Author: Vernon Gambetta
Work That Work’s
Work! Work! Work! It is comfortable to just do work. Anyone can do work and look busy but is your work actually working? Is it productive? Are you digging a deeper hole or making progress toward a goal? How do you know? As a coach this an important question to ask daily. Your athletes may be getting better in spite of the work not because of it. It is easy to get trapped into just doing stuff because it seems relevant at the time, but after taking a step back and putting it is context it may just be making the athletes tired not better. The answer is to focus on priority areas that will make the athletes better, no fluff, just absolute need to do activities that are manageable, measurable and motivational. Ironically sometimes what you are not doing can also have a profound influence. Listen to the advise of Francis of Assisi “ Start by doing what is necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”
If you do what you have always done …
You will get what you have always got. Not very good English but so true. Over the course of my career I have observed that those that are the best are constantly working at getting better. Sometimes the changes are subtle and other times they are very drastic – but change is a constant. Sustained excellence demands constant change and adaptation. Change is necessary to grow, to push the envelope but always building on what you have done before. Know what must be changed. How will you know? You will know through constant self-reflection and analysis of training. Get outsiders to evaluate what you do and your system. Involve the athletes ask them. Working to get better is a daily process. Look outside your sport in fact look outside sport. Right now I am reading Toyota Tata to help me to understand how Toyota has been able to maintain a competitive advantage. They have been able to sustain a high level of performance because they build change into their system. It is important to remember also that sometimes the most profound change is no change at all. Sometimes what you do not do is as important as what you do. In the process of change never lose sight of what got to where you are – something was right wholesale change is seldom necessary. The advice of the old cowboy stands true – always dance the last dance with who you brought to the dance.
My Strength Coach of the Year Nomination
I just got an email from NSCA soliciting Strength coach of the year nominations. Let me preface this by saying that these types of awards are ridiculous. Mostly popularity contests given those with winning teams with no understanding of what goes on behind the scenes. That being said I have a nomination – I nominate Joe Anonymous, Joe is the coach Podunk High School, a school of 800 students in the middle of Florida. He has a 300 square foot weight room with no benches, dumbbells, three Olympic bars and three squat racks, no air conditioning, but he does have a concrete pad outside his weight room that is 800 square that he laid himself. He works with 23 sports boys and girls and he has no help. He does it all by himself. He does have a an iPad that he bought himself that he uses to video the athletes. He arrives to work at 5:30 AM to get ready for the first group of athletes who start at 6:00 PM. He has three groups before school and then he teaches five periods of history and then starts again at 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM. During the summer he works with the athletes from 6:00 to 9:00 AM and then from 4:00 to 7:00 PM. He does this for a coaching stipend of $1500 that he uses to buy equipment. He has had zero ACL injuries the last four years. The teams are competitive, not great but they are healthy fit and functionally strong. Folks this is reality! The NSCA does not even want to think to recognize this guy. He will never speak at a convention or get any recognition and he does not need any. There are thousands of Joe Anonymous out there all around the country. I tip my hat to you, you are the real coaches who do it for the kids. (PS – If you think this is fiction, look around)
Elementary, My Dear Watson!
Sherlock Holmes knew it was elementary and if you look closely at performance at the highest level – you will see huge commonalities – those commonalities are quite elementary it’s the basics. Great performance consists of the basics flawlessly executed with speed and precision in a chaotic environment. Because the competition environment is so chaotic it is easy to lose sight of the basics. But don’t be fooled. What is the message? Know the basics inside out. Teach the basics. Master the basics. Practice the basics everyday no matter if you are number one in the world or a novice training for the first time. Never allow the basics to become mundane. Basics win medals because they are stable and consistent. Never too elementary!
Less Is More
Ashton Eaton’s tremendous world record performance in the Decathlon just underscores how important that less is more. Less is more is almost a mantra for he and his coach Harry Marra. They live it every day! Seldom are any of their workouts over one hour. The workouts are on point and focused, no fluff, no nice to do fillers that make you tired and add undue training stress. It reminds me of one of my simple training rules – No one workout can make an athlete but one workout that is too much too soon can spell disaster and ruin an athlete. Focus on the process rep-by-rep, set-by-set, run-by-run, throw-by-throw and jump-by-jump. Recognize it takes time and that training accumulates from session to session, day to day, week to week, month to month and year to year. The temptation is to do more, but the risk is not worth the return. One less throw or jump that is quality is preferable to one more that is sloppy. Ashton’s record does have as much to do with what he did this year as it does with consistent work over the past six years; once again it is the process. A crucial part of the process is communication with the athlete and listening to their input. Harry & Ashton know & trust each other and i are both invested in the process. Before you can ever think about winning a competition you must consistently win workouts. To win workouts demands putting each workout in context of the bigger picture. Always keeping in mind that less is more.
Ten Years on the Functional Path
Ten years ago this month I started this blog. The last ten years have been a journey, a journey of growth, discovery, self-reflection and sharing. I got the idea to write this blog when I was driving across country returning home to Sarasota after a terrible experience with the Nike Oregon Project where my dream job quickly turned into a bad dream. I needed to put the back-to-back negative experiences of the Oregon Project and the New York Mets behind me. I knew I needed to find my voice again and define myself and not let those experiences define me but to learn from them and move on. I was out in the middle of the Great Plains when I came up with the idea of the Functional Path blog, I vowed that I would use it to help me focus on completing my book Athletic Development – The Art & Science of Functional Sports Training and as a means to define myself and regain my confidence. I knew I needed to dedicate myself to writing each day so I used the blog to motivate me. I am a big fan of John Steinbeck who wrote 200 to 500 words a day in a journal as a warm-up to his actual writing (Working Days –The Journal of the Grapes of Wrath), so like my literary hero Steinbeck I used the blog to get me started writing each day. I finished the book that fall and it was published in early 2007. I am trying to find the same inspiration to finish my next book – Developing Athletes. Hopefully when I get done with my travels in October I will get back to working on the book daily with the blog as a daily kick-start. Ten years later I am still writing the blog. Sometimes it has been a catharsis, it is certainly a daily reminder to stay on task, to gather my thoughts and seize the day. As I have said several times over the years, I write the blog for myself not to gain followers, to market or sell anything. The fact the blog has attracted a certain following is flattering. I am looking forward to continuing to write the blog to share ideas and information that I have found useful in my career. As I embark on a different stage of my career with my professional focus on GAIN I will be sharing more of what is happening with GAIN and the GAIN community. I hope there are many more years of reflections on traveling the functional path.
Making Training Stick – Simple Rules
Start with the basics and never stray far from the basics. Don’t try to replicate the stress of the sport in training, instead prepare for the stress of the sport. Have a plan, execute it and constantly evaluate the plan. You must know the process in order to be able to focus on the process. Coach the person not the athlete Teach skills not drills. Build on strengths and minimize weaknesses Train fast to be fast. You are what you train to be. Adaptation is not just about time; it is the timing of the appropriate training stimulus to achieve the desired training response. You compete the way you train. Understand the demands of the sport and train to exceed those demands. Don’t try to replicate the game in training, distort it. Never allow equipment or facilities to dictate your training. Injury prevention is a transparent part of the whole program, not a central focus.
Thoughts to Make a Difference
It’s not good enough to just show up you must be there in mind, body and spirit. Just talking about commitment is not enough; be committed through your actions. Communicate by listening more and talking less. Take responsibility and use it to grow and expand your abilities. No excuses. Failure and adversity represent an opportunity to grow and learn. Define yourself constantly don’t let others define you. Defy labeling. Be the best you, you can be.