Athlete Centered Training

Effective training programs are athlete centered. You are probably thinking that is a really profound statement. Well in many ways it is. Sometimes we forget that it is about the athlete, not the training program or the technique. Too often coaches impose a training program or technique on the athlete, that does not fit the athlete and ultimately it fails. In essence they are hammering a square peg into a round hole, forcing a fit rather than finding a fit. If fails through lack of improvement or results in an injury. The rule of thumb is simple, fit the training to the athlete not the athlete to the training. I understand that sometimes in a group context it is difficult, but that is why we are coaches not supervisors. We need to account for individual differences in training age, chronological age, and level of technical development, injury history, body type and overall adaptability. One size does not and cannot fit all. Planning the progression and grouping the athletes so that the previously mentioned considerations are taken into account will go a long way toward fitting the program to the needs of the individual athlete. An athlete centered training program allows the athletes to thrive, not just survive.

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Vern Gambetta

Director at Gambetta Sports Training Systems

Vern is the Director of Gambetta Sports Training Systems. He has been the a conditioning coach for several MLS teams as well as the conditioning consultant to the US Men's World Cup Soccer team. Vern is the former Director of Conditioning for the Chicago White Sox and New York Mets. He has lectured and conducted clinics in Canada, Japan, Australia and Europe and has authored six books and over one hundred articles related to coaching and sport performance in a variety of sports. He has a BA in teaching with a coaching minor and an MA in Education with an emphasis in physical education from Stanford University.