Vern Gambetta > Quotes

“The trend today is toward specialization and further compartmentalization, which is a big mistake.”
― Vern Gambetta, Athletic Development: The Art & Science of Functional Sports Conditioning

“you must develop a large base of general fitness. There is no question of the validity of this; however, many training experts and coaches confuse building a training base with developing an aerobic base.”
― Vern Gambetta, Athletic Development: The Art & Science of Functional Sports Conditioning

“athletic development is based on the development of fundamental movement skills before sport-specific skills.”
― Vern Gambetta, Athletic Development: The Art & Science of Functional Sports Conditioning

“It is not a matter of functional or nonfunctional; rather it is an understanding of how functional a particular movement or exercise is relative to the training objective.”
― Vern Gambetta, Athletic Development: The Art & Science of Functional Sports Conditioning

“No differences exist in the quality of muscle between males and females.”
― Vern Gambetta, Athletic Development: The Art & Science of Functional Sports Conditioning

“The cornerstone of functional training and rehabilitation is to train movements, not muscles.”
― Vern Gambetta, Athletic Development: The Art & Science of Functional Sports Conditioning

“No one workout can make an athlete, but one workout can break an athlete.”
― Vern Gambetta, Athletic Development: The Art & Science of Functional Sports Conditioning

“change only one variable at a time. The goal is a functional program, not confusion.”
― Vern Gambetta, Athletic Development: The Art & Science of Functional Sports Conditioning

“all the”
― Vern Gambetta, Athletic Development: The Art & Science of Functional Sports Conditioning

“The brain does not recognize individual muscles; rather it recognizes patterns of movement.”
― Vern Gambetta, Athletic Development: The Art & Science of Functional Sports Conditioning

“Science is the search for neat predictable curves, compact ways of summarizing the data. But there is danger that curves we see are illusory, like pictures of animals in the clouds. As we draw our self-propelling arcs, some points will inevitably lie outside the line—those that must be dismissed as random error or noise. So we are left with a gnawing dissatisfaction: Are we missing something?”
― Vern Gambetta, Athletic Development: The Art & Science of Functional Sports Conditioning

“speed is a skill; therefore, the skill of sprinting can be taught if proper progression and principles of motor learning are applied.”
― Vern Gambetta, Athletic Development: The Art & Science of Functional Sports Conditioning

“Constant evaluation should lead to change in order to improve.”
― Vern Gambetta, Athletic Development: The Art & Science of Functional Sports Conditioning

“training equals testing, and testing equals training.”
― Vern Gambetta, Athletic Development: The Art & Science of Functional Sports Conditioning

“Conceptually, the energy systems are intensity dependent, not time dependent.”
― Vern Gambetta, Athletic Development: The Art & Science of Functional Sports Conditioning

“Biological age is much more important than chronological age.”
― Vern Gambetta, Athletic Development: The Art & Science of Functional Sports Conditioning

“Create an environment where champions are inevitable.”
― Vern Gambetta, Athletic Development: The Art & Science of Functional Sports Conditioning

“Often an athlete will not see the true results of a significant investment in training for up to a year after the initial training stimulus.”
― Vern Gambetta, Athletic Development: The Art & Science of Functional Sports Conditioning

“Training will produce measurable results. Failing to train will also produce a measurable result. The training process is cumulative.”
― Vern Gambetta, Athletic Development: The Art & Science of Functional Sports Conditioning

“focus on the efficiency and interaction of the systems rather than try to target one system for development.”
― Vern Gambetta, Athletic Development: The Art & Science of Functional Sports Conditioning

“No one session or week of training will make an athlete’s career, but one session or week can break it.”
― Vern Gambetta, Athletic Development: The Art & Science of Functional Sports Conditioning

“great qualities that allow young athletes to discover their bodies and explore the limits of their movements. They need to have room to grow and discover through movement. Bring in the play element early and keep it there! A positive trend is the continued opportunities for women to compete in sport. Unfortunately the training and preparation have not kept pace with the opportunities to compete. Biologically and socioculturally, women are different from men. These differences must be accounted for in training and preparation. Women are certainly more susceptible to certain injuries, specifically ACL tears; this demands that prevention programs be incorporated in daily training. To do otherwise would be remiss. There is still much misunderstanding about the role of strength training with female athletes. Some athletes and coaches just do not recognize its importance. Culturally in many circles it is not acceptable for women to be muscular and fit. For female athletes to receive proper training, these barriers need to be broken down. There is no doubt about the need for more qualified women in coaching. The time commitment and lifestyle dissuade”
― Vern Gambetta, Athletic Development: The Art & Science of Functional Sports Conditioning

“Anyone can work, but allowing the work to take effect demands a good recovery plan.”
― Vern Gambetta, Athletic Development: The Art & Science of Functional Sports Conditioning

“As training age advances, that paradigm has to shift and the overload has to come from intensity.”
― Vern Gambetta, Athletic Development: The Art & Science of Functional Sports Conditioning

“Essentially all movement is interplay between force reduction and force production.”
― Vern Gambetta, Athletic Development: The Art & Science of Functional Sports Conditioning

“Athletes today start specializing in a chosen sport younger than ever before. Because of this young athletes do not acquire the broad base of fundamental movement skills and they are”
― Vern Gambetta, Athletic Development: The Art & Science of Functional Sports Conditioning

“Get them off the Internet and stop them from looking for shortcuts. The human body does not adapt any faster than it did 30 years ago, so why should we expect performance gains to be accomplished faster today?”
― Vern Gambetta, Athletic Development: The Art & Science of Functional Sports Conditioning

“taught” specific sport skills that are not commensurate with their physical, cognitive, and emotional maturation levels. I have alluded to this at several places in the book. This is an alarming trend that has many long-term consequences. Certainly in most cases the young athletes have the specific sport skill and physical capabilities to excel, but what about for the long term? The early specialization can result in long-term stagnation. In reality, the ones who would have made it anyway do so because they matured early or just simply were more talented. At the other end of the spectrum there is greater incentive to compete longer because of the monetary rewards that are available in the later years of an athlete’s career. There is no simple solution to this. Intuitively we certainly know that the human cost is high. We always hear about those who made it, but what about the many who are cast by the wayside? The goal in youth sport should be to provide a good experience by teaching fundamentals and the rules, not by trying to identify the next National League MVP or Cy Young Award winner. Give them the opportunity to be kids. Play and playfulness”
― Vern Gambetta, Athletic Development: The Art & Science of Functional Sports Conditioning