Have a look at this video of Tom Kurz (in his 60s) doing a Warm Down after his weights session.
Notice the lack of a foam roller, or therabands or any other gimic that hides the fact that the athlete is weak. Notice how he says that 200 squats is about right to help prevent knee pain.
I am constantly being requested to send the programme that the athlete I am training is doing to the National Governing Body. They want to see an excel spreadsheet with pretty colours and terms like “speed strength” or “PCr workouts” on them.
The fact that the athlete struggles to do 5 press ups, or is unable to get down and up off the floor for 30 seconds in sets of 4, seems to be irrelevant. As long as they have a “programme” then that is ok.
The more athletes I see, and especially the junior ones, the more reductionist in my approach I become. I cringe when I see the words periodised and programme now – it implies a top down, straight out of a text book approach- is that Coaching?
Why are they being given barbell power cleans before they can do 100 squats?
Simple things, done well is my motto at present. The Hindu squats and Hindu press ups demonstrated by Kurz are a great example of this.
Ever wanted to do the box splits or a back bridge?
You might not want to, but if you are a wrestler, martial artist, or track and field hurdler or high jumper, you might.
Tom Kurz is the author of the Science of Sports Training and has produced this dvd to help people develop practical flexibility and strength.
In the dvd (along with his books) Kurz emphasises that flexibility and strength need to be developed together. In order to be able to do Olympic Style weightlifting you need to be flexible in the thoracic spine, hips, shoulders and ankles.
The DVD has got 3 main parts:
How to do the box splits
How to do the back bridge
Bonus materials
Each part has the main exercise, then supplemental exercises to help you achieve the exercise. I thought that the bonus material should have formed some of the main content: the warm up routines and videos on squat and deadlift are very useful.
Going straight into the spluit routines was hard for me, and I have moderately good flexibility.
Kurz presents in a very understated fashion, bordering on the laconic. It makes a change from the hype and hoopla presented on commercial DVDs.
“I shall use a kettlebell as they are so fashionable these days” was my favourite quote. I did all the exercises in my sitting room, and just needed to get a kettlebell, 2 tennis balls and a sock.
A trailer can be seen here . I recommend this DVD for anyone who is looking to get practical advice on stretching for sports and has not got a background in gymnastics.
Coach Kurz has been kind enough to write a couple of guest blogs for us (read more here and here).
For many of our athletes Hindu press ups and Hindu squats are a regular feature of our training. I got these from today’s guest author Tom Kurz. He is an example of a Coach practitioner who sets a great example to others. His book “Science of sports training” is an excellent and very readable resource.
“I will begin with tips not for the the young athletes themselves but for those who train them. I begin by commenting on a concept from the post by Frank Dick, “before you get into teaching young people techniques they must have the physical competencies to do so without building in compensatory movements.”
I don’t distinguish very much between teaching general exercises and sport-specific exercises (techniques of the sport). In both cases one has to observe athletes to see whether they are ready for the exercises, if needed correct their defects, and then, with the defects seemingly corrected, still correct those defects or others as the exercises reveal them.
To do so effectively one has to pay attention to the athletes and know how to dose the exercises, their form and internal load. (External load = External resistance, number of reps, distance, etc. Internal load = Physiologic effect of the external load.)
Now I will end the fuzzy generalities and give examples.
A gymnast learns vaults. Soon after the warm-up he does well, but as the workout progresses his form gets worse. Eventually he misses jumps, more and more, and yet the coach encourages him to keep trying as if trying harder could help when inhibitions have set in. The coach is not paying attention to a technical flaw in the landing on arms, that in turn has its source in a posture defect. Every landing is causing a discomfort and raising an alarm in the athlete’s motor centers, “This hurts, this damages, stop this.”
A young female gymnast lags behind the group in hip flexibility. She is skinny but much taller then the rest of the group. Her Russian coach, a former gymnast, makes her do the same flexibility exercises as the rest of the group, even though they evidently don’t work for her. The coach has no clue that there are other flexibility exercises than those that work only with little children built for gymnastics. The coach has no understanding of anatomy that would give him a way of adjusting her position in stretches so to make them effective for her.
A high school track-and-field sprinter has a pronounced upper and lower cross posture, which forces his legs and arms to move in inefficient patterns. His coach, a high school p. e. teacher, has never given him corrective exercises. The athlete was allowed to sprint prior to undergoing a corrective exercise program.
A judo wrestler ends a practice bout, and walks off the mat with a slight limp, which he had not prior to this bout. Time for another bout, so he steps on the mat again, with a limp. His instructor acts like all is well. I stop the wrestler and order him to have his knee examined. The exam revealed a severely sprained ACL, that took several months of rehab to get back to normal.
Now tips for the young athletes themselves.
A good technique feels comfortable. If it does not, then you are taught wrong. It does not matter whether you were not prepared well for learning that technique, or you were taught a wrong technique, or you have misunderstood the instruction–you were taught wrong. It is a responsibility of the instructor to instruct according to the athletes’ capabilities.
The most effective training loads (resistance, number of reps, distance, etc.) are such that do not distort good form. If your form in exercises or techniques deteriorates, you are doing too much. You are erasing good technical habits and ingraining bad ones.
A good coach is the one who looks at the athletes when they exercise and not into notes on a clipboard or in a laptop, notepad, or whatever. If your coach or instructor doesn’t catch your errors on the first or second repetition, you need to go elsewhere for instruction.”
Read more from Coach Kurz on the practical application of principles of training at Stadion Publishing and also his blog
Thanks to all of our guest authors who have given such great tips on training young athletes. It is very useful to hear from such a wealth of experience.
If you wish to have an easy to follow guide to training young athletes, then click on the book cover to the right. I wrote this standing on the shoulders of giants.
If you wish to have an easy to follow guide to training young athletes, then click on the book cover to the right. I wrote this standing on the shoulders of giants.