This year I'll enter my twenty-fifth year as a strength and
conditioning coach. Last month I watched Barbara Walters celebrate
her thirtieth year with a special called "30 Mistakes in 30 Years."
I'm going to celebrate my twenty-fifth anniversary by telling
you my top twenty-five mistakes.
Hopefully I'll save you some time, pain, and injury.
Experience is a wonderful but impatient teacher. And unfortunately,
our experiences in strength and conditioning sometimes hurt people
besides us.
Mistake #1: Knowing it all
I love Oscar Wilde's quote, "I'm much too old to
know everything." Omniscience is reserved for the young. As
the old saying goes, you have one mouth and two ears for a reason.
I'd take it a step further and say the ratio is four to one:
two eyes, two ears, and one mouth.
To continue down the cliché road, how about this one:
"It's what you learn after you know it all that
counts." When I was young I had many answers and few
questions. I knew the best way to do everything. Now that I'm
older I'm not sure if I even know a good way to do
anything.
Mistake #2: Not taking interns sooner
I was so smart that no one was smart enough to help me. (See
mistake number one.) My productivity increased drastically when I
began to take interns.
Note: Interns aren't janitors, laundry workers, or slaves.
They're generally young people who look up to you and expect to
learn. Take your responsibility seriously. Remember the golden
rule.
Mistake #3: Not visiting other coaches
God, it seems everything goes back to number one! I was too busy
running the perfect program to attempt to go learn from someone
else. Plus, when you know it all, how much can you learn?
Find the good coaches or trainers in your area (or in any area
you visit) and arrange to meet them or just watch them work. I
often will just sit with a notebook and try to see what they do
better than I do.
I can remember current San Francisco 49'ers strength and
conditioning coach Johnny Parker allowing us to visit when he was
with the New England Patriots and then asking us questions about
what we saw and what we thought he could do better. Coach Parker is
a humble man who always provided a great example of the type of
coach and person I wanted to be.
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Mistake #4: Putting square pegs in round holes
The bottom line is that not everyone is made to squat or to
clean. I rarely squatted with my basketball players as many found
squatting uncomfortable for their backs and knees.
It killed me to stop because the squat is a lift I fundamentally
believed in, but athletes with long femurs will be poor squatters.
It's physics. It took me a while to realize that a good lift
isn't good for everybody.
Mistake #5: Not attending the United States Weightlifting
Championships sooner
My only visit as a spectator to an Olympic lifting meet made me
realize that Olympic lifts produced great athletes. I know this
will piss off the powerlifters, but those Olympic lifters looked so
much more athletic.
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I remember being at the Senior's when they were held in
Massachusetts in the early eighties and walking away thinking,
"This is what I want my athletes to look like."
Understand, at that time I was a competitive powerlifter and my
programs reflected that.
Mistake #6: Being a strength coach
How can that be a mistake? Let's look at the evolution of
the job. When I started, I was often referred to as the
"weight coach." As the profession evolved, we became
strength coaches, then strength and conditioning coaches, and today
many refer to themselves as "performance enhancement
specialists."
All these names reflect the changes in our job. For too many
years, I was a strength coach. Eventually I realized that I knew
more about conditioning than the sport coaches did, so we took on
that responsibility. Later, I realized that I often knew more about
movement than the sport coaches too, so we began to teach movement
skills. This process took close to eighteen of my twenty-five
years. I wish it had been faster.
Mistake #7: Adding without subtracting
Over the years we've continued to add more and more CNS
intensive training techniques to our arsenal. Squatting, Olympic
lifting, sprinting, pulling sleds, and jumping all are (or can be)
CNS intensive.
I think I do too much CNS intensive work, and intend to change
that. My thanks go out to Jason Ferrugia for pointing out this one.
Mistake #8: Listening to track coaches
Please don't get me wrong. Some of the people who were most
influential in my professional development were track coaches. I
learned volumes from guys like Don Chu, Vern Gambetta, Charlie
Francis, and Brent McFarland.
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However, it took me too long to realize that they coached people
who ran upright almost all the time and never had to stop or to
change direction. The old joke in track coaching is that it really
comes down to "run fast and lean left."
Mistake #9: Not meeting Mark Verstegen sooner
Mark may be the most misunderstood guy in our field. He's a
great coach and a better friend. About ten years ago a friend
brought me a magazine article about Mark Verstegen. The article
demonstrated some interesting drills that I'd never seen. I decided
my next vacation would be to Florida's Gulf Coast as Mark was
then in Bradenton, Florida.
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I was lucky enough to know Darryl Eto, a genius in his own
right, who was a co-worker of Mark's. In the small world
category, Darryl's college coach was the legendary Don Chu.
Darryl arranged for me to observe some training sessions in
Bradenton. I sat fascinated for hours as I watched great young
coaches work. Mark was one of the first to break out of the track
mold we were all stuck in and teach lateral and multi-directional
movement with the same skill that the track coaches taught linear
movement. This process was a quantum leap for me and became a
quantum leap for my athletes.
This was my step from strength and conditioning coach to
performance enhancement specialist (although I never refer to
myself as the latter). The key to this process was accepting the
fact that Mark and his co-workers were far ahead of me in this
critical area.
Mistake #10: Copying plyometric programs
This goes back to the track coach thing. I believe I injured a
few athletes in my career by simply taking what I was told and
attempting to do it with my athletes. I've since learned to filter
information better, but the way I learned was through trial and
error... and the error probably resulted in sore knees or sore
backs for my athletes.
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Track jumpers are unique and clearly are involved in track and
field because they're suited for it. What's good for a long jumper
is probably not good for a football lineman. It took me too long to
realize this.
Mistake #11: Copying any programs
Luckily for me, I rarely copied strength programs when training
my athletes. This mistake might be beyond the statute of
limitations as it was more than twenty-five years ago.
I think copying the training programs of great powerlifters like
George Frenn and Roger Estep left me with the sore back and bad
shoulders I've carried around for the last twenty-five years.
What works for the genetically gifted probably won't work
for the genetically average.
Mistake #12: Not teaching my athletes to snatch
sooner
We've done snatches for probably the last seven or eight years.
The snatch is a great lift that's easier to learn than the clean
and has greater athletic carryover. Take the time to try it and
study it. You'll thank me.
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Mistake #13: Starting to teach snatches with a snatch grip
When I realized that snatches would be a great lift for my
athletes I began to implement them into my programs. Within a week
some athletes complained of shoulder pain. In two weeks, so many
complained that I took snatches out of the program. It wasn't until
I revisited the snatch with a clean grip that I truly began
to see the benefits.
Just remember, the only reason Olympic lifters use a wide snatch
grip is so that they can reduce the distance the bar travels and as
a result lift more weight. Close-grip snatches markedly decrease
the external rotation component and also increase the distance
traveled. The result is a better lift, but less
weight.
Mistake #14: Confusing disagree with dislike
I think it's great to disagree. The field would be boring if we
all agreed. What I realize now is that I've met very few people in
this field I don't like and many I disagree with. I probably
enjoy life more now that I don't feel compelled to ignore
those who don't agree with me.
Mistake #15: Confusing reading with believing
This concept came to me by way of strength coach Martin Rooney.
It's great to read. We just need to remember that in spite of
the best efforts of editors, what we read may not always be true.
If the book is more than two years old, there's a good chance
even the author no longer agrees with all the information in it.
Read often, but read analytically.
Mistake #16: Listening to paid experts
Early on, many of us were duped by the people from companies
like Cybex or Nautilus. Their experts proclaimed their systems to
be the future, but now the cam and isokinetics are the past. Just
as in any other field, people will say things for
money.
Mistake #17: Not attending one seminar per year just as a
participant
I speak approximately twenty times a year. Most times I stay and
listen to the other speakers. If you don't do continuing
education, start. If you work in the continuing education field, go
to at least one seminar given by an expert in your field as a
participant.
(Note: Mistakes 18-25 are more personal than professional, but
keep reading!)
Mistake #18: Not taking enough vacation time
When I first worked at Boston University we were allowed two
weeks paid vacation. For the first ten years I never took more than
one.
Usually I took off the week between Christmas and New Years.
This is an expensive week to vacation, but it meant that I'd miss
the least number of workouts since most of my athletes were home at
this time. I think the first time I took a week off in the summer
was about four years ago. My rationale? Summer is peak training
time. Can't miss one of those weeks.
I think there's a thin line between dedication and stupidity,
and I often crossed it. I think in my early years I was more
disappointed that the whole program hadn't collapsed during
any of my brief absences. I felt less valuable when I returned from
a seminar and realized that everything had gone great.
Stephen Covey refers to it as "sharpening the saw." Take the
time to vacation. You'll be better for it.
Mistake #19: Neglecting your own health
This is an embarrassing story, but this article is all about
helping others to not repeat my errors. Every year in February I'd
find myself in the doctor's office with a different complaint:
gastro-intestinal problems, headaches, flu-type illnesses, etc. I
had a wonderful general practitioner who took a great interest in
his patients. His response year after year was the same: slow down.
You can't work 60-80 hours a week and be healthy.
Like a fool I yessed him to death and went back to my schedule.
After about the fifth year of this process my doctor said, "I
need to refer you to a specialist who can help you with this
problem" and he handed me a card. I was expecting an allergist
or perhaps some type of holistic stress expert. Instead I found
myself holding a card for a psychiatrist.
My doctor's response was simple. I can't help you. You
need to figure out why you continue to do this to yourself year in
and year out. I went outside and called my wife. I told her it was
a "good news-bad news" scenario. I wasn't seriously ill, but I
might be crazy. Unfortunately, she already knew
this.
Mistake #20: Not recognizing stress
Again I remember talking to a nurse who was treating me for a
gastrointestinal problem. I seemed to have chronic heartburn. Her
first question was, "Are you under any stress?" My
response was the usual. Me? Stress? I have the greatest job in the
world. I love going to work every day!
Do you know what her response was? She said, "Remember, stress
isn't always negative." It was the first time I'd really thought
about that. My job was stressful. Long days, weekend travel, too
many late nights celebrating victories or drowning sorrows. A
part-time job to make extra money meant working at a bar on Friday
and Saturday until 2 AM, and that was often followed by drinks
until 4 AM.
Sounds like fun, but it added up to stress. The lesson: stress
doesn't have to be negative. Stress can just be from volume.
Mistake #21: Not having kids sooner
As a typical type-A asshole know-it-all, I was way too busy to
be bothered with kids. They would simply be little people who got
in the way of my plans to change the world of strength and
conditioning. I regret that I probably won't live to 100. If I did
I'd get to spend another 53 years with my kids.
Mistake #22: Neglecting my wife
See above. It wasn't until I had children that I truly realized
how my obsession with work caused me to neglect my wife. I have
often apologized to her, but probably not often
enough.
Mistake #23: Not taking naps
Do you see the pattern here? Whether we're personal trainers or
strength and conditioning coaches, the badge of honor is often lack
of sleep. How often have you heard someone say, "I only need
five hours a night!"
In the last few years I've tried to take a nap every day I'm
able. As we age we sleep less at night and get up earlier. I'm
not sure if this is a good thing. I know when I'm well-rested I'm a
better husband and father than when I'm exhausted at the end of a
day that might have begun at 4:45 AM.
There's no shame in sleep, although I think many would try to
make us believe there is.
Mistake #24: Not giving enough to charity
Most of us are lucky. Try to think of those who have less than
you. I'm not a religious person, but I've been blessed with a great
life. I try every day to "pay it forward." If you
haven't seen the movie, rent it. The more you give, the more
you get.
Mistake #25: Reading an article like this and thinking it
doesn't apply to you
Trust me, denial is our biggest problem.
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