Author: Vernon Gambetta
Vin Scully – Excellence Personified!
Growing up in California in the late 1950’s and early 60’s Vin Scully was your steady companion on warm summer nights. There was nothing better than listening to Vin Scully on a little transistor radio describe the excellence of Sandy Koufax pitching or the daring of Maury Will stealing a base when everyone in the stadium knew what he was going to do. There was special melodic quality and clarity to his voice, no hyperbole, no screaming, pure class, and the focus was on the game and the players. On Sunday Vin Scully broadcast his last Dodger game bringing to a close a sixty-seven year career! There will never be another like him. He is a man of faith, great character and class. Mr. Scully enjoy your retirement. Thanks for the memories you are a national treasure!
GPP – Getting Tired
Randomly throwing together a bunch of exercises & running willy nilly about with no structure, intent or purpose is just work. Anyone can do work. You can try to legitimize by giving it cute names, but it is essentially garbage training. You can call it GPP but it is just getting them tired and getting tired is not training. Training is work with Intent and purpose. I banished the term GPP years ago in favor of Foundation Training (FT). You need a strong structurally sound foundation upon which to build the subsequent structure of training. This is carefully planned to meet the athlete’s needs and is congruent with the more intense specific work to follow. Because training accumulates from year to year it is not necessary to rebuild the whole foundation each year, rather it is important to reinforce it where necessary to enable the athlete to keep progressing. The content and emphasis changes with advancing training age, each year of training the athlete should start on a higher plane, not start over. Make the training have a clear intent and purpose that is mindful and equips the athlete with the tools they need to be resilient and thrive on subsequent workloads. Always strive for quality, remember quality is a measure of perfect. Quality will transfer to results in competition, the ultimate goal of any training program.
Coaching Lessons from In and Out Burger
In and Out burger has come to be the quintessential California burger place. For years I thought it was all hype, just another fast food MacDonald’s wannabe and then a few years ago a friend took me there for a burger. I was hooked, now every time I go to California I have to stop and get an In and Out burger. Their burgers are really good! The purpose of this post is not to promote In and Out burger rather it is draw some coaching lessons from what I observed on my visit this past weekend. As I was waiting for my burger here are some thoughts that I had: Simplicity Triumphs – Their menu is small. They are in the business of serving the customer and making real good burgers. They know what they know and they do it very well. Bigger is not better. Just like a good coach they put the emphasis on the customer (the athlete). Their service is efficient, prompt and they all serve with a smile. Because the menu is small and the demand high they must know their jobs and be highly time efficient. No excuses, high quality product coupled with high quality service.
Some Coaching Advice From An Old Coach
Here are some tidbits that that I have learned over the years. If you are just staring out on the coaching journey it will get you going in the right direction and if you are an experienced coach it will serve as a reminder of things to do to be effective as well as food for thought. Clearly define and delineate your core beliefs and make those beliefs the foundation of your coaching philosophy. Make your coaching philosophy your guiding light – Live it! Coach the person first, the athlete second. Know what you know – know it better than anyone else. Know what you don’t know – systematically reduce this through a directed learning plan. Don’t be limited by what you do or you don’t know. Find a mentor who has been doing what you want to do and has been doing for an expected period of time. Make sure it is someone who is willing to share mistakes as well as successes. Read biographies of coaches and athletes, those that are great and not so great to learn what to do and what not to do. Practice daily self-reflection. Beware of false prophets bearing gifts (Especially if you have to pay). There are no secrets, no magic formulas or a secret sauce. Beware of internet training porn, it is highly addictive. You don’t enlist the army as a general. Be prepared to pay your dues. It takes ten years to be an overnight success. Coaching is not an industry it is a profession, so treat it as such and be professional. Know the science, but don't be ruled by it. More letters after you name does not make a better coach. Experiences trump certifications. Eliminate the word can’t from your vocabulary. You can and you will. Find a way!
It’s Always More Than An Exercise
There are many exercises available some good and effective other pure rubbish. How do you choose? You can’t do them all. Ask yourself these questions when you see a new exercise that you are considering using in your training program. What is context? Where will you use it? Is it an absolute need to do exercise or is just nice to do? (Nice to do exercises often just make you tired but don’t make you better.) Does the exercise do what you want it to do? Does it do something better than you are already doing? Is it congruent with the whole training system? Does the athlete relate the need for the exercise? As a note in the last training year I have added eight new exercises to my training menus and removed three.
Daily Challenge
What are you doing different today and everyday to make yourself better that no one else in your world is doing? To do this demands that you get out of your comfort zone and challenge yourself, your colleagues and your athletes. It is making good choices and setting priorities. Are you up for the daily challenge?
Copycat Training
This is the time when coaches and athletes watch great athletes achieve astounding performances at the Olympic games. It is certainly inspiring and interesting to see what these athletes did in their journey to achieve that success. It is tempting to try to copy their training methods in an attempt to imitate their success. I know that because as a young coach and athlete I did that. Needless to say the results were less than spectacular and in a couple of cases disastrous. While what Phelps or Bolt do in training may be interesting in 99.9% of the cases it is irrelevant with your athletes. Sometimes in the case of great athletes they achieve in spite of not because of what they did. What they did worked for them, in essence a case study of one. It is necessary to know why they did what they did and when they did it. Context is king! Also it is important to note that when looking at training programs form the former Eastern Bloc countries it is necessary to factor the influence of drugs. I have seen training session on paper and then seen the actual training live up close and personal. Any resemblance between what was written was purely coincidental. It was how the session was coached, how the athlete felt that day and the weather conditions etc. I do not recommend copying training programs from others. However I do think you can get ideas if you have a context for evaluating what you see. Personally over the years I have learned a lot by studying and observing great athletes and coaches training. Notice I said learned not copied. I have taken concepts, not specific exercises or workouts and then applied them where they fit into my system. It is important to remember that each athlete is unique, a case study of one, so make the training fit the athlete do not try to fit the athlete to the training.
GAIN Swimming – September16 to 18, 2016
Coaching Athletic Development for Swimming – Design to Implementation Are you interested in being challenged as coach to make your swimmers better? Would you like to learn how to systematically make your athletes stronger and keep them injury free? If so, GAIN Swimming network can help. GAIN is an acronym for Gambetta Athletic Improvement Network; this network was formed in 2008 to connect professionals to facilitate learning and sharing of ideas. Due to the success achieved working with swim coaches and clubs we are now creating a network specifically devoted to swimming with an emphasis on preparation of the total swimming athlete. The objective is to provide an educational experience that will significantly advance each coach’s expertise by sharing information with other professionals in a setting that encourages an open exchange of ideas. It will be a workshop format consisting of a mixture of lecture, discussions, hot topic panels, practical learn by doing participation and demonstration. If you are sincerely interested in advancing your professional development apply now. Date & Site September 16 – 18, 2016 Carmel Swim Club, Carmel Indiana Benefits Access to GAIN Swimming Forum on secure web page ($250 Yearly membership fee included in tuition) Access to GAIN Library including videos of past GAIN Conferences Cost of Attendance $1200 for three coaches plus $100 for each additional coach Register Enrollment limited. Go to selection labeled open to new members. https://www.teamunify.com/MemRegStart.jsp?team=incsc&event_id=673958 Deadline for registration is September 1 – Enrollment Limited For Further Information Please call or email Vern Gambetta at 941-378-1778 or email at gstscoach@gmail.com The Faculty Our faculty is experienced professionals who have been in the trenches working in the field of athletic development for swimming. Vern Gambetta – Founder of GAIN Network Chris Plumb – Chris Plumb is the Head Coach/CEO of Carmel Swim Club. Ian Murray – Associate Head Coach of Carmel Swim Club Chris Webb – Head coach of the Fort Collins Area Swim Team in Colorado. Randy Ballard – Associate Athletics Director for Sports Medicine and Integrated Performance at the University of Illinois Steve Myrland – District Performance Coach for Athletics and Wellness Director Middleton Wisconsin School District Topics Concepts of Dryland Training (Vern Gambetta) 8 to 18 Age Group Progressions in Athletic Development (Ian Murray) Assessing Physical Competency – Trainability for Swimming – Theory & Practice (Randy Ballard) Stick Mobility (Learn By Doing) (Steve Myrland) Strap Strength & Stability (Learn By Doing) (Steve Myrland) Integrating Dryland Training with Swim Training (Chris Plumb) Warm-up to Swim (Chris Webb) Strength Training (Vern Gambetta & Chris Plumb) Weight Room Without Walls – Getting Stronger on Pool deck (Vern Gambetta) Equipment & Facilities (Vern Gambetta) Schedule Friday September 16 1:00 to 3:00 – Registration 3:00 to 5:00 – Afternoon Session Concepts of Dryland Training (Vern Gambetta) 5:30 to 7:00 – Dinner 7:00 to 9:00 – Evening Session Integrating Dryland Training with Swim Training (Chris Plumb) Saturday September 17 7:00 to 9:00 – Early Morning – Observation of Carmel Dryland Training Senior Group Followed by Age Group 9:00 to 10:00 – Breakfast 10:00 to 10:45 – Stick Mobility (Learn By Doing) (Steve Myrland) 10:45 -11:00 – Break 11:00 to 12:30 – Assessing Physical Competency – Trainability for Swimming – Theory & Practice (Randy Ballard) 12:30 to 2:00 – Lunch 2:00 to 3:30 – Age Group Progressions in Athletic Development (Ian Murray) 3:30 to 3:45 – Break 3:45 to 4:45 – Strap Strength & Stability (Learn By Doing) (Steve Myrland) 4:45 to 5:30 – Weight Room Without Walls (Getting Stronger on Deck) 5:30 – 7:00 – Dinner 7:30 – 9:00 – Panel Discussion/Q&A Sunday September 18 8:30 to 9:30 – Warm-up to Swim (Chris Webb) 9:30 to 9:45 – Break 9:45 to 12:45 – Strength Training (Vern Gambetta, Chris Plumb & Chris Webb) Selecting Exercises Coaching Points & Execution Male Female Differences in Adaptation Designing Workouts Weekly (Microcycle) Structure Yearly Plan – Short Course & Long Course 12:45 to 1:30 – Wrap-up