Did you have to play the game?

As an
athletic development coach how often have I heard the lament – How can you
prepare us you never played the game? I have heard that more times than I care
to mention. Personally I think one of the worst qualifications for being an
athletic development (S&C coach for the uninitiated) is to have played the
game, especially if you were a star at the sport. This goes back to my first
days as a Track & Field coach. Bill Toomey had just retired
from competition; he was the 68 Olympic Gold medalist in the Decathlon and the
world holder. I remember trying to talk to him about training and technique; he
had no idea, no system. He sort of knew what he did and thought that would apply
to everyone else – WRONG! I had a similar situation in professional baseball
where our program with the White Sox was being scrutinized by a new minor
league coordinator who had played nineteen years in the big leagues. Because he
had nineteen years in the big leagues and I had never played baseball at any
level, it was obvious that he knew everything and I knew nothing. The problem
was he had one experience nineteen times. He could not look at the game
objectively and see what the players could to get better beyond more swings or
more ground balls. The moral of all of this is that if you have good sound
principles and can evaluate movement then you should be able to work with any
sport if you take the time to get to know the demands of the sport and the
positions in the sport. Remember it more than being sport specific, it is being
sport appropriate and making sure that athleticism is not compromised. I
actually think it is an advantage to have not played the sport, I think it
allows you to be completely objective. That is not to say that you reject ideas
from those who have played the game. I learned a lot watching Toomey train, I
learned a lot listening to some former big league pitchers explain what they
did, I learned a lot about baseball and preparation for the game from Carlton
Fisk.