I‘m sure that by now almost anyone who follows sports, and everyone who follows college football has heard of the injury suffered by USC’s senior running back Stafon Johnson. For those of you who haven’t, the running back was severely injured in a weight room accident when a bar he was bench pressing fell on his throat. News reports today said that he was in surgery for 7 hours to fix his crushed windpipe and voicebox. He is still unable to talk, but fortunately all reports say that the surgery went well and he is recovering. They also said that he will be able to play football again, but are unsure when he will be able to return.
This injury ties in well to what I’m talking about today. What are you teaching your athletes? i cant say with 100 percent accuracy, but I will assume that The Trojans head Strength and Conditioning coach, Chris Carlise, came into USC when Pete Carroll did, in 2001. That is 8 years. so, if he has been there 8 years, and coaches only football, He has coached somewhere in the neighborhood of, I’m going to say 800 or so football players at USC. How many reps do you think have been completed? Safe to say more than a few. His quotes from the story about the injury, coupled with the fact one of his assistants was spotting Johnson when the injury occurred say a lot more to me than they do to some. He was quoted as saying “I’ve seen the bar slip and fall onto their chest before, but never in my 25 years of coaching have I heard of a someone dropping a bar on their throat.” he also went on to say that “We were fortunate he was being spotted.” I will say this. The only time I have ever seen a bar fly out of a guys hands while benching is when he is using a thumbless, or false, grip. I’m sure a lot of you guys have heard of a suicide grip. its the same thing. Ive been in and around weightrooms for 15 years, and I’ve never seen it first hand. At what point does this seem like a logical thing to do? Wrapping your thumb around the bar is one of the first things you can do to improve the safety of the lift. It is done specifically to avoid problems like this. Knowing this, how is the safety of your athletes not a top priority? They get beat up enough and injured on the field, how can you not do EVERYTHING within your power to keep them safe under the bar? It is a five second coaching fix, and easy to reinforce and make repeatable. In 25 years of coaching this has never occurred to him? Its one of the first thing I teach new guys in the gym, and its not an option. You do it or you don’t lift. If i can impress this into guys how an a coach at a perennial Top 10 football program not? Also, if he misses such a simple coaching point as this, what else is going on in there that could be putting athletes in danger? Makes me wonder why some guys are toiling away for years in small colleges and this guy is at one of the priemier programs in the country.
Another thing that pisses me off to no end is some of these “coaches” that put videos up all over the internet showing guys with absolutely horrific technique. It seems too that these same coaches often put up videos of themselves using terrible technique as well. I don’t get it. Kids, older guys, and parents pay some of these guys HUGE amounts of money if they think they might have a chance to play at the next level. these guys in turn spend their huge fees on huge buildings, charge even bigger fees, and build even bigger facilities. eventually these guys get to the point of being seen as “experts” in their field, and then the rates get HUGE, regardless of market or the true level of coaching they provide. I’m not at issue with good, big time coaches charging a rate they are worth, but when I see guys in facilities like this, coaching and then showing off exercises like this, it makes me cringe.
What about that is noteworthy? I know it wasn’t the coaching. that was non existant. Perhaps it was the spinal compression? The complete lack of hamstring strength? Maybe it is the terrible form from start to finish? The fact that its 500 pounds on his back is nice, but its obviously more than he can handle safely. Is THIS how you want people to see you as a coach? A video like that in our gym wouldn’t make it out of the door to be put on a highlight reel. If it did even make it out, it would be for teaching purposes, and would never see YouTube. It wouldn’t be to brag on a bad squat. The worst part? The guy “coaching” him has a CSCS.
As a personal trainer, or fitness coach, or whatever you have decided your professional title to be, the one thing you owe EVERY soccer mom, retiree, athlete, or weekend warrior is to do everything in your power to make sure they stay safe. You wouldn’t have a morbidly obese client doing depth jumps and run sprints would you? But let me ask you this. Do you pay attention to the form they use for every exercise? Would you call a weight for them that they have no business handling? Do you help them learn when to push it and when to scale it back?
What are you teaching your athletes?
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I agree! I think alot of times its coaches ego and “win at all costs”…coupled with just plain low gym knowledge. I have trained some athletes that bring me their program and I think “ok, not bad.” Then i look at the athlete’s form and cringe. Ego rules I think in many of the unsupervised lifts. Can’t say for sure with the USC athlete, my chiro adjusts him, says hes a good, solid kid…i just hope someone didnt tell him that a “false grip” helps keep the emphasis on the PECS. sigh.
You’ve never heard of the Crash-Rebound Box Squat? You compress your spine like an accordion, but there’s a total rebound effect that’ll add like 100 pounds to your squat on max effort days.
http://www.youtube.com/user/CWSmith52#play/uploads/34/99hcg2_wCNU
Jason, seems one of your own at EFS could use some direction as well. You called it well and many of these “coaches” really are an accident waiting to happen.
Steve,
You have to remember that video is over a year old. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtU6C_jYENg shows a much better, and more recent example. This video was taken only 3 days ago. You can expect form breakdowns sometimes with max effort lifts, but i think the difference between this and the one from the blog is pretty notable.
Jason
Steve,
You have to remember that video is over a year old. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtU6C_jYENg shows a much better, and more recent example. This video was taken only 3 days ago. You can expect form breakdowns sometimes with max effort lifts, but i think the difference between this and the one from the blog is pretty notable.
Jason
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