Author: Vernon Gambetta

Acquiring, learning and perfecting skill is more than motor learning, it requires recognition that the body is a complex system that is continually learning and adapting to ever changing environments. It is not a computer to be programmed, rather it is a self organizing problem solving organism, always learning and growing. The body learns through exploration. I feel it is not about exploring limits, it is more about defining parameters and learning options. We must allow for and encourage individual expression. In reality as coaches what we need to do to insure continual adaptation is to change constraints so the we keep challenging the athlete to solve increasingly complex motor problems. The solutions are as varied as there are athletes performing skill. Be especially aware that you are not creating robots. I know I have been guilty of creating robots by trying to fit the athlete into a box of technical perfection. That box does not exist; it is always changing and being modified. Let’s encourage that exploration of movement parameters at every level of proficiency. My suspicion is that skills will improve and that injuries will be reduced.

This post by Scott Berkun (scottberkun.com » There are two kinds of people: complexifiers and simplifiers) really got me thinking. He identifies two kinds of people complexifiers and simplifiers. Complexifiers are averse to reduction. Their instincts are to turn simple assignments into quagmires, and to reject simple ideas until they’re buried (or asphyxiated) in layers of abstraction.Simplifiers thrive on concision. They look for the 6x=6y in the world, and happily turn it into x=y. They never let their ego get in the way of the short path. When you give them seemingly complicated tasks they simplify, consolidate and re-interpret on instinct, naturally seeking the simplest way to achieve what needs to be done. They find ways to communicate complex ideas in simple terms without losing the idea’s essense or power. This lost generation of twenty and thirty something “strength” coach are complexifiers. It seems they want to make movement and training mysterious and complex. Don’t they realize that man has been running jumping and throwing for thousands of years? The simplicity of movement is what makes it complex. Learn and know the simple and the complex will happen. You don’t learn this is class or in a textbook, you learn from the people who have lived this for a long time. Get outside the weight room, watch the athletes move in their sport and then train them for what they are doing in their sport. Hint: if they have to move someone or a heavy object they should spend more time in the weight room, if not less time. Also don’t forget dumbbells are very smart, they accommodate to the body, bars do not. Give them strength they can use, don’t abuse them.  Be a simplfier!

Sorry for the scarcity of posts the last couple of weeks. I am near the end of a looooong road trip. Last week I was in Boston for three days with a company I work with on the development of a physiological monitoring system (More on that in a later post) and then three days with Harvard women’s swimming coaching staff. Home yesterday and off to Ft Lauderdale today (Short three hour drive) to do a Dryland Training school at the ASCA Convention and another one hour talk on Thursday. Home Friday and finally actually get the Venice girls play Friday night. I am trying to find a way to be more productive on the road, but it seems at the end of some long days I am brain dead, sometimes no energy even left to read. You will know I have this figured out when I post daily when I am traveling. Got an iphone in June, it is a great tool for me. My ring tone is Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again.” I tried for two months to download it, finally had to have my nine year old nieces do it for me when I was in California. For me making music with my friends is getting to hang out with and work with some sharp coaches who I can keep learning from. I am working on a post/position statement on the Lost Generations of coaches who have drunk the cool aide. Stay tuned, it probably will not make some people happy, but the more I see the generation gap between those of us who were trained as coaches and the lost younger  generation who are very internet savvy and book smart the more I am convinced that we are due for the crash in the training that rivals our current economic crash. You don’t learn to coach reading a book or reading list serves on the internet, it is a passion and a commitment that I am not sure some of the younger generations understand. Off to Ft Lauderdale!