Author: Vernon Gambetta
Work or Training
Ask yourself is what you are doing just work or is it training? Work is just activity, a lot of nice to do exercises with no central purpose or connection. Training on the other hand is focused, composed of need to do activities in pursuit of a specific objective. Above all training is mindful, it demands concentration not just effort. Certainly work will yield results but training produces measureable progress toward a goal in a predicable time frame. I don’t know about you but I want my training efforts to pay dividends that are predictable. Don’t get caught in the activity trap.
Give the Body Credit
Good reply’s to my post on rotation. Once again it reminds that that so often we fail to give the body credit. The structure of the body dictates its ability to move efficiently and adapt. As coaches we can’t be afraid to put the body in postures that allow it to move, adapt and self organize. Every day that I coach now I see examples of the body’s ability to solve movement problems efficiently and with immediate dispatch. As coaches it seems one of our biggest challenges is creating movement problems that challenge the body in a variety of postures moving through all planes of motion that address the demands of the sport. This is a fun and FUNdamental challenge, one that makes coaching exciting and interesting.
Professional Baseball Conditioning
Scott Belger wrote the following: However I noticed you dog Baseball from time to time. Most Baseball comments are blanket statements and not true for most Baseball coaches and/or Baseball organizations. Good observation Scott, perhaps you could contact the commissioner of professional baseball and ask him if you could help with their drug program. Just kidding. You are spot on with your comment, except you failed to notice one thing; all my comments are directed at professional baseball, especially major league baseball. I feel very confident when I write on professional baseball. I am in close contact with the sport and spent many years pioneering the efforts to institute systematic conditioning in professional baseball. There are more conditioning coaches and athletic trainer than ever before, less being done and minimal results. You can look at on many different levels. Injuries are more serious and more frequent than ever before. Player have their own trainers, doctors and therapists because in many cases the people the clubs hire are either ineffective or incompetent. I know that one prominent agent takes care of every aspect of his player’s physical and medical care. He can’t trust the clubs; the players are too valuable to him. John Q. Fan led by the Baseball Prospectus type of stat freaks have bought into the “Moneyball” myth and it is just that, a myth. How do you factor injuries into the equation? Is not the number one goal of any program to put the best player on the field more often? From 1987 to 1996 as Director of Conditioning for the Chicago White we had a model program. Players in the minor leagues were required to train, the major league player were fully compliant because Steve Odgers took the time and effort to give each player individual programs. It was an athletic development program not just a strength training program. We tested each spring training and developed a physical profile for each player based on the testing. We had a pitchers biomechanically analyzed and their programs tailored to their needs. We had worked out the cost per injury for each player and could predict the amount of down time for each injury based on our records. I was sent to evaluate potential high draft picks before the draft. We had an annual pitcher and catcher mini-camp every January starting in 1989. This was a comprehensive model based on the systematic sport development model prevalent in amateur sport. It was very successful but abandoned because it took an incredible amount of work and commitment on the part of all concerned. I was hired by the Mets in 2004 to begin to implement a similar program but when they saw the commitment necessary they balked. Too much work and you would make the players uncomfortable. So Scott this was a long winded rant, but I know of what I speak about professional baseball. Many of the current strength and conditioning coaches in baseball have no idea that they are just trying to implement thing that we did as a matter of routine twenty years ago! I just heard that MLB is either considering or instituting a combine before the draft, maybe they should consider talking to those of us who did that years ago. I have nine years of valid and reliable test data that includes predictive factors of success at the major league level. My time in professional baseball was both incredibly frustrating and incredibly rewarding. I know that we were able to change the paradigm in a very traditional sport for a brief period of time. That experience was jumping off point for my career. This was not a solo effort. I got to work with some great coaches administrators and teachers. The model we developed has worked in many other sports both amateur and professional. I want to remind everyone that it takes an incredible commitment, to develop a system and make it work, it is not for dilettantes and the faint of heart.
Creativity and Innovation Blocks
I love being around people who are creative and innovative. It inspires me and fuels my passion for learning in the pursuit of excellence. Conversely it is tough for me to be around people who are stuck in the status quo, unable to objectively look at their world and do something to make it better. A phrase that I particularly abhor is – Been there, done that. My reaction is – So what? Did you do it well? Did you learn something? Would you do it again? I know that personally I have been many places and done many things, each situation was an opportunity to learn and grow. Think about possibilities and growth rather than the impossible and stagnation.
2009 GAIN Apprentorship
The anthropologist Margaret Mead once said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” The GAIN Apprentorship has a simple goal to change the world of sport performance and rehabilitation by defining the field of athletic development. Last year was the beginning, join us June 18 to 23, 2009 and be part of the change. (See pictures of 2008 in the photo gallery) Apprentorship = Apprenticeship + Mentorship
Rotation is bad?
I just found out yesterday that we should stop doing rotational medicine ball movements because they are bad for your back. Now that I have recovered from the initial shock I am trying to figure out what I am going to do to train the athletes I work with, the programs I consult with and how do I explain to the thousands of athlete’s that I have coached over the years that everything we were doing was wrong! Obviously I have to eliminate rotational movements because some noted guru misinterpreted or took some science or pseudo science out of context and then passed it on to a group of coaches. The group of coaches happened to be baseball conditioning coaches, maybe not the most enlightened group, but very impressionable. Let’s put this silly and absurd idea to rest immediately, rotational movement are not bad! Just like anything it is dependent on context, mode and where they are placed in the training program. Remember there are three cardinal planes of movement, sagittal, frontal and transverse and the body must be able to move through all three planes without restriction at will. A significant amount of force reduction against gravity occurs in the transverse plane, therefore to prevent injury avoiding rotational movements would be a huge mistake. Modes of exercise like medicine ball, kettle bell and stretch cords enable rotational movements to be trained in various patterns that can prepare the body for the demands in the specific sport or movement you are preparing for. Rather than focusing on the danger of rotational movement take at look at the composition and make up of your core training program. I firmly maintain that if more than 15% of your core work is done in seated, prone or supine positions that you need to revise your program. Stress standing work and moving work in all three planes of motion that prepares the body for the forces encountered in the sport. Train the so called anti gravity muscles in postures that stress those muscles the way they were designed to be stressed. For baseball to not train rotational movements would be negligent. I am convinced that the plethora of oblique injuries that have occurred in pro baseball over the past several years are due to incorrect training design – too much isolated abdominal work done in supine positions. There is not enough rotational work standing to improve the deceleration ability of the muscles of the trunk, especially the oblique’s that function to decelerate the highly ballistic actions of hitting and throwing. If it is done it is done almost exclusively with cable machines that do not stress the deceleration phase of the movement. Remember a simple rule of thumb – you are what you train to be. You do not play in a phone booth, sport and life is ballistic, reactive moving though wide ranges of movement in demanding postures, don’t eliminate rotation build your program around rotation.
Imagine – John Lennon
Imagine there's no Heaven It's easy if you try No hell below us Above us only sky Imagine all the people Living for today Imagine there's no countries It isn't hard to do Nothing to kill or die for And no religion too Imagine all the people Living life in peace You may say that I'm a dreamer But I'm not the only one I hope someday you'll join us And the world will be as one Imagine no possessions I wonder if you can No need for greed or hunger A brotherhood of man Imagine all the people Sharing all the world You may say that I'm a dreamer But I'm not the only one I hope someday you'll join us And the world will live as one
Kenyon College – Second Visit
I spent the first three days of this week at Kenyon College in Gambier Ohio. I consult with the athletic department on athletic development for all their teams. My first contact with Kenyon was through swimming and Coach Jim Steen who is always seeking ways to improve. He talked to Peter Smith, the Athletic Director to bring me in to work with the whole department. I love the 6:00 am workouts in the weight room with the sprint swimmers, it has been cool to see their bodies change since my last visit and to see their improvement in the water. It is always a great experience. The Kenyon Athletic Center is an amazing facility, one of the best in the country at any level of sport. I http://athletics.kenyon.edu/x95.xml#x1514 It has been fun to see the coaches embrace the concepts of athletic development and begin to incorporate them into their practices.