Knowledge Bombs

 

                I may be off base on this one, but the term “knowledge bomb” in the coaching industry is starting to get old for me.  Don’t get me wrong, I have an unquenchable thirst for increasing my knowledge as much as the next coach but at what point are young coaches actually increasing their  knowledge as opposed to being good at trivia? 

                Coaching is a skill that requires the ability to balance many factors and one of the foundations of those factors is your ability to progress and regress both movements and your programs.  We start teaching our athletes a base skill and make a decision as to how to make it more or less challenging based on the needs of that athlete or group.  As an example, when I first started coaching I had the belief that all athletes should be able to execute a hang clean, back and or front squats, RDL’s, as well as a myriad of bodyweight exercises without really knowing “why” and they had to do it right now.  I still have this belief, but how I get the athletes to execute these movements has changed and I fully understand “why” they are important.  Essentially, I learned from both my mistakes and the mistakes of others along the way and am of the understanding that maybe it’s not those exercises that make a better athlete but the movement mechanics and physiological benefits behind them.  Holding tension, changing elevation, hip hinging, accelerating/decelerating and being able to functionally move one’s bodyweight in space are now at the forefront of my coaching as opposed to being set in the exercises above (even though those movements hold all of those components).  So instead of “knowledge bombs” as to how we program and do these movements why not shift the focus to “why” so that those that like to tweet how much knowledge they have from listening to a speaker actually have to think?  The more we think about movement versus thinking about what movement is best the more we will understand how to progress and regress.  I think it is very clear that all of our athletes should qualify to do any movement. The idea of doing the basics and doing them well before we worry about their ability to do one or a specific group of exercises should be paramount in our learning how to coach.

                I work with many young coaches within our two facilities as well as take on 10-15 interns each year.  I am writing this for them and anyone else that may listen to a different approach to learning how to coach as opposed to just listening to professional speakers.  I know this may come across as harsh, but for those of you that are new to the industry you may not believe this, but ten years ago there was not an option to attend 50 clinics a year in your city.  It is clear that as any industry grows, we will want to learn from those that have had success in it and I don’t want to make this sound like you shouldn’t attend courses and learn from others.  What I do want is for you to start looking at the information in a different light.  If you predominantly work with the general population and have the odd young athlete and go to a clinic that’s main focus are elite athletes you best have the ability to pick out what you can use for this population as opposed to forcing your general population clients into doing what the top athletes in the world are doing. I know this sounds stupid, but if I didn’t see this happen on a regular basis I wouldn’t have much to rant about. 

                I have gone off on clinics and why I won’t be attending many anymore in the past so I will keep this brief.  There are two concepts I want you to think about as you gain “knowledge bombs” each time you go to a clinic.  The first is indoctrination.  Is the presenter teaching you a theory or practice in a manner that makes it seem like you are foolish if you are not already doing it?  Is there something they are marketing or supporting because it is their own or a friend’s product? If you are not sure, take a look on twitter or any social media and you will see the network of people whoring out products and pumping each other’s tires.  The longer I am in the industry the more I see this spilling over into our athletes.  They have come accustomed to the idea that they have to do something or they won’t ever achieve the highest level of their sport.  If you don’t believe me, check out some of the training of your sport hero’s.  Actually I will save you some time, you will see hall of famers doing some crazy stuff, some doing things that align with your thinking and some will be somewhere in the middle.  What do they all have in common if they all did something different?  They are still hall of famers even though they all had different methods that helped them get there even though their training systems all differed.  If you are not picking up what I am putting down here I will make it very clear.  We can all get results with most of our athletes, but there is no set program that will get the same results with all of your athletes (even if someone is trying to convince you otherwise).  When a pro athlete or coach tells you how important a system is that isn’t based on individualizing programs I hope you start asking “why” instead of blindly following this method.  The second is cognitive inertia, which is basically the unwillingness to change thought patterns in light of new circumstances.  We get so set in our ways or traditions that quite often we neglect or forget the importance of critical thinking. 

Within our staff of 30 people I am probably the least likely to become a rocket surgeon.  And to be honest, I like it this way. I have a brilliant group of people I get to work with, learn from, challenge and be challenged by every day.  I also have a group of friends that I talk to about sport daily and to bounce ideas off.  The two concepts above came from two very different conversations.  The first was a conversation with Mark Uyeyama who is the head strength and conditioning coach for the San Francisco 49ers.  We were talking about how people get set in their ways and he told me about 3 hall of fame receivers that all did different training methods.  The second concept came from speaking with Curry Hitchborn who is the head forwards coach for the UBC rugby team.  This conversation had nothing to do with strength and conditioning and everything to do with the culture of sport in Canada.  Both concepts lead me to think about different things within the industry and the beauty of both was they weren’t in a clinic and they were free.  If I can offer one piece of advice when it comes to “knowledge bombs” it is go out and talk to people in related fields so that when you do go to clinics you can start to see what is practical and what is a sales pitch. 

                If you want to learn more about your industry the real “knowledge bombs” are the ones that make you question and grow what you already know and encourage you to learn more about what you don’t.  My thirst will never be quenched.

Yours in Strength,

Joe McCullum

Thoughts on how we learn in the coaching, fitness and therapy industries

I am fresh off the clinic season and ready to start putting everything I have learned in the past 5 months to practice…Just kidding.  I think after 15 years in the industry and over 70 clinics/conferences I have come to the conclusion that this is probably not the best way for me to further my professional development.  This doesn’t mean I don’t see value in it, it just means I am ready to pave a new path for learning in the coaching industry. It is important to note that I work as a sport coach, strength and conditioning coach as well as a manager that over sees 25 plus employees.  So the clinics that I attend usually have something to do with all three aspects of what I do professionally. In the past month I have attended two great clinics that sparked my urge to write this.  Our regional NSCA clinic was excellent from beginning to end as was the IHRSA (The International, Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association) conference and trade show. Both completely different in content but both had tremendous speakers. 

After creepily staring (some may call it stalking) at one of the girls leading a Zumba class during the trade show for an abnormal amount of time, I had an epiphany.  IHRSA does something a little different than other conferences I have been to and they do it well.  There are key note speakers every day (Royal Society of the Arts and TED Talks caliber).  The key notes speak to what their specialties and professions are and tailor it to the conference.  To be honest, a plumber would have found value in listening to these speakers.  This is then followed by a wide array of speakers from all aspects of business, professionalism, human resources, social media etc.  If it has to do with the business side of things, they have it covered.  The NSCA clinic is far more practical from the coaching and networking side of things.  So while these were fresh in my mind, I thought to myself that both clinics had great content but something was missing.  There were thousands of people at IHRSA and the NSCA clinic was sold out and capped at 120 people.  As the “people person” that I am, I really noticed something both spectacular and alarming at both conferences.  The attendees ranged in age from 20 to probably 70 in some cases with all different experience levels and professional backgrounds.  As amazing as it is to see multiple generations sharing their love for learning and continuing their education it made me wonder how as presenters, teachers or coaches we can captivate such a diverse population.  I am willing to guess some of the older population are still learning how to use their smart phones and are slightly unclear as to how the Facebook thing works yet while the younger generation lack interpersonal skills because they wouldn’t look up at the speaker from their phones or tablets. 

            I wanted to touch on this since we live in a time where people no longer need to think things through because the answer to everything can be found on our smart phones yet we have not changed the way we teach or learn to adapt to specific stimuli.  Remember, the internet moved from being the inner lining of our swim trunks to some horrific sounding dial up connection to having all of the world’s info available at your fingertips in just the last 15-20 years. So I pose the following questions to those of you that are presenting information or are in the learning seat to provoke thought and to challenge the new age of learning and professional development in the coaching, therapy, personal training and fitness industries.

1.     Has our way of learning aligned and adapted with all of this new technology?  This doesn’t mean we just teach with a smart board or use technology to get our message across.  This means does the message you are trying to portray get across to your audience in a means that will foster retention of the topic?

2.     Do you understand that technology is here to stay whether you agree with it or not?  Do you have the ability to not be frustrated that certain generations are reliant on technology and that your message may need to be modified to suit a generation that doesn’t always retain information the same as you may have?

3.     Are you clear as to why we now have the attention spans of a goldfish?  Does it make sense to you that even when talking to educated people their attention will shift fairly quickly if you haven’t “hooked” them in the first few seconds?

a.     Do you understand the difference between being a cheerleader and being a dynamic presenter and why energy as a teacher, presenter or coach is so important?

b.    Why would someone continue their education by listening to you when they can find the majority of information online? 

4.     Do we consider that in any given conference the audience may be from diverse backgrounds? In the therapy, personal training and strength and conditioning conference world there is often a gap in knowledge, experience, age and scope of practice.

a.     It should be understood that the presenters should not have to cater to all backgrounds but can their message or premise be understood knowing this?  

5.     Do you believe “common sense” to be a necessity or even a valid premise when all answers can be found so easily?  Remember when it was common sense to believe the world was flat and all that challenged it were burned at the stake?  Things have changed and we need to be able to adapt to the fact that a lack of common sense is not the issue. The lack of critical thinking and the understanding that there are consequences for every action are the root of us changing our continuing and developing education systems. 

6.     Do you understand the difference in being knowledgeable about your practices and being good at trivial pursuit?  One can articulate a message to anyone with a deep understanding of the topic and one can regurgitate information.

7.     Is there a balance in your teaching methods that can bridge the gap between the base scientific principles and the practical components needed to fit the diverse populations that you may be working with? 

a.     If not, do you have a diverse staff that can help to bridge the gap between the science and practical side of things? I am lucky, I work in a setting that covers all scopes of practice and I am surrounded by people that are way smarter than me. Our different backgrounds allow for professional development to occur daily.  If you are not this fortunate, do you speak with other professionals on a regular basis to bounce ideas off of each other?

8.     As someone in the learning seat, do you have the ability to decipher what may be useful to your practice? Do you have the confidence in your base knowledge to not let your ego overtake the message set across to you?

a.     Can you take what is being said, understand the population, experience levels and abilities the presenter is talking about and modify it to fit the population you will be working with?

b.    Do you understand the value of being taught and coached by different people throughout your life?  How something this simple can have a positive effect on your career even if the teachers and coaches were not actually very good?

9.     Are you of the understanding that if there was something so amazing that it would make everyone better that we would all be doing it? Or are you just trying to sell something?

10.  Do you speak in absolutes? If so, your critical thinkers in the group may tune you out pretty quickly.

11.  Do you exude the utmost level of professionalism?  Do you tell the audience to feel free to email you with questions and then proceed to ignore your emails? Do you share all of your content or are you fearful that someone may steal it and use it for evil?  Do you speak down to people when you assume they know what you are talking about so they feel stupid?

12.  Do you practice what you preach or are you just presenting to get your name out there?

13.  Do you have a circle of friends through social media that pump each other’s tires without knowing if you are actually good at what you practice as opposed to being good about talking about what others should practice?  Have you created a false resume of how great you are at presenting or writing vs. actually being or have been a coach, therapist, personal trainer etc? This may bode well with those that don’t have the ability to think critically, but those that do may shut you out pretty quickly.

14.  Do you have a history of practicing what you are presenting upon? This is not a necessity, but having the ability to connect on a different level with your audience certainly helps.

15.  Do you love what you do? Other than friends and family is this your passion?

For those of you that know me, I thrive on negativity but I am not an unhappy person.  I like being driven by hate and anger.  Some psychologists may call this a “problem”, but I can honestly say that I love my life, my career, my family and friends and 1 or 2 of the people that I work with (I’m kidding, I have the best team and clients around which balances me out).  So please take everything I have said here with a grain of salt.  The intent isn’t to knock what we have been doing because there are some amazing professionals in our industries, the intent is to question if it is the best way for us to learn in a time when it doesn’t take work to find answers to questions.  At the very least, bounce ideas off of your colleagues so that you may achieve some level of balance.  As always, if you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to email me at joe@level10fitness.com

"One should guard against preaching to young people success in the customary form as the main aim in life. The most important motive for work in school and in life is pleasure in work, pleasure in its result, and the knowledge of the value of the result to the community."

  --  Albert Einstein

Yours in Strength,

Joe McCullum

Director of High Performance Training and Staff Development

Level 10 Fitness Inc.

Snow day, technical recap of the hang clean

                SNOW DAY!!! I had a few cancellations this morning and thought I would do a quick recap of something cool we did last week.  I think I should note something that I am quite proud of and is a key point carrying forward for this rant.  About 5 years ago I had a discectomy of my L2, L3, L4, L5 and S1.  I pretty much had all my discs removed from my lower back.  The 5 or 6 years leading up to surgery I lived in severe pain.  I got out of bed every morning looking like a bear humping a football and couldn’t straighten up until I had a hot shower.  I tried every treatment under the sun, but I think the nature of my work, past sporting endeavors and my size played a role in a difficult recovery.  I was also a stubborn idiot which didn’t help.   There is nothing more demoralizing than being strong as hell and not being able to move. As a coach, I had always relied on demonstrating movements but when getting out of bed is difficult, teaching an Olympic lift or squatting pattern is out of the question.  But something great ended up happening amidst the pain and misery (outside of my clients I became a negative prick and was not the person I was before this happened or the person I am now).  I learned how to coach.  When you take away a powerful tool in your toolbox you are forced to use other tools to get the job done.  I learned to break down and correct movements in a way I would have never even considered before.  I don’t wish injury upon any of my fellow coaches, but I hope you get where I am coming from when it comes to coaching technique.  All of this leads up to this little diddy…..

Last week I did a technical session on what I deem one of the most important movements for athletic performance.   Over the years I have seen therapists have some of their athletes demonstrate specific movement patterns for their sport or lifting techniques such as: squatting, deadlifting or Olympic lifting technique to see if their bodies are moving correctly and if they may be ready to return to loading and or sport.  I never really thought of this until recently, but how much does your therapist know about these specific movements? I am not knocking therapists; I am asking a question that needs asking (to be fair, I am doubtful of many coaches that are teaching these movements as well).  I am not implying that a therapist needs to know these movements as in depth as the strength and conditioning coaches that they will be working with to help get these athletes back to play, but surely some base level of knowledge is useful right?

                So I invited our therapy staff, all of our trainers and strength coaches and a few of our elite athletes that train with us here to do a practical session on the pocket or quick hang clean.  The intent was to have everyone have a basic understanding as to the why, when, and how we would use this movement in our programming and which athletes may qualify for the movement.  I invited a few of our athletes because I see benefit in them understanding the movement on a more intimate level and to educate them as if they were learning to be a coach.   On a side note, I demonstrated more hang cleans in this session then I have in the last ten years and my back feels amazing! 

WHY:

·         To learn how to create tension in your body prior to executing a violent movement

·         To teach a violent and synergistic movement that combines a rapid acceleration with a rapid deceleration

·         To teach the importance of understanding how important change of elevation is in sport (specifically multi-directional) and how to manipulate it based off of load

·         To create a connection between the earth and your hips/torso

·         Because 90% of athletes cannot do traditional Olympic lifts correctly due to past injuries, mobility or technical issues or time constraints.  Keep in mind, in the private industry many of our athletes are forced to work on their own and we have to triage movements for safety reasons. Many coaches are sold on forcing the movement from the floor and following the traditional styles of Olympic lifting.  My argument is this; we are building better athletes not better weight lifters and until your athletes qualify to do such a movement get bent

·         To both reinforce the hip hinge pattern and to disguise repetition of said pattern

·         To teach athletes to be explosive with a load.  Traditionally Olympic lifts are thought to be used only for power.  Obviously power is an important attribute for all athletes, but I mention this last because if you don’t understand all of the above points I wouldn’t worry about the power benefits just yet

WHEN:

·         When the athlete can show they can create and hold tension in their spine. As a simple guideline, if the athlete cannot competently execute a Romanian deadlift for the start phase, a simple jump for the drive phase or a front squat for the catch phase you need to back your programming up a bit.  Having said this, there are always exceptions to the rule but I think this is a pretty sound guideline

·         When the athlete is free of injuries and has qualified to do the movement based off the therapists recommendations and you are comfortable with them progressing the movement.

·         I use this movement year round and add or take away from it dependent on my goals for the athletes

·         If there was a movement that was so beneficial that it was worth risking injury or poor motor patterning, I have a feeling we all would be doing it

HOW:

·         If you are learning how to lift via the internet we have problems

·         I am not against talking technique in blog posts, you tube etc. But there is way too much to cover in a short period of time.  If it is your goal to be a therapist or you are a therapist it will probably help you have a clearer picture of what we are trying to achieve as strength coaches. If you are a coach on the other hand, we are in trouble if this is your main source of information

·         I am close to 15 years in my career and I still learn something every day and there is just too much info

 

I would like to wrap up by clearing something that pisses me off about the industry.  There seems to be this movement from ex or current athletes turned coach (specifically power lifters, Olympic lifters and guys that don’t look like they ever played a sport in their lives) how getting stronger is the only answer to performance and if I wrote this ten years ago I would have said the same.  But as someone that was an athlete in 3 different contact sports I can tell you this needs to be taken with a grain of salt.  There are a lot of factors in contact sports and if you are programming these movements and ignoring the loads put on your athletes bodies outside the weight room you should be slapped.  I also need to be clear; I load the shit out of my athletes as should you but only after careful scrutiny of the given situation. 

The fact is simple, if you watch an elite power or Olympic lifter train leading up to heavy loads their form is usually flawless.  And as loads increase technique decreases.  The same can be said for any sport and just substitute load with fatigue. I get that, but what we can’t lose sight of is the fact that no Olympic lifter or power lifter in the history of the world (this is an assumption actually) has ever been blindsided while under extreme load by another athlete in the snow or rain.  Their ultimate goal has no variability in it. There is no contact, extreme cold or heat it is just linear in fashion.  And do not get me wrong, I am a huge fan of both sports (I was devastated when Powerlifting USA stopped production!), but they are their own sports.  We should use and modify their lifts according to the population we are working with.  Draw from them, use their knowledge as the strongest and most powerful people in the world but only use what is applicable to your athletes!

As always, please feel free to email me with your questions or complaints.

Yours in Strength,

Joe McCullum

 

 “Pain is not my enemy, it is my call to greatness”  -Henry Rollins