Home Posts tagged "Neil Rampe"

7 Steps for Attacking Continuing Education in the Fitness Industry

In response to a recent blog, one reader posted a question about how I "structure" my approach to continuing education.  As I thought about it, it's actually a more organized "ritual" than I had previously thought.  Here are the key components:

1.  I always have two books going at a time. One involves training/nutrition/manual therapy/rehabilitation.  The other involves business/personal development.  Noticeably absent from this list is fiction; I really don't have any interest in it, and couldn't tell you the first thing about Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter.  I'll usually have a book on CD in the car as well, but nowadays, my commute is non-existent (since we moved closer to the facility), so I have been doing more reading and less listening than previously.

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2. Our staff in-service is every Wednesday at 10:30AM. This has turned into a great continuing education opportunity for all of us. While one person is "responsible" for presenting the topic each week, it always inevitably becomes a "think tank" among our staff and interns about how something applies to specific clients, unique issues, functional anatomy, or our programming or business model.

For instance, last week, I talked about how to assess shoulder external rotation and address any identified deficits on this front.  We got to talking about which clients were using the appropriate mobilizations, how to perform them, and what would happen if they are performed incorrectly.  Likewise, we talked about how certain people need to be careful about mobilizing their shoulders into external rotation because of extreme congenital laxity and/or extreme humeral retroversion. 

Beyond just the benefits of helping our staff grow as a whole, for me, it has several distinct benefits.  First, when I come back from a weekend seminar where I've learned something good, it's a great opportunity to "reteach" and apply it immediately.  I'm a firm believer that the best way to master something is to have to teach it to someone else.  Second, having pretty frequent "mini-presentations" keeps my presenting skills fresh for seminars when I may have 4-6 weeks between speaking engagements.

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3. I get to at least 4-5 weekend seminars per year. I'm lucky in that two of these are generally Perform Better Three-Day Summits where I get to see a wide variety of presentations - with all my travel expenses paid because I present myself.

I think that every fitness professional needs to get to at least two such events per year.  The good news is that with webinars and DVD sets, you can save a ton on travel expenses and watch these on your own schedule.  A lot of people, for instance, have said that they learned more from our two-day Building the Efficient Athlete Seminar DVD Set than they did in years of college - with no tuition payment required, either!

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That said, a ton of the education at such events comes from interacting with other fitness professionals, so you do miss out on the accidental "social" education.

4. I have one day a week where all I read are journal articles. Sometimes it is entertaining, and sometimes it's like reading stereo instructions.  It depends on journal - and regular ol' luck with respect to what's going on in the research world.  I'll keep it pretty random and just type in a search term like "sports medicine" or "strength training."  We also have The Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies delivered to the office so that our staff can look that over.

5.  I read a few blogs/newsletters each day in both training/nutrition/manual therapy/rehabilitation and business/personal development. I've listed several on my recommended resources page.  There are loads more out there; these are just the tip of the iceberg and the ones that I tend to read more frequently.

6. I'll usually have a DVD set or webinar going as often as possible. We've got a great library in the office at Cressey Sports Performance, and I'm fortunate to have a lot of stuff sent to me for free to review here on the blog. I tend to prefer DVDs more than webinars, as I can watch them in fast-forward and make people talk faster to save time!

7. I talk to and email with a handful of other coaches about programming and business ideas and new things we're doing. I wouldn't call it a mastermind group, or anything even close to one in terms of organization, but it is good to know that whenever I want to bounce an idea off someone, I have several people I can contact.  On the training side of things, a few guys that come to mind are Mike Robertson, Neil Rampe, Mike Reinold, Bill Hartman, and Tony Gentilcore.  On the business side of things, I'm lucky to have Alwyn Cosgrove and Pat Rigsby as good dudes who are only an email or phone call away.  I think that the take-home message is that if you surround yourself with the right people, answers that would normally elude you are really right at hand.

This post wound up running a lot longer than I'd anticipated, but hopefully you all benefited from it nonetheless.  Have any continuing education strategies of your own that I have overlooked?  If so, please post them in the comments section below.

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CP Internship Blog by Sam Leahey – Appreciating Differences

Preface 1 If you're like me, you foster a great appreciation for the work Eric Cressey does both in cyberspace and in person through mediums like seminars, conferences, etc. However often times Eric's readers do not benefit from what goes on behind the scenes at Cressey Performance. In fact, I would venture to say that at most top notch Strength & Conditioning facilities around the country this privilege often falls upon interns, as they are learning day in and day out from the entire staff. So, my fellow Cressey disciples, never fear because there is a solution! Eric has asked me to write regular blog posts regarding my internship here at Cressey Performance. This will include many training epiphanies and revelations, "ah-ha" moments, coaching insights, and just flat-out Eric Cressey madness! Being able to get inside the mind of Eric Cressey and his staff is a tremendous honor and I would love to share all that comes out it. Hope you enjoy!

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Appreciating Differences We had a splendid seminar recently at Cressey Performance with Neil Rampe as the speaker. Beyond the actual shop talk I noticed a similar thread in his speech. He often would finish up a slide summary with the question "Can you appreciate that?" He'd present his knowledge and then ask the audience, "Can you appreciate that?" Notice what he did not say. Neil didn't present his rationale, science, and/or theory and ask attendees "Do you see how I'm right and so and so is wrong?" In fact, I don't recall him ever even using the words "right" or "wrong."  It was always "Can you appreciate this or that?"  In one such example he taught to appreciate asymmetries in the body. More specific to this discussion though, Neil discussed the appreciation of different schools of thought from Janda, Sahrmann, Kolar, Myers, PRI, and others.

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This concept of appreciating different perspectives, instead of trying to prove right or wrong, I find more and more useful the longer I coach. More practically, I find this coming into fruition over simple things in the Strength & Conditioning field. Take a simple exercise like the One-Arm Cable Row for example. Should you retract both shoulder blades when your row or just the side that is doing the rowing? Is one way right and the other is wrong? Really? A more noble argument I've found is which one is more optimal for what you're trying to accomplish. In reality neither one is wrong; they're just different! What about if you place certain components of your program in different spots than others. Is it "wrong" to put static stretching at the beginning or end of a workout? Is either way "right?" I don't think so. They both can be applied appropriately at either end of the session. What about a quadruped t-spine mobility drill. Should the arms and femurs be completely perpendicular to the ground or should you be sitting back slightly on your calves?

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Again, is either version wrong? Nope, just another example of different ways to skin a cat. Oftentimes, it's young up-and-coming coaches like myself that fall victim to training arguments. Alwyn Cosgrove talked about this once when he said something to the effect of: "If you put all the greatest coaches in a room they will agree on most things and disagree on few things. If you put all their students in one room they'll be arguing all day long over the differences." I hope I quoted Alwyn correctly, but either way, you get the point. In most cases, one perspective or difference may be more optimal than the other in terms of the goals it's trying to accomplish. Only in a few cases is either side wrong or right. So, the next time you're listening to someone give advice - be it for programming or just in general terms - appreciate where they're coming from. Understand WHY he is suggesting something. Is the person a powerlifter? Is he a physical therapist? Is the person a Strength & Condtioning coach, athletic trainer, doctor, chiropractor, or a professor? Does he work in group training settings, semi-private, or a one-on-one situation? Understanding all these different perspectives can allow you to APPRECIATE what the other person is saying without getting all indignant because you think he's "wrong." Thanks, Eric, for helping me realize this valuable lesson! You can contact Sam Leahey at sam.leahey@gmail.com.
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The Six Kinds of Seminar Attendees

On Sunday, we hosted Neil Rampe of the Arizona Diamondbacks for a Myokinematic Dysfunction seminar at Cressey Performance.  It was a great experience, and Neil did a very thorough job of highlighting the different schools of thought with respect to addressing movement impairments.  In particular, Neil spent a lot of time on two schools of thought: Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilization (discussed in this post) and the Postural Restoration Institute. There was some advanced stuff being discussed, and we had a wide variety of professions and ability levels represented in the audience.  There were athletic trainers, strength and conditioning coaches, personal trainers, physical therapists, and chiropractors in attendance.  And, they ranged in age from 20 all the way up to 55 (or so).  After the seminar, I got to talking with Neil about how it's interesting to think what each person takes away from a seminar based on their age, occupation, and experience level.  It led to me coming up with the six kinds of seminar attendees: 1. The Experienced, Open-minded Attendee - This individual may have similar experience in similar fields as the presenter.  If he gets just 2-3 good tips over the course of the seminar, he's thrilled.  The more experienced you get, the more you appreciate the little things you can add (or subtract) to refine your approach. Example: Last year, I spent about 95% of Greg Rose's presentation at Perform Better in Long Beach nodding in agreement, as he and I both deal with a ton of rotational sport athletes (him with golf, and me with baseball).  He did, however, introduce one new thoracic spine mobility test that I absolutely love and use to this day.  I might have only picked up one thing, but it was a hugely valuable for me. 2.The Experienced, Close-minded Attendee - This individual may be very experienced in a similar realm as the presenter, but isn't openminded enough to realize that a professional on his level still might have things to offer to improve his approach.  These are usually the people who claim to be "old school" - which essentially applies that they only have experience doing the same thing for 25 years.  This is one kind of "there's nothing new here" person. 3. The Experienced Attendee from a Different Field - This individual might be excellent at what he does in a semi-related field, but completely new to the material presented at a seminar.  The challenge here is to learn what can be applied in that other realm. Think of a pitching or track coach attending a strength and conditioning seminar - or a S&C coach attending a pitching or physical therapy conference.

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4. The Intimidated, Lazy Beginner Attendee - There are times when a beginner attends a seminar and has little to no clue what's going on during the event and is completely intimidated by what he doesn't know.  And, as a result, the attendee claims that he will never need the information anyway.  These folks should either change their attitudes or pick a different industry, as they are the second kind of "there's nothing new here" person. 5. The Motivated Beginner Attendee - This attendee is identical to the intimidated beginner, but rather than getting insecure about his lack of knowledge on the subject, he uses it as motivation to study further and find a way to get to where he wants to be.  This may be an understanding of how to apply bits and pieces of what the presenter taught, or a desire to become an expert in the same topic the presenter covered.  You see this quite a bit in the fitness industry, as exercise enthusiasts who aren't in the industry will actually attend seminars just to learn about better training practices - just like I might tend a talk by an economist, for instance. 6. The Middle of the Road Attendee - This individual is somewhere between a beginner and an expert in the material being covered.  My experience has been that the "middle of the road" folks only attend seminars (at least the ones at which I've presented) if they genuinely care about getting better, not just for CEUs (the intimidated/lazy beginners do that).  I find that this is probably the biggest group of the six. Groups 5 and 6 are the ones who have loved our Building the Efficient Athlete seminar the most, as it either complemented their college anatomy and kinesiology curriculum nicely, or helped to take the place of it altogether (for those who didn't attend school).

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Think about this for yourself and start to consider where you fall in the context of these six categories.  And, more importantly, how does your "placement" in this scheme dictate the next 2-3 seminars you're going to attend?  Do you want to completely get outside your realm of expertise and see something entirely new, or do you want to hone in on your specialty and see if you can come up with a few new tricks to take you to the next level?  There isn't a correct answer on this, other than that you need to keep getting out to see others in action to get better! On a related note, I've got a busy spring of seminars booked, so if you haven't already, check out my schedule page for details.
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What’s in Store for 2010?

Happy New Year, everyone! I thought I'd use this first post of 2010 as a way of looking forward to what's on tap at EricCressey.com for the year.  In true "Random Thoughts" fashion, here we go: 1. Nate Green just interviewed me for what I think will be a great feature at T-Muscle in the next week or two.  It will be similar in structure to this piece Nate did with Dave Tate, which definitely turned out to be an entertaining read.  Keep an eye out for it!

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2. Speaking of interviews, I'll be doing one with Brian Grasso for the IYCA on Tuesday.  Brian's a very forward-thinking guy and I'm excited to catch up with him. 3. Speaking of T-Muscle, I'm finishing up my "What I Learned in 2009" article this weekend.  It follows the articles I wrote for 2006, 2007, and 2008. 4. Also coming up in the next month or so will be the release of the DVDs of Mike Reinold and my seminar from November: Testing, Treating, and Training the Shoulder: From Rehabilitation to High Performance. It's being edited as I type this.

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5. This January 24, Cressey Performance will be hosting Neil Rampe of the Arizona Diamondbacks for his seminar, .  You can register HERE, or for more information on Neil's background, click HERE.  If you'd like to see a seminar agenda, please just email me at ec@ericcressey.com. 6. I'll be presenting in Tampa, FL (Jan); Winchester, MA (Jan); Las Vegas, NV (March); and Vancouver, BC (March); and Boston, MA (May) in this first part of 2010.  Check out my schedule page for more information on these events. 7. I'm very anxious to hear more of the feedback on Assess and Correct, which has already sold in more than two dozen countries.  This is a product I truly believe will help a lot of people, and the short-term feedback we've received since its release in October has been tremendous.

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8. At Cressey Performance, our staff has started up what (for lack of a more masculine term) we're calling the Staff Book Club.  Each staff member will present on what he learns in a different book each week.  I think it'll be a great way to cover more material and keep us all accountable to each other on getting our continuing education done. 9.I'm pumped for more content from Matt Blake in 2010.  He's been a fantastic resource for all our athletes and I'm excited to share with you all how Matt and I collaborate to make our pitchers better.  I think it'll make for some great content. 10. I'd really like to continue to grow both the newsletter and blog.  You can sign up for notifications on both fronts to the right of the screen, if you haven't already. 11. I'm really pumped for all our guys who have found great college choices; it's an exciting time for both the 2010 and 2011 guys.  Most recently, CP athlete Adam Ravenelle committed to Vanderbilt on a baseball scholarship.  Adam's been with us since before his freshman year, and we're all really proud of him.  He actually joins another CP pitcher, Tyler Beede, who committed to Vanderbilt just a few weeks ago.  Both guys are in the class of 2011, and join Barrett O'Neill (University of Virginia) and Joe Napolitano (Boston College) as our early committees from that class. There should be plenty more guys with exciting news along these lines in the months to come as well. 12. I'm really excited to watch Cressey Performance grow in the months ahead.  While I was certainly thrilled at the growth we saw (15%) in 2009 and I hope it continues, I am most thrilled at how many clients we've seen change their bodies and their lives since they started up, and how many friendships we've seen cultivated inside CP. If you'd have told me a few years ago that we'd have over 25 people in on Thanksgiving morning, for instance, I would have told you that you were crazy!

In addition to our clients' accomplishments, I'm so proud of our staff. I could never do what I do without such great guys working alongside me, and the best part is that they are insatiable in their desire to get better.  We're constantly getting better and it makes every new day fun.  The best part is that I feel like it's something that's carried over to our interns, too; there are some really talented people with bright futures coming through here.

13. I'm very excited for the new CP website, which should be done in a matter of a few days.  Along those same lines, there is a pretty sweet training and testimonial montage being pulled together about our Elite Baseball Development program.  I was actually getting pretty fired up just watching some of the footage that had been gathered thus far. 14. I can't wait to attack all the books and journal articles that are in my stack of "Things to Read" right now.  There's too much material to cover, but never enough time! 15. Last, but certainly not least, it'll also be a very busy (but exciting) year for me personally in 2010, as my fiancee Anna and I will be getting married this October.  And, even before we get to that, we're planning to buy our first home in the next 4-6 months.  Obviously, we're already doing a lot of planning! Needless to say, I'm looking forward to all of this - and probably a few surprises along the way.  Best wishes for 2010, and stay tuned!
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Upcoming Seminar Opportunity: Need Your Feedback!

Neil Rampe is a good friend of mine who works for the Arizona Diamondbacks, and just so happens to be one of the smartest (and most humble and approachable) dudes I know.  I spent three days with him out in Arizona in November, and he opened my eyes to so much great stuff that I couldn't wait to bring him out to Boston for a seminar at Cressey Performance.  He's got a crazy busy schedule, so we just now firmed up a date that he could do such an event here in Massachusetts: Sunday, January 24. To that end, before we make it official, I want to quickly gauge who would be interested.  The price would be $149 for a full day's seminar (food and handouts included), and we'd keep the headcount down to ensure that all the hands-on stuff includes plenty of direct interaction with Neil.  The overall theme of the event would be Movement Integration and how there are different schools of thought (Mezieres, Myers, Janda, and Hruska, to name a few) and modalities that can be applied along with some solid fundamental critical thinking skills to address the specific needs of athletes and clients. Before we make this official and make more details known, I want to know that we have a good enough headcount to pursue this.  So, I thought I'd throw it out there to you.  If you are interested, please email me at ec@ericcressey.com right away to express your interest. Below, you'll see Neil's bio; it should give you a quick glimpse into just how great a perspective he's got: Neil Rampe is currently in his third year as the Manual Therapist for Major League Baseball's Arizona Diamondbacks. Neil's education includes an Associates degree in Personal Training as well as Bachelors degrees in Athletic Training and Physical Education with an emphasis in Strength & Conditioining from the University of Findlay in 2000. He went on to receive his M.Ed. in Applied Kinesiology with a Sport and Exercise Science emphasis in 2002 from the University of Minnesota, where he served as a strength & conditioning coach in the golden gopher athletic department before moving on to serve as a certified athletic trainer at the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine in Boulder, CO. Neil then spent five years at The University of Arizona, where he served as the Associate Dierctor, Performance Enhancement. Neil is a Certified Athletic Trainer through the NATABOC, a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist through the NSCA, a Licensed Massage Therapist through the AMTA and NCBTMB upon graduating from the Providence Institute of Massage Therapy and has received his Performance Enhancement Specialist and Corrective Exercise Specialist advanced specializations through the National Academy of Sports Medicine. Over the past nine years, Neil has had the opportunity to work with a number of elite athletes at the high school collegiate, Olympic and professional ranks in the areas of rehabilitation, therapy and performance enhancement.
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