Author: Vernon Gambetta
Sacred Cows
Sacred cows are ideas and concepts passed from generation to generation of coaches that no one questions or challenges. They may have made sense at some time in the past, but are now more likely to get in the way, still they persist. Some sacred cows are so entrenched that they are actually taught in coaching education/certification programs. Here are some common sacred cows: Need to build an aerobic base for sprint and intermittent sprint sports Sprinters paw the ground Sprinters actively dorsiflex the foot just before ground contact The arms in sprinting stay at a forty-five degree angle Lactic acid causes fatigue Lactic acid causes soreness Recovery work after competition “flushes’ the lactic acid from the system Don’t look at the board in the long jump Hamstrings flex the knee Quads extend the knee Abdominals flex the trunk Training in-season must be a maintenance program They may have made sense at one time, before we knew any better, but they did not evolve and change as our knowledge of sport science and performance expanded. Some of them sound quite convincing. They come with elaborate pseudo scientific explanations. Don’t be fooled and blindly follow. Do your homework, read the research. Study your sport. Slay the sacred cows, challenge yourself to stay current and question.
Now What?
Training is not going as expected and progress has reached a plateau. So what do you do now? Well if you have a plan then the next step is easy and logical. Look at the plan, see where you are in relation to your goal and adjust accordingly. Without a plan it is a bit more complicated. You can take a wild guess at what you should do or roll the dice but it is a real gamble and the odds are in favor of the house. Basically you are at the mercy of chance, not a very comfortable place to be. The plan is the your frame of reference, your roadmap so to speak. Without a plan progression is random and results unpredictable. It is like undertaking a long journey into unexplored territory without a map and compass. Recognize that the plan is not etched in stone, so it can be adjusted and changed as circumstances demand. So before you start on the training journey have plan, work the plan and evaluate training and competition results in the context of the plan.
Standards – Setting The Bar
I am strong believer in having a standard to measure progress and performance. In my system and training methods I set a high standard and constantly evaluate that standard based on my expectations and results. My standard is not determined by what others are doing. I can’t control what they do and I do not want to be influenced by what they do. What I hear quite often today are two concepts that are used to set the bar and measure standards of performance: best practice and benchmarking. Best practice and benchmarking are not standards to measure by if you want to achieve at the highest level. Using those as standards simply means you are doing what everyone else is doing. You have set the bar low. I am interested in standards that are higher than that. I expect more of myself as a coach and more of my athletes than just doing what everyone else is doing. To use the cliché’ I want my reach to exceed my grasp. As I have implored many times in this blog, lead don’t follow, innovate, try new ideas, and new combinations of old methods. Set higher standards for yourself and your athlete’s. Use benchmarks and best practice as a guideline, a reference and in some cases a starting point, but don’t be bound by them. Striving to be the best is not comfortable, you have to aim for a higher standard than accepted best practice in your sport. Innovation and change do not occur by doing what you have always done. You have to look at what you need to do with new eyes and set a standard that raises expectations and demands a higher level of achievement. Get uncomfortable and realize that to be the best demands being uncomfortable all the time. Excellence is not for the faint of heart or dilettante’s.
Optimizing Training
It seems there is a lot of lip service given to the concept of optimizing training, but what does it mean? It certainly is not writing the weight workout on a white board or posting the track workout on a bulletin board. I do know (learned it the hard way) that each individual athlete is unique – essentially a case study of one. So why do we persist in prescribing generic programs that assume one size fits all? I know it is difficult to design and write an individual program when you have large numbers, but individual needs can be met. You can group athletes by needs, you can assign training partners to address individual needs. There are many ways and it can be done. Generic programs are not optimizing training; all athletes are not the same. Don’t be a supervisor, be a coach. It takes time, detailed planning and effort, but it can be done.
The Bottom Line
At the end of the training session, at the end of the training cycle is the athlete getting better? Are they making incremental progress toward their goals? Is what you are doing in training producing results in competition? How are you measuring the effect of training? What is working? How do you know? What isn’t working? How are you doing what you do? Why are you doing it? Do you have a system? Is it the system that is producing results?
Bias
Do you have a bias in training? Do you have a bias when you are evaluating an athlete? Come on, admit it, you do and I do, we all do. It may be a concious or sub consciuos. I am clearly biased toward speed. When I evaluate an athlete the first thing I look for is speed, speed of movement and speed of thought and action. When I design training everything is subservient to my bias toward speed. That has served me well at times, but as with any bias, it has haunted me. The longer I coach the more I realize that I must guard against my bias. I must account for it and in some cases compensate for it. I must insure that training is balanced and meets the needs of the individual athlete. It is a simple proposition, admit your bias and be sure to account for it to insure optimum return from the training investment.
The Box
There is no more confining place to be that the box. Don’t think outside the box, yes you heard me correctly, don’t think outside the box, get out of the box altogether. Throw away the box. I am not sure why we ever get in the box in the first place. To just think outside the box does not get you outside the box. It is too easy to go back to the warm fuzzy comfort zone of the box. Get outside the box and never go back in there. Innovate, think, and challenge yourself and those you work with to make constant prototyping the way you coach and teach. Focus on the process with a strong bias toward action. Use conventional wisdom and so-called best practice as a launching pad to move into unexplored territory in human performance. Use quantum thinking; get away from Newtonian reductionist, linear, cause and effect thinking. Think of linkages; use a nonlinear approach to make connections. The body is a self-organizing living organism not a machine with interchangeable parts. To grow the athlete to their fullest potential you the coach must grow. Challenge yourself to get better so that your athlete’s can get better. Look at familiar movements with different eyes. If you watch the NCAA Basketball final four, challenge yourself to look at the game differently. Look at the game as soccer with the hands. Conversely if you watch the EPL Football game of the week see if you can see it as basketball with the feet. See the world with different eyes, you will be surprised what you see, a whole new vista will open up. Throw away the box there is a whole new world out there waiting to be explored and discovered, a new frontier.
Some of My Coaching “Classics”
I do not propose that this list is complete by any means. Rather these are books that read in the first ten to fifteen years of my career that I learned from or influenced how I coach. The list is heavily weighted toward track & field because that is where I started. As you will see there are some biographies, I think you can gain many insights into training, competing and the mindsets of champions and great coaches by reading biographies. Please feel to drop me a note and I would love to get your recommendations. The Inner Athlete by Bob Nidefer Problem Athletes and How to Handle Them by Tom Tutko and Bruce Ogilvie Psychology and the Superior Athlete by Miroslav Vanek and Bryant j. Cratty Scientific Principles of Coaching by John Bunn What Research Tells The Coach About Sprinting by George Dintiman Track & Field Omnibook by Ken Doherty Modern Track & Field by Ken Doherty Modern Training For Running by Ken Doherty The Science of Swimming by James E. Counsilman The Mechanics of Athletics by Geoffrey Dyson Better Athletes Trough Weight Training by Bob Hoffman Hidden causes of injury, prevention, and correction for running athletes by John Jesse Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation: Patterns and Techniques by Dorothy Knotts and Margaret Voss Scientific Principles and Methods of Strength Fitness. By Patrick O’Shea Total Body Training by Richard H. Dominguez and Robert Gajda Kinesiology by Gene Logan and Wayne C. McKinney Skill In Sport By Barbara Knapp Acquiring Ball Skill – A Psychological Interpretation by H.T.A. Whiting The Thinking Body by Mabel Todd Run Run Run by Fred Wilt How They Train by Fred Wilt Mechanics Without Tears by Fred Wilt No Bugles, No Drums by Peter Snell The Unforgiving Minute by Ron Clarke with Alan Trengove Run to the Top by Author Lydiard Franz Stampfl on Running by Franz Stampfl The Jim Ryun Story by Cordner Nelson Another Hurdle by Dave Hemry Run To Daylight by Vince Lombardi and W.C. Heinz Track and Field Dynamics by Tom Ecker Championship Track and Filed by Tom Ecker Biomechanics of Athletic Movement by Gerhard Hochmuth Sports Physiology by Edward L. Fox Interval Training – Conditioning for Sports and General Fitness by Edward L. Fox and Donald K. Mathews Biomechanics and Energetics of Muscular Exercise by Rodolfo Margaria Textbook of Work Physiology by Per Olof Astrand Biomechanics of Sports Techniques by Jim Hay Introduction to biomechanic analysis of sport by John W. Northrip, Gene A. Logan and Wayne C. McKinney Principles of Sports Training – Introduction to the Theory and methods of Training by Dietrich Harre Fundamental of Sports Training by L. Matveyev Sports Training Principles by Frank Dick Training Theory by Frank Dick Track Speed – Hurdles, Sprints and relays by John Le Masurier Track and Field – Textbook for Coaches and Sports Teachers Edited by Gerhardt Schmolinsky Olympic Track And Field Techniques by Tom Ecker, Fred Wilt, and Jim Hay International Track and field Coaching Encyclopedia by Feed Wilt and Tom Ecker Track in Theory and Technique Edited by Thomas P. Rosandich The Hurdlers Bible by Wilbur Ross Mechanics of the Pole Vault by R.V. Ganslen The Triple Jump Encyclopedia by Ernie Bullard and Larry Knuth Tendinitis: it’s Etiology and Treatment by Sandra Curwin and William D. Stanish The Sweet Spot in Time by John Jerome Weight Training In Athletics by Jim Murray and Peter V. Karpovich Weight Training in Athletics and Physical Education by Gene Hooks Circuit Training by Manfred Scholich Circuit Training by R. E. Adamson and G.T. Morgan The Miracle Machine by Doug Gilbert The System of Physical Education in the USSR Edited by G. I Kukushkin The Soviet Road To Olympus – Theory And Practice Of Soviet Physical Culture And Sport by N. Norman Shneidman 1000 Exercises d’ Athletisme by Kurt Murer and Walter Bucher Winning Volleyball – Fundamentals, Tactics and Strategy by Allen E. Scates The Pursuit of Sporting Excellence – A Study of Sport’s Highest Achievers by David Henry The Athletic Revolution by Jack Scott Meat on the Hoof – The Hidden World of Texas Football by Gary Shaw Out of Their League by Dave Meggyesy