Let’s Wake Up

Someone sent me a picture of one Americas promising young
hammer throwers squatting an ungodly amount of weight. I was amazed that with
everything we know today that coaches are still having their athletes do this. Why
in an event that demands high speed coordination are we still training our
athletes to be slow? This
type of work is roadblock to success, not a building block.This is just one event but symptomatic of a malaise that
infests the whole field of strength and conditioning. Certainly we are not
sailing uncharted waters, the path is clear, and the destination is obvious.  That begs the question then, why with all we know and the supposed
progress we have made, why are results so inconsistent. Why are preventable injuries
off the charts? We need to take a different approach. We must take a long look
at what got us to this point. Look back at what worked in the past. Look at
those people who are now producing consistent reproducible results and those
who have previously produced consistent results and learn from their success and failures.

We desperately need direction,
definition and leadership, not marketing and hype. We must put a stop to
intellectual incest – the process of passing around beliefs and myths as
training truths. We need to recognize and acknowledge the problems and address
them with concrete solutions. To achieve this we need to shift the focus back
on people, not facilities, equipment and training methods. It is not an issue
if it is a light sled or a heavy sled; it is about the athlete you are trying
to improve. Coaching is a people profession, people working with people to
raise performance levels. Optimal athlete development is coach driven and athlete centered. It is so easy to lose sight of this. We must do everything possible to raise the standard
of coaching through quality education that is based on historical best practice,
pedagogical principles  and applied sport
science. I hope this stimulates you to get on board and help me to define the
field of athletic development. We can change and we must change or we will go
the way of the dinosaur, mass extinction. I implore you to go beyond the weight room, go out and
work to build adaptable athletes that can thrive in the competitive arena,
regardless of the demands. Onward and upward!