At the last Winter Olympics, Dutch speedskater Sven Kramer missed out on a gold medal because his coach, Gerard Kemkers, directed him into the wrong lane part way through the race.  Kramer finished the race with an Olympic record time – four seconds ahead of his nearest competitor – but was immediately disqualified because of an incorrect lane change with eight laps remaining on his long-time coach’s cue.

In the aftermath of the disqualification, Kemkers obviously came under a ton of scrutiny.  After all, he committed a pretty big coaching mistake – and it’ll probably become a huge part of his legacy, as unfortunate as it is.

Here is a guy who has likely helped thousands of speed skaters over the years, presumably devoting countless hours to research, coaching, and becoming the best he could be – both as a coach and an athlete (he won a bronze medal at the 1988 Olympics).  And, as Kramer noted, it is hard to argue with the success Kemkers helped him achieve:  “Three times world champion, four times European champion, so many World Cups and Olympic gold in the 5,000 meters.” In the process, Kemkers had to have omitted little to nothing; otherwise, he wouldn’t have been coaching at such a high level.

Had Kemkers never endeavored to get to a high level – or taken shortcuts to get there – there would have been countless omissions along the way: gaps in his knowledge, an inability to befriend athletes, and a fundamental misappreciation for what it takes to compete at a high level.  He would have been mediocre at best.

Kemkers’ mistake was an act of commission, not omission.

Meanwhile, millions of “armchair” quarterbacks around the world will criticize him for being an idiot, when in reality, the opportunity to make this mistake might never have come along if he hadn’t spent so much time preparing to not be an idiot.

Speedskating isn’t really our thing here in the United States, so let’s apply this to something that better fits our existing schema: ACL injuries in female athletes.  We know ACL tears are extremely common in female athletes, particularly those participating in basketball, gymnastics, and soccer.  I actually recall reading that the average NCAA women’s soccer team has one ACL tear every year, and that typically, 1 in 50 female NCAA basketball players will blow out an ACL in a given season.  These numbers may be a bit dated now, but you get the point: if you don’t train to prevent these injuries, you’re omitting an insanely valuable initiative that protects your athletes…and mascots.

Now, we need to see another “ACL Injury Prevention Protocol” on Pubmed like I need to experience another Tony Gentilcore Techno Hour.  In other words, there are plenty of them out there, and we know what kind of strength and conditioning programs work; it is just about execution.

So, let’s take your typical strength and conditioning coach who puts his female athletes through everything he should to protect them from ACL injuries – but one girl drops a weight on her foot and breaks a toe to miss the rest of the season.

Had he omitted external loading from his strength training program, this never would have happened – but he probably would have had four times as many ACL tears as broken toes and his athletes wouldn’t have performed as well.  Here, an act of omission would have been far worse than an act of commission – just like we saw with Kemkers.  This isn’t always the case, but it’s important to realize that two kinds of mistakes occur, and sometimes you’re better being proactive and making a mistake than you are ignoring a responsibility and just keeping your fingers crossed.

It’s been said before that strength and conditioning programs are both a science and an art – and the art is interpreting what to leave out and what to include in light of risk-reward for each unique athlete.  For instance, a front squat is a fantastic exercise from a scientific standpoint, but on the art side of things, it may not be appropriate for an athlete whose spine doesn’t like axial loading.  Or, it may be a problem if an athlete hasn’t been front squatting, and introducing it right before competition would cause soreness that might be counterproductive to performance.

Think about how this applies to the next strength and conditioning program you write, and the next client/athlete you coach.

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