:

#1 General work that includes a huge dose of athleticism development and has little or no resemblance to the actual sport but serves to establish pristine movement skills to help bullet proof the athlete in the long term. General work is a staple of a sound training program.

#2 Special work that incorporates similar movements and is higher speed and higher force.

#3 This is Specific work that consists of the actual sport and movements of the sport.

This does not mean to imply that there are periods where the emphasis is on just one area. Throughout the training year including during peak competition there must be a careful blend of general, special and specific work based on the status of the athlete. This demands careful record keeping, close monitoring of training and competition. Ultimately it comes down to knowing the athlete and what they need physically, psychologically and emotionally to be at their best.

Competition – The Essence of Sport

Records are not the essence of sport, competition is. A bold and broad statement so let me explain. The more emphasis on an incessant search for world records only encourages athletes to dope. The financial incentives are great and we are forcing athletes to push the envelope every outing, which is physically impossible. Let’s shift the emphasis back to competition. Great close competitions are as exciting as a paced world record that no one outside the sport understands.

Eddie Jones – Building Sustainable Performance Excellence – Part One

Eddie Jones is coach of the Japanese Rugby team that has shaken the rugby world by their performances at the 2015 world cup highlighted by their opening match upset of South Africa, a real David slays Goliath moment - http://bit.ly/1LPAdzs. This was arguably one of the greatest upsets in sports history. None of this happened by chance. Last Sunday in Rome at the 2015 IFAC (International Festival of Athletic Coaching) Conference Eddie presented his ideas on what it takes to build and sustain excellence. Below are some of the highlights of his presentations with my comments in italics. In my estimation Eddie is one of the ten best coaches in any sport in the world now. This man gets it and he produces excellence.

Background

Eddie started his presentation with an overview of the Rugby culture and infrastructure in Japan. There is a historic culture of rugby in Japan. 500 universities play rugby. The rugby players at these universities focus on rugby sometimes training up six hours a day!. In addition there is an industrial league with teams sponsored by major corporations and every high school in Japan plays rugby.

The Japan Way

This was essentially an update of what Eddie presented at Global Coaches House in London 2012 during the Olympic games.

First - They had to be extremely fast and supremely fit to overcome their inherent size disadvantage. They achieved this through the tireless and innovative work of John Pryor their Athletic Development coach. John took a very innovative approach using all elements of athlete development. John told me that in the last nine months leading in World Cup they did not put a big emphasis on traditional lifting. (I will interview John at a later time and expand on this) I have known John for twenty years and worked with he and Dean Benton, these guys think and work differently. Eddie fully embraced what John was doing.

Second – They had to change training. The tradition in Japan had been very long three to four hour grinding sessions day after day. Instead they shifted to multiple sessions, sometimes three shorter sessions a day, with each session having a specific emphasis. They incorporated a “Head Start” session before breakfast focused on Athletic Development.

Third – They created another line of management by developing a player leadership group to help in decision-making.

None of these by themselves are very revolutionary many people speak about doing these things and then compromise when it comes to implementation. It is not convenient or comfortable. Eddie and his staff did it.

Tomorrow I will go into the five components of building a championship team in Part Two.

Changing the Game

The only way you change the change the game is to change how you prepare for the game. Now we are in NBA preseason and on the NBA channel they are traveling to the various training camps and interviewing coaches and players. It was the same in NFL preseason. What do see in the background – The same old time worn drills, players standing around in lines, coaches talking, players not listening much less learning. You see the same thing in Major League baseball with all supposed advancement in analytics and technology they still prepare the same – batting practice – hitting against balls thrown at 65 mile per hour with millions of dollars of players standing around in the outfield. I repeat the only way you change the game is to change how you prepare and practice for the game. In practice don’t try to replicate the game distort it, practice faster. Strive for high quality perfect effort and game performance will change. To accomplish this takes a sound foundation in pedagogy and a willingness to learn, adapt and change.

Sport Performance – Tangible Intangibles

You can measure it; you can define it with precise algorithms – But then there is competition day. Competition is random and chaotic; there is the human element that adds tremendous variability and unpredictability to the equation. This all creates a gap between the numbers, the analytics if you will and the final outcome. The human element is highly trainable but very unpredictable. Measure what you can measure. Sense what you can sense and then coach!

GAIN 2015 Lessons – Greg Thompson on PE as a Foundation

Greg is a elementary school PE teacher in Farmington Hills Michigan. It is hard to find a word to express this mans depth of knowledge and passion. If there is something more genuine than genuine Greg is it. In addition to teaching PE Greg also coaches soccer achieving USA Soccer A Badge, the highest level of certification in the US. I asked Greg to kickoff GAIN with a presentation on PE as the Foundation. Needless to say he knocked our socks off. He set the tempo for the whole program with his ideas.

He started by surveying experts from around the world on what was important in a good foundation established by PE:

Moving Well

Static Balance – Ability to make a stable base

Dynamic Balance

Object control skill and ability to combine them with locomotor skills

Landing Mechanics

Flexibility – Only if you can express with balance, strength and speed

General Strength

Aerobic Fitness

Behavior

Some other thoughts from Greg:

“Figure it out” – Give them the tools to solve moment problems and let them figure it out. They are OK to express themselves through movement.

He treats the body like a paintbrush

Create desirable difficulties

It is one thing to value it; it is another thing to have a plan for teaching it.

Games become an express of skill so teach skill first

Behavior must be addressed – Growing people into responsible adults

Not sure my brief words can do justice to Greg’s ideas and methods. Greg is the teacher we wish we all had in school and the teacher we want our children to have. Greg came to the first GAIN eight years ago as an attendee. He truly represents what GAIN is about – Quality, excellence, passion, sharing and humanity. Thanks Greg for helping make GAIN what it is.