Well the dust has
just about settled from last weeks Functional Training Summit! Delegates travelled from all corners of the UK to converge on Kingston Park Stadium in Newcastle Upon Tyne. The line up of presenters was impressive and included myself, Neil Parsley from the English Institute of Sport, Nick Ward, Lead S&C for TASS and our international speaker, Coach Robert Dos Remedios who had brought the Californian sunshine to the North East with him!
Coach Dos kicked proceedings off with the
first of two feature presentations. In his first session he shared with the audience how he had helped competitive and recreational athletes achieve their goals. He introduced everyone to his world of performance-based training, where function comes first and physical benefits are unmatched.
After a break for lunch, delegates returned for t
he afternoon programme which got underway with a session looking at Total Training for Combat Sports - Conditioning for the modern combat athlete. Myself and Neil showed real world examples of how to get combat athletes ready to step onto the mat and into the ring. We outlined the strategies wehave used to train boxers, wrestlers, judokas and taekwon-do competitors. Once all the talking was completed delegates had a chance to experience first hand our hardcore mixed metabolic training to learn how to develop strength using ascending and descending training and discover for the first time Eastern block training secrets that we use to help our personal training clients stay 'bullet proof' and their fighters win World Championships!
Nick Ward then delivered an insightful session exploring his his Performance Planning Matrix, a tool he has developed to help analyse goals and objectives to ensure results are delivered for his clients. This session showed exactly you to get the most out of athletes and personal training clients.
In the final session of the day Coach Dos demonstrated and explained the concepts and techniques involved in combination lifting. Featured exercises ranged from beginner to advanced and everyone was able to get to grips with exercises that were suitable for use in general fitness programs all the way up to advanced athletic conditioning programs.
As the session closed delegates departed for a night out in Newcastle, something I think Coach Dos and Chris Poirier from Perform Better are still trying to get to grips with (Newcastle has to be one of the best places to party in the UK, if not the World).
Day two
got underway with Coach Dos' second feature presentation. This time Coach Dos shared with the delegates to take thier speed to the next level. He explained CHAOS training puts the athlete/client as close to sport demands as possible and in this session they not only found out the theory behind the training concept, they had a chance to experience it first hand during the hands on training session out on the training pitches. The weather was fantastic, although Coach Dos still thought that 17 degrees was not really hot! (he needs to live in the North East a little longer and then he will know why we were all out in t-shirts and shorts!)
A slight change of schedule meant that I delivered a session on Recovery and Regeneration, exploring why this area was currently so popular with athletes and looking at how a comprehensive recovery and regeneration strategy could unlock a clients training training potential.
Keeping the tempo going, myself and Coach Dos delivered the final session of the summit. In our session, Ultimate Core Conditioning - Strong and Stable we showed why current 'core training' recommendations fall short of the mark when it comes to training athletes! In the final practical of the weekend delegates experienced how to develop a strong and stable core through a combination of bridging and stabilisation exercises, rotational and anti-rotational core exercises and 'uninhibited' strength and power exercise!
The Functional Training Summit was a huge success and delegates left on Sunday with with 'Monday morning' exercises that would immediately improve the way they trained their clients and athletes. I would just like to take this opportunity to thank Coach Dos for coming over to the UK and sharing his training strategies with everyone at the event. I would also like to thank Charles, Clare and Nik from EXF who helped to make sure that the whole event was a huge success. Thanks also goes to Nigel Stockill from Optima Life for coming to the summit and showing attendees the revolutionary monitoring system developed for both athletes and general population.
We are already looking to put together another summit before the end of the year, and it looks like we will be bringing the summit to London. Keep your eyes on the blog for more details coming soon. If the feedback is anything to go on we will have another great event.
What the delegates thought
'Great speakers on useful and meaningful topics...'
'The practical sessions very good...'
'CHAOS speed training session was very useful...'
'I loved the hands on, practical approach and layout. This was a well organised and thorough seminar, well done...'
'Great practical aspects, very good presenters...'