Author: Vernon Gambetta

I have received many inquires on where my ideas come from, how I have learned some of the stuff that I have learned. From the ime I can remember as soon as I got involved in sport in the 7th grade I was interested in training. I was always puzzled why some teams and some of my classmates were better. So my initial inspiration to learn it was an early fascination with self-improvement. The first real event that sticks in my mind was a television special on Rafer Johnson and C.K. Yang, both teammates at UCLA and their preparation for the 1960 Rome Olympic Decathlon. It was on Channel 5 in LA, one hour long. It showed them training with their coach, Ducky Drake, head track coach and head athletic trainer at UCLA, as a 13 year old it was very inspirational and informative. I stared lifting weights in 1962, at that time Strength & Health was the bible. I devoured the training articles in there. In fact I still have some of those articles that I saved in a folder. It was very sound information. I played football at Fresno State, we had no off-season training program. Everyone was on their own, so I trained in the weight room with the jumpers and throwers. Larry Alexander, our best high jumper and I started doing more stuff together, the things that he was doing seemed to make more sense to me. I asked him where he got his ideas and he let me read an amazing article on Russian High Jump training from the first issue of Track Technique (A journal I was later privileged to edit). The systematic approach amazed me, I was hooked, this obviously was the way to train. I think the event that affirmed my desire to be a coach was the first ever Fresno State Track & Field Clinic in the winter of 1968, my senior year. The feature speaker was Bill Bowerman, Track & Field & Cross Country coach at University of Oregon. I remember walking out of his Friday night session on developing Four Minute milers saying to my self that I am going to be like him. The other speaker was Ken Shannon, Field event coach at UCLA at the time, later the longtime coach at University of Washington. His presentations on strength training and training for the pole vault were spectacular. I can remember those presentations 42 years later as clear as day. The concepts he and Bowerman presented are concepts I still use today. After the clinic I went to Red Estes, the assistant Track & Field Coach at Fresno Sate to borrow all the back issues of Track Technique and the book Run, Run, Run by Fred Wilt. In addition the text for his Theory of Track & Field class was Ken Dougherty’s Modern Track & Field, that book and the Track & Field Omnibook by Dougherty had huge influences on my philosophy of coaching and my ideas of training. I think every young coach should read the first editions of the Track & Field Omnibook. In 1968 after graduating I asked my parents to get me a subscription to Track Technique for a graduation present. The first issue I received had an article on Russian Javelin training that Frank Covelli an American Javelin thrower had translated from Russian. It detailed the training and development of Janis Lusis, it was nothing short of awesome. This convinced that a systematic approach to training was the only way to go. In either 1971 or 1972, not sure which because I cannot find the article now, there was on article by a German coach Peter Tschiene on power training for the throwing events (can’t remember exact title). This was a landmark for me in terms of rounding out my ideas on strength training. In the summer of 1972 after our Olympic Trials in Eugene, the AAU, the governing body of Track & Field, had their first ever Learn By Doing Clinic in Sacramento California. It was organized by Fred Wilt, the editor of Track Technique. What an unbelievable experience, the coaches who were in attendance represented a who’s who of coaching in the US over the next thirty years. I was like a kid in a candy store. The evening sessions were the best though. Tadeusz Starzynski, Polish triple jump coach, probably one of the best jump coaches of all-time, presented each night on his training methodology. He showed great 16mm films of Schmidt (Three Time Olympic Triple Jump Gold Medal winner), his prize pupil doing all the exercises and technical practice. I feel this really helped me get a handle on technique, plyometric training and special and specific strength development. Oh what I would give to get a copy of those films. Another experience that really rounded off my early years of learning was a clinic in the winter of 1978 at Stanislaus State College where Gerard Mach, Head T&F coach of Canada presented on his system of sprint and hurdle training. He presented for 12 hours over two days. He showed 16mm movies of all the drills and special and specific drills for the sprints and hurdles. I had been introduced to Mach’s methodology by some Canadian athletes training in Santa Barbara in the early Seventies, so to finally got to see all the details of the system unfold, It was an eye opener to learn the why behind the drills. These were profound experiences that had a huge impact on my professional development. Certainly I did not stop learning in 1978, I continue to read extensively, dialogue with professional colleagues and continue to learn daily from my athletes. I vowed when I started coaching to be as knowledgeable as I could be, to leave no stone unturned in the search for knowledge and wisdom. As I have gotten older and gained some experience my passion for learning has only increased and broadened. I sincerely hope that through this blog and my other work that I can light the spark for learning in some of you in the same way the people and the events that influenced me did. Never stop learning, challenge yourself and those you work with everyday to be better.