Keep An Open Mind

It's been a busy couple of weeks so haven't posted much, but a lot of thought going on. This past weekend I spoke at Robert Dos Remedios' Cougar Strength Clinic. I was pleased to speak with a line-up that included Alwynn Cosgrove, Chad Waterbury, Greg Vandermade and Valerie Waters.

Now the last person there didn't appeal to me because Valerie is one of the top Hollywood fitness trainers. It's just not my scene. I like things built on performance and reality.

The discussion over getting a "red carpet" look just didn't seem interesting. However, I try to keep an open mind. One of the things I preach to my staff all the time is that if someone is having success, there is something to learn from them. Why are they successful?

Well two of Valerie's key points for her success, work for sports coaches as well in many cases.

First, she talked about listening to clients and hearing what THEY want. LISTEN. Yes, this seems obvious, but many of us violate this regularly. It's not a question of what we think they need or what would be best, but what THEY want. In her case its about actresses telling her they don't want to be bulky and that they want "long lean muscles". She needs to listen to this and acknowledge it.

Coaches need to do the same. When the player comes in and says "I don't want to hurt my back squatting". Listen. You may think squats are the entire key to success, but you better spend time listening, and acknowledging this concern.

Her second rule was to speak the clients language. Its so true for sports. It doesn't matter if you are the best technical speed coach in the world if you can't get your athletes trust. Speaking their language helps to both get their trust and to communicate your points.

If you are going to work with athletes from a certain sport, learn the language. There's a time to speak technically and with the proper scientific jargon, but it doesn't always help get your message across to the athlete or sport coach.

It was a great reminder that you never know where you will learn something so keep your mind open.

Mechanics

Communication. Most coaches you ask will tell it is they are critical.

Many are also terrible at it.

One of the places this shows up is in the terms we use to describe sport and training. Don’t believe it. Go look at many arguments in sports performance or coaching forums online and you’ll see there is a lot of mis-use and disagreement about terms.

A recent series of forum posts on EliteTrack.com helped point out a common one in coaching speed. Coaches readily jump into discussions and arguments about mechanics, but often, are not talking about the same thing and can’t give the same definition of mechanics.

MECHANICS DEFINED
Mechanics (Greek Μηχανική) is the branch of physics concerned with the behaviour of physical bodies when subjected to forces or displacements, and the subsequent effect of the bodies on their environment.

me•chan•ics (m -k n ks) n.
1. (used with a sing. verb) The branch of physics that is concerned with the analysis of the action of forces on matter or material systems.

me•chan•ics
Pronunciation: \mi-ˈka-niks\ Function: noun plural but singular or plural in construction Date: 1612
1 : a branch of physical science that deals with energy and forces and their effect on bodies

One of the clear things from these definitions is the connections between forces and their effect on objects (in our case humans). It involves both the kinetics and the kinematics.

KINETICS and KINEMATICS
When a lot of coaches talk mechanics or technique, WHAT they are really focused on is kinematics. The positions and motions observable to their eyes. Its easy to see how this happens; after all, your eyes are the tool you always have with and use while coaching. Early on it was easy to start using still sequence photos to analyze “mechanics”, then film, and now access to video is instant and everywhere.

Don’t forget however, that there are forces acting that create the motion and motion that is creating forces. They are there, if you don't have a force plate with you. They go together and true “mechanics” involves both. If you are only thinking about one or the other, you’re only half coaching your athlete.

Just Run

There it was again. That amazing coaching technique being used before my eyes. I have seen more times than I can count, but I am still amazed at times.

The coaching strategy yell at your athletes to run faster. It is packaged with cues such as;
"Let's push harder on this one"
"GO,GO, GO!!!!!!!!!"

When an athlete genuinely asked the coach to explain a cue the coach used since it was so ambiguous, the coach replied "Don't worry, JUST RUN!"

This coaching style is usually mixed with the justification along the lines of "good athletes will figure out how to do it." "They don't need to learn technique, they just need to push harder and they will get it on their own."

Seriously?
#$%^*&#%$%@#%$@%$!!!

There are different arguments that can be made for guided learning instead of a rigid technical model. I'm all for that. I respect different approaches to coaching. BUT THAT CRAP I SAW ISN'T COACHING.

Be a coach. Teach, get a training effect, and have a philosophy and plan. If your idea is JUST RUN!, get out of this field now.

Taking Credit

Its NFL Draft time and that means we get to see who is taking credit. I think it was a few years ago in a blog post, Vern Gambetta joked that with all the sports performance centers getting into Combine training we should start slapping logos on the players in the 40 like a NASCAR race.

The sports performance field is notorious for taking credit. Coaches take lots of credit when their athletes do well. Its seldom they take as much credit(blame) for those that don't do as well. The lists of "we trained the top this or the fastest this at the combine, and we had the top picks" are endless. It gets nauseating.

My coaches and I put a lot into our athletes, and we are proud of the guys that trained hard, stay focused and had the best performance at the Combine and their college pro days.


We had 12 players drafted and 5 of our guys selected in the first round; Mark Sanchez, BJ Raji, Clay Matthews, Donald Brown, and Eric Wood. I'm happy for them and genuinely like each of these guys. They all are talented AND worked to be their best.

But so did a bunch of guys that didn't get drafted at all! I'm proud of them also. Some guys get drafted and don't put any worthwhile effort into their training. These three things; quality coaching & training, quality athlete effort, and high draft position, aren't always related. You can't control the talent you get to coach, the question is; what do you do with it?

There are private coaches and college coaches out there that will never get the credit they are due. We didn't do it in 3 months of training. Those players have been training for years with many coaches that have helped them lay all the ground work. The player puts in the effort. We try to coach them and guide them so that they can perform their best. Coaching is giving your athletes the best possible chance and optimizing the athletes abilities. Our guys all PR'd at the Combine, so whether they were first or last, I am happy with the results.