SKILLS Training...

I recently attended a really great strength and conditioning program here in Baltimore that was put on by Perform Better. Some of my very favorite speakers were presenting. Lee Burton, Mike Boyle, Todd Durkin and Alwyn Cosgrove. These guys are leaders in the industry and it's always great to learn something new and just get out and see a mass of other trainers. The one thing that all great presenters seem to have is an acronym.

So, the very next morning, while I was driving to coach swim practice, I thought, "I want an acronym...!" I started rifling through words and in within a few the word skills came to me. What could I do with this group of letters....? Hmmm, well the coffee must have kicked in at that moment and I came up with the following.

S-K-I-L-L-S....

S- for swimming, that is what I was going to coach but since I work with athletes from different sports, "S" can stand for sports.

K- Nobody was able to guess this. Kid. Be a kid, we all need to be a kid again. Maybe a part of me never stopped being a kid. Kids usually just jump into things like trying a new athletic move, exercise or sport technique without hesitation. Luckily they have not yet become self-conscious and do not bother worrying about how they look even if they don't do it right the first few times. This is a beautiful thing.

I- Intensity! We need to have a fun intensity about what we do and we need an intensity component in our training!

L- Love, hopefully we love what we do, simple as that. I tell all my athletes that I don't care if they are the worst in the world at their chosen sport or activity. If they love to do it, that is as good a reason to continue as any. In fact, I'd rather see someone do a sport that the suck at if they love it rather than listen to people say they just do it because they are good at it....

L- Laugh, in my opinion we need to laugh freely. Most importantly, we need to be able to laugh at ourselves. It is a sign of strength if we can laugh at ourselves. I don't like it when people take themselves too seriously.

S- So long. Find a completion point and say so long to your session. Mission complete, congratulations, be happy with your achievement, time for evaluation when we have completed our training or season. Now it's time to move on and say so long and put our experience in storage bank and build on it for future endeavors.

Hope you enjoy this. It's always great to have SKILLS!

Be good,

Coach Dave

Time of Year

Holy Cow! Time flies by and before you know it, you have not posted on your blog... Well, what are you gonna do...? Get back at it I guess. It's an exciting time of year. May is a great month. The days are getting longer, outdoor seasons in swimming, triathlon and of course motocross are getting under way. I have a number of triathletes racing tomorrow in what I think is truly a "mid-atlantic classic" triathlon. The Columbia Tri is a great race. Did my first one in like 1989 - which to many athletes I know is so long ago it doesn't register for them. That's ok, after all, it was last century.

I remember the sport when things like lace locks for running shoes were cutting edge. Disc wheels were out there but about 1 in every, what 75 bikes had them. I think back and I love the time when it was more rough edge, with not so many refined gadgets. A good bike, running shoes, of course your Speedo which I always felt comfortable in since my background was swimming. It's just what you were so used to seeing people in.

Sure you always had those people who where 100% into the culture of "being a triathlete" as they were the racing. Now though, just coming back from the expo at Columbia, where I had the opportunity to catch up with some old friends, I just feel a bit at odds when I see those certain athletes who reeeaaaalllly like to be noticed as a triathlete. You know what I mean, that slick racing bike on top of their car, running shoes, sport sunglasses, you can spot them a mile away. Their stand out attire is usually accompanied by multiple stickers on the windows of their car indicating the races they have done, complete with the distances spelled out. If it's not, swim 2.4, bike 112 etc etc, it's 70.3 or something like that. Then the products stickers. They look like support vehicles for a pro stage race. My question is, what are they saying? Do they just want to let people around them know, "hey if my car breaks down in the middle of nowhere, I "me" can get myself to civilization no matter what separates me, be it water, a road to bike on or maybe just sub 7 minute per mile foot travel...?" (Actually, I used to love to think about it that way.)

I know, I'm not going to get on people who proudly display the badges of their physical conquests and the products and races they love to use and do. When it all comes down to it, I do love the idea of people getting out there, pushing their limits mentally and physically. I just want for each and every one of them to feel unique in their triathlon pursuit(s) and enjoy the discovery of what they are made of as they embark on every multi-sport challenge. That is the meaning of cool in my opinion. Way cooler than any product or sticker or killer equipment they can purchase.

So, I hope everyone has a great race, safe race and feels like at least at one moment that they are not sure if they can make it, or can maintain their pace, or struggles with maintaining the high output of stroke tempo, wattage output or stride frequency, but then for some reason or another, finds the strength and reaches down deep and comes through for him or herself and finds that personal victory.

Have fun! Coach Dave

H1N1 is No#1

Oh yeah, I am just getting over swine flu. What a bummer. Just glad that I didn't seem to give it to anyone else... we'll see though. Great trip to Southern California with RacerX Virtual Trainer. Traveled with Tim who runs that show. No, he didn't get it but the minute I came back east I felt it hit. So Cal is always a cool time. We were in Temecula which is ground zero for pretty much all motocross activity. Some cool video of the trip, the athletes, trainers, managers we met with are coming out soon. Hope all of my athletes stay healthy! Coach Dave

Cool Link!

Well, sometimes I spend time writing here on my blog and sometimes my words get picked up elsewhere...

Please check out my one of my favorite sites for some good words this week.

www.racerxvt.com

Coach Dave

Time...

Usually when I see some kind of program, book or article, there is often a claim that this works in a finite amount of time. Titles that read something like the following examples, "flat belly in 2 weeks," or "5 weeks to big muscles," or even "5 days to ripped abs." When I see these things they pretty much make me crazy. Publications are filled with pure baloney is my observation.

I feel even crazier and even bad when I hear how someone I know personally starts to believe something that is clearly a misguided thinking. But we can all fall prey to information or claims that support a personal goal or desire that we hold. I hope that this bluntly presented little post can serve as ammo for someone who needs to get that figurative slap in the face. One that helps out a vulnerable sole who has been temporarily confused and actually believes the marketing hype of some "BS" product.

Here is the one thing that we need to remember about fitness as well as developing a body that reflects a high fitness level; time. It takes time to get into shape. It takes time to develop muscle and it takes time combined with energy, discipline and possibly modifying our behavior to loose body fat and get fit. It can be done.

The journey should be as important as the destination. Don't look for short cuts. Look to apply your energy to activities that help you achieve the goal of fitness. These include regular exercise and sound nutritional intake that includes food. Lean meat, vegetables, fruits, whole grains. Be creative, and enjoy variety in your dietary intake and your exercise program. Do them from here on and you'll be far better off than if you look for the quick fix!

Be healthy because you eat healthy and exercise!

Coach Dave

Personality

Coaching swim practice this morning. It starts out with me giving them the warm up. This morning it was 200 free, 2 x 200 IM kick/swim by 25s and then a 200 pull. Pretty basic. The next step is I hold everyone up and give them a little talk. Maybe this is just announcements for the schedule or a congratulations to my triathletes in the group for the past weekends race or sometimes a bit of my from the heart words of wisdom. It's funny, I have found that many of them actually enjoy a few words - something that provokes some thought.

At 5:59am, not many people are doing anything out of the normal realm of their usual personality. But even when they are half asleep and just beginning to transition from slumber just 30 minutes prior to a full out workout pace in the next hour, the subtle characteristics of their personality show right through.

One of my favorite lines from the movie Pulp Fiction was, "Personality goes a long way." It sure does in my book. It's almost like I can guess what a person will do in practice, during a set or during a course of a season, by what I observe in their personality. I have some totally driven athletes and some very easy going athletes. From either side of the spectrum, I get good work and fast swimming out of all of them. Just because an athlete is easy going doesn't mean they won't be the fastest one in the pool though. On the other side, sometimes the super driven athletes are the ones that we wait for.

All of the different personalities make coaching great fun. Reading your athletes well is a benefit and a key component of coaching success in my opinion. The next challenge though is to get your athletes to comply with what you feel is going to be in their best interest. First they must understand and believe in the plan. And that is very hard for many of them, especially the super driven ones. That drive they some of them have is what makes them succeed but at a certain point it can work against them. It all comes down to personality...

Awareness

Today's post is about "awareness." The definition of the word awareness starts out "…having knowledge or perception of a situation or fact...." Wow! What a great thing this "awareness" must be. Seems like a great thing in the world if there was a healthy level of awareness about.

On the other hand, I was totally inspired while watching the Tour de France. Lance Armstrong came out of a 3 or 4 year retirement and pretty much wasted most of the 189 greatest riders in the world. Two riders, Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck were able to finish ahead of Armstrong. Yet a portion of the public think that Armstrong somehow fell short or didn't do well because he did not win. This is an un-aware perspective. Armstrong was nothing short of phenomenal.

For anyone who has thrown a leg over a bicycle and ridden with a group of riders you would surely understand that this is something, no other way to say it, superhuman. Period.

People once again are being treated to a newfound reality (or new awareness) that the athletic life span goes beyond 25 years old. Considerably farther beyond.

On a grander scale, Lance’s purpose of returning to the Tour included his goal of raising awareness of cancer on a worldwide level. My interpretation of his action was to raise awareness of cancer, what cancer survivors are capable of and to inspire people with the disease to keep doing.

In my opinion the tour, the sport of cycling, bicycle sales and the battle against cancer are all better off because one guy came out of retirement. Lance is on the move and in a global capacity.

So, I give an A+ to Lance for doing this. I don't care if you don't love the guy, he blasted a message out into the world that everyone would do well to be aware of. Awareness at it’s best and in this case very well done. 2010 with his new team, I will find a way to watch, you can bet on that.

In another variation of the two-wheeled sports that I know and love, motocross, I was excited to hear Ryan Dungey, the current leader of the 250 Lites class in AMA Pro Motocross Racing speak about awareness as well. Dungey and Lance share a sponsor and Dungey spoke about meeting Lance at a Nike event. During their conversation Dungey told Lance that he was on board with his support of raising awareness of cancer. It sounded like he was suggesting that he hoped for the people in motocross, racers, staff and fans etc. would be on board too. I hope this is the case. That would be a great thing.

So there it is, an idea, broadcasted through a sporting event and then jumping over to an adjacent sport to make its way through the population.

The idea of raising "awareness" of cancer is a great thing. But again, in my opinion, just getting people to be more aware is a true challenge. Just getting people to stop and think about what they are doing, why they are doing it and even what they have come to think about some really basic things would be a huge achievement.

Coach Dave's official stance on the concept of "awareness." I would like to see more of it. More thought, more positive actions whether it be for your own health and well being or that of others. I would like to see people really consider how they move through life. Further, how they interact with others.

In a more subtle way that people might be more aware. One of my favorite things in life is that simple action in which we can all take part. It really does not take a lot of energy and it can be so rewarding. Given that many humans are social creature and most have the ability to communicate, if we have the use of our vision. We can acknowledge those who come in close proximity with in the form of a smile, a nod maybe even a hello.

I am amazed how many people have no interest in this kind of communicating. Sure, some of us live in densely populated areas and there are simply too many directions we could send our energy off into. However, what is the use in not exchanging a bit of a pleasantry in a simple smile.

Today, tomorrow the next day, from now on, go out, go forth, purposefully proceed and be aware. A population that is more aware of their own surroundings, their own actions will be better capable of being aware of things like cancer and how we can beat it.

In the meantime, we might even end up helping others and contributing more if we work on being more aware. Even if our only contribution is an enlightening smile or nod in a strangers direction.

Awareness for all and all for awareness!

Be it, live it!

Coach Dave