Coaches and Coaching

What are faults and flaws in an athletes movement skills and what is their movement signature that gives the athlete their athletic identity? Each individual has a unique individual way that they solve movement problems. It can be as simple as running gait or as complex as pitching a baseball, individuals can achieve the same result while looking quite different doing it.

So the question is what should you coach and what you should leave alone? Today I am not as quick to intervene or to try to change a movement pattern as I was earlier in my coaching career. I learned the hard way that cloning movements created robots, it took away instincts and didn’t allow the athlete to solve movement problems effectively. I have progressions that I use to teach movement skills. Those progressions have evolved and are adaptable to the situation and the athlete. Those progressions go from programmed and rehearsed and progress to random and chaotic. The steps in the progression are based on observation as to how they solve the increasingly complex problems I present to them. Different athletes progress at different rates and they look different doing it. That is the art of coaching. I coach what I need to coach to help the athlete achieve proficiency and enhance their physical literacy. If it looks connected and coordinated then it is right for that athlete. As coaches we need to give the athletes the tools to express their athleticism and then let them go with it.
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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.