I had the pleasure of attending Frans Bosch and Liang Chow's two day course in Memphis.
Day 1 course was titled, “Elite Speed Development & Motor Behavior” and I honestly didn’t know what to expect from the course. I attended the course because I was aware of Frans Bosch’s work from his book, Running: Biomechanics and Exercise Physiology in Practice and I thought the course would be targeted at the information in the book and geared mainly towards running biomechanics and Frans’ thoughts around improving an athlete’s running ability. I was pleasantly surprised by the course as Frans covered a number of topics and talked a lot about applying his concepts to team sport athletes and gymnasts as Liang was his guest speaker for Day 2. Liang is owner of "Chow's Gymnastics and Dance Institute". Here is an excerpt from his website as to illustrate his credentials.
"Chow is well known for his excellence as a coach and for training Olympic Gold Medalist Shawn Johnson, but Chow was also an exceptional gymnast for the Chinese National team. Throughout his competitive gymnastics career, he received numerous honors and winning more than 30 International Gold Medals. In 1990, Chow won the All-Around title and became the XIV World Cup Master Champion. That year he also became the Asian Games Champion. In 1989, Chow was a Bronze Medalist at the 1989 World Championship.
After moving to the United States and coaching the men's and women's gymnastics teams at the University of Iowa, Chow opened his own world-class gymnastics training facility in West Des Moines, Iowa. It is here that he trained Shawn Johnson & Gabby Douglas. He continually trains other Olympic hopefuls and strives to provide the highest-quality gymnastics program possible in the United States.
Athletic Achievements
- XIV World Cup Master Champion in All Around (1990)
- Bronze Medalist, 1989 World Championship
- Asian Games Champion (1990)
- Over 30 International Gold Medals
- Numerous Chinese National Championship Titles
- Former Chinese National World Team Co-Captain Certifications
Career Achievements
- 2012 National Coach of the Year
(voted by US Olympic Committee & Pan American Olympic Committee) - 2009 Region 4 Coach of the Year
- 2008 Senior Elite Coach of the Year
- 2007 National Coach of the Year
(voted by US Olympic Committee & Pan American Olympic Committee) - 2007 Senior Elite Coach of the Year
- 2004 State of Iowa Coach of the Year
- 2000 State of Iowa Coach of the Year
- Coach of 2012 London Olympic Games Gold Medal Team
- Personal Coach of 2012 London Olympic Games All-around Champion -
Gabby Douglas - Personal Coach of 2012 London Olympic Games Gold Medalist -
Gabby Douglas - Coach of 2011 World Champion Team at World Championships in Tokyo, Japan
- Head Coach of 2008 Beijing Olympic Games Silver Medal Team
- Head Coach of 2007 Stuttgart World Championship Gold Medal Team
- Personal Coach of 2008 Beijing Olympic Games Beam Champion -
Shawn Johnson - Personal Coach of 2008 Beijing Olympic Games All Around Silver Medalist - Shawn Johnson
- Personal Coach of 2008 Beijing Olympic Games Floor Silver Medalist -
Shawn Johnson
The course was very diverse and Frans concentrated his lecture around the following key topics:
- The building blocks of running/gymnastics.
- Sprinting (top speed running, starts & accelerations, and agility)
- The Dynamic Systems Theory
- Motor Learning & Motor Programming
- Coaching, cuing, and teaching
- Strength development in athletes, teenagers and Moms and Dads. ....these parts kept me alert as he stated concepts I already sensed as it pertains to my Daughters.
The course had a good blend of lecture and practical and Frans did a lot of video analysis, which was very helpful in driving home his points and showing the attendees the basis of some of his concepts. Before I go into my overall impressions of the course I thought I would share some of the notes I jotted down (one liners, comments, thoughts, and ideas that Frans made during his lectures). I took a lot of notes during the course (19 pages front and back) and here are some bullet points that I found useful/interesting.
- Frans questions the idea of basic motor properties (strength, skill, endurance, etc) and feels that looking at training like this is all wrong as there is so much crossover between these properties and when we separate them out we end up with leaks in training transfer.
- Maximum force depends on the brain... CNS demand. We see this in our every day life as those who are wired towards yoga are generally "weak". Which came first? Is it the wiring of the brain, or can the brain be re-wired?
- Co-Contraction is a skill the athlete must possess
- Muscle coordination is key to power output and force production >> Power output is more than just adding up the output of all of the contributing muscles
- Strength training must satisfy the laws of motor learning for optimal transfer to sport.
- Strength training can make you slower if it is applied improperly and does not lead to proper coordination patterns (sport specificity)
- Muscles that have to shorten and lengthen end up working harder, expending more energy, lead to less efficiency, and lead to energy leaks
- Be aware of the small things >> The small things matter and can make a big difference (Butterfly Effect)
- The interaction between the training elements is more important than the sum of all the elements
- Biomechanics may be able to tell us about optimal joint angles but it does not take into account things like kinetic chain anatomy, levers, or other small things (motor control, etc) that matter more for optimal performance
- Most rehab is centered around a typical approach of low level movements (things generally in prone or supine) progressing to integrated movements (basic strength training activities) and finally progressing to the sports movement. This sequence is INCORRECT and does not show an appreciation for dynamic systems. A better approach is to being by evaluating the sports movement the athlete needs to accomplish at the high level and breaking down components of that sports movement into specific stressors that can then be put together in your return to play protocols. (I asked some questions here as it relates to a psoas/SI problem my Daughter is having, and what might be the best protocol...very interesting stuff he said about typical procedures in 95+% of rehab facilities he sees. Simply, they have all learned the same way without taking these principles into account...unfortunately there's no way around it except to take some control of the process)
- Adaptation of tendons only happens if you train the limits of jump height. This means “High risk but high reward”. Training low level jumps yields no return
- You want to maintain an erect body posture during jumping and the less knee angle the better (aim for < 20 degrees of knee flexion) >> Be elastic like a kangaroo! (we see this in the NBA---the highest jumpers have calf relex vs squat/jump sequence...it CAN be trained)
- Pronation is a key component of elastic energy return but only if you know how to (and posses the ability to) control it
- Athletes with more muscle slack and are unable to regulate it are less efficient >> Learn to evaluate sports movement and see where excessive muscle slack may be taking place (being "too" limber limits force production. Duh...NFL players are stronger and more explosive than yoga instuctors, but there is a fine balance for the general public. Takeaway...too much yoga, too little real strength training decreases bone density over time...especially in women. Other end of spectrum....too much strength training without a sport specific goal can lead to problems...although better to err on this side of spectrum)
- In certain jump situations a counter movement is okay and in others it is flat out wrong as it increases the amount of muscle slack that you have
- The idea of pre-stretch is a misconception >> Remove the counter movements and teach the athlete to accelerate concentrically
- Athletes who require large counter movements when performing running or jumping activities (or performing a jump off a run up, in a basketball lay up or high jump, for example) are trying to take the slack out of their system and do not regulate stiffness efficiently
- Co-contractions allow the athlete to pre-tense all antagonists and agonists and then release energy. Less muscle slack = More stiffness
- Poor Weight training principles can create more muscle slack and can cause us to become slow. Can we change the strength exercises we use to limit muscle slack and force the athlete to co-contract and solve for the muscle slack problem? Yes. CNS is the key. (RDL's need to be over 75% of 1 rep max...for women grip might be an issue so move to GM. But training hammies/glutes is necessary in the 99% of us who weren't gifted it from their parent's DNA..the slide of Serena Williams next to Miley Cyrus kinda hit home this point)
- Muscle slack will limit performance
- You can work to improve an athlete’s mobility and flexibility but in the process you also need to make sure you teach them how to regulate stiffness and co-contractions with their new ranges of motion. (very important concept)
- Coordination is critical to performance. You need to re-think your training methods and ask yourself why it is important to make muscles stronger if the athlete never needs to display all that strength in the field of play. Make the athlete strong enough for their sport and then develop methods that allow them to improve muscle coordination and rhythm. Very big Q and A during this part.
- All sports movement has attractors (stable components) and fluctuators (variable components). Evaluate the sport movement to understand which components are attractors and which are fluctuators. Train the attractors as they need to be stable every time. The fluctuators will vary depending on environment and other external feedback.
- Training is not just about optimizing physiology. It is about making the body robust enough to handle many perturbations and variations >> The stronger your attractors are the better stability (robustness) you will have
- There seems to be a correlation between excessive dorsiflexion during mid-stance and anterior pelvic tilt during sprinting >> Potentially leading to injuries further up the chain. (interstingly I rarely see good ankle mobility in the gym from LSD runners...more evidence that LSD running leads to many problems upstream)
- Intrinsic knowledge of results is the holy grail for coaching
- Your attractors in sports movement and intrinsic knowledge of results should be the same thing
- Of all the tools we have available to influence intrinsic learning, differential learning may be the most powerful
- Training muscles in isolation leads to a breakdown in muscle coordination >> Don’t bother with hypertrophy training.
- Having glutes that can generate a lot of power is useless if you can’t apply it to the ground. This was the best part of course as Liang spoke about why elite gymnasts can do what they do. LOTS of genetics involved, but it brought home how much work Julia has in front of her in order to A) reach her potential and B) avoid but nagging injuries. SOmeplace in the chain is going to absorb the impact, and muscle is much more elastic/durable. (RED MEAT AND SQUATS FOR JULIA!!!)
- Power output is rarely an issue of of power production >> It is more an issue of coordination
- Foot placement from above is a critical component to agility
- Give the athlete tools to help self correct their errors >> You can’t really coach an athlete out of their errors, they need to learn to “solve” them on their own
Wrapping Up
Those are a few things I jotted down in my notes (there is a ton more where that came from – too much to type into a blog). I really enjoyed the course and would consider it to be one of the better courses I have attended in the past few years. Frans and Liang was very honest and open and he welcomed disagreement (and they was always very good about telling you why they felt you were wrong). What an honor to be around these two champions of performance. Liang could have spoken more about his success with Gabby Douglas but he has no bravado in him....he really was there to educate us. I really appreciate that in him.
They started the course by saying that the goal was not to make things simple but rather to show us how complex they truly are. One size fits all is lazy...but common in most medical/rehab/nutrition etc practices. (That's so true. It has been very frustrating for me to give people better information than they've been given by the "experts" who have ceased with any kind of continuing education. The truth is, we know more now than we did 5-10 years ago, and will know even more 5 years from now. Some people are set in the past (food pyramid comes to mind...that is a metaphor for Dr's in general....very sad) I can certainly appreciate this. I understand that people want to make things simple all the time and there are certainly instances where using simple descriptions or models can be helpful in getting a point a cross; however, when we are constantly distilling things down to such simplicity we lose sight of the fact that the human body is truly complex and there are many interactions that we need to think about. Being aware of this complexity and trying to keep all of these concepts in the back of our head is essential and I think Frans/Liang did a great job of emphasizing this. As he said in the course, because of how complex this stuff is we probably wont walk out of there in 2 days thinking we have a great grasp of it like most people do when they take a typical weekend certification course these days. Rather, the true learning comes when we put stuff into practice. I can certainly appreciate this. These days most courses are geared towards a middle down crowd who wants to be spoon fed information about “which exercises to do” or“how many sets or reps” or “what are the three most important things I need to know”. Everyone wants to know the “how” instead of really understanding the “why”. We see this in the nutrition field also. Not only does this water down the profession but it also prevents us from progressing forward as there becomes less and less free thinkers or people that are looking to toy with concepts in order to drive knowledge. The famous quote, “I don’t care about what you do. I want to know how you think.” comes to mind. This is how I try and approach every continuing education course I attend and sadly some have fallen short. I think Frans/Liang did a wonderful job of presenting us with information to think about and put less emphasis on the “how to” part. Instead, they showed us how they think. I think that was a great way to teach and present the material. As Frans said, “You can do anything you want with exercises as long as the obey the principles of specificity. The variations are endless. Try everything.”
The one area I have a little disagreement still is on exercise selection. If we have general resistance training for sport on one end of the spectrum (powerlifting, olympic lifting, etc) and we have highly specific exercises in the gym that are supposed to get the largest amount of transfer to sports skill on the other end of the spectrum I would have to say that Frans is all the way on the highly specific end of the spectrum. I tend to be a more middle of the road type of guy. I do see value in general forms of strength training and in having individuals develop base levels of strength and exercise technique. What I do walk away from this course with is an even greater appreciation of how I think about exercise selection on the continuum of general to specific. Additionally, I walk away questioning something I have questioned for a long time – How strong is strong enough? Frans and Liang were both big on talking about making athletes strong enough for their sport and then immediately training specific exercises for skill transfer and not wasting time on slow resistance training exercises. I constantly fight inside my head about where that cut point is when it comes to being strong enough (maybe we will never have a good answer?). We do know when somebody ISN'T strong enough for their sport. One thing I will be more aware of in program design is how and when I start to include some specific strength training because I do believe that the concepts and principles they presented us with in terms of what makes an exercise “specific” are very important.
It was an excellent course.
Onto NY.
