Tag Archive: lifestyle

1. 3 pillars of athletic development: Kelvin Giles

   18th September 2013 3:15 pm 11 Comments

   “Great coaches find a way or make one”

   Kelvin Giles presenting his “Quest for physical literacy” om Exeter on Monday.

   The theme was putting precision, variety and progression into the coaching and teaching of young people at every opportunity.

   Kelvin gave a great one day workshop which had coaches, parents, teachers, physiotherapists and also 4 junior international athletes attending.

   The 3 pillars of athletic development

   Kelvin outlined his take on this:

   1. Cardiorespiratory (metabolic) efficiency: the running, swimming, cycling that gets the heart and lungs working.
   2. Nutritional quality: what the athletes put into their mouths and bodies.
   3. Mechanical (movement) efficiency: the focus of the day.

   When looking at mechanical efficiency, the load must be determined by the quality of the technique.

   That load is either: speed, distance, volume, direction, complexity or the surface upon which it is performed.

   When all of this is perfect, only then can you progress.  “Function before sports specific skill, force, speed or endurance.“

   This is criterion based progression:  the athlete must earn the physical right to progress. The adaptation must be permanent and consistent.

   (Compare that with the norm which is “no weights until you are 16, now we start with power cleans”, or “you can’t do a body weight squat? Never mind, get in the smith machine and we can add some weight because you are too skinny” James’ rant over).

   Kelvin gave examples of this, and we started with a lot of squat variations, followed by physical competency assessments.

   I have done this 4 times previously with Kelvin, but always learn something new. Today it was that spending 4 hours in a car leads to tight hamstrings!

   The state of the nation

   Kelvin spent a good portion of the day outlining the data and research behind our lack of physical ability.

   As a coach of young people, or even senior clubs and teams, it is easy to concentrate on “performance outcomes” either in the gym or in the win/ loss column. However, it is important to remember where these athletes are coming from.

   It is alright having “medal targets” for Rio and Tokyo Olympics, but the simple fact is that we have a young generation of unfit, overweight kids who struggle to move properly. Kelvin laid this out very well.

   It is everyones’ responsibility to help solve this problem. The answer isn’t with p.e “specialists” being put into primary schools and chucking a ball at 30 kids and saying “play a game“.

   The answer isn’t with hordes of sports science students being able to recite force/ time relationships or measuring Vo2 max on a treadmill but unable to coach a press up or a squat properly. Let alone sequence those movements into a meaningful, engaging coaching session.

   The answer lies with better coaching and teaching:”If you don’t chase precision, you are supporting mediocrity”. 

   “Kids aren’t afraid of hard work, the’re afraid of boredom”. Wayne Goldsmith

   “My butt is killing me”

   The last hour of the day was all practical with Kelvin taking the group through some lunge progressions, sway drill variations and single leg squat variants.

   “Are we teaching/ coaching them to discover, or to be robotic?” Kelvin put all his theory and experience into practice.

   This was a great example of how good coaching and using time and space can create overload, rather than justing adding weight. “The minute you put a bar on someone’s shoulders you slow them down“.

   With minimal coaching cues, Kelvin set tasks that their bodies had to solve: linear, lateral, rotational, squatting, bracing, hinging. So much variation and fun, with just the body.

   As Steve Myrland says “Complex equipment tends to yield simplistic results, simple equipment tends to yield complex results

   Summary and the way ahead

   Exeter school provided the venue and it was great to see their teaching and coaching staff making the most of this opportunity.

   They have recently opened their Athletic Development Gym and have implemented some great programming ideas.

   Thanks to everyone who took part, and especially to Kelvin for once again delivering a great workshop (following on from his session at Willand School, I have been helping them further implement the ideas).

   Contact me if you would like a similar course run near you

2. Spreading the joy of movement: Willand School and Kelvin Giles

   9th September 2013 8:26 am 2 Comments

   “We spend the first two years of their life trying to get them to move and say Dada, then spend the next 16 years telling them to sit down and shut up.”

   Kelvin Giles gave a great 2 hour presentation to the staff at Willand School last Friday as part of their back to school training.

   He explained the benefits of moving well and moving regularly, and got the staff to take part.

   Primary school teachers are in the fortunate (or unfortunate) position of having to be “Jack of all trades“. Whilst some may have a “sporty background”, others are artists, linguists or scientists. This was an opportunity to show how physical activity can aid learning and give the teachers some practical ideas on how to implement it.

   As Kelvin said, p.e is the first subject to be cut when the gymnasium has to be used for exams, nativity play practice or if the kids go to the zoo for the day!

   Benefits of physical activity in schools

   Kelvin broke this down into 3 areas, and related everything to the classroom and school environments.

   1. Physical: muscular -skeletal (posture, work place absenteeism), neuro-muscular (brain and body connection), metabolism (work capacity, how you cope with daily life).
   2. Cognitive: How they learn to move, how they acquire skill, how they apply skill.
   3. Psychosocial: behaviour, perseverance, discipline.

   (Interestingly, the session before Kelvin was by a cursive handwriting expert who extolled the virtues of physical co-ordination tasks to help handwriting. They also recommended an inclined desk to write properly,which also helps improve posture, something I have been telling the school about for a year!)

   Explicit vs Implicit Learning

   I have seen Kelvin present a few times before, and talked quite a bit with him. This was the first time I saw him talk about and implement these two different types of coaching cue.

   It was good to see this in action. The first is a set of rules, the second is subconscious learning by experimentation. Kelvin showed an exercise on video, then got the staff to try it out. No winners, no losers: everyone was having a go. Then a few ideas like “eyes shut” or “change arm positions” that enabled the staff to experiment and challenge themselves: again no winners or losers.

   The staff through themselves into the session, and it was difficult to get them to stop having fun! It was great to see how engaged the staff were. I hope this passes down to the children at the school.

   This was part of Willand School’s 3 part approach to developing p,e this year. Head Teacher Anne Hawkins has put time and energy into developing this and my aim is to help support her in this work. It will benefit not only my kids, but all of those who attend the school.

   Thanks again to Kelvin for delivering. Really looking forward to the full day next week in Exeter.