Pete Carroll: Win Forever. I've been looking forward to this book for over a year. I had to pick it up on it's first day of being sold.

Midway through my long duration morning run, I had to stop at a Barnes and Noble to pick up one of the books I have been anticipating for over a year now. I’m 50 pages deep and I’m loving every word. The book I’m talking about is “Win Forever – Live, Work, and Play Like a Champion” written by Pete Carroll with Yogi Roth.

I’m going to give a full video review of the book when I finish it tomorrow or the next day. I’ve easily been reading through it and if your a fan of Carroll’s coaching philosophy, I really think your going to LOVE this book.

Being a young coach I think this book truly speaks to those who are just starting off on their coaching career. The ideal of developing your coaching philosophy is a huge pillar or principle. I know that when I wrote my 25 page manifesto that I need to continue to refine and shape my philosophy to it’s more concise. I love the idea that Pete Carroll’s philosophy can be refined down to a single sentence. I’m hoping after reading this book I can come somewhere close.

I’ll let you all know how I feel about the book after reading it!

We’re all working towards the same goal; to make healthier and stronger athletes that move better. I was having a conversation the other day regarding scope of practice with a physical therapist friend of mine and we starting talking about limits of our respective practice. This got me thinking about how these limits constrain our education within this field.

Within each discipline you will find a core unit of practitioners who are highly protective of their industry. For example, ATCs may tell strength coaches to stay away from doing “XYZ” because that is out of their scope. You also might find strength coaches telling PT’s that they need to stop implementing “ABC” regarding program design because ‘it’s their territory’.I will be the first to say that I completely understand and agree with the general standards of our scope of practice. Understand that the grey areas between the scopes are becoming ever more slimmer.  There have been many times when I ‘use’ to personal train athletes that if they score poorly on the Functional Movement Screen, I referred them out. If that had positive indicators of pain doing “XYZ”, I’d refer.  This just makes sense to me. I’m not an expert at physical therapy. I’m not an expert at diagnosing injuries. I’m not an expert nor can/should be, putting my hands on athletes with manual therapy. This is where the referring and scope of practice should be.

However, I think it’s in our industries best interest to UNDERSTAND what each practice does. I’m not going to go back to school to become an ATC or Physical Therapist but you can bet your buck that I’m reading textbooks and continuing education material regarding the topic. “Why”, might you ask? I believe having the understanding of each practice helps aid the athlete in all of our respective goals. We’re all here to make healthier and stronger athletes move better and more efficiently.

If I can understand what the ATC is looking for in injuries, I will be on the ball when I suspect an nagging injury or signs of “XYZ”. This doesn’t mean I’ll step outside of my scope of practice, but it does mean I’ll be quick to refer the athlete because of my education. Regarding physical therapy (something I’ve been extensively reading on lately), if I can understand the progressions the PT is doing with an injured athlete, I can efficiently and more safely begin developing strength training progressions and protocols that will help aid in the transition from an ATC, to a PT, to a strength coach.

I encourage you to not sell yourself short. If your a coach, or a PT or any other discipline; start reading other materials outside of your field. I’m not advocating to extend your practice outside of your scope, but rather gain an understanding of how each of our fields work towards the same positive goal. I’m still supporting becoming an absolute beast of knowledge within your own field, but to begin looking at other disciplines as a source to improve your own knowledge and the progress of our athletes.

Even today, I still receive this question. Granted, most strength coaches know the answer that is probably coming, I have to admit, it’s still an issue for some.

My response to this question is unequivocally; “I’m a What Works Guy!”. That’s right, that is my answer. I am simply a whatever-works type of guy. I also believe you HAVE TO BE. Our industry is changing so rapidly, science is changing quickly, athletic populations with their differences of speeds, agility, biomechanics, physiques, the nature of the game… It’s all changing dramatically.

Are You Working w/ All the Tools?

I end up usually making this analogy. In this day and age, simply being a one-methodology guy is like showing up to build a house and only bringing a hammer. You’re going to have difficulties cutting wood with a hammer, putting in screws, measuring and cementing.

The strength & conditioning realm is changing and it’s our responsibility as coaches to change with it. I’m not by any means saying we cannot olympic lift or we cannot use machines. I love both and use both in my programing. I also don’t think we need to build such elaborate variety in the program that adaptation can not occur. There are needs for stability and exercises need to stay constant  so those adaptations can occur.

What I am recommending is that we don’t pigeon hole or paint our selves into a corner by limiting the methodologies to only one or two. I think we need to look at what the Olympic guys are doing and say “What Works”. We need to look at the HIT gang and say “How can I use this”? Look at the functional, the corrective, the physical therapists, the prehabilitation gang, the movement-based group and simply ask ourselves, “how can we use this with our athletes”.

The day I look at something and quickly propose that I’ll never do it or never program it will be the day that I have one foot in the grave. Science is improving every day and more and more research is coming out disproving some methods, proving others. The game is rapidly changing. What we know to be working and proven today will be disproved and inefficient and wrong 2 years from now. It’s our job to stay as close to science and follow it’s groove.

I absolutely love Nike’s new advertising campaign featuring what it means to be a female athlete. Obviously, I’m not a female, but it’s just great to see advertising that is going against the grain and providing popular role models and breaking social stigmas surrounding female athletes. As a strength coach, if somewhere down the road I ever have a little daughter, you better believe that these bad boys are going to be posters in her room. I guarantee that!

Now if your looking to just drop a few pounds or try to muscle up, then I don’t always believe you have to follow any strict nutritional plan. However, if your looking to push your body to the extreme. If you strive to optimize your body’s ability to achieve muscle mass or lose rapid amounts of fat, then I feel a food scale is absolutely necessary.

I’m not a guy who counts every single calorie that I eat throughout the day. That’s just not my style. I however know how many calories I consume on training and non training days because I know my macronutrient breakdown. I also know what meals I intend on eating depending on the hour of the day. This comes with a proper planning and tailoring your nutrition to fit your fitness or performance goals.

I’ve always recommended going out to a local store and picking up a quality food scale. Nutrition is equally as important as the weight room and as the practice field. Nutrition can make or break you. If your doing everything right in the weight room, pushing heavy weight, progressive overload, proper recovery, proper nutrition, etc; you’ll obtain the results you want.

The best part about measuring your food is that numbers don’t lie. We’ve all been there at some point. It’s 8:00pm, your stressed, and your staring down the meal you need eat next, and you think “I’ve worked hard, maybe I’ll pour a few more “XYZ” on my plate because, I deserve it”. With a food scale, this never occurs. Sure maybe the thought of it crosses your mind, but once you have a habit to measure out your food, there is no excuses, no chance of doubt, and no measure of error in portion control.

There are a lot of foods out there on the market that are extremely deceptive. I say meaning that what you may THINK is 1 oz, is probably more like 2 to 3 oz when you don’t measure it. It’s so easy to fall into the pitfall of dieting and cutting calories only to spin your wheels in frustration because your not making progress. If this sounds familiar than you may want to take a long, hard look at what your doing and what your eating.

Here is my list of extremely deceptive foods that are an absolutely must for measuring out before consuming. Again, this is just my list. You may consume these without measuring them but if you feel like weight loss or gain is stalling, you might want to look what your putting on your plate.

1. Cereal
2. Peanut Butter
3. Ketchup
4. Salad Dressing
5. Coffee Creamers
6. Chips/Grains/Etc
7. Nuts