Author: Vernon Gambetta
Game Fit – What is it?
What is game fitness or match fitness? In some ways this is a little like the elusive mental toughness search. I do know that match and game fitness is not the ability to run X distance on a Coopers test or reach Y stage on a beep test of your choice. Let’s start at step one. How about a thorough analysis of the demands of the game or in Athletics how about the race or the event. The reason I say athletics because I think of the hours I spend running slow to get “fit” for the decathlon. All I got was slow, not fit for the event. This happens in all sports. We build this ubiquitous “base” which means that we can do a lot of “stuff” at very low intensity but nothing anywhere near the speed and explosiveness required by the game. But if we do not truly understand the demands of the game, the number of events that occur in the course of the game, the number of high speed efforts, the time to recover, all these factors impact how we should prepare to be game fit. I start by classifying the sports – recognizing that there are tweeners – those sports that crossover. This is from chapter three of my book Athletic Development – The Art and Science of Functional Sports Conditioning. Sprint Sport – These sports require one all out maximum effort. The goal is to achieve as fast a time as possible for the prescribed distance. The ability to recover or quickly repeat the effort is not a factor. Intermittent Sprint Sport – these sports require a series of maximum efforts with time for relatively full recovery between efforts. American football, rugby, ice hockey, volleyball are examples. Transition Game Sport – these sports require a series of efforts of varied intensity that occur in random patterns. Recovery between efforts varies from almost non-existent to close to complete. Soccer, field hockey, lacrosse are examples. Endurance Sport – This is characterized by continual sub maximal effort with the goal to finish in the shortest time possible for a certain distance. This is subdivided by duration into short term, one minute up to twenty minutes, medium term twenty minutes to one hour and long term over an hour in duration. Sports that fall into this classification are the typical endurance sports like the marathon and triathlon. One I have determined the Sport Classification then I look closely at the positions or events within the sport. One of the biggest mistakes I see made is to condition everyone the same regardless of position demands. Then look at the individual. What does each athlete bring to the table? How do they play the game? Finally yet importantly, look at the pattern of injuries and make sure that you are designing a program that addresses the common injuries. This should be transparent. Simplicity yields complexity. Then take this and design your program to get your athletes fit for their sport. Be creative, but stay basic. The simple periodization plan is as follows: Get Strong Get Fast Get Fit Get Specific Play the Game Notice where get fit is placed in the sequence. It is very easy to get game or match fit after you are fast and strong. I will explain this paradigm in future posts. However, remember that all components of training must be trained at all times in appropriate proportions, so the components are blended. Not rocket science but a fundamental creative process based on sport science and experience.
Mistakes & Teaching/Learning
In response to Mark Days post. Mark the key is, are they learning from their mistakes? You will never improve tactically and technically as an athlete if you don’t make mistakes. The good athlete learns from mistakes and taking risks, then they internalize what needs to be done to correct those mistakes. Pep Guardiola, the manager of Barcelona winner of yesterday Champions League final over favorite Manchester United said after the match: “There’s nothing more dangerous than not taking risks.” As a coach I view mistakes as a teachable moment. The perfect game has never been played, nor has the perfect race been run. That does mean to imply that we do not strive for perfection, but sometimes imperfection will move you on the path toward perfection. One of my pet peeves is to see coaches praise poor effort or mistakes made because of lack of effort or concentration. I have been around coaches who say 'well done" no matter the effort or result. That helps no one. In those cases the correction must be made immediately and firmly in a manner the individual athlete relates to.
That’s Why They Play the Game
I had to chuckle when I looked at the paper this morning and saw that the Orlando magic had defeated the Cleveland Cavilers. One week ago the Cavaliers were crowned as the next NBA champions! What happened? Folks that is why they still play the game. Much to the horror of Nike and the NBA what will happen if the Denver Nuggets and the Orlando Magic end up in the final? That will be a TV ratings disaster! No Lebron James and Kobe Bryant? Somehow I think Nike and Commissioner Stern will figure out a way to get LA in there. Remember this is not about sport, it is entertainment business. Big bucks win out! Sorry for the dripping sarcasm and cynicism, but it is too hard to ignore.
Dean Benton on Mental Toughness
The following is an email I received from my friend and colleague, Dean Benton, Performance Director for the Brisbane Broncos. This reminded me again that I am not a punishment coach or a mental toughness coach. Each of us has a responsibility to teach our athletes, that is implicit in coaching. Teaching concentration and focus is part of what I do in every session. Here are Dean's comments: Just read your blog about mental toughness. I couldn’t agree more. It pisses me off when coaches who think, simplistically, that smashing players with copious amounts of conditioning will solve a myriad of problems that underpin poor performance when it arises. Without doubt you cannot get physically fit without being mentally tough and vice versa – I subscribe to this wholeheartedly. However, using conditioning as tool to try and directly instill mental toughness suggests the following: Every training session has to be hard to be beneficial Athletes develop a negative attitude to the training process It breeds distrust between the Athletic Development coach and athletes Training (athletic development) should be seen as a privilege not a burden. I find this simplistic remedy too common in the football codes. It’s used when thinking and player/coach responsibility stops.
Specificity
On Saturday at the collegiate swim coaches I had a rather long and fruitless discussion on specificity with one of the vendors selling an isokinetic training system. My point was that in swimming or any other sport the highest degree of specificity is the sport itself. You can imitate movements, but similar is not the same. When I divide my work up I think of it in three classifications: 1) General – No relationship in terms of speed or patterns of movement. 2) Special – Some relationship in terms of patterns of movement, but not much in terms of speed of movement. 3) Specific – Very similar in terms of patterns and speed. Looks a lot like the movements we are going to do in the sport. Over the years I have found it futile to send too much time trying imitate the exact movements of the sport. That is why they practice the sport. It is important to condition for those movements not repeat those movements. I have learned that is import to train across the spectrum from general to specific and to carefully correlate this with what they are doing in the actually practices.
Knowing It All
I was privileged to present on Dryland Training Saturday to the Collegiate Swim Coaches Association. What made it a privilege was to have Jim Richardson, the women’s swim coach at Michigan and Jim Steen, the swim coach at Kenyon in the audience. I realized during the talk how fortunate I have been to work with two great coaches like them. After my talk Jim Steen and I were talking over some ideas we had about next year’s program and also looked back over things that we had done over the years. What things had worked and what had not, why we had gotten away from certain things and why we had held onto certain things. We both had a good laugh about the time when we thought we knew everything. On my flight home that evening I reflected a little more on this. I guess the stage of knowing everything is a stage we all have to go through in life both professionally and personally. As I look back on that stage I realize how uncomfortable it was to think I knew everything. Not only did I know everything but I would tell anyone who would listen. How obnoxious is that? For me it was not long before I was knocked off my pedestal. Certainly at this stage in my life and my career I realize what I don’t know. I do know that what I do not know is much more than I do know. I also realize that every day presents the opportunity to learn new things and experience new challenges. For me now it is the joy of learning new things and meeting that challenge every day that keeps me motivated and focused. I guess that why I sit in the back of the room during some of the presentations I have heard over the past six weeks and smile. I have heard a succession of young coaches who certainly know everything and let us know it. I hope their fall is not as hard as mine was.
Happy Birthday Bob Dylan
Today is Bob Dylan’s 68th birthday. There is no doubt that he marches to the beat of a different drummer, but it is a drummer that I sometimes hear. Over the years I have viewed many of his songs as a call to action. My favorite album of his is Nashville Skyline. Bob Dylan said, "A person is a success if they get up in the morning and gets to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do." Remember the times they are a changing!
Another Great Coach You Have Never Heard Of
I was so pleased to go the Track and Field News website and see a very nice article about Elijah Greer and his coach Bob Williams. I met Bob four years when were both working with the Nike Oregon Project. Getting to know Bob and work with him was the high point of that experience. He is a great coach. He ran the steeplechase at Oregon under Bill Bowerman. He is a Bowerman disciple, I loved talking to him about the Bowerman system, and it was a terrific education. Over the years he has consistently applied the Bowerman principles to produce a string of outstanding runners. His latest is Elijah Greer who has the leading 800 meter runner in the nation last year as a Junior. If you ever get a chance to meet Bob you will enjoy it. He is a wonderful person and a great coach.