Author: Vernon Gambetta
New Blog from Joe P. – Joe’s Training Room
Bookmark this blog from Joe P. http://www.joestrainingroom.blogspot.comJoe is one of those people who gets it. He works in the real world at Elizabeth High School in New Jersey. He literally has to work with hundreds of kids a day in his role as an ATC at the high school. Joe is someone who I use as a sounding board and a resource. No BS here just the straight poop.
Are you coaching them or training them?
There is a clear cut difference between coaching someone and training someone. I have been to training sessions all over the world in the past few years and this distinction is clear in any language and in any culture. Those who are training the athletes are counting reps, looking at the stopwatch and shouting out times. Those who are coaching are closely observing the athlete, commenting on technique, encouraging and correcting. You can teach a anyone to yell out times or to spot to someone, it is much harder to coach, you have to be fully involved have a plan, see the big picture, understand the context of the exercise or the drill and the training sessions. It takes experience and is very mindful. When you are coaching there are not any quick fixes or magic exercises or training toys that go bing. Coaching is a high touch total involvement process. Training is showing up and posting or reading the athlete the workout and turning them lose to go for it. Those that are trainers, not coaches are looking for the magic bullet, the secret workout, the short cut to the championship. Coaches understand that there are not any shortcuts and secrets. Coaching is just hard, planned and directed work that accumulates over time to produce the desired performance. Building athletes and teams is an incredible long term commitment that demands total focus and concentration. You need to ask yourself are you coaching them or training them. Are you in it for the long haul? Many are called and few are chosen, because when it comes down to it many people are unwilling or unable to make the sacrifice or commitment necessary to truly coach.
Seth Godin’s Post Today
This post from Seth Godin reminds of the guy at the NSCA Convention – What my favorite lower trap exercise was? Does it matter? Hopefully this will make those of you that are still hung up on tools and exercises think! I need to build a house, what kind of hammer should I buy? I want to write a novel. What word processor do you recommend? Yesterday on the radio, Jimmy Wales was talking about the Wikipedia movement. A caller who identified himself as a strategist at Amnesty International asked: We’re going to build a website to promote freedom and democracy and human rights. What software should we use? Really. If you want to do something worth doing, you’ll need two things: passion and architecture. The tools will take care of themselves. (Knowledge of tools matters, of course, but it pales in comparison to the other two.) Sure, picking the wrong tools will really cripple your launch. Picking the wrong software (or the wrong hammer) is a hassle. But nothing great gets built just because you have the right tools. My approach is to make an assertion about tools early in the process, and then move on to a solid draft of the good stuff. "Given: that we can make a computer do what xyz.com makes it do. Or, given: we can make a piece of titanium do what Frank Gehry makes it do." Then, go design something, imagine it, spec it, flesh it out and fall in love with it. Now you can ask Jimmy Wales what sort of software to use.
Return to Play Strategies Workshop
This weekend at CJW Sports medicine in Richmond Virginia Bill Knowles and I are teaching our First Return to Play Strategies Workshop. This is a very practical hands on, active learning oriented workshop. If you are interested in hosting one of these workshops please drop me an email at gstscoach@gmail.com. R T P S [ rehab to competition ] FUNCTIONAL TRAINING OF THE LOWER KINETIC CHAIN FOLLOWING INJURY Vern Gambetta Gambetta Sports Training Systems Bill Knowles iSPORT / Vermont Orthopaedic Clinic SCHEDULE FOR DAY 1 8:15 – 8:45 Registration and Check-in 8:45 – 9:00 Welcome – introductions 9:00 – 10:30 Lecture RTPS – Return to Play Strategies Knowles 10:30 – 10:45 Break 10:45 – 12:15 Lecture RTPS – Program Design Considerations Knowles – Gambetta 12:15 – 1:15 Lunch 1:15 – 3:00 Training § Pool Rehab and Reconditioning § Standing Cycle Series – Knowles 3:00 – 3:15 Break 3:15 – 4:45 Training § Resistance Cord Lower Strength Series § Cardio Hill Climb progression § VMO specific exercises Knowles SCHEDULE FOR DAY 2 8:00 – 9:30 Lecture RTPS – Return To Running Progressions Knowles/Gambetta 9:30 – 9:45 Break 9:45 – 12:00 Training § Landing Training in preparation for running § Total Body programs with eccentric emphasis in prep for running Knowles Gambetta 12:00 – 1:00 Lunch 1:00 – 3:00 Training § Running Series 1 – agility based, deceleration based § Running Series 2 – teaching/re-teaching proper mechanics Gambetta – Knowles Gambetta 3:00 – 3:30 Q&A – wrap-up Gambetta – Knowles
Team Spike Key
Team Spike Key http://www.spikekey.com/ is the women’s beach volleyball team that I work with. It has been great working with these women. They started training last November with the goal of playing their way onto the AVP Crocs pro tour. They have achieved their goal. They are now on the tour. They have worked very hard, and made significant improvements in all their physical capacities. Both are local girls, Megan Wallin graduated from Cardinal Money High where she was All State in Volleyball and state champion in the high jump. Kristin Batt graduated from Venice High School where she led the team to a state championship and was Gatorade player of the year her senior year. Megan graduated from Michigan State and Kristin from University of Kentucky. I really believe with their work ethic and talent over the next couple of years they will make a big breakthrough. The first breakthrough they have to make is to get past the number one seed in the AVP, the number one team in the world Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh. As the last seed they have to play the first seed in the tournament. Tough assignment but they are making progress, with May-Treanor and Walsh off to the Olympics that should provide with a chance to improve their seeding. It has been fun and challenging designing their training taking into consideration the different demands of beach volleyball.
Workout of the Day
During my seminar this past weekend one of the physical therapists asked me if I looked the workout of the day posted by a popular workout group. I said I did not and I went on to explain that it is more than a workout or an exercise. One workout cannot make an athlete but one workout can break an athlete. Once again it is about context. What is the goal of the workout? Whom is the workout intended for? What is the phase of training? For example here is a workout: KB Swing 3 x 8 Two Arm Box SLS 3 x 6 (Seated) High Pull 5 x 5 (go up in weight) Leg Circuit Plus x 4 (With Sandbag) SB Squat x 10 SB Lunge x 5 each leg SB Step-up x 5 each leg Jump Squat x 10 Hurdle Under x 1 each side Giant Set x 3 Ring Pull-up x 6 Vasa X 12 Pulldown X 8 Ring Core Superman 2 x 10 Breaststroke 2 x 10 Is that good workout or a bad workout? It really depends on the context in which it is applied. In some respect this workout of the day idea reminds of George Carlins comedy routine where he read the baseball scores. 4 -1, 3-2, 5-0, those are all baseball scores but without the context of team names and location they are random numbers. As far as I am concerned without context a workout of the day is just stuff. Why are you doing what you are doing? When are you doing it? How are you doing it?
General Strength
At the risk of bucking the tide and being heretical is general strength everything it is made out to be? What I see called general strength in so many speed and power programs is often just STUFF. A bunch of exercises thrown together with goofy names does not necessarily mean it is productive training. I do believe that properly designed general strength work is important at certain times in a training cycle and in a career. For the young developing athlete it is key element in development, for the older more mature athlete it is a reset button. In other words at different stages of an athlete’s career it should have different emphasis. General strength takes many forms; it is not just body weight exercises. Properly designed general strength work takes into account order of exercises, sequence and timing in order to be optimally effective. Use it, but use it wisely – don’t drink the kool aid. Be discriminating and see where it fits in the whole program.
Dara Torres – Is there a lesson there?
Is there a training message in the performances of Dara Torres? Probabaly. From what I have been able to discern she has focused on quality, intensity, focus and direction. Train don’t strain. She is truly training like a sprinter rather than a distance or middle distance swimmer who sprints. Technique is important. Certainly dispels myths about aging, childbirth and performance. Drugs – maybe, maybe not? Always will be a specter there. What do we know, what don’t we know. Two years off – was she tested? What was she tested for? Overall I am quite skeptical.