top of page

bLOG

Search

Lombardi

Today's newsletter isn't answering a question.

Today I want to share a story sent to me my my good friend and teacher Chris Sritharan.

Chris says:
“Thought you might like this.
In July 1961, Vince Lombardi kicked off the first day of training camp for the 38 players on his Green Bay Packers football team. The prior season had ended in a heartbreaking loss to the Philadelphia Eagles after blowing a lead in the 4th quarter of the NFL Championship Game.
When the players came in to start training camp, they expected to immediately begin where they left off and work on ways to advance their game and learn fancy new ways to win the championship in the new season. When they sat down and began, Vince Lombardi held up a football and said, “Gentlemen, this is a football!”
He then had everyone open up their playbooks and start on page one, where they began to learn the fundamentals – blocking, tackling, throwing, catching, etc. That was clearly not what they expected as players who were at the top of their game.
This hyper-focus on fundamentals allowed them to win the NFL Championship that season 37-0 against the New York Giants. Vince Lombardi went on to win five NFL Championships in seven years. He never coached a team with a losing season after that and never lost a playoff game again.
If focusing on fundamentals can elevate a great team to such heights, imagine what it can do for your business and life. We are often putting time, energy, and money into looking for the next magic bullet, quick fix, or business trick. Instead, we should focus on the fundamentals.
Srith”

First things first, if you haven't heard of Vince Lombardi, you'll be familiar with some of his quotes, of which there are many.

Examples being:

“Winners never quit, quitters never win”

“Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.”

“Confidence is contagious. So is lack of confidence”

“The greatest accomplishment is not in never falling, but in rising again after you fall.”

And so many more.

Vince was an NFL coach with an incredible track record and a man who has influenced generations of coaches since.

The story sent by Chris is an example of the man's genius.

This focus on fundamentals.

I often talk about my own youth training Karate under Jack Parker in Lancaster, England. And how Jack was constantly shouting “BASICS! BASICS!BASICS!” at us almost every session.

Jack drilled us on basics no matter what our actual level was.

Chatting with another coach I've worked with, Mick Coup of C2 or Core Combatives. Mick himself is former military at the highest operating level, and now trains “high speed, low drag” operators around the world, and normal folk in his spare time.

Mick explains that Basics are better described as fundamentals, and if we view training with Occam's Razor, we see that the more time we spend on fundamentals, the easier anything advanced becomes.

Look across any high performer and you're going to find the same perspective.

Take it away from sports and fighting, there's a musician that's been causing a stir this last while. Tim Henson, the lead guitar player in a band called Polyphia.

Whether you enjoy this style of music or not on beside the point. Watch and listen to this guy play and you can't help but be amazed at his technical ability and prowess, especially as he's so young still.

In an interview I watched with him he was asked about his practice and development.

He answered by talking about how over the last couple of years he's gone back to the fundamentals of guitar music.

Something he wishes he'd spent more time on when he was younger.

Is it a coincidence that the bands massive rise in popularity coincides with him refocusing on fundamentals?

Only he knows.

It does take a maturity to focus on fundamentals and to not be drawn into the shiny fancy tricks of training.

Is there value in the fancy stuff?

Absolutely

But following the 80:20 rule, we see how 80% of our results come from 20% of our techniques.

So 80% of our efforts should go into fundamentals with the remaining 20% on fancy stuff.

It's simple

Not easy.

Regards

Dave Hedges

 
 
 

Mace And Club

The first question of 2024 comes from Mr Alistair Hake


He writes,


"Topic for newsletter: Mace or Indian Clubs? The answer is always both, but why? What does one offer the other does not etc...
Unless you've already explored this topic.
Alistair "

What I like about this question is the way Alistair answers his thought which opens the door to a deeper discussion.


He starts with the “either/or” question, the sort of question kids love to ask, is if preferring one option precludes you from liking any other option.


Marvel or DC

League or Union

IPhone or Android

And so on.


This limited thinking is, well, limited.


We don’t live in a black and white world with clear delineation. We live in a world of nuance.

Except the League vs Union question.

It's Union. Always Union!


Nuance is where Alistair takes us next, “What does one offer the other does not etc…”

And that is a question.


Hopefully you are aware of Indian Clubs and Mace's.


These tools are swung in circular patterns and have been around in one form or another since the very beginning of Strength training history.

They're originally associated with wrestling, especially the Kushti wrestlers of the Indian and Persian regions.


One of my favourite quotes I read about club swinging was a social media comment, “Indian Clubs do for my shoulders what Kettlebells do for my hips and low back”


This, I suppose, is due to the ballistic nature of swinging a weight.

Taking muscles and joints quickly into and back out of ranges of motion, stretching and releasing, pumping. Almost massaging.

Almost.


Indian Clubs are light and held single handed, for the most part.

We can use just one or a pair of Clubs as appropriate to the response we desire.

Mace's, they tend to the heavier side and for the most part are held in two hands.

I am talking about traditional mace work, not the modern “mace flow” trend.


Light Clubs offer mobility and relief.

They can be swung for very high reps which is recommended for connective tissue strength. Old time strongmen and many powerlifters advocated high rep work for connective tissue.

It's a theory that holds water in practice if as yet unproven in studies.

Clubs being relatively small and light offer the opportunity to put a huge variety of movement through the wrist, elbow, glenohumeral (arm - shoulder) joint, scapular-humeral (arm - shoulder blade) joint and even thoracic movement.

By relaxing and letting the clubs pull on us, centrifugal force gives a lovely stretch loading, and it's this I think is where the magic of light club swinging lives.

This is conjecture and anecdote, but as we swing, and surrender to the swing, the muscles do start feeling more elastic, the joints lubricated and the upper body just feels primed.


Heavier Clubs can't be swung with quite the same abandon as light Clubs, a little more care must be taken so as to not cause injury. But in time Heavier Clubs can be swung for moderately high reps which brings a feeling of strength.


I don't believe club swinging is a route to getting strong, but they certainly help us stay "joined up", flexible and able to demonstrate our strength incredibly effectively.

We feel stronger, mostly, I think, because of coordination.

Inter and intra-muscular coordination which comes about as a response to the large ranges clubs take us through, as well as the way the circles encourage the timing of joint actions to work better.


What about the mace?


Mace's should be heavy.

Let's remember the word “heavy” is a relative term. Your heavy will be different to my heavy, which will be different to the next person's heavy.

The heaviness comes from a combination of the actual mass of the mace head, the length of the handle and speed it is swung.

Once the body is mobile enough, the joints are prepared enough and the technique is dialled in enough, the mace can be swung for considerable reps.

In doing so you challenge the upper back, grip and core in a manner difficult to find anywhere else.

There's also a balancing act as we have to shift our own centre of mass as the mace Swings to maintain balance.


With the mace, movements are a little more limited. Traditional lifting has two events, a 10 to 2 swing alternating left and right and a 360 full circle swing.

Usually swung holding the mace in both hands, but can also be done one hand at a time.

But, these two movements take our shoulder blades through a massive journey.

And if the shoulder blades move, then the 19 muscles that attach to to it all experience load, lengthening and shortening as that weight travels.


The issue with mace training is the learning curve.


You have to want to use it as it takes a while to get the hang of and then to reach a load or rep range that gives a decent stimulus.


So how should we use these tools?


Indian Clubs, being light, can be used to warm up with.

They are fantastic to simply pick up and play with through the day. Mine live beside my desk where I can simply stand up and grab them for a handful or reps anytime I feel like it.

They pair well with push ups, flushing out the muscles between sets of callisthenics.

And are very useful for regaining shoulder health and range of motion after injury.

Mace is more of a training tool. Have it in the workout as an upper back exercise. You may super set it with a pressing movement. Or keep it till later in the session after the main lifts.

It helps keep the upper back in good shape for squats and deadlifts, so fits in as assistance work for both lifts.


Do you need to use these tools?

Absolutely not. No tool is essential.

Is it worth having these tools at your disposal to use as and when?

Absolutely.


The shoulder is one of the most injured joints in the body.

I genuinely think these tools are some of the top tier tools for guarding against shoulder injury.

Where some coaches advocate a smorgasbord of shoulder/scapular/rotator cuff exercises, swinging a club/mace can be a one stop shop.

Not only that, you look and feel as like a savage doing it!!

Regards

Dave Hedges

 
 
 

Happy New Year

Welcome to 2024!!

I hope you took a few days over the Xmas period to relax and recharge the batteries, I certainly did.

Rest and recovery are vital for performance, for health and for quality of life, so every year at this time of year I do my best to disconnect and disappear for a few days at least.


Now, as I'm writing this on January 2nd, I feel like I'm emerging from hibernation, fat and sleepy.

But at the same time, eyeballing the horizon, looking at what adventures are coming my way.


First though, we need to warm up.


Like any workout, we warm up, we kick arse, we cool down, we rest and recover, in that order.

That can be expanded out to how we run our day, our month and even our year.

It can inform how we come back from any break of routine.


Right now we're in the warm up stage, let's return to training and routine a little easy for the first couple of sessions.

Then we can ramp up

Then we get to kicking ase and taking names

With frequent (not too frequent) periods of dialling back and allowing the mind and body recover and reset.


So, what's what?


On Monday the newsletter gets back into routine with a question in from Alistair about Mace and Indian Club use.

The following week we're diving into a Vince Lomabardi quote that Chris was asking about.

But as always, I want you, yes YOU << Test First Name >> to send in your questions for future issues.


On the Wg-Fit shop page, we have launched two new custom products.

We have a "Last Set Best Set" T-shirt, which will be available from now until the end of Feb then it will be gone!

If you've spent any time at all training in my presence, you'll have heard me yelling "Last Set Best Set"

If I'm coaching, or if I'm doing my own training, it's a constant reminder to finish strong!

It's a reminder that we perform how we train, and if we can't finish strong, that gives the other guy opportunity to win.

The T-shirt is a polyester fabric, perfect for most activities but not for Kettlebell Sport style Jerk, where you need cotton for the rack position.

There will be more "Dave quotes" training tee's coming in the future, keep your eyes peeled.....


And, if you've followed my social media for any length of time, you'll be familiar with my Red bandana with the black flames that I wear in the cold weather.

This is a Buff, a simple tube of fabric that I have been a fan of since my late teens living and working in the English Lake District and spending an inordinate amount of time out on the hills.

My Red & Black flaming Buff was bought in Dublin many many years ago and is getting really tired, it need a break.

So, the Printful company that I'm using for providing merch have an equivalent, I don't know if it's Buff quality, I'll find out shortly when my new WG-Fit branded "Buff - like" jobbie arrives.


And I'll post a review once mine comes through the post and I've had chance to sweat into it!

But for now, let's get moving again, get back into routine, back into action and start making 2024 a year to remember!

Regards

Dave Hedges

 
 
 
bottom of page
Trustpilot