Vibe Cultivation Theory: A Model for Creating an Energizing and Encouraging Training Environment

The Salinas Valley is often promoted as the “Salad Bowl of World”. When I moved back here to raise a family and start a private training business, I appreciated the billion-dollar industry here, but it wasn’t until I partnered with an agriculture company on their corporate facility that I began to appreciate the crop science on a deeper level. Driving from my house through the fields on a daily basis, watching how fields were prepared, harvested, and rotated provided more than a metaphor for training athletes in the different phases of development. Watching the cultivating of produce in some of the richest soil in the world has provided insight into that balance of art and science that goes into farming, and cultivating an optimal training environment for athlete development.

The Bible uses many agricultural allegories and metaphors. I interpret these in terms of patience, the long term view of high yield, and the measure we have to prune to get the high production. Though there is a scientific formula to scaling and maximizing something nature has done since the first miraculous molecular mash-up, but it also takes many decisions of a daily basis assessing climate and having a feel for the soil.

“….and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit” John 15:2

Over the last 14 years in professional sport (both in the UK and USA) and the last 8 building a private training company, the cultivation of ‘vibe”- which to me is defined as the ‘miraculous’ driving forces of creation between the observed building blocks of a training session or training phase- comes with a formula. This formulaic ‘crop science’, that if adhered to will ensure more robust growth of the athlete. This is because simply having a nice gym, a good program and a good training partner, or even uniform shoes and shorts is not enough to carry consistent athletic development that transitions to the field, and more-so life itself. There must be intuition, adjustments, and daily pruning to produce the metaphorical fruit.

Simply having a nice gym, a good program and a good training partner, or even uniform shoes and shorts is not enough to carry consistent athletic development that transitions to the field, and more-so life itself.

If our goal is to truly create multidimensional athletes with high awareness levels and leadership capabilities, the training session itself needs to reflect that learning and growth outcome. We are not creating robots, but living organisms that will reflect the soil, light, and nutrients (and destructive insects) that are a part of the growth process.

Coaches must consider the environmental factors just as much as the program itself. Creating fertile learning situations may be more important, especially in the early phases of athletic development, than the curriculum itself. Yet, as sport skill increases in later phases, the environmental vibe is of more relevance.

So, there is somewhat of a bell-shaped curve, where the initial growth and later ripening factors are relatively more important than intricate programming elements.

Vibe Cultivation 101

First rule of vibe cultivation, is a coach has to feel the environment:

First and foremost, without the farmer, production doesn’t happen. Therefore the coach creating the growth environment must be in the right mindset and practice the following vibe tenants. Knowing what, when, and where to plant, how long to grow and what to prune determines the yield. There is crop science, but also a feel and understanding of the environmental variables. Therefore, therefore vibe cultivator needs to be in the right place to make good decisions. Good coaching demands good planning and the space and time to gain necessary inspiration. Meditating on the pruning and fertilizing of the day takes not just knowledge, but also wisdom that comes through experience in the moment. To get maximum yield from a session or phase- to induce maximum vibe on a daily basis- the farmer/coach must have the time to train themselves prior to the session. Once a coach has to start memorizing a practice plan- the vibe is already lost.

Second rule of vibe, is you can’t force it:

A coach doesn’t make the athlete grow; a coach doesn’t make the awesome energy, intensity, and great experience happen. A coach can only cultivate it with better environmental factors, “soil” if you will, and let the athletes grow themselves. Once the coach tries to own the experience or athlete’s success too much, the growth conditions slowly get nutrient depleted or even toxic.

For produce in the field to flourish there needs to be the right amount of light, heat, nutrients in the soil, and avoidance of insects destroying the crop. Plants can’t grow solely on fertilizer, in fact, they will end up dying sooner. New shoes, cut off sleeves, aggression (fertilizers) can only be sprinkled in at the right time after the right amount of light, heat, nutrients and of course, water is formulated.

Third rule of vibe is that it takes constant attention:

A coach has needs to be constantly monitoring the external factors and adjust watering and pruning and adding the right amount of fertilizer.

What is water? I suppose that is sound programming. Its daily influence makes everything else work. You can’t over water though, or you will drown the emerging plant.

This is especially the case when a seedling is growing and taking root.

Water can also be a musical selection.

Water, Light, and Heat: Essential Elements of the Vibe

Starting with creating self-awareness and an attitude of gratitude– of which ‘others focus’ is elemental- should be the fundamental vibe inducer.
The awareness level grows from the seed of self-purpose to others-focused through gameplay, of which inter-personal communication skills are fundamental.
The first collective drill work needs to be rhythm-based without extraneous lyrical distraction. The sub-conscious blocking or accepting of word messaging in song can interrupt tuning finer motor skills and patterning. Basically, inducing dancing harmonizes muscle-tendon units and places intention for the ultimate strength adaptation of the day.
Programming is introduced after the creative ‘vibe’ is linked into and athletes have established self and others awareness, including spatial/proximity relationships.
The light and heat of encouragement from others enact the photosynthetic mechanisms of growth. Depending on the environment (devoid of light and heat…encouragement) this may be introduced earlier. Green-housing is helping young seeds grow rapidly in less ideal environments.

Fertilizers

It is only when the fundamentals of growth are enacted, that fertilizers are introduced. In my experience the tried and true boosters are:

Caffeine: Black Coffee 30-45 minutes prior to training
New Shoes: kinesthetic sensory changes, but also the feeling of looking good.
Gender Mixes: Girls showing up the guys in certain exercises. But also, sexual tension within the room
Purposeful Aggression: Tug of War game, circling around athlete during a PR attempt
Filming Oneself Doing Exercises: nothing helps me get through the back end of a workout than filming for an instructive video clip later in the evening
Altering your T-shirt (cut off sleeves, make a headband) or other acts of benign rebellion
Artistic Expressions: Adding painting or dancing
Safely Induce Vulnerability/Fear Response: Ballet practice, Gunslinger quick hands game, Group dance challenge or skit, broad jump over a stick
Add Acts of Service: Loser of a game has to buy a homeless guy a cup of coffee

Pests/ Insects to Vibe Cultivation

If vibe- the collective energy of a situation beyond the reps and sets- is to be present to increase athletic yield, then coaches must get rid of the pest and insects that destroy the crop. Freedom to grow and lock in an experience is often dependent on the athlete’s ability to be experience autonomy, have fun, and remove distractions that prohibit entering into flow state.

Rushing to a session: As already mentioned, the coach/farmer must prepare mentally, physically, and spiritually to make the right adjustments to the plan, cultivate the vibe and coach others. Rushing to a session, not having personally felt how things fit together and more importantly linking on to the greater purpose for even doing the session- from how it translates to on-field performance, to why it matters for their life, creates a checkbox mentality for the athlete and coach. Devoid of artistic approach and the time to achieve the muse will direct attitude, energy, musical choice, and sustained energy of the session.
Presence of parents or sport coaches. Having authority figures that determine playing time, or in house, discipline diverts athlete attention away from their own process of integrating movement and important social dynamics in the training environment. The athletes conditioning to gain approval must shift from a coach or parent, to their own sense of reward and or healthy competition with peers. The weight room often plays the role in creating a ‘third space’ away from the family home or playing environment where ownership and self-determination outside of persistent success-failure consequences are many times out of athlete control.

The weight room is where an athlete can be most in control of what is a highly variable-dependent success-failure outcome life, as well as authority figures, have to be removed to allow for optimal growth. If the athlete doesn’t take ownership of their own physical development, the growth potential ceiling is much lower.

Too much time in an aggressive zone. Spiking personal aggressiveness, ultimately rebellion and self-serving behavior for too long can have detrimental effects on not only the training environment, but the endocrine system as well. When channeling aggression becomes the primary focus of training, loading paradigms shift from rhythm to ultimately destruction. It shifts to, rather than a celebration of life, instead a mal-adaptive strength and stiffness coding, and the diminished ability to receive and redistribute forces becomes apparent.

Technology distraction. The presence of phones and the processing of non-essential information is a massive factor. Anxiety via social media or processing relational stress in the session or during rest periods is contrary to focus on the next set, overcoming obstacles, and or encouraging others in their quest to overcome obstacles in the ‘saga’ narrative arc of the training session. Furthermore, the distraction of data feedback, in general, could be a bigger issue to be aware of. If an athlete can only perform maximal efforts because of velocity feedback, then that a is a problem.
New shoes that are not designed for task New shoes that in fact are detrimental to performance create trepidation to drag toes, get dirty and change direction with force and intent. The vibe created by that feeling of new shoes can be canceled with working sub-maximally or having to change task due to inefficient footwear.
Too much focus on other genders or sexual energy. Many gym cultures and practices are based on sexuality. This primary focus, though stimulating affects social dynamics and training goals not relative to sports performance. Creating the right mix of male, female training culture can have great benefits on competition and heighten awareness. Robotic group-think is often a product of proportionate time with homogeneous team groups and private gender-limited schooling. The endocrine system and hormonal climate naturally changes with male and female mixes and should be dosed appropriately. To rely on this, or taken to extremes is ultimately toxic as the growth environment becomes arousal based, or too challenging/ distracting.
Too many coaches: Too many cooks in the kitchen or farmers in the field can create conflicting cultivation philosophies. Moreover, too many helpers before the harvest time can disrupt growth and cause distraction to the main coach. Though training ratios are important, and interns oftentimes needed, if a coach’s focus becomes more on staff management rather than athlete observing and responding, then the lead coach becomes distracted and even negative. If the decisions to adjust and change tactics for the day is limited by organizing workers, then growth factors may be limited. Too many interns distract the head coach if too much focus is placed on helping them know what to do in the moment.
Too many ladders, cones, hurdles, and speed development apparatus Though athletes generally like having structure and targets to contend with, the ability for an athlete to see the picture and link into a deeper coaching relationship and trust ultimately suffers. Athletes and coaches use these as crutches to sustain a session and often deeper movement themes and deficiencies aren’t addressed. Creativity, which is paramount for on-field success, and sustaining training culture is nipped in the bud with little plastic obstacles.
Too little ladders, hurdles. Until the deeper trust is established and awareness of bigger speed and acceleration themes is achieved, little plastic devices can help structure training sessions and give the boundaries and targets athletes need. Using speed ladders with associated musical patterns to tune rhythm and cadence is helpful but taken away at the point of desired on-field skill transference. Knowing the individual athlete or knowing where a team is on the awareness scale is imperative to adding or removing defined boundaries to run to, or jump over.

Conclusion

To cultivate growth, I believe there needs to be just as much attention to the environmental factors as to the program itself. A coach has to be able to provide an experience to lock in the physiological adaptations. If a memory is to be made, then the vibe has to be present. To create vibe, there are elements to be managed consistently: the fertile soil of the facility is determined by space, light, and musical vibration. The nutrient-rich soil is watered by the programming; heat and light are the encouragement of the coaches and ultimately other athletes. Insects and pests that destroy crops must be managed. Fertilizing the athlete crop must be done judiciously and timely.

Competition amongst the plant/athletes is essential as they reach for the light and encouragement and nutrients in the soil build roots and structure. This in fact may be the most important factor of vibe cultivation theory. If coaches don’t provide a healthy environment and adequate resources to compete and grow up, then robust yield individually and collectively for a crop will be low. Coaches must also be confident enough in their ‘crop science” to prune away the dead branches or those that are taking away resources, and ultimately the vibe. Because without the vibe, growth is not sustainable for the coach or the athlete.

About Paul Cater

Founder of The Alpha Project

Salinas High School, Varsity Baseball, Football 1995
UC Davis: Studied pre-law while playing UC Davis Varsity Football 2000
NSCA, Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist 2001
Poliquin Certified Level, 2

Internships include UCLA, San Jose State, San Francisco 49ers

Graduate Degree Exercise Science, Human Performance, Brunel University, London 2010

MSC Strength & Conditioning from Middlesex University, London 2011

Over 18 years of experience as an international strength and conditioning coach working with London Wasps Premier Rugby, Baltimore Orioles, USA Rugby and consulting numerous other High School, College & Professional Athletes

Late Stage Rehab Specialist

Phd Candidate focusing on Eccentric Overload through Rotary Inertial Flywheel Training, Recovery and Performance