Functional Path Training

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.

Training Mistakes

The following is a list of some mistakes that I have made in coaching and teaching. If you learn from your mistakes I should be a genius, but unfortunately some of the lessons were only learned after I repeated of these mistakes several times. I hope that by sharing these with you, it will help you to avoid making the same mistakes I have made.

It does not have to be hard to be good - Each workout is part of a larger picture. If you put their backs to the wall in each training session you will quickly lose sight of the picture. Everything must be in context. Remember that different physical qualities adapt at different rates, so they need to be stressed differently.

Too much, too soon - You can’t hurry the adaptive process. The younger athlete can handle a lot both in terms of volume and intensity, but once again if you lose sight of the big picture it is important to remember that not following proper progression and individualizing can stifle long term development.

Overloading the spine – Too often and too young - I think this is obvious, so I don’t know why it took me so long to figure it out. Even with the mature athlete the spine just cannot take the heavy repetitive loading that is imposed on it by too much heavy back squatting and dead lifting.

Too many exercises or drills in a training session - This just leads to confusion from an administrative perspective and poor adaptive response on the part of the athlete. This results in a loss of focus. They get tired, but they do not get better.

Repetitious Exercises - Usually overloads one area or one component, the end result is a poor training response. I always say hunt with a rifle, not a shotgun.

Training to failure - This leads to failure. Each workout becomes an end unto itself and the athlete starts holding back anticipating the failure.

Over reliance on one exercise or training method - This created on trick ponies. You are what you train to be.

Reliance on a machine in training or a modality in rehab - You adapt to that environment, but not the environment you need to perform in.

Quick fixes - There are none! I have learned that it is an easy come, easy go proposition.

Crash programs - Crash programs crash, you can’t hurry the process. Adaptation takes time and the time frames for the various components are quite predictable.

Dark Holes

Throughout my career I have observed athletes disappear into dark holes never to reappear or if they did they were a shadow of their former selves. What is an athletic dark hole? It is biased one sided training that emphasizes development of one physical quality to the exclusion of all others. The most frequently occurring dark holes are strength training to the exclusion of everything else or an emphasis on aerobic work to build a base that takes away all explosiveness. Neither is bad unto themselves but without context they possess the potential to kill an athlete. All components of training must be trained during all phases of the training year in the context of the objectives of that phase and the needs of the individual athlete.

Beyond the Numbers

In today’s world of high performance sport we have the potential to bury ourselves in numbers. There is not much we can’t analyze, measure or monitor.  In many ways this is a positive step forward and it some ways it can be negative. The key is keeping the numbers in context. If you are letting the numbers dictate everything you do and don’t do then it is time to reconsider. This is where I weigh in on the human element in coaching. We coach people who do the sport not machines, there is a huge about of individual variability to the same training and competition stress not to mention the emotional and psychological factors that weigh in. Talk to your athletes; closely observe their body language when they come to training and during warm-up. Find out about the rest of their lives, remember they are athletes only two to four hours a day the other hours of the day can and do have more of an impact than the training – the twenty four hour athlete. In short sharpen your observation and communication skills. It will add a dimension to the numbers, sometimes it will validate the numbers and other times it will dictate throwing out the numbers and following your coaching instincts. I cannot help but think how we did it before we had the ability to gather the numbers we have today. After all in high performance sport the only number that counts at the end of the competition are those numbers on the scoreboard.

Forest for the Trees

In course of day to day coaching it is easy to lose sight of the forest for the trees. Good or bad training sessions can easily get blown out of proportion. The same is true with exercises, sets, reps and rest intervals – coach the athlete that is in front of you that day. Keep the big picture in mind. Never lose sight of the ultimate goal – preparing the athlete to thrive in competition.

The Championship Season

It’s championship season in Track & Field. This is what everyone has been preparing for all year. Are your athletes ready? Rest assured at this time of year there is always doubt. Have I done enough? Have I done too little? The bottom line is that you must trust your preparation and assure your athletes that their preparation has been what they need. There is nothing you can do now to make them better. If you have the urge to do something different – DON’T. If you have the urge to do one more hard workout – DON’T. Fine tune and keep reminding yourself that at this stage of the season what you don’t do is more important than what you actually do. Get them feeling like a caged lion coming out of the gate. Always remember the advice of the old cowboy: “Always dance the last dance with who brung you to the dance.”

Random Thoughts on Training to Wrap Up 2016

Volume is not a biomotor quality. Anyone can do more; the path to success is doing it better.

Train speed in – It is precious. Very easy to compromise by speed by doing too much

Strength as a motor quality is easy to develop and even easier to stabilize (Maintain)

Consist work is more important than an occasional spectacular workout

Train to your strengths and minimize the weaknesses

So-called “Reactive Agility” is best trained within the context of the actual technical and tactical sport practice. Coaches pointing to cones and flashing lights do not get it done.

The majority of “Programmed Agility” is actually injury prevention (working on force reduction ability) and rehearsal of complex movements in a controlled rather than chaotic environment

Use drills selectively, specifically and sparingly. Drills do not equal skills

Understand and apply the distinction between General, Special and Specific Strength

Injury prevention work should be a transparent part the regular training sessions.

Recovery is important but first you have to do enough work to warrant recovery

Developing a Training System

My concepts of training are based on study of past training methods, sports science research, best practice, and practical experience working with all levels of athlete. When developing a training system you learn through deliberate practice, through trial and error, you learn in the trenches, not just in a book, a classroom or a laboratory. You learn from your mistakes and your successes. That is where you start, but that is just a beginning. Learn to lean heavily on common sense; it works because it is simple and natural. If we follow common sense and your instincts based on experience and good science we will do the correct things concerning movement and training. Modern society and conventional wisdom in training has dulled our instincts. The key is to unlock these instincts and allow the body to solve movement problems the way the body was designed to function. Allow the body to use its inherent wisdom. Movement is natural, it is is not dangerous or extreme; watch what children do in free play when unrestrained by adult supervision and burdened by having to do the movements correctly. They move with freedom, they do not look like robots. Today even at the highest levels of sport coaches are creating robots. Lest we forget movement is not paint by numbers, it is an expressionist drawing, it is not a classical music aria, it is jazz riff.

Are we creating fragile athletes?

We are spending so much time measuring various training loads, planning recovery and putting restrictions on the athletes based on those measurements that we are creating fragile athletes instead of more resilient robust athletes? What are we doing? In the search for protecting the athlete are we creating athletes who are unprepared for training load of any significance, much less a competition load because they have never been under duress in training? Everywhere I turn I see this. Just because you can measure something does not mean it is meaningful and certainly we can measure everything. Lets focus on what the athlete can do and needs to do to prepare for the rigors of competition. I would ever want to go back to the way it was fifty years ago when I was playing college football where we had three-hour practices with no water that was not the way to do it. We do need to push them and they need to learn their bodies and it’s capabilities by pushing the envelope and getting uncomfortable. It always goes back to basics of coaching, sound pedagogy, knowing the demands of the sport, knowing the athletes and having a system with a plan to implement the system. Some common sense would go along way to protecting and still creating a highly adaptable athlete that can handle a training load and thrive in competition.

Wise Words From Two Great Coaches

Over the past three weeks I have been fortunate to speed time with two great coaches, professional colleagues and most importantly close friends and great people – Juan Osorio now the manger of the Mexican National team in soccer and Jim Radcliffe, head S&C coach at University of Oregon. We share a passion for coaching excellence that has connected us over the years. I only wish I could have recorded my dinner conversation with Juan as he recounted the month he spent with Pep Guardiola in Barcelona and the other month with Louis Van Gal when he was at Bayern – Priceless! Juan’s passion for learning is off the scale, I am looking for him to take El Tri to new heights of achievement. During matches Juan writes his observations and comments on the game in a notebook, in many ways this has become his trademark, something the TV commentators are always pointing out. When he was asked why he writes in a notebook during the game he answered: “ A short pencil is more efficient than a long memory” wise words to ponder.

This past weekend in what has become a tradition Jimmy Radcliffe flies from the NCAA regional track meet to spend a day in Sarasota with me just catching up and talking training. In many ways that day and the week at GAIN are the highlights of my year. Jimmy like Juan is passionate and driven to learn and improve. Like Juan a 16 hour day is the norm, when I think if Jimmy I think of him as the coaches coach. Here is some sage advice from Jimmy during our conversation Sunday on recovery. “When you look at recovery always look at what you are recovering from and what you are recovering for?” Again food thought, use recovery methods strategically and wisely.

Just writing about these two guys makes me realize how blessed I am to have friends like this who are not self-promoters and genuine great people.