Reap What You Sow - ELITETRACK

My father was a gardener and he was a good one. I observed that when he planted tomatoes a month or two later he harvested tomatoes. He didn’t harvest carrots after he had planted tomatoes, he got tomatoes and it took a certain amount of time for the tomatoes based on the soil, fertilizer, season of the year and water. That time varied slightly, it was never exactly the same. He just seemed to have a feel for it. One of the things that I earned early in my coaching career was that coaching wasn’t too different than what my dad did, you harvested what you planted and it took a ceratin amount of time based on different parameters.

I learned quickly that you are what you train to be. If you train slow, you will be slow. If you train for strength, chances are you will get strong. If you train for flexibility, then you will get flexible. Certainly it is appropriate and sometimes demanded that certain qualities are emphasized over other qualities. If there is a need for speed, then speed must be emphasized, but the key is to balance the training so that when speed is emphasized the other qualities are stabilized and not allowed to erode. If this is not done then the emphasis on the needed quality will be minimized and there will be a leveling effect. In essence all qualities will erode toward the mean.

The blending of the various training components is some science but it is mostly art. The objectives of training must be clear and defined. You must know the athlete. Each workout must be carefully sequenced so that one workout leads into the next. This is why they call us coach, this is coaching, and it is the difference between the short order cook and a chef at a five star restaurant. You learn to blend through practice, observation and good record keeping. You don’t learn by copying workouts of the champions off the Internet. It is a process and the process takes time. Look, listen and feel, use all your senses. Be a COACH not a trainer so that you can harvest what you plant.
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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.