March 2018 Blog Posts (12)

As I reflect over the past 49 years of coaches there were some things that were cornerstones of a productive system sport that do not exist today. I hope you all realize that I am not living in the past, but we MUST learn from the past, not repeat it.  Here are some areas that I think we could certainly look at and learn from:

Sport was centered in the schools – Therefore teachers were the coaches.…

Sports have been used for centuries to help people get to healthy bodies and keep their minds sharp. Even at the time in history when curves or even gluttony were used as a symbol of status, there was still the notion of Mens sana in corpore sano…

"A lot of things weren't firing -- his glutes, his hips, thighs," (Training Guru to the star players – name deleted to protect the guilty) told the newspaper. "I wouldn't say his condition was the most severe, I wouldn't say it was the best. ... But if I were to classify it on a scale of one to 10 with 10 being the most extreme, I'd say he was definitely in the seven, eight category." This is definitely one of my pet peeves. If those muscles were not firing how…

It can be really difficult to find motivation and actually start exercising, not just talking about it, and this stands for anyone who doesn’t live a physically active lifestyle. But for people who are overweight, it’s even tougher to get started, as exercise it not just pleasant but painful as…

A big part of effective coaching is formulating appropriate movement problems for you athletes to solve. Here are three things I consider:

• Learn when to use explicit learning or implicit learning methods – learning to balance the two is a skill.
• Learn to use constraints that will challenge the athlete and lead them to the solution…

The following is a list of some mistakes that I have made in coaching and teaching. If you learn from your mistakes I should be a genius, but unfortunately some of the lessons were only learned after I repeated of these mistakes several times. I hope that by sharing these with you, it will help you to avoid making the same mistakes I have made.

It does not have to be hard to be good - Each workout is part of a larger picture. If you put…

Here is some advice for young coaches from my experiences. I originally posted this in 2012 but it demands to be reposted. This advice reflects lessons that I learned, no need to make the same the same mistakes I made.

Why does periodization or as I prefer to call it Planned Performance Training (PPT) have to be either linear or undulating? Frankly in my application of the principles of planned performance training for 49 years I have observed that adaptation is always undulating. The body does nothing in a linear manner, so therefore all periodization is undulating. I think this distinction is just another exercise in intellectual gymnastics. You may write a linear program,…

Revised blog #51 from 1 year ago...forward thinking...I suggest for parents and coaches is the answer. #LifeMovementSkills "The A,B,C’s of Adolescent Movement Skills Development Part 2, Ch 3" #JoinTheAthleticMovementSkillsSeries http://bit.ly/2n2EzlC

It doesn't matter what your training for, the reality is that all training is specific to how and in what manner you train.  That's pretty simple right?  I prudent review of comprehensive literature supports this notion.  In this context, using exercises like barbell squats to improve sprint speed almost makes zero sense.  Why, sure barbell squats can improve leg strength, but so can a lot of other exercises.  In a very, very minimal sense barbell squats don't…

I use the heck out of notecards for just about every aspect of strength and conditioning planning.  They are compact and easy to use; however, unformatted notecards can be uninviting to use.  So, I design and format my own cards and put them in my Coach's Companion planner.  

This card is formatted for a pre-hab circuit.  Pre-hab is a very important aspect of comprehensive strength and conditioning.  In some cases,…

I like to use whiteboards when facilitating physical training.  They serve as a constructive piece of communication and can be quite an effective teaching aid.  I format my whiteboards so that session information can be coordinated in the way I want it to be facilitated.  I also like to use magnets with my mobile boards so that I can hang them up and free my hands to teach and/or demonstrate.…