Bruce Kelly

See who's speaking at the Chicago Summit. Perform Better Chicago Schedule and Information

On Saturday, I crawled out of bed after the social on Friday night and headed to see John Brookfield, the ropes master. His demo with the use of ropes, chains and the like lends a new dimension to metabolic work, core strength and upper body speed training. He had some novel ways of using these implements in partner and group settings which means they lend themselves to training teams as well. Good stuff, not easy and a good way to sweat out some Friday night beer!

Next up was Eric Cressey and his hands on demo on med ball training. Because of so many people, and not enough med balls, Eric added a bonus to his presentation by talking about some of the topics covered in his Shoulder Training DVD's including some simple assessments and shoulder stability exercises using bodyweight. He then lead us through a dynamic warmup and then showed some of his med ball drills that could be done under the circumstances. Nothing necessarily ground breaking but it was good to hear his rationale behind what he was doing.

To build up my appetite, I decided to be a glutton for punishment and attend Robert Dos Remedios presentation on Cardio Strength Training. Suffice it to say that for some people the dynamic warmup was enough! Dos Remedios is a dynamic coach and presenter and he used various implements like med balls, kettlebells, ropes, and the TRX to lead us through a progressively tougher series of workouts: starting with 5 sec. work/25 sec. rest and ending with Tabata…20 sec. work, 10 sec. rest, 8 times. That pretty much fried everyone!

After lunch, it was a relatively mellow presentation by the kettlebell Zen master, Brett Jones. I have heard him speak numerous times and he was my Team leader at the RKC but I never fail to learn something new from Brett. He showed us the RKC teaching progression for the swing which starts with learning a good hip hinge, then a deadlift , a swinging/pendulum deadlift and finally the swing. Due to time constraints, we didn't get into the press much but the swing/deadlift stuff was good stuff and applicable to use with clients tomorrow.

Final act of Saturday was Greg Rose, one of the sharpest minds in our field and a boon to golfers and rotational athletes worldwide. Though I am TPI Level 1 certified, his quick assessments for pelvic tilt/control and separation of upper/lower body were instructive and very revealing for most of us. We sometimes delude ourselves into thinking we move better than we actually do and these assessments shattered any delusions many of the attendees may have had. Rose also gave us drills to remedy some of these movement faults which again were applicable with clients or oneself the next day.

Then came the Saturday Q & A with all of the weekend's presenters including Thomas Myers who hurried in at the last moment. Take home moments were that research can be interpreted many different ways perhaps depending on your bias and that what we know today is changing very rapidly in our field. What we think is a given now may not be so in 5 years so we have to be fluid in our thinking and approach to training, health and fitness. Also, Thomas Myers made the point that what we do is as much, if not more, art than science. The point being that there are many ways to "skin the proverbial cat."

Sunday's must see for me was Thomas Myers but not before seeing Lee Taft. Taft's drills, progressions and systems for teaching multi-directional speed are still second to none. And Lee is a great, humble guy, very approachable and open to talk. He's a great ambassador for our industry. He showed show of his low box drills for agility, power, deceleration and teaching landing skills. Good stuff as usual from Lee.

Thomas Myers was next and he didn't disappoint. For those of you who don't know he is the "Rolfer/body worker" behind the book, Anatomy Trains. He talked about how excited he was to be at the Summit as he thought the next frontier in our field was an integration of the type of work he does with what we do. He thought that was the next logical step in helping others move better, feel better and get fitter and more healthy. He showed us some interesting partner stretches to illustrate some of the major myofascial trains like the superficial front line and superficial back line as well as the spiral line and lateral lines. You definitely felt where these lines ran and they were actually very good stretches as well. He also took a young "victim" on stage and despite this young man's apparent symmetry, showed where there were differences between sides. He also made the very valid, and often forgotten point, that there is no such thing as perfect balance or symmetry. That no matter how fit or well balanced you think you are there is no such thing as perfection. His point wasn't to be cruel but to illustrate that a manic striving for such perfection is ultimately going to be in vain and that we should all accept there will be some "imperfection" in our movement and appearance. We should instead strive for optimization not perfection which is a futile pursuit. Good point and worth remembering oneself as well as occasionally reminding clients/athletes in a kind way.

All in all the weekend was a great one and Chris Porier and all of his staff at Perform Better did an awesome job putting the presenters, format and event together. They raise the bar every year put keep meeting their already high standards which isn't easy. These events are also great networking and social events that allow you to converse and hang out with colleagues that you might not otherwise see that often. That alone makes the investment a good one. If you have the chance, you should definitely attend one whether it is in Chicago or Long Beach!