MeDirected » Track and Field

It's been a long time, I shouldn't have left you…

mike — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 06:13:38 +0000

Sorry bout that. I haven’t been active on the any of my sites really. My twitter account is about the only thing I’ve gotten to over the past 2 months. Getting the facility ready, and now playing catch up on all the things that were put on the back burner for a month has been eating up all my time. Things are good though. The Athletic Lab has been open now for about 3 and a half weeks. We’re not holding back stampedes of raging clients or anything but things are growing steadily just as I had expected. We only need 2 more clients to reach my goal for the first month. Surprisingly, the post-collegiate elite and emerging elite track group has grown faster than the high school, adult fitness, or junior training groups. I’ve got 7 post-collegiate elite or emerging elite track and field athletes who are on-site and training with me at least 2 days a week and some as many as 6.

As for life in general, it’s been busy…a couple weeks back I went 3 straight weeks with less than 5.5 hours of sleep a night. That’s bad even for me. It killed me. But now things are starting to settle down and I’m slowly catching up on all the deadlines I’ve been missing. I’ve still had 7 day work weeks (sorry God) but at least I am getting a little free time and time to catch up on things. If you’re reading this and you’re one of the many people who I owe a call, email, training plan, article, manuscript revision, video analysis, consultation work, or blood of a slaughtered goat to please forgive me…they’ll be on their way shortly. I have always had the bad habit of overloading my schedule and saying ‘yes’ to practically everything I see as an opportunity. This keeps me on point, busy, and productive. This time though I ended up biting off more than I could chew and I ended up spending a couple weeks under-delivering on previous promises. That’s pretty unusual for me. Normally, despite my penchant for overloading my schedule, I try to over-deliver and beat expectations. Now that things are starting to slowly settle in, I’m making it a point to return to that standard.

Some tips for getting IT right

mike — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 17:10:59 +0000

Once a year for the past 7 years I have done a data capture for the research I do as the USA Track & Field biomechanist for the top shot putters in the country.The data capture takes place at the US National Championships / Olympic trials and is used for quantitative 3D motion analysis that is then given to the athletes and their coaches. The process of the data collection requires meticulous standards of setup be made to ensure that valid and quality data can be produced. Any number of slipups in setup or unexpected changes due to grumpy officials, getting moved by tv crews, etc can make the entire data collection completely worthless and unusable. This means significant grant money would go unused and athletes would not receive the scientifically sound research that they’ve come to receive for another year. And because the data collection can only occur at one time each year, requires meticulous adherence to proper research procedures, and involves a variety of unexpected unknowns there is a pretty decent chance that something like that could happen. Unlike research conducted in a lab there are no ‘do-overs.’ Basically, you’ve got one chance to get it right each year and if you don’t you’re screwed. If you ever find yourself in situations like this here are some tips I’ve found useful:

Plan ahead: Even though I’ve now done this data collection 14 times (7 years with separate collections for men and women) I’ve learned not to be complacent with the setup. Getting complacent or assuming you ‘have it mastered’ quickly leads to mistakes.
Use lists: All told, the data collection requires quite a bit of equipment (multiple cameras, tripods, batteries, extra batteries and recording media, calibration equipment, etc). Once the competition starts it’s impossible to leave the area until the competition is done and you’ve calibrated the 3D space. I use lists to ensure that I bring out everything that I need on to the field because it’s quite easy to forget something.
Be prepared for the unexpected: Every time I’ve done one of these data collections something unexpected happens. I can set up an hour early only to be moved by NBC cameras. Or I might have battery failures despite double checking their charges before leaving. I’ve even had complete camera failures while out on the field. All of these can quickly undue your planning and preparation if you allow them to get you flustered and are not at least prepared for the foreseeable issues.
Have at least double redundancy fail safes: As noted above, something will go wrong. It’s practically inevitable when you’re doing a task with such high quality standards. Knowing this, it’s important to make sure you are covering all possible contingencies. I often bring out 2 extra batteries, 3 extra tapes, an extra camera, a 100 foot extension cord to find external power if I absolutely need it, 2 pens in case one runs out while writing down performances, and a variety of other fail safes. This double redundancy fail safeing is something I learned when I was a Human Factors / Industrial Engineering minor for my PhD (before switching to Exercise Physiology).
Give yourself time:
Normally I am the guy who arrives at the last minute and is pulling everything together right at the end. But with something where quality standards are high and opportunities to correct are practically non-existant I make sure I give myself extra time to be prepared.

I know not too many people reading this are likely to be biomechanists and even fewer who work in field (as opposed to lab) settings but I think these general tips can be useful for a variety of situations. If you’ve got any tips that don’t fit in to what I’ve listed above please share it in the comments.

Full House

mike — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:21:39 +0000

Earlier in the week, we also had a lot of company over to the apartment: one former HPC intern and fellow OU alumni; one of the elite athletes from my track club and his fiancé coming to find an apartment for their upcoming move to the area; and one of the other members of the club who needed a place to stay the night before a mid-morning flight out to Eugene for the USATF National Championships. It was a lot of fun having a ‘full house’ and I’m excited to have a core group of athletes here to train and have around as company.

U.S., Jamaica to start track and field challenge series in 2010 (sports.espn.go.com)
CEO of USA Track and Field Doug Logan proposes Jamaica meets (sports.espn.go.com)
Fitzgerald Mosley Hired to Manage U.S. Track Performance (nytimes.com)

Dealing with people who won't listen

mike — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 18:19:55 +0000

Due to my move, setting up my business, finishing my doctoral dissertation and leaving my collegiate coaching position, most of my coaching for the last 8 months has been done via correspondence or short training camps. But now that things are starting to settle, I’ve returned to more hands on coaching of athletes. While most of these athletes have sought out my services I am also working with a semi-random group of athletes that are a part of a club that I just happen to work with. Working with these athletes has put me in front of the type of athlete I haven’t dealt with in years….those that don’t listen. They could be mediocre (or worse) at what they’re doing and still pursue it as if they’ve got all the answers. They don’t necessarily act rude about it but it’s quite obvious that they think they know better and don’t need help. In essence, they are resistant of change. They’re expecting to suddenly get better or make a break through despite doing the same things that have clearly not worked for them in the past. We all know people like this and I’ve learned that it’s best to let them lead their own march to failure (and hopefully learn from their mistake) rather than to waste your time trying to convince them otherwise.

An Update

mike — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 07:02:15 +0000

Sorry for the delay. I had a lot going on. The good news is that gives me a lot to update on. Too much, in fact. So I’m gonna try to summarize the past couple weeks as best I can.

The 2 biggest things that have happened over the past 2 weeks is that I passed my dissertation defense with flying colors and moved my wife and daughter from OH (where we had been living for the past 6 months) to Cary, NC (where I moved about a month ago). I actually did both in a 3 day stretch. The dissertation defense went great. I had been unusually nervous before it but it didn’t seem to be fully warranted and my committee approved my dissertation with very few edits. The move to Cary went equally well. My brother-in-law and my in-laws helped with the move and it was relatively easy. 5 days after the boxes were unloaded in to our apartment and we’ve almost got everything in its place. Good thing too, since we’re having an athlete I work with spend the weekend here.

While those 2 things have been the center of my work-related universe over the past 3 weeks I’ve also had some other exciting things happen:

I was able to relocate my track club from the Metropolitan association of USATF to the NC association and change the affiliation of all of our athletes competing at the USATF indoor national championships so that we’d be properly represented. This process isn’t as easy as it might sound.
I purchased new uniforms for all members of the club and got them embroidered and screen printed…a laborious task that took far more shopping than I’d thought.
The members of the track club have been doing great – with 3 top 8 placings at this past weekend’s USATF indoor national championships; as well as great winning performances from the two international members of the team.
I was invited to speak at the Beijing Sports University for a week in May. I’ve never been to China and really was hoping to be there in 2008 to do video analysis for the U.S. at the Olympics so this will be a great ‘consolation’ prize.
Immediately prior to that week trip to Beijing, I’ve been asked to do an exciting USATF Level 1 school in Orlando, FL. Teaching coaches education schools is one of my passions and I’m excited that I’ll be able to meet up with my good friend Ron Grigg.
I rented and took possession of a storage facility that I plan to use to house a soon-to-be-released line of incredible bumper plates and Olympic weight lifting bars. In addition to using them in my training facility, I’m also going to be the East coast distributor for the manufacturer.
Thanks to some well-connected friends, Smoot Carter & Paul Dietzel, I had great meetings with the Executive VP of Alumni Affairs at LSU and also the new LSU Athletic Director while I was in Baton Rouge. I see both as being potential partners in future business endeavors.
I’ll be coaching a friend’s athlete this weekend at the USATF indoor multi-event national championships which are held only 10 miles away from me in Chapel Hill, NC. I’ve met him once before and know his coach quite well. Our coaching cues and philosophies are quite similar. He should be a solid contender and hopefully I’ll be able to help him. He’ll be repping my HPC Elite track club for the competition.

USA Track & Field head wants 30 medals in 2012 (sports.espn.go.com)
Mr. Platehead (elitetrack.com)