Let the Coaches Coach

Today what we have gong in professional sport and to a certain extent collegiate sport is alarming to me. The prevalence of the so called medical model with the team doctor sitting at the top of the pyramid, with the physical therapist next in the pecking order followed by the team trainer and then last in the pecking order the strength and conditioning coach. There are many situations when every exercise, I truly mean every exercise, must be approved by the team medical staff before the Strength and Conditioning coach can implement a program. Frankly this is pretty ridiculous; it is actually a formula for failure. Sure there must be accountability, but accountability works both ways. I vividly recall my last meeting with the White Sox team doctor like it was yesterday (It was 12 years ago) He was questioning some exercises we were doing and had been doing with no problems for nine years. My admonition to him was I do not tell you how to do surgery do not tell me how to exercises. Doctors are not trained in exercise; it is not part of their skill set. There needs to be mutual respect, professionalism and accountability for all concerned. I really think the blame for this must be shared. There are Strength and Conditioning coaches who are in the dark ages, they are one dimensional, they never leave the weight room. Many of them in pro sports are afraid of players so are unwilling to push the players or demand accountability from the players, so the approach is do as little as possible, do not hurt them or make them tired or they might complain to the trainer or worse to management or their agent. I am amazed at the level of naiveté that the teams approach conditioning and injury prevention. Now we have situations where all the players do is roll on foam rollers, and do ridiculous sequences of exercises that have fancy objectives like inhibit, lengthen, activate, and integrate. They do this as “training” and wonder why they have injuries. How about designing a good training program that gets them moving and get them functionally fit, fast and strong for their sport.

Scott Boras, http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3039348 the baseball agent, probably the most powerful agent in sport gets it:

As a former player, Boras believed that owners didn't invest enough in their talent, their product. Teams treated players like replaceable parts. They had pitchers and shortstops do the same training, the same lifting and stretching. It didn't make sense. The teams didn't start teaching players how to stay healthy and fit until they were men, which shaved years off performance. Not for this kid, Boras told himself.

Imagine adding seven years to your career, Boras tells his new kids. Imagine what history you can make with those years. Boras shows them the batting cages and the private gym. This is an institute, not some spa. Each member of Team Boras gets a dedicated program designed by Steve Odgers, the former White Sox conditioning director and decathlete, who has a neck the width of an oak tree, a guy with 13 years of training data etched in journals. Odgers gets prospects when they're just out of high school and puts them through a year-round program designed specifically for each player -- because a relief pitcher is not the same as a second baseman. He even teaches them yoga. Show me a team that can do all that. Throughout the year, Boras dispatches Odgers and four other trainers around the country to check in on A-Rod, Dice-K, Pudge and the rest. It's Odgers who tells teams what program the players should follow. Boras knew he couldn't call trainers himself -- they'd never listen to a moneyman, but one of their own, that's a different story. And if a team's trainer squawks about outside interference, Boras might pick up the phone and call the GM.

He knows what he has to do to prolong the careers of his players, why can’t the teams figure it out. The medical model is not the answer. I will propose an alternative model in another post, actually the model I thought we could implement with the Mets, but they could buy into it because it required too many people to get out of their comfort zone.