Every sport skill has a basic technical model that a beginner can master in a relatively short time. What is the difference then from that and the master – the Roger Federer in tennis, Usain Bolt in sprinting, Simone Biles in gymnastics or Michael Phelps in the pool? What makes them masters of their craft? Certainly, they have refined technique, that is a given. The longer I coach and the more I reflect on this I am convinced it is rhythm and tempo.
Experience(s) are important. I emphasize the plural. In my professional career that spans fifty years I have had too many people who claim thirty or forty years of experience when in reality they have had one experience thirty or forty times.
Never ever lose sight of the big picture. It is easy to get bogged down in small meaningless details and minutiae and lose sight of the ultimate objective. This is particularly the case in this age of uber specialization. Instead look for connections, step back and take a look at the rhythm, tempo and flow of the movement.
Adaptation to various training stimuli take time. You can’t force adaptation to happen faster than the athlete’s current level of trainability and physical capacity. You must be willing to go step by step.
We must recognize that coaching is a creative process. What differentiates a good from a great coach is the ability to see the same athlete, the same skill, the same movement and see what others cannot or have not seen yet.
Does it have to be a binary choice – that in training you have to do more or do less to stimulate adaptation? Ultimately the goal is to get progressively better. I find it interesting that the default usually seems to be how much more needs to be done. I seldom see the option of doing it better.
When it comes down to it, all training is core training. As we discussed on the GAINcast this week, no matter how you define it, the core is involved in all movement as a major factor in control of movement. Without a fully functioning core, efficient movement is not possible.
I received word on Saturday that Chet Diemidio, a great friend and coach had passed way. Fortunately, I was able to speak to him last Wednesday. I called him from Zurich Switzerland because I got word, he did not have many days left. His last words to me were “I love you.” Chet was an amazing man. He started coaching with the White Sox the same year I did in 1987 after a career as a Philadelphia policeman. He continued to coach up to four years ago when he was well into his eighties. Chet would get the complex between 4:30 and 5:00 am every morning to workout. He had a strict routine that he followed accompanied by the songs of Frank Sinatra played on a cassette tape recorder.
I was inspired by two events to write this post:
Functional training is training that incorporates a full spectrum of training methods, designed to elicit optimum adaptive response appropriate for the sport or activity being trained for.
