Author: Vernon Gambetta

Lisa wrote the following and asked me to comment: “I wondered if you had a comment on the HS coach charged with reckless homicide in the death of his player from hyperthermia? Reckless homicide maybe going too far, but there is a huge responsibility on head coaches (not just ATC, strength coaches) to know how the body responds to physical stressors placed upon it. (Some) coaches need to understand that "punishment" is not the same as performance training.” Lisa I will refrain commenting directly on the Kentucky situation since none of us know all the facts, rather I will comments globally on what I have seen. As an athletic development coach, sport coach or physical education teacher I am not a believer in physical exercise as punishment. I feel very strongly that if we are trying to teach the athlete how to be fit and learn an appreciation for exercise as a means to fitness that using laps or “gassers’ as punishment is in appropriate. My attitude is to take away what they most want to do – play or practice. I am not a punishment coach, I make that clear to everyone I work with. The program will be demanding enough without adding that element. Each athlete regardless of their level of development must be taught that they have certain responsibilities to learn to take care of their bodies. We can only train them a limited number of hours each day, what they do the rest of the time is their personal responsibility. We also need to get away from this idea that pre-season training is the time to get in shape. You can’t get in shape in ten days or two weeks. More players are injured and games lost during this period because coaches hammer the athletes and they NEVER recover. This is 2009 we should understand adaptation and proper training and preparation. Heat is a whole other matter. Universally stress from heat is the single biggest factor in limiting performance and training. Heat stress is dangerous and must be recognized as such. Even today we have too many coaches who think they need to have the players sweat the weight off. Look at the coaches, many of them wear rubber jackets to take weight off. What an example. We know that just drinking water during practice is not enough. We must drink an electrolyte solution and be well hydrated before practice starts. Train and practice away from the heat of the day. In other words just use good common sense. There is another area that coaches do not understand, that is exercise induced asthma. It is very prevalent in today’s youth. I have been around too many coaches that think the athlete is just being a wimp – they are not. It is a condition that is dangerous and potentially life threatening, it must be recognized and dealt with on an individual basis.  We need to reach the athletes to communicate with the coach if they have this condition. I feel that the athlete has responsibility in this regard. After coaching forty years and being an athlete longer, it is amazing to me that we are still talking about this kind of stuff. I somehow survived two and three a day practices in college football with two Dixie cups of water, and not being allowed to take our helmets off. When I think back on that I realize how lucky we were that no one died. I vowed after that experience to never put any athlete that I worked with through that kind of abuse. It was abuse not training. Training is preparing the athlete to thrive in any environment and just survive.

Tim I think you misunderstand me. A good coach at any level empowers the athlete. They are not robots. On the other hand empowering the athlete is not letting the inmates run the asylum. It is clear who is the leader and the captain of the ship. It does not have to be my way or the highway, but everyone needs to be clear on the desired destination and the means to reach that destination. In the case of the Arizona Cardinal offensive coordinator, ultimately is he who is accountable for the team’s offensive performance, it is his job to judge who is being productive, during a game a match it is not his job to give the player an explanation. Discussions with players take place off the field in an office. If a player wants to talk to a coach that coach should be approachable, but remember there is a proper time and a place. Will there be confrontations? I sure hope not, but in the heat of a game or a spirited training session a confrontation is possible. When that happens no one wins. As a leader and a teacher a coach has to make hard decisions, decisions that may not be popular but that are for the good of the team. The coach has the big picture in mind, sometimes the athlete does not. I have found that in today’s society at every level of sport it is more prevalent for the athlete to be concerned about their stats or minutes than the team performance. With today’s generation there is an I in team, which makes the coaches job that much tougher.

The following are quotes from the Arizona Cardinal offensive coordinator Todd Haley who was confronted by one of his players when the player was taken out of the game. What stuck was his comment on “players coach.” My experience in pro sports is that a player’s coach is the equivalent of a lack of discipline and structure. Look at the records in every major professional sport and nary a player’s coach has won consistently. This is not an old school idea; it is the way to be successful and accountable. Todd I tip my hat to you. You got me interested enough that I might actually watch a series of down of the Super Bowl, a non event in the Gambetta household. "I only know one way to do it, and that's how I'm going to do it," Haley says. "I was taught by one of the best about how you coach and how you have success, and that person was Coach [Bill] Parcells. I take some heat from it sometimes in this day and age where people say you've got to be a player's coach and all this stuff. Well, that's not me. I'm wired a certain way, and that's not going to change." "Your dream as a coach is to be able to coach guys and they want to be coached, they want to be pressed, they can take you getting on their butt," Haley said the next night. "It makes it so much more fulfilling when they rise up and play to their abilities. It's a special feeling to know you had something to do with it."

You do all your long term planning, your divide the year into training blocks, those blocks are broken down into manageable microcyles then you have to work the plan. Working the plan entails a well designed training session that prepares for all contingencies. It is truly where the rubber meets the road in the implementation of the training plan. In my experience the session can be well planned but the secret for optimizing effectiveness of the plan is actual management of the session. I spend at least twenty minutes a day detailing out that days training session in term of exercise selection, sets, reps and rest between exercise, that is the easy part, it is actually pretty automated. The management of the session is what takes time and attention to detail or chaos will occur. Things like how many med balls we need, how many core trainers, what is the weather all seem like givens, but must be taken into consideration. Facilities can help significantly in managing a session, but I have learned that sometimes you cannot depend on facilities. They changed the lock or another team was scheduled at the same time – now what? For the last two year with Venice Volleyball we have trained in the parking lot and hallways, certainly not optimal, but we still accomplished effective training sessions. Once gain the management of the session was the key. The captains take an active role in helping because there can be up to 24 players with only one coach, me. The captains and upper class ladies really have been key to management. They are trained to lead certain portions of the workout so that I can coach and give individual attention. Grouping the players is essential to good session management. This year we have the most heterogeneous group we have had, the range is from advanced training ages who have been the through the program for three years to ninth graders who have not training background. In addition there are the individual considerations that must be addressed. For an outsider observing it looks like chaos but at the end of the day we get effective workout. Using white boards is a good management tool. I make my own white boards; I buy 4 x 8 sheets of white laminate from Home Depot and have them cut into four sections. We meet before the start of the session and go over the workout on the board and then I point out any individual exceptions or adaptations. The burden is on the athlete to remember those. I use the Finis Circuit Trainer to control the time segments of the workout; I find that the loud horn keeps me on track relative to the time allotted. I structure the sessions so total concentration is required, there is no standing around, recovery is active or you are coaching your partner. I want the kids coaching each other, because that forces them to concentrate as well as build team camaraderie. I let them play music, but the music is off during instruction. Yesterday was our last session in the weight room without walls, Monday we start in a new facility, an actual weight room. Somehow it won’t be the same. It presents some different management problems, we will be in there with the football team, a big distraction, no pun intended. We will still do our throws and jungle gym work outside, overall it should be a big improvement.