I’ve read this a few times now Ashley and there are some great thoughts and ideas there … I’m throwing in few of my unqualified thoughts!
@ashley 96 wrote:
To quote from my great colleague Peter Harding, “you are there to train, not entertain” and “complicate to profit”, there are people out there that make a very simple job extra complicated, cut away all the hype and all the commercial emphasis and just get fit, fast and powerful.
I think this is probably one of the biggest hinderences to young coaches … they look at the complicated and believe it to be the secret when there is no secret! There is a chinese saying something like …. “When hungry eat rice wise men understand, but fools laugh” … when you have a slow athlete make him fast so make him run fast, a weak one get him strong so make him lift heavy stuff … that advice doesn’t make you a millionare – but are you in it for profit?
@ashley 96 wrote:
I do not believe in over training but under recovery will get you every time.
Great qoute. Overtraining is a complete red-herring in my humble and inexperienced opinion. I suspect most overtraining and burnout occurs in bars and nightclubs – not in the gym!
@ashley 96 wrote:
I no longer believe in Periodisation, in a classic sense, I believe as Louie Simmons has often said, “what ever you do not train you lose”, so for me the concurrent training of the key biomotor qualities is a challenge whilst ensuring player’s are recovered.
Periodisation is dead and either Louies philosophy or the idea of vertical integration are the ways forward – especially since off-seasons are reduced more and players have less time off during the week.
@ashley 96 wrote:
Rugby is a collision sport. Sometimes the rules go out the window, did the gladiator’s of Rome ensure that the pelvis was in the correct position before they engaged in a life and death struggle.
Rugby is a contraindicated sport. What aspect of rugby is supposed to be good for your health?
I often say there is no such thing as a contraindicated exercise just a contraindicated athlete. In otherwords if they have pain doing one exercise then the athlete has the issue – not that the exercise is necessarily bad. If you work on a farm do you warm up with 4 warm up sets and make sure you have a perfect posture before you lift? Doubtful.
When you have 18 stone and 6′ 3″ of blue murder running at you from an angle of 42.4 degrees on a wet pitch and you are leadong off your right foot -Do you have time to digest all that and decide how your TVA is functioning?
@ashley 96 wrote:
Player’s often take upwards of 5 days to recover from a match, I have player’s who have done no leg work for an entire season and who still deliver every week of the season, conversely I have had player’s who work hard every week in the power rack and these also deliver week in and week out, there is no one generic program and individualization within the confines of a team sport is the Holy Grail of strength & conditioning.
Coaching is still an Art not a Science!
Up and coming artists rely on science to give him confidence – rightly or wrongly.
@ashley 96 wrote:
I could list you a starting 15 of player’s who are outstanding in the gym, but they would not be the same 15 chosen by the coaches to go to battle on Saturday.
Train like Tarzan play like Jane?
@ashley 96 wrote:
Do I make a difference, I hope so, but I really do not know, it is all about relationships, building them, developing them and the player’s knowing that you genuinely care about there well being as people first and athletes second. I trained as a PE teacher initially since there was no other course around for old guys like me, but teaching taught me two invaluable traits in my current role, communication skills first and foremost and also organizational skill, I may have been chasing my tail ever since on the science but knowing your player’s has always been number one in my book.
I used think coaches were like sales men whose job it was to sell a concept or training program to an athlete … now I think we are more like teachers or fathers who have to inspire a love and willingness in the player to do what you beleive is best for them. After all … inspire them and they will far outreach whatever you thought you could push them to … treat them like a sales pitch and try and sell them something and you will only ever make one sale.