December 2016 Blog Posts (19)

I try and attack new learning like a hungry lion roaming the Serengeti for his next meal.  Here are some of my favorite sources of new learning from 2016. 

Favorite  Journal Article

Blood Lactate Measurements and Analysis during Exercise: A Guide for Clinicians…

Volume is not a biomotor quality. Anyone can do more; the path to success is doing it better.

Train speed in – It is precious. Very easy to compromise by speed by doing too much

Strength as a motor quality is easy to develop and even…

It has become way too easy in the profession to accept the notion that a one size fits all training construct meets the needs for all athletes.  It has become way too easy to extend the myth that a certain group of lifts will morph athletes into powerful and explosive machines.  It has become way too easy to edge real conditioning out of team-sport training except for hyper-choreographed sprints. It has become way too easy to de-emphasize experienced coaching for…

Here are three questions to consider:

1.  What's the training environment like? 

     - Do coaches and athletes clearly know what is expected of them? 

     - Are the goals of training realistic? 

     - How does the training environment reach the broad spectrum of…

In 2016 I have read 148 books these are my choices for books of the year. I have no particular criteria. Generally if the book makes me think and stimulates good ideas or teaches me something I did not know before they make the list. The books reflect my eclectic…

My Sports and Coaching Books of the Year. Notice the placing of the Wade Gilbert book - Coaching is the foundation!…

I may be an old man but one thing I am not is old school. I will use the metaphor of the increased awareness of the quality of vinyl records. Some call them old school, but there is a reason why people who are true aficionados of music are going back to vinyl – the sound is better, you can hear rhythms and tempo that are lost on tape or on CD’s. Next month God willing I will start my forty-eighth year on this…

Try this for one week. When you go out to coach leave your cell phone and iPad in the office. Put the Go Pro away. Turn off the GPS. Watch the athlete, see how they more, how they accumulate those numbers you ponder over. Don’t measure bar speed instead watch the lift. Oh and by the way don’t forget that all training is velocity based. Put the wellness questionnaire in the drawer and greet your athletes and ask them…

Some of these things don't look like the others, at least from a human, systemic perspective.  How alike are the movements from a neural-motor perspective?  How different?  How alike are the movements from an energy cost perspective…

Everyone does stuff. What is your stuff? Where did you get that stuff? How do you if the stuff you do works? Is your stuff better than my stuff? Maybe we need to get beyond stuff and focus on the why, how and when. Vern Gambetta, Director of Good Stuff, Gambetta Sports Training Systems

The mission of the Coach Your Best podcast is to create a conversation designed to provide you with tips and strategies to help make your athletes better!







Here in part two of the series with Coach Carl Valle we discuss:

• ​What exactly does the term technology mean?
• Using technology in sports…

I spent some time this week reviewing analytics pertaining to NFL injuries. Pretty fascinating stuff.  Interestingly, it would be hard to definitively say that just because a team has a lot of injuries, their record is poor.  However, we could surmise that as injuries mount, the path to winning increasingly gets harder, especially if the injuries relate to man-games lost by starters.  This is evident in the available data up to week 13 in the NFL.…

The mission of the Coach Your Best podcast is to create a conversation designed to provide you with tips and strategies to help make your athletes better!



This episode with Coach Carl Valle does just that!



Here in part one of our conversation we talk all things 'testing and performance'…

Here are some of my thoughts on professional development:

First: I do not count time on the Internet reading training porn written by keyboard cowboys with no skin in the game, time on the Internet on sites like Ted, Seth Godin do count. They challenge you and make you think.

Second: Read books and research articles in and out of your field. Read authors that challenges your thinking. I try to read 100 books a…

I originally posted this five years ago. I think given the state of coaching today it is worth reprinting.

Frank Dick developed this coaching development pathway. It is a clear pathway, but more importantly it signifies it is a growth process. There is no set timeline; it occurs step-by-step based on mastery at each step the coach must earn their way through the pathway. (Please note: the titles are from Frank Dick, the descriptors are my…

GAIN is a community of professionals eager to learn and willing to share ideas and information. GAIN is not about more exercises, sets, reps and training methods it is about passionate people who pursue excellence with honesty, integrity and respect to make a difference in the lives of the people we coach and teach. This is the tenth year of GAIN; it started…