In which Mr. Delaney confronts 'The Creatures'

Ok before I go into full on rant mode, I want you to realize that I pretty much only worry about what I do-I strive to be the best that I can be by always learning etc. at the end of the day I am only responsible for myself. But lately I have been noticing more and more a particular creature I come across...it happens again and again and I shouldn't let it irk me...but it does. The creature I'm referring to is generally of the female gender either in their late fourties or early fifties and the natural habitat is any number of community centres.They can usually be found teaching Group Fitness classes utilising what I call the ancient religion and sacred rituals of choreographed routines from 1983.Inevitably they will bring out at some point the 'Holiest Of Holies' the ritual object the divine blue half orb and encourage the worshippers to 'engage the fetish object with their feet' STAND ON THE ORB STAND ON THE ORB' they intone to which the Faithful follow..

Ok so I'm being sarcastic.And for the record I know a lot of amazing female Trainers and instructors who live their lives with a passion for knowledge and self improvement.Yet I also wouldn't be writing this if I didn't have this experience happening again and again...

In one of the places I work at, where I was ASKED to go and work had the interesting effect of ensuring none of the other trainers spoke to me and when they did look my way, all I got was a hairy eyeball.Why?I started getting all the business.I was told by my supervisor that she had never before had people ask for a Trainer by name before.I didn't take any business from anyone else..

One day against my better judgement one of my snide remarks got out vis a vis a client who was talking about how a previous Trainer had them standing on a Bosu ball and touching their nose.To which yours truly replied-"It's training not a circus act , if you ever get a Trainer who asks you to do that fire them they're an idiot." This remark got back to one of the creatures who worshipped her 'precious' The creature than made the mistake of confronting me about it. I stood my ground-my nice stable ground and supported why I don't use 'the Precious' in my training backed it up with facts on studies that measured forms of unstable surface training , the possible bad effects in women with greater q angles, effects on any number of the 56 joint actions of the foot , risks of injury and how various studies have shown NO MEASURABLE EFFECT in proprioception.I even offered to send it the links."No Thank You" she hissed. I thought the creatures head would explode.Instead it just looked at me with a vacant ugly stare and slithered away back into their subterrenean cave to watch Cathy Smith Dvds....no wait make that VHS tapes...and probably on betamax. later I found out that it had last gone to a seminar in 1998 because 'she didn't need to' and cross my heart that last statement is true as I heard it with my own ears.

I run into the same thing with my students[who are ALL amazing] they tell me"So and so says we don't need mentors'.'So and so has never heard of X or Y or Z' I guess whats really gnawing away at me is the refusal to learn from so many and I suppose I notice it most among the creatures I describe.The 'this is the way we have always done it'. Some of the Trainers at the place I described above have begun to talk to me.In conversation it comes up that I'm going off to a seminar with the NSCA or taking a workshop with ACSM or reading new research,every single time,and I mean EVERY single time they say "I've never heard of that'.. It brings me back to my original screed-I guess I can only worry about what I do and strive to always improve my skills and knowledge..I can try to educate my students and give them the message of always keeping open minded and always learning.Hopefully together we can begin to vanquish the forces of darkness, and make the'Creatures' obsolete..and replace them with proud confident knowledgeable women of a certain age who keep up to date, and welcome change and opportunities to learn.Until that day I will remain in a heightened state of awareness around 'The Creatures'..

Athletes Performance Phase 2!! A review

Well...that was an incredibly intense four days..Athletes Performance Phase 2 rolled into the Richmond Olympic Oval and yours truly was chomping at the bit to get right into it. I also didn't take any time off of work either so I was with AP during the day then working at night.Like I always say I would have sucked as a cop, but would have been awesome in the army...up at 5 am after 3 hours sleep-NO PROBLEM!

AP's expert coaches this time around were Brent Callaway who was a five-time ACC Champion pole vaulter in track and field and a seven-time All-ACC Athlete during his time at the University of North Carolina .This guy knows his stuff- he was joined by Nicole Rodriguez Performance Specialist. she had been previously with Mike Boyle Strength and Conditioning...All of it was overseen by Dan Zieky Business director for AP. Day One started with 'The Art of Coaching' and went into the various elements of cueing and above all else the art of communication.I found this fascinating as I do coach groups of 8 to 10 and although you would think a lot is basic common sense, it amazes me when I see a lot of Trainers and Coaches clearly uncomfortable in front of their clients.Hey it happens.

Following that we went rather extensively over the FMS[Functional Movement Screen]-This was good getting practice on the Functional Movement Screen it's always invaluable, I just did a few lengthy sessions on this back in April at the TSAC conference and of course all of our clients at the Oval are screened using it.I did pick up a few things, and that's what I love about being a Trainer and Coach.From that we moved on to Vertical Jump testing..oh yeah Daddy and his 48 year old ass had to hit it..no surprises there , I don't think the NBA will be calling on me anytime soon..still it was fascinating to see how that data is analyzed and show where your strength,endurance,and power can be tracked.

The day ended with a group workout and reinforced the program design philosphies of AP-again nothing new , but once you start applying it, it all gets a bit easier;a horizontal push balanced with a pull, rotation and anti rotation etc.

Day 2 was all about energy system development but the big and super intense days were 3 and 4- we were out on the track doing speed drills, multi directional speed, warm ups and getting the basic protocols of the best athletic training in the world down pat-

Brent Callaway demonstarting four point starts and various other starts....then we had to do it!!! we were out on the track for three hours, marching,skipping,lateral shuffling hooked into bungees and shot across the track...and again all of our movements analyzed critiqued,and corrected.It was a very hardcore day , that is until...... DAY FOUR HOLY CRAP!!!!! ....coaching evaluations.We split into two groups and led a portion of all of the applied sessions so one by one we again spent eight hours going over everything then followed by group feedback sessions on what can be improved.Eight hours of marching skipping, running, jumping, over and over again... What I noticed was how uncomfortable some people were in front of a group.To me if you can get over that, the rest is easy.That's also something that can never be taught.I see it all the time with my students. I did very very well on my coaching demo.Extremely well.Highest score overall actually. It all wrapped up with a Q& A session and as it came to a close I had a chance to process everything, I realized that these guys really are the best athletic education money can buy.Going over my notes,educational materials etc. showed me that these people are serious... Let's just say I pity next week's Athletic Conditioning class at Eastside Fitness-you have been warned!

Back from TSAC-takeaways!!

With from L to R Ed a Corrections Officer from Omaha, Taco Visser Exercise Physiologist for the Royal Netherlands Army and yours truly at TSAC Las Vegas

well I got back last night from the 'Tactical Strength and Conditioning Conference' done by the National Strength and Conditioning Conference in beautiful Las Vegas.

I went last year also and for those who Train Law Enforcement, Military or Firefighters its indispensable.For me the best part is to connect with people from all over the world, share experiences discuss what works for them, challenges they face and solutions to issues that come up.
My good friend Rebecca Swan the Fitness Coordinator for the Vancouver Police Department was there for the first time and she found it great as well...I met an exceptionally nice Exercise Physiologist for the Netherlands Royal Army,a Hilarious Female Firefighter from Colorado, assorted prison guards, a gregarious Motorcycle cop from Austin Texas, and a Police Officer from Santa Cruz California, who trains Academy recruits.
There was a greater presence of Firefighters this year and that was great, the conference has doubled in size from Last year.....

So here in point form are some highlights and takeaway 'knowledge bombs' from my three days at the conference...

- Keynote address from Stew Smith former Navy Seal and Trainer of future ones- his keynote was called 'The Need For Physical Training among Tactical Populations'..Stew is an excellent speaker and the thrust was the necessity for testing and also [and this is jaw dropping] the absolutely horrifying increase in obesity in new recruits for any Military,Police, or Firefighting professions.. its getting worse even for those already serving and as much as I hate to say it, the women's stats are worse than the men.
-Fave quote from Stew's speech? 'Obesity is a bigger issue than Terrorism ever will be'
-I went to another presentaion by Stew Smith called Training With No Equipment again just excellent.He also by popular demand went again into the 'Traumatic Exercise release' protocol that was such a hit last year.Great deal of respect for Stew and what he is trying to do
-CPT Tony Soika gave a Hands on session of 'Development of Explosive Power:Plyometrics.Speed ,and Agility..an amazing speaker and he took a whole bunch of people through an entire workout and also pointed out that this would be the same training program for collegiate athletes-none of what he did was new to me but he did it so well-in other words he didn't just get people to go through the motions he 'coached' and made stuff that seemed so familiar look professional organized well thought out and very serious.One of my favourite sessions because of his exceptional coaching skills and attention to proper bio mechanics
-Olympic Lifting technique 'The Snatch' by John Carlock- again nothing new except for how he broke down how to teach in stages..any of my Trainer friends would have loved to have seen how he broke it down..using a dowel,Romanian Deadlifts, then all kinds of excellent cues.well done.
-Pre Screening Injury Prevention Strategies-Patrick Conway- by the book, nothing new, but always good to have things reinforced.The FMS portion was not that good.
-Alternative Training Methods-Dave Sandler and Jason Dudley- another circuit, by the end of the conference I didn't want to see another agility ladder,Kettlebell, or TRX..again this was nothing new, and nothing special about it ,but again for someone who might be new I bet they got a lot out of it.
-A Proven Approach Of Identifying And Reducing Injuries In The Tactical Athlete[Firefighters to be specific] this was presented by Michael Contreras,and of course was all about the FMS [Functional Movement Screen] I'm certified in FMS but it was great to see his approach in applying it.I still say that the FMS is highly subjective and not perfect but with the adoption of it in the Tuscon Fire Department they reduced time loss due to injury by 62%,Total number of injuries by 42%.I do like the FMS but it does take a lot of practice to know what to look for...we use it exclusively at the Oval, and Mike Contreras was a great speaker very much to the point...he stressed to us 'don't overthink it'.I also spoke to him after and he was more than sold on the value of FMS screening and also hilarious as he recounted stories on today's recruits and their lack of fitness, nice guy and totally to the point.

so there you have it-I did a lot of other sessions involving RCMp Training protocols, Kettlebell training and more, a great deal of it reallly isn't anything new to me as a lot of the things are what I do already....but it's always great to have a lot reinforcedHopefully I'll go next year although I heard a rumour it may be held in Norfolk Virginia not Vegas..thats a shame 'cause it's too far away..

-

A very busy but EXTREMELY Excellent week

Wow.What a week! a good week but busy.Running between Kerrisdale,Eastside Fitness and the Richmond Olympic Oval keeps me happy..I'm still processing the week before when I went out to the Justice Institute of B.C. and ran the POPAT[Police Officer Physical Abilities Test] as a guest of the amazing Rebecca Swan Fitness Coordinator for the VPD.I got 4:54 and a couple of re-do's but considering my age and the fact I didn't do any specific training for it, not bad.I WILL do it again, but man it was tough.
Training Police and law enforcement is a cause very close to my heart-those of you who know me well know why.
This week was really good as well thanks to my fantastic client Mr. Marshall at Kerrisdale..78 years old stroke, limited use of his left side, this guy blows my mind..He is always fifteen minutes early and his dedication could put someone half his age and in better physical shape to shame.
Then there were the two inspiring women at Eastside Fitness, Victoria has Parkinsons diseas but she is in great shape and there was nothing she wouldn't do.
Its people like that that make my job worthwhile.No amount of money can ever compare to the feeling you get when you come across people like that.
Had a few clients at the Oval too, where I am heading right now..
Next week is TSAC in Las Vegas..will post before I go

Athletes Performance Part 2 coming up!!!

best training in the world-I am doing my phase 2 performance mentorship in May- easily the best money I have ever spent....

Eastside Fitness!!

!!!!

Been training/teaching at a local Gym up on Fraser Street in the heart of Vancouver's East side[Obviously!!!]
This is a fantastic littlke Gym that offers classes for all fitness levels and abilities...I teach an Athletic conditioning class there Monday nights at 6:15 pm..the owners are really proactive at engaging the community in this area, the care and effort that they are putting into this Gym is truly inspiring. If your in East Van please check it out