Vern Gambetta's Blog (576)

More on Prevention as the Cause

Brady wrote me the following commenting on my original post: Vern, can you explain more in detail why almost every S&C coach uses the glute/ham raise or nordic hamstring curl with their athletes? You are the first coach I have come across to go against the grain with this. I know this is the most popular exercise I see with most athletes and every coach believes it is extremely…

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Added by Vern Gambetta on May 16, 2011 at 7:52am — 2 Comments

Grit

On Saturday I was checking the schedule of authors on CSPAN book TV to see what authors would be interviewed that day. I saw a name that I recognized, Donna McAleer. So I clicked on the link next to her name and sure enough it was the same Donna McAleer that I had helped with her training 11 years ago. Donna had contacted me through a friend at US Skiing. She was training to make the 2002 Olympic team in the bobsled. She…

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Added by Vern Gambetta on May 14, 2011 at 8:01am — No Comments

When the Prevention is the Cause

According the coach Tony Dungy the most important ability an athlete can possess is availability. To be healthy and ready to play gives you a chance to be in the game and compete. Everyday I read the sports page or watch the sports news I am reminded of Dungy’s words when I see the number of athletes who are unavailable to play because of injury. I find it ironic that as our knowledge of training has grown and with the…

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Added by Vern Gambetta on May 6, 2011 at 8:13am — 3 Comments

RoutinE

Routine is doing things the same way at the same time consistently. Routine is the cornerstone of sport performance. If you observe the great ones you will always see routine. My first objective in designing a training plan is routine. Setting the time for training, the place, the personnel and the equipment necessary to get every training session off without a hitch. At certain times routine should almost border on ritual. A sound routine can be a psychological anchor for the athlete, a safety… Continue

Added by Vern Gambetta on May 3, 2011 at 6:58am — No Comments

The Carmel Swim Club Expereince

Just lik e at Starbucks at Carmel Swim Club it is about the experience. I is not about the pool or the water every swim team has that.…

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Added by Vern Gambetta on May 2, 2011 at 6:41am — No Comments

Learning to Coach - Part Six Family

It seems that when there is a major holiday I think more about my family and what family has meant to me in my life and my career. This probably should have been part one in this narrative of learning to coach because without my family, first my parents and my brother, now my wife and children coaching would be meaningless. My parents, how they raised me and where I was raised definitely molded me. They shaped my values…

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Added by Vern Gambetta on April 24, 2011 at 4:10pm — No Comments

Key Performance Indicators

Key Performance Indicators are those essential factors that determine success in you sport. It goes beyond sport demands and drills deeper into the actual physical performance parameters that must be trained to insure success in the competitive arena. Of course you must start with a through analysis of sport demands and subsequent analysis of position or event demands. Then what? You need to turn that analysis into…

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Added by Vern Gambetta on April 22, 2011 at 9:44am — No Comments

Coaching Development Pathway

Frank Dick developed this coaching development pathway that he presented at the Scottish Athletics coaching conference this past weekend. It is a clear pathway, but more importantly it is a growth process. There is no set timeline, it occurs step by step. The coach must earn their way through the pathway. (Please note: the titles are from Frank Dick, the descriptors are my own)…

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Added by Vern Gambetta on April 21, 2011 at 7:21am — No Comments

Coach Development

For thee days last Friday, Saturday and Sunday I was totally immersed in coaching development. What an expereince! Spending three days with Frank Dick, an icon in coaching brought coaching right back to the center of the athlete development process. Conversations with Frank and the presentations on the weekend at the Scottish Athletics coaching conference were a powerful and timely reaffirmation of the role of the coach.…

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Added by Vern Gambetta on April 20, 2011 at 8:24am — No Comments

Scottish Athletics

Leaving this morning for Scotland. Just a short trip to present to a conference of athletics coaches for Scottish Athletics. Really psyched for this for two reasons 1) Presenting to and hanging around track coaches brings me back to my roots. It really ignites my passion. 2) I was invited by one of my mentors Frank Dick. Looking forward to some stimulating discussions with Frank, a real pioneer and leader in coaching. My… Continue

Added by Vern Gambetta on April 14, 2011 at 7:00am — No Comments

Priorities and Choices

Designing and implementing an effective training program is always about setting priorities and making wise and prudent choices. It starts with what you are going to do. Then you need to know why you are doing it? Then how are you going to do it. And last but not least when you are going to do it… Continue

Added by Vern Gambetta on April 12, 2011 at 5:07pm — No Comments

Sacred Cows

Sacred cows are ideas and concepts passed from generation to generation of coaches that no one questions or challenges. They may have made sense at some time in the past, but are now more likely to get in the way, still they persist. Some sacred cows are so entrenched that they are actually…

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Added by Vern Gambetta on April 11, 2011 at 6:03am — No Comments

Now What?

Training is not going as expected and progress has reached a plateau. So what do you do now? Well if you have a plan then the next step is easy and logical. Look at the plan, see where you are in relation to your goal and adjust accordingly. Without a plan it is a bit more complicated. You can take a wild guess at what you should do or roll the dice but it is a real gamble and the odds are in favor of the house. Basically… Continue

Added by Vern Gambetta on April 9, 2011 at 6:34am — No Comments

Standards - Setting The Bar

I am strong believer in having a standard to measure progress and performance. In my system and training methods I set a high standard and constantly evaluate that standard based on my expectations and results. My standard is not determined by what others are doing. I can’t control what they do and I do not want to be influenced by what they do. What I hear quite often today are two concepts that are used to set the bar and… Continue

Added by Vern Gambetta on April 8, 2011 at 9:21am — No Comments

Optimizing Training

It seems there is a lot of lip service given to the concept of optimizing training, but what does it mean? It certainly is not writing the weight workout on a white board or posting the track workout on a bulletin board. I do know (learned it the hard way) that each individual athlete is unique – essentially a case study of one. So why do we persist in prescribing generic programs that assume one size fits all? I know it is… Continue

Added by Vern Gambetta on April 6, 2011 at 7:48am — 1 Comment

The Bottom Line

At the end of the training session, at the end of the training cycle is the athlete getting better? Are they making incremental progress toward their goals? Is what you are doing in training producing results in competition? How are you measuring the effect of training? What is working? How do you know? What isn’t working? How are you doing what you do? Why are you doing it? Do you have a system? Is it the system that is producing results?

Added by Vern Gambetta on April 4, 2011 at 8:24am — No Comments

Bias

Do you have a bias in training? Do you have a bias when you are evaluating an athlete? Come on, admit it, you do and I do, we all do. It may be a concious or sub consciuos. I am clearly biased toward speed. When I evaluate an athlete the first thing I look for is speed, speed of movement and speed of thought and action. When I design training everything is subservient to my bias toward speed. That has served me well at… Continue

Added by Vern Gambetta on April 3, 2011 at 9:10am — No Comments

The Box

There is no more confining place to be that the box. Don’t think outside the box, yes you heard me correctly, don’t think outside the box, get out of the box altogether. Throw away the box. I am not sure why we ever get in the box in the first place. To just think outside the box does not get you outside the box. It is too easy to go back to the warm fuzzy comfort zone of the box. Get outside the box and never go back in… Continue

Added by Vern Gambetta on April 2, 2011 at 7:22am — 1 Comment

Some of My Coaching “Classics”

I do not propose that this list is complete by any means. Rather these are books that read in the first ten to fifteen years of my career that I learned from or influenced how I coach. The list is heavily weighted toward track & field because that is where I started. As you will see there are some biographies, I think you can gain many insights into training, competing and the mindsets of champions and great coaches…

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Added by Vern Gambetta on April 1, 2011 at 7:47am — No Comments

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