Author: Vernon Gambetta
Timing not Time
Sometimes it is easy to lose sight of the objective of planning. Regardless of the terminology used effective planning is simply organizing training in a cyclic manner to take advantage of the bodies adaptive response to an imposed training stimulus. It in not just the length of training cycles – the time – it is the timing of the application of training that is crucial to achieving the desired training effect. Timing is fundamental to the whole process of adaptation. Understanding that it is when you do what you doing that is a huge determining factor in the adaptive response. The training effect and adaptive response is also highly dependent on the interaction of the various qualities trained. For example if the emphasis is on speed development then the strength, flexibility and power training must support that objective. Therefore they must be carefully blended to insure an optimum adaptive response at the desired time. It is not just a mix of means and methods of training organized in an arbitrary length of time. It is carefully fitting the pieces together over time by introducing elements or taking out elements to insure the main objective of the training cycle is achieved. There is certainly science there, but the timing aspect demands an artistic feel and touch for the athlete’s response. Be careful not to be fooled by numbers. Carefully watch the athlete’s response and listen to the feedback to insure that the timing is on. Just as in life training is all about timing.
More on Prevention as the Cause
Brady wrote me the following commenting on my original post: Vern, can you explain more in detail why almost every S&C coach uses the glute/ham raise or nordic hamstring curl with their athletes? You are the first coach I have come across to go against the grain with this. I know this is the most popular exercise I see with most athletes and every coach believes it is extremely beneficial. Brady thanks for the question. It is a good question and a very fair question. Your comment nails the problem. The fact that coaches do these exercises without questioning the efficacy or application speaks volumes about the problem. I have never been one to do something just because everyone else was doing it. It is never only about the what – the exercise – I need to know and want to know the why before I adopt an exercise. It is usually a red flag when someone or a group proposes one or two exercises as a universal solution to a problem or as the answer in training. I have a long history with the so-called Nordic hamstring curl, I call it the gaucho hamstring curl because a group of us training at UCSB (Team nickname – the Gauchos) used that exercise in 1975. Within two weeks of incorporating it into our training program (decathlon) there were three severe hamstring pulls at the insertion of the hamstring. Intuitively I knew it was counterproductive and later science verified my instincts. It definitely stressed the hamstring, but not the way it is stressed in sprinting. I eliminated from my toolbox in 1975.The scientific evidence on hamstring function was not available yet. The landmark article by Mann & Hagy that opened the door to understanding the real role of the hamstring in running was not published until around 1982. My first exposure to the ham/glute raise was through some pictures I saw in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s of Russian Olympic lifters doing a similar looking exercise with their feet anchored in stall bars (Today called wall bars) and their hips on a gymnastics vaulting horse. It was an assistance exercise for the Olympic lifts. I tried it but did not see any real application beyond that what it was intended for. Around 1980 some “Russian” training experts introduced it as the ham/glue raise (first clue was that they were selling a machine). I tried it again, in fact bought an early version of the equipment, but by now we understood hamstring function. This exercise examined in the light of hamstring function is no more functional than a leg curl machine. Still I tried it thinking that I was missing something. Like the Nordic hamstring exercise I took it out of my toolbox. Train movements that incorporate the hamstring group in similar patterns, muscle actions and in postures to what they must do in function. Perhaps it is just too simple in today’s world of high tech solutions to use lunges and step-ups but for me they have stood the test of time and they meet the requirements based on biomechanics of sprinting and muscle architecture. In summary ask yourself why you are selecting an exercise, just because everyone else is doing is not an acceptable reason that smacks of drinking the Kool-Aid. Be an independent thinker. Look closely at those who have experiences and who are not trying to sell something. Look critically at biomechanical and physiological studies to see what science says. Experiment on yourself to see what it feels like. Above all use common sense. There are usually simple solutions to complex problems.
Favorite Book on Grit
This is a classic – Follow the message in this book and you will have grit! If it is to be it is up to me, so I better think I can or no one else will! Grit go get it!
Grit
On Saturday I was checking the schedule of authors on CSPAN book TV to see what authors would be interviewed that day. I saw a name that I recognized, Donna McAleer. So I clicked on the link next to her name and sure enough it was the same Donna McAleer that I had helped with her training 11 years ago. Donna had contacted me through a friend at US Skiing. She was training to make the 2002 Olympic team in the bobsled. She came to Sarasota for three days and we devised a program for her. Get this picture in your head. She was thirty years old, a graduate of West Point with no background in any sport that required speed and explosion. My first impulse was to try to talk her out of her pursuit, but after a short time around her it was clear that this woman had determination and drive that was off the charts. So she trained and I mean trained hard both in her physical preparation and in the sled. She had to make up for what she had not done before. To make a long story short she finished fourth in Olympic trials just a few hundreds of a second out of a spot on the Olympic team. It was great to see her on CSPAN as one of a panel of experts. Check out her site www.porcelainonsteel.com and her book Porcelain on Steel – Women of West Point’s Long Grey Line. Seeing Donna and revisiting her training and her relentless quest for an Olympic berth reminded me of how important grit is in success. The annals of sport are populated with talent promised and not delivered, of potential unrealized. Do you ever wonder why? I can run through a list of athletes I have seen in my 42 years of coaching who had all the tools but never achieved anything close to their potential. Physically they were talented, in many cases they were anointed or at least appointed early as the next great one. As I reflect back on that list I realize what was missing with these folks was grit. Grit a real want to, a burning desire to get it done, no excuses, just doing what it takes to be the best they could be. Those with grit don’t take no an answer. No talent, no problems, just dig down deeper, find a way. They get knocked down they get up and come back for more. Those with grit have an ability to turn setbacks and defeats into stepping-stones for success. Work, hell yes, they work, but anyone can work. They work with a focus that is laser like. Some become champions in the traditional sense in that they win medals and set records, but most importantly they get everything out of the talent they possess. When the race is done, the game is over, the career ended they have no regrets. There are no could have’s or should have’s. They maximize what they have because they have grit. I love coaching gritty athletes!
When the Prevention is the Cause
According the coach Tony Dungy the most important ability an athlete can possess is availability. To be healthy and ready to play gives you a chance to be in the game and compete. Everyday I read the sports page or watch the sports news I am reminded of Dungy’s words when I see the number of athletes who are unavailable to play because of injury. I find it ironic that as our knowledge of training has grown and with the increased emphasis on sport science that injuries have actually increased not decreased. I see more time devoted to “injury prevention” routines, sometimes to exclusion of actual training. Some of these programs are quite elaborate and sciencey in their appearance and the rationale behind them. So then where is the disconnect occurring? One conclusion that I have come to is that many of the so-called prevention programs and exercises actually are cause of the injuries they are designed to prevent. In an attempt to prevent injury people have designed routines that put stress on the muscle group or area of the body that is susceptible to injury. Often that area or muscle is isolated and worked extra, sometime in multiple sessions in a day. This simply adds stress to stress. The athlete is still expected to practice and play, but certain areas are being fatigued so that when that area is stressed no matter how strong or flexible it has been made in a sterile environment it will be injured. The other factor is that injury prevention programs are being done to exclusion of the actual physical training needded to prepare for the demands of the sport and the position. I saw an ATC take a player through a prevention program it was all done at about half of game speed. The movements’ were off and on a BOSU ball. This was all done because this player did not achieve an acceptable score on a movement screen. He was not allowed to work with the teams S&C coach but he was expected to practice and play in the games. What’s wrong with this picture? Needless to say he did not make it through the season. This is not an exception, it is becoming the norm. If you knew nothing about training or rehabilitation just common sense would cause you to question this approach. As an example lets look at one of the most common injuries, hamstring pulls. One of the most popular strengthening/prevention exercises is the so-called Nordic or Russian hamstring curl. This is an example of the prevention being the cause. This exercise puts undue stress on the distal hamstring. If you revisit the function of the hamstring in sprinting, it acts as a decelerator of the lower leg and at stance and through toe off as an extensor of the hip. With this in mind you would eliminate the Nordic hamstring exercise, the various bridging exercises done on physio balls and the sacred Russian ham/glute exercise. They all create neural confusion. They teach the hamstring to work different and in some ways opposite of the way they must function in sprinting. Instead do lunge & reaches in multiple planes, step-ups both on a low and high box. Oh by the way don’t forget to sprint, if the only time you sprint all out is in a game or match you are significantly increasing the odds of injury. Sprint all out in practice, it doesn’t have to be much, just enough to keep the system tuned up. Also run curves and angles as a prevention measure. The hamstrings are stressed more on curves and coming off the curve so practice the skill. As a rule of thumb thoroughly study the sport and position demands and know the qualities of the individual athlete. Then design a comprehensive training program that address the sport demands and takes into account the individual athletes strength’s and weaknesses as well as how the play the game. Injury prevention should be transparent. It should be included in the athletes training and addressed though proper exercise selection, good training design and thorough coaching.
Hu
Hu is the human element. You won’t find it on the periodic table of elements, but if you look around you are surrounded by it. It influences and drives everything that we do. The obvious human element in sport is the athlete that is why we coach. As coaches our focus is squarely on the human element, the athlete. The athlete comes in many shapes and all sizes. Some athletes are remarkable and some are average. Each athlete is unique and special. Certainly the athlete is the focus, but let’s not forget who guides and develops the athlete. It’s the coach. A good sport development system is athlete centered, but less we forget it is coach driven. Great coaches are human, they are not automatons and they have feelings and emotions. Great coaches can’t be manufactured. Great coaches just like great athletes are made not born. You get better at coaching if you practice mindfully. Coaching is not something you do; it is something you are with every fiber of your being. Coaches need to be grown and developed. Coaching development must parallel athlete development for a sport development system to prosper and succeed. If the athletes are to continue to grow and progress the coach must continue to grow and progress. As coaches we must challenge ourselves to lead change by being the change we want to be. Coaching is a profession, not a job that you do three or four hours a day. It is all consuming. In order to coach the best you have to be the best yourself as a coach. Technical expertise and competence are a given, scientific knowledge helps, but ultimately coaching is an art. Great coaches have a feel, they have a sense of knowing when to speak and when to remain silent, when to go and when to stop. How do they know – they have refined the humane side of the human element. They have made mistakes and learned from them. They realize that each athlete is a case study of one. They have learned that coaching is all about Hu, not technology, facilities and equipment, but human failings and frailty. They have learned that coaching is a partnership, it not something you do to the athlete, it is somethingf you do with the athlete.
GAIN Apprentorship
We are six weeks from the fourth GAIN Apprentorship. It will be held this year June 17 to June 22 at Rice University in Houston Texas.
Routine
Routine is doing things the same way at the same time consistently. Routine is the cornerstone of sport performance. If you observe the great ones you will always see routine. My first objective in designing a training plan is routine. Setting the time for training, the place, the personnel and the equipment necessary to get every training session off without a hitch. At certain times routine will almost border on ritual. A sound routine can be a psychological anchor for the athlete, a safety net so to speak. It helps them to feel comfortable and familiar so that they can concentrate on the training or competition. Routine provides structure. When I think of routine in great athletes I think of Edwin Moses, one of the greatest hurdlers of all time, Olympic Gold medalist in 1976 and 1984. He showed up at the track at exactly the same time each day. You could set a watch by his routine. He had his area where he set up camp. It never varied. I watched him warm-up for Olympic trials in 1984 and then for the games and his routine was the same. The lesson here is that routine is the basis for consistent performance in training and competition. Define your routine and use that routine as a springboard to consistency in training and competition.