Padriag harrington shares his secrets and many more....

Transform

Summary of the Setanta / Sporttracker Coaching Conference Programme

What follows is a short summary of the largest fitness/coaching conference that was held in City West hotel on Saturday last the 25th July. It featured some of the biggest names in coaching in the world.

The conference was opened by Padraig Harrington who shared his secrets to his success –


- He has sought out the very best team at every single level of his development – from a junior to elite level.

- He gave a big nod to the outstanding assistance he has gotten from Dr Liam Hennessy who just happens to be an IRISH world class coach (some people think we don’t have many!)

- Be willing to ask questions

- Learn how to train PROPERLY and refrain from just putting time in as it could be time wasted.

- What sets you aside from the competition is your ability to be consistent month after month – it’s the daily discipline when things are going right and wrong that is vital CANI Constant and never ending improvement (that my addition not his ala Tony Robbins)

- Leave with more questions

- Be scientific in your training and its not tomorrow that counts its putting it in every day

- Overall, I found him to be very honest and a guy who leaves nothing to chance. Many people have bundles of talent or ability but zero consistency and whether its weight loss or elite performance the approach can be quite similar.

Next up for me was Dr Liam Hennessy

· Dr. Liam Hennessy is an Exercise and Clinical Physiologist and Strength and Conditioning coach who has spent over 20 years working full-time in sport. Liam is currently the Director of Fitness with the Irish Rugby Football Union, a position he commenced in 2000. At the IRFU he has a staff of 24 full time coaches working under his direction. He and his staff are in charge of the fitness development at all level of the game in Ireland.

· His talk was focused on long term player development (LTPD)and started with a small request – measure your ring finger compared to your middle finger. If ring finger is longer then you’re an elite athlete! But as we all know you need more than a big finger to make it to the top.

· He spoke on knowing the LTPD model if your dealing at any level of coaching.

· He then went on to discuss the stages of development from birth to the elite level and how the body changes in both skill, speed, physicality and when to focus on each throughout.

· Coaches need to be measuring height and weight (for kids) to check what level of development they are at

· Coaches need to put a plan in place at every level of development or they risk loosing some kids due to changes in their body e.g. kid grows 3-4 inches in a few months and their silky skills turn to mush as they become more clumsy and may as a result get frustrated and drop out if there is not good coaching in place to anticipate or spot this

· Irish 9yr olds get 54mins of activity per week. French 9yr olds get 240mins. Why we wonder kids are getting fatter and perform a low levels in sport is no surprise when I hear this. Informal play was much more prevalent years ago and more fun to boot.

· Talk to coaches in other sports – you can learn from other areas you know

· Assess simple skill level REGULARLY!!! Basic skills (running, jumping, skipping, hopping etc) must be mature by 11-12yrs of age.

· Earn the right to move on – he spoke of it being crazy having 15yr olds taking creatine when they can’t even do the basics right in training first.

· 10,000 hrs – that what its going to take to get to the very top so please put in the hours and stop talking about what your GOING to do.

Overall, an excellent talk and one that held the attention of over a 1000 members of the audience as we all slapped ourselves on the things we needed to work on with our athletes/clients.

There is more but jasus i have to get back to work. will post again with more details - the Mickey harte, brian cody and declan kidney keynote q & a was quite good so will post that also.

d'Oracle

I reckon Padraig would have made a cracking engineer.

Khannie

Transform wrote: »

· 10,000 hrs – that what its going to take to get to the very top so please put in the hours and stop talking about what your GOING to do.

Nice. I particularly like that one.

itsallaboutheL

– measure your ring finger compared to your middle finger. If ring finger is longer then you’re an elite athlete! But as we all know you need more than a big finger to make it to the top.

has anyone actually got a middle finger thats shorter than their ring finger.... that seems a little odd... you sure it wasn't index finger???

Zamboni

Great stuff Transform. I had wanted to attend but had other stuff on that day.

phil

Yeh, it's misquoted - it's ring finger and index finger.

mushykeogh

Yes i think he meant ring finger longer than index on the left hand. Thought the bit about identifying peak height velocity in kids was particulary important, Vital for ensuring the windows of opportunity for speed and stamina arent missed.

Transform did you go and see Kelvin Giles? Thought he gave and excellent talk on the importance of improving the basic physical competency of all athletes,with some excellent videos of high quality sportsmen/women finding ways of peforming a movement by using every other muscle apart from those intended to do the action!

Colm_OReilly

Khannie wrote: »

Nice. I particularly like that one.

Malcolm Gladwell talks about it in his book "Outliers" - haven't read it yet but have read a few abstracts

Hanley

Colm_OReilly wrote: »

Malcolm Gladwell talks about it in his book "Outliers" - haven't read it yet but have read a few abstracts

Careful now... you'll get Roper started on a rant against the book. I've read it and it's a decent read like, interesting stories in it anyway.

And my ring finger's longer than my index on both hands. I rawk.

Nice notes Transfrom, can't wait to hear the rest of em!!

Iago

Hanley wrote: »

.

And my ring finger's longer than my index on both hands. I rawk.

Same here, but I ain't no elite athlete

celestial

So do elite athletes generally have a ring finger longer than their index finger? What's the reason for that supposedly?!

Curious to know as my ring finger is longer than index on both hands for me too!

d'Oracle

Is it possible that he was saying that to illustrate a point?

I mean what does finger length have to do with anything?

Thanks for that Transform, great post.

Zamboni

d'Oracle wrote: »

Is it possible that he was saying that to illustrate a point?

I mean what does finger length have to do with anything?

Aye.
I read it is as most people fit the bill to be an athlete but it takes the training, effort and dedication to make it.

ladowack

Seen a program on Discovery and it said the same thing in relation to being gay, the only physical correlate was a longer ring finger, not joking!

BossArky

My ring finger is shorter on the left hand and longer on the right.

Errrr..... what does that mean?

Magic Eight Ball

ladowack wrote: »

Seen a program on Discovery and it said the same thing in relation to being gay, the only physical correlate was a longer ring finger, not joking!

I also saw that, I think it was based on your ring finger being the same length as your index finger. ( which is the case with me!:o )

Here's an interesting read..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digit_ratio

Transform

Come on guys get off the finger thing - how many people do you meet or know that tell you they did this or that hard training and now look like they do not do a tap. Nobody remembers a good junior but you will stand out as you put in the work as you get older.

The next installment -


Organisation of a high performance programme – by Gary Keegan

· Gary Keegan is Director of Performance Management in the Irish Institute of Sport. The Institute of Sport is a government agency set up in 2006 to manage and coordinate high performance sport in Ireland. Its mission is to create an environment of support, which ensures that talented Irish athletes achieve sustained levels of excellence in elite sport.
· Garry spoke openly about the systems he put into place when running the national boxing program for 5 years. He has had huge success as evident in the last Olympics where the conversion ratio of athletes to medals was the best in the world.
· To be perfectly honest I was in the wrong blood lecture so I could not really enjoy this one as I thought it was going to be more about training for power!
· Garry also spoke on how he went over to Russia to train with the best over there and realised very quickly how far behind they were with regards to the athletes physical conditioning but went back more prepared and to the point where the Russians will not let them back in due to the massive jump in improvement his athletes made over the years
· He also told the story of how he has brought his athletes to various countries around Europe to train with the best and basically beg, borrow and steal the best info and apply it. He also told on how the best French training camp continuously refused to let him train with them as in a tournament a before Garry arrived in his position the French coach saw two Irish boxers still in their boxing boots and shorts pissed at the local airport (they had obviously gone on the piss after a competition still in gear). Now do you think you would let that attitude of unprofessional approach into your training camp?
· He has attracted the right people around him and all members of the boxing team worked as a unit to help the athlete reach their potential. He strongly emphasised that there was TOO much talking/coaching going on in training sessions and not enough about what the athlete felt they needed to work on. So he got the team to step back and listen to the athlete more, which he said, worked wonders as it put the athlete in control of their destiny.
· Always ask what is the purpose of what your doing? No point in spending 20mins on abs when it serves very little purpose for dropping fat in that area!
· Great talk but annoyed that they did not have the schedule done out right so it was clear what was on where (1st year to run so I will let that slide)

Small point just while I think about it – there was lots of energy drink flying about but no feckin water. They should have had a ton of water bottle for free or at least a few water coolers. I know there was a bar but you can drink a lot of water at these things and the water at the bar (tap) tasted so chlorinated.

Field based strength and power – Paul Pook

· Paul Pook is a strength and conditioning coach with the Irish Rugby Team. Paul joined the IRFU coaching team in 2008; previous to this he has experience with Irish rugby as he had contributed to the development of certified conditioning courses in the IRFU.
· Mainly focused on what he does for strength and power sessions when training outside. In these sessions coaches can use a wide variety of tools to get the job done and make the sessions feel more exposed to a variety of movements.
· Tools such as –
· Sleds
· Tyre flipping
· Sand bags
· Dyna bands
· Other players – carries
· Kegs
· Kettlebells
· Rings
· Logs
· Ropes
· Weight vest
· Wet pillows – bash each other with them for 10secs!

· He them got two guys up on stage to demo rope pulls against one another in varying positions

· When using a sled the main benefit is in starting sprint speed so keep the load on sled to 10-15% of body weight unless your doing a conditioning session. Gave some scientific evidence for this also.

· Field drills can help massively with triple extension where gym workouts can be quite limiting

· Mimic the work/rest ratios in your sport

· Field drills have their limits but are at times easier to teach and can be less prone to injury. Can be cheaper and more practical also. Can be more suitable for some clients with injuries also. Use your imagination for new drills.

· I found this one good but for me nothing really new. I asked him about sites and books he found useful but was not very forthcoming and said just what he has picked up along the way. I also asked if he uses strength standards i.e. double body weight squat and deadlift but said it really depends on the functional screening as so many athletes vary and can have injuries or imbalances they need to work on. I am not sure on this one as I would have thought they would have had a more American football approach i.e. the combine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXejerAymFE&feature=channel_page

More to follow sorry but back to work again!

itsallaboutheL

ladowack wrote: »

Seen a program on Discovery and it said the same thing in relation to being gay, the only physical correlate was a longer ring finger, not joking!

I vaguely remember something about testosterone production in the womb or some bollox like that!!

I actually tried this with two of my buddies who are fond of teh ghey and they both had shorter ring fingers!!

podge57

I was talking to a guy who was at this conference today - he said there was a lot of great info to be got, and he was particularly impressed by one of the Australian S&C coaches, cant remember the name tho

dioltas

Transform wrote: »

· Wet pillows – bash each other with them for 10secs!

That sounds like great craic!

mink_man

when i saw the thread title i was thinkin of something waay different!

dioltas

I thought it was something to do with golf tbh, was bored so said I'd give a look!

Transform

mink_man wrote: »

when i saw the thread title i was thinkin of something waay different!

yes fat strippers possibly!

Transform

dioltas wrote: »

I thought it was something to do with golf tbh, was bored so said I'd give a look!

At 2pm a meet the managers was held for 45mins – holding court was none other than Mickey Harte (MH), Brain Cody (BC), and Declan Kidney (DK)

Just a selection of what caught my attention

Question – can an amateur athlete reach his/her potential?

DK – its not about money its about the support from their family and team to reach the top. How they apply themselves. Its easier with better finances but not impossible

BC – Support, ability, drive and ambition its what’s needed not just money. Yes you can

MH – The athletes attitude and dedication are the two most important characteristics that are needed to reach your potential.

How you pick your captain?

MH – They walk their talk

DK – They can do two roles at once. Well-rounded person. Their positive attitude in training i.e. telling the guys to pull their finger out (yes the long one!) and put the effort in when training rather than wasting their and the coaches time.

Challenge matches – why not?

BC – More important to have quality training sessions due to lack of intensity and quality in challenge matches

MH – potential for injury. Time consuming. Difficult to assess your players due to the massive changes teams can make throughout a match. Learn more from within training sessions.

What’s your leadership style?
DK – was quite vague here and basically spoke about the importance of players enjoying the sessions and game in general

MH – show encouragement as much as possible

BC – Be confident in your own ability. No bluffing the players. Be honest and use your back up staff, as they are vital.

Best learning experience?

DK – Learning every day. The best managers make the right decision 85% of the time so your never 100% right, accept it and learn from it.

Toughest decision?

They all spoke on how hard it is to select players for a squad or final

The best book you read?

DK – waiting for the two others to come out with theirs!

MH – The power of intention but Wayne Dyer (I must say I have enjoyed all of his books – transform)

How to keep players fresh?

MH – keep sessions varied and no negative vibes in training

What one word/sentence has helped you the most as a coach?

BC – believe in yourself

DK – enjoy it. He also spoke on Padraig Harrington’s speech he gave xmas 2008 to the Irish team

MH – catch your players doing things well and congratulate them.

Functional weight lifting for sports – Martin Zawieja

· Double weightlifting Olympian and German lifting coach for 7 years.

· The carry over to sports performance is massive (Olympic lifting) and at the end the great Al Vermeil http://www.charliefrancis.com/?p=150 spoke on the benefits his athletes were getting back in the 60’s from doing regular Olympic lifting, even the 7 foot basketballers!

· Machines are limited by their isolation and total lack of needing any co-ordination or skill. Isolation give very very little carry over to athletic sports

· Coaches need to use their eyes more to help athletes not just what is says in a book

· Olympic lifts will increase speed, power, vertical jump, and sprint, develop triple extension, challenge CNS and demand stable scapula (most every day is bench press have terrible problems with this!)

· Performing the Olympic lifts slowly is a waste of time – do them quickly even with a broomstick. Do not expect to get it right for a few months.

· He then went into loads, rest ratios, reps, sets etc

· Hugely enjoyable lecture but kind of got the feeling most people in the room had not a clue what a snatch (well not the weights kind) or a clean was until he put up a few videos and did some demos. The video of the 8yr olds doing the lifts was really impressive.

They intend to run another in February next year so hopefully it will be better organised, more water and more practical talks.

I really hope the people who ask about how to get in shape in a month would read this as it would confirm even the people at the very top of their game understand the importance of the daily discipline and not fat loss products, ab machines and what ever crap a celeb is pushing this week. Bbbbbbbbut they won’t and thats ok as they people that will get to where they really want to be are on a path that’s less travelled and lets face it there are no traffic jams on that road because so few take it.

Hanley

Transform wrote: »

yes fat strippers possibly!

Roper

I was supposed to go to this and would have got a few certs at it I think.. unless I misread the situation... but glad to hear it was good. I think if Martin (the German O lifting coach) had seen me he would have run away though as I asked him a LOT of questions the last time I saw him .

Was it well attended?

Transform

yes over 1,500 people there not including stands and speekers

pow222

Does anyone know who is this Sporttracker crowd and what their deal is???

d'Oracle

Transform wrote: »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXejerAymFE&feature=channel_page

Box Jump @ 1.15 FUMPING MENTAL.

Transform

d'Oracle wrote: »

Box Jump @ 1.15 FUMPING MENTAL.

Box jump - mehhhh, i must post up mine and actually doing something with it like dunking a basketball or something - mickk has a very impressive box jump i must say

I think the sports tracker guys specialise in tracking sports/events for data etc and the guys at setanta hooked up with them to run the conference.

Khannie

d'Oracle wrote: »

Box Jump @ 1.15 FUMPING MENTAL.

Yeah, very impressive.

edit: Transform seems unimpressed. I await his youtube!

Transform

i will have to find many more boxes to get up that high - how about i post up something useful like a bball dunk? Might as well demo the bloody cleans are having an effect as have not tried in a good few years!

Khannie

Rubbish! I want boxes!

d'Oracle

Transform wrote: »

i will have to find many more boxes to get up that high - how about i post up something useful like a bball dunk? Might as well demo the bloody cleans are having an effect as have not tried in a good few years!

No.
Boxes.

No-one wants to see white men dunking.
Least of all me.

Transform

d'Oracle wrote: »

No.
Boxes.

No-one wants to see white men dunking.
Least of all me.

feck i just looked at the video again and slowly backing away! - would love to know what height the box is at as they guy could be 5'10" so box looks higher.

Now i am not making excuses BUT the boxes i have only go to 38inches so i will have to find a way of getting them up a bit. Will post later with my attempt to NOT smash my shins!

itsallaboutheL

Transform wrote: »

feck i just looked at the video again and slowly backing away! - would love to know what height the box is at as they guy could be 5'10" so box looks higher.

Now i am not making excuses BUT the boxes i have only go to 38inches so i will have to find a way of getting them up a bit. Will post later with my attempt to NOT smash my shins!

Didn't Kevpants get a 42??

d'Oracle

I smell a Jumpoff.

I can get about 4.2"



I'm out.

Transform

well springs down in limerick the volleyball player posted up a 52inch before which i would not touch! But hey i am 33years young and 89kg so not as bouncy as i was but i will give it a blast as doing cleans today anyway which pair well with box hops

cousin_borat

pow222 wrote: »

Does anyone know who is this Sporttracker crowd and what their deal is???

Yeah, I know the founders and also the company who developed the iPhone software (Fellow Leitrim man, his company is based in San Francisco).

Transform is correct, they intend to monetize the data gathered on sports games through syndication and other forms of analysis.

Transform

Transform wrote: »

well springs down in limerick the volleyball player posted up a 52inch before which i would not touch! But hey i am 33years young and 89kg so not as bouncy as i was but i will give it a blast as doing cleans today anyway which pair well with box hops

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TjChGSXJGw

And later on in my workout doing cleans i did some more ....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_TFxSkmJ1k

Yes i know my cleans are still a mess but getting there

itsallaboutheL

Your cleans are even more of a joke than mine!!! THis makes me happy!!!!:D

Looks like you've added some nice size to your arms lately??

Transform

jesus no breaks on boards, thats for sure!!

I know the clean needs much work but as gem mentioned at the workshop she gave its going to take a bit more time - maybe a year, to get it right.

Weight still at about 89-90kg so little bigger but not much.

itsallaboutheL

Transform wrote: »

jesus no breaks on boards, thats for sure!!

I know the clean needs much work but as gem mentioned at the workshop she gave its going to take a bit more time - maybe a year, to get it right.

Weight still at about 89-90kg so little bigger but not much.

I was only pullin your leg... mine are much worse!!:p

brianthebard

I've seen way worse cleans in our gym! Does it make much of a difference if you jump from a standing position or with a little run up?

Transform

i have done both and from playing basketball years ago i find i need to take a half step back which you will see in the outdoor vid i.e. right leg goes back then comes to left then jump - not a running jump really.

Lets face it most people just need to practice jumping onto a bench in the gym to improve explosive power at first and stop training like bodybuilders when they are looking for sports performance and thats one of the basic skills everyone should have

brianthebard

Me and some of the guys in our course would play around making standing jumps onto our desks when we wanted to let off a little steam. With one leg we could only get onto a chair. Its fun to try every now and again though.

Transform

yes i do the one leg version also as at times when in westwood you can only get the box/steps/bench only so high.

Got my boxes from mickk so i am happy i can do them to a decent height with clients and myself.

much more fun having a good old jump off in the gym when most are doing their 6 chest and biceps exercises wondering why they are actually getting slower and a times fatter!

Mickk

You have way more in you than that box jump, look how high your hips are. You need to commit and land it in a atg squat position. I have a 48" standing or 52" with 2 steps but I reckon you are actually jumping a bit higher than me. We did atleast 48" outside crossfit, the box was 42" and the bumper plates on top were 2 inches thick each.

d'Oracle

Transform wrote: »

Lets face it most people just need to practice jumping onto a bench in the gym to improve explosive power at first and stop training like bodybuilders when they are looking for sports performance and thats one of the basic skills everyone should have

Wish I had known about this 10 years ago.....

Transform

yes i know i have to work on that and most of it being psychological anyway - seeing a box thats chest height and thinking man how am i going to get on this!

I would say your heavier than me mickk so that makes your jump even better!