Law of Common Sense

Back in high school math I remember learning about Geometry and Logic Proofs. Essentially you had to use a step by step process, by applying certain laws of logic (generally named after the people who founded them in the case of logic proofs, or names that were descriptive of the step itself) to prove a given statement to be true. Proving the statements to be true weren't generally difficult, but it could be tough to remember the actual names of the laws. One time on a test, a friend of mine finished the proof correctly for the most part, except for the supporting law on one of the steps, he used "The Law of Common Sense."

I'm not sure the teacher saw the humor in it, although I found it hilarious.

I think my friend may have been on to something though. I feel like, in today's world, we are so caught up in numbers, data, statistics and research that we forget that we can use a little common sense every now and then to come to viable conclusions.

Just last night I caught a thin-slice of a story about a Doctor who believes vaccinations may be contributing to the large number of autism cases. Most of the medical community was quick to toss him in the loony bin because "the data simply doesn't show this." I don't know if he's right or not, but given the potential implications I think common sense says to listen. Is it so crazy to think that something foreign intentionally introduced to our bodies could cause the rate of something like autism to increase 17 fold in about 15 years? It might be, but I'd want to know for sure before I dismissed it.

This same logic can be applied to the field of strength and conditioning, in a couple different ways. Sometimes the research isn't there to support something that you know is helping, so you do it anyway. For example, a few years back when I first learned of foam rolling as an intern, and was having my athletes do it before class, I was able to get a feel for how they were going to perform that day. Were they sore? Did they feel good? Did they have a tough day at school? The roller answered some of these questions, and I asked the rest while they were doing it. There are really no drawbacks in my eyes.

"Whoah! Be careful there Chris-Lets wait for the data to come out before you get yourself hurt!"

Well I had a college professor tell me he wasn't sure about foam rolling and would like to see more peer-reviewed research to show the benefits of it before making athletes do this. Really? So something that takes 4-5 minutes to do, makes my athletes feel better, gives me a chance to assess the upcoming workout, and mentally prepares the athletes for that workout is a waste of time? I don't need research to tell me to keep doing it.

On the other side of that coin though, is the possibility that research shows something to be beneficial when really we should be more cautious of applying techniques from controlled studies to the general population of athletes.

A good example of this is with plyometric training. Research has proven that exercises such as depth jumps, performed at fairly high heights, can improve vertical jump scores and lower body explosiveness. Does this mean I should have all my athletes perform depth jumps since improving vertical jump performance is desired?

Absolutely not. Especially at the heights used in some of these studies. Now, if I have an elite athlete who is trying to get a scholarship and needs an improved vertical, I may program them. And I also have kids to depth jumps from much lower heights. But why risk a serious injury (especially with some kids who may be slightly overweight) by stressing the achilles tendon to it's max potential?

Most research lacks an element or risk-reward assessment that is absolutely necessary in our field, and all fields for that matter. If there is low risk involved and the research isn't there-do your own experiments. Anecdotes aren't always wrong. And if the research is there, but you question the risks involved, make a decision for yourself on whether or not it will be beneficial for your athletes. Don't be handcuffed by numbers and statistics.

Have a great week,


Jon

ACL Shortsightedness

First off, I'm going to start with a disclaimer...I am not a Doctor, Therapist, Athletic Trainer, and I don't even have the best background in anatomy and physiology that I should to be doing what I'm doing.

That being said, I've run into a very narrow-minded point of view from PT's and ATC's when it comes to strengthening an athlete recovering from ACL surgery. I've heard, almost verbatim, from three independent sources when the topic of ACL rehabilitation was brought up:

"Oh, ACL's are easy. I just tell them 'hamstrings, hamstrings, hamstrings'."

I almost cringe when I think about how shortsighted this outlook is, and then wonder how many of these athletes end up limping off the field, after a couple days of practice after being cleared, with a quad or hamstring pull.

Now, do hamstrings need to be strengthened? Absolutely. But this is just the beginning of the story. If we only concentrate on the hamstrings, we are completely ignoring the mechanism of an ACL injury. Let's consider some basic anatomy:

The hamstring group (Semimembranosis, Semitendonosis, and the long and short head of Biceps Femoris) originates at the ischial tuberosity, with the exception of the short head which originates at the linea aspera, at the distal end of the femur. Semimembranosis and Semitendonosis attach distally on the medial side of the tibia, and both heads of the Biceps Femoris attach on the lateral head of the fibula.

This is a very simplified picture of the attachments of the Biceps Femoris

So what does this mean? Let's go back to the mechanism of injury. Most research, and I think most top trainers, PT's and Docs would agree, that the absolute last line of defense is the hamstring. The injury starts up the chain. Most notably from the gluteals. The "funny" part is, it doesn't seem to be a lack of strength that's the problem...simply a lack of activation. The proper muscles are not turned on in the correct order, leading to medial rotation of the femur and the knee going valgus, stressing the ACL, MCL and everything else that goes along with it.

Back to the hamstrings; the only part of the hamstrings that is anywhere near the femur is the short head of the biceps. Clearly strengthening the hamstrings can't be the answer for preventing future injuries. We need to strengthen, and relearn how to activate, the external rotatores of the hip; Glute max., posterior glute medius, in addition to the lateral aspect of the hamstrings.

Now, I have a second problem with how some PT's operate. I am working with a 14 year old girl, barely 6 months post-ACL surgery, who was recently cleared by the Doctor because her knee looked really strong. Well they were right, her knee is very strong...but what about the rest of her? They didn't bother asking. Long story short, after a couple days of practice, she came to me with a strained quadriceps. Hopefully mild enough to recover in a week or so but who knows. But now I'm the bad guy who has to tell her to sit out of her first soccer scrimmage of the year, even though the Doc told her she was fine.

Sometimes we need to take away the magnifying glass and look at an athlete as a whole person, not just a joint or a couple muscle attachments.

Have a great weekend!
Jon

Scary numbers...

Check out this article...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32543288/ns/health-diet_and_nutrition

Jon

Little League World Series

This time of year is generally slow for sports. Baseball is dogging through August. Football is just getting into full-swing with pre-season games. There's no basketball to be spoken of. And hockey...well for all I know they may be in the middle of the Stanley Cup but I wouldn't know anyway.

One exciting sporting event taking place right now is the Little League World Series. We get the chance to see 12 and 13 year olds compete on the biggest stage for the right to be called "World Champions." We see the radar gun on the TV screen telling us how fast each pitch is if converted to Major League distance. We see home runs-a-plenty over 200 foot fences. We see kids elated, and on the other side dejected.

And the managers, parents, and fans all accept this as OK. But let me play devil's advocate here.
First off...I am all for competition. It is a fun way to get great effort out of people without just yelling and screaming at them (and if that sounds like your coaching style with kids, get a clue). We can teach lessons in competition about how to be proud in defeat and, more importantly, humble in victory. But at what expense are we exposing these kids at such a young age?

One major flaw (which may not be any one's fault, but it still exists) is with the cutoff date. Malcolm Gladwell wrote about this in Outliers, which I highly recommend reading. Essentially, kids at a young age are singled out as being "elite" because they are so much bigger, stronger and faster than the rest. Well with a little digging Gladwell noted, in elite Canadian hockey leagues, that the vast majority of these "elite" players were born very close to the cutoff date (soon after). Why was this? Because at these young ages, a few months of extra growth time is a HUGE difference. These kids were physically older than their peers of seemingly the same age.




What was the result? These kids received special coaching, extra games, more practice and many eventually went on to be great players down the road.

But what happens to the kids who were left out at age 10, who may have been unlucky enough to be born at the end of the year? How many of these kids were turned off to the game at a young age? What if they had the same coaching and opportunities until they were able to hit their growth spurts and catch up with the rest?

I think the same problem exists with the Little League World Series. I haven't checked the birth dates, but I would guess a similar trend exists with these "All-Star" teams from each community.

My second problem with this competition is the lessons that are, or aren't, being taught to these young kids. There was a story the other day about a game where the pitcher on one team was instructed to intentionally walk an opposing batter. Well, on a 3-0 count the batter swung at a pitch feet outside the zone at his coaches demand. Why? Apparently to get the pitcher closer to his pitch limit and be forced to come out of the game.

Really?

This is what we want to teach our kids? Not that giving your best effort and having fun is OK...but rather trying to take advantage or rules, or lack there-of, in order to win is right.

Isn't that how we got into this whole steroids mess to begin with...You hear that argument all the time-"Well, it wasn't against the rules at the time." Now, most of the coaches I'm sure do a great job. But we don't hear about them as often.

I am personally over the Little League World Series. I am happy for the kids, and just hope they come through unscathed by some of the misguided coaches that are put in charge of them.

Jon

Great weekend

Coupl'a thoughts about the weekend...

1. Do any Yankee fans out there feel truly comfortable yet with a 7.5 game lead heading towards September? Still great to take 2 of 3 in that bandbox of a ballpark they call Fenway.

2. On that note, can someone explain to me how Jim Rice was "misquoted"?
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4417140

3. I watched parts of the movie Major League on Saturday for the 548th time ("This guy here is dead!" "Well CROSS-HIM-OFF then!") After watching the Yanks on Fox and then on ESPN, isn't there a way one of these networks can pay Bob Euker enough money to make these telecasts worth listening to without putting it on mute by the 3rd inning?

4. I love Saratoga

5. Time to do a little reading and some work. Have a great start to the week!

OchoCinco

Just sitting here writing a few programs on a Friday morning, listening to Mike and Mike in the background (Eric Kuselias and Tim Kurkjian filling in) and I overheard a pretty cool story. As much as I'd rather not give someone like Chad "Ochocinco" props, the wide receiver apparently filled in for an injured kicker to hit an extra point, and follow that up with a kickoff inside the 10 yard line.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFiCRzkDXOU

To me the interesting part came after the highlights though. Kuselias acted quite surprised and Kurkjian made a great point that we actually underestimate how good the top athletes really are. Seriously. He noted that almost all of these great athletes excelled at SEVERAL sports through high school. Ochocinco apparently played soccer. Lebron was an all-state football player in Ohio I believe. Many baseball players were also great basketball or football players.

So the real question is, why do we spend so much time specializing young kids at such a young age now? Have we been force-fed so much propaganda by competitive, off-season leagues that we now believe the only way to make it to the next level is to pay them your hard-earned money to gain the exposure of college coaches and big league scouts?

I had a conversation with a local basketball player recently. I asked him about a teammate of his whom I hadn't seen in a while. The teammate hit his growth spurt at an early age; was much stronger, faster and bigger than the rest of the 7th graders he competed with or against. So what did his coaches do? Made him learn how to play center. No problem here. Well at least there wouldn't have been a problem if he had continued to grow. Fast forward 2 years. The same athlete, plenty of athletic ability, is now too small to play in the post and is apparently a couple years behind on his ball-handling skills. Long story short-word is he "doesn't really like basketball that much anymore."

Can you blame him?

The main goal for youth athletics should be to be as well rounded as possible!

Any thoughts?
Jon

Overcoming Mental Hurdles

Back at Ithaca, as a grad student, I remember having an inter-departmental rivalry of sorts with the Sports Psychology peeps. After 5+ years of studying various sciences I was convinced that physiology, kinesiology and biomechanics was the be all-end all when it came to designing training programs for athletes.

Today, after working with so many kids, I realize this view was shortsighted. The mental aspect of training is undeniable. I feel like I can work with a young athlete for one session and peg, almost to a "T", the type of parents they have; overbearing, supportive, positive, etc.

Some of the best natural athletes I have struggle because they are afraid of making mistakes. They don't want to deal with the negative consequences they associate with making a mistake.
It is my job as coach to make an adjustment in my coaching style to make them realize it's OK to try something new and not be perfect the first time. It's like teaching them to clear hurdles in their head.

This essentially means that each athlete may require a different style of coaching (and probably does). I've heard so many times how coaches use negative reinforcement to "weed-out" the kids they don't want anyway. Really? How many do we leave by the wayside just to get to the select few who were probably going to be successful anyway, just to take credit for them for being their coach?

The same sort of thing happens when it comes to overcoming physical limitations or "ceilings." Sometimes an athlete can be pushed further than they believe they should be. This is not always the case, however. Some athletes need to have the reigns pulled back some (especially with weight training) as they are only interested in how much weight they can put on a bar without worrying about execution. Do you think yelling and screaming and trying to motivate this type of athlete is going to work? Hell no. Take some time to teach them the why's and how's about the exercise.

As important as it is to understanding the mental makeup of your athletes, I still believe it is most important to have an understanding of training principles, anatomy, biomechanics, and the like (I don't care how good you are with brain typing, mental training, etc...without the scientific background you should not be training. Period). However, I feel like the mental aspect of coaching is what separates the average coaches from the great ones.

Can you get the most out of each of your athletes without leaving anyone behind?

To an Athlete...

Alright I'm gonna get a little corny here. Deal with it.

A couple of weeks ago I pulled up behind a car at a stoplight with the vanity plate reading "YMIHERE." It's no question the first time a liscense plate has made me think with any sort of depth.

I got to thinking about what it is I am doing, right now, with my life. What events led me here? What choices of consequence had I made that led me to the profession of teaching kids the basics of movement and sport performance training?

I got to thinking of the days when I was an athlete in middle and high school. I was lucky to have a coach, Lee Taft, who introduced me to the practice of strength training, but more importantly taught me what it was to be an all-around person.

A matter of days later, I was rummaging through some old text books and I came acrossed a poem that Lee handed out to all of us during football season one year in high school. It's fairly corny, simple, but really hits the nail on the head. Here it is:

To An Athlete

There are little eyes upon you,

And they're watching night and day;

There are little ears that quickly

Take in every word you say;

There are little hands all eager

To do anything you do;

And little children who are dreamping

Of the day they'll be like you.

You're the little children's idol,

You're the wisest of the wise,

In their mind about you,

No suspicions ever rise;

Hold that all you say and do,

They will say and do, in your way

When they are grown-up just like you.

There are wide-eyed little children,
Who believe you're always right,

And their ears are always open,

And they watch each day and night;

You are setting an example

Every day in all you do,

For the little children who are waiting

To grow up and be like you.

This made me think back to the years before middle school, when the varsity athletes were exactly what this poem is describing. If you're an athlete, even only at the high school level, you can bet that there are kids out there who would love to be put in your situation.

Do you consider this when you make decisions on a day to day basis?

I was good about my decisions in high school, although there are some things I do regret.

If you had taken into account all people who can be affected by the consequences, before you made your choices, would you still have made the same choices?

Workout Vs. Training

Recently, in one of my bootcamp classes, a question came up regarding the plataeu effect, and why we couldn't just do more and more every day without topping out. I wrote an e-mail newsletter to the participants explaining the difference between training response and an adaptation. It was basic and contained the usual suspects; responses include increased heart rate, ventilation, doms, acute hormonal response, increased systolic blood pressure, etc.. Adaptations included increased lean muscle mass, decreased resting heart rate, increased resting metabolic rate, increased cardiac output, decreased blood pressure, etc.

The point I made to the bootcampers was that adaptations only occur during recovery. Without proper nutrition and recovery time, adaptations will not happen. Period.

So how does this relate to your training program? Well first off, do you have a training program? Or do you just go to the gym to get a "workout". If you are going just for the workout, you are in other words just looking for the response. You feel good when you've finished an exhausting workout, or you've ripped apart your muscle tissue so much you can barely move the next day. You feel like you accomplished something.

But did you?

How many times have you worked out like this only to never see the changes you truly want? I see this with athletes, adults and everything inbetween all the time. People plateau and they just keep going and pushing through, hoping things will change.

So what's the solution?

The key is to have a long range program in mind. Figure out your goals, where you'd like to be. Then find someone to help you map out how you are going to get it done. If you wanted to drive across country you wouldn't just wake up and start driving like a banshee down the road in any random direction would you?

So don't do this with your training!

Your plan should include scheduled low volume weeks to allow recovery. These recovery periods will help you get more work done in the higher intensity workouts while avoiding the plateau effect.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnAg4SGGHjA
Is there really a need to push yourself to the point of wanting to puke in a workout? It's amazing how many people think that's ok to do consistently.

Ask yourself that simple question: Are you working out (looking for a "quick hit"), or training (looking to make changes)?

Youth Fitness?

Before I headed out yesterday morning to train my group of kids, ranging in age from 10-20 separated into 2 groups, I caught a cliff-hangar on the news saying something to the effect of "stay tuned, a report on kids and fitness after this."

I was interested, so I hung around to watch. This is what I saw:

http://capitalnews9.com/content/health/child_wellness_wednesday/478945/make-childhood-workouts-fun/?RegionCookie=12&ap=1&MP4

If you skipped the link, take the time to watch it, it's less than 2 minutes and blew me away.

Now there's a lot of good things about the media; anyone who has a message can get it across in one way or another, whether it be on tv, internet, newspaper, whatever. But with those benefits comes irresponsible "journalism" and reports by so called "experts" who really have no hands on experience dealing with the very issue they are preaching about.

I laugh almost every time I see this woman on my local news. (I heard I actually missed one where she was recommending people do turkish get ups with an olympic bar-unreal).

There are a lot of misconceptions about youth fitness between coaches, parents, and over-zealous trainers. Reports like this simply serve to reassure those who are already way off base. The only positive thing of this story was the quote that "training needs to be fun for kids." Genius.

In 2009 a pediatrician actually said "lifting (strength training) may not be good for bone health." This was being said in the background as our "fitness expert" is teaching a kid how to use a seated leg extension machine. Other "valuable" exercises shown in the video: prone leg curls on a machine, lat pulldown on a fixed machine, a kid on a stair stepper, and a girl on a back extension machine.




So teaching a 9 year old kid to do body weight lunges, or carry a 5 pound weight with good posture, is going to stunt their growth, but these fixed machines are so expensive that they must be good.

The kicker: The pediatrician actually recommends 5th graders to train for a 5k. Even with all of the primary research in the last 10-15 years documenting the evils of distance running for almost EVERYBODY, we're gonna have our 10 year olds train for a 3 mile race. The great line right after this recommendation: "One thing to worry about is repetitive stress, overuse type injuries."

What's the number 1 cause of these injuries? Ask any PT, and I'm gonna go out on a limb and say distance running.

Do they even edit, or do any real research for these reports, or do they just look up "pediatrician" in the Yellow Pages and dial a couple numbers to see what sticks?

It's kind of ironic, but this garbage reporting makes our job of educating parents and kids much more difficult, but at the same time ensures a need for good coaches who will educate themselves to know what's best for the kids.

Anyway, enough of my rant, off to train more kids and kill their bone health. Maybe I'll just take their money today and send them on an hour long run out on route 9.

Jon

Weekend that almost wasn't

They say you can tell a lot about a person by how they react to adversity. In the past this has been a problem for me. I would get angry and defensive in bad situations and I realized how terrible it was for me. So I've tried to work on it. But it's been hard to tell how I was doing as things have been pretty even-keeled and going well for a while.

Then I got on the thruway to go to Brockport

A tractor trailor maybe trying to mark his territory

So it's Friday afternoon and I'm excited for a great weekend with great friends many of whom I haven't seen in over 2 years. About half way into my trip I was side-swiped by a tractor trailor, did at least one 360, and ended up nose down in a ditch at about 45 degrees.

I learned a lot about myself in the minutes after this happened. For starters, it was my first experience with the whole potential "life flashing before your eyes" scenario.

Only it didn't.

While spinning I think I said a few choice words and was fired up when I first came to a complete stop. I got out of the car to make sure I wasn't hurt and to see the damage. And after I saw my front end completely buried in mud, and saw the damage to the panel, a calm came over me.

A year ago there is no doubt in my mind what would have happened. I would have been irate with the driver and I probably would've crawled into a hole, went back home and called the weekend a 'loss'. (In fact, the last time we all went to the same place, my phone got ruined in a pool. And I was resentful for hours, if not the whole weekend. Over a phone.)

But I didn't. I didn't get angry at the driver of the truck (even after he changed his story of what had happened) and I didn't get down on myself. I got pulled out of the ditch, gave my statement, and got back on the road to Brockport where I had an awesome weekend catching up with everyone (it's weird how nobody misses a beat-it's like the last weekend we got together never even ended).

Looking back, the way I chose to react to each situation played a direct role in my own happiness for the immediate future.

So anyway, after an Awesome weekend, it's back to work tomorrow with a long day of training surrounding a baseball camp that I am running. Should be great!

Jon