Borrowed this off of Megan, and read it during my trip to Atlanta. A lot of it I already knew, but there was some really cool parts. I can tell Louie Simmons has read this book from a story my friend Shane told me about him, where he was called to do a speech at the US weightlfting yearly conference. They asked him what he felt they needed to do to catch up. He replied that they needed a grass roots program, better coaches, and to get them on whatever the track team was on. They never asked him back.
grass roots
-russians are given the choice at 9 years old to go into the advanced athlete program, and these kids were encouraged to do so, as athletes are given priority in job placements in russia. The children aren't specialized but encouraged to learn sport in general and not to compete, but to build fundamentals.
sports psychology
- russian athletes are taken through many visualization processes, and taught how to be able to feel each individual muscles without actually contracting them, then to play out their competitions in their heads repeatedly to prepare. They also visualize themselves beating their opponents in all aspects of sport, not just their discipline. I've always been interested in these kinda of things just from my sport psych background.
In general, the russian coaches are paid to win, and when this is the case with all the studies they've performed and data their disposal, this is easily another reason why they've been so advanced.
A very cool book and a highly recomended read.
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