Author: Vernon Gambetta
Growing into an athlete
Yesterday during training I had a some time to step back and observe the athletes, not just my athletes but the football players and wrestlers who were in the weight room at the same time. On my drive home from workout, about twenty minutes, I reflected on what I saw with more focus on my Volleyball players. (The drive home is my time to reflect on the just completed workout and begin planning for the next session). I realized that what I saw unfold before me yesterday was the growth process of an athlete. In my group there are ninth graders just starting the journey to rising seniors who will be play at a high level in college. They all workout, why don’t they end up in the same place? Well we know that many are called and few are chosen – Right? Actually wrong – many are called and few choose. Yes you read it correctly not many choose to excel. It is clear to me after all these years there are three stages in the growth process into becoming a real athlete. I saw it all unfold before my eyes yesterday. First Stage – You do the workout. Nothing more, nothing less, you get tired, you are satisfied. At this stage anything you do makes you better, so you see some improvement. Many never move beyond this stage. Second Stage – You realize you must do something more to continue to improve so now you work the workout. You put more into it mentally and physically. You realize just doing the workout is not enough, you must have good technique and concentrate, you must push yourself. many stop here. Third Stage – This is where the big dogs play – you have train the workout. That is a whole new level of commitment and concentration. You must prepare mentally and physically in advance for the workout. You have be at your best everyday. In my experience this is a select group. They see the results, the fruits of their labor because they consciously choose to train the workout In many respects the growth of a coach reflects the same three growth stages as the athlete. I think we all choose where we want to be. To be the best means being uncomfortable all the time. Making sacrifices and doing things no one else is willing to do. Where do you choose to be? Chances are where you choose to be will be reflected in the athletes you coach.
Moving and Grooving
Sport performance regardless of the sport is a multidimensional activity. Sport occurs in a dynamic environment, that forces movement to occur in all planes of motion using multiple joint movements to produce the desired movement mechanics. The traditional approach to training especially strength training has been heavily influenced by what I call mental convenience. In that approach the emphasis was on one muscle group with movement in one plane of motion at one joint because it was easy to describe because that is the way it was in an anatomical position. We do not move in an anatomical position, it is static and fixed. Cadavers are dead, they don’t move. We are alive, we move! Performance involves the whole body moving through all three planes of motion – sagittal, frontal & transverse – and using as many joints a possible – Toe Nails to Fingernails – to produce force and reduce for efficient coordinated movement. Get moving and grooving!
Been Preaching This A Long Time – Movements Not Muscles
The Central Nervous System controls and directs all movement. The CNS calls for patterns of movement that can be modified in countless ways to react appropriately to gravity, ground reaction forces, and momentum. Each activity is further refined and adjusted by feedback from the body’s proprioceptors. This process ensures optimal neuromuscular control and efficiency of movement. Movement does not occur in the anatomical position. Movement occurs in reaction to gravity, ground reaction forces, and momentum. Movement is not an isolated event that occurs in one plane of motion; it involves synergists, stabilizers, neutralizers, and antagonists all working together to reproduce efficient triplanar movements.
My library
My library also doubles as my office. I thought I would share with you what it looks like. What you see here are all books on training and sport science, my other books, history, philosophy, biography and fiction are downstairs spread over several rooms. I started collecting books and creating files of articles on training when I was in high school. It used to be much better organized, but as the volume of material, books, manuscripts, and magazines has grown it seems to be more about piles. Most of the time I can find what I am looking for, but sometime it takes me a while to dig back into a closet or a pile to find it. In addition to what you see here I have journals back to1968 in boxes in the attic. The ones that are now archived on line I am planning on getting rid of. Other like the Yessis Review and some foreign journals I plan on keeping. I am working on finding a better way to store them. Wish I had time to scan them all, maybe someday. I hope this inspires you to read, research, learn and maybe start your own libraries.
What is Work Capacity
This is from my book the Athletic Development – The Art and Science of Functional Sports Conditioning. I thought this would clarify what I mean when I refer to work capacity. “Work capacity is the ability to tolerate a workload and recover from that workload. In order for an athlete to improve they must be able to do a certain threshold amount of work. They must be able to work at a level that will ensure enough stress to achieve an optimum adaptive response. If they cannot do the work they will not improve. For example, a sprinter whose general fitness limits their ability to do any significant amount of sprint training would significantly limit their ability to improve. Therefore the goal with this type of individual would be to build a work capacity base that fits the specific demands of the athlete’s sport. This would get the sprinter fit enough to do the amount of sprint work to improve his speed.” “In the language of training theory work capacity falls into the category of general physical preparation (GPP). There are three components of work capacity: 1) The ability to tolerate a high workload – the key word here is to tolerate. Many athletes are capable of doing an occasional high workload, but cannot adapt to this workload on any kind of consistent basis. 2) The ability to recover from the workload sufficiently for the next workout or competition. This is closely tied to the first concept. If the athlete cannot recover then they are risking overuse injuries or overtraining. They will not be able to adapt to the training stress. 3) The capacity to resist fatigue whatever the source. Fatigue is more than metabolic, it is the ability to resist neural fatigue and mental fatigue. 4) It is the refinement of the efficiency and coordination of the cardiovascular, metabolic and nervous systems.”
Paralysis by Analysis
Trivialization is not a training principle. Sometimes what you see is what you get, nothing more, and nothing less. Recognize what you see in coaching, or what you are reading for professional advancement for what it is. Do not pick the fly poop out of the pepper, that approach will only get you smelly fingers. Details are fine and important as long as they have context. That context always should be the big picture. Rather than focus on minutiae focus on the need to do training activities and that will elicit the desired training adaptation. Train the need to do, evaluate the need to do, adjust based on the evaluation, focus and train with a new focus. Think big picture with a laser focus on the desired result. Sure the devil is in the details, but sometimes the devil can be the details. Don't be possessed by the devil of trivial detail.
Using Time
Geno Auriemma certainly makes it clear that he thinks stretching is a complete waste of time. How about taking a minute and look at other time wasters that have crept into our training methodology? How about foam rolling before workout as part of warm-up? A complete waste of time, in my book it is very similar to static stretching before workout, a calming not an activating effect. Think about it this way. If you roll for five minutes a day with your team as part of warm-up and you train five days a weeks, that is 25 minutes a week. 25 minutes that could be devoted to improving some significant aspect of their athletic development. Take it a little further. That is 100 minutes a month. If you train ten months a year that is 1,000 minutes! Think of all the ways you could better use that 1,000 minutes. Look at your workouts and do a through analysis of what you are doing, and why you are doing it. If you have one hour to train, like I do with my volleyball team, I want 60 minutes of total involvement, no fluff, no rolling on the floor doing mindless movements. Each of those 60 minutes should be another step toward greatness. Each step must have a purpose.
Words of Wisdom from Geno
I have always liked Auriemma. I like the way he tells it like it is. The way he holds his players accountable. I like him even more after this quote from an article about him in today's NY Times: Stretching before practice is “the biggest waste of time in the history of sports,” Auriemma said. Yet he gives his players 10 minutes to stretch “so they can all sit around and talk about what movie they saw, what pair of shoes they saw in some store.” “I stay in my office until they’re done,” he said. “It’s nauseating.”