When looking at a new athlete and their running, I try to assess whether we can improve speed through co-ordination training or strength training, or both.
I use the analogy of having two dials with the athletes: they both are necessary, but we adjust one at a time according to the athlete’s needs.
“Strength” coaches will always look at squats first with “maximal strength” being the answer to everything. However, it could be a relative strength issue, for example when trying to improve the speed of rugby players there is a trade off between size and function.
Studies at the Brisbane Broncos showed momentum to be a key feature of high performing players. Momentum is mass x velocity; if you increase your mass without concomitant improvement in relative strength (your ability to control your own body weight in all planes of movement) there is likely to be a reduction in velocity i.e. your momentum may go down.
Mindless hypertrophy work or two legged sagital plane work may indeed increase mass and strength in that plane, but you must be able to apply it on the field.
Most rugby players I see tend to work on mass at the expense of co-ordination: the “Get slower” programme.
I work hard on their co-ordination in running and change of direction drills. Props are very hard to tackle once they have learnt to run fast.
What about young athletes and females?
Posture for sprints
I am lucky to work with some fast young athletes from different sports at the ADC in Devon. None of them have great “maximal strength” but they do have high levels of muscular coordination.
In these athletes, and also with most females, strength training is required to allow them to withstand the rigours of training and playing. This starts with control of their own body weight, then progresses to challenging this in different planes, different directions, different speeds.
Then we increase volume, then we may add external loadwhen ready.
Some athletes are naturally strength athletes, some are naturally speed (co-ordination) athletes. Both types of training are necessary, but adjust the dial according to their needs.
“One size fits all” is a shortcut that rarely leads to success.
A popular conception of gymnastics today is of young girls in sparkly leotards with hair kept up in tightly bound buns. This is a relatively new concept, with gymnastics originally being an all-male outdoor pursuit.
Gymnastics has originated from several different sources, but all had the underlying principle of healthy movement. The last 30 -40 years has seen a swing to competitive gymnastics which has influenced coaching courses and also teacher training. This so-called “traditional” gymnastics in clubs results in a massive dropout by children in their early teens.
With phrases like “disengagement” and “pupil-centred” learning becoming prevalent, teachers may be in the frame of mind to look a little bit deeper into our rich and varied past for ideas that were successful with previous generations.
This article shall look at the origins of educational gymnastics and also offer solutions for teachers and coaches who wish to improve the overall movement of their pupils and players.
Gymnastics and the defence of the Nation
The many wars and conflicts of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries meant that all European Nations were worried about the health and fitness of their military recruits. The history of gymnastics is intertwined with the concerns of each country about possible invasions by the enemy.
Father Jahn
Frederich Ludwig Jahn was probably the first gymnastics coach. He was a teacher in Germany and he trained boys in the woods outside Berlin to help prepare them for military service against Napoleon (1). The boys performed all types of stunts using tree limbs and natural features. When they moved inside in the winter, “Father” Jahn built apparatus to help reproduce this work.
These ideas spread to other areas and competitions between the groups developed. The groups were known as “Turnvereine” and the participants as “Turners”. In the 1820s many Germans emigrated to North America and continued their practice especially in the big cities. This led to the formation of the “American Turnerbund” which had a big influence in introducing physical education to public schools.
In France in the early 1900s, a similar approach was developed by Georges Hebert. Hebert had served with the French Navy and was involved in the relief of Martinique after a volcanic eruption. This disaster shaped his thoughts on the need for physical fitness, courage and altruism.
His travels led him to observe people on different continents and he reflected:
“Their bodies were splendid, flexible, nimble, skilful, enduring, resistant and yet they had no other tutor in gymnastics but their lives in nature.” Georges Hebert (2).
He started to develop his “Natural Method” based on these ideals and also the work of Frederick Jahn amongst others. He systemised the exercises and practised them. Hebert was injured in World War I and was then asked to form a school of physical education for the French Military.
Parcours du combattant
“The final goal of physical education is to make strong beings. In the purely physical sense, the Natural Method promotes the qualities of organic resistance, muscularity and speed, towards being able to walk, run, jump, move on all fours, to climb, to keep balance, to throw, lift, defend yourself and to swim.” Georges Hebert (2).
Hebert helped develop obstacle courses that allowed recruits to perform a series of various exercises in sequence. This then became standard practice for nearly every military unit in the world before World War II (Parcours du combattant = Assault Course), more on this later.
Swedish Gymnastics and Swedish PT
Pehr Ling
At about the same time Father Jahn was developing his system, Pehr Henrik Ling was creating a series of formalised exercises in Sweden (3). He did this after studying to be a Doctor and was in interested in the health-promoting benefits of regular exercise.
In 1813 Ling was given government backing and founded “The Royal Gymnastics Central Institute” in Stockholm. Amongst other things, Ling is credited with inventing Calisthenics (derived from the Greek words Kalos and Sthenos: Beauty and Strength) and several pieces of equipment including wall bars, beams and the vaulting box.
Ling’s systematic use of a series of exercises proved popular in the early twentieth century and easy to export.
(P.G. Wodehouse mentioned them several times in his novels:
Aunt Dahilia to Bertie Wooster “Well, I won’t keep you, as, no doubt, you want to do your Swedish exercises.” (4).)
In 1909 the British Board of Education issued a “Syllabus of Physical Training” which was based on the Swedish PT system (5). This involved an enormous amount of exercises and routines which were annotated like this:
“Exercise 36 (St-Kn.Fl.Bd.) Jump to St.-Asd.-Hl. Ra. Posn. With Am. Bend. U. or swing. m.
(With heel raising, knees full-bend!)Jumping astride on the toes with arm bending upward (arm swinging midway), by numbers one!- two! And later: Five times- begin! Spring from one position to the other, bending the arms upward or swinging them midway on the upward jump and bringing the hands to hips on the downward jump. The number of jumps may be gradually increased.”
This syllabus did include apparatus work with the wall bars, beams (heaving) and vaulting boxes as well as rope climbing.
There was little or no individual development or coaching, it was designed for mass instruction and synchronised movements. The Board of Education were still using it in the years immediately after World War II.
Here is an example of how it was used outside of schools too:
Gymnastics in Britain around the Wars
After World War 1 a new philosophy of physical education was developed: informal activities and mild recreational activities became the norm. Gymnastics, tumbling, callisthenics and marching tactics were reduced further before World War II in some areas.
As the threat of war loomed once again the 1930s, the government once again took interest in the health of the young men. This video shows some of the formal work being done in a standard physical education class. Note the precision of movement, agility and also body mass of the children involved.
In the 1950s and 1960s, gymnastics on apparatus enjoyed a resurgence as many ex-servicemen went into teaching and taught activities they had done in the military (6).
The origins of Parkour
In 1946 a 7-year-old French orphan called Raymond Belle snuck out of his orphanage in French Indo-China (now Vietnam) to train in secret to avoid becoming “a victim” of the very real conflict that surrounded him. He set up a series of exercises and routines in the jungle that he practised diligently for the next 9 years. He moved to France at the age of 19 and served in the French military (7).
His son David Belle was inspired by his father’s accomplished physical capabilities and his philosophy on life. David did gymnastics and athletics growing up but found them “too scholastic” for his taste.
Rather than do sport to compete, he wanted to seek out challenges for their own sake and find new ways to move:
“And that’s exactly what Parkour is all about: move from one obstacle to the other and make it more difficult on purpose so that in real life, everything seems easier.”
You can see the inspiration for much Parkour training, school gymnasiums and trapeziums in this short video.
As David grew up in a city, his obstacles were walls, ledges and rooftops, rather than the jungle or “Parcours du combattant”. It was just the Parcours.
“The aim of the game was to adapt to just about any surrounding, always keeping in mind thatshould anything happen, what do you do?”
I see many young teachers looking for Parkour ideas for their pupils and expecting a series of moves. But, the original concept by Raymond and then David Belle is to seek challenges and solutions themselves rather than doing stunts just to look good.
(When I coach gymnastics, I always include some obstacles or apparatus for them to work on and over. Schools do have this equipment; it just needs to be put out). These 2 children found solutions to the obstacles I laid out:
Rudolf Laban and female physical educators
So far, so martial. A completely different strand of gymnastics evolved from the pioneering work of Rudolf Laban. The Hungarian born Laban was resident in the UK from 1938 until his death in 1958(8)
His background and speciality was movement through dance. He spent years observing and practicing teaching pupils’ movement. Laban’s work has been summarised in 5 statements:
That all human movement has two purposes, functional and expressive.
That dancing is a symbolic action.
That all movement of a part or parts of the body is composed of discernible factors that are common to men everywhere. These factors are contained in two overall terms: effort and shape.
That there are inherent movement patterns of effort and shape which are indicative of harmonious movement.
A system of notation that makes it possible to record accurately all movement of the human body.
The emphasis is on helping the participant discover new or more efficient or expressive ways to move. This contrasts with a “Top Down” approach of having an end skill such as a forward roll and trying to get every pupil to do that by the end of the term to “demonstrate learning”.
“Physical Education students abhor the fact that they are given too much chapter and verse; taught a recognisable end-product, and not allowed more individual interpretations.” (8).
Laban’s detailed observations and the systematic annotation were taken up by female educators such as Ruth Morison (10) and Mauldon & Layson (11) who wrote very accessible books that expanded the ideas and applied them more to the functional side of gymnastics, rather than the expressive side of dance.
When I first started researching Educational Gymnastics, I couldn’t work out why it was only female pioneers. Then I realised the huge impact World War II had on this generation and the men were away for 6 years of Laban’s work. Plus, the schools of Laban movement were dance-based and so there were mainly females being exposed to his work and the initial talk was of “movement” training rather than “gymnastics”.
Laban’s movement framework could be summarised as follows:
Movement Framework
Expansion of these ideas was piecemeal with Lancashire and Yorkshire being the “early adopters”. Several more Educational Authorities soon realised that this framework and a child-centred approach meant that teaching gymnastics was a lot easier for Primary school teachers without a specialist background (12, 13).
“The gymnastic lesson today is centred on the child rather than the exercise. The teacher tries to create a learning situation which will stimulate the child to think.” (13).
Here is an example of my coaching “Rocking and rolling” (body aspect with shapes and actions).
Whilst there was still a distinction between boys and girls gymnastics in the 1960s and early 1970s, male educators who became exposed to Laban’s methodology realised its use too (14). The combination of learning how the body moves, then applying that to using apparatus in the gym meant for a potentially rich, inventive and fun environment for the children.
“An inventive child with a certain degree of skill will produce varied work instead of movement clichés or actions habitually strung together.” (11).
However, whilst the knowledge of specific skills was unnecessary, teachers had to have empathy, sound movement knowledge and great observational skills for this system to work. So whilst it may be easier to plan structure for Educational Gymnastics than rote learning, it also requires a teacher who can think on their feet.
There was some resistance amongst male educators who were used to a “command-response” approach utilised by the Swedish PT system and/ or their military service. (Younger readers might be questioning my continued use of gender: it is relevant to the times, some context of how “new-fangled” ideas might have difficult spreading can be gained by watching Brian Glover’s portrayal of a games teacher in Kes (1969)
Note that this “creating of learning environment” and “child-centred” approach was being written about and conducted with success from the early 1960s onwards. This predates the work on “constraints led coaching” by over 2 decades (15).
School gymnastics today
1950s school gymnastics
It is for better-informed people than me to try and explain what has happened to physical education in this country since the early 1970s. Part of the problem is that even if the National strategy is well informed (take this from 1972 for example):
“In his inheritance, in response to his environment, in his biological need for activity and in his absorption in the potential of his physical frame, a child has within him a powerful drive to indulge his capacity for movement. It is the role of physical education to reveal and extend this capacity, and through it to lead the child towards his full potential.” (16).
Local Authorities Vary
For example in East Sussex, Teachers were given guidance by University lecturer and a Senior BAGA coach which dismisses the Laban based work as “an activity shrouded in a “movement mystique.” (17).
Their book simplifies “gymnastics” to 7 specific skills and recommends following the BAGA award scheme “since it has clearly defined objectives”. I would suggest that this is the antithesis of “Educational Gymnastics” and is more like “training” which is commonly seen in gymnastics clubs.
“Training is a reductionist goal: its aim is to refine an existing action, whereas learning is an expansive goal; its aim is to increase the number of potential actions.” (18).
That is just one example, but each county will have its own adviser and system of teacher education.
One underlying problem now is that teachers coming into Primary Schools receive as little as 4 hours of Physical Education tutoring. Today’s kids are being taught by teachers who have never been exposed to physical education programmes themselves.
(On a recent course I tutored, one 23-year-old sports science graduate didn’t know that the sports hall benches could be secured safely against wall bars with the levers underneath!)
Many “P.E. specialists” have studied Sports Science courses at University, rather than Physical Education. They are more comfortable measuring physical fitness than teaching movement.
Helping the teachers teach and the children explore
Child-led approach
I started learning about gymnastics in order to help my own children. Coming into it with an open mind, without a competitive gymnastics bias, or a local authority slant, I just focussed on giving the children the best opportunity to learn in a limited amount of time.
For me, the Educational Gymnastics work tied well into my own coaching philosophy developed through working with accomplished sportspeople at Regional and International level. I could see the end goal, but reverse engineering from that and doing “micro versions” of “elite” training was nonsensical.
Instead, building the child’s ability from the ground up in an environment that is both challenging and rewarding is both our club’s aim, and that of the village school where I teach. Laban’s work looks at developing movement from within whilst Parkour looks at overcoming obstacles from without. Combining the two together has been a learning process for me and our club gymnasts.
No child has yet to come to me and ask for a certificate, badge or to enter a competition. Their motivation comes from within.
The coach and teacher “Educational Gymnastics” course I developed has helped introduce teachers to the infinite possibilities that children can explore. By giving them a framework and practical ideas, they gain confidence and observational skills that they can take back to their own unique classrooms.
There is hope for us all yet, we have a rich tradition in this country, I hope this article as given you some ideas for helping your children learn and explore movement.
A constraints–led, systems based autodidactic model for soccer or how guided-discovery works: Paul . In 21st Century Guide to Individual Skill Development Brian McCormick (2015).
Physical Literacy is a term gaining currency to help promote the need for children to be given the opportunities to move. Physical education has been squeezed out of the school curriculum, competitive sports have taken over and many children are disheartened and therefore disengaged.
“Partly through lack of sufficient activity, some children are awkwardly overgrown while others are fat and flabby so that eventually the desire for movement is lost and they join the ranks of the physically illiterate.”
Ruth Morison (1969) 1.
A physically literate individual “moves with poise, economy and confidence in a wide variety of physically challenging situations” (2).
“Physically challenging” situations could include sporting activity such as tennis, family games such as Twister, or being able to play tag in the playground or copying dance moves from Ciara!
By being physically literate, the child, and then the adult, will have a much better chance of finding something they can do and like and take part in.”If you teach them to move well, you don’t have to tell them to move often.” Rita Parish (3).
Literacy and numeracy are cornerstones of education in the UK and around the world. Children are educated, tested and retested continuously. There are league tables that compare class to class and school to school. There is a relentless pursuit to “improve standards”.
Unfortunately, the same amount of effort is lacking when it comes to physical literacy.
Exploring movement
Moving is Learning
Nearly 50 years ago Morison wrote that “the increasing supply of ready-made entertainment and mechanical means of transport compel many children to quell their natural urge to move, and their inactivity makes them dull and passive.”
This was before iPads, smartphones and when most families were lucky to have one car.
“Learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience.” (4).
If children watch tv before school, are driven to school, sit in an assembly for 45 minutes, kept inside at break time, miss p.e. because the hall is in use for the nativity play, driven home, watch tv, go to bed how do they learn to move?
A worrying statistic is that in 1985 the average child played outside for 30 hours per week, in 2005 this was down to 5 hours per week (5).
That means the average 15 year old in 2018 will have 12,250 fewer hours of accumulated free playtime compared to their 1985 counterpart.
For the “sporty” kids today, this means they are in danger of over specialisation and overuse injuries. For the “non-sporty” kids this means they are lacking in basic movement skills and feel inhibited and lack the confidence to try.
Children teach themselves physical literacy
Given the opportunity, children want to move and explore. In an over mechanised society, the last thing children need is to be put on a machine to exercise. The dull repetitive nature of treadmills, adductor leg machines and cross trainers replace the joy of movement and discovery with mind-numbingly boring labour.
There is more to physical literacy than improving simple physiological functions: sitting on an exercise bike will improve your heart and lung function, but it will do nothing for balance, coordination or skill (pretty hard to pull a wheelie on one too).
“The richer the interactions, the more individuals develop their human potential“. Margaret Whitehead (2001). (2).
Without these rich interactions, our children will never reach their full potential. Driving your child to a swimming lesson and watch someone else give them instructions for 20 minutes out of 30 minutes is far from being rich or interacting.
Peppa pig gets it
Instead, these might surprise you as examples:
Jumping in muddy puddles (kids have to be outside and in the wet, and on uneven ground).
Splashing in the bath.
Going down a slide (and climbing up the ladder to get there).
Hanging upside down holding onto parent’s hands.
Wrestling with siblings.
Crawling around the house (not left in a cot or in a car seat during “play dates”.
Walking to school (or skipping, hopping, running, tripping, scootering, cycling, skateboarding).
Playing in the pool with family (emphasis on playing, children need to be comfortable in a strange environment before even beginning to listen to an instruction).
Hopscotch, skipping, jacks, bean bag throws, frisbee, paper aeroplanes, stone skimming and jumping over puddles are all “rich interactions” which should be numerous before even going to an athletics club.
Throwing paper (like in the video below) is fun and will help develop the child’s underlying skills.
Climbing is learning
Apart from going to the swimming pool, all the above are free and therefore should be familiar to all children. However, they require time which is precious and they may seem trivial to adults (who are often looking for the next big thing to post on Facebook).
Summary
The major point being that this unstructured, messy, disorganised PLAY, allows children to make mistakes and adapt to the environment around them. This then gives them a large database of experiences that they can draw upon when needed in the future.
Watching my children’s 73-year-old Gran learn Bollywood style dancing last week for the first time in a workshop was a delight. Her physical literacy gained as a child in the 1950s enabled her to participate and thrive in a new environment.
Will your kids be able to do the same in 60 years time?
Want to learn more?
We are run one-day workshops on Educational Gymnastics and Athletic Development that will give you a framework and practical ideas to help you help children learn to move better.
Open letter to the Chief Executive of British Weight Lifting
Excelsior ADC
Dear Mr Metcalfe,
I am writing to you on behalf of my club members who have concerns and questions about what BWL is doing and what benefits they would get if they join and what the club gets from its membership.
Excelsior Athletic Development Club (Excelsior ADC) has been running weight lifting sessions for over 3 years now. We are the only affiliated club in the South West outside of Bristol. We have about 20 members lifting weekly with many more coming on an irregular basis. Our Sport England funded outreach programme “Love to Lift” reached an additional 40 females last year.
We have 3 main concerns:
What do we get as a licensed club that non-licensed clubs don’t get? An example was the recent Technical Official (TO) package that was sent out on social media by BWL. This excellent package was not offered to clubs first. We have asked for TO training courses for over 2 years now. First with David Gent, then with Rich Kite. Why wasn’t this package offered to clubs first, to either host, or to get first take up? I spoke to the person who organised it who had no idea that our club existed, or that we were looking to hold a course.
As a fully licensed level 2 coach, I am able to go into the lifters area at competition to coach our lifters. However, due to the lack of technical officials, this rule is hardly enforced at local competitions. At the Bristol Competition in November there were many people bimbling in and out, including a golf coach who wanted to see what was going on! If BWL is going to make every coach jump through expensive hoops, then the rules had better be enforced, and competition organisers given relevant support (i.e. TO training).
Is BWL there to support the clubs, or to use them as a revenue stream? The plethora of courses that are being marketed are both confusing and expensive. I have been tutoring 1st4sport courses for over 10 years, and the BWL courses are the most expensive, with the least content. At the moment joining BWL and entering a competition are very expensive for someone starting out. It is a major barrier to participation.
The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst ‘s motto when I was there in 1989 was “Serve to Lead”. We were constantly reminded that our job as potential officers was to look after the men in our command. BWL would do well to think about this and look after the clubs and members first, then look to target outside people second.
Our club members would like an answer to these questions please.
“Good habits formed at youth make all the difference”
Aristotle gets it right again. In the 2 previous blogs we have looked at the importance of lifestyle in athletes’ lives and how to usegoal setting to set plans.
Today we will look at some useful tools that can help change your goals into habits.
Specific is best
The more specific you can get, the more accountable you will become as it is easy to measure whether you have done what you said you would.
“Eating right” is vague. “Eating breakfast every day” is better. “Eating a breakfast that consists of organically reared chicken eggs, spinach soup and flaxseeds that have been harvested by a Zen monk on the slopes of Everest” might be a bit too much to start.
“Getting 8 hours sleep” might seem specific, but it is dependent on other factors.”Getting into bed by 1030 every night, switching off all screen devices at 1000” is better.
Organisation
The next thing to do is to get yourself organised. If your goal is to “eat 5 portions of fruit and veg a day” then you had best make sure you go shopping so that you have them in the house. That goal is easier to achieve with an apple on your desk than without.
That is why online shopping is useful: you can just leave your favourites entered so you never forget.
If your goal is to “run 2 miles every morning” then you had best have an alarm clock, wet weather clothes and a pair of running shoes.
A smartphone app such as runkeeper is also useful to help plan your training runs (special report here)
Timescale
It takes about 21 days of continuous effort for a task to become a habit. If you break this down into 3 x 1 week sections, then it suddenly becomes very achievable.
In order to get this done use our Checklist pdf (here) to write down your set of tasks that you want to get done this week. Set yourself a reward for the end of the week once you have managed to do them for 7 days in a row.
Do that for 3 weeks and you suddenly have a new habit formed.
For example:
My last 3 weeks were set for “5 Healthy behaviours” which included: daily flossing, static stretch in evening for 15 minutes pre bed time; walk 30 mins a day; 5 portions of fruit and veg a day; pre breakfast exercise routine of 8 mins.
I fell off the waggon twice, but got back on it and now all those little things have become habits.
The next set was: no alcohol (quite easy); eat Vit D / fish oil capsule each day (easy); avoid foods with processed sugar (very hard).
For BHAGs, which take longer to organise and achieve, you might try Day Zero which has a 1001 day (about 2.75 years) count down tool. Here you can plan bigger projects or challenges and break them down into manageable chunks.
Where would you like to be in 1001 days time?
Accountability
Don’t try and do this on your own. Let other people know what you are doing, get the household engaged (don’t bore your team mates with the “I am eating lichen after my foam roller conditioning session” though), and write it down.
This means having the family support your efforts (note to wife coming home with chocolate digestives!) and hold you accountable accordingly.
I use Habitforge which is a free online tool for reminding you about your tasks for 21 days at a time. It also allows you to share and be accountable with people who have similar goals.
Fatsecrets (hate the name, but good tool) is good for any food/ diet related goals. You can monitor food and exercise and it also reminds you of weigh in dates or other goals. You can share this with friends too who can help you keep on track.
Rewards
I know that “success is its own reward” but think of the rewards as milestones. Every week or 3 weeks have a reward scheduled; but not a destructive one.
For example, if you are “doing my knee exercises daily” then the reward could be going to the cinema.
If your goal is “cut out chocolate” then the reward shouldn’t be “a chocolate orange” (I find it weird that people who can manage 6 weeks of behaviour change in Lent ruin it all in a chocolate binge over Easter).
Summary
By making small incremental changes over time, you can achieve your big goal.
Conversely, your big training goal is unlikely to be achieved if your lifestyle is detrimental to the overall plan.
Habits and behaviours take time to form. Recognise this and think of how many “3 weeks of modifcations” you can fit into a year.
Change things one at a time, or along a theme (i.e healthy behaviours, sleep, breakfast, warm ups).
Recognise that you will not succeed all the time, but it isn’t a catastrophe, get back on to it, or find the reason why you keep failing at it (lack of sleep might be due to your facebook addiction).
As a coach, help your athletes along the way and be patient.
(Those of you on the Sports Training System and those being coached have access to more resources to help).
“Living without an aim is like sailing without a compass.”
Alexandre Dumas.
In part 1 I set the scene of how athletes need help in adopting behaviours that will improve their sporting performance. Today I will look at how to set goals that will get them started.
“The difference between a wish and a goal is the act of writing it down.”
That is paraphrasing something I heard years ago. In order to make changes, a plan has to be put in place. The initial goal setting is where most people fall down in my experience.
This has come from years of working in a Health Club environment of the “I want to lose a bit of weight” clientele (really meaning “I want to look good naked), and the “I want to be bigger” from young rugby players (really meaning “I want to look good naked”).
If you are not clear in what you are trying to achieve and honest with yourself, it will not work. You will set yourself up for failure, and then this becomes a habit.
Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs)
Taken from Jim Collins and Jerry Porras excellent “Built to Last” book (1). These are basically very emotionally compelling and challenging goals. An example might be “play Hockey for England” or “Run a 4 minute mile”.
When looking at how successful goal setting is and how it changes behaviour, people with high levels of self efficacy respond well to challenging goals, they are better at setting the tasks that are needed to achieve the goal (2).
People with low levels of self efficacy do not respond as well to BHAGs, because they are less able to set the appropriate tasks.
However, modifying the goal slightly to “try your best” rather than focussing on the outcome can help.
SMART Goals
Last year I ran a workshop that aimed to help young athletes plan their next 4 weeks. When asked if they new what SMART goals were, most of them nodded their heads and said they had done it in P.E. or with another coach.
When we tried to put it in practice, I quickly saw how they may have been able to recite the “Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time Orientated”but they struggled to put this down on paper.
This shows the problems of using acronyms in coaching, they can obscure information and limit understanding (see also S&C, SAQ, BHAGs etc).
The major difficulty the athletes found was seperating their wish (BHAG?) such as playing for England from a plan for the next month. In order to achieve their wish, they need to be able to identify a series of actions or smaller goals that can be achived in the measurable time frame of a month.
An example.
A junior javelin thrower wants to be able to throw 55m next year. He is currently throwing 47m. There are 6 months before the start of the competitive season. This is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time Orientated.
However, how he goes about achieving that goal is now the key part.
He thinks he needs to be stronger and to work on his range of movement of his thoracic spine. He needs to plan each month (periodisation geeks give me a break: this is the real world) and have some goals to work on that help him achieve this.
The overall sub goals might include: strength work, eat right (to facilitate the strength gains) and mobilise thoracic spine. Rather than test/ measure his strength, I aim to get him in the habit of strength training and programme work that includes T-spine mobility.
If he sticks to the process, then the outcome will take care of itself. As a junior and new to strength training, I would be stupid to try and set a goal for him based on flimsy evidence now (note to S&C coaches:his aim is to throw the javelin further, not to get score x in the gym).
Summary
Goal setting theory is sound and has shown to be very effective. Where it falls down is in the setting of the wrong type of goal for the situation and if the goal is imposed rather than self directed or agreed.
Once the goal is established, it is the work that has to be done to achieve that goal that is crucial. Here planning and understanding of the real world are essential.
Do not try and do everything at once, break the plan down into incremental tasks that become habits.
In part 3 we will look at some useful tools to help sustain the habits/ tasks that are necessary to achieve your goals.
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
Aristotle’s quote is often used, but it is hard to follow. When working with athletes, it is often the intangibles that make the difference to the overall outcome of the training programme.
I often see young coaches or academics popping out and inflicting paper programmes on athletes and saying “I have shown them, now they have to do it“.
Unfortunately (or fortunately) athletes are human beings, not artificial constructs.
We must therefore coach the person first and then the programme second.
Athlete’s do not operate in a vacuum
In order to make gains in training we know that not only must the athlete work, they need to rest and recover. The two things I never assume that an athlete does well are:
Sleep.
Eat.
Just saying, “eat healthy food” and “get 8 hours sleep a night” does not recognise that behaviour needs to change, and that comes from habits.
Very few people think that 5 hours sleep a night and eating crisps and chocolate are the way to become an Olympian.
Mostly though, it is getting the athlete to incorporate healthy behaviours and habits into their lifestyle.
Working on the intangibles
Changing behaviour is not easy. Education is one part of it, but people need help doing this. It might involve changing the culture of the team/ club or the home environment too.
Part 2 of this blog will look at Goal setting and how to get started,
Part 3 will look at some useful tools on how to help you maintain your good habits.
I don’t profess to know everything, but I am lucky enough to know enough great coaches and experts that I can draw upon for advice.
This means I can give the best advice to parents of our club members and individual athletes. Here are two great examples of conversations I had with experts based in the USA answering questions from our athletes.
First up (seasonal relevance for those wanting to avoid post Christmas fad diets) a Q&A with Dave Ellis of “Fueling Tactics” who has worked with many professional and collegiate sports teams. He has a real understanding of how to apply nutritional theory to the real world.
Second up “What a parent should know about helping their child develop and enjoy sport over their lives” with Dr Brian McCormick. (skip the first 2 minutes of tech difficulties!). For those parents who feel pressured into getting their child into a squad, team or “academy” too early.
Thanks to all our athletes, parents, volunteers and suppliers for a great 2017. A lot has happened over the last year, and more is planned for 2018. Here is a summary and update for January 2018.
Please share with family and friends, you never know who might want to take up a new activity in January, or help at the club in some form. We couldn’t have foreseen our 4 level 1 weight lifting coaches a year ago!
As Head Coach I shall continue to strive to improve what we do as a club and my own coaching. In 2o17 this included:
Level 2 weightlifting coaching qualification
Became a weightlifting coach tutor
James presenting
Completed the Damien Walters movement course (Parkour)
Attended and presented at the DAASM (German Academy of Applied Sport Science) conference in Cologne.
Attended and ran practical workshop at GAIN conference in Houston.
Attend weekly Adult Gym sessions at Orchard gymnastics to improve my practical knowledge.
Completed the Level 3 Gymnastics Somersault module.
These experiences and sharing ideas and asking questions of World Class coaches are invaluable in shaping how and what I coach for our club members.
Athletics
Training and competing in the Summer seems a long way off.
Pre race warm up
Every athlete competed at some point and in more than one event. This avoids early specialisation and gives everyone the opportunity to run, jump and throw.
It was nice to start running sessions at Willand school too and see those pupils become club members.
Thanks to Cullompton Community College (CCC), we could practice our long jumps and discus throws safely. Thanks to Sainsbury’s vouchers donations we bought new javelins, discus, and hurdles.
Winter Athletics has moved from monthly to weekly due to demand. We now run 2 sessions a week and the new members have really liked being taught how to move properly.
Gymnastics
Grace, Amelia, George 50th caps
After last year’s expansion of classes and move to the excellent Willand Village Hall, this year saw a focus on expanding the Freestyle Gymnastics and improving the class design. Our Summer display was the best yet, and it all came from the design of the gymnasts themselves.
Thanks to fund raising efforts, we have bought even more equipment: a “rockin robin” tumble trainer, a junior springboard, a round off mat and an extra landing mat. All of these are used weekly.
In September I took Flora, Grace and Jack to the somersaults and aerials workshop. We now have several gymnasts who can do front or side somersaults. It is just as pleasing to see our new intake mastering the forward rolls, thanks to Harry Washington for helping with this group.
We now have a waiting list in Willand, but unfortunately we still seem unable to gain more members in Wellington, especially in the Free G (Parkour) class. If you know anyone who would like to take part, please let me know.
Beginner daytime sessions for Ladies (19 tried it out).
have all been completed.
Zara and James both represented the club at weightlifting competitions in the South West, Zara finished 4th in the Bristol Open.
We have more “Love to Lift” sessions that are running in January, so if you know any females who want to try the sport, please let me know.
Zara competing
The main comment was “It looks so easy, but it’s really hard“! As you can see from the picture above, it isn’t all about heavy weight, it is about speed, co-ordination, mobility and no small amount of courage.
We held three p.b. nights over the year and will host our next club competition in February 2018.
Summary
A lot has happened, sorry to see some members leave, but delighted to welcome a lot of new ones. I hope everyone enjoys their Christmas break and look forward to coaching you all in 2018.
Here are my top 5 books from 2017, plus a synopsis of the other books I have read this year. It is easy to jump on the “It’s new and shiny, you must get it” bandwagon. Hopefully you will find some alternative ideas in this list.
Top 5 books (no particular order)
Coaching Better Every Season: Wade Gilbert. Comprehensive guide to best coaching practice throughout the year. Research and practice based with excellent examples and guides.
Technically rich
Track and Field: Athletics Training in the G.D.R. (East Germany). Editor G. Schmolinsky. Very detailed technical handbook from 1978. Ingrained with socialist principles at the beginning. The sprints, throws and jumps sections are good, the middle distance and endurance are ok. The preparation and specific and general exercises are excellent.
A Dynamic Systems Approach to the Development of Cognition and Action: Thelen & Smith. Excellent book about how thought and action are developed together. Looks in detail at infant development of reaching, grasping and walking down
Superb book
slopes. Very well written and explained.
Dynamic Groups at Work: H. Thelen. Superb book looking at how groups of people operate and how leadership can influence, shape and learn from this. Written in 1951, it stands up very well today. At some point the cult of the leader influenced thinking, this was very refreshing.
A Manual of Tumbling and Apparatus Stunts: Otto E. Ryser. 1964 guide to gymnastics for boys/ men. Lots of very good ideas in there for the keen recreational gymnast.
Wade Gilbert and me.
Some of these I have added to the recommended reading list for coaches and teachers that has accumulated over the years. There were 3-4 others which were very close and are included in the full list below.
You may have noticed some sticky tags in the books and also notes on the front page. This was to help me remember what I have read, Wade Gilbert gave me the index tip.
The Full List of 2017 (so far), including fiction, biographies and history books.
Meditations: Marcus Aurelius. Thoughts on Stoicism and dealing with being an Emperor. In depth and insightful.
Shame The Devil: George Pelecanos. Exciting crime caper based in Washington by writer of The Wire.
Coaching Better Every Season: Wade Gilbert. Comprehensive guide to best coaching practice throughout the year. Research and practice based with excellent examples and guides.
Jello Salad: Nicholas Blincoe. Graphic and twisted London crime novel.
Reading: Frank Smith. How children learn to read despite the best efforts of programmed instruction, phonics and other interference. 1987 copy, but resonates today.
The Pat Hobby Collection: F Scott Fitzgerald. Humorous set of short stories about an aging Hollywood script writer and his struggles.
Track and Field: Athletics Training in the G.D.R. (East Germany). Editor G. Schmolinsky. Very detailed technical handbook from 1978. Ingrained with socialist principles at the beginning. The sprints, throws and jumps sections are good, the middle distance and endurance are ok. The preparation and specific and general exercises are excellent.
Sad to lose Brian Aldiss this year.
Finches of Mars: Brian Aldiss. Interesting SF novel about humans having to evolve to survive on Mars. Philosophical underpinning about future of our planet.
Horus: Manuel Santos Varela. SF novel based on Egyptian mythology and gene splicing. Short and interesting.
The Teaching Gap: J.W. Stigler & J. Hiebert. Review of a study about Maths teaching in Japan, Germany and the USA. Insightful look at how teachers can and should develop their profession, rather than listen to academics who lack context.
They Marched Into Sunlight: David Marranis. Account of 1 day in October 1967 when US troops were ambushed in Vietnam and anti-war riot at University of Wisconsin. Very well written and researched.
Zorro: Isabel Allende. Light fiction, little depth.
The Faltering Economy: The Problem of Accumulation Under Monopoly Capitalism. Ed. J.B.Foster & H.Szlajfer. Series of essays written in 1981. Heavy going, but enlightening insights.
The Heat’s On: Chester Himes. Harlem crime novel from 1966. Page turner, descriptive and atmospheric.
A Dynamic Systems Approach to the Development of Cognition and Action: Thelen & Smith. Excellent book about how thought and action are developed together. Looks in detail at infant development of reaching, grasping and walking down slopes. Very well written and explained.
The Gold Standard: Mike Krzyzewski. An account of the 2008 USA Olympic basketball team’s journey to winning the Gold Medal by their Head Coach. Lightweight, but one for fans only.
Jack: A.M. Homes. Entertaining novel of a teenage boy coming to terms with family break up.
Border Country: Raymond Williams. Classic novel about the emptying of Welsh villages in the twentieth century. Told through story of one family, very moving.
Pax Romana: Adrian Goldsworthy. Interesting overview of how the Roman Empire was created and maintained over the first 3 centuries of its existence.
A Manual of Tumbling and Apparatus Stunts: Otto E. Ryser. 1964 guide to gymnastics for boys/ men. Lots of very good ideas in there for the keen recreational gymnast.
Eagle in the Snow: Wallace Breem. One of the best historical novels ever. Set on Roman frontier at the end of the Empire, action, character and poignant tragedy.
How Children Succeed: Paul Tough. Well laid out and organised book looking at case studies of children and environments that have overcome adversity to succeed. Great read for parents, teachers and coaches.
Dynamic Groups at Work: H. Thelen. Superb book looking at how groups of people operate and how leadership can influence, shape and learn from this. Written in 1951, it stands up very well today. At some point the cult of the leader influenced thinking, this was very refreshing.
The Confusion of Command: Lt. Gen T. D’Oyly Snow. Brief memoirs of the Commander of the 4th Division at retreat from Mons and 27th Division at Battle of Ypres. Shows how chaotic things were and ill prepared the BEF were in 1914.
The Way We Die Now: Charles Willeford. Gritty crime novel based in Miami, interesting characters with a rambling plot.
Classical Literary Criticism: Aristotle, Horace & Longinus. Thoughts on poetry, creating the sublime and drama from these three ancients.
The Reluctant Fundamentalist: Mohsin Hamid. Short, interesting, relevant novel about a Pakistani man trying to find his identity.
Lillian: David Emery. Biography of this British athlete from 1960s. Coached by her Dad to an Olympic medal, she died of cancer at a very young age.
One Knee Equals Two Feet: John Madden. Simple, but entertaining guide to football. Has some genuine nuggets of wisdom in there.
Creating Innovators: Tony Wagner. Case studies of people who are innovators in their field. Good for first 100 pages, but then repetitive.
Iron and silk: Mark Salzman. Enjoyable account of an English teacher spending 2 years in China in early 1980s.
The Heart of a Leader: Ken Blanchard. Quotes from his previous books with a brief explanation. Short but useful.
Stanley.The Impossible Life of Africa’s Greatest Explorer: Tim Jeal. Dense, detailed story of the famous Welsh/American/English Victorian. Reveals much that had been misinterpreted and is extensively researched. Amazing stories.
Peak Performance: S.Magness & B. Stulberg. Easy to read book about getting the most from your day and life. Useful anecdotes illustrating underpinning science.
D:Day The Battle for Normandy: Antony Beevor. Detailed and vivid account of the invasion of France. Compared to a similar book I read 30 years ago, it is more critical of the British and of the mistakes made by all sides. Tragic loss of life.
Timequake: Kurt Vonnegut. Half autobiographical, half satirical novel. Very well written and funny.
Cannonball Tennis: Mike Sangster. Hidden gem from this British number 1 from 1965. Very pertinent coaching tips and enjoyable stories from this Devonian.
Seven Theories of Human Nature: Leslie Stevenson. Brief look at different word views and a critique on their rationales. Great place to start and uses critical thinking on Marxisim, Christianity Freud and more.
Foxcatcher: Mark Schultz. Autobiography of sorts, dealing with the murder of his older brother Dave Schultz. Interesting to see behind the curtain of this apparently successful Olympian.
Barbarian Days, A surfer’s life: William Finnegan. Superb biography from this well known writer. Enjoyed it without being a surfer.
Three Cups of Tea: Greg Mortenson & David Relin. Account of one man’s mission to provide schools to remote areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. A bit evangelical and sycophantic in parts, but mostly inspiring.
Four Tragedies and Octavia: Seneca. Ancient Roman text revisiting some classic stories. One of the Stoic philosophers and has summary at the end.
A Century of Humour: ed P.G.Wodehouse. Huge collection of short stories in this interesting collection from 1935. Some sublime, others very dated.
The Wrong Side of Goodbye: Michael Connelly. Harry Bosch detective novel, still not a return to original form, but good holiday read.
Sunset Howe: Lewis Grassic Gibbon. Outstanding novel of rural Scotland in early 1900s. Characters jump off the page and draw you in.
Cloud Howe Lewis Grassic Gibbon. Part 2 and follows the move from rural to urban areas.
Grey Granite Lewis Grassic Gibbon. Part 3 and echoes the demise of Scotland with industrial unrest.
The Dead Zone: Stephen King. One of his SF novels which is topical today with the rise of a psychopathic US politician.
The World of Jeeves: P.G. Wodehouse. 34 short stories that feature the emminent valet and Bertie Wooster. Supremely crafted and still entertaining.
The Talent Lab: Owen Slot. Some interesting ideas in this book, but quite a PR stunt I think too.
Brain Rules: John Medina. 12 rules to help use your brain more efficiently. Well laid out and gives evidenced ideas from neuroscience.
The Gunslinger: Stephen King. Collection of short stories that form part one of the Dark Tower science fiction series.
The Classroom Society: H. Thelen. Dense text full of extremely useful insights and applications for teachers and coaches.
Instant Replay: Jerry Kramer. Inside look at the1967 Super Bowl season of the Green Bay Packers. Very revealing.
The Originals: Adam Grant. Interesting look at how people think differently and maybe become more creative. How to create a culture that allows dissent without collapse or acrimony.
The Blade Itself: Joe Abercrombie. Entertaining lightweight fantasy novel, heavy in cliches.
The Name Of The Wind: Patrick Rothfuss. Fantasy novel which resembles a collection of ripping yarns. A good read.
Complete Gymnastics Handbook: John Puckett & Edwin Bengston. Has some useful tips and a good curriculum for secondary schools.
The Interpreter: Brian Aldiss. Short SF novel about life at the edges of a frontier.Character driven and succinct.
The Wise Man’s Fear: Patrick Rothfuss. Enormous sequel which is entertaining but disjointed and ultimately goes nowhere.
The Gold Mine Effect. Rasmus Ankersen. Lightweight book looking at 6 hot spots of talent development around the world. Good in parts, big gaps in others.
A Coach’s Life: Dean Smith. Autobiography of the UNC basketball coach written in 1999. Great thoughts on coaching and how to manage a team.
If These Walls Could Talk (Green Bay Packers): Wayne Larrivee. Insights about the Packers from this radio reporter. Covers the last 25 years well.
Drive: Daniel Pink. Easy to follow and well researched look at what actually motivates humans. Very useful for coaches.
Snakewood: Adrian Selby. Original twist to the fantasy novel. Like David Gemmell, but with potions and more unpleasantness.
Body, Mind, and Sport: John Douillard. Full of New Age gurusism, very 80s with tenuous links to “science”. Interesting points about breathing, but the rest is confusing mysticism.
Uncommon: Tony Dungy. Very disappointing motivation book by the former NFL coach. Little substance.
How To Support A Champion: Steve Ingham. Entertaining and reflective look at how he developed his physiology support for athletes. Must read for support staff.
Man’s Search For Meaning: Viktor Frankl. How one man survived four concentration camps and lessons on life. Stunning read and very meaningful.
The Drawing Of The Three: Stephen King. Part 2 of the Dark Tower series. Fun read in a western type setting.
Band Of Brothers: Stephen Ambrose. Outstanding account of an airborne infantry company in WWII. Third time reading this, and still inspired.
Parachute Infantry: David Kenyon Webster. Detailed account of one of the “Band of Brothers” in action after D Day. Warts and all account of life in the army.
The Age Of Genius; The Seventeenth Century & The Birth Of The Modern Mind: A.C. Grayling. Interesting but somewhat muddled account of this little known period of mainly European history. Insightful in parts, could do with maps!
Leviathan Wakes: James S.A. Corey. Fun and expansive SF Novel. Reminds me of C.J,. Cherryh books from the 1980s.
Reading expands the mind
The Captain Class: Sam Walker. Interesting look at how some of the world’s best sports teams became dominant thanks to influential captains. Pseudo scientific but good to look beyond the obvious and much quoted.
The Influences Of Rudolf Laban: John Foster. Biography and analysis of how Laban shaped dance education and inspired educa
tional gymnastics in the UK.
Activities on P.E. Apparatus: J. Edmundson and J. Garstang. Great book from 1962 on lots of gymnastics exercises on some forgotten pieces of equipment such as boxes, ropes and ladders. Very useful resource.
Anabasis: Xenophon. The story of the retreat of the 10,000 from Persia to the sea. Modestly written, but insightful. The classic film “The Warriors” was based on this book.
The Warriors Reflections On Men In Battle: J Glenn Gray. Reflective account of this soldier and philosopher written 14 years after his experiences in WWII. Draws upon other historical accounts of warfare and is very revealing.
Thanks to all who recommended
Thanks again to the usual suspects for lending, sending and recommending.
Book club members Peter Bunning, Rob Frost for expanding my repertoire beyond work.
Mandi Abrahams of Castle Books, Beaumaris for her encyclopedic knowledge of books I have never heard about!
Vern Gambetta and the GAIN community for tripling my reading list every time I attend.
The Hayridge and Devon Libraries for lending, ordering and generally encouraging young and old to read more.
If you have any recommendations, please leave below. Enjoy your time to read over Christmas.
Studies at the Brisbane Broncos showed momentum to be a key feature of high performing players. Momentum is mass x velocity; if you increase your mass without concomitant improvement in relative strength (your ability to control your own body weight in all planes of movement) there is likely to be a reduction in velocity i.e. your momentum may go down.
Aristotle gets it right again. In the 2 previous blogs we have looked at the importance of l
The next thing to do is to get yourself organised. If your goal is to “eat 5 portions of fruit and veg a day” then you had best make sure you go shopping so that you have them in the house. That goal is easier to achieve with an apple on your desk than without.
I know that “success is its own reward” but think of the rewards as milestones. Every week or 3 weeks have a reward scheduled; but not a destructive one.
Alexandre Dumas.
Last year I ran a 
Aristotle’s quote is often used, but it is hard to follow. When working with athletes, it is often the intangibles that make the difference to the overall outcome of the training programme.
Sleep.
