Perform Better Summit: Chicago Recap

Jun 26, 2011

We just got back to the gym after a long, eventful weekend at the Perform Better 3-Day Summit in Chicago. I simply cannot stress enough how great this event it. It easily gives us our biggest ROI on any investment we’ve made in our gym during the last 12 months. Once again, the presenters were outstanding. However, even more impressing, was the coaches and trainers in attendance. It wasn’t rare to see coaches talking shop in between breaks and at lunch. At one point in time during Gray Cook’s FMS seminar on Thursday, Charlie Weingroff had another attendee on his back on the floor discussing the core. Then again on Saturday, Charlie was showing another coach how to skip correctly in the hallway between presentations.

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The teaching, learning, and sharing of information during the seminar is extremely humbling. As a healthcare professional, I can easily see why the fitness industry is progressing so quickly, far quicker than the healthcare industry. Every coach and trainer basically opens up their books to anyone in attendance. There appears to be no such thing as competition in the industry, just friends, colleagues and mentors. The wealth of information that’s openly shared is, in my opinion, the greatest attribute of the conference, and the fitness industry as a whole. This conference really should be a model for conferences in other industries. I can only imagine the innovation that’s currently being missed in the pharmacy industry because of the lack of sharing of information and “best practices.”

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Recap:

Gray Cook’s FMS preconference event

I actually left Wednesday evening after work to attend Gray’s preconference event. I’ve read both of Gray’s books, as well as watched all of his “Secrets” DVD series and FMS DVDs. It was well worth the $70. Even though he didn’t cover anything that hasn’t been discussed in his books or DVDs, it’s still nice to actually hear someone as brilliant as him speak in person. If you haven’t seen his DVDs or read his books, I’d definitely recommend the preconference event.

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Friday

Martin Rooney’s Get Fast Get Fit hands-on

At last year’s conference, I didn’t attend Martin’s hands-on or lecture, so I had to see one of the two this year. Once again, I’ve see most of Martin’s speed DVDs, so I really wasn’t expecting anything new. The drills and exercises were pretty much your typical speed workout. However, his coaching is on another level. He just doesn’t motivate you, he elevates you. By the end of the workout, I think all 80+ attendees thought they were Olympic level sprinters. That’s just how Martin makes you feel. Every note I wrote down about the hands-on was about his coaching techniques, not his drills. Now I know why future NFL guys pay $1500+ per week for his NFL combine training. If there was one coach I could train under, it’d be Martin. It’s not necessarily because he knows the most, but because I know I’d be more successful in sports, business, and life. It’s hard to exactly describe how well he elevates you. His hands-on is definitely a must attend!

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Mike Boyle’s hands-on

I’m a HUGE fan of Mike Boyle. In fact, my fiancé thinks I have a man crush on him. I actually was fortunate enough to walk with Mike on the way to the event in the morning. Needless to say, I texted my fiancé as soon as we parted ways. He’s extremely nice and humble. I think Mike’s success is the direct result of his hunger and passion. He’s been in the industry for umpteen years, and just in our short walk, he was oozing with excitement to give his presentation. He was like a wide-eyed 20 year-old, fresh out of college. You could just see the passion in his eyes when he discussed all of the traveling he’s been doing lately. I’ve modeled the majority of my training philosophy after Boyle’s work.

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I saw on Mike’s blog that he was going to discuss the changes he’s made to his mobility routine, so I was extremely anxious to hear it. He’s added a corrective exercise for each FMS screen in his mobility workout. In his smart-ass common sense approach, he took us through his phase 1 corrective exercises. Instead of actually doing his workout, I wrote down as much as I could. As soon as I got back to the gym Sunday, I did his mobility workout in place of my current one. Needless to say, he’s trumped me again. I love it. Mike’s always one of the best presenters at the conference.

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Al Vermeil Speed: The Ultimate Weapon

This was the toughest decision of the day. Lee Taft, Thomas Myers, Gray Cook, and Al Vermeil were all speaking at the same time. I chose Al simply because he’s a living legend. Who can argue with a guy that has coached Montana, Jordan, Pippen, etc. Plus, I really wanted to focus on speed training this seminar, as it’s one of my weaknesses. I’ve also seen all of Taft’s DVDs (which are great) as well as Cook’s DVDs. Al’s slides were by far the most in-depth of the conference. He put a TON of information in them. In fact, he probably only got through 60% of his lecture. He said multiple times throughout the lecture that he usually likes speaking for 2-3 hours at a time.  He was exactly as I thought he’d be: one tough SOB. He reminded me of some old school football legends like Lombardi, Walsh, etc. They just have that aura of toughness that you don’t see any more. He is a true inspiration in the fitness industry.

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Lee Burton’s Corrective Exercises hands-on

This is the first time I’ve seen Lee Burton. Everything I’ve read and watched thus far on the FMS has been from Gray. I’m a huge FMS fan, and it’s not just because of its simplicity. I’ve actually used it on myself and seen dramatic improvements over the last 3 months. I was extremely interested to see how he progresses a client who performed poorly on the ASLR, and I was not disappointed. In literally 15 minutes, he improved an attendee’s ASLR by 20-30 degrees. It’s crazy how smart some of these guys are. He basically reprogrammed the attendee’s software while 100+ people looked on in awe. If anyone thinks Gray is the only one worth listening to when discussing the FMS, think again. Lee was excellent.

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Al Vermeil’s Speed: The Ultimate Weapon hands-on

It was another tough decision, but I just had to see Al Vermeil’s hands-on. When else am I going to see a 65+ year-old perform box jumps, sprints, zig-zag bounds, and med ball throws? If this hands-on didn’t inspire you, I don’t know what will. He really made speed development simple. He talked openly about what has worked and what hasn’t worked during his career. One of the most important things he discussed was how we apparently forget how important the lower leg was to speed. He was a huge advocate of heel drops and toe raises. He was also a big believer is the importance of strength to speed and power. As he said at one point “In my days, speed training was strength training. If you got strong, you got faster.” Al was a great presenter. He was funny, yet informative. Most importantly, he gave me concrete ideas to take back to the gym.

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Thomas Plummer’s main event

Once again, Thomas did not disappoint. He was hilarious, yet interesting and informative. I really think he’s the Warren Buffet of the fitness industry. He’s a true visionary. This year he even gave us a gym floor plan of what he believes a successful gym will look like in the next 5-10 years. If you are a gym owner, you have to hear Thomas Plummer.

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Saturday

I think my work schedule and traveling finally caught up with me, as I didn’t get out of bed until the 9:30 presentation.

Todd Wright – Dominate your space lecture

Because I primarily work with basketball players, I chose to hear University of Texas’ basketball strength coach Todd Wright speak. He was definitely the surprise presenter of the weekend. I really didn’t know much about him prior to the event, and didn’t even realize he was the strength coach for Texas until Friday night. I am so glad I got to see his presentation. He gave a great presentation about training basketball players in a 3D sphere. I was constantly taking notes throughout the presentation. Awesome videos. Awesome presentation. If you train basketball players, you have to see this guy. He really changed my perspective on training basketball players. He has some interesting variations of exercises that I really didn’t see another presenter discuss. He really focused on owning your 2-3 feet of space.

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Todd Wright – Dominate your space hands-on

Hands down my favorite presentation of the weekend. Todd and his staff actually did the workout with us. Of course, I sat this one out too because there was so much to write down. He basically took us through his movement prep and warm-up he uses for basketball players. It was a great workout. Lots of energy. Lots of tips. Lots of sweat.  You can tell Todd was an athlete at one point in his career. He just has that attitude and charisma athletes have. Once again, if you train basketball players, you have to see this guy.

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Coach Dos – Building Better Athletes lecture

I’m a huge fan of Coach Dos. His presentation was great. He’s the S&C coach at College of the Canyons where he trains every sport they have. He’s extremely honest and humble. At one point in the lecture, he even question why he uses GHRs, and asked the audience what we thought about them. It’s nice to see a coach with a small budget, a less than stellar facility, and a wide variety of athletes speak. Sometimes some of the presenters have more resources than the audience, so it’s hard to implement some of their strategies. That’s definitely not the case with Coach Dos. I think every attendee at the conference has as many resources as Coach Dos. He definitely gave us some real-world tips. He also gave us some excellent videos of his training session. Overall it was a great presentation.

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Unfortunately that was the last presentation I could attend because of a prior commitment I made on Sunday. As we were driving home, I was flipping through the Perform Better manual, and skimming over the presenters’ slides that I didn’t attend their lectures. I really wish I would have had enough time to go to Darcy Norman’s hands-on. The slides for that lecture and presentation looked awesome.

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Of course, just like last year, I wish I would have had enough time to go to every lecture and hands-on. If money and time were unlimited, I’d definitely go to all three Perform Better Summits just so that I could see every presenter. One of the trainers at my gym, who attended with me, saw Boyle’s lecture, as well as Cosgrove, Durkin, Rooney, and Verstegen. He loved every one of them.

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I cannot stress enough how great this summit is. If you are a trainer, coach, or just interested in fitness, you have to attend one of these summits. I guarantee you that it will be the best investment you make.

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