Had one crazy weekend with fellow coach and friend Doug Spurling down in the big city which is Boston. Well, if you think a crazy weekend consists of listening to lectures for four hours and then sweating your ass off for another three hours. Then ya by all accounts it was off the chain crazy.
Coaches conferences are like real people conferences except one big difference. Sweat pants and hoodies are in and polos and khakis are out.
This weekend I had the pleasure of attending the Perform Better Learn by Doing Seminar. I always enjoy going to these seminars, for a few reasons:
- They get me fired up about what I do for a job
- They reminded me that I still have a lot to learn
- I get a sweet brain swell from all the knowledge I take in
I am happy to say that all three of these things happened. I left a very happy coach.
This seminar had four great presenters. Nick Winkelman, Martin Rooney, Robert Dos Remedios (Coach Dos), and Mike Boyle. Lets just say it was a stacked line up. This year’s theme was group training (Bootcamps) and speed training. Two things I deal with on a weekly basis, and feel I need to get better at.
Let’s recap the day’s events.
First Up
Nick Winkelman:
Developing Speed That Transfers to Sport & Life
To be honest I never heard of Nick Winkelman before this conference, shame on me, for he is one smart dude when it comes to training speed. He works for EXOS (formally Athletes Performance) one of the biggest and most renowned training facilities in the country. He trains athletes for the NFL Combine, so he knows a thing or two about making people faster.
Key Points:
Exercise Benefits:
- Self-initiated exercise is beneficial for brain development, forced exercise not so much.
- Exercise in the morning or at lunch can increase thinking and focus.
Posture in Running:
- Arms and Legs move around posture, not posture around arms and legs
- The Quicker the heel comes off the ground while running the more reactive the person is (faster/explosive)
- Running patterns should be addressed in this order: 1. Posture 2. Backside Leg Action 3.Frontside Leg Action 4. Ground Contact.
Coaching:
- Get people thinking about the outcome not the movement
- Tell them what you want vs. don’t want
- Never give cues when you first see a person move, just watch them move naturally.
- Way cues = more force
- Use words like sharp, spring, and explode
I could write a whole post on what I learned from this presentation (and I will), but for now here are just the highlights.
Martin Rooney:
The Art & Science of Small Group Training
Martin Rooney is a great presenter. If you don’t get fired up when you hear Rooney speak then you must hate having a good time. Rooney could motivate a sloth to sprint (analogies just aren’t my thing).
Rooney’s presentation did not give you answers, but a lot of food for thought. He had 7 Paradigm Shifts.
Takeaways
- Coaching does not just involve cues it also involves: tonality, body language, posture.
- High Fives are fun use them.
- Your goal of a bootcamp is to have your clients feel better after the class, not to beat the S–T out of them.
- Why do people show up late to your class, but are on time for movies? Your show must not be that good.
- Don’t seek to make people tired. Seek to make them better than before they met you
- How often do you say these five words, “I am Proud of You”. It is easy to tear someone down.
- Become the coach you always dreamed you would have had.
- Don’t wait for the perfect time to start. Start and maybe the time will be perfect.
Rooney’s presentation was great but if you/I don’t do anything with it and just nod our head in agreement and say, “ya that’s great”. Then it was a waste of an hour.
Robert Dos Remedios:
Chaos Sport-Speed Training: Applications for the General Population
Coach Dos went over how to use open looped drills to simulate game like conditions.
If you don’t know, open looped refers to an uncontrolled environment with unknown stimuli. Where a closed looped refers to an environment where one knows what the stimuli are, like cone drills.
Takeaways
- Deceleration is important in being able to change direction quickly
- Bands are effective in making deceleration easier/ harder depending on force of pull.
That’s about it. Well, I also learned that you are allowed to drop S and F bombs at conferences if you are a well liked speaker and that any speaker after you can now also use S–t as much as they want and use F–k only as much as the presenter before him but not exceeding the count of previous speaker. Good to know if I ever get into pubic speaking.
Mike Boyle:
Training Groups and Teams – Better Than Bootcamps
The last presenter was the world renowned Mike Boyle and he did not disappoint. He started of by pointing out to the other presenters that he was credited for inventing combined training. If you follow Boyle you know he is all about common sense.
(I might take some heat for saying this)
From hearing him speak and reading his stuff I am slowly coming to the conclusion that Boyle is not the smartest man but he has an abundant amount of common sense, which may indeed be better then having all the knowledge in the world but little common sense.
Key Points
- Common sense is not very common – Ben Franklin stolen from Voltaire
- Keep it simple
- Know your regressions: ½ kneeling, lunge, standing, ect.
- Use the Sh_ _ Test
- Do the math. If you have 20 athletes and two squat racks you can’t barbell squat, if you want to box jump but have no boxes you can’t box jump. If you have 10 pairs of dumbbells and 20 clients not every on can use two, so use one.
All common sense right? Well, why did so many people pay to hear this message if it was so common? I guess it’s not so common.
Wrap Up
I am excited to bring back all I learned to my clients, and I hope some of these points will make you better coaches, trainers, people, and gym rats.
High Five
Josh Williams
