Quote of the Day 2/28/09

“The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything.” – Theodore Roosevelt

Hind Site is 20/20

In my job as a Strength Coach at a Physical Therapy Clinic I see a fair amount of injured athletes over the course of my day.  Many of them have two things in common.  Lack of mobility at a joint and poor flexibility.  The common answer when I ask them what their flexibility and mobility strategy is goes something like this, “I hate to stretch!”.  I am going to share with you how I effectively get my point across to people with this mindset about the importance of flexibility and mobility training.  Below is a typical line of questioning I will give one of the athletes I work with when I get such a response.  I will put the typical response to the questions in quotations.

How much do you love playing your sport?  “I love it a lot.”

How much does it suck when you are injured and can’t practice and compete in your sport?  “I hate it so much.”

So, if I could tell you I could help you not get hurt by doing something for 5 minutes a day and save you from missing time from your sport. Would you do it?  “Of course I would!!!”

Ok, Then why do you hate to stretch?  “uhhhh”

You can effectively decrease ones risk of injury with flexibility and mobility training, everyone knows this.  But, some of the techniques to effectively do this can be tedious and many athletes just hate doing it.  But, once they understand the power of 5 minutes of performing these exercises or stretches they may be more open to doing them.  Especially if they have missed time due to injury.  Most athletes love their sport and participating.  When they have perceived value to something that will give them better results in there sport, then they will pursue it with as much vigor as their sport.  Giving Injury prevention and flexibility/mobility training this perceived value with my athletes by using this line of questioning I have seen great success with getting them to perform the exercises to reduce their risk of injury and promote mobility/flexibility and in turn improvement in injury rates and performance.

 

Next time you come across one of those Stretching haters try this method and provide them this hind sight is 20/20 enlightenment on stretching.

 

Good Luck

Quote of the Day 2/27/09

“Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.”

–Thomas Jefferson

Quote of the Day 2/26/09

“The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.”

-Franklin D. Roosevelt

Quote of the Day 2/25/09

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”

-Abraham Lincoln

Quote of the Day 2/24/09

“Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.”

-John F. Kennedy

Some Presidential Quotes

“Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men.” – John F. Kennedy

“There are no problems we cannot solve together, and very few that we can solve by ourselves.” – Lyndon B. Johnson

“A man is not finished when he is defeated. He is finished when he quits.” – Richard Nixon

“It's not necessary to fear the prospect of failure but to be determined not to fail.” – jimmy Carter

“There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect.” – Ronald Reagan

Support USA Weightlifting Junior National Team

USA Weightlifting has had their operating budget cut.  They will not be able to fund the Junior World team to go to The World Junior Championships in Romania in June.  As of now each member of this team is going to have to shell out the entire $2700. to make this trip.  From a stand point of international meets it is paramount for young lifters to compete at this stage.  Any opportunity that goes by for these young lifters is chances to grow as lifters wasted. 

So, to help out Glenn Pendlay of Muscle Driver USA has started a fundraiser by selling t-shirts for $20. of which $10 will go towards helping get these young lifters to Romania.  As of sending out this blog post there is only $1080. That would not even send one lifter.  So, please got to his site and purchase a shirt and help out Team USA.

The link is:

http://www.mdusagear.com/USAW-Fundraiser_c_13.html

Quote of the Day 2/17/09

“Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.”

-Dwight D. Eisenhower

Coaching Cue for the Jerk

I was competing this weekend at the Atlantic States Open Weightlifting Championships.  I was warming up for the Clean & Jerk portion of the competition.  I was feeling a little bit sluggish on my Jerk.  I was very fortunate to have a bright young up and coming strength coach helping me out with my warm up.  He said something to me that was so simple yet something that is so easy to forget.

Jerking is relatively easy lift to do.  You dip to get the bar moving drive up then get under it.  But, it is easy to lose sight of proper technique and just begin to muscle the weight.  That is what I was doing in my warm ups.  I went into this meet feeling strong and I let that feeling get in the way of proper technique.

So, what was this simple cue this young strength coach gave me.  It was to “get tall”.  That was it! I was focusing so much on dropping under and pushing up that I failed to “Get Tall” or fully extend after my dip to get the bar moving into the Jerk.  So, why do I think this is such a great cue.  Simple, I am 6’4” tall and a former Basketball player.  Olympic Lifting does not come natural for me.  But, what does come natural to me is getting tall.  Those few simple words saved what would have been a long warm up and an atrocious three lifts.  By getting tall the bar was popping up off my shoulders and the weight began to feel light.

So, next time you are doing some Jerks or coaching the Jerk remember to “Get Tall” after the dip and when you are driving up to get under the bar.

Daily Quote 2/16/08

“A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties.”

-Harry S. Truman

Quote of the Day 2/14/09

“Words without actions are the assassins of idealism.”

-Herbert Hoover

Daily Quote 2/13/09 & 2/12/09

“All Growth Depends upon activity.  There is no development physically or intellectually without effort, and effort means work.”

-Calvin Coolidge

 

“Believe you can and you’re halfway there.”

-Theodore Roosevelt

Quote of the Day 2/11/09

“In the time of darkest defeat, Victory may be nearest.”

-William McKinley

Quote of the Day 2/10/09

“The bud of victory is always in the truth.”

-Benjamin Harrison

When Parenting and Sports Goes Wrong

Originally posted 1/30/08 on my other blog www.strengthcoachblog.blogspot.com

My wife called me this morning to tell me about a story she watched on "Good Morning American". This story was about a father who gave his son a cocktail of performance enhancing drugs as early as the age of 13 to aid in his son's persuit of being a champion speed skater.

As a new parent myself I can't wait for my daughter to participate in sports. Both my wife and myself both grew up on participating in Athletics and being a part of a team. We both agree that the experiences we had while playing sports growing up help shape us into who we are. We can't wait for our daughter to have those same experiences.

Now, I have to be honest when I say that I can't wait to share with my daughter everything I have learned about performance enhancement. We all think our children have the potential to get college scholarships, be a champion, make it to the pros, etc. But, there are healthy and non healthy ways to go about it.

Here at Ullucci Sports Medicine I work with many youth athletes and some of them want to be here and some are here because of pressure from Mom and Dad. But, What I notice is that most of these athletes are over training and most of them don't have the time to be a kid. Now, I fully understand that to excel at a sport it takes hours of dedication and practice. But, kids these days are participating in the same sport year round. There is no diversity and no "off season". When people think about rest they think of a negative impact on training. But, it should be though of as a positive impact. If you coach or if you are a parent think about how much time you put into focusing on rest. Not much time. Coaches you probably think 4 and 5 times as much on what to do in practice than what you instruct the kids to do when they are not practicing or on a off day. Think about it do you focus on rest and what to do on a day off at all?

Rest or Off season should be viewed as a period of Active Rest. Even on days off active rest should be emphisised. Time off or an offseason athletes need to be active. They should go for a easy jog or play a different sport. For example if you are a soccer player. Instead of spending your off day working on foot skills or going for a distance run to stay in shape. Play some basketball or go for a swim. This will work other muscles and help you from falling into a rut of over training.

Now, what does this have to do with the dad who gave his child performance enhancing drugs. Simple, RECOVERY!!!! Young athletes don't take the time to recover. They just go and go and go. We have to remember they are YOUNG ATHLETES not professionals. They are going to school, doing homework, doing stuff around the house, and some may even hold a part time job. Add thoses stresses with the practice and training time. When do they sleep and when do they recover. Burnout hits many athletes when they reach high school and this can have a negative impact on their whole life not just there life as an athlete. These athletes will look to rebel. They will lose intrest in not just their sports but in school, socializing and etc. They become withdrawwn and can show signs of depression. Think about what got you involved in sports as a kid. It was fun, it was to be part of a team, and it was how you built confidence in yourself. As a parent or coach you may not outwardly pressure your kids to win or get a scholarship or be the best. But, kids are not dumb they have instincts that you and I have lost. They read people extremely well. So they will sense the need to win they will sense the need to be the best. A quote by Paul Brown the former coach of the Cleveland Browns was this:

"You can learn a line from winning and a book from losing."

As a coach and a parent it is your responsibility to teach kids the life lessons from athletic because they won't understand some of their feelings. Be a guide to them. Don't push your feelings or your needs on them. Help them understand that losing is a disapointment. Teach them that winning is great success and that it shows that good things come from hard work. Help them learn that sometimes you can work hard and prepare well but sometimes you just fall short and that is ok as long as you gave your very best. These are just some of the lessons to be learned from athletics. Athletics are supposed to build character not destroy it.
I think about this family and how this father has destroyed this family and this young athlete's future in his sport. It is just a terrible sign of were we are heading as a society. To learn more about this story this is the link: http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/ESPNSports/story?id=4211036&page=1

Daily Quote 2/9/09

“If the power to do hard work is not a skill, it's the best possible substitute for it.”  -James Garfield

“In every battle there comes a time when both sides consider themselves beaten, then he who continues the attack wins.”  -Ulysses S. Grant

Quote of the Day 2/7/09

“Don’t worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition.” –Abraham Lincoln

Thanks Kevin

Not too long ago I came across an article published on SB Coaches College called Battling Anatomy: Implications for Effective Squatting.  This article discussed two major problems you sometimes see in squatting past parallel and in squatting in general.  they are:

1. Knees collapsing in

2. Hips tucking under

I instruct many people on squatting and I agree this is one of the two major technical flaws that I will have to address when trying to get my clients and the athletes I work with squatting effectively.  I am a big proponent of past parallel squatting. I think it is a must for athletes and anyone else who is not limited by restrictions of Range of Motion.  So, with the clients and athletes I work with it rules out only my hip replacement clients who are restricted to not performing more than 90 degrees of hip flexion. But, they do touch and go squats and the creates they squat to are set right at 90 degrees of hip flexion.  Now, In his article Kevin Neeld, CSCS brought up a few items I had questions on.  So I decided to shoot him off an email.  He responded in depth on his blog at www.kevinneeld.com in this post: http://www.kevinneeld.com/?p=593

I have to admit that Kevin opened my eyes on several new things that did not know about CAM impingement and hip mobility.  Currently I am screening my athletes and clients who are demonstrating hip tucking with the Quadruped rocking mobility exercise Kevin described in his response.  I have found all of my clients so far have improved their mobility using this exercise.  But, in the future I am sure I will work with someone who will not improve and this small step will save me time as I will now know that their depth most like won’t come and I will save them no doubt injury.

Kevin is clearly demonstrating that he is an expert on hip mobility and strengthening.  I highly recommend checking out his blog and his other articles on SB Coaches College.

Thanks again Kevin for answering my questions.

Quote of the Day

“Any man worth his salt will stick up for what he believes right, but it takes a slightly better man to acknowledge instantly and without reservation that he is in error.”

-Andrew Jackson

Quote of the Day 2/5/09

"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." -John Quincy Adams

Quote of the Day 2/4/09

“Philosophy is common sense with big words.”

-James Madison

Quote of the Day 2/3/09

“Bodily decay is gloomy in prospect, but of all human contemplations the most abhorrent is body without mind.”

-Thomas Jefferson

Smart Training Results in Optimizing Natural Gains

I work mostly with high school and middle school aged athletes. At Ullucci Sports Medicine & Physical Therapy we have adapted what I call the S.T.R.O.N.G. principle.  What this acronym stands for is Smart Training Results in Optimal Natural Gains.  What I try to do as the first strength and conditioning coach these young athletes have come in contact with and with many possibly will ever come in contact with is to try to empower them with knowledge in the basic principles of training.  I have found that by educating them on and not dictating to them my training methods these young athletes are able to make correct choices outside the weight room which have more of an impact on their gains from the weight room than any program design I could ever create.  As their strength coach my influence only goes so far, and for my program design to work I need them to make smart choices outside the weight room. I can get them to do anything in the weight room. But, can I get them to get enough sleep, eat right, avoid the temptation of drugs and alcohol.  I find that the approach of making the athlete not just a better athlete but a smarter athlete has helped my young trainees to make good choices out of the weight room which has helped them to achieve optimal gains from their training.

I have realized just how much as a coach I am able to influence young athletes in the ability to make good choices.  There is so much information on Performance Enhancing Drugs and Supplements available on the internet that many athletes will choose to look to a web page for advice before discussing this information with their coaches.  I don’t beat around the bush with my athletes if they ask me what the benefits of Steroids are I tell them I don’t lie because they will find out by searching online anyway.  But, after I answer their question I bring up the moral and the ethical decisions they may not have thought about. Think about it as a Coach how many times have you been asked about Steroids and Supplements.  Now, think about how many times you have been asked questions on sleep requirements, nutritional requirements, is outside stress in my life affecting my training, and etc.  I bet the Steroids and Supplement questions by far come more often than the other questions.  So perhaps if when you lay out your training program design take a few minutes to explain why you are doing the exercises, why the set and rep structure is set up that way, explain the premise of the rest intervals, and etc.  You will find that the Athlete or trainee will appreciate your effort and will begin to ask more questions on the theory and practice of the science behind Performance Enhancement via training and will not ask nearly the questions Performance Enhancement via drugs and supplements.

Daily Quote 2/2/09

“If we do not lay out ourselves in the service of mankind whom should we serve?” –John Adams

Daily Quote 2/1/09

“Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company.”

-George Washington