Author: Vernon Gambetta
The Human Body – A Complex System
The body is a complex system that is always self-organizing. The reductionist ideas that break the body into separate distinct parts and systems is old school thinking. Segmenting body the body into isolated muscles is convenient; it works in the anatomy book but not in real life. The same is true with separating out the various systems of the body, good in the textbook and the college course catalog, not true in real life. Muscles do not work in isolation; they work in synergistic patterns that adapt to the movement situation that is required. The systems of the body all work together at all times to allow the body to continually adapt to varying stresses placed upon it. This viewpoint of the body is based in complexity science, the study of systems that are composed of many varied parts that interact in complex and nonlinear ways. In complexity science systems cannot be understood simply by understanding the parts, it is the interactions among the parts and the consequences of these interactions that are equally significant. I have found that this paradigm answers many questions but also raises many more. I have reconciled this by coming to the understanding that human movement is about constant problem solving. As coaches we force adaptation by giving the body increasingly different and difficult movement problems that demand muscles to connect more efficiently and systems to operate more synergistically. No mystery here, no guruism, just teaching and observing and seeing movement with different eyes. Take what we know from conventional wisdom and reframe how we look at and interact with the body. We are not programming a computer, we are guiding the system to allow it keep adapting. To many of you this may represent heretical thinking; to others it will seem revolutionary, I see it as neither, it is a necessary paradigm shift to move us forward. Conventional reductionist thinking in regards to the body has taken us to a dead end where injuries are more frequent and severe than ever before and performances are unstable because we have failed to arrive at a solution to address the changing requirements of sports and the people who are participating in them. This approach is certainly not the answer, but it is a step toward multiple solutions. Make connections. Look for connections where you never thought they existed, integrate and innovate. Take a step back and see the big picture and remember that simplicity yields complexity. It all comes down to combinations of running, jumping, throwing, moving and learning.
Training The Lower Extremity – Building & Rebuilding the Athlete From the Ground Up
My philosophy almost from the day I started coaching was to build and rebuild the athlete from the ground up. Functionally strong legs are a foundation for all performance. That being said I never lose sight of the fact that I must train the whole kinetic chain. I know it is has become very popular to divide the lower extremity into posterior and anterior kinetic chains. That is flat out wrong. The legs and hip must be trained as part of the whole kinetic chain. Our lower extremity functions the way it does because of the interaction of gravity and ground reaction forces. Gravity loads us and we must learn to use the ground effectively to move. The gait cycle is the cornerstone of function, when we move, work and play we move off of one leg onto the other leg. This should tell us much about how we should train. The biggest deficiency I have consistently seen in athletes in my 41 years of coaching has been the inability to coordinate ankle/knee/hip to reduce and produce force effectively based on the demands of the sport. It is not a matter of glute activation; it is a matter of proper exercise selection that is suited to the needs of the athletes and the demands of their sport. If you are standing upright against gravity the glues are activated. The glutes are big for a reason. Lying in supine positions to work on isolated glute activation is time ill spent. Ok for a stroke patient, not for an athlete. Start with a single squat and build from there. Stress coordination of ankle/knee/hip and the quality of the linkage, don’t focus on the links, focus on the linkages, how they work together. I start each workout with balance single squat held for ten seconds in all three planes of motion as part of warm-up. This also serves as my daily evaluation of their progress in terms of linkage and coordination (Training=Testing and Testing =Training) On my lower extremity strengthening days we start with elevated pistol single leg squat or a seated pistol single squat. Then we squat. I invest a tremendous of time in building a foundation with body weight squats done through a full range at one rep per second (Based on concept articulated by Curwin and Stanish in their landmark book – Tendonitis its Etiology and Treatment) I believe in the traditional squat and all the variations. The variations are based on the needs of the athlete, not some arbitrary selection based on variety. I determine the athlete’s needs through a comprehensive Physical Competency Assessment (PCA) and daily observation of their quality of movement. I also include a significant amount of lunging in all three planes with appropriate load. In addition I use step-up both low box alternating and high box single leg. Based on the sport, training age and level of development of the athlete, injury history I systematically vary the selection of the exercises and the mode of resistance. When training the lower extremity think about what you are trying to accomplish. Don’t buy into fads and gimmicks. Look at the science. Read the studies of Escamilla and his colleagues; don’t take my word for it. To effectively build the athlete train standing, using bilateral, unilateral, and reciprocal movements. That is functional training for the lower extremity.
Some Lessons from OZ
I am home now after twenty hours of traveling. The travel time gave me some time to reflect on what I saw and what I learned during my trip. The biggest lesson that keeps coming back to me is that to succeed at the highest level of sport today you must have a fully functioning performance team. That team must be athlete centered and coach driven. Generally the system that I saw set-up in Australia follows this paradigm. Frankly my concern in some situation is that sport science may be starting to drive the system. In my opinion that is not sound, it must be the coach who drives the system. That demands that the coach be well educated in all aspects of the various functions of the performance team. The coach must know how to ask the right questions, the coach must be the filter for the information. The coach has to decide at the end of the day what is relevant to make the athlete better. What really appealed to me was the situations were I saw the sport scientist working in a practical applied manner to help the coach solve performance problems. In short what I saw was “applied” sport science. Some other lessons: 1) The importance of reactive agility was underscored. Warren Young at University of Ballarat is doing some real good work in this area. Now the challenge is to come up with a meaningful measure for reactive agility. It is more than just reacting to flashing lights. I am looking forward to exploring this area during my next trip down under in 2011. 2) There are many questions on the real value of small-sided games in soccer and rugby. The people I spoke with feel we need to delve deeper into this area to find out what is really going from a mechanical load perspective and how small sided games transfer to the game. Similar is not the same. 3) Hamstring pulls are still a big issue down under as they are everywhere in the world. I will talk at length on this in another post. 4) I learned how important it is for coaches to have a system to mine the training data they have. Many of the answers we look for as coaches are right in front of us. We just need to collect accurate data and analyze it systematically. 5) The most important factor in recovery is sleep! 6) Jeremy Sheppard from Queensland Academy of Sport of sport put it quite succinctly – What you do must be athlete specific and sport relevant. He felt that in the search for specificity you add stress to stress, which could have negative implications. 7) Variety in training comes from programming variety and load management, not a multitude of drills. There was so much more that I need time to assimilate. I want to thank everyone who was so open and willing to share information. Thanks to the folks at NSWIS for hosting me on the first part of the visit. Thanks to ASCA Australia for inviting to speak the conference. It was a great experience. I can't wait to get back in 2011.
OZ – The Last Few Days
The ASCA conference was tremendous, outstanding professionals and great presentations full of usable information. I am on my to the Sydney airport now, but will have many posts over the next few weeks based on what I have seen and learned during this trip. In summary they get it here. Good marriage between sport science and coaching. Both understand that it is about the athlete. You have to respect a country that does more with less. Best in the world in last Olympic games in medals won per capita, this does not happen by chance. My parting words to a colleague when I left yesterday were simple – don’t lose your compass, keep it oriented to true north. Do not fall prey to imitation of countries like the United States that has over 300 million people and does less with more. I can’t wait to come back in 2011 for a longer visit. My brain is full, it is going to take a awhile to assimilate all I have learned. Thanks to ASCA for inviting and all of you who were such generous and graciuos hosts.Looking forward to getting home for a few days before heading off to England for the UKsem Conference in London. November is frequent flyer points maximization month.
OZ Days Three, Four and Five
Not sure where to begin. It has been a whirlwind of teaching , learning, meeting people and catching up with old friends. Tuesday was along day at NSWIS. Started at 6:00 Am in the gym with the divers for an athletic development session. Got to catch up then with Chava Sobrino, the diving coach who had been delayed in LA for thee days because of the Quatas airline mechanical problems. He is a great coach and great person, willing to share and eager to learn. Looking forward to spending a day or two with him and his squad when they come to Florida in for competition in May. Taught the rest of the day and then had dinner with Dennis Knowles (Dani Samuels coach), Klaus Bartonietz, and Kenneth Graham who is the senior sport scientist at NSWIS. He is brilliant, an unbelievable resource. A little sleep, totally over stimulated, then next morning flew to Brisbane and then to Gold Coast, the site of the ASCA Conference. Had a wonderful visit with my good friend and colleague Dean Benton and his young family and beautiful wife who cooked a great meal of lamb roast. We went a couple of blocks from his house to the surf club to take a dip in the surf, great to be in surf again after many years ( The Gulf of Mexico at home is not the same!). Yesterday spend all day preparing for my talks at the conference. I do a three-hour pre-conference workshop on Building & Rebuilding the Athlete from the Ground Up – It is More Than an Exercise, today. Looking forward to it. Then a keynote presnetation midday tomorrow. Right now it is 5:00 AM here going to go for a short walk on the beach and a quick dip in the surf to get ready for my presentation. To paraphrase a line from one of my favorite movies, Field of Dreams, this isn’t heaven it is Australia! If there is a place where coaching is appreciated it is here. So far very little personal trainer pollution, they have their problems, but by and large they do things right. They do the most with what they have and produce results.
OZ Day Two
Look fun day teaching and exchanging ideas. Started out in the morning with a session on the Overhead Athlete. Midday a session on Planned performance Training. Then last session was at Olympic pool with swimming and diving coaches. Dinner with Kenneth Graham, Klaus Bartonietz who is here working with World champion discus thrower Dania Samuels and her coach Denis Knowles. Heading off now at 6:00 am to start day three to observe a session in the gym with the divers. Their coach Chava Sobrino, is one of the best coaches I have ever been around in any sport. Can wait to watch him coach again. For an old coach this is nirvana. Hanging with a bunch of bright, eager, smart coaches and sport scientists who are into producing athletes, will to share and learn. Doesn’t get much better than this , except maybe at GAIN Apprentorship.
First Day in OZ
Let me start by saying that I am a confirmed Austrophile. Love the Aussies and love the country. Great to be back! Grant Duthie, graciously gave up his Sunday morning to pick me up at airport. Grant is the S&C coach for South Sydney Rabbitohs. He took me over to see their new training complex, a major upgrade. Grant is an outstanding young coach, has a PhD in sport science, but is a coach. We were joined for coffee by an old friend and colleague, Lachlan Penfold, who just this past week started as Performance Director of the Sydney Roosters of the NRL. Lachlan is one of the best, served as conditioning for several medal-wining teams in Olympic games. Can’t believe I first met him 19 years ago and he is still a young guy. Dinner last night with my host at New South Wales Institute of Sport, Rob Medlicott and his wife Melissa. Melissa was a two time Olympian in the sprints for Australia. Rob is manager of Sport Science and Medical Services at NSWIS. I start teaching today at NSWIS. Look forward to learning as much as I teach. Going to be a busy two days here before heading to the Gold Coast. As an aside it pretty cool to look out your hotle and have view of the Olympic stadium.
Yin and Yang of Training
There are some fundamentals of yin and yang in training that must be observed. Hard work must be balanced by easy work. Increase a load in one area and you must decrease a load in another area. Essentially go back to high school biology, to the most fundamental principle you learned – Homeostasis. Essentially the body will always seek a state of Homeostasis. As coaches through training we are constantly working to adjust that state to a higher level, it is no more complicated than that. To achieve adaptation you must constantly be aware of the yin and yang of all the elements of training. Keep the elements in balance; do not overemphasize one element to the exclusion of another. Good training design is a balancing act to insure continual adaptation to the various training stimuli.