Looking at the Landscape

In athletic development certainly we are not going where no one else has gone before, we are not sailing uncharted waters, the path is clear, and the destination is obvious. That begs the question then, why with all we know and the supposed progress we have made are results so inconsistent. Why are preventable injuries at levels never seen before in sport? Do we need to take a different approach?

To answer these questions we must take a long look at what got us to this point. Look back at what worked in the past. Look at those people who are producing consistent reproducible results. We need direction, definition and leadership, not more marketing and hype. We need to recognize and acknowledge the problems and address them with concrete solutions. To achieve this we need to shift the focus back on people, not facilities, equipment training methods and gathering data. Coaching is a people profession, not algorithms and numbers it is people working with people to raise performance levels. We must do everything possible to raise the standard of coaching. I hope this stimulates you to get on board and help me to define the field of athletic development. We can change and we must change or we will go the way of the dinosaur. I implore you to get out of the weight room or the lab and go out and work to build highly adaptable athletes that can thrive in the competitive arena. I have said it before and will say it again great coaching is not high tech it is high touch.