Ok, at this point any of my athletes/fellow coaches who know me, know that I have an all encompassing man-crush on Bruce Lee. Allow me to preface this entry with a bit of back-story regarding Bruce and I and how I feel he changed my life/opened my mind.
Bruce was a classically trained martial artist in the style of Wing-Chung Gung-Fu. He learned from Yip-Man, still a legend in the world of martial arts, and was incredibly adept in his technique. Fast forward to his early life in the USA. Bruce never stepped away from what he learned from his Gung-Fu background, but still adapted the technique and fighting style to make it his own, which is how he 'created' Jeet Kun Do. I put 'created' in quotes because Jeet Kun Do is made to be adapted to each individual martial artist. One of his famous quotes is...
"Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own"
Or also the very famous "Be Like Water" quote.
This statement and other writings of his opened my mind as both an athlete and coach. When I graduated from college I weighed upwards of 280lbs and was tired of being a lazy, un-athletic oaf and using the excuse of "oh, I'm a shot putter" to explain why I weighed so much. Using Bruce Lee's texts, and catering a training regime to my own style as well as strengths and weaknesses I went from close to 280 in July to 187lbs the following April all the while gaining strength. I owe a lot to Bruce Lee's writings and his own research some 40 years before I even implemented his ideas on fitness, nutrition and just clean living. To borrow another quote, this time from Isaac Newton, I stood 'on the shoulders of giants' and my education as a coach had begun.
Ok fast forward to the whole purpose of this blog entry, regarding the close-mindedness that is still rampant throughout the coaching/athletic community. Any of you who know myself, or any of my colleges through East Coast Gold, or track and field coaches I am friendly with know how open the coaches are to discuss their training ideas, coaching philosophies and just basic program design method. It is an awesome community to be a part of, and I've learned just as much (if not more) from these conversations as I have through any of my certification courses, lectures or conventions.
As a result, I've learned to be very open and generous with my time and knowledge as a coach, especially with strength and conditioning. However, when I ask questions regarding a teams program design when they ask for advice on their workouts, the reply that I still detest to this day is "well, we've been doing this program for 15 years now so we'll be sticking with that". Keep in mind, this frustration has nothing at all to do with the workout itself, rather the rigidity and apathy that is used for the reason of it's implementation. More often then not, these workouts are the same workouts the particular coach used themselves when they were an athlete, then they simply copy and paste, and dispense to their new athletes. It's basically Amway or Quixtar with workouts rather than groceries.
As a bit of background, strength training for sports has not been around all too long when you think about it. The workouts started as mostly hypertrophy/bodybuilding workouts and grew from there. Sadly, some coaches never evolved their workouts past hypertrophy. I've noticed that I have encouraged and ended many a blog post asking coaches and athletes to educate themselves further but, yep, I'm going to do it again. If I had not (and did not still continue to) educate myself, I would be 280lbs still and a very ineffective coach. Any of my coaching buddies reading this entry know, from first hand experience, how many of their brains I pick when writing workouts for an upcoming season, especially if I am going to try new things with a particular group. My first college coaching gig was in 2005 and I wish I had the lifting workouts I wrote from back then. For athletes in season it contained things like 4 different versions of a press, along with cleans at sets of 8 and 2 forms of squats all in the same day. I didn't know any better. However what I DID know was that I wanted to constantly improve.
A day doesn't go by that I don't look back with regret at that the athletes I coached early in my career and wish I could work with them now. I was a loud mouthed, arrogant, uneducated coach, who made up for his insecurities by displaying anger. However, I was at least able to understand my short comings and evolve my programs from there. I'm currently working on workouts for Summer/Fall for athletes and looking into last years program for any things I feel can be improved. So next time you are trusted with the task of coaching young athletes and designing programs, take the time to research, not only training methods you aren't well versed in, but also each individual athlete. And once your research is complete adjust your workouts to fit whatever mold you have. In other words, 'Be Like Water'.
Sunday, February 16, 2014
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
The Decline of the All-Around Athlete...
Sports specialization has become a growing problem in youth athletics, I would even use the word "epidemic". Children are being thrown into a specific sport (soccer, football, basketball) at a young age and immersed in that sport yearlong. This action can lead to a number of problem that ultimately I, as a collegiate coach, am faced with on a daily basis. This entry I just wanted to summarize some of those reasons.
When we're young while we may have a set amount of fast twitch fibres or a genetic predisposition to some sports or activities, our motor skills have yet to fully develop, as well as forms of coordination, postural issues/dysfunctions and other basic tenets of athleticism. When dealing with youth athletes and their parents, I always preach to them to allow their children to play as many sports as they would like. Yes, I will always use the word play, but I will get back to that later. The benefits of a youth athlete training and competing in a variety of sports are immense. For one, every sport builds athleticism in different ways. Whether it be speed, endurance, power, coordination, flexibility, motor skills, etc; the benefits are obvious. The athlete that is better trained all around, will be the better athlete and will have fewer injuries as a result.
The next benefit goes back to that word "play" that I used earlier. The whole purpose of sport at a young age is to enjoy it. Does anyone know the percentage of athletes that turn pro? Here is one that is staggering, 1.7% of college football players turn pro, and .08% of high school football players turn pro. Basketball is even lower with 1.2% of college and .02% of high school players turning professional. (http://www.businessinsider.com/odds-college-athletes-become-professionals-2012-2?op=1)
What this statistic tells you is that the odds of becoming a professional athlete are so infinitesimal, that we are burning out our youth and amateur athletes simply for our own egos and not their own well being. Athletics can be an excellent educational device, but lately it is used either for money making purposes or (worse in my opinion) as a way to stroke egos. The focus needs to be on the athletes' growth, but athletically as well as personally, academically and socially.
Finally, sports are a great stress relief. For college athletes, their days are filled with classes, coursework, thesis papers as well as the basic ills that go with being a 18-23+ year old. Being told that at 18 years old you need to specialize and only pick one sport is just more weight packed onto the donkey's back. Most of the time, the reason for being told this demand is that the coaches simply do not want to share "their" athlete with another sport. Once again, it all goes back to ego. Rather than look out for the well being of the student-athlete, the coach is consumed with the idea of "this athlete is mine, these other coaches and sports will screw him/her up, so they need to train with me 12 months a year". When you think about how absurd this behavior is, it really makes you wonder what athletics (especially collegiate and scholastic) are for anymore.
In conclusion, I'm not really hoping to accomplish anything with this entry, just hoping that my fellow coaches athletes and pals out there will pass along the idea of making these young athletes healthy and happy, but making them well rounded. Think of all the amazing multi-sport athletes in history. Jim Thorpe, Marion Jones, Bo Jackson, Deion Sanders moving up today with Lolo Jones and other sprinters in the winter olympics. Stop thinking about athletes as "yours" exclusively. If anything it's YOU that belongs to THEM as their coach, you are there to serve their best interest. Never the other way around.
When we're young while we may have a set amount of fast twitch fibres or a genetic predisposition to some sports or activities, our motor skills have yet to fully develop, as well as forms of coordination, postural issues/dysfunctions and other basic tenets of athleticism. When dealing with youth athletes and their parents, I always preach to them to allow their children to play as many sports as they would like. Yes, I will always use the word play, but I will get back to that later. The benefits of a youth athlete training and competing in a variety of sports are immense. For one, every sport builds athleticism in different ways. Whether it be speed, endurance, power, coordination, flexibility, motor skills, etc; the benefits are obvious. The athlete that is better trained all around, will be the better athlete and will have fewer injuries as a result.
The next benefit goes back to that word "play" that I used earlier. The whole purpose of sport at a young age is to enjoy it. Does anyone know the percentage of athletes that turn pro? Here is one that is staggering, 1.7% of college football players turn pro, and .08% of high school football players turn pro. Basketball is even lower with 1.2% of college and .02% of high school players turning professional. (http://www.businessinsider.com/odds-college-athletes-become-professionals-2012-2?op=1)
What this statistic tells you is that the odds of becoming a professional athlete are so infinitesimal, that we are burning out our youth and amateur athletes simply for our own egos and not their own well being. Athletics can be an excellent educational device, but lately it is used either for money making purposes or (worse in my opinion) as a way to stroke egos. The focus needs to be on the athletes' growth, but athletically as well as personally, academically and socially.
Finally, sports are a great stress relief. For college athletes, their days are filled with classes, coursework, thesis papers as well as the basic ills that go with being a 18-23+ year old. Being told that at 18 years old you need to specialize and only pick one sport is just more weight packed onto the donkey's back. Most of the time, the reason for being told this demand is that the coaches simply do not want to share "their" athlete with another sport. Once again, it all goes back to ego. Rather than look out for the well being of the student-athlete, the coach is consumed with the idea of "this athlete is mine, these other coaches and sports will screw him/her up, so they need to train with me 12 months a year". When you think about how absurd this behavior is, it really makes you wonder what athletics (especially collegiate and scholastic) are for anymore.
In conclusion, I'm not really hoping to accomplish anything with this entry, just hoping that my fellow coaches athletes and pals out there will pass along the idea of making these young athletes healthy and happy, but making them well rounded. Think of all the amazing multi-sport athletes in history. Jim Thorpe, Marion Jones, Bo Jackson, Deion Sanders moving up today with Lolo Jones and other sprinters in the winter olympics. Stop thinking about athletes as "yours" exclusively. If anything it's YOU that belongs to THEM as their coach, you are there to serve their best interest. Never the other way around.
Sunday, November 10, 2013
What's a coach?
With all the junk going on in sports lately, I'm beside myself with anger. First with bullying taking place in the locker room, and so many "experts" saying that people need to "toughen up" and it's "part of the game". I don't know, but through my experience coaching, some of the "toughest" players on the field were the quietest and most even tempered in the locker room and off the field. "Oh but professional football is different, the sport demands a 'killer instinct' to survive, they're a different breed". So were are saying that if a player goes home and beats up a family member, spouse, child, or regular citizen it's OK, because it's just them being "tough" and that's the type of attitude we need from our athletes? And then you have the waste of grey matter sports commentators saying that because a player is intelligent, maybe they aren't cut out for professional sports. Since when is being intelligent and good-tempered a bad thing? All of these issues, for me, come from the main problem that there are a lack of coaches in the world. Oh hey, but Gregg there are tons of coaches out there. So many, that there are some great, amazing coaches they are still looking for jobs (cough:hint:cough). Well what I mean by that thesis statement, is that there is a lack of ACTUAL coaches, and this fact precipitates the failures of the athletes and culture within athletics.
What is a Coach Anyway?
Whenever I am asked what being a coach means, I always say the same thing. Coaching is education. To me, that statement needs no further elaboration, and really shouldn't warrant an explanation, but I always need to expand. Anyone who has taken a course in education knows that the main purpose of an educator is to create an environment conducive to learning. In other words, the main role of a teacher isn't to throw knowledge at the students and hope for it it stick, rather their job is to create an environment so that learning CAN take place. Think back to the various classrooms of which you've been a part. Sometimes the teachers who may not know the most about the particular subject are the best,simply because they create an environment that is comfortable, welcoming, professional which causes you to retain more knowledge. On the other hand, sometimes the most intelligent teachers create the most uncomfortable, un-welcoming environment and you learn very little. I remember some classes where every single day the teacher would turn out the lights, put on the overhead projector and give notes for an hour. Between the dark room, and the slow, hypnotizing hum of the projector I would invariably doze off within fifteen minutes.
Compare what I just said to some coaches you have had. A coach that I greatly admire (Dan Steele currently of University of Northern Iowa) calls the idea that a great athlete becomes a great coach a "Pervasive Myth". All too frequently, athletes, athletic departments, and coaches believe that if someone was a great athlete, then surely they will be a great coach. This conclusion is far from accurate for a number of reasons, partially for the same reasons why the most intelligent people don't make the best teachers. Sometimes a great athlete is simply that, a great athlete. Once again, I'm reminded of what Coach Steele has written, comparing it very aptly to a mechanic. "Being a former athlete gives you many wonderful tools for the coaching toolbox, but you still have to know how to apply them. A great mechanic isn’t great because of his mastery of tools. He is great because of his mastery of problem solving." (http://unitrack.blogspot.com/p/coaching-compass.html)
So ok, what is the goal of the coach then? Well, remember the goal of a teacher? According to some definitions, coaching is "a process that enables learning and development to occur and thus performance to improve."(Eric Parsloe, The Manager as Coach and Mentor (1999) page 8)
If you notice, simply replace the phrase "a process" with "an environment" and you have almost the same definition as what it means to be a teacher. From this extrapolation, we can conclude that being a teacher, and being a coach are synonymous. It is due to this fact that we understand exactly why many elite athletes are not effective coaches. Being able to do something yourself, and being able to teach someone else how to do that skill are two very different things. In the track and field world, think of how many athletes you've come across who may not be as skilled as you in terms of technique or training, but still beat you in races or field events simply due to genetics. Some of these athletes then move on to the coaching ranks and become frustrated when their own athletes don't share the same success they once had. However, that is not their fault in my opinion, it is simply the mechanism that society has created as of late. I know of a number of coaches whom I admire, that never competed in track themselves, or if they did not at a high level. Yet the were very effective coaches once they learned the skill-set simply because they were great educators.
Modern Problems of Coaching
Recently, a current coach was taped going on a lengthy, abusive tired directed at his players. This story is nothing new, however some of the commentary on the matter is what greatly upset me. "When I was a football player, our coach would yell things worse than that!" or "These kids need to toughen up, the coach did nothing wrong". Really? Simply because you were treated a certain way doesn't mean it's right. Heck, during the reign of Charles II in England, a man was allowed to give his wife "moderate correction" if she deserved it (I'll leave you to decipher what 'moderate correction' would be if a wife was thought to be misbehaving). So by their logic, that means domestic violence is OK, because their ancestors used to do it. What angered me the most, is that this coach is at one of the highest levels of his sport. So we can infer that he has had this coaching, um, let's call it 'style', for many years and hasn't had to change a thing. Yet coaches like this are paid good salaries, and put in charge of the growth of numerous 18-24 year olds year after year.
Another problem with scholastic coaching (youth, high school, and college) lately is understanding what the goals are. Too often, the results are seen as the goal, rather than seeing them as simply ONE of the goals. In an area such as collegiate coaching, retention, GPA, and graduation rate should be just as highly praised, as number of all-americans, national champions or other high performance. Some coaches are happy having a squad of student-athletes just barely above the minimum GPA requirement as long as they are performing well during competitions. From there, the student-athletes may move on to the professional ranks having not grown as individuals at all during their time at an institute of "higher education". Think about that for a minute, I just did and it made me a little sad.
Where does the athletes' behavior come into play?
I know I know, it seems like I veered a bit off track (haha, track and field pun) from my original thesis, however it all comes into focus when you think about it. If a student-athlete from the time they are in high school, all the way through college, up into the professional ranks is taught that a certain type of environment is accepted, or even encouraged, can we really blame them for acting a certain way? That doesn't make it right, but it is the fact of the matter. Rather than creating a comfortable, educational environment conducive to growth, if they are brought up in an environment of violence, aggression and anger and taught that you need to have a "killer instinct", how would they know any better?
Lately, coaches have also encouraged cocky behavior from their athletes under the mask of being "confident" and "self esteem". To me, if you feel that you are accomplished as a coach simply because your athletes' exhibit cocky, over-confident behavior you need to seriously examine your thought process. Making your student-athletes self-esteem strong should definitely be a goal, but if you impart arrogance instead (which is a much easier thing to do) than you are just as guilty as a coach who imparts violence and aggression to their athletes as eventually it will come to bite you in the rear.
Conclusion
I could actually go on about this topic for quite a bit longer, but I'll cut myself off now. Basically I find the direction college, high school, and grade school coaching is going very disconcerting and it doesn't seem to be getting any better. There are, however, a few rays of light on this cloudy day though. For one, it is easier than ever to get information regarding a coach or school prior to becoming a student-athlete, so as long as the athlete is diligent in their research, they can get a good feel for the coach prior to going there. Also, in the same vein, there are a number of outstanding coaches/educators out there that I love listening to regarding their coaching philosophies. The main hope is that athletic-directors and schools will begin to really sit and think for themselves what they want in a coach. And maybe they will begin to realize that coaching is indeed teaching. Sooooooo yep, that's it adios. (I'm awful at conclusions)
What is a Coach Anyway?
Whenever I am asked what being a coach means, I always say the same thing. Coaching is education. To me, that statement needs no further elaboration, and really shouldn't warrant an explanation, but I always need to expand. Anyone who has taken a course in education knows that the main purpose of an educator is to create an environment conducive to learning. In other words, the main role of a teacher isn't to throw knowledge at the students and hope for it it stick, rather their job is to create an environment so that learning CAN take place. Think back to the various classrooms of which you've been a part. Sometimes the teachers who may not know the most about the particular subject are the best,simply because they create an environment that is comfortable, welcoming, professional which causes you to retain more knowledge. On the other hand, sometimes the most intelligent teachers create the most uncomfortable, un-welcoming environment and you learn very little. I remember some classes where every single day the teacher would turn out the lights, put on the overhead projector and give notes for an hour. Between the dark room, and the slow, hypnotizing hum of the projector I would invariably doze off within fifteen minutes.
Compare what I just said to some coaches you have had. A coach that I greatly admire (Dan Steele currently of University of Northern Iowa) calls the idea that a great athlete becomes a great coach a "Pervasive Myth". All too frequently, athletes, athletic departments, and coaches believe that if someone was a great athlete, then surely they will be a great coach. This conclusion is far from accurate for a number of reasons, partially for the same reasons why the most intelligent people don't make the best teachers. Sometimes a great athlete is simply that, a great athlete. Once again, I'm reminded of what Coach Steele has written, comparing it very aptly to a mechanic. "Being a former athlete gives you many wonderful tools for the coaching toolbox, but you still have to know how to apply them. A great mechanic isn’t great because of his mastery of tools. He is great because of his mastery of problem solving." (http://unitrack.blogspot.com/p/coaching-compass.html)
So ok, what is the goal of the coach then? Well, remember the goal of a teacher? According to some definitions, coaching is "a process that enables learning and development to occur and thus performance to improve."(Eric Parsloe, The Manager as Coach and Mentor (1999) page 8)
If you notice, simply replace the phrase "a process" with "an environment" and you have almost the same definition as what it means to be a teacher. From this extrapolation, we can conclude that being a teacher, and being a coach are synonymous. It is due to this fact that we understand exactly why many elite athletes are not effective coaches. Being able to do something yourself, and being able to teach someone else how to do that skill are two very different things. In the track and field world, think of how many athletes you've come across who may not be as skilled as you in terms of technique or training, but still beat you in races or field events simply due to genetics. Some of these athletes then move on to the coaching ranks and become frustrated when their own athletes don't share the same success they once had. However, that is not their fault in my opinion, it is simply the mechanism that society has created as of late. I know of a number of coaches whom I admire, that never competed in track themselves, or if they did not at a high level. Yet the were very effective coaches once they learned the skill-set simply because they were great educators.
Modern Problems of Coaching
Recently, a current coach was taped going on a lengthy, abusive tired directed at his players. This story is nothing new, however some of the commentary on the matter is what greatly upset me. "When I was a football player, our coach would yell things worse than that!" or "These kids need to toughen up, the coach did nothing wrong". Really? Simply because you were treated a certain way doesn't mean it's right. Heck, during the reign of Charles II in England, a man was allowed to give his wife "moderate correction" if she deserved it (I'll leave you to decipher what 'moderate correction' would be if a wife was thought to be misbehaving). So by their logic, that means domestic violence is OK, because their ancestors used to do it. What angered me the most, is that this coach is at one of the highest levels of his sport. So we can infer that he has had this coaching, um, let's call it 'style', for many years and hasn't had to change a thing. Yet coaches like this are paid good salaries, and put in charge of the growth of numerous 18-24 year olds year after year.
Another problem with scholastic coaching (youth, high school, and college) lately is understanding what the goals are. Too often, the results are seen as the goal, rather than seeing them as simply ONE of the goals. In an area such as collegiate coaching, retention, GPA, and graduation rate should be just as highly praised, as number of all-americans, national champions or other high performance. Some coaches are happy having a squad of student-athletes just barely above the minimum GPA requirement as long as they are performing well during competitions. From there, the student-athletes may move on to the professional ranks having not grown as individuals at all during their time at an institute of "higher education". Think about that for a minute, I just did and it made me a little sad.
Where does the athletes' behavior come into play?
I know I know, it seems like I veered a bit off track (haha, track and field pun) from my original thesis, however it all comes into focus when you think about it. If a student-athlete from the time they are in high school, all the way through college, up into the professional ranks is taught that a certain type of environment is accepted, or even encouraged, can we really blame them for acting a certain way? That doesn't make it right, but it is the fact of the matter. Rather than creating a comfortable, educational environment conducive to growth, if they are brought up in an environment of violence, aggression and anger and taught that you need to have a "killer instinct", how would they know any better?
Lately, coaches have also encouraged cocky behavior from their athletes under the mask of being "confident" and "self esteem". To me, if you feel that you are accomplished as a coach simply because your athletes' exhibit cocky, over-confident behavior you need to seriously examine your thought process. Making your student-athletes self-esteem strong should definitely be a goal, but if you impart arrogance instead (which is a much easier thing to do) than you are just as guilty as a coach who imparts violence and aggression to their athletes as eventually it will come to bite you in the rear.
Conclusion
I could actually go on about this topic for quite a bit longer, but I'll cut myself off now. Basically I find the direction college, high school, and grade school coaching is going very disconcerting and it doesn't seem to be getting any better. There are, however, a few rays of light on this cloudy day though. For one, it is easier than ever to get information regarding a coach or school prior to becoming a student-athlete, so as long as the athlete is diligent in their research, they can get a good feel for the coach prior to going there. Also, in the same vein, there are a number of outstanding coaches/educators out there that I love listening to regarding their coaching philosophies. The main hope is that athletic-directors and schools will begin to really sit and think for themselves what they want in a coach. And maybe they will begin to realize that coaching is indeed teaching. Sooooooo yep, that's it adios. (I'm awful at conclusions)
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Hi, Tea!
Sitting here drinking a nice cup of Oolong Tea and I'm reminded of something. I freakin' love tea! Wait wait wait, bear with me I'm going somewhere with this. Whenever I drink tea I become addicted again, and wonder why I stop drinking it in the first place! When I was at my peak as an athlete (running and lifting every day along with plyometrics and hurdles/jump/throw training) I would regularly consume around 17 cups of tea a day. The reason I started was because of my man-crush on Bruce Lee, so that sounds like a good place to start.
Bruce (can I call him Bruce?) would drink thermos after thermos of tea while filming, training, or just relaxing. He never consumed alcohol or anything that he deemed useless to fuel his body. Chinese tea comes in almost countless varieties and he tried them all, but would regularly drink Lipton tea, same as anyone else. When I graduated from college I weighed 284lbs in August. By February I trimmed down to 192lbs before bottoming out at 187 around August. Not that it played a HUGE part in me trimming down (not going to sheetz and eating at 3am was a huge part of it, as was laying off the crown royal along with my increase in training) but when researching Bruce and also the benefits of tea it's impossible to say that it played no role at all. The three main types of tea I drink and recommend are Green, Oolong and White. I'm gonna give some background on all three as well as the benefits.
Green Tea: Ok first of all, all teas that I drink come from the same plant (Camellia sinensis ). What determines what type of tea you have is the process of growing and fermenting. Regular black tea is fully fermented and processed. Black tea is all good and well, but a lot of the benefits found in tea are lost in this process. If you're going for Green Tea, don't get the decaffeinated it kind of defeats the purpose! Green tea also contains HGCG, one of the most powerful antioxidants known! Aside from the metabolism boost, this reason is the biggest benefit of Green Tea.
Oolong Tea: If you've eaten in an authentic Chinese Restraunt (not buffet or an "americanized" Chinese food place), and ordered tea, Oolong is probably what you were served. Many Chinese like to drink Oolong after meals to aid with digestion. If you aren't a tea drinker chances are you never even heard of this type of tea let along drink it regularly, but if you don't you should! Oolong is somewhere in the middle of Green and Black Teas (sometimes called brown tea). It is partially fermented so it's caffeine can be slightly higher than green, but not as high as black. It does not contain the amount of HGCG as Green Tea due to this process however it contains more polymerized polyphenols. It is the combination of HGCG and caffeine that some research links to weight loss, which is why some really really really bad companies are selling oolong as "weight loss tea" and charging insane amounts of money for it. If you pay more for this style than you do any other, you're getting jipped. Research has shown that drinking 3 cups a day will burn an extra 70 calories per day, doesn't sound like much but over a year that's 7 pounds! Oolong Tea also tastes pretty darn good, and gives you a full feeling. If you are in between meals or training, chug some Oolong Tea to fight off cravings.
White Tea- Pretty simple. It's a baby green tea leaf. It contains a great amount of polyphenols and other chemicals. All of these teas but especially Green and White help lower blood pressure, cholesterol and aid in cardiovascular health. White tea was saved only for the emperors, but lately has become much more mainstream. Some question the current quality of white tea, or if it's basically just a green tea blend mostly. If you are going to try it, spend a little extra and make SURE it's ONLY white tea leaves.
Well that about wraps it up. Tea is awesome, especially if someone is trying to get back into shape, fight off hunger, or just looking for something good to drink. The amount of caffeine is also good for athletes as it raises your EE (energy expenditure) prior to workouts. Make sure you don't drink TOO much of it (yes I used to drink 17 cups a day, that's prolly not recommended), but if you're used to Coffee and lattes for your caffeine fix (oh my god I loved the pumpkin spice latte it was really good, but I actually tried a peppermint white chocolate latte too and it was bangin!, but anyway) try tea instead. Now that I decided to back off of lifting for a while and get back into running to trim back down, I'm gonna get back on my tea regimen. Take it for what you will, but if you need more convincing read some of the research!
Bruce (can I call him Bruce?) would drink thermos after thermos of tea while filming, training, or just relaxing. He never consumed alcohol or anything that he deemed useless to fuel his body. Chinese tea comes in almost countless varieties and he tried them all, but would regularly drink Lipton tea, same as anyone else. When I graduated from college I weighed 284lbs in August. By February I trimmed down to 192lbs before bottoming out at 187 around August. Not that it played a HUGE part in me trimming down (not going to sheetz and eating at 3am was a huge part of it, as was laying off the crown royal along with my increase in training) but when researching Bruce and also the benefits of tea it's impossible to say that it played no role at all. The three main types of tea I drink and recommend are Green, Oolong and White. I'm gonna give some background on all three as well as the benefits.
Green Tea: Ok first of all, all teas that I drink come from the same plant (Camellia sinensis ). What determines what type of tea you have is the process of growing and fermenting. Regular black tea is fully fermented and processed. Black tea is all good and well, but a lot of the benefits found in tea are lost in this process. If you're going for Green Tea, don't get the decaffeinated it kind of defeats the purpose! Green tea also contains HGCG, one of the most powerful antioxidants known! Aside from the metabolism boost, this reason is the biggest benefit of Green Tea.
Oolong Tea: If you've eaten in an authentic Chinese Restraunt (not buffet or an "americanized" Chinese food place), and ordered tea, Oolong is probably what you were served. Many Chinese like to drink Oolong after meals to aid with digestion. If you aren't a tea drinker chances are you never even heard of this type of tea let along drink it regularly, but if you don't you should! Oolong is somewhere in the middle of Green and Black Teas (sometimes called brown tea). It is partially fermented so it's caffeine can be slightly higher than green, but not as high as black. It does not contain the amount of HGCG as Green Tea due to this process however it contains more polymerized polyphenols. It is the combination of HGCG and caffeine that some research links to weight loss, which is why some really really really bad companies are selling oolong as "weight loss tea" and charging insane amounts of money for it. If you pay more for this style than you do any other, you're getting jipped. Research has shown that drinking 3 cups a day will burn an extra 70 calories per day, doesn't sound like much but over a year that's 7 pounds! Oolong Tea also tastes pretty darn good, and gives you a full feeling. If you are in between meals or training, chug some Oolong Tea to fight off cravings.
White Tea- Pretty simple. It's a baby green tea leaf. It contains a great amount of polyphenols and other chemicals. All of these teas but especially Green and White help lower blood pressure, cholesterol and aid in cardiovascular health. White tea was saved only for the emperors, but lately has become much more mainstream. Some question the current quality of white tea, or if it's basically just a green tea blend mostly. If you are going to try it, spend a little extra and make SURE it's ONLY white tea leaves.
Well that about wraps it up. Tea is awesome, especially if someone is trying to get back into shape, fight off hunger, or just looking for something good to drink. The amount of caffeine is also good for athletes as it raises your EE (energy expenditure) prior to workouts. Make sure you don't drink TOO much of it (yes I used to drink 17 cups a day, that's prolly not recommended), but if you're used to Coffee and lattes for your caffeine fix (oh my god I loved the pumpkin spice latte it was really good, but I actually tried a peppermint white chocolate latte too and it was bangin!, but anyway) try tea instead. Now that I decided to back off of lifting for a while and get back into running to trim back down, I'm gonna get back on my tea regimen. Take it for what you will, but if you need more convincing read some of the research!
Friday, October 25, 2013
Don't be a lazy athlete(or coach)
One thing I cannot tolerate is laziness. When I am not coaching,like this period of time right now, I grow very angry at coaches and athletes that I observe phoning in workouts, practices, training plans and programs. Let me start with the athletes for right now.
One trap that many athletes fall in is the idea that "the grass is always greener". Rather than, to put it bluntly, shutting up and doing their training, some athletes want to scrutinize every single drill, workout, and practice looking for things that they can disagree with. Maybe they read a blog, or watched youtube, or talked to their buddy who competes for All-America Awesomeness University and found out that they do things quite differently there. One thing I have always told my athletes is to walk into your workouts with a good attitude and know that most coaches want their athletes to succeed. Sometimes an athlete becomes so convinced that what they are doing is wrong that they convince themselves that their coach's main goal in life is to hold them down and make sure they don't improve. There is a lot of "blind leading the blind" going on nowadays in sports and training, any fool can publish a workout, or training philosophy to a website with no credentials whatsoever. When I get challenged on a topic by one of these "gurus" I always have one and only one question..."Who have you coached?". I attach this point to the "athletes" section because nowadays everyone sees themselves as an expert, and both coaches and athletes need to make sure they are always furthering their education.
To the coaches, some of them, you know who you are. Don't phone in workouts, it's frustrating. I had the "pleasure" of working with a coach who was AMAZED that I write my programs weeks and months in advance. As the coach said to me "wow, sometimes I don't even know what I'm doing an hour before practice!" I would like to say that this is an isolated example but it's blatantly obvious to me this example is the status quo for many programs across the country. Here is an example of a training program for weightlifting I have observed all too often.
Week 1 3x12of 10 lifts
Week 2 3x10 of 10 lifts
Week 3 3x8 of 10 lifts
Week 4 3x6 of 10 lifts
...and the program continues like this all season long. One area of my coaching philosophy I feel I have a great grasp on, is to acknowledge that I don't know everything and I can always learn something new. This does not mean that I will be like some, and throw out my whole program and adapt a whole new training scheme, it means if I learn something new I will research how to implement it along with what I already know. Another example is a coach whose athlete posted on their facebook a youtube video of a hammer thrower doing various core lifts for training, the coaches response was "this looks good, we will do all of these for 3 sets of 8 next week". Really? Come on. No research? Are you that insecure and have that little confidence in your program that you will redo everything at the drop of a hat?
In conclusion, the main thesis of this post is to constantly learn and constantly go into things with an open mind. If you are stubborn and hard headed you will never grow as a coach or athlete. A quote I love (because it's one I came up with myself) is what I will close with. The day I stop being a student, I will also stop being a teacher.
One trap that many athletes fall in is the idea that "the grass is always greener". Rather than, to put it bluntly, shutting up and doing their training, some athletes want to scrutinize every single drill, workout, and practice looking for things that they can disagree with. Maybe they read a blog, or watched youtube, or talked to their buddy who competes for All-America Awesomeness University and found out that they do things quite differently there. One thing I have always told my athletes is to walk into your workouts with a good attitude and know that most coaches want their athletes to succeed. Sometimes an athlete becomes so convinced that what they are doing is wrong that they convince themselves that their coach's main goal in life is to hold them down and make sure they don't improve. There is a lot of "blind leading the blind" going on nowadays in sports and training, any fool can publish a workout, or training philosophy to a website with no credentials whatsoever. When I get challenged on a topic by one of these "gurus" I always have one and only one question..."Who have you coached?". I attach this point to the "athletes" section because nowadays everyone sees themselves as an expert, and both coaches and athletes need to make sure they are always furthering their education.
To the coaches, some of them, you know who you are. Don't phone in workouts, it's frustrating. I had the "pleasure" of working with a coach who was AMAZED that I write my programs weeks and months in advance. As the coach said to me "wow, sometimes I don't even know what I'm doing an hour before practice!" I would like to say that this is an isolated example but it's blatantly obvious to me this example is the status quo for many programs across the country. Here is an example of a training program for weightlifting I have observed all too often.
Week 1 3x12of 10 lifts
Week 2 3x10 of 10 lifts
Week 3 3x8 of 10 lifts
Week 4 3x6 of 10 lifts
...and the program continues like this all season long. One area of my coaching philosophy I feel I have a great grasp on, is to acknowledge that I don't know everything and I can always learn something new. This does not mean that I will be like some, and throw out my whole program and adapt a whole new training scheme, it means if I learn something new I will research how to implement it along with what I already know. Another example is a coach whose athlete posted on their facebook a youtube video of a hammer thrower doing various core lifts for training, the coaches response was "this looks good, we will do all of these for 3 sets of 8 next week". Really? Come on. No research? Are you that insecure and have that little confidence in your program that you will redo everything at the drop of a hat?
In conclusion, the main thesis of this post is to constantly learn and constantly go into things with an open mind. If you are stubborn and hard headed you will never grow as a coach or athlete. A quote I love (because it's one I came up with myself) is what I will close with. The day I stop being a student, I will also stop being a teacher.
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Program Design Basics
Ok haven't had a blog post in a while so figured I'd put one up about my program design. This example is going to be extremely basic and won't have anything as far as sports specificity or general "flava" but if you know nothing about program design, it's a decent guideline.
Phases, cycles blah blah blah exercise science blah blah blah central nervous system.
This title means I am not going to cover how to design a full training program or talk about how to get your central nervous system active for a competition and not how to totally fry your CNS during a phase. I'm simply going to show how for a single day, during a single session, I would design a program. If I was to go any deeper into that it would be more of a journal article and less of a blog post.
Order of importance
One extremely basic guideline that is almost always overlooked is the order of the lifts and where they fall in the workout. At some point an athlete will always ask "do I HAVE to do (insert lift here) first??". And they always is always "yes" if not "yes, now shut up and do it"...not really...well sometimes...depending on the athlete. You will always do the most explosive lifts first that utilize the most muscle groups and that have the highest demand on the CNS system. The Olympic lifts are ALWAYS the priority..no...stop interrupting....ALWAYS....just to hammer it home....Olympic lifts.....ALWAYS....Come....First. Well not always sometimes if posterior chain strength is the most important thing I will have squats first and then an hour rest and then Olympic lifts but you get the idea!
USA Weightlifting used to use the A,B,C lift system of teaching program design (A Lifts are Olympic lifts, B. Lifts were Pulls and Leg Strengthening and C lifts were basically everything else). If you are a noob and don't know much about designing workouts then...well first of all go find a good coach! You need constant supervision as a beginner how else will you improve! If you are a noob coach, then this style of program design isn't a bad place to start, but go find a course on Olympic weightlifting and grow a bit. I say that because depending on the athlete, workout, needs, point of the season, etc I will routinely have RDLs in front of pulls, or push press in front of squats depending on the need. But I am just generalizing a lot right now.
Sets and Reps
"Coooooaaaaach do I need to do 5 Sets of 3 and 2 reps? Can't I just do 3 sets of 10. No, you can't. For a number of reasons. For Olympic lifts for beginners I will rarely if ever go above 3 reps in a single set (except for combinations, ie 3 pulls+3 cleans + 3 front squats). The general rule of thumb is to never ever go above 6 reps in a set of Olympic lifts. There has been some literature out there saying that some coaches do go over this, and my questions is always "Why?". What is the ultimate goal of your Olympic lifting workout? Will high reps help or hurt? One of the main problems with high rep Olympic lifting for beginners is the same basic reason why I have the lifts in the beginning of the workout. They are demanding on the CNS and beginners will have a number of technical flaws. It doesn't matter how strong of an athlete you/they are, after 4 or 5 lifts for a beginner a clean becomes a jumping upright row and a snatch becomes a jumping front shoulder raise. Especially in pre-season why do high reps? Pre-season is the time to hone and learn technique, not develop technical flaws and give Coach Schmidt grey hair. So if you ever wondered why I keep the repetitions low, that is part of the reason why. I'd rather have beginners do 7 sets of triples with light weight and 2-5min recovery than 3 sets of 10 and develop technical flaws, or worse, develop an injury.
Pay Attention to total Volume in a workout as WELL as Intensity
Too often athletes and/or coaches will focus specifically on Intensity (as in percentage of 1RM) in a workout and overlook volume. Think back to some of the workouts I have written for you. Try to remember the total volume variations in the workout. If intensity rises and and volume stays the same, what would happen? What if volume increased and intensity decreased? What if both decreased? For track athletes what was throwing volume like when lifting volume dropped? Pay attention to this type of thing, because it is planned and there is a reason for it, however that is another subject completely.
Consistent Recovery
Recover between sets. NSCA recommends between 2 and 4.5mins of recovery for max strength. I generally have athletes keep it around 2.5min or so unless otherwise stated.
In closing
The main points to take away:
Don't do too many lifts in a session.
Make sure the lifts are in an order that makes sense.
Don't go high reps on any of the olympic lifts.
Volume as well as intensity is important
Make sure your recovery is consistent
and most importantly...
NEVER SACRIFICE TECHNIQUE!
That's it, adios!
Phases, cycles blah blah blah exercise science blah blah blah central nervous system.
This title means I am not going to cover how to design a full training program or talk about how to get your central nervous system active for a competition and not how to totally fry your CNS during a phase. I'm simply going to show how for a single day, during a single session, I would design a program. If I was to go any deeper into that it would be more of a journal article and less of a blog post.
Order of importance
One extremely basic guideline that is almost always overlooked is the order of the lifts and where they fall in the workout. At some point an athlete will always ask "do I HAVE to do (insert lift here) first??". And they always is always "yes" if not "yes, now shut up and do it"...not really...well sometimes...depending on the athlete. You will always do the most explosive lifts first that utilize the most muscle groups and that have the highest demand on the CNS system. The Olympic lifts are ALWAYS the priority..no...stop interrupting....ALWAYS....just to hammer it home....Olympic lifts.....ALWAYS....Come....First. Well not always sometimes if posterior chain strength is the most important thing I will have squats first and then an hour rest and then Olympic lifts but you get the idea!
USA Weightlifting used to use the A,B,C lift system of teaching program design (A Lifts are Olympic lifts, B. Lifts were Pulls and Leg Strengthening and C lifts were basically everything else). If you are a noob and don't know much about designing workouts then...well first of all go find a good coach! You need constant supervision as a beginner how else will you improve! If you are a noob coach, then this style of program design isn't a bad place to start, but go find a course on Olympic weightlifting and grow a bit. I say that because depending on the athlete, workout, needs, point of the season, etc I will routinely have RDLs in front of pulls, or push press in front of squats depending on the need. But I am just generalizing a lot right now.
Sets and Reps
"Coooooaaaaach do I need to do 5 Sets of 3 and 2 reps? Can't I just do 3 sets of 10. No, you can't. For a number of reasons. For Olympic lifts for beginners I will rarely if ever go above 3 reps in a single set (except for combinations, ie 3 pulls+3 cleans + 3 front squats). The general rule of thumb is to never ever go above 6 reps in a set of Olympic lifts. There has been some literature out there saying that some coaches do go over this, and my questions is always "Why?". What is the ultimate goal of your Olympic lifting workout? Will high reps help or hurt? One of the main problems with high rep Olympic lifting for beginners is the same basic reason why I have the lifts in the beginning of the workout. They are demanding on the CNS and beginners will have a number of technical flaws. It doesn't matter how strong of an athlete you/they are, after 4 or 5 lifts for a beginner a clean becomes a jumping upright row and a snatch becomes a jumping front shoulder raise. Especially in pre-season why do high reps? Pre-season is the time to hone and learn technique, not develop technical flaws and give Coach Schmidt grey hair. So if you ever wondered why I keep the repetitions low, that is part of the reason why. I'd rather have beginners do 7 sets of triples with light weight and 2-5min recovery than 3 sets of 10 and develop technical flaws, or worse, develop an injury.
Pay Attention to total Volume in a workout as WELL as Intensity
Too often athletes and/or coaches will focus specifically on Intensity (as in percentage of 1RM) in a workout and overlook volume. Think back to some of the workouts I have written for you. Try to remember the total volume variations in the workout. If intensity rises and and volume stays the same, what would happen? What if volume increased and intensity decreased? What if both decreased? For track athletes what was throwing volume like when lifting volume dropped? Pay attention to this type of thing, because it is planned and there is a reason for it, however that is another subject completely.
Consistent Recovery
Recover between sets. NSCA recommends between 2 and 4.5mins of recovery for max strength. I generally have athletes keep it around 2.5min or so unless otherwise stated.
In closing
The main points to take away:
Don't do too many lifts in a session.
Make sure the lifts are in an order that makes sense.
Don't go high reps on any of the olympic lifts.
Volume as well as intensity is important
Make sure your recovery is consistent
and most importantly...
NEVER SACRIFICE TECHNIQUE!
That's it, adios!
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