Author: Vernon Gambetta
2014 My Year in Books
This is my top ten list of the 125 books I read in 2014 and ten honorable mentions. This list could have been easily twice as long as there were so many good books that I read last year. The Big Fat Surprise – Why Butter, Meat & Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet by Nina Teicholz. I cannot say enough good things about this book. Teicholz does super job of translating the complex data in various diet studies going back fifty years. She methodically looks at the various studies and points out the flaws based on poor assumptions and biased and sloppy interpretation of the research. Unfortunately we have been victimized by this flawed research in the information we have been provided by the American Heart Association and the USDA Food Pyramid. Trevor Butterworth in his review of the book in the World Street Journal sums it up: "The Big Fat Surprise" is more than a book about food and health or even hubris; it is a tragedy for our information age. From the very beginning, we had the statistical means to understand why things did not add up; we had a boatload of Cassandras, a chorus of warnings; but they were ignored, castigated, suppressed. We had our big fat villain, and we still do. This is a must read! The Science of Running – How to Find Your Limit and Train to Maximize Your Performance by Steve Magness. Superb – this is a great coaching resource. Steve takes the scientific concepts and makes them useable and practical. If you work with any sport that has an endurance component this is a must for your library. Antifragile – Things That Gain From Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. This is a game changer. He slays sacred cow after sacred cow. Taleb pulls no punches in his criticism of academics and intellectuals who pontificate but have “no skin in the game.” This is not an easy read, his writing style takes some getting used to but it is well worth it. The Organized Mind – Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload By Daniel J. Levitin. Filled with great concepts and ideas. This is a great companion to Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow. The Innovators – How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson. Great insights into what it takes to innovate and drive change. Some parts of the book almost reads like a novel. Free to Learn – Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life By Peter Gray. There is a clear message here – Let the kids play and explore, they are natural learners so don’t stifle them. It includes a very good historical overview of how we have become more structured in the learning environment to the detriment of learning. Offers insights into how we have the hypokinetic we have become. An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth – What Going To Space Taught Me About Ingenuity, Determination, And Being Prepared For Anything by Col. Chris Hadfield. Powerful take home message here – The devil is in the details of the preparation. You can never be too prepared. It is very inspirational and informative. The Nowhere Men – The Unknown Story Of Football’s True Talent Spotters by Michel Calvin. This is all about talent spotting and the men who work at this artful craft. Although this is specific to soccer the insights and lessons are applicable to all sports. Underscores that in talent ID so much is in the eye of the beholder. Creativity Inc. Overcoming The Unseen Forces That Stand in The Way of Inspiration by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace. A window into the creative process illustrated by what is done at Pixar. It underscores the need to risk and understand that failure is part of the creative process. Some great examples of turning failures into success and know when to quit and start over. The Burning Room by Michael Connely. Connely is a master storyteller. Reading the book makes you feel like you are on the streets and neighborhoods of LA. This might be the best of Bosch novels. He is a true master of the detective genre. Legacy – 15 Lessons in Leadership (What the All Blacks Can Teach Us About The Business of Life) by James Kerr. Lessons in what it takes to achieve sustained excellence from the most successful sport team of all time – the New Zealand All Blacks Wooden – A Coaches Life by Seth Davis. A masterful book abut one of the icons of coaching in-depth coverage about the man and his relationships with his players and coaches. Wilson by A. Scott Berg. Biography of a very complex man who led the US is a time of tremendous change. Johnny Cash – The Life by Robert Hilburn. No stone unturned here, we learn the good, the bad and the ugly about how Cash lived his music. A complex man with many demons Thinking in Systems – A Primer by Donella H. Meadows Edited by Diana Wright. One of the pioneers of systems thinking offers insights into systems thinking and applications. Design on the Edge – The Making of a High Performance Building by David W. Orr. Superficially about the planning and building of a green building at Oberlin college, but so much more than that. His insights into design, the creative process, learning and life are stimulating. The Meaning of Human Existence by Edward O. Wilson. The latest by the master, Wilson is truly an American treasure. Duty – A Memoir Of A Secretary At War by Robert M. Gates. Very real lessons in leadership and conflict resolution, he pulls no punches. The Good Spy – The Life and Death of Robert Ames by Kai Bird. Reads like a spy James Bond novel except that it is a true story. In-depth insights into how the Middle East got to where it is today. Sports Training Principles – An Introduction to Sports Science (6th Edition) by Frank Dick. Newest edition of this classic work updated and revised with contributions by experts in various disciplines. This is a must for every coach’s library as a ready reference for all aspects of coaching. The QB – The Making of Modern Quarterbacks by Bruce Feldman. Find about gurus, charlatans, self-promoters and flesh peddlers in football. From my point of view this book underscores everything that is wrong with youth sports today with Five Star quarterbacks as the metaphor. Wayfaring Stranger: A Novel by James Lee Burke. Burke is another master storyteller. This is a departure from his usual detective novel. Moor’s Account by Laila Lalani. A very interesting historical novel looking at the ill-fated Spanish expedition to Florida told from the point of view of Estebanco a Moorish slave, a very interesting and different perspective.
What Matters
As we start a new year just a brief reflection on what matters in coaching. As coaches we do not coach sports, we coach people who participate in sports. The human element, seeing the athlete grow athletically and as people is what makes coaching so rewarding. Records, wins and championships pale into insignificance as time passes; it is the relationships that are remembered, the struggle not the triumph. Take a moment today and reflect on how you coach and teach. In the words of St Frances of Assisi: “Start by doing what is necessary: then do what is possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.” Have healthy and happy New Year.
Can Do
Instead of looking at ways to predict injury and search for hidden dysfunctions I prefer to spend the time looking at possibilities to determine their level of trainability. I focus on what the athlete can do and use that as a starting point. In most cases the athlete has made it to a certain level because of what they can do. My job is to enhance those abilities and minimize the weaknesses while addressing them in a progressive manner to enable them to progress further athletically. Recognize the wisdom of the body and it’s ability to figure it out by devising training programs that fit the athlete instead of fitting the athlete to the program. Start with what they can do and dial up the program as they progress and adapt. Ultimately the goal is to reconcile what they can do with what the must do to be ready to thrive as adaptable athletes in the competitive environment.
House of Cards
Build your athletes from the ground up. Emphasize training movements that connect and coordinate. Start with fundamental movements and add complexity as the athlete’s gain mastery of the fundamentals. Don’t worry about being sport specific; instead emphasize movements that are sport appropriate to prepare the athlete for the sport demands. Take your time, adaptation takes time it will not happen overnight. If you don’t do this you are building a fragile athlete that is much like a house of cards that will blow over in the slightest breeze.
More
Doing more is quite seductive. Often when you begin to do more the returns are quite impressive, so the temptation is do even more. The logic is didn’t I just make big improvements by doing more? So you do more – more training sessions, more weight, more mileage on and on. What’s the result? The more is better blues – If you are lucky it is just stagnation, a plateau, if not it is an injury or steep regression. There is no need to go this route; more is certainly not better. There is a time a time and place to do more as part of a normal progression, but to constantly try to do more will quickly yield diminishing returns. Train smart, focus on quality and efficiency in training. Never lose sight of the fact that training is preparation for competition, so training should never be an end unto itself. Do what is necessary, not more. Always remember training accumulates so less can be more.
Evolution of Strength Training – A Personal Perspective – 51 Years of Experiences (Conclusions/Lessons)
As I wrote this series of posts and reflected on the lessons I learned I wanted to summarize with some practical conclusions so that young coaches and athletes starting out would not make the same mistakes I made. There is no form of human motion that does not require some expression of force; therefore all sports will derive benefit from sport appropriate strength training. The physical quality of strength is the underpinning for the optimum development of other biomotor qualities. That being said it is crucial to have an in-depth understanding of the strength and power demands of the sport you are preparing for and design the program to meet those demands while also considering the qualities of the individual athlete. The weight room can be a trap because gaining measureable strength (Chasing numbers) can be seductive. To a certain extent there is a direct return on the investment, the more you do the more strength you gain, especially at younger training ages and in the anabolically enriched (Often it’s the biology not the training program) teenage male athlete. It is imperative that you never lose site of the fact that strength training is about developing strength you can use and apply on the field, court, track or pool, and this does not always equate with strength you can measure in the weight room. Despite the fact that we know better there is still a huge influence from bodybuilding training methods, the emphasis in these programs is on training the muscles. This can be very seductive, but questionable in the transfer to sport performance. My mantra after learning by going down the path of bodybuilding and coming to a dead end street is to never lose sight of the fact that you must train movements not individual muscles. Athletic movements depend on muscle synergies and coordination; it is not a bodybuilding contest. Develop “go muscles” not ”show muscles” that look good at the beach but do not transfer to function. As far as Olympic lifting the key here is to remember that you are not training Olympic lifters but that you are training athletes who are using the Olympic lifting movements to increase explosive power. There are many adaptations of the Olympic lifting movements with dumbbells, sandbags and kettlebells that will fit a wide variety of sports and level of athlete. Get beyond the bar, as the sole mode of resistance here and it will offer a wide range of possibilities for improving explosive power. Perhaps one of the biggest lessons I have learned and has been reinforced over the last 15 years is the roll of strength training with the female athlete. Strength training is a must for the female athlete starting out at or before puberty and continued throughout her career. The female athlete must strength train more often and never stop including training right into taper/peaking phase of competition. My rule of thumb is to emphasize volume of intensity is selecting the distribution the work. Female athletes will get more bang for their buck from the time invested. A good comprehensive strength-training program will help to create a favorable endocrine hormonal environment that will have a very positive influence on body composition It is not about facilities and fancy equipment. Think bodyweight before external resistance. You can strength train anywhere and anytime. Do not make your program dependent of facilities. The same goes for time, something is better than nothing. In certain sports and where there is an extended competitive season a 15 to 20 minute workout three to four time a week is better than one hour long session a week. Make the strength-training blend with the sport training where possible. Never underestimate the value that a short sharp session can have to prime the endocrine hormonal system and positively stimulate the nervous system. I certainly could go on but I think it is best to end with a concise definition of strength training that I have evolved over the years: Strength Training is coordination training with appropriate resistance to handle bodyweight, project an implement, move or resist movement of another body, resist gravity and optimize ground reaction forces. I will continue to search for better ways and more efficient strength training methodology. I personally strength train at least thee to four days a week, an imperative necessary with aging to try to offset the effects of gravity. For me the journey continues.
Evolution of Strength Training – A Personal Perspective – 51 Years of Experiences (Part Six)
In the last twenty years as have had the opportunity to work with a variety of sports and I was exposed to many theories and methods, but basically I found that at the end of the day it all came back to executing the basics of sound training principles consistently. It is so easy and somewhat trendy to copy the latest and greatest strength-training program of a great team or athlete, the monkey see, monkey do syndrome. If it is good for them and they just won the national championship then it is good for us. There is a prevalent attitude that the greatest testament for a piece of equipment or a particular training method is the affirmation of winning. What I have seen through my experience is that success is often achieved in spite of, not because of the training and that superior talent and genetics sometimes prevail. A good sound training program is not based on equipment or personalities, but on sound scientific training principles. We need to consider what is really high tech? I got a call recently from a friend who had just visited a new training facility, he could not wait to call me and tell me about the “high tech” facility he had just visited. They had a machine for everything. Everything was connected to a computer. What is more high tech- the machine or the body? I have come to the realization that the body is the ultimate high tech machine. The farther away we get from the body the less specific the training. Where are we going? What have we learned? The key is the nervous system. That is what Sam Cunningham was trying to tell me in my first year of coaching. Just because he could not lift more weight that is not what is most important. It is how you can recruit and fire the muscles in a coordinated pattern that is most important. Strength training is about neural drive; it is training the command and control system. That is why it is so important to train movements not muscles! This is where we have to go in order to progress to do a better job of integrating strength training, making it specific in order to develop athleticism. Next post I will summarize with conclusions, lessons learned and what to look for in the future.
Evolution of Strength Training – A Personal Perspective – 51 Years of Experiences (Part Five)
Things began to change rapidly with the advent of the full-time professional “Strength Coach.” In the seventies very few colleges had strength coaches and if they did most of their attention was centered on football. In professional sport there were few fulltime strength coaches. In 1976 Bob Ward who was the track coach at Fullerton College in California, was hired by the Dallas Cowboys. He had a full time year around program that was backed by management so that the player’s had to comply. This was the exception, not the norm. Superior talent and genetics continued to prevail even into the late 1980’s. Not all the teams in professional football had fulltime strength and conditioning coaches. The advent of the strength coach in college and professional sport was like a good news bad news joke. The good news was that now there would be someone who whose sole responsibility was to condition the athletes. The bad news was that was that with the exception of those who had a track and field background they seldom got out of the weight room. In 1985 I began my foray into professional sports with the Chicago White Sox and the Bulls as an assistant to Al Vermeil. Once again the same old myths and misconceptions, which I thought had been forgotten, reared their ugly head. You would have thought that by 1985 with the success that athletes had enjoyed world wide with a comprehensive conditioning program that the coaches and athletes would have been embraced this training as an opportunity to better themselves. I think since that there had been little emphasis on training in professional basketball and baseball the attitude on the part of the coaches was let them play, those who are talented will succeed and those who are not will fall by the wayside. I kept hearing that Basketball and baseball was different. Don’t lift heavy because it will hurt your shooting. The trainer told me that pitchers should not lift overhead because it would hurt their shoulder. When I stated that didn’t they lift their arm overhead when they pitched I was told I didn’t understand the game. In 1987 I took over as Director of Conditioning for the Chicago White Sox, which gave me the opportunity to put together a systematic comprehensive program in professional sport. No one in professional baseball had a systematic year around program. In order to make it work I decided that we needed to make the program more specific to the demands of the sport of baseball. It needed to include more work on balance and proprioception, more work on rotation. I was very influenced by Dr. Lois Klatt, head of the Human performance Lab at Concordia University in River Forest, Illinois who introduced me the book Total Body Training Bob Gajda and Robert Dominguez. The emphasis was that movement is multi – joint, multi-plane, it involves balance and proprioception. This got me to think past the muscle and look closely at the movement. I moved away from weight training to the concept of strength training. Weight training is one method of strength training; in order to train a complete athlete it is necessary to utilize all methods available to achieve the desired goal. What evolved was a functional strength-training program that was adapted to the multi-plane demands of the sport of baseball as well as the unique demands of the specific positions. The program was based on biomechanical analysis so that the movements we were training were more specific. Pitchers had a specific program; catchers had a specific program, rather than one program for all. All these programs had all components linked so that what was done with speed and agility training was related to balance and proprioception work which in turn was related to the strength training work. My goal with the White Sox was to create a model that would work in any sport. I was lucky to be able to use the resources available to work toward accomplishing this task. We were able to achieve good results with the White Sox both in terms of measurable improvements of speed and power as well as significant reduction of injuries.