How Your Child Is Smart - a great reality check by Dawna Markova

I often think about how we accept society for the way it is, and we just go with it. People like to follow, conform and rarely question. This is particularly relevant in the education system as it is the commercial world. I love to scratch the surface of society, have a look under and question. The systems we adhere to were never properly designed; they simply just ‘evolve’ on an improvised basis without consideration for the developmental needs of children, students and workforce and we end up in many cases trying to fit square pegs in round holes. Many educational and work place practices are considered part of the tradition, and these habitual patterns are passionately adhered to. “This is the way we have always done it!” I my quest to answer some of my own question,s become a better coach and person, I am always very interested in reading widely around and outside of my field, as we are dealing with humans in training, understanding them, how they develop, think, act and learn is part of the process. This brings me on to a book I am currently reading: 'How Your Child Is Smart by Dawna Markova'. Below surmises some of the key golden nuggets in the philosophy of the book without going into any great detail. 'Our prevailing system of corporate management has destroyed our people. People are born with intrinsic motivation, self-esteem, dignity, curiosity to learn and a joy in learning'. 'The destruction begins with toddlers being given prizes and gold stars for grades, this goes on up through to university. In places of work, teams, divisions are ranked in reward for the one at the top, punishment for the one at the bottom. This system of management is not just the fault of commercial enterprises, it is a deep set of culturally embedded beliefs and practices that manifest in social institutions profoundly inconsistent with human nature'. 'Human beings are designed to learn. The drive to learn is more basic than the drive to reproduce'. 'Our primary social institutions, work and school, are designed to control, and with the break down in our family structures, these institutions are increasingly shaping social norms and behaviors'. 'The young child learns very quickly the school is not about learning so much as it is about avoiding mistakes. School is about getting the right answers, school is about gaining approval and avoiding disapproval. These are the same lessons the first time worker learns. 'Don't screw up', 'do what your told' if you do screw up, make sure you dont get blamed' at all costs look good. 'The profound mismatch between humans intrinsic drive to learn, and our institutions drive to control thwarts to continual unfolding of natural curiosity, capacity for invention, love of experimentation, sense of wonder and sense of connection'. 'The scars are equally server for those who 'succeed' and fro those who 'fail'. The winners have so much vested in what they know and in being right that they become 'smart people who can not learn'. These 'winners' populate the highest ranks of our organisations and reinforce the predominant norms of looking good, being right and staying in control. By default they reinforce the system that they were successful in and the cycle of mismatching in life continues. 'We are failing our children. Many cry out for a 'fix', but you can not fix something that people do not see as broken or a structure that was never designed for full learning in the first place'. 'To fix the system requires children to be educated from the foundation up. This involves questioning basic assumptions, like some kids are smart and some are not'. It will involve engaging in a reciprocal process of reflection and inquiry, understanding the unique ways in which each of us learn, adult and child.

Reduce knee pain ..........

How to reduce knee pain, 10 things to consider:

- Clear adductors, pirifomis, TFL and hip flexors length
- Strengthen the glutes
- Strengthen the posterior chain (particualry hamstrings for ACL).
- Strengthen glute med
- Hip mobiliy
- Ensure knee stabilitiy and proprioception
- Improve TFL and Glute med tissue quality and inhibition
- Learn to lean correctly through shock absorbing landing drills
- Clear leg length discrepancy.

By following the above you should get to the bottom of most none impact knee pain. Even none contact ACL should be able to be avoided by following the above.

John

Someone had to write about it, so I did........

I am going to be pretty up front here as the situation is getting ridiculous, and to hopefully spark some good debate.

Recently there is a growing trend in the UK health and fitness industry of pseudo strength coaches selling athletic training courses to pt's and instructors. It is good that trainers are taking a interest in other areas and methods of training, however a key point to make is to learn what is necessary, not what looks sexy to your clients.

I have posted some interesting questions below for debate and they might serve as a starting point if a trainer is considering attending one of these courses. I have deliberately left the answers to the questions out as I do not was to indoctrinate people with my views, but rather let them realise the answers through debate.

Some thoughts to consider:

• Are the courses independently verified by anyone or organisation?

·         How is the quality and the accuracy of information being ensured?

·         What if the information was wrong that you were receiving, who would challenge it?

•    Is the instructor trained in the art of passing on information to a variety of learners?

·         What qualification and expertise do they have in delivering technically sound information and teaching it to different learners?

•    Is there an equality assurance system in place to ensure a constant high level of teaching and      assessment?

• If the course is so great, then why are the courses targeted at the H&F industry and not at performance coaches?

• In relation to the above, you have to ask the question why are these courses marketed to the H&F industry. Is it because it is an easier sell? Are you being used?

• When a coach says they have worked with an athlete or studied under a famous coach, how can you be sure they actually have, what did they actually learn and how much did they learn?

• A S&C internship is generally a year. Can you really learn how to work with athletes in a week?

• Who has the coach actually worked with over a long term basis, and what impact did they have on a long term basis.

• What qualifications does the teacher actually hold in the areas they profess to be 'experts' in?

• Is there scientific rational behind everything they do, say and teach?

• How many people have actually failed the course? In reality a good course should be hard to pass. If these numbers do not exist, you have to challenge if the course is sold for money or for actually developing true trainers.

• If you are attending a internship, why do you need to pay for it?

·         Make sure that the course teaches you a multitude of different skills. Athletes and sports are individual; one type of training or programming does not work for all. Remember if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

• If your PT course took three months, then a S&C qualification would take longer.

• What is the background to the applied theory? Was it designed for body builders, Olympic lifters or strongmen? It is unlikely that you’ll work in a PT setting with any of these, so why learn them? Would these methods work with your local football team?

• Does the course rely on the use of fancy equipment i.e. prowlers and kettle bells? If so, is this really practical to the type of work PT’s will be doing with local teams?

• What would do if you had a swimmer or thrower with a shoulder injury, and could not OH press?

• What emphasis is placed on speed, agility and injury pre-habilitation training? If none then you won’t develop actually develop athletes. Strength only serves to improve these qualities. 

• Lastly is the programme orthopedically sound? How do you know that you are not adding strength to dysfunction?

Strength and conditioning is a highly scientific subject where coaches have to understand and synthesise complex information, then pass it onto athletes practically in a way that they understand in order to get the best adaptation. The only way you can do this is by opening up the theory books, reading it, and then practicing your ability to teach it over a number of years. Effectively you are a scientist, trainer and teacher. There are no short cuts.

I feel that there is a growing trend towards the manipulation of trainers and the H&F industry,  and away from sound assessment and science. It is key to always question and maintain a healthy level of scepticism about the motives of these courses and what they can actually do for your clients.

One last thought, do you think that Doris the 45 year old house wife wanting to loose a few pounds will have the mental commitment to spend 6 months learning to Olympic lift or work at 100% on intensive intervals? Would this be the best use of your time? Ill let you answer that one.

Lets start the discussion!

Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome (Anterior Knee Pain)

As trainers we see a lot of knee pain. In this blog we are going to discuss anterior knee pain, as this seems to be cropping up recently in practice and is a more difficult one to treat. Trainers tend to be good when dealing with medial and lateral knee pain as the causative factors are more straight forward. Anterior knee pain is slightly more complex and can cause a few heads scratching in the gym.

AKP is usually associated with weakness of the vasti and hip muscles (Cichanowski et al. 2007). IT band tightness is usually associated with knee pain if it is acting as a stabiliser due to hip weakness in the frontal plane due to glute med and glute weakness. In this case shortened fascial connections with the distal IT band and lateral patella retincaculum could alter patella tracking (Page 2001).

There tends to be motor control deficit in clients with AKP, usually seeing a reversal in the normal firing order between the VM and VL with the VL firing earlier (Voight and Wieder. 1991).  A typical corrective strategy is to strengthen the VM with isolation exercises to address the muscle firing balance.
EMG evidence does not support support the idea that strengthening the VM vs VL in a attempt to improve patella tracking and control in relation to the patella groove (Kettunen et al. 2007).

Other research (Tyler et al. 2006) showes that it maybe more effective to trat AKP by strengthening the muscles that control the patella directly is not as effective in reducing AKP as improving the strength and flexibility of the hip.

This provides some great guidance for trainers who deal with stubborn AKP as well as another route to pursue. Practically then it is worth screening the pelvis for dysfunction as well as the knee for imbalances which brings us back to the old fall safe 'one should assess the joints above and below the site of dysfunction'.

John

Hamstring tightness....is it the hamstring?

Hi All! This is IMF Performance Training's first blog post, we hope you find it impartial, useful and just as importantly, you feel we are not trying to sell you anything! Our soul mission is to cut out the rubbish and deal with the useful. We do not pretend to know all the answers but will provide posts that are based both on research and experience.This is a open debate so please throw your pennie worth in, as constructive feed back is great.


As a athlete, trainer or coach you will not need to spend long on the track or in the gym to notice that there is ALOT of hamstring tightness. Due to the high number of hamstring strains and 'gym talk' around it, it is worth having a chat around the subject to clear up the uncertainties.


Firstly it would seem that we look at the hamstring flexibility in the wrong way, perhaps our PT books were a little dated? or the body building world influenced our anatomy bias too much? Firstly we must stop thinking of the hamstrings in isolation as a muscle, can they be tight on their own? Maybe maybe not..however it is impossible to isolate them, so unless you are working with a cadaver forget about it. There are a number of structures before you get to the hamstring that you should assess first before concluding that the muscle is 'tight'. What might look like hamstring tightness usually isn't! Sound complicated? It is! However we can go through step by step.


What we need to think of is what movement the do the the hamstrings restrict? What is your end goal that you are trying to achieve? Really what I am saying here is we should be more concerned about the joint range of motion at the hip rather than the length of the muscle its self. Generally the muscle is not tight, it is the connective tissue, lack or correct movement patterning, neural tension and restrictions in the supporting fascia that restrict the movement.


The standard 'text book' checks you would normally do to look for basic movement at the hip are as follows:
Active Leg Raise
Lumbo-Pelvic Rhythm
Squat Pattern


However, typically I hear people say that 'i just cant get rid of my hamstring tightness' and I cant ever pass those tests above, my first response to that is how often do you stretch? Mostly the answer I find out is..not nearly enough! So to start with i would look here! We all know how to stretch the hamstrings so i am not going to teach you suck eggs. However, what if you have a client or athlete that stretches every day, or you just keep plugging at it as a trainer and it doesn't clear up? This is frustrating and it is likely that there is a restriction some where else in the body causing the muscles to remain tight, this is known as 'hypertonicity'. There are a number of factors that could lead to the hamstrings 'holding on', i have listed some of them out as a check list below for you to have a think about:   


- Is the sciatic nerve tight? - If it is the muscles will remain tonic to protect it.
- Is there piriformis tightness? - If so, the pelvis maybe rotated adding stress on the hamstrings. Also the sacrotuberous ligament maybe impinged.  
- Is there adequate t spine mobility - If not the lumbar spine will become too mobile to make up for it and the hip will be forced to try to stabilise the lumbar region. Also the lack of rotation at the t spine will place more rotational forces at the hip. 
- Are the glutes strong?  If not the hamstrings will be overstressed in helping hip extension and forming trigger points.
- Is the hip flexor group tonic? if so the glutes will be inhibited placing excess stress on the hamstrings and causing trigger point formations in the hamstrings.


If you have cleared all of the above and the hip still does not have adequate range of motion, then it is worth having a look into restrictions up and down the whole of the superficial back line. The superficial back line is a myofascial meridian that connects the toes to the back of the head via fascial connections. It would be worth employing a manual therapist to assess this for you however, in my experience take a look at the following if you have the expertise.


- Does the plantar fascia allow adequate ankle mobility?
- Does the calf allow adequate ankle mobility?
- Is the soleus tender?
- Is the hamstring tender?
- Is there tension in the posterior thigh fascia?
- Is there restrictions in the thoraco-lumbar fascia?


In summary, lets not try to focus too much on the hamstrings themselves. Lets look at what could be causing the hamstrings to 'hold' on. Think about multi-planer hip mobility, and the connective tissue that can restrict the movement you are trying to create ie ALR or LPR, this should lead to the answer! Remember, be objective and consistent in your testing.


Hit me back with responses!


John Scriven MSc, ASCC
Biomechanics Coach
IMF Performance Training
http://www.i-movefreely.com/