http://www.elitetrack.com/blogs/ en vgambetta@aol.com Copyright 2013 2013-05-26T04:43:27+00:00 http://www.elitetrack.com/blogs/details/8011/ http://www.elitetrack.com/blogs/details/8011/#When:03:43:27Z If you don’t get the basics right then everything that follows will be compromised. In my experience the difference between good and great is that that the great ones always pay attention to the basics and have flawless mastery of the basics. They never stray far from the fundamentals; in fact no matter where they are in their career they touch the basics everyday. Sure it is mundane, some have called it boring, but to be the best requires mastery of the basics. Advanced skill and technique is built upon sound fundamentals. The most basic of the basics are fundamental movement skills – pull, push, squat, bend, extend, rotate reach, step, leap, starting, stopping, jump etc. It may not be as exciting as trying to master some more complex movements or technique but it will serve you well in the short and long run. The great John Wooden felt that most mistakes under pressure in games was caused by weaknesses in fundamental basketball skills. Each day in each of his practices a significant amount of time was devoted to proper execution of fundamentals. A base of fundamentals is the foundation for more complex skills and creativity in movement. Keep it simple, link and connect basic movements to achieve advanced skill and training. If you don’t know the alphabet you can’t spell a word, if you can’t spell you can’t write sentences, if you can’t write sentences then you can’t compose paragraphs or write an essay much less write the great American novel. Master the movement ABC’s and go higher faster and stronger. Vern Gambetta's Blog 2013-05-26T03:43:27+00:00 http://www.elitetrack.com/blogs/details/8007/ http://www.elitetrack.com/blogs/details/8007/#When:10:10:12Z A few people asked me what are the best motor learning books and rattled off some popular and hot reads. When I responded with a bit lip they were disappointed that they were not unlocking the secrets to skill acquisition to the brain and wanted magic cues. I shared the simple fact, that practitioners are the most important people as research is different than reality. I do believe in teaching science if you will, but very little can be taken from the texts besides a few key concepts. Let's be honest here, it feels good to have athletes get better and be freaks. If not one doesn't have pride. Unfortunately if we have so many motor learning experts with magic words why do athletes still look like they are reverse curling cleans, look like Shaggy from Scooby Doo running and stopping? Like any part of coaching and sport science, we need evidence of application. The science is fine. The difference is long term development and technique day to day with mixed goals. Right now I am reading Jacques Piasenta and looking at what his intentions were. While I think his text has limits, at the end of the day application is where rubber hits the road and one must get results. I think it's more than just teaching or explaining or even communicating. We forget that sometimes a coach is a role model and influence that is not scaleable in private facilities or replicated in a research study. We can educate all we want but the truth of the matter it's beyond getting people to get from point A to point A. I wish it was that easy that cues, internal or external, was that easy, but elite sport or even grade level development is about trust, something that can be read by anyone over time. 2013-05-24T10:10:12+00:00 http://www.elitetrack.com/blogs/details/8006/ http://www.elitetrack.com/blogs/details/8006/#When:03:51:41Z The process of getting to be the best is not a straightforward linear path, it is a process and it takes time. In my forty-four years of coaching I have seen that many are called to walk the path but few actually choose. Yes you read that correctly. Many are called but few choose. The opportunity is there for many but few will make the choice because it is a difficult path that requires moving out of their Comfort Zone. At each step of development there are clear-cut choices that must be made. Some of the choices are conscious, like doing something different in training and others are subtle almost unconscious like pushing through a pain barrier or finishing a workout that seems too hard. You must be guided by clear SMART goals that help to guide you to your destination. SMART goals are goals that are: S = Specific M = Measurable A = Attainable R = Realistic T = Time The goal is where you want to go, where you want to end up, it is the beacon of light that guides you. Most athletes start in the Comfort Zone and stay there. They are good at their sport and satisfied with where they are. They make easy choices; they never go the extra mile. They do only what is expected, never more. Athletes in this zone take no risks; there are no champions here. If you aspire to be a peak performer then you will quickly have to move out of your comfort zone to the Performance Zone or you will never achieve your goals. Athletes in the Performance Zone have a greater commitment. They take some risks and they will go the extra mile when necessary. They occasionally are uncomfortable. They usually win as much as they lose. From the Performance Zone the next step is the High Performance Zone. As the athlete chooses to do what is necessary to move up from one zone to the next there will be less people in of the higher zones. The athletes in this zone are willing to risk and get very uncomfortable. In fact they are uncomfortable more than they are comfortable and they win more than they lose. They will always go the extra mile. The pinnacle, the Peak Performance Zone is where the champions live, train and play. This is a special place. It is as far from the comfort zone as you could imagine. Athletes here are the best of the best and they are comfortable with being uncomfortable because they know what it takes to be the best. In fact they are uncomfortable all the time and they make others uncomfortable with their intensity and drive. The path is clear you must do the work daily with ICE - Intensity, Concentration and Effort. You must win the workouts if you expect to win the competition. Make the choice to be the best. Set your goals and start acting on those goals now. Be comfortable with being uncomfortable all the time. Vern Gambetta's Blog 2013-05-24T03:51:41+00:00 http://www.elitetrack.com/blogs/details/8005/ http://www.elitetrack.com/blogs/details/8005/#When:03:49:42Z I have been fortunate in the time since the Olympic games to spend time with seven coaches of Gold medal winners in Athletics (Track & Field) from the London games. In two instances I got to watch workouts and spend significant time with the coach and athlete. These are the commonalities that all shared: Passion – In most cases they wore their passion on their sleeves. Technical Knowledge – They knew the basics and didn’t stray far from them. None of them made what they did overly complicated. Emotional Intelligence – They know their athletes and themselves. They listened to the athlete. Systematic – Nothing by chance, thorough plans, but still built flexibility into the system Humility – Not overly impressed with themselves, willing to credit others and seek help. Did not go it alone. Paid their dues – All except one has been coaching for quite some time; they were not always coaching gold medal winners. Interestingly enough these are the characteristics I see in great coaches at any level. These characteristics are what it takes to be an effective coach. Vern Gambetta's Blog 2013-05-24T03:49:42+00:00 http://www.elitetrack.com/blogs/details/8003/ http://www.elitetrack.com/blogs/details/8003/#When:09:52:06Z If you are a coach or therapist who speaks spanish and would like to meet-up at the NYC Grand Prix please know a private seminar on hamstring injuries will be happening the night before this Friday. Each topic is 15 minutes or so and concludes with a round table discussion on integrating topics such as Tensiomyography, streaming physiological monitoring, MSK Ultrasound, and bodywork. What is really exciting is that an actual athlete will be evaluated and bodywork will be done at the hotel for 90 minutes plus. The cost is a bottle of wine from the Nicasia Vineyard and while it's informal, the suggested attire is slacks and a button down as dinner is at 10pm. I also suggest bringing a small video camera and it's first come first serve as the limit is twenty people. 2013-05-23T09:52:06+00:00 http://www.elitetrack.com/blogs/details/8002/ http://www.elitetrack.com/blogs/details/8002/#When:09:19:45Z "Michael Crabtree underwent surgery to repair his Achilles tendon that he tore yesterday," coach Jim Harbaugh said. "Surgery was successful and we do not anticipate it will be season-ending for Michael." I was called by a consultant a few years ago asking what system of pressure mapping to purchase and I said Tekscan, knowing that their reporting would eventually rise to match the power of their analysis. A simple screening of all of the athletes on a football team can greatly reduce injuries and track the research. It's amazing how simply asking people if they want to be loaned a Fscan they say no, when they are complaining about pricing of equipment or lack of education. My feeling is that nobody wants to be making statements with risk to specific injuries. If you look at jones fractures in sport a pattern of risk does show up in the research, but specific posting are not easy, since orthotics are static and one has to do a few routes and cutting motions to see if high risk actions could amplify the pressure on specific regions of the foot. It's not easy but it's worth it. Teams are not doing enough pressure mapping to screen the athlete. The reason is most are not qualified to analyze it and most don't want to invest time or money, as athletes are not engaged. Simple solution? Broadcast the data on a giant flatscreen. Athletes are not dumb, they know their bodies matter. The problem is trust as well, since most athletes are being constantly hounded by promises of reducing injury and increasing performance. I bet the farm that the organization will make changes regarding data and injury over the next year, because they are not leveraging the bay area innovation. Adding force plates isn't going to help much, as they are needing to keep guys on the field and not pushing the envelope with training being a professional team. This will cost the 49ers the Super Bowl, and the injury bug is beyond Bill's topic about rates and reasons. 2013-05-23T09:19:45+00:00 http://www.elitetrack.com/blogs/details/8000/ http://www.elitetrack.com/blogs/details/8000/#When:13:38:08Z "The top clubs have learned these lessons (some the hard way) and don’t put much stock into single comprehensive packages from vendors and have instead built their own internal architectures that they control. This approach allows them to use the ‘best of breed’ tools where they make sense and have the flexibility to make changes when needed." -Sports Data Hub So now we are all drinking from the same Holy Grail? Elite sport is not alone in thinking the latest Dashboard from vendors will solve problems, and we are seeing the loose term algorithm everywhere. As predicted, SaaS is growing and is this a trend or eventual outcome of where we need to be? I am frightened in current sport because the basics and foundational information is so poor with the average coach. I just got an intern this summer, but really it's a 12 week mentorship of deprogramming of all the hype. A few years ago Kevin Goodfellow was ahead of the time by anticipating big data and the need for a solution, but now I see that the reality is we are still not ready for it and when we are the window may be closed with open source options. His concepts are excellent, but the honesty in performance and sports medicine is not there. The truth is that very few people are doing what they need to do because the difference between great and winning the big one is talent and money. While some gaps have closed by sport science, the unpopular issue is that the CBA and other factors make good intentions neutralized. What Kevin envisioned is happening, and I am hopeful we will learn that we need to shop wisely on solutions. A high profile consultant sent me a text reminding me of the Holy Grail from various SaaS providers for teams and organizations and I am doing the 180 and focusing on the human side. At the end of the day, Bob Alejo is right. You are going to eventually need to train, and not much has changed with the human body and training in 30 years. Sure some great advancements are there, but are we doing what works well? For example Marco Cardinale showed how Creatine is loosing popularity in research and now every coach wants the Kool-Aid beet flavored. This is got to stop. I am guilty of promoting technology too much, hence why the next few blog posts before summer vacation is about resetting the direction to the human body. I will go analog while my intern is getting all the best data, such as Tensiomyography and HRV daily. I will be the native warrior and he will be the futurist sent back in time. So what to do? Education- Conferences are good starting places but workshops are needed. To get momentum we need to sit down with people and just do it. If you can follow along then that's a sign to catch up. If you want to play or tinker with things later don't fool yourself. I have seen people year after year and glacier speeds is not a exaggeration with evolution. Go analog and pen and paper and leave the expensive paperless hype to Eliteform and other SaaS vendors. Big data? Please. Big data is real but only 1% of vendors are really dealing with realities. Evidence- Place all of the data for the year into a folder and upload it to the cloud and share a timeline. Show exchanges or chat messages. Prove to everyone that miracles and proprietary algorithms are truly working. Now that the brain is en vogue, this is going to insane with nonsense. We still can't do heart rate properly and we are interpreting things from games? What are the interventions for all of this? Medical data is also the hardest, what are people doing now when they have guys on the table? Using an intern to collect notes? Engagement-If athletes are not engaged it doesn't work period. If the process isn't enriching it doesn't matter if it's the greatest thing since sliced bread. I do suggest hiring sales people for vendors to make their products better for users, not to sell to teams. If your product is good you don't need sexy sales gimmicks. I should have put this number one, but this was just typed off the top of my head so forgive me. I would start with the above factors and visit teams doing the magic data stuff. You will see the good, the bad, and the very ugly. 2013-05-22T13:38:08+00:00 http://www.elitetrack.com/blogs/details/7998/ http://www.elitetrack.com/blogs/details/7998/#When:12:32:59Z A private meeting was in the Concord and Lexington area, purposely located to symbolize the future of what is happening in Boston. I predict that more private style workshops such as the one hosted by Ricardo will be the future. Flying halfway around the world needs to be more than just visiting a professional team and doing a keynote, the bar is raised as hotel and airports are not enough to make sure speakers are happy. Speakers want to learn and network as well, as they need to be aware of what is going on or find themselves seated watching the new blood like some are doing now. With several conferences fading and some extinct (Remember when SWIS was huge?) the disruption is keeping the speakers enticed, the attendees happy, and the vendors satisfied. Of course the people behind the conference such as Art Horne need to be thanked beyond he handshake and blog nods, as he is the one driving this and his hard work is appreciated. Two presentations (Keynote) were Saturday morning and both were excellent. Keynotes are important as they are presentations everyone should watch because they are that universal and valuable. This year was more data driven and Fergus Connolly presented on High Performance. Anticipating the future and being cutting edge Art Horne reached out to Fergus, likely because of the Leaders in Performance credibility. I pleaded to share more examples of solutions by his work. For example, after practice share what the decision trees after practice for Rugby with regards to lifting and workout design and medical integration per day. Just three athletes with post game to pre game during a week would have been a game changer. Fergus made the right choice and gave principles to get people exposed to High Performance management, as skipping that step is good for 5% of the audience but the majority must be educated and exposed to new concepts. I was trying to take pictures of his dashboard and photos of moneyball for this blog, but the ken burns effect made the dashboard flash a moving target. I felt like I was getting hypnotized from the animation and needed to get some fresh air. Fergus did a fine job sharing his impressions of what was necessary, and his breakout session was more open for questions. Stu and the battle of Waterloo was awesome. I will be using unholy like a bizzaro Robin as Dr. McGill always does a nice job. Three huge points of contention were brought up. One, the issue with FMS and prediction of injury or similar. I know I have been hard on the FMS but honestly I do a similar set of screens for mobility as part of my assessment. Still, some don't want to talk about how effective it is. I like Gray Cook but now we are starting to get a little revisionist history. The great thing about conferences is when they video people's beliefs, tough to delete it unless they are burning the tapes. We have a problem with DYI Drones in the NFL spying during practice! These guys are so smart they are not buying them but building them just in case they crash! Back to Stu. He brought up points that I stated about single leg exercises and FMS screens and he is going to debate Gray Cook at Stanford. Like a rap battle, I expect a few one liners and some awesome research by Stu. I think Gray Cook needs to rethink the research beyond the Rob Butler stuff because most of the research doesn't zero in. Stu warned about hyper loading the single leg exercises with spine and pelvic strain. He also warned about thoracic mobility exercises and showed an alternative. Now another point I wanted to address to Stu was his use of GSP to validate core and the use of the pulse. If you look at the slide it's too fuzzy to see the EMG rate but anyone doing a ballistic Kettlebell swing takes just as long as an olympic lift. I love how Stu says anytime he hears a statement he goes to the lab to find out. Marco showed this on EMG (not saying it's only the cardinal sign) but I think we need like Fergus said more field tests with equipment and services. With Tekscan, Dartfish, Noraxon, Normatec, Surgicare, InsideTracker, and other vendors being at BSMPG, those tools and services can get people thinking about validation. Sport Science is not about ivory towers, it starts with one's program. My point is that Stu needs to realize the influences of different coaches and how they train athletes and share that with the audience. If GSP has unholy abilities to relax and win, how did he get that? For example "pulse rates" from sprinting are 4.5 per second, talk about relaxation rates. Stu should look at sprinters and see what general overclocking one can get from just raw sprints, even submaximal. GSP was trained for years with Jon from Adrenaline performance and seeing first hand training, one has to think do athletes get great "pulse" scores from pulse exercises or does a global program full of sound training create great cores? With the helicopter swings being both an exercise and test, will he look into the other aspects of the training to see how he got there. To say he got better from planks and chops is not the right history. Jon is one of the most humble and open people and brought an array of people to share and learn from. I still wanted Stu to talk about how the core may be silent right in some areas before footstrike as no core training can deal with valgus collapse of the knee because of his foot structure. One can see this in the video here and notice the collapse at the knees. I am not saying this was the cause of the ACL as it could have been contact based and not all injuries are preventable, but we have talked about valgus collapse for years and years and we still see it coming out everywhere. Cues don't fix this and clamshells are not doing the trick. Think feet. Randy Huntington was thinking the same and he was leapfrogging everyone with regards to biological materials with elastic properties as well. I suggest watching million dollar baby and not skip ahead. The next two presentations were small breakout with Bob Alejo and Fergus Connolly. Bob was one of my favorite speakers because he did the following three things brilliantly. Gave a brief history. Shared what he did. Explained how he came to his conclusions. I felt I was back in the 1990s when strength coaches in college just shared programs and why they did things. Now it's definitions with research citations and that is ok, but we need to see how you cook not how others cook. I loved how he shared and recalled different information and it was good to see young coaches in the audience see history and appreciate what people were doing. Fergus presented and it was interesting to see who was in attendance. For example one coach was a private consultant that works with EPL players. When I brought up some players were being serviced I was poorly communicating the fact that many teams don't lift besides BOSU and some athletes use their own experts. Like the NBA private coaches exist in the EPL. I figured Fergus would talk about the unkown unknowns given his lecture, but I was trying to say too much because I respected his time and the people in front of him, but if one doesn't trust the athletes away from the facility how do you trust subjective indicators during the times you are with them? Also I do think you need to be radical in beliefs to change elite soccer as nobody wants to get people hurt lifting and so what happens nobody lifts, so all the attention is dashboards and monitoring the games but the problems are obvious. Nobody is lifting or training. The problem with pro sport it's about entertainment and now track is getting the same issues with meets in Asia and Middle east. Travel is making impairments in preparation and you can't do that at 30,000 feet. Maybe teams will get super jumbo jets and have athletes train inside the planes in 2015? I smell it brewing after seeing a blueprint influenced by one consultant. One other factor of discussion was medical data being the hardest to collect and display. Fergus believes that the US does the best job here. If that is true we are in trouble! I was very happy Fergus presented in Boston and it was much overdue. I am excited what BMSPG is going to do next year. I hope a few changes can be made to accelerate even more learning. Thanks to everyone involved and see you in 2014. Carl Valle's Blog 2013-05-21T12:32:59+00:00 http://www.elitetrack.com/blogs/details/7995/ http://www.elitetrack.com/blogs/details/7995/#When:19:47:03Z I was going to talk about Day 1 of the BSMPG conference but I frankly was not there the whole time and much better writers exist and I am burnt out of blogging I wanted to finish strong without compromise. Since every conference has VIP and pre pre conference work I simply ran out of juice before the conference began and Friday evening dinner was perhaps the most interesting. Everyone talks about how great the bar banter is or how power lunches are filled with secrets making the conference in the shadow of all of the conversation. If that was the case we would all skype and airports would be ghost towns. I will go over Saturday as I attended the entire day later. After years of wanting a serious injection of Sport Science into the BSMPG, Art Horne pulled off another blockbuster move and got Marco Cardinale. I would argue that the Genesis of my interest in Marco was the 2004 Regeneration in Sport CD that was filmed in Stockholm. That information included very progressive information at the time and if you were to survey the average coach in strength and conditioning who any of the names were you would get a glazed look. Yet still major teams and organizations are not using the best practices from the CD, and the USA is finally bringing such great speakers over thanks to Jason DeMayo and Art Horne. Nine years later we are starting to get calibrated with reality and BSMPG is leading the way. I predict a huge spike in small conferences in the future, all battling for the best line-ups and the best way to handle this is to know who can deliver. I contacted all my favorites over the last few weeks and had either NDA contracts or if they are friends a verbal yes to ensuring the best talent stays on the East Coast and in Spain. With a Malbec and unlimited steak, I sat down and discussed reality of what is going on with professional sports with a few people that are working with some starts in the NHL, MLB, NFL, and NBA. The most interesting talk I had in months included the basic fact nobody wants to talk about. Athletes are not training with their strength coach on the team. There, I said it. Anyone bring this up in conferences lately? The big boys have their own teams and network of medical professionals keeping them going. So let's talk about this. Who is working with who? That's a phone call and very off the record but a whole legion of guys are making their money working with one or more athletes and many pro athletes include their private coach in their contracts with teams. The NBA is a primary example of this. Since my main market of equipment sales is the underground private consultant wanting tools ahead of the public stuff, I wanted to share what they are doing that makes the Apollo look like Atari and how pro sports are not what people think it is. Technology and Services- One consultant has roughly a quarter million dollars of equipment and services to keep his athlete in the league. After hearing horror stories of college training, I had to validate it with some investigation. The origins of "freelance defectors" begins with college when an athlete is injured doing training that is risky without a clear purpose. Any exercise can be made dangerous if not coached properly, and after seeing a youtube montage it is clear that athletes are wising up early and understand that they are mortal. Let's be honest here, we know athletes want the latest and greatest stuff to ensure they have an edge, and equipment and tech is the easiest sell. One can get results with a rusty barbell but selling it's hard when everyone is using neurotopia and other services to get the last %. Unfortunately the first 99% is never done, but that is another story. Information- Experts are finding themselves needing to get the best and most impactful techniques and methods. The cream are supported by a network of researchers and professionals in specialties to get the most useful and effective approaches with regeneration. Training in elite sport is about keeping guys healthy during long runs and recovery. Recovery after the season must be rapid, or the offseason gains are minimal. Lot's of athletes are supported by guys to get them feeling better, and many have therapists living with them like James Harrison. The experts are no longer going to conferences but hosting their own private parties. Some invite other private coaches. I attended one session of how to evaluate adductor tears with professional football and was amazed with how so many smart people exist that never seem to known by the community. Lifestyle- Private consultants live on the road more than the athletes, since they sometimes have to fly between cities if they have athletes on different teams. Many of them are hyper fliers like the dot com era, and fedex clothes in order to keep going. I would hate to live in hotels every evening and many of them are divorced and under the ages of 35. Only one I know that is keeping this lifestyle up is above 35 and he is talking about retirement. The life is not glamorous but if you can do it for 10 years you are set for life. Be warned though, other Vampires exist and it's like the highlander, there can only be one and it's very competitive. Most are more knowledgeable than the speakers in their fields and last year I got a very rude awaking of what people are doing with electro muscle stimulation and therapy. The bar is very high but not visible, just like their reflections! I don't blog to create mystery as we all know the underworld exists in pro sports and there are guys behind guys that are behind guys. Where this leads I don't know. Perhaps a team will simply outsource private coaches completely. Carl Valle's Blog 2013-05-20T19:47:03+00:00 http://www.elitetrack.com/blogs/details/7993/ http://www.elitetrack.com/blogs/details/7993/#When:10:46:13Z The pre-conference workshop was 5:15 on Thursday and I made sure I left about an hour ahead to beat Boston traffic into Northeastern. Art has hosted the BSMPG for years and is having pre conference workshops to stimulate learning and allow great people to network. The main interest I have is seeing the cross-fertilization of ideas from different people. If we have the same cult year after year we inbreed. We need fresh ideas, even if we don't agree with the speaker. I find the best speakers share areas that I don't have experience with and while they may have different conclusions or methods, it makes me think about what areas can be explored. Three speakers spoke last night, they were Dr. Marchese, who has his own clinic up in Woburn. Fergus Connolly, a high performance advisor out of Ireland, and Val Nasedkin from Omegawave. Each session was under a half hour or so and this was not easy to do. Dr. Marchese- The dirty secret is that when an athlete isn't getting better in the Boston area and are desperate, you may go up to Woburn. I have witness several athletes fly in after seeing some very public super therapists and come back with tales of reality. Emotionally it hurts to hear after spending good money that the quality of care is so poor. The reason I think this happens is placebo. Think about it (no pun intended), if you fly to a super therapist and believe you will get better, a shotgun of massage and light exercises and of course time, people get better. Rest does help everyone get better, so we need to appreciate that nature is helping us on the backend. Dr. Marchese was interesting because he was following the WCT model of presenting, meaning bring citations and share what you do. I like the idea of handouts as I am always going to be a paper guy. His presentation ran longer than the allotted time and that is a classic error. Remember that the time we have affects the presenters behind us. Aside from that it was very similar to a typical neurological exam based on classic neuroscience and testing. The challenge here is the huge array of possible interpretations. This is why I suggest checklists and flow charts. The brain is a big area and while it's impressive, we are human and can't juggle everything in one's head. One EPL team bought an algorithm for post concussion testing to ensure athletes are lowering their risk to ACL tears and it's a glorified checklist that calculates risk into a 10% chunks. I liked the presentation but felt that the tests should have been cut in half and shown some sort of transfer to game specific results via motion capture or similar otherwise it is patient feedback and that is very subjective. Fergus Connolly- I have known Fergus for a long time and it's great to see him climb the ladder to high performance advising. If you go to his website it's a bit of a mystery but perhaps that's part of the adoption cycle of a private consultant. His presentation was sort of a inspirational powerpoint full of Ken Burn effects and great visuals. He basically gave wisdom nuggets for 25 minutes and was clearly prepared. He was polished and prepared, but my concern is the people in the audience would copy the style. I think a Garr Reynolds presentation done too much is annoying because the visuals are just pretty stock photos. With any visual it must display a lot of information if we are doing an educational presentation. Inspiration or wisdom is a different beast so you can bust out the keynote software on your mac and be stylish when telling stories or giving tidbits of help, but sharing what people should do to get athletes better should follow the Edward Tufte model. Show the data. I felt that Fergus was appropriate for last night because he was trying to get the point of getting athletes to buy in, and I hope he shares what he does Saturday in detail and not show slides with a few quotes. If one is a top consultant one has to show why, with details and data to support it. Fergus is very experienced and I am eagerly awaiting what he shares. The take home is right, get it done and results matter. Val Nasedkin-My favore slides of the night was from Omegawave as they are great models and illustrate very important concepts, such as readiness and preparedness. I hate those terms but they are good points to see when someone is ready to go training wise overall but not feeling hot that day. Unfortunately Val was using parallels on his mac and the presentation was impaired by mirroring on display mode and screen size. He used gestures to change the widow zoom but after Fergus and he was back on track. The rest of the time became a teaser for Friday's presentation and he went into training loads and general preparation. Side Note- Perhaps the most interesting discussion was between Val and Dr. Marchese when Val commented that a world class soccer player was ruined by people helping him balance on one foot. This was my favorite part of the workshop because we finally had debate. Nobody wants to loose popularity and it was a valid argument that sometimes the surgery was a success but the patient died. We need to do this in the future or it will be a big circle. Like I mentioned before, 30 years ago the ASCA conference had the Auburn researcher talk about free weights while everyone was going nuts about Nautilus and isokinetic swim benches. No stranger to controversy was Paul Bergan, one of my favorite speakers, who decided to have all three speak back to back to back to get some juices flowing. It was an epic war, with impressive 35 mm slides showing the secret research and olympic medalist data. To show that single leg squats are ruining athletes is a leap of faith. Perhaps he could have signed a huge contract and loss interest? To say cause and effect of single leg training doing magic or harm is not reality. Carl Valle's Blog 2013-05-17T10:46:13+00:00 http://www.elitetrack.com/blogs/details/7992/ http://www.elitetrack.com/blogs/details/7992/#When:14:00:08Z Yesterday afternoon I was in Hasely Crawford Stadium in Port of Spain Trinidad watching over three hundred track & field athletes of all ages train but I could have just as well been in London, Brisbane or back home in Sarasota. What I saw was a bunch of drills and exercises; it was obvious in most cases the drills were just imitations of what someone had seen on YouTube or learned at a workshop. Drills and exercises without purpose and context are nothing more than busy work, just stuff. If you use drills know the purpose of the drill. Know why you are using the drill or exercise at this time with these athletes. Just doing work and getting tired is not training. There must be a purpose and direction to everything you do to prepare the athlete for the demands of competition. Drills often get the athlete better at the drill and do not transfer to the actual event. I have learned over the years that less is more. Fewer drills and exercises done with a specific purpose that the athlete clearly understands are more effective that a bunch of stuff wishing and hoping they will work. Training with direction, intent and purpose will produce results. Vern Gambetta's Blog 2013-05-16T14:00:08+00:00 http://www.elitetrack.com/blogs/details/7990/ http://www.elitetrack.com/blogs/details/7990/#When:01:03:35Z Last weekend my track and field team brought home their 6th district plaque in 7 years. Obviously, this is a difficult task to accomplish and I couldn’t be more proud of this group. The weather has been horrible all spring with wind, rain, and lots of snow. In addition we lost a couple of our best distance runners this year/last year due to relocation out of town. Outside of track my family has been dealing with a medical crises that has tested my faith and resolve on a daily basis. A younger version of myself would have probably folded up the tents. However, we stayed the course as a program and the team has ended the season on a high note finishing second at conference and districts. I am proud of this group because they have worked hard all year by battled along side of me day in and out. The captains have been strong and my assistant coaches have been even stronger. In difficult years strong assistant coaches are a must. They can help you play good cop bad cop with the kids. In addition they can help you sell new events to your athletes making your team more diverse and giving the kids an increased chance at personal glory. As a coach it is wise not hoard all the talent in one area. You may want to make every kid a sprinter. As a sprint coach I often want to make everyone a 400 runner. However, some years you have to allow your kids to succeed in the events they are best suited for. The athletes determine their events through their performance and the coach should not force a square peg into a round hole. On the other hand as a coach you must have a realistic vision. You prepare the athlete in practice for this vision by provided them training to succeed in the event that will eventually become their specialty. This year I thought we did a great job of diversifying our line up. I believe our mission this spring was a success as we qualified all of our relays and a large number of individual events to the sectional meet. The weather at the district championship was less then ideal as the track was getting blasted by 30plus mile per hour headwinds. The kids were aware the weather could be a problem and didn’t let it affect their goal for day. The only thing that mattered to the athletes was getting top four and moving on to the sectional meet. As a coach it is your job to understand the chess match. You need to make sure the moves you make are not just for the track meet six inches in front of your face. When you set the lineup you must do your best to set up things that are the best for your kids in terms of performance, potential for state qualifying, medaling at state, and finally the team score. This year I knew 1st place was going to be out of reach at districts. Understanding the reality of second place I was not willing to stretch my kids in to multiple events if I felt it was going to hurt their chances the following week. In most cases this worked out great allowing the kids to move on to the next round and performing personally at a high level. This season has been difficult for me personally and I missed more practice time this season then I have in my eleven previous seasons combined. My amazing assistant coaches have helped and continue to battle through this with me today. They have kept the program moving forward and having a detailed plan allowed me to easily communicate (most days) what we need the kids to accomplish each practice. The overwhelming majority of the kids didn’t miss a beat by working harder than ever to honor the program, the tradition, and my family. Guest Blog, Ryan Banta's Blog 2013-05-15T01:03:35+00:00 http://www.elitetrack.com/blogs/details/7987/ http://www.elitetrack.com/blogs/details/7987/#When:13:03:52Z Mike Young did a great interview with Andreas a while ago, and I wanted to get more into detail about why I believe Andreas will be one of the new blood that will trickle down to new coaches. He is perhaps one of the most generous coaches in sharing, and he deserves all the accolades he gets now. He has paid his dues and I am one of his fans. I looked at some of the questions and can only comment on areas I see that have clear causation and wanted to expand on some of the information that I think all of us can learn from. This post is a combination of having lunch and learning, and a few follow up emails and phone calls. Much of what I have learned from coaches like Dan and Vince has resonated differently but some of it is right on. "an aggressive takeoff angle, closing down into and over the hurdle as well as continuously moving his limbs over the top of the hurdle." So what is an aggressive take off angle? I think the word choice is perfect. At first people want a number and that is fine, but the take off angle is low and into the hurdle. When in practice a floating hurdle is a survival one that is simply too fast or late. Andreas was clear that attacking the hurdle establishes a low flight and minimal air time. Continuous movement is one way to keep balanced and accelerating off the landing. If you look at the film Aries is preparing earlier, barely perceptively, than his counter parts. We are talking .001 as his arm motion has a large range that flows with his trail leg. "Since all types of hurdling is optimal acceleration/speed work, we still continue to work on maximal acceleration/speed on the flat to challenge the nervous system throughout the year." I asked this question and it has some caveats. Seven step hurdling (to the first barrier) has an enormous strain on the body and Andreas finds that much of the flat acceleration must be reduced and his program loading during the week reflects that on day one and day two. My thoughts is that this is very interesting because the amount of work by reducing one step must be enormous to make a dramatic change during some phases. After talking to a few other coaches, they agreed, and the question is how fast one is globally will dictate mesocycle timing to ensure slower hurdlers (flat speed) can grow. "We use drills with these athletes to introduce postures and movement concepts, as well as establish common language for instruction and cuing." Notice the amount of preparation before cueing. A major difference exists between Vince and Andreas versus some of the bozo performance coaches claiming magic motor change. First cuing becomes more reminder of volitional attitudinal and task demanding later, as words become minimal later. Cues exist for a reason and it's hard because some respond differently and may need different cues for the same errors during development. "Early in the year we tend to work over 4-6 hurdles with the focus being on a dynamic approach and optimal hurdling speed/rhythm, later on in the year we work in the 4-12 hurdle range with an added emphasis on rhythm endurance." The rhythm endurance workout of 12 hurdles is a staple with some coaches for good reason. Andreas times the landing off of hurdle 1 and touchdown off of hurdle 12. When he hits 11 seconds he knows Aries is ready. What I feel is that this is a balance from the Ross drill because he used overspeed with conventional heights and spacing by removing hurdles and the 12 at lower heights and tighter spaces works with cerebellum and CPG mechanisms to relax antagonists and create a feedforward loop with reflex circuits. Research shows that repetition works for the specific task for mastery. Random may help a component of a movement cycle (one hurdle) but random has limits. When I was at the USATF III school Gary Winckler was clear to address the psychological aspects of learning when failure is high, and it's far more complicated than a Wulf study or textbook. "A hurdler simply cannot open up and apply forces into the track with the range of motion that a sprinter can, due to the limited amount of space they have to work with between the hurdles." I can't comment on the methods of achieving specific strength transfer, as it may be specific to the athlete, not just the event, but shuffling may not be as easy as it looks. I was very surprised and almost excited that shuffling is work, and the language Andreas used was very explicit about power and force during shuffling. This juxtaposition of power and grace must be looked into more as several athletes interpret shuffling differently. Some like Robles and even Oliver are far different Musicians as Coach Brooks would say. This something I need to brush up on as I have not found out the underlying facets of shuffling beyond just simple suggestions. "Primarily the athlete needs to be fast and powerful. Height of the athlete is a secondary consideration." This is an area ( 7 step demands) that I need to explore. I think that because of the half step taking off at 11.5 meters or so, no athlete can do it seven without some air time changes by striding out more. If one looks at the specific block settings and acceleration pattern he became like swiss timing in 2012 with hurdle one. If one can get over hurdle one without compromise of the entire race, the speed off the hurdle does have a specific correlation to the other hurdles simply because it's harder for hurdlers and most sprinters to accelerate longer properly. Hurdles become vertical in 15 minutes and need the global ability to accelerate as skill to become world class. "In the weight room we periodically use Tendo Units to measure bar speed and power output for our Olympic lifts. For body composition data we take DEXA scans every six weeks, which lets us know if we are moving in the right direction, in terms of body fat and lean muscle mass." Get leaner and make sure one uses enough testing to ensure speed and power is being developed. I believe that DEXA scans are not rocket science, but being lean is not addressed more with some athletes. Fat doesn't fly. I hate to say this but nutrition is the hardest component to change because coaches are lazy or they realize athletes sometimes get away with things. I am interested in what information is going to be at BSMPG many coaches are trying to make nutrition a bigger part of the solution. We all know it's important to have power to weight ratio that is better, but it seems simple body composition and developing raw power is under appreciated. That is it for today. I have about three or four more posts before taking the summer off (or just stop blogging) but wanted to make sure great coaches can be shared with the track and field community more often. Note: A rumor started about Andreas using super secret Pivothead sunglasses (see photo) to video Aries and feed it back to his Dartfish workstation so he can do super analysis. This is just a joke I had and soon I saw four coaches using it at practices and asking about dropbox integration! Like my google glass post earlier, this will grow overtime as I predict it. In reality Andreas does use mobile devices and super slow motion to zero down for key positions to help benchmark growth. Carl Valle's Blog 2013-05-14T13:03:52+00:00 http://www.elitetrack.com/blogs/details/7979/ http://www.elitetrack.com/blogs/details/7979/#When:11:27:02Z Numbers are not good or evil, they simply are hosts to context. A lot of hype and commercialism now with technology and training with people monitoring and looking at player tracking data. When I was young I got a magic set when I was young and being a product of the 1980s, I thought I was going to be the next David Copperfield. I am a fan of magic still, and love seeing street magic in New York, but it's not that the hand is quicker than the eye, it's usually the art of deception is the art of misdirection. Cleaning 120 kilos is good, but if it looks dangerous and your vertical is still sub 30, perhaps the context needs to be reviewed a bit. The reason I am a fan of video analysis, is that we can see the truth behind the numbers. A raw 40 yard dash running 4.4 in the middle of training is far more impressive than the 4.39 that is after weeks of test preparation. A 37 inch vertical in the middle of a football season with huge practice loads is far more impressive than the youtube stars that only do tests as their main "sport" and pull of a 40 inch vertical with no aerobic conditioning. I am middle ground with data, I think we need more of the right kinds but I am concerned with the showboating of some scores that are more hype than help. I will go into some of my thoughts more later after finishing off my velocity table and some conversions from Boo's testing matrix. I think Boo is on to something and really believe that the right balance will be practical and very logical as well. Carl Valle's Blog 2013-05-13T11:27:02+00:00 http://www.elitetrack.com/blogs/details/7978/ http://www.elitetrack.com/blogs/details/7978/#When:23:13:16Z Just getting in hours will not do it. Anyone can go through the motions, huff and puff and look like they are working. Just doing work is not good enough; you must train with ICE – Intensity, Concentration, Effort. If you consistently achieve a high ice score eight to ten on a ten-point scale. A score of ten being frigid, ice cold then you will the workout. If you can consistently win workouts then you give yourself a chance to perform in competition, remember there are no guarantees. Champions are champions everyday, when there are no crowds, no coaches, and no teammates, just you against the clock or the weight. It is all about the will to prepare. Vern Gambetta's Blog 2013-05-12T23:13:16+00:00