Functional Path Training

The Perfect Workout

One of my favorite movies is Endless Summer where three surfers travel the world looking for the perfect wave. They find one, but it was not anywhere near where they thought it would be.

This is a metaphor for my search for the perfect workout, first as an athlete and then as a coach. I have traveled the fields, courts, tracks and pools of the world in search of the perfect workout. In that search I have observed and worked with some of the greatest coaches in the world. I have been around and coached some iconic athletes. I still have not seen or experienced the perfect workout. I have seen great coaching. I have seen athletes go above and beyond to test their limits – but no perfect workout!

Is it out there? I do think that somewhere, someplace it is there. As a coach I am consumed by the search for perfection so I will not stop searching for or trying to achieve that perfect workout. I do know I will not find it on YouTube, TikTok or Instagram. I suspect it will be like Endless Summer, somewhere unexpected. Probably by an obscure coach working with some developmental athletes who sets high expectations and carefully builds on fundamentals. Meanwhile the search goes on.

Current Reading - November 2024

What I'm reading now. My reading tastes are eclectic. Some for professional development others for general knowledge & entertainment. This does not count the 3 detective novels I am reading. Usually read 140 to 160 books a year. I love reading and have since I was kid. Thanks mom for taking me to the library when I was five years old. I learned then that books can take you to other worlds.

On Aging

How are some thoughts as I enter the last chapters of my life:

You see a lot of what you missed because you were in too much of a hurry in younger days.

You appreciate the small things much more.

Relationships mean more now, more than ever.

You learn to live with your mistakes and own them.

You learn who your true friends are.

You only look back to gain perspective on moving forward.

The past is a reference point, not a place to live.

There is always enough time, just make the time you have count.

Never stop learning and challenging yourself.

Be thankful for those who went before you.

The older you get the more imperative it is to stand up for what you believe in.

Your lengthy resume doesn’t mean squat.

Family is FIRST!

Keep being the best you, you can be.

Learn from Sherlock

Look for differences not similarities

Strip away all things that don't matter and get down to the core issues

What you don't see may may be as important as what you do see!

On Coaching

Coaching has been my life for 55+ years. Even before I formally begin coaching and was still an athlete I tried to think like a coach and learn the why I was doing what I was doing. Coaching is a special profession that puts an emphasis on relationships and teaching. As I reflect on my career and what I have seen of others I believe that coaching is more than a profession, it is calling. A calling with great responsibility and equally great rewards. For me it has been a privilege to coach for as long I have and be associated with the athletes, I have been fortunate to work with.

Today I am concerned about the state of coaching. For many younger coaches coaching has shifted from being transformational to being transactional. The outcome has taken precedence over the process. There too much emphasis on the sizzle, not enough on the substance of sport performance.

For me coaching is process. It is a process with strong foundation in pedagogy, after all coaching is teaching. It is supported by science not driven by science. It is forged in experience that is proven and tested in the competitive arena. It is managing complexity and harnessing chaos.

The coach’s classroom is the field, the track, the court and pool. Great coaches are not know it all complexifiers, rather they are learn it all simplifiers. They understand it is not about marginal gains, it is staying grounded and never straying far from fundamentals. Great coaching is repeating the basics brilliantly each day. It may not be exciting and make a highlight reel, but it will produce results.

Finally, here are some thoughts that will make you a better coach:

Stay Basic

Stay Hungry

Stay Focused

Focus on the “Can Do”

Stay Uncomfortable

Stay You

Stay Passionate

Maintain a Child’s Curiosity

Finally take some time to smell the roses and appreciate the great calling you have chosen!

The Seeds of Culture

Clay Erro is the former football coach at Enterprise High School in Redding, California and one of the winningest football coaches in Northern Californian history. More important than his success was his ability to teach young men to be responsible adults and citizens. His approach was unconventional with a premium on relationships and teaching. Relationships are not built upon rules. A successful relationship is built on trust and expectations and communication, not rules. Instead of rules, the his teams had simple self-explanatory guidelines:

• We not me
• No excuses
• No messengers
• No sympathy groups

Starting with a few simple guidelines as the seed, the team culture grew from there.

Core values define team culture. Developing core values is a process. It is a process that ideally is driven by the athletes and guided by the coach. This process will ensure ownership. If the culture is established, then it becomes a process of initiation into the core values. Core values are not rules, they are principles that guide, not regulate behavior. They are more than words written on the locker room wall. They are words that are translated into action every day in training. The coach’s role is to ensure that the core values are real and lived by everyone associated with the team. It has been my experience that they transcend sport, better people are better athletes.

Using the Design Process for Better Coaching

Accept

    Get started, allow the problem to generate the process.

Analyze

    Gather all the facts visible and invisible.

Define

    Determine the destination – the aim, the destination.

Ideate

    Brainstorm – every possibility is on the table.

Select

    Narrow down the option to need to do and must do.

Implement

    Get going, take action and move forward.

Evaluate

    Develop appropriate metrics to measure progress to the end result.

From: The Universal Traveler – a soft-systems guide to creativity. Problem solving and the process of reaching goals. By Don Koberg and Jim Bagnall. Crisp Publications, Inc. Menlo Park, CA. 2003

Developing Athletes

Ever since I started on this journey first as an athlete and then as a coach I was fascinated with what it took to develop and nurture the athlete. As a young athlete I saw some athletes develop and thrive and others stagnate and fall by the wayside. Why was this? I noticed that certain schools were always good in selected sports. I noticed that certain coaches, regardless of talent, year in and year out always produced top athletes and teams. Why was that? At that stage of the journey I must admit it was all somewhat mysterious to me, there did not seem to be a method behind what I was observing. I wanted to know why the things that I was seeing were occurring.

Those questions started me on a quest; some would call it an odyssey to find answers. I knew that there had to be more to it than I was seeing and experiencing. When I began coaching I noticed the same things I had seen as an athlete. Some athletes thrived, some just barely survived and many fell by the wayside. Now that my perspective was broader not only did I see schools continue to develop talent but also nations. It quickly became clear that athletic excellence was something that could be systematically nurtured and developed. So, I began to look around the US and then around the world, I started looking for big things, commonalities; just like everyone I was trying to find the secret. I quickly realized there was and is no secret. I did start to see patterns and common threads though. Little did I know that I was working in a system that was doing exactly what I was searching elsewhere for. I literally could not see the forest for the trees, the answer was right in front of me.

When I started coaching and teaching in 1969 that was probably the apogee of sport development in the United States. We were the preeminent sporting nation in the world as evidenced by the dominant performances at the 1968 Olympic games. There was mandatory daily physical education taught by trained educators. Sport was centered in the schools and coached by trained coaches. Sport at all levels was part of the educational system. In the elementary and junior high schools there were afterschool sports programs that featured participation over winning. By the mid to late 1970’s all this began to unravel. Mandatory Kindergarten through twelfth grade daily physical education was dropped. Physical education as an academic discipline in colleges and universities was deemed not academic enough and physical education programs were dropped or the curriculum was changed to sport or exercise science. The mission of training physical education teachers and coaches was severely compromised.

All of this coincided with the ascendency of the GDR and the Soviet Union in the 1960’s and their dominating performances in the 1976 and 1980 Olympic games. They began to beat the US in sports where we had traditionally been strong. So we started looking at what they were doing and tried to copy it. This was somewhat of a knee jerk reaction. What we failed to take into account as we blindly copied their system was the cradle to grave control, they had over their athletes due to the communist system. Frankly the methods and ideas those countries used became an infatuation for many. Little did we know that our system, what some people derisively called a non-system as it had existed was probably superior. It would take the fall of the wall and the decline of the eastern bloc for us to understand that their system was not everything it was made out to be.

I write all of this to set the stage for the goal of this book. It is quite straight forward – to define the process of developing athletes and in parallel coaches’ development from the beginning stages to the podium and beyond because it is my contention that the two must go hand in glove. It is a journey, a process, not a clearly defined model as many would like to portray it. There are landmarks that must be achieved along the way but there are not definite time parameters; it is not a straight line. The athlete and coach are part of the socio-cultural milieu so they reflect the society they exist in. There are many realities today that face the developing athlete that were not a factor forty or fifty years ago. I will take a historical look at the various athlete development systems to see what we can learn from them. I will then outline a process of athlete development designed to meet the current reality of sport in the 21^st century and all the challenges that are entailed. It is a dynamic process that requires continual learning. Thanks for joining me in this journey as we learn together to develop the best athletes and coaches possible.

How to Be a Guru

So you want to be a guru? Here are some helpful tips I have learned through observation of many of the well-known gurus in action.

Make everything as complex as possible, it you are not sure make it more complicated.

Use big words that no one can understand or spell so they can’t look them up in any reputable source. Make up words wherever possible.

Be as sciencey as possible. Cite obscure studies in Russian journals that no one can find much less read.

Mumble a lot so people can’t understand you but they still think you are saying profound things.

Claim every athlete you ever walked by in the gym or at the track as one of the pros or Olympic medalists you worked with.

Have as many letters as possible after your name. Make some of them up if you are not sure, it is always good to have a few extra.

Steal ideas and pretend like you made them up. Don’t give credit to anyone because it might make you look like less of an expert.

Hide behind palatial facilities and machines that go bling, bam & boom.

Pretend that training and working out started when Al Gore invented the Internet, obviously anything before that is irrelevant. If it is old is can’t be any good.

This is obviously tongue in cheek but if you take a step back and look around you will see much of this in journals, workshops and especially on the Internet. The only way this will change is if we start calling these people on their words and actions. Be aware, look for substance not style and think critically. Follow principles not personalities.

How to Be a Guru

So you want to be a guru? Here are some helpful tips I have learned through observation of many of the well-known gurus in action.

Make everything as complex as possible, it you are not sure make it more complicated.

Use big words that no one can understand or spell so they can’t look them up in any reputable source. Make up words wherever possible.

Be as sciencey as possible. Cite obscure studies in Russian journals that no one can find much less read.

Mumble a lot so people can’t understand you but they still think you are saying profound things.

Claim every athlete you ever walked by in the gym or at the track as one of the pros or Olympic medalists you worked with.

Have as many letters as possible after your name. Make some of them up if you are not sure, it is always good to have a few extra.

Steal ideas and pretend like you made them up. Don’t give credit to anyone because it might make you look like less of an expert.

Hide behind palatial facilities and machines that go bling, bam & boom.

Pretend that training and working out started when Al Gore invented the Internet, obviously anything before that is irrelevant. If it is old is can’t be any good.

This is obviously tongue in cheek but if you take a step back and look around you will see much of this in journals, workshops and especially on the Internet. The only way this will change is if we start calling these people on their words and actions. Be aware, look for substance not style and think critically. Follow principles not personalities.