At the recent GAIN conference there were plenty of great insights from the delegates and faculty.
I have put some of my favourites here.
Cole Peterson came up with this quote when describing how much time and effort we should spend on any activity.
This came up in the hypertrophy round table: at what point is an extra 2.5kg going to make a difference in this athlete’s bench press? An athlete only has so much time and energy, so we need to make sure it is devoted in the right areas.
“Function follows form, form follows function”
Tania Cotton describing the importance of having correct form. This then facilitates correct function, which again creates correct form. We are only interested in the efficiency of movement and its effectiveness in the field of play.
Form without function becomes stylistic and has zero relevance. Function without form is inefficient and could lead to injury.
“Preview, review, be positive”
Clay Erro describing how he starts every session.
He sets the scene for the imminent session,he reminds his players what happened last time and he is positive.
He got us to do this off the track, because when we moved onto the track, it was time to work.
He reminded us as coaches that we should be looking for effort and rewarding it. It is easy just to recognise ability.
“The human body is still a prototype”
Vinnie Comiskey reminding us that we are all different and we are still evolving as a species. Therefore we should be cautious about using modalities such as ice.
There were no refrigerators 1000 years ago, so why would we be responsive to ice?
“The body has a mind of its own, so I try to create movement maps”
Andy Stone talking about his philosophy of teaching physical education classes. He has been looking at neuroscience and is trying to train the brain within movement. He asks “where does the brain stop and the body begin?”
There was plenty more, but these highlights show just a snippet of the great information that was being shared by all.
“You have to be comfortable being uncomfortable all the time”
Vern Gambetta from the GAIN Athletic Development Manual.
I have just returned from spending a week at my 4th GAIN conference, at Rice University, Houston, Texas.
My mind and body were pushed, pulled and stretched in many different directions.
The standard of people coaching and presenting and attending is very high. This is far from a conference of “confirmation bias” or “how brilliant I am” presentations.
Instead it is an opportunity to immerse oneself into a learning and growing environment, ask challenging questions (apparently something I am good at) and have our beliefs and ideaschallenged.
This can only happen with the right people around. Get it wrong, and people get defensive, argumentative or withdraw.
One of the most impressive aspects is that the faculty members (with an inordinate amount of experience) are always taking notes and asking questions: maybe that explains their success?
I shall be expanding further on each topic over the next few weeks as I get a chance to reflect and review upon my notes and thoughts.
Coach education is more than ticking boxes.
Having had to suffer some pretty dire compulsory “coach education” courses recently, I would like to share the different ways I had an opportunity to learn at GAIN.
Remember: sharing an idea is a learning opportunity.
Lectures: listening to some excellent presenters on a wide range of topics from leadership, coaching, data monitoring, disease prevention, Bondarchuk and 100m sprint development (to name a few).
Discussions: We had 3 round table discussions with the returnees. Sal Marinello and I hosted one on strength with a particular focus on”Hypertrophy“. Got everyone in the room talking and sharing. Others were on endurance training and sports medicine.
Getting coached: Every morning there were 3 practical sessions on the track. I think coaches need to be coached: you get to feel what it is like to “be on the receiving end”. I was privileged to have Gary Winckler take me through some reactive speed drills in the gym for his session. He kept telling me to move faster (I am a 44 year old recreational tennis player, not one of his Olympic medalists!).GAIN talks: like Ted talks, some of us did 15 min presentations about what we did, or how we work. Mine was on motor learning (Wulf) using the micro practice (Lemov). It was good to see the faculty throw themselves into this and I hope it triggered some thinking.
Informal Learning: The meal times are a big highlight of GAIN. Not only is the food excellent (pancake deficit this year though), but the chance to ask, share, discuss and reflect with everyone from a huge range of backgrounds is invaluable. Really great snippets of wisdom or sparks of ideas to pursue.
Coaching: I got asked by Gary Winckler to help him coach one of his morning sessions! That was a highlight “don’t screw it up” was my main aim.
Workout before the workout: My roomate is Wrestling coach and p.e. teacher Andy Stone. Every morning we hit the track at 0550 to get a workout in before the workout (Vern calls this Naked crossfit), Each year we share ideas about what we have been working on. Here is a small sample:
Where else do you have an opportunity to do all that?
Big thanks to Vern Gambetta for creating this network, he has done an excellent job of evolving GAIN each year. Big thanks to everyone who was there and helped me learn.
If you have any questions, or thoughts, please share below.
Vern Gambetta did a few presentations on planning training, as well as a couple on coaching itself. The overall theme was “have a plan, then work the plan”. I will cover some specifics in this blog, as well as an overall summary.
Bullet Proof The Athlete
It is important to start out with a goal. Rather than chasing some arbitrary stats, it is important to keep the athlete in shape to train, and of course to compete. This means building and rebuilding the athlete from the Ground Up.
Gambetta looks at what he calls “Foundational Legs” to get his athletes strong first. He uses fast eccentric body weight exercises (rate of 1 rep /sec) along with mini band exercises to help cause eccentric soreness which replicates demands from change of direction on the field /court. He adds load up to 30% of body weight, before moving on to other exercises.
This would include:
Single leg squat: standing, seated
Squat: regular, overhead
Lunge: regular, with reach
Step up: regular, high.
He builds up the reps from 10-12-15-18-20 or 10-15-20, depending on their development. The goal is to get 5 sets of 20. He does this 2 x week, with 2 days rest in between. The legs require more recovery than the upper body.
This is a snapshot of training planning in detail, and how a coach has come up with a plan that works.
Create a Menu of Exercises
One of the most useful insights for me was the classification of exercises, as covered by Kelvin Giles, Jack Blatherwick and again by Gambetta.
Gambetta mentioned the Doherty Strength/ Power Index (DPI) to help decide which lift is where on a scale of strength or speed.
S10 S9…….. S1
V1 V2……………V10
(See yesterday’s blog on acceleration for a similar diagram).
Then for choosing the session itself:
Classify the exercises : type of body part, movement.
Rank the Exercises: order of complexity, or difficulty.
Select the Exercises: what are you going to work on
Combine the Exercises: what complements what, super sets and so on.
In the session Gambetta uses this progression of exercises:
Remedial: waking up the body.
Ancillary: getting ready to lift.
Focus: Lifting
This was a useful way of looking at what needs to be done, providing you know what you want to achieve at the end of the session or micro cycle. Instead of “how can I fit my new exercise I learnt at the weekend into my programme?”
How to Progress your athlete
It is easy as a coach to get caught up in new “stuff”. Progressing your athlete can be done by getting them to solve movement puzzles. This helps increase efficiency.
Get a pristine movement, then create Repeatable Excellence in Movement.
Why progress something that is poor?
Why load a poor movement?
Why keep on loading a poor movement?
“Circuit training to help the movement challenge is a nonsense”.
Instead, look at increasing complexity of movements by using Puzzles that are more spcific to the sport, that involve reactions and also decision making. From working in single planes to a “neural blizzard”.
In the big scheme of things if a new idea/ process/ prescription is recommended: what are you going to sacrifice to accommodate the new unit?
Gambetta then went through different qualities that need to be developed and how. The message was that when trying to develop endurance, speed, strength or flexibility you have to:
Build the quality (efficiency of movement)
Build the Capacity (movement consistency, resilience)
Get the Improvement
Apply it
Get another Improvement
No changes are permanent or relevant unless they are applied and practiced.
Summary of the GAIN 2011
The Eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed that I said I would do 5 blogs, not 6 about GAIN. Well, there was so much information and reflection that I could write an additional 5. I haven’t mentioned:
The early morning sessions in detail, applying theory into practice, some useful information there or
The Athletic Trainer type seminars on “Return to play” “Functional Anatomy” and the Physical Competence Assessment in detail.
Greg Thompson’s excellent interactive workshop on analysing and coaching throwing mechanics.
Key lessons learnt:
How the key speakers had developed a system that works and how organised they were in delivering it. This included the importance of classifying exercises.
Using a manual as a tool for organising these thoughts into practice. But not being constrained by theory/ structures and losing adaptability.
The importance of staying sharp when coaching and being innovative in your practice (different from being gimmicky). This requires planning and reflection as well.
How important coaching is when developing the Athlete.
Things that could have been better:
The evening seminars were dire. Too many people in a big group, completely unworkable. After being on the go since 0630, this could have been an opportunity for reflection, discussion and action on our own development. Part of the reason for me signing up to GAIN was to get some critical advice on how I do things from World Class coaches. There just was not the opportunity to do this.
Splitting the seminars up: The diverse backgrounds were an advantage in offering different perspectives. They were a disadvantage when trying to please everyone at the same time with the same seminars. It would have been good to offer a choice of 2 seminars for different backgrounds.
A major part of Coach learning is done through informal interactions. This could have been recognised and time allowed/ encouraged.
The future
It may still be too soon to decide whether the hefty investment of time, money and effort (from my family too) was worth it. One of the bonuses of GAIN is the ongoing learning of an online library and discussion forum. If this works out as fruitful and avoids group think, then that will help my Coaching.
Thanks to all the Faculty and the delegates for their input and thoughts.
This was one part of the Excelsior audit I have conducted this year. The bottom line is will it help me Coach our Athletes better? Thoughts always welcome.
Further reading:
If you want to develop your coaching come along to one of our courses here
Vinnie Comiskey reminding us that we are all different and we are still evolving as a species. Therefore we should be cautious about using modalities such as ice. 
Vern Gambetta from the GAIN Athletic Development Manual.
One of the most impressive aspects is that the faculty members (with an inordinate amount of experience) are always taking notes and asking questions: maybe that explains their success?
GAIN talks: like Ted talks, some of us did 15 min presentations about what we did, or how we work. Mine was on motor learning (Wulf) using the 
Informal Learning: The meal times are a big highlight of GAIN. Not only is the food excellent (pancake deficit this year though), but the chance to ask, share, discuss and reflect with everyone from a huge range of backgrounds is invaluable. Really great snippets of wisdom or sparks of ideas to pursue.
With thanks to Vern Gambetta