I’ll begin this review by stating, straight off the top, that James “The Thinker” Smith is a friend of mine. He’s been incredibly helpful to me with my football program, my own training, and my own body of knowledge when it comes to coaching. I’ve also been both very impressed and extremely motivated by the work he’s done – as a physical preparation coach – in helping the University of Pittsburgh’s football program climb back to a position of national prominence. His results, with the play of Pitt’s skill position on the field and with his NFL hopefuls’ Combine and pro day performances, speak for themselves.
With that said, some of his past material – his DVD’s especially – have been more than a little confusing to me, and I know the same is true for others. I’ve read my share of the material he’s suggested over the years, and I’ve been coaching football for the better part of a decade, but there have been numerous times, when listening to James speak, where I’ve said, “Dude, what the f—-k are you talking about?”
With the release of his newest DVD, however – American Football: Physical Preparation During Skills Camps and the Competition Calendar – James has put out a product that I believe will be immensely helpful to football and physical preparation coaches everywhere.
At nearly 90 minutes in length, filmed in a classroom following Pitt’s pro day, this thing is a monster to get through – both in terms of length and content. It’s long, involved and complicated, and you’ll need to sit in front of your computer or TV with a notebook – and your remote in hand so you can rewind and re-listen in order to grasp the concepts James is covering. As a coach who’s been using his methods for years, however, I can assure that it’s well worth it to purchase this product and then put in the work to get through it. James essentially leaves no stone unturned with regard to the physical development of American football players – in diametric opposition to DVD’s the either gloss over such details or fail to tie them together in a manner coaches and players can use.
After purchasing and viewing just about every football and training DVD on the market, I’ve broken them down into two types. In the first kind, you’re shown a bunch of exercises, and a coach or trainer simply tells you what to do, expecting you to follow everything by rote without explaining why you’re doing things. With the second kind – and James has fallen victim to this in the past – you’re given a shitload of information, but you’re not told what any of it means, nor is it explained how to tie it all in with your team’s training.
This time around, although the information is still the same types of cutting edge science and latest training and recovery methods, James takes the time to break down the concepts he’s advocating in a manner that coaches can better understand. He’ll introduce something, reduce it into parts the layman can understand, and then give multiple examples of how he incorporates it into the training of his players. That’s been a major complaint about how he’s presented information in the past, but there were several points during this DVD where I said, “Oh, shit…I get that! That f-ing makes sense!”
I’m not going to bullshit you and tell you this is easy information to sift through and incorporate immediately, because it’s not. Listening to James is akin, sadly enough for the state of American coaching, to sitting through a graduate-level course in physical preparation. Whether you agree with his methods or not, the concepts he espouses should be part of the common body of knowledge among sport coaches. It’s unfortunate, and harmful to our athletes, that this is not the case. For my part, I agree with his philosophy on coaching for a variety of reasons. I’ve used much of it with my own program for several years with exceptional results, and I know several of his Pitt players personally – including several of his NFL guys – all of whom swear by him as a coach.
This product does exactly what its title states. It explains to you, comprehensively, how to train football players while staying mindful of their competition schedule and football-specific needs. If you purchase this DVD, take notes and study until you understand everything in it, then incorporate the various concepts into your own program, your team’s results will improve dramatically. The same applies if you’re a player. This product will teach you how to train, and why things work the way they do. This DVD will be a major component of my coaching and training arsenal for years to come.
American Football: Physical Preparation During Skills Camps and the Competition Calendar is available for purchase here.
I can’t find this on the site. Do you guys sell this?
Richard, look at the link at the bottom of the review…
The cutting edge material in this video is only cutting edge in the US most of it is 20+ years old in Russia….i love it…i will look into getting this DVD
Jay, I saw the link that goes to a different site and was asking why elitefts does not sell it. I know their reputation for quality products and find this very odd.
Question: I’m curious and I know this will sound retarded but will elitefts back up this article claim in regards to the quality of this product even though you don’t sell it? I know if I buy any of your other products and am not happy I can get my money back. The only reason I’m asking is this review is really pushing it and saying the information does describe how to use the principles for football. If I buy this and it sucks I’m willing to bet the distributor has a no returns policy so will I be screwed? Has anyone else purchased this item that can give their honest feedback? This is written by a friend and I’ve read and seen other material by James and I’ve never seen him able to explain any of the concepts in a practical nor useful way that 90% of coaches could understand. I guess what I’m really looking for is other feedback or for EFS to step up and back the claims of this article that happens to be posted on their site.
Ron, this is not a bad question and I’m glad you asked it. We do have people who try to refund products to us from other retailers all the time. I have NO IDEA why but they do. The short answer is no we will not refund or give credit in any way for items not purchased though us. I will however give you my word that I will post anyone’s review of the product and feel this is a fair request since we posted this article. I only ask those who do review both good and bad are specific as to why so people can make their own judgement. I will inform the moderators to not post replays that say things like “This DVD is awesome” or “This DVD sucks”. You will need to say why and be specific.
Ron, as far as a return policy on an open / already viewed DVD, I don’t know of any business that will allow you to return the DVD.
As far as my honest feedback on The Thinker’s new material; I highly recommend this DVD to anyone who is in the field of physical preparation for football. I enjoy all of James material and recommend this DVD to anyone interested in broadening their education beyond what can be found anywhere in this country. Whether or not you can understand James is up to your verbal limitations. I don’t mean that in an insulting way, it’s just as you had pointed out James has a way of speaking above people. Unless you have read some of the countless amount of material from over sea’s that James is influenced by, or you sit down with your computer and look up everything that you don’t understand; you may have a tough time with ALL of his material, not just this DVD.
As far as my studies and my learning has taken me to this point, there is no one in the field of physical preparation in this country that produces more thought provoking, and educationally rich material than James.
Having read and viewed his past material as you had mentioned, my best recommendation would be…if you have/can understand the core of what James is saying in his material. Then this DVD is a no brainer and a must have for your library!
Hope this helps.
I recently sat down to digest the latest DVD that was produced by James titled “Physical Preparation during Skills Camps and the Competition Calendar”. As I read some of the posts left above, I am curious as to why the way James speaks is even brought up? The fact that it is even an issue is a telling sign for the future and current state of the industry. He uses terms that any educated coach in the field should understand. If you have a hard time understanding his words and its meaning, then in my honest view you should not be able to work with athletes of any varying degree. His words, terminology, sentence structure, etc. is a major reason I follow his work because of a similarity in intellectual processes. We both graduated Cum Laude status from our Universities, and I am irritated that he comes under slight scrutiny because he speaks intelligently and some people do not know how to interpret it. Regardless, sit down with a dictionary, thesaurus, a physiology book if you must, and do not leave until you have grasped the “whole” of his work. What he has done is crafted, theorized, constructed, and synthesized his own model as it relates not only to the sport in question of American football, but for the minutiae of the individual positions that he works with, keeping mindful of the style and tactics of the team. Another thing I appreciate about his work, and maybe I notice this more than others is the order of slides, and the way they follow the context of the presentation. For example, slide 4 will slowly show itself and make greater sense after slide 5, and then the concepts from slide 4 and 5 will be merged into slide 6 making his point strong and clear. The amount of consideration he puts into his work with his players, not only his presentations is something to be admired, and to be strived for. The brilliant underlying theme of the presentation I felt was the inclusion of always trying to individualize the team training, staying aware of the different types of termperaments you can work with, teaching them to auto-regulate and control their own training. What he is trying to do is teach the athletes to know their own body so well, they essentially serve as their own self regulating omega-wave. He gives the athletes feedback about their performance and makes suggestions about training content, but ultimately they have control based on interpreting their own readiness levels. This DVD was fantastic, and very similar to the rest of his DVDs, manuals, articles, etc. If him talking about the biochemical exchange in the muscles, capillarization, and any other variabilities in physiological condition escapes your comprehension, then shame on you, and I would like to take your job. Keep up the great work, and I applaud your contributions.
I appreciate the comments and reviews. Thanks to those of you who have taken the time to provide detailed feedback.
I agree with Lance. James is way ahead than most of us in having such a great understanding of programming not just “training”. The fact that he is involved with Professor Verkhoshansky says enough. I have all of his products and can not say enough about how the info. has helped me as a coach. He is extremely thorough when others just ignore many facets of the training process. Many coaches just argue over what lift, what reps, or how to destroy athletes in training to make them “tougher”. This is not what James is about. He offers extremely important information with explanation. His works should be in every coaches office if they are training athletes. If you dont understand, then read, ask questions, find someone who knows more than you and THINK. He does not try to make things complicated, but he instead presents great information and backs it up with knowlege, science, research, experience, etc.
You will not regret buying his works and will be waiting for the next addition to be released.