Friday, June 6, 2014

Easy Strength: Because Strength Is What Every Athlete Needs

All else equal, the stronger athlete will win every time.

After understanding this, I went out seeking ways to get stronger. Who better to learn from than Pavel Tsatsouline and Dan John. At the back of their book Easy Strength: How To Get A Lot Stronger Than Your Competition- and Dominate in Your Sport, these are shots from their bios so that you can understand who these men are and why their words and experience demand our attention.

Pavel Tsatsouline, is a former Soviet Special Forces physical training instructor, currently a subject matter expert to the US Navy SEALs and the US Secret Service.

In his athletic career, among many other championships and records, Dan has won the Master
Pleasanton Highland Games twice, American Masters Discus Championships several times, the
National Masters Weightlifitng Championship once and holds the American Record in the Weight
Pentathlon.

I have been so very bold in a adding a few thoughts to their, but I would gladly remove them. The book, unadulterated by my few words is a worthy read for coaches and players alike.
"Increase the number of QUALITY workouts/performances." (Emphasis mine). As coaches, we often fall into the trap of thinking that more is, well, more. So we make it that our athletes run more laps or sprints; they get more touches on the ball; have more practice sessions; try more drills. But we all know that 1 shot, 1 goal is better than having more possession, more corners, and more shots if none of them find their way to the back of the net. So it bears repeating:

Increase the number of quality performances/workout/sessions. "Not a bad idea, really, as many strength coaches think it’s their God-given duty to smoke the athlete each and every time. Certainly, it is fun to do, but it leaves the athlete a physical wreck."

How? Pick one skill or attribute and focus on it. Be the guy, and let your team be the one that, at the diving championships does nothing more fancy than a swan dive, but does it perfectly 10 times out of ten. Only then should you move on. (To be sure, the game has a lot of skills that need to be developed, but many cannot be maximally developed if addressed at the same time as specific others. More of that to come.)

I swear by Apollo, the healer, and Asclepius, Hygieia, and Panacea, and I take to witness all the gods, all the goddesses, to keep according to my ability and my judgment, the following oath and agreement: I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone.

The Chinese have a saying: “A step in a wrong direction in the beginning of a journey takes you a hundred miles away from your goal.” Enter the idea of Periodization. What are you trying to achieve? Work backwards from there to where you are now. That's your plan, that's tour direction. Go that way. This isn't news to anybody though. The trouble is how we proceed when we do have a plan. Too many of us are easily swayed from our path by the flashy things other coaches are doing. Stick to your plan. The other issue is sticking so rigidly to your plan that you fail to adapt to what is right in front of you. Obviously, it's a fine art balancing the two- so let me make it easy for you. Have contingency plans. A sideways step when you are headed in the right direction is better than ploughing on when your current path is doing more harm than good to your campaign.

Concerning exercise

Professor Yuri Verkoshansky: Calf muscles are strongly involved in the shock absorbing phase of run and bounces. The preliminary enforcement of calf muscles, before the use of jumping exercises, is needed also to avoid legs injuries (calf muscles strain). Running barefoot on an uneven surface will strengthen the feet and ankles and develop a natural running style.

The kettlebell swing introduces the dynamic strength component, further preps the kids for jumping and landing, and builds conditioning. The swing is as athletic as an exercise can get.

Single-arm farmer’s walks will strengthen the grip, the traps, and the waist. Professor Stuart McGill is a big fan of this exercise, because it strengthens the quadratus lumborum—a pelvis-tilting muscle on the side of the spine... And Dan (John) dug out a study that concluded that QL strength prevents ankle injuries in girls, so we have a double winner.

Hetero means “different,” and chronos means “time.” Heterochronicity refers to the different time periods required for recovering and improving different qualities, different muscle groups, etc. For example, you will retain a good portion of your strength even after a month’s layoff, but you can kiss your anaerobic endurance good-bye. This means you need to carefully plot recovery from workouts focusing on different qualities. Finally, there is the interaction of workouts with foci on different qualities. For instance, a low-volume/heavy-strength session performed before a sprint session has a positive effect on the latter. Elite sprint coach Barry Ross adds: To do the opposite, running first then lifting, has negative effects. The reason for that is the amount of footfalls. A relatively slow runner would apply force at ground contact at two times bodyweight, or more . . . at every ground contact! Trying to lift sufficiently heavy weights to improve performance after a speed practice becomes very difficult.

Thus spake Verkoshansky and Siff: “It should be noted that cooperation between the cardiovascular-respiratory and motor systems is important for improving work-capacity, not only in endurance sports, but in all sports.” They added that aerobic training like cross-country running “improve[s] peripheral vascularization and recuperation after intense exercise.”

And don’t forget that a well-developed aerobic system will allow a football player or any other burst-and-rest athlete to recover faster between his anaerobic efforts. That means getting gassed less.

Under pressure, under stress, we revert to our training. If any aspect of our training is slipshod, our response to pressure will be the same.

Plyometrics are powerful but also dangerous, if misused. Make sure to get strong before starting them, and keep their volume very low. Performing overspeed eccentric swings and snatches with a light kettlebell offers an excellent powerful and safe alternative to plyos.

Verkhoshanky and Siff’s
Supertraining offers another reason for such training: Research has shown that the transfer of strength developed in bilateral training (e.g., using squats or power cleans) offers specific improvement in performance of bilateral events such as the squat clean and snatch in weightlifting, while unilateral training (e.g., with dumbbells or split cleans) enhances performances more effectively in unilateral activity such as running, jumping or karate...The answer is to train both the bilateral barbell lifts and the unilateral kettlebell and bodyweight exercises, although not necessarily at the same time.

Among [Tim] Ferriss’s tools for getting the most out of life is Pareto’s law. The essence of the law is that “80% of al results come from 20% of the efforts.” Applied to strength, it means that if most gains will come from the three powerlifts, why waste your time and energy on curls and leg extensions? Faleev stresses that doing additional exercises is worse than worthless. It is harmful, because it drains valuable energy that your body could have directed toward spectacular gains in the big three. Get rid of the excesses and just do what is necessary. . . . When you give up the secondary . . . exercises you will feel that you are not training enough. You will be leaving the gym totally fresh. This is it, the energy for an increase in the load in the basic lifts. This reserve is what will enable you to “shoot out of the gate”!

It has been said that one cannot be healthy if one’s goal is not to be sick. One cannot win if his goal is not to lose... Dr. Judd Biasiotto, who squatted a world record 603 at 132 in minimalistic supportive gear of the 1980s, is a sports psychologist who has shrewdly used his knowledge that the nervous system does not operate in negatives. When a competitor of his would walk toward the platform, Judd would say to him, “Don’t miss, Bob!” Of course, the only thing that the lifter’s subconscious heard was “miss!”—which he often did while thinking that Judd was such a good sport.

Work your weaknesses first in a workout, or work your priorities first in a workout. Either method will do. In this example, do the most important thing for your training first.

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