http://functionalpathtraining.blogspot.com/
So is Gambetta correct in his blog when he says that the lexicon of training needs to be reworded?
especially the use of the word functional which he either coined or has played a big part in it’s use/abuse.
I think consistency is needed in the wording.
Coaches any comments on this article?
Dinosaur or Cockroach – Adapted or Adaptable?
Do not look for adversity, look for opportunity. Ask yourself what can I do each day to make the athletes that I work with better. Carefully study the movements of the sports – understand the forces and how they are produced and reduced and train accordingly. Get away from artificial limiting beliefs about what the body cannot do – focus on the infinite possibilities that the body presents to solve movement problems. Train movements to enhance coordination and efficiency of movement. The body is completely adaptable. It has an amazing ability to compensate and solve movement problems. Yes I said compensate, great athlete are great compensator’s and it is OK!
Artificial sterile environments or strict “correct” movements do not expand the body’s ability to adapt to the demands of the sport. Sterile and artificial training environments and scenarios result in adapted bodies that cannot change and adjust to the random and chaotic demands of the sport. Open challenging movement enriched environments create adaptable athletes who are able to adjust and modify movements on demand. These adaptable athletes, given a level of talent, are high performers and stay injury free.
Which would you prefer if you were to choose an athlete for competition? Do you want a dinosaur type who is completely adapted and on their way to extinction or a cockroach type athlete who is thriving and highly adaptable? I know who I want – I want the cockroach who can adapt to any environment or under any circumstances. Ask yourself – Are you training your athletes to be dinosaurs or cockroaches? I want adaptable athletes who can solve any movement problem presented to them?
Depends on whether the cockroach is the athlete, or the ever-mutating presenter/coach/promoter/salesman
And just guess who will step up to do the translation!
Google Gerard Mach and just see who has inserted himself to tell you what Gerrard thinks and means!! F**ken beaut, this guy!
I guess its easier to write up clever requirements for perfect athletes rather than train them for high performance.
And a lot easier to write it than DO IT!
I am surprised by the seeming personal animosity towards Gambetta on this board. I don’t know him, have never seen him. But I have read a lot of things from him and I find them generally informative and sensible. What’s everybody’s beef with him?
Zero integrity. Biggest lie was telling Basketball Canada coaches that he was the Head Strength Coach for the Chicago Bulls in the heyday. One of my friends was there to corroborate the story. Truth is, Gambetta had a minor stint with Chicago, in an assistant-type role.
And, of course, the man behind the success in the strength department was Al Vermeil.
Other stories have had similar angles. Makes you wonder about the substance of an individual when they have to resort to lying about their accomplishments.
Problem with the blogs too is that sometimes people just write something to get an entry in regularly. Writing for the sake of writing.
Interesting. When was that?
Recently read an article or something, which had him saying that he was an assistant at Chicago and noticed that the conditioning programme had little to do with how basketball was played and this determined his philosophy to conditioning sports people…
I had read the previous comments about him being head coach…
Reminds me of previous great marketers of things.
What a piece of shit. First, he double crosses Al with the White Sox, then he tries to steal credit for Al’s success with the Bulls, then, later shits on Al’s program, which he tried to take credit for before, in a further attempt to promote himself.
People who read over time find out what people are like.
Someone mentioned he was in Australia, and by accounts we loved him.
Personally I would of loved to seen him, but I would of loved to of seen Charlie as well. Does it mean I rate him. No, but 1 man’s gospel is another man’s junk.
Sorry it was a blog I read. See below
Paradigm for Athletic Development Program
Written by vern gambetta
Thursday, 27 September 2007
This is a paradigm I have used for years. It has worked well for me and my colleagues. It certainly has grown and evolved over the years but the basic ideas are the same. I truly believe that by applying this paradigm and understanding the basic principles of training that you should be able to work effectively with any sport. Here is the paradigm:
1 - Know the Demands of the Game or Sport
2 - Know the Demands of the Position or Event
3 - Know the Qualities of the Individual Athlete
4 - Know the Pattern of Injuries in the Sport
Over the years I have found that if I deviate from this then there are problems. Once I have gone through the evaluation of these four steps then it is a matter of determining the need to do versus the nice to do training activities. This simple paradigm will allow you to derive as complex a training program as needed. This paradigm really evolved when I was working as Al Vermeils’ assistant working with the Chicago Bulls in the mid eighties. I thought that some of the things I was having the players do in regard to conditioning were not really based on the game of professional basketball, so I went to Al to get the video guy to shoot individual isolated video of our top six players in games. What a revelation, it was not basketball it was more like football or wrestling. It certainly made me rethink my ideas about conditioning for pro basketball. I do not know what was done with in regard to the Bulls, because I left soon after that to go to work for the White Sox. I know that with the White Sox we carefully studied the demands of the game, individual positions and the individual players. It is all part of a comprehensive system of athletic development. With the sophisticated tools available today there is no excuse for what we see today in regard to conditioning for various sports. The conditioning must fit the game, the position and the athlete and must prevent injury. Too often we are trying to force the athletes into boxes. Thing like the big three or distance running for speed power athletes’ simply do not reflect reality of sport demands. As the old cowboy used to say, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make them drin
He also mentions in another blog about white soxs which I haven’t read.
I follow Vern’s blog and have read many of his articles from NSA, Training and Conditioning, as well as his most recent book. I find his concepts applicable to many training methods. Just like this forum, not everything he writes is golden and I can’t speak to his character.
But this thread and others in this forum, has me interested in who WOULD be considered credible and a valuable source of training information? So, if I were a young coach, who would you suggest that I read, observe, listen to?
Both for linear speed development and sports performance in general.
You should read everything you can get hold of and draw your own conclusions, keeping in mind who has produced results and who has produced original material.
Bottom line. And how did it work out for the Bulls under Al Vermiel and how did it work out for the White Sox when Gambetta was there, and who was fired due to a high number of injuries?
Times up! I’ll answer. The Bulls won 6 championships with Al and the White Sox (years before they finally won!!) had so many injuries that the General Manager started calling around asking for reviews of Gambetta’s program to see why this was happening. Gambetta was fired soon after.
I saw Vern speak in Atlanta and he seemed nice, so I went to talk to him because he lives an hour from me. He acted pretty full of himself. I thought it would be cool if we could meet (initially), but he just told me how much better his volleyball team was then mine because he trained them. He only bragged and wouldn’t listen at all or carry on a normal conversation.
In that same trip, both Boyle and Taft were awesome and went out of their way to talk with me. They both encouraged me to continue talking to them via e-mail.