This weeks instalment of Perfect 10 comes courtesy of top Strength & Conditioning professional, Nick Grantham. When it comes to training, Nick has been there, done it and bought the t-shirt at the highest level. I have been fortunate enough to see Nick speak in person and I’m a long time fan of his. Whether you are a coach, athlete or just a regular guy who wants to get in awesome shape, do yourself a favour and take 10 minutes out of your day to read this fantastic interview..
1. For those who don’t know you, can you go into your background – how you got into coaching, your own athletic background and what you currently do within the industry?
Nick Grantham
I’m a southerner born and bred that now lives way up in the North in Newcastle Upon Tyne! I’ve slowly moved North over the past 15 years but I draw the line at living in Scotland! I’ve been working as a strength and conditioning coach for more than a decade and I’ve been involved in sport for much longer than that!
After finishing my BSc and MSc I started working with British Gymnastics as a sport scientist/physiologist but I wasn’t particularly excited by running VO2 max tests and taking bloods, in fact I was much more interested in the training that went on between the testing. I decided to take a bit of gamble and sat the first NSCA strength and conditioning accreditation to take place in the UK.
Soon after that I took up a position with England Netball which was one of the first posts in the UK specifically for strength and conditioning. Around the same time British Gymnastics asked me back as a consultant in a similar capacity where I worked with the Mens Artistic team as they prepared for the 2002 Commonwealth Games. Following this I took up the position of lead strength and conditioning coach in the West Midlands for the English Institute of Sport.
This was a great job and my team looked after athletes competing in a wide range of sports. We had a great support team and I was lucky to work with some of the best athletes in the country. I held that post for 4 and a half years before leaving to open up my own business in the Newcastle Upon Tyne, SMART FITNESS. Between leaving the EIS and setting up SMART FITNESS, I worked with the Chinese National Football team (soccer to any Americans reading the blog) as they prepared for the Asian Cup – fun times and a great excuse to avoid all the hassle and stress of moving house (my wife is a legend!).
I now look after a range of clients, from general population through to professional athletes and teams.I spent last season consulting for Middlesbrough FC and I’m now focusing my attention on the GB Women’s Basketball team as we prepare for London 2012. I’m very lucky to be doing something I really enjoy, it’s brilliant.
2. What new training or nutrition ideas have you recently been implementing with your clients and athletes?
The two new tools that I’ve been using this summer are occlusion training and GPS. Occlusion training is interesting and what was once the mainstay of the body building fraternity has sneaked into the world of S&C. I’ve been using it is a rehab setting to bring about hypertrophy in atrophied muscles following injury. It allows us to bring about adaptations whilst working at lower intensities.
I’ve fallen head over heels with the GPS unit as well this summer. It’s really helped inform rehab programmes and for once I’ve got quantifiable data to back up my gut feeling and coaching eye. It’s proven really useful, particularly when speaking to coaches about returning to full competition.
3. What old ideas, if any, have you recently returned to?
All of my ideas are old and usually begged, borrowed or stolen! Everything NEW is OLD – especially in this industry. The conclusion that I’ve arrived at during the past couple of years is that you can’t beat the basics delivered with intensity and consistency. Train the fundamentals and everything else will take care of itself. Vern Gamebetta sums it up nicely for me – TRAIN WITH A PURPOSE. If you establish what your training purpose is you can’t go far wrong.
4. What mistakes have you made in your career that stick out in your mind? What lessons did you manage to salvage from the experience?
Wanting to change the world immediately and thinking I had all the skills to do so!
When it comes to change I learnt very quickly that its all about EVOLUTION not REVOLUTION. We need to watch out for quick fixes and changes, they are usually pretty transient. Give me slow change, it’s usually sticks. I’ve worked in some sectors of professional sport where change seems to be constant and it seems to be accepted that the way to keep your position as an S&C coach is to constantly reinvent yourself and your training systems. I don’t subscribe to that philosophy.
In terms of skill set, once I realised that I didn’t have all of the skills needed to change the world I worked out that you just need to focus on what you are good at and establish links with colleagues who can plug the gaps. I had a great team of coaches working for me at the EIS, all with their own specific skill set that complimented the rest of the team. They were not mini Nick Grantham’s (what a horrible thought), they were far better in some areas than me which was fine because as a team we had every skill set necessary to get the job done. We all ended up looking good!
5. Who do you respect most within the industry and why?
Too many people to mention really and probably coaches that no one has heard of because they are busy delivering at the coal face. I like anyone that puts their reputation on the line and gets paid for delivering results. We have some really talented S&C coaches in the UK and I think the rest of the world is slowly waking up to what we have to offer over here in the UK.
Talented coaches eh? I think we can all guess who he was talking about 
6. What are the three best training related books you have read, and what key points did you take from them?
Thats another tough question, the 3 most recent books to catch my interest are:
- The Talent Code – if you want to be great at something then you need to put the hours in and lay down those myelin pathways.
- Stretch To Win – I think this is one of the best books I’ve read on flexibility and mobility. There are some great flexibility sequences.
- Athletic Development: The Art and Science of Functional Sports Conditioning – this is a really good book from Vern Gambetta and he hits the nail on the head in so many areas.
7. What would you say is the most impressive athletic feat you have seen any of your athletes perform in training or competition?
Tough question, I think the guys that would regularly impress me with their athleticism during practice and competition were the players on the wheelchair basketball team. I loved working with the team as they prepared for Athens in 2004. What they were able to do in a wheelchair was amazing. Their commitment to training was impressive and a lot of able bodied athletes should spend a training day with those boys.
You often hear people moan about training, how they’ve got a bit of an ache or pain or just can’t be arsed to train on a particular day. Well, if you think you have a raw deal and tough day, think on…these boys were knocking their ring out and had a few more issues to deal with than most able bodies athletes. As Dan Baker would say “have a concrete milkshake and HTFU!”.
8. What are the staple supplements- for health and/or performance- that you and your clients use?
I keep it pretty simple really.
Performance:
- Protein and carbohydrate in and around lifting sessions – either in the form of a shake or bar.
- If we are pushing on and working on court for extended periods of time then I’ll look at some form of electrolyte drink to help maintain hydration status.
- Creatine – if we want to improve work capacity
- Caffeine – before or during half time during a game (if appropriate)
Health:
- Vitamin D – Matt Lovell has turned me on to this supplement and it’s wide reaching benefits.
- Omega-3 (with a good ratio of EPA/DHA)
- Greens (powder or capsule – the powders taste pretty minging but if you are like me and not the biggest fan of veggies then this is good alternative).
9. What do you consider to be the most useful strength and conditioning tool at your disposal?
An open mind and space. If you have an open mind then you can adapt to pretty much any environment that you are faced with. If you have space then you are laughing. I’ve just finished a session with a couple of my players in the hotel corridor (about 50m long). Some low intensity intervals, followed by some core work and flexibility and mobility work in the lobby area outside my room. If you are the sort of coach that relies on a fully equipped gym then you will struggle.
10. If you could wave a magic wand and banish a particular training/diet fad from existence, which one would you pick?
Mr Grantham's pet peeve
It’s not that specific but if I could banish one thing from the industry it would be BULLSHIT. That would pretty much take care of all the training and diet fads and the self proclaimed guru’s that ply their trade on the internet.
You know when you tread it something about dodgy and you take a look at it on the sole of your shoe. If it looks like shit, smells like shit, then it probably is shit! Well guess what, it’s the same thing in the fitness industry. There’s a ton of BS in the industry, particularly in the world of the internet. You need to be diligent when looking at who is producing the information that you are reading.
I simply can’t believe that some of these guru’s have done all the things they say they’ve done. There’s too much self proclamation taking place, “UK’s Top Fat Loss Specialist” (I’ve seen loads of these floating around by the way!). Which one really is the champ? Is it like boxing? We have the WBC Fat Loss Expert and the WBA Fat Loss Expert!!!! World Leader in S&C….really, at the tender age of 23? Expert in setting up a successful fitness business – really, your facility has only been open 6 months and most fail within the first 5 years. Come back and start shouting from the rooftops when you’ve actually earnt your stripes.
When I seek out information make sure that the coaches I go to have actually worked with the people and teams that they say they have. I figure out if they’ve actually got results and if they’ve been coaching for more than 5 minutes. I’ve been on the interviewing panel for jobs and had people apply for the job stating on their resume that they have worked with an athlete or team that I’ve actually worked with (or am still working with!!!)….now one of us is telling porky pies and it’s not me! Just because you’ve watched a session, shadowed a coach, brushed past a superstar in the corridor, doesn’t mean you’ve worked with them, and more importantly had an impact on their performance. Of course there’s scope for embellishment, I’m not naive enough to suggest that part of what we do in the private sector is ‘sales’, but not out and out bullshit.
When I moved to Newcastle a local coach advertised that he and his staff were the only coaches in the area qualified to work with Olympic level athletes. BULLSHIT, they had never worked with that level of athlete in their life. What makes it worse is that there were at least 3 S&C coaches (including me) that had actually worked with athletes and teams who had competed and medalled at the last 3 Olympics!
Lets wave that magic wand and banish the BULLSHIT!
11. BONUS QUESTION: Whats in the pipe line for you at the moment?
Myself and Duncan French recently launched our first information product (Prepare 2 Perform – Olympic Weightlifting Complexes for Movement Preparation (http://www.movementpreparation.com/program/) It’s a great resource and we have tried really hard to deliver something that is technically good and informative. We are enjoying seeing how it is received by the coaches that are purchasing it and using it in their training and with their clients.
I’m constantly working on the website www.nickgrantham.com so if your readers like what they’ve read they can check out some of my other ramblings!
The final thing to get completed this year is the second Performance Mentorship taking place in September. Another collaboration with Duncan. We really enjoy doing these mentorships and it’s always good to share training advice with coaches that are looking to take their career to the next level.
You can check out another of Nick’s products at www.trainlikeathletesdo.com.
For more information or to ask a question click here now.