Author: Vernon Gambetta
Developing Athletes Introduction
Thus is the introduction to the book I am working on titled “Developing Athletes.” I thought I would share this with you now as I finally begin writing again after a long interruption. I plan on sharing excerpts as I write. I hope that if you were interested you would send me ideas, input and perspectives that you have on this subject. Other ideas and perspectives will help me make it a better book. Introduction Ever since I started on this journey first as an athlete in the sixties and then as a coach I was fascinated with what it took to develop and nurture the athlete. As a young athlete I looked around and saw some athletes develop and thrive and others stagnate and fall by the wayside. Why was this? I noticed that certain schools were always good in selected sports. I noticed that certain coaches, regardless of talent, year in and year out always produced top athletes and teams. Why was that? At that stage of the journey I must admit it was all somewhat mysterious to me, there did not seem to be a method behind what I was observing. I wanted to know why the things that I was seeing were occurring. Those questions started me on a quest; some would call it an odyssey to find answers. I knew that there had to be more to it than I was seeing and experiencing. When I began coaching I noticed the same things I had seen as an athlete. Some athletes thrived, some just barely survived and many fell by the wayside. Now that my perspective was broader not only did I see schools continue to develop talent but also nations. It quickly became clear that athletic excellence was something that could be systematically nurtured and developed. So I began to look around the US and the around the world, I started looking for big things, commonalities; just like everyone I was trying to find the secret. I quickly realized there was and is no secret. I did start to see patterns and common threads though. Little did I know that I was working in a system that was doing exactly what I was searching elsewhere for? I literally could not see the forest for the trees, the answer was right in front of me. When I started coaching and teaching in 1969 that was probably the apogee of sport development in the United States. We were the dominant sporting nation in the world as evidenced by the dominant performances at the 1968 Olympic games. There was mandatory daily physical education taught by trained educators. Sport was centered in the schools and coached by trained coaches. It was part of the educational system. In the elementary and junior high schools there were afterschool sports programs that featured participation over winning. By the mid to late 1970’s all this began to unravel. Mandatory Kindergarten through twelfth grade daily physical education was dropped. Physical education as an academic discipline in colleges and universities was deemed not academic enough and physical education programs were dropped or the curriculum was changed to sport or exercise science. The mission of training Physical education teachers and coaches was severely compromised. All of this coincided with the ascendency of the GDR and the Soviet Union in the 1960’s and their dominating performances in the 1976 and 1980 Olympic games. They began to beat the US in sports were we had traditionally been strong. So we started looking at what they were doing and tried to copy it. This was somewhat of a knee jerk reaction. What we failed to take into account as we blindly copied their system was the cradle to grave control they had over their athletes due to the communist system. Frankly the methods and ideas those countries used became an infatuation for many. Little did we know that our system, what some people derisively called a non-system as it had existed was probably superior. It would take the fall of the wall and the decline of the eastern bloc for us to understand that their system was not everything it was made out to be. I write all of this to set the stage for the goal of this book. It is quite straight forward – to define the process of athlete development and in parallel coaches development from the beginning stages to the podium and beyond because it is my contention that the two must go hand in glove. It is a journey, a process, not a clearly defined model as many would like to portray it. There are landmarks that must be achieved along the way but there are not definite time parameters; it is not a straight line. The athlete and coach are part of the socio-cultural milieu so they reflect the society they exist in. There are many realities today that face the developing athlete that were not a factor forty or fifty years ago. I will take a historical look at the various athlete development systems to see what we can learn from them. I will then outline a process of athlete development designed to meet the current reality of sport in the 21st century and all the challenges that are entailed. It is a dynamic process that requires continual learning. Thanks for joining me in this journey as we learn together to develop the best athletes and coaches possible.
It’s not the bat!
This is from the feature story in last weeks Sports Illustrated “Exit Stage Center” about Derek Jeter by Tom Verducci. If you want some great insights into sustained excellence, competitive greatness and leadership read this article. This story in the article about the bat really resonated with me. “The day Jeter reported to the Gulf Coast League Yankees in Tampa in 1992 he found himself standing over a bin filled with wood bats. Jeter the Yankee’s first-round draft choice and sixth overall, had only used a metal bat at Central High School in Kalamazoo, Mich. He picked through the wood bats until he found one in size and shape that most resembled what he’d swung in high school. It was a Louisville Slugger P72, a model first crafted in 1954 for a minor leaguer named Les Pinkham. This one was 34 inches and weighed 32 ounces. From that first day in pro ball to what will be his last covering more than 15,000 turns at bat, Jeter never used another model. “maybe I’d pick up another one in batting practice if I broke one,” he says. “But I’ve never had an at bat in a game with another one.” In my career in professional baseball I saw players change bats weekly and sometimes daily, as if their performance depended on the bat. It’s not the bat; it’s never the bat it was Jeter’s consistent daily preparation that never varied no matter if he was on a hitting streak on in a slump, if it was the first game of the season or the seventh game of the World Series. It is about consistency and routine. That is what makes the great ones great! Jeter epitomizes the 3R’s – Routine, Repetition & Refinement.
Progress Stoppers
Nothing will stop progress or stifle innovation & change more than these statements: Been there done that Let me play devils advocate We already do that Over the past several months I have been in meetings and on phone conferences where all of the statements were made sometimes within the same paragraph. You could feel the air being sucked out of the room. My answers to these statements (trying very hard to not be sarcastic) are as follows: If you have been there and done that then why does you team have more injuries than anyone in the sport? To the devils advocate (usually a naysayer as evidenced by their body language) – What is it you don’t like about the proposal on the table? To the “we already do that statement” – My answer is I not sure why you have me here then. Why don’t you tell what you are doing so I can learn something? Be aware of these statements. Monitor yourself and see if you or your colleagues are using them. If so then ask yourself why? In 45 years of coaching I have been there and done that many times, but that doesn't mean I can't do it better. I want to learn and do it better the next time. How about you?
4R’s – Rest, Renewal, Reading & Research
I have pretty much gone non-stop without any significant breaks especially from travel for the last two years, some of this by design and some just due to circumstance. I have been home now for two weeks and two weekends in a row. It has been time for me to get some down time to rest, to renew my energy, to sharpen my focus on my goals, to do future planning, to get caught up on research and finally to read (Read eleven books since I have been home). I have a lighter schedule going forward the rest of the fall that will enable me to turn my energies to the two major areas of focus for me in the next year: Growing the GAIN professional development community and begin writing in earnest on my new book – Developing Athletes. I will keep you updated on my progress in the blog, on Facebook and on twitter. Look for an announcement in mid October for the dates of GAIN VIII – 2014. I also plan to get back to blogging on a regular basis. My head is full of ideas based on things I have seen and people I have met in my travels. I also would be interested in ideas from you on what you would like me to write about. The batteries are almost fully recharged looking forward to continued learning and sharing.
The Coaching Process
Coaching is a process. There are no formulas or algorithms. It is quite straightforward, the process of coaching has a strong foundation in pedagogy, supported by science, forged in practice-based experience, proven & tested in the competitive arena.
What do you expect?
What we are seeing today in big time professional and collegiate sports is no surprise to me. It is the result of a broken sports system and a society that has comprised basic standards of behavior. As coaches and sports administrators we are responsible for what we are seeing. Sport does not exist isolated or separate from society. As coaches we often proudly point out that sport is a microcosm of life, if that is the case should we be surprised by the aberrant behavior we are seeing in top athletes? We have created several generations of athletes with a distorted sense of their importance, not to mention never having to account to any semblance of reality in regard to their behavior. We begin the process young by entitling the stars, allowing them to miss class, miss practice and violate teams rules as long as they deliver performance in the game. It gets worse in the recruiting process where immature youngsters are wined and dined and pumped full of inflated opinions about their self-worth. This all coupled with the decline of the family makes what we are seeing very explainable. This does not make it right or acceptable. As coaches and athletic administrators we need to put development of the person above winning. We must stop accepting this deviant behavior as normal. We need to hold the athletes to a higher standard. A standard of behavior that is expected of a good citizen in the normal world not the distorted world of big time sport.
Million Dollar Question
Are you making your athletes better or are you just making them tired and predisposing them to injury? Don’t forget you play and compete the way you train therefore every training session needs to be close to your event/sport (Neural, Metabolic, Mechanical & Technical) in some form. Training is cumulative; give the training time to work.
Real Rewards of Coaching
As a young coach I knew there was more out there but I was not 100% sure what it was. It was the human element, the emotional intelligence piece, appreciating people and what they offer beyond their athletic skills. I must admit I took that for granted. I was into training, the X’s and O’s of coaching. I was focused on designing better workouts and refining technique. There were championships, big wins and some disappointing loses. As I progressed in my coaching career and climbed the ladder so to speak I saw there was more to it. I gained a balance, a perspective. I realized that that yes the X’s and O’s were still important but it was the people I was coaching, the relationships, the satisfaction of seeing young boys and girls grow into responsible adults and move on with their lives outside of sport. Monday night I had dinner in Fort Collins with John Rosecrance, one of my former athletes I had not seen for 35 years. John was part of an amazing group of young athletes I coached at Santa Barbara High School from 1975 through 1978. They were amazing because of their athletic accomplishments, but more amazing was their focus and dedication, the togetherness and team unity, the willing to help each other be better. John epitomized what this group was about. He was not especially athletically gifted but he worked hard to get better and maximize his skills, eventually making CIF Finals in the pole vault his senior year. Visiting with John brought back many fond memories of those days. It made me regret that I did not take more time to smell the roses and appreciate those kids for what they were. During our visit we barely talked about track. We talked about the progress of his career and what he had done in the last 35 years. He is still competing in bike races and for a time was doing triathlons and even ran several marathons, this from a guy that I had to cajole in doing cross-country. He has his PHD and is a professor at Colorado Sate University in Fort Collins. Visiting with John reminded of the real rewards of coaching – the people and relationships that endure after the championship trophies tarnish and the medals are stored in a drawer somewhere.