plyo program

[James_Smith]

@svincenz

James, thanks for the thoughtful reply.
I understand now what you mean when you talk of organism and human and I agree with you.
I have different ideas and views on talent selection and identification, which I will briefly discuss as I think that the other part of the thread (minimun common denominator) is less to opinions and more to “facts”.

First, you say “I am speaking from a higher performance level as I am a staunch advocate of competitive sport being comprised only of athletes who are predisposed to accel at them”. Isn’t it what happens normally without forcing the issues? I mean, at higher performance level, only the best (predisposed) athletes are performing. But let’s say, for the 100m, you fix 10 seconds at maximum limit for whatever reason (huge gap from the WR, 0.42 secs). But how many people in this category? 5-10? So, at the world level, we will have from 5 to 10 people competing and that’s it? I think it is a logical consequence of your view. If you, on the other hand, are referring to (state) sponsorship (as in Italy still happens for the best athletes), your view could be supported by the need of best investing limited resources.

You say:
“One of the many principles I adopted from the Soviets is that competition shouldn’t even take place until the participants are able to truly compete at a level high enough to challenge other individuals and teams of a national/international, collegiate, professional, Olympic, level. Granted, this is my opinion only; and my opinion renders me in an extreme minority in my country”.

This is what happens in the Spartak tennis club in Moscow (NYT article and book “the talent code”). Doing the same gesture over and over again. Building myelin and reinforcing neural patterns. There is a little problem. In a non-totalitarian society (or moderately wealthy) you would keep repeating the same gesture over and over again not the truly blessed, but the truly bored. What for? For a long and distant and very unlikely medal?
I was bitten by the competitive bug when I was a little child, give me years of only “training” and I will run away as fast as possible and dedicate myself to chess. So, theoretically I agree with what you say, but pratically in a non-totalitarian or moderately wealthy society it wouldn’t work and I cannot say I am disappointed by that.

Finally, I’d like to stress that in a team sport talent identification is very difficult and if I had a cent for every wrong (early) pick of so-called experts I would be a millionaire. There are problems with maturation, acquisition of skills and integration of them in a team setting which make (strong, of course some very non-talented people are easy to identify) talent identification very difficult and maybe not worth pursuing. In particular in team sports, I want to be clear.

Excellent points svincenz

I’ll be the first to admit that my theoretical sport training mind exists in, not even a totalitarian but more of a, despotism in which I am the despot.

Truth in jest

Regarding your statement regarding the difficulty in talent identification/selection for team sports, I respectfully disagree.

As I enter my 8th year working with American football, I can state with complete certainty that the requisite tools for precise talent identification and selection are in fact in existence and usable in the practical setting.

The most valuable markers are constituted by neurophysiological, psychological-emotional, and morpho-biomechanical evaluations.

I am fortunate to have a close associate in Bulgaria (a soon to be professor at the NSA in Sofia) who has, over the years, shared with me various research only being pursued in Russia; specifically pertaining to morpho-biomechanics.

In addition, I was privileged to have been put in contact with a graphologist living in the US who demonstrated to me the nearly incomprehensible accuracy in psychological-technical-behavioral profiling that may be attained via hand writing analysis. I speak from experience as she evaluated both me and my wife, not knowing either one of us, based solely upon our handwriting and provided us with profiles more detailed then we could have possibly described each other after having been married, at that time, for 7 years.

It is my knowing that the tools are, in fact, available and that all relevant talent identification variables are measurable/quantifiable.

It’s a matter of asking the proper questions and possessing the requisite diagnostic resources.

The key, as you well noted, is not to make premature diagnostic rulings such that the ‘baby is not thrown out with the bath water’ so to speak.