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    An “Aha!” Moment – The Javelin Dance

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    By on Vern Gambetta's Blog
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    I have told this story many times in presentations and in various podcasts. It deserves to be retold to underscore the lesson I learned many years ago and is reinforced daily in my coaching.

    One of my biggest aha moments in coaching came while studying for my masters at Stanford University in a Movement Analysis class in the fall of 1973. We had to choose a skill to analyze and do a presentation to the class. In the class there was a cohort of dance masters students that were somewhat annoying to me because they seemed to view movement differently. They asked questions that did not fit into my mechanistic reductionist view of movement. I chose to analyze two javelin throwers, the gold and silver medalists from the Munich Olympics, Lusis and Wolferman. I did my presentation; I broke each throw down joint by joint muscle by muscle. I illustrated my analysis showing super eight film frame by frame of each throw.

    The presentation went well. I opened it up to questions, and one of the dance students asked me to play the film again. So, I started playing the film again frame by frame. She said no, play it again at normal speed. Immediately, the five dance students started clapping out the rhythm of the throw. What an epiphany! There were looking at the rhythm, the flow, the tempo, they saw immediately how everything connected into what I have come to call the javelin dance.

    That class, that day opened my eyes. I quickly started looking at connections, flow of movement and rhythm. I moved away analyzing segments and look to enhance connections and coordination. Looking back that was career changing moment that influences every day I coach. It’s all a big dance!

    Vern Gambetta

    Vern Gambetta

    Director at Gambetta Sports Training Systems
    Vern is the Director of Gambetta Sports Training Systems. He has been the a conditioning coach for several MLS teams as well as the conditioning consultant to the US Men's World Cup Soccer team. Vern is the former Director of Conditioning for the Chicago White Sox and New York Mets. He has lectured and conducted clinics in Canada, Japan, Australia and Europe and has authored six books and over one hundred articles related to coaching and sport performance in a variety of sports. He has a BA in teaching with a coaching minor and an MA in Education with an emphasis in physical education from Stanford University.
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