Paradigm for Athletic Development Program

This is a paradigm I have used for years. It has worked well for me and my colleagues. It certainly has grown and evolved over the years but the basic ideas are the same. I truly believe that by applying this paradigm and understanding the basic principles of training that you should be able to work effectively with any sport. Here is the paradigm:

# 1 - Know the Demands of the Game or Sport

# 2 - Know the Demands of the Position or Event

# 3 - Know the Qualities of the Individual Athlete

# 4 - Know the Pattern of Injuries in the Sport

Over the years I have found that if I deviate from this then there are problems. Once I have gone through the evaluation of these four steps then it is a matter of determining the need to do versus the nice to do training activities. This simple paradigm will allow you to derive as complex a training program as needed. This paradigm really evolved when I was working as Al Vermeils’ assistant working with the Chicago Bulls in the mid eighties. I thought that some of the things I was having the players do in regard to conditioning were not really based on the game of professional basketball, so I went to Al to get the video guy to shoot individual isolated video of our top six players in games. What a revelation, it was not basketball it was more like football or wrestling. It certainly made me rethink my ideas about conditioning for pro basketball. I do not know what was done with in regard to the Bulls, because I left soon after that to go to work for the White Sox. I know that with the White Sox we carefully studied the demands of the game, individual positions and the individual players. It is all part of a comprehensive system of athletic development. With the sophisticated tools available today there is no excuse for what we see today in regard to conditioning for various sports. The conditioning must fit the game, the position and the athlete and must prevent injury. Too often we are trying to force the athletes into boxes. Thing like the big three or distance running for speed power athletes’ simply do not reflect reality of sport demands. As the old cowboy used to say, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink.