Stronger Athletes

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Jan 27, 2003: Clinic Update / Video Review / Another Plyometrics Concern

January 27 "No diet will remove all the fat from your body because the brain is entirely fat. Without a brain, you might look good, but all you could do is run for public office." -George Bernard Shaw

Clinic Update

2002 Missouri 4A State Champion, Coach Mark Thomas from Kearney High School will join our list of featured presenters. Coach Thomas will speak on "Staff & Practice Organization." We feel that Coach Thomas’ presentation will have much to offer those in attendance as football practice will be starting soon afterwards.

Coach Thomas joins Sam Brown from Shawnee Mission North, Mike Lawrence from Missouri Southern, and Fred Cantor from the University of Maryland Baltimore-County.

In addition, area high school football coaches will benefit from attending the Kansas and Missouri Football Rules Interpretations Meetings. Ours will be one of the earliest offered from either states' athletic associations.

Video Review

Coach Rody,

I have a snow day from school here in N. Indiana so I finally had some time to review the video tapes and manual. You all have done a really good job on the material. It lays all the facts and philosophy out clearly.

I enjoyed the non-inflammatory exchange and differences in philosophy between you and your fellow coach. I too am in a situation where I feel like I am from Mars when training philosophy is discussed. Teaching and talking to someone about common sense training and High Intensity Training can be exasperating at times. None of our coaches had ever heard of the High Intensity Training concepts prior to my arrival. I will be showing the tape to members of our coaching staff and our AD.

I worked in the commercial, corporate, and clinical health/fitness settings prior to returning to teaching. My time included working as an exercise specialist at Texas Back Institute in Plano, TX. I saw MANY former [athletes] who had injuries directly related to improper exercise practices, ballistic lifts, and plyometrics.

The thing is most of their attitudes were [that training injuries are] just part of the sport! Working in medical related settings has given me a different outlook on the [load of bunk* StroungerAthlete’s words] of these accepted training practices. I saw many individuals who had life altering, NEGATIVE consequences from this nonsense.

I plan to organize my own web site in the future focusing on this injury aspect exclusively. I believe there are many credible individuals and orthopedic surgeons who believe as we do.

I will look forward to attending your clinic and meeting you guys. Tim Wakeham at Michigan State would be a good one to have on your agenda. Ken Mannie is usually swamped with football that time of year. Take care.

Coach Frank Severa

Thanks for the support. First, we are finding out about more and more people who are realizing that injury in training is so unnecessary. We think your idea about a website focusing on that topic is well needed and will help anyway we can.

Coach Wakeham and Coach Mannie would be awesome presenters. One of the hardest things we have discovered as we are putting this program together is "who not to ask". We just hope that there will be an interest in doing this clinic annually so we can invite more great speakers in the future. Looking forward to meeting you in August.

StrongerAthletes.com

Another Plyometrics Concern

This e-mail was sent to us way back last May. For some reason it was "lost" in our mailbox before we could post it up. Sorry about the delay Coach Durell.

Dear Coach Rody,

Regarding your discussion on plyometrics several days ago, I have personal knowledge of a male varsity basketball player at Southern Connecticut State University shattering his femur doing single leg bounds on a basketball court. Southern CT is my alma mater (Bachelors) and this incident was reported to me by an Athletic Trainer who was on the scene at the time. How would you like to be the one who had to call that kid's parents?

I share your views on ballistic training and do not perform any such techniques with any of my personal training clients, which include an NFL starter and a scholarship collegiate golfer. Nor did I use those techniques when I worked with Tom Kelso at Southeast Missouri State or with Mark Asanovich at Tampa Bay (Buccaneers). Many things work in terms of productivity, not everything is safe. Coaches in charge of strength training athletes are responsible for the health and well-being of the athletes under their care. My advice is to think about having to call the parents of that basketball player when selecting training techniques.

Keep up the great work on the website.

Sincerely,
Dave Durell, MS, PTA, CSCS
Sports and Fitness Training Systems