Intellectual Inbreeding

When any species inbreeds the results are disastrous. For example look the European monarchies where there was continual marriage among first cousins, the result was insanity and eventual chaos in the world. I wonder if we are not doing the same thing today in strength and conditioning, athletic training and rehabilitation and even to a certain extent in sport science. If you always interact within the same group and never go outside for new ideas or are challenged with different thoughts aren?t you doing the same thing as the royal families of Europe? I see this in athletic departments, I see this in professional organizations, I have to guard against this. I always strive to go outside my field to learn, get outside my intellectual comfort zone and challenge myself with new ideas. That does not mean I have to adopt those ideas, but by being challenged, I find the challenge either makes me stronger in my beliefs or it forces me to modify or change beliefs if I find them lacking. I challenge you to do the same, get out of your comfort zone, and embrace change and new ideas. Have a context to evaluate them, if it is better than what you are doing then go with it, if not stay the course. To meet the challenges ahead we all need to look at some different paradigms. This is a different world than when I started coaching 38 years ago. I have been in denial, but kids are different, expectations are different, I know I have been rethinking how I do what I do in order to be more effective. Personally the solution for me has been to go outside my field, I encourage you to do the same.

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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.