Catering Your Training and Tactics to Your Best Athletes

I wanted to write a brief blog entry after listening to a podcast that brought a good concept back to the top of my mind. A couple of years ago, I listened to a podcast by Mike Boyle where he talked about how we tend to ruin our “superelite” athletes by trying to fit them into our training boxes and systems. Boyle explained how these athletes often get mislabeled as “soft,” or “injury-prone” when in reality, our programs and training models are what cause the injuries. Today, I was listening to the Pacey Performance Podcast with Cam Josse (strength and conditioning coach at Indiana University, works with football), where he talked about this same concept and it made me think back to the Boyle podcast from a few years ago.

As a general rule of thumb, I try to steal information and practices from people who are smarter than me, and figure out how the underlying concepts fit within my system. When multiple experts share a particular view on the topic, it means I should probably listen.

I thought a little bit deeper about it and want to share my thoughts. First, when Mike Boyle talks about “superelite” athletes, he’s referring to the 1% of the 1%. The athletes who are physically breath taking to watch perform, and transcend even the most elite athletes (think Adama Traore, pictured left). Most coaches will never be in the position where they will get to work with these athletes on a regular basis. In my entire career, I’ve only been fortunate enough to work with one of these athletes, and he was genuinely a walking type II muscle fiber. Due to their physiological makeup, these athletes are more prone to injury than your “average” high-level athlete. Boyle argues that we should be individualizing our training programs around these players, and Josse takes it one step further when he claims we should be building our team tactics around these players. I think they are right.

The player I had the short opportunity to coach was a game-breaking player in 15 minute bursts. When utilized correctly (such as during the last 15 minutes of each half), he was devastating for the opposition, averaging a goal a game playing 1/3 the amount of minutes of his peers. If I had tried to make him into a 90 minute player, then I would have taken away the rare ability that made him so special, and frankly, I probably would have gotten him hurt.

Now obviously, when you have an athlete of this caliber, the answer should be simple, unfortunately, it’s just not. Our most elite, game-changing athletes are still getting mislabeled and injured in our care. David Epstein wrote a brilliant little book called, “The Sports Gene,” where he references and explains this phenomenon. And even if it was simple, the question gets a little more challenging when the athlete becomes less athletically-gifted. Josse argues that in this case, your tactics should reflect the athletic strength of your players, and I would agree, to an extent.

I think that our jobs as coaches are to put our players in the best position to succeed, which would include athletically, while simultaneously building a system of play where everyone is bought in and pulling in the same direction. I think your team has to have general principles of play, but are principles that allow for your best and most athletically gifted players to have the freedom to impact he game when the time calls for it. If you want an example of a professional team that balances this brilliantly, watch Real Madrid play. I think they are the perfect balance of system and freedom, with all of their players being put in positions that accentuate their strengths, but their impactful players still having the freedom to make plays to win them games.

This post turned into a little bit of a brain dump, but I think that’s OK. Part of my vision for this blog is to throw ideas out that stimulate thought and spur action. What I really wanted to throw out was the idea of building your training programs and style of play around your most athletically-gifted players, rather than trying to fit those players into a predefined system, and I think I’ve done so. I also wanted to get across that our most athletically-gifted athletes should not be getting injured in our care. I hope this idea spurs thought and leads to action for some people.

Thanks for reading,

-Jer