Sarah Walls 12/12/12 Sarah Walls 12/12/12

Conrad Mann at the USPA Larry Garro Memorial Powerlifting Meet

Whether it’s a third grade spelling bee or the Superbowl, putting yourself into competition takes a ton of courage. At 64 years young, Conrad of SAPT fame decided that it was time to enter into his first powerlifting meet (why not?). Even a double knee replacement wouldn’t keep Conrad from competing, and he decided to enter into the bench-only meet.

Here’s how it went down.

The Weigh-In

Conrad was competing in the 164.9 weight class. He was concerned prior to the meet that he might not make weight, but ended up stepping on the scale at a whopping 159 pounds. He came prepared, however, with plenty of fluids and snacks to get properly hydrated before he stepped on the platform.

The Wait

The typical sequence of a powerlifting meet is 1)Squat, 2)Bench Press, and 3)Deadlift. The lifters will have 3 attempts at each lift, and with two flights of competitors in the squat, we had plenty of time to relax and watch the squat attempts. We saw lifters of all shapes and sizes squat one after another. It was awesome to see all the different leverages people possess and the different styles of squatting they chose to utilize. High bar, low bar, Olympic shoes, Chuck Taylors, wider stance, narrow stance, long femurs, long torsos- basically every variation of a barbell back squat that you could imagine. Anyone interested in biomechanics should definitely check out a powerlifting meet just to see the infinite variations in the same basic movement pattern.

Towards the end of the second flight of squat attempts we decided it was time to start prepping both body and mind to push some heavy weight.

The Warm-Up

Taking the “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it,” attitude Conrad went through the same general warm-up as he does prior to a session at SAPT. Mobility work, scap pushups, face pulls and external rotations were all part of the ritual.

Just as important as getting physically warmed up for the bench attempts is getting mentally focused. At this point, Conrad’s level of raw strength was out of our control. The strength-building portion came from weeks of hard work on a brilliant bench specialization program designed in the top secret laboratory that is Steve Reed’s mind. However, this was the time where it was critical to take charge over the factors that we can control, of them being 1)Techniqu0e, and 2)Obeying the commands. The head judge gives three commands after unracking the bar (start, press, rack) during each attempt, and failure to obey any of these commands results in a “no good” lift.

Following the general warm-up we got on the bench. We started with light triples and progressed into heavier singles, ensuring that each rep was crisp and clean. The bar touched the same spot on his chest with every press, the elbows were nicely tucked at the bottom, and each command was obeyed as I yelled them out during the warm-up.

Go Time!

Having successfully primed his central nervous system to its fullest capacity, Conrad was warmed up, suited up, and ready to go. He was in the first flight of benchers and stepped on deck for his first attempt in a powerlifting competition.

Conrad opened at 85kg (187lbs). It was a solid opener, and flew up at lightning speed. Undisputed three whites from the judges for a good lift.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nw78bHsOqI&feature=youtu.be

His second attempt was 92.5kg (203.5lbs). Another easy bench for Conrad and three whites.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0dQ6bO8x48

Third attempt here was 97.5kg(214.5lbs) for a PR. Again another solid, clean lift that received a well deserved three whites from the judges.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_z-L2EkKSXU

Wrap Up

To sum it up, Conrad walked away from the meet three for three on his attempts, a PR, no torn pecs, and shoulders still in-tact! Can’t ask for much better than that. Congrats Conrad, way to represent SAPT! Big thanks to Ron, Jen, and Sondra being part of the SAPT support staff, and a double thanks to Ron for taking videos of the attempts!

Sarah Walls 10/8/12 Sarah Walls 10/8/12

Description vs. Evaluation

Last week I was in Atlanta at the 2012 AASP (Association for Applied Sport Psychology) Conference. At the conference a presenter talked about the difference between description and evaluation. In sport, we often confuse descriptions with evaluations, which can impact where we direct our attention. Let me explain.

A basketball hoop can be described as being 10 feet tall, with a white net, and an orange rim. That’s what it is. It’s a clear description. Factual. When we describe we speak with certainty of what we see, but not necessarily how we feel.

An evaluation is based more on feelings. We evaluate and create opinions of how we think things will go in the future, or how they went in the past. Evaluations are opinions that lead to rankings, predictions, and analysis, but those aren’t facts. For example, I used to have an NBA draft website where I evaluated how prospects would transition to the NBA. Those evaluations were solely based on opinions, and trust me, I was wrong plenty with my evaluations.

Sports have become extremely evaluation based. Everyone wants to know which team is the favorite, who is the #1 seed, and who is the next great athlete. But, those aren’t facts, they’re simply how people evaluate the current situation. If sports were played simply based on evaluation they wouldn’t need to be played at all.

It’s important to be able to describe who you are. Be you and be that well. Even more importantly, as a team, make sure to direct attention to descriptions and leave the evaluations to the pundits.

Sarah Walls 9/26/12 Sarah Walls 9/26/12

How to Get More Done in Less Time: Parkinson's Law

(Note: In Part 1 we discussed how to save massive amounts of time each day by reducing the frequency at which you check/respond to email. In Part 2 we briefly discussed how to cut out distractions that keep you for working on the task at hand. Now on to the third and final installment of this series...)

Meetings. Putting together a presentation. Writing a paper or blog post. Shuffling papers around in the office. Studying for an exam. Entering data into an Excel spreadsheet.

Ever notice how, at times, you find yourself spending wayyyy longer on a task than you know you should be spending to complete? I know I do. Or did, at least, until I discovered the beauty of using Parkinson's Law to my advantage.

What is Parkison's Law? You can view it here on Wikipedia, but I think Tim Ferriss summed it up quite nicely for us:

Parkinson's Law dictates that a task will swell in (perceived) importance and complexity in relation to the time allotted for its completion. It is the magic of the imminent deadline. If I give you 24 hours to complete a project, the time pressure forces you to focus on execution, and you have no choice but to do only the bare essentials. If I give you a week to complete the same task, it's six days of making a mountain out of a molehill. If I give you two months, God forbid, it becomes a mental monster. The end product of the shorter deadline is almost inevitably of equal or higher quality due to greater focus.

We can use Parkinson's Law to our advantage by setting extremely clear, and borderline impossibly short, deadlines for various tasks and 'To-Do' items. I've been instituting this over the past couple weeks and WOW, I can't quite express how much of a life changer this has been for me.

Personally, I've found E.gg Timerto be an invaluable source for helping me produce more output with less input (time) when doing anything at a computer. Heck, I'm using E.gg Timer right now as I type this. You can set the countdown timer for however long you wish - it will fill up your screen when it gets to zero - and it's amazing how the ticking clock will keep you inexorably focused on action steps instead of deliberation and procrastination.

Again, quoting Ferris:

If you haven't identified the mission-critical tasks and set agressive start and end times for their completion, the unimportant becomes the important. Evern if you know what's critical, without deadlines that create focus, the minor tasks forced upon you (or invented, in the case of the entrepreneur) will swell to consume time until another bit of minutiae jumps in to replace it, leaving you at the end of the day with nothing accomplished.
How else could dropping off a package at UPS, setting a few appointments, and checking e-mail consume an entire 9-5 day?

Many of us subconsciously realize this, but never actually set self-imposed deadlines to force us to get more done in less time.

While I'm not necessarily proud of this, I unknowingly used Parkinson's Law to allow me to get an A on almost every exam I took in high school and college; it didn't take me long to realize that I got the same grade whether I started studying a week out from the exam, or only 24 hours (and sometimes as little as 1-2 hours) before taking the exam.

Why? Whenever I began studying far in advance, I'd inevitably allow myself to become distracted by phone calls, the internet, outdoor games with friends, you name it, as I knew deep down that I still had plenty of time to study. But when I knew I had a major (and quite difficult) exam looming in only 5 hours or less, it FORCED me to shut out anything that would steer me away from doing well on the test.

In fact, I recently received this text from a friend of mine who had graduated from his doctorate of physical therapy program, and was preparing for the physical therapist licensure exam, "So you know how in Undergrad you were the greatest Crammer of all time. Any advice for someone who has an upcoming licensure exam and is feeling really lazy about studying?"

I had to laugh upon receiving that text, as I didn't know which was more unnerving: The fact that I was known in college for being a talented crammer (if we can even attempt to glamorize that "skill") , or that an up-and-coming practicing PT was looking for advice on studying for the licensure exam!

Now, I am certainly not advocating procrastination. And, to clear my conscious....should any individuals be reading this that are currently enrolled in an educational institution, my advice to you is to study in advance for your tests, dang it!

But it brings up a valuable point. Deadlines, whether self-imposed or not, allow us to ignore minutia and focus on the important. So I encourage all of you to begin setting deadlines on those "open ended" tasks that can take hours on end to complete, and adhere to those deadlines!

This is especially true for us perfectionists in the crowd that agonize over every single detail within a project we're working on. Set an unrealistic deadline, and stick to it. The earth will continue to spin, I promise.

Guest Post 9/19/12 Guest Post 9/19/12

3 Practical Steps: Get More Done in Less Time and Create Time to Enjoy Your Life

"What's it going to be?" I mused blithely to myself as I rummaged through the gift bag. "A 21st century shaving kit? A manly hunting knife? Perhaps some Under Armour Boxers*?"

I was seated at the rehearsal dinner for the wedding of my eldest brother, Brian. The dinner and celebratory toasts had recently subsided, and Brian had just made his rounds passing out the gifts to his groomsmen, me being included in the bunch. As I extricated The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss from my gift bag, I had no clue of the impact it was about to make on my daily living.

Upon holding the book in my hands, perusing through the table of contents and the back cover, I was honestly a bit dubious of the book's promises and claims. I had heard of Tim Ferriss and his book (as probably most of you reading have, too), as Ferriss had quickly launched into semi-celebrity status in the sphere of lifestyle design and blogging upon the release of The 4-Hour Workweek. However, I'm not typically a fan of "Self-Help" materials, which is what I thought this particular book embodied. I find that 95% of the people who read self-help books may, yes, genuinely enjoy what they’re taking in during the read, but they then typically walk away and do nothing about it; they fail to implement any of the nifty solutions to their problems. And as we know: Education without action is just entertainment. Nothing more than that, really.

But at the same time, I knew that Brian had read (and applied) the concepts in The 4-Hour Workweekhimself in order to successfully create his own business, shortly after he made the decision to leave a steady and "safe" position he held at a company ranked top 100 on the Fortune 500. Not to mention, he was now living and working according to when he operated most productively (as opposed to the non-negotiable 9-5 workday most corporations enforce), and enjoying the convenience of working from home.

So I decided to give the book a shot. I was looking for a new book to read, anyway…

350 pages and a few action steps later, I realized that the 4HWWwas far from your ordinary feel-good, lets-sit-holding-hands-in-a-circle-singing-kumbaya self-help book. No, this was a book chalked full of practical, real-world strategies that anyone – be they an employee of a large corporation, an entrepreneur, a business owner, or manager – could immediately follow and see instant results.

Taking myself for example, I’ve already found myself experiencing an extra two hours of free time per day, more enjoyable weekends, and increasingly productive work periods in which I produce more output in less time. And I'm just getting started.

And so I wanted to share some of the information here, to help those of you reading who may be in need of a bit of lifestyle redesign.

-Are you perpetually buried by the incessant and stubborn flow of emails? -Do you check your Facebook 15 times per day (I'm being generous here by lowballing this number...), and wonder why you can seemingly never complete anything? -Does your To-Do List add items to itself faster than you can check them off? -Do you feel like you never get to do the things you actually ENJOY doing?

Now, before I continue, let me be clear that I have absolutely no intention of working only four hours per week; I simply love my job too much and personally prefer to be actively and intimately involved in what I do on a daily basis: Teaching athletes and regular people how to move and feel better. (If you hate your job, maybe it's best to reevaluate what you're doing as a career before we even think about moving further with this topic.)

Nor do I pretend that the majority of you could achieve a realistic 4-hour workweek, even if you followed all of the steps in the 4HWW to a tee.

But what I do think that all of you reading can (hopefully) agree with is this: We should work so that we can live, NOT live so that we can work.

And my wish is that these steps can at least help you get started walking down the right path.

1a. Check and Respond to Email Only Twice Per Day

Email (and I'll throw Facebook and Twitter into the mix, too) is perhaps the greatest time waster in modern society. With large thanks to the invention and widespread use of the smartphone, email has become a flighty temptress that people can't resist checking into at every possible moment: first thing in the morning, every 5 minutes during the work day, standing in line for coffee, walking down the city street, in between sets of squats at the gym, right before bed and even during dinner with family. Heck, when I was working as a personal trainer, I had a client who insisted that he carry his phone with him during every session, checking the incoming email as soon as his phone buzzed.

With instant access to each other and instant access to information, we have created this false sense of urgency that the world is going to end unless we check our email and/or social media accounts every few seconds.

Why does this really matter, and how does it pertain to the title of this article? Accomplishing critical tasks in less time (and thus freeing up extra time in your day) requires complete focus on the project at hand, with as few interruptions as possible. Quoting Ferriss:

There is a psychological switching of gears that can require up to 45 minutes to resume a major task that has been interrupted. More than a quarter of each 9-5 period (28%, or 134.4 minutes) is consumed by such interruptions, and 40% of people interrupted go on to a new task without finishing the one that was interrupted. This is how we end up with 20 windows open on our computers and nothing completed at 5pm.

In fact, a psychiatrist at King's College in London performed an IQ study in which he determined that people stoned (under the influence of marijuana) actually performed HIGHER on IQ tests than those who were "under the influence" of distracting email! You can read the story HERE.

I love what Ferriss points out later in the book:

Multi-tasking is dead. It never worked and it never will. Intelligent people love to sing its praises because it gives them permission to avoid the much more challenging alternative: focusing on one thing.

Here are a few steps I've employed to reduce my frequency of email interruption down to just two times per day. Guys, I really can't emphasize enough how this has RADICALLY altered how much more I accomplish in a day, and even (which may sound counterintuitive) how much more punctual it has made me with responding to emails.

A. Turn off the audible alert that lets you know when a new email has come in. B. Turn off the automatic Send/Receive feature that delivers new email as soon as it's sent to you.

I don't know anyone who can honestly say they can resist the urge to pull up the email screen as soon as they hear that oh-so-familiar "Ding!" that rings every time new email comes in. It creates an unnecessary distraction, and it's the virtual equivalent of crack.

Or, for those of you Mac users (I have one), you know how hard it is to resist perpetually checking the notification on your dock informing you of how many unread emails you have.

C. Only check email TWICE per day. This, for me personally, has been the greatest difference maker.

Ferriss recommends 12noon and 4PM, as he says that these are the times that provide the greatest likelihood of ensuring you've received a response from a previous email sent. I personally use 11AM and 2:30PM because of my schedule, but it's really up to you.

In fact, while I follow this policy for my business email, I now only check my personal email once per day, at 11AM.

Paranoid that you're going to receive something so critically important that it can't wait until your allotted email checking? Use an autoresponder to let people know of your new policy, such as the example Ferriss provides:

Greetings All,
Due to high workload and pending deadlines, I am currently responding to email twice daily at 12pm ET [be sure to indicate your time zone] and 4pm ET .
If you require help with something that can’t wait until either 12pm or 4pm, please call me on my cell phone at 555-555-5555.
Thank you for understanding this move to greater effectiveness.
All the best, Tim Ferriss

The beauty of that is you are providing your phone number for those that genuinely need to immediately reach you for an issue that's actually important or time-sensitive. You can see another example of a more "boss friendly" autoresponder HERE.

You know what a surprising side effect of this new policy has been for me, personally? I'm now actually MORE productive and punctual with responding to people via email!

Since I know that (if I'm doing my 2:30pm email check) I won't be on my email for the rest of the day, I can't use the "Oh I'll respond to them in 30 minutes" excuse, which as you know, can quickly lead to a stacking of 'Marked as Unread' items in your inbox, stressing you out to no end.

1b. Don't Check E-Mail, Texts, or Facebook First Thing In The Morning

This habit alone has changed my life. Checking email used to be one of the very first things I did every single day, even on the weekends. I'd wander out into my living room, pet my cat good morning, and then flip open my computer and check my email. I don't know what it is, but I think that most of us are now programmed to check email whenever possible, and not even out of necessity, but out of mere habit.

And I don't have a smartphone, but I can only imagine those that do probably check their email and/or social media while lying in bed. C'mon', admit it, I know you do!

After refusing to do it for a couple weeks now, I've experienced firsthand why checking email first thing, while a seemingly innocuous habit, is actually quite detrimental:

1. It will automatically cause you to get caught up and distracted by whatever you have seen arrive in your inbox. Say goodbye to a distraction-free morning, and hello to immediate saturation of seemingly uber-important, really-can't-wait-another-minute matters.

2. You will now have your thoughts occupied by the emails that arrived, dramatically hindering the real, important tasks you had to accomplish or work on that morning.

3. It can subconsciously sets the tone for the day of checking email nonstop. As we've seen above, we want to avoid this at all costs.

4. It can take up a deceptive amount of time (especially if you throw Facebook and Twitter into the mix), erasing hours from your day before you even knew what hit you. This can be especially dangerous during the weekends, pulling you away all morning from things that, oh I don't know, involve you doing something fun with the people you care about the most?

---

Some of you may be sitting there thinking "This would be impossible and impractical for me to do." And you know what, I thought the same thing. But I dare you to try it. You can thank me later, don't worry.

I realize I've only covered Step 1 out of the 3 practical steps I promised you in the title of this post, but I'll be back on Friday with Part 2. (**Update: You can view Part 2 HERE**)

*The inventor of those can have my firstborn son.

Sarah Walls 9/17/12 Sarah Walls 9/17/12

Attitude vs. Environment

Great teams create an environment and culture that allow players to unlock their potential. Outside of sport, where we grow up, who we socialize with, and what our family structure is often shapes our personality. There’s no doubt that a strong and positive environment can be a major factor in determining success, however environment isn’t everything.

As a coach, or organization, it is your job to try to create the best possible environment for your players. The signs in the locker room, the practice facilities, and the marketing of the team, can all have a great impact on the performance of an athlete. Don’t take for granted the ability to shape environment and give athletes the best opportunity for success.

As a player you often have little control over your environment. You don’t pick your team, your teammates, the coaches, where you play, etc. In fact, we may be forced into certain environments that we have little control over. It’s often in those situations where excuses manifest and frustration takes over. Examples like, “my team doesn’t care about winning”, or this team “isn’t any good”, or “nobody takes this seriously”, are real examples of environment dictating attitude.

As a player figure out how you can have the best possible attitude even in the worst possible environment. Let your attitude be a driving force in changing the environment for the better. Often when our environment is poor, we fall into the trap of allowing ourselves to blend into that poor environment.

If your environment is a 2 out of 10 and your attitude is a 4 out of 10 then you may be contributing to the poor environment. However, if you take that 2 environment and improve your attitude to a 7 then maybe you can improve your environment. It’s a simple change that can often be the difference between winning and losing. Make the change and improve your attitude and environment today.

As the great Gandhi said, “be the change you want to see in the world.”

Sarah Walls 9/11/12 Sarah Walls 9/11/12

Running & Wrestling: Like Oil and Water?

I have this very special file on my computer that is titled "Master Programs" and inside are all the important tidbits of information that have helped define SAPT's training approach and the template variations we have created. Looking through it is like taking a trip through time, as I remember where I was and who I was working with when each variation was put through its paces. There are a number of sub-folders with names like: 400m Training, Agility, Assessment, Healthy Knees, Intensity Tools, Nutrition, PL/WL (that's powerlifting and weightlifting), and Sport Specific. Within the Sport Specific folder I found an old document I put together in 2007 where I polled a number of other active D1 strength coaches regarding their approach to conditioning (specifically running) and wrestling.

To give this a bit of context, SAPT was in its infancy... I think the company was like 2 months old, and I had somehow convinced a high school wrestling coach to let me take his team through a 6-week pre-season training (thanks, Jack).

At one point we touched on the idea of running and wrestling. My stance was (and still is) that long distance running would actually do more harm than good for a wrestler. WELL, let me tell you this was not well received by the guys. So, in case I was crazy, I polled these other coaches. Here were their responses:

What’s the deal with running?

Responses from a variety of collegiate coaches…

“The majority of the AU wrestling conditioning is done on mat. The running is predominantly sprint work on the track at distances of approximately 30m, 60m and 100m. The long distance runs are primarily for recovery or for dropping weight. You need to explain that to those parents as best you can. Maybe you can use this to help you: "Due to the previously discussed increased risk of injury during periods of fatigue (30), designing the injury prevention program to incorporate metabolic system training proves essential. Specific to wrestling are activities that require high levels of anaerobic power and muscular endurance (8, 22, 54). Over the course of a 2-minute period, an explosive attack occurs approximately every 6 to 10 seconds (35). Simulating the metabolic needs of practice and competition is best accomplished through interval training (33). Intervals involving periods of intense resistance exercise, running, or biking interspersed with periods of relative rest should be considered the ideal training method to achieve physiological responses similar to wrestling. If possible, injured athletes should continue conditioning programs that also mimic the physiological needs of practice and competition (Table 3) to prepare for return to competition after adequate healing occurs."

From:

Terry L. Grindstaff PT, ATC, CSCS, *D and David H. Potach PT, MS, CSCS, *D;, NSCA-CPT, *D. 2006: Prevention of Common Wrestling Injuries. Strength and Conditioning Journal: Vol. 28, No. 4, pp. 20–28.

Or check this article out:

Zsolt Murlasits MS, CSCS. 2004: Special Considerations for Designing Wrestling-Specific Resistance-Training Programs. Strength and Conditioning Journal: Vol. 26, No. 3, pp. 46–50.”

Email response from Jason Riddell, Head Strength and Conditioning Coach at American University

“LSD for wrestlers depends on why they're doing it. For performance gains it's worthless, it's like having your sprinters do it for greater speed improvement. But, for improved aerobic capacity to aid in match recovery it has a small place, and I think there are much better ways to improve this capacity rather than going on long slow runs or staying on a bike for a long time, so I would say on occasion it may be okay but not as a regular activity. Last, and probably the one most wrestlers use as their excuse for wanting to do LSD is for weight loss, cutting weight.

There are a lot of variables to this debate, LSD or no LSD?

LSD has been proven to cause:

Decrease in strength and power

Decrease in anaerobic power

Decrease in muscle mass

Last time I checked wrestling relies pretty heavily on all three of those, and a decrease in them will ultimately cause a decrease in match performance.

I prefer the Tabata method of HIIT (high intensity interval training) and this is what we had our wrestlers doing. But, there were always those guys that went on the LSD runs to cut weight.

I hope this answers your question.

Give my best to Handy.

I look forward to meeting you some day. Feel free to come down and visit when you have time.

GW”

Email response from Greg Warner, Head Strength and Conditioning Coach at JMU

“First of all, thanks for being an avid reader of Elite. Funny you asked this question, b/c we just had this conversation with our wrestling coaches. They were all about these long distance runs and once we finally explained it to them in a way they could understand, it clicked!

Here’s how we explained it. You know how wrestlers get “heavy leg” syndrome? Well, that’s due to lactic acid build-up. The more that they are trained at lactate threshold, the better their bodies will get at getting rid of and recycling the lactic acid. Running long distance is aerobic. It won’t help them at all when they are in the third period and their muscles are “heavy” or filled with lactic acid. Some longer recovery runs are beneficial on days in between hard workouts or hard practices. We typically do a “2 minute/ 3 minute routine”. Two minutes of running (either done on a football field where they have to make a certain number of yards or on a treadmill at a certain speed…. Heavy weights and light weights are different, of course), then 3 minutes of recovery (walking). This is the longest running we will do with almost any of our athletes. They do need to have some aerobic training, but not 5 miles straight, know what I mean? Most of our training is done in shorter intervals (30-60 seconds).

I hope that helps to explain it. Once we explained it in terms that the coaches could understand (they understood “heavy leg syndrome” not lactic acid build-up), then it made sense to them and they were more open to changes.

Let me know if you have any more questions.”

Email response from Julia Ledewski, Assistant Director of Sports Performance at New York University at Buffalo

“Ok, here is my advice......GOOD LUCK!!! Seriously, this is a tough battle to fight, and one that I think very few can win. Why, because they have been doing it for so long that they are convinced it works.....yet too close-minded to acknowledge that there might be a better way. Also, as I have learned since coming to UTEP, people in athletics really don't like change.....even though if you don't change you will never get better. If you have Jason Feruggia's book, "Tap Out!!!", he gives an excellent description that may help you fairly early on in the book.

#1. I remember when I was wrestling in high school that we did distance runs for the first couple weeks of training, but after that never ran anything that lasted more than 2 minutes. And, these were sprints. How long is a period in wrestling?.....2 minutes. We also had one of the best wrestling teams in Missouri. In fact, after I left they won the state championship 3 years in row. They also place in the top 6 nearly every year. Several of the guys I wrestled with went on to wrestle at the D1 level. In fact, one guy competed at the international level and was expected to go to the Olympics, but had a few distractions. In high school, you don't get to recruit your athletes, instead you have to train the ones you have. For me, that's enough evidence to say that wrestlers don't need to run long distances to be good.

But, to play devil's advocate, what did nearly all of us do on our own after practice? We went for a long distance run. But, that was more to keep our weight down than to stay in shape.

#2. If you walked into a wrestling meet, and had to bet on one of two wrestlers, which one would you bet on? One wrestler looks like a marathon runner....thin, frail, no muscular development, and slow. The other looks like a sprinter.....lean, hard, muscular, fast, explosive. Knowing nothing else, except what you see, which one would you bet on?.........Here's a hint, most high caliber wrestlers have more similar characteristics of sprinters than marathon runners.

#3. Running long distances requires you to be slow. Why would a wrestler want to be slow? Sprinting requires you to be fast. Don't wrestlers need to be fast and explosive?

#4. They might like this arguement. Have the athlete run six 400 m sprints at a challenging pace (1 min 35 sec or less) with only 5 minutes rest, then on a separate day have them do a 1.5 mile run at their normal distance pace. Then, ask them which is harder and requires more mental toughness? If they are being honest with you, and running hard on the 400s, the answer should be obvious. By the way, which one is more similar in energy demands to a wrestling meet? In high school a period lasts 2 minutes, and there are 3 periods per match. Furthermore, I would be willing to bet that you could increase the distance run to 3 miles and it would still not be as hard as the 400s. *(The time I listed is what one of my soccer girls ran her 480 yd sprints in, so it may need adjusted for a male athlete who is only running 400 meters).

#5. You can try explaining the energy systems to them, but I don't think you will get very far doing this. They will not understand, nor do they want to understand science. Even if they say or they think they believe in science, their "honest" opinion is that there is no science in athletics. The only thing they will see is results. And, some are sold on hard work, but carry it WAY TOO FAR in that they will actually tear their athletes to pieces before backing off. These are the people that blame losing on not working hard enough, so that after a loss they kill their athletes in workouts so they are too tired to perform in the next match, and lose again.......from here it is a downward spiral. Again, it all comes down to results that they see (W-L). If you do your running, and they win, you are a genius and they will be sold on your ideas. If they lose, it will be your fault and they will never buy into your ideas, regardless of whether you are right or wrong.

I saw the Thinker's response. That arguement will go nowhere with the people you are dealing with.

All the weights on our racks are in kilos, so I don't bother to do the math on anything I don't think is close to a PR. Also, if I do want to do the math, seeing it in kilos first distracts me from the depressing number of pounds I am lifting, in that doing the math is so fun that it takes the focus off what I actually did. By the way, how can you say "stay" strong when you know how much I am lifting? Shouldn't you be saying "get" strong, instead?

yes, it is depressing,

David”

Email response from David Adamson, Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach at University Texas at El Paso

“Thinker: How much value (or lack of) do long slow distance runs bring to the table of conditioning for wrestlers? I'm trying to dispell myths among parents and athletes... running seems to be a VERY hot button for them! Thanks so much for your help!

Hello Sarah, Let's consider this from a physiological perspective:?? Long slow runs are certainly a viable means of developing oxidative capacity; and running in general provides a great deal of latitude in terms of how it may be manipulated (intensity, duration) in order to develop a multitude of capacities (developing cardiac power, pushing the anaerobic threshold, developing speed strength, sprint speed, speed endurance, etc).??The question, however, is: is long slow running the optimal means of developing oxidative power for the wrestler???Sarah, the answer is no.?? The oxidative power may much more effectively be developed via the performance of exercises that also develop the local strength endurance of the muscles of the legs, trunk, arms, and shoulder girdle.??These exercises may be performed with the most rudimentary of apparatus (bodyweight calisthenic/gymnastic, barbells, dumbbells, med balls, kettlebells, etc)??The key, however, is that the exercises are performed via the appropriate method (such as circuit or serial), the appropriate resistance, for the appropriate durations, and at the appropriate speed of movement to yield the targeted adaptations (in this case oxidative power). A heart rate monitor is an exceptional tool for regulating such a form of exercise.??In regards to developing oxidative power, most of the literature suggests that heart rate zones 60-70% of the maximum are ideal for recovery purposes and at the higher end (70-80%) you will begin to develop the power of the oxidative system. At you progress into the 70th percentile you are still beneath the anaerobic threshold and continuing to develop the power of the oxidative system. ??So, essentially, any form of exercise beneath the anaerobic threshold (which must ultimately be quantified in the laboratory or with technology like the Omega Wave) is stimulating the oxidative process (the lower the intensity the more the restorative the stimulus- the higher the intensity the more developmental the stimulus to the power of the oxidative system)??Specificity to sport is then imparted via the exercises performed and the work/rest intervals.”

Response from Pitt Performance Department