Good “Chefs”, Bad “Cooks”

I spent last weekend at the Central Virginia Sports Performance Seminar on the University of Richmond campus. It was once again the best collection of speakers at ANY seminar or conference in ALL of North America, yes Canada, I’m throwing you a bone.

When you have two days of people like:

• Dr. Natalia Verkhoshansky– The daughter and long time right hand of Dr. Yuri Verhkoshansy (the greatest sports scientist EVER).
• Dr. Michael Kalinski– Head physiological biochemist for the USSR doping program among other prestigious appointments.
• Henk Kraaijenhof– Maybe the greatest living olympic sport coach in the world.
• Dr. Michael Yessis– One of the worlds foremost biomechanists and the man credited with bringing “plyometrics” to North America.
• Kelly Starrett– The creator of Mobility Wod, who has helped literally MILLIONs to move better.
• Joel Jamieson– A guy who is redefining the world of MMA preparation.

It always amazes me how many people DON’T GO to these things.

But put some guru of the minute in a room, attach the right brand name to it and you’ll sell the place out in 20 minutes.

Sometimes that’s alright, some of those Yoda’s “Guru’s” are really smart and have a lot to teach us.

However, on the whole, it’s a bunch of know nothing’s who like to workout themselves (sometimes), went to a weekend certification and are now an “expert” selling something.

Illustration of the problem: 2009 NSCA National Conference

Room A: Dietmar Schmidtbleicher– Head of Sport Science at the Institute of Sports Sciences at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University Frankfurt/Main in Germany.

Room B: Buddy Lee– he sells jump ropes (he did win some Olympic Gold Medals too, which is amazing)…..but mostly sells jump ropes.

Which room was standing room only and which was sparsely populated with attendees?

You guessed it!

Buddy Lee and his jump ropes literally packed the room, wall-to-wall. While one of the greatest minds in sports performance had a room that was about 1/10th full.

And the NSCA prides itself on being the “Evidence Based”, hell, their motto is “Bridging the gap between science and performance.”  So you would think the attendees would reflect that….at least, I did.

How much science  thought goes into; “These are jump ropes. You hop over them.”

This bothered me for a long time but the truth is there are a whole lot of “trainers” reading the popular fitness magazines every month and no too damn many reading Science and Practice of Strength Training.

Ian King on the “Next Big Thing”:

As many of you know, I don’t hold the “fitness industry” and most “fitness professionals” in very high regard because of this.

I mean, I get that this is only working out…it’s not a serious thing….but we are dealing with people’s:

1. Time 
2. Money
3. BODIES– you only get one….don’t break it…. too bad.

We, as “professionals”, should respect those facts, our profession and ourselves more than we do.

Point is: 

I’ve been to a lot of these things over the last 7-8 years and have heard LOTS of people speak. Some good, many bad and have noticed a stark difference in the concepts and content of the talk that seems to directly correspond to the level of the coach.

And I think these concepts apply across all facets and areas of “coaching” for any area in life.

Bad Coaches are like “Dishwashers and Buss boys” and Talk about “Magical” things. 

Coaches who are full of crap usually focus on things.

This exercise or that exercise. This piece of equipment or that piece of equipment.

This trend, that trend..always searching for the “next big thing”.

They tend to believe the secrets of the world can be unlocked if we just use this thing or do this “new” move.

Ex: “All my athletes squat because the squat is the King of all exercises.” 

Ex: “If you want to have your athletes become more balanced, stand on a stability ball for a minute a day.”

Ex: “I only use Kettlebells with my athletes.” 

This, unfortunately, is where most “fitness professionals” begin and end their career in my experience.

This level is predominated by personal trainers, group exercise instructors and Yoda’s with knowledge to unlock the universe products to sell.

They seem to always be searching for the “Holy Grail” thing and never really properly applying the tools available to concepts and situations.

Average Coaches are like “Cooks”  and talk about Programs or Systems.

Photo Cred Muppet Wiki.com

Capable, yet non world-class coaches tend to talk about the “system”  or “program” they run as if it’s magical and everyone who trains that way will get the best results because of the program itself….

*Note, the “Program”, the template that reps, sets and weights are put into is different from “Programming”  the holistic plan of getting the athlete from point A to B. 

These coaches typically talk about how they get athletes to conform to the system and how great the system is.

This usually deals with the “efficiency” of the system and not always the optimalization of the athletes results on the field of play.

EX: “We’re a 5/3/1 program”

EX: “We train Westside”

EX: “We do CrossFit…”

This is where most college/ high school/ CrossFit/ “Sports Performance” guru, strength-coach types are.

This is NOT to say that ALL strength coaches do this, many are truly great coaches. 

Of the coaches who fall into this category I think it’s:

90%, they are pure cooks, not chefs and the “system” allows them to mask their deficiencies and still be comfortable and somewhat productive.

and

10%  have bad facilities and necessity. 

Fact is, if you’re a one man show and you have 200 athletes a day in a 1,500 sq ft. weight room, you ain’t individualizing jack sh@t….You can’t.

Do that for enough years and I think it can become easy to lose sight of what’s optimal and regress into what’s convenient.

These coaches tend to hang their hats on the accomplishments of their athletes in the weight room rather than on the field, in their sport.

Great Coaches are like “5 Star Chefs” and talk about Philosophy and Concepts

I stole this from, click me.

You’ll NEVER hear a world-class coach talk about an exercise or a piece of equipment as being important let alone a key component of training.

In fact you’re more likely to hear, “Such and such is nice, but not necessary”.

You’ll NEVER hear a world-class coach talk about using a “system” with their athletes and rarely weight room numbers.

You’ll ALWAYS hear about how individualized the training MUST be to achieve the greatest results on the field.

You’ll ALWAYS hear about how athletes respond to the same training differently.

Coaches who have had World Class success ALWAYS talk about needing a holistic approach, integrating training, restoration, nutrition, research and sports psychology into a complete package to “build”  a world champion.

These coaches say things like:

“Our profession is the perfecting of human movement” – Dr. Natalia Verhkoshansky

or

“Train as much as necessary, not as much as possible” – Henk Kraaijenhof

or

“The task faced by a coach is to comprehend the interplay between training factors and based on that understanding, prescribe what your athletes need when they need it”- Charlie Francis

Never a mention of this “program” to follow or these exercises to perform or these set, reps and weights.

But instead concepts and philosophies to guide you as the coach in making appropriate selections and decisions based on the state of that particular athlete at that time with the ultimate end goal in mind…

No “answers” to problems, just concepts to think about. Leaving YOU, the coach, to find the appropriate answers.

These seem to be the differences between the great, the average and the sh@tty coaches out there.

What it mean for you:

If your “coach” clings to things, (TRX, Kettlebells, Bosu Balance Trainers) or exercises (back squats, bench presses) as the basis of their training programs….run away fast.

If your “coach” has everyone do 5/3/1, CrossFit, Westside, Yoga, Pilates regardless of their situation/ training age/ ability…..LEAVE.

If your coach has a plan, an end-game goal, but is flexible with the construction of the plan, the exercises, loads, sets reps, volume….maybe they use lots of tools and exercises or very few, maybe they set those within a pre-designed template….but it’s just a template…it’s a map, a way to logically organize the day ….NOT A BIBLE to be religiously adhered to..

You should stay, chances are you’re good to go.

You’ll have productive, injury free (or relatively injury free, your coach can’t control you the other 160-some hours a week your undoing all the good stuff) training.