Boston Sports Medicine and Performance Group, LLC Blog

Agency

A door is not responsible if it swings and hits you in the nose. Neither is the hand of the guy who punched you.

Philosphers and lawyers talk about agency. Responsibility comes with the capacity to act in the world. If you can decide, if you can act, you have agency.

Life without agency would be a nightmare. Trapped in a box, unable to do anything by choice, nothing but a puppet...

Why then, do organizations and individuals struggle so intently to avoid the responsibility that comes with agency? "It's not my job, my boss won't let me, there's a federal regulation, we're prohibited, it's our supplier, that's our policy..."

It's not something you can turn on or off. Either you have the capacity to act in the world. Or you don't.

We asked what the Giants in Sports Medicine & Rehabilitation, Basketball and Hockey performance training have read or are currently reading and we brought their list to you.  

Click HERE to view our recommended library with an ongoing list from these speakers who presented at the BSMPG "Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants" 2011 summer seminar.

Click HERE to view George Mumford's most updated presentation from this year's seminar.

Click HERE to view George Mumford's reference list from the above presentation.

2011 BSMPG speakers, Ray Eady and George Mumford

Caring

No organization cares about you. Organizations aren't capable of this.

Your bank, certainly, doesn't care. Neither does your HMO or even your car dealer. It's amazing to me that people are surprised to discover this fact.

People, on the other hand, are perfectly capable of caring. It's part of being a human. It's only when organizational demands and regulations get in the way that the caring fades.

If you want to build a caring organization, you need to fill it with caring people and then get out of their way. When your organization punishes people for caring, don't be surprised when people stop caring.

When you free your employees to act like people (as opposed to cogs in a profit-maximizing efficient machine) then the caring can't help but happen.

We asked what the Giants in Sports Medicine & Rehabilitation, Basketball and Hockey performance training have read or are currently reading and we brought their list to you.  

Click HERE to view our recommended library with an ongoing list from these speakers who presented at the BSMPG "Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants" 2011 summer seminar.

Charlie Weingroff:

Thanks to everyone for attending this year's BSMPG summer seminar, Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants.  We welcomed over 170 of the top Performance Coaches, Athletic Trainers and Physical Therapists from across the country and the world to Boston for this two day event.  Attendees ventured from countries including England, Ireland, Wales, Holland, and Canada in order to attend what has truly become the nation's leading conference in advanced training and care for the athlete.

Stay tuned for more photos, updated speaker presentations and much more this coming week!

Clare Frank demonstrates during her Intensive Track Breakout session.

Mike Curtis, Strength and Conditioning Coach at the University of Virginia and Ray Eady, Strength and Conditioning Coach at University of Wisconsin enjoy lunch during day one.

Keynote Speakers from day two, Pete Viteritti and Shirley Sahrmann.

If

If you have never heard of Ray Eady, Strength and Conditioning Coach at the University of Wisconsin before, you will after this weekend.  Ray's one of the brightest basketball strength coaches in the business and his business is getting basketball athletes STRONG!  I was blessed to work with Ray earlier in his career and to say that Ray "gets it" as a strength coach is an understatement. 

His balance of assessment, movement development, injury prevention and of course serious strength development has made him one of the most sought after basketball strength coaches around.

Take a sneak peek at what Ray will be discussing as he joins the top basketball coaches from across the country including, Brendon Ziegler - Oregon State, Jonas Sahratian - UNC-Chapel Hill, George Mumford and Brian McCormick this weekend in Boston.

Click HERE to view Ray Eady's lecture at the 2011 BSMPG, "Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants" Seminar

Bar gymnastics

Some people I know work hard to lower the bar at work.

That was my strategy at gym class in high school. Not only did I do the minimum amount permitted, I worked hard to do just a little bit less than that. By the time the semester was over, the teacher was relieved if I even bothered to show up at all.

Most people seek to meet the bar. They figure out what's expected, and do that.

A few people, very few, work to relentlessly raise the bar. She's the one who overdelivers on projects, shows up ahead of schedule, instigates, suggests and pushes.

Raising the bar is exhausting, no doubt about it. I'm not sure the people who engage in this apparently reckless behavior would have it any other way, though. They get to experience a fundamentally different day, a different journey and a different reputation than everyone else.

Why now? What has changed that makes promoting bar gymnastics more than a selfish effort by the boss to get more labor out of the workforce?

Simple. This is the post-industrial era. Success is not about speeding up the assembly line as much as it relies on individuals able to create leaps forward. The person capable of doing that sort of work is in far higher demand than ever before.

Dr. John DiMuro and Mark Toomey

Every once in a while you'll meet an individual that completely changes the way you look at the world - that person for me was Mark Toomey.  A self proclaimed "knuckle-dragger," Toomey is one of the few people that truly understands the importance and integration of health, strength, and function.

Click HERE to view Toomey's/DiMuro's presentation outline for their June 3rd presentation.

See Mark Toomey, Dr. DiMuro and other national experts in the fields of Sports Medicine, Hockey and Basketball along with keynote speakers which include Tom Myers, Shirley Sahrmann, Clare Frank, Charlie Weingroff and Pete Viteritti at this weeks BSMPG summer conference, "Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants" - June 3rd and 4th.

Looking for the right excuse

This is the first warning sign that a project is in trouble. Sometimes it even begins before the project does.

Quietly, our subconscious starts looking around for an excuse, deniability and someone to blame. It gives us confidence and peace of mind. [It's much easier to be calm when the police car appears in your rear view mirror if you have an excuse handy.]

Amazingly, we often look for the excuse before we even accept the project. We say to ourselves, "well, I can start this, and if it doesn't work perfectly, I can point out it was the ..." Then, as the team ramps up, bosses appear and events occur (or not), we continually add to and refine our excuse list, reminding ourselves of all the factors that were out of our control. Decades ago, when I used to sell by phone, I often found myself describing why I was unable to close this particular sale--and realized I was articulating these reasons while the phone was still ringing.

People who have a built-in all-purpose excuse (middle child syndrom, wrong astrology sign, some slight at the hands of the system long ago) often end up failing--they have an excuse ready to go, so it's easier to back off when the going is rough.

Here's an alternative to the excuse-driven life: What happens if you relentlessly avoid looking for excuses at all?

Instead of seeking excuses, the successful project is filled with people who are obsessed with avoiding excuses. If you relentlessly work to avoid opportunities to use your ability to blame, you may never actually need to blame anyone. If you're not pulled over by the cop, no need to blame the speedometer, right?

Who is making you uncomfortable?

Who looks you in the eye and says, "given your skills, you could do better..."

"You have enough leverage to really make a difference."

"What would happen if you doubled the amount you donated?"

"Could you set aside the fear and go faster?"

"I know you're holding back..."

It takes love and kindness and confidence to bring the truth to a friend you care about. If you're insulating yourself from these conversations, who benefits?