Functional Path Training

Athletic Development Omnibook - A Coaching Resource & Handbook

Even though this book is titled the Athletic Development Omnibook, it is more like the 54^th version of work that I started in 1969 when I was a student at UCSB. It began as a project for my Foundations of Conditioning class. That project required us to design a complete yearlong training program for our chosen sport. That began a yearly compilation of what I later called my “Means of Training” manual. It has taken many forms and formats over the years, but regardless of the format the goal always was to categorize and systematize my approach to training.

The latest iteration, I consciously use iteration instead of edition, is by far the most complete. It reflects the body of work compiled throughout my coaching career. All the other versions have mainly focused on the physical components of training. This iteration goes into detail on the human side of coaching and the foundations of pedagogy, hence the title Training Omnibook. The term Omnibook is taken from a book that has had a profound influence on my career, the Track and Field Omnibook by Ken Dougherty. Ken set a high bar with his compilation of resources; I only hope I can match his level of achievement.

The goal is to have it completed by January. Right now on track to reach that goal.

1. Introduction
2. Prologue – My Coaching Journey

1. Coaching the People Side

2. Coaching Using the Science

3. Coaching the Culture

4. Coaching the Teaching Side – Applying Principles of Pedagogy

5. Coaching the Preparation and Planning

6. Coaching Foundational Movements

7. Coaching the Physical Side – The Principles

8. Coaching Postural (Core) Strength

9. Coaching Strength/Power

10. Coaching Explosive Power - Plyometrics

11. Coaching Speed

12. Coaching Agility (Multidimensional Movement)

13. Coaching Work Capacity (Addressing Endurance Demands)

14. Coaching Suppleness

15. Coaching Recovery and Regeneration

16. Coaching the Future

What is Your Lens?

What is your lens? Each of us has a preferred lens to view an exercise, a specific movement or to evaluate a training method. Our preferred lens will bias our interpretation of what we see. For example, when I look at running, I immediately default to look at certain aspects of the stride. Over the years I have had to train myself to recognize this and to have an adjustable lens that is adaptable. In psychology this is called a confirmation bias. As coaches we must guard against this. How can we overcome this? Just like anything it takes practice. Sometimes it is as simple as changing the observation point. Other times it demands getting with someone who you know has a different viewpoint and really listen to what they say. I have found the later particularly effective in evaluating training methods.

When I am reading articles, listening to presentations or viewing a training session I try to determine what lens was used. Someone who labels themselves a strength coach will look at sprint starting with a very different lens than a dancer. The strength coach will immediately default to what weight room exercise can be used to improve the start. The dancer will key on the posture, shapes, rhythm and tempo of the action. That does not mean that either are wrong, just a different lens that is biased by their background and training.

Don’t forget to recognize that there are different lenses. Work to have interchangeable lens so that you be more effective as a coach.

Look for Connections

Always think toe nails to fingernails. I learned this from Wilf Paish, an English coach almost fifty years ago. If in doubt look for and train connections. Ankle to knee and hip to shoulder, shoulder to elbow, and elbow to wrist, the body is a link system. What you do in one link effects all other links. The link system is designed to reduce and produce force harmoniously in all three planes of motion. Sport movements are coordinated actions in pursuit of specific goals – throwing  a ball, propelling through the water, jumping high or far. All are the result of muscle synergies applied to the skill of the sport through directed practice. Get hip the shoulder and you can’t go wrong.

Landing

Working on landing as an isolated skill is probably misdirected work. Here is my thought process – aside from long jump, final jump in the triple jump and landings in gymnastic where sticking the landing is part of the judged routine, seldom if ever is landing a terminal action.

Much of the misunderstanding of landing comes from seeing still pictures of an athlete on one foot. There is no context of what the athlete did to get to that position or what they are going to do after that position. This is especially true of pictures of the so-called “position of no return” with the knee in an extreme valgus position resulting in a torn ACL. In change of direction the point of contact (landing) is essentially the position of the center of gravity in relation to the base of support, the goal being to change the direction of movement. Essentially you are passing through, not stopping.

For many years I was a big advocate of the stick & hold concept (Triple Flexion – Ankle/Knee/Hip) as a progression to teach proper force reduction. In certain situations, I spent an inordinate amount of time on this. I now think that I was wrong or at the least misdirected. Sticking and holding a landing and subsequently analyzing that on a force platform is relatively meaningless. It is just gathering more numbers that are essentially noise.

As an alternative I suggest a simple progression beginning with walking, progressing to easy controlled run and finally to sprint tempo. Just take a step forward and change direction 45 degrees, then ninety degrees and keep moving in the new direction. Repeat progressively getting faster. Then you can go to Jimmy Radcliffe’s speed cut and power cut progressions (This will be on a GAIN Master Class https://thegainnetwork.com/events/gain2020/ ). This will be time better spent and accomplish improved “landing” technique and will serve an injury prevention exercise.

Always relate the point of contact (landing) to where you are coming from and to where you are going. Then related this to the task that must be accomplished after the change of direction. It is part of movement and highly contextual.

Shapes

Looking at shapes will give you a different perspective on viewing, analyzing and effecting change in movement. Look closely at the shapes your athlete must make in the course of performing in their sport. Then look at the shapes they can make. Then look at what they have to do to reconcile the shapes they have to make with the shapes they can make. How quickly and efficiently can they change shapes? What is limiting their ability to make the required shapes – it is strength, flexibility, lack of body awareness or something else? With the young developing athletes making shapes has become an emphasis. I make it playful and set up tasks that require them to make as many shapes as possible and the challenge each other to change shapes almost like a big improvisational dance. It is very FUNdamental. For the mature senior athletes, I am now structuring a three to five-minute session of “shapes’ where they have to challenge themselves much like the junior athletes. I find myself increasingly speaking the language of shapes – big, little, tall, small, round, wide – It has given me a better perspective on reconciling coordination with sport skill. No more robots, just a dance of connected shapes!

My Trip to OZ, January & February 2020

This was my fourteenth visit to Australia with my first visit in 1996. I love Australia and Australians, so much so that I have been labeled by my Aussie friends as “Aussie Vern.” I spend three weeks there with a break of one week in New Zealand to visit my good friend, Gord Stewart. I met Gord in 1970 during my first decathlon. He lived with us for a time in Santa Barbara when he was training for 1976. I would stay with him in Victoria B.C when I was lecturing at National Coaching Institute. It was great to catch with he and his wife and reminisce about past good times. They live in a beautiful small town, Matamata, where Lord of the Rings was filmed. I could live there in a heartbeat.

My first week in OZ was at New South Wales Institute of Sport (NSWIS). Phil Moreland who heads up S&C brought me in to do a talk on coaching and to do professional development with his staff. That consisted of one on one meeting with each of the staff and observation of training. I also got to catch with Kenneth Graham, one of the best sport scientists I know. He will be leaving NSIS which is a huge loss for the organization. I got to work Phil when he was at Scottish Institute of sport where he changed the culture and delivery of S&C. He is working to do the same at NSWIS. I am grateful to Phil for bringing me in.

Jimmy Radcliffe was in town for a presentation on Saturday, so we got him do a one-hour presentation to the NSWIS staff Friday. Saturday evening John Pryor and his family and I caught up with Jimmy for dinner next to the iconic Sydney Opera house. We also snuck in a little talk on training. John Pryor AKA JP and I go back to 24 years to my first visit down under. JP is a real innovator and forward thinker. Always great to catch up with him, great spending the weekend with him and the family

The second week I spent the first three days with the Melbourne Storm Rugby League team. Lachlan Penfold, Director of Performance is the Director of Performance. This was a real eye opener as to what can be done when everyone is on the same page and singing from the same songbook. Lachlan and the head coach Craig Bellamy plan practices, Lachlan administers them in terms of organization and time structure. The physical preparation/athletic development sessions are seamlessly blended and integrated in the skill, technical and tactical work. It reminded me of what I saw at University of Oregon when Chip Kelley was there with Jimmy Radcliffe. Fitness comes from the composition of practice and the tempo of training. Virtually no additional “fitness’ work is done. The Storm want to play fast, so they practice fast. Speed is a common theme. The weight room sessions were very structured and well organized with individual needs taken into consideration. American football at all levels could learn a lot from what Lachlan is doing with the Storm. I had lunch with Craig Bellamy, the head coach, to get his perspective. He admitted that when Dean Benton was there and started with this approach, he was worried the players would not be fit for the game. He said he was quickly won over.

During my time in Melbourne I was able to visit with Grant Duthie, professor at Australian Catholic University. Grant is a brilliant practitioner who has coached and is doing research. Grant is my go-to resource when I want straight information on training load or research design.

I was also able to catch with Warren Young for coffee. Warren is a super humble guy who has been a great source of information for me over the years. He challenged on my stance regarding Nordic Hamstring Curls, did not change my mind but got me thinking. Looking forward to more dialogue with him on this.

My last week I spend with Australian Rugby. Dean Benton, National Head of Athletic Performance for Australian Rugby facilitated this. Dean and I go way back. Dean has initiated an innovative approach to upgrade the standard of training for rugby in Australia. They have been close, but close is not good enough in international sport. The men’s and women’s sevens team were there in training. The women are defending Olympic gold medal winners. Their focus and intensity reminded very much of the US women’s ice hockey in preparation for 2018 Olympics. The week started out with a testing session of the women’s sevens. Dean has initiated a nationwide testing program to track power, speed and fitness. Much of my time was spent observing all aspects of the seven’s training and meeting with the performance coaches, physios and sport coaches. On Thursday I presented to the all the performance coaches from the various franchise teams and the staff at Australian rugby on the following:

Put Your Best Team on the Field

1. Return to competitions strategies after injury
2. Not a race to get back, a progression  to get better
3. No protocols, instead criteria-based progressions
4. How to use injury as an opportunity
5. Rehab the injury and train the athlete
6. Keeping them in the game once they get back

How to Coach - Getting Better at Getting Better

1. How to coach better to optimize your time and resources
2. How to change your practice to change how you play.
3. Key steps to improving practice
4. Proper progression prevents poor performance
5. Developing competence to improve competence
6. Learn to distort the game in  practice to make it easier
7. Some lessons on learning from skateboarders

The goal was to stimulate thought to encourage and challenge the status quo.

The top three floors of Australian rugby house some classrooms and labs of the University of Technology, Sydney. I was able to have coffee with Aaron Coutts and Franco Impellizzeri both professors at the university. It was a stimulating discussion by two sport scientists who are not following the flock, especially on acute versus chronic training load ratios. I only regret I was not able to spend more time with them. My week with Australian rugby went by too fast. It great to see the energy and the expertise dedicated toward getting Australian rugby back to the top.

I miss Australia already. I miss the professionalism of the coaches, physio’s, sport scientists and sport coaches. I was able to interact with. They have their problems just like we do, but the can-do attitude was refreshing. My only regret was not getting to see an AFL training session, perhaps next time. Special thanks to Phil Moreland, Lachlan Penfold and Dean Benton for making all this happen. I hope I will be invited back soon. All the best - Aussie Vern

It’s a Big Dance

Every sport skill has a basic technical model that a beginner can master in a relatively short time. What is the difference then from that and the master – the Roger Federer in tennis, Usain Bolt in sprinting, Simone Biles in gymnastics or Michael Phelps in the pool? What makes them masters of their craft? Certainly, they have refined technique, that is a given. The longer I coach and the more I reflect on this I am convinced it is rhythm and tempo. Like great musicians it is the space between the notes that makes the music special. Like great authors it is the choice of words and punctuation or lack thereof that distinguishes their work. Great athletic movement is a highly choreographed dance with effortless control characterized by rhythm, flow and smooth connections seemingly without tension. Often it is not as apparent to the untrained eye. When you are in proximity whether it is the court, pool or track you can feel it, you can hear it – it is special. The question for me always has been, can you coach it or is it just a gift that these great ones have? I like to think you can coach it to a degree. It all starts with how these skills are taught. Too often we take a young athlete and try to fit them into a mold instead of letting them explore and feel the movement. Let them experiment and forget about getting it right, instead work on getting a feel. You don’t teach running mechanics, instead you make it a game, a dance an exploration of how the body moves. It may look messy and chaotic at first, but it will quickly smooth out. It’s all just a big dance.

LTAD is Becoming Cliché

Let’s look at where we have been over the past seventy years. What has changed? Society has changed immensely; youth sport has become commercialized. There is no longer mandatory physical education in the schools. Then and now child development does not follow a neat linear progression, so-called windows of opportunity for development of various physical is a myth, sport development is all over the place, youth phenoms rarely turn out to be senior champions. We need to stop following recycled eastern European so called LTAD models. They were developed for a different society in a different era. We need to put a concerted effort to get mandatory daily physical education back in the schools, not just for sport development but for general health. Physical education will provide the physical literacy and movement skills base that are foundations for specific sport skills. Let’s stop following the flock, think critically and recognize the current socio-cultural milieu in America and come up with a workable framework that fits our society and current reality. We can do it!

GAIN 2019 – Applications Open

GAIN is a community of professional’s eager to learn and willing to share ideas and information. GAIN is not about more exercises, sets, reps and training methods it is about passionate people who pursue excellence with honesty, integrity and respect to make a difference in the lives of the people we coach and teach.

Who attends? GAIN is open to Strength & Conditioning/Athletic Development coaches, Sport Coaches, Physical Therapists, ATC’s, Chiropractors, Doctors and Physical Education teachers. Those who attend are professionals seeking career advancement & renewal through a networking experience and who are interested in getting out of their comfort zone.

When is GAIN? June 11 to June 15, 2019

Where is GAIN? It is held on the campus of Rice University in Houston Texas.

How much does GAIN cost? Tuition is $2150. This includes breakfast, lunch and dinner each day, and lodging at Rice University.

How do I apply? Go to tinyurl.com/gain19 to apply, submit your application now, enrollment is limited. We will let you know within ten days if you are accepted.

Where can I learn more about GAIN? Go to www.thegainnetwork.com/ or call 941-378-1778. You can also email Vern Gambetta at [email protected]

Why do I have to apply? Can’t I just sign up? Having people apply is part of what makes GAIN special. It would be easier to make it open for anyone to enroll, but that is not what GAIN is about. We are looking for people who are wiling to share and challenge themselves and others to grow professionally. The people in the network with you are as important (maybe even more important) than the faculty experts. The connections and inspiration you get from those around you have a significant impact on the experience.

Who are the faculty? Our faculty has a a tremendous breadth of experiences and a record of excellence in their chosen fields. They know how a performance team works, how all aspects of athletic development complement each other and most importantly they understand the process of developing athletes.

How does the network work? The GAIN annual meeting is the beginning. Participants have access to a secure website that offers access to an online forum and library including video of past GAIN Annual Meetings. In addition, GAIN members are eligible to come back each year at a reduced rate.

GAIN 2019 Theme Building on the Basics – Step by Step

GAIN Mission To focus on the possibilities for enhancing human movement with no limits or limitations and emphasize connections and links between all disciplines in the same manner we emphasize connections and linkages in the body.

Commonalities of Movement

Human movement is fundamentally beautiful and flowing. Step back and look at sports from a movement perspective, not a sport skill perspective, you will see a commonality in movement, a beauty and a flow. Start with walking gait. Overserve the opposition of the arms and legs and the counter rotation of the shoulders and the hips. Look for this across movements. Gait is a great place to start! All throws look fundamentally the same, all jumps look the same, acceleration, regardless of the sport looks the same. The only thing that changes is the implement, the surface and the uniform in the sport. When I coach I look for the commonalities in movements and coach those commonalities. All sports involve some combination of the following movements: running, jumping, throwing, pushing, pulling, reaching, lifting, bending, extending, stopping and starting.

When I set out to design and implement an effective training program I am aware of all these movements and how they efficiently blend and flow into athletic skill. In order to effectively design a training program, it is necessary to train fundamental movement skill before we train specific sport skill. This is contrary to the typical approach where sport skill is taught early and the sport is used as conditioning. Specific sport skill is blending of a series of basic movements into the whole. That is our objective. Start with a vision of what we want the athlete to look like at the end of the training program and then break it down into incremental progressive parts to arrive at the point, but never lose sight of the whole.