Author: Vernon Gambetta
Job Preservation – A Major Barrier to Coaching Innovation
Jose Morinho manager of Inter Milan said the following: "When after a third of the Italian championship nine coaches have lost their jobs, who is the coach that wants to innovate?" he said. "The Serie A coach does not want to innovate, he wants to survive. "In England coaches go way beyond their first contract, even beyond the second and the third one and continue developing their work." "When after a third of the Italian championship nine coaches have lost their jobs, who is the coach that wants to innovate?" he said. "The Serie A coach does not want to innovate, he wants to survive. I think Morinho nails it. Perhaps the biggest barrier to innovation and change in sport is the job preservation attitude. I have found this to be especially true in the strength and conditioning arena. I am not very tolerant of the job preservation attitude. I strongly believe that the best way to keep you job is to do your job, innovate and change to make the athlete better. Leave no doubt. If that is not good enough then I do not deserve the job.
The Last Decade – Now Looking Ahead
It is so hard to believe that we are ending the first decade of the new millennium. It seems like just yesterday we were celebrating the turn of the century. This has been an amazing decade in so many ways. For me personally it has been a decade of change and growth. I look forward to the new decade with a renewed sense of hope that all of us will learn from past and build upon it in a positive manner to create a better world for all of us. Hopefully we will see peace and a degree of tranquility in the world in the decade ahead. I am hopeful. I look forward to continue sharing the lessons I have learned with all of you and continuing to learn and challenge myself in every way possible. My best wishes for a healthy and happy new year.
Coaching – A Perspective
When I was sitting at the US Track and Cross Country Coaches Association hall fame dinner two weeks ago, listening to the acceptance speeches from the living inductees and the representatives of those who were deceased. It struck me again how all encompassing and consuming coaching is. Then the recent attention that Urban Meyer has received made me think even more. I have said for years that coaching is not something you do, it is something you are. It has to be the essence of who you are or you are going through the motions. Listening to those hall of fame coaches and watching the Urban Meyer interview the other day made me realize again what it takes. It is not easy to put in words. Coaching is very special, I think you have to have a passion that burns inside of you. I know it is hard on families and relationships, so it takes a very understanding support structure. I know I have been blessed with a wife and family that has not only tolerated but also embraced my passion for coaching. I realize how lucky I have been. I think that is what Urban Meyer was trying to convey in his press conference about going out to practice Sunday morning. There is something special about seeing the athletes you work grow athletically and more importantly as people. Believe me it is special to a get a phone call from an old White Sox player asking advice on how to lose weight or what to do in a career decision. You then realize what it is all about. That is what makes coaching special. I don’t think sport writers and other outsiders can get it. You have to experience it. It can fry you and it can invigorate you – somehow, someway you have to find a balance, most of us are not very good at achieving that balance. I know I am still trying for that balance as I start my 41st year of coaching.
Getting Strong & Getting Slow
This is a follow-up to my post last week with the statements that is it is relatively easy to get strong and it is easy to get slow. There were some good responses that basically mirrored what I am going to say. It is easy to get strong if that is your goal. By strong I mean measurably strong in the traditional sense of weight room strong. A dedicated block of eight to twelve weeks can result in appreciable measureable strength gains in any of the traditional lifts. I am not denigrating this in any way. The key here and the element that I think is often overlooked is how do you then transfer/apply this strength to your event or sport? That is the conundrum. That is what is difficult. Based on what I have seen in 47 years of lifting weights and my 41 years of coaching is that it is easy to get caught in the trap of more strength equals better performance. I reconciled this, both as an athlete and a coach by systematically changing the emphasis from general to special to specific strength depending on the training and competition objectives. In all of this it is essential to never stray very far from your event or your sport. That is the ultimate measure of performance, not numbers in the weight room. As far as getting slow, that is very easy to do. Getting faster requires a high degree of coordination. Getting faster requires ballistic dynamic work in a very narrow range. Using heavy sleds, weight vests, running in sand make you good at running with those impediments but the transfer to speed development is minimal. Look closely at the dynamics of sprinting and what is required. Elite sprinters are already at 7.8 meters per second in two steps from the blocks. Training with heavy resistance increases ground contact time. That is not what you want; you want to put as much force into the ground in the least amount of time. Once again it comes down to understanding what you are training for, what are the demands of your event or sport. Harder is not better. Be smart in your training. If is does not look like what you are trying to do in competition then take another look. Remember you are what you train to be. Train fast to be fast!
Invictus
Went to see the movie Invictus last night. It certainly did not meet my expectations. I actually found it a bit trite. There was so much more that could have been done with the storyline and the subsequent message. It was not a sports movies, I assume it was not meant to be, but it was not a historical movie either, in short it missed it's mark on both counts. It did inspire me to read the history of modern South Africa and Nelson Mandela. It reminded of the group of South African athletes and coaches who were visiting the US and attending our 1980 "Olympic Trials" as observers. There was an 18 foot pole vaulter, a 290 foot javelin throwers a female hurdler who had run under thirteen seconds. Interesting to note they were all white, none had been allowed to compete outside of South Africa. They also told me there was no mixed race competitions in South Africa. Essentially South Africa had not been allowed to compete is any sport outside of the country from the early Seventies until the early Nineties due to sanctions for the apartheid policies of the government.
Post Office Line
Last week I went to the post office before opening at 8:30 so I would not have to stand in line. Instead of a line everyone had put their stuff on the floor and talked, pretty neat actually.
Happy Holidays
I want to take this opportunity to wish everyone a happy and healthy holiday season. This is a special time of year, a time to give thanks for all the good we have received in the past and a time to look forward to a wonderful new year. It is a time for family and fiends, peace and love. I want to thank you all for being part of my life with this blog. I am personally enjoying the time with my family in Houston for few days before I hit the ground running again.
Training Thoughts
Here is some food for thought to spur you thinking: It is relatively easy to get strong It is very easy to make someone slower I am interested in your comments, before I post mine. This is how I began my presentation to the Throws group at USA Track & Field Podium Education program