Excessive focus on loading

Source

Description

King, I., 1997, Winning and Loosing

Loading vs. muscle recruitment/integration/sequencing in strength training

Not only does the excessive focus on loading have questionable superior transfer, it also involves greater injury risks for a number of reasons. 

Cosgrove, A., 2003, Martial Arts

Excessive focus on loading

Too much focus on the loads and not how it is being moved and whether or not there is optimal transfer...

Can you be too flexible?

Source

Description

King, I., 1997/2002, Winning & Losing

vii.  Political correctness in flexibility training

I have seen very few athletes who I believed were flexible enough.  And I have only seen one or two athletes in my time who has ‘too much’ flexibility i.e. range of movement at a joint in excess of their ability to control the movement at those joint angles.

Cosgrove, A., 2003, Martial Arts

Can you be too flexible:

…I doubt it…it is NOT too much flexibility; it’s too little strength in relation to her flexibility.

A. I don’t believe that there is such a thing as too much flexibility. In hyper mobile people, there tends to be a big lack of strength in the end ranges of their flexibility.  So it can lead to muscle injuries but the reason is almost always a lack of strength in the extreme ranges, rather than too much flexibility.

Stretching methods  - Static stretching as a percentage of total stretching

Source

Description

King, I., 1997/2002, Winning & Losing (book)

Political correctness in flexibility training

Old-fashioned static stretching should, I believe, be utilized in the majority of your stretching time. 

Cosgrove, A., 2003, Martial Arts

Static stretching is still an important part of my arsenal when working with any athletes – and it makes up the bulk of their stretching time.

Results focused

Source

Description

King, I., 1997 / 2002, Winning and Losing

My challenge was to find out what I needed to know to get a result.  I did that through trial and error, and found the only information I retained was that which I needed to know.  My vocabulary was oriented towards the athlete and what they needed to know. How they needed to hear it.  Big words may impress one’s colleagues, but unless you are an academic or looking for a job appointment that is determined by your peers, there is no value in impressing them – they don’t pay you!

Cosgrove, A., 2005, Program Design Bible

I’m all of those. And I’m none of those. I’m a results guy. I guess my philosophy is “Results by Design. Not by coincidence.”  Get the best results in the least amount of time. The faster I get results the more I get paid.

Limitations and role of science in training

Source

Description

King, I., 1997/2002, Winning and Losing

This conflicts perhaps with the scientific influence in this industry.  I see a tendency towards ‘studies have shown this so this is what will happen’.  I don’t agree with this.  I believe one of the perpetual limitations of science will always be ‘but you were not in that study’.  By this I mean the influence or impact of the individual – we are all different.  You can apply the same stimulus to two different people and get two different results.

Sure there have been studies.  But not with the exact variables we face in real life.  No-one can say what is going to happen - until it has happened.  Then we become wiser, have some feeling for the next similar occasion.  But no two occasions are exact.  Everything we do is for the most part an experiment.

Cosgrove, A., 2005, Program Design BIble

Research has the answer:  One reason that there is so much training misinformation is that research often produces conflicting results.

Studies are often perfectly administered in a perfectly controlled environment.  Real life is an imperfect environment with constantly adjusting variables, to the application of the research is often lacking.

One-off tests

Source

Description

King, I., 1997/2002, Winning and Losing

One off tests:  Are relatively useless and should not be encouraged

Cosgrove, A.,  2005, Program Design Bible

It is also important to recognize that assessments are not a one off event …

Knowing vs. doing

Source

Description

King, I., 1997/2002, Winning and Losing (book)

Chapter 38 - Too much information

I have seen many sensational research articles, and then been surprised by the low level of competence of the author in practical application.  I call this the practical application deficit!  There is a difference between knowing a lot and being able to string it together in no time limit in an article, sitting in your office.

Cosgrove, A., 2005, Program Design Bible

I’m amazed at how many of these people completely blow me away with their knowledge when I’m speaking to them, watching them present or reading their material.  Yet when I see their programs – which are nothing more than the actual delivery system of their knowledge – I’m usually disappointed.

Results focused

Source

Description

King, I., 1997 / 2002, Winning and Losing

My challenge was to find out what I needed to know to get a result.  I did that through trial and error, and found the only information I retained was that which I needed to know.  My vocabulary was oriented towards the athlete and what they needed to know. How they needed to hear it.  Big words may impress one’s colleagues, but unless you are an academic or looking for a job appointment that is determined by your peers, there is no value in impressing them – they don’t pay you!

Cosgrove, A., 2006, Developing a Training Philosophy, t-nation.com

I'm a results guy. I guess my philosophy is 'Results by Design, Not by Coincidence.' Get the best results in the least amount of time. The faster I can get results, the more I get paid.

Specificity in strength training

Source

Description

King, I., 1997/2002, Winning and Losing (book)

Lets use swimming for example.  Most swimming strokes involve repetitive internal rotation of the upper arm.  Consequently the internal rotators of the arm/shoulder become shorter and tighter than the external rotators.  The more years of training and / or the higher volume of swimming the athlete is exposed to, the greater the potential problem.

Referring back to the performance enhancement vs. injury prevention debate, the earliest strength training for swimming methods may have focused on strengthening the prime movers to enhance performance - the approach I propose is to focus on injury prevention first, and only when there is a degree of suitability in muscle balance (length and strength), to shift emphasis towards performance enhancement.  The prime movers for example being the internal rotators of the upper arm, whilst the injury prevention approach may initially prioritize the external rotators of the upper arm.

Cosgrove, 2005,  The Evil Scot: An interview by Chris Shugart, T-mag.com, August

But it continues on to higher levels of sport too. A baseball pitcher doesn't need to do more internal rotation work in the gym. In fact, the best thing you can do from a performance standpoint is to have him do the exact opposite movement pattern (external shoulder rotation).

Segregating the roles of the physical preparation coach

Source

Description

King, I., 1997/2002, Winning and Losing

When you are responsible for only a component of an athlete’s preparation e.g. the physical preparation, you have a reduced control of all the variables that can be measured in the cause-effect relationship.  In this case, it can be difficult to know whether your physical preparation methods are effective.... 

Because the variables are so confused, no-one can really tell.  It is like going to the kitchen and throwing a whole lot of different foods into a pot and blending them.  You can never really know what caused the end result.

Cosgrove, A., 2006, 7 Keys to athletic success

I don't like situations where I'm the "strength" coach and we have another "speed" coach or "nutritionist" all working independently. This becomes a chop-shop approach to training,....

Endurance the key focus of the 1980s

Source

Description

King, I., 1997/2002, Winning and Losing

Aerobic training was the main focus of research in the seventies and early eighties. …

In fact the status of the sporting training industry in the early eighties was one where strength training was rarely conducted. 

You could call the eighties the decade of researching aerobic training, and nineties the era of popularity in researching strengthxe "strength:strength". 

Cosgrove, A., 2005, Program Design BIble

Sports scientists have only studied aerobic training in any depth.  It is only in the last few years that strength training has been studied at all.

Results focused

Source

Description

King, I., 1997 / 2002, Winning and Losing

My challenge was to find out what I needed to know to get a result.  I did that through trial and error, and found the only information I retained was that which I needed to know.  My vocabulary was oriented towards the athlete and what they needed to know. How they needed to hear it.  Big words may impress one’s colleagues, but unless you are an academic or looking for a job appointment that is determined by your peers, there is no value in impressing them – they don’t pay you!

Cosgrove, A., 2006, Developing a Training Philosophy, t-nation.com

I'm a results guy. I guess my philosophy is 'Results by Design, Not by Coincidence.' Get the best results in the least amount of time. The faster I can get results, the more I get paid.

One-off tests

Source

Description

King, I., 1997/2002, Winning and Losing

One off tests:  Are relatively useless and should not be encouraged

Knowing vs. doing

Source

Description

King, I., 1997/2002, Winning and Losing (book)

Chapter 38 - Too much information

I have seen many sensational research articles, and then been surprised by the low level of competence of the author in practical application.  I call this the practical application deficit!  There is a difference between knowing a lot and being able to string it together in no time limit in an article, sitting in your office.

Cosgrove, A., and Cosgrove, R., 2009, Program Design Bible

’m amazed at how many of these people completely blow me away with their knowledge when I’m speaking to them, watching them present or reading their material.  Yet when I see their programs – which are nothing more than the actual delivery system of their knowledge – I’m usually disappointed.

Endurance the key focus of the 1980s

Source

Description

King, I., 1997/2002, Winning and Losing

Aerobic training was the main focus of research in the seventies and early eighties. …

In fact the status of the sporting training industry in the early eighties was one where strength training was rarely conducted. 

You could call the eighties the decade of researching aerobic training, and nineties the era of popularity in researching strength. 

Cosgrove, A., 200?, Top 10 Training Problems, bodybuilding .com

1)   Sports scientists have really only studied aerobic training in any depth. It is only in the last few years that strength training has been studied to any degree.

Detrimental effect on strength

Source

Description

King, I., 1997/2002, Winning and Losing

…this excessive aerobic training is not only failing to address their weakness (lack of strength and power), but is often having a negative effect on strength and power. 

Cosgrove, A., 200?, Top 10 Training Problems, bodybuilding .com

1)  …but the real problem is aerobic training’s detrimental effect on strength and hypertrophy work.

Aerobic training has been over-emphasized

Source

Description

King, I., 1997/2002, Winning and Losing

iv.  The realization of the role of aerobic training: Aerobic training has been overemphasized in training literature and practice.  It is essentially in many cases an ineffective and inefficient method for performance improvement

Cosgrove, A., 200?, Top 10 Training Problems, bodybuilding .com

1)  ….quite simply aerobic training is grossly over-rated. Over rated for health, over rated for performance….

Sport Scientists are more like sport historians

[sentence structure/word selection comparison]

   King, I., 1997, Winning and Losing (book)

Cosgrove, A., 200?, Top 10 Training Problems, bodybuilding .com

When I say research, Lyn Jones, who is a former Australian now a Directors or National Coaching Director of US Weightlifting

4) History versus Science. Lyn Jones the director of USA Weightlifting

suggests that sports scientists are more like sport historians

has often been quoted as saying that sports scientists are really more like sports historians.

because they take what others have been doing for some time and prove it.

Sports scientists are often researching what coaches have been doing for years - current research is more on sports training history than current programs - researchers are often trying to validate (or invalidate) what most coaches are already doing.

Specificity in strength training

Source

Description

King, I., 1997/2002, Winning and Losing (book)

Lets use swimming for example.  Most swimming strokes involve repetitive internal rotation of the upper arm.  Consequently the internal rotators of the arm/shoulder become shorter and tighter than the external rotators.  The more years of training and / or the higher volume of swimming the athlete is exposed to, the greater the potential problem.

Referring back to the performance enhancement vs. injury prevention debate, the earliest strength training for swimming methods may have focused on strengthening the prime movers to enhance performance - the approach I propose is to focus on injury prevention first, and only when there is a degree of suitability in muscle balance (length and strength), to shift emphasis towards performance enhancement.  The prime movers for example being the internal rotators of the upper arm, whilst the injury prevention approach may initially prioritize the external rotators of the upper arm.

Cosgrove, A., 200?, Top Ten Training Tips for Athletic Conditioning Success. eliteFTS.com

6. Avoid mimicking skills

This is a big one. Throwing weighted baseballs etc will do little to improve your strength and a lot to screw up your technique. Make sure the roles of strength and conditioning and skill training are separate. I HATE the term sport specific. I much prefer NON-specific training. If I’m working with a freestyle swimmer, sport specificity means that I’ll do a ton of loaded internal rotation work. My approach?

To do no internal rotation work. In fact I’d spend most of our conditioning time on EXTERNAL rotation as an injury prevention mechanism. The role of conditioning training is NOT skill training. Loading a technique tends to affect the mechanics of the technique negatively.