Author: Vernon Gambetta
Lessons Learned and Earned in 2011
2011 has been an unbelievable learning year. The opportunity to interact with top professionals in many fields made this past year special. Over the next few days I will share with some of the lessons I have learned and earned. I say earned because this is an ongoing accumulation of graduate credits toward my PhD in the school of hard knocks. Some of the lesson over the years and this year have been hard earned. Hopefully this will stimulate some thought and reflection on your part. Some of these are old lessons I had to relearn and some are new. Lesson One – Coaching is a people profession. Technical expertise and scientific knowledge is necessary but emotional intelligence, the ability to connect on a personal basis is paramount. We don’t coach soccer players, tennis players or swimmers; we coach people who do those sports. It is so easy to lose sight of that and get caught up in the X’s and O’s, the technical and scientific and forget the people part, the human element. We don’t build athletes, we grow and nurture them, and it is a constant growth process with no set formula. Each athlete is a case study of one. The human element presents many unique and varied challenges. This is what makes up the art of coaching and what makes coaching so special.
Possibility
It is so easy to get caught in negativity and focusing on what an athlete can’t do as opposed to what they can do. Look where someone can be rather than where they are. Look for what someone can do rather than what they can’t do. Limits are artificial but sometimes as coaches we make them real by constantly verbalizing them. Project into he future and see what can be done. If you are working with developing athletes as I have for much of my career you must focus on possibilities. That gangly 14-year boy who can’t walk and chew gum at the same time could be the next ________ you fill in the blank. We must teach, direct, motivate and guide them. Make them aware of their possibilities and help them realize those possibilities, get them to share the vision.
Athlete Empowerment not Entitlement
I do not believe in entitling or anointing athletes. They must earn their way and pay their dues in all areas of their development. I do believe in athlete empowerment. The athlete needs to be a partner in the process, so that the process is meaningful and contributes to their growth as an athlete and a person. Coaching is not something you do to the athlete; it is something you do with the athlete. A good starting point for empowerment is to have the athlete do a complete self-assessment. The assessment needs to frank and honest and look at all aspects of their life. From this assessment they can then begin craft a personal mission statement. After that then they can begin to set goals. Goal setting and ultimately goal achievement is not an easy process. It is not just writing words on paper and occasionally looking at them. They must make the goals actionionable, they must continually assess their progress toward goals. We must teach the athlete how to set realistic performance goals based on objective measures. We must challenge them. This challenge should not be public, but a contract between you and the athlete that sets the bar higher for them. Teach them to measure against themselves and set a high standard. Do this in a one on one meeting. Assess their strengths and weaknesses. Show them what they need to do and how they can get better. Sell them on assuming ownership of their careers and help guide them. Ultimately it is a process of the coach and athlete growing together.
The Compass
Perhaps the most simple and effective navigation aid is the compass. As coaches it is imperative that we have a good working compass and a current road map to guide us to our destination. The compass must be oriented to true north, not magnetic north or we will always be two to three degrees off course. That is enough to miss the destination by miles. For a coach true north is each coach’s foundational beliefs and core philosophy based on tried and true principles and grounded in good ethics. The road map represents the journey. It must be current and accurate. There are signs and landmarks along the way to help guide to our destination, but it is through constant reference to our compass that those signs and landmarks have meaning to guide us to our destination. So don’t lose your compass and keep it oriented to true north.
Plyometric Training Thoughts
Plyometric training is not a stand-alone training method; it is highly compatible and significantly enhanced by strength training. It is also closely related to speed development. Most importantly it is NOT a conditioning tool! Because of the explosive nature of the work it is of high neural demand, therefore it should not be used for conditioning. It is a power development tool. It should almost never be trained in a climate of fatigue, with a few notable exceptions. Those exceptions are sports that demand power endurance like soccer, rugby, basketball, 400 meters or 400 meter hurdles. In those sports the fatigue element is only introduced after the technical component of the exercise is mastered. This will minimize risk of injury. The stimulus for adaptation is not volume, it is intensity, and nothing should ever compromise the intensity of the movements. Less is definitely more. Too much emphasis has been placed on volume in terms of the number of contacts. Over the years with a better understanding of the application of the method, I have reduced the number of contacts in a training session and a microcycle with equal or better results. In the past it was not uncommon to perform 300 – 400 contacts in a session, today a high volume session is in the range of 90 – 120 contacts with a range of 250 – 400 contacts for a microcycle. I have learned that more is definitely is not better. If used properly it is a highly effective tool to stimulate the nervous system, but if used improperly it can have the opposite and dull, if not deaden the nervous system and lead to injury.
Exercises
The exercise is the smallest component of the entire training process. Basically a workout is a blend of carefully selected exercises designed to achieve a specific objective. Special consideration must be given not only to the selection of the individual exercise but also to the sequence of the exercises. There is a definite synergistic relationship between exercises. One exercise sets up another exercise. If improperly sequenced an exercise can detract from the previous or following exercise. It is imperative to be very specific with the goals and objectives of each exercise so that they complement each other. Many times I have attended a clinic or a seminar and come back with a specific exercise or an idea for a exercise that I thought would be particularly useful. At various times I have tried to put the newly acquired exercises directly into the training program. Occasionally this has worked, but more often than not I found that the exercise did not do anything better than what I was already doing. The moral of this story is to always evaluate any new exercises in the context of what you are already doing and the overall goal of the training program. Does the new exercise do something better than you are already doing? Where is the new exercise leading? Is it part of a progression? Subject each new exercise to the 3M Criteria: Is it manageable? Can I do it in the context of the whole plan. Can I do with the personnel and facilities available? Is it measurable? It is motivational? Do you the coach see real value in it and does the athlete relate it to their improvement? Perhaps the most important question is the new exercise an absolute need to do activity or is it just nice do? If it is nice to do then it should not be included.
The Gambetta Method – Systematic Athletic Development Principle Five
Systematic Athletic Development Principle Five – Train bodyweight before external resistance Basically this entails is being able to handle bodyweight against gravity. The starting point is traditional bodyweight exercises like the push-up, pull-up, rope climb, step-ups, bodyweight squat etc. This type of work will help to strengthen the tendons and ligaments as well as the muscles in preparation for external loading to follow in whatever form that is appropriare for the athletes stage of development and the sport. It will also ensure good joint stability and body awareness. I call this foundational strength; in essence you are building a strong solid foundation for heavier loading to follow. Loading is progressive using percentage of bodyweight in incremental changes. Starting with a weight vest and then adding a sandbag. When I first started coaching this was referred to as ”farm boy strong.” The farm boys never lifted weights in a traditional sense, but they were very functionally strong in their ability to handle their bodyweight and odd sized objects. They had developed strength they could apply in any situation. It is important to stress that during this foundational strength phase that external resistance is appropriate as long as it is expressed in a percent of bodyweight. For examples Olympic lifting movements with dumbbells serve to build a great foundation in technique to lead into heavier work with the bar. It also must be stressed that that this is a means to end, not an end unto itself. It is preparation for appropriate loads to follow. The foundational strength phase can be as short as three weeks for a mature athlete with an advanced training age to 18 weeks for a young beginning athlete. I have found that even as the athlete advances in training age that some bodyweight work is appropriate. Ioften use a bodyweight exercise as a warm-up to wake-up and connect in preparatiuion for a traditional weight training exercise to follow. It also serves as a good bridge between training cycles.
Strength Training Considerations – The Basics & Beyond Part Two
Take a proactive approach by paying attention to the little things. Carefully evaluate dynamic posture and injury history. Any significant postural defects must be addressed before moving deeper into a training program. Be sure to address individual differences. Do not hesitate to remediate. If the athlete cannot do an exercise find a simpler more remedial exercise to substitute. Recognize that the Gait Cycle is the basis of all movement. Select and design your exercises accordingly. This dictates that more work is done unilaterally and the leg work be done off one leg onto the other. How much time is available for strength training? Can you integrate your strength training utilizing the “weight room without walls” concept? What facilities are available? What equipment is available? Do not make facilities or equipment a limiting factor in beginning a program. Simplicity yields complexity. A few exercises done consistently will yield terrific results. This is especially true when beginning a program. Exercise selection criteria Multi-joint. Use as many joints as possible to produce force, conversely use as many joints as possible to reduce force. Close the chain to utilize gravity and ground reaction forces. Wherever possible exercises should be performed standing. Tri-plane motion. Movement occurs in all three planes, sagittal, frontal, and transverse. The key to performance is movement in the transverse plane, therefore it is important to include rotational movement wherever possible. Amplitude. Work over the greatest range of motion that is possible to control. Speed. Incorporate speed of movement that is safe and the athlete can control. Proprioceptive Demand. Challenge the joint and muscle receptors to provide feedback regarding joint and limb position and reposition accordingly. The proprioceptors assist the system to generate movement in a form that it is appropriate to the demands placed upon the system. This will ensure that the strength will transfer to performance. Considering the above criteria machine training should play a minor role in a strength training program. There is the mistaken notion that it is best to begin a strength training program by using machines. Nothing could be further from the truth. The machines provide that stabilization. They give a false sense of security and stability that does not transfer to a free gravitationally enriched environment. Also for the younger smaller athlete the machines do not fit which increases the risk of injury. The machines that are acceptable are various rowing and pulley machines, but even those need only be a small part of the program. Isolation exercises that put unusual stress on one joint should be avoided. They cause neural confusion because the muscle is asked to something different in strength training than it must do in movement. Consequently exercises like leg extension, leg curl, concentration curls and Pec deck flys have no place in a functional strength-training program. A sound strength training program should include the following essential characteristics: The work must incorporate multiple joints in the exercises. The exercises must take place in a gravitationally enriched environment The exercises must prepare the athlete to optimize Ground Reaction Forces. Core strength and stability is the cornerstone of the program. All training is core training.