We talk all the time about culture, but what exactly is it? Wade Gilbert defines it in his coaching book “Team culture has been defined as a pattern of shared assumptions that guides behavior . . . Culture comprises both the obvious artifacts of the team and the less obvious norms and rituals.” In other words, culture is the way we do things around here. Read more
Every coach has been there: an athlete makes a mistake and we sit down with them for the difficult post-game conversation. What you say can either make matters worse, or help them in the process of never making that mistake again. Over the past few weeks we’ve encountered some examples of how to do and not to do this. On this week’s podcast we share our approach on the topic, plus listener questions, thoughts on putting together a good team of coaches, and more. Read more
The Super Bowl is one of the world’s largest sporting events, with more than half of America tuning into the game. This year’s game was one of the most thrilling in history, with the Philadelphia Eagles scoring late to secure their first title. Behind the scenes, the Eagles are supported by head strength and conditioning coach Josh Hingst. On this week’s episode he joins us to give us a look at training in the NFL, current trends, and what the Eagles are doing to get even better. Read more
The goal of training is to get better; to choose methods that will transfer to results in your sport. In working with US Ski & Snowboard our staff was responsible for working with 10 different disciplines that had incredibly different physiological demands. Although each one might appear similar as they all take place on snow, when you dig deeper, the needs of each sport have unique differences that must be taken into account in training. Figuring out where those differences are and tailoring the training appropriately can be the difference between being on the podium or not. Read more
Testing and training go hand and glove. Evaluation through testing is an ongoing process that will determine the direction and content of training. Therefore it is important to build testing into the training plan. Read more
Arno Galmarini works with some of the top winter sport athletes in the world, but rather than being based in the mountains his gym is in the city. That requires him to be creative in defining sport-specific training solutions and even more creative in testing athlete progress towards to unique demands created by ice and snow. On this episode of the podcast Galmarini explains testing philosophy and how he integrates sports-specific testing into training. Read more
Making your training more effective starts with learning from your past experiences, both good and bad. Understanding the value of debriefing and having a process in place is therefore essential. On this episode of the GAINcast, Vern explains some best practices for debriefing based on a career of experience. Read more
For the final episode in our series of interviews from the US Ski and Snowboard Association’s Center of Excellence we sit down with the boss: high performance director Troy Taylor. Taylor discusses leading a high performance team, supporting coaches, and developing a culture across multiple sports, as well as his thoughts on various trends in training. Read more
On this week’s episode we continue to put together highlights from Vern’s recent trip to the US Ski and Snowboard Association’s Center of Excellence. Combining sport and science can be a difficult balance and guest Bill Sands joins Vern to talk about the approach that made him a pioneer in recovery and monitoring. Currently the sport technologist at the US Ski and Snowboard Association, Sands has a wide range of experience with several organizations and shares his best practices for sports science, big data, monitoring, evidence-based training and, of course, technology. Read more
Last month Vern visited the US Ski and Snowboard Association’s Center of Excellence in Park City, Utah. While there he had a chance to sit down with their performance staff to share experiences, ideas and more. This is the first in a series of episodes from his visit. In this episode Vern has a roundtable chat with coaches Mike Bahn, Tracy Fober, Tschana Schiller and Michael Bingaman. Read more
