{"id":704,"date":"2019-09-25T09:31:42","date_gmt":"2019-09-25T13:31:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianstrengthca.com\/?p=704"},"modified":"2022-02-06T10:48:00","modified_gmt":"2022-02-06T15:48:00","slug":"from-denmark-to-canada-challenges-and-successes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianstrengthca.com\/from-denmark-to-canada-challenges-and-successes\/","title":{"rendered":"From Denmark to Canada \u2013 Challenges and Successes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

My Take on How You Turn a Tortoise into a Hare \u2013 or, at Least, a Faster Tortoise<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My\ncoaching career began as an assistant tennis coach in a small town in my native\ncountry, Denmark, when I was 13 years old.  I was fortunate to have several great coaches.\nOne of them had played professionally when he was younger and was the doubles\npartner with Boris Becker\u2019s long-term manager, Ion Tiriac. A few of the\nexercises I learned as a teenager are still among my top picks 37 years later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One\nof my first memories of strength and conditioning (S&C) occurred when I was\n7 or 8 years old; I was unable to do a single sit-up during soccer practice.\nGrowing up, my experiences with S&C were in the contexts of the sports I\nplayed: tennis, badminton, and soccer. They were all organized by the sport\ncoach. I don\u2019t think S&C coaches existed in Denmark when I was a teenager (1980s).\nInterestingly, I don\u2019t remember the first time I became aware of the concept of\nan S&C coach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At\n19 years old, after the Danish version of high school, I enrolled in a two-year\nstudy of math and physics. It was a period which seemed wasted at the time, but\nlater turned out to be an incredible foundation for my understanding of\nbiomechanics and movement. I could not see myself spending my future in a\nwindowless lab, so during a sleepless night, after graduating, I asked myself: What do you really enjoy doing?<\/em> The\nanswer was sports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\nwas four days before the application deadline, but I was accepted and started\nstudying exercise physiology at the University of Copenhagen in 1991. I\nenrolled because I liked sports. I had no idea what type of position\/job I\ncould get once I graduated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years\nlater, my father told me that he worried for me. It is a testament to the space\nhe always gave me and my brother to allow us to grow and find our own\npath.  I am thankful he did not try to\ntalk me out of my chosen career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tortoise<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

During\nmy second year of university, I participated in track and field. My first\nclocked 100m was 14.28 seconds. Most readers will be aware that a sprinter can\nlikely run closer to 150 meters in that timeframe! I would obviously never make\nit to an Olympic time trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\nexperience was the beginning of my interest in S&C. The big question in my\nmind was how to train to get fast and explosive, or How do you turn a tortoise into a hare, or, at least, a faster tortoise?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\nremember studying books by Tudor Bompa, Vladimir Zatsiorsky and Frank Dick in\nthe university library and gradually getting the feeling that I wanted to\nbecome an S&C coach. That decision, as well the one to move to Canada,\nappeared to me as very clear \u201cgut-feelings\u201d \nin such a way that I have never questioned them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Positions I held in Denmark<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beginning\nin 1993 I worked with world-class triathletes, world-class badminton athletes,\nworld-class figure skaters, and national to international volleyball athletes\nbefore I graduated with a masters degree in 1999. I got these positions through\nmy own initiative and willingness to work for a low to moderate pay to get my\nfoot in the door.  However, my dream was\nto work full-time for Team Denmark, the Danish equivalent of Sport Canada. It\nis a long story, but after an intensive interview, several testimonies from the\nsport coaches I previously worked with, and a study conducted in conjunction\nwith the coach of the National Men\u2019s Volleyball team, Mikael Trolle, Team\nDenmark hired me as their first full-time S&C in the fall of 1999, a month\nafter I graduated from university.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a great position with the responsibility to create highly individualized training programs for approximately 20-30 high priority athletes. I worked roughly 50 hours per week (note, 37 hours was required) not because I had to, but because I wanted to grow as a coach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Many coaches are told to specialize in a specific sport. Up to this point, I have been involved with 27 different sports and thus performed a thorough needs analysis 27 times. Developing thorough needs analyses provided me with a clear understanding of the uniqueness of each sport. It also gave me greater insight into the differences between the various sports and propelled me to develop a system of periodization that was flexible enough to accommodate the vast differences between the athletes\u2019 needs presented to me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Teach a Young Athlete a Forehand Grip<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Challenges<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through\nworking with amateur athletes in both Canada and Denmark, two of the biggest\nchallenges I have experienced are as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Sport coaches are\nwell educated on the technical\/tactical aspects of the sports, but not the\nneeds for long-term physical development. In many cases, I have had a\nrespectful relationship with the coaches I have worked with. However, one thing\nI have learned is that if a coach speaks negatively to you about their\nathletes, then you might consider if that is an environment you wish to be a\npart of. (Hint: It is not the athletes that are the problem).<\/li>
  2. By far, most of\nthe athletes I have worked with have always been engaged in 10+ hours of sports\ntraining each week. Thus, their energy for strength and conditioning were\/are\nlimited. However, this scenario has taught me to be as effective as possible\nwith the program design.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Moving to Canada<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I moved to\nCanada in 2007 to live with the love of my life and wife, Lucinda Jensen, whom\nI had first met at Dr. Ken Kinakin\u2019s SWIS Conference in 2005.  From the beginning, it was our goal to have\nthe freedom to travel to see our families in both Denmark and Antigua.\nTherefore, we started Yes To Strength, a company that provides online and live\neducation for S&C coaches as well as individualized training services for\nathletes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Initially,\nI sought part-time employment to offer individualized training services.\nHowever, except for four good years at the University of Toronto (teaching\nOlympic Lifting classes and working with select clients) that never\nmaterialized. I had already started developing a very comprehensive approach to\nperiodization and program design that I used and wanted to share with other\ncoaches. As a result, I put my full efforts into sharing that information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    From\nan S&C point of view, working in Denmark and working in Canada is very\nsimilar. The only thing that stands out as a difference is that during 15 years\nof working in Denmark, including my time in university and censoring the yearly\nexamination at the only school offering specific education for S&C, I had\nnever heard the concept of asking permission to touch when spotting someone; a\nconcept I now embrace wholeheartedly.  Thus,\nmy approach to training has not changed because I moved to Canada. I do,\nhowever, continue to evolve due to continued studying, refinement, and\ninspiration from the best in our field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Key\nAttributes and Skills <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The key attribute to succeed as an S&C coach is\nexpressed eloquently by legendary motivational speaker, Zig Ziglar: (1,2)<\/sup>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    If you are not willing to learn, no one can help you.
    If you are determined to learn, no one can stop you.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Willingness to learn is not only the\nwillingness to read books and take courses. The information available to us related\nto S&C\nis very fragmented.  To truly be able to\napply what you learn, you must think about how different pieces of information\nrelate to each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits.
    Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.<\/em>  Albert Einstein (3)<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In Denmark, my masters degree in\nexercise physiology and the fact that I had already worked with international\nlevel athletes with proven success opened the door to Team Danmark (www.teamdanmark.dk<\/a>).\nIn Canada, additional certification as a strength coach is typically required\nto be selected for any higher-end S&C\njob. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The number one advice I would give\nto any S&C\ncoach of any age entering Canada would be: Be\nso good that they can\u2019t ignore you.<\/strong> (4) <\/sup>And if they still ignore\nyou, at least you get to feel good about yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    —<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Karsten is the owner of Yes to\nStrength (https:\/\/yestostrength.com\/<\/a>)\na company that offers live and online practical and theoretical education for\nathletes and S&C coaches.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    References<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1. https:\/\/www.dictionary.com\/e\/s\/learning-quotes\/#1<\/a><\/li>
    2. https:\/\/iyca.org\/1-predictor-of-coaching-success-karsten-jensen\/<\/a><\/li>
    3. https:\/\/www.brainyquote.com\/quotes\/albert_einstein_133807<\/a><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      4. https:\/\/www.audible.ca\/pd\/So-Good-They-Cant-Ignore-You-Audiobook\/B071L1KTKD?source_code=GDGGBSH0822170007&ds_rl=1250324&gclid=CjwKCAjw0tHoBRBhEiwAvP1GFRjPZ6L9I7Y51_FaKzpn8r3aRJyJf0vQvVW-4vYndvgpiecWhzuuGxoCzYkQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      My Take on How You Turn a Tortoise into a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":2491,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianstrengthca.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianstrengthca.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianstrengthca.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianstrengthca.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianstrengthca.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=704"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/canadianstrengthca.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":713,"href":"https:\/\/canadianstrengthca.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704\/revisions\/713"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianstrengthca.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianstrengthca.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianstrengthca.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianstrengthca.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}