I was honoured to be able to present a few lectures at this quite incredible course. GAIN 2013 was held at Rice University in Houston, Texas for the third year after it’s early delivery in Florida. The brain-child of Vern Gambetta, this 5-day residential course features a host of mind-numbingly excellent speakers who all understand the role of ‘function’ and ‘building from the ground up’.

The delegates come from all around the world and this allows for much discussion and comparison of systems and strategies as each of them make a contribution either formally or informally.

Some ‘teasers’ from GAIN 2013 –

The success of any group, team, family or marriage comes from the strength of relationships, more so than rules. Clay Erro

Relationships are like savings accounts. You have to make deposit daily to create strong relationships. Clay Erro

Science ate all the cake a long time ago – we need teachers and coaches.

You can love and idea but don’t be married to it. Steve Magness

Posture and force application go hand-in-hand. Gary Winckler

Relationships are the glue. Clay Erro

Coaches rely on technology because they haven’t developed a relationship with the athletes. Randy Ballard

Do one thing every day that scares you. Nick Folker

Become the defenders of movement efficiency.

Focus on ‘can-do’ not ‘can’t do’. Bill Knowles

Many are chosen – few choose. Vern Gambetta

…and so much more.

With so many practitioners now ‘mobile’ in terms of iPads and other tablets I have started the process of creating an application to provide the 5in5 and the Progressive Exercise Syllabus on them. This could take a little while so please be patient.

I was in conversation with an Athletics coach the other day and asked him to describe the content of his forthcoming session. His answer was “3 x 3 x Flying 30m – a Max Velocity session.” Now on the face of it the description was sufficient for me to form a picture of what this session might look like but it also illustrated the trap that many fall in to.

Working out the ‘dose’ of work is but one small element of performance enhancement. The world of ‘reps’ and ‘sets’ is the easy part for most coaches. The more important part is working out and improving WHAT is actually happening in these ‘reps’.

Sports science has delivered to the world of coaching an understanding of the energy release mechanisms that every known intensity and distance will call upon when attempted. The ‘rep’ you are asking the athlete to do and the speed they have to do it in will naturally call upon the complex energy release system from anaerobic through to aerobic and all combinations in between. Coaches have clearly grasped this component of training and much thought goes into the assembly of the appropriate metabolic stimulus. This is seen in the ‘mileage’ done by the distance runner and the ‘reps and sets’ illustration of the sprinters world mentioned above.

What has fallen by the wayside in this narrow education of the metabolic processes is the mechanical aspect of every step the athlete is going to take within the aforementioned ‘dose’. It’s not the number of miles you do but the quality of each mile. It is not the actual acceleration ‘rep’ or maximum velocity ‘rep’ you do but the precision with which you do it.

120 miles a week is inappropriate if many of the miles are done with poor mechanical efficiency. High speed repetitions are also wasted if the precision of movement is poor. Poor mechanical efficiency ruins every step even though the ‘dose’ gets completed in training.

There is an endurance component to everything we do but it is not all about Max VO2. A sprint of 40m is a full leg cycle of contact – to lift-off – to swing – to contact repeated over 40m. The aim is to be as effective and efficient from the first cycle until the very last in that 40m. Every mile done by the distance runner is using energy so the key is to use as little as possible for a given speed. If you want to improve your marathon time don’t just do more and more miles – do each mile more effectively and efficiently.

One day I might get a different answer to the previously posed question – ‘improve / maintain absolute precision in movement and posture over a number of repetitions at maximum speed.’ This will tell me that we have grasped training methodology in the correct order – first Mechanical, second Metabolic.

“Let’s start at the very beginning.
It’s a very good place to start.
When you read you begin with ABC
When you sing you begin with
Do Re Mi……”

We all have the opportunity, many times in life, to start and finish a journey to improvement. When teaching our children to comprehend and use numbers (numeracy) we usually start with the simplest form of teaching – the use of the fingers for counting. When we are sure that the child has embraced this early knowledge (usually after days, weeks and months of simple repetition) we usually start to relate these numbers (one to ten to start with) to each other by some form of addition. We move forward to things like subtraction, multiplication and division once these foundations or ‘keystone’ skills are permanently learned. Following the permanent adaptation to these fundamentals we can look forward to the complexity and sophistication of calculators and equations that allow us to approach algebra, geometry with tools like Pythagoras and ‘sohcahtoa’.

This appears to be quite a simple and sensible journey to numeracy where each stage builds on the successes of the previous one.

What about physical development? Although we have many known processes surrounding the ‘building of the athlete from the ground up’ journey and an understanding of the ever-changing physical, emotional and cognitive stages a young person passes through on the journey to adulthood, we seem to fall into the many traps along the way.

Premature outcome based competitions, ranking lists, assessment tests for talent identification, qualification standards for squad selection, peer and parental pressure, coaching egos, all play a part in this ‘trap’ mechanism that too many adults fall into. Just when a developing athlete needs time and patience to allow them to develop at their unique rate (determined by their own unique maturation rhythm) we, as adults, succumb to many of these pressures. The ‘keynote’ skills, that approximate what we saw in the illustration of the numeracy journey, are the foundation movements – the ability to Squat, Lunge, Push, Pull, Brace, Hinge and Rotate.

These movements need to be permanently adapted to in this journey to physical literacy. They form the groundwork for the development of a movement vocabulary from which sports-specific actions and postures will grow. They should be carefully learned at all speeds, amplitudes, directions and planes as part of the foundation period. They should be learned by the use of a variety of teaching methodologies and not turned into the ‘Times-Table’ of robotic learning.

A curriculum created from these foundation movements is as demanding as the most complex and sophisticated ‘end-stage’ skill environment. Imagine the thought needed to negotiate this series of inter-woven steps:

Here we see the Squat movement starting to be taught implicitly and explicitly at varying amplitudes. Once amplitudes are mastered the element of speed can be introduced using implicit and explicit means of teaching and the differing amplitudes……and so on. Multiply this by all the movements in the vocabulary and the seriousness of the project is seen.

If all the stated components are utilised and presented as a puzzle to solve then the process is a lengthy one – not a ‘quick-fix’ opportunity but a process that demands thought, commitment and very good teaching / coaching skills. The process also demands commitment and perseverance from the young person on the journey.

‘Start at the very beginning’ is not a period that we dash through on the fast-track to the trinkets of competition or test results. It is a period that never really disappears even at the super-elite stages of performance. Elite athletes should ensure that they never move too far away from keeping these ‘keystone’ movements at the highest degree of precision as their sports-specific actions and postures become more and more sophisticated.

I keep on seeing example warm-ups being offered to the community from a variety of sources and continue to wonder if we are stuck in a time-warp. I often joke that the old days of, ‘jog twice round the field, touch your toes, now start kicking the ball’, have gone amid all the fine research and common-sense that should prevail in the modern day.

It seems that it is not a joke and we still have some practitioners who don’t quite ‘get it’.

Probably best summed up by Vern Gambetta (Athletic Development – The Art & Science of Functional Sports Conditioning) the warm up “…sets the tempo for the session. It is an integral, not separate, part of the workout.”

Although there is the need to raise core temperature I am firmly in disagreement with ‘jogging’. Jogging for most athletes creates a period of time when movement is sloppy and slow – just when they are about to embark on a period of activity where movement precision will be vital e.g. skill acquisition, speed of movement, etc.

The warm-up is there to prepare for ‘what is yet to come’ from the various sectors of the approaching session or competition. The athletes are about to be challenged, not just in the metabolic aspects of the activity but more importantly in the neuro-muscular solutions they will have to find. Precise movement patters and sequences at differing inputs and outputs of force is what they are about to face in the main part of the session so why not use the warm-up to prepare them for this?

Certainly start with a ‘general’ non-sports-specific series of activities of locomotion to gain the temperature rise that is needed but always maintain the high standards of movement that you will soon be striving for. The start does not have to be ‘fast’ but any running actions must be fast enough for the athlete to capture the correct patterns – jogging does little to provide this. Think of skipping, marching, running and the 360 degrees of direction that are available to these activities.

Don’t forget to ‘connect from toenail to fingernails’ in the exercise selection so that the body has a chance to rehearse the complexities that the sports movement puzzles will present a little later on. Here think about crawling, lunging and reaching – bending – rotating. Don’t forget pushing, pulling, hinging and bracing.

Range of movement also comes under scrutiny during the warm-up and the recommendation is that ‘dynamic’ stretching is the modality to deliver. Long, slow stretching is not a warm up – it is a flexibility component of training and should be done away from the dynamic setting of the main training session.

As the warm-up develops remember that in a short period of time the actual session or contest will begin and so the ‘tempo’ of the activities should slowly rise until there is a seamless transition to the sports-specific activities that will follow.

Warm-ups can range from 15-30min in time depending on the nature of the circumstances prevailing. It should be noted that a relative short period of 20min can see over 200 ‘movements’ taking place and so the warm-up can be seen as an opportunity for more fundamental movement skills to be learned.

I spent a great day with a group of practitioners recently at the Ageas Conference Centre in Southampton. Organised by the Sport Hampshire and IOW we spent the whole day looking closely at the ‘Quest for Physical Literacy’.

The course is designed to help practitioners (teachers and coaches of young people) to grasp the Why? What? and How? of this important part of the journey to high performance. The Physical Competence Assessment practical was an eye-opener for them as they came to grips with the simple process of looking at selected components of a movement. It became clear very quickly that their well-developed coaching ‘eye’ – so well-honed over the years in their technical and tactical coaching journeys – could be used to assess a simple ‘foundation’ movement. Their commitment to the practical sessions (5in5, Progressive Exercise Syllabus) was immense and they certainly recognised that they need to be able to demonstrate well. As with many of these presentations I was heartened by the open-mindedness of the delegates and their commitment to the cause. Each appeared to not only want to change what they were delivering but were generally ready to ‘question their assumptions’. This must give us all a very healthy future.

Just as I am heartened by meeting such people I still come across others who seem to be stuck in a paradigm. One that raises its head often is the race towards external load for the developing athlete. This is a regular phenomenon with many coaches working in the contact sports being the main culprits.

Never think that I am anti-load! All my Olympic athletes and the Championship winning football players I have been responsible for displayed great levels of maximum strength, peak force and rate of force development (RFD). I used single plane exercises (Squat, Deadlift, Clean, etc) as part of the exercise prescription and they reached formidable levels in these lifts.

My great friend Vern Gambetta summed all this up recently when he stated, “Quality of movement, coordination and rhythm are more important. The goal is always to apply the strength that is developed in the actual sport performance. How is the force expressed? Can you produce and reduce the force? Force production is all about acceleration, but often the key to movement efficiency and staying injury free is the ability to decelerate and stabilize in order to position the body to perform efficiently.”

Herein lies the key point of the issue – very little takes place in sport that is not multi-joint, multi-plane and multi-directional. It is a matter of the body having to solve incessant movement puzzles on a milli-second to milli-second timeline with just the right amount of force at just the right time. These forces arrive as puzzles from anywhere on the strength continuum – from maximum strength to RFD whether producing force, reducing force or stabilising the body parts.

In the simplest of terms strength development takes place via two pathways – hypertrophy (bodybuilding processes) and neuro-muscular coordination improvement (the ability of the neuromuscular system to recruit motor units more efficiently in the right order at the right time). If the only tool you have in your coaching toolbox is ‘Load’ then you are doing a dis-service to the athletes. Seldom will they be asked to produce one type of force in one plane so what is the point of only chasing external load by using limiting movements? For the Olympic Weightlifter there is little argument in this exercise selection. This single plane environment is their ‘contest’ so I understand their choices.

Fellow practitioner and avid ‘movement explorer’ Steve Myrland recently made some cute observations about the use of a bar. “Perhaps the most persistent blunder athletes and coaches make in training to compete is regularly mistaking “strength” for “athleticism,” so let’s clear this up right away: Athleticism—the ability to express one’s physical self with optimal speed, agility, strength, balance, suppleness, stamina and grace while avoiding injury—is the goal. Strength, as you will note by re-reading the sentence, above, is a single element of the collective term: athleticism. You cannot be athletic without being strong; but you can be strong without being athletic. Here’s why: When you grab hold of a barbell with both hands, you are virtually locking yourself into the sagittal plane. Movement in the other two available planes of motion, frontal and transverse, is theoretically possible, but it is unlikely, at best; and if you are doing a traditional barbell exercise (squat, deadlift, snatch, clean, bench press) your body will do all it can to minimize any potential movement in those two unwanted planes. Effectively, the bar locks you into one plane and out of two. It restricts—not unlike health-club machinery.”

While we need to slowly advance the athlete along the ‘force’ pathway towards their lifetime best sports performance it must never be forgotten that this journey is tempered by one major component – movement efficiency, whether running, jumping, throwing, kicking or catching. Often described as ‘technique’, movement efficiency is the key to load progression. The load is limited by the technique which must remain perfect at all times. Too often during the chase for load we see movements compromised and the simple Clean exercise is a typical example. The Clean exercise, in my humble opinion, is a result of a carefully planned movement journey that includes ‘Hinge’ and ‘Pull’ movements as well as the ‘Triple- Flexion / Extension’ movements. Too often I see catastrophic postures and actions taking place when an inappropriate load is attempted in this exercise – usually as part of the journey to ‘winning at all ages, at all costs’.

Another point to consider is the ‘load’ itself. Seldom will an athlete have to only produce or tolerate one consistent force. Accelerations and decelerations of forces are transmitted throughout the body during movement from anywhere on the continuum that ranges from static / slow forces through to rapid peak and maximum power forces. It would seem wise therefore to construct a training process where all these forces are considered and experienced. This is where the coach goes to their toolbox and ensures that they use speed of movement (static to dynamic; slow to fast), range of movement (amplitude of movement), complexity of movement (simple to complex), often in the same session, to create the journey.

It’s a jigsaw – where not only does the picture change but the pieces change also.

Kicking specialist, defensive specialist, kettlebell specialist, weight-loss specialist, speed specialist, strength specialist, science specialist, sports injury specialist, rehab specialist, core-training specialist……the more ‘specialists’ we have the further we seem to move away from getting the fundamentals right.

Not only can this specialisation create a silo mentality in an operation but there is also the tendency to use a ‘paint-by-numbers’ process where all these parts are cobbled together with little attempt to have a seamless journey.

As my friend Vern Gambetta always states – ‘learn to be a generalist’. Maybe it is best to be the best ‘generalist’ you can ever be before thinking of specialisation.

I would recommend that you keep a watchful eye on guidance, comments and observations by fellow practitioner Jeremy Frisch. He runs Achieve Performance Training in the USA (http://www.achieveperformance.net) and always finds some pertinent information to impart to fellow practitioners.

Here is something from Jeremy written by from Sally Blythe who is a leader in understanding the environment of the early school years. I use much of her research for this particular age-group.

Physical readiness for learning:

“Readiness for school requires much more than a child reaching chronological age for school entry. To perform well in an educational environment; a child needs to be able to: sit still, focus attention on one task without being distracted by irrelevant environmental stimuli, hold and manipulate a writing instrument, and to control eye movement necessary to maintain a stable image on the page, follow a line of print without the eyes jumping or losing their place and adjust visual focus between different distances at speed. These are physical abilities, which are linked to the development and maturation of motor skills and postural control.”(Sally Goddard Blythe).

Our responsibility as parents is vital in our children’s journey if we are to impart these (and many more) qualities in readiness for what is yet to come. Blythe has intimated that there is a real deficit in motor skills in the 4-11 age groups. She further comments that not only do children enter school with these deficits but there is little attention paid to developing movement efficiency as the years unfold. PE Specialists in Primary Schools anyone?

The ACT has issued its new PE Policy at http://www.det.act.gov.au/publications_and_policies/policy_a-z and it is interesting reading. The ACT government are stating a mandatory 25-30min a day for Primary School students along with the appointment of an appropriate person to coordinate this curriculum.

I expect to see plenty of such documents from various organisations as the world toils with the problems of a sedentary lifestyle and the effects on physical literacy. Let us all hope that things go way beyond the publication of a document and that governments put some teeth into these policies. Firstly, they have to find the appropriate person to coordinate things in each school. Does this mean that government will pay for the position – or just burden some poor teachers with more responsibility inside an already busy day? Where will this person have been trained – another pseudo-scientist from a human degree course?

Secondly, what will be the actual content of the program and will progress be measured just as we measure numeracy and literacy? Is this an opportunity for Physical Competence Assessment, Cardio-respiratory assessment, BMI assessment? Will movement efficiency, consistency and resilience play any part – or will the football come out again?

Or will it just be another piece of paper in a glossy document?

‘If you can’t slow down….don’t speed up’. Bill Knowles

Having spent a lot of time recently with coaches and athletes in field and court sports the subject of ‘agility’ has been a hot topic. The ability to react and manoeuvre at high speed, in multiple directions in short periods of time is an important element in all field and court sports. This ability to accelerate, decelerate and re-accelerate multi-directionally over extended periods of time places huge pressure on the body’s infrastructure.

This is not a problem if the infrastructure is developed enough to create a buffer between what the game will bring to the table and what the body can answer it with. If this buffer does not exist or if the movement patterns required for the tasks are less efficient then it is probable that the body, in its quest to complete the task, may develop compensatory movements and postures. This is one of the reasons why we train – to ensure that, whatever the game demands, the athlete can provide the most efficient and economical answers permanently and consistently.

If we trace the movements and force demands of ‘agility’ back to source then we will see that the ability of braking and stopping are vitally important in the process. In other words the body must ‘shock-absorb’ prior to changing direction or re-accelerating. This is illustrated by the sophisticated SSC (Stretch–Shortening–Cycle) action and the more overt triple-flexion / extension sequence. All this takes place within the on-going pattern and sequencing of force production, reduction and stabilisation puzzles that the body has to solve on a nano-second to nano-second basis – all day, every day.

If we examine the braking or stopping action in a running agility setting then it is clear that the ability to ‘land’ on one and two legs efficiently, consistently and resiliently is an important component of the journey. Put this in the context of what the exercise selection might look like and we can see that the creation of a progressive journey is paramount.

In simple terms the journey might look like this:

With appropriate progression using speed, amplitude, direction and plane as the stimulus one will readily arrive at positions on the continuum where the athlete naturally experiences some ‘braking’ forces. For example (adapted from Movement Dynamics 5in5 Curriculum):

Within such a progressive journey the coach will have ample time to teach and coach the athlete to the most efficient movement pattern for each of the ‘foundation’ movements.

Problems arise when coaches ‘fast-track’ to using small-sided games (SSG) or drills as seen in processes like SAQ work. If these types of activity are the sole tool used in the journey then there is the chance that any movement limitations will become ‘hidden’ in the turmoil of the drills. The key is to see small-sided games and SAQ work as being movement puzzles that appear somewhere further along the movement continuum than the ‘foundation’ movements of Squat, Lunge, Push, Pull, Brace, Rotate and Bend. Start with the foundations – get them perfect at different speeds, amplitudes, directions and complexities and the transition to SSG and SAQ will be seamless.

Don’t forget that this ‘braking’ process does not only occur in running activities. In actions for throwing and striking the body will show its aptitude for complexity that involves ‘braking’. We may often wrongly view throwing and striking actions as being upper body activities when in fact the upper body does less than other parts in the movement sequence. In these actions we see the throw or strike being built from the ground up with forces being transferred from Legs to Hips to Trunk to Shoulder and finally to the Arms and Hands. The Javelin throw, for example, sees the athlete ‘brace’ or ‘brake’ the left hand side (for the right-handed throw) prior to release. The Golfer will ‘brace’ or ‘brake’ the left-hand side as the arms swing the golf-club through. This complexity of movement illustrates the capabilities of the human body to organise the body multi-directionally and multi-planar while presenting different force structures (force production, reduction and stabilisation) – all in nano-seconds and within a complex sequence. These attributes are the ones we cultivate when assembling the movement vocabulary in the early stages of the training journey.