TheElite Training Group track club
*** ETG Services *** ETG Press & Media Communications *** ETG Training & Performance Updates
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As you continue to acquire and apply more information you continue to expand the area of what is possible for you to achieve.
"Critical Thinking". It consists of 2 main required actions;
1 --- always think and reason in terms of underlying mechanisms of how things work
2 --- respond to any conclusion [especially your own] with the question......why is that.
Data-less conclusions founded upon faulty assumptions lead to the mother of all screw ups in the creating of human belief systems that quickly get set in stone.
[TheETG club owner Marshall Burt]
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The information TheETG is applying to achieve its mission...........
1 ----- TheETG Training Packets [they are $free....you can see, read, or print them all] 2 ----- TheETG Training To Live Training For Life Project Packets [they are $free....you can see, read, or print them all] 3 ----- TheETG Track & Field Promotions Project [its $free....read, or print it] . . TheETG Services Access to information and the ability to apply it is the major mechanism of success in human performance in long term health, wellness, and in sport. As we continue to acquire and apply more information we continue to expand the area of what is possible for us to achieve. TheETG proliferates information by way of 3 services to the public, and to the Track & Field, Cross-Country, and Road Running Community. ------- TheETG advice service = $40 ------- TheETG speaker-lecturer service = $1500.....[in Austin = $free] ------- The ETG Packets = $free . 1 --- Pursue optimal human performance in Track & Field distance running. 2 --- Facilitate and proliferate the use of --the-- best applied sport sciences based training information available anywhere in the world by way of The ETG Training Packets and other ETG Services. Facilitate and proliferate the use of --the-- best applied research based "Competent Self-Care" information in medicine, mental health, and parenting available anywhere in the world for the targeted purpose of contributing to the removal of large numbers of customers and/or victims of the old medicine and mental health care systems. Encourage and enhance the general public's pursuit of personal growth, self-education, and life long learning in these areas by way of The ETG Training To Live Training For Life Project Packets. 3 --- Promote growth in attendance of major American Track & Field meets and promote viewership of Track & Field on television by producing fast times on U.S. soil, implementing The ETG Track & Field Promotions Project, and helping educate potential new track fans by proliferating "This Is Track & Field". 4 --- Break all World and American records at 800m, 1500m, 5000m, 10,000m, and the marathon. . Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed" [Francis Bacon] . "I don't know that there is any magic level of interest in science that people ought to have. But the more they understand, the more they will be able to control their destiny and achieve their other aims." [Stephen Hawking] . "Better health care will depend, not on some new therapeutic standard, but on the level of willingness and competence to engage in self care." [Dr. I. Illich....1978] . "......the benefits that US health care currently deliver may not outweigh the aggregate health harm it imparts." Journal Of The American Medical Association...Volume 302 #1..July 1, 2009...page 89 - 91 . Heart disease......."We're never going to end the epidemic because the stents, bypasses, and drugs, none of it is addressing the cause of the illness." [Caldwell Esselstyn M.D.] . "As long as people will accept crap, it will be financially profitable to dispense it." [Dick Cavett] . "All the good things....they don't teach us in medical school, because the drug companies pay for our education." Dr. John Sessions M.D. . "For every dollar we spend on prescription drugs,
we spend a dollar to fix the complication." Dr. Mehmet Oz [Professor of Surgery, Columbia University] . "Most drugs are only effective for a small percentage of people who take them." Michael Leavitt [U.S. Secretary of Health & Human Services 2005 - 2009] . "......1.5 million U.S. residents are harmed or killed each year because of medication errors, according to an Institute of Medicine report." Nature Medicine....Volume 12 #9....September 2006.....pg 984 - 985....News In Brief . "In September 2011...a National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day...in Orange County, Florida alone....more than 1.5 tons of prescription medications were returned." WH Shrank....Our bulging medicine cabinets....New England Journal of Medicine....Volume 364 #17.....April 28, 2011......page 1591 .
TheETG Misson
[Dr. John Abramson , Lecturer, Harvard University, Consultant U.S. Dept. Of Justice & FBI.....stated on the Dr. Oz Show May 13, 2011]
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"Less than 1 percent of our health care spending goes to examining what treatments are most effective. Less than 1 percent.......As a result too many doctors and patients are making decisions without the benefit of latest research.......A recent study for example, found that only half of all cardiac guidelines are based on scientific evidence."
President Barack Obama...Speech to the American Medical Association [June 15, 2009]
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"How cancer develops is no longer a mystery." ---- "2/3 of all cancers are preventable."---- "Last year more people suffered and died needlessly than ever before."
Dr. John Seffin [CEO American Cancer Society] National Press Club October 16, 2003
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"Anything and everything we need to know about cancer, we know it."
Bharat Aggarwal PhD. [MD Anderson Cancer Center] Lecture at the University Of Texas at Austin....March 3, 2011
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".....most doctors don't read or understand medical research..."
Richard Smith [editor, British Medical Journal]...........Volume 326 #14......June 2003]
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"The doctors do not always know best and often fail to provide the appropriate care. "
[Consumer Reports On Health&&April 2002 -- When Doctors Don't Know Best]
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"The U.S. mental health system is in crisis....according to a federal report."
"The fundamental problem: emphasizing medicating people over fostering ways to help them lead productive lives."
Associated Press, The Daily Texan [September 17, 2002]
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"The difference between the effect of a placebo and the effect of an anti-depressant is minimal for most people......People get better when they take the drug, but its not the chemical ingredients in the drug that are making them better, its largely the placebo effect."
Irving Kirsch [Associate Director Placebo Studies, Harvard Medical School]
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"Practice is not reflecting the research. Ninety to 95% of programs have no research base. The gap between what is known and what is being provided in routine care is huge."
Kimberly Hogwood {New York Office Of Mental Health] Associated Press, The Daily Texan, April 11, 2002
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"You can narcoticize your body, you can distract your brain, but one day your body will present its bill."
[Alice Miller]
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Running involves the use of human cells
Running involves the use of human cells. The manner in which those cells function impacts one's running ability. Training in a manner consistent with human cellular function for the purpose of optimizing human cellular function, makes improvement more controllable, more stable, and more certain. The number one issue in elite sport is that most athletes experience improvement at some point becoming uncontrollable, unstable, and uncertain.
"Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed" -- [Francis Bacon]. Everything works in accordance with the laws of nature. The laws of nature -are- the underlying mechanisms of how everything works. Science identifies and describes the laws of nature. The functioning of brain cells, muscle cells, blood cells, -all cells- are governed by the laws of nature.
The all too typical....."its genetic" argument cannot be inserted each time one cannot explain something. The all too typical....."science doesn't explain everything" argument cannot be inserted each time one's comfort zone is challenged. The laws of nature that control human cellular function are not governed by your chosen belief system or the dogma you have been indoctrinated into.
Sport as we know it, Track & Field in particular.......is changing. Humans, or some earlier version thereof, have been on earth for approximately 5 million years. There are over 6 billion people currently on the planet, and we are now in the 21rst century, the "information age". Thus, it should be a surprise to no one at this point in human history that a small group of people has gathered the available information across all major sport science disciplines to combine it, and apply it. This is founded on the principle which says that as we continue to acquire and apply more information we continue to expand the area of what is possible for us to achieve.
Always think and reason in terms of mechanisms. Problems often occur with the interpretation and application of science, rather than with science itself. When you see on the television evening news the results of a medical study reported one night and contradictory information the next night, it is because one or both studies had little or nothing to do with identifying underlying mechanisms of an issue. Always think and reason in terms of mechanisms. With this as your foundation, after placing your intention on knowledge acquisition, the more information you pursue the more information you'll find landing in your lap or in some other way finding its way to you. As you sow so shall you reap.
The norm may not be normal. People in our sport have seen the norm of where performance levels have been and from that....judged where limitations are set in stone. However, it may be important to consider that this norm may not be normal. Each advance in human performance has confronted us with ourselves, our mindsets, our constant setting and re-setting of limitations that keep turning out to -not- exist. As any monk learning Kung Fu at a Shaolin temple already knows, our cells can do some pretty serious stuff. Just a matter of learning how to go about training them to do it, preferably in a methodical, controllable way rather than by the luck of one track season, once, stumbling upon something that works.
Stop setting and re-setting artificial limitations. In track & field, perhaps the best example of the setting and re-setting of artificial limitations started in the middle of the last century. The term, "the 4:00 mile", rarely failed to appear in the same sentence with the word, "barrier". Then somebody ran sub 4:00. And then somebody ran a 2 mile race averaging sub 4:00. In the 5000m [5k, about 3.1 miles] as a species we're now within a few years of going sub 4:00 per mile for that distance. The 10,000m [10k, about 6.2 miles] world record has already been at about 4:12 per mile pace and will be moving further toward what used to be the 4:00 "barrier". Our species is moving closer to 4:25 per mile pace for half-marathon [about 13.1 miles]. We're gonna see a sub-2 hour marathon within the next few years. Human performance marches on as we loosen our obsession with training volume and focus on training velocity and body rest. In our life time we're gonna see a sub 3:40 mile, we're gonna see women going sub 4:00 for the mile and sub 1:50 for 800m.
News flash,"Breaking News", we're --not-- getting slower. The news flash is that we're -not- getting slower. We're -not- operating on less information about the human body as we enter this "information age". As we continue to acquire and apply more information, we continue to expand the area of what is possible for us to achieve. More specifically, as we grow in our understanding of how to design training stimuli, as we grow in our understanding of how a training stimulus activates gene transcription and translation processes, and do better at keeping the body in a state where it can respond optimally to that activation, human performance will continue to march forward.
That knowledge has applications to everything from breaking world records in sport, to cardiac rehab of senior citizens, to restoration of limb function in battlefield wounded military personnel, to spinal cord repair and getting patients up out of their wheel chairs. Reaching a critical mass of knowledge is the official finish line. Whoever gets to the finish line first, not only gets to help a few billion people for free, but gets to become a gazillionaire in the application of that knowledge across several sports.
Velocity oriented training [all-year-around Goal Pace training targeting brain cell and nervous system gene function] is far superior to traditional mileage oriented training. Many people in our sport have either given up on the idea or aggressively oppose it, having concluded that you can't design a velocity oriented training program that doesn't produce an over-trained state or a lack of a "base". Such a belief system is highly unwise. Designing a velocity oriented training program is far more challenging than a traditional mileage oriented program since most people enter the task with a traditional mileage oriented background and a traditional mileage oriented mindset. A velocity oriented training program necessitates low training volume and multiple rest days, the two deadly sins in the mileage oriented mindset.
As we continue to acquire and apply more information we continue to expand the area of what is possible for us to achieve. Access to information and the ability to apply it is the major mechanism of success in human performance in sport, Track & Field in particular, and in long term health and wellness. The ETG proliferates this information by way of free ETG Packets
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What Took You So Long?.....Disruptive Innovation [by Marshall Burt]
By the late 1980s, I was well convinced that world records were no where near the limits of human performance. I noticed a number of people setting records or winning medals at major championships, or performing at very high levels after down-time forced by illness or injury. Blind assertions by coaches, fans, and media that these people were training optimally and that their records could never be broken by the people that set them or anybody else seemed illogical to me. It soon became plain to me that neither athletes or coaches possessed much knowledge of human cellular function, and thus neither training or performance levels could be assumed to be either optimal or at the limits of human ability.
Following a one week trip to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs in 1988 where I attended the USA Track & Field's Level II coaching education certificate course, I wrote a letter to all of the members of the USATF coaching education committee. The letter suggested that they focus on identifying the underlying mechanisms of performance of each track and field event, and then use that information to develop training programs to apply and teach. Only one person wrote back, basically saying it was a great idea........somebody ought to do it. It seemed plain that they weren't intending to be the people to do it, so I decided at that time to begin pursing it on my own. The result of that effort is The ETG Training Packet.
Around 1989, I began developing the "Elite Coaching Support Group" which consists of several researchers and clinicians [Jack Wilmore PhD, Ed Coyle PhD., Randa Ryan PhD, John Ivy PhD, Larry Abraham PhD, Marsha Beckermann R.D, Allan Besselink P.T. Dip.MDT, Dave Martin Ph.D, Ellen deJong PT] who's work I believed would be the most helpful to me in identifying the underlying physiological mechanisms of performance, injury prevention, etc. I chose people who's names I had come across fairly often while reading research, a few people who I knew personally and knew their knowledge would be necessary to acquire, and I chose researchers whose work was well beyond the norm in the area of sport sciences. Access to information is the foundation upon which the club and all its training programs have been built. It is and will always be the underlying mechanism of our success in every aspect of our lives and sport performance.
I wanted a science based training program --- that provided a large amount of controllability --- in producing a large amount of fitness --- in a short period of time --- from a small amount of training. That was sometime around 1991. I thought it would take about 1 - 2 years to design a program that achieved all of the above.
So the answer to the question..... "what took you so long". Very little work at high intensities produces large and rapid improvement. Being a distance runner bringing a distance runner's mindset to this discovery, it made since to me at the time [1991] that if very little work is being done, one doesn't need much rest day to day. I thought that training days could be grouped together on back to back days followed by a rest day every 3rd - 4th day. A belief reinforced by that model containing more rest days than traditional, mileage oriented training programs.
That was faulty assumption #1. Faulty assumptions are the mother of all screw-ups. Faulty assumption #1 completed stage 1 in the two stage process of "what took you so long".
Stage 2 came when the resulting over-trained state presented itself. The term "over-training" means different things to different people. Most people in the sport define it in such a way as to relate to a running injury. That's the common way people think of it. The more common manner in which it manifests itself is in suppressing one's body from gaining fitness, thus suppressing improvements in performance level. The body enters into the physiological state where your anabolic system [a.k.a. tissue building] is suppressed to some significant degree and thus your ability to acquire training adaptations and move forward in fitness level is suppressed. This can be referred to generally as "Physiological Over-training", or being in an "over-trained state".
So stage 2 of "what took you so long" initially came in the form of a stalling-out of what had been a steady, consistent, and rapid rate of progression in fitness level and performance ability. The rate of progression in fitness level eventually progressed to zero. I failed to identify the problem as an over-trained state.
The first in what became a very long line of many assumed///guessed causes of the problem was glycogen depletion and an inadequate level of carbo consumption. So after making adjustments in the training or nutrition programs to resolve that particular assumed/guessed problem, following a period of time obviously I eventually discovered that the assumed///guessed problem wasn't the problem. So onward to more problem solving, coming up with the next assumed/guessed cause of the problem, followed by another period of time, followed by finding that the assumed///guessed problem wasn't the problem. I repeated this process for the next assumed/guessed cause, and the next, and the next, and the next.
Each took about 3 - 18 months to cycle through.
So this is the answer to the question......"What took you so long".
Wasn't until 2008 that I accepted that the workouts I designed were at an intensity and impact on the body that makes them like miniature races, and thus must be treated that way in terms of rest in between them. By this time I was deep into chronic fatigue and at the beginning of fibromyalgia. That added a couple more years on, since it took about 2 years to get out of that severely over-trained state once the necessary changes to the training program were made. That brings us toward the end of 2010.
Complicating matters, around 1993, I put out some newsletters that stated that the ETG was just about ready to begin achieving its mission statement of taking down American and World records.
Obviously...that didn't happen. Along with numerous delays in that coming to pass, were other newsletters providing projections/estimations/predictions as to when we would be ready. Around 2000, I made the decision to stop offering any more projections, etc. as to when all this would happen. With each fiddle, tweak, and overhaul of the training program I was convinced that I had successfully dealt with and solved the problem. I announced such resolutions in the ETG newsletter nearly every year between 1993 - 2000, having been thoroughly convinced that we would then move quickly towards our fitness goals. With an unfortunate frequency, I announced that I would be at such-and-such a fitness level, by such-and-such a date. A few months following each episode, I found that the fitness related problems had -not- been solved, hence there was a significant number of false alarms.
So in "what took you so long", it took about 18 years to fully develop a velocity oriented, goal pace oriented training program. A project to develop a training program that I thought would take me 1 or 2 years, took closer to 2 decades.
"There are no setbacks or side-treks, there are only experiences along the path to where you choose to go."
I did a lotta things wrong. Listed below are some of the things I did right along the way.........
1991 --- Identified the major mechanisms of performance based on previously identified adaptations to training. Began the process of inching closer to fully focusing on the Brain & Nervous System as the end all and be all of performance. Did so in a way that lead to my focusing on the 3 major Brain & Nervous System related mechanisms of performance [recruitment, recruitment rate, recruitment duration] upon which The ETG training program is now fully based.
1992 --- Identified the critical intensities-velocities necessary to most potently produce the desired adaptations to training.
1994 --- Backed up the 1992 info through learning about "gene transcription and translation"..the underlying mechanisms of inducing the major adaptations to training, This lead to the formal establishment of the concept of "All Interval Training All The Time".
1995 --- Learned to intentionally design a protocol for making "Progressions" in the durations of intervals. 1996-2000 --- Abandoned traditional concepts of "periodization".
2004 --- Formally established the concept of "All Goal Pace Training, All The Time".
2008 --- Came to the realization that in terms of impact on the body, the workouts are basically miniature races that get longer as progressions are made. Thus it is necessary to treat the workouts as races by scheduling more rest following each workout and a longer Break Period at the end of each series of workouts.
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TheETG owner and coach: Marshall Burt
You can find a full bio located on the -- ETG Club History -- page of TheETG website.
----- Austin newspaper article [March 25, 1992] about the beginning of TheETG http://www.theetgtrackclub.com/documents/1992%20article.pdf
----- Portion of an article in Runner's World UK [September 2008] http://www.theetgtrackclub.com/documents/Runner%27s%20World%20UK%20sept%202008.pdf
----- Marshall's Old Awards
----- Marshall's Old Photos
----- one of his high school teams late 1980's West Potomac high school [Alexandria, Virginia]
----- Marshall' Musings
----- Marshall's Parents.....Civil Rights movement
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Marshall Burt participates on these online forums.......
--- His facebook page.....http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1588885722&ref=profile
--- online forums at......Allan Besselink's Smart Life Project
--- online forums at......Austin Runner's Club
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Audio Interviews of Marshall Burt
--- February 16, 2012 [The Marathon]
--- September 2, 2009 [Marathon Training]
--- June 10, 2009 [The Marshall Burt Interview]
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Becoming an ETG club member
Austin, Texas.....Track & Field Lives Here!!!
Club membership is free and only ETG club members receive coaching. That coaching is also free [non-club members, please see ETG Services]
The ETG is primarily focused on intentionally and controllably moving runners fitness levels from point A to point Z -developing- them into elite level distance runners. The club also has members with personal goals well below the elite level. Current or past performance level is generally --not-- a significant criteria for club membership, and the membership application process does -not- ask for performance times, only future goals. The minimum age to be eligible for membership is 14. There is no maximum age limit or ceiling. It is preferable that ETG club members be United States citizens, also born in the United States.
If your focus is more on worshiping your fiction based limitations than on developing your science based capabilities you'd be extremely unhappy in this club.
Likewise, please note that the club name is --not-- the elite "racing" group. If your focus is mainly on racing, racing, and more racing you'd be extremely unhappy in this club. The club's focus is on development of distance running performance ability rather than the overly competitive, all-too-typically American obsession with racing people into oblivion and running people out of our sport. Our objective is to avoid living up to the reputation American coaches [especially high school and college] have among those in the sport sciences world overseas, being referred to as "the great destroyers of talent".
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A distance runner can become an ETG club member in 1 of 3 ways, since ETG membership is restricted to.........
1. Distance runners accepted through TheETG Membership Application process.
2. Distance runners actively recruited into TheETG by club owner and coach Marshall Burt.
3. Distance runners that club owner Marshall Burt coached directly or indirectly when they were in high school.
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Achieving Goals
If at first you don't succeed.....don't try, try again. Approach the achievement of goals as problem solving situations. If at first you don't succeed, figure it out and get it done.
Its best to avoid approaching the achievement of one's goals in a whilly-nilly fashion. Creating some degree of controlability is a good thing, and not something to be avoided. Much of human performance is not about finding out if you can do it, but about learning how to get it done.
Hopes and dreams are just hopes and dreams until you;
1 -- learn how to achieve them
2 -- grant yourself permission to aggressively implement what you've learned.
As you continue to acquire and apply more information, you continue to expand the area of what is possible for you to achieve.
There are no set backs or side treks, there are only experiences along the path to where you choose to go.
Goals are experiences that we would like to have. Focus on achieving the process that creates the desired experiences. Focus on task mastery, knowledge acquisition, personal improvement, and personal achievement of higher ability. Focus on improving oneself and one's processes of pursuing personal growth. Focus on process rather than outcome.
"Self-image congruence" and its more popular description known as the comfort zone , is a major issue in sport and sport psychology in this century. When the goals one sets and pursues are beyond the self-image, thus outside the upper boundary of the comfort zone, some sort of sabotage of goal achievement is inevitable.
Do the work within yourself. In the pursuit of your goals, remove all potential self-created limitations from your path. Be aggressive. Create an unstoppable juggernaut. Think bigger. Explore your ability level [and encourage others to do the same].
Implement the process of purposely programming yourself with the beliefs, philosophy, values, and self-image that you want guiding your behavior patterns and determining your quality of life and sport performance.
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Personal Power
The most powerful people in this world, are not those who have power over others, but those who have mastery over themselves. You are not your social status, your bank account, your grades, or your job title. You are, above all else.....Powerful. You are in this world;
--- to discover that
--- to grow into living it
--- to overcome the distractions from it
--- and to help others do the same.
Love is power. Self-love is the root of Personal Power. Show kindness and love to yourself and others by aggressively pursuing self-improvement as a way of life. Improving yourself provides more things about yourself for you to value and hold in high esteem.....producing a more powerful self-image and higher levels of mastery over self. Self-improvement is a process of improving one's thoughts, choices, behaviors, and actions. You can never say that you love yourself while you are unwilling or resistant to change and improve yourself.
The purpose of life is not to see how many personal problems we can choose to deny or do nothing about, or to see how many limitations we can set or accept for ourselves. The purpose of life is to grow into living your personal power. Fill your life, not with the distractions of substances, things, or shallow relationships, but with the shameless pursuit of self-change, improvement, and growth.
The true source of abundant happiness, is not outside yourself, but within. All of your possessions in this world are within you. What you....choose.....to do with them, is what life is all about. The instruction to "Preach to all nations the message of repentance for the forgiveness of sins", is an instruction of Self-Change through the conscious, intentional, and aggressive pursuit of self-improvement.
"The universal human journey is one of becoming conscious of our power, and how to use that power." [Carolyn Myss....Anatomy of The Spirit]"The personal power that comes from principle-centered living is the power of a self-aware, knowledgeable, proactive individual, unrestricted by the attitudes, behaviors, and actions of others or by many of the circumstances and environmental influences that limit other people." [Stephen Covey....7 Habits Of Highly Effective People, page 123]
"Not that I have already obtained, or am already perfected, but I pursue." [Apostle Paul....Phillipians 3:12]
Your 5 Outlets Of Power
--- What you are
--- What you do
--- What you say
--- What you give
--- What you pray
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"There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things, because the innovator has for enemies, all those who have done well under the old conditions, and luke warm defenders in those who may do well under the new."
[Machiavelli]
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"Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds"
[Albert Einstein]
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"Prosperity flows to those who can tap the genius within themselves."
[anon]
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"Nature to be commanded, must be obeyed."
[Francis Bacon]
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Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
[Albert Einstein]
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"As we learn to abide by the laws of this creation, we learn how to use those laws to our own good . As we use these talents, we learn how to work with, and eventually understand, the laws and overcome the limitations of this life."
[Betty Eadie .Embraced By The Light]
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"I don't know that there is any magic level of interest in science that people ought to have. But the more they understand, the more they will be able to control their destiny and achieve their other aims."
[Stephen Hawking]
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"As you become involved in continuing education, you increase your knowledge base and you increase your options."
[Stephen Covey]
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"Society's future depends on a citizenry that can think and reason creatively and deliberately; develop sound judgments of information, and understand and contend effectively with rapid and constant change."
[1983 National Report On Education]
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"Nothing is given automatically. Neither knowledge, nor self-confidence, nor inner-serenity, nor the right way to use your mind. Every value you need or want has to be discovered, learned, and acquired."
[Ayn Rand]
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"...what people are seeking is not the answers to problems, but the reassurance that no answers are possible. A friend of mine once said that today's attitude, paraphrasing the Bible, is:'Forgive me, Father, for I know not what I'm doing, and please don't tell me'."
[Ayn Rand]
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TheETG Charter & Bylaws
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TheETG Charter
The Elite Training Group track club uses the acronyms, ETG, and The ETG.
1 ----- The Elite Training Group track club is a sole proprietorship owned by Marshall Burt. It was created in June 1990 by Marshall Burt and first registered as a National Club with USA Track & Field in March 1996. The ETG is head-quarted in the city of Austin, in the state of Texas. The ETG is a group of professional and non-professional distance runners. The ETG logo is a trademark owned by Marshall Burt.
2 ----- The ETG Mission is to; Pursue optimal human performance in Track & Field distance running; Facilitate and proliferate the use of --the-- best applied sport sciences based training information available anywhere in the world by way of The ETG Training Packet and other ETG Services. Facilitate and proliferate the use of --the-- best applied general sciences based "Competent Self-Care" information in medicine, mental health, and parenting available anywhere in the world for the targeted purpose of contributing to the removal of large numbers of customers and/or victims of the old medicine and mental health care systems. Encourage and enhance the general public's pursuit of personal growth, self-education, and life long learning in these areas by way of The ETG Training To Live Training For Life Project Packet; Promote growth in attendance of major American Track & Field meets and promote viewership of Track & Field on television by producing fast times on U.S. soil, implementing The ETG Track & Field Promotions Project, and helping educate potential new track fans by proliferating "This Is Track & Field"; Break all World and American records at 800m, 1500m, 5000m, 10,000m, and the marathon.
3 ----- The official ETG logo is a trademark of The Elite Training Group track club.
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TheETG Bylaws
An "ETG club member" is defined as a person who has met the criteria for membership and been accepted into the club as a member by ETG club owner Marshall Burt.
1 --- The ETG track club will avoid major year to year changes to ETG race uniforms and t-shirts that impair track fan familiarity, recognizability, and stability of image.
2 --- ETG club members will avoid wearing [during races] sunglasses or other items that impair recognizability.
3 --- Promoting the sport -inside- the United States is difficult to achieve by competing -outside- the United States. We do not compete in track meets outside the United States other than World Cup, World Championships, Olympic Games, or other competitions with the U.S. national team, unless the meet is televised inside the United States.....on national television that airs between 9am and 11pm eastern time.
4 --- ETG club members will avoid competing in Track & Field and/or road running events located above 1000 feet altitude. Exceptions are as follows ----- USA Track & Field Championships -- IAAF World Track & Field Championships -- IAAF World Cup -- Olympic Games -- other competitions with the U.S. national team
5 --- ETG club members will avoid joining any athlete union beyond the scope of the USA Track & Field Athlete Advisory Committee.
6 --- ETG club members will adhere to the letter and intent of all provisions of ETG Endorsement services contracts.
7 --- ETG club members will avoid endorsement of products containing alcohol, caffeine, ephedrine, or cortisone.
8 --- ETG club members will keep to a minimum their use of agents and lawyers and put an emphasis on representing themselves in all personal endorsement contract negotiations and other personal business pursuits related to participation in the sport of Track & Field and/or road running.
9 --- ETG club members will avoid ingesting, injecting, inhaling, or applying to skin any substance banned for use in the sport of Track & Field, substances collectively referred to by ETG club owner Marshall Burt as "Performance -Retarding- Drugs".
10 --- ETG club members will avoid use of methods and practices banned for use in the sport of Track & Field. Exceptions are as follows;
...........Ingestion of normal, natural nutrition products such as milk
...........Ingestion of normal, natural Nutrition Medicine products such as PerCoBa colostrum liquid
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TheETG Human Performance Library
by Marshall Burt
The purpose of the ETG Human Performance Library is to gather research information in each major area of sport science.
In the late 1980's prior to moving to Austin, I started with just following 3 or 4 journals that were published quarterly [4 issues per year]. Reading these journals caused me to discover how far behind I was both in knowledge, and in my belief system on certain subject matters. After moving to Austin, I was able to dramatically expand the list journals I followed [moving from 4, up to 60], in having access to 4 libraries on the UT campus.
Around 1991, I started reading back issues of all the journals on my list, starting with 1987 issues. I did so because I wanted to get a 5 year review of the research, which would help me get caught up. Due to the number of journals on my list, this reading project took 2 years to complete, spending from 2 - 6 hours per day in the libraries on the UT campus. Today the ETG Human Performance library consists of approximately 60 research journals across 8-10 doctoral disciplines.
The ETG Human Performance Library;
Sport Science Of [Psychophysiology & Mind-Body Medicine] ----------
Brain Research ------ Brain Research Reviews ------ Brain Research Bulletin ------ Brain, Behavior, & Immunity ------ Nature Medicine ------ Psychosomatic Medicine ------Psycho-neuro Endocrinology ------ Immunology ------ The Lancet ------ Journal of the American Medical Association ------ New England Journal of Medicine ------ Journal of National Institutes of Health
Research Sport Science Of [Sport & Social Psychology] ----------
Journal of Applied Communication Research ------ International Journal of Sport Psychology ------ Journal of Sport Behavior ------ Journal of Sport & Social Issues ------ Journal of Exercise and Sport Psychology ------ Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy ------ Journal of Sex Research ------ Journal of Applied Sport Psychology ------ The Sport Psychologist ------ Journal of Non Verbal Behavior
Sport Science Of [Sport Business, Marketing, Promotions] ----------
Journal of Advertising ------ Journal of Advertising Research ------ Journal of Consumer Marketing ------ Journal of Services Marketing ------ Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media ------ Journal of Organizational Behavior ------ Journal of Sport Management ------ Sports Marketing ------ Sports Marketing Quarterly
Sport Science Of [Sport Law] ----------
Marquette Journal of Sport Law ------ Seton Hall Journal of Sport Law ------ Sports Lawyer Journal ------ University of Miami Entertainment & Sports Law Review ------ Villanova Sports & Entertainment Law Journal ------ Virginia Journal Of Sports And The Law ------ Texas Bar Journal ------ State Bar of Texas Entertainment and Sports Law Journal ------ Entertainment & Sports Lawyer
Sport Science Of [Sport Nutrtion] ----------
Nutrition Reviews ------ Journal of Applied Nutrition ------ Journal of American College of Nutrition ------ American Journal of Clinical Nutrition ------ Journal of Optimal Nutrition ------ International Journal of Sport Nutrition ------
Sport Science Of [Sports Medicine & Sports Physical Therapy] ----------
American Journal of Sports Medicine ------ Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy ------ Journal of Sport Rehabilitation
Sport Science Of [Running Biomechanics] ----------
Journal of Applied Biomechanics ------ Sports Biomechanics
Sport Science Of [Sport Physiology] ----------
American Journal of Physiology ------ Journal of Applied Physiology ------ European Journal of Applied Physiology & Occupational Therapy ------ Sports Medicine -----Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport ------ Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise ------ International Journal of Sports Medicine ------ Journal of Sports Medicine & Physical Fitness ------ Journal of Sport Sciences ------ Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research ------ Canadian Journal of Applied Physiology ------ British Journal of Sports Medicine ------ Exercise & Sport Sciences Reviews ------ Sport Science Exchange ------Scandinavian Journal of Sport Sciences ------ Australian Journal of Science & Medicine in Sport ------ European Journal Of Sport Science
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TheETG Book, Movie, Video List
The items on the ETG Book, Movie, and Video list are a part of our Human Psychology & Cerebral Training Program. Anyone seeking to enter the club by way of TheETG Membership Application process is required to demonstrate some degree of applied knowledge of each item on these lists.
----- ETG Book List -----
1-- What To Say When You Talk To Yourself ---- [Shad Helmstetter]
2-- Choices ----- [Shad Helmstetter]
3-- 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People ---- [Stephen Covey]
4-- Life Strategies ----- [Phil McGraw]
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----- ETG Movie List -----
1-- The Breakfast Club
2-- Dead Poets Society
3-- Good Will Hunting
4-- The Secret
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----- ETG Video List -----
1-- Bradshaw On Homecoming ----- http://www.johnbradshaw.com/bradshawonhomecomingreclaimingand.aspx
2-- Kung Fu (1970's) ----- [Columbia House Video Library&TV Greats section][http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0009K7R02/continguidetothe]
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TheETG Elite Coaching Support Group
[by ETG club owner Marshall Burt]
By the late 1980s, I was well convinced that world records were no where near the limits of human performance. I noticed a number of people setting records or winning medals at major championships, or performing at very high levels after down-time forced by illness or injury. Blind assertions by coaches, fans, and media that these people were training optimally and that their records could never be broken by the people that set them or anybody else seemed illogical to me. It soon became plain to me that neither athletes or coaches possessed much knowledge of human cellular function, and thus neither training or performance levels could be assumed to be either optimal or at the limits of human ability.
Following a one week trip to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs in 1988 where I attended the USA Track & Field's Level II coaching education certificate course, I wrote a letter to all of the members of the USATF coaching education committee. The letter suggested that they focus on identifying the underlying mechanisms of performance of each track and field event, and then use that information to develop training programs to apply and teach. Only one person wrote back, basically saying it was a great idea........somebody ought to do it. It seemed plain that they weren't intending to be the people to do it, so I decided at that time to begin pursing it on my own. The result of that effort is The ETG Training Packet.
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Around 1989, I began developing the "Elite Coaching Support Group" which consists of several researchers and clinicians [Jack Wilmore PhD, Ed Coyle PhD., Randa Ryan PhD, John Ivy PhD, Larry Abraham PhD, Marsha Beckermann R.D, Allan Besselink P.T. Dip.MDT, Dave Martin Ph.D, Ellen deJong PT] who's work I believed would be the most helpful to me in identifying the underlying physiological mechanisms of performance, injury prevention, etc. I chose people who's names I had come across fairly often while reading research, a few people who I knew personally and knew their knowledge would be necessary to acquire, and I chose researchers whose work was well beyond the norm in the area of sport sciences. Access to information is the foundation upon which the club and all its training programs have been built. It is and will always be the underlying mechanism of our success in every aspect of our lives and sport performance.
There are people out there who are more than just "helpful", in your knowledge acquisition. One major way to increase your access to information is to identify and locate some of those people. Around 1989, I began developing an "Elite Coaching Support Group" for myself, which consists of several researchers and clinicians whose work I believed would be the most helpful to me in identifying the underlying physiological mechanisms of performance in running, injury prevention, etc. I chose people;
--- (1) whose names I had come across fairly often while reading research
--- (2) a few people who I knew personally and knew their knowledge would be necessary to acquire
--- (3) and I chose researchers whose work was well beyond the norm in the area of sport sciences.
Several members of the University of Texas Women's Athletics Performance Team [during 1980's/90's] formed by Randa Ryan PhD. have been a part of the group. At University Of Texas; Jack Wilmore PhD, Ed Coyle PhD., Randa Ryan PhD, John Ivy PhD, Larry Abraham PhD, Marsha Beckermann R.D.
Others who were involved;
--- Allan Besselink P.T. Dip.MDT, Austin Tx.
--- Dave Martin Ph.D Georgia State University
--- Ellen deJong PT, Seaside Physical Therapy, Kitty Hawk, North Carolina [I worked with Ellen in 1988 - 1990 at Virginia Sportsmedicine Institute, Arlington Virginia]
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All members of our ETG Elite Coaching Support Group have contributed to the development and future success of the Elite Training Group. Access to information is the foundation upon which the club and all its training programs have been built.....These people have collectively provided that access!
Jack Wilmore....Ph.D. Texas A&M University [prof. emeritus]Prior to moving to Texas A&M, Dr Wilmore was at Texas. Contributed immediately when Marshall moved to Austin, allowing me to spend several hours a day with he and his students in his laboratory. This dramatically accelerated Marshall's learning the basic information and terminology required to begin the process of developing a science based training program. Answered a large number of questions and provided information on Vo2 max, lactate threshold, and heat acclimation Most importantly ..he answered a question early on, related to sprint performance and creatine phosphate that eventually also helped lead to Marshall's focus on the 3 major mechanisms of performance [recruitment, recruitment rate, recruitment duration] which our training program is now based.
Ed Coyle....Ph.D. University Of Texas at Austin Contributed by allowing Marshall to spend a massive number of hours over the span of several years with he and his students in the human performance laboratory. Answered a large number of questions, and provided huge volumes of information on training the development of mitochondria, training in the heat, fat metabolism, and muscle fiber recruitment. His information is responsible for the development of a large portion of our training program.
Randa Ryan....Ph.D. University Of Texas at Austin Contributed through her Masters degree thesis, which was perhaps the single greatest influence on the direction of the development of the ETG training program. Her work along with Ed Coyles influence, got Marshall focused on mitochondrial development, the recruitment duration portion of the major mechanisms of performance. She also answered questions during her PhD work which helped in the development of our Sport Psychology protocols.
John Ivy....Ph.D. University Of Texas at Austin Contributed through his and his students massive volume of work during the 1990s on glucose transporters and glycogen storage. The information Marshall gained from his work and his answers to questions, combined with info from David Martin, lead to our understanding of the physiological effect of "long runs" in a training program, which in turn lead to the development of significant portions of the ETG training program.
Dave Martin....Ph.D., Georgia State University [prof. emeritus] Contributed by providing answers to Marshall's questions about glycogen storage that lead to a major breakthrough in the area of the "mileage" question in our program. His help lead to Marshall's understanding of the physiological effect of "long runs" in a training program, which in turn lead to the development of significant portions of our training program.
Larry Abraham....Ph.D. University Of Texas at Austin Contributed through his research work with rehab patients. He also answered several questions Marshall had that lead directly to his understanding of the nervous system in a way that helped lead to my focusing on the 3 major, nervous system related, mechanisms of performance [recruitment, recruitment rate, recruitment duration] which our training program is now based.
Ellen deJong....P.T.,Seaside Physical Therapy, Kitty Hawk, North Carolina Contributed extensively to our strength training, injury rehab and prevention areas of our training program by educating me in the area of sports physical therapy during an informal internship Marshall designed for himself at the Virginia Sportsmedicine Institute in Arlington, Virginia in the late 1980s. Ellen was one of (9) physical therapists and (4) orthopedic surgeons at the clinic at that time. Marshall spent most of my educational time their, learning from her.
Allan Besselink....P.T. Dip.MDT, Smart Life Project, Austin Texas Contributes as the club's Physical Therapist. Has provided information that lead to the design of the club's injury prevention and rehab protocols.
Marsha Beckermann......University Of Texas at Austin Contributes as the club's Sport Nutritionist. Has provided information and evaluations that lead to the design of the club's sport nutrition protocols, one of the foundations of our training system. Provides an abundance of information from her very unique combination of being a dietitian who lives on a farm, who managed one of the country's largest collegiate athletic dinning facilities. Provides knowledge on food production, processing, preparation, and consumption. The "Food Coach" for the University of Texas Athletics programs and a sport nutrition consultant for numerous professional and amateur athletes across many sports from NFL football players to world class track & field athletes.
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The ETG encourages you to utilize the knowledge and "self-care" educational approach of our Sport Nutritionist and Physio Therapist.
Marsha Beckermann [ETG Sport Nutritionist]
Marsha has been the ETG Sports Nutritionist since 1992. She had been a Registered Dietitian who served as the "Food Coach" for the University of Texas Athletics programs for about 15 years. Marsha has been a sport nutrition consultant for numerous professional and amateur athletes across many sports from NFL football players to world class track & field athletes. She is also a lecturer for sport sciences symposiums and local organizations. Marsha has the combination of being a dietitian --- who lives on a farm --- who managed one of the country's largest collegiate athletic dinning facilities for many years, providing her a unique perspective on issues related to food production, processing, preparation, and consumption.
email address: food.coach@sbcglobal.net
Interview Marsha did for a talkRadio show [November 2009]. Marsha's interview on the show
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Allan Besselink [ETG Physio Therapist]
Allan is a disruptive innovator. He transforms his patients, physical therapy students, interns, refering doctors, and injured athletes into knowledgeable "self-care" practitioners and advocates. He turns the average joe and the world ranked elite runner into "Competent Self-Care" providers. In the classroom and in the formal professional conference setting, his humor and stand-up comic style of presentation educates his audience while it disarms the defenders of the status quo.
Allan has been the ETG Physio Therapist since 1992 and is among the top Physical Therapists in the world. Born and raised in Brockville, Ontario, Canada, he moved to Austin, Texas in 1990 and is a U.S. resident. Allan has served as a team physical therapist with the United States Track and Field team at the World Cup Of Track & Field, World Championship for Half-Marathon, and the World Cup Race-Walk. He has also served on the event staff for the Olympic Games, U.S. Olympic Trials, USA Track and Field Championships, and the World Junior Track and Field Championships.
Allan has the -Diploma- in Mechanical Diagnosis and Therapy from the McKenzie Institute International and is one of approximately 300 Physical Therapists, Doctors, and Chiropractors in the ---world--- to attain this high level of training.Allan has also worked as an instructor in the Physical Therapy program at Texas State University, and as an Assistant Professor in the Physical Therapy Aide program at Austin Community College.
Allan owns a sport science based Physical Therapy and coaching business called, Smart Life Project. Smart Life Project offers services providing "Sports Science solutions for Training, Rehab, and Life". He is a runner and triathlete. He is also a coach to numerous runners and triathletes through his Run Smart program, including having coached one of Canada's top professional triathletes to a finish in the top 20 at the Ironman World Championships, and a Canadian masters runner Rita Quibell to the 2011 Masters World Championship titles at 1500m & 800m [55 - 59 age group].
Allan has served on the editorial board for the publication,"Spine Universe"
----- Allan wrote the book titled.....""RunSmart: A Comprehensive Approach To Pain Free Running".
----- Allan hosts his own BlogTalkRadio show. The show is 30 minutes of discussion and call-ins as well. The blog site for the show is http://www.blogtalkradio.com/abesselink
An extensive on camera interview [2009] of Allan Besselink from a show called "The Authors", done at his book signing in Canada [Leeds County Books].
--- A 2011 audio interview with Allan Besselink by PT Talker Business News & Ideas For Therapists
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Meeting ETG Sport Nutritionist, Marsha Beckermann [by Marshall Burt]
One of my numerous part-time jobs within my first few months in Austin, was working at a dining hall on the Univ of Texas campus that was for athletes only. At the time, Marsha was the assistant manager. I saw an ad for a job there and applied, so I first met Marsha during the interview. Aside from her managerial work, she also worked as a nutrition consultant to the athletes across all sports. Marsha lived [still does] on a farm, so her extensive knowledge of all things food, her hardcore Texan common sense, and her years of working with high level athletes in a setting that fed everyday, 300 at lunch and about 200 at dinner time, naturally led to lengthy conversations about the science of Sport Nutrition. That obviously led to her becoming the ETG Sport Nutritionist.
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Meeting ETG Physio Therapist, Allan Besselink [by Marshall Burt]
I first met Allan sometime in late 1991 or early 1992. Paul Carrozza [owner of RunTex, Austin's globally known running store] had put together a series of seminars for me to give to some of the local, relatively high level runners, coaches, medical and science people who lived in Austin at the time. He arranged for about 10 - 15 people to come. One of the people he invited was Allan Besselink. Starting about a week later, every Sunday for about 6 years we got together at his place for dinner which included talking physical therapy, talking track and field training, and watching The Simpsons and Married With Children. During those years he gave his couch, a pillow and a blanket on more than one occasion on short notice [usually 2 minutes or less] for several ETG athletes when they came to town. Allan is from the small town of Brockville in the province of Ontario, Canada, located just north of New York state, along the St. Lawrence river that separates Canada from the United States. He left Canada for Austin [he has U.S. residency], wanting to get into the live music scene [he plays guitar and has written music]. Through the decade of the 1990's, for 8 of the 10 years, he traveled with me to the annual meeting of USA Track & Field, sitting through 2 - 3 days of meetings from early in the morning to late at night. Allan is heavily science based in his practice which led to him becoming the ETG Physical Therapist.
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TheETG Paper Trail
Part of the mission of the Elite Training Group is to proliferate the application of Sport Sciences based training programs. Toward that end, listed below is the early days paper trail........
----- Athletics Science Bulletin -- produced by USA Track & Field Development Project
www.track-tech.com/articles.htmVolume 1 #4...October 1989
-Theoretical Applications Of Exercise Physiology to Distance Running & Distance Events Training
- Distance Runner Sport Psychology
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----- Athletics Science Bulletin -- produced by USA Track & Field Development Project
www.track-tech.com/articles.htmVolume 2 #2...February 1990
- Distance Runner Sport Nutrition
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----- Track & Field Quarterly Review -- produced by NCAA Track & Field Coaches Association
Volume 90 #2....Summer 1990
- Distance Runner Training & Performance
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----- Athletics Science Bulletin -- produced by USA Track & Field Development Project
www.track-tech.com/articles.htmVolume 4 #4....October/November 1992
- Distance Training
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----- Texas Athlete
September 1993....page 12 - 13
--Finding The Right Training To Improve Leg Speed, Endurance, And Acceleration
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----- Track Coach -- produced by the United States Track & Field Coaches Association
[formerly "Track Technique" volume 133, Fall 1995........"All Interval Training All The Time"
can page down to Track Coach 133 - Fall 1995
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----- Texas Athlete
March 1996...page 20 - 23
-- Mechanisms Of The "Overuse" Injury In Running
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----- Texas Athlete
July 1996...page 12 - 13
--Developing A Progression For Elite Runners
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----- 45 minute audio of....."The Marshall Burt Interview" by Allan Besselink [from June 9, 2009]
----- 50 minute audio of the "Marathon Training interview" by Allan Besselink [from September 1, 2009]
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ETG: The Business
---The ETG Track & Field Promotions Project
---Free t-shirt [the design for track & field promotions t-shirts The ETG will give out for free]
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TheETG Services
Access to information and the ability to apply it is the major mechanism of success in human performance in long term health, wellness, and in sport. As we continue to acquire and apply more information we continue to expand the area of what is possible for us to achieve. TheETG proliferates information by way of 3 services to the public, and to the Track & Field, Cross-Country, and Road Running Community.
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TheETG Offers 3 Services............------- TheETG advice service
one [1] calendar month [or the remaining days in the current month] = $40
Use your email to get advice from TheETG coach Marshall Burt. Very helpful to anyone looking for the best answers to questions. You don't have to use the entire calendar month but its there if you need it. The ETG advice service facilitates and proliferates the use of --the-- best training information available anywhere in the world. It also facilitates and proliferates the use of --the-- best applied general sciences based "Competent Self-Care" information in medicine, mental health, and parenting available anywhere in the world for the targeted purpose of contributing to the removal of large numbers of customers and/or victims of the old medicine and mental health care systems.
---- Advice via email.....please contact ---advice@theetgtrackclub.com with your question[s], click on "Buy Now" to make payment and please make mention of it in your email. Thanks!!!
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------- TheETG speaker-lecturer service
in Austin = $Free
outside Austin = $1500
ETG club owner Marshall Burt for your event. Your event information will be posted on the Special Events page of the ETG website. The flat fee includes travel, lodging, etc. [For all events outside the United States, this service can only be offered by way of video link that you arrange to take place at a Meeting Center in Austin.]
Contact --- speaker@theetgtrackclub.com to set up a date for your event. After a date is set please return here and click below on "Buy Now" to make payment. Thank you!!!
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------- TheETG Packets = $free [read online or print]
TheETG Training Packet.........purpose is to provide --the-- best applied sport sciences based training information available anywhere the world in our sport.
TheETG Training To Live Training For Life Project Packet .........purpose is to facilitate and proliferate the use of evidence based "Competent Self-Care" in medicine, mental health, and parenting in the United States and contribute to the removal of large numbers of customers and/or victims from the old medicine and mental health care systems. The objective is to encourage and enhance the general public's pursuit of personal growth, self-education, and life long learning in these areas.
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TheETG Offers Services To Track & Field Meet DirectorsTheETG in your track meet
inside United States = $free
This Track Meet promotions service is intended to be primarily for Track Meets that are conducted on a 2 - 4 hour format. We offer promotions help by.....
1 --- placing your meet on the ETG Annual Track Meet Schedule page of TheETG website [The purpose of creating an ETG Annual Track Meet Schedule is to provide a set, stable, and predictable schedule that track & field fans and media can follow from one year to the next. It creates some degree of stability in what has been a relatively unstable sport. It helps to address the issue of stability in a sport where traditionally athletes have tended to sabotage their recognizability and "follow-ability" by wearing sunglasses, ever-changing uniforms and hair styles, and following ever-changing track meet schedules]
2 --- showing up on site at TV news stations in your media market during the week leading up to the meet, speaking with the local sports anchors
3 --- showing up on site at your city's local newspaper during the week leading up to the meet, speaking with the local sports writers.
"TheETG in your track meet" service will eventually include ads in your media market on radio and television [during the local evening news shows] at our expense, about 1 - 2 weeks prior to the week leading up to the meet.
Please note that promoting the sport -inside- the United States is difficult to achieve by competing -outside- the United States. We have an ETG club bylaw.....we do not compete in track meets outside the United States other than World Cup, World Championships, Olympic Games, or other competitions with the U.S. national team unless the meet is televised inside the United States.....on national television that airs between 9am and 11pm eastern time[our flat fee to participate in track meets that meet that criteria is $2 million]
Contact --- etgservices@theetgtrackclub.com
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TheETG Offers Business & Product Endorsement ServicesThe ETG endorsement
Each year of services = $2 million
The ETG is one of the most science oriented track clubs in the world, and as such we are proud to endorse products, services, and businesses that are consistent with our applied human performance information or our health sciences information. To those companies we provide use of limited publicity rights. The flat fee includes.......use of ETG logo, club name, and names of ETG club members. Companies can use a broader set of publicity rights through a separate agreement and fee to be determined between the company and the individual ETG club member[s] they wish to utilize in that manner.
Contact --- etgservices@theetgtrackclub.com
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Consider Joining These Track & Field Organizations
Track & Field Writers Of America
The Track & Field Writers Of America [TAFWA] has more than 300 members including most of the top track and field journalists, statisticians, and photographers in the United States and around the world.
TAFWA is....."dedicated to improving press operations at track meets and in making life easier for writers, photographers, and statisticians". Along with other membership benefits, you'll receive a bi-monthly newsletter containing published track and field stories from around the U.S., as well as access to the TAFWA website.
They welcome you to join.
email --- TAFWA@aol.com
website --- http://www.tafwa.org.
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United States Track & Field and Cross-Country Coaches Association
For all coaching related issues, as well as coaches rankings of collegiate track and cross-country programs. Serves as the official congregation of all track & field and cross-country coaches in the United States.
website --- USTFCCCA
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World & American Records Set By ETG Club Members
World Records --- Set By ETG Club Members
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American Records
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***Masters*** World Records --- Set By ETG Club Members
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***Masters*** American Records --- Set By ETG Club Members
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TheETG Position Statements
ETG Position Statement:
Critical Thinking.
All year around the evening news tells us about a lack thereof being taught to kids in school. Few people in our country are aware that the teachers never had it taught to them. The scientist that lives down the street doesn't engage in it. The doctor who's office you're sitting in doesn't use it. The cancer research you're running 5k's to fund doesn't apply it. The physical therapist hooking up your leg to the electric stimulation machine doesn't engage in it. The small business that just went out of business never heard of it. The surgeon about to cut you open wasn't taught it.
Critical thinking consists of 2 main required actions;
1 --- always think and reason in terms of underlying mechanisms of how something works
2 --- respond to any conclusion [especially your own] with the question......why is that.
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Statement = X doesn't happen
Non critical thinking = ok, I guess that's the way it is.
Critical Thinking = if X doesn't happen, why is that, what determines, controls, and produces that outcome
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Data-less conclusions founded upon faulty assumptions lead to the mother of all screw ups in the creating of human belief systems that quickly get set in stone.
I can flip the light switch on the wall but the light -may- stay on.
I can cut off the electricity to the light bulb and the light -will- go off.
Addressing the underlying mechanisms of an issue is among the outcomes produced by critical thinking.
Whether you're a track coach, a track athlete, or a track fan, in the current era in which we live, an era of constant and rapid change in areas of science and knowledge, all of the above will eventually apply to you, your perceptions of reality, and your ability to see things as they are rather than how you or others assume them to be.
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ETG Position Statement:
Coaching....Go hard or go home
Its sad watching people get overly excited about American distance runners progressing to or slightly past performance levels today where previous Americans were 15 - 25 years ago.
Talk about the soft bigotry of low expectations. The reality is that if some of our most successful coaches were execs in the computer industry they'd be collecting unemployment checks. Companies inside the computer industry compete with one another. They climb all over each other to be the ones that innovate the best, are the most aggressive in research and development [R & D], and out-do everyone else in taking risks in software and hardware design that pay off.
We need this mentality in distance events coaching in the United States.
We need coaches inside the American distance running industry to stop trying to see how many of us can do things in the most traditional ways possible. We need to stop imitating each other and "the Kenyans".
American distance event coaches need to start competing with one another to be the ones that innovate the best, are the most aggressive in research and development[R & D], and out-do everyone else in taking risks in training program design that pay off.
We need to approach coaching quite a bit less like medical doctors with a guaranteed customer base, and far more like a business that has to compete in order to survive. Lets start being less aggressive at how much we have our athletes race, and more aggressive at how well we have our athletes train.
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ETG Position Statement:
Competition among Track & Field TV Commentators in the United States
Track & Field in the United States fell into oblivion in the 1970's as the NFL, NBA, and MLB discovered sport promotions and sport marketing while we missed that boat and had the amateurism rules of the Olympics hanging like a ball and chain around our neck. We have over the last few years regained enough of our footing such that its now time for us to begin asserting greater influence and control over how our meets are presented on TV in the United States. The objective in that area is improvement in the TV broadcasts of our track meets in the United States.
To get that, we first need to see competition among the commentators on TV broadcasts of track meets in the United States.
For the past 10 - 20 years with few exceptions, regardless of what channel you turn on to watch a track meet or road race you've pretty much seen the same 3 - 5 commentators. There has been little or no competition in that area. They don't have to compete with people from Europe or Asia, and the number of people in the U.S. looking to get on air for track meets is highly limited.
As a sport we need to grow, encourage, and cultivate a much larger pool of people. We need commentators that can add ever increasing levels of depth to the broadcasts of our track meets. Commentators that can create a model for others to aspire to. In many business sectors competition drives improved performance of the participants. The broadcasts of track meets is not immune to that. We need competition to drive improvement.
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ETG Position Statement:
Optimal Performance In Distance Running Events
Optimal running performance.......
---Its not about "its genetic"
---Its not about out-dated coaching methods based on "years of experience"
---Its not about altitude, mileage, steroids, or red blood cells.
It is about training, and knowledge of how to train.
It is perhaps better to place oneself on the front-end of change, rather than on the wrong side of history.
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ETG Position Statement:
Be Careful
[by Marshall Burt]
Distance event training tends to be a minefield of physiological myths, wives tales, and aggressively defended dogma, much of which one gets indoctrinated into believing early on.
An unfortunate behavioral phenomenon related to human performance in sport is the manner that coaches and athletes tend to use their perceived "success" like jet fuel being poured on the raging forest fire of their training dogma, deeply entrenched, aggressively defended belief systems. The problem is that "success" is a relative term, all but completely limited by the time period in history that you're talking about. World record holders have enjoyed much "success". But the world record for the mile when I was in high school is today a few seconds faster than a split in route to a 2 mile distance. The world record for 100 meters when I was in high school, if run today in the semi-final at a World Championship meet, would -not- automatically guarantee advancement to the final. The world record for the marathon when I was in high school, is today a time that can't win most of the major marathons on the planet, and for some races would be a half mile or more behind the 2nd or 3rd place finisher.
Given this situation, a training program that creates "success" is one that by definition, produces progressive increases in fitness and thus performance levels over time. Where the limit on performance is set by things other than the design of the training program. Something few if any training programs in our sport currently have "success" in doing, even for coaches and athletes who today are deemed to be the most successful.
The take-home message perhaps being....."be careful with what you believe, and be careful with that which you give a stronghold in your mind".
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ETG Position Statement:
Training Program Basics
The 2 things every run training program should have in common:
1 --- The training program must be designed in a way that allows the runner's body to stay in an anabolic state. Failure in that area will screw-up the best laid plans.
2 --- There must be a constant progression in the training stimuli over the long term
If you get those 2 things right, fitness level will move forward. The only area of argument after that is solely about time course. Meaning, different training programs, philosophies, and belief systems will produce different rates and magnitudes of improvement. Thus we can debate, argue, and fight about what training stimuli are the most effective.
Stay Anabolic.......
As with any training program, its helpful if one's body can stay in an anabolic state such that it can adapt to one's training, thus moving forward in fitness, leading to increases in performance level.
In human physiology, the term over-training does -not- always refer to "injury", but rather the physiological state where your anabolic system is suppressed to some significant degree and thus your ability to adapt to your training and move forward in fitness level and performance level is suppressed.
The training program must be designed in a way that allows the runner's body to stay in an anabolic state over time.
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"Exercise bouts that maximize anabolic hormonal response and/or minimize the catabolic hormonal response promote greater long-term adaptations....."
"Similarly, exercise bouts that limit the anabolic hormonal response and/or exacerbate the catabolic hormonal response suppress adaptations......"
D.A.Judelson, et al --- Effect of hydration state on resistance exercise-induced endocrine markers of anabolism, catabolism, and metabolism --- Journal Of Applied Physiology.....Volume 105 #3....September 2008....page 815 - 824
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ETG Position Statement:
Training Fast --vs-- Overtraining
When training at fast paces and reaching a state of physiological over-training, there are 2 primary conclusions that one can reach as to the cause of that situation;
1. training at too fast of a pace
2. having too high of a rate of progression either in getting to that fast pace or in increasing the duration of running at that fast pace
Many if not most American distance runners and coaches conclude that training at too fast of a pace is the accurate conclusion.
Hopefully at some point in our reasoning we will all be willing to consider that it is not the fast pace training itself, but the rate of progression to it or the rate of progression to longer duration running at that fast pace, that is the culprit in producing a state of physiological over-training.
And obviously, an aiding culprit can be the number of days rest between such workouts, also known as "the accumulation of fatigue".
There are consequences to whether or not one "gets it right" in thinking one's way through this subject matter. Of the 2 primary conclusions, coming to one may potentially improve your chances of reaching a certain level of performance in our sport. The other may potentially all but guarantee you never get there.
Whether your main event is the shot put or the marathon, we live in a velocity oriented sport.
If you hope to optimize your level of success in it either as a coach or athlete, at some point you'll have to design a program consisting of fast training. Your main challenge in doing so will be to design something that does -not- produce a state of physiological over-training.
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ETG Position Statement:
Solutions For "Intensity Induced Over-training"
A lot of people claim that a velocity oriented training program will cause over-training leading to injury.
That claim is partially correct!!!
It will lead to an over-trained state if approached in a whilly--nilly fashion. Rather than giving up on it on the front end, it makes some degree of sense to work the problem with the objective of finding an adequate solution.
Injury occurs when the strength of one's tissues is insufficient to handle one's training loads, and when the rate of application of the training loads exceeds the rate of adaptation of the body. One can rather easily design protocols to address those 2 major mechanisms of injury.
That leaves us with only the more broad aspect of over-training to deal with, the one that primarily involves the movement of the body out of an anabolic [tissue and fitness building] state. Going into this type of over-trained state insures that movement in fitness level will stall, stop, or reverse. That is an incredibly easy situation to get into when following a velocity oriented training program. It may take one several weeks to a few months to notice that one's fitness level isn't moving at the rate that it should, or that it has stopped moving, or reversed.
But again, that doesn't mean that the solution is to abandon such a program. It means one should work the problem. Go into problem solving mode and stick with it until one can design a training program with the necessary protocols in place to get the benefits of a velocity oriented program without the over-training downside.
It is possible to do. It can be done by designing protocols that limit the training volume of each individual workout in the training program to something one's body can adapt to, and by providing sufficient rest time between one workout and the next to prevent the accumulation of fatigue. One can also place limits on the training velocity itself by setting it beyond one's current fitness level but not --well beyond-- it. And in an interval training approach, one can place limits on the progressions in duration of the intervals, keeping them short as to avoid adding too high of a training load too quickly, and one can limit the number of interval repetitions in a given workout, which also restricts the training load.
There are a number of ways of achieving this. One need only pursue them. It need not take 13 - 15 years to get things figured out as it did with the ETG training program. A road map of the pot holes and dead-end streets has been provided which can dramatically facilitate the problem solving process [see the article on the Club History page of the ETG website titled "What Took You So Long"].
The pay off for investing oneself into the problem solving task stands to be rather substantial during this era of volume oriented training where the overwhelming majority of people are highly resistant to change. Any training program that produces greater and faster results than the norm will put one at a substantial advantage, as we'll all see over the next couple years.
Velocity oriented training is where the future of many sports are, particularly sports that involve running, swimming, cycling, and sprinting.
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ETG Position Statement:
The Most Fit At Velocities Trained On Most
Your highest level of fitness will be at the paces upon which you do the most training. If you're following a mileage [volume] oriented training program, add up your "easy days", "recovery days", "morning runs", and long runs.
If most of your training is at 9:00 - 10:00 per mile pace, that is where you will be the most fit.
If most of your training is at 8:00 - 9:00 per mile pace, that is where you will be the most fit.
If most of your training is at 7:00 - 8:00 per mile pace, that is where you will be the most fit.
If most of your training is at 6:00 - 7:00 per mile pace, that is where you will be the most fit.
If most of your training is at 5:00 - 6:00 per mile pace, that is where you will be the most fit.
If most of your training is at 4:20 - 5:00 per mile pace, that is where you will be the most fit.
Your highest level of fitness will be at the paces upon which you do the most training.If most of your training is at 6:00 - 7:00 per mile pace, that is where you will be the most fit.
If most of your training is at 5:00 - 6:00 per mile pace, that is where you will be the most fit.
If most of your training is at 4:30 - 5:00 per mile pace, that is where you will be the most fit.
If most of your training is at 4:10 - 4:30 per mile pace, that is where you will be the most fit.
If most of your training is at 3:50 - 4:10 per mile pace, that is where you will be the most fit.
If most of your training is at 3:30 - 4:00 per mile pace, that is where you will be the most fit.
The Reality As Long As You Live In This World ------ If you abandon the mileage [volume] oriented training program, by deleting the workouts that produce most of the mileage, your "easy days", "recovery days", "morning runs", and long runs.....you can more easily train on faster paces without over-training.
Your highest level of fitness will be at those faster paces, because your highest level of fitness will be at the paces upon which you do the most training.
In a velocity oriented training program you can do this intentionally, on purpose. In a mileage oriented training program, this is often achieved by accident because.....
1. the runner trained faster on their "easy days", "recovery days", "morning runs", and long runs than he/she was supposed to, particularly runners who train in groups, and somebody "feels good" that day and takes off.
2. the runner trained in a group where the majority were much faster runners than he/she was [similar to what happens when one goes from middle school to high school, or from high school to college].
When The Training Gets Faster The Runner Gets Faster------ When the training gets faster, either intentionally--on purpose or by accident, the runner gets faster.
The easiest way to do it intentionally, on purpose, is via a velocity oriented training program.
The Reality ------ A training program that allows you to stay in an anabolic state [avoids the over-trained state] and train on paces that are fast relative to the performance levels in your segment of the sport [ie. high school, college, or age group] or in the sport as a whole......is a training program that will get you fit at those paces, because your highest level of fitness will be at the paces upon which you do the most training.
This is where the sport is headed!!!
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ETG Position Statement:
"Progressions" In Training Stimuli [ie. training velocity]
It would appear that the primary downfall, not of unsuccessful training programs, but of highly successful ones [a relative term in today's changing world], is the lack of the intentional inclusion of protocols for progressions in training stimuli. One can see this training principle [Progression] going poorly addressed not only in sport training, but in orthopedic rehab clinics, cardiac rehab, in preventive medicine, etc, etc.
Using track & field middle distances [ie. mile, 1500m] as a sport example, one can notice that as top athletes approach the world record, and particularly after they set one, they generally tend to stop training at higher velocities. After setting a record, each year afterward they announce their intentions of setting a new record. After a few years go by without a new record set, they state their intention to move up to a longer race distance and/or make a comment about their age or aging. Sometime later, they retire from the sport. How many times and how many athletes have we seen do this since the 1970's.
To be fair, some went down the path of......."if I ran this fast on 40 miles per week, 100 miles per week will do so much better". Their training programs failed to accurately account for and address the intensity vs. volume issue. The injury issues and lack of anabolic status in their ability to adapt to the training stalled or stopped their progress, and they eventually got frustrated and quit.
Having included that crowd, getting back to the main issue........they may be unaware that what got them to such a high level was the gradual increase in training stimuli, the increase in training velocity as their fitness level progressed. They didn't stop that. Not until they reached the world record, then suddenly the brakes were applied. The inching forward of records causes people to assume that the micro-increments in which world records move forward is an artifact of human physiology rather than a consequence of training program design [ie the lack of progressions of training stimuli].
No progressions in training stimuli produces no progression in fitness and performance level.
No increase in training velocity = no increase in racing velocity.
The principle of Progression in training stimuli [training velocity] can be seen pretty clearly by looking at the U.S. top 10 fastest athletes list for track & field events at the end of each year. Using the men's 800m event as an example, one can notice that the same or similar times are run from one year to the next at the number 10 position. Put another way, if you want to finish a track season among the 10 fastest Americans at 800m, then run about 1:46. If you run 1:46, chances are enormously high that you'll finish the season among the top 10.
In our sport, we tend to attribute this phenomena to something other than intentionally making "Progressions" in the training stimuli. Given where we are as a species in the knowledge of how our body's cells function relative to our prowess or lack thereof in developing that cell function via training.....I'd like to suggest that we look at the simple explanations first and stop with the excuses related to performance bell curves, normal distributions of performance levels, and "its genetic", at least until we do better collectively with the training stimulus issues.
1:46.62 in 2007 was the time of the 10th fastest American
1:46.50 in 2006 was the time of the 10th fastest American
1:47.06 in 2005 was the time of the 10th fastest American
1:46.66 in 2004 was the time of the 10th fastest American
1:46.78 in 2003 was the time of the 10th fastest American
1:46.76 in 2002 was the time of the 10th fastest American
1:46.83 in 2001 was the time of the 10th fastest American
1:46.21 in 2000 was the time of the 10th fastest American
Outside of sport, in the orthopedic rehab area we see patients returning for an obscene number of visits to the rehab clinic, forever doing the same exercises with the same rubber tubing or with the same amount of weight [resistance]. People scratching their heads as to why their recovery is taking so long or why it doesn't seem to be happening at all. What we see in preventive medicine areas are things like the familiar TV commercials that tell us, not if, but when your exercise program fails to lower your cholesterol levels, "ask your doctor" about our magic pill. In the cardiac rehab areas we see patients forever on the treadmill walking at a snail's pace, while their bypass blood vessels, those put in to bypass the clogged ones, gradually clog up over time.
Gradual, standardized "Progressions" in training stimuli matter.
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ETG Position Statement:
Pulling Up The Plant To See How The Roots Are Doing
Common statement........"I tried velocity oriented training and I got faster at the shorter distances, but had trouble running my longer distances, so I went back to training slower and longer".
You get the most fit at the paces you train on most. But you also get the most fit at the distances you train on most.
If the furthest you've progressed in your half-marathon goal pace workout is 7 miles run successfully at goal pace, then you'll have a pretty good fitness level for the 7 miles - 7.5 mile distance. If after running 7 miles at your goal pace, you decide to jump into a half-marathon race and attempt to run at goal pace for the entire race, you may be disappointed. Instead of jumping into a race, if you suddenly decide to go for a 12 - 15 mile run at a relatively fast pace for you, you may be disappointed with that also. In short, if you pull up the plant to see how the roots are doing, you may be setting yourself up for disappointment.
You're the most fit at 7 miles because that's where your training has been. Your training has not been at the half-marathon distance, or at a 12 - 15 mile run.
If the furthest you've progressed in your 5k goal pace workout is 1.5 miles, then you'll have a pretty good fitness level for the 1.5 miles - 1.75 mile distance. If after running 1.5 mile repetitions at your goal pace, you decide to jump into a 5k race and attempt to run at goal pace for the entire race, you may be disappointed. You're the most fit at 1.5 miles because that's where your training has been. Your training has not been at the 5k distance.
A velocity oriented training program comes at your race distance from below it, working upward. Therefore, you won't be very fit at distances above where you've been in your training. Why? Because you haven't done that training yet. Once you make the training progressions to that level you'll have that fitness. You won't have that fitness before you've done the training.
A traditional mileage oriented training program comes at your race distance from above the race distance and progresses downward to the race distance by increasing the training velocity. Relatively little training is done at goal pace and thus, you'll have little fitness at goal pace. You'll have lots of fitness at slower paces for longer distances. Why? Because thats where your training happens to be.
Patience must rule the day in a velocity oriented training program.
Arguably, in the context of "jumping into races" or trying out long runs well before you've made the progressions to being in the ballpark of your race distance, a velocity oriented training program is not for those who fit the stereotype of the overly-competitive American who must race as often as possible, or for the curious who get excited after making quick progress and want to experiment to see what they can do with their new found fitness.
One cannot pull up the plant to see how the roots are doing.
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ETG Position Statement:
Going Forward In the 21rst Century--- Construction Sites & Electricity
Going forward in the modern era of this 21rst Century, there are now emerging 2 primary areas where all conceptual aspects of human performance in our sport are headed.
1. Construction Sites
2. Electricity Production
Conceptually, these are the 2 areas where human physiology, brain research, nutrition, psychology, training theory, etc, are all now merging and flowing into. These 2 concepts represent the collective work of the past 80 years of sport sciences in identifying how one should view and approach the training of runners in this century. Specifically, what has emerged is the viewing of the body of a runner as a construction site where the building of cell structures and tissues is to occur, and the viewing of the primary foundation of performance in our sport as being the production of electricity in the brain and transmitted to the muscles.
For Athletes, The Human Body Is A Construction Site
The body of a runner is a construction site. In cells and tissues, the objective is to build something magnificent, or at least to build something that can accomplish challenging goals in race events. Like any construction site, there a 3 things that must be present, that we must provide.
1. High Quality Building Materials [ie. nutrients]
2. Preventive Maintenance & High Quality Repair Capabilities [ie. physio-therapy (physical therapy)]
3. Instructions Of What To Build ]ie. training stimuli--workouts]
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1. High Quality Building Materials
Sport Nutrition has taught us what nutrients are the fundamental, essential building materials at a high level construction site. The final 30 years of the last century in sport sciences identified the role of the macro nutrients carbohydrates and proteins, there approximate required amounts, and the timing of the intake that can be used to optimize the construction process. We are now in an era where the focus is on micro nutrients...B-Vitamins, magnesium, zinc, calcium, phyto-chemicals, and pH altering foods [ie. alkaline foods] that play massive roles in optimizing the rate and magnitide of cellular and tissue construction processes at the level of the genes themselves.
2. Preventive Maintenance & High Quality Repair Capabilities
The last 150 - 300 years of the study of human tissue [ie. bone, tendon, cartilage, muscle] has taught us that nearly all running injuries are a matter of construction engineering. We have learned that human tissue adapts to the loads placed on them if given the necessary construction time and essential building materials to do so. We know that the tissue can tolerate a certain level of repetitive loads from the running stride. If the loads placed on them are greater than what the tissue can endure, the tissue will either gradually or suddenly degenerate. We know how to prevent that situation by strengthening the tissues ahead of time, and providing time for the tissues to repair themselves between workouts. In the event that we fail in those areas, we know how to use lesser loads to repair and regenerate damaged tissues without taking unreasonable amounts of time away from training [ie. an unnecessary 4 - 6 weeks, standard in our sport].
3. Instructions Of What To Build
The last 80 years of sport sciences research into human performance has taught us what cellular structures must be built, and how to train in a manner as to induce their construction. We learned the nuances of specific training stimuli [ie. workouts] and their required parameters of intensity and duration to create the most potent stimulus possible and get the biggest bang for the buck in terms of time investment toward one's training. We have learned that energy production is the end all and be all of cellular function in our sport and that the main cellular structures to build are the energy producers, called mitochondria. These energy producers are needed to provide energy for the body's electrical generator and that generator's transmission lines. That would be the brain and nervous system, the foundation of human performance in our sport.
Electricity Production: The Foundation Of Human Performance In Running
Unless you've got a cramp or spasm, muscles don't move without being told to do so. To be told to do so, they have to be sent an electrical signal. This signal tells them when to produce force and how much force to produce. The brain sends these signals down its transmission lines [ie. nerves] out to the muscles. The brain tells the muscles when to produce force, how much force to produce, and largely affects how long that level of force can be maintained. The mechanisms of performance in our sport are conceptually contained in the following questions;
1. How much force can you produce
2. How quickly can you produce a high level of force
3. How long can you maintain this high level of force production
To run a 10k in 50 minutes, you need to be able to produce enough force to run at that pace, you need to be able to produce that level of force while your foot is on the ground during the running stride, and you need to be able to maintain that level of force production for the length of the race. These same facts are apply to running that 10k in 40 minutes, 30 minutes, 26:20, and 25:50, etc, etc, etc. Same holds for other race distances in our sport [ie. marathon, mile, 1500 meters, 800 meters, 100 meters, etc].
How much force can you produce. The more force you can produce while your foot is on the ground during the running stride, the faster you can run. This is kind of important. If you consider yourself a "slow" runner, this may be due to a situation where you aren't able to produce much force. Your 10k performance level may be limited by your 100 meter dash time. You can't run a 10k faster than you can run 100 meters. Improving force production requires improvement in electricity production.
How quickly can you produce a high level of force. During the running stride, the foot is on the ground for only a short period of time. You need to be able to produce a high level of force during the short period of time that the foot is on the ground. The rate of force production is kind of important in our sport. The rate of force production increases with the rate of electrical signals from the brain, down the transmission lines [nerves], and to the muscles.
How long can you maintain this high level of force production. This is important for both sprinters and distance runners since the loss of force production and the rate of force production contribute to a lower performance level. This is the endurance component in our sport.
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ETG Position Statement: U.S. Health Care Collapse
In the late 1890's, doctors of what is now called traditional medicine got together and organized themselves into a fairly powerful group.
----- They successfully arranged for state legislators to essentially outlaw practitioners of homeopathic medicine, thus getting rid of the competition
----- Going even further, they got legislators to set them up as the --sole-- gate keeper to any and all medical services, providing themselves with monopoly power.
----- Then they created the pharmaceutical industry.
----- Lastly, in spite of having access to an endless supply of guaranteed customers, they contributed to the creation of the 3rd party payer system, the medical insurance industry......thus allowing them to price themselves out of their own market of guaranteed customers as to be able to pay for their 2nd or 3rd house and/or backyard pools, tennis courts, and multiple luxury cars.
Lesson learned........Bad business and bad businesses are bad for business, and cannot remain in business for indefinite periods of time. About 100 - 110 years is the approximate limit before the proverbial poop starts to hit the fan and wheels start to come off.
People in the medical field who would like to avoid going down with the ship should likely consider shifting their business model.
-- fee for service..........Set flat fees for your services that the customer can afford and pay [out-of-pocket] at the end of the visit. At some point people are gonna want health care, not health insurance.
-- competent self-care............By the increase in costs, the insurance and pharmaceutical industries are making sure that many of your customers will be seeking alternatives to going to see you. Many people are and will be providing educational services that provide a competent self-care option for what might otherwise be --your-- customers. It would be wise to be proactive and get in on those services and design a revenue generating way of doing so.
-- incompetence avoidance.............A major contribution to the collapse of our "health care" system is the belief that after you graduate from medical school, nursing school, or P.T. school, you not only know what you need to know in order to provide competent care, but that you know --all-- you need to know as well. It would be wise to abandon that belief system. Many people are leaving you behind in the knowledge area. It would be wise to behave as though such is the case. No business can survive competitively without R & D [research and development]. Keeping up with research and contributing to your own development should be viewed as the end all and be all of your professional existence.
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"......the benefits that US health care currently deliver may not outweigh the aggregate health harm it imparts."
Journal Of The American Medical Association...Volume 302 #1..July 1, 2009...page 89 - 91
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ETG Position Statement:
Repairing Degenerated Joints
Regardless of what athletes are told by an orthopedist, all tissues in and around the knee and shoulder can be healed through loading. There are zero exceptions.
Almost all surgeries are no more effective than placebo surgery. And surgery can result in no change in pain symptoms. Once someone cuts into these joints you're all but guaranteed to be on the path to degenerative issues years down the road. People are quite willing to engage in months of rehab exercises after various types of surgery, but quite un-willing to try that on the front-end, instead of surgery.
Damaged tissue....If you load it, healing will come. Especially if you avoid ice, anti-inflammatories, and any other traditional approach that suppresses cells that heal damaged tissue.
placebo surgery.......http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwXokKJ7hss
Reversing a potential low blood flow to tissue issue is believed to resolve the nutrient delivery problem, thus stopping and perhaps further helping in reversing the tissue degeneration process. Some products are purported to aide in the function of glucosamine and chondrotin supplements. Hyluronic Acid is converted to glucosamine, and since some therapies involve providing it to the joint, this treatment may also be enhanced by resolving the blood flow issue.
Along these lines, a company has produced a naturoceutical product called "FlexNow". It contains nutrients called "shea triterpenes" from botanicals that purportedly reduce inflammation.
In short, the theory is that if you resolve the vascular problem, you stop and/or reverse the tissue degeneration problem. Perhaps something to explore. We know that people with autoimmune issues tend to have low Vitamin D3 levels, and that correcting that situation seems to reduce their autoimmune problems to some degree. Maybe in the near future there will be some exploration of combining these types of naturo-pathic treatments along with adult stem cells.
Think regeneration, not knee replacement surgery, not hip replacement surgery. Regenerate the tissues, and run don't walk from people that tell you it can't be done in your case.
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ETG Position Statement:
Colostrum & Nutrition Medicine
In the interest of the broad effects of Preventive Medicine and Nutritional Medicine at a time in history when there is a rapid transition underway, headed away from Traditional Medicine and it's pharmaceuticals and toward Preventive Medicine and Nutritional Medicine and their foundational nutrients approach to human cellular function, the ETG would like to express its opposition to the World Anti-doping Agency [WADA] position [taken earlier this year] on Colostrum. Whether for athletes or the general public, a recommendation to avoid use of a product that benefits long term health is a WADA position that cannot be defended. The original purpose of a "banned list" was to protect the health of athletes, not to "catch the drug cheats", or level a playing field. Coming out against a non-drug product that protects health is nonsensical.
The ETG currently has no plans to avoid use of Colostrum, and to the contrary, recently added it to it's "Supplements List", shown on the ETG Training Packet page of this website, in "The Food & Supplements" section of the packet.
Colostrum is a substance similar to milk that is produced in the breast by humans [women] and animals for use by newborns to aid their physiological development and growth. It contains a number of digestive tract, brain/nervous system, and immune system substances that are basic nutrients and proteins for these areas of function. It also contains a number of basic cell function substances as well as growth factors that are used in normal cellular adapations and recovery from major stressors and traumas.
When taken by adults as an extremely popular aspect of Preventive Medicine, Nutritional Medicine, and Naturo-pathic Medicine particularly for those who have nutrient deficits [ie. hospital patients, elderly nursing home residents, high level athletes], or by those who suffer from immune system related maladies or challenges [allergies, common cold, infection, high level athletes in heavy training] colostrum can be a major restorer of normal functioning. From heart disease and cancer, to fibromyalgia and infections, colostrum addresses many of the nutritional components of these maladies.
The major health triad.....digestive tract, brain/nervous system, and immune system, have become the 3 main targets in the modern day practice of Preventive Medicine, Nutritional Medicine, and Naturo-pathic Medicine. Colostrum is one substance that has the ability to address all 3.
Of concern to some [ie. World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)] is that similar to human Colostrum, colostrum from cows contains Growth Hormone along with its best friend and side-kick, IGF-1. These substances are comprised of proteins. When consumed by mouth, these proteins enter the digestive tract, where they get broken down in the stomach [ie. Digested]. Thus they are no longer Growth Hormone or IGF-1.
When you correct nutritional and other deficits in humans, you see cell function return to normal, and thus if you measure things such as growth hormone levels and/or IGF-1 levels, you'll likely see an increase. The increase was due to restoring normal cell function, not Growth Hormone ingestion or IGF-1 ingestion. Obviously, this point added to the situation where we know that growth hormone is not a "performance enhancing drug" [see the ETG Training Packet section titled The Problem With Drug Use & The Problem With Drug Testing ], should remove any cause for concern in using Colostrum to aid one's health and/or cellular functioning. The original purpose of a banned drug list in sport was to protect the health of athletes. Colostrum is a super-star in ever expanding field of Nutrition Medicine.
You can't protect the health of athletes by telling them to not take things that protect their health.
Product suggestion.......PerCoBa Colostrum (liquid)
[below are a few quotes].......
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"We investigated whether supplementation with 60 grams per day of bovine colostrum affects blood levels of insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) and IGF binding protein-3 in relation to doping testing."
"Nine endurance-trained men ingested 60 g/d of bovine colostrum for 4 wk."
"After 4 wk urine and blood samples were taken...."
"Drug testing in a laboratory accredited by the International Olympic Committee did not show any forbidden substance before or after 4 wk of supplementation."
"Daily supplementation with 60 g of bovine colostrum for 4 wk does not change blood IGF-I or IGF binding protein-3 levels and does not elicit positive results on drug tests."
Nutrition.....Volume 18 # 7-8...July-August, 2002....page 566 - 567
H. Kuipers, et al....[Department of Movement Sciences, Maastricht University, The Netherlands] --- Effects of oral bovine colostrum supplementation on serum insulin-like growth factor-I levels
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"This study examined the effect of supplementation with concentrated bovine colostrum protein powder (intact) on plasma insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) concentrations..."
"We conclude that supplementation with intact powder did not increase plasma IGF-I concentrations....after 8 weeks of supplementation"
J.D. Buckley, et al [University of South Australia, Adelaide] -----Bovine colostrum supplementation during endurance running training improves recovery, but not performance
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"IGF-1 is present in breast milk."
Gut.....Volume 51.....2002.....page 748-754
A .G. Cummins, F. M. Thompson [Bazil Hetzel Research Institute and the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Adelaide, South Australia] ----Effect of breast milk and weaning on epithelial growth of the small intestine in humans
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"Natural colostrum contains several substances, including IGF-1 which is listed as a prohibited substance (section S2 of the Prohibited List)."
"Taking into account the above elements and the fact that there is still scientific uncertainty on the ability for IGF-1 contained in colostrum to influence plasma levels of IGF-1, the WADA List Committee adopted a safe approach and recommends athletes not to take colostrum".
[World Anti-Doping Agency 2008]
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"WADA would like to take this opportunity to emphasize that colostrum contains Insulin Growth Factor-1 (IGF-1) a substance prohibited under section S.2 of the 2008 WADA Prohibited List. Even if influence of oral intake of colostrum on plasma concentration of IGF-1 is still a matter of debate within the scientific community, WADA would like to alert that abnormal increase or level of blood circulating IGF-1 would be considered as potentially revealing doping practices (e.g hGH or IGF-1 intake) by athletes."
"WADA wishes to draw your utmost care in the use of colostrum by athletes."
[March 19, 2008.....Dr Olivier Rabin, Director, Science of the World Anti Doping Agency(WADA)]
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"The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of low-dose bovine colostrum protein concentrate (CPC) supplementation on selected immune variables in cyclists."
"Twenty-nine highly trained male road cyclists....."
"10 g bovine CPC/day) or placebo group, 10 g whey protein concentrate/day)."
"Compared with the placebo group, bovine CPC supplementation significantly increased preexercise serum soluble TNF receptor 1 during the HIT period."
"Supplementation also suppressed the postexercise decrease in cytotoxic/suppressor T cells during the HIT period...."
"Bovine CPC supplementation prevented a postexercise decrease in serum IgG2 concentration at the end of the HIT period...."
"There was a trend toward reduced incidence of upper respiratory illness symptoms in the bovine CPC group"
"In summary, low-dose bovine CPC supplementation modulates immune parameters during normal training and after an acute period of intense exercise, which may have contributed to the trend toward reduced upper respiratory illness in the bovine CPC group."
Journal Of Applied Physiology.....Volume 102 #3....March 2007....page 1113-1122
C.M. Shing,et al ---- Effects of bovine colostrum supplementation on immune variables in highly trained cyclists
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ETG Position Statement:
Doctors Of Traditional Medicine Must Prescribe Exercise
In the United States, Traditional Medicine and it's drug oriented culture may bankrupt the country.
The ETG supports major changes to the health care system in the United States, particularly as it relates to the practice of Traditional Medicine. We welcome a move away from Traditional Medicine by large numbers of it's "customers". We also welcome a change in belief system and behavior in the practitioners of Traditional Medicine.
Along those lines, the article below is a directive to all medical doctors in the United States, issued by their professional organizations. It's existence represents a major move forward in the right direction, though medical doctors usually fail to read such information.
excerpts from the article......
[Doctors Urged to Prescribe Exercise....By Todd Zwillich WebMD Health News....Nov. 5, 2007] ---- "The groups, including the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American College of Sports Medicine, want doctors to order regular exercise for practically all their patients."
"The new campaign is called 'Exercise is Medicine'."
"Doctors must now take moderate exercise 'and prescribe it liberally to their patients,' says Robert Sallis, MD, president of the American College of Sports Medicine. 'Every physician, every specialty has to be on this same message'."
"Exercise is really a free medication," AMA President Ron Davis, MD, told reporters at a briefing in Washington. Davis said that exercise should not be an "option" but should be as critical as blood pressure or cholesterol tests."
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ETG Position Statement:
Modern Day Definition Of "Over-training"
The term "over-training" means different things to different people. In running, most people in the sport define it in such a way as to relate to a running injury.
Thats the common way people think of it. However, the more common manner in which it manifests itself is in suppressing one's body from gaining fitness, thus suppressing improvements in performance level.
There are --2-- separate consequences of "Over-training"
1. The one where you incur a running injury
2. The one where your body enters into the physiological state where your anabolic system [a.k.a tissue building] is suppressed to some significant degree and thus your ability to acquire training adaptations and move forward in fitness level is suppressed. This can be referred to generally as "Physiological Over-training", or being in an "over-trained state".
Physiological over-training, or being in an "over-trained state" is something one can measure. It often comes in the form of chronically elevated cortisol [stress hormone} production, which suppresses anabolic [tissue building] hormones and other hormone production [ie. testosterone, estrogen, growth hormone, thyroid hormone, and overall adrenal gland function], and competes with anabolic hormones for binding sites on tissues such as muscle. It reduces protein production, such as muscle protein, blood proteins [ie. Red Blood Cells, Immune system cells, etc]. Most importantly overall, Cortisol suppresses the primary means of fitness and performance level improvement.....gene transcription and translation processes, which are the primary mechanisms of fitness improvement and performance enhancing aspects of training. They are the main purpose of training. The body being in this is type of over-trained state is a state where even though you are -not- injured, and even though you are training fully, your fitness level does -not- move forward, and may even reverse.
Again, this is a measurable state. You can measure cortisol levels. You can measure red blood cell and EPO production ability. You can measure muscle protein synthesis. You can measure immune system activity. You can measure adrenal gland function. You can measure certain aspects of brain activity.
Regardless of what type of training program you believe in and follow [mileage oriented, or velocity oriented], its helpful if one's body can stay in an anabolic state such that it can adapt to one's training, thus moving forward in fitness, leading to increases in performance level.
Thats major challenge and the major objective when designing any training program.
If your body can't adapt, you can't move forward in fitness level. If your body can't move forward in fitness level, it can't move forward in performance level.
Much of sport is about moving forward in performance.
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ETG Position Statement:
Altitude Training....Just Say No!!!
Still a lot of American distance runners doing the Altitude Training thing. I'm hoping it is entering its final years of popularity.I have never been a believer, fan, or advocate of altitude training. Whether that term means traditional altitude training or the "live high train low" method. None the less, one day back in the early to mid-1990's I was sitting in a lecture room at the University Of Texas. In the room full of exercise physiologists were some of the top human performance researchers in the world [they were working at Univ of Texas Kinesiology dept]. They had invited a researcher in the Dallas area to give a lecture about his work on altitude training. He had just begun work on what he called "live high, train low".
He presented his data which included conclusions attributing a large chunk of the improvement in fitness and performance to the expansion of red blood cells. A couple of the Univ of Texas researchers challenged that assertion. They challenged it since in years past, they had done studies where they infused red blood cells into people and measured the amount of improvement in related areas of fitness and performance. So they knew to what extent either infusion or altitude related increases in red blood cells affected those things. They asserted that much of the improvement in fitness and performance measures that researcher from Dallas had attributed to the expansion of red blood cells could not be accounted for by the expansion of red blood cells.
That inherently meant that something else was the cause.
I set the subject aside in my mind for many years since altitude training never seemed like a physiologically logical training method to me anyway.
In the years that followed I came across research identifying mechanisms by which a number of training stimuli at sea level lead to EPO production and red blood cell expansion. This along with studies that suggested that the cardiovascular system is not the main limiting factor on distance running performance.
Wasn't until some time in 2011 that I returned to the subject of there being a cause other than red blood cell expansion for improvements in various aspects of fitness and performance with altitude training. It occured to me that whether runners are doing traditional altitude training or "live high train low", in being in or near moutains, they all have in common, road runs of varying lengths that are all done on courses that inherently have a relatively high frequency of long hills of relatively significant grades. Something they don't normally, intentionally train on with the same or similar frequency during their normal lives at sea level.
Thus one has this confounding variable in any altitude training study even for people doing the "live high train low" method since being in or near mountains inherently alters the nature of the courses one will regularly train on. Physiologically the main area of difference isn't the altitude, its the size, length, and frequency of the hills.
In the late 1980's, while coaching at the high school level I had designed a 4 and 8 mile course that wound and looped through a "up-scale" neighborhood near the high school because the hills there were quite lengthy [400 - 800m], steep, and frequent. The athletes and the major aspects of the training being the same, weekly or more frequent runs [fartleks] on these courses was the only significant difference. This allowed me to pick up on substantial increases in fitness from this type of training. This reinforced an experience my freshman year in college running a weekly 9 mile fartlek workout on a course that included a very hilly neighborhood near the college.
I believe we live in an era where we understand enough about the physiological aspects of altitude training that we can, with some degree of confidence, abandon the concept.
One can argue that every training program in our sport should include a base building workout done all-year-around, on a frequency of at least twice per month. That workout consisting of a road run, perhaps in fartlek form where the surges in pace are lengthy [ie. 400 - 800m or longer] on a course where the hills are long, steep, and frequent. If necessary it may be necessary to design a loop course where the loop will be repeated over and over if the number of lengthy hills in one's area are few or far between.
One can train at a higher velocity at sea level compared to altitude, even in the "live high train low" method [since "low" often doesn't mean sea level]. Thus, combining that benefit with intentionally seeking out and designing a road course around the superior types of hills one gets when running on or near a mountain at altitude, on can move away from and far beyond the Altitude Training era in our sport.
Like the subject of so-called "Performance Enhancing Drugs" [a.k.a. performance retarding drugs] Altitude Training is a subject matter that has long outlasted its physiological worthiness, efficacy, and usefulness in distance events performance.
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"In spite of accumulating evidence that altitude training affords no advantage over sea level training, many coaches and athletes believe that it can enhance sea level performance for any athlete, whether endurance or power is the focus in... their particular sport."
"The issue of whether altitude training enhances sea level performance remains a controversial subject."
L.A. Wolski, et al......Altitude Training For Improvements In Sea Level Performance.....Sports Medicine.....Volume 22 #4....October 1996...page 251
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ETG Position Statement:
Some discipline in describing "Alternative" medicine
Aside from the usual suspects, the major ball and chain around the neck of the advancement of "Alternative" medicine inside the United States.........the hoodoo voodoo sounding verbiage people in "alternative medicine" use to describe how their chosen modality or special treatment works. They tend to pick flowery, mystical, mumbo jumbo that waves all sorts of red flags.
The main problem with that being that usually their chosen modality or special treatment is actually founded on hardcore, tangible physics or human physiology. You'd never know it by listening to them describe the magical mystical way in which it works. The other problem is that people decide that --their-- chosen modality or special treatment is --the-- one and only. They ignore the other 20 or 100 modalities or special treatments that do the same thing, using the same physics or physiology.
There is no better example of hoodoo voodoo worded descriptions than the area known as "Energy Medicine" for example. The bottom line in "Energy Medicine" is that the human body is literally a bag of walking, talking electro-magnetic activity. Charged particles [ie. sodium, potassium, chloride, etc]. The brain is literally an electrical generator. It emits measurable levels of electro-magnetic waves [ie. brain waves]. Therefore it makes sense that any modality or special treatment that can measure and/or manipulate electricity, electro-magnetic activity, etc on or inside the human body [whether that be a machine, somebody's hands, a food item, etc] has the potential to impact or alter in some way a state of health of a set of cells or an organ.
In using "Alternative" medicine, as with any area of Traditional Medicine, simply engaging the chosen modality or special treatment probably won't work unless whatever dosage or exposure that is required to improve a health condition is actually consumed. And there-in lies the black hole of many areas of "Alternative Medicine". Developing an Evidence Based, standardized, repeatable methodology that insures that the patient gets the required level of exposure to the treatment. Nailing down what that level is......is the challenge to both practitioner and patient, believer and non-believer.
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