GAINIX Day #1 -- Defining Our Purpose

Lets just start with the end of Day #1 of GAINIX and work our way backwards.

Just before sunset of our first day at GAINIX, Coach Mike Moreau '04 -- who is attending with me -- said how do I get to the track to get a workout in. I showed him and watched with amazement as he ran. I was way too tired. It also probably shows our age difference. Twenty-five years ago I would have felt the same way Mike felt at the end of the day -- needing to get a workout in.

But that is also one of the nicest parts of attending a seminar like GAIN. People really care about being fit and their routine. There are several attendees from Australia who are working on a 15 hour time difference. They got their workout in yesterday too in part to help them manage their jet lag.

For me, this is my eighth time attending GAIN. Since it is in its ninth year, I am one of a select group who attended the first year and have attended most of them since 2008. The first year there were about 20 of us. GAIN is supposed to be small as conferences go but this year it has risen to around 70 people -- the largest ever.

Although most of the attendees are from the United States, there is a large oversees group. At dinner I sat with a coach from Madrid, Spain last night. There are attendees this year from Germany, Hungary, and Bulgaria. Since our Assist student last year Ves Nanov was from Bulgaria, that helped me start a conversation with the coach from Bulgaria.

There are also a number of attendees from the British Isles. The current Scottish record holder in the Long Jump -- now a coach -- made the trip. And a long time friend from past GAIN's  James Marshall -- @CoachExcelsior on Twitter -- is back after missing a year.

Every year there is a growing group of coaches from Australia many who have training through the Australian Institute of Sport -- likely the worlds most progressive center for sports science. And also a coach from New Zealand who works with Jacko Gill. Jacko Gill for those of you who don't know is a somewhat legendary figure on social media because of the amazing workouts he does. He also has won a gold medal in the shot put in the World Youth Games for New Zealand making him in the talk for an Olympic gold medal maybe one day.

Nick Hill who hails from the British Isles but teaches and coaches in Chile is back to represent that continent. There is also a cricket coach from Trinidad and Tobago who is in the same suite with Coach Moreau.

I am sure I am missing some other people and countries. But I hope that gives you a taste of the global nature of this conference. It really makes you think that our American perspective is very narrow. But it also makes you feel that the world is getting much smaller than we think and we better be paying attention to what is going on and current thought and why from around the world.

GAIN attendees also range from coaches working with 5 year olds to coaches working with professional athletes. This is the first year a coach from the NFL is here. He is a performance coach with the Philadelphia Eagles. There are coaches and support staff that work with professional rugby, cricket, basketball, soccer (football to most people here) and ice hockey. There is a large group of coaches and support staff who work in Olympic sports -- swimming and skiing is strongly represented. There are coaches and support staff here from the University of Oregon, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, the University of Illinois, the University of Houston and of course Rice University our host to name a few.

And there are a whole bunch of high school coaches.

But Day #1 is also about establishing our purpose and in the opening talk Vern did that. The purpose is to instill a culture of daily physical preparation that grows and nurtures adaptable athletes who understand the wisdom of their bodies, its ability to self organize and solve movement problems. By the way, I will share the link to last nights live streamed talk if you were not able to watch it.

Also the theme of this years GAIN was introduced and it is The Coaching Process -- Leading Effective Change.

I will be sharing more on Twitter over the next couple of days as well as I hope a post Thursday and Friday summarizing the day. But I hope today's post gives you a sense of why this conference so well fits into our goals as a school and athletic department. It is the philosophy and purpose but also the combination of places, backgrounds and levels of experience of the people who attend.