Ian King

Trump or Clinton?  

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How the 2016 USA Presidential elections will affect you – no matter where in the world you live

There are few key things that I feel many may be missing the point on about the current 2016 USA Presidential elections. Firstly there is too much focus on the messenger and not the message. Secondly there may be an assumption that is just about America, not about non-Americans living elsewhere in the world. And thirdly, a lack of forward thinking about the implications of the outcome.

Firstly – the message vs. the messenger. Granted it’s been a campaign that may have taken gutter politics to a new high (or low). And I can understand how anyone could be distracted by that. But let me bring you back on focus. It’s not about the messenger. Take Donald Trump. I see a lot of commentary on his personality, or on the allegations of his treatment of women, or on his own word selection about treatment of women, and so on. Or take Clinton, with focus on her email management or Benghazi or her husbands track record with women.

Firstly, let me be politically correct – what I am about to say is not endorsing the values or behaviours that either person has been criticises for. What I believe is however that the point is being missed. Go beyond the individuals – consider the bigger picture. This is the first time, to my knowledge, and in my lifetime, a complete political novice has been a front-runner for Presidency of the United States.

This is the message – that enough Americans are fed up with or frustrated by or disillusioned with the solutions offered in their adult lifetime by career politicians that enough of them are supporting an alternative. I suggest this is more about people power and one of the greatest shifts in political and social patterns in my lifetime that it is about Trump or Clinton.

And why? I suggest that a growing number of people in the US (and potentially other countries around the world) are concerned enough about their future that they are willing to endorse change. And that means they must be really disillusioned and questioning main-stream to-date accepted ways of governance. And that, for me is massive. There is a message in this, a ‘huge’ (no to paraphrase Donald!) message. We are possibly witnessing one on the most significant shifts in social and political thinking of the masses, based on I suggest financial realities. The system is just not working for a growing number of people.

In summary on this point, I suggest take your gaze off the personalities involved (the messengers) and look at the message – a proposal be the people, even it is only the Republicans to date in this pre-election (11 days away) moment – that there is a viable alternative that they are willing to support other than a career politician.

Now for the second point. Perhaps too many of us – myself included at times – have considered this an ‘American’ thing, that it doesn’t really matter to or affect those who are not US residents or citizens. Perhaps this is not so. What if the outcome of this election affected every country in the world and every citizen of every country in the word? And how might this occur?

In the first instance, considering the size of an impact of the US on other countries globally, it would be naïve and short-sighted to assume that there would not be a flow on affect to every other country. Now just how much impact may depend on many variables including the extent to which your country trades with the US. However there is a second potential impact. What is the same social wave of unrest, as I have called it, sweeps your country and impacts major decisions such as national elections? This is a very strong possibility, that the world may be moving into a different phase.

Thirdly lets talk about the post election impact. No, I am not talking about whether Donald jails Hilary if he is elected. Or if Hilary has retribution for Donald if she is elected; or whether Donald’s accusers will prevail; or whether the FBI will bring criminal charges against Hillary. I am talking about how our lives may or may not be impacted post election. Have you considered that?

I have, and I believe it’s something you should consider, and form your own opinions on before I share my thoughts on this with you – which I plan to do.

So there you have it. I trust I have stimulated you to give serious reflection to this moment in time, and perhaps have given you a new perspective on what may be happening – to us all, currently, in the US.

Ian King

Knowing But Not Doing

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Is That Really Knowing?

I often hear and read comments about how a person ‘know’ the works of others. This is often based on a person reading a few (typically free) internet articles writing by the person, or even meeting them.

You don’t have to look to far for examples of this, however here is a great example. I read how a young man boasted of a day spent with the late Charlie Francis, a speed coach who was so far ahead of his peers. A few years later I watched that same young man implement a pre-season training program for a provincial team whose playing arena was approximately 100 meters in length. It began with 10 repeats of 1,500 meters and grew weekly to 20 repeats of 1,500 meters. That was not all, just part of training.

Now that approach was about as far away on the continuum from what Charlie espoused as you could go.

So what does it mean to ‘know’? A great saying, attributed to perhaps Zen philosophy, is that:

To know and not do is to not know.

So why claim one ‘knows’? I assume it gives a degree of perceived credibility to have had some exposure to a respected teacher and to be able to say ‘I know’.

But what does it take to ‘know’ in the Zen philosophy way? To be able to execute a certain training philosophy or method with unconscious competence takes so much more than simply reading the works of a person, or simply spending time with them.

The ultimate test of your ‘knowing’ is to coach live and write spontaneous training programs under the supervision and watchful eye of your teacher. Ideally you then receive feedback from them – in the now. You refine, adjust and do it again. You receive feedback, refine and adjust. And this cycle is repeated. For how long? Probably years.

Imagine proudly enacting a 15 kilometer to 30 kilometer total volume interval program with mixed energy system athletes competing on a 100×50 meter arena under the guidance of Charlie Francis? What do you think Charlie would have said? I can assure you he would not have said ‘Wow! What a great understanding of my training approach you have!’

What I suggest Charlie may have reacted with would be more along the lines ‘Okay, you may have missed the point. Have you ever read the chapter in my book about coaches ploughing fields with Ferraris? What about the chapter on building of very wide pyramids with very little peak?’

There’s a few messages here.

Firstly the loose boast of ‘I know coach x’s works’ is typically issued falsely be individuals wishing to create a perception beyond reality.

Secondly if you want to truly ‘know’ a particular coaches training approach you will need to find an opportunity to test your interpretation under supervision, receive feedback and refine on the basis of this feedback – many times over, typically years.

‘Knowing’ involves a lot more than lip service or short term exposure. True knowing means letting go of your desire to be perceived as a guru and putting on the white belt. I suggest that people who truly ‘know’ make no such inference, in respect of their realization they even with a long history of studying with a coach for the purpose of mastery, they are only scratching the surface.

At KSI we give the coaches in our program the opportunity to experience this ‘knowing’ opportunity – to coach under supervision and receive feedback. The entry to this opportunity is our annual KSI August Camp in Park City each year. If and when a coach rises higher up in the KSI Coaching program you will have other opportunities each year in varying locations.

If you truly want to master the KSI way we make it possible!

Ian King

Ian King

Knee injuries – How can you hope to solve the problem using the stimulus that caused the problem?

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As a student of sports training and competition I took up the opportunity to watch the exercise selection from the waiting room at the physical therapists. I was surprised at the amount of quad exercises used over the weeks of my observing.

Later as I lay on a table in the therapy clinic I listened to a young male client answer the question from this physical therapist.

Therapist: Okay what have we done so far?
Patient: Squats.
My mind: That’s one.
Patient: Wall squats.
My mind: That’s two
Patient: Lunges.
My mind: That’s three.
Patient: Walking lunges.
My mind: That’s four.
Patient: Step ups.
My mind: That’s five.

So far, the workout was 100% quad. I shook my head and said a prayer for the patient. Now to be fair I did see one non-quad exercise being done later. But the first five and the overwhelming majority of exercises being used in the rehab program for what I believe was an ACL surgery patient were quad exercises.

I found this ironic, because it was this very profession some 30 years ago that brought me attention to the risks of ‘quad dominance’ in muscle balance and its relationship with gait and joint integrity. And here I was, some three decades later, and they were creating that exact same condition.

I took this quad dominant concern, along with my own observations, quite seriously and spend a decade or so developing and refining before publishing a concept I called ‘Lines of Movement’ in 1998. You might not recognize the concept title I gave it but you will recognize the terminology by virtue of the prolific unreferenced and uncredited publishing by people who knew better.

In relation to the lower body, I developed the concept to ‘hip dominant’ exercises to counter the concern I learnt from my therapist colleagues about ‘quad dominance’. Now, nearly 20 years after I first published this concept, my theories about the risks of quad dominance have become greater and clearer. I rank the muscle imbalance presented by quad dominant training as one of the highest correlates with ACL ruptures and similar.

If I am track, then the question can be asked:

How can you hope to solve the problem (ACL rupture risk) using the same stimulus that contributed to the problem?

Now I understand that there are many reasons why most will disregard this message. Firstly, and most importantly, because the majority of ‘performance’, ‘injury prevention’ and ‘injury rehab’ strength training does just this – create quad dominance. And to accept this and change would take the emotional intelligence to conclude one is off track and needs to redirection one’s training programs. That’s the biggest reason the message will be ignored.

I understand this. I understand others are waiting for ‘evidence’. I say look at the changing injury landscape. This injury was extremely rare in the 1980s, and even after the surgery became available there was not an instant increase in ACL incidence – so the low incidence was not because the surgery was not available. It was just a rare injury. It is not any more. So what changed? Why are so many athletes suffering from this injury now? But this would take again a degree of commitment to excellence and a detachment from ego that few are committed to.

Evidence is, I suggest, another way of saying I will only do it when I see most others doing it, and when I am doing what most others are doing, I feel ‘right’ and ‘safe’.

What I do say is this – not withstanding the frequent medical claims I here quoted by patients all too often about how their graft will be stronger than the one their Maker gave them – 50% of all ACL patients will have repeat knee surgery, and 100% will have premature degenerative changes such as osteoarthritis. I would not wish this on anyone. If it was your child would you want this?

So while the masses wait the quarter to full century it may take for the ‘evidence’ to ‘allow’ them to take note of my conclusions, another generation or more will suffer from life changing injury and surgery such as the ACL.

It does not have to be this way for you and those in your care, however that is up to you.

Ian King

Ian King

Throwing the players under the bus – a strategy for failing as a coach  

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The first game of the season showed promise with the team winning the first half easily, and then holding on for the second half to win the game. By the second game this pattern of decline in dominance as the game went on became worse, and the team lost the second half.

I had fears of what was to follow, and my fears were amplified when the field announcer stated the final score and congratulated the visiting team for winning the second half. It was just the announcer looking to give a positive to the losing team, but he had inadvertently drove the nail further into the coffin of his own team.

As I feared, the coach told the team in the post-game talk that they were not fit enough. This code for something’s not working, I’ve got no idea what, but it must be your fault and the easiest blame strategy is ‘you are not fit enough’.

Predictably they trained the team harder in non-specific conditioning work as well as rugby drills during the following week. During the next game the team were the flattest they had been, with limited on-field talk. They almost lost the first half, and ended up drawing the game. This outcome was exacerbated by the fact that the opponent on this day had not won a game in the season to date. Of course, it’s unlikely that anyone took into account that they had played and lost to the competitions top teams.

So what do you do next after blaming fitness? The post-game coach’s speech focused on the lack of intensity, telling the players they needed to play and train with more intensity. I am not sure how you naturally bring more intensity when you are more tired than you needed to be, but that’s the way this scenario played out.

During the week, as you can expect, the team were trained in a way that resulted in the coach happily stating that they had brought more ‘intensity’ to training, inferring this would serve them well in the upcoming game.

In the upcoming game the team lost for the first time, failing to score a single try, and conceding nearly half a century of points.

So what do you do now that you have gone down the path of throwing the players under the bus? You start dropping players. So about 55% of the way through the season players are relegated, with the ensuing drop in personal confidence you can expect from players dropped without knowing why.

How did this work? The next game resulted in a score against that exceeded half a century. Now it was against the second strongest team in the competition, but the fact this team scored as many points as they did against a lowest rank team (a team that the losing team had easily beaten) suggested that the outcome was unnecessarily out of context to the losing teams potential.

So where do you go now? Shuffle players around, playing them out of the position you had them in for most of the season? Basically you run out of options.

Few would disagree that athletes benefit positively from people believing in them, especially their significant others. And who more significant than their coach? On the flip side, again few would disagree that negative impacts potentially result when a coach directly or indirectly tells the athlete they are lazy, don’t try hard enough, are not intense or focused enough, or are not good enough to play at that level.

The challenge with any coach who fails to interpret the cause of their outcomes is further failure. However this failure is magnified in it’s consequence in the team culture where the coach takes the path of throwing the players under the bus.

Whenever I hear a coach who by words or actions blames his players, I see a lesser future for the coach. To put it bluntly it’s a path to failure. This applies no matter what level it is occurring at, bet it the national team or a local kids team.

I have had the fortune of working with coaches who have the strength to deflect the pressure on their team. The long serving Queensland rugby union coach John Connolly was one of these. I was impressed with his choice to absorb the pressure and not throw the players under the bus. However these coaches are the overwhelmingly minority. From my experience, I have observed the majority of coaches blame the players, failing to understand that firstly what goes on is a product of their leadership, and that the act of blaming the players is in the short term the kiss of death to their team’s culture and in the long term the kiss of death to their coaching career success.

Few coaches develop their coaching abilities to the level of being able to consistently and successfully interpret the cause of their wining or losing, and I accept this. However my suggestion that even in the absence of this high level ability, coaches could benefit from avoiding the popular habit of throwing the players under the bus.

NB. The above is fictional story to illustrate the message.

Ian King

Stop injuring the athletes – ACL reconstructions

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I was stretching beside the oval whilst debriefing my son following his high school rugby game and I looked. Three teenage boys from the opposition school were standing nearby, and two of them were in knee braces.

I have been saying for decades now that the rate of injuries to athletes is unacceptable and unnecessary. If fact those familiar with my writings would be appear of my zero tolerance attitude – we can prevent them all.

It has been tragic watching the advent then the rise of the ACL surgery since its introduction around about 1980. A positive sign is the discussions that are now occurring. In two different countries two separate article were published recently, one by a former elite US athlete who never fulfilled his career due to injury and the other by sports medicine advocates in Australia.

One of the many limiting factors in the effectiveness of any intervention that is stimulated by this growing awareness of injury incidence is what I call interpretation. Image ten coaches watching the same game where their team say lost the game. How many different interpretations will come from these ten coaches if they are independently arrived at? Could be ten. And how many of these coaches are high achieving in terms of their association with championships or whatever is the measure of success at their respective levels? At best one of them. And chances are that the coach with the most accurate interpretation.

Understanding why athletes get injured is no different – it is subject to interpretation. And listening to the interpretation provided by this sports medicine expert as to why the incidence of ACL ruptures in the young athlete is so high let me with little comfort that anything will change.

You see these experts cited the reduction in childhood play as the primary cause. I have heard the dominant interpretation amongst my North American colleagues – that the increased injury rate in young athletes is due to the lack of diversification in sports played in formative years and that the athletes are specializing too early.

Both lovely theories, and both have validity in the bigger picture of long term athlete development. But both, in my humble opinion, miss the target. And this is where you come in. You are going to either adopt one of the theories presented here (including my theory) of form your own. Whatever path you choose, I ask two things.

Firstly understand the seriousness of your interpretative decisions. You have the live, the quality of life and the livelihood (the US athlete only dropped 5 million dollars…..) of the athlete in your hands. I know you didn’t sign the Hippocratic Oath but for the sake of athletes all over the world I hope you would adopt this attitude:

First, do no harm.

Now based on a number of factors I am not optimistic that you will take the most effective path. Why am I so negative? Firstly that most of you will do what most do. And from my perspective, this conforming path gives you social comfort but leaves you under-performing on your potential, and the athletes will path the price. Secondly, most of you will lack the experience or competence to make optimal decisions. And thirdly few of you will be in a position to monitor the cause-effect relationship of training and injuries through multi-year controlled environments.

So if you are have not been too offended and are still reading, leaves me to the second request. I respect whatever path you take, and I accept that most of you will miss the target. But what you can do is every few years take stock, reflect, and change your mind. Get better at avoiding injuries in the athletes who trust you. Now this will require taking responsibility for your decisions rather than avoiding responsibility, which in sport is easy to do. It will also take humility and the willingness to let go of any dogma. So I understand this request is a large one, but I make it with optimism.

I want you to act before the duty of care concept from the legal perspective is your driving force. You are getting away with doing things today that are causes serious injury because ‘everyone’ is doing the same thing and ‘science’ has not yet ‘confirmed’ that what you are doing is causing the injuries. But one day, science will catch up and you will be held responsible for doing the things you take for granted now, like endless walking lunges, failing to stretch the athlete, and for developing the quad dominance that your current training programs are – just to name a few. One day these debilitating practices will be frowned upon. But you don’t have to wait till everyone has caught up. You can work these things out now and, for the sake of the athletes, make the changes and STOP INJURYING the athletes!

So what, in my humble opinion, has brought on the rise of incidence in ACL surgery? There are many factors, and in every case the hierarchy will be different, and this level of individual interpretation is nigh impossible in a world that struggles with accurate generalized interpretation. However, for the sake of starting your journey to serving the athletes better, I raise three of what I consider up the top end of contributing causes in most cases. I list them alphabetically to avoid any further message of which is more important or correlative.

I will also give examples in each case to demonstrate some of the influences in my conclusions.

1. The introduction of strength training and the inherent quad dominance in the program design.

Using the young athlete as a time line, based on my experience dealing with post high school elite athletes in Australia, there were few if any formal strength training programs in high schools in Australia prior to the early to mid-1990s. I suggest, and this is a hypothesis, that you could track the rise of ACL injuries in young athletes (12-24 years) along beside the rise of strength training programs in high schools and find a strong correlation.

Am I saying that strength training is bad for young athletes and should not be done? Not at all. What I am saying is that if strength training with the same imbalances as exist traditionally in adult or elite programs is applied to kids, they will suffer injuries early. And that is what is happening, I suggest.

I propose a second hypothesis – if you could track the rate at which strength training has been offered to younger and younger athletes in the high school programs, with the rise in incidence of ACL ruptures in younger and younger athletes, I suggest you would see a correlative pattern.

Now these same imbalances have been inherent in adult elite programs since I have been studying strength training for sport, since its inception around 1970 in the US.

During the 1980s I began forming a conceptual theory that I called ‘Lines of Movement’, to understand how inherent imbalances in traditional program design could quantified. I published this concept for the first time in 1998 Here is the fundamental message:

After many years I have decided that there is two family trees in lower body exercises – one where the quad dominates, and one where the hip dominates. When I say hip I mean the posterior chain muscle groups – the hip extensors; which are gluteal, hamstrings, lower back – they’re your hip extensors. And I believe this – the head of the family in the quad dominant exercises is the squat. That’s the head of the family. And there are 101 lead-up exercises to it and there’s a few on after it as well. But the core exercise for the quad dominant group is the squat. It’s the most likely used exercise in that group for the majority of people.

The hip dominant exercises – the father of the hip dominant tree is the deadlift – which when done correctly would be the most common exercise of that group. There are lead-in exercises, and there are advanced exercises from it.

So I build my family tree around the squat and I build my family tree around the deadlift. And I balance them up. In general, for every squat exercise or every quad dominant exercise I show in that week a hip dominant exercise in that week. And what do most people do in their program designs – they would do two quad dominant exercises for every hip dominant exercise. What is the most common imbalance that occurs in the lower body?

….To balance the athlete I work on a ratio of 1 to 1 of hip and quad dominant – in general. And I can assure you – most programs you’ll see are 2 to 1 – quad and hip.

That’s a concept I’m sure you’ll have never heard before because this is the first time I have spoken about it.(4)

The following is a sample list, not in any order, of the major muscle groups of the body that I published:

A sample list of muscle groups, not in any order.(5) _______________________________________________
Hip dominant (e.g. deadlift and its variations)
Quad dominant (e.g. squats and its variations)
Vertical pulling (i.e. scapula depressors e.g. chin ups)
Vertical pushing (i.e. arm abduction e.g. shoulder press)
Horizontal pulling (i.e. scapula retractors e.g. rows)
Horizontal pushing (i.e. horizontal flexion e.g. bench press)

The subsequent dilution of the origin of this concept has gone hand in hand with its failure to impact the athlete’s outcome to the extent it could have. I can only recommend you go to the source, to my original writings, summarized in the ‘Legacy’ book or more extensively in my ‘Legacy Course’ (Level1 KSI Coaching Program). I understand that those looking for opportunities to discredit my message may call ‘marketing!’ at this point in time, however those that know me better understand it’s not about the money, it’s about the athlete. And if that’s the best way at the moment to help the athlete, and I suggest it is – so be it.

I identified the imbalances of the lower body musculature and found a way to teach the risk and solution in the 1980s and taught it in the 1990s. I have since advanced my theories but the historic content would serve you really well as a base point.

2. The failure to address length and tension of the connective tissue

As a student of training trends and optimal training it has been extremely interesting to say the least to watch the trends in this area of training during the last four decades. The rise of connective tissues is undeniable, and the effort to find solutions pitiful. I suggest that the only thing my colleagues are concerned about is whether they are being trend conforming, dressed up in the behavioral term ‘cutting edge’.

Let me put it this way – more and more and younger and younger athletes are being exposed to strength training, and experiencing tissue shortening and tension increases. And the best that is bring offered is dynamic ‘stretching’ and foam rolling?

Again let me be clear – I am not saying that either is bad or of no value. What I am saying is this.

Dynamic stretching is barely stretching and does not replace the role of static stretching. And as for the dominant discouragements to the masses of the post 2000 era – that pre-training static stretching will make you weak and or increases your injures – injuries could not get much higher and the dominant value is stretching is minimized, what is done is predominantly dynamic. It’s not working! It never did! All I have to offer is four decades of professional application with an intensity and desire for optimal outcomes that few can match. Who cares about my experience? I can assure, the thousands of athletes who I have given injury free high performance careers to have.

Now foam rollers – the only reason you have heard about this option was because small equipment distributors in the US realized the profit in re-selling a piece of foam and instructed their seminar speakers to project expert (and I suggest overnight expertise) opinions on the value of rolling, to the extent that it was placed in the sequence of training sessions as a mandatory must do – and the non-trendy static stretching was left out!

Now anyone who has truly been involved in athlete preparation has been having their athletes roll on tennis balls and similar forever. But not instead of stretching and not as a replacement for massage. Rolling is great, but if you fail to keep it in context you under-perform for the athlete.

3. Fatigue

There is a point in time for even the well-conditioned athlete that the incidence of injury, especially what some mistakenly assume to be ‘impact’ injuries, increase rapidly. Here’s a third proposal or hypothesis – if you could track the level of fatigue of the athlete with those that suffer ACL rupture I suggest you would find a strong correlation. Now this hypothesis is probably the hardest one to test, I appreciate that.

I have witnessed the highest incidence of ‘impact’ injuries including ACL in the sporting teams with the highest volume training. I could name example coaches whose careers I have been monitoring for years and in some cases decades to understand the correlation between training volume, fatigue and injury incidence.

This is a risk that all coaches face at all times, requiring them to monitor their training volumes. The interpretation is made more difficult by realities such as the fatigued athlete could injure early in the game and we could say it can’t have been fatigue because it happened early in the game. Remember the residual nature of fatigue.

Conclusion

There is a growing albeit belated awareness of the high incidence of injuries such as ACL injuries in athletes, and in particular the younger athlete. Whist this is nice, and supports the strong concerns I have expressed for decades, my concern is also whether it will lead to any real intervention of this trend. My concerns are based on whether the interpretation of the cause of these injuries is accurately identified and isolated.

I provide three factors that I believe are highly correlated with the risks of ACL injuries, and provide three hypoesthesia that perhaps my more learned academic colleagues may one day investigate, to aid the thinking of the masses who wait for social proof such as this:

1. That you could track the rise of ACL injuries in young athletes (12-24 years) along beside the rise of strength training programs in high schools and find a strong correlation. 2. If you could track the rate at which strength training has been offered to younger and younger athletes in the high school programs, with the rise in incidence of ACL ruptures in younger and younger athletes, I suggest you would see a correlative pattern. 3. If you could track the level of fatigue of the athlete with those that suffer ACL rupture I suggest you would find a strong correlation.

However rather than waiting for the lagging indicators of science, for the sake of the athlete I hope that at least one coach might change their mind about how they train as the result of this article. I know the power of what is offered here, I also understand the power of conformity and dogma, and the over-riding desire of the majority to be like the majority, resulting is slow change. Thousands if not millions of athletes will get injured during this slow change, as has occurred during the last few decades.

What I would like to do is this – if you are a high school coach (physical or specific sport) and what I have said has resonated with you – and if you school would like to receive a 10 part video program I created last year titled ‘The Zero Tolerance to Injuries Video Series’, provided the school is making the purchase and it will be made accessible to all in the sports department, I would live to arrange this for you at no cost. Email my office at info@kingsports.net and ask us how you can receive this.

References
1) http://mweb.cbssports.com/ncaaf/writer/jon-solomon/25584164?utm_content=buffer0f307&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
2) http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/orthopaedic-surgeons-call-for-sports-injury-prevention/7382198
3) http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/2016/05/bst_20160504_0836.mp3
4) King, I., 1998, Strength Specialization Series (DVD), Disc 3, approx. 1hr 06m 00sec in.
5) King, I., 2000, How to Teach Strength Training Exercises

Ian King

You don’t want to be the best you can be  

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You want to be just like everyone else

I am sure if a survey was taken of physical preparation coaches the majority would say there goal was to be the best they can be. From my perspective, I suggest that is not the dominant focus. I suggest that the desire to be like everyone else is far greater than the desire to be the best one can be. And I suggest that the price paid for this default is lost opportunities for both the professional and the client.

During the 1970s very few people participated in the exercise know as the squat, or double knee bend. The belief was squats were bad for your knees. Did the majority come to that conclusion based on their personal experiences, or did they simply accept the dominant beliefs and habits?

During the 1980s the majority of mixed energy sports athletes participated in a higher volume aerobic training block in their General Preparatory Phase. The belief was that it was neither safe or optimal to expose the athlete to other training modalities without first gaining a level of aerobic fitness. Did the majority come to that conclusion based on their personal experiences, or did they simply accept the dominant beliefs and habits?

During the 1990s the majority of physical preparation coaches included Swiss ball exercise in their program design. The belief was that performing an exercise, any – actually vertically all – exercises. This was based on the dogma that the additional balance challenges produced a superior training effect, and that this was definitely going to transfer to all sport and life activities. Did the majority come to that conclusion based on their personal experiences, or did they simply accept the dominant beliefs and habits?

During the 2000s the majority of physical preparation coaches selected almost exclusively from the so-called ‘functional exercises’ (although I am not really sure what that is) in their program design. To do any exercise sitting on a bench or lying down was heretical. This was based on the belief that standing and multi-planar movements were superior in their training effect for all people at all times, and would definitely provide a superior transfer to sport and life. Did the majority come to that conclusion based on their personal experiences, or did they simply accept the dominant beliefs and habits?

During the 2010s the majority of sports coaches and physical preparation coaches refuse to use static stretching, replacing what little stretching time is dedicated to stretching with ‘dynamic’ stretches. This is based on the belief that static stretching makes you weak and leads to injury and dynamic stretching is safer, more functional and effective. Did the majority come to that conclusion based on their personal experiences, or did they simply accept the dominant beliefs and habits?

The one question I asked throughout the above is – Did the majority come to that conclusion based on their personal experiences, or did they simply accept the dominant beliefs and habits? I suggest they did not come to these conclusions based on any form of personal experience. I also suggest that they didn’t even think. They just accepted and did.

So what would I need to see to believe that a physical preparation coach was making an attempt to be the best they can be? The most important criteria I am looking for is evidence of thinking. That the key questions have been asked, including but not limited to;

• What is the best way to train?
• What can I do to fulfill my potential as a coach?
• What can I do to fulfill the potential of my client/athlete?

Now call me simplistic, but I am skeptical as to whether the majority has applied this approach. Here are a few considerations.

Let’s take squats for examples. Prior to about 1990, when a slew of ‘research’ was published extolling the benefits of stretching, did the did the majority of physical preparation coaches have collective personal experiences that squatting was bad and then collectively and coincidentally post 1990 have personal experiences to the contrary?

Let’s take the Swiss ball for example. Prior to about 1990 few knew the word Swiss ball and exercises upon it. Up until this time did the did the majority of physical preparation coaches have collective personal experiences that Swiss balls and exercises on Swiss balls were useless and then collectively and coincidentally post 1990 have personal experiences to the contrary?

Let’s take stretching for example. Prior to about 1995 it was okay to statically stretch, and commonly done. Post 1995 it wasn’t. Now did the majority of physical preparation coaches have collective experiences prior to 1995 that static stretching was the most effective way to stretch, and then post 1995 all reach personal conclusions to the contrary? I suggest not. Now I respect that for many of you my proposition is flawed as I place a premium on thinking, at a time in the world and in our industry where the dominant belief that what you think is irrelevant – just read the research and see if ‘research supports it’. This is essentially not only the antithesis of thinking, I also suggest that this don’t think just believe in the research mentality is actually contrary to the intent of the origin of science.

For me objectivity is the key.

Scientific objectivity is a characteristic of scientific claims, methods and results. It expresses the idea that the claims, methods and results of science are not, or should not be influenced by particular perspectives, value commitments, community bias or personal interests, to name a few relevant factors.

And even though science claims this I don’t believe it is always the case.

Science in theory is intended to provide objective analysis. I believe this way has been lost in many cases, where the research conclusions are influenced by the researcher, who in turn may be influenced by the provider of the funding.

For all the lip service we pay to science, everyone knows that it is commerce that runs the show. As the Spanish proverb goes, ‘He who gives the bread lays down the law’. Science today typically serves the large corporate interests that fund it. In a world conceived by the financial and corporate leadership who effectively rule it, the purpose of the human being is to contribute to the economy as an increasingly efficient unit of production and as an increasingly efficient unit of consumption. The financial and corporate elite establish effective social policy, and commercially funded science gives them the technological wherewithal to execute it. –Laurence G. Boldt, 1999

I believe you can be more objective than certain modern ‘scientific’ conclusions:

Now I admit it’s not easy being an objective thinker. Throughout history thinkers have been subject to a variety of suppressions and restrictions by authorities.

Take Roger Bacon (c. 1219/20 – c. 1292) for example, the 13th Century English philosopher. He is sometimes credited (mainly since the 19th century) as one of the earliest European advocates of the modern scientific method inspired by Aristotle

• After 1260, Bacon’s activities were restricted by a statute prohibiting the friars of his order from publishing books or pamphlets without prior approval. • The Condemnations of 1277 banned the teaching of certain philosophical doctrines, including deterministic astrology. Some time within the next two years, Bacon was apparently imprisoned or placed under house arrest. –https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Bacon

Here are some of the thinking that Bacon and others were ‘not allowed to engage in’ at various times in the 13th Century:

The banned propositions included:

• “That there is numerically one and the same intellect for all humans”.
• “That the soul separated [from the body] by death cannot suffer from bodily fire”.
• “That God cannot grant immortality and incorruption to a mortal and corruptible thing”.
• “That God does not know singulars” (i.e., individual objects or creatures).
• “That God does not know things other than Himself”.
• “That human acts are not ruled by the providence of God”.
• “That the world is eternal”.
• “That there was never a first human”.
–https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condemnations_of_1210–1277

History is littered with examples of suppression of freedom of thinking. Now if you are still reading this article, and if you resonate with the belief that you should reach your own, objective conclusions, then here is one phenomenal role model to guide and inspire you. Buckminster-Fuller, considered one of the greatest thinkers of the 20th Century, wrote:

I jettisoned all I had ever been taught to believe and proceeded thereafter to reason and act only on the basis of direct personal experience … Exploring, experiencing, feeling, and – to the best of my ability – acting strictly and only on my individual intuition, I became impelled to write this book… –Buckminster-Fuller, referring to his book ‘Critical Path’, 1981.

I am not alone in my encouragement to you to temper your compliance with the dominant ‘scientific’ theories:

I think that in modern Western society, there seems to be a powerful cultural conditioning that is based on science. But in some instances, the basic premises and parameters set up by Western science can limit your ability to deal with certain realities. For instance, you have the constraints of the idea that everything can be explained within the framework of a single lifetime, and you combine this with the notion that everything can and must be explained and accounted for. But when you encounter phenomena that you cannot account for, then there’s kind of a tension created; it’s almost a feeling of agony. –Howard C. Culter and the Dalai Lama, 1998

Again I share I am not seeking to be disrespectful of science as it currently is.

Research is nice and I’m definitely not critical at all of the contribution of academics. But my decision to train a certain way is not based on the latest research. It’s based on the conclusions I’ve reached on cause and effect relationships in the real world. People can become too infatuated with the concept of science.

For me, success in sport is about winning. Athletes aren’t going to get offended if I don’t comply with the latest research. They just want to win. So the research is nice, but it’s always going to be limited. We’re not dealing with a college age volunteer in a six week program; we’re dealing with a human being that’s been working for fifteen to twenty years to take his body beyond where it’s gone before. –Shugart, C., 2000, Meet the press: Coach of Coaches – An interview with Ian King, t-mag.com 29 Friday 2000

I also acknowledge that the easiest thing to do is to conform. However I encourage you to reflect on this perspective on conformity:

The opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice, it is conformity. –Rollo May

I have been encouraging you to resist the pressures of conformity for:

Resist the temptation in program design to conform to mainstream paradigms simply for the sake of conforming, no matter how dogmatically they are presented, or how much you may be ridiculed or ostracized for trusting your intuition over conformity. Make our own minds up based on a combination of respect for your intuition, the athlete/client’s intuition, the results, and in respect of the body of knowledge available. –King, I.., 2005, The way of the physical preparation coach (book), p. 17

It is rewarding to see individuals chose to be objective, to trial training methods and reach their own conclusions, even if they are contrary to the dominant beliefs:

“…from young, I was led to believe that an individual’s level of flexibility is determined by genetics. As I grew older I got stiffer and when I started my formal education, I was educated that flexibility is not a vital determining factor in sports and that dynamic stretches were more than sufficient to both warm-up the joint and muscles, as well as to improve flexibility.

To be honest, with all the research papers and articles being put through my mind at that time, it did seem logical for a naive mind that was easily convinced. However, I am glad that I was shown the art of stretching…I have never experienced such levels of flexibilities in my life and I’m thankful that I chose to open my mind to a concept that was challenged by the origins of my knowledge in this field. I spend close to half or on some days, more than half of my time stretching my frontal muscle groups & performing tension releasing work with my ‘poor man’s masseur’ as it has significantly improved my overall health. Stretching will also and always be a main training tool/stapler in the programs that I design, due to it’s massive benefits that I have attained and am still experiencing.” -Tze, KSI L1 Student Coach

In essence I am suggesting that if you do what everyone else is doing, you are not only failing to fulfill your potential, you are failing to fulfill the potential of your client:

Look at it this way. If you do it the way everyone else is doing it – all things being equal, how are you going to be better than everyone else? Realistically changes do occur (albeit slowly) in sport training – because someone dared to do it differently. These people gain the advantage, are at the cutting edge. The sheep follow. Which do you want to be? –King, I., 1997, Winning and Losing, p. 30

Give you a hint – if what I teach is what the majority do, I would be very concerned. I want to do what few do, to get a competitive advantage. –King, I., 2003, Ask the Master, (book) p. 32

Conclusion

I am going to be straight – if you find yourself doing what the majority are doing, and your goal is to be the best you can be – you should be very concerned. I see this as evidence that you are not thinking for yourself, rather that you are conforming.

Now this is not bad or good from one perspective – even Master Sifu in the movie Kung Fu Panda will tell you there is not such thing as good or bad! If you have no desire to fulfill your potential, if your personality is such that you would prefer to conform, then keep going. The world needs all kinds, and the statistical reality has a pattern of talking about the 90-95% that just want to be average, the same as everyone else.

But if you are seeking to be the best you can be, to give you clients the best opportunity to be the best they can be – to be in the 5 to 10% of high achievers – then you need to stop seeking to be like everyone else and think for yourself!

Ian King

Questions are the answer  

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I share the following exchange as a great example of and learning moment in the concept that questions are the answers.

Hello, I was curious about your products available and had some questions

1. Does your Legacy book contain the same content as your Legacy course (minus the audio and video)?

2. If I pay for and begin the legacy course, does this course include/cover content from your other books/audio/DVDs products or is it all separate ‘exclusive info’ and these all need to be purchased separate or does the course cover it all. For example, in the legacy course do you cover the concepts talked about in the endurance, flexibility, strength training, speed specialization DVDs, periodization and integration series, recovery methods series, bar bells and bull shit, foundations of physical prep etc.? If not at what point, if at all, is any of this covered throughout different level of courses, level 2? I ask because everything is pretty vague in description and makes it confusing on your site. as well I’m trying to figure out if doing the legacy course is the wrong way to go in that it just covers the concepts in general, and the better route is to purchase some DVDs/books etc.

3. I can’t find much if any info on what level 2 and up covers.

4. As well I see you have audio/DVD/books with the same titles. Does this cover the same content just in different formats? For example there is barbell and bullshit DVD, audio, and book. Do they cover the same info but are just in different formats??

Sorry for all the questions but i enjoy your work and would like to learn more but trying to figure out what exactly i am purchasing is a little confusing to me. –Brendan

Brendan – great to hear from you. And great questions! Here are sone answers:

Q1. Does your Legacy book contain the same content as your Legacy course?

A1 The Legacy books is a condensed version of the course. For example the course has 1,500 pages of text – the book as 200 or so. So the theme is the same, but he content depth is very different. This is the audio an video, also as as you are aware.

Q2. Does this course include/cover content from your other books/audio/DVDs products or is it all separate ‘exclusive info’ and these all need to be purchased separate or does the course cover it all.

A2. The Legacy course is a synthesis of my original concepts so you should see some overlap with most of my publications, as my works rely on my original works, not imitations or trends.

Can one course cover it all? I hope not. If I could condense my 35 years of experiences totally into one course I would be concerned about the brevity of the content I can share. So whether you see it as a positive or a negative, I have chosen to spread the KSI coaching course over 7 levels that typically takes 5-10 years to complete. And part of this curriculum or educational journey is studying from existing artifacts.

So I guess in summary, no, this is not a ‘one course covers it all’ As I seek to record my life works, I hope that my life has amounted to more than the content for one course.

I appreciate that few have the experiences I have had in coaching, or the gift to synthesize and innovate, so I understand it may be challenging to understand how my works are so different. I can only say that perhaps the few that truly appreciate the possibilities of this are those who have been through the journey.

To give further guidance, I believe that all professional should do the KSI courses first, and study the various artifacts as the stages of the course when prompted. When a person picks and choses which artifact and when this lacks structure and guidance, and in addition, we have taken a number of the artifacts (e.g. Specialization series) off the market in that they cannot be purchased until a certain stage of the KSI coaching journey.

Q3. I can’t find much if any info on what level 2 and up covers.

A3. Yes, we keep our content low key for a number of reasons. Firstly, I am over being copied by fitness industry marketers who fraudulently represent themselves as the author of my works and imitate my educational offerings from the name to the method of structuring delivery.

Secondly, I take the philosophy that when the student Is ready the teacher will appear, and until L1 in completed, L2 is a mute point. I appreciate that my approach costs signups and income, but that is not my focus. My focus is doing the best, doing the right thing by people, not having the most people in my courses. So giving up money and numbers is not an issue for me. I just myself on how my coaching changes lives, not on the number of friends on my Facebook page or the turnover of my business or any other popularity marker.

Q. 4. As well I see you have audio/DVD/books with the same titles. Does this cover the same content just in different formats?

Q4. Yes, typically it does

Conclusion

I trust my answers have gone towards answering your questions. Never apologize for asking questions. Questions are the answer, and when there is no questions there are no answers. For example many go to seminars and sit there like stunned mullets because they are so used to the speaker feeling obliged to impress them with an over-dose of ‘information’. I would prefer to say little, and if there are no questions the student is not ready, and I will go home and ride my John Deere tractor or train myself, something more stimulating than role playing as an expert to information collectors whose ability to really impact peoples life’s and change the world is missing because they have modeled perception creators, not true value adders.

I keep things low key and slightly vague to weed out those who do things because they are marketed sharply to from those who are on a genuine path of learning and self-fulfillment. You have shown early positive signs of being a student and now taking action in the first step.

Your questions are also a gift to use as we reflect on the impact of our communication through our web content on you and learn from this. It helps shape our direction, so thank you.

Ian King

Ian King

Strength training makes you weak and should not be done  

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We’ve been conducting some studies lately and have reached the conclusion that strength training is bad and should not be done.

The protocol we have been using has been to complete a set of near Repetition Maximum reps in the squat, and to test vertical jump and speed within a few minutes of the sets.

There was a direct correlation between level of muscle fatigue and reduced strength, power and speed. There is also a direct correlation between the number of sets and the decrement in strength, power and speed.

The evidence is clear – strength training makes you weaker and slower, and should not be conducted. If you must do strength training, the lower you Repetition maximum you go the less strength, power and speed you will loose, and the less sets you do, the same applies.

I have conferred with a number or colleagues on this and it is our learned recommendation you stop strength training.

Whilst this position has not been formally adopted by any professional development associations, we are confident we will find enough academics and marketing gurus whose lack of strength and understanding of strength should be sufficient motivation for them to temporarily adopt a falsehood until they conduct further personal investigations and gain a higher level of knowledge and personal competence in this area, which will be followed by a range of trend based crappy e-products that create short term cash and the perception of marking leading knowledge, advocating the use of strength training.

And due to the fact that, in the 1950 words of the great Dr Albert Schweitzer, ‘man does not think’ (read – most humans are too dumb or at least have been dumb-downed to question powerful presented paradigms and trends} this will be a really easy sell.

By then, there will be a generation of humans who struggle to loose the conditioning that strength is bad, and who will pass this myth on to their children in a highly non-scientific way, and another if not more generations of humans will suffer for this falsehood that suited the vested interests of a minority.

Hold it – I might be getting confused with the fate of stretching….

PS. Make sure the masses don’t hear that if you waited a few more minutes to test strength it would be a different outcome…

PPS. How is that blindness side-effect going?….

Ian King

KSI L1 Graduate Coach Interview Sebastien Buttigieg  

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Firstly, congratulations on completing the KSI U Level 1 course! And thanks in advance for taking the time to share your experiences with the reader.

To get started, I’d like to ask:

1. How long have you been in the industry and what is your current role?

I have been working in the industry for almost 7 years now. I began by completing my Cert III in Fitness to become a gym instructor and work in a gym, which I did for a couple of years. I followed that up by completing my Cert IV in Fitness and becoming a Personal Trainer, which I also did for a period of time. I then decided to go back to study and complete my Bachelors Degree in Exercise and Sport Science, which I completed earlier this year.

2. How did you first get involved in the industry?

I had been weight training for a year or so when I decided to do my Cert III in fitness as a way to develop my own knowledge of training and the processes of the human body. After completing it, I found that I had really enjoyed learning everything and that the fitness industry was something I was quite passionate about. I managed to fall into my first gym job, when a friend of mine was leaving the gym that he worked at for another job. I spoke with the manager who I knew quite well by this stage and said that I had completed my qualifications and that I was looking to get some work in a gym. Things just went from there.

3. What do you see as the ideal position to be in and why?

Ideally I would one day like to be working alongside elite athletes in a strength and conditioning setting within a sporting team such as an AFL club, EPL soccer team or even NBA or NFL team. I love working with regular people that are looking to get into better shape, however, having grown up within such a big sporting family, I would love to be able to get involved at the highest level to help these athletes prepare and achieve as much success as possible.

4. What type of clients do you deal with and is there anything you are planning to change with regard to your client base?

Currently I work with a range of clients from older women looking to improve their lives, lose a little bit of weight and get in better shape, to helping out with teaching/running strength and conditioning sessions for teenage athletes. I have also recently started working at a new studio, which deals more with a fitter clientele and those looking to transform their physiques. In the New Year I am aiming to get my foot in the door at an AFL club and start developing experience working alongside elite athletes.

5. What led you to start the KSI Coach program?

I attended a lecture by Ian earlier in the year, after being recommended to go by my mother and fellow USANA colleagues. I found the talk to be extremely informative and it gave me the hunger to learn more about what Ian has done and how I can get to where he has gotten to within the industry. I did some research in the days following and spoke with Ian on the internet and he told me about the KSI Coach program. I looked into it and it immediately appealed to me, so I signed up.

6. How was the experience of doing the KSI Coach program?

At the time of beginning the program it was a bit hard to keep up with regularly doing things, as I was in the final 6 months of my uni degree at the time and was being bombarded with assignments left right and center. However, once my degree was finished it was much easier to sit down and really absorb as much as possible from the program. Everything was easy to follow and the information presented gave me the thirst to attain even more knowledge about the KSI way.

7. What have been the biggest lessons you have taken from the KSI Coach program?

The main lessons that I have taken away from the program are to not just take someone’s word and believe that it is the be all and end all of it. I found it extremely enlightening that so-called “experts” that I had received information from over the years, had in fact been ripping off information that was developed by Ian in the first place. I have also started adopting some of the strategies that Ian has developed with regards to exercise prescription, techniques and programming protocols within my own training and that of my own clients (obviously being mindful to not claim them as my own ideas).

8. What are some of the frustrations you have faced in your work and what are some of these that you have found a solution for?

The most frustrating thing that I have found is dealing with clients that do not have a strong work ethic and seem to only be training to tell their friends that they are going to the gym. The large majority of the time the clients that I have dealt with have been amazing, they have gotten the results that they want, by putting in the hard work that it takes to achieve those results. It is clients like that, who make it a joy to do what I do. It is frustrating when a client comes along and as soon as the going gets a little challenging they make up a myriad of excuses as to why they cannot do something. I have found that over the years, with more experience and more knowledge, I have been able to gradually change these characteristics in certain clients and help them to develop a better attitude towards their training. I have still not mastered the ability to motivate 100% of the clients that I deal with and to get them to do the hard things outside of the gym (i.e. changing their diet habits, stretching, recovering), but I feel as though I am getting much better at this.

9. What are your plans for the future?

Within the next few months I aim to get a position working within the strength and conditioning department of an AFL team, even if it is only a voluntary part-time position. I also want to complete the KSI Level 2 program and be eligible to participate in Levels 3 and 4 of the program next year. I want to attain my ASCA Strength and Conditioning accreditation as well. Most importantly I want to learn more and more in order to become the best coach that I can possibly be.

10. What do you like to do in your spare time?

When I am not working or training myself I like to spend my spare time with my lovely partner, (as it is hard to spend quality time during the week with the hours we both keep). Playing with my two dogs and I am also a musician and play a variety of instruments along with singing. After a long hard day I do enjoy sitting down on the couch to watch a good TV Show (get into Modern Family if you haven’t already!) and playing a computer game or two with my little cousin.

11. What do you believe are the greatest challenges facing our industry and or someone in this industry?

Working solely as a personal trainer is hard, as you only get paid for the time that you are physically training with someone. Week to week that time can vary quite a lot, as it is highly dependant upon the client, how they are feeling day to day, how busy they are at work, how much money they have, whether they are going away on holidays etc. Whenever people are strapped for cash it is things like personal training that get dropped first as it is not a priority for most people, which is totally understandable. It is not a consistent form of income and at certain times of the year it can be quite difficult, especially during Christmas where their money is going elsewhere or they are going away on holiday. Also through the middle of winter, a large majority of the people I come across lack the motivation to train.

12. What advice do you have for anyone considering starting the KSI Coach program?

The best advice I could give is to simply do it! You won’t regret it.

Again, thanks for taking the time to share your experiences. Every time anyone completes a task they set out to do they stand out, as not everyone does this. So well done, you deserve a big pat on the back!

Ian King

KSI Coach Education Program Learn original material based on real coaching – the best way to become the best you can be!Learn more: http://bit.ly/KSICoachingProgram

Ian King

I spoke to xxxx (professional) and they said it can’t be so….  

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There is a phenomenon in sport, and perhaps life, where decisions are made about potential, possibilities and peoples lives from a remote, authoritarian and dogmatic perspective.

But who does it serve? Surely it wouldn’t be that humbling to take a less all-knowing approach?

In the 1980s a young national league Australian Rules player suffered what we now call chronic fatigue. The coach told him “I talked to the trainer and there is nothing wrong with you. You just aren’t fit enough.” So they send him off on a special training camp where he paddled in the ocean for hours, ran along beaches for hours, swam in open seas for hours.

Who does it serve? The coach’s and trainers need to be able to diagnose all conditions, the ego of the trainer about more of their services being needed…but what about the athlete? Would it be so demeaning to seek independent unbiased professional advice? To say “I don’t really know why you are complaining about being tired, but lets explore your situation and find out more to help you get over the condition.”

In the 1990s in the lead up to a World Cup, a head national coach put his team through a grueling training session, applying the dominant trend of the time, which essentially ended the team’s hope of winning (and that’s the opinion of some of the athletes involved in retrospect). Faced with a very tired and sore group of athletes, the head coach told the team: “I have spoken with the support staff and they have all told me you can’t be tired, so you are not tired!”

Who does it serve? The coach’s need to be right, the ego of the professional o feeling good about being remotely all knowing…but what about the athlete? Or the team? Would it be so terrible to say “I don’t really know why you are complaining about being tired, but lets explore your situation and find out more to help us win?”

In the 2000s a provincial level rugby playing hurt his shoulder. The coach, supported by the medical staff, decided he was okay, and sent him back on. He damaged his shoulder so extensively later in that game it shortened his career and affected his quality of life forever.

Who does it serve? It helped the team win that game. It confirmed the coach had full control over medical interpretations….but what about the athlete? Would it have been so scary for the team to lose that player for the rest of the game to prevent future surgery? To have said “I don’t like the thought of losing you in this tight game but based on your concerns lets check out your injury and not take risks with you.”

In the post 2010 decade I was working with a young UK soccer player who was recovering unsuccessfully from surgery. He had entered into an agreement to play for a US college on scholarship, but was in no condition to do so. The head college told him “The physical therapist tells me there is no reason why you cannot play and train so I expect you to turn up on Monday and participate fully.” And that was before the physical therapist had even laid hands on the athlete…

Who does it serve? The interests of the college, the ego of the professional…but what about the athlete? Would it be so dangerous to say “I don’t really know why you are reporting pain or concern, but lets explore your situation and find out more?”

Post 2010 I raised a point of concern with a sports coordinator of a high school about injury risks in a training session. The response included “I have spoken to our strength and condition coach and he tells me that the volume of training the athletes are doing does not represent a risk.”

Who does it serve? The interests of the school, the ego of the professional to be right, to be all knowing…,but what about the athlete? Would it be so bad to say “I don’t really know why you concerned about pain, but lets explore your situation and find out more?”

I don’t know what training is going to do. I have a theory or hypothesis and I take it carefully in case I am off-track. If it turns out I missed the target, then I seek to amend the situation, and learn from it. It’s not that hard if you can put aside the need to be all knowing or be right. I even tell the athlete in advance – I don’t know for sure but this is where I am thinking of going, is that okay, and let’s learn from this. Together. It’s not that difficult.

Who does it serve? The athlete.