Derek touched on the New England Patriots success, he felt like they had to be doing something different… They are successful mainly because they have great ownership, upper management, head coach, and all time great qb… Training wise one thing I think they are doing different from most teams, every Thursday inseason they perform hill sprints. Day to day training isn’t any different from your typical American football training that most teams are doing.
I know the connect or disconnect between ownership down into the player is a big thing. Learning to get along is an asset in all areas of life. I read something recently that said strong people skills is one of the most important traits in life as you always need to interact with others. As I have mentioned before I noticed how cooperative and team minded the players we dealt with were. Built into their way of operating was how to get the job done and play nice with others so to speak. We have had a variety of athletes at the house and I noticed many individual athletes are concerned with themselves and only themselves and not always aware of how they need to interact in the world.( i.e., why would we want people around that aren’t willing to pull their own weight) The athletes who have been the most successful often share an excellent attitude opposed to making excuses or blaming or wondering why something isn’t happening. I think I learned a lot more because everything we did was an uphill battle for us. Training alone, constant scrutiny and the fact that Charlie wasn’t allowed to coach made me constantly question why I was doing what I was doing.
I can see how hills would be beneficial but likely that’s not the sole differentiator. All levels of the operation learning to deal on the same page is huge for success short and long term.
Successful industries need standardization of operation, protocols that are clear and repeatable and incentives for cooperation. I think sport suffers a great deal from large egos and perhaps too much testosterone combined with a too few skills on aspects of how to create success.
I am pretty sure there wasn’t any showing off. I do remember doing push up sit up workout with a few of the players and they couldn’t keep up. Note I wasn’t collecting the same pay slips so any joy I gained from showing off likely was short lived. 
But there is a specificity to tempo and big circuit and most training. If you have done the workout it is easier ( providing you are fit) and if you have not done that workout you need to acclimate to the training somewhat.
It’s not like they have James or Buddy as their head strength coach, they aren’t doing anything different… If you look at their injury history over the past 6-7 years it has been high and they lost a more qualified head strength coach (Mike Woicik)to the cowboys. Great talent and coaching will always win out over great physical preparation.
The Patriots’ rash of injuries hasn’t gone unchecked. Bill Belichick fired strength and conditioning coach Harold Nash today, according to ESPN. Nash joined offensive line coach Dave DeGuglielmo as staffers who were shown the door this week.
http://www.patriots.com/video/2013/07/23/patriots-today-behind-scenes-moses-cabrera
There’s zero benefit to running hills inseason for healthy NFL players, maybe your old school players/coaches will say mental toughness etc.
Take it easy - it’s just a joke…
Anybody with a general sense of knowledge where Charlie comes from will know that doing LI work is beneficial and better over the long term. Many coaches out there don’t believe that or are unaware. However, in my experience in academics and strength and conditioning, many many coaches and scientists believe that doing aerobic work is going to make you weaker and slower, and train too much type I/ampk… There isn’t much discussion on using T:C ratio to prove this right, this is why I presented this.
I appreciate the kind sentiment RB34, however, I left that profession in 2013 (ten years too late) and have since spoken and written about the need for it’s elimination if sport coaching is to evolve.
Good insight and interesting too.
come on RB. I was going to lose sleep over this for sure.
I think there’s some value to American Football adopting how some of the European soccer clubs treat their athletes. The sport coaches shouldn’t have much say in who trains and who doesn’t. The sport coach should be totally removed from this process. It would make things much easier.
If I remember correctly Bert Hill mention how Charlie recommended Barry to lose some of his hamstring mass which helped his open field speed (top speed)… Barry went on to rush for 2000yds and had several long tds 40yds+.
Charlie had a major influence on Bert’s programs, tons on situps/pushups tempo runs and real speed work.
In actuality, quite the opposite is true, in order for the sport coach to be objectively competent , which, according to my definition, very few are, he/she must be competent in all realms of preparation. I’m not keen on elaborating on this deeply here as I’ve done so already elsewhere. Contact me privately if interested.
I remember speaking with Mark McLaughlin back in 07-08 and he said something similar to what I posted. After spending 13-16 working with international basketball clubs and watching how some of the upper tier euro soccer clubs (Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Russia) run their day to day operations it was similar to what Mark told me back in 07-08. All players are run through a large battery of tests to determine readiness prior to practices, and once these tests are completed the trainers and medical staff decide who participates and at what intensities.
The only reason the adjuncts had/have say in those cases is because that’s one solution to the mistake of lack of general knowledge on behalf of the coach in the first place. Thus, since the coaches didn’t/don’t have that knowledge they turned the decision making over to those who did/do. If, on the other hand, the coaches were competent, such as Charlie was for example, they, like he, would understand the determinants of readiness themselves and know the proper solutions to any number of cases.
We are amidst the stone age of sport RB34, in evolutionary terms, we are the cavemen of sport. Science, mathematics, philosophy…began being formally taught over two thousand years ago. The ancient Greek Olympics as well, however, sport, as a profession and pedagogical discipline, is less than 100 years old.
Hence, my influences stemming namely from physics and aesthetics as those realms have evolved for many millennia and thusly contributed to my objectively true, yet often controversial, statements on all things sport.
This is all described in the most comprehensive detail in my recent book which I cannot discuss here.
Dude, just say it. Ange was looking hot! Just like in the GPP vids with the other girl. Looking good!
What about people sandbagging?
There’s also a toughness element to most sports. I know you, James, TWhite and others have mentioned this before as well. I’ve seen quite a few American basketball players who were not prepared for the sport. Now, imo the main way to address this is through the sport, aka scrimmages, etc. But you do have to prep for that as well a little. In most sports, a bunch of running does nothing, unless you do it multidirectional to get the body prepped. Jogging or even extensive tempo is a waste for many unless you are running during your sport.
All of that being said, the coaches/SC coaches I have been around push the “conditioning” aspect too often. Many I have been around train at peak intensity in highly lactic conditions regardless of the sport they are training for. They just don’t know.
Yea I know, it was just funny when I listened cause I was expecting to hear something new to help me. When you said tempo I was like damn it. lol
But yea I agree, the majority of these dumb ass coaches who believe that no days off moto and run athletes to death need to hear that. One of those dumb ass coaches is the reason I stopped working with this highschool this year. I couldnt stand an watch kids get beat up everyday for 4 hours.
Hi everybody,
I just saw this thread right now. I’m glad to see some of you enjoyed the event- it was awesome to have Ange come on again.
I was able to say goodbye to winter for a week right after WSS 3 ended and took an athlete down to Clermont, FL where Cristy Snellgroves and Lance Brauman at Pure Athletics treated us awesomely as usual. It’s easily my favourite place for a training camp.
We just got back on Sunday.
Friday we were able to watch one of Lance’s block sessions with Tori Bowie, Shaunae Miller, Gerald (GForce) Phiri, and Jacques Harvey among others.
Gerald and Jacques looked really sharp, and on Tori’s last block start she blew two young male athletes out of the water.
Lance Brauman is a fun coach to watch on the track.
He’s normally a fairly quiet guy, but when he’s out there with his group, he turns his personality up to 11 and is an awesome teacher.
He puts a ton into the on-track sessions, and he appears to very carefully guard his energy so that he can put as much as possible into his athletes.
Fridays session:
Weather was cool, approximately 60F which is not warm at all for Florida in March.
“We’re just trying to hit positions and get our hips through, I don’t want to take anything down the track.”
warmup
3-5 starts individually to 10-20 metres
3-4 starts in group to 10-20 metres
4x 110 metres easy technical runs to finish up the on-track session
All Lance’s athletes look very strong technically.
This was an easy week for his group. They had Wednesday off (which he gives them off once every four weeks “more for mental than physical purposes”).
The easiness was compounded by some chilly weather (by Florida standards) which kept them off the track on Thursday as well.
You didnt get any secrets you can share? Any video?
Also, you didnt go around the corner to see gatlin and the dennis camp? They train literally 10 minutes away.
Or you could just strike up a convo with those two and get all the info you needed. I am sure they would be super open and ready and willing to share all sorts of data with an online community. Why not?