The Cure for Training Snake Oil: Context and Results!

Lets cut the bullshit. Biomechanics, motor control and motor learning are very difficult areas of study, let alone trying to address them all together practicality with athletes.

It’s hard for a coach NOT to get confused with all of the information that’s out there on these subjects; some people believe that general movement patterns are the starting point when working with athletes. Some believe that we should look at what babies do and start there. Then you hear some people say that you should only care about what the athletes have to do on the field, and not care about “general” problems.

Others ague that there is no such thing as perfect mechanics, while others are always working on mastering running, cutting, jumping and deceleration techniques. Another camp tells you that using analogies and external focus will yield the best results as opposed to internal focus and feelings. Other people will tell you that you should let your athletes discover the best movement patterns rather than trying to coach them up.

Left brain vs Right brain, Forebrain vs Hind brain, Hard skill & Soft skill, organismic – environmental – task constraints, Internal vs. External focus, Intrinsic – Augmented feedback, open & closed loop, lead – discovery learning, contextual – Proactive – Retroactive interference, part – whole practice, blocked vs. random practice, Identical elemental theory, Dynamical Systems theory, Hierarchical theories, Transfer of learning; FML, it’s enough to make your head spin!

It is with my humble opinion that with just everything thing in our industry the answer is always going to be…

IT DEPENDS

What are we trying to improve? What are we trying to fix? What are we trying to learn? What is it that we are trying to teach? Is this a new skill? An old skill? A tweak to a skill? Who is the athlete that is trying to learn? How do they learn best?

Let’s please give some context to situation(s) here!

The reason there are so many theories, means and methods of Perception, motor control and motor learning is because THEY ALL WORK! No one theory solves all movement issues and no one motor learning method teaches/solves and helps with all movements.

Take the work being done by Nick Winkleman for instance; he is doing work in regards to using and teaching external focus/queuing and showing how it is leading to improvements in execution of movement skills. I am not in any position to argue for or against his results as I believe results can speak louder than science.

However, I know for a fact that there are Olympic coaches that use both internal & external queuing / focus with their Olympic athletes and they have won Gold Medals. Are these coaches wrong and is Nick right? Is Nick wrong and these coaches right? It all works!!!! You just need to find what works best for your situation and your athletes.

I also don’t understand how we as a industry can’t ask the seemingly simple question: what were your results?

Asking a coach for what their before and after results is almost like asking how much money a year they make? Or how many times a week do you have sex? I think this is one of, if not the first question we should be asking, AND THEN let’s talk theory and everything else!

If a coach is afraid to discuss results, then that, to me, means they aren’t getting any. You can talk about theories and methods if you can’t apply those to get results.

I do believe however that some of the blame to be placed on the fact that there is no context sometimes when we talk about results. Some coaches think results are improvements in bench, squat, cleans. Some believe it is in jump testing. Some believe it is force plate measurements. Some in movement screens. Some believe in just wins and losses.

I fall under the school of thought of results meaning whatever cuts the check. If wins and losses is most important, or speed is most important, then those are what we are calling results. Wining championships, getting scholarships, winning medals and being paid professionally is the biggest check cutting things an athlete can do.

Please be weary of anyone trying to sell / push one way of doing things without providing CONTEXT and RESULTS!

Ok…I have calmed down now and in reference to my dear friends old website, I will get off of my soapbox. (miss you Bob)

About Jeff Moyer

moyer Jeff Moyer is the owner of Dynamic Correspondence Sports Training, whose motto is, “We Build Better Athletes.” At DC Sports Training, athletes work on the physical, mental and visual aspects to the sports. Their goal is to deliver the athletes of the greater Pittsburgh area the highest, most efficient results year after year of training with us. We will exhaust our means in order for our athletes to achieve the highest results, and to create a system model that will develop our athletes both physically and intellectually. Education must be the road to which will help us set this standard. Our results will be the vehicle which to drive us.

Jeff graduated in 2004 from Hartwick College where he was a two sport athlete (Football & Track & Field). Jeff has been a sport coach (Basketball & Football) at the youth, JV, Varsity and College level for football for over 10years. Jeff has been in the strength and conditioning industry for over a decade, having worked in the medical, private, team, high school and collegiate settings, training clients from youth development, to rehabilitation and sport performance.

Jeff has a relentless passion for all things physical preparation. His pedagogy is heavily influenced by Eastern Bloc sport science, while apprenticing under Dr. Michael Yessis and Yosef Johnson of Ultimate Athlete Concepts. Jeff has also been fortunate enough to extensively study with and work with Dr. Natalia Verkhoshansky, Mike Woicik of the Dallas Cowboys, Louie Simmons of Westside Barbell and Fellowship under Dave Tate of EliteFTS.

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