Author: Vernon Gambetta
IFAC – Catching Up
I just returned late last night form a wonderful educational. motivational and uplifting four days in Glasgow Scotland at the IFAC (International Festival of Athletics Coaching http://tinyurl.com/3bevtmh). This is the brainchild of my good friend, mentor and professional colleague, Frank Dick. Frank is a great coach, communicator and visionary and IFAC reflects his vision. The vision and the mission are to raise coaching to a professional status and to recognize that sporting excellence is coach driven. If you are interested in coaching and advancing the coaching profession then I highly recommend you attend next years IFAC 2012 (October 28 to 28) in Glasgow Scotland and if you want to make another giant leap forward come to the GAIN Apprentorship http://tinyurl.com/3jwyo6q June 12 to 17 in Huston Texas. What makes gathering like IFAC and GAIN special is the sharing. The formal presentations are great and stimulating but even more stimulating are the gatherings in the hotel lobby where ideas are challenged, new ideas hatched, training methods discussed. Professional growth and learning still excite me after 42 years, now I am more excited than ever. It just reminded again how important is it is to know what you know, know what you don’t know and then to find someone who does know. I found a whole bunch of people at IFAC who do know that helped me chip away a bit at what I don’t know. This is going to be a short week for me as I have to be in California for an all day meeting on Friday, but over the next few days I will post some thoughts and ideas stimulated by discussions and presentations at IFAC. Quickly reflecting on this past weekend and my three weeks in OZ it is easy to summarize one overall impression. The Aussies are ten years ahead of us in terms of putting it all together and the Europeans in turn are five years ahead of us. We need to get past the marketing, blind following of pseudo sports science, and internet training porn or we will be passed by like a freight train leaving a tramp! We need applied sports science that is coach driven and we need to get back to basic physical education in the schools taught by trained physical educators with a strong pedagogical foundation. The responsibility for change rests on the coaches and teachers, it can be done – who among are will to get out and do it?
Learning and Professional Development
Yesterday I saw a resume’ where the person listed eight certifications beyond their maters degree. One of the certifications required four levels! This person could not have been over thirty years of age. I am not sure if this is someone I would hire. I would hav ebeen more impressed if that time was spent gaining hands on coachig expereinces with a variety of athletes and teams. This got me thinking about professional development where and how young professionals learn and grow professionally. I encourage you to ask the following questions to help guide & direct you: Where do you learn? Who do you learn from? Do you have a plan and direction for your learning? How much of your learning is online? How much is reading of books, peer reviewed journals and professional journals? How much of your learning is experiential and hands on? Who are your mentors? What are you learning? Do you look for different points of view and opinions? Are you following fads and chasing rainbows or is there substance to what you are learning? Learning and professional development is a constant ongoing process. I try to devote up to 20% of my time to learning and professional development. It is a process of separating the need the need to know from the nice to know with a definite plan and direction. Above all keep seeking new experiences, experiment, prototype, get out and train yourself to learn. If you want to be an expert then follow the advice of pioneer nuclear physicist Niles Bohr: “An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made, in a narrow field.” So get out there put you butt on the line make some mistakes and learn.
Perspective – Knowledge into Wisdom
I have been fortunate to do what I do for a long time. I have seen many fads; trends and ideas come and go. At the end of the day in the world of coaching the bottom line is the bottom line; it is producing consistent results in the competitive arena. To do that requires strong core beliefs and sound foundational principles along with the ability to innovate and adapt as necessary. As I have gained experience the picture has become clearer and more focused. It is not so much what you know as what you do not know, being willing to admit it and not let that limit your ability to make your athlete’s better. Knowledge grows into wisdom. Wisdom gives perspective and depth so that you never lose sight of the big picture. Mistakes and failure have certainly been a part of my growth process. The key has been the ability to learn from the mistakes and to rebound from the failures. Keep learning and growing, seek wisdom and understanding and remember the answer is there no answer.
Announcing GAIN V Apprentorship June 12 to 17, 2012
It seems like just yesterday that we had our first GAIN Apprentorship now we are getting ready for the fifth. The program keeps growing and improving. GAIN is a network of professionals that are interested in learning and sharing to improve their abilities and enhance their professional status. GAIN V will be June 12 to June 17 at Rice University in Houston, Texas. The program is open to sport coaches, conditioning coaches, physical education teachers, athletic trainers, physical therapists, chiropractors and doctors. Go to http://tinyurl.com/3jwyo6q to download the application form. Submit your application now, enrollment is limited. Professional tuition is $3,800 and scholastic tuition is $1900 (High school, junior high school, elementary school teachers and coaches are eligible for the scholastic tuition). Tuition includes breakfast, lunch and dinner each day, and room. Please call me at 941-378-1778 or email mail me at gstscoach@gmail.com for information or if you have any questions. Two scholarships are available to deserving applicants who are beginning or at the early stages of their careers. Be a leader! Apply now and join a select group of professionals at the GAIN Apprentorship. Our goal is to define the field of Athletic Development by educating professionals in foundational principles and methodology as applied to coaching, physical education and rehabilitation. This program is not for the faint of heart or dilettantes, it is intense, intellectually challenging and demanding. GAIN Apprentorship = Apprenticeship + Mentorship We combine theory and practice in a five-day residential coaching school format. This is an opportunity to observe, participate, question, and explore the application of the Gambetta Method – Systematic Sport Development Model of training, teaching and injury rehabilitation. The day begins at 6:30 AM with a learn by doing session followed by breakfast. Then there are two hours of classroom sessions followed by an hour of learn by doing, then a break for lunch. The afternoon begins with another two hours of classroom sessions, followed by a third learn by doing session. After a break for dinner the day is concluded with small group discussions and interaction with the faculty. The schedule is designed to optimize the experience for the all the participants through high-level instruction and hands on learning. The coaching school represents just a beginning. The graduates of the program can continue to participate via the secure web site, and continue to attend the GAIN coaching school for the duration of their careers if they so choose for no additional cost. Our faculty are experienced professionals who combine their knowledge, experiences and passion for teaching to help guide you. They are leaders who are in the trenches working in the field of athletic development. Vern Gambetta – Athletic Development Jim Radcliffe – Strength & Power Development Dave Ellis – Nutrition – Fueling & Supplementation Kelvin Giles – LTAD & Physical Competency Assessment Frans Bosch – Biomechanics of Sprinting & Current Concepts in Skill Acquisition Jack Blatherwick PhD – Testing & Evaluation Joe Przytula ATC – Functional Biomechanics & Rehab/Return to Play Bill Knowles ATC – Rehab and Return to Play/Reconditioning Greg Thompson – Physical Education Tracy Fober PT – Athletic Development Ed Thomas Ed.D – Physical Education Ed Ryan ATC – Return to Play I hope you will join us for GAIN V, apply now to advance yourself as a professional. For those who have attended it has been a career changing experience. Take a giant step forward to enhance your professional development.
It’s More Than An Exercise
It is so easy to get fixed on one exercise or even one training method and lose sight of the big picture. It is how the exercise or training method fits into the system that matters most. No one exercise or drill is the answer, no one exercise is the solution, if fact one exercise can be the problem or the cause of training errors. We all have our “go to” exercises, but the “go to” exercises only have meaning if they are part of the whole system of training. As coaches we have to be skillful in our selection of exercises and methods. Be careful of fads, the latest & greatest marketed as the be all, end all that will solve every training problem. I found when I look at the evolution of my training system over the years that now I use less tools form the tool box, but that I have a better handle on where to use a particular exercise or a derivative of that exercise. So I now use less exercises and focus on the progressions and viable variations of an exercise or drill to keep reinforcing the training quality I want to address in that phase of training. The following quote from Emory Bellard inventor of the Wishbone offense in American football sums up the problem quite well: “ Ninety percent of teams today don’t run an offense, they run plays. A goodly portion of football teams just run plays without a concept.” Are you doing exercises without a concept? Remember the old aphorism if then only tool you have is a hammer, then everything becomes a nail.
Australia Observations & Conclusions
The following are some conclusions and ideas stimulated by what I saw and what I gathered from conversations with coaches, sports scientists and athletes during my visit down under. I want to emphasize that these are my opinions and conclusions and I certainly have a bias so factor that in as you read this. Conclusion One – It is about people, making connections with the athlete and other coaches. Technical expertise is important but if you cannot relate it to the athletes and to your co-workers it is for not. It is so easy to get caught up in the training design and the X’s and O’s that you lose sight of the human element. Coaching is not something you do it is something you are and coaching is not something you do to the athlete, it is something you do with the athlete. You coach people who run, jump, and throw. Conclusion Two – Have a nutrition plan. The nutrition plan just like the training plan must be tailored to the needs of the individual and to the demands of the particular training cycle. Fuel appropriately. Conclusion Three – External means of recovery can be overused, especially with the developing athlete. Just like everything else recovery should prescribed individually. Too much use of external means of recovery interferes/disrupts the normal inflammatory response that is a key part of the recovery process. That being said sleep including naps between training sessions trumps all else. Recovery should not be a crutch. Conclusion Four – The weight room is only one part of the much bigger picture. Chasing numbers in the weight room makes you a better chaser of numbers in the weight, unless it transfers to the field, track, pool or court it is not time well spent. This is a balancing act and it changes with training age and experience. Everything in the strength-training spectrum must be carefully correlated with all other training elements to achieve optimum results. Conclusion Four – So much of what we do in agility with programmed drills using cones, poles, ladders and other toys has very little transfer to performance in the chaotic environment of the actual game. My take home point form conversations and observations is to add a reactive component early and increase complexity as you see the athlete’s ability to solve the movement problems increase. Possibly what we do with the traditional approach is prevent injury by mimicking aspects of the game movements. I know I need rethink my whole approach to agility including testing. Conclusion Five – Movement screens and physical competency assessments must be designed to fit the sport and the position or the event in the sport. Whatever movement screen or evaluation you use must emphasize what the athlete can do, not what they can’t do. It is important that it provide a clear starting staring point in the training progression. One size does not fit all, seven tests can’t predict injury and fit all sports, positions and events. Be careful with what you look for, becuase you might find it, then what do you do? The same is true with performance indicator tests. Conclusion Six – Sport science and sport scientists need to support the coach. They should be in the background, not the forefront. Sport science must be coach driven and managed. All the scientific data must be translatable into coachese so that it becomes actionable. In this realm it comes down again simply to the choice between nice to know and need to know. There is only so much information that can be applied, so focus on that.
Some Lessons from Australia 2011 – Part Three
I concluded my stay in Canberra with two days of professional development with Dean Benton, Performance Director of Brumbies in Super Rugby, his staff and the coaching staff. I have worked with Dean for sometime and it has been great to see his professional growth. He has put together an outstanding program, the eny of any program I have seen in professional or collegiate sport in the US! When I spend five days with him in 2007 I thought what they were doing with the Brisbane Broncos (Australian Rugby league) was cutting edge but what they are doing now with the Brumbies is light years ahead. He has taken the concepts of Frans Bosch and adapted them and applied them to enable his players to make huge performance gains. He has worked closely with head coach, Jake White to integrate all the athletic development with the rugby. In my opinion this is crucial and a lesson that we need to learn in the US. The performance director and head coach need to work together hand in glove. In addition he has tapped into the resources of the AIS to give the program the latest cutting edge sport science support. This is a very unique situation. It will take them a couple of years to rebuild the program but they will soon be a force to reckoned with in super rugby. I then moved onto Perth, Western Australia, It was my first visit to that corner of the world. What a beautiful city. I was really impressed with the fields and facilities available around the University of Western Australia. While there I taught a two-day workshop for the Western Australia Track & Field Coaches Association. Perth is definitely an area I want to go back to. It reminded me of southern California forty years ago. I then spend four incredible days in Melbourne with Phil King. I first met Phil in 1996 when he was concluding his tenure at the head coach for Australian Athletics. Phil is a heck of coach, leader and organizer. He coached his wife Debbie Flintoff- King to the gold medal in the 400-meter hurdles in the 1988 Olympics. He is now coaching Jana Pittman, world champion in the 400-meter hurdles in 2003 and 2007. Phil’s philosophy is to gather a team of experts and act as the CEO coordinating their services all designed to make Jana the best she can be. I was privileged to provide my input on some aspects of the program and closely obverse and participate in the training. Phil has a background in aquatics and he has made excellent use of the aquatic environment in Jana’s training. I must admit that I was skeptical until I saw what they were doing, but I was made a believer. They use the water to mimic land workouts that is not unusual but what I did find unique was the use of the water for lactate production workouts. It was interesting to see how it was sequenced and how it has worked. Getting to spend four days with Phil was informative and motivating. The main lesson I learned was that it is not technical expertise that is the difference; it is people skills and communication ability that is the key to coaching and leading. A very simple concept but yet quite complex in application, because no two people are alike, it was theme that was repeated over and over. A word about Melbourne, I had never been there before but on all my other trips I had been told it was the sporting capitol of Australia. I thought oh sure they are just saying that. Well when I got there I know learned first hand what they meant. The training and competition venues are amazing. There is a passion there for sport that you can feel. Walking on the “tan” a dirt path around the Botanical Gardens was like being on hollowed ground, this is where John Landy and Ron Clarke trained! It is a sports paradise and you can bet I will return for an extended stay. I concluded my visit to Australia in Sydney with an old friend and colleague, Lachlan Penfold, performance director for the Sydney Rooster in Australian Rugby league. I did a day of professional development with his staff and an enjoyable day exchanging ideas and sharing ideas with Lachlan. He is a consummate professional. I first met Lachlan twenty years ago at the NSCA convention in the US; when he was a young coach hungry to learn. He came and spent time with me on two different occasions when I was with the White Sox and another visit later on. It has been fun to watch him grow as a professional and to see that he is just as passionate about learning as he was twenty years ago. He has done some really interesting and unique work using and interpreting GPS data that I am keen to follow it as he develops it further. I found it interesting that they (He and the rugby coaching staff) are working to incorporate some the University of Oregon and Jack Blatherwick “overspeed” concepts to improve game speed. I am just now getting over the jet lag and trying to absorb everything that I saw and learned but in summary it was an motivating and uplifting three weeks. It made realize how fortunate I am to have the freinds and netowrk that I have. Being invoved in sport is very special, it goes beyond the technical aspects, the training, it is about friendship and people. The visit to OZ only reinforced this, but you don't have to go to Austalia to interact with other professionals. In some cases if you are at a university or with a pro team walk down the hall and talk to someone else open your eyes and ears to the possiblities to learn and grrow that are around you everyday.
Some Lessons from Australia 2011 – Part Two
After the Australian Track & Field Coaches Association congress ended on Sunday after I stayed on at the AIS (Australian Institute of Sport) for three more days. The AIS in many ways is the mother ship of sport with outstanding facilities and an extensive sport science and sport medicine staff. In addition each state has their own institute. It is safe to say that this is the best sports institute in the world. That being said it is not without it’s problems. It appears it has become administratively top heavy compared to my first visit in 1996. The facilities are quite impressive including a state of the art recovery center and a completely instrumented 50-meter pool that has some Star Wars qualities to it with the ability to film and measure. For me the centerpiece at the AIS has always been their library and resource center – it is second to none. My regret was that I was so busy with meetings and presentations that I did not have extensive time to spend there. All that being said the strength of the AIS is the people, they make the facilities come alive. On Monday I caught up with some of the strength and conditioning staff and observed a weight workout with their men’s junior volleyball, one of the teams in residence. On Tuesday I honored to be able to present to some of their Olympic coaches at the Podium Forum. This forum is organized by coaching legend Bill Sweetenham under the auspices of the Australian Sport Commission to facilitate the sharing and exchange of information among their elite coaches. My presentation was titled “Training Effectively and Effective Training.” The theme was translating training into competition results. The first speaker was Tracey Menzies, who was Ian Thorpe’s coach. The title of her talk was: “The change in coaching role with a change in high performance environment.” She spoke about taking over as Ian Thorpe’s coach from an older autocratic coach. (This needs to be framed in the context that swimming in many ways is their national sport and Ian Thorpe was a super star and media giant in OZ). Her talk was super! This lady is tough and very competent. I found her talk informative, motivating and full of coaching insights. She stated that the best way to coach is to be true to yourself. It was about her constantly developing, learning and growing along with her swimmers. A recurring theme of her presentation was that it is more than swimming; she spoke about juggling being a wife and a mother while coaching elite athletes. She touched on being a female coach coaching male athletes and how she made it a positive. When she took over coaching Ian Thorpe she asked him to list ten things he could learn from her and she listed ten things she could do for him. She stressed that Ian Thorpe’s world was not just about swimming. She made a statement that really resonated with me “ You don’t demand Tracy’s respect, you earn it” – something I think it is easy to lose sight of as a coach. On setting a level of expectation “good swimmers have great swims.” She said that if you develop the person, if you do that, then you would develop the athlete. The other presentation was Emmett Lazich, sailing coach. His presentation was titled: “Sailing: The process of how to win.” I really enjoyed this one, having only a cursory exposure to sailing for a brief time at the National Coaching Institute in Canada in the early nineties. What a fascinating sport! I thought I was used to preparing athletes for competition in a random chaotic environment, but the sailing environment defies description. There is complete lack of control over the competitive environment. He stated that they need to learn to be good at not feeling good. I will watch sailing with a whole new perspective and appreciation after this presentation. Bill Sweetenham made a statement in summary that we can all take to heart: “We need to focus on growing strengths not improving weaknesses.” That statement warrants further discussion in a future post. Tomorrow I will share my visits to the Brumbies, to Melbourne with Phil King coach of Jana Pittman and finally my visit to the Sydney Roosters.