Elite Athletes | Nick Grantham

Archive for elite athletes

Sep

Connections, Spinning Plates and Cheerleaders

Posted by: Nick Grantham | Comments (0)

Some people just keep popping up on my radar and over time they prick my interest. Keir Wenham-Flatt is one of those coaches (not least because he has a funky name!). We’ve bounced a few e-mails back and forth and I recently read a great post that fits in rather nicely with a lot of my recent posts regarding breaking in and forging a career as an S&C coach. Keir has recently done what a lot of the young aspiring coaches that write to me are trying to do – GET A FOOT IN THE DOOR. In this guest post Keir will share with you some of the key lessons he’s picked up during the past 12 months. Over to Keir.

In July 2010 I took a gamble. I left my comfortably paid job as a personal trainer, moved away from my relatively new girlfriend to the most expensive city in the country, to work a full time, unpaid internship for London Wasps. It was a long 12 months, but in the end I was fortunate enough to have my services retained. I learned a bunch of lessons along the way, the top 7 of which are featured below.

Many great articles have been written chronicling peoples experiences as interns and the lessons they have taken from working within the profession. The most recent of these was a fantastic multi-part series by John Annillo that I took a wealth of valuable information from. This article is my homage to his and those that went before; my attempt to organise my thoughts, to pay it forward and add to the pile of existing information.

(I got hired and I couldn’t be happier…. honest!)

Lesson 1- It’s all about who you know

Professional sport is no different to any other industry. People do business with, give jobs to and recommend people who they know and like. For better or worse your prowess in your chosen field often won’t even come into the equation. For a long time I had a chip on my shoulder about this issue. I told myself that I could reach my goals but just being good at what I did. Big mistake.

A year of working within a small industry with precious few jobs quickly wised me up to the value of relationships. The more people who you are able to help and be valuable to, the faster you will progress in nearly all aspects of your development. You can learn this either by sitting on the sidelines watching your less qualified, but better connected peers pass you by, or by getting your head into Keith Ferrazzi’s fantastic book “Never Eat Alone”. I’ve tried both and I know which I would recommend!

(The name of the game)

Lesson 2- It’s all about what you know

“Surely a contradiction?!” I hear you say. Perhaps, but both lessons 1 and 2 are of equal, vital importance. Sure, the span and quality of your network of relationships with well connected people will get you through the door. But lack the necessary skill as a coach and you will soon be leaving through that same door with your reputation tarnished. Scores of books have been written on what makes a good coach, but here’s a quick breakdown of the things I admire in other coaches:

Book smarts- having a balanced, deep and scientifically current knowledge of physical preparation.

Coaching smarts- things like being able to put the theory into practice, manage and motivate a group, and get the best out of your athletes whilst keeping them injury free.

Walking the walk- keeping yourself in good physical condition, have competed as an athlete to a decent standard and be able to kick your athlete’s asses in at least one area or physical test. It shows you are serious about what you do and can be useful in getting athletes ‘on side’.

A proven track record- having a long list of previous or current high achieving colleagues and athletes who speak highly of you as a professional.

Lesson 3- If you don’t want it somebody else does

Learning from others has taught me that to reach the higher levels of any field requires years of dedication. I cannot speak for others but my internship was, at times, extremely tough. I lost a couple of thousand pounds that I didn’t have to lose, had to work up to 3 part time jobs at any one time and a 15 hour day became the norm… all to keep my head above water.

I would be lying if I said I hadn’t considered quitting at some point. Thankfully I persevered. I told myself “You have set yourself the goal of finishing this internship. This is the price of achieving that goal. If that price is too high then f**k off and move aside, because there are plenty of people out there willing to pay it.” Remember, if you are any place worth being, somebody out there wants to be where you are. Just make sure you are willing to pay a higher price for it and you will stay there.

(How my internship felt at times…)

Lesson 4- Some people just don’t get it

I think it was the late Charlie Francis that first remarked that in any group of athletes, individuals will fall into one of 3 categories. Firstly, the gifts: these guys have physical talent coming out of their ears, and will take to any drill you task them with like a duck to water. Second is the normal human beings: these people take a little longer to get up to speed but eventually get there. Lastly, the problem children: no matter what you do, no matter how you tweak an exercise or try to correct their form, they just don’t seem to get ‘it’.

I can confirm this observation is certainly true in rugby union. Even at the professional level, I have witnessed players that were able to dominate opponents on the field yet move with all the coordination of a drunken baby giraffe in the weight room. My advice: don’t be afraid to barbecue the odd sacred cow when it comes to these guys. For example leg presses may be far more appropriate than squatting at times for athletes like this.

Lesson 5- The concurrent approach is King for rugby athletes

The old proverb says “Many roads lead to Rome”, and how you organise your athlete’s training is no different. Each periodisation scheme has its merits and it’s pitfalls. Yet my experiences over the past year have lead me to conclude that the concurrent approach (synonymous with the training of Westside Barbell) is King for rugby athletes.

The breadth of the motor demands of rugby union is so great that any other system of training is rendered unfeasible. ‘Western’ periodisation and other approaches like block periodisation were all developed with nice, predictable sports in mind and in disciplines with a fairly narrow band of motor demands. A rugby player on the other hand must exhibit the highest possible development of all strength qualities, all 3 energy systems and other biomotor abilities in a largely unpredictable playing environment. Toss in 40 games a season, injuries, travel and a schedule that can change at the whim of senior coaches and the concurrent approach soon emerges as the most suitable candidate.

For an in-depth exploration of the various popular approaches to periodisation check out this helpful article by Serbian physical preparation coach, Mladen Jovanovich: http://tinyurl.com/433rec4.

(Training for rugby can be like spinning plates)

Lesson 6- Olympic lifts are for Olympic lifters

During my internship, in rugby union and the Strength & Conditioning community at large I encountered on repeated occasions the dogmatic assertion that athletes should perform the Olympic lifts. James Smith of Juggernaut Training Systems has written at length on this subject here, and through my own experiences I can only echo his sentiments:

In contact sports the shoulder takes a battering on a daily, if not weekly basis. Loading an already sore shoulder with lots of weight in an anatomically precarious position like that seen in the lifts is plain stupid.

Perhaps 95% of coaches perform the lifts with subpar form themselves. If you suck at something, your athletes will probably suck at it too. I suck at the Olympic lifts, so I don’t teach them to my athletes.

The learning curve with the Olympic lifts is a slow one. Spending months trying to perfect an athlete’s technique when preseason is maybe only 8 weeks long is a foolish way to spend precious training time.

Olympic Lifts are not the only way to develop speed strength. The dynamic effort method, medicine ball drills and jump variations are all easier on the joints and take little time to perfect- good news for athletes with limited training time and for coaches who have to be technical models. Save the Olympic lifts for Olympic lifters.

Lesson 7- Coaches not cheerleaders

(THIS IS NOT HOW TO DO IT!)

Top coaches and authors alike agree that atmosphere is key when it comes to developing excellent athletes. If you can create an environment where people bring out the very best in each other and continually raise the bar, the rest is just detail. I agree, but this cannot come at the expense of proper technique- a scenario I have encountered on a number of occasions when visiting other clubs and weight rooms in the past year.

Athletes need coaches, not cheerleaders. Searching the magic words “power clean school record” on Youtube will soon give you a flavour of what I’m talking about: coaches and team members surrounding their stand out player, whooping and hollering, whilst he reverse-curl-sumo-squats the bar up with a degree of knee valgus that makes you wince just watching it.

Injured players do not win games, so be a coach first and a cheerleader second.

Great article and wise words for someone just breaking into the industry. If you enjoyed this guest post from Keir, take a look at his site www.trainingbykeir.co.uk

Categories : career, coaching, elite athletes, functional training, injury, job, Nick Grantham, programme, Programme design, Shoulder

Comments (0)

Aug

Poker Face: Part I – Coaching Lessons From Zappos!

Posted by: Nick Grantham | Comments (5)

I’m away at the moment working with a team and inevitably I’m finding myself spending more time than I care to think about sitting on a coach travelling between the hotel and training venue. Every cloud has a silver lining though, I have some time every day to read. At the moment I’m reading Delivering Happiness by Tony Hseih. What is an S&C coach doing reading a book about the guy who created Zappos (listed as one of Fortune magazine’s top 25 companies to work for, and was acquired by Amazon in a deal valued at over $1.2 billion…yes I said BILLION!). Well, if you read the great guest post back in July from Alwyn Cosgrove you understand the importance of reading outside your specialist interest. I’m reading the book primarily to see what I can pick up and use at SMART FITNESS as well as ways I can improve on my delivery as an S&C coach working with various teams and athletes.

In the second chapter Tony talks about taking up Poker and lessons he learnt playing poker that he thinks transfer over to the business world. Some of the lessons learnt struck a cord with me and I think they can also apply to the world of coaching. I’ve pulled out the lessons that I think would be useful and tried to give examples from my coaching career to illustrate each point. I hope you find it useful.

Table Selection

Table selection is the moist important decision you can make,
It’s OK to switch tables if you discover it’s too hard to win at your table.
If there are too many competitors, even if you’re the best it’s a lot harder to win.

Some important lessons to be learnt in the first section. When I went to university I thought I was going to be a sport psychologist but after a year I knew that physiology, not psychology was the area I wanted to specialise in. I ‘selected the table’ that I wanted to play at. Once I started working as a sport scientist I started to realise that maybe I needed to switch tables again! I was interested in what happened between fitness tests and started to move into the world of physical preparation. In the back of my mind I felt that sport scientists were going to be ten a penny in the near future (I was proved right!). Everyone was studying sport science at Uni. Maybe the table that I was sitting at was going to be too hard to win at in the future and there were going to be too many competitors in the market. I made the switch and became a strength and conditioning coach. I selected my table and I’ve been playing that table ever since. Think carefully about what you want to be but there’s no problem if with switching tables if you think it’s the right thing to do. The worst thing you can do is try and play at two or three table at the same time. I’ve worked at companies that have advertised for three separate jobs at the same time in the same region. Funny then to see applications coming in from the same people for all three jobs! Those applications rarely made it through the paper sift because when I’m selecting employees I want to make sure they want to play at my table.

Marketing and Branding

Act weak when strong, act strong when weak. Know when to bluff.
Your brand is important.
Help shape the stories that people are telling about you.

Now some may be thinking what has marketing and branding got to do with being a coach, well I think it has a lot really. Back in 2007 I travelled to China to work with the Chinese National Football Team to help them prepare for the Asian Cup. I’d worked for almost a decade as a strength and conditioning coach but this would be the first time I had worked with a senior international football team. Let’s just say there was a bit of pressure during that first training session in front of the media covering the tournament. If ever there was a time to act strong when weak, that was it! I had to make it look as if I did this sort of thing every day. This was the one opportunity I had to gain the respect of the coaching and playing staff. I had to walk the walk.

(Act strong when weak)

There are also times when you need to underplay your skill set. Some coaches will be only to quick to drop names about who they have worked with and how great they are. I’ve found that when I work with a new sport (particularly when working with the athletes), I’m humble. During weeks and months you build a relationship and more often than not the athletes dig around to find out about the person that is looking after their physical preparation. It’s much better for an athlete to find out for themselves that you’ve worked with say, previous Olympians than it is for you to rock up in a GB tracksuit and immediately drop in to conversation that you worked with XY and Z! Sometimes you need to act weak when in fact you are super strong!

Helping shape the stories people tell about you is a really important one in this day and age. Information is readily available and you need to be aware that unlike any other time in history, what you do, how you behave and the people you socialise with is out there in the public domain. Having a website saying how professional you are as a coach and then posting on your Facebook page that you were hammered last night at a strip club is not a smart move! You are a product of the people you surround yourself with and the way you conduct yourself. You have an opportunity to shape the stories people are telling about you by both personally and professionally. When you apply for a job I guarantee your name will be googled and Facebook pages will be looked at. Think about what you want prospective employers to be looking at!

Strategy

Don’t play games you don’t understand, even if you see lots of other people making money from them.
Don’t cheat. Cheaters never win in the long run.
Stick to your principle.
Be Patient and Think Long Term

I have friends and colleagues that make good money doing a range of activities. In the past I’ve thought, “I’ll do a bit of that”. More often than not it’s not worked out because I don’t fully understand the games they are playing. I’m not the ‘Bootcamp King’ or the ‘Kettlebell Guy’ of the man that can get you to do 100 chin ups in 6 weeks’. I’m the performance coach and I stick to what I know and continue to try and be the best I can be.

Cheating is an interesting one. The strength and conditioning community is a small one and you really don’t want to start telling fibs about what you have done and who you have worked with. You will get found out at some point and that will be your career done and dusted. I’ve received applications from coaches that tell me they have worked with an athlete or team that I was in fact working with! I kid you not! Just because you have walked past an athlete at a training ground doesn’t mean you have worked with them. When I worked at the English Institute of Sport we had some very high profile track and field athletes training at the centre. My colleague was responsible for their strength and conditioning support. Sure I knew these athletes, sure I was in the gym when they were training, but I didn’t have the overall responsibility for their training. These were people that were well known to the public but they weren’t ‘my athletes’. We also had a bunch of athletes that were highly successful in their own sport but the general public wouldn’t have know them from Adam, I looked after those guys! When friends, family and colleagues asked me who I worked with and did I work with anyone famous it would have been easy to real off a list of names that trained at our facility and make out I worked with them. I didn’t. I talked about the people I actually worked with. Don’t cheat, you’ll get found out.

(you will get caught!)

Sticking to your principles is an important one. Working in some professional sports or with the general public can challenge your philosophy. Don’t become the ‘Hollywood’ coach, doing things that keep the coaches and athletes happy but don’t really impact on performance, changing your principles every season. As a coach you should have a training philosophy. We live and operate in a world where everything needs to be new, flash with quick fixes to keep everyone happy. We are thirsty for innovation. Well, sometimes simplicity if pure genius and athletes just need to train consistently. Sometimes you have to walk away when faced with an environment that demands a ‘Hollywood’ approach to training.

(Hollywood is not reality)

Evolution not revolution. Don’t walk in to a new team or club and throw your weight around trying to change the systems in a day. You may get radical changes in the short term but it rarely leads to long term success. As coaches we are educators and that takes time. Embrace slow change, it lasts longer. I’ve worked with squads where I can see there are ten things that need to be changed but I’ve had to be patient and work on one aspect at a time, slowly chipping away until one day you reach the tipping point. In my experience walking in a shouting about how great you are and how you will revolutionise training rarely works in the long term.

(Don’t be a Charlie Big Spuds – no one is impressed!)

So that’s the end of Part I, I’ve got a ton of information to go through in Part II next week when I’ll take a look at the importance of continual learning and developing a culture.

Let me know what you think of the first part, any thoughts or personal experiences you may have had that relates to the key points in this post.

Categories : alwyn cosgrove, career, coaching, elite athletes, fitness business strategies, Nick Grantham

Comments (5)

Aug

Performance Yoga

Posted by: Nick Grantham | Comments (0)

(an interesting book by the way and I’ve used this in conjunction with Stretch To Win and Anatomy Trains)

Back in May I ran an introductory post on the potential benefits of Yoga and I promised a follow up from my good friend and colleague Mark Jarvis (MMJ Training). Mark is a great S&C coach (he stepped into a large pair of shoes when he took over from me as the lead S&C coach at the EIS in the WM’s) and he is now overseeing the S&C for West Brom in addition to his duties at the EIS. He’s a busy fella and that probably explains why he’s taken so long in getting his follow up piece over to me to share with you!!!

Anyway, read on and enjoy.

Yoga – what exactly is it.

A posh stretch, exercise for girls or a total waste of time? Whatever your view, yoga is probably the most misunderstood and underused physical preparation tool available to the S&C coach or well educated athlete.

Whilst most of us would shiver at the thought of using single-joint machine exercises as the core of our strength training programmes but can we really claim that our stretching routines are that much more advanced? Yoga takes us away from these archaic methods (which ironically are much newer than the ancient poses) and shows us how to stretch the myofascial slings (if you haven’t heard of these you need to read Anatomy Trains asap). These reflect the way the body TRULY works rather than how it looks in text books.

Far from being just an advanced stretch though, yoga offers a whole host of other benefits towards athletic preparation. The fact that the “poses” are generally performed actively means it’s a great way to develop postural strength (hips, trunk, shoulders and all the rest). By performing all of these things at the same time also gives great density to your training. This leaves either more time for other training or just get out of the gym and get on with the serious business of recovery (see numerous excellent Nick Grantham articles).

Yoga has been around for around 4000 years though so why does it continue to flirt around the outskirts of sport? The answer is partly because being a yoga instructor of good quality is seen as being a way of life. Consequently the best teachers have a great understanding of yoga but don’t understand how athletes truly work. They end up working to a generalised model of how movement should look which is the same as an S&C using “cookie cutter” programmes. Not effective at all.

This is where Performance Yoga at MMJ Training (www.mmjtraining.co.uk) comes into its own. By combining expert S&C knowledge with a yoga expertise we have been able to unpick the poses to evaluate exactly what they offer. These can then be systematically applied to the athlete’s needs using our cross referenced database. See the example below of how the simple Downward Dog can be deconstructed to give a whole host of benefits.

They key thing to understand though is that we are not here to sell the yoga bible. I still use barbells, still run my athletes and still do all the other regular stuff. This is just another area which influences me and another addition to the toolbox. The point is, the better you understand what your tools can give you, the more precise you can be when using them and that is the essence of good programming.

Whilst Mark is a great S&C coach he is the worlds worst salesman (even worse than me!) so I’m not going to apologise for giving his Performance Yoga courses a shameless plug. Mark came up to see me when I was working at Middlesbrough Football Club and he delivered a fantastic in service training session to the sport science and medicine team. The blend of S&C and Yoga works really well and it was a real eye opener. If you think Yoga could be of benefit to you or your team the I would get in touch with Mark.

About.

Mark Jarvis runs Performance Yoga as part of MMJ Training consultancy (www.mmjtraining.co.uk). Group workshops are available as are bespoke seminars to sporting organisations and medical teams.

Categories : coaching, elite athletes, football, functional training, injury, recovery and regeneration, yoga

Comments (0)

Jul

Pre-Season Bingo and B&@&%T

Posted by: Nick Grantham | Comments (1)

I’ve been spending the past couple of weeks block paving my driveway. Well, I’ve been laboring whilst my father in law does all the tricky stuff. Basically if it needed smashing, shoveling, mixing or shifting I’ve been doing it.

(look at the progress from just one HILCT Bootcamp session – we shovel, smash and shift)

Now what the hell has this got to do with pre-season training I hear you shout. Well, I was half expecting the local premiership football or rugby team to rock up on my street and muck in and do some pre-season training with me, hotly pursued by the local press and possibly SKY Sports News. Come on, what better way for these players to ‘bond’ and get ‘fit’ for the forthcoming season than a bit of ‘HILCT Bootcamp’ (High Intensity Labor Circuit Training).

NB: I’m starting a class up by the way if anyone is interested, we’ve a bunch of driveways on my street that all need doing so I figured ‘HILCT Bootcamps’ could prove very popular, everyone gets in great shape and my street has some fantastic driveways at the end of it!

I know it sounds daft but we are well and truly in the middle of silly season, sorry I mean pre-season. I’m struggling to pick up a paper or watch a sports report on TV without seeing multi-million pound assets pulling and pushing trucks, running up and down sand dunes, taking part in ‘bootcamps’ or throwing themselves around an assault course with a military PTI in a tight white vest screaming abuse at them (I apologise to my brother in advance, no offense meant bruv!). All in the name of getting some good pre-season work under their belts.

(MOVE you orrible little man)

What a load of total and utter bullshit (in my honest opinion).

Pre-season is possibly one of the most important times of the year for any sportsperson. It’s the one time that you can actually put together some consistent training and work on areas of physical preparation that in all honesty are neglected once the season gets under way. As a strength and conditioning coach this is the one time you can get your hands on players and influence their training, without having to worry if they are going to have to play two games in four days. This is not the time to be pissing about doing bootcamps on beaches (in fact I’m not really sure when there’s a right time for that!). As one of my fellow S&C coaches said “Nick, it’s easy to ‘empty’ a squad, but how do you quantify, manage, overload and progress?”. Exactly, these one off ‘Hollywood’ sessions are pretty pointless.

(team building my arse!)

“Ahh, but Nick” I hear you say, “these activities are great for team building, it gets the lads together, they love it and they form a bond”. BULLSHIT! I know of teams that have worked with the military in pre-season, had sessions delivered by soldiers that have seen and been injured in action etc and whilst the players were probably humbled for oh, maybe 30 minutes, at no point did it make them better players, able to draw on what they did during those training sessions when the going got tough halfway through the season. You don’t develop a set of nuts and a desire to win in that sort of staged training session. You’ve either got it, or developed it over a long period of time. Yes they will have probably worked harder than they have ever done in their life and yes carrying the log as a team up a bloody great big hill will have shown who in the squad had some metal, but don’t think that one session did anything in terms of ‘team building’.

(AIRBORNE!)

You’re kidding yourself. In fact, when one of my colleagues heard I may be writing about this subject he said “I have never met a player who was better, felt tougher or ,more ‘bonded’ as a result.

Now don’t get me wrong, there will be teams out there that are doing things the right way, actually training with a purpose. I know this because I’ve seen them on SKY Sports News as well (usually wearing something revolutionary like a heart rate monitor!!). No seriously, the top teams tend to get things right and make the most of the short pre-season that they have with their players. They realise time is precious and it’s probably not wise to send your multi million pound players off for some ‘Hollywood’ training sessions with a random coach.

(Bring out the gimp…)

OK, so it’s a bit of light hearted rant but at the heart of it is a serious message. Pre-season is a crucial window of opportunity. It’s the perfect time to make a positive impact on players physical preparation. It’s not the time to be simulating a beach landing with the Royal Marie Commando’s.

(The Gaffa said this will help when we push for promotion next season…)

So come on, lets all play PRE-SEASON BINGO. Let me know every time you see or read a report about your local sports team taking part in some bullshit pre-season training session. I may even give a prize for the daftest session (you’ll have to prove it’s genuine though!).

Here are some of the activities you may see:

Running on the beach (preferably sand dunes)
Pulling a car (probably a sponsors car or maybe a branded car from a local gym where the team are training!)
Hitting a tractor tyre with sledgehammer
Flipping a tractor tyre
Dragging a tractor tyre
Running through an army assault course
Carry a bloody great big log up a bloody great big hill
Bootcamps!
Strongman training

Categories : coaching, elite athletes, football, functional training, intensity, Nick Grantham, Programme design, rugby

Comments (1)

Jul

Performance Training Mentorship – 2011 Intake

Posted by: Nick Grantham | Comments (0)

Performance Training Mentorship Programme from Nick Grantham on Vimeo.

If you are a strength and conditioning coach, personal trainer, physical therapist, sports therapist, or other health professional then this is your last chance to apply for the Performance Training Mentorship Programme that I’m running in September with my colleague Duncan French.

We can’t accept applications for the Septmeber programme after the 16th August and the next programme won’t run until 2012, so check out what we are going to cover in September and get yourself up to Newcastle for 3 days of hands on learning, backed up with solid theories and principles.You may even get time to have a night oot on the toon!

Whether training high performance athletes, young athletes or weekend warriors, learning the training methodologies that we use will help you raise your level as an achiever in your profession. We guarantee a 3 day mentorship that will change the way you train yourself and your athletes/clients. We will improve your skills as a trainer and give you the confidence to work with anyone, from weekend warriors through to Olympic level athletes.

Here’s what James has to say about being mentored…

"I have always been passionately fond of sport and chose to study sports science for my first degree. Here I developed an interest in strength and conditioning but was not sure how to progress in this field. As soon as I began working with Nick he gained my full interest and attention. His mentor programme was different from anything that I had previously encountered. He is able to combine academic knowledge and practical application making personal development easy and enjoyable. His mentoring technique bridges the gap between academic studies and the working environment. Nick has been an inspiration to me as I look forward to starting a career in strength and conditioning. I will always be grateful to him for the way in which he developed my professional and personal skills and for his unfailing help and encouragement."
JAMES HAIRSINE (S&C Coach)

Duncan and I sat down at the start of 2010 and put a programme together that covers all of the essential elements required by fitness professionals wanting to take their skills to the next level. Here’s what you can expect from the 3 days.

“The Bottom line is that time spent with Nick and Duncan is worth the investment. We have built a successful business on seeking out the best in their fields and picking aspects from each to form our own approach, and the three days with the guys have definitely contributed by giving us things that we will implement into our programmes. The learning environment is an open one where you’ll feel comfortable to expose yourself to what you don’t know. I would thoroughly recommend the three days to anyone who is serious about furthering themselves and their business.”

JEAN CLAUDE VACASSIN (Director of S&C W10 Performance)

Performance Training Mentorship Testimonial from Nick Grantham on Vimeo.

DAY 1 – Wednesday Performance Conditioning Framework

Module One – The Fundamental Principles

Training variables and tools may change but your training principles should remain constant. In the first module Nick and Duncan will walk you through fundamental training principles that are central to the development of high performance training programmes. You will learn the importance of transfer of training and why progressive overload underpins everything you do as a coach.

Module Two – Evaluations

Conducting an initial evaluation of your client, athlete or team is crucial. Learn how to develop an effective needs analysis, the key points to remember during evaluations, and the most effective movement screens and fitness tests currently being used by professionals in the industry.

Module Three – Programme Design

Nick and Duncan have written thousands of training programmes for professionals in sport and will share with you how to design the most effective programme for the athlete. You will discover how to choose suitable periodisation models, manipulate every training variable (not just sets and reps) and how to select and sequence exercises to develop fully integrated training programmes.

Module Four – Art and Science of Performance Coaching

Do you know how to get the best out of your athletes and clients? In this module Nick and Duncan will share with you decision training strategies that are far superior to traditional behavioural models. You will learn about the evolution of coaching and how to use language more effectively to establish triggers and coaching cues that will elevate your clients’ performances during training.

DAY 2 – Thursday – Advanced Conditioning Strategies

Module One – Movement Preparation

If your idea of preparing a client or athlete to perform is to send them off on a run around the pitch or to sit them on a bike for 10 minutes then you need to pay attention during this module. Nick and Duncan will show the importance of movement preparation and will explore a range of strategies including pre-activation drills, soft tissue techniques, flexibility and mobility and lifting complexes.

Module Two – Core stability and Strength

Physiotherapists have had a huge influence on current trends in core training. Whilst they know how to get injured people healthy they don’t always know how to prepare people for the demands of sport or life. Nick and Duncan will cut through the myths and pseudo science and show you fast and effective strategies to develop strong and stable core musculature using a range of simple yet highly effective training techniques.

Module Three – Energy Systems

Do your clients and athletes need the ability to tolerate and recover from high workloads? In this module Nick and Duncan will show you how to develop phenomenal work capacities in your clients and athletes using both traditional and contemporary training methods. Find out how reverse periodisation can develop the specific fitness needed to achieve optimal adaptive responses.

Module Four – Recovery and Regeneration

As coaches you need to develop programmes that optimise your clients and athletes physiological adaptations whilst reducing the risk of residual fatigue. Nick and Duncan will explore the multifactorial nature of fatigue, its impact on performance and how using the recovery pyramid you can establish recovery strategies that will significantly enhance your clients and athletes performances.

DAY 3 – Friday - Strength, Power and Speed

Module One – Strength and Power Development

Nick and Duncan have both spent more than a decade getting athletes stronger and more powerful. In this module they will discuss strength training for athletic performance, the importance of force development and the effective application of Olympic weightlifting techniques and plyometics. At the end of this module you will understand how to lift correctly and develop true athleticism with your athletes and clients.

Module Two – Multidimensional Speed and Agility

Top performers in any sport are typically those that are the most explosive and efficient movers. Discover how to develop absolute linear speed, improve your athletes ability to detect and react to a stimulus and accelerate, decelerate effectively. Armed with the fundamental training techniques you will learn how to develop game speed – multidimensional speed and agility using modern training strategies such as CHAOS training and decision training.

The agenda provides a very brief overview of what this mentorship programme is all about. The information here has been developed from being in the trenches week in, week out, for over a decade; taking thousands of weight training sessions, speed sessions, field sessions, warm ups, rehabilitation sessions; finding out what works and more importantly what doesn’t!

The Performance Training Mentorship Programme will be offered during selected weeks throughout the year. The programme is limited to 16 people and is by application only. To register for the mentorship programme please e-mail your current CV and a brief paragraph (maximum 500 words) about why you should be accepted to info@nickgrantham.com

Full programme details, including accommodation and travel options will be provided to all mentorship participants once accepted onto the programme.

The mentorship program will be offered:

Autumn Mentorship September 7th – 9th 2011

Programme Cost

The cost of the mentorship programme is £1000 for three days of valuable learning experience.

Jul

Evolution not Revolution

Posted by: Nick Grantham | Comments (0)

The brains behind the Leaders In Performance conference recently asked me for my thoughts on training innovations. I don’t think that I delivered what they were expecting, but then innovation isn’t always about the bells and whistles.

Innovation in Strength and Conditioning

One term that I have heard regularly throughout my career as a strength and conditioning coach working in high performance sport is “innovation”. Coaches, performance directors and athletes are always looking for something new that the competition isn’t doing, which will boost performance. The 1% that will make the difference. Sometimes they spend so long looking for the 1-2% that the other 98% that makes up performance is neglected.

Recognising that ‘innovation’ doesn’t always need to mean new, there are a number of principles that strength and conditioning coaches should apply when developing integrated performance training programmes. They may seem obvious, but for many sports and athletes, consistent application of the following principles during training will in itself be an “innovation”.

1. Movement
Having worked across a wide range of sports I’ve come to realise that movement is the key. Vern Gambetta says that “to design an effective training programme, you need to train fundamental movement skills…” When you actually stop and look at different sports, you find that they share common movement patterns. An integrated performance training programme should develop movements, not muscles. Use ground based ‘Big Bang’ exercises, compound multiple joint (unilateral and bilateral) movements emphasising quality of movement before quantity.

2. Transfer
Functional training is a term that gets banded around a lot, but what does it actually mean? It certainly doesn’t mean athletes should be wobbling around on unstable surfaces performing exercises that look like they belong in a Cirque du Soleil act. It also doesn’t mean the exercise should closely mimic the actual sport in the misplaced pursuit of ‘specificity’. For an exercise to be ‘functional’ we need to consider ‘transfer’ – to what degree each quality trained in the gym or in practice actually ‘transfers’ to improved sports performance.

Transfer of training effect is far more important than specificity. Training doesn’t always have to look like the sport to be effective, but for it to be ‘functional’ and impact on performance it should develop the following criteria:
1. Biomechanics (movement – kinematics)
2. Metabolic (energy systems)
3. Force velocity (kinetics)

3. Continuity
Talent is overrated! I don’t subscribe to the school of thought that we are born with an innate talent that is just sitting there dormant, waiting to come to life. What I do believe, is that everyone will have their own genetic blueprint that may help them on their path to becoming a great athlete, it’s what you do with that blueprint that makes the difference. Without doubt, one of the most important factors to impact on performance is consistent and focused training. 10,000 hours of deep and focused practice. The world of professional sport can be very fickle. It’s simply not good enough to flit from one training regime to the other. Consistency of effort is the trump card that many professional athletes and coaches are missing. The latest trend or ‘guru’ won’t bring about long lasting change or develop champions. Working on a long term programme, consistently with effort will.

4. Injuries Are Opportunities
There are two important things to consider during the rehabilitation of an injury; 1. train the athlete, not the injury and 2, injury rehab should be considered as a longer period of preparation.

Train the athlete, not the injury. It’s easy to fall into the trap of constantly asking ‘how’s the knee’ and treating just the injury rather than the fighter. The focus of training becomes the injury and all the conversations and exercises are aimed solely at the injured body part. Big mistake. View the time you spend coming back from injury as an opportunity to develop the athlete. Rehabilitation has less to do with the specific injury and more to do with becoming a better athlete.

Injury is an opportunity and everyone has the chance to become better during the process of the “comeback” (Bill Knowles, 2010). Possibly one of the most important things to consider is that injury rehabilitation is a longer period of preparation, not a faster return to competition. All too often in high performance sport we are rushing the process. Whilst there will inevitably be time demands placed on the support staff, the aim should be to “achieve the highest level of training within the shortest period of time while respecting the biology of healing” (Knowles, 2010). In other words, only return to competition when you are completely ready. This is particularly important when it comes to the later stages of the programme. There’s a huge difference between being ready to return to training and being ready to step onto the court, or pitch and return to competition!

5. Invisible Training
Work alone is not enough to produce the best results. Recovery and regeneration is an integral part of overall training and practice, and it needs to be applied with both short and long term goals constantly in mind (Siff, 2000). The body needs time to adapt to training. To encourage adaptation to it, it is important to plan activities which reduce residual fatigue.

Fatigue exists in various forms (metabolic, tissue damage, neural, environmental, psychological) and time should be spent making sure the body is in the best possible physical state before training. It is important to consider the ‘24 hour athlete’. It is what happens before and after training that is really important.

Improvements in an athlete’s ability to recover from training can be achieved by putting in place interventions that take effect long before the training event starts (training diaries, sleep/naps, myofascial release, pre-workout meals). Increasing recovery rates will increase the athletes ability to train and will ultimately enhance their training and performance.

Final Thoughts
Whilst the pursuit of innovative training methods may be warranted, my experience working across a wide range of sports has taught me that being ‘innovative’ doesn’t always mean you have to be ‘cutting edge’. More often than not, innovation can come in the simplest and most basic form and it is often a case of getting the basics right. Take care of the 98%.

Categories : coaching, elite athletes, functional training, injury, Nick Grantham, recovery and regeneration

Comments (0)

Apr

Pre-Activity Preparation

Posted by: Nick Grantham | Comments (0)

I’ve been pulling together a bunch of information relating to movement preparation for a session I’m delivering this weekend at the EXF-Perform Better Learn By Doing Seminar. I’ve always used a variety of training strategies to help prepare my athletes and clients for their training session and regulars will know that myslef and Duncan French put our heads together last year to develop a training resource (P2P Olympic Movement Preparation).

I like to try and have a system to what I’m doing and this weekends presentation has made me take a look at the way I approach movement preparation. I thought I would share one of slides with you…if you want to see the rest then give the team at EXF a shout and see if they have any spaces available for this weekends workshop in London.

I’ve put this slide together today so it’s hot off the press! As with all things it will probably be a work in progress but at this moment in time these are the key elements that I would include as part of my movement preparation strategy. If you tick the boxes then I believe you’ll get what we are all seeking – performance enhancement.

What do you think?

Would you add anything?

Categories : elite athletes, functional training, injury, Perform Better, programme, Programme design

Comments (0)

Mar

The Ten Training Commandments

Posted by: Nick Grantham | Comments (0)

A couple of years ago I was asked what my training philosophy was, I fumbled around for a while plucking phrases and words out of the air and managed to give a half decent answer. That question, and my half arsed attempt to answer it, made me sit down and think about what I really believe to be the foundations of my training philiosophy. After numerous attempts I came up with the following (by the way, I didn’t actually write thou shalt – that sounds a bit pompous doesn’t it…it just fits nicely with the title…work with me on this one!!!!)…

EVERYONE SHOULD TRAIN LIKE AN ATHLETE

Thou shalt strive for quality of movement before quantity
Thou shalt use exercises that develop multi-dimensional movements not muscles
Thou shalt embraced bodyweight and free weights
Thou shalt use ground based – ‘Big Bang’ exercises – compound multiple joint (unilateral and bilateral)
Thou shalt train functionally (biomechanics, metabolic, force velocity curve – combination)
Thou shalt use high Intensity interval based cardio
Thou shalt make every session time efficient (short training sessions)
Thou shalt maintain continuity – programmes not workouts
Thou shalt train with Intensity
Thou shalt recognise the importance of invisible Training

These ten points are pretty much the foundation of everything that I do and are why I firmly believe that everyone should be able to train like an athlete. It’s taken me more than a decade of coaching to come up with them and I’ve been heavily influenced by the coaches and athletes that I’ve worked with. I will often use different tools to get the job done but only if they ‘fit’ with my overall training philosophy…Everyone Should Train Like An Athlete.

I would encourage you to think about what the key principles are that you follow when developing a programme. Once you have a philosophy everything else falls into place and you are less likely to be one of those coaches that constantly switches training styles or follows. gurus..you know the ones I mean, you walk in and one week everyone is flipping tyres, the next week kettlebells are being swung around all over the place, the next week everyone is doing Zumba….OK, maybe they’re not all doing Zumba!

Go on, develop a training philosophy.

Categories : coaching, elite athletes, functional training, intensity, Nick Grantham, programme, Programme design, recovery and regeneration

Comments (0)

Mar

EXF-Perform Better Seminar Coming Soon…

Posted by: Nick Grantham | Comments (0)

I took a call from Charles Burch from EXF-Peform Better a couple of weeks ago to tell me that he’s secured three fantastic overseas speakers for the EXF-Perform Better two day summit in April in London…oh…did I forget to mention that! Yes, the turn around time on this one is pretty tight but it’s one workshop that you don’t want to miss. Check out who’s going to be there:

They’ve secured three speakers from the US. Robert dos Remedios will be back in the UK for only the second time and he’s got some terrific sessions lined up. Aaron Moser will be over representing Peform Better (the go to people for all things related to functional training and rehabilitation in the US) and Chad Skrederstu who runs Snow, Sand, Street.

Not to be outdone, the UK are represented by some serious S&C coaches including Duncan French, Neil Parsley, and yours truely! Duncan is a familiar name to regulars on the site and helped developed the P2P Olympic Movement Preparation DVD and training manual with me. Neil works for the English Institute of Sport whipping the countries best combat athletes into shape whilst spending every other waking hour smashing clients at the Underground Training Station.

I think you’ll agree that the team at EXF have pulled together a great line up. Here’s a sneak peak of the topics that will be covered over the two days:

Robert dos Remedios – Cardio Strength Training

Personal trainers and strength & conditioning coaches alike will benefit from learning new, innovative, and extremely effective metabolic conditioning protocols. Help your clients and athletes shed fat, build muscle, improve their fitness and stoke the all important metabolic fire that serves as our fat burning furnace. Traditional steady-state cardio is not only ineffective at shedding fat and improving fitness, it can potentially compromise our valuable lean body mass. Learn efficient and effective training protocols that are backed in science and real-world results from best-selling author and award winning strength and conditioning coach Robert dos Remedios, MA, CSCS, SCCC. Coach dos has authored both Men’s Health Power Training and Cardio Strength Training (Rodale book) both of which were world-wide best-sellers.

Duncan French – Unlocking The Secrets of Multidimensional Speed and Agility

In this presentation Duncan will discuss how to take speed and agility to the next level. Duncan will show you how to develop athletes who can produce the right movement, at the right time, in the most efficient manner…at speed In this session you will not only find out the theory behind speed and agility development, you will have a chance to experience many of Duncan’s training concepts and drills first hand during the hands on training session.

Aaron Moser – Fitness Business Trends: Success Secrets From The US

In this session Aaron will provide and insight and offer advice on how to develop a successful PT business. In the lecture he will cover all of the new trends that you are starting to see pop up in the fitness world. Trends that have exploded in the US market due to things Like Small Group Training, Cross Fit, and the Biggest Loser. He will talk about how you can take these trends and grow your own business to the next level. For his hands on, Aaron will take the group through a 50 min group training with the 4 phases that we have to hit with that amount of time given…under control and, with purpose in mind.

Chad Skerderstu – A Global Perspective To Coaching

After spending a year, visiting 18 countries and observing over 60 fitness professionals Chad Skrederstu has found 5 similarities that great coaches around the world share in improving performance. The talk will discuss the strategies and methods the top fitness professionals around the world implement in a variety of populations ranging from Olympic athletes to average Joe’s. You’ll gain insight on coaching strategies, programme design and how to bring out the best in the people they work with.

Neil Parsley – Training The Athletic Engine
In this presentation Neil will share with you the three components that he feels are the cornerstones of athletic development, balance, movement, and strength. He will show you his functional training methodologies and the essential tools that every S&C and trainer should have in their locker. Whether you’re playing sports professionally, or have a regular day-job, you need to be able to move and move well…Neil is going to show you how.

Nick Grantham – Prepare 2 Perform

The Warm-Up is possibly one of the most misunderstood and underutilised aspects of training by coaches and trainers. Sitting on a bike or jogging laps is just not acceptable. Nick takes a look at the concept of movement preparation in light of all the recent advances and will share with you how he sets about developing an effective movement preparation programme. This presentation will focus on a practical “how to” approach to things like foam rolling, stretching and mobility work, pre-activation activities with emphasis on systems that will work for personal trainers, strength coaches and sport coaches.

It’s going to be a great weekend, for full booking details visit

>>www.exf-fitness.com<<

See you all on the 9th and 10th April at Southbank Uni in London…have a look at a couple of video’s from last years events. The first clip was the season finale, fantastic day in Oxford and the second clip was where it all kicked off last year in Ipswich

Feb

Performance Training Mentorship Programme – Spring 2011

Posted by: Nick Grantham | Comments (0)

We can’t accept applications for the Spring programme after the 13th March and the next programme won’t run until September 2011, so check out what we are going to cover in March and get yourself up to Newcastle for 3 days of hands on learning, backed up with solid theories and principles.You may even get time to have a night oot on the toon!

Here’s what James has to say about being mentored…

"I have always been passionately fond of sport and chose to study sports science for my first degree. Here I developed an interest in strength and conditioning but was not sure how to progress in this field. As soon as I began working with Nick he gained my full interest and attention. His mentor programme was different from anything that I had previously encountered. He is able to combine academic knowledge and practical application making personal development easy and enjoyable. His mentoring technique bridges the gap between academic studies and the working environment. Nick has been an inspiration to me as I look forward to starting a career in strength and conditioning. I will always be grateful to him for the way in which he developed my professional and personal skills and for his unfailing help and encouragement."
James Hairsine

Duncan and I sat down at the start of the year and put a programme together that covers all of the essential elements required by fitness professionals wanting to take their skills to the next level. Here’s what you can expect from the 3 days.

DAY 1 – Wednesday Performance Conditioning Framework

Module One – The Fundamental Principles

Module Two – Evaluations

Module Three – Programme Design

Module Four – Art and Science of Performance Coaching

DAY 2 – Thursday – Advanced Conditioning Strategies

Module One – Movement Preparation

Module Two – Core stability and Strength

Module Three – Energy Systems

Module Four – Recovery and Regeneration

DAY 3 – Friday - Strength, Power and Speed

Module One – Strength and Power Development

Module Two – Multidimensional Speed and Agility

The agenda provides a very brief overview of what this mentorship programme is all about. The information here has been developed from being in the trenches week in, week out, for over a decade; taking thousands of weight training sessions, speed sessions, field sessions, warm ups, rehabilitation sessions; finding out what works and more importantly what doesn’t!

Full programme details, including accommodation and travel options will be provided to all mentorship participants once accepted onto the programme.

The mentorship program will be offered: