Author: Vernon Gambetta
Pictures
I will post pictures and hopefully some movie clips (if I can figure out how to do it) from New York Red Bull Training and some from Air Force Special Ops training this weekend
The Combat Athlete
I just returned from an amazing three day symposium on training the combat athlete at Hurlburt Air force Base Florida. The focus was on revising the curriculum throughout the pipeline of training for the Air Force special Ops troops. I was never in the military so much of what I saw and heard was new to me. It is an amazing culture of physical and mental preparation with a laser like focus on building a team. All the analogies about battle we use in sports are really cliché’s when you hear and see preparation for real battle as these folks must fight. They are the first ones in. They have to depend on their teammate’s not to make a block or a pass but to save their lives. To their credit they recognize that their training methods need to be up graded to reflect current best practice in the world of elite sports and current research from sport science. That was the purpose of the symposium. That being be said the focus and dedication was equivalent to what I have seen at the highest level of elite sport. This is food for thought – think of how you would prepare for this scenario: You are notified via beeper that you are leaving in thirty minutes. Your gear is packed and you do not know where you are going. When you arrive you learn you are flying to Afghanistan. You fly 17 or 18 hours, get off the plane, get on a helicopter and are flown to 12,000 in the Hindu Kush mountain range. You get off the helicopter wearing 85 pounds of equipment and body armor and then climb on trails to 16,00 feet of altitude to immediately engage the enemy in a fire fight. You may stay there for four months or you may hike back down and leave the next day. These guys are athletes!
SMU Speed Symposium
On April 14 & 15 Dr. Peter Weyand of SMU will host a symposium that will bring together practitioners and scientists to meet and discuss the latest research and practices on improving human speed performance. For more information on the speakers and the program go to http://smu.edu/education/wellness/speed/ This should be a great opportunity to learn and share ideas.
Reading
From Seth Godins post today: “The #1 habit successful people share with me is this: They read books to learn. They do it often and with joy. It's cheap (or free, at the library or online) and portable and specific.”
Amazing Storey
This is almost too good to be true. I was almost in tears reading this. I am a sucker for the underdog and the unknown, but this tops them all. I am know who I am rooting for. It’s almost like this guy is the anti A Rod or Lance Armstrong. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/sports/othersports/08cycling.html?_r=1&ref=sports
My All Star Coaching Lineup
Watching Juan Ososrio coach yesterday really got my wheels turning about coaching and teaching. I woke up this morning thinking about a lineup of caches that I have had the privilege to work with or closely observe, this is the list I came up with. It would be great to get all these guys in one room and be able to sit back and listen. I would like to hear from you on coaches and teachers you have seen and why you put them on an all-star list Jim Radcliffe – When I think of Jim I think of progression and thoroughness. Great on the field and in the weight room. Gary Winckler – The best sprint and hurdle coach there is. Without a peer. Thorough, scientific, and demanding. A man of few words who makes what he does say count. Kevin Mc Gill – Technically the best in the throws especially the hammer and the javelin. Passionate and demonstrative Jim Richardson – Great communicator and technical coach on the deck. Thorough planner, very systematic. Always gets the most out of his talent. Jim Steen – Supreme motivator, great teacher and leader Nort Thornton – Innovative, always looking to learn. A great teacher. Juan Osorio – Simply the best in soccer Tex Winter – Great teacher and innovator. The genius in regard to basketball offense. John Bach – Great teacher, deeply passionate. The best at teaching basketball defense. Joe Vigil – Hands down the best teacher I have ever been around. Demanding. Always learning and working to be better.
New York Red Bull Training Session – Friday February 6, 2009
Today I had the privilege of attending and observing the New York Red Bull training session at IMG Academies in Bradenton, Florida. I say privilege because the chance to watch Juan Osorio coach was just that a privilege. I saw real coaching in soccer for the first time in a long time. He gets it, a truly outstanding coach. I cannot say enough good things about the structure and content of the training session. Juan asked me to evaluate his session and here are the things that I saw: I always look for progression and there was progression within each segment of the practice and between segments. The whole session progressed from technical work to tactical work to strategic work. It was really cool to see the progression from fundamental movement skills in a drill relating to and leading directly to soccer skills. He taught with varied styles appropriate for the situation and the player, his ability to demonstrate obviously really captures the players attention. Mistakes were pointed out and CORRECTED; there was no repetition of errors! Good tempo to the session. It was obvious he knew his players strength and weaknesses and he was always teaching to minimize weaknesses and optimize strengths. He gave incredible attention to details in areas that I have never heard of or seen an American coach address. He was working with the defense and showed the probability of certain balls in certain areas resulting in goals. It gave a lot a more meaning to the subsequent defensive drill because now each player knew WHY they had to be in a position. There was no jogging in warm-up. The warm-up related to the practice that followed. In contrast there were two other MLS teams training on adjacent fields at the same time. The difference was incredible. They were repeating errors, all jogged around the complex to warm-up. Juan had every segment of the practice thoroughly planned with each drill drawn out in detail. I could not help but contrast this to my experience with the 1998 US World Cup team when the head coach on the bus to practice turned to one of the assistants and asked what he thought the team should do today – no plan and no idea. I can’t wait to see another session before they leave. Juan is a great example of a coach who is always learning. He wants to learn from other sports. I was telling him how much his training session reminded of a session I had seen Tex Winter run with the Chicago Bulls. The first thing he asked me is does he have a book. So tomorrow I will bring him Tex Winters book. Folks, that is how you become the best – constant learning.
Enabling Questionable and Poor Behavior
One of the books that I read and did not recommend was the book by Michael Phelps written with (most probably by) Allan Abrahamsom called “No Limits – The Will to Succeed.” I am not trying to pile on Phelps, but his current situation is simply a culmination of enabling questionable behavior along the way. If you read between the lines in the book you will see that. If I hear one more time that he is only 23 and still learning I will barf. He was mature enough to sign that huge endorsement deal with Speedo when he was a teenager. At 23 I had been working at a real job for two years as most of us have done. But this is bigger than Phelps, it is societal issue where the star high school athlete gets away with cheating in the classroom or drinking or smoking dope as long as they produce on Friday night. The star pro linebacker literally gets away with murder and then is lionized in the press for his charitable foundation. Let’s get real, adult authority figures enable this poor and questionable behavior by not dealing with at the youngest ages. I was taught and still teach that with rights there is responsibility. Responsibility to yourself, your family and your teammates. It is not comfortable sometimes to have standards and to hold to them, but it is necessary. Coaches are teachers and teaching good life skills is one of our first responsibilities.