Author: Vernon Gambetta
Different Eyes
Everyone has a bias when they look at movement. This was underscored in the past few days when as we did the Physical Competency Assessments in Trinidad. The people that were physical therapists looked at the movement different than the doctors who looked at movement different than the coaches. Each had (have) what I call perspective bias. We all tend to look at movement from a perspective colored by our experience. I was constantly imploring everyone doing the evaluations to look at movement with a “coaching eye”. By coaching eye I mean taking a more global perspective, focus on the linkages and connections rather that the links and the connectors. Step back, change observation points and perspective. If you zero in on one part you lose perspective, then the output is reductionist and segmented. No part of the body works in isolation in movement, that concept should drive us to look at movement with different eyes. It was revealing on Sunday when we all sat down and analyzed the results. The numbers came to life. Everyone in the room was looking at how the numbers on the various tests connected. A score of 1 on ankle range is poor, but when you look at it in relation to the glute or a hop test it assumed even more significance. Seeing movement with different eyes, to observe quality of connections and flow of movement moved everyone toward evaluating the training and rehab with a different perspective. That translated the testing numbers into action, it put the focus squarely on solutions instead of dysfunction, but to do this effectively you need a well developed “coaching eye”.
Trinidad & Tobago PCA Testing Pictures
Finished testing yesterday. We evaluated 50 athletes. Today we meet with the evaluation team and turn the numbers into action. This is a process. Today we will focus on the elite athletes, those who have won medals or are close to medals in World Championship or Olympic games competition. The ultimate goal of all of this is to insure that when the athletes enter the competitive arena they are ready to be taken to their psychological, physiological, structural and mechanical limits, in short to thrive in the competitive environment.
Quick Fixes and Crash Programs
Quick fixes are usually a band-aid, a short-term solution for a long-term problem. The same with crash programs, they usually crash. There is no substitute for time, it takes time to adapt, remember different physical qualities have different times to adaptation. You can’t force adaptation with out paying the consequences. There is no substitute for a well-planned long-term program that is progressive and sequential in nature. Beware of charlatans and false prophets that claim otherwise it take time and a sound training methodology coupled with good coaching.
On the Road Again
It sure has been nice to be home for seven weeks, recharging the batteries and doing a ton of research and planning. Now I am back on the road. Heading off to Trinidad this morning to teach the PCA and then to evaluate some of their elite athletes in a variety of sports. Then back home next Monday, eight days at home and then off to Australia. In OZ will spend two days at New South Wales Academy of Sport in Sydney and then off the Golf Coast to speak at the Australian Strength and Conditioning Coaches association national conference. Looking forward to catching up with many old friends and learning, the Aussies have their act together. Then back home for seven days and off to across the pond to merry old England to at the UKSEM Conference http://basem.co.uk.
One Way
There is no one-way. A wise man once said that there are many roads to Rome. My corollary to that is that some are more direct than others. I get very nervous when people preach and teach one way. You need to have a have command of a variety of means and methods of training and then be able to select the appropriate ones necessary to accomplish the task at hand. If the only tool you have is a hammer then everything becomes a nail, trite but true. Make sure you know the principles behind what you do, then you will be much more versatile and be able to adapt to any training situation.
Highlight Play Syndrome
Today with a plethora of 24-hour sport channels we have become conditioned to believe that sport performance is a series of “highlights”, spectacular plays that that determine the outcome of a game of match. Highlight plays are entertaining, but they come nowhere close to what actually happens in the game. Highlights are plays or situations that occur once a year, sometimes once a career. They are just that a highlight, a brief moment in time, often completely taken out of the context of the whole game. From an athletic development perspective why does this matter? It matters because I see this now dictating how we train. Instead of conditioning for the game, some coaches are conditioning for the highlight plays. Focus on the highlight plays does not prepare your athletes for the game. Thoroughly study and understand the demands of the sport you are preparing for. There are thousands of movements that occur that must be performed consistently to determine success. Train for those movements. Don’t get caught in this trap, condition, strengthen, develop speed for the whole game not the highlights, with good sound thorough preparation the highlights will be taken care of.
The Decathlon Metaphor for Training
Just to refresh your memory the decathlon consists of ten individual events contested over two days. The final performance is determined by the sum of scores assigned for performances in each individual event. To achieve a good score demands a balance in scoring throughout the ten events. You can’t be good just at one or two events, in fact you could a world record holder in one event and be mediocre in the decathlon. You must show a degree of proficiency at all ten events. I competed in the decathlon, I was not very good, but I realize today how much that competing in the decathlon formed the foundation for my philosophy and system of training that have used across sport disciplines. In the spring of 1968 I took a class called Theory of Track & Field from Red Estes, the assistant track coach at Fresno State. As a requirement for the class the class we had to learn the events in track and field and show proficiency in those events. As soon as we did a few events I began to see relationships between the events, connections, and similarities in movements. I learned quickly that I could capitalize on those similarities to help to learn the events and score better. (We were graded on a ten-point scale.) By April I was sure that I wanted to be a track coach so I went to coach Estes and asked what the best way to gain a deeper understanding of the events would be since I had not competed in track in college, I had played football. His answer was very succinct, do the decathlon. So that started an odyssey that continues today. I dove into the decathlon head first and totally immersed myself in getting fit for the event and learning and refining the technique in all the events. Because it occurred over two days and was grueling, I did a lot of distance running, 30 and 40 minute runs to get “fit” and because I knew you needed to be “strong” I spent a lot of time in the weight room and achieved some big numbers there. After going down this path for a year getting injured a lot and not seeing much improvement I had to take a step back and reassess what I was doing. The reassessment was simple, I did what I have preached many times in this blog and my books, and I took a close look at the demands of the event. The total competition time in the decathlon is around 6 minutes and 30 seconds, that is the actual time performing the events. Yes you are out there 12 hours each day, but it is not a test of stamina rather it is a contest to learn to distribute your energy and effort, to economize your warm-up, to hydrate well, to eat at the opportune moments, to focus and refocus. I realized that I had spent way too much time in the weight room, that I needed to incorporate more ballistic work, throwing and jumping into my training and that above all I needed to do the events and become technically proficient. To become technically proficient I could not spend an inordinate amount of time on any one event or events that I liked, I needed to look at the scoring table and see where I could tease out the most points. I had to look at commonalities between events. Commonalities between the throws and the jump take –off for instance and capitalize on those commonalities and relationships to be more efficient, to make each minute of training count. The lesson that learned on that journey are lessons that I apply each day that I coach. You cannot do just what you like to do or what is convenient, you must focus on the need to do, the training where you will get the most bang for your buck, in the decathlon where you will get the most points. I learned that in strength training I needed to be a strong as could be, as light as could be, if I added unnecessary muscle mass it would help me in the throws and hurt me in the jumps and the 400 and 1500. I learned that too much emphasis on endurance training took away explosiveness, it led me to the concept of work capacity. I learned to balance training between the conditioning components and the technical components. I learned what components were compatible and which training components clashed. I learned how important an active warm-up is and how to economize the warm-up, an important lesson that carried over in my work with team sports. I learned to manage aches and pains and not turn them into injuries. I learned about being a “24 Hour Athlete”, how it wasn’t just the training time that made you better, but your lifestyle. I learned that I had train to my strengths and weaknesses, not copy what other were doing. The longer I coach the more I realize how the decathlon is a terrific metaphor for training in general. It teaches you to make connections, and capitalize on commonalities in movements. I am so thankful for the advice that Red Estes gave me 42 years ago and the journey he started me on then, that continues today. I believe it has given a real advantage in my coaching, an advantage you can also capitalize on by looking at the bigger picture.
Coach Wooden and Winning
Steve Odgers send me an email yesterday reminding me that it was John Woodens birthday and that Coach Wooden never spoke to his teams about winning. Never speaks volumes when you think of the championships and wins his teams accumulated. The message here, a message I have seen in everyone that are consistent winners, is that they focus on the process, not the outcome. If you pay attention to details, have a plan and get absorbed in the process then the winning is an outcome. Conversely think of the losing teams and organizations you see. They are always talking about winning. There are banners and slogans everywhere, but bottom line they are focused on the outcome and they make losing a self-fulfilling prophecy. They seem to find a way to lose. Winners find ways to win to because they have paid attention to the process. If they do lose there are no excuses, just learning, then back to the process.