Vern Gambetta's Blog – March 2011 Archive (28)

Historic Literacy/The Classics

As part of my education I studied the classics. I read Homer’s Iliad and the Odyssey. I studied Shakespeare’s plays and read his sonnets. I read Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer f… Continue

Added by Vern Gambetta on March 31, 2011 at 6:04am — No Comments

Some More on ACL Injury Prevention

I thought I would share with you several pictures of my athletes doing what I consider essential exercises the female athlete must do for lower extremity injury prevention. This is in not intended as a comprehensive list, that is for another time and place. Consider it a snapshot of some of the movements that must be done. All of these movements are never presented to the athletes as “injury prevention”, they are woven…

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Added by Vern Gambetta on March 30, 2011 at 9:22am — No Comments

Specialization in Coaching

We certainly do live in an age of specialization in all fields of endeavor. I would argue that in coaching, specialization is a negative not a positive trend. I look at the coaches who have mentored me and great coaches I been around during my career. They were all generalists. Even though they were very successful in their chosen sport and discipline within the sport; most coached multiple sports or multiple areas at a… Continue

Added by Vern Gambetta on March 29, 2011 at 6:57am — No Comments

ACL Tears in Female Athletes - The Problem & Some Solutions

This article http://nyti.ms/hUy9pi and some of the information (misinformation) in article in Sunday New York Times sports page is disturbing. The topic of the female athlete and ACL injuries is complex and sometimes controversial. It is a real problem and a crisis given the economic and human cost.…

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Added by Vern Gambetta on March 28, 2011 at 6:40am — 1 Comment

Learning to Caoch - Part Five

The UCSB Track

What a place the UCSB track was in the 70’s. Sam Adams, the head coach at UCSB had an open door policy as far as allowing non-collegians to train. There was a thriving community of decathletes training there attracted by then world record holder Bill Toomey. Hansreudi Kunz was a Swiss…

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Added by Vern Gambetta on March 25, 2011 at 7:59am — No Comments

Heart Rate/Smart Rate

Sarasota Florida where I live is an area rich in circus tradition. Many circuses and circus performers still winter here. When I read all the nonsense regarding heart rate monitoring and it’s various permutations I am reminded of the carnival barker at the sideshow here at the circus. Just imagine that we are at the strength and conditioning circus walking around looking at all the freaks when you hear the side show barker… Continue

Added by Vern Gambetta on March 24, 2011 at 7:12am — No Comments

You Can't Hurry Love or Training

I don’t mean to be disrespectful by taking some lines from the great Supremes song and reinterpreting them, but that song speaks volumes about training the athlete. Here are some lyrics of the song as the Supremes sang them. You remember momma said:

You can't hurry love

No, you just have to wait

She said to…

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Added by Vern Gambetta on March 23, 2011 at 6:01am — No Comments

Eat Your Spinach

Spinach is good for you or so I have been told. When I was kid I was constantly admonished by my mom to eat my spinach so I could have muscles like Popeye, but I didn’t like spinach, I did not like the taste of it. I tried closing my eyes and holding my nose, that didn’t work. I tried mixing it up with stuff on plate that I liked but that did not make it any more palatable. Finally my mom gave up and we all moved on.…

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Added by Vern Gambetta on March 22, 2011 at 8:36am — No Comments

Learning to Coach – Part Four

UCSB Fall 1968/ Spring 1969 & La Cumbre Junior High 1969 to 1973

I was fortunate to walk into a new program at UCSB, a minor in coaching. I was the first graduate of the program, mainly because my classes as a PE minor at Fresno State carried over. It was a very innovative program and looking back a very…

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Added by Vern Gambetta on March 21, 2011 at 5:38am — No Comments

Learning to Caoch - Part Three

Fresno State Spring Semester 68

In the fall I completed all the classes for my major – Social Science with an emphasis in Latin American history so in the spring I turned my attention to my minor in Physical Education. I had decided I wanted to coach and teach, but I was still a little unsure what I was going…

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Added by Vern Gambetta on March 20, 2011 at 10:41am — 1 Comment

Learning to Caoch - Part Two

Fresno State Fall 1967- 68

On Saturday night I was starting at guard for our first game of the season versus Santa Clara. On Monday I quite football, I was tired of getting yelled at and beat up physically, I saw no future there. By Thursday I was working in the afternoons after class (1:00 to 5:00) in the Ag unit. Ag as in…

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Added by Vern Gambetta on March 19, 2011 at 8:22am — No Comments

Learning to Coach – Part One

In the next few posts I am going to share with you the people, events and even places that taught me about coaching and inspired me to coach. My first major influence came fairly early, his name was Charles Kuehl, my high school basketball coach and history teacher. As I look back through the prism of time I realize how much he taught me about discipline, drive, determination, organization and most importantly coaching…

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Added by Vern Gambetta on March 18, 2011 at 7:59am — No Comments

More on Progression

It is not where your start that counts, it is where you finish. That cliché’ underscores the need for progression. There is a mistaken notion that everyone needs to start at step one in a progression. That is a mistake I have made and see people to continue to make. You need to determine where the individual athlete starts based on their ability and their physical competency. Some will have to start at step one and others… Continue

Added by Vern Gambetta on March 17, 2011 at 7:26am — No Comments

The Big "P"

The big “P” is PROGRESSION. Everyone gives it lip service, but do we really understand and apply this key principle of training? My experience is that perhaps the most often violated & most misunderstood training principle is PROGRESSION. What are your progressions? You simply don't progress to next stage until mastery of present stage is achieved. You must methodically proceed step by step. It takes both time &… Continue

Added by Vern Gambetta on March 16, 2011 at 9:25am — No Comments

Get Out From Under the Bar

Raise the bar; don’t be limited by a bar. Don’t lock yourself in; don’t think weight training, rather think conceptually as resistance training or strength training. Olympic lifting, power Lifting and bodybuilding are all methods of strength training as well competitive sports. This is not a diatribe against lifting; rather it is a plea to be sensible in your approach to strength training. To be a complete athlete you must… Continue

Added by Vern Gambetta on March 15, 2011 at 5:55am — 1 Comment

Coaching Advice from Tina Fey

Yes that Tina Fey, the Tina Fey of Saturday Night Live fame, I will look anywhere for coaching advice and some times you find where least expect it. I was reading an article she wrote in the March 14 issue of New Yorker called “Lessons From Late Night.” Here are her thoughts in italics and my coaching interpretations following:…

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Added by Vern Gambetta on March 14, 2011 at 7:00am — 1 Comment

Matters of Coaching and Coaching Matters

Coaching as a profession has many dimensions. There are the tangibles, those things relating directly to coaching a training session, organizing a team and there are the intangibles, the “squishy” feeling type of things. The former I call the Matters of Coaching, the later is the Coaching Matters. Both are important, without Coaching Matters…

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Added by Vern Gambetta on March 13, 2011 at 10:16am — No Comments

Rumblings and Ramblings

The following are just some random thoughts stimulated by conversations, things I have done and reading over the past several weeks.

Sometimes I look at training programs and I have to ask – What exactly are they trying to do? I saw a training program the other day that had so much “stuff” in it I could not…

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Added by Vern Gambetta on March 11, 2011 at 5:12am — No Comments

Think Critically

Don’t just blindly follow the current flavor of the month. Here comes the latest and greatest __________, you fill in the blanks. It could be a piece of equipment, a new monitoring device, a nutritional supplement or secret combination of sets and reps discovered in a Russian KGB vault. Take a step back and be rational, don’t buy into the marketing hype, apply rigorous critical thought to the supposed new information or… Continue

Added by Vern Gambetta on March 10, 2011 at 5:39am — No Comments

Accountability, Measurement and Metrics

How do you know that what you are doing in training is doing what you think it is doing? Is what you doing making the athletes better? How do you know that? What metrics do you use? Does what you are counting count? What do you measure, day-to-day, week-to-week, month-to-month and year-to-year? What do you do with the data? These are all questions you need to ask yourself. More importatly these are questions you need to…

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Added by Vern Gambetta on March 9, 2011 at 6:54am — 2 Comments