Author: Vernon Gambetta
Tokyo Olympics in the Rear View Mirror
Well, the 2021 Olympics are in the books. It was an Olympics like no other. Great performances, disappointing performances, surprising performances, great upsets, in short just about everything you want to see in an athletic contest. But something was missing for me, and it wasn’t spectators. The magic, the passion that has been ignited in me by the Olympics just wasn’t there. I think the added year dragging it out was part of the malaise that I felt. I had skin in the game, our swimmer from the Sarasota Sharks won a silver medal, an outstanding accomplishment in one of the toughest events in swimming. The extra year was to her benefit, but for many others it was too much mentally and physically. I do think we need to rethink the Olympic games. For sure to downsize it would be a good place to start. Now we are looking at three years preparation rather than four. This presents interesting challenges. Over the next months I will be posting more on lessons learned from the games. Questions that have been raised. We can’t let this unique learning opportunity pass.
Seeing the World with Childs Eyes
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. This is a picture of my ten-month-old granddaughter, Taylor at the California Academy of Science Aquarium. Her eyes tell the story. It is a reminder to us as coaches to see the movements we coach through a child’s eves. We can miss the wonder and beauty of movement by being too technical and reductionist. Don't be afraid to be a kid again to see what is there.
Coming Home to Roost – Injuries
Injuries at all levels of sport are off the charts. Despite much hand wringing, bloviating, and elaborate injury prevention programs injures continue to rise. In the actual sport training, we are so concerned with “load management” that we not stressing the athletes enough to prepare them for the rigors of the competition. In short, we are reaping what we sow – we have a generation of fragile athletes unprepared for the demands of competition. Look at time spent training for the specific sport. Look at time devoted to so called “injury prevention.’ Look at time devoted to recovery – ice baths, massage etc. Then compare those time allotments with the time devoted to actual physical training in preparation for the sport. In most cases it is not even close. Go back into the athlete’s background. Many specialized early. Few in any had physical education therefore have a poor foundation of physical literacy and competence. Coaching at the foundational level that used to be done by school coaches trained in sound pedagogy is now done by parents and travel team coaches who have no foundation in sound coaching. At the collegiate and professional the increased specialization and compartmentalization of the coaching and support staff has been a major contributing factor. You have strength coaches, speed coaches, rehab specialists, injury prevention specialists, flexibility coaches and recovery specialists. All of those who come under the umbrella of sports medicine usually lead by a doctor who has no understanding of training. At the professional level you have too many of these individuals pointing fingers to keep their jobs instead of doing their job. All are in silos with no communication, all working independently of the sport coaches who have little or no understanding of the physical preparation piece all these people are working on. Add to this extended competitive season with the pervasive myth that all you can do in season is maintenance work and here we are. It all has all come to roost, it is not the pandemic, this has been years in the making. It is going to take some serious recognition of the problems, asking, and answering difficult questions to reverse this alarming trend. Ladies and gentlemen, the chickens have come home to roost
Rhythm & Tempo
When working on writing projects I listen almost exclusively to two classic jazz albums: Time Out with the Dave Brubeck Quartet and Kind of Blue with Miles Davis. Over the years it is the rhythm, tempo, time, and phrasing that keep me coming back to these classics. The longer I coach the more I see that one of the differentiators between good and great, sound technicians in their sport and flawed technicians is rhythm and tempo. It is certainly something that I coach now more than I ever have. It is something that I look for in analyzing efficient movement. Great movement is jazz – it is orchestrated but with rhythm and flow allowing for improvisation. Jazz is not mechanical. The take home message is to look for rhythm and tempo and coach it.
Now what?
You have a bachelors and master’s degree in sports science. You know more scientific theories than Newton & Einstein combined. You can run a GPS tracking system and generate multiple spreadsheets; you know how to measure lactate. You can analyze sleep. You have done multiple free internships with professional teams. You are now applying for coaching jobs. Only one problem – Can you coach? Do you understand the fundamentals of pedagogy? Can you make meaningful corrections based on the numbers you have gathered? Can you relate to the athletes you are working with in a language they can understand and apply? This a huge problem today. We have coaches who can’t coach people. There is a lack of understanding of fundamental concepts. Coaching is about teaching and getting people better. It is not high tech; it is high touch work that demands a high degree of emotional intelligence. Where have all the coaches gone? There many are many solutions, none of which are comfortable. It demands looking at what master coaches have done over the years. Getting back to teaching models. Technology is part of the picture, but technology is only a tool in the coach’s toolbox. My passion and mission going forward for the rest of my career is to coach coaches. That is why I started GAIN 14 years ago. Go to https://thegainnetwork.com/ to learn more about GAIN to develop yourself professionally.
The best exercises for …
It drives crazy to see posts that list the best exercises for ______ , you fill in the blank. This holds back good training. It is never about the exercise. Rather it is about the movement. Understand the movements necessary to prepare the athletes for the demands of their sport, then select the exercises that meet those movement criteria. Not complicated, very basic.
Reflection and Thank You
In the coaching profession it is said that the measure of a coach is the ability to have their athlete or team ready on the day. I can’t say enough about the job coach Brent Arckey did getting Emma Wyant ready for the 400 IM at Olympic Trials. Not only did she win but also swam a lifetime best – that is being ready on the day! I am thankful to Brent to having me work with Emma and being able to make my small contribution. As an old guy I could not help but reflect on how fortunate I have been able to work with coaches like Brent and athletes like Emma throughout my career. A special thanks to Emma for bring so much joy to this old man, you are special and will go far in life. After the race I was thinking about Nort Thornton, who passed away this spring and how much he would have enjoyed Emma’s race. Nort had a huge influence on what I do with swimming dry land and my ideas about training in general. I miss our phone conversations. I am sure Jack Simon was watching from his retirement home in México, but Jack was the one who got me interested in swimming close to fifty years ago. Another great coach that I was thinking about was as I watched USC perform at the NCAA track meet was the late Tony Wells. USC’s performance had Tony Wells written all over it. Carol Smith Gilbert was coached by Tony and mentored by him. What a tribute to a great man and coach. I sure miss picking Tony’s brain about sprints and hurdles. We had some great times teaching at development camps in the 1980’s. Coaching is special. It has never been a job for me. I just am so thankful to be able to still keep at it. ONWARD AND UPWARD!
Stop and Think?
Why do we persist in prescribing exercises that isolate individual muscles? Instead, we should be focusing on the coordination of movements and muscle synergies that involve those muscles. What is important in human movement is how everything is integrated into the kinetic chain to produce smooth, rhythmic flowing movement. Lest we forget strength training is coordination training with appropriate resistance. Isolating individual muscle just creates neural confusion. Training movement's not muscles gives you more bang for buck in terms of efficient use of training and biomechanical efficiency.