Author: Vernon Gambetta
The Concept of Foundation
As a coach for many years I bought into the concept that I had to re-establish the base, in essence starting over each year. Slowly I came to the realization that I was stifling the athlete’s development; we were talking two steps forward and one step back. You don’t have to start over at the beginning of each training year because training accumulates from year to year. Use the metaphor of remodeling your house and possibly adding another level. You would not think of tearing down the foundation and starting over unless there was an overriding structural weakness. Instead you would strengthen and reinforce the existing foundation. Over the past several years I have re-evaluated the whole approach. You end the season in peak competitive shape. Then conventional wisdom told us to take two to four weeks off to rest and recover. This is where the problem starts. Even though the emphasis should be on “active rest” the athlete is deconditioning, which warrants starting back with base work at the end of this rest period. Now instead of transition period I have a period I call Foundation Refresh – This is a period of refinement, correction and learning than can last up to four weeks. The goal here is to take advantage of peak fitness and use this time to correct technical flaws and rehearse and practice new techniques or training methods that will be introduced in the next training year. The number of training days is reduced, but still enough to stabilize a good level of fitness to insure that when we start the full foundation phase the fitness is there to be able to build upon what was done the previous year. The foundation phase follows with the goal to reinforce the foundation and start training at a higher level than we did the previous training year. Lest we forget that training is cumulative. We should always build upon what we have done before.
Agility
Agility is the ability to recognize, make a decision, react, start, move in correct direction, change direction if necessary, & stop QUICKLY. Quickly is a time span of hundreds of a second up to three to four seconds in most sports. Agility is not an isolated physical ability, nor is it as general a quality as it is often presented as. It is closely tied to specific sports skill and tactical situations. Much of agility is highly dependent of functional strength, dynamic balance, proprioception, body awareness and vision.
What is High Performance?
Everywhere I turn I see programs labeled high performance. Most of what I have seen of these programs is far from high performance. High performance is more than a name or label it implies working at the tip of the development pyramid, the best of the best and figuring out what you have to do to make them better. Some of it is quest for marginal gains, but it is also taking care of the first 98% – the basics -and reinforcing them daily. Sport science is part of the high performance picture but it is not the driver. True high performance programs are strongly athlete centered, coach driven and administratively supported. It is not fancy facilities and high tech bells and whistles. It is minute attention to detail to meet the athlete’s needs. Essentially it is coaching the best to be better.
The GAINcast Podcast
Join us on the new GAIN cast podcast Website for GAINcast: http://www.hmmrmedia.com/gaincast/ Subscribe on iTunes link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-gaincast/id1076641143 Subscribe with other apps link: http://gaincast.libsyn.com/rss Thanks to Martin Bingisser at HMMR Media for hosting the podcast. Over the next weeks I will have some of the GAIN faculty members on as guests. I would like to hear from you about topics of interest to you.
Who Will Rake the pit?
Do the grunt work that really matters. Get your hands dirty. Everyone wants to be in the NFL or coach at a DI school. Whatever happened to paying your dues? It may a generational thing but I feel your earn the right to get to get to those levels. If you are beginning track coach dig up and rake the long jump pit. You don’t enlist in the army as a general. Earn the right to move up and move on.
Consistency
It is my experience that consistency is rewarded over spectacular. Spectacular will get you on ESPN weekly highlights but consistency wins championships. It is the athlete who shows up for every training session with their head in the training will perform at a consistent level and rise to the occasion when necessary. The athlete who is great one day, does not show mentally the next and pouts the next may perform at a spectacular level once or twice but overall they will disappoint and fall short. As coaches we must find ways to reward and reinforce consistency. It’s too easy to get caught up in the spectacular. Coaches also must also be consistent. It is imperative to maintain an even temperament from day to day. If you are not consistent in your behavior and actions how can you expect the athletes to be consistent?
The System
A system lends important order and structure to enable the coach and athlete to focus on the process. A viable system is not rigid and confining, instead it is organic and liberating. It provides a framework to build upon. Look at successful coaches and organizations and you will see a system. Some are more apparent than other but there is a system. All successful systems are guided by a well-articulated philosophy and clear core beliefs that everyone lives by.
Some Thoughts on Changing Practice
Changing practice can change the game only if practice is effective. Here are some of the keys to effective practice that I have found to work: #1) Distort the game don’t try to replicate it in practice. If you want to play fast in the game, then you must practice faster than the game. #2) Use distributed practice not massed practice. Massed practice will give the illusion of mastery but it does not stick. Break practice into smaller segments of repetition of key concepts. #3) Forget perfect practice and focus on perfect effort. Making mistakes is ok as long the mistakes are used as lessons to learn. Coach the correction. #4) Use the concept of interleaving – This relates to distributed practice. Use different but related concepts, get away from them and come back to them frequently. #5) Use implicit learning. Think Mr. Miyage in Karate Kid Part One, he never taught Daniel karate, instead he painted word pictures of broad general movements and then put them together. Recognize that drills do not equal skill. #6) Be a Twitter coach like John Wooden. Teach don’t preach make your corrections and instructions in 144 charters or less! Use the game to teach. #7) Use “quizzes” to reinforce learning. Ask the athlete to show you or have them teach. They may not get it the first time but they will learn and it will stick. Tests or quizzes are tools to identify weak areas that need more work. #8) Give them movement problems to solve before they are taught the solution. This leads to deeper learning than leading them through everything step by step, there will be more errors initially but learning will be deeper and lasting. #9) When learning is harder it is long lasting, durable and more stable. Effortful learning changes the brain by building new connections. #10) Feedback definitely strengthens retention, but immediate feedback can be a crutch, it is like training wheels when learning to ride a bike, eventually you need to take the training wheels away. Might be better to slightly delay the feedback and let the athlete figure it out. Lest we forget we are not programming robots we are coaching people! It’s a process and journey of constant discovery. The following are sources that are indispensable to help make practice better: Make it Stick – The Science of Successful Learning By Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger II, and Mark A. Danile Wooden – A Coaches Life by Seth Davis Mastery – The Keys to Success and Long-term Fulfillment By George Leonard Motor Learning in Practice – A Constraints Led Approach Edited by Ian Renshaw, Keith Davids, and Geert J.P. Savelsbergh Attention and Motor Skill Learning By Gabriele Wulf Dynamics of Skill Acquisition – A Constraints-Led Approach Edited by Keith Davids, Chris Button and Simon Bennett Nonlinear Pedagogy In Skill Acquisition – An Introduction Edited by Jia Yi Chow, Keith Davids, Chris Button and Ian Renshaw You Haven’t Taught Until They Have Learned – John Wooden’s Teaching Principles and Practices by Swen Nater and Ronald Gallimore