Author: Vernon Gambetta
Authentic Leadership
To be a leader you must have followers. Carefully watch who real follows whom. Carefully watch the dynamics of a squad. The athlete who screams the most often and the loudest is often identified as the leader. Why? Because he or she is voluble and calling attention to themselves? If you observe closely the real leader is the one who says little, but when they speak everyone listens. They are there in victory and defeat with a pat on the back and an appropriate word or phrase. This is the authentic leader because they are focused on the team not on standing out and calling attention to themselves. Their presence and example inspire their teammates to follow.
Train Like the Pro’s
How often do you hear this – We train like the pro’s. We will make your kid better because he or she will be on the same program as the pro’s. My good friend, colleague and great coach Steve Myrland offered a great comeback to that: “You train like the pros, but I will train my pros like children.” To grow a robust anti-fragile athlete get them back to moving like a kid. Nothing more needs to be said.
Ancillary Work?
To label work such at hurdle mobility drills, mini band series etc. as “ancillary work” is a misrepresentation of what that work is and what needs to be done. It is not ancillary, it is essential work, a component of any sound training program. It is basic and remedial designed to address each athlete individual needs. It is most effective when woven or threaded through the fabric of the actual training sessions. This type of work can be excellent to lead into or lead out of a particular segment of training or to transition between segments, It is integral work.
S&C = Athlete Day Care
The sport coach sends the athletes to do S&C in the weight room without any idea of what they will do. There is little or no accountability of the S&C for the athlete’s performance or the lack thereof. I compare it to taking you preschooler to daycare, they get tired, you get a break for a short time, and they take better naps. You need to expect and demand more than daycare if you are a sport coach.
The Giving Tree
Lately I have many discussions with friends and colleagues about achieving working and life balance. The discussions reminded of a book one of my athletes gave me almost forty years ago – The Giving Tree. I suggest all you coaches and athletes read it and meditate on it. How much can you give? 49 years into this coaching journey I am still try to achieve some kind of balance. It seems the nature of coaching is to give more without consideration for yourself. I hope I have a few more years to figure this out. You young coaches figure it out as early as you can and you will have a long and happy life reflected in your coaching.
Cross Training
Frankly I have never been a fan of the term cross training or the concept. I have seen it used too often as just another way to get tired. By definition Cross Training “… is when an athlete undertakes training in a discipline other than their main sport for the sole purpose of enhancing performance in their primary event.” (Hawley & Burke P. 31) It has been primarily used as a method for retaining training adaptations. What we are really talking about here is transfer of training effect. It has been my experience that those who utilize cross training the most are those who already have a tendency to chronically overwork and are looking for another way to punish themselves. I feel that this is another training myth that detracts from sound training. It certainly has very little foundation is sports science research. For a runner to get in the pool for anything more than a recovery session is time ill spent. The same is true for biking, that time would be better spent strength training or working on flexibility, both areas that tend to be ignored. Most of the time they are ignored because the runner feels they do not have enough time to fit it in. Yet those same runners can find the time to swim for thirty minutes or bike for an hour. It is all a matter of priorities. Cross training may be OK for the recreational athlete seeking to relive the boredom of training, but for the high-level athlete it is virtually useless. “Specific exercise elicits specific adaptations, creating specific training effects.” (McArdle, Katch & Katch P.394). Less we forget, you are what you train to be.
2018 Current Readings
So far in 2018 I have read 39 books. Here are the books that particularly stood out: Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker When – The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing by Daniel Pink The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle A Bright Shining Lie – John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam By Neil Sheehan Endure – Mind, Body and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance by Alex Hutchinson The Geography of Thought by Richard Nisbett Directorate S – The CIA and Americas Secret Wars in Afghanistan & Pakistan by Steve Coll The Away Game – The Epic Search for Soccer’s Next Superstars by Sebastian Abbot The Dawn Watch – Joseph Conrad in a Global World by Maya Jasanoff The Last Man Who Knew Everything – The Life and Times of Enrico Fermi, Father of the Nuclear Age By David N. Schwartz Fascism – A Warning by Madeline Albright (I highly recommend this book as particularly relevant given the state of the world today.)
Why, Why Not?
Why does the Newtonian, mechanistic reductionist approach that focuses on minutiae and the parts persist? Why not a quantum approach that focuses on relationships and connections, flow and rhythm. The former is comfortable because it allows people cleaner definitions and seemingly straightforward solutions, in some ways it simplistic because all you have to do in that approach is be a technician. If you understand how all the muscles work, what inhibits, what lengthens, what you need to activate and then what you need to integrate it all fits into a neat clean little box. Just follow the algorithm and push a few buttons and everything is fixed. Unfortunately, or fortunately it is not that easy. The body is a self-organizing chaotic system that is highly adaptable. It responds both negatively and positively to use and disuse. It is definitely not a machine. As coaches, trainers, therapists and doctors we must recognize the wisdom of the body and train or treat accordingly. The best way to understand and assess movement is to get the body moving. Closely observe and feel how things connect and how they disconnect. Explore the dimensions that the wisdom of the body offers. As coaches we must prepare the body for the demands of the sport. We do that by stressing the body up to and beyond its limits at times. If we do that in a systematic and sensible manner the body will adapt and be able to thrive in the competitive environment.