Running the 40yd dash:

QUESTION: Let’s say a wide receiver comes to your facility without knowing how to run a 40-yard dash the right way. If he can run a 40 in 4.60 seconds: How much will you then, with the right training, be able to cut of that time? Reggie, Greenville, NC

That’s really the nuts and bolts of what we do during our combine training here…but it’s so much more than that. We understand that getting into the NFL is a very specific process. It’s basically the most in-depth job interview in the world.

And certainly, a guy’s 40 time is a critical part of that process. Generally speaking, we see improvements of about 2 tenths of a second in most guy’s 40 times.

But that’s not all the NFL Scouts are looking for. Testing today is evolving in the same direction CES has been going for the past 20 years. That is to say, scouts are testing more “position specific” now. They want to see linemen who are explosive over 5 or 10 yards. They want to see a running back with quick change of direction. They want to see quarterbacks who can read and react very quickly to what is happening around them. In short, testing is moving into position specific, movement specific areas where reaction is key.

We call that “True Sport Speed”, and that’s exactly what our program is designed to create. Does that show up in a 40? Sure it does. We teach our guys how to execute each drill they will be asked to perform at the combine and at their pro days, and we are training to see those results. But if you take a Brian Urlacher for example, (who is one of the most incredible natural athletes I have ever seen by the way)…the results he got during his combine preparation here at CES were fairly typical. Brian came into CES from New Mexico at 6’4, 230 pounds, and he ran about a 4.69. Nine weeks later at the combine, he ran 4.49 at just over 260 pounds. So it’s not just teaching a guy the techniques around performing the drills, although that is certainly a big part of it. It’s also about maximizing a player’s explosiveness on the way to making him a better player.

The real measurement of our success at CES and the time any player spends with us is not just combine results and draft placement. Sure, that’s where the money is made, so we obviously focus on that. But we also judge ourselves on what kind of season a guy has after he has left us. Trent Edwards comes to mind with the Buffalo Bills. He had a fantastic rookie season after his time with us. This last year, we had Jay Cutler, Brandon Marshall and Albert Haynesworth with us during the off-season. None of those guys were with us for their combine preparations. But as CES PRO Clients during the off-season, we were happy to see their hard work manifest itself on the field. And that’s really the main thing to emphasize here.

Yes, we have a system that we think is very unique and special. But make no mistake: Players are successful and get the results out of our system because they are in here paying the price in blood, sweat and tears every day. They come in here and bust their butts. That’s why they are so good. It’s like anything else. If you come into our facility and just go through the motions, you are not going to see the results. But it’s what is INSIDE Brian Urlacher and Champ Bailey and Albert Haynesworth that make them great players. That’s what we see from our clients that is special. Our program is tough, so guys that don’t come to work every day don’t usually stick around for very long.

Question: You have been working with many top draft prospects. Which results are you the most proud of? Clay, Los Angeles CA

That’s a lot like asking a parent, “Which of your children are your favorites?” (laughs) We have been so fortunate to work with some of the most gifted athletes in the world here at CES, and we’ve had dozens and dozens of PRO Bowl players here over the years. But for us, it’s really all about those personal relationships. There is nothing in the world more personal than someone’s dreams and goals. Each guy that comes in here has a dream. And when you know that you have the knowledge and tools to help that player realize his dream, it’s about the most fulfilling thing in the world. Of course, there are certain guys who are just physically gifted. We see tremendous improvements in those guys as well, but cutting two-tenths off a guy’s 40 time is not really what makes us tick around here. It’s seeing a guy who is projected to go in the 5^th or 6^th round in December coming in here and working his butt off, and then getting drafted in the 2^nd round 3 months later. Then having that same guy come back in the off-season and work even harder, and watching him have a successful 6-7 year career in the league. He may never make the PRO Bowl, but knowing we have had something to do with him being the best possible player he can be…that’s the real measure of success in that business. If you come into our facility, you see hundreds of pictures and jerseys and balls we have on the walls and say “Wow, CES trains a TON of pro guys!” and that’s correct. But go around to each one of those items on the wall and read the personal notes from each player, and you’ll know what we mean when we say “It’s all about relationships!” Now we have been doing this long enough that we are starting to see the children of some of our clients beginning to train for their careers here at CES. That’s when you know you are doing something right. When you have trained fathers at the highest levels, and then you see their sons getting the same results…that’s really something to be proud of.

Until next time, keep training hard!

Coach Smith

Question: What do the NFL teams think about the draft preparations these draft prospects do at a place like CES (do they think it is positive or negat

The NFL is a very small world. We maintain very close relationships with every NFL Franchise. We’ve been doing this for several decades now…so we’ve been around a while. NFL General Managers and Coaching staffs know us and they are very aware of what we do and the results our players get for them on Sundays. And the bottom line is, that’s really all they want…that’s to win! If you take a Brian Urlacher, a Champ Bailey or an Albert Haynesworth…these guys are performing at PRO BOWL levels year in and year out. NFL Teams know what we do down here in Atlanta, and they know when we have their players here. We are in almost daily contact with them. These guys represent significant investments to them, so I don’t think we’d be in business very long if the league did not generally support who we are and what we do. But when you break it all down, the true measuring stick for us and for each team is how each guy plays on Sunday. As long as we continue getting results, we will continue to get support from teams and their players.

Until next time, keep training hard!

Coach Smith

Question: How physically demanding is CES training?

(Laughs) Well, that may be a better question for one of our players. During the first week, most of them say it is the most difficult training they have ever done. But as their bodies adapt to what we are doing, it gets much easier for them. After the second week, they start to see the incredible results and then they are hooked. For our pro guys getting ready for their respective seasons, it will take about 6 hours a day to get through the entire regiment. Each specialized, high protein diet we design for each individual player is also critical. We basically turn these guys into efficient, fat burning machines. They will add about 10-15 pounds of lean muscle mass, and see improvements of 15-20% in their testing skills over a 9 week period. But the real difference is the effect they see on the field. Because our training is specific to the movement, position and sport of each player, they go back to the field, court or diamond (baseball field) and see the fruits of their hard work show up on the field. That’s probably why so many of our pro guys come back to CES year after year for their off-season training. The players understand that we train like they play, and the only thing that matters for a professional athlete is seeing results that translate into their game on Sundays.

Until next time, keep training hard!!

Coach Smith

Chip Smith answers your questions!

You once said that your training is the combination of explosive running and lifting based on Russian training principles. What do you mean by that? Scott, Lubbock, TX

Well, I was fortunate enough to be a part of a small group of Americans in the 1980s that was invited to be part of an education exchange during the “Glasnost” period between the former Soviet Union and the United States. We did post-graduate work at the world-renowned Soviet Sports Institute, where the Russians were developing athletes a lot differently than anything I’d ever been exposed to in the West. It was basically the flash-point of the basic ideas for what has become the CES Proprietary Training System today, and the real secret to how we get the incredible results we get at CES.

Of course, it is now common knowledge that there was a lot of doping going on during that era…so I’m not referring to that aspect of what the Soviets were doing differently (chuckle). But I am referring to the basic differences in our approach to strength and speed training. In the west, we were putting all of our athletes through the same basic conditioning and strength training. We were creating better all-around athletes, but we never got specific as to the sports, position and movements we were asking each individual athlete to execute. The Soviets started with the opposite approach. They started with each movement, and developed each individual athlete around the exact movements, position and sport they were trying to dominate.

In equating that to football, we would take an entire team and ask them all to run three miles and put them all through the exact same weight lifting routine, regardless of what position they played. We were training defensive tackles the same way we trained wide receivers, despite the fact that those two positions require distinctly different athletic skills to be successful. The Soviets were training to get specific results on the playing field. When I saw their approach and began to apply it to western team sports like football, baseball and basketball, I really realized that the generalized approach we were taking in the West made no sense whatsoever. That was the birth of the CES proprietary training system. When we began applying those principles, we started seeing phenomenal results that were actually measurable on the field. We weren’t just making better athletes anymore, we were making better players! That influence and the overall direction of our program was a direct result of my experience in Russia.

Until next time, keep training hard!

Coach Smith

Chip Smith answers your questions!

Question: How important is it for the draft prospects to prepare for the draft at a complex like CES. -- Cody from Chesapeake, VA.

The NFL is one of the most highly competitive professions in the world. Today, it would be virtually impossible for an NFL athlete to go through the draft process without this kind of specialized training. Just to give you a perspective on the numbers…there are only 32 NFL teams, with just 55 roster spots each year. So if you do the math, there are roughly 1,800 guys involved in the league at any one time when you take practice squads and injury lists into consideration. The average career of any NFL player is less than 3 years, which means that about 1/3 of the league turns over each year. That’s why you will hear guys around our facility referring to “NFL” as meaning “Not For Long!” as a player’s career goes. So saying that the NFL is “highly competitive” is really an understatement.

There are 238 NCAA Division 1A and 1AA Football Programs in colleges and universities across America. Each one of those schools has about 100 kids in each program, so that’s 23,800 guys all dreaming about having a career in the NFL one day. So the odds are that only 7.5% of all college players will ever see the inside of an NFL locker room. And when you take the millions and millions of high school kids playing football across the country into consideration, the odds of ever making it to the NFL for a young player are extremely small. So today, specialized training like we provide at CES is really mandatory…not only for the small group of players going through the draft process, but ANY player trying to climb that ladder at any level.

It is well known that CES has prepared more NFL talent than anyone else in the world…over 20% of the league has been through our doors, but we also train dozens of major league baseball players, and pro athletes in numerous sports. The real growth in the industry is coming from the amateur market. Last year alone at CES, we trained more than a dozen high school All-Americans, and hundreds of high school players transitioning into college ranks in numerous different sports. From soccer to lacrosse, to women’s softball, tennis and golf, we are seeing tremendous growth in amateur training.

Until next time, keep training hard,

Coach Smith

Chip's Travels in China

(Picture descriptions, going clockwise starting from top right).

1. Chip Smith standing on the Great Wall of China.

2. Chinese Handball Team Member wearing the CES Hitting Harness. This drill works with the specific movements of a handball player.

3. Chip Smith does reaction training with the Chinese Women's Gold Medal Badmitton team.

4. Olympic Gold Medalist in weight lifting.

5. Lifting warm-up for Chinese weight liftining team.

Until next time, China.

I got up early and walked around the city for most of the morning, taking in the sights and sounds. Beijing is really a unique city with tons of culture and history. I know I’ll look back one day and realize how lucky I was to have had this incredible opportunity to have experienced it.

Until next time, all my best!

China trip coming to an end...

We had our meeting with Mr. Sun this morning; it was really more of a debriefing than anything else. He suggested that on our next trip, we would work with only Olympic champions. The problem that poses is that there are so many Olympic and World champions walking around this place. Its unbelievable! Our meeting lasted about two hours and when we finished the meeting, it was time for lunch and another meeting with the director of all the National teams. Today they took us to a Japanese steak house where they cooked on the table. I was excited at first until I saw some of the food coming out to be cooked.

They did serve us Kobe beef, which is very expensive. I believe the cost of the meat was around like 30 yen per ounce. It was really good and I enjoyed it. This lunch lasted a couple of hours and when we were through, I headed over to the training center for my 2:00 session with the high jumper. I started him off with a resistance dynamic warm up which consisted of me having him wear a belt and I hooked two cords to him to speed up the process. I then had him do the same exercises with the shackles that I had done with him a couple of days earlier. We then went into a lateral resistance movement drill, working on the push off and drive phase of his jumping. I then hooked him up with a make shift vertimax that I have developed to be taken on the road. I had him do different types of jumping, fast explosive jumps, quarter jumps, negatives, and fast bouncing and explosive jumps. We always finish with a set of contrast jumps. He LOVED it!

His coach and a couple of track athletes had come to watch and film. I asked them if it made sense to them and they all said, “absolutely!” Again, my problem can be adapted for any sport or movement in that sport.

His session lasted about an hour and a half and he was drenched. We finished his session with a long cool down stretch. Next time I’m back in China, his coach wants me to work with all his jumpers and throwers. I can’t wait!

I finished off my day by working with the men’s weightlifting team. I love all the athletes that I get to work with however, the weightlifters have a special place in my heart. I have been doing strength training since I was a very young man and have followed the strong men from Paul Anderson to the current world and Olympic champions. The Chinese head coach has trained more Olympic champions than any weightlifting coach alive today and it was really an honor to get to hang out and work with his team!

I showed him and some of his lifters some eccentric loading of the quads to strengthen and stabilize the hip region. Dr. Bob had identified some areas that needed to be addressed. The strength athletes were eager to add these exercises to their training regiments.

We spent about three hours working with multiple athletes and I had so much fun hanging out and interacting with the weightlifters. They reminded me of our NFL players with there pushing, shoving, flicking, joking, and generally having fun with each other. I felt right at home.

We had dinner and said our goodbyes to all the staff, I can’t believe it’s already time to go home. My flight will leave at 4:00 pm from Beijing and get into Chicago at 5:00 pm on the same day and then I’ve got a two hour flight back to Atlanta. I guess I’ll head off to bed. Good night!

Work is Work!

This morning they picked me up at 8:30 to go and train one of the women’s badminton teams. The coaches liked what I had done with the Olympic and world champions and had asked if I was available to work with all the team members. Again, we broke down all the movements on the court and trained them with resistance. I also included some reaction drills that are relevant to their sport. I really enjoy working with female athletes for a number of reasons. One, they have so much passion for their sport. Two, they are just fun to work with and three, they are all so appreciative of anything you do for them.

We had a couple of hours training and they seemed to enjoy the work even though - work is work! It’s hard to believe that I only have one day left to train. The time flies when I’m here. I’m not looking forward to that flight home, however, I am looking forward to going home.

This afternoon we had a lecture and called it quits for the day around 4:30. Tonight we had a pleasant surprise when our meeting was held at TGIF’s. This was the first western food that I have ever eaten while here in Beijing and boy did I need it!

Tomorrow morning we have a meeting with the deputy director of the training bureau at 9:30 am. We then will have lunch and debriefing with the assistant deputy director and talk about the schedule for next year.

Dinner tomorrow night is with the doctor in charge of treatment for all the national teams. Well, it’s 10:30 pm and time to hit the sack.

Train Like you PLAY

This morning I woke at 5:30 am and decided to go out for a walk. You would think that the streets would be relatively quiet. Wrong! The streets were filled with hustle and bustle and people going to work, kids bicycling to school, old folks out for their exercise, shop owners getting ready for the day, street vendors displaying their wares, and this strange westerner walking by with an ipod, oblivious to the outside world. It occurred to me this morning that people around the world are just like us. They have the same wants and desires, same aspirations for their children, feel the same happiness and same pain as us.

Listening to one of my all time favorite bands, the Doobie Brothers, (I’m really dating myself now) I’m reminded of their lyrics, “What the people need is a way to make them smile, it ain’t so hard to do if you know how.” I realized that a smile and a “nihao” or hello as I walked the streets this morning might be the only smile or acknowledgement that that man, women, or child might have today. Life is too short not to enjoy every moment, every experience, every meal and every encounter with a stranger. It occurred to me this morning that I might be the only person from America to ever speak to that Chinese person. I’ve always used my travels to spread diplomacy in foreign countries and am always amazed to see the smiles reciprocated back to me.

As I walked by a group of middle school boys waiting for the bus, I high fived a couple of them and the surprised looks on their faces and giggles made my day! Today is going to be a GREAT day!

This morning I helped the rehab staff with some exercise questions. We take for granted our education system and what we have access to in the way of academia. This morning was pretty slow but I was told that I would be working with the women’s badminton team this early afternoon so I was taken over to their training complex and videoed some of their training. Later in the day I would be working with the women’s Gold medalist from the 2008 Beijing Olympic games. As it turned out, I worked with both the women’s Olympic champion and world champion. Both of these girls worked extremely hard and I had a blast training them. I’ve found women athletes work hard, are appreciative, and don’t have the attitudes that some of the elite level men athletes have.

I warmed them up with my ballistic dynamic warm-ups to get their core ready for work. I used the shackles to start the work. We did walking lunges, marches, step squat, backward diagonal steps, lateral slides, 3 step diagonal slides and finished with a suicide reaction drill. I then had the girls partner up and I started some resistance pattern reaction movements. I had watched video from the morning session and came up with specific movements that mimic the actual movements on the court without impeding the skills. They loved it and it made sense to them, train like you play! I did a couple of other different movement with the cords and punch belts and again both girls worked hard and both gave me a big hug when we were through. Oh, the benefits of my JOB!

Both champions asked if I would be in a photo with them and I was honored to be sandwiched between and Olympic and a world Champion! I knew it was going to be a great day today!

Tomorrow I have been told that I would be working with five Olympic Champions from men’s badminton: gold, silver, and bronze Olympians, plus gold and silver medalist from the World Games. It should be another great day.

Touring China

I knew that I was going to crash last night. We got back to the hotel at 6:30 and by 7:00 I was out like a light. I awoke at 1:30am with all my clothes on and the light’s still on in my hotel room. It was nice to finally get caught up on some sleep. The Chinese decided they would give us Saturday off in exchange for us working on Sunday.

I had planned to visit a few famous places around Beijing and shoot some video. I have worked enough with Bob Sharrett, our video guy at CES, to know how to use the HD camera that he has loaned me. The director of the training center is picking me up at 9:30 am and has volunteered to drive me around. The first place he takes me is this giant outdoor park where hundreds of people are doing all kinds of exercise. He explained to me that belonging to a commercial gym is very expensive so all these people come to the park and do some form of exercise. Now, let me tell you, I mean all kinds of exercise! I saw Tai-Chi, swing dancing, calisthenics, fan dance, synchronized racquet forms, all types of people playing musical instruments, martial arts, gymnastics, checkers, carioca, and every other kind of exercise that you can and can’t even imagine. Old and young, in shape and not in shape, the Chinese definately know how to enjoy the outdoor environment and all their surroundings. One of the coolest things I saw was an old man using a big paint brush painting a poem on the sidewalk in Chinese characters using water. It was really beautiful and the old man told me he has done this for 20 years for his exercise. It’s pretty amazing how creative and ingenious these people are.

Next, Mr. Lee and Mr. Lou took me to Tiananmen Square. It’s a very famous place here in Beijing and a lot of history took place in the Square. I took some great video and enjoyed walking around watching people and haggling with the street vendors. I have traveled enough to know how to play that game.

They returned me to the hotel around 2:00 and we had lunch. We had deer, lamb, eel, and shark fin, just to name a few of the dishes that my host ordered for us. Needless to say, I’m not a fan of REAL CHINESE FOOD!

Tonight my host is taking us out for a dinner of spiced crab and scrimp. We are eating dinner at this very famous restaurant that serves seafood and where all the celebrities who visit Beijing come to eat. They have photos of Yao Ming and many, many, other famous athletes who have eaten crab here. The food was actually very, very, good and I really enjoyed tonight. We had a meeting back at the hotel around 9:00 with a Chinese businessman who wanted to visit with us about some opportunities here in China. I finally went to bed at 11:00 and I’m hoping for another good night’s sleep.

Long Day in China

The cycle continues! I woke up at 3:30 am and could not go back to sleep. I waited until 5:00 am and then went downstairs and got a 45-minute workout on the treadmill. It’s raining outside and looks really dreary. I’ll grab a protein bar for breakfast and then head over to the training center. I have a couple of meeting with some companies about some sponsorship related to working with the Chinese Olympic Teams. I’m not at liberty to say which ones, however, these meetings could develop into something exciting for CES and me.

I had nothing to do this morning so I helped Dr. Bob Donatella and Dr. Lillian Chin with their lecture. I normally don’t feel to comfortable intruding on any Dr.’s lectures, however, this morning the lecture was on baseball pitching. I have had a ton of experience working with professional baseball players in particular, pitchers. I contributed when appropriable. I mostly interjected on training the throwing movements. This lecture lasted two hours and then we had lunch in the dinning hall where all the athletes eat.

After lunch, we went back to the rehab center and I worked with one of the girls on the synchronized swimming team who has had some problems with her hip. Dr. Bob worked with her first and then I took her back and did some rehab type training. I worked training the abduction/adduction, hip flexion, extensors, glutes, hamstrings, and some core.

Today brings back a lot of great memories of when I spent two years working as an exercise physiologist in a sports rehab center. It was one of the best things that I have ever done in my professional career. Knowing how to work with orthopedic doctors and physical therapists in rehabbing athletes was invaluable! Over the years, we have had the opportunity to work and rehab some great athletes. A few years ago, I did the rehab on Garrison Hearst, a running back with the 49er’s. Garrison was the NFL comeback player of the year that year and I got great satisfaction from working with him. This year we worked with Nolan Carroll who had broken both bones in his lower leg after his first game at the University of Maryland. Because of my background in rehab, we were able to convince he and his family to let us do his rehab and get him back and ready for the NFL draft. Nolan ran in the 4.3’s and was drafted in the 5^th round and is the comeback story of this years NFL draft class.

One of the constants that I see with the Chinese athletes is overtraining syndrome. Most of their teams train anywhere from 6 to 8 hours per day with only one day off for rest. You just can’t push your body that hard for that long and not start to break down. I have seen the effects of overtraining with multiple teams and athletes. You need 24 to 48 hours between training sessions for recovery or you will start seeing negative side effects.

I just found out today that the teams that I have been working with are still at the Asian Games. The women’s volleyball and badminton teams are not back yet so I’ll just work teaching the rehab staff and some of the coaches. The one thing that you learn working with the Chinese, is being flexible!

We have worked today on a male field hockey player, soccer player, badminton player, and a couple of other sports. I’m really tired right now; not getting enough sleep is starting to catch up with me! I’m watching the clock right now and that’s so not like me. I’ve always had the attitude that as long as an athlete wants to get better I’ll say as long as needed. Unfortunately, today is not one of those days, I can’t wait to get back to the hotel!

First Day of Training

Good Morning China!

Well, I was wrong about the good night’s rest. I woke up at 3:00 am. Since I was wide awake I tried to answer all my emails. I don’t have wi-fi in my room so I have to get on line through the TV. It takes 30 minutes to get hooked up just to get on.

I waited until 6:00 am and went down to the gym in the hotel and got in a little cardio work on the treadmill and some light weight work with the dumbbells. It’s good to break a sweat and hopefully I’ll be able to sleep better tonight.

We were given the morning off to relax and get settled. This afternoon I have to teach strength training to some coaches and PT’s. Bob Sharrett, our video guy, had helped me put together a training DVD of some of the lifts we do at CES. I will leave it for the coaches to have and use with their teams. The actual lifting programs are completely different and I don’t have enough time or space to go in depth with the periodization training that each team does throughout the year.

This afternoon I gave a three hour lecture. The first hour was a PowerPoint presentation broken down into different strength topics. It answered basic questions like: what is strength? what is the difference between absolute and dynamic strength, what are the component’s of muscle tissue? what is the SAID principle? how many muscles are in the body? (650 in case you didn’t know), what are the benefits of strength training? what are the steps in developing a beginner weight training program? what is the procedure for setting up a super circuit? and so on and so on!

My translator was not so good today only because the training words we use were foreign to her. I had about 10 coaches and PT’s in this class. Most of them are college graduates however, most have never studied strength and sports performance and don’t really have a grasp on how to train and use strength training for sports rehab.

The second part of the PowerPoint was general training principles: the principles of specificity and the SAID principles (specific adaptations to imposed demands (workload), the overload principles, 8 principles of resistance exercise training: exercise R.O.M, exercise speed, breathing, rest between sets, recommended sets, increasing weight load, exercise intensity, and muscle balance. I also went over basic lifts, what joints were used and what muscles are being developed with the movement. This section was a little harder for the Chinese to assimilate.

The last section was more training terminology with terms like: Delorme – Watkins system, the Berger system, progressive resistance, super sets, pyramid training, giant sets, periodization training models, speed – strength, circuit training and a few other systems. The classroom lecture was a little laborious for the coaches but not so much for the PT’s.

The classroom lecture was about one hour. The second phase of my presentation today was watching a 30 minute DVD of each exercise that we routinely do at CES in Atlanta. We had shot most of the lifts last week prior to me leaving for Beijing. Bob Sharrett had edited the DVD into more of an instructional video with different angles, slow motion, and some other side effects. It’s always better to see and demonstrate than to just read about it. This lasted about 45 minutes.

The last section for the day was a practical session. I took the group into the gym and started from the head to the toes showing exercises, techniques, proper hand placement, spotting, breathing, program design (sets, reps) dumbbell exercises, Olympic movements, cleans, snatchs, push – jerks, compound movements, and rehab exercises. This session took about one and a half hours. I think this session was really the most productive for the group. I finished around 5:30 pm and then headed back to the hotel for dinner and hopefully some much needed sleep.

Traveling to China

My alarm went off way to early! Seems like I just closed my eyes. The traffic in Atlanta is always so bad. This morning the traffic was not so bad because we were able to travel in the HOV lane. I live about 45 minutes from the airport so we arrived at the airport around 6:30 am. The trip to Chicago was only about 1 hour and 30 minutes, not too bad. When I checked in to the gate for my seat assignment I was told the flight was full and I would have to sit in the middle seat. I’m not a small guy and I’m not about to sit between two people for 14 hours. They had some business class seats available so I bought one and let me tell you they were not cheap. I was able to stretch out and the comfort was well worth the price!

I watched three movies, worked on my computer, ate some protein bars, finished reading a book, walked around the plane, got a little sleep, worked on my strength lecture for the coaches and rehab staff, and generally was bored to death! I don’t care how many times I’ve made this trip, it’s sooooooooo LONG!!!

Finally after 14 hours I arrived in China. I left Tuesday the 31st at 5:45 am and finally arrived in Beijing, Wednesday the 1^st of September at 3:00 pm.

We arrived at the Grand Deluxe Tian Tan Hotel, which has become my home away from home while here in Beijing, at 6:oo. I think I mentioned the traffic here on my last blog. Any of you that have read yahoo lately, read about the traffic jam in Beijing. A couple of weeks ago here in Beijing, they had the longest and largest traffic jam in the history of the WORLD. It was 60 miles long and stayed jammed for 9, yes I said 9 DAYS without moving!!! And I thought the Atlanta traffic was bad!

I unpacked all my food and vowed to try not to eat out. Wrong! We have to have dinner with one of the coaches. I did manage to eat light! We returned home around 11:30 and I jumped in the bed hoping for a good night’s sleep.

I forgot to mention that yesterday the 31^st of August was my baby girl, Summer’s, 22^nd birthday. Happy Birthday Baby! I love you!

Preparing for China!

I can’t believe it’s already time to pack and go back to Beijing. Seems like I just returned from my last trip to Beijing. Today, I’ve decided to plan my meals for each day of trip. The food is the only thing that I have trouble with, so, I am planning on bringing my own food. I’ve decided to try and live on EAS Myoplex protein bars along with some packaged tuna, nuts, dried fruit, and white meat chicken. I have access to bottled water, so I am going to get some Crystal Lite to add to my water. I figured I’d eat every three hours. For those of you that want to speed up your metabolism, try eating some type of protein, chicken, fish, or red meat. The more clean fuel you consume, the hotter the engine runs. It’s like shoveling coal into a freight train. You have an appestat in your brain that controls your metabolism. The more protein you consume the more fats and stored carbohydrates are burned. It takes about three hours for your body to assimilate and digest your fuel.

Off to Kroger today to buy some food for the trip. I have to be careful not to over pack my bags. The last time it cost me $200 to check oversized bags all the way to Beijing. I had met an American coach who is living and working in China on my last trip. He works with a couple of sports teams. I have been corresponding with him since I returned home from my last trip. He emailed me and asked if I could bring him some dark chocolate Milky Way candy bars along with some sharp cheddar cheese and a box of Captain Crunch cereal. I felt compelled to try and accommodate his request, knowing what I know about the food! After about an hour of shopping, I finally left the store with over a $100.00 worth of food.

Now the fun part starts, packing my bags. I have four bags to pack; one is my video camera bag. This HD camera has been loaned to me by my good friend, Bob Sharrett. Bob shoots all the training video for CES, he’s the best! He has loaned me his camera the last couple of trips and eventually we will edit the footage and make a video of this adventure. I also take my Cannon 35 mm camera and take hundreds of photos of the athletes. The last trip I had 10 to 15 photos blown up into posters size, 26x30, and had the athletes sign them for our wall of fame at CES. This time I’m bringing back about 25, 8x10’s to be signed by the weightlifting team members and a few others that will be signed by Gold medalist from different sports that I have trained. Because of the number of protein bars that I need to pack, 4 bars per day X 12 days means I need to pack 48 bars. I’ll pack 8 in my video bag to take on the plane. I’ve vowed not to eat the food on the plane this trip. We shall see!

I have to pack my backpack which will have my computer, ipod, all my cords, my kindle, (I love to read and have a bunch of books on my kindle), my reaction coach, which is the machine that I use for training reaction, and my Bose headphones my kids gave me for Christmas. They drown out the sounds on the plane and I’ll pack some more food in that bag. Both the big camera bag and my back pack are carry ons.

My training bag is the hardest to pack. Each time I’ve traveled to China I have trained different Olympic teams so it’s had to know what and how much to pack. It really depends on the number of athletes that I train and the sport. Oh, well, I’ll take a few pieces of all the training aids I use to train. I need to bring some 360 belts, 25’ cords, punch belts, shackles, Tripp release handles, black widows, edge swing harnesses, 8’ cords, anchors, and ladders. Remember, my bag can only weight 45 lbs. That’s the trick!

Lastly, I’ve got to pack my bag with my clothes. The weather in Beijing is much like Atlanta during this time of year, in the 80’s during the day and in the 60’s at night. I’ll pack shorts and t-shirts. I’ll pack the bulk of my food in this suitcase along with the gifts that I’ll bring to my Chinese friends. I think I’ll bring some UnderArmour t-shirts to the guys and girls who work at the training center. I really enjoy giving them gifts and they are all so appreciative of any thing I bring. This bag already weighs 15 pounds before I pack anything so getting all this stuff inside is quite a task!

My flight leaves Atlanta at 9:00 am for Chicago and then I leave Chicago at 12:00 pm for my direct flight to Beijing. I will get my son Zach to take me to the airport at 5:45 am so I need to get in bed early tonight. Night, night!

China 2010 - Day 8 (Going Home)

Me with the Women's Gymnastics Team

Going Home! You would think it’s glamorous traveling to exotic places and working with Olympic athletes, and well, it is. As much fun it is to travel, it’s even better to go home. It’s been a fun, busy 8 days and we were able to accomplish some good stuff while here in China. I will start working on the volleyball team workout and the weightlifting workouts. I will come back the last week of August, and the first week of September.

I’m not looking forward to that 16 hr flight again but I am looking forward to getting home even if it’s only for one night as I fly out the next day to start two camps in Virginia for 10 days. I’ll keep you posted on my travels back to China.

Until Then, Zai jian (goodbye)

China 2010 - Day 7 (Olympic Training Committee)

Today is the day we present our plan to the Olympic Training committee. But first I have a few athletes that I have to work with this morning. I worked with the women’s super heavyweight weightlifter that is recovering from torn labrum surgery. I am helping her with her rehab - mostly getting her range of motion back. She has really progressed very well and should be way down the road to recovery by the time I return back to China.
I also worked with two soccer players on improving their lateral movement. They both asked me to work with them when I return in September. We shall see! After lunch we had our meeting. Dr Bob did an outstanding job presenting the information that we had collected and how we could continue to help their athletes improve. We shook hands and said goodbye to the committee and I headed back to the training facility to finish my day by training the world record holder in the backstroke. I did some dry land training with her and spent some time on core and low back. She had actually trained with me before and really liked the training. I spent two hours with her and by the end of this day I was exhausted.

I headed back to the hotel for our last banquet with a group of doctors. To be honest, I was really not much into the meal as I was thinking about that 16-hour flight back home. By the way, it’s a 12-hour difference between Atlanta and Beijing and the jetlag coming back is no joke!

China 2010 - Day 5 (Women's Volleyball Team)

This morning I got to teach the therapist some new training techniques for rehab. The rehab staff here at the training center is awesome and eager to learn any and all training technique that anybody will teach them. We spent about four hours demonstrating and showing proper training.

At lunch today, the weightlifting doctor took us up into the athlete’s dorm rooms and showed us around the dorms. The athletes live four to a room and the rooms are about the size of a large closet. One small bathroom and no sitting areas is all that they have. I did notice while walking up to the dorms there were Mercedes, BMW’s, Porsches, Lamborghinis, and all sorts of exotic cars and the doctor was quick to point out to me that all these cars are given to any athletes who win Gold!

I have off until four thirty when I will go train the women’s volleyball team. I’m going back to my room and catch a nap for a couple of hours before I go a train the team. By this time into the week, I’m starting to wear out.

It’s 4:00 and I’ve got to get over to the volleyball-training center and set up all my equipment for training along with all the testing that I’m doing today. I have come up with a series of tests to measure aerobic endurance, lower body explosion, and change of direction, dynamic strength, body comp, broad jump and vertical jump. Both of the doctors with me think that all the injuries on the women’s team are related to overtraining and need me to verify it. I can verify it just by hearing there training schedule: 8 hours per day with only one day off. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure that one out! To make matters worse, they fired their old coach and the new coach is training these girls to death. We shall see what these tests show.

I warm the girls up and go right into the test. Of the fourteen girls on the team, I only have eight that take part in the testing and training. As I start the testing procedures, I immediately start to see that some of the times were not what I had anticipated with this level of athletes. As it turned out, playing eight hours per day of volleyball does not get you in shape but rather starts the deconditioning process. Let me explain, when you don’t take time to recovery from hard training and I mean 24 to 48 hours of rest after an intense training session your body breaks down and starts to cannibalize itself. If you constantly tear it down and never give it rest, you end up doing more damage and risking injuries, which is now manifesting itself by the evidence of so many girls who can’t participate in the workouts because they are injured.

With the exception of a couple of girls, these tests proved what all of us had suspected - the women’s team is overtraining and needs a major overhaul. The good news for them is that the director believes that we can fix the problem and has assured our team that full cooperation is expected from the volleyball team. I really felt sorry for these girls, as most had some type of injuries. This program was a crown jewel in the Chinese Olympic program for years. As a matter of fact, they won 5 team Gold medals in a row and finished 3rd in the Beijing Olympic games.

We finished the training with seven girls, and even though the intensity was not what I had hoped for, it still was a great experience and the girls enjoyed training in my system. Our team has huddled up and come up with an overall plan to address the needs of this team. Next time I come back we will concentrate on the women’s volleyball team. My recommendations are for the team to train four days of weight training for one and a half hours followed by performance training for one and a half hours and in the morning on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and then cross train in the pool on Wednesdays. The team will still work on skills for a couple of hours in the afternoons and then no training on Saturday and Sunday. This should address the overtraining issues and allow the girls to recover more quickly.

We head back to the hotel for dinner, and afterwards, Dr Lilian suggested we go and have a foot massage to relax. I have to be honest, it was the best massage I have ever had. I was thinking they would just massage my feet . I was wrong, as they worked on my head, back, arms, legs, and hands! It was the first night I really felt relaxed and ready to go to bed. Looking forward to tomorrow.

China 2010 - Day 5 (Women's Table Tennis Team)

This morning I get to work with the women’s table tennis team… the Gold Medal team, I might add. I am really looking forward to working with these young girls. I had trained them the time before when I was in China and saw some really quick athletes. Their skill level and reaction time is incredible. They have a good dynamic warm-up (one that I brought home and incorporated into our program). I wanted them to do my workout from start to finish, so we started with my ballistic warm-up. These girls are fun to work with, they laugh and have so much fun. I think it’s their attitude that makes this bunch of athletes so good. I guess when you are the best in the world (table tennis) at what you do, you’re entitled to enjoy your training sessions, and I sure did. I had both sets of table tennis girls, the current Olympic team and the futures, or the team in waiting. I had about forty girls to train. The coaches pushed all the tables to the side and made room for me to have one whole side for training.

Breaking this team into four groups was a little different because the girls all wanted to stay in the group with their buddies. I did the best I could do and had four stations set up. The first station was the reaction coach with the swing harness in a sandwich configuration. The second station was shackles and punch belt. The third station was the breakaway belts and the forth was up-back station. These girls trained extremely hard and made no complaints about how intense the workout was. We trained for two hours and they were drenched but loving it.

We were invited to have lunch with the Deputy Director of The Training Center. The meal was a banquet as today is his birthday so the chefs made cakes and pastries which were pretty good I must say. He told us that he has gotten great feedback from the coaches, doctors and athletes. He gave us our schedule for the remaining part of the year and told us he wants us back six to eight times next year. We finished lunch by singing happy birthday in Chinese.

This afternoon I trained the women’s Gold Medalist in weightlifting that I had trained earlier in the week. We worked on the same things that we had previously worked on. She is such a joy to work with.

Everyday, our US team meets to discuss the athletes and teams from that day. We also have to put together a powerpoint presentation to present to the Olympic committee at the end of our training cycle. This presentation consists of video and bullet points of what we see, how we fixed the problem, and what our course of action is for the teams we have worked with. It’s a pretty labor-intensive task and anybody that knows me, knows how much I hate to write. I was asked by the weightlifting team coaches to write a program to supplement their current training program.

Back to the hotel where I will try and catch up on all my emails and send my wife an update from today. I don’t care how much you travel, there is no place like home!

China 2010 - Day 4 (Beijing Sports Institute/Olympic Venues)

Today is Sunday and they decided that we should have the day off. We were invited to visit the Beijing Sports Institute which is world-famous as a research Institute. After taking the subway for close to one hour, crammed into the cars with hundreds of riders (did I tell you about the 3 billion people who live in China?) We arrived at the station where the good Doctor was to meet us. Dr Lilian is a friend of the director of the school and he met us at the gate and gave us a tour of their facilities. I’ve got to be honest - it is the most impressive sports complex that I have ever seen! They have every state-of-the-art training aid and equipment I’ve ever seen. They have a motion inelastic room that can video any sports movement and play it back on a screen as big as the Imax in most of the theaters in the US. They also have a high-altitude training complex where athletes can benefit from the effects of training at high altitude with Hypoxia rooms for sleeping. The Chinese also developed the technique to preserve the body and for any of you who have seen the Bodies in Motion exhibit, the Chinese have their own exhibit at the Sports Institute. It was the most modern training complex that I’ve ever seen.

We spent the day with the director and he shared with us all the research that goes on daily at the Institute. He asked me to explain my system and how I came up with it. I went through the whole process and when I was through, he then asked me if I would come back and lecture to his student’s working towards their PhD’s. I was honored and floored to think that my system was something that he thought was worthwhile to share with these students. We had another Banquet for lunch and dinner as he showed us off to his colleagues.

He decided that he should drive us over to the Olympic Venues sites from the 2008 Olympics If you watched the Beijing Olympic games, you truly witnessed one of the best games of all times and one that the Chinese take great pride in. The opening and closing ceremonies were spectacular, and who could ever forget the performance of Michael Phelps at the water cube and Usain Bolt's electrifying performance in the Bird’s nest.

We drove over to the venues as the sun was setting and toured the facilities. The Bird’s nest at night is breath-taking, all lit up in dazzling colors with rays of light radiating from the inside out. The Cube is equally amazing with its blue and gold lights that circle the building. I can’t begin to express the beauty of those architectural wonders - It truly is a sight to see.

He drove us home late and I was ready to go to bed. Tomorrow is going to be another long day for me.

Good Night!

China 2010 - Day 3

This morning I’m back at the Rehab center working one-on-one with the athletes. I continue to get asked by both healthy and non-healthy athletes question about training and any exercises that will help them perform at the highest levels. I am passionate about helping athletes and consider it an honor to be able to help them.

Why the Chinese?

A lot of friends have asked me, “Why the Chinese?” First of all, the USA didn’t ask me to help them and obviously I would have jumped at the chance to work with our Olympic athletes, however, the US athletes are not trained like the Chinese. Let me explain: The Chinese athletes come and live at the training center from an early age. It is their job they eat, sleep and train. They do not work and only concentrate on the sport that they play. In the US, our athletes have their own team of doctors, trainers, massage therapists, and performance coaches that work only with them. Most are in college and have jobs and families and only come to the Olympic training center in Colorado Springs for six month’s prior to an Olympic games that they are competing in. The government pays the Chinese athletes and each of their families are given a stipend as compensation for their children to be taken away at an early age. I’m not here to discuss whether their government is right or wrong (I do have a strong opinion but will keep it to myself) but what I’m doing is no different than the scores of American teachers who I ran into that teach English at schools all over China. Ok, now you know!

Back to the training, I have had two swimmers and one weightlifter from the women’s team this morning and each athlete had her list of functional movements that she wanted to work on. All in all, it was a successful morning. Now, off to lunch in the training center where all the athletes eat their meals. Most of the food at their training table is closer to what I might eat at a Chinese restaurant, good but not great! One of the Chefs gave me a bag of fruit the first day and I have been living off it. The fruit in China is out of this world. They grow huge pears and the mandarin oranges are really, really good and sweet. They grow sweet watermelon and the cantaloupe taste like it’s grown in South Georgia.

This afternoon, I get to train the men’s volleyball team. I have two hours to train fourteen athletes. We start off by doing our dynamic warm-ups that consist of different types of movements. We do hops and skips and bounds and use this time to warm up the core.


The Cold Rubber Band

If you can imaging putting a rubber band in the refrigerator overnight and pulling it out in the morning and stretching it far, you know what happens. It will break,. However, if you start out by gradually stretching that rubber band over a few minutes that rubber band will heat up and you can stretch it twice the length and it will not break. It’s the same principle with the ballistic warm-up. We want the athlete to break a sweat before we start our training. The Chinese do a really good job of warming up; however today they will do my warm-up!

Next we are using the quick foot ladders as a training aid. Again, some of their athletes have used the ladders before. Today they will do my ladder routine. It’s amazing to be able to teach a new skill to a great athlete, generally it only takes one or two times to demonstrate the foot pattern before they pick it up. By now they are all in a full-bore sweat, which is exactly, what I wanted for the warm-up. I had set the gym up into four stations and broke the players up into four groups. Station number one was the reaction coach where we were training lateral reaction with resistance. One athlete is in the middle while being anchored by an athlete on both sides like a sandwich. The middle athlete would respond to a directional light and sound either right or left and when hearing the beep he would execute a set or bump movement. Both of these movements are used on the court. Station two was what we call moving up and backs. These drills consist of two athletes who have belts on, secured by a long double up cord between them. One of the athletes will go thru a series of movements followed by a movement done on the court. It would be a lateral bump both right and left. It would be a set to the front and it would be a jump serves. Station three was shackles and my punch belt. The movements that we trained were walking lunges, hi-knee marches, and step squat and set, backward diagonal bump, lateral shuffle and bump and set and skater jumps. Station four was a series of pattern-runs. I had set the cones up into a pattern of six cones with a progression of movements ranging from acceleration to deceleration all the while working on explosive change of direction.

I definitely think the moving up-backs were the hardest station and even had a couple of athletes that needed to stop and take a break. The coaches really liked the workout and so did the athletes. “Thumbs up” translates to GOOD WORK and I received quite a few “thumbs up” from both players and coaches.

We finished up the session with one of my partner stretches as a cool down; again they enjoyed the new way to stretch and gave me the “thumbs up. “ I really enjoyed this session and see why the volleyball team is so good. Great athletes!

While I was training the volleyball team, the men’s weightlifting coach came and asked me if I wanted to come and watch their team competition tonight to determine who was going to be on the team for the London games. I can’t tell you how excited I was to get the chance to watch this competition. Out of all the sports that I have worked with, weightlifting is by far my favorite. I had been the competition manager for weightlifting during the 96 Olympic games in Atlanta and had studied at the world famous Soviet Sports Institute in Moscow in 1987 where I lived and study with all the great Russian lifters. The Chinese won eight Gold Medals in the 2008 Beijing games and have pretty much dominated the world in weightlifting after the fall of the Berlin wall. To be up close and personal with so many great champions was truly a treat for me. I was not allowed to video the event but I took two hundred photos and have poured over them looking at their technique.

I witnessed their super heavy weight lift 245 kilo’s in the clean and jerk or in laymen’s term’s 539 lbs. He stopped after that lift so I’m not sure how much he might have lifted. I guess I will have to wait until the 2012 Olympic games.

Tonight topped off an outstanding day of training and one I won’t forget for a long time! By the way did I mention it was 98 degrees and the humidly was 95%? I feel right at home, being from Georgia!

Good Night!

China 2010 - Day 2

Today they picked us up at 8:30 a.m. and took us to the Rehab center to start our day. The National Sports training center is like a university campus with each sport having their own building and weight training areas. The facilities are pretty amazing and each Olympic sport has it’s own staff. Most teams have three to four coaches, three team doctors, secretaries who handle schedules, and some teams even have a strength coach. I have been working mostly with the coaches from each team with the exception of the men’s volleyball team who has strength and conditioning coach who actually spent eight years at the University of Missouri on their strength staff.

Long QingQuan - Gold Medalist, 56KG Weightlifting

This morning I worked with an Olympic Gold medalist from the men’s weightlifting team (Long QingQuan - 56KG Weightlifting) . He has some hip and glute problems that had slowed his training progress. I used some CES equipment to work on some abduction, adduction, hip flexors, extensors and some explosive lateral movements. It’s amazing watching and working with the best in the world at what they do. We also worked on some core training as he has been experiencing some low back problems. I put him in the swing harness and had him do some rotational-type exercises from both sides to strengthen the obliques. He really liked my training and both his coach and team doctor watched me train him. It’s always good to get feedback from the athletes, especially at the elite level. You know you’re onto something when at that level, neither the coach, lifter, nor the doctor had ever seen my type of training.


The team doctor told Dr. Lilian that he learned more from me in two hours than he had learned from a week of training from the NSCA (National Strength and Conditioning Association) who had come to China a couple of years ago to train the coaches.

After I finished with the weightlifter, I then had one of the top badminton players from the men’s team come in for some one-on-one. You probably are wondering how in the world would you train some of these technical sports such as badminton, table tennis, gymnastics, handball and weightlifting.

The CES system was designed to train very specific movements without impeding the actual movements. We use resistance, overspeed and reaction to train each sport and each position within that sport.

Badminton much like tennis or table tennis is a sport where the athlete moves lateral while hitting a birdie with a forehand, backhand and overhead shots. Sounds like tennis doesn’t it? We trained much like how I would and have trained professional tennis players. Again I used the swing harness to train all the overhead movements along with the forehands and backhands. I also used our shackles to work on lateral resistance. I added the reaction coach to the equation - it is a piece of equipment that has lights and sounds and is used to work on reaction.

Remember, reactive speed is true sports speed. You see something, you hear something and your brain has to process it. This type of training is a learned response like riding a bicycle.

Again the athlete loved this type of training because he felt that it was specific to what he does on the court and he could see and feel the differences when I removed the training aids. We trained about two hours and he was pretty much spent.

That was my morning, so now off to lunch. You should know that eating in China is an event. The Chinese love to show their gratitude for your friendship and effort. I learned the very first trip a couple of things. One is, they cook and eat everything, and I mean EVERYTHING from the head, to the feet and everything in between including the inside and outside! The food is generally good, once you can get over knowing what you’re eating. I also learned that the Chinese are masters of the chopsticks - I’m convinced that they could perform surgery with those things. I have watched them eat rice along with a bowl of soup. I have not quite mastered them yet but I’m working on it. Today we had lunch with one of the team doctors from the badminton team and he took us to a restaurant that specialized in Peking duck. Again, they eat the feet, the bill and the tongue! I had tried all of those parts on my first trip and did not feel obliged to try it again. I try and stick to the things that I recognized like salads, fruits and some fish and chicken. Just remember, they don’t serve general Tso's chicken like the Chinese restaurants in the states. All in all the food is good. On a side note, I did see a Kentucky fried chicken and a Pizza Hut not far from my hotel. The lunch lasted about two hours and now back to the training center for the afternoon session.

This afternoon I was privileged to work with another Gold medalist from the women’s weightlifting team (Chen Xiexia). She, like the men’s lifter that I had worked with this morning, was having hip and low back issues. We pretty much trained like the other lifter concentrating on all the small muscle use to move laterally. We also did some core movements to help the stabilizers of the trunk. She really liked the workout and was one of the more animated athletes that I have worked with.

This brings me to my next topic, language. I know very little Chinese and most of the athletes do not speak any English. The one thing I’ve learned in my travels abroad, athletes are pretty much the same all over the world. Non-verbal commutations and hand jesters always work. I can train any athlete by showing and touching to convey what I’m trying to explain. Dr Lilian speaks fluent Chinese and translates when I need her.

Today was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed working with the athletes. Now it’s off to the hotel and dinner with some of the training center administrators. The eating cycle continues!