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!

China 2010 - Day 1

Dr. Bob and Dr. Lilian’s flight from LA arrived at 5:00 a.m. They will unpack, grab breakfast and then we will head off to the Training Center to meet with the director to discuss the itinerary for the next two weeks. It’s always good to see our Chinese friends after being away for six weeks. We exchanged hugs and gifts, and the pocket translators were a big hit! I gave a couple of the CES polo’s to the center directors.

It was decided that I would work with the women’s table tennis team, the men’s and women’s volleyball team, the men’s weightlifting team and a few of the Olympic Champions that needed special work. Both doctors would continue to do rehab on the athletes and dignitaries who needed medical treatment. Dr. Bob and Dr. Lilian are two of the finest physical therapists that I have ever worked with.

The combination of the PT services they provide and the integration of performance training in the CES system provides the most incredible results.

We all saw a few athletes today who had treatment the last time we were in China. My real work will start tomorrow…

China 2010 - The Flight

After flying to China a handful of times, I know what to expect. As many times as I’ve traveled oversee, this flight to China is one brutal flight! Sixteen hours from my home in Atlanta Georgia. The flight is long and laborious. I am flying China Air to Beijing. I leave Atlanta at 10:00 a.m. to JFK in New York where I have a four-hour layover before I board the plane to Beijing.

After making my way to the Atlanta airport this morning, I was told that I need to check in at the International Terminal. The line was really long to check in and I almost missed my flight to JFK. The flight was uneventful, just like I like them. After grabbing some lunch, my last American meal until I return home, I boarded my plane for China. The flight was completely booked and you guessed it, I was given the center seat, which is one of my least favorite things. I sat next to a young Chinese girl named Maggie who was flying home to visit her family after studying in New York. Maggie was a pleasure to sit by for fourteen hours, and she explained the Chinese culture and mannerisms of her countrymen. We finally arrived in Beijing after a very long flight and some really bad food!

The training center always sends somebody to pick me up and drive me to the Tiantan Hotel. The traffic in Beijing makes LA, NY and Atlanta look like a drive in the country. There are no rules of right of way and if you are a pedestrian, it’s every man for himself and God for us all! I can’t believe there are not more wrecks and people killed, as the Chinese driver’s are crazy!

I finally make it to the Hotel where I will unpack, grab some dinner and start my jetlag sleep. I usually will get three hours sleep maximum the first few nights.

China 2010 - Preparing for the Trip

Our travel schedule has been made out for the remainder of this year and my next trip is second week of July 2010. I have pretty much gotten the lay of the land as it pertains to whom, what and where! I know what to pack, but doing it is something else! As much as I have traveled this earth, it’s not what I pack as much as how I pack. It is customary to bring gifts to the Chinese so finding and buying the right items is what I must do this week prior to departing. I think I will go to an electronics store and see if I can find some English to Chinese translators. They seem to be enamored with the little pocket translator that I had taken on my last trip. I always bring a few CES polo’s and T-shirts to give to the Athletes and coaches. I’ve got to get some bags of candies for the kids who we run across. I always use my travels abroad to practice foreign diplomacy! Candy is always a hit to accomplish that goal!

My next task is packing my equipment bag as knowing what and how much equipment to pack is an exact science. I try and get a prior commitment from the Chinese as to what teams I will be working with, however, the only consistency is the inconsistent when it comes to the Chinese. As I have found out over my last four trip, each time I go, the teams I’m told I’m working with and the actual teams that I DO WORK WITH are never the same! By the way, the teams that I have worked with are the Men’s and Women’s Volleyball teams, Men’s and Women’s Table Tennis, Men’s and Women’s Badminton, Women’s Gymnastic Team, Team Handball, Men’s and Women’s Weightlifting, Men’s Soccer, Swimming and the number 9 ranked Tennis player in the World who is Chinese.

So you can see, each team has it’s own equipment needs so packing the right equipment is critical. After much thought, I think I’ve packed the right amount of equipment, gift’s and candies.

China Training Trip (July 2010)

I must give you a little background on my great adventure to China and how this incredible opportunity came about. Six months ago I received a call from my good friend Dr Bob Donatella who is a doctor of Physical Therapy out of Las Vegas, Nevada. Dr. Bob was selected to Co-head a group of American doctors and performance coaches to head to Beijing, China to evaluate and assess the Chinese Olympic Teams. It seems that the Chinese - as talented as they were - were experiencing a tremendous amount of injuries to their athletes and were looking to supplement their training regiments.

Dr. Bob was one of two doctors chosen; the other is Lilian Chen-Forennase, a Chinese-American from Los Angeles, California who headed up all rehab for the Chinese Olympic Teams for the 2008 Beijing Olympic games. She was responsible for putting together the team of practitioners who would go to China. I was very excited to be selected to be a part of this incredible team.

So, we pick up after I have been back to China four times since our first trip in November of 2009.