Ian King

What’s holding YOU back as a trainer?

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Even been in a place in your career where you wonder why you are not getting where you wanted to go as a trainer? If any of the following apply, you probably should be asking this question – I don’t have enough clients; I don’t get paid enough; I am not sure or confident of my future in this industry, etc. Now if you’ve had the courage to recognize the limitations and ask the question ‘What’s holding me back?’ the next challenge is finding the answer!

Not sure where the weakness is? Is it my qualifications? Do I lack experience? Is it the city I live in? Am I not buffed enough? If you have ever had these questions you are not alone! Should I get more ink? If so arm or leg? Left or right side? (Yes, the last question – the one about the ‘ink’ – or tattoos – is my Aussie humor!)

Ever since getting paid to train another person became a reality (generally speaking during the 1980s) I’ve been helping trainers, instructors, coaches – whatever your job title – find the answers. As I entered the industry in 1980 I was in a position where I became established before anyone knew what I was doing. (Which gave me the experience to write my professional guidance books after some 20 years experience, ‘So You want to Become a….’.)

Take this question for example that I got from a struggling Los Angeles based trainer in the late 1990s:

I have read “So you want to become…” [book] thoroughly. While I agree with your statements it is easier for you with an established record to attract new clients than it is for an “outsider” like me to break in. The reason I’m asking is to see where my weaknesses are – what is holding me back in other words as I’m failing to identify it somehow. I don’t think it is qualifications – I have a bundle – and I don’t think its training experience – I have lots of that…..

I believe just about everyone has this question at some stage of his or her career.

So what are the most commonly looked at solutions? What are the most common mistakes? And what are some of my suggestions for you?

‘GO-TO’ SOLUTIONS

From what I have seen the top 3 most common ‘go-to’ solutions in our industry include:

#1 – Get higher-level qualifications or more certifications

If you have a diploma, get a bachelors degree. If you have a degree, get your masters degree. If you have your maters degree, get your PhD. Or do more short courses with more and different people. Add letters to your name.

Does this work? Yes, it can if you are looking for a job. If you are self-employed, potential clients don’t pay much if any attention to it. I could count on one hand the number of athletes who in four decades have asked what qualifications I have!

I say ‘it can’, in relation to ‘does it work’, because I have seen it work. I have also seen it not work. In my opinion it doesn’t make you a better coach – but it can get you a job.

#2 – Build your C-V

Building your C-V is another popular and potentially effective way to get more work. Provided you are after a job. Here’s how it works. You target a team or job, and hang around there. You get to know the people, you become liked, and you suck up to the decision makers. You exploit the reality that most appointments are decided upon before they are advertised, and it’s someone’s friend. ‘You’ be that person.

Then you take that C-V with that team/athletes name on it, and you leverage it into a higher profile team or individual. And you keep going until you have the best C-V in the market!

Does this work? Absolutely! At least in the short term. Can they coach? That’s pretty irrelevant in this strategy!

#3 – Market Yourself Better

A lot of new entrants into the industry are keen to learn how to market themselves, including on the internet. This is an option, however there are a few things to consider before going down this road.

One of the challenges I suggest you consider before choosing to play in this ‘sandpit’ is the need to understand you are marketing in a profession where the cultural values are that its okay and normal to tell lies to sell yourself. Here’s an example:

The reality is that the lies in fitness far outweigh the truths. …Here’s my premise. It’s OK to tell a lie if you know that it’s a lie… Once a personal trainer or performance specialist knows the truth then, they can tell a little white lie to make the sale or to get the client on board.

Now let me be clear – I don’t agree with or endorse the belief expressed above. It’s not my paradigm or values, however it is  from a productive marketer in the industry and therefore it would have had some influence on integrity in the industry.

How are you going to compete in that stinky pond? Tell bigger lies? Get more insights on this challenge in my recent blog ‘Coaching in the Fakebook Era’.

SO WHERE ARE TRAINERS GOING WRONG? (The most common mistakes)

There are two key mistakes made by trainers looking to get past sticking points in their career. Firstly, the point I call ‘jamming a square post in a round hole’. The second is missing the key ingredient.

#1 Jamming a square post in a round hole

Remember the struggling LA based trainer who couldn’t work out what was holding him back? His stated (and yes it was even in writing!) goal was:

To gain a full time professional strength and conditioning position with a professional sports organization or high level training facility.

What were the chances of him attracting athletes? Ah, let me think about that for a moment….Ah…none!

Let’s get this clear – athletes are no better than anyone else, and training athlete’s doesn’t make you any better than anyone else. It’s a common error for so many to want to train athletes because this role has been incorrectly placed on a pedestal!

This trainer was far more suited to the general population, including the fat loss market, where the rules are loose and people are more likely to buy into a ‘story’ – in other words the goals are subjective and the methods to achieve them many.

Why do I say this trainer was more suited to general population? Every market segment has unique traits. Athletes, for example – and especially elite athletes – value discipline, delayed gratification, focus, effort, determination and so on. How much of these qualities did this trainer have? Ah….not much.

Ask yourself – is the target client I am chasing one that resonates with me? Be authentic! Take a path congruent with who you really are and the kind of person that you might inspire. Be yourself. What client sub-group wants more of who and what you are, stand for and have? Any short term ‘success’ from faking or forcing yourself (the post) into an environment (the post hole) will quickly dissolve and those faking it are more than they are ultimately end back at their competence level.

#2 Missing the key ingredient

In about the 1960s a young man said to his mentor ‘Look, this is all the company pays!’, complaining about his paycheck.

To which the mentor replied: “No that is all the company pays YOU!’

The message shared by the late Jim Rohn about his interactions with his mentor Earl Shoaff (in addition to the power of having a mentor!) tell us that what you are getting paid is not what your industry pays. It is simply what your industry pays you!

This applies to all aspects of typical frustration – your client numbers, your client cancellations, your clients reliance on you to be their motivator, your income….

So what’s the missing ingredient? Value. You get paid for the VALUE you bring to the market. Value is measured in the amount of help you give and the number of people you give this amount of value to.

Yes, something is holding you back. Remember – in the words of the wise Jim Rohn:

Don’t take your needs to the market place. Bring your value instead.

…because…

Service to many leads to greatness – great respect, great satisfaction!

The question is….how exactly do you ‘bring your value’ to the market?

 

Author’s note

The training concepts I developed were developed on athletes, however during the last four decades it’s become very clear that they are equally effective on all humans. In fact I suggest that the elite athlete arena is an excellent testing ground for training theories and concepts. Coaches in the KSI Coaching Program come from all walks of life and apply the KSI way to all types of clients. The KSI way is not limited to athletes, nor are our coaches limited to working with athletes.

Ian King

There is a better way – Part 6: For whose benefit

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The coach said to the team –

‘Now I want you to win. Because it makes me look better.’

A few weeks later, in a different sport but with the same athlete, a coach said to the team –

‘Now if some of you are wondering why you didn’t get any game time, I want to remind you – we are playing to win.’

The sample group in reference was 15-17 year olds, playing in late specialization sports. They were a decade away from the potential career peak.

Was this coincidental or reflective of the extent of this value set? I have my thoughts on this.

The concept of ‘long term athlete development’ is now widely known. Few know about the people behind the concept, due to the low level of ethical referencing in this industry, but most will be able to share with you their understanding of ‘LTAD’, in a hip kind of trendy term way.

That’s great, but something is missing, because the talk of long term athlete development is nothing more than lip service.

Either the masses of coaches who claim they are familiar with the concept are not, or they simply don’t respect it.

Because when the coach is ‘playing to win’ with 16 year olds in a late specialization sport, or when the coach is calling upon the athletes to win to boost their coaching credentials, it raises the question – whose benefit is this for?

There was a time when the concept of long term athlete development was known by few. That was not that long ago, as the popularity of this concept has been a post 2000 phenomenon. Yet during this period of ‘ignorance’ I believe coaches and coaching was more enlightening, with a greater chance of the athletes needs coming first.

So how did we get to a point when everyone knows the words, but few demonstrate a true knowledge or respect of the concept?

In the late 1980s and early 1990s one the groups I was working with was the Canadian ski team. The locations we would go into camp were varied, but one thing remained constant – the team Sports Science Director would visit with me multiple times a day, excitedly showing me his latest conceptual development or research discovery, including a concept he was working on at that time – a model for long term athletic development.

His name was Istvan Balyi, a former Hungarian Olympian turned Canadian sports scientist. The work he developed went on to be the most influential model of long-term periodization in the western world during the last two decades.

In essence, and in the simpler earlier version, the model suggested a number of stages in the career of the athlete, and only in the final or latter stage was ‘playing to win’ the priority!

  1. FUNdamentals – where fun based activities developed the fundamentals of athleticism
  2. Training to train – where the athlete trained for the primary purpose of developing the qualities that are derived from training and getting used to training.
  3. Training to Compete – where the athletes training and competition focus was on getting used to competing.
  4. Training to Win – the final stage, at the peak of their career, where the athletes training and games were focused primarily on what needs to be done to win – in the now.

The first three phases of this simplistic interpretation reinforce that all is being done for the delayed gratification of winning at the peak of the athletes career. Despite most coaches of age groups ‘knowing’ this concept, most are implementing the final stage where the primary focus is to win, at the three earlier stages! Even educational institutions who provide a long term athlete development plan in writing fail to do what they say they are doing.

You can learn more about Istvan’s works in his book ‘Long Term Athlete Development’ available on various online websites.   Istvan deserves to have his work learnt from the source, and the publisher, Human Kinetics, deserves credit for being the only North American publisher to my knowledge who has made an effort to reference and credit my material in their publication

I say to the coach who told his players to win for his benefit (to enhance his coaching resume), and to the coach who told his mid-teens that some of them would not step off the reserve bench because they were ‘playing to win’, and all coaches who recognize they may share similar values or habits – to reflect upon and review their coaching strategy.

And if they cannot embrace alternatives where the needs of the athlete come first, consider another pursuit other than sports coaching.

Because there is a better way, and athletes deserve to be given every opportunity to fulfill their athletic potential.

 

Note:

For those athletes and coaches who are concerned about the direction of training and want to believe there is a better way – congratulations. There is a better way. We have spend the last four decades discovering better ways to train, and we teach these better ways when we work with athletes or coaches. The KSI Coaching Program aims to provide you with the tools to train athletes and others in their highest and best interests, with no interest in what the dominant trend is or will be in the future. Learn more about KSI Coach Education here https://kingsports.net/courses/

Ian King

There is a better way – Part 5: There’s more to athlete preparation than ‘strength & conditioning’

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Physical preparation in athlete preparation is over-rated.

Its obvious that few share my belief, considering the amount of focus and effort going into physical development globally. I learnt from my professional experience in North America in the late 1980’s and early 1990s that their culture placed a (potentially excessive) premium on physical development. That cultural value is now global, courtesy of the internet.

The model I ascribe to – and teach – for athlete development states there are four (4) components – technical (skill), tactical (tactics), psychological and physical. After based on my four decades of professional experience, I have concluded that (generally speaking) physical development is the least important of them all.

Only in junior sport will a physical advantage at the expense of the development of the other three athlete preparation qualities provide a superior, temporary sport performance advantage. And the athlete in their long-term success, which will be reduced for doing so, pays the price for this.

Now saying ‘physical development is over-rated’ is a tough thing for me to say, especially as doing just that – physical development – has put food on my table for the bulk of my adult life. However I came into this profession to help athletes be successful in sport, not to help them become physical successful per se.

Put simply athletes are spending too much time in the gym and not enough time in skill (technical) and tactical (tactics) development.

Now to make things worse…

The model I ascribe to (and teach) for physical development states there are four (4) components – flexibility, strength, speed and endurance. After based on my four decades of professional experience, I have concluded that (generally speaking) strength is NOT the most important of them all.

But you would not know that, because an increasing percent of physical training time globally in sport is being dedicated to strength development.

So how did we get to this point? In the 1960s strength training in sports was virtually non-existent. In the 1970s it began to raise its head in sport, especially in strength sports such as US college (American) football (gridiron).

One of the leading western world physical preparation professional bodies, the National Strength Coaches Association (NSCA), grew out of this growing movement – football strength coaches at US colleges.

A study of history shows the limits of this association. Strength training was missing, and that is what the NSCA provided. By the time they realized they have overlooked other physical qualities, all they could do was substitute the word ‘conditioning’ for the word ‘coach’, and have to change the acronym NSCA. To this day, their content is reflective of the origin – a heavy bias towards strength training with very little focus on the other physical qualities .

By the 1980s, whilst not as popular as fitness training in the broader society, strength training was being sought out by a growing number of sports (which I where I got my start in sport).

During the 1990s strength training gained acceptance globally – both in sport and the general population.

By now the void had been filled. Strength training was no longer deficient. However in true human ‘over-reaction’ style, we just kept going. In the post 2000 period too much emphasis is being placed on strength.

Now, to drill deeper, not only are we seeing an over-emphasis on strength training, the strength training being conduced is significantly flawed. More on this another day….

So what gave way to allow the extra time for strength training? Playing the sport (skill development), and flexibility training – which ironically (for myself and the values I teach) are THE MOST important athletic and physical qualities respectively….

I was introduced to stretching in high school sport. Half a century later, at the same school, I would be now exposed to less stretching.

Half a century ago I engaged in a sporadic self-driven participation in the strength training gym. It wasn’t organized, and few attended.

Now, at the same school, the strength program is compulsory for all athletes in all sports. If a student athlete does not attend the strength training program for that team, the young athlete is denied selection.

At high school half a century ago my spare time was used up playing kids-organized pick up games. Now, I would not have time to engage in this unstructured, skill-based training. I would instead be at the gym meeting and exceeding the new expectations that athleticism is more effectively developed in the weight room.

So I am not speaking hypothetically. I am speaking as I see it, including a very personal case study using the same high school half a century apart.

So we have potentially given up the two most important qualities of athletic and physical preparation for one quality that is not the most important….

How is that serving us athletically or health wise?

Is this situation likely to reverse? Not in the foreseeable future. Not whilst the trend is towards every high school in the western world having their own full-time ‘strength & conditioning’ coach. Not while the dominant belief is that all there is to athlete preparation is ‘strength & conditioning’.

Hopefully, one day….the world will realize again – that this is more to athlete preparation than ‘strength & conditioning’….

 

Note:

For those athletes and coaches who are concerned about the direction of training and want to believe there is a better way – congratulations. There is a better way. We have spend the last four decades discovering better ways to train, and we teach these better ways when we work with athletes or coaches. The KSI Coaching Program aims to provide you with the tools to train athletes and others in their highest and best interests, with no interest in what the dominant trend is or will be in the future. Learn more about KSI Coach Education here https://kingsports.net/courses/

Ian King

There is a better way – Part 4:The simple things that can change the way athlete’s view themselves (and perform)

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Little Johnny (or Julia) goes to mid-week training. The coach raises the ‘mistakes that cost them’ the last game. During training, the coach says:

‘Let’s go through the whole training session without dropping the ball. I don’t want to see any dropped ball!’

Little Johnny’s (or Julia’s) sub-conscious mind repeats the key words:

‘….dropped ball.’

Little Johnny’s (or Julia’s) body complies – the ball is dropped. More than once.

Little Johnny (or Julia) feels bad. One of their team-mates comes up and gives them a verbal ‘spray’:

‘Stop dropping the ball, you clumsy idiot!’

Little Johnny (or Julia) drops his/her head, feeling ashamed. Should a clumsy idiot like himself or herself even be out there, they wonder?

The coach hears this negative reinforcement and sees the exchange, but chooses to pretend they didn’t. After all, perhaps this will help them achieve their agenda?

The drill continues. More dropped ball. The coach tries screams and threats. No success – the ball is still being dropped.

So the coach introduces his ‘ace in the pack’ to solve the problem. Push-ups.

‘…you drop the ball during training, you do 10 pushups.’

Little Jonny (or Julia) drops the ball. The coach yells. Little Jonny (or Julia) does their push-ups.

The coach then raises the level of difficulty of the drill. Little Jonny (or Julia) feels there is no way they could do this! After all, they couldn’t do the simple version. They drop the ball again.

Frustrated by their ‘ace in the pack’ coaching strategy, the coach pulls out the ‘Joker in the pack’ strategy. Elimination. If you drop the ball, you are out of the drill. Little Jonny (or Julia) drops the ball soon after and is one of the first eliminated. They get the least time in technical rehearsal and the longest time on the sidelines reflecting on their failings.

At the end of training the coach says:

‘Its no wonder we lose games when we train like this!’

Little Johnny (or Julia) feels more of a loser now. Should they even bother with the next game?

It’s game day. Little Johnny (or Julia) is not feeling very confident. One of their team-mates comes up and gives them a verbal ‘spray’:

‘Stop dropping the f****** ball, you f****** useless idiot!’

[Yes, language like this occurs in teenage sports…at least in Australia…]

Little Johnny (or Julia) drop their head, feeling so small. Should a ‘f****** useless idiot’ like themself even be on the field?

The coach hears and sees this negative reinforcement – profanity included- but chooses to pretend they didn’t. After all, perhaps this will help them achieve their agenda?

[Yes, turning the blind eye by coaches to internal negative abuse is common in teenage sports, including, as I have seen, in ‘church schools’…]

Little Johnny (or Julia) drops the ball…again. The crowd groans in disappointment. The coach screams in anguish. The parents put it on the top of their ‘to be talked about list’ for after the game.

Little Johnny (or Julia) is feeling really bad about themself. They are looking for a rock to crawl under and hide.

In the team de-brief following the game the coach brings attention to it saying words to the effect ‘We’ve got to learn to hang onto that ball!’, and raves on for a few minutes about the mistakes that cost them the game. The coach concludes the huddle with:

‘Its no wonder we lose games when we play like this!’

Could Little Jonny (or Julia) is feel worse? Surely they will be safe in the refuge of family.

Little Johnny (or Julia) gets into the car for the drive home with the parents, and very quickly the conversation is brought to a discussion of the importance of catching the ball, of not letting the team down.

This is only making Little Johnny (or Julia) feel worse…

Little Johnny (or Julia) goes to mid-week training. The coach raises the ‘mistakes that cost them’ the last game. During training, the coach says:

…and the cycle is played over again….

Soon after Little Jonny (or Julia) wants to quit that sport.

Soon after that Little Jonny (or Julia) want to stop all sports.

Why would they want to play on? They only feel worse about themselves as a result of playing…..

Sound familiar? If you are not sure, ask a young athlete if they can relate to this story…

No, nothing above is embellished or fantasy. It’s real, and its happening just like this – and worse….(including the reference to ‘church schools’….)

In addition to social and physical rational for sports involvement there is the emotional and or psychological justifications. However these are only relevant if they are producing the key outcomes for the athlete.

So ask your self as a coach – by engaging in sports with me as the coach/with their coach, do the athletes:

  1. …Feel better about themselves? (Self-esteem)

  2. …Believe they are capable of even greater things? (Self-confidence)

Changing the way an athlete feels about himself or herself and achieving the purported benefits of sport relating to how an individual feels about themselves can be a simple looking out for and changing the way that athletes, coaches and parents speak to the athlete.

Note:

For those athletes and coaches who are concerned about the direction of training and want to believe there is a better way – congratulations. There is a better way. We have spend the last four decades discovering better ways to train, and we teach these better ways when we work with athletes or coaches. The KSI Coaching Program aims to provide you with the tools to train athletes and others in their highest and best interests, with no interest in what the dominant trend is or will be in the future. Learn more about KSI Coach Education here https://kingsports.net/courses/

 

Ian King

Technology and training

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On Dec 3 2017 it was 25 years to the day since the first text message (SMS) was successfully sent. [1] [2] The message required a computer. They could be received on a hand set mobile phone, but could not be responded to.

Twenty five years ago athletes – pro and amateur – were trained on programs that were not individualized, using crude assumptions that what they were doing would make them better, and because they for the most part typically didn’t start the strength training seriously until they were in their late teens or early twenties, the injuries that occurred towards the end of the first decade of strength training were masked by ‘retirement age’.

Twenty-five years later, post 2017, technology is moving to messaging apps such as Facebook, whatsApp, etc. Texting continues, with 800 million a month in Australia on the Vodafone network alone. [3]

Twenty-five years later, post 2017, athletes – pro and amateur – are trained on programs that….are not individualized, using crude assumptions that what they were doing would make them better.

Nothings changed? Yes, there is a change! The starting age for athletes commencing serious strength training has dropped by a decade, which means that the typical injuries caused by strength training that appear within the first decade are appearing a decade before ‘retirement’ age – and are therefore no longer masked.

And this is a problem. Not so much for the coaches with a big talent pool, because there will be someone to take the place. But for the individual athletes, whose hopes and dreams are crushed – when this situation was both predictable and preventable….

Oh, I forgot to mention – if you are really lucky, your coach might change the name on top of your program sheet!

Does this absence of masking of injuries by retirement cause any changes in the way humans act or respond? Apparently not.

There are a few additional technological impacts on physical training.

Firstly, the surgery techniques to repair damaged connective tissue has really advanced, in that the surgeries are less invasive, and the healing time is shorter. Does this mean that surgery no longer comes with further collateral damage? I suggest not.

Secondly, technological advances in measuring training. GPS units to track movement patterns, forces platforms to measure power output, timing gates for displacement speeds etc.

And thirdly advancements in equipment, positively impacting performance.

But what about program design? Is that important? Obviously not important enough for the masses to expect advancement in the ability of ‘professionals’ to provide individualization in program design, because in this regard nothings changed.

Oh, and there is one more change worth noting – the increase in incidence and severity of injuries appears to be constantly rising…..

——-

[1] https://news.sky.com/story/first-text-message-sender-neil-papworth-celebrates-25th-sms-anniversary-11154491

[2] http://metro.co.uk/2017/12/03/worlds-first-text-message-sent-25-years-ago-today-7127957/

[3] https://www.vodafone.com.au/red-wire/text-message-25-years

Ian King

If only they knew….

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….what has been in print for over 20 years…

The sport specific technique session was coming to a close when I heard my fellow coach refer to a prior knee injury in one of the athlete.   Let’s call that athlete Billy.

Intrigued, at the conclusion of the session I asked the young athlete:

IK: What was the knee injury?

Billy: I had meniscus surgery on my left knee.

IK: Let me ask, were you doing off-field training at that time? Strength and conditioning?

Billy: Yes.

IK: Mmmm…And what age were you when this happened?

Billy: 15.

IK: Mmmm….

So I decided to provide some general guidance in the hope of helping to reduce the damage that was already done.

IK: So you need to keep away from strength training.

Now I know what you are thinking – Ian, does that mean you have changed your mind, that strength training is no longer important and relevant to sport. No, that’s not the case. But what I have got to realize from four decades of professional observation is that what most athletes are doing is damaging and most would be better off doing nothing. Especially those whose positions really don’t require high levels of size and strength, and especially those with prior joint injuries where (in my opinion) the injuries were caused or contributed to be the flawed off-field training).

Billy: Oh. I am doing a fair bit of strength training now.

IK: How much?

Billy: 4 days a week.

IK: Mmmm…Okay the next step would be to minimize your exposure to quad dominant exercises.

In the 1980s I saw first hand the phenomenon that physical therapists were calling ‘quad dominance’, and spend the next decade creating and refining a systems to categorize exercise, to help myself and any others who wanted to use the concept to avoid the damage caused by quad dominance. I called this concept ‘Lines of Movement’. [1]

So we’ve got many ‘professionals’ who can talk the talk – can word drop terms like ‘quad dominant’ and ‘posterior chain’ [2] – but have got no clue how, why or where it should be applied.

IK: You know, squats, lunges etc.

The look on Billy’s face told me all I needed to know.

IK: Okay, where did you get your program from.

The answer confirmed my fears.

IK: Let me see if I can help you. Show me the program and I will tell you the changes to make.

Billy showed me the program. Two days out of four were leg days. Nothing unusual there. And five out of the seven (5/7) exercises in each of those days were…..quad dominant exercises. The usual suspects – squats, lunges, step ups etc.

The boy was dead man walking. He had a challenged future in sport by virtue of what he was led to believe was ‘the right thing’ in his off-field training.

The only exception to this rule is those athletes with genetically gifted with load tolerant connective tissue.The kind that rise to the top in say US pro sport, from a base of millions. The eastern European philosophy – throw a lot of eggs at the wall, the ones that don’t crack – they will be the champions.

IK: Billy, there is possibly that for now you should do NO quad dominant exercise, at least for a few months.   The goal is to ideally reverse the imbalance the quad dominance you have created from years of imbalanced strength programs. Now you can move to a ratio of say 3:1 hip dominant to quad, etc. etc.7

Billy: What are some hip dominant exercises?

IK: Deadlifts, deadlift variations, Olympic lifts, Olympic lift variations etc etc. Single leg exercises where the trunk stays over (not that windmill bastardization of my single leg stiff legged deadlift though!

And then I left Billy to ponder the gap between what he had been led to believe was going to make him a better sports person, and those challenging thoughts provided by Coach King!

It’s always tough to walk away from an athlete left possibly to drown from incompetent advice. However I do my best to provide athlete and coach education. The challenge is the swell or rubbish education, at both professional, academic, and lay person level rises faster…..

Ah, the pro’s and con’s of the information age….

If only they athletes knew what damage they were doing to themselves in the way they trust those so-called experts and those in positions of authority.

——

[1] Now despite (or because) this concept has been published more times by others in the absence of any connection to the source than by myself, one would have expected the message would have sunk in. But it hasn’t. Probably because those who published it didn’t really appreciate, value and understand the concept in the first place.

[2] Not the original title ‘Lines of movement’, because this was about the only thing the plagiarist’s changed!

Ian King

A message to parents of young athletes – would you sign up for this?

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Imagine this. You are turning up to training 45 minutes earlier than the previous generation did. You are doing ‘dryland’ – alleged performance enhancing and injury reducing physical training. And it is degrading your body shape, increasing the severity and frequency of your injuries, and putting you out of sport, play and movement earlier than if you didn’t do it. And the performance enhancing impacts are unclear at best.

Would you sign up for this?

I would expect not. Then why are you signing your kid up for this?

I know, you don’t know any better. You trust your sports coaches, your school. You don’t know me. What I am saying it a ‘bit left field’. You don’t like what I say etc. etc.

Ignore me at your child’s peril……

I watched 10-14 year olds perform 45 minutes of dry land training before their multi-week swimming training session.

What physical risks does swimming present? Rounded and injuries shoulders, arched and sore backs. Both resulting in performance reduction.

So what will this 45 minute dry land session do to them?

I outline my thoughts below – not holding back, but at the same time not sensationalizing the matter. This is serious, and your kids are in the cross hairs.

I write this for parents of young athletes, or athletes of any age who seek to improve their understanding of optimal athlete performance programs.

I rely on concepts and analytical techniques I published from 1998 onwards in publications such as ‘How to Write Strength Training Programs’ (1998, book), ‘How to Teach Strength Training Programs’ (2000, book) – both of which are available to anyone; and DVD programs such as ‘Strength Specialization Series’ (1998, DVD) and ‘Injury Prevention & Rehabilitation Series’ (2000, DVD) – which are only available to coaches in our coach education program.

If I reduce one injury in one athlete, prevent one athlete from having surgery, extend the career of one athlete, give better quality of later life to one former athlete – my efforts are worthwhile.

Yes part of all of this message will upset, anger, offend etc. some coach or coaches somewhere – but your child is worth more than the feelings of a coach or coaches that should have made a greater effort to be better.

So let’s dive deeper into the dry land program we are using in this real world case study.

STRENGTH VS FLEXIBILITY

Let’s start with simple breakdown of time. It was 40 minutes of strength exercises, followed by 5 minutes of stretching.

If your aim was to accelerate the shortening that swimming causes to the muscle, you would be advised to do just this. 40 minutes of tissue tensioning and shortening work, and 5 minutes of tissue lengthening.

If your goal was to reduce injury and enhance performance and length their careers – you would reverse this. 40 minutes of stretching, and 5 minutes of strengthening.

Now lets talk about sequence. Strength first, flex second. If you flex first apparently, according to rumor and sketchy science, it will make you weak. So the current trend in a world that refuses to think for itself is to do it last.

Now in the real world, if you had the courage to defy conformity, and did stretching first, you would find the stretching open up your joints, free the nerves to fire, reduce the joint wear and tear. The only way to do it! But that’s just my opinion, based on near 40 years of coaching and the experience of training more athletes in one lifetime than you could imagine.

However unless you control the program, don’t hold your breath waiting for this change. Your child will be having shoulder surgery before that happens, as the dominant world trends – the reason why humans do anything including their sports training – are going the other way at them moment. Stretching is bad. Just about the only time you are going to hear your child needs to stretch is after the injury has occurred, from your physical therapist. A little too late….

UPPER BODY VS LOWER BODY VS TRUNK (Core)

If you divide the body simplistically into three sections – upper body, lower body and middle of the body (core) where should the dry land focus go?

Based on how I saw the exercises being conducted, and taking into account my interpretation of the prime mover, I observed that…

…about 12.5% of the exercises go to trunk (abdominal or core as some like to say), and these were done as the last few exercises. The trunk/core/abdominal was given by far the least focus.

….about 25% of the exercises go to upper body and these were for the most part down in the latter half of the strength session.

….about 50% of the exercises go to lower body, and these were done for the mo part in the first half of the strength session. So the lower body was given the most priority.

Now I don’t expect to dwell on the discussion of relative importance of each of these three sections of the body to swimming performance – that would take a bit more time and space, and we can get into that another time.

However I will speak without hesitation to injury prevention (or in this case, as in most cases injury creation). I suggest the neglect of the middle of the body completely unacceptable.

ABDOMINAL BALANCE

Based on the ‘Lines of Movement’ concept I first published in 1998 and now universally adopted (although rarely referenced) I identify four (4) basic lines of movement in the abdominals that generally speaking provide balance in training along with two additional, more advanced ones.

Now there were more exercises in the w0rkout that included abdominal involvement (e.g. med ball throw downs), however when they are not the primary focus, they are listed as abdominal exercises. And when they involve other muscles such as ‘planks’, they get categorized as integrated.

Essentially not only is the abdominal program under prioritizing this muscle group, what is done potentially lacks balance.

Opportunities I found Reality of this program
BASIC
1. Hip flexion

Ö
2. Trunk flexion

Ö

Ö
3. Rotation

Ö
4. Lateral Flexion

Ö
ADVANCED
5. Co-contraction glut/ab

Ö
6.   Integrated

Ö

Ö

UPPER BODY BALANCE

Based again on my ‘Lines of Movement’ concept I divided the eight (8) upper body exercises into the following lines.

Horizontal pull – 4.5

Vertical Pull – 2.5

Horizonal Pull – 1

Vertical push – 0

The part numbers came from giving a movement that shared dominance in lines of movement 0.5 points to each of the two dominant lines of movement/muscle groups.

This translates into the following table.

Percentage of lines of movement based on number of exercsies.

My recommended exercise distribution of using 8 exercises Reality of this program
Horizontal pull

50 %

15%
Vertical push

25 %

0%
Vertical pull

12.5%

30%
Horizontal push

12.5%

55%

What is the main form of upper body imbalance from most swimming strokes? Rounded and drooped shoulders. What causes this? The reliance of the majority of swimming strokes on the chest (horizontal push) and lats (vertical pull) to pull the body through the water.

What does this program do? Makes the imbalances even worse, faster. You can expect a hastened decline in posture, more injuries, more severe injuries, more surgery and a shorter career, followed by a life time of rounded shoulder…

But it doesn’t have to be this way….

And this is without getting into a discussion of relative sequence of exercises, and relative loading potential of exercises selected, the results of which would only painter a gloomier picture.

LOWER BODY BALANCE

The potentially least important muscle group (yes, it is important, and it will be dependent on stroke, style, individual swimmer) that got the most attention in this dry land training program example has it’s own imbalances.

There were a total of thirteen (13) lower body exercises, however leg swings were three of them and I have taken them out of the equation for the moment.

Based again on my ‘Lines of Movement’ concept I divided the remaining ten (10) lower body exercises into the following lines.

Hip dominant – 2

Quad dominate – 8

This translates into the following table.

Percentage of lines of movement based on number of exercises.

My generalized recommended exercise distribution using 10 exercises Reality of this program
Hip dominant

60 % (6)

20 % (2)
Quad dominant

40 % (4)

80 % (8)

What is the main form of lower body imbalance from most swimming strokes? The muscle imbalances of the lower body in a swimmer are less than the upper body challenges they face. However sore lower backs are, in my professional opinion, caused by over-used quad muscles pulling on the hips and causing the nerves of the spine to be pinched.

Now swimming in itself does not cause a large number of lower back injuries compared to upper body injury potential. However, if you were to do this kind of dry land program chronically, you would quickly find yourself facing a higher incidence of back pain and lower extremity soft tissue aggravations than you would from normal swimming alone.

Quad dominance caused physical ailments are common in many land based running sports. Now swimming is neither land based or impact, so why would you want to reproduce a potential side effect in a sport that otherwise sees relatively little of it?

And this is without getting into a discussion of relative sequence of exercises, and relative loading potential of exercises selected, the results of which would only painter a gloomier picture.

For example I teach that prioritization of the training effect is caused by three main factors – which exercise/s are done most (relative volume), which exercise are done first or in what order (sequence), and what are the relative loading potential of each exercises (if an exercise can do load, it has the potential to create greater change in the muscle. If not matched by the opposite muscle group exercise, imbalances can result).

Take relative loading potential. All the quad dominant exercises involve the squat or squat variations – the load potential and real load lifted (even if only bodyweight) is far in excess of the load potential of the two hip dominant exercises – which only involved part of the bodyweight, and by nature of the less number of joints involved, could never match the load potential of the squat exercise.

In other words if I painted the full picture, it would get even uglier….

But it doesn’t have to be this way….

SUMMARY

Sport has the potential to create many positive outcomes. What is often overlooked is the potential for sport to also create shape in the body for better or worse, long term. Mostly for the worse. The longer you play, the higher level you play, the greater the chance you take the physical downsides into the rest of your life. It doesn’t take too long or too many training sessions to commence the shaping.

We accept that about sports. It comes with it’s good and bad. However what if what we are doing in our ‘dry land’ or ‘physical preparation’ was making the physical downside worse?

In the 1990s I suggested that most physical training in sport was doing more damage than good.

In fact I believe that most injuries are actually caused by the way athletes train. The only injury acceptable is an unavoidable impact injury.   Virtually all soft tissue injuries are avoidable. But imagine that – training, during which focus is geared towards performance enhancement, may induce most injuries. Isn’t this ridiculous! [1]

In fact from my experiences and observation, the greatest effect that I have seen from most physical preparation is to detract from these five factors, not enhance it. Imagine that – training and being worse off for it. Well how do you think the athlete would feel if he/she found out! Yeah, they’re real fit – to sit in the stands in their team uniform and watch![2]

If it was introduced at about 20 years of age, and most athletes retire from competitive sport in their late twenties, the physical damage and the aging factor combined and were hidden.

But what if the training methods now, some two decades later, are just as damaging to the body as they were in the 1990s? What if they were done to kids? The kid would potentially be damaged to the point where a decade later, n their teams, they were too damaged physically to continue to play, or to continue to improve.

And in my observation, that is exactly what is happening.

When assessing the injury potential of your decisions in training today, one must look forward many years. Because few physical preparation coaches train individuals for many years continuously, they do not have the opportunity to understand the long-term implications of the training program they are implementing with the individual athlete. As a result, from my observations, most physical preparation programs do more harm than good. They may give short term results or confidence to the athlete, but result in significant performance restrictions and or injuries long term.

The more an athlete participates in physical preparation, including the younger they start in physical preparation, the greater the incidence and severity of injury. Unfortunately these injuries are being blamed away by many involved in sport as being a function of the increased demands and impact forces in ‘modern day’ sport. This to me is little more than an excuse, an exercise in putting one’s head in the proverbial sand. Quite simply, the majority of training programs are flawed from a physical preparation perspective and are causing the increased injuries. [3]

In my opinion, I repeat my comment of 20 years ago – most training does more harm than good. The only thing that has changed is now we are doing the damage to younger and younger athletes.

The below summarizes in table format how far apart my approach to what is being done by the majority.

A comparison of my generalized recommendations vs. the observed training session.

My recommendations Reality of this program
Sequence of dry land Flex then strength Strength then flex
Time allocation Flex–30m/Strength–15m Strength–40m/Flex–5m
Prioritisation of body part Middle-upper-lower Lower-upper-middle
Number of abdominal lines of movement

4-6

2
Prioritization of upper body lines of movement 1.     Horizontal pull

2.     Vertical push

3.     Vertical pull

4.     Horizontal push

 1.     Horizontal push

2.     Vertical pull

3.     Horizontal pull

4.     Vertical push
Prioritization of upper body lines of movement 1.     Hip dominant

2.     Quad dominant

 1.     Quad dominant

2.     Hip dominant

In summary, what I observed being done these young athletes and what I believe should be done is almost diametrically opposed. It would be difficult to reach more opposite conclusions. Interpretation aside, one of us is really off-track.

Question I have include – who writes these programs? What is their experience? Will they ever be held accountable for the long term impacts? Why are we doing this to our children?  Will you keep throwing your child into the ‘lion’s den’?

I was of the understanding we were to care and nurture our children, not accelerate and amplify the damage of sport….

[1] King, I., 1997, Winning & Losing, Ch 5, p. 25

[2] King, I., 1999, So you want to become a physical preparation coach, p. 30-31

[3] King, I., 2005, The way of the physical preparation coach, p. 66-67

Ian King

The decline of Australian sporting performances

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Australia’s sports performances are in decline.  Yes, it’s a generalization, and if this is not the case in your sport, I am happy for you. However. to showcase this suggestion, I have selected five sports or sporting events that possess a proud and long history of international dominance or success. Sports interwoven in the Australian cultural psyche. And then, more importantly, I will address the question why I believe this is happening.

The five sports or sporting events I will reflect upon include swimming, tennis, rugby union, cricket and the Summer Olympic Games.

The recent World Swimming Championships gave Australia, a proud swimming nation, the lowest gold medal count since the 1980s:

“The medal tally of the world swimming championships just concluded in Budapest makes disturbing reading for an Australian …Australia’s gold medal count may have slumped at this event, but on total medals Australia are still equal second with Russia and China. All trail far in the wake of the sport’s only superpower, the USA (38).

However the gold standard is gold medals and by that score Australia have not sunk so low since the 1980s.”[1]

Australian tennis is in a slump. That’s the title of a recent national newspaper article.[2] The article discussed the recent Wimbledon Grand Slam performance by Australian tennis players:

“The Canberran led Australia’s nine-player contingent at the All England Club, with only qualifier Arina Rodionova advancing to the second round.

Kyrgios’s opening-round retirement with hip injury, coupled with difficult draws, meant there were no Australian men in the second round here for the first time since 2012 and only the second time since 1938.”

In the top 100 men’s world ranking Australia has currently only three players. [3]

In rugby union Australia is currently ranked number four in the world. Whilst a slide from say second to fourth or even third to fourth seems minimal, it represents a significant decline in the nations world ranking. Australia hit its low point in 2015 with ranking of 6th, and is currently sitting in 4th. Not acceptable for a team that sat in 2nd place for most of the first decade of this century.

To reinforce this point, at a provincial level, if the guaranteed finals appearance to a conference winner was removed, Australia may not have had a team in the eight-team finals in the last two years.

In Test cricket, Australia has had more months in number one sport in the ICC world rankings than any other team since the inception of this measurement method in 2003. However Australia test cricket current sits at third place, a long way behind South Africa (2nd) and India (1st), with only a slender lead over England, New Zealand, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. [4]

What about Olympic Games performances? At end of the 2016 Sumer Olympic Games in Rio, Australia was ranked in tenth position on the medal table with a total of 29 medals (8 gold, 11 silver, and 10 bronze). This was Australia’s lowest medal tally and lowest rank since the 1992 Olympics.[5] Australia peaked at the 2000 Sydney Olympics with 58 medals in total, and has declined in a linear fashion every Summer Games since.[6]

So what’s behind this pattern of decline? Everyone’s got an opinion, however few have participated and observed professional sport at the elite level for nearly forty years as I have. My suggestions will be dismissed by most, and benefitted by few.

Understand this – misinterpret the cause-effect relationship for losing, and you will fail to win. That’s why it’s so easy to dominate in sport – few are on track with their interpretation and solutions. Everyone’s got an opinion, few are qualified by track record as measured by the scoreboard to give them.

I believe that in the top three reasons why Australian sport is in decline is the way physical preparation is being implemented in this country. Let me give you some history.

The word ‘strength and conditioning’ is an American term, coined in 1981 by the then National Strength Coaches Association of America, who following their 1978 origin, realized they wanted to add something more to the title than strength. This belated lip service didn’t and hasn’t changed anything.

The NSCA was begun for college strength coaches who were involved in American football, that is ‘gridiron’. Whether is it optimal for this sport is another question, however few athletes in that sport run far enough to find out their muscle imbalance, and even fewer touch the ball to find out their technical limitations.

I suggest, after many decades of observation and involvement, that the original intent of the NSCA has not changed, and that the training method proposed are not suitable to the majority of sports.

So in 1988 the NSCA came to Australia. How do I know? Because I was part of it’s inception. However up until about the mid 1990’s there was less than five (yes, 5) people employed full time in this industry. Which meant the impact of the arrival of this American influence was very, very limited.

This all changed in the late 1990s, and into the 2000s. Now, post 2010, nearly every high school in the country (as in the US) has its own ‘S&C’ program, and most private high schools have their own in-house ‘S&C’ coach. Every teenage talent-identification program, every late teens/early twenties development squad, and every elite and professional squad have their own service providers and programs. In fact, in most private high schools, about 50% of the total training time is given to ‘S&C’ activities, and failure or refusal of the young athletes to participate in these dubious activities results in non-selection.

Australia now has twenty plus (20+ years, 1995 to present) of formal, compulsory American ‘strength and conditioning’ influenced programs. Now the impact is being felt.

So what are some of the reasons I am adamant that the sporting decline in this country is due to the way physical preparation is being done, and laying most of this at the feet of the ‘strength and conditioning’?

In tennis all national programs have ‘strength and conditioning’ compulsory from the age of 12 years upwards. In my observations and from my discussions with players and coaches, about 80% of all these young athletes are injured at any one time such that their ability to train and play pain free is compromised. Stress fractures of the lumbar are common place prior to the age of 16 years, and surgery involving shaving of the hip is rising at a rate where the statistics are looking like over 50% of the elite nationally ranked tennis players in Australia will have this surgery during their career.

Quite simply, most elite talent identified tennis players in this country will have surgery prior to the age of 20 years (more likely 18 years), and will be forced into retirement due to their physical inability to play the game by or prior to the age of 24 yrs.

Currently Australia has three top 100 world ranked men’s players, and at least two of these cannot complete tournaments currently due to serious, chronic injuries (Bernard Tomic and Nick Kyrgios). Tomic (ranked 93) is 24 and Kyrgios (ranked 20) is 22 years of age. Jordan Thompson (ranked 75) is 23 years of age. No Australian player in the top 100 men’s world ranking is over 24, and this is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future.

On the basis of my hypothesis, Tomic at 24 years of age, is on the verge of fading out of the top 100. His ranking movement supports my hypothesis.

Now for rugby. The majority of talent identified young rugby players (>50%) will have surgery before they are twenty years of age. At least 25% will have surgery before they graduate from high school. The average number of surgery for a rugby player who plays into his late 20’s is about five.

Let me make this very clear – NO-ONE plays optimal sport on the background of surgery. It is physically impossible. There is a whole arm of medical and paramedical people really enjoying this situation. But the players are not benefitting.

I began preparing athletes in all these sports at the elite level in the 1980s, and have been involved in coach education at a state, national and overseas level from the early 1990s. I have a number of decades of involvement, contribution and participation. I have witnessed these changes first hand. This is not theory. You can argue it’s not science, but you can also put your head in the sand and say it’s not happening.

The trajectory is downwards. I have grave concerns for the physical (and mental) health of Australian athletes moving forward. Additionally, whilst I don’t advocate litigation in sport, the glaring failure of the duty of care by sporting bodies, institutions and schools towards the athletes in their care may only be addressed as a result of a civil suite.

In the 1980s strength training was an element of athletic preparation that was missing. The content that is being provided in ‘strength and conditioning’ in Australia, is in my opinion, inappropriate. Grossly inappropriate. Further exacerbation of the negative impact this training is having on sports performance is that it is taking the place of training that is far more valuable and important to long term athlete development – such as skill (technical) development.

In closing, is this just an Australian issue? No, I suggest, based on the Australian case study, that any nation will suffer the impacts of their nationalized application of American influence ‘strength & conditioning’ after if not before the 20 years anniversary.

I believe for example that the United Kingdom was about a decade behind Australia in embracing ‘strength & conditioning’. UK sport is currently out-performing Australian sport. In swimming, the media recognize that England is now ahead of Australia in swimming.

“The Brits are now better at swimming than Australia. Yes, you read that right.

The medal tally of the world swimming championships just concluded in Budapest makes disturbing reading for an Australian. Occasionally we have to accept that England will win the Ashes and the English rugby team will triumph but our superiority in swimming was a constant, until now.

A nation that has less than a dozen Olympic pools and is the world’s leading creator of head-up breaststrokers has been more successful at this year’s major championship than one bathed in sunshine most of the year round and, well, swimming in facilities.” [7]

In rugby England and Ireland are ranked ahead of Australia in current world rankings, and Scotland and Wales are not far behind.[8]

Rank Team Points
1  New Zealand 94.78
2  England 90.14
3  Ireland 85.39
4  Australia 84.63
5  South Africa 84.16
6  Scotland 82.47
7  Wales 81.73

In cricket England is only one close place behind Australia:[9]

•   ICC Test Championship
Rank Team Matches Points Rating
1  India 32 3925 123
2  South Africa 26 3050 117
3  Australia 31 3087 100
4  England 34 3362 99

And in tennis the UK have the same number of top 100 men’s tennis players as does Australia (3) however their rankings average is far superior to Australia. And they have players older than 24 years of age in this category, unlike Australia.

So this suggests to me that at around 2025 the UK may seem the same sporting decline Australia has, as at that point they will have had twenty or more years of American influenced ‘strength & conditioning’. Now I cannot say if they have applied this training to the teenage athletes in the same ‘enthusiastic’ and compulsory way that Australia has, however I suspect they may have.

What few appear to understand is that there are many ways to gain short-term advantage in sport, however few of these have long term advantages.

For example it is very easy to take a teenage athlete and accelerate the physical maturation process through say strength training, which is basically what ‘strength & conditioning’ is, despite the belated addition and presence of the word ‘conditioning’. So you can take a 14 year old and turn them in to the equivalent of a 17 year old on the following season. However there are many shortcomings with this, not the least the absence of high-level skill development, that will result in long term deficiencies. There is also the muscle imbalances that typically result from the poorly designed strength training programs that are epidemic in sport. So what looks good at the twelve-month mark sours quickly a few years later.

The failure to take a long-term approach to athlete preparation is a key factor in the decline of sports performance.

So why is not affecting the origin country? My hypothesis is at odds with the US dominance in world sport. I have battled with this question also. Here is my conclusion to date. America is blessed with a high population of what I call ‘load resistant’ athletes. A population of 300 plus million plus the gene pool of the whole world to recruit from. The question I also ask is ‘How good could America be if it had to optimize training, instead of getting by on its gene pool?’

So what are Australian sports doing about this decline? It’s early days and I don’t want to limit the possibilities. I will say this however – are they going to recognize the factors I do? Do they have the courage to make the changes to reverse these trends? These are the big questions. I could tell you what I think is going to happen (my coaching experience talking here), however I am going to remain open minded and optimistic (the humanitarian in me!).

However I can only guarantee that the challenge I have highlighted will be overcome and reversed by teams and individuals who share my vision and values on how to train athletes. Will that be you?

Note:

For those athletes and coaches who are concerned about the direction of training and want to believe there is a better way – congratulations. There is a better way. I have spend the last four decades discovering better ways to train, and we teach these better ways when we work with athletes or coaches. The KSI Coaching Program aims to provide you with the tools to train athletes and others in their highest and best interests, with no interest in what the dominant trend is or will be in the future. Learn more about KSI Coach Education here https://kingsports.net/courses/

References

[1] http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/olympics/brits-are-now-better-at-swimming-than-australia/news-story/64f60fb04fdd0282ce057ee48b78c2ef

[2] http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/wimbledon-2017-australian-tennis-in-a-slump-with-only-nick-kyrgios-ranked-in-the-world-top-20/news-story/282426075bd0d235215433b9f07f2930

[3] http://www.espn.com/tennis/rankings

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICC_Test_Championship

[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia_at_the_2016_Summer_Olympics

[6] http://www.topendsports.com/world/countries/australia/events/olympics/medals.htm

[7] http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/olympics/brits-are-now-better-at-swimming-than-australia/news-story/64f60fb04fdd0282ce057ee48b78c2ef

[8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Rugby_Rankings

[9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICC_Test_Championship

Ian King

There is a better way – Part 2: Don’t look to ‘strength & conditioning’ to get your skill development

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In the late 1980s a European coach brought me a North American winter sport gliding athlete and told me that the athlete lacked certain skills and asked that I create them in the gym. I did my best to keep a straight face, assuming that this was an isolated case and I would not likely face too many conversations of this nature. Unfortunately the reverse has occurred. The world has moved further towards the belief that the North American ‘strength and conditioning’ movement will solve all athletic problems. It won’t. Rather, it’s creating them.

To place this message in context, let’s get on common ground with vernacular. Influenced by the seminal works of Hungarian turned Canadian Tudor Bompa, I divide athlete development into four categories – technical, tactical, physical and psychological.   How important is technical or skill development? Not only do I rank it number one, the timing is critical. There is a possibility that the window of adaptation is highest at the younger ages and closes over time.

How do we develop skill? By rehearsing the specific skill. I mean the SPECIFIC skill, whether taught in part or whole. How many times has the athlete executed the skill in the training session? How many times has the athlete executed the skill in their career to date?

What I am NOT referring to is the use of ‘apparently’ specific exercises to develop the skill.

There are optimal strategies of skill development that progress the athlete from non-intense to more intense execution, from non-stressful to higher stress execution, from low volume to higher volume execution and so on. Failure to optimally implement skill develop impedes skill develop.

However one of the greatest killers of skill development in western world sport is the imbalance between technical (skill) development and physical development (read ‘strength and conditioning’ if that helps). With the continual lowering of the age at which young athletes are expected to join physical preparation programs, this alone is reducing their skill development. There was a time in the North America (probably in the 1960 ad 1970s) and in Australia and New Zealand (the 1970s and 1980s) where there were no formal ‘srength and conditioning services’ provided to the young athletes. I suggest these times were more balance in their time allocation relative speaking to skill development.

I predict that in the decades to come we will have ‘strength and conditioning’ programs in primary schools (ages 6-12 years), and I imagine this process may have begun. I suggest this will contribute to a further decline in skill development.

Physical preparation coaches are not taught, by and large, how to teach sports skills, nor are they taught how to balance the time and energy development of the four areas of athlete development. They are taught a narrow content of ‘this is how you do strength and conditioning’. Unfortunately sports coaches for the most part are no better educated, and have accepted the handover to the ‘strength and conditioning’ coach.

I have seen many examples where a teenage athlete will spend as much time in the gym as they will in their technical AND tactical development. This is not consistent with my interpretation of their relative needs.

What I do readily acknowledge is that the early advancement of the physical qualities gives athletes and coaches the perception of superiority over their opponents, in the same way an earlier maturing athlete feels superior to his less developed yet same ages peers in sport. However this short-term elation almost always gives way to the disappointment of the realization that the long term limiting performance factor is the skill development.

To guide you in the first instance, I suggest that ‘physical development should not exceed skill development’. At least not until you believe that athlete needs no further improvement in skill. Because once they default to physical dominance, it is less likely that further skill development will result.

Not only is the western world spending too much time in the strength training gym, there is also an unfounded believe that to have a ‘tool’ in the hand of the athlete will provide superior results in skill development. For example, you do not have to have resistance bands in your hand to optimize skill development. In fact, for the most part, doing so will impair skill development.

A long forgotten tenant of skill development is the caution towards the use of external loading to develop a skill based sport adaptation. The challenge with this is the reality that if athlete may modify the actual technique that should be developed to a modified technique aimed at overcoming or dealing with the external load. The key to any application of external load in a skill development drill is the wisdom to know how little volume you need to get an adaptation, and what the threshold of volume would be that might result in an inappropriate adaptation. This level of coaching wisdom is rarely found. In the interim I suggest you stay away from it.

To give a very specific example, the development of the ability of a number 2 in rugby union to throw a ball accurately into a lineout does not (and I suggest for the most part should not) require the use of resistance tubing. Rather I would prefer to see higher volume skill training, supported at an appropriate time with low volume non-specific strength training (when I say non-specific I mean not as specific as mimicking the action) at an appropriate time in their development. Yes there are a number of subjective comments in this guidance, such is the ‘art’ of coaching.

Ideally I would like to see a shift back towards the prioritization of skill development, and the reduced exposure of all athletes, and in particular the young athlete, for formal ‘dryland’ or ‘strength and conditioning’ training. What is happening is not good enough, and the athlete is paying the price. The good news is there is a better way. The question remains – will you go there?

 

Note:

For those athletes and coaches who are concerned about the direction of training and want to believe there is a better way – congratulations. There is a better way. I have spend the last four decades discovering better ways to train, and we teach these better ways when we work with athletes or coaches. The KSI Coaching Program aims to provide you with the tools to train athletes and others in their highest and best interests, with no interest in what the dominant trend is or will be in the future. Learn more about KSI Coach Education here https://kingsports.net/courses/

 

Ian King

There is a better way – Part 1: Why are you ignoring the message from Tom Brady, Kevin Durant, and Novak Djokovic?

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More athletes are having their athleticism destroyed, their careers shortened, and their long term quality of life threatened because of they way they are being trained than ever before in my lifetime.  The athlete training world has lost the plot.  Not concerned or don’t buy into this statement?  Then you don’t read any further.  There’s heaps of more valuable articles on the internet for you to read, such as how to create hypertrophy in the absence of skills, or the exact liquid temperature to consume your glutamine in the absence of any focus on foundational nutrition…For those that resonate with my concerns, I invite you to stay with me.

Is that my opinion or is it a scientific fact? It’s my opinion. Now those who don’t know or don’t appreciate (or don’t want to do either for various reasons) the depth of experience training athletes or track record in identifying limiting factors in sports training and performance and innovating solutions that have led to this opinion – you may be forgiven for discarding my opinion.

However before you disregard my conclusions on the state of athletic preparation, I want you know you are also disregarding the opinion of a couple of athletes that have also to train differently to what most are doing – Tom Brady, Kevin Durant and Novak Djokovic.

The way we train athletes does more harm than good. That’s the message I have been sharing since the 1990s. And it is not just getting worse. It is reaching diabolical standards.

In fact I believe that most injuries are actually caused by the way athletes train.  The only injury acceptable is an unavoidable impact injury.   Virtually all soft tissue injuries are avoidable.  But imagine that – training, during which focus is geared towards performance enhancement, may induce most injuries.  Isn’t this ridiculous! [1]

In fact from my experiences and observation, the greatest effect that I have seen from most physical preparation is to detract from these five factors, not enhance it.  Imagine that – training and being worse off for it.  Well how do you think the athlete would feel if he/she found out!  Yeah, they’re real fit – to sit in the stands in their team uniform and watch![2]

…from my observations, most physical preparation programs do more harm than good. They may give short term results or confidence to the athlete, but result in significant performance restrictions and or injuries long term…. Quite simply, the majority of training programs are flawed from a physical preparation perspective and are causing the increased injuries. [3]

For those not familiar with these three athletes who share my opinion, allow me to provide a quick bio. Tom Brady is the most successful quarter back in American Football history with five Super Bowl Championship rings.  Kevin Durant just won his first championship ring with the Golden State Warriors in the NBA.  And Novak Djokovic has been dominating men’s tennis internationally during the ten years, frequently occupying the coveted No 1 world ranking. He is considered one of the greatest tennis players of all time, with a 80+% match winning rate (the second highest in the Open Era).

So what does Tom Brady have to say?

“I have been blessed to learn the right methods, through my nutrition, hydration, pliability and proper rest. It’s really not that hard if you do the right thing.”[4]

No mention of maximal loading or hypertrophy training.  In fact he apparently stays away from lifting heavy weights, and focuses on flexibility.[5]

What does Kevin Durant have to say?

“All the strength coaches were laughing at me and s—. They were giggling with each other that I couldn’t lift 185 pounds and I was like, ‘All right, keep laughing. Keep laughing.’ It was a funny thing because I was the only one that couldn’t lift it and I was struggling to lift it. I was embarrassed at that point, but I’m like, ‘Give me a basketball, please. Give me a ball.’….I was ranked the last person in camp, drills-wise. I was the worst player, and the first player didn’t get drafted. That tells you a lot about the significance of that s—.”[6]

What does Novak Djokovic have to say?

           ….And I know if I need to spend two hours a day stretching, I’ll spend that time, because I know that’s going to make me feel good.”

The following statement comes from his first coach, Jelana Gencic, who guided him between about the ages of 6 years through to his early teens.

“You know Novak was not too strong a boy,” Gencic said. “You know how he is now elastic and flexible. Do you know why? It’s because I didn’t want to work too hard with him.”…Gencic held up her racket. “This,” she said, “is the heaviest thing he had to handle. We only worked on his legs, his quickness, only fitness on the court, not in the weight room. We stretched and did special movements for tennis, to be flexible, to be agile and to be fast and with the legs. And now he’s excellent, excellent, excellent.”

Djokovic said Gencic’s approach was always long-term.

“Jelena was one of the people that had a huge impact and huge influence on that part of let’s say my profession, being flexible and taking care of my elasticity of the muscles,” he said Saturday. “Because she taught me and convinced me that if I stayed flexible, not only will I be able to move well around the court and be able to recover well after the matches, but also I’ll be able to have a long career……[7]

If you look at how the world is training athletes, its obvious that the majority are disregarding the messages from this dominant sporting icons.  Allow me acknowledge one of the most likely criticisms. That the opinions of these three athletes does not override the fact that thousands of other athletes have trained more trend like – heavy load, excessive volume, to high levels of fatigue.  I acknowledge this counter argument.  You are right. You can always provide evidence to support both the for and against of any argument.

However allow me to share what I believe is one indisputable fact – that the evidence provided in the case studies of these three athletes confirms that you can become the best in the world without the training proposed by most coaches and engaged in by most athletes. The way most train is not a common denominator with success.  It’s not necessary,  its not optimal, and I suggest in most cases does more damage than good.

I suggest that conforming to the dominant trends will is a common denominator with injuries, reduced athleticism, shortened careers and a lower quality of later life.

The great thing about human life is we get to choose what we believe in. If you as an athlete choose to embrace the mainstream approach, fantastic and good luck.  If you are a coach and also choose to believe in and embrace the current dominant training methods, I trust in the future you take time to reflect upon the outcomes, and be accountable.   Visit with your athletes 20-40 years after they have retired, and see how they are going. And take responsibility.

For those athletes and coaches who are concerned about the direction of training and want to believe there is a better way – congratulations. There is a better way.  I have spend the last four decades discovering better ways to train, and we teach  these better ways when we work with athletes or coaches.   For example, the KSI Coaching Program aims to provide you with the tools to train athletes and others in their highest and best interests, with no interest in what the dominant trend is or will be in the future.

The training world is now one where you will get a job whether you are great or incompetent – there is simply demand for services. However if you want to go beyond simply ‘getting a job’, if you want to do the best by the athlete, to fulfill your potential – you are not going to achieve these goals training the way everyone else is training.

What is happening is not good enough, and the athlete is paying the price. The good news is there is a better way. The question remains – will you go there?

Note:

In July 2017 we are offering selected physical preparation coaches the opportunity to spend 21 days with my top coaches and myself; through webinar and forum interaction.  It’s not for everyone. Here are some of our pre-qualifications criteria:

  1. You need to have been coaching for at least 5 years.
  2. You need to have come to the conclusion that there is a better way (for both you and your clients).
  3. You need to have taken some action to date to study KSI material (not including free online articles).

21 days with us during which you will get an inside look at who we are, what we do, and why we are totally confident we lead the world in athlete preparation.  Free.  Email info@kingsports.net immediately if you want to be part of this program and qualify.

[1] King, I., 1997, Winning & Losing, Ch 5, p. 25

[2] King, I., 1999, So you want to become a physical preparation coach, p. 30-31

[3] King, I., 2005, The way of the physical preparation coach, p. 66-67

[4] http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2686534-in-better-shape-than-ever-at-age-39-heres-how-tom-brady-does-it

[5] http://finance.yahoo.com/news/tom-brady-says-hurting-time-162548454.html

[6] http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/kevin-durant-calls-nba-combine-waste-time-top/story?id=47338234

[7] http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/03/sports/tennis/djokovic-bends-and-twists-but-doesnt-break.html