I just read an interesting article about a potential managerial candidate for the Los Angeles Dodgers and what he did back in Spring Training that raised quite a few eyebrows.
Baseball clubhouses are the ultimate spot for young guys. There are big screen TV's tuned to ESPN/MLB/NFL choose your favorite sports network. There are workout rooms, hot tubs, places to nap, get a massage and tons of convenience foods.
The athletes spend a lot of time in there so I guess they want them to feel as relaxed and comfortable as possible.
While in his current role as the Los Angeles Dodgers minor league farm director, Gabe Kapler (former Tiger) used his authority to get rid of junk food from the clubhouse during Spring Training.*
The move was meet with mild push-back from the veteran MLB players who thought it challenged their "freedom" to make their own choices.
Kapler's move provoked me to think what I would do if I were running a baseball developmental system.
For the sake of brevity I will focus my "solutions" strictly to the nutrition side of the performance equation.
First of all I wouldn't do anything drastic nor would I make any grand announcements that things were about to change in dramatic fashion. This would actually hinder my cause because the initial shock and awe from the athletes would most assuredly lead to a revolt at worst and at best a rolling of eyes with an under the breath "whatever you say dude." I don't want to deal with that!
So I wouldn't "ban" anything. If the athletes want to buy stuff on their own that's up to them.
My first move would be not to have any processed food on hand. When it comes to maximizing sports performance (concentration, mood, energy, recovery, body composition) this is the low-hanging fruit and the easiest way to improve performance immediately.
The following items would not be made available by the club:
Soda, Candy, Snack Foods (chips, crackers, cookies, muffins, etc.), Energy Drinks nor any other processed foods. I would love to include Gatorade and the like but this is to dramatic for now.
I would make the following items widely available:
Jerky, nuts, high quality protein bars, super shakes, fruit, water.
I would also hire a full-time chef to make pre and post game meals from scratch. Using high quality whole food ingredients, nothing from a box nor any highly processed oils.
The foundation of each meal would be some type of meat (all pasture raised and antibiotic free it possible):
Beef, pork, chicken, turkey, eggs.
Plenty of vegetable options:
Roasted root and cruciferous vegetables
Whole grain based dishes like quinoa, brown rice, even whole grain pasta occasionally
Super salads loaded with the following options:
Lettuce (spinach, arugula, kale, spring greens)
Sliced fruit/vegetables: peppers, tomatoes, avocado, apples, figs, cherries, peaches, berries
Nuts: Cashews, walnuts, pecans, almonds, pistachio
Cheese: goat, cheddar, gouda
Dressing: Olive oil and dijon mustard base
Dessert: home made cookies and brownies ( hey these are big kids after all and if we don't give it to them they are more likely to get it somewhere else where the quality won't be as good). I would make sure the chef makes the treats with whole grain unrefined flours and other high quality whole food ingredients. I would not tell the players what they are made with. Here have a cookie rookie... "These taste awesome!" Your welcome.
I would also create some type of competition like the guy that logs the most hours with the trainer or therapy staff gets to pick their favorite meal to be made by the chef. Hamburgers, pizza, lasagna whatever they want but the chef makes it with whole food ingredients, just like mom used to!
I would love to see teams do this. It is a great investment in the long term health and performance of their athletes. And money should not be an issue. Teams routinely "eat" the contracts of athletes that are underperforming or pay players millions that no longer play for them (Prince Fielder by the Tigers to his current team the Rangers). There are a lot of savings to be had in sports with wise budgeting and I have no doubt investing in proper nutrition for their athletes would pay off in the long run.
Currently teams make available cheap, low-quality food for their athletes and that makes no sense! They invest millions in keeping these players on the field yet provide them the nutrition equivalent of fast food.
They should focus their attention on better scouting and development if they want to avoid wasteful expenditures, they shouldn't do it by skimping on the post game spread.
Reference:
*http://espn.go.com/blog/losangeles/dodger-report/post/_/id/17700/dodgers-managerial-candidate-profile-gabe-kapler
Friday, October 30, 2015
Saturday, October 17, 2015
What Youth Sports in America can learn from USA Hockey...
While it may seem a lot of my writing tends to be slanted
toward a baseball theme I am developing a healthy respect for the hockey
community. I have actually been “rubbing” elbows with the folks that run USA
Hockey’s American Developmental Model (ADM) in hopes of applying some of the principles
to my own practice while also convincing the baseball community that the ADM is
just what that sport needs to ensure long-term viability.
Last week I had the pleasure to meet with USA Hockey’s
Strength and Conditioning Coach to discuss the nuances of the ADM. I came away
from my time with Darryl Nelson extremely excited about the future of USA
Hockey and I also could hardly wait to share what I learned from my time with
the folks at USA Arena in Plymouth.
Some of the highlights:
Minnesota high school hockey plays only 25 games. Minnesota
does not have “travel” or “club” hockey. The result is their youth hockey
players practice more than they play. While the Minnesotans may not be as
competitive as the kids from states that play more games they are more skilled.
Interestingly if you look at a
state-by-state breakdown of the top active point scorers in the NHL guess what
state is disproportionately represented? If you guessed Minnesota you are correct! *
And one more point that works in favor of the Minnesotan
athletes because they only play hockey for the school they actually have an
off-season. This leaves more time to play multiple sports. All around athletes
have better long-term potential due to decreased risk of burnout and over-use
injury and increased durability and athleticism.
In Michigan, with a few exceptions, the best hockey players
don’t play for the school and play more games. They travel all the time leaving
scant time for skill development. While the Michigan kids are more competitive
due to more game experience they are not as skilled.
Another way to look at this …
Who owns and operates many of the top travel teams in
Michigan? Businesses and corporations! What’s the main role of a business from
a shareholder or CEO’s perspective? They need to have their product on the market.
Lots of games is good business, practice and skill
development doesn’t provide a quick return on investment. Wait a second... I
thought youth sports was all about doing what’s in the best interest of the
kids!
A Better Way Forward
In the United States, there has been more emphasis on
competition starting at a young age. In many European countries, there is more
of a patient approach to the game where coaches stress skill development at
younger ages with a focus on ultimately developing players for national teams
when they’re older.
I watched a seminar with Tommi Neimila, a coach with the
Finnish national team, during which he provided a glimpse of his country’s
patient approach to player development when he divided a group of local players
into three groups and asked them to work on a specific skill for eight minutes.
It was an abridged version of what the Finns do with young players over the
course of the season. Every practice features 40 minutes dedicated to working
on a specific skill twice a week for three months.
“When they’re finished we are 100 percent sure that they
have mastered that skill before they move on to another skill,” said Neimila,
who added that players typically work on three different skills over the course
of a single season.
“If we try to do too many things in too short a time, we
feel that our players won’t master that skill. It’s a very patient approach to
skill development.”
Neimila understands that such an approach may not translate
to the current state of affairs in youth hockey in the U.S., where a greater
emphasis is placed on playing games at an early age. But as for a coach who is
paid to develop players for the Finnish national teams and ultimately to play
in the NHL, Neimila feels that his approach is the best way to accomplish these
goals.
“As coaches, no matter if you’re an American, a Swede or a
Finn, you want to make your kids better players,” he said. “We’re all human,
and we all want to compete and we want to win. But winning a championship when
our kids are 13 years old is not priority one for us. I can guarantee that
winning a championship when you’re 13 won’t get you to the NHL.”
The point is to allow Americans to develop more like kids in
Sweden's renowned youth system, which has produced stars such as Henrik
Zetterberg. "The Swedes don't send over fourth-line NHLers," says Bob
Mancini, a local ADM administrator based in Saginaw, MI. "They send over
stars. And it starts at the youngest levels." ADM is inspired in part by
this model. In Sweden, kids don't play full-ice games until age 10 or play on
all-star travel teams until after most of them have hit puberty.
The patience has its rewards. Sweden's national team won
Olympic gold in 2006 and the world championship in 2006 and 2013, not bad for a
country with just 53,334 youth players (the U.S. has 305,453, Canada 455,806).
The standard-bearer is Swedish league champion Skelleftea (population: 32,775),
a town that is half the size of Waterford Township. Five current NHL players
hail from Skelleftea, along with 21 members of Sweden's U17, U18 and U19 teams.
All of them emerged from a club that cuts no kids until age 17 and plays only six months a year.
The chiefs running USA Hockey know all about Skelleftea.
Every member of the U17 and U18 national teams in Ann Arbor played multiple
sports growing up. It will clearly take time for the multisport message to
trickle down. "At the youngest ages, we shouldn't try to develop hockey
players," Mancini says. "We should develop athletes who love
hockey."
"Deep down, most parents know something is wrong,"
Mancini says. "They come up and say things like, 'My older son quit
hockey.' They're looking for something better."
Parents aren’t the only ones looking for something better…
The United States Olympic Committee purchased the rights to provide all
national teams with the ADM format.
USA Swimming and U.S. Tennis Association officials support
kids playing other sports to reduce burnout and overuse injuries. Beyond those
reasons they also need better overall athletes entering their sport or they risk
becoming irrelevant on the international level… Sorry to say US men’s tennis is
already there.
In the end we have to ask the question what is our goal for
youth sport participation?
- Is it about teaching kids how to compete and win?
- Is it about using the sport to teach kids valuable life lessons/skills?
- Is it about optimizing their development to ensure they have the best opportunity to reach their full potential?
- Is it about socialization, creating an environment where kids can have fun and meet potential friends?
- Is it about heath and fitness promotion?
I believe youth sport experiences should check all of the
above boxes. That said every kid
has different goals and interests. Believe it or not all kids that play hockey
don’t want to play in the NHL!
In an ideal world we would develop “tracks” that are
tailored to each kids interest and commitment levels.
The biggest difference between youth sports in American and
Europe isn’t the ideas we have or the humans around us. It's the technology,
the civilization and the expectations in our infrastructure.
The US simply has not invested in athlete development. We have
not created the infrastructure to support it. A strong determining factor of
who gets “picked” has more to do with when and where they were born than their
true ability.
We are to fractured. Every organization thinks they have the
secret sauce and they want to hide it
from everyone else for some sort of perceived competitive advantage.
Countries like Finland and Sweden have taken the time to
invest in an infrastructure that supports athlete development and it works for
them. Maybe they have to do it because they are relatively small compared to
the US.
But imagine if we were to invest in an athletic development
system like they have, how much it would benefit the American athlete... It's
easy to take youth sports for granted. After all it seems to work for some
kids. But when you see an organization or nation that doesn't have our
resources accomplishing way more on the international stage with far less it
should serve as a powerful wake up call.
Here's something that's unavoidably true: Investing in
infrastructure always pays off. Always. Not just most of the time, but every
single time. Sometimes the payoff takes longer than we'd like, sometimes there
may be more efficient ways to get the same result, but every time we spend time
and money, we're surprised at how much of a difference it makes.
Saturday, October 3, 2015
Random Thoughts on Nutrition and Food: October Edition
Over the years, my favorite posts to write have been my
"Random Thoughts" pieces. Effectively, they are just "brain
dumps" on a particular topic; they aren't really clearly constructed
arguments. It occurred to me the other day that - after years of putting youth
sports performance front and center- I've accumulated a lot of useful tips and
information on nutrition. So, here's a brain dump on the subject!
Most folks associate doughnuts as a “poor’ food choice. But consider these 31 foods that have more sugar than a doughnut.
Added sugars hide in 74 percent of processed foods under
more than 60 different names.
Seemingly healthy smoothies, salads, oatmeal, and yogurt often have more sugar than a doughnut (or
several).
Bottom line, if you eat processed foods, consuming significantly
more than the recommended daily amount of sugar is far easier than you might
think.
Consider this nutrient and flavor packed alternative for a quick and easy breakfast:
They took organic
gluten free rolled oats and infused pea and rice proteins along with real dried
fruit and nuts. The result is
amazing!
Simply add 8oz of unsweetened coconut, almond, or cashew
milk and let sit overnight in the refrigerator. The next morning you have the
perfect breakfast, Overnight Oats.
Only 5 grams of sugar,
packed with protein, fiber and healthy fats for long-lasting energy for optimal
concentration and performance in the classroom and on the field of play!
Potassium plays a vital role in heart health, digestive, and
muscular function, bone health, and more.
Only 2 percent of US adults get the recommended daily amount
of 4,700 milligrams of potassium.
Potassium needs to be kept in proper balance with sodium in
your blood; if you consume too much sodium, which is common if you eat a lot of
processed foods, you’ll have an increased need for potassium.
Increasing calcium intake through dietary sources or
supplements is unlikely to improve bone health or prevent fractures, conclude
two recent studies published this week. Collectively, these results suggest
that increasing calcium intake, through supplements or dietary sources, should
not be recommended for fracture prevention.
But we’ve always been told we need calcium for stronger
bones? There is some true to this conventional wisdom however it sorely
neglects this critical element:
As I'm certain you’ve heard by now, vitamin D is a critical
nutrient for optimal health and is best obtained from smart sun exposure.
However, many are taking oral vitamin D, which may become problematic unless
you're also getting sufficient amounts of vitamin K2.
Dr. Kate Rheaume-Bleue, a naturopathic physician with a keen
interest in nutrition, has authored one of the most comprehensive books on this
important topic, titled: Vitamin K2 and
the Calcium Paradox: How a Little Known Vitamin Could Save Your Life
"When you take vitamin D, your body creates more of
these vitamin K2-dependent proteins, the proteins that will move the calcium
around. They have a lot of potential health benefits. But until the K2 comes in
to activate those proteins, those benefits aren't realized. So, really, if
you're taking vitamin D, you're creating an increased demand for K2. And
vitamin D and K2 work together to strengthen your bones and improve your heart
health.
... For so long, we've been told to take calcium for
osteoporosis... and vitamin D, which we know is helpful. But then, more studies
are coming out showing that increased calcium intake is causing more heart
attacks and strokes. That created a lot of confusion around whether calcium is
safe or not. But that's the wrong question to be asking, because we'll never
properly understand the health benefits of calcium or vitamin D, unless we take
into consideration K2. That's what keeps the calcium in its right place."
As quick aside when ever possible I like to get my nutrients
from food and the best food sources of K2 are natto (fermented soybeans) and Gouda cheese.
If those foods aren't an option due to any number of reasons (I hear natto is AWFUL!) make sure you select a supplement with vitamin D3 and K2 in a balanced formula.
Hamburgers from these
restaurant chains could lead to serious health issues
Chipotle’s and Panera Bread were the only fast food chains
that earned “A” ratings; they are the only two that transparently affirm the
majority of the meats served come from antibiotic-free producers.
Most fast food restaurants are still serving meat and
poultry raised on antibiotics, despite the known health risks. Of the 25 restaurant chains included in the report, 20 received a “Failing” score.
The US uses nearly 30 million pounds of antibiotics each
year to raise food animals. This accounts for about 80 percent of all
antibiotics used; nearly 70 percent of which are medically important for humans.
The best option for a high quality burger is making your own
with local pasture raised beef/turkey/lamb. But short of that I have discovered
a very good and affordable option very close by, Moo Cluck Moo.
If you stray from a
diet, focus on your next meal, not the next day!
When it comes to "healthy" nutrition, I'll often hear of
people "falling off the bandwagon" for a meal - and it leading to
several days of poor food choices. For this reason, I always encourage folks to
"right the ship" as quickly as possible.
If you go out with friends and indulge, break down and have
a few cookies, or just aren’t prepared and have to settle for whatever’s on
hand, don’t give up hope for the day and plan to start over tomorrow. Tomorrow
may turn into the next day, and into the next day. So what do you do?
Gather your losses and do better on your next immediate
meal, instead of restarting the next day. Don’t let a bad meal turn into a bad
day of eating.
This is also one reason why I don't generally advocate
full-on "free" days, where folks eat anything they want as a means of
"de-stressing" from six days per week of quality nutrition adherence.
It's a lot easier to get things back on track after a single bad meal (whether
planned or unplanned) than from a full day. One "less than ideal" meal choice won't sabotage your results over the long-term but a series of them certainly will!
That does it for this round of random thoughts on nutrition.
I will definitely do it again, as they really rolled off my fingertips!
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