In 1985 I began my foray into professional sports with the
Chicago White Sox and the Bulls as an assistant to Al Vermeil who had a
contract to provide the conditioning for both teams. Once again the same old
myths and misconceptions that I thought had been forgotten reared their ugly
head. You would have thought that by 1985 with the success that athletes had
enjoyed world wide with a comprehensive conditioning program that the coaches
and athletes would have been embraced this training as an opportunity to improve
their performance. I think since that there had been little emphasis on
training in professional basketball and baseball the attitude on the part of
the coaches was let them play, those who are talented will succeed and those
who are not will fall by the wayside. Although in looking back on those years I
think a big part of the problem was Vermiel’s over emphasis on trying to impose
the Olympic lifts on both sports. It created even more resistance and in many
ways the players and coaches were right, there was a better way.
I kept hearing that basketball and baseball were different.
Don’t lift heavy because it will hurt your shooting. The trainer told me that
pitchers should not lift overhead because it would hurt their shoulder. When I
stated that didn’t they lift their arm overhead when they pitched I was told I
didn’t understand the game. I was dumbfounded because they all ran, jumped and
threw.
In January of 1987 I was fortunate to attend the European
Athletic Coaches Association Conference in Aix Les Bains, France. There were
two speakers that got me pointed in the direction that I continue to pursue
today. The first speaker was Anatoly Bondarchuk, the Soviet throws coach whose
hammer throwers were dominating the world. I was generally familiar with his
concepts, but hearing him speak and getting to speak to him brought some
clarity to his ideas. I am currently working to apply many of his concepts to
my training programs today. The other speaker Giles Cometti really rocked my
boat. He got me thinking of the manipulation of various types of muscle action
on special and specific strength movements. I have continued to apply and
refine his concepts today. Perhaps the most profound application of his ideas
was with the Swiss Shot putter, Werner Gunthor.
In 1987 I took over as Director of Conditioning for the
Chicago White Sox that gave me the opportunity to put together a systematic
comprehensive program in professional sport and do it my way. At that time no
one in professional baseball had a systematic year around program. Few teams even
today have a program to the extent that we had. In order to make it work I
decided that we needed to make the program more specific to the demands of the
sport of baseball. It needed to include more work on balance and
proprioception, more work on rotation. I was very influenced by Dr. Lois Klatt,
head of the Human performance Lab at Concordia University in River Forest,
Illinois and the book Total Body Training Bob Gajda and
Robert Dominguez. Through their influence and working closely with several
physical therapists, I gradually moved away from weight training to the concept
of strength training. Weight training is one method of strength training; in
order to train a complete athlete it is necessary to utilize all methods
available to achieve the desired goal. What evolved was a functional strength-training
program that was adapted to the multi-plane demands of the sport of baseball as
well as the unique demands of the specific positions. The program was based on
biomechanical analysis so that the movements we were training were more
specific. Pitchers had a specific program; catchers had a specific program,
rather than one program for all. All these programs had all components linked
so that what was done with speed and agility training was related to balance
and proprioception work, which in turn was related to the strength training
work. The players were accountable for a daily program in-season and for a
comprehensive off-season program that was monitored. We had a pre spring
training pitcher/catcher mini camp for key players to make sure they were ready
for spring training (That was 1989 before anyone was doing it) My goal with the
White Sox was to create a model that would work in any sport. I was lucky to be
able to use the resources available to work toward accomplishing this task. We
were able to achieve good results with the White Sox both in terms of
measurable improvements of speed and power as well as significant reduction of
injuries.
During the
time I worked with the White Sox I also worked with the Men’s Canadian
Basketball team from 1989 to 94 and the women’s team from 1992 to 1994. That
was challenging and fun environment. Challenging because I had to design a
program for others to implement because I could not be with them all the time
due to my obligations with the White Sox. Fun because the coaches were so
supportive. It was a great learning experience.
I left the
White Sox in 1996 and have worked with a variety of sports since. I continue to
see some of the same things that I saw when I first started coaching. The monkeys
see, monkey do syndrome is still the norm. If it is good for them and they just
won the national championship then it is good for us. There is a prevalent
attitude that the greatest testament for a piece of equipment or a particular
training method is the affirmation of winning. What I have seen through my
experience is that success is often achieved in spite of, not because of the
training and that superior talent and genetics sometimes prevail. A good sound
training program is not based on equipment or personalities, but on sound
scientific training principles.
We need to
consider what is really high tech? I got a call recently from a friend who had
just visited a new training facility, he could not wait to call me and tell me
about the “high tech” facility he had just visited. They had a machine for
everything. Everything was connected to a computer. What is more high tech – the
machine or the body? I have come to the realization that the body is the
ultimate high tech machine. The farther away we get from the body the less
specific the training.
Perhaps
the biggest influence on my thinking the last ten years has been Frans Bosch.
His definition of strength training as coordination training with resistance
really resonated with me. It confirmed what I had seen and experienced over the
years. I have adapted his definition with my own spin as follows: Strength
Training is coordination with appropriate resistance, to handle bodyweight,
project an implement, move or resist movement of another body and optimize
ground reaction forces.