Two days ago, I posted about a recent article in the Wall Street Journal that surprisingly featured 3 track athletes in its Top 10 (including Decathlete Roman Sebrle at number 1). Today, in some rare down time at the USATF Jr. Nationals I saw a related article that had a pretty interesting video of Bryan Clay going through the SPARQ testing protocol. The premise is that most athletes only do one o [...]

Watch this, it is athleticism to the max. Just imagine if we could all of our athletes to have this level of body awareness and control [...]

A few years ago a group of us were talking about athleticism so I asked the group for a definition. No one could define it, they described it but it was not a definition. I could not find a formal definition that I thought adequately defined athleticism so with input from some of my colleagues I came up with a definition, this is the latest permutation of that definition. Your reactions or comment [...]

My post on John Daley being an athlete has generated a lot of response both on and off line. My friend Kevin McGill has challenged me to open it up to the readers for a definition. I have no problem with that. What do all of you define as an athlete. One ground rule – PLEASE – no names as examples. As Sergeant Joe Friday used to say on Dragnet – Just the facts or in this case, ju [...]

For the person that wrote in to saythey were proud to be a muscle head, I am glad you are proud to be amuscle head. If you take the muscle head approach I would like to playyour team everyday of the week! Some of the comments on my recent posthave been almost absurd and in some ways surreal. Men, women, boys andgirls it is not just about strength. It does not matter that Olympiclifters are the str [...]

I will hold by remedial. That is what the exercises are. The athlete is at a lower level of proficiency in certain area. Once again let’s stop worrying about hurting their feelings. Jose Reyes was given a set of remedial exercises to do everyday after his hamstring problems. He is now National League starting all star shortstop and has led the National League in stolen bases the last two yea [...]

Here are three words that I feel should be eliminated from the lexicon of training. If you eliminate something then you should replace it with something better, in this case I have carefully selected terms that more accurately describe the ultimate desired action. I was taught a long time ago that words create images in the mind, and that those images are then transferred into action. Therefore we [...]

This is my outline of my presentation at the Evolution of the Athlete Conference:Building the Athlete from the Ground Up Vern Gambetta Gambetta Sports Training Systems 3M +3P = Training System What is Function? Full Spectrum Work, Multiple Planes, Multiple Joints, Full Range of Motion & Proprioceptively Demanding What is Functional Training? Training that incorporates a full spectrum of training m [...]

First you learn to play, and then you forget what you learned and just play! This is paraphrase of what I heard a jazz musician say in an interview on NPR this morning. When I heard it I could not help but think of this in the context of athletic skills, learn it, then drill it and then don’t think let it happen! Let the instincts and the sub cortical responses take over. It was Charlie Park [...]

The coach from the Woodlands in Houston, Texas presented at the MITCA Clinic. I was able to attend his first talk which was quite entertaining and informative. He has a very successful program in terms of state championships as well having his athletes go onto compete in college. What did bother me was his emphasis on getting his athlete to 100 miles a week. I just do not think that is necessary a [...]