Athletic Development : The Art and Science of Functional Sports Conditioning

Athletic Development offers a rare opportunity to learn and apply a career full of knowledge from the best. World-renowned strength and conditioning coach Vern Gambetta condenses the wisdom he's gained through more than 40 years of experience of working with athletes across sports, age groups, and levels of competition, including members of the Chicago White Sox, New York Mets, and U.S. men's 1998 World Cup soccer team.

The result is an information-packed, myth-busting explanation of the most effective methods and prescriptions in each facet of an athlete's physical preparation. Gambetta includes never-before-published and ready-to-use training approaches in

• sport-specific demands analysis,
• work capacity enhancements,
• movement skills development,
• long- and short-term training program progressions, and
• rest and regeneration techniques.

Athletic Development explains what works, what doesn't, and why. Gambetta's no-nonsense approach emphasizes results that pay off in the competitive season and reflect his work at the highest echelons of sport. Merging principles of anatomy, biomechanics, and exercise physiology with sports conditioning applications and four decades of professional practice, this is the definitive guide to performance-enhancing training.

Vern Gambetta is currently the director of Gambetta Sports Training Systems. He served as the director of athletic development for the New York Mets (2004-2005), speed and conditioning coach for the Tampa Bay Mutiny major league soccer team (1996, 1997, and 1999), conditioning consultant to the U.S. men's 1998 World Cup soccer team and the New England Revolution (1998), and director of conditioning for the Chicago White Sox. Gambetta has also worked with the Canadian men's and women's national basketball teams and the Chicago Bulls. Recognized internationally as an expert in training and conditioning for sport, Gambetta has lectured extensively and conducted clinics in Canada, Japan, Australia, and Europe.