Five Reads for Friday August 21st

Our first weeks of Upper School pre-season has gone quite smoothly. The other night we welcomed back our coaches. Our golf team has started the year out right on winning notes. We are now a little over a week out from starting school. Here are five reads for this Friday.

Vern Gambetta has been a tremendous mentor to me not only helping shape my thinking about athletic development but also introducing me to a network of people around the world who have also become great friends. He has written his blog for 10 years. This week was the 10 year anniversary. It is filled with sensible and mostly simple advice for athletes and coaches at all levels. Here is an example from this week: Making Training Stick -- Functional Path Training

All sports have their go to drills. The most famous -- one might say given recent events infamous -- football drill is the Oklahoma drill. Here is a history of that drill and the reconsideration of it. Is the Oklahoma Drill Just at Rite of Passage?

Cheaters...sadly its a reality in life. Some people cheat and some cheaters get away with it. Maybe most cheaters get away with it. The difficult part about cheating is catching the cheater. Great article by Dr. David Joyner and David Epstein on how difficult it is to catch cheaters in the sport of track and field. 

Speed Bumps -- Why it is so hard to catch cheaters in track and field -- Propublica

Sleep -- when crazy football coaches start examining sleep patterns of their players to find that extra edge, you know it is a big deal. I am once again going to try to sleep more. Here is whye

College Football Wakes Up to A New Statistic -- Sleep -- WSJ -- August 21, 2015

Sports Illustrated's Tim Layden has written some great articles on track and field this summer. He seems to be able to express a strong opinion without sounding biased. The World Championships start this weekend and although some of you are not track and field fans, all of you should pay attention to the mens 100m dash. Here is why.
100 Meters for the Soul of Track and Field -- Sports Illustrated