“When you’re on top of your game, change your game”
– James Kerr in “Legacy”
2015 was an incredible ride, and it’s amazing to think of how I’ve changed as a coach and person. As coaches, and subsequently, teachers, one of the best things that we can all do is regularly reflect on what we’ve learned, and how we can do what we do better each and every year.
My life is in a different place now than I ever would have expected, but I’m loving every minute of it. Just 4 years ago, I was a college track coach. 1 year ago, I was a strength coach for track, doing everything I could to learn about a sport somewhat new to me I was also working with, swimming. Now I’m doing strength training for aquatic teams, as well as Olympic swimmers, and only working with track (in person) in the arena of coaching 10-14 year olds. The high jump bar my college athletes used to stand there and flop over is considered a stellar jump for a young athlete. It’s a serious domain change, but a great one at that.
I thought for a long time that my destiny was to be a NCAA D1 track coach, “world renowned” for my “incredible” training schemes and ideas. Now days, I don’t care too much if that ends up ever being the case or not. Coaching track ultimately was more about my own recognition (via my athletes performance), and me being the all-star than anything else (unfortunately). Right now, I have athletes in a variety of ages and sports that I’m able to make a difference for every day, and learning the motor learning ideals behind coaching aquatic athletes has also made me a better track, and overall sports performance, coach.
This shift in my coaching life was highlighted to me when I came across the following quote, which I also led off this article with:
“When you’re on top of your game, change your game”
How many musicians have you known who have crashed, burned and fizzled because they could never re-invent themselves? You know there is a reason that so many people seem to have an un-dying hatred for bands like Nickelback (I don’t think they are all that bad though, curse me if you will).
As an athlete, coach, and person, it rings true that you can’t sit in the same place, and keep doing the same thing forever. That being said, I’d like to share with you, the top coaching concepts and lessons that have changed my own game in 2015.
4 Coaching Concepts Learned in 2015
Concept 1. Activation and MAT
My coaching world was pretty well flipped in February of 2015 when I attended a Douglas Heel level 1 seminar in Chicago, where I was exposed to the world of “Activation”. What I found was that not all movements are created the same. Two athletes can sprint across the football field, one driving initially from his glutes and hip flexors, and the other driving initially from the low back, rectus femoris and hamstrings. The athlete who can drive from his or her center will be faster, and more injury free than their competitors who compensate their way through sport.
“Activation” is all about methods and means to restore function and contractility to the phasic muscles of the body. I’ve seen it work wonders for track and field competitors, as well as yielding better movement and performance in swimmers and tennis players. In my own experience, I probably put 15mph on my fastball instantly, 2” on my vertical jump, and took a few tenths off of my 40-yard dash. If I end up coaching track again, I won’t let athletes compete without being “activated”.
I also discovered that feeling of being “sluggish”, or “over-trained” is largely due to phasic muscles (such as the glutes) shutting down, and the body being forced to over-compensate with hamstrings and lower back. This shift to secondary muscles always “feels” (and is) slower than the way the body is supposed to function, and when athletes are activated, it is amazing in not only the change in performance, but also the way that their body and movements feel.
My experience with Douglas Heel brought me to also discover the world of MAT (Muscle Activation Techniques), where I learned a broad array of specific muscle testing, and found even more tools and perspective in my activation toolbox.
A great byproduct that came from these experiences was finding the “expectation” effect of the human nervous system. Basically, if you properly test a weak muscle, the brain will “expect” things to get better when you perform an intervention. I’ve seen this idea before by MLM peons trying to sell suckers things like Smart-Water, showing them how it will “instantly” improve their balance in one minute. See the Andreo Spina video below:
To many, the above video is a nice excuse to write off something you don’t know much about, and therefore fear learning more about. It is unfortunate for millions of athletes out there that this is the case.
Although many will make this out to think that Activation is entirely in the mind (in a sense it is), I can tell you that knowing the full system of Activation is much more powerful than assigning random therapy points in response to muscle weakness.
Even if activation leans heavily on the placebo/expectation effect, it still works. Personally, I strongly believe that there is something significant to the various Heel activation points, as sensitivity to the various points is heavily correlated to dysfunction in a related body area. While you can improve joint range of motion or muscle strength by pressing on random areas of the body after testing a muscle, the process is much more effective and powerful when you have an organized system behind it.
Concept 2. Adventures in Coordination and Motor Learning
I really enjoy one of Dan John’s ideas on how many times in life, our best performances happened when our training was quite random, and where we just rolled with the punches and somehow attained great feats of power, strength and explosiveness. At some point, we try to put our training into a hyper-focused, and overly strategized funnel (typically oriented towards building maximal strength), much of our power and responsiveness fades, but why?
Much of this is due to the failure to be presented with new motor learning “puzzles to be solved”. All explosive athletic performances are largely the result of not what we would directly define “strength”, but rather muscle coordination. What we often don’t understand is that the effect of the weightroom, plyometrics, medicine balls, and the like have on jumping, sprinting, and athletic expression is on a muscle coordination level, even more-so than things like “specific hypertrophy”.
I bought Frans Bosch’s book “Strength Training and Coordination: An Integrative Approach”, and reading it has been such a huge insight into all the times where I was at my highest level of explosive performance in terms of sprinting and jumping. Although I’m not about to trade in my standby strength moves for single leg cleans and snatches, that really isn’t what the book is about, in my opinion.
Rather, it is about the fact that athletic performance is a continual, moving symphony of motor learning, and to reach one’s genetic limit, you have to understand the fine technical points of your sport that must be improved, and the motor learning effect that each piece of your training has in regards to technical improvement. On a level of motor learning, what worked for you 2 years ago is likely not what you need at the present moment to achieve better technique, power and speed in what you do.
This articles trend of “when you are on top of your game, change your game” also rings true in light of this idea.
Interestingly enough, I heard this year that force plate data from a private sector training center showed improvements in the loading skill/technique of a vertical jump with athletes who performed barbell squats. The kicker though, is that these improvements happened in the jump regardless of whether light or heavy weights were utilized. I’m not saying that heavy squats don’t have their place in athletic performance training, but heavier squats may not have the advantage in making you jump higher or sprint faster than you think they might.
I’ve gotten way more out of using Cal Deitz’s Triphasic system with light to moderate weights, in terms of improved vertical jump and speed, than I ever have with regular heavy traditional lifting. The proper use of the right tools at the right time is key for maximal athletic improvement.
Amongst other things in Bosch’s book, the idea of the effect of fatigue is a useful idea in terms of training transfer. When particular muscles are fatigued in a movement, other muscle groups must work harder to complete the movement. In this end, I’ve realized the possibilities of things like endurance bounding and jumping (forces a greater requirement on the elastic elements of the jump, as the frictional elements fatigue over the course of the exercise), as well as the idea of fatiguing antagonistic muscles prior to a skill session (such as doing fatiguing arm curls prior to jumping in the pool for a swim workout). The possibilities of utilizing fatigue to create a better motor pattern in athletic performance are nearly endless.
Also, it becomes easy to think that the coordination and motor learning approach to strength and explosiveness “sissifies” the art of performance training, but this isn’t the case as all. Remember, that the muscle and connective tissue of the body models itself in response to the CNS signal. If you can sprint fast and jump high, your muscle tissues will model themselves accordingly.
Concept 3. Culture is the Trump Card to Victory
What makes a team truly great? A good strength program, and nice 1-rep max progressions? Learning to do combine style, and other closed loop agility drills properly? Having good Olympic lift technique? Well, that stuff helps, but it doesn’t hold a candle to the overall team culture. Culture is the end of the road when it comes to winning games, period.
What is proper team culture? Let the most winning professional organization in history, the All-Blacks of New Zealand spell it out for you:
- Character: Sweeping the sheds, and taking ownership for yourself
- Playing with purpose: Asking why, and having a broad vision
- Follow the spearhead: All players selflessly heading in the direction of the team vision
- Keeping a “Blue Head”: Maintaining one’s composure under pressure
- Champions doing extra: “Find something you would die for, and give your life for it”.
- Invent your own language: “Use language driven from leadership to create a compelling story-line that pushes understanding and commitment to the team”
Many of us have seen the “Haka”, but only those familiar with the Maori background can understand the significance of how this dance is an accumulation of the All-Blacks team culture and “ethos”.
Coaches that understand culture create winning teams. If you are a sport coach, this is easy. If you are a strength coach, it is important to look at the crucial points of your sport coaches team culture vision and reciprocate, or amplify those points in the arena of the weightroom.
When considering and learning about team culture, I am continually reminded of football program here at my place of employment (a team that has went from 1-11 to 7-5 in the last 3 years under a new coach) and how powerful effect team culture has had on their outcome in games. You can’t walk into the football weightroom here without getting a strong sense of the powerful verbiage and ethos that personifies our current team.
Especially these days, sport coaches carry their strength coach with them, not because of the sets and reps they prescribe, but because of the culture that is emphasized in the weightroom. Obviously, many strength coaches can fill the cultural demands of particular sport coaches, but this is more of a “feel” thing for head coaches, so thus we have our current system.
Even if you aren’t a sport coach, what kind of culture do you set when you train athletes? If you are interested in a great read on the subject, I would strongly recommend the book “Legacy” by James Kerr.
Concept 4. What is in the Mind is in the Body
At Douglas Heel’s Be Activated seminar, I learned more than just how to improve the contractility of key muscle groups. I learned the power of the mind over the body. Douglas took us through a few exercises where we found just how strong, or weak, our mental states could make us. Try thinking of someone who deeply irritates you while you try for that heavy deadlift, and see how difficult the movement becomes.
When I have a group of athletes in the weightroom, I don’t just look at their lifting technique, or joint range of motion, I look at their posture and expression. If they don’t look like they are ready to get stronger, then they probably won’t. The posture and position of the body is often a reflection of an athlete’s psychology. The body is an expression of the mind, and vice versa.
The biggest things to look for, as far as athletes with strong mental blocks holding back their strength and power (both physical and mental) are concerned, are kyphotic posture, shrugged forward shoulders, disproportionate upper vs. lower body developments, and weak deep neck flexors to name a few. (For more on this interesting topic, check out “Bent out of Shape” by Elizabeth Michel)
Many athletes are not living up to their full potential because you have written a poor training program. Rather, many athletes don’t reach their potential due to mental blocks in their subconscious. As coaches, it is up to us to come up with situations that force athletes to push past these blocks, and find a new level of physical, and mental ability.
To this end, I’ve begun to pick up on various blocks, and come up with strategies to help athletes overcome them. Various things like opening up posture and breathing, making mild-mannered athletes grunt, lifting in front of the mirror with sleeves up, combat and MMA style training, and plain old competition, are some of the ideas I’ve found helpful in allowing athletes to reach a new level of strength and mental fitness.
Perhaps the most traditional (but arguably the most effective) approach to build the mind is the simple “high rep” set, such as a tough set of 20 squats. According to Dan John, these build willpower. For Elliot Hulse, they are a path to “transcendence”, a physical activity that ushers in mental and spiritual changes.
Lifting barbells is a transformative process that makes you a stronger version of yourself instantly, if you’re willing to cross the threshold
Want to see what an athlete has in their spirit? Have them do a “20 set” of squats at a weight a hair under their 10RM.
The weightroom may not be the most specific place for every sport, but it is always a place that athletes can learn to tap into deeper mental layers, lay it all out and compete with a narrowed focus in closed chain exercises. When athletes are thrown into an open-chain environment, the aggressiveness can flow in a more open state of mind.
Additionally, it is important to show athletes that you are invested in them, and their performance. When athletes dislike, or feel emotionally disconnected from their coach, it hurts the mind-body connection, and performance drops off. I’m not saying that it’s not important for coaches to tow a hard line with athletes from time to time, but ultimately, there needs to be a relationship that is conducive for maximal performance. I’ve seen athletes who don’t even want their coaches around when they are competing in meets. Is this a relationship that maximizes the relationship between the mind and body?
This is an area that highlights the importance of character development in coaching. If you can’t build your character, your relationship with your athletes will suffer, and so will their performance.
At the tail end of this year, I read through Logan Christopher’s “Mental Muscle”, a fantastic book on some mental strategies to improve strength, skill, focus and overall athletic ability. Logan is a certified hypnotist, and going through his hypnotic tracks instantly improved my weightroom strength and jumping ability, and also my grip strength as I notice during my rock climbing training. I’ll have an interview with him for you all shortly.
I’ll tell you this as I conclude this article: Access to the subconscious mind is one of the most powerful training tools available, yet it probably THE most under-utilized area of training in modern coaching today. Why is this the case? Mostly for the same reasons as Activation; people are simply afraid of what they don’t know, and the fear is great to the point that they are content to keep doing what they have been doing. I’m hoping that more exposure to the benefits of this type of work can help it to become more mainstream in athletic development.
If you can access the subconscious, you can improve everything. I actually just started on Wim Hof’s 10 week training program on breath control, meditation and cold exposure, so I’m excited to share with you all the results of that as I progress forward, and combine what I learn there into the mental strategies I’ve learned already in 2015.
So that’s what I’ve been learning and focusing on. How about you? Hope you enjoyed this article, and I wish you a Happy Holiday and a great start to your 2016!
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