Author: Vernon Gambetta
Coach & Teach the Way You Would Want to Be Coached & Taught
One of my biggest motivations in coaching is to NOT coach the way I was coached when I played football in college. It was characterized by physical and mental abuse with motivation (If you want to call it that) by manipulation, domination and control. It does not work. I vowed then that I would always try to coach the way I wanted to be coached. Show care and respect for the athlete. Motivate through the intrinsic value of the sport. Remember that you are not coaching a sport; you are coaching people who do the sport. Coach the people part and everything else will fall into place. Coach appropriate to the level where you are coaching, children cannot be coached the same way as seasoned veterans. When I evaluate a coach and their methods, I ask myself one simple question – Would I want to be coached by them and would I want them coaching my son and daughter?
Some Lessons on Strength Training Learned Over 60 Years
I wanted to summarize some practical conclusions from my personal experiences so that young coaches and athletes starting out would not make the same mistakes I have made in my journey. There is no form of human motion that does not require some expression of force; therefore, all sports will derive benefit from sport appropriate strength training. The physical quality of strength is the underpinning for the optimum development of other biomotor qualities. That being said it is crucial to have an in-depth understanding of the strength and power demands of the sport you are preparing for and design the program to meet those demands while also considering the qualities of the individual athlete. The weight room can be a trap because gaining measurable strength (Chasing numbers) can be seductive. To a certain extent there is a direct return on the investment, the more you do the more strength you gain, especially at younger training ages and in the anabolically enriched (Often it’s the biology not the training program) teenage male athlete. It is imperative that you never lose site of the fact that strength training is about developing strength you can use and apply on the field, court, track, or pool, and this does not always equate with strength you can measure in the weight room. Even though we know better there is still a huge influence from bodybuilding training methods, the emphasis in these programs is on training the muscles. This can be very seductive, but questionable in the transfer to sport performance. My mantra after learning by going down the path of bodybuilding and coming to a dead-end street is to never lose sight of the fact that you must train movements not individual muscles. Athletic movements depend on muscle synergies and coordination; it is not a bodybuilding contest. Develop “go muscles” not” show muscles” that look good at the beach but do not transfer to function. As far as Olympic lifting the key here is to remember that you are not training Olympic lifters but that you are training athletes who are using the Olympic lifting movements to increase explosive power. There are many adaptations of the Olympic lifting movements with dumbbells, sandbags and kettlebells that will fit a wide variety of sports and level of athlete. Get beyond the bar, as the sole mode of resistance here and it will offer a wide range of possibilities for improving explosive power. Perhaps one of the biggest lessons I have learned and has been reinforced over the last 15 years is the roll of strength training with the female athlete. Strength training is a must for the female athlete starting out at or before puberty and continued throughout her career. The female athlete must strength train more often and never stop including training right into taper/peaking phase of competition. My rule of thumb is to emphasize volume of intensity is selecting the distribution the work. Female athletes will get more bang for their buck from the time invested. A good comprehensive strength-training program will help to create a favorable endocrine hormonal environment that will have a very positive influence on body composition It is not about facilities and fancy equipment. Think bodyweight before external resistance. You can strength train anywhere and anytime. Do not make your program dependent of facilities. The same goes for time, something is better than nothing. In certain sports and where there is an extended competitive season a 15 to 20-minute workout three to four time a week is better than one hour long session a week. Make the strength-training blend with the sport training where possible. Never underestimate the value that a short sharp session can have to prime the endocrine hormonal system and positively stimulate the nervous system. I certainly could go on, but I think it is best to end with a concise definition of strength training that I have evolved over the years: Strength Training is coordination training with appropriate resistance to handle bodyweight, project an implement, move, or resist movement of another body, resist gravity and optimize ground reaction forces. I will continue to search for better ways and more efficient strength training methodology. I personally strength train at least three to four days a week, an imperative necessary with aging to try to offset the effects of gravity. For me the journey continues.
I Think I Can
There will always be naysayers, doubters, and critics – If you listen to them, you will never progress. Never let them define you or hold you back. Put your head down and do the work. Stick to your beliefs, the most important is the belief in yourself and your abilities. Do the work, keep plugging, prove them wrong. Eventually you will prevail, and they will be left in the dust. As I struggled in elementary school my mother would read “The Little That Could” to me. As I struggled in high school I came back to the book. I was told I could never play college football – I did. I was told I could never finish a decathlon after not having competed in track in college – I did. I was told I was not smart enough to go to college – I did. I was told you can never get into grad school at Stanford – I did. I was told that my ideas would never work in pro sport – They do. It all came down to belief, find people who believe in you and help you. Never look back, keep plugging and aim high. At 74 years of age, I take the message from “The Little Engine That Could” to heart every day. Thank you, mom, for not letting me give up. I think I can.
Center of the Universe
You folks out there who self-identify as strength coaches, the weight room is not the center of the universe. If you are going to develop a complete adaptable athlete ready to thrive in the competitive arena, then strength & power are important, but there are many ways to develop those qualities outside the weight room. The weight room is appropriate in certain phases of an athlete’s career and during a training year. It should never be the center of the athlete’s physical preparation unless they are a weightlifter. Too often the weight room becomes a dark hole where athletes disappear never to be seen again. Sure, they get “strong”, but to the detriment of other physical qualities without any consideration of the transfer of that strength to the actual sport. So many times, what is done in the weight room stays in the weight room. Take a step back and look at the big picture of developing the complete athlete. Get to know the sport you are preparing for, know the athlete’s position or event and above all get to know what the athlete needs. Be an athletic development coach not a strength coach.
Importance of Knowing Why
It is so easy to get caught up in the what – the exercise, the drill or the workout. Today with the plethora of training porn available on social media the what is even more prevalent than ever. I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to get beyond the what and understand the why. Why doing what you are doing, how you are doing it and with whom are you doing makes the what effective. Ask yourself when evaluating what you are doing where have I progressed from and where am I progressing to. It must have context and be more than a cool looking exercise. It is important to remember that one exercise or training session cannot make an athlete, but it can break an athlete. To optimize the training program deep understanding of why is necessary. For a deeper understanding of why I recommend following the work of Simon Sinek.
The Journey – Reflections & Recollections
This fifty plus year journey of coaching that I am on has been rewarding in so many ways. Most of the rewards are intangible, relationships, lessons learned. Trophies and medals get lost or break but memories last. The memories remind me how fortunate I have been to be able to do what I have done. I am a first generation American; my parents had no education but taught my brother and I the value of hard work and the necessity of education. When I was a teenager I am not sure I understood where they were coming from, but once I graduated college and began coaching and teaching their lessons drove me and continue to drive me today. So much in life both the professional and personal realms is being prepared. Being in the right place at the right time and ready to seize the moment. Always learning, always finding ways to get better. It is finding people and situations to challenge you. Never being complacent. Being in the moment, learning from the past, taking the actions necessary to thrive in the future. It all starts with the here and now. Always look for people to challenge you to be better. The best source for growth and personal development are the athletes you are coaching. Listen to what they say, watch what they do. Learn them as people and you will be a better coach and teacher. Recognize that mistakes and failures are all part of the growth process. They are only mistakes and failures if we don’t learn from them. Some of my biggest failures have turned into my greatest successes. To be the best you risk, you must be on the edge and sometimes you fall off, but you can never grow if you don’t test the limits. Good things are worth waiting for, but you must not be caught passively waiting. Keep the end vision in sight and make steps in the direction of the goal each day. Never underestimate the influence you have as a teacher or a coach. In the last few years reconnecting with former athletes from 40 and 50 years ago has underscored that for me. It also interesting to hear what they remember, it is not meets or big wins, it is the everyday practices, the interactions with teammates and the trips in the van. Progress occurs step by step; you can’t hurry it. If you lay the groundwork and stay with fundamentals, then incremental progress will occur and there will be occasional big breakthroughs.
All the Answers
I remember forty years ago when I had all the answers. Then I found out that I had the answers to the wrong questions. Since then, I have learned to follow the wise words of Ken Kesey. "The answer is never the answer. What's really interesting is the mystery. If you seek the mystery instead of the answer, you'll always be seeking. I've never seen anybody really find the answer — they think they have, so they stop thinking. But the job is to seek mystery, evoke mystery, plant a garden in which strange plants grow and mysteries bloom. The need for mystery is greater than the need for an answer." In my old age I am embracing the mystery. There is so much joy in learning new things and exploring the mysteries.
Shapes
The essence of efficient movement in everyday life and sport is the ability to make effective and appropriate shapes for the activity. From a sport performance perspective making shapes and changing shapes is a central objective in training. It is a perspective to view movement with new eyes. In training shapes, I have borrowed liberally from gymnastics, dance, and elementary physical education – these are the foundations on which to build shapes demanded by the sport. The actual physical preparation for making better shapes and changing shapes demands a combination of strengthening, lengthening and body awareness work that helps the athletes eliminate any weak links limiting the ability to make the desired shapes. Shape work can be done away from the pool, track, field or court to help prepare the body to make the necessary shapes and get into shapes beyond the normal. Training shapes is another step toward building more robust athletes. I now try to schedule some shape work every training session and I am continually pointing out to the athlete how an exercise we are doing will help make them better at the required shapes in their sport. Learning to speak the language of shapes and shape shifting will make you a more effective coach and develop better athletes.