Ultimate Athlete Concepts Seminar Review of Key Note Speakers Dr. Anatoly Bondarchuk, Dr. Vladimir Issurin, and Dr. Michael Yessis, July 13-15

By James Smith

For www.EliteFTS.com

For perspective sake, here’s a reminder of the qualifications of the key note speakers:

Dr. Michael Yessis: Dr. Michael Yessis received his doctorate degree from the University of Southern California and his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the City University of New York. He is president of Sports Training, Inc., a diverse sports and fitness company and is also professor emeritus at California State University, Fullerton, where he is a multi-sports specialist in biomechanics (technique analysis) and sports conditioning and training.

In his work, Dr. Yessis has developed many unique specialized strength and speed-strength (explosive) training programs. He has served as training and technique consultant to several Olympic and professional sports teams, including the L.A. Rams and L.A. Raiders football clubs, the Natadore diving team, and the U.S. men’s volleyball team. He has also successfully trained many athletes in different sports.

Dr. Yessis has written more than 2000 articles on fitness and sports training that have appeared in magazines such as Muscle and Fitness, Shape, Scholastic Coach, Fitness Management, and the National Strength and Conditioning Association Journal. He has authored several books including Handball, The Secrets of Soviet Sports Fitness and Training, Plyometric Training: Achieving Explosive Power in Sports, Kinesiology of Exercise, Body Shaping, and Explosive Golf. He has completed four videos entitled Exercise Mastery, Developing a Quarterback’s Arm and Strength, Specialized Strength and Explosive Exercises for Baseball, and Specialized Strength and Explosive Exercises for Softball.

Dr. Vladimir Issurin: Dr. Vladimir Issurin serves as a scientific and professional coordinator in the Elite Sport department of the Israeli Olympic Committee at the Wingate Institute. He completed his undergraduate studies in sport sciences and his doctorate dissertation on aquatic motor fitness and movement technique of swimmers at Leningrad Sport University (1963–1972) and his post-doctoral studies on motor/technical sportsmanship in the individual water sports in Moscow Sport University (1988). He served as a scientific adviser and head of the complex scientific group for the USSR Olympic canoe/kayak team during three quadrennial cycles (1978–1991) and received two governmental awards.

 

Since 1991, Dr. Issurin has lived in Israel and works as a researcher, professional consultant, and coordinator for Israeli Olympic national teams (since 1992). He is a lecturer at the Wingate coaching school and Wingate Physical Education College. As a member of the national Olympic delegations, he took part in five Olympic Games, twice as a team leader of the Israeli kayak and swimming national teams (2000 and 2004). He has written over 150 scientific articles in national and international journals and over 50 international presentations.

Dr. Anatoly Bondarchuk: Dr. Anatoly Bondarchuk is renowned as an athlete (1972 Olympic Champion and European Champion in the hammer throw and former World Record Holder). His coaching credentials are virtually unprecedented in athletics.

 

Dr. Bondarchuk holds a doctorate in pedagogical science from the University of Kiev, and his research into technique and high-performance training methods formed the basis for many of the common techniques and practices used by the world’s top athletes today. He developed the USSR national team throws program from 1976 to 1992 from which he produced numerous World and Olympic champions in the hammer, discus, and shot put. He has authored eleven books and 195 articles in his areas of expertise. A common focus is training to maintain performance and technique. Since 1992, he has been coaching for Portugal and Kuwait.

 

Dr. Bondarchuk’s athletes, while members of the USSR national team, broke twelve world records and still hold the current world record in the hammer throw. His athletes won all hammer throw medals in four consecutive non-boycotted Olympic Games.

To my knowledge, this is the most accomplished collective of speakers ever to have lectured on sport science in the United States. Over the course of three days, each speaker lectured on the intricacies of the training process, spanning topics such as the transfer of training to the competition event, the taxonomy of block periodization, and the use of specialized strength means for the development of technique in the competitive exercise. The material covered throughout this conference is the catalyst to the future of sports training.

I won’t go into any great detail with respect to each speaker’s lecture because Ultimate Athlete Concepts will be releasing a DVD shortly that captures the conference in its entirety. Elite Fitness Systems will be carrying this DVD as soon as it becomes available.

The majority of coaches of physical preparation set their horizons far too short of the ultimate target of training—the attainment of sport mastery. As we all know, the physical and psychological training of sportsmen is well within our control yet often limited to the mere development of strength, power, speed, and work capacity. The training element that is overlooked is perhaps the most vital component of all and that is the transfer of training to the competitive exercise.

There is a surplus of strong, explosive, and fast athletes out there. Many of us coach them on a daily basis. However, how many of them are highly qualified or skilled in their sport? How many sports teams suffer losing seasons yet feature highly physically prepared athletes? How often is the strongest, most explosive, or fastest athlete on the team not in the starting line up? How might a strength and conditioning coach develop an expertise in ensuring that all of the squats, presses, cleans, throws, jumps, and sprints actually improve the athletes’ sport form?

The reality is that the development abilities such as strength are an elementary undertaking. For this reason, nearly anyone is capable of working in the field in some capacity regardless of their qualifications. However, it is a science to ensure that the developments in strength, power, speed, and work capacity have high transference to sport form. This science is unknown to most in the West yet it was pioneered and perfected in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc Europe.

The information presented at the conference is essential to formulating a practical understanding of the science. Dr. Yessis, through his many visits to the former USSR, has made a career of perfecting this craft here in the United States, and his lectures provided clarity as to the knowledge required to attain efficiency in this practice.

Dr. Bondarchuk and Dr. Issurin were members of the Soviet national team who then went on to become scientists and coaches for the Soviet national team. To this date, both esteemed individuals are active in their profession. Dr. Bondarchuk coaches throwers in Canada (Kamloops), and Dr. Issurin is a master’s champion in the 200 meter butterfly, a member of the International Olympic Committee, and the professional coordinator at the Wingate Institute in Israel.

Dr. Issurin’s lecture featured a series of elaborate PowerPoint presentations and a step by step approach to formulating and scrutinizing the taxonomy of micro, meso, and macro cycles of a block periodized training program. He is recognized abroad as the modern and foremost expert on block periodization. Having shared a short plane ride with Dr. Issurin discussing training and otherwise, I can validate this statement to its fullest extent. In this lifetime, there are few of us who will have the opportunity to share the company of individuals who are unanimously agreed upon as being the very best there ever was in their profession.

Dr. Bondarchuk is one of these individuals. A former world record holder and Olympic bronze medalist in the hammer throw, he has coached more medalists in world championship and Olympic competition then any coach in any sport discipline in the history of the Olympic Games. This is an unprecedented accomplishment.

Dr. Bondarchuk, via his own communication and translating assistance from Dr. Yessis, lectured on the elaborate continuum of transference via the multi-faceted use of training means varying in their degree of correlation to the competitive event. Developing an understanding of this process is of value to any coach/trainer regardless of sport discipline.

Those of us in attendance must consider ourselves fortunate to have had the opportunity to learn and question these giants of our profession in person. Those of you who were unable to attend the event should consider yourselves almost as fortunate because you will be able to purchase the entire event on DVD in a few short weeks.