Hope everyone had a great thanksgiving!

I have been keeping a notepad with me on both my internships (NY Islanders and Defrancos) to write down everything I've been learning.  This notebook has become EXTREMELY valuable to me in that it has down a lot of what I have learned since August.  Decided I'd share some notes I've been taking down learning from these guys to share with everyone.  Really cool stuff in no particular order....

Coach M evals...
   -start from ground up
   -foot (arch collapse?)
   -cross correlation between hips and shoulder (in reference to pain)
   TREATMENT: 1.treat symptoms 1st   2. treat causes

Sprint Training (working with D1 baseball player)
   -knees all over during acceleration (strength of glute meds)
   -arm flair- shoulders off,hips off, arch
   -DON'T OVER COACH!!! do the best you can but don't stress over it, you can only undo so much years of habits of athlete in given time with them

Read Dan Paff

High/low-Med CNS workouts

-Cant use until certain training age/weights achieved
-For instance, a novice lifter will only stress the CNS so much because they can't produce enough force.  Fatigue and breakdown of technique will occur before CNS exhaustion.  Once experienced enough CNS will be tapped into.  This is why high/low, once experienced enough, the just performing sport specific movement stress the athletes bodies because they are so efficent at them now.  It has been described to me as a ferrari athlete vs a toyota camery, one can handle everyday stress of driving but one is all out everytime.  Complicated and still working on the finer details but good start to look into.  read more charlie francis about this.
High intense- Squat, sprints, Deads, Cleans    Low/mid- Bench, tempos, accessory mvments

Charlie francis breakdown of sprint over 100m










"NEVER LET AN ATHLETE FAIL"- challenge them but make sure they end a set/exercise on a high note.  athletes can be extremely sensitive and may limit themselves next time in the weightroom or field if they feel they aren't strong enough or whatever.  Adjust to make them succeed (don't make too easy but that they feel accomplished)


Cuff work:
  prone/supine, uni/bilateral "I", "Y", "T", "W",PRESS


Ecc/iso work for weaker athletes so they feel mvment pattern
experienced guys this may be too heavy
can switch accessory work every 2 weeks

1st focus on strength work with athletes before any CNS work (sprints, jumps, med ball) because this will prob increase speed and explosion just thru force increases.  Plus may not be strong enough to get quality runs anyway.

charlie francis goals of conditioning thru tempo work.  each box is energy pathway (anaerobic, lactic, aerobic)








Coach CJ eval-basic warm up and workout to see in general where conditioning/mobility/strength levels are.

Workload compatibility vs non compatible vladamir issurin

Charlie Francis Key Concepts

Max vs operational output levels



There are some more notes but to keep them confidential i will not be sharing those.  also some of my notes are directly from defrancos and freakstength.com so it would not be right to share their info for free.  i would suggest checking out there stuff though they have helped me.  check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zQHEs2TBr0 and defrancos other dvds and http://freakstrength.com/shop/.

Gonna check in real  quick before I head out to Defrancos,

Wanted to talk about how some of the coaches run their evals.  I've been with Coach M through a few evals, he likes to work from the ground up.  He starts by looking at the athletes feet and working up from there.  A good video describing how important he thinks an athletes feet are can be seen here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9PraNgj9NU.  From here he tends to find issues with the hips, shoulders, etc. through having them perform simple motions like horizontal abduction of the shoulders, simple squats, lunges, among a few others.  From here he can prescribe certain warm ups or exercises designed to enhance their functionality of certain movements and work on certain weak points.  Another benefit is he finds out how the athletes learn; some are good audible listeners and pick things up quickly, some need to "feel" out a motion and perform it physically before they know how to really get it, and some need a lot of time and coaching to learn new exercises.  All different types of motor learning in the gym.

While Coach CJ is more of Coach M's mindset when it comes to programming and actual training sessions, his evals are different in that he just jumps right into a workout without a typical "eval session".  He sets up his warm up to get the athlete or client moving through simple motions like squats and certain skips.  He uses these exercise to see if the person has proper ankle mobility, hip mobility, shoulder, etc.  Also he pushes the pace a little quicker than usual to see where their conditioning is at.  I can appreciate this method in that its practical and quick and lets you see the athlete in action.

Coach P is a version of Coach M's eval session in that he checks the feet and works up from there.  He does a few things different from Coach M, but also includes simple exercise like band pull aparts and push ups.  Its pretty neat because he include me and actually ask me what I see with certain things.  He has an incredible eye for things like certain muscles firing incorrectly around the shoulder girdle or the athletes foot being slightly externally rotated.  I'm ok at it because of some physical therapy background but with his help I should get a lot better at it.

Gotta head out there now, I'll update with some videos and pics next time.

PS- Still waiting to hear back from WP baseball coach about helping out with the programming for the team.  We'll see where that goes.

Hey guys,

Sorry I didn't get to post anything this past week until now, been crazy trying to juggle everything.  Internship, super busy at my other job, stuff in my personal life came up this week, and I am actually up in CT right now because my girlfriend (sorry ladies, taken) is taking a test for her Masters of Nutrition degree (the couple that gets degrees together, stays together!).  Still a great week at Defrancos, always learning...

One of the coaches who I've been following a lot got married this week.  A lot of people came through, including Arno Galmarini, a performance coach who has his own gym training center in Switzerland (http://articles.elitefts.com/training-articles/galmarini-elite-training/, http://www.elite-training.ch/).   Before the coach left on his honeymoon in the middle of the week however, his AAA pitcher started having issues with his throwing shoulder.  Turns out he slept on it wrong.  The was a learning experience for me however seeing how the "art of coaching" came in.  For the first time the coach wasn't 100% sure what his athlete was going to be doing.  He was just about to switch him to the next phase of his program as well.  He didn't freak though, just adjusted the training.  Instead of his general work he normally was doing baseball (see last post and Bondarchuk's general/sport specific model), he just wanted to take his pitcher through low intensity work bringing blood to the shoulder to loosen it up and bring some nutrients to the area.

Homemade bodyblade with pvc, duct tape, and two lacrosse balls.

Light rope work.

He also performed some ROM exercises and a few other light intensity drills.  He still hit some lower body strength work, but the main focus was getting that arm better.  After a day or two of this work, he came in Thursday saying he felt 100 times better and all the range was back to his arm.  

As far as working with the other coaches, I got some insight into their background and where they came from and their views on training.  Where as with Coach M, I sometimes get lost in some of the things he's talking about (super smart and relentless when it comes to learning), I find that with some of the other coaches I understand their methodologies a little better.  Coach P is a self-described, "basic and simple" coach.  His programming is straightfoward with a logical progression and is based on how much actual time he has with each athlete, such as 6, 18, 50 sessions.  Based on the time he has with the athlete, he can teach them what he can.  Coach CJ is more of Coach M's mindset in the type of programming (see Cal Dietz and his book Triphasic Training + Russian and Eastern block reseachers like Bondarchuk, Issurin, Verkhoshansky).  Coach C has been coaching for awhile now, and has worked under some of the best S&C coaches in football.  He knows Coach M/CJ's training style but has a "quicker" format.  Whereas Coach M's athletes may stay in the gym 2-3 hours running through everything their body may need like scap strengthening, better hip movement patterns, etc., Coach C will get to the nitty-gritty and hit the major problem areas or areas where the biggest improvement needs to be made.  

While each coach trains his own type of way, they could all switch their style to match the others very easily.  All these guys are VERY GOOD at what they do, and all are always staying up-to -date and evolving their own thinking.  However, I think its a testament to Joe Defranco that his coaches can coach they way they think will get the best results.  He could easily have an ego and tell his guys how he wants them coaching and that's it, but he realizes each of his guys brings something different and valuable to the table and the athletes benefit from this.  

As far as where I'm fitting in to the gym, I'm still getting to know all the athletes better and getting more comfortable with how things run in the gym and the methods that the coaches use.  It is still pretty slow, the gym gets maybe around 15 clients a day now, but as the coaches keep telling me, this is the "calm before the storm" when all the college guys come back from school over break.  Shortly after that, we'll probably get some NFL combine guys coming in for about 7-8 weeks getting ready for that.  I believe a local baseball team around high-school aged will start training 1-2 times a week, as well as other per-season baseball guys.  Looking forward to it!

Don't have my notes on me (stuck in CT), but I'll look over them later and let you guys know if there is anything valuable in there I can share.  I'm sure there is, one day in Defranco's learning from these guys is enough to have you researching the answers or what they talked about for hours! Can't wait til the semester's over so I can research and read some material some more...

powerlifter eccentric squat

11/05/13-

Update from Defrancos...

Starting to build some relationships with some of the athletes which is always key.  If you have that connection with the athlete it is so much better working with them because they begin to trust you and that mutual respect/caring starts to take place on both ends.  You genuinely start to care about their successes and failures and it drives you to be a better coach for them.  Charlie Francis wrote a lot about taking that genuine interest in his athletes in the book I read, Charlie Francis's Training System.  This is something I also realized while working at my previous job at a physical therapy office.  Once I got to know all the patients I was working with on a personal basis, I became to really care about the progress they were making so they could get back to their normal family, work, and personal life (all of which we would talk about).  So excited to start hearing about these athletes personal achievements once their season begins.

I also got to work with my first client one-on-one Monday.  The little guy is a twelve year old football player with some lower limb issues (one leg longer than the other).  Even got to talk to this guy about school and sports.  While his program wasn't very complicated (sprinting in place, planks, lunges, all bodyweight stuff), it was rewarding taking him through his workout and just talking to him.  Looking forward to working with him in the future.

Also been hanging more one-on-one with some of the baseball guys that come in on a regular clip.  One is a AAA pitcher with the Twins and another is a college player (not sure what position actually).  They have been coming in for two and three off-seasons, respectively.  Because they come three to five times a week for months a time, I usually ask them a few questions about their own programming and some of the exercises so I can get a better grasp on how the coaches program.  The college guy has walked me through a lot of the upper body "circuts" and med ball work that the guys go through on a regular basis.  The AAA guy opened my eyes to his programming (look up Cal Dietz's programs at the U of Minnesota) and some of his specific warm up.  This is the great thing about Defranco's.  They don't just "give you the fish, they teach you how to fish" if anyone has heard that before.  As I posted in the past, they teach the athletes to be self reliant, the only time they need the coaches is to watch their more explosive/sport specific exercises or to tell them the next part of the workout.

Starting to feel pretty comfortable here, which is strange for me settling in so fast in a new environment.  Usually I'll have incredible anxiety for awhile, but the coaches (specifically Coach M) have really welcomed me and been very open with all my questions.  I have received so much reading/video/audio material from Coach M also that it helps me understand the reasoning behind his and a few other coaches methods which helps me settle in as well.  I am also finally in a setting with athletes that I haven't been able to have since I played sports in my own undergrad.  Growing up primarily playing sports and then being thrust into the "grown-up" world without much transition, you miss those memories and experiences with your teammates.  This is a comfortable setting with familiar types of people (athletes) for me.

Been taking some pics and videos.  Take a look at what I get to be around everyday!!

                                          

AAA pitcher performing med ball work.

The pro guys getting some sled/speed work in.  SUPER FAST!!!!

Pitcher getting some throws in.

Pitchers programming.

Bondarchuk's general/sport specific model.