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Some Random Ideas and Thoughts … from an amateur
After reading Ashleys article I figured I’d throw out a few ideas of my own for others to criticise… On a transatlantic flight recently I had some time and started to write down 80 principles or ideas I had as it was dawning on me that I have read thousands of articles, met many great minds, been influenced by great coaches and have lots of principles of my own developed from these guys – but never put any of them on paper.
Here’s the first few ….
Since I have absolutely nothing on Ashley in terms of excellence or experience I expect these to be not near as accurate or as true – but they should open up good debate at least!
*****
Pain is not neccessary –
Coaches don’t have to kill athletes to make them improve. Sure overload is important but killing someone in the gym doesn’t serve any long term purpose.The more elite the athlete the simpler the solution –
This is from my limited experience – I have often seen the most elite players have the simplest needs as the games and competitions are so demanding the training programs need to be very simple. Also often the better the athlete the more basic mistake they often make in training and lifestyle becuase in many cases natural ability gets them by for so long and they move up so quickly they don’t get a chance to develop good ideas.
Let me give you an example … I once knew a very well known soccer player in the UK who suffered a lot of cramping and we could never figure out the cause – some people wanted to give him vitamins and supplements etc etc. When I met him coming out of the local supermarket with a bag full of only crisps and coke in his shopping bag the penny finally dropped… Because he wasn’t a great cook, moving from the continent without his wife meant he wasn’t able or confident enough to cook for himself and since his English was so poor he hated eating out. Simple solution – teach him to cook!The most powerful anabolic is sleep –
The US military have a multi-million budget. Every year they spend millions trying to optimise performance and limit the need to sleep – believe me it is not possible to do without it!The most second most powerful anabolic is food –
Eat natural wholesome foods – not really much else to say on that! But it won’t stop multi million dollar supplement companies telling you otherwise!Life is not fair –
Disney is the only place for fairytales … once you realise that things become a little easier. That’s not to say we need be harsh, but in sport we need to accept that everyone fails and has calls go against them – it’s how you react at that split second that determines the future, not just of the game – but life.There is nothing new in strength training –
In my experience – and I’ve read a bit (understatement) – there is nothing new in the world of strength training. Look at the basic principles and they don’t or have not changed at all over the years. The key seems to be do the basics right at the right time – not look for a new special exercise. In any case – for sport I think the more complicated the lift or technique the less applicable to sport it is. Recently all the rage was this ‘new’ machine – the Glute Ham raise … the Russians where doing this years ago! Even the Reverse hyper – they were doing this with a gymnastics horse!Hypertrophy does not exist –
This is probably a little controversial – but I’m not sure of the role of hypertrophy in sport. I do understand that size and weight matters – but the basic function must first be to get powerful and strong – is getting big necessary or a by product?An athlete should be developing strength or speed or recovering from one of them –
I think that the focus of every training session must be either strength or speed – this is the only way to develop power and the balance is always between these two. The metabolic aspect can be managed in the recovery and rest periods or on the field.Never move too far from home for long –
In other words if you focus on one aspect of training for too long when the player is re-integrated to the sport they often break down because of an imbalance in the athlete (and I don’t mean muscular). This is why getting a player back after injury fast is very important.Question Everything –
No ‘guru’ is perfect – they all have great ideas – but not all are right. By questioning them you learn to develop your own theories.Have Irish stew once a week –
This one is a bit odd I know, but it struck me when I stayed with a wonderful Samoan family and the mother of the house cooked the native meals for me. The strange thing was they were so similar to native Irish foods. Every society has a ‘stew’ or a dish that was developed by mothers when times were tough – where basically everything is thrown into it… and ironically it’s probably the most mineral and vitamin laden meal you can have. Find out what one your ancestors had and cook it regularly.Put on your socks –
This is one I learned from the great basketball coach John Wooden. His first training session teaches guys how to put their socks on right to avoid blisters. It is a recognition that the simple things in sport need to be taught first and often and that failure to do them lead more often to failure than the spectacular.When I get a chance I’ll throw a few more out there for you guys to go through and comment on ….
Wonderful ideas Fergus, this is great to hear other thoughts and ideas, must admit they are ringing true, I am a believer in “train for strength and appropriate size will follow” in sports training, the legendary American football coach, Vince Lombardi once said, “fatigue makes cowards of us all”, so sleep and what you eat are the major conributors to recovery in my book, I want to give a seminar one day, and come up with a clever title that will pack them in, I may use a power point presentation or just a few overheads, they would be in this order, Train Big, Eat and Sleep Big, Get Big and Strong, thanks very much ladies and gentlemen I will now take questions, an oversimplification possibly but as Thibideau has said “complexity is the language of simple minds” cheers, ashley
I was interested to hear your thoughts on hypertrophy as many coaches preach it a little too strongly in my opinion. I like that lecture idea too!
Well Ashley many of these have been inspired by your articles and conversations with you … so to qoute Malcom X “Only the mistakes have been mine” … (There isn’t really one original thought in there!)
A few more of thoughts ….
Fitness testing is rarely (never?) useful –
Don’t test – monitor. As someone who loves to understand science this was a slow realisation, but there are a few things to consider. A fitness test is never 100% accurate – take into account all the variables and decide if you can ever fully replicate a test with all conditions 100% correct. Example – can you ever do the same v02 max test for every athlete in the exact same conditions?
For every test you lose approx 3 days of work to do it properly, a rest day before, test day and since the test is usually a max effort at least on day after.
Monitor instead – Do you need to do a maximum effort test to learn something about a player? Can you look at a training diary and see the ‘real-life’ daily tests and learn as much? What can you tell by asking a player a simple ‘How are you?’
A test is only as good as the follow up. In other words to me tests should show incremental changes – not relative overall change.
Also the test must be replicable so even if your vertical jump test equipment is only 95% accurate – well that’s fine once it’s always 95% accurate!
The fitness test is the game – read the score board. It reminds me of the Jordan Rules where Sam Smith commented that Michael Jordan never came out the top in any fitness test … as for the games … another storySpeed Kills –
Both on the road and in sport, this rings true. Speed is probably one of the most dnagerous things in sport and the one thing there is no protection against unless you have it too. Is it trainable? Well I think so – I think it can be improved a lot. But like many things only to within the genetic window.Respect the Nervous System –
The CNS or Central Nervous System is probably one of the most interesting and misunderstood aspects of sports performance and human physiology…. it’s also the most powerful in terms of sport. The fatigue on the human system is very interesting and in team sports it’s a very complex idea since there are so many variables unlike in sprinting for example. I believe it can be slowly trained though to handle higher loads than many think – which is something many in the Northern Hemisphere don’t believe.Visit Ireland once in your life time –
Just do it. You’ll be the better for it. 😉Nice guys rarely win, but bad guys never win –
Winning in sport by it’s definition means defeating an opponent so by it’s nature there must be a willingness and desire to defeat – how you win, the nature of your win, is determined by character. Winning brings a responsibility and greater load than losing.A hamstring injury does not “take 6 weeks” –
A coach once told me of taking a well known sprinter who had just pulled her hamstring to see a physiotherapist. After a quick check the physio said “Pulled hamstring, that’ll take 6 weeks”. He responded “She races in 4 weeks – thanks, but I haven’t got 6 weeks”. He took her away and trained her and had her treated as best he could – she raced and won 4 weeks later. Now many injuries take 6 weeks and sometimes longer – but I think all injuries are specific. Everyone heals differently, and with the best care injury times can be speeded up – if treated carefully. Do your best and see how well they can be progressed – but rather than setting a date and working back from it – why not try and set your own date?Why are there contraindicated lifts in the gym but no contraindicated tackles on the field?
Well not exactly true – but the point is the same as Ashley made previously … sometimes the gym can be too sterile whereas the playing field has much fewer rules. Players need to be trained to protect themselves from tackles and posture doesn’t come into it when someone is trying to “put you into Row Z”.Subtract rather than Add –
Often in a training program I think it’s better to take exercises out and simplify things rather than add more complexity, rules or exercises. After all complexity confuses not only the athlete – but often the coach!Key to losing fat = Eat Less & Work More –
There are lots of fat loss guru’s and experts out there – but the simple equation of “Calories In < Calories Out = Fat Loss" always rings true. Get the basics right first … then worry about fancy bells and whistles etc.Use all gears –
If you always train in 5th gear you can never raise the bar or the performance for the game day. That’s not to say slack in training, but often the best gym trainers can’t perform well on game day as they have no 6th gear to step up to. Sometimes these players perform well on game day after a sickness or injury where rest was forced on them. So by making sure some or half of the training goes through all the gears it leaves 5th gear ready for game day.The best training program? … The one the athlete does –
Often coaches write the worlds best program but guys never do it – so the best program is one that a player does – not the one in his diary.Eat like Grandma –
As food processing methods change (read: deteriorate) more and more illnesses such as cancers and diabetes become more prevelant. The key to a healthier lifestyle is to eat more natural foods and foods that we were designed to eat. So avoid the manufactured foods and eat more like the foods your Grandmother cooked and prepared.Daddy had a great gym … it was called a farm –
Many players or athletes of years ago would smile to themselves if they walked into a team off-or pre-season today and watched players lifting sandbags and doing farmers walks etc. They were ‘farm-boy strong’ through lifting heavy objects and working hard outdoors. The body was pushed through movements that you couldn’t imagine in a gym making them truly fit for rugby or any sport. In many teams even today the stronger guys all worked on farms – no surprise there!Unless a test helps change a training session – why do it?
Tied into one above – a great way to ask yourself is a fitness test worthwhile is simply ask “How will it change the next training session I plan”. If there is no answer then it needs to be considered carefully.The most important thing in sport (and life) is honesty –
Honesty in sport and life is crucial. Honest effort and endevour wins not only matches but respect. Hide or not fully commit and not only is there greater chance of injury or failure, but people see through it, perhaps not the first time, but over time. Honesty is the key to a good nights sleep.The most important lift –
If you could only do one exercise ever – I would have to pick the deadlift. Perhaps overhead squats or other exercises are more effective … but you have to love the simpliscity – raw strength whole body strength to lift a weight off the ground. You either make it or your don’t. Doesn’t get any simpler in definition does it?I’m on a roll …. well I think so …
Might as well write the rest of them …Using averages is not a great way to assess sport –
As someone pointed out to me once you might win your last 3 games by an combined average of 3 points and think that they were similar or good steady performances. However the winning margins might have been 1, 2 & 6 … this is very different than winning by 3, 3 & 3. Using averages or statistics can be tricky – if you want to read on it try anything by Steve Levitt.Cortisol is Good –
Many coaches jump on a bandwagon that cortisol is so important that it must be stopped or prevented from reaching a certain level and training sessions must stop at 45 mins exactly. Cortisol is a wonderful anti-inflammatory hormone, not a poison. By suppressing it or preventing it too much you can end up with as many problems as too much. So respect it, but don’t hate it!Coaching is an Art not a Science –
No matter how technical books and academic studies and papers try to get, science goes out the window when ‘tire meets track’ or elbow meets jaw. In other words when the pressure comes on we rely on instinct and habit and these must be trained. Players are not scientists and must be kept well away from the confusion.You meet 5 true friends in life –
I’m not sure it’s possible to have more true friends.Concentrate on your strengths –
But keep improving your weaknesses. You have strengths for a reason so use them on the field, however never let your weaknesses hold you back. Often you see players who over concentrate on their weaknesses and obssess with them to the degree they limit them rather than using their natural advatanges and in fact have poorer performances.You must supplement your diet –
While I think the supplement business has a lot of hype (and even worse) surrounding it, I think there is a very worthwhile argument for supplementing with Fish Oil and a multivitamin because of the changes in our diet and especially food processing methods. After that you can look at many other things, but basic good food is the first thing to worry about.Respect your elders –
Elders in a changing room have made many mistakes and learned from them and from more people than you have met yet. Travelling or sharing with these guys at matches or on the road can open up a mine of knowledge that can help your game no end. Experience comes with age.Too much good is bad –
By protecting ourselves too much we can become too soft. Children now in many schools are forbidden from certain sports, kids are not allowed climb tress etc., even hops-scotch or running in playgrounds is banned now in some schools. The same parents who want these dangerous things banned then ask ‘What age is it safe to do weights or plyometrics”. Is climbing in a play ground not like weight training? Is running or hopscocth not plyometric?You can either get the man or be like him –
Bono once said that in the US if a man sees a millionaire pass by in a big car he says “One day …I want to be like that guy” in Ireland if a man saw the same guy pass by in a big car he’d say “One … day I’ll get that guy”!! The point is that often in sport we focus on the object not the action, the man (object) not the tackle (action). Don’t be distracted by emotion.Precovery is more important than recovery –
You heard it here first – ‘Precovery’ … My new term! 🙂 I’ve come to the conclusion that the level we are at and the state the body is at before training or stressing the body is more important than what we attempt to put into the body after we stress the body. One example is protein available at a cellular level pre-training and therefore during training is more important than trying to push it in after training as the body attempts to recover at many levels, CNS, Cellular, etc.Food is not just for Muscles –
The food we digest affects the brain as much if not more that muscles. By watching our food choices we can manage to improve concentration or delay fatigue etc. For example proteins and select BCAA’s are very effective from a neural fatigue consideration – which is of course critical.A wise man learns from a fool –
I once came across a saying “A wise man can learn from a fool but a fool never learns from a wise man”. When I would meet someone or attend something and didn’t think I learned anything from it I used ask myself which was I? Kind of embarassing to admit to yourself!Your Game Trains a System –
Often when coaches or players plan a training week they ignore what the game is training. Most games train the alactic/speed endurance capability – so do you need to train this as much during the week?70/20/10 % Rule –
Not sure if the percentages are exactly correct, but once someone said to me that the focus of all training should be predominantly 70 concentric focus, 20% eccentric focus and 10% isometric. Like I said I don’t think you can have a 70/20/10% rule as such but I guess the point is that in sport – it should not all be concentric focused.There is no such thing as Prehab –
Another controversial one, but the point is that some people do prehab only programs – Why? Aren’t players in the gym often and long enough already? If an exercise is doing something well incorporate it into the main S&C program. And S&C program is supposed to be a balanced program to cover all areas, so things like core work or rotator work are all mainstays of a S&C program – not ‘prehab’. If the main program needs a prehab to supplement it then there is something wrong IMO.You are always about to get injured – you just don’t know it –
Again controversial, but what I mean is that athletes are rarely 100% perfect or even 100% fit. Most have small niggles, others have muscular imbalances. Lets say you go for a theoretical biomechanical assesment a physio or biomechanical specialist and they can probably point out 10 things that are not ‘balanced’ or ‘misaligned’. Some are probably very important – However not every ‘imbalance’ needs to be corrected. I learned this once when a coach was showing me tape of a sub 10 sec sprinter he had trained. As we looked at a slo-mo cut from the front I asked him did he not try and correct (a pretty obvious) lateral movement of the athletes right leg … he looked at me incredulous and asked “Why would I? he’s running 9.XX?” The point is we are never perfect – chose carefully what you decide to ‘correct’.Wow, Fergus, you certainly are on a roll, maybe you could pick a couple of your most important points and expand them into an article for us all to consider in detail, there is some amazing stuff here in the last 3 threads, I love the concept of precovery, an optimal individualised state of readiness, as to visiting Ireland at least once, could not agree one, just add falling in love with an Irish girl as well, mine was Joanne Chapman, memories of her will last a life time, fitness testing was a good point, how often have you tested players when thety reurn from a break and then put a program in place, then re-test in about 4 weeks and find that only a few have made gains and in fact some have gone backward, reason they were fresh coming in and were able to produce their best efforts, circus tricks on Swiss Balls are not functional exercises unless you are a circus performer, I like the quote that has been attributed to Dan Baker, apologies Dan if you did not say this, “show me a player who can power clean 140kg and squat 200kg, and I will show you someone’s whose core is strong enough”, in season we do virtually no conditioinng work, unless you are not getting close to a full 80 minutes on game day. cheers, ashley
my preferred response to the hypertrophy is that ideally an increase in the volume of training will take care of it, but I have to be careful to ensure that player’s recover during season since the end point of each week is the game, I feel it is over rated in geneal unless of course you are a bodybuilder, in season I use a 3 week program where we just decrease reps, eg week 1 – 12, 10, 8 week 2 – 10, 8, 6 week 3 – 8, 6, 4 and always on upper body only I never use a hypertrophy cycle like this on lower body due to loading issues and potential for player not recovering leading to increased injury potential. In the off season I prefer repeated sets above 80% with short rest periods and lots of super sets for upper body, I love the 5,4,3,2,1 method for lower body, say power cleans, also a great anaerobic conditioner as well, use greater than 80% and rest 15 seconds between rep groups, Gironda’s 6 x 6 and 8 x 8, upper body push pull super sets are very effective, but I have always held the belief that, all concentric work should be performed quickly or with the intent to move quickly, I have never been a tempo follower, ashley
Loving the information fellas, so thought would drop a few lines on something i experienced on the weekend, would appreciate any feedback/similar examples..
Nueral Potentiation
RATIONALE
Nueral potentiation has been widely used by athletes from many sports before competition.
I have used it myself when working with St. Helens Rugby League Club and it inadvertently coincided with the period of our greatest successes, winning World Club Championship, Super League, and Challenge Cup Final.
Conditions
It is worth highlighting at this stage, that our gym was approximately 10 metres from our home dressing shed, so the initiation of firing up the CNS was far more difficult when playing away. (for this we used powerbags, and occasionally brought Olympic bars and weights with our kit man, but space was always an issue)
Methods
Once the players bought into the practice it was only a matter of the players going into the gym before the match (at home) doing 3 x 6/8 reps of cleans, jammer, squats, bench throws or whatever suited them individually. At any time between 10-25 minutes before kick off.
The players reported (whether placebo/psychological or not ?????) they where starting and getting into the game quicker, we generally scored first (which is also down to the fact we had some class players) and the players felt they did’nt have to get ’their second wind’
The reason for sharing this, today I had a personal experience of potentiation (although totally unplanned) and it reminded me of how it can benefit performance.
Arranged to meet a training partner at 9.30 this morning, to do a high intensity power session, so with this in mind I got to the gym early and prepared myself, he as is usual turned up late.
The first lift we planned to do was 100 Kg Chain Squats-1 X 6, 110 Kg -2 X 4, 120 Kg- 2 X 2
We completed the first, second, and I managed the third set, unfortunately my training partner blew his back on set 3.
So being the good Samaritan I helped him out of the gym, into my car and drove him home, gave him loads of anti inflamms, and some food, and being the perfect gentleman did what every good S C coach would do, went straight back to the gym to restart my workout.Driving back to the gym I felt I owed it to my prone (and in serious pain !) friend to dominate the big bad squat rack and chains, so I decided (rather recklessly) to kick off at 120 kg with the chains on my first squat, this was totally alien territory for me, but to cut a long story short my loadings ended up
120 Kg X 6
125 Kg X 4
130 Kg X 4
140 Kg X 2
142.5 Kg X 2Where my vastly improved performance a result of potentiation ? was it a result of determination due to my mates injury ?
Who knows, who cares ! I was delighted and was able to really push the boundaries. (the rest of my session was not too shabby either !)Just interested to know of any of your members experiences/knowledge of this
Regards
Mike McGurn
National Strength and Fitness Coach
Thanks for the kind words, and yes some time I must take a few of those points an elaborate a little on them.
I think Precovery is an interesting concept at least – everyone worries about the recovery process but very few worry about the state of the player before training/game/stressing them. So in other words (on a scale of readiness) if two athletes are at a 6 and a 4 before they train – the way they both respond to training – they might be at a scale of 4 and 2 by the end – and how they respond to the (usually the same) recovery protocol (even if it’s just a post workout shake) will be completely different. So can you not prepare an athlete to respond to training better?
As for visiting Ireland – just a note to everyone – falling in love isn’t a garauntee!!! Fitness testing is so time consuming – but you do need some markers and I’m a bit of nut with things like that and try to collect every scrap of data I can to help monitor. Monitoring is the key in my opinion.
Great qoute on the core. Though many groin injuries are attributed to weak cores – I suggest they are attributed to poor technique and imbalanced training programs – not a weak core.
The only time I use Tempo is with a beginner – after that I think it’s pointless, but for beginners I think it’s useful to prevent ballistic movements and limited ROM’s with lifts. I think you hit the nail on the head with Hypertrophy – especailly for sport – increase the sets and essentially TUT and total volumes.Mike, very interesting post buddy – and impressive session.
Reminds me of stories of Bulagrian lifters lifting frequently throughout the day!
Neural Potentiation is very interesting and I looked a little at it before and have spoken to some people about it to try and understand it more. There is seems to be a balance between cns excitation and cns fatigue that is very delicate – but you guys are obviously smart enough and experienced enough to tread along that line. It is a great way to fire up the CNS and get things moving and players buzzing.
There were two interesting papers published in the past few months on similar ideas/themes and I’ll see if I can dig them up – where front squats contributed more to starting speed and back squats to longer distances when the sprints immediately followed the lift.
Another interesting concept, from sprinting, is the idea of structuring the week to build/develop/maintain CNS excitation over a week leading to a game/final etc removing the stress from the legs – but maintaining the neural potentiation. So for example, the idea is that the last heavy or explosive leg weights day might be Wednesday, explosive Push WO on Friday, explosive pull on Sat 30 mins pre game. The theory is that CNS excitation or Neural potentiation can be started and maximised on the Wednesday, maintained through Wednesday, and buzzed again on Saturday – and all the time leg fatigue is avoided by doing this. Of course in sprinting this is very important and perhaps in Rugby it’s not as critical a factor, but I’ve found it to work well (albeit in a limited context).
I’ll see if I can get those papers
By the way – I don’t believe those numbers Mike! (Joking)
Great work Mike, I remember what Poliquin used to say about coming back in the afternoon and perfroming exactly th esame workout you did in the morning with a significant increase in loading from the morning workout, an interesting personal account with St. Helen’s I have always thought that the Charlie Francis/Ben Jonson stories of him squatting big before he sprints spot on with the time frame and energy requirements of the event but thought the transfer to our gamne maybe not be there but to get a jump on the opposition for the first 10 minutes makes good sense, thanks for sharing, ash
Here are those two papers … quite interesting actually – especially since they were done in rugby … don’t say I don’t stay up to date – JUNE 2008 … the ink is still wet!
Influence of recovery time on post-activation potentiation in professional rugby players (Journal of Sports Sciences, June 2008)
Abstract
Following a bout of heavy resistance training, the muscle is in both a fatigued and potentiated state with subsequent muscle performance depending on the balance between these two factors. To date, there is no uniform agreement about the optimal acute recovery required between the heavy resistance training and subsequent muscle performance to gain performance benefits. The aim of the present study was to determine the recovery time required to observe enhanced muscle performance following a bout of heavy resistance training. Twenty professional rugby players performed a countermovement jump at baseline and *15 s, 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, and 24 min after a bout of heavy resistance training (three sets of three repetitions at 87% one-repetition maximum squat). Power output, jump height, and peak rate of force development were determined for all countermovement jumps. Despite an initial decrease in countermovement jump performance after the heavy resistance training (P50.001), participants’ performance increased significantly following 8 min recovery (P50.001) (i.e. jump height increased by 4.9%, s¼3.0). The findings suggest that muscle performance during a countermovement jump can be markedly enhanced following bouts of heavy resistance training provided that adequate recovery (*8 min) is allowed between the heavy resistance training and the explosive activity.This one then kinda contradicts a little what we were talking about …
Effect of order of exercise on performance during a complex training session in rugby players (Journal of Sports Sciences, June 2008)
Abstract
In this study, we examined the acute effects of manipulating exercise order when combining countermovement jumps and loaded parallel squats in a complex training session, and the acute effects of countermovement jumps and loaded parallel squats on sprinting performance. Eight rugby players participated in five trials, including two that involved performing loaded parallel squats followed by countermovement jumps or vice versa in a randomized cross-over design. Peak rate of force development and peak force were measured during countermovement jumps and loaded parallel squats. Peak power, jump height, and duration of amortization phase were also determined during the countermovement jumps. Peak force during squatting was significantly greater in both cross-over treatments (loaded parallel squats–countermovement jumps and countermovement jumps–loaded parallel squats) compared with the control (P 0.05), although no significant interaction effects were observed. Prior countermovement jumps resulted in slower 5-m split and overall 20-m sprint times compared with the control (countermovement jumps vs. control: 5-m split, 1.23 s, s¼0.11 vs. 1.13 s, s¼0.11; overall 20-m, 3.29 s, s¼0.19 vs. 3.18 s, s¼0.18; P50.05). It is possible to combine heavy resistance and plyometric exercises without detriment to training performance, but sprint training should be performed independently to minimize any potential interference from
prior resistance training.There were others I had recently I must look for to compliment these …
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