One Workout

"You achieve this by having clearly defined training goals, a sound plan to achieve those goals, a thorough knowledge of the athletes physical capabilities and specific competitive goals. Remember one workout cannot make an athlete, but one workout can break an athlete. "  from Vern Ganbetta's blog.

That last line is crucial and one that many coaches haven't learned.  This is especially true of young coaches.  One of the common characteristics of those that become performance coaches, is that they believe in pushing an athlete forward to become the best they can be.  We believe in training to improve performance. 

In contrast to that, are those that come initially from a sports medicine world.  ATCs, PTs, DCs,  and then get involved in training athletes.  They come from a perspective of training to not get hurt.  Nothing wrong with this perspective, just a different one. 

As a young coach, the time I spent training as an ATC and working in sports medicine settings helped me immensely.  I still want to strive for being our best, but I have learned to temper that into a broader, longer term view for success.

When the pendulum and perspective swing too far one way or the other, its the athlete that loses out.  I think that having an environment where coaches and sports medicine staff interact, have respect and understand each others perpsective and realm, is when we have the best team for an athlete.