Training Future Champions- better than Portsmouth FC
Now that Portsmouth have finally gone into administration, watch the media hype on this. Then follows the medal count at London 2012.But what is really important in getting our nation more healthy and active?
I wouldn't believe what the government have to say about this- they appoint ex athletes to sit on quangos and profligate the same old gravy train of funding to those who don't already need it.
(Since 1997 our towns have lost 580 hospitals and clinics, 150 swimming pools, 196 libraries, 1310 public toilets, but gained 276 lapdancing clubs, 1,270 bookmaers and 1,060 bookmakers- so it can't be that concerned about health and education, unless we are betting more on sporting events and buying more beer and crisps to watch them and generating more tax revenue)
I wouldn't rely on PE teachers at schools - they have been deskilled since the loss of the 4 year BEd course, now sports science undergraduates who don't have to do any practical work in their degree course, just do a 1 year PGCE conversion. Brilliant at lesson planning, but no idea about fundamental movement patterns. Great at ripping out old school gymnasiums which require a bit of knowledge and understanding and replacing them with "fitness suites" that cause arrested physical development due to the lack of skill and function required to sit on a leg curl machine or pec deck.
Having conducted several courses with PE teachers recently, it is frightening what they don't know: they can't skip, can't climb a rope, "burpees are dangerous" and "I run the gifted and talented porgramme for our school sports partnership but I wouldn't know where to begin on conducting a flexibility session with the kids" are 2 quotes from practicing PE Teachers in the last fortnight.
I did a training session with nursery staff this morning in Cullompton, Devon and they had inate coaching skills and understanding of unstructured play and FUN that is missing in many sports coaches and PE teachers toolbox http://www.youngonesdaynursery.co.uk/index.html
That is where the future champions are, just providing them with the envrionment and opportunity to play, run, jump and fall over is essential if we are to have any hope at all. But- there is no money involved and the MP won't get a good photo opportunity with a famous name.
Enhancing Sports Performance
www.excelsiorgroup.blogspot.com
Indian Club Swinging- a forgotten tool?
In this video http://www.youtube.com/user/excelsiorgroupsport#p/a/u/0/EAcOl5boVrc you can see an example of some Indian Club swinging exercises. At the beginningof the 20th century these were common in schools and gymnasiums around Britain. The education establishment realised that physical activity was beneficial for young people and actually improved their concentration before lessons. Now, all the wall bars, ropes, medicine balls, skipping ropes and Indian Clubs have been removed so that teenage girls can stand on a crosstrainer for 20minutes.Not exactly beneficial for athletic development.
I use Indian Clubs with athletes as either part of a warm up before weight training, or as part of the workout itself. This type of actiity is beneficial for many sports: swimming, fencing, martial arts, throwing events, racquet sports, golf and wheelchair athletes.
Time to dust them off and get using them.
Enhancing Sports Performance
www.excelsiorgroup.blogspot.com
Top 5 questions on sports fitness
Do you know what your clients want from you?I thought I did until I asked them for some feedback:
http://excelsiorgroup.blogspot.com/2009/12/your-feedback.html
I got very useful feedback on what they wanted from me, including what type of training they needed to do, what nutrition was right and what rehab exercises they needed to do.
As you become more experienced and have read or conducted more research, it is easy to forget where you started from. I think it is important to dilute this information (but not dumb down) so that your clients get what they want, not what you want to deliver.
I offered a small prize for the first 6 entrants and the questions could be things they wanted to know, or things that they are often asked themselves.
I shall now be tailoring my blog to answer a lot of them, and use the rest as additional information in my upcoming ebook.
Enhancing Sports Performance
www.excelsiorgroup.blogspot.com
Healthy Eating In the New Year- Get a head start
Why wait until the New Year to begin your healthy eating habits? You could start now and get 16 days advantage over your opponents.The secret to weight control is to keep things simple, be consistent and have some form of self disicpline.
- Simplicity- the easier it is for you to understand what it is you need to eat, the easier it is for you to buy the things at the shop, the easier it is for you to cook, prepare and carry - then the easier it is for you to maintain your healthy eating habits. Requiring you to drink bat's milk that has been pasteurised under the light of a full moon in a Venezualan monastary is not helpful if you can't buy it in Tescos.
- Consistency- healthy eating is here for the long haul. Incremental changes add up to a lot over the year. 100 calories less eating a day equals over 10lbs of fat loss over the year. There is no point doing a one month healthy eating plan and letting yourself go for the rest of the year. 100 kcals a day is easy to maintain and doesn't require Spartan levels of mental effort.
- Self-Discipline- At some point you are going to have to exercise some form of self control It may be in the supermarket when you resist the BOGOF offers on chocolate digestives, it may be when eating out at restaurants or in the school canteen, but you just can not eat what you want, when you want and hope to get away with it. If you have accessed some good menus, have planned out your weekly shop, and avoid eating when you are tired- then the self discipline becomes easier. It may be that you just have one beer instead of two, or drink one glass of wine very other night.
UK Athletics have produced a great guide to sports nutrition which is available free here:
http://www.excelsiorgroup.co.uk/papers/UKA_Eat_and_Drink_Like_A_Champion.pdf
Enhancing Sports Performance
www.excelsiorgroup.blogspot.com
Long Term Athlete Development- the clue is in the title!
Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD) is part of the cornerstone of most National Governing Bodies' coaching handbooks. Based on Istvan Balyi's research it is a model of training that allows for skill development to take place over several years, working from fun based learning with multi- lateral skill development to performance trainin gunder pressure with a high degree of specialisation.However, in practice it appears that most coaches should rename their approach to physical development "Short Term Hypertrophy Training" (STHT)! or We Must Win This Weekend (WMWTW).
This is not a complicated model, let's refer to the title again:
Long Term- this means several years, with each progressing from the last. It does not mean a 4 week off season of weights and "beasting" followed by 3 matches a week for 40 weeks of the year.
Athlete Development- speed, agility, balance, co ordination, skill, flexibility, power, strength, endurance, mental toughness, confidence are all essential parts of an "athlete". They should all be developed systematically, at the right time in conjunction with growth spurts and on an individual basis.
It is not about how much a young person can bench press or power clean, or how much weight they can put on on 6 weeks.
With 50% of young people dropping out of sport at 16 isn't it time we actually made Coaches accountable for their actions?
for more information on LTAD and a chance to use EXPERT coaches with EXPERIENCE see here:
www.excelsiorgroup.co.uk/child_latd.html
Enhancing Sports Performance
www.excelsiorgroup.blogspot.com
Free download: Handbook for Coaches of Young People
Hi,
you can download this free handbook here http://www.americancoachingacademy.com/manifesto.pdf
it may be teaching some of you to suck eggs, but there are some useful points, especially on running parent orientation meetings. There are also some useful templates in the appendices for handouts to players and parents.
For those of you who are interested in implementing some of the ideas featured and want to set up a good youth athlete development programme, contact me here: james@excelsiorgroup.co.uk
and I will happily get you started.
you can download this free handbook here http://www.americancoachingacademy.com/manifesto.pdf
it may be teaching some of you to suck eggs, but there are some useful points, especially on running parent orientation meetings. There are also some useful templates in the appendices for handouts to players and parents.
For those of you who are interested in implementing some of the ideas featured and want to set up a good youth athlete development programme, contact me here: james@excelsiorgroup.co.uk
and I will happily get you started.
Enhancing Sports Performance
www.excelsiorgroup.blogspot.com
Rugby Weight Training- Time for a change
Simon Shaw was widely quoted in the press on Wednesday, talking about the number of injuries suffered by players:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/international/england/6400017/Simon-Shaw-Shorter-season-would-reduce-injury-toll.html
About one third of the elite player squad are unavailable for selection for the Autumn Internationals due to injury. Shaw blames an excessive emphasis on "gym culture" for the injuries, with a "Jonny Wilkinson" syndrome of overtraining with not enough rest.
I agree with there not being enough rest, and I agree that there is too much emphasis on physical development at the expense of skills - just look at the number of scrums needed due to knock ons!
But the situation has developed at the Senior level due to the lack of professionalism at Junior level.
Here are a few of the problems:
Too much playing of rugby at an early age (see this post for more: http://excelsiorgroup.blogspot.com/2009/10/ltad-usa-versus-uk.html) which does not allow for physical development over time.
Instead, the players get to about 16 and are told to put on massive amounts of weight in a short time.
This leads to an over emphasis on hypertrophy, rather than athletic development, conditioning and skill rehearsal. That is why University age players tend to be chubby, stiff, unfit and less athletic than their 16 year old counterparts.
The Academies skimp on resources at the under- 16 level, so that those junior players are given poor advice ( if any) - such as "don't do any weights before 16" or "here is the programme the first team are doing- do that".
Hiring people who are still at University and offering them free kit instead of a wage, is not a recruitment policy for getting expert advice to the most vulnerable and important group of players.
The 18-21 year old player goes from 40- 50 matches a year to 10-12 and so does spend too much time in the gym. When they get to a certain size, they start to play 30 matches a season again, but do not have the underlying fitness to cope with that. They may also try to maintain certain fitness targets set by their S&C Coach which were achievable during limited playing time, but lead to breakdown during a full season.
The problem is, it is too much, too late.
Enhancing Sports Performance
www.excelsiorgroup.blogspot.com
LTAD- UK versus USA
I had the pleasure of meeting Mauro deGennaro, Director of Athletics at Hoboken High School, last week. We were talking about his schedule of training for his football team this autumn, and he was saying that they were going to be training easy in the week because of the amount of contact in the game. How many games a season do they play?9. That's right 9. His 14 year old Freshman play 9 football games a season, then move to another sport next term.
Speaking to another Coach in the UK last week, whose 14 year old son plays rugby for the school, club and district teams, he said if all the macthes go ahead, then that child will play 50 rugby matches this season.
50, that's right- FIFTY.
That is a prime example of why Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD) is just another acronym or poster presentation in a folder on a shelf somewhere in this country.
The research is out there, there are rules in place, but coaches and parents will always find a way to ignore these- until the player breaks, or quits at 16. Those that survive will then be put onto a sagittal plane hypertrophy programme and told to put on 10kg each off season (about 5 weeks currently here).
This is not some secret that no one can understand, but it does seem difficult to implement.
Why play our junior players to death, (but don't do weights under -16 because of the likelihood of injury) and then expect them to cope with a barbell lifting programme designed for adults, that reinforces all the negative movement patterns they have developed from overspecialising at a young age?
Here are some pointers for parents and coaches alike:
- Have a quick check as to whether this is happening in your governing body, club, district or school.
- Have a look at who is delivering and designing programmes for your youth athletes. Are they experienced, knowledgeable and conscientious?
- Is the programme designed for development?
- Is there a long term approach? What will your child be looking like and how they will they be moving in 3 years time?
- Will they still want to play the sport and be healthy at 18?
- Is someone co ordinating the overall plan for your child- between all sports and all teams?
Don't wait until they are broken.
Enhancing Sports Performance
www.excelsiorgroup.blogspot.com
The Case for Exercise- W.A. Pullum
Have a look at this article from 1954 : http://www.sandowplus.co.uk/Competition/Pullum/h&s1954/case.htm in which Pullum advocates the case for exercise.Despite being 55 years old, it is very relevant today. With the British National Pastime being a combination of shopping and watching sport on TV, the worsening case of youth health and adult obesity is very apparent.
Also, I was recently told that Strength and conditioning is a young profession. Well, compared to some maybe, but it definitely has not been invented in the last 10 years.
Enhancing Sports Performance
www.excelsiorgroup.blogspot.com
Ice Cream Training
You go to a conference, you see a presenter, they may do a session that leaves everyone feeling warm and fuzzy. They get invited back because the feedback was excellent, so they do another session like that. Coaches then go away and copy that session, then implement it with their athletes.Everyone feels nice and cuddly, the athletes get something different, the coaches have an easy session and the presenter pockets some cash.
I call this ice cream training. We all like ice cream, it gives us a short term warm and fuzzy feeling, and generally we eat it when we are on a break from the mundane aspects of life.
STOP- we can't subsist on this ice cream diet.
Doing one off training sessions, copied from senior athletes to junior athletes, without thought of process and context leads to activity not productivity. It is very lazy coaching and does the junior athletes a disservice. Yes, everyone temporarily feels good about each other, but in the long term it does no good.
I get worried when a coach asks me for new ideas- why has he not looked at the problems himself? If he needs input into a problem- no worries- but just new ideas for new ideas sake is dangerous.
Stop doing ice cream training and get back to your meat and potatoes.
Enhancing Sports Performance
www.excelsiorgroup.blogspot.com
