Chinese Bamboo Tree and Coaching

When it comes to coaching, I often talk about building your coaching skills. Many people in our profession today are self proclaimed experts. These gurus are great at marketing, but haven't actually developed their coaching skills in the trenches with real athletes, but they're still happy to tell you how to do it.

This year I will be turning 40 and I am really looking forward to it. With the New Year, it’s been a time of reflection and I’ve been thinking about where am I actually heading, where do I want to go now, and what do I have to do to get there?

True sports performance coaching isn't just about results today, its about developing complete athletes. When it comes to developing speed, whether its young athletes or pros, it takes consistent, quality work, to bring about change.

Some years ago, I heard this story about how Chinese Bamboo Trees grow. I thought it was very insightful and really underlined much of what I believe about developing both coaches and athletes.

“Energy and persistence alter all things.” - Benjamin Franklin

1st Year - You plant a bamboo seedling and give it proper sunlight, water, nourishment and in the first year except for a tiny sprout, there is no growth.

2nd Year - During the second year you care for the bamboo in the same way. You give it constant attention, watering, sunlight and maybe you even throw in some praying, but still the bamboo does not grow. You were told it might take a while to grow, so you keep soldiering on.

3rd year - Another year goes by. You give the bamboo the same love and care. You keep giving it the best fertilizer, sunlight, water, but again much to your amazement, nothing happens. You start asking yourself, why isn’t this thing growing? It’s at this time many people just throw their hands up and give up, but no that’s not you. But how discouraging is it that you’ve waited patiently and cared for this bamboo only to have nothing happen?

4th Year - During the 4th year, you care for it, fertilize it, and give it proper sunlight. You take a look around the garden and realize that all the other plants are blooming and teeming with life and vibrancy. But your poor bamboo seed has nothing to show for. For four whole years, you’ve been patient and truly tried to help this seed grow. Except for a tiny sprout, your bamboo is no bigger than it was during the first year.

5th Year - It is not till sometime in the fifth year the bamboo tree will start to grow. And when it decides to grow, what happens in the next 4-6 weeks is astonishing. The tiny bamboo sprout you cared for will grow as much as 3 feet in a day until it reaches as high as 90 feet. Many people see this success and think its amazing for a tree to grow like this in 4-6 weeks. It didn't, it took 5 years of persistence plus 4-6 weeks.

While in the first through fourth years, the plant was not growing above ground, it was actually growing below ground. It was developing miles of its intricate root system which would eventually help propel its massive upward growth in year five. The bamboos’ intricate root structure takes four years to prepare itself for the growth it will experience in its 5th year.

Becoming a great coach is very much like the growth of the bamboo tree. You can do everything seemingly right, but still not have the recognition of the internet gurus, or the coach from the winning team, or the big pro job you want. Just remember, although you may not be growing above ground, you just might be developing your root system. The system of art and science of being a great coach. Hopefully it will one day ultimately propel your growth. Keep persistent and never give up.

Motor Control Theory

I spoke yesterday at the NSCA Sport Specific Conference on Sprint Technique and its relevance to teamsports. One of the key topics for this which I bought up was motor control theory. It generated the most questions after the session and Dynamic Systems Theory was new to most.

If we step back and look at kinesiology education in the US, motor control is often just a side note or after thought. That which is covered is still generally based on the idea of a general motor program and schema theory. Every coach does need tolern this, but it is not up to date and does not answer many of the complexities we encounter dealing with team sports and human movement.

I was fortunate to have a biomechanics instructor in grad school who introduced me to the other theories. Then another stroke of luck was finding an old book when browsing through one of my favorite sections in the library. The Co-ordination and Regulation of Movements by N.A. Bernstein. This book opened my eyes. It lead me to a much larger view of motor control, and provided an answer tomany of the short comings in GMP theory that just didn't explain what I saw going on in sport training. Progress in Motor Control, Volume One: Bernstein's Traditions in Movement Studies
by Mark Latash from Penn State is another great one to bring it more up to date.


If you are involved in coaching speed and agility to athletes in any way, you need to have a personal understandingofmotor control theory. If you don't, how can you justify what you are doing? While will those drills matter and how will they transfer to performance?

I am going to go more into motor control in comingposts and it will be the topic of a ceu webinar in March. This article on SPORTSCI.ORG is a good starting point to get introduced in the mean time.

Technique problem?

Today we did initial evaluations for 6 new athletes in our NFL Draft prep program. Part of this process is the video analysis of their sprinting technique, which is coupled with the battery of screening and physiological tests.

In one case, Ihave a realtively powerful athlete, but his 10 yd split is slower than expected. As I look at the video analysis I can see he is not getting enough flexion in the hip to drive his thigh so that its atleast 90 degrees from the torso. Is this a technique problem? Maybe he has developed a very short choppy stride and thats his movement pattern.

Maybe, but on further review, I find his hip flexors are very tight along with his hamstrings. By getting hip extension when pushing back, he has tilted the pelvis forward because of the tight hip flexors. That with the lack of range in his hamstrings, along with only OK core stability, put us in a situation of an athlete who is not getting the stride length he should.

Having seen this many times before, I have prescribed so specific hip mobility and core stability drills. In this athletes case, this alone may improve his speed. Its a case where changing some of the physiological parameters, will impact the technique.

Coaching is an Art

Yes it is. It requires a basis of science to be applied, but that science is useless without the artfullness to apply it. Coaching isn't about writing a program and analyzing needs. Its how you interact with the athlete, choose what to act on in the coaching moment, and the manner in which you do it.

Much like any artists, all of the best coaches I know have been influenced by other masters before them. Some have apprenticed with years of working directly with, and studying, a more experienced coach. Others, such as myself, had to seek out various mentors and do intensive study of methods. This includes looking beyond the confines of speed or strength, but looking to coaches in many realms.

Another element of becoming a great artist is practice. The reading, studying, listening, and all else is great, but it has to be practiced. That means coaching. In todays age of internet gurus, seminars, and dvds, there are far to many of them that are great at marketing and talking about coaching, the problem is they haven't done enough to master their art. Choose your mentors carefully, and above all else seek some out!