Klaus Bartonietz semminar
ASA had recently invited Klaus Bartonietz to give a seminar for athletic coaches and Klaus had entitled it as “No more Mr/Ms Nice Guy - Time to get serious”. I attended the seminar at Santos Stadium on the 27th October 2010. Although I can’t fully understand the reason for his title (Can’t you be serious and be nice at the same time?), I thoroughly enjoy the seminar and clearly Klaus is a very experienced, knowledgeable yet a practical coach who chose not to dwell on too much scientific information.
One of Klaus’ main point is, in his word, “No Brain, no gain”. Klaus started off with several video examples of motor abilities and development in both humans and animals that are beyond the realms of athletics to emphasise his point. These range from the pianist playing 15 keys per second on the piano, the little ballet dancer doing 3 turns pirouette with perfect vertical line (‘think’ field events requiring rotations movement), Bruce Lee doing a 1 leg back kick and sending his opponent flying off without losing his own balance (He looked as if he shot-putting the opponent with his leg!). The potential and the depth of human motor abilities are well illustrated through these examples and all these are only possible when our brains send command signals to the muscles to perform the series of movement. Thus, effective training should encompass the training of the brain and the neuromuscular system by engaging or stimulating both at the same time. That means, “more brain, more gain”.
This can be achieved when athletes seek to understand or be taught by coaches not just the ‘how’ but also the ‘why’. Athletics should also be fun and Klaus presented the German’s system of grooming athletes by engaging them in general participation of all athletic events from young till about 14 - 15 years old when coaches start to identify which specific event each athlete is excelling in, then directing them to specialise in it. The practice of training both arm to perform the event is also briefly touched on so as to possibly result in better neuron connections between the brain hemispheres and potentially facilitate the learning of the skills on the dominant side of the body. This forces athletes to think and be more aware about their movements. Asking the athlete to keep record of his progress and activity is also an important practice that will provide feedback and to ensure progress is continuing. Improvement in the long term is achieved through the building in the consistency of thinking and action as they are related. Training over the years will also improved ‘load-ability’ so as to allow athletes to train more intensively and more often without problem. Furthermore, the training of both sides of body and the opposite/antagonistic muscles (example: bicep to tricep, hamstring to quadriceps, etc) in different parts of the body will help prevent injury from occurring.
Making training fun is also something coaches should consider. Competition of training drills between athletes is something that can be applied to achieve that. The focus on the process, not just the end goal, can often bring great satisfaction and consequently great result.
Klaus had also briefly touched on some biomechanics analysis conducted. One of them is the ankle’s power seems to contribute more to an athlete’s performance in hang clean while the hip’s power dominate in clean from the floor. More research will need to be done to assess the importance of ankle power in athletes performance and whether the current common focus on hip extension power is over-emphasised or over-rated.
Overall, it is a thought provoking presentation with many anecdotes and good general principles for training and coaching.
Danwin Chan