Just Fly Performance Podcast

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Latest Episodes:

490: Austin Jochum on Engineering an Elite Training Stimulus Nov 20, 2025

Today’s guest is Austin Jochum. Austin Jochum is the founder of Jochum Strength, a former All-Conference safety turned performance coach known for playful, movement-rich training. He blends strength, speed, and adaptability to help athletes build real-world capability and enjoy the process. So often, coaches inadvertently play by the formal “rules” of coaching, through substantial instruction, within smaller boxes of training. Gameplay and sport itself are the ultimate example of task-based stimulation, chaos, and problem-solving, and the more we learn from it, the more effective our training can become. In this episode, Austin Jochum and I explore how coaching transforms when you trade rigid cues for play, stimulus, and athlete-driven learning. We dig into why intent and novelty matter, how to “win the day” without chasing constant PRs, and the power of environments that let athletes self-organize. Austin speaks on his recent dive into improving his Olympic lifting, and subsequent improvement in explosive athletic power, along with the masculine and feminine nature of the snatch and clean and jerk, respectively. Finally, Austin also breaks down the JST Olympics—his team-based approach that’s exploding motivation, competition, and performance in the gym. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength and LILA Exogen wearable resistance. Use the code “justfly20” for 20% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) 0:00 – Austin’s background, wrestling influence, and early training lens 8:12 – How wrestling shaped his coaching, problem-solving, and creativity 14:30 – Working with movement constraints, unpredictability, and the “maze” idea 22:40 – Why he prioritizes exploration over instruction 31:18 – Building athletic bandwidth through games and environmental design 38:01 – Touch on wrestling in training and contact-oriented movement 45:10 – Heavy rope training, rhythm, and full-body sequencing 52:46 – Hiring coaches and building culture inside his gym 1:01:37 – Athlete intuitiveness, imitation, and imitation-driven learning 1:10:55 – Recovery methods, cold exposure, and principles behind them 1:18:42 – Breathing mechanics, sensory awareness, and relaxation 1:24:52 – Tempo, rhythm, and “feel” in athletic movement 1:30:48 – Coaching philosophy and where Austin is heading next Actionable Takeaways 8:12 – Use problem-solving sports to shape athletic intelligence Wrestling taught Austin to read bodies, adapt instantly, and explore solutions without external cues. Add low-level grappling or tagging games to build instinctive reaction. Favor tasks where athletes solve problems on their own rather than through constant cueing. Let athletes “feel” leverage, pressure, and timing instead of explaining it. 14:30 – Build constraints that shape behavior instead of commanding technique Austin’s “maze” concept uses environment and rules to funnel athletes into better movement patterns. Use boundaries, footwork boxes, or timing rules to nudge athletes into desired solutions. Ask “what would make the athlete naturally move better?” instead of “how do I cue it?” Encourage unpredictable tasks that force athletes to explore and adapt. 22:40 – Exploration outperforms instruction for long-term development Austin finds that athletes learn faster when they discover solutions. Give them space to experiment before layering instruction. Adjust one variable at a time and let athletes reorganize around it. Use questions (“What did you feel? What would you try next?”) to guide reflection. 31:18 – Games expand movement bandwidth Austin uses play-based drills to build coordination, elasticity, and adaptability. Rotate games: tag, dodgeball variations, reactive pursuit, to challenge perception-action loops. Use small-sided tasks to increase decision density without overthinking. Keep the focus on fun: fun increases intent and frees up movement quality. 38:01 – Use wrestling-inspired drills for strength without rigidity Wrestling movements gave Austin strong connective tissue without bulky lifting. Use partner-resistance tasks for whole-body strength and tension awareness. Build isometrics out of wrestling positions for joint integrity. Allow controlled chaos; body contact builds stabilizing capacity. 45:10 – Heavy rope work for rhythm, sequencing, and tissue tolerance Austin relies on heavy rope patterns for global coordination. Use ropes to sync hands, feet, hips, and breath. Program flowing, continuous patterns to teach timing and smooth force transfer. Start with simple rhythms, then build patterns that cross midline. 52:46 – Culture and community determine training success Austin emphasizes hiring people who share curiosity and a growth mindset. Build environments where coaches model exploration, not perfection. Encourage shared training, shared learning, and open dialogue. Make the gym a place where athletes feel safe to try new things. 1:01:37 – Encourage imitation and athlete-led learning Austin sees imitation as a primary learning driver. Let athletes watch each other and imitate good movers. Create partner structures where athletes observe and mirror. Limit over-coaching so imitation can self-organize movement. 1:10:55 – Use recovery tools to teach regulation, not toughness Cold exposure and breathing work are about awareness and control. Focus on downregulation, not chasing extreme discomfort. Teach athletes how to relax under stress through controlled exposures. Keep recovery practices consistent and simple. 1:18:42 – Breathing for awareness and movement refinement Austin uses breath as a sensory anchor for better movement feel. Teach nasal breathing during warmups to increase internal awareness. Pair breath with movement tasks to improve timing and relaxation. Explore slow breathing to reduce unnecessary tension. 1:24:52 – Rhythm and tempo drive better movement than force Austin believes rhythm is the “glue” of athleticism. Use music, metronomes, or rhythmic cues to build flow. Train movements at different tempos to expand adaptability. Emphasize smoothness over force output when teaching skills. 1:30:48 – Stay curious and evolve your practice Austin’s philosophy centers around lifelong learning. Revisit old drills with new perspectives. Explore different disciplines (dance, wrestling, martial arts). Let your own training experiment inform your coaching. Quotes from Austin Jochum “Wrestling taught me to solve problems in real time. You can’t fake instinct in that environment.” “When you build the right constraint, you don’t have to coach as much. The environment does the teaching.” “Exploration gives athletes ownership. They learn the lesson at a deeper level.” “Games create bandwidth. The more options you give the athlete, the more adaptable they become.” “Wrestling positions gave me strength that the weight room couldn’t.” “Ropes taught me rhythm and timing. They connect the whole body.” “Culture is the system. If the environment is right, the training takes care of itself.” “I want athletes to imitate great movement, not memorize cues.” “Cold exposure isn’t toughness. It’s learning how to regulate yourself under stress.” “Breathing is awareness. It gives you access to better movement.” “Rhythm is the missing piece in performance. Smooth beats strong.” “The more curious I am, the better my athletes get.” About Austin Jochum Austin Jochum is the founder of Jochum Strength, a performance coach known for blending old-school grit with modern movement science. A former University of St. Thomas football player and All-Conference safety, Austin built his philosophy around “training the human first,” emphasizing play, adaptability, and athletic expression over rigid templates. His coaching blends strength, speed, breathwork, and movement variability, creating athletes who are not just powerful—but resilient and skillful in chaotic environments. Through his in-person gym in Minnesota, online programs, and the Jochum Strength Podcast, Austin has become a leading voice in community-driven athletic development, helping athletes and everyday movers reconnect with their bodies, build real-world ability, and enjoy the process.

489: Bill Smart on Isometrics, Flywheels, and Elastic Power Development Nov 13, 2025

Today’s guest is Bill Smart. Bill is a sport scientist and physical preparation coach specializing in elite fight-sports performance. As the founder of Smarter Performance and the Strength & Conditioning lead for the CORE MMA team, Bill integrates cutting-edge evidence with real-world high-performance systems to enable combat athletes to show up on fight day in optimal physiological condition. Much of the conversation in sports performance hinges on speed and power development, or conditioning, as a stand-alone conversation. Sport itself is dynamic and combines elements of speed, strength, and endurance in a dynamic space. Training should follow the same considerations to be truly alive and effective. In the episode, Bill shares his journey from cycling and rowing to combat sports. He discusses how long isometric holds develop both physical and mental resilience, and their implementation in his programming. The conversation dives into muscle-oxygen dynamics, integrating ISOs with conditioning, and how testing shapes his approach. Bill also explores flywheel eccentrics, fascicle-length development, and why sprinting is a key element for maintaining elastic power in elite fighters. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength and the Just Fly Sports Online Courses 30-50% off all courses until December 1, 2025. (https://justflysports.thinkific.com) Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer Use code “justfly20” for 20% off of LILA Exogen Wearable resistance gear at www.lilateam.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 0:00 – Bill’s coaching journey and early mentors 6:04 – The importance of movement observation and intuition 11:35 – Why athletes plateau and how to identify limiting factors 20:42 – Strength training principles that actually transfer 30:01 – Using movement variability and play in training 40:36 – Coaching communication and creating connection 52:09 – The role of curiosity and creativity in coaching longevity 1:00:55 – Key lessons from years of coaching experience Actionable Takeaways 6:04 – Movement observation and intuition Bill emphasizes that the best coaches develop a trained eye for movement by observing, not just testing. Watch athletes move in multiple contexts before prescribing anything. Look for how they transition between patterns, not only the end positions. Use video less for judgment and more for curiosity. What is the athlete trying to do? 11:35 – Identifying limiting factors Athletes plateau when coaches overemphasize one metric or capacity while ignoring the real constraint. Look beyond the weight room; technical or psychological factors often drive plateaus. Use minimal testing data to narrow focus rather than justify complexity. Sometimes the limiting factor is overcoaching. Let athletes fail and self-correct. 20:42 – Strength that transfers Transfer happens when strength work complements, not competes with, the sport’s rhythm and intent. Prioritize strength that preserves elasticity and timing rather than just force output. Rotate exercises often enough to keep athletes adaptive, but not so often that they lose rhythm. Load movement patterns, not just muscles. Treat every lift as coordination under resistance. 30:01 – Variability and play in training Bill describes play as a teaching tool that restores creativity and problem-solving in athletes. Use small games, uneven surfaces, or timing constraints to build adaptable movers. Variability should be purposeful. Expand coordination bandwidth without losing technical intent. Schedule “uncoached” time in sessions where athletes explore movement freely. 40:36 – Coaching communication and connection Great coaching depends on trust and empathy before information transfer. Deliver feedback as collaboration, not correction; frame cues as shared problem-solving. Match your communication tone to the athlete's readiness and personality. Be consistent and calm under pressure; emotional stability is contagious. 52:09 – Curiosity and creativity for coaching longevity Curiosity keeps coaching sustainable; creativity prevents burnout. Study outside your lane: music, design, or art can refine pattern recognition. Avoid rigid “systems” that turn coaching into mechanical input-output. Revisit old training ideas with a new lens instead of constantly chasing novelty. 1:00:55 – Key lessons and philosophy Bill’s long-term perspective is about developing people, not just performers. Build a coaching environment where learning continues on both sides. Focus on long-term process rather than short-term validation. Great coaching is about alignment between words, actions, and values. Quotes from Bill Smart “Observation is the beginning of understanding movement. You can’t coach what you don’t actually see.” “If you only measure outputs, you’ll miss what’s driving them.” “Strength is coordination under resistance; not just how much you can move, but how well you move it.” “When training becomes too predictable, athletes stop learning.” “Variability isn’t chaos; it’s guided exploration.” “The best cues invite the athlete to think, not to obey.” “Play keeps creativity alive. You can’t teach adaptability if everything is scripted.” “Curiosity is what keeps good coaches from becoming stale.” “Connection has to come before correction.” “The longer I coach, the more I realize that athletes teach me just as much as I teach them.” About Bill Smart Bill Smart is a sport scientist and physical preparation coach specialising in elite fight-sports performance. As the founder of Smarter Performance and the Strength & Conditioning lead for the CORE MMA team, Bill integrates cutting-edge evidence with real-world high-performance systems to enable combat athletes to show up on fight day in optimal physiological condition.

488: Sam Elsner on Rewiring Athletic Performance and Movement Learning Nov 06, 2025

Today’s guest is Sam Elsner. Sam is a former NCAA Division III national champion thrower turned motor learning writer and educator. He’s the author of The Play Advantage and creator of the Substack CALIBRATE, where he explores how humans learn movement through play, perception, and environment design. Sam brings a rare blend of elite athletic experience and deep skill-acquisition insight to help coaches and athletes move beyond drills toward true adaptability and creativity in sport. As athletic performance is largely driven by weight-lifting. It digs into maximal strength and force-related outcomes in such excess that all other elements of athleticism are negated. Skill learning and high velocity movement are the wellspring of sporting success. As such, having a balanced understanding of the training equation is critical for the long-term interest of the athlete. On today’s podcast, Sam and I dive into how athletes truly learn to move. Sam traces his journey from WIAC throws circles to Cal Dietz’s weight room, why a rigid “triphasic for everyone” phase backfired with a soccer team, and how ecological dynamics and a constraints-led lens reshaped his coaching. Together we unpack the strength–skill interplay, 1×20 “slow-cook” gains versus block periodization, the value of autonomous, creative training application. We touch on youth development, culture, and team ecology, plus where pros are experimenting with these ideas. This episode is loaded with both philosophy of training and skill learning, along with practical takeaways in program design. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength. Use the code “justfly20” for 20% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 1:18 - Early training experiences and triphasic background 5:44 - Implementing triphasic as a young coach 11:22 - The failure of rigid block periodization 17:49 - Vertical integration and maintaining all qualities 24:58 - Discovery of the ecological dynamics lens 29:57 - Why skill learning changed his view of strength 35:43 - 1x20 as a slow cooking strength framework 43:15 - Autonomy and stance/position freedom in the weight room 52:38 - Culture, environment, and how athletes learn 1:00:43 - Highlight play examples and perception-action 1:14:23 - Constraint-led models in team sport settings 1:20:55 - Where to find Sam’s work Actionable Takeaways 5:44 - Learning from early programming mistakes Rigid triphasic blocks without speed and skill work led to slower, less adaptable athletes. Keep speed, power, and reactive work present year-round in some capacity. Avoid assuming what works for one context transfers straight across to another. 17:49 - Vertical integration instead of siloed periodization Train multiple physical qualities year-round with shifting emphasis rather than isolating one block at a time. This prevents athletes from losing speed while developing strength, or vice versa. Small doses across the year keep qualities alive and connected. 24:58 - Skill learning must reflect the chaos of sport Sport is unpredictable, not robotic. Training should reflect that uncertainty. Use varied environments, movement options, and constraints instead of perfect reps. Skill emerges from exploration, not memorization. 35:43 - 1x20 for strength that supports skill 1x20 builds strength while leaving room for sprinting, jumping, and skill work. The last few reps in a 1x20 set still hit high effort without excessive nervous system cost. Use stance and tempo variations to match individual structure. 43:15 - Autonomy inside the weight room Allow athletes to choose stance width, bar position, and grip style within a lift. This respects anatomical differences and promotes ownership. Autonomy increases buy-in and self-organization. 52:38 - Culture shapes movement outcomes The environment athletes train in determines how they move and learn. If culture only rewards load and intensity, adaptability is lost. Design environments that reward exploration and awareness, not just output. 1:00:43 - Highlight plays reflect attunement, not force Elite athletic feats arise from pattern recognition and perception-action coupling. You cannot coach highlight movement through force metrics alone. Create rich movement histories rather than perfecting single patterns. Quotes "Sport is chaotic and uncertain. If your training isn’t reflecting that, you’re training for something else." "Strength is only useful if you can actually express it in the environment that matters." "1x20 gave me room to train speed and jumping instead of spending all my adaptation on heavy lifting." "We lose athleticism when we isolate qualities instead of integrating them." "Autonomy in the weight room lets athletes organize movement in ways that fit their structure." "Block periodization made my athletes slower because they lost access to the other physical qualities." "Those highlight plays happen because the athlete is attuned to the information in the moment, not because they calculated force." "Environment determines behavior. The culture you’re in shapes how you train and how you move." "Skill is shaped by varied experiences, not perfect repetitions." "The goal is to keep qualities alive, not build one at the expense of another." About Sam Elsner Sam Elsner is a former NCAA Division III national champion thrower from the University of Wisconsin-Stout who has transitioned into a leading voice in motor learning and skill acquisition. A six-time All-American and 2018 discus champion, Sam brings a deep, first-hand understanding of performance and training into his current work, exploring how athletes truly learn movement rather than just repeat drills. Now writing the popular Substack CALIBRATE and authoring The Play Advantage, Sam bridges neuroscience, ecological dynamics, and lived athletic experience to help coaches and performers unlock adaptability, creativity, and “feel” in sport. His work reframes coaching from rote technique toward curiosity, environment design, and the art of human learning in motion.

487: Ben Simons on Speed Training and the Art of Explosive Longevity Oct 30, 2025

Today’s guest is Ben Simons. Ben is a British performance coach and two-time Olympic bobsledder with a background in sprinting and sports science. A former World Cup gold medallist, he’s now focused on helping athletes develop speed, power, and coordination through evidence-based, real-world training methods. Ben blends biomechanics, motor learning, and nervous-system training to build explosive, adaptable athletes. Many speed training topics and conversations focus exclusively on the most stimulating possible methods; fewer get into individual factors, athlete adaptability, and how that speed and power training evolves with the needs of the athlete. On today’s show, Ben and I discuss asymmetry, rhythm, and “aliveness” in sprint and power development. We explore when to let unique mechanics—like Byanda Wlaza’s galloping stride—run their course versus coaching toward a technical model. Ben gets into the general speed training lessons he gained from bobsled, and shares why he now favors yielding isometrics, unilateral strength, and med ball throws over heavy lifts, emphasizing longevity, reflexive strength, and movement variability. We finish with how curvilinear sprints, pool work, and playful, multidirectional movement help athletes stay reactive, adaptable, and pain-free. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength and LILA Exogen wearable resistance. Use the code “justfly20” for 20% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 0:00 – Asymmetry, gallop running, and what to do with extremes 12:25 – Air-time vs ground work: why the stuff in the air transfers to sprinting 16:08 – From long jump and 4x100 to bobsled trials and the push track 19:57 – Retirement, coming back, and the management needed for longevity 24:04 – Achilles management, playing sport, and the power of movement variety 31:09 – Practical coaching advice: get people back into the sport they love 41:31 – Curvilinear sprints, feeling safe, and bringing play into rehab 45:53 – How bobsled pushing changed Ben’s acceleration and posterior chain 52:28 – Hamstring training, velocity, and the limits of eccentric volume 59:46 – Practical tools: tank sleds, prowlers, glute-ham machines, and Zurcher split squats 1:08:19 – Why Ben minimized compound max lifts and what he uses now 1:24:46 – Programming for mature athletes: living off the strength bank and using yield isometrics Actionable Takeaways 0:00 – Asymmetry, gallop running, and what to do with extremes Ben discusses the gallop-style sprint and whether to coach it out or keep it in the bandwidth. Use a technical benchmark as your reference, then assess the athlete’s bandwidth before changing form. If an athlete still performs well, test before adjusting — not every asymmetry needs fixing. Sled pushing can exaggerate patterns, so train sled and unweighted sprints separately for balance. 12:25 – Air-time vs ground work: why the stuff in the air transfers to sprinting Ben highlights the value of airborne drills and how isolating sides changes learning. Mix air-time drills (A-skips, dribbles) with reflexive work that reinforces limb exchange. Use isolating drills to refine control, then transition back to dynamic, reciprocal actions. Treat drills as tools to build feel, not techniques to be perfected. 16:08 – From long jump and 4x100 to bobsled trials and the push track Ben explains how testing funneled him into bobsled and what carried over from track. Identify transferable metrics (sprint speed, jumps) when guiding athletes into new sports. Plan gradual body composition changes to meet the new sport’s demands. Treat push-track practice as a specific development tool, not just novelty work. 19:57 – Retirement, coming back, and the management needed for longevity After retiring and returning, Ben focused less on output and more on resilience. Manage exposure and reduce cumulative max-strength volume. Replace some heavy lifts with unilateral, metabolic, and yielding isometric work. Use program variety, low-impact options, and smart recovery methods to extend career length. 24:04 – Achilles management, playing sport, and the power of movement variety Ben credits playful movement and variety for helping tendon and joint health. Add small doses of games (tennis, soccer, basketball) to reintroduce variability. Use pool work or hydro drills for recovery and postural reset. Mix in curvilinear or lateral movement constraints to keep tissues adapting. 31:09 – Practical coaching advice: get people back into the sport they love For long-term motivation, Ben recommends bringing fun back into training. Encourage clients to play their favorite childhood sport once a week. Adjust strength or volume elsewhere to keep total load manageable. Sustainable performance starts with enjoyment and consistency. 41:31 – Curvilinear sprints, feeling safe, and bringing play into rehab Curvy sprints helped Ben maintain intent while rehabbing hamstrings. Use curved sprint runs to maintain intensity without overstressing tissues. Add slight lateral elements early in rehab, then progress to linear sprinting. Keep a playful mindset to reduce fear and reintroduce speed safely. 45:53 – How bobsled pushing changed Ben’s acceleration and posterior chain Heavy sled pushing built unique posterior chain strength and acceleration power. Use sleds or prowlers for overloaded horizontal propulsion and hip drive. Track carryover into unweighted sprints and manage load progression carefully. Bridge sled pushing to sprinting through transitional mechanics and lighter sled phases. 52:28 – Hamstring training, velocity, and the limits of eccentric volume Ben emphasizes that eccentric loading must be balanced with sprint volume. Let sprint velocity drive hamstring development, not excessive eccentric reps. Use controlled Nordics or glute-ham raises as teaching tools, not endurance sets. Balance sprint and gym volume to protect tendon and muscle integrity. 59:46 – Practical tools: tank sleds, prowlers, glute-ham machines, and Zurcher split squats Ben’s favorite tools support progressive overload without joint stress. Use tank sleds or prowlers to build safe, scalable horizontal power. Include Zurcher split squats to teach pelvic control and glute-ham coordination. Adjust pad placement and load to individualize tendon-friendly training. 1:08:19 – Why Ben minimized compound max lifts and what he uses now Ben stopped chasing 1RMs but kept power outputs high through variation. For experienced athletes, reduce heavy compound frequency. Use yielding isometrics, unilateral strength, and medicine ball throws for high intent with less wear. Maintain strength but prioritize function, elasticity, and recovery. 1:24:46 – Programming for mature athletes: living off the strength bank and using yield isometrics Ben calls it “living off the interest” — using past strength while training smarter. Build blocks around tissue health, elasticity, and efficient expression of existing strength. Use high-velocity drills and isometrics for safe, effective output. Replace grindy lifts with explosive work that matches the athlete’s current phase of life. Quotes from Ben Simons “Once you're out of the acceleration phase... it's like spinning a bike wheel. After the first few spins, to make it go quicker, you’ve just got to tap it.” “Pushing bobsleigh absolutely improved my speed. It freed up my hips and built specific posterior chain strength.” “If you’ve put the money in the bank with max strength earlier, you might be living off the interest later. You don’t always need to chase heavy lifts.” “Playing multiple sports keeps movement options open. When you stop playing, you stop sprinting and exposing yourself to short, intense bursts.” “Curvilinear sprints changed how I trained after my hamstring tear. The lateral element made me feel safe but still competitive.” “There’s only so much eccentric volume you can tolerate if you’re already sprinting fast. Be smart with total load.” “Get people back into the sport they loved. The consistency and joy matter more than the perfect gym split.” “Tank sleds and prowlers build the same intent as sled pushing — once they’re moving, timing and impulse become the training.” About Ben Simons Ben Simons OLY is a British performance coach and former Olympic bobsledder with a background in sprinting and sports science. A two-time Olympian (Sochi 2014, PyeongChang 2018) and World Cup gold medallist, Ben spent a decade representing Great Britain on the international stage, competing in over 120 events. Before bobsleigh, he was a Welsh indoor 60 m champion and studied sports science at Cardiff Met, experiences that laid the foundation for his lifelong focus on speed and power development. Today, Ben brings that elite-sport experience to his work as a strength, speed, and performance coach. His approach blends biomechanics, motor learning, and nervous-system training to help athletes move efficiently and perform explosively under pressure. With an emphasis on coordination, recovery, and data-driven methods, Ben coaches athletes and teams across sports to bridge the gap between research and real-world performance, developing complete athletes who are as resilient and adaptable as they are fast and strong.

486: Cody Hughes on Principles of Athlete Centered Power Development Oct 23, 2025

Today’s guest is Cody Hughes. Cody is a strength and performance coach at Farm & Forge in Nashville, blending over a decade of collegiate and private-sector experience into a practical, athlete-centered approach. His work bridges foundational movement with modern tools like VBT and GPS tracking, always anchored by the belief that health drives performance. With the rising influence of technology in training, it can become more difficult to look clearly at the core facets of athletic force production, as well as how to optimally use technology to fill gaps, inform decisions, and even motivate groups. On today’s episode, Cody traces his shift from heavy-loading bias to a performance lens built on force management, eccentric RFD, and training that actually reflects sport. We unpack depth drops vs. “snapdowns,” why rigid “landing mechanics” miss the mark, and how movement literacy, variability, and velocity drive speed and durability. On the tech side, we get into velocity-based training (VBT) as a feedback and motivation tool, using it to gamify effort and auto-regulate load, and knowing when to remove the numbers to protect recovery and intent. Leaderboards, incentives, and smart stimulus design all matter, but Cody keeps it clear that data supports the human element that produces real power. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength and LILA Exogen wearable resistance. Use the code “justfly20” for 20% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 0:00 – Early lifting story and the hip replacement turning point 5:31 – Coaching development, biases, and error-driven learning 19:29 – The snapdown debate: context, progressions, and purpose 25:44 – What eccentric RFD tells us about athletic durability 30:42 – Strength as expression: assessments and force-plate logic 42:31 – Movement literacy and using competitive, decision-rich drills 49:30 – VBT explained: feedback, governors, and gamification 56:50 – When to hide feedback: elite athletes and psychological load 1:01:35 – Where VBT shines: youth and early training ages 1:25:28 – Wrap up and where to find Cody Actionable Takeaways 0:00 – Early lifting story and the hip replacement turning point. Cody’s early heavy-loading bias led to a total hip replacement and changed his training philosophy toward stability and movement quality. Reassess program priorities after a major injury: shift emphasis from maximal compressive loading to single-leg work, mobility, and stability. Use your injury story as a guardrail: design training that preserves life-long movement and allows play with family. Teach athletes the why: heavy strength is useful, but it must be paired with tissue resilience and mobility to avoid long-term breakdown. 5:31 – Coaching development, biases, and error-driven learning. Cody stresses that coaching wisdom grows from coaching people, making mistakes, and combining mentorship with hands-on experience. Get "skin in the game": coach real athletes and collect mistakes that refine your practice, not just textbook theory. Seek mentorship and internships to accelerate learning while still accepting the value of self-discovery. Avoid premature certainty: test provocative ideas and be ready to change your mind when evidence or outcomes demand it. 19:29 – The snapdown debate: context, progressions, and purpose. Snapdowns can be either a motor-learning tool for hinge/positioning or a low-value, non-stimulating ritual depending on context. Use snapdowns as a micro-dose progression: for young athletes, combine unweighting, pelvic control, and velocity to teach hinge and pretension. Do not use snapdowns as a one-size-fits-all landing mechanic; if the only goal is "landing mechanics," favor exposing tissues to a range of velocities, angles, and vectors instead. If snapdowns are used with elite athletes, ensure they serve an explicit force- or RFD-related progression, not just a warm-up checkbox. 25:44 – What eccentric RFD tells us about athletic durability. Eccentric rate of force development strongly correlates with sports performance and longevity; capacity to handle rapid braking is crucial. Include progressive eccentric exposures (depth drops, drop jumps) to train braking RFD, using force metrics when possible. Teach athletes both options: hard, stiff contacts for quick reactivity or yielding strategies for impulse extension depending on the task. Combine eccentric work with decision-making drills so athletes learn to anticipate and pretense contact in sport contexts. 30:42 – Strength as expression: assessments and force-plate logic. Strength is task-dependent expression; force plates can reveal propulsive power, braking power, and RFD in meaningful ways. Use force-plate metrics to profile athletes: concentric power, eccentric RFD, and MRSi reveal different capacities than a 1RM. Prefer task-specific assessments over global 1RMs when the sport requires velocity and elastic qualities. Interpret strength as what athletes can express in context; design training to improve the expression that matters for their sport. 42:31 – Movement literacy and using competitive, decision-rich drills. Velocity and decision-making make drills stimulating and transferable; gamified constraints produce higher engagement and better transfer. Replace rote, low-stimulus drills with short competitive tasks that require decision making and speed under load (medicine-ball throws for distance, target throws). Use velocity and competitive constraints to drive intent and motor learning rather than static, pre-planned movement only. Track whether the stimulus actually pushes sport expression; if not, rework the drill into a more game-like challenge. 49:30 – VBT explained: feedback, governors, and gamification. Velocity is a real-time metric that gives context to load and can be used as feedback, an auto-regulatory governor, or a target for progression. Use VBT as a governor for youth and novices: set minimum velocity thresholds to preserve technique and avoid grindy lifts. Turn VBT into gamified progression: allow athletes to increase weight when they exceed a target velocity, creating clear incentives. Combine velocity rules with technical constraints (range of motion, sequence) so numbers reward quality, not sloppy reps. 56:50 – When to hide feedback: elite athletes and psychological load. Feedback can over-intensify ultra-competitive athletes; sometimes removing numbers preserves performance and mental stability. For elite, highly competitive athletes, selectively hide feedback during heavy phases or pre-competition to avoid harmful intensification. Monitor athlete psychology: if feedback creates anxiety or counterproductive competition, reduce or remove it. Let tools be optional; coaching art decides when to give feedback and when to protect athlete readiness. 1:01:35 – Where VBT shines: youth and early training ages. VBT is especially useful for high-school and early-college athletes to build intent, maintain quality, and teach progression. Apply VBT to 14-18 year olds as a way to teach velocity thresholds and encourage technical integrity. Use a three-level VBT approach: simple feedback, a governor to enforce minimum velocity, and targets for competition. Include VBT even with youth to keep training engaging and to prevent excessively heavy, low-quality loads. 1:25:28 – Wrap up and where to find Cody. Cody recommends practical systems that combine measurement and human coaching, and points listeners to his resources. When building a program, combine objective metrics with careful observation and athlete buy-in. Use tools to reduce guesswork, but always interpret them through athlete readiness and context. Find Cody on Instagram @clh_strength and at clhstrength.com for programs and resource sheets. Quotes from Cody Hughes “People have to be able to handle eccentric forces. Eccentric RFD is an extremely important metric for all field and court sport athletes.” “If you use a snapdown as a micro-dose progression to teach hinge, pelvic control, and velocity, it can be useful for young athletes.” “Strength is not an attribute, it’s an expression. You evaluate strength based on the task it’s being observed in.” “Velocity is just another metric that gives context. It’s real-time feedback rather than operating off old percentage information.” “Get it outside of coach’s judgment and let it be a number on a screen. Now I cheer you on instead of guessing.” “Use VBT as a governor: set minimum velocity thresholds so athletes don’t grind through sloppy reps.” “For elite athletes, sometimes you have to take numbers away. The hyper-competitive athlete can get destabilized by constant feedback.” “Movement efficiency is everything. You challenge it with velocity and with a variety of options where the athlete has to make a decision.” “Don’t keep chasing a strength stimulus if it’s not helping the expression you want. Do the thing at the velocity you need to transfer.” “Make training stimulating and measurable. If you can gamify the system, athletes will want to push the bar and engage more.” About Cody Hughes Cody Hughes, MS, SCCC, CSCS, PSL1, is a strength and performance coach at Farm & Forge in Nashville, Tennessee. A former collegiate athlete with more than a decade of coaching experience across NCAA Division I and II programs, high schools, and the private sector, Cody brings a practical, athlete-centered approach to performance training. His work focuses on building strong movement foundations,

485: James de Lacey on Rhythm, Reactivity, and the Art of Athletic Power Oct 16, 2025

Today’s guest is James de Lacey. James is a professional strength and conditioning coach and the founder of Sweet Science of Fighting, a leading platform for combat sports performance. He has coached in professional rugby leagues across New Zealand, Europe, and the United States, and has trained athletes in MMA, boxing, Muay Thai, and BJJ. Through Sweet Science of Fighting, he delivers evidence-based programs and education for fighters and coaches worldwide. Strength training for athleticism typically focuses on sets, reps, and general forces, but rarely gets into aliveness and skill management of the resistance itself. The former is great for building basic physical competencies, but in integrating the latter, we can breathe more life into a performance program. On today’s show, we dive into James' approach to building athletic strength and power across multiple mediums. We explore how Olympic lifting, especially pull variations, connects to real sport actions, and how striking and collision sports highlight the importance of timing, rigidity, and effective mass. We also break down resistance methods like oscillatory work, flywheels, and accentuated eccentrics, focusing on their alive, reactive qualities rather than just load. These principles carry into speed and power training, including plyometrics and sprinting, with rhythm and movement quality as a central theme. The episode makes strong connections between field sports and combat sports, showing how momentum, relaxation, and rigidity at impact shape performance. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength and LILA Exogen wearable resistance. Use the code “justfly20” for 20% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 0:56 - Olympic Lifting Philosophy and Sport-Specific Implementation 4:26 - The Role of Bar Flex and Slack in Block Pulls vs. Rack Pulls 7:03 - High Block Work for Impulse and Technical Refinement 12:22 - Oscillatory Training and the Limits of Maximal Strength 24:49 - Upper/Lower Body Dissociation for Fluid Movement and Game Speed 52:25 - Controlled Eccentric Overload using Flywheel Technology Actionable Takeaways 0:56 - Olympic Lifting Philosophy and Sport-Specific Implementation Prioritize Pull Variations: Use variations like the high pull, especially in combat sports (grapplers), to strengthen the upper back and facilitate violent, vertical hip extension. This is useful for actions like a mat return. Select Snatch over Clean: Choose snatch variations (e.g., power snatch from the hip/hang) over the clean for general athletes because the front rack position is often too difficult, making the snatch easier to learn. Match Lift to Resource/Context: Recognize that the implementation of Olympic lifts in a team setting is often constrained by equipment (e.g., only two barbells for a team) and the athlete's level. 4:26 - The Role of Bar Flex and Slack in Block Pulls vs. Rack Pulls Understand Sensory Differences: Recognize that pulling from blocks feels different than pulling from a power rack. Blocks hold the plates, allowing for "slack" and "flex" in the bar, similar to a deadlift bar. Avoid Dead Weight: Pulling from a rack holds the bar and removes the flex, creating a "dead weight" stimulus, which makes the lift harder and limits the use of bar properties to set positions. 7:03 - High Block Work for Impulse and Technical Refinement Train for Time Constraints: Utilize high block work to force athletes to generate high impulse in very short time frames, mirroring the time constraints often encountered in sport. Force Pull-Under Technique: High blocks are a beneficial constraint that forces the athlete to actively "pull themselves under" the bar, addressing a common technical flaw where athletes dive under instead of finishing the pull. Facilitate Speed via Relaxation: Understand that successful Olympic lifting requires a "pseudo activation relaxation kind of thing," where relaxation facilitates the speed needed to pull under the bar. 12:22 - Oscillatory Training and the Limits of Maximal Strength Use Oscillatory Isometrics: Implement oscillatory or pulse-style isometric exercises, such as a pulsing single-leg glute ham raise isometric, for specific adaptations (e.g., in-season hamstring work). Re-evaluate Max Strength Bias: Understand that an over-emphasis on maximal strength may not transfer to improved power in short time frames. Research suggests that "relaxation kinetics" can be negatively adapted by heavy strength training alone, causing athletes to "break earlier" in fast, cyclical actions. Prescribe by Sport Demands: Group athletes by position or sport needs: grapplers need high force; strikers need high velocity; rugby backs need speed; tight five need strength; and adjust the volume of maximal strength work accordingly. 24:49 - Upper/Lower Body Dissociation for Fluid Movement and Game Speed Prioritize Dissociation: View the ability to rapidly dissociate the upper and lower body as a key component of athleticism. Implement Dissociation Drills: Use large association exercises, such as the landmine bar whip drill combined with foot switching, which James has observed good athletes doing well. Use Perturbation for Game Speed: Apply upper-body perturbations like a "halo acceleration run" (sprinting while haloing a 5kg plate above the head) to help athletes maintain speed while doing an upper-body task. Relate to Game Actions: Connect dissociation training to "critical game speed" examples, such as a rugby or soccer player looking behind them to track a ball while sprinting in a straight line. 52:25 - Controlled Eccentric Overload using Flywheel Technology Use Machines for Eccentric Overload: Leverage machines like the 1080 Quantum for eccentric overload, as it provides a safe, controlled method that overcomes the limitations (heavy loads, multiple spotters, danger) of traditional eccentric lifting. Test Extreme Applications: Controlled mechanical resistance can be used for novel training; James tested using the Quantum for eccentric overload neck training (40 kgs on an Iron Neck) and found no soreness, suggesting safety with constant feedback loops. Apply to Sport-Specific Movements: Eccentric overload can be applied to sport-specific movements like "bear hug rotations" (resisting the machine as it pulls a bag back) for huge transfer to grappling, wrestling, and rugby. About James de Lacey James de Lacey is a professional strength & conditioning coach and the founder of Sweet Science of Fighting, a leading platform for combat sports performance education. He holds a Master’s degree in Sport & Exercise Science and has worked as an S&C coach in professional rugby leagues across New Zealand, Europe, and the United States, as well as with MMA, boxing, Muay Thai, and BJJ athletes. Through Sweet Science of Fighting, he creates evidence-based programs, courses, and research breakdowns focused on strength, power, conditioning, and technical performance for fighters and coaches. His work bridges sports science with the practical demands of combat sports, making high-level training methods accessible and applicable worldwide.

484: Manuel Buitrago on Olympic Lifting, Pressure Mechanics and Explosive Athleticism Oct 09, 2025

Today’s guest is Manuel Buitrago. Manuel is a PhD, along with being the founder and director of MaStrength, a global education brand dedicated to authentic Chinese weightlifting. Since launching MaStrength in 2014, he’s taught 100+ seminars worldwide, authored Chinese Weightlifting: A Visual Guide to Technique and Chinese Weightlifting: Technical Mastery & Training There are many misconceptions in the world of strength training, especially as the lens of a skeletal pressure-based view is not included in modern training systems. When skeletal pressure dynamics are understood, it allows us to see why athletes prefer particular variations of lifts, how and why they fail lifts, and what aspects of the lifts themselves lead to better athletic outcomes. On today’s episode, Manuel speaks on the practicalities of weightlifting and how it carries over to sport. He compares powerlifting and Olympic lifting from a technique and transfer standpoint, and gets into how body shapes, breathing, and set-ups affect a lift. Manuel also touches on connective tissue and why it matters for performance and durability. From this episode, you’ll learn concepts about the Olympic and powerlifts that can not only improve lifting performance but also facilitate a better transfer to athleticism and movement ability. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength. Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer at thedunkcamp.com Use code “justfly20” for 20% off of LILA Exogen Wearable resistance gear at www.lilateam.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 0:00 - From gymnastics and powerlifting to Chinese weightlifting 3:34 - First Olympic lifting exposure via IronMind footage and Pyrs Dimas 5:40 - The Chinese team’s systematic approach that sparked the study abroad 9:30 - Breathing, shapes, and the funnel concept for lifting 26:15 - Bottom-up squats: why weightlifting squats differ from powerlifting squats 30:45 - Training near the hip and block work to bias upward, explosive shapes 41:08 - Squat jerk versus split jerk - body shape, femur length, and selection 54:34 - Box squats, touch-and-go versus deloading - individualize by athlete shape 58:29 - Practical breathing cues to create and switch the funnel shape 1:07:24 - Applying shapes to sport - who benefits from which strategies Actionable Takeaways 0:00 - From gymnastics and powerlifting to Chinese weightlifting Manuel’s early background (gymnastics then powerlifting) led him to seek a more athletic, attainable physique via Olympic lifting. Use cross-sport curiosity: explore other lifting cultures to discover training cues that fit your athlete. Test new lifts with low ego loads to learn the feeling before programming heavy progressions. When an approach resonates (Manuel saw this in video footage), lean into learning it systematically rather than chasing trends. 3:34 - First Olympic lifting exposure via IronMind footage and Pyrs Dimas Seeing training hall footage made manual learning possible; video can reveal consistent patterns across a team. Use curated training footage to spot systematic cues you can trial in the gym. Compare multiple athletes in the same system to find the shared principles, not the outlier quirks. Trial small protocol elements from footage (timing, shapes, sequencing) on yourself or a pilot athlete before scaling. 5:40 - The Chinese team’s systematic approach that sparked the study abroad Manuel noticed consistent shapes and timing in the Chinese footage that contrasted with other teams’ variety. When observing multiple athletes, note common positions and tempo as signals of a system you can emulate. If a system looks consistent and repeatable, consider immersive study (courses, short placements) to learn its language. Use language and cultural learning to communicate directly with athletes and coaches when studying foreign systems. 9:30 - Breathing, shapes, and the funnel concept for lifting Manuel stresses creating a funnel-shaped torso from the start position - compressed lower torso plus expanded upper torso - to bias upward movement. Teach athletes to compress the abs first, then allocate air to the upper torso so chest and mid-back expand; this creates an upward gradient. Practice the shape unloaded: stand, exhale to compress lower abs, then fill front and back of upper torso so the mid-back expands. Repeat until the cue is reliable. Avoid powerlifting-style breathing in the start position (squeezing top while pushing belly against the belt) when the goal is quick upward reversal. 26:15 - Bottom-up squats: why weightlifting squats differ from powerlifting squats Weightlifting squats are usually “bottom-up” because the lift catches are unweighted while the bar rises; powerlifting squats tend to be “top-down”. Program bottom-up variations (Andersons, pin squats, bottom-position work) to train the specific rebound and reversal qualities used after a catch. If the athlete struggles to rebound from deep positions, include drills that train storing and releasing connective tissue energy (controlled depth with quick rebound). Remember the context: heavy front squats from the rack are a different stimulus than the unweighted catch followed by a bottom-up squat in competition. 30:45 - Training near the hip and block work to bias upward, explosive shapes Work that starts closer to the hip trains a shape that favors upward, externally rotated positions and faster reversals. Use high-block or hip-near pulls and catches to bias external rotation and rapid upward dynamics. Pair hip-near training with short, explosive plyos so athletes learn to translate the stored elastic energy into vertical output. If an athlete spends too much time in internally rotated, compressive positions, schedule sessions that emphasize hip-centric and block-based lifts. 41:08 - Squat jerk versus split jerk - body shape, femur length, and athlete selection Squat-jerkers typically have shorter femurs and longer torsos and thus can maintain upright balance in deep catches. Screen athletes for limb proportions and uprightness under load: prefer squat jerk coaching for those with short femurs and strong overhead squat resilience. For athletes who struggle to remain upright, consider split jerk pathways or strengthen the funnel shape and overhead squat tolerance first. Use repeated overhead squat tolerance under heavier cleaning loads as a practical selector for jerk style. Squat-jerkers often tolerate higher reps near max more easily. 54:34 - Box squats, touch-and-go versus deloading - individualize by athlete shape Choose touch-and-go or paused/deloading box squats depending on whether the athlete needs to bias upward power or shape the ability to go down. If an athlete already rebounds well from depth, prefer touch-and-go or tempo box variations to maintain upward pressure. If an athlete needs to learn to release tension and sink into depth, use deloaded box squats with brief pauses to teach pressure release and shape change. Consider the athlete’s history: wide, compressed lifters often need deloading; narrow, rebound-prone athletes often need touch-and-go stimulus. 58:29 - Practical breathing cues to create and switch the funnel shape Manuel gives a concrete cue sequence: compress the lower abs, maintain tension, then allow the air to expand the upper chest and mid-back. Drill the sequence unloaded: exhale and compress lower abs, hold tension, then breathe so the chest and mid-back expand. Repeat until automatic. Coach upper-back expansion explicitly; avoid cues that only push the chest forward because that creates a forward-leaning, non-funnel shape. Use the balloon analogy Manuel uses: avoid gulping air that forces awkward shape changes; teach controlled allocation of air so the athlete retains capacity to change shape. 1:07:24 - Applying shapes to sport - who benefits from which strategies Manuel emphasizes matching shape and exercise selection to sport needs - a center (football) needs different shapes than a sprinter or jumper. Choose training goals by job description: low, rooted shapes for linemen; upward, externally rotated shapes and hip-near training for aerial or sprint positions. Don’t force every athlete into Olympic lifting; you only need the shape the sport requires. Use lifts and drills that produce the desired shape. Assess each athlete’s baseline shape, then pick exercises that move them toward the shape they need to express on the field. Quotes “People who just stay in one shape are not going to be as successful as people who can change their shapes.” “So the squat for weightlifting always happens from after the catch. It happens from the bottom up.” “A funnel has to be, you know, wide on both sides from front to back.” “If your goal is to get really good at squatting from the bottom up, you need to make a shape that again helps you go up.” “As you are reaching the hip, say for a snatch, you are reaching more of an externally rotated shape of the pelvis.” “Upright rows are great if your goal is to try to go down faster.” “When you go into that deep position you’re storing energy.” “If you catch it in the middle and then ride it down, you have to come to a stop. So you have to put force into the ground to stop.” “Squat jerkers… are going to have short femurs, they’re going to have a longer torso.” “If you don’t breathe like this in weightlifting, you can’t create the shape that helps you rebound out of the bottom.” About Manuel Buitrago Manuel Buitrago, PhD, is a coach, author, and the founder/director of MaStrength, where he teaches the techniques, theory, and programming principles of Chinese weightlifting to athletes and coaches around the world.

483: Jack Barry on Confidence and the Art of Instinctive Athleticism Oct 02, 2025

Today’s guest is Jack Barry. Jack is the founder of JB Performance and a former ABCA DIII All-American (York College, 2021) who played at Salisbury University. After college, he worked at Tread Athletics, then built a remote+in-person coaching model. Jack has coached athletes from high school to pro levels, appeared on Baseball America’s 90th Percentile, and hosts the “Just Rippin’” podcast. On today’s episode, Jack speaks on athletic potential as a function of work capacity with quality, deliberate practice. We unpack the mental side of training, how visualization, targeted self-talk, and timely pattern breaks calm performance anxiety and restore confidence. He also touches on how athletes thrive when they develop a unique identity, balance effort with recovery, and treat mindset and mechanics as equal partners. This is a dynamic episode, at the intersection of pitching skill and global human performance concepts. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength and LILA Exogen wearable resistance. Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 0:20 – From college ball to new competitive outlets4:10 – Work capacity, family influences, and cross-training7:10 – Adapting training: speed, volume, and specificity10:01 – Aerobic contributions in racket and throwing sports15:46 – Provoking reactivity: stumble drills and innate responses23:16 – Pattern breaks, the yips, and the "be sexy" mentality27:44 – Reactive throwing drills to clean the arm action31:15 – Pre-movement cues and subtle distractions to speed action43:21 – Visualization with highlight reels to build confidence52:25 – Essentialism in training: less and better59:50 – Start with less, progress intelligently1:00:25 – Barefoot training and simplifying the lower half Actionable takeaways 0:20 – From college ball to new competitive outlets Jack traces his path from Division III Salisbury baseball into jiu-jitsu, tennis, and a renewed love for training after leaving team sport. Treat post-playing transitions as a chance to experiment with new sports that satisfy the competitive impulse. Use cross-training to keep motivation high while developing complementary athletic qualities. When exploring a new sport, accept the beginner phase and enjoy the novelty rather than forcing immediate mastery. 4:10 – Work capacity, family influences, and cross-training Jack reflects on family genetics and finding his own work-capacity strengths through varied activities. If you enjoy sustained effort, program both volume and varied intensity (easy long efforts plus specific speed sessions). Use cross-training (racket sports, running, court games) to get game-like cardiovascular stimulus without burnout. Be deliberate: split session types by purpose (speed sessions, volume sessions, tempo work) instead of lumping everything together. 7:10 – Adapting training: speed, volume, and specificity Jack describes learning to periodize his running and mix speed with volume to actually get faster. Structure sessions by purpose: separate longer aerobic efforts from targeted speed work. Progress volume conservatively (small weekly increases) and add specific speed work for real improvements in pace. Treat running like any other modality: apply progressive overload principles and discipline. 10:01 – Aerobic contributions in racket and throwing sports Jack compares racket sports and throwing, noting the reactive and aerobic demands of court play. Use court-based conditioning to develop reactive stamina and contextual decision-making. Choose cross-training that mirrors sport constraints when possible (racket sports for reactive throws). When prescribing conditioning, prefer enjoyable, sport-like formats to sustain athlete buy-in. 15:46 – Provoking reactivity: stumble drills and innate responses Jack and Joel discuss deliberately provoking reactive behavior to shut off overthinking and unlock natural responses. Include occasional stumble or get-up starts to force reactive systems and reduce conscious rumination. Use surprise or unpredictable triggers in practice to train the body’s innate quickness under pressure. Reserve these drills for appropriate contexts; they are tools to access reactive output, not constant training staples. 23:16 – Pattern breaks, the yips, and the "be sexy" mentality Jack shares the value of non-technical pattern breaks and the "be sexy" cue to reframe performance under pressure. Use lighthearted, unrelated activities (driving range, pickup basketball, different meal) to break ruts and reset focus. Create simple, individualized cues that reduce overthinking and let the subconscious drive skill execution. For athletes with choked performance, pair deliberate practice with small pattern breaks to restore confidence. 27:44 – Reactive throwing drills to clean the arm action Jack outlines a drill where a player catches a quick toss and must immediately throw, forcing quick arm tempo and simplicity. Practice the reactive catch-and-throw drill: catch with the throwing hand and release immediately to train arm quickness. Manipulate the toss location to shape desired arm path and timing (behind, side, front). Use this drill to reduce “stabby” arm actions and promote a faster, simpler release. 31:15 – Pre-movement cues and subtle distractions to speed action Jack and Joel explore small pre-movement tricks that distract the conscious brain and improve quickness. Introduce tiny physical cues (hand tension, a quick clench) to occupy the conscious mind just before action. Teach athletes short rituals that consistently prep their motor system without promoting rumination. Practice cues in training until they transfer automatically into competition scenarios. 43:21 – Visualization with highlight reels to build confidence Jack recommends using real performance highlights as a stronger visualization tool than abstract self-talk alone. Create athlete highlight reels from real clips and pair them with music to reinforce proven ability. Use these videos to accelerate confidence during rehab or performance slumps. Prioritize demonstrated performance over empty affirmation; show athletes the evidence that they can perform. 52:25 – Essentialism in training: less and better Jack argues for focused, deliberate practice rather than glorified volume that often leads to injury or wasted effort. Identify the few high-value actions that drive performance and prioritize them ruthlessly. Start with less volume; add only when the athlete’s recovery and adaptation permit. Use deliberate practice principles: quality reps beat quantity when the goal is skill and transfer. 59:50 – Start with less, progress intelligently Jack uses food and recovery analogies to explain why starting with less volume is safer and more effective. Begin new phases conservatively; you can always increase load if recovery and performance allow. Reserve high-volume spikes only when the schedule and athlete readiness support them. Teach athletes to view additional work as strategic, not as a default reaction to anxiety about performance. 1:00:25 – Barefoot training and simplifying the lower half Jack explains how barefoot throwing can simplify lower-half behavior and reveal excessive lower-limb compensation. Use barefoot throws as a diagnostic or early-stage constraint to simplify the lower half and highlight upper-body efficiency. Progress foot conditions: barefoot drills for proprioception, barefoot shoes for training, then cleats for skill transfer. Apply barefoot work selectively, knowing it’s an advanced, context-sensitive tool rather than a universal prescription. Quotes “If you want to get faster, you can’t just pile on more running. You need to separate sessions by focus: speed, volume, or tempo, so the body actually adapts.” “Sometimes the best way to unlock athleticism is to provoke reactivity. A stumble start or quick catch-and-throw drill forces the body to solve problems without overthinking.” “The goal of the reactive throw drill is simple: catch the ball with your throwing hand and get it out as quickly as possible. It cleans up arm action without over-coaching.” “Pattern breaks are underrated. Take an athlete with the yips to a driving range, or give them a playful cue like ‘be sexy.’ It resets their mind and frees up performance.” “Highlight reels are more powerful than affirmations. When an athlete watches themselves succeed, the brain believes it; it accelerates confidence and recovery.” “Effort feels good, but too much volume is often just anxiety disguised as training. Start with less, because you can always add more once the athlete shows they’re ready.” “Essentialism matters. Training isn’t about doing everything; it’s about finding the few things that actually drive transfer and doubling down on those.” “Barefoot throwing is a constraint that simplifies the lower half. Without the shoe, the body can’t fake drive off the mound, and you see what’s really happening mechanically.” About Jack Barry Jack Barry, CSCS, is the founder of JB Performance, where he helps pitchers turn efficient mechanics and smart workloads into game-day velocity and command. His process blends slow-motion video breakdown, individualized drill progressions, and clear week-to-week plans that are simple to follow and easy to measure. Jack’s focus areas include strength & conditioning, throwing mechanics and workload management, pitch design, and mobility. Jack Barry Performance Before coaching online,

482: Romain Tourillon on Forefoot Training, Toe Strength, and Athletic Development Sep 25, 2025

Today’s guest is Romain Tourillon. Romain is a sports physiotherapist and researcher specializing in the foot–ankle complex, with clinical leadership at the Swiss Olympic Medical Center, La Tour Hospital (Geneva). His PhD at Université Jean Monnet Saint-Étienne examined foot muscle strength and sport performance. It’s important to train the lower legs in athletes, but the question is what type of training is best, especially when it comes to working the toes and forefoot, versus more general calf and shin work. In this episode, Romain discusses his research on forefoot biomechanics and performance. He shares training that boosted MTP (big-toe) flexion strength ~28% in trained athletes and explains how stronger forefeet enhance sprinting, cutting, and jumping via better force transmission and stability. We also cover injury prevention, targeted foot/ankle exercises, challenges in measuring toe strength, and where 3D analyses may take the field— with practical takeaways for coaches and athletes throughout. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength and the Just Fly Sports Online Courses Check out the newest mini-course, Sprint Drills Reloaded on how to maximize sprint drills, their specific strength development, building of major sprint actions, along with better integration of sprint drills into sprinting technique. The special intro sale ends July 1st. (https://justflysports.thinkific.com/courses/sprint-drills-reloaded) Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer Use code “justfly20” for 20% off of LILA Exogen Wearable resistance gear at www.lilateam.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 0:00 Building a PhD Protocol from Real-Life Training 4:46 Using Everyday Objects to Innovate Foot Training 8:16 Surface Texture and Proprioception in Barefoot Work 11:27 Breaking Down Romain’s PhD Research on the Forefoot 16:22 Gym and Home-Based Protocols for MTP Flexion 22:11 Measuring Toe and Forefoot Strength Accurately 31:20 Mobility of the Forefoot and Its Role in Force Production 37:31 Results: How 8 Weeks of Forefoot Training Changed Performance 43:54 Explaining the Improvements in Cutting, Jumping, and Sprinting 53:01 Linking Forefoot Strength to Ankle Stability and Injury Prevention 58:23 Isolated Toe Training vs. Global Foot and Calf Training 1:15:09 Designing General Foot-Ankle Programs for Teams Actionable Takeaways 0:00 – Building a PhD Protocol from Real-Life Training Romain developed his research exercises by first experimenting on himself to understand their feel, intensity, and weaknesses. Test new foot or ankle drills on yourself first to refine cues and feel. Note the sensations and difficulties athletes might face before implementing. Use self-testing to build better communication and progression strategies. 4:46 – Using Everyday Objects to Innovate Foot Training The “foot bridge” concept came from standing barefoot on two bricks, showing that creative setups can unlock new sensations without expensive tools. Incorporate simple props like bricks or angled boards to change foot loading. Create small balance challenges to engage the toes and arches differently. Use low-cost, adaptable tools to spark innovation in foot training. 8:16 – Surface Texture and Proprioception in Barefoot Work Different surfaces alter how foot muscles activate, making proprioception a key training variable. Rotate athletes between rough, smooth, and dampened surfaces to shift activation. Use barefoot drills regularly to strengthen sensory feedback from the toes. Treat surface texture as a deliberate tool to adjust difficulty and stimulus. 11:27 – Breaking Down Romain’s PhD Research on the Forefoot Romain studied how forefoot strength training impacts sprinting, cutting, and jumping performance. Add structured toe flexion and forefoot drills to complement lower-leg work. Prioritize multi-planar movements that mimic sport demands. Track performance outcomes (cutting, sprinting, jumping) alongside strength gains. 16:22 – Gym and Home-Based Protocols for MTP Flexion Romain designed practical drills to strengthen metatarsophalangeal (MTP) flexion for athletes and patients alike. Use slant-board single-leg hinges to load the toes under tension. Combine seated towel curls with standing resisted big-toe flexion to cover ranges. Progress from simple bodyweight drills to resisted setups as control improves. 22:11 – Measuring Toe and Forefoot Strength Accurately Toe flexion tests must be standardized to avoid measuring calf compensation instead of true toe strength. Stabilize the rearfoot during tests to isolate toe flexion. Keep the ankle at a consistent angle for every measurement. Reassess regularly to check for genuine improvements, not testing artifacts. 31:20 – Mobility of the Forefoot and Its Role in Force Production Limited hallux motion reduces an athlete’s ability to push off and produce force effectively. Include manual therapy, active stretching, and dorsiflexion drills for the toes. Screen athletes for hallux rigidus or turf toe and address restrictions early. Pair mobility with strength work so new range converts to usable power. 37:31 – Results: How 8 Weeks of Forefoot Training Changed Performance Romain’s protocol produced large gains in forefoot strength and measurable improvements in speed and power. Expect meaningful changes in 5–8 weeks with consistent training. Combine forefoot work with performance testing to show athletes the payoff. Use small, consistent volumes rather than long, exhausting sessions. 43:54 – Explaining the Improvements in Cutting, Jumping, and Sprinting Forefoot training enhanced horizontal force application, leading to better cutting and sprinting outcomes. Integrate toe-flexion drills into warm-ups to prime for explosive sessions. Pair forefoot work with horizontal jumps to reinforce transfer. Use directional cutting drills after forefoot training to cement adaptation. 53:01 – Linking Forefoot Strength to Ankle Stability and Injury Prevention Stronger toes improve rearfoot inversion control, lowering ankle-sprain risk. Program exercises like slant-board single-leg hinges and resisted toe pushes. Train foot strength under varied loads to build robustness against awkward landings. Make foot and ankle work a weekly non-negotiable for athletes prone to sprains. 58:23 – Isolated Toe Training vs. Global Foot and Calf Training Forefoot training alone did not improve calf strength; both areas need targeted work. Pair calf raises or plyometric hops with toe-specific exercises in one session. Use assessment to decide when to bias more toward calf or forefoot. Treat the foot-calf complex as an integrated but trainable system. 1:15:09 – Designing General Foot-Ankle Programs for Teams Romain recommends cycling focus between absorption, propulsion, and spring for team athletes. Structure training blocks around one of the three key functions at a time. Keep sessions short (5–10 minutes) to ensure adherence and minimize disruption. Reassess every 5–6 weeks to track adaptation and adjust emphasis. Romain Tourillon Quotes “The whole PhD started with me testing these exercises on myself first. I needed to feel what the athlete would feel.” “I built the first version of the protocol at home with two bricks under my feet. Creativity doesn’t require fancy equipment.” “Different surfaces completely change how the foot muscles activate. The texture under the toes matters.” “You can’t separate intrinsic from extrinsic toe strength; you have to test and train the system as a whole.” “If you don’t stabilize the rearfoot during testing, you’re not really measuring toe flexion—you’re measuring calf compensation.” “Limited big toe motion limits force production. You can’t push properly off the ground if the hallux doesn’t move.” “After eight weeks we saw a 28 percent increase in MTP flexion strength and clear gains in cutting, sprinting, and jumping.” “Strong forefoot function correlates with better rearfoot inversion control, which is crucial for ankle stability.” “Slant-board single-leg hinges are one of my go-to drills for loading the toes under tension.” “Forefoot work alone won’t improve calf strength—you have to deliberately train both.” “The foot-ankle responds quickly to targeted work. In as little as five or six weeks you can see measurable gains.” “Cycle your focus between absorption, propulsion, and spring. Those three functions cover almost everything the foot does in sport.” About Romain Tourillon Romain Tourillon, PT, PhD, is a sports physiotherapist, researcher, and educator focused on foot–ankle biomechanics in health, injury, and high performance. He leads the foot–ankle service at the Swiss Olympic Medical Center (La Tour Hospital, Geneva) and consults with elite athletes. Romain earned his PhD at Université Jean Monnet Saint-Étienne, with work centered on metatarsophalangeal (MTP) flexion strength and its links to sprinting, cutting, and jumping performance. His publications and talks translate cutting-edge research into practical assessment and training methods for coaches and clinicians.

481: Sam Portland on An Evolution of Sport Speed and Movement Training Sep 18, 2025

Today’s guest is Sam Portland. Sam is a UK-based athletic performance coach and creator of Speed Gate Golf and the Sports Speed System. After a career in professional sport, he now consults with athletes and teams while mentoring coaches toward healthier and more sustainable careers. Sam has worked with athletes from Premiership Rugby, American football, the Olympics, and beyond, and also runs a grassroots “combine program” designed to fill key gaps in long-term athletic development. In this episode, Sam unpacks the evolution of modern athlete performance, highlighting the role of rhythm, movement, and overlooked details of transfer from training to sport. From the simple power of a jump rope to the deeper psychological layers of coaching, Sam’s insights spark critical thinking and creative training solutions. This is a conversation packed with practical takeaways, helpful for any coach or athlete. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength. Use code “justfly20” for 20% off of LILA Exogen Wearable resistance gear at www.lilateam.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 0:41 – Jump rope, rhythm, and movement foundations. 8:17 – Start with sport specificity: enroll in the sport first. 16:07 – Reject the bloat — prefer simple, efficient training. 23:13 – Simplicity wins: fewer, better training "flavors." 26:58 – Depth over width in warm-ups — give athletes time to groove. 31:09 – End positions are consequences — focus on what happens between them. 33:31 – Beware shiny systems — find what actually transfers to sport. 38:34 – Make training game-relevant: play, don’t just test. 40:37 – Play-first approach: teach skill through sport-like practice. 45:35 – Threat removal and the neurology of speed. 54:32 – Warm-up blueprint and the Sports Speed System (book). Actionable Takeaways 0:41 – Jump rope, rhythm, and movement foundations. Jump rope builds rhythm, timing, elastic return and pickup skills. Use short doses (2 min) of single- or double-under work in warmups to train rhythm and contact quality. Rotate rope patterns (straight jumps → crossovers → single-leg) to challenge locomotor timing without heavy impact. Try a heavy rope for conditioning to overload the same rhythmical pattern when you want a sterner stimulus. 8:17 – Start with sport specificity: enroll in the sport first. Training should be anchored to the sport. Work backwards from true sport demands. Make the first “module” of preparation aligned with sport context: practice the core movement options athletes need, not just gym metrics. Use position–pattern–power as a checklist: Can they get into the position? Coordinate the pattern? Produce the power? If not, target the missing element. Reserve heavy gym numbers as supporting signals. Measure transfer back to sport rather than assuming gym gains equal game gains. 16:07 – Reject the bloat; prefer simple, efficient training. The profession has become bloated with drills that don’t transfer. Simpler, consistent inputs win. Audit your program: drop drills that don’t clearly influence the game. Prioritize a short list of high-value stimuli (e.g., sprinting, loaded jumps, sport-specific repeats) and be ruthless about sequencing. If two options exist, choose the simpler one. It’s easier to teach, scale, and intensify. 23:13 – Simplicity wins: fewer, better training "flavors." Like a chef simplifying a dish, training should focus on fewer, high-quality elements. Reduce variety for the sake of variety; instead, deepen exposure to the chosen stimuli so athletes get real practice. Use small, repeatable warm-up components (e.g., 3–5 minute arm swings, rhythmic calf bounces) to let athletes discover connections. Keep a core “tick-box” routine players do every session. Consistency creates long-term adaptation. 26:58 – Depth over width in warm-ups; give athletes time to groove. Longer, focused warm-up sections let athletes find subtle connections; ten quick reps do not. Replace short sets of isolated drills with longer exploration windows (e.g., 3–5 minutes of arm swings or gentle rhythm work). Prioritize no-props, verbally cued variability early (keep cones off the ground; use auditory lines) to preserve perceptual skill. Observe how warm-up changes transfer to the first sport reps. If it doesn’t help, change the warm-up, don’t double down on it. 31:09 – End positions are consequences — focus on what happens between them. Positions (hip block, figure-four) are outcomes of sequencing; training the pathway is more useful than repeating end poses. Teach the movement that leads to the position (tempo, loading, transfer of inertia), not just the pose. Use short, task-driven patterns that emphasize the approach (e.g., initial three steps, penultimate adjustments) rather than frozen postures. Recover coaching time by dropping positional parroting that doesn’t affect on-field mechanics. 33:31 – Beware shiny systems. Find what actually transfers to sport. Marketing and flashy protocols sell; transfer to competition is the test. Question novelty: if it looks cool but doesn’t change on-field behaviour, it’s likely low-value. Ask “What does this deliver in the game?” before programming a new method. Favor reproducible, evidence-informed drills: if an intervention reliably improves execution under pressure, keep it. 38:34 – Make training game-relevant: play, don’t just test. Players often perform far better in meaningful game contexts than in sterile tests. Build short play-based warmups that replicate key decision demands (2v2, 3v2, tactical reads) rather than isolated shuttle tests. Use game-like pressure to provoke the movement you want to train; the context unlocks expression. Use tests as indicators, not verdicts; prioritize on-field expression when making programming decisions. 40:37 – Play-first approach: teach skill through sport-like practice. Teach attackers and supporters discrete roles and let them practice those interactions under constraints. Drill 2v2/3v2 scenarios focusing on attacker actions and supporter reactions; simple tweaks yield high execution rates. Layer small tactical rules into play to amplify perceptual learning (e.g., forced weight-shift patterns, visual scanning constraints). Keep repetitions meaningful and immediately connected to match situations. 45:35 – Threat removal and the neurology of speed. Removing perceived threat lets athletes move faster and freer. Psychological context changes neuromotor output. Design early acceleration work that reduces threat (clear space, predictable tasks) so athletes can express speed without guarding. Use progressive exposure: start with low-threat reps, then add realistic pressure as competence rises. Measure on-field speed (GPS splits, key game events) rather than relying solely on lab numbers. 54:32 – Warm-up blueprint and the Sports Speed System (book). Build a consistent warm-up “tick box” that primes hips, rotation, rhythm, then stack drills into play. Core warm-up: hips + rotation daily; ankle rhythm work; then drill-stacking to combine segment → position → pattern → movement before playing. Use verbal/auditory lines rather than cones early to preserve perceptual demands; keep the warm-up sport-facing. For more detail, Sam’s field guide unpacks progressions and context (he notes the book was written as a field guide accessible to a 14-year-old and a 20-year coach). Quotes from Sam Portland “It's elastic driven… it requires lots of coordination, lots of timing. You have to be able to sit in this pocket of rhythm.” “I actually just ordered a heavy rope as well for conditioning… let's put it on steroids.” “What first module… needs to be enrolled in a sport? Because that's how you're going to be actually working backwards from the principle of specificity.” “Our profession is incredibly bloated in terms of… how much ownership of adaptation can we keep hold of and attribute to our job without them just playing sport.” “Now her best dish has three—that’s where we need to be heading.” “We're going to play in sport, Joel. That's what we're going to do.” “When you can get that speed not afraid, guess what—you've got space for sport.” “Secret is consistency. Don't change on that at all because that is your tick box.” “Residuals don't matter for team sports.” “The book was written as a field guide…if a 14-year-old picked it up could I make myself better? Yes. If a 20-year coach picked it up could they improve with nuance? Yes.” About Sam Portland Sam Portland is an athletic performance coach from the UK, the creator of speed gate golf and the Sports Speed System. Following a lengthy career in professional sport, he now consults with athletes/teams and helps guide coaches to happier, healthier, and more financially fulfilling careers. Sam has worked with premiership rugby, American football, Olympic athletes, and international competitors across a plethora of sports, including hockey, bobsleigh, and track and field. Aside from this, Sam keeps in touch with the grassroots aspects of athlete preparation by hosting his ‘combine program’. This program is a long-term athletic development program that fills the essential gaps in physical literacy that are not fulfilled at school or by club sports.

480: Phil Nash on The Infinite Game of Athletic Performance Sep 11, 2025

Today’s guest is Phil Nash. Phil is a Manager of Coach Education at EXOS. He is a seasoned strength and conditioning professional who leads EXOS’s efforts to develop and educate coaches worldwide. Phil specializes in bringing practical, science-based training methods—like plyometrics and medicine-ball work—into performance systems, and regularly shares his expertise at major industry conferences On today’s show, we dig into training models ranging from the force–velocity curve to the idea of infinite games, exploring how these frameworks influence the way we view athletic performance. Phil offers his perspective on blending structured training with the freedom of play, highlighting adaptability and growth as central themes in coaching. This episode provides clear, practical insights for coaches and athletes alike on building both physical capacity and mental resilience. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength and the Vert Trainer Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer Use code “justfly20” for 20% off of LILA Exogen Wearable resistance gear at www.lilateam.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 5:12 – Phil’s Journey into Coaching and Performance Training 12:40 – Exploring the Interplay of Science and Coaching Art 22:18 – Building Strong Athlete-Coach Relationships 32:07 – The Role of Autonomy and Curiosity in Development 43:51 – Balancing Physical Preparation with Mental Readiness 55:46 – Using Constraints to Guide Skill and Movement 1:07:12 – Learning from Mistakes and Coaching Growth 1:18:09 – Phil’s Reflections on Longevity and Evolving as a Coach Actionable Takeaways 5:12 – Phil’s Journey into Coaching and Performance Training Key Idea: Phil’s path into performance was shaped by curiosity and the pursuit of practical knowledge over titles. Takeaways: Curiosity often leads to better learning than rigid career plans. Don’t chase credentials alone; focus on applying knowledge effectively. Reflect on your own journey: what experiences shaped your coaching approach? 12:40 – Exploring the Interplay of Science and Coaching Art Key Idea: Phil emphasizes blending research with intuition. Coaching is both science and art. Takeaways: Use research as a guide, not a rulebook. Stay flexible: coaching requires adapting principles to individuals. Trust experience and feel when the data isn’t enough. 22:18 – Building Strong Athlete-Coach Relationships Key Idea: Relationships drive results; athletes respond best when trust and mutual respect are present. Takeaways: Prioritize connection before correction. Listen actively; athletes often know more about their body than you realize. Strong relationships create resilience during setbacks. 32:07 – The Role of Autonomy and Curiosity in Development Key Idea: Giving athletes autonomy fosters curiosity, ownership, and growth. Takeaways: Encourage athletes to explore solutions, not just follow orders. Create environments where curiosity is rewarded. Autonomy builds long-term motivation and adaptability. 43:51 – Balancing Physical Preparation with Mental Readiness Key Idea: True performance is as much mental as it is physical. Mindset shapes outcomes. Takeaways: Prepare the mind alongside the body. Use reflection and visualization tools to build confidence. Don’t overlook recovery as a mental reset, not just a physical one. 55:46 – Using Constraints to Guide Skill and Movement Key Idea: Constraints-based training creates problem-solving and adaptable movers. Takeaways: Design environments that force athletes to adapt. Use constraints to spark creativity, not to over-control. Let athletes discover solutions instead of prescribing every detail. 1:07:12 – Learning from Mistakes and Coaching Growth Key Idea: Mistakes are inevitable; growth comes from reflection and adjustment. Takeaways: Share your coaching mistakes with others; normalize learning. Build feedback loops into your practice. Treat mistakes as experiments, not failures. 1:18:09 – Phil’s Reflections on Longevity and Evolving as a Coach Key Idea: Longevity in coaching comes from curiosity, humility, and willingness to evolve. Takeaways: Stay curious and never assume you’ve “arrived.” Adapt your philosophy as science and experience evolve. Balance work with personal renewal to avoid burnout. Quotes from Phil Nash “Coaching isn’t just applying science; it’s interpreting it through the lens of people.” “Relationships are the glue that holds performance together.” “Curiosity is the foundation of growth; for athletes and coaches alike.” “Constraints aren’t restrictions; they’re invitations for creativity.” “Mistakes are part of the process; if you’re not making them, you’re not pushing boundaries.” “Longevity comes from curiosity and humility, not from clinging to old ways.” About Phil Nash Phillip Nash, MS, CSCS, currently serves as Manager of Coach Education at EXOS, the global, science-driven performance company founded in 1999 and headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona. With a background in strength and conditioning (as indicated by his CSCS credential), Phil leads initiatives that shape and elevate the training and development of performance coaches across EXOS’s network of facilities and educational platforms. Phil's role centers on designing and delivering innovative coach education programs that empower trainers, therapists, and performance professionals to implement EXOS’s holistic training system—built on Mindset, Nutrition, Movement, and Recovery- in diverse settings ranging from elite athletics to corporate wellness. He is frequently involved in delivering performance education sessions at major industry events.

479: Tim Shieff on Exploring Fluidity, Coordination, and Sustainable Performance Sep 04, 2025

Today’s guest is Tim Shieff. Tim is a former world champion freerunner and Ninja Warrior competitor, and the founder of Way of the Rope. After years of high-level competition, he discovered Rope Flow as a way to restore rhythm, coordination, and resilience in movement. Today, he shares this practice worldwide, blending athletic creativity with a simple, sustainable philosophy: low-tech equipment for a high-tech body. In this episode, we explore the transformative power of diverse movement practices in athletic training. From track and field to parkour, breakdance, swimming, and rope flow, we explore how these disciplines shape skill development and reveal the qualitative aspects of elite sport movement. Tim also shares his journey from traditional sports to discovering the benefits of innovative movement, offering powerful insights on how athletes can unlock agility, strength, and resilience by taking a holistic approach to training. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 5:36 – Exploring Yoga, Biomechanics, and Training Through Injury 10:43 – Discovering Movement Connections Through Slow Practice 23:26 – Parkour Training as a Unique Learning Process 31:41 – Balancing Intensity, Recovery, and Longevity in Training 42:08 – The Value of Gentleness in Building Strength 53:30 – Using Constraints to Improve Movement Awareness 59:08 – Applying Martial Intent and Precision in Movement 1:01:31 – Rope Flow as a Tool for Coordination and Rhythm 1:11:17 – Integrating Jump Rope and Rope Flow into Athletic Training Actionable takeaways 5:36 – Exploring Yoga, Biomechanics, and Training Through Injury Key Idea: Tim explains how yoga and biomechanics gave him tools to keep moving through injuries and to rebuild awareness of how his body works. Actionable Takeaways: Use yoga or mindful movement practices as low-intensity ways to stay connected when injured. Pay attention to biomechanics during rehab—it’s not just about healing tissue, but about moving better long-term. Reframe injuries as opportunities to explore different forms of movement. 10:43 – Discovering Movement Connections Through Slow Practice Key Idea: Slowing things down can reveal hidden connections between muscles, joints, and fascia. Tim found value in practicing movement slowly before adding intensity. Actionable Takeaways: Strip movements down and slow them until you can feel the sequence. Use slow practice as a diagnostic tool to notice leaks, compensations, or missing links. Build control first, then layer on speed and power. 23:26 – Parkour Training as a Unique Learning Process Key Idea: Parkour introduced Tim to exploration, problem-solving, and adapting movement to different environments. Actionable Takeaways: Use obstacle-based tasks to force creative movement solutions. Train adaptability—don’t just repeat drills, but give athletes problems to solve. Embrace exploration: movement learned through play tends to stick. 31:41 – Balancing Intensity, Recovery, and Longevity in Training Key Idea: Tim highlights that chasing intensity every session can shorten careers—longevity requires balance. Actionable Takeaways: Periodize intensity with recovery—don’t redline every workout. Prioritize sustainability: ask “Can I do this 10 years from now?” Recovery practices are as important as the training itself. 42:08 – The Value of Gentleness in Building Strength Key Idea: Strength doesn’t always come from force—sometimes it’s built by gentleness, precision, and subtlety. Actionable Takeaways: Explore lighter, more mindful work instead of always going maximal. Recognize that gentleness can rewire coordination in ways brute strength cannot. Use precise, controlled practice as a pathway to more efficient power later. 53:30 – Using Constraints to Improve Movement Awareness Key Idea: Constraints—like limiting space, changing rhythm, or adding unusual tasks—help athletes discover movement solutions they wouldn’t otherwise find. Actionable Takeaways: Introduce constraints in drills to spark creativity and awareness. Don’t over-coach—let athletes learn by solving the constraint. Rotate constraints to keep learning fresh and adaptable. 59:08 – Applying Martial Intent and Precision in Movement Key Idea: Martial arts taught Tim the value of intent—every move has a purpose and should be executed with precision. Actionable Takeaways: Encourage athletes to approach drills with clear intent, not autopilot. Borrow from martial training: precise repetition over sloppy volume. Treat even warm-up movements as chances to sharpen focus. 1:01:31 – Rope Flow as a Tool for Coordination and Rhythm Key Idea: Rope flow is more than a trick—it’s a way to sync rhythm, timing, and coordination through simple patterns. Actionable Takeaways: Add rope flow to warm-ups to build rhythm and flow-state awareness. Teach athletes a few basic patterns and let them discover variations. Use it as low-impact coordination work that translates to better timing in sport. 1:11:17 – Integrating Jump Rope and Rope Flow into Athletic Training Key Idea: Combining rope flow with jump rope creates a spectrum—jump rope for stiffness and rhythm, rope flow for fluidity and coordination. Actionable Takeaways: Use jump rope for plyometric stiffness and reactive rhythm. Use rope flow for multi-planar coordination and smooth sequencing. Alternate between the two depending on the training emphasis of the day. Tim Shieff Quotes “Yoga gave me a way to keep moving through injury—it wasn’t about doing less, it was about moving differently.” “When you slow things down, you start to feel the sequencing. That’s when you notice where the leaks are.” “Parkour taught me adaptability. It’s not about repeating drills, it’s about solving problems in movement.” “If you chase intensity every session, you won’t last. Longevity comes from balancing work with recovery.” “Strength doesn’t always come from force. Sometimes it comes from gentleness and precision.” “Constraints are teachers. When you take options away, athletes discover new solutions on their own.” “You have to train both ends of the spectrum—the slow and the fast, the gentle and the intense.” “Martial intent is powerful. Every move should have purpose, not just be going through the motions.” “Rope flow is rhythm in motion—it’s about learning how to coordinate without overthinking.” “Jump rope gives you stiffness, rope flow gives you fluidity. Together, they balance each other.” About Tim Shieff Tim Shieff, founder of Way of the Rope, is a former world champion freerunner turned movement innovator. Born in Connecticut in 1988 and raised in Derby, England, Tim first expressed his athletic creativity through breakdancing before transitioning into a professional freerunning and parkour career. He rose to prominence by winning the 2009 Barclaycard World Freerun Championship and competing in international events like Red Bull’s Art of Motion, along with TV appearances on MTV’s Ultimate Parkour Challenge, American Ninja Warrior, and Ninja Warrior UK, where he captained Team Europe in the USA vs. The World specials. After years of competition, Tim began struggling with chronic injuries, which led him to explore biomechanics and new approaches to movement. In 2018, he discovered Rope Flow through inventor David Weck, an experience that became a turning point in his career. Inspired by the practice’s ability to restore rhythm, coordination, and flow, Tim trained extensively with Weck before bringing his own vision to life. In 2020, with Weck’s blessing, he launched Way of the Rope, an educational platform built around programs such as “8-Weeks to Fluidity,” which help people rediscover athleticism and body awareness through rope-based movement. Beyond physical training, Tim’s philosophy is rooted in simplicity and sustainability. He believes in the mantra, “Low tech equipment = high tech body,” and his team crafts ropes from recycled materials with biodegradable packaging, reflecting a deep commitment to both people and the planet. By making his work accessible worldwide and offering flexible pricing to those in need, Tim has transformed Way of the Rope into more than just a training method—it is a mindful, ethical practice dedicated to helping individuals move with freedom, fluidity, and purpose.

478: Michael Schofield on Tendons, Fascia and Elastic Recoil in Athletic Movement Aug 28, 2025

Today’s guest is Dr. Michael Schofield. Mike is a New Zealand sports scientist and track and field coach with a PhD in biomechanics and strength and conditioning. He has coached athletes to Olympic, World Championship, and Commonwealth Games finals in the throws, while also developing national-level sprinters and weightlifters. His strength and conditioning work spans multiple sports, from golf to stand-up paddleboarding. Mike has done substantial research in, and is a subject matter expert in the role of connective tissues in athletic movement and force production. This podcast explores the crucial functions of connective tissue in athletic performance. We examine how tendons, ligaments, and fascia support movement, prevent injuries, and contribute to force production. Mike also disperses exactly what fascia and connective tissue does, and does not do in animal (and human) movement profiles. Through the podcast, Mike reveals the mechanisms of connective tissue and how understanding it can improve training outcomes. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 2:10 – The Role of Connective Tissue 5:27 – Exploring Elasticity in Motion 7:25 – Muscle vs. Fascia: A Complex Debate 16:14 – Understanding Strength and Sequencing 23:49 – The Importance of Movement Literacy 36:13 – Fascial Lines and Their Impact 44:31 – Training the Fascial System 49:14 – Functional Training Insights 54:31 – The Role of Balance in Performance 57:26 – Understanding Tendon Stiffness 1:14:04 – Compliance vs. Stiffness in Athleticism 1:18:55 – Training Strategies for Different Athletes Actionable Takeaways 2:10 – The Role of Connective Tissue Key Idea: Connective tissue is more than just passive support—it plays an active role in how force is transferred and movements are sequenced. Actionable Takeaways: Treat connective tissue as a system that adapts to training, not just something that “holds things together.” Prioritize training methods that build elasticity and responsiveness, not just muscle strength. Recognize that resilience often depends on connective tissue health more than raw muscular output. 5:27 – Exploring Elasticity in Motion Key Idea: Elasticity allows athletes to move with efficiency and rhythm, reducing the need for constant muscular effort. Actionable Takeaways: Integrate bouncing, skipping, and plyometric variations to sharpen elastic return. Train for rhythm and timing, not just force—elastic qualities emerge from how energy is recycled. Monitor whether athletes rely too much on muscle and not enough on elastic recoil. 7:25 – Muscle vs. Fascia: A Complex Debate Key Idea: Muscles and fascia work together, but fascia often dictates how well force is transmitted through the body. Actionable Takeaways: Don’t train muscle in isolation—consider the connective tissue pathways that carry the load. Include multi-planar, whole-chain exercises that respect how fascia links segments. Shift perspective: strength is more than hypertrophy; it’s about integration across systems. 16:14 – Understanding Strength and Sequencing Key Idea: True strength is about sequencing—how joints, tissues, and muscles fire in the right order. Heavy lifting too soon can actually disrupt this process. Actionable Takeaways: Build foundational movement skill before layering on maximal loads. Use exercises that emphasize timing and rhythm, not just raw output. Ask: is this athlete strong because they’re sequenced, or are they muscling through inefficiency? 23:49 – The Importance of Movement Literacy Key Idea: Movement literacy—the ability to explore, coordinate, and adapt—is a prerequisite for higher-level strength. Actionable Takeaways: Encourage athletes to explore different movement tasks, not just rehearsed drills. Use games, variability, and problem-solving to expand an athlete’s “movement vocabulary.” Recognize that strength built on poor literacy is fragile and prone to breakdown. 36:13 – Fascial Lines and Their Impact Key Idea: Fascial lines are not rigid “chains” but adaptable pathways that influence force and coordination. Actionable Takeaways: Train movements that cross the body and involve contralateral actions. Avoid treating fascial lines as static anatomy—focus on how they behave in motion. Design exercises that integrate torso, hips, and limbs instead of segmenting them. 44:31 – Training the Fascial System Key Idea: The fascial system thrives on variability, rhythm, and spring-like loading rather than heavy, repetitive strain. Actionable Takeaways: Use oscillatory, rhythmic, and elastic drills (like hops or swings). Keep movements fluid—avoid over-structuring everything into rigid sets and reps. Think “spring training,” not just strength training. 49:14 – Functional Training Insights Key Idea: “Functional” isn’t about mimicking sport—it’s about improving the qualities that transfer. Actionable Takeaways: Measure functional training by its ability to carry over into better sequencing, rhythm, and resilience. Avoid gimmicks—if the exercise doesn’t enhance movement quality, it isn’t functional. Remember that specificity comes from principles, not from copying sport skills. 54:31 – The Role of Balance in Performance Key Idea: Balance and stability are crucial to wiring efficient patterns and force transfer. Machines can provide stability that lets athletes push higher rates of force. Actionable Takeaways: Use balance as both a skill and a constraint—challenge it sometimes, support it at others. Consider when machines may help isolate force production by removing unnecessary wobble. Build balance progressively—overloading instability too early just builds poor habits. 57:26 – Understanding Tendon Stiffness Key Idea: Tendon stiffness is about how efficiently tendons store and release energy—it’s not just about being “tight” or “loose.” Actionable Takeaways: Train stiffness with fast, elastic contacts (e.g., hops, bounds). Recognize that stiffness is context-specific: too much or too little can limit performance. Focus on gradual progression—tendons adapt more slowly than muscles. 1:14:04 – Compliance vs. Stiffness in Athleticism Key Idea: Different sports and tasks demand different balances between compliance (give) and stiffness (rigidity). Actionable Takeaways: Train athletes to tune their compliance/stiffness depending on surface, task, or sport. Sprinters may need more stiffness; change-of-direction athletes may need more compliance. Avoid “one-size-fits-all” loading—adapt strategies to context. 1:18:55 – Training Strategies for Different Athletes Key Idea: No two athletes need the same mix of loading, sequencing, and elastic training. Individual profiles matter. Actionable Takeaways: Assess whether an athlete needs more stiffness, compliance, sequencing, or raw strength. Adjust programming so athletes train to their weaknesses, not just repeat their strengths. Embrace individuality: the best “program” is one tailored to the athlete in front of you. Michael Schofield Quotes “Connective tissue is not just scaffolding—it’s an active part of how force is transferred and how movement is sequenced.” “Elasticity is rhythm. It’s the ability to recycle energy instead of relying on constant muscular effort.” “When we talk about strength, we’re really talking about sequencing. If you load too heavy too soon, you can actually break the sequence.” “Movement literacy comes before strength. If an athlete can’t explore movement, then the strength they build is fragile.” “Fascial lines are not rigid anatomy—they’re adaptable patterns. They change depending on how you move.” “The fascial system responds to rhythm, variability, and oscillation. It’s a spring system, not a muscle system.” “Functional training is not about copying sport skills. It’s about training qualities that transfer.” “Balance is contextual. Sometimes you challenge it, sometimes you support it. Machines can actually help you wire high rates of force by providing stability.” “Tendon stiffness isn’t about being tight—it’s about efficiency. It’s how well you can store and release energy.” “Every athlete needs a different recipe of compliance, stiffness, sequencing, and raw strength. There’s no one-size-fits-all.” About Michael Schofield Dr. Michael Schofield is a sports scientist and track and field coach from New Zealand, specializing in biomechanics and strength and conditioning. He holds a PhD focused on track and field throws and a Master’s degree in strength and conditioning with an emphasis on golf performance. Over his coaching career, Dr. Schofield has guided athletes to Olympic, World Championship, and Commonwealth Games finals in shot put, discus, and hammer, while also developing national-level sprinters and weightlifters. His expertise as a strength and conditioning coach spans a diverse range of sports, from stand-up paddleboarding to golf, applying a scientific yet practical approach to improving athletic performance. Driven by a passion for both research and applied coaching, Dr. Schofield continues to bridge the gap between cutting-edge sports science and the daily realities of high-performance sport.

477: Boo Schexnayder on General Strength and the Art of Comprehensive Athletic Development Aug 21, 2025

Today’s guest is Boo Schexnayder. Irving “Boo” Schexnayder is a world-class coach and consultant with over 44 years of experience in track and field. Renowned for producing 26 NCAA Champions and 8 Olympic/World Championship medalists, he co-founded Schexnayder Athletic Consulting and founded the Track and Field Academy. A former LSU coach and USA Track and Field leader, Boo’s expertise in biomechanics and training design extends to multiple sports, making him a sought-after mentor worldwide. It's common to think that, as time moves forward in any discipline, that discipline becomes better. What seems to define much of athletic performance and sport itself is that outputs become the priority while movement quality and literacy become watered down. On today’s podcast, Boo gives wisdom into the process of comprehensive athletic development by leaning into general strength and movement training. He goes over his movement batteries, scramble circuits, training diversity, and tempo sprints. Boo also gives his take on the use of supramaximal eccentrics, covers hamstring injury prevention strategies, and discusses his sprint-float-sprint protocols, alongside a sea of further training wisdom. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength and LILA Exogen wearable resistance. Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 1:25 – The evolution of general strength since the 90s 23:12 – General strength across track and team sports 28:47 – Adding multi-directional work for linear athletes 37:18 – Managing tempo volume for higher intensity 42:50 – Polarized training over middle-ground tempo 44:14 – Using tempo for restoration, not breakdown 47:24 – Short sprints on low days to cap tissue load 48:50 – Eccentric overload within a balanced profile 57:08 – Sprinting and mobility for hamstring resilience 1:12:02 – Setting fly-float-fly zones by max velocity 1:12:52 – Coaching lessons that shaped training design Actionable Takeaways 1:25 – The evolution of general strength since the 90s Boo explains that early “general strength” meant broad, circuit-based work (med balls, hurdle mobility, bodyweight drills), and over time, coaches either overcomplicated it or lost sight of its role. What to try: Keep general strength simple—circuits that are easy to teach, scalable, and repeatable. Don’t let weight room complexity replace basic movement skill. Revisit older methods (hurdle mobility, med ball throws) that build coordination without heavy stress. 28:47 – Adding multi-directional work for linear athletes Even linear sprinters benefit from “scramble” circuits and agility-oriented elements. Boo stresses that multi-directional tasks improve coordination, robustness, and adaptability. What to try: Sprinkle in agility, shuffles, and lateral bounds for athletes who train mostly linear. Build circuits that force athletes to problem-solve movement, not just run straight lines. Think “movement quality first”—variety pays off long term. 37:18 – Managing tempo volume for higher intensity Boo highlights that loading too much tempo work flattens intensity. Athletes need tempo in the right amount—enough for conditioning, not so much that it dulls speed. What to try: Keep tempo volumes moderate so athletes can still sprint fast on quality days. Use tempo as restoration or rhythm training, not just mileage. Remember: more work doesn’t equal better adaptation—protect intensity. 47:24 – Short sprints on low days to cap tissue load Boo explains that short 10m sprints can safely live on “low” days—they maintain speed exposure without frying the system. What to try: Program 2–3 sets of short accelerations on low CNS days. Use these to maintain sharpness while still respecting recovery. Treat them as “insurance” against long gaps between true sprint exposures. 57:08 – Sprinting and mobility for hamstring resilience Boo argues that hamstring health isn’t about endless Nordics—it’s about sprinting itself, clean mechanics, and maintaining mobility through range. What to try: Sprint often and with good mechanics—this is the best hamstring protection. Use mobility and posture work to reduce strain at max velocity. Don’t over-rely on Nordics or isolated lifts; integrate them into a bigger picture. 1:12:02 – Setting fly-float-fly zones by max velocity Boo emphasizes individualization—set fly-float-fly distances based on when each athlete actually reaches peak velocity, not arbitrary marks. What to try: Time or assess each athlete to see where they hit top speed. Adjust fly distances so they can hold velocity, not strain before they’re ready. Use float sections to teach rhythm and relaxation between bursts. Quotes “General strength is nothing more than organized calisthenics, hurdle mobility, medicine ball, and weight room circuits—things that prepare the athlete to do more specific work later.” “The problem is when coaches think more volume automatically means more adaptation. In reality, more often means less intensity, and intensity is the driver.” “You can’t just live in the weight room and call that athletic preparation. The body has to move in multiple planes and directions to be resilient.” “Sprinting itself is the best hamstring exercise—done well, it’s the most specific and most protective thing you can do.” “Tempo is not about running people into the ground. It’s about rhythm, relaxation, and restoration.” “We’re not trying to build superheroes in the weight room—we’re trying to build athletes who can apply force efficiently in their sport.” “Acceleration is simple: push hard, push long. Max velocity is rhythm and posture—completely different skills.” “Short accelerations, 10 meters or less, can safely live on low days. They touch speed without adding unnecessary tissue load.” “Coaches get too enamored with exercises. What matters is how the training fits into the bigger puzzle.” “The art of coaching is not how much you can add, but how much you can subtract while still making the athlete better.” About Boo Schexnayder Irving “Boo” Schexnayder is an internationally respected coach and consultant with over 44 years of experience in training design and biomechanics. Best known for his 18 years with LSU Track and Field, he is recognized as one of the greatest field event coaches in NCAA history, producing 26 NCAA Champions, 18 Olympians, and 8 Olympic or World Championship medalists, while contributing to 13 NCAA team titles. Beyond his success on the track, Boo co-founded Schexnayder Athletic Consulting and has been a leading voice in coaching education, serving as program director of the USTFCCCA Track and Field Academy and holding leadership roles with USA Track and Field. His expertise extends into professional and collegiate sports across football, basketball, soccer, golf, and volleyball, where he has designed programs for speed, power, and rehabilitation. A former mathematics teacher from Vacherie, Louisiana, Boo is known for blending science with simplicity, earning global recognition as a mentor, educator, and one of the most trusted figures in athletic performance.

476: Kathy Sierra on Movement Mastery in Horses, Humans, and Robots Aug 14, 2025

Today’s guest is Kathy Sierra. Kathy Sierra is a computer scientist, author, and horse-movement innovator who bridges neuroscience, learning psychology, and equine training. Co-creator of the award-winning Head First programming series and founder of the JavaRanch community, she later turned her expertise in intrinsic motivation toward her lifelong passion for horses. Through her Panther Flow approach, Kathy helps horses and riders unlock confident, curious, and expressive movement, sharing her work worldwide through courses, workshops, and writing. In training and movement, drilling “perfect form” is standard practice. The more we get into how humans learn, the more we realize that “perfect form” is a myth, and learning is a far more complex venture. Using both differential learning (variety) and constraints helps athletes hone in on their own optimal (and robust) technique, without needing to constantly be looking for one “perfect” way to do things. This is not only true in animals, but also in humans and in machine learning. On this week’s episode, Kathy covers aspects of training horses using the same motor learning concepts that work best in humans. She also goes into how and why robots learn to move better based on constraints, trial and error, versus a “perfect technique” type of programming. This is a fascinating and wide-ranging discussion on human movement, learning, and sport skill. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 0:06 – Introduction to Horse Training Insights 11:16 – Discovering the Community of Movement 21:40 – The Power of Natural Movement 32:19 – Emotions in Movement and Skill Acquisition 41:22 – The Impact of Coaching on Authenticity 53:51 – Techniques for Encouraging Movement Exploration 1:00:23 – The Power of Pattern Interrupts 1:11:34 – The Role of Exploration in Coaching 1:15:18 – Adapting Like Animals 1:22:42 – Embracing Novelty for Movement 1:29:25 – The Myth of Optimality 1:35:18 – Serendipity in Learning Key Takeaways Introduction to Horse Training Insights – [0:06] Kathy shares how working with horses revealed universal truths about movement and behavior, clear communication, patience, and trust underpin both animal and human learning. What to try: Start with establishing safety and trust before layering complexity. Use observation as your first tool, notice subtle shifts in posture or energy. Match your cues to the learner’s readiness, not your agenda. Discovering the Community of Movement – [11:16] She describes how connecting with other movement-minded people broadened her perspective and expanded her toolkit. What to try: Seek out cross-disciplinary conversations, dancers, martial artists, animal trainers. Share drills and games openly; let others adapt them for their setting. Use community feedback as a way to refine your own approach. The Power of Natural Movement – [21:40] Kathy emphasizes that natural, unforced movement often produces the most authentic and sustainable skill. What to try: Design environments that invite natural movement patterns to emerge. Remove overbearing cues, let the body self-organize. Watch for efficiency and ease, not just output. Emotions in Movement and Skill Acquisition – [32:19] She links emotional state to physical learning, noting that fear or tension can block skill development. What to try: Pair challenging tasks with positive emotional experiences. Recognize emotional cues, frustration, joy, hesitation, and adjust tasks accordingly. Celebrate small wins to keep confidence high. The Impact of Coaching on Authenticity – [41:22] Kathy warns that over-coaching can erode authenticity in movement. What to try: Avoid shaping every rep, allow athletes to bring their own style. Use fewer, simpler cues to protect natural expression. Ask reflective questions instead of issuing constant directives. Techniques for Encouraging Movement Exploration – [53:51] She offers strategies to spark curiosity and creativity in movement. What to try: Introduce unusual tools, surfaces, or starting positions. Frame drills as “games” with multiple solutions. Encourage athletes to invent their own variations. The Power of Pattern Interrupts – [1:00:23] Kathy highlights how breaking routines can reawaken learning. What to try: Switch the order of familiar drills to force new adaptations. Change the environment, lighting, surfaces, or even music. Surprise athletes with a different task mid-session. The Role of Exploration in Coaching – [1:11:34] She reinforces that giving athletes time to explore leads to deeper learning. What to try: Dedicate segments of practice to free exploration without a set goal. Allow athletes to test boundaries of speed, range, or rhythm. Step back and observe without correcting. Adapting Like Animals – [1:15:18] Kathy draws parallels between animal adaptability and human movement capacity. What to try: Train in varied conditions to build adaptability. Use unpredictability, unplanned starts, changes of direction, or shifting resistance. Watch how the body adjusts without instruction. Embracing Novelty for Movement – [1:22:42] She explains that novelty keeps the nervous system engaged and responsive. What to try: Rotate new drills weekly to keep stimulus fresh. Introduce unorthodox challenges that require problem-solving. Maintain an element of surprise in sessions. The Myth of Optimality – [1:29:25] Kathy challenges the idea of one “best” way to move. What to try: Accept multiple movement solutions as valid. Train variability instead of chasing perfect form. Help athletes discover what works for them in different contexts. Serendipity in Learning – [1:35:18] She describes how unexpected moments often spark the biggest breakthroughs. What to try: Stay open to spontaneous opportunities during training. Let sessions evolve based on athlete curiosity. Capture and repeat moments that resonate. Quotes “If they don’t feel safe, they’re not going to move in a way that’s authentic or open.” “Sometimes the best thing you can do as a coach is to wait and watch before you say anything.” “You can’t cue someone into confidence—it has to be experienced.” “When the environment invites them to explore, you don’t have to force the learning.” “I’d rather see ten different solutions than one perfect one that only works in one situation.” “Novelty wakes up the system. It changes the way they see and feel the task.” “If all you ever give them is the ‘right way,’ you’re taking away their ability to problem-solve.” “The emotions tied to the movement are as important as the mechanics.” “Animals adapt because they have to. We can train people to do the same by giving them variety.” “Sometimes the magic happens when the plan gets interrupted.” “There’s no one optimal way—there’s only what works for that body in that moment.” “When they discover it for themselves, it sticks in a way no amount of instruction can match.” About Kathy Sierra Kathy Sierra is a trailblazer who bridges technology, neuroscience, and horsemanship. Trained in exercise physiology at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and later in computer programming at UCLA, she built a remarkable career in tech as co-creator of the award-winning Head First programming book series, founder of the JavaRanch community, and instructor in interaction design for intrinsic motivation at UCLA Extension and Universal Studios. After years of shaping how people learn complex topics, Kathy turned her attention to her lifelong passion for horses, creating Intrinzen and later Panther Flow, an approach to equine movement and motivation rooted in neuroscience, learning psychology, and pain science. Inspired by her experience rehabilitating her own horse, Panther Flow emphasizes intrinsic motivation to help horses rediscover confidence, curiosity, and joy in movement. Today, Kathy shares her work through courses, workshops, and writing, helping both horses and humans move with more freedom, expression, and resilience.

475: Tim Riley on Intuitive Speed and Strength Training Concepts Aug 07, 2025

Today’s guest is Tim Riley. Tim Riley is the Director of Sports Performance at Kollective in Austin, where he leads one of the nation’s top NFL off‑season training programs and works with elite athletes across the NFL, NBA, PLL, and AVP. He also serves as a Lead Performance Coach with C4 Energy and Head Strength and Conditioning Coach for the University of Texas Men’s Lacrosse team. Beyond the weight room, Tim shares his knowledge through his podcast, Coach Em Up, and his social media platforms. On today’s podcast, Tim speaks on how he synthesizes the complexities and possibilities of training into his intuitive process. On the show, we cover numerous items of speed and strength training, digging into the daily training process. We also cover the help and use of strength machines, conditioning, capacity, training stimulation, and much more. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 1:00 – The Need for Simplicity in a Complex Coaching World 6:08 – Is Complexity Distracting Us from What Actually Matters? 11:55 – What Are Athletes Actually Feeling During a Drill? 18:42 – How Do We Make Coaching Feel Less Robotic? 25:30 – What If the Goal Isn’t Perfection, But Exploration? 32:09 – Can We Trust Athletes to Self-Organize? 39:46 – When Do We Step In, and When Do We Step Back? 47:22 – How to Handle “Messy” Reps and Unscripted Movement 54:11 – Are You Coaching for Output or Adaptability? 1:01:18 – Letting Go of the Illusion of Total Control Actionable Takeaways The Need for Simplicity in a Complex Coaching World – [1:00] Tim emphasizes that sometimes doing less creates more buy-in. When things are simple and grounded, athletes feel safe to go all-in. What to try: Open sessions with minimal barriers, simple tasks that athletes can immediately attack. Anchor your program in clear, foundational principles. Avoid over-layering. Use simplicity to build confidence before introducing complexity. Is Complexity Distracting Us from What Actually Matters? – [6:08] Tim reflects on times when adding more didn’t add value. Too much complexity can distract from what makes athletes feel fast, powerful, or confident. What to try: If a drill looks cool but the athletes are confused, simplify. Choose training elements that resonate emotionally and physically with athletes. Prioritize what sticks with them, not what looks best on social media. What Are Athletes Actually Feeling During a Drill? – [11:55] Tim discusses the disconnect between what coaches see and what athletes actually experience. You won’t know unless you ask. What to try: Regularly pause to ask: “What did that feel like?” Adjust based on athlete feedback, even if it means letting go of your favorite drill. Use sensation-based questions to help athletes build awareness (“Did you feel the bounce off the floor?”). How Do We Make Coaching Feel Less Robotic? – [18:42] Athletes shut down when things feel overly mechanical. Tim points out that meaningful training often happens in the gray areas, not the rigidly planned ones. What to try: Let warmups flow with energy, don’t always stick to a static script. Mix structure with spontaneity. Athletes should feel like they’re moving, not executing code. Lean into athlete body language. Adjust volume and tone on the fly. What If the Goal Isn’t Perfection, But Exploration? – [25:30] Tim encourages a shift from perfect execution to active exploration. Growth comes from seeing what might work, not just repeating what’s safe. What to try: Create “choose your own path” movement options in skill work. Use sessions that feel like problem-solving, not rehearsing. Acknowledge when athletes take a risk, even if the result isn’t clean. Can We Trust Athletes to Self-Organize? – [32:09] Tim shares how athletes often come up with smarter solutions when you step back. Giving them space invites better, more natural movement. What to try: Give minimal constraints and let them explore output, rhythm, or direction. Watch for patterns, don’t force them into yours. Resist the urge to overcorrect. Curiosity is more powerful than control. When Do We Step In, and When Do We Step Back? – [39:46] It’s not about coaching every rep, it’s about timing. Tim explains how knowing when not to coach can preserve momentum and trust. What to try: Step in when safety, clarity, or intent is breaking down, not just because it’s not “right.” Observe more. Athletes reveal more through rhythm than words. Use short, guiding questions instead of constant directives. How to Handle “Messy” Reps and Unscripted Movement – [47:22] Tim frames “messy” movement as a sign of life. Clean doesn’t always mean better; adaptation often starts in the awkward rep. What to try: Reframe “errors” as invitations for refinement, not rejection. Use film or feedback loops to help athletes see their process evolve. Let reps breathe. Avoid cueing away the chaos too early. Are You Coaching for Output or Adaptability? – [54:11] Chasing numbers can trap coaches into training for the test. Tim reminds us that real performance is rooted in adaptability, not outputs alone. What to try: Cycle between high-output days and variable, reactive environments. Don’t let PRs blind you to messy wins, like problem-solving or improvisation. Include tasks where success isn’t binary, just better. Letting Go of the Illusion of Total Control – [1:01:18] Tim closes with humility. Coaching isn’t about perfectly shaping every outcome; it’s about giving athletes the tools and space to grow on their terms. What to try: Release the need to micromanage. Focus on preparing, not programming every detail. Trust that athletes will often find the best version of the solution, even if it’s not yours. Create the conditions for learning, then step aside and let it happen. Tim Riley Quotes “I try to make our training something that gets them excited to walk into.” “We’re not playing for points in a warm-up. It’s okay to do things that look a little messy.” “The more you can create an environment where they’re not thinking about the constraints, they’re just immersed in it, the better the movement.” “It doesn’t always need to be, ‘You did this wrong. Do it again.’ It can be, ‘What did you notice? What did you feel?’” “You don’t always need to be the one solving the problem. Sometimes they’ll solve it better than you can.” “The more we can back out and just watch, the more we start to learn about what the athlete actually needs.” “We’ll run circuits that don’t have a ‘right way’—just a way that feels good and makes them think.” “I’ve had athletes say, ‘That felt smooth,’ and that’s more important to me than what the data says.” “I’d rather build something that sustains energy over time than something that just looks impressive on paper.” “A lot of athletes don’t need more drills—they need more ways to engage with what they already know.” “We’re not trying to fix people. We’re trying to help them organize themselves better.” “When they start to ask their own questions about movement, that’s when I know something is clicking.” About Tim Riley Tim Riley is the Director of Sports Performance at Kollective in Austin, TX, where he leads one of the nation’s premier NFL off‑season training programs and works with athletes from the NFL, NBA, PLL, and AVP. He also serves as Head Strength and Conditioning Coach for the University of Texas Men’s Lacrosse team and is a Lead Performance Coach with C4 Energy, designing strength and performance initiatives for athletes nationwide. Launching his career in 2017 through NPTI under Professor Dave Boetcher, Tim has since built Tim Riley Training LLC and earned certifications including NASM, Precision Nutrition, and USAW. Mentored by leaders such as Mo Wells, Trey Hardee, and Dr. Pat Davidson, he has developed a reputation for precision in off‑season and in‑season regimens. His holistic philosophy blends physical preparation with mental resilience, and he extends his impact through his podcast, Coach Em Up, and his social media platform @timrileytraining.

474: Joel Smith on 12 Reasons Athletes Plateau in a Performance Program Jul 31, 2025

Joel Smith speaks on 12 reasons why athletes and coaches may hit a plateau in their performance programs. These include: 1. Lack of stimulation in the training environment 2. Too much stimulation in the training environment 3. Not enough creativity or novelty 4. Lack of a clear plan 5. Too much weightlifting 6. Not enough weightlifting 7. Monotony from failing to wave training loads 8. A lack of representative play and exploration 9. Deficits in skill learning 10. Programs that feel too constricting 11. Athletes not feeling truly seen or heard 12. Gaps in belief and motivation In this episode, we’ll unpack these elements one by one, while also exploring practical methods coaches and athletes can use to break through these plateaus and unlock new levels of performance. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 1:10 – Lack of Stimulation in the Training Environment3:18 – Too Much Stimulation in the Training Environment6:00 – Not Enough Creativity or Novelty7:36 – Lack of a Clear Plan10:20 – Too Much Weightlifting12:12 – Not Enough Weightlifting13:44 – Monotony from Failing to Wave Training Loads16:00 – A Lack of Representative Play and Exploration18:25 – Deficits in Skill Learning20:47 – Programs That Feel Too Constricting23:00 – Athletes Not Feeling Truly Seen or Heard25:03 – Gaps in Belief and Motivation Actionable Takeaways Lack of Stimulation in the Training Environment – [1:10] Athletes disengage when training lacks challenge or relevance. Too many repetitive drills and static formats dull the nervous system and the mind. What to try: Use small-sided games or reactive drills to increase decision density. Rotate training environments or sensory constraints to create novelty. Avoid overly choreographed warmups—build something they have to solve. Too Much Stimulation in the Training Environment – [3:18] Overloading athletes with chaos, cues, or novelty can backfire. When there’s too much going on, meaningful adaptation slows down. What to try: Balance open tasks with periods of focused repetition. Simplify instructions—set the environment, then observe. Know when to back off and give space for consolidation. Not Enough Creativity or Novelty – [6:00] Without moments of surprise or exploration, athletes stop learning. Creativity sparks engagement—and often, better movement solutions. What to try: Add odd objects, uneven surfaces, or unconventional constraints. Give athletes freedom within drills to explore variations. Don’t aim for perfect reps—aim for meaningful reps. Lack of a Clear Plan – [7:36] Randomness without progression can feel chaotic. Athletes need to see where training is going—even if it's nonlinear. What to try: Cycle phases between creative exposure and focused refinement. Revisit key themes and skills, even in exploratory training. Share your intent—clarity builds trust. Too Much Weightlifting – [10:20] Lifting can become a crutch when it overshadows movement quality or reduces time for skill and game-speed work. What to try: Trim down barbell volume in favor of transfer-driven tasks. Use loaded movements that keep athletes grounded and aware. Ask: Is this lift enhancing or muting athleticism? Not Enough Weightlifting – [12:12] Some environments undervalue lifting altogether, leading to gaps in tissue tolerance and general strength. What to try: Use tempo and iso-based lifts to build coordination and robustness. Make lifting complementary, not competitive, with field work. Keep it simple—progressive resistance is still powerful when done well. Monotony from Failing to Wave Training Loads – [13:44] Flat training creates flat adaptation. The nervous system needs contrast—different speeds, intensities, and patterns. What to try: Undulate task difficulty, complexity, and energy demands weekly. Don’t force linearity—oscillation often creates better momentum. Use fatigue to your advantage, not just something to avoid. A Lack of Representative Play and Exploration – [16:00] Training that doesn’t mirror the perceptual and reactive demands of sport fails to prepare athletes for the real thing. What to try: Use live, reactive elements in both prep and peak phases. Let athletes interact—tag, chase, evade, redirect. Match the rhythm of sport more than the posture of sport. Deficits in Skill Learning – [18:25] Skill requires feedback, timing, and variability—not just reps. Without these, athletes get stronger but not smarter. What to try: Provide scenarios where athletes adjust, not just execute. Design sessions where errors are data, not failure. Keep coaching cues minimal—let the task teach. Programs That Feel Too Constricting – [20:47] Rigid programming can sap motivation and limit self-organization. Athletes aren’t robots—they need room to adapt. What to try: Offer movement choices within a drill (e.g., angle, tool, tempo). Use blocks of “open movement” or self-directed time. If an athlete finds a better solution than you wrote down—use it. Athletes Not Feeling Truly Seen or Heard – [23:00] The best program in the world won’t land if the athlete doesn’t feel understood. Connection drives effort and honesty. What to try: Ask questions, then actually change something based on the answer. Use eye contact, tone, and posture to signal you're listening. Reflect what you observe: “You looked smooth today—how’d it feel?” Gaps in Belief and Motivation – [25:03] When athletes don’t believe in what they’re doing—or in themselves—progress stalls. You’re not just building outputs, you’re building identity. What to try: Tie drills to game outcomes—make the link visible. Highlight effort and progress, not just perfection. Let athletes bring a bit of themselves into the session. That’s where buy-in lives. Quotes “When you don’t have enough stimulation, when the inputs are too low, you’re just not giving the body enough to work with to adapt to.” “If the environment is too chaotic or too over-the-top, it doesn’t land. It just becomes noise.” “I think some of the best learning happens when you don’t tell people what to do—you let them figure it out.” “We tend to overprescribe, overcue, and overcontrol, especially when we feel pressure to ‘do something’ as coaches.” “Athletes need to play. They need to interact. They need to make decisions in real time—not just follow orders.” “If you’re not periodically changing things or introducing novel elements, people check out—even if they’re compliant on the surface.” “You can’t just live in structure. If athletes don’t have autonomy or variation, their engagement drops.” “Strength is valuable, but if it’s not coordinated, if it’s not applied in a meaningful way, it becomes noise.” “Sometimes coaching is just knowing when to shut up and let the rep happen.” “The more belief an athlete has in what they’re doing, the more likely it is to transfer. It’s not just about mechanics—it’s about meaning.” About Joel Smith Joel Smith is the founder of Just Fly Sports and is a sports performance and track coach in Cincinnati, Ohio. Joel hosts the Just Fly Performance Podcast and has authored several books and coaches in both the high school and private sectors. Joel was a strength coach for 8 years at UC Berkeley, working with the Swim teams and post-graduate professional swimmers, as well as tennis, water polo, and track and field. A track coach of 17 years, Joel coached for the Diablo Valley Track and Field Club for 7 years and also has 6 years of experience coaching on the collegiate level, working at Wilmington College, and the University of Wisconsin, LaCrosse. He is currently coaching high jump at Milford High School. Joel has coached 4 national champions, multiple All-Americans, and NCAA record holders in track and field. In the realm of strength and conditioning, his programs have assisted 5 athletes to Olympic berths that produced 9 medals and a world record performance at Rio in 2016.

473: Michael Zweifel on Athletic Artistry and Movement Intelligence Jul 24, 2025

Today’s guest is Michael Zweifel. Michael is the Defensive Coordinator and Defensive Backs Coach at UW–La Crosse, now in his fourth season with the program. He previously founded Building Better Athletes (BBA Performance) in Dubuque, Iowa, training athletes from youth to pro levels. Michael also coached at Clarke College and the University of Dubuque. A former record-setting wide receiver, he won the 2011 Gagliardi Trophy and still holds the NCAA all-divisions career receptions record (463). In athletic development, the “5 S’s of performance”: Strength, Speed, Stamina, Suppleness, and Skill are often brought up. What tends to be the case is that those 5 elements are weighted in that order, with skill mentioned, but rarely or ever studied in how to improve it. On today’s show, Michael discusses his own creative approach to skill development in American football players with an emphasis on building artistry and adaptability in his players. He speaks on the nature of constraint-based coaching that helps athletes improve their arsenal of movements on the field, as well as their decision-making skills amid chaos. We also touch on the crossover between basketball and football, and ultimately, the art of long-term development of skill in one’s sport and as an athlete in general. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength. Use the code "justfly25" for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 0:12 – Programming for High School vs. College-Level Athletes 5:03 – Balancing Strength and Movement Skill in Team Settings 11:09 – Developing the Skill of Lifting in Young Athletes 15:34 – Rethinking Readiness: Performance vs. Output 19:43 – Using Split Squats and Progressions for Movement Quality 26:30 – Training the Foot and Ankle Without Overengineering It 31:58 – Prioritizing Play and Variability in Movement Prep 36:30 – Gaining Buy-In Through Fun, Autonomy, and Context 44:52 – Avoiding the Trap of Over-Cueing and Technical Obsession 50:33 – Defining Transfer: Performance, Practice, and Perception 55:51 – Evolving Coaching Philosophy with Experience Programming for High School vs. College-Level Athletes – [0:12] Coaching high school athletes requires simpler systems and more attention to teaching intent. College athletes can handle more volume and complexity, but the fundamentals still matter. What to try: Prioritize clean movement and buy-in over complexity in high school settings. Introduce more autonomy and load management with college athletes. Don’t assume physical maturity—meet athletes where they are. Balancing Strength and Movement Skill in Team Settings – [5:03] It's not just about chasing strength numbers. There's value in seeing how strength integrates into movement, especially in large team environments. What to try: Cycle in movement tasks—like crawling, balancing, or landing—in warmups and finishers. Use strength work to support athletic expression, not just output. Keep the athlete’s sport in mind—strength is a tool, not the goal. Developing the Skill of Lifting in Young Athletes – [11:09] Lifting isn’t just strength—it’s a skill. For youth athletes, you’re teaching how to move with awareness under load. What to try: Start with basic isometrics and bodyweight patterns to teach control. Add load only when position and rhythm are reliable. Use slow eccentrics and pauses to reinforce stability. Rethinking Readiness: Performance vs. Output – [15:34] Readiness isn’t just about lifting heavier or running faster—it’s about how an athlete moves and feels. Output is one piece, not the whole picture. What to try: Include subjective readiness check-ins before training. Look for signs of fluidity, control, and intent in warmups. Use RPE and movement quality, not just the stopwatch or barbell. Using Split Squats and Progressions for Movement Quality – [19:43] Split squats are more than a regression—they teach foot pressure, torso control, and joint alignment. Don’t rush athletes past them. What to try: Start with assisted or tempo split squats to build awareness. Cue pressure through the midfoot—not just depth. Progress only when position and intent stay consistent under load. Training the Foot and Ankle Without Overengineering It – [26:30] You don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Sprinting, jumping, and landing already train the feet—just be intentional about exposure. What to try: Include barefoot work in warmups or low-load prep phases. Use jumps, skips, and landings for natural foot and ankle loading. Avoid excessive band drills unless there’s a clear need. Prioritizing Play and Variability in Movement Prep – [31:58] Rigid warmups miss an opportunity to build coordination and adaptability. Add variation and play to help athletes solve movement problems on the fly. What to try: Swap in games, tag variations, or reactive drills instead of static stretching. Use variable surfaces or implements to challenge control. Keep athletes mentally engaged—avoid going through the motions. Gaining Buy-In Through Fun, Autonomy, and Context – [36:30] Buy-in isn’t just about results—it’s about trust. Athletes respond better when they feel heard, when sessions are fun, and when they understand the “why.” What to try: Ask athletes what they enjoy or feel helps them—then build around it. Offer small choices during sessions (e.g., jump variation, finishers). Keep training competitive but light—fun doesn’t mean ineffective. Avoiding the Trap of Over-Cueing and Technical Obsession – [44:52] Too many cues can kill movement fluency. Don’t coach every rep to death—let athletes feel their way through tasks. What to try: Cue external outcomes instead of internal positions (“touch the line,” not “extend the hip”). Give space for errors—especially during exploration phases. Only step in when a pattern is clearly unsafe or consistently flawed. Defining Transfer: Performance, Practice, and Perception – [50:33] Transfer isn’t about mimicking sport exactly—it’s about influencing how athletes see and solve problems. Think beyond biomechanical matching. What to try: Choose tasks that challenge perception, timing, and decision-making. Use constraints that require adaptation, not just repetition. View “transfer” as a process, not a checkbox. Evolving Coaching Philosophy with Experience – [55:51] With time, coaching shifts from control to curiosity. The best coaches aren’t trying to micromanage—they’re observing, adjusting, and trusting the process. What to try: Reflect on how your coaching has changed—and why. Seek feedback from athletes on what actually sticks. Simplify where you can and focus on the long-term development arc. Quotes “I think we overplay how technical we have to be early on with lifting. It’s not wrong to be technical, but it can almost create fragility in the way we approach training.” “The lift is the skill. So when we coach that, it’s not just about strength—it’s about how you coordinate, how you stabilize, how you organize your body under load.” “I think fun and autonomy are critical. If an athlete walks out of a session with a smile, I don’t care how perfect the sets and reps were—they’re going to come back and buy in again.” “You can tell when someone’s trying to feel their way through a movement—that’s when you know you’re doing something valuable.” About Michael Zweifel Michael Zweifel is in his fourth season on the UW–La Crosse football staff in 2025, serving as the Eagles' Defensive Coordinator and Defensive Backs Coach Prior to UW-La Crosse Michael founded and led Building Better Athletes (BBA Performance) in Dubuque, Iowa, coaching athletes across youth, high school, college, and professional levels. From 2013 onward, Michael also contributed as the strength and conditioning coach for Clarke College baseball and as the wide receiver coach at the University of Dubuque (Iowa) beginning in 2022. A standout athlete, Michael won the 2011 Gagliardi Trophy as the nation’s top NCAA Division III football player. He holds NCAA records—including 140 receptions in a season and a career-total 463 receptions across all divisions. He earned his bachelor’s degree—summa cum laude—in exercise science from Dubuque University in 2011 and completed his master’s in kinesiology at the University of Texas at Tyler in 2015.

472: Will Ratelle on Giant Sets and the Art of Adaptive Training Jul 17, 2025

Today’s guest is Will “Hoss” Ratelle — former All-Big Sky linebacker turned strength and conditioning coach, with experience at the University of North Dakota, the NFL, and the CFL. Known for his intense, results-driven training style, Hoss blends his pro football background with evidence-based methods to build size, speed, and resilience in athletes. He’s also the creator of popular programs like “Hoss Concurrent” and a respected voice in the online performance space. Most fitness and training education tends to be rigid, centered around fixed sets, reps, heart rate zones, and prescribed loads and timing. While this structure has value, athletes eventually need to move beyond it and enter a more adaptive, natural rhythm of training. Sets and reps can serve as a starting point, but great coaching gives training a feel, one that fosters ownership, problem-solving, and deeper athlete engagement. On today’s episode, Will Ratelle shares practical strategies for building training protocols that allow for flexibility and athlete autonomy. He discusses how to keep athletes dialed in during strength and power work, while also diving into topics like hamstring rehab, velocity-based training, and more. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength. Use the code "justfly25" for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 0:12 – Transitioning from College S&C to Academia and Private Sector 5:41 – Training Adjustments for Harsh Winter Environments 9:35 – The Role of Giant Sets in Strength Training 15:11 – Building Competition and Problem-Solving into Small Group Training 18:05 – Time-Based Plyometrics for Better Autoregulation 22:50 – Applying Time-Based Models to Jumps and Olympic Lifts 27:21 – Minimalist Approach to Accessory Work in Training 30:54 – Using Velocity-Based Training for Autoregulation 41:25 – Hamstring Rehab Strategies Using Sled Work and Sprint Progressions 44:37 – Perspectives on Nordics and Eccentric Hamstring Training Actionable Takeaways Training Adjustments for Harsh Winter Environments – [5:41] Training outdoors year-round is unrealistic in extreme winters. Will adapts by simplifying programming indoors and accepting seasonal fluctuations in volume and intensity. What to try: Plan for seasonal ebbs and flows, especially in outdoor-heavy programs. Shift to more controlled indoor environments during harsh weather periods. Keep aerobic and speed elements alive through creative indoor alternatives like tempo sleds or circuits. The Role of Giant Sets in Strength Training – [9:35] Will uses giant sets to create training flexibility. These allow athletes to autoregulate volume, manage energy, and work at their own pace without strict rep schemes. What to try: Build sessions around circuits of 3–4 movements: main lift, jump, core, mobility. Set time limits (e.g., 20 minutes) instead of strict sets/reps. Let athletes self-select volume based on daily readiness. Building Competition and Problem-Solving into Small Group Training – [15:11] Will’s small group setups naturally encourage problem-solving, teamwork, and friendly competition—all without over-coaching. What to try: Create circuits or mini-competitions that require collaboration. Encourage athletes to solve challenges together (e.g., team med ball throws for max reps). Keep coaching cues minimal—let athletes figure things out. Time-Based Plyometrics for Better Autoregulation – [18:05] Will prefers time-based plyo sets to help athletes naturally regulate their own volume and quality of output as they warm up and fatigue. What to try: Run 30-60 second blocks for depth jumps or hops instead of fixed reps. Encourage gradual build-up in intensity within each block. Stop efforts when quality clearly declines, not when the clock runs out. Applying Time-Based Models to Jumps and Olympic Lifts – [22:50] Time, not reps, helps preserve quality during technical lifts. Will uses this to keep sessions efficient and output-driven without burnout. What to try: Prescribe Olympic lifts or jumps in time blocks (e.g., 10 minutes of work) instead of rigid sets. Allow athletes to pace output based on feel and quality. Emphasize intent on every rep, not completion of arbitrary numbers. Minimalist Approach to Accessory Work in Training – [27:21] Will trims accessory work in favor of more focus on key movements. He finds this simplifies training and maintains energy for high-priority outputs. What to try: Prioritize 1–2 primary lifts per session with purpose-driven intent. Reduce accessory work to essentials—avoid fatigue for the sake of “doing more.” Let recovery dictate accessory volume, not habit. Using Velocity-Based Training for Autoregulation – [30:54] Will leans on VBT to gauge daily readiness, manage fatigue, and adjust training on the fly based on objective bar speeds. What to try: Use velocity cutoffs to stop sets or adjust loads dynamically. Track trends in speed across weeks to inform readiness decisions. Avoid grinding through reps—quality > quantity. Hamstring Rehab Strategies Using Sled Work and Sprint Progressions – [41:25] Will shares how sled work and gradual sprint progressions helped him personally rehab a hamstring injury without aggravating it. What to try: Use sled pushes and marches to reintroduce posterior chain loading safely. Progress sprinting from upright, submaximal efforts to more aggressive outputs. Focus on how things feel—stop short of tightness or compensation. Perspectives on Nordics and Eccentric Hamstring Training – [44:37] Will reflects on how his views on Nordics have shifted—they’re useful, but not the answer alone. Sprinting remains the gold standard for hamstring health. What to try: Blend Nordics into phases, but don’t over-rely on them. Prioritize sprint exposure for hamstring resilience. Recognize Nordics as a piece of a larger system, not a cure-all. Quotes [27:37] “I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with accessory work. It’s just, do we need to be spending 45 minutes doing it after we’ve already done our main lifts and jumps and throws?” [9:59] “I try to keep the training process as simple as possible because it’s really easy to complicate things.” [11:40] “I’ve gravitated more toward giving people time constraints and letting them auto-regulate how much work they do within that time.” [23:01] “I think jumps and Olympic lifts lend themselves well to time-based prescriptions because the output tends to fall off naturally as people fatigue.” [15:42] “Competition tends to bring out the best in people. If you structure things in a way where it naturally encourages people to compete, it’s a win.” [45:06] “I’ve started to care less and less about Nordics being the answer for hamstring health. I just think sprinting is the best thing we can do.” [31:30] “Velocity-based training is helpful because it provides objective feedback—if you’re not hitting the numbers, there’s no argument to keep pushing.” About Will Ratelle Will “Hoss” Ratelle is a dedicated strength and conditioning coach with deep roots in collegiate athletics and professional football. Rising from a standout linebacker at the University of North Dakota, Ratelle earned All-Big Sky honors twice and set single-season tackle records before transitioning into a professional football career, with stints on special teams in the NFL (Atlanta Falcons and Kansas City Chiefs) and a return to linebacker with the CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders After earning his Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology from UND (2015), Ratelle moved into coaching, completing internships in the UND Strength & Conditioning Department (2015–2017). He played a pivotal role in developing the football program’s speed and agility systems during a historic 2016 Big Sky championship season. Fully integrating into the staff, Will served as Assistant Strength & Conditioning Coach, supporting football, men’s and women’s tennis, basketball, and volleyball teams Certified by the CSCS and CSCCA (2019), Ratelle combines elite athletic experience with practical training protocols. He is known for crafting holistic programs that fuse Olympic lifting, sprint/plyometric development, and fundamental athleticism, aimed at maximizing size, strength, speed, and resilience. In addition to his coaching roles, Will actively shares his expertise through published articles (e.g., SimpliFaster), podcasts, and TrainHeroic programs such as “Hoss Concurrent” and “Hoss Project 2.0,” training countless athletes to build robust, multi-sport athleticism across platforms

471: Cameron Josse and Joel Reinhardt on Movement, Speed, and Capacity Building in Football Performance Jul 10, 2025

Today’s guests are Cameron Josse and Joel Reinhardt. Cameron Josse is an Assistant Strength & Conditioning Coach with the Detroit Lions. He’s previously led training at DeFranco’s and worked in college football at Auburn and Indiana, training athletes across the NFL, NHL, UFC, and WWE. Joel Reinhardt is the Director of Football Performance at Lafayette College. He’s coached at San José State, Stanford, UMass, and Nicholls State. Both Cameron and Joel are field leaders in applied performance, data-driven programming, and athletic movement for physical preparation in American Football. Details in athletic preparation change from the level of high school to college to professional. On today’s episode, Cameron and Joel speak on the nature of contact and collision preparation in their athlete populations, with a specific emphasis on the use of the ground and rolling patterns. They discuss the specific game demands of football, especially on the college and pro level, and how to prepare athletes for 25,000+ weekly yards of total on-field movement. They break down their approaches to speed, direction change, and capacity building work, with these ideas in mind. This was a show with lots of wisdom on helping players fully meet the needs of their sport. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength and LILA Exogen wearable resistance. Use the code "justfly25" for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 1:57 – In-Season Program Differences: NFL vs. College Strength Cycles 4:48 – Navigating Player Relationships with Private Trainers 15:57 – Adapting Contact Prep and Agility for Different Levels 32:38 – Tempo Running as a Foundation for Training Camp Readiness 37:44 – Total Yardage and Conditioning Strategy in Football Preparation 50:16 – Designing Multi-Directional Conditioning Sessions That Mimic Football 58:28 – Integrating Multi-Directional Movements in Conditioning for Athleticism 1:03:46 – Reframing Speed Development Within Annual Training Cycles 1:10:04 – Shifting Focus: From Pure Speed to Building Complete Players Actionable Takeaways In-Season Program Differences: NFL vs. College Strength Cycles [1:57] College and NFL environments demand different strategies due to season length, player access, and structure. Joel discusses managing heavy summer phases before camp, while Cam explains the shift in autonomy and scheduling when transitioning to the NFL. What to try: In college, leverage summer access to build in more football-specific work before camp. In pro settings: Expect less year-round control—build players' autonomy and keep lines open during away periods. Plan for longer in-season stress in the NFL (17+ games); taper early and build recovery into weekly rhythms Navigating Player Relationships with Private Trainers [4:48] Cameron emphasizes collaboration with private-sector coaches when players train off-site. Rather than resisting outside input, he advocates for using it to better individualize in-team programming. What to try: Reach out to private coaches working with your athletes—especially vets with long-standing relationships. Use those conversations to shape training direction, not override it. Drop the ego—focus on what helps the athlete feel and perform best Adapting Contact Prep and Agility for Different Levels [15:57] Literal contact prep (e.g., wrestling, rugby-style drills) is mostly off-limits in team settings. Cam shifts toward decel work, ground-based drills, and rolling patterns to mimic collisions without violating rules. What to try: Use crawling, rolls, and tumbling as proxies for contact—especially during early prep phases. Emphasize deceleration and COD mechanics for lower body contact loading. Build athlete comfort with awkward positions and time on the ground Tempo Running as a Foundation for Training Camp Readiness [32:38] Joel frames tempo as a sign of team maturity—it shows athletes can train with intent without going max effort. It also lays the groundwork for higher sprint volumes and helps manage total weekly load. What to try: Plan 2 extensive field days (e.g., Tue/Thu) to increase weekly yardage while managing intensity. Use tempo + COD combo sessions to maintain variety and logistical flow. Track volume and speed separately—don’t let tempo days become accidental sprint days Conditioning Strategy and Sprint Volume [37:44] Cameron warns against the sprint-only mindset. Sprinting matters, but players also need aerobic resilience to survive camp and long games. What to try: Audit your week: Are you hitting high-speed zones and total yardage? Don’t let trendy sprint metrics overshadow base capacity work. Build up to total distances players will face in peak camp weeks (e.g., 30,000–40,000 yards for WRs) Designing Multi-Directional Conditioning for Football [50:16] Cam outlines a 4-station model that blends tempo, COD, maneuverability, and resisted sprints. The key is pacing the reps with whistle cues to mimic play-clock intervals. What to try: Set up 4 stations: linear tempo, COD (e.g., 5-10-5), curvilinear agility, and resisted acceleration. Rotate every 30–40 seconds on the whistle—mimic football tempo. Scale distance and rep count weekly to increase capacity cleanly Integrating Multi-Directional Movements in Conditioning for Athleticism [58:28] Cam shares how integrating collisions and chaotic agility patterns within conditioning not only builds fitness but also enhances durability and game-readiness. It’s about exposing athletes to awkward positions and unexpected movements under fatigue. What to try: Incorporate partner-based bump drills or collision-prep exercises in conditioning circuits. Add reactive, multi-directional drills under light fatigue—mimic chaotic in-game movement. Focus on athletic problem-solving, not just clean, scripted reps Reframing Speed Development Within Annual Training Cycles [1:03:46] Joel and Cam both emphasize that speed doesn’t need to be a year-round obsession. Instead, they strategically prioritize it based on the training calendar, with technical work early and more reactive speed closer to competition. What to try: Block out specific phases for linear speed development—don’t chase it every week. Early phase: Focus on mechanics, posture, and controlled exposures. Preseason phase: Shift toward reactive, competitive sprints with minimal cueing Shifting Focus: From Pure Speed to Building Complete Players [1:10:04] The conversation closes by addressing a common trap: chasing maximal sprint or strength numbers at the expense of adaptability. Both coaches agree—mature programs prioritize building resilient, adaptable athletes who can thrive in the unpredictable chaos of sport. What to try: Avoid obsessing over max metrics—blend physical outputs with tactical and technical skill sessions. Measure success by in-game performance and injury resilience, not just speed charts. Program regular “chaos” sessions—unstructured play, reactive games, or mixed-movement circuits Quotes "Some of the better athletes on the team are not necessarily the fastest, but they are the ones who seem to control their bodies the best." - Cameron Josse "The ground is undefeated." - Cameron Josse "It's not about making the strongest guy, the fastest guy, any of that. It's about helping foster the best player you can." - Cameron Josse "If I have a wide receiver who adds half a mile an hour to his top speed over six months, sweet—that's a significant difference in a comeback route if he can push the guy off or have an extra half yard." - Joel Reinhardt "If a player is telling me that there's someone that makes them feel their best, I personally feel as though I would want to get in touch with that person just to learn about what they're doing." - Cameron Josse "Sometimes it's interesting to be like, oh, I wouldn't even think to do that because I'm doing it with 30 guys at one time." - Joel Reinhardt "If you're not working backwards from the game, I just don't know what you're doing." - Cameron Josse "When people say, 'How much should I run? How much should I sprint?' I always say it's based on whatever team you work with in the team setting." - Cameron Josse "If I have a team that is able to maturely execute good extensive tempo, it just opens up more avenues from an overall training perspective." - Joel Reinhardt "You're not just thinking about speed, power, strength, somebody that's isolated by motor abilities or qualities. You're thinking systemically, how am I creating the best integrated system of a player that I can?" - Cameron Josse "Recognizing the time of year and educating the guys around like, 'Hey, we had 26,000 total yards this week and you hit 94% of your all-time best speed—you don't need to be disappointed by that.'" - Joel Reinhardt "I always think it's funny when people try to decelerate on the balls of their feet like the same foot strike you'd have in acceleration. It's literally the opposite of accelerating—you need whole foot pressure." - Cameron Josse About Cameron Josse Cameron Josse is currently serving as an Assistant Strength & Conditioning Coach with the Detroit Lions. Cameron brings a wealth of experience shaped across collegiate and professional domains. Following a successful seven-year tenure in the private sector as Director of Sports Performance at DeFranco’s Training Systems (2014–2020), he transitioned into collegiate football, first with Auburn and then Indiana University, where he shaped high-level training programs for athletes in the NFL, NHL, UFC, and WWE.

470: Jay DeMayo on Oxidative Split Squats and Building Power in Position Jul 03, 2025

Today’s guest is Jay DeMayo, Jay is the longtime strength coach for men’s basketball at the University of Richmond and the founder of CVASPS—the Central Virginia Sport Performance Seminar. He’s known for connecting top minds in sport science and coaching, and for his practical, athlete-first approach to physical preparation. Where the emphasis of an athletic performance program can easily be centered from a narrow perspective, Jay considers a wide variety of inputs, from an athlete’s underlying structure and positional abilities to their perception of workout adjustments, to specialized exercises and technical training elements. In this episode, Jay digs into the principles he uses to prepare athletes for the demands of the game. From a foundational perspective, he discusses building work capacity and progressing split squats. On the power side, he shares his take on Olympic lifts and French Contrast training, while also addressing the role of autonomy and individualization in his approach. Throughout the show, Jay unpacks practical tools and coaching strategies that drive long-term athletic development. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength. Use the code "justfly25" for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 8:21- Tailoring Training Methods for Athlete Engagement 11:01- Unveiling Louis Simmons' Strength Training Insights 14:24- Enhancing Basketball Players' Performance Through Tailored Training 21:37- Personalized Exercise Selection for Enhanced Performance 27:55- Engaging Exercise Progressions for Effective Training 30:22- Mastery of Bottom Position for Exercise Gains 34:49- Empowering Athletes through Autonomy and Structure 40:02- Enhancing Lift Performance through Positioning Techniques 49:28- Maximal Expression Circuit Training with Olympic Lifts 59:19- Hormone Spikes in Squat Training 1:14:38- Tailored Stimuli for Optimal Physiological Response 1:17:31- Strength-Speed Emphasis in Athletic Training Program Actionable Takeaways Tailoring Training Methods for Athlete Engagement [8:21] Let’s stop clinging to strict, textbook methods. Jay reflects on how older training styles—like Westside—can still have value when creatively repurposed. It’s not about mimicking those programs but about borrowing what drives athlete engagement and technical mastery today. What to try: Use methods like box squats to teach depth and posture before progressing to more dynamic movements. Connect the dots for athletes: show how learning positions now sets them up for more “fun” or explosive lifts later. Reinforce that mastering basic postures unlocks more advanced training, not just better numbers. Unveiling Louis Simmons' Strength Training Insights [11:01] Jay highlights lessons from studying Louie Simmons—not for copying his powerlifting templates, but to appreciate mastery and intention. Athletes need to understand why they’re training a certain way, not just how. What to try: Share stories or videos of experts from outside your sport to spark discussions about mastery and approach. Ask athletes to reflect on what "winning" a lift means to them—focus, technique, or load? Create reflective moments for athletes to assess their own intent during sessions. Enhancing Basketball Players’ Performance Through Tailored Training [14:24] Forget rigid metrics for the sake of numbers. Jay focuses on using basic force plate data (jump height + contraction time) to guide individual exercise choices—not to chase numbers, but to fit each athlete’s needs. What to try: Test vertical jump and contraction time; use results to bucket athletes into fast/slow jumpers. Prescribe exercises accordingly: Fast jumpers + low jump height → longer ground contact drills. Slow jumpers → faster, more reactive drills. Keep explanations simple—if it takes more than two sentences to explain, simplify it. Personalized Exercise Selection for Enhanced Performance [21:37] Jay stresses that training adjustments aren’t just about physical needs—they’re about how athletes perceive changes. Some athletes thrive on routine; others need variety. Knowing the person matters more than the metric. What to try: Classify athletes loosely by mindset: routine-lovers, indifferent grinders, or variability-seekers. Adjust workloads subtly for each type without announcing it—let them discover what feels right. Be careful not to over-adjust for data alone; focus on how the athlete responds to the changes emotionally and physically. Engaging Exercise Progressions for Effective Training [27:55] Jay talks about laying out progressions clearly for athletes to increase buy-in and effort. He emphasizes the importance of earning "savage" training through slow, controlled work first. What to try: Map out your entire offseason plan visually—show athletes the steps. In early phases, demand slow, technically perfect reps with full posture control. Progress toward more aggressive, dynamic lifts only after technical mastery is achieved. Mastery of Bottom Position for Exercise Gains [30:22] The goal isn’t just to lift heavy—it’s to own every position along the way. Jay finds more value in seeing an athlete master perfect postures than in high numbers on the bar. What to try: Use ascending sets on tough days—start with easier, slower sets to “grease the groove.” Require strict positional holds or slow tempos before allowing athletes to move faster. Celebrate technical mastery in the weight room, not just outputs. Empowering Athletes through Autonomy and Structure [34:49] Autonomy isn’t about letting athletes do whatever they want—it’s about teaching them how to solve problems within structure. Jay blends structured progressions with athlete-led adjustments. What to try: Allow athletes to collaborate during lifts—peer coaching helps them internalize technique. Cue minimally; instead, use positional holds and tempo to guide athletes into solutions. Give athletes choices within safe boundaries to encourage ownership of their progress. Enhancing Lift Performance through Positioning Techniques [40:02] Jay shares how using slow tempos and pauses in Olympic lifts helps athletes find strong positions—leading to smoother, stronger lifts later. What to try: Teach Olympic lifts from hang positions with tempo—slow pull to knees, pause, then finish. Cue lifts in phases: slow start → controlled mid-pull → powerful finish. Progress from tempo lifts to faster lifts once positional awareness improves. Maximal Expression Circuit Training with Olympic Lifts [49:28] Jay uses French contrast training on game day minus one—not just for potentiation, but to prime athletes mentally and physically through fun, high-intent circuits. What to try: Build circuits pairing Olympic lifts, med ball throws, and jumps based on force plate data. Keep circuits fast-paced and competitive—this creates mental and physical readiness. Prioritize fun and intent over textbook-perfect potentiation protocols. Hormone Spikes in Squat Training [59:19] Jay explains how high-rep “oxidative” split squats aren’t just about strength—they teach positions, improve mobility, and expose athletes to “good suffering” that builds resilience. What to try: Start with 2 sets of 10 split squats per leg, slow tempo (2-up, 2-down), progressing over weeks. Let athletes experience controlled discomfort—shaking legs and all. Use this phase as a baseline before progressing to more aggressive loading. Tailored Stimuli for Optimal Physiological Response [1:14:38] Jay encourages using athlete feedback to refine training. Some athletes feel best after oxidative work—forcing them to follow rigid plans ignores valuable self-awareness. What to try: Offer limited “choose your lift” options for certain days—watch what athletes gravitate toward. Track subjective feedback alongside performance metrics. Use those insights to allow individual variations within a unified team framework. Strength-Speed Emphasis in Athletic Training Program [1:17:31] Jay emphasizes balancing structure and athlete choice. Uniformity builds team cohesion, but flexibility allows athletes to find what truly helps them feel and perform best. What to try: Blend structured team lifts with optional, individualized accessory work. Encourage athletes to log subjective “feel” ratings post-training—don’t just rely on numbers. Teach athletes to pay attention to soreness, joint stress, and movement ease after sessions—this guides future adjustments. Quotes "If you can find a little bit more engagement with them, you get a little bit more effort. And again, if intent drives adaptation, they. Then that's what matters." - Jay DeMayo "We probably don't want that the average for a 20 person basketball team to be what dictates the drill when one kid could run 0 meters and another kid could run a thousand meters." - Jay DeMayo "I think, though, that the, you know, we talk about therapeutic things and all that all the time as well. And we talk about how motion is lotion. Right. Like, it helps you get things going and get things moving and this and that. So sometimes just getting out of their way and letting them kind of work their way through things is the best thing for them too." - Jay DeMayo "We could talk about potentiation and this, that,

469: Hunter Eisenhower on Building “Human Strength” and Athletic Movement Capacity Jun 26, 2025

Today’s guest is Hunter Eisenhower, Associate Head Coach for Sports Performance at Arizona State Men’s Basketball. With experience in the NBA and NCAA, Hunter blends force production qualities, data analysis, and variability-driven human training methods to build explosive, adaptable athletes. He’s the creator of the “Force System” and a thought leader in modern athletic performance concepts. Most athletic performance training is centered around outputs. Movement abilities and qualities are discussed, but there isn’t much quantification process that goes towards an athlete’s raw abilities, such as variable jump strategies alongside stiffness and compliance competencies. On today’s episode, Hunter shares his approach to offseason prep using general physical means that build that “human strength”—developing capacity alongside movement variability. Hunter also breaks down how he quantifies an athlete’s movement capacities and library, their ability to, balance rigidity and compliance in line with force plate data. We wrap with ideas on foot training and using variable surfaces to meet the demands of dynamic sport. This is a great look at training beyond just big lifts—into the true movement needs of the game. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength and the Just Fly Sports Online Courses Check out the newest mini-course, Sprint Drills Reloaded on how to maximize sprint drills, their specific strength development, building of major sprint actions, along with better integration of sprint drills into sprinting technique. The special intro sale ends July 1st. (https://justflysports.thinkific.com/courses/sprint-drills-reloaded) Use the code "justfly25" for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Main Points and Key Takeaways 2:00- Sandbags, Suffering, and the Mental Edge 6:00- Let Hard and Fun Coexist in Your Program 10:19- The Importance of Variability in Program Design 12:53- Early Off-Season Program Design 19:27- Rewild Your Program: Crawl, Climb, Wrestle, Hang 23:28- Rethink GPP: Don’t Just Prep to Lift—Prep to Move 30:20- Break Barbell Monotony with Sandbags 34:49- Sleds Are a Movement Tool—Not Just a Finisher 41:03- Measure Movement Options—Not Just Output 48:39- Don’t Confuse Explosive with Efficient 54:31- Train Variability by Changing the Rules 58:05- Cue for Change: Let the Jump Reveal the Strategy 59:50- Start with the Foot—It Tells the Whole Story 1:05:07- Polish Boxes, Stall Bars, and DIY Creativity Sandbags, Suffering, and the Mental Edge (2:00) Simple tasks like sandbag holds or dead hangs can reveal a lot about an athlete’s mental state and fatigue tolerance. Sometimes mental state—not just strength—dictates how long you’ll last under tension. What to try: Program weekly “grit sets”: sandbag holds, wall sits, or dead hangs. Try them first thing in the session—before the brain can talk itself out of effort. Pair them with journaling or a quick “mind state” score: how’d it feel today? Let Hard and Fun Coexist in Your Program (6:00) Every session can’t be a competition. But not everyone should be brutal either. Hunter encourages toggling between “suck” and “play.” One makes you tougher, the other keeps you coming back. What to try: Alternate between gamified partner drills and long isometric work during your week. Use athlete feedback: which days feel “engaging”? Which feel like “grinding”? Both matter. Build polarity into the week—not just into the periodization model. The Importance of Variability in Program Design (10:19) Sticking to one type of stimulus flattens the athlete’s capacity. Instead, training should live across a spectrum—fun to miserable, slow to fast, light to heavy. Variability isn't chaos; it's a strategic broadening of what athletes can handle. What to try: Run exercises in “opposite pairs”—e.g., heavy squat with playful crawl or flow. Apply the same mindset to mental demands: high focus vs. intuitive exploration. Create a simple polarity audit: is each block too narrow? Early Off-Season Program Design (12:53) Hunter slowed down his summer ramp. Instead of launching into tests and data collection, he started with general work to recalibrate movement quality and tolerance. What to try: Start your offseason with 2 weeks of “human and slow force” exposure: carries, tempo ISOs, bodyweight locomotion. Wait to collect output metrics until week 3 or 4. Track adaptation with perceived difficulty, not just load or speed. Rewild Your Program: Crawl, Climb, Wrestle, Hang (19:27) "Human force" days tap into the primal: crawling, partner work, and awkward carries. It’s low-tech, high-value training that builds resilience, engagement, and coordination without burning out the nervous system. What to try: Design one “human force” day per week using only bodyweight, ropes, and odd objects. Include one crawling pattern, one hanging pattern, one partner task. Don’t script every detail. Let the session breathe. Rethink GPP: Don’t Just Prep to Lift—Prep to Move (23:28) Hunter reframes GPP as developmental, not just preparatory. It’s not about doing more squats—it’s about restoring the movement behaviors kids naturally do: crawling, rolling, climbing. True general prep starts with movement, not loading patterns. What to try: Build mini “return to childhood” warmups: rolls, bear crawls, lateral hops, tag-style games. Avoid rushing back to traditional lifts—let athletes explore motion first. Revisit bodyweight mastery before loading the bar. Break Barbell Monotony with Sandbags (30:20) The shape is awkward, the load is alive, and no two reps are the same. Sandbags demand full-body engagement in a way bars don’t. What to try: Sub in sandbags for barbell hip thrusts, carries, or RDLs for 3–4 weeks. Use hug, Zurcher, or over-the-shoulder variations to challenge different patterns. Let the instability teach. Don’t coach the chaos out of it. Sleds Are a Movement Tool—Not Just a Finisher (34:49) Sleds aren't just for quads. Multilateral sled work—lateral pushes, backward drags, partner-resisted walks—mimics real sport better than straight-line lifts. It’s a simple way to build capacity in all directions without high impact. What to try: Rotate through backward, lateral, and resisted partner sled variations weekly. Use low loads early for rhythm, heavy loads later for grind. Treat it as movement prep, not just burn-out. Measure Movement Options—Not Just Output (41:03) Hunter’s early work explores how well athletes can manipulate force by comparing compliant vs. rigid landings on force plates. A wider range between the two may signal a richer movement library—something outputs alone don’t reveal. What to try: If using a force plate: run compliant vs. rigid landings off the same box height. If not: use video or sound to cue “stick” vs. “melt” landings and watch for variation. Log range of strategies, not just the best rep. Don’t Confuse Explosive with Efficient (48:39) High outputs don’t always equal high adaptability. Some explosive athletes still move like robots. By contrast, athletes with fluid movement patterns often show more diverse strategies and better court efficiency—even if they don’t jump higher. What to try: Assess curved sprinting, controlled lateral movement, or change of direction with rhythm. Track who feels smooth vs. who “grinds.” Design movement progressions for both. Train Variability by Changing the Rules (54:31) You can’t force fluidity, but you can invite it. Hunter uses unconventional reps (every rep slightly different), varied foot positions, and constraints that challenge coordination. It's not about chasing chaos—it’s about expanding the athlete’s options. What to try: Set up “every rep different” sessions: change direction, tempo, or position each time. Use constraint-based games or asymmetrical setups to encourage problem-solving. Prioritize novelty over perfection during general prep phases. Cue for Change: Let the Jump Reveal the Strategy (58:05) Not all cues are created equal. By asking athletes to jump “as fast” or “as high” as possible, Hunter teases out how adaptive their strategies really are. Can they shift their approach and still produce meaningful outputs? What to try: Rotate your jump cues weekly: high, fast, stick, reactive. Watch for athletes who only excel under one type of demand. Use variability in cueing as part of your assessment strategy. Start with the Foot—It Tells the Whole Story (59:50) If the foot can’t move, the rest of the body compensates. Hunter introduces foot-focused work (leaning, slant boards, varied stance exposure) as a foundation for variability. It’s not just about the foot—it’s about unlocking the whole kinetic chain. What to try: Use slant boards, lean holds, or angled isos to guide athletes into early and mid-stances. Cue foot pressure intentionally: “heel heavy,” “medial contact,” etc. Don’t fixate on shape—focus on sensation and control. Polish Boxes, Stall Bars, and DIY Creativity (1:05:07) Hunter’s recreating old-school tools like Polish boxes and stall bars to get athletes into novel positions. Leaning variations, single-leg slant work, and dynamic foot exposures are his way of expanding options—one weird angle at a time. What to try: Build low-angle step-ups or rolling foot platforms to mimic Polish box mechanics. Add oscillatory reps once isometric holds are stable. Rotate positions weekly: medial, lateral, forefoot, heel contact. Quotes

468: Lawrence Van Lingen on Gait Specific Strength and Fluid Movement Patterns Jun 19, 2025

Today’s guest is running and movement coach, Lawrence Van Lingen, a world-renowned movement coach known for helping athletes move better by blending scientific principles, psychology, biomechanics, and intuitive coaching methods. He’s worked with a range of athletes, from Olympians and elite runners, to everyday movers to unlock efficiency, fluidity, and performance. Running and what we would refer to as “functional strength” are closely related. Strength-based movements that train the gait cycle are amongst the most natural and effective versions available. In working the keys that make for better propulsion and effectiveness in locomotion, we can get insight into better strength practices in general. In this episode, Lawrence van Lingen shares how crawling, backward movement, foot training, and resisted walking can strengthen critical elements of the gait cycle. He explores the connection between natural rhythmic movement and running performance, the ways fear can disrupt quality motion, and how play and curiosity drive better movement learning. From syncing strides to music to mobilizing the feet, Lawrence offers a range of practical, creative methods to enhance coordination and speed. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength. Check out the newest mini-course, Sprint Drills Reloaded on how to maximize sprint drills, their specific strength development, building of major sprint actions, along with better integration of sprint drills into sprinting technique. (https://justflysports.thinkific.com/courses/sprint-drills-reloaded) Use the code "justfly25" for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 3:30- Barefoot Origins: Impact on Human Movement 9:40- The Impact of Fear on Athletic Performance 20:55- Enhancing Running Performance Through Rhythmic Variation 29:00- Syncing Music Tempo with Physical Movements 37:38- Optimizing Athletic Abilities through Strong Hips 40:08- Enhancing Running Mechanics Through Resisted Walking Exercises 42:19- Enhancing Movement Quality through Central Patterns 45:51- Enhancing Ankle Mechanics Through Foot Mobility 52:35- Enhancing Mobility Through Unique Movement Practices 59:06- Enhancing Muscle Activation and Injury Prevention 1:12:02- Enhancing Running Mechanics Through Foot Mobilization Key Takeaways [3:30] – Barefoot Origins: Impact on Human Movement Lawrence digs into why humans move so differently compared to animals. His take? Our lifestyle has pulled us far from our natural roots. Kids growing up barefoot, outdoors, and constantly playing tend to move better—more fluid, intuitive, and efficient. But if you’ve spent your life in shoes, cars, and classrooms, you’ve likely lost some of that. Takeaway:Reclaiming efficient movement may mean “unlearning” modern habits and returning to play, curiosity, and organic exploration—just like barefoot kids who never saw a car before age ten. Drills can help, but you won’t drill your way back to instinctual movement if your foundation is disconnected. [9:40] – The Impact of Fear on Athletic Performance Fear, even subtle, can hijack movement. Lawrence emphasizes that emotional blocks—doubt, hesitation, trying too hard—are often the root of poor performance. Confidence doesn’t just show up on the scoreboard, it’s embedded in your nervous system and your patterns. Takeaway:Fear shows up in the body before it shows up in results. Addressing performance isn't just about skill—it’s about safety and trust in your movement. Don’t just train mechanics—train confidence in your central patterns. You can’t out-coach fear with drills alone. [20:55] – Enhancing Running Performance Through Rhythmic Variation Running with perfect repetition isn’t always the goal. Lawrence argues that variation in rhythm—like what you see when runners naturally sync with each other—adds adaptability and longevity. Uniform surfaces lead to breakdown; varied rhythm preserves the system. Takeaway:Train rhythm, not repetition. Each step should feel subtly different. That variability protects tissues and helps you go farther with less fatigue. If every stride feels robotic, you’re not in rhythm—you’re in survival mode. [29:00] – Syncing Music Tempo with Physical Movements Lawrence sees value in syncing to external rhythms, but only if you’ve earned the right tempo. Metronomes can create tension if you're not ready. True coordination comes from internal rhythm, not forcing timing. Takeaway:Don’t chase tempos you haven’t trained for. Instead, groove at your own pace, build control, and gradually level up. Movement should feel like music—not like trying to speed up a guitar solo before you’ve mastered the chords. [37:38] – Optimizing Athletic Abilities through Strong Hips He focuses on freeing up hips through hands-on work and targeted movement. Instead of starting with drills, Lawrence helps athletes “become” runners by giving them the hips of one. Treatment and function drive form—not the other way around. Takeaway:Great runners don’t fake it—they feel it. Free up hip range first, then layer in the movement. If your hip flexors are locked, your drills are just rehearsing restriction. [40:08] – Enhancing Running Mechanics Through Resisted Walking Exercises Holding weight in front of the body changes how you use your hips. Lawrence points out that stacking weight this way forces a better connection between your torso and hips. It reduces compensation and sharpens the way your hips contribute to gait. Takeaway:Try resisted walking with a sandbag or log in front of you. It’s a constraint that reveals whether your hips are working or hiding. If you tend to leak energy through your upper body, this will clean that up fast. [42:19] – Enhancing Movement Quality through Central Patterns Crawling, central pattern generators, and the vagus nerve all come into play here. Lawrence highlights that movement is primal, and trusting your body often starts with re-engaging these foundational motor patterns. Takeaway:Start with the nervous system. Crawling, rhythmic breath work, and primal patterns recalibrate movement from the inside out. Want to move like you mean it? Go back to where movement began. [45:51] – Enhancing Ankle Mechanics Through Foot Mobility Foot function isn’t optional—it’s foundational. Lawrence outlines the “big three”: forefoot mobility, tibial internal rotation, and proper heel positioning. These pieces directly impact knee alignment, hip mobility, and overall running quality. Takeaway:Don’t skip the feet. Foot mobility isn’t about fluff—it’s your lever to better joint mechanics up the chain. Want cleaner hips or knees? Start by getting that first met head down and freeing your heel. [52:35] – Enhancing Mobility Through Unique Movement Practices Here, Lawrence frames movement constraints as creative tools. Exercises like backward walking or rope stomping aren’t just gimmicks—they’re simple, effective ways to restore lost range and sensory awareness. Takeaway:Think like a problem-solver. Movement constraints (like steep backward walks or stepping over ropes) can unlock mobility more efficiently than stretching ever will. Sometimes the weird stuff works best. [59:06] – Enhancing Muscle Activation and Injury Prevention Lawrence emphasizes targeting the hips—not the quads or calves—as key to building functional strength. Exercises that force extension (like walking backward or loaded marches) challenge underused ranges that most people have long abandoned. Takeaway:Want to prevent injury? Build strength where no one else is looking—behind you. Prioritize hip extension and knee-behind-hip mechanics. Flexion is overtrained. Extension is the missing piece. [1:12:02] – Enhancing Running Mechanics Through Foot Mobilization This section wraps it all together. Lawrence lays out a checklist: forefoot mobility, internal tibial rotation, heel positioning, and met head contact. If you miss these, everything above the ankle suffers. Takeaway:Running mechanics live and die at ground level. Get the foot right, and the whole chain starts to self-organize. Think of it like adjusting the lens—suddenly everything becomes clearer. Quotes (12:55) "If you cut a chicken's head off, it still runs around, you know. So those are your central pattern generators…. a lot of running or bipedal movement is just totally ingrained in us and you know, and our heritage from anthropology." - Lawrence van Lingen (14:47) "Trust your movement better...that sort of deep, unshakable trust in your movement patterns that you really want on big occasions, that's what the big athletes have got." - Lawrence van Lingen (19:28) "When I was in South Africa with African runners, these guys, there was no coaching, no drills, and it was very, very organic and it was just amazing. I mean, money can't buy the beauty and, and the elegance and the grace that they moved with." - Lawrence van Lingen (27:37) "You have to relax into competence and let go to express yourself. And when you're forcing and trying too hard, it just doesn't work." - Lawrence van Lingen (32:10) "I like to say curiosity and play and neuroplasticity requires play and curiosity. And you, when you're in a parasympathetic mode, you tend to be curious." - Lawrence van Lingen (42:36) "Solve movement patterns as high upstream as possible because the consequences downstream tend to fall into place." - Lawrence van Lingen (1:17:23) "The line of force production is big toe, VMO, glute, max. And if you've got VMO issues, your first met head's not finding the ground." - Lawrence van Lingen About Lawrence van Lingen

467: Rett Larson on Movement Puzzles, Sneaky Strength and Cultivating Joy in Training Jun 12, 2025

Today’s guest is Rett Larson, strength coach for the German Women’s Volleyball Team and creator of the "No Zombies" training philosophy. Rett coached Olympic medalists with China and the Netherlands, blending energy, rhythm, and purposeful movement into world-class performance. As sport expands into an increasingly more high-pressure, early specialization event that can easily suck fun and joy away, there grows a need for a "counter-culture" within athletic performance. Not only does a "physical preparation" process for athletes that is joyful and gamified lead to more fun within a training session, but it also develops important athletic qualities, within that umbrella of "fun" that may not be possible in more "traditional" sessions. Rett Larson is spearheading an active, engaging approach to the physical preparation process for athletes with warmups designed for joy, engagement, and a comprehensive stimulation of athletic qualities along the way. On today’s episode, Rett speaks on a variety of engaging tools and gamifications in the warmup process for both thermogenic and neurological preparation. He goes into his take on partner exercises and isometrics, and the process of using a physical challenge to "sneak" strength and skill elements in the program. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength and LILA Wearable Resistance Gear. Use the code "justfly25" for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 6:12- Enhancing Athlete Performance through Innovative Training 20:06- Rope Flow in the Warmup Process 25:19- Team Bonding through Partner Exercises and Gamification 29:39- Athletic Development through Diverse Warm-Ups 31:24- Engaging Training Games for Athletic Development 38:00- Enhancing Motor Learning Through Novel Activities 48:14- Isometric and "Sneaky Strength" Exercises 54:50- Tennis Balls as a Powerful Warmup Tool 1:05:36- Animal-Inspired Safari Warmup Routine 1:14:35- Dynamic Movement Enhancement with Wearable Resistance Gear Key Takeaways 1️⃣ Rethinking Training Norms: Breaking the Script Let’s be honest—starting the season with FMS testing or default punishments like push-ups feels like a missed opportunity. Rett challenges that default. Why not flip the script? Start with something that actually taps into the nervous excitement athletes bring into day one. Instead of draining that spark, use it to build buy-in. What to try: • Kick things off with a creative team challenge instead of movement screens. • Replace punishments with something silly but memorable (e.g., team serenade or worm dance). • Avoid singling people out—no solo singing for introverts. The goal is laughter, not dread. 2️⃣ Rope Flow: Movement Puzzles that Stick If you’ve ever tried rope flow, you know it’s strangely addicting. Rett uses it as a warm-up tool that hits thermogenic, rotational, and coordination qualities all in one. It’s essentially a moving puzzle—and that makes it ideal for getting athletes out of zombie mode. What to try: • Add rope flow sequences early in warm-ups to raise body temp and spark engagement. • Mix in new patterns over time so it stays fresh. • Think of it as "motor learning meets party trick"—athletes love that feeling of leveling up. 3️⃣ Partner Work and Social Pressure: The Good Kind Warm-ups don’t have to be solo grinds. In fact, the social element is part of the magic. Whether it’s balloon volleys in a split squat or partner wall sits, Rett uses simple tools to inject teamwork, laughter, and just the right amount of peer pressure. What to try: • Design partner or trio-based warm-up drills to naturally boost effort and engagement. • Add tasks or games that distract from the burn (like volleying a balloon while holding a lunge). • Use social dynamics to make tough work feel more like play. 4️⃣ Level the Playing Field in Warm-Ups Not every athlete is going to dominate on the court or in the weight room—but everyone should get a win somewhere. Rett builds warm-ups that make space for every athlete to feel like they’re the best at something, even if it’s just balancing a stick or hitting a weird trick shot. What to try: • Mix in low-stakes games where skills outside of sport dominance matter. • Intentionally pair high- and lower-level athletes to create "shared wins." • Look for ways to create a different kind of leaderboard—one that rotates based on the activity. 5️⃣ Restore Joy Through Play High-level sport has gotten... intense. Too intense, sometimes. Rett’s approach reminds us that playful, chaotic games can help restore balance in an environment that often leans toward burnout. The warm-up becomes a space for curiosity, flow, and actual fun. What to try: • Build in games where athletes can move, laugh, and connect without overthinking. • Use warm-ups as "pressure off" zones—a way to enjoy movement with no performance score. • Let joy be part of the training equation again. 6️⃣ Motor Learning Needs Novelty One of Rett’s strengths is how often he rotates the environment—new rules, new tools, new constraints. That variability drives motor learning in ways that static drills don’t. And it doesn’t need to be wild—just different enough to force a fresh response. What to try: • Slightly tweak warm-up games each week (e.g., switch dominant hand, adjust spacing, add reaction tasks). • Use novelty to make athletes problem-solve movement—not just repeat it. • Think of warm-ups as "controlled chaos"—great for expanding the movement toolbox. 7️⃣ Sneaky Strength: Make It Fun, Then Make It Burn Most athletes don’t love ISO holds. So Rett hides them inside games. Balloons, light pods, med balls—it’s all a bit of a trick. But it works. The burn sneaks up while attention is elsewhere. What to try: • Pair isometrics with challenges (e.g., balloon volley in a lunge, wall sit while shouting directions). • Use reactive partner drills (like plank leg drops) to train stability without boring them to death. • Think: how can I distract the brain just long enough to let the body work? 8️⃣ Tennis Balls: The MVP of Warm-Up Tools Tennis balls are wildly versatile. Rett uses them for everything—from balance work to reactivity games to hand-eye drills. And they’re cheap, portable, and fun. What to try: • Toss them into solo drills (bounce, catch behind back, one-leg throw and catch). • Use them in partner work for tracking, dodging, or coordination under pressure. • Add a twist: can you 360 and catch before it hits the ground? 9️⃣ Animal-Inspired Routines: Low-Tech, High Engagement The "safari warm-up" idea is simple: take known movements and repackage them with animal names, new props, or tiny changes. That 5–10% novelty? It goes a long way. What to try: • Mix in crawls, hops, or rolls with animal names and sounds for buy-in (especially with youth). • Keep novelty minimal but consistent—three new variations a week can be plenty. • It doesn’t need to be chaotic. Just different enough to make athletes pay attention. 🔟 Wearable Resistance: Keep It Light and Reactive Adding wearable resistance (like Lila sleeves) isn’t about loading heavy. It’s about adding just enough constraint to challenge control and enhance feel. Rett uses them in warm-ups to amplify movement, not grind through it. What to try: • Use light resistance in warm-up drills where coordination or timing is key. • Focus on rotational or speed-based movement patterns. • Don’t overdo it—keep it short, crisp, and curious. Rett Larson Quotes (5:30) "I like this idea of breaking the script of what athletes expect." - Rett Larson (8:59) "Are we not trying to get to a place in team sports, at least where we have vulnerability? Are we not learning that vulnerability and looking like a little bit of an idiot in front of your teammates and, and knowing that everybody gets theirs at some point? And that is, that's, that's also something we should be striving for." - Rett Larson (20:06) "In the thermogenic bucket goes a lot of almost like movement puzzles to steal some Ido Portal: if it's the tennis ball on a string, a stick in their hand." - Rett Larson (21:00) "Similarly, the rope flow stuff fits really nicely in that bucket because it is really challenging to unlock some of these very difficult movements that get your body rotating, certainly get you hot and sweaty, but it also feels like you are leveling up every time you actually conquer it." - Rett Larson (29:45) "The great thing about warmup is you get to be competitive in a, in an extremely low stakes environment; when I'm programming the weight room well, it's not just my twitchy, 23-year-old phenom whose parents both played volleyball that wins every event. There should be enough variety in the weight room that we're getting winners all over the place, that we're manufacturing celebrations from every single person on my team in a given week or a couple of weeks or month." - Rett Larson (31:16) "I'm manufacturing smiles, I'm manufacturing the joy that I think you and I understand can come out of the weight room." - Rett Larson (51:20) "I'm trying to hide grinding strength within either other fun games or, you know, include like having it be a part of the fun as much as possible." - Rett Larson (54:30) "The great thing about tennis balls is that there's, they can be used for all of it is they can be movement puzzles, they can be balance challenges, anything that you need them to be." - Rett Larson (1:00:38) "There's no reason that coaches shouldn't be actually actively trying to find more moments, more memorable things that stick with athletes, that make you a remarkable coach, that not for nothing, like,

466: Stefan Holm on Training Methods of a High Jump Legend Jun 05, 2025

Today’s podcast guest is Stefan Holm—Olympic gold medalist and one of the most elite high jumpers in history. Standing just 5’11”, he cleared over 140 bars at 2.30m or higher, won the 2004 Athens Olympics, and holds an indoor best of 2.40m (co-owning the “height jumped over head world record). Now a coach for Sweden’s national team, Holm brings deep insight into jumping training and performance at the highest level. On today’s episode, I ask Stefan about his early life as an athlete, and formative sporting experiences, along with the tree of coaching that led to his own training methods. Stefan covers his history with high jump variations, plyometrics, strength training, technique development, and much more on today’s show. As Stefan is now a coach, he also discusses his philosophy based on his time as a world-class competitor. This is not only a great show on training ideas, but also a great opportunity to study one of the best of all time in their given sport discipline. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength and LILA Wearable Resistance Gear. Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 4:29- Stefan’s Early Training: Genetics, Childhood Sports, and High Jumping 15:21- Rituals in High Jump Training and Athletic Mastery 26:06- Strength Training and High Jump Performance 40:12- High Jump Training Methods, "Holm Hurdles," and Plyometrics 41:04- Emphasizing the Feeling of Flying in High Jump 52:36- Approach Dynamics in High Jump 1:01:17- Strength Training and Range of Motion Concepts 1:03:32- Gradual Plyometric Progression for High Jumpers Stefan Holm Quotes (2:50) "My dream was to be a professional soccer player." - Stefan Holm (3:00) "We played tennis, we played ice hockey, we tried track and field, we played football. Of course, we just played outside, trying to do everything." - Stefan Holm (6:50) "I think you can handle a lot, all of you, but I think you have to build it up year by year. I mean, doing these sort of plyometrics that I did at the age of 28, 30, I didn't start there." - Stefan Holm (9:23) "I started jumping for fun together with my best friend in his backyard when we were like six or seven years old. And we had to do the scissor kick because we had didn't have a mat to land on. We had to land on our feet." - Stefan Holm (24:45) "But then I starting lifting in the fall of 1995 when I was 19, one and a half years later, I jumped 230 for the first time. So I think that I, when I get used to it, the first six, seven months, that was rough because I, I got muscles that I couldn't control. I got so much stronger and slower and just felt heavy and everything. But after, I mean, six, seven, eight months, but I could get control of everything then. I really think that it, it helped me to jump higher and also to get stable on higher heights. I could do them more often." - Stefan Holm (27:01) "If I really, really, really wanted to jump a certain height, I jumped until I cleared it. For good and for bad." - Stefan Holm (37:20) "Whatever everybody sees is these viral clips, me jumping over like 170 hurdles or 150 hurdles or whatever there are. But I mean I. I started off on the usual lower hurdles. That's 107 their tops. And I was doing plenty of jumps as a kid and as a youth jumper as a junior. I didn't buy these high hurdles until I was 24." - Stefan Holm (41:10) "I had a session when I was jumping over hurdles, different kind of exercises, around 200 jumps in a session. I also did some, some bounding 60 meters. 24 times 16, 24 12. Left, right, left, right, left, right. And yeah, and then six times on your left leg, six times on your right leg. That was a very, very fun morning actually." - Stefan Holm (57:00) "Quiz games is actually my second best sport. But besides that, I would say long jump." - Stefan Holm (1:01:17) "For me I think the deep squat was a very good exercise. I could handle it technically I could do it well strength wise as well. So I think it was a very, very good for, for building up a good sort of ground strength to work from in the other exercises. So I did, during my ground training part of the year, I did 6x6 deep squats. I did 6 by 6 half squats as well, 5 by 5 when it came to snatch and cleats and stuff like that." - Stefan Holm (1:04:21) "It's all about reversing the speed to a vertical, vertical speed. I mean that's all what it comes down to in the end." - Stefan Holm (1:07:20) "Trying out new things all the time, I'm definitely the wrong coach for you because I'm going to give you like four weightlifting exercises, I'm going to give you five plyometrics and that's it. And then we're going to do this over and over and over again." - Stefan Holm Show Notes Dragan Tancic: West German High Jump Training https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIc4nfGeVu8&t=2029s About Stefan Holm Stefan Holm is one of the most accomplished high jumpers in history. Known for his exceptional consistency and textbook form, Holm rose to prominence in the early 2000s, dominating indoor and outdoor competitions with a career marked by over 140 clearances of 2.30 meters or higher. Despite standing at just 1.81 meters (5'11"), Holm consistently outjumped taller competitors through elite reactive ability and technical execution. He won the 2004 Athens Olympics, gold medal with a jump of 2.36 meters. Holm also captured four World Indoor Championship titles (2001, 2003, 2004, and 2008), and his indoor personal best of 2.40 meters remains one of the best in history. He is the co-owner of the “height jumped over head” record of 59cm alongside Franklin Jacobs. After retiring from competition in 2008, Holm transitioned into coaching and athletics leadership. He has served as a high jump coach for the Swedish national team, mentoring athletes such as Sofie Skoog, who reached the Olympic final in 2016. In addition to coaching, Holm has been involved in sports commentary and athletics administration in Sweden, and has also appeared on Sweden’s “Celebrity Jeopardy”. Holm’s career stands as a testament to the power of consistency, technical mastery, and mental discipline in elite sport.

465: Ty Terrell on Optimizing Loading Patterns in Athletic Movement May 29, 2025

Today's podcast features Ty Terrell, Director of Strength and Conditioning for Oklahoma Men’s Basketball. Ty brings deep experience from the NBA, having led performance programs for the Washington Wizards and Atlanta Hawks. He specializes in athlete development, performance testing, and biomechanics-driven return-to-play protocols. Ty has been mentored by Lee Taft and Bill Hartman, and has a unique fusion of abilities and methods in human performance. Typically, the goal of athletic performance training is based on increasing outputs, muscle size, and aerobic capacities. Less emphasis is given to athletic movement qualities, how the body creates space for motion, and the process of loading and releasing energy. In understanding both outputs and movement dynamics, a more comprehensive training experience can be provided. On today’s podcast, Ty speaks on optimizing the phases of athletic movement, particularly the “unloading” and reversal phases of squat and jump patterns that are often missed in training. He discusses the balance and interplay of movement-oriented training with strength and output capabilities. From a practical perspective, Ty gets into the nuts and bolts of unweighting methods, opening space in squat and hinge patterns, working absorption and propulsion with cables, step-up dynamics, and much more. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength. Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 2:45- Holistic Athlete Development in College Sports 11:06- Organic Skill Development Through Free Play 19:04- Optimizing Movement Patterns for Athletic Success 20:06- Biomechanical Efficiency in Training Practices 29:52- Optimal Force Production for Athletic Enhancement 38:04- Optimizing The Phases of Athletic Movement for Vertical Jump Outcomes 47:44- Band-Assisted Unweighting for Muscle Recovery 53:54- Optimizing Movement Quality with Training Modifications 55:27- Optimizing Movement Quality Through Unweighting Methods 1:01:43- Efficient Transition Phases in Vertical Jumping 1:09:30- Cable Unweighting for Enhanced Movement Patterns 1:13:31- Cable Lifts and Step-Up Techniques Quotes (18:21) "I keep things very simple. I don't get far away from like, just the traditional movements. You have to be able to squat well enough." - Ty Terrell (22:40) "The unweighting phase creates the potential for the braking phase. The braking phase slingshots us into the propulsive or concentric phase." - Ty Terrell (23:15) "You need output, you need to be able to produce that quickly. But there are aspects of movement quality that will negatively impact your propulsive output. So you have to have both. And I think the biggest thing is to find is to define what is good enough in your situation." - Ty Terrell (40:12) "I think you're trying to get the most with the least. And the priority is to make them feel like they can go out and play. So it's more restorative." - Ty Terrell (44:48) "I kind of want that inflammatory process to occur in the off-season. So, you know, the adaptations and responses that come with that as opposed to the season, it's like we're trying to dampen those inflammatory responses so we can do something the next day." - Ty Terrell (49:00) "A big thing we do either at the beginning of the workout to learn movement or to learn how to move in a Low threshold way we do a kind of sandwich. Maybe we had a sprint day, maybe at an encore workout, then we're going to sandwich the day with, hey, like another like 10 minutes of low threshold work and unweighting, you know, so like front foot elevated split squats." - Ty Terrell (50:31) "You have to find a way to come back into that space a little bit or else you won't be able to access internal rotation." - Ty Terrell (53:00) "So if someone can't access their posterior hip, maybe doesn't have IR at the hip joint to do that, you can. You can create an influence from the ground (reverse ramp) up to do that." - Ty Terrell (55:40) "The forefoot is going to give you an IR stimulus from the ground up. The heels elevated is going to give you an ER stimulus from the ground up." - Ty Terrell (56:39) "Like expansion allows movement, and so if my muscles get really tight and compressed, I can't move into that space. So like when you roll you're moving. I don't want to get too into weeds here but you're moving fluid and getting to different parts of the body." - Ty Terrell (1:01:02) "We might do like a reverse bear crawl to squat, you know, and like I'll, you know, you're just kind of back into the bottom of a squat; Then we'll go to like a band-assisted squat. And I teach, you know, inhale down, exhale up, exhale with a little bit of acceleration; in like three weeks. And I don't know if that's a good time frame or not, but this kid added 2 1/2 inches to his vert. And it was not because he changed his output." - Ty Terrell (1:02:51) "The more force you can produce early, you're a better accelerator." - Ty Terrell About Ty Terrell Ty Terrell is the Director of Men's Basketball Strength and Conditioning at the University of Oklahoma, a position he has held since July 2024. In this role, he oversees weight room operations, applies athletic testing and analyzes the results, creates player performance development plans, works on athlete return-to-play programs, and implements recovery strategies for student-athletes. Before joining the Sooners, Terrell served as the Senior Director of Athletic Performance for the Washington Wizards, where he oversaw performance programs for teams under Monumental Basketball, including NBA, G League, and WNBA teams. In this role, he ran the player development program, implemented a performance testing battery, and was responsible for advising coaching staff on player workloads and the team training schedule. Prior to his tenure in Washington, Terrell worked as a performance coach for the Atlanta Hawks, during which he implemented and executed player development programs and performance testing and collaborated on return-to-play programs from injuries. Terrell earned his bachelor's degree in kinesiology from Concordia University Chicago in 2021. He resides in Norman, Oklahoma, with his wife, Kendra, and their two children, Archie and Raegan. In his current role at Oklahoma, Terrell applies his extensive experience from professional basketball to develop comprehensive strength and conditioning programs aimed at preparing student-athletes for the demands of collegiate and professional play. His holistic approach emphasizes not only physical training but also recovery strategies and return-to-play protocols, contributing to the overall performance and well-being of the athletes.

464: Tony Holler on Isometrics, Wicket Variations and The Art of X-Factor Training May 22, 2025

Today's podcast features Tony Holler. Tony Holler is a veteran high school track and field coach, renowned for his "Feed the Cats" sprint training philosophy. With over 40 years of coaching experience in both track and football, Holler has become a leading voice in athlete-centered speed development. He is the head track coach at Plainfield North High School in Illinois, where his teams have consistently produced elite sprinters and state champions. He is also the co-founder of the Track Football Consortium, a popular coaching event that bridges the gap between sprint and team sport development. In a day where the methods are many, Tony Holler has created a training system where he keeps the simple things simple, but off-sets that simplicity with a variety filled “X-Factor” training day that runs like a power-oriented basketball practice in many ways. On today’s podcast, Tony speaks on his formative experiences as an athlete, young coach, and teacher that have led him to his current positions in coaching. Tony speaks extensively on his X-Factor workouts, inspiration from his dad’s basketball practices, and the keys to the variability in both plyometrics and wicket variations that define the training day. He also speaks on X-Factor paving the way for a simpler, competitive speed workout on the following day. Tony also touches on how the “feed the cats” methods have influenced the successful distance program at Plainfield North, along with many other nuggets of wisdom. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength. Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 8:37- Competitive Coaching Styles in Track and Field 16:59- Fostering Passionate Learning Environments for Success 22:06- Sports Engagement and Flow for Long-term Passion 32:04- Color-Coded X Factor Athletic Training Program 43:54- X Factor Workouts for Recovery and Performance 50:29- Transitioning from Survival to Performance Mindset 59:49- Optimizing Sprint Performance Through Varied Techniques 1:02:08-Enhancing Speed with Varied Wickets in Training 1:08:16- Focused Timed Sprints for Effective Performance 1:12:30- Optimizing Coaching Practices for Large Groups 1:15:01- Intentional Training for Optimal Athletic Performance 1:22:07- Optimizing Cross Country Runs for Peak Performance Quotes: (4:45) “Baseball is not a hard sport, but they made baseball hard for us” - Tony Holler (5:50) “I grew up with this weird mix of Neil Young and General Patton” - Tony Holler (13:00) “There is no defense in track… it’s not a zero-sum game, which I love” - Tony Holler (20:30) “I think like and love come before excellence” - Tony Holler (32:10) “In basketball, my father would start practice with stations, and stations were things like we jump back and forth over a balance beam, and then we go forward, back and forth. And then the next station was jump rope, and the next station was lateral slides back and forth, touching the lane lines. And we do that kind of thing in X Factor because what I have found is that basketball players seem to be the healthiest, most durable track athletes.” - Tony Holler (35:30) “Our favorites are the extreme ISO lunge that we do not do for five minutes. We do it for more like a minute. You know, maybe we're not cooking the steak long enough. But this is very important. Always err on the side of less.” - Tony Holler (00:44:15) “I color code our speed workouts and our X factor workouts as yellow, which to me means caution. And that caution is don't let today ruin tomorrow. Almost always the day after an X factor workout is a sprint workout for us” - Tony Holler (47:40) “Speed is repetitive. X factor is very much flex” - Tony Holler (49:00) “All my track practices are gamified. I don't think my guys are nervous at meets because we win and lose in practice” - Tony Holler (50:29) “There's kind of an inverse relationship between survival mode and performance mode.” - Joel Smith (1:02:12) “We do wickets as a part of our, our X factor. The wickets, it is the only thing we do on X factor days that you could say, well that looks like sprinting to me.” - Tony Holler (1:15:01) “I've never had to ask for effort.” - Tony Holler (1:17:15) “When we're doing 10 speed drills, that's, that's five seconds apiece. That's, that's 50 seconds of work. So what does that work have to look like?” - Tony Holler About Tony Holler Tony Holler is a veteran high school track and field coach, renowned for his "Feed the Cats" sprint training philosophy. With over 40 years of coaching experience in both track and football, Holler has become a leading voice in athlete-centered speed development. He is the head track coach at Plainfield North High School in Illinois, where his teams have consistently produced elite sprinters and state champions. A passionate educator and sought-after speaker, Holler has influenced thousands of coaches across multiple sports through his clinics, writings, and online content. He is also the co-founder of the Track Football Consortium, a popular coaching event that bridges the gap between sprint and team sport development.

463: Mike Robertson on Braking, Propulsion, and Quality Movement in Athletic Strength Development May 15, 2025

Today's podcast features Mike Robertson. Mike Robertson is the co-owner of IFAST in Indianapolis and host of the Physical Preparation Podcast. With over 20 years of experience training athletes from the NBA to everyday clients, Mike is known for blending biomechanics, strength, and smart programming to get real-world results. He’s a respected educator and a leader in the performance training space. The more advanced we get in the world of functional training, human movement, and biomechanics, the more difficult it can be to manage our programming. Having a set of basic principles and foundations for movement coaching helps us to serve a wide variety of athletes throughout their seasons and careers. On today’s episode, Mike speaks on the nature of his programming, and how he treats the primary squat, deadlift, bench, and split squat movement patterns with the needs of an athlete in mind (with particular emphasis on off-season pro athletes). Mike goes into concepts on braking and propulsion and how to use the weightroom to impact this balance of forces, hinge mechanics, lessons from coaching youth sports, and much more. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr’s Gym Studio. Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 4:32- "Evolution from Powerlifting to Athletic Movement Training" 17:32- Foot Support and Motion Control in Strength Training 23:37- Flywheel Training Advancements in Professional Basketball Conditioning 33:23- Center of Mass Restoration for Explosive Athletes 33:51- Optimizing Performance Through Propulsion and Braking 42:14- Enhancing Athletic Performance Through Hinge Variations 50:00- Bilateral Offset Stance Benefits in Exercises 52:46- Internal Rotation Stance for Hip Mobility 1:00:41- Maximizing Athletic Potential through Tailored Training 1:10:05- Enhancing Coaching Skills Through Immersive Soccer Experience 1:17:49- Evolving Coaching Techniques in Basketball Training 1:19:44- Innovative Techniques for Creative Thought Management Quotes (14:18) "I've gone away from like really like chasing outputs or trying to push outputs up to, hey, Man, I just want to restore outputs, right? Like, can we just get you back somewhere near your top end in the off-season? So we know you still got it, but we're just touching it, right? So I talk about touching intensity." - Mike Robertson (14:34) "Some of my biggest go-to's, I still love anterior loaded squat variations. for benching variations. Very little barbell stuff. I'm talking more on like, the aging athlete side. I really love alternating work. I love floor-pressing variations. Anything where we're one is up, one is down, so we can maintain some motion through their thorax. And then as far as deadlifts go, if I'm going to deadlift somebody, I still really like Like a high-handle trap bar deadlift." - Mike Robertson (20:21) "Depending on your situation, your environment, context, like you can make an argument for just about anything." - Mike Robertson (22:25) "Especially as we age, I just think of three buckets. There's the mobility and movement quality bucket. There's the neurological outputs bucket so you can speed, power, strength, and then there's like the, the metabolic capacity buckets." - Mike Robertson (26:49) "In, this is the thing that I always come back to. Right. Like, Bill and I have had this discussion so many times, like, in passing in the gym. It's like, oh, my gosh, like, just how easy was it to train in your 20s?" - Mike Robertson (38:37) "I used to always joke around with athletes and I was kind of right. But I used to always say like weightlifting and like strength training is the only sport where it benefits being on your heels. Right. But the weight room is a great place to help athletes recapture their heels." - Mike Robertson (47:45) "I think sometimes people hear these things and you know, they'll hear, oh well, this person has like a, you know, an elastic or an upright squatting archetype. So never hinge them. And I think that's actually a mistake" - Mike Robertson (1:04:33) "I think I'm just built to coach, you know? Like, it's just in my DNA, like, whether it's in the weight room on a field. Like, I just love coaching and trying to make a positive impact on people." - Mike Robertson About Mike Robertson Mike Robertson is one of the leading voices in athletic performance and physical preparation. As the co-owner of Indianapolis Fitness and Sports Training (IFAST)—named one of America's Top 10 Gyms by Men’s Health—Mike has spent over two decades helping athletes and clients move better, feel better, and perform at their highest level. With a career that spans collegiate, professional, and general population coaching, Mike is known for his ability to blend biomechanics, strength training, and individualized programming into practical, results-driven systems. He has worked with athletes in the NBA, MLS, NFL, and NCAA, as well as weekend warriors and post-rehab clients. Mike is also the host of the long-running Physical Preparation Podcast, where he interviews top coaches, therapists, and thought leaders in the sports performance world. His mission is to elevate the standard of coaching through education, critical thinking, and real-world application. Through his writing, speaking, and mentoring, Mike has influenced thousands of coaches worldwide and continues to push the field forward with clarity, humility, and experience.

462: Matt Aldred on Advancing Athlete-Centered Training Concepts May 08, 2025

Today's podcast features Matt Aldred. Matt is the head strength and conditioning coach for basketball at the University of Michigan. He has international expertise and a diverse background in sports he has worked with through his previous stops in NCAA strength and conditioning. In addition to his strength and conditioning experience, he is certified in fascial abrasion technique and Frederick stretch therapy, in addition to a sports massage background. Matt has also co-authored the Fascial Mechanics for Sport course alongside Danny Foley. In building a performance program, it must ultimately be centered around the needs of the athlete. Athletes need to be as ready as possible on game day. Some athletes need more mass and physical strength. Others need more conditioning and body composition management. Others need more fluid and adaptive movement capabilities. Many athletes enjoy and benefit from providing their input into the program. These facets of performance make athletic development more dynamic than just “get them strong and I did my job”. On today’s podcast, Matt talks about many aspects of building an athlete-centered program, highlighting training the spectrum of muscular strength and tissue quality, over to dynamic, high-velocity training with a priority on athletic qualities. He also speaks on training variability (such as “every rep different”), multi-planar training, basketball game demands, athlete autonomy, wearable resistance training, and much more. This show puts many pieces into place of a comprehensive approach to athletic development, encompassing so many facets of improvement in the field. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr’s GymStudio. For a Gym Studio 14-day free trial, head to gymstudio.com Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to: Lilateam.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Main Points 3:41- Functional Training for Athletic Performance Enhancement 7:34- Peak Performance Training for Athletes 12:49- Position-Based Athletic Programming for Optimal Performance 18:14- Enhancing Athletic Performance Through Varied Training 22:39- Position-Specific Basketball Training Programs 25:04- Game-Specific Training for Peak Performance 27:25- Dynamic Training Approaches for Athletic Performance 37:11- Strategic Micro-Dosing for Athlete Performance Optimization 46:00- Sticking to Basic Exercises for Effective Training 47:46- Enhancing Athletes' Adaptability Through Varied Workouts 49:33- Tailored Training Zones for Athletes in Weight Room 51:13- Optimizing Player Performance Through Varied Training 55:28- Amorpho Gear Enhancing Basketball Performance Sessions 1:08:25- Functional Movement Training with Light Weights 1:14:54- Functional Movement Training for Athletic Performance Quotes (00:07:34) "The game is so intense and it's so movement-based. We have to replicate that in the weight room. We can't just be weight and warriors because we've all had that athlete that's super strong and looks amazing. And I'm looking at the opposition team in a warm up going, who is that!? And then they don't play." - Matt Aldred (00:13:50) "The longer I've done this, the more I really lean into an athlete's intuition." - Matt Aldred (00:20:40) "There are certain exercises like a chin-up we're probably going to want to go full range of motion. I want you to hold at the top with Tempo down. But if we're doing a horizontal row, man, I can be elbow wide. I can be really quick reps. I can hold at the top. I can do a split stance with an anchor on a Kaiser pull-down. We can make that horizontal roll whatever we want to do." - Matt Aldred (00:24:29) "I don't think that we put the athlete in the box like no man, like whatever you are, I'll program towards that." - Matt Aldred (00:31:40) "I don't need you to turn into a cross country athlete because essentially if we don't lift and you just practice, you're going to get skinny and weak. You need to do the higher load stuff." - Matt Aldred (00:37:01) "Just keep them healthy, put them in the best situation you can, and then let them go. Let them just express themselves on the court." - Matt Aldred (00:46:00) "Simple does work when the season is chaotic." - Matt Aldred (00:59:27) "Especially if it's a lot. If it's a shooting workout, probably less so. If it's a, if it's a skill workout on the court. Dude, put that (wearable resistance) on. Yeah, that's that to me it's a no-brainer." - Matt Aldred (01:12:55) "For every rep different. No, it's about how they look doing it, how they feel. Can they be quicker doing it? Yes, perfect. Like and because that's a fine motor skill that's a fine motor skill trap bar deadlift is fine motor skill. Like don't merge the two would be my advice." - Matt Aldred About Matt Aldred Matt Aldred is the head strength and conditioning coach for basketball at the University of Michigan. Originally from the United Kingdom, he brings international expertise and a diverse background in competitive sports, including a playing career in soccer (football). Before joining Michigan, Matt held strength and conditioning roles across multiple NCAA programs, working with a variety of sports. He is certified in Fascial Abrasion Technique (FIT Institute) and Frederick Stretch Therapy Level I, with a foundation in sports massage. Matt is also the co-author of the Fascial Mechanics for Sport course, developed in collaboration with performance coach Danny Foley.

461: Bob Thurnhoffer on Formative Sprint, Strength, and Plyometric Concepts May 01, 2025

Today's podcast features Bob Thurnhoffer, Assistant Track & Field Coach at the University of Louisville. Bob brings nearly two decades of NCAA Division I coaching experience, with past stops at New Mexico, Loyola Chicago, and UIC. His athletes have earned multiple All-American honors, NCAA qualifications, and school records. Bob is also known for his deep knowledge in training for jumps and is a respected voice in the track and field coaching community. On today’s episode, Bob speaks on the formative experience of his past work training speed and power at an NCAA DI school in the confines of a hallway. He also goes into plyometric training concepts, and acceleration development, as well as some of his key complex training methods in the weightroom. Bob also digs into the importance of general strength in his program, along with the nuts and bolts of his weekly training setups for sprint and jump athletes in this fantastic resource on speed and power development. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr’s Gym Studio and the Just Fly Sports Online Courses. To learn more about the Sprint Acceleration Essentials, Elastic Essentials, or Speed ID courses, go to justflysports.thinkific.com Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 6:02- Bob’s Early Experiences as an Athlete and His Early Mentors 18:55- Innovative Training Solutions for Limited Spaces 29:38- Enhancing Athletic Performance Through General Strength Training 34:55- Individualized Workouts for Optimal Athletic Development 39:14- Foundational Elements in Athletic Performance Training 41:41- Peak Velocity Training for Jumpers 56:44- Intensive Cycle Variation for Optimal Performance 58:51- Force Plate Metrics for Athlete Performance Tracking 1:05:43- Mentorship Impact on Athlete Training Mindset Quotes (17:21) "I do think it's like limitations breed creativity more than freedom of possibilities. Unlimited situations don't create creativity as much as limitations do." - Bob Thurnhoffer (18:05) “(Training in a Hallway) I can do acceleration, I could do plyometrics. I can get very strong in the weight room. And try to learn how to be truly great at these things that I can do. Because I knew that the things I could do I had to be better than everyone else at” - Bob Thurnhoffer (29:38) “I still work general training a very, very large degree. Probably more than most coaches even. Yeah, I remember Brooke, the pole vault coach at Louisville. She said to me at the start of the year how she really liked how much general strength I do. She's like, yeah, I don't know. Coaches never do that anymore” - Bob Thurnhoffer (41:00) “Interestingly enough, I actually, at New Mexico I almost entirely went to Monday, Tuesday neural, Wednesday, Thursday general, Friday neural. The whole two years I was there for everyone. And it worked great” - Bob Thurnhoffer (47:30) “I almost always finish a neural lift with med ball throws; to restore proprioception after heavy lifting” - Bob Thurnhoffer (49:13) "I think like long jump you gotta, it's all about displacement, smoothness, being a passenger, letting the natural inherent reactivity that you've developed in training and it's inherent in the human body do the jumping for you." - Bob Thurnhoffer (1:02:01) "It's the quick ground contact time with the vertical displacement. That's what I'm looking for." - Bob Thurnhoffer About Bob Thurnhoffer Bob Thurnhoffer is an accomplished track and field coach specializing in jumps, currently serving as the Assistant Coach for Jumps at the University of Louisville. He joined the Cardinals' coaching staff on July 31, 2023, bringing with him over 18 years of Division I coaching experience across multiple institutions. In his tenure at Louisville, Thurnhoffer has made a significant impact. During the 2024–25 indoor season, he led the Cardinals to podium finishes in all three jump events at the ACC Indoor Championships, with athletes earning bronze medals in the women's triple jump, women's long jump, and men's high jump. Additionally, under his guidance, the team secured three NCAA Championships qualifications and 11 All-ACC honors. Prior to Louisville, Thurnhoffer served as an assistant coach at the University of New Mexico from 2021 to 2023, where he coached athletes in sprints, jumps, hurdles, relays, and throws. His athletes achieved 13 NCAA All-American honors, 25 Mountain West Conference titles, and set 19 school records. Notably, he was named the 2022 USTFCCCA Mountain Region Outdoor Men's Assistant Coach of the Year. Before his tenure at New Mexico, Thurnhoffer spent over a decade at Loyola University Chicago, serving in various coaching roles, including head coach from 2016 to 2021. During his time there, he guided athletes to 27 NCAA Championships qualifications, 65 individual conference titles, and 92 school record performances. Thurnhoffer began his coaching career at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he coached jumpers to 29 individual Horizon League championships and six NCAA Championships qualifications. Beyond coaching, Thurnhoffer is an active contributor to the track and field community through speaking engagements and publications focused on training strategies for sprints and jumps. He holds certifications including a USTFCCCA Master's Endorsement in Horizontal Jumps.

460: Austin Einhorn on First Principles for Building Unbreakable Athletes Apr 24, 2025

Today's podcast features Austin Einhorn. Austin is a movement specialist recognized for his pioneering work in athlete development and injury prevention. As the founder of APIros Performance, Austin's coaching philosophy emphasizes biomechanics, human function + evolution, and adaptability to build resilient athletes who can withstand the demands of high performance. He has worked with athletes across major sports leagues, including the NFL, MLB, NBA, and Olympic programs, and is continually pushing the boundaries of athletic performance and injury prevention systems for athletes. There are a wide variety of systems and available philosophies on athletic performance and injury prevention. With so much information available, assembling a human-centered viewpoint of how we innately move and adapt is a critical step in forming a better lens of coaching and training. On today’s episode, Austin discusses his first principles when it comes to athlete assessment and training intervention. He digs into aspects of athletic hip extension, pushup and overhead patterning, and foot motions, along with the variability concepts in training and performance. This was a thought-provoking podcast with one of the brightest minds in the industry and is a must-listen for anyone looking to build more robust, adaptive athletes for any discipline. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr’s GymStudio. For a Gym Studio 14-day free trial, head to gymstudio.com Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to: Lilateam.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 2:15- Influential Mentors in Problem-Solving Training 6:53- Optimizing Hip Extension for Athlete Performance 8:28- Optimizing Athletic Performance Through Anatomy Assessment 30:30- Muscle-Centric Approach to Musculoskeletal Health 35:10- Performance Optimization through Diverse Movement Strategies 45:56- Enhancing Tendon Resilience with Varied Loading 48:57- Enhancing Performance Through Varied Training Approaches 53:10- Enhancing Athletic Performance with Innovative Tools 57:25- Optimal Shoulder Blade Tilt for Push-Ups 1:01:15- Optimal Shoulder Blade Movement in Bench Press 1:03:25- Optimal Shoulder Blade Positioning in Movements 1:08:31- Enhancing Shoulder Strength for Overhead Athletes 1:10:00- Enhancing Shoulder Strength for Overhead Athletes Quotes (4:53) "A lot of the students that I teach, where they start with just imitating and imitation is such a great way to learn." - Austin Einhorn (11:19) "It's amazing what your brain can do to accomplish a task, but it'll use structurally different elements to do so." - Austin Einhorn (17:00) "One area that is neglected is the transverse interior arch, basically the arch that's underneath your knuckles and it's responsible for 40% of your foot stiffness. But what's more important there is where that stiffness gets created. And it's in that ground contact phase in dorsiflexion" - Austin Einhorn (19:17) "All non-contact injuries are preventable and solvable. And that just requires a little bit more critical thinking." - Austin Einhorn (48:57) "My maybe favorite way to get that long time under tension is put on a rucksack and go hike for three hours. Yeah, like the variable terrain is going to do a little bit more for the peroneals, the posterior tib, the in the toe flexors on the inside of the ankle than just a calf raise" - Austin Einhorn (51:32) "When you have a big, thick, cushy shoe, it's you think of as an exoskeleton. You can export the work to the foam. And so your leg doesn't need to bend as much. It's stiffer." - Austin Einhorn (57:25) "So push-up is a quadrupedal movement. We're gonna have to look at how quadrupedals do that. The other thing that I like to look at is break dancers. They are the best athletes in the world who interact with the ground. And not one of them, not one pinches their shoulder blades together." - Austin Einhorn (1:17:35) "If your dial is always only turned into high outputs, pure outputs, less choices, you're going to run into issues. But if you always have just everything is pure exploration, you're not going to get to the output that you need to get to." - Joel Smith (1:26:17) "I want to teach you how to think differently when you're writing a program or a rehab protocol for somebody because that critical thinking will save your ass to solve the problem." - Austin Einhorn Show notes Apiros Pushup https://vimeo.com/1078064969/ebe6773faf Diagonal Speed Skater Squat Strength https://www.youtube.com/shorts/kPnYX--dmFQ About Austin Einhorn Austin Einhorn is a movement specialist recognized for his pioneering work in athlete development and injury prevention. As the founder of APIros Performance, Austin's coaching philosophy emphasizes biomechanics, human function + evolution, and adaptability to build resilient athletes who can withstand the demands of high performance. Austin has worked with athletes across major sports leagues, including the NFL, MLB, NBA, and Olympic programs. Austin is continually pushing the boundaries of athletic performance and injury prevention systems for athletes.

459: Laurent Meuwly on Strength and Speed Concepts in Dutch Sprint Development Apr 17, 2025

Today's podcast features Laurent Meuwley. Laurent is the Head Coach for sprints, hurdles, and relays for the Netherlands. A former Swiss national coach and European Athletics Coach of the Year, he’s known for guiding world-class athletes like Femke Bol and Dutch relay teams, pioneering the “Flyers vs. Diesels” sprint-type analogy and his comprehensive approach to training. Often in sprinting and speed training education, we get a small piece of the equation based on our social media algorithms or our immediate training culture. To fully understand speed training, we must look at both speed and environmental coaching concepts that span cultures. On today’s podcast, Laurent discusses speed building on the level of the weight room, overspeed, speed endurance, and individual training factors. Laurent also talks about building a relay-based culture and a powerful training environment, along with many more nuances of building elite sprinters. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr’s GymStudio. For a Gym Studio 14-day free trial, head to gymstudio.com Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to: Lilateam.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 2:31- Team Dynamics and Specialties in Athletics 21:15- Enhancing Speed with Rear Leg Propulsion 24:43- Efficient Cluster Training for Hypertrophy Goals 29:54- Explosive Training with Kaiser Machines and Variations 31:59- Individualized Sprint Training for Speed Development 35:12- Speed Reserve Optimization in Sprint Training 41:44- Individualized Training Approaches for Sprinters' Profiles 52:37- Aerobic System Impact on 400m Running 54:38- Optimizing Nervous System through Training Schedule Quotes (4:50) "In the second phase of the preparation, athletes are working more on individual exercises. And those are based on a test they do called the tensomeography test, where we check all the muscles individually and see how fast or slow they are, how strong or weak they are, how quickly they react, they can be activated or not." - Laurent Meuwly (13:14) "Because a lot of strength program are thought in terms of which muscles are specifically used for the movement. But we also have to think in which kind of muscle contraction, what kind of Muscle contraction is then used and for different muscle groups it's a different contraction. It might be concentric for some, eccentric for others, isometric for some muscles. So in the specific work this needs to be taken into account." - Laurent Meuwly (16:37) "If I take a hamstring exercise, when someone has struggled to activate the hamstrings quick enough, they might have an exercise where they are standing, laying on their shoulders up, one leg on the skateboard, the other leg in the air and they have to bring the skateboard back and forth under their butt as fast as possible." - Laurent Meuwly (22:07) "The propulsion phase is really important in running and especially in sprinting." - Laurent Meuwly (23:43) "The individualization in the gym is more to the way athletes are reacting in terms of hypertrophy. Some athletes would go a bit quicker away from max strength exercises, hypertrophy to be more in a velocity-based training, more in power than in strength development." - Laurent Meuwly (33:00) "I think in Europe we are using overspeed quite more than in the US at least in track and field, I would say every 10 to 14 days." - Laurent Meuwly (42:20) "A “flyer”, an athlete who is more speed based needs to be fast. And because speed is his or her strength, they also are going to recover from speed or even strength or whatever stimulates highly the nervous system quicker than athletes who are more endurance based and who are less talented for speed." - Laurent Meuwly (55:10) "We train two times on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and one time on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and the Sunday is off. So it's a 21212, 10 rhythm. And the days with two training sessions, they are very demanding for the nervous system because we combine speed or speed endurance with strength or acceleration with strength." - Laurent Meuwl About Laurent Meuwly Laurent Meuwly is the Head Coach for sprint/hurdles and relays for the Netherlands. Before this, he held the same position in Switzerland for 10 years. He has been named Coach of the Year by the European Athletics Coaches Association. With a reputation for blending science, biomechanics, and individualized coaching, Meuwly has played a key role in the rise of Dutch sprinting on the international stage. Originally from Switzerland, Meuwly began his coaching career with Swiss Athletics, where he developed Olympic and World Championship-caliber athletes. In 2019, he joined the Royal Dutch Athletics Federation (Atletiekunie), where he now oversees the country’s top sprinters and hurdlers, including global stars such as Femke Bol, Lieke Klaver, and Nadine Visser and the success of the Dutch 4x100 and 4x400 relay teams (silver in Tokyo and Eugene). Under Meuwly's guidance, Femke Bol has become one of the most dominant 400m and 400m hurdles athletes in the world, capturing World and European titles and setting indoor and outdoor records. His coaching philosophy emphasizes long-term athlete development, advanced motor learning, and the integration of sport science into everyday training. A sought-after speaker and contributor to high-performance coaching education, Meuwly is also known for his "Flyers vs. Diesels" framework—an insightful classification model that helps tailor sprint training based on individual athlete profiles.

458: Anthony Cockrill on Squat Dynamics in Explosive Strength Development Apr 10, 2025

Today's podcast features Anthony Cockrill. Anthony is the Director of Volleyball Sports Performance and Assistant Director of Olympic Sports Performance at SMU. Previously at the University of Houston, he’s coached athletes across multiple sports and has a strong focus on explosive strength development, getting notable vertical jump training results with volleyball athletes. There are different layers to the strength equation, and not all types of lifting will offer equal adaptation for athletes. In understanding key differences between full and partial ranges, as well as a focus on the concentric, isometric, and eccentric adaptations to the lift, we can better design a program that allows athletes a maximal bandwidth to adapt to the demands (and chaos) of their sport. On today’s podcast, Anthony discusses the nuts and bolts of his training program, with a specific focus on squatting methods, range of motion concepts, and building strength, particularly through the eccentric phases of a lift. He also covers yearly planning, plyometrics, gymnastics, in-season training, and the physiology concepts behind his methods. This was an informative, and incredibly practical podcast on all things vertical jump and explosive strength development for athletes. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr’s GymStudio. For a Gym Studio 14-day free trial, head to gymstudio.com Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to: Lilateam.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 11:30- Enhancing Squat Mechanics with Zercher Squats 17:07- Heel Elevation for Enhanced Squat Performance 19:32- Enhancing Back Squat Performance Through Torso Training 29:00- Eccentric Overload Back Squat Training for Volleyball 31:23- Deep End Range Exercises for Volleyball Performance 38:05- Optimizing Strength Through Deep Range Training 40:58- Enhancing Strength Through Deep Range Isometrics 44:33- Deep Squat Training for Enhanced Strength 46:26- Enhancing Strength Through Deep Squat Positions 55:29- Enhancing Athlete Performance Through Gymnastic Movements 1:06:05- Utilizing Muscle Spindles and Titan for Power 1:06:05- Eccentric Emphasis for Enhanced Athletic Performance 1:09:21- Enhancing Performance Through Deep Range Plyometrics 1:21:56- Optimizing Performance: Athletic Training Strategies Quotes (13:00) "The torso is always the limiting factor when trying to load the legs." - Anthony Cockrill (14:30) "I've moved away from a ton of front squatting. I do do it, but only maybe for a three-week period. I used to do it like exclusively instead of Zerchers, but It's a little more technical than a Zercher as far as like getting kids into that front rack position." - Anthony Cockrill (15:58) (For Zercher Squats) "The fat bar is obviously like the more surface area, the more you're touching it kind of dissipates that pain in the elbow from the thin bar. But if you don't have fat thick bars. Yeah, we'll just use fat grips." - Anthony Cockrill (21:00) "Within the Zercher and you're like protracting those shoulder blades out and the amount of like stress you get within the upper back and in the rhomboids, that's probably the area most kids like feel it the most within those first three weeks. Because again most people are really underdeveloped between the shoulder blades." - Anthony Cockrill (31:30) "We do a ton of single leg as we get in season." - Anthony Cockrill (35:50) "The biggest range of motion movements that are probably gonna, from A structural standpoint involve the most amount of contractile tissue." - Anthony Cockrill (40:40) "The idea is to have a massive bandwidth to handle chaos. So I think if you can get into those deep end ranges and not just produce force, but various forces, whether it's leveraging, momentum, velocity, pure concentric like contractile tissue contracting, I think you on paper it sounds like it'll probably help you create a larger bandwidth" - Anthony Cockrill (44:39) "If you're really strong in the bottom of the squat in the deepest end range, you're probably gonna make like the top is gonna get stronger. It does not work vice versa. Like if you're only training the top range and you're never exposing yourself in those end ranges, that's always going to be the limiting factor." - Anthony Cockrill (54:16) "What I love about this field is it's completely lawless. You can do whatever you want and probably yield a result, but sometimes just yielding a result isn't good enough. It's like who's going to yield the best result? And it's very contextual and like environmentally based and what your situation is and yeah, just our situation doesn't call for Olympic lifts." - Anthony Cockrill (1:22:11) "But I think if you've been doing it long enough, you kind of know how to mitigate that risk with just the true coaching eye." - Anthony Cockrill About Anthony Cockrill Anthony Cockrill is an accomplished strength and conditioning coach with extensive experience developing high-level collegiate athletes across multiple sports. He currently serves as the Director of Volleyball Sports Performance and Assistant Director of Olympic Sports Performance at Southern Methodist University (SMU), where he leads performance programming for the volleyball program and supports the development of Olympic sport athletes. Before joining SMU, Cockrill was a Strength and Performance Assistant at the University of Houston, where he worked with a variety of sports teams to implement strength, speed, and injury prevention protocols. His coaching career began after graduating from Tennessee Technological University, and since then, he has steadily advanced through roles of increasing responsibility in collegiate athletic departments. In addition to his university coaching roles, Cockrill has developed and published structured training programs for athletes in the offseason, including specialized micro-cycles aimed at post-season recovery and structural balance.

457: Bren Veziroglu on Building a Movement-Rich Training Program Apr 03, 2025

Today's podcast features Bren Veziroglu. Bren is a movement educator, blending scientific principles with personal exploration in his teaching. He has studied globally with top instructors across disciplines, emphasizing scalability, engagement, and physicality in his approach. Bren is an outspoken proponent of the constraint-led approach to sport, particularly in the martial arts. In many sports and strength training programs, skill development is often reduced to rigid drills and dry repetition. While foundational qualities like strength and endurance can be trained straightforwardly, complex skills require a richer, more dynamic approach—one that embraces the full range of movement our bodies are capable of. Research consistently supports a learner-centered, constraint-led method as being more effective for long-term learning and performance. In this episode, Bren dives into the integration of traditional strength and mobility work with dynamic movement and motor learning concepts. He shares practical insights on skill acquisition, mobility, jump training, and the role of partner-based work in foundational strength exercises—offering a fresh perspective on how we can build more effective and engaging training environments. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr’s GymStudio. For a Gym Studio 14-day free trial, head to gymstudio.com Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to: Lilateam.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 2:00- Bren’s Background in Athletics, Strength Training, and Movement 15:50- What “Movement” Concepts Can Offer a Traditional Sport or Sports Performance Practice 22:18- Levels of Richness and Time-Efficiency in Standard Training Exercises and the Impact of Movement Games 30:57- Dynamic Target-Reaching Exercises for Enhanced Mobility 34:37- Dynamic Partner-Assisted Exercises for Injury Prevention 45:16- Dynamic Jumping Training for Enhanced Athletic Performance 45:16- Dynamic Warm-Up Challenges for Better Athlete Engagement 46:00- Movement Variability, Differential Learning and Improved Athletic Outcomes 1:00:14- Partner Training Strength and Performance Concepts Quotes (7:00) "The whole paradigm of you just build your physical attributes, and you can use them on the field in sport, was so clearly not what I was experiencing." - Bren Veziroglu (20:00) "On one end of the polarization, you have FRC, you are going to lock everything down… it’s great, but it takes an enormous amount of time, versus mobility games are the total opposite of that." - Bren Veziroglu (46:06) "What are compensations if not the skill of self-organization?" - Bren Veziroglu (50:19) "There's one speed skating study he did and one of the variations is literally listed is like, do a pirouette before the start. Like they're doing a sprint. Do a pirouette. And so that's how wide these variations can be." - Bren Veziroglu (1:00:30) "Those (partner guided) mobility tasks. I think those are enormous when we're getting more out of it. Should be easier to recover from. Should be lower injury risk, should be more fun. I mean, big wins." - Bren Veziroglu (1:02:46) "If you're just developing the strength and you're never applying it to like, how do I lift another person? Not so useful maybe." - Bren Veziroglu About Bren Veziroglu Bren Veziroglu is a movement educator with over 11 years of experience teaching in both private and group settings. He utilizes a unique interdisciplinary approach that blends modern scientific understanding with personal exploration and constant refinement and testing. He has traveled the world to study intensively with many of the world’s greatest teachers in a wide variety of disciplines. His academic and physical practices inform his teaching style, which emphasizes scalability, engagement, and physicality. His teaching has empowered thousands through both in-person instruction and online. Bren holds numerous formal degrees and certifications, including an M.S. in Kinesiology from San Jose State University, a dual degree B.S. in Biochemistry and Biology from Brandeis University, and a Certified Performance and Sport Scientist & CSCS from the NSCA. He has previously been certified as a CPT and Fitness Nutrition Specialist from the National Academy of Sports Medicine, and USAW-1.

456: Michael Bruno on Skeletal Dynamics in Athletic Speed and Power Development Mar 27, 2025

Today's podcast features Mike Bruno. Mike is the Assistant Director of Olympic Sports Performance at Clemson University. Mike has both a sports performance and massage therapy background, with an approach influenced heavily by Bill Hartman’s biomechanical model. He has worked with a wide variety of sports, including track and field, and currently oversees golf and tennis at Clemson. Human movement is composed of more than just muscle and neural signals. It is also heavily influenced by athletes’ strategies to move pressure through their unique skeletal structures. By understanding the role of structure on speed and movement abilities, we can also better understand ideal training modalities and progressions for each athlete. On today’s episode, Mike speaks on speed and power training through the lens of pressure management and skeletal structure. He talks about different structural archetypes and their needs in the weightroom, as well as how these archetypes lend to various performance outputs on the field of play (focusing on track speed and performance). With many anecdotes from the world of track and field, this episode draws numerous links between strength, speed and individual training factors. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr’s Gym Studio and Lila Exogen Wearable Resistance Gear. For a Gym Studio 14-day free trial, head to gymstudio.com Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to: Lilateam.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 2:01- Optimizing Athletic Performance through Biomechanics 8:19- Optimizing Speed Through Internal Body Dynamics 11:33- Dynamic Insights from Athlete Force Plate Analysis 16:48- Optimizing Jumping Performance with Pressure Techniques 25:34- Optimizing Athletic Performance Through Heavy Bilateral Squatting 27:47- Structural Analysis for Tailored Athletic Training Programs 30:09- Track and Field Performance Based on Pelvic Adaptations 39:21- Infrastructural Angles Influence Athletic Training Specialization 40:53- Structural Archetypes: Tailoring Training for Performance 48:18- Individual Structure Influence on Training Optimization 1:01:33- Enhanced Athletic Performance through Triphasic Training 1:09:03- Long-Term Physical Qualities Enhancement in Athletes 1:21:26- Managing Pressures and Gravity in Track Training Quotes (12:19) "(In a vertical jump) The faster they drop, the quicker it would pop up." - Mike Bruno" (14:04) "If you take it like five singles, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop is going to be different on the pelvic floor and give you a different output than a banded oscillatory squat." - Mike Bruno" (19:20) “The higher your VO2 max, the thinner your diaphragm, which I thought was a very interesting thing, but it lends on the like. Wrestlers are the highest. All they're doing is pressurizing and they're playing like hand fighting. That's all they're doing is being. Judo was the second one. Sprinters were the third one” - Mike Bruno (31:34) "Your structure dictates quite literally everything." - Mike Bruno (37:06) "The fluid hit the top and it suspended them. So if you ever watch someone jump and they jump unbelievable, it looks like they just kind of get suspended up there. It's like, oh, that's the fluid hitting the top." - Mike Bruno (00:37:19)" (46:33) "One of the best things, you know, is if you don't do complexes, especially with an indicator or something where you're seeing the result, you miss the opportunity to get a lot of connections." - Joel Smith (1:00:40) “A lot of times in my setting, I have athletes that come in, they have their, their connective tissues too stiff and it doesn't store at all. And so you're like, you're really powerful, but we can't get into good positions on the track or we can't get into good positions when we're jumping, so you're not going to be able to display it” - Mike Bruno (1:04:32) “That's why triphasic works is because it kind of stays within there (picking up early ER). And then once you get to the later stuff, you've now have all the prerequisite components to be able to output well and store well more” Mike Bruno (1:08:12) "If you drive an adaptation quicker, you get it even faster. Like if you don't want to slow cook the athlete and you want to microwave them, it's going to end up not usually ending well." - Mike Bruno (1:16:30) “We compressed her (through lifting) and her turn, it had to be out wider to be able to put (her foot) down” - Mike Bruno About Mike Bruno Michael Bruno is the Assistant Director of Olympic Sports Performance at Clemson University, overseeing tennis and golf programming. Mike has both a sports performance and massage therapy background, with an approach influenced heavily by Bill Hartman’s biomechanical model. Before joining Clemson, Michael interned at ETSU and The Spot Athletics, along with completing the Coaching Mentorship Program at Athletic Lab while authoring articles on topics such as aerobic system development and post-activation potentiation. Michael holds both a bachelor's degree from West Chester University of Pennsylvania and a master's degree from Clemson in Athletic Leadership.

455: 10 Keys to a Complete Athletic Performance Program Mar 20, 2025

In today’s solo episode, I break down 10 essential keys to building a well-rounded athletic performance program. These programming elements are often overlooked or omitted in favor of a more "machine-based" training approach. I’ll cover both the specifics of sets, reps, and training structures, as well as key principles that enhance stimulation, learning, engagement, and focus—crucial components for an athlete's overall experience. By refining both stimulation and the athlete’s attentional "spotlight," we can create training that feels more dynamic, engaging, and effective. The keys to a more complete program, are as follows: Embrace Constraints and Limitations Study Physical Education (Instead of only “Sport Science”) Integrate Rhythm and Music Work Polarities and Waves Use Complexes Embrace Uncertainty Understand the Performer Environment Relationship Test and Use Leaderboards Use Risk Train Yourself Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr’s Gym Studio and the LILA Exogen Wearable Resistance Training Sleeves. Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to: Lilateam.com For a Gym Studio 14-day free trial, head to gymstudio.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage at https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/ Timestamps 2:00- Embrace Constraints and Limitations 7:45- Study PE (Movement and learning-driven vs. output and data-driven) 13:30- Incorporate Rhythm and Music into Training 18:00- Work Polarities/Waves (Jay S) 28:00- Use Complexes 39:30- Embrace Uncertainty 44:30- Performer environment relationship 50:00- Test and Use Leaderboards 56:30- Use Risk 1:02:30- Train Yourself About Joel Smith Joel Smith is the founder of Just Fly Sports and is a sports performance and track coach in Cincinnati, Ohio. Joel hosts the Just Fly Performance Podcast and has authored several books and coaches in both the high school and private sectors. Joel was a strength coach for 8 years at UC Berkeley, working with the Swim teams and post-graduate professional swimmers, as well as tennis, water polo, and track and field. A track coach of 17 years, Joel coached for the Diablo Valley Track and Field Club for 7 years and also has 6 years of experience coaching on the collegiate level, working at Wilmington College, and the University of Wisconsin, LaCrosse. He is currently coaching high jump at Milford High School. Joel has coached 4 national champions, multiple All-Americans, and NCAA record holders in track and field. In the realm of strength and conditioning, his programs have assisted 5 athletes to Olympic berths that produced 9 medals and a world record performance at Rio in 2016.

454: Steffan Jones on Isometric Training Integration in High Velocity Skill Development Mar 13, 2025

Today's podcast features Steffan Jones. Steffan is a trailblazing fast-bowling coach and ex-pro cricketer, known for his integrative, creative, data-backed training methods. A former Somerset and Kent bowler with over 200 wickets, he’s the last dual-sport pro from English cricket and rugby. With degrees in Sports Science and coaching certifications, Jones founded Pacelab, blending biomechanics and constraint-led training. He’s coached for Rajasthan Royals in the IPL and joined Ludimos in 2024 as Strategic Advisor, pushing fast bowling into the future. Among the various training sub-modalities, isometric work stands out as a low-risk, high-reward method that minimally interferes with an athlete’s high-speed capabilities on the field. In today’s episode, Steffan explores a range of topics related to isometric training and athletic performance, with a special focus on fast-bowling velocity. He discusses both long-duration and overcoming isometrics, offering insights on how to incorporate these techniques into sport-specific training programs. Additionally, Steffan delves into complex training methods, pre-fatigue strategies for elastic output, and collision-based training concepts. This episode emphasizes key principles for blending general strength with elite sport performance. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr’s Gym Studio and the LILA Exogen Wearable Resistance Training Sleeves. Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to: Lilateam.com For a Gym Studio 14-day free trial, head to gymstudio.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage at https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/ Timestamps 5:46- Enhancing Fast Bowling with Isometric Exercises 7:21- Enhancing Performance Through Isometric Exercises 14:09- Balancing Specificity and General Strength Training for Athletes 18:39- Optimizing Recovery with Long Isometric Holds 28:12- Optimizing Performance Through Isometric Training Fundamentals 34:17- Optimizing Performance Through Tailored Bowling Training 40:32- Isometric Training for Enhanced Joint Stiffness 54:30- Integration of Strength and Conditioning in Coaching Quotes (15:36) "The only true specific thing you can do is your skill itself." (18:41) "A lot of people don't understand that the long isos, when you get fit enough, strong enough, resilient enough, they're actually recovery." (23:11) "Anything below 80% intensity, the brain sees as a different skill." (37:34) "But my back foot contact, because that's a long ground contact time, my back foot contact around the ankle is short duration." (39:02) "That's the problem with isometrics. Unless you've got a sort of a dynamometer or a force deck, You have no knowledge of results. So it's pretty boring and the brain switches off as such. But yeah, obviously I use different stuff. I use G Strength and Remaker and all those (to measure force)” (47:30) "And collisions are not going to be improved by doing concentric work. Collisions are going to be improved by doing eccentric and isometric work." (52:35 "If I have a knee-dominant bowler who's who takes a long time to get warm, who's who's fast twitch or their intermediate fibers do most of the work. They never get to their fast twitch fibers. So then a pre fatigue complex would be great for them. And they go really do a, do a set of 10 squats and then expect them to bowl. Yeah, it works. Do us do a 200 meter run and then expect them to do an explosive bowl. But have you tried that? That is such a great feeling." About Steffan Jones Steffan Jones is a globally renowned fast-bowling coach, celebrated for his innovative, science-driven approach to cricket performance. A former professional cricketer, Jones played as a fast-medium bowler for Somerset, Northamptonshire, Derbyshire, and Kent, amassing over 200 first-class wickets and two centuries in an 18-year career that also saw him become English cricket’s last dual-sport professional, having briefly played Premiership rugby. Steffan holds degrees from Loughborough University (Sports Science) and Homerton College, Cambridge, blending academic rigor with on-field experience. After retiring in 2011, Jones transitioned into coaching, leveraging his unique qualifications—UKSCA-accredited strength and conditioning coach, Level 3 technical cricket coach, and the only cricket coach certified to teach with the Lila Movement Exogen suit. As the founder of Pacelab, he’s redefined fast-bowling development, emphasizing biomechanics, motor learning, and individualized training. His methods, rooted in first-principles research, integrate corrective strength, isometrics, and skill-stability paradigms to enhance pace and durability. Jones has served as High-Performance Fast Bowling Coach for the Rajasthan Royals in the IPL (2019, 2022-present), consults for elite fast bowlers, javelin throwers, and pitchers worldwide, and was Director of Sport Performance at Wellington School, Somerset. A pioneer in ecological dynamics, he champions adaptable, constraint-led training over traditional drills, making him a sought-after voice in sports science. In 2024, he joined Ludimos as Strategic Advisor, merging his expertise with AI-driven coaching technology to shape the future of fast bowling.

453: Jeremy Frisch on Foundations of Athletic Speed and Movement Ability Mar 06, 2025

Today's podcast features Jeremy Frisch. Jeremy is the Director of Athletic Performance at Teamworks Sports Center in Acton, Massachusetts, specializing in youth athletic development. The former owner of Achieve Performance Training, Jeremy is a field leader in youth movement, physical literacy, and long-term athletic development. Jeremy has been a frequent podcast guest and is a source of constant inspiration for training not only younger athletes but those of all ages. We live within a broken modern sports system (in most countries). Much of sports performance, and athletic development follows suit. Formalized speed training designed for older athletes tends to get pushed down on children far too early. Athletes are continually denied the chance to be athletes, to be autonomous movers, decision makers, and experience the full joy of sport. Not only this, but in that deprivation, we cut ourselves off from the fullness of what we could consider speed training, for any athlete. On today’s episode, Jeremy speaks on key principles to driving intent and multi-lateral ability in speed training for young athletes, and as they progress through their careers along with the pitfalls of early intensification and “speed training” kids like adults. He also covers many elements of athletic development, such as rhythm, crawling, rolling, strength training, and the development of aerial ability. All this, along with a discussion on the motivation factors of 80’s training movies, was an enjoyable conversation with Jeremy Frisch that is fundamental to the long-term development of athletes. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr’s Gym Studio. For a Gym Studio 14-day free trial, head to gymstudio.com Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to: Lilateam.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 1:59- Enhancing Athletic Performance with Powerball Game 7:01- Engaging Youth in Interactive Speed Training Exercises 9:33- Developmental Progression Through Play and Training 14:53- Innovative Solutions Through 80s Constraints 17:00- Fundamental Elements for Speed in Children 28:46- Fundamental Movement Activities for Youth Athletes 39:29- Joyful Motivation: Igniting Passion in Youth Sports 46:59- Engaging Athletic Training with Interactive Games 49:32- Engaging Activities Enhance Training Intent 54:04- Adapting Techniques in Enhanced Relay Races 56:58- Foundation Building Through Early Clean Technique Practice 1:05:24- Foundational Movements for Effective Athlete Development 1:10:20- Enhancing Athletic Skills Through Varied Drills 1:21:12- Intrinsic Satisfaction in Physical Training Journeys 1:25:10- Enhancing Athletic Performance Through Rhythmic Coordination 1:31:27- Interactive Body-Scanning Dance Game for Xbox Quotes (12:37) "Expand their movement bandwidth. And the only way you can expand their movement bandwidth is by immersing them in as much movements as possible in as many ways as possible." (29:00) "If you look in like the Russia, like everyone thinks like the Russians had this like big secret, but if you look at like, you know those eastern block training, you see all the videos of black and white, like those guys are doing gymnastics and wrestling and climbing on things and doing pull ups and like just all like out in the, out in the mountains running over like jumping over rocks and stuff. It's like that's just GPP." (29:55) "If you really want to develop an athlete, it's gotta be age-appropriate and you gotta get them excited for what they're doing." (49:50) "Like everyone's, everyone's involved (in speed development) Everyone. It's just not one kid alone running on a treadmill, right? Everyone's activated, everyone's excited, everyone's laughing, goofing around. So it's, that's another part of it." (53:20) "We'll do a hill sprint. So we put, like, we put the athletes, one athlete up on the hill about halfway up, but he's like laying down or sitting or facing the person at the bottom, and he'll say, go. And they chase each other up and they try to run each other down." (1:17:00) "I would literally, like, take two kids and we would hold hands, and I would start sprinting with them. And I would run a little bit faster than their capacity, right. And they're like legs are flying." (1:28:24) "Because we practice rolling so much, she was playing field hockey and she got tripped, and instead of, like, she was about to fall on her face, and then she realized, like, she tucked her head and shoulder and rolled out of it and got back up and continued to sprint. So she went from, like, running, tripping, rolling back to sprinting seamlessly." About Jeremy Frisch Jeremy Frisch is the Director of Athletic Performance at Teamworks Sports Center in Acton, Massachusetts. He specializes in youth athletic development, focusing on improving physical literacy and movement skills. Jeremy is the former owner of Achieve Performance Training, which he sold after years of successfully training athletes of all ages. His background includes roles as a speed and strength coach at Athletes Edge Sports Training and a strength and conditioning intern at Stanford University. Jeremy holds a bachelor's degree in health science and physical education from Worcester State College, where he competed in football and track. He is also a respected writer, speaker and consultant on youth athletic development and physical education.

452: Jon Stea on The Power of Authentic Movement and Human Connection Feb 27, 2025

Today's podcast features Jon Stea. Jon is a strength and performance coach based in Vancouver with over a decade of experience developing athletes from youth to the professional level. Jon combines coaching practices with an overarching philosophy of sport and movement concepts. As modern society advances, youth sports and adult movement practices are becoming increasingly rigid and specialized. Many athletes struggle to progress in their sport and lose interest once their competitive careers end. Adults engage in community-based fitness but often miss the opportunity to explore their full movement potential and the deeper fulfillment it brings. Understanding why we train and how to empower athletes in their unique process is more crucial than ever. On today’s episode, Jon speaks on building a creative, authentic coaching process that gives athletes room to fail, learn, and grow, expanding their abilities over time. He discusses the importance of connection and environment in sports training, games, and movement challenges, gets into motor learning concepts, and speaks on the overall art of coaching athletes for their long-term success. This is a conversation that our current sports, and sports performance world, demands that we have, to offer athletes room to not only be better in their sport but move and play as their authentic selves, in their chosen practice. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr’s Gym Studio and the Just Fly Sports Online Courses. To learn more about the Sprint Acceleration Essentials, Elastic Essentials, or Speed ID courses, go to justflysports.thinkific.com Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com View more podcast episodes at https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/ Timestamps 2:00- How having a personal substantial work capacity has shaped Jon’s viewpoints on training 7:00- Capacity and aerobic elements in a total athletic performance program, as well as programs with a focus on explosiveness 10:30- Jon’s beginnings in athletic performance 15:00- The nature of coaching education and sports performance career paths in the modern and technological age 21:30- How Jon’s training process has evolved, based on athlete perception, gameplay, and the total developmental process 38:30- Insights to the creative process of game development 49:00- The use of games for more advanced athletes, to help “re-expand” movement options and facilitate a joyful training environment 55:30- How Jon’s journey shifted over time, to a more games and motor learning-based approach to training 1:00:00- How and why motor learning is at the core of athletic development in a variety of training sectors Quotes 8:00 “When you work your superpower, it sets you up for easy wins” Jon Stea 21:10: “After a while, it’s just about the connection you make with people. Coaching or training, whether it be through sports, strength and conditioning, or working at a gym, is just a vehicle for human connection” 24:10 “You have a lot of contact time with people in a low-stakes environment (personal training, strength and conditioning), where someone is allowed to screw up, and that’s almost the point of a session, I want to see you fail, so I know where we can improve” 24:45 “We want to do a lot of things in here that you fail at, so we can do more of those things” 25:10 “You want to be your authentic self as much as possible so that athletes feel they can be that too” 30:15: “What you do doesn’t matter as much as who you are (to the athletes)” 38:45 “Go over to the wall, pick up 2 pieces of equipment, and we are going to make up a game” 39:45 “I find youth athletes, that’s something I’ve found drilled into them so much, “how do we score points, how do we win”. Rather, how do we create the most beautiful game possible? 53:20 “Most people will go into sports and then stop once they leave high school… maybe if they had more fun they would stick with it” 1:04:30 “The best coaching is not coaching at all, it’s through inception where athletes thought about it on their own” About Jon Stea Jon Stea is a dedicated strength and performance coach based in Vancouver with over a decade of experience working with athletes across various levels and sports. Since 2013, Jon has helped transform athletes from undersized, undrafted youth players into collegiate, professional, and national-level competitors. His summer hockey program currently supports 13+ professional players, and his proven coaching methods have guided dozens of athletes to success in collegiate and professional sports. Education & Certifications Master of Kinesiology (Specialization in Coaching Science) – University of British Columbia Graduating Paper: Physical Preparation for Ice Hockey: A Review of Biomechanics, Physiology, and Epidemiology Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (NSCA) Jon’s passion for athletic development, combined with his deep expertise, continues to shape the next generation of athletes and empower individuals to reach their full potential.

451: Christian Thibaudeau on Mastering Isometrics, Bodyweight Strength, and Training Velocities Feb 20, 2025

Today's podcast features Christian Thibaudeau. Christian is a renowned strength coach with over 25 years of experience. He has worked with athletes from 28 sports, including pros and Olympians, and was Head Strength Coach at the Central Institute for Human Performance. A former national-level weightlifter and bodybuilder, he has authored multiple books and has been a prolific writer for T-Nation. He has developed the Neurotyping and Omni-Rep systems, amongst many other contributions to human performance and athletic development. The majority of training programs, particularly for athletic performance are mostly gas, and very little brakes. They work mostly propulsion while minimizing early stance and reciprocal motion capabilities. They tend to hover on external outputs and bar velocities but do little to cultivate internal awareness of one’s own body. This podcast is all about the value and history of training at both isometric, lower training velocities, along with combined methods (reps + isometrics) for the sake of skilled movement performance and longevity. Christian digs into the history of the martial arts and bodyweight training methods, and goes into a variety of training techniques to round out one’s weak points, maximize body awareness and build more robust athletes. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr’s Gym Studio and the Lila Exogen Wearable Resistance Training Sleeves. Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to: Lilateam.com For a Gym Studio 14-day free trial, head to gymstudio.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Main Points 5:29 - Antagonist Muscle Engagement in ISO Holds 8:51 - Optimal Movement Performance through Muscle Control 14:49 - Tendon Strengthening for Older Athletes 16:38 - Age-Related Muscle and Tendon Conditioning Exercises 20:27 - Explosiveness Maintenance Through Isometric Training 26:19 - Optimizing Performance with Plyometrics and Strength Integration 27:33 - Optimal Balance: Combining Natural Movements with Isometric Training 41:54 - Enhancing Strength Through Muscle Activation Techniques Quotes (00:23) "When you are truly skilled at an exercise, at a movement, you should be able to do it at any velocity." (09:10) "Maxick. Yes. So that also fits the bill because you are actually, you're trying to contract your muscle by using your own body as resistance. So it's a form of isometric training. And I believe that it is very valuable, especially in the earlier stage of training because I strongly believe that especially when it comes to motor learning and maybe hypertrophy, the better you are at creating tension in the proper muscle, the better results you'll get." (18:35) "I think that again, long-duration isometrics is something that's going to be very, very positive to prevent the decrease in tendon performance with older athletes." (26:40) "I work with one of the top karate athletes in the world. Like super explosive, lightning fast. And we don't lift weights. Let me correct myself. The only exercise where we lift weight is a power clean from the hang. Every form of strength work is done with a flywheel and the rest is plyometric and absorption drills." (38:00) "Don't forget that martial arts, well, especially those of the, the karate, kung fu, and family, judo, it has evolved over two to three thousands of years. And it was not just a system of combat, it was a system of getting into combat shape" (41:20) "Skill is first shown in slow movement." (43:39) "The capacity to contract and. Or relax a muscle while contracting surrounding muscles." (48:52) "I don't honestly see a method that would be more effective for rapid muscle growth than doing let's say a set of say 6 to 10 reps to failure depending on your own personal preferences and then holding for one minute loaded stretch to me I, I don't see how you could make a set more effective than that for muscle growth." Show Notes Controlled movement training in the martial arts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7z-fYalpUk About Christian Thibaudeau Christian Thibaudeau is a highly respected strength and conditioning coach with over 25 years of experience. He has worked with athletes across 28 sports, including professional and Olympic competitors, and served as Head Strength Coach at the Central Institute for Human Performance, training the St. Louis Blues. A former national-level weightlifter and bodybuilder, Christian has also coached football for eight years. His training focuses on developing muscle mass, power, explosiveness, and coordination to enhance performance. He is a prolific author with multiple books, including The Black Book of Training Secrets and The Maximum Muscle Bible. As a senior writer for T-Nation, his articles reach over 400,000 readers weekly. Christian is the developer of the Neurotyping System, which personalizes training based on an individual’s neurological profile to optimize motivation, focus, and performance. His work continues to shape the strength and conditioning field worldwide.

450: James Wild on An Evolution of Speed Training Individualization Feb 13, 2025

Today's podcast features James Wild, a Research & Development and Speed Consultant with Harlequins Rugby Club and a Lecturer in Sport & Exercise Science at the University of Surrey. With expertise in biomechanics, skill acquisition, and motor learning, James has worked with athletes of all levels, including medal-winning teams at major competitions. He is also an author and holds a PhD in biomechanics and motor control of sprint acceleration. While many approaches exist for speed training, less attention is given to individual movement strategies. Athletes accelerate differently based on sport, movement background, and physical attributes. James discusses his quadrant system, which categorizes acceleration strategies based on flight/ground time and stride frequency vs. step length. He also covers injury trends, plyometrics, sprint technique, resisted sprints, motor learning, and more. It was great having James back—this episode is essential for anyone interested in speed training and individualized performance. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr’s Gym Studio and the Lila Exogen Wearable Resistance Training Sleeves. Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to: Lilateam.com For a Gym Studio 14-day free trial, head to gymstudio.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Main Points 3:00- Personalized Approach to Enhancing Speed Through Strength 7:25- Distinct Athletic Techniques Across Animal-Inspired Strategies 19:17- Ankle-Dominant Movement and Injury Risk Factors 26:03- Enhancing Performance Through Diverse Sports Integration 36:31- Reactive Strength Optimization for Acceleration Performance 40:24- Technique-Focused Interventions for Acceleration Enhancement 45:03- Enhancing Performance Through Technical Acceleration Cues 51:54- Enhancing Hip Muscle Strength Through Leg Swings 56:29- Tailored Loaded Resistance for Sprint Optimization 1:03:32- Personalized Training Approaches Enhancing Athlete Performance Quotes (23:29) "The importance of adaptability: In particular for team sports in what you're doing, that your footwork patterns and the conditions under which you accelerate are going to change, you know, every single time you do it." (25:00) “The field hockey players tend to adopt a bit more of a spinner type strategy where the step rate's higher, flight times lower and then with the lacrosse players it's a bit more of a, towards more of a bounder type strategy in, in comparison.” (29:15) "I think it's always useful to know their acceleration strategy. But, but that information alone doesn't mean that you intervene automatically in a specific way." (32:24) “If it was a bounder picking up repeated calf injuries during those, excuse me, during those warm up sprint efforts that they get week after week or even in the speed sessions, then we might try and get them to focus on a slightly higher step rate.” (38:30) “What I have fairly consistently found though is that when meaningful changes to those reactive strength stiffness like qualities have been made, typically through a combination of pliers and isometric work, although more along the lines of plyos, contact times typically become a bit shorter. And as a result, what you see therefore is that those player acceleration strategies often move slightly more towards bouncer or bounder strategies where contact times are short relative to their flight times.” (41:11) "Sometimes it is about trying to identify what might be relatively simple deficits from a strength perspective in an individual and going after those to change their technique as opposed to directly cuing them to do something." (57:00): “If I was gonna use sleds as a means to try and increase step rate frequency, I might generally load up heavier and there and have them sprint in a way where they're having to turn over with a high frequency one to get a feel for it… Whereas if I'm going for more step length development, I would lighten the load quite a bit.. but to try and cover a little bit of extra distance with each step.” About James Wild James is currently working as a Research & Development and Speed Consultant with Harlequins Rugby Club and as a Lecturer in Sport & Exercise Science at the University of Surrey. Using a blend of physical preparation and biomechanics techniques with skill acquisition and motor learning principles, James has worked with coaches and athletes across a full spectrum of abilities, including medal-winning teams and athletes at major international competitions. James is also a book author and has a PhD in the biomechanics and motor control of initial sprint acceleration

449: Kevin Mulcahy on An Evolution of Game Speed Development Feb 06, 2025

Today’s podcast features Kevin Mulcahy. Kevin is an experienced sports and S&C coach and owner-operator of the Design the Game Project. He has worked with various sports teams, athletes, professionals, and clubs across three continents, for over 30 years. Kevin takes a multi-lateral focus on human movement, skill development, and S&C, led by a deep interest in ecological dynamics and the constraints-led approach to coaching and motor learning. Extremely common to have conversations on speed training. It is rare to have conversations on the practical integration of speed training into actual sport tactics. It’s easy to hit the status quo of improving maximal lifts or running athletes through timing gates and seeing better times. It’s more complex to seek an integrated model that fits speed into the constraints of the game itself, but also a more integrated, creative, and ultimately rewarding process. Today's episode explores Kevin’s approach to game speed training, skill acquisition, and tactical advantages through constraints. He also discusses using games and sport variations to enhance athleticism and tactical ability. Additionally, we get into ideas on acceleration, deceleration, aerobic capacity, and sport-specific tactical demands. This episode ties together key concepts to deepen our understanding of physical preparation and athletic movement. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr’s Gym Studio. Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com Kevin’s Blog and Coaching Cohort Coaching Cohort Substack Blog View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Main Points 4:20- Enhancing Skill Development Through Constraints in Sports 10:02- Tactical Advantage through Speed Variation in Sports 17:11- Enhancing Athletic Performance Through Game Speed 21:41- Gaelic Football Speed Training Techniques 27:17- Enhancing Tactical Awareness through Dynamic Game Scenarios 31:46- Strategic Gaelic Football Running Drills for Performance 36:05- Individualized Basketball Training for Skill Development 52:18- Uncontrolled VO2 Running for Enhanced Fitness 56:13- Engaging Games Enhance Tactical Learning Methods 1:04:57- Instinctive Game-Reading for Enhanced Sports Performance 1:11:30- Advanced Vertical Jump Training Techniques 1:18:16- Enhancing Anaerobic Capacity in Team Athletes Quotes (5:00) “I have a few core games, like I use Olympic handball a lot, use tag rugby, we play NFL, what we call NFL, which is kind of a tag American football and all sorts of things in between” (15:40) “I mean every sport, basketball has, has really deeply worked on that over a many number of years to where I think a lot of sports steal those kind of movements from basketball” (22:17) “Acceleration is absolutely worth training. But then the constraints of the game mean that that's only going to bring you so far” (24:57) “But then I can start constraining. Does this look like the game? Are these the distances we're going to transition? How do I motivate players and incentivize players to actually go all out? How do I incentivize the defenders to. To be aggressive and try to stop the. Their, their teammates at training? So that's where I've gone the last number of years” (43:33) "Man to man for me only works if you're more athletic than the opposition. And if you're not, you have to have better tactics." (50:08) "If your intention is to get fitter, you have probably got a better chance of doing that if they enjoy it." (55:08) "If we get them turning up again motivated, we're winning." About Kevin Mulcahy Kevin is an experienced sports and S&C coach who has worked with various sports teams, athletes, professionals, and clubs across three continents for over 30 years. He is the owner-operator coach of the Design the Game Project, a platform that shares coaching insights and research with a progressive and learning-led audience. Design the Game promotes a constraints-led approach to motor learning and coaching. Kevin has studied on and off the field how humans learn to move and learn skills for well over 20 years. The DTG Brand has run several mini online courses around motor learning, decision-making in sport, and practice design. Kevin also runs TMC Performance, a bespoke S&C/PT business that caters to the overall health and lifestyle of his clients from athletes to busy professionals through a “strength & conditioning for life & sport” mindset and programming approach. Kevin has carried out sports coaching in club roles coaching in field & court sports as well as boxing. Full-time & part-time professional roles across amateur, semi-professional & professional sport. Kevin has a strong educational background in coaching science, with a BSc in Strength and Conditioning from Setanta College, a certificate in Nutritional Science and Coaching from Precision Nutrition, and a certificate in The Neuroscience of Decision Making from Barcelona FC. Kevin takes an ecological approach to coaching and life in general and has a deep interest in ecological dynamics and the constraint-led approach to coaching and motor learning. Kevin as a sports and s&c coach (either/or hybrid roles) has in recent times been lucky enough to be part of coaching teams that won Regional and National (All Ireland) Titles with Cork Camogie, National Superleague Basketball Title with Ballincollig Basketball and Cork Senior A Gaelic Football Championship with Newcestown. Design the Game is unveiling online and in-person workshops on decision-making in sport to clubs and coaches around the world.

448: Jake Tuura on The Latest in Tendon Science and Applied Training Methods Jan 30, 2025

This episode features performance coach and tendon specialist Jake Tuura. Jake is an experienced coach and educator focusing on athlete hypertrophy, vertical jump improvement, and patellar tendinopathy rehabilitation. He spent seven years as a collegiate strength and conditioning coach as well as time in the private training sector. Connective tissue is critical in athletic movement and performance, but its relationship to both performance and the rehab process is still evolving. New research is continually coming out that is molding our understanding of what is really happening “under the hood” in training, and how to optimize processes to maximize tendon health and performance. On today’s podcast, Jake explores tendon science alongside athletic performance concepts. He covers ideas on animal tendon properties, age-related tendon changes, tendon stiffness vs. compliance, and the collagen matrix. On the performance end, Jake talks about the impacts of various training means on tendon adaptation, particularly various forms of isometric training, heavy strength training, plyometrics, and more. This was an awesome show connecting the latest tendon science with practical training solutions for healthier tendons and better athletic movement. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr’s Gym Studio and the Just Fly Sports Online Courses. To learn more about the Sprint Acceleration Essentials, Elastic Essentials, or Speed ID courses, go to justflysports.thinkific.com Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Main Points 6:42- Achilles Tendon Length Disparity: Humans vs. Deer. 9:33- Tendon Regeneration Discrepancy in Wild vs. Racehorses 21:55- Golgi Tendon Organ and Training Optimization 24:39- Age-Related Changes in Tendon Properties 26:44- Collagen Production Influencing Tendon Stiffness Adaptation 28:47- Tendon Compliance Impact on Athletic Performance 40:41- Preserving Tendon Elasticity for Athletic Longevity 45:38- Reframing Tendon Pain as a Healing Signal 53:14- Optimizing Joint Rotation for Enhanced Performance 1:04:41- Tendon Health and Aerobic Fitness Relationship 1:08:01- Tendon Health Benefits of Isometrics and Lifting 1:11:17- Tendon Strain Variability in Plyometric Training 1:16:24- Enhancing Performance Through Muscle-Tendon Synchronization in Plyometrics 1:21:54- Tendon-Focused Training Periodization Strategy Quotes (7:38) "It's crazy to see how long that (deer Achilles tendon) is and how little blood flow it gets and they're able to do what they do." - Jake Tuura (12:50) “I went hunting for three months. So I didn't, I didn't jump at all. It was winter, it was icy out. And then I go back to dunking and (the patellar tendon) blows up again. So it's like the man-made tendon issues are when you change things suddenly.” - Jake Tuura (21:49) "The worst thing you can do is completely take it away and then try to hop back in. I think it's going to blow up or maybe it's going to have a serious injury." - Jake Tuura (28:10) “The tendon gets pulled on and then the tendon has a, the cells have a response to get stiffer. So like if you pull on the tendon, let's say 10% of its resting length, which is a pretty big pull on a tendon. The tendon has this, this adaptation where the cells kick out more collagen. It lays down the collagen, the tendon to get stiffer.” - Jake Tuura (37:00) “Collagen fascicles don't really extend a whole lot. Yeah, like, their strain is very minimal. And the collagen fascicles have this helical rotation, which then is again, more extendability. The helical angle decreases as you get older because the gel is drying up and it becomes more linear.” - Jake Tuura (47:00) “You have to respect the many months process where it's going to reorient the structure and give it the loads that it wants. But it's those people that get no pain. They often go on to rupture and they. It kind of like comes out of nowhere.” - Jake Tuura (58:15) “If you did a five-minute hold, you would be using such a lightweight, it would have to be so light the muscle is not really pulling. The muscle is like working endurance, but it's not working in a fashion where it's maximally trying to pull. So the tendon strain is going to be minimal because the muscle's not pulling on it that hard.” - Jake Tuura (1:04:42) "It's a weird thing. I think it's neglected. I probably neglected too. When I, When I talk about tendons, it's just talking about heavy loads and plyometrics and, and stiffness and everything." - Jake Tuura (1:08:20) “If you lift a heavy load, like you could get strain on the tendon by doing a leg extension for 30 seconds, but you can also get strained on the 10 by doing a back squat. Anytime that, that knee is bending and anytime the quad is working hard, you're going to be pulling on that tendon. So I think they are pretty comparable.” - Jake Tuura About Jake Tuura Jake Tuura, MS, CSCS currently works as a coach and educator who specializes in hypertrophy for athletes, vertical jump development, and patellar tendinopathy rehab. Jake was a collegiate S&C coach for 7 years, with further experience in the private sector at Velocity Training Center. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Superior (2014) and his Masters from The College of St. Scholastica (2015). His website: jackedathlete.com helps athletes gain copious amounts of muscle, jump higher, and rehab from jumper’s knee.

447: Scott Salwasser on An Evolution of Speed and Movement Assessment Jan 23, 2025

Today’s podcast is with Scott Salwasser. Scott is a sports performance specialist at EXOS, and previously served as the Head of Athletic Performance for Bishop Lynch High School, along with stops at numerous NCAA DI institutions, as well as work in the private sector. Scott is a field leader in assessment protocols and training methodology for physical preparation, speed, and combine development. As technology continues to push forward, and the data that comes with it, it’s crucial to have practical methods to apply technology to training in a meaningful way. Scott has a strong background in technology/assessment protocols, but is deeply practical and puts coaching and applied techniques at the forefront of his system. On the podcast today, Scott speaks on his experiences and transition away from sports performance in the NCAA, and talks on athlete assessments for speed and movement abilities, asymmetries, and meeting the evolving needs of an athlete over time. Scott has a great sense of what it takes to distill technology and advanced concepts into the needs of athletes in a performance setting, and it was great to catch up with him for this episode. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr’s Gym Studio and the LILA Exogen Wearable Resistance Training Sleeves. Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to: Lilateam.com For a Gym Studio 14-day free trial, head to gymstudio.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Main Points 7:28- Athletic Development Through High School Coaching 12:51- Transformative Spirit: The Key to Discipline 14:12- Data-Driven Athletic Assessment for Training Programs 27:15- Personalized Athlete Training Plans Through Data 31:43- Unlocking the Final 5-10% in Sprint Training 33:48- Mental Focus and Environmental Influence in Sprinting 46:25- Quantifying Movement Asymmetries for Enhanced Interventions 52:49- Enhancing Athletic Speed Beyond Isolated Tests 59:59- Tailored Athletic Programs for Individual Performance Gains 1:06:03- Customized Assessment for Enhanced Athletic Performance 1:07:48- Optimizing Performance Through Individualized Asymmetry Analysis Quotes "If you have a strength coach standing behind you, hollering at you to get deeper, you're gonna find a way to get deeper however you can, right?" - Scott Salwasser “I actually did force-velocity profiling, I think it was my second year (of high school coaching). I'm like, okay, I'm gonna just really be over the top here and we're gonna get it. And to oversimplify it, basically told me that we were bad at everything. - Scott Salwasser “Even at the high school level, is you have a kid run a sprint, that's laser time, he's going to run harder. You have a kid, you're working on explosive strength or speed strength or any avenue in the weight room, you get a VBT feedback on that, the bar is going to move faster” - Scott Salwasser “Within a healthy scope, and everybody's got to define their own “healthy scope” of variability, But within that, you're going to be better at one thing slightly worse than another. But at what point does it red flag” - Scott Salwasser "Force and strength with a barbell on your back or in your hands are not the exact same thing." - Scott Salwasser “Asymmetrical. But it's 5% difference. So we'll keep it in mind. But we're not going to go crazy over it. Oh, it's 30%. All right. Maybe he's not gonna do these exercises. He's gonna get extra, you know, PT and we're gonna take these lifts out and replace them with these” - Scott Salwasser About Scott Salwasser Coach Salwasser is a sports performance specialist at EXOS in the Dallas area. He has previously served as the Head of Athletic Performance for Bishop Lynch High School, Director of Speed & Power at Texas Tech, the Director of Strength & Conditioning at Texas State, and as Assistant Director of Strength & Conditioning at Cal, South Carolina, and Washington State. He began his career as an Intern with the Oakland Raiders. He has a Masters's Degree in Kinesiology from Sacramento State University and a Bachelor's Degree from UC Davis, where he lettered in Football. He is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist.

446: Eamonn Flanagan on Reactive Strength and Individualized Jump Training Concepts Jan 16, 2025

Today’s podcast is with Eamonn Flanagan. Eamonn Flanagan is the Lead Strength & Conditioning Consultant at the Sport Ireland Institute, where he oversees strength and conditioning support for Ireland’s Olympic and Paralympic athletes. He holds a Ph.D. in Sports Biomechanics and spent over a decade in professional rugby, working with the Scottish Rugby Union, Edinburgh Rugby, and the Irish Rugby Football Union. Eamonn appeared on episode #250 and has just created a new course on plyometrics in conjunction with Sportsmith Training methods such as extensive plyometrics and reactive strength testing have become more common in training team sports. At the same time, it’s easy to lose sight of the whole in athlete development when chasing plyometric variables too far. On today’s show, Eamonn explores the application of plyometric training, including the impact of surface type on performance, the Reactive Strength Index's role in assessment, and strategies for optimizing reactive strength. We also cover plyometric intensity, using extensive plyometric methods, and tailoring programs to individual needs, concluding with balanced approaches to training and performance. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr’s Gym Studio. Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to: Lilateam.com For a Gym Studio 14-day free trial, head to gymstudio.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Main Points 17:05- Impact of Surface Type on Plyometric Training 22:53- Reactive Strength Index Influence on Plyometric Assessment 25:57- Reciprocal vs. Unilateral Movement Tension Analysis 28:25- Optimizing Performance Through Reactive Strength Training 31:28- Jumping Exercise Progression for Athletes 35:01- Dynamic Acceleration Plyometrics 36:05- Performance Enhancement Through Contrast Training Methods 39:51- Balancing Intensity Levels for Athletic Adaptations 48:34- Enhancing Athletic Performance Through Extensive Plyometrics 49:44- Tailoring Plyometric Training to Individual Needs 1:01:20- Tailoring Plyometric Training for Enhanced Performance Quotes (8:42) "I think as an athlete and as a coach, there's always a bit of a balancing act between. Around ego, you know, what do I want to do versus what do I need to do?" - Eamonn Flanigan (12:30 “An athlete might be on field multiple times a week, but if it's on a soft, you know, very, very compliant surface, I'm not sure how relevant that is to, let's say, what we might expect from adaptation from extensive plyometrics” - Eamonn Flanigan (13:40 “Let's say in the last Olympic cycle, working with a taekwondo athlete who is, you know, indoors on mats in bare feet. And so the difference in kind of foot, ankle, calf integrity between the two, you know, the taekwondo athletes spending a lot of time in single leg stance, you know, there's an athlete that I'm probably bypassing extensive work pretty quickly” - Eamonn Flanigan (30:00) “Very often like plyometric ability or that basic quality or reactive strength, it's, it's very neglected. I think sometimes it's not something that is often included. And as a result, I think there's, there's always some, I think there's often some easy wins there” - Eamonn Flanigan (37:00) “If you're doing repeat hurdle jumps or you're doing, you know, a set of pogo jumps or some bounding. There's also a point at which, you know, if you hit a bad replacement, you just end up like it gets worse and worse and worse. You know, I think, you know, again, varying within a set both up and down allows you to come back down again and build it back up again” - Eamonn Flanigan (41:10) “I am a little skeptical as to how much, you know, what might be less than 50 reps of an exercise in a week can have on, you know, the, the, the, the running gate of an athlete who's sprinting x number of strides a week” - Eamonn Flanigan (43:52) "I think where it can get maybe trickier is, and maybe people can be guilty of is where you try and get a little too clever with some of your plyometrics and you try and make them real highly specific. But then it comes down to, are you just doing maybe a bastardized version of the sporting action itself? Would you be better just doing the sporting action itself with good coaching and good recovery times, which I think is often the case. Are you actually overloading a physical quality?" - Eamonn Flanigan About Eamonn Flanigan Eamonn Flanagan is the Lead Strength & Conditioning Consultant at the Sport Ireland Institute, where he oversees strength and conditioning support for Ireland’s Olympic and Paralympic athletes. With expertise in both the science and application of jump training and plyometrics, Eamonn is a highly regarded coach in his field. He holds a Ph.D. in Sports Biomechanics and spent over a decade in professional rugby, working with the Scottish Rugby Union, Edinburgh Rugby, and the Irish Rugby Football Union.

445: Cal Dietz and Mike T Nelson on Training Neurology, Oscillatory Reps, and Triphasic II Concepts Jan 09, 2025

Today’s podcast is with Cal Dietz and Mike T Nelson, authors of Triphasic Training II. Today's podcast features Cal Dietz, of the University of Minnesota and co-author of Triphasic Training, and Dr. Mike T. Nelson, a leading expert in exercise physiology, neurological training concepts, and metabolic flexibility. Sports performance is like a tree in many respects. It starts with standard strength training methods, then branches out and integrates varying aspects of total human performance. From the period between the original Triphasic Training to Triphasic Training II, Cal has worked through many aspects of athletic performance, interconnecting physiology and neurology. Mike’s work spans many interconnected aspects of human performance, and compliments Cal’s work with physiological underpinnings. On today’s podcast, Cal and Mike share insights from their new book, Triphasic Training II, focusing on optimizing human performance for athletes and fitness enthusiasts alike. Primary topics in this episode will be practical neurological training concepts, the origin and evolution of the GOAT drill, evolving warmups and training integrations, athletic capacity building, oscillatory training, and much more. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr’s Gym Studio and Lila Exogen. Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to: Lilateam.com For a Gym Studio 14-day free trial, head to gymstudio.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Main Points 3:55- Embracing Curiosity and Experimentation in Coaching 9:20- Optimizing Strength Training with Triphasic Concepts 15:12- Neurotransmitter-Stimulating Go Drill for Performance Optimization 17:34- Enhancing Performance Through Brain-Stimulating Drills 24:54- Enhancing Performance through Integrated Brain Training 28:32- Enhancing Physical Performance Through Vestibular Training 45:05- Optimizing Nervous System Coordination Through Dosage 48:34- Optimizing Athlete Performance through Targeted Challenges 51:59- Enhancing Coaching Through Experimentation and Data Collection 1:00:13- Aerobic System Development Through Heart Rate Variability 1:02:39- Cognitive Decision-Making in Athletic Performance Optimization 1:11:53- Optimizing Athletic Performance Through Physiological Integration 1:14:44- Utilizing Metrics for Individualized Athletic Recovery 1:21:31- Systemic Movement for Enhanced Athletic Performance Quotes (27:50) “If you see kids who do not move athletically, there's something off with them now, you know, modern-day that could be maybe just too much exposure to video games or they could be, they have like I have some severe eye issues, vestibular issues, etc.” Mike T Nelson (32:45) “That frustration is a key factor. If you're frustrated, you're pushing yourself on all these different levels with all these” Cal Dietz (34:40) “When we work out, it's basically, we come, we do one GOAT drill, and then we do our 1080 sprint protocol, one rep, and then we come back, and while the resting, they do the GOAT drill again. And so we end up doing four to six go or four to five go drills before the workout” Cal Dietz (35:50) “I've gotten emails from coaches, high school football coaches. Like, a kid could never catch over his left shoulder for whatever reason, so they all had him on. Well, now he's catching over the left shoulder. When they started integrating that drill in their passing drills” Cal Dietz (53:55) "The higher level coaches I watch, they all appear to talk less." Mike T Nelson (59:54) "The biggest thing with oscillatories is that we feel that our ability to stay injury-free has been increased because of the high speed, because that's how the muscle is getting hurt and that's how it's supposed to function on the field." Cal Dietz (1:17:05) "In general, the more developed your aerobic system is, the higher your HRV or the better your HRV will be." Mike T Nelson About Cal Dietz Cal Dietz is a strength and conditioning coach known for his innovative work in athletic training. As the co-founder of Triphasic Training, he has developed a comprehensive training system that emphasizes the integration of strength, power, and speed development. In addition to his role with Triphasic Training, Cal Dietz serves as the director of performance for men’s and women’s hockey, at the University of Minnesota, where he has played a crucial role in the development of cutting-edge training programs for various sports teams. His approach combines scientific principles with practical application, making him a go-to expert in the field. Dietz is also a highly regarded speaker and educator, sharing his insights on strength training methodologies and their impact on athletic performance at clinics and conferences worldwide. About Mike T Nelson Mike T. Nelson, PhD, MSME, CSCS, CISSN, is a research fanatic who specializes in metabolic flexibility, heart rate variability, and human performance. He has spent 20 years of his life learning how the human body works. He has a PhD in Exercise Physiology, and a MS in Mechanical Engineering (biomechanics). He's an Associate Professor at the Carrick Institute, a university instructor at Rocky Mountain University, creator of the Flex Diet Certification & Physiologic Flexibility Cert, and a Human Optimization Specialist with the Special Forces Experience. He also is the Research and Human Performance Science Advisor at Tecton -makers of a unique ketone ester, and performance analysis with Rapid Health. He has published research in both physiology and engineering peer-reviewed journals. He's even been called in to share his techniques with top military agencies. In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his wife, lifting odd objects, going to metal concerts, and kiteboarding. Find out more at www.miketnelson.com

444: Joel Smith Q&A on Dynamic Learning, Speed Programming and Training Aliveness Jan 02, 2025

Today’s podcast is a Q&A episode with Joel Smith. Topics include the role of roughhousing games for individual sport athletes, sandbag training, and rhythm-cadence in movement. Joel explores youth sports trends, breaking jump plateaus, and the benefits of flywheel loading. He also covers infrasternal angle training, rotating speed and plyometric days, and integrating team play with weekly speed work. This, plus, a discussion on the value of band resistance in sports training rounds out this comprehensive conversation on optimizing athletic performance. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr’s Gym Studio. Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to: Lilateam.com For a Gym Studio 14-day free trial, head to gymstudio.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Main Points 00:14- Roughhousing games for non-team sport athletes 08:42- Training Changes Over the Year 33:23- Observations on Youth Sports 36:44- The Role of Fun in Training 40:37- Jump Imbalances and Breaking Jump Plateaus 44:53- Flywheel Loading 46:37- Infrasternal Angle Concepts and Training over Time 53:36- Sprint and Jump Training Programming 59:14- Utilizing Exergeny in Training 1:00:43- Games as Speed Training 1:05:37- Basketball vs. Plyometrics 1:08:24- Band Resistance in Sport Training About Joel Smith Joel Smith is the founder of Just Fly Sports and is a sports performance and track coach in Cincinnati, Ohio. Joel hosts the Just Fly Performance Podcast and has authored several books and coaches in both the high school and private sectors. Joel was a strength coach for 8 years at UC Berkeley, working with the Swim teams and post-graduate professional swimmers, as well as tennis, water polo, and track and field. A track coach of 17 years, Joel coached for the Diablo Valley Track and Field Club for 7 years and also has 6 years of experience coaching on the collegiate level, working at Wilmington College, and the University of Wisconsin, LaCrosse. He is currently coaching high jump at Milford High School. Joel has coached 4 national champions, multiple All-Americans, and NCAA record holders in track and field. In the realm of strength and conditioning, his programs have assisted 5 athletes to Olympic berths that produced 9 medals and a world record performance at Rio in 2016.

443: Bill Hartman and Chris Wicus on Propulsion Dynamics in Athletic Movement Dec 26, 2024

Today’s podcast features Bill Hartman and Chris Wicus. Bill Hartman. Bill Hartman is a physical therapist and in-demand educator with his modern approach to human mechanics and training. Chris Wicus is a health and performance professional with 15 years of experience, a former professional ultimate frisbee player, and a 2nd-degree black belt in karate. He has coached a wide variety of athletes across 17 sports and has been mentored by many top experts in the field. Bill and Chris host the “Reconsider” podcast together and speak on various cutting-edge approaches to human movement in a way that prompts thinking on existing processes in the field, and how to move forward with current understandings of training and biomechanics. One key link between on-field performance and weight room training is the dynamics of propulsion through the gait cycle. Bill and Chris often use the example of cutting mechanics—going into and out of a cut—which applies to sprinting, jumping, throwing, strength training, and directional changes, highlighting human movement as a series of turns, rotations, and gait phases. Today's podcast dives into the dynamics of propulsion and the gait cycle, linking field performance with weight room training. Bill and Chris explore "into and out of the cut" mechanics as they apply to sprinting, jumping, throwing, strength training, and directional changes. They compare change of direction to acceleration and top-end speed while discussing propulsion's impact on breathing, reciprocal motion, orientation, performance, and injury prevention. This was a truly illuminating episode and one that garners numerous notes and insights. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr’s Gym Studio. Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to: Lilateam.com For a Gym Studio 14-day free trial, head to gymstudio.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Main Points 00:55- Propulsion Phases Influence Cut Maneuvers in Motion 8:23- Agility, Relative Motions Training, and Links Between COD and Acceleration Ability 24:28- Late Stance Propulsion for Enhanced Velocity Performance 27:35- Optimizing Performance Through Relative Motion Training 43:42- Proper Breathing in Optimal Performance Training 56:05- Enhancing Control Through Relative Motions in Split Squat 1:04:31- Pelvic Pressure Dynamics and Squatting Depth 1:15:30- Oscillatory Impulse Split Squat Training for Athletes 1:19:03- Explore Bill's Model on UHP Platform Quotes (2:15) “Propulsion is moving forward through space in contact with the medium” - Bill Hartman (9:32) “For you to move what you perceive to be straight sideways, that is actually a turn away from the ground contact” - Bill Hartman (10:50) “Everything is a turn. And that's why one of the dirty words would be a sagittal plane. Because when we're talking about dynamic movement, we're moving on helices” - Bill Hartman (13:50) “There's lots of time accumulated with these IR demands with like a 5 10, 5 pro agility, whatever. So that's going to prime you. My assumption would be I would see better starts and accelerations and I would see better shorter sprint performance. But like you had even mentioned intuitively, 200m maybe wouldn't be as good as I need to display ER, I need to be off the ground. That lives in the opposite place from like an agility drill” - Bill Hartman (16:40) “The sharper the cut, the, the, the, the greater your capacity to have to slow down so you can actually, actually change directions. And so this is an acquisition of relative motion in internal rotation which could have a beneficial effect… if we were just doing say a flying 20, that's a whole different story because the amount of relative movement that you would, that would be required in that circumstance is actually less” - Bill Hartman (18:42) "Race cars used to be made out of metal, and when they crashed, they would stay in one piece, and then the driver would have to absorb all of the energy. So there was a lot of death and then a lot of serious injuries associated with race car crashes. Now the cars actually explode into a billion pieces. The more pieces that you have that are moving, the greater the energy is dissipated into all of those pieces." - Bill Hartman (23:45) “You're always going to be storing and releasing the energy in the connective tissues. It's. It's just under in what circumstance we have to, we have to understand the conditions and then how much relative motion would be expressed” - Bill Hartman (28:50) “We need to rule out the things that are going to limit relative motions first and foremost. Okay. High force, high velocity. Okay, so those are the two extremes. And these will be at the ends of the ends of propulsion are going to be more externally rotated represented versus IR” – Bill Hartman (31:00) “All of our favorite injuries tend to be situations where we're trying to apply a high force in a high velocity situation with less relative motion” – Bill Hartman (34:00) “You take a 10 RM weight to 10 reps, the motor behavior actually is very similar. So, so you're actually reducing relative motion as you progress through the set” – Bill Hartman (44:50) “You can associate your ability to move air, how well you do it and the type of effort that is required to do it will help guide you in your process as to whether you're accessing relative motions or producing higher forces” – Bill Hartman (46:32) "If you're dealing with some type of issue, they're probably holding their breath when they're doing stuff. And that's a big tell as a coach for when you need to address the breathing with an activity is if they're grunting a lot to do things, if they're always sort of holding their breath and you hear this sort of like gasping kind of like type of sound as they're moving." - Chris Wicus (51:00) “The nice thing about the Zottman girl is that we get the early ER representation, the early IR representation. And therefore we retain a greater degree of relative movement at the elbow. So we use these all the time. Because think about the baseball pitchers that come in and they're lacking. They're lacking internal rotation at the elbow, which is underappreciated” - Bill Hartman (59:10) "In most sporting events there is a moment in time where high force is necessary and that we have tremendous benefit in using these activities because the forces match…. if I train somebody to produce higher and higher forces, but I have increased the duration element of the impulse and that is transferred into the sporting event. I just may be somebody slow." - Bill Hartman (1:09:20) “The concern between like the sport coach and then the physical preparation is, is that, is the coach asking you to do something that is physically against your structure?” - Bill Hartman (1:11:15) “The mistake in most circumstances is, is to create a squeeze from the top down. So this is, this is over strength training an athlete” - Bill Hartman (1:14:34) "We have to understand it's like, what am I actually doing to the ability of the skeleton to change its shape? What am I doing to the ability to put air into certain spaces that allow you to access relative motions that I might need." - Bill Hartman About Bill Hartman Bill Hartman is known for finding solutions for people in pain who have failed with other forms of treatment. He is an in-demand educator in his approach to restoring a pain-free lifestyle and understanding the governing principles of movement as applied to human performance. He regularly mentors physical therapy students and interns many of whom have gone on to land positions in professional sport or become successful business owners themselves. Bill owns IFAST Physical Therapy in Indianapolis, Indiana, and Co-owns Indianapolis Fitness and Sports Training with Mike Robertson, where he works with clients ranging from very young athletes to professionals. He is the author of the book, All Gain – No Pain: The over-40 Comeback Guide to Rebuilding a Fit and Pain-free Body After Pain, Injury, or Physical Therapy. About Chris Wicus Chris is a health and performance professional with 15 years of experience. His coaching journey began around 25 years ago as a karate instructor, where he taught people from ages 4 to 70. He holds a 2nd-degree black belt and was a nationally ranked ultimate frisbee player in college, later playing professionally. His own experiences with injuries and rehabilitation led him to pursue studies in Integrative Kinesiology at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Chris has worked as a performance coach across various levels, training athletes from 17 different sports, including Olympians and professional athletes. After completing graduate studies in sport coaching, psychology, and management, he became the training and education director at a high-end facility in NYC, where he trained A-list celebrities and high-level executives. Over the years, Chris has learned from leading experts in rehabilitation, exercise physiology, speed, agility, and strength & conditioning, dedicating thousands of hours to education and coaching to become an effective problem-solver for his clients.

442: David Grey on High Performance Foot Training and Isometric Concepts Dec 19, 2024

Today’s podcast features David Grey. David is the founder of David Grey Rehab, where he works with clients from all walks of life. David’s specialty is assessing his clients' gait cycle in depth to develop a plan to help restore the movement or movements they struggle to perform. David has learned under many great mentors in the world of human movement, athletic development, gymnastics, Chinese martial arts, and biomechanics, and is an expansive thinker, blending many elements of human movement together in a down-to-earth way we can all resonate with. Although there are some differences between rehabilitation and performance strength and power training for athletes, there are also a lot of similarities and connections. The more we can understand good training from both worlds, the more effective our programming and outcomes can be. On today’s episode, David speaks on various aspects of foot training, along with both targeted and overcoming isometric adaptations. He also gets into concepts of loading and intensity in the rehab space, and what tends to be missing from many rehab programs. David covers this and much more in this practical and informative episode. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr’s Gym Studio. Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to: Lilateam.com TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. Use the code “JUSTFLY” for a free 30-day trial of the TeamBuildr software. For a Gym Studio 14-day free trial, head to gymstudio.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Main Points 4:17- Sustainable Solutions for Foot Issues Through Orthotics 8:17- Gradual Conditioning for Injury Prevention 11:25- Achilles Tendinopathy Treatment Strategies and Outcomes 12:15- Consistent Methods for Sustainable Fitness Progress 24:19- Intermuscular Coordination in Rehabilitation Exercises 26:17- Optimizing Muscle Function through Inhibition Techniques 27:42- Isometric Exercises Enhancing Nervous System Coordination 29:14- Tendon Health and Safe Training Positions 38:49- Competition-Driven Intensity for Optimal Rehabilitation 50:42- Heavy Loading for Achilles Strength 59:13- Movement Improvement Through Rehab-Inspired Training Approach Quotes (5:59) "You need to separate out: This is for analgesic effect before my session and this is separate to that. I am doing these exercises to get stronger or to improve whatever other qualities I need." - David Grey (7:03) "I will work a lot with how their foot moves. Not because a Pronated foot or a supinated foot is a better foot. Just because I would like, if you have joints, I would like them to be able to move and they don't have to be able to move a lot, but just to be able to move a little bit at least" - David Grey (7:20) "Not all, but some of the best world-class sprinters that I've been lucky enough to work with have the most mushed-up feet." -David Grey (29:14) "When you see the shake, you know something is happening." - David Grey (38:15) "I think it's actually especially in my world, in the rehab world, people will not give you their all. They're holding back either because they're purposefully holding back or they're subconsciously holding back, but they really will not give you their all" - David Grey (43:58) "It's intensity and competition both missing in rehab hugely. And it's a huge problem. Humongous problem." - David Grey (44:49) "The stimulus to heal needs to be greater than whatever hurts you." (59:39) "I just think this is good training, to be honest." - David Grey About David Grey David Grey is the founder of David Grey Rehab, a renowned movement and rehabilitation specialist dedicated to helping athletes and individuals overcome chronic pain, prevent injuries, and optimize performance. David has gained international recognition for his innovative approach to movement assessment, biomechanics, and injury rehabilitation. Drawing from a diverse background in sports performance, manual therapy, and functional movement, David developed the "Lower Body Basics" program, a flagship offering that has transformed how athletes and coaches approach mobility and stability training. His methods emphasize the integration of the body as a connected system, with a particular focus on improving joint health, restoring natural movement patterns, and addressing compensations and imbalances at their root cause. David has worked with elite athletes across various sports, including soccer, rugby, tennis, and track and field, as well as recreational athletes and everyday individuals looking to move pain-free. His practical and adaptable teachings have made him a sought-after speaker, hosting workshops and online courses worldwide. Through his clinic, online platform, and educational resources, David continues to bridge the gap between rehabilitation and performance, empowering his clients to achieve long-term health and resilience.

441: Katie St. Clair on Feet, Hips, and Connective Tissue Principles in Movement Performance Dec 12, 2024

Today’s podcast features Katie St. Clair. Katie St. Clair is a seasoned strength coach, educator, and entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in the fitness industry. She is the founder of Empowered Performance, a program and academy designed to elevate the standards of coaching through an in-depth understanding of biomechanics, anatomy, respiration, and creative thinking. Katie's work focuses on empowering other coaches and movement professionals to create transformative experiences for their clients by fostering a love of movement. The human body is a highly intricate system, with countless ways to approach its training—whether focusing on mechanics, mental aspects, muscles, or connective tissues. Every part is interconnected, with systems and joints working harmoniously to create movement. In today’s episode, Katie delves into training patterns centered around the feet and hips, as well as the exploratory process she uses to deepen her understanding of movement and training strategies. She highlights the significance of understanding connective tissue behavior and its foundational role in performance programs. Additionally, Katie discusses the importance of incorporating ballistic and athletic movements into programming for all types of individuals, alongside other key principles of human performance. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr’s Gym Studio and Athletic Development Games. Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to: Lilateam.com TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. Use the code “JUSTFLY” for a free 30-day trial of the TeamBuildr software. For a Gym Studio 14-day free trial, head to gymstudio.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Main Points 3:31- A Connective Tissue-Centered Dynamic Exercise Training Approach 13:40- Optimizing Performance Through Corrective Movement Integration 22:42- The Nature of Repetitive Movements in Performance Training 27:26- Single-Leg Hinging Progression for Movement Optimization 31:13- Optimizing Glute Activation Through Hinging Techniques 44:10- Enhancing Range of Motion Through Ballistic Exercises 46:31- Reconnect with Joy Through Dynamic Movements 1:01:52- Optimizing Glute Activation with Foot Pronation 1:05:08- Enhancing Exercise Performance through Foot Coordination 1:14:53- Optimal Foot Mechanics for Exercise Performance Quotes (8:40) “What am I trying to do with the joint? How is that impacting the connective tissue? So what's my speed and tempo looking like when I'm doing this? How stiff is it making someone or how compliant?” (17:40) “Today I did a squat and a bench press six sets of five reps. I mean I was done with that pretty quickly, so then the rest of the hour I can spend playing around with accessory work where I'm just exploring different concepts. I just like to have fun with my body.” (24:00) “It's actually being creative, which is the one thing that is missing from learning, in my opinion, and that's on all scales, like children.” (35:35) “You're not feeling your posterior chain and you're not feeling your glutes, and you're feeling your back or your SI joint. Something's going on. Yeah, you need some sort of constraint. You could be hiking your hip or arching too much through the low back, you could be too far back on your heels. Maybe you need to push into your forefoot to get things to really kick on, depending on how your center of mass is organized. So I always love getting in somebody into a hinge position that struggled with it for a long time.” (45:11) "The ability to allow people to self organize and have that dynamic propulsive experience and yielding experience. And that's what creates a lot of change." (1:05:31) “Sometimes if have somebody in a hinge, I might put a wedge under their first met head just to allow basically to decrease that windless mechanism and allow the arch to drop a little bit more. Not everybody needs that, but. And have them focused on that inside heel and then hold the hinge, and all of a sudden their glutes really kick on and do what they're supposed to.” (1:14:47) "You could break that exercise in half and say, who needs this side of the point and who needs this side of the coin?" About Katie St. Clair Katie St. Clair is a seasoned strength coach, educator, and entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in the fitness industry. She is the founder of Empowered Performance, a program and academy designed to elevate the standards of coaching through an in-depth understanding of biomechanics, anatomy, respiration, and creative thinking. Katie's work focuses on empowering other coaches and movement professionals to create transformative experiences for their clients by fostering a love of movement. As a certified strength and conditioning specialist (CSCS) and certified personal trainer (CPT), Katie combines her passion for movement with her commitment to education. She has developed workshops and courses that emphasize the connection between breathing mechanics, thoracic and shoulder function, and overall movement efficiency. Her innovative approach to biomechanics aims to optimize performance and reduce compensatory patterns in both athletes and everyday movers

440: Eric Guthrie on Movement Challenges and Athlete Driven Development Dec 05, 2024

Today’s podcast features Eric Guthrie, Director of Strength and Conditioning at George Washington University. Eric has over a decade of experience in sports performance, working with a wide range of sports. He currently works directly with lacrosse and gymnastics. A graduate of the University of Iowa with a degree in Health & Human Physiology, Eric was a standout punter for the Hawkeyes, where he served as a permanent team captain and even earned an opportunity with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Play-based training is on the rise in athletic development, and for good reason. It is a primal and effective way to deliver, not only a high level of stimulation and salience (attention) to the session but also to create memorable and joyful experiences for the individual. The key with any tool is to understand how to use it in context, achieving a balanced and effective use. On today’s episode, Eric digs into his keys in building movement challenges for athletes, using play for conditioning and movement qualities, and facilitating a program that continually scales into an athlete’s growing needs. He goes in-depth on how he chooses the degree of play and variability in a program, and how to build training with all parties in mind, sport coach, strength coach, and athlete. We also dig into some awesome mind, body, and environmental factors in training, conditioning, and performance. This was a practical and insightful podcast on one of the most powerful existing tools in athletic performance, the power of play. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr’s Gym Studio and Athletic Development Games. Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to: Lilateam.com TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. Use the code “JUSTFLY” for a free 30-day trial of the TeamBuildr software. For a Gym Studio 14-day free trial, head to gymstudio.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Main Points 5:26- Athlete-led Movement Challenges for Engaging Training 13:16- Enhancing Athlete Engagement Through Play-Based Training 17:39- Novelty-Driven Movement Engagement for Athletes 23:07- Enhancing Athletes' Performance Through Movement Competency 30:33- Athlete-Led Movement Challenges Enhance Training Experience 34:24- Enhancing Athlete Development Through Playful Training 37:39- Enhancing Team Cohesion with Contact Integration 40:55- Agile Conditioning through Game-Based Fitness 49:13- Fun Fitness Games Enhancing Athletic Performance 1:04:13- Motivation Through Competitive Status Systems in Training 1:09:29- Confidence Building through Weight Room Progression Quotes (14:40) “That's the sneaky part of it. How can you fit that in without them really realizing it? They're probably expecting a certain thing when they come in. We're gonna lift weights, we're gonna run. Toes on the line, this certain level of discipline. Quote, unquote discipline, which I think is sometimes overdone, but sometimes you need to have that starting out. And then can you build towards the more open and free” (17:32) "If you love it, then you'll want to come. You'll become obsessed with it and you'll come back and you'll give great effort and then the results will follow." (36:33) "We've had those discussions as a staff too. It's like what? What is our role? Is it this one to five years of performance drive that as high as you can or is it like lifelong lessons or skills." (39:20) “Wheelbarrow walk. You're getting way better than just holding a plank for two minutes. Getting the engagement and dynamic, you know, repetition without repetition” (44:00) “(For a more play-based conditioning approach) We had a more veteran team so I think they had a bigger base of play, sport practice, and sport play under them. So a younger team might need more of that base building for lack of a better term. I think so it's kind of again knowing your context, your team, and where they want to go (48:10) “In the weight room. I like dosing in that repetition without repetition or variability. Especially for the athletes that are, you know, quote-unquote, strong enough that can benefit, have enough experience” About Eric Guthrie Eric Guthrie is the director of strength and conditioning at George Washington University. He works directly with Gymnastics and Lacrosse and has been at George Washington since 2021. Guthrie came to GW from the University of Illinois at Chicago where he worked as an Assistant Strength & Conditioning Coach since 2013.A graduate of the University of Iowa with a degree in Health & Human Physiology, Guthrie was a punter for the Hawkeyes from 2007-2011, finishing as permanent team captain and earning an opportunity with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the preseason of 2012. Guthrie holds NSCA and CSCCA certifications.

439: Derek Hansen on Pendulum Swings of Resisted Sprinting and Aerobic Development in Sports Performance Nov 27, 2024

Today’s podcast features Derek Hansen. Derek is a renowned International Sport Performance Consultant with over 35 years of experience working with athletes across all levels and disciplines in speed, strength, and power sports. Derek started in Track and Field and continued in sports performance to work with numerous athletes in the NFL, NBA, MLS, and NHL, along with Olympic medalists. As the former Head Strength and Conditioning Coach for Simon Fraser University—NCAA's first non-U.S. member—Derek now specializes in speed development, performance planning, and return-to-competition protocols. If we zoom out and scan decades of fitness and human performance, we see methods go in, and out of style. In our current realm of athletics, we have put speed and power outputs heavily under the microscope, while energy system development and aerobic training have been played down (along with general physical education and physical competencies in young athletes). In looking at injury rates and longevity of athletes, it’s important to take a look at where we may be pushing too far, and where gaps need to be filled. On today’s episode, Derek covers the pendulum swing, and the importance of aerobic development, even in speed and power-seeking athletes. He also gets into the modern direction of acceleration training, as team sport training has moved into heavier resisted training protocols, relative to the past. Derek also touches on the artful side of training and coaching, mindfulness, overspeed sprint training, simplicity of programming application, and much more. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr’s Gym Studio and Athletic Development Games. Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to: Lilateam.com TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. Use the code “JUSTFLY” for a free 30-day trial of the TeamBuildr software. For a Gym Studio 14-day free trial, head to gymstudio.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Main Points 7:56- Value of Basic Circulatory Warm-up Routines 10:24- Benefits of Incorporating Aerobic Running in Training 22:24- Jerry Rice's Holistic Endurance Training Approach 26:42- Enhancing Performance Through Mindful Nature Training 34:38- Traditional vs Digital Learning: Note-taking Strategies 44:06- Optimizing Acceleration Training with Sled Work 50:30- Sprint Mechanics for Injury Prevention and Performance 55:00- Optimizing Training Loads for Enhanced Performance 58:38- Enhancing Acceleration: Sleds and Hill Sprints 1:01:37- Optimal Hill Gradient for Athletic Conditioning 1:09:46- Optimal Resistance Levels in Sprint Training 1:15:06- Optimizing Running Speed with Relaxation Techniques 1:23:36- Achilles Injury Rates and Considerations in Modern Sport 1:28:20- Muscle Oxygenation Training for Enhanced Recovery Quotes (4:40) “I always try to simplify things. So one of the simplest things when I was working with Charlie Francis was he would have very complicated, complex explanations for things, but sometimes he would say, like, you know, oh, what's this person's problem? Well, they're just tight. You just need to loosen them up. That would be the end of the conversation” (9:51) "It's kind of like the bro science has kind of taken over basic physiology and I think it's, it's kind of hurt us." (16:00) “We're pushing speed and specificity but, but at the same time, you know, having a well-rounded, balanced program is really important, particularly for the injury prevention side” (21:00) “I think of people like Jerry Rice and, you know, was he the fastest guy? No, but he did do a lot of longer runs and runs in the hills and stuff like that” (32:00) “I have vinyl records because listening to a vinyl record takes more time and patience. To put the needle on the groove and all that. And then I found every time I was writing something, I would just type it into the computer. Now I bought a whole bunch of pads, lined paper pads, and I'll try to write stuff out more and little things like that. I'll be very deliberate about kind of going full old school on things” (41:40) “For a lot of people, acceleration work has to have a resistance component. And you'll see. And I try to come up with numbers. Like, maybe when I do acceleration work, 20% of all the work is resisted, but what I'm seeing is like 80% or more is resisted” (42:58) "For certain athletes (heavier resisted sprinting) works really well. But we both agreed that it's more of, like a postural coordination or maybe there's a security with having the resistance on because you can get into positions that feel more comfortable, like more balanced." (46:10) “I think maybe that that art of understanding how to train acceleration has been lost with all of this resisted work. Right. And it's a different feel” (55:40) “There's a significant point of diminishing returns there. So is a 400-pound squat enough or is a 120 kilo power clean enough? And sometimes it is, right? Sometimes like 300-pound squat, 350, and some guys running nine-point, whatever, 9.7. So I think, you know, everybody should think about that point of diminishing returns for everything they do” About Derek Hansen Derek is an International Sport Performance Consultant who has been working with athletes of all ages and abilities in speed, strength, and power sports since 1988. His coaching career started in Track and Field, providing instruction to sprinters of all ages eventually working with collegiate sprinters, hurdlers, and jumpers. His career evolved rapidly working closely with some of the top performers in the world as a coach and a consultant – including Olympic medalists, world record holders, Canadian National team athletes, and professional athletes from numerous sports. Derek worked as the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach for Simon Fraser University for 14 years, the first non-US member of the NCAA. He also serves as a performance consultant to numerous professional teams in the NFL, NBA, MLS, and NHL, as well as major NCAA Division 1 programs throughout North America, specializing in speed development, strategic performance planning, return-to-competition protocols, and neuromuscular electrical stimulation programming. Derek is asked to speak on speed development and high-performance training regularly for major events around the world and has also authored several books, chapters, and journal articles on these subjects.

438: Vern Gambetta on Isometrics, “Spectrum-Training” and Rhythm, in Athletic Development Nov 21, 2024

Today’s podcast features sports performance coach, Vern Gambetta, owner of Gambetta Training Systems. Vern is a globally respected leader in sports performance training, with over five decades of experience in coaching and consulting across multiple sports. Gambetta has profoundly influenced the field of athletic development, and his innovative approaches to functional movement, strength training, and sport-specific conditioning have shaped the practices of coaches, trainers, and athletes worldwide. It's interesting to think of the idea of “nothing new under the sun”, in physical training. Vern has been through half a century of training means and methods, using methods both popular and forgotten. So often in our own training and coaching journies, we look back and think “That was a great training series, I should do that again”! In this episode, Vern speaks on complex training (although as he mentions, he just calls it training), getting into spectrum training, and the evolution of his leg circuits. He talks about his history with isometric training, along with PNF concepts that are highly effective, but forgotten by many performance coaches. He also gets into priming and potentiation, rhythmic aspects in training, looking at training transfer through the lens of track and field, and much more in today’s episode. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr’s Gym Studio and Athletic Development Games. Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to: Lilateam.com TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. Use the code “JUSTFLY” for a free 30-day trial of the TeamBuildr software. For a Gym Studio 14-day free trial, head to gymstudio.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Main Points 11:19- Tailored Training for Optimal Athletic Performance 16:04- Track and Field Coaching and Sports Performance Concepts 25:33- Optimal Movement Patterns for Youth Athletes 37:41- Female Athlete Success Through Multilateral Training 39:16- “Spectrum Training” for Optimal Athletic Performance 42:33- Triphasic Muscle Nature of PNF Rehabilitation and PNF Techniques 49:04- Athletic Priming with Varied Lift Combinations 53:53- Enhancing Training Circuits with Added Resistance 58:09- Rhythm-Based Velocity Training for Athletic Performance 1:00:18- Progressive Coaching: From Slow to Explosive Quotes "I don't call it complex training, I call it training." - Vern Gambetta" “I just so thankful for the background in track and field, and also having competed in the decathlon at a very low level to understand how things fit together because as a coach, if I did too much in the weight room, strength training wise, I was going to compromise something else” – Vern Gambetta "The rule of never sacrificing range of motion for resistance." - Vern Gambetta “What I want them to be able to do is be able to make optimum shapes relative to what they have to do in their sport and strengthen the connections and that they're able to make better shapes. And that what that does is that develops a more robust athlete. And a healthy athlete” - Vern Gambetta “I've been doing isometric using isometrics and training since I first started strength training in 1963, and it's never not been part of my programs” - Vern Gambetta “And then there was a guy, Dr. Pat O'Shea at Oregon State, who wrote a lot about it, where basically you'd set your pins in a rack and you say if your max squat was 400 pounds, you'd put 500 pounds. And you drive it up for maybe four or five inches against the top pin, and then you'd hold it for six counts. And I did that. And, man, the lifts went sky high” - Vern Gambetta “I do these, I call them spectrum workouts where you go from isometric to fast eccentric to eccentric, fast eccentric. There's concentric work to regular tempo to total ballistic” - Vern Gambetta "I want to make them dance. Like, I want to make them feel. Feel the connection." - Vern Gambetta "Simplicity yields complexity. I mean, there's a plethora of information available at your fingertips now that wasn't there." - Vern Gambetta About Vern Gambetta Vern Gambetta is a globally respected leader in sports performance training, often referred to as the “Godfather of Functional Training.” With over five decades of experience in coaching and consulting across multiple sports, Gambetta has profoundly influenced the field of athletic development. His innovative approaches to functional movement, strength training, and sport-specific conditioning have shaped the practices of coaches, trainers, and athletes worldwide.

437: Cody Bidlow on Breaking Sprint Barriers and Intuitive Training Concepts Nov 14, 2024

Today’s podcast features speed coach, Cody Bidlow. Cody is a track sprints coach, athlete, and founder of Athlete X and SprintingWorkouts.com. He has been a head track & field coach at Arcadia High School in Phoenix, AZ, and a coach at EliteU working with NFL combine prep athletes. An all-conference sprinter for Grand Canyon University, Cody has been a personal coach for professional MLB athletes, track athletes, and consults for coaches around the world. To sprint fast takes an immense amount of effort and focus. To sprint one’s fastest in their early 30s takes a deep understanding of the training process and individual factors that account for top performance. On today’s episode, Cody speaks on speed training in regards to his current sprinting personal bests at age 32, and how he has dialed his training in this recent year. We speak on many aspects of training on the level of intensity, essentialism, workout regulation, resisted sprinting, complex training, and much more. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr’s Gym Studio and Athletic Development Games. Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to: Lilateam.com TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. Use the code “JUSTFLY” for a free 30-day trial of the TeamBuildr software. For a Gym Studio 14-day free trial, head to gymstudio.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Main Points 2:37- Cody’s Recent Training Gains, Along with His New Role as a Father 10:00- Using Strategic Breaks for Enhanced Performance 12:33- High-Intensity Athlete Training for Performance Improvement 19:05- Natural Approach to Sprinting Techniques 23:13- Optimizing Training Intensity on a Busy Schedule 29:53- Maximizing Intensity for Effective Workouts 32:41- Performance Optimization through Autoregulation in Training 41:18- Enhancing Performance Through Auto-Regulation Communication 55:11- Enhancing Sprint Performance Through Resisted Load Variation 1:00:29- Concurrent and Complex Training Paradigms for Sprinting Success 1:05:14- Optimal Training Methods for Narrow vs. Wide ISA Types Quotes (26:34) I'd rather walk away from the session knowing that I ended on my best note. I can, you know, ride the dopamine high of seeing that, you know, nice time and having a fun time out at the track and let that be the stimulus for the day rather than, oh, well, the book over here says that I need to do, you know, 350 meters and I only did 240. - Cody Bidlow (34:10) I would say that my training is very autoregulated, but it's not to the point where I'm looking at, oh, velocity dropped by 2.5%, so that's why I'm going to shut it down, It's more, I can tell within myself that I'm getting to a point where I'm starting to get fatigued from this workout – Cody Bidlow (38:24) Are you really going to run faster on this next one? Yes. Okay, do it. Are you going to be safe? Are you or are you going to get hurt? No, I'm not going to get hurt. Okay. Yeah, do it. - Cody Bidlow (44:43) If you just simply ask them, like, how do you feel? They're gonna say good. Bad. You know, they're just gonna say some kind of basic thing because they may not really grasp what I mean by that question. - Cody Bidlow (45:03) So I would try to ask questions in a way where we're getting a little bit deeper. Like, I'd maybe be specific about how do your hamstrings feel? Do you feel like you're going to be able to run as well on the next one? Or what did you feel on that rep? - Cody Bidlow (46:32) The athletes who really want to be good, they're always going to say, yes, I'll always take another rep. The athletes who are lazier, they don't care as much, or, you know, whatever their mental mechanism is, they always. It's almost like, yeah, I'm good. Yeah, I'm done. It's not even necessarily that I want to get better. - Joel Smith (48:20) I've been following kind of the Bob Thurnhoffer approach of having velocity targets where you change the resistance once you've achieved a certain velocity target. So for example, you might start at 3 kilos, try to hit 10 meters per second, and then at say, 30 meters. So you run a 30. Did you hit 10 meters per second or not? Okay. Two sessions later, now you've hit that velocity target. Now it's time to go to four kilos. - Cody Bidlow (1:04:53) The ultimate goal is not to run a fast 30 or 40. The ultimate goal is to run a fast hundred. - Cody Bidlow About Cody Bidlow Cody Bidlow is a sprint coach, athlete, and founder of Athlete X and SprintingWorkouts.com. He has been a head track & field coach at Arcadia High School in Phoenix, AZ, and a coach at EliteU working with NFL combine prep athletes. He has been a personal coach for professional MLB athletes, track athletes, and consults for coaches around the world. He was an all-conference sprinter at Grand Canyon University.

436: Julien Pineau on Skeletal Loading, Sandbags and the Art of Instinctive Training Nov 07, 2024

Today’s podcast features movement-focused strength coach Julien Pineau, founder of Strongfit. With a background in sports ranging from competitive swimming to MMA and strongman, Julien started coaching in 1993 and opened his strongman-focused gym in 2008. Known for his integration of all systems of the body, along with his eye for human movement, he’s worked with athletes across various disciplines, pursuing growth both inward and outward. It's easy to get overly accustomed to the typical training tools we are provided with. What is now the standard of physical training on the level of barbells, dumbells, machines, and heavy linear conditioning, however, is quite different than the physical demands on a human in our native environment. In so many ways, training with a sandbag is a great equalizer, as it brings online, so many of our instinctive human systems, and reminds us of our innate function. In today’s episode, Julien explores human instinct and body intelligence in training, covering sensory aspects (myotomes) of hands and feet, the role of anxiety/frustration, isometrics, the nervous system, the heart's intelligence, bone loading, grip strength, and more. This insightful discussion touches on essential training and performance concepts. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr’s Gym Studio, Athletic Development Games, and the LILA Exogen Wearable Resistance Training Sleeves. Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to: Lilateam.com TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. Use the code “JUSTFLY” for a free 30-day trial of the TeamBuildr software. For a Gym Studio 14-day free trial, head to gymstudio.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Main Points 2:00- The story of what led Julien to sandbag training 8:00- The role of frustration in training, and its role with awkward objects and difficult situations 13:00- The role of myotomes in using one’s hand in manual labor, squeezing, and sandbag training 17:00- Anxiety found in chronic training practice, and the role of using prolonged rest and frustration to force greater focus on the given sessions 22:30- What martial arts give a generalist from a training and psychological perspective 33:40- The value of sustained movements, such as a long isometric hold, and withholding value 38:30- Defining the somatic system of the body, along with the strength of the heart 43:00- The role of the heart’s strength and function in PTSD 49:00- Dynamics of loaded carries, isometrics, sandbags, and holistic function of the body (along with myotome function) 59:00- Isolation versus compound movements on the level of myotome function 1:01:45- Grip strength, pulling and deadlifting dynamics 1:04:00- Embodied aspects of training and the body, related to the intelligence of the heart 1:07:00- The relationship of the gut biome to one’s conscious thought 1:12:00- Bone Crushing Strength: Myotomes, foot training, grip, and overall body strength 1:21:45- Managing balance in the sympathetic and parasympathetic branches of the nervous system Quotes 7:10 "All the strong men back there were wrestlers; back then it was seen as the best way to get strong. It was less 1-rep max, more being able to move with stuff” 8:50 “I think anxiety is a chronic version of frustration” 12:55 “Frustration is created by your environment; you can change your envionrment or you can deal with it” 13:30: “A 200lb sandbag and a 200lb barbell are not the same thing” 17:25 “A lot of time is just ego lifting, they turn anything that is acute into a chronic state; you will notice those people that train 6 times a week, they are on the anxious side because they are turning everything into a chronic state” 18:20 “Anxious people go to Crossift more” 27:45 “If we take frustration and try to lower it, but still try to make progress, you’ll see anxiety exploding, because you took something that is acute into chronic. That’s not how we are designed” 30:30 “I’m not just talking cognitively speaking, I’m talking physically speaking. Frustration has very specific physiological effect, that causes you to kick your own ass, and make progress” 35:30 “When you are holding an isometric, your sympathetic nervous system keeps going up” 37:30 “From a nervous system perspective, I do a lot of holds. That’s why I like the sandbag carries so much; you are walking but your upper body holds the thing” 40:20: “The strength of the heart matters more than the speed of the heart.. the #1 thing in the body for the strength of signaling is the heart.. how fast it’s pushing blood will decide so many things in your body, all the way to your brain” 41:30: “There are 8 heirarchies in the body, conscious thought is the 6th layer… there are different types of intelligence throughout your body” 45:50: “I can tell you that PTSD is related to the strength of the heart… the strength of your heart will rule so many things, including your conscious thoughts” 49:45: “When you are in the weightroom, how do you know the lift/position you are in, is correct”? 53:20: “Give me an athlete, make him do basic gymnastics, bodyweight, make him do basic wrestling, some swimming, some sprinting, tell me you don’t have a very good athlete that is mostly balanced” 56:30 “You can never lift a heavy sandbag a light way… where as the barbell is nice, it’s very structured, it’s very rule oriented. The sandbag is going to fight you” 1:02:15 “I can tell you from experience that a strong back and a strong grip are connected” 1:03:40: “Isolation work I’d rather get from gymnastics because it least it involves the hands and feet” 1:04:30: “The heart is the first heriarchy, no heart, no life. The rhythm of the heart decides what the other systems are doing, so cardiovascular health decides that the rest of the body does what it does” 1:10:50: “You can’t namaste the bear away” 1:14:00 “Load a yoke onto your shoulder, and you feel it all the way into your femur; the massive hormonal response from your body, from your bones, is going to dictate how far your sympathetic system will go; how much of a fight you will have… training through the bones, on a somatic level is what matters the most” 1:23:10 “The more you are in sympathetic your coordination goes away. The more you are in parasympathetic, your aggression goes away” About Julien Pineau Julien Pineau is the founder of Strongfit and a movement-focused human performance coach. Sports have been a part of Julien’s life since he was young, and he has athletic backgrounds in a variety of areas from competitive swimming, to mixed martial arts, strongman, and more. In 1993, Julien began his coaching career as a conditioning and grappling coach for the MMA gym where he trained, and in 2008, he opened his gym that focuses on strongman training. StrongFit was born and has evolved from a single gym to a full education program. Julien is trained to visualize and correct proper human movement patterns. He has a fascinating ability to diagnose imbalances, find the root of problems, and provide knowledge to build a stronger, more fit, and more resilient human. He is a man on a journey inward as much as he is outward.

435: Jamie Smith (Strength Culture) on Isometric Exploration and Challenging Traditional Strength Paradigms Oct 31, 2024

Today’s podcast features coach and educator, Jamie Smith. Jamie is the owner of Melbourne Strength Culture and has over a decade working in high-performance training. He has a variety of experiences in high-level strength and conditioning in both Australia and the United States and is heavily involved in the development and education for strength coaches. Jamie has a deep understanding of current biomechanical models and training frameworks, along with integration of “Bio Psycho Social” concepts for a complete training experience. Most methods focus on frameworks, technical models, sets, reps, and percentages. However, there’s little emphasis on the athlete’s subjective experience, which influences their results, learning, and enjoyment. In this episode, Jamie discusses building awareness and encouraging movement exploration to enhance athleticism. He emphasizes giving athletes ownership of their bodies and expands on the “bottom-up” training concepts from his last appearance, including the key “dials” of athlete experience. The show wraps up with his critique of conventional ideas of stability in athletic movement. This episode offers deep insights into human performance. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr’s Gym Studio and Athletic Development Games. Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to: Lilateam.com TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. Use the code “JUSTFLY” for a free 30-day trial of the TeamBuildr software. For a Gym Studio 14-day free trial, head to gymstudio.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Main Points 10:37- Awareness Development for Clients and Athletes 19:13- Individualized Approach to Training Progression and Optimization 24:58- Enhancing Athlete Experience through Self-Awareness Training 32:05- Key “Dials” of Training That Modulate Athlete Experience 51:11- Load Management for Injury Prevention and Performance 54:35- Enhancing Training Through Movement Exploration and Sensory Engagement 1:15:30- Reevaluating The Concept of “Stability” in Strength Training and Human Performance 1:32:24- Evolution of Movement Strategies through Tensegrity Quotes "There is no optimized weight selection, rep range, set prescription, total amount of jumps. Like any of these objective things are just ways that we as coaches have tried to create a structure that we feel confident that we're doing the right job in and moving in the right direction." Jamie Smith "Everybody argues about the external load, everybody argues about how much volume, everybody argues about proximity to failure... However, once you actually deal with an athlete, it's the individual response to the training that actually matters and you have to be reactive to the individual response which is the psychological impact as well." - Jamie Smith “Just get them with the bar, put the bar on their chest and just move. Feel their scaps. Feel. All right, well, hang on. Maybe tuck the elbow, Change your head position, change your rib cage position." “All of a sudden they'll find a position. It's like, oh, I feel strong there. And that thing's gone. All right, let's do some reps there. Can you hold that shape? Can you feel that shape? Yeah, I can do it. And then all of a sudden it just becomes like a better painting of how they're moving rather than the coach coming in and just being like, your shoulder hurts because of X, Y and Z and you're missing this” - Jamie Smith “So, like, those explorations are huge. Go to the position you want to explore and just play around with stuff. Play around with foot pressure, shin position, hip position, pelvis, rib cage, whatever the exercise is.” - Jamie Smith “You start very isolated, you start quite a little slower, maybe on the ground and feeling certain things and then start to build them up and add speed, add sort of less ground, less feeling, less sensation and moving that. The motor learning process is the same for everyone” - Jamie Smith "The squat is such an easy pattern. If you don't know any of the technical sort of ideas around movement and the models around movement. The squat is so easy. You sit down and you stand up like that. For a client, for an athlete that's ultimately all they have to think about is, is going down and up and, and the biggest sort of deviation from going down and up is moving forward or backwards which is shifting forward to the toes and starting this extension moment that comes into the system." - Jamie Smith "Once you can zoom out and see that all of a sudden you don't even have to know what the muscles are you don't even have to think about where it originates and inserts or any of those sort of things. You just. You just know that. All right, to achieve this task, I need to get the leg back in this position." - Jamie Smith About Jamie Smith Jamie Smith is the owner of Melbourne Strength Culture, a strength and performance-based gym in Australia. Jamie worked at high-level S+C in Australia and the US prior to starting his coaching business with Strength Culture. Now he is heavily involved in coach development and education for strength coaches looking to make strength coaching a career. You can follow Jamie through IG at @j.smith.culture

434: Chris Kelly on Airway Dynamics and Force Production in Athletic Movement Oct 24, 2024

Today’s podcast features Chris Kelly, the owner of Fitness Rehab and The Musical Athlete. He has extensive education in biomechanics and human performance systems. Chris balances health and performance while teaching clients to understand their bodies and manage movement efficiently. As a teacher, he has trained hundreds of professionals in topics like breathing mechanics, movement assessment, and exercise application. Many training conversations relate to what happens from the ground upwards, but not often do we discuss what occurs from the head, downwards in athletic movement. What happens at the level of the head, is also a mirror for what is happening in the chest, and hips, so knowing this area helps paint a greater picture of the total athlete. On today’s podcast, Chris covers aspects of airway, head, and neck as they pertain to sprinting and human movement, along with compensatory strategies that can power movement under conditions of fatigue. He also talks about the nature of reciprocal movement in force absorption, oscillatory training principles, and air-pressure-based principles of movement and performance. This show offers a unique and helpful lens by which to greater understand the big picture of athleticism and training methodology. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr’s Gym Studio and Athletic Development Games. Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to: Lilateam.com TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. Use the code “JUSTFLY” for a free 30-day trial of the TeamBuildr software. For a Gym Studio 14-day free trial, head to gymstudio.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Main Points 2:40- Quincy Hall Movement Profile En Route to 400m Gold 17:37- Facial Tension's Influence on Movement Optimization 19:35- The Nature of Reciprocal Motions and “Delay Strategies” in Athletic Movement 31:24- Enhancing Athlete Performance through Motor Control Training 44:24- Interconnectedness of Fatigue and Top-Down Effects on Performance Outcomes 46:42- Facial Tension's Influence on Athletic Performance 51:16- Enhancing Performance Through Airway Control and Vocal Techniques 1:17:43- Rhythmic Training Techniques 1:22:44- Exploration of Air Pressure and Tonality for Athletic Movements Quotes (11:18) “So pelvis is going to start to face the ground. Thorax is going to start to face the ground. And in the case of a narrow, like a Quincy Hall or something like that, you also see maybe a suboccipital strategy where the head goes forward and you start to get a cranium that actually starts to face the ground as well” (19:25) “When we have a calcaneus that hits the ground and begins to evert before the whole foot dumps in, that creates a slight delay that allows for the propagation of energy through a distribution of energy through more, you know, through more joint systems” (21:03) "When I talk about delay strategies, I want to see that I can delay the absorption of energy. So, number one, I can do it at all and I can control what's happening to me. And number two, I can then utilize that energy in a way that is going to be purposeful and a skilled task as opposed to just having to refrigerator turn my whole body." - Chris Kelly (22:00) “(Messi) has very good control and It's very easy for him to, you know, to move in that way and maintain relative motions, whereas, like, you know, somebody that's a force producer like me or, you know, heavy weightlifter or something… I'm a fullback. Like, I'm going to knock you over. I'm going to outrun you” (37:00) “We were talking about things that were more expansive in nature, like finding a heel or reaching, this is training more yielding properties of the connective tissue versus your Weck deadlift or your, you know, your activities where maybe your heel is off the ground or something. That's going to be training more overcoming application of the connective tissue. (1:14:39) "Look at somebody who's producing a lot of force that's at the end of a race or that's doing something, and you will see what is happening in their face, and they can't hide it." - Chris Kelly (1:20:25) "In our society as well, particularly in American society, everything is about output and productivity. How much can you get done in a day? How much force can you produce? Like, you got to break this record. All these things which creates in it just perceptually, that creates pressure." - Chris Kelly Show Notes Quincy Hall 400m About Chris Kelly Chris Kelly holds a Master’s Degree in Journalism from Columbia University and is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) through the NSCA. As the owner of The Musical Athlete, he blends biomechanical principles with physical preparation to enhance the performance of vocalists, helping them move, breathe, and sing more efficiently. His work also extends to post-rehabilitation fitness through Fitness Rehab, where he specializes in movement training for clients ranging from surgery recovery to professional athletes such as golfers and soccer players. Chris’s expertise is grounded in extensive education across multiple systems, including Functional Range Conditioning, the Postural Restoration Institute, Neurokinetic Therapy, Bill Hartman’s Intensive, and EXOS Performance Training. His holistic approach emphasizes balancing health and performance, aiming to help clients and students better understand their bodies while integrating breathing techniques and movement strategies to manage gravity effectively. In his teaching role, Chris has educated hundreds of fitness trainers, physical therapists, massage therapists, and vocal coaches. His topics cover movement screening, rehabilitative core training, exercise prescription and modification, and breathing mechanics, with a focus on simplifying complex concepts.

433: Seth Lintz on Sprint Training and Instinctive Athleticism Oct 17, 2024

Today’s podcast features Seth Lintz. Seth (“Pitching Doctor”) is a pitching and athletic performance coach. He was a second-round pick in the 2008 MLB draft, carrying a maximal fastball speed of 104mph. Seth has trained over a dozen individuals to break the 100mph barrier, using a progressive training system that prioritizes neuro-muscular efficiency, human psychology/brain-science, and intuitive motor learning concepts. To understand the fullness of our potential in any athletic discipline, we need to know not only our primary skill but also similar movements that can teach us more about that skill (outward) and the inner layers of our body and mind that dictate our movement quality and potential (inward). Seth fuses both of these in his approach. On today’s podcast, Seth covers his recent work with sprinting, locomotion, and postural balance, and how it fits in with training pitching velocity. We also get into a variety of special strength-oriented movements for sprinting and related throwing aspects, and cover layers of both environmental and internal factors that drive athletic movement to its highest potential. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr’s Gym Studio and Athletic Development Games. Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to: Lilateam.com TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. Use the code “JUSTFLY” for a free 30-day trial of the TeamBuildr software. For a Gym Studio 14-day free trial, head to gymstudio.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Main Points 5:37- Links Between Sprint Speed and Throwing Velocity 8:34- Efficient Movement Patterns in Athletic Development 14:07- The Role of Intramuscular Coordination in Movement 21:27- Explosive Sprint Training with Squat March Lunge 31:23- Optimizing Sprint Mechanics Through a 45-Degree Start 41:50- Emotional and Physical Integration for Optimal Performance 44:35- Brain Coherence Through Meditative Breathing Technique 54:03- Work Capacity Development for Enhanced Performance Quotes (6:26) “I noticed that as individuals, gait improved, and really, first through myself, as gait improved, and I learned how with a sedentary posture, really, and one where individuals lack the ability to integrate their non dominant side fully, those postural tendencies that result are the same things that I started to see individuals really struggling with when it came to correcting things mechanically within the throw” (8:45) “It's really the intramuscular coordination aspect of it all, that the right parts of the body are working and communicating with other parts of the body in an efficient manner, and that you're not getting a bunch of interference whenever you're trying to throw the ball or walk or sprint or whatever” (14:50) “We can reconstruct that just simply by giving the athletes taking something away and then adding it back in and allowing them to feel the sensation of more power. Because when we experience less resistance and we experience less friction or interference or inefficiency within a movement, we immediately are going to gravitate toward it, because it does feel better for things to be more powerful and for us to put more intent into that movement” (19:20) "If you're doing altitude, drops, and lunge from any kind of height, the amount of force that you're absorbing upon landing far exceeds the amount of force that you're absorbing whenever you're taking a stride”- Seth Lintz (34:17) "It's all rhythms. It's just increasingly complex rhythms, the same way you would experience in music or anything else and dance." - Joel Smith (37:25) “And a five minute isometric lunge. Yeah. You got all your motor units turned on, trust me” (41:55) “Ordinarily the stimulus should create an emotion that recruits an adrenal response and the neurotransmitters necessary with, along with the electrical impulse is necessary to recruit the whole body into action. And then that's going to carve out a neural network, essentially after we've chased down that animal, we've hunted that, we've fought for our lives and protected our village” (44:00) “You have to train so that your reflexes are sharpened so that when you want to move, it's there” (45:00) “I think that really, all of your best athletes out there, that's why they are who they are, is because they're running with their heart or they're throwing with their heart, and it is life or death for them” (52:40) I'm not going to have this kid who's untrained go out there and perform a bunch of sprints right away and do a bunch of really high-intensity work because he's. His positioning is also probably trash About Seth Lintz Seth Lintz is a pitching performance coach. He was a second-round pick in the 2008 MLB draft, carrying a maximal fastball speed of 104mph. He goes by “Pitching Doctor” on his social media accounts, and has trained over a dozen individuals to break the 100mph barrier in recent years. Seth’s athletic and performance career began very early in his youth, emulating top pitchers such as Nolan Ryan and Pedro Martinez. He uses a progressive training system that combines a priority on neuro-muscular efficiency with intuitive motor learning concepts.

432: Brady Volmering on A Tool Kit for Building Athletic Power Oct 10, 2024

Today’s podcast features Brady Volmering. Brady is the owner of DAC Performance and Health. He is continually evolving and refining core concepts of athletic development and walks the talk in his personal body transformation and practice. Brady leverages bio-psycho-social principles and intentions in his process of helping athletes become the best they can be. He has been a multi-time guest on this podcast. Exercise and physical training are usually discussed from the perspective of physiological changes. Rarely are the mental/emotional and learning aspects brought into the equation. On today’s podcast, Brady discusses a variety of speed and strength training means, and how he looks to program them, not only on a level of physiological adaptation but on a level of intention and total stimulation to the athlete. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr’s Gym Studio and Athletic Development Games. Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to: Lilateam.com TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. Use the code “JUSTFLY” for a free 30-day trial of the TeamBuildr software. For a Gym Studio 14-day free trial, head to gymstudio.com To learn more about the Sprint Acceleration Essentials or Elastic Essentials courses, head to justflysports.thinkific.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Main Points 2:43- Origins and Benefits of Brady’s Impulse Training Methods 7:52- Creativity and Intensity Through Minimal Equipment Utilization 12:39- Shortened Time Windows and Training Intention 15:00- Descriptions and Intentions for Programming Athletic Movements and Exercises 26:18- Holistic Training Approach for Optimal Athletic Growth 32:54- Training Approach for Athletes Based on Superpowers 38:44- Jumping Games vs. Conventional Plyometrics 48:06- Simplifying Training to Limit Decision-Making and Focus Adaptation 52:55- Adductor Holds for a Comprehensive Isometric Training Approach 1:00:34- Moving Beyond “Canned” Arm Care Prescriptions 1:05:15- Advice Brady Would Give to His Younger Self Quotes 17:00 “If you have something, set something up that you can tackle it, right? You tackle it. You immediately get up into like a ten to 20 yard sprint. If you don't have something that you can tackle, like dive on the ground aggressively, just kind of work with what you have within your environment. But the overall goal is that we want you to feel, feel like you can aggressively tackle, hit something, get up and take that into the sprint, right? And so I'll use those words to describe this is what we're trying to get out of it. Like, you want to feel aggressive hitting something and then getting up and taking off into a sprint” - Brady Volmering 21:40 “I want to be able to stimulate someone maximally, like, for them to be able to take and direct every single ounce of their being into something without worrying about anything other than doing that. And with the weight, sometimes you have to worry about failing an impulse. You don't” - Brady Volmering 22:20 “What do you want your body to feel like? What do you want to get out of this? And so it helps them to. It helps them to start to fully invest, because when I talk about full investment, it's like, there it is” - Brady Volmering 26:08 “And full disclosure, like, I enjoy three sets of ten sometimes” - Brady Volmering 27:10 "Every new thing now that I come across, I'm just looking at, as, like, I myself need to take this thing to its absolute and extreme level, right, whatever that means, so that I know the impact and the benefit that I can get from it." - Brady Volmering 27:50 “Three by ten tool that I can use with other people. Setting up 20 minutes for someone to go explore. It's a tool that I can use. Impulses still fail tool that I can use. Impulses for three sets of 100. Tool that I can. Like, everything is now just something that I can use to put into an athlete or to put them in an environment for them to learn something or for them to develop or for them to grow” - Brady Volmering 59:00 "If you're gonna do an adductor move letter like a groin, adductor, is what I call, I'll write out in the script the description, do this better than you ever have before. Open up range that you've never had before. It's not just like, do four sets of six." - Brady Volmering" - Brady Volmering 1:07:02 "The progress was so slow because every mistake that I made, I was so stubborn that I felt like I have, this is the way that I'm going to do it." - Brady Volmering About Brady Volmering Brady Volmering is the owner of DAC Performance and Health. After starting in baseball skill training, he’s since moved into the human performance arena, focusing on increasing the capacity of the human being. Brady looks at what “training the human being” actually means and how that relates to an increase in specific sports performance.

431: Flynn Disney on Reflexive Power and The Art of Natural Learning Oct 03, 2024

Today’s podcast features Flynn Disney. Flynn is a parkour athlete and human performance coach known for integrating mind, body, and environment in movement training. Flynn combines his history as an athlete with an intensive study of human psychology and experience training animals to provide a unique and insightful perspective on training. All too often, training is thought of on the level of machine-like qualities. Sets, reps, drills, and coaching cues. Rarely do we consider those processes by which children and animals learn, or how the consideration of the total human can change the process by which we coach. Much of this also involves looking at what makes animals and humans both similar and unique, in their movement strength, and abilities. On today’s show, Flynn digs into the key differences between animals and humans from a perspective of reflexes and internal wiring, the role of reflexes in training, and examples in plyometric, running, and dynamic “spinal-engine” activities (and the value of “the worm” breakdance move, from an athletic perspective). He talks about the role of attentional networks, and training implications, the impact of risk on our reflex loops in training, and more. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr’s Gym Studio and Athletic Development Games. Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to: Lilateam.com TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. Use the code “JUSTFLY” for a free 30-day trial of the TeamBuildr software. For a Gym Studio 14-day free trial, head to gymstudio.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Main Points 9:00- Key differences between human and animal movement, particularly on the level of reflexes 18:00- Attentional aspects of the brain and training implications 24:00- The power of subconscious processes and the relaxation/reflex action in humans 30:00- Playing with varying frequencies in running and sprinting situations 35:00- “The Hero’s Journey” of Coaching 50:00- The role and interplace of “Fixed” versus “Exploratory” aspects of training 59:00- Visual tracking and athletic human movements 1:10:00- Risk and reflex arcs in training Quotes “Animal movement is much more constrained by reflexes than human movement; if you take a rabbit and extend their back legs, their front leg will reflexively flex” “We (humans) have many more movement options (than animals)” “Taking small moments of rest (between main sets) is so profound that is so easy to implement; it seems to integrate learning at a deeper level, this cooling down process allowing new neural connections to form” “If you run with a more frequent step, instead of bounds or strides, it’s such a different quality” “We’re generally less happy when we are in (Default Mode Network) that state, we are more happy when we are task oriented, or sensory oriented” “When a reflex is terminated, it’s very satisfying; when you move away from it, it feels dis-satisfying” “If I experience something that is possible, but not completely unimaginable, I will get a surge of energy” About Flynn Disney Flynn Disney is a professional parkour athlete and coach, known for his innovative approach to movement and skill development. Based in London, his mastery of parkour fundamentals, coupled with a deep understanding of biomechanics, has made him a sought-after coach in the movement training community. As a coach, Flynn emphasizes an approach the integrates mind and body, helping athletes of all levels break through physical and psychological barriers. Flynn also contributes to the sport through workshops and content that promote parkour as a tool for developing adaptable and well-rounded athletes.

430: Bill Hartman and Chris Wicus on Elastic Athletes, Deadlifting, and the Path of Least Resistance Sep 26, 2024

Today’s podcast features Bill Hartman and Chris Wicus. Bill Hartman is a physical therapist and in-demand educator with his modern approach to human mechanics and training. Bill has been an influential figure to many guests on this podcast, as well as my own views on training. Chris Wicus is a health and performance professional with 15 years of experience, a former professional ultimate frisbee player, and a 2nd degree black belt in karate. He has coached a wide variety of athletes across 17 sports and has been mentored by many top experts in the field. Bill and Chris host the “Reconsider” podcast together and speak on various cutting-edge approaches to human movement in a way that prompts thinking on existing processes in the field, and how to move forward with current understandings of training and biomechanics. So often in physical training, athletes are told to master the basics of “Squat, Hinge, Push, Pull, Etc.”, but unfortunately, within this framework, there is little to no consideration of how various body types have the capacity to carry out those lifts, and what impact intensifying those movements will have on indivdiuals. On today’s show, Bill and Chris speak to the nature of the big lifts (squat, bench, deadlift), and how both “Narrow” and “Wide” ISA athletes (elastic and muscular) will be able to process those movements. We talk about the helical nature of our human design, and how it impacts movement preferences. We also discuss specific strength strategies for athletes who are more narrow and wide, and how to better tailor one’s overall strength program to one’s athletic needs. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr’s Gym Studio and Athletic Development Games. Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to: Lilateam.com TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. Use the code “JUSTFLY” for a free 30-day trial of the TeamBuildr software. For a Gym Studio 14-day free trial, head to gymstudio.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Main Points 6:49- Optimizing Fitness Training for Personal Strengths 13:20- Structural Archetypes: Impact on Athletic Performance 20:32- Helical Influence on Exercise Selection 21:17- Helical Design Influence on Exercise Selection 23:32- Optimal Deadlifting Structure for Performance Success 27:06- Optimizing Performance Through Helical Angles 30:30- Optimizing Force Production for Athletic Performance 31:42- Enhanced Performance Through Strong Grip Training 48:52- Structural Bias Optimization for Deadlift Stance 1:07:54- Optimizing Squat Training for Structural Archetypes 1:12:42- Optimizing Squat Variations for Body Structure 1:18:28- Tailoring Exercises to Individual Constraints for Performance 1:20:14- Archetype-Based Training Support Network and Resources Quotes "The more I lifted in the gym, the worse I felt. So then I start just running more. And by the end of my athletic career was just mostly sprinting and running and not so much of, like, the slow grindy stuff." – Chris Wicus "You look at the difference between 100 meters sprinter, an 800 meters runner, and then a 5K runner, and you're going to see this progressive difference in body type – Bill Hartman “At all measures of scale in a human, all levels of scale. So down to your DNA. So DNA is structured helically. A collagen fiber is structured helically. All of your joints move on helical pathways. So we are helically designed” - Bill Hartman “And so it's not, that narrows can't do deadlifts, but we're going to make modifications that are going to make it more ideal” - Bill Hartman "Too much force production because of the way that we produce force takes away something else that I needed." - Bill Hartman “The best, the most athletic I ever got, I had, like, a 38 inch vertical at one point, was doing like; high rack deadlift pulls, where you drop it from the top and dead depth drops. Depth jumps. And that was like, the majority of my training. And it was super heavy” Chris Wicus “The more you compress something front to back, the farther the joint orientation is away from midline. So that's why sumo becomes more comfortable for people. Especially you have a really. If you have a really athletic narrow, he's probably. Or she's probably experiencing a lot of compression from front to back. So a sports sumo position might be the best thing for them because, with the squeezing from front to back, everything is just going away from midline” Chris Wicus "As long as you have some type of key performance indicators running in the background, it doesn't really matter what you do as long as the ranges of motion that you expect are there. Their perceived pain and injury and their movement is to a certain degree that you want." – Chris Wicus "Okay, that sticking point, the reason it's called a sticking point is because it's a transitional behavior. It's a shape change in the pelvis. It's a positional change in the anterior outlet. It is a higher demand to maintain the internal pressures because think about it, if I put a bar in your back, what did I just do? I instantly created the amount of pressure that's pushing you into the ground." - Bill Hartman Show Notes UHP.network ReconU.co billhartmanpt.com About Bill Hartman Bill Hartman is known for finding solutions for people in pain that have failed with other forms of treatment. He is an in-demand educator in his approach to restoring a pain-free lifestyle, and understanding the governing principles of movement as applied to human performance. He regularly mentors physical therapy students and interns many of whom have gone on to land positions in professional sport or become successful business owners themselves. Bill owns IFAST Physical Therapy in Indianapolis, Indiana and Co-owns Indianapolis Fitness and Sports Training with Mike Robertson, where he works with clients ranging from very young athletes to professionals. He is the author of the book, All Gain – No Pain: The over-40 Comeback Guide to Rebuilding a Fit and Pain-free Body After Pain, Injury, or Physical Therapy. About Chris Wicus Chris is a health and performance professional with 15 years of experience. His coaching journey began around 25 years ago as a karate instructor, where he taught people from ages 4 to 70. He holds a 2nd degree black belt and was a nationally ranked ultimate frisbee player in college, later playing professionally. His own experiences with injuries and rehabilitation led him to pursue studies in Integrative Kinesiology at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Chris has worked as a performance coach across various levels, training athletes from 17 different sports, including Olympians and professional athletes. After completing graduate studies in sport coaching, psychology, and management, he became the training and education director at a high-end facility in NYC, where he trained A-list celebrities and high-level executives. Over the years, Chris has learned from leading experts in rehabilitation, exercise physiology, speed, agility, and strength & conditioning, dedicating thousands of hours to education and coaching to become an effective problem-solver for his clients.

429: Dan John on Training Mastery and the Champion’s Process Sep 19, 2024

Today’s podcast highlights coach, author, and educator Dan John. A best-selling author in strength training and fitness, including works such as “Never Let Go”, “Mass Made Simple”, and “Easy Strength Omni-Book.” Dan excels at transforming complex concepts into practical insights and has been a frequent guest on the show. He is one of my most significant influences in how I approach coaching and training. As I move forward in my coaching and training journey, I increasingly appreciate Dan’s methods and wisdom in deeper and more impactful ways. If you want to excel at athletics, then you can never, ever, get too far from the actual day-to-day and week-to-week process of training that unfolds over time. On today’s episode, Dan talks about navigating the peaks and valleys of performance along with managing daily training and competitive expectations. He also touched on the importance of athlete autonomy, and “figuring it out”, and trends in sports training. Ultimately, Dan speaks to the heart of that consistent, long-haul process by which champions are made, which is the core message of today’s episode. Dan is a legend, and it’s always fantastic to have him on the show. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr’s Gym Studio and Athletic Development Games. Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to: Lilateam.com TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. Use the code “JUSTFLY” for a free 30-day trial of the TeamBuildr software. For a Gym Studio 14-day free trial, head to gymstudio.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Main Points 4:09- Exploring Diverse Fitness Trends 11:42- Efficient Power Curl: Simple Strength Training Boost 18:50- Enhancing Grip Strength with Sandbag Cleans 23:41- Navigating Progress Peaks in Strength Training 25:45- Unexpected Strength Breakthroughs in Weightlifting Journey 30:21- Five Sets of Five 33:47- Navigating Peaks and Valleys in Training 40:28- Navigating Ups and Downs in Training Journeys 43:24- Transition from Functional Movements to Bodybuilding 47:54- Foundational Principles for Enhanced Athletic Performance 51:03- Evolution of Training Methods in Athlete Development Quotes (00:16:47) "I think the overhead squat and the power curl are probably two of the best discus throwing exercises there are. Power curl, I can teach you in seconds." - Dan John (00:20:34) "One of the problems, at least in my world, is that we often think that, you know, if a leads to b and b leads to c, then, well, let's drop b and just go a to c. And it doesn't always happen. Sometimes when you're trying to accomplish something, you still have to stick with all the steps in the system." - Dan John (00:27:46) "George Sheehan in his run, in one of his books, Doctor Sheehan on Running, I think it is. You know, he talks about how athletes live in the pure present. We have no past, we have no future. They're like. And he equates poets, artists, children and the elderly. They all live in the pure present. There is no, there's no yesterday, there's no tomorrow." - Dan John (00:32:57) "Those workouts that are the, you just get in, you do your sets and reps, you walk out the door, you salute yourself for that effort. I actually think those are the ones that make champions." - Dan John 01:00:45 “One of the things a lot of athletes start to do is they turn off. Because if I give you everything, then I'm your wizard, I'm your Gandalf, your Merlin, I'm your Moses, I'm your prophet, I'm the answer to all your questions. But what makes an athlete great is when they go, what made Dick Fosberry great in the high jump? What made him great? Well, he thought for himself to the point that his coach at Oregon State, Frank Morris, did everything he could to stop Fosbury from drinking, from jumping that way. And then later, of course, sold VHS on how he coached him up, which I still think is hilarious. LJ Sylvester lost to his brother at a track meet and it pissed him off. So on the weekend, he went out and figured out a wide leg technique and added 20ft to his throw” (01:01:41) "What makes athletes great is when they fold their arms in frustration and say, I've got to figure out a way to win." - Dan John Show Notes Dan training with Jon Call (Jujimufu) Dan John University About Dan John Dan John is a renowned strength coach, author, and speaker with over four decades of experience in the fitness industry. He has established himself as a leading authority on strength training, athletic performance, and personal development. Known for his straightforward and practical approach, Dan has trained a diverse clientele, including high school athletes, Olympic athletes, and everyday fitness enthusiasts. His work emphasizes the importance of foundational strength and functional movement, making him a sought-after coach for those looking to improve their physical capabilities. In addition to his coaching, Dan John is an accomplished author, writing books such as “Never Let Go”, “Mass Made Simple”, “Easy Strength”, and more. His insights combine science with real-world application, making complex concepts accessible to all. Dan is also a popular speaker at fitness conferences worldwide, where he shares his philosophy on strength training and personal growth. Through his writings and teachings, he continues to inspire countless individuals to pursue their fitness goals and lead healthier lives.

428: Lee Taft on Breaking Barriers in Team and Individual Speed Development Sep 12, 2024

Today’s episode features Lee Taft, a leading expert in sport speed development. Lee has accumulated wisdom, not just in sports performance, but also in physical education, and sport coaching. Lee has been a multi-time guest on the podcast and is a regular consultant and mentor to many professionals in the field. We regularly consider building speed and athletic movement on the individual level, but there is often a gap when it comes to determining how to use that speed in context of other players, decision-making capabilities, and in the game itself. Lee is not only a leader in building individual speed components, but he also zooms out to engage athletes on those levels of basketball skill through his sport coaching expertise. In today’s episode, Lee emphasizes the importance of speed and movement for team coordination, focusing on burst training, fast breaks, and press situations. He gets into partner competitions and multiplane movement drills while honing decision-making exercises to improve overall performance. He also discusses creating environments that encourage aggressive play and empowering athletes to take risks with the removal of external judgment. Finally, we cover practical tools like sprint workouts, partner drills, and resistance bands to help build athletic skills and confidence. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr’s Gym Studio and Athletic Development Games. Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to: Lilateam.com TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. Use the code “JUSTFLY” for a free 30-day trial of the TeamBuildr software. For a Gym Studio 14-day free trial, head to gymstudio.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Main Points 1:45- "Enhancing Basketball Team Coordination through Speed" 15:27- Game Simulation Speed Conditioning for Basketball Players 21:35- Conceptual Training Method for Effective Coaching 23:58- Dynamic Speed Training Through Competitive Drills 26:10- Competitive Backpedaling and Shuffling Drills Strategy 32:59- Dynamic Sports Training: Speed and Decision Skills 39:03- Embracing Risk-Taking Mindset in Sports 43:36- Fostering Athlete Development Through Judgment-Free Practice 48:15- Enhancing Sports Performance Through Resistance Bands 50:03- Enhancing Agility Skills with Band Variation 1:00:28- Band-based Skill Development for Athletes Quotes (00:04:17) "We got to play as, kind of one brain, and it's the idea of, can we see something together? Do we see what's going on together? And now, once we start moving, can we move on a string, and we all move together?" - Taft" (24:30) “The partner closest to the basket does a hip turn and sprints past the person at the foul line. The person at the foul line immediately starts backpedaling as fast as they can, as far as they can, until they get past. So we compete players against players, and the goal is to see who can get the furthest backpedal. And I try to partner them up with even speeds or as close as I can, and then we'll do the same thing with a shuffle” -Lee Taft (00:29:58) "You get two minutes to figure it out in a game. You'll know who you're guarding. Can you dominate them physically or is it even, or are they going to physically dominate you? Either way, you got to make a decision to make your adjustment." -Lee Taft" (34:34) “We have all these words for speed, right? In track and field, we eliminate a lot of those words because the goal is to reach your maximal speed for that event and try to finish first or the best time you can get. But in basketball, soccer, these other sports, now, the words like change of pace, directional speed, or angular speed starts to enter into the conversation” -Lee Taft (00:40:15) “when you're holding back and just getting rid of the ball because you don't want to make a mistake, now, we can't coach you very well. I can't teach you anything because you didn't even. You didn't even, like, make an attempt to be aggressive in our offensive” -Lee Taft (00:41:00) “ I will probably get on you more for being passive than I will for being overly aggressive. I can control your over aggressiveness, but when you're really passive, there's not much I can do” -Lee Taft (00:43:50) “Play doesn't have a governor as where sport does. So what I mean by that is, you know, like on the old mopeds, if you took the governor off, you could go over the speed limit like those the young kids used to do. They get a moped that could only go 25, they take the governor off and they're flying on this thing. Well, play is just play. There's no governor” (01:00:33) "Don't be teachers of drills, be teachers of skills." -Lee Taft About Lee Taft Lee Taft, known to most simply as “The Speed Guy”, is highly respected as one of the top athletic movement specialists in the world. He has taught his multi-directional speed methods to top performance coaches and fitness professionals worldwide. Since 1989, Lee has taught foundation movement to beginning youngsters and helped young amateur athletes to professional athletes become quicker, faster, and stronger. With the release of Ground Breaking Athletic Movement in 2003, Lee revolutionized the fitness industry with his movement techniques for multi-directional speed. His innovative approach to training has impacted how athletic movement speed is taught. Lee brought to light the importance and fine points of the “Plyo Step”, “Hip Turn”, “Directional Crossover Step” and athletic stance. According to Lee, “Speed and agility done right are about making sure we marry the natural movements athletes have with effective and efficient body control to maximize speed and quickness”.

427: Pat Davidson on The Hero’s Journey of Training and Human Performance Sep 05, 2024

This week’s podcast features Dr. Pat Davidson, an independent trainer and educator based in NYC. Pat is the creator of the "Rethinking the Big Patterns" lecture series, a former college professor, and one of the most insightful coaches in fitness and human performance. With a diverse athletic background that includes strongman competitions, mixed martial arts, and various forms of weightlifting, Pat brings a wealth of experience to the table. He has been a guest on several previous episodes of this series. We live in a world of total information overload. We are continually given “10 drills” and “3 tips” but without a greater framework of understanding the complex system of the human body. Training in the modern age can be seen, in a way, as a swamp of methods, as well as lots of noise with various attention-grabbing headlines and social media posts. Having the principles and framework for what is important and how it fits into one’s worldview or training model is a shining light through that swamp, and it is one we must develop as we grow in our coaching and movement journeys. Today’s podcast with Pat digs into the story of training and motivation. We discuss the hero’s journey in training and cover decision-making, learning, and mastery in coaching. We then discuss the model by which Pat has evolved to understand the complexity of the body in motion. This episode finishes with a great continuing discussion on the principle of “ground” in athletic movement at development at the end of the episode. Pat is a deep thinker, and you always walk away with concepts to help you evolve your own process on a more profound level. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr’s Gym Studio and Athletic Development Games. Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to: Lilateam.com TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. Use the code “JUSTFLY” for a free 30-day trial of the TeamBuildr software. For a Gym Studio 14-day free trial, head to gymstudio.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 6:03- Dopamine's Role in Motivating Physical Activity 9:30- The Integration of Knowledge for Personal Growth 11:51- Mastering the Hero's Journey in Storytelling 14:50- Narrative Influence in Coaching Dynamics 22:35- Ego's Influence on Coaching Effectiveness 31:22- Movement Enhancement Through Strategic Coaching Adjustments 41:05- Muscle and Skeletal Characteristics in Exercise Selection 45:18- Optimizing Movement Efficiency Through Individual Constraints 59:55- Adaptation of Athletes to Environmental Constraints 1:12:00- Ground Continuum Categorization for Optimal Performance 1:17:05- Pendulum Squat for Muscle Imbalances 1:23:49- Graceful Resilience: Lessons from Martial Arts 1:29:27- Emphasizing Perseverance and Composure for Success Quotes “I think that Rocky four was my first exposure to, like, a training movie, like anything, actually. The karate kid when I was five was the first one. And I love that. I was obsessed, and that movie got me into karate, and I did that for years. And all I'm saying is, like, the stories from that period probably are the reason that I got into this in the first place and, like, created this drive that keeps me going” "The story always comes first. That's always the first and most important piece of it all." - Joel Smith “Having kids is actually pretty helpful on that because you're like, why is this so boring and taking so long? And I'm like, okay, like, thank you actually for that feedback. Now I know I was just talking and it was just me blowing hot air at a certain point” "When you finally work with the person that is actually truly knowledgeable in an area, boom. They have the simple right fix that quickly captures the idea and lets you do it in a much better way… They'll go in, they'll change something pretty simple, and it just opens the movement up for you. Whereas before, someone was like, oh, well, you know, you need to stretch this thing, that thing, the other thing. You know, you got to do these ten drills so that you can do this one drill, and they're like, no, no, no, just turn your hand this way and you're like, oh, boom." - Pat Davidson "The more grounded an exercise, the higher the probability that the person will execute it with competency with zero coaching input." - Pat Davidson “If there's any coaching input, it increases because I actually think of coaching, verbal cueing as ground.. I define ground as, you know, external support and neurological feedback and coaching is just neurological feedback. So it's more ground” “Low ground is. Is you're. You're great at those things because you can turn and tumble through space, and you're great at high ground because you can avoid being turned or tumbled by external forces in space. And so they're completely different poles” "In my mind, competent exercise is always better than incompetent exercise." - Pat Davidson "If you've got a breath left, you've got a place you can operate from, you know, you can take one more step." - Pat Davidson About Pat Davidson Pat Davidson, Ph. D., is an independent trainer, consultant, author, and lecturer in NYC. Pat is the former Director of Training Methodology and Continuing Education for Peak Performance, and former Professor of Exercise Science at Springfield College and Brooklyn College. He is the author of MASS and MASS2 and developer of the “Rethinking the Big Patterns” lecture series.

426: Ken Clark and Cory Walts on Applied Speed Profiling and Training Methods Aug 29, 2024

This week’s podcast is with Ken Clark and Cory Walts. Dr. Ken Clark is an Associate Professor of Kinesiology at West Chester University, specializing in the mechanical factors of athletic performance and injury prevention. With over a decade of hands-on coaching experience across various levels, Ken also teaches Biomechanics, Kinetic Anatomy, and Motor Learning. Cory Walts is the Director of Strength & Conditioning at the University of Pennsylvania, where he has led successful sports performance programs since 2019. A finalist for the NSCA College Strength and Conditioning Coach of the Year Award, he is highly certified and experienced in the field. Speed training, for team sports in particular, is an evolving method, specifically in how athletes are profiled and bucketed into training needs. There are more and less complex ways to do this. With the increased emergence and leaning into technology-assisted models, starting with a basic understanding of speed development principles across groups is essential. On today’s podcast, Cory and Ken discuss speed training for team sports in light of "low-tech" solutions and simple bucketing systems. We discuss critical differences between team sports and track and field athletes and the appropriate expectations for technical models. Ken and Cory discuss various speed training methods, including mini-hurdles, resisted sprint variations, stride frequency variations, environmental training considerations, and more. This was a great, practical show on developing methods in sprint development. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr’s Gym Studio and Athletic Development Games. Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to: Lilateam.com TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. Use the code “JUSTFLY” for a free 30-day trial of the TeamBuildr software. For a Gym Studio 14-day free trial, head to gymstudio.com To learn more about the Sprint Acceleration Essentials or Elastic Essentials courses, head to justflysports.thinkific.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Main Points 11:32- Optimizing Speed Training for Team Sport Athletes 17:40- Gamified Speed Training for Athletic Motivation 22:05- Tailored Training through Sprint Profiling Analysis 24:02- Optimizing Performance through Lumbo Pelvic Control 35:37- Dynamic Resistance Training with Bullet Belts 53:37- Enhancing Athletic Performance with Wearable Resistance 54:37- Angular Velocity Enhancement Through Flex Leg Training 56:41- Movement Variation for Optimal Running Mechanics 1:01:00- Balancing Intervention for Effective Coaching Results Quotes (12:00) “So the slow track and field athletes were still kind of like, you know, pretty front side, pretty short contact times and contact lengths, etcetera. But the team sport guys were not. They had longer contact times, longer contact lengths, like less, you know, more backside thigh, less frontside thigh mechanics. And so kind of the really cool thing that emerged from this data set was like, hey, our fast team sport guys can hit really fast top speeds as fast as some of the slower track guys, but with a different strategy. And frankly, a strategy that makes sense from a team sport standpoint” Ken Clark 22:25: “We just looked at relative to the others, the first zero to ten versus the 30 to 40, and then we bucketed them, and we had an acceleration group that needed to work on acceleration. We had a top speed that needed to work on that, and we had a balanced. So if you just think of a bell curve, majority of the team was in this balanced, and then the certain amount was in the other two” Cory Walts 40:00: “We're not going to be able to set up like individualized sled loads, which I think is great, but, you know, just was not, and I've done it with other teams, Corey and I both have, but it was not realistic for this setting. So in this setting, like, hey, we got these bullet belts, we can get them on in 30 seconds, get in some good quality reps. It's engagement for each guy. That's where these, like, really fit the bill for this particular application” Ken Clark 47:00: “One of the interesting things we found was that actually when we had guys in, like, their assigned lanes, and then towards the end of the fall semester and then also in the spring, we'd kind of bump them down a lane and then just kind of emphasize higher frequency turnover, that sort of thing” Ken Clark 56:41 “So one of the things that we like to do in our warm up phase is contrast the lever arm length. So we would do a straight leg variation. Sometimes we would put the arms over head to emphasize posture. Sometimes we would use the arms naturally, but we would alternate. We do the straight leg variation, and then we do like a, you know, just a high knee build up run just to change a lever arm” Cory Walts About Ken Clark Dr. Ken Clark is an Associate Professor in the Department of Kinesiology at West Chester University in Pennsylvania. Ken's research focuses on the underlying mechanical factors in athletic performance and injuries. Ken teaches Biomechanics and Kinetic Anatomy at the undergraduate level and teaches Motor Learning at both the undergraduate and graduate level. Ken played collegiate football and has more than a decade of hands-on coaching experience including working with teams and athletes at the high school, collegiate, and amateur/professional levels. About Cory Walts Cory Walts is the Director of Strength & Conditioning at the University of Pennsylvania, a position he has held since 2019. Before Penn, he spent 12 years at Haverford College, where he led the strength and conditioning programs for multiple varsity sports, helping teams achieve significant success, including conference titles and NCAA tournament runs. Walts is highly respected in the field, having been a finalist for the NSCA College Strength and Conditioning Coach of the Year Award in 2013. He holds degrees in clinical exercise science and kinesiology and is certified by several leading industry organizations, including the NSCA and USA Weightlifting.

425: David Durand on Balancing the Nervous System in Gen Z Athletes and Beyond Aug 22, 2024

This week’s podcast is with David Durand. David is a coach and author of "B.E.T. On It: A Psychological Approach to Coaching Gen Z and Beyond." He combines his expertise in coaching, strength and conditioning, and psychology to help athletes achieve their full potential. Through his company, Real Development LLC, he provides insights that address athletes' physical, mental, and personal growth, mainly focusing on the challenges faced by Gen Z. David advocates for a holistic approach that emphasizes the nervous system's role in enhancing performance and mental well-being. As technology and social media have facilitated a drastic change in the world, along with the prevalence of mental health issues, coaching athletes in Generation Z (currently ages 11-26, or under age 27 for current coaches in most situations) demands that we understand how stress impacts the training process. On today’s podcast, David speaks on aspects of the nervous system in light of modern life and technology and how we can use ideas based on Polyvagal Theory to help athletes have a training experience that gives them maximal benefit in their athletic journey. David’s concepts are a must-understand for those who work with young athletes, but the same concepts resonate with humans of all ages. In this show, David specifically covers how breathing, vision, and touch can drive beneficial responses from the body to the brain, providing mental and emotional benefits to the athlete. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr’s Gym Studio and Athletic Development Games. Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to: Lilateam.com TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. Use the code “JUSTFLY” for a free 30-day trial of the TeamBuildr software. For a Gym Studio 14-day free trial, head to gymstudio.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Main Points 1:47- Holistic Approach to Athletic Performance Enhancement 5:58- The Impact of Social Media on Generation Z's Mental Health 10:02- Optimal Performance through Autonomic Nervous System Balancing 14:41- Behavioral Indicators of Athlete's Action Mode 17:07- Athlete Well-Being: Social Media Stress Impact 21:45- Nurturing Growth Mindsets Through Positive Training 25:57- Nurturing Intrinsic Motivation in Sports Coaching 32:58- Impact of Everyday Gamification on Generations 36:47- Balancing Data Insights with Present-Moment Engagement 46:02- Enhancing Performance Through the Bet Method 1:01:43- Enhancing Sports Performance Through Vision Engagement 1:13:38- Enhancing Team Performance Through Physical Interactions 1:16:14- Team Bonding Through Physical Gestures in Sports Quotes (15:17) "In action mode, I typically look for an athlete. You know, if it's before a competition, it's pretty easy to see it sometimes. Maybe their eyes are kind of darting around all over. Maybe they're looking into the stands a lot. They're kind of feeling a little tense or jittery" (25:57) "Sometimes, however, when that becomes like your tactic day in and day out where you're trying to motivate by yelling or fear-based tactics, It's like putting gasoline on a fire. You may get a big blow up, which is probably why coaches do, but again and again because they feel like it gets a rise out of players and helps. But at the end of the day, it's not sustainable and that fire is going to burn out." (33:35) “When I talk about gamification, I'm not talking about games like basketball and football and not talking about competitions and track and field more. So just like how our modern culture with social media and just media in general has really latched on to gamification because, you know, humans are the product.” (47:15) "If you extend your exhale longer than your inhale, you're engaging the brake, you're accessing the parasympathetic, and then that's calming down your brain and your body." (59:23) " Being able to play a game freely and with security rather than being in that survival, action shutdown mode and getting stuck, because I think when we, you know, when we play defensive, when we play scared to make mistakes, all these things, we're not playing to our potential because we're trying to survive rather than curiously and creatively trying to see how good we can be." (1:02:05) "So much of games and competition, it's the hindrance, the back brain, and not the forebrain. Like, yes, you need your forebrain sometimes. You need to be able to think through and make decisions, but the best athletes and most adaptable ones are the ones that, you know, don't have to consciously think through every motion or every decision or every move." (1:09:48) "Being able to use your eyes to stay connected to that present moment and stay connected to that task so that even when you're not feeling great, it helps kind of move you back into that connection." (1:17:45) "That power of people believing in you and showing that through (touch), I think communicates more deeply than we're consciously aware of a lot of times." About David Durand David Durand is a visionary coach and author behind "B.E.T. On It: A Psychological Approach to Coaching Gen Z and Beyond." David brings a unique blend of experience, insight, and skills to work with athletes, coaches, and teams through his business, Real Development LLC. With a background in coaching, strength and conditioning, and psychology, he is dedicated to helping athletes reach their full potential physically, mentally, and personally. Drawing on his own experiences as a member of Gen Z and working with countless youth and adolescents, David offers a fresh perspective on the modern challenges facing today's athletes. He believes that a holistic approach that considers the nervous systems of athletes can improve their performance and, more importantly, their mental health and well-being.

424: Rick Franzblau on Strength Mechanics for Athletic Optimization Aug 15, 2024

This week’s guest is Rick Franzblau, Assistant AD for Olympic Sports Performance at Clemson University. Rick has a tremendous understanding of athletic movement, both from the technology and biomechanical aspects of the human movement equation. He has worked with a wide variety of sports and athletic movement patterns and has a unique understanding of the specific demands sport requires. Sport performance has been anchored in strength training via barbells or dumbells since its inception. The addition of needed muscle mass, power production, and slow-speed injury resiliency is a key aspect of improved performance. At the same time, each added modality to the sport movement equation has a trade-off to it. Where heavy squats, presses, and deadlifts improve one’s general force production capabilities, they have the trade-off of various skeletal restrictions and compensations that may not be in an athlete’s best interest at some point. On the show today, Rick speaks on biomechanical concepts, such as skeletal compression, orientation, reciprocal motion, and pressure dynamics, and how they relate to what he sees in their on-field performance. He then goes into training concepts related to squatting, Olympic lifting, waterbag training, and more, and how strength means can become an ideal fit for an athlete’s structure and needs in their sport movement mechanics. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr’s Gym Studio and Athletic Development Games. Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off of any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to: Lilateam.com TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. Use the code “JUSTFLY” for a free 30-day trial of the TeamBuildr software. For a Gym Studio 14-day free trial, head to gymstudio.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Main Points 4:35- Sport-Specific Structural Attributes in Athletes 11:03- Tailoring Sprint Variations for Optimal Performance 20:16- Enhancing Athletic Performance through Internal Rotation 24:39- Optimizing Athletic Performance through Body Mechanics 38:05- Enhancing Athlete Performance with Water Resistance 48:44- Enhancing Performance Through Relative Motion Training 57:47- Anterior Pelvic Orientation Impact on Athletes 1:03:16- Pelvic Pressure and Box Squat Performance 1:06:54- Late Bias Development in Single Leg Position 1:13:57- Targeting Weaknesses for Effective Strength Training 1:16:18- Pelvic Pressurization for Enhanced Weightlifting Performance 1:17:26- Seated Squat Jump for Targeted Strength Quotes (8:50) "There are no solutions. There are only trade offs."(Bill Hartman) - Rick Franzblau (19:31) "It's just understanding, like, there can be more low-hanging fruit in terms of trying to achieve a shape that will help you either with power production or distributing load a little bit more evenly." - Rick Franzblau (33:56) "That is something to be careful of, too. Is like, oftentimes people look at the example of the best in the world and the adaptations that they developed, but the other million people that try to do it that way, they broke along the way in the process." - Rick Franzblau (38:24) "Player development is not matching the hardware with the software." - Rick Franzblau (52:38) "Everything is just kind of dumping forward because of the shapes that they've created." - Rick Franzblau (1:00:39) “So because they're not going to have the ability to descend that anterior (pelvic) outlet. So you work foam, rolling techniques, stuff like that, to reduce some of the areas of the muscle, the muscles that are holding the anterior orientation. If it's bow legged representation, you may have to, you know, be very specific of that in terms of undoing some of the muscle tensions and all that. But then eventually you may be working to like a. A really high box squat at first. That may just be like a goblet hold or something like that” (1:01:27) "You got to have the strategies in place to understand, like, you know, is this a limiting factor or is this a potential threat down the road? If so, how am I going to intervene? And to what degree?" - Rick Franzblau" (1:11:30) “Where a lot (narrow ISA’s) do great if you put them on blocks of, and you kind of work above the knee, like, in second pull position is like, actually, that'll work really well in terms of them, like, capturing an outlet position and pressurizing correctly” (01:16:21) "I try and hold on and muscle that second pull for too long is, you know, I'm probably not using the best strategies to pressurize that pelvis and all that. So if I can actually drop back under on weight is like, I've, I've, you know, I've solved some, some good, um, you know, issues and adaptation for some of these narrow athletes." - Rick Franzblau About Rick Franzblau Rick Franzblau is the director of Olympic sports strength and conditioning at Clemson. He is responsible for the supervision of the assistant strength coaches, graduate assistants, and volunteer interns. Franzblau oversees the strength and conditioning for all 14 of the Olympic Sports that train in the Jervey weight room. He is directly responsible for the strength and conditioning efforts of the baseball, men’s soccer, and track and field teams. Prior to becoming an assistant coach, Franzblau worked as a graduate assistant at Clemson, where he worked with football and Olympic sports. During his time at Clemson, Franzblau has worked with 10 ACC champion track and field squads. He has also worked with 8 individual NCAA champions and 7 Olympians in track and field. In 2013, he worked with Brianna Rollins, who set the American record in the 100-meter hurdles. In 2015, Franzblau worked with Matthew Crownover, the ACC pitcher of the year, who was also one of 4 Clemson baseball players drafted in the first 6 rounds of the MLB draft. Franzblau also worked with golfers Ben Martin and Corbin Mills, who participated in the prestigious Masters’ tournament while still competing at Clemson. In 2014, Franzblau also assisted with the ACC champion men’s soccer team. Franzblau graduated from Colgate University in 2006 with a degree in history. At Colgate, Franzblau spent 3 years as a student assistant strength coach after his football career was cut short due to injuries. He is a certified strength and conditioning specialist through the NSCA and also holds the SCCC certification through the CSCCA organization. Franzblau has also taken the Myokinematic Restoration, Postural Respiration, and Impingement and Instability courses through the Postural Restoration Institute.

423: Adarian Barr on Force Application, Levers, and Joint Mechanics Aug 08, 2024

This week’s guest is Adarian Barr. Adarian is a former college track coach, inventor, educator, and international speaker on human movement. He co-authored “Let Me Introduce You” with Jenn Pilotti. Adarian has been a primary mentor of mine in athletic movement and has made various appearances on this podcast. Where much of athletic performance and track world focus on enhancing movement through generalized cues or techniques, Adarian works in the world of joints and levers to understand the nuances of movement. Through these nuances, we can better understand training theory, cueing, and exercise application. On today’s podcast, Adarian discusses recent Olympic races, the role of the feet, shins, and arms in movement, hamstrings, isometrics, and much more. This was a deep dive into important nuances of the total movement equation, and discussions with Adarian are always a tremendous learning experience. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr’s Gym Studio and Athletic Development Games. Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off of any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer head to: Lilateam.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Main Points 1:01- Sprinting Mechanics and Strategy in 100m Final 9:49- Strategic Foot Placement and Leaning in Sprints 16:32- Optimizing Performance Through Efficient Joint Interactions 18:20- Athletic Success Through Dynamic Joint Mechanics 26:50- Joint Stopping Importance for Running Efficiency 28:49- Optimizing Movement Efficiency Through Space Awareness 39:38- Enhancing Force Output Through Lever Systems 44:30- Downhill Sprinting for Enhanced Athletic Performance 56:51- Joint Control for Optimal Exercise Performance 59:06- Pressure Detection Influence on Movement Coordination 1:02:43- Hamstring's Compression Role in Targeted Training 1:06:52- Dynamic Resistance with Chain Training 1:09:24- Joint-Specific Compression in Isometric Training 1:15:14- Asymmetric Roles of Sprinting Legs Quotes "All we're doing really when we move about is figuring out how to make space to move into space. What space am I trying to move into and what's in the way of that?" - Adarian Barr “If you really want to guard somebody, get into a shin space and watch how they have to go in a whole different direction because the body's not going to let them” -Adarian Barr "People talk about, like, Fergus Connelly's work and, well, what is offense? It's creating space. What is defense? It's taking away space. And that could happen with all the players on the field or even in a one on one situation. It's, you know, wherever it is, that concept is universal." - Joel Smith “And we see it in hurdles where in this ipsilateral pattern where what's happening? My lead leg trail arm, which is on the same side, you know, or side by side. And what am I going to do? I'm going to move my trend arm forward to force my lead leg down. That's ipsi lateral pattern…. the ipsilateral patterns are faster than the contralateral pattern. I want to affect the same side, that's all it is” -Adarian Barr "The arms just add a little bit to this at that point in time; because you have this collision going on and the body's doing what? Slowing itself down. Now, at that point in time, all you have is what body weight? It's a little bit more now. So the arms itself is going to have just a little bit more input to get an output. That's how levers work. Levers are so cool because if you got a seesaw and there's no input, what does seesaw do? Nothing." -Adarian Barr “That's the whole thing about it. Levers are designed to make things easier. No matter how you look at it, they're designed to make things easier” “(In bridging movements) So when I lay on the ground, I just made another joint between my back and the ground… the whole body on a global and local system is different based on the fact you added two joints and then you took them away, and then you think, I'm gonna act the same. The hamstring’s not gonna act the same because the joints have changed” About Adarian Barr Adarian Barr is a track coach and inventor based out of Yuba City, California. His collegiate track and field coaching stops have included UW-Superior, Indiana State, UNC Pembroke, and Yuba City Community College. He has invented nine devices, from footwear to sleds to exercise devices. Adarian is a USATF Level II coach in sprints, jumps, hurdles, and relays. He has a master’s degree in Physical Education. Adarian’s unique coaching style gets results, and his work on speed and biomechanics is being adapted by some of the top coaches in the nation.

422: Joel Reinhardt on Advancing Game Speed Development in Football Preparation Aug 01, 2024

This week's guest is Joel Reinhardt. Joel is an Assistant Athletic Performance Coach and Sports Science Coordinator for San Jose State Football. He has extensive experience from his previous roles at Stanford, UMass, and Nicholls State, where he was involved in sports performance and sports science. Joel has been a previous guest on this podcast and has an intuitive and data-based approach to preparing athletes for the specific demands of sport. As the integration of training with on-field practice becomes more prevalent, the dynamics of physical preparation are undergoing a significant shift. The weekly layout of a team sport preparation is now mirroring the systematic approach of a track and field cycle, addressing key qualities throughout the week based on specific areas of emphasis. This evolution is a key aspect of today's discussion with Joel Reinhardt. Joel has built brilliant training systems based on sports science and the integration of key athletic qualities. In today's episode, Joel covers many aspects of physical preparation in football, emphasizing key attributes that lead to improved robustness and game speed. Joel also discusses the nuances of multilateral speed and deceleration, weekly training layouts, overcoming fear and downregulation, and much more. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr’s Gym Studio, Plyomat, and Athletic Development Games. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Main Points 9:03- Tailored Training for Optimal Player Performance 17:28- Optimizing Athlete Performance in Summer Camps 19:05- Optimizing Athlete Performance through Training Adjustments 29:04- Strategic Directional Variation in Athletic Training 30:12- Game-Like Speed Development Drills for Athletes 44:47- Organic Deceleration Training for Athletes 52:09- Optimizing Football Performance Through Game Speed Training 54:12- Game-Specific Drills for Speed and Agility 59:19- "Fearlessness for Enhanced Athletic Speed Performance" 1:05:16- Preseason Training for Football Performance Success 1:13:06- Maximizing Performance with Reduced Collision Exposure Quotes "I like thinking of how. I mean, to me, the variability of play and sport, it's. It's like magic. It's just the way it ignites an athlete." - Joel Smith “And we intentionally would script that to be much more open field. You know, receivers getting downfield more, that sort of work. And then the Tuesday Thursday, they still have football work. So they're, you know, it's different than summer one that was truly extensive on the Tuesday Thursday, like, hey, summer two, Tuesday Thursday, I'm gonna, you're gonna have moments where you need to run full speed” “And it can be scary sometimes because if you don't do a controlled burnt, I, you know, fall camp ends up being a true forest fire that, you know, burns down houses and whatnot, and then everybody's injured. Or you can do the opposite and go a little too crazy during fall camp or during summer, too. And then guys don't make it to the starting line, but it's that happy medium of, like, really pushing it. But then it's still a little intimidating as a performance coach because you still have to light stuff on fire to do a controlled burn” “So it's like, how fast can we accelerate on Mondays? What's our top, top speed on Wednesdays? And then what's our highest deceleration capabilities on Fridays? Because then we were able to compare” “I think he used it specifically talking about the increased chance of falling, which that goes into not looking forward, but it's like your body is going to regulate you down a certain amount if he thinks you're going to get hit or you're going to fall to the ground. And so how can we desensitize you to those things and then also give you physical qualities to help you in those scenarios?” "The more you can be aware of, the faster you can perceive it. And the less you can be afraid, the faster you have capability to move." - Joel Smith" "If we can get all of our quote unquote conditioning from playing ball, let's do that." - Joel Reinhardt About Joel Reinhardt Joel Reinhardt is an Assistant Athletic Performance Coach and Sports Science Coordinator for San Jose State Football. Previously, he worked at Stanford Football as the assistant sports performance coach and applied sports science coordinator, overseeing sports science and data tracking. Prior to Stanford, he served as an assistant sports performance coach at UMass, handling sports science, practice planning, and return to play for football, along with performance training for women's lacrosse and men's soccer. At Nicholls State, he designed and implemented strength and conditioning programs for football, agility work for off-season development, and performance training for various sports. He also managed Playertek GPS data. Reinhardt graduated from Springfield College with a Master's degree in Strength and Conditioning and from St. Olaf College with an undergraduate degree in Kinesiology and Exercise Science. His experience includes internships with Total Hockey Minnesota, Springfield College Athletics, UConn Athletics, and Western Michigan football.

421: Piotr Maruszewski on Oscillatory Isometrics and Angular Sprint Training Jul 25, 2024

This week’s guest is Piotr Maruszewski. Piotr is the Short Sprints and Hurdles Coach at the UMCS University of Lublin, Poland, and has held the position of Polish Athletics National Team Coach, where he prepared athletes for major events at the international stage, as well as being a current speed climbing national team coach. Piotr is a strength and conditioning Coach with solid track and field roots, specializing in multi-sport speed development. Piotr has studied from many of the greatest coaching minds in the world and has helped athletes to incredible results. Although traditional strength training and sprint constraints can be effective, it’s important to question whether there are not more specific methods available. Of the many tools in the training toolkit, some of the most powerful include the family of fast eccentric and oscillatory isometric training. On today’s podcast, Piotr discusses the nature of rhythm in hurdling, an angular approach to sprinting, and takeaways from his learning with Adarian Barr. He also discusses bodyweight isometric holds and special strength training methods for his athletes, centering around how he works the fast eccentric and isometric overloads for the elastic and muscular archetypes. Piotr has learned from many of the greatest minds in the world of training and has gotten tremendous results from his brilliant integration. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr’s Gym Studio, and the Plyomat Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off of any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer head to: Lilateam.com The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at plyomat.net View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Main Points 2:00- Instinctual Approach and Rhythm in Hurdling 7:01- Galloping Technique for Efficient Hurdling Success 12:31- Dance Skills Enhancing Athletic Performance in Sports 27:56- Angular Momentum in Sprinting Technique 35:08- Timing and Adaptation in Sprinting Techniques 46:05- Oscillatory Isometrics for High-Level Sprint Training 49:41- Kaiser Hits for Strength Development in Athletes 55:58- Enhancing Athlete Performance through Oscillatory Movements 1:01:24- Speed-Focused Progression in Kaiser Training 1:06:58- Cultural Variations in Athletic Training Intensity 1:10:14- Run-Specific Isometric Training for Healthy Tendons 1:20:04- Efficient Running with Angular Momentum and Leverage Piotr Maruszewski Quotes "When you find the rhythm of the play, they enjoy their bodies and mind, just appreciate the state they are in due to maintaining some rhythm or managing the rhythm." "If I can provide a value to whoever is going to listen to our conversation, explore levers and their role in human body's motion." “The fastest soccer players are absolutely squatted runners” “So I'm finding those, those very short oscillatory motions and being on the under, you know, Kaiser squat, you know, the, the compressed air. It's. It's absolutely like, like a cornerstone of my strength training programming to, through whatever population I'm working with soccer players, handball hand, female handball players, speed climbers, and, of course, my sprinters and hurdlers” “I’m not interested in supramaximal eccentric training, I’m interested in super fast eccentric training” “We are the combination of muscles that pull, and strings that transfer the forces; but the only forces that the muscles create is pulling from the inside, and even when you push something, your muscles are pulling” “I apply a light sled to the squatted run, because then the sense of pulling is increased” “Various types of ISO are the pinnacle of my strength training” Show Notes Oscillating squats with a national level sprinter https://www.youtube.com/shorts/8fwEYqd47d8 About Piotr Maruszewski Piotr is Short Sprints and Hurdles Coach at the UMCS University of Lublin, Poland. Over the years has held the position of Polish Athletics National Team Coach where he prepared athletes towards major events at the international stage. Piotr is a strength and conditioning Coach with strong track and field roots, specializing in multi-sport speed development. He is also a Speed Climbing National Team Coach, heading towards Paris 2024 Olympic Games with one of his qualifying female athletes. Piotr is a Law School graduate, who’s passion for athletic development keeps growing up from his alpine snowboarding competitive years, as an athlete himself. His accreditations include: • Polish Athletics Certified Track Coach • UKSCA Accredited S&C Coach • Alpine Snowboarding Coach Socials www: https://www.maruszewski.team Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maruszewski Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p.maruszewski YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@p.maruszewski X: https://x.com/pmaruszewski LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maruszewski/

420: Rob Assise on Foot Dynamics and Explosive Athletic Development Jul 18, 2024

Rob Assise is a jumps coach and mathematics teacher at Homewood Flossmoor High School (2023 Illinois State Track Champions). He is also a writer, a regular “Track Football Consortium” speaker, and a multi-time guest on this podcast. In addition to high school sports, he owns the private training business Re-Evolution Athletics. Having good reactivity in the feet carries nuance with it. Some athletes can use their feet exceptionally well for sprinting or straight-ahead pursuits. Others have foot dynamics that allow them a better conversion of horizontal energy to vertical. Ultimately, the goal is to understand why athletes use their strategies and find areas of improvement specific to the individual. On today’s podcast, Rob covers ideas on intersections of sprint and jumps training in track and field, athletic asymmetry, plyometric coaching, speed and power complexes, and a nuanced discussion on the nature of foot placement in sprinting and plyometrics, on the level of both performance and injury prevention. Rob is a humble and experienced coach, and I’ve always loved having a chance to sit down and talk training with him. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr’s Gym Studio, and the Plyomat Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off of any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer head to: Lilateam.com The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at plyomat.net View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Main Points 1:00- Using Sprint Float Sprint Methods in Track Jumpers 10:00- Understanding Sprinting Better by Being a Jumps Coach 21:03- Enhancing Sprint Performance through Training Variety 27:00- Impact of Sports Tools on Running Mechanics 30:17- Utilizing Asymmetry for Optimal Athletic Performance 31:55- Addressing Athlete Asymmetry for Optimal Performance 42:31- RSI Scores and Foot-Ground Interaction Patterns 48:24- PVC Pipe Balancing for Foot Strength 55:54- Enhancing Athletic Performance Through Varied Plyometrics 57:54- Enhancing Sprinting Performance Through Plyometrics 1:02:01- Dynamic Foot Contact Options for Performance Optimization 1:02:01- Dynamic Foot Placements Enhance Plyometric Training 1:03:06- Enhancing Plyometric Performance Through Midfoot Engagement Quotes (7:43) "The best thing that happened to me as a sprint coach was focusing on the jumps. It just allowed me to kind of see things from a little bit of different perspective because on the Runway you're really not at maximum speed." (15:49) "When you do things that the brain finds interesting, your brain doesn't give a damn about volume." (32:20) “In general, when we're looking at asymmetry with a 1080 or something, like bounding, hopping, whatever, I usually just use, like, a 10% marker. So, like, if that asymmetry is greater than 10% or maybe approaching 10%, maybe we're going to tease in some things to try to get a little bit more of a balance” (42:31) “I've had sprinters who have had crazy good RSi scores. And they come over to the jumps and I'll have them, like, bound or hop, and they're going to have a contact that's more flat or rolling and they just can't do it. It looks like incredibly labored. It's like they just don't want to. They almost refuse to contact that rear part of their foot” (44:30) "Those athletes who struggle accessing that rear part of their foot, they were more prone to hamstring injuries." (48:52) “Very few people are going to hit a forefoot contact gallop” About Rob Assise Rob Assise has 20+ years of experience teaching mathematics and coaching track and field at Homewood-Flossmoor High School. He also has coached football and cross country, and is also the owner of the private training business, Re-evolution athletics. Additional writing of his can be found at Simplifaster, Track Football Consortium, and ITCCCA. He can be reached via e-mail at robertassise@gmail.com or Twitter @HFJumps.

419: Andrew Paul on Movement Screens and Foot Dynamics in Athletic Performance Jul 11, 2024

Andrew Paul is the Director of Performance and Rehabilitation for the Oklahoma City Thunder. He is both a sports performance coach and a physical therapist. Andrew has learned from a variety of performance and biomechanics experts and has a deep knowledge of individual factors in athletic movement, training, and performance. Individual factors in athletic movement and understanding the nuance of training in the athletic equation are where the future of training and performance is heading. At high levels of sport, this understanding becomes increasingly important to maximize players' health and vitality while catering to their primary performance drivers. Last time on the show, Andrew talked about the difference between propulsive and absorbing actions, as seen on court and in training. For this episode, we dig into Andrew's take on movement screens and how particular types of athletes tend to be biased to excel in those tests. We also deeply discuss forefoot and rearfoot-oriented elastic athletes and mid-foot dominant athletes and how these aspects play out in court movement and training. This was another fantastic discussion with a brilliant performance mind. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr’s Gym Studio, and the Plyomat Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off of any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer head to: Lilateam.com The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at plyomat.net View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps 2:50- Joint-specific Movement Analysis for Enhanced Functionality 5:19- Triple Extension and Force Absorption in Movement 9:29- Forefoot Elastic Athlete Performance Monitoring Techniques 13:00- Acceleration Strategies Based on Foot Elasticity 17:35- Hip Internal Rotation in Rearfoot Elastic Athletes 19:32- Foot Type-Tailored Training Strategies for Athletes 29:31- Tailoring Foot Loading Strategies for Athlete Performance 34:08- Optimizing Performance Through Tailored Foot Exercises 36:15- Enhancing Balance with Specialized Discs Training 48:10- Tailoring Warm-Up Routines for Athletic Types 58:53- Jump Performance Insights: Movement Strategies Unveiled 1:06:59- Versatile Athletes with Multiple Movement Styles Quotes (2:27) "And I think the evidence on that's pretty clear. I did go through a phase in my career where I was using (FMS) pretty heavily, particularly when I was in college, because I think the functional movement screen is meant to be used at scale. And in my current environment, we only deal with 18 players and so we don't really need anything that's utilized at scale." - Andrew Paul (3:40) Propulsive movers tend to rely on deep ranges of motion. And the reason why they rely on those things is because they're using a long concentric pushing action to create momentum, they tend to have more access to range of motion. They tend, and something like the FM's score higher than, than someone who's very fascial or elastic in nature. - Andrew Paul (14:42) "Rear foot elastics really use their tripod well when they go from horizontal to vertical." - Andrew Paul (22:40) “The fore-foot elastic to me is built for the long jump. Yes, it's like these are the guys that jogged on the court and dunk from the free throw line, but they're also the guys that don't have, like, a power dunking ability. Like they need a lot of runway to get their way up there. And then the rear foot elastic is a lot what you're talking about there. They, they kind of have to move in a spiral” (27:28) "I define the midfoot as when a majority of your weight is on the back side ball of your foot." - Andrew Paul (29:47) “And we, in jumping drills, we'll go barefoot and we will define. If you land on your toes and you rock back to your midfoot, once your heel hits in the ground, you are no longer absorbing anymore, because for us, propulsion is moving away from the midfoot and absorption is moving towards the midfoot” – Andrew Paul (49:00) “A stiff muscular is a fore or a mid-foot dominant, two-foot jumper tends to test well in static, like vertical jump. Their vertical jump is like their jam. Like, they will kind of wow you with their jump heights in a static stance” (49:05) “The advantages of a muscular mover, it's not all bad. The advantages are they tend to hold their ground really well on their feet, and they move well from a dead stop” About Andrew Paul Andrew Paul is the Director of Performance and Rehabilitation for the Oklahoma City Thunder. In this position Andrew oversees all aspects of the Strength and Conditioning and Nutrition programs. Being a physical therapist as well, Andrew also assists the Oklahoma City Medical Staff. Prior to coming to Oklahoma City, Andrew worked as a Physical Therapist and Performance Specialist at EXOS in Gulf Breeze, FL where his primary clientele was members of the Special Operations Units in the Military. Andrew also spent over 6 years at the University of Missouri where he worked as the Strength and Conditioning Coach for the football program as well as several Olympic Sports programs. Andrew received his undergraduate degree in Exercise Science from Missouri State University, is certified through the National Strength and Conditioning Association, and holds a Doctorate in Physical Therapy from the University of Missouri.

418: Chris Korfist and Dan Fichter on Complexes, Coordination and Breaking Sprint Barriers Jul 04, 2024

Chris Korfist and Dan Fichter are this week’s guests. Between the two of them, they have decades of successful coaching in the world of track and athletic performance training. They have each had a substantial journey in their study of human performance, and have made a substantial impact on the field in the process. Many years ago, Chris and Dan were on the podcast talking about the “DB Hammer” system, and how it impacted aspects of their speed and power training, particularly the individualizing aspect of auto-regulation and “drop-offs”. For today’s podcast, Chris and Dan get into details of their evolving approach to speed training, particularly on the level of complexes, and the methods they use to break limiting barriers of their athlete’s full potential. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr’s Gym Studio, and the Plyomat Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off of any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer head to: Lilateam.com The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at plyomat.net TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. Use the code “JUSTFLY” for a free 30 day trial of the TeamBuildr software. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Main Points 9:03- Coaching's Transition to Information Abundance Era 12:48- Training Philosophies for Enhanced Coaching Performance 21:38- Neurological Tailored Training for Enhanced Performance 29:48- Fly Tens for Maximal Speed Development Training 32:12- Real-Time Feedback Enhancing Athlete Performance 37:21- Enhancing Performance Through Diverse Sensory Inputs 41:03- Enhancing Athletic Performance Through Neurological Challenges 48:51- Enhancing Athletic Performance Through Reflex Integration 53:47- Real-time Performance Monitoring for Athletes 1:02:30- Enhancing Coordination Through Water Bag Training 1:08:52- Competitive Station-Based Training for Athletic Performance Quotes (00:10:50) "People just accumulate knowledge, or not so much knowledge, but information. They read it once and they store it somewhere. But back in the day, you didn't. Things took time, and so you had time to actually work through things because you may only get one article a month or something like that, and that's all you're getting. And so go ahead, work through that and try things and experiment. But today you can just go download 20 podcasts, look at three Instagram posts, you know, YouTube, and think you're an expert all of a sudden. And there's been no time to. To let things stew, to let things grow inside your own head and to take your own look at things and create your own system." - Chris Korfist (00:13:17) "You need to understand this stuff from the inside out." – Dan Fichter (00:32:37) "And then when you see it, then you start to be able to feel it. And when you can feel it, then you can change it." – Dan Fichter (34:50) I think oscillating isometrics may be one of the most profound training techniques out there. I really do in terms of teaching what movement really is and how. – Dan Fichter (38:36) I kind of do the same thing with overspeed. Again, there's a fear factor there that you're going to go faster than you thought - Chris Korfist (53:47) You know, we were putting our 1080 numbers up on a. A projector so everyone could see. We put our. We tied our timer up to a projector. - Chris Korfist (01:06:25) "The first thing is how good of timing does this athlete have?" - Joel Smith (01:14:23) "Getting strong is easy. Now, getting him fast, that's a challenge." – Dan Fichter Show Notes: How to Get Fast: Vol 1 korfist.sellfy.store/p/ymrl/ About Dan Fichter Dan Fichter owns and operates WannaGetFast Power/Speed Training, a sports performance training business in Rochester, NY that offers training to elite athletes. Dan is one of the leading applied neurological training experts in the world, and has made numerous connections between clinical level neurology, and athletic performance and sport training. Dan has coached athletes in all sports from all over the country, and is in two different Halls of Fame for his own athletic prowess in football. Fichter’s clients have included pro hockey players Chris Thorburn (Winnipeg Jets), Stanley Cup champion Brian Gionta (Buffalo Sabres), Ryan Callahan (Tampa Bay Lightning, US Olympic Team), Shane Prince (Binghamton Senators), Olympic track and field star Victoriya Rybalko from the Ukraine, NY Yankee shortstop Cito Culver, UFC fighter Mike Massenzio, Oakland A’s 2nd baseman Andy Parrino, Washington Nationals Infielder Chris Bostick along with Washington Nationals pitcher Brian Dupra. About Chris Korfist Chris Korfist has been a high school coach in track and football for almost 30 years, with more than 80 All-State athletes. He has also been a strength coach at the college and high school levels, working with many sports. Korfist owns a private facility called Slow Guy Speed School that helps develop athletes ranging from World Champion to middle school. He has consulted with professional sports teams all over the world, including the NFL, MLB, NBA, and Rugby League. Korfist has published research on sprint training and is an advisor for Auckland University of Technology’s SPRINZ. Additionally, he co-owns Track Football Consortium (@TFConsortium), is co-founder of Reflexive Performance Reset, and has discussed training in countless blogs and podcasts.

417: Joel Smith Q&A on Sprint Complexes, Jump Training, and Dynamic Coordination Jun 27, 2024

Today's podcast features a Q&A with Joel Smith. Questions this round revolve around facets of sprint complexes, jump training, reactive strength, youth sports, and much more. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr’s Gym Studio, and the Plyomat Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off of any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer head to: Lilateam.com The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at plyomat.net TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. Use the code “JUSTFLY” for a free 30 day trial of the TeamBuildr software. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps 1:48- Optimal Squatting Form for Athletic Performance 8:13- Enhancing Sprint Acceleration with Shin Angles 13:38- Progressive Volume Approach in French Contrast Training 22:02- Enhancing Athlete Recovery Through Energetic Practices 30:29- Creative Development Through Imaginative Play in Youth Sports 40:17- Efficient Torque Transition with Power Cleans 47:14- Enhancing Speed and Recovery with Varied Movements 52:02- Optimizing Sprinting Technique Through Varied Drills 55:19- Enhancing Distance Running Efficiency with Elasticity 59:05- Enhancing Athlete Performance through Hurdles Training 1:03:45- Dynamic Athlete Engagement in Marinovich's Training Quotes (2:26) "My point for this, or the place of balance that I would lean towards is simply trying to help athletes have good general squatting mechanics and not so much squatting mechanics that force the ankle mobility or force the knees forward, but more a total body squat that helps the whole body to have this nice sequence of external to internal to external rotation that can line and stack the joints up well and then works with that." (18:13) "Take a step back and see what one set can do for you." (45:49) "The art of question asking, I think, is a really huge piece in finding understanding. It's been absolutely essential in my own development." (56:12) "Distance running, the more efficient every step, is ultimately less energy in each step. That's going to mean every. Every step. You're going to have less fatigue, you're going to have more energy at the end of the race, and it's a big deal." (1:02:59) "Ultimately, that true passion, that reason you got into this thing and the thing that you enjoy doing yourself, you love doing that movement, that style of training yourself, and you can intake that and run it through, you can embody it. That also helps your learning." About Joel Smith Joel Smith is the founder of Just Fly Sports and is a sports performance and track coach in Cincinnati, Ohio. Joel hosts the Just Fly Performance Podcast, has authored several books and coaches in both the high school and private sector. Joel was a strength coach for 8 years at UC Berkeley, working with the Swim teams and post-graduate professional swimmers, as well as tennis, water polo, and track and field. A track coach of 17 years, Joel coached for the Diablo Valley Track and Field Club for 7 years, and also has 6 years of experience coaching on the collegiate level, working at Wilmington College, and the University of Wisconsin, LaCrosse. He is currently coaching high jump at Milford High School. Joel has coached 4 national champions, multiple All-Americans, and NCAA record holders in track and field. In the realm of strength and conditioning, his programs have assisted 5 athletes to Olympic berths that produced 9 medals and a world record performance at Rio in 2016.

416: Chris Chamberlin and DJ Murakami on Applied Muscle Torques in Movement and Performance Jun 20, 2024

Today's podcast features Chris Chamberlin and DJ Murakami. Chris Chamberlin is the Head Coach and Director of Education at Weckmethod and has over 15 years of coaching experience. He is a leader in innovative thought in the fitness industry, focusing on movement efficiency, and works with athletes and individuals of all levels. DJ Murakami is a coach with over 15 years of experience in various movement practices like bodybuilding, Olympic weightlifting, strongman, movement culture, rock climbing, and more. He has created training courses like Chi Torque and the Predator Protocol, and mentors coaches and fitness enthusiasts through his organization, Human Strong. Various methods exist to understand human body function, including respiration, joint position, and movement assessment. Julien Pineau's "Torque Chains" simplifies this process, focusing on muscle layout and sensation of movement. Chris and DJ, incorporating ideas from Julien and David Weck (coiling), created a course called "Torque Chains." This course explores movement using internal and external torques ("fire" and "ice"), variations of these torques, and transitions between modes during complex movements. In today's episode, Chris and DJ delve into "fire" (ET) and "ice" (IT) torque chains. They discuss their applications for different populations, exercise implications, strengths vs. weaknesses, muscle chains' relation to psychology, running applications, and more. These concepts offer a profound understanding of body function, presenting an effective approach to movement analysis. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr, the Plyomat, and LILA Exogen. Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off of any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer head to Lilateam.com TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. Use the code “JUSTFLY” for a free 30 day trial of the TeamBuildr software at teambuildr.com. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at plyomat.net View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Main Points 3:59- Enhancing Athletic Performance Through Torque Analysis 10:58- Enhancing Training Outcomes Through Torque Strategies 19:40- Optimizing Training Through Torque Chain Alignment 30:53- Transformation through Physical Activities: Athlete Perspectives 37:34- Stimulating Exercises for Enhanced Athletic Performance 44:36- Optimizing Movement with Internal Torque Cues 51:48- External Torque and Connective Tissue Dynamics in Athletes 55:56- Torque-Driven Running Styles and Mindsets 1:02:59- Maintaining Balance: Constraints in Training Programs 1:06:55- Exploring Movement Patterns for Athletic Performance 1:10:36- Optimizing Athletic Performance Through Torque Training 1:12:52- Improving Movement Efficiency Through Torque Exploration 1:20:59- Effective Muscle Targeting with Alternating Torque Patterns 1:27:30- Emoji-Based RMT Training Certifications Quotes (4:13) “We were primarily looking at the chains of muscles bilaterally, creating torque, internal and external. External. And then what I saw, Chris and David were really going, like, deep, like a PhD process into spiraling this torque as deep as they could through their body. And I'm like, oh, well, if you could. Well, you could mix and split the torque so you could do it the other way” DJ Murakami (00:10:28) "I tend to listen to what the body's already doing or what I'm seeing from somebody, and I'll amplify it if all feels good, or I'll try the opposition of it if it's not." - Chris Chamberlin (12:03) An easy one to visualize is like, for hinging, like a sumo powerlifting, sumo deadlift would be more toward the ET. So that's the fire. And then for ice, we could think like a hinge, or the first part of picking up a stone or sandbag. DJ Murakami (22:00) “The fire and ice, how I think about it is so with the internal torque to ice, I'm thinking, like, ice is condensing, right? Like, even when you shiver, you kind of come inside, right? And then fire, you're like, oh, you touch something hot, you react, and you open up and get away” DJ Murakami (33:45) “The personality type, you see with, like, short distance sprinters, it. We know they're, you know, they have these pecs, VMOs. Like, we see the muscular difference, but you see these similarities in personality as well” DJ Murakami (52:30): “We've always used the term, like, just a bag of bones and just connective tissue. And like, if I just, like, completely soften myself and just give into my bones and that connective tissue, I feel like I can light up ET itself without having to draw myself there. Just wielding. Wielding that gravity on my fucking structure, which is designed to fight gravity in a sense. And I feel like I can sort of, like, capture that a little bit.” Chris Chamberlin 56:00: “..running for me, like, when I. When I'm making transitions between the two styles. So I will purposely do, like, fartlek style running where I'd like a change of pace, change of distance, like, just random s@%t. And I'll. I'll do a concept where I'll. I'll feel like I'm driving the movement from (external torque) and then I'll drive the movement to (internal torque)” Chris Chamberlin 1:02:40 “When you see people who go the functional route, and then it's like, oh, this bad, this good, they usually become detrained in some sense while, you know, they think they're becoming more functional or they're hitting the. They're doing better on their assessment and whatever system they're in. But overall, it's almost like they're. Yeah, they're becoming deconditioned and detrained, and they're not better off, but it's intellectually, they're more correct” DJ Murakami 1:09:50 “That's every exercise. I'm kind of power circling, in a sense, to to set up and lift the weight” Show Notes: Torque Chains Visual (Yellow: Internal Torque Chain, Red External Torque Chain) Split Power Circles: Splitting Internal and External Torques (Example from Chi-Torque) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mA1ztov-M5I About Chris Chamberlin Chris Chamberlin is the Head Coach and Director of Education for the Weckmethod. Chris has over 15 years of coaching experience and a lifetime of personal practice in movement efficiency that has earned him recognition as a leader in innovative thought in the fitness industry. Chris’s passion is to deliver practical yet profound education through his life experience, expertise in movement, and his meet you where you’re at approach that has lead him to work with top tier athletes and individuals of all levels to achieve their fitness goals and live healthier, happier lives. About DJ Murakami DJ Murakami has over 15 years of experience in the coaching realm. He has a wide history of movement practice, including training in bodybuilding, Olympic weightlifting, strongman (rock lifting), movement culture (such as Ido Portal), rock climbing, and more. DJ has created training courses such as Chi Torque, the Predator Protocol, and others, and mentors coaches and fitness enthusiasts through his Human Strong training organization.

415: Andrew Sheaff on Constraints and the Art of Individualized Speed Development Jun 13, 2024

Today's podcast features Andrew Sheaff. Andrew is a swim coach, most recently working at the University of Virginia where the Cavaliers won multiple NCAA team championships. He is also the author of ‘A Constraints-Led Approach to Swim Coaching’, a book that examines how to build skills organically during the training process. He is currently consulting with clubs and coaches to help them improve their skill development strategies. On the last show Andrew spoke on empowering the technical development of the athlete, free from overcoaching, as well as how to create lasting change in technique and performance. On today’s episode, Andrew talks about timing and central motion factors in athletic movement, optimizing constraints for individual athletes, the art of scaling constraints up and down, aspects of over-speed and under-speed methods and much more. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr and Plyomat. TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. Use the code “JUSTFLY” for a free 30 day trial of the TeamBuildr software at teambuildr.com. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at plyomat.net View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Main Points 9:31- Optimizing Swimming Performance under Fatigue 14:06- Optimizing Performance Through Central Motion Perception 22:21- Enhancing Performance with Swimming Paddles 24:26- Cross-Sport Insights for Swim Skill Development 30:01- Purposeful Constraints for Athlete Development in Coaching 37:05- Tailored Coaching for Athlete Performance Optimization 40:09- Enhancing Swimming Performance with Training Gear 43:38- Enhancing Performance Through Varied Training Stimuli 46:15- Enhancing Swimmer Training with Strategic Tools 55:49- Progressive Resistance Training for Efficient Swimming Strokes 58:49- Enhanced Athletic Performance through Varied Challenges 1:02:18- Tailored Training for Enhanced Swimming Performance Quotes (00:06:39) "When something's working 15-20, 25% of the time, that's not good." - Andrew Sheaff (00:14:57) "Where that speed comes from is actually good timing around the center of the body." - Joel Smith (00:16:30) “In terms of helping them figure it out, what I do is I try to really challenge that rhythm in lots of different ways. So, like, you can have them go at really high rates, really low rates. You can alternate back and forth.” – Andrew Sheaff (00:22:00) Helping them perceive that rhythm is really important, and then they just need a general sense of it. And then it's like, then you can start challenging it and pushing it, and then they start to figure out how to do it in various contexts under pressure. And that's ultimately what's going to help them race successfully. ” – Andrew Sheaff (00:29:00) Because, you know, if I put a pair of fins on, you know, ten different swimmers, there's going to be a general impact of those fins, but there's also going to be a specific impact for each swimmer because the fin and the swimmer interaction, and those interactions are going to be a little bit different. – Andrew Sheaff (00:44:17) "If you're running like 6x200s with the wind at your back, you get the exposure of running a little. Feeling easier, feeling faster, feeling more elastic for that." - Joel Smith (00:49:00) “Another example would be with the paddles. That can help them feel like what it's like to hold water. But then you take the paddles off with some swimmers, and they hate the feeling of it because it feels like they're pulling with toothpicks. And then the other opposite extreme, sometimes you have swimmers use the tennis balls and you open them back up and they feel like their hands are gigantic and it feels awesome to them. But sometimes you open the hands back up and their hands feel gigantic and they feel like they can't control them like they want to. And so, the after effect, I guess, it's usually predictable within a person, but it's not always predictable from person to person” – Andrew Sheaff (00:57:38) "There's nothing great intrinsically about any of these tools. It's whether you have a goal, you have something you want to accomplish, and if they can help you accomplish that better than not using them, then it makes sense to use them." - Andrew Sheaff (01:00:59) "The idea is, is what matters. And like, that's how you create the progression and the challenge and it's the same thing with skill stuff." - Andrew Sheaff About Andrew Sheaff Andrew Sheaff is a swim coach, most recently working at the University of Virginia where the Cavaliers won multiple NCAA team championships. He is also the author of ‘A Constraints-Led Approach to Swim Coaching’, a book that examines how to build skills organically during the training process. He is currently consulting with clubs and coaches to help them improve their skill development strategies. His website is coachandrewsheaff.com.

414: Liz Gleadle on Javelin and the Dance of Athleticism Jun 06, 2024

Today's podcast features Liz Gleadle. Liz is a three-time Olympian, high-performance consultant, and TEDx speaker. After retiring in 2022, Liz had a transformative epiphany, recognizing the profound impact of emotions on posture, movement quality, and power production. At that moment, she decided to "un-retire" and train with a whole new approach to rewire her mind and movement patterns for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. There is a wealth of material in training and coaching on exercises, sets, reps, parameters, and "positions" athletes should be in. In general, much of movement training is based on static ideas, positions, or black-and-white constructions. The reality of movement, training, and performance runs much deeper, is more connected, and has a far greater richness to it. On today's podcast, Liz speaks on her process of infusing dance, flow, and connection into the throwing javelin while also leveling up athletically. Liz digs into key aspects of training: "training side-quests," connectivity, overcoming fear in movement, and facilitating a dynamic ecosystem of training, learning, and growth. Liz has an expansive perspective on the deeper process of athletic movement, and this episode pushes into a new and powerful space of human performance. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr and Plyomat. TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. Use the code “JUSTFLY” for a free 30 day trial of the TeamBuildr software at teambuildr.com. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at plyomat.net View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Liz Gleadle Main Points 6:12- Enhancing Athletic Performance through Dynamic Choreography 14:03- Choreographic Approach Enhances Javelin Precision 22:39- Dynamic Preparatory Routine for Javelin Practice 28:43- Enhancing Athletic Performance Through Foot Proprioception 32:49- Building Confidence to Overcome Hurdle Fear 40:14- Precision Development Through Varied Javelin Weights 42:10- Discover Technique through Varied Javelin Weights 50:34- Enhancing Athletic Performance Through Dance and Connection 53:03- The Intricate Connection of Successful Jumping 58:07- Sensory Communication Through Hands and Feet 1:06:49- Embodiment of Rhythmic Self-Expression through Dance 1:10:41- Enhancing Athletic Performance Through Rhythmic Movement 1:12:48- Gratitude-Driven Precision in Javelin Throwing Quotes 2:55 "I started diving into all the different ways that I had been holding myself back due to my thoughts about my lack of athleticism, my lack of being able to jump, my lack of explosiveness, my klutziness, and I realized that it had completely dictated the way I moved as a thrower and as an athlete, and it had completely held me back from reaching my peak." Liz Gleadle 7:25 “I think it's almost like sometimes coaches crave static for certainty. Oh, we're certain about this static thing, and that's how we can measure progress. But in reality, the actual being in the movement and embodying it, there's certainly. Yeah, it's definitely. You're getting into dancing territory now” Liz Gleadle 17:20 “When I say dance, I don't mean choreographed dance or having to follow a specific way of moving. I mean exploring in time relative to music and really simple movements, but feeling a connection to your body” Liz Gleadle 17:40 “When we hit that beat, we get dopamine. When we feel a connection from one side of our body to the other, we get another huge hit of dopamine. If we do it in conjunction with other people, even something as simply as bouncing in time, we get a massive hit of oxytocin. And all these things make us learn faster” Liz Gleadle 24:50 “I'm constantly asking myself, where do I feel like? Do I have the connection line all the way from fingertip to toe across my body, on the same sides of my body, between my legs, between my arms, and where am I missing it and what do I need to do to activate that part of the line so that the whole line can be connected” Liz Gleadle 26:54 "There's a lot more waves in the process than that, especially with like the down waves, things that dip into the sensation, rhythm and the feeling of something. And then you take that back with you into that maximal output." Joel Smith 42:40 “But then you say, okay, I understand the difference between a six and a one kilo, or 600 grams and a one kilo. Now, what's the difference between a six and an eight? What's the difference between a six and a seven? And so when you keep comparing it back towards the middle, each one teaches you something different” Liz Gleadle 49:57 "I like thinking about, like everything has to have some sort of precision to it. And there might be a maximal there, but it might not be in exactly the way we start out thinking about maximal, but I think there's beauty in that." Joel Smith 53:31 "It was like I was on a pogo stick, and he was looking at me, and he's like, I've never seen you jump like that in your life. And it was because I'd understood dance and timing, and I was starting to understand, again just the connection between my hands and my feet and the idea of pulling myself off the ground. And all of a sudden, my arms, because they were moving up, were making my body more weightless. And it was like, the most thrilling feeling I've ever experienced in my life." Liz Gleadle 1:01:39 "Your hands also communicate your intention, and, like, they're how we communicate a lot of the time, we communicate with our facial expression." Liz Gleadle About Liz Gleadle Liz Gleadle is a three-time Olympian, and a high-performance consultant and speaker. She recently recorded her TEDx talk, "Gratitude: Enter the Upwards Spiral". After retiring in 2022, Liz had a transformative epiphany, recognizing the profound impact of emotions on posture, movement quality, and power production. At that moment she decided to "un-retire" and train with a whole new approach to rewire her mind and movement patterns for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Through this process, her athleticism expanded drastically, including learning to dance, do acrobatics, and get over her fear of jumping. Liz shares her process and evolution on her Instagram (@javelizz), and is gathering her notes to write a book to help others reach their athletic potential.

413: Justin Lima on Applied Speed and Power Development May 30, 2024

Today's podcast features strength coach, educator, and consultant Justin Lima. Justin owns the Strength Coach Network and has extensive experience as a strength coach in American Football across the B1G, ACC, Ivy League, and CAA. He holds a Ph.D. in health and human performance and has significantly contributed to the development of numerous coaches and athletes. In athlete development, zooming out and viewing the entire training process is crucial. Understanding a sport's skill and physical demands is essential for effectively complementing an athlete's sport play with strength, speed, and conditioning programs. In today's episode, Justin discusses balancing a speed program with sport, the nature of in-game speed, 1x20 strength programming, alternative power training methods, and the importance of collaboration between strength and sport coaches. Justin is a comprehensive and practical thinker and communicator, offering a profound perspective on the sport training process. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr and Plyomat. TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. Use the code “JUSTFLY” for a free 30 day trial of the TeamBuildr software at https://teambuildr.com. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at www.plyomat.net View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Main Points 3:46- Enhancing Coaching Through Strength Training Synergy 9:18- Strategically Tailored Sports Training Schedules 12:21- Optimizing Athlete Training Through Coach Collaboration 15:09- "Preference for Strength Programs in Track Coaching" 24:45- Enhancing Game Speed Through Max Velocity 30:10- Tailoring Speed Development Programs for Athletes 32:41- Rotational Training Plan for Athletic Success 47:25- Progressive Learning Approach for Young Athletes 50:07- Strength Building Through Systematic Progression and Variation 59:19- "Optimizing Muscle Mass with One by 20" 1:00:49- One by 20 Training for Weight Class Athletes 1:02:18- Enhancing Athlete Performance with Alternative Power Training 1:08:10- Overtraining Risks from Olympic Lift Preferences Justin Lima Quotes (00:25:10) “So in a GPP phase, you know, we're going to talk about 1x20, but I called it 1x20 on the field, where we would need to get some, accell, some max velocity, some curvilinear, some change in direction, and some agility work just a little bit each day” Justin Lima (00:30:50) “oh, it's minimal effective dose. What about, like, max recoverable volume? How can we push, right. It doesn't always need to be do the least amount of work to get it done. Like, sometimes you have to actually bake the cake, do the difficult things so that way they can hold on to those gains longer. And that minimal effective dose can be, you know, it is valuable at the time that you go to apply it” Justin Lima (00:32:41) “Instead of trying to tell them, hey, run it, you know, 80% of your max velocity. Sure, no, run as fast as you can, but we're going to constrain your arm so you can't hit that max velocity” Justin Lima (00:39:00) “I work with Desmond at the University of Iowa, and they tried saying that he was slow because he ran a 4.54 40 in his pro day. Why was he first team All Pro punt returner and second team All Pro corner in 2018? Because he was game fast. Like game fast. Understood. Understood when to accelerate, understood when to change direction”Justin Lima (00:41:00) “Another example was Daniel Raymond hit 22 miles an hour, this fastest recorded speed ever. But he was in Pads. But like you said, he was on the backside of a play where they were running like a swing pass to the running back, and he had to take a pursuit angle dive, shoestring, tackle him. And in that process, he ran the fastest he's ever ran wearing pads, which shouldn't happen, but it's because he had that external. I've gotta go” (00:55:20) “Typically, your best athletes maybe don't like to train, but what they start to see is they start to see this linear path of like, all right, I come in, I'm doing this one by 20 thing. And like, you get to, it's almost like misery loves company. And, like, you earn your stripes. It's like, yeah, I went through that one by 20. Like, oh, man, it was boring. But, like, you know, he was right. I got stronger” (01:07:00) “Like an example, our. Our skill players, instead of always doing the weighted jump, we would do an approach jump, or we would give them a. We had a bunch of foam dodge balls, and we didn't have low level dunks, but we would do pretend dunks, and they would go. And they would do a windmill and, like, slam it into the. The low ceiling that we had” About Justin Lima Dr. Justin Lima is a high-performance consultant who has worked with elite American Football players across major conferences such as the B1G, ACC, Ivy League, and CAA. He holds a PhD in Health and Human Performance and a Master’s Degree in Strength and Conditioning. Justin is also the owner of the Strength Coach Network and is active in coaching education. Throughout his career, he has had the opportunity to present at the Catapult Sports American Football Conference, and work with 30 NFL Draft Picks, 8 Super Bowl Champions, 12 NFL Pro Bowlers, and 7 All-Pros. He contributed to the successful 12-0 regular season of the 2015 Iowa Hawkeye Football team and served as an NCAA Div 1 Coordinator of Football Performance. Additionally, he has coached multiple All-Conference Track and Field Throwers and Team Champions, and worked in four top college football conferences, including during a 2016 Rose Bowl berth. Dr. Lima has also assisted over 50 amateur athletes in preparing for their professional sports careers.

412: Andrew Paul on Performance Concepts for Elastic and Muscular Archetypes May 23, 2024

Today's podcast features NBA performance coach Andrew Paul. Andrew is the Director of Performance and Rehabilitation for the Oklahoma City Thunder. He is both a sports performance coach, as well as a physical therapist, and utilizes his wide-ranging expertise in his position. Andrew has previous experience in the NCAA, as well as with military special operations, and was named the NBSCA strength coach of the year in 2022-2023. As the sports performance profession moves forward, we are understanding that training is not a one-size fits all experience, while finding new ways to classify athlete archetypes, exercise classifications, and how to piece it together to meet the needs of an athlete. Part of what makes training and coaching enjoyable is seeing the diverse range of athletic movers, and the optimal exercises and concepts by which to create their programming. On today's podcast, Andrew discusses key differences between muscular and elastic movers in basketball and related training implications. He goes into propulsive and absorption-based exercises, range of motion concepts based on athlete types, and how to assign individualized training based on strengths, weaknesses, and the needs of an NBA season. He also speaks on slow-tempo work, connective tissue health, foot training, and much more on this information-dense podcast. Andrew is pushing the envelope in high-performance training, and I really enjoyed this conversation. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr, the Plyomat, and LILA Exogen. Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off of any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer head to Lilateam.com TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. Use the code “JUSTFLY” for a free 30 day trial of the TeamBuildr software at teambuildr.com. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at plyomat.net View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Main Points 6:18- Momentum Generation and Force Absorption Techniques 8:48- Tailoring Training Programs for Athlete Movement Styles 12:12- Movement Styles: Muscular vs. Fascial Preferences 15:58- Optimizing Workouts for Fascial and Muscular Movers 22:10- Chains for Novice Lifters in NBA Training 26:36- Explosive Strength Training for Elastic Athletes 37:51- Enhancing Connective Tissue Quality Through Training 39:21- Holistic Approach to Athletic Development 45:18- Viscous Range Training for Tendinopathy Recovery 49:46- Optimizing Stiffness for Athletic Performance Safely 52:55- Injury Risk Profiles in Different Movers 1:06:23- Foot and Ankle Characteristics in Athletic Movement 1:18:41- Training Dynamics: Matching Momentum for Athletes Andrew Paul Quotes (00:10:14) “I think the hard part, so being able to observe athletes in an unbiased manner and is a very difficult thing for strength coaches to do. And the reason why I think that is, is that I grew up as an Olympic lifter. I gained a lot of confidence in the weight room, and I became a strength coach because of that, because that's kind of where I grew up” – Andrew Paul (24:00) “There's nothing more explosive and elastic than what's going on in the court” – Andrew Paul (25:00) “A heavy step up for someone who has an asymmetry is a very propulsive, dominant movement, particularly a higher step up. When you start getting into lower, lower step ups, you're starting to deal with more like a elastic range” – Andrew Paul (00:39:59) "The more you train for high outputs in a course, in an 82-game season, the more you're going to have issues related to output, which is like strains." - Andrew Paul (00:44:00) "I just think there's so much to be said about just finding things that feel good, that help the tissues” - Joel Smith (00:47:58) "It's so easy to start blasting kids early. You know, we're in middle school, Let's start getting after the heavy lifts or the heavy versions." - Joel Smith (01:04:10) “A lot of times those athletes are great at using their heel and their forefoot. And so they're able to get under their heel and then launch themselves, basically bypass their midfoot and then launch their forefoot. And we see that in our elastic guys a lot. They're usually more rigid in their foot” (01:07:50) “Muscular people like to get into that midfoot. And so they probably don't have that quality of being able to get behind themselves and go. It's like, have you ever watched a power lifter try to run and just jump from a running start? Yeah, they almost have to a complete stop and like find their midfoot and go” (01:22:42) "You're dealing with impulse impulses and how they view how they want to do things." - Andrew Paul About Andrew Paul Andrew Paul is the Director of Performance and Rehabilitation for the Oklahoma City Thunder. In this position Andrew oversees all aspects of the Strength and Conditioning and Nutrition programs. Being a physical therapist as well, Andrew also assists the Oklahoma City Medical Staff. Prior to coming to Oklahoma City, Andrew worked as a Physical Therapist and Performance Specialist at EXOS in Gulf Breeze, FL where his primary clientele was members of the Special Operations Units in the Military. Andrew also spent over 6 years at the University of Missouri where he worked as the Strength and Conditioning Coach for the football program as well as several Olympic Sports programs. Andrew received his undergraduate degree in Exercise Science from Missouri State University, is certified through the National Strength and Conditioning Association, and holds a Doctorate in Physical Therapy from the University of Missouri.

411: Tim Anderson on Dialing the Spectrum of Speed in Movement and Performance May 16, 2024

Today's podcast features coach Tim Anderson. Tim is the co-founder of Original Strength and has been a personal trainer for over 20 years. He is an accomplished author and speaker known for streamlining complex ideas into simple and applicable information. Tim is passionate about helping people realize they were created to be strong and healthy. He has written and co-written many books on this subject, including The Becoming Bulletproof Project, Habitual Strength, Pressing RESET, and Original Strength Performance. Tim's message is simple yet powerful: We were created to feel good and be strong throughout life. Many systems, philosophies, and assessments start with clients and athletes feeling broken, while Tim's work blends a positive message with functional strength and restorative movements. The longer I go through my journey as a coach, athlete, and mover, the more I value Tim's work, and I have incorporated many of his ideas into my own methods and programming. On today's episode, Tim and I discuss fluidity of movement, body tension, and creativity, followed by a discussion on utilizing a variety of speeds in training. Much of our talk centers around the benefits of slow movements and how these can, in turn, benefit much higher velocity motions, as well as ideas on how these fit in training complexes. Tim speaks on this and much more in this episode. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr, the Plyomat, and LILA Exogen. Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off of any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer head to Lilateam.com TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. Use the code “JUSTFLY” for a free 30 day trial of the TeamBuildr software at teambuildr.com. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at plyomat.net View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Main Points: 2:09- Enhancing Well-Being through Natural Movement Integration 2:42- Movement Exploration: Learning Through Curiosity 6:24- Exploring Fluid Movement for Enhanced Performance 11:58- Dynamic Seagrave Warmup for Track Athletes 15:39- Embodied Awareness for Enhanced Well-Being 16:32- Dynamic Speed Integration for Athletes 20:36- Enhancing Body Control Through Slow Movements 32:28- Enhancing Physical Expression Through Creative Movement Exploration 48:41- Fluid Movement Inspired by Childlike Joy 54:11- Animal-Inspired Visualization for Enhancing Movement Patterns Tim Anderson Quotes "You have to experience what it feels like to you so that you get that connection between your mind and your body. Otherwise you're disconnected." - Tim Anderson “So I'm a huge fan of exploring slow motion in movements. Now, I do primarily do that, like during pressing reset, like say for crawls or rolls or rocks. But you can, you can do it with any, any movement whatsoever. And the beautiful thing about going slow, though, is that it teaches you so much about your body, but it also exposes the areas of, of your movement that you don't really have control of yet” - Tim Anderson “Sugar Ray Leonard, like, he was extremely, he was lightning fast, but he would also do super slow shadow boxing to, like, where like it trick photography, slow motion.” - Tim Anderson "It's not that going fast isn't great for you. It's just that it's only one end of the spectrum. You got all this other room that you can play in and learn from that actually will help you move faster when you do want to go fast." - Tim Anderson "So it's not beyond just moving slow. Um, is to. To kind of be curious to see where you can move. Like, a lot of times your body will. It'll give you barriers. You know, a lot of people say, well, I can't move that way because I get stuck right here. Great. Like, use that. That barrier to learn from it." - Tim Anderson "I know correctives are well intentioned, but I think they can be dangerous or mismanaged because if you do start labeling people as broken, they're going to, that's what they're going to. That's the program you've given them and they're going to run the program. I mean, we are, we are so programmable. - Tim Anderson "Everybody starts at good because you already know this. A person, if they're, they have compensations or limitations, they are already moving exactly the way their body is designed because their brain is telling their body to move that way because it's not getting the information it's looking for. So they're not moving bad or wrong. They're doing exactly what their brain is telling them to do because it's working the way it's supposed to." - Tim Anderson "If you give me ten minutes of movement every day in a year, you've given me 3650 minutes of movement. And you have built a very efficient neural nervous system with all the neural pathways needed to, for those movements to give you complete access to your body with no tension, no fear, no reservation, no limitation." - Tim Anderson “When we were children, we got strong by being on the floor. When we're adults, we can stay strong by being on the floor” - Tim Anderson Transcript About Tim Anderson Tim is the co-founder of Original Strength, and has been a personal trainer for over 20 years. He is an accomplished author and speaker and is known for streamlining complex ideas into simple and applicable information. He is passionate about helping people realize they were created to be strong and healthy. Tim has written and co-written many books on this subject including The Becoming Bulletproof Project, Habitual Strength, Pressing RESET, and Original Strength Performance. When it comes down to it, his message is simple yet powerful: We were created to feel good and be strong throughout life.

410: Bobby Whyte on Training at the Edge of Athletic Ability May 09, 2024

Today's podcast features coach Bobby Whyte. Bobby is an athletic performance and basketball skill enhancement trainer in northern New Jersey. He trains players from multiple sides of the athletic equation (strength, speed, skill, general physical development) and has been known for the "good drill" ideology and training system. In the world of modern sports performance, coach Bobby Whyte's approach stands out for its comprehensive nature. It's not just about 'speed' or 'skill ', but a balanced integration of all aspects of athleticism. This approach reassures athletes that their training is not one-dimensional, but a wide-spanning pyramid of development. In today's episode, Bobby speaks on his process to help take basketball players to the edge of their ability, speaking from his perspective as both a basketball skills coach and athletic development coach. This show hits on filling the right bucket an athlete needs, at the right time, taking an integrated view on transference to the game itself, versus a more compartmentalized view. He also keys into the 7 first principles he uses, and refers to, to help push athletes to the overall edge of their ability. Also discussed are the importance of unstructured play, creativity and fun in the development process. I love these conversations because they help to push the envelope of how the entire athlete training process unfolds, not only on a singular skill or strength side of things. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr, the Plyomat, and LILA Exogen. Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off of any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer head to Lilateam.com TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. Use the code “JUSTFLY” for a free 30 day trial of the TeamBuildr software at teambuildr.com. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at plyomat.net View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Main Points 2:36- Biomechanical and Mental Focus in Athletics 8:22- Exploring Athletes' Mental Edge in Sports 13:15- Skill Progression and Creative Athletic Training Approach 14:59- Game-Specific Skill Development in Athletic Training 16:52- Dynamic Drills for Creative Basketball Training 25:55- Enhancing Basketball Performance through Comprehensive Strength Training 32:00- Unstructured Play for Skill Development in Sports 42:25- Ball Handling Impact on Basketball Speed 46:35- Enhancing Basketball Skills Through Dunking Drills 52:17- Creative Skill Development Through Low Rim Dunking 53:42- Fun Training Activities Boost Skill Development Naturally 1:04:20- Optimizing Player Development through Training Principles 1:13:27- Mastery through Obsession: Training Hunting Dogs & Basketball Bobby Whyte Quotes (8:40) "The top performing athletes are willing to go into the unknown, right? They don't have fear of the unknown." - Bobby Whyte" (12:33) "The more I'm willing to step into this kind of experimental role of guidance with these athletes, I start to see it doesn't matter as much about what I'm doing, but the intention behind what I'm doing. And that's bringing them to the edge of their ability in the direct line of what their goals and dreams are." - Bobby Whyte (35:03) "Kids that couldn't do something, now they can do something. All right, now they can do that. Let's raise the bar a little bit higher. Let's make it a little bit more complex. What else can they do? What else can they do? What else can they do? And that's what I'm. That's it." - Bobby Whyte (44:00) “My guess would be that the best athletes, right, their time (sprinting while dribbling) a ball is a lot closer to their time without a ball than, than the lesser basketball players” - Bobby Whyte (46:39) "That is normal. That is right now what happens everywhere, because all of the training. It removes all of that stuff, whether it's a person or a chair of this." - Bobby Whyte (47:40) "Sometimes I go, you know, for this game, it's three on three, but dunks only, right? And now you are forced to kind of step into that unknown, step into that fear that you've been avoiding." - Bobby Whyte (54:01) “They're on low rims now. That's how they learn new dunks. Pro dunkers now are on low rims. It's like the same mindset, honestly, of taking the thought of the finish away, right? You removed a barrier. Right? You removed a fear." - Bobby Whyte (56:36) "Here's things to do. And no one talks about observing anything. For me, just watching Kids play, watching Kids play before practice, all that stuff. That's a huge, like, source of inspiration for how we learn and move and then the dynamic pieces as well." - Joel Smith (1:19:47) "I lived so much of my life not taking that step, not being anywhere close to the edge, believing, having a vision that I was capable. I was just never willing to take that step." - Bobby Whyte Transcript About Bobby Whyte Bobby Whyte is an Athletic Performance and Basketball Skill Enhancement Trainer operating out of Northern New Jersey. Focusing on developing the complete player athlete, Bobby practices the “Evaluate – Educate -Empower” program he experienced first hand growing up training with now world renowned trainers and specialists. His personal journey, beginning with a 12” vertical jump at age 15 to playing and coaching basketball internationally provide him understanding and the confidence needed to tailor programs which maximize individual development. With a quick wit, Bobby makes tough, challenging sessions entertaining. Bobby is a certified NASM Personal Trainer and FMS Movement Specialist. He’s also certified with I’m Possible Training, the world’s largest basketball training company. He’s worked with athletes ranging from beginner to NBA/NFL/Overseas Professionals. Most recently, he spent 6 months working in China as the Head Strength Coach for the Guangxi Rhinos. Bobby has the ability and knowledge to develop skill and performance programs to deliver complete, healthy athletes. He believes growth takes place at the edge of ability and it his passion to bring athletes to that edge.

409: Jack Edwards on Athlete Centered Speed Training May 02, 2024

Today's podcast features sprint coach Jack Edwards. Jack is the coach and company co-founder with Track Speed Development and is experienced in club and high school track coaching. He runs the "Metamorphosis Track Project" page on social media, is the creator of the "Acceleration Monster" training manual, and can often be found at the Bankstown athletics track in Sydney. Jack works closely with individuals from diverse backgrounds and age groups, ranging from national-level competitors to newcomers in track and field. Jack's coaching approach underscores the significance of individual observation, athlete identity, and tailored strategies to optimize each athlete's s movement and performance. It is easy in sprint training (or general athletic performance) to focus on the "micro" or isolated aspects of athletic performance training. It is easy to treat all athletes the same in programming and cueing. Although a general structure must exist in training groups, it must also be understood what drives each athlete's performance engine, their ideal cues and communication strategies, and related training constraints and exercises. In today's episode, we delve into the unique coaching approach of Jack Edwards. He shares insights on painting a comprehensive picture of the athlete, considering the driving mechanisms of their movement, psychological factors, and adaptation in sprint training. Jack also discusses the importance of developing an athlete based on their needs, their "superpower ", and "identity", bringing the power of story into the sprint training equation. We also explore the concept of coaching based on big picture elements, versus a "micro" approach. Tune in to gain a deeper understanding of these topics and more in today's episode. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr, the Plyomat, and LILA Exogen. Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off of any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer head to Lilateam.com TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. Use the code “JUSTFLY” for a free 30 day trial of the TeamBuildr software at teambuildr.com. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at plyomat.net View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Main Points 2:20- Jack’s Take on “Classical Ab Training” for Sprinting and Athletics 13:02- Natural Movement Evaluation for Optimal Coaching Success 20:51- Athletic Identity Development through Varied Training Programs 22:19- Optimizing Speed Coaching Strategies for Individual Athletes 29:05- Training with Imaginative Superheroes: Inspiring Athletes 39:20- Enhancing Sprint Performance through Strategic Training Approaches 44:29- Enhancing Performance Through Sensation and Awareness 54:49- A Holistic Viewpoint of Speed Training Jack Edwards Quotes "I would have just probably reading some old Charlie Francis stuff, and I just started banging out just classic crunches and leg raises for time push-ups, all those sort of body weight calisthenic exercises on off days, and I don't think it was useless whatsoever. I think that the demands of sprinting and lifting weights and, and getting jacked is such a stressor on the posterior chain, and as someone who has some anterior hip issues historically, I almost felt like the ab circuits were my postural restoration, as silly as that sounds- Jack Edwards "I think that my goal when I first start working with someone, I guess, is to try and paint a picture as to who the athlete is." - Jack Edwards "I think that there are probably common factors which need to be included in the program and the sort of movement styles that athletes probably need to move towards to become faster runners." - Jack Edwards "I was working with at a all boys school, and we're coaching a variety of different athletes. And, like, the one thing I really wanted them to get out of the training experience is sort of like, to be proud of their strengths and to understand them as well, and to not be, to not have shame about what they don't have, so that they continue to push forward in their athletic endeavors.- Jack Edwards “Explosive like a firebender. Or if a rugby player, like a prop who's going to be like a bigger boned kid is next to like a little greyhound, I guess it's comforting for the earthbender child to understand that in a rugby scrum, this airbender has got absolutely no chance against him, even if he's going to lose in this 20 meters run. And so, yeah, I really buy into athlete identity because I think it paints a path for success. And we all have a very different” - Jack Edwards “Fire would be like Christian Coleman, you know, Air would be like Andre de Grasse, perhaps. And Water would be like Alison Felix, where there's sort of like the metabolic component, perhaps"- Jack Edwards "So, because it's sometimes the temptation for the athlete and the coach to try and look for answers in places that they don't exist, like sometimes athletes, and I see it often, where athletes who have stagnated in their ability to produce more power and more force will try and like, change their block setting, or they will try to do something differently with their hands, or they'll try to adopt a movement signature of a famous athlete when in reality, like their counter movement jump just might not be good enough to get effective block clearance." - Jack Edwards “We can't do something worth measuring every single session because what's the point of measuring something sub maximal? Like we're not going to do 20 meters fly runs every session. We're not going to be maxing out the gym, whatever it is. So organically, within the training program, there are opportunities for athletes to explore, like, I guess some of the more subjective things, like around how your foot feels hitting the ground when doing some intensive tempo running” Jack Edwards "Sometimes it could be really tempting to look at a rate limiting factor, improve on it, come back to the sport or performance, whatever it may be, and sometimes even see negative transfer of the intervention. And I guess it's because the improvement of that variable is based upon the assumption that in isolation, reinserting it into a complex system will reap improvement and that everything almost remains untouched and uninfluenced. But it's just not, it's not the case typically” Jack Edwards "There's an accompanied psychological stress which can only be challenged through racing against a complete random who's probably faster than you” Jack Edwards Transcript About Jack Edwards Jack Edwards is the coach and company co-founder with Track Speed Development. Former He is a high School English Teacher by day, and also a High School track coach. Jack is an admitted meathead, has a strong appreciation for the arts of bro-science, and is an “Earth-Bender”, turned “Fire-Bender” in his personal masters track and field performances.

408: Kevin Mulcahy on The Evolution of Athleticism and Skill Development Apr 25, 2024

Today's podcast features Kevin Mulcahy. Kevin is an experienced sports and S&C coach and owner-operator of the Design the Game Project. He has worked with various sports teams, athletes, professionals, and clubs across three continents, for over 30 years. Kevin takes a multi-lateral focus on human movement, skill development, and S&C, led by a deep interest in ecological dynamics and the constraints led approach to coaching and motor learning. Sport and the process of athlete development has undergone a major shift in the last 3-4 decades. Where free play used to be a hallmark of young athletes, the majority of athletic development now happens in the realm of supervised, cognitively overloaded, and hyper-accelerated practices and games. This aspect of sport (and sports performance) does get talked about, but the nuances of how things should actually change from both a developmental aspect are rarely discussed. On today’s show, Kevin gives his perspective on ideal athlete development from an ecological and environmental point of view. He lays out the difference between the dominant “cognitive” approach to coaching and training, relative to an ecological approach. Kevin also gets into skill development, game-play and the importance of motor learning, and an overall athlete-centered, approach to training. Kevin’s experience crosses many of the traditional lines drawn in athletics, and as such, helps us to form new connections and understand the athlete development process on a deeper level. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr, the Plyomat, and LILA Exogen. Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off of any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer head to Lilateam.com TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. Use the code “JUSTFLY” for a free 30 day trial of the TeamBuildr software at teambuildr.com. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at plyomat.net View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Main Points 3:44- Kevin’s Evolution of Movement and Strength Coaching 10:32- Gaelic Football's Impact on Soccer Development 13:45- Nurturing Creativity in Gaelic Games Athletes 29:45- Balanced Development Through a Free Play Approach 33:16- Small-Sided Games for Tactical Coaching Success 47:10- Athletic Success: The Genetic Advantage Perspective 54:02- Optimizing Training Schedules for Performance Enhancement 59:21- Irish Sports Clubs: Community Support and Culture 1:02:46- Enhancing Sports Performance Through Soft Coaching 1:07:29- Tactical Deficit-Focused Conditioning in Team Sports 1:12:06- Enhancing Sports Performance Through Motor Learning Principles 1:18:23- Engaging Sports Coaching and Skill Development Initiative Kevin Mulcahy Quotes "I'm not sure we all know how deep the science of sports goes yet." - Kevin Mulcahy “How do we learn skills? How are they connected to skill as we see it? Because we see the action of a player throwing a basket, pulling a dummy solo, dribbling through a player in soccer, whatever and we see that as a fixed skill and that's something they did and they must practice that a thousand times. But versus the more ecological way looking at it like, you know, they saw an opportunity to act, they saw a gap, they saw space, they got free at the corner for a three point shot, whatever it is. And they just took it” - Kevin Mulcahy “But traditionally, I would have struggled to get soccer and basketball players to engage in strength and conditioning more than any other sport, right. I don't know if that related to the street element where they have so much exposure, they have so much play, they feel good from it, they look good. I don't need (S&C). Why would I need that? You know, I'm well built. - Kevin Mulcahy "I believe it was Steffan Jones, the cricket fast bowling coach, who had said something about, like the death of a natural athlete, like that athlete who grows up on free play. And there's this, like, exceptional artistry that comes out of that" - Joel Smith "And that ecological psychology suggests that direct perception is what happening? And it's nonlinear learning, right?" - Kevin Mulcahy "My perception has evolved. Now I'm perceiving the play to come towards me in a very similar manner to what happened three minutes earlier. So I can't play it the same way." - Kevin Mulcahy ” The cognitive feeling that they have the information to give it, whereas the ecological belief is that the information is in the game. Right. So let's give them the opportunity to learn about the game. In the game. - Kevin Mulcahy "Absolutely, I think strength and conditioning has to move more towards a better and deeper learning of motor learning, right? And that soft coaching side of it." - Kevin Mulcahy" "The change always has to start somewhere." - Joel Smith About Kevin Mulcahy Kevin is an experienced sports and S&C coach who has worked with various sports teams, athletes, professionals, and clubs across three continents for over 30 years. He is the owner-operator coach of the Design the Game Project, a platform that shares coaching insights and research to a progressive and learning-led audience. Design the Game promotes a Constraints Led Approach to Motor Learning and coaching. Kevin has studied on and off the field how humans learn to move and learn skills for well over 20 years. Through the DTG Brand has ran several Mini Online Course around Motor Learning, Decision Making in Sport and Practice Design. Kevin also runs TMC Performance, a bespoke S&C/PT business that caters to the overall health and lifestyle of his clients from athletes to Busy Professionals through a “strength & Conditioning for life & Sport” mindset and programming approach. Kevin has carried out Sports Coaching in Club roles coaching in Field & Court Sports as well as Boxing. Full-Time & Part-Time Professional roles across amateur, Semi-Professional & Professional Sport. Kevin has a strong educational background in coaching science, with a BSc in Strength and Conditioning from Setanta College, a certificate in Nutritional Science and Coaching from Precision Nutrition, and a certificate in The Neuroscience of Decision Making from Barcelona FC. Kevin takes an ecological approach to coaching and life in general and has a deep interest in Ecological Dynamics and the Constraints Led Approach to coaching and Motor learning. Kevin as a Sports and S&C Coach (either/or or hybrid roles) has in recent times been lucky enough to be part of coaching teams that won Regional and National (All Ireland) Titles with Cork Camogie, National Superleague Basketball Title with Ballincollig Basketball and Cork Senior A Gaelic Football Championship with Newcestown. Design the Game is unveiling online and in person workshops on Decision Making in sport to clubs and coaches around the world.

407: Cameron Josse on Optimizing Speed and Strength in Football Development Apr 18, 2024

Today's podcast features Cameron Josse, Assistant Strength & Conditioning Coach at Auburn University. With experience at Indiana University Football and DeFranco’s Training Systems, Cameron has worked with athletes from various levels and sports like NFL, NHL, UFC, and WWE. A former football player at the University of Rhode Island and current PhD candidate at Jean Monnet University, Cameron's approach to performance training is both practical and comprehensive. As we move forward in sports performance training, there is more data around speed training for athletes than ever, as well as corresponding logistics and systems. We are understanding that physical preparation is not a one-sized fits all approach, not only between sports, as well as within positions in a single sport. By better understanding key aspects of speed development on an individual level, as well as in knowing the evolving role of strength training over time, we can better serve the needs of the individual athlete. On today’s episode, Cameron will cover the process of optimizing resisted sprint protocols in college football athletes, as well as important individual differences he sees between positions and maximal speed ability. We will cover strength training in light of long term athlete speed and power development, sprint biomechanics and injury prevention, as well as concepts of integration between strength and sport skill staffs. Cameron is a brilliant coach with an expansive view of the training process. This conversation is a valuable addition for anyone interested in long term development of speed and athleticism. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr, the Plyomat, and LILA Exogen. Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off of any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer head to Lilateam.com TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. Use the code “JUSTFLY” for a free 30 day trial of the TeamBuildr software at https://teambuildr.com. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at www.plyomat.net View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Main Points 4:08- Optimizing Power Output Through Velocity Variation 11:27- Position-Specific Biomechanics in American Football Players 19:31- Position-Specific Force-Velocity Profiles in Sprint Performance 27:50- Enhancing Sprint Training in Team Sport 31:08- Neural Efficiency in Skill Player Performance 36:20- Neural Processes in Sports Performance Optimization 42:30- Optimal Pelvic Alignment for Efficient Running 47:53- Enhancing Movement Quality Through Motor Techniques 57:47- Optimizing Performance by Removing Physical Constraints 1:07:06- Optimizing Training Programs for Athlete Profiles 1:15:02- Explosive Velocity Training for Muscle Hypertrophy 1:17:14- Optimizing Athlete Performance through Strategic Training 1:20:52- Sprinting’s Impact on Weight Room Training Integration 1:25:49- Collaborative Communication for Athletic Development Success Cameron Josse Quotes "It's like you're not going to get a ton of return on it if you just keep chasing (gym strength) forever and ever and ever. It seems like there's a certain point where enough is enough, right?" - Cameron Josse" What we're finding is that the, like, the step velocity itself, like how fast the leg moves through the push phase, is really, really important for the bigs. It seems like it. There's a big correlation to performance for those guys, but it's not really. It doesn't seem to be as big of an important factor for the skill guys. Cameron Josse The bigs are so big, they have less opportunity to compensate to a certain degree. Yeah, like, they. It's like, I got to get this big body moving, and, like, we all kind of need to self organize to do this better or else we're not going to move, you know. Cameron Josse As soon as you go from, like, a 50% (velocity decrement) to a 20% (velocity decrement), and now they're operating at 80% of their relative maximum speed, they. Those fast guys are blowing everybody else out of the water. I'm talking by, like. Like miles per hour, plural. Right? Like, it's. It's off the charts different. And so it's. It's pretty interesting how you're right, like, those who are more elastic, more reactive, faster in general, have better, more efficient nervous systems. "When we watch a skill guy in American football, everybody's enamored with the 40-yard dash, and, like, how fast is this dude? Or when he's got the ball in his hands, can he just take the top off or make everybody look silly around him? And so all of those factors that we're enamored with are indicative of a very high functioning, efficient nervous system, to me, very elastic, very reactive." - Cameron Josse" "If we don't understand things in context or even try to understand things in context, then we're probably doing more harm than good." - Cameron Josse" "I just use it as an example of, you know, can we potentially over fatigue the hamstring? And how does that then affect the neural recruitment pattern and all that?" "Each type of stimulus, be it eccentric, isometric, normal electro stim plyometrics. It's like, okay, here's what this does for you. And then here is the drawbacks." - Joel Smith "The biggest performance indicator of your entire system is going to be communication." - Cameron Josse Transcript About Cameron Josse Cameron Josse is currently an Assistant Strength & Conditioning Coach for football at Auburn University. Before joining the Auburn Tigers, Cameron served as an Athletic Performance Coach for football at Indiana University. His journey in sports performance began with a 7-year stint at DeFranco’s Training Systems, where he held the position of Director of Sports Performance from 2014-2020. Throughout his career, Cameron has collaborated with a diverse range of athletes, from high school and collegiate players to professionals in the NFL, NHL, UFC, and WWE. A former football player at the University of Rhode Island, Cameron holds a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology and a master’s degree in exercise science from William Paterson University. Cameron is currently a PhD candidate at Jean Monnet University in Saint-Etienne, France.

406: Rafe Kelley on Empowering Athletic Movement Potential Apr 11, 2024

Today’s podcast features Rafe Kelley, owner of Evolve Move Play. Rafe has studied and taught a multitude of movement practices spanning gymnastics, parkour, martial arts, weightlifting, and more for over 20 years. His passion is to help people build the physical practice that will help make them the strongest, most adaptable, and most resilient version of themselves in movement and life. Rafe has had a profound impact on my coaching and training philosophy and has helped me expand my views on the totality of the bio-psycho-social model of movement and human performance. Much of modern training is overly prescriptive, reliant on drills, and overemphasizes winning. This leads to practices with a reduced learning potential, a downplay of creativity, and a lowered ceiling of movement and skill potential. It also leads to less engaging practices in general. In today’s episode, Rafe delves into his unique methods and teachings that foster creative and adaptable athletic movement. He explores the interplay of constraints and play in sport and skill training, underscores the significance of creativity and improvisation in movement (and how to cultivate it), and shares insights on the role of joy in movement. Rafe also touches upon collaborative movement training, rough-housing, dance, and movement improvisation, and how these elements can shape better learners and movers in their respective sports or movement practices. By gaining a deeper understanding of play, exploration, and constraints, we can unlock the full potential of human performance. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr, the Plyomat, and LILA Exogen. Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off of any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer head to Lilateam.com TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. Use the code “JUSTFLY” for a free 30 day trial of the TeamBuildr software at https://teambuildr.com. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at www.plyomat.net View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Main Points 2:30- The balance between constraints and free play in coaching, as well as children’s skill development 15:30- Training based off of “following one’s joy”, versus more set skill rehearsal 25:30- Creativity and improvisation in human movement and sport performance 32:30- Athleticism, dance, and individual dancing versus dancing with others, in context of sport 41:00- Roughhousing and links to team sport movement and problem solving 48:00- Forms of play that are both done for winning, as well as learning, exploration and mutual growth 57:30- Scaling and continuums of effort in individual and team sports, for improved learning 1:07:00- The use of roughhousing, and contact improv oriented work, on facilitating play states, and opening up movement options in a donor sport format Rafe Kelley Quotes “Soccer works because there is a set of constraints; there are structures that allow the game to exist, but there are infinite degrees of freedom once the constraints are in place” “Usually I’ll have 3 areas I’m working in, and then one core skill” “At the end of the session, I’ll ask them “What was your rose, your bud and your thorn”. They get to reflect on what they want to hold going forward” “Sweet, we are playing tag. How do we add a little more speed demand to that tag. How do we play a version of tag that looks like this, and gives you the thing you are looking for?” “Creativity is the ability to create a solution to a movement problem, in a sport situation” “What made Barry Sanders special wasn’t that he did set plays better than anybody else” “A gymnast doing a high bar routine, is actually adjusting constantly to try to achieve the goal; they are not doing the exact same thing… but that’s far less chaotic then adding another player” “We tend to fall in love with expressions of Type 1 athleticism (sprinting, jumping, explosive power)” “(Jokic) is able to attune to everyone else on the team incredibly well; so he conducts his team on an extraordinary level; I do think that in some sense, that’s the type of thing that is cultivated in dance” “A human being is a super-predator because of our capacity to do what quarterbacks do” “I found you could break down (10 human core capacities) into locomotion, manipulation, and combat” “The reason we enjoy football is because it allows us to experience (locomotion, cooperation, combat)” “One of the things we discovered with contact improv, is that removing the competitive intent, or creating a creative intent allows to you explore spaces you would avoid, if you were having a competitive interaction’ “What we are going to play with is a coach/athlete dynamic, the coach’s role is to provide the environment that the athlete becomes skillful within” “Once you have reached a certain level of skill, you shouldn’t be giving yourself the option of using all of your skills, you should limit yourself in some way to give yourself the bandwidth you need to work on” “Where are you feeding the athlete a safe, scalable exposure to all of the different ways that their structure can end up interacting with another athlete, and that’s something where contact improve, martial arts, or roughhousing can be extremely valuable” “Sometimes (roughhousing) is the most neurally potent way of inviting a play-state in” “We get a lot of social stimulus constantly, with very low value as far as intimacy” “A warmup should be as much social and psychological as much as it is physical” Show Notes Evolve Move Play invites you on a journey to rediscover this primal joy through our Roughhousing programs. Each tailored to meet different needs, these programs offer a unique blend of physical skill-building, emotional bonding, and pure, uninhibited fun. Check out these programs and more at evolvemoveplay.com/courses/ About Rafe Kelley Rafe Kelley is the owner of Evolve, Move, Play, a business designed to use movement practice to develop more resilient and embodied humans. Raised by two yoga instructors, he was a basketball player and gymnast (and gymnastics coach) in his teens. Rafe started in the martial arts at 6 years old, studying Tang Soo Do, Aikido, Kung Fu, Kick Boxing, Brazilian Ju Jitsu and Muay Thai. Rafe also has experience in modern training disciplines such as sprinting, gymnastics, crossfit, FRC, modern dance and many others. His primary specialization is in parkour, the practice of navigating obstacles by jumping, running, flipping or swinging over them, a skill set he primarily taught himself by watching videos and training deep in the woods. Rafe co-founded Parkour visions at age 23, and eventually left to form Evolve, Move, Play. His students have included world-class parkour athletes and MMA fighters, as well as untrained grandmothers. His passion to is help people build the physical practice that will help make them the strongest, most adaptable and resilient version of themselves in movement and in life.

405: Austin Jochum on Foundations of Athlete Centered Performance Training Apr 04, 2024

Today's podcast features Austin Jochum. Austin is the owner of Jochum Strength and is a strong proponent of athlete centered, play based, robust physical training. Austin was a former D3 All-American football player and a hammer thrower (MIAC weight throw champion) at the University of St.Thomas. Austin has been a multi-time guest on the podcast, and every conversation with him has been both enjoyable and enlightening. Much of sport coaching and training today takes place in a “fractured” version of ultimate training and performance. The balance point of training is shifted heavily towards “perfect technique”, drill work, and high output, low variability practices that reduce the movement solution potential of the athlete. This mentality feeds into sports performance, where singular physical markers (especially maximal strength) tend to be accelerated as fast as possible, rather than tending the patient, purposeful growth of the entire athletic library of skills and physical abilities. On today’s episode, Austin gives his take on the foundations of athlete-centered development model that prioritizes joy, the learning process, and long-term development. We discuss the role of play and exploration in achieving both one’s ultimate athletic performance, as well as enjoyment of the process. Austin goes into his take on games as a pre-cursor to prescriptive training measures, highlights the importance of confidence and emotional aspects of training, and much more. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr and the Plyomat. TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. Use the code “JUSTFLY” for a free 30 day trial of the TeamBuildr software at https://teambuildr.com. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at www.plyomat.net Sign up for Austin and Joel’s live 1-day seminar in Cincinnati, Ohio on June 8th, 2024 View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Main Points 1:30- Rock Climbing Lessons and Athletic Performance Enhancement 7:27- Enhanced Performance Through Enjoyable Movement Practices 13:59- Athlete-Centered Coaching for Optimal Performance and Success 17:03- Athlete-Centered Coaching for Enhanced Performance 22:00- Joyful Training for Enhanced Athletic Performance 24:24- Athletic Success through Mental Fortitude and Confidence 40:35- Play-Based Warm-Up for Athlete Development 43:13- Optimizing Skill Development Through Varied Environments 48:33- Psychological Influence of Coaches in Sports 54:10- Balancing Creativity and Structure in Athlete Development 1:00:35- Empowering Athletes Through Training Autonomy 1:04:14- "Peak Performance through Passionate Pursuit" Austin Jochum Quotes " So how can you make things harder to get a stimulus to the body at a very, very low cost? And that is the complexity model that you were talking about. It's like hop on the (rock climbing) wall instead of just doing more pull ups with more weight. You're going to have to continually add so much more stress (in pull ups) to get the same level of stimulus that you could just do climbing a wall because there is so much going on there.." - Austin Jochum "We're just prescribing strength, we're just prescribing hypertrophy, whatever it is. We're just throwing that out there. Use the play to drive the prescription. What do they need? What are we finding out when they are playing? What do we see? Then you go prescribed”.- Austin Jochum "So, in fourth grade, we had an under the lights football game, and me and my buddy Luke, we scored a touchdown in that game, and it was the only touchdown scored in that game, and we were the only two to end up playing college football. And at that time, and never once were we the most athletic. Never once were we the highest. But in fourth grade, we scored a touchdown. He passed it to me. I caught the ball. We scored in fourth grade. It was terrible football, whatever, but we scored, and we talked about it from fourth grade until we graduated, about that moment of scoring that touchdown and having that belief." "I'm going to take them back out to the general aspect to again try to get more data points. And that that's really where I find the value in the variety approach with these games is what data points am I getting from that? Because if I just throw them in the same things over and over again, and that's what a lot of football practices I find out the same things over and over again and we're just going to continue to brash our head against the wall." "One of the easiest ways to think about this is hardcore, okay? You jump over a low hurdle, you have 400 different options to jump over a low hurdle. As that hurdle goes up, you start to have one option to jump over that hurdle and you're just going to have like, you don't have a choice anymore." - Austin Jochum" “And as we get to practice, and this is what a lot of football coaches do, they drive up pressure, they drive up output to where the only option that athlete has is to throw the perfect ball in the perfect slot over and over again. Rather than putting them in environments where variability can be high because pressure is low” "The more you understand each node in the whole system, and the more each node can kind of fit with some of those principles in nature. The better the total result can be." - Joel Smith "I think we could also mix prescriptive with exploratory, and there's so many implications with that that I think is, again, there's infinite possibilities and we're all different parts and nodes of what the athlete is going to be experiencing in their sport journey." - Joel Smith Show Notes Frank Forencich movement class https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2bcq3769ps&t=390s About Austin Jochum Austin Jochum is the owner of Jochum Strength where he works with athletes and washed up movers to become the best versions of themselves. He also operates The Jochum Strength insider which is an online training platform for people trying to feel, look, and move better. Austin was a former D3 All-American football player and a hammer thrower (MIAC weight throw champion) at the University of St.Thomas,

404: Scott Leech on Building a Total Game Speed Program Mar 28, 2024

Today’s podcast features Scott Leech. Scott is the head strength and conditioning coach at the University of Rhode Island. He oversees football, women’s tennis, and women’s track and field and manages all strength and conditioning aspects for the department. Scott is a former football captain and earned academic honors at Springfield College. Agility training is far more than cones, ladders, and tires. It is a multi-faceted training construct based heavily on task-based stimuli. Modern coaches are understanding in greater detail, the need to help players adapt to the tasks of the game. There is a place in performance where further strength and linear speed gains no longer move the needle for an athlete in their on-field play. At some point, a broader understanding of movement must be taken up by coaches who desire to improve transfer points in their performance program. On today’s podcast, Scott gets into the weekly breakdown of his speed and agility training program. He talks about how he pairs specific on-field perception and reaction tasks with more linear speed, jump training items, and strength work done in the gym. Through the podcast, Scott makes distinctions between games done for fun and for task-specific purposes, the role of exploration, as well as manipulation of variables in speed and agility games. This podcast will really expand your understanding of off-season training and performance. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs, TeamBuildr and the Plyomat. TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. Use the code “JUSTFLY” for a free 30 day trial of the TeamBuildr software at https://teambuildr.com. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for free (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at www.plyomat.net View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Main Points 1:15- The “200” rule for bench press in Scott’s gym 7:15- Defining moments in how Scott’s approach to game speed has evolved 10:45- Scott’s ratio of linear or developmental work, to applied agility work 20:15- The role of “fun games” and then specific developmental agility games 22:15- Scott’s 3 types of training days in his weekly regimen 29:15- Manipulating race and chase drills to increase competitive richness 35:15- Setting up drills to allow for exploration of techniques and creativity 43:15- The nature of Scott’s maximal velocity day 51:00- Scott’s change of direction oriented training days 59:15- How Scott assesses athletic capacity Scott Leech Quotes “Can it be reactive, but can it also start looking a little more like football.. it’s easier when it looks like a drill they did at practice” “We like to start with high intensity, competitiveness (in speed and agility training), and then we backfill with what we need” “Coaches see a 1v1 on social media and think, that’s a good drill, but in my head, there is more to it then that, there is “what are the entry points for the offensive and defensive person?”, “Is it a static start, or are they shuffling and starting the drill”? What happens when you add obstacles to the situation” “Handball is purely a game, let’s go out and have fun; but I can’t use it to help them move off a pick and roll” “We’ll do acceleration, horizontal plyos, and single leg lifts (on Monday), and guys will come back feeling better then when they walked in, this is good work but it isn’t crushing me” “Wednesday we run fast, we jump high, we lift heavy, and we get paid!” “It’s ok if you have something a little bit lateral on your acceleration day, or curved sprints, where does that fit in?” “Now make it, the front person can’t leave until the back person moves (in a basic chase drill)” “Well I undercut the barrel because I thought I get there before he a move, but he beat me with speed. Well he lost but at least he is trying something new; there is so much more value in that versus doing an L drill and just saying “you won it and you lost it”” “When you come to this level, players get exposed, because everyone is fast, everyone is strong” “The difference between a kid playing and not playing is (angles, perception, reaction); It’s not speed and power, he’s got plenty of that” “Foot is nothing but layers of complexity and the guys who can sift through that are the good football players” “For me, 24x110’s, the only thought in my mind is survive. And I don’t want to be on the football field “trying to survive”” “There’s players that can push all the weight in the world, but they aren’t good at pushing a body” Show Notes: Scott’s Pre-contact course https://contactprep.carrd.co/ About Scott Leech Scott Leech enters his fifth year at Rhode Island in 2023-24. In July of 2021, he was promoted to head strength and conditioning coach after initially joining the department as an assistant strength and conditioning coach in February of 2020. With the Rams, Leech oversees football, women’s tennis and women’s track & field in addition to overseeing all areas of the strength & conditioning for the department. When he joined the staff, he was responsible for designing and implementing training programs for the baseball, volleyball, women's soccer and women's track & field teams. Leech came to Rhode Island from Merrimack College, where he was an assistant strength and conditioning coach from August of 2015 through February of 2020. There he worked with the baseball, men’s basketball, football, women’s lacrosse and women's track programs. He assisted in program implementation for 24 Division I teams while also coordinate and overseeing the undergraduate internship program for the Strength and Conditioning department. Before his time at Merrimack, Leech was a graduate assistant in strength and conditioning at Springfield College. Leech also interned with the Strength and Conditioning departments at both Missouri and Brown. He is certified by the National Strength and Conditioning Association, is a level 2 practitioner in Reflexive Performance Reset and is CPR/AED/First Aid certified by the American Red Cross. Leech earned his bachelor's degree in Applied Exercise Science: Sport Performance from Springfield College in 2013. He added a master's degree in Exercise Science and Sports Studies from Springfield College in 2015 and began work on a master's degree in Data Science from Merrimack in 2019. A football player at Springfield College, Leech was a team captain as a senior. He earned CoSIDA Academic All-District honors and was a member of the National Football Foundation Honor Society.

403: Nicolai Morris on Gymnastics, Plyometrics and Elite High Jump Performance Mar 21, 2024

Today’s podcast features Nicolai Morris. Nicolai is the Head of Performance for AFLW at Collingwood AFL club. She is also the strength and conditioning coach for World Champion and Olympic medalist high jumper Nicola Olyslagers (formerly McDermott). Previously, she worked as the Head of Physical Preparation of the Australian Women’s Hockey Team, NSWIS, and HPSNZ, working with NZ Rowing and leading NZ women’s hockey. She is an elite level 3 ASCA coach with a master’s in strength and conditioning and over 17 years of experience. Strength is far more expansive than what is gained from lifting barbells. It encapsulates a large number of qualities and abilities. When it comes to helping high-level athletes break through a performance barrier, what is needed is not simply “more barbell strength” but improving one’s total strength and movement package. Many forms of movement and strength can be employed to do this. This week’s podcast guest, Nicolai Morris, uses many strength and movement methods in her training. One of Nicolai’s athletes, Nicola Olyslagers, recently set the Oceanic high jump record at 2.03 meters (6’8”), and in today’s episode, Nicolai goes through the various strength and movement methods that helped set Olyslagers up for success on the high jump apron. Our discussion also deals with pole vault, swimming, and athlete autonomy. This episode was an expansive discussion on the role of strength and coordination in high jump training and beyond. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs and the Plyomat For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for free (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at www.plyomat.net View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Main Points 1:27- Personalized Cues for High Jump and Pole Vaulting 17:39- Enhancing Coaching through Diverse Skill Training 25:52- Surface Variety for Enhanced Athletic Performance 35:48- Cushioned Surfaces for Plyometric Training 38:06- Enhanced Foot Strength Through Sand Training 42:19- Dynamic Training Strategies for Athlete Development 44:40- Optimizing Performance: Balancing Creativity and Structure 55:45- Athletic Success through Joyful Training Mindset 59:07- Targeted Training for Optimal Athletic Performance 1:04:34- Optimizing Movement Quality Through Single Leg Training Quotes “I have to relax. And even in drilling, I do better when I relax rather than tensing up and trying so hard. So it's a really fascinating one. And yeah, in swimming, when you try hard, it destroys you in an event in a 200” “But we've been doing a lot of work on her weaknesses. For her, that's often single leg strength, stability and hinging, hip extension type work and cross chain work are kind of key elements that have come across the whole way through that” “So we added in a bit of an obstacle course where she'd land on different soft, hard, interesting, big surfaces. And I told her to be creative, and she's a creative person, and went, all right, just chuck a bunch of things down on the ground. Make it fun, make it challenging, but make sure you are landing on different surfaces, hard and soft” “But our traditional model will help. We don't really have access to a gymnastics facility over the next four, five weeks. Coming into world indoors, let's go backwards. And we went back to our traditional way of doing things and you could see the position wasn't there. And immediately after the competition, it was. Yet we're going back to gymnastics” “She's got a beach right near her and her initial training, no matter when she comes back, will always start on sand and grass rather than going straight on track, which isn't uncommon. But the sand, she's always done blocks of sand her entire life. So being able to have that intrinsic foot strength, I think has been a big benefit into keeping her injury free” About Nicolai Morris Nicolai is the Head of Performance for AFLW at Collingwood AFL club. She is also the strength and conditioning coach for World Champion and Olympic medallist high jumper Nicola Olyslagers (McDermott). Previously, she worked as the Head of Physical Preparation of the Australian Women’s Hockey Team (The Hockeyroos), NSWIS, and HPSNZ working with NZ Rowing and lead of NZ women’s hockey. She is an elite level 3 ASCA coach with a masters in strength and conditioning with over 17 years’ experience.

402: Ryan Jackson on Tendon Dynamics in Football Performance Mar 14, 2024

Today's podcast features Ryan Jackson. Ryan has been the Associate Director of Human Performance/Nutrition with TCU Football since December 2021. His duties include team nutrition education, counseling, and menu planning. As a performance coach, he works directly with quarterbacks, mids, and advanced athletes. Jackson has been involved in sports performance and nutrition on the NCAA DI level for over 15 years. Tendons and connective tissue are an important aspect of human movement. Yet, compared to muscle, there is relatively little objective data or research on their adaptive processes or key performance metrics. Skeletal structure considerations, such as infrasternal angle, also play a vital role in an athlete's movement strategy and muscle mass dynamics and are also something we are just beginning to learn and integrate into the training equation. In creating a total performance program, it is essential to understand not just the dynamics of muscle but also of bone and tendon. On today's show, Ryan will discuss the correlations found at TCU between the Achilles tendon thickness, Nordboard metrics, fat-free muscle mass, and training season. He will also discuss the differences in Achilles thickness between football positions and the implications for training well-roundedness. Finally, Ryan will discuss the infrasternal angle measurements and how these correlate to an athlete's lean muscle mass and potential for maximal functional muscle gain in the gym. This episode was an awesome deep dive into cutting-edge information about connective tissue and performance. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs and the Plyomat For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for free (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at www.plyomat.net View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Main Points 6:34- Tendon Adaptation in Response to Muscle Forces 7:51- Tendon Thickness Impact on Athletic Performance 16:54- Achilles Tendon Thickness and Athletic Performance 17:26- Achilles Tendon Thickness and Force Production 19:04- Achilles Tendon Stiffness at Malleolis Measurement 36:59- Calf Muscle Stiffness in Elite Athletes 52:56- Optimizing Athletes' Performance Through Body Composition Analysis 59:07- Achilles Tendon Thickness and Athletic Jump Strategies 1:00:19- Hip Dip Strategies Impact Jumping Performance 1:20:06- Enhancing Tendon Healing with Isometric Training 1:21:19- Enhancing Athletic Performance with Collagen and Tendon Training 1:31:42- Structural Differences Impacting Athletic Performance in Bounding Quotes “Defensive backs, on average had bigger Achilles tendons. Interesting. We have a guy the second biggest, and I think it's a product of their movement and their position, where if I'm backpedaling, moving backwards more, it's more eccentric loading. Right?” “So you get the knee bent to a 30 degree angle, and then you push as hard as you can, push your heel up into the strap as hard as you can, and it's like an ISO for like three to 5 seconds, overcoming ISO for like three to 5 seconds. There is an inverse relationship between Infra-sternal angle. So what I mean by that is the more narrow, the more force produced in that test” “But what we saw with that is that, yes, it was very strongly correlated with Isa. With higher. The greater the angle, the higher their fat-free-mass-index is, which in theory makes sense, and that typically that person is going to be wider. So they have the ability to handle more muscle mass on their frame” “So you would think that a big would have the widest ISA on the team. That was not the case. We had a running back, actually had the biggest 205 pound running back, had the biggest ISA in that upper 25% quartile. There was three bigs, four skill and one mid. And reference ranges. There's not a whole lot of information on this, but if you refer to Connor Harris, he has some norms. And anything greater than 110 degrees is technically wide, and then less than 110 degrees is narrow. Our smallest ISA was 118, biggest was 149. It didn't really change, not significantly throughout the year. Usually it was like one to two degrees. If it did” “My takeaway there is that, especially with the data that we see with 180 pound db having achilles tendons as big as offense and defense alignments, that they probably use their tendons to move more, whereas the muscle driven guy uses his muscle to move more. And so if I'm using my tendons to move more, I should definitely be supplementing with collagen” About Ryan Jackson Ryan Jackson has been the Associate Director of Human Performance/Nutrition with TCU Football since December 2021. In this role, he serves as a sports dietitian and performance coach. His primary responsibilities as a dietitian include team-based nutrition and supplementation education, individual counseling, and menu planning. As a performance coach, he works directly with the quarterbacks, mids, and advanced training-age student-athletes. Prior to TCU, Ryan Jackson worked with UCF Athletics staff from May 2021 to December 2021 as the director of performance nutrition and the head sports dietitian for the athletics department. Jackson came to UCF after two years working with the SMU athletics department as a sports dietitian and football strength coach. Prior to his work with the Mustangs, Jackson had a similar role at Arkansas State, where he worked as a strength coach and sports dietitian with the football program from 2018-19. Prior to his time at Arkansas State, Jackson was an assistant director of athletic performance at Tulsa from 2016-2018, where he worked with volleyball and men’s soccer and assisted with the football team and sports nutrition. Jackson also spent time at the University of Missouri from 2008-2015. During his stint with the Tigers, he worked as a strength and conditioning intern, graduate assistant, and assistant director of strength and conditioning, working with diving and gymnastics and assisting with the football program. In addition to his current role with TCU Football, Ryan is also an adjunct professor at Logan University, where he teaches a sports nutrition class within the Master of Science in Strength and Conditioning. Ryan has three degrees from the University of Missouri: a bachelor's degree in nutrition and fitness, a master's degree in health education and promotion, and a bachelor's degree in dietetics. He is a registered and licensed dietitian (RD/LD), certified strength and conditioning specialist (CSCS), and is Flex Diet Certified.

401: Angus Ross on Neural Wiring, Elasticity, and Dynamic Coordination in Sport Mar 07, 2024

This week’s podcast guest is Angus Ross. Angus is a former Winter Olympian employed by High Performance Sport New Zealand. He works with track and field and several other Olympic sports, including sprint cycling, skeleton, squash, rowing, tennis, and more. Angus has a PhD in exercise physiology from the University of Queensland and has been a multi-time guest on the podcast. He is an absolute wealth of knowledge on all things speed, power, and human performance. There is a lot that the world of sport can learn from track and field, but perhaps the most valuable lessons can be gained by studying the decathlon and heptathlon events. Most sports performance programs will jump, sprint, and throw, but the focused, competitive aspects of those events bring out the highest level of expression for pure outputs, along with the speed-endurance aspects. In today’s podcast, Angus discusses the relationship between the multi-events and the needs of team sports, including the dynamics of creating scoring tables in a performance program and the connective tissue development multi-event training brings about. He discusses the relationship between speedbag training and sprinting. He also gets into isometrics and elasticity, as well as plenty of case studies and examples of putting these principles into action. I always have fantastic conversations with Angus; this talk was no exception. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs, TeamBuildr and the Plyomat. TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. Use the code “JUSTFLY” for a free 30 day trial of the TeamBuildr software at https://teambuildr.com. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for free (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at www.plyomat.net View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Angus Ross Main Points 3:00- Comparing “Rotational” and “Linear” Events in Track and Field 11:20- Loaded Mobility for Athletic Performance Enhancement 18:24- Enhancing Connective Tissue Quality Through Loaded Stretching 31:45- Heptathlon Training Impact on High Jump Success 35:28- Rotational Movements in Multiplanar Athletic Training 43:03- Elasticity's Role in Athletic Performance 46:26- The Role of Elasticity in Athletic Performance 54:53- Enhanced Athletic Performance through Speedball Training 58:19- Spinal Engine's Role in Speed Enhancement 1:06:03- Enhanced Performance Through Muscle Control Adaptations 1:09:23- The Role of Long Isometrics and the Nervous System 1:11:49- Enhancing Physical Strength Through Structured Workouts Angus Ross Quotes "I just think it's interesting how these different qualities degrade at different rates. And in terms of trying to maintain your athleticism, probably that elasticity, ability to bounce is probably something that we should be thinking about." - Angus Ross" “I talked at a high jump mini conference we had in New Zealand a little while ago. Made the analogy that it's really interesting, too, that the high jump + heptathlon is a really good combination. There's a lot of world class heptathlon athletes (who are really good at high jump). "With the decathlon. I kind of have this idea in my head, like the decathlon principle, in the sense of what could be applied for any event. Like almost this catalog of same but different skills to be good at if you want to be good at one thing." - Joel Smith" “But in contrast, volume of work probably is really good for your connective tissue and your fascial stuff and your tendons. And so perhaps the multi event is. And this is one of the things I was writing a couple of notes when you had some of those ideas to talk about. It's fascinating to me that we have now, we've got decathletes on the scene that can run 10.2 in the 100 meters and they can run close to four minutes in the 1500 meters” "When you're doing this horrible level of fatigue and discomfort, you get to, you learn stuff because you go, well, how can I hold this position? All these motor units are dying on me." - Angus Ross" “That was the thing in Scotland, snows in the winter. They had no indoor facilities. They trained in a little shed. What can we do? We can put a speedball up and hit that and do a body weight circuit. And guess what? They got really bloody fast. Crazy” "Extreme adaptations to extreme demands. There's something in it." - Angus Ross" About Angus Ross Angus is currently employed by High Performance Sport New Zealand in a power physiology and strength and conditioning role, primarily working with track and field. He has worked with a number of sports at an elite level within the NZ system including sprint cycling, skeleton, squash, rowing, tennis and more. Angus has a PhD in exercise physiology from the University of Queensland and has also worked within the Australian institute system with stints at both the Queensland Academy of Sport and the Australian Institute of Sport. He is also a Winter Olympian in his own right having competed at the 1998 and 2002 Winter Games.

400: Paul Cater on Dynamic Coaching and the Natural Learning Process Feb 29, 2024

Today's podcast features Paul Cater, a seasoned strength coach with extensive experience in both professional and private realms. Beginning his journey in collegiate football at UC Davis, Paul later ventured into international professional rugby with the London Wasps for seven years. Following his rugby career, he spent a decade innovating strength and conditioning systems in professional baseball with the Baltimore Orioles and Los Angeles Angels. With a research focus on performance and injury reduction in Seville, Spain, Paul now optimizes training methods for the tactical community and is designing "The Lab Monterey," a premier 'smart gym' in the USA. While training is often regarded as both an art and a science, the majority of time and resources are allocated to the scientific aspects, leaving the artistic elements overlooked. The art of training extends beyond communication with athletes, delving into the intuitive process of session unfolding and the natural processes of learning, movement, and community engagement. In today's podcast, Paul explores the alignment of performance with natural learning, emphasizing challenge and mimicry over verbal statements and rote recital of patterns. He details how to create an environment that breathes life into training sessions, fostering engagement, enhanced learning, and improved results. The discussion also covers the role of science in the context of "smart gyms" and how technology can liberate coach resources for more creative investments. In a rapidly evolving world, this podcast is a landmark exploration of understanding athletes and fostering a meaningful coaching process. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs, TeamBuildr and the Plyomat. TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. Use the code “JUSTFLY” for a free 30 day trial of the TeamBuildr software at https://teambuildr.com. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for free (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at www.plyomat.net View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Main Points 2:30- How athletic dance movements fit with culture, and how it works into Paul’s training ideas 12:30- Priming the environment of the athlete for better results, with the influence of music selection 19:00- Key exercises and “attractors” to help drive flow states and learning via mimicry in training 27:00- How to manage structure and basic coaching guidelines, along with creating space for freedom of movement and exploration 37:00- The nature of how children play, and their background, and implications for training and performance 43:00- Paul’s process of teaching, and education for mentors and assistants 53:00- How upbeats, and downbeats fit with rhythmic movement flow and athleticism 1:07:00- What the ideal world is in training and coaching, in regards to the balance of technology and sports performance Paul Cater Quotes “To really understand a culture, you have to understand their dancing culture and their music integration” “I believe right now in America, we are establishing a culture that is devoid of identify and basic movement patterns” “Dancing is ingrained in battle, and in sport you are mirroring movements, mimicking movements” “I want to have young athletes be more readily available to accept challenges, versus seeing things as threats” “Music, and the opening salvo of exercises can (engage an athlete) on both levels (of challenge and innate movement patterning)” “Birds mimic the sound, and then they vary it” “Choosing a song, mimicing beats and rhythms, within a drill, with peers” “I think if we teach young athletes to memorize drills, or plays, we take away that creative inhibition” “That’s the fine line, you want to challenge (respect the session and coaches authority), but you also want to inspire freedom” “The mountain gyn is a garage, and logs and a bar; and I want it to be that way, and then I have all the tools and tech back in Monterey “Purposefully withholding directive, speech, is a huge part of teaching people, athletes… it’s like Yoda, withholding information for Luke, purposefully” “Often, I let them interpret things, and they’ll change the drill to their interpretation, and I’m OK with that as long as it’s keeping with the core of the movement” “Can kids do these two things, challenge and mimic; that’s part of where the injury prevention comes; it’s not get stronger, or concentric force, or even rates of eccentric loading; it’s how quickly can we adapt, accept, and change” “My goal is to have a smart-gym, where I can get back to coaching, and not be a weight room monitor, or just a rah-rah guy, but really to create the creative rhetoric of challenge, and bring out the mimicry process” “You have to understand where kids are culturally coming form; how much have they trained by themselves out in nature, by themselves, running up hills on their own willpower and motivation doing it… that’s going to become less and less” “You need both environments, I think you need climical, efficient training environments, but you also need places where you can mimic nature, and feel danger, and can have that challenge in other ways to, and you need both” Show Notes Katotsky Kick Athleticism in Dance Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hzk5Ir37wjM Syncopation in Music (Upbeats and Downbeats) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Drs_uqFG-to Paul Solo Agility Warmup Flow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzkpewfDbMY&t=194s Transcript About Paul Cater Paul’s journey in human performance began through the scope of playing collegiate football at UC Davis, yet, it was his International experience that established the foundation of sport science, culminating with a 7-year stint in professional rugby highlighted by multiple championships with London Wasps, 2005-2010. During that time Paul was able to assist in world leading human performance systems and concurrently gaining his Masters Degree Middlesex University, London. It was those relationships in within the rugby and soccer community that has innervated innovative methodology blending the best of Europe and the USA. After rugby duty ended, Paul worked as a strength and conditioning coach in professional baseball for 10 years, having helped pioneer new systems in the MLB with the Baltimore Orioles (2012-2018). He finished his professional baseball phase with the Los Angeles Angels in concert with finishing his doctoral research through University Pablo de Olavide, Seville, Spain on the topic of comparing traditional gravitational based inertia resistance versus rotary inertia flywheel resistance to increase performance and reduce injury rates. Drawing parallels to daily readiness over long term minor league baseball and active duty employment cycles, Paul looks to further employ his experience in optimizing methods for the tactical community. While coaching professional teams, he has concurrently developed The Alpha Project, building training centers and programs for local athletes to develop physical and leadership skillsets for the next level of competition. He has a particular passion for developing coaching talent, helping graduates out of college navigate their path into successful strength and conditioning careers. Through vast experience in professional rugby and baseball, as well as within the Special Operations community, Paul is currently designing one USA’s premier ‘smart gyms” near his hometown on the Monterey Peninsula - aptly named “The Lab Monterey” - to solution training issues for all demographics through leveraging of technology and advanced training theory. Paul and his wife Stephanie maintain Monterey, California as their home base where he was born when his parents were stationed at Fort Ord. He looks to his father’s example in prioritizing family and being a leader in the community, while passing on the love of the mountains and ocean to his two little girls. Paul’s passion for Human Performance has always been within the context creating sustainable human relationship for optimal outcomes both in competition and life. By integrating relationship and artistic expression to physiological adaptation, longer lasting performance outcome, but more importantly quality of life during and after service are achieved.

399: Alex Kanellis on Explosive Rotational Strength Development Feb 22, 2024

Today’s podcast is with Alex Kanellis. Alex is the founder of Landmine University. He is a former state champion wrestler, Iowa Gatorade Player of the Year (Football), and University of Iowa football player. He has been a scholastic strength coach, wrestling and football coach, as well as having spent time as a performance coach for Weck Method. Currently, Alex’s focus is on training youth wrestlers, as well as his work with Landmine University. Strength training for athletes is fundamentally basic. The powerlift variations, as well as Olympic lifts recruit a large amount of muscle mass and are fundamentally stimulating. At the same time, with the potential to be over-used, “functional” training has emerged, offering light-weight movements with high demands for balance and coordination. Landmine oriented training movements offer a happy medium in a high potential for force application, a rotational and arc-like orientation, as well as short learning curves (unlike the longer learning curve of the Olympic lifts). On today’s podcast Alex goes into his experiences that brought him into landmine training, and how he uses the method with athletes. He also gets into the advantages and unique aspects of the method, and touches on the transfer points to a number of athletic movements and practices. Alex touches on isometric landmine variations, as well as gets into GPP methods for young athletes in general, and what we can learn from the athleticism of wrestling and combat sports. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs, TeamBuildr and the Plyomat. TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. Use the code “JUSTFLY” for a free 30 day trial of the TeamBuildr software at https://teambuildr.com. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for free (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at www.plyomat.net View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 4:39- Enhancing Athletic Performance Through Rotational Core Movements 10:12- Rotational Landmine Training for Athletic Performance Gains 17:50- Rotational Landmine Exercises for Explosive Athletes 21:23- Spinal Engine Theory for Athletic Performance 32:00- The Role of Fat Grips and Unilateral Landmine Lifts 43:50- Rotational Resistance Training with Landmine Exercises 49:41- Building Athleticism Through Wrestling Movements 55:57- Focused Training for Elite Performance in Gymnastics 57:49- Enhancing Athlete Skills Through Wrestling and Free Play Alex Kanellis Quotes "Landmine lifts too is you really do feel the load go from one glute to the other glute and you can feel, and that's something that is really powerful and also just safe because they're just limited in a way that I like." - Alex Kanellis" "Your spine is the primary engine for locomotion, as opposed to bracing your spine to neutral and powering locomotion with your hips and legs." - Alex Kanellis "What if it's not an argument? What if you just started with more stuff like landmine cleans, or it's a lower bar to jump over, it's more athletic then maybe in high school or later (bring in Olympic Lifts)." - Joel Smith "If we are going to spend those skill points as a coach who's not their sport coach, it does feel really satisfying when just at least a couple of those skill points overlap with what they're working on in their sport." - Alex Kanellis" "Yeah, but it makes you play differently, and it gives you something. And so much. I think a lot of times we almost find things by accident that are because of these constraints." – Joel Smith “And you could ask Donnie Thompson or any of the guys that are into the fat grip stuff. But for me, I remember with even bench press, but deadlift, particularly when I did work with a fat grip, it sort of auto corrected my form. It just became almost impossible to do it with bad form” "So, in the whole system, there's principles that I wrote out, sort of just as a way, a measuring stick, and make sure that these movements were as functional as possible. So it's forward intent, rotational intent, core driven movement, and then progressive overload. – Alex Kanellis “And that also lights up your lat, lights up your oblique. I'm big on giving proximal cues and sort of letting the distal stuff take care of itself. People do come back really sore in the lower leg” – Alex Kanellis “It's interesting because I've always thought it was a great question, like, do wrestlers need a strength coach or do gymnasts need a strength coach? Wrestlers and gymnasts are extremely strong, regardless of their weightlifting background. And they look it, too” ~ Alex Kanellis "Play wrestle. That's all you're going to tell them to do. Let each other win once in a while, try some different stuff." - Alex Kanellis" Show Notes Landmine clean with Alex Kannelis https://www.youtube.com/shorts/jOgiGBmCdyM About Alex Kanellis Alex Kanellis, is the founder of Landmine University. He is a former state champion wrestler, Iowa Gatorade Player of the Year (Football), and University of Iowa football player. Following a career ending football injury Alex interned in strength and conditioning with coach Chris Doyle. For a decade, Kanellis served Regina High School as a strength coach, also contributing as an assistant football coach for eight years and briefly as head wrestling coach. His impact extended to WeckMethod, where he worked as a strength coach, gaining recognition in Men's Health magazine and other media. Currently, Kanellis focuses on training youth wrestlers, combining his athletic background with innovative strength training methods.

398: Mark McLaughlin on The Art of Total Athlete Development Feb 15, 2024

Today’s podcast is with Mark McLaughlin. Mark is the founder of Performance Training Center, and currently works as a physical preparation/strength coach in the Lake Oswego school district. Mark has had a diverse sporting history as a youth, and has been active in the field of physical preparation since 1997. Mark has trained over 700 athletes at all competitive levels, from Olympic to grade school athletes, and has worked with organizations such as the NFL, MLB, NBA, NCAA universities, high schools, and youth sports. On the last podcast (#358), Mark spoke on his creative and wide-ranging approach to athletic performance, with an emphasis on movement training and athlete learning, as well as technology and the importance of the aerobic system in athletes. For today’s show, we center on a case study of one of Mark’s high school athletes who put 2 feet on his standing long jump and 11 inches on his vertical jump in just over 2 years time. Within this framework, we get into Mark’s ideas on athlete autonomy and feedback, jump training, progression and pacing of work, hill sprints, capacity, and more. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs, TeamBuildr and the Plyomat. TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. Use the code “JUSTFLY” for a free 30 day trial of the TeamBuildr software at https://teambuildr.com. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for free (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at www.plyomat.net View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 6:25- The Role of Autonomy in Athletic Development 10:37- Gradual Increase in Plyometric Training Intensity 15:58- Optimizing Performance Through Reduced Training Volume 25:30- The Benefits of Diversifying Training Methods 35:33- Strength Training Concepts for Well Rounded Development 43:19- Optimizing Performance through Feedback and Monitoring 55:26- The Impact of Intent and Constraints 1:00:26- Jump Testing Device with Reactive Strength Measurements 1:02:59- Plyometric and Jump Training 1:09:16- Hunter's Varied and Intense Training Regimen 1:20:22- Hill Sprinting, Speed and Work Capacity Mark McLaughlin Quotes “So we just basically cut the volume almost by two thirds. And within the first month, his vertical increased like five inches” “Well, as a coach, sometimes I'm kind of constraint led as well. And so, kind of some of the things that I did to facilitate fun and progress was I started a gymnastics program, per se, within the athletic development model that I have there, and all the kids love it. So, number one, and that's part of the warm up. So that's one to get them there, the other thing that we do prior to training is game based. So they could play team handball, they could play ultimate football, ultimate Frisbee. We have a rugby ball, soccer.” “And again, when you ask kids, I think this is part of coaching in this country that is just bad to me, is we're never asking the athletes what they like. How do you feel about the training? Do you like what we're doing? No, I don't. Okay, then let's figure out what you do like. To keep you coming back. I do a questionnaire with every team twice a year to find out through my program what they like, what they don't like, my coaching style. So I can then refine this thing year to year to make it truly athlete centered” “This past year, I bought an adjustable hoop for the weight room, so we were doing different dunks and different jumping activities” “Yeah. I grew up with three younger brothers. We had a dunk hoop that would raise from, like, eight and a half to nine and a half feet, and you would watch Julius Irving dunk on somebody. Then you're trying to go out and dunk on your brother the same way he did it” “I have two tether balls at the school that I throw over the power racks and I pull them up and I'll have kids run and jump up and try to head those like a soccer header. So the intent on that, you have them just jump up and try to touch the top of the power rack” “There's a hockey player from Russia, Pavel Datsuk. They call him the magic man. So Pavel liked to, when he was playing with his friends, they tried to make the game, the constraints they put on themselves to make it harder or more enjoyable. It's extremely fascinating. And so one of the things that Pavel liked to do was he liked to play ice hockey in felt boots on the ice, and he played with a bouncy puck. It was creating a totally different game that he had to start and stop differently” “And so the method that I use is it's an all out sprint, either uphill or with a sled for less than 5 seconds. So you're recruiting as much fast fibers as you can, but because the duration is so short and you don't want to exceed your anaerobic threshold, that it's purely aerobic, and that's going to lend itself to repeatability within these team sports. And that still is kind of the basis of these hill sprint sessions that I do with the athletes. But then you also get, I think, some residuals on the speed side as well” Show Notes The Shaping Of A High School Football Athlete: My Journey With Hunter Kavanaugh About Mark McLaughlin Mark McLaughlin is the founder of Performance Training Center, and currently works as a physical preparation/strength coach in the Lake Oswego school district. He attended college at the College of Sante’Fe in New Mexico and is an Oregonian residing in Portland. Mark’s love for athletics grew during his teenage years, where he participated and competed in various sports. Through his sports experience and education, he developed a strong dedication to the overall well-being of athletes. This dedication led him to continually educate himself in athletic performance enhancement, and he has been active in the field since 1997. Mark has trained over 700 athletes at all competitive levels, from Olympic to grade school athletes, and has worked with organizations such as the NFL, MLB, NBA, NCAA universities, high schools, and youth sports. Along with his online training and consulting services, Mark also speaks at various organizations locally, nationally, and internationally.

397: Joel Smith Q&A on Reactive Strength, Intuitive Athleticism and Swim Performance Methods Feb 08, 2024

Today’s episode is a Q&A podcast with Joel Smith. Questions on this episode revolve around swim training, sprint training, plyometrics, and specific training means for athletic development. Much of my philosophy has gone towards motor learning and how athletes can intuitively learn explosive sport skills, that not only gets results, but is also sustainable over time. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs, TeamBuildr and the Plyomat. TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. Use the code “JUSTFLY” for a free 30 day trial of the TeamBuildr software at https://teambuildr.com. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for free (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at www.plyomat.net View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 2:11- Explosive Athletic Training with Plyometrics 7:25- Retracting the Thorax for Effective Swimming 17:56- Enhancing Energy Recovery through Breathwork Techniques 24:07- Adjusting High Intensity Training for Sustainability 32:23- Exploring Foot Positions and Pressures for Single Leg Jumping 37:24- Constraints-led Approach in High Jump Training 39:50- Explosive Skills and Athletic Movement Enhancement 44:20- Optimizing Performance through Body-Mind Activation 56:39- Avoiding Impingement with Alternative Squat and Deadlift Variations 59:27- Optimizing Sports Performance through Specific Joint Angles 1:07:21- Enhancing Weightlifting Performance through Neural Activity Questions Best plyometrics to prepare for training them again after a long layoff? What's your approach in terms of S&C for swimming? Besides endurance, are there elements of swimming that translate to running mechanics? Top 5 best training modalities on recovery days? Training wisdom for training vertical jump after 40? Has your training changed since turning 40? Best way to organize a workout for a quad dominant athlete vs hip dominant? How do you improve an athlete who can't bring in speed into there 1 foot dunk? Top 3 tips to get better at high jump? What's the one thing you would program to progress with a track athlete from 7th-12th grade? Top 5 isometrics to do pre-court session? Thoughts on an open palm vs closed for sprinting? How to peak for 100m as a muscular driven sprinter in track sprint work? Does maintaining a strength for a sprinter in season matter? Show Notes Marv Marinovich Water Training https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUb1V7hBUMY Transcript About Joel Smith Joel Smith is the founder of Just Fly Sports and is a sports performance and track coach in Cincinnati, Ohio. Joel hosts the Just Fly Performance Podcast, has authored several books and coaches in both the high school and private sector. Joel was a strength coach for 8 years at UC Berkeley, working with the Swim teams and post-graduate professional swimmers, as well as tennis, water polo, and track and field. A track coach of 17 years, Joel coached for the Diablo Valley Track and Field Club for 7 years, and also has 6 years of experience coaching on the collegiate level, working at Wilmington College, and the University of Wisconsin, LaCrosse. He is currently coaching high jump at Milford High School. Joel has coached 4 national champions, multiple All-Americans, and NCAA record holders in track and field. In the realm of strength and conditioning, his programs have assisted 5 athletes to Olympic berths that produced 9 medals and a world record performance at Rio in 2016.

396: Graeme Morris on Curvilinear Speed, Athletic Microdosing, and Learning from the Martial Arts Feb 01, 2024

Today’s podcast is with Graeme Morris. Graeme is an athletic development coach and leads the rehab program at Wests Tigers. He is the former head of strength and conditioning at AFL Field umpires, Western Suburbs Magpies and the Newtown Jets. Graeme has consulted for a variety of field based and combat athletes including world and Australian champions in Muay Thai. Graeme has experience designing and implementing strength and power in the gym, as well as speed, agility and conditioning on the field. In athletic performance, it’s easy to get trapped in one viewpoint of improved athleticism, when there are many aspects of good movement and decision making. Graeme has both a wide-ranging understanding of sport and physical training, as well as an ability to understand the role of each coach and specialist in the overall training process. On today’s podcast, Graeme speaks about his time training in the martial arts, and how that impacted his thought process in his recent return to traditional sports performance training. He also gets into thoughts on lateral and curvilinear sprint development, ideas on how to “micro-dose” athleticism in team sport athletes, ideas on staggered stance lifting, and more. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs, TeamBuildr and the Plyomat. TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. Use the code “JUSTFLY” for a free 30 day trial of the TeamBuildr software at https://teambuildr.com. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for free (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at www.plyomat.net View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps 4:43- The Impact of Training Environment on Performance 13:24- The Importance of Fitness Tests in Sports 20:55- The Importance of "Grapple Strength" in Wrestling 30:43- Building a Resilient Foundation for Athletes 41:04- The Importance of Curvilinear Running in Athletics 46:20- Layered Progression for Athletic Performance Enhancement 53:02- Enhancing Athletic Performance through Variable Training 59:48- Staggered Stance Squatting for Back Relief 1:02:20- Flywheel Training in Athletic Performance Graeme Morris Quotes "But then I believe that in a soccer game that they analyzed, and I'm not saying this is necessarily true in rugby league or what the sports I work in, but 85% of sprints were curvilinear nature. Okay? So all of a sudden we know, okay, this is also preparing guys for game demands." - Graeme Morris "Are you getting taught the correct things? Are you getting taught the correct tactics? Do you have good training partners? If you get training partners is so and so important. The people around you, are they challenging you? Are they pushing you? Are they assisting you? Becoming better every single day? So when I come back to sport, I always think, are we having a training environment that can lead to success? You want to produce a culture there, but that's not only really demanding and you're upholding standards, but it's still enjoyable to come to every single day." - Graeme Morris "But every single player knows what a good time is and what not a good time is. And when they return to training or when they come back, they know what the standards are, whether they're fit enough or they're not fit enough." - Graeme Morris "But you also got to also understand with some of these types of methods when you're in a team scenario as well. It's got to fit in with the holistic nature of what all the other coaches want as well. So you don't always get exactly what you want, whereas if you're doing something individually or when you're just a private coach, you can explore a bit more of these things. You might have this intuitive nature that you think this works and if your athlete has trust in it, it's easy to implement. Whereas in a team scenario, like multiple coaches are going to have input and then that certain thing might not get the tick of approval, so you might not get to have the full say, if that makes sense." - Graeme Morris "But to do that fun stuff, you have to do some of the other stuff before that, I believe." - Graeme Morris "I find the Kbox pushing into these positions like that because it's just forcing you all over the place when you're trying to do it, especially when you're doing it properly with a lot of." - Graeme Morris Show Notes Rugby Contact Drills https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71beRAMIuGQ Transcript About Graeme Morris Graeme Morris is an athletic development coach and leads the rehab program at Wests Tigers. He is the former head of strength and conditioning at AFL Field umpires, Western Suburbs Magpies and the Newtown Jets. He has consulted for a variety of field based and combat athletes including world and Australian champions in Muay Thai. Graeme has experience designing and implementing strength and power in the gym, as well as speed, agility and conditioning on the field. He holds a degree in Human Movement with Honours in Exercise Physiology, a Master’s degree in Strength and Conditioning and is a level 2 qualified Australian Strength and Conditioning Coach (ASCA).

395: Romain Tourillon on Foot Dynamics in Athletic Movement Jan 25, 2024

Today’s podcast is with Romain Tourillon. Roman is a physiotherapist, researcher and educator carrying an emphasis on the foot-ankle complex in rehab and performance. He is engaged in a PhD thesis on the foot muscles role in sports performance, supervised by sprint research expert, JB Morin. Romain works as a clinician at the Swiss Olympic Medical Center at La Tour Hospital, and has presented at various congresses on aspects of foot and ankle performance. The foot is a massively important, and under-studied aspect of athletic performance, and considering the way the foot is trained and integrated makes an impact in the training program. For today’s show, Romain discusses the roles of the mid-foot and fore-foot in human movement, and gives training applications to optimize each foot section. He gets into the role of the toes in training, sensory input, intrinsic foot strength, and much more. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs, TeamBuildr and the Plyomat. TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. Use the code “JUSTFLY” for a free 30 day trial of the TeamBuildr software at https://teambuildr.com. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for free (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at www.plyomat.net View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 7:41- The Interconnectedness of Lower Limb Function 11:48- The Impact of Forefoot Strength on Athletic Performance 16:43- Evolutionary differences in foot and hand function 19:16- Improving proprioception and foot function through barefoot training 28:02- Effective Foot Activation Exercises with Dorsiflexion 38:08- Enhancing Foot and Calf Strength and Performance 45:18- Calf Muscles: Force Absorption and Propulsion 52:23- Muscle Groups for Foot Propulsion 1:05:03- Midfoot Strengthening with Tibialis Raises Romain Tourillon Quotes "The lower limb has to absorb and produce force. You say it's not just the foot does that, not just the hip. And so that's why you have to have this holistic push and this link between both (the foot) and every joint here." - Romain Tourillon "I find for proprioception or like balance based exercises, it's a good sign when people are feeling that in the intrinsic foot muscle. I find people who do balance exercises and don't feel it in their foot. They feel like they're calf. Usually those are people with issues. There's a strong link there." - Joel Smith "When you increase the (toe) dorsi-flexion, for example, during the heel raises, you increase the mid-foot moment and mid-foot force production." - Romain Tourillon "But it's pretty good exercise in order to work on this production on the first ray on the big toe, that it's much more economic. You can produce greatest force production and it's better for everything to have this. What I say, good propulsion. I would say good propulsion picture or good propulsion function. Pushing on the first toe." - Romain Tourillon "The first thing is to say, okay, the absorbing foot is this muscle Tibialis Anterior, Tibialis Posterior. So the two biggest. And after, if you look at the calf, it's the Soleus, which are, I would say the greatest absorber in the chunk." - Romain Tourillon "With the long toes, you have an increase of the lever arm within the foot, between the ankle joint rotation and the tooth. So allowing you to have, if you have the, I would say, calf capacity to have a greatest lever arm to produce force on the ground." - Romain Tourillon Show Notes Ziani Step (Toe Dorsiflexion Strength) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbS541xZLdA Romain Tourillon: First Ray Calf Raise https://www.youtube.com/shorts/jKyUeMorsLs Romain Tourillon: Midfoot Weight Transfer https://www.youtube.com/shorts/DNoIFbFhnLU Romain Tourillon: Seated First Ray Calf Raise https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Hbmtr0_vkt8 Little Toe Brick Alignment Toe Brick Alignment Transcript About Romain Tourillon Romain Tourillon is a versatile professional, integrating roles as a sports physiotherapist, researcher, and educator. Leading the foot-ankle service at the Swiss Olympic Medical of La Tour Hospital in Geneva, he is engaged in a PhD thesis on foot muscles' role in sports performance kinetics, supervised by Prof. JB Morin at the University of Saint-Etienne, France. Romain holds an MSc in physiotherapy and an MSc in Training and Sport Performance Optimization from France. He represents the profession internationally as an active member of the scientific organization: International Ankle Consortium. With a Master's in Sports Science (Training & Performance Optimization) from the University of Nantes and a Master of Physical Therapy from IFM3R Institute, Romain's research centers on the foot-ankle complex in injury, sport, and performance, emphasizing foot strengthening. Currently, he works as a clinician at La Tour Hospital (Swiss Olympic Medical Center - Geneva - Switzerland) Romain has presented at various national and international congresses, including the International Ankle Symposium, French Ankle Symposium, and European Congress of Sports Science, and has peer-reviewed publications on human foot muscles' strength.

394: Ian Markow on A Practical Approach to Mobility, Breath and Movement Training Jan 18, 2024

Today’s podcast is with Ian Markow. Ian is a personal trainer and movement educator based in Delray Beach, Florida, and founder of Markow Training Systems. Ian utilizes methods and philosophies from Functional Range Conditioning, the Postural Restoration Institute, and more as he works with clients from the general population to professional athletes. Ian is an internationally recognized expert in fitness, mobility, and human performance and has a number of educational programs, courses, and workshops. With the vast amount of information on corrective exercise, movement, and mobility training, knowing where to start and how to view the human moment equation can be challenging. As helpful as movement training can be, it can also easily create a training narrative that an athlete is dysfunctional, and promote a “nocebo” effect of movement limitations, as well as create an environment of high pressure on the part of the trainer to elicit particular movement and range of motion outcomes. On today’s podcast, Ian discusses taking a practical perspective that centers on what an athlete can do rather than what they cannot and the simple gateways he manages to engage with the individual's breathing, mobility, and alignment. He also gets into ideas on managing more superficial movement abilities versus more deep-seated structural elements, gives his take on assessments, and much more. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs, TeamBuildr and the Plyomat. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for free (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at www.plyomat.net TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. I’ve continued to hear great things about the Teambuildr platform, and whether you are looking for an in-house training portal or an online training hub, be sure to check out Teambuildr training software. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 6:17- Empowering Mobility Training with Individualized Care 14:33- Dynamic Shoulder Mobility Through Break Dancing 18:10- Breath Work and Alternative Strength Movements 27:41- Engaging and Effective Dynamic Warm-ups 33:44- Prioritizing Simple Solutions for Tangible Improvements 42:17- Enhancing Performance Through Stride-Based Breathing 47:15- Balancing Intensity and Mobility for Overweight Clients 57:18- Wall-Based Assessments 1:01:20- The Impact of Rib Cage Structure 1:17:47- Yielding and Expanding for Optimal Breathing 1:23:39- Isometric Training with Horse Stance 1:28:42- Ian Markow's Training Methods and Workshops Ian Markow Quotes "But there's corners and things that you're hitting in your CARs that will maintain that joint over time, that simply, I just haven't found anything that gets there." - Ian Markow "I think you can generally get stronger. So let's strength train and keep you fit while we work around some of your limitations, but also specifically for your elbow. When you go to play tennis or paddle, why don't you go ahead and do these elbow CARs? Let's do a few more of these every day and just keep the thing moving." - Ian Markow "I could care less what her hip rotation is because we're obviously crushing it. She feels great. She's more confident. You know what I mean? So those are the outcomes that matter, and it all comes down to the goal." - Ian Markow "In another way of putting it, I'm kind of thinking about stumbling, thinking about what the right phrase is, but just keeping the training vibe. It's keeping the training vibe and is the main thing feeling better and not getting bogged down with other little minutiae." - Joel Smith "I think most people are so crushed in their lower back ribs that when I teach them how to round them and then how to breathe into them and get separation between those ribs, that can be absolutely a game changer." - Ian Markow "I think effortless efficiency is a big, kind of, like, catchphrase that I've been really loving for the past few years. The idea that you use as much tension as you need, but no more than that, because that's what efficiency is." - Ian Markow "And just like the cold plunge is like this huge phenomenon right now, it's the same thing. You're in the bottom of a split squat and your leg is violently shaking. You need to learn how to get through that wall." - Ian Markow About Ian Markow Ian Markow, a dedicated personal trainer and educator from Miami, FL, began his fitness journey at Crunch Gyms, and eventually Goldman Sachs, in New York City. Ian is the founder of Markow Training Systems (MTS), and has a number of courses, training programs, and is a regular workshop presenter. Ian is well versed in the Functional Range Conditioning system, and is a sought-after expert in the realms of mobility, fitness and human movement.

393: Christian Thibaudeau on Loaded Stretching, Pre-Fatigue, and Nervous System Management in Athletic Development Jan 11, 2024

Today’s podcast is with Christian Thibaudeau. Christian is a Canadian strength coach with over two decades experience, is a prolific writer, and has worked with athletes from nearly 30 sports. He is the originator of training systems such as the NeuroTyping system and Omni-contraction training. Christian is a wealth of training knowledge, and in addition to his extensive experience, he walks the talk in his training, competing in weightlifting and bodybuilding. I always enjoy having Christian on the show, as he is an absolute wealth of knowledge in multiple areas of human performance. I’ve had a significant number of revelations across my time speaking with Christian that have had a profound impact on my approach to programming and training. On the episode today, Christian talks about aspects of the nervous system and training stress, both in shorter-term cycles and waves of work, as well as year-to-year recovery concepts to restore the body and mind. Christian also covers ideas on training to failure, pre-fatigue and muscle activation work in relation to athletic skill development, loaded stretching for strength, and more. This was an awesome show, and it’s always great to have Christian on the podcast. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs, TeamBuildr and the Plyomat. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for free (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at www.plyomat.net TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. I’ve continued to hear great things about the Teambuildr platform, and whether you are looking for an in-house training portal or an online training hub, be sure to check out Teambuildr training software. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 6:58- Optimizing Neurological Training for Maximum Gains 8:22- The Importance of Structural Abilities in Training 13:29- Neurological Factors and Performance Fatigue 24:23- The Impact of Skill Mastery on Performance 25:58- Enhancing Performance through Systemic Stress Management 31:51- The Importance of Rest and Recovery 35:20- The Impact of Mental State on Training Performance 39:22- Optimal Muscle Growth through Post-Failure Technique 45:00- Targeted Muscle Growth through Low Volume Training 53:20- Maintaining Bar Proximity for Olympic Lifts 1:02:44- Enhancing Performance with Iced Calves 1:10:07- Optimizing Health with Magnesium Supplementation Christian Thibaudeau Quotes "The reality is that when we are talking about training methods that are focused on neurological changes, which would be pretty much all power training methods, reactive training, plyometrics, pros, even the Olympic lifts, and even strength training, as far as in the very low ranges or isometric stuff like that, they all have a very short duration of what effective training can be." - Christian Thibaudeau "But if your body is not ready, what happens is you're creating lots of low grade systemic inflammation. You are causing stress on those tissues, and you don't always feel the pain, but it's still there, and it still sends signal to your brain, which will create inhibition, preventing you from performance, from performing at your best." - Christian Thibaudeau "But I'm telling you, if you do a four to six weeks period where you devote as much focus and thinking into designing a recovery program than you do programming your performance program, dude, when you come back from that, you're going to be a freaking machine." - Christian Thibaudeau "I think it's a mistake to try to do everything with the same tool. Each tool has its purpose. Don't try to nail a nail with a saw. That just doesn't work well." - Christian Thibaudeau "If you understand a movement really well and you understand which muscles do what in that movement, you can think, you know what that technical issue I'm seeing, maybe it's not because of poor technique, but it's because one muscle is overactive versus what it needs to be, and one is underactive versus what it needs to be. So you can try to reverse that and then practice the skill. You might not have to do any technical correction. Just changing that activation fatigue ratio in some muscles might self correct the technique." - Christian Thibaudeau "It actually is a great way to program your brain to use the fast twitch fibers. And it's a great way of doing volume work for the fast switch fibers, because doing typical lifting, if you try to do volume, you'll get that two x to two a conversion which you don't want. With loaded stretching, I don't think that happens. And also you are strengthening that lengthened position, which makes you stronger in that weaker and more dangerous position. It's literally a training method that every single athlete should do." - Christian Thibaudeau Transcript About Christian Thibaudeau Christian Thibaudeau has been involved in the business of training for over the last 19 years. During this period, he worked with athletes from 28 different sports. He has been “Head Strength Coach” for the Central Institute for Human Performance (official center of the St. Louis Blues). His specialty: being a generalist. He assists his athletes to develop the necessary qualities to increase their performances (eg: muscle mass, power, explosiveness, coordination). His work method enabled him to lead several successful athletes in a multitude of different disciplines. Christian is a prolific writer with three books published, each of which translated into three languages (The Black Book of Training Secrets, Theory and Application of Modern Strength and Power Methods, High Threshold Muscle Building). In addition, Christian is co-author with Paul Carter in a new book, which will soon be released. He is also the author of two DVDs (Cluster Training, Mechanical Drop Sets). Christian is also a senior author and head writer for the E-Magazine T-Nation his articles are read by over 200,000 people every week. He competed in weightlifting at the national level as well as bodybuilding, He was also a football coach for 8 years. As a lecturer, he has given conferences and seminars in both the United States and Europe, to audiences ranging from amateur athletes to health professionals and coaches of all types. Christian Thibaudeau popularized the Neurotyping system. Neural optimization supersedes hormonal optimization because the neural response affects the hormonal response. This is essentially the founding principle and inspiration behind Christian Thibaudeau’s Neurotyping System. The bottom line is simple: you are more likely to train hard, be focused, and stay motivated if you like the type of training you are doing, and a training that goes against your nature causes a greater stress response that hinders optimal progression. “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” – Albert Einstein

392: Dr. Keith Baar on Isometrics and the Evolution of Tendon Training Jan 04, 2024

Today’s podcast is with Dr. Keith Baar, professor at UC Davis and renowned tendon training researcher and expert. Professor Keith Baar received his PhD from the University of Illinois, and over the last 20 years, Keith has worked with elite athletes, as the scientific advisor to Chelsea Football Club, USA Track and Field, Paris Saint-Germain Football Club, British Cycling, The English Institute of Sport, Leicester Tigers Rugby, and the Denver Broncos. He also spent time as an assistant strength coach with the University of Michigan football team where he was an undergraduate. Keith first guest appearance on this podcast, was on the role of various exercise velocities and tendon health, and was an extremely popular episode. Tendon training is crucial for overall health and performance, as tendons rely on loading for adaptation. Isometrics, a potent tool, are key to a robust training program. In this episode, Keith Baar explores tendon tissue adaptation trends and how different forms of isometrics and training methods optimize tendon health and high-tension capabilities. He delves into the impact of both low-speed and high-speed loading movements, emphasizing the compounding effects achieved by combining them for enhanced performance. Dr. Baar discusses essential concepts like tendon remodeling, the body's protective mechanisms, and the optimal sequence for training to realign and remodel tendon tissue. Drawing from examples in swimming, running, and rock climbing, he highlights the integral role tendons play in shaping training and performance outcomes. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs, TeamBuildr and the Plyomat. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for free (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at www.plyomat.net TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. I’ve continued to hear great things about the Teambuildr platform, and whether you are looking for an in-house training portal or an online training hub, be sure to check out Teambuildr training software. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 5:02- Benefits of Collagen Supplementation for Knee Osteoarthritis 10:03- Determining Collagen Synthesis through Exercise and Supplementation 15:47- The Power of Belief in Pain Relief 21:56- The Complexity of Pain and Tissue Healing 29:45- Optimizing Training Through Body Adaptability 31:46- Effects of Running Surfaces on Tendon Health 43:40- Tendon Health and Performance in Rock Climbing 52:27- Isometric Exercises for Scar Tissue Regeneration 59:54- Movement-Based Strategies for Inflammation and Recovery 1:09:38- Dynamic Adaptation of Muscle and Tendon Tissues 1:23:00- Optimizing Performance and Health through Tailored Training 1:23:47- The Impact of Loading Techniques on Injury Prevention and Performance Enhancement 1:24:12- Estrogen's Impact on Injury Risk and Prevention Dr. Keith Baar Quotes "These peptides, these magical elixirs. They don't really do anything at all." "The hardest part, a lot of times, is having the expert to come in and say, this is what the real underlying problem is. And if you fix this, all the other stuff goes away." "In thinking about human beings as being incredibly adaptable, it's interesting to think about how we can use that adaptability to shift out of, hey, if you mentioned even the tendon with the know, use that adaptability, like, hey, let me get away from the donut part and shift into the strong tissue." "Your movement has to be much, much faster. And that movement through being faster means that the tendons are going to be stiffer and that means that the whole system is going to work very differently." "And so what it really kind of suggests is that, look, the max hang is really going to be important. Because that's what you're testing on. You're testing on as much weight as you can. But when you're doing that again. The load is going to go through the tendon differently. And so when I do a partial hang. I can get almost the same effect. With a fraction of the load. So a fraction of the mechanical fatigue. But I'm getting the signal to the cells so that the cells get the signal to adapt and they're adapting very similar to somebody who's got a much bigger signal." "You can fix the scar, you can fill the hole, you can do all of these things that are going to fix your connective tissue, your tendons." "So, in our paper, where we showed the native effects of these cytokines, these immune cell messengers, we also inhibited using a drug that blocks one of the big inflammatory pathways. And what we did was we made the ligaments almost useless because inflammation is required certain types and certain amount of inflammation is required for the proper function of our tendons and ligaments. When we eliminate it, using ice, using massive anti inflammatories, using other things that are designed to decrease all inflammation we see is our ligaments and tendons become horrible." Show Notes Emil Abrahammson Hang Training https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBTI9qiH4UE Transcript About Keith Baar Professor Keith Baar received his Bachelor’s in Kinesiology from the University of Michigan where he also served as an Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach with the University of Michigan Football team. He then received a Master’s from the University of California, Berkeley and his PhD from the University of Illinois where he discovered the molecular signal that causes load-induced muscle hypertrophy. He did his postdoctoral studies on the molecular mechanism underlying the muscular adaptation to endurance exercise under the direction of Dr. John O. Holloszy at Washington University in St. Louis. From there, Prof. Baar founded his first laboratory in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Dundee in Scotland. Keith is currently the head of the Functional Molecular Biology Laboratory (FMBLab) at the University of California Davis. Over the last 15 years, Keith has worked with elite athletes, as the scientific advisor to Chelsea Football Club, USA Track and Field, Paris Saint-Germain Football Club, British Cycling, The English Institute of Sport, Leicester Tigers Rugby, and the Denver Broncos, to maximize the effects of training for both endurance and strength while minimizing injury. His research is focused on determining the molecular mechanisms underlying the physiological and functional adaptations of the musculoskeletal system to nutrition and exercise. The result of this research is almost 100 peer-reviewed articles in journals from the Journal of Applied Physiology to Nature. His current work is focused on how loading and nutrition alter tendon/ligament/ECM health and performance.

391: Vern Gambetta on The Art Form of Athletic Development Dec 28, 2023

Today’s podcast is with Vern Gambetta. Vern is currently is the Director of Gambetta Sports Training Systems, and a seasoned coach in athletics, coaching techniques and physical preparation methods, with a career spanning over 50 years. Vern is recognized internationally as an expert in training and conditioning for sport having worked with world class athletes and teams in a wide variety of sports. He is a popular speaker and writer on conditioning topics having lectured and conducted clinics in Canada, Japan, Australia and Europe. There are two side of the coin in coaching, and while the maximal strength and data-based side is heavily emphasized, the more creative, adaptable and “functional” side of human performance is far less built out in programming. That base of knowledge and core process is certainly important, but it can choke out problem solving, fostering adaptability, while developing a creative, dynamic process. In this episode, Vern delves into the fundamental elements of training athletes for optimal performance. He explores the intricacies of his training system, drawing on historical references and influences. Vern articulates his perspective on maximal strength training and emphasizes the significance of rhythm, tempo, and flow in the training process as well as cultivation of movement quality and long-term athlete longevity. Additionally, Vern highlights the crucial role of creativity in coaching, underscoring the continuous refinement of coaching systems and observational skills over time. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs, TeamBuildr and the Plyomat. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for free (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at www.plyomat.net TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. I’ve continued to hear great things about the Teambuildr platform, and whether you are looking for an in-house training portal or an online training hub, be sure to check out Teambuildr training software. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 9:27- The Influence of passionate and eclectic coaches 20:47- The rhythmic evolution of coaching through music 21:54- The artistic expression of swimming technique 24:49- The eclectic approach to coaching athletes 33:57- Developing athletes' cue systems and body connection 35:29- Building upon progress for long-term success 39:03- The impact of throwing ability on athletic performance 44:47- Real-life movement-based training for athletic performance 53:54- Training for long-term athletic success 1:03:12- Enhancing performance with split work 1:13:29- The relationship between flexibility and performance Vern Gambetta Quotes "But I'm really curious how in high school I didn't even start until I was a senior in football. But I don't know why I wanted to be a college football player. My brother was a great athlete, and he was a really good football player, that never everything came easy. I was the opposite." - Vern Gambetta "Coaching is managing complexity and harnessing chaos." - Vern Gambetta "Strength training is coordination training with appropriate resistance." - Vern Gambetta "I always just kind of weigh the Olympic lifts against a good backward shot put, or even like a good depth jump to a med ball overhead type thing, something like that." - Joel Smith "It's about curiosity. It's about deep investment in a process, creating a system, you know, your own system. And the core of that system, once you coach a few years, never really changes. But on the outside, you're constantly fine-tuning." - Vern Gambetta "Creativity, first of all, is not getting weird. It's being able to look at the same motion with different eyes." - Vern Gambetta Show Notes Victor Salnikov Swim Dryland Training https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rh2GyYH07Q Kadour Ziani Dunker: Creative Training (on Mark Bell’s podcast) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3oj7LkghZk Transcript About Vern Gambetta Vern is currently is the Director of Gambetta Sports Training Systems. He has been the a conditioning coach for several teams in Major League Soccer as well as the conditioning consultant to the US Men’s World Cup Soccer team. Vern is the former Director of Conditioning for the Chicago White Sox and Director of Athletic Development for the New York Mets. Vern is recognized internationally as an expert in training and conditioning for sport having worked with world class athletes and teams in a wide variety of sports. He is a popular speaker and writer on conditioning topics having lectured and conducted clinics in Canada, Japan, Australia and Europe. Vern's coaching experience spans 39 years at all levels of competition. Vern has authored six books and over one hundred articles related to coaching and sport performance in a variety of sports. He received his BA from Fresno State University and his teaching credential with a coaching minor from University of California Santa Barbara. Vern obtained his MA in Education with an emphasis in physical education from Stanford University.

390: Logan Christopher on Breath Training and Breaking Mental Barriers in Human Performance Dec 21, 2023

Today’s podcast is with Logan Christopher, strongman, author, owner of Legendary Strength, and CEO of Lost Empire Herbs. He has been a prior podcast guest speaking on mental training and giving an expansive view of the components of strength in the human being. Logan has written several books, including “Mental Muscle” and “Powered by Nature,” which I have found to be impactful, alongside numerous other manuals on human movement, performance, and mental abilities. Logan is an expert in using the natural machinery of the body in connection with our environment to help us reach our highest potential as humans. Logan’s work has had a substantial impact on my own training experience, especially on the mental and herbalism ends of the equation, areas that I wouldn’t have spent much time engaging with otherwise. One of the low-hanging fruits in both athletic performance and general well-being in daily life is an awareness and understanding of one’s breathing patterns. As Logan has said in previous podcasts, “You are always mental training” whether you are aware of it or not, you are also training your breath, whether you are aware of it or not. The question then becomes, how aware of the breathing patterns that you carry are you or your athletes? In today’s episode, Logan discusses his approach to breath training for human performance and vitality. He also talks about the inspiration he has drawn from Joseph Greenstein, also known as the Mighty Atom, on the level of breath training, and the Atom’s mastery of the mental, inner game in his strongman pursuits. Within this, we discuss the regulation aspects of the body, as it pertains to feats of strength, and the process of working with those regulators in exhibiting feats of strength. We finish the show discussing integrating one’s mental and emotional states into physical training means, such as sprinting. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs, TeamBuildr and the Plyomat. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for free (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at www.plyomat.net TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. I’ve continued to hear great things about the Teambuildr platform, and whether you are looking for an in-house training portal or an online training hub, be sure to check out Teambuildr training software. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 1:18- Introduction to Logan Christopher and his training challenges 4:53- The Inspirational Journey of The Mighty Atom 7:16- The Transformative Power of Breath Work 14:26- Transformative Breathwork with Visualization 20:02- The Power of Breath in Exercise 24:11- Diaphragm-activated vacuum massage for organ health 28:33- Breath Control Demonstrations of Lung Expansion 35:29- Pressurized Exhale for Enhanced Strength Performance 40:18- Harnessing the Power of the Mind for Peak Performance 55:20- Balancing Easy and Challenging Training Methods 1:02:03- Harnessing Anger for Positive Transformation Logan Christopher Quotes “The breath is the link between the conscious and unconscious” “A good place to start is lung capacity, how long can you hold your breath?” “Breathing through the nose will support nitric oxide, which is important for endurance, while mouth breathing will not do that” “One of the exercises that I really love is box breathing. This is to do an inhale, hold, exhale, hold of the same length of time. Typically you start with a four count. So inhaling to a four count, holding for a four count, exhaling for a four count, then exhale, holding for a four count. Then from this, this is a starting point. Most people just take that and they end there. And this can be really good for relaxing anytime you need to do this.” “If you look at what people naturally do when they are exerting themselves, where strength is, the issue is it's very common to hold the breath. So why would people do this? It's because by holding the breath, you are creating stability. You are creating a container, not having the flow of air come out or in. So this helps with pressure, especially across like the abdominals, where the lungs are involved in, and then that can radiate out to however you're exerting that strength, whether it's the hands, legs, whatever” “So everything I was just saying comes from personal experience that I, like so many men in our culture, was not taught emotional intelligence." "But at the time, I started doing angry hill sprints, so what I would do is just visualizing, using breath, the different tools we've talked about, get myself in an angry state and use that as fuel to drive every step faster and repeat this a couple of different times." "Anger is the thing that drives us towards change or enforces a boundary that has been crossed. So it's a very powerful emotion. It's a very powerful motivating force, and you want to have a healthy relationship to it." Transcript About Logan Christopher Logan Christopher is a renowned strong man, mental training expert, and author with a wealth of experience in enhancing sports performance through breathing, mental training, and motivation. As the CEO of Lost Empire Herbs and the owner of Legendary Strength, Logan has dedicated his career to helping athletes reach their full potential. With a deep understanding of breath work and its impact on human performance, Logan has become a trusted authority in the field. His expertise also extends to integrating mental and emotional states in physical training, making him a valuable resource for athletes looking to optimize their performance. Through his articles and conversations on mental training and the pyramid of strength, Logan continues to inspire and empower athletes to achieve greatness.

389: Dave Kerin on Curvilinear Sprinting and Rotational Dynamics in Athletic Movement Dec 14, 2023

Today’s podcast is with David Kerin. Dave is the USATF chair of men’s development, and also chair for men’s and women’s high jump. Dave’s coaching career began with 14 years at the HS level followed by 14 years of collegiate coaching where an athlete set a still-standing NCAA DIII championship record in women’s high jump. A requested speaker and published author, he is perhaps best known for his work: “What is the most direct means to achieve strength gains specific to the demands of jumping events”, as well as the popular article: “Fixing the Right Problem”. David appeared originally back on episode #58 of the podcast in its “classic” days. Curvilinear sprinting is a critical aspect of sport movement, and is also becoming more popular in training, and for good reason. Lateral and rotational aspects of movement are not only critical for sport, but also engage a greater fullness of the body in a training environment. On today’s podcast, David goes into the defining elements of curvilinear sprinting, and what this means, not only for track and field high jump, but athletic movements in general. He also gets into the importance of observing and coaching athletic movement from a 3D perspective, and gives ideas on how to do so, as well as the evolution that technology is making in that direction. Today’s podcast gives us a wonderful perspective on a more complete picture of athletic movement and performance. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs, TeamBuildr and the Plyomat. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for free (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at www.plyomat.net TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. I’ve continued to hear great things about the Teambuildr platform, and whether you are looking for an in-house training portal or an online training hub, be sure to check out Teambuildr training software. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 2:51- High jump as a transition point for analyzing curvilinear running 8:03- Transitioning from linear to curvilinear running mechanics 10:35- The challenges of turning in sports 13:06- Unique demands of running a high jump curve 18:13- The importance of running the curve correctly 22:53- Benefits of three-dimensional movement in sports 26:29- The role of coaches in developing athletes' skills 29:09- Changing perspective for better coaching results 34:10- Overreacting to foot alignment and rotation 36:52- Mechanical gestures in high jumping vs other sports 42:24- Different ways to train 3D 47:50- Common mistakes in initiating a curve 54:45- Biomechanics lab and motion analysis Dave Kerin Quotes (00:00:15) "I describe the pelvis as a bowl of Jello. And you know how Jello tends to jiggle, how calmly non vibrational, how steady state can I bring that bowl of Jello to the moment?" - Dave Kerin (00:07:44) "The analogy would be the figure skater at the big finish when they start spinning and they've extend their arms and as they draw into the center line or the long axis of the body, they accelerate. So it's not linear acceleration in the traditional sense, yet you are increasing velocity of the plant by leaning on angular momentum." - Dave Kerin (00:18:15) "If you tell the average kid or the average coach, they say you got to speed up in the curve. Well, the kid stands upright and goes to linear sprint mechanics to accelerate. But then they've lost lean, they've lost centripetal, they've lost the benefits of running the curve. So if you run the curve correctly, that's where you get that last 10% while bringing the requisite rotations from backward lean to forward lean, lateral lean to vertical, you create bar rotation and rotation back to the bar, and it gives you more efficient bar." - Dave Kerin (00:37:06) "The efficiency is the key. And why did high jump become inefficient? Well, I think there's a lot of cases we're talking about free play and kids not learning change of direction without coach driven instruction." - Dave Kerin (00:45:10) "More isn't better. Better is better." - Dave Kerin (00:47:31) "The effective methodology to initiate a curve is outside leg separation from the center of mass, lateral pressure in the form of friction force, and then the reaction is the center of mass is redirected. You don't lean to create lean. You don't turn to redirect the center of mass." - Dave Kerin Transcript About Dave Kerin Dave Kerin is the USATF chair of men’s development, and also chair for men’s and women’s high jump. His time has coincided with a resurgence in the event. Dave’s coaching career began with 14 years at the HS level followed by 14 years of collegiate coaching where an athlete set a still-standing NCAA DIII championship record in women’s high jump. A requested speaker and published author, he is perhaps best known for his work: “What is the most direct means to achieve strength gains specific to the demands of jumping events”. He also presented that topic at the 2008 USATF SuperClinic

388: Devin Hayes on Multi-Lateral Throwing Development and the Road to High Velocity Dec 07, 2023

Today’s podcast is with Devin Hayes. Devin is the Pitching Performance Coordinator with the Detroit Tigers. He has worked in both baseball coach and physical preparation roles at Middlebury College, and has worked in the private sector, training athletes from high school to major league All-Star level. Devin currently plays for the Irish National Baseball Team and has included javelin throwing in his athletic repertoire. When we learn skills in one area of human performance, we can become more understanding of them all. A key area of development in human performance is found in the realm of overhand throwing. By understanding the rotational and linear aspects of the throwing pattern, we can not only achieve better throwing results, but we also gain awareness of an important element of athletic function in general. On today’s episode, Devin shares his experiences transitioning from baseball pitching to javelin throwing. He gives the lessons learned from various forms and constraints of overhead throwing, and digs into the elastic and rotational aspects of pitching. A main point of discussion is that of letting athletes find their path versus when and how to intervene in coaching, and finally Devin chats about relaxation techniques, and shaking movements to enhance throwing performance. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs, TeamBuildr and the Plyomat. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for free (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at www.plyomat.net TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. I’ve continued to hear great things about the Teambuildr platform, and whether you are looking for an in-house training portal or an online training hub, be sure to check out Teambuildr training software. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 3:20 Transition from Baseball Pitching to Javelin Throwing and the Initial Challenges Faced 8:38 Differences between the Motion and Arm Positioning in Baseball and Javelin Throwing, and the Influence of Natural Feel and Rotation 11:39 Exploring the Concepts of Movement Transferability from Pitching to Other Sports and the Role of Track and Field Training 17:01 Application of Motor Learning Principles in Pitching and the Impact of Sprinting on Musculature 20:06 Experimentation with Linear and Rotational Movements in Training and the Progression from Coil to Clear Drills in Pitching 22:05 Exploration of Movement Transferability from Other Track and Field Events to Pitching and the Complexity of Transition Skills 29:13 Self-organization and the Role of Spine in Throwing Motion, as well as the Influence of Side Bending in Throwing Athletes 33:37 Exploration of Arm Slots and Movement Solutions in Throwing, and the Value of Trying New Approaches in Baseball Throwing 41:38 The Impact of Lever Length on Throwing Velocity and the Importance of Coaching Stages and Approaches in Athletic Development 54:12 Importance of Building a Relationship and Adapting Coaching Style, Effective Communication in Coaching, and the Use of Entertainment in Learning 59:16 Creating Levels and Containers for Learning and Development and the Expectation of Instruction in Private Sector Settings 1:02:10 Discussion on Different Types of Athletes and the Importance of Reputation and Proof in Self-Organization 1:06:08 The Ability to Switch Between Competition Mode and Normal Mode, Withholding Energy, and the Importance of Staying Low in Athletic Movements 1:08:56 Exploration of Turn and Burn in Dunk Takeoffs, and the Role of Momentum and Side Bending in Athletic Motions 1:12:10 General Activities for Throwing Harder and the Benefits of Overload and Underload Training in Throwing 1:15:10 The Use of Shaking and Relaxation Techniques in Throwing Motions, and Manipulating the Brain's Feedback for Relaxation 1:22:07 Importance of Focus and Task Orientation in Training, and the Impact of Coaching and Athlete Relationship Devin Hayes Quotes 1. Devin Hayes- 54:12 "So I'm learning Spanish now and the teacher that I have uses emojis or my style of learning. So I'm way more into it than I would be if I was taking a Spanish class and just some writing and I'm trying to figure it out. So I think how a coach coaches, which kind of allowed me to be more of a broad, like build a relationship, not have a specific style of like, I need to tell you my way. It's more so, like, build a relationship and you're going to tell me how you want to learn over time and then we'll figure it out together." 2. Devin Hayes- 56:01 "Yeah, there's a podcast I listened to about people who 90% of people voted they want to be entertained when they learned. And so it's more so like, how can you entertain someone while they're learning? And so acronyms like Coiler, clear. Something super simple that a guy can just remember when they need to. Especially for pitchers, when guys are on the mound during a game yelling a cue on them, like internal twerk or something like that. Whereas they've had this repetitive either cue or some sort of thing they can go back to when things go wrong. And that's kind of again, what I've been big on with a lot of guys is just here's a couple of things that you can remember. So when things go wrong, you have this blueprint or map and they're usually simple like fire and ice, things like that, that you can go back to when you need to. So that when you're stuck or it's the middle of the season and shit hits the fan or things go wrong, just keep it simple, go back to it and you have your few things that you know you need." 3. Joel Smith- 57:27 "Yeah, the brain can only handle one, maybe two things at a time. And anything beyond that, it's like a logarithm. How ineffective everything instantly becomes. So it's almost if you can just have that one little even like a symbol, it's like a myth. Not like a myth, like a false reality, but like something that's just a lot of information condensed into one small story or one small thing. There's a lot of value with that." 4. Devin Hayes- 1:00:03 "Yeah, I think I have three comments on that. One would be two. I think people like the level one self organization. I think people kind of get to a point where they don't think that a guy can get to a high level just by self organizing, where I have seen that before. Like, you don't have to do any coaching. A guy can self organize. And you have a high school or college kid that has no coaching ever." 5. Devin Hayes- 1:03:10 "Yeah, we have the athletes type of athletes that I've coached in the past have been the more like cerebral I wouldn't say overthinkers, but like to think a lot and need a lot of explanation. Whereas some of the better athletes are literally just like and I think people have said this about some of the best big leaguers in baseball. They're just the like they don't think. They don't need to think. They kind of have figured it out, have had it." 6. Devin Hayes- 1:04:06 "Yeah, intellectual resistance gets in the way of what you're trying to do, the movement. So just, like, don't think. And then the best athletes are the ones that are able to turn it off when they need to. Like the think mode and just go. Which is cool to see when guys flip the switch, the differences they can make. Even in a trading setting where you can see some guys literally, it's as if they're pitching in the 9th inning of a World Series where they're not thinking about anything, and if anyone talks to them, to yell at them or freak out on them, it's like they are able to go there." 7. Devin Hayes- 1:11:34 "And so those dead arm, for me, a lot of times, it does like the dead arm kind of shimmies shakes and just a couple of those into, like, a throw to feel like the arm is actually a whip and you can crack the whip." 8. Devin Hayes-1:23:00 "In my professional opinion, mullets and mustaches equal plus one and a half to 2 miles an hour velocity. So if you're willing to put in the time to grow both of those things, you will throw harder. Yes." Show Notes Shakeout work https://www.instagram.com/p/CwxXnDbNKPd/ Transcripts

387: Chris Bramah and JB Morin on Sprint Biomechanics and Advancing Injury Risk Factors Nov 30, 2023

Today’s podcast is with Chris Bramah and JB Morin. Chris is a consultant Physiotherapist and Researcher at the Manchester Institute of Health & Performance, specializing in biomechanics for injury prevention, especially in running-related concerns like hamstring strains. With over a decade in elite sports and a Ph.D. in biomechanics, he collaborates with World and Olympic Medallists, providing consultancy services focused on sprint running mechanics and their connection to hamstring strain injuries for clients. JB Morin, a full professor and head of sports science at the University of Saint-Etienne, brings over 15 years of research experience. Having published 50 peer-reviewed journals since 2004, he is a world-leading researcher in sprint-related topics, collaborating with top sprinters like Christophe Lemaitre. As a two-time previous podcast guest, JB shares valuable insights applicable to team sports, including his expertise in force-velocity profiling and heavy sled training. Sprinting and sports injuries are complex. Hamstring injuries are common, yet there is not one “unicorn” of a risk factor that determines whether or not an athlete will sustain one. As the roadmap of injury risk is continually unfolding, understanding what is happening from the coaching practices and observations, sports science, and research lenses can all work together to improve our global understanding of building fast and robust athletes. On the episode today, Chris and JB go into various running factors that play into robust sport running performance. These range from force-velocity profiling elements to kinematics and sprint technique, and rotational-based factors. This was a podcast that really digs into the sprint injury equation on a detailed and informative level. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs, TeamBuildr and the Plyomat. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for free (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at www.plyomat.net TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. I’ve continued to hear great things about the Teambuildr platform, and whether you are looking for an in-house training portal or an online training hub, be sure to check out Teambuildr training software. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 2:00 – Recent research updates from Chris and JB on mechanics and running 5:30 – Primary aspects of connecting running mechanics with on-field injury 29:55 – The importance of fatigue state in the role of injury mechanisms and running 43:45 – Nuances of force-velocity profiling and potential injury risks in athletes 52:19 – What JB and Chris are seeing and studying from a “3D” perspective in terms of running injury and performance 59:20 – Foot strength, and it’s importance in athletic performance and ability 1:04:40 – Trunk rotation as it pertains to sprinting and injury risk Chris Bramah and JB Morin Quotes “All things equal, if you have the same capacity to play your sport, and move with less mechanical strain, then maybe you are tilting the balance (in favor of reduced injury risk)” “We define that as macroscopic strain (GPS, playing hours, etc.). I could have the same 200 meters, and have a different microscopic strain, because my body and my lever arms, put a different level of microscopic strain on my tissues, and especially my hamstrings” “Sometimes you get injuries where the macroscopic load is managed, and there is still an issue” “Because methods are more complex to assess, and to contextualize this as part of a whole system approach, people look at just big microscopic things, and I think sometimes we shy away from them” “When assess my hamstring strength, you have 2-3 ways to do it and 2-3 main variables. When you ask me to run all out at my maximum speed and have a couple of cameras, you are quickly going to end up with 50 variables” “We’ve got evidence showing associations between anterior pelvic tilt in particular and hamstring tissue strains” “Just a 7 degree increase in anterior pelvic tilt increased passive tension in bicep femoris by around 35 percent” “When scanning force output in football/rugby, we see that players who had a drop in the maximal force output ability in linear sprinting, had a higher chance of getting a hamstring strain in the weeks or months after the test” “There is 5-6 big rocks (that have strong anatomical theory or roots in research that lead to hamstring injury), trunk lean is one, trunk rotation is one, and so on. Movements that lead to higher strain in hamstrings” “You have some players with pretty low number of red flags on their kinematics, but a good number of red flags on their kinetics and their strength; in my experience at least, athletes who have a low number of red flags all along the spectrum, they are pretty safe” “If we just simply assess these singular things such as tissue capacity, fitness, etc. and fail to contextualize what they did from a mechanical perspective, we will often struggle to really understand why they get injured” “You almost know nothing until you have behavior under fatigue; if I am 1 or 5 (out of 5) in a fresh state, it doesn’t mean I am that in a fatigued state” “Among football players we tested (under fatigue), people who didn’t change, we had people who changed in a way that would supposedly induce higher strain, and people who changed in a way that would produce less strain” “Under fatigue, our body is adjusting, but we don’t adjust the same” “When you look at the maximal running velocity, it was very close between rehabbers, and those who haven’t been injured; statically the only variable that was differentiating the players with ongoing risk and those who were safe throughout the season was maximal force output” “Some players get hold and get less injuries, because their maximum running speed gets slower” “We have more players with ongoing risk when they are very fast, and very low on the maximal force side of things” “It’s very interesting to target the entire spectrum (of sprinting) from high speed low force, to low force, high speed; if you want to have a comprehensive rehab, you have to target the entire spectrum” “If you have excessive trunk rotation, you are going to wind up all these tissues that interconnect with each other” “If you look back at the modeling work from Elizabeth Tumenov, they found that the oblique musculature has a direct influence on reducing hamstring strain, so my interpretation of this is that the better functioning oblique musculature, the better controlled your trunk rotation, and the less tissue strain applied to your hamstring” “If you are looking from the side, and you can see the opposite armpit, they have poor rotational control” “You a lack of torsional control with athletes with high markers of lower limb strength” “You have athletes who have defined abdominal musculature, they can hold the longest planks, but they can’t dynamically control rotation at all” About Chris Bramah Dr. Chris Bramah is a consultant Physiotherapist, Lecturer and Researcher based at the Manchester Institute of Health & Performance and the University of Salford. His research and practice focuses on the clinical application of biomechanics to inform injury causation, prevention and rehabilitation strategies with a specific focus on running related injuries such as hamstring strain injuries. Clinically he has worked in elite sport for more than 10 years working in both Rugby League and Track and Field where he has worked with World & Olympic Medallists and supported athletes across multiple major championships. Chris has a PhD in biomechanics and currently works at the Manchester Institute of Health & Performance where he provides consultancy biomechanics services for clients including Olympic track athletes and Professional Football Clubs with the aim of informing rehabilitation and return to sport decision making following complex injuries. His current work is focused on the in-field assessment of sprint running mechanics and their association to hamstring strain injuries. About JB Morin Jean-Benoit (JB) Morin is currently full professor and head of sports science and the physical education department at the University of Saint-Etienne. He was formerly full Professor at the Faculty of Sport Sciences of the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis (France), and has been involved in sport science research for over 15 years, and has published over 50 peer-reviewed journals since 2004. He obtained a Track & Field Coach National Diploma in 1998 and graduated in Sport Science at the University of Besançon, France in 2000. He obtained his PhD in Human Locomotion and Performance in 2004 at the University of Saint-Etienne, France (Prof. Alain Belli), in collaboration with the University of Udine, Italy (Prof. Pietro diPrampero). JB’s field of research is mainly human locomotion and performance, with specific interest into running biomechanics and maximal power movements (sprint, jumps). He teaches locomotion and sports biomechanics, and strength training and assessment methods. JB’s has collaborated with French sprinter Christophe Lemaitre and his group/coach, and he is member of the French Soccer Federation research group, teaching professional coaches about sprint mechanics and training for acceleration. He also collaborates with New-Zealand professional and national rugby teams, and with professional soccer clubs in France and Spain. He practiced soccer in competition for 10 years, practiced and coached track and field (middle distance and 400m hurdles) for 8 years,

386: Sam Wuest on Elasticity, Tension-Relaxation and Keys to Athletic Longevity Nov 23, 2023

Today’s podcast is with Sam Wuest. Sam is a licensed acupuncturist, jumps coach and teacher of internal martial arts residing in San Jose, Costa Rica. Sam combines modern strength & conditioning with Traditional Chinese Medicine/movement arts in his movement practice, and is the creator of the “Meridians Move” system. He is a former Division I athlete and coach of NCAA national champions and national medalists in track & field. I first met Sam at a “Be Activated” seminar, and he has been a two time guest on the podcast in the time afterwards. In the world of movement and athletic performance, we spend a lot of time learning about muscle tension, force production and how to maximize outputs. At the same time, we spend very little time learning about the opposite end of the spectrum, how to relax muscles, optimize resting tension, breathe and recover. Even if we spend a smaller portion of our training time on the recovery aspect, it still is critical to understand the “soft side” of movement. If we don’t spend time on it, we will move more poorly, take longer to recover, and impede our movement longevity. We occasionally see those athletes who are able to compete at a high level of movement skill, and even power output into their late 30’s and early 40’s, but we don’t spend much time considering the factors behind their performance. On today’s podcast, Sam goes into the ideas of movement quality, elasticity, stress, breathing, therapy, and more that can help us achieve better movement capabilities, later into life. This podcast is also a lens by which to observe the entire process of training, but seeing both ends of the tensioning and relaxation spectrum. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs, TeamBuildr and the Plyomat. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for free (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at www.plyomat.net TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. I’ve continued to hear great things about the Teambuildr platform, and whether you are looking for an in-house training portal or an online training hub, be sure to check out Teambuildr training software. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 3:00 – Details of Sam’s move to Costa Rica 7:30 – Factors that contribute to athletic longevity 16:30 – Using an approach to training that offers more expansion, relative to heavy compression 22:00 – Balance and proprioception in the scope of both athletic ability, and longevity 28:45 – Teaching movement based on reflexes versus cognitive control 34:00 – Community and its role in longevity 38:00 – Movement practices to keep up good tissue quality over time 52:00 – QiGong practice that can easily be integrated into athlete populations for the sake of recovery 1:08:00 – Sam’s take on long isometric holds, and how to use them in the scope of the longevity process Sam Wuest Quotes “The things that you did to make you super athletic are not the same things that you need to keep doing (to maintain longevity across a sporting career)” “I don’t see the return of heavy Olympic lifts being the same for me, at a different stage of life” “The person who is perpetually injured, they have a different muscle tone, or certain adhesions in certain areas” “You find that people will restore qualities, when they can turn tissue off, instead of turning everything on all of the time, which is what our training leads us towards” “Fascial responds best to steady, slow, calm, gentle, and expanding movements” “I think sometimes in the West we focus on one thing and producing a lot of force in it, and we don’t realize that by finding a lot of things that are very similar to that one thing, or different ways to do that one thing, or ways to make that thing novel (are very helpful in improving athleticism and longevity)” “Conscious cognition is never going to be as fast as a reflex” “Countries where the main sport is soccer, the passing allows everyone to play longer (than sports that are more 1 vs 1 or intensive)” “By 2-3 years on average, the racquet sport athletes were outliving the endurance athletes” “It’s known that you lose some elasticity; and so there are certain herbs that can help promote circulation, and nourish the fluids in the sinews” “I like isometrics, holding tension in lengthened positions, because that influences the way that collagen is put down” “I like reflexive actions, I like small doses of higher dose plyometrics, and higher doses of lower intensity plyometrics; even going for a run feels like fascial remodeling… doing things at different levels of intensity is huge” “Stillness is a basic human need. It is a basic animal need. If we do not get that we cannot listen to our own bodies, because that is the best check engine light we have” “A lot of the mobility is an element swinging that decompresses” “We use the breath to control the mind, but we also control the mind as a tool to control the breath” “There is a reason that a lot of athletes who do their sport for a long-time mention stretching in the conversation” “Can we make (tension and relaxation) more differentiated, rather than being one muddled mess in between that makes us slow and injured” “One thing we don’t fully realize is how our internal organs effect our movement” About Sam Wuest Sam Wuest, L.Ac., M.Ed. is a licensed acupuncturist, jumps coach and teacher of internal martial arts in San José, Costa Rica. Sam creates integrative movement & therapy immersions in Costa Rica for athletes looking to take their performance to the next level or fight back from injury, in combining the best of modern strength & conditioning and Traditional Chinese Medicine & movement arts. Sam is the creator of Meridians Move, an online program created to teach Chinese Medicine in Motion to athletes and coaches, he strives to make this rich world of medicinal, movement and meditative arts accessible to modern athletes & coaches, both online and with retreats in the mountains and beaches of Costa Rica. A former Division I athlete and coach of NCAA national champions and national medalists in track & field, Sam will be launching an Eastern Movement/Medicine Specialist for trainers, physios and coaches later in 2024. You can keep up with these programs at wayofsam.com or on IG: @way_of_sam.

385: Alex Lee on Hangs, Isometric Holds and Neurological Efficiency in Human Performance Nov 16, 2023

Today’s podcast is with Alex Lee. Alex is the owner of Circadian Chiropractic & Sport in Sarasota, Florida. He grew up outside Boston and entered the health realm after recovering from several long-standing injuries through a combination of chiropractic care and neurologically-based physical training. Alex played and coached baseball in Europe and Australia for four seasons and ran two private facilities for 3 years following a D1 college baseball career. When he is not doing 5-minute hangs or helping clients achieve a higher quality of life and movement he is intently observing his cats, golfing, or bronzing at Florida Gulf beaches with his wife. If we really break it down, we have two “ends” of the human (and therefore athlete) performance spectrum. On one, we have the ability to generate high tension and forces, and on the other, we have the ability to sustain those forces over longer periods of time. We can liken this to short and maximal isometric holds on one end, and then long, sustained holds on the other. Where central nervous system drive and aggression fuel the former, the ability to relax the body and reach a more “flow” state of being drives the latter. In general, we tend to spend a lot more time considering methods to improve short holds without a balancing element on the sustained side of things. Ultimately, we need to understand both to reach our highest athletic and physical potential. On the podcast today, Alex goes into aspects of long isometric holds on a physical and mental level, and how he incorporates them in his training programs. Alex details the factors and benefits of being able to sustain longer holds, and what that means for athletic and human populations in general. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs, TeamBuildr and the Plyomat. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for free (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at www.plyomat.net TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. I’ve continued to hear great things about the Teambuildr platform, and whether you are looking for an in-house training portal or an online training hub, be sure to check out Teambuildr training software. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 3:10 – Nuts and bolts of hanging from a bar for time, mindset, and breathing patterns 12:35 – Breathing strategies in isometrics and performance training 19:21 – The importance of the “Strength, Feel, Play” teaching points in Alex’s system 23:34 – The relationship between maximal strength, and maximal hold duration in movement 34:07 – The “non-doing” and withholding aspect of long isometric holds 47:56 – Neurological inhibition, electrical current and the impacts of neurologically focused training 55:37 – Influence of electrical resistance on the local level, and subsequent speed and athletic performance markers 59:37 – The value of being able to take the body to a high level in a “mundane” activity, like isometric holds, relative to one’s sport 1:09:03 – Alex’s take on isometric hold duration for younger athletes 1:12:20 – Basic isometric hold standards for the general population, and then athletes Alex Lee Quotes “What I like with hangs in having sensory information from the environment when the sun is going down” “It’s one thing to meditate, and it’s another to step into what is going to be a simulated, sketchy experience” “I came up with this equation, and it was (neuromuscular efficiency = coordination x time), From a neuromuscular standpoint, how efficient can you possibly be, and that is how long you can stay in a position, while keeping that position perfect” “When I can see people relax their face, or relax their breath, I see a 2 minute hang turn into 2:30, 2:45, or 3’” “95% of sports, you need your body to be very relaxed, and a relaxed body is able to produce and absorb higher amounts of force than one that is pre-tensed” “At the end of 4 weeks of them really grinding out iso’s and neurologically focused training, they can get rid of hotspots and weak links in the same way as someone who is working with (electrical stimulation devices)” “I’ll do sessions of an hour of training with just doing ISO’s and I’ll do grip strength and the beginning and the end, and it’ll be higher at the end” “(For general population iso hold 'standards', picking only 3 exercises) I’d go straight leg raise (3’), lunge (2’) and hang for 90”” “(For athletes) ISO lunge 3+”, ISO Pushup 2-2.5”, and Hang 90-120” depending on frame” About Alex Lee Dr. Alex Lee is the owner of Circadian Chiropractic & Sport in Sarasota, Florida. Alex grew up outside Boston and entered the health realm after recovering from several long-standing injuries through a combination of chiropractic care and neurologically-based physical training. Alex played and coached baseball in Europe and Australia for four seasons and ran two private facilities for 3 years following a D1 college baseball career. When he is not doing 5 minute hangs or helping clients achieve a higher quality of life and movement he is intently observing his cats, golfing, or bronzing at Florida Gulf beaches with his wife.

384: Hunter Eisenhower and Mike Sullivan on Exploring Elasticity and Athletic Force Production Nov 09, 2023

Today’s podcast is with athletic performance coaches Hunter Eisenhower and Mike Sullivan. Hunter Eisenhower is the head of men’s basketball performance at Arizona State University, previously spent time with the Sacramento Kings, and has worked in several NCAA S&C departments. Hunter played college basketball for four seasons at Seattle Pacific University. Mike Sullivan is a speed and performance coach at TCBoost Sports Performance in Chicago, IL. At TCBoost, Mike works with a wide variety of athletes, from youth to professional, and transitioned to the private sector after time in collegiate strength and conditioning. Most recently, Mike was at UC Davis and spent time at Illinois State, Notre Dame, and Texas. For a long time in sports performance, weight room strength has been considered the top priority and method of measuring strength and power outputs. At the same time, bodies in motion produce incredibly high forces in jumping, sprinting, and landing (eccentric and reactive forces). Understanding the nature of elasticity and reactivity, and how to measure and train it in greater detail is a must-know for anyone looking to improve athletic abilities. If you were to list three of my favorite sports and human performance topics, they would be: Play, Jumping, and Sprint Development. Today’s show will be getting into these topics, primarily digging into key markers that highlight usable athletic force production, centering around altitude drops onto force plates. We’ll also cover aspects of sprint training from a standpoint of observation and technique, relative to technology readouts, as well as overspeed methods. Finally, we’ll get into Hunter and Mike’s use of play, games, and “aliveness” in their warmups. This was a fun and practical episode from which a wide range of coaches and athletes can find new and valuable ideas. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs, TeamBuildr and the Plyomat. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for free (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at www.plyomat.net TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. I’ve continued to hear great things about the Teambuildr platform, and whether you are looking for an in-house training portal or an online training hub, be sure to check out Teambuildr training software. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 2:31 – Discussing the UC Davis “Strength and Conditioning Decathlon” 6:37 – Maximal elasticity and reactivity as a function of team sport play, versus training without the athleticism that comes from well-rounded play and elastic activities 9:48 – Discussing scoring systems for power and reactivity 16:14 – Key elasticity metrics for athletes, and key reactivity and elastic metrics based on force plate rate of force development readings 29:52 – Measuring force production through the realm of single leg reactive strength values, as well as thoughts on single leg hops for speed 39:42 – Programing implications based on muscular or elastic abilities 45:49 – Overlaying sprint kinetics via technology (such as a 1080 sprint) relative to observation, and athlete feeling of the effort 53:27 – Overspeed work, and giving sprinting a sense of “ease” 1:00:41 – How Hunter and Mike have put “aliveness” and play in their programming 1:07:37 – Risk/Reward assessment in terms of using a more alive, play based warmup or training approach with a group of athletes Hunter Eisenhower and Mike Sullivan Quotes “Just that little framework of me creating a 50 (centimeter CMJ jump) club drives intent so much more. On a small scale it works, and if you can create it on a bigger scale.. the difference it makes is huge” “Running a fly 10 without lasers is ridiculous, running it with lasers is awesome. Same thing (with med ball throws) throwing a med ball shot put throw as hard as you can, get out a radar, you break 30 miles per hour, it’s awesome” “I dropped off a 48” box and hit 9500 newtons of force… there has to be something here because these are significant numbers that we are getting” “Running full speed, a Euro-step around somebody, is like a low-level triple jump” “A single leg depth drop off 24” box, is a little over 5000 newtons (that I got) but it’s variable because the strategy you use to land is going to change things” “A compliant landing is like 2000 newtons, a “drop legs” (stiff) landing is like 7000” “The idea of a new 1RM in seeing what’s the absolute force producing capacity of the overall system, and the exercise that does it the most is depth drops” “As you increase height, peak force is going to go up, but once you get to a certain height of box, force will not go up” “You train with some of these drop catches… and now you have more of a force reserve for injury mitigation, force in acceleration, and maybe there is something to a force reserve, like there is a speed reserve” “Every person I tested who had the best horizontal RSI was the best accelerator, and the worst horizontal RSI was the worst accelerator” “Very rarely do you see “nice mountains” on a 1080 sprint” “The first thing you should say is “how did that feel”, the second tier is “how did it look” on my part, the third thing is what the graph readout said” “From the side, the sprint looked totally normal (I had to watch from the rear view to understand what the asymmetry in the graph. was telling me)” “Even when I feel like garbage and don’t want to sprint.. I’ll tow myself (on the 1080) at 2kg, I won’t run as fast as I can, but it’ll feel good, and way better than sprint float sprints, or wicket runs” “You take some of those (play) experiments, they worked with middle schoolers, let me apply them to high schoolers. They worked with high schoolers, can I just keep going up a level until I know it’s safe enough, or competitive enough to use with higher level athletes” About Hunter Eisenhower Hunter Eisenhower is the head of men’s basketball performance at Arizona State University. He previously worked on the NBA level, as a Sports Performance Coach and Sports Scientist for the Sacramento Kings, as well as closely working with the Stockton Kings, the franchise's G-League affiliate. Hunter has served in the NCAA realm at at UC Davis, Southeastern Louisiana, and Minnesota State Mankato. Eisenhower has also spent time with the Washington, Minnesota, and Seattle University strength and conditioning departments. Hunter played college basketball for four seasons at Seattle Pacific University. About Mike Sullivan Mike Sullivan is a speed and performance coach at TCBoost Sports Performance in Chicago, IL. At TCBoost, Mike works with a wide variety of athletes from youth to professional. Mike transitioned to TCBoost after time in collegiate strength and conditioning. Most recently at UC Davis and beforehand spending time at Illinois State, Notre Dame, and Texas.

383: Mat Boulé and Jeff Moyer on A Neurological Approach to Posture and Athletic Movement Nov 02, 2023

Today’s podcast is with Mat Boulé and Jeff Moyer. Mat Boulé is an osteopath and posturologist educated in functional neurology muscle activation techniques, and is the founder of the IP institute. Mat combines innovative and well-known techniques such as Posturology and Functional Neurology elements to balance the body. Jeff Moyer is the owner of DC sports training in Pittsburgh, PA. Jeff has been a multi-time guest on the show, appearing as a solo guest in three shows and on three roundtables. His expertise includes elements such as Soviet training systems, motor learning, skill acquisition, pain reduction and reconditioning, in addition to neurological concepts as they relate to athletic performance and human movement proficiency. Human beings are complex organisms. Movement is a multi-faceted action, made up of muscular actions, fascial tensegrity, connective tissue transmission, pressure and fluid dynamics, and of course neuromuscular control that is also connected to one’s senses and the outside environment. To have a complete understanding of athletic movement and performance, it is helpful to have a working knowledge of the neurological components of movement, including foot skin sensitivity, vestibular function, vision, and sided-ness to name a few. Today’s podcast digs into those neurological elements that can contribute to performance. Mat and Jeff discuss how they assess and train clients and athletes with these principles, discussing the use of sensory tools, rolling and rocking variations, balance and foot training, as well as the role of a well-functioning neurological apparatus in skilled athletic movement. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs, TeamBuildr and the Plyomat. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for free (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at www.plyomat.net TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. I’ve continued to hear great things about the Teambuildr platform, and whether you are looking for an in-house training portal or an online training hub, be sure to check out Teambuildr training software. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 2:30 – The Pyramid of Learning, and the main neurological pieces that help athletes and humans to move freely and without restriction in their environment 8:13 – How to determine that reflexes, vestibular, or basic neurological issues are keeping individuals for being good skillful movers 18:10 – Eye contact as it relates to psychology and neurological/visual elements 29:56 – Neurological competency generalities based on level of performance an athlete can reach 35:36 – What to look for in crawling and crawl-based work for athletes and human performance in general 44:34 – Athlete balance in light of not only foot sensation, but also one’s vestibular and overall balance abilities 55:37 – How Jeff triages his neurological training elements in a practical setting Mat Boulé and Jeff Moyer Quotes “You can see that in kids in how they crawl, how one leg works better than the other, since that is where tone is first developed” “For kids who have been labeled “motor morons” that can’t figure out where their butt and their elbow is, the Pyramid of learning has been a great guide (for helping them)” “People who struggle knowing their right from their left (is a neurological/visual red-flag); can they mirror me?” (Moyer) “Being able to take instruction… those athletes where it’s like a new session every day, but you’ve been doing the same things (may have a neurological issue)” “Can you show me that you can feel your foot? That goes for coordination, and athletes who have chronic injuries, who are rolling their ankle; I’ll touch their toes, and they have no idea what toes I touched” “One-sidedness (is also a red-flag)” “If the individual has a hard time perceiving their left or their right, they are going to have a hard time protecting themselves in the environment” “The athletes who are bench pressing and only look at one hand (may be one sided neurologically)” “In less industrialized countries, kids start crawling much earlier, and perform (rhythmic roll-based movements) earlier… and that even starts happening in utero” “In terms of choosing different exercises, we need to make sure the person feels both of their feet” “With athletes, we start with rocking movements, and rolling out the feet (with spiky balls)” “With kids that struggle with right from left, or kids who struggle with proprioception, and how to know where their body is in space, that’s where we start getting into the IP (neurological) stuff” Show Notes Spiked balls used to stimulate the nerves of the feet, hands and skin Ground Based Neurological Exercise Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8Ir3h_MTNw Romburg Proprioception Test https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzQGIOtBLrs Rhythmic movement training example (pre-crawling sensory work) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBadglR4Miw The Pyramid of Learning About Mat Boulé Mathieu Boulé is an osteopath (COQM – 2009) and posturologist specialized in global postural reprogramming since 2002. He is, as well, a graduate of the University of Montreal in education (2001). He has cumulated over 170 hours of education in Functional Neurology from IAFNR. Mat is also certified in ART (Active Release Techniques - 2007) as well as in MAT (Muscle Activation Techniques – 2007). More recently, he is the founder of Institute IP, a learning playground where neurology meets movement and performance. Courses have been held in both Canada and France, at this point and soon in the USA. The human body fascinates Mat, and his purpose is to improve the operation of it and get results quickly! To do this, he combines innovative and well-known techniques such as Posturology and Functional Neurology elements to balance the body. About Jeff Moyer Jeff Moyer is the owner of Dynamic Correspondence Sports Training, whose motto is, “We Build Better Athletes.” At DC Sports Training, athletes work on the physical, mental and visual aspects to the sports. Their goal is to deliver the athletes of the greater Pittsburgh area the highest, most efficient results year after year of training with us. We will exhaust our means in order for our athletes to achieve the highest results, and to create a system model that will develop our athletes both physically and intellectually. Education must be the road to which will help us set this standard. Our results will be the vehicle which to drive us. Jeff graduated in 2004 from Hartwick College where he was a two sport athlete (Football & Track & Field). Jeff has been a sport coach (Basketball & Football) at the youth, JV, Varsity and College level for football for over 10years. Jeff has been in the strength in conditioning industry for over a decade, having worked in the medical, private, team, high school and collegiate settings, training clients from youth development, to rehabilitation and sport performance. Jeff has a relentless passion for all things physical preparation. His pedagogy is heavily influenced by Eastern Bloc sport science, while apprenticing under Dr. Michael Yessis and Yosef Johnson of Ultimate Athlete Concepts. Jeff has also been fortunate enough to extensively study with and work with Dr. Natalia Verkhoshansky, Mike Woicik of the Dallas Cowboys, Louie Simmons of Wesitside Barbell and Fellowship under Dave Tate of EliteFTS.

382: Tyler Yearby on Fueling Aliveness in Athletic Performance and Skill Development Oct 26, 2023

Today's podcast is with Tyler Yearby. Tyler is the co-founder and director of education at Emergence, a leading company in sport movement and skill development education. He is a Former NCAA strength coach who has delivered over 200 domestic & international continuing education courses, workshops, and conference presentations in 12 countries. Tyler has worked with a wide range of athletes, from youth to professional, and is currently pursuing his doctorate in sport and exercise at the University of Gloucestershire (UK). Sport (and the subset of physical training) is defined by how we build and adapt skills over time. Ultimately, both the joy of movement and its eventual mastery are rooted in motor learning and skill acquisition. The sign of coaching where these elements are applied effectively is not just "using textbook principles" but, more so, a total feeling of aliveness and joy in the process of mastery. This is where learning and skill acquisition transcends being something learned in a classroom and is a regular, interactive experience on the part of the coach and athlete. For today's podcast, Tyler goes into important topics that cross the worlds of motor learning and coaching in general. He discusses his take on learning "the fundamentals" for athletes, the significance of "prompts" over traditional "commands" during training sessions, and explores these ideas for both the weight room and sports skills alike. Tyler also delves into the concept of self-organization, examining when it's beneficial and when it could hinder performance. This fantastic conversation has implications for both strength and skill coaches or anyone who wants to understand movement and skill building on a deeper level. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs, TeamBuildr and the Plyomat. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for free (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at www.plyomat.net TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. I’ve continued to hear great things about the Teambuildr platform, and whether you are looking for an in-house training portal or an online training hub, be sure to check out Teambuildr training software. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 3:15 – Some recent developments with Tyler in his trajectory into the motor learning and skill development aspects of athletic performance 4:37 – The “donor sport” viability of “rough-housing,” free play type activities, such as tackle-basketball 9:40 – How Tyler has learned about learning and skill development from being a father 13:59 – Tyler’s take on the “fundamentals” and what that actually means in movement mechanics and training 20:10 – Prompts and open-ended questions versus commands in a coaching and learning situation 35:29 – Exploring squat and jump-based movements, considering the principle of a base of support 39:17 – How do we know if an athlete’s self-organization strategies continue to help them or if they may be stagnating/using detrimental self-organization and need another form of coaching intervention? 52:25 – Tyler’s doctorate work and the perceived impact and value of education of ecological dynamics in coaching Tyler Yearby Quotes “A lot of times a game is co-created with (kids), and it is designed for them to fall in love with movement” “I’ve learned to be more patient (of a coach) as a father” “(On the level of teaching the 'fundamentals' to athletes) I want them to create a functional fit with an environment, which means starting from a point where they can orient their degrees of freedom, what their thoughts are, and what they are intending to do in a situation” “No man ever steps in the same river twice, because it’s not the same man, and it’s not the same river” “A command is 'do it this way,' where a prompt is illuminating areas that could be. A lot of how my instruction has changed as a coach is, athletes are not going to be successful if they have one way to do something…. We want to develop adaptable movers, not ones that are more stable, if you will” “I still view (coaching a lift or a basic acceleration start) as helping them to explore different ways” “You can make a game out of showing them how to perform the movement, without (directly) telling them how to do it” “Kids need a chance to not only be kids, but even professional movers need a chance to explore a little bit, play a little bit” “When I am harnessing what is comfortable for them (from exploring jump stances), their (squat) numbers go up right away” “When do I step in? A lot of literature is going to talk about, if 75% of the time they are scoring a point, avoid a tackle, something in that realm, then I want to let them run with it (with the 25% of mistakes being fine in that situation), but if it’s more than that, and continually more than that, that’s where a coach needs to step in, and that’s where there is true value in the constraints led approach” “I’m trying to educate their attention to the space around them; by opening the space, and then adding a question to it, that is helping guide their search. Now I might see them start to self-organize in a functional way” “I am finding many coaches (in recent years) who are finding value in a co-adaptive relationship,.. basically, inviting the athlete to their party” “(when using ecological dynamics concepts in coaching) My players enjoy it more, and I have more fun as a coach” “We need to start using different words to capture the same idea, and one of those words is 'making training more alive' on a scale with 1-10, how alive is it?” Show Notes “Alive” Movement Problem Solving Checklist Skill Acquisition Studies: Applying an ecological approach to practice design in American football: some case examples on best practice Being Water: how key ideas from the practice of Bruce Lee align with contemporary theorizing in movement skill acquisition (Re)conceptualizing movement behavior in sport as a problem-solving activity Emergence Website: emergentmvmt.com About Tyler Yearby Tyler Yearby, M.Ed., is Co-Founder and Co-Director of Education at Emergence, and the Director of Sport Movement Skill Enhancement at Inspire Movement in Minnesota. With more than 13 years of experience, Yearby has taught 200+ training courses in more than a dozen countries, spoken at Olympic training centers, and been featured on a range of podcasts. He currently works with athletes ranging from youth to professional and is a former strength and conditioning coach for the University of Minnesota football program, as well as a former American football running back and strength & conditioning coach at Northeastern State University. Tyler is currently pursuing his doctorate in sport and exercise at the University of Gloucestershire (UK), exploring the perceived impact on the professional work of sports coaches and practitioners after interacting with online coaching education underpinned by an ecological dynamics rationale, with a particular focus on the theory-practice link and understanding the strengths and limitations they perceive in their craft after applying the ideas in practice.

381: Alex Effer on Force Production Strategies, Lunge Dynamics and Base of Support Concepts Oct 19, 2023

Today’s podcast is with biomechanics and rehab specialist, Alex Effer. Alex is the owner of Resilient Training, and has extensive experience in strength & conditioning, exercise physiology and the biomechanical function of the body. He also runs educational mentorships teaching biomechanics to therapists, trainers and coaches. Alex has been a previous guest on the show speaking on many aspects of gait, and the links between common gym movements and locomotion. For the amount of talk that goes into particular exercises, or exercise variations, very little goes into looking at human biomechanics first, as a base layer by which to base exercise selection. We also spend little time understanding how two athletes may ideally perform the same movement differently, to optimize their own leverages. We also often hear, or see exercises or training methods designed to improve external rotation, but tend to overly generalize the roles of “knees in/out”, or “inside edge/outside edge”. By understanding more about the biomechanical basis of force production, and how structure determines our base of support, we can achieve not only a better exercise selection process, but a better understanding of athletic movement in general. On the show today, Alex gets into important concepts on how humans produce force in movement, and how the internal and external rotation of joints creates effective motion. This leads into how various body types have different bases of support, and what this means for programming squat and lunge variations, as well as implications on the level of various kettlebell swing and catch exercises. This was an in-depth show that will change your lens on the way you see squat and lunge setups across a breadth of athletes in training. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs, TeamBuildr and the Plyomat. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for free (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at www.plyomat.net TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. I’ve continued to hear great things about the Teambuildr platform, and whether you are looking for an in-house training portal or an online training hub, be sure to check out Teambuildr training software. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 3:12 – How Alex became the “Thanos” of the biomechanical world 5:38 – What legs that internally, or externally rotate, means for force production strategies 13:16 – How bow-leggedness fits in with athletic movements, such as acceleration, and when varus/bow-leggedness can become an issue 22:22 – Optional squat width, and knees-in, versus knees-out tendencies 27:39 – Concepts on loading the body up in external rotation in regards to force production, considering internal and external rotation in exercise selection 39:33 – The role of swinging weights and kettlebells for the sake of improving biomechanics, such as hip extension, and how to use external loads to internally open up ranges of motion 54:16 – Lateral lunge dynamics in light of valgus, varus, and wide/narrow ISA type athletes 1:07:51 – Dynamics of kettlebell swings and internal rotation, in light of the need to create space to swing the bell between their legs 1:14:06 – Elements that you can learn from athletes by observing their lateral lunge form, and which way they tend to point their toes our knees 1:22:20 – Assessing hip extension quality in lateral lunge and 45-degree lunge situations Alex Effer Quotes “When we are looking at the knees (valgus and varus), we have to consider someone’s base of support” “(With valgus/bowlegged individuals) There are people who don’t have internal and external rotation so they push their knees out to the side, so they only have access to that lateral, frontal plane… they shift their base of support out to the side” “A valgus, instead of a rectangle going out to the side, they have a front to back rectangle; they don’t have space to the side, but they have space in front of them; so they are able to flex their hip but they don’t have a lot of internal rotation ability, so they will shove their pelvis forward to be able to produce force, and usually it comes from their back” “Gait is just a forward progression of our center of mass” “The more my center of gravity goes forward, the more I squish everything” “I’ll get them to have their feet side by side, together, right under their hips. That tells me how much IR you have. If you have your feet together, but your knees are totally turned out to the side, I know that when I get you to press off your metatarsal off the big toe, that force is not coming from the hip, it’s coming from the back, your foot is going to twist out to the side, so you are not getting that push-off we are looking for” “Wherever my knees are, that’s where my base of support is, and where I’m putting force into the ground” “If I have a cowboy, (for squatting) I’ll walk them out to the side until their knees appear straight. With a wider stance, they can get some depth, there is no more shifting in the hips” “The wall squat moves the center of gravity back” “If you have room in front of you (like a narrow ISA), a staggered stance squat will feel good for you” “(As a wide ISA) A sumo deadlift feels better for me than an RDL, which is where my base of support is” “That early mid-stance is like your deceleration, your force absorption” “Late mid-stance is more of your propulsion, that’s where you are producing the force” “I like the term re-distribution of force, better than absorption; absorption makes it sound like you are absorbing it into one tissue (instead of distributing it throughout multiple joints and tissues)” “Inside that onion of external rotation, at the center of it, needs to be internal rotation, because I need to stay in line and rotate around something… the internal rotation is the producing, and the distributing of force” “That person is so tense they can’t create the space themselves, so I need something that uses momentum (like KB swinging or drop-catch motions) to blow that space open” “Sometimes, making points heavier at certain points of motion, is actually opening up motion” “Somebody is is more bow legged may have a lot of tension around their tailbone, and opening that up may be strategy number 1” “Lateral lunges can be effective for both (knock kneed and bow leg) but they will be most effective for those with bow legs. Split squat positions will be tough for people with bow legs” “If you only gave me one option of what you can use (to modulate lifts), I would chose cables” “Having both hands on the kettlebells going between the legs is one of the last variations I would use, because that requires the greatest amount of internal rotation” “I will start (a lateral lunge) cueing people to point their toes forward” “Typically when I do a lateral lunge, I start with going just wider than shoulder stance… it’s too wide when the hips start to turn towards the trail leg” “I think the 45 degree (lateral lunge) range is so under-utilized ranges, because people traditionally just do the split squat and lateral lunge” “If people do a lateral lunge and it doesn’t look good, that curtsy (step down) is awesome” “If I have somebody who doesn’t have good hip extension in a straight leg raise, I can’t put them in a movement that requires a lot of hip extension at the start” About Alex Effer Alex Effer is the owner of Resilient Training and Rehabilitation, a name that emphasizes Alex’s unique approach to fitness, which is one that combines both aspects of normal fitness and rehabilitation principles to achieve long- lasting pain free results. Alex uses his comprehensive knowledge and passion in exercise science, autonomics, respiration, rehabilitation, and biomechanics to develop programs that promote injury prevention, sports performance, and rehabilitation through quality of movement. Alex has gained extensive clinical and practical experience treating and training a variety of clients from professional and amateur athletes, high profile executives, older adults, individuals with certain medical conditions such as Stroke, Parkinson’s, Multiple Sclerosis, Congenital Heart Disease, Postoperative rehabilitation and individuals with chronic and complex pain. Alex’s experience includes: Head Exercise Physiologist at Ace Sports Clinic Inc; Director of Return to Performance and Head Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Varsity Baseball, Women’s Lacrosse, and Golf team at the University of Toronto; Consultant for the Varsity Blues Football, Hockey, Swimming Team; Head Exercise Physiologist for Balance Physiotherapy; and consultant to Olympic Swimming Athletes, and NBA players. Alex earned his Bachelors of Kinesiology from the University of Toronto, obtained a Post-Graduate Certificate in Exercise Science for Health and Performance from Niagara College and is a Certified Exercise Physiologist, Certified Strength and Conditioning Coach, and EXOS Performance Specialist.

380: Aaron Cantor on Exploring the Inner Game of Athleticism, Movement and Skill Development Oct 12, 2023

Today’s podcast is with movement coach Aaron Cantor. Aaron is a bodyworker, personal trainer, yogi, and movement generalist. He grew up in Japan and Brazil, and has traveled the world, learning from a variety of teachers and movement experts. Aaron has taught in the US and internationally, and works through a variety of game-play, movement, and story-telling-based methods. He is currently a coach for Evolve Move Play, while also working on his own movement coaching and teaching practice. In training, movement, and competition, we have both an “outer game” and an “inner game” at work. The outer game is relatively straightforward and the most common way we tend to interface with movement in the modern world. This includes the game’s rules and also leads into the external methods of instructing that game, such as telling individuals where to put their limbs in space, what motions to make, and what strategies to choose. The “inner game” approaches movement from a fun, connection, feel, and exploration perspective. Training requires some sort of numerical target of improvement (outer game), but at the same time, elite performers that have the “inner-game” skills that gives them a more complete package. Human performance is a combination of both outer and inner elements. By understanding the nature of the “inner” aspects of training, how to explore movements more fully, how to connect more deeply with our own bodies and our environment, we can achieve a more integrated and dynamic training process and, even more importantly, find more joy in sport and movement, and connection with ourselves and others. On today’s podcast, Aaron and I discuss the key aspects of training the inner game of movement, through an exploratory and intuitive process. These principles can apply to any realm of movement, from strength training and general fitness, to running and sprinting, to team sport skill applications. Most of what we study in the space has to do with the “outer game,” so taking time for the inner aspects of movement helps us to paint a more complete picture of the total process of training, play, and competition. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs, TeamBuildr and the Plyomat. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for free (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at www.plyomat.net TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. I’ve continued to hear great things about the Teambuildr platform, and whether you are looking for an in-house training portal or an online training hub, be sure to check out Teambuildr training software. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 4:32 – The “Maradona Mind” in warmups and athletic mastery 13:20 – The importance of a low-barrier to entry in movement, in terms of building a flow state of performance” 20:37 – Principle vs. Systems based approach to training and global thinking 23:04 – How bringing the inner game into training can level up basic strength and human movement training 29:23 – The difference between a formula, and a trusted path “in” to the workout, to allow for dynamic exploration and flow, while still allowing for a sense of structure to the session 37:15 – Aaron’s “to infinity” practice, to help him get more into his body while learning and performing a skill 45:05 – “Coyote Mentoring” processes, where games and tasks can “trick” an athlete or individual into achieving 50:41 – All of the layers that can go in between moving and exploring, and then competing, in building a more total aspect of athletic and competitive ability, while being able to enjoy the performance on a higher level 58:30 – The value of group collaboration in teaching and performance Aaron Cantor Quotes “It’s playing with the limits of what’s possible. It’s not a conventional warmup, but it’s deeply embodied and it’s really going to help him on the field” “Looking at how it transfers in terms of just looking at the skill, is a very small way of looking at it, because the invisible skill is his relationship to himself, his relationship to timing, his relationship to space, his relationship to the object he is manipulating all of the time” “I think we’ve spent maybe too much time one how obvious skills translate, but invisible skills are key” “It’s tricky, because if you start to turn inner game, or flow state conduction into a formula, you kind of lose it. There is a letting go. It’s strange, you have to hold onto the thing, you have to focus. But at the same time you have to let go” “I prefer simple ways into the experience, rather than a robust, well-thought out system” “There’s something I like about methods that really invite people to create mastery from within, where the constraints are just enough to get you in the experience, but not so much that it overlays the experience with too much conceptual, or too much striving” “Shaking, arm swings, and the other piece is getting down on the ground, and getting back up again, because that builds such a connection to the pathways your body can comfortably use to fall, and pick yourself up, to roll. I find that when the fear of falling is not in my system, I am much more bold, attentive, and fully able to commit to whatever movement I’m doing” “Talking about inner game and outer game, outer game is the obvious thing we are trying to do, everyone passing by can see it. The inner game is how much fun am I having, how pleasurable is this, how much fun are you having if I’m competing with you, how much fun is this for you? How much connection do I feel to you? How much connection do I feel to myself? The inner game is a little more nebulous, but those prompts can point us in that direction.” “Then I like to say, we are actually doing the inner game, and the outer game is just creating a container, for us to work on the inner game” “No matter how good the technology gets, I still feel that a human body, a human system, is an incredible pattern recognizing entity” Show Notes Pistol Pete Maravich Drills: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F60p0CcEa7Q Maradona’s Famous Warmup at Napoli (Live is Life) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cdf6D19Etmc About Aaron Cantor Aaron Cantor is a bodyworker, personal trainer, yogi, and movement generalist with 25 years of experience in the movement space. Aaron grew up in Japan and Brazil, and has traveled the world, pursuing enlightenment and self-mastery, while learning from a variety of the world great movement experts. His current focus is on teaching through story, movement, and games as portals to deeper engagement with life itself. He teaches locally and internationally, and is currently a coach for Evolve Move Play, while also working in his own movement coaching and teaching practice. He lives in Western Massachusetts, USA with his boys Bodhi and Jasper.

379: Clifton Harski on Athleticism and Adaptability in the Human Performance Model Oct 05, 2023

Today’s podcast features Clifton Harski. Cliff has been in human performance for two decades and is highly active in movement education, leading over 450 workshops and certifications since 2011. Cliff is the COO for the Pain Free Performance Specialist Certification while developing and running the Functional Kettlebell Training Certification. Cliff developed a small group training fitness franchise, Fitwall, which had 7 locations across 5 states prior to Covid. He has over 15 certifications in movement training, strength and conditioning, and a masterful and inter-connected thought process on all things human movement, strength and performance. What is interesting with the human performance, strength and conditioning model is that it hinges heavily on things that a number can be tied to. Physical strength is very easy to track through various gym maxes, and conditioning is just as simple, based on whatever key test a coach decides to use with their group. At the same time, “movement” requires a greater intuition of the entire process of athleticism. For today’s podcast, Clifton discusses how he looks at the human performance industry in light of movement + strength + conditioning, and not just the latter two. He gives his model of the 3A’s (be able, be athletic, be adaptable, talks about the role of movement variability in training, speaks on rotational kettlebell training concepts, movement coaching, and much more. This episode puts the entirety of human performance coaching into perspective from an individual who has seen a massive range of training methods and philosophies. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs, TeamBuildr and the Plyomat. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for free (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at www.plyomat.net TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. I’ve continued to hear great things about the Teambuildr platform, and whether you are looking for an in-house training portal or an online training hub, be sure to check out Teambuildr training software. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 3:01 – Clifton’s journey to dunk on his birthday each year at 6’1”, now being 41 years old 9:27 – How to solve problems, using intuition, rather than memorizing exercise sequences 11:25 – Some of the big pillars of training that Cliff has compiled, throughout all of his movement certifications 18:55 – Approaching the “movement” aspect of training, for a general population athlete, versus a sport athlete 25:52 – Thoughts on how to technically coach “form” in exercises that are not an athlete’s actual sport movement 33:33 – The role of rhythmic and reflexive movement in training 36:00 – Cliff’s “BA” Progression: Be Able, Be Athletic, Be Adaptable 46:42 – Thoughts on working with high level athletes who are already “athletic”, in the gym, versus more general population type individuals who are getting very little, if any sort of athletic movement stimulus in their daily routine 53:34 – How Clifton approaches variability in training for clients 57:57 – How to coach movement based on variability, and working with errors, instead of a “universal perfect form” 1:01:15 – How Clifton fills gaps in training and performance in utilization of the kettlebell, particularly rotational pieces that can be adaptable to more athletic qualities 1:12:51 – How Clifton would look to approach training athletes, as opposed to general population type individuals Clifton Harski Quotes “Once a week I practiced dunking on a 9’ foot, for the skill acquisition element, with small balls, and big balls. Twice a week, I would do gym jumping with different approaches, different angles, different approaches. I’m a big believer that a peak expression of what we do is being adaptable” “BFR is monumentally important to me; if I do it two days a week, my knees play nice” “The strength and conditioning industry would be better if it was the “movement, strength and conditioning industry” “To move well means, can you do things on purpose?” “I think that people do need to be stronger, but I believe many people in the strength and conditioning industry over-value peak strength, for non-strength athletes” “The less options you have, the more problems you will have in living day to day, or in performing your sport” “I want to maximize (the amount of movement something has), I want to have it be something I am interacting with; that’s a big piece of athleticism; I’m interested in reflexivity, problem solving, explorative, adaptive” “I think that involving some type of rhythmic practice makes a ton of sense” “Be athletic means organizing and controlling more things” “Be Able (I want you to do the basics, sagittal lifts, bilateral lifts). Be Athletic (it means to me, doing and organizing more things) Be Adaptable (can you apply, can you go do something new… can I set up your kettlebell swing in a new stance or does it go to pieces, because if it goes to pieces, you are not adaptable” “I always get little bit of a giggle out of the minimalist crowd, do you expect to do more by doing less. I think that can work well for a short period of time; getting more out of a specific quality, but over the long term, I don’t think that’s going to work well” “I didn’t have any formal education on the kettlebell, but I liked how you could hold it in different positions” “Bilateral lifts are a huge part of what I do with clients, but they are not as rich in the timing, sequencing, dare I say athletic, execution” “For the upper body, it’s a little harder to define athleticism; and the way I like to define it is tool manipulation. Throw something, swing something, and it looks like clubs, maces, kettlebells, or go join one of these sword-fighting clubs, that sounds like fun. What’s unique to humans is manipulating tools” “Sometimes we treat people like they can’t do anything; you can’t do the basics, so we are going to do the basics forever… that’s boring; that dumbs down their movement potential. I like this idea of creating more opportunities, a better vocabulary” “Where some people go wrong is they throw too much crab at people out of the gate, which is where I go back to: Be Able, Be Athletic, Be Adaptable” “(Regarding error amplification in training) I make you feel it bad, so when you feel it good, I seem like a good coach” “Because a landmine falls at an angle, it is less predictable in how it is going to work, especially when you are new to it” “Contralateral kick-stand swings are a great way to go (for rotational athletic performance)” “I have a ton of people coming to my certs, and they generally have their shoulders rotated back and down, extension bias everything, and that’s how they try to do everything, and when I have them speed-skate, they have their knees and toes turned out, and they are like, 'I don’t know why I can’t go side to side'” “Sometimes it’s just that simple: 'Damn, that felt athletic'” About Clifton Harski Clifton Harski is the COO for the Pain Free Performance Specialist Certification, which also includes developing and running the Functional Kettlebell Training Certification. He has been a certification instructor for those two companies, but also for Animal Flow, Kettlebell Athletics, Spartan Obstacle course racing specialist, as well as teaching 88 workshops for Movnat. Since 2011 he has led over 450 workshops and certifications. Additionally he developed a small group training fitness franchise, Fitwall, which had 7 locations across 5 states prior to covid. In addition to his BS in Kinesiology he has obtained the following alphabet soup: NSCA PT, NSCA CSCS, NASM PT, NASM PET, NASM CES, ACE PT, FMS, CK-FMS, SFG, RKC, KBA, DVRT, FRC, CrossFit, CFFB, and CF-Mob.

378: Jarod Burton on Integrating Athlete Perception and Game Speed Development Sep 28, 2023

Today's podcast features Jarod Burton. Jarod is a performance specialist, chiropractic student, and health coach. He got his coaching start working with Brady Volmering of DAC baseball and has spent recent years coaching, consulting, and running educational courses in the private sector. Jarod focuses on engaging all aspects of an athlete's being, providing the knowledge for the individual to thrive in their domain. In Jarod's first appearance on the podcast, he spoke on work capacity development and the limits of how far athletes can push themselves on a level of training volume, with many mental concepts as a vital governor. In considering training, it is constructive to look at the complete bio-psycho-social factors before going too far into judging what an athlete can and cannot do. As Jarod said on the last show, "It's so silly to put it in this tiny box and say, 'You can only run 10 sprints.' Then the athletes start believing the fact that if I run more than 10, I'm going to break down." On today's episode, Jarod goes into a topic that he touched on in the last episode: the role of perception in building game speed and athletic ability. The level of the bio-psycho-social and perceptive elements strongly influences speed, and game-like stimuli can dramatically affect an athlete's sprint capacity. We dig further into these concepts for today's show and talk about game-specificity in speed training, impacts of environment perception on movement, variability and randomness in training, the role of play and exploration relative to outputs in training, and more. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs, TeamBuildr and the Plyomat. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for free (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at www.plyomat.net TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. I’ve continued to hear great things about the Teambuildr platform, and whether you are looking for an in-house training portal or an online training hub, be sure to check out Teambuildr training software. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 3:37 – The origins of Jarod’s views on the importance of perception and environment, in conjunction with speed and performance training. 10:20 – What big factors exist in how Jarod looks at how an athlete is considering and framing the training session. 22:20 – Thoughts on how specific we need to be with relating all perceptual information in training to one’s specific sport. 29:25 – Rotating the pieces of play, exploration, and output within the scope of training. 43:22 – Jarod’s take on modeling the principles of nature in sprint based or gym movements where an athlete may not know how far or long they are going in a set. 50:56 – The impact of randomness on the training environment. 1:02:46 – Thoughts on athletes who may struggle in a practice vs. a game environment and how to adapt training based on these factors. Jarod Burton Quotes “When someone was nasal breathing, the neurons inside of their brain would fire faster, and if they were mouth breathing, the neurons would fire slower” “One of the things I would always look for in weight room training was a cramp, and then they had to work through the cramp” “(With perception/action) Once you know what they are afraid of, that’s the scenario you need to create” “Every time she threw a softball, her arm hurt, but if we threw a football her arm didn’t hurt. So we basically had her throwing with a football, and we had different games, and then we would go to a baseball, then we’d go to a softball, and blend all this stuff through different games; and within a month she was throwing 100 (softball) pitches, pain free” “We were able to put down mats that made the play area look smaller, and if they play areas looks smaller, it looks like you can achieve the distance faster” “You watch and learn how people move; are they running curved, are they typically running 12 or 5 yards; once you start seeing patterns, that’s how you set up your timing gates; now you are starting to tie in whatever happens in the game, into your training experience” “Just because the S&C standard is a flying 10, or a 10, it’s OK to be more specific than that (for team sport)” “I’m looking for an athlete, regardless of external focus, to be able to put 100% into every rep” About Jarod Burton Jared Burton is a performance specialist, chiropractic student, and health coach. He got his coaching start working with Brady Volmering of DAC baseball , and has spent recent years coaching, consulting and running educational courses in the private sector. Jared focuses on engaging all aspects of an athlete’s being, providing the knowledge for the individual to thrive in their domain.

377: Boo Schexnayder on Elasticity, Proprioception and Motor Learning Concepts in Athletic Development Sep 21, 2023

Today’s podcast features Irving “Boo” Schexnayder. Boo is regarded internationally as one of the leading authorities in training design. As co-founder of SAC, he brings 42 years of experience in the coaching and consulting fields to the organization. He is most noted for his 18-year term on the LSU Track and Field staff and has coached 18 Olympians and 7 Olympic/World Championship medalists. Boo has also been very active in the consulting field, working in NFL player development and combine prep and consulting for individuals, high school programs, collegiate programs, professional sports teams, and several foreign NGBs in the areas of training design, jump improvement, speed training, rehabilitations, and specialized programs. He is a routine podcast guest and a listener favorite on topics of athletic development. Boo has greatly influenced my view of training and human performance. He is one of my favorite guests and is an incredible teacher who has a skill for taking complicated ideas and putting them in perspective for coaches to use in a straightforward manner. On today’s podcast, Boo and I talk about proprioception in light of complex training, problems with obsession with drills versus high-speed, whole athletic movement teaching, reflexive leg action in jumping and sprinting, pelvic and lumbar mechanics in running, Olympic lifting thoughts, and much more. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs, TeamBuildr and the Plyomat. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for free (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at www.plyomat.net TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. I’ve continued to hear great things about the Teambuildr platform, and whether you are looking for an in-house training portal or an online training hub, be sure to check out Teambuildr training software. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 2:41 – Where contrast works its way onto the track, and the nature of a “complicated” training stimulus 9:59 – The nature of proprioception as a key training variable 18:58 – Boo’s take on the work of Giles Cometti and Jean Pierre Egger, and coaching creativity 23:35 – Boo’s take on drills versus doing the entire skill 36:31 – What Boo considers to be the basics, or fundamentals that is taught, versus things that are up to the athlete 41:56 – Favorite setups in speed work, such as plyometric contrast 45:29 – Thoughts on reflexive action of the swing leg coming down towards the ground, versus forcing it down 54:55 – Pelvic mechanics, and the “center” of where speed is produced in athletics 1:02:07 – Heavy wave-loading and potentiation with Olympic lifts specifically 1:04:07 – Boo’s take on Olympic weightlifting in light of track and field, as well as team sports Boo Schexnayder Quotes “A lot of these contrast methods, what they do is play proprioceptive games… and as a result of that you get a complicated training environment, and a certain sharpness, and adaptation comes as a result” “Variety in practice improves transfer to the test, yet variety in practice often decreases the level of practice performance, so what I’m saying is that mixing these things up is likely to make them struggle in the practice environment, but when you put them (out in competition) it all gels and they shine” “I don’t think complexes are good or applicable at all times of the year; because sometimes they are at such a high level from a proprioceptive and complexity standpoint that they are out of reach at certain times of the year. I use them at late specific prep, and at some extent during your peaking times” “If you start training on September 1st, what’s the point of doing a complex, when everything is new to them anyways?” “I see proprioception as an extension of the nervous system; some types of training sharpen that, and some fatigue it” “Weight room complexes, like French Contrast stuff, they alternately damage and restore prioprioception within context of a single workout” “I use (proprioceptive supercompensation) on a regular basis in my speed program; we’ll squat on Monday and fatigue these propriopceptors, and you are back ready to sprint on Thursday and Friday you are even sharper and I always felt that was due to proprioceptive bounce-back… I find that athlete is even sharper than if you didn’t “wreck” the proprioception on Monday” “Coaches, for years and years have found that multi-throws, some types of Olympic lifts, and skipping, seem to regenerate proprioceptors” “(In basketball, etc.) The change of direction is a long contact plyometric activity, then you got the responsive jumps and so forth” “Motor learning research is unanimous that whole learning is better than part learning” “Ultimately we as coaches like drills because they are easy to teach; it’s a comfort zone” “The skill will never be perfect until there are higher levels of intensity” “Things that harm us in the short term tend to strengthen us long term” “A lot of coaches know how to teach things at slow speeds, but don’t know how to teach them at fast speeds… you need to know how to teach things at the speed of sport itself. As things speed up, you need to have different cue systems” “Many times I see tiny details being addressed that are paralyzing athletes” “Maybe you take a freshman through an assembly line of drills and progressions, and get them to a certain point, but at some point, your coaching becomes more reactive and a little less hands on” “The thing I really like that I’ve made my money off of is contrasting plyometrics with ballistic lifting; a jump movement loaded with 10-15% bodyweight, contrasted with a jump movement unresisted” “I know when I go to places in consulting work and I see bad change of direction typically what I see is lack of diversity and poor organization in the plyometric programs in most cases” “Any time you are trying to attack the ground, in the incorrect manner (forcing the leg down), what you’ve done you are going immediately to concentric, and you eliminated the isometric and eccentric phases, and the opportunity for elastic response” “In bounding and hopping and those types of exercises, if you actually measure the speed of the foot, you see the foot slowing down prior to impact, instead of speeding up prior to impact” “To simplify it, I tell my athletes, don’t use your leg like a hammer, use it like a spring. It’s the natural way to do it, it’s our default” “Back when we were on the farm, we would cut a chickens head off and it would still run around the yard, so it’s not like sprinting is something high tech that requires all of this brainpower” “If negative foot speed is excessive, we sacrifice, then now, what we sacrifice is the elastic responses at impact, and we see a flattening of the sinusoidal curve of the center of mass” “I say the wrong thing in practice all of the time and get good results” “Running really originates in the area of the lumbar spine and the pelvis; that’s where the engine effectively is, and the legs are amplifying the action of the pelvis” “What happens when you really get into “hit the ground hard” type cueing, there is a bracing effect that takes place in the vicinity pelvis, and basically you shut down the pelvic engine you need to be effective” “If I am coaching you in acceleration correctly, you will not have anterior tilt issues in maximal velocity” “The thing that Olympics lift do, that you cannot match anywhere else, is the sequencing, the hip, knee and ankle sequencing” About Boo Schexnayder Irving “Boo” Schexnayder is regarded internationally as one of the leading authorities in training design. As co-founder of SAC, he brings 42 years of experience in the coaching and consulting fields to the organization. He is most noted for his 18 year term on the LSU Track and Field staff. He has coached 18 Olympians and 7 Olympic/World Championship medalists. He has served on coaching staffs for Team USA to the 2003 Pan Am Games in Santo Domingo, the 2006 World Junior Championships in Beijing, and was the Jumps Coach for Team USA at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Schexnayder is certified at Level I, II and III, and owns the prestigious Master Coach Designation from USA Track and Field. He is also certified by the NSCA as a Strength and Conditioning coach. An educator by profession and a mentor of hundreds of coaches, he has been very active in curriculum development for Coaching Education programs, and has lectured nationally and internationally on speed/power training programs, biomechanics, track and field specific training and rehabilitation. He has also authored several publications covering these topics. He has also been very active in the consulting field, working in NFL player development and combine prep and consulting for individuals, high school programs, collegiate programs, professional sports teams, and several foreign NGBs in the areas of training design, jump improvement, speed training, rehabilitations, and specialized programs for football, basketball, soccer, golf, and volleyball.

376: Joel Smith Q&A on Strength-Transfer, Rotation, and “Fascial” Concepts in Speed and Athleticism Sep 14, 2023

Today’s podcast features a question and answer series with Joel Smith. Questions for this podcast revolved heavily around the transfer of various strength protocols and systems to speed and athletic performance, as well as many elements on speed training, jumping and footwear/fascia concepts. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs, TeamBuildr and the Plyomat. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for free (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at www.plyomat.net TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. I’ve continued to hear great things about the Teambuildr platform, and whether you are looking for an in-house training portal or an online training hub, be sure to check out Teambuildr training software. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 3:00 – How to get strength training to transfer better to speed and sprint outputs on the track. 6:30 – My take on the “Functional Patterns” training system. 9:15 – Sprint workouts for horizontal jumping events. 13:30 – Can the weight-room make you faster? Where can it not help, or go too far? 23:49 – How “quad dominant” athletes can become better through their foot and hips. 29:30 – How to look at “fascial” training, in light of the other systems of the body in movement. 35:55 – My take on reactive, drop-catch squat type motions. 43:10 – How to sprint in a gym with less space availability. 47:10 – Thoughts on the value of moving light weights fast, versus using heavier weights and sprints and plyometric training. 51:25 – The most valuable thing I’ve learned coaching U5 and U6 kids in soccer. 58:20 – The importance of maximal velocity training for distance running athletes. 1:02:40 – Do I see value of concentric loaded jumps in sprinting. 1:04:10 – The role of minimal shoes in basketball play. About Joel Smith Joel Smith is the founder of Just Fly Sports and is a sports performance/track coach in Cincinnati, Ohio. Joel hosts the Just Fly Performance Podcast, has authored several books on athletic performance, and in 2021, released the integrative training course, “Elastic Essentials”. He currently trains clients in the in-person and online space. Joel was formerly a strength coach for 8 years at UC Berkeley, working with the Swim teams and professional swimmers, as well as tennis, water polo, and track and field. A track coach of 15 years, Joel coached for the Diablo Valley Track and Field Club for 7 years, and also has 6 years of experience coaching sprints, jumps, hurdles, pole vault and multi-events on the collegiate level, working at Wilmington College, and the University of Wisconsin, LaCrosse, along with his current work with master’s, high school and collegiate individuals. Joel has had the honor of working with a number of elite athletes, but also takes great joy in helping amateur athletes and individuals reach their training goals through an integrative training approach with a heavy emphasis on biomechanics, motor learning, mental preparation, and physiological adaptation. His mission through Just Fly Sports is: “Empowering the Evolution of Sport and Human Movement”. As a former NAIA All-American track athlete, Joel enjoys all aspects of human movement and performance, from rock climbing, to track events and weightlifting, to throwing the frisbee with his young children and playing in nature.

375: Rich Burnett and John Garrish on Reactive Strength Development in Plyometric Training Sep 07, 2023

Today’s podcast features sports performance coaches Rich Burnett and John Garrish. Rich Burnett is the President and Director of Athletic Development for Triple F Elite Sports Training in Knoxville, TN. He is also the Co-Founder and CEO of Athletic Assessment Technology, known more commonly as Plyomat, and has over 10 years of experience working in high school, and NCAA DI strength and conditioning. John Garrish is the Director of Athletic Development & Performance at North Broward Preparatory School in Coconut Creek, Florida, and the school’s Head Track and Field Coach. John was voted the 2022 National High School Strength Coach of the Year by the NHSSCA and has been a two-time guest previously on this podcast, speaking on a variety of plyometric and speed training topics. The standing vertical jump, or “countermovement” test is a very popular method of assessment for athletes and has been for some time. What the standing vertical leap test doesn’t tell you, is how fast an athlete gets off the ground, which is generally what matters in sport, more so than how high an athlete can reach. Reactivity is also a general coordination ability where athletes can both anticipate the ground and coordinate the proper muscle activation sequences to rebound themselves back into the air, which is critical for a variety of athletic jumping, throwing, cutting, and overall movement tasks. On today’s show, Rich and John will get into how they train reactive ability in plyometrics, with respect to ground contact times, and the function of power that being able to get off the ground quickly provides. We also discuss the differences between double and single-leg reactive strength tests and measurements, and how they correlate to athleticism, as well as the differences between simple plyometric movements based on contact time, versus more complex and coordinated movements, such as skips and gallops. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs, TeamBuildr, and the Plyomat For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for free (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at www.plyomat.net TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. I’ve continued to hear great things about the Teambuildr platform, and whether you are looking for an in-house training portal or an online training hub, be sure to check out Teambuildr training software. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 4:39 – What “Reactive Strength” is, and how Rich and John use it in the scope of their training programs. 18:32 – Comparing Double vs. Single-leg reactive strength measurements, and how single-leg RSI is a “gold standard” of explosive athletic ability. 35:00 – How Rich and John go about coaching or referencing ground contact times in plyometric exercises. 48:56 – Links between bilateral reactive strength scores, trap bar deadlift ability, and core strength. 58:07 – Thoughts on more “compressed” and simple, intense plyometrics, relative to more long, rhythmic, and coordinated plyometric-type movements. Rich Burnett and John Garrish Quotes “RSI provided a lot of value to the sprinters, triple jumpers, and athletes that had a high level of success at the state level, go figure, had the highest RSI values” Garrish “Just because a kid is good at the bilateral (RSI), doesn’t mean they are good at the single leg (RSI) and vice versa. One of our best pogo kids on the 5 hop is not good at the single leg one” Burnett “I have for sure noticed with the single leg RSI hop (single leg forward, onto one leg on the mat, land on two feet), that has had a huge correlation with my population with speed, with every sprint, in every split… even the early phase” Burnett “With a more advanced population, maybe there is more of a shift to where the elastic part shows out more in the back end; it’s also not a cyclic test (the single leg RSI)” Burnett “An athlete who had a high RSI value, or a high value in power skips for distance, that was an athlete who was going to succeed on the runway, or in athletics in general, regardless of sport” Garrish “If we using RSI, an athlete is going to use a more forefoot contact; if we are going out and trying to skip for height or distance, the ground contact is going to be more hind, or mid-foot” Garrish “.2 seconds is the threshold for me for bilateral ground contact times” Burnett “If I don’t have a jump mat, and want to see what athletes are elastic, have them jump rope, have them do a (speed) ladder” Burnett “A lot of (RSI) had a correlation with trap bar deadlift too, these same female athletes who were scoring really high (on RSI) were some of our highest relative trap bar deadlifters too, and Stu McGill did a study comparing RSI to core strength; lo and behold they are highly correlated with each other” Burnett Show Notes Single Leg RSI Jump Test https://www.youtube.com/shorts/6b3DVUtOico About Rich Burnett Rich Burnett is the President and Director of Athletic Development for Triple F Elite Sports Training in Knoxville, TN. He is also the Co-Founder and CEO of Athletic Assessment Technology, known more commonly as Plyomat. Rich came up with the idea to start Plyomat in the Spring of 2020 to be able to quantify Plyometric tasks in a simple and affordable way for himself, his athletes, and coaches all over the world to use. Rich came to Knoxville after a 6-year stint at Greater Atlanta Christian School outside of Atlanta, Georgia. At GAC, Rich trained 300+ High School student-athletes a day as Head of GAC’s renowned Performance Training program, which he took over from his mentor Gary Schofield Jr. Prior to joining the Spartans of GAC, Rich spent 5 years at the Division 1 level in his hometown of Corpus Christi, TX. He began his professional career as an Islander in 2010 as a Graduate Assistant S&C Coach. The Athletics Director then created a position of Assistant S&C Coach in order for Rich to stay in 2012, then Rich was eventually promoted to Head S&C Coach for the TAMU-CC Islanders from 2014-2016. During this span, Rich saw the program grow to be one of the premier programs in the Southland Conference. As a product himself of the Island University, Rich also worked in the NSCA-recognized Kinesiology department as an Adjunct professor and researcher, growing the S&C profession through sport science and curriculum design. About John Garrish John Garrish is the Director of Athletic Development & Performance at North Broward Preparatory School in Coconut Creek, Florida, and the school’s Head Track and Field Coach. John was recently voted the 2022 National High School Strength Coach of the Year by the National High School Strength Coach’s Association. A graduate of Wagner College and the University of North Texas, he is certified through the NSCA as a CSCS and through USAW as a Level-1 Sports Performance Coach. In addition to his role at North Broward, John has previously served as the Director of Athletic Performance with the Florida Rugby Union’s High-Performance Program 7’s team and as a volunteer coach with Delray Beach Sports’ Exhibitors. Coach Garrish has spoken at state and national events and serves as the National High School Strength Coaches Association Regional Board Member for the Southeast.

374: Chris Scott on Pushing Plyometric Limits and Understanding Adaptability in Explosive Training Aug 31, 2023

Today’s podcast features strength and parkour coach, Chris Scott. Chris has a degree in Sports Therapy and works at “Jump” gym in the UK. Chris is an accomplished athlete in the parkour and acrobatics realm, who also holds a high level of bodyweight strength, doing single-arm pullups, and deadlifting in the realm of 3x bodyweight. Parkour, as a sport, is one that not only highlights adaptability to one’s environment but is also remarkably “plyometric” in nature. The leaps that parkour athletes make resemble long and triple jumps in track and field but in a highly variable fashion. The learning that comes out of variability, makes parkour a sport whose plyometric component can be highly transferrable, or a “donor sport” to other more traditional athletic endeavors. Chris’s skill as a parkour athlete has allowed him to train and perform extremely high depth drops and depth jumps, dropping from over 8 feet in the air, into a landing. Chris has used the recent winter to explore an emphasis on the high-intensity drop training variable, to see how it transfers into other aspects of his reactivity, athleticism, and strength. Training drops have played a large part in the preparation of other athletes, such as Adam Archuleta, owner of one of the NFL Combine performances of all time. On today’s podcast, Chris talks about the results of his high drop training and has it has impacted his athleticism. We also go into single-leg drop training compared to double-leg drop training, and the related implications. We also discuss the impacts of drop training in general, seasonal training aspects, experiential aspects of parkour-type training, variability in jumping, “impulse” training, and more. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs, TeamBuildr, and the Plyomat For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for free (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at www.plyomat.net TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. I’ve continued to hear great things about the Teambuildr platform, and whether you are looking for an in-house training portal or an online training hub, be sure to check out Teambuildr training software. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 4:43 – Chris’s athletic background in parkour, and how it has influenced his current perspective on movement, training, and coaching 6:43 – Chris’s experimentation with very high-depth drops, and how it impacted his dynamic jumping ability and strength levels 17:43 – Thoughts on the possibility of a high volume of altitude drops segmenting the way an athlete performs a jump dynamically 26:42 – Discussing single-leg altitude hops and hurdle hops in athletic performance 34:42 – How Chris was able to maintain his strength levels while doing a depth drop-oriented training phase with less emphasis on weightlifting (with 1x day a week doing eccentric oriented flywheel squats) 38:42 – Seasonal training aspects, featuring parkour outdoors, and larger box drops indoors in the winter 42:11 – “Combo” movements, such as a series of jumps, coupled with a precision landing in parkour, and the subsequent training effectiveness 48:41 – The experiential, play-based nature of parkour, and fun plyometric-oriented training movements 52:41 – Infusing variability into common plyometric training methods 1:01:40 – When to use time frames, vs. more standard set/rep schemes in plyometrics 1:08:40 – Impulse straps, tendinopathy, and training the bone end of the tendon Chris Scott Quotes “It felt better to rebound out of (an 8-foot drop) than to stick” “A year later (after training with high drops) I was smashing my old hurdle hop heights by 10cm, 12cm; my high hurdle hops, I was 15cm higher” “Not all jumps are going to be as beneficial as other jumps, for all athletes” “I had a really hard time with the single leg drops” “Does a single leg drop reflect athletic capability? Callum Powell is (better than me at single leg depth drops) and that much better than me at jumping in parkour” “(With the depth drop phase and limited strength training) there was no decrease to my strength, but there was an increase in my jumping” “I used to do the 5x5 or 3x10 of jumping or whatever, and these days (with the jump variations, and time as a constraint vs. reps) I notice such greater improvement” “I really enjoy using hurdle jump combinations, and it’s not for the contact times, or the elasticity, it’s for a hard-to-measure thing, the coordination” “The hurdle variations that are quite similar but different enough, I get different heights. For example, a crescendo where each one is going higher, I end up at a lower height than where it’s going low, high, low, high” “I’ll often shake my hands or vibrate before doing hurdle hops” “I don’t even bench press, but I think of Louie Simmons in the bench press, on the dynamic days, he would get them to change their hand position on every rep” “I became objectively far more powerful and reactive through the upper body through doing (impulse training)” Show Notes “Impulse Training” https://www.instagram.com/p/Cwc7Trxo94B/ About Chris Scott Chris is a strength and parkour coach, who works at “Jump”, one of the longest-running parkour organizations in the UK. Chris has a degree in Sports Therapy and works professionally in strength and conditioning. Athletic development and injury rehabilitation are enormous passions for Chris and they shine through in his teaching. Chris is a very humble practitioner and though he wouldn’t say it himself he has a very high level of technical skill as well as excellent mobility and strength. His knowledge and passion for what he teaches shows in his sessions where he will happily share high-level tips and advice for those who are willing to make use of it. Chris began training around 2009 in Coventry and initially had a very acrobatic approach to his training, this focus shifted when he discovered the challenge-oriented approach to Parkour which widened his practice to include more training methods. When he isn’t training Parkour, he’s often increasing his knowledge base, or standing on his hands!

373: DJ Murakami on Exploring the Social, Motivational and Inner Factors of Physical Training Aug 24, 2023

Today’s podcast features trainer, lifter of heavy and varied objects, and philosopher of movement, DJ Murakami. DJ has over 15 years of experience in the coaching realm with a wide history of movement practice, including training in bodybuilding, Olympic weightlifting, strongman (rock lifting), movement culture (such as Ido Portal), rock climbing, and more. DJ has created training courses such as Chi Torque, the Predator Protocol, and others, and mentors coaches and fitness enthusiasts through his Human Strong training organization. As life, in general, becomes more disconnected from our actual reality (think of relationships via social media, decreasing amount of exposure to nature/outdoors and local community), we can also consider how this has impacted the process of physical training. Where we used to move purposefully as part of the daily routine, our “innate” physicality has now been replaced by treadmills, indoor training spaces, lines/lectures/laps, and the reduction of training to either the simplest of drills or fancy movements that try to replicate sport, without actually being sport. The more we can regularly connect physical movement to the meaning and motivation behind it, not only will we have a better present-moment experience actually moving, but we can also find ourselves becoming stronger and better conditioned in the end result. On today’s podcast, DJ speaks importance (and oftentimes, lack of) of consequence and danger in many of our modern tasks and exercise activities, as well as the difference between play and formal training. He also goes in-depth on how we regulate our training from a mental, emotional, and social standpoint, and how this goes into fatigue, our music selection, “mental toughness”, and DJ’s own training methods. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs, TeamBuildr, and the Plyomat For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for free (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. I’ve continued to hear great things about the Teambuildr platform, and whether you are looking for an in-house training portal or an online training hub, be sure to check out Teambuildr training software. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at www.plyomat.net View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 2:28 – Thoughts on creating a story around the process of training and the related motivation factors 10:27 – Advantages of training athletes with higher possible levels of complexity 18:37 – The nature of physicality in DJ’s training sessions, such as manually resisted corrective training, or “human resisted” strength work 35:22 – The lack of consequence and danger in tasks, and its impact on the nature of training and coaching 40:33 – The role of music selection and training, such as how many males go towards a more angry place in training, and thoughts on the sustainability and health of that practice in the long term 51:36 – The role of emotional regulation through fatiguing movements 59:14 – DJ’s view on mental toughness, in light of a typical team sport training situation 1:05:03 – Thoughts on kid’s games, on the level of engagement, flow, and learning 1:12:04 – DJ’s primary goals in his own training routine DJ Murakami Quotes “Team sports is basically a replacement for military warfare” “The splits is something.. there is a population that really wants that. I think it is less, “ I want a certain capacity in my hips, I want a certain mobility in this joint; no it’s an “I want that skill”.” “If you could take a group of people and work on spinal segmentation and waves facing the wall, and then take people, and get them to learn the worm, which would have a better, more applicable outcome?” “Kids playing tag, versus, “were going to run a lap”, or do gassers… kids move very differently” “I think there’s something about danger and consequence that we are missing from exercise” “When you have all of these corrective drills that you don’t load up, they don’t respond to that very well” “I think there’s something about another person trying to find your weakness; you are instinctually, naturally going to try to fight against someone trying to push you over” “You can use yourself to create constraints that are made by machines” “When you have doubt and fear going into a movement, it completely changes how you execute the movement, and I think it becomes a more dangerous movement” “Looking back to times I hurt myself lifting, there was doubt before the lift, there was something off in my head” “If you put it in a different context, you can easily do the movement; I had a lady who picked up a sandbag and was pressing it, but when I told her we are just going to deadlift it and not press it, she said “I can’t, my back hurts”, because she had a history with it. Pain is psycho-somatic and social” “I started playing around with (IFS principles) before lifts; and lifts went up, perceived effort went down” “For 20+ years of my life I’ve been training/competing with anger…. Look at the music we choose… hardcore rap, rock, etc.. It’s very taxing to go to that emotion constantly” “When you go to the place in a workout where you are scared/extremely fatigued, watch your thoughts” “You can get 10-15 more reps, just by changing your mindset… fatigue is essentially an emotion… It’s your body saying, “we don’t need to spend resources on this” so I’m going to send this signal” “It’s very weird, butterflies in your stomach come up, I’ve seen that with some breathwork, pelvic floor stuff… people will have these big emotional releases, and they all seem to be related with a giving into an experience, not fighting and going away from it” “I think the mental toughness is a part (of training) when you are going into training for yourself, maybe at a later age, I think you can go a little deeper, and it’s less numbing… there’s a part that’s “shut up and do it”, and then there is a part where it’s deeper” “If you look at younger kids, (fatiguing/tough training) is about competition and social consequence” About DJ Murakami DJ Murakami has over 15 years of experience in the coaching realm. He has a wide history of movement practice, including training in bodybuilding, Olympic weightlifting, strongman (rock lifting), movement culture (such as Ido Portal), rock climbing, and more. DJ has created training courses such as Chi Torque, the Predator Protocol, and others, and mentors coaches and fitness enthusiasts through his Human Strong training organization. DJ Murakami also appeared in episode #339.

372: Sheldon Dunlap and Jeff Howser on Oscillatory Strength Training for Speed, Strength and Power Development Aug 17, 2023

Today’s podcast features sports performance coaches Sheldon Dunlap and Jeff Howser. Sheldon Dunlap is currently serving as a Strength & Conditioning Specialist with MARSOC (Marine Special Operations Command). Previously, he has worked at the collegiate level coaching a wide variety of sports at UC Davis and Duke University. Jeff Howser is a speed and performance coach with strong roots in track and field. He spent 20 seasons as Duke’s speed and conditioning coach and has trained a variety of team sports and high-level track and field athletes. Jeff was a world bronze medalist in the 110m high hurdles and a multi-time ACC champion. When you look at all of the possible training variations out there today in strength and athletic performance, you realize that a great majority of our modern training has been done in some way, shape, or form, many decades ago. One method out there that is more recent in nature is partial range, oscillatory repetition methods with barbells for the sake of improving athletic speed and power. Sheldon appeared way back on podcast #131 speaking on his integration of oscillating reps, into the Triphasic system pioneered by Cal Dietz. Sheldon originally learned the oscillating method from Jeff Howser (who also learned it from Cal’s influence). On the show today, Sheldon and Jeff will be speaking extensively about the nuances of oscillatory strength training for athletics. We’ll be covering repetition style, percentage of 1RM to utilize, integration into the rest of the program, seasonal aspects, tendon concepts, and much more. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs, TeamBuildr, and the Sprint Acceleration Essentials Online Course. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for free (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. To learn more about the Sprint Acceleration Essentials course, head to justflysports.thinkific.com TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. I’ve continued to hear great things about the Teambuildr platform, and whether you are looking for an in-house training portal or an online training hub, be sure to check out Teambuildr training software. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 3:00 – How Sheldon and Jeff first met, and where their training journeys have led them since our latest podcasts 7:30 – How Jeff got started with oscillating training repetitions and his origins with the methods 12:45 – Oscillatory training definitions, and then how Sheldon and Jeff use the method in athletic performance 26:00 – How Sheldon and Jeff bring in oscillatory training throughout the training year 38:30 – Coaching and execution styles of the repetitions in oscillatory strength training 42:30 – The quality of oscillating squat execution, on their athleticism and athletic ability 44:00 – Thoughts on individual factors in oscillatory rep training 47:00 – How oscillatory rep type work differs from simply putting a timer on a lift, as per how long it takes an individual to complete their repetitions 54:45 – How to integrate oscillating rep training into an entire training system, in light of other dynamic movements in a program, such as plyometrics 1:06:45 – Powerlifting 1:10:30 – The ratio of using oscillating training, versus more “health-based” lifting applications in a program Sheldon Dunlap and Jeff Howser Quotes “The main thing for me is controlling the speed and distance of the oscillation and controlling the speed of the oscillation. When I did it the oscillation distances were 6-9 inches, depending on the weight and how deep you were. it’s not a controlled descent, you can take a lighter weight and make it a heavier weight by giving people time under tension activities” Howser “Sometimes we’d go in a descending order, shallow, half squat deep. Sometimes we’d go full squat, half squat, shallow. Sometimes we’d go shallow, deep, shallow” Howser “I’d usually do 3 bounces in the bottom, sometimes I’d go as many as 5. If you do 5 bounces with a heavyweight, there is a good chance you are going to get stuck” “I’d do 3-4 sets of 3-4 reps per set… each set would have 3 bounces… 3 reps with 3 bounces is 9 bounces at the bottom” Howser “As you go from deep squats to half squats, you can make the oscillations much much quicker” Howser “In basically 2 months, he went from squatting 13x135 to 34x165lb (using only oscillatory training squatting with 115lb)” Howser “For military populations (the strength endurance) component is a (really valuable aspect) of oscillatory rep training” Dunlap “Looking at an athlete with a young training age, we could do an oscillating goblet squat” Dunlap “One of the things with oscillating is if you are only hitting the bottom 5 times with oscillating we are hitting 15 reps in that spot” Dunlap “One of the things I’ve found (with oscillating reps) is the safety factor, you can make a lighter weight act heavier” Howser “The value I’ve found is in shorter oscillations… jamming the force-time curve way to the left” Howser “Being able to have that control/comfort factor… Jeff went through it using a lighter weight, I went through it using an eccentric phase first” Dunlap “As fast as I want to go (with the oscillations), with weight is going to dictate as fast as I can go” Dunlap “I’ve seen slow twitch athletes get much bouncier doing oscillatory training” Howser “I think I’ve seen greater improvements in less elastic athletes, than elastic athletes with oscillatory training” Howser “If you do oscillating activities early, then your plyometrics will be better later on” Howser “Starting acceleration is greatly enhanced when you do (drop squat/oscillations)… (using the method) in a 20-meter acceleration some athletes improved .25 seconds” Howser “(Regarding oscillating training and powerlifting) it made the transmission of force, more direct” Dunlap “I did 6 weeks of heavy oscillating strength training in prep for my presentation, and afterward I felt it, I was tight, I was very strong, but everything was so tight, things became painful” Dunlap “When I was training field teams (lacrosse, soccer, etc.) I trained oscillating lifts, and static lifts concurrently; as we approached competition, we begin to change the ratio, It was 2/3 to 1/3 slower lift to begin with, it turned into a 2/3 to 1/3 oscillatory lift… then it became oscillations and ballistics as we got closer to the competition season, then to maintain in the competition season, we would do one day of limited oscillations during the season” Howser Show Notes Javorek wave squat https://www.youtube.com/shorts/eKJkDvGd2dc About Sheldon Dunlap Sheldon Dunlap, a graduate of Appalachian State University, is currently serving as a Strength & Conditioning Specialist with MARSOC (Marine Special Operations Command). Previously, he has worked at the collegiate level coaching a wide variety of sports at UC Davis and Duke University. Between his roles at the collegiate level, Sheldon served as an Assistant Strength & Conditioning Coach with the Orlando Magic, and as the Head Strength & Conditioning Coach for the Erie Bayhawks of the NBA G-League. About Jeff Howser Jeff Howser is a human performance coach, who previously spent 20 seasons as Duke’s speed and conditioning coach. A graduate of Duke, Howser was a six-time ACC champion and was named one of the ACC’s top 50 track athletes of all time in 2003. He went on to earn a bronze medal at the World Championships in the 110-meter high hurdles and was an alternate on the U.S. Olympic Team. Howser ran on the international level for 17 years and was a four-time U.S. Olympic Trials qualifier and two-time U.S. Olympic Trials finalist. He served previously as the sprints and hurdles coach at the University of Florida, UCLA, N.C. State, Duke, and the University of North Carolina, and was on the British national staff for Track and Field from 2004-2008. Howser also has coached a number of top-world ranked professional track athletes such as Anwar Moore (13.00-110m hurdles), Jason Smoots (6.51-60m, 10.01-100m), Bershawn Jackson (47.30-400m hurdles), Leonard Byrd (44.45-400m), Michelle Collins (50.00-400m, 22.18-200m indoor), Daniel Caines UK (44.98-400m), Crystal Cox (50.34-400m, 22.34-200m), Jordan Vaden (19.98-200m), Marion Jones (7.08-60m, 10.91-100m), and other athletes from Jamaica, Great Britain, Trinidad, Ghana, Bermuda, Finland, Barbados, and the Bahamas. He also has served as a consultant in training program design for several other top-ranked track athletes from various countries which include LaShawn Merritt, Tyson Gay, and Veronica Campbell-Brown. Howser also assists Athens 2004 Head Olympic Coach George Williams in coaching the Nike GW Elite Track Club. His coaching resume includes seventeen Olympians, five Olympic Gold Medalists, four World Championship Gold Medalists, and one World Cup Gold Medalist. In addition, one of Howser’s athletes ran the fastest high school electronic 40yd dash ever recorded (4.25 electronic at the Nike SPARQ Combine), which is also the second fastest time in history. He holds certifications from: National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) – Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) US Track and Field Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) – Certified Speed Specialist US Track and Field Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) – Certified Sprint / Hurdle / Relay Specialist US Track and Field Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) – Certified Endurance Event Specialist US Track and Field Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) – Certified Strength and Conditioning Coach USA Track and Field Association (USATF) – Level III Certification Sprints / Hurdles / Relays…..National Coaches’ Registry

371: Jake Tuura on Full-Spectrum Tendon Training and Performance Aug 10, 2023

Today’s podcast features performance coach and tendon expert, Jake Tuura. Jake currently works as a coach and educator who specializes in hypertrophy for athletes, vertical jump development, and patellar tendinopathy rehab. Jake was a collegiate S&C coach for 7 years, with further experience in the private sector at Velocity Training Center. Performance training is, at its’ core, simple, but within it contains many factors. The tissues involved in training include not only muscle, but bones and connective tissues. These tissues experience loading, not just in a linear manner, but also from a torsional perspective, based on pressure. While muscle tissue is by far the most commonly discussed of the muscle-bone-tendon triad, in understanding more about the tendonous and bony structures, and how they adapt to load, we can have a more thorough understanding of performance and rehab concepts. For today’s episode, Jake Tuura covers many aspects of tendon health and performance. These include the connective tissue impact of training on hard surfaces, different elements of tendon tissue (collagen fascicles vs. the interfascicular matrix), the impact of variability on tendon health and performance, strength training vs plyometrics in tendon development, long-term developmental concepts of connective tissue in training, and much more. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs, TeamBuildr, and Exogen wearable resistance gear. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for free (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. I’ve continued to hear great things about the Teambuildr platform, and whether you are looking for an in-house training portal or an online training hub, be sure to check out Teambuildr training software. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 2:09 – Hard vs. soft surface training, horse racing, and bone adaptations for performance 17:24 – Structural tendon rehab concepts, regarding isometric versus non-specific loading 22:28 – The difference between heavy strength, and high rep plyometric work on tendon health and rehabilitation 24:33 – Key differences between collagen fascicles in the tendon, and the IFM, or interfascicular matrix, and what this means for training and rehab 39:42 – How variability factors into training impacts on the tendon, collagen, and the interfascicular matrix 53:20 – The multi-vector nature of tendon training given plyometric or strength movements 1:01:54 – Training based on the long-term adaptations of the connective tissue, in light of both strength and elasticity Jake Tuura's Quotes “That’s where the issues happen, where the tendon inserts on the bone; it makes me wonder about training on hard surfaces and hard impacts, and adapting that (bone insertion) end of the tendon” “The tendon hole was completely filled in 5 months later, and that horse didn’t do isometrics… the animal situations where the tendons fill in without the weight room stuff, that’s fascinating” “You do need movement to load the tendon, but do you have to do the isometrics and heavy strength? I am still going to do them” “When a bone breaks, it’ll heal normally, but if you injure a tendon, it’ll scar” “The tendon is stupid, it doesn’t do anything on its own; if you want to get activation, you have to activate your muscle as hard as possible, or get activation through the bone” “When you are doing lifting, the collagen is crimped and then it goes straight, and you are making that collagen stronger” “You have the collagen within the fascicles of the tendon, and then outside of those fascicles, you have the infra-fascicular matrix, this gel that allows the fascicles to slide and rotate with one another, and when you do heavy lifting, I don’t think you are doing anything to that gel. But if you went and did hopping, jogging, that’s where the gel component would make the collagen fascicles slide and rotate around each other which would protect them from excess strain, excess linear-pull” “The gel has linear stress, but it also has compressive stress… to protect the collagen fascicles from excess linear-pull” “If you have a reactive tendonopathy, and your tendon is blown up and painful, you don’t want to be stressing (the gel) so you don’t want to do jumping, but you will usually be fine to do heavy lifting” “The fascicles work independently, so when you pull on the tendon, you won’t work all 50 fascicles, you might work 10 fascicles” “When you injure your tendon, you could only injure 1 fascicle, and have 49 healthy fascicles” “If you have holes in your tendons, your tendon still works…. you are able to go run because it’s only hurt a few fascicles, and when you give yourself movement variability, you are stressing different fascicles in different manners” “Spikeball is the best for movement variability” “That’s one of the hardest things to teach people is their own intuition” “(where the patellar tendon is enhanced by training the quads) When you get to the achilles tendon, it’s not so much about the calf muscles, you can do all the calf raises in the world, and still get achilles tendon problems” “When you do laundry, you are getting collagen synthesis” “This whole thing of doing heavy isos for preventative measures, I’m against that, I don’t think you need to be doing it; just do good normal training” “Tendon is slow (in development) if you have a strong muscle, you are going to have a strong tendon guaranteed, it is just going to be a delayed thing” “If you wanted a “super tendon” you need to load for your whole life” “It’s going to take a long time, you are not going to get these super tendons by doing heavy iso’s for the last two months… you are going to get a super tendon from playing basketball daily for the last 20 years” “Just look at how kids develop their tendon, through play, and then you try to artificially create it when it gets older, and it doesn’t work the same” “The horses who were in the pasture’s tendons were two times bigger than the horses who were stuck in the stall, or who were in the stall and walked for an hour a day” “Right now kids are just playing video games, maybe in 50 years we see everyone rupture their tendons” About Jake Tuura Jake Tuura, MS, CSCS currently works as a coach and educator who specializes in hypertrophy for athletes, vertical jump development, and patellar tendinopathy rehab. Jake was a collegiate S&C coach for 7 years, with further experience in the private sector at Velocity Training Center. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Superior (2014) and his Masters from The College of St. Scholastica (2015). His website: jackedathlete.com helps athletes gain copious amounts of muscle, jump higher, and rehab from jumper’s knee.

370: Jamie Smith (Strength Culture) on The Bio-Psycho-Social Lens in Human Performance Training Aug 03, 2023

Today’s podcast features coach and educator, Jamie Smith. Jamie is the owner of Melbourne Strength Culture, a strength and performance-based gym in Australia. Jamie worked at high-level S+C in Australia and the US prior to starting his coaching business with Strength Culture. Now he is heavily involved in coach development and education for strength coaches. Jamie has a truly expansive viewpoint on how we consider training in light of more global concepts. In performance training, we must look at human beings on a complete (holistic) level. To do that, it’s helpful to look at prominent and long-established fields of human collaboration and research, medicine to be exact. In medicine, the “biopsychosocial” model was conceptualized in 1977 and has been prominent, particularly in pain science. On today’s podcast, Jamie talks about both the biopsychosocial and top-down/bottom-up models and how to integrate them into a training model. Without considering the importance of mindset and culture, as well as “bottom-up” (using intuition in the training process) coaching, athletes are not going to get the possible level of result or enjoyment of the journey. As Jamie says on the show, building awareness in the athlete or client is one of the most important things you can do, and by defining the overarching structures of the BPS and top-down vs. bottom-up training, we can better understand how our program is actually landing with those we train. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs and Exogen wearable resistance gear. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for free (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 4:04 – Discussing the “beer mile” and “milk mile” competitions as track and field spin-offs 7:37 – The BPS, or “Bio Psycho Social” Model, and how it applies to training 13:28 – BPS-based ideas as to why two athletes can be on the same exact training program and get a completely different training outcome 17:42 – The philosophical concept of determinism, in light of the BPS model 23:28 – “Top-Down” vs. “Bottom-Up” methods in looking at training 39:52 – Looking at “Top-Down” vs. “Bottom-Up” concepts in training, relative to global concepts, such as investing 45:28 – Practical steps to integrating balance in Top-Down and Bottom-Up elements of a program 48:27 – Client autonomy in light of training constraints, BPS model, and buy-in 51:19 – A bottom-up approach to assigning training de-loads 1:02:15 – Skillfully assigning load ranges based on BPS and bottom-up concepts in training, and helping athletes feel “wins” in a program Jamie Smith Quotes “I think there are a lot of S&C coaches who have never really trained for events” “The biology (in the BPS model) is the physical nature of the human” “The psychological is your software, your thoughts, feelings, expectations… and ultimately those psychological things shape the lens that we see the world through” “Social is the environment in which we place the human” “Our thoughts, feelings, expectations, shape the way we enter processes; I truly believe the BPS model is the most encompassing model to view how we do things or look at outcomes in life” “When you understand the BPS model, you can’t remove the mental from the physical, or the culture; when you say something, how this is going to be perceived by an individual is influenced by everything they’ve done in their whole life” “A lot of people, became physically attached as a representation of what (rolling and smashing) would allow them to become; when a coach would come along and bash that idea, they are challenging a belief system” “The way in which we communicate matter, the history of a person matters, all of this stuff matters all at the one time…. We are living in a subjective world, with subjective people, trying to make everything objective in the physical world, we are missing a huge portion of what is important in this endeavour of training and life” “The philosophy of the bottom-up world is that we have to be cognizent of training on an individual level (Mike Tucherer)” “The top-down model is a constraint-based model…. We are constrained by these things that we can’t change too much” “There’s always this connection of top down, we are “stuck” and we have constraints we have to work within, and then training should be very bottoms up, we meet athletes where they are at, we collect data and see what works, and we go from there” “Some individuals respond really well to top-down strategies…. Other athletes are not like that, they are a bit more inquisitive, they like to tinker” “It is important to have top-down, we need to have a structure” “At its core, RPE training is the first step to building self-awareness, and if we build self awareness we can get better, more informed information from the athlete” “Actually getting a client to be included in program design strategy, when they are included they are more likely to have buy in because they are making some decisions” “If you go in with a purely bottom-up session, it can be hard to prepare, versus constraining a few things” “It’s innate within us that, when we start this process of training, that we cultivate self awareness” “Your goal as a coach is to build as much self-awareness in a client as possible… I think it is the most important variable, an awareness of yourself” “As you become more experienced as a coach, you can build those wins, into your training strategy” Show Notes BPS Diagram An Enactive Approach to Pain: Beyond the Bio-Psycho-Social Model https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2019-24807-001 About Jamie Smith Jamie Smith is the owner of Melbourne Strength Culture, a strength and performance-based gym in Australia. Jamie worked at high-level S+C in Australia and the US prior to starting his coaching business with Strength Culture. Now he is heavily involved in coach development and education for strength coaches looking to make strength coaching a career. You can follow Jamie through IG at @j.smith.culture

369: Brady Volmering on Shattering Strength and Power Barriers with Non-Traditional Training Methods Jul 27, 2023

Today’s podcast features human performance coach, Brady Volmering. Brady is the owner of DAC Performance and Health. His focus is on increasing the capacity of the human being. Brady continually digs into what “training the human being” actually means and how that relates to improvements that go beyond the general, into specific sports performance and even one’s daily life. He walks the talk on a high level through his own personal workouts and regularly discusses his training philosophy on his Instagram page. Brady was a guest on episode 291 of the podcast talking about “human” level physical preparation, and high-volume training concepts. On the podcast today, Brady talks about his single leg depth drop practice, the recent changes he made in his programming to physically transform himself across the past year, and then how he has taken those programming concepts into his training for athletic populations. As an already well-trained athlete, Brady’s progress is incredible to see, and the methods he used are simple in nature, and also relatively non-traditional in terms of the typical “rules” we put on training. We also touch on oscillatory reps, high-frequency training, mind-body awareness, “wins and losses” in training, and more, in this episode. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs and Exogen wearable resistance gear, and the Sprint Acceleration Essentials Online Course. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for free (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. To learn more about the Sprint Acceleration Essentials course, head to justflysports.thinkific.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 3:45 – What led Brady to perform a 6-foot box drop jump 11:15 – How Brady scales drops and difficulty for the individuals that he works with 16:15 – Comparing high drops, to more traditional “serial” plyometrics, such as low hurdle hops 27:45 – Processing “wins and losses” throughout the training session and season 32:45 – The mind-body connection that exists between physical exercise, and sport, particularly within the scope of being presented with a failure 43:45 – The key pieces that have led to Brady’s physical transformation in the past year, one of which was based on training advice from Jay Schroeder 1:02:45 – Keys to high frequency, or daily, integration of a potent training means as opposed to using a training stimulus in a typical 2-3x a week frequency 1:10:45 – How Brady’s training regime filtered into his training concepts for athletes 1:20:45 – Oscillatory training reps and impulse rep concepts for the upper body Brady Volmering Quotes “Really with anything we are doing, I want to set up in a game format, where an athlete has a chance to succeed, an athlete has a chance to fail because that is going to bring that engagement up” “In a (single leg) depth drop, if you don’t learn to direct that intent, you are going to fail… you can learn to direct that intent into other places as well” “Everything after (a 6-foot single leg drop) feels much easier, much less stressful” “I ask, what does it mean when your body speaks to you? When you have pain, what does that mean? When you have tightness or restriction, what does that mean?” “I know what they are feeling right now, what would I do; when I am programming I want to gain enough information about what they are feeling, what they are experiencing… what would I do?” “That’s why I like a lot of the high rep, high volume stuff we do, where if you decide to stop, through that you understand how your system is processing that stimulus, what thoughts are coming in” “When you are training and the only thing that is stopping you is yourself, that is a mini-loss…. In the training session in that mini-loss where you have that threat of stopping, your body is going to that same place when you have had those bigger losses” “If I have all these other verticals that are also in my life, that helps the training; now the session is supporting the sport, the session is supporting the business, the session is supporting the family, the session is supporting the quality of other relationships” “I’m pulling myself further into position, I’m not trying to resist (in an extreme ISO), that little piece right there made a huge difference for me because I can apply that in other areas” “I would do slow lowers every single day, and do a heavy rebound bench and heavy rebound squat every day, and over the course of that time, the rebound bench started at 195, and has went up to 290… when I did that with the slow lowers, I understood how not to resist myself more fully” “For me, I pop up for a rep after (the 3-minute pushup lower) because that is signifying that you are recovering as you work” “Any time I do a new thing, there is going to be a time where I heavily bias that; and then you squeeze it out and there is nothing there anymore, and it goes into the more comprehensive cycle that I have” “We are doing a lot less normal bench press, and a lot more rebound rep bench press… and we are applying that to everything else” “Usually the first movement we’ll do is some sort of game setup” “In a perfect world, you would want to do the slow-lowers every day” About Brady Volmering Brady Volmering is the owner of DAC Performance and Health. After starting out in the world of baseball skill training, he’s since moved into the human performance arena, putting the focus on increasing the capacity of the human being. Brady looks at what “training the human being” actually means and how that relates to an increase in specific sports performance.

368: Jason Feairheller on Multi-Directional Speed and Power Development Jul 20, 2023

Today’s podcast features Jason Feairheller (fare-heller). Jason is the Co-Owner and strength coach at Function and Strength in Bridgeport, Pennsylvania, and has been training athletes since 2007. He is the host of the Speed and Power podcast and has lectured on strength and conditioning as an adjunct professor at Immaculata University. Jason has a passion for speed and athletic movement training and is a sought-after speaker on the topic of multi-directional athleticism. He has developed the course “Improving Game Speed Through Multi-Dimensional Plyometrics”. Humans are complex and so is in-game movement. One topic that I’ve considered ever since the start of this podcast was the idea of actually coaching change of direction and sport-speed techniques, versus decision-making being the priority, and then letting game-play dictate how athletes choose to technically move in space. Jason’s passion has been all forms of speed and movement in athletes, and on this podcast, he goes into the fundamental principles of change of direction versus agility (perception) training, and how each method works into his athletic performance programming. Jason will also get into his use of plyometrics, and methods that quantitatively measure change of direction outputs, his take on deceleration training mistakes and misconceptions, agility games, and much more. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs and Exogen wearable resistance gear. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for free (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 3:06 – What brought Jason into the game speed space as a primary focus of his training 8:49 – Jason’s thoughts on the place of change of direction training, compared to agility/perception work 16:36 – How the interplay between planned/rehearsed change of direction, and live agility occurs in a training session 31:45 – How Jason looks to quantitatively measure improvements in change of direction ability 41:11 – Considering “deceleration” training in light of having athletes fully stop, vs. redirecting speed 49:08 – Perception/Reaction and game-oriented work Jason uses for his athletes 51:51 – What Jason’s session looks like in terms of warmup, speed/COD training, games, and strength breakdown 53:21 – Jason’s favorite simple COD games he uses in his training 57:12 – Plyometric training concepts, particularly on the level of small hops, leading into larger ones Jason Feairheller Quotes “What makes an athlete really good at (speed in training), it was the ability to link one movement into another” “When I do change of direction training, every single speed drill I do with someone is an assessment” “Ultimately, people need to redirect force, and then get the other foot down quickly” “For the most part, I don’t do a drill for more than 2 to 3 reps without changing it in some capacity” “If I have my feet close together; and I put my feet out to the side, and back, and do a straddle jump like that; what I’m looking at is, how far can an athlete actually get their feet to the isde, and what is that shin angle, where their head doesn’t go up or down; and that distance is close to what they would actually have on the field” “A 5-10-15 tells me how well someone can decelerate when speed is higher” “I watch a lot of video from all different sports, and try to relate change of direction work to some sport scenario in my head” “We have these rubber mats that are 2-3 feet wide, and we have max reps (pogo jumps) over the rubber (you can’t touch the rubber) for 8 seconds; a lot of jumps people track are vertical in nature; but a lot of what happens on the field is horizontal” “I rarely tell people to stick the landing on a drill, the only time is altitude drops or something like that, because I need outputs to be my main goal” “When people focus on only decelerating, they typically get into very deep angles of hip and knee flexion, but what we want to do is create enough strength within the athlete where they can decelerate with minimal knee flexion; and if they want to accelerate hard off of something there needs to be little knee flexion so they can quickly push off of that, because if you are going off of a single leg, you can’t get into those deep angles” “If someone sprints straight ahead, unless it’s for 2 steps, they are not going to stop with their feet in line with each other, they are going to stop with their feet angled to the side, because that’s how someone is going to decelerate anyway” “You have someone sprint 7 yards, but they have to stop by 9 yards, and you time it, and you know if their time is slow, you know they are decelerating too early (and can’t manage a fast stop/redirection)” “I love drills where I’m trying to get both people, to get the other one to move fast in some way, because the faster someone goes, the less movement options they have” “One of the things I try to minimize with people is taking a lot of choppy steps, to slow down” “His ability to drop was way faster than his opponent and blew right by him; that’s another component I’ve been looking at lately; the ability to drop faster than your opponent can also help you” About Jason Feairheller Jason Feairheller is the Co-Owner and strength coach at Function and Strength in Bridgeport, Pennsylvania, and has been training athletes since 2007. He is the host of the Speed and Power podcast and has lectured on strength and conditioning as an adjunct professor at Immaculata University. Jason has a passion for speed and athletic movement training and is a sought-after speaker on the topic of multi-directional athleticism. He has developed the course “Improving Game Speed Through Multi-Dimensional Plyometrics”.

367: Bill Hartman on The Adaptive Body, Force Production, and High-Performance Biomechanics Jul 13, 2023

Today’s podcast features Bill Hartman. Bill is a physical therapist, and in-demand educator in his approach to restoring a pain-free lifestyle, and understanding the governing principles of movement. He has been a mentor to, or has inspired the knowledge of many previous guests on this podcast, particularly in regards to movement biomechanics, infra-sternal archetypes, and the compression-expansion model. Bill owns IFAST Physical Therapy in Indianapolis, Indiana and Co-owns Indianapolis Fitness and Sports Training with Mike Robertson, where he works with clients ranging from very young athletes to professionals. It is very interesting to look at how we approach the nature of “muscle weakness” and compensations in training. For example, it is common to look at all compensatory action in the body as a “bad thing”, rather than looking at how the body actually uses compensatory action to produce force, or adapt to a particular sport skill, in addition to when that compensation might actually be a problem. The human performance field has also looked at muscle weakness in isolation, rather than digging deeper into the underlying structural alignment of the body contributes heavily to what we are seeing out of muscle strength and function. In today’s podcast, Bill goes into the adaptive nature of the body and what it really means when we are seeing compensatory actions in movement. Within this, Bill also gets into the nature of reciprocal, or more “locking” movement of joints, depending on the task an individual needs to accomplish. Bill spends a lot of time talking about strength training, how it can be a positive, but also the dynamics of the interference effect that can lead to undesirable adaptations for athletes over time. Bill also covers external rotation and pigeon-toed athletes, and the nature of power training for wide and narrow ISA archetypes, and much more. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs, Exogen wearable resistance gear, and the Just Fly Sports Online Courses. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for free (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. To learn more about the Sprint Acceleration Essentials or Elastic Essentials courses, head to justflysports.thinkific.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 5:00 – Bill’s journey from working purely in the traditional therapy and training model, into one that embraces more of the complexity of nature, and universal principles of movement 15:28 – The adaptive process of the body, and how this leads into different alignments and representations 18:14 – The compensatory strategies of the body as an adaptive process 29:02 – Examples of when strength gains may end up creating an interference effect on the body 33:32 – How children are so flexible, and the role of shape change in human motion 36:50 – The role of mobility and “stiffness” in terms of speed and running efficiency 43:37 – General thoughts on stiffness and compliance for a typical field sport athlete 49:10 – Connective tissue and stiffness adaptations to heavy strength training, and the point where heavy strength can be a negative for explosive sport activities 1:04:45 – Relative motion and force production biomechanics in squatting, and knee mechanics as it relates to joint pain and injury risk 1:12:42 – The externally rotated, “bowlegged” representation of the legs, on the level of athleticism 1:23:16 – Power training with the needs of a Wide ISA type in mind Bill Hartman Quotes “When you start to look at the human as a complex adaptive organism, your perspective starts to change” “If you are made of water (fluid dynamics) is going to be one of the foundational principles” “The goal is not to negate everything that came before… but the level of reasoning is what the biggest change has been” “The interaction (between the parts of systems) is the most fascinating” “If the muscle was truly the problem, then this exercise should have solved the problem, but it didn’t, because it was a relationship (between parts) problem” “In a circumstance, we join joints together and they move as one; that is a compensatory strategy, because it is trying to solve a problem that relative motion cannot solve, and where this really shows up is force production. Relative motion has a dampening effect on force production; I cannot produce maximal force in a situation where full relative motion is available” “In athletics, where forces are exceptionally high, if you are not compensating, you aren’t performing well. We can’t classify compensation as good or bad, we have to say that this is part of the solution to a problem” “If I use too much compensation, then I can’t dampen forces” “Compensations are absolutely normal, you use them every day, but the question is, “is this helping me, or is it creating interference”?” “Try to get up out of a chair with full relative motions… it doesn’t happen. You have to “lock things together” (to produce force and get up out of the chair)” “Raise somebody’s trap bar deadlift by 100lbs and that could be reasonable and useful, raise someone else’s by 100lbs and you just created interference with something they needed from a health or performance perspective” “Children have more movement options in terms of changing their physical shape, they are much more fluid than we are” “If you pull the long skinny jump stretch band, or the fat band back, which one has more energy?” “That’s what those (bilateral symmetrical heavy oriented strength training) are for, to take away the ability to turn, to produce force at high levels” “By tradition, narrow ISA’s have a narrow window in which to apply the down force in; if I increase their force production and they start to expand their force production in a way that is outside of that window, what happens is they have to squeeze themselves tighter and tighter from the top down, so the pressure gradient goes from the top downwards, instead of bottom up; so I am sticking you to the ground, when it’s time for you to produce force within a narrow time window” “By bias, the narrow ISA is going to biased more towards an externally rotated representation which means they have a shorter duration of short application; so their impulse time by physical structure is going to be shorter than the widest wide ISA” “When I go into a single leg stance, the bias is going to go into a more externally rotated situation” “The bias in the descent of a pistol squat reduces the VMO contribution in a lot of people, because I have to bend against the external rotation mechanics; external rotation mechanics are actually a straightened knee” “(By holding a weight in front of the body) you are giving people a chance to get more internal rotation (in squatting)” “High force production without enough internal rotation tends to be detrimental” “Internal rotation is down-force” “I would not put someone into a single leg stance activity until they have (the ability to internally rotate)” “They used to train people to run pigeon-toed because they found people that have this slight ER bias are faster kids, and then they tried to train that into people which is the mistake” “The limbs are formed (as an embryo) in external rotation, and we turn them in as human beings” “All compensatory strategies will lead you towards external rotation; we are going home” “How do I get a similar representation in a wide ISA; if I need connective tissue behaviors to enhance a wide ISA’s behavior I need him to de-load onto the box (in a box squat) so he does get the yielding action in the connective tissues, and give them time to spring back” “There’s a very easy way (to feel what a Wide ISA feels): All you have got to do is load the bar with chains and you will understand how a Wide ISA applies force into the ground…. the chains sustain the duration of force application; a band is more of the elasticity, gut behavior we talk about, but the chain sustains the duration of force production; (chains are a) a great way to slow down a narrow” “I think (the different types of band and chain tension) are very specific in how they should be applied” “The things that can be improved are potentials that have not been developed, not true weaknesses” “What’s the best way I can give (a Wide ISA) adequate time to deform (using box squat/yielding type work), so I can actually train that element, then I can come back to the short impulse stuff… I have an improvement in the connective tissue behavior, now I am going to utilize it” About Bill Hartman Bill Hartman is known for finding solutions for people in pain that have failed with other forms of treatment. He is an in-demand educator in his approach to restoring a pain-free lifestyle, and understanding the governing principles of movement as applied to human performance. He regularly mentors physical therapy students and interns many of whom have gone on to land positions in professional sport or become successful business owners themselves. Bill owns IFAST Physical Therapy in Indianapolis, Indiana and Co-owns Indianapolis Fitness and Sports Training with Mike Robertson, where he works with clients ranging from very young athletes to professionals. He is the author of the book, All Gain – No Pain: The over-40 Comeback Guide to Rebuilding a Fit and Pain-free Body After Pain, Injury, or Physical Therapy.

366: Andy Ryland on Intuitive Development of Skill and Athleticism in Sport Jul 06, 2023

Today’s podcast features USA Football senior manager of education and training, Andy Ryland. Andy has been with USA Football since 2010, has consulted with programs at every level of competition, and is widely recognized as a foremost expert on developing the fundamentals necessary for a successful shoulder tackle, as well as the developmental, and skill building process for athletes. He previously appeared on episode 170 speaking on a “humans first”, “athletes second”, “specialists third” approach to athlete development. In the process of developing athletes, it is easy to compartmentalize training components, ultimately to a fault in the overall process. If we are working in a sport or skill building capacity with athletes, we should have a basic understanding of their physical capacities and capabilities, as well as how training adaptation and specificity work. If we are working on strength and more base level movement components with athletes, we should have a handle on their needed skills and tactics on the field. Ultimately, the more situations we can coach in, the more ages, and sports we work with, the better our overall intuition gets on the process of teaching skills, and guiding athletes to their highest potential. Andy Ryland has a deep understanding the developmental process that players need to succeed in their sport. On today’s episode, Andy digs into key points on the art of athletic skill building. A primary part of this is how he runs the “whole-part-whole” system, which can be adapted to more global, or strength based skills. Andy discussing how to integrate “prescriptive extra’s”, or “work-on’s”, as well as micro skill development in sport and S&C. He also covers key aspects of improving agility, teaching concepts in athletics, creativity in coaching, Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs and Exogen wearable resistance gear. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for free (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 3:54 – The original “failed” games in American Gladiators, and the evolution of “powerball” into what it eventually became 8:57 – Andy’s take on practice plans, creativity, intuition and thoughts on changing the practice plan 17:53 – Thoughts on mixing in various micro-doses of skill and movement into gym-based training 28:06 – Alternating between working the “outer game” of more external strategizing, or outputs, and the “inner game” of the subtle nuance of skill performance, in training 34:53 – The integration of roughhousing into youth football 43:29 – How to use a game-based iterations of a drill, to better prepare for the actual skill execution 48:09 – The need for constant 1 on 1s, tracking and evasion-based work in sport, and how it’s not typically trained enough in sport 52:58 – The role of the “instant activity”, or “welcome game” in a sport practice or training situation 58:10 – The maximal “line length” Andy sees being viable in sport/skill practice Andy Ryland Quotes “I’m a huge whole-part-whole guy. I’ll be the first to tell you, the part aspect is never scripted” “If our arms are terrible, if our legs are terrible, if our strike accuracy is terrible, that’s going to be our “part” (in whole-part-whole)” “If I’m doing a good job, my coaching intervention “part” aspect is not going to be some super stereotyped, copy and paste drill that’s been done since the dawn of time. It’s who are my athletes, what are they struggling, what is the situation where they struggle, and how can I replicate that before going back into the whole thing” “My mentor Richie Grays, worked in professional international rugby for ages, they had prescriptive extras, every athlete had “work on’s” that fit their game. They had a set of bags that was at the entrance to the field, and their rule was you can’t pass the bags, and every athlete had to get 5-10 reps every day of their particular weaknesses” “Within the contact space, one of the most valuable things is feel. Very little is visual, a lot is feel. How I brace and fight is based, not just if your hands are on me, but feeling which way you are trying to put me” “That roughhousing is such a robust stimulus; you need to interact with another human being, you need to learn to be strong with an outside force” “Even if I do a great job teaching it, there is going to be this phase of you needing to learn it in your own body” “Coaches now have to manufacture, some of the free play opportunities that athletes had in the past” “Kids have lost those free play opportunities, and when we get to sport (and play) people will say “that’s not specific”, but if they don’t have the movement foundations and database that past generations had, then it’s very specific to their development” “In our official USA practice plans, there is a 5-minute period every day we called athlete development, where it’s jumping, tumbling, it’s cutting, it’s landing, it’s grappling, it’s rolling, it’s investing time in those qualities so they can learn better later on because they have those movement capacities” “In contact sports, two of the traits that are most important that aren’t talked about are spinal awareness, and postural manipulation” “Any push pull game is going to be massive for kids… before we go into our tackle work we are going to do a push-pull battle game” “When I get into this push-pull-grapple, I’m getting to some other components that light my body up (than simply doing a linear, drill-based progression)” “I could actually feel, like the turf was bunching behind my turf in the acceleration phase… it was in the midst of conditioning, it wasn’t even a sprint day, people have told me this for 6 years, and now it was a huge lightbulb moment for me” “Most sports, at the end of the day, can I evade you, and can you track me down and stay in front of me…. But that’s the thing we probably train the least… the only way to learn that is experiential” “Measurement-wise, this is an elite athlete with speed and change of direction… but he can’t read the play and his timing is terrible… how do we fix that? We have to get him open field opportunities and a lot of 1 on 1’s and 2 on 1’s” “Is there a time and place for a slow warmup, absolutely, but I love that instant activity, or pickup games, or moderately ruled game, that allows for a lot of creativity; it’s amazing when you use that to start your practice, what the rest of that looks like” “3 people is the most I’d ever have in a line” “I expect the first couple reps to be bad; my coaching cues are “see if you can find it”” “I’ve heard “ABC, always be coaching” but if you had a teacher like that, you would hate it!” About Andy Ryland Andy Ryland is USA Football’s senior manager of education and training and has been with USA Football since 2010. He has consulted with programs at every level of competition, and is widely recognized as a foremost expert on developing the fundamentals necessary for a successful shoulder tackle. He is a former Penn State linebacker and member of the U.S. Men’s Rugby team and is a primary instructor in the Advanced Tackling System. Ryland previously served as a Division 1 American Football coach as well as working as a Fitness Coach in rugby. During his tenure with USA Football Ryland became the lead clinician for USA Footballs in-person coach training events including Coaching Certification and its Football Development Model. Key initiatives spearheaded by Ryland throughout his time at USA Football include developing the Heads Up Football Program, trainings its Master Trainer Coach Educators and the development of the Rookie Tackle game type that serves the FDM.”

365: Matt McInnes-Watson on Dynamic Plyometric Combinations and Patterning Jun 29, 2023

Today’s podcast features track and S&C coach, Matt McInnes-Watson. Matt is the owner of Plus Plyos, an online coaching platform that provides plyometric training programs, courses, and systems for coaches and athletes. His initial coaching experience was as a track coach for jumpers and multi-eventers, which led him to work as the lead S&C coach for Itchen College Basketball in the UK. Matt teaches and delivers seminars around Europe and the US, while working with athletes from football to figure skating, using his expertise in jumping and plyometrics to enhance performance. Plyometrics, in the general sense, are as old as time. How we have classified them and integrated them into training for sport started with track and field, and now is branching out more and more into team sport. Within both track and team sport, we have aspects of specificity, rhythms, coordination and integration that we can consider to really hone in our plyometric efforts on the ultimate progress of the athlete. For today’s podcast, Matt covers his background as a soccer player, and the role of swing leg dynamics in kicking, and in its link to jumping. We talk about various plyometric combinations from the perspective of direction, height and distance, and how this factors into common exercises like bounding and hurdle hops. Extensive plyometrics in team sports, especially in season, is a debated topic we cover, and we finish with Matt talking about the origin and implementation of the “deep tier”, or full range plyometric exercises. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs and Exogen wearable resistance gear. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for free (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 2:36 – Matt’s background in soccer, and his introduction to jumping and track through basketball 11:42 – Single leg jumping in light of locomotion and the gait cycle 14:25 – The usage of the swing leg in a soccer kick, and how that fits with a single leg takeoff, or a bound 21:38 – How Matt looks at plyometrics for the sake of team sport development as opposed to track and field 31:52 – Matt’s take on high hurdle hops, and bounce-combos, in bilateral plyometric execution 42:00 – Thoughts on how much team sport athletes need to do extensive, high-contact volume, plyometrics, in light of their team sport demands 52:54 – Matt’s development and integration of “deep tier” plyometrics for athletes Matt McInnes-Watson Quotes “A big thing for me was speed on the ground in my takeoff, I went from .22s, to .17s when I jumped my best” “In terms of my abilities to pick up skills with my feet (a background of soccer was a huge help)” “It saddens me when you get a basketball player who cannot jump off of one leg” “One of my favorite combos is 2 forward, and 1 back, I think the real pinnacle of athletic movements is 2 hops forward 1 hop back, or 2 hops forward, 1 hop upward” “Especially for basketball players, lighter extensive work is hugely important for ankle rolls, if they have a history of ankle rolls” “I play with those (multi-lateral) rhythms with team sport guys, not so much with track guys” “You can’t hide in movements that are (inherently reflexive)” “(Deep tier) paired with the rudimentary stuff seems to be a recipe that is working really really well for us” “The deep tier is such great fun; there is a therapeutic side to achieving that full range of motion’ “There’s a safety net of providing a regular stimulus (with deep tier, stretch range plyos)” “So I play with a variation of deep tier, called a double dip, so when you drop down, you drop again quickly, and you pop out of it, and it plays with passive reflexes at the bottom ranges” About Matt McInnes-Watson Matt McInnes Watson, MSc, is the owner of Plus Plyos, an online coaching platform that provides plyometric training programs, courses, and systems for coaches and athletes. Matt started off as a track coach for jumpers and multi-eventers, which led him to work as the lead S&C coach for Itchen College Basketball in the UK. Since then, Matt has been teaching and delivering seminars around Europe and the US, while working with athletes from football to figure skating, using his expertise in jumping and plyometrics to enhance performance. Matt also now runs his own podcast - "Hop on the Poddy" and continues to work on delivering high level education on plyometrics and dynamic movement.

364: Mark Hoover on Evolving Concepts in Game Speed and Agility Training Jun 22, 2023

Today’s podcast features guest Mark Hoover. Mark works for SimpliFaster in a coaching and technical consulting capacity and is the Director of Athletic Performance at Metrolina Christian Academy in Indian Trail, North Carolina. Coach Hoover started his career coaching football at both the high school and NCAA levels. After spending nearly 20 years in the dual role of sport coach/strength coach (including 11 years as a head football coach), he made the transition to full-time strength and conditioning in 2015. Mark is a growth minded coach who is continually evolving his training process. Mark is continually evaluating his program based bettering one’s abilities on the field of play. The qualities it takes to be a weight room warrior are not the same as the fundamental speed and decision-making elements happening in the game itself. As an individual who was better in the weight room than he was in sport, Mark has dedicated his own process in a different direction for those athletes he works with, doing what he can to ensure that they are adept movers, in addition to being strong and robust. On today’s podcast, Mark talks about his approach to building game speed, rehearsed vs. problem solving agility movements, the role of basketball in overall movement development, and we finish with a brief chat on the role of the 1x20 strength system in Mark’s program. This show delved into some really important concepts of athlete development, and although it primarily discusses work done with high school athletes, the concepts are helpful for those on all levels of performance. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs and Sprint Acceleration Essentials. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for free (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. To learn more about the Sprint Acceleration Essentials course, head to justflysports.thinkific.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 2:13 – Mark’s original athletic journey, and how it has shaped the coach he is today 10:34 – What Mark would change in his own athletic journey to help himself become a better overall athlete 17:28 – Mark’s evolution in game-speed development, and how he has incorporated this into his training programs 22:44 – Training “fundamental” game speed, and agility movements, versus letting athletes purely self-organize in reactive game speed situations 37:07 – How to know when “fundamental” game speed training is linking into organic game-speed ability 41:32 – What sports the “planned” agility type work is most applicable towards, such as football on offense 53:25 – Sports that may need game-speed training more than others, and the “roll 90 test” that helps Mark find what athlete’s reactive speed deficits are 1:00:00 – Mark’s take on the edges of the feet, as it pertains to agility and game speed movement 1:03:59 – Mark’s usage of the 1x20 strength training system, and how he has used it and progressed it in his coaching Mark Hoover Quotes “As it turns out, the only time I was a star on that football field was when I was in that weight room” “If I could go back, I would convince my younger self to play every sport possible” “When people talk about mental toughness, it’s very task specific” “We don’t do a whole lot of A-skips, or things, we do a lot of where we partner up, and one person stands an arm’s length behind another one, and one person has to hop hop squat, and it has to be a variable squat, on one leg, on two legs” “This is probably blasphemy, but I would say (game speed agility/movement) is more important to master than squat, bench, deadlift” “We still, even as we progress the drills, build in those basic, “feel” cues, and then when they take it over into the reactivity stuff, they know” “That is probably the toughest concept of the whole thing, is showing them here is how fast you can run, but here is how fast you run to stop and separate effectively, and juke” “We try to get our guys to play football, at a basketball speed” “In most sports, basketball is actually the goal, if we can get our guys to move like basketball players, they are going to be really good at football” “Kids can get lost in 5x5 basketball, but not in 3x3 basketball” “I wish I had a gym where we could lower the basketball rims, so we could have a slam dunk contest. Imagine the stimulus of a 3x3 basketball and a dunk contest!” “It’s crazy to me that people will say I’m going to spend 4 of my 5 days lifting weights, and then 1 day running around… if you want athletic ability, maybe think about flipping that” “Where they are in that central nervous system place where they are smiling and laughing and moving, there is going to be a big imprint there” “We are really trying to get rid of the pivot, where you get on the big toe and pivot and push through the toe” “(after some time using the 1x20 system) I’m looking around the room… these guys are jacked” “They won a state (football) championship where they never had an athlete do more than 2 sets of one exercise, ever” “If I could get a strength adaptation from 20 reps, why would I add a whole bunch of weight and try to get that same adaptation from 3 reps, because you are adding a higher cost” “You could get strength adaptations with 3’s and 5’s with younger athletes, but what is going to happen later on?” About Mark Hoover Mark Hoover works for SimpliFaster in a coaching and technical consulting capacity and is the Director of Athletic Performance at Metrolina Christian Academy in Indian Trail, North Carolina. Coach Hoover started his career coaching football at both the high school and NCAA levels. After spending nearly 20 years in the dual role of sport coach/strength coach (including 11 years as a head football coach), he made the transition to full-time strength and conditioning in 2015. Coach Hoover holds bachelor’s degrees in communications and physical education and is fully certified in K–12 social studies and physical education. He is currently pursuing an MS in Exercise Science. He is a USAW Level 1 and 2 Certified Advanced Sports Performance Coach, as well as an NASM Performance Enhancement Specialist.

363: Chris Korfist on Advancing Training Models in Sprint Performance Jun 15, 2023

Today’s podcast features track and speed coach, Chris Korfist. Chris has been a high school coach in track and football for 3 decades with close to 100 All-State athletes. He is currently the sprints coach at Homewood Flossmoor high school in Chicago, owns the "Slow Guy Speed School”, and has consulted with professional sports teams all over the world, including the NFL, MLB, NBA, and Rugby League. Chris has been a favorite podcast guest on this show and is constantly evolving and innovating his methods. Sprinting is a simple, yet complex topic, and one that requires a continual analysis of mechanics, exercises and training models. There are many ways to train athletes, and with this in mind, it’s important to understand the “first principles” of any training system. With many first principles taken from the brilliance of the “DB Hammer” training ideals, Chris has steadily evolved his training system, year over year, to the place where it is today. This past season, Homewood Flossmoor won the Illinois state track championship, and won the 4x100m and 4x200m dashes on their way to the title. Chris’s adjustments to his speed training models worked well, with some athletes chopping off a second or more off of their 200m times from the previous year. On the podcast today, Chris starts by talking about his mental training approach, and some unique mental training elements of this past year’s team. He then gets into the main changes he utilized this past training year, including reducing the speed endurance component of the work, and replacing it with some potent “AN2” bracket (30-40 second) specialized training for the sprints. Chris also goes into how he would specialize the exercises for sprinters of different archetypes (stompers vs. slicers) and much more. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs and Exogen wearable resistance gear. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for free (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 2:40 – How the state track meet went for Chris’s team this year, including a 41.03s 4x100m time and a state championship 7:08 – Updates on mental strategies for racing, and building mental highlight tapes for athletes prior to meets 20:49 – Some main changes that Chris made this year in his programming that proved successful in the team’s state championship performance 30:12 – Using the 1080 sprint for slow-speed iso-kinetic hamstring work to improve the injury resilience factor of the muscle group 33:53 – The specificity of the “AN2” (30-40 second) bracket of work for the special exercises that Chris’s athletes were performing 41:15 – “Stompers” vs. “Slicers” and how to train the weakness of each athlete 47:10 – Water bag training and the role of the trunk/core and arms in sprinting 49:33 – Hip flexor training and strength in speed development, and usage of the hip swing exercise 54:19 – How to use primetimes and flexed leg bounds in speed development 1:01:04 – Training frequency throughout the year, and how this was a lower frequency year for Chris’s athletes 1:06:49 – Final thoughts on working strengths vs. weaknesses, and when to stop trying to bring up weaknesses in a training year Chris Korfist Quotes “(The highlight/motivational videos for the kids) It’s just this constant feedback that you are all of that” “This year, instead of goals, I had them focus on telling their story” “Our self-talk this year became a story: This is where I came from, this is what I did, this is where I’m going; Tying in history and tying in stories to your self talk is really powerful, because as humans we all want a story” “You figure out what motivates that kid, and then you push that button when you need to” “I knew if we showed up to practice and did the exact same thing we did before… doing the same thing for a kid that’s coming on for their 3rd year, how much better are we going to get if we just do the same stuff?” “We were not a great force team (in looking at the 1080 data), we can get out and really go, but we don’t have a lot power coming out of the hole, so we spent the whole first part of the season pulling” “You put a LILA (Exogen) sleeve on one leg, and swing that sucker for 40 seconds, and don’t move your torso, you’re gassed, that’s a lot of work” “We did 1x23 second run, and 1x150, and that was the extent of our speed endurance for the entire season… and I had 2 guys that ran under 21.5, and that was a second improvement for one and over a second improvement for the other” “That was another big change we did, was on our off days (only recently have I become a core person) we would hold for 20,30,40 seconds, and can you breathe and hold those positions” “We started extending feet stuff out to 2 minutes” “Indoors, we’d be doing mostly all slice drills. When we went outside, we would do the old DB Hammer box jumps for “stompers, but we did it with resistance so you had rubber bands on over, and we would jump up to a .5” or .25 “mat. And we would do slice drills with my slicers” “Let’s not strengthen your weakness anymore, let’s strengthen your strength now, because we only have 5-6 more weeks… at this point I have to go with what I made, and go with something they can build off of for the rest of their season” “My two fastest guys jump 33-34, but they run 21.3-4, but they are slicers and can get more horizontal force and velocity than stompers… a bigger wheel… like roadrunner” “We had a kid who swung his arms so far to the outside, we thought he was going to get disqualified for hitting people, and I said alright, you will carry this red water bag on your back for every practice that we do, you will never had that water bag off your back… his arms got better, he got faster and ran a 51 second open 400” “That’s what drills should be, you restrict it down so the only option is what we think, is right” “Use the 200g (on exogen) for the leg swings, it’s plenty” “You watch the kids who aren’t as fast, you see the spine all over the place (in those swing leg drills), so we really focus on anchoring that down” “We’ve developed (primetimes) into a bent knee primetime” “For my slicers (bent knee primetime) was their drill… with bent knee prime-times, it’s what you can get out of the back end” “100 yards was too far (for the flexed leg bounds) I got lots of negative feedback after the 100 yard ones” “We didn’t run our kids a lot early, because I believe there are only so many days in a year that you can actually go hard” “If you have really good kids, it’s going to take them longer to recover anyways, it’s a higher-octane athlete that needs more time to recover” “How do I know to switch over (from working weaknesses to strengths)? That’s me surrendering that I can’t make any more changes” Show Notes How to Get Fast Volume 1 (Chris and Dan's Key Workouts and Dan's Mullet) https://korfist.sellfy.store/p/ymrl/ About Chris Korfist Chris Korfist has been a high school coach in track and football for almost 30 years, with more than 80 All-State athletes. He has also been a strength coach at the college and high school levels, working with many sports. Korfist is currently the sprints coach at Homewood Flossmoor high school in Chicago, and owns a private facility called Slow Guy Speed School that helps develop athletes ranging from World Champion to middle school. He has consulted with professional sports teams all over the world, including the NFL, MLB, NBA, and Rugby League. Korfist has published research on sprint training and is an advisor for Auckland University of Technology’s SPRINZ. Additionally, he co-owns Track Football Consortium (@TFConsortium), is co-founder of Reflexive Performance Reset, and has discussed training in countless blogs and podcasts.

362: Kevin Hollabaugh on Assessing and Developing Rotational Power and Sprint Performance Jun 08, 2023

Today’s podcast features strength coach Kevin Hollabaugh. Kevin is a strength coach working at the New York Yankees Player Development Program, and is also the owner of Pro Force Sports Performance in Cincinnati, Ohio. He has been working in strength and conditioning since 2009. He previously served as the director of baseball player development, and also currently an adjunct professor at the University of Cincinnati. Pro Force SP happens to be only a few miles from my home in Cincinnati, and I’ve enjoyed spending time there to play ultimate frisbee games with pro baseball players, as well as observing the data-points and training process on the 1080 Sprint with Kevin and his staff. It's important to check your training process with some level of numbers and quantitative feedback to go with the qualitative process of coaching. Amongst other training tools, Kevin has two unique machines that allow him to pin data to athletic movements, on the level of the Proteus motion and 1080 Sprint. This show isn’t so much about those technologies and data points specifically as it is how Kevin has used the data to refine his speed and rotational training methods over time, how he now looks at training given those data-sets, and how it has evolved his programming. In this episode, we’ll also talk about the Ultimate frisbee game variation that ProForce athletes love so much (as well as myself), balancing force vs. elasticity in swinging/throwing and sprinting, training weaknesses vs. strengths, and more. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs and Exogen wearable resistance gear. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for free (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 3:12 – The makings of the “Ultimate Frisbee Soccer” game that the ProForce baseball athletes (as well as myself) enjoyed playing immensely 15:26 – How Kevin started ProForce and his background as a coach 19:41 – The data-based backing of Kevin’s training and exercise selection process 27:09 – How the Proteus rotational training machine is helping Kevin to refine his core training programming 33:19 – The balance of training an athlete based on their strengths and weak-points, as per rotational power and linear speed in particular 41:14 – How to apply medicine ball training and rotational power to an athlete who relies heavily on the stretch shortening cycle, versus “concentric” muscular contribution 46:09 – How Kevin’s approach to speed training has been impacted by working with the 1080 Sprint machine and the associated data 56:53 – Kevin’s next steps in his coaching future Kevin Hollabaugh Quotes “It’s funny the evolution a simple game has taken, and how it can define the training in an off-season, but that’s kind of what it’s morphed into” “(In frisbee) you get those (high pressure) opportunities that you don’t necessarily get in sport that are more low key” “We’re all taught, here’s the way to teach speed, here’s the way to train core, and then you get on these pieces of technology (and data-based feedback) and you realize, “that didn’t translate”” “If you are struggling with the concentric strength and are good at strength shortening, we are using a heavier load (with medicine balls), with the proteus we are using a heavier load” “One way (to build concentric-start rotational power when you are mostly elastic) would be starting with static starts on heavier loads (with medicine balls, etc.)… by keeping it at a light weight you are just going to be able to whip it which you are naturally good at” “When there are increases in their hitting load, their pitching load, we back off on the medicine ball rotations and do more work on their non-dominant side” “I didn’t need to do 7 drills in a speed session (being able to dial in on what the athlete needs makes is simpler/more to the point)” “We used to teach a lot of kids to stay narrow when they accelerate, but then you look at the guys accelerate on the 1080 with good data points (in regards to stride width)… you are like oh crap!” “We don’t do a ton of marching anymore, that’s more like a low-level warmup exercise… we don’t do PVC pipe stuff anymore with the PVC overhead march, skips, etc. I still do running with PVC pipes from time to time” “It’s about choosing drills at what an athlete needs to get better at, it’s not a one-size fits all approach” About Kevin Hollabaugh Kevin Hollabaugh is a strength coach working at the New York Yankees Player Development Program, and is also the owner of Pro Force Sports Performance in Cincinnati, Ohio. He has been working in strength and conditioning since 2009. Kevin is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati, and was a Graduate Assistant at the University of South Florida. Keven started ProForce Sports Performance in a small spin cycle classroom in 2014, and it and has grown it to two Cincinnati-area training facilities and partnerships with four area high schools. He previously served as the Director of Baseball Player Development, and also currently an Adjunct Professor at the University of Cincinnati at the University of Cincinnati.

361: David Weck and Chris Chamberlin on Rotation, Side-Bending and Tensional Balance in a High-Performance Training Program Jun 01, 2023

Today’s podcast features David Weck and Chris Chamberlin of WeckMethod. David Weck is biomechanist, and the creator of a number of inventions that work key characteristics of human locomotion and movement, including the BOSU Balance Trainer. David started the WeckMethod as a project to inspire and educate individuals on the importance of optimizing's human balance through locomotion as he works to make “Every Step Stronger” for everyone. Chris Chamberlin is the Head Coach and Director of Education for the WeckMethod. Chris has over 15 years of coaching experience and a lifetime of personal practice in movement efficiency that has earned him recognition as a leader in innovative thought in the fitness industry. Chris has both a creative approach to multi-planar training, as well as impressive “raw” strength levels in the traditional lifts. If you browse the internet, you will easily see a lot of “functional” training exercises, designed to catch eyeballs, that build neither strength, nor functional ability. The key in the effectiveness of any movement beyond a basic strength exercise is in its patterning, and closeness to the key characteristics of human locomotion, swinging and throwing. When you find movements that allow your body to truly feel more of what it uses in these core human patterns, you can then “port” that movement into the scope of your core strength and speed training. At the end of the day, whether you like the BOSU Ball or not, David’s keen observations of the core components of human movement have played a substantial role for me in how I observe the twisting, side bending and general locomotive mechanisms of the human being. Chris Chamberlin has taken David’s observation and creativity, and put his lens of practicality onto the total process. On the show today, David and Chris talk about how the WeckMethod helped Chris’s big-lifts to get even better, tool usage as an essential aspect of human movement, primal movement patterning in respect to training volume, bending and twisting integration into more traditional strength methods, concepts on the foot, and much more. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To learn more about the Sprint Acceleration Essentials course, head to justflysports.thinkific.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 2:40 – The origin story of David and Chris connecting and training, and how David’s methods impacted Chris’s movement and strength 6:18 – The uniquely human element of using tools, from a training perspective 18:22 – How Chris’s background as a carpenter (as well as his family background) has impacted the say he sees human movement in light of physical work tasks 27:43 – The role of using variability in training to achieve a greater impact to the movement tissues of the body 34:41 – How the Weck Method tools and ideas can build into, not only one’s rotational movement flow and ability, but also one’s physical strength 54:22 – Thoughts on the inside edge of the foot and the outside of the foot as it pertains to athletic performance 1:21:33 – Digging into the idea of “every step as a rep” regarding the body in balance 1:36:58 – How to integrate coiling work, into linear work, through the scope of a session, and Chris’s “4:1” ratio David Weck and Chris Chamberlin Quotes “I had instantly set a 40-45lb PR in my overhead bent press, just from learning a drill from (David) in a meeting that was meant for running faster” “To the extent possible, we want the tool to be the teacher, we want to do less with words, and what we want to do is get someone to feel it so they understand it implicitly, rather than us trying to explain something, taking a lot of time” “We distilled (our method) down to sticks, stones and ropes” “That became our foundation is the manipulation of the fundamental tools, and humans are fundamental tool users…. It’s the user who defines the utility of the tool” “I notice that (when we switched from hammers to nail guns) they started getting a lot of shoulder issues, from not using the body in the same way” “I particularly don’t like to do big phases where we’ll build up to peak performance, I want to constantly be at a high level of performance, a lot of it comes from being a carpenter… you had to be ready for it every day and you didn’t know exactly what you needed to be ready for” “We build a lot of volume through patterns, and we vary intensity” “One of the things about volume is you build “man strong”, “tendon/connective tissue strong”… we always look at, how can we optimize connective tissue, and that is fascia on the fundamental level” “They (non strength-sport athletes) were using the tissue, but they were challenging it in a different way so they didn’t get good at things in the gym, and it allows for the accruement of more volume and repetition” “The Weck Method logo, starts with gravity, up and down, and then turns into the horizontal polarity… it means down, up and all-around” “Side bending, or coiling is a way to find an end range of rotation, to feel this structural wall that I can lean into in my own body, but you can’t find it unless you have an external task” “All movement for us, everything, is rotation” “If I can internalize those (rotational/torsional) positions, and go into my max effort lifts, and think about what those feelings were, I’m able to get a little more out of those lifts;” “Every step is a rep, after I get done with my (strength) session, every step I take outside of that session is a rep” “We have two coils, a frontside coil (like side-bending over the front foot in the split squat) has more carryover to running, if you shift over the back leg (in a split squat) I look at that having a lot more carryover for things like swinging…. I teach my athletes first to reach those two positions, we do long term isometrics in them” “Gravity is the where and it is the when; when we optimize the sides, we have these destinations that we can go to” need for performance is tensional balance” “The 4th and 5th metatarsals, the link to the 4th and 5th toes, they are what they call “the first floor” because they route to the calcaneus. The big toe, 2nd toe and 3rd toe, we call that the second floor, because that routes up to the talus; we want to fully engage and understand the 1st floor as a priority to set up the inside for its maximum contribution to finish, the completeness. The outside is go, and the inside is go-to, you want to harmonize the patterns of both” “I look at the outside edge as an external torsion cue, and the inside edge, as an internal torsion cue” “If you watch Kobe, and Iversen and Michael do that, they use the inside edge, where the actual inside edge of their ankle touches the floor, as the pullback mechanism, in the other direction, and the key is that you are not fully weight bearing on that side yet” “Back to this inside edge, outside edge, toes out, toes in, I want all of them” “For me, it’s the skeleton, the nervous system and the fascial system: Breath, bones and (tensional) balance is how I reduced it down years and years ago” “On the chessboard, balance is the king, strength is the queen, and integration and coordination is all the pieces moving together well” “Structure dictates function, and function over time dictates structure” “Back pain has been normalized by the human being was able to create the creature comforts that didn’t require you to move with efficiency” “I think of strength and power as just pressure management, can you funnel the force fluidly, through the fascia, to the floor, and then it’s just bigger muscles are better as long as they are fluid” “So the tendency is, the guy who is born with that muscle tends to be loose and fluid, and supple, and the guy who built himself up there, all the micro-trauma to make it bigger, is just not as fluid” “I perform a 4:1 ratio, so let’s say squat patterning. In the 4:1 ratio in the squat pattern, I would do a split squat on the right (coil right) a split squat on the left (coil left), I would perform back squats, which would be bilateral, and then I would perform walking lunges, which would give me a right and a left in succession. So that ratio allows me to establish range of motion, express range of motion, and then challenge it in a high intensity pressure system, like a heavy lift” Show Notes The Colorado Experiment and Arthur Jones https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_Experiment Weck Method 45 Deadlift https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EI-TbQwE0mk&t=112s About David Weck David Weck is a renowned inventor and leading innovator in the field of human movement and performance. He is the creator of a number of inventions that work on the basis of key characteristics in human locomotion and movement, working the rotational, pulsing, and coiling abilities of the athlete. David started the WeckMethod as a project to inspire and educate individuals on the importance of optimizing human balance through locomotion. He has over 30 years of experience and an unparalleled passion to drive innovative thought into the the field of health, wellness, and athletic performance. Hi stated mission is making “Every Step Stronger” for everyone. He holds a B.A. in Political Economy from Williams College (Massachusetts), where he played football and competed as a sprinter on the track and field team. He also holds a degree in traditional Chinese medicine in the area of acupuncture and Oriental medicine from the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine. About Chris Chamberlin Chris Chamberlin is the Head Coach and Director of Education for the Weckmethod.

360: Ethan Reeve on Physical Education, Dynamic Athleticism and the Movement Learning Process May 25, 2023

Today’s podcast features strength and performance coach, Ethan Reeve. Ethan is the director of strength and performance for MondoSport USA. He is the former president of the CSCCa, and has 44 years of experience coaching in college and high school ranks. In addition to decades in NCAA athletic performance, Reeve was a SEC champion wrestler, and was the head coach of the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga wrestling program from 1985 to 1990, achieving 5 Southern Conference titles in 6 years. In the process of strength and conditioning/physical preparation; we can never get too far from the process of physical education and routinely observing the core qualities of athleticism An interesting element in sport performance, and sport coaching in the past decades is that, compared to the pre-2000’s era, there are less coaches now who have physical education backgrounds. Perhaps, this is because, as the industry moves forward, physical preparation/athletic performance has swung more towards the quantitative aspects, than the “art” form of the process. Maybe it’s that most strength and conditioning jobs are working with high school or college athletes who are “further” along in their athletic development. Maybe it’s how the role and funding for physical education has been devalued over time. Despite all of this, as I get older, the more and more I realize just how much physical education has to offer, not only young athletes, but also the thought process in working with more established ones, and I believe physical education, and multi-sport coaching principles (such as wrestling in the scope of today’s show) should be far more common-place in athletic development conversations. On today’s podcast, Ethan talks about his blend of the principles found in physical education and wrestling, and how these funnel into a sports performance training session. He speaks on how he views physical training through the eyes of a wrestling coach (of which he was a very successful one) and the learning environment he looks to set up in his training sessions. We discuss “belly up” speed training, key ground-based training movements, and other important principles of building a total athletic development program. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs and Exogen wearable resistance gear. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for free (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 2:57 – Ethan’s journey physical education and wrestling training, and how that blended into his strength and conditioning practices 6:10 – The importance and correlation of integrating basic physical education movements, into sport performance training 12:41 – “Belly Up” movements transitioned into sprinting, for athletic development 19:31 – Examples of blending physical education principles into track and field and sport performance training settings 23:16 – Ethan’s take on how to be a better student of learning and teaching in one’s sport coaching process 35:10 – The importance of the total environment in the learning process for athletes 41:00 – How to use the 80/20 or 90/10 principle to help determine one’s core principles and focus in practice 46:19 – The intersection of what wrestling and track and field has to offer in terms of general physical preparation 54:42 – How Ethan views the role of the weight room from middle school, up until college in training 59:12 – Calisthenic, gymnastics, and rolls that Ethan feels great athletes can do well in the movement section of training 1:03:13 – Gymnastic, tumbling type work, and its impact on athlete mobility Ethan Reeve Quotes “(In physical education) We were taught dance, and rhythm, as well as lifetime sports” “We had ropes we climbed, we had pegboards, we had tumbling mats, rope skipping was big, just a lot of good human movement; I wish we will had that structured movement for the young kids” “I think the eye of the coach is still the best way to do this” “If you want to be able to move, you have got to be able to bend, and if you can’t move, you can’t help us” “When you start doing tumbling, the fluid in your ears gets jumbled up, but when you do it every single day, you get more athletic… when you can do it without getting dizzy, you can orient yourself quicker” “Our best wrestlers were those that could be in a wrestling stance, get their chest belly to the ground, and then get back to that stance the most quickly; those tended to be our better wrestlers, something about getting down to the floor and getting back up…. We did a lot of speed work getting up from the belly” “Every 9-15 minutes out of a 60 minute lift, I would spend on athletic movements” “When I walked into a weightroom, I approached it like teaching wrestling” “The term in wrestling is that champions come in pairs” “If you are going to teach and coach, the first thing you need to have is, is you have kids that are coachable and teachable” “We found that the kids that did the poorest with that hand-eye coordination (test) were the ones who got injured” “If you ever get the chance to go to the baboons and chimpanzees, you can sit there for hours and watch the moving, wrestling, and jumping around of these baboons and chimpanzees” “That’s my favorite, the Silverback gorilla, nobody messes with it, but it also has that gentleness to pick up that baby gorilla” “In middle school, their strength is going to come from climbing ropes, and pushups, but now you are in 9th grade, you got to put some weight on the bar” I think skipping rope is one of the best things, still, and ladder drills, that connection to the ball of the foot is so important” “What’s going to help with skipping rope, hurdles, tumbling is if you do it every day” About Ethan Reeve Ethan Reeve is the director of strength and performance for MondoSport USA. He is the former president of the CSCCa, and has 44 years of experience coaching in college and high school ranks. Ethan has worked as a strength coach at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, Wake Forest University, and Ohio University, as well as the high school realm. In addition to his experience in athletic performance, Reeve was a 2x NCAA All-American and 4x SEC champion wrestler at the University of Tennessee. He was the head coach of the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga wrestling program from 1985 to 1990, achieving 5 Southern Conference titles in 6 years.

359: Dan John on “Snapacity” and the 3P’s of Muscle-Action in Explosive Athletic Movement May 18, 2023

Today’s podcast features coach, writer and educator, Dan John. Dan is a best-selling author in the field of strength training and fitness, with his most recent work being the “Easy Strength Omni-Book”. He is known for his ability to transfer complex material into actionable wisdom, has been a many-time guest on the show, and is one of my single greatest influences in the way that I see the process of coaching and training. As I grow older, coach more populations, and see the field evolve, I view and value Dan’s process and wisdom in new and even more meaningful ways. One of those tenants of Dan that means more in each coming year is that, at its core, our training and movements are simple… it’s just the years and years of consistent, dedicated immersion in training to fully bring out that simplicity, that “trip up” many people. So often, we get caught up in the hacks, the shortcuts, and the “3 tips for X” within the social-media fist-fight for eyeballs. On today’s episode, Dan talks about a few important concepts that any coach or athlete needs to come back to over and over again in their process, including the power of “compression”, the power of less, and the power of withholding. Dan speaks on this as it relates to cold track seasons (right before the 80 degree conference meet), and how it relates to the spark of coaching intuition that can happen in an environment deprived from one’s typical tools, and even how it can apply to our movement biomechanics. Dan also gets into the nuts and bolts of “snapacity” (snap + capacity) that defines the core of athletic movement (elasticity and the work capacity to sustain it), and the related key muscle actions he calls “The 3 P’s”. Throughout the talk, Dan highlights the simple and core principles that drive training progress over time, as well tying in concepts on philosophy and personal growth that transcend training itself. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs, and LILA Exogen Wearable Resistance Training Gear. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 2:01 – An update on how Dan’s track season has been, speaking on the upsides of the “compressed” format of his season based on weather 7:25 – Why “compressing and expanding” is such a critical element of one’s athletic performance, as well as life itself 12:13 – The importance of effort-level in human movement, and not “over-striking” a hammer against a nail 18:11 – The “3P’s” of muscle action; on the level of “Point, Poke, and Snap” as applied to explosive sport movement 29:41 – The importance of myth, story and tragedy in sport, life, and re-inventing ourselves” 35:01 – How sport movement, such as the discus or hammer, is like a symphony in nature, and how “over-trying” and imbalance of fluid effort reduces ones results 46:38 – The application and training of the critical athletic trait Dan calls “Snapacity” 1:00:09 – The simplicity, yet patience that the sport of track and field requires in athlete development Dan John Quotes “We often say, “what you compress, expands”; that is probably one of the greatest truisms of my coaching career. If I go into your gym and eliminate 9/10 of the equipment, then I find out how good of a strength coach you are” “Sometimes taking things away is what makes you great” “If you hit (the hammer too hard into the nail), it’s going to be worse….you’ve explained track and field, football, and every sport I’ve ever done in my life” “The 3 P’s (of muscle action), point, poke, and snap” “I teach discus throwing, javelin throwing that “you are a bag of rubber bands” and what we want to do for elite performance is get you to a place where we stretch those rubber bands, and then the important thing is, we release it, crappy throwers, crappy hurdlers, crappy jumpers, try to “add” a little more, when it’s too late” “When you pull the arrow back, you don’t “push” the arrow forward, you let it go, elite performance is letting it go, it’s letting the muscles “snap”” “I’m always amazed when people think isometrics are new” “It’s really hard to make money pushing sleep, fasting, protein and veggies” “That’s why I like working with special operations guys, they are at a place where they know that simple is best” “I talk to my athletes about stories (myths), when my athletes have a bad day, I quote Don Quixote to them… I also quote Chumbawumba” “(In writing down my top 10 worst and best things that happened to me in my athletic career) all my worsts were followed by all my bests” “When you find tragedy, go through it, breath out, because something better is coming around the corner” “I think of symphonies as the way you throw a discus; lots and lots and lots of individual pieces, you blend them” “Koji really specializes in getting rid of the excessive movement. When you break the flow of the rotation (in the hammer) you feel like you threw it farther, but it doesn’t go nearly as far, and that is a life lesson” “If I was going to work with a team, I would train everybody as triple jumpers; there is something amazing about the triple jump where if you have an error, it got exposed” “When I go to a high school program and watch them do plyometrics, I often cringe” “(For track throws) In the offseason, you should keep your squat up, keep your bench up, and play basketball 2-3x a week; that should take care of everything you need” “Instead of having throwers do plyometrics, have them (play games)” “You can put together the best plyometric program in the world, but when I watch elite basketball players, they look like they jump pretty well to me” “Bulgarian Secrets, that’s your next book: If you put Bulgarian, or Soviet, it sells” “My high school coach was from West Germany, and he called the stretch reflex “shishh-kUH’ “We’re trying to build this capacity up by doing things that are relatively safe (like hill sprints, loaded carries, heavy weighted bag carries)” “With Charlie Francis, if you hit any personal record, you were done for the day” “I can teach you everything you need to know to be an elite discus thrower on day 1, it’ll take a decade of us pushing, prodding and snapping for you to figure it out” About Dan John Dan John has spent his life with one foot in the world of lifting and throwing, and the other foot in academia. An All-American discus thrower, Dan has also competed at the highest levels of Olympic lifting, Highland Games and the Weight Pentathlon, an event in which he holds the American record. Dan spends his work life blending weekly workshops and lectures with full-time writing, and is also an online religious studies instructor for Columbia College of Missouri. As a Fulbright Scholar, he toured the Middle East exploring the foundations of religious education systems. Dan is also a Senior Lecturer for St Mary’s University, Twickenham, London. His books, on weightlifting, include Intervention, Never Let Go, Mass Made Simple and Easy Strength, written with Pavel Tsatsouline as well as From Dad, To Grad. He and Josh Hillis co-authored “Fat Loss Happens on Monday.” In 2015, Dan wrote Can You Go? on his approach to assessments and basic training. In addition, Before We Go, another compilation akin to Never Let Go became an Amazon Bestseller. In early 2017, Dan’s book, Now What?, his approach to Performance and dealing with “life,” became a Bestseller on Amazon. Hardstyle Kettlebell Challenge became available in September 2017, too.

358: Mark McLaughlin on Play-Based Warmups, Athletic Mastery and Aerobic Capacity Building May 11, 2023

Today’s podcast features Mark McLaughlin. Mark is the founder of Performance Training Center, and currently works as a physical preparation/strength coach in the Lake Oswego school district. Mark has had a diverse sporting history as a youth, and has been active in the field of physical preparation since 1997. Mark has trained over 700 athletes at all competitive levels, from Olympic to grade school athletes, and has worked with organizations such as the NFL, MLB, NBA, NCAA universities, high schools, and youth sports. The field of sports performance makes a lot of pendulum swings. We go from over-conditioning athletes to denouncing conditioning. From static stretching, to not stretching, to reconsidering stretching, to name a few. In the process of the swings, we do trend upwards (such as saving athletes from over-conditioning based practices with poor motor learning tactics). At the same time, I don’t believe we ask ourselves often enough if we are letting the pendulum swing too far. What I’ve found is that for every rule that seems to be created, there are instantly going to be athletes, or entire training groups that break that rule. The only way to understand it all, is to constantly be expanding your viewpoints. We need to look at the broader mechanisms of biology, psychology, motor learning, and the long-term developmental principles of athletes to really gain wisdom in our guidance of athletes and individuals to their highest potential. On today’s podcast, Mark talks about the polarity of his physical preparation process, on one end, giving the kids a dynamic pedagogical, free play-oriented training experience, and on the other, using technology to assess biological readiness markers and preparation levels for their sport. Mark finishes the show speaking on aerobic readiness as a recovery marker for explosive sport training. No matter where you are on the sport training spectrum, be it sport coaching, motor learning or purely physical development, there is a lot to be learned from Mark’s broad spectrum of knowledge in this episode. This show connects physical preparation with a depth of true sports development Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 2:57 – The diversity of groups that Mark works with, from football, to alpine skiing, to dance and many places in between 10:38 – Thoughts on fluidity and rhythm in the development of athleticism and even within injury prevention 17:16 – The use of gymnastics in athlete robustness and development 22:25 – Mark’s thoughts on helping to train kids in light of motor learning and a regular lack of general physical preparation 28:03 – The role of “economic constraints” in creativity and sport development 40:05 – The benefits of multi-age/multi-grade education, as well as athletic development and play possibilities, as well as a discussion of the Norwegian sport model and the success of Erling Haaland 49:16 – Mark’s system in terms of delaying intensive training stimuli in an athlete’s long term development 55:16 – The role of aerobic training in Mark’s system for team sport athletes, in capacity building and recovery 1:01:27 – “Zone 0” training in Mark’s system, inspired by the work of Landon Evans 1:05:37 – How to determine if athletes are in a resting sympathetic, or parasympathetic state for their training and workouts Mark McLaughlin Quotes “In dance, their events last two minutes, but their heart rates hit 200… there is a psychological driver of heart rates” “I actually use our dance team to teach our football players how to dance; sport and movement is rhythm” “Training with music is a big thing, gymnastics is a big thing, dance; I mean there are simple dance movements in the warmup that we do with all of the kids, and it is going to force them to learn a new skill” “Durability equals availability” “Ronaldinho grew up playing barefoot, and his dad said it was to improve his touch, but really, they didn’t have money to get shoes for him” “The first 30 minute of each (training) day is free play… then they come in and we start the formal session” “I have training sessions where I don’t speak for 4-5 minutes” “I let them be creative, because coaches want them to be creative on the field” “Wearing felt boots taught him to move at different speeds, and anticipate the opponent differently; these economic constraints made him the player he was” “When people say I have to run a 4.5s 40 yard dash, or get strong to do this, I think that’s such a narrow look at things; human performance is so much more than that” “When they would select teams, he would make sure he was on a team with less talent, so he would have to play on another level to win. I made kids play football and catch with their off hand… keep making it harder and harder so you get used to these difficult situations” “'Joy for sport, for all', that’s based on the Norwegian sport model” “Being a great human being is at the top of our pyramid” “In the Norwegian youth system, I don’t know if they even keep score until age 12-13” “There are a couple of things I look at when intensifying training, 1: How do they adapt to it when you look at heart rate variability” “If they have a resting heart rate of 75-80, we need to get them down through some extensive modes” “At the high school level, it’s kind of crazy all this velocity based training, it’s all output driven, which I get to a certain point, but team sport you need some biological development of your hormonal system, your cardiac system, your mitochondria, both the slow and the fast twitch fibers, how can you handle stress, which is a totally different training modality” “I can get guys powerful and fast, that’s not an issue, (the question is) how can I build their reserves to withstand a 3 hour game” “If you are always sympathetic driven at rest, you are not going to perform well, you are not going to recover well, so I look at it as, we are going to improve that aerobic system to improve your autonomic function, so you can recover better from harder work” “That’s why I like the long, extended warmups for kids because it’s going to give them that (cardiac) stimulus, because they are constantly moving” “If you are sympathetic over-reaching, we’re not going to go out and do a ton of sprints” “Right now, I would say on average the guys that are testing, the football players, the average heart rate is like 52” “We can facilitate the aerobic system even more through oxidative work of the slow fibers, slow weight-room movements at 4 seconds up 4 seconds down” “If players have a good aerobic base, they are not going to get into their glycolytic tissues so fast” “One of our athletes improved his standing two leg triple jump from 28’11”, to 30.5” and he was doing 3x a week of this oxidative work plus 5000 yards of tempo a week, and he’s 215lbs, and his resting heart rate was 46 this morning” Show Notes Johannes Klaebo Norway, Cross Country Skiing Technique https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8lw_tla_88 Erling Haaland and “As Many as Possible, as Long as Possible, as Good as Possible” https://footblogball.wordpress.com/2020/03/08/erling-braut-halland-as-many-as-possible-as-long-as-possible-as-good-as-possible/ Pavel Datsyuk “Becoming the Magic Man” https://www.researchgate.net/publication/357242592_Pavel_Datsyuk_Learning_Development_and_Becoming_the_Magic_Man About Mark McLaughlin Mark McLaughlin is the founder of Performance Training Center, and currently works as a physical preparation/strength coach in the Lake Oswego school district. He attended college at the College of Sante’Fe in New Mexico and is an Oregonian residing in Portland. Mark's love for athletics grew during his teenage years, where he participated and competed in various sports. Through his sports experience and education, he developed a strong dedication to the overall well-being of athletes. This dedication led him to continually educate himself in athletic performance enhancement, and he has been active in the field since 1997. Mark has trained over 700 athletes at all competitive levels, from Olympic to grade school athletes, and has worked with organizations such as the NFL, MLB, NBA, NCAA universities, high schools, and youth sports. Along with his online training and consulting services, Mark also speaks at various organizations locally, nationally, and internationally.

357: Angus Bradley on “Knees Behind Toes” Training and the Gait Cycle in Physical Preparation May 03, 2023

Today’s podcast features podcaster, and educator, and physical preparation coach, Angus Bradley. He coaches out of Sydney CBD, and co-hosts the Hyperformance podcast with his brother, Oscar. Angus has a wide-spanning knowledge base from both in and outside of the strength and conditioning field, with a focus on inter-disciplinary over-arching principles. He works with a diverse crowd from strongman to surfing and everything in between, has been a 2x previous guest on this podcast, and runs regular mentorships for strength coaches and personal trainers. Part of the fun of running a podcast, and seeking education from a wide variety of coaches is the ability to create links and connections between different fields of thought. When we can observe multiple training camps saying similar things about the gait cycle, squatting, or breathing, we can level up our total coaching and training perspective. On today’s podcast, Angus talks about learning from fields outside of fitness, to become a better coach and overall student of life. He also talks about links within the field of fitness, such as the positional and rhythmic relationships between Olympic lifting and sprinting. A main talking point on today’s episode is Angus’s approach to training “early stance” in a physical development world where so much is devoted to training that ends up focusing more on “late stance” in the gym. Angus shares his thoughts on how he approaches late stance type training, how he uses more “mid-stance” to train the knee, and also gives his thoughts on how good Crossfit boxes get a lot of trainees stronger than many strength coaches would often like to believe. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs and the Elastic Essentials Online Course. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. Find out more about the the online course, Elastic Essentials, by heading to justflysports.thinkific.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 3:20 – The importance of having hobbies outside of training, fitness and S&C 18:53 – The use of creativity and intuition in training vs. pre-planned, systemic stimuli 27:50 – Thoughts on “knees behind toes” type exercises, and their benefit in physical preparation 41:52 – The links between rhythm in weightlifting, and rhythm in sprint acceleration 51:31 – Thoughts on more dynamic versions of training early stance and associated negative shin angles 1:01:59 – Angus thoughts’ on pushing knees forwards into positive angles during training 1:11:33 – Angus’s take on some of the mechanisms by which good Crossfit boxes can elicit such substantial strength gains in their population, as well as the importance of doing larger overall GPP workloads Angus Bradley Quotes “If it’s a true principle, it’s something that applies to things outside of the fitness industry” “A lot of systems sort of have this transition from a scientific underpinning, and once we have useful heuristics, it turns into more of an art form” “That stereotypical prescription of 3x10, 4x8, I’ve been pulling back on, not going full Yessis 1x20, but doing things like 2x8, 2x12, 2x6, just two hard work sets. One thing we take for granted is just attention span” “Pretty much every sport at some point, you are going to have a big powerful negative shin angle” “Exposing both of those contexts (knees over and behind) toes in a loaded sense (is important)” “Yes, working negative and positive shin angles, I’ve created the perfect system” “It’s a relative negative shin angle, when people can plantarflex themselves into a squatty squat… otherwise it’s just a knee bend (if you dorsiflex yourself into the squat), that’s one of my take-aways from a gait-based approach to squatting” “Both of these systems that have essentially no relation to each other; this is what I like, getting around at all these fitness systems, and seeing what are the common threads here; there are a lot systems sort of preaching things that line up with triple extension, it’s not quite that, it’s proximal to distal extension, it’s delaying knee extension, or using the body as a whip” “That’s the missing link: timing and rhythm” “Weightlifters at the start of the second pull, look exactly like sprinters in mid-stance” “Reverse lunges, you can get great negative shin angles there” “Whenever I’m trying to play with the gait concept in an intricate sort of way, I’m typically doing stationary, especially if they can’t wrap their head around it” “(In RDL’s) it’s hard to get a true early stance, you will pronate; because you are pushing your thorax into the ground” “The way a lot of people train is chest up, shoulders back, everything is being driven forward… it’s not a bad thing a lot of athletic stuff happens on the toes, we’re just missing this entire other section (negative shin angles) here” “Adding in RDL’s as a secondary deadlift is a lot of fatigue you are generating in the program; I will never have RDL’s, Olympic lifts, and deadlifts in my program at the same time, it’s just too much” “I think the value in shoving your knees over your toes is in the mobility aspect” “If you have a look at any of those people in those really knee bendy, knees over toes moments, as soon as they apply force, their shin angle just flies back; and there is something to be said about extending that hip over a positive shin angle” “In my system, what knees over toes training is is midstance, trying to apply force, but maintain a positive shin angle” “I’m always looking for heaps of mid-stance in the weight-room, a bit of early stance” “Most of my late stance work is ballistic, or plyometric… I like my toe off to be fast, no matter how hard you want to extend, crack the whip fast” “People haven’t been encouraged like that (in a crossfit box)… you can go to your first cross-fit class, and people will be cheering for you… they get into it so much” “I think you can do more net training if you train more generally” Show Notes Marco P. White makes chicken broth https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNzjQ1nuCAQ Split Squatting with Early, Mid and Late Stance Biases https://www.instagram.com/p/ClzYzRghNk7/ Tom Haviland https://www.instagram.com/tom_haviland/ About Angus Bradley Angus Bradley is a strength coach and podcast host from Sydney, Australia. He coaches out of Sydney CBD, and co-hosts the Hyperformance podcast with his brother, Oscar. After focusing primarily on weightlifting for the first half of his career Angus finds himself spending as much time ‘outside of his lane’ as possible trying to identify the principles that transcend all human movement. He works with a diverse crowd from strongman to surfing and everything in between. Angus has been mentored by Jamie Smith from Melbourne Strength Culture, and formerly dropped out of his major in journalism to tour Australia with his band.

356: Dr. John Cronin and Joseph Dolcetti on “Beyond Barbells”: Wearable Resistance and Rotational Momentum in Sport Speed Development Apr 27, 2023

Today’s podcast features Dr. John Cronin and Joe Dolcetti. John Cronin is a sport scientist with a physical education and coaching background, who after getting his Ph.D, has spent most of the last 20 plus years at Auckland University of Technology. He has published over 400 peer-reviewed papers on speed, power and strength, along with having the opportunity to train a variety of athletes and teams, ranging from youth development to world champion level. Joe Dolcetti has had a 35-year career in high performance sport coaching, science, and conditioning training across the globe. As an inventor, he has developed, and launched Exogen®, the world’s most advanced wearable resistance. All in all, Joe has worked with many of the world’s top sporting programs including the NBA, NFL, NHL, Major League Baseball, the English Premier League, UFC and many others. Sports performance training is making the shift from the classical “1RM” powerlifting mindset, into athletic speed development. This is great, but there are still many holes to fill in the athletic equation. We may obsess over bar velocities in the gym, but the gym is dominated by many force-oriented levers while sport is uses many speed-oriented levers (third class), such as limbs swinging in space. At some point we must expand our training awareness beyond the what (basic force) into the where (placement), and in the process deepen our understanding on how the body produces high speed sport movement. On the show today, John and Joe get into their journey of high velocity resistance training for athletes (such as wearables including vests and ankle weights, and then sprint sleds). We’ll talk about the differences between training “stance” phase of movement, and aerial elements, and how the latter is a missing piece of training the force-velocity curve. Finally, we get into the development of the Exogen system of wearable resistance, and how it encapsulates principles of high speed and specific training adaptation. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs, and LILA Exogen Wearable Resistance Training Gear For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 3:25 – John and Joe’s journey in exploring various wearable and external resistance training methods and how it led them to where they are now in their view of wearable resistance 16:00 – John Cronin’s early research and findings using weighted vests in pursuit of improved athletic performance 20:00 – Effects of sprint sled training versus weighted vest training 23:52 – Philosophy of training “stance” versus training what is happening in the air in athletic movement, and the implications of stance-based vertical force not being the holy grail of sprinting and athletic movement 35:35 – Lever systems, angular velocity, and ankle weights 42:18 – The principles behind the Exogen wearable resistance gear, and how it trains the angular momentum aspect of loading to improve athleticism 1:04:33 – Final thoughts on training sport speed through a focus on wearable resistance and angular velocity training Dr. John Cronin and Joseph Dolcetti Quotes “That’s where we’ve gone the last 6-8 years, unpacking that limb loading” “Where you put load, in many ways, is more important than how much load you are putting” “The one thing I’m confused with is the parachute, I tried them and just thought these are better for jumping out of an airplane” “(Training with a weighted vest) the vertical ground reaction forces will stay pretty much the same) when you put that mass on, you don’t jump as high, the center of mass displacement is compromised, and the (vertical) effect stays pretty much the same” “The weighted vest gives absolutely nothing in terms of horizontal force production in running” “You get a lot more horizontal force production with sleds (vs. weighted vests)” “What you are doing in the air is really really important (in sprinting) and that is something you don’t get with the sled” “Great for overload in the stance phase with the sleds, but the airborne phase, it goes missing” “Any sort of externalized load is working at the point of ground contact, but if you are a sprint coach, 90% of your work is what they are doing in the air” “S&C is kind of ground contact, what’s going into the ground… everything the coach is doing is what’s happening in the movement, with the ball, in the air” “It’s the kinetic energy of the movement that really really counts for things; it’s mass x velocity squared… we’ve shown a 120kg squat, the kinetic energy around the hips is exactly the same as a 500g load being moved by a fairly good sprinter, moving a light load really quickly” “Most of the work we are doing is in the grams and ounce range… in traditional resistance that would be 5-10lb… light is definitely the new heavy” “I was going through and found the fascial systems, and I looked at the cross fascial systems at the thoracic spine and the lumbar-umbilical region, those are the rotation points of your body and everything builds from there; I told the team that’s the construction lines we need to focus on. As soon as we put it on the body, people said, I don’t know why it’s comfortable but it’s comfortable” “I looked at (muscle) pennation, and I knew, that’s the answer, that’s what the load has to emulate” “What we want to do is get people to think: “Where are we going”… I think where we are going to go is a better understanding and appreciation of moving and connecting with the organic aspect of why people compete and play sports. Why do people play sports? Because it feels good” “This is why the natural athlete rejects what a lot of S&C does: Because they are like “I understand movement”, you don’t, “I know what’s fast”” “The part that’s missing at the bottom of the force velocity curve is the intuitive feeling of the athlete, and that’s not expressed in the parameters of the curve” “Three of the biggest variables that drive adaptation have been force, velocity and length, and we have been very force centric for many years, but people need to understand that there is another variable” “Weight training is not just about more anymore… my goal is to empower strength coaches with the ability to solve problems” Show Notes Weighted vest jumps and ankle weight high knee runs added to a strength program found superior to a standard strength training program alone for vertical jump and, particularly, 40 yard dash speed, in trained college athletes: https://journals.lww.com/nsca-scj/Citation/1980/02000/The_Effects_of_Plyometric_Training_with_Ankle_and.2.aspx Plyometric exercises with ankle weights found superior for improving short sprint speed and change of direction ability versus an un-loaded plyometric program with high school soccer players: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33121121/ About Dr. John Cronin Dr. John Cronin is a sport scientist with a coaching and PE background. His early career was in physical education. He has spent most of the last 20 plus years at Auckland University of Technology lecturing in the Undergraduate and Postgraduate programs in sport and exercise science. He is currently a Professor in Strength and Conditioning at AUT. He has published over 400 peer-reviewed papers on speed, power and strength, and has supervised 30 PhD and 30 Master’s students to completion. He also has had the opportunity to train a variety of athletes and teams, ranging from youth development to World champion level in sports such as rugby, track, boxing, cricket, and more. His personal research interests are in human movement research around strength and conditioning for strength, power, speed and change of direction, and more recently youth athletic development, sport technology and wearable resistance research themes. About Joe Dolcetti Joe Dolcetti has had a 35-year career in sports science, high performance coaching and conditioning training across the globe, and has had the privilege to rub shoulders with some of the greatest athletes in history. Joe has an extensive background as a sports performance coach, and his athletic background includes competitive boxing and rugby. As an inventor, Joe conceptualized, developed, and launched Exogen®, the world’s most advanced wearable resistance. The flagship product of Lila®, Exogen is rapidly gaining ground as one of the most significant advances in specific coaching, technical conditioning, movement correction and speed training for sport, rehabilitation and fitness. All in all, Joe has worked with many of the world’s top sporting programs including the NBA, NFL, NHL, Major League Baseball, the English Premier League, UFC, World Rugby, Track & Field, PGA and ITF. Over 9 Olympic cycles, Joe has prepared and trained elite athletes in Canada, US, UK, China, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand and Argentina. Joe splits his time between driving Lila and consulting elite sport and athletic programs on the integration of Exogen.

355: Daniel Back and Tim Riley on Key Developmental Concepts of Explosive Jumping and Athleticism Apr 20, 2023

Today’s podcast features coaches Dan Back and Tim Riley. Dan Back is the founder of Jump Science and is a coach at Xceleration sports performance in Austin, Texas where he trains both track and team sport athletes. Dan has been a guest on episodes 263 and 337 of the podcast, speaking on sprint and jump topics. Tim Riley is the Director of Sports Performance at Kollective in Austin, TX where he supervises all pro, collegiate, and youth athletic development. Tim currently oversees and conducts strength and conditioning sessions for NFL, PLL & AVP athletes. In the quest for improved athletic qualities, we often look at things in isolation. We look at the most powerful training means, right now, to help us to achieve better performance. For the best results, however, we need to broaden our view of training, and understand the qualities at the bottom (early athletic development) and the top (maximal strength and force training) to maximize potential. We need to understand all of the iterations of skill and strength that come before the sprint, jump, throw, agile moves, etc. you see on the field, and how everything works together in the grand scheme of training. On today’s podcast, Dan and Tim speak on their own early athletic experiences, the critical “base level” abilities explosive athletes need for a better vertical jump (as well as general explosive movement), where and how maximal strength work fits into the long-term development equation, warmup and game-based concepts, assessments, and more. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs, and LILA Exogen Wearable Resistance Training Gear For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 3:30 – Dan and Tim’s early sport and training experiences 12:30 – Dan’s take on track and field speed and abilities within the scope of team sport performance and two leg jumping 18:00 – The potential of mass-amounts of calf raises to have a negative impact on speed later in life 23:30 – Core general physical preparation methods in athletic performance, such as grappling, hurdling, racing, tag, etc. 27:30 – Discussion as per the pyramid of jumping and jump preparation 37:00 – How Tim and Dan view the warmup process, considering more of a traditional warmup versus more of a game-oriented warmup 51:30 – Dan and Tim’s assessment process for athletes, and looking at macro-type assessments (performance driven) vs. more micro-level assessments (joint based or more discrete movements) 1:04:15 – Thoughts on how strength training can transfer more easily, given an appropriate base of explosive movement training and skill Daniel Back and Tim Riley Quotes “I can see (the martial arts drills) in my daughter’s ability to fall and get back up (in other sports)” TR “When I first started getting obsessed with jumping, my standard workout was 2 sets of 100 calf raises 5 days per week, and looking at myself in my 20’s I was a great jumper, but I wondered why my maximal velocity was so bad, and I really wondered about some of the negative influence of all those calf raises as a teenager, vs. what if those are all sprinting contacts instead?” DB “I saw these kids at 4 and 5 years old, 6 and 7, and the bulk of their training is broad jumps for distance, bounding for distance, jumping from one mark, and landing on one foot, climbing up wall” TR “Jump in a way that’s fun and do it consistently for years… and that should come on top of a base of more variety; and that’s where running, agility, interacting with other people and the ground that should be in the movement variety skill” DB “The best athletes were already really explosive, fast, powerful, good movers before they touched a weight… or took weight training seriously” TR “The most dynamic play-makers are people who have had exposure to a bunch of different modalities, and then they get strong” TR “A basketball hoop in the shallow end of a pool is the most fun” TR “I’m starting to get some things in from a workout standpoint, in the warmup” DB “Why that dynamic warmup is really useful; it’s a double edge sword with them getting better at the test, but isn’t that a good thing, if they are getting better a squat, a hinge, a lunge, a single leg hop” TR “With the micro-assessment, watching the warmup is as far as I take that generally” DB “Weightlifting should be a tiny-tiny fraction, if at all, for youth athletes, and you really want to focus on those explosive components first” DB “You eventually learn, they very well may add 80lbs to their squat and jump like an inch higher, there’s just not any guarantee of transfer when you don’t have that base, that background of athleticism, variety and development” DB “You can’t replace a childhood of athletic activity with a 6-week jump program… you need that diverse background and years of jumping, if you are going to get really good at jumping” DB “I don’t know if there is a perfect time to infuse weightlifting for performance. How do you quantify when someone is ready (to use weightlifting to enhance their performance)? Maybe when the potency from (all the preceding sprints, jumps, movement literacy, etc.) We’re not getting the same sort of feedback, now let’s introduce this external implement and see how your body responds” TR “There have been plenty of young football players where I’m like, “this dude’s isn’t going to get any faster after sophomore year, because he is going with the path of strength rather than speed; I’ve definitely had that thought of wishing strength was playing a smaller role (in these guys middle school football programs)” DB About Dan Back Dan Back is the founder of “Jump Science” and is a coach at Xceleration sports performance in Austin, Texas where he trains both track and team sport athletes. Dan reached an elite level in his own vertical jump and dunking ability, and has been helping athletes run faster, jump higher and improve overall physical performance for over a decade. Dan has been a constant source of coach and athlete education in the last decade through his website and social media channels. About Tim Riley Tim Riley is the Director of Sports Performance at Kollective in Austin, TX. He supervises all pro, collegiate, and youth athletic development. Most notably, Riley currently oversees and conducts strength and conditioning sessions for NFL, PLL & AVP athletes. Riley started his training career five years ago after receiving a lifelong training certification through NPTI, under the supervision and mentorship of Professor Dave Boetcher. He then founded The Most Performance LLC, a training company working with young athletes. Throughout his career, Riley has acquired a plethora of certifications (NPTI, NASM, Precision Nutrition, & USAW among others) to further his education and better serve the training community, while also gleaning wisdom from multiple mentors: Connor Harris, Dr. Pat Davidson, Dr. Ben House, and Jeremy Hills, to name a few. To date, his professional experience spans across all ages; from high school athletes and collegiate athletes, as well as professional athletes in the NFL, MLB, PLL, AVP, and NBA G League. Riley works year round, and specializes in NFL in-season, off-season, and pre-draft training. Annually, he works in collaboration with Jeremy Hills, assisting in coaching “NFL Elite Week” when over 60 NFL athletes came to Austin to train for the upcoming NFL season. Riley also consistently develops diverse training programs for in person and online coaching sessions, and is starting to offer programs in an easy to use PDF format for athletes who prefer to train on their own.

354: Adarian Barr and Jenn Pilotti on Foot Training, Pressure, and Collision Management in Athletic Movement Apr 13, 2023

Today’s podcast features Adarian Barr and Jenn Pilotti. Adarian is a former college track coach, a multi-national movement consultant and educator. Adarian has been a huge mentor to me when it comes to the integrated workings of the body in a variety of sport and movement skills and has had many appearances on this show. Jenn Pilotti is a movement coach, author and educator who has been studying the principles of movement for over 2 decades. Jenn’s movement disciplines include running, dance, soft acrobatics, and aerial arts. Jenn regularly lectures and teaches workshops for movement educators and curious movers. She co-authored "Let Me Introduce You”, along with Adarian Barr. Training the feet is a lot more than going barefoot a little more often. In sport movement, and locomotion, we have collisions of the feet into the ground that need to be managed skillfully. There is nuance to the “force production” into the ground. Great athletes can manage collisions extremely well, in regards to the specific sport skills they are being called on. They also have the tissue adaptation that matches the pressure they need to output within movement. In today’s podcast, Adarian and Jenn discuss their process when it comes to the operation of the feet in locomotion, and important distinctions that need to be made on account of points of pressure within the foot. They chat on the differences between sprinting on account of collision management, as well as vibration, talk about the balance of sensory work and outputs in movement, and much more. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs, LILA Exogen, and the Elastic Essentials Level II Seminar, July 14-15 in Cincinnati, Ohio For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 4:38 – How Jenn and Adarian got connected and Jenn’s early learnings from Adarian 8:05 – How Adarian’s process on the foot impacted Jenn, and how she integrated it into her running 14:04 – Looking at learning from the “hard” and “soft” side of movement, and how sensing the body fits in 17:26 – The origins of where Adarian started with his sensory approach to movement 27:46 – Principles of inputs and outputs as they relate to athletic movement 34:25 – Usage of the lateral aspect of the arch of the foot 38:19 – Pressure management and barefoot sprinting on a track 43:19 – How athletes manage shorter or longer collisions in their sport movement 50:30 – How to explore pressure as it relates to movement 58:01 – How to optimize and integrate foot pressure in the gym Quotes from Adarian Barr and Jenn Pilotti “I focused on keeping the pinkie toe long, and reaching it a little away from the foot; and it created a very different impact away from the ground… and I had like a 3 mile chunk where my mile splits were within 8 seconds of each other; and I’m not working any harder” “A lot of people just do and they don’t sense, or they just sense and they don’t do… we need both” “The body awareness you gain from the softer side just makes doing so much better” “Whenever I was drinking out of a glass (instead of a plastic cup) my hand doesn’t get tired; that started taking me down this whole feeling, sensing, imagining road” “In early track, I didn’t feel it. I might jump well, but I didn’t know why I jumped well. When I left Colorado I was struggling, because I was only jumping 51 feet, I left Colorado I spent a year training myself.. the first track meet I went to, boom 53 feet. What happened? Now, I can feel this. “You want to feel the impact as you run, take time to feel the impact so you can learn what to do with it. If you never learn to feel it, how can you even think about doing something with it” “Understanding how pressure relates to input was a light bulb moment for me” “If you understand pressure and how to direct pressure into the foot that’s on the ground, everything changes” “The input is the output” “It’s not the force you have to deal with, it’s the pressure” “If you run flat footed, it’s the same amount of force, but the pressure is different now” “You feel you are faster, something significant has changed, and I understood that it was how I was pressurizing my system and it started with my foot” “In ice skating you have to create enough pressure to turn ice into water” “With sprinting, because it’s such a short amount of time in contact with the ground, you can have unwanted vibrations, that’s not a good thing if you are a distance runner” “The easy thing to do (to integrate pressure) is to train your feet on firm surfaces… in a gym setting it’s easy to use soft surfaces; something like an Airex pad is going to teach your foot to respond slowly” “Your (foot) will work harder on the clay brick than the cement brick” “It’s a fine line, how can I push to the edge of elasticity and not break? If you look at Rojas in triple jump, she goes to the edge but stays elastic, she doesn’t go to plastic” “If you are training barefoot, remember how the foot is moving and working, because when you put your shoes on, you want the same thing” Show Notes Barefoot Sprinter (Rotation) https://www.instagram.com/p/CqGeGlvLJQW/ Training With Bricks (Increase Pressure in Feet) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cpu24E_gBvO/ About Adarian Barr Adarian Barr is a track coach and inventor based out of Yuba City, California. His collegiate track and field coaching stops have included UW-Superior, Indiana State, UNC Pembroke, Yuba City Community College. He has invented 9 devices from footwear to sleds to exercise devices. Adarian is a USATF Level II coach in the sprints, jumps, hurdles and relays. He has a master’s degree in Physical Education. Adarian’s unique coaching style gets results, and his work on speed and biomechanics is being adapted by some of the top coaches in the nation. About Jenn Pilotti Jenn Pilotti has been studying the principles of movement since 2002. She holds a B.S. in exercise physiology, an M.S. in Human Movement, and has studied a number of movement disciplines, including dance, soft acrobatics, and aerial arts. While in graduate school, she became fascinated by the lack of research on endurance running (one of her favorite past times), and it wasn't until she met Adarian in 2020 that she began to finally understand the components that allow a person to run fast in a way that is energy efficient. Jenn also lectures on topics such as mindfulness for the Navy Senior Leadership Seminar and regularly lectures and teaches workshops movement educators and curious movers. She co-authored "Let Me Introduce You” with Adarian Barr, and is a student of movement, teaching and people, viewing movement as a form of expression and a source of intrigue.

353: Scott Robinson on Driving Attention in Training and the Power of Self-Affirmation Apr 06, 2023

Today’s guest is neurology expert, consultant and personal trainer, Scott Robinson. Scott is an Applied Movement Neurology Master practitioner and has worked successfully with all levels of neurological complexity in his time training and coaching a wide variety of clients. Scott is a specialist in dealing with a variety of neurological issues, such as weakness, pain, range of motion and trauma to the emotional systems, amongst many others. Scott is a former Taekwondo athlete and has more than 20 years of experience in Applied Movement Neurology. The element of training and performance that truly defines who has achieved their highest potential, is the mastery of their mental and emotional state. The state of the mind, the way we drive attention to what we are doing, how we affirm our actions, and how we light up our neurological system all play a large role in the training results we get, how we enjoy the process, and ultimately how we grow from it on multiple levels. On today’s podcast, Scott Robinson talks about the power of self-affirmation and mental reinforcement in the roles of training and rehabilitation, as well as how novelty plays into those affirmations. He also gets into visual training methods that link with physical training outputs, warmup methods to improve the neurological quality of the session, working with one’s subconscious mind, harnessing the placebo effect in training, and more. Today’s episode is brought to you by LILA Exogen Wearable Resistance, Lost Empire Herbs and Strength Coach Pro. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 4:36 – Scott’s shoulder injury he sustained mountain biking, and some methods he used to dramatically accelerate his recovery 14:07 – Getting into the “infinity loop” concept of walking and focus, and how eye position drives neuromuscular activity 17:00 – Mental techniques like self-reinforcement, “Gauntlet 40’s” and the role of novelty in drawing the attention of the brain into a higher state 20:18 – Methods that can be used early in a training session to maximize learning later on 32:36 – Moving eye-based ball movements that individuals can use to improve their warmup component 38:12 – Thoughts on athletes and individuals who may need more vs. less neurological intervention and special exercises in their training program 42:49 – Scott’s take on yelling “I am the Greatest!” before an explosive effort, or similar self-affirmations 59:45 – Ideas for athletes whose subconscious mind blocks or sabotages their conscious mind in their game and athletic performance 1:09:24 – Thoughts on music’s impact on the brain in terms of its tempo and impact on emotions 1:16:50 – Considerations on self-judgment of elements within the training session Scott Robinson Quotes “The first words that came out (when I saw my son after I broke 2 ribs and separated my shoulder) were 'I am fine'” “I had a greater output of strength in 3 months than before I had the injury” “The things that I did were holding gratitude all the way through the injury… and through the process making sure I was keeping the whole system fired up and stimulated and looking to make new connections around the musculature” “My filler exercises were all of the kinds of activities that were going to drive increased attention, increased alternates, that sets the stage for neuro-plasticity, so that when you come back to whatever you are doing, the brain is ready to make new connections” “If you want to get the best out of yourself, you have to set the conditions in the mind so that you get the best result” “Depending on the eye position you use, you can target specific fibers” “The only brain that changes itself is the brain that’s paying attention… novelty is key” “(To enhance learning) use something along the lines of mobility flow; we tap on my favorite brain area, the supplementary motor cortex which literally pulls together all of the parts of the body that are going to be required for what the motor plan is going to be” “If you are doing a mobility flow that you have done 1000 times before, there is a program for that so it’s not going to have the same effect” “In neurology, anything you can do that’s an effective level of stacking, then you are improving things, you are potentiating the drill” “Horizontal (eye saccades) you are going to fire up more of your extensor chain musculature, and the vertical one you are going to fire up more of your flexor chain musculature” “I’m a big fan of stacking controlled articular rotation through the spine, particularly through the cervical spine” “You can get in a quadruped, bounce the ball, and catch it with the other hand (to get the visual response more involved in conjunction with a physical task)” “(My son) only needed a belief (prior to a race)… That is not what I would have thought his system would have needed; I would have thought he would have needed a physical input” “When you are working with athletes who are already finely tuned, you probably not introducing a huge new stimulus that’s going to over-turn the system, you might just be doing one eye drill or an isometric hold” “It becomes a process of learning how to ask the right questions (from the body/brain)” “If all of a sudden I shout at the top of my lungs and I scream, now my mind is suggestible, and it’s novel. When you should something really loud, that is a way to access the subconscious mind” “Your subconscious mind is like a child’s mind, it doesn’t question, it doesn’t argue… if you can get a thought into the subconscious mind, it just gets accepted, it’s now a belief” “When conscious mind and subconscious mind are going in different directions, then you are never going to get the greatest output” “The brain cannot tell the difference between a real stimulus and a vividly imagined stimulus, and time does not exist in the subconscious mind” “Once you are in a state of acceptance, you can achieve anything” “On some level, if I put the air-pods in, and all of that is giving me a benefit, but I’m judging that, then I am negating that on some level… look for a state of acceptance, and practice a bunch of game-day scenarios. Game day without the music will definitely be novel, it’ll be different” “If you put the mind at peace, the body is repairing” “The placebo effect is a window into the limitlessness of who you really are” Show Notes “I feel fine” method of dealing with stress https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpuwYVh51SQ Research on the Placebo Effect of Believing One is Taking Anabolic Steroids The Placebo Effect and Strength Training at Likeironstrong.com About Scott Robinson AMN Teaching Faculty member, Master Practitioner & Coach, as well as; Mentor to AMN Practitioners. Scott is the creator of AMN Neuro Flexibility & has worked successfully with all levels of neurologic complexity. Scott’s approach is to first assess & then bring each individual’s nervous system towards a state of balance. If resolution of a complex neurologic or pain presentation is the objective, then achieving this (homeostatic) balance is often key. Where Movement is the primary objective, then achieving this balance within the body prior commencing a training program gives the individual’s body every chance of progressing towards their movement or functional goals, as opposed to progressing towards injury, which is often the case when training with pre-exisiting imbalances in the nervous system. Scott’s knowledge & skill set means that he is capable of transforming a person with a nervous system of a degraded output, into a person who is capable of achieving advanced calisthenics strength, flexibility and skills. As an AMN master practitioner, Scott is a specialist in dealing with: movement compensations, muscle weakness, muscle control, range of motion & sensation, historic injury & surgical compensations, pain complaints, all manner of musculoskeletal dysfunction, trauma to the emotional system, respiratory, gastrointestinal & immune systemic issues, circadian biological function & sleep disturbances, disturbances to the balance system, the emotional motor system, stiffness or dysfunction to myofascial & other connective tissues, post concussion syndrome, stroke, Hay fever, TMJ dysfunction, coordination, posture & memory. All of the above, along with many other issues, can all potentially be normalized. This is all achieved via a utilization of the entire AMN system, from assessment to calibration of the brain & the nervous system. A former elite athlete in Taekwondo & athletics, a personal trainer of more than 20 years experience & a master practitioner with knowledge of the entirety of the AMN system along with being both a teacher and a mentor within the AMN education. Scott is ideally placed to help you get your body, your movement capabilities or your skillset as a practitioner, to where it needs to be.

352: Ryan Banta on A “Centrist’s” Approach to Speed Development and the Critical Mass Philosophy Mar 30, 2023

Today’s guest is track coach Ryan Banta. Ryan has over two decades of experience, is the author of the Sprinter’s Compendium, and is a MTCCCA Hall of Fame Coach. He is a frequently appearing podcast guest and writer on many popular track and field, and athletic performance platforms. His teams have achieved substantial success, including winning the 2022 girls Class 4 Missouri State Championship. One of the beautiful things about working with human beings is that there are multiple ways to train athletes towards their highest physical potential. Different coaches achieve success with different training parameters and exercise selections, mannerisms and personal styles. At the same time, there are also some core philosophies to the entire process of training that are foundational to progression, and can make training more understandable. Some of the over-arching principles that are helpful to study are those of core training cycle setup, training the “ends” vs. the “center”, and principles of progression and variety in a program. By better understanding these core ideas, we can have a better idea of where we are starting, and where we are heading in a program. On today’s show, Ryan gets into the core philosophies and principles of the Critical Mass training program in track and field, which is a broad-spanning path of development from freshman to senior that incorporates a span of abilities ranging from hurdles to the 400m. Ryan then gets into his speed training philosophy, taking a “centrist” path to speed, and how that differs from going “ends to middle”, or taking a block-based approach to a training season. Ryan goes extensively into concepts around his 14-day speed training cycle, how he adds variety into his program, how he utilizes resisted sprinting, and much more. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs, Strength Coach Pro, and the Elastic Essentials Online Course. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. Find out more about the the online course, Elastic Essentials, by heading to justflysports.thinkific.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 4:35 – How Ryan’s recent track seasons have been coming along, and some of the recent successes of his track and field group 14:40 – The core components of Ryan’s speed training blocks and cycles, particularly his 14-day training cycle 24:18 – How Ryan includes the hurdles early on for his freshmen athletes, to help set up their skills throughout their high school career 42:15 – Ryan’s take on a balanced an athletic approach to 400m training, and his approach as they progress through high school 46:29 – Philosophy of going “ends to middle” vs. being more of a centrist in training 54:38 – How to avoid staleness over time while using a “centrist” system that is regularly training all main athletic qualities, and how to use constraints and novelty to improve one’s sprinting technique 1:03:50 – Ryan’s take on Tony Wells training system 1:12:16 – Ryan’s take on sled training and resisted sprinting Ryan Banta Quotes “I never build my sprint program around 7 days, we need to go 14 days” “Throughout the program, I believe in resting the system, but not necessarily resting the athlete” “I like to start in the middle, so I am going to start in the 200-400m area in my training, and then play with systems below that (100-200 focused days), and above that (more 400-800m days)” “Monday we might do max velocity and acceleration, Thursday of week do I am going to have something like looks like that again, but in the meantime there are going to be other sessions where those qualities get ticked off of the box” “You are either race modeling or competing every Saturday; competitions are your best practice” “I think that hurdles, by far is one of the best things. Our distance girls at the end of every one of their aerobic runs does hurdle mobility, our sprinters hurdlers and jumpers every Wednesday does hurdle mobility. We teach them to bounce, they don’t just step over” “This is the point of the critical mass system, I want to make decathletes, I want my athletes to be good at everything” “I want to make sure I’m honoring the athletic experience by stimulating them like they are a heptathlete, like they are a decathlete” “Running 24x200’s is an abuse of a developmental athlete” “I have two days in a 14 day micro-cycle where we are going really really fast and then two competitions” “With short-to-long the psychology is that I don’t want to go run a 150 now, while my philosophy is lets rip the bandaid off on all of those things” “You flip flop the key performance indicator workouts the following week; I have a week that’s built around speed, a week that’s built around power, a week that’s built around endurance, and then a recovery week” “We’ll do a fly 10,20,30 with different variations of movement, for example we are going to do a run for 30 meters, and we are going to have you go with as long as stride as you can, then the next as high of frequency as you can” “We want to constantly require a kid to deal with something novel and new while sprinting” “We go from hills to a resisted sled, to vests, to a bullet belt, so we are constantly trying to go from basic skills to more advanced” “One of the best things about sleds is it teaches an athlete how to push” “(With sleds), I like to go heavy, medium, then light, we get potentiation and we are mindful of coordination. Early on, hills might be the best because you can get a lot of people in it at once… from a pure management perspective” About Ryan Banta Ryan Banta is a coach with over two decades of experience and the author of the Sprinter’s Compendium. At the high school level, his girls track team has had 7 top-five finishes at the state championships, a team state title in 2022, 7 district championships, 6 district runner-up finishes, 7 conference team titles, 248 state semi-finalist (sectionals), 174 state qualifiers, 3 state records (3200, 4×800, and 100HH), 20 national ranked events, 163 All-state Medalists, 16 state champions, 21 runner-up performances, and 2 Gatorade athletes of the year. He has been elected Missouri Track and Cross Country Coaches Association (MTCCCA) president and served on the Missouri State High School Activities Association (MSHSAA) advisory board. Ryan is a frequently appearing podcast guest and writer on many popular track and field, and athletic performance platforms.

351: Sam Portland on Player Archetypes and Assessing “Speed Age” in the Conversation of Coaching Mar 23, 2023

Today’s guest is athletic performance coach and consultant, Sam Portland. Sam has had a lengthy career in professional sport, and is the creator of “Speed Gate Golf” and the Sports Speed System. Sam provides mentorship and education to coaches, athletes and teams looking to further progress their abilities. His combination of skills ranges from physical coaching, to sport coaching, athlete psychology and beyond. With the impending AI and technological revolution, we must ask ourselves questions regarding the nature of coaching, training and progression in athletics. On one hand, we have numerical outputs and data points relative to an athlete’s abilities, workloads, and suggested training routes, and on the other we have the social-emotional and intuitive elements that are much more human by nature. In a sense, what is the most human about coaching itself is the “conversation of training” that happens on multiple levels within any training session. For today’s podcast, we cover the types of intensity and mentality that go into playing various sports (such as Rugby vs. American Football), Sam’s take on sport training technology, such as force-velocity profiling, an athletes “speed age” and how athletes progress through each level, and finally, we’ll get into the 5 types of player archetypes that range from bodybuilder, to sprinter, and how coaches can identify and optimize training for each unique athlete they train. This is a show that highlights how having experience and skin in the game, not only training, but also playing the game Today’s episode is brought to you by LILA Exogen Wearable Resistance, Lost Empire Herbs and Strength Coach Pro. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 3:29 – Sam’s experience working with, and playing American Football in Europe 8:00 – The types of intensity that is present in different types of sports, such as continuous sports (rugby, soccer) vs. interval sports (American football) 18:12 – Sam’s thoughts on Force Velocity profiling and technology in speed and game-speed training 30:41 – What Sam values in a speed and game-speed training program as opposed to a more data-oriented, mechanistic approach to speed 37:15 – Thoughts on heavy sled training and heavy resisted training in general 44:06 – Sam’s take on “Speed Age” in athletes, and how he looks at speed training progressions over time 59:13 – The importance of complexity and psychology in the process of coaching, and the conversation that happens between coach and athlete 1:06:50 – The 5 archetypes of athletes Sam categorizes and considers through the sport and physical preparation process 1:18:18 – Approaching the “games player” archetype in particular from a physical preparation perspective Sam Portland Quotes “With American football, one of the toughest things was that the play wasn’t building in front of me (like Rugby), the play was building behind me” “How do people become successful coaches? It is intuition, and it is getting reps on the field” “Nothing’s changed in the last 30 years, it’s the experience of the coach that creates the change, and we should do that by playing, 100%” “In part, the strength and conditioning problem is that everyone wants to develop speed, but they start in the gym” “I got more guys that run over 21 miles per hour, just by doing long accelerations, and specialized developmental exercises that I stole from Verkhoshansky” “I believe we are in the tech age… you remember when the first computer came out, we are literally there” “Movement is a conversation… everyone watches a wave break, but they don’t watch the magic that happens when it builds” “I had an athlete who could squat 250 kilos, and that was great, but it didn’t translate. Someone like this I’ll use a stable to unstable continuum. The most unstable thing you can do in moving is over-speed maximal velocity. On the other side is a slow, deliberate wall squat, acceleration type drill” “We increase instability and add velocity in order to nurture that conversation” “Big guys struggle to find knee flexion in early acceleration, because they are so big” “In my coaching, I’m never trying to acquire more information about what I’m doing, until I know what information I have can do” “People are very attracted to shiny things, not the simple, consistent things” “You’ve got 4 levels of speed age: Learning to sprint, training to sprint, sprinting to compete, and sprinting to win” “We’ve got physical capacities, we’ve got technical capacities and cognitive capacities” “If we can’t find rhythm, timing coordination at sub-max velocities, how the hell are you going to find it when putting your foot to the floor” “So if slow, heavy sled walks are working, do them until they stop working” “I had a prop, a big prop forward, and he would literally do 3 to 4 low level drills, and then we would do bouncy runs for 40 meters for his whole session; 10 meter time under 1.7 seconds, over 9 meters maximal velocity inside 40yd, and he was 125 kilos, and that’s all we did” “You go from bounce runs to high cycling runs, so you train the other side, you are spinning your wheels faster; I’m a massive proponent of running slow with high frequency before running fast, because it’s easier to put speed on frequency, as opposed to frequency on speed” “The people who understand psychology the most as coaches, will be the most successful coaches” “If you are not training at sport speed, then it’s not sport speed” “The reason we need things to be harder is to prove our worth… I’ve made this thing more complicated so it reinforces what I do, my sacrifice and everything, so I’m going to get the most reward out of it because it’s hard… rather than, let’s make this the most simple and easy thing, so I can go home when I’m finished, and I can be with my family, and I can go to sleep. I can tell you my whole system inside of 5 minutes, and if that’s OK with you, let’s give it a go, and that’s what we need to be working towards” “If you ever consider why a player is disagreeing with you, or not fully buying in, you don’t know how they see themselves, you don’t know the story of how they see themselves as a player” “Your powerlifter archetype equates strength with performance; you got the crossfit archetype which needs to put work in their body, because they probably come from a background that has been built on hard, high-volume work” “The sprinter, their linear speed is not a problem, they just need to learn how to play the game” “Everyone has a story, and if you are living out of your own story when trying to help someone else, you are not helping their story” About Sam Portland Sam Portland is an athletic performance coach from the UK, the creator of speed gate golf and the Sports Speed System. Following a lengthy career in professional sport he now consults with athletes/teams and helps guide coaches to happier, healthier and more financially fulfilling careers. Sam has worked with premiership rugby, American football, Olympic athletes, international competitors across a plethora of sports including hockey, bobsleigh, and track and field. Aside from this Sam keeps in touch with the grass roots aspects of athlete preparation by hosting his ‘combine program’. This program is a long-term athletic development program filling the essential gaps in physical literacy that are not fulfilled at school or by club sports.

350: Jeremy Frisch on Game Speed Development and Creative Coaching Concepts Mar 16, 2023

Today’s guest is Jeremy Frisch. Jeremy is the founder and performance director of Achieve Performance Training in Clinton, Mass. He has been a multi-time guest on the show on the topics of youth and long-term physical development, game-play, and the integration of all these things into a greater training philosophy. Jeremy is one of my biggest influences in how I see and connect the child to scholastic to adult continuum of sport development and performance. As much as coaching is prescriptive on the level of exercises and progressions, it is even more intuitive in nature. So often we seek the exact exercises, drills, and cues that will help athletes to achieve more specific strength or a better technique. These are helpful in key situations for athletes, but we must also build and understand a bigger picture (by coaching in many different sport situations and developmental stages), which helps us break into more expansive ways of seeing the picture of athleticism. On today’s show, Jeremy gets into how his work from the spectrum of youth training, up to adult fitness has improved his general ability to coach and implement creative solutions for athletes. He’ll cover important developmental steps in early childhood that lay a foundation for improved abilities later on, and then get into games, field size and game speed elements of sport. Finally, we’ll finish off the show with a chat on concepts of creative and engaging training, as well as a take on how the traditional strength and conditioning type mentality may serve some athletes well, where others may find more confidence in their game and sport skill abilities. Today’s episode is brought to you by LILA Exogen Wearable Resistance, Lost Empire Herbs and Strength Coach Pro. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 5:33 – How Jeremy runs his adult fitness classes in comparison to his youth and scholastic training sessions – How Jeremy views game-speed, in young athletes, and as they move through maturity 28:11 – How a child’s strategy and disposition based on formative years leads to the type of athlete they become later on (i.e. offensive, defensive, hustle/grinder type) 37:42 – How to manipulate field sizes and playing spaces in sport development 47:44 – Using creativity to make training more engaging for the athlete, and how to keep the game-like nature of movement in training 53:22 – Jeremy’s thoughts on the traditional strength and conditioning mentality working better for some athletes vs. others 1:05:37 – Aerial ability and training, and how it relates to general athleticism Jeremy Frisch Quotes “We replaced box jumps for adults, with step-up jumps” “That’s what I tell younger coaches who walk through our doors, you might not love it, but realize that the group you are working with is going to make you a better coach down the line” “When a baby is born, you have an opportunity to put a baby in an environment to be a competent mover… and that’s floor time, belly time” “The floor is the child’s neurological workshop… when you put the baby on the floor, or in a playpen and you just leave them alone, they are going to figure out how to lift their head, push off the ground, reach and move” “The great thing about a crash mat is that it (gives safety) so now kids are going to try a million different ways to land” “If you set up those early years in life for them to become a competent mover, then you have a great foundation to build on later on” “Let’s say you get some kids and put them in basketball, and they are OK, but you put them in soccer in that wide open space, they see the field and understand soccer more than they do in a closed space” “That transition leaving baseball into football, they might be like, I don’t know if I want to play this year, I always get that thing, but 2 weeks into football they are like, this is the best, I’m glad baseball is over” “Well play a game of tag with the kids, but make the space really small, which puts the priority on change of direction; then we’ll expand the field and put more priority on speed and hard stops” “I can only do so many hurdle jumps in the summer before I need to turn the hurdle jump into a dive roll and sprint” “I miss covid because you had to be outside with athlete, and you had to get creative; I would put medicine balls and sticks in my truck” “We’d start linking exercises together, and we found kids really enjoyed putting those pieces together, and set by set changing the activity we were doing, and it made training a lot less monotonous and a lot more fun, and they really would focus more” “I have a high school (football) group that comes in every day and they just lift for 2 hours… they just want to lift, and I can’t get rid of them, that’s all their mindset is.. if I took them and told them that we are going to do games or chaos I don’t think they would like it as much” “(my one son) he thinks the thing that will help him the most is getting as strong and as explosive as possible. My other son doesn’t think he needs the weight room as much, but when he does a skill clinic, that stuff engages him a lot. Two kids, and they are completely different” “I’ve had such great success with kids just coming in from practice, and asking, “how do you feel… I’ve had kids get stronger by just going day to day, there’s nothing written out”” “It’s not only fun for kids, spinning or flying through the air, but it really taps into their vestibular, proprioceptive system… especially a kid who is a fairly good mover, they are going to find activities that allow them to do those things” “What I see is that the kids who are the best athletes right away are the kids who can manipulate their bodies through the air” “The kid who had an in-ground pool could always swim and could dive and do a bunch of tricks” “I would do this stupid game where my kids would jump on the trampoline, and I would throw them the ball in the air, and the would jump and catch the ball at the highest point, we played that so much and I think that’s a big reason they can catch a football now” About Jeremy Frisch Jeremy Frisch is the founder and performance director at Achieve Performance Training in Clinton, Mass. He is the former assistant strength and conditioning coach for the Holy Cross athletic department. While there, he worked directly with the Crusader men’s basketball team, in addition to serving as the strength coach for Holy Cross’ men’s soccer, men’s and women’s lacrosse, baseball, softball, field hockey, tennis and women’s track & field squads. Prior to joining Holy Cross, Frisch served as the sports performance director at Teamworks Sports Center in Acton, Mass., where he was responsible for the design and implementation of all strength and conditioning programs. He also served as a speed and strength coach for Athletes Edge Sports Training, and did a strength and conditioning internship at Stanford University. Frisch is a 2007 graduate of Worcester State College with a bachelor’s degree in health science and physical education. He was a member of the football and track teams during his days at Worcester State and Assumption College.

349: Cody Bidlow on Strength, Technique and Programming in Sprint Development Mar 09, 2023

Today’s guest is Cody Bidlow. Cody is currently the head track & field coach at Arcadia High School in Phoenix, AZ, and a coach at EliteU working with NFL combine prep athletes. Cody additionally owns SprintingWorkouts.com and the ATHLETE.X brand, where he runs educational content on speed and power training to a large audience. He was an all-conference sprinter at Grand Canyon University, and continues to train and sprint competitively. I’ve had a lot of sprint and speed training shows as part of this podcast series. Speed training is an important aspect of both track and field and team sport. Additionally, the principles of training speed, pushing a human being to the limit of a skill they have been using their whole life, requires an integrative and thorough process, the principles of which can carry over to any athletic pursuit. For today’s show, Cody shares insights on motor learning concepts in sprinting, the consequence of overemphasizing sprint motions or strength training, the role of longer, more metabolic sprinting on total speed development, ideas on “impulse” strength in the gym, and much more. Today’s episode is brought to you by LILA Exogen Wearable Resistance, Lost Empire Herbs and Strength Coach Pro. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 3:37 – Cody’s athletic journey and how it has impacted him as a coach 9:36 – Questions Cody has asked in his own training journey that have helped him as a coach 16:47 – The type of sprinter that Cody is, and his learning about his own training response 24:41 – Why “over-projecting” in sprint acceleration can be a problem, and how that wasn’t the most successful strategy for Cody 28:09 – Experimenting at the “poles” or extremes of a sport skill, in order to find a better middle point 32:24 – Rationale and context of various sprint drills and exercises, and how to connect technical movements with a higher intensity sprint 36:03 – Using longer sprints, and “more work” in the 15-40 second bracket of training to help one’s overall speed and power abilities 47:33 – Principles on the maximal amount of longer running that Cody would put in a program 51:07 – How the mental and emotional elements of competition can enable better performance in longer sprints 59:59 – The “finisher” mentality in speed and power training and the complimentary impact of a metabolic element in a program 1:06:27 – A discussion on general and specific elements in the weight room for sprinting speed 1:15:41 – Over-pushing in sprinting, in light of the principle of “impulse” 1:17:19 – Cody’s take on the “push” type cue Cody Bidlow Quotes “Something led to that (sprint) position, that might have been a timing issue, that might have been a posture issue” “For me, if I do a bunch of deep squatting, I get super slow, for some, it might make them faster” “I’ve leaned in more to trusting intuition, and not outsourcing to other people as to the right way to do it… you have to trust in your own ability, not just rely on a famous coach that said what to do” “In learning to become better at speed endurance I’ve had to learn things like, not forcing stride frequency but letting stride frequency occur, locking in my posture” “In acceleration, one thing that disrupted me for a long period of time, was purely focusing on projection, and the big shapes idea” “By finding (movement) extremes, it opens up your abilities and gets you out of stereotyped movements, and that’s when progress stalls” “You aren’t doing a drill because it’s going to make you faster, you do a drill to work on one small feeling, and then we take that (feeling) into the sprint” “I think that there’s a skill development aspect of longer runs, simply by virtue of having more steps, you are doing more reps of the specific skill” “There is something to be said about including longer sprinting in your training, just don’t go overboard with it” “It would be unwise to overlook that a great number of athletes who compete at a high level do a significant amount of longer sprinting in some form” “Most of the time, I look at the longest they are going to run (for their race), and then I shorten it up just a little bit” I’ll just finish (an acceleration session) by 1x150, or 1x90, so that way I’m incorporating speed endurance through a longer portion of the year, but the dose is not very high” “If we can build up a huge volume wins in practice, feeling good in practice, that’s what’s going to lead to feeling good in competition and being able to express their abilities” “What do you want your body to remember, the fastest rep, or the slowest rep?” “You get a lot out of doing 1 rep (of a speed endurance run, like a 150m)” “Last year I was (really strong in the deep squat) but was running slower in acceleration than I had in multiple years” “I believe that the ability to generate force in the early stages of movement is a skill that can be developed” “If anything, I want athletes to relax in the top half of a lift (hex deadlift) because I don’t want the body to hold on to contractions” “I might start with an 8” step up, then I might progress to a step up where I’m stomping the box, and my focus is on the instant my foot hits the box” “With athletes who aren’t that skilled, I don’t think (pushing cues) work very well… usually I focus more on impulse” “I almost never say drive your knee…. drive your knee is super slow” About Cody Bidlow Cody Bidlow is currently the head track & field coach at Arcadia High School in Phoenix, AZ, and a coach at EliteU working with NFL combine prep athletes. He is a personal coach for professional MLB athletes, track athletes, and a consultant for coaches around the world. Cody additionally owns SprintingWorkouts.com and the ATHLETE.X brand, where he runs educational content on speed and power training to a large audience. He was an all-conference sprinter at Grand Canyon University.

348: Austin Jochum on Creating Skill Acquisition Addicts in Athletic Development Mar 02, 2023

Today’s guest is Austin Jochum. Austin is the owner of Jochum Strength where he works with athletes and washed-up movers to become the best versions of themselves. He also operates the Jochum Strength Insider which is an online training platform for people trying to feel, look, and move better. Austin has a diverse athletic background, from being an All-American lineman and MIAC indoor weight throw champion, to regularly pushing his movement capabilities to new levels in arenas such as rock climbing, dunking and slow-pitch softball leagues. An interesting thing about the “athletic performance” field is that traditionally, it doesn’t work on things that are highly “athletic”, as strength training protocols can be some of the more controlled elements in the entirety of an athlete’s training regime. This control and scalable nature is often reflected in the way that rudimentary plyometric, speed and agility protocols are carried out at scale, as per the same nature as a controlled and measurable strength regiment. Having a controlled strength stimulus for an advanced athlete who is already a master of their sport skill is a helpful tool for managing tissue strength and balance, but for developing athletes going into “sports performance” programs, the ability to improve one’s skill building ability in a meaningful, athletic, problem-solving and creative manner is often lacking. In today’s podcast, Austin goes into the breakdown of finding low-hanging fruits of athletic performance in athletes and the philosophy of creating “skill-building addicts”. We get into self-learning concepts, over-coaching, and then the nuts and bolts of his weekly flow of movement and game-speed building methods. We also finish with a lightning round that covers a variety of topics and ideas Austin is working on right now in the training space. Today’s episode is brought to you by Strength Coach Pro and Lost Empire Herbs For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 2:53 – The processes by which Austin shifted his typical, controlled warmup process, into a more dynamic training experience 7:32 – How Austin doing athletic things himself has had a strong impact on his coaching 11:13 – How Austin assesses an athlete from a global perspective, as soon as they walk in the door of his training facility, and how he challenges athletes who can’t handle losing, or haven’t won much in their sport experience 24:31 – The role of confidence gained from the gym, vs. having confidence in one’s sport abilities 31:48 – How Austin looks at how much time he would spend on gym strength vs. play based skills vs. perception work for athletes, based on need 41:15 – How athletes perceive difficult and challenging situations in their environment, and how to break athletes out of their typical athletic, problem-solving world-view 50:23 – Cues, coaching and creating a training environment that helps athletes to self-learn 1:02:03 – Austin’s weekly training setup, including games, speed and strength work 1:09:17 – Austin’s 5 greatest tools in developing movement and agility 1:13:34 – The training topic that interests Austin the most right now 1:17:14 – What “fast” means to Austin 1:18:06 – What Austin thinks about the term “arm care” 1:19:26 – The gnarliest isometric hold Austin is doing right now Austin Jochum Quotes “What makes them athletes is destroying movement challenges” “The worst athletes in the room could A-Skip, and the best athletes in the room could A-Skip” “If it looks pretty, it’s for you, it’s not for them” “I’ll put a guy who is easily triggered by losing, on a team that he knows he is going to lose. The goal is to level the athlete up and challenge them… the athlete who has only been exposed to winning” “I’ve never seen an athlete get more confidence in their pass-rush moves, who didn’t have a pass rush move, by lifting more weights” “I have yet to have a college football player come to me who doesn’t know how to produce force” “What most people need to do is what they are bad at, but nobody wants to do that” “I want to create addicts of skill acquisition, and you really need to create an environment around that” “A person that suffers from trauma, one of the worst things that happens to them is they don’t play any more, and when you don’t play you can’t imagine, and when you can’t imagine you can’t move forward at all” “Go ask a great athlete what they are imagining in their head” “I’m not going to take that (lifting) drug away from them” “If you have students that you’ve created to not ask questions, then that automates your life as coach. They aren’t asking questions and that’s super easy for you” “As soon as my coach started to pay more attention to me, he gave me more cues, and as soon as he gave me more cues, it made me a worse thrower” “I like a med ball if I want to slow down the velocity (of the game) to slow it down, I can use a smaller field, bigger ball” “If you want an athlete to jump higher, give them something high to jump over” “I go to thrift stores all of the time, and the weird sport section of the thrift stores, and I look for something cool I can grab. I grab the cool thing and I force myself to come up with a warmup off of that, and that is where the best warmups come from” “We had athlete jumping over hurdles for 30-40 minutes this morning… I put hurdle hops until disinterested” “The work that you get done during play is so under-rated” “Fast = can you solve the movement problem faster than the person next to you” Show Notes Gnarly spinal isometric hold https://www.instagram.com/p/CmfXukDNSDE/ About Austin Jochum Austin Jochum is the owner of Jochum Strength where he works with athletes and washed up movers to become the best versions of themselves. He also operates The Jochum Strength insider which is an online training platform for people trying to feel, look, and move better. Austin was a former D3 All-American football player and a hammer thrower (MIAC weight throw champion) at the University of St.Thomas,

347: Joel Smith Q&A on Oscillatory Exercises, Acceleration Development and Training Arrangement Feb 23, 2023

Today’s podcast is a Q&A episode with Joel Smith. Joel is the founder of Just Fly Sports and is a sports performance/track coach in Cincinnati, Ohio. He hosts the Just Fly Performance Podcast, has authored several books on athletic performance, and in 2021, released the integrative training course, “Elastic Essentials”. Questions for this podcast revolved around high velocity and oscillating exercise concepts, acceleration and sprint development, training arrangement, and much more. Today’s episode is brought to you by Strength Coach Pro, Lost Empire Herbs, and the Elastic Essentials Online Course. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com Find out more about the the online course, Elastic Essentials, by heading to justflysports.thinkific.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Topics: 3:47 – CNS “firing rate” and trainability. 14:18 – What differences between tension release OC ISO and rhythmic ISO, and when to use one vs. the other? 20:27 – What phase of training is ideal for using overcoming isometrics? 25:47 – Can a reduction in bodyweight allow for someone to be more elastic? 28:02 – Thoughts on non-linear periodization for max sprint work. 33:23 – To what age can one sustain high level explosive athleticism, assuming one stays active? 40:45 – It is really necessary to be fully recovered for every jump training session, or is fatigue needed to induce adaptations? 53:43 – Thoughts on internal and external cues in teaching acceleration. 58:33 – Giving athletes variation from intensity in regards to MaxV work. 1:04:51 – Drills for delayed knee extension out of blocks, but with a focus on projecting the hips. 1:09:59 – 3 training books I think we should read that are often left out of typical answers. 1:15:46 – Take on mental prep/race execution for track athletes. About Joel Smith Joel Smith is the founder of Just Fly Sports and is a sports performance/track coach in Cincinnati, Ohio. Joel hosts the Just Fly Performance Podcast, has authored several books on athletic performance, and in 2021, released the integrative training course, “Elastic Essentials”. He currently trains clients in the in-person and online space. Joel was formerly a strength coach for 8 years at UC Berkeley, working with the Swim teams and professional swimmers, as well as tennis, water polo, and track and field. A track coach of 15 years, Joel coached for the Diablo Valley Track and Field Club for 7 years, and also has 6 years of experience coaching sprints, jumps, hurdles, pole vault and multi-events on the collegiate level, working at Wilmington College, and the University of Wisconsin, LaCrosse, along with his current work with master’s, high school and collegiate individuals. Joel has had the honor of working with a number of elite athletes, but also takes great joy in helping amateur athletes and individuals reach their training goals through an integrative training approach with a heavy emphasis on biomechanics, motor learning, mental preparation, and physiological adaptation. His mission through Just Fly Sports is: “Empowering the Evolution of Sport and Human Movement”. As a former NAIA All-American track athlete, Joel enjoys all aspects of human movement and performance, from rock climbing, to track events and weightlifting, to throwing the frisbee with his young children and playing in nature.

346: Richard Aceves on Fusing Mental, Physical and Emotional Elements of the Total Training Process Feb 16, 2023

Today’s guest is Richard Aceves. Richard is an innovative movement specialist with a diverse athletic background. After a mountaineering near death experience at an early age, he worked his way back to health and training capacity, eventually working towards becoming an elite powerlifter, professional GRID athlete, and has experience in a variety of strength and movement practices. Richard is a coach, mentor, education and pioneer in the world of movement in context of the human experience. There are always going to be pendulum swings in any profession, and sport performance is no exception. On the level of conditioning, success in sport is more about skill, tactics, speed, confidence than the adaptation acquired from grinding out tough conditioning sessions. At the same time, there is a mental, physical and emotional gold that can be found, when the body is pushed to its limits. Using physical exploration and stressors with purpose can provide a far fuller and more rewarding experience to each individual, allowing them to level up in new ways that go beyond sport, into life itself. On today’s podcast, Richard covers his near-death experience and injury that kickstarted his journey into the inner aspects of human performance. Throughout the episode, Richard covers the physical, mention and emotional aspects of training, and how training can be modulated to address each of these important elements of both athletic ability, and our human experience. Richard goes into his warmup process, and breaks down the dynamics of a “good” and “poor” conditioning session, and how to better facilitate the conditioning process. Being able to get into the “present-minded” state is one of the most important elements in both training, and in life, and Richard goes into this concept heavily in this episode. Today’s episode is brought to you by Strength Coach Pro and Lost Empire Herbs For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 3:25 – What sparked Richard’s journey in mental and emotional states of training 12:28 – How the mental and emotional elements of coaching make it far more than regurgitating information 17:06 – The importance of specific mental emotional preparation to meet the demands of one’s sport 27:23 – Richard’s take on the survivor ability of the human body, and how he views the purpose of the warmup 35:48 – How mental state impacts one’s learning and adaptation in training 44:11 – Defining the physical, mental, and emotional elements of training 52:03 – Physical, mental and emotional components that go into the warmup process, as well as in more skilled sport movement, and Richard’s take on why pickup basketball is such a fantastic warmup process 1:02:08 – A practical example and explanation of how Richard takes his group through a training session, as well as the applications of music Richard will take on for the session based on the training type 1:14:44 – Links between muscles and related emotional states within muscles 1:24:00 – How Richard uses timers or songs to help keep pace in his training sessions 1:28:18 – What Richard considers to be good vs. excessive and poor conditioning Richard Aceves Quotes “We all understand that your best performances are when aligned emotionally” “We cannot pretend that performance at any matter, is a purely physical standpoint, it is mental, but it’s not mental only; the emotional component is the communication between the physical and the mental in order to have the emotional expression” “All training needs to have a combination of physical, mental and emotional stimulus” “You cannot perform at your top percentile, without safety and confidence” “When you put people through training sessions, how much is being done by the athlete, versus being “survived” by the athlete” “Athletes want to show you that they can complete any task possible, they are amazing at surviving anything” “I’m trying to get awareness and blood-flow into these muscles, higher neural connections to these muscles… and then we can apply it to the skill” “For me, the exercise is the byproduct, the center part is the stimulus” “In order to achieve the proper stimulus, you need to be connected to that person” “We have this hierarchy of the nervous system, where you stop trying to be creative at your sport, and are only focusing on objective means, then you are no longer getting better” “You do need some data point, but that needs to be balanced out with intuition, with presence, curiosity and creativity” “For (physical training elements) I will always select low skill exercises, such as sleds, because the mind will always quit before the body. If I use a low skill exercise, I can push the intensity, and you’ll quit, and I’ll ask, why did you quit?” “You’ll understand you are having a great emotional workout when you are just flowing” “If you are analyzing, you aren’t acting, just act, just let the body do its thing” “I love random variables in warmups… for me warmup songs are amazing, take any song that has a repetitive phrase, and start to listen to it, and hold an isometric, and whenever it said a word, do a concentric rep.. it forces you to stay present” “Isometrics force an extreme intensity that you’ll never fail, you’ll always quit” “So what’s going to quit, the mind, because it can’t tolerate the intensity that the muscles are creating in that isometric contraction, so you start to quit, so that is exposure therapy for the neural output to get higher, and for the muscle quality to get better and transfer to other skills” “The warmup should be socialization, and the second one is being active and present while providing high amount of blood-flow to the bigger structural muscles, if we can have higher dosages of blood-flow to the bigger structural muscles, the body will feel much safer to go to the end ranges” “When I’m doing skill set type workouts, I’ll use more binaural beats focus, and you’ll see people won’t realize there is music on, but they’ll be better at adapting to coordination skillsets” “When you are trying to find things to do to prolong doing the task, you are surviving the situation, not thriving in the situation” “I like to first, and foremost connect to the psoas major, and then I like going to the pecs.. the pecs bring joy and pride to self. The lats are part of the conference between the ego and the superego” “One of my rules is, “we don’t stop breathing, we don’t stop moving”” “If you are constantly breathing and truly connecting to the bigger efferent muscles, you are going to notice a change in your perception of the environment around you” “If you are doing (conditioning) for someone else, and it’s not for you, then it’s too much conditioning” “It’s not about punishing your body, it’s about expressing the amount of work it can do, because you want to do it, and that changes the entire perspective on how much is too much” “Are you going hunting, or being hunted, in your conditioning?… you start to condition this non-mental, non-emotional part of physical training, outside of the sport, which is for a very small percentage needed, but we start to lose that regulation side hunting side, that excitement of it, it becomes “tell me what to do and I’ll do it” and now you are passively hoping that this is going to help you” Show Notes Swami Body Awareness Session https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQ7ZLLa96gQ&t=755s About Richard Aceves Richard Aceves is an innovative movement specialist with a diverse athletic background. After a mountaineering near death experience at an early age, he worked his way back to health and training capacity, eventually working towards becoming an elite powerlifter, professional GRID athlete, and attempting to get his pro card for Strongman. Richard is a former gym owner, and pioneer in the world of movement in context of the human experience. Connecting the mind and body together in training, Richard explores and prioritizes the understanding of the physical, mental and emotional components of the training process. Richard runs a number of movement workshops and retreats, and is a sought after speaker and trainer.

345: Nick DiMarco on Speed, Specificity, and Maximizing What Matters in American Football Preparation Feb 09, 2023

Today’s guest is Nick DiMarco. Nick has been the director of sports performance at Elon University since 2018, and is a leader in the realms of high-performance ideology. He is both a former professional athlete (NY Jets and Baltimore Ravens outside linebacker in 2014), and has a Ph.D in Health and Human Performance. In addition to being well versed in the intuitive aspects of athleticism, Nick is skilled at applying logical models to a high-performance training environment. He has been a guest on multiple episodes of this podcast, speaking on the physical preparation process with a focus on American football. In the preparation of an athlete, all roads must ultimately lead towards the specificity, chaos and decision making of the sport itself. The days of putting outputs on a pedestal (such as a squat max or “canned” SAQ score), are still with us, but integrative coaches are seeing the higher-links within the total training equation, and the win-loss column. Ultimately, a good sports performance program never loses sight of the ultimate goal, which is to prepare players towards their sport as well as possible. If you caught the recent episode with strength coach, turned football coach Michael Zweifel, this message likely hits on an even deeper level. On today’s show, Nick gives an overview on the Elon football team’s performance over the last few years, and the integrative factors that contributed to their recent success and low injury rates. He gives his evolving take on the important elements to cover in preparing players for the speed and movement demands of the game of football, including acceleration, maximal velocity and agility/change of direction. In this episode, Nick goes in depth on his weekly speed and strength training format, talks about the metrics he measures, gives his take on deceleration training, and much more. Nick’s ideas are both cutting-edge, and incredibly pragmatic, useful for any sports performance coach. Today’s episode is brought to you by Strength Coach Pro and Lost Empire Herbs For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 2:41 – An overview of how the last season went for Elon football 4:50 – What strength/sport coach interactions need to be prioritized for the high performance model to be maximally effective 12:47 – Nick’s updates or thoughts on the game-speed agility model that in the last several years 23:19 – Psychological aspects of perception-based game-speed training for Nick’s athletes 28:54 – Nick’s weekly offseason training format, and his balance of more traditional “tempo” running, versus more specific sprint conditioning for his players 40:18 – What metrics Nick measures and gives feedback to the players on 45:38 – How Nick looks at things like “deceleration training”, relative to chaotic change of direction 51:23 – Nick’s take on the agility categories (mirror, dodge chase, score) in context of other sports, such as court sport 53:57 – Where Nick recommends sports performance coaches to expand their knowledge base, in regards to the breadth of the field, as well as the sports they are working with 57:42 – How being a father to young children has impacted Nick’s athletic performance process 1:02:18 – If Nick had to pick between wearing a shmedium polo shirt, waving a towel, or warming up with jumping jacks on the whistle, which would he pick, and why? Nick DiMarco Quotes “We had very low injury rate for us, and I think strength coaches want to pat themselves on the back and say that was their job, but it goes hand in hand with our head coach, he does a great job with his practice design, and doing everything to maximize our weekly layout, keeping guys at healthy and fresh as possible” “Anything that is physical related, we should try to inter-twine with the sport coach as much as possible” “You can do a great job in the weight room for your portion of the year, but if you pass the baton, and you are no longer involved, (sport coaches) hammer the guys with volume, and every day is physical contact, you are going to have injuries and issues no matter how your offseason went” “Early on I valued (general speed) too much… (now being more specific) we’ve had more of a reduction in our injuries and we are giving them the exact stress they are going to feel on the field, appropriate doses, and that is the best agility work they are going to get” “We’ll hit our 8 vector tempos, so it’s in different directions instead of just being linear” “You don’t want to replicate a garbage scenario for the sake of it being specific” “Psychological stress is an element you need to have in your conditioning in some way… there’s a lot more that goes into rest than just standing there” “Monday our max velocity day is more rate of force driven. Tuesday we will hit some linear tempo with a decent amount of volume, but that day will remain linear. Wednesday is a moderate intensity day, it is our practice session day, on that day we do our 8-vector (creative change of direction) tempo day. Thursday is a drawn out performance prep with a large focus on mobility, and an upper body volume day. Friday is our acceleration focus; that is our heaviest strength focus day for our younger athletes” “Our line guys, that’s a huge portion of their conditioning, the combative stuff” “Even though it’s not that taxing from a neuromuscular perspective, when you start asking people to change directions a bunch of times, you are going to get more muscular soreness” “We do not do any sort of L-drill, pro agility, I don’t see those as a good use of time” “We don’t have a max day ever…. every day is a chance to PR” “The fly 10 stuff, the more I’m around it, the more I think of it as a dose of high speed to keep people safe, versus actually improve (game speed)” “If you are looking at 40s for a combine guy, the easiest way to improve is that first 10-20 yards” “You want to take anything and everything into account that you can, but there’s not a ton of stock in “one guy went from this (sprint time) to this” so I guarantee he is going to be really good at football this year” “The sport of basketball they play year round, soccer plays year round, tennis plays year round, all of these other sports have a chance to play their sport consistently, that it’s not as big of a deal as it is for football when you don’t get a chance to play your sport except for isolated bouts throughout the year” “So much of basketball is trying to stay in front of another human being and sort through information” About Nick DiMarco Nick DiMarco is the director of sports performance at Elon University, a position which he has held since 2018. Nick is a leader in the NCAA University coaching system in the realms of high-performance ideology. As a former professional athlete (NY Jets and Baltimore Ravens outside linebacker in 2014), Nick is well versed in the intuitive aspects of what it takes to be a high achieving athlete. With a thorough understanding of training loads, and the components behind transferrable agility training, Nick has a unique array of insights he brings to the coaching table. Nick received his undergraduate degree from William Penn, and Master’s from California University of Pennsylvania, both in the sports performance sector. He has his Ph.D in Health and Human Performance at Concordia University of Chicago.

344: Henk Kraaijenhof on Athlete-Centered Speed Development and Timeless Training Principles Feb 02, 2023

Today’s podcast features Henk Kraaijenhof. Henk has several decades of experience as a performance coach in a broad array of sports. His coaching credentials include working track athletes such as Nelli Cooman (former 60m dash world record holder), Merlene Ottey, and Troy Douglas as well as elite team sport competitors. His specialties are physical and mental coaching, stress and stress management, technology, and the methodology or training. In addition to world-level performance, Henk’s coaching has also bred longevity, as Ottey and Douglas ran world class times in their 40’s. In the current coaching age, it’s easy to think that because we are doing “new” looking drills, have increased our data collection, and have created various technical models of sport skill, we have a massive edge on what athletes were doing 50 years ago. At the same time, general trends in injury rates and performance markers should have us thinking twice (for example, Bob Hayes running 9.99s in the 100m in 1964 on a chewed up cinder track). At the end of the day, it is more “core” elements of training philosophy that stand the test of time, and help us to better understand the needs of the athlete in front of us. On today’s show, Henk digs into speed training through the decades, and how many perceived “new school” elements, are actually much older than we think they are. He talks about how he approaches “technical models” of sport skill (sprinting specifically), coaching the current generation of athletes, and where our modern world is heading in general on the level of technology. He talks about the skill of patience in our current coaching environment, and shares some key philosophical ideas on the nature of coaching track and team sport athletes, and what we can learn from nature itself. Finally, Henk gives his views on his own current technology use in his coaching role. Today’s episode is brought to you by Strength Coach Pro and Lost Empire Herbs For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 3:18 – What prompted Henk’s return to coaching sprinting, and key themes he has brought from his learnings in the hiatus 16:58 – Henk’s take on coaching sprint technique, technical models, and a “no system” approach 24:31 – Where and how Henk looks to make changes in an athletes training, and mistakes he made in the past listening to other coaches and opinions 31:44 – Henk’s take on the current generation of athletes from his perspective, as well as the role of technology in modern society in general 38:08 – Philosophy of the role of sport in modern society, and what Henk really values in the process of athletic training and performance 50:16 – Autocratic vs. democratic forms of coaching, and impacts on performance 54:54 – How much technology Henk uses today in coaching a single athlete, versus coaching multiple athletes as a younger coach 1:05:42 – Henk’s view of nature in training, and both observation Henk Kraaijenhof Quotes “One difference is that you can film everything now (vs. 2004), everything has become more focused on data processing than before; the smartphone took away a bit of the human aspect of it” “You see a lot of people trying to hit the track really hard now, you see a lot of hamstring injuries, after this trend came” “You don’t have a frontside (mechanic) without a backside (mechanic)” “If you go against your natural preference (in sprinting) you might be in trouble” “We are lousy jumpers compared to the flea, the cat, the monkey” “Most coaches fall in love with their own school” “Why do you think it could be better if you change it; why is it not the most optimal way the athlete already chose?” “Patience is one thing that is readily declining” “I’m much more positive about the younger generation than most coaches” “Technology was our slave, and now we have reached a tipping point where we are a slave to technology” “Sports is life in condensed form” “I would never exchange one of my athlete’s silver medal for a gold medal, but pay the price of being mentally or physically wrecked by my workout, that’s not a price I am willing to pay” “Coaches are driven by the tendency to control, and the anxiety that an athlete doesn’t do enough” “There is always more risk involved in working on limitation, versus working on things that come naturally for you” “I can see how the workout is going to be when she enters the track” “At the end, you will see that old school becomes new school” “Monitoring without consequences is useless” “For athletes I don’t know, I would do more testing” “Technology has its limit in usefulness for us, now we have to be useful for technology” “We forget that philosophy is a foundation, it’s not the product of your training or going through the motions” Show Notes Bruce Lee, “No System” and the “Punch That Throws Itself” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhvBTy28VJM About Henk Kraaijenhof Henk Kraaijenhof has several decades of experience as a performance coach in a broad array of sports. His coaching credentials include working track athletes such as Nelli Cooman (former 60m dash world record holder), Merlene Ottey, and Troy Douglas as well as elite team sport competitors. His specialties are physical and mental coaching, stress and stress management, technology, and the methodology or training. Henk’s coaching has also bred longevity, as Ottey and Douglas ran world class times in their 40’s. Henk Kraaijenhof currently works for Vortx and his blo is helpingthebesttogetbetter.com. He has published work in performance, training systems and protocols for elite athletes and has also conducted research in the development and application of scientific training systems. Henk is also involved in scientific research projects in human sports performance in Norway, Estonia, Italy and the Netherlands. He is the author of the book “What We Need is Speed”, and is currently coaching Nelli Cooman’s daughter in the sprints.

343: Julien Pineau on Innate Movement Patterning in Strength and Sprint Performance Jan 26, 2023

Today’s podcast features movement focused strength and performance coach Julien Pineau. Julien is the founder of Strongfit, which started as a gym, and is now a full educational program for coaches and fitness/movement enthusiasts. Sports have been a part of Julien’s life since he was young, and he has athletic backgrounds in a variety of areas from competitive swimming, to mixed martial arts, strongman, and more. In 1993, Julien began his coaching career as a conditioning and grappling coach for the MMA gym where he trained and in 2008, he opened his own gym that focuses on strongman training. Julien has a fascinating ability to visualize and correct proper human movement patterns, and has worked with athletes from a wide variety of disciplines. He is a man on a journey inward as much as he is outward. The current world of training seems to exist on a level of “exercise proliferation” much more than it does digging into the main principles of human performance and adaptation. Coaches often times have their own favorite exercises and drills, and have athletes perform them to “technical perfection”, citing the ability to hit particular positions as a marker for program success. On today’s podcast, Julien Pineau goes into the fallacy of training athletes based on one’s preferred exercise selection, or technical positions, while rather viewing training on the level of the “human first”. Julien views training on the level of the entire athlete, and has exercise principles starting with the “inner most” human mechanisms. He gets into his ideas on internal and external torque chains extensively through this show, and describes how to fit muscle tensioning patterns to the needs of athletes in the realms of speed, strength and injury prevention. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Lost Empire Herbs, and the Elastic Essentials online course. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 3:14 – Women’s work capacity and ability to adapt to chronic stress, relative to men, with the crossfit games competitors as an example 6:36 – How strength training setups may be modulated for females versus males in terms of extending work out over a longer period of time, versus more dense packets of work 9:16 – How one’s perception and attitude in a training session is a critical aspect of adaptation 11:27 – The importance of tension over position in strength and athletic movement 17:20 – The pros and cons of social media in athletic development 21:18 – The innate movement pattern element of sandbag training and its role in facilitating hamstring activation 23:17 – The origins of Julien’s thoughts on internal and external torque chains 33:51 – Squatting patterns in light of internal and external torques, and how sandbag lifting fits into the squat and hinge pattern and muscle activation 46:34 – Links between internal torque/external torque and sprinting, and practices in the gym that can lead to issues over a long period of time 54:19 – Olympic lifting and external torque, as it relates to block starts or sprinting 1:05:32 – Types of athletes who may be external torque chain dominant 1:07:56 – How the external torque chain fits with more sympathetic (fight or flight) nervous system elements, while the internal torque chain fits with more parasympathetic elements 1:23:43 – How various body types will impact one’s squatting technique, with relation to internal and external torque 1:27:08 – Upper extremity sport (such as swimming) concepts in relation to internal and external torque production 1:32:06 – How to determine how an athlete’s body wants to squat, and how to tap into an individual’s squat technique Julien Pineau Quotes: “We always knew women needed more volume than the men, but the question was, how far are we pushing this?” “Men are very good at acute responses; in terms of constant stress women can take almost anything” “Winning matters… if every time you went into a workout you felt like you lost, forget the hormonal levels, you are not going to be successful in the long run” “Go to the world championship and you will not see two people squatting the same way, but they are squatting world records. The tension is the same, the position is not” “(As a coach) the less I gotta talk, the better we are doing” “Are you making them squat a barbell because it makes you look good, or because it’s necessary for the athlete?” “The position that comes to them is their position, not mine” “So you are supposed to create strength externally rotating to the outside, but how about rotating to the inside? Have you ever seen someone punching throwing his fist out (externally rotating)?” “It seems to me that either you go towards that (hara/center) point, or away from it, there seems to be two torque chains, one that goes towards the center, and one that goes away from it, that is the first principle I look at, when I look at movement” “If you train the adductors and inside fibers of the hammy, it will allow you to create more internal torque on the way down, which means you can load the squat better on the way down, in order to load the spring and release to lift more weight on the way up” “We do things the right way differently, but the wrong way the same” “Carrying a sandbag is all hammies and glutes, it’s not quads” “You shift to the right with the squat with a barbell. I’m going to have you squat with a sandbag, bearhug it and squat it. I don’t see the shift anymore. You don’t have a squat problem, you have a barbell problem” “You make yourself look good (in your sprinting/sport still); all I can give you that muscle capacity and tension” “There are two ways to lose mobility, you can lose range of motion, or lose tension. When you stop training the internal torque chain, you start to lose tension and you shorten your (sprinting) stride” “Her power-cleans (all external torque) were doing zero for sprinting, because it was not developing the internal torque chain… they were helping her out of the blocks” “At a full catch clean, you will produce internal torque at the bottom” “A standing box jump is fully external torque” “You need a massive amount of output in external torque… look at Klovov (more intense) lifting vs. a sprinter (more relaxed)” “Before an Olympic lifter start the lift, they are very relaxed, but as soon as they start, there is a lot of tension in the face (associated with external torque)” “So the better fight is when you are in flow, where the sympathetic and parasympathetic work together to create a high intensity under control” “When someone is in full sympathetic, they swing (punch) wildly in external torque, when someone who is using their parasympathetic, they will stay more centered in their punches” “Honestly, I think the more emotional the athlete is, the shorter the distance they are good at” “If you are going to attempt a max box jump, there is no way they can go about it chill” “If you lose your cool in a snatch, you might hit the pull, but you are not going to catch the bar” “To me the mind and body is the same… there is no such thing as movement, it is the person squatting; that is why it is tension over position” “Is that the 11th commandment, you should squat with your knees out? Says who?” “If you have very open hips, squatting with your feet straight is actually pigeon toed” “The most efficient squat is the best squat; if you have 6 different movements in a squat, that is a problem” “What I want is the tension of the sandbag on the hips to feel the same as the barbell back squat” Show Notes Torque Chains Visual Sandbag Carry Instruction https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUlN6Hz0vv0&t=161s About Julien Pineau Julien Pineau is the founder of Strongfit, and a movement focused human performance coach. Sports have been a part of Julien’s life since he was young, and he has athletic backgrounds in a variety of areas from competitive swimming, to mixed martial arts, strongman, and more. In 1993, Julien began his coaching career as a conditioning and grappling coach for the MMA gym where he trained and in 2008, he opened his own gym that focuses on strongman training. StrongFit was born and has evolved from a single gym to a full education program. Julien is trained to visualize and correct proper human movement patterns. He has a fascinating ability to diagnose imbalances, find the root of problems, and provide knowledge to build a stronger, more fit, and a more resilient human. He is a man on a journey inward as much as he is outward.

342: Seth “Pitching Doctor” Lintz on Breaking Speed Barriers in a High Velocity Training Program Jan 19, 2023

Today’s podcast features Seth Lintz, a pitching performance coach, based out of Scottsdale, Arizona. Seth was a second-round pick in the 2008 MLB draft, carrying a maximal fastball speed of 104mph. Known as the “Pitching Doctor” on his social media accounts, Seth has trained over a dozen individuals to break the 100mph barrier in the past 2 years, using a progressive training system that combines a priority on neuro-muscular efficiency with intuitive motor learning concepts. Of all the high velocity activities humans can do, throwing a ball at high speed is the “fastest”, and is a truly special skill worth studying. Within a high-speed throw comes critical use of elasticity, explosiveness, levers, and fine-tuned coordination of one’s movement options. Seth is a coach who has a very high-level, innate feel for all of the factors it takes for a human being to achieve extreme throwing velocities, connecting elements of physical performance with skill acquisition, while integrating the all-important role of the mind. On the podcast today, Seth shares details from his early immersion in throwing mechanics, gives his take on the mental elements and kinesthetic, feeling-based elements of throw training. On the training end, he talks about the ability to “surge” and change speeds within a movement, the use of different training speeds, from super slow to over-speed, and developmental aspects of throwing with different weights and objects. Within the show, many connections are made to sprinting and human locomotion, and this is an episode that coaches from baseball to track, and in the spaces in-between, can find helpful in their process. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Lost Empire Herbs, and the Elastic Essentials online course. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 3:34 – Details of Seth’s early start as an athlete, and his study of frame by frame pictures of Nolan Ryan and Pedro Martinez 11:49 – Thoughts on using visual references and positions in early athletic performance training, versus letting athletes build their technique off of instinct 20:50 – The mental element, and mental picture needed for an athlete to break velocity throwing barriers 24:26 – The critical skill of being able to feel in one’s own body, what a coach is trying to communicate visually 32:57 – Discussing the importance of different utilized speeds in high velocity training, from over-speed to extreme slow, and associating feeling with various velocities 39:22 – How athletes having too much awareness, or watching too much video of their throw, can actually present a problem in the learning process 44:42 – Tempo and “surges” of velocity in a fast throw 53:07 – Using different tools, weighted balls, and objects in nature to help an athlete connect to the feeling of intention in a throw, and the developmental boost that comes with it “Whenever I look at my throw now, I try to look for the kid in my throw” “With intent, your body will find its most efficient way to produce power at that given time” “Humans are infinitely capable at birth, and that moment is when the limitation process begins. Everything they see from that moment forward is limiting them from what they believe to be possible” “For humans, throwing is an evolved skill for both hunting and safety (fighting)” “What your body is doing, and what you feel like it is doing are often two different things” “A mental picture is not a single faceted thing, it is your mental relationship to throwing, because when you have a mental picture, it gives you a feeling too… it should at least” “Anytime you are planning, you are slowing down… that’s the job of a coach, how to get you as a student to be aware of the change that needs to be made, yet deliver it in a way that you can attach that adjustment to being in a more efficient position without planning for it… that’s a skill” “The kids that can feel the way that you look, and then they can put that into their movement; man, that’s when you have a kinesthetically aware athlete who can make progress really fast” “Mechanizing your movements and being afraid of a bad position, that’s not it either” “The feeling when you can make that crossover from picture to feeling, you can use it in your actual throw, because the throw is not a position, it’s a bunch of positions woven together” “In training, all speeds matter” “I see guys going through extreme slows all the time, and it doesn’t actually look like their throw; but it’s very revealing as to what their mental picture is of their throw, and what they are trying to do to create power” “Perfect mechanics start with intent, and emotion, and unadulterated form is purely thoughtless” “I don’t discuss with them what their mental picture is for the throw; I have them do things that give me what their mental picture is for the throw” “I try to limit awareness on some things, and bring awareness up on other things, if I make you aware of too much, that acts as interference to the other stuff” “After bad days, I won’t send guys their video” “Guys will get bogged down in making things too fine-tuned and perfect and copying the wrong things or whatever else” “It’s not slow, faster, fastest… it’s fast, faster, fastest” “It’s the ability for the body to get moving at a fast pace, but then stay relaxed at that pace, so it can continue to act at the fast past” “With throwing (relaxation) is associated with throwing really light objects” “I think if you could learn to throw downhill, that would be very very valuable” “Whatever object a (child) puts in his hands that he throws the hardest, is probably the one he should be throwing the most… as soon as he feels it, it sends a feeling up here to throw with intent, to throw it hard; that’s where he is going to learn it the most, throwing” About Seth Lintz Seth Lintz is a pitching performance coach, based out of Scottsdale, Arizona. He was a second-round pick in the 2008 MLB draft, carrying a maximal fastball speed of 104mph. He goes by “Pitching Doctor” on his social media accounts, and has trained over a dozen individuals to break the 100mph barrier in the past 2 years. Seth’s athletic and performance career began very early in his youth, emulating top pitchers such as Nolan Ryan and Pedro Martinez. He uses a progressive training system that combines a priority on neuro-muscular efficiency with intuitive motor learning concepts.

341: Zach Even-Esh on The Power of Chaos and Imperfection in Building a Superior, Adaptive Athlete Jan 12, 2023

Today’s podcast features strength coach, Zach Even Esh. Zach is the founder of the Underground Strength Gym, and has been a leading figure in creative and adaptive strength training means. He is also the host of the Strong Life podcast and the creator of many educational resources in the realm of human strength and performance. As the world moves forward, the world of training has become an interesting place, accelerated by the changing club sport scene, technological advances, social media, and more. At the same time, the actual human being performing the training hasn’t changed, and human beings have far more nuances to them than simply being based on the same concepts that a machine, such as a car, does. In many ways, human beings are being trained less and less like actual humans, and more as machines. Cones and ladders have replaced playing basketball or soccer. “Speed Training” has replaced running track, playing other sports, or racing friends on the playground. This isn’t to say that our collective intelligence hasn’t created a substantial leap forward in understanding training frameworks, but at the same time, increased intelligence doesn’t automatically equal understanding how to create the richest possible environment for an athlete. On the show today, Zach speaks on the importance of imperfect, and chaotic elements in training. We talk about how these elements are not just important with respect to the chaos of sport, but also in the level of how we are meant to adapt to training in general as human beings. He talks on the power of a nature-based training system, his menu-based training days, as well as what we can learn from training that “breaks the rules” or would be thought to create “sub-optimal” adaptations. Finally, Zach hits on the important elements of community in the world of sport, and the modern plague of business that has enveloped the schedules of kids, as well as society in general. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Lost Empire Herbs, and the Elastic Essentials online course. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com Find out more about the the online course, Elastic Essentials, by heading to justflysports.thinkific.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 3:23 – The branding of “underground strength” versus “speed” when it comes to marketing, and what sports parents are familiar with in performance 8:07 – What a ideal world of play and movement would (and does) look like for a uyoung athlete 15:48 – The nature of preparation based on nature and chaos, versus things needing to be neat 28:19 – How kids are doing more now days, with more coaches, yet accomplish less 38:13 – Keeping training as “rich” and dense as possible, so athletes can spend less total time in training, yet hone human qualities to a maximal level 42:13 – Zach’s menu-based workout system for his athletes 48:01 – The power of nature based, variable training to improve an athlete’s power outputs and general adaptation 1:10:23 – The value of community in one’s training environment as well as the value of training equipment with a history behind it, and the inspiration of using that “He’s playing soccer… that is speed and agility” “Sport has no absolutes, so when they are training, I want their body to feel comfortable in awkward positions” “That’s something software hasn’t brought to the table, kids learning how to compete” “My gym is located across the street from the park, so we’ll warm up with a game of ultimate football, and how do you get to the park? We partner up and you carry kettlebells or a heavy medicine ball; then we’ll segue into jumping and hand walking and crawling then we do a 5-point game, and then carry everything back” “We carried to the park, played, and carried back.. and they don’t even realize we are training” “Never before have I seen, and worked with kids who are so busy, yet achieve so little” “They played medicine ball dodgeball with a 6lb med ball, and I thought someone was going to get killed, but I just let them do it” “Let them do it wrong at least some of the time… so they have fun, so they are excited to train, and when I look back to those garage days, they worked a lot harder because of it” “They say 'I can’t deadlift heavy, put on my song!' but what about when you play football, and they are making fun of your mom, what are you going to say?” “You don’t want to train to be a workhorse, you want to train to be a racehorse” “What’s a little heartbreaking is kids always have to leave right away… they used to hang out and talk. Our football players, we didn’t use to do speed and agility with them because they used to play basketball at the local park” “We are always in a rush, and it kills the experience of sport” “If the kids want to do 7 or 10 deadlifts, go for it. They don’t think it’s bad, so it won’t be bad” “If your training is always so perfect, we don’t build winners” Show Notes “Nikocado Avocado” and Becoming That Which Your Audience Influences You to Be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XX2RpY_dj9Y “Without Limits” Movie About Steve Prefontaine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYvpXdSR8gs About Zach Even-Esh A leading figure in the strength & conditioning industry, Zach Even - Esh has trained over 1,000 athletes ranging from the youth level to the Olympic level. Zach founded The Underground Strength Gym and created The Underground Strength Coach Certification, both of which have inspired and educated coaches and athletes from around the world to achieve greater success in both sports and life. Since creating The Underground Strength Gym, Zach has consulted with Division 1 athletic teams, Olympic Level athletic clubs, Spartan Race, pro teams and independent coaches and athletes from around the world. The Underground Strength Gym began from Zach's parents garage while he was a Health and Physical Education teacher in 2002. What started as a summer experiment training a few athletes grew into a full time obsession and now Zach and his Underground Strength methods have grown into a world wide movement, inspiring athletes and coaches all around the world in training and life. Zach's Underground Strength Coach Certification has attendees traveling from all around the world and range from independent Strength Coaches, active Military personnel, athletic coaches, college coaches and former Navy SEALs. Zach lives in NJ with his wife and 2 kids and continues to inspire and educate the world through strength on his web site, through his gym and seminars.

340: Michael Zweifel on Moving From Strength to Sport Coach and Rethinking Skill and Speed Transfer in Athletic Performance Jan 05, 2023

Today’s podcast features coach Michael Zweifel. Michael is the special teams coordinator, defensive backs coach and co-defensive coordinator for the UW-La Crosse football team. He is the former owner of the “Building Better Athletes” performance center in Dubuque, Iowa. Michael was the all-time NCAA leading receiver with 463 receptions in his playing days at University of Dubuque. He is also a team member of the movement education group, “Emergence”. Michael is a multi-time appearing guest on the Just Fly Performance Podcast, speaking on elements of sport movement and skill, ecological dynamics and more. It is interesting to consider our current format of sports performance training (strength coaching sessions in the weight room, sport coaching on the field, and a substantial degree of separation between the two), and if our current model will be the same one seen in 20 or 50 years in training. Michael has always been in both the strength and skill side of athletic performance, but has recently moved to a skill-side only element, in his move to football coaching at The University of Wisconsin, LaCrosse. For the show today, Michael talks a bit about what led him to close down his private-sector sports performance business, and move into only football-coaching. He’ll chat on the sport movement and ecological dynamics principles that he took with him into that football coaching job, and his vision for the strength program that would fit within his sport coaching role that is quite different than the norm in college sports. We’ll also chat on maximizing the transfer in speed work for sport, and the chaotic nature of adaptation and performance in sport, versus a more linear sequencing in traditional S&C settings. This show is one that will stretch our thinking regarding a lot of current beliefs and practices, and makes for a great conversation in the high-performance dynamic of sport. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Lost Empire Herbs, and the Elastic Essentials online course. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 4:13 – How and why Michael moved from being a strength and physical preparation coach, to being a sport coach, coaching NCAA D3 football 7:51 – Michael’s counter-industry theory on use of the weight room for his football population 21:06 – How Michael’s motor learning background while he was working in the physical preparation field prepared him to coach football in the NCAA 24:08 – What a typical practice looks like for Michael’s training group 26:57 – Michael’s thoughts on general versus specific agility drills for athletes 35:46 – Thoughts on linear vs. variable patterns of adaptation in athletics and sport, versus a strength and conditioning setting 46:37 – Michael’s take on speed work that moves the needle the most, for team sport athletes, specifically football in this case “My issue with strength and conditioning is that we are all doing the same thing, so how can you separate yourself? To have a competitive advantage you can’t do what everyone else is doing” “You can accomplish those adaptations/results (tissue resiliency) without ever setting foot in a weight room” “The only tools (for my d-backs) I guess I would use would be a sled, a med ball, and a band, or a weighted vest” “I think coaches would be a lot better if they had to require 6 months of getting out of the weight room, and finding ways to get those similar adaptations without relying on a barbell that we are normally comfortable with” “In order to improve an athlete’s movement, they have to be put and placed in context, or an environment that retains a lot of variables they see in sport, which is live human bodies” “Do the activities you are having your athletes do look, feel, behave, like sport” “I’m constantly trying to keep those variables, rep without rep, representative task design, manipulating constraints” “For my individual training periods, we are always partnered up” “In ecological dynamics there are different time-scales for how people adjust to these drills (it’s not a purely linear progression)” “I think general agility games are super beneficial, and we did that all the way up through high school. But once you become more specialized in your sport, then the training has to become more specialized” “That’s more fun to me where week in, week out you are constantly having to change and adapt” “Athletes taking risk and adapting within movement, that’s what we should be rewarding” (For speed training for football players) “Find or create an activity that looks, feels, and behaves, like football” “You want to train max velocity, open up space, and open up time, to allow athletes to interact with that space and time” “I think it involves getting out of the weight room and studying the sport more… getting out of the weight room and find ways to contextualize your speed may overcome some of those disadvantages a program may have” About Michael Zweifel Michael Zweifel is the special teams coordinator, defensive backs coach and co-defensive coordinator for the UW-La Crosse football team. He is the former owner of the “Building Better Athletes” performance center in Dubuque, Iowa. Michael was the all-time NCAA leading receiver with 463 receptions in his playing days at University of Dubuque. He is also a team member of the movement education group, “Emergence”.

339: DJ Murakami on Breaking Cognitive Training Barriers, Muscle Tensioning, and Winning Each Workout Dec 29, 2022

Today’s episode features strength and performance coach DJ Murakami. DJ has over 15 years of experience in the coaching realm, and has a wide history of movement practice which includes work in bodybuilding, Olympic lifting, rock lifting, movement culture (such as Ido Portal), rock climbing and more. DJ has created training courses such as Chi Torque, the Predator Protocol, and others, and mentors coaches and fitness enthusiasts through his Human Strong training organization. In today’s strength and fitness world, it’s almost easier to tell individuals the things they shouldn’t do than what they should. Given all of the existing systems in strength and performance training, we can create excessive and robotic training programs that take us far from the core of our humanity, and therefore our potential to enjoy, connect with, and adapt to the work we are doing. DJ Murakami is a coach who has studied a massive number of systems and methods, as well as having trained, himself, in a large variety of movement and strength expressions. Through it all, DJ has acquired knowledge on how to make training as effective as possible for each individual without over complicating and over-coaching the process. On the podcast today, he shares his athletic and coaching background, and then goes into how his coaching has evolved into what it is today: a system that prioritizes the “quest” of those he is working with, within each session. He also shares his knowledge of the internal and external muscle torque system (created by Julien Pineau) which can not only simplify the way we look at exercise selection, and the purpose of various movements, but also gives us an effective way to help athletes and individuals embody and understand muscle tensioning in the scope of their athleticism. DJ is a wise coach who walks his talk on a high level in addition to his powerful training insights. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Lost Empire Herbs, and the Elastic Essentials online course. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 3:32 – The systems and schools of thought DJ has gone through in his career as an athlete and coach 12:51 – DJ’s athletic background, and how his movement practices have helped form his coaching intuition 15:03 – How DJ structures and runs a session now, given his evolution as a coach, and how to allow them a “win” and a positive experience in the training session 20:56 – DJ’s take on coaching and influencing technique as an athlete moves forward in training 23:22 – Making things task oriented, and putting meaning and problem solving into the movement 29:54 – Using things like sandbags as opposed to using barbells in training 32:40 – The concept of internal vs. external torque chains in human movement and strength training 43:47 – Principles behind “chi-torque” and communicating principles of tension to the individual “The best seminar I ever took as far as gains after that leveled me up, was a Jon North seminar…. it was pretty much pumping us up all day, to fear nothing. I hit a bunch of PR’s” “Can you bias someone’s movement output without making it a cognitive task; I think that’s how we learn is stories” “I think people would be surprised at how much (changing mindset) before going into an experience will change things” “I made the mistake of over-coaching early on, no-cebo’ing people, and not building relationships… I learned the hard way of failing and figuring out that working with another human being and not fixing a car in the shop” “Create the least amount of cognitive barriers as possible (to training)” “The goal is always success, let them win at the workout” “With naming an exercise comes a baggage, a history of how they are supposed to do it, pain associated with doing it… that’s our industries fault of no-cebo’ing people to a big extent” “If you want to be successful on Instagram, just tear apart and bash something” “If I want someone to create more internal torque in pressing, I’ll just change the implement, like a sandbag” “Mind-muscle connection gets bashed a lot, but I think that’s really important on an experiential level” “A stone is a strength riddle, there is no metric to a stone, it’s about the task” “I like things that are a little more self-governing, than a barbell, in terms of ways you can do it” “Picking up a weight inside your hands with that false grip compression, is very natural, probably the only way we picked up things if you go back far enough” “If you are creating internal torque you are creating force towards the middle, kind of like compression” “With the torque model, it doesn’t go off of position or even rotation” “The tension in the musculature is what is defining the torque” “A yoke carry is a constraint that is always going to produce external torque” “When you are voluntarily putting energy to flex something with intent, you are moving that energy throughout your body” “My goal is to just get the connection from the (sensation exercises) and then use the tension in your regular exercise” About DJ Murakami DJ Murakami has over 15 years of experience in the coaching realm. He has a wide history of movement practice, including training in bodybuilding, Olympic weightlifting, strongman (rock lifting), movement culture (such as Ido Portal), rock climbing and more. DJ has created training courses such as Chi Torque, the Predator Protocol, and others, and mentors coaches and fitness enthusiasts through his Human Strong training organization.

338: Kyle Waugh on Building Robust Athleticism, Managing Training Complexity, and Going from “Broken to Beast” Dec 22, 2022

Today’s episode features Kyle Waugh. Kyle is the owner of Waugh Personal Training and hosts the podcast “Waughfit Radio”. He started in fitness and rehab as a track and cross-country athlete and transitioned in his early 20s to a gym rat riddled with injuries. Kyle worked through his injuries, and after being told to never lift again and get surgery, he is now robust and pain free through the process of good training and movement. Kyle is a holistic movement and fitness specialist focused on optimizing the human experience. He looks to bridge the worlds of physical therapy and fitness together and get people living their best life, and is certified in both strength and conditioning and as a physical therapy assistant. We live in a world that is absolutely loaded with information. If you have an athletic performance need, or a pain/injury issue, you can instantly get hundreds of articles and many experts telling you what you should or shouldn’t do to improve. Based on the nature of information and marketing, most of us tend to be presented with more bells, whistles, and overall complexity than what we truly need to reach our next level in training or rehab. Wisdom is gained through personal experience, and Kyle has achieved that in spades, overcoming physical pain that would wake him up throughout the night, to becoming strong healthy and robust, while learning from some of the greatest minds and systems in the industry. On today’s podcast, Kyle goes through his athletic background, and how he got into, and out of pain in his own training. He’ll go through his own common-sense approach to overcoming movement limitations and how we need to “earn our complexity” in training and exercise. He’ll also cover the important idea of being “nocebo’ed”, or being told things are wrong with us may not be true, or matter in the grand scheme of our recovery, but if we believe it, can limit our progress. Later in the show Kyle gets into his favorite progressions and exercises in the scope of getting strong, while limiting negative adaptations, and how he moves through the ranks of movement intensity without getting overly complex. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Lost Empire Herbs, and the Elastic Essentials online course. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 3:52 – Kyle’s athletic background where he competed in both cross country on a decent level, and track and field sprints and hurdles 7:45 – Unique, task-oriented workouts that Kyle’s old track coach used to have him do for his running work 16:07 – Kyle’s history of injury and pain, and being “nocebo’ed” by professionals in terms of what was wrong with him 23:29 – Kyle’s take on how he approaches exercises as perceived “silver bullets” in relation to the entire process of becoming a better athlete, or getting out of pain and being injury free 34:56 – How to take on an injury or athletic issue when the simplest solution doesn’t seem to be working for them 42:25 – How Kyle approaches heavily loading people who have a history of pain and injury, and how he sets goals for individuals in rudimentary strength exercises to set up for higher level strength exercises 51:06 – Kyle’s thoughts on heavier loading movements that have a high reward with a lower amount of risk from an injury and pain perspective “My coach would have you pick up a frisbee and throw it while running distance, time you, and have a reward for who did the best (a Gatorade)” “When you are moving, you are able to learn better” “As my (bro lifting) progressed, I thought that was going to make me faster, and as a year and a half progressed, that made me extremely slow” “I kind of had to say, “I don’t care about the pain”… your body learns how to be in pain after a while, so a lot of this pain, I had no actual tissue issues 5 years later, but my body was expecting pain, so that realization was game-changing.. am I actually hurting anything? Is it a tissue being hurt or damaged, or just my brain being concerned” “You shouldn’t chase after silver bullets; (David Grey said) these little things do exist, they can improve your performance a good amount, but they are just a foothold… make sure everything around it is moving with it” “When you are in pain, you are in debt; you need to build up your strength to break even, when you have enough money built up, you are a more robust resilient human” “Earn your complexity” “I’m trying to make someone a more resilient human, that’s the end goal. Anything we do that’s more complex should supplement that process, to become a more resilient human. Humans can run far, run fast, lift heavy stuff, and handle stressful events” “I’ll use a visual component to a breathing drill if someone really needs that, but you better believe I am going to load them up” “I don’t like to demonize an exercise, it’s more about “what type of body are you bringing to that exercise”” “Starting someone with a floor press, that works really well (when someone has pressing limitations)” “(In rehab based lifting) I start people with super high reps; doing higher volume is more expansive versus more compressive. Bloodflow is a huge aspect” “I like zone 2 conditioning because it is systemic bloodflow, non-stop” “Arnold press is facilitating more of a scapular protraction, getting that serratus to kick in” “If you have someone who is more de-conditioned, they may present that same anterior tilt, but they can’t shift gears… that’s all they have is that movement strategy, they don’t have any other movement strategies that can help them” “Home base for the lower extremity is split squats” “I am using my accessory movements to maintain what I have while I specialize” Show Notes Alternating Arnold Press https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgvvMUtGUG8 About Kyle Waugh Kyle Waugh is the owner of Waugh Personal Training and hosts the podcast “Waughfit Radio”. He started in fitness and rehab as a track and cross-country athlete and transitioned in his early 20s to a gym rat riddled with injuries. Kyle worked through his injuries, and after being told to never lift again and get surgery, he is now robust and pain free through the process of good training and movement. Kyle is a holistic movement and fitness specialist focused on optimizing the human experience. He looks to bridge the worlds of physical therapy and fitness together and get people living their best life. Kyle is accredited as: Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (C.S.C.S) Licensed Physical Therapist Assistant (L/PTA) ACE Certified Personal Trainer (CPT)

337: Dan Back on the Core of Sprint Technique and Building Bounce in Athletic Performance Dec 15, 2022

Today’s episode features Dan Back. Dan is the founder of “Jump Science”, as well as the creator of the popular “Speed.Science0” page on Instagram. Dan coaches at Xceleration sports performance in Austin, Texas. He works with team sport athletes, as well as “pure output” sports, such as track and field, and dunk training. Dan reached an elite level in his own vertical jump and dunking ability, and has been helping athletes run faster, jump higher and improve overall physical performance for well over a decade. I first met Dan in my own time at Wisconsin, LaCrosse, where I was working on my master’s degree in applied sport sciences. One element of human outputs (sprinting, jumping, throwing, etc.) that I’ve found fundamental over the years is the idea of one’s strength/structure determining their technique they use. I found very quickly in my early track and field, as well as team sport ventures in jump and sprint technique, that getting an athlete to exhibit the technique you were asking for to surpass their old personal best almost never happened. Athletes would generally be using a technique that amplified their physical strengths and structure, and if you asked for a technique that took them away from that, performance would inevitably decline. At the same time, many coaches will approach sporting skills without regard to pre-existing strengths/structure, and that sport technique is a singular factor that relies only on a mental “computer program”. On today’s show, Dan gives his perspective on how athletes strengths (or weaknesses) show up in their sprinting technique, and how sprint technique will differ from one athlete to another as such. He’ll go in depth on building elasticity, plyometrics, building up an athlete’s vertical force capacities, give his take on sprint drills, and much more. Dan has a practical style, where his experimentation is backed by data, and results. This show is a deep dive, not just into important principles of performance, but also practical nuts and bolts on how to get more out of one’s athleticism on a high level. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Lost Empire Herbs, and the Elastic Essentials online course. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com Find out more about the the online course, Elastic Essentials, by heading to justflysports.thinkific.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 4:13 – Dan’s journey in training, as it started more so in jumping, and moving much more into sprinting and speed training over time 11:05 – An anecdote of an athlete who took .4 seconds off of his 40 yard dash in a short period of time via power training and high-density single leg bound/hops 16:56 – Single leg hopping and ability in explosive athleticism, and how to determine single leg elasticity, as well as considerations with single leg RSI as a high-transfer test to athleticism 26:42 – Dan’s take on sprint drills, in terms of their transfer to sprinting, and their value as an extensive plyometric 35:29 – The experimental nature of training athletes to their ideal sprinting technique and ability 41:40 – Sprinters different strategies to solving the problem of sprinting as fast as possible 57:50 – Elastic vs. inelastic sprint athletes, and how looking at where athletes are strong is going to have an impact on their sprint technique 1:02:40 – Dan’s thoughts on training team sport athletes in light of sprint training technique 1:09:15 – Dan’s thoughts on how to go about the process of developing vertical force in sprinting, as well as how to integrate speed oriented gains in context of a total training program 1:21:20 – Thoughts on the use of tempo sprint training as an elastic stimulus to get an athlete “bounce” “Even with those jumping athletes, I am using speed training” “If you do have a lot of squat strength built up, that does give you some level of durability” “Even moving at walking or slow jogging speed in single leg hopping, it requires you to get off the ground faster, and I’ll use that as my evaluation” “There is definitely a connection between single leg RSI and sprint speed” “Single leg hops for distance can get very sloppy, so I’ll say do 90% of the distance you could do, and keep it smooth… I only do the actual distance with some athletes” “Teaching an athlete a sprint drill generally has no impact on their sprint mechanics, so I’ve moved away from hoping for that… I view them more as contributing to your elastic training volume, and with that in mind, that cuts down a lot of drills that I use” “The two main (sprint drills) I use, are the track style butt-kick..I just call it the high-feet drill, and you use high tempo and add (horizontal) speed to it progressively… I will use that to try and plug that into sprint mechanics a little bit, it doesn’t connect from everybody” “We want high feet, even if it’s backside” “The big thing for me is, it’s all experimental.... I’m not going to be like “do this drill to take .2 off your 40 yard dash”” “Stiff leg bounding is another go-to drill, but that is just a fun, athletic thing to do, I don’t try to connect it to sprint mechanics” “The traditional sprint model is all about shortened contact distance… if you have less time on the ground at a given speed, you are increasing the (vertical) force demands… all that being said, the people who are able to use something close to the technical model, it requires elite vertical force application” “You can’t expect a (typical) high school athlete to utilize a short contact distance the way an elite sprinter does… they will need to use a longer contact distance” “Athletes may not be physically capable (of using a short contact distance)” “Sprint exposure is the biggest thing (in developing vertical force capacity) you have to think about how many foot contacts you are getting” “I think there is a value in how many thousand-times did you bounce off the ground? (in sprinting” “I measure fly times, all of the time. I want to know, what is the impact of training right now on your speed, and what is the condition of your body right now, and that guides decisions a lot” “Let’s go run 10x100 at 15-second pace, and you can rest as much as you want; we are just trying to get some bounces off of the ground” “I don’t think we can intervene by hammering the ground harder and create that vertical spike; I think that you bounce off the ground (repeatedly) and you develop something in your legs that is different” “A cross country runner can have a higher RSI in their legs than a basketball player… they are just getting a lot of exposure to bouncing off of the ground” “The complexity of the human body, and the diversity of solutions forces us to open our mind to solutions” Show Notes Dan’s Post on contact distance and individual sprint technique considerations View this post on Instagram A post shared by Daniel Back (@speed.science0) Shelly Ann Fraser Price sprinting (see forward contact distance) https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ic5brQfrvpE About Dan Back Dan Back is the founder of “Jump Science” and is a coach at Xceleration sports performance in Austin, Texas where he trains both track and team sport athletes. Dan reached an elite level in his own vertical jump and dunking ability, and has been helping athletes run faster, jump higher and improve overall physical performance for over a decade. Dan has been a constant source of coach and athlete education in the last decade through his website and social media channels.

336: Tony Holler on The Evolution of a Speed-Based Training Culture Dec 08, 2022

Today’s episode features Tony Holler. Tony is the track coach at Plainfield North High School with 39 years of coaching experience in football, basketball, and track. He is the originator of the “Feed the Cats” training system that has not only found immense popularity in the track and field world, but the team sport coaching world as well. Tony is the co-director of the Track Football Consortium along with Chris Korfist, and has been a two-time prior guest on the podcast. Tony’s ideas of a speed-based culture, and rank-record-publish are making large waves in the coaching world. It's been said that “The road to hell is paved with good intentions”. In the coaching world, the desire to be “well-prepared” for one’s sport can easily lead to an excessive amount of conditioning and overall training volume done too early in the season, creating ground for injuries to happen. It’s extremely easy to just “do more”. It takes wisdom and management of one’s coaching validation to start the journey of doing less. On today’s show, Tony goes in detail on his evolution in his “Feed the Cats” coaching system, from the pre-2008 period where he had no electronic timing, to some of the worst workouts he had his athletes do before that critical year-2000 split where he removed things like tempo sprinting (the t-word) from his programming, and centered his program around being the best part of an athlete’s day. We’ll get into how Feed the Cats is working into team sport training and “conditioning”, and then go in detail on Tony’s speed-training culture built on love, joy, and recognition. Tony will speak on the “art of surrender” in goal setting, his X-factor workouts, and much more in this conversation of almost 2 hours. When you are speaking to someone like Tony, the two hours flies by, and you have a spring in your coaching step afterwards. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Lost Empire Herbs, and the Elastic Essentials online course. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 3:49 – The “worst” workout that Tony administered to his sprinters before the year 2000 when “Feed the Cats” started, and Tony’s thoughts on those kids who “survived” that type of training 11:38 – Thoughts on the “Feed the Cats” system as a “base” system for a college sprint program that will likely have more volume and intensive training means 18:49 – Psychological elements of Tony’s program, and the counter-intuitive elements of “not training” for things like back-to-back races at the state championship meet 24:49 – What Tony did for “feed the cats” iterations before his first timing system in 2008, and what the original “feed the cats” workouts were from 2000-2007 31:41 – The idea of being more “sensitized for speed endurance” through an off-season based on feed the cats 35:50 – Joy and love as a foundational force of speed training in the “feed the cats” system 39:36 – Some other elements of Tony’s early “feed the cats” days compared to now, and what he has cut out of the program 48:27 – How to use wrist bands with 20-24mph engravings to reinforce team culture and motivation 57:00 – Tony’s experience of moving FTC into a team sport space, and stories from team sport coaches 1:06:50 – Thoughts on using sport itself as conditioning and essentialism in sport training and conditioning 1:23:05 – Transcending older programs, thought processes in programming, and surrendering to the results 1:31:36 – The present-mindedness of training, and what it means to train like a child 1:36:11 – If Tony’s arm was twisted, would he put in one of the following: A 20’ meeting prior to practice, 6-8x200m tempo, or weightlifting, in his FTC practice 1:40:15 – Some nuts and bolts to Tony’s X-factor workout for the day “(The worst workout I ever administered before FTC) We ran 48x100 on 20-minute rest, the next week we did 24x200s, and the fifth week we ran 12x400’s”… how did we not get people hurt? “I say that the most elite athletes are “coach-proof”… us high school coaches are forced to look at coaching the group” “Paul Souza said “don’t do everything, leave some stuff for us (college coaches) to do (on the level of speed training)” “Speed grows like a tree, and you have to play the long game. And the only way you play the long game successfully is if kids love what they do” “As I get older, I realize that sometimes the obvious is the wrong answer” “If you see a turtle on a fence post, it didn’t get there by accident” “If my sprint coach became “40-based” I would get every single wide receiver, defensive back, running back, maybe even linemen, come out for my team because of the connection with football. I was willing to under-train my guys in order to “out-athlete” the other team… what I thought was an under-training situation was actually a fantastic way to train” “If you think about it, the 40 is the perfect metric, it’s half acceleration, half top speed” “If I work with coaches who are really doing things poorly, and I say “it depends”, that’s not moving the needle” “Measure what matters, and record what matter… people die for symbols” “We let the games be the hardest thing we do. We let the 400m be the hardest thing we do” “I say let the sport train the sport… and we have to be patient with the season training the season…I’d rather be 80% in shape and 100% healthy than the other way around; we don’t want to be 100% in shape because what we have to trade off is way too large” “Football coaches that get outscore in the 4th quarter, they always say we gotta get tougher, “were soft” and “more conditioning”, but they forget about the two fumbles and 4 missed tackles” “Jay Schroeder was my number-one influence in my X-factor exercises” “Every coach should be uncomfortable with how little they do in the first week… I think you should be uncomfortable with how little you do the entire season” “Track is the ultimate goal-sport because it’s measured” “When you surrender to the results, the results improve” “Success will drive you crazy just like failure” “Did you ever know the guy who tried too hard to get a girlfriend…? He never got a girlfriend” “The weightroom is so over-hyped, that I have to talk moderation towards the weight-room, which comes off as being anti-strength, and I’m not… I could fit in a 25’ lift after practice, especially if I was only dealing with 15 guys instead of 40. What I would look for is a stimulus effect, not a no-pain-no-gain” About Tony Holler Tony Holler is the track coach at Plainfield North High School. Tony retired from teaching chemistry after 38 years in the classroom and has 39 years of coaching experience (football, basketball, and track). Tony Holler is a member of Illinois Track & Field Hall of Fame and Co-director of Track Football Consortium along with Chris Korfist.

335: Danny Foley on Dialing Between a Fascial or Muscle Emphasis in Training Dec 01, 2022

Today’s episode features Danny Foley. Danny is a performance coach and Co-founder of Rude Rock Strength and Conditioning. He is well known for his investigation into fascial training concepts, and is the creator of the “Fascia Chronicles”. Danny has spent the previous six years as the head strength and conditioning coach at Virginia High Performance, where he specialized in working with Special Operations Command (Naval Special Warfare Development Group) personnel. Through his work at Virginia High Performance, Danny has become very proficient working with complex injuries and high performing athletes within an interdisciplinary setting. The complexity of the human body, and how it moves in sport, will never cease to amaze me. Humans are “cybernetic” organisms, or “systems of systems”. Each system is connected to the others in the body. Perhaps the epitome of that idea of inter-connectedness, as it refers to movement, is on the level of the fascial system, which is the web of connective tissue lying below the skin. The fascia is laid out in both linear and spiraling lines, which fit with the demands of athletic movement on the linear and rotational level. When we see the way the fascial lines form in the body, or consider the principles of tensegrity in various architectural structures, or a dinosaur’s neck, for example, there is an instant and powerful connection that forms in regards to how this system must help power our movements. At the same time, it’s easy to take things to extremes, as the fascia clearly needs muscle to create pressure and pull. For today’s episode, performance coach and fascial training expert, Danny Foley takes us into an informative deep dive on what the role of the fascia in movement is, how to understand when relatively more muscle or fascial dynamics may be at play in powering movement, and how to train in a way that can tap into the fascial system to a greater degree (although as Danny clearly mentions, the two systems are inextricable). This was a really informative and practical conversation that offers a lot of insight to any coach, athlete or human mover. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Lost Empire Herbs, and the Elastic Essentials online course. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 4:56 – What got Danny interested in the role of fascia in training in the first place 10:00 – To Danny, what the difference between “functional” and “fascial” training is from a terminology perspective 15:42 – How we might train differently because of the existence of fascial lines in the human body 22:47 – Danny’s thoughts on older athletes return to “functional training” after doing more intense training in their high-performance years 26:25 – Discussing some propositions regarding fascial training, and what may or may not be true in regards to what really engages that connective system 32:07 – Looking at how to adjust the “dial” between more connective tissue/fascial oriented training, and more muscle-oriented training methods 40:34 – How to actually measure improvement in regards to the quality of the fascial system 50:14 – More information on the unique connective characteristics of fascia, such as sensation and proprioceptive elements 54:12 – Thoughts on balance training in light of the fascial systems 1:01:48 – Why the absence of predictability is extremely important to the training process 1:16:34 – A summary of what defines fascial oriented training vs. more “muscular” oriented training “When you are working with (special forces) you realize that a lot of conventional stuff isn’t conducive to that personnel” “If it weren’t for (the marketing factor), I would just say connective tissue instead of the fascia specifically” “To me, fascial training is no different than just saying “we are training”” “It's very important to start by saying that the two systems (fascia and muscle) are inextricably linked…. It’s like separating the aerobic and anaerobic systems” “We can adjust training parameters to train more of the fascial system, or more of the musclo-skeletal system” “The more external stability is, the more we will have a muscular based effort; the lower the external stability is, the more fascially driven the movement is going to be” “We’ve seen human success stories over the years from many different training strategies” “For the most part, I’d say 80% of what we are doing (for training) is reasonably the same thing” “We’re seeing records being broken over and over again (such as combine testing) but at the same time, we are seeing a linear rise in soft tissue non-contact injury rates” “The more the joint moves, the more we are going to get musculo-tendonous contribution… straight leg pogos are going to be more of an elastic movement” “It’s not a matter of doing different things, it’s doing some things differently” “Time to stabilize is a measure I’m really starting to gravitate towards (in regards to recording efficiency of the fascial system)” “Fascial tissue, at least as we understand it to this point, does not have much contribution in terms of contractile force… it is more involved in force dispersion in eccentric loading” “I like switching and displacement jumps with eyes open, eyes closed… back to our time to stabilization” “The absence of predictive input is extremely important” “If I want to hone in more of the “fascial” zone, I tend to have more success in that 40-80% range… utilizing a lot of oscillatory type perturbations is good for the fascial system” Show Notes 10.67 100m by a 14-Year Old Athlete View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jumpers World (@jumpers.world) “Creek Running” for Lower Leg Development View this post on Instagram A post shared by Joel Smith (@justflysports) About Danny Foley Originally from Northern Virginia, Danny relocated to the Hampton Roads area in 2008 initially to play college basketball. After a brief stint at Virginia Wesleyan University, he made a decision to transfer in order to prioritize academic opportunities. Danny is a recent graduate of Old Dominion University, where he obtained both his BS and MS in Exercise Science. As part of his Graduate program, Danny conducted a research study on velocity-based training as a preferred periodization protocol within athletic populations. Although his initial career plan was to pursue a position in a collegiate or professional athletic realm, a serendipitous turn led him to Virginia High Performance (Virginia Beach, VA) in 2016. Danny has been with VHP for three years now, where he currently serves as head strength and conditioning coach working predominantly with U.S. Special Operations Command personnel and tactical athletes. Danny has taken the transition in stride and has been overjoyed with the direction of his current professional path. Collectively, Danny has over 8 years of experience as a personal trainer and strength & conditioning coach, and along the way has earned multiple nationally accredited certifications including CSCS,D*, TSAC-F,D*, and USAW. Throughout his professional tenure, Danny has experience working with high school and collegiate athletes, United States Special Forces personnel and tactical athletes, general population, weight loss individuals, and adaptive athletes.

334: Christian Thibaudeau “The Gunthor Complex”, and Strength-Power Relationships in Training Setups Nov 23, 2022

Today’s episode features Christian Thibaudeau. Christian has been a strength coach for 2 decades, is a prolific writer and author, and has worked with athletes from nearly 30 sports. Christian has been a multi-time guest on this podcast, and is the originator of educational systems such as neuro-typing, as well as the omni-contraction training. I am unaware of another strength coach with the extensive knowledge of training methods that Christian does, and I’ve taken a small book’s worth of notes from our various podcasts together thus far. For an athlete, a strength program is only as good as it can 1.) help them to prevent injury and stay robust and 2.) help them to improve their specific speed and power in their sport (and a possible 3. Of building needed size and armor). When we talk about strength, we need to know how specifically it can plug into helping develop power, and one of the best ways to do this is in light us using complexes. Last time on the show, Christian spoke in depth regarding power complexes and their neurological demand, versus using more “simple” strength training setups and methods. In this episode, Christian goes into the distinct nature of power, and how to optimally use pure strength methods as potentiation tools in the scope of a training complex. He’ll get into his own use of overcoming isometrics in the scope of complex training work, how to progress complexes over the course of training cycles, speak on the “Gunthor complex”, and much more. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Lost Empire Herbs, and the Elastic Essentials online course. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 3:28 – Concepts on training “seasonality”, and having a different emphasis on training in each season of the year for the sake of longevity in performance 6:34 – The importance of “de-sensitizing” and “re-sensitizing” athletes to a particular training stimulus for continual training gains 17:24 – The nature of over-training from a brain and body perspective 22:36 – Thoughts on the adaptations that come from a high-frequency training stimulus 26:07 – Training complexes in light of adrenaline, neurological load, and over-training 35:50 – Discussing the multi-stage “Gunthor” complex, and how to warm up for strength complexes optimally 42:18 – Strength work, as it relates to power outputs, and strength in complexes to build power 58:46 – “Descending” vs. “Ascending” complexes, and the role of each in the scope of power development “I have changed my view bit on the impact of strength work on power development; I think the role of strength in power development is over-stated. I think it is important, but not as important as we once thought” “The one thing I hate with the current trend with the evidence based crew is that it took all of the fun out of discovery, and made it very bland” “It’s the calcium ion buildup that causes muscle damage (not “torn” muscles)… muscle damage is fixed pretty quickly” “Hardcore overtraining mostly has to do with the over-production of adrenaline and cortisol” “The more pressure you put on yourself to perform, the greater the cortisol response. You need that high adrenaline level to get amped up. That’s why a competition, even though there’s very little volume compared to what you are doing in training, is a lot more damaging from a muscle recovery standpoint, because the adrenaline is so high, that it de-sensitizes the beta-adrenergic receptors” “If you are the type of person who needs to psyche themselves up to train, then you will crash very easily” “The more effective the training methods are (neurologically intense), the less volume you do” “The more exercises you have in a complex, the less sets you should do” “The complexes are my favorite performance method of all time, but people tend to overdo them” “Strength work is general, where power work is specific” “Someone with a very very strong neural drive can recruit all (moderate and fast) twitch muscles simultaneously” “The high-tension exercise serves only the purpose of amping up the nervous system for the following exercise or exercises. One complex I really like: overcoming isometrics all out, 90 degrees knee angle, followed by a plyometric exercise” “With the Olympic lifts (for athletic power), I use a lot less weight, and I prefer the power snatch to the power clean” “Every neurological complex only works for 4 weeks; you’ll get super-fast results for 3 weeks and after that, it tops out” About Christian Thibaudeau Christian Thibaudeau has been involved in the business of training for over the last 18 years. During this period, he worked with athletes from 28 different sports. He has been “Head Strength Coach” for the Central Institute for Human Performance (official center of the St. Louis Blues). His specialty: being a generalist. He assists his athletes to develop the necessary qualities to increase their performances (eg: muscle mass, power, explosiveness, coordination). His work method enabled him to lead several successful athletes in a multitude of different disciplines. Christian is a prolific writer with three books published, each of which translated into three languages (The Black Book of Training Secrets, Theory and Application of Modern Strength and Power Methods, High Threshold Muscle Building). In addition, Christian is co-author with Paul Carter in a new book, which will soon be released. He is also the author of two DVDs (Cluster Training, Mechanical Drop Sets). Christian is also a senior author and head writer for the E-Magazine T-Nation his articles are read by over 200,000 people every week. He competed in weightlifting at the national level as well as bodybuilding, He was also a football coach for 8 years. As a lecturer, he has given conferences and seminars in both the United States and Europe, to audiences ranging from amateur athletes to health professionals and coaches of all types. Christian Thibaudeau popularized the Neurotyping system. Neural optimization supersedes hormonal optimization because the neural response affects the hormonal response. This is essentially the founding principle and inspiration behind Christian Thibaudeau’s Neurotyping System. The bottom line is simple: you are more likely to train hard, be focused, and stay motivated if you like the type of training you are doing, and a training that goes against your nature causes a greater stress response that hinders optimal progression. “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” – Albert Einstein

333: Kyle Dobbs and Matt Domney on Practical Principles of High Intensity Training and Athletic Outputs Nov 17, 2022

Today’s episode features strength coaches Kyle Dobbs and Matt Domney. Kyle Dobbs is the owner and founder of Compound Performance, has trained 15,000+ sessions, and has experienced substantial success as a coach and educator. Kyle has an extensive biomechanics and human movement background which he integrates into his gym prescriptions to help athletes achieve their fullest movement, and transferable strength potential. Matt Domney is the Head Coach at Compound Performance. He is a competitive powerlifter in the USPA, 275lb weight class, and in addition to powerlifting coaching, has years of experience in general population training.. High-intensity training is a fundamental component of athletic performance. For a long time, “strength and conditioning” was (and still is) based largely off of the (very intense) powerlifts. Training that is more athlete-friendly on the level of exercise selection and rep ranges has become more popular in the last couple of decades, and pendulums of corrective movements and exercise selection have swung back and forth in the process. Powerlifting itself is generally the most polarized expression of how we express strength, and although sport is much different than powerlifting, the pure intensity of the efforts within the sport (are) lend to a key facet of our human nature. To understand the “middle ground” better, it helps to understand the poles well. In this case, the poles of the powerlifts on one side, and then low-level corrective exercise on the other are helpful to consider when we are to make an efficient, effective and practice program for the athlete standing in front of us. On the show today, Kyle and Matt talk about variability within heavy strength training methods, look at the balance of high outputs in sport play vs. the gym, speak more into corrective exercise in the scope of higher intensity work, and then give their take on movement screens, warmups and more. This was an exercise with a lot of wisdom that offers a great perspective on how to make maximal use of training time and efficiency. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Lost Empire Herbs, and the Elastic Essentials online course. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 2:24 – A discussion of the variables within a powerlifting program, versus a team sport training program 11:18 – Variability in higher rep sets, versus when to use a heavier, more “powerlifting” oriented approach to developing force in athletics 14:30 – Looking at innate force outputs in sport, and then what type of strength training would be an ideal pairing (heavier force output lifting, versus more or a 1x20 style pairing) 19:14 – Kyle and Matt’s take on the balance of “corrective” work and hard work 27:45 – The importance of facilitating changes with a greater load in the system athletically, as opposed to low-load correctives 39:29 – Corrective movements in the realm of powerlifting vs. corrective exercise for lower intensity activities such as running 46:16 – How compressive exercises can be highly “functional” for some athletes, such as narrow intra-sternal angle individuals who need to experience those ranges of motion under load 49:24 – Kyle and Matt’s take on movement screens, and the difference in screening individuals between powerlifting and athletes who require more tasks 59:45 – Thoughts on approaching the warmup given the main movements of the training day “I am probably going to use a lot of bilateral sagittal lifts if I want to improve force output (for team sport athletes), not because I want to improve the skill of the lifts (squat, bench, deadlift), so I will probably use a trap bar. I might use a different squat variations. Squatting to me is largely based on morphology” Dobbs “With a trap bar deadlift, you can do each rep slightly differently and still complete the task. If you want to give someone more degrees of freedom, giving someone a trap bar deadlift and not caring if it’s hingy or squatty or more of a hybrid between each one is going to be a significantly more useful variation in a way that you can drive output” Domney “Task completion is different than a specific way to complete a task” Dobbs “How much max effort jumps does an athlete take in the course of a basketball game? Not a lot true max effort” Dobbs “In my experience working with gen pop and athletic populations; most people when we start talking about the need of corrective exercise, they just are not very strong…. they get stronger and the issues kind of correct themselves” Dobbs “The breathing drills are effective in the right context, but they are not effective in every context” Dobbs “One thing I see in powerlifting with people who do a lot of correctives; once we get back to actual training, the issues flare up again, or people have dropped so many kilos off their lifts, we have to extend their training out to get them back up to what they have been at” Domney “There are things I can do, while keeping the stimulus high, to keep them from shifting their hip” Dobbs “Pin squats are one of my favorite “corrective” exercises for squats” Domney “If we are looking at a corrective exercise for deadlifting, one of the best things I use is cluster reps” Domney “The nervous system has to receive a reason that this position or pattern is better than that other one was, and if I can’t give them that through exercise selection, then I am just putting more junk volume in the program” Domney “I had a person who was a very narrow ISA, and at the time everything was just about restoring expansion, but with this particular person, the exercise that fixed all of his problems within 2 weeks, was barbell back squats” Domney “I’d rather watch athletes exercise for the sake of exercise selection, than using a movement screen” Dobbs “Ironically, some of the most deconditioned people I’ve worked with did the best on the overhead squat because they had the least muscle tone” Dobbs “If people are lacking movement qualities, I’ll move their core work to their warmup” Dobbs “Nothing is going to loosen your hips up for a squat, better than squatting” Domney About Matt Domney Matt Domney is the Head Coach at Compound Performance. He is a competitive powerlifter in the USPA, 275lb weight class. Before Compound Performance; he was a personal trainer and fitness manager at a large gym chain in NJ and Texas About Kyle Dobbs Kyle Dobbs is the owner and founder of Compound Performance which offers online training, facility consulting and a personal trainer mentorship. Kyle has trained 15,000+ sessions, been a legitimate six-figure earner as a trainer, managed and developed multiple six-figure earners, and has experienced substantial success as a coach and educator. Kyle has an extensive biomechanics and human movement background which he integrates into his gym prescriptions to help athletes achieve their fullest movement, and transferable strength potential.

332: Joel Smith Q&A on Maximal Strength Limits, Sprint Training “Hardware” and Athlete Testing Protocols Nov 10, 2022

Today’s episode is a Q&A with Joel Smith. Joel Smith is the founder of Just Fly Sports and is a sports performance/track coach in Cincinnati, Ohio. Joel hosts the Just Fly Performance Podcast, has authored several books on athletic performance, and in 2021, released the integrative training course, “Elastic Essentials”. Questions for this podcast revolved around maximal strength training needs in jumping and sprinting, testing protocols for youth athletes, speed training setups, sprint hardware vs. software, and much more. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, and Lost Empire Herbs For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com Interested in the December Seminar in Cincinnati? Visit the Applied Speed and Power Training Seminar page for more information. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 2:49 – How to approach jump training when one already has an extremely high squat to bodyweight level 15:27 – What I would use in the realm of testing for youth performance training 32:23 – How much strength is really needed in sprinting and sprint training 38:06 – What to notice and feel when in top-flight sprinting 43:47 – What my winter training would look like for sprint track season in high school 49:03 – How to balance drills and sprinting in one’s practice 53:26 – Looking at shin drop vs. shin collapse in sprinting 59:01 – Principles of how I lay out my warmups in training 1:03:36 – My experience with skateboarding and scootering to improve jump let dynamics 1:06:01 – Thoughts on Jefferson curls 1:06:37 – Thoughts on using conditioning as punishment in training 1:12:00 – The biggest thing I’ve been learning in my last few years of coaching About Joel Smith Joel Smith is the founder of Just Fly Sports and is a sports performance/track coach in Cincinnati, Ohio. Joel hosts the Just Fly Performance Podcast, has authored several books on athletic performance, and in 2021, released the integrative training course, “Elastic Essentials”. He currently trains clients in the in-person and online space. Joel was formerly a strength coach for 8 years at UC Berkeley, working with the Swim teams and professional swimmers, as well as tennis, water polo, and track and field. A track coach of 15 years, Joel coached for the Diablo Valley Track and Field Club for 7 years, and also has 6 years of experience coaching sprints, jumps, hurdles, pole vault and multi-events on the collegiate level, working at Wilmington College, and the University of Wisconsin, LaCrosse, along with his current work with master’s, high school and collegiate individuals. Joel has had the honor of working with a number of elite athletes, but also takes great joy in helping amateur athletes and individuals reach their training goals through an integrative training approach with a heavy emphasis on biomechanics, motor learning, mental preparation, and physiological adaptation. His mission through Just Fly Sports is: “Empowering the Evolution of Sport and Human Movement”. As a former NAIA All-American track athlete, Joel enjoys all aspects of human movement and performance, from rock climbing, to track events and weightlifting, to throwing the frisbee with his young children and playing in nature.

331: Lee Taft on The Flow of Sport Skill Development and Speed Training Integration Nov 03, 2022

Today’s episode features Lee Taft. Lee is one of the most highly respected sport speed coaches in the world. His methods come from wisdom accumulated not just in sports performance, but also in physical education, sport coaching, as well as observing changes in athletes between the 1990s, into the modern day. Lee has been a three-time guest on the podcast, a mentor to many high-level coaches, and has incredible wisdom on the level of sport movement. In a world of specialists, athlete’s processes of mastery can start to become “atomized” (my new favorite word). Many modern athletes have a sport coach, a skill coach, a strength coach and a speed coach. At the end of the day, an athlete only has so much time, and all training is only as effective as it can be integrated. Training effectiveness is also magnified by the level of which the athlete’s learning process can be leveraged. Hand holding athletes through skill acquisition, or playing games on early levels to win, rather than to learn skills, create early ceilings of performance. What we need in the world of sport is an intuitive, interconnected model by which to better let flow the natural abilities of an athlete. To do so, having coaches like Lee who have experience in so many facets of movement, across a wide age group, multiple sports, and multiple decades is crucial. We need to understand movement and motor learning in sport if we are to truly understand speed in sport. On the podcast today, Lee details his process in terms of sport skills, constraints, and then when to step in and “connect the dots” on the level of external speed and strength development. Lee talks about his use of sport itself as “the screen” for athletes, developmental principles of sport skills, and assessing “hardware” vs. “software” limitations in athletic movement. He also detailed his own process of sport development with his own children, and finishes with an important discussion on how we can change the developmental sport system for the better through travel-ball alternatives. Lee is a sage in the world of sport, and we all can become better through his teaching. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Lost Empire Herbs, and the Elastic Essentials online course. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 4:28 – What Lee currently does in his own sport and movement practice 12:43 – If Lee could design an optimal environment for an athlete to develop through what that development would look like 17:34 – How Lee worked natural, simple speed development into the flow of game play with his own children 24:58 – Lee’s thoughts on the training environment athletes are developing skills and speed in 36:21 – Lee’s triage of games, constraints and more focused speed drills, in athletic development 44:36 – Some key things Lee is looking for within a game that Lee uses to assess an athlete’s movement potential 52:24 – Lee’s thoughts on “hardware” vs. “software” in athletic movement, and how he integrates “roll and reaches” to help develop the ability to level change 1:02:07 – More specific instances and practical examples of the effectiveness of speeding up a skill 1:10:35 – Lee’s take on a new model of developmental sport, and how more of the pure form of community and competition can be implemented as an alternative to the travel-ball model “I like doing a lot of stuff with reaction balls and d-balls (in my own training)” “(visual/perceptive/reactive work)creates the stuff that goes beyond the athlete, the athletes who things really quickly and moves, and I don’t think we develop that now as much as we used to when kids had more free play” “I can tell you to run from this cone to that, to that, but you’ll never do that in a game” “What we need to get more of; I love competition, competition is a good thing. Little toddlers compete for a toy, 7 year olds compete for the swing set… we’ve got to use that” “When you take 30-35 kids and you talk to them a lot, you lose them, so I get them in a game right away” “My model is, let them play, find opportunities and guide, and then let them play again” “With them, it wasn’t about a speed training session, it was about playing a game” “summary feedback is “what did you think”, “how did you feel”?” “A frisbee is great, because if you can teach the kid how to let it get air, the kid can learn how to run and track it” “The greatest athletes have the ability to adapt and adjust to their environment, they adapt really really well” “Growing up in the 70’s we had a lot of sports we just made up” “Let’s say we are watching this team play, and the missing link is some kind of quickness component, or speed component, or a lack of strength, now we get a little more into the nitty-gritty, because if you or I have the tools to be able to solve the problems for those kids (strength & speed programs) it’s not doing our jobs not to access that skillset that we have” “I never get away from the play, because the play is my assessment” “Softball, baseball, tennis, volleyball, they have to change levels constantly, and they have to be stable and dynamic” “There is no reason we can’t have (local) competition with small sided games, such as basketball 3x3, or soccer 4x4” Show Notes Polish Weightlifting GPP in the Woods (See 1-5’) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVdLmJ_bYCQ Deion Sanders 60 Minutes Feature https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz1YfvAw5Ow Roll and Reach Drill https://www.youtube.com/shorts/VQ_Uw58hjts Lee’s Basketball Game Model and Speed Specialist Pages https://www.basketballspeedspecialist.com/courses/the-basketball-game-model https://www.basketballspeedspecialist.com/ About Lee Taft Lee Taft, known to most simply as “The Speed Guy”, is highly respected as one of the top athletic movement specialists in the world. He has taught his multi-directional speed methods to top performance coaches and fitness professionals all over the world. Since 1989, Lee has taught foundation movement to beginning youngsters and helped young amateur athletes to professional athletes become quicker, faster and stronger. With the release of Ground Breaking Athletic Movement in 2003, Lee revolutionized the fitness industry with his movement techniques for multi-directional speed. His innovative approach to training has impacted how athletic movement speed is taught. Lee brought to light the importance and fine points of the “Plyo Step”, “Hip Turn”, “Directional Crossover Step” and athletic stance. According to Lee, “Speed and agility done right is about making sure we marry the natural movements athletes have with effective and efficient body control to maximize speed and quickness”.

330: Rett Larson on Sport Warmups as a Melting Pot of Strength, Skill, and Movement Opportunity Oct 27, 2022

Today’s episode features Rett Larson. Rett is a physical preparation coach with an extensive and diverse background. He has worked internationally with the national volleyball teams of Germany, Netherlands and China. Rett has also worked with professionals, down to athletes of all ages, having prior experience as Velocity Sports Performance’s director of coaching in California. Rett is a student of movement, having studied not only the top minds in sports performance, but also in general movement training such as taught by Ido Portal and in the scope of physical education. The evolution of sport is one of integration, and not separation. Currently, the “silos” of sport coaching and then all of the “supportive” services (such as S&C) don’t tend to have much interaction with each other beyond a conversation. The fact of the matter is, that when an athlete hits the field (or court) of play, they are operating within all facets of their humanity. Their physical, tactical, technical, emotional, social and deep psychology all impacts their performance on the field. The ”sport-warmup” may be the one place, in all of an athlete’s training, where the maximal amount of silos can be integrated. Athletes can use strength, physio, games and sport-constraint oriented methods to not only prepare them for practice in an enjoyable way, but also form a “melting pot” of all aspects that make an athlete. On the show today, Rett Larson takes us through his evolution as a coach, and how his warmups and training has evolved over time. He covers the highest transferring abilities he sees from the gym and warmup sessions, that are embodied by the best players on the team. Rett also covers the important interaction that must take place between the physical preparation coach and sport coach, to create buy-in, and move the warmup process forward. After listening to Rett speak on his approach to training athletes, it’s hard to think differently about our own process towards the evolution of our athletes and training programs. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Lost Empire Herbs, and the Elastic Essentials online course. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com Find out more about the the online course, Elastic Essentials, by heading to justflysports.thinkific.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 4:23 – What Rett has learned from other cultures, traveling and coaching abroad, that he has been able to integrate into his coaching repertoire 17:45 – The role of maximal strength training across various countries and cultures, and how to utilize data to help coaches understand what really matters in transfer to on-field performance 24:13 – How to design weight training sessions from a perspective of being able to “level up” regularly 27:43 – How Rett’s approach to the warmup process has changed over the years, and main factors that led him to where he is at now 34:49 – Rett’s athletic background, and its influence on him as it may pertain to his coaching 45:00 – The main box that Rett is trying to check in his warmup process for team sport, the “thermogenic” box 53:06 – Scripted vs. unscripted elements of the warmup for Rett’s work 56:04 – How exercise done in more of a “game oriented” state may not register the same way as more formal training, and how play or challenges can allow for more physiological work to be done 58:42 – How Rett incorporates and considers rhythm and dance-oriented components into his work 1:03:46 – A sample pre-sport warmup session that Rett utilizes with volleyball athletes 1:15:24 – What Rett has learned from Ido Portal in the course of training and athletics 1:25:03 – How Rett communicates with sport coaches to optimize his initial warmup process for the athletes “The coach is telling me, my girls are stiff legged on defense, and so what if I constrained them under the net (for the warmup)” “I told the coaches, please pick out who your best 5 volleyball girls are… and they were the weakest (squatters) on the team… then I had them jump as high as possible with 40kg on the bar, and 6/8 of the best in that test were our best players” “When I am designing their sheets, I always have their personal best on the sheets so they have something to go for; it’s all about that gamification of the weight room” “I wanted there to be weird stuff on the floor every time (when athletes walked out for the warm ups). I wanted to figure out all of the ways to accomplish a movement task” “My warmup doesn’t just have to follow this small list of activities that look like skips and crawls, that I could make my head coach happy if my warmup looked more like sport training” “I went from getting 7 minutes to warmup a team, to 20 minutes to warm up a team, because my coach stopped seeing that my warmup time was at the expense of his volleyball training time, because I’m doing volleyball training too” “I fully feel that the warmup is a place for designed, controlled chaos” “When I start with a team, most of my warmups look like mini strength sessions because everyone is weak!” “If there is core stuff that doesn’t fit very well into the weight room, it gets shoved into my warmup” “Before we head into the weight room there is, by necessity a lot less variety to that warmup” “Stretching is something that has gotten way lower on my priority list the longer I have been doing this” “We’ll have them get into an iso lunge, and see who can have the most medicine ball passes to their partner in 30 seconds” “If I have 15 minutes to warm these girls up, then my thermo circuit will take about 5 or 6 minutes” “I spend as much time creating my warmups for the week as I do my strength training sessions” “I think with sports like sprinting there is a much better correlation between the better dancers and the better athletes, because I had some pretty horrific dancers who were pretty amazing volleyball players” “Ido Portal is one of the greatest source of information when it comes to movement puzzles” “When you are playing a video game, not knowing what is coming up next is a big driver of engagement” “Buy in has never been a problem, because before I start working with the coach, I ask, what are the biggest hand-brakes on our team, what is keeping us from being on the podium” “I use frisbees, because to catch a frisbee thrown by someone that sucks, is really difficult” “When it comes to these puzzles and it comes to the buy-in, by and large, the girls who are good at solving these puzzles are our best players” “Warmup is my chance to play and fail also” Show Notes Ido Portal Training https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcJ8mCS5BN8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyZxyj-hAGo Rett’s article on Sportsmith About Rett Larson Rett Larson is currently the strength coach for the German Women's Volleyball Team. He previously spent seven years in China, first as Project Manager for EXOS-China working with several of the Chinese Olympic teams in their preparation for the 2012 London Games, and later with the Chinese National Women's Volleyball Team, which won both the World Cup and the 2016 Olympics in Rio. Following the Gold Medal victory in Rio, Rett worked for two years as the strength coach for The Netherlands Women's Volleyball Team before leaving to join Team Germany. Prior to his international work, Rett worked with Velocity Sports Performance for 10 years, where he became the Director of Coaching at their headquarters in California.

329: John Kiely on Belief, Perception, and Placebos in an Optimized Training Process Oct 20, 2022

Today’s episode features John Kiely. John is a senior lecturer in Performance and Innovation at the University of Limerick. In addition to his current work with doctoral and Ph.D. candidates, John is a frequent keynote speaker, and has extensive athletic performance training and consultation experience. His coaching, consulting and advisory work includes numerous sports such as rugby, soccer/football, track and Paralympics. In his time as an athlete, John won multiple titles in kickboxing and boxing. John appeared years ago on episode 113 of the podcast. Training is much more than simply putting together a series of sets, reps and exercises, but invokes the “totality” of a human being. This totality includes not only the body and mechanical forces, but also the mind and one’s environmental influence. In other words, your training results are a factor of both your program, perceptions and environment, and the roles of the latter must not be minimized. On today’s show, John will cover training on the level of placebo and nocebo effects, the impact of an athlete’s beliefs and perception of the training session, coaching practice to engage the mind, as well as the idea of a “screen for beliefs” when starting a period of training with an athlete. This is an awesome episode that really helps us understand the fullness of the processes involved within adapting to a training stimulus or program. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Lost Empire Herbs, and the Elastic Essentials online course. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 3:51 – What John means by the idea: “The worth of a training program is not contained in the prescription” 15:06 – Looking at training on the level of placebo and nocebo effects 25:28 – How to ethically and optimally leverage the placebo effect in coaching 33:18 – What type of intellectual participation is ideal for athletes in the course of a training day 46:23 – How perception of the training session is going to have a substantial impact on how an athlete will adapt 52:57 – Program repeatability and novelty elements in training 58:27 – John’s take on a “screen for beliefs” in athletic coaching “From a practical perspective, going back to the 40s and 50s, (the great coaches) were good communicators, inspirational, they were able to get ideas and perspectives out of their heads, into the athlete’s heads” “Some great coaches have really average programs, but the key is that the athlete buys into them” “It’s important what people’s health behaviors are, but what’s really important is how people believe their health behaviors are” “How can I screen an athlete for their beliefs” “What (removing perception of threat) allows you to do is release more resources (to training)” “So all placebo is, is I’m taking a cue from the external world, I’m believing the future is a little brighter, and I can release more resources” “Releasing resources can be thinking, thinking demands energy, it demands cerebral blood flow” “Even a coach’s facial expression, if interpreted as negative, has a negative effect on athletes… I need to be conscious that if I give negative signals, it is going to affect the training” “We have made the assumption that you can predict training outcomes, but the evidence is completely against that” “It’s what athletes are paying attention to, and how they are interpreting those signals” “If you want something to hurt more, think about it more” “The reality is, it is not the physical act that activates the stress response, the stress response is activated by your perception of what is going to happen, and how your body needs to prepare for that” “All of my set of thoughts and beliefs are wrapped around this training session, in relation to my purpose and my objectives. If it’s not clear, then resources are not going to get allocated that freely, I am not going to have an adaptive response” “I think of training, rather than a prescription, but, “how do I design the process”?” “You can’t be looking for the optimal program, it’s what’s the most pragmatic program” “Traditional periodization doesn’t factor in: “What does the athlete think”, it doesn’t screen for athlete beliefs” “Giving an athlete an exercise they don’t believe in is fundamentally self-limiting, it’s a waste of energy” About John Kiely John Kiely is a senior lecturer in Performance and Innovation at the University of Limerick. In addition to his current work with doctoral and Ph.D. candidates, John is a frequent keynote speaker, and has extensive athletic performance training and consultation experience. His coaching, consulting and advisory work includes numerous sports such as rugby, soccer/football, track and Paralympics. In his time as an athlete, John won multiple titles in kickboxing and boxing. Follow John Kiely on Twitter Follow John Kiely on Instagram

328: Jamie Smith on Leveraging Play and Variability in a Total Speed Training Program Oct 13, 2022

Today’s episode features Jamie Smith, founder and head sport preparation coach of The U of Strength. Jamie is a passionate coach and learner, who strives to help athletes incorporate the fullness of perceptual, social and emotional, elements in the course of training. Jamie has been a multi-time guest on this show, speaking on his approach to training that meets the demands of the game, and settling for nothing less. The further I get into my coaching journey, the more I understand and appreciate the massive importance of stimulating an athlete on the levels of their physiology, their emotions and social interactions, and their perception of their external environment. Coach Jay Schroeder had his term called the “PIPES”, referring to the importance of a training session being stimulating Physiologically, Intellectually, Psychologically, Emotionally and Spiritually”. I certainly agree with those terms, but they could also be re-ordered, as per today’s conversation “Physiologically, Individually, Perceptually, Emotionally, and Socially”. (Individual referring to individual autonomy). On the show today, Jamie goes into how he “stacks” games, play, perception & reaction type work onto more traditional training methods, for greater “sticky-ness” to sport itself. Through today’s conversation, he’ll get into concepts of variability in training as it relates to sport, driving intention and learning through a training program, older vs. younger athlete response to game play with potentiation, and much more. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Lost Empire Herbs, and the Elastic Essentials online course. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 3:30 – How Jamie infuses “play” into basic exercises and warmup movements 21:50 – How infusing meaning into movement improves intention, immersion and movement quality 49:00 – The role of play in helping infuse natural variability in athletic development 33:38 – How the goal of play and variability changes through a training week 43:17 – Menu systems and autonomy within the scope of games and training sessions for athletes 49:39 – How Jamie’s approach to “High CNS”, max velocity days and how layers of challenge are added on, as athletes grow and mature 1:02:53 – What gym work and warming up looks like for Jamie’s athletes when those athletes are already playing their sport a lot outside of the weightroom (and how to help use social/emotional elements to create a more restorative stimulus) 1:15:34 – “Sticky-ness” of skill in training, created by blending “training” with gameplay “Play hits those missing pieces of the strength and conditioning model” “Game play can create athlete driven approaches to movement and strength and conditioning” “We teach them for the first few weeks, just so they have a general understanding, “what is a crawl”… but once it gets to the point where they understand what it is, lets layer on challenges” “A big thing with the gameplay, is we never repeat the same thing twice in a row” “I believe in exposing them to a wide range of situations so they can see what works, and what doesn’t work” “It’s all about intent, and when you add intent, it changes everything” “(With play) I’m talking about focused variability, having a purpose” “They are trying to solve a problem while getting pushed, shoved, knocked off balance; I call that kind of “sticky strength” qualities” “On the low CNS days I am looking at the gameplay, the emotional side of things, the social emotional side of things” “The social-emotional does have an immediate impact on (performance), it does influence the strength, the speed, the power qualities” “You’re working with a 7th, 8th, 9th grader, you are going to see way better speed qualities emerge when that kid is trying to evade a trailing defender, compared to doing a band-resisted acceleration from one cone to another cone” “If you’re in 11th grade, 12th grade, college, we are going to do our flying 10’s, you are going to hit that one rep (you have one opportunity) we are going to record it, and after, we are going to put that in an environment that is going to allow you to express that as well; after that we always put them into a contextual situation” “Who is the individual in front of you, and what are the missing pieces” “The input needs to be thought of, and managed, just as much as the output” “In season, there is so much stress put on these kids so that, all I care about is that, when they leave, they feel better” “If it’s “im exhausted, my dog died, I crammed for a test”, it’s definitely game based, long duration isometrics, exposing the foot to a ton of tactile information, and that’s about it” “If you look at a whole year, and are doing the same thing over and over again, you are not pushing learning, you are not pushing their development” “With older athletes 92-96% of the time their (vertical improved after playing a game). With the younger athletes… when they went back to jump again, their (jump) actually went down… I thought it was really fascinating with the experienced athletes using the game play to potentiate, but the younger athlete with it being constantly changing” “Stickiness; that’s where these small sided games, blending it with traditional environments and the weight-room, that’s where you can connect them” About Jamie Smith Coach Jamie Smith, CSCS, is the founder and head sport preparation coach of The U of Strength, LLC. He is passionate about guiding his athletes through their developmental process and discovering unique ways that blend physical preparation and skill adaptation. As a former athlete at Merrimack College, Jamie graduated with a degree in Sports Medicine and a concentration in Exercise Physiology. As a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, he has had the opportunity to coach under some of the most knowledgeable and experienced coaches in the industry. Jamie has coached a variety of athletes from the novice to the elite skill levels, some of which include current NHL, NBA, and MLS players and the 2011 NCAA Men’s Basketball National Champion UConn Huskies. Through adaptive, creative, and experience-based program design, Jamie assists athletes in reaching their full potential on and off the ice, court, and field.

327: Joel Reinhardt on The Fusion of Sport and Strength Training Workloads in American Football Oct 06, 2022

Today’s episode features sports performance coach and sport scientist, Joel Reinhardt. Joel joined Stanford Football’s staff as the assistant sports performance coach and applied sports science coordinator in 2022. Prior to Stanford, has spent time at UMass and Nicholls State working in sports performance and sports science roles. One of the great things about the sports performance/strength & conditioning field is that it is interdisciplinary in nature. Within the field itself, we have the elements of anatomy/physiology, biomechanics, pedagogy, team culture & coaching, training arrangement, and long-term development. We also have the integration of sport science, which quantifies the complex nature of the ways players are loaded in their sport. When the nature of this load is understood; many relationships can be noticed between a football practice week, for example, and the way a track sprints or jumps coach may set up their training week. The more areas we see training loads and adaptive trends, the more we can understand the dynamics of the human organism, and how to facilitate the training environment. On today’s show, Joel Reinhardt goes into his role in helping to build out the work-loads of football players at Stanford through his sports science role. He’ll talk about what specific training weeks look like, how the strength training complements those weekly micro-cycles, and then primary pitfalls that can happen in loading athletes throughout a training week. Without good integration of sport volume, and weight-room volumes, athletes are almost always going to end up doing more total work than what they need, and that’s why conversations like these are so valuable. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Lost Empire Herbs, and the Elastic Essentials online course. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 5:16 – Recent job updates, and Joel’s role at Stanford University as a sports coach and sports science coordinator 8:01 – Joel’s role in building the workloads for sport practice at Stanford 18:01 – How Joel draws out football practice loads, and how it relates to track and field loading patterns 26:53 – Specific weekly microcycle loads Joel helps facilitate for football practice 36:14 – How Joel looks to complement football loading volumes with strength training 49:10 – “Pain points” and practice elements that could lead to a greater incidence of injury 1:00:22 – Thoughts on “conditioning finishers” at the end of a practice period “I wanted to be very intentional about not coming in and being the person who was saying “you need to do less”” “My role as sports science coordination is utilizing the data to help guide our planning on the front end to play as much football as we possibly can while still being healthy for Saturday” “You want to understand what (practice) scenarios relate to the physical outputs that you are wanting to track; and start to influence where those fall within a week, within a day, within a month” “Day 1 is more constrained by the type of drill they are in, and Day 2 is just playing ball, there is a lot of open scenarios, and it ends up being very game like; that second day is the most open” “The third day is most volume, most time on feet” “That second day is where you expect to see the highest intensities” “It’s not black and white; all this happens on this day, all of this happens on the other day” “In camp we lifted once for every 3-day cycle; we lifted on day 2, the highest intensity type day. In season we lift Monday, Wednesday, Friday” “In terms of when they lifted, in the racks, during camp, it was only twice a week, but how often they worked with the sports performance staff, it was every day, just in small doses” “If you get those big rocks in place of the sport practice and how we are managing that load, you can get away with peeling back in other areas and not losing those higher level qualities, because they are not getting drowned out by excessive fatigue” “The level of detail to predict those total volume loads; the only piece of information you really needed was total time on feet; to predict intensity you needed a bit more granular detail” “In camp, if the daily volume was in a normal range, 4 practices in a row created an un-sustainable well that these guys fell into” “Knowing we were not going to practice 4 days in a row, it gave us more wiggle room within those 3 days” “I boil it down to, "Is this going to effect the number of team football reps we are going to be able to execute before our first game'” About Joel Reinhardt Joel Reinhardt joined Stanford Football’s staff as the assistant sports performance coach and applied sports science coordinator in 2022. He will oversee Stanford’s sports science and data tracking for Cullen Carroll’s football sports performance staff. Prior to Stanford, Reinhardt worked at UMass as the assistant sports performance coach since 2019. At UMass, Reinhardt oversaw sports science, practice planning and return to play for football, while also leading all aspects of women’s lacrosse and men’s soccer’s performance training. He previously worked at Nicholls State in Thibodaux, La., where he helped design and implement a comprehensive strength and conditioning program for football. He was also responsible for the implementation of all agility work for the team’s off-season development program. He also worked with women’s track and field, women’s soccer, softball and both tennis programs at Nicholls State, in addition to organizing and analyzing Playertek GPS data. Reinhardt arrived at Nicholls State following an internship with the Minnesota Football program. Reinhardt graduated from Springfield College, where he earned a Master of Science degree in Strength and Conditioning in 2017. While studying at Springfield College, Reinhardt worked as a graduate assistant strength and conditioning coach. He earned his undergraduate degree from St. Olaf College (Northfield, Minn.) in Kinesiology and Exercise Science in 2015. Reinhardt’s strength and conditioning expertise also includes internship tenures with Total Hockey Minnesota (2013), Springfield College Athletics (2015), the UConn Athletic Department (2016) and Western Michigan football (2016).

326: Adarian Barr on Stress, Strain and Redefining “Stiffness” in Athletic Movement Sep 29, 2022

Today’s episode features movement coach, inventor and innovator, Adarian Barr. Adarian has been one of the absolute biggest influences on me in my coaching, as well as my own personal movement and training practices. You will be hard pressed to find an individual who sees movement in the detail that Adarian does, while also having the experiential and coaching knowledge to back it up. One of the biggest things I’ve learned from working with Adarian is improving my understanding of how joints work in the scope of human motion. From the first time I met Adarian, I remember him discussing the spiraling actions of movement to take the slack out of the system, and how he prefers discussing movement on the motion of joints, rather than muscles. I remember working on what happened when my joints were in flexion, rather than trying to resist, or “punch” my way through movement, the results of which were numerous post-university sprinting bests, and a quantum leap forward in the way I coached athletes. “Stiffness” is a commonly discussed term in the world of athletic movement. Athletes are generally instructed to “be stiffer” in their lower body to jump higher and run faster. The truth of the matter though, is that in motion, there must be something in the body that deforms, and the ultimate stiffness is a limb in a cast. On today’s podcast, Adarian takes us through what he considers true joint “stiffness” to really be, when it comes to human motion and movement, and throughout the discussion, creates the grounds for better terminology on the level of the coach, when we speak about joint deformity, stress and strain, in the scope of sprinting, jumping, track and field, and beyond. This is a podcast that will powerfully impact your mindset on the nature of plyometric exercises, sprinting motions and constraints, and how athletes move ideally in their sport. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Lost Empire Herbs, and the Elastic Essentials online course. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 4:50 – Adarian’s background in his college studies in the realm of music and athletic movement 10:30 – What “ankle stiffness”, or being “stiff” in the context of athletics, means to Adarian 24:20 – The dynamics of strain passing through joints in movement 26:30 – How much strain exists in various joints throughout acceleration and upright sprinting 36:00 – Horizontal and vertical forces in sprinting, in relationship to levers and friction 39:40 – Long to high bounding and hurdling dynamics 44:20 – How to train an athlete who needs to get up off the ground more quickly in regards to strain and quickness 55:40 – How stress and strain fit with the biomechanics of sprinting, using straight leg bounding as an example “Stiffness to me means you aren’t moving very well, you aren’t moving fluidly… it’s not a good term… at some point in time, it means that joint’s not moving” “If there’s movement at the ankle joint, how can it be stiff?” “You got to get things to work together in pairs” “How we operate in the air, is different than how we operate on the ground” “Any type of force is stress. The strain is resistance to that force… that’s how I engage in these things; the stress, the strain and the amount of deformity I get” “Class 1 low strain low resistance, lots of movement at the ankle joint; class 2, very little deformity, very little movement at the ankle joint” “At the start, things have to fold up, at top-end, things don’t have to fold up as much” “At the start, the first thing I have to do is get to a class 2 lever, but it doesn’t take much strain to resist that force, since there isn’t a large amount of force yet” “Once I get going (in a sprint) the stress level starts to go up, so the strain level (need to resist at the ankle) goes up” “The good triple jumpers have a whole lot of resistance at the ankle joint, and not a lot of resistance at the hip joint. The not so good triple jumpers have a lot of resistance in reverse ways, a lot of resistance at the hip joint, and not a lot of resistance at the ankle joint” “If I try to dorsiflex the foot as the shin is coming forward, I am resisting, now we got some strain going on” “When we go back to levers, we have two things going on, perpendicular and parallel. The greater the perpendicular, the greater the parallel can be” “I need this vertical, perpendicular, to create friction (against the ground which is the horizontal)” “Don’t base horizontal (force/projection/etc.) on the shin, because horizontal is friction” “The more you press down, the more friction you get, which allows me to dictate the direction I want to go” “Where the hip is when the foot comes off the ground will dictate what direction you are going to go” “If I do a straight leg bound, I want the deformity at the hip. If I am sprinting, I want the hip to take the blow” Show Notes: Old School Popping and “Tutting” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkOgfhlWhO4 Sydney Mclaughlin in 400h (High over the hurdles, modulating stress and strain) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIlpFhU3P-M Chest Jumper Strategy Example View this post on Instagram A post shared by DAC- Online Coach (@kingdac) Ideal Point of Deformity in Triple Jump (The Hip) View this post on Instagram A post shared by Topjumps (@topjumps) About Adarian Barr Adarian Barr is a track coach and inventor based out of Yuba City, California. His collegiate track and field coaching stops have included UW-Superior, Indiana State, UNC Pembroke, Yuba City Community College. He has invented 9 devices from footwear to sleds to exercise devices. Adarian is a USATF Level II coach in the sprints, jumps, hurdles and relays. He has a master’s degree in Physical Education. Adarian’s unique coaching style gets results, and his work on speed and biomechanics is being adapted by some of the top coaches in the nation.

325: David Grey on Lower-Leg Dynamics, “Fatigue Contrasts”, and Rethinking the Term “Corrective Exercise” Sep 22, 2022

Today’s episode features biomechanics specialist, David Grey. David is the founder of David Grey Rehab, where he works with clients from all walks of life. David’s specialty is assessing his clients gait cycle in depth to develop a plan to help restore the movement or movements they struggle to perform. David has learned under a number of great mentors in the world of human movement, athletic development, gymnastics, Chinese martial arts, and biomechanics, and is an expansive thinker, blending many elements of human movement together in a down to earth way we can all resonate with. Humans absolutely love to categorize things, and put things in boxes. For those in their initial learning stages, this can really be helpful to the learning process, but at some point, we need to see the grey, or continuum-like nature of things, and how training interacts on its different levels. When we put things in the box of simply being a “corrective” exercise, for example, it loses touch with many of the helpful principles of training and overload that come in more “standard” training exercises. When we can see things from an expansive viewpoint, we can start to gather the wisdom regarding how different pieces of training work together. On today’s show David, puts many things together in regards to good functioning of the kinetic chain for not only knee health, but also better movement. We talk about the muscles of the lower leg, where he stands (and how he has changed) on the level of more “bodybuilding” oriented training methods, keeping things simple in exercise progression (and how putting “corrective exercise” in a box is a bad idea), sensory awareness and fatigue contrasts, and finally, a ridiculously good summary on how David approaches knee rehab and health from a multi-factorial perspective. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Lost Empire Herbs, and the Elastic Essentials online course. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com Find out more about the the online course, Elastic Essentials, by heading to justflysports.thinkific.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 3:48 – David’s experience in his United States tour 11:56 – Discussing the muscles of the lower leg, and their importance in movement 21:16 – Simplifying some exercise methods that improve hamstring calf interaction 25:30 – Where muscles sit on the “joints act, muscles react” end of the spectrum in the sense of simply training a muscle to alleviate joint pain or optimize the kinetic chain 36:10 – How to keep things “simple” in a rehab and “corrective exercise” space, and the “sensory to intensity” scale 41:55 – David’s use of “fatigue contrasts” in training and working with longer-ground contact plyometrics 57:27 – David’s current multi-lateral keys to knee training and rehab as he sees it and summarizes it “With movement, you can talk about it all you want, but they need a chance to experience it and feel it” “Even with slower running, the soleus has a lot of load going through it” “If you think going for a jog is easy, it’s easy for a lot of muscles, but it’s not easy on the soleus” “The gastroc has a lot of pre-activation before the foot hits the floor, the soleus has very little. But when the foot hits the floor, the gastroc cools down and the soleus goes through the roof” “A muscle like the soleus and glute max takes time to produce force, because of the shape of the muscle, but they are way stronger… there are other muscles that can contract quicker, but they are not as strong” “Those types of (roller bridge) exercises open you up to a lot of sensation” “Before full body strength work, that’s where we start to isolate a lot of muscles (for those who have inhibited muscles)” “I use the foam roller bridge as a test; if someone can’t hold that for 5 seconds, I look at them and say “your hamstrings should be stronger” “I’m moving more towards the bodybuilding side of things with just getting the muscles working” “I’m a big fan of drop jumps; especially in rehab because it’s very structured” “I like to think of the scale of sensory to intensity; that’s what we are working towards” “I will use fatigue contrast; it might be something like we do some leg extension, hamstring curl, calf raises, and then I do the hop, and then it feels better. If you bring those tissues to quite a bit of fatigue; the brain or nervous system has to figure out a new way to bring those muscles together” “When we get into plyometrics, it’s important to work with short ground contact times, but that doesn’t mean we can’t work with the spectrum of other joint ranges and ground contact times” “We don’t just think of movement from slow to fast; you can have faster movement through a large range of motion in certain areas; you don’t have to wait for all the parts of your body to catch up as well” “With a knee issue; I need people to be able to straighten their knee, and bend their knee, which involves rotations. Those rotations involve motions at the foot and the hip” “One of the earliest skills I teach in the workshop is transitioning from early stance to mid-stance, and that is, allowing the shin to drop forward” “A lot of people with knee issues rush towards their toes, and don’t know how to stay in middle on a bent knee” “A big skill is how to get an active hip extension; hip extension without knee extension” “I want them to learn how to push their knees back without letting their knee fully straighten” “Life just doesn’t feel as good if you can’t bend your knees” About David Grey David Grey is a biomechanics specialist and expert in injury rehabilitation and performance based in Ireland. He is the founder of David Grey Rehab, where he works with clients from all walks of life. David’s specialty is assessing his clients gait cycle in depth to develop a plan to help restore the movement or movements they struggle to perform. His work often starts with training the foot to re-experience the ingrained movements that it should access during every single footstep. David has learned under a number of great mentors in the world of human movement, athletic development, gymnastics, Chinese martial arts, and biomechanics. He is greatly influenced by the work of Gary Ward, the creator of “Anatomy in Motion.” He has developed a program called Lower Body Basics, designed to be a holistic lower-body strength and mobility program that helps his clients move efficiently and without pain.

324: Jarod Burton on Rethinking Work Capacity, Over-Training, and Adaptation Through the Lens of Athlete Perception Sep 15, 2022

Today’s episode features Jarod Burton. Jarod is a human performance specialist, chiropractic student, and health coach. He got his coaching start working with Brady Volmering of DAC baseball, and has spent recent years coaching, consulting and running educational courses in the private sector. Jarod focuses on engaging all aspects of an athlete’s being, providing the knowledge for the individual to thrive in their domain. In the world of coaching and human performance, the road to success is often thought of on the level of do “A”, in “B” amount, so you can accomplish “C”. The focus on typically on numbers, exercises, and (often) a linear cueing process for those said movements. We are so quick to judge programs entirely based on numbers and exercises. What we don’t consider often enough is the complex factors surrounding the volume that is administered. There are elite athletes who have won gold medals and set world records who do a lot of volume that would “crush” other athletes (think the athletes that survived the Soviet or Bulgarian training systems, or modern-day athletes, such as Karsten Warholm, the 400m hurdle world record holder). We need to ask ourselves, “what is the difference, or elements, that allowed the athlete to tolerate that?”. Is it that their musculo-skeletal system was somehow just “better” than the other trainees, or are there other additional elements to consider? The more elite coaches I’ve had the opportunity to work with, the more I realize that good coaches intuitively key into the mental and emotional state of the athlete, as well as the physiological management. On today’s podcast, Jarod chats on managing high training volumes, work capacity dynamics, the critical role of boredom/interest in training, athlete self-discovery, and much more. This is a podcast that causes you to ask questions, and gives us a new and interesting perspective on the dynamics of training. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Lost Empire Herbs, and the Elastic Essentials online course. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 4:10 – The nature of Jarod’s training experiment, where he only performed extreme iso holds and dunking (in his quest for a higher vertical jump) 9:45 – Thoughts on the process of assessing athletes, and drawing out physical and emotional weak-points 12:15 – How “obsessive” or “unreasonable” training, such as bounding every day, could actually be a powerful performance tool, and how we actually classify fatigue in training 28:45 – How to manage higher volume training so athletes don’t get injured or decrease their performance 42:30 – The role of self-discovery and creativity in athletic performance training 45:36 – Thoughts on mixing game like activities with specific training outputs (such as a 10m fly or dunking a basketball) 57:28 – Mental associations, boredom/interest, and training principles 1:05:55 – Jarod’s thoughts on the “Easy Strength” mentality on weights and barbell training “As I was holding the isometrics, I was creating the reality of: “what would it feel like as I dunk”” “How do you meet an athlete where you are at in their current state; how do you expose them, and how do you draw out they creativity within them” “The more awareness they have, the more ability they have to create. The goal is for them to be the captain of their own ship” “The amount of volume that kids or athletes experience in a game is 5 to 10 times the amount of actual stimulus that we even give them in the training aspect; I follow along with the idea that the training must be more intense and strenuous than the actual activity itself” “The biggest thing, regardless of how you train, is whether the athlete buys into what they are doing… it comes down to, how does the athlete see it, how does it fit into their reality currently, and how does it fit into the reality that they are trying to create” “I found research papers back to the 1930’s that DNA, teeth, vertebra, your skin, is all run off of piezoelectricity, so this crystal form” “I learn that the muscles behave like water, so if I want to learn about fatigue, I need to learn about water” “I can take somebody; they are sprinting; and maybe they start slowing down and feeling fatigue, but all of a sudden they play football; and I roll a football out as if it’s a fumble recovery, and then they jump back up again…. Now I can manipulate how the body is being fatigued or not by including different scenarios that are either going to peak their arousal or cause them boredom” “I look at a lunge; and I look at how somebody compensated within a lunge, then I take a video and those same compensations that are showing up in the isometric are showing up when you sprint” “The center focus of my training as well, is to challenge the athlete to figure out who they are as a person” “How you think about yourself, and how you speak to yourself, is going to directly influence how you perform, and maybe even what injuries you get” “(When there are external goals) the brain turns off of forced work, and now you are just responding to the environment, and your mind starts turning off, and you start seeing people run fast” “Depending on how the person perceives the event depends on how their body is going to react to that” “There is no perceived threat playing football with your friends, there is no perceived threat in chasing a frisbee” “It’s so silly to put it in this tiny box and say “you can only run 10 sprints”… then the athletes starts believing the fact that, if I run more than 10, I’m going to break down” “You can train the body in a way that actually gives the body more energy” “A lot of times when you don’t like an aspect of a person; it’s an aspect you don’t like in yourself” “Then we go to the skill work side, and you can throw all (the “max intent”) work out of the window, you don’t need to focus on the max exertion; now you just need to figure out how you can find flow, find rhythm” About Jarod Burton Jarod Burton is a performance specialist, chiropractic student, and health coach. He got his coaching start working with Brady Volmering of DAC baseball , and has spent recent years coaching, consulting and running educational courses in the private sector. Jarod focuses on engaging all aspects of an athlete’s being, providing the knowledge for the individual to thrive in their domain.

323: Leo Ryan on The Power of Breath Training for Workout Recovery and Athletic Capacity Sep 08, 2022

Today’s episode features performance coach and breathing specialist, Leo Ryan. Leo is the founder of Innate-Strength.com. Leo has studied from many elite personal training, physical therapy and breathing schools including Dip. Buteyko Method, Wim Hof, Oxygen Advantage Master Instructor, Fascial Stretch Therapist, Strength and Conditioning Specialist and Pilates. Leo previously appeared on episode 219 speaking on many elements of breath training for athletic performance including nose vs mouth breathing in training, breath hold time as a readiness indicator, and more. The use of one’s breath for training and overall well-being has become more and more on my radar with each passing year. From my foray into the endurance end of the competitive spectrum (Spartan Racing in 2019), to understanding the role of rib cage expansion in movement biomechanics, to breathing for energy and recovery, to the training practices of the old-school strongmen, in each year of my life, understanding and training the breath becomes more substantial. On today’s show, Leo Ryan returns to dig into the role of breath training, and its role in recovery, both within the workout itself, and in day-to-day recovery from training efforts. We often talk about having an adequate “aerobic base”, but for some reason, the actual core of that aerobic base, which is “breathing”, is rarely considered, and Leo goes into making capacity workouts even more effective through breathing mechanics, physiology and rhythm. Leo will also cover the role of CO2 and CO2 tolerance in human and athletic function, rhythmic aspects of breathing in athletic performance, and then some dynamics on breathing in the scope of strength training sessions. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Lost Empire Herbs, and the Elastic Essentials online course. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 4:57 – Thoughts on Irish Dancing and athletic performance, from Leo’s perspective residing in Ireland 13:00 – Getting deeper into the role of breathing and breath-work in helping athletes recover from intense workouts 27:00 – The state of world health and strength on the human level, in the scope of modern society 32:00 – How one’s breathing throughout the day can dictate one’s recovery from training 41:27 – The specifics of Leo’s breath training that helped his training group to drastically improve their recovery in a 10-day period 46:00 – The dynamics of breathing rhythm on health and performance 52:20 – Controlled exhale dynamics and the importance of CO2 tolerance in athletic development 1:05:40 – Thoughts on breathing in the scope of heavier strength training, from a recovery and pressure dynamics perspective “There is a lot of footwork, a lot of high kicks, and a lot of fast feet (in Irish dancing) so for improving your speed for sport, it’s absolutely incredible” “Paul Chek said it beautifully that “every summer has its winter” and if you don’t take your winter, winter is going to take you” “The breath is a phenomenal window into how your whole body and mind is working; and then you can use the breath to upregulate or downregulate the system as needed” “(After over-using coffee) when you have your morning coffee, you are just getting yourself up to baseline” “The breath is a beautiful guide to rebuilding your baselines, and making sense of where you are in the world” “My idea of breath training is restoring your breath back to baseline” “They ran (12 minutes max) their way first; then they trained for 10 days in nasal breathing and breath techniques, and then they ran it again; and they ran it my way. What I found was a 1-2% performance improvement, but I found a 40% recovery improvement” “I found the real genius in training your breath is not to get faster, but to recover quicker” “Breathing, as you are there (not training) should be subtle, imperceptible, not noticeable (you don’t feel the hairs on your nose move)” “The yogic structures brought me into imperceptible breathing, of the subtleness” “Butyeko relies very much on balancing out CO2 in the body” “You need CO2 to help oxygen get into your cell, you need CO2 to help cellular health, but you don’t get that because you are in a vicious cycle of getting rid of (CO2) without realizing it (by routine over-breathing)” “I found the idea of restoring the diaphragm, the muscles of the chest, and the exhale, to be let go, is really important” “Is your diapraghm supple, and can you use it well, can you use your upper chest well, and can you let go of your exhale?” “The likes of the Wim Hof and the rhythmic breathing are very very powerful techniques for feeling emotions” “(Regarding breathing) There are the mechanics, the physiology, and the rhythms” “If you exhaled every time your left foot hit the floor (in running) then you would develop over-use patterns…, so (it’s helpful) learning to exhale on alternate foot patterns” “You can extend your exhale to every 5th, every 7th, every 9th footstep” “What I find my workouts are for is solving creative problems in life” “You want to push really hard in training in your set, but outside of your set, you want to be recovering hard; and the best way to recover hard is to latch your mind onto your breath, slow your breath down, calm it down” “If you are loading up your body with a maximal weight; and you don’t have a big enough reserve in your breathing system, then you won’t be able to create the pressure that you need to lift that weight and you’ll have compensation mechanisms” “Once you’ve restored your breathing back to baseline; that’s it, you don’t need to worry about it again, you don’t need to be thinking about it the whole time; you can use specialized techniques for special purposes, but you don’t need to be doing breath training for the rest of your life” Show Notes Alex Collins NFL Running Back and Irish Dance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0XI3NbmOg0 Breath: By James Nestor https://www.amazon.com/Breath-New-Science-Lost-Art/dp/0735213615/ About Leo Ryan Leo Daniel Ryan is a Performance Coach and Breathing Specialist. He is the founder of Innate-Strength.com. He has studied athletic training, health and breathing since he healed himself of asthma in 2004. After graduating with a MSc from University College Dublin, he continued to educate himself prolifically throughout his professional career in Ireland and internationally. He has attained multiple diplomas and certificates from many elite personal training, physical therapy and breathing schools including Dip. Buteyko Method, Wim Hof Instructor, Oxygen Advantage Master Instructor, Fascial Stretch Therapist, Strength and Conditioning Specialist and Pilates teacher. Leo Daniel’s love and experience for health and physical performance has seen him research more than 70 breathing techniques, mentor with coaches to Olympians, UFC Fighters and World Champions and he undertook several internships with the world-renowned Dr. Eric Serrano.

322: John Garrish on Progressing Gallops, Skips and Bounds in Explosive Athletic Development Sep 01, 2022

Today’s episode features strength and track coach, John Garrish. John is the director of athletic development at North Broward Preparatory School in Coconut Creek, Florida, and the school’s head track coach. John was recently voted the 2022 National High School Strength Coach of the Year by the National High School Strength Coach’s Association. John appeared previously on the show discussing his speed training approach in episode 182. The symbiosis of track and football is often discussed in the process of training, and importantly so. What is talked about less, are some of the specifics of what track has to offer, not just in the sprints, but also in events like triple jump, that can enhance an athletes speed, power, elasticity and overall movement profile, in their other sports. John was a hammer thrower in his college years, as well as a former football player. The hammer throw is, of all the throws, the one that requires the greatest symbiosis and harmony with the implement. The triple jump (bounding) requires a tremendous symbiosis with the ground, and how one interacts with it. You can easily see John’s experience and intuition of track and S&C concepts emerge in his progression of bound, skip, hop and overall elastic training with his athletes. On the show today, John covers thoughts on hand position and “elastic/rigidity” vs. “muscular” sprint strategies in athletes as they move from youth to high-school levels. This sets the stage for his talk on his galloping, skipping and bounding progressions, and how he keeps movement quality and velocity at the core of the progression. John talks about how he keeps the training fun and intentional, and how he changes emphasis as athletes move from middle school, to high school years. This show is a beautiful fusion of team sport S&C, and track and field concepts, and can be used to help any athlete develop more fluid, dynamic power outputs on the field of play. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Lost Empire Herbs, and the Elastic Essentials online course. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com Find out more about the the online course, Elastic Essentials, by heading to justflysports.thinkific.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 3:50 – What a typical workout looks like for John, and how he does bounds, skips and gallops himself to be a better coach in those movements 8:29 – Thoughts on hand-position in young athletes vs. older athletes, the use of rigid, splayed fingers, and how that rigid-open-hand strategy might change, as athletes get older 28:36 – How John evolved skips and gallops from elementary school, into their middle and high school years 37:21 – John’s take on more traditional extensive hops, in light of his use of skips, gallops and hops 44:37 – Different constraints and emphasis of skips and bounds are that John utilizes in his scholastic and open-large group training sessions 54:07 – How to give athletes balance in their skip and gallop profile without diminishing their “superpower” 1:00:59 – John’s thoughts on when to get bounding in the mix for athletes, and how to progress it 1:15:17 – Using backwards single leg hops for athletes, its benefits, and potential link to being able to bound forward for distance “I felt that unless I at least had the comfort of the ability to demonstrate, or perform these movements (bounds, gallops, skips) myself, then I felt there was no way I could verbalize it to my athletes; or find lesser cues, or a tactile cue to get the athlete to feel it as well” “Some of the fastest girls I’ve seen at track meets do display that splayed hand position (when sprinting)… but as they progress in middle school you see less dominance of that hand position” “It’s an opportunity of our students to experiment with something, and then come out of that experimentation with the ideal (technical) model… of how they are going to sprint to the best of their ability” “The best triple jumper I ever coached was a near 48 footer in high school, and he just did some really really weird things that presented itself in his hand (positions)” “Testing some of these things (hops, skips, gallops, etc.) are the ideal way to put yourself in the athlete’s shoes” “The most important thing about skips and gallops, is that skips and gallops are fun. I’ve never seen an athlete skip race against another kid and not have a smile on their face” “Skips, gallops and hops we use throughout the year. The traditional hops in place; that is a good way to prepare the feet, ankle and shins for these skips, gallops and hops… where I use (traditional hops) is at the end of the session, closing the envelope, and accumulating that volume, not taking away from other things we want to do” “When we are doing skips with the middle schoolers, it’s in class, it’s more dexterity based and coordination based. We’re cautious in our implementation of bounding; hopping 5x on the left, and 5x on the right continuously” “When we get to the high school level, not only is that when we really start to introduce bounds, that’s when we use slightly different cues (on skips and gallops) to excite something in the athlete that helps them make a change” “Gallops are a little bit easier for an athlete to feel what I’m trying to say with those high hips, quick ground contacts” “If I tell an athlete to gallop, but to be as quick off of the ground as possible, they find it a lot easier than they do the power skip with much briefer ground contact; so gallop has been a little way to introduce it” “You’ll see our young athletes gallop for height naturally, gallop for height squatting down into it; then maybe a gallop for height as quick as possible off the ground, and then let’s revisit a gallop for height, seeing what comes naturally. Given a few sessions, athletes may start to feel something new and start to adopt it” “It’s not just about the progress they made in their event (triple jump), it’s about the progress they made in their other sport, whatever it may be. I felt as if coming off of a season of triple jump, I saw a lot of our football athletes, basketball athletes, or whatever, showing really good things” “If an athlete gains comfort with hopping for distance, that’s half the battle” “One of the best constraints we go through with hops; where it becomes a very good teaching point, is, tell kids “hop for speed”; hop 15m as fast as possible, the athlete is going to be more inclined towards forefoot and forward posture. Then I would say, “hop for distance”… then there will be more of a hindfoot contact. “Definitely I would say those athletes who did hops backwards were our better bounders” “The beauty is, pretty much everything you can do forward, you can do backwards” Show Notes Usain Bolt Hand Positioning (Left “soft”, Righter “somewhat rigid”). See Lemaitre with a more rigid hand action. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fjC1Oim0UQ Yohan Blake Sprinting with Rigid Hand Positioning (See 3:20. Note Walter Dix, more muscle-oriented sprinter with “soft” hands: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3k45Mlpvuwk About John Garrish John Garrish is the Director of Athletic Development & Performance at North Broward Preparatory School in Coconut Creek, Florida, and the school’s Head Track and Field Coach. John was recently voted the 2022 National High School Strength Coach of the Year by the National High School Strength Coach’s Association. A graduate of Wagner College and the University of North Texas, he is certified through the NSCA as a CSCS and through USAW as a Level-1 Sports Performance Coach. In addition to his role at North Broward, John has previously served as the Director of Athletic Performance with the Florida Rugby Union’s High-Performance Program 7’s team and as a volunteer coach with Delray Beach Sports’ Exhibitors. Coach Garrish has spoken at state and national events and serves as the National High School Strength Coaches Association Regional Board Member for the Southeast.

321: Katie St. Clair on Staggered Squats, Single Leg Mastery, and Dealing with High Foot Arches Aug 25, 2022

Today’s episode features strength coach and biomechanics educator, Katie St. Clair. Katie been training general population and athletes for over 20 years, and is the creator of the Empowered Performance Program. She is one of my go-to sources of knowledge for all things biomechanics, and the finer details of human movement. She previously appeared on episode 279 of the podcast, speaking on biomechanical facets of running, lifting and athletic movement. Humans explore movement in a variety of ways as they grow from youth to adulthood. We skip, run, sprint, throw, bend and twist with substantial variability, all through the medium of self-learning. For some reason, as soon as weight lifting enters the picture, variation tends to go by the wayside, and a rigid bilateral (or even unilateral) method of moving that is pasted onto all athletes, is applied. Human beings are complex, we differ from one another, not only in our builds and structures, but also in how our bodies have compensated and compressed in particular ways over time. In this sense, our weightlifting programs should offer at least some room for each individual to learn more about the nuances of how each lift might be set up, or tweaked, in a manner the athlete could be optimally responsive to. On today’s show, Katie goes in detail on staggered-stance squatting and deadlifting, and how it can be leveraged based on the asymmetrical nature of an athlete’s body. She also gets into detail on single leg lifting, and how turning into, or away from the leg being worked can emphasize various elements of the exercise. She finishes by touching on hinging, posterior compression, and the link between high, rigid foot arches and what is happening upstream in the body. Throughout the conversation, Katie highlights how each of these lifting variations can be utilized to bring the athletic body into greater balance, where needed. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Lost Empire Herbs, and the Elastic Essentials online course. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 4:22 – The ideology behind staggered stance squatting, and how it can fit with athlete’s natural asymmetry 10:35 – What types of individuals would be the best candidates to give a left leg back, staggered squat to, in training 15:35 – The role of biofeedback in exploring squat and deadlift stance 25:00 – Thoughts on doing the stagger in a squat or deadlift one way, vs. both ways with athletes 31:06 – How to set athletes up, in a high-performance training program, to help them learn more about how their bodies work in a manner that will help them for a lifetime 44:11 – Single leg squat training with a turn at the top of the bottom to bias various elements of the gait cycle 48:30 – How to improve one’s pistol squatting on the left leg if an individual lacks the ability to internally rotate their left hip 58:25 – Katie’s thoughts on narrow and wide ISA’s, and how to look at deadlifting and hinging from that perspective 1:10:49 – Where to start with someone with high arches, or “banana feet”, and how the pelvic floor plays into that 1:21:38 – Using the pigeon stretch for clients with posterior compression in wide ISA’s vs. narrow ISA’s “Because of our natural asymmetry and organ position, the pelvis starts to turn to the right” “There are so many ways that the body is clever about maintaining that forward motion” “I used to do drills where I would reset my pelvis more back to the left, to get myself in a good position, and then go squat, but it still didn’t feel right….(but instead) In adding load and pulling my left foot back and sensing the outside of my left heel and inside of my right heel; just that little tiny maneuver, it’s just a game changer. I use it on all my squats” “If somebody doesn’t have issues with squatting, I don’t mess with (putting the left foot slightly behind)” “(Reasons to add in the staggered stance left-leg back squat) If every time they squat, it irritates some area, or if they have a big shift into the right, or as a repositioning activity for people higher in their training age who don’t want to do breathing drills’ “A regular deadlift with a barbell, sometimes I’ll take just a tiny step back and off-set that” “Doing a split clean where athletes can create more sensory awareness naturally, because they are not in a bilateral stance, is super useful” “(After giving a large group different variations of an exercise) I’ll say, on this last set, pick which one felt better for you” “When you have athletes who are stronger and more resilient, you might not need all of this (biomechanics) stuff” “You can’t go where to already are, if you are shoved forward” “Creating stiffness is good if you already have a lot of suppleness and laxity” “In a split squat, if the left side is in anterior tilt and outflared, when I go down in that mid-range of a split squat I am getting back internal rotation of the pelvis naturally” “If I go down in a single leg/split squat, and turn towards that leg, I am getting even more of that internal rotation” “If I turn towards the leg on the way up, I am biasing external rotation” “A lot of people are going to be horrible at left leg pistol squatting” “I would do a heel elevated on the left to get your pelvis underneath you; in terms of the internal rotation component, you want to get into a mid-range split squat and drive that internal rotation…. Some people are good at the top and the bottom, but they are limited by that mid-range” “Skaters are great if you are tighter on the backside, and you are a narrow and you have more of an ER bias, because they are more of a hinge position; as you are hinging down you are opening up the back of the pelvis naturally” “Keep the big toe on the floor as you turn away, and don’t just let the knee cave in” “The assessment test I use mostly now is standing rotation” “A wide ISA without a lot of compensations who moves really well, can typically deadlift pretty easily… having said that, there are wide’s with a multiple layers of compression who have a tight pelvic floor, and when they go to hinge they are equally creating those strategies of hinging the back or rounding the back… because they cannot open up the back-side of the pelvis” “Narrows are generally going to be more compressed on the backside of the pelvis so they are going to have a really hard time with a hinge” “Over-arching I see more in someone who is already in an extension pattern, and so their go-to is to go into more lordosis and hinge from the lumbar rather than letting the sacrum tilt forward” “She (Stacey) has people put a foam roller on the wall, and has them push their knee into the foam roller (facing the wall) so they stay over the mid-foot and then hinge back… so you are maintaining that dorsiflexed mid-foot stance while your hips go back” “That’s where I’ll have people breathe if they have tight pelvic floors (in a hinge position)” “Just try to contract your pelvic floor and touch your toes, you are not going to be successful” “If you are tight in your external rotators in general, you are going to be living on the outside edge of your feet” “As I lift up the big toe, the heel goes back, and that helps close-pack the talus up into the tib-fib to create that rigid structure to push you off” “(If tight pelvic floor is causing high-arch banana feet) I’d recommend pigeon stretches” “(Toes up wedges) is taking the slack out of the windlass mechanism and allowing the calcaneus to tilt forward” “There’s some “roll the bottom of your foot”; I would try that too, and then do some of the pronation drills with your foot to try and get more out of them” “If I got my wide ISA with a flat butt, tight external rotators and a sway back, they are getting a pigeon stretch all of the time… if they are a narrow ISA, I’d prefer for them to do more of a hip shift type of exercise, because a pigeon is producing more external rotation” Show Notes Staggered Stance Squat https://www.instagram.com/p/Cg4UOslFxNc/ Tight Posterior Pelvic Floor Description and Releases https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNWkhMkDwEA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMovhOulIWM About Katie St. Clair Katie is a wife, mom, strength coach, educator, business owner, and lover of all things movement. After 20+ years in the industry, Katie decided to create an educational program based on her passion for seeing other women excel in the industry as leaders and educators. There was a time when life got in the way and she couldn’t be the professional she wanted to be because she had to put her family first. She has spent the past 5 years embarking on a journey of learning and combining that knowledge with her love of athletic movement, as well as her passion for empowering female movement professionals, with the intent to elevate the entire industry standard.

320: James DiBiasio and Collin Taylor on Leveling Up Skills, Speed and Capacity in a Total Training Program Aug 18, 2022

Today’s episode features performance coaches James DiBiasio and Collin (CT) Taylor. James and CT work at T3 performance in Avon, Ohio, and have a progressive approach to athletic performance training, encapsulating strength, movement, athleticism in a holistic manner that fits with the progression of athletic skill, and leveling up one’s abilities as a human being. James and CT were both college athletes in baseball and football respectively, and CT played arena football after his NCAA years. In addition to their coaching, James and CT have been running the “Cutoffs and Coffee” podcast since 2020, having interviewed nearly 50 different guests. It’s been enjoyable to see more elements of chaos, risk, perception/reaction, and overall athleticism, emerge in the sports performance process in recent years. Humans are the species on this planet with the greatest overall dexterity of skills, and yet, this dexterity is rarely leveraged in the average “training program” to a shade of its potential. “Training” is something that is traditionally heavy on data, but low on chaos, and yet, sport, as well as the array of FLOW inducing human movement practices, are quite the opposite. Yes, we still want to perform movements that improve the strength of muscles and tissues, while increasing capacity, but at the same time, we also want to give athletes challenges that allow them to expand their athleticism. On the show today, James and CT get into how they have incorporated a variety of athletic skills, flips, and calisthenic movements into their training, how much their athletes enjoy it, and how it links to dynamics on the field of play. They chat about how to leverage principles of intuition and chaos in the training day, and even week, speed training constraints, and finally, James and CT finish with an insightful view on the role of “difficult” training routines, and higher volume capacity-oriented training sets. This was a fun podcast with a lot of take-aways, and highlights the ways that the field of athletic performance training is expanding and evolving. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Lost Empire Herbs, and the Elastic Essentials online course. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 3:58 – Who wins the “bang energy” drink quantity competition between James, CT and Will Ratelle 6:49 – How James and CT use calisthenics, flips and tricks to level up their physical abilities 13:02 – How training movement skills and a variety of abilities has inspired the linking of these various flips, tricks and skills with traditional athletic performance 26:15 – How risk becoming involved in a skill changes the dynamic nature of that movement 36:00 – How James and CT look at training in its ability to prepare an athlete for working with other coaches, or situations where the work may be unpredictable 38:36 – How James and CT’s evolved training programs are perceived by parents and other coaches, and how they have gained trust over the years 43:05 – Moving through an “intuitive warmup” into a more programmed primary strength training session, and how a powerful warmup with a lot of “human” elements can make the strength training portion much better 52:31 – Changing the environment and the drill to get an outcome vs. trying to coach and cue excessively 1:04:07 – How to put difficult/capacity training exercises in context, and how to utilize higher volume training to athlete’s advantage “We’ll play around on the bars when we are in a training session with athletes, we’ll goof around and do different warmup styles, front flips and rolls, exciting and non-normal movements that can pique curiosity, and maybe after the training session, those kids will pull out the mat again” JD “That’s another way to get immediate buy in (the ability to do muscle ups, flips and tricks) because they know we are exploring training and we are training just as hard, if not harder than these kids are, and it can leave the 4 walls of the weight room” CT “I tell our young coaches to train like your career depends on it; and that doesn’t mean, “increase your back squat”” JD “There is an addicting feeling that first time you go to try something you are not sure if you can do; the amount of nerves that you get, and the physical response that happens in your body” CT “If we are only working hard in the same direction all of the time, the diminishing returns are going to happen really quickly” JD “We have your traditional speed work which is a traditional day for acceleration, then we have small sided games, and open games” JD “Our small sided games could involve med ball tag, 4 on 4, 4 on 1” JD “Kids come with a lot of tension, and one of the first things I do is make fun of them, or make fun of me; and they see the guy in the coach bucket cap doesn’t take himself too seriously” CT “No matter what we do in the weight room, we’ll have success, because we are coming in with that intent, and coming in off the field where we were sweating (laughing) and working hard, and we are ready to produce those outputs in the gym” CT “We want kids to laugh, we want kids to fail, and we want to show them that we do that too” CT “That’s more powerful for me to change the environment than to cue the same thing over and over again, and not get a result, and when I realized that, it opened up into pretty much every category of speed we could do” JD “(Rotational sprint philosophy) is not going to work with a 12-year old kid, and it’s not going to work with a college kid who has been taught that acceleration is at a perfect force vector of 45 degrees and moving like a robot” JD “I try to intentionally get away from the point where I am talking more, and I am listening” CT “Now, the next time you are faced with something difficult in life, understand that with a little bit of intent, you can now accomplish it” CT “Doing things because they are hard is not a good enough justification” CT “We do 15-minute lunges to warm up on Wednesday before we play a game” JD Show Notes CT Wall Flip View this post on Instagram A post shared by Collin Taylor (@therealct) About James DiBiasio James is the chief development officer at T3 Performance in Avon, Ohio. He graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University with a B.A. in Human Health and Kinetics and minors in Education and Psychology. At OWU, James was a 4-year starter for the baseball team, and 2-time All NCAC selection. During his freshman season, he was awarded the NCAC Newcomer of the Year award. James also played football at Ohio Wesleyan during his final semester, helping the team win their first conference championship in over 25 years. James spent two summers playing with the Ironmen in the Prospect league, earned a spot on the All-Star team, and was selected as the First Team All Prospect League Second Basemen. He graduated from Westlake High School in 2008 with a 3-time all SWC selection, and was named to the Mizuno All-Ohio team for baseball. About Collin Taylor (CT) Collin Taylor is a performance coach and offsite training director at T3 Performance in Avon, Ohio. CT earned his bachelor's degree in Sports Broadcasting with a minor in Communications from Indiana University. He also played football at Indiana. CT has his training certifications in A.C.E. and is also USAW certified. He has been a coach at T3 and has continued his education with T3 Performance over the past two years. After Collin graduated in 2009 he played Professional Arena Football for 7 years. His last 3 seasons were spent with the Cleveland Gladiators, where he led the team in receiving yards over the course of those 3 years.

319: Cal Dietz, Dan Fichter and Chris Korfist: A Roundtable Discussion on Advanced Speed and Power Training Methods Aug 11, 2022

Today’s episode welcomes back coaches Cal Dietz, Dan Fichter and Chris Korfist in a truly epic multi-guest podcast. The amount of coaching and learning experienced between Cal, Dan and Chris is staggering, and they have been influencing the training practices of other coaches since the early 2000’s. Speed training is always a fun topic, with a lot of resonance to many coaches, because it is the intersection of strength and function. Training speed requires an understanding of both force and biomechanics. It requires knowing ideas on both cueing, and athlete psychology. Since acquiring better maximal velocity is hard, it forces us to level up on multiple levels of our coaching, and that process of improvement can filter out into other aspects of performance and injury prevention. On the show today, fresh off of their recent speed training clinic collaboration, Cal, Dan, Chris and I talk about a variety of topics on speed and athletic performance, including “muscular vs. elastic” athletes, the importance of strong feet (and toes), reflexive plyometric and speed training, as well as the best weight room exercises and alignments that have a higher transfer point to actual sport running. This was a really enjoyable podcast to put together. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Lost Empire Herbs, and the Elastic Essentials online course. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 2:50 – Who wins the quality sleep award between Cal, Dan and Chris 5:45 – Looking back on elastic vs. muscular athletes in light of the DB Hammer era, relative to now where we are talking more about wide and narrow ISA athletes 15:42 – Thoughts on athletes who do better to train with weights above 80% of their lifting max, and then athletes who do better with less, and how to train these athletes year-round 19:12 – Dan’s take on altitude drops, and how much athletes can progress into drops, or be more responsive to it than others 22:25 – The reflexive nature of things like dropping, falling and “plyo-soidal” oriented over-speed training 33:00 – Some different strategies Chris sees in sprinting on the 1080 with elastic vs. muscular athletes in mind 40:21 – Foot and toe strength, athlete function, and the role of the nervous system 50:05 – Thoughts on foot positions in light of weight-room work, and its link to sport speed 54:38 – How stronger athletes can manage a wider step width in a sprint start, vs. weaker athletes 1:03:58 – How athletes work off of coach’s mirroring of a movement 1:07:55 – Cal, Dan and Chris’s favorite single leg training movements for speed and athletic movement, particularly the “Yuri” hip flexor training movement 1:18:10 – Moving past “barbell hip thrusts” in training into standing or 45 degree hyper type versions “I think the elastic component boils down to altitude drops” Fichter “Everyone is going to deal with that collision in a different way, sometimes it is going to have to do with tendon length, or isometric strength” Korfist “Isometrics correlated a lot closer to increasing power, after an isometric block with my throwers, than it did my sprinters” Dietz “The throwers produced a lot more force above 60%, the runners produced a lot more force below 60%” “I can give you examples where something works for my athletes, and then 16 weeks later, it might make them worse, and that’s the art of coaching” “Is the hormonal/global response (from lifting heavy weights) going to outweigh the negatives?” Korfist “We’ve trained a lot of people without jumping at all, just landings” Fichter “I tested a kid with some reflexes that were off, and as soon as we implemented some overspeed work with the 1080, those reflexes turned on” Dietz “I’m not pulling them any faster than they can run, but it changes the way they run, because it gets into this “I have got to be perfect, or I am going to get hurt”” Korfist “The one freak almost dislocated my thumb (when I tested his toe strength)” Dietz “If you can tie the foot and hip together, you are going to have a much more bulletproof athlete… we spend so much time on the knee, the knee is just a hinge joint” Korfist “Some of the best female athlete that I have come in raw, have been kids that have been Irish dancing” Korfist “Rhythmic motions heal your body” Fichter “I had a kid that loved static stretching; I hate static stretching, but it seemed to work for him; so if he liked it, go for it” Korfist “In the strength phase, our stance is wide, and then we go with a mid-stance in the power phases, and we go in a narrow stance on the glute ham, in the speed phase” Dietz “Really weak kids have very narrow starts; really weak kids cross over when they start; I don’t think you can have that width if you don’t have a really strong foot” Korfist “The brain knows exactly where to step; if you try to coach “wide” (in a start) I don’t think it’s a coachable point… I think there are a lot of things people try to coach, that you shouldn’t actually coach” Dietz “People forget that velocity gives you stability” Korfist “Someone with a wider stance gait has a vestibular issue” Fichter “You want to see if someone can get to the big toe, crawl” Fichter “You don’t tell a horrible/weak athlete to get a good shin angle” Dietz “Tangential (rotational) velocity is the name of the game, and the (Yuri) drill does it” Korfist “I had hip thrusts in all my lifts, I pulled them all and went to (the Yuri)” Dietz Show Notes Coaching “The Yuri” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDtWZ2GVrqw&t=5s About Cal Dietz Cal Dietz is currently the associate director of athletic performance for men’s and women’s Hockey at the University of Minnesota, and has worked in the athletic performance department since 2000. He has consulted with Olympic and World Champions in various sports and professional athletes in the NHL, NFL, NBA, MLB, and Professional Boxing. During his time at U of M, he help founded and chairs the Sport Biomechanics Interest Group with its purpose to explore the physiological and biomechanical aspects of advanced human performance encompassing the various aspects of kinesiology, biomechanics, neuro-mechanics and physics. Dietz has also given numerous lectures around the country, as well as publish several scientific articles and dozens articles on training. Dietz has co-authored the top selling book, Triphasic Training: A systematic approach to elite speed and explosive strength performance. About Dan Fichter Dan Fichter owns and operates WannaGetFast Power/Speed Training, a sports performance training business in Rochester, NY that offers training to elite athletes. Dan is one of the leading applied neurological training experts in the world, and has made numerous connections between clinical level neurology, and athletic performance and sport training. Dan has coached athletes in all sports from all over the country, and is in two different Halls of Fame for his own athletic prowess in football. Fichter’s clients have included pro hockey players Chris Thorburn (Winnipeg Jets), Stanley Cup champion Brian Gionta (Buffalo Sabres), Ryan Callahan (Tampa Bay Lightning, US Olympic Team), Shane Prince (Binghamton Senators), Olympic track and field star Victoriya Rybalko from the Ukraine, NY Yankee shortstop Cito Culver, UFC fighter Mike Massenzio, Oakland A’s 2nd baseman Andy Parrino, Washington Nationals Infielder Chris Bostick along with Washington Nationals pitcher Brian Dupra. About Chris Korfist Chris Korfist has been a high school coach in track and football for almost 30 years, with more than 80 All-State athletes. He has also been a strength coach at the college and high school levels, working with many sports. Korfist owns a private facility called Slow Guy Speed School that helps develop athletes ranging from World Champion to middle school. He has consulted with professional sports teams all over the world, including the NFL, MLB, NBA, and Rugby League. Korfist has published research on sprint training and is an advisor for Auckland University of Technology’s SPRINZ. Additionally, he co-owns Track Football Consortium (@TFConsortium), is co-founder of Reflexive Performance Reset, and has discussed training in countless blogs and podcasts.

318: Pat Davidson on Aerial and Terrestrial Factors in Athletic Performance Training Aug 04, 2022

Today’s episode features Pat Davidson, Ph.D.. Pat is an independent trainer and educator in NYC. Pat is the creator of the “Rethinking the Big Patterns” lecture series, is a former college professor, and is one of the most intelligent coaches I know in the world of fitness and human performance. As an athlete, Pat has an extensive training background including time in strongman, mixed martial arts, and many types of weightlifting activities. He has been a guest on multiple prior episodes of this series. The human body is quite complex, as is the potential array of training interventions we can impose on it. To ease this process, and help us to direct our focus, it can be helpful to categorize means and methods. We have spoken on this podcast often about compression, expansion, mid-early-late stance, and other biomechanical topics. Outside of these ideas, training can also be, simply, considered in light of spending more, or less time on the ground and in contact with objects. On the podcast today, Pat shares his thoughts on a new idea in categorizing athletes and training means, which is based on that contact with the ground and deformable objects. This goes beyond muscles, and into the sum total of a variety of muscle, joint and pressure system actions that deal with more, or less points of contact for an athletic movement. Within this system of “high ground” and “low ground”, Pat goes into exercise classification, as well as an explanation why more “aerial” exercise, such as movements involving a level of balance, are as popular as they are, based on the ground/aerial spectrum and links to athleticism. Pat also gets into the role of the feet, particularly in mid-stance, on the tail end of this enlightening conversation. This talk really helps us see a number of training means in a new and helpful light. Pat and I had a long and awesome talk here; based on some logistics with production and time, we’ll be jumping right into the meat and potatoes of our talk. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Lost Empire Herbs, and the Elastic Essentials online course. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com Find out more about the the online course, Elastic Essentials, by heading to justflysports.thinkific.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 4:10 – How the number of movements and skills involved in a sport can impact the training concepts 6:17 – How sports can be “more grounded” or “less grounded” 22:32 – The links between good movers, and their ability to move when the amount of “ground” is reduced for them 30:36 – How far to take and maximize “high ground” activities, in light of other athletic activities 38:31 – The link between “low ground” athletic activities and “functional training” methods 49:00 – Single leg vs. bilateral training in terms of being “high ground” or “low ground” 1:01:04 – How being in hockey skates/rollerblades, or sprinting in track spikes make movements “higher ground” 1:05.45 – Pat’s thought’s on addressing mid-stance in light of “more ground” or “less ground” 1:16:56 – The role of mid-stance in transitioning to “forefoot rocker”, or up onto the ball of the foot “The more stuff there is outside of you that you can push against, and the less deformable that stuff is, the more “ground” (type of athlete) that is” “The low ground athletes are like half-pipe skateboarders, snowboarders, olympic divers, acrobats” “High ground individuals; a powerlifter is the highest ground I can think of, weightlifters, bodybuilders, interior linemen in football” “If you look at the characteristics of low ground and high ground athletes, they tend to be very different from each other” “The 100m is an instructive thing, where it’s changing in ground as it goes throughout the race” “I basically, in the rethinking the big patterns model, without realizing it; the progressions are based off of removing influences of ground to the person” “As ground goes away; you have to create your internal ground, your fluids and forces you can distribute to create the right pressures to move off of” “A barbell is tremendous grounding” “Feed more ground to the exercise, and the person has a higher probability of being able to do it right” “The higher ground, easier to learn exercises, would also be good choices for driving a hypertrophy stimulus” “Functional training to me just means a bias towards “low ground” exercise selection” “I think psychologically, some people trend towards lower ground movements better” “I think that once the lower load bearing foot is kicked out laterally, that is the most challenging stance (from a low-ground perspective)” “You are going to have an easier time doing the higher grounded version (of an exercise)” “Ice skating is lower ground; you are standing on butter-knives on top of ice” “The higher homunculous areas are smarter places to coach from” “You need to feature strong eversion and pronation of the back foot; that is going to unlock you to be able to lateralize your pelvis (in a swinging motion)” “I break movement down to what way are you trying to turn, are you trying to turn left or trying to turn right. If you are doing something bilaterally you are doing the same direction turn on both sides at the same time, and it squeezes you into one direction” “One of the things that I usually hear good golf swing coaches talk about is, if I set you up properly, the right stuff should just happen” About Pat Davidson Pat Davidson, Ph. D., is an independent trainer, consultant, author, and lecturer in NYC. Pat is the former Director of Training Methodology and Continuing Education for Peak Performance, and former Professor of Exercise Science at Springfield College and Brooklyn College. Author of MASS and MASS2 and developer of the “Rethinking the Big Patterns” lecture series and upcoming book on the same topic.

317: Jeff Howser on Speed Training Wisdom From the Dark Side of the Moon Jul 28, 2022

Today’s episode features track and sport performance coach, Jeff Howser. Jeff has been coaching track and field since 1971, and was himself a 6x ACC champion, named as one of the ACC’s top 50 track athletes of all time in 2003. Jeff was a sprints and hurdles coach at Florida, UCLA, NC State, Duke and UNC before his time as a speed and sports performance coach, back at Duke University. If you caught the classic episode on oscillatory strength training with Sheldon Dunlap you may have heard Sheldon mention Jeff as a source of his oscillatory rep training knowledge. In addition to a number of elite track and field competitors, Jeff also trained the top high school 40-yard dash runner in history, who ran a 4.25 second effort. In the world of speed training, many folks gravitate towards the “neat, packaged” training methods that are easy to understand and copy, such as sprint skip drills (A-skips, etc.). Unfortunately, these drills don’t transfer to speed in nearly the capacity that we would hope for. As Jeff says “I’ve never seen anyone skip their way to being fast”. True speed is a little more complex, as it involves horizontal velocity and rotation, but is still, simple at its core given the self-organizing ability of the body. In his decades in track and field, Jeff has seen numerous pendulum shifts in how speed is coached, and has experienced a wide variety of training methods. As Jeff has said, we often go to clinics and seminars to be fed the same information with a different coat of paint. The “dark side” of the moon represents what we haven’t seen in the world of performance, and this episode is an epitome of that. On today’s show, Jeff goes into how sprint training has changed in the last 50 years, what he does, and doesn’t find helpful in speed development, a variety of sprint and speed training constraints and self-governing drills, oscillatory lifting and power development principles, and much more. This show blends several important elements of biomechanics, strength and program philosophy that are impactful for any coach or athlete. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 3:57 – Jeff’s background and story in track and field, and his transition to university speed and strength coaching 8:29 – What track and field/speed coaching was like in the 1970’s, and how it has progressed since then 16:17 – What is the same, and what is different in training team sport athletes, and track and field athletes, in regards to their sprint technique 23:55 – Mistakes Jeff seeing being made in synchronizing the strength and speed components of a program 26:25 – Discussing the role of oscillation training in power development for the athletic program 33:22 – Running a periodization model on the level of “syncing and linking”, going power first and building strength on top of it 39:56 – Jeff’s thoughts on the “canned” (mach) sprint drills that are very popular in training 43:16 – “Down-the-Line” sprinting, and how this benefits athletes and emulates aspects seen in elite sprinters 50:25 – Why Jeff uses “flat footed” running as a sprint constraint, and how this can help substantially once they go back to “normal” running 51:50 – How and why Jeff started using “groucho” runs, which are similar to “squatty runs” 1:01:33 – Details of Jeff’s training of an athlete who went from 4.45 to a 4.25 40-yard dash and ran the fastest high school clocking of all time “Back in my day (in the 1970’s) I was actually taught to stay on the ground and push as long as you can, as hard as you can… I had to change my philosophy, I used to coach the way I was coached; when the evidence is there, you can make the choice, you can do it correctly or not do it at all” “We put 2x4’s down instead of stick drills, because people would really reach out in stick drills” “About 3-5% of team sport athletes actually run pretty well” “Team sport athletes are “frequency freaks” (in regards to their stride frequency as opposed to length)” “The braking phase (of sprinting) in field athletes is way too long” “The problem with team sports (and speed) is we don’t get them consistently, and often enough to do a good job” “It’s really easy to build a garbage truck in the weight room” “The type of strength you develop is more important than the absolute strength itself” “The numbers driven coaches just care about “are my kids getting stronger” without any regard to what kind of strength it is” “Obviously strength is the basis of power work, but a lot of power work can be done without a lot of strength behind it” “If you take that (static catcher position) and do some bounce work with it, and do it at some different angles, you’ll be surprised at how fast you get strong” “(Oscillatory training is typically used) in the early preseason; it’s typically fatiguing, but you get strong very very quickly” “Slow heavy (lifting) basically disrupts coordination so he likes to start with power, add strength too it, and then “sync and link” again” “I used to be the old-school guy, starting with strength and going back to power. Now I find it much better to start with power” “I’ve never seen anyone skip their way to speed… the proprioceptive value of the (sprint skip) drills are the greatest (benefit) I’ve seen” “I personally have never used a wall drill, because I don’t like locking the shoulders down” “I do down-the-line runs a lot to get the shoulders to link with the hips” “Team sport athletes have a significant stride width between the knees… Stride width is something that effects top end speed; the people who run the fastest have the least distance laterally” “The theory between running on the line is letting the hips and shoulders go through a full range of motion” “I’ve had some really good results with my athletes doing box step ups with the heel off of the box” “When you bring athletes back to a normal run (after flat footed running) they say “wow I feel so much faster”” “When you are doing a squatty/groucho run, you can’t mess up the frontside component” “Running with “high knees” doesn’t go well at all; you have to put athletes in a self-governing situation” “There’s no force being applied in an A-skip” “More elite sprinters tend to run with more knee flexion at take-off than slower ones do” Show Notes Running on a Line Over Mini Hurdles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i06qnc1AV4 Drop Lunge Into Start Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIaK97C4B9I About Jeff Howser Former ACC champion and All-America Jeff Howser is in his 20th season as Duke’s speed and conditioning coach. A graduate of Duke, Howser was a six-time ACC champion, and was named as one of the ACC’s top 50 track athletes of all-time in 2003. He went on to earn a bronze medal at the World Championships in the 110-meter high hurdles and was an alternate on the U.S. Olympic Team. Howser ran on the international level for 17 years, was a four-time U.S. Olympic Trials qualifier and two-time U.S. Olympic Trials finalist. He served previously as the sprints and hurdles coach at the University of Florida, UCLA, N.C. State, Duke and the University of North Carolina, and was on the British national staff for Track and Field from 2004-2008. Howser also has coached a number of top-world ranked professional track athletes such as Anwar Moore (13.00-110m hurdles), Jason Smoots (6.51-60m, 10.01-100m), Bershawn Jackson (47.30-400m hurdles), Leonard Byrd (44.45-400m), Michelle Collins (50.00-400m , 22.18-200m indoor), Daniel Caines UK (44.98-400m), Crystal Cox (50.34-400m, 22.34-200m), Jordan Vaden (19.98-200m), Marion Jones (7.08-60m, 10.91-100m), and other athletes from Jamaica, Great Britain, Trinidad, Ghana, Bermuda, Finland, Barbados, and the Bahamas. He also has served as a consultant in training program design for several other top-ranked track athletes from various countries which include LaShawn Merritt, Tyson Gay and Veronica Campbell-Brown. Howser also assists Athens 2004 Head Olympic Coach George Williams in coaching the Nike GW Elite Track Club. His coaching resume includes seventeen Olympians, five Olympic Gold Medalists, four World Championship Gold Medalists, and one World Cup Gold Medalist. In addition, one of Howser’s athletes ran the fastest high school electronic 40yd dash ever recorded (4.25 electronic at the Nike SPARQ Combine), which is also the second fastest time in history. He holds certifications from: National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) - Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) US Track and Field Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) - Certified Speed Specialist US Track and Field Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) - Certified Sprint / Hurdle / Relay Specialist US Track and Field Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) - Certified Endurance Event Specialist US Track and Field Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) - Certified Strength and Conditioning Coach USA Track and Field Association (USATF) - Level III Certification Sprints / Hurdles / Relays…..National Coaches’ Registry National Sports Performance Association (NSPA) - Certified Speed and Agility Specialist National Association of Speed and Explosion (NASE) - National Certification Instructor / Certification Curriculum Coordinator / North Carolina State Director USA Track and Field Elite Athlete Coach USAW (USA Weightlifting) Level 1 During his time at Duke,

316: Simon Capon on Present-Moment Awareness and Flow-State Cultivation Jul 21, 2022

Today’s episode features sports psychologist, Simon Capon. Simon is a hypnotherapist, Master NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) practitioner, as well as the author of the book “It’s Time to Start Winning.” Since 2006 Simon has worked with professional athletes, using variety of techniques including skills from NLP and hypnotherapy. He has inspired athletes, footballers and numerous others to achieve national, international and world titles. Simon’s philosophy is simple, create self-belief and your behaviors and actions will change and so will your results. Simon previously appeared on episode #198 of the podcast, speaking particularly on the link between body language and mental state in athletics, as well as managing the emotional brain for performance. As Logan Christopher puts it, we are always “mentally training” whether we think we are or not. If we do nothing dedicated to improving the processes and habits related to managing the mind well, we will simply revert to the default programming. By focusing on the role of the mind, we can improve our motivation, consistency, clutch performance, physical abilities, as well as find a greater sense of purpose and enjoyment in each training session. In this show, Simon speaks at length on methods to stay in the present moment, how to use particular strategies to engage the sensory systems of the body, turn of the judging mind, and get into FLOW states. He discusses the role of visual focus (peripheral vs. narrow) in sport, linking higher purposes and emotions into our movement/training, as well as a “process oriented” approach to goal setting. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 4:45 – Why spending time on a cell-phone between training sets takes one out of the present moment, and what to focus on between sets instead 13:15 – The link between modern lifestyle technology use, dopamine addiction, and the negative brain chemistry momentum generated by continually checking one’s phone 16:45 – Principles that lead to the “unconscious” flow state in sport performance 19:45 – Strategies on how to get into the FLOW state in sport 25:45 – The “Know-Nothing” state and how to use one’s senses to get into FLOW states 31:45 – How one’s visual field adjustments factor into one’s sport skill performance 35:45 – Principles of non-attachment and over-trying in sport 38:45 – “Chunking” a long and demanding task into smaller parts to improve mental focus and resilience 45:45 – Digging into purpose and higher emotions in the course of difficult training sessions 61:00 – Balancing process vs. outcome goals “Wherever you are, be there…. (if you are on your phone) we aren’t really present in the gym” “Energy flows where focus goes… wherever you are, put your heart and soul into it” “It’s not just about the gym, it’s in other areas of your life as well” “(In an athletic flow state) There’s no internal dialogue, there’s no judgements, there’s no thoughts” “We can’t always keep (the critical inner voice) quiet, but we can keep it occupied” “(Widening your field of vision, noticing your breathing, using all of your senses with your internal and external environment) allows you to play your sport freely…… it comes from a technique called the “know-nothing state”” “Mental focus follows visual focus” “Every time you go to the table, your job is to execute the strategy (not to “win the game”), it’s to be at your best, and if you are at your best, winning the tournament will most certainly happen” “Purpose is one of those things that we often under-estimate” “We all have an ego, but when you can channel it so it has a contribution to other people, then that’s great” “If a goal doesn’t excite you, it’s probably not worth having” “The next part of (goal setting) is monthly standards, and weekly and daily tasks” “Consistency (in the process of goal setting) is the main word” Show Notes How to Find Balance in the Age of Indulgence: Dr. Anna Lembke (Author of Dopamine Nation) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEfkx3DsXjs About Simon Capon Simon Capon is a sports psychologist, NLP Master Practitioner and NLP Trainer, as well as a Hypnotherapist. Since 2006 Simon has worked with professional sports men and women. He is committed to his clients achieving the goals and ambitions they strive for. Simon has the ability to make huge psychological changes in an astonishingly fast time. He uses a variety of techniques including skills from NLP and hypnotherapy. His beliefs are that everyone has the resources to change the programmes they run in their minds so they become focused, confident and generate total self-belief. Many clients including established professional sports people have battled for years to overcome the psychological problems of coping with pressure of match play. Simon has inspired athletes, footballers and numerous others to achieve national, international and world titles. He has written articles about his work for Tennis life UK magazine, and is the author of the book “It’s Time to Start Winning”. He has a selection of mind programming recordings available on MP3 downloads from Amazon, iTunes and Nokia.

315: Rick Franzblau on Sprint and Strength Training Optimization Based on Athlete Structural Type Jul 14, 2022

Today’s episode brings back Rick Franzblau, assistant AD for Olympic Sports Performance at Clemson University. In his two decades in athletic performance, Rick has worked with a wide variety of sports, as well as gained an incredible amount of knowledge in both the technology, and biomechanics ends of the coaching spectrum. Rick, as with many other biomechanics topic guests on this podcast, has been a mentee of Bill Hartman, and has appeared previously on episode 94, talking about force/velocity metrics in sprinting and lifting. There is a lot of time spent, talking about an “optimal technique” for various sport skills (such as sprinting). We also tend to look for “optimal lifts” or exercises for athletes, as well as optimal drills athletes are supposed to perform with “perfect form” to attain an ideal technique. What the mentality described in the above paragraph doesn’t consider is that athletes come in different shapes and structures, which cause what is optimal to differ. Wide ISA athletes, for example, are fantastic at short bursts of compression, have lower centers of mass, and can manage frontside sprint mechanics relatively easily. On the other hand, narrow ISA individuals use longer ranges of motion to distribute force, have a higher center of mass, rotate more easily, and can use backside running mechanics better than wide-ISA’s. Additionally, there is a spectrum of these athletic structures, and not simply 2 solid types. On today’s show, Rick goes into detail on the impact and role of compression in human movement and performance training, the strengths and weaknesses of the narrow vs. wide ISA archetypes, what differences show up in locomotion and sprint training, as well as how he approaches strength training for the spectrum of wide to narrow individuals. Today’s show reminds us (thankfully) that there is no magic-bullet for all athletes, and helps us with the over-arching principles that can guide training for different populations to reach their highest potential. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Lost Empire Herbs, and the Elastic Essentials online course. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com Find out more about the the online course, Elastic Essentials, by heading to justflysports.thinkific.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 4:00 – How the direction of Rick’s performance testing and KPI’s has changed over the last few years 8:00 – How structure and thorax build will play a strong role in what Rick is seeing from them on rate of development on the force plate 23:00 – What to give to a compressed narrow individual to help them in a vertical jump 25:00 – Narrow vs. Wide ISA acceleration mechanics 34:00 – Thoughts on how to help a narrow ISA improve their ability to get lower and achieve better compression in sprint acceleration, and why Rick has gotten away from heavy sled sprints for narrow ISA athletes on the 1080 44:00 – How a coach’s own personal body structure can create a bias for how they end up training athletes they work with 47:00 – Wide ISA athletes, and why they may have an easier time accessing front-side mechanics in running 56:00 – Narrow ISA athletes and backside sprint mechanics, as well as attaining appropriate range and sprint bandwidths for each athlete 58:00 – How force plate data and structural bandwidths determine how to train team sport athletes for the sake of injury prevention and sport specific KPI’s 1:10:00 – How Rick alters weightroom training for narrow vs. wide ISA athletes 1:17:00 – Rick’s take on oscillatory reps in the weightroom, and quick-impulse lifts, especially for narrow infra-sternal angle athletes “(Regarding infrasternal angle archetypes) It’s not to claim buckets that people fall into; it’s a spectrum…. You can have wide ISA’s, somewhat narrow, and narrow as hell” “Understanding where an athlete’s center of gravity is, forward, back, left, right…. And how they get there is affected by their structure… from there what shapes can they and can’t they produce, through their foot, their pelvis, their thorax, and all these things influence how they produce and dampen force, and their idiosyncratic movement in sport” “A narrow (ISA) is going to be really good at rotation; they have leverage through the external obliques, pulls the ISA down, compresses the viscera, which pushes the guts into the pelvic inlet which opens up and allows them to rotate better” “So if I take a skinny tube of toothpaste and I squeeze it; compress it from up top… that’s the only way a narrow, narrow person will be really good at high force in short windows” “If I’m a wide (ISA) I’ll have more of a nutated sacrum… so I’ll have all of this space to move into posteriorly, that’s why a wide is better at deadlifting” “If I’m a narrow, that’ll create a concentric posterior pelvic floor and an eccentric anterior pelvic floor… they are good at vertical hip displacement, a true squatty squat” “A narrow may be able to create some good vertical jump height, but their rate metrics are not very good…. They’ll get a second positive double bump on the force plate graph” “If a narrow is in a rate-dependent sporting movement, they are going to be very compressed” “Let’s say I have a soccer player, a winger, if they have a big jump height and a lot of relative motion, which may not play well in their sport, some anterior to posterior compression is going to be a good thing” “What shape changes can they make, what do they need for their sport, and for their structure individually, and understanding from there how you are developing a plan for them” “A wide ISA, inverted pylon has the steepest RFD ability” “A narrow, their center of gravity is higher; a wide’s center of gravity is lower” “It’s the narrows who have to orient the pelvis more down (in acceleration) and that’s why you often see these backside mechanics… we’d be trying to clean it up, but a lot of times, it’s structure” “That’s what his structure (narrow ISA) is going to dictate (backside mechanics) for him to get force down into the ground (in acceleration)” “We don’t want to get rid of your superpower (if you are a baseball player and it’s rotation)” “Can you give (a narrow) access to IR positions which will help them compress a little bit better” “One thing I’ve steered away from is (very heavy sled resistance training) with narrows” “The reason someone would create anterior orientation of the pelvis is to put force down into the ground… it puts them forward so they get closer to max propulsion quicker” “If I’m a wide and I have a bigger IR space (acceleration) is right in my wheelhouse” “If I take a narrow ISA and I do a shit ton of trap bar deadlift, long slow heavy grindy stuff, that’s going to compress them on top, that’s going to push their outlet way down, and they don’t have that space, so they are going to run out of room at the pelvis so they are going to create the IR top-down from the spine” “If you want a narrow to lose every bit of rotation in their body, trap-bar deadlift the hell out of them…. For a wide-ISA, a linebacker, a position player in baseball, could be a good exercise for them” “I wide doesn’t have much access to late stance, so they aren’t going to hang on through the forefoot” “A lot of narrow-ISA Olympic sprinters will pull pump-handle down to get compression” “On sprinters you are often going to have low hip IR values” “For a pitcher, more output may not have anything to do with lifting, but we give them more early stance ER and IR, they can expand and rotate better, and they have more of an on-ramp (into their throw)…. ” “You need ER to superimpose IR on top of it… I need space to create the downforce” “What happens with powerlifters? That’s the most anterior to posterior compressed sport” “We need to be careful with wide-ISA that they maintain enough ER bandwidth to store and release energy (since they are better at lifting and can do more of it than a narrow)” “If I don’t have foot (tripod) contact, I don’t have relative motion” “If there was a simple line for everybody, this shit wouldn’t be any fun” “Getting a wide ISA just back to mid-stance is often enough for them to be able to release energy from their connective tissues” “With our narrows we don’t trap bar deadlift anymore; we do a split deadlift with an open ended bar” “If you take someone super narrow, and have them do a bilateral barbell RDL, 1 they are not going to maintain their lordosis because they can’t nutate worth a damn, or if 2. they find a way to do it, they are creating the most compressive strategy in the lumbar spine… so that’s out of the program, first thing is do no harm” “If you are super super narrow, that’s when we are doing shorter impulse type stuff…. With a really narrow person, you should never see the sticking point. If you see the sticking point, the impulse was too long and they are really going to push into late-stance” “Say I’m a pylon; that’s a ton of downward velocity, those are people who are going to have a hard time over-coming gravity” “To blanketly (make RDL a staple lift) across all populations is going to do a lot of harm” “A great thing for narrows is to get on a trampoline or gymnastics floor to develop timing (and to “catch” the concentric element of the pelvic floor)” “Wide ISA’s may do hurdle jumps with a longer contact time to learn to use connective tissue energy release” Show Notes Femke Bol: Rate-Dependant Sport Athlete: Narrow ISA needing compression to apply force to ground rapidly https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQTfXzVH1y0 Ricky Henderson (wide ISA) vs. Billy Hamilton (narrow ISA) https://www.

314: Alex Effer on “Jacked Shoulders” in Sprinting, Athletic Squatting Mechanics, and Rotational Dynamics of Locomotion Jul 07, 2022

Today’s episode brings back Alex Effer. Alex is the owner of Resilient Training, and has extensive experience in strength & conditioning, exercise physiology and the biomechanical function of the body. He also runs educational mentorships teaching biomechanics to therapists, trainers and coaches. Alex was recently on the show talking about the mechanics of the early to late stance spectrum and it’s implications for performance training. Something that has been dramatically under-studied in running, jumping, cutting and locomotion in general is the role of the upper body. Since the arms don’t directly “put force into the ground” and the world of sports performance and running is mostly concerned with vertical force concepts; the role of the arms gets relatively little attention in movement. This is unfortunate for a few reasons. One is that sport movement has strong horizontal and rotational components that demand an understanding of how the upper body matches and assists with the forces that are “coming up from below”. Two is that the joints of the upper body tend to have a lot in common with the alignment and actions of corresponding joints in the lower body. When we understand how the upper body aligns and operates, we can optimize our training for it in the gym, as well as better understand cueing and motor learning constraints in dynamic motion. Today’s topics progress in a trend of “expansion to compression”, starting with a chat on the expansive effect of aerobic training (as well as the trendy thera-gun) and Alex’s favorite restorative and re-positioning aerobic methods. We then get into rotational dynamics in squatting, focusing on the actions of the lower leg, and finish the chat with a comprehensive discussion on the role of the upper body in sprinting, how to train propulsive IR for the upper body in the gym, as well as touching on improving hip extension quality for athletic power. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 5:00 – Why Alex thinks that the Theragun is actually a useful tool in the scope of training 15:00 – Thoughts on the use of aerobic training, and blood flow as an “inside out” expansive stimulus to the muscle and the body in general 22:30 – The importance of tibial internal rotation, and how it fits in with the ability to squat and bend the knee 33:30 – How to restore tibial internal rotation for improved squatting and knee mechanics 38:15 – Talking about Chris Korfist’s “rocker squats”, and viability in regards to specifically improving tibial internal rotation 44:00 – Isometrics and work done at shallower knee angles for knee health in respect to the vastus lateralis and vastus medialis muscles 51:00 – The importance of hip and shoulder internal rotation in sprinting, and the role of the upper body in helping the lower body to get off the ground more quickly. 1:07:30 – Narrow vs. Wide infra-sternal angle athletes in regards to upper body dynamics , and general biomechanics in sprinting 1:13:00 – Alex’s take on hip extension in sprinting and how to improve it 1:22:00 – The role of hill sprinting in improving hip extension, as well as the benefits of walking down the hill in terms of priming the body to leverage the glutes better on the way back up 1:24:00 – Why Alex likes hip thrusts with the feet elevated, relative to hip height 1:28:00 – Some key exercises to improve shoulder internal rotation for sprinting “The vibration aspect of the Theragun I really like; if you slow the landing of running or sprinting, you will see a vibration or wave-like effect of the muscle upon impact” “Whatever my upper back or torso is going to do; I am going to have similar changes at the pelvis” “My favorite (aerobic/expansive) tool now is the elliptical. For the elliptical I cue a heavy heel the whole time; it’s going to keep you back in more of a mid-stance, internal rotation type of range; I’ve used that to improve mobility significantly to some people” “That tibial internal rotation allows the patellar tendon to be in a position to absorb force; and allows the VL to be in an eccentric position…. It allows me to bend my knee so the (tibial tuberosity) turns inwards” “To stretch the Achilles is un-necessary because if you feel your Achilles is tight and needs to be stretched is because your foot isn’t dynamic enough, or because your knee can’t bend. Your Achilles will naturally stretch like an elastic band when I’m able to dorsiflex properly, and pronate properly, as well as bend my knee” “Like 9/10 people (this is anecdotal) don’t have (tibial internal rotation) because external rotation gets us off the ground faster… but not spend enough time on the ground which is what IR does” “You have to roll to the inside edge of your foot to get to big toe extension” “One thing you can do (to help control tibial internal rotation) is a step-down because it is going to force you to control knee flexion” “Toes elevation stuff is going to be very good (for helping to engage internal tibial rotation)” “(Long hold) isometrics are very expansive” “Anyone who has big valgus or varus in their knees, I may refrain from (squatting) to 90 degree…. Going to 90 degrees to start, the VL is going to over-power the other (muscles)” “It doesn’t have to be “corrective exercise”, it’s just training but you are modifying the depth or your center of gravity” “External rotation is about getting me off of the ground” “The collision made you pronate (in sprinting) not my body; and I have this external rotation force coming up towards my hip” “As I swing my arm to shift my torso forward, that is the internal rotation coming top-down; it’s not landing underneath me, it’s landing in front of me” “Just think of the lower half of the body, that’s externally rotating, and the fact that my torso is being pushed forward because my arms and swinging; that’s going to allow me to put force into the ground to propel off of the ground faster” “A collapsed foot; you are glued into the ground, you can’t create external rotation” “If I can’t (internally rotate my shoulder) I am going to hit the ground and my arch is going to collapse into the ground, and I am going to stay on the ground way too long” “The upper body has a massive influence on the leg’s ability to absorb the forces; and release the forces” “The front deltoid helps with humeral internal rotation” “If you are running with the elbows coming too far back; you aren’t going to have enough time to get that elbow forward across your body” “The sprinters that are narrow have more of a horizontal bias of running, where as the wides are more vertical, they go up and down” “With the split squat, I’ll cue them to press the balls of the back foot into the ground” “I’ll cue the met head (in the rear foot of a split squat) and they don’t feel knee pain in the back leg anymore” “(To improve hip extension) I could do hill sprints, I could do carioca’s up the hill; you could also have them walk down the hill (which pushes their shins back which pushes their center of mass back so that their glutes don’t have to push them as far forward)” “What I much prefer (to regular hip thrusts) is your feet are on top of something that’s higher than your hips (that’ll allow you to get the full hip extension, rather than using your back to do it” “To improve my shoulder IR during arm training, I can do front shoulder raises, because that’s going to leverage that anterior deltoid; and keep it below 90 degrees to maximize the IR range of motion… I could do bent over pronated grip tricep extensions, I could also do triangle bar tricep extensions, I could do hammer curls, even lateral shoulder fly’s can be very good, chest flys are very good” “Diamond pushups are awesome (for shoulder IR)” “The best one to me is side plank position with your palm on the ground, bent arm, heavy hand… those people need to push on the inside part of their wrist (not their thumb which is fake pronation of the hand)” “I’m going to get internal rotation of the shoulder, the elbow and the wrist. My ankle is my wrist, my elbow is my knee, and my shoulder is my hip; I need all three of those to be in a position to gain internal rotation to gain true shoulder rotation. If I don’t have those three or one is missing I am going to compensate somehow, it’s going to be fake” Show Notes Spanish squats for improving tibial IR https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzBj2XEzySc Abby Steiner Sprint Technique (Forward Arm Action to Drive IR and Counter Foot Collisions) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=341OAuSUw8A Femke Bol Sprinting Technique https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvKgjsgwmOw High Jumper (narrow) vs. Wide (powerful sprinter) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfcUCiWDuTk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaIbajLH0kc&t=179s Glute Bridge with Feet Elevated (Limiting Low Back Compression) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r12PcnT-NeE About Alex Effer lex Effer is the owner of Resilient Training and Rehabilitation, a name that emphasizes Alex’s unique approach to fitness, which is one that combines both aspects of normal fitness and rehabilitation principles to achieve long- lasting pain free results. Alex uses his comprehensive knowledge and passion in exercise science, autonomics, respiration, rehabilitation, and biomechanics to develop programs that promote injury prevention, sports performance, and rehabilitation through quality of movement.

313: Joel Smith Q&A on Exercise Selection, Sport Speed Concepts, and Jump Training Setups Jun 30, 2022

Today’s episode features a question and answer session with Joel Smith. On the show today, I answer questions related to “are there any bad exercises?”, sport speed concepts, jump training, “switching” sprint drills, and much more. I love being able to highlight and integrate information from so many of the past guests on this podcast into my own training, coaching, and ultimately, the answers I provide on this show. In many senses of the word, this is truly an “integration” episode of the podcast series. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 3:16 –Is there any such thing as a bad exercise? 17:19 –How do we speed up soccer players? 30:25 –Do you find value in spending time on switching drills? 45:07 –Athletes who take too many steps in a start or acceleration. 53:19 –Does walking affect fast-twitch fibers? 54:45 –Setups for high jump off-season/yearly plyo program for high level jumpers? 1:01:36 –How to speed jump like elite high jumpers? About Joel Smith Joel Smith is the founder of Just Fly Sports and is a sports performance/track coach in Cincinnati, Ohio. Joel hosts the Just Fly Performance Podcast, has authored several books on athletic performance, and in 2021, released the integrative training course, “Elastic Essentials”. He currently trains clients in the in-person and online space. Joel was formerly a strength coach for 8 years at UC Berkeley, working with the Swim teams and professional swimmers, as well as tennis, water polo, and track and field. A track coach of 15 years, Joel coached for the Diablo Valley Track and Field Club for 7 years, and also has 6 years of experience coaching sprints, jumps, hurdles, pole vault and multi-events on the collegiate level, working at Wilmington College, and the University of Wisconsin, LaCrosse, along with his current work with master’s, high school and collegiate individuals. Joel has had the honor of working with a number of elite athletes, but also takes great joy in helping amateur athletes and individuals reach their training goals through an integrative training approach with a heavy emphasis on biomechanics, motor learning, mental preparation, and physiological adaptation. His mission through Just Fly Sports is: “Empowering the Evolution of Sport and Human Movement”. As a former NAIA All-American track athlete, Joel enjoys all aspects of human movement and performance, from rock climbing, to track events and weightlifting, to throwing the frisbee with his young children and playing in nature.

312: Rob Gray on Higher Athletic Ceilings with Differential Learning and Optimized Variability Training Jun 23, 2022

Today’s episode welcomes back to the show, Rob Gray, professor at Arizona State University and host of the Perception & Action Podcast. Rob Gray has been conducting research on, and teaching courses related to perceptual-motor skill for over 25 years. He focuses heavily on the application of basic theory to address real-world challenges, having consulted with numerous professional and governmental entities, and has developed a VR baseball training system that has been used in over 25 published studies. Rob is the author of the book “How We Learn to Move: A Revolution in the Way We Coach and Practice Sports Skills”. You cannot separate the world of athletic development, even pure “power” training, from concepts on motor learning. If we look at interest in athletic performance topics by “need”, speed training will typically be first on the list. At its core, sprinting, lifting (and every other athletic skill) has its roots in how we learn. The great thing about motor learning knowledge, is that it can both allow you to have a better training session on the day, as well as month to month, and year over year. Training done only on the level of raw “power” as a general quality, and explicit instruction will create early ceilings for athletes in their career. Understanding motor learning allows for more involved daily training sessions, and better flourishing of skills that grow like a tree, over time. Whether you work in sport, in the gym, or as a parent/athlete, understanding how we learn goes a massively long way in becoming the best version of one’s self athletically and from a movement perspective. In episode 293, Rob got into the constraints-led approach to movement vs. “teaching fundamentals”, and in this episode, he goes into CLA’s counter-part: differential learning. Rob will get into the nuances of differential learning on the novice and advanced level. In the back end of the show, we’ll talk about “stacking constraints”, games, exploration, using the “velocity dial” as a constraint, and finally, the promising results of Rob’s research showing the effectiveness of a variable practice model. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 5:07 – How differential learning is different than the constraints led approach in athletic development 12:10 – Using differential learning as a recovery tool from intense training means 15:51 – Using constraints within the scope of differential learning and vice versa 21:28 – If and how differential learning or the CLA led approach can be too “widespread” vs. focused towards a movement goal 25:02 – Some games Rob would specifically utilize in training tennis players using constraints and differential learning 28:11 – The advantage of free flowing sports with limited rules and setups for children in the process of youth sports 36:05 – How performing exploratory movements in the weight room can fit with differential learning concepts 41:55 – Rob’s take on the innate ability of athletes to figure out movement on their own, and when to dig into constraints more deeply to help determine why they may not be solving a problem well, and the integration of analogies into the process 44:23 – Thoughts on manipulating velocity and time as a constraint, and the relationship between intensifying constraints, and the amount of movement solutions 53:30 – How using variable learning and constraint led approaches can improve players ceilings in long-term development 59:52 – The specifics of Rob’s landmark study with baseball players and long-term development “The constraints led approach is a bit more focused… you have a rough idea of where they want to be, and you want to help guide them” “Differential learning has the same goals (as the CLA), but instead of adding a constraint to push you a certain way, we are going to have you do a different thing every trial. So maybe I’ll get you to do different stances, feet close together or far apart, different shaped barbells, different surfaces… we are trying to get you try a bunch of different things with the hope that you will find the solution space on your own, rather than trying to push you a certain direction” “Differential learning is more variability for variability’s sake” “Learning a skill (in a differential manner) actually reduces the incidence of injury” “You would never do differential learning where you did a task on a computer screen” “I would add differential learning on top of (the constraint of trying to hit a ball over a fence) by using different bat weights” “Now what I do is start (learning) with games, and if you do it right, that stroke will come along on its own” “There are certain key variants that have to be there, if not, you have to step in as a coach” “We’re doing this with the idea that we are all moving towards an elite sport endpoint… why can’t we teach kids that moving around is fun? Not everybody can be elite” “When you really ramp up the constraints, short times, high force, it really amounts of the amount of solutions you can do… so when a person is really struggling how to do something, there is really not that many options… increasing velocity can really push people, but not beyond what they can handle” “Once you work with an athlete who has the basic pattern, then you are adding in variability to optimize it” “So the group that got more variable conditions, they did better in the tests after the study, they did better their next season of high school, and they got drafted more often” About Rob Gray Rob Gray is a professor at Arizona State University who has been conducting research on and teaching courses related to perceptual-motor skill for over 25 years. He received his MS and PhD from York University in Canada with a focus on the visual control of movement. An important aspect of his work has been applying basic theory to address real-world challenges which he has done in positions with Nissan Motor Corp, the US Air Force, serving as an expert witness for driving accident cases, and consultant roles with several sports teams and organizations. In 2007 he was awarded the Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution to Psychology from the American Psychological Association. Rob is the author of the book “How We Learn to Move: A Revolution in the Way We Coach and Practice Sports Skills”. One of the accomplishments he is most proud of is the baseball batting virtual environment/virtual reality that he developed over the course of several years and which has been used in over 25 published studies. In 2017 (Gray, Frontiers in Psychology) he published the results of a 10-year study using a virtual reality training protocol which led to clear evidence of transfer of training to real performance. In his career, Gray has strongly emphasized the communication and dissemination of scientific knowledge. In 2015, he started the Perception & Action Podcast (perceptionaction.com) to help bridge the gap between theory and the field. With over 350 episodes and 2 million downloads, it has become a critical resource for individuals working in areas including coaching, talent development, training and rehabilitation.

311: Kyle Dobbs on “Macro-to-Micro” Thinking in Strength, Speed and Corrective Exercise Jun 16, 2022

Today’s episode features Kyle Dobbs. Kyle is the owner and founder of Compound Performance which offers online training, facility consulting and a personal trainer mentorship. He has an extensive biomechanics and human movement background (having trained 15,000+ sessions), and has been a two time previous guest on this podcast. In the world of training and performance, it’s easy to get caught up in prescribing a lot of exercises that offer a relatively low training effect in the grand scheme of things. Healthy and capable athletes are often assigned a substantial load of low-level “prehab” style and corrective exercises that they often do not need. In doing so, both a level of boredom, fatigue and just simply wasting time, happens in the scope of a program. For my own training journey, I’ve seen my own pendulum swing from a relatively minimal approach to the number of movements, to having a great deal of training exercises, back down to a smaller and more manageable core of training movements in a session. As I’ve learned to tweak and adjust the big lifts, and even plyometric and sprint variations, I realize that I can often check off a lot of training boxes with these movements, without needing to regress things too far. On the show today, Kyle will speak on where and when we tend to get overly complex, or overly regressive in our training and programming. He’ll talk about what he prioritizes when it comes to assigning training for clients, as well as a “macro-to-micro” way of thinking in looking at the entirety of training. Kyle will get into specifics on what this style of thinking and prioritization means for things like the big lifts, speed training, and core work, as well as touch how on biomechanical differences such as infra-sternal angle play a role in his programming. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 3:41 – How Kyle’s run training has been developing, since he has been getting back into his two years ago after being a high level college 400m runner 7:41 – Kyle’s thoughts on where we tend to get overly complex in the physical preparation/strength & conditioning industry 11:58 – How Kyle prioritizes exercises based on the task requirements of the athlete 16:19 – Thoughts on working macro-to-micro, versus micro-to-macro 28:50 – How Kyle will avoid trying to regress individuals to a low-level, rudimentary version of an exercise if possible, and his take on “pre-hab” work 36:50 – The usefulness of hill sprints as a “macro” exercise for glutes, lower legs, and hip extension quality 40:56 – The spectrum of perceived complexity as athletes move from a beginner to a more advanced level 48:40 – Kyle’s take on some gym movements that “check a lot of boxes” in athletic movement 56:01 – How much of Kyle’s programming ends up being different on account of being a wide vs. narrow infrasternal angle “If we can’t match the stress that an athlete is going to be encountering in their actual sport, it isn’t going to have a huge return” “I want to be able to pick the biggest return on investment from a training perspective; those are going to go into my primary buckets from a programming perspective” “If I have somebody who really needs to zoom into the micro, and we really need to get into the biomechanics weeds and decrease the training stress, those are people that we refer out to another specialist… having a good network allows you to focus on the things that you are good at and that you really like to do. I learned early in my career that, I don’t like to be the rehab guy” “That’s my problem with the biomechanics led approach, is we take biomechanics down to such a low stimulus” “Passive assessments really don’t give me a lot of information that’s useful” “If a person is pain free, I’m not going to take them through our “glute firing patterns”, I’m just going to re-leverage their strength patterns to create a better pattern for hip extension” “I will do pretty much anything I can to not regress somebody” “The term “pre-hab”, and the way it’s been marketed, I have more of a problem with… if you have a well-rounded program that is individualized to the person in front of you, that’s about as much injury prevention as you can achieve” “The thought process of “pre-hab” I don’t mind that much, it’s the marketing I have a problem with” “You start watching (kids play games with no warmup) and you realize, I might not need to be doing all of the things that I am doing just to prepare to train, and if I do need to be doing those things, then I probably need to change my goal to get to the point where I don’t need to do as much of them” “The end goal of corrective exercise or prehab should be to not have to do it anymore” “Hills in general are the most under-utilized, high yield exercise that more athletes could be using” “I’m a huge proponent of sled pushes, lateral sled drags, backwards sled walks” “For upper body movements, for my athletes, we’re doing a lot of alternating reciprocal stuff” “When I look at pelvis and ribcage orientation, I sneak that in with ab work” “If I can reinforce (my wide ISA needs) from an ab perspective, that’s a much easier and more applicable drill to me than doing some of the classical respiration exercises; and I’m still going to be applying some strategic exhalations while I’m doing those” About Kyle Dobbs Kyle Dobbs is the owner and founder of Compound Performance which offers online training, facility consulting and a personal trainer mentorship. Kyle has trained 15,000+ sessions, been a legitimate six-figure earner as a trainer, managed and developed multiple six-figure earners, and has experienced substantial success as a coach and educator. Kyle has an extensive biomechanics and human movement background which he integrates into his gym prescriptions to help athletes achieve their fullest movement, and transferable strength potential.

310: Andrew Sheaff on A Fusion of Track and Swimming Concepts in Athletic Speed Development Jun 09, 2022

Today’s episode features swim coach Andrew Sheaff. Andrew is an assistant swimming coach at the University of Virginia, winners of the last two NCAA women’s championships. In addition to swim coaching, Sheaff has an extensive background in strength and conditioning, including an internship under Buddy Morris. A collegiate swimmer at Pittsburgh, Sheaff was named the Senior Athlete of Distinction. He was a four-time Big East Academic All-Star and a four-time University Scholar Athlete. He writes on numerous aspects of coaching education at his website, coachandrewsheaff.com . A quote on Andrew’s blog that made a lot of sense to me was a quote by former cricket player and ESPN writer, Ed Smith, that “Because the important things are hard to coach, it is tempting to take refuge in the small, irrelevant things because they are easy.” I find this to be extremely relevant to many approaches to athletic development where drills are often over-emphasized and over-controlled, while the actual sporting skill is often left relatively un-changed from season to season. I have found it a common theme, in modern coaching, to attempt to overly “control” an athlete’s technique through the over-use of drills, exact positions, and discrete instructions. This can range from cues in the weight room (butt back, chest out, through the heels!) to the track (heel up, knee up, toe up!) to exact arm positions for swimming movements. On the show today, Andrew speaks on elements of control vs. athlete empowerment in coaching. He talks on training methods that lead to lasting change in technique and performance, with an emphasis on the constraints-led approach. This podcast was a fun cross-pollination of ideas between the worlds of swimming, track and physical preparation, with important concepts for any coach or athlete. Whether you are interested in speed training, technical development, or just overall coaching practice, you are sure to find this a really informative conversation. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Lost Empire Herbs, and the Elastic Essentials online course. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com Find out more about the the online course, Elastic Essentials, by heading to justflysports.thinkific.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 4:51 – Why Andrew got into both physical preparation/S&C, as well as swim coaching, in his coaching career 6:35 – Why Andrew believes swim training remained so “old school” (based on large yardages and distances) for so long, compared to track and field 8:53 – Why so many coaches take refuge in the small/easy/controllable things, when more focus is needed on bigger, but more rewarding, real problems in athletics 12:10 – How coaches seeking “too much control” plays out in the world of swimming 15:36 – Basics of how Andrew uses constraints to allow swimmers problem solving opportunities, vs. trying to control smaller elements of the stroke 23:46 – Bondarchuk’s “Push the Hammer” cue, and the power of slightly ambiguous coaching instructions that don’t over-control the athlete’s movements 31:28 – How the unique situation of training in a 25 yard or 50 meter pool, can create more interesting training options for swim athletes in terms of constraints 35:13 – How Andrew uses constraints that are purely for exploratory perspective, versus constraints from a timed perspective 41:23 – How fatiguing particular body sections or muscles can offer a unique constraint in both swimming, or land activities such as plyometrics 46:04 – The spectrum of “boredom tolerance” between athletes, and how Andrew manages this in practice 51:58 – Why and how Andrew thinks more “standard volume” type training methods can be successful, and if they are sustainable or not 55:12 – The importance of not taking away individuals “athletic identities” away (such as excessive weightlifting or speed-endurance work) if the athlete identifies with it 58:54 – How Andrew specifically creates engagement for swimmers in his training process 1:01:32 – How looking at athlete’s overall states of readiness can become overly-mechanistic, compared to simply asking an athlete how they are doing, and comparing it to their training times 1:11:47 – How to help athletes to “undo” a poor technique, when they first start working with Andrew “A lot of times, there is a focus on the nuances, little things that are almost asthetic, but they don’t really determine performance” “(Small changes the coach can see) don’t really get down to the fundamentals that actually matter” “In swimming, the things to work on are kind of subtle and not really obvious” “You give them a puzzle to figure out, and you use constraints to take away some of the options that they would use to cheat it, and then the only way they can solve that problem is to move in different ways….. they may not figure it out in today, a week, or a month but whenever they do figure it out, you know that you have made a change that matters” “I think your training should be your technique work, and that’s where those constraints come in” “Bondarchuk had one cue: “Push the hammer”” “You focus on the one or two things that matter, and you have to ignore everything else, and you don’t give them feedback on anything else, and you make sure they just get that one thing… if you take that approach, you have to know what the fundamental thing is, and you have to apply that” “In the short term you might think you are getting more out of it by telling people exactly what to do, but in reality you aren’t really addressing the real problem” “From an exploration standpoint; as soon as they get the right idea, we are training” “When you time stuff, it’s not always maximal, but its fast enough to be relevant” “Short-term fatigue can be really useful for challenging skills too, because you are going to have to figure out a way to move differently” “If you give people success, and they see results from what you are doing, they will do pretty much anything” “In general, you need to be careful of taking away people’s identities as athletes, or as groups” “You’re not going to be able to change everything (in an athlete’s technique) so pick the thing that’s going to have the biggest impact” “Most people don’t change anything (technically), ever, they just change some cosmetic stuff” “(An athlete might not have a technique issue) they might just be out of shape” “Sometimes you have to be more extreme, and that comes with more risk… you have to put them in situations where they can feel new ways of moving, versus just telling them what to do” About Andrew Sheaff Andrew Sheaff is an assistant swimming coach at the University of Virginia, winners of the last two NCAA women’s championships. Andrew carries a background in strength and conditioning, and writes on numerous aspects of coaching education at his website, coachandrewsheaff.com . Andrew helps coaches tackle the problem of faster swimming for every athlete, examining all opportunities to improve one’s coaching practice. Andrew believes that our answers lie in the questions we ask. He is interested in the relationships between components, rather than the components themselves. Prior to Virginia, Andrew was the associate head coach for Northwestern men’s swimming from 2012-2017, where he also handled dryland and strength training duties for the team, particularly the sprinters. Andrew also served in coaching at Bucknell, Maryland, and the Bison Aquatic Club. Sheaff has an extensive background in strength and conditioning. In 2007, he worked as an intern at Pittsburgh before interning with the Cleveland Browns throughout the summer. A collegiate swimmer at Pittsburgh, Sheaff was named the Senior Athlete of Distinction. He was a four-time Big East Academic All-Star and a four-time University Scholar Athlete.

309: Rob Assise on Plyometric Complexes, “Crescendo Sets” and Variability in Speed and Power Training Jun 02, 2022

Today’s episode features Rob Assise. Rob has 19 years of experience teaching mathematics and coaching track and field at Homewood-Flossmoor High School. He also has coached football and cross country, and is also the owner of the private training business, Re-evolution athletics. Rob has appeared on multiple prior episodes of the podcast, speaking on his unique approach to jumps training that combines the practice with many sport-like elements. Track and field offers us a great insight as to the effectiveness of a variety of training methods, because each method will be ultimately judged by how fast an athlete ended up running, how far or high they jumped, or how far they threw. In track and field, we combine power alongside technical development in the process of achieving event mastery. Rob has a creative and integrative process to his own training methods, and on today’s show, he speaks largely on some “crescendo style” adjustments to common plyometric and sprint drills that he uses to help athletes improve their technique and rhythmic ability over a period of time. On the show Rob talks about his recent sprint-jump complexes, use of asymmetrical plyometrics, and where he has gone with the “minimal effective dose” style of training. He also shares his thoughts on tempo sprints in the role of jump training, and as we have spoken on in other podcasts, manipulating velocity in a movement in order to improve not only one’s speed, to help them clear up technical issues. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 4:17 – How Rob’s last track season turned out, and an overview of some things he changed and learned 7:15 – The purpose, and implementation of “crescendo” style plyometric training 23:05 – Specific “nuts and bolts” of “crescendo” style plyometrics in terms of sets, reps and intensities 28:20 – Thoughts on the crescendo effect, and wave-loading for fly-10 sprints, and then in the weight room 34:09 – Rob’s ideas for using basketball hoops with his track and field jumps group, and ideas for a warmup and training circuit blending basketball and track ideas 38:54 – Some of Rob’s training complexes that mix top-end speed, and controllable jump takeoffs 42:31 – How biomechanical issues in sprinting and jumping could be potentially solved via increased velocity 46:34 – How Rob has moved away, within his training group, from the “minimal effective dose” idea, especially in the volume of his long-jump approaches 50:35 – Rob’s take on tempo training and long sprints with his training group 57:34 – How Rob has been using asymmetrical skips and bounding to better replicate some jump takeoffs, and then to help teach bounding better “That skill (how to bounce) isn’t necessarily there with athletes” “We brought (the crescendo principle) into all of our regular plyos, the bounds, the gallops, the skips, the run-run-jumps” “If an athlete isn’t getting the RSI I want, I’ll make it a “speed gate golf” game, and we’ll (try exactly for a lower RSI) for a few sets, and then they’ll come back and hit a PR” “Something I need to more of that has a lot of power is the single leg bounds or hopping… with the crescendo style, that’s something I’m going to focus on more, moving forward” “If I played basketball, and I could only make layups or 3 pointers, there may be a role for me, but it would be better if I could hit a mid-range jumper, right?” “Whenever I write up a practice plan, it’s all a complex” “Now days I have no problem with having athletes take 10 long jump approaches in a session, where before, I may have capped it at 4” “I get a lot of benefits of tempo from doing jump type circuits; you’ll take a couple short approach jumps, then do a couple wicket runs, then a jump rope run, then an isometric hold, one to the next, and we are working through that circuit for 30-40 minutes… that’s how I handle tempo; and I don’t have a lot of wear and tear issues when the jumpers” “I’m not opposed to tempo, but I am opposed to abusive tempo” “It’s a good bridge, you are going to do the asymmetric skip for distance with your left, and then your right, and now you are going to do a traditional skip for distance” “Some athletes really aren’t ready to bound, like a max power bound, but they can handle it (going asymmetrically)” About Rob Assise Rob Assise has 19 years of experience teaching mathematics and coaching track and field at Homewood-Flossmoor High School. He also has coached football and cross country, and is also the owner of the private training business, Re-evolution athletics. Additional writing of his can be found at Simplifaster, Track Football Consortium, and ITCCCA. He can be reached via e-mail at robertassise@gmail.com or Twitter @HFJumps.

308: Will Ratelle on Explosive Training Specificity, Olympic Lift Debates, and Avoiding Redundant Exercises May 26, 2022

Today’s episode features Will Ratelle. Will is a strength coach, at the University of North Dakota, working with football, basketball, volleyball and tennis athletes. He is also the owner of “W2 Performance”. Prior to working in the performance field, he spent time as a professional football player, spending time with the Atlanta Falcons, Kansas City Chiefs, and Saskatchewan Roughriders (CFL). In the supportive role of physical preparation/S&C, it is very easy to partition the process of weightlifting away from the actual needs and demand of explosive, chaotic sports. It’s also easy to get carried away with excessive auxiliary work, or “atomizing” facets of power work/RFD that don’t end up transferring to actual explosive sport skills. In this sense, it’s helpful to personally spend time in sport, in skill acquisition, and in strength development one’s self, to intuitively understand the balance, and synergy, between athletic components. Will’s athletic background, love for sport and play, and raw “horsepower” is a unique combination. He was a semi-pro athlete, can clean and jerk 198kg, dunks a basketball with ease, and also loves to play a variety of games and sports. Will has an analytical process to his performance programming, and asks important questions that have use really dig into the why of what we are doing in the gym (and beyond). On the show today, Will talks about his athletic, game-play and strength background, and how despite being more than physically capable, did not make the pro level of football. Will then goes into ideas on what we should actually be looking to improve/intensity in the gym setting. He chats on how to avoid training things that really don’t matter in the grand scheme of everything an athlete is asked to do. Will finishes with his thoughts on the specificity of potentiation, jump and sprint variability training, and then a great take on the “Olympic lifts vs. loaded jumps” debate. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 3:40 – How many “Bang” energy drinks Will believes the typical strength coach should consume daily 4:51 – Will’s background in athletics, sport, and athletic performance 9:53 – The importance of play in fitness and boosting overall athletic qualities 16:02 – Why Will, despite being athletically physically superior to many other football players, did not make it as a pro-football player and what he has learned from that 21:35 – Will thoughts on things he would choose to intensify in the gym, such as barbell velocity 27:17 – Thoughts on “generalized” power training methods 33:39 – Will’s take on not wasting time in the gym, and how to avoid redundancy in the course of training 47:58 – Will’s thoughts on heavy strongman work, squats and deadlifts and the optimal potentiation for sport skills 55:15 – How Will approaches jump and sprint variability in his warmups for training 1:03:46 – Will’s take on loaded jumps versus Olympic lifting, and the utility of Olympic lifting in sport preparation “It’s really difficult to get people,who are my peers, on a Saturday afternoon, to go play racquetball, or go play pickleball, or something like that…. When you do get a group of people to go play a game like that, they always say, “we should do this more often”” “I think a lot of times (playing) is going to have a better training effect than going in the gym for an hour” “I didn’t have the (tactical) ability that would have been required for me to play at that level… the general perception action abilities were right up there with anybody else, I just didn’t have the specific perception action abilities” “I think it’s a good idea to improve your ability to produce outputs, and once you reach a certain threshold of producing these outputs, we need to improve the context by which you can produce those outputs” “I think a lot of extensive plyos is kind of a waste; it depends on the sport, but take basketball, I don’t think they need to do any extensive plyos because that’s what basketball is; submaximal contacts up and down the court” “I do not like the rationalization of doing loaded jumps to improve “rate of force development”… I like to think of them as “you are improving jumping competency”” “I do not like the comparison of loaded jumps and Olympic lifting…. In Olympic lifting you are interacting with an external body of mass” “I try to teach snatch before clean, for a variety of reasons” “The reflexes are being trained much faster in Olympic lifts, than if you are going to do repeated, loaded jumps” About Will Ratelle Will Ratelle is a NCAA Division I strength and conditioning coach at the University of North Dakota, working with football, basketball, volleyball and tennis athletes. Prior to working in the performance field, he spent time as a professional football player, spending time with the Atlanta Falcons, Kansas City Chiefs, and Saskatchewan Roughriders (CFL). He has a passion for solving problems to issues and questions with his athletes regarding performance issues. He takes a principled approach to his training philosophy while also critically thinking about important topics in the field.

307: Dan John on High-Velocity Learning, Games for Explosive Athletes, and Training Synergy May 19, 2022

Today’s episode features strength coach, track coach and writer, Dan John. Dan is a legendary contributor to the world of human performance, having written numerous top-selling books in strength development, such as “Easy Strength”, as well as having coached and taught athletes for decades. He has been a multi-time guest on this podcast, and is one of the greatest influences on the way I see the process of sport performance today. In the world of athletics, it becomes very easy to dissect elements of performance or biomechanics down to a level of minutia where things can actually lose effectiveness, efficiency, or both. In large, fast, multi-joint movements, for example, we reap value that is often times “greater than the sum of its parts” when we are talking about the best way to achieve functional lower body development (such as using a squat or deadlift, rather than several machine based exercises to train the same muscles). Fast sprinting is a more effective way to train the hamstrings than breaking hamstring training down into a series of strength exercises (although you can certainly do both). In a similar vein, a game like volleyball or basketball is often times better than the sum of its parts in terms of agility and plyometric training. Within the scope of complexity and velocity, the human body is forced to adapt to a higher level than a “broken down” versions. In his vast experience, Dan John has been able to see what “big things” in training are truly important, and how we can close the gap that so often appears between common training practices and competition. He knows how to combine key elements in training and one’s life outside of training to create synergistic effects. On the podcast today, Dan speaks whole-part-whole teaching, and how training get actually get dissected to the point where we are creating gaps in actual competitive performance. He will talk about the role of games (not specific to one’s primary sport) in athletic performance, in the off-season, in-season, and as a form of conditioning. From there Dan goes into motor learning wisdom in coaching, and how he uses elements of velocity, complexity, rhythm and relaxation to help athletes adapt to better technical proficiency, as well as dealing with over-analytical athletes in this process. Finally, Dan finishes the show with some practical wisdom on sets and reps in the grand scheme of program design, as well as some thoughts on periodization. It’s always an honor to have Dan on, and listen to his coaching wisdom from decades in his craft. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 4:00 – Whole-Part-Whole teaching, and principles of not overly dissecting movements in the process of athletic development 9:19 – Principles on synergy, and the “sum of the parts” being greater than the individual elements, when it comes to a sport or major human movement 16:08 – The importance of games in athletic programming, and how game play can fulfill many conditioning needs of athletes without over-complicating the process 22:21 – How the “fundamentals” of free play and overall athleticism are critical in the general development of athletes 28:50 – What Dan’s throw practices look like in terms of the proportion of drills or constraints vs. traditional throws 33:45 – How giving athletes more complexity can be a cure for “monkey brain”, or over-thinking athletes 43:43 – Dan’s take on the “Rewzon study” on variable long jump training, and how it carries into his throws practice 54:23 – Advanced, or “magic” drills in track and field, or sports performance 1:04:10 – Dan’s thoughts on where to get started with “sets and reps” in the world of sports performance/strength & conditioning 1:07:41 – Dan’s take on periodization, strength and “power” phases in his training organization “I wasn’t a very good basketball or soccer player, but those two sports taught me triangles, they taught me spacing, and they really helped me as a strong safety (in football)” “Most of these (elite Soviet Union athletes) in the offseason either played volleyball extremely seriously, or soccer extremely seriously. Volleyball is what the explosive sports did in the Soviet union to the point where a lot of the guys would push off their jumping for a while, because they had a volleyball tournament, and that tournament was more important than off-season triple jump” “I think (physioballs) are a waste of time and energy, but here is what you use it for; we play two games. One is no-goalie soccer, and the other is not ultimate-frisbee, but ultimate-swiss ball… I throw that game into our training deep into the season” “Playing always makes you speed up your skill-set” “The drills I teach are important, when I teach them” “I am shocked with how poorly athletes come to me conditioned now…. kids show up and they need interventions, not conditioning” “(Regarding isometrics) I’m a big believer that no movement is the best way to teach movement” “Making something more complex, often makes it simpler for the athlete….. (in terms of increasing velocity) the same thing happens in music and typing” “To me that’s when you get wise coaching, when your vision and training reflect the real issues in performance, and performance is when you step up” “Some of the best successes I’ve had of breaking an athlete out of a slump is range throwing” “The rhythm and the speed cleans it up; complexity seems to help the brain in some ways, drills seem to help the brain in some ways, and then playing with percentages seem to help the brain in some ways” “There was a coach in the early 60’s who had a magnificent track team went all in on isometrics, and his belief was isometrics, a magic drill, and the event, and that’s how he coached his athletes” “Most of the time when I see people try to apply these advanced programs, they still haven’t mastered the basics” “Everybody knows, but very few people do” “The farther and farther you step back, you begin to see the pattern so much clearer, and the patterns I see in my life is that all this extra stuff I did didn’t raise this distance or load up, it was more, but it wasn’t better” “You lift, you race, you play basketball…. that’s not bad” About Dan John Dan John has spent his life with one foot in the world of lifting and throwing, and the other foot in academia. An All-American discus thrower, Dan has also competed at the highest levels of Olympic lifting, Highland Games and the Weight Pentathlon, an event in which he holds the American record. Dan spends his work life blending weekly workshops and lectures with full-time writing, and is also an online religious studies instructor for Columbia College of Missouri. As a Fulbright Scholar, he toured the Middle East exploring the foundations of religious education systems. Dan is also a Senior Lecturer for St Mary’s University, Twickenham, London. His books, on weightlifting, include Intervention, Never Let Go, Mass Made Simple and Easy Strength, written with Pavel Tsatsouline as well as From Dad, To Grad. He and Josh Hillis co-authored “Fat Loss Happens on Monday.” In 2015, Dan wrote Can You Go? on his approach to assessments and basic training. In addition, Before We Go, another compilation akin to Never Let Go became an Amazon Bestseller. In early 2017, Dan’s book, Now What?, his approach to Performance and dealing with “life,” became a Bestseller on Amazon. Hardstyle Kettlebell Challenge became available in September 2017, too.

306: Rolf Ohman on The Elastic Strength Index and Specificity of Power Development in Athletics May 12, 2022

Today’s episode features coach and inventor, Rolf Ohman. Rolf was born in Sweden but grew up in Brisbane, Australia. He has worked for over 40 years in international sports, as an athlete (Decathlon) and as coach at International and National level. He was the Head Coach for the Dalian Olympic Sports Center 2016-17 and Assistant Head Coach Chinese National Team Sprints/Jumps 2018-19. Rolf is the inventor of the 1080 Technology (such as the 1080 sprint device), and has substantial experience in both the data-based and practical aspects of coaching and training. In the recent Randy Huntingon podcasts, Randy spoke about how doing hurdle hops over too high of hurdles had the tendency to “kill elasticity”. Rolf Ohman has worked with Randy, and has substantial experience linking the ground contact times in plyometric exercises, as well as the impulse times of various movements in the weight room, to what is observed in athletics. Track and field athletes have faster impulse needs than team sport athletes as well, and Rolf has worked with both populations, and understands which metrics should be optimized in training for different situations. On today’s podcast, Rolf will speak on the specific drawbacks to using too high of hurdles in bilateral plyometric training, and gives his specific recommendations for which heights he feels are maximally beneficial for both track and team sport individuals. He’ll speak on various elements of transfer in the weight room, such as the progression of the Olympic lifts, as well as thoughts on the transfer present in different elements of gym training, such as the impulse dynamics of lifting seen in elite athletes. Rolf finishes with some thoughts on youth and long term development on the terms of speed and power. Ultimately, this episode helps us to better understand closing the “gap” we often see between the gym, and the forces present on the field of play. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Lost Empire Herbs, and the Elastic Essentials online course. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com Find out more about the the online course, Elastic Essentials, by heading to justflysports.thinkific.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 4:42 – Rolf’s take on the height in hurdle hops, and how it impacts the elasticity of the exercise, as well as drawbacks to using too high of hurdles in the movement 11:13 – What the typical hurdle heights Rolf uses for track and non-track athletes in plyometric training 17:50 – Why Rolf chooses to progress the Olympic lifts in the course of training like he does 24:37 – Rolf’s use of partial vs. full ranges of motion in strength training for athletes 38:29 – Thoughts on oscillating isometric exercises with lifts, compared to a Keiser or air-powered machine setup 52:08 – How contact times and hurdle hop heights change for team sports vs. track 58:59 – How limb speed gets “set” before the age of 15 in athletes, and if athletes miss critical speed windows of training, they will be in a limited place in future performance “There aren’t a lot of guys around who can produce any sort of RSI index from 1 meter drop jumps… when I use high hurdle hops, which I rarely do, it might be in a setting when I’m seeking some kind of force production” “If I build maximum strength for my long jumpers with contact times in the 250-300ms range, is that going to help me?” “If whatever you’re doing in training is on one end of the spectrum, and competition is on the other end of the spectrum, that is “gap-osis”… if that gap is too big, you are going to be in trouble” “In the first 100-150 milliseconds (of a lift) the athletes who are the best really shine there” “We’re coordinating the neural system (in the weight room) we are creating the same coupling times that we see in competition…. It makes no sense in choosing weight room exercises that causes velocity to go to the other end of the spectrum” “Peak power comes much much earlier in normal mass, than what we thought. The normal consensus is that, once you jump off the ground, you hit peak power just when you leave the ground. But when you are lifting a bar, you have to slow the bar down before you reach the top, so you are reaching peak power much much earlier in the lift vs. the end” “If you put 140kg on a bar, vs. 140kg on a Keiser, you are going to generate about 25% less power (on the bar) because the weight is not getting lighter as you move” “(In hurdle hops) for me, I virtually never use anything over 30 centimeters” “You build sprinters at the age of 8-13,15, that’s where you build speed. Whatever windows you open up, or shut down, in that age bracket, that’s what you’ve got to work with later on” “When you get to age 12-13, that’s when you have the highest limb speed you will ever have…. After that you can’t increase limb velocity anymore, it’s set” About Rolf Ohman Rolf Ohman was born in Sweden but grew up in Brisbane, Australia. He has worked for over 40 years in international sports, as an athlete (Decathlon) and as coach at International and National level. He was the Head Coach for the Dalian Olympic Sports Center 2016-17 and Assistant Head Coach Chinese National Team Sprints/Jumps 2018-19. Rolf has worked extensively with training and testing of physical performance of individual athletes in Track & Field as well as professional soccer and ice-hockey teams. He worked with the Italian National Football Team Fitness Staff in 2012, Udinese FC Serie A Italy in 2013-14, and tested Everton FC in 2015. He has lectured in coaching and sports testing in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Switzerland, Germany, Australia, USA, England, China and Italy. Rolf is the inventor of the 1080 Technology (such as the 1080 sprint device), and has strengths in both the data-based and practical aspects of coaching and training.

305: Tim Anderson on Rolling Techniques to Move Better, Improve Gait, and “Connect the X” of the Body May 05, 2022

Today’s episode features Tim Anderson. Tim is the co-owner of the Original Strength Institute, and has been a personal trainer for over 20 years. He has written and co-written many books on human performance including The Becoming Bulletproof Project, Habitual Strength, Pressing RESET, and Original Strength Performance. When it comes down to it, his message is simple yet powerful: We were created to feel good and be strong throughout life. It is because of Tim that I’ve developed a fascination with crawling, and largely, a fascination with bodyweight training in general. So often, our thought on bodyweight training is one that revolves around ways to produce copious amounts of muscle tension, such as in gymnastics, which is great, and do so in volumes that can produce slabs of muscle. At the same time, bodyweight training is much more than simply looking for alternative ways to seek hypertrophy. Training with one’s bodyweight allows for a variety of reciprocal movement actions, where energy is stored and released, transmitting itself through the hands, spine, pelvis and feet. Training with one’s bodyweight also allows us to hone on rudimentary and reflexive movement skills, such as crawling. Tim appeared on episode #154 of the podcast, talking about the power of crawling and reflexive movement. On the tail end of that show, Tim discussed rolling for a few minutes, but I wanted to get him back to dig more thoroughly into that topic. On today’s show, Tim goes into the benefits of rolling, and how he progresses and instructs it for his clients. He speaks about rolling on the level of the vestibular system, joint rotation (particularly internal rotation), the gait cycle, sensation and awareness, and more. At the end of the show, we talk about modulating speeds and rhythms in ground-work, and finally, Tim gets into how his own personal workouts and training have progressed over time, and how rolling plays an important part of his own daily strength routine. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 3:28 – The purpose of rolling for human performance, and how Tim progresses it for clients 7:09 – The possibility of rolling to improve balance, coordination and dexterity through stimulation of the vestibular system 13:46 – Tim’s description of segmental rolling and how to progress it over time 23:30 – How much rolling Tim prescribes for various clients and individuals 26:53 – The specific elements in the process of rolling that helps to “connect the X” of the torso 32:21 – Ideas on using rolling or similar connective movements between more intensive main training sets 39:17 – How Tim looks at rolling and similar movements in light of their capacity to help improve internal rotation in individuals 46:44 – Addressing various speeds or rhythms to training movements 50:27 – What Tim’s early workouts looked like, and what his training has transitioned to now that he has gotten into his Original Strength workouts 58:29 – Ideas on super-slow crawling and the benefits of controlled bodyweight movement 1:04:02 – What the head and eye position should be like in the course of rolling “Our skin is our largest tactile organ, and when we roll, we are stimulating the skin a lot” “If you could imagine that your body is a sponge, and everything out there is information; so when you are rolling on the ground, you are trying to take that sponge and soak in the information everywhere” “If we do these three things, we’ll more than likely stay healthy throughout our lives: The first one is breath properly with your diaphragm, nasal breathe, keep the tongue on the roof of your mouth. The second is aggravate your vestibular system, and you can do that through eye and head rolling, things like that, and the third is to activate your gait pattern” “When you add in the extra information that the brain is not getting that the nervous system is looking for; it really takes the brakes off of everything” “A roll should look graceful and beautiful; a lot of people look like a log, they move like one whole piece, rather than a piece at a time” “It’s the soft stuff that allows you to do the hard stuff better, safer, more free” “If the body is a big “X” and when we roll, a great way to do it is to take your right shoulder towards your left hip” “People want to do things too fast, most of the time I am trying to get them to slow down” “I love using slow movements to fill in the gaps so people can demonstrate full control over how their body moves” “When people really have control over their body, fast movement still looks beautiful” “I spend every morning, 30-40 minutes rolling around, or rocking on the floor” “In my regiment, super-slow crawling is a part of it, and it is literally how slow can I crawl and control every facet of the ground. And sometimes only two limbs are on the ground for a long time” “When a child is rolling, they have an intention (something they are reaching for)” “We try to teach crawling in a way where if a leopard is crawling, it should look beautiful, so if a human is crawling, it should look just as beautiful” “What you are seeing at the zoo is the truth of movement, while what you are seeing at the gym is the well-intentioned, misguided, notion of exercise” Show Notes Segmental Rolling https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HBzwAfLscI&t=167s About Tim Anderson Tim is the co-founder of Original Strength, and has been a personal trainer for over 20 years. He is an accomplished author and speaker and is known for streamlining complex ideas into simple and applicable information. He is passionate about helping people realize they were created to be strong and healthy. Tim has written and co-written many books on this subject including The Becoming Bulletproof Project, Habitual Strength, Pressing RESET, and Original Strength Performance. When it comes down to it, his message is simple yet powerful: We were created to feel good and be strong throughout life.

Rafe Kelley and Charles St. John on “Supercharging” Games and Building Dynamic Learning Models Apr 28, 2022

Today’s episode features Rafe Kelly and Charles St. John. Rafe is the owner of Evolve Move Play, and has studied and taught a multitude of movement practices spanning gymnastics, parkour, martial arts, weightlifting, Cross-fit and more for decades. His passion to is help people build the physical practice that will help make them the strongest, most adaptable and resilient version of themselves in movement and in life. Charles has been training parkour since 2009, and coaching it since 2012. He carries multiple parkour coaching certifications and is a certified personal trainer for general fitness, while he currently coaches at the APEX Denver Parkour (Apexdenver.com) and Circus facility in Colorado. Motor learning is the worldview by which you keep yourself from over-compartmentalizing elements of a total training program. It’s how you discover the window, or lens by which an athlete acquires mastery in their sport, and also determines how you go about constructing a training session with the “whole” in mind. It allows one to see the forest from the trees in the process of athletic mastery. If we only listen to “speed”, “output” and “drill” oriented material, and leave out the actual over-arching process of motor learning in any sort of athletic performance discussion, we end up with a more over-compartmentalized, less sustainable, less effective, and less enjoyable model of training On the podcast today, Rafe and Charles speak in the first half, on games they particularly enjoy from a true “generalist” point of view; games that encapsulate the most essential elements of “human-ness” in movement. These game principles can be plugged into either general (for the sake of better outputs for the subsequent training session), or specific warmups (for the sake of “donor” learning to the main session). In the second half, we get into a detailed discussion on dynamic points of learning and coaching, speaking on points of drill vs. holistic approach to skills, frequency of feedback (and types of feedback), working with highly analytical athletes, checking the effectiveness of one’s cues, and much more. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 4:41 – Why Rafe and Charles love rugby as a multi-dimensional game that encapsulates a lot of human qualities and opportunities 14:12 – “Hybrid” games that coaches like to play as a generalist warmup to a strength training session, and the emergence of “king of the course” 23:21 – How to craft a “donor” activity to prepare for your primary training activity 32:49 – What the balance is, in parkour, on teaching actual technique, vs. decisions 52:08 – How to properly tell stories and frame skills to an athlete, without letting words get in the way 1:02:11 – How many efforts to let an athlete perform, before coaches should seek to intervene in the form of a cue or instruction, and how to help athletes be better self-learners 1:14:34 – Cueing and instructing athletes who may desire more structure than others 1:22:37 – Thoughts on velocity of a movement, and the transferability of drills, or slower versions of skills, versus fast movements 1:27:02 – “Feeding the Error” and principles of variable learning that can assist in skill development 1:32:38 – How to improve learning by reducing potential “fear” constraints in sports with a potential risk element “I would contest that (rugby) is the best designed ball sport… it’s the only sport I played that allowed for a range of body types” “Team sports have all of (generalist fitness) demands in them… and you have to do it in a team manner, you have to cooperate with other people” “I think that rugby and football are under-rated as self-defense arts” “For kids, having a free flow based sport as their base is really important, and it’s difficult (for them) to deal with all the stoppage in play (in more structured sports)” “Making everybody miss (tackling you) seems like such an extraordinary expression of athleticism” “The fundamental things we think you should be able to do are: martial arts, parkour, some sort of team sport element, and be able to manipulate objects… sticks, balls, ropes… and you shouldn’t just be competent in each of those areas, you should be able to blend them” “If you think about the goals of (your sport) you can try to abstract a game from those goals rather than just trying to warm up through lighter technical variations of the same technique you are going to be covering anyway, it becomes less redundant and a lot more fun” “You gotta warm up the brain and the emotions. You are going to have a better lift if you have a game and are laughing, before you get to the lift” “When I was training in nature, because that was where I was training, what I found is that a lot of the movements that I had expected to have to decompose for people and give them a lot of cues to get them through, they automatically self-organized” “A lot of times we think they need technical fixes, and it is a physical problem, or is it just like an awareness issue? When its’ awareness, athletes are thinking of the skills as independent expressions, rather than having expression towards something. So what I like to do is teach principles, before techniques.” “Instead of saying, here’s why you should step your leg fully to the ground, I introduce the idea of having full control of the rhythm of your movement” “I can tell you what you did, or what you should do, but that doesn’t mean that on the next repetition you’ll be able to do it. There is a little more problem solving that goes into that, so how can we set up a constraint for you that can allow you to start expressing the behaviour that you are trying for” “Sometimes it is a mechanical problem; you need to get the mechanic to fix the thing. So as coaches, we need to think in these levels of systems. Is it because the glute can’t fire well, or the tibia can’t glide at all? Or is it because it’s a habitual pattern the athlete has and there is no physiological limitation, we just need to do differential learning or feed the error so they can start doing some kinestheic mapping to control the position” “Pick the highest progression of the skill that can be failed safely” “That really does matter to people, your ability to empathize with their journey” “Something as high order as actually doing martial arts skills, can give you mobility. But you can spend years trying to perfect your mobility and have no physical skills to show for it” “I try to avoid giving a cue until I see someone do something at least 3 times” “Check your cues with your athletes. Just like they need feedback in your movement, you need feedback on your coaching” “If you work with high school and college athletes who are part of a team of coaches who are probably variable in terms of competency. So if you can install in students, respectfully a way to know what works for them, to be able to say, thanks but no thanks, to that cue, it’s going to help a lot in athletes being able to sustain themselves in that maelstrom that getting input from 6 different coaches can be” “That’s the problem I think we have with that type of (hyper-analytical) personality; how can we get them to be more focused on the perceptual information in the environment, and getting an autonomous relationship to it in the expression of their sport” “A huge issue with those absolute maximal jumps is that they are very easy to break athletes with” Show Notes King of the Course https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqJpiAMuz0w Bill Boomer Water Flow Exercise https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAslSR8-Etc&t=147s Mountain Goats Climbing a Near Vertical Face https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfTH1VHqmUU About Rafe Kelley Rafe Kelley is the owner of Evolve, Move, Play, a business designed to use movement practice to develop more resilient and embodied humans. Raised by two yoga instructors, he was a basketball player and gymnast (and gymnastics coach) in his teens. Rafe started in the martial arts at 6 years old, studying Tang Soo Do, Aikido, Kung Fu, Kick Boxing, Brazilian Ju Jitsu and Muay Thai. Rafe also has experience in modern training disciplines such as sprinting, gymnastics, crossfit, FRC, modern dance and many others. His primary specialization is in parkour, the practice of navigating obstacles by jumping, running, flipping or swinging over them, a skill set he primarily taught himself by watching videos and training deep in the woods. Rafe co-founded Parkour visions at age 23, and eventually left to form Evolve, Move, Play. His students have included world-class parkour athletes and MMA fighters, as well as untrained grandmothers. His passion to is help people build the physical practice that will help make them the strongest, most adaptable and resilient version of themselves in movement and in life. About Charles St. John Charles describes himself somewhat paradoxically as a fitness industry professional and an athletic amateur, in the literal sense of the word. He dabbles in a variety of disciplines for the love of movement, but takes a very academic and business-oriented approach to both his digital marketing for fitness businesses and his coaching and personal training. Most relevant to our conversation today, he has been training parkour since 2009, and coaching it since 2012. He carries multiple parkour coaching certifications and is a certified personal trainer for general fitness as well. He currently coaches at the APEX Denver Parkour (Apexdenver.com) and Circus facility in Colorado.

303: Rocky Snyder on Optimizing Foot and Glute Function with a Joint-Based Approach to Training Apr 21, 2022

Today’s show features biomechanist, coach and author, Rocky Snyder. Rocky is the owner of “Rocky’s Fitness” in Santa Cruz, California. Rocky is an accomplished personal trainer with an absolutely immense library of knowledge in multiple disciplines of human performance, such as biomechanics, exercise selection and neurology. Rocky is the author of the book “Return to Center” and has a track record on being able to restore functional movement ability to even the most difficult client cases. In the world of training, we have a “muscle-centric” approach, and then a “joint-centric” approach to performance. I have found that while training and centering one’s efforts on muscles and their actions can definitely be helpful, an approach that can serve a greater percentage of clients in a sustainable manner is one that understands joint mechanics, and how muscles will respond to one’s joint positions. Muscles that are long, short, weak or tight are as such, because they are responding to an individual’s joint mechanics, and therefore the related demands they are constantly placed under. Today’s episode focuses on the joint mechanics of the feet and hips. Rocky starts by highlighting elements of proper pronation and supination (with an extra emphasis on the action of the foot’s transverse arch in movement, it’s link to glute function and how we can assess how well it is being utilized) and how we can look for a deficiency in either area. Rocky then gets into practical exercise interventions in the world of lunge motions, standing twists, and why Rocky favors spiraling single leg training to glute-bridge oriented exercises for a functional glute training effect. Finally, Rocky gives his take on how loaded carries fit with the gait cycle, and can “balance out” and restore athletes from compressive gym work. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com Find out more about the the online course, Elastic Essentials, by heading to justflysports.thinkific.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 4:28 – How Rocky got started in fitness, and the different areas of the field he has layered onto his approach, such as biomechanics, neurology and breathwork (evolution from outdoor athlete, to gym rat, into functional fitness/neurology/biomechanics) 10:43 – Rocky’s experience in coaching youth sports 13:39 – What Rocky thinks on the idea of “over-pronation” and what that term means to him 22:30 – The importance of “anchoring the transverse arch” on pronation mechanics and glute utilization in gait 34:26 – How to improve pronation, and solve the issue of “over-pronation” in an athlete 40:17 – Considering barbell hip thrusts in light of knowing more about pronation and spirals in the body, to activate glutes 46:48 – What Rocky is looking for on the level of the pelvis when it comes to pronation 53:35 – The link between sprinting, anterior and posterior pelvic tilt 58:05 – What Rocky is looking at in a reverse glider lunge exercise in terms of pronation and supination 1:03:30 – The importance of a straight back leg in the isometric lunge exercise in terms of the reciprocal action of the body 1:07:52 – The importance of supination in the foot, and how to create a balance of pronation and supination in the feet in various exercises 1:16:45 – How loaded carries fit with expansion bias and functional core strength, for the human body “I couldn’t stand gyms when I was growing up, I grew up in the backwoods of New England, I grew up doing rock climbing, cross country skiing, whitewater canoeing, but I was also a gymnast and got into wrestling” “My work originally started with muscular-centric loading… but now there’s also motor neurology and being a biomechanist, that’s where I am today” “In pronation we need to have opposition in the sagittal plane between the rearfoot and forefoot, in the frontal plane, as well as transverse. If somebody is lowered in all of those places, that would be over-pronation, where they are not able to re-form to a neutral position where there is some shape of arches to the foot” “In order for pronation to occur, the heel rolls inward while the forefoot is level with the ground, for the most part” “We need to see there to be a difference of motion between the rearfoot and the forefoot” “If you can anchor down 1st and 5th met-head, and let the heel move the way it should, you are going to have really great foot mechanics” “When you look at Roman architecture, you see a keystone at the top of the arch, it keeps the arch rigid, and when there is weight coming down onto that arch, there is even more rigidity… the three arches (of the foot) have three points of contact, and they have keystones… and when we are talking about the transverse arch, there is the middle cuneiform (keystone)” “Pain is really measured in millimeters, so is success” “We could have one minute adjustment somewhere in your body and it could have a cascading effect somewhere else” “I don’t give a lot of hip bridging away in terms of program design” “We are so muscle-centric in the gym setting, just simply by watching joint motion could be a huge shift in how somebody coaches and looks at program design” “Just by assessing how the pelvis moves, it’s going to tell me a lot about what’s happening down below” “Once that pelvis is there, it’s going to send the proper mass down through the leg, and into the foot, and if the foot responds in kind, man, you’ve just made yourself a bulletproof athlete, and acl and high hamstring pull is going to not be there, there are a lot of things that happen when we get the joint mechanics to behave properly” “We may not see full extension of the knee, if we’re not seeing full extension of the hip” “If we are not teaching the back leg to lengthen, then what is its power potential when the foot comes off of the ground?” “Can I give joints this experience in 3 dimensional space, and change how its’ behaving, if it needs changing” “Pronation is your lowest point, supination is your highest point (in running)” “If you look at Olympic wrestlers, a lot of them came from the farm-belt” “When it comes to loaded carries, chaos reigns supreme” “Loaded carries are all about anti-gravity since we are driving away a heavy load” Show Notes Reverse Valslide Lunge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTbvuQJ42Hw Standing Plate Twist for Pronation and Supination https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoaD3FwfHsU Using Wedges to Fill Space in the Feet View this post on Instagram A post shared by Joel Smith (@justflysports) Rocky Snyder last appeared on episode #209: The Gait Cycle, Single Leg Work, and True Functional Training for Elite Athleticism About Rocky Snyder Rocky Snyder grew up outside of Boston and moved to Santa Cruz in 1991. He met his wife in 1997, and is a proud father to a daughter and son. He is an accomplished and avid surfer and snowboarder, and well known as a regular on KSCO 1080am since 2002, with his Surf and Ski Report every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings at 6:25 am, and every weekday on KPIG 107.5fm at 8:25 am. Rocky is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist, an NSCA-Certified Personal Trainer, Certified in Applied Functional Science, NASM-Corrective Exercise Specialist, a licensed US Soccer Coach and a USA Weightlifting Coach. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Rocky has written three books on sports conditioning, has been featured in many publications and his fourth book, Return to Center is now available with all major booksellers

302: Jeremy Frisch, Austin Jochum and Jake Tuura on Engineering “Athlete-Centered” Training and Problem Solving Athletic Development Apr 14, 2022

Today’s show features a roundtable discussion featuring Jeremy Frisch, Austin Jochum and Jake Tuura. Jeremy is the owner of Achieve Performance Training, Austin runs Jochum Strength, and Jake is the owner of “Jacked Athlete”. All three of these individuals were previously strength coaches of NCAA DI institutions before getting into the private sector of training. Recently Jake hosted Austin on his podcast, having a conversation about quitting their jobs as NCAA strength coaches to venture into the private sector. I found that talk very interesting, as I’ve recently been in the same situation, and I think a lot about the way that modern sport and university “systems” are put together. Often times, we are victims of either in-effective, or over-structuring in organizations, in a way that can leave us disconnected and/or overly-compartmentalized. In a variety of “private sector jobs”, people tend to wear more hats. In sports performance, this could be: strength coach, skill coach, fitness coach, and physical educator to name a few. Today’s show isn’t so much about quitting a scholastic strength coaching job, but more-so on the experience of now-private sector coaches who wear those multiple-hats. It’s on how that helps us view the predicament of modern sports in a new way, along with engineering solutions. Despite our coaching setting, we all should aspire to be problem solvers. On today’s episode, our panel speaks on paths away from the college training sector, and how getting into the private sector has allowed them to really focus on the pressing needs in modern sports, such as the “lost” art of physical education, play and then a greater understanding on building robustness and keeping athletes healthy. Whether you are a scholastic or private coach, this is a great show to step back and take a more zoomed-out perspective on effectively training athletes for long-term success. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 3:22 – Jeremy, Austin and Jake’s story of transitioning into the private sector of performance 12:30 – How the extra work a college strength coach puts in can fall to the wayside when a sport coach doesn’t listen or runs a poorly designed practice plan 22:12 – What are some of the big elements of change that have come with moving from the college gig to the private sector 36:10 – “Weaponizing” what you are passionate about in training and performance 38:12 – What Jeremy Frisch has seen from 12 years of being in the private sector, how much he feels kids can get back if they miss critical movement skills early on 42:44 – Where Austin and Jake see their process moving in the next 10 years as coaches, now that they have more freedom to explore things they want 51:35 – Jeremy’s take on the importance of physical education for strength and sport coaches 58:34 – Questioning old narratives of warmups and training in sports performance 1:03:46 – Closing thoughts on the integration of sport and strength and conditioning “Why is everything so isolated in sports, why do we have so many people who specialize in one thing” “My first month (as a DI strength coach) I realized that a lot of athletes had limitations that I wasn’t going to fix, and over time that sort of got to me, and I realized I could really make a difference if I went back and worked with younger athletes” “When I was at Holy Cross I had 15 teams throughout the year” “We have to earn our jobs with new tools, with new shiny toys we present to the sport coach” “I never feel like I am dying in a game when I am going out to catch a pass, I’m pretty recovered, we don’t have to run to death…. Now I don’t have to worry so much about what the head coach or anyone above you (is thinking) being in my own facility you can make those decisions you need to make and not worry about who is looking over your shoulder” “I started realizing, if I would have just had this kid a few years earlier, it would have made a huge difference” “Being a dad of 4, I’m so much more patient than I used to be” “I do less strength and conditioning now, and more sport skills training now” “(When being a private sector coach) Winning is not your customer anymore, now that athlete is your customer… you actively get rewarded for getting better” “(In the private sector) There is nothing to complain about, if I’m in the private sector, it’s all on me” “If you can teach kids these movement skills before they hit puberty, you are really going to help them out a lot… when their body they are really going to hold onto those things” “Kids that have done gymnastics or just any movement based background, they pick up new skills faster… how can you get people better at picking up new skills? I think that’s where the sports performance model can go to” “If you specialize early, the chance of patella-femoral pain is twice as much as it was before” “Humans, dogs and horses get tendonopathy, and they are the only animals getting it” “Have a different passion, have a different hobby, be interested in something that’s outside of the weightroom” “Many coaches would be better off getting a minor in phys-ed along with the strength and conditioning training” “If all you know is how to lift weights, and you want to make money off of kids, you are going to train them like little adults… and the kids are bored as hell” “If you want me to look like a good strength coach, then get a good recruiting coordinator” “The best athletes are the best and we still don’t know why they are that way, but it’s probably not because of the model we have as a strength coach” About Jeremy Frisch Jeremy Frisch is the owner and director of Achieve Performance Training in Clinton, Mass. He is the former assistant strength and conditioning coach for the Holy Cross athletic department. While there, he worked directly with the Crusader men’s basketball team, in addition to serving as the strength coach for Holy Cross’ men’s soccer, men’s and women’s lacrosse, baseball, softball, field hockey, tennis and women’s track & field squads. Prior to joining Holy Cross, Frisch served as the sports performance director at Teamworks Sports Center in Acton, Mass., where he was responsible for the design and implementation of all strength and conditioning programs. He also served as a speed and strength coach for Athletes Edge Sports Training, and did a strength and conditioning internship at Stanford University. Frisch is a 2007 graduate of Worcester State College with a bachelor’s degree in health science and physical education. He was a member of the football and track teams during his days at Worcester State and Assumption College. About Austin Jochum Austin Jochum is the owner of Jochum Strength where he works with athletes and washed up movers to become the best versions of themselves. He also operates The Jochum Strength insider which is an online training platform for people trying to feel, look, and move better. Austin was a former D3 All-American football player and a hammer thrower (MIAC weight throw champion) at the University of St.Thomas, About Jake Tuura Jake Tuura, MS, CSCS currently works at Velocity Training Center as a strength and conditioning coach. Prior to Velocity, Jake was a collegiate S&C coach for 7 years. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Superior (2014) and his Masters from The College of St. Scholastica (2015). His website: jackedathlete.com helps athletes gain copious amounts of muscle, jump higher, and rehab from jumper’s knee.

301: Randy Huntington Answers Listener Questions on Speed and Power Development Apr 07, 2022

Today’s show welcomes back track coach Randy Huntington, a track coach who has spent his recent years as the national track and field coach for the Chinese Athletics association. Randy has coached numerous Olympians, gold medalists, and world record holders in his time as a track coach, and one of his recent successes was training Su Bingtian, Asian record holder in the 100m dash. Bingtian, en-route to his 9.84 second run, covered 60m in 6.29 seconds and 40 yards in 4.08 seconds as per NFL combine timing. The past shows with Randy have been loaded with the wisdom of an elite coach and have been very popular. For this episode, Randy took listener questions, and gives his answers on a variety of topics. Some particular trends for this show included his specific speed training workouts and intensities, his thoughts on traditional strength and hypertrophy methods for speed and power, coaching relaxation and sprint technique, as well as Randy’s thoughts on the ever-debated Nordic hamstring exercise (and hamstring injury prevention training in general). This and much more is covered on this tremendous Q&A episode. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. 4:11 – The importance of intuition in coaching and performance 7:33 – How understanding the response of animals can help coaches gain better intuition with training human athletes 11:27 – How to “rig” a seated calf machine to attempt to replicate the Keiser seated calf machine 15:23 – Randy’s thoughts on strength development for speed 22:49 – Randy’s favorite top speed and acceleration sessions 28:25 – How does Randy teach relaxation in sprinting, and his thoughts on mini-hurdles/wickets 31:03 – Why Randy doesn’t have his athletes train flying sprints at their maximal speed 37:02 – Considerations in how Randy uses “time of task” sprints, versus simply sprinting a distance for time 42:35 – A recap of how Randy uses water and general strength based recovery methods 45:17 – More thoughts on how and why Randy doesn’t train his flying sprints at maximal velocity each week 48:09 – How Randy’s training has evolved over his years as a coach 52:46 – Teaching acceleration mechanics to young athletes who don’t have much physical strength yet 54:56 – What key data points does Randy use to assess his athletic process 1:00:00 – Randy’s thoughts on overspeed “wind-shield” training such as used by Marcell Jacobs 1:06:39 – How Randy alters strength training when sprinters are in-season 1:07:51 – How Randy would train an athlete who is naturally weak, and if he plays to an athlete’s strengths, or works primarily to bring up weaknesses 1:11:38 – Randy’s thoughts on hamstring injury prevention and Nordic hamstrings “I try not to do too hard of strength training, until people can execute the technical (speed) component I want them to, unless that technical component needs strength to happen. I don’t look at strength training as a way to create anything, because I first want them to be able to get them to move through the (skill) positions that are necessary, and then we add strength on top of that” “We still interpret power as force only… mostly because we haven’t had very effective ways to test it” “My basic pattern is heavy sled, 50% of bodyweight or higher, then 1080, using 15-20% of bodyweight, then unloaded” “We mostly use 6” mini-hurdles” “I rarely go above 95% (of max speed) (in flying sprints in training)” “I use (time of task) sprints specifically for testing” “I only test the 30m fly (max) at most every 6 weeks, and usually every 2 months” “Flying 30 is my big (“data oriented”) test” “I don’t look at the weight of the clean, I look at the power of the clean” “100 guys get the 40 (second test), 200 guys get the 45 (second test)… I won’t take Su past the 20 second test” “The horse trailer behind a car (overspeed) gives the opportunity to run so relaxed” “If I am doing (hypertrophy) I would do 1 day a week, over a 3 week cycle, if we did two cycles. It’s not a steady diet of it; you substitute one with a little more hypertrophy stuff to get this kid to get a better cross sectional area to express more force along with the elasticity he has” “(Nordic hamstrings) are too much for a track athlete unless you are barely doing any running at all” “If (Nordics) were the key for being fast and performance, Su would have trouble with 15 kilos and my female long jumper would knock out 30 kilos… I like it for injury prevention, but the Keiser moving fast and powerfully; you got a really nice injury prevention going on there” “I use the Keiser leg curl, really fast (for hamstring training)” About Randy Huntington Randy Huntington is currently the national track and field coach for the Chinese athletics association and has over 45 years of coaching experience. Huntington is rated as a USATF Master Coach in the jumps – one of only five in the U.S. He has been the coach for many world-class athletes over the years, including eight Olympians and seven World Championship Team members. Mike Powell and Willie Banks set world records in the long jump and triple jump, respectively, while under his tutelage. Six of his athletes have been in the U.S. all-time top ten in their respective events. Randy has coached Su Bingtian, the Asian record holder in the 100m dash who ran a time of 9.84 seconds, and recorded the equivalent of a 4.08 40-yard dash en route to that 9.84 second time. Huntington coached Powell to the Olympic Games in 1988, 1992 and 1996, where Powell won a pair of silver medals in the long jump. On Aug. 30, 1991 in Tokyo, Powell broke Bob Beamon’s 23-year-old long jump record that was expected to never be broken, leaping 29-4 1/2 (8.95m) – a record that still stands. Willie Banks, who Huntington coached to the 1988 Olympics, broke the world triple jump record with a mark of 58-11 1/2 (17.97m), June 16, 1985 in Indianapolis, and under Huntington’s coaching twice jumped over 18 meters, which is the longest in American history. Huntington has also coached Olympians Joe Greene (long jump bronze medal in 1992), Sheila Hudson (American indoor and outdoor record-holder in the triple jump), Al Joyner, Darren Plab, Tony Nai and Sharon Couch. At least one of his athletes has competed in every summer Olympic Games since 1984. Powell, Greene, Hudson, Couch and Nai were all World Championship team members that he coached, along with Kathy Rounds and Kenta Bell. Huntington has also worked with professional athletes in other sports, notably football. He has worked as a conditioning and/or speed consultant for several teams including Indianapolis, St. Louis, Miami, Denver, Philadelphia and Cincinnati, and has worked with numerous individual players including Trace Armstrong, Terry Kirby, Henry Ellard and Ed McCaffrey. He has also worked with college football programs at Florida, Oklahoma and Notre Dame including training for the NFL combine, working with athletes such as Kyle Turley and Grant Wistrom.

300: Bobby Whyte on Game-Specific Acceleration, Motor Learning and Confidence Building in Basketball Performance Training Mar 31, 2022

Today’s show welcomes back Bobby Whyte. Bobby is an athletic performance and basketball skill enhancement trainer operating out of northern New Jersey. Bobby recently appeared on episode 178 of the podcast https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-178-bobby-whyte/, speaking on his integration of strength and skill training for basketball. The world of sports performance can easily suffer from isolationism in the realm of strength, speed and movement skill. In the recent podcast with Tony Villani, the difference between 40-yard dash speed, and actual game speed in the NFL was made very clear. We need to understand more about the nuances, and principles of movement in sport to prepare athletes for it, instead of over-focusing on linear speed mechanics. When we understand the over-arching principles of learning and movement, we can apply them to any sport or skill. Throughout this podcast, we’ve had intelligent minds like Adarian Barr speaking on biomechanical principles, and then folks like Michael Zweifel, Tyler Yearby, and Rob Gray talking about foundational principles of learning and skill acquisition. Bobby Whyte has been using those principles, and tying it all together in his basketball performance program. On the show today, Bobby Whyte speaks how he has taken concepts picked up from Adarian Barr and applied them to movement training and acceleration in the game of basketball. He shares his thoughts on key physical abilities in basketball, and how he uses motor learning principles to help athletes improve their specific skill array for the game. Bobby will speak on how he has taken motor learning principles into landing mechanics and common injury prevention themes in training, and finally Bobby will talk about how he specifically seeks to develop the all-important confidence level in his players in his training sessions. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com Find out more about the the online course, Elastic Essentials, by heading to justflysports.thinkific.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 5:21 – What Bobby has been learning and integrating since his last time on the podcast 2 years ago 6:45 – How Bobby has integrated some of Adarian Barr concepts directly into basketball speed and movement training 18:49 – How basketball, and related movement training, has universal application into many other sports, such as football 24:44 – Key physical abilities on the basketball court that can transfer into great gameplay 28:33 – The importance of chaos in basketball qualities and carryover 35:26 – How Bobby views landing and landing mechanics for his basketball athletes, and how good general strength training can go a long way in helping prevent injury without needing to do plyometrics where athletes need to move a “certain way” 42:45 – Bobby’s take on feedback and instruction in the course of coaching his athletes, and avoiding over-coaching 51:54 – How confidence in one’s specific game and skill abilities is a key and defining factor in athletes that make it to the next level of performance 59:01 – What is a “good drill”? 1:03:14 – Bobby’s thoughts on the benefits and drawbacks of the vast amount of information available to athletes today “The best athletes can maintain (Adarian Barr’s) athletic posture until… it’s time to cut, it’s time to shoot, etc.” “When I’m falling (to drop into a basketball move), I’m almost pulling myself down” “A lot of players will go into that horizontal fall, and there will be a pause before they get moving… our goal is to smooth that out” “They players that struggle with (coming up off the knees into an acceleration) struggle to get on their arches” “All of those physical abilities just give me more action capability; the athletes who succeed are the ones who understand how to apply their physical gifts in an effective way where they are making decisions in their sport” “I look at everything, not as a race to speed, but as a race to position” “If you spend all of your time shooting alone in the gym, with no chaos, it’s not going to hold up, so you have to experience that chaos” “We can’t train perfectly for a game that’s imperfect” “Give me an athlete that can do a 360 layup, and he’s not bad at finishing, it’s going to be hard to find one” “I try to have those opportunities to let athletes figure things out themselves” “The last thing I want to think of when I’m jump shooting is where my elbow is” “If there’s a hiccup, there’s a hitch (in a shot) there’s a whole bunch of things that simply adding speed will correct and make it fluid” “I don’t want you to have an emotional attachment to the goal (making the shot)” “This is what moves the needle more than anything, if you can rewire a player’s mind” “The best players I have, the ones that end up getting scholarships, they have very little or no self-doubt; on the other hand, I have players who get bigger, faster, stronger, get more skilled, and never really do much with it” “(when Bobby gives a star player a difficult challenge) The other players in the group will see the best player struggling, and overcoming it, and he becomes a teacher” “I don’t want to teach players how to move, I want them to learn how to move” Show Notes Coaching the “Two Falls” Specifically for the Game of Basketball View this post on Instagram A post shared by HyPower Performance (@bobbywhyte) About Bobby Whyte Bobby Whyte is an Athletic Performance and Basketball Skill Enhancement Trainer operating out of Northern New Jersey. Focusing on developing the complete player athlete, Bobby practices the “Evaluate – Educate -Empower” program he experienced first hand growing up training with now world renown trainers and specialists. His personal journey, beginning with a 12” vertical jump at age 15 to playing and coaching basketball internationally provide him understanding and the confidence needed to tailor programs which maximize individual development. With a quick wit, Bobby makes tough, challenging sessions entertaining. Bobby is a certified NASM Personal Trainer and FMS Movement Specialist. He’s also certified with I’m Possible Training, the world’s largest basketball training company. He’s worked with athletes ranging from beginner to NBA/NFL/Overseas Professionals. Most recently, he spent 6 months working in China as the Head Strength Coach for the Guangxi Rhinos. Bobby has the ability and knowledge to develop skill and performance programs to deliver complete, healthy athletes. He believes growth takes place at the edge of ability and it his passion to bring athletes to that edge.

299: Tony Villani on NFL Combine Speed, Game Speed, and Focusing Where it Counts Mar 24, 2022

Today’s show welcomes Tony Villlani, sports performance coach and owner of XPE sports in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Tony has coached over twenty #1 finishes in the NFL combine and is the creator of the Game Speed and Separation Movement Web. Tony has worked with many of the top NFL players in the league, but will tell you that his learning from those athletes was a much bigger deal in Tony’s development than the fact that he “trained them”. Clearly you have to have a level of speed that’s well above average to be successful at many high level sports. At the same time, the fastest athletes in sports where having a level of speed is important, such as at the NFL combine, are not the successful ones in pro-football. Interestingly, the fastest receivers in the history of the combine have never had truly successful careers. This brings up the question, not only why this is, but also, how can we distribute our training efforts over time to optimize the way that athletes actually move on the field? Clearly, we need to work to get athletes fast in a linear sense, but how much are we helping if we overly focus on linear speed (and spend lots of time hair splitting linear speed in twitter arguments) and don’t address the types of speed utilized in sport. Tony deeply understands the nuances and categories of direction change in sport, and actively trains these components in his sessions. This isn’t to say that Tony doesn’t love traditional speed training (just look at his combine success) but he also loves building speed that gives athletes the highest chance of success in their sport. On the show today, Tony talks about how he “ratios” linear speed training to game-speed training, as well as how he frames NFL combine style training in light of game speed to those trainees. He’ll get into why he feels that the fastest athletes in the history of the combine have never been the best actual football players, and then gets into a substantial layout of his key points in change of direction training. Tony also lists some key aspects of offensive and defensive agility, as well as how agility can differ between sports. This was a podcast that you’ll never forget if you train any type of athlete for speed in their sport. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 6:07 – How having young children has taught Tony about the process of athletic development 7:47 – Tony’s take on the balance of how linear and game-speed training should progress as an athlete develops 23:48 – Tony’s thoughts on why the very fastest NFL receivers in the combine actually never had a good playing career 29:22 – Approaching linear speed development when an athlete is truly not as fast as they need to be from that perspective 36:14 – Tony’s take on the inverse relationship between the 40 yard dash times and 3-cone/shuttle events in the NFL combine 41:29 – How Tony feels the NFL combine agility tests transfer to performance, and what he does for agility instead 54:12 – Comparing types of game speed between athletes, and the general zones of speed pro football athletes will use in competitions 59:58 – Tony’s finer-point breakdown of change of direction technique 1:07:42 – How Tony views “first chance” opportunity in change of direction (one point of attack opportunity) in football vs. basketball or soccer “Everyone should get as fast as they can possibly get with their own genetics, but after that, I turn off the (linear) speed switch” “With our combine athletes, it’s, unfortunately, how to teach them to run out of control… I always tell our combine athletes, quit thinking of football, think track and being out of control” “It’s not that hard to (cut .2 off a 40 yard dash) you just have to shut down everything else and get them fast” “We spend about 30% of our time on linear speed training, but it’s not our holy grail anymore” “The younger you are, the easier it is to win with speed…if someone has always won with speed, and then they get on the field of play where they can’t win with speed, they are not equipped to” “I think increased speed hurts your agility” “I see too many coaches working on acceleration drills with kids but you need force to accelerate” “Watch us prepare 30 guys for the combine every year, and you’ll see the fastest guy require the most time on the 3-cone shuttle” “For the shuttle and 3 cone, we have to do it the perfect way, those are planned steps. When we are out in the field (of play) we don’t know when those planned steps are going to change and we have to find 3-4 ways to do the same thing” “I call that “playing basketball”… you’re in a wide base, you’re shuffling. When you are playing zone and man to man you want to “play basketball” as long as you can” “Anyone who is attacking on the lacrosse or soccer field is trying to play a setup for where they want to go” “(For all sports) Learn defense from a defensive back, learn it in tighter spaces from a linebacker, and learn how to fight from offensive and defensive linemen, and boxers” “Basketball, they don’t have to turn and run as much as you think; a DB doesn’t set up in a wide base like a basketball player, their shuffle is different” “The great players in the NFL have told me “teach me how to not run on that football field”” “Luca Doncic is not fast! He is one of the most un-athletic guys on that court, but he gets to the hoop at will, not by going around people, but by going through them… all of that dancing stuff, it doesn’t work, but it looks cool” “We are working on all of those techniques that allow us to win between that 14 to 18 mile an hour zone” “Instead of just running around cones for position work, my athletes ask me “how do you want me to run around that cone?... we change directions 6-8 different ways”” “Speed kills (the athlete’s ability to change directions) and fast-feet don’t eat… fast-feet are for salsa dancers. Fast-feet don’t eat…. Feet that separate do” “(regarding the importance of first-chance opportunities) I’m setting (the defense in an agility drill) up for the loss because I’m not letting (the offense) dance, he’s got one move, he’s got to pick a shoulder and run right through it” “I understand why they got off the ladder… great strength coaches are like, I’m not doing dance drills with my athletes, I’m doing force application. But force application into what? Force application into the right foot position; so let’s go back to the ladder and let them learn foot position, then throw your force application into the right foot position and you’ve got an athlete” Show Notes 4 Ways to Attack COD Using Ladder https://youtu.be/qDG2fMlWiyQ Tony talks Agility and Change of Direction with NFL Pro Anquan Boldin https://youtu.be/hebzMFw-86o Intro to “BPS”: Brake-Plant-Separate https://youtu.be/6sQMU2K9Vx0 About Tony Villani Tony Villani created XPE Sports in 2002 and has trained many top athletes in the world, most notably in the NFL. He loves creating speed in athletes, as shown by almost 20 number one 40-yard dash finishes at the NFL Combine, but more recently he has dived into creating a Game Speed and Separation Movement Web curriculum. This “Web” helps athletes, coaches, and trainers alike understand how to use speed and agility correctly to win on the field of play. Tony likes to say, “If speed is king, then agility is the queen that keeps the king moving in the right direction.” Notable athletes trained during his first decade were WR Cris Carter, WR Randy Moss, WR Hines Ward, RB Jamal Lewis, RB Dorsey Levens, LB Takeo Spikes, and DE Osi Umenyoria. The second decade under XPE Sports only got better as notable athletes included WR Anquan Boldin, DB Darelle Revis, S Eric Berry, DB Stephon Gilmore, RB Mark Ingram, OL Mike and Maurkice Pouncey, LB LaVonte David, TE Travis Kelce, S Justin Simmons, and many more. These names are important to Tony because he feels as though people think he “trained” them, but they were actually teaching and training him how to pass along knowledge and train others. Currently, Tony spends most of his time training athletes in Fort Lauderdale at XPE Sports with Matt Gates and his off-time with the development of the SHREDmill, a manually powered treadmill that is a key piece of XPE’s speed training.

Dr. Mark Wetzel on Neurological Strength, Emotional States, and Isometric Mastery Mar 17, 2022

Today’s show welcomes back chiropractor and neurology expert, Dr. Mark Wetzel. Mark has been on this show numerous times talking about the effectiveness of long isometric holds, as well as digging into many aspects of their performance. So often in the training and performance field, we just look at exercises, sets, and reps, but then don’t desire to dig into the nuance of those movements we are programming. With isometrics, we can certainly get results by simply having athletes hold positions indiscriminately, but we can multiply those results by understanding the underlying mechanisms that help make isometrics more effective. One of the beautiful things about isometric holds is that the lack of movement brings one’s awareness to a high level, and one’s ability to focus on things like breathing, posture, and muscle tensioning, on a higher level. One’s mental and emotional state has an extremely close correlation with the length of time that you can hold the movement. Holding isometrics for extended periods of time also has an impact on the fascial lines of the body, and even the meridian lines (if your belief system takes you that far). Isometrics are truly a “total body”, functional experience. On today’s show, Mark Wetzel gives his thoughts on how a positive mental state can increase one’s ability to hold an isometric position (or increase muscle endurance in general). He’ll speak extensively on the postural and muscle-tone aspects of holding an isometric, as well as speak on the connections made between the fascial/meridian lines, electric signals, and organ function. Finally, Mark gives his take on what he feels “neurological” strength truly is, and how this is manifested in a program. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 5:24 – Mark’s thoughts on the mental and emotional aspects of fatigue (and perceived fatigue) during a difficult or taxing movement such as an isometric 14:34 – What it means to be “in position” as an athlete gets into an isometric hold 24:47 – Why some athletes have a lot of trouble “pulling down” into an isometric position and discussing the use of “constraints” such as a band around the shin, to help an athlete pull down into an isometric 34:19 – Using a one-arm bench press hold to help improve the pushing ability and breathing of individuals who struggle with isometric pushup holds 42:01 – What “good posture” means for Mark 47:05 – Mark’s take on organ health, meridian lines, and reflexes, particularly in light of utilizing isometric exercises 57:52 – What it means to have “neurological strength” from Mark’s perspective as a chiropractor with neurological training 1:05:35 – Depth jumps and drop landings as an assessment of neurological efficiency Dr. Mark Wetzel's Quotes “When I am in those moments (of fatigue) I try to bring up some sort of happiness or joyful emotion to try and take my mind off of it” “The “fear based” mentality is almost a traditional way of training” “Posture comes back to the breath; typically when people have bad posture it is because they have bad breathing mechanics” “When you do a bunch of calf rebounds in a row, your body will position you in a way that (you have to be in to keep breathing under fatigue)” “You can accomplish so much in an isometric exercise by focusing on “where is my breathing”” “I always back up (a chiropractic adjustment) with exercise” “The meridian lines are all connected to an organ” “What’s cool about an isometric is that you are creating a lot of tone throughout the whole body” “If the brain is telling a muscle to stay weak, then it is going to stay weak no matter what you do” “The more you can stay calm, breathe, smile to yourself while you are going through that discomfort, I feel that transfers more to what that neurological strength is” “Where your intention is, is where your energy goes” Show Notes Single Arm Bench Press Hold https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsAlxydk9Lw Inner Smile Meditation for Increased Muscle Endurance (and Vitality) https://www.amazon.com/Inner-Smile-Increasing-through-Cultivation/dp/1594771553 About Mark Wetzel Dr. Mark Wetzel is a Chiropractor based in Nashville, TN. Dr. Mark received his Doctorate of Chiropractic from Northwestern Health Science University in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Dr. Mark has diverse experience and is an expert in the neurology branch of chiropractic care and sports performance. He completed his undergraduate studies at Indiana University while competing for the Indiana University Men’s Swimming and Diving Team. Dr. Mark has a passion for treating and educating people who want to achieve a healthier lifestyle and enjoys helping them reach their health and fitness goals.

Kurt Hester on The Power of Training and Connecting with Athletes on the Human Level Mar 10, 2022

Today’s show is with performance coach, Kurt Hester. Kurt is currently the Head of Football Preparation at the University of Tulane, and was previously the head strength coach at Lousiana Tech University from 2013 to 2021. He has decades of experience coaching in both the collegiate, and private sectors, and is the author of the book: ”Rants of a Strength and Conditioning Madman”. When it comes to the results we get out of a training program (or the experience an athlete has in a sport organization), we usually think on the level of sets, reps and exercises. What we typically don’t consider as much, is how an athlete perceives the training from an emotional and sub-conscious, perspective, and how important building the right relationship is to the holistic success of the program. Kurt Hester is the kind of strength coach I wish I had when I was a young athlete. When we talk about what it means to be a coach, and to be a servant-leader, Kurt is one of the first individuals that comes to mind. He not only has been studying and living the art of physical training for almost half a century, but he also has a focused sense of how to train individuals on both the athlete, and human levels. On the show today, Kurt talks about how he connects with his athletes on the “human” level, to help improve their total experience as an athlete, gain trust, and improve the quality of training sessions. He’ll talk about how he uses games and fun activities to improve, not only the emotional content of the training sessions, but also the total effort level of the athletes. Finally, Kurt digs into some details around the sports performance industry itself, what he considers “mental toughness” to truly be, and gives his advice on developmental practices in leadership and communication. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 5:31 – How Kurt started to survey his athletes to learn more about them, and how this helped him to connect with athletes on a stronger level 10:14 – How to command a room in a coaching setting, while still getting to know athletes on a more personal level 13:27 – How players at Kurt’s former university rated the importance of the “strength coach” so high, in regards to why they attended the school 17:432 – Why Kurt uses games as a critical portion of his physical preparation program, as well as the injury prevention benefits of using game-based agility training 29:17 – Kurt’s learnings in his training with elite track and field athletes in the 1980’s and how many “modern” training methods have been around for a long time 32:14 – How strength coaches should have good all-around GPP, and be able to play games, do dynamic warmups, and demonstrate sprinting 40:15 – What Kurt would re-brand the field of sports performance 48:53 – What Kurt considers “mental strength” and “toughness” to truly be, in light of sports performance training 58:32 – Kurt’s advice on helping coaches to be able to understand athletes and lead them on a better level “You can’t serve who you don’t know” “The athletes who trusted me, and I had the best relationship with, those were the ones who excelled the most… the closer I had a relationship with them that was not about (sports) where they trusted me at a very high level, they developed at a faster rate than an athlete I wasn’t close to” “A lot of strength and football coaches think that, if you have fun, that you are not working hard or at a proficient, high level, and I never wanted to be in this field, to not have fun” “Most athletes don’t like to train, and that’s what most strength coaches don’t get… 99% of strength coaches do not understand that fact, they are not you! So that’s always in the back of my mind, how can I make it fun” “(In games) you are never going to get that out of a regular drill; that speed, that force into the ground in moving” “Most people would rather play (ghetto-ball) than their true sport” “(In a game) they will run harder than they will ever run on a timed sprint, or a tempo run” “Tag games was (track coach Brent MacFarlane’s) GPP” “From the 60’s to the 90’s, it was heavy, heavy on the lifting aspect, 70% was lifting, and 30% was running dudes to the ground, on the glycolytic level” “We’re still stuck in “lifting is more”; we have destroyed our DB’s and wide receivers over the years, and made them non-reactive because of so many years of them spending time in the weightroom; once you get to a certain level of strength, it’s not going to help you at all” “You are not going to beat an athlete into the ground, and make him a tougher person” “What will happen is (the bottom 10% of athletes who fold or quit in conditioning work) they’ll be a better conditioned 10%, but they are not mentally tough” “We changed their entire life, but we weren’t beating it out of them, it was from talking to them from a human aspect, and not an athlete aspect” “If you have that high trust level with your athletes, I’ve seen more guys make it, versus those athletes that I didn’t spend the time and get to know them on that human level” “Instead of buying new books, go back and read the books you already bought” “If you are still fighting over, “should we front squat or back squat”, then we will not progress as a field” About Kurt Hester Kurt Hester is Currently the Director of Strength and Conditioning for University of Tulane Football, and was previously the head strength coach at Lousiana Tech University from 2013 to 2022. He is the author of the book: ”Rants of a Strength and Conditioning Madman”. Kurt served as a National Director of Training for the D1 Sports Training Center in Nashville, Tenn. since 2008, and worked with training several professional athletes in many different sports. Concurrent to his tenure at D1 Sports Training, Hester also worked as the Director of Training at the Manning Passing Academy as he designed a training program for over 1,300 high school athletes and delivered a specific training seminar for high school and college coaches. From 1997-2008, Hester was the owner and Director of Performance at HS2 Athletic Performance in Mandeville. He developed and mentored area coaches for college and professional coaching careers with several going on to BCS-level schools and NFL teams. Over 500 athletes he worked with received collegiate scholarships during that time as he oversaw the development of over 400 junior and senior high students per day. Hester was an assistant strength coach at LSU from 1995-98, working with the speed development program for then-football coach Gerry Dinardo and worked primarily with the LSU baseball team as it won two national championships under legendary coach Skip Bertman. Hester also worked with the men's basketball, women's soccer and women's golf programs as well as with the varsity cheerleaders. Kurt graduated from Tulane University in 1995 with a Bachelors of Science degree in exercise physiology. He also served as a graduate strength coach at Tulane for two years.

Dan Cleather on The Truth on “Force Absorption”, Deceleration and Triple-Extension in Sports Training Mar 03, 2022

Today’s show is with coach and educator, Dan Cleather. Dan is a reader in strength and conditioning and the programme director of the MSc in strength and conditioning at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, UK. Dan began coaching at Cal State Long Beach, and then worked at the English Institute of Sport. He has coached national and international medalists across a wide range of sports, and in particular has worked with World and Olympic champions. Dan is the author of several books on the topics of science and sports performance, including “Force”: The Biomechanics of Training, and “The Little Black Book of Training Wisdom”. Dan has published over 40 peer-reviewed and scientific articles, and is a founder member of the UK Strength and Conditioning Association. When it comes to performance training, coaches often cite a disconnect between what they are coaching, and what actually happens when an athlete competes. We can gain a greater understanding of this issue by simply looking at how movement actually happens in sport, and how athletes actually manage forces. Many control points in coaching tend to revolve around slow, or easily observable aspects of movement (usually the end-points), when the complex reality of movement renders coaching around these endpoints obsolete, if not counter-productive. On the show today, Dan will share with us how he views common coaching practices revolving around scientific terminology, such as “force absorption”. He’ll go into some fallacies around force-based principles involving landing dynamics in sport, deceleration training, and how coaches go about instructing Olympic weightlifting. Dan will speak on where science, and “evidence-based” practices fit in with one’s coaching philosophy and intuition, and will share his thoughts on the link between gardening plants and coaching athletes. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 4:37 – Dan’s background as an athlete and what got him into strength and conditioning 7:58 – Dan’s take on learning skills as a coach, in order to be a better learning (and coach) of skills 15:11 – Dan’s thoughts on what applying science to training actually is 22:42 – How coaches tend to frame “force-absorption” in athletics, and what it actually is 32:47 – Thoughts on the body dealing with forces from a perspective of being a “machine” or from a self-organizing perspective 41:27 – Dan’s thoughts on any sort of deceleration training for sport, and how coaches tend to spend too much time on versions of movement that are too reductionist 48:20 – The link between seeds, plants, gardening and athletic performance 52:58 – Dan’s take on traditional Olympic lifting practices in light of force development “The more skills you learn, the better you get at learning skills” “Evidence based doesn’t mean that the science is prescriptive, we see 8 parts of a 30 piece jigsaw puzzle, which are the bits of evidence we are getting from the science, and we work out the rest of what that puzzle looks like based on our experience, our discussions with the coaches, etc.” “The scientific evidence is an important part of our philosophy but it’s our philosophy that guides the decisions that we make” “If you do something because your previous coach did it, that’s the evidence of what they did” “Coaches find out what works, and 25 years later, the sport scientists come along and explain why… if you had to wait for the science before you were prepared to make a decision then you wouldn’t be able to do very much” “Absorption implies that there is something you have got that is being sucked up by something, and can be released later” “We call a softer landing with more flexion of the knees and hips “force absorption”, but we are not actually absorbing force when we do that, we are reducing the likelihood that we will have high peak forces” “Your muscles don’t absorb force when you land, they produce force… if you didn’t produce force you would collapse into the floor” “There is research that landing drills with at-risk populations will decrease their injury risk” “We have to remember that, in many cases, landing slow, in competition is a disadvantage” “I think it will be those kids who haven’t done that sort of play (jumping and dropping off of things in play) where you have to do more regressive things and teach landing mechanics” “As a profession I think we tend to over-teach things, we want to drill and control movement, where you need to make sure that your athletes are safe, but once you’ve done that, letting them work things out for themselves is more effective” “I’m not sure we’re mitigating much injury risk by having 80 players do something that most of them do fine (regressive drills)” “If things look too pretty, the athlete isn’t being challenged enough and they aren’t learning anything. Keep pushing the envelope of what you are asking the athlete to do until they are not looking pretty anymore” “We can help ourselves to self-organize, or we can help our athletes to self-organize, but if you think you are going to control them, or they are going to control them, you are mis-informed about how systems work” “I do feel like gardening is a good practice for S&C coaches” “For me, weightlifting is jumping, and everything is built around that skill” “What people see in Olympic weightlifting is the end of the second pull because athletes aren’t moving there and they are about to go down again. Inexperienced coaches can see that and so they then try and coach that, but the problem is they coach that with reference to what they are seeing, and why you are in an extended position is because of what happened earlier in the movement. You don’t coach an extended position by saying “hit and extended position” you do it by having them do things earlier on” “When people cue people to hit a fully extended position, they are actually asking them to try and exert force at the point when they should not be exerting force and being ready to catch the barbell, and you see that a lot” “Loaded jumping and (Olympic) weightlifting are not the same movement” About Dan Cleather Dan Cleather is a strength coach, educator, author and scientist. He is a reader in strength and conditioning and the programme director of the MSc in strength and conditioning at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, UK. Before joining St Mary’s he was employed as a strength and conditioning coach at the English Institute of Sport. Dan began his coaching career as a volunteer assistant strength and conditioning coach at California State University Long Beach. He has coached national and international medalists across a wide range of sports, and in particular has worked with World and Olympic champions in track and field athletics, rowing, canoeing and rugby. Dan is the author of several books on the topics of science and sports performance, including “Force” The Biomechanics of Training, and “The Little Black Book of Training Wisdom”. Dan’s PhD is in biomedical engineering (from Imperial College London) and his research interests include musculoskeletal modelling, functional anatomy and strength training. He has published around 40 articles in peer reviewed scientific and professional practice journals. He is a founder member of the UK Strength and Conditioning Association and currently serves the organisation as Director of Finance and Administration.

Boo Schexnayder on The Intelligent Simplification of Speed, Power and Skill in the Training Process Feb 24, 2022

Today’s show is with Boo Schexnayder. Boo is a current strength coach and former jumps coach at Louisiana State University, and is regarded internationally as a leading authority in training design. Boo has been a two-time previous guest on the podcast talking about speed and power training setups. In a world of complexity, and nearly infinite ways to train athletes, Boo knows the art of managing athletic performance by using training means that are not more complex than they need to be. In my coaching (and athletic) years, I have loved looking into all of the complexities, and details of the human body, training, motor learning and biomechanics. It’s always been a swinging pendulum in terms of digging in to understand important training nuances, but then zooming back out, to pull along the key pieces of what it really important, both in general, and for each individual athlete. When we over-complicate training, over-coach, and give out exercises that require too much distraction from actual outputs or muscular adaptations, we create a diminished experience for the athlete, and also create a program that is harder to learn from as a coach. Knowing how and when to make the complex simple is a mark of an accomplished coach who can really transmit training to an athlete in a way that allows them to self-organize to their highest potential, both on the level of skill development, and maximal outputs. On the show today, Boo goes in detail on his own upbringing and mentorships in coaching that have led him to become the coach he is today. He speaks particularly how his work in the rehab process gave him increased confidence in his regular coaching abilities. Boo will speak on the process of how far he will go on the complexity rung in the gym, and how he balances coaching skill and technique with the self-organizing ability of the athlete. Finally, Boo gives some of his thoughts on training that focuses on an athlete’s strength, and his take on heavy partial lifts in the gym in respect to the total training system. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 5:02 – Boo’s early development as a coach, early mentors, and his work in rehab that led him to where he is now 15:30 – Some specifics that Boo learned from the world of rehabilitation that intertwined with his performance coaching practice, and how rehab and training follow the same principles and draw from the same well 21:50 – Boo’s advice on arriving at the place where things can be made optimally simple in coaching 25:10 – Why coaches end up chasing things in athletics that aren’t that important 36:28 – Where Boo draws the line on complexity in the weightroom to the point where exercises aren’t helping to accomplish the primary goal of training 40:26 – The extent of complexity Boo would utilize for single leg movements 46:01 – How athletes must train their strengths in order to potentiate their weaknesses 52:48 – A discussion on how the Buffalo Bills didn’t squat in season and still experienced substantial success 57:20 – Boo’s take on heavy quarter squats and partial step ups in performance training (vs. full range of motion) “The earliest (change) is when I finally understood specificity and I developed a healthy non-respect for coaching culture, I realized that a lot of coaching is traditional and needs to be evaluated” “Another bright light that came on is when I got involved in the rehab field” “I think the key thing to keeping things simple is understanding what you are trying to accomplish” “So much of what we do in traditional coaching cultures is just filler work” “I feel that one thing that holds back lots of coaches is technology, there is so much technology out there that so many coaches have been data collectors, but they really don’t know what they are doing” “Coaches are obsessive over (small pathological issues) don’t understand that those lie outside of the boundaries of what we try to teach” “Once you get athletes in (movement bandwidths) you have to trust them to do what they do…. I never had to coach athletes to perfection, I only had to coach them close to perfection and then allow their movement organization processes to take them the rest of the way and that’s how you keep it simple” “If athletes are training in the right direction, just shut the hell up, and let the athletes movement processes take over and trust them the rest of the way, and get involved when things aren’t going so well” “For everything I coach, I have got it down to 3 or 4 boxes that need to be ticked… I’ve developed this philosophy that all these things are not that complicated, what you are trying to do is build a body in the way to best execute those things” “Feedback addiction is a real thing; it’s not the healthiest thing for you to say something every single time” “When I look at my highest intensities of training, the Olympic lifts are probably about as technically complicated as I would get; that’s my ceiling as I might say” “I always keep it super simple when I’m trying to reach those highest levels of intensity. The simpler the movement pattern, the more muscle mass that is going to be involved” “I’ve experimented with single leg Olympic lifts a bit, they are a nice change of pace, but you can’t build your program around them” “Skinny people are built to sprint, not to lift, so do more sprinting and less lifting. Big people are built to lift, not to sprint, so do more lifting and less sprinting… a lot of times the athlete’s strong point is potentiating improvements in the weak area” “My track athletes, I don’t squat them in season but we do every variation of jump squt you could imagine, we Olympic lift, it’s not like we are not lifting, there are just many ways to do things” “So many of goofy running mechanics and change of direction mechanics go away when you start using full ranges of motion” “There are strategic blocks in my program where we will use super heavy quarter (squats) but they are not my default” About Boo Schexnayder Boo Schexnayder is a current strength coach and former jumps coach at Louisiana State University, and is regarded internationally as a leading authority in training design, possessing 37 years of experience in the coaching and consulting fields. Most noted for his 12 years on the Track and Field coaching staff at LSU, he is regarded as one of the world’s premier coaches, having developed 19 NCAA Champions and 10 Olympians. Schexnayder has coached multiple World Championship and Olympic medalists and has been on several national team staffs, including the staff of Team USA at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He also possesses 13 years of experience in NFL player development and combine preparations. He frequently lectures and consults domestically and internationally in the areas of speed and power development, training design, motor learning, and rehabilitation. He has operated Schexnayder Athletic Consulting and serves as director of the USTFCCCA’s Track and Field Academy and Thibodaux Regional Medical Center’s performance division. Prior to his collegiate and international career, Schexnayder was a successful prep coach for 11 years, coaching football, track, and cross country.

Nick Winkelman on Dynamics of a Meaningful Learning Process in Athletic Development Feb 17, 2022

Today’s show is with Nick Winkelman. Nick is the head of athletic performance & science for the Irish Rugby Football Union. Prior to working for Irish Rugby, Nick was the director of education for EXOS. Nick is an internationally recognized speaker on human performance and coaching science, and is the author of the book, “The Language of Coaching”. Nick previously appeared on episode 193 of the podcast where he went in detail on internal and external cues, analogies, and what it takes to make cues more effective. One of the major shifts in my coaching career and personal movement/training practice has been understanding the “art” of coaching on the levels of psychology, motor learning, and how we actually go about instructing athletes in the course of the training session. As coaches, we all tend to start out with a combination of what we did ourselves as athlete, and then whatever training frameworks we learned in our education process. When we look at any training session, whether it is sport skill or gym work, it’s par for the course to look at it on the level of tactics, sets and reps, which drills to use, or x’s and o’s. It’s far more rare to look at the session on the level of meaning and engagement, and how we can work cohesively with athletes to better communicate with them, direct their attention, and allow them to understand, on a deeper level, what improving their sport technique feels like (and not to just intellectualize the process). Improving one’s ability in this “soft” side of the coaching equation will help improve the long term success and sustainability of the training process. On the show today, Nick speaks on principles of attentional focus, and how factors such as motivation and novelty can direct an athlete’s attentional focus in training. Nick will discuss cueing dynamics on a level of meaningfulness and embodiment to the athlete, moving past simply intellectualizing instruction (and how we can improve our dialogue in that process). Finally, Nick will give his take on how coaches can become better story-tellers to their athletes in communicating ideas and instruction. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 5:03 – Why Nick believes that the “soft” practices in athletics (communication/cueing/motor learning/etc.) are less-traveled in the process of performance training 2:19 – Dynamics of attention, motivation and novelty in athletic performance 29:03 – “Survival” oriented coaching situations as a means to gain the attention of athletes 31:41 – How to go through the process of making coaching and cueing more meaningful to the athlete through listening to the athlete 43:14 – How the shortcoming of internal cues can teach us more about how we learn and function as humans, and how cues and attention placed external to the body can help the “one-ness” of movement fully form 52:12 – Nick’s take on the place and context of internal cueing in the process of coaching athletes 57:33 – How “noticing”/awareness of one’s body in the midst of movement fits in with the cueing eco-system 1:01:28 – Nick’s take on personal practices for coaches that can help them paint better pictures with their words when they are actually coaching “Over time, every coach who is attentive and self-aware to the journey, starts to pick up on “a weak signal”, and they start to realize, that “hold on… not everyone responds to programming the same way, so I might have to individualize… and not everyone responds to the same communication style” “What are we trying to get people to do: We are trying to get people to focus their attention on the right things, in the right way, at the right time” “Attention is like a spotlight, and we can’t actually increase the size of the spotlight, and I we want to change, we have to change what we point the spotlight towards” “Attention will switch to the stimulus in the environment that is most likely to inform me of my survival odds” “Our attention floats to things that are novel, interesting, or things that we are motivated by” “Cues need to be both accurate and interesting; we are talking about seedlings of communication here” “Even though motivation powers attention in the long term, in the short term, we know that novelty, things that are kind of salient, things that stand out, that are unique, they are very good at grabbing attention” “To the individual, you will rarely find someone who doesn’t enjoy solving a problem” “When you are giving the athletes something that aligns with an individuals preferences, likes and desires, I think some of that reciprocity is paid back in a “hey coach”, we’ll listen to you a little bit better” “Over time I realized, the athlete is the painter, ultimately they are the one who needs to be able to understand the coaching cue, has to resonate with it, and needs to be able to embody it, such as what makes a change as you recognize as a coach, and they recognize as an athlete “Over time I felt my coaching convert over to a choice based question format which is based on my ability to listen to them deeply” “To make it meaningful to the athlete, you need to know what is meaningful to them” “I might give you one of the following questions: What does that mean to you? How does that cue make you feel? Put that into your own words, if you like.” “I think every single coach, especially people who get to a higher level, they experience this reality, athletes saying “I know what to do, I just don’t know how to do it”” “So often when we communicate, we just explain the step by step information as if described in a textbook, but that’s not how human motion comes about… human motion is about one-ness, we have a symphony of muscles and joints that must come together in a pursuit of one common goal, just as a real symphony is directed by a conductor” “If the language we offer is only intellectual, we can’t offer it into the physical body. I don’t want to know what you think about my cue, I want to know how it makes you feel” “We know that an external cue provides better results in the moment, and transfers better long term” “A first principle of motor learning is that, when we are learning something, we are best to place our focus in an externally directed manner” “I think by taking a fictional form to my work, I am actually embodying at the deepest level, what I’m trying to teach coaches, (and this is certainly not my idea) and that is humans think in narrative, we are story tellers, both prospectively and retrospectively, and we learn far better through fiction, even when it’s non-fiction” About Nick Winkelman Nick Winkelman is the head of athletic performance & science for the Irish Rugby Football Union. Prior to working for Irish Rugby, Nick was the director of education for EXOS (formerly Athletes’ Performance), located in Phoenix, AZ. As a performance coach, Nick oversaw the speed and assessment component of the EXOS NFL Combine Development Program. Nick has also supported many athletes in the NFL, MLB, NBA, National Sport Organizations and Military. Nick is an internationally recognized speaker on human performance and coaching science, and has multiple publications through the UKSCA, NSCA and IDEA Health and Fitness.

293: Rob Gray on The Superiority of Constraints and Variability over Drills and “Perfect Form” in Athletic Performance Feb 10, 2022

Today’s show is with Rob Gray, professor at Arizona State University and Host of the Perception & Action Podcast. Rob Gray is a professor at Arizona State University who has been conducting research on and teaching courses related to perceptual-motor skill for over 25 years. Rob focuses heavily on the application of basic theory to address real-world challenges, having consulted with numerous professional and governmental entities, and has developed a VR baseball training system that has been used in over 25 published studies. Rob is the author of the book “How We Learn to Move: A Revolution in the Way We Coach and Practice Sports Skills”. When it comes to anything we do athletically: playing a sport, sprinting, lifting weights, even holding an isometric position; all of these things are learned skills. So often, the various compartments of athletics, the sport coach, the strength coach, the rehab specialist, are relatively disconnected, and there is often no common playbook when it comes to athletics and the learning process. The principles of the way we learn, and how this learning fits with our movement strategy and ability, are universal. By understanding what it takes to be a better mover via the learning process, we have an understanding of the general process of athletic performance training from a broader frame of mind. On today’s show, Rob Gray speaks about the fallacy of training a “perfect technique” via drills or repeated cues. He talks about why using a constraints-led approach to help shore up any key movement attractors (technique) is an ideal way to facilitate skill development. Rob will get into his take on how to approach learning the “fundamentals” in any sport skill, and also get into important concepts of variability in sport, the differences between novice and elite in variability, and then how there can be “good” or “bad” variability in sport training. Finally, Rob covers the role of variability in injury prevention, and talks about the sport coach/strength coach relationship in light of variability and the constraints led approach to skills. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Inside Tracker, and Lost Empire Herbs. For 25% off of an Inside Tracker order go to info.insidetracker.com/justflysports For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 5:05 – The story of Tim Tebow, and how he was so dominant on the NCAA level, but why his NFL career was very unsuccessful from a perspective of throwing biomechanics 9:08 – Rob’s take on the idea of “perfect technique” 13:47 – Approaching the “fundamentals” in any given skill, in the learning process 23:37 – Looking at drill-work in sport and its original intended purpose 25:33 – How much variability elite versus amateur athletes exhibit in their skills 28:59 – Variability across a spectrum of skills, such as running in football versus running on a track in sprinting 32:42 – Using variability in “basic” sports such as track and field or swimming 39:17 – How variability changes as one moves from novice, to intermediate, to expert, particularly on the level of an individual sport, like track and field 45:28 – Rob’s take on variability and injury-prevention 50:57 – The idea of donor sports and how those sports can offer helpful variability to one’s eventual sport specialization 56:35 – How strength coaches might be able to use variability in the gym that might connect to skills athletes are trying to improve on the field “There can’t be one perfect, ideal way, because the world is not staying the same around you” “Being skillful is not about repeating the same solution to the problem, it’s about repeating coming up with solutions to problems” “I like to think about giving athletes problems to solve instead of the solution” “The process of solving problems is how you become skillful” “So instead of trying to give them these attractors first, then plugging it into the actual action, I’d rather start with the action, and then pull back with constraints as a coach” “The fundamental issue with dribbling around cones is, there is no problem there” “Experts do tend to be more consistent in certain aspects of their movement, but it depends on what type, there is good and bad variability” “Good variability is any variability that keeps you on your goal; it allows you to adapt” “Experts tend to have this functional motor synergy, things working and varying together, is what we mean by good variability” “On the surface, we want to say those (poor athletes with no facilities) are at a disadvantage, but it’s counter-productive to make (their facilities) perfect” “I would really like to see some variability all of the time (even in individuals sports like track or swimming)” “I’m a believer in basketball, deliberately trying to shoot the ball off of the back rim so that it comes back to you… doing that requires you learn the relationship to your movement, in given the new problem to solve; so we’re not going for here’s the one solution, do it over and over, let’s learn to solve related movement problems” “Broad variability is just changing pitches and varying the speeds, focused variability is like getting a batter and saying “I only want you to swing at these pitches”” “Doing (specific/focused variability) with a young athlete is kind of a waste of time… on the elite end, you are trying to squeeze that last little bit out” “Sometimes we make things boring in sports for no good reason” “Learning is about being challenges, and making mistakes, it’s about being in an environment when you look bad sometimes” About Rob Gray Rob Gray is a professor at Arizona State University who has been conducting research on and teaching courses related to perceptual-motor skill for over 25 years. He received his MS and PhD from York University in Canada with a focus on the visual control of movement. An important aspect of his work has been applying basic theory to address real-world challenges which he has done in positions with Nissan Motor Corp, the US Air Force, serving as an expert witness for driving accident cases, and consultant roles with several sports teams and organizations. In 2007 he was awarded the Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution to Psychology from the American Psychological Association. Rob is the author of the book “How We Learn to Move: A Revolution in the Way We Coach and Practice Sports Skills”. One of the accomplishments he is most proud of is the baseball batting virtual environment/virtual reality that he developed over the course of several years and which has been used in over 25 published studies. In 2017 (Gray, Frontiers in Psychology) he published the results of a 10-year study using a virtual reality training protocol which led to clear evidence of transfer of training to real performance. In his career, Gray has strongly emphasized the communication and dissemination of scientific knowledge. In 2015, he started the Perception & Action Podcast (perceptionaction.com) to help bridge the gap between theory and the field. With over 350 episodes and 2 million downloads, it has become a critical resource for individuals working in areas including coaching, talent development, training and rehabilitation.

Daniel Bove on Lifting Heavy on Game Days and the Essentials of the Quadrant System Feb 03, 2022

Today’s show is with performance director Daniel Bove. After spending several seasons with the Atlanta Hawks and Phoenix Suns, Daniel is now the Director of Performance and Sports Science for the New Orleans Pelicans, and is also the author of the book, “The Quadrant System, Navigating Stress in Team Sport”. As Michael Zweifel has said previously on the podcast, every coach should have the opportunity to work with youth athletes, and pro sports, at some point in their career. I’ve done a lot of shows talking about youth sport concepts, as well as principles of training through the lens of a child development, but I haven’t done as many shows detailing some of the nuances of working with a pro population specifically. When it comes to that other end of the spectrum, with professional athletes, the art of strength & conditioning is largely the art of “load management” and stress consolidation, especially over the course of long competitive seasons. This art of training athletes at the highest level is certainly interesting if you are in the small percentage of coaches who work in this group, but the concepts and ideas behind it can be helpful to understand, regardless of what population you end up working with. Daniel has come up with a unique system of load consolidation, working with an NBA population that makes a lot of sense. Not only is “The Quadrant System” a wise method for pro athletes, but understanding the Quadrant System is also helpful from the perspective of understanding “high-low” style training in general (making high days truly “high” and low days, truly “low”), as well as the art of dealing with monotony over the course of long training periods. On the show today, Daniel gets into his four quadrants of training (recovery, repetition, speed and of course, strength), and how he utilizes these methods of loading through different points in an in-season training schedule, as well as off-season. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Inside Tracker, and Lost Empire Herbs. For 25% off of an Inside Tracker order go to info.insidetracker.com/justflysports For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 4:23 – How Daniel categorizes load for athletes that he works with 14:48 – How the quadrants might alter as athletes get further down away from the pro-level 15:58 – How high-low training and undulation of the type of stimulus players get offers substantial benefits for players, particularly those in the course of long playing seasons 20:22 – Daniel’s take on the “speed day” in the quadrant system, and how that balances with the explosive work and speed players are doing in their practice 25:48 – How the quadrant system may change when the strength coach doesn’t have a “seat at the table” of the sport coaches and practice volumes 32:05 – Validating heavy lifting in season, on the terms of what Daniel is seeing from data and force plates, and what types of volumes athletes are doing for heavy strength work in season 37:05 – How to approach heavy lifting after game-day if players had a poor game 40:24 – Daniel’s experience with buy-in and the spectrum of players responses in regards to heavy lifting on game-days 43:01 – Nuances of the heavy strength day and how Daniel chooses to load athletes on that day 44:45 – How Daniel approaches tendon health and the repetition day/quadrant 2 47:58 – How the quadrant system changes when athletes are in the off-season or in developmental cases in-season 50:14 – Daniel’s view on a daily micro-dosing program, versus a high-low, quadrant system oriented program, and common movements that may actually be micro-dosed in the pro/NBA setting 55:04 – How Daniel uses work that creates more movement potential within the hips, as a preparation for players to use that range of motion effectively on the court 57:01 – How Daniel views the role of rhythm in training “That’s the goal of the book, how do we consolidate stress, and how do we manage chaos” “I matched up strength with high intensity high volume (in the quadrant system), and those are our game days typically” “Repetition days tend to fall at least two days out from competition and those are for tissue quality” “Quadrant 3’s (speed days… anything above .75 m/s) tend to fall the day before the contest” “My population views heavy lifts as the most stressful, which is why I place it after a game day” “In practices that are extremely high load, high intensity, they become your quadrant 4 (heavy strength day) and your game days become your quadrant 3” “I can’t just do isos with them every single day, because they have 82 games, and they’ll want to rip my head off” “(By lifting heavy loads in season) I do think you are setting the athlete up for success to be a more robust athlete… when athletes do start to take 1-2 weeks off of lifting, you do start to see force plate numbers go down, the things that help you buffer ground reaction force start to change” Athletes, in my opinion, are more receptive to training hard on the days that are supposed to be hard…. It’s a lot easier to get them (for heavy lifting) on the day that they are already pumped up” “On a quadrant 4, we are typically going with a hex bar (on quadrant 2, repetition and tissue health, it’s a more squat, or hatfield squat oriented day)” “You have to come to grips with, is this player's limitation physically oriented, or is it skill oriented?” “The monotony of micro-dosing wouldn’t be great in the (82 game) NBA season” “One thing I do like for micro-dosing at the NBA level is Lee Taft style change of direction work” “I like things that involves reciprocal AFIR on both sides, maybe I pair a kettlebell deadlift with a kettlebell self-pass” Show Notes Kettlebell Self-Pass Lunge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOcal46KrEA About Daniel Bove After receiving a B.S. in Kinesiology from Penn State University and an M.S. in Exercise Science from University of South Florida, Daniel began his career as an NBA physical preparation coach. After spending several seasons with the Atlanta Hawks and Phoenix Suns, Daniel is now the Director of Performance and Sports Science for the New Orleans Pelicans.

Brady Volmering on Breaking Barriers by Training the Human First Jan 27, 2022

Today’s show is with coach Brady Volmering. Brady is the owner of DAC Performance and Health. After starting out in the world of baseball skill training, he’s since moved into the human performance arena, putting the focus on increasing the capacity of the human being. Brady looks at what “training the human being” actually means and how that relates to increases in specific sports performance. Ever since I’ve been in a formal weight room training setting for athletes, I’ve really wondered about the thought process of how the various barbell and dumbbell exercises were going to help athletes actually be better at what they do on the field. I’ve always tried to keep a close eye on elements of gym training that could possibly link to athletes who were more successful in their actual sport. It’s important to ask the question: “what is training?”, and realize that the answer includes “how” just as much as “what”. Weights are just one tool, or manifestation of the ability to be strong, and if we zoom out from the tool of barbells and dumbbells, we can look at the process of training and adaptation on a broader level. Muscle tension (and relaxation) can be achieved in a wide variety of ways. If we take a close look at the mental, emotional, and physical components can be put into the simplest of exercises, we can make then a better conduit by which to improve the whole state of the athlete’s system. On today’s podcast, Brady gives us his experiences with training athletes on a “human” level. He goes into the tool of isometric holds, and how to modulate those to draw out different intentions, into ideas on learning the way a child does, the importance of menu systems, as well as “breaking the rules” with higher repetition training schemes (and the qualities it takes to adapt to “unreasonable” training loads). This is an “outside the box” episode that covers a lot of important concepts in training the total human for sport and beyond. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Inside Tracker, and Lost Empire Herbs. For 25% off of an Inside Tracker order go to info.insidetracker.com/justflysports For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 4:51 – How Brady started in the specific skill training of baseball players, and how he transitioned into more “human level” training and performance 9:09 – How Brady views the transfer of training ideology in light of the “human layer”, or GPP layer of performance 15:35 – Different intentions Brady prescribes during exercises, particularly isometric type exercises 22:31 – Elements Brady notices that transfer between human-level skills and how an athlete is performing in their sport 29:22 – The mentality by which children make rapid progress in skills, and how to harness that developmental ideal 39:16 – How Brady looks at menu systems for athletes, and giving them the power of choice 47:49 – Brady’s take on “breaking the rules” with high volume training experiences 58:36 – Thoughts on the balance and handing of high volume training versus the minimal effective dose of work 1:02:32 – “Human level” principles of athletes who can absorb and adapt to training volume on a higher level 1:07:58 – What an average training session looks like for Brady in light of the principles discussed in the show 1:11:50 – How to look at sets and reps, versus the construct of time, to direct intention of the athlete 1:14:07 – Some single-joint, high rep modalities that Brady enjoys using at the end of training sessions “When I’m training a human, I’m not thinking at all about transfer to their sport” “The goal is the deep pushup is for them to direct their intent into whatever it is they are doing; the pushup is just one way to practice that” “That’s where the human aspect of things is “how can we go into the human and take off inhibitors so they can direct themselves towards anything in the best possible way”” “That’s one intention, is you are going to hold (the iso) as long as you can… or as long as you can maintaining an exhale that’s twice as long as an inhale” “The best athletes in the world aren’t there because they did the right superset, or whatever, they are there because the level of their system is leveled up” “That’s been something that’s been on my is that training doesn’t equal weight room, training equals changing the human” “If we can take away those stories and get into the athlete being able to go inside themselves, and feel exactly what they need, as they are connected to that intention of the goal that they have, of the outcome that they want, their body is going to tell them what they need” “Some athletes don’t know how to feel what their body is telling them, because there is so much junk that has gotten in the way” “You take the athlete where they are at, you find out where their lowest functioning system is, and you level that up” “High volume isn’t the goal, it’s meeting the athlete where they are at” “Where we get lost a little bit in strength and conditioning is we only have a small box we look through of exercise, of weight room, of barbell, of exercise, of whatever… if we take all that away, we look at “what is training”, training is taking the human and making them better. To do that, we need to input a stimulus that challenges whatever is inhibiting them right now so that inhibitor gets taken off and now they are at a high level.. that might be something in the weight room, it might not” “Every way you could challenge a human being is going to be on that (training) menu” Show Notes Lessons from 661 depth drops https://www.instagram.com/p/CXCu9GRsjrm/ About Brady Volmering Brady Volmering is the owner of DAC Performance and Health. After starting out in the world of baseball skill training, he’s since moved into the human performance arena, putting the focus on increasing the capacity of the human being. Brady looks at what “training the human being” actually means and how that relates to increase in specific sports performance.

Adarian Barr on Rotational Forces, Torque and Speed-Multipliers in Athletic Movement Jan 20, 2022

Today’s show is with coach and inventor Adarian Barr. Adarian has spent decades coaching in the college and private sector, and currently consults with a variety of coaches in multiple sports. Adarian has been a guest on this podcast many times, and has a unique, connected, and incredibly detailed perspective on the drivers of human movement. One piece of movement that we haven’t made a theme for this show yet is getting into rotational, “tumbling” actions of joints. When we think of “rotational force” in movement, we often just think of “twisting in the weight room”, or training “transverse plane”. When it comes to “front to back” movements, it is common to simply think in terms of perpendicular forces in terms of movement. With perpendicular actions, think of a coach telling an athlete to stab or drive their shin straight down to the ground in acceleration, for example, or any coaching cue that has to do with “pushing the ground away”. In any sport movement, however, the tumbling, or “pitching” motion of body segments (such as the shins) are going to be massively important when it comes to speed. It’s easy to load hundreds of pounds on a calf raise (a perpendicular force) but to be fast, think sprinting and throwing, rotation is inevitable, so it pays to be familiar with it to make better sense of movement coaching, and building better drills and constraints for athletes. On today’s episode, Adarian will speak on perpendicular versus rotational aspects of movement, and what it means for exercises, especially common sprint drills. He’ll talk about the actions of the various lever systems in the body, and how to optimize the way we load these levers for a variety of movements (with sprinting as the primary example) as we use rotation to move with speed. Adarian will talk about the ideas of “big and small wheels” as well as how not to make the wheel action of limbs a square one, as well as other interesting universal movement concepts. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Inside Tracker, and Lost Empire Herbs. For 25% off of an Inside Tracker order go to info.insidetracker.com/justflysports For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 5:20 – Looking at a “lever based approach” as opposed to a “force based” approach to biomechanics and movement 12:55 – The scope of true “perpendicular” movements in training, such as in-place pogo hops, in light of athletic movement that is rotational in nature 16:56 – A discussion on the hamstrings, and their role in rotational torque 22:01 – How to treat “perpendicular” oriented movements in regards to their transient, isometric nature 28:59 – The nature of the glutes and their rotational properties 30:55 – How to maximize “class 3” lever actions in the body as speed multipliers 33:30 – Squatty running and single leg bounding as rotational assessments and training paradigms 36:44 – Adarian’s take on upper body equivalents to folded running 46:13 – The principle of “big and small wheels” in movement, as well as why a circular wheel is superior to a square wheel 50:37 – How athletes will shift their “wheel size” when it comes to different athletic outcomes 55:44 – What is a “good” big wheel, and what things happening make a wheel “poor”, as well as how many sprint drills don’t actually train rotation 1:03.42 – A recap on the types of levers present in movement 1:05:20 – Looking at rotation and class 3 opportunities in the weight room 1:10:40 – What roller skating can teach us about levers and human movement “There is no way to move without a rotational component being added in there” “Everything we do is rotational, but the math is hard” “When we talk about sagittal, frontal and transverse plane, that is a location… a better term is pitch, yaw and roll” “If you move in a strictly linear fashion, you had better be strong as @#$^” “Levers don’t work well with just perpendicular input” “I do need perpendicular, because if you put a wrench on the bolt, the perpendicular secures the wrench on the bolt… if I do perpendicular, that is a good setup to use the parallel” “The closer you get to the fulcrum, the less effective the lever is” “Class 3 levers work best as their shortest” “Think about Nordic hamstrings… you are trying to strengthen something that is designed to multiply speed” “Gravity helps you to create the perpendicular” “You see this a lot of the time… people get to the toes, and they go up (using a class 1 lever poorly)” “Gravity creates perpendicular, but the upper body can add on to that perpendicular” “The scapulas can help you load the legs, which gives you a better rotationa component and can increase the output” “At the point where the arm is the longest, the scapula is in a power component” “If I’m going to start, I want a small wheel, I don’t want a big wheel, I want to spin the small wheel. But once I get going, I need a bigger wheel” “That’s the big thing to look for is, am I bringing in a level I do not want at this point in time?” “Dribbling doesn’t have a tumbling action, or a pitch action, or a shin angle change” “Levers make assessments so easy; (in a straight leg bound) you got a leg swinging, no big deal until the leg hits the ground, but then you hit the ground and do a toe-raise up out of there” “Class 1 levers (like a see-saw, or standing calf raise) are good at lifting you, but not good at moving you” “Joints provide an end range for the rotation to stop” “If I increase my end-range of the class 1, it is going to delay me to class 2, it is going to make me work harder because I messed up my natural end-range” “Ankle pronation saves the body, because, as I’m coming down, if I didn’t have ankle pronation, the knee would take that” “All they say is arms is counter-rotation, I need something to load these levers to keep me rotating… people just want to get the legs stronger and push harder, but the reason you are pushing harder is that there was no (input) from the arms in the first place” Show Notes Stilts Race (Notice the squatted nature of the athlete to optimize rotation) https://www.instagram.com/p/CYKLuIZMY4d/ About Adarian Barr Adarian Barr is a track coach and inventor based out of Yuba City, California. His collegiate track and field coaching stops have included UW-Superior, Indiana State, UNC Pembroke, Yuba City Community College. He has invented 9 devices from footwear to sleds to exercise devices. Adarian is a USATF Level II coach in the sprints, jumps, hurdles and relays. He has a master’s degree in Physical Education. Adarian’s unique coaching style gets results, and his work on speed and biomechanics is being adapted by some of the top coaches in the nation.

Angus Bradley on Squatting, Delayed Knee Extension and Foot Dynamics in Athletic Movement Jan 13, 2022

Today’s show is with Angus Bradley. Angus is a strength coach and podcast host from Sydney, Australia. He coaches out of Sydney CBD, co-hosts the Hyperformance podcast with his brother, Oscar, and is also an avid surfer. Angus appeared previously on episode 249 of the podcast, talking about compressive strategies in weightlifting, as well as the impacts of those compressive effects on narrow infra-sternal angle individuals in particular. Angus is one of the most brilliant, and practical individuals I know in the world of strength training biomechanics, and connecting it to movement and practical outcomes. When it comes to making sense of how our body structure and pressure systems fit with different setups in the weight room, and how this might apply to dynamic movement, Angus is a top individual to learn from. So often in the weight room, we will say that it is all “general” (which technically it is) but then use that as an excuse not to understand the movements we are utilizing in detail that fit with greater concepts of the gait cycle. Connecting strength work to the gait cycle is key in better strength training practices, as well as individualization. On the show today, Angus covers the dimensions of exercises based on center of mass position relative to the foot, and how this connects with the gait cycle, as well as how much an athlete is being “pushed forward” (and why that is important). He’ll cover delayed knee extension in both lifting and sprinting (and how they might connect), concepts of foot shapes, and gait, as well as his take on “floating heel” work not potentially being everything it’s cracked up to be. Angus will also give some practical ideas on giving more sensory information to athletes unable to access early stance well, how far to take wide and narrow ISA types in terms of “balancing their weaknesses”, and much more. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Inside Tracker, and Lost Empire Herbs. For 25% off of an Inside Tracker order go to info.insidetracker.com/justflysports For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 4:25 – How doing the “wrong” intervention in training can still lead to positive results 11:30 – Understanding the implications of working through the various positions of the center of mass in relation to the position of the feet, and what this means for degrees of freedom in movement 18:30 – Some performance implications of wide-vs. narrow ISA’s in regards to mid and late stance, and jump technique 23:15 – The idea of “hamstring curling” one’s self out of the hole of a squat in order to delay knee extension 28:45 – Where Angus sees the benefit in “floating heel” training, and where he finds it not very beneficial 34:45 – How to re-train athletes to “let their femurs be” in squatting when they’ve been taught to shove their knees out in the past 39:30 – Thoughts on oscillatory squatting (and split squatting) and its impact on the mid-stance phase of lifting 43:30 – A discussion on developing mid-stance, narrow ISA’s and single leg squatting 49:00 – Flat vs. high arched individuals and what this means for how this impacts athletes in early vs. late propulsion 56:50 – How Angus’s lockdown sprint work went, and lessons he learned with squatted running 1:02:00 – Thoughts on the role of the adductors in movement, why some people may feel them more (or less) in sprinting, and how to train them in the gym “You can grab (IR and ER) if you just start pulling athletes back… heavy lifting just has a tendency to shove people forward” “A sign of a good athlete to me, is they will respond to their environment” “You can simplify it by looking at where they are in the sagittal plane and looking at that map of the foot, looking at where they are in relation to that base of support… if the center of mass is over the toes, you are going to be in that propulsive ER, if the center of mass is over the mid foot, you are going to be in that compressive IR, that mid-stance, and if you get them further back behind that base of support, they are going to be in that early stance and have nice access to that yielding ER” “From a performance perspective, I probably only need to pull (a wide ISA) back to midstance (instead of early stance) for a lot of them, just get them back a bit” “What everyone needs when they suck at anything is more external stability” “That’s why I love Hatfield squats, you just shove the arms out in front of you to keep the ribcage back” “I’m very high on goblet squats” “I think there is an association that slow, stiff people are stuck in their heels, and I just don’t see that” “If you just want to lift a massive weight, do a deadlift” “You are not necessarily helping an athlete develop their strengths and you are drawing all these mid-stance qualities out of them in the weight room, but maybe you are just making them a more well-rounded player” “Triple extension and that spring off the ground, that’s the byproduct of the push, the push happens on the ground with the flat foot, and that sets up that beautiful late stance” “(Squatted running) was allowing me to get into those sprinting shapes and get a sense of what mid-stance tastes like” “(To train adductors) Can they center themselves over their stance leg well, and can they do a hip shift well” About Angus Bradley Angus Bradley is a strength coach and podcast host from Sydney, Australia. He coaches out of Sydney CBD, and co-hosts the Hyperformance podcast with his brother, Oscar. After focusing primarily on weightlifting for the first half of his career Angus finds himself spending as much time ‘outside of his lane’ as possible trying to identify the principles that transcend all human movement. He works with a diverse crowd from strongman to surfing and everything in between. Angus has been mentored by Jamie Smith from Melbourne Strength Culture, and formerly dropped out of his major in journalism to tour Australia with his band.

Joel Smith Q&A on Reflexive Dynamics of Athleticism and Surfing the Force-Velocity Curve Jan 06, 2022

Today’s show is a Q&A with Joel Smith. It’s a lot of fun to see the questions you all have, and putting together a list of answers. Some major themes in this show included the dynamics of how an athlete learns and acquires a skill, how to give athletes ideal constraints to learn a skill better (particularly on the level of the arms in sprinting and step-action in jumping), and then questions on training the spectrum of the force velocity curve. There also were a lot of questions and answers that lent to training individualization based on the individual structure of the body and if one is a “power or speed” based athlete, which relates to an athlete’s ribcage structure and ISA bias, and of course, a lot of speed oriented questions. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Inside Tracker, and Lost Empire Herbs. For 25% off of an Inside Tracker order go to info.insidetracker.com/justflysports For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 1:15 – The difference in training fascial vs. elastic athletes 7:33 – How to train a “power” sprinter with poor top end speed 13:40 – Thoughts on training at different points on the force-velocity curve 24:06 – Arm action in sprinting, and constraint-driven coaching versus “positional” coaching 34:14 – Structuring a weight training and performance program for speed and acceleration 36:32 – Why some athletes have a long vs. short penultimate step in jumping 40:45 – Thoughts on in-season programming for team sports 46:56 – Dealing with a toe-sprain and learning to feel other parts of the foot 48:30 – Frequency of training with bodyweight iso holds 49:37 – Thoughts on “inside edge” vs. “outside edge” in movement and training 54:35 – Fascial awareness in movement 55:42 – Is concentric power building in the weightroom worthwhile? 57:01 – How to use falling/slipping/stumbling reflexes to our advantage in training About Joel Smith Joel Smith is the founder of Just Fly Sports and is a sports performance coach in Cincinnati, Ohio. Joel hosts the Just Fly Performance Podcast, has authored several books on athletic performance, and trains numerous clients in the in-person and online space. Joel was formerly a strength coach for 8 years at UC Berkeley, working with the Swim teams and post-graduate professional swimmers, as well as tennis, water polo, and track and field. A track coach of 11 years, Joel coached for the Diablo Valley Track and Field Club for 7 years, and also has 6 years of experience coaching sprints, jumps, hurdles, pole vault and multi-events on the collegiate level, working at Wilmington College, and the University of Wisconsin, LaCrosse. Joel has coached 2 national champions, multiple All-Americans and school record holders in his time as a track coach. In the realm of strength and conditioning, his programs have assisted 5 athletes to Olympic berths that produced 9 medals and a world record performance at Rio in 2016. In 2011, Joel began Just Fly Sports with Jake Clark as a central platform to promote information for athletes and coaches to reach their highest potential. In 2016 the first episode of the “Just Fly Performance Podcast” was released, now a leading source of education in the sports performance field. The evolving mission of Just Fly Sports is focused on teaching athletes to realize their true, innate power, and achieve the highest joy in their training, competition, and in the community.

Helen Hall on Heel Striking and Leveraging Hills for Foot Function in Running Performance Dec 30, 2021

Today’s show welcomes back running coach and biomechanist, Helen Hall. Helen is the author of “Even With Your Shoes On”. She is an endurance athlete, minimalist ultra-distance runner, 6 times Ironman and credited with being the world’s first ‘barefoot’ Iron(wo)man. Helen is the owner of the Perpetual Forward Motion School of Efficient Running, as well as a running injury clinic, using the latest movement science and gait analysis technology to help people find solutions for their pain and injuries. She appeared on episode 180 speaking on all things joint mechanics and technique in running. One of the most common things I hear (and have seen, especially in my club track years) about athletes is those who have a heavy heel strike when they run. Excessive passive forces in athletic motion is never a good thing, but it’s always important to understand binary concepts (you had a heel-strike or you didn’t) in further detail. There is a spectrum of potential foot strike positions in running, and nobody stays on their heel in gait, as we always move towards the forefoot. On the show today, Helen goes in depth on heel striking and the biomechanics of the heel in the running cycle, as well as the difference in heel striking motions in jogging versus sprinting. One of the topics I frequently enjoy covering is how the human body can interact with nature and natural features to optimize itself (which includes optimizing running technique) and Helen speaks on how one can use uphill and downhill grades to help athletes and individuals self-organize their own optimal running technique. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Inside Tracker, and Lost Empire Herbs. For 25% off of an Inside Tracker order go to info.insidetracker.com/justflysports For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 5:27 – Why Helen feels individuals heel strike in the first place 11:33 – Helen’s “happy medium” when it comes to socks in running 14:28 – Helen’s view on the heel bone and pronation in the initial strike in running 21:03 – How Helen would help an athlete who heel strikes in a sprint when it is not desired 29:28 – The importance of relaxation and “letting” the body move and react, versus trying to force the body into motion 38:41 – Nuances of using uphill and downhill running, what to notice, and how to integrate that into one’s stride 45:29 – How un-even surfaces can create grounds by which individuals can self-organize their stride and foot action 48:35 – How to leverage hills to optimize the function of the glutes in running “I never change somebody’s first point of contact; their bodies change their first point of contact themselves” “There can’t be a right or wrong, since there are so many people whose first point of contact is the heel, and they are not in pain” “If you land in front of the heel, then you get the eccentric loading of the Achilles and what it attaches to” “People decide they are in “this camp” or “that camp” and thereby the camps run parallel to each other and never exchange ideas” “You want to be landing, not in a pronating foot.. in the context of running… the descent is arguably a posteriorly tilted calcaneus because you are landing in a supinating foot… unless your foot is going to go “splat” immediately” “You want to land on a foot that is relaxed enough to give” “They are reaching for the step, and by reaching on the step through hip flexion, they are ending up on their heel first, and that may be giving them more control as they go through the forefoot” “In my experience, people do not go back to the heel-strike, and all you need is a slope (to correct it)” “If you want to slow down, the most natural thing in the world is to shove your foot out, and brake with your heel” “You have to be relaxed for the response in your unbelievably complex system to happen in .2 seconds” “When you go downhill on a heel strike that you don’t feel on the flat… so you get to feel what it’s doing on the flat that you didn’t know before” “If you are aware of the terrain, the brain to body connections will take care of themselves” “Even if you are an athlete who operates on a pristine soccer pitch, if you can get out in nature and operate your body and ask it to do natural things, you are going to be more resilient towards the injuries of “everything has to be perfect” “You can’t clench your glutes when you run, if you clench your glutes, you go backwards” “You know you are stacked when you have maximum head rotation” About Helen Hall Helen Hall is the author of “Even With Your Shoes On”, a comprehensive manual on teaching running in a natural manner based on the sensory capabilities of the human body. She is an endurance athlete, minimalist ultra-distance runner, 6 times Ironman and credited with being the world’s first ‘barefoot’ Iron(wo)man. She has completed “the hardest ironman in the world”, Ironman Lanzarote in 2011. Helen is the owner of the Perpetual Forward Motion School of Efficient Running, as well as a running injury clinic. She specializes in the solving of chronic pain and repetitive injuries, be they in the neck, shoulder, back, hip, knee, ankle or foot and connected to sports or not. Helen uses the latest movement science and gait analysis technology to help people find solutions for their pain and injuries. She is a cofounder of Barefoot Audio, an audio tool merging evocative coaching cues to inspirational music composed specifically with efficient running in mind. She is the author of the YMCAfit Barefoot/Efficient Running course and manual and was the coach to the inov-8 Natural Run program. Helen is qualified as an Anatomy in Motion Level 4 Practitioner, has multiple CHEK certifications, as well as certification in lymphatic therapy.

JB Morin on Horizontal Sprint Forces in Running Velocity and Injury Risk Reduction Dec 23, 2021

Today’s show welcomes back JB Morin. JB Morin is currently full professor and head of sports science and the physical education department at the University of Saint-Etienne. He has been involved in sport science research for over 15 years, and has published over 50 peer-reviewed journals since 2004. JB is a world-leading researcher on all things sprint related, having collaborated with and analyzed some of the world’s best sprinters, such as Christophe Lemaitre. JB also does lots of sprint research that is highly applicable to team sport settings, such as information that can be gleaned from force-velocity profiling. He has been a 2x previous guest on this podcast, speaking on elements of heavy sled training, force-velocity profiling, and much more. When it comes to sprinting from point A to point B, the time on the clock does not necessarily represent the strategy an athlete used to get there. Athletes who can direct their sprint forces in more of a horizontal vector are going to be able to reach higher top velocities, and be more resilient towards injury. The question then becomes, how do we assess, and train athletes in respect to the direction they are producing sprint forces? In today’s episode, JB speaks on how the specifics of an athlete’s force production (in the horizontal vs. vertical direction) will highlight elements of how fatigued that individual is, and their predisposition to injury in the short term. JB also goes into how to measure force production in sprinting, new research on joint actions in early and late acceleration, hill training vs. sleds, hamstring research, and more. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Inside Tracker, and Lost Empire Herbs. For 25% off of an Inside Tracker order go to info.insidetracker.com/justflysports For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 5:00 – Some new work that has come out in sprint research recently, showing the importance of the hip and ankle outputs in sprinting, even in the first few steps of acceleration 16:20 – Thoughts on sprint technique, or force-velocity profiling and how that might link to potential injury in team sport situations 24:00 – The relationship (and differences) between one’s maximal horizontal force, and their maximal sprint speed, and what it means for injury risk 30:50 – How having a poor maximal horizontal force output can show up in the biomechanics of how an athlete is sprinting 37:15 – How elite athletes will start to change their force-production orientation (less horizontal, over time) once fatigue starts to set in during a training session 45:00 – How hill training compares to heavy sled training in terms of forces and velocity 50:30 – New studies and thoughts on hamstring injury in athletics 54:20 – Thoughts on training the feet and lower leg for the sake of sprinting 58:40 – JB’s thoughts on how to set up good research on sprinting in athletics “75% of the energy that is generated to run is generated at the hip and calf level” “Team sport is so chaotic, it’s the worst way to assess an athlete’s acceleration capability, the game environment is not reproducible” “Our studies show that pre-season maximal force output is not related to (injury risk) but when you measure that maximal force output throughout the season, the last measurement is related to the risk of injury in that measurement period” “You need to measure (force/velocity) regularly, not only in the pre-season period… there are so many changes throughout the season” “You can have people with the same 25 meter splits, but different profiles at the beginning of the spectrum or the end of the spectrum” “If you take two athletes with the same magnitude of ground reaction force, the best in acceleration will be the most horizontally oriented vector” “The last studies a-posteriori connected very clearly (horizontal force output) to the hamstring and glutes muscle function capability” “If you are more quad dominant, and push vertically, you will not go to a very high top speed” “I’ve seen some professional rugby players coming back from a few (off) days or weeks, because of an injury, and sprinting (pr’s), because they were chronically overloaded” “Most of the sprint related (hamstring) injuries, occur at high speeds, but also in linear movements” About JB Morin Jean-Benoit (JB) Morin is currently full professor and head of sports science and the physical education department at the University of Saint-Etienne. He was formerly full Professor at the Faculty of Sport Sciences of the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis (France), and has been involved in sport science research for over 15 years, and has published over 50 peer-reviewed journals since 2004. He obtained a Track & Field Coach National Diploma in 1998 and graduated in Sport Science at the University of Besançon, France in 2000. He obtained his PhD in Human Locomotion and Performance in 2004 at the University of Saint-Etienne, France (Prof. Alain Belli), in collaboration with the University of Udine, Italy (Prof. Pietro diPrampero). JB’s field of research is mainly human locomotion and performance, with specific interest into running biomechanics and maximal power movements (sprint, jumps). He teaches locomotion and sports biomechanics, and strength training and assessment methods. JB’s has collaborated with French sprinter Christophe Lemaitre and his group/coach, and he is member of the French Soccer Federation research group, teaching professional coaches about sprint mechanics and training for acceleration. He also collaborates with New-Zealand professional and national rugby teams, and with professional soccer clubs in France and Spain. He practiced soccer in competition for 10 years, practiced and coached track and field (middle distance and 400m hurdles) for 8 years, and he is now enjoying trail running, road cycling and triathlon.

Randy Huntington on Training Cycles, Water Work, and a “Recovery First” Mindset in Speed and Power Training Dec 16, 2021

Today’s show welcomes back Randy Huntington for a “part 2” of the recent episode #282 , speaking on the success of Chinese sprinter, Su Bingtian, and the third podcast with Randy in total. Randy is a track and field coach who has spent his recent years as the national track and field coach for the Chinese athletics association and has over 45 years of coaching experience. Huntington is rated as a USATF Master Coach in the jumps, has been the coach for many world-class athletes over the years, including eight Olympians and seven World Championship Team members. Mike Powell and Willie Banks set world records in the long jump and triple jump, respectively, while under his tutelage. In the last podcast, Randy spoke on several elements of the training methods that helped Su Bingtian to become the fastest accelerator of all time, such as sled and resisted sprint training, special strength work, and more. There was still a lot left to cover after the last episode, so for this show, we will dive back in (literally, in regards to the water training) to Randy’s training methodology. For today’s episode, Randy speaks in depth on Su Bingtian’s weekly training setup, and how he spaces out the weekly work, with a focus on rest and recovery. He will get into the topic of training density, and how this can be modulated with training cycles of various lengths (as opposed to only sticking with a traditional 7-day cycle). Randy will get into elements of water training, tempo sprint training, his version of over-speed work, and much more. This is an awesome compliment to the popular “part 1” of my recent chatting with Randy, and great material for coaches in any discipline. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Inside Tracker, and Lost Empire Herbs. For 25% off of an Inside Tracker order go to info.insidetracker.com/justflysports For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 4:39 – Details on Su’s weekly training setup, and how “work + rest = adaptation” 11:17 – Thoughts on how much, and how often to apply tempo work to team training 15:35 – How various cultures can have an impact on the type of training that athletes in that culture will optimally respond to 18:56 – The importance of water training for recovery, and recovery training in general, in Randy’s program 36:51 – Why the biggest need in coaching is on the level of youth coaches, and not those who work with elite athletes 42:06 – How Randy isolates the specific focus of his training sessions, not doing too much work all in one session 46:06 – Individual factors in elastic vs. muscular athletes in the construction of a training program 51:51 – The power of being able to move athletes around selectively amongst training groups in individual sports 55:21 – How Randy looks at long term training and seasonal shifts in training emphasis 59:51 – Principles on going beyond a typical 7-day weekly training cycle, into 9 and 10 day cycles. 1:04:51 – How Randy utilizes the “bigger players” in a training year (such as intense training methods, heavy lifting, intense plyos, etc.) and how he measures and manages recovery 1:12:06 – How Randy applies overspeed training with his athletes “I look at work, but I put the rest in first in the week, and then I follow it back up with what work we are going to do prior to the rest” “I like using pulse (for tempo training), I’d rather use SMO2 (when I can)… that gives me a very accurate appraisal of when to go again” “I make our strength coaches run (tempo) with the sprinters” “In China, you can’t give them a lot of time off, they fall apart very quickly if they have a lot of time off (Koreans were like the too)” “How do you increase density without (going to steroids)… that’s how I arrived at (water training)… my whole approach has been recovery based first, I’d quit before I’d ever go to (steroids)… the water for me, serves for Su, the density of training I need him to do” “If the pool is accessible, I’d go there after every session” “There is almost no better way to do hip flexor work than to get in the water” “Because water is denser too, you find the best pattern, you groove your movement pattern even better” “Deep water is pure recovery work to me…. Tempo is still work; is it recovery? I wouldn’t make a steady diet out of it.. there is only so much gravity based training you can take” “You can refresh that (coaching) spark by going back down to middle school and high school” “You can destroy elasticity pretty easily by overtraining” “I tend to put the jumpers on a 9 day cycle, the sprinters on a 7 day cycle, and the 800m is on a 7-10-10-5 cycle” “We go to 9 day cycles if we need to fit in everything I need to fit in” “You only extend a training cycle for recovery, in 7 days, you are creating density but you are not taking time to recover… you start thinking density more than intensity or volume” “3-day cycles are the easiest to figure out; so you got acceleration, weight training, speed… or acceleration, weight training, recovery” “Rolling 3 days are pretty easy to program” “If you want to get scientific with anything, get scientific with adaptation. Get scientific with sympathetic/parasympathetic balance” “I don’t do over-speed training, I do assisted-speed training… that’s the thing you look at; where am I in my ability to apply force to the ground without creating blocking forces” Show Notes Su Bingtian’s Sprint Training Schedule: Monday: Acceleration Tues: Lift (power) Wed: Short Speed Endurance (ASSE/GSSE) working into pure speed day over time Thursday: Lift (upper body + 1 power style lift) Recovery Circuits in Afternoon Friday: Acceleration Sat: Lift (max strength) plus longer speed endurance session About Randy Huntington Randy Huntington is currently the national track and field coach for the Chinese athletics association and has over 45 years of coaching experience. Huntington is rated as a USATF Master Coach in the jumps – one of only five in the U.S. He has been the coach for many world-class athletes over the years, including eight Olympians and seven World Championship Team members. Mike Powell and Willie Banks set world records in the long jump and triple jump, respectively, while under his tutelage. Six of his athletes have been in the U.S. all-time top ten in their respective events. Huntington coached Powell to the Olympic Games in 1988, 1992 and 1996, where Powell won a pair of silver medals in the long jump. On Aug. 30, 1991 in Tokyo, Powell broke Bob Beamon’s 23-year-old long jump record that was expected to never be broken, leaping 29-4 1/2 (8.95m) – a record that still stands. Willie Banks, who Huntington coached to the 1988 Olympics, broke the world triple jump record with a mark of 58-11 1/2 (17.97m), June 16, 1985 in Indianapolis, and under Huntington’s coaching twice jumped over 18 meters, which is the longest in American history. Huntington has also coached Olympians Joe Greene (long jump bronze medal in 1992), Sheila Hudson (American indoor and outdoor record-holder in the triple jump), Al Joyner, Darren Plab, Tony Nai and Sharon Couch. At least one of his athletes has competed in every summer Olympic Games since 1984. Powell, Greene, Hudson, Couch and Nai were all World Championship team members that he coached, along with Kathy Rounds and Kenta Bell. Huntington has also worked with professional athletes in other sports, notably football. He has worked as a conditioning and/or speed consultant for several teams including Indianapolis, St. Louis, Miami, Denver, Philadelphia and Cincinnati, and has worked with numerous individual players including Trace Armstrong, Terry Kirby, Henry Ellard and Ed McCaffrey. He has also worked with college football programs at Florida, Oklahoma and Notre Dame including training for the NFL combine, working with athletes such as Kyle Turley and Grant Wistrom.

Dr. Edythe Heus on The Dynamics of Fascial and Balance Training Dec 09, 2021

Our guest for today’s show is Dr. Edythe Heus. Dr. Heus is a nationally known chiropractor utilizing kinesiology with 22 years of experience. She is the founder of the RevinMo, a unique corrective exercise program and co-author of ProBodX. Dr. Heus is a thoughtful investigator whose diagnosis and treatment is based on specialized knowledge of the body's interconnectedness. Dr. Heus has enjoyed great success, and works with many professional and Olympic athletes. When training individuals, it’s easiest to focus only on “outputs”, such as the load on the bar, or how fast an individual ran through sprint gates. In taking a full-view at training, it’s also important to understand more subtle inputs, and how the body organizes movement from a fascial perspective. I’ve routinely noticed in the world of track and field, and swimming, a cycle where athletes experience an injury, have to do “rehab” (subtle) work (and also get a deload from the typical intense work they are doing) and come back to their sport to set personal bests within a few weeks or months. As such, it’s worthwhile to study the full spectrum of “rehab to outputs” in human and athletic performance, and how we can organize each of these methods through a training session, or one’s career. On the show today, Dr. Heus will speak on balance and proprioceptive training methods, such as pipes and slant boards, advanced foot training concepts, and information on the fascia and how it responds to various training methods. This is an important concept for anyone, and particularly those individuals who wish to learn more about the “softer” side of performance that can make a large impact on one’s function and resistance to injury. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Inside Tracker, and Lost Empire Herbs. For 25% off of an Inside Tracker order go to info.insidetracker.com/justflysports For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 6:00 – How Edythe got into a more “alternative” position on exercise and training in her career 19:30 – Deeper thoughts on balance training, and how it benefits the nervous system 38:30 – From a balance perspective, what athletes should be able to do from a fundamental movement perspective 56:00 – Assessing the feet and the abdominals in the course of balance-oriented training 1:02.00 – Using slant boards to train the feet 1:06:00 – Edythe’s thoughts on toe strength 1:21:15 – How Edythe can feel the fascial system working in a particular exercise, and what exactly is “fascial training” “A quality of a person’s life is directly related to the health of their feet” “I see what I do, whether it is treatment or training, because I don’t separate those, as a collaborative team effort (between myself and the client)” “(I want to know) why are we not getting the response from the nervous system or the fascia that is possible?” “Balance, for me, isn’t just standing on unstable surfaces” “Balance is a form of novelty, and the brain thrives on novelty… I also challenge them textually” “Instability just simply, makes the cerebellum work” “Balance comes in so that your inner and outer environment can better communicate with each other” “One of the components I think is critical in training is a perception of risk” “Do some of my stuff before the lift, do it after, and then your lift is going to be better, and you are going to build on what you gained from that lifting, so heavy weight stuff definitely has to be on a stable surface” “I don’t think that without an unstable surface, that you are going to get all parts of your being integrated” “We want to automate as much as possible so there is not much thinking involved, so when you do have a skill you actually want to learn, you’ve got more bandwidth for that skill, so that you are not using all your bandwidth (for your sport skills)” “Let’s automate everything that we can, our body is designed for automation” “The thing I teach is, “are people able to be in their feet”” “The fascia has a spiral design; if you had to train a single plane of movement, it would be rotation” “I will allow people to struggle with that “arch downhill” just a little bit, because when they get it, it’s solid” “The arch uphill is the least needed of the four slantboard positions” “Anyone with a pronation problem, I ask, “what’s going on with your pelvic floor”… you aren’t going to get the feet working properly if you got pelvic floor issues” “(the fascia) doesn’t like held positions; holding a posture more than 10-15 seconds straightens out the collagen fibers, and you lose the waviness that lends to elasticity” “Some shoes are very rough, and they create problems all the way up, from the texture of the shoes” “Be very particular about the (physio) ball having the same tone that you would want in your tissues, which means that there is elasticity and give, not tension that feels unpleasant… I can’t even look at someone on a deflated (physio) ball” Show Notes Pipe Training https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyceUFmvlEo Slantboard Training Methods https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITXRchznLz4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TS9ENhUH1a4&list=PLGlTos0mCZTytU-Y4pk7mPG2vtSiBU0vP Win a 3-Pack of Virtual Classes with Dr. Edythe Along with the show today (depending on the time you are reading this) you can win a free 3-pack of virtual classes with Dr. Edythe, and to get in on that deal, you can follow these instructions: Select 3-Pack on RevInMo Virtual Classes(scroll all the way down to see packages) Make account on MindBodyOnline When shopping cart comes up, there will be a field to enter promo code, enter “FLYREV” and the shopping cart should be at $0. About Dr. Edythe Heus Dr. Edythe Heus is a nationally known chiropractor utilizing kinesiology who during 22 years of experience has embraced a holistic concept of health. She is the founder of the RevinMo, a unique corrective exercise program and co-author of ProBodX. Dr. Heus is a thoughtful investigator whose diagnosis and treatment is based on specialized knowledge of the body's interconnectedness. Finding the point of origin of injuries, she uses appropriate sequences of exercise to improve performance and keep patients from coming back with the same recurring injuries. Dr. Heus has enjoyed great success, and works with many professional and Olympic athletes. Throughout her career, Dr. Heus has lived by the mantra, “Challenge what’s possible.” And that is what her clients see her do every day.

Erik Huddleston on Exercise Selection and Periodization Based on Expansion-Compression Continuum Dec 02, 2021

Our guest for today’s show is Erik Huddleston. Erik was recently on the podcast, on episode 269, speaking about important elements of squat technique based on individual frames of the athlete. After the show, I had some other important questions left over that I wanted to discuss, and also in that time, Erik has made a career transition to working in the NBA. Erik is currently an assistant sports performance coach with the Indiana Pacers and head performance coach for their G-League affiliate, the Ft. Wayne Mad Ants. He is the former director of performance at Indianapolis Fitness & Sports Training (IFAST), along with having NCAA D1 experience. When we program training for athletes, what factors are we considering when we select exercises? Do we just pick movements that are novel and random, or do we have a greater philosophy that helps us decide what types of movements to use, and when? What about timing, such as exercise selection in the training sessions coming off of, or leading them up to competitions or tough practice periods? Or, do we ever ask ourselves about what an athlete’s development level (youth vs. pro) might mean for them with the types of exercises we are prescribing from a compression and expansion perspective? On the show today, Erik speaks on organizing exercise selection based on an athlete’s training schedule (such as post or pre-competition periods of the training week, or even training year), how to use weight placement to train various athlete body types, and some critical differences in training, from an expansion/compression perspective, regarding youth vs pro level athletes. It’s so easy to fan-boy (or girl) over the workouts of “elite” athletes, but the key to good coaching is always knowing how to engage an athlete where they are at in their own development. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Inside Tracker, and Lost Empire Herbs. For 25% off of an Inside Tracker order go to info.insidetracker.com/justflysports For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 5:28 – How to organize training based off of periods of “expansion” and “compression” 11:42 – How Erik quantifies what players are experiencing in practice and games from a “expansion/compression” perspective, and how to give them what they don’t have then, in a gym setting 14:54 – Exercise selection principles that help athletes optimally reset in their “off” days 21:55 – How to adjust exercises to help them ramp up to a game or competition situation 24:20 – What a pre-season training load looks like compared to in-season in professional basketball 29:00 – What pre-season training looks like in high school sports where athletes have a lot more time to prepare without high volume sport loadings 34:41 – Situations where more compression will help an athlete, vs. situations where it will potentially hurt an athlete 39:25 – How to set up training for “pylon” shaped individuals to help their reversal ability in jumping and athletics 46:20 – How “flipping the pylon” of the torso, and having wide shoulders impacts squatting selection 52:06 – How the shape of one’s torso impacts the types of plyometric exercises that players should utilize 54:46 – How to prescribe jump programming to individuals who have a hard time yielding in their movement relative to the ground 59:10 – How to approach plyometrics and jump training for youth athletes vs. elite athletes who are already at a relatively high level, and playing jump oriented sports constantly “Keeping player assets on the court is the most important part of my job” “Give them some of what they don’t have that they are getting from the training and the basketball stimulus” “I have to assume that the vast things that are occurring on the court are output driven… that’s where we get into that compression end of the spectrum” “My training before a game is really really output driven, it’s really force production driven… ramping them up like that is the appropriate thing to do” “When they have an off-day, that day is generally going to be an input day, or this expansive quality that we are looking for… how do I restore position that allows them to recover well”? “When things are intense, when training loads in the court are high, we try to match that with a high intensity in the weight room also” “When you are prescribing your compression in the right way, it doesn’t take a lot of it to move the needle forward in terms of force output… but it quickly on the back end can take away from some expansive qualities” “Muscle mass by nature, is compression… and whether that is positive or negative is a case by case basis” “If I’m looking to bias the inhaled portion on a split squat, I’m going to coach an inhale” “That traffic-cone shaped individual, they just don’t have the base in their thorax to be able to re-direct pressure and volume… so obviously that’s something we want to work on with the force output side of things” “Breath hold and exhale are the game thing…. A breath hold is just an exhale against a closed glottis” “I’m not big on coaching cues while doing something, I want to set (an exercise) up in a way where an athlete will be successful” “(For young athletes) I use line hops, ankle hops, with the emphasis of getting off the ground quickly. (Pros) I band assist a lot of their jumps… they are already really good at getting off of the ground quickly… I try to allow them more time (to find the heel in their jump… you do want these guys to have access to the positions where they can redistribute force well” Show Notes Expansion/contraction flow chart for training View this post on Instagram A post shared by Erik Huddleston (@eph.24) About Erik Huddleston Erik Huddleston is currently an assistant sports performance coach with the Indiana Pacers (NBA) and head performance coach for their G-League affiliate, the Ft. Wayne Mad Ants. He is the former director of performance at Indianapolis Fitness & Sports Training (IFAST). Erik previously spent time at Indiana University & Texas Tech University with the men’s basketball teams.

Randy Huntington on Special Strength, Reactivity, and Building a 4.07s 40-Yard Dash Nov 24, 2021

Our guest for today’s show is Randy Huntington. Randy is a track and field coach, who has spent his recent years as the national track and field coach for the Chinese athletics association and has over 45 years of coaching experience. Huntington is rated as a USATF Master Coach in the jumps, has been the coach for many world-class athletes over the years, including eight Olympians and seven World Championship Team members. Mike Powell and Willie Banks set world records in the long jump and triple jump, respectively, while under his tutelage. More recently, Randy has had tremendous success coaching in Asia, a capstone of which has been Su Bingtian, who recently set the Asian 100m dash record of 9.83 seconds at age 31. En route to his 100m record, Su broke the world record in the 60m (as a split time) with a 6.29, which converts to around a 4.07s 40 yard dash. When a teenager, or relatively untrained individual takes a few tenths off of their 40 yard dash, or drops a half second in the 100m dash over several years time, this is a normal and natural occurrence, and isn’t something that really demands digging far into. On the other hand, when an already elite athlete, who is at, or slightly past their “prime” years, moves into their 30s and smashes sprint records, this is something that is truly worth putting a close eye on. On the show today, Randy Huntington speaks on some of the training elements that helped sprinter, Su Bingtian achieve his recent results. Randy goes into his views on special strength training for speed, particularly on the level of the lower leg, and speaks on the use of banded and wearable resistance in speed training, as well as some nuts and bolts on resisted and sled sprint work. On the back end of the show, Randy gets into training the elastic and fascial systems of an athlete, and how to optimize an athlete’s elastic response to training in plyometrics and beyond. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Inside Tracker, and Lost Empire Herbs. For 25% off of an Inside Tracker order go to info.insidetracker.com/justflysports For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 5:02 – What’s been happening with Randy in his last 4 years of coaching, particularly with Su Bingtian and his success 12:24 – Some of the big training elements that helped Su Bingtian get down to 9.83/6.29 from 10.0/6.50 in his time working with Randy 18:37 – Using banded and wearable resistance methods for improving speed and “bridging” the gap between the weight room and the track 25:58 – Randy’s advice for using sleds/heavy sleds in training 32:59 – The “train your frame” system and the importance of body proportions and structure on optimal sporting events for athletes 37:01 – How Randy uses sleds for contrast training, as well as concepts on wave-loading and how many sets in a row to utilize 40:25 – The importance of elastic energy in athletic performance, and how under-estimated the elastic contribution to performance is, as well as how important dynamic elastic ability is for running endurance 50:44 – The nature of the advanced spikes and track surface used in the Tokyo Olympic games, and its impact on athletes 55:04 – Randy’s take on optimizing the elastic and fascial systems of an athlete, as well as a chat on ground contact times in plyometrics 1:06.28 – How improved foot strength played into Su’s improvement in the 100m dash, as well as in various portions of the race, as well as how Randy trained Su’s foot strength 1:08:26 – The role of harmonics and resonance between one’s foot/body and the running surface, especially in the course of a 100m dash race 1:19.56 – How to increase the eccentric rate of development in standard exercises, such as a partner pushing a partner down into an exercise 1:28.10 – Randy’s take on jumping off of an angled surface, versus a flat surface in jumping, or in jumping machines “(In 2016) I took (Su) over to the Kaiser seated calf, and tested him, his power output was 735 watts, which was weaker than my weakest female triple jumper… so our first goal was to get that soleus strength as high as we could get it… now he is in the 26-2700 watt range” “Even though (Su) was a quick starter, he wasn’t a fast starter” “Elasticity wise, (Su) couldn’t rebound off the ground… so we got him into low amplitude single leg rebounding and slowly brought it up” “I see 3 things that are my best teaching tools, the 1080 (sprint) and the sled… then the exogen, and then the activator belt (a belt with tubing attached to limbs)… those are the 3 most important integration tools, integrating the weight room to what you are doing on the track” “When we do drills, we’ll do activator belt, exogen, off” “You can’t underestimate the need for the psoas the other hip flexors to be really powerful and strong” “If you are going to use external loading, you had better be prepared to rest a while” “A heavy sled to me is a sled with close to your bodyweight, then we went half the bodyweight, then we would quarter the bodyweight” “Even that first step (in a sprint) becomes elastic in nature, pretty quickly” “In the jumpers, we are seeing close to a 1 to 1 ratio between femur and tibia… the RSI indexes are reflective of the anthropometric indexes of the athletes” “I do things in 3’s… occasionally I do them in 4’s if I want to push the nervous system to take it” “When you start talking about (elasticity/power) in isolation, or discreetly, you can get yourself in trouble because the body is a system” “That’s the whole goal is to figure out how to get the athlete to access that elastic ability” “To train (elastic/fascial) we go back to low amplitude” “I started wearing earth shoes in 1977 and my vertical jump was gone, because the Earth Shoes had a negative heel, I just kept stretching slowly, my Achilles and I lost the elasticity in my calf” “I don’t know if there’s one exercise you can pick, but high hurdle hops may be close to it, as a great way to destroy anybody’s elasticity and their ability to create good ground contact times” “(Regarding ground contact times) you have to measure it, to see at what height athletes achieve their best ground contact times, because then you can go a little above it, or a litte below it” “I don’t use the word “jump” very much with jump training, I use “bounce” training” “Soleus is usually the most undeveloped muscle in the lower extremity” “The key to the 100m is, you have to wait for the track to give something back, and at that point, that’s when you feel and go…. you gotta race enough to feel max velocity” “The Keiser seated calf is one of the most under-rated training machines ever made” “You must get your foot adjusted (by a therapist) if you are a jumper, sprinter, thrower, distance runner… it’s like having a race-car” About Randy Huntington Randy Huntington is currently the national track and field coach for the Chinese athletics association and has over 45 years of coaching experience. Huntington is rated as a USATF Master Coach in the jumps – one of only five in the U.S. He has been the coach for many world-class athletes over the years, including eight Olympians and seven World Championship Team members. Mike Powell and Willie Banks set world records in the long jump and triple jump, respectively, while under his tutelage. Six of his athletes have been in the U.S. all-time top ten in their respective events. Huntington coached Powell to the Olympic Games in 1988, 1992 and 1996, where Powell won a pair of silver medals in the long jump. On Aug. 30, 1991 in Tokyo, Powell broke Bob Beamon’s 23-year-old long jump record that was expected to never be broken, leaping 29-4 1/2 (8.95m) – a record that still stands. Willie Banks, who Huntington coached to the 1988 Olympics, broke the world triple jump record with a mark of 58-11 1/2 (17.97m), June 16, 1985 in Indianapolis, and under Huntington’s coaching twice jumped over 18 meters, which is the longest in American history. Huntington has also coached Olympians Joe Greene (long jump bronze medal in 1992), Sheila Hudson (American indoor and outdoor record-holder in the triple jump), Al Joyner, Darren Plab, Tony Nai and Sharon Couch. At least one of his athletes has competed in every summer Olympic Games since 1984. Powell, Greene, Hudson, Couch and Nai were all World Championship team members that he coached, along with Kathy Rounds and Kenta Bell. Huntington has also worked with professional athletes in other sports, notably football. He has worked as a conditioning and/or speed consultant for several teams including Indianapolis, St. Louis, Miami, Denver, Philadelphia and Cincinnati, and has worked with numerous individual players including Trace Armstrong, Terry Kirby, Henry Ellard and Ed McCaffrey. He has also worked with college football programs at Florida, Oklahoma and Notre Dame including training for the NFL combine, working with athletes such as Kyle Turley and Grant Wistrom.

Logan Christopher on Critical Mental Training Concepts and Athlete Learning Styles Nov 18, 2021

Our guest for today’s show is Logan Christopher. Logan is a strongman, author, owner of Legendary Strength and CEO of Lost Empire Herbs. Logan previously appeared on episode 111 and episode 187, where he discussed mental training in depth, as well as the “6 layers” of strength. Logan has also written several books including “Mental Muscle” and “Powered by Nature”, both of which I have found impactful reads. Logan is a master of using the natural machinery of the body, our mind, and our environment to help us reach our highest potential as humans. An interesting saying you hear over and over again is that “the game is all mental”, or it is “90% mental” by many elite athletes. Although there are general physical standards to be successful in many sports (think of the body type of a runner or a jumper, or the long arms that are very helpful in making it to the NBA) it is impossible to overlook the role of the mind, especially in elite performers. Perhaps one’s genetic structure can help one to “get in the door” in the sport they are most suited for, but it is always going to be the mind that allows them higher levels of success. On the show today, Logan talks about many facets of both physical and mental training. He starts with an important facet of coaching we haven’t gotten much into before, and that is on the language a coach uses to describe exercises, and training in general, and how these can impact training outcomes. He also speaks on specific learning styles that can also be used in one’s visualization routines, as well as his take on the use of analogies and imagination in athletic skill performance. Logan also goes into elements of old-school strongman training, as well as a quick take on why testosterone has dropped across the world over the last 50-100 years by a substantial margin. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 5:40 – Talking about managing training in context of holding back and achieving balance in order to have continual progress 11:10 – How the language a coach uses in the course of a workout can impact the outcome of the training (especially on the level of over-training) 14:25 – The four learning styles, and how to leverage these learning styles for better training results 20:40 – How to specifically optimize the auditory learning style in training 23:10 – How to approach strengths vs. weaknesses in terms of the four learning styles and physical training 32:00 – How analogies, as spoken about by Nick Winkelman, can be effective for athletes in light of Neurolinguistic programming philosophy 33:40 – How imaginatory ability impacts one’s physical and athletic abilities 39:10 – If Logan could pick only one mental training tool for himself now, and then 10 years ago, what he would utilize 43:10 – How much mental training Logan does now that he has over a decade of mental training under his belt 50:10 – Some old school strongman lift performances from the past that haven’t been touched in the last 50 years 55:25 – Speaking on the link between breathing and strongman training 59:10 – Why testosterone has dropped so much in the last 50 years “Typically I don’t even refer to my workouts as workouts, I refer to them as “training”” “I like to use the word “severety” for “effort” instead (of intensity)” “Words do matter, this is going to change the results we get” “(With language) taking a small thing and compounding it over time is going to be a big difference” “The four (learning) styles are visual, auditory, kinesthetic and digital” “Most people in sport tend to be kinesthetic learners…. The visual and kinesthetic are common in athletes” “As a coach, we are going to coach predominantly in our own style” “Very often, we find the audio component is completely missing from internal imagination, but there is tremendous power in the potential of audio to “boost the signal” (related to a physical performance)” “The quality of your audio matter, more-so than the words you are saying to yourself” “If you can’t (scream “I am the greatest”) you can imagine it, and you can feel that energy as if you are saying it out loud with that sort of tone or belief behind it” “Beliefs structure what we do” “Mental training is not a “then and there” kind of thing, but also a building thing over time” “Here’s the thing, you are mental training whether you think it or not, because you may not have the awareness, but thoughts are going through your head, visualizations are going through your head, you may have to step back and tweak it to make it work well” “If people want to get really good results, you are going to have to learn some things about mental training, and then practice” “You are doing mental training whether you think you are or not, so some people are going to by default be better at it… going under the hood and actually looking at the techniques and what kind of specific mental drills we can do is a surefire way to improve your performance” “(Why testosterone has dropped so much) the basic answer is: Pollution” “(In terms of helping support our endocrine system/testosterone) Eating organic food, drinking fresh or filtered water…. skin care products are quite horrible (more of an issue for women than men)” “When I talk about testosterone it is more of a healthy living plan” “Here’s something to keep in mind, anything you put on your skin is going into your body, it absorbs through your pores” About Logan Christopher Logan Christopher is a strongman, entrepreneur and mental training expert from Santa Cruz, CA. He is the owner of legendarystrength.com and is the CEO of Lost Empire Herbs lostempireherbs.com. Logan is the author of Mental Muscle and Powered by Nature, along with having written hundreds of articles on strength, health, herbalism, mental training and more. Logan is regarded as an expert in the mental performance field, and he has in depth expertise as an NLP Master Practitioner and certified hypnotist. As a strongman, Logan has numerous feats to his name, such as phonebook tearing, nail bending, truck pulling and kettlebell juggling. This blend of interests and abilities gives Logan a unique perspective in the strength and human performance industry.

Austin Jochum on Flowing From “Chaos to Order” and The Process of Multi-Dimensional Athletic Development Nov 11, 2021

Our guest for today’s show is Austin Jochum. Austin is the owner of Jochum Strength where he works with athletes and “washed up movers” to become the best versions of themselves. He is also the host of the Jochum Strength Podcast. Austin was a former NCAA D3 All-American football player and a hammer thrower (MIAC weight throw champion) at the University of St. Thomas, where he is now the speed and strength coach for the football team. Austin has appeared on episode 213, and also has written numerous articles for Just Fly Sports. One common theme of this podcast for so many years has been finding ways to make one’s training transfer to sport more, not just on the physical and mechanical level, but also on the mental and emotional level, and on a perception-reaction level. At some point, the hair splitting that happens in regards to weight room exercises (arguments on what set-rep scheme to use, single leg vs. bilateral lifting, etc.), or the minutia of biomechanics, can start to take away from developing other important components of athletics. Austin Jochum is a pioneer in the blending of sport elements into the traditional gym setting for athletes. He is a meathead, but also a die-hard athletic-mover, and passionately trains in a way that encompasses both the archetypes of strength, and performing ideally in one’s sport and movement practice. For the show today, Austin speaks on the art of developing a love for movement and play in athletes, how to build a “scorer’s” mentality, as well as how to optimize game-based scenarios in the gym to help improve transfer to the field. He then gets into an excellent discussion on exposing athletes to their weaknesses in a gym-game setting, and finishes with how he sets up his own training programs from not only a physical, but also a mental/emotional perspective, moving from external to internal states, relating each type of training stress to the emotional state of the athlete. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 5:00 – A story of two different soccer coaches and their approaches to training with their groups 11:00 – The link between love of movement/sport, obsession, and subsequent greatness, 15:30 – How to preserve, and grow, love for movement in coaching athletes 18:30 – Thoughts on “leveling up” on the levels of movement, as well as mental and emotional levels, in a training session 27:30 – How to set up games in a training session that can help to build a “scorer’s mentality” in athletes 29:00 – How to modulate the space of the field, and 1v1, or 2v2 type situations that can help athletes 36:00 – How to transfer between what athletes are really good, and really bad at, in their sport in order to create more robust athletic ability 44:30 – Insecurities that are wrapped up in not being able to expose one’s self to failure 51:30 – The importance of being on the fringe, and evolving the field, and realizing that no one individual has all of the answers 59:30 – The line between order and chaos within a training session, and how a strength session looks for Austin, and how he moves from fun, to funneling the energy into outputs or skill, then taking the athletes into themselves “If you listen to really really good athletes talk, I look at my own past successes, it is because you are obsessed with it… and how do you become obsessed with something? You gotta fall in love with it” “Something we’ve been doing is saying, “if this kid scores”, it’s worth two points, so now the stud who is always scoring is going to find a way to give the ball to someone else, he is going to expand the field” “Watch when your athlete, the first time you meet your athlete, watch how they walk into the gym, because you’ll know right away, almost 100%, what they are thinking in that moment, who they are, how they interact with the world” “(To create a scorer’s mentality) let them score from all angles, in all situations” “Let’s say you have a really fast athlete that is struggling with some change of direction stuff, then you make the space wider and shorter” “We’re talking about sets and reps, and this exercise selection, and it doesn’t matter if you aren’t looking at it on the field” “Conjugate style your games, expose them to as many games as possible, and then ebb and flow between what they are good at and then what they suck at” “Maybe there is an arrogant athlete… expose them to something they suck at… and how do they handle that? I would much rather you lose in this (gym) setting” “There are so many fringe pieces that we can experiment with, but our egos don’t let us” “Joy, looking forward to training and learning a skill is really important for skill retention. In the weight room, having freedom has a ton of benefit with things like soreness, then what do you do with that energy? Now we funnel it into something we want to work on that day” “Now, how can we ebb and flow back into, how can I hold this position for 5’, or doing 1000 drop-catch reps… now they have to internally focus, and can you bring them back out of that?” “Not very many athletes are good at going internal; in those iso’s, they want to move, they want to twitch, in that stillness practice… so expose that to them a ton until they do master it, and have conversations about it” Show Notes Eli Franke water polo story https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9SBkUA-Iwg About Austin Jochum Austin Jochum is the owner of Jochum Strength where he works with athletes and washed up movers to become the best versions of themselves. He also operates The Jochum Strength insider which is an online training platform for people trying to feel, look, and move better. Austin was a former D3 All-American football player and a hammer thrower (MIAC weight throw champion) at the University of St.Thomas, where he is now the speed and strength coach for the football team.

Katie St. Clair on “Inside-Out”, Biomechanical Approach for Improved Squatting, Running and Overall Athleticism Nov 04, 2021

Our guest for today’s show is Katie St. Clair. Katie is a strength and conditioning coach out of Charleston, SC who has been training general population and athletes for over 20 years, and is the creator of the Empowered Performance Program. She is passionate about helping everyone reclaim movement and find joy and reduction of pain using sound biomechanical principles alongside proper breathing. Katie has embarked on a journey of learning and combining that knowledge with her love of athletic movement, as well as her passion for empowering female movement professionals, with the intent to elevate the entire industry standard. In my last few years as a coach, I’ve become more and more aware of the underlying physical and structural characteristics of athletes that work to determine biomechanics that show up when they perform various sporting skills. I’ve really enjoyed having a variety of coaches on this show who have gone in detail on the biomechanics of the human body, (the pelvis, ribcage, breathing, etc.) and then have linked that up with what we might see in athletic movement, such as sprinting and jumping to name a few. Katie is an expert in human performance, and the fine details of human movement. On today’s show, she takes us on an approach to forward pelvic tilt, breathing mechanics, abdominal function, the feet, proper squatting, plyometrics and more that comes from a perspective of the underlying function of the human body. Katie helps us understand the “inside” mechanisms that are so often leading to compromised movement seen on the “outside”. So often we have athletes who just can’t seem to “find” the right joint motions in their movement, and this is when we need to have the ability to go a level deeper in our coaching, or our ability to know when to “refer out” to experts better able to cater to those areas. The more you know from “the inside out”, the greater the bandwidth of athletes you can serve in your efforts. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 4:45 – What led Katie into working in fitness and performance 10:15 – Katie’s “inside out” view, of helping athletes acquire better technique via changes on the level of the thorax, pelvis and rib-cage 15:45 – The art of coaching humans in a manner that helps them self-organize and learn to move effectively 18:45 – How being biased, or stuck, in anterior tilt impacts one’s ability to move, and how to help athletes get out of that position 25:45 – How to use inhalation and exhalation to neurologically reinforce supination/ER and pronation/IR 42:15 – General primers on how to start working with breathing and breath for clients 45:50 – Ideas on how compression can drive expansion on the opposite side of the body, and ideas on “functional” abdominal muscles 49:50 – Katie’s view on building strength at length with the abdominal wall 55:50 – Why some athletes (particularly female swimmers) often have a lot of spinal extension patterning in a pushup movement, and then what to do about it (if it is even a big deal in that group) 1:00.05 – Hypermobility as systemic laxity, versus adaptations that can lead to acquired hypermobility in the limbs via proximal stiffness 1:05.35 – The dichotomy between accessing the heels, and then moving into the forefoot in the process of squatting 1:14.50 – Dynamics of “no-toes” squatting and what it can do for athletes, and how it zeros in on the mid-foot 1:17.50 – The balance between being able to keep the heel down and pronate, and then get off the heel to make the foot a second class lever, in squatting and even in running/jumping 1:29.50 – How to help people who struggle to yield to gravity be able to do so, and achieve better glute activation in the process “I realized I was looking at everything from the outside in, instead of from the inside out…. I would see these patterns all the time, but just coaching it didn’t change it, I had to alter the mechanics of their thorax and their rib-cage and pelvis to be able to create the change that was necessary” “(Athletes) are creating compensations that are really genius” “The trees, the way the rocks are, the seashells… (nature) gives you an appreciation for what the human form is” “The foot diaphragm and the thoracic diaphragm are going to alter the ability for the foot to do its’ thing too” “You have to have enough expansion to create compression…. if you don’t have enough range you are going to compensate to get it” “They do need to learn the fundamentals of getting the diaphragm to dome up, both the pelvic diaphragm and thoracic diaphragm, and to use the breath to leverage that position” “If I can use the breath, then I can create a neurological change in the brain” “If I am on my heels, that is going to generate that internal rotation, the increase in all the curvature… now I can do the complete opposite by going to my toes, tucking under, and decreasing the spinal curvature by inhaling and allowing the chest to rise” “If the ribs don’t move, the spine is not going to move” “Expansion where you need it does require holding tension on one side to drive expansion on the other, so if I gripped my abs, and held them down and took an inhale, the pressure is going to push back into my ribs and create some expansion” “We have to manage the leaks in the system to push the pressure elsewhere” “I almost think the athletes who can lengthen the abdominal wall and create tension, are the ones who are impressive… that’s a very athletic body to me, when you can create tension in a lengthen position, that’s the jam” “If you suck at lengthening and eccentrically loading position, try exhaling when you are all the way out in that lengthened state (not allowing yourself to go into an excessive extension pattern) exhale, then pull back and inhale” “You see this a lot, people can’t pronate or supinate, so the arch of their foot is not as dynamic as it should be, so they create a lot of mobility at the ankle joint because the midfoot is so rigid” “Allowing the knees to go forward, and more pressure into the mid-fore foot, to allow for internal rotation… that is much needed, and so if you are always elevating your heels, how are you ever getting that, so I think it makes sense to bring a person down to the lowest range they can work with at that time, plus doing other activities to get the thorax over the pelvis” “We need that moment of the knees jutting forward, and the arch coming down and the calcaneus tipping without going onto the toes and missing that, so when you try to squat with your toes off of something, there is no cheating it” “Not doing a quick jump, holding a heavy yielding isometric, and then sinking into the ground, doing a depth drop, but instead of a reactive jump you are sinking into it, I’ve used it in my programming and 9/10 the people that can’t feel their glutes in the bottom of a squat and utilize that, that’s when they tell me “I finally felt my glutes”” About Katie St. Clair Katie is a wife, mom, strength coach, educator, business owner, and lover of all things movement. After 20+ years in the industry, Katie decided to create an educational program based on her passion for seeing other women excel in the industry as leaders and educators. There was a time when life got in the way and she couldn't be the professional she wanted to be because she had to put her family first. She has spent the past 5 years embarking on a journey of learning and combining that knowledge with her love of athletic movement, as well as her passion for empowering female movement professionals, with the intent to elevate the entire industry standard.

Dr. Chris Gaviglio on Building Strength and Maximizing Recovery with Blood Flow Restriction Training Oct 28, 2021

Today’s show features Dr. Chris Gaviglio. Chris is a current senior strength and conditioning coach for the Queensland Academy of Sport, working with Olympic-based sports and athletes. Chris has been involved with elite sport for over 15 years working across multiple Olympic sports and professional football in both the northern and southern hemispheres. Chris provides applied sports science projects for the athletes he works with, particularly in the areas of salivary hormones, passive heat maintenance, blood flow restriction training, warm-up strategies, and power/strength development. I don’t often do shows that center around a piece of training technology, and the main reason for that is simply accessibility. If a training tool costs thousands of dollars, it isn’t something a large proportion of the athletic, and even coaching population can rationalize having in their training arsenal. The nice thing about blood flow restriction training is that it is available at a relatively low price point, with common units starting around $300USD. Other setups using squat wraps, for example, can be done basically for free, but I would recommend using an automated system for the safety and precision of band tightness (see show notes regarding safety considerations and contraindications to BFR, such as concussions or deep vein thrombosis). Blood Flow restriction training has been a training tool that has been on my radar for a long time. After seeing the results that a high-level Olympic swimmer I worked with got from them, and then hearing some results from Nicolai Morris having a 1.5 second drop in the 100 freestyle of a swimmer as well, as well as several of my coaching colleagues using the method, I knew that there was absolutely something to BFR that I needed to get further into. In using the AirBands from Vald performance myself, I continued to realize how beneficial this training stimulus is to our physiological response. For today’s show, Chris takes us into many topics of BFR, including its mechanisms and many benefits. As opposed to methods of mechanical stress (such as plyometrics, sprinting, heavy strength training methods) which tend to dominate this shows podcasts) BFR is a physiological stressor, and through this discussion, we can gain an appreciation for the contrast of physiological stress to more mechanical means. Chris finishes the show talking about how coaches and athletes can integrate BFR training, and gives many anecdotes and points of research, on how BFR can improve strength and speed recovery. Finally, our sponsor, Simplifaster is doing a Blood Flow Restiction cuff giveaway (Vald Airbands) so if you would like to get in on that, until November 11th, you can sign up for a chance to win a free pair of cuffs at bit.ly/freebfr . Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 6:00 – Chris’s experiment during quarantine using lighter, or minimal weights in an at-home training setting 17:00 – Discussion on using lighter implements and bodyweight in developing one’s athleticism 20:30 – What blood flow restriction training is, and where it originated from 27:00 – How the metabolic stress from BFR creates beneficial responses, similar to high-load lifting 35:25 – What BFR definitely helps with, and what elements of performance it is not as helpful for 41:25 – How BFR can help with creating “mild to moderate” doses of lactate – Using BFR style work in warming up for a training session 53:10 – If there are any similar places in sport where athletes will experience situations similar to what is created with BFR means 57:00 – How to get as close to BFR as one can in a gym without any sort of cuffs or wraps 1:00:00 – Anecdotes on how to integrate BFR in performance and rehab based situations 1:10:00 – Where to get started for those interested in BFR “BFR is a metabolic stress” “BFR is a method of strength training with the addition of pressure” “What is BRF doing, we are partially restricting blood flow, and what that allows us to do is you are actually restricting the venous return of the blood from your muscles, so the blood flows freely into the muscle, but you are restricting it coming back out” “The first (benefit of BFR) is an increase in concentration of metabolites” “The second (benefit of BFR) is (anabolic) hormonal response” “The third (benefit of BFR) is intramuscular signaling, we are talking here heat shock proteins, myostatin, mTOR pathways” “They had two groups, they did not lifting, but one used heat sheets to heat the muscles and the second had none, and the group that used heat got stronger…. BFR can also stimulate this” “The fourth (benefit of BFR) is intracellular swelling, or “the pump” The fifth (benefit of BFR) is muscular recruitment, our slow twitch fibers tire out earlier than normal, and our fast twitch fibers get innervated” “Normally in an injury or rehab scenario, that’s where we see a lot of BFR… “In athletic populations, load is still king, but could we dial that percentage down a little bit, still use the BFR cuffs, and give them a little juice in the tank to perform their speed session the next day, could we be smarter with that?” “In long term structural adaptations, there has been some research to show that lactate increases collagen synthesis in fibroblasts, which is essential for blood vessel formation and wound healing. Also correlations have been shown between increased lactate levels and concentrations of growth hormone and noradrenaline after BFR training” “Usually if we are going to lift above 80% of 1RM, traditionally we have (the cuffs) off… I did have one athlete who was doing heavy step ups with the cuffs on, he felt he would have a good 400m time the next day” “The bands will get you (to lactate) faster, and with less mechanical stress on the system” “I have some colleagues who will do over-reaching, and in their recovery weeks, they will do a lot of BFR, high reps” “Everyone thinks the first time I have an athlete I stick a BFR cuff on them, but it’s not true” “(BFR) is a stress, and we are using metabolic stress instead of mechanical stress” Show Notes Although BFR has been proven safe, there are some safety considerations and contraindications concerning BFR to be aware of: Thebarbellphysio.com/blood-flow-restriction-training-safe/ Performancehealthacademy.com/blood-flow-restriction-training-101.html Theprehabguys.com/blood-flow-restriction-training-in-a-nutshell/ Notes on protocols and usage with Dr. Jeremy Loenneke Informfitness.com/podcast/64-blood-flow-restriction-training-with-dr-jeremy-loenneke/ About Dr. Chris Gaviglio Dr. Chris Gaviglio is a current senior strength and conditioning coach for the Queensland Academy of Sport, working with Olympic-based sports and athletes. Chris has been involved with elite sport for over 15 years working across multiple Olympic sports and professional football codes in both the northern (Bath Rugby) and southern (Wallabies – Australian National Rugby Union team and Gold Coast SUNS – Australian Football /AFL) hemisphere. During his time in the UK (Bath Rugby), Chris was involved with UKSport in multiple applied sports science projects. His major project involved monitoring salivary hormones (testosterone and cortisol) responses to competition and training in rugby union and culminated in his thesis. Chris has several papers already publish as a result of this work and other collaborative work with other applied sport scientists. Aside from an interest in using salivary hormones as a marker for training and competition, he continues to provide bespoke applied sports science projects for the athletes he works with, particularly in the areas of: Passive heat maintenance Blood flow restriction training Warm-up and peri-competition strategies Power and strength development Chris is also an entrepreneur and enjoys designing training products that compliments his strength and conditioning passion. The first two products he produced were back mobilization tools in the Thera-wedge and then the Backsak. More recently he designed the Sports Rehab Tourniquet to be used for Blood Flow Restriction (BFR) training. This is a total body training system for both the upper and lower body. As a progression from designing this BFR training tool he has developed training workshops and instructional videos to help educate users.

Frank Forencich on Respecting our “Primal Roots” in the Process of Training, Movement and Life Oct 21, 2021

Today’s show features Frank Forencich. Frank is an internationally recognized leader in health and performance education. He has over thirty years of teaching experience in martial art and health education. Frank holds black belt rankings in karate and aikido and has traveled to Africa on several occasions to study human origins and the ancestral environment. A former columnist for Paleo Magazine, Frank is the author of numerous books about health and the human predicament, including “The Exuberant Animal”, the book I read that originally led me to Frank’s work. We live in a time where early sport specialization and pressure has led to burnout and high injury rates amongst athletes, but the “rabbit hole” to a dis-satisfaction with sport and movement in general for so many, goes much deeper than that. As much as we fall prey to the stress-laden, year-round competitive schedule that leads athletes to higher pressure situations at younger ages, we also have “forgotten” our roots as athletes, and more importantly, as human beings, in so many senses of the word. We miss out on both training results, satisfaction and longevity by failing to study our ancestral nature. On today’s show, Frank Forencich goes into many important elements of our humanity that can help athletes not only recover and train better, but also help increase enjoyment of the training process. These elements include human biorhythms, dance, play and exploration, getting in the dirt, benefits of training in nature, purpose driven movement, and more. This podcast was truly important on the level of helping us use the principles of nature that define who we are, to help us in training, and far beyond. If you bring drums into your gym, or for your workout after this episode, PLEASE let me know. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 5:20 – Key trends seen in the animal kingdom, in physical movement that humans should pay attention to our own movement practices 11:50 – “Effortful striving” in human training versus more of a purpose-driven approach that is characteristic to non-human animals 20:30 – What the idea of “dancing being the original PE” means to athletes and all-human 28:20 – How play and exploration influences how we adapt to movement and training 33:50 – Frank’s thoughts on when to specialize in a sport, or movement practice 35:20 – The difference between the “jungle animal” and the “desert animal” and what this means for humans, training and moving in context with their environment 38:35 – The impact of bioregion on movement practice 40:40 – The impact of training in nature, versus training in an indoor gym setting, and then the “Bio-Philic” need of humans in regards to connection with nature 45:45 – Jim Thorpe’s primal and natural training methods 48:20 – The importance of getting “in the dirt” and actually connecting with dirt and the earth itself for the sake of the micro-biome 54:05 – Low hanging fruits on how to deal with stress better in context of our human biology 58:05 – The role of the athlete in modern society 1:01:55 – How to build a total training day based on the rhythms and mechanisms of the human being “There is no emphasis on appearance (regarding movement and “exercise” as observed in the animal kingdom)” “It’s important to remember that sports are movement specialties” “In human athletics, there is constant striving all the time that is divorced from habitat; it is almost as if we are training in a bubble” “For the playful athlete, the motivation is purely intrinsic” “We’ve lost sight of the fact that the dose makes the poison, the dose makes the medicine… the wisdom lies in remembering the shape of the inverse U-curve” “I don’t think we give our animal bodies enough credit for knowing what’s going on… I think we just need to listen more” “(Dancing) is not sagittal movement, it’s transverse plane movement” “There’s rhythm everywhere, drumming and dancing are fundamental for all of us” “At various weightlifting facilities, bring drums in and use them, that would an easy thing to add that would increase enjoyment and it would increase performance too” “Play is deeply wired into the primate-mammal body” “If you isolate rodents (from being able to play) they will grow up to have huge social deficits and dysfunctions” “What I’ve tried to do with people is have a bio-regional approach to athletics” “Native people always identify with habitat, and that is something we have lost a lot of in the modern world” “The blue collar stuff is really under-rated (for physical fitness)” “Our microbiome now is completely out of whack, and the way to get back to that is to put your hands in the dirt and actually contact the soil, or run barefoot, or go climbing (outside)” “(Modern ambient noise) is an assault on the autonomic nervous system” Show Notes Oregon State football dance-battle (rhythm and dance is foundational) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vafso7rClUY One of Frank’s movement classes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2bcq3769ps About Frank Forencich Frank Forencich is an internationally recognized leader in health and performance education. He earned his BA at Stanford University in human biology and neuroscience and has over thirty years of teaching experience in martial art and health education. Frank holds black belt rankings in karate and aikido and has traveled to Africa on several occasions to study human origins and the ancestral environment. He’s presented at numerous venues, including the Ancestral Health Symposium, Google, the Dr. Robert D. Conn Heart Conference, and the Institute of Design at Stanford University. A former columnist for Paleo Magazine, Frank is the author of numerous books about health and the human predicament. He’s a member of the Council of Elders at the MindBodyEcology Collective and a Diplomate member at the American Institute of Stress.

276: Michael Zweifel on Mirroring and Reinforcing Elite Athleticism in the Warm-Up Process Oct 14, 2021

Today’s show welcomes back coach Michael Zweifel. Michael is the owner and head of sports performance for “Building Better Athletes” performance center in Dubuque, Iowa. Building Better Athletes focuses on building the athlete from the ground up by mastering the fundamentals of movement mastery, strength/power training, recovery modalities, and promoting ownership in athletes. Michael is also a team member of the movement education group, “Emergence”. He has been a frequent guest on this podcast, speaking on topics of perception-reaction, exploration in the weight room, creativity and more. As I’ve grown as a coach (and a human mover/athlete) it’s been really enjoyable to experience sport, and movement in different ways. In working in a college weight room, it was also very interesting to pay attention to the defining characteristics of the best athletes. They weren’t always the strongest, or even the fastest, but they could move and react incredibly well in context of their sport… and they loved to play. One of the things I’ve been enjoying doing recently, is coaching youth sports (5 year olds, to be exact) and it’s a learning experience that impacts my philosophy, all the way up the chain into high level performers. With play and exploration at the core of athleticism and sport, why is it that the culture of the gym (and in many sports performance settings) completely the opposite? So much of modern sport acts like athletes are robots, a culture based on lines and whistles, and a perception of needing to do everything one particular way. On today’s show, Michael Zweifel goes into a deep dive on how his warmups fit with the key characteristics of elite athleticism. He speaks on how he connects his warmups to core human instincts and needs, and talks about how to develop a love for movement and play that transcends organized sport play. Michael and I also take on a broad-scope discussion on the over-structuring that is rampant in sport (and our culture in general). This show is truly important in light of our modern sport culture. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 4:50 – Michael’s thoughts on trail running, longer runs, and elasticity 13:20 – Michael’s biggest changes in his warmup process over the last decade 16:30 – What Michael would take back with him in terms of his warmups and training if he returned to the university sector of training 21:50 – Comparing “routine” warmups (lines, movement prep, etc.) versus a more dynamic and adaptive form of warming up for a training session 28:50 – Speaking on the different stages of the warmup defined by Emergence: Ownership, exploration and attunement 33:50 – If there are any general warmups that Michael’s athletes will actually do, and how he approaches that type of work 35:50 – A broader-scope discussion on coaching, creativity versus militaristic coaching 48:00 – What age groups and settings Michael feels sports performance coaches should work with to optimally learn the nature of training sport 52:50 – The critical nature of play for human beings, and how professional athletes are very play driven 1:05.35 – How Michael might lead up to a more output driven day in the gym from a warmup perspective 1:07:50 – Some more specific changes in the warmup process that Michael has made in the last few years: Applying “levels” in sport and human movement 1:14:50 – The sad reality of kids quitting sports early, and without preparedness for how to enjoy life from a movement practice at that point 1:20:50 – Key differences in what Michael has in the warmups of different age groups (elementary school, middle school, high school, etc.) “What transitioned my warmup was being in the private sector. In the private sector, each and every day I have to win my athletes over… in the college sector my athletes will be back no matter what I do” “If you think about the basic dynamic warmup, with the lines, we never do any of that stuff anymore; I think there is so much more opportunity to engage our athletes in a deep level…. We’re attacking the warmup from a perceptual standpoint, we are attacking the warmup from an emotional and social standpoint, we are attacking our warmup from a technical/tactical standpoint” “The transition to transforming my warmups has been hard; every day is about reading the room, asking questions, giving certain athletes autonomy and ownership; the warmups are alive” “If I value my athletes being adaptable, and I value my athletes being creative and having abundance in movement solutions, how is doing the same warmup day in and day out building that capacity? It’s not, it’s restricting it” “Our three stages (of warming up at Emergence) are ownership, exploration and attunement” “For youth athletes, exploration is the key to learning” “I’m a big fan of allowing each athlete’s individualism to stand out, and ost team sports try to kill that” “(speaking on militaristic warmups) What you are doing in a non-contextual environment is going to have no bearing what is going on in a game” “People think people like Saban and Bellichek are really militaristic; if you actually study those guys, they are a lot more lenient, and give freedom and autonomy and they let individual styles show out, much more than people think” “Do you think athletes are going to turn a switch, in our on fields sessions, and are going to turn this switch, and be this adaptable, creative, abundant mover, when in the warmup we stripped away all this stuff? I think that is why a warmup is a really, extremely important thing for our athletes” “All my professional athletes, that’s all they want to do (play), at the end of the day, sports is just a game, it’s just play… we each have this deep, inherent desire for play” “The big thing with our youth athletes, is they get superpowers… find ways for people to feel special in certain moments” “What makes video games successful… they are inclusive, they tell a story, there are levels… so how can I do some of these things in my games, my warmups, so I try to tell more stories in how we design our activities” “60-70% of kids are quitting (sports) by 12-13 years of age” “As athletes get a little older, middle school, high school, that ownership piece will expand” About Michael Zwiefel Michael Zweifel is the owner and head of sports performance for “Building Better Athletes” performance center in Dubuque, Iowa. Michael is a CSCS, IYCA certified practitioner, and was the all time NCAA leading receiver with 463 receptions in his playing days at University of Dubuque. He is also a team member of the movement education group, “Emergence”. Building Better Athletes (BBA) is committed to an evidence based practice towards sports performance, and attaching physical preparation from every angle possible – physical, mental, nutritional, soft-tissue, mobility. Our focus is building the athlete from the ground up by mastering the fundamentals of movement mastery, strength/power training, recovery modalities, and giving athletes ownership of the Other 23. Using these methods and principles, BBA has been fortunate to help athletes to: 5 NFL Players 1 CFL Player 1 Gatorade State Player of the Year (Basketball) 7 Collegiate All-Americans 12 Conference Player of the Year 11 Division I Athletes 52 All-Conference Athletes

Kibwé Johnson on “The Tao of the Hammer”: Awareness, Reflexiveness, and Individuality in Sport Technique Oct 07, 2021

Today’s show is with Kibwé Johnson. Kibwé is the director of track and field at SPIRE Academy, in Geneva, Ohio, and the founder of FORTIUS performance. Prior to SPIRE, Kibwe coached throws at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida for 4 years. In his time as an athlete, Kibwé established himself as one of the USA’s best hammer throwers by being ranked first or second for over a decade, and his personal best of 80.31m/263’5” in 2011 the best mark by an American hammer thrower in over ten years. He also owns the world’s all-time best HT/DT/WT combination of distances. Kibwé has personally worked with some of the most well regarded coaches in the US and internationally. His coach for his final 10 years, Dr. Anatoliy Bondarchuk, greatly influenced the development of Kibwé’s own methodologies. Kibwé’s coaching philosophy is built on communication and cites his experiences as a husband and father with learning how to become more effective as a coach. In my time as a coach, I’ve learned that technique and skill are more than a set of instructions, or a final “model” to shoot for through a series of drills and cues. Although these instructions can certainly be helpful for lower level performers, once an athlete gets to a more advanced level of performance, drills lose their luster, and we must become more attuned to the actual interaction between the athlete and their environment (implements, the ground, gravity, etc.). On the show today, Kibwé talks about his experiences as an athlete, particularly with Dr. Bondarchuk that helped him develop as a thrower, and in his eventual career as a coach. He talks about the unique, high velocity and cyclical elements of the hammer that demand a particular relationship to the instrument, and things we can take from this relationship that can transfer to other skills, or life itself. Finally, Kibwe speaks extensively about drills, vs. holistic skill performance, and the many “subtle” elements, such as awareness, that go into enhancing holistic performance on the highest levels. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 6:40 – Kibwé’s evolution as an athlete, and what led him to his philosophy of “The Tao of the Hammer” 10:25 – Kibwé’s experience in working with Dr. Bondarchuk and how the communication barrier actually helped Kibwé to figure out his throw without the use of words or cues 18:20 – How the hammer throw in track and field is unique in respect to other throwing events due to its unique, very high velocity rotational dynamics 21:10 – Kibwé’s take on teaching athlete’s fundamental positions vs. letting them figure out skills in a different manner (or on their own), particularly in context of the hammer throw 26:40 – How acquiring the “feeling” of a good throw is helpful to scale to throws of all distances 32:25 – How people tend to want a “list of things” when doing something, and the battle of getting an athlete outside of a list of cues, and to facilitate them figuring things out on their own 34:40 – How to learn, from a “Tao of the Hammer” perspective, and what awareness in a hammer throw means to Kibwé 46:40 – Examples of elite athletes who have had their mechanics “fixed”, as per a “technical model” and had poor seasons or failed to improve 51:25 – How Kibwé would address a “mistake” in an athlete’s throwing, and portions of an athlete’s technique 56:40 – Where drills fall short in training a complex movement, such as the hammer throw 1:02:40 – Reactivity as needed between the hammer and the athlete, and how to “do less” in the course of a throw from a perspective of actively putting force into the implement “It really came down to trying to find the words to explain how I was feeling when I felt my best; because I wasn’t seeing that anywhere” “It’s pretty typical that a coach will use a whole lot of words, but in all of those words, there is no space for that athlete to fill that with their own natural instincts, or nests. What makes that own individual amazing gets tripped away with a ton of words, in my opinion” “In track and field and the technical disciplines, the athletes who were allowed to grow and evolve and change on their own, are more artists in a way, if that makes sense” “There is an importance to teaching a base level, “how do you move, kind of thing”…. But there is part of me what says, “why not?”” “Hammer throwers who started at 10 or earlier, it is beautiful to watch” “My thing there is when an athlete is essentially connected to that feeling, and they can maintain that through the throw, you can have that feeling no matter how hard you throw” “The next day, the feeling they received from that cue that you gave them (the day prior) is different, for an innumerable number of reasons” “Both are needed, masculine and feminine, yin/yang. Both are needed, but then there are points when one is not needed versus the other, or vice versa, and trying to work that out for yourself” “It’s just being intentional with my movement, and that in itself is meditation. With hammer and movement, it’s as simple as that, and it’s basically opening yourself up to really feeling what’s happening with your body in space.. and your mind too honestly, instead of not knowing how you got there” “We lose so many athletes to (a highly technical coaching system) because we have this one-size-fits-all system that we are thrown into, and some have “success”, but the artists, they just fall off, never to be seen from again” “When I trained with Dr. B I felt like I couldn’t do anything else, but throw a hammer… I found it funny” “The hammer doesn’t go just because you want it to go far. You have to work with it, and you have to be part of it… it doesn’t care how strong you are” “By removing myself, the hammer is free to do whatever it needs to do” “I don’t understand why you would coach everyone the same way, train everyone the same way, everyone’s different” “Between eight and thirteen 80 meter guys, not one of us looked the same, (Dr. B) allowed for everyone’s individual-ness to come through, and everyone threw really far” “When the opportunity is kind of stripped from you, you lose that opportunity to learn about yourself” About Kibwe Johnson Kibwé Johnson is the director of track and field at SPIRE Academy, in Geneva, Ohio. He is also the founder of FORTIUS performance which focuses on track and field throws training. Prior to SPIRE, Kibwe coached throws at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida for 4 years. In his time as an athlete, Kibwé established himself as one of the nation’s best hammer throwers of all time by being ranked first or second for over a decade. In that time, he secured 5 US titles, 4 US runner-up, and numerous US national teams. He has personally worked with some of the most well regarded coaches in the US and internationally in Don Babbitt, Bob McKay, Stuart Togher, 4x Olympian Jud Logan, and lastly Dr. Anatoliy Bondarchuk. Kibwé deeply values his 10 years spent with Dr. Bondarchuk as their time together greatly influenced the development of Kibwé’s own training methodologies. Kibwé’s winning toss and personal best of 80.31m/263’5” at the 2011 USA Outdoor Championships was the best mark by an American hammer thrower in over a decade, making him only the fourth American to ever to go beyond the mythical 80-meter line. Boasting a personal best of 65.11m/213’6” in discus, and 25.12m/82’5” in weight throw, Kibwé is the most versatile throws athlete of all time (All-Time World Best HT/DT/WT combination). Kibwé’s coaching philosophy is built on communication and cites his experiences as a husband and father with learning how to become more effective as a coach.

Alex Effer on “Stance-Driven” Performance Training, Crawling Mechanics, and Sensory Movement Principles Sep 30, 2021

Today’s show is with Alex Effer, owner of Resilient Training and Rehabilitation. Alex has treated and trained a variety of clients, from professional and amateur athletes, to a wide spectrum of the general population, ranging from those with certain medical conditions, to postoperative rehabilitation and individuals with chronic and complex pain. Alex has experience as an exercise physiologist, a strength and conditioning coach, and has consulted with a number of elite and Olympic organizations. Alex has taken a tremendous amount of continuing education courses and is on the leading edge of modern training theory. There are loads of different continuing education courses and theories, each carrying methods to train athletes from perspectives on breathing, corrective exercise, and exercise variations, to name a few. It is in the process of getting to the core principles that define these many training systems, that we can gain a greater level of wisdom to make better decisions in exercise selection and training organization. For today’s podcast, Alex speaks on his continuing education journey, and core principles that many current courses in human performance/assessment and biomechanics tend to have in common. He speaks on how to dial up, or down, points of contact in a movement to help an athlete achieve better mastery over a skill or core human function. In the second half of the show, Alex gives some analysis and progressions with functional training movements, such as crab walks, and bear crawls, and then talks about how some “meathead” oriented exercises are actually more functional than we give the credit for. Finally, Alex talks about exercises that either “push an athlete backwards in the chest” or “push them forwards” from the back, and how those ramifications can go into, not ony the way we select exercises, but aso the way that we periodize and organize our training programs. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 5:15 – Common trends that Alex found in his educational process, having taken “all the courses” 13:30 – How Alex looks at force vectors in training and movement, and the difference between walking and running when assessing gait and looking at these force vectors 20:15 – Where Alex has gotten most of his information in training when considering PRI versus other educational systems (such as DNS or SFMA) 22:15 – Why it may be a faulty method to try to compare babies to adults in terms of baseline movement patterning 30:00 – How to transition a client from 12 points of contact, to only 2, and how to use the extra points of contact to improve one’s movement ability when athletes may struggle with standing motions 44:30 – Assessing crab walks, and explaining (or regressing) why athletes might not be able to lift their hips up while performing the crab walk 51:15 – Why some “fitness/bodybuilding” movement can have athletic movement applications, such as a tricep kickback or arm curl coupled with head turn 56:15 – How athletes doing exercises in a manner that “feels good” often times is an optimal method of them doing that movement, versus whatever the commonly accepted technical model for that exercise might be 1:00:00 – Alex’s theory on periodizing training based on early, mid and late stance oriented movements 1:12:15 – Viewing training intervention as either “pulling someone back” or “pushing them forward” “When you take every single course, you kind of get mind-blown by them the first time… and then you hit a client that totally goes against all the algorithms and everything they say, and you have to pivot” “(all the continuing education courses) believe in some sort of respiration and how that affects the body” “You got two phases of respiration, so you got inhale which is more external rotation, and exhale which is more internal rotation. You also have the three phases of gait, two of the phases are external rotation so you’ve got to believe there is some semblance with inhalation, and then you’ve got one of the phases, mid-stance which is more pronation, so you have to believe that is going to be more exhalation” “If this person is limited in internal rotation, they must be limited in exhalation in that area” “As I pronate my foot, I’m going to have an internal rotation force go all the way up near my head” “If I can’t get the air in certain parts of my ribcage, or certain parts of my pelvis, then I am going to induce more muscle tone in that area… I now have to use a muscle strategy in order to pull the air in; I use my lats, I use my pecs, I use my SCM, I use my traps” “Go into the anatomy app, and remove all the muscle, and start with “how do the bones move” “So, position, breathing, gait, and force vectors: To me, those are the main things that I think about based on all of the different systems I’ve taken that influence me today and dictate how I may program and what I’m looking at from an assessment standpoint” “Internal rotation is a downward force into the ground” “Why do we pronate? Why do we internally rotate? Because we are hitting a ground that does not visibly deform when we hit it? “What I really like from DNS, or what I took was the developmental sequences (lying on your back, side, quadiped, half kneeling) going from 12 points of contact to the ground, to just having 2, and how to manage that” “You can get so sucked into the algorithm that you take thinking out of the equation” “With every exercise I do on the ground, I try to have the feet involved” “When I’m doing an assessment I ask, “how far forward on the toes is this person”? “For me, the supine is going to help me gain range of motion, to be able to try something with more range of motion, and has more gravitational demand to it” “Toe off and heel strike are more of a horizontal force vector” “(In crab walking) I’m not able to flex my one shoulder as I’m walking forward; I can’t bring my arm forward because that rib cage doesn’t have the ability to flex… they are more sagittal plane driven and they don’t have the ability to rotate” “Let’s say you do a crawling sequence, first you do a forward bear crawl, then a reverse bear crawl, then a crab walk, and see how that improves (because that is going to open up the manubrium). Then if that still doesn’t work, side planks are going to help, tricep kickbacks are going to help” “Bicep curls (with a simultaneous head turn) open up space in the upper back” “Doing lower reaching or heel elevation exercises can bring me into a heel strike bias, which is going to open up some shoulder flexion, internal and external rotation, and then I can move onto a mid-stance phase; force production and strength” “The first phase of an off-season is more heel strike, it’s more hypertrophy, let’s build some muscle mass, let’s restore range of motion; and then we move into more strength in the second phase… that phase is more mid-stance, I need to start producing force” “Landing exercises are going to be more heel-strike bias, because that is deceleration” “BFR, how expansive is that? That’s going to promote some external rotation for sure in those areas” “In order to understand programming, at the top of the page, write heel strike, mid-stance, toe-off. Then write down all different lunges, then squats, then deadlifts, then presses” “A flexed thorax (more heel strike) is something we should be searching for… most people are being pushed from behind and going onto their toes, so we need to push them back. I am asking, am I trying to pull this person back, or am I trying to push them forward?” Show Notes Supine cross connect https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lb1bVUNx-OM Walking cross connect https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgugFWN3Gao The manubrium https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eltLjT8j1r0 Erik Huddleston’s chart on training expansion and contraction About Alex Effer Alex Effer is the owner of Resilient Training and Rehabilitation, a name that emphasizes Alex’s unique approach to fitness, which is one that combines both aspects of normal fitness and rehabilitation principles to achieve long- lasting pain free results. Alex uses his comprehensive knowledge and passion in exercise science, autonomics, respiration, rehabilitation, and biomechanics to develop programs that promote injury prevention, sports performance, and rehabilitation through quality of movement. Alex has gained extensive clinical and practical experience treating and training a variety of clients from professional and amateur athletes, high profile executives, older adults, individuals with certain medical conditions such as Stroke, Parkinson’s, Multiple Sclerosis, Congenital Heart Disease, Postoperative rehabilitation and individuals with chronic and complex pain. Alex’s experience includes: Head Exercise Physiologist at Ace Sports Clinic Inc; Director of Return to Performance and Head Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Varsity Baseball, Women's Lacrosse, and Golf team at the University of Toronto; Consultant for the Varsity Blues Football, Hockey, Swimming Team; Head Exercise Physiologist for Balance Physiotherapy; and consultant to Olympic Swimming Athletes, and NBA players. Alex earned his Bachelors of Kinesiology from the University of Toronto, obtained a Post-Graduate Certificate in Exercise Science for Health and Performance from Niagara College and is a Certified Exercise Physiologist, Certified Strength and Conditioning Coach, and EXOS Performance Specialist.

Lance Walker on Optimizing the Hips and Spine for Athletic Speed and Resiliency Sep 23, 2021

Today’s show is with Lance Walker. Lance is the Global Director of Performance at the Michael Johnson Performance Center where he designs and implements performance training programming for local and international youth, collegiate, and professional athletes in all sports. Prior to MJP, Lance served as Director of Performance Training at Integrated Athletic Development, as well as having served as an assistant strength coach with the Dallas Cowboys, as well as the University of Oklahoma. Lance is also a current Registered Physical Therapist in the state of Texas, giving him a unique blend of skills and lenses by which to observe athletic performance. In looking at what makes athletes operate at a high level, we can’t go too far without looking at the actions of the pelvis and spine. As both a strength coach, and physical therapist, Lance has detailed knowledge of both the anatomy and fine-tuned function of this region, as well as more global concepts, linking it to sprinting and general strength training. For today’s show, Lance takes us on a journey of hip function, and how that function ties into sprinting and athletic movement. He goes into pelvic dynamics in the weight room (including some important points on split squatting and the hips), as well as how using horizontal resistance combined with vertical exercises can drive unique and more specific adaptations. Finally, talks about some key strength movements to achieve better pelvic function for speed and resiliency. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 5:30 – How Lance looks at the action of the pelvis in sprinting and human movement 19:00 – Pelvic dynamics in bilateral sagittal plane activity (squatting and deadlifting) versus sprinting, and helping athletes determine their own individual squat depth 21:30 – How a rear foot elevated split squat can create lumbo-sacral torsion that could provoke injury in the pelvis 34:30 – How to help athletes who are not reciprocal in the pelvis improve their pelvic action in sprinting, and Lance’s view on core and trunk training for athlete 38:00 – The role of hip flexors in training for speed and athletic performance 50:30 – How adding horizontal band resistance can dynamically change strength training exercises 54:30 – The idea of hip separation in fast sprinters (front knee and back knee distance) and if this is a good idea to specifically train in practice “That pelvis motion, rotation and listing, that’s my focus now, both from a dysfunction standpoint and a speed standpoint” “The body needs to set up and list the pelvis to be fast” “Optimized motion should probably be the approach, and let’s just not stabilize the tar out of it and make everything move around this stable, fictitious pelvis” “It’s like you are setting the spring so when you throw it, it abducts, externally rotates and extends, and when it hits the ground, it’s still rotating” “There was this incredible increase in pubic symphysis issues… there was this mad rush to load this split stance stuff, because, nobody hurt their back anymore, and “it’s more functional”” “Hip flexor strength is a thing!” “Just stretching the hip flexors, and strengthening the abdominal wall doesn’t help (anterior pelvic tilt) those people” “When you are doing your leg drop series, don’t put your hands under your pelvis” “(Regarding the supine leg drop test without the low back arching up) The one’s that have a lot of issues, the bottom 10-20%, chronic hamstrings, spondy, all those things, yeah that’s a test (that failing fits with getting hurt more often)” “That’s a key concept in hamstring rehab is training the hamstring while training the hip flexor” “We worked with elite distance runners at MJP, and the more elite they were, the more positive their Thomas test was (poor hip flexor mobility)” “Fast freaks are not putting a lot of pressure into the ground after neutral… the ones that suck, they are the ones still putting pressure into the ground after center” “These elite sprinters are not hitting directly below their body, they are hitting 6” in front of their body” “I’m anti-deceleration, we are doing a dis-service by teaching others to slow down” “All of us that get to work with athletes, or patients, we are shepherds to this adaptation, we are not driving adaptation. Don’t kid yourself; the human body, that is the magic maker” About Lance Walker Lance Walker is the Global Director of Performance at the Michael Johnson Performance Center in McKinney, Texas where he designs and implements performance training programming for local and international youth, collegiate, elite, and professional athletes in all sports. Lance previously served as Director of Performance Training at Integrated Athletic Development and was responsible for the training and/or physical rehabilitation needs of over 150 active professional athletes from the NBA, NFL, MLB, PGA, CBA, and CFL. Lance served three seasons as Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach with the Dallas Cowboys. Prior to joining the Dallas Cowboys, Lance held strength & conditioning positions at the University of Oklahoma and Casady School, Oklahoma City, where he worked directly with athletes across many sports, including football, basketball, track, golf, gymnastics and wrestling. Lance also holds a Bachelor's degree in Physical Therapy and a Master's degree in Exercise Physiology from the University of Oklahoma. He has contributed to over 20 professional publications in sport science and presented at over 15 national conferences. Lance is a former Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and a current Registered Physical Therapist in the state of Texas. Combining his sports medicine and rehab sciences background, with 23 years of performance training experience, Lance is recognized globally as a leading expert, innovator, and pioneer in youth athlete development, high-performance training systems integration, and multi-disciplinary sports performance training methodology.

Christian Thibaudeau on Power Training Complexes and Athletic Skill Development Sep 16, 2021

Today’s show is with Christian Thibaudeau. Christian has been a strength coach for nearly 2 decades, working with athletes from nearly 30 sports. He has written four books and has pioneered multiple educational courses, including the Neuro-typing system, which goes in-depth on how to train athletes in the weight room (and beyond) based on their own individual dispositions. I have had Christian on the podcast many times talking about neuro-typing, but more recently I’ve been digging into his knowledge of various types of training repetitions (Omni-rep) which we talked about on podcast 221. As per any strength coach I am aware of, Christian has the greatest knowledge of set-rep schemes and combinations available for training, and, as such, I have really enjoyed the chance to speak to him on the terms of training complexes and schemes. On the show, Christian gets into power training complexes, and the possibility of utilizing sport skills in the total framework. He also talks about how to periodize and assign the use of complexes, as the method “costs” more in terms of the adaptive resources of the athlete. Finally, Christian spends time talking about training stimulus, and how to create the “purest” possible adaptation for an athlete with the minimal amount of noise in the system, ending with a description of his double and triple progression systems. The interesting thing with this talk was that it was almost more about what not to do, than what to do. In times like these, where coaches are armed with a massive arsenal of possibilities at their fingertips, the need for wisdom on how to actually utilize and progress the methods, without adding excess noise to the system, is at a premium. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 5:45 – Recent insights from Christian on watching his children grow and mature in regards to sport preference, behavior and physical abilities 13:30 – Christian’s thoughts on introducing specific sport skills into power training complexes 25:45 – Why more movements in a complex is more neurologically demanding, and how to choose how many exercises in a complex, based on the type of athlete you are working with 32:15 – Christian’s take on when to use (or not use) power complexes in a training year, based on the athlete 47:45 – How to increase training stimulus, and how to progress in training without adding volume, or even weight 59:45 – Why it is important not to give a client what you, as a coach, are currently in love with in terms of training methods 1:05:45 – How to make training the “purest” it can possibly be, reducing all un-necessary noise in a program to help athletes adapt in as direct of way that is possible 1:12.00 – Christian’s take on using bar-speed monitor units for athletes in light of adrenaline increases and intensification factors 1:22.00 – Using very simple lifts, such as a leg press, in order to put minimal stress into a training program where an athlete is doing a non-strength sport 1:28.00 – Christian’s simple-strength progression method, the “triple progression method” that offers a low level of noise and a long-term progression potential for an athlete “The simple fact that it feels lighter (doing a light set, after doing a heavy set), it will make you more confident, and you will produce more force” “The closer both movements are together, the easier the brain will connect both (for the brain to transfer to sport skill)” “That’s one of the issues with complexes is that they will raise adrenaline more than any training benefit you can find; which is a benefit in the short term… the downside of that is the more adrenaline you produce in training, the more likely you are to suffer from training burnout” “I prefer top range of motion (lifting) in the transfer phases; studies have shown that partial squats have much more impact on speed and jumping capacity than full squats” “The more stations you have (in a circuit) the easier the transfer is” “If you have the natural capacity to transfer gains easily, athletes who can take the gains in the gym and transfer them to the field, well you only need two stations because transfer is easy for you, you might not even need to do a complex. But the reality is that many athletes are not that gifted when it comes to transferring the gains they make in the gym to the field. They will need more stations in the complex, or periodizing their complex” “Remember, the more stations in the complex, the harder it is on the nervous system, so if I can get away with only two stations in a complex, I will take that option” “I’ve had people who will increase 5kg on their squat and jump higher and run quicker. Others will increase their squat 30kg and not improve… those who are naturally explosive are normally those who transfer strength very easily to sporting movement. People who are naturally less explosive, they will need a lot more time to transfer skills” “For those who don’t transfer strength easily (to skill) they need to use complexes as early as possible” “The harder (your brain) has to work to perform the workout, the more adrenaline you release” “The more different tasks you have in a workout, the harder your brain needs to work” “If you want to use more than one type of training in a training session; you need to factor that in and increase the number of rest days” “You need time to stabilize the gains from the complexes (if an athlete gains skill transfer easily I would wait until 6-10 weeks out from peak competition)” “If you are not good at transferring, you could add a sport skill to your complex” “Most people see adding weight as the only way to progressively overload, and that is not the case” “Most people do not get good results from progressive overload because they increase weight too much or too quick” “The least amount of volume you can do, and progress at a satisfactory rate, the better off you are” “When your body is not ready for that increase in load, you will have compensatory mechanisms going on” “Crossfit checks all the boxes when it comes to increasing adrenaline; cortisol will actually increase adrenaline” “(I use bar speed monitors) to teach an athlete how a fast squat should feel; I want them to know what fast enough feels like. I found that, if you try to beat the machine every time, which is great for performance, but bad for recovery…. I need to decrease other variables to compensate” “Science is cool, but there is such as thing as “too scientific… the more you can focus on the movement instead of something external, the better results you have”” “Instead of doing 60 meters, do 58 meters, or 63 meters, or a distance nobody trains… focus on the activity instead of the end-goal” “Going from a front squat to a leg press, you know what it’s a much simpler movement so it will allow you to recover” “In season, an athlete does not need an exercise with a high-transfer capacity…. in season I look for using the least neurological stress movement possible… in season what we (did) for the legs is pushing a heavy sled, let’s push a heavy sled forward and backward with a load that is challenging for 30m… with a heavy sled push, I tend to look at 10 meters = 1 rep… the main strength movement we have in season is the prowler push” About Christian Thibaudeau Christian Thibaudeau has been involved in the business of training for over the last 18 years. During this period, he worked with athletes from 28 different sports. He has been “Head Strength Coach” for the Central Institute for Human Performance (official center of the St. Louis Blues). His specialty: being a generalist. He assists his athletes to develop the necessary qualities to increase their performances (eg: muscle mass, power, explosiveness, coordination). His work method enabled him to lead several successful athletes in a multitude of different disciplines. Christian is a prolific writer with three books published, each of which translated into three languages (The Black Book of Training Secrets, Theory and Application of Modern Strength and Power Methods, High Threshold Muscle Building). In addition, Christian is co-author with Paul Carter in a new book, which will soon be released. He is also the author of two DVDs (Cluster Training, Mechanical Drop Sets). Christian is also a senior author and head writer for the E-Magazine T-Nation his articles are read by over 200,000 people every week. He competed in weightlifting at the national level as well as bodybuilding, He was also a football coach for 8 years. As a lecturer, he has given conferences and seminars in both the United States and Europe, to audiences ranging from amateur athletes to health professionals and coaches of all types. Christian Thibaudeau popularized the Neurotyping system. Neural optimization supersedes hormonal optimization because the neural response affects the hormonal response. This is essentially the founding principle and inspiration behind Christian Thibaudeau’s Neurotyping System. The bottom line is simple: you are more likely to train hard, be focused, and stay motivated if you like the type of training you are doing, and a training that goes against your nature causes a greater stress response that hinders optimal progression. “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” – Albert Einstein

Gavin MacMillan on Redefining Balance, Motor Control, and Force Production in Athletic Performance Training Sep 09, 2021

Today’s show is with Gavin MacMillan, sports performance coach and founder of Sport Science Lab. Growing up in Toronto Canada, he participated in 7 high school sports, and received a tennis scholarship from San Jose State University. In 2001 Gavin founded Sport Science Lab where he has experienced a great deal of success training athletes and teams at every level in multiple sports. I’ve personally had a mixed relationship with barbells in the course of my own athletic career. I’ve had positive (squatting sub-maximally 1x a week being a staple in my best athletic year), but also several negative experiences, one of which was my surprise at age 20, I had spent fall of work increasing my best clean from 225 to 245lb, yet high jumped only 6’1” the first two meets of the year (my PR from high school being 6’8”). In my first few years as a college track coach, I learned quickly that an athlete who learns to lift barbells better is not necessarily a faster athlete. When I was 21, I stumbled across a book called “Pro-Bod-X” by Marv Marinovich and Edyth Hues. The training methods within were like nothing I’d ever seen, incorporating a lot of unstable surfaces, and they didn’t use heavy weights. Doing the workouts for just over a month, I was pleasantly surprised by just how easily I was moving and jumping in my pickup basketball games. Gavin MacMillan does not use barbells in his training program, and yet gets incredible results on the level of building speed, reactivity, jumping ability, and tremendous resistance to injury. He has a strong use of balance and proprioception based movements in his training program. Regardless of where you stand in closeness traditional weightlifting/lifting maxes as a form of progress in a program, you will be a better coach by understanding Gavin’s approach to training athletes, as well as his own experiences as an athlete that led him there. On the show today, Gavin shares his background as an athlete, his results using a non-barbell based training program, concepts on force-production training without using barbells, foot training, and the role of athletic balance training that can be merged with resistance training means for big improvements in reactive outputs. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 6:15 – Gavin’s athletic background (which included ballet and figure skating), and how he got into sports performance coaching 12:30 – Gavin’s experience with traditional barbell weight training, and how he ended up going away from these methods in his own training, and with athletes he worked with 21:15 – Taking a step away from traditional barbell training, and how Gavin was able to transform the injury-reduction factor of a professional Rugby team, setting the record for the fewest player minutes lost 29:15 – Gavin’s answer to the question on, how to train an athlete who needs to get generally bigger and stronger, without using traditional barbell methods 33:00 – Gavin’s thoughts on how to train strength and force for people who don’t have access to advanced training machines 46:30 – Talking on what one sport might be able to offer another from an explosive perspective, such as the impact of figure skating in Gavin’s upbringing 52:00 – Elements of a fast transition to the ball of the foot 54:00 – How squatting with a foot on a balance disc fundamentally changes the exercise adaptation, soreness, and athleticism 1:04.15 – The various surfaces that Gavin uses with his athletes, that optimizes their interaction between the foot and the ground 1:10.30 – How Gavin uses isometrics to produce high rates of force development, without generating large amounts of muscle soreness 1:20.30 – Ideas on the rhythm of moving a load in training “What a gift (ballet) was, because now I was taught balance, I was taught flexibility, I was taught to control my body in space. And then in figure skating, I really had to find different ways to balance on small blades, and I was skating circles around people” “If a system (such as barbell training) is relying on your form being perfect to work, that’s flawed from the outset” “To be able to handle my own bodyweight at a higher velocity is imperative” “In rugby for instance, the scrum is 2% of the game, so I’m not going to spend the entire training platform more than he’ll actually need it” “You are not going to improve the ability to move an external load unless you move external loads; have you ever tried to bale hay in your life? I’d rather a guy is flipping tires than back squatting” “A human can only produce force properly at certain joint angles” “We’ll incorporate a balance element into almost all the strength work we do” “The foot is so important because it’s a suspension system that the rest of the body has to stretch against, and the foot has flex as well” “I don’t think people understand what balance is; balance is keeping your body in a centered position, no matter how it’s challenged” “Great athletes control their limbs in space, in every range and plane of motion better than other people” “Last year’s combine, every one of our linemen (vertical jump) went up 6 inches in 6 weeks, in whatever we had them for” “People don’t’ understand that having just a standing vertical, this is not going to correlate to a moving vertical” “If you don’t have the balance to control yourself at slow speeds, you sure as heck aren’t going to have the balance to do it at high ones” “The best athlete not only can create contact well, they can avoid contact better” “In figure skating, you had to hold these bent knee positions, and propel yourself the length of the ring to pass your exam” “Your body is going to try and find the most efficient way it can (in athletic movement, including squatting)” “We don’t just have strength at any position, we have optimal power positions (90 degree angles)” “That’s one of the thing we really talk about when we talk about baseball hitting; you can’t have your head moving when you have objects being thrown at you at 100 miles per hour” “DOMS is created from heavy eccentric loading, which our body never does, think about it. Eccentric range, we either ballistically load it, or we hold it isometrically, we never load it slowly eccentrically, never happens” “Where the strength business is going to go, is it is going to go where you need to increase the velocity of the load eccentrically” Show Notes SSL Foot Work https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khuz-KRg2HY SSL Strength Work https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hF1wNq-A5hc About Gavin MacMillan Gavin grew up in Toronto, Canada. While in high school he participated in 7 sports, ice hockey being his main and favorite. He received a tennis scholarship from San Jose State University and graduated with a B.S. Degree in Economics. In 2001 he founded Sport Science Lab where he has trained athletes and teams at every level in multiple sports. He has also been approached by various sporting teams and committees around the world to advise on conditioning and rehabilitation strategies. Of late he often works with boxing legend Freddie Roach preparing fighters for events, Over the last 21 years he has accumulated a noticeable client list which includes Miguel Cotto, Will Blackmon, Troy Polumalo, Manny Pacquiao, George St.Pierre, Dominick Cruz, Will Blackmon, LA Sol women soccer team ...the list goes on and on!

270: James Baker on Strength, Plyometrics, and Movement Variety in the Process of Long-Term Athletic Development Sep 02, 2021

Today’s show is with athletic performance coach and long-term athletic development expert, James Baker. James is one of the co-founders of the LTAD Network and is currently a Strength & Conditioning coach and Performance Support Lead at the Aspire Academy in Doha, Qatar. James has a unique blend of skills and experience as an S&C coach, PE teacher, sports scientist, and researcher. So many times in sports performance, and particularly in the sub-set of speed and power training, we look to focus on the most high-intensity methods we can possibly utilize to achieve adaptations in athletes. Or perhaps, we inquire about the optimal technical or tactical methods for the sport in front of us. Unfortunately, we don’t tend to look much at the entire, long-term process of an athlete achieving their best possible result in a sport, as well as being well-balanced outside of their sport-specific ventures. To give athletes the best training experience, we need to have a thorough understanding of how they might respond to various training methods at different points in their athletic journey. Look at the long-term process; look at the love of movement and play outside of one’s specific sport, and better understand the entire umbrella of what it means to be both human and an athlete James Baker's Topics of Discussion On today’s show, James will discuss the difference between early specialization and early engagement, and the need for athletes to love and appreciate other forms of movement and play as their sport career unfolds. He will also take on free-moving sports like parkour in relation to ball sports, and then deliver some great ideas on progressing plyometric and strength training means over the course of an athlete’s development. For those of you who don’t work directly with growing athletes, realize that by learning more about how young athletes develop, you can learn a lot more about the mature athlete in front of you, and the process that led him or her there. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 5:02 – What key changes James feels could help young athletes as they go through the levels of sport without burning out 8:49 – The importance of athletes learning to love and appreciate other forms of movement practice outside of their primary sport 14:23 – James’ thoughts on early specialization versus early engagement in a sport 22:05 – Thoughts on early specialization and mental burnout in sport 24:44 – James take on using other/alternative sports in the course of a traditional sports training program 31:01 – When to incorporate, and then intensify strength training in young athletes 34:23 – Standards to “earn the barbell” in the training of young athletes 40:00 – How an athlete’s peak-height-velocity timing will impact whether or not strength training will be helping them to benefit explosively as an athlete 46:45 – How athletes who have less muscle mass may respond less favorably to strength training to improve speed and power outputs across a full spectrum of age ranges 48:07 – How peak-height-velocity will impact an athlete’s reactivity and ground contact times 51:06 – Plyometric progression ideas for young athletes in regards to pogo hops and depth jumps James Baker's Quotes “The danger of athletics is kids wrap up their identity with being a sportsperson” “If anything needs to change, it’s the support network around those kids (that don’t make the next level) and helping them transition” “I think it’s a case of early engagement versus early specialization (especially in “high skill” sports)… getting them in front of good coaches early, but not having that be the only thing they do” “(Regarding how early success does not correlate heavily with later success in “physical sports”) The physical qualities create a big advantage to those that have matured earlier in the teenage years, but they are not necessarily the ones who go on and progress…. Myself I played a high level of rugby, I didn’t pick up a rugby ball until age 15” “The trick is getting early engagement without having an athlete specialize in that sport” “You are going to gamify training a lot more with younger kids… gamification is still important but has a much less amount of time allocated to it at the professional level” “Strength training can be started at any age, but it’s important to understand what the most appropriate starting point is…. It’s about earning the right to progress by demonstrating technical competency” “Sometimes these younger athletes have the capability to do some of these (strength training) movements with load, but they don’t tolerate doing these things with frequency” “Pre-PHV (Peak Height Velocity), what they showed is that it is the plyometrics and the speed work at improving outcome measures like sprint time and jump height, compared to strength training in that younger group…. It was a combination of plyometrics, strength and speed work post-PHV that was most effective (do they have the hormone profile to adapt)” “From pre-PHV to circa PHV there is an increase in the average ground contact time (of a 5 jump test)” “Pogo jumps become intensified naturally by the athlete… it’s always constrained by their own ability” About James Baker James is a coach, educator, and researcher that is passionate about helping people achieve their potential as athletes and coaches. He is one of the co-founders of the LTAD Network, previously known as Performance Strength & Conditioning, and brings a unique blend of skills and experience as an S&C coach, PE teacher, sports scientist, and researcher. He is currently a Strength & Conditioning coach and Performance Support Lead at the Aspire Academy in Doha, Qatar. Alongside his coaching responsibilities, he is leading a research project on the impact of growth and maturation in youth track and field. In 2020, he received the Australian Strength & Conditioning Association’s Senior Research Award on behalf of the Aspire Academy research team. Prior to arriving at Aspire, James established a number of school-based LTAD programs in the UK, including St. Peter’s R.C. High School in Gloucester. He created and integrated a 7-year LTAD pathway into the state school Physical Education curriculum, redefining what could be offered by state secondary schools in terms of support for “Gifted and Talented” pupils. In 2017, James was awarded the United Kingdom Strength & Conditioning Association’s S&C Coach of the Year Award for Youth Sport for his work at the school.

Erik Huddleston on Foot Concepts, Stance Mechanics, and Maximizing Squat Variations for Athletic Power Aug 26, 2021

Today’s show is with athletic performance coach, Erik Huddleston. Erik is currently the Director of Performance at Indianapolis Fitness & Sports Training (IFAST) and a performance consultant for a number of professional baseball & basketball teams. Erik previously spent time at Indiana University & Texas Tech University with the men’s basketball teams. So often in the course of using barbell methods for athletic performance, there are often movements that are considered sacred cows of training. There also tends to be common thoughts as to how these lifts should be performed, such as all athletes needing to squat heavy “ass to grass”. In reality, athletes come in all shapes, sizes and structures. Athletes of varying shapes may respond to various types of barbell lifts differently, and there are ways to optimize training for performance, and robustness when considering structural differences of athletes. Advanced and elite athletes will tend to utilize the feet, and stance in different ways as well. Knowing how an athlete is leveraging the gait cycle, and what points they are particularly biasing to achieve their performances, is important when thinking about which lift variations we might want to utilize with them over time. For today’s episode, Erik takes us on a deep dive into squatting and how it relates to the “reversal ability” of athletes, given their individual shapes and structures. He also relates the phases of gait (early,mid,late stance) to squatting and jumping concepts, to help us better understand how to give athletes what they need at particular points in their career. Erik cover important elements of single leg squatting as well, in this highly detailed chat on performance training. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 4:00 – Some of the things Erik has learned from spending time in both the collegiate and private sectors of training 9:00 – Things that Erik looks at in training video that he may be addressing in the gym setting 15:00 – Managing squatting and squat training in light of the various phases of stance 25:20 – How to “bucket” athletes based on need in squatting, in terms of depth and heel-elevation, particularly those with wider hips and narrower shoulders 35:00 – How an athlete’s body shape and structure will tend to determine their functional ability and biomechanics 49:00 – Self-selection principles when it comes to strength and power exercises and coaching 52:00 – Shin angle principles in light of squatting and reversal power 55:00 – How single leg differs from double leg training in terms of pelvic-sacrum action and pressurization 1:00.30 – What Erik is looking for in the stances of the foot when an athlete is jumping or dunking 1:05.30 – Why banded work can cause athletes to “over-push” in jumping, and the impulse related nature of “point zero” in a jump 1:11.30 – More talk on jumping in regards to single leg jumping and accessing late-stance, and why advanced athletes tend to be more late-stance dominant 1:22:00 – Erik’s take on athletes who are early-stance dominant, and how to help them overcome resistance, create compression, and ideally get to mid and late stance more easily “An ability to translate through the phases of gait is something that I look at (when assessing video)” “Some kids are naturally not going to be able to get lower in that athletic stance” “Gait is a constant falling and catching yourself as you go forward” “If the tibia moves forward and your heel is on the ground, you are moving towards the middle phase of propulsion…. as soon as the calcaneus breaks the ground you are in a later phase of propulsion” “(Internal rotation) doesn’t allow for a lot of general movement qualities… or a fluid variation in movement. IR is compression, IR is force production, it is not necessarily fluidity of movement, it is meant to block things from happening; to compress and produce force” “If someone is at that (max IR) point, and you ask them to change levels, then there is going to be a compensation” “A lot of the higher end athletes I work with are biased towards this middle or late propulsion, so for them to squat, I need to bring the ground up to them (through a slant board)” “Having only half of your foot, or just your heel on the slant, doesn’t put you in an early position (with heels on plates, the bias is still towards IR)” “If they are spending too much time, and they are too shoved forward into middle and late stance, access to early (stance) is key” “3rd world squatting, sitting on your heels is very early stance biased” “Compensation is not a poor choice, you just need to have resources outside of that compensation” “From a strategic standpoint it is difficult to get (narrow shoulder/wide hip individuals) to come out of the bottom of the squat with quality…. Putting them in a position that doesn’t allow much descent will allow them more ascent… I have 3 or 4 girls who do hack squats really really well; I don’t allow them all the descent of their pelvic floor that they would generally have” “The rebound is a completely different position than the going down portion is (of a squat)” “I’m looking for those first couple of inches (of the squat reversal) as it can be out of the bottom; I think that giving them that constraint, that raises the floor up a little for (narrow shoulder/wide hip), so they are not pre-disposed to over-dropping into a jump” “The unique thing about the tibia and the sacrum is that they actually move together” “The goal is to have smooth, fluid transitions between (all movements in the gym)” “If you look at the typical basketball athlete, they are very output driven, not very input driven… they are springy people” “That early (heel) position is really important for athletes to get into in jumping, because it gives them enough yield and expansion quality to get that energy capture before they are going to turn that around” “(The bottom of a jump) is max internal rotation, maximal force production… at that point heel breaks the ground, and every transition from that point until their toe comes off the ground is going to be ER” “If I need to bring an athlete back on their heel at all, how far back is that, and how do I manage that? “Muscle itself is biased towards IR because there is a compressive nature about it” Show Notes Michael Jordan guarding Allen Iverson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4O04iA1Pack About Erik Huddleston Erik Huddleston is currently the Director of Performance at Indianapolis Fitness & Sports Training (IFAST) and a performance consultant for a number of professional baseball & basketball teams. He previously spent time at Indiana University & Texas Tech University with the men’s basketball teams.

Ben Askren on Creativity in Sport and Developing an Elite Competitor’s Mindset Aug 19, 2021

Today’s show is with Ben Askren, former mixed martial artist and wrestler, who is now a wrestling coach (amongst his other ventures). Ben is one of the most successful wrestlers, and MMA fighters of all time, known for his unique style and technical skills. Ben’s NCAA career consisted of a 157-8 overall record. His final two years were dominant with an 87-0 record capped by back-to-back national championships (2006 & 2007). Ben was a four-time all-American, and two-time recipient of the Dan Hodge Trophy (the college wrestling equivalent of the Heisman). Askren was the former Bellator and ONE Welterweight Champion, remaining undefeated for over a decade before competing in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, and had a final win-loss record of 19 and 2. Ben has co-founded Askren Wrestling Academy (AWA) with his brother Max. They currently operate 5 gyms. I am perpetually fascinated by elite talent in sport. In training athletes, so often we take for granted, the long term process, the mental process, and the creativity that makes some athletes so elite. It is very easy to get “sucked in” to sets, reps, exercises and positions, and fail to nurture both the individual creative and mental processes that are going to help athletes succeed as the level of competition rises. On today’s podcast, Ben takes us through his early life in sport, and about when he made the transition from multi-sport athlete to specialist in wrestling. He shares about the grounds the led to some big leaps in his creative ability as an athlete, and the balance between creativity and structure in the development of a young athlete. Finally Ben shares lots of information on developing one’s practice of mental composition for athletic performance. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 4:53 – What inspired Ben to make the jump from wrestling to MMA fighting in his career 8:52 – Ben’s athletic background from a young age, starting from a multi-sport perspective, and how that eventually funneled into specializing in wrestling 15:52 – Prime coaches and mentors in Ben’s athletic career that impacted his formation as an athlete 18:16 – Ben discusses his practice of study in his own development into an elite wrestler and fighter 21:24 – The balance between creativity and structure in training wrestlers as they go from youth to a mature athlete 22:59 – How Ben’s wrestling academies teach children with individual facets of performance in mind 25:56 – Thoughts on teaching athletes to deal with adversity in their sporting careers, and as they advance in level of competition 33:14 – A conversation on the value of submaximal lifting versus heavy strength training in performance training 44:04 – Development of young wrestling athletes, and how early success is not a requirement for later successes 50:17 – How to educate parents to buy into the long term vision of success for their athletes, and why the youth sport system (and monetization) is not set up in favor of long term athlete success 55:40 – How to manage stress and anxiety in big competitions 58:03 – How Ben approaches mental training in practice and competition 1:03:49 – Tactics to minimize anxiety in competition “(When I made the decision to specialize in Wrestling after freshman year of high school) At that time, that was totally unheard of… all specialization was much more limited at that point in time” “I try to not let the parents push the kid into more participation, I want it to be the kid’s choice” “I know there are some people who say you should never specialize, and I strongly disagree with that… at my academy, there are certain kids who going into their freshman year are 92 pounds, what other sports can they play?” “A lot of (creativity) was me and my team-mates. My team-mates were spurring innovation that happened, bouncing ideas off each other” “I barely every studied opponents; I kind of saw it as a waste of time (compared to studying elite fighters instead)… my best end form is not highly tied to me needing to win this match” “Inevitably when you compete at a higher level in sport, you are going to find adversity; when you find that adversity, how do you succeed from there?” “Great champions have multiple ways to win” “A lot of wrestling programs think the only solution is doing things more and doing things harder” “I think I would go back and take away a lot of heavy lifting; it is not necessary for me to be an elite athlete” “Most parents only pay attention to the year above and the year below their kid” “Most youth coaches are not incentivized to do what is good in the long term for the kid… the incentive for the kid, and the incentive for what their bank account says is two different things” “Don’t be too stuck on one method that is going to get you to the top; if you are really going to get to the top, you are going to need to do a lot of things… it’s going to be a multitude of things that are going to get you to allow you have the maximal amount of success” About Ben Askren Ben Askren is an American retired professional mixed martial artist and amateur wrestler. Askren was the former Bellator and ONE Welterweight Champion, remaining undefeated for over a decade before competing in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, and had a final win-loss record of 19 to 2. Ben’s NCAA career consisted of a 157-8 overall record. His final two years were dominant with an 87-0 record capped by back-to-back national championships (2006 & 2007). Ben was a four-time all-American, and two-time recipient of the Dan Hodge Trophy (the college wrestling equivalent of the Heisman). Ben co-founded Askren Wrestling Academy (AWA) with his brother Max. They currently operate 5 gyms.

Joel Smith Q&A on Integrated Sprint Training, Elasticity, Biomechanics, and Coaching Frameworks Aug 12, 2021

Today’s show is a Q&A with Joel Smith. We are back again for a series of your questions and my best answers. Today’s show is by theme “The Speed Show” with a ton of questions on speed, acceleration, max velocity, muscle-relaxation speed, and even working with distance runners. Sprinting is always going to be a synthesis of so many elements of human performance, and is one of the highest-reaching challenges for any coach in athletic coaching (which is why it’s also such a rewarding puzzle to solve). Outside of the common speed questions; I also had an interesting question on how to assess “swings in the pendulum” of training methods. The awareness by which we get to our own coaching biases is important, so I’ll dig into some ideas there as well. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 1:59 – How to fix heel-striking in athletes 12:56 – A step by step process on helping athletes improve hip extension and delay knee extension 19:50 – Thoughts on flat feet being an advantage since you enter mid stance more quickly? 22:16 – The top 2-3 faults, issues I commonly coach as it pertains to start out of blocks, acceleration in those first 2-3 steps, and common drills I utilize for correcting said issues. 33:57 – How to periodize maximal velocity work. Once intensity is at the max and assisted/overspeed is touched upon sporadically, where do we go from there? 43:18 – Thoughts on setting up a weight room/jumping/sprinting program for high school XC runners. Training age with me 1-3 years. 50:44 – How do you balance your stance/beliefs when training philosophy and paradigm swings like a pendulum? 56:54 – In regards to the Soviet research on muscle relaxation times being the differentiating factor between their elite and non-elite athletes, what are some methods to train relaxation times? Show Notes Dave O’Sullivan Slouches https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYD4Jx_IXSw Usain Bolt Warming Up https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aW9GxrrSDFg&t=163s About Joel Smith Joel Smith is the founder of Just Fly Sports and is a sports performance coach in Cincinnati, Ohio. Joel hosts the Just Fly Performance Podcast, has authored several books on athletic performance, and trains numerous clients in the in-person and online space. Joel was formerly a strength coach for 8 years at UC Berkeley, working with the Swim teams and post-graduate professional swimmers, as well as tennis, water polo, and track and field. A track coach of 11 years, Joel coached for the Diablo Valley Track and Field Club for 7 years, and also has 6 years of experience coaching sprints, jumps, hurdles, pole vault and multi-events on the collegiate level, working at Wilmington College, and the University of Wisconsin, LaCrosse. Joel has coached 2 national champions, multiple All-Americans and school record holders in his time as a track coach. In the realm of strength and conditioning, his programs have assisted 5 athletes to Olympic berths that produced 9 medals and a world record performance at Rio in 2016. In 2011, Joel began Just Fly Sports with Jake Clark as a central platform to promote information for athletes and coaches to reach their highest potential. In 2016 the first episode of the “Just Fly Performance Podcast” was released, now a leading source of education in the sports performance field. The evolving mission of Just Fly Sports is focused on teaching athletes to realize their true, innate power, and achieve the highest joy in their training, competition, and in the community.

Jake Tuura on Jump Training, Knee Rehab Protocols, and Games + Community as Ultimate Power Potentiators Aug 05, 2021

Today’s show is with Jake Tuura. Jake currently works at Velocity Training Center as a strength and conditioning coach. Prior to Velocity, Jake was a collegiate S&C coach for 7 years. Jake is the owner of jackedathlete.com where he teaches athletes and coaches principles on muscle gain, jumping higher, and rehab from jumper’s knee. Training for things like vertical jump and sprinting are enjoyable to discuss, but we need to always be zooming out into more global concepts of performance. For example, you may tweak every ounce of your training to help an athlete jump 4” (10cm) higher, but what if that athlete just got into a really good community where athletes were doing various dunks, and found that simply being in that environment unlocked 4” of jumping gain, that was eventually able to filter over into their permanent results? Or perhaps look at the formation of jumpers who are obsessed with jumping as youths, doing dozens, if not hundreds, of jumps each day? Also, understanding how to be consistent as per staying healthy is not often considered as it should be, particularly for jump-related sports. Jake Tuura has been on a journey of sport performance exploration for years, and offers grounded solutions for those seeking muscle gain, performance increase and pain reduction. On the show today, Jake talks about what he has been learning since leaving the university sector in strength and conditioning, as well as updated knowledge in the vertical jump training space. Jake also talks about how to use games as the ultimate warmup (and workout, when combined with sprints and jumps) for athletes, and finished with some great points on knee pain and rehab, and points where isometric exercises might not be the panacea that it is so often offered as. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 4:56 – Some of the last things Jake learned as a college strength and conditioning coach 16:31 – What Jake has learned working in the private sector of sports performance since moving beyond his university coaching job 18:44 – Thoughts on using games with pro-level players versus younger athletes 25:29 – Things that Jake has been compiling in the last few years in regards to vertical jump training 38:21 – What Jake has noticed in elite dunking athletes in regards to their training history and jumping volumes 46:22 – The importance of using sport play as either an advanced warmup or potentiation for jumps or even sprints 51:59 – Thoughts on penultimate length in a running two leg jump” 58:13 – Looking at isometric training, versus kinetic chain training and general strength conditioning when it comes to knee rehabilitation and injury prevention “When you are a college strength coach, you think that everyone really wants to be in (the weightroom)” “You are warming up their bodies, but are you thinking of how you are impacting their brains?... they are like zombies” “If you are a college strength coach, there are 1000’s of kids who will do your job for free… and you have to impress the head coach” “I think we need to start vertical jump training with the objective starting point of physics, and then you can create a good plan” “Can you get stronger by just jumping? Yes you can; but… some people are just not built for that, and they need extra training… sometimes freak athletes, they may not need the extra training, they were just born for it” “(In regards to knee pain) Jumping as high as possible for a decently high volume… would a caveman do that?” “The pro-dunkers, would jump every day (growing up) and as they get older and increase outputs, they do not jump every single day; and they always get into strength training” “Having the people to do dunk sessions with is huge; we had like 10 guys at an LA Fitness out here one Friday night, and everyone’s vertical jump was up, like 4 inches” “If you can start playing pickup basketball for 30-60-90 minutes, that is the best warmup to dunk” “If you can stimulate the system with gatorball, you will feel a lot better going into your sprints” “You just do not know the story to be giving these canned technique tips to people; they shouldn’t exist” “Isometrics, heavy isometrics like a leg extension, are going to be huge for the patellar tendon, and the quad tendon, and Osgood Schlatter, is will be great for that, but that heavy isometric will not be good for patella-femoral pain; someone who has general knee pain” “Iso lunges, Spanish squats, all those are going to give you immediate (tendon) relief. If you do those exercises, and you don’t have immediate relief, then you probably don’t have a tendon issue” “There is correlation from having lack of dorsiflexion and having jumper’s knee” About Jake Tuura Jake Tuura, MS, CSCS currently works at Velocity Training Center as a strength and conditioning coach. Prior to Velocity, Jake was a collegiate S&C coach for 7 years. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Superior (2014) and his Masters from The College of St. Scholastica (2015). His website: jackedathlete.com helps athletes gain copious amounts of muscle, jump higher, and rehab from jumper’s knee.

Angus Ross on Spinal Engine Dynamics and Asymmetrical Training in Sprinting and Athletic Development Jul 29, 2021

Today’s show is with Angus Ross. Angus is a senior strength and conditioning specialist with High Performance Sport New Zealand, with a particular interest in track and field athletes. He has worked with a number of sports at an elite level within the NZ system, including sprint cycling and skeleton in recent years. Angus has a PhD in exercise physiology from the University of Queensland, and is also a Winter Olympian in his own right having competed at the 1998 and 2002 Winter Games. Angus has been a two time previous guest within the first hundred episodes of the podcast. In the time since we last talked, Angus has traveled the world and has spent time with some leading edge strength coaches, such as Jerome Simian. His curiosity and angles of looking at performance training has made him a truly enjoyable guest to have on this show time and again. One topic I’ve heard in the world of training is “the spinal engine”. I have been working extensively in the last year in the realms of getting the ribs and spine to work alongside the hips more effectively in sprinting, throwing, jumping and overall athletic movement. When Angus told me he had been doing a lot of research into spinal engine work over the last few years, I was excited, and when Angus actually went into the details of it all, I was truly inspired. Angus’s work connects so many dots in regards to concepts I’ve been thinking of on my own end. On the show today, Angus speaks about his take on spinal engine theory, rhythmic movement, sprint (and iso hold) asymmetry and how some athletes may need to take advantage of the movement of the spine more than others. He also talks about long and short hold isometrics, and proprioception training. This was a phenomenal chat with lots of immediate ideas for any athlete or coach. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 5:15 – Spinal engine theory vs. a leg spring model 11:26 – How the mobility of spine and ribs can benefit you as an athlete 15:42 – Resources and inspiration for exercises and drills to improve spinal mobility and range 19:09 – A discussion on asymmetry in sprinting 21:43 – Benefits of looking at data & the role of intuition and feelings in martial arts 24:58 – Rhythm in Athletes: What you can learn from trying martial arts and other rhythmic sports 32:17 – Who can benefit from spinal engine theory? 34:21 – Asymmetrical training & What Angus learned from training with Jerome Simian 48:38 – How and why to use long duration isometrics in training 54:03 – Static stretching before sprinting & Pros and cons of extreme iso holds 57:11 – Insights on short isometric holds 1:01:07 – Thoughts on proprioceptive training: Weight lifting, joint proprioception, and utilization of balance and stability “The concept (of spinal engine theory) is that if you laterally flex a lordotic spine, is that it induces an axial torque and a rotation of the pelvis” “When you look at things through the spinal engine lens, it’s really very different to the leg spring model.” “It begs the question: Should we be training lateral flexion per say and is range of motion a critical factor?” “Most of our elite runners are short trunk, long legs and that’s what we say is the normal, but if you don’t have that, can you compensate by becoming a different style of runner and using what you do have to facilitate your ability to try and relate?” “You need the hardware to be able to run that software and if you can’t get them in those positions…you’re gonna give them coaching cues all day long and it won’t do them any bloody good because they can’t get in those positions anyway.” “I’ve found the lateral drills to be fantastic with helping people eliminate crossover running.” “I have this feeling like, the people who really generate that asymmetry and really work the spinal engine, you can’t help but think that they have an innate sense of rhythm… and I don’t think you can generate that whip of momentum change in asymmetry without some rhythm, without some ability to sense your body.” “My working model currently is: Probably everybody can benefit from [spinal engine] to some level. Some might find it more advantageous than others.” “There’s some recent papers… that have shown there really isn’t any objective effect or positive effect in people that are more front-sided or more rear-sided. You run with what you’ve got, I guess, and it doesn’t seem to be this dramatic effect that maybe we’ve been told to expect from these sprint training models.” Show Notes Kevin Mayer 100m Dash https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wip9pNj6Fi4 Quadratus Lumborum Training Methods https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDgUP2k_TKI About Angus Ross Angus is currently employed by High Performance Sport New Zealand in a power physiology and strength and conditioning role, primarily working with track and field. He has worked with a number of sports at an elite level within the NZ system including sprint cycling and skeleton in recent years. Angus has a PhD in exercise physiology from the University of Queensland and has also worked within the Australian institute system with stints at both the Queensland Academy of Sport and the Australian Institute of Sport. He is also a Winter Olympian in his own right having competed at the 1998 and 2002 Winter Games.

Conor Harris on Gait-Based Split Squats and Advanced Lifting Mechanics in Athletic Development Jul 22, 2021

Today’s show is with Conor Harris. Conor is a strength & conditioning coach specializing in biomechanics and movement quality. He is the founder of Pinnacle Performance in Portland, Oregon where he trains all levels of athletes and general population clientele. He has worked in a wide variety of environments such as D1 Collegiate Baseball, EXOS, High School, and private performance training facilities. If there is one big element that is infiltrating modern training and performance right now (at least I hope it is), it is the attention to the quality of movement, and the particular impacts that doing one type of lift (say rear foot elevated vs. front foot elevated split squat) will have on an athlete. So often, we just move through a variety of movements in a training program, without really thinking about the experience that those training methods are actually giving to that athlete’s body. Conor Harris is a young coach who has really zeroed in on the impacts of various movements on an athlete, and how those movements fit in with what an athlete is missing (or on the flip-side, is already strong in) in their gait pattern. At the end of the day, every training movement we utilize should come back to how an athlete moves, or intends to move, in their sport. The training we use should have the capacity to fill in any needed “gaps” in a movement profile that may be pre-disposing an athlete to pain, or injury. On today’s show, Conor will take us through concepts of late vs. early stance dominance in athletes, and how split squat variations will preferentially engage those stance dynamics for the purposes of injury prevention, or enhanced performance. We’ll get into how squatting with heels elevated, or hinging with the toes elevated, can benefit the athlete through rotation of the leg bones, and finish with some great ideas on how to help restore internal rotation to athletes, as well as some big rocks of athletic glute activation. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 5:20 – Elements that help athletes pronate in the gym with more “common” exercises 12:40 – How to differentiate between a “late stance” and “early stance” dominant individual 19:20 – Why the sport of basketball emphasizes “late” stance more than many other sports 23:00 – Ideas on when to actually intervene with an athlete if you suspect an imbalance or movement inefficiency 38:00 – How foot position in a split stance exercise impacts rotation and joint dynamics 45:30 – Thoughts on split squatting with a (hard) balance disc in the front foot 49:15 – Conor’s big rocks in helping to restore an internal rotation deficit in athletes 56:00 – How to squat for maximal glute activation, via stretch-loading the glutes “Your joint positions, your tests all reflect that you spend a lot of time in late stance; a basketball player is a perfect example, someone who is constantly on their toes to be athletic. These people often present with a certain foot presentation where their toes are pointing away from the midline of their body” “If you strike the ground and you don’t have that nice heel reference then it is going to be more difficult to get your heel forward, if you are starting in the position where you can’t get the pronation to resupination” “Anything that drives the knee over the toe a lot is going to allow for that internal rotation of the tibia to occur, as well as pronation of the foot. That heel elevated split squat can be a really good way to do that” “When I think of a contralateral load, I think of that as a reference to find your heel or midfoot. An ipsilateral load is better to find mid-foot to toe-off. If I wanted to find that earlier phase of pronation I’m a fan of using that contralateral load (it will pull them in towards the midline of their foot)” “A lot of times, these narrows (narrow ISA) will be biased towards heel strike, originally” “Think of how often a basketball player needs to be on their heels, it’s not very often” “When we run, it’s more of a mid to late stance transition” “Let’s say this person does need to find more of that heel strike mechanics, that will help restore more of the variability in their body as a whole” “Let’s say they can’t hinge very well; take that heel wedge, and flip it around, so now their mid-foot and fore-foot is slanted upward, that can help them hinge backwards, and now you are providing more internal rotation to that hip” “Let’s say you have someone who is bilaterally extended on both sides, what that person is really trying to do is create an internal rotation, force producing strategy” “Getting them back on their heels can give them something to (internally) rotate to” “As you get deeper in the squat, you need some level of internal rotation and pronation of the foot (to reverse and push upwards)” “True opening of the hips is being able to get in your hip through internal rotation” “If you know what kind of joint positions we need to have, and how we get there, then muscles are easy” “Simply by being in a split stance position you are going to be biasing more external rotation and “supination” of the front hip and front foot” “Vertical tibia = mid-stance” “I love to restore internal rotation through positions like hinges” “Hold a ball that keeps your knees in line with your toes, squat to 90 degrees, and come out of it; that ball is providing a reference for your pelvic outlet; your pelvic floor is going to open up and your pelvic inlet is going to become more closed, your pelvic outlet is going to become more open” “Wide stance squats use less glutes than narrow stance, toes straight ahead” Show Notes Internal Rotation Exercises https://youtu.be/ZIiONQEAtqo https://youtu.be/qSlOus-fPc8 https://youtu.be/w-DmasVjuac https://youtu.be/ZVg4Ox4gQV0 https://youtu.be/NNzR4_YaIuQ https://youtu.be/qVkmuRzk8ow https://youtu.be/CGmMgtqIImk About Conor Harris Conor Harris is a strength & conditioning coach that specializes in biomechanics and movement quality. He is the founder of Pinnacle Performance in Portland, Oregon where he trains all levels of athletes and general population clientele. He has worked in a wide variety of environments such as D1 Collegiate Baseball, EXOS, High School, and private performance training facilities.

Daniel Back on Advancing Methods in Jump and Sprint Training for Athletes Jul 15, 2021

Today’s show is with athletic performance coach, Dan Back. Dan Back is the founder of “Jump Science” and is also a coach at Xceleration sports performance in Austin, Texas. Dan reached an elite level in his own vertical jump and dunking ability, and has been helping athletes run faster, jump higher and improve overall physical performance for over a decade. I first met Dan in my own time at Wisconsin, LaCrosse, where I was working on my master’s degree in applied sport sciences. When it comes to sports performance training, the two “KPI”s we are routinely searching for, are undoubtedly sprint speed and jumping ability. Improvements here are harder to come by than simply improving a barbell strength exercise that is brand new to an individual. On top of this, the higher velocity the movement, generally, the more difficult it is to improve. This is where there is a big difference in simply knowing information about training, and spending time talking to coaches who have been working hard on this skill themselves for years, and then have transmitted that knowledge into working with others. Dan is a coach who really embodies what he is teaching on a regular basis. On today’s show, Dan talks about how his plyometric programs have changed over the years, where his plyometrics volume has shifted, volume in performing variations of various sport jumps, as well as in submaximal plyometrics, where big rocks like depth jumps fit in now. Key elements Dan looks at when coaching speed that fit with reactive abilities RSI, Strength/speed alternation, and knowing that you aren’t losing too much “explosive or maximal strength in the pursuit of speed Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 4:41 – Dan’s evolution as an athlete and coach & how he became interested in sports performance 9:52 – Making jump training a sport: Is low rim dunk training the most effective for young athletes? 14:10 – Sport jumps vs. “Fun” jumps & How have your views on plyometrics evolved over time? 17:24 – Filling in the gaps in athletic history 20:01 – What staple plyometrics do you use in your training besides jumping? 25:34 – Building up from small, quick, easy movements 31:05 – Are there plyometrics Dan don’t use anymore? 32:38 – How Dan utilizes sprinting, warmups, and other exercises in athletic training 39:51 – Measuring RSI in sprinting and how to “reverse engineer” RSI from a “sprint first” perspective 46:33 – Dan’s approach to elimination and reintroduction of strength training and how to ensure one is not losing their maximal or explosive strength abilities when working on speed “I love [low rim dunk training] and I do think there’s a superiority there compared to just trying to touch the rim or touch the back board. One, because it’s just more fun. Two, to have success in the training, but then also there’s just this component of it’s not like a workout.” “Having that fun and even that creative, ideas-based, like oh I’m gonna try this dunk or I’m gonna try to dunk off one leg or whatever… having that fun, creative environment definitely makes a difference for the motor learning side of things and the motivation side of things.” “Hurdle hops are good but this is like a complimentary, forced development exercise. We want to have the base be not plyometrics, but the base be fun jumping and hopefully even diverse fun jumping.” “I believe in jump technique, I don’t overdo it… Sometimes if they don’t have those key skills, it’s like you’re kinda getting strong and not realizing any of it.” “Nowadays, really I would say sprinting is the plyometric that I have gravitated the most toward trying to make sure that is included in an athlete’s overall workload.” “I’m basically trying to get people to move with less effort and just kind of bounce off the ground.” “I want to just get them to a point where I like how it looks; where we have decent posture, decent relaxation, which is subjective obviously but… if we have an athlete do a 60-meter sprint with 90% effort, we’re hoping we can be not gassed after that. We want this to be pretty easy, pretty repeatable, like you could go do it again two minutes later.” “You don’t want to chase the RSI by doing two foot plyos and getting your squat up, you want to chase speed, sprint a lot, and because of that you have this lightness on your feet, and then you do the RSI test without having to even train it and now you’re just better at it.” “I don’t want to have to alternate between strength training and non-strength training, it’s more of something that just comes out of necessity.” About Dan Back Dan Back is the founder of “Jump Science” and is a coach at Xceleration sports performance in Austin, Texas. Dan reached an elite level in his own vertical jump and dunking ability, and has been helping athletes run faster, jump higher and improve overall physical performance for over a decade. Dan has been a constant source of coach and athlete education in the last decade through his website and social media channels.

Graeme Morris on A Practical Approach to Game Speed, Oscillatory Isometrics, and Explosive Strength Training Methods in Athletic Performance Jul 08, 2021

Today’s show is with strength coach, Graeme Morris. Graeme is a performance coach that consults for a variety of team sport and combat athletes including world and Australian champions in Muay Thai. He is also the head strength and conditioning coach for the AFL umpires and has previously worked in rugby league for 6 seasons. Graeme has experience learning from many leading coaches, and has integrated it into a balance that he sees fit for his own training populations. There are so many topics in the world of sports performance in regards to speed and strength. I often get a lot of questions on how I end up integrating much of it into a practical training session. At the end of the day, seeing the art of how coaches take information, and use it practically with athletes helps tie the content in the many conversations I have together. On today’s show, Graeme takes us into his own integration of the two most common interests of performance coaches: Game-speed and strength/power development. Graeme speaks on his usage of closed versus open agility work, and lateral speed development, linear speed, and “robust running” ideas for team sport players. He also goes into his strength methods for athletes, how “specific” to get in the weight room, and particularly how he gets into various oscillatory strength methods to help his athletes maximize their power outputs, and finally, some ideas from training combat athletes. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 4:15 – Graeme’s mentors and influences on his sports performance philosophy 5:45 – Graeme’s take on closed vs. open agility training for his athlete populations 19:00 – Talking about linear speed drills, “switching”, mini-hurdles, and more in the development of speed for team sport athletes 27:45 – A discussion on working in small vs. open spaces and its impact on how an athlete’s muscle groups and energy systems are impacted 30:45 – How Graeme’s role as a strength coach fits into game speed, in respect to the coach’s technical/tactical plans for the team 35:15 – The story of “never go full Bosch” and Graeme’s approach to more “specific lifts” in the weightroom 40:30 – Where Graeme stands on the 1x20 lifting spectrum 43:00 – Graeme’s experience with oscillating lifting reps for a variety of athlete populations 58:00 – Working with Cal Dietz’s “reflexive trimetric” training method 1:04:00 – Core foot training movements that Graeme utilizes in his programming “If an athlete doesn’t have multiple tools to begin with; it’s hard to select the right tool… I look at shuffle positions, crossover step, basic backpedaling. We are starting in a closed scenario, maybe resisted to slow it down a little more” “When you look on social media, you always see the best athletes…. It’s always great to see what people are doing online but they are always putting the most talented athlete; people are afraid to show the least talented” “When players reach where I am trying to get them to (from a linear speed perspective) then I will sprinkle in robust running methods… I find people will skip that initial step and go right into (robust running)” “I think you can get a lot of game speed in your technical/tactical drills” “In defense we are trying to take away space from the competition, in attack, we are trying to create space… you know these guys, you know they are not quick, but they always seem to have time on the field” “We need to have these drills that are executed at game speed, or above” “When you are working in a short space, that is going to put more stress on the calf, groin and glute area. When you work in a more open space, that is going to put more stress on the hamstrings, and it’s often more aerobic” “It doesn’t take long to develop the strength that you are after; but developing speed with young athletes (is critical)” “Every day I was working on the farm, or playing sports, that was my original training mate” “85-90% of my training is proven methods, but I always like to experiment with the other 10%” “When my fighters are going into training camp, those eccentric loads are so high, I use oscillating training methods to freshen them up” “I use oscillating movements more for accessory movements at the end (of a workout) (i.e. start with banded hex bar deadlift, then go down to split squats for speed)” “I’ve used that on team sport scenarios where you have timed sets one day, you have oscillating movements on another day” “If you don’t have to run into brick walls, then you can use more of these oscillating movements (and less maximal strength)” “A lot of foot stuff will depend on how your hips move… I’ll probably address the hips first” Show Notes Cal Dietz’s Reflexive Tri-metrics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aw6epBVpRYM View this post on Instagram A post shared by Graeme Morris (@graeme_morris) Graeme demonstrating a basic oscillating hop drill used as a warm up View this post on Instagram A post shared by Graeme Morris (@graeme_morris) About Graeme Morris Graeme Morris is a performance coach that consults for a variety of field based and combat athletes including world and Australian champions in Muay Thai. He is also the head strength and conditioning coach for the AFL umpires and has previously worked in rugby league for 6 seasons. He has a experience designing and implementing strength and power in the gym, as well as speed, agility and conditioning on the field. Graeme holds a degree in Human Movement with Honours in Exercise Physiology, a Master’s degree in Strength and Conditioning and is a level 2 qualified Australian Strength and Conditioning Coach (ASCA).

Gary Ward on Spiraling Foot Mechanics for Optimized Gait, Achilles Tendonitis Prevention, and Improved Athleticism Jul 01, 2021

Today’s show is with biomechanist Gary Ward. Gary is the author of “What the Foot” and founder of “Anatomy in Motion” (as well as the “Wake Your Feet Up” and “Wake Your Body Up” courses). Gary is known for solving unsolvable pain in minutes, not months, and his passion for the foot hugely influenced his interpretation of human movement. Gary’s foot wedges and training system have had a massive impact on my approach to training athletes in a single leg setting, and between Gary’s influence, and that of running coach Helen Hall (a student of Gary’s), my approach to gait, running and the foot is forever changed for the better. Gary has been a previous 2x guest on this podcast, speaking on the topics of human movement principles, pronation, “duck feet” and much more. In my ever-running interest in the foot and lower leg, and its role in human movement, I have been very interested in the role of the rear-foot in the past few years. Initially, I found that I was able to rid myself of plaguing Achilles tendon issues by mobilizing my calcaneus bone, which tuned me into the importance of looking beyond “foot stiffness” as a cover-all in lower leg performance. From there, I’ve become increasingly more interested in the role of the rearfoot in not only injury prevention, but also athletic performance situations. On the show today, Gary Ward is back to take us on a deep dive into concepts of forefoot-rearfoot opposition and the role of the heel bone in pronation, supination and gait mechanics. He’ll go into how a well-functioning rear-foot plays into the gait cycle, and how this also works with the ability to get into the ball of the foot well in athletic movements. Gary will give some practical examples on how to check one’s rearfoot function, and we conclude the show getting into some nuts and bolts of squatting mechanics in light of 3D human movement. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 6:37 – A recap on foot opposition, and how the twisting and spiraling of the foot works into human movement 22:03 – Gary’s take on how rearfoot mobility and foot opposition plays into the ability to get to the ball of the foot well in athletic movement 37:39 – How pronation and supination changes as ground speeds increase from walking to sprinting 49:10 – How to check for limited range in the rear foot, and how to get the rearfoot moving 58:52 – How the body will compensate upstream if it is getting too much or too little movement in the foot 1:04:12 – How arch height in barbell squatting impacts the athletic result of a barbell lift, and if the arches should flatten in a barbell squat 1:10.09 – Squatting and effortlessness in human movement “The rearfoot is the calcaneus and the talus” “When the calcaneus moves down, the navicular moves up” “If there was a midfoot bone, I would say the cuboid is a midfoot bone… out of the 26 bones, we’ve got one midfoot bone. Otherwise, what we are really looking at is the forefoot opposing the rearfoot, and it does it in all three planes” “The lowering of the arch is an opening of the joints at the base of the foot” “If you roll pressure towards the inside edge of the foot, then you will initiate an eversion in your rear foot, but if I take the 5th metatarsal head off the ground, then what you lose is the opposition” “There’s only one way to get the shin forward, and keep the heel on the ground for too long, and that’s to maintain a pronated foot position” “If your foot does not pronate at the time it is supposed to, then the body will continue to pronate the foot until it reaches the amount of pronation it needs” “You do need to get that (calcaneus) eversion to get into that toe rocker of the push-off phase” “The eversion you are looking for in the rearfoot, should happen the moment where you get the tripod on the ground” “The focus in the industry is always towards the stiffening side” “95% of the muscles in the foot are actually supinators, so we have to pronate in order to stimulate 95% of the muscles” “What interests me is not how much pronation, but the quality of the pronation… the quality of pronation will always be most optimal when the foot has a resting position of neutral, so everyone who does not have that resting position of neutral will always be compromised to some extent” “The pressure change when you pronate, will move anterior, and medial (forward and towards the big toe)” “Placing a finger, in front of the calcaneus in the back of the arch, you should feel pressure on that finger when someone bends the knee” “I get it nearly every week at least, people are in context with Achilles issues, Sever’s disease, bumps on the back of the heel and they are always on the level of the TCJ, and it’s simply too much talo-crural movement and not enough rear-foot accompaniment” “More length in the plantar fascia through better rearfoot movement is likely to take pressure off excess lengthening in the Achilles” “(With getting calcaneus movement) You can roll a sock up and place it in the back of the arch to see if they can compress it a little bit, it’s not about flattening it to the floor, it’s about “can I get more contact on it”” “What you’ll find is that the heavier the weight, the less pronation there is, the more there is a rapid, knees-in movement at the very bottom…. so you have this whole extensor chain is able to light up; the heavier you get, the more and more of a requirement that is” “Teach you to pronate, teach you to supinate, teach you to flex and extend your knees, teach you to anterior and posterior tilt your pelvis, make sure you can have a pronating leg and supinating leg, and go and experience that, and then go squat…. You need to continuously remind your body of how it should move” “Don’t you think the idea of a squat feeling effortless is overlooked”? “The 5th rule of movement is that the brain is hard-wired for perfection” Show Notes Calcaneus Tilt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yulwH_9e21k High Jumper pronation video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7qIo_xOLqA Olympic lifter with inwards knee travel in squatting (see 3:00) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdY78tvKlxA Helen Hall COG video https://vimeo.com/244973290 About Gary Ward Gary Ward is the author of “What the Foot” and founder of “Anatomy in Motion” (as well as the “Wake Your Feet Up” and “Wake Your Body Up” courses). He is known for bringing individuals out of pain when all other options had failed. A former ski-boot fitter, Gary is known for solving unsolvable pain in minutes, not months. His passion for the foot hugely influenced his interpretation of human movement. Increasingly sought after by all types of practitioners in the fitness and therapy industry, he teaches an evolution that start with the foot and results in whole body integrated movement solutions.

Scott Robinson on The Power of Intention, Reward-Systems, and Celebration as a Neurological Driver in Athletics Jun 24, 2021

Today’s show is with Scott Robinson, neurology expert, consultant and personal trainer. Scott is an Applied Movement Neurology Master practitioner and has worked successfully with all levels of neurological complexity in his time training and coaching a wide variety of clients. Scott is a specialist in dealing with a variety of neurological issues, such as weakness, pain, range of motion and trauma to the emotional systems, amongst many others. Scott is a former Taekwondo athlete and has more than 20 years of experience in Applied Movement Neurology. Scott previously appeared on episode #188 of the podcast, and on the last show, talked about inhibitory factors of the nervous system, the importance of belief systems on training, fascia and foam rolling, and also how to optimize novel motor response in a training session. The role of the brain and nervous system in an athlete’s performance is of absolute importance in the role of training and competition. We must regularly draw neurological links between the two, instead of living in the isolated environment of the exercises or drills we are teaching or coaching. By understanding more about what makes elite athletes tick from a body-mind perspective, we can really dial in on how to optimally set up each and every training session and competition preparation. In this podcast, Scott gets into ideas on a “neurological checklist” in the midst of training or competition for athlete to utilize. He also talks about dopamine and reward in athletic training and performance, “celebration” as a neurological learning tactic, the importance of intention setting in coaching and athletics, and much more. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 5:30 – How to get further into the “present moment” in training or competition, and how to go through a mental checklist to get in the ideal mental zone 15:30 – How celebrating one’s performance can draw the brain’s attention to desirable outputs 32:30 – How to build up dopamine and reward responses in athletes, via celebration or intermittent rewards for athletes 44:00 – How to set intentions as a coach (or athlete) to help maximize one’s effectiveness and gain new insight on a situation 1:01:50 – How celebration of performance is a characteristic of an elite athlete, and how to practically put celebration into day to day training “If you are trying to learn a new skill, the first thing the brain will do is search its’ memory-bank and look for relevant data… when it finds some relevant data and it believes it can put together a movement from memory and experience, that may not be what you are looking for” “When I changed the focus and got the brain to acknowledge the errors and correct, there was a very different result, and to me, that is your present moment awareness” “The brain hates an open loop, it hates loops that are unclosed” “What you are doing (when you celebrate) is draw the brain’s attention to a desirable output” “You can celebrate with a fist pump, but you want to make it novel, you need to create attention” “Attention, urgency and alertness are the 3 keys for neuroplastic change…. Add emotion to things and it’s like a fuel source, it supercharges the moment” “You don’t “build” strength, your nervous system grants you strength” “If you have access to 100% of the nervous system, then you can see maximal strength” “The brain also receives dopamine for a “near-win”… gamblers brains can’t tell the different between a win and a near-miss” “You can withhold the celebration, you can withhold the reward, and then the brain will look to solve that problem by giving more, by increasing the output even further” “If you are actually prepared to play with some of these (withheld reward) outputs, the scope for improvement is enormous” “If we set a clear, coherent intention, then the brain is going to work to adhere itself around that…. Maybe we just have silence for a while… but then the words come, because the subconscious is figuring it out” “Whatever the intention needs to be… set that, and then give yourself space for it to come out; your subconscious will be working away, and the information will come to you” “If you look at yourself as a training variable, it means I need to keep myself in good mental and emotional shape” “Thought is an energy, and energies maintain fields…. all of us are walking around maintaining thought fields, and they create an atmosphere of belief” “The coach has a big influence on (success) not just out of the instructions they are giving, but also on what’s given off (from a thought-field/culture/atmosphere perspective)” “We just need to make it OK to celebrate… when (they) score a goal or put together a good passage of play, I encourage them to show me their celebration” About Scott Robinson AMN Teaching Faculty member, Master Practitioner & Coach, as well as; Mentor to AMN Practitioners. Scott is the creator of AMN Neuro Flexibility & has worked successfully with all levels of neurologic complexity. Scott’s approach is to first assess & then bring each individual’s nervous system towards a state of balance. If resolution of a complex neurologic or pain presentation is the objective, then achieving this (homeostatic) balance is often key. Where Movement is the primary objective, then achieving this balance within the body prior commencing a training program gives the individual’s body every chance of progressing towards their movement or functional goals, as opposed to progressing towards injury, which is often the case when training with pre-exisiting imbalances in the nervous system. Scott’s knowledge & skill set means that he is capable of transforming a person with a nervous system of a degraded output, into a person who is capable of achieving advanced calisthenics strength, flexibility and skills. As an AMN master practitioner, Scott is a specialist in dealing with: movement compensations, muscle weakness, muscle control, range of motion & sensation, historic injury & surgical compensations, pain complaints, all manner of musculoskeletal dysfunction, trauma to the emotional system, respiratory, gastrointestinal & immune systemic issues, circadian biological function & sleep disturbances, disturbances to the balance system, the emotional motor system, stiffness or dysfunction to myofascial & other connective tissues, post concussion syndrome, stroke, Hay fever, TMJ dysfunction, coordination, posture & memory. All of the above, along with many other issues, can all potentially be normalized. This is all achieved via a utilization of the entire AMN system, from assessment to calibration of the brain & the nervous system. A former elite athlete in Taekwondo & athletics, a personal trainer of more than 20 years experience & a master practitioner with knowledge of the entirety of the AMN system along with being both a teacher and a mentor within the AMN education. Scott is ideally placed to help you get your body, your movement capabilities or your skillset as a practitioner, to where it needs to be.

Keir Wenham-Flatt and Nick DiMarco on Power Training Auto-Regulation, Need-Based Training “Buckets”, and Specific Conditioning Dynamics Jun 17, 2021

Today’s show is with sports performance coaches Nick DiMarco and Keir Wenham-Flatt. Nick DiMarco is the director of sports performance at Elon University. He is a leader in the NCAA University coaching system in the realms of high performance ideology. As a former professional athlete (NY Jets and Baltimore Ravens outside linebacker in 2014), Nick is well versed in the intuitive aspects of what it takes to be a high achieving athlete. Keir Wenham-Flatt is a strength and conditioning coach and educator. He has a background in American football and experience within professional rugby for nearly a decade in five different countries: the U.K., Australia, China, Japan, and Argentina. Keir is the founder of the Strength Coach Network and Rugby Strength Coach, and has been a prominent figure in coaching education. Both coaches have been prior guests on the podcast, speaking on topics ranging from perception-reaction and training transfer, to mental resiliency. The art of preparing athletes in team sport goes far beyond strength development, and even linear speed. Knowing which elements of physical preparation are the “lowest hanging fruit” for each athlete, and how to appropriately progress them through their careers is a trademark of an experienced and thoughtful coach. Many athletes in college football will barely improve in speed versus their high school abilities, especially after their first year of college strength training. On the show today, Nick and Keir will get into the finer points of off-season and pre-season training for American football, and how to place players in training priority groups based on need, such as strength, speed, or body mass-composition factors. They also speak on how to utilize auto-regulation to make the process of maintaining (or improving) performance factors as quickly as humanly possible. Finally, topics of specific conditioning means and methods to meet the demands of the game are discussed in depth, and particularly in how collision sports differ from contact sports in this regard. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 5:15 – Off-season and pre-season training emphasis in American football physical preparation 16:36 – Nick’s different programs and “buckets” for various needs of his NCAA football athletes 22:11 – How to auto-regulate strength, power and speed markers once an athlete already has the pre-requisite levels of maximal strength for their sport – Thoughts on the demands of long-drives and the extreme ends of game speed-endurance and its impacts on how coaches should go about a conditioning program 48:24 – Keir and Nick talking about the “Robustness Bucket” in working with athlete populations 56:10 – How Keir and Nick steer training into reactive game-speed oriented tasks as the pre-season nears “Why do they break in camp? It’s not from a lack of exposure to heavy weight-training” Wenham-Flatt “Ask yourself, “What do you get most tired doing, what do you do most often, what is tied most to the outcome of the game?” that is the stuff that you need to be a master of, and robust to, in context of your position” Wenham-Flatt “With regard to the developmental stuff, where-ever possible, the answer would be auto-regulation; if you are auto-regulating every set in a target ability, you are hitting the maximum productive value of that session” Wenham-Flatt “There are anthropometric barriers to entry you must clear as you if you want to thrive in your position, and they go up, as the levels go up” Wenham-Flatt “1RM barbell strength is going to transfer to explosive movement to a point, and it’s lower than people think” Wenham-Flatt “I think one of the reasons most athletes make a lot of progress early on, and then stall out later in their career, is that there is really no change in the means that are applied to them” DiMarco “We’re going to do explosive pin squats for sets of 3, until you drop by .1 seconds average velocity, and he did 14 sets. But when he went back down to New Zealand and tested his max, it had increased by 45 pounds” Wenham-Flatt “You would be surprised just by how much some athletes need, and just how little some athletes need” Wenham-Flatt “In the early days of experimenting with this at London Wasps, I had one guy do 3 sets, and one guy do 17 sets (with a .1 drop-off in squat speed)” Wenham-Flatt “Fly 10’s: if a guy runs a PR on a first rep, he is going to shut him down” DiMarco “Putting a cap on it, for the (sprint) speed work is helpful… but set a bar speed, and I’ve squatted 90% of my max 30 minutes in a row” DiMarco “I’m not huge on the actual use of repeat sprint ability within the training session; we’ll do a lot aerobic work and tempo based stuff early on, we’ll do speed on the other end of the spectrum, and those two things make people very good as repeat sprint ability” DiMarco “All sport preparation, tactically, technically, physically, psychologically, you are trying to answer the question “have I been here before”… and if you haven’t been here before, that’s when things start to break down” Wenham-Flatt “Most of the time (injury) happens to people who don’t handle volume successfully” DiMarco “Can a over-zealous sport coach make them 5% weaker within a day of dumb training? Yeah… the greatest return on your effort as a practitioner should probably be on the education, and collaboration on everyone who touches that athlete rather than looking at the perfect rehab exercise (of course what you do in a rehab program is going to be important)” Wenham-Flatt “From the parkour standpoint, we do some sort of tumbling variation, 3 times a week probably. Almost every single play ends up with somebody on the ground, so teaching something as simple as how to roll forward, backwards, right, left, is important, just to teach them how to land effectively and how to roll out of things, it might be able to able to prevent one injury here or there… it teaches them general skills they might find enjoyable most of the time” DiMarco “You have these guys who consistently outperform what their testing metrics say they should do, because of their ability to play the sport, and react, and end up in the right positions” DiMarco About Nick DiMarco Nick DiMarco is the director of sports performance at Elon University, a position which he has held since 2018. Nick is a leader in the NCAA University coaching system in the realms of high performance ideology. As a former professional athlete (NY Jets and Baltimore Ravens outside linebacker in 2014), Nick is well versed in the intuitive aspects of what it takes to be a high achieving athlete. With a thorough understanding of training loads, and the components behind transferrable agility training, Nick has a unique array of insights he brings to the coaching table. Nick received his undergraduate degree from William Penn, and Master’s from California University of Pennsylvania, both in the sports performance sector. He is on track to finish his PhD in Health and Human Performance at Concordia University of Chicago by early 2020. About Keir Wenham-Flatt Keir Wenham-Flatt is a strength and conditioning coach and educator who has worked with professional teams on 4 different continents. Keir has expertise in weight room-based strength and power development, speed, agility, conditioning, and close integration with the football staff to monitor training load, offer sport science insights, and assist in the management of the training process. He is the founder of the Strength Coach Network and Rugby Strength Coach, and has been a prominent figure in coaching education. Wenham-Flatt has a background in American football and experience within professional rugby for nearly a decade in five different countries: the U.K., Australia, China, Japan, and Argentina. Among his career highlights are a fourth-place finish at the 2015 Rugby World Cup with Los Pumas Argentina and a 2014 World Club Challenge win with Sydney Roosters Rugby League.

Jeremiah Flood on The Speed of Body and Mind in Athletic Development and Performance Jun 10, 2021

Today’s show is with sports performance coach, Jeremiah Flood. Jeremiah is the owner of Flood Sports, a sports training company in Southern California whose mission is to facilitate the development of mindful and adaptable athletes. Jeremiah is a former NCAA D1 defensive back at FIU where he earned his B.S. and M.S. in Exercise Science. After becoming a CSCS and working with Women's Volleyball and Soccer at his Alma Mater, He found the sport of Rugby, spent some time in USA rugby academy and garnered a professional contract. Jeremiah looks to enhance the soft skills, such as decision-making and confidence in training the speed of both the mind and body in training. Strength is a relatively easy quality to develop in athletes, while speed on the other hand, is a more complex, but in many ways, more rewarding venture. In the realm of athletics, “speed” is multi-factorial, and just because an athlete is fast over 20,60, or 200 meters, does not mean that they will be equally as fast in the speed of a game. Game-speed involves complex decision making processes, mixed in with emotional management and confidence under a variety of stressful conditions. To be skilled in facilitating means to improve game speed requires a holistic and dedicated approach. On the show today, Jeremiah takes us through his unique approach to building the speed of the mind and body. On the physical level, we talk about his approach to testing and training linear outputs, such as sprinting and jumping. On the mental level we get into the facilitating of the development of self-awareness, confidence and specific reactivity in athletes as it pertains to sport, and how speed and power can be blended with mental elements. Finally, Jeremiah gives us some great “nuts and bolts” talk on how a daily training session unfolds under his process. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 5:55 – How Jeremiah pivoted his training as a result of the covid-19 pandemic 7:30 – Training athletes when there’s no official tournaments or competition 10:08 – How to play “Gatorball” & why it’s a great game for young athletes to play 15:05 – Why blend cognitive development with physical development? & Jeremiah’s experience evolving as a college athlete 17:52 – How Jeremiah gives feedback to athletes on self-talk, self-reflection, and having a routine 22:32 – Jeremiah’s thoughts on working with an athlete who doesn’t seem motivated to formally “train” or do particular exercises or drills 27:17 – How often is pure speed the limiting factor for athletes to reach their goals? 33:06 – Basic “game speed” principles and practices 37:25 – The duties of a strength coach for high school and middle school athletes 40:48 – Jeremiah’s approach to testing athletes’ performance 49:44 – Toughness & the significance of doing things you don’t want to do 57:05 – Neural-perplexity: Challenging an athlete’s cognitive load and speeding up the brain’s reactivity 1:02:42 – What does an average training session look like for Jeremiah and his athletes “If I could go back in time, I would loved to have had a physical preparation coach who not only could’ve helped me in my physical abilities, as I loved, but also to tie that in with the mental and emotional, perceptive and reactive, all those elements that, holistically speaking, can help us maximize our outputs in the games we play.” “When I was transitioning from college football to rugby, it’s obviously a huge difference in skillsets, perception, action as far as catching, keeping your eyes ahead of you and passing… it really forced me to build that ability to scan the field. I didn’t have that when I first tried to play rugby and I thought I could just use my speed and physicality, but in rugby everyone has that, so I had to find a way to differentiate myself or just evolve myself.” “I was working with these kids… and I just started implementing things based off feedback from parents that there was a disconnect between speed training, performance training, [and] their actual game.” Questions Jeremiah gives his athletes to reflect upon and talk about: “What are my goals? What do I enjoy about sports or about the game I play? What do I want from this? What are my strengths and what are my weaknesses?” “My job [as a strength coach] is to put a smile on kids’ faces and you’re going to be happy because you’re getting stronger and because you’re getting faster but you’re also going to have fun and play games that may have a lot of relevance to your sport, or maybe they don’t and it’s fun because it’s just a game and you’re generally enjoying moving your body and reacting!” “We time every time we’re at the field… and during the pandemic, we brought the Vertec to the track. Honestly, it was really up to them… We don’t really put that much thought into it because, again, we use it as a confidence tool. Like okay, you’ve leveled up, how are you going to apply it?” “If they can express themselves autonomously, they can also self-soothe and recover by themselves.” “Our warm-up is usually either a series of different isos or we’ll just play a small-sided game for a couple of minutes and it usually depends on the demeanor of the athletes, the way they come in. If they’re really bogged down by playing tournaments that they’re already doing, we’ll spice it up.” About Jeremiah Flood Jeremiah Flood @coach_jflood is the owner of Flood Sports, a sports training company in Southern California whose mission is to facilitate the development of mindful and adaptable athletes. Jeremiah is a former NCAA D1 defensive back at FIU where he earned his B.S. and M.S. in Exercise Science. After becoming a CSCS and working with Women's Volleyball and Soccer at his Alma Mater, He found the sport of Rugby, spent some time in USA rugby academy and garnered a professional contract. With his playing days behind him, Jeremiah focused on developing athletes of the future. His philosophy in the development of growing athletes is that there is more to sports performance than just power, speed and agility. Although these skills are extremely important, He also looks to enhance the soft skills, such as decision-making and confidence in training the speed of the mind and body.

Adarian Barr on “Collision Management” in Jumping, Landing, Throwing, and Sprinting Jun 03, 2021

Today’s show is with sport movement expert Adarian Barr. Adarian has been a many-time guest on this podcast, and has been my primary mentor in the world of sport movement and biomechanics. Adarian has many years of coaching experience on the college, high school, club and private level of track and field, as well as in private sports training and movement analysis. There is a lot of talk in sports performance circles about “absorbing force”, as well as being able to “decelerate” in order to “accelerate”. Although it is certainly helpful to speak outside of concentric/pushing muscle actions only in athletics, a key point is that sport movement is much more than simply accelerating and decelerating things. Moving outwards to another layer of awareness, sport is much more about re-directing momentum than it is abruptly stopping and starting it. Many top experts in speed training now are putting much less emphasis on deceleration, and more on change of direction. Change of direction concepts can be taken into much more than just running, however, but can be looked at in jumping, throwing, and pretty much any sport skill an athlete will undertake. When we look at the dynamic work we are doing in training from a “collision” perspective, it helps us to appreciate athletic movement, and movement transfer to a higher degree. On today’s show, Adarian Barr talks details on setting up and managing collisions in sport movements, as well as lots of plyometric considerations. We finish off the show with a brief chat on how this applies distinctly to the foot and sprinting from a timing and lever-based perspective. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 6:13 Adarian’s take on training landings and a criticism of “snap down” exercises to train landings 14:44 Why it takes guts to hit a big collision in sport, and Adarian’s top collisions for athletic performance ability 21:35 Discussing the “ultimate” collision in sport, the javelin-throw final step 31:13 Considerations on setting up, and managing collisions in sport 34:30 Thoughts on using small boxes to manipulate jump takeoffs in track and field 40:25 Low rim dunks in basketball, in respect to collision management 44:55 Adarian’s thoughts on if “landing training” is a good idea for athletes 46:25 What plyometrics actually transfer well to setting up and managing collisions 53:40 Squatting and folding up in context of plyometrics and sprinting 1:01:13 How we can get to the ball of the foot at an optimal rate in sport movement “There is something people don’t understand about collisions; the impact force at the feet is not the same as what is being transferred to the rest of the body” “I’m not trying to absorb (the collision) I’m trying to manage (the collision)…. We are not taught to manage the collisions, we are taught to absorb. If you are practicing to absorb collisions, you had better be strong” “There’s very little times where you are going to come to an abrupt halt in a landing (like a snap-down)” “When I chew my food, I do a plyometric” “If you want to build up that (collision management ability) teach everyone to triple jump” “What do athletes do better than anybody else, they manage collisions better than anybody else, because they don’t have fear” “As soon as you have fear in the equation, all of a sudden, you can’t manage the collision and you have problems” “People miss, more than anything, is how you set up the collision; and snap downs don’t teach you to set up the collision” “Two things to know: 1. How do I set up the collision, and 2. How do I manage the collision” “When the (cricket bowler) takes that big leap (4 steps out from the plant), that’s where it all starts” “Landing is the least of my worries when it comes to plyometrics” “The most difficult thing with plyometrics is asking “what am I stretching to shorten”?” “One thing about tissue tolerance is, is your tissue tolerant to folding up?” “When I do a plyo, and I jump and land, to me, when I hit the ground again, I am going to stretch something, and I am going to stretch it to end range” “Play should be the greatest form of training” “A skate board activity fits the definition of a plyometric, so why not do it?” “Part of collision is managing that ground-reaction force, at the foot” “If the ankle locks up at the right time, and the ground decides to push me back, then I’m going to take advantage of it” “It cracks me up when people talk about positions and shapes… you need to feel the position; and I’m thinking, no, you need to feel when the ground is about to do something to you, and what are you going to do about it” “I’m doing a start and I got my hands fixed in (this) position, well then my feet are doing; they are fixed in (this position) too, well then when my foot hits the ground it’ll be too stiff, the ground reaction will be too fast” “Arches will work, but having arches work is not the same as having a stiff foot” “How does the foot transition from class 1 to class 2? Calcaneus has to shift” Show Notes: Jonathan Edwards 18.43m triple jump “extending the collision” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmUJ2GfVkKY Christian Taylor with an 18m jump with slightly less “drop” into the collision as Edwards https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAIqV5yJnkU Simone Biles “Double Yurchenko” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKZNkCtgPJ4 Miltos Tentoglou 28’2” long jump (foot flop and reactivity) View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jumpers World (@jumpers.world) Falling Bunny Hops https://youtu.be/-hfztsEIM4k About Adarian Barr Adarian Barr is a track coach and inventor based out of Yuba City, California. His collegiate track and field coaching stops have included UW-Superior, Indiana State, UNC Pembroke, Yuba City Community College. He has invented 9 devices from footwear to sleds to exercise devices. Adarian is a USATF Level II coach in the sprints, jumps, hurdles and relays. He has a master’s degree in Physical Education. Adarian’s unique coaching style gets results, and his work on speed and biomechanics is being adapted by some of the top coaches in the nation.

Sam Wuest on Fascial Dynamics, Martial Arts, and Posture in Elastic Athletic Performance May 27, 2021

Today’s show is with Sam Wuest. Sam is the head coach and manager of Intention Athletic Club based out of South Florida. A licensed acupuncturist and former collegiate track & field coach specializing in the jumping events, Sam owes much of his unique perspective to apprenticeships with Ukrainian Olympic Hurdle Coach Olex Ponomarenko and several master acupuncturists as well as his continued education within Daoist Gate’s martial arts and meditation programs. Sam has been a writer of some of the most popular articles on Just Fly Sports, on the importance of rotation in sprinting, jumping and sport jumping movements, such as dunking a basketball. Sam is a holistic, outside the box thinker who has been able to blend several unique worlds of thought into his own process of training integrated athleticism. So much of our modern thought on sports performance comes from “Western thought”, which focuses largely on forces, muscles, and things that can be easily quantified in training. You’ll often hear things like “producing the most force in the least time” or “maximal stiffness” as common pursuits in athlete training. It’s not that these ideas aren’t important, but what we don’t consider is the other “side” of training that involves things that are harder to quantify, such as timing, fluidity, connectedness of the body and mental-emotional factors. On today’s show, Sam gets into the fine points of posture and expanding joint positions, what it means to train an athlete from a “fascial” perspective, and how his influences from the martial arts have made a major impact on how he goes about training athletes. He also closes with a bit on how to balance a training program from a philosophical perspective of “yin and yang”. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 5:42 - What can martial arts teach us about movement quality? 10:39 - Why we talk about fascia & What “fascia” means from a performance perspective 13:55 - Why focus on postural cues in athletes? 17:34 - The role of contractile elements in the body & The importance of timing in jumping 21:21 - Posture, the long spine, & The Alexander Technique in relation to athletic performance 31:53 - Fascial stretching & coming back from an injury 38:03 - Engaging the anterior of the body & Internal vs. External cueing 42:04 - Martial arts drills, mobility exercises, and mindfulness techniques Sam uses to expand the long spine and the tensegrity system 58:29 - The yin and yang of a training cycle: What a week of training for Sam’s athletes looks like 1:10:02 - Why you should finish your day with a parasympathetic cool-down “All these different movement styles, martial art styles… especially the ones that say they’re internal, you’ll see that they’ll use the body in a different way because they’re not trying to use them in the same way as an external martial art… because you’re using different sections of your body in a particular way and you might be mobilizing different things that I think, in strength and conditioning, we don’t often assume can or should move.” “When we talk about the fascia, it’s adjusting one area of the body to check the tissue length in the other area of the body. So when we talk about tendon strength versus maybe muscle strength, we’re talking about adjusting big muscle strength in the gym, usually if you see a body builder… their biceps are not big all the way through the upper arm.... Whereas someone who has more of a tendon or even elastic structure… you’ll often see that the muscle is almost more spread out because the tendons and the connective tissue at the joint level has also developed.” “A lot of the little postural adjustments are to adjust the tensegrity... they’re to adjust the little bits of the system so instead of just having to contract a muscle more, we could actually sometimes even lengthen, just slightly, something around a joint or spine or on the mid-section of the body and by creating that little bit of length, we add that sort of elastic, and maybe we can say fascial, strength. Sometimes we can actually get stronger not just by contracting harder but by lengthening, just naturally.” “The more lift-dominant programs seem to have more of the folks that started to stack up injuries, even if they weren’t on the spine. I don’t think it’s just the lifting, I think it’s maybe something of the mentality but also I think it has a lot to do with the fact that there aren’t that many ways that people have in their standard coaching/strength and conditioning toolbox to really open that up… Everybody knows how to compress something… but pulling it apart is a little bit more nuanced.” “That’s sometimes what I’ll do, unbeknownst to the person I’m working with, when I’m trying to work somebody back from an injury and I want them to go all out, is I’ll do something in the days before or in the warm up that’s going to take a bit of juice out of the system so they’re going to feel 100% but they’re not actually going to be running as fast as they can.” “There are ways to engage posture without just throwing more tension on the system.” “We talk a lot about internal and external cueing, but I don’t think the distinction is as clear cut as people make it out to be because there’s also imagery that will allow you to almost be thinking about your body parts and your limbs as if they are external, even though they’re on the inside of the body.” “Especially people these days, because everything is so visual, so technological, but we need people to go back into their bodies more and more and more and be able to actually feel where they are in space, feel where their limbs are in relation to each other. If we can do that through movement, that’s wonderful, but sometimes we also need to just affect the way someone’s mind is working and kind of cut off some of those outside distractions. Otherwise, we have no place to go with this stuff.” “You can be the [first lines of defense] for yourself, before you ever get into the other stuff, if you know yourself, if you can go inside a little bit. I think people are realizing that.” “The way you start and end something is the way you remember it.” Show Notes Sam Wuest postural drills inspired by the martial arts View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sam Wuest (@way_of_sam) Tommy John extreme isometric lunge hold https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfEdRv7utNA&t=199s About Sam Wuest Sam Wuest, L.Ac., M.Ed., is the head coach and manager of Intention Athletic Club based out of South Florida. A licensed acupuncturist and former collegiate track & field coach specializing in the jumping events, Sam owes much of his unique perspective to apprenticeships with Ukrainian Olympic Hurdle Coach Olex Ponomarenko and several master acupuncturists as well as his continued education within Daoist Gate’s martial arts and meditation programs. Please visit wayofsam.com or IG: @way_of_sam to hear more about his training philosophy.

Johan Lahti on Holistic Assessment and Programming for Hamstring Injury Prevention May 20, 2021

Today’s show is with athletic performance coach and hamstring injury research specialist, Johan Lahti. Johan is an S&C coach (CSCS) at R5 Athletics & Health in Helsinki, Finland. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. on a multifactorial approach for hamstring injury risk reduction in professional soccer under the supervision of Professor JB Morin and Dr. Pascal Edouard via the University of Cote d’Azur. Johan is a practitioner who truly has a hand in both the worlds of the art and the science of athletic development. Hamstring strains are not only one of the most common muscular injuries in sport, but also will be more likely to happen once an athlete has had this issue in the past. The human body is a complex organism, and as easy as it can be to pin the cause of an injury to one source, we most always take a broad and holistic approach to these issues. Johan recently did a fantastic explanation of his hamstring injury prevention methods for a Simplifaster interview, where multiple causes and solutions to hamstring problems were addressed, such as running technique vs. hamstring strength training, mobility and hamstring risk, pelvic tilt and more. In today’s podcast Johan and I chat about an athlete’s strength vs. their raw technique when it comes to lifting, and what resistance training exercises have the greatest impact on the hamstrings from a prevention standpoint. We talk about running technique and hamstring injury, mobility and flexibility, and proprioception, and cognitive demand, all related to hamstring injury risk prevention. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 5:31 - What inspired Johan to research hamstrings & His greatest mentors 8:05 - Strength vs. Running technique in hamstring injury prevention 12:43 - Factoring in ultra-specific hamstring training, like Nordic exercises 17:57 - Efficiency in hamstring research and technique 19:59 - Running mechanics: Correlations between on-field running techniques and hamstring injury 23:25 - Factoring in sports that require holding something in your hands while running, like a field hockey stick 24:55 - Stretching and strength training in hamstring injury prevention and mobility/range of motion 32:07 - If you just do max velocity sprint work, will your hamstrings organically get better at end range? 36:48 - Fascicle testing & Sprinting vs. Isolated exercises 42:48 - The best protocol for preventing hamstring injury and keeping hamstrings healthy 44:43 - Lumbopelvic movement measurements & Sprint mechanics 50:41 - Starting at a young age: Building better postures and movement in sprint techniques 53:12 - Thoughts on posterior chain training “Looking at the hamstrings particularly, it is amazing, not only the sagittal plane or the front to back, but also the rotational component of this muscle group and how it works to help us perform as athletes is absolutely amazing.” “Let’s say if you’re doing a squat, a force plate can read a specific Newton output but they can produce that force by different strategies so… the end result is the same in terms of Newtons, but are they technically producing strength for different tasks even though it’s defined as a squat? So that is really interesting and I think that should be discussed more. That’s why I don’t like to separate strength and technique… but evidently it needs to be done in terms of research.” “It’s difficult to answer that question of ‘what is the optimal exercise?’ I think if you’re ticking those boxes, then you could argue that some exercises are doing enough if you have other exercises ticking the rest of the boxes.” “There’s so much money going into hamstring research, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone picked [time efficiency] up as a research topic… because time is of such high value.” “We can create these great protocols in the lab, gold standard equipment, but then what’s the use if teams don’t have the budget or time or resources or facilities to conduct these tests? So there needs to be a lot of technological advancement that we can get… with less testing, a good idea of what’s going on. That would be the end goal.” “There’s supportive biomechanical evidence for lengthening the angle of peak torque in the hamstrings with range of motion training… additionally, that your range of motion is moderately correlated with how much mechanical strain or lengthening past optimal length takes place during sprinting.” “We shouldn’t just consider the hamstrings, we should consider other muscles that influence the hamstrings that modeling studies have shown that muscles that basically can pull contribute to lengthening the hamstring... and the hip flexors are the most famous for it.” “Right now, it seems that there are benefits of increasing both of it, fascicle length and pennation angle, depending on what head we’re talking about in the hamstrings.” “I really want to emphasize that my PhD focuses on soccer, so therefore, these are the categories we have interest in this context. We have four main categories that we thought would realistically fit into schedules and screening protocols, so that would be posterior strength testing, range of motion, lumbopelvic control, and the last one is sprint mechanical output testing.” About Johan Lahti Johan Lahti is an S&C coach (CSCS) at R5 Athletics & Health in Helsinki, Finland. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. on a multifactorial approach for hamstring injury risk reduction in professional soccer under the supervision of Professor JB Morin and Dr. Pascal Edouard via the University of Cote d’Azur. Physiotherapist Jurdan Mendiguchia functions as an external supervisor.

James Wild on The Art and Science of Sprint Profiling and Specific Strength Thresholds May 13, 2021

Today’s show is with James Wild. James is a coach, an applied researcher and a performance consultant. Currently, James leads the speed program for Harlequins rugby men’s team and is Head of Performance for England Women’s Lacrosse. He also leads modules in skill acquisition and strength & conditioning at the University of Surrey. James is in the final stages of completing a PhD in the biomechanics and motor control of team sport athletes during sprint acceleration and is the author of “Strength Training for Speed”. When it comes to speed, it’s always helpful to look at things from both the perspective of the coaching eye and applied biomechanics, and then on the other end, from more raw perspectives of strength and data points. When we look at both the qualitative and the quantitative, we can get a fuller total picture of what it takes to maximize an athlete’s speed potential in a manner that sticks over time and gets results. James is not only great with sprinting data points, but he has also been in the trenches coaching athletes for 20 years with many high level athletes, and his combination of the data, as well as in the art of coaching offers valuable insight for any coach. On the show today, James and I talk about his process of building an acceleration profile for athletes, rate vs. stride-length dominance, foot vs. hip dominant strategies in sprinting, resisted sprinting, minimal explosive strength standards for sprint performance, and more. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 4:38 - James’ main objective with his PhD work 6:30 - The results of James’ sprint acceleration polls on social media 9:53 - The effects of acute, verbal interventions on sprinting improvement 13:34 - How to analyze and experiment with athletes’ sprinting using continuums 17:45 - How to allow athletes to experience continuums 23:47 - Running with low knees vs. high knees & Variability in performance 27:11 - The importance of incorporating experiential nature into training 29:05 - Key markers and components of acceleration profiles & Cluster analysis 34:58 - 4 main strategies for sprinting & Exploring athletes’ reliance 39:36 - The quickest way James has facilitated change in sprint acceleration performance 44:46 - The role of technical changes vs. improving strength qualities 51:51 - 3 strength measures & Single leg jump in place test 55:56 - Analyzing hip and foot-dominance in athletes 1:00:12 - How does DRF help project horizontal force or convert force to a horizontal acceleration? & Using a sled to train “It’s certainly not been my experience that there is this one size fits all, classical model [of sprinting] that we can shoehorn everyone into and that they will run faster as a result.” “One of the things I do will be to longitudinally track their spatial/temporal variables and try and look at essentially what it is that they’re doing when they’re running their fastest. So, it’s this concept of finding out the athlete’s reliance.” “If I’m working with an athlete for the first time or the first few sessions… whilst I’m collecting that data, I want them to experience what it feels like to move along that continuum of greater step length or greater step rate so that by the time I’ve finished some kind of analysis and have an understanding of where their reliance is at… they’ve got prior experience now with adjusting according to that continuum, so it just makes coaching a lot easier.” “They’re never gonna sprint the same way twice in a game, really, so they need to be able to adapt to those novel situations… they’re never going to produce exactly the same step… there’s going to be variability in everything they do, so sometimes exploring that variability is quite important.” “You’ll never find a single strength quality that’s going to be repeatedly related to sprint acceleration performance across all athlete groups.” “Some of the regression analysis I’ve conducted; big hip extension torque, single leg reactive strength index, and peak power during a squat jump, for example, those three measures combined seem to consistently relate to a reasonable amount of variation in sprint performance.” About James Wild James is a coach, an applied researcher and a performance consultant using a blend of strength & conditioning and biomechanics techniques with skill acquisition and motor learning principles to help address sports performance problems. He has worked with coaches and athletes across a full spectrum of abilities over the last 20 years, including medal winning teams and athletes at major international competitions. Currently, James leads the speed programme for Harlequins rugby men’s team and is Head of Performance for England Women’s Lacrosse. He also leads modules in skill acquisition and strength & conditioning as part of the University of Surrey’s BSc in Sport & Exercise Science degree programme. James is in the final stages of completing a PhD in the biomechanics and motor control of team sport athletes during sprint acceleration, is a book author (‘Strength Training for Speed’), and has published several articles within scientific journals”

253: Joel Smith Q&A on Organic Speed Training, Olympic Weightlifting, Isometrics and More May 06, 2021

Today’s show is a Q&A with Joel Smith, answering your questions on training and human performance. It’s great to see what’s on everyone’s minds from a training perspective, as well as be able to synthesize thoughts on each question. On the Q&A today, we have a wide range of questions, but the focal points are things like speed training for athletes new to training, coaching speed in a manner that doesn’t cause negative compensations, isometric training, weightlifting, and even swimming. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Podcast Questions/Topics What is a simple way to recover from an ACL and meniscus injury and surgery? Programming/training strategies for more strength and muscle driven athletes when limited access to weights? Still worth transitioning to more elastic training style even if they thrive with more longer GCT and joint angle strategies? Which is more spiritually demanding: 5 minute lunge or 3 minute scap hang? Your favorite workouts for speed development (mainly for athletes new to track) What’s the purpose of eccentric loading for speed and jumps? How do you like to teach hip extension? Thoughts on hang power snatches? Best cues or general approach to single leg jumping off the non-dominant foot. Vestibular training assessment, your take, valuable resources for that etc. Can we do extreme isometric lunges every day? What’s the best way to get athletes to always train with intent? What are some things you’ve found that can help your athletes give more. In terms of their efforts and intent during a workout to get the most out of every session. The balance of hypertrophy and RFD in throwing and swinging sports. In a conversation on pronation, Gary Ward mentioned he would not advise powerlifters to pronate under load, but he would for anyone else. If running and jumping causes more force than weight does most of the time, why would he recommend it for that but not for lifting? Specific foot exercises for high arches? Suggested protocol for rehabbing Achilles tendinopathy? Gary ward’s wedges, suspension drop. How to incorporate rhythm in training? How do you structure a warm-up for elastic/max-speed sprinting? Games into drills into progressive efforts? As a coach, what are you looking at in real time when an athlete is performing, say acceleration? What is the mental process in your head to make your job easier? Optimal level of stiffness and compliance in athletes. Assessments and training. Is coaching dorsiflexion a double edged sword? Does cueing it too persistently result in athletes losing that nice shin angle too early during drive phase? Some drills for jumping technique? Weight room training, plyos, etc as it pertains to high school mid distance- XC. Also, good resources. Coupling load - plyo exercises for post activation potentiation. Do you differentiate between swimming techniques the amount of heavy strength training that they do? Elastic Vs muscular athletes (a backstroker vs a breastroker for example). I found that normally, simultaneous technique athletes are more muscle driven, comparing to the others. I would like to know your thoughts on that and the effects that too much heavy barbell has on the rhythmic component of the swimming technique. About Joel Smith Joel Smith is the founder of Just Fly Sports and trains athletes and clients in partnership with Evolutionary Fitness in Cincinnati, Ohio. Joel hosts the Just Fly Performance Podcast, has authored several books on athletic performance, and trains numerous clients in the in-person and online space. Joel was formerly a strength coach for 8 years at UC Berkeley, working with the Swim teams and post-graduate professional swimmers, as well as tennis, water polo, and track and field. A track coach of 11 years, Joel coached for the Diablo Valley Track and Field Club for 7 years, and also has 6 years of experience coaching sprints, jumps, hurdles, pole vault and multi-events on the collegiate level, working at Wilmington College, and the University of Wisconsin, LaCrosse. Joel has coached 2 national champions, multiple All-Americans and school record holders in his time as a track coach. In the realm of strength and conditioning, his programs have assisted 5 athletes to Olympic berths that produced 9 medals and a world record performance at Rio in 2016. In 2011, Joel began Just Fly Sports with Jake Clark as a central platform to promote information for athletes and coaches to reach their highest potential. In 2016 the first episode of the “Just Fly Performance Podcast” was released, now a leading source of education in the sports performance field. The evolving mission of Just Fly Sports is focused on teaching athletes to realize their true, innate power, and achieve the highest joy in their training, competition, and in the community. Joel has also spent several years in the realms of college lecturing, personal training, and thesis research. Joel’s certifications include Neurological and Physical Typing from BATI, CSCS, MAT Jumpstart, and NKT level 1, as well as USA Track and Field credentials. Joel is also well-versed in the Be-Activated protocols as taught by Douglas Heel, Foot training and biomechanical concepts from Gary Ward, and has been extensively mentored by sprint and sport movement coach Adarian Barr.

Andrew Cormier and Joel Reinhardt on Reducing Noise and Building a Speed-Based Training Culture in Team Sport Preparation Apr 29, 2021

Today’s show brings on coaches Andrew Cormier and Joel Reinhardt. Andrew Cormier is a sports performance coach at the University of Massachusetts, working with the men’s lacrosse, women’s soccer, and softball programs. Joel Reinhardt is the Assistant Director of Sports Performance at the University of Massachusetts, working with football and women’s lacrosse. Together, Andrew and Joel run the sprint-jump-throw.com website, as well as the Sprint Jump Throw Performance Podcast. Speed training, on the surface is a very simple venture. High quality sprinting efforts in a fresh state is key to getting faster. For track and field this is quite simple, but for team sports, this becomes more difficult, since it’s harder to control fatigue, as well as address the many facets of speed displayed in the course of a game, compared to a simple linear sprint race. Andrew and Joel are two young coaches with a view on speed training for sport that blends “Feed the Cats” ideologies, into their progressive system that seeks to eliminate the noise from an athlete’s regimen. On the show today, Andrew and Joel talk about a speed-based model that they utilize in their team sport preparation, running technique and options in the course of game play, and their model of cueing and instructing athletes. Andrew and Joel have taken on an approach to “rank-record-publish” in speed-based training that gives athletes unique motivation in regards to improving this critical component of athleticism. Throughout the podcast, we also chat about the role of visual field, perception and body language in the development of game speed, as well as diversity in running “options” that high level athletes display. We finish this chat with Andrew and Joel’s take on the utilization of tempo in resistance training, and how much we really need to rely on the weight room for power if speed-based ranking systems are being utilized outside of it. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 6:05 Andrew and Joel’s history in working together as coaches and how their podcast came together 11:05 How Andrew and Joel are building a “feed the cats” model of speed development in the context of team sports 18:35 How to replace linear-extensive tempo and long runs with more coordination driven, locomotion-complex style running for field sport athletes 27:50 What KPI’s Andrew and Joel are looking to boost throughout the year in regards to team sport physical needs, and how maximal sprints are ranked-recorded-published 39:35 How to work with athletes who are regularly in the last places in speed-based measurements 42:20 How Andrew and Joel consider change of direction ability in their training regime 57:55 Approaching running technique in light of the needs of team sports and the various types of running that may be present in team sports 1:09.20 Ideas on approaching bar tempo in a weightroom setting “It’s prioritizing the high speed components of the game, and then filling in the cracks elsewhere” Reinhardt “If we are trying to build some sort of physical stimulus, we always go back to “how can we build this playing lacrosse” Reinhardt “Instead of (traditional tempo or a long boring run for soccer players) now we are throwing a bunch of different movements at them (such as gallops)” Cormier “In season we only supplement fly 10’s (for field sport athletes)” Reinhardt We track (fly 10’s) as soon as we are done tracking it, I rank them, send it in the group message, put it top to bottom, color code it, green to red, mark PR’s on there, and they get all excited about it… the slight shift in language even within the team, instead of girls asking “how can I get in better shape” they ask, “how can I get faster” Reinhardt Team average we put 1.5 mph on their (lacrosse) average max velocity, in season, over 14 weeks (Reinhardt) “With female athletes, I’m not too worried about introducing more tone to the system” (Reinhardt) “They are doing some sort of high intensity lacrosse (and therefore change of direction) almost always, I’ve been working with them almost 2 years now and I have not done a single change of direction drill. (Reinhardt) “(Instead of change of direction drills) I do strictly intense plyometrics in multiple planes, and then say, “just play your sport” Cormier “We are going to start doing sprint training where now we are going to stare at a point off to the side, but we are going to run in a straight line, and you are going to learn to track being in a good position and the only thing we are changing is the actual physical demand” Cormier “(In regards to Cal Dietz’s work, neural perplexity, and attention management) What correlated most with the guys who went to the NHL was the guys who were able to do math while they were skating” Cormier “For me, a lot of the weight room based movements are so general, that if you are not allowing yourself to be in a good position, then you are probably causing more harm than good, so I force tempo on a lot of exercises…. I know you are getting a ton of eccentric stress from all of your change of direction sprinting that you are going to do in practice, so I am not going to throw much more at you” Cormier “We do a ton of alactic, 7-10 second (isometric) hold sets for almost every single exercise” Cormier “I even, this year, took away… we used to do a decent amount of groin prehabs stuff… adductor/abductor stuff, to be honest with you I kind of stopped doing it this semester, and we hit more big-pattern, end-range isometrics, and we still didn’t have any nagging groins and hip flexors” Cormier About Andrew Cormier Andrew Cormier joined the University of Massachusetts Department of Athletics as a sports performance coach in July 2019 and works directly with the men’s lacrosse, women’s soccer, and softball programs. He came to UMass from Holy Cross, where he was an assistant strength and conditioning coach for the Crusaders’ men’s and women’s lacrosse, women’s volleyball, and men’s and women’s tennis programs. Cormier’s prior stops include a sports science internship at the University of Minnesota, a graduate assistant coaching position at Amherst College, a sports performance internship at the University of Denver, and a strength and conditioning internship at his alma mater, Springfield College. Cormier co-runs the sprint-jump-throw.com website and the Sprint Jump Throw Performance Podcast alongside Joel Reinhardt. He earned both his degrees at Springfield College: a B.S. in Applied Exercise Science in 2016 and an M.S. in Exercise Science and Sport Studies in 2018. About Joel Reinhardt Joel Reinhardt is the Assistant Director of Sports Performance at the University of Massachusetts, working with football and women’s lacrosse. He has previously served as an assistant at Nicholls State University, and as a GA at Springfield College. Reinhardt co-runs the sprint-jump-throw.com website and the Sprint Jump Throw Performance Podcast alongside Andrew Cormier. He earned his undergraduate degree from St. Olaf College (Northfield, Minn.) in Kinesiology and Exercise Science in 2015. Reinhardt’s strength and conditioning expertise also includes internship tenures with Total Hockey Minnesota (2013), Springfield College Athletics (2015), the UConn Athletic Department (2016) and Western Michigan football (2016).

Ryan Banta and Derek Hansen on The Value of Tempo Sprint Training for Speed Development and Team Sport Preparation Apr 22, 2021

Today’s show brings on Ryan Banta and Derek Hansen. Ryan Banta is a coach with more than 19 years of experience and the author of the Sprinter’s Compendium. At the high school level, Ryan has numerous state champions and finalists, and he is a frequent contributor to many top platforms in athletic performance. Derek Hansen is an International Sport Performance Consultant that has been working with athletes all ages and abilities in speed, strength and power sports since 1988. After a long career as a university strength coach, as well as track and field coach, Derek now serves as a performance consultant to numerous professional teams in the NFL, NBA, MLS and NHL, as well as major NCAA Division 1 programs throughout North America. Both Ryan and Derek were very early guests on this podcast, and I’m happy to have them back to discuss a subject that I think has a lot of far reaching implications into one’s total performance program, which is “tempo training”. Tempo is an age old method of sprint training, and generally refers to repeated, submaximal sprint efforts, such as 8x200m, or 5x300m, on relatively short rests, with limited recovery. For team sports, it could mean running a series of shorter, but more numerous sprints, on incomplete rest intervals. Pendulums swing in all fields, and the sports performance field is no exception. As with many tools, tempo has been abused by track and team sport coaches alike to the point where athletes do not make beneficial adaptations in power or maximal speed, so a reversal (such as what we see in systems such as Tony Holler’s) was well warranted. It’s always important view training constructs from all sides, and talking with these two wise coaches is important to gain a greater understanding of this element of training, and its proper use. Derek and Ryan get into the usefulness of tempo running for both physiological and technical adaptations, and then get into appropriate training prescriptions for track and team sport alike. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 7:42 – A Question: “If you were running a sprint program for building absolute speed, would you pick strength training or tempo running outside of your short sprint practice?” 10:25 – The benefits and misconceptions of submaximal (60-70%) effort running 18:03 – Experimenting with volume and intensity in tempo running 24:12 – Building structure and capacity through circuits vs. submaximal running & Safe training for injured athletes 31:30 – Flooring/surface dependence for tempo running and circuits 33:47 – The significance of the type of athlete in volume in tempo running 40:51 – Implementing tempo running into team sport training 46:28 – Why coaches and trainers have moved away from tempo training in their sport preparation 50:23 – The role of specificity in tempo training 52:49 – Speed development in tennis preparation and the role of tempo sprint training 54:46 – How Derek prescribes tempo volumes in track and team sports 1:00:55 – Incorporating muscle dominance and intervals in tempo running & Making it relatable to the athlete 1:08:10 – Final advice on tempo running “Basically [tempo running] is just running with incomplete recoveries at a submaximal pace and, as we all know, this method is very frequently abused by a lot of coaches.” “Working at different velocities obviously gives you some flexibility around the effect you’re going to have in terms of energy systems and building foundations around the athlete.” “A tempo run with short recovery allows for the body to use that hydrogen ions or lactate as a fuel. It allows the body to increase its ability to buffer the waste so that you’re not necessarily using that workout to get better at your absolute efforts, but you’re supporting the body to be able to withstand those absolute efforts.” “The BCDE workouts are critical when you do have somebody injured and then you also have to take in the nature of where is the injury located and what are they capable of doing? Not having that stuff set up ahead of time is, in my opinion, pretty dangerous.” “If I have a compressive athlete, then yeah, my length of my efforts is going to be shorter, my intensities are going to be lower, and it’s going to look much more like a high-low day, but I don’t take that stuff out because I feel like there’s a lot of value there.” “It is a complicated process of going through each sport and understanding how much of what tempo work they need based on what their practice or their game is fulfilling versus what you could provide. It’s not easy.” “I would rather work with, what I feel comfortable with, is the minimum effective dosage of everything and then build a more robust athlete through repetition and maybe an increase in volume as you move through the season as opposed to starting with this monster volume, and just like a train, moving your way down the tracks.” “As soon as you flip the switch and make it a game or just give them something to distract from what they’re actually doing, just everything changes and I’ve always taken that to heart.” “Just know what you’re doing and understand the context… before you’re willing to criticize or cut someone or to reject someone’s ideas, I think you need to understand their environment, their situation, and what is the competitive ask of the sport that makes them choose the choices they make for training.” About Ryan Banta Ryan Banta is a coach with more than 19 years of experience and the author of the Sprinter’s Compendium. At the high school level, Ryan has produced 135 All-State medalists, including 10 state champions and 15 runners-up. His teams have won 12 district championships and 5 top five state finishes in the last nine seasons. He has been elected Missouri Track and Cross Country Coaches Association (MTCCCA) president and served on the Missouri State High School Activities Association (MSHSAA) advisory board. Ryan is a frequently appearing podcast guest and writer on many popular track and field, and athletic performance platforms. About Derek Hansen Derek is an International Sport Performance Consultant that has been working with athletes all ages and abilities in speed, strength and power sports since 1988. His coaching career started in Track and Field, providing instruction to sprinters of all ages eventually working with collegiate sprinters, hurdlers and jumpers. His career evolved rapidly working closely with some of the top performers in the world as a coach and a consultant – including Olympic medalists, world record holders, Canadian National team athletes, and professional athletes from numerous sports. Derek worked as the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach for Simon Fraser University for 14 years, the first non-US member of the NCAA. He also serves as a performance consultant to numerous professional teams in the NFL, NBA, MLS and NHL, as well as major NCAA Division 1 programs throughout North America, specializing in speed development, strategic performance planning, return-to-competition protocols and neuromuscular electrical stimulation programming. Derek is asked to speak on speed development and high performance training on a regular basis for major events around the world and has also authored a number of books, chapters and journal articles on these subjects.

Eamonn Flanagan on Plyometric Progressions, Jump Testing and Moving the Right Needle in Training Apr 15, 2021

Today’s show brings on Eamonn Flanagan. Eamonn is the lead Strength & Conditioning Consultant with the Sport Ireland Institute where he manages the S&C support to Ireland's Olympic and Paralympic athletes. Amongst other areas of expertise, Eamonn is a leading coach in both the science and practice of jump training and plyometrics, has a PhD. in Sports Biomechanics and previously worked in professional rugby over a decade. Plyometrics and jump training is a common, and enjoyable training topic, one of the reasons being that leaping ability is generally a sign of superior athletic ability. Jump training goes far beyond simply being able to dunk a basketball or reach the top-10 of a highlight series however; as it’s also a useful predictor of various athletic qualities, and if those qualities are actually being improved (often times, we see a lifting related quality improve without moving the needle on important jump related qualities). The data-based approach to jump monitoring can come across as mundane, but Eamonn approaches it from a practical perspective that represents his coaching intuition, as well as that of his sport science abilities. On today’s show, Eamonn talks about what stiffness is, and isn’t in plyometrics, and what makes a good athlete from a plyometric and reactive perspective. We talk about plyometric progressions, and some points of intent Eamonn looks for in plyometric activity that most coaches overlook. Eamonn also talks about the fallacy that coaches can get into when jump testing, and how the test can no longer “be the test” when you use it too often. He also covers what “stiffness” really is in plyometrics, single vs. double leg metrics in jump testing, and how to optimally manage jump testing history in uncovering puzzles of injury. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 05:55 – What drew Eamonn to jump testing and plyometrics in sports science? 08:50 – How Eamonn experimented and learned all aspects of plyometrics simultaneously 09:37 – What does the ideal athlete looks like from a plyometric perspective? 12:20 – How to go about training an athlete’s jump-based weaknesses and the idea of a “minimal reactive strength” 19:07 – Stiffness and reactive strength in the context of jump testing 28:12 – Determining what jump tests to use with certain athletic groups & what tests to use for an explosive short-burst acceleration athlete 40:55 – How often concentric jump testing could or should be done 44:47 – Eamonn’s four phases of plyometric for improving raw metrics & the role of finding relaxation in training 51:58 – One of the biggest mistakes strength coaches make in plyometric training 56:59 – Insights into single leg vs. double leg reactive strength testing & the importance of record-keeping in sports performance and training “When we’re talking about jump testing… I like to keep things pretty simple. So, while I might have access to tools like force plates, when I think about jump testing, I’m more thinking about incredibly simple metrics and I’m more thinking about a variety of different jumps rather than these incredibly in-depth metrics from a single jump.” “I think the beauty of looking at athletes’ plyometric ability is that, for me, there is no one way to do things, there is no ultimate because ultimately, what it’s about is performance. It’s about outcome… and there is an infinite number of ways to achieve that.” “In terms of addressing weaknesses… if you feel that there’s really some areas there where it’s not so much a weakness as a real deficiency, then I think you want to get after that.” “The device you use to measure, as well as the surface on which you perform the tests, can be quiet variable in terms of their impact on the output.” “It’s about not putting too much importance on a single metric or a single test and it’s also about not just looking at the number at the other end of the test but what you’re seeing with your eyes at the same time. These reactive strength tests can be quite useful, quite meaningful, but you want to be looking at them alongside the sporting outcome, the speed scores, the concentric only jumping, the countermovement jumping…” “There shouldn’t be a standard battery that you just use with everybody. It’s got to be about, what is the problem in front of you? What’s the questions that you’re trying to answer?” “One of the most important things, when you think about frequency of any test, is that the more often you test, the less influence you’re going to have from just noise… whereas if you test very infrequently, let’s say once in week 1 and once again in week 12, the relative effect of any noise in those tests is quite high.” “The exact problem that I’ve definitely had… is that coaches come from more of a strength background than an athletic track and field type background… I think that is the default mistake that a lot of us can make. It’s easy to look at plyometric work and to fall into the same reps and sets and intensities that we use for back squats and power cleans… it requires some bravery to use your training time for some of that submaximal stuff that is a little bit more about feel, posture, being relaxed, the right force in the right direction... because it’s not as measurable and it’s a little bit more subjective for the athletes.” About Eamonn Flanagan Eamonn Flanagan is the lead Strength & Conditioning Consultant with the Sport Ireland Institute where he manages the S&C support to Ireland's Olympic and Paralympic athletes. Amongst other areas of expertise, Eamonn is a leading coach in both the science and practice of jump training and plyometrics. He has a PhD. in Sports Biomechanics and previously worked in professional rugby over a decade, working with Scottish Rugby Union, Edinburgh Rugby, and the Irish Rugby Football Union.

249: Angus Bradley on Best Squatting Practices, True Posterior Chain Training, and Managing the “Soccer Ball in Your Ribs” Apr 08, 2021

Today’s show brings on Angus Bradley. Angus is a strength coach and podcast host from Sydney, Australia. He coaches out of Sydney CBD, and co-hosts the Hyperformance podcast with his brother, Oscar. After focusing primarily on weightlifting for the first half of his career Angus finds himself spending as much time “outside of his lane” as possible trying to identify the principles that transcend all human movement. Like many guests on this show, Angus has been well-educated in the compression/expansion training ideals proliferated by Bill Hartman that are pushing our industry forward. Angus is frequently sharing next level knowledge from his social media platform and podcast, and he works with a diverse crowd from strongman to surfing and everything in between. I’ve always been trying to “figure out” weightlifting in context of athletic performance. There are coaches with a lot of different opinions on which lifts athletes should do, and some elite sports performance professionals have athletes do little to even no traditional barbell work. In my own journey, I found myself a much more powerful, but slightly less elastic athlete in my mid-20s after 12 years of loading my body through squats, Olympic lifts and the like. On the flip-side, I’ve had athletes who I honestly believe would struggle to achieve their highest peak without some solid help from barbell work. Rather than only assigning more, or less lifting to a particular athlete, I enjoy knowing the binding principles of barbell work and different body types. In my search for answers, Angus Bradley is a huge wealth of knowledge. He is highly experienced in weightlifting methods and has a deep understanding of the principles of compression and expansion in a variety of exercises, and in determining strategies based on body type. On the show today, Angus talks about squatting and hinging from ribcage and pelvic floor perspectives, the importance and impact of pressure management in how “strong” athletes are at various lifts, and how to train and manage various body types in light of preventing un-wanted compensations and shape changes in the body. This is a podcast I wish I had listened to myself, 15 years ago. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 6:30 Breaking existing paradigms in the performance training industry, and how Angus thinks of the “necessary patterns” of squat, hinge, push, pull for training athletes 12:45 How a squat differs from a hinge from a pelvic floor pressure management perspective 17:00 A re-hash of “expanded” vs. “compressed” types of athletes, as well as a chat on compressive strategies in the big lifts 28:15 The compressive strategies by which athletes actually lift increasing weights in training vs. an increased activation of relative motor units and other factors that tie more readily into athletic performance 44:05 How to look at an athlete who wants to increase vertical jump in light of an athlete’s pressure management strategy 52:30 Some rules of thumb in navigating the day by day process of adding weight in strength training without piling on compressive compensations in athletes 59:15 The errors we have made in posterior chain training, and how to address the posterior chain in context of compression and expansion strategies 1:05.45 How an athlete becomes “quad dominant” and how to work with that in light of pressure systems “The S&C world has always looked to powerlifting, and said, “well you are the squat guys, can you tell us how to squat?” “But there is a certain kind of quality that we are trying to capture when we prescribe a squat or a hinge…. it’s no longer about where the bar is on your body, but what is the muscular strategy at the thorax and the pelvis” “The two different opposing strategies as I see them when it comes to the thorax and the pelvis, it doesn’t squat, it doesn’t hinge, it just compresses and expands” “What we look as a squat is pure vertical translation of a pelvis… and then hinge is pushing the pelvis back, horizontally in a straight line” “When you reach parallel, the femurs are about as IR’ed as they are going to get in that squat” “The squat is an expansion dominant strategy…. the hinge is just the opposite” “The deadlift is a pure compression movement” “If you have a narrow ISA you have a “blown up soccer ball” in your ribs”” “Supination is the inflated ball, pronation is that ball as its mushing into the ground” “As you are descending (in a squat) inhaling can really facilitate those hip flexion mechanics by expanding the pelvis” “People who can’t throw their guts back up (at the bottom of a squat) will lean forward… you don’t want to do that in a squatty context because we are not practicing falling forward there” “The laying down of more muscle tissue over time is more compressive in nature” “(Referring to my subpar deep squat history) You are a good squatter the way I define a squat, which is your ability to yield… your ability to yield is your strength as an athlete” “There is so much pressure in there (in the thorax and pelvis)” “There is such a reciprocal relationship between the pelvic floor and the thoracic diaphgram that you can make a lot of good assumptions about what is going on at the pelvic floor (and the foot) based on what is going on at the ribcage” “For most people, you want to find, not what they have tried to turn themselves into, but what they have tried to be from the get-go” “When I put load on you (a narrow infra-sternal angle individual), there are going to be parts of your body that are going to over-compress” “For an expansion person, try to drive as much expansion as possible; you can build a lot of strength with those expansion strategies… acknowledge what they are, what direction they are heading in, and then act accordingly based off that” “You can chase heavy weights to an extent while driving a yielding strategy, you just have to stack the deck more, you can elevate the heels” “With your muscle driven athletes, you can keep compressing them (with lifting), given they aren’t losing their movement options” “The hedge (if you are unsure what to do) is throw a little weight on someone and drive an expansion strategy (via heels elevated vertical squatting)” “That the narrative I was born into, (back training) was seen as this ultimate hedge… you can’t go wrong, strong back! But then you get all these people where the lats have squeezed all of the air out of the back of your ribcage and then they have absolutely no ability to rotate” “The bones are the constraints for the pressure system to flow through” “Due to limitations in proximal structures, some people are unable to truly train their hamstrings” “The idea of a compensation is that there is a reward for the thing you exchange for it, so it is just making sure you are getting a good deal for your compensations” “If you are an expanded axial skeleton, then that biases you into ER, and then you like to be on the balls of your feet, which is like concentric ER… that’s how some people find a sneaky compensation strategy over that overall inhaled skeleton” “It’s a lot of coordination to keep that pelvis over the pelvic diaphragm and drive those guts down into it to expand the pelvis” “Your body just wants to stop you from falling over and peeing your pants” About Angus Bradley Angus Bradley is a strength coach and podcast host from Sydney, Australia. He coaches out of Sydney CBD, and co-hosts the Hyperformance podcast with his brother, Oscar. After focusing primarily on weightlifting for the first half of his career Angus finds himself spending as much time ‘outside of his lane’ as possible trying to identify the principles that transcend all human movement. He works with a diverse crowd from strongman to surfing and everything in between. Angus has been mentored by Jamie Smith from Melbourne Strength Culture, and formerly dropped out of his major in journalism to tour Australia with his band.

Jamie Smith on Beating “Over-Coaching” Through Natural Learning, Training Menus and Athlete Autonomy Apr 01, 2021

Today’s show brings on Jamie Smith, founder of the “U of Strength”. Jamie Smith has coached a variety of athletes from the novice to elite skill levels, including several NHL, NBA and MLS athletes. He has been a prior guest on the podcast, as well as having done an extensive webinar for Just Fly Sports, speaking on perception-action topics and building robust athletes in a manner that transcends simply getting them “stronger”. As long as I’ve been in the sports performance profession, I’ve realized just how important it is to look at every way you can impact the performance of an athlete, on the levels of strength, speed, mentality, perception, decision-making, special-strength, and more. Jamie is the epitome of a coach who is truly passionate about making athletes better at the sports they play through a comprehensive approach. In the modern day, a comprehensive approach is truly important, since we relate athlete response to that of a machine. Athletes are so heavily coached, scheduled and instructed, that they rarely get the autonomy and creative license they need to reach their own optimal performance. Coaches also tend to mis-place their actual role in the process of working with athletes, and don’t allow athletes enough ownership and say in the training process to the point where they will struggle in achieving their ideal training result, overcoming stressful competition situations, and even in life beyond sport. Last podcast, we went into the perception-action component of making a well-rounded athlete, and this episode we get info full-circle development by means of training variability, the use of nature and natural surfaces, menu systems and athlete autonomy, competition, long-term athletic development, and more. Jamie takes the art of the coach as a guide seriously, and in the world of over-coached and robotic athletes, Jamie is a beacon of light for young athletes looking to reach high levels of not only performance, but also self-efficacy, confidence and life-preparedness. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 04:23 – The benefits of training in nature for young and older athletes 12:02 – The importance of conscious risk-taking in training 13:23 – Thinking about a child’s future in sport, and how training in nature will impact it 17:30 – Improving happiness in youth sports by incorporating fun and playfulness 24:11 – How to integrate nature into training athletes 28:37 – Thoughts on coaching as a dynamic partnership 33:51 – The role of observation in coaching and focusing on strengths instead of weaknesses + A big misconception of coaches 44:53 – What a training session looks like for Jamie’s athletes, and the art of using menu-systems 56:07 – Competition options in older athletes 57:45 – The role of athlete interest and collaboration in the results of a training program “At the beginning of every day, me and my assistant, I brief him and we go over what the objective is, what we need to improve on as coaches or as a whole, as a program, and one of the things we talk about is who can say the least amount of words.” “A lot of people, to wake up the feet, would roll with a sensory ball or spikey ball, shit we did isometrics, we did different gate patterns walking up and down, walking tall, walking in a tunnel… completely barefoot walking through the rocks.” “The big thing I tell athletes is: we want you to become comfortable in uncomfortable situations.” “[Barefoot training is] not great if you’re on a wood floor or a totally flat floor where there’s zero sensory information coming in. It’s really not a whole lot better than being in shoes, to be honest. You have to have these little sensations or irritations and you combine that with different weights.” “The whole idea of safe uncertainty… I think that’s something that is ignored and I think is one of the most powerful things that we can give an athlete.” “There’s more to this sports performance realm that the sets and reps and perfect form on a back squat or how high you jump.” “When you look at the physical, the psychological, the emotional, and the social and you understand that those four are connected and you can’t leave one of them out, it’s a pretty powerful stimulus for athletic development.” “When you have autonomy and you enjoy what you’re doing, everything gets better.” “We should go with the strengths. Yes, there’s going to be weaknesses and there’s going to be a time and place for that, but I think instead of going right to the weakness or right to the error, let’s go to the strength and what the athlete’s good at. That’s a strategy I have with new athletes.” “Children are not just miniature versions of adults but they have definitive needs for play and self-expression and autonomy. This athlete you have in front of you… is not just the product of your beautiful programming and periodization but they’re the product of everything they had before them all the way along the line.” About Jamie Smith Coach Jamie Smith, CSCS, is the founder and head sport preparation coach of The U of Strength, LLC. He is passionate about guiding his athletes through their developmental process and discovering unique ways that blend physical preparation and skill adaptation. As a former athlete at Merrimack College, Jamie graduated with a degree in Sports Medicine and a concentration in Exercise Physiology. As a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, he has had the opportunity to coach under some of the most knowledgeable and experienced coaches in the industry. Jamie has coached a variety of athletes from the novice to the elite skill levels, some of which include current NHL, NBA, and MLS players and the 2011 NCAA Men’s Basketball National Champion UConn Huskies. Through adaptive, creative, and experience-based program design, Jamie assists athletes in reaching their full potential on and off the ice, court, and field.

Dave O’Sullivan on A Foot-Bridge Masterclass for Better Hip Extension Power, Stronger Feet and Reduced Knee Pain Mar 25, 2021

Today’s show brings on elite physiotherapist David O’Sullivan. Dave has worked as sports physio with England Rugby Union in the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan and with England Rugby League in the 2017 Rugby League World Cup in Australia. Dave is the founder of the ProSport Academy and now teaches his step by step pro sport approach that he uses with his own sporting and non-sporting patients in private practice to therapists all over the world. Dave’s mission is to empower people to restore control through their body and minds so they can truly live. He has been a mentor to some well-known coaches/therapists such as previous podcast guest, David Grey. Knee pain and lower limb injury prevention are important topics. Nearly every coach (and clearly therapist) will deal with either preventing or treating these issues with their athletes. I enjoy learning about how to prevent knee or Achilles tendon pain, but I truly enjoy these conversations when we can take these principles of performance and scale them up to modes that can be used in late rehab or full-scale performance training. In today’s talk with Dave O’Sullivan, we’ll go into the basic muscle firing patterns that set up the baseline for performance in any bridging activity. Dave will get into the importance of the Soleus muscle as a lower-body lynchpin, and how to optimally coordinate this muscle, along with the hamstrings in a spectrum of bridging exercises with specific cues for the feet. We’ll take this all the way to how Dave utilizes jump training methods and drivers, along with foot cueing, to help athletes achieve a seamless and confident return to play. Whether you are a therapist, strength coach or track coach, this is an information packed and truly relevant episode. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 6:00 Discussing the systems that have influenced Dave the most in his career as a physiotherapist, and how he has synthesized them into his current system 12:20 Dave’s thoughts on the spectrum between basic rehab, and high performance return to play methods in the actions of the foot 22:40 How Dave wants the foot, and mid-foot to engage through various squatting actions, including the “split slouch” exercise 33:10 Mid-foot supine bridging drills as a regression for athletes who cannot tolerate proper load standing on the hamstring and soleus muscles 43:30 A discussion on cueing the mid-foot and how to cue the foot in rehab exercises, versus dynamic movements such as running or sprinting 50:30 Comparing low-hip position hip bridges with standard weighted hip thrust exercises, as well as the role of heel vs. mid-foot pushing in glute bridge work 1:01:30 How to know when to move athletes past supine bridges and slouches pushing through the mid-foot, and into more advanced work 1:08:45 Using “drivers” to help athletes with various jump landings in a return to play situation 1:17:00 When you actually do want to have athletes push through the big toe, versus when to leave it alone “When they go into the real world; the stress and movement, there is so much stimulus going into the nervous system, it’s so much different than being in the physio room doing 3 sets of 10 or a breathing exercise” “I just want to put load on these tissues, and let the system self-organize” “When that foot hits the floor, the soleus (muscle) is the king…. if you had to have one muscle for knee pain, that’s it…. the soleus takes between 6 and 8 times the bodyweight” “That’s an awareness to me that a lot of athletes have skipped, the mid-foot… athletes who stay on their heels or on their toes miss that mid-foot” “The interesting thing with the mid-foot and the soleus is that the soleus has to work with every other muscle in the lower limb” “When you squat, on the way down I want the weight through the heel, and on the reversal, on the way up I want it through the mid-foot/fore-foot” “If you keep the knee straight, that makes it harder to get onto the mid-foot” “It is so much harder to relax than to contract; that’s important for people with consistent pain” “Those top-down cues (squish oranges through the midfoot) are good, but ideally what we want are bottom-up cues where we don’t have to cue them… I wouldn’t have an athlete “squash oranges” running” “By the time that foot hits the floor at that speed (sprinting) the brain and nervous system has a strategy in place, and it’s not caring about turning a muscle on, it cares about not falling over” “We don’t want the bum to come too far up in a single leg bridge, because if you do you are going to start using your back; the lower the bum is the more you are going to use your leg” “I think a lot of those people that got more (EMG in glutes) through the heel… if they did the mid-foot bridge, I’m confident they would cramp in the hamstring or soleus” “You are going to feel (bridges through the midfoot) in your hamstrings for a few weeks, and then you’ll feel them in your glutes (after you build the proper hamstring co-contractions)” “It all goes back; have they got the ability to develop tension? When you are hip thrusting, if I don’t tolerate load through my soleus and hamstring, I am definitely going to use my heels to get up there” “If you want to put more load through the quad, push through the heel” “Continuous bounds, to me, that’s the pre-step to high speed running” “I want them to leap and land on the midfoot (in return to play jumping drills)” “If you push through the pad of the big toe you are going to get a massive calcaneus supination” “I wouldn’t be going out with a (healthy) athlete and be like “I’m going to strengthen your (Flexor Hallucus Longus) today” Show Notes: Supine Bridge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYD4Jx_IXSw Slouch Exercises in Split Stance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0COfbIzkIY About Dave O’Sullivan Dave O’Sullivan is a Chartered Physiotherapist and founder of the ProSport Academy. Dave has worked as sports physio with England Rugby Union in the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan and with England Rugby League in the 2017 Rugby League World Cup in Australia. Dave also has a private practice in Huddersfield where he built it up from scratch to now having a leading clinic with over 10 staff that help people who have failed traditional approaches every single day. Dave now teaches his step by step pro sport approach that he uses with his own sporting and non-sporting patients in private practice to therapists all over the world. Dave’s mission is to empower people to restore control through their body and minds so they can truly live. Dave is achieving this mission personally through his clinic and also through his vision with ProSport Academy. Dave’s vision is to support and guide over 1500 therapists in over 50 countries all over the world help millions of people in pain by having the confidence and clarity to help people who have failed traditional approaches. This all starts with understanding the ‘WHY’ behind everything you're doing and having a structured step by step system in place that gives repeatable outcomes and takes the emotion out of the decision making for therapists in private practice and pro sport.

246: Rafe Kelley on The Art of Rhythm, Fluidity and Timing in Athletic Performance Training Mar 18, 2021

Today’s show brings back Rafe Kelley, owner of Evolve, Move, Play. Rafe has experience with dozens of movement styles, playing many sports, including gymnastics, learning dance, exploring parkour and studying many forms of the martial arts and MMA styles. When it comes to human movement, and the story and history behind our movement, Rafe is my go-to expert. Rafe’s students have ranged from world-class parkour athletes, to MMA fighters, to untrained grandmothers. He has been a two time guest on this podcast, and offers knowledge from a source that is largely un-touched by mainstream strength and athletic development. On previous shows, I have talked with Rafe about our movement roots, structured vs. unstructured training, play based training, and emotional and cognitive links between play, performance and adaptation. Episode #174 was one of the most transformative episodes I had done in terms of how it immediately impacted my work in my own group training sessions afterwards. On this show, I wanted to tap into more of Rafe’s knowledge of human movement in terms of his experience with martial arts, fighting and modern dance. The sports performance industry talks about force a lot, but it is critical to look at the best athletes in the world on a level comparing to them with dancers, instead of powerlifters, to get a fuller understanding of the required timings and rhythms. Today’s podcast is a wonderful experience in discussing the deeper movement qualities that really make elite athletes and how we can consider those qualities of rhythm and fluidity in our own training designs. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 6:20 Discussing complexity in training, and how to get more work and effectiveness in a shorter period of time 13:49 Quantifying fatigue in basketball and parkour, and concepts on how risk increases session fatigue, and extreme depth landings in parkour 23:34 Philosophy on movement quality in the martial arts, parkour, and athletic movement in general, and questions on if Rafe takes time out of parkour itself to spend time on movement quality 35:53 Rhythmic qualities of movement in athletics, and how to improve athletic performance from a rhythmic perspective 55:16 Points on the use and relationship of dance and ethnic dance styles, to athletic performance 1:00:08 Animal forms and flow in training and human movement “The neurological fatigue associated with a parkour session is not simply associated with how many approach runs did you do, or how big were the jumps. It was more associated with how much risk, or how threatened your nervous system was by the jumps that you were taking on” “One of the master-keys for re-covering the capacity of my lower limb was tibial rotation drills” “When you are working with a novice athlete, a lot of times the answer is just that they need to do the thing more. But when that doesn’t fix it, you have to ask, “why isn’t self-organization working”.” “If I initiate a punch, I want that punch to land, and I want my hand to be hard, and my body to be hard as the punch lands, but any time is it hard before it lands, is slowing me down, and wasting my energy…. how sensitive is the foot when it is hitting the ground” “The timing of force production is massive; it’s the harmony of the body as its hitting the ground; the ability to find that moment. You have do (purposefully) do things, to get (timing)” “I think of it, kind of like music. Every set of movements or a solution to a problem is like a set of beats. You can have an optimal set of beats, or you can have noisy extra beats that aren’t contributing to the harmony of the piece” “What (Josef) talked about the first time I talked to him was: “When an athlete has their rhythm, break their rhythm… make them find it again”” “So often, really great athletes have a dance background, and fighters tend to do well in dance, and dance often exists within fighting circles” “I think that, for me, you get the same benefits, and it’s more interesting (than basic crawling) by doing modern dance ground work” “I found that dancing an achy body part, fixes it… when there is something I am studying in my body or trying to release I find (that) to be particularly useful” Show Notes: David Belle Jumps and Landings https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x98jCBnWO8w Isreal Adesanya Dance and Fight Methods https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6QL3ue1Tag https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJs7pbWK8ms Athletic African Tribal Dance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX0H85tj1yU About Rafe Kelley Rafe Kelley is the owner of Evolve, Move, Play, a business designed to use movement practice to develop more resilient and embodied humans. Raised by two yoga instructors, he was a basketball player and gymnast (and gymnastics coach) in his teens. Rafe started in the martial arts at 6 years old, studying Tang Soo Do, Aikido, Kung Fu, Kick Boxing, Brazilian Ju Jitsu and Muay Thai. Rafe also has experience in modern training disciplines such as sprinting, gymnastics, crossfit, FRC, modern dance and many others. His primary specialization is in parkour, the practice of navigating obstacles by jumping, running, flipping or swinging over them, a skill set he primarily taught himself by watching videos and training deep in the woods. Rafe co-founded Parkour visions at age 23, and eventually left to form Evolve, Move, Play. His students have included world-class parkour athletes and MMA fighters, as well as untrained grandmothers. His passion to is help people build the physical practice that will help make them the strongest, most adaptable and resilient version of themselves in movement and in life.

245: Kyle Dobbs and David Grey on Mastering Rib Cage Dynamics for Powerful Running, Cutting, Mobility, and Total Human Performance Mar 11, 2021

Today’s show brings back guests Kyle Dobbs and David Grey for an epic meeting of two biomechanical minds. I’ve learned a lot from both Kyle and David on and off of this podcast. Both David and Kyle’s prior episodes have been in our all-time top-listened shows, and I’m excited to get them together for a show. Kyle Dobbs is the owner and founder of Compound Performance which offers online training, facility consulting and a personal trainer mentorship. He a leading expert in integrating complex movement principles into physical training methods for multiple human disciplines. David Grey is a biomechanics specialist based in Waterford, Ireland. He is the creator of the “Lower Body Basics” programs, and has learned under a number of great mentors in the world of movement, S&C, gymnastics, mobility, martial arts, and biomechanics. One element of human performance I’m always looking to become better versed in is breathing, posture, pressure dynamics and how these elements impact our movement and performance potential. From lifting, to running, to changing direction explosively, how we “stack” and align our pressure centers and body structures makes a big impact on how well we can perform those skills and be free of injury. On today’s podcast, Kyle and David go in depth on rib cage dynamics, breathing and pressure management in context of crawling and running. We’ll also touch on posture, training the frontal plane, and finish with some talk on the feet, plantar fasciitis, and thoughts on coaching preferential foot pressures in movement. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly for 15% off of your purchase! Timestamps and Main Points 6:05 How Kyle and David look to explain and sequence breathing work within the course of a session 15:05 Ways to observe groups in crawling and locomotion exercises, and how to observe links between those movements and rib cage and breath action 23:50 How Kyle and David address the reciprocal action of the ribs seen in locomotion in breathing and breath work 32:35 What you might see in a crawl or squat that shows that an athlete is compressed, as well as compensation patterns that lead to stiff lumbar spine actions 39:55 How a “ribs first” mentality is critical when it comes to posture and spinal alignment 45:55 Discussing the frontal plane in athletic movement and how muscular strategy switches to respiratory strategy as one moves from lifting to sprinting to distance running 55:25 Training the breath in various exercises outside of ground-based positions 1:06:25 Advice and ideas on dealing with plantar fasciitis in athletes, as well as dynamics of calcaneal motion and how it fits with the rest of the kinetic chain 1:15:25 Thoughts on preferential pressures on different portions of the foot for athletic movements “I will ask my clients to do a toe touch, squat, range of motion, and then we’ll try a positional breathing drill that makes sense in my mind, and if we re-test, it should be better… if it’s not better we are doing the wrong thing” Grey “Your body, from an autonomic position, is going to prioritize breathing over everything else” Dobbs “If you are already in an extended position, and posteriorly compressed in that position, then you don’t have any more extension to actually be able to leverage, so we talk about getting more of a neutral posture, more flexion so that you actually have a larger bandwidth to drive extension when needed” Dobbs “When you look at a 90/90 breathing position, you flip it over and put someone in a crawling position, and it’s basically a 90/90 with a reach up into the sky” Grey “If we can get the rib cage moving, and get people to feel their body and be aware of their body, the breathing can be the result of that sometimes” Grey “The amount of people I’ve had who have never taken a full exhale, ever, is pretty high” Dobbs “If someone is exhibiting compression strategies, you are going to see it in all of their movements…. I can probably guess what their ISA is like from that, and what their gait looks like” Dobbs “When you get a good eye, the table test is really more for the client than you” Grey “If I cannot get expansion through the right side of my rib cage, I will not be able to get my weight over my right leg very well” Grey “Just get them into positions, and get them to breath, and it will happen without those million, billion cues, you know?” Grey “Driving air into the posterior thoracic, will allow for the rib cage to retract back over a pelvis, especially if we can find heels and a little bit of knee flexion, which will allow for a relative posterior tilt, which will get us back to neutral, and again, neutralize that lumbar spine back into its natural curvature” Dobbs “People who can’t (use breath to drive movement into the ribs) they’ll fake it by just flexing and extending through some parts of their spine…. internal and external rotation of the ribs should drive movement into the spine, not the other way around… we use breath and ribs and position to drive movement into the spine” Grey “(When working frontal plane) people take too wide and too long of stance usually, so they cannot get their center of mass over the foot, it falls between both legs” Grey “If I want to drive frontal plane in terms of something that looks like running mechanics, from a weight room perspective, that front foot split squat that David is describing, load that ipsilaterally on the front leg and it is going to pull your pelvis over that foot” Dobbs “If somebody is posteriorly compressed, front load them. If somebody has a hard time getting a pelvis and a rib cage over an instep, load them ipsilaterally on that side, it’ll drag em’ over there” Dobbs “I can’t get frontal plane movement at the calcaneus if I can’t get sagittal plane movement first” Grey “If we are treating (the foot) like a brick and we are trying to find the outside edge or inside edge on every single thing we do in isolation, we are not appreciating the dynamic nature of the foot” Dobbs “Change of direction for me, when we get into speed of movement, which is about sagittal plane stiffness, which sounds funny, but if someone can’t get co-contractions around the knee joint, they are going to sink down into the movement too much” Grey “Whenever we can bring in tasks when there is speed of movement involved, that’s the goal too” Grey Show Notes: Adductor Drawback Exercise https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3P-SOoRJysM 90 90 Breathing and Postural Work https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xps551NcLqA About Kyle Dobbs Kyle Dobbs is the owner and founder of Compound Performance which offers online training, facility consulting and a personal trainer mentorship. Kyle has trained 15,000+ sessions, been a legitimate six-figure earner as a trainer, managed and developed multiple six-figure earners, and has experienced substantial success as a coach and educator. Kyle has an extensive biomechanics and human movement background which he integrates into his gym prescriptions to help athletes achieve their fullest movement, and transferable strength potential. About David Grey David is a Biomechanics Specialist based in Waterford Ireland. He helps athletes and everyday people with Injury, Pain, Rehabilitation, and Performance. David assesses his clients in-depth and breaks their gait cycle down into incredible detail to help restore the movement(s) that they are missing or are struggling to access. A lot of his work begins with training the foot to re-experience the movements that it should be accessing during every single footstep. He believes that certain movements are ingrained into our DNA and that we can expect to see huge positive changes in pain and performance when we give the brain the opportunity to re-experience these movements. He has learned under a number of great mentors in the world Movement, S&C, Gymnastics, Stretching & Mobility, Chinese Martial Arts, and Biomechanics. He is greatly influenced by the work of Gary Ward, the creator of “Anatomy in Motion. Webiste: https://davidgreyrehab.com/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw3pEtC1AbTe3hZ3l6YsyBQ Intagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidgreyrehab/ Booking: https://davidgreyrehab.setmore.com/david

244: Cal Dietz on Advancing Contrast Training and 20m Dash Splits for Athletic Speed Optimization Mar 04, 2021

Today’s show features Cal Dietz. Cal has been the Head Olympic Strength and Conditioning coach for numerous sports at the University of Minnesota since 2000, has worked with hundreds of successful athletes and team, and is the co-author of the top-selling book “Triphasic Training”. Cal has a multi-time guest on this show, most recently appearing in episode #168 (one of our most popular episodes of all time) on single leg training methods alongside Cameron Josse and Chad Dennis. Cal’s ideas on complex training (French contrast and potentiation clusters) have made a huge impact on the formulation of my own programs and methods. French Contrast as a training ideology and method has probably been one of the most consistent elements of my training for many years now. Cal is never one to sit still, and has recently made further advances in his complex training sets as they relate to our neurological and technical adaptations to these movements. On today’s show, Cal talks extensively about his new methods in complex training for improving sprint speed. As Cal has talked about on previous episodes, even bilateral hurdle hops have the potential to “mess athletes up” neurologically, and so Cal goes in detail on how his complex training sets are now adjusted to address that. Ultimately, Cal has formulated his gym training for the primary purpose of improving sprint speed and sprint mechanics. We will also get into Cal’s take on block periodization, and how Cal uses 5,10 and 20 yard dash markers to help determine an athlete’s primary training emphasis for the next block of work. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 05:10 – Breaking a lot of eggs to make a cake: Training Cal and Joel has utilized in that past that may not have worked out so well for the athlete in the process of growing as a coach 12:52 – Cal’s experience with various methods of training + How he trained his son during covid-19 19:56 – Using running and speed to assess athletes, and creating the required adaptations 25:53 – What led Cal to utilizing block method training and block overloads 29:51 – Interpreting and discussing maximal velocity as a training lynchpin 31:45 – Using squats + Examples of “sprint-centric” exercise sets Cal uses 41:34 – What Cal’s working on: Optimizing exercises for your athletes as individuals + Exercises that are best for your brain 43:09 – Quad-dominant vs. Posterior chain dominant athlete assessments + Cal’s 5-10-20 tool 50:45 – The 5-10-20 tool simplified 54:00 – Exercises Cal would assign for Joel, as someone who needs isometric strength? + The best single leg exercise for building leg strength “Usually I had a download (de-load) week and then I’d change the exercise. Then, I started changing the exercises in the download week so the volume was low… that matched the following week so they didn’t get sore starting with the higher volume… I found that when I implemented a new exercise, that’s when they got sore.” “I trained an agonistic muscle with an antagonistic muscle… so what happened was, it didn’t cause a compensation pattern and it kept the global neurological sequence of the nervous system in the right pattern the whole time and it optimized it.” “Running is one of the greatest assessments of any athlete.” “I call it global neurological sequence, it’s just the order and sequence your body moves.” “Max velocity is an indicator of potential in the nervous system, let’s be honest.” “I would start my first set with my quad-dominant athletes at the rear posterior chain exercise and then cycle through everything, which is actually better, Joel, for my weight room functioning.” “I was able to create a tool off a 10-20-yard dash that told me what their weakest link was in training. So, it’s an indicator of what they need for the next two to four weeks in training.” “At what point are we wasting biological resources by doing stuff we don’t need to in the weight room?” “The best single leg exercise for leg strength I’ve ever seen… is a single leg rack deadlift… it will make athletes so strong.” Show Notes: Single leg rack deadlift https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HhqZo-dlgw About Cal Dietz Cal Dietz has been the Head Olympic Strength and Conditioning coach for numerous sports at the University of Minnesota since 2000. He has consulted with Olympic and World Champions in various sports and professional athletes in the NHL, NFL, NBA, MLB, and Professional Boxing. During his time at U of M, he help founded and chairs the Sport Biomechanics Interest Group with its purpose to explore the physiological and biomechanical aspects of advanced human performance encompassing the various aspects of kinesiology, biomechanics, neuro-mechanics and physics. Dietz has also given numerous lectures around the country, as well as publish several scientific articles and dozens articles on training. Most recently, Dietz co-authored the top selling book, Triphasic Training: A systematic approach to elite speed and explosive strength performance. You can find Cal’s excellent book via his website: xlathlete.com.

243: Jeremy Frisch and Calin Butterfield on Advancing Complexity in Plyometrics, Jump Training Concepts, and Athletic Lessons from Downhill Racing Sports Feb 25, 2021

Today’s show features Jeremy Frisch and Calin Butterfield. Jeremy is the owner and director of Achieve Performance Training in Clinton, Mass, has been a multi-time guest on the show with all-things youth and creative training, game-play and long-term development. Jeremy is not only a strength coach, but also has skin in the game as a youth sports coach, and provides an incredible holistic perspective on the entire umbrella of athletic development. Calin Butterfield is the high performance manager at U.S. Ski & Snowboard. He worked for EXOS for about 8 years as a Coach across all different spaces including Phoenix, Dallas, SF at Ft. Bragg, Adidas America, and the Mayo Clinic. Calin and Jeremy are working together now on concepts related to long term development of ski and snowboard athletes. So often, we have our “standard plyometric battery” in performance training, but we cling to these fundamentals hard when we would be served well to be observing jump training and movement in a variety of mediums to create ideas for our plyometric progression. Studying athletes in sports that demand fast reactions, impactful landings, high risk, and rewards for creativity have a lot to offer when it comes to looking at our own training designs for the athletes we serve. Together, Jeremy and Calin will talk about their collaboration together with skiing, the use and progression of games with young athletes up to college level, plyometric progressions and advancing complexity, and how the natural warmup process in ski and snowboard (terrain park) can give us ideas that we can port over into how we can prepare athletes for sport. There is a lot of great information in this podcast that can be useful for sport coaches, strength coaches and skiiers alike. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 05:25 – The background of Calin and Jeremy’s careers and collaboration 08:30 – How does gameplay fit into a sport like skiing? 16:42 – When people tend to peak in skiing and snowboarding and how this fits into proportion of game play at different ages 24:18 – The power in connecting to the outcome and having multiple avenues to get to that outcome 27:02 – Attrition from training + creating enjoyable training experiences for kids 36:48 – How autonomy and feedback in the warm-up process changes as athletes get older and the reality of “perfect landings” in plyometric exercise 41:52 – The relationship between landing variability and chronic sport landing overload 45:57 – Reducing training down to information + plyometrics and progressions in skiing and snowboarding 48:03 – Long-term development in skiing and supplementing with traditional land-based training 52:37 – What it looks like to build an athlete up in high-adrenaline sport training 55:22 – How the aerial nature of skiing and snowboarding have an impact on Jeremy and Calin in their training process “[Skiing is] an early engagement sport, technically, like there’s skills that you have to learn from a sliding perspective, but that oftentimes turns into really early specialization and spending too much time skiing.” “The mentality of most of the athletes that make it to a high level in ski racing or free skiing… is intense, it’s almost like dare devil, formula one… The game aspect and how it translates into sport, I think, is very much on the physical side. I think the mental side is completely unique.” “What we try to do… is really just force environments that get them to explore their bodies, their joints, how to maneuver around certain objects or other people, and really just try to get the out of their comfort zone and using games, it’s a lot more fun for them.” “We so underestimate the difference between a child and an adult and keeping people in flow states. I just think that’s such a mistake that’s proliferated.” “The stuff that we do with younger athletes… that’s their workout, like that’s their session for the day… when they get older, we take what those kids did and condense it to the warm-up.” “Then they’ll go into more high-intensity stuff, where we’re doing plyometrics… but even now I’m trying to get away from your traditional, perfect landings… I want these guys jumping off boxes and spinning in the air and landing, trying to get as creative as we can there because… I don’t like these perfect ‘stick the landing’ things all the time.” “[Kids] hate doing things over again because that’s old news. That hop and stick is old news, dude, let’s add some more! The more you can give them, the more you can layer pieces on top of each other, the better for them. I think they’ll enjoy training more and be more apt to give you better effort.” “When they’re excited about their workout and the things they’re doing, they’re going to have more intent, they’re going to put their effort into what they’re doing more and you’re going to get a higher level of training effect.” “Once an athlete is able to do something, change it.” “In free ski/snowboard it’s not about being form-perfect and executing the perfect flip or spin, it’s about steeze, it’s about the style, it’s about throwing the hardest trick you can with that signature style you have on it.” About Jeremy Frisch Jeremy Frisch is the owner and director of Achieve Performance Training in Clinton, Mass. He is the former assistant strength and conditioning coach for the Holy Cross athletic department. While there, he worked directly with the Crusader men’s basketball team, in addition to serving as the strength coach for Holy Cross’ men’s soccer, men’s and women’s lacrosse, baseball, softball, field hockey, tennis and women’s track & field squads. Prior to joining Holy Cross, Frisch served as the sports performance director at Teamworks Sports Center in Acton, Mass., where he was responsible for the design and implementation of all strength and conditioning programs. He also served as a speed and strength coach for Athletes Edge Sports Training, and did a strength and conditioning internship at Stanford University. Frisch is a 2007 graduate of Worcester State College with a bachelor’s degree in health science and physical education. He was a member of the football and track teams during his days at Worcester State and Assumption College. About Calin Butterfield Calin Butterfield is the high performance manager at U.S. Ski & Snowboard. He worked for EXOS for about 8 years as a Coach across all different spaces including Phoenix, Dallas, SF at Ft. Bragg, Adidas America, and the Mayo Clinic Calin has been with U.S. Ski & Snowboard for 4 years, where he works closely with the sports medicine team as an ‘athletic development’ coach on long-term rehabs and return to performance cases (all sports). Calin leads the integration with U.S. Ski and Snowboard clubs/academies to support talent and athlete development pathways, and lead business development and education with medical partners.

242: Bobby Stroupe on Evolved Foot and Upper Body Work, Single-Set Training Models, and the Holistic Value of a Sports Performance Professional Feb 18, 2021

Today’s show welcomes back coach Bobby Stroupe. Bobby Stroupe is the Founder and President of Athlete Performance Enhancement Center (APEC) and has directed human performance systems for nearly 20 years, working with a full range of athletes from youth to professional. In my search for higher-transfer, holistic methodology in sports performance training, I’ve met few coaches who have covered more bases than Bobby Stroupe. On our last show, which aired just over a month ago, we talked about several of Bobby’s “unorthodox” methods in training speed, power strength and more in light of athletic needs, and I still had about half of the questions left on my own list to ask him. Bobby is back on the show to cover the rest of the questions we missed last time. He will discuss his influences and how he got to where he is today as a coach, including some of the mentors and coaches that have influenced the way he trains. Bobby explains how he incorporates heavier strength training into his sessions and how his single set mentality is a huge impactor on performance (and a defining factor of great athletes). Finally, Bobby shares his views on upper body training, as well as training the foot and the relationship between the two. In the middle of the show, Bobby gets into the “8 factors” by which a strength coach can impact an athlete, which was such gold! I hope you come away from this show as excited as I was about coaching my next training session. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly for 15% off of your purchase! Timestamps and Main Points 04:41 – The story behind DJ Stroupebob 06:01 – How Bobby differentiates himself and his unorthodox training system from other coaches 07:30 – Influential mentors and coaches Bobby has learned from + Lessons learned from studying animal movement and mastering gravity and space 14:49 – How much time do you spend on heavy-weight lifting versus other types of training? 19:52 – Lifting is like a drug + Metrics Bobby measures and pays attention to 23:17 – From 7-day cycles to 14 or 21-day cycles in assigning the frequency of heavy strength work 24:42 – Bobby’s thoughts on the single set mentality 29:20 – How to get improve your athletes’ single set mentality, especially for overly analytical athletes 31:19 – Applying Parkinson’s Law to athletes 34:36 – Ideas on partnering with sport coaches and incorporating sports specific movements in training 37:01 – Having a holistic influence to make our value seen: 10 ways coaches affect athletes 40:27 – Bobby’s perception of other successful coaches + How to expand your coaching capabilities 43:35 – His approach to and evolution with upper body training for athletes + The relationship between the feet and upper body 46:11 – How do you use weighted gloves, clubs, maces and other training tools? 50:25 – When you should not use weighted balls and gloves 54:12 – Complexities in training the foot + Basic foot functions to see before elevating training 1:01:43 – What is a driver? “There’s no doubt that knowing what gets your athletes going is part of your job.” “You can do high-level, max strength work and have minimal volume on that in the course of an entire training curriculum over time and still get incredible results with a little less of some of the effects of overdoing strength training that you really don’t want… strength training is more effective when it’s not overdone.” “You can see how these different animals with their physiology and their climate and their environment approach tactical movement strategies and technical movement strategies… and for me, in watching that, I think you can learn a lot about how to utilize gravity as a resource instead of relying on strength.” “If strength is what you do most, your body is going to want to solve problems with the concept of solving strength and weight at that speed of movement.” “We found [the single set mentality] to elevate performance physically and psychologically.” “I don’t like the term strength conditioning coach. If all I did was strength conditioning, then that would just make me sad… Those two attributes don’t affect every play and they don’t affect the culture of everything else. What I look at is, we affect performance on a high level.” “I think people in our position should be valued as assistant head coaches, should be valued as assistant athletic directors… Here’s 8 ways we affect every athlete: mental, emotional, spiritual, physical, nutritional, creative, tactical, technical, mechanical, and neurological.” “I love that you can break up those movements into different positions that are going to help with stability, then those things can turn into skillful movements that require a combination of mobility and skill, technically, and strength.” “Your body needs exposure to different types of resistance; internal, external, distal, proximal… variation is your friend.” “Physiology dictates technique, not the other way around.” About Bobby Stroupe Bobby Stroupe is the founder and president of ATHLETE Performance Enhancement Center (APEC). Stroupe and his team built APEC from a grass field in 2005 to a worldwide training leader in human performance today. He serves as the president for APEC, making strategic decisions, designing training systems, and guiding an elite team of coaches that power two locations (Tyler and Fort Worth). Coach Stroupe directed human performance systems for nearly 20 years, while expanding his influence as an author, consultant, speaker, and educator. His experience includes working with school systems, collegiate teams, professional teams, businesses, corporate fitness, and individuals. His coaching ranges from youth athletes to some of the top names in multiple professional sports, including first round picks and Super Bowl and World Series champions. APEC has been a part of developing over 20 athletes who trained with its system from grade school all the way to the professional ranks. Stroupe and his team currently support over 100 athletes in the NFL and MLB alone. He has been credited with supporting arguably some of the best in the game of baseball and football, including NFL MVP Patrick Mahomes. Coach Stroupe has been featured as a top trainer for multiple sports and athletic performances in Sports Illustrated and USA Today and on ESPN, NFL and MLB networks, STACK, Bleacher Report, and many more. Stroupe presented on various human performance topics at notable coach’s clinics internationally, including the NIKE Roundtable and the China City Bowl tour. He launched the CAPEC certification at Nike World Headquarters, in addition to doing work with Nike Training and the Nike Young Athlete division. Stroupe serves on the Advisory Committee for Wellness and Exercise at Tyler Junior College, where he and his staff powered strength and conditioning during TJC baseball’s four-times-in-a-row National Championship run. Coach Stroupe belongs to an elite group of physical therapists, athletic trainers, and human performance practitioners as a Fellow of Applied Functional Science. He has also been named an RSCC*D by the NSCA due to his 10+ years of demonstrating high standards and professional practice.

241: Michael Camporini and Justin Moore on Learning to Yield in the Gym, Clarifying “Stiffness”, and Understanding Stretch-Shortening Dynamics in Athletic Movement Feb 11, 2021

Our guests today are Justin Moore and Michael Camporini. Justin is a master instructor and the professional development manager at Parabolic Performance and Rehab. Justin has been a popular guest on the podcast many times in the past, discussing advanced biomechanical principles in regards to things like breathing, positioning in strength training, and much more. Michael Camporini, "Campo", is a sports physical therapist in Phoenix, AZ, and previously worked with athletes of all different levels and ages with experience as a strength coach at Parabolic. He has completed internships with Resilient Physical Therapy and IFAST, as well as completing a clinical rotation with Bill Hartman. You may have heard me speak on the drawbacks of doing too much strength and barbell training many times in the past. Unless we have some ideas of the exact, negative structural changes that happen with excessive barbell lifting strain (and how to reverse them) we might potentially live in a world where heavy weightlifting is some sort of bogey-man we can’t quite define the effects of. This is important because some athletes need heavier training, while others do not. Recently, Justin Moore (who has a long history of heavy strength training) had a significant knee injury that occurred while demonstrating a skipping exercise (he had injured his knee multiple times in the past), that led him to reach out to Mike Camporini to help him create an intervention program, which led Justin to playing flag football pain free and moving extremely well. On the podcast today, Justin and Campo talk about the intervention, the issues Justin had from years of too much lifting strain, and how they reclaimed his range of motion and athletic ability. This podcast goes into many concepts of human function, stretch shortening cycle dynamics, compression versus expansion, defining what “stiffness” really is in context of sport skill, and much more. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly for 15% off of your purchase! Timestamps and Main Points 6:35 Justin’s history of knee injury, and his athletic pursuits that contributed to not being an optimally functional athlete 21:35 How Justin would approach taking compressive lifting away from an individual, and what might warrant the need to avoid bilateral lifting in a program 30:35 What KPI’s in terms of range of motion are Justin and Campo looking at for field based athletes who need to run, jump and change direction 40:55 Thoughts on lifting strategies that produce excess stiffness in an athlete’s system, and how stiffness and stretch-shortening action can be specific to athletic action 52:25 Why being overly “stiff” in a standing vertical jump will negatively impact jump height and resiliency and topics on being “expanded” vs. “compressed” 1:13.45 Some of the tests and corrective strategies that Campo and Justin went through to help fix some of Justin’s faulty mechanics 1:24.35 The use of yielding and oscillating work to help improve the quality of Justin’s movement strategy “Those elements, those compressive training strategies that you do over years to build the strength, to build the muscle. Those lead to structural changes and certain biases that you need to give time to create any adaptation in the other direction” Moore “When we look as an individual’s situation, we say, what does this person need to reach their goals, where is their endgame, and then we establish things we need to track and we don’t want to lose” Campo “There is a stretch shortening cycle in Olympic lifting or Powerlifting, it is just going to be different compared to throwing a baseball” Campo “How he is behaving and creating these motion deficits is also influencing how he is absorbing energy, or can potentially absorb energy within his elastic tissue…. that amount of stiffness is necessary for trap bar deadlifts” Campo “Imagine a trap bar deadlift, where you are squeezing every ounce of your body from toes to hands, that’s the kind of strategy (Justin) was generating (that was contributing to his issues)” Campo “He has a greater bias of external rotation, all the way down, because of the position of his acetabulum. In order to absorb force, to bend a knee, it needs to demonstrate internal rotation” Campo “You need muscular stiffness to elongate that tissue and to allow energy to be stored within that tissue effectively, and all athletes are trying to do is titrate that stiffness within the musculature to take advantage of the elastic energy that is absorbed within that soft tissue. That is why (stiffness) is highly specific to what activity you are trying to do and who you are as a person” Campo “You have to find internal rotation somewhere, in order to move through space, and apply force to the ground. The question is, where are you doing that?” Moore “If you create a situation where your connective tissue is so stiff… now you are going to have a situation where you are like an iron rod hitting the ground, there is no storage and release of elastic energy” Moore “We are going to get a different type of stretch shortening cycle (in sprinting) is going to be different than the stretch shortening cycle in a max standing vert” Moore “Your muscles are just pressure generators… pretty much” Campo “You have two strategies to maintain your upright position against gravity, you can expand or you can compress… we can expand and compress, the question is how long is the duration of your compression. Can you compress and can you expand?” Moore “Inhalation you bias yourself towards external rotation, exhalation, you bias yourself towards internal rotation” Campo “Your ability to deep squat, to sit into a butt-to-heels full squat tells you a lot about a person’s tendencies and biases” Moore “You have to create expansion in the direction you intend to move” Campo “A heels elevated kettlebell clean was a staple in my movement prep” Moore “My biggest cue was, “don’t trap bar deadlift this dude, just relax” Campo “A lot of people are “max effort deadlifting” everything they do” Moore “A cue I use with him is “let the weight win” Campo “We used load to re-capture some of the movement…. Too much weight and I am going to squeeze the hell out of it, too little weight, and it doesn’t force that change” Moore “If I’m doing something like a light lateral split squat, but my foot is in contact with the ground the whole time, sometimes I’ll literally catch myself, I’m trying to push up as I’m trying to go down, and that’s why the unweighting and drop stuff is good, you learn to let go” Moore Show Notes OI Farmer’s Hold Squat https://youtu.be/ZZqCkFS8I6M Reverse Yielding Lunge https://youtu.be/RZa1bQAGXIw KB Yielding Clean https://youtu.be/uoffdgr7D2g Band Assisted Lateral Cut with Ramp https://youtu.be/ykU4wsEfsh0 Justin Moore Vertical Jump Before and After https://youtu.be/A0NfDHk48ic About Justin Moore Justin is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist (CSCS), Master Instructor, and Head Performance Coach at Parabolic Performance and Rehab. Justin has worked with athletes of all ages and abilities, from eight-years-old to professional football players in the National Football League (NFL) and Olympic-level Ice Skaters and Ice Dancers. He is best known for helping elite college football players prepare for the NFL Combine and for their Pro Days, specializing in improving speed, power, and sprinting mechanics. After three ACL tears during his first three years of college football at Farleigh Dickinson University, Justin turned to strength training as a way to help him return to football bigger, stronger, and healthier than ever. In the process, Justin developed a love for strength and conditioning and Olympic weightlifting. He spent countless hours watching videos, reading articles, and researching the work of the industry’s top coaches, lifters, and movement specialists. His own pursuits gave him a great baseline of knowledge from which to grow. About Mike Camporini “Campo” Michael Camporini, "Campo", holds a bachelors in exercise science from Springfield College, and a Doctorate in physical therapy from Simmons University. He has completed internships with Resilient Physical Therapy and IFAST, as well as completing a clinical rotation with Bill Hartman. Campo has experience working with athletes of all different levels and ages with experience as a strength coach working at Parabolic Performance in NJ and Northeastern University in Boston. He now resides in Phoenix, AZ, where he works as a sports physical therapist, treating athletes of all ages from high school to professional.

240: Steven Kotler on Flow State Concepts, Motivation and Goal-Setting for Optimal Athletic Performance and Career Longevity Feb 04, 2021

Our guest today is Steven Kotler, best-selling author and renowned Flow-State expert. Steven is the author of 9 best-selling books (3 of which are NYT Best-Sellers), which include The Art of Impossible, Stealing Fire, The Rise of Superman (Rise of Superman was my initial introduction to Steven’s work) and others. His work has been nominated for two Pulitzer Prizes, translated into 40 languages, and has appeared in over 100 publications. Steven is the executive director of the Flow Research Collective, and is one of the world’s leading experts on human performance. He has been involved in a number of extreme sports, such as surfing, downhill mountain biking and skiing, and has learned (and participated with) from a number of the world’s greatest athletes in this arena. One element of athletic performance that I’m adamant about pursuing is the idea that we must get outside the known field of “athletic performance” and into other fields of human performance to maximize our service to the athletes we train. We can only grow so much without “getting outside of the box” of our typical field education and integrating more global concepts of human performance. In this podcast with Steven Kotler, we discuss numerous elements of neuro-biology and flow as it relates to goal setting, burnout, skill progression, career progression, and much more. This was a podcast that truly integrates many concepts coaches (hopefully) are familiar with, and helps us to understand them more fully from a biological perspective, as well as one we can also integrate into our daily lives. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly for 15% off of your purchase! Timestamps and Main Points 5:50 Steven’s favorite extreme sport memory in his years of working alongside many elite athletes 10:10 How risk of injury (or death) impacts a sport from multiple perspectives 14:35 Goal setting for athletes, with a perspective on general biological principles 25:50 Motivational factors for athletes across their career, and why some athletes may burnout 34:55 How solving multiple problems at once is a key to getting more flow out of mundane activities 41:40 Clarifying how coaches can disturb progress in regards to mastery as a motivational tool 45:30 Challenge-skill balance in sport training and optimal progression models in regards to flow states 53:25 The importance of social support networks in facilitation of flow and athletic performance 57:10 How to manage flow with strength work, and how having one big flow day can impact the next few weeks of your training 1:02.50 How to manage the “dial of flow” in regards to daily practice “I always say, “If you can’t get seriously injured, it’s not really a sport” and I know a lot of people who play tennis or golf would disagree with me, and I’m happy for the argument… I do think it’s a different game when that is the stakes” “The interesting thing about peak performance is that, it doesn’t matter if you are going after capital “I” Impossible, or you are trying to improve your tennis game, or you are trying to be a little better at work, the biology is the same, the tool-set is the same, and how you get there is the same” “(In extreme sports with potential mortal consequences) On the inside, it doesn’t feel like that, it feels like progression in any other sport” “We live in a reality that is shaped by 2 things, our fears and our goals” “For sure you need 3 levels of goals in your life… Mission levels goals (I want to be a great runner), high-hard goals (1-5 year step, run the New York Marathon), then you need clear goals, your daily to do list” “Clear goals are one of the pre-conditions that lead to flow” “Properly set high-hard goals will increase motivation by 11-25%” “The biggest driver for humans is meaningful progress towards meaningful goals” “We get hooked on sports because they produce flow, and we tend to excel in the sports that produce the most flow as practitioners” “What is the greatest distinguisher of those freshman students who come in with a secondary activity that they love, that they are still going to be committed to when they leave (as a senior)… and it’s the amount of flow it produces freshman year” “One of the keys to keeping athletes in their sports is making sure their sports continue to produce flow for them” “Flow follows focus, it shows up when our attention is in the “right here, right now”” “I always tell people that peak performers are too busy to solve problems one at a time…. I look for things I’m already doing and find “how I can crank them up more”” “A long hike in nature resets the nervous system” “Whenever you have a clear goals list, every time you do something, you have to cross it off the list” “When you look for people who score “off the charts” for overall well-being, life satisfaction, meaning and purpose, they are the people with the most flow in their lives” “We maximize the amount of flow when the challenge is 4% greater than our skillset… wherever I’m starting from, you gotta’ find what is a 4% for me, based on where I’m starting from” “The deep, powerful flow states tend to happen at the start of the season, and towards the end of the season” “Most high caliber riders were dialing down, not dialing up, to stay in that (4%) sweet spot…. For most elite athletes it means a little less, not a little more, but it also means a little less with way more consistency” “We try to train people at the flow research collective to have 2 hours of social support a week” “If you use all of the dopamine in the brain, the norepinephrine, it takes a while to replenish it… if you are not recovering on the back end of a flow state, over time you are going to lock yourself out of flow” “We as humans are designed to “go big”, and not going big is bad for us” About Steven Kotler Steven Kotler is a New York Times-bestselling author, an award-winning journalist and the Executive Director of the Flow Research Collective. He is one of the world’s leading experts on human performance. He is the author of nine bestsellers (out of thirteen books), including The Art of Impossible, The Future is Faster Than You Think, Stealing Fire, The Rise of Superman, Bold and Abundance. His work has been nominated for two Pulitzer Prizes, translated into over 40 languages, and has appeared in over 100 publications, including the New York Times Magazine, Wired, Atlantic Monthly, Wall Street Journal, TIME and the Harvard Business Review. Steven is also the cohost of Flow Research Collective Radio, a top ten iTunes science podcast. Along with his wife, author Joy Nicholson, he is the cofounder of the Rancho de Chihuahua dog sanctuary.

239: Nicolai Morris on Reverse-Engineering Athletic Movement Through Gymnastic Progressions and Rough-Housing Jan 28, 2021

Our guest today is Nicolai Morris, strength and conditioning specialist with High Performance Sport, New Zealand. Nicolai is the lead S&C with the New Zealand Women’s (Field) Hockey Team (Blacksticks) as well as coaching an international elite high jumper. From Nicolai’s athletic career origins as a swimmer, she has honed her eye for movement through a wide range of land and sea-based sports and athletic situations. Nicolai has previously worked with New Zealand Rowing in the elite and U23/Junior pathways as well as, multitude of sports in her role as strength and conditioning specialist at Sydney University including swimming, track and field, rugby, rugby 7’s, water polo and soccer. She also worked as the Head strength and conditioning coach for the Australian Beach Handball team and the NSW Women’s State of Origin team. Nicolai is a ASCA Level 2, Pro-Scheme Elite coach, and a Masters in Strength and Conditioning with over a decade of coaching experience. We talk on this podcast often about going beyond simply looking at, and emphasizing weightlifting maxes for athletic performance improvement; moving into some of the finer biomechanical details of speed, jumping and athletic technique. At the roots of all technical ability in sport is baseline human ability to sense and coordinate ourselves in space. Although we have had good conversation on the importance of developing body control and coordination in regards to training children, it’s not often we speak on how to integrate gymnastic and coordinative ability into training with mature athletes, despite the fact that there are so many “poor movers” on this level, whose base line functioning often leaves them pre-disposed for injury. On today’s podcast, Nicolai speaks about her transition as a swimmer to strength coach, as well as a deep-dive into the role that gymnastics and rough-housing work plays in the developmental process of her athletes. She also speaks on building buy-in and belief from her athletes (and team management/head sports coaches) from a female perspective, and we close out the show with a brief chat on blood flow restriction training (BFR). Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly for 15% off of your purchase! Timestamps and Main Points 3:40 How Nicolai went from a swimmer to a physical preparation coach 7:45 How Nicolai incorporates gymnastic work and general work to improve movement quality across sports and age groups 21:00 Progressing gymnastic work based on their ability and sport needs 28:05 Correlations between gymnastic movement ability and some of the best athletes Nicolai has worked with 31:15 How Nicolai integrates gymnastic and movement training into her own regimen 36:10 Integrating roughhousing work into training, and differences between genders in this type of work 51:25 Buy in/attitudes of males/females vs. coaches in working as a female 1:01.40 How Nicolai made a big impact with a team by focusing on the needs of her team versus traditional coaching expectations 1:05.40 Nicolai’s experience with blood flow restriction training and the benefits for middle-distance energy system athletes “If a squat would make all athletes Olympic champions, then we would have more people who squat well performing at a higher level… we have to get that transfer and that connection” “You’d ask people to say “what’s the coolest thing you can do into the foam pit”, and they’d do backflips, and gainers…. they’d push their body to a place that it had never been before” “My main 3 gymnastics elements that I use are tumbling, hanging variations, and handstand variations, and depending on what athletes I got, it has a higher relevance… I’m in hockey right now and it has more relevance for my goalies” “The only thing that took my shoulder pain away was gymnastics, hanging and handstand work” “In terms of hanging, I start with dead hanging, and some people can’t even do that” “I think as a human race, we have lost the ability (to hang and do monkeybars)” “In contact sports, like rugby, you have to be good at (roughhousing) work, you have to know how to move your body, and what ways to grapple, because you are making contact” “If you have that natural base of a lot of roughhousing when you are little, it makes it a lot easier when you get older” “I haven’t had too many females balk at doing (roughhousing) but it needs to be integrated at the right pace” “My style is a bit different, really showing I cared, like I turned up when I didn’t have to, I really wanted to know about them as a human, which is what we all should do as coaches. That made such a difference for them and we had such a good relationship between me and the squad. We ended up doing something that had never been done and being undefeated champions, and it made such a difference” “For me the feeling I get with blood flow restriction is the exact same I feel at the end of the race in swimming” Show Notes Elderly gymnastic practitioners in China https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjnlSSt5K4o&list=RDCMUCHBDXQDmqnaqIEPdEapEFVQ&index=1 Single leg swipes, the movement I could do in high school that I’m working on getting back https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IE6A0UKEjI About Nicolai Morris @nicolai_morris Nicolai Morris is a Strength and Conditioning Specialist with High Performance Sport New Zealand and the lead strength and conditioning coach with the New Zealand Women's Hockey team (Blacksticks) and a Diamond League winning and international medalist high jumper. Nicolai has previously worked with New Zealand Rowing in the elite and U23/Junior pathways as well as, multitude of sports in her role as strength and conditioning specialist at Sydney University including swimming, track and field, rugby, rugby 7’s, water polo and soccer. She also worked as the Head strength and conditioning coach for the Australian Beach Handball team and the NSW Women’s State of Origin team. Nicolai is a ASCA Level 2, Pro-Scheme Elite coach, and a Masters in Strength and Conditioning with over a decade of coaching experience.

238: Alex Brooker and Mike Guadango on The Power of Belief, Placebo Effects in Training-Rehab and Becoming Your Own Coaching Superhero Jan 21, 2021

Our guests today are Mike Guadango and Alex Brooker. Mike and Alex (“Brooker”) met when Alex interned for Mike at DeFranco’s gym a decade ago, and they now have a podcast together, “The Mike and Brooker Show”, in addition to their coaching careers. Alex is the owner and operator of Pathfinder, a private training service focused on performance psychology and physical preparation for professional athletes. In addition to traditional schooling, Alex is now pursuing his PhD in Self-Hypnosis at the University of Bern. Mike is currently a Coach, Writer & Owner at Freak Strength. He has been mentored by coaching greats such as Buddy Morris and James Smith, and started his career working at DeFranco’s gym. Mike has coached levels of athletes from many different professional sports to Olympic medalists to pre-pubescent athletes, as well as consulting for high caliber athletes and coaches worldwide. As an ever-optimistic individual, it’s important for me to have conversations with those who have a different way of looking at what actually works in the world of sports performance. In the coaching world, it is extremely easy to have worked with an athlete who has achieved a high result, and then rationalize the factors that led to their success. It is very easy for us all as coaches to think of our own training as highly optimal, but a question to ask is how often and effectively we truly challenge our reasoning? In looking at training closely, it is helpful to fully understand the power of belief, as well as placebo effects in not only training, but also pain science and rehabilitation. Understanding human adaptation to training and rehab stimulus requires, not only an understanding of the body, but also of the mind. In today’s podcast, Mike and Alex “Brooker” talk about how they have evolved themselves as coaches, moving into the realms of hypnosis/mental training, acupuncture and rehabilitation. We spend a lot of time chatting about the power of belief and the ability of the mind to supercede a “poor” training program, and how the fundamentals of adaptation style can be seen in rudimentary rehab. Finally, Mike, Brooker and I spend some time discussing some training points such as play, competition in training, and training transfer. This was a fun show with speakers of 3 clearly diverse viewpoints, which always makes for great discussion. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly for 15% off of your purchase! Timestamps and Main Points 6:15 Mike and Brooker’s moves into more alternative forms of human performance, and a philosophy of when to move on from hair splitting in strength training methods 15:00 Thoughts on a system that prioritizes play and autonomy as a substantial shift in a positive direction towards the sports performance industry 32:30 Thoughts on whether or not gym training should carry mental, emotional and physical elements of what is required of a person in their sport 46:25 How and why our interventions in strength, performance or pain reduction actually work, and how much we really know about these mechanisms 55:55 How Mike and Brooker diverted from the traditional routes of strength, performance and data in athlete performance training 1:05:30 More on Mike and Brooker’s “skill stacking” in their human performance pursuits 1:13:10 Mike and Brooker’s use of high-transference exercises to athletic performance 1:15:30 In 10-15 years, where do Mike and Brooker picture themselves “Even if there is a difference between the two (exercises), and transferability, how much of a difference is it really?” “15% of who you are as an athlete, you actually have some type of control over” “The more high talented people you work with, the room to improve them in the gym gets smaller, but the room to F them up gets higher” “If we are in a sport, it seems the person who can assess the situation and execute on it as quickly as possible is the one who wins. How can you do that without playing games and being in certain situations?” “If the games are not (helping athletes better understand positions they are supposed to be in) then you are just spinning your wheels” “If you can make these guys feel good in the workout, you can yield a positive adaptation later on” “Competition breeds success, as long as it doesn’t make these kids crumble, I’m all for it” “I don’t think intensity during training is necessary” “Placebo works, when people know they are taking a placebo, it still works” “As times goes on, I get really careful with what I believe in” Brooker “I’ve seen guys get better doing horrible shit, things that should hurt them… if you believe (it is going to help you) who am I to doubt you” “I have guys that, when I work on them, they feel better. I have people who, when I work on them, they don’t get better no matter what I do, I don’t think they want to get better” “It’s not unusual for people to get prescribed anti-depressants for back pain… and they work” “When you tell an athlete “you should go and talk to someone (like a therapist)”, half of the time they don’t. They are talking to you for a reason” “If I get a kid going from throwing 88 to 94mph, that’s nearly a 10% increase. A 10% increase where they throw close to 100 times in a single game. The connective and soft tissue associate with these movements, this is not sustainable, these guys are going to get hurt” About Alex Brooker Alex Brooker is the owner and operator of Pathfinder; a private training service focused on performance psychology and physical preparation for professional athletes. Brooker received his Bachelors from Loughborough University, his Masters in High Performance Sport from Australia and is now pursuing his PhD in Self-Hypnosis at the University of Bern. Born and bred in the UK, Brooker now resides at the foothills of the Swiss Alps with his family and famous wolf. Brooker is the co-host of the Mike & Brooker Show and a wannabe adventurer / explorer. About Mike Guadango During his preparation for college baseball where he received multiple All-America honors and set numerous school records, Mike decided that he wanted to enter the world of physical preparation for sport. He began training people part-time while in college, then full-time the day he graduated. From there he had crossed paths with two incredible world renowned coaches that became mentors and life long friends: Buddy Morris – Arizona Cardinals head strength coach and James Smith – world class sport consultant. After working with them, Mike’s whole approach to training and learning had changed. He reconstructed his program and outlook on the training process. Mike went on to be the Director of Sports Performance at a world-renowned facility where he proceeded to train professional, collegiate and high school athletes. From there, Mike started up his own facility – Freak Strength. Mike is currently a Coach, Writer & Owner at Freak Strength and has been coaching for over 10 years. He has coached levels of athletes from NFL, MLB, NBA, MLL, Rugby League, Rugby Union and Olympic medalists to pre-pubescent athletes. He has also consulted for high caliber athletes and coaches worldwide. He has worked with 10+ NFL Super bowl Champs, 10+ All-Pro/Pro-bowl selections, 5+ College National Champions, 10+ Division 1a All-Americans, 20+ Collegiate All-Americans & players from every Division 1 conference.

237: Patrick Coyne on Holistically Challenging Athletes, Evolved Speed Training, and the Art of Sports Performance “From the Heart” Jan 14, 2021

Our guest today is Patrick Coyne, coach and owner of Black Sheep Performance in Cincinnati, Ohio. Pat started helping clients of all levels reach their fullest potential after his career as a 4-star high school football recruit ended in college due to injury. Pat started Black Sheep Performance in 2018 on the side of a house in Cincinnati, OH. Within 3 years BSP organically outgrew itself, working from renting gym space, to a barn, to a state of the art 11,000 sq. foot training facility. Pat has mentored under some of the top coaches in the nation, is a progressive thinker, and gets great results with his clients in his fast-growing business. When I moved back to Ohio in July, I connected with Pat shortly thereafter and have gotten several training sessions and conversations in with him since then. Pat has a training style that fuses many of the elements I consider essential: A great environment, room for exploration/creativity, competition and reaction, as well as an integration of modern speed training methods, such as those taught by multi-time podcast guest, Adarian Barr. As such, it was only a matter of time until Pat and I sat down together and recorded a podcast. Two of the big things that Pat and I are both passionate about are being life-long learners and then looking at (and experiencing) the holistic effects of things like the training environment, athlete autonomy/creativity, and the effects of music, rhythm and reactions on performance. On this podcast, Pat and I go into his background as an athlete and coach, his thoughts on structured vs. unstructured/open training, his progressions on speed training, rhythm, timing, how he challenges athletes on a holistic level, and some deeper discussion on the evolution of the human/sports performance industry. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly for 15% off of your purchase! Timestamps and Main Points 5:30 Pat’s medieval gear in his gym, as well as his background as a top-ranked high school quarterback, and his transition into strength and conditioning 11:15 What Pat believes held him back from being successful on the college level after being very successful (and physically fit and gifted) in high school, and what he would tell his younger self from his place now as a coach 16:00 How Pat uses games and a holistic approach to connect dots in his training programs/process 27:40 Ideas on how structured versus unstructured training, as well as the importance of being in the moment without expectations, in the training setting 46:50 How Pat’s speed training process has changed over his years as a coach 54:15 A chat on rhythm and timing in coaching speed and athletic movement, as well as using musical beats to time up various training movements 1:04.00 What Pat sees as the evolving purpose of the profession of a strength coach and the deeper purposes of training and coaching in the physical realm 1:14.15 Three things that go into Pat’s mind before each training session that tell him “this is what will make a great session” “(To my younger self) I would go and spend time doing everything that I didn’t want to do” “You have these training sessions which are comfortable and build people up, and it’s very ego driven to where you have your athletes feeling to where they crushed the day, and there is truth in that. But.. how uncomfortable did you make your athletes in a healthy way, in a safe environment, to where they could fail, to where you could see how resilient that athlete is becoming” “I want to see the full human being first, then we can smack the weights” “I feel like you make the most progress when you are having fun… why does a kid make progress so fast. Why do we throw that out when we are working with a pro athlete?” “They may have got their asses kicked, but what they are going to remember at the end of the practice is that the coach might have let them have some fun” “It’s your job (as a coach) to be a facilitator, you’re literally a catalyst, it’s your job to pull out from the athlete what they need, not to force (your markers) on them, because you are ego-driven” “The gym is the perfect place to be more resilient as a human, and a lot of that is games and not structuring everything in your workout” “What I do a lot of times, is I’ll sneak videos when they are playing a game, and I’ll show the positions they are hitting, and I’ll show the kids and ask them “why are you not hitting that in training?” “I’ve seen the point where fun and open chain (more games) does more damage; people who might need the structure to feel good about the session” “Seeing an athlete run completely wrong, and smoke everyone in my facility…. well, there goes everything I know” “Let’s work on falling first, and then all of a sudden you see athletes start to feel and they find their own way of running…. they are figuring it out, I am not over-coaching those positions” “I teach rhythm before force” “I use (training movements) to music beats, with my youth, every other day” “Our job is to optimize the human on the raw, foundational level, I think it’s all together, it’s spiritual, it’s physical, it’s emotional” “After a training session I feel like I can do everything in the world because I did everything I could in that moment to make myself a more resilient human being” “Feeling an intense, rich, fiery energy when you walk into a room, it’s kinetic. Environment, a lot of times is more important than programming” About Pat Coyne Patrick Coyne is a Cincinnati native who has a deep passion for athletic training rooted in delivering results. Pat started helping clients of all levels reach their fullest potential after his career as a 4-star high school football recruit ended in college due to injury. Coyne had the opportunity to learn from trainers & gym owners across the United States such as Loren Landow, Marc Megna, Mike Barwis and others. Pat soon discovered that his calling in life is to create value for Cincinnati’s fitness and sports industry, in his own way through his gym, Black Sheep Performance. Black Sheep Performance was started in 2018 on the side of a house in Cincinnati OH. Within 3 years BSP organically outgrew itself, working from renting gym space, to a barn, to a state of the art 11,000 sq. foot training facility. Pat started Black Sheep Performance in order to help as many people as possible and fulfill his mission, and BSP clients range from youth, to professional athletes, to seniors post-operation.

236: Bobby Stroupe on The Rising Tide of Performance Transfer to Sport: Locomotion Complexes, Vortex Plyometrics, and Time-Space Constraints Jan 07, 2021

Our guest today is Bobby Stroupe, founder and president of Athlete Performance Enhancement Center (APEC). Bobby has directed human performance systems for nearly 20 years. His coaching ranges from youth athletes to some of the top names in multiple professional sports, including first round picks, as well as Super Bowl and World Series champions. Bobby is well-known for his work in the physical preparation realm of Patrick Mahomes, quarterback of the recent Superbowl champions, the Kansas City Chiefs. After doing 235 episodes of this podcast, and opening up my eyes to more and more of the performance space, I’m always excited to find those coaches who are spearheading creative and effective training methods in athletic performance transfer. When I recently watched Bobby Stroupe’s presentation at the recent “Track Football Consortium” regarding his methods in working with Patrick Mahomes, I was like a kid in a candy shop, viewing training methods that replicated many time and space requirements of sport play without being mechanical or contrived. Bobby is not only a holistic and open minded coach, but he is also an incredibly thorough and detailed thinker. There are so many points of carry-over in what Bobby does, I believe that studying his work is essential if we are to reach the point of getting our training to truly transfer to the field of play. Bobby achieves this transfer in a way that still pays homage to traditional principles of force development and human performance, but is able to add in the tri-planar and chaotic nature of what athletes will encounter in sport. On today’s podcast, Bobby gets into a variety of his “unorthodox” training methods, including locomotion complexes, tri-planar plyometrics and strength training, complex training, long-term development, and athlete autonomy. Again, with the interest of transfer to sport in mind, any aspiring coach should be familiar with the work of Bobby Stroupe and Team APEC. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly for 15% off of your purchase! Timestamps and Main Points 6:15 What Bobby and I have learned about coaching from being fathers of young children 11:00 Bobby’s take on working with athletes from a young age, and how his team approaches long term athletic development 21:05 Bobby’s thoughts on being able to follow elite athletes for an extended period of time, as many professional athletes have been working at APEC since they were quite young 23:25 How human locomotion is taught using “locomotion complexes”, triplanar and scalar breakdowns of basic motions such as skips, caraocas, and gallops 36:40 Multiplanar jumps and how Bobby will complex these movements in with more static strength training means 46:35 Using different body alignments in strength training movements, as well as Bobby’s work with lunge matrixes using different foot positions 56:26 Bobby’s background with therapeutic education, and how that has impacted his work as a strength/physical preparation coach 1:04:00 Bobby’s take on the efficacy of technology for training athletes “What we want kids to say is, APEC is so fun we went up there and played for an hour and I wish I could come every day” “If someone comes up and tells us what we want them to do with their kid, we tell them that generally, it’s not a good fit” “Typically, middle school, with what we do, the girls are fairly dominant by the time they are in 7th grade” “We want to educate the individual on what makes them unique, what are their gifts?” “You will not find more variance than (coaching 40 middle school kids in one session) that in any training situation” “The number one rule of locomotion is “you do not restrict an athlete in space”” “There’s no better way to (calibrate) than letting the body move through space on its’ own with tension relationships” “I’ve even incorporated locomotion between heavy strength sets to make sure that the body applies those types of things to movement, which is our priority” “If you have an athlete who can do the caraoca pattern forwards and backwards (backwards is very difficult) and increase the circumference of the space they are taking up, that is a highly coordinated athlete that is going to do special things in space” “Anything that you can do with a kid that’s effective, is going to be effective for a professional athlete. But anything you do with a professional athlete is not going to be effective for a kid. So if there’s something you believe in that’s in your core curriculum for youth development, then you have to make sure your professional athletes get some exposure to that, because at your core, you are a human being” “If I’m going to take the time to do something that’s more human performance based, but not practical in a game, then I’m always going to cross it with something that is more multi-dimensional so that the brain and the body understand what I am trying to do” “I had a great coach one time tell me that they get better 40 times if they test agility first, at the college level” “For a lot of people, feet straight is “turned in”” “We are generally going to do a heavy squat once every 14 days” “I don’t feel the need to squat twice a week” “With Patrick, with 2 to 1 patterns, I’ll say here’s your options, I am going to give you 5 seconds and you need to get 10 contacts…. I’m creating an environment and he’s got to solve a problem” “Here’s how I look at technology: Does it elicit an action from my athletes that is more than I could product without that technology. If not, I’m not interested” “I think the higher the level the athlete, the more autonomy you want to give them… with high level athletes, things are going to come in terms of questions and options, you always want them to feel like they are in control” Show Notes 8 Point Contact Leap https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15UcR_g0Als About Bobby Stroupe Bobby Stroupe is the founder and president of ATHLETE Performance Enhancement Center (APEC). Stroupe and his team built APEC from a grass field in 2005 to a worldwide training leader in human performance today. He serves as the president for APEC, making strategic decisions, designing training systems, and guiding an elite team of coaches that power two locations (Tyler and Fort Worth). Coach Stroupe directed human performance systems for nearly 20 years, while expanding his influence as an author, consultant, speaker, and educator. His experience includes working with school systems, collegiate teams, professional teams, businesses, corporate fitness, and individuals. His coaching ranges from youth athletes to some of the top names in multiple professional sports, including first round picks and Super Bowl and World Series champions. APEC has been a part of developing over 20 athletes who trained with its system from grade school all the way to the professional ranks. Stroupe and his team currently support over 100 athletes in the NFL and MLB alone. He has been credited with supporting arguably some of the best in the game of baseball and football, including NFL MVP Patrick Mahomes. Coach Stroupe has been featured as a top trainer for multiple sports and athletic performances in Sports Illustrated and USA Today and on ESPN, NFL and MLB networks, STACK, Bleacher Report, and many more. Stroupe presented on various human performance topics at notable coach’s clinics internationally, including the NIKE Roundtable and the China City Bowl tour. He launched the CAPEC certification at Nike World Headquarters, in addition to doing work with Nike Training and the Nike Young Athlete division. Stroupe serves on the Advisory Committee for Wellness and Exercise at Tyler Junior College, where he and his staff powered strength and conditioning during TJC baseball’s four-times-in-a-row National Championship run. Coach Stroupe belongs to an elite group of physical therapists, athletic trainers, and human performance practitioners as a Fellow of Applied Functional Science. He has also been named an RSCC*D by the NSCA due to his 10+ years of demonstrating high standards and professional practice.

235: Rob Assise on New Ideas in Complex-Training Methods and Advanced Bounding Progressions Dec 30, 2020

Our guest today is Rob Assise, track coach at Homewood-Flossmoor High School. Rob has 17 years of coaching experience, and has been a regular speaker and writer in the realms of track and field, plyometrics and speed training. He previously appeared on episode #95 and #196 of the podcast. One of the more fascinating ideas that I’ve been working with over time, as a coach, has been the idea of using a “long-burst” training movement of around 10-30 seconds, to help improve the power output of “short-burst” movements, such as a jump or short sprint. Dr. Mark Wetzel spoke about this in depth on a recent episode and his take on it has confirmed things that I’ve seen anecdotally for some time, as well as read up on years ago in the mysterious “Greatest Sports Training Book Ever” by “DB Hammer” with the “AN1” and “AN2” bracket systems. Rob has taken those bracket systems and has done some creative training work with them recently, where he has also infused “infinity walks” which Dan Fichter talked about on a recent episode, into the mix. Rob talks about that today, as well as ways that this concept can be taken creatively for track and field athletes. In the second half of this show, Rob and I talk plyometric concepts, and how to build bounding and plyometric training “from the feet up” and “from ground contact times upward”. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly for 15% off of your purchase! Timestamps and Main Points 6:35 Catching up with the struggles of being a high school coach in this period of history 9:50 How Rob has been creating workouts with complementary energy system brackets (i.e. a speed-endurance energy system work recovering a sprint system, and vice versa) 18:50 Ideas on how to optimize track and field events based off of game play and opposing energy systems 28:35 How Rob has observed warmup preferences and tendencies based on an athlete’s neurotype 31:35 Rob’s take on teaching bounding and bound progressions, as well as ideas with bounding with different foot strike emphasis 50:05 Using power metrics in conjunction with bounding using the Muscle Lab Contact Grid, as well as contact time based bound teaching ideas 56:55 How Rob manages contact times for depth jumping, hurdle hops and traditional plyometrics 60:40 How Rob’s thoughts on speed training have evolved over the last few years, as well as “bleed” versus “blast” methods in working flying 10 sprints “A typical thing we’ll do right off the bat; we’ll do an altitude drop, something intense, then they’ll go into doing something like a speed Russian lunge for 30 seconds, and then they’ll go into doing an infinity walk, or crawl or carry, for about 90 seconds, and then they’ll do something to failure, like hanging from a bar or doing a cross-crawl superman or something like that; something that falls into one exercise recovering another” “One thing that might be overlooked the most on the infinity walk is the vision component” “I’ve thought about the idea of, do a couple of (high or long) jumps, then go to a basketball court and play 3 on 3 real quick (and then come back to do more jumps)” “We would just give athletes at the start of practice on a Friday an option to do whatever they wanted to do in the warmup. The type 1’s would always do something where they were competing. The Type 2’s, it would depend who they were hanging out with. The type 3 would literally go through the same warmup they would go through every day… if you just give athletes 10 minutes and watch what they do, it tells you basically what they are” “We work heel to toe on a low intensity (to teach bounding)” “I think you have to rotate through the ball of the first metatarsal when you are doing the lateral bound; you are also getting more of the lateral sling involved with it” “Any time you can hone in on a specific body part and get them some body awareness, that’s helpful, because athletes are really lacking in awareness these days” “The first couple of weeks we’ll do light barefoot bounding, so they can get better sensation, so they can feel the heel” “You are going to see more of a forefoot contact for .2 seconds and below, and anything that is above, you are going to get more of the heel involved” “(The shift onto the ball of the foot in jumping) That’s the moment of truth” About Rob Assise Rob Assise has 17 years of experience teaching mathematics and coaching track and field at Homewood-Flossmoor High School. He also has coached football and cross country. Additional writing of his can be found at Simplifaster, Track Football Consortium, and ITCCCA. He can be reached via e-mail at robertassise@gmail.com or Twitter @HFJumps.

234: Dan John on The Art of Letting Go, Relaxation, and Conquering the “Monkey Brain” in Power Performance Dec 23, 2020

Our guest today is Dan John who is a strength coach, track coach, master’s track athlete, best-selling author, and all around sage of wisdom on all-things strength training for athletics and life itself. Dan’s work has been profoundly impactful on my coaching, and training practice. The older and more experienced I get as a coach, the more I find his reduction to the essentials, as well as global thinking, extremely valuable. Dan appeared on podcast episode #96 with one of my favorite conversations since the start of this podcast series. If you’ve been around elite coaches and athletes for long enough, you start to realize trends that go beyond the sets, reps and training prescriptions that work their way into the results that are being achieved in competition. Elite athletes are strong enough for their sport, as well as being (hopefully) adequate in general physical measures, but they also tend to have elite levels of relaxation and tension management. Many times, the best competitors carry a different outlook on competition itself. For today’s show, Dan covers ideas on the art of “letting go” and achieving better performance through superior relaxation and tension management. He also gets into some of the creative coaching practices he utilized for his throwers, such as playing unique games, “range” throwing, constraint based turns in the circle, and super-setting kettlebell work with throwing. Finally, other important elements, such as the importance of being “deprived” of a good training environment, and elastic athletic performance are addressed in this conversation with a strength and track legend. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly for 15% off of your purchase! Timestamps and Main Points 6:00 Things Dan thought was under-appreciated or went under the radar in the original “Easy Strength” book, (and a discussion on the idea of what is truly important in training, and not digging too far into details until basic standards of performance are met) 13:00 The usefulness of games for track athletes in regards to their overall conditioning with a level of specificity to their sport, and examples of games that Dan would play with his track athletes 17:00 The power of not having expectations in having one’s highest performance 24:00 Thoughts on the “right amount” of effort in one’s skills and events in competition 0:36 The art of deprivation, etc. in regards to training equipment or commonly used exercises 45:00 A chat on the integration of kettlebell training into athletic movement 50:50 The art of relaxation in throwing, sprinting and even weightlifting exercises, as well as a unique coaching system for varied tensioning in the athlete’s body during lifts “I coach the hands and feet, I try to make them like mini-trampolines (a lot of bounce to the hands and feet)” “The shoulders and the hips, I use the old Chinese medicine term, the “4-knots” tight enough to stay on, loose enough that you can un-string them” “We as Americans have this love affair with these dressed up fancy programs on a spreadsheet… and it’s all crap… until they are throwing over 200,210 (feet) we don’t have to worry about the small details” “With my throwers, we do almost zero conditioning, but on Friday’s, we always play a game” “When you have no expectations, you let things happen (specifically in context of track and field throwing)… life at its highest end.. it’s effortless” “It’s the art of practicing letting go… I think that a true meditation might be as good as (that extra little bit of conditioning) because practicing letting things happen, especially in track and field (is important).’ “Track and field is nothing but “bows and arrows”. When you high jump, you turn various parts of your body into a bow and arrow, and if you synchronize it enough, you rocket over the bar” “I think that’s our job, to make the complex simple” “If you are doing farmer walks and throwing 40lb hay-bales for a couple of hours a day, you have pretty much covered your GPP” “You can’t have “leakage” when you are carrying a couch up the stairs” “Depravation increases capacity… by not having anything, you’ll be a better coach because you have to out-think” About Dan John Dan John has spent his life with one foot in the world of lifting and throwing, and the other foot in academia. An All-American discus thrower, Dan has also competed at the highest levels of Olympic lifting, Highland Games and the Weight Pentathlon, an event in which he holds the American record. Dan spends his work life blending weekly workshops and lectures with full-time writing, and is also an online religious studies instructor for Columbia College of Missouri. As a Fulbright Scholar, he toured the Middle East exploring the foundations of religious education systems. Dan is also a Senior Lecturer for St Mary’s University, Twickenham, London. His books, on weightlifting, include Intervention, Never Let Go, Mass Made Simple and Easy Strength, written with Pavel Tsatsouline as well as From Dad, To Grad. He and Josh Hillis co-authored “Fat Loss Happens on Monday.” In 2015, Dan wrote Can You Go? on his approach to assessments and basic training. In addition, Before We Go, another compilation akin to Never Let Go became an Amazon Bestseller. In early 2017, Dan’s book, Now What?, his approach to Performance and dealing with “life,” became a Bestseller on Amazon. Hardstyle Kettlebell Challenge became available in September 2017, too.

233: Lee Taft on “High-Velocity” Games and Reactivity for Developing and Established Athletes Dec 17, 2020

Our guest today is athletic movement specialist Lee Taft. Lee is one of the most highly respected game speed development coaches in the world, and has taught his methods around the world. Lee combines an extensive knowledge of sport movement and physical education means and brings this into the physical preparation space in a meaningful way. Lee has appeared twice prior on the Just Fly Performance podcast and has been a great source of practical ideas and knowledge on speed development for me over my years as a coach. One of the big things I find more and more coaches looking for is ideas on the long term development of an athlete. By the time an athlete gets to high school, let alone college and the pro’s, the vast majority of the “ground-work” has been done in regards to the speed and reaction abilities of that athlete-specific to their sport. Unfortunately, there are many pitfalls for young athletes, who miss many critical windows of early development for a variety of reasons. This podcast is all about the development of speed from a young age, how velocity rules training (even if technique is “ugly” early on) as well as some varied topics on Lee’s take on warmups for training and sport, as well as thoughts on vision training and low-box training for athletes. Whether you work with youth, or established athletes, or are a sport parent, this is essential information. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly for 15% off of your purchase! Timestamps and Main Points 6:10 What coaching athletes in the private sector was like in the 1990’s, as well as the state of athletes in that time period, versus the 2010’s and beyond 10:40 Some of the big rocks that have caused young athletes time to get taken up, and increase pressure and strain 15:40 Fun games and warmup ideas for athletes 28:55 How Lee designs his warmups and creates a competitive situation with reactive tracking work 32:30 How Lee links his warmups to the rest of his workouts, and how he will utilize games that fit with the greater theme of the session 35:10 Key performance indicators that Lee looks at in regards to how well his game-speed training is transferring 45:40 Some things that are doing a disservice to athletes early on in their development of game-speed, etc., and the importance of maximal velocity training for young athletes, and how skill development can come along gradually 57:00 Advice for an athlete in their warmup for a sport game (versus warming up for a practice) 59:55 How Lee looks at vision training from a “raw” perspective 1:09.10 How “low-box” training works and how Lee uses it in his performance regimen “Back then, it was really common for parents to say “Lee, we need something for our kids to do, what do you got? Now days, it’s the opposite” “We talk about ACL’s now, like we talk about drinking water… it was this big news (back in the 1990’s)… mentally kids are not absorbed in any one process, because they can’t” “I could get results quicker back then (in the 1990’s), just through sound training, because (the athletes) had more to give me. Now, you take one step forward, you take another step back” “Sometimes I don’t want then thinking… just go play, react!” “I love soccer related things for athletes that don’t play soccer, it’s tremendous for the groin and adductors, especially when they aren’t used to doing it” “Kids don’t know how to read spin (on a ball) unless they are exposed to it” “Days vary, because if I sense the athletes are fatigued, tired, bored, upset, we play a lot… I’ll sprinkle in teaching while they are playing, but that will be the bulk of the workout” “We’ve put them in situations where they have to make good decisions, and that’s how I judge (KPI’s for game-speed transfer)” “When I teach athletic movement skills, whenever possible, I think athletes have to be taught to react and go full speed so that their central nervous system adapts to the speeds and limb control that they need” “If younger kids are taught to move fast, and then we just slide in technique, they are going to be OK… I think young athletes need to be taught to do things really fast, as long as they are safe, let them go and clean up the mess as you go” “If we want the clean, we have to accept the dirty, we want to let the ugliness happen… most parents and most coaches are not patient enough” “I’m ok with them being ugly early in the foundation, to establish speed in their brain… go fast, you’ll figure out how to control your speed because we are going to get more exposure to it” “When we would warm up for a game (such as basketball) we would warm up with the ball… if we do skips, we are doing it dribbling” “I used to do a lot (of low box training) with 4 and 6 inch, I do a lot more with a box the height of an Olympic plate” Show Notes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpgTGWHhJpc Low box training example About Lee Taft Lee Taft, known to most simply as “The Speed Guy”, is highly respected as one of the top athletic movement specialists in the world. He has taught his multi-directional speed methods to top performance coaches and fitness professionals all over the world. Since 1989, Lee has taught foundation movement to beginning youngsters and helped young amateur athletes to professional athletes become quicker, faster and stronger. With the release of Ground Breaking Athletic Movement in 2003, Lee revolutionized the fitness industry with his movement techniques for multi-directional speed. His innovative approach to training has impacted how athletic movement speed is taught. Lee brought to light the importance and fine points of the “Plyo Step”, “Hip Turn”, “Directional Crossover Step” and athletic stance. According to Lee, “Speed and agility done right is about making sure we marry the natural movements athletes have with effective and efficient body control to maximize speed and quickness”.

232: Dan Fichter on Infinity Runs, Sensory-Motor Optimization and the “Neurology Driven” Warmup in Athletics |Sponsored by SimpliFaster Dec 10, 2020

Our guest today is Dan Fichter, owner and operator of WannaGetFast, a sports performance facility in Rochester, New York. He is one of the leading experts in applying clinical neurology into athletic rehabilitation and sport performance applications. Dan has been mentored by a variety of elite coaches, therapists, and neurologists, and has trained numerous professional athletes and Olympians across a variety of sports. He has been a multi-time guest on the podcast, with one of the most popular episodes of all-time being a joint discussion with Chris Korfist on “DB Hammer” training methods (an old-school classic). It’s somewhat of a “woke” term to mention the nervous system in training, as Matt Cooper said on a recent podcast. Although it is easy to pay homage to the nervous system as the ultimate controller of training results, it is much more complicated to actually observe and specifically train the CNS. This is where people like Dan Fichter are awesome resources in regards to being able to take the complex inter-disciplinary work on the subject, and tie it into simple methods we can use in our own practices. On today’s show, Dan runs through a wide swath of nervous system training topics, centering on isometrics, as well as their role in light of long term athletic development, crawling and the nervous system, infinity walks, as well as his keys to a good warmup from a neurological perspective. There was a huge amount of practical training gold in this episode. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 7:00 The top 3 things Dan learned from Jay Schroeder that have stuck with him over his years as a coach, particularly that of isometric exercise and intention 13:30 How isometrics specifically help create a condition for the body to solve a functional problem 20:30 How Dan’s exercise distributions have been altered over time (isometrics, bodyweight and traditional lifts) 27:00 Where Dan fits on the “5 minute hold” to shorter isometric hold spectrum 31:30 Questions on, “are isometrics alone enough to help an athlete overcome their injuries” 34:45 Crawling and links to neurology, as well as why it’s important to crawl in an extended posture position and the head up 39:45 How sensory stimulation precedes motor output in athletes, and the importance of stimulating athletes on a sensory level 47:00 The power of infinity walks in empowering an athlete on a neurological and sensory perspective, and how this can tie into, and be complexed with, other athletic skills 54:45 Things that Dan finds essential in the warmup process for his athletes 56:25 The electrical ramifications of tapping the heel in an athletic movement “As Jay says, “everybody is fast, and everybody is strong, they just can’t display it”” “Every step you take, the body finds the easiest and safest path, to complete the task” “When it comes to neurology, you have to hit it perfect, and when you hit it perfect, magic things happen” “Jay used to say this all the time “water will find the crack”” “One of my most favorite things I’ve learned from Jay’s was “quick style” exercises; my favorite exercise is a towel curl press, where they curl (the towel) up, they press it over their head, they pull it down, and then they extend their triceps, so there is everything about upper body movement in one exercise, and as Jay says, it’s recovering you while its training you” “When you get into studying the brain, it’s a flexion/extension synergy” “When you trace a complex movement, your cerebellum lights up like it’s nobody’s business” “For a 10 year old, I have them hold isometrics as long as they can… the younger you are the longer we’ll hold it. The older you are, the more developed you are as a mover, we are going to start weighting things, we are going to start shortening times, and making contractions more intense” “Your proprioceptive maps get compromised as you get older… my son when he was 6,7,8 could hold lunges for ridiculous periods of time, as he gets older it, as he picks up little bumps, he can hold less time” “It’s not anywhere in the literature, “I rock to recover”, just think when a baby is crying and sympathetic is going nuts, we rock to recover them” “Part of crawling is picking your head up to activate your extensor chain, because we are born in a flexed position” “What starts (shoulder range of motion) is the tactile stimulation in your hand.. if we lose that tactile stimulation, that is going to jam everything up” “People think, “I need to get strong, I need mobile joints”… you need sensory input!” “When you see someone do an infinity walk (figure 8 walk), and then do your skill, you are like “whoa, what just happened there?” “I hardly ever go back into the weight room during in-season training, one of those stations is always infinity walks; they’ll crawl during infinity walks, they’ll hold their breaths, they’ll do farmers walks” “The (reading retention) is way better (while doing infinity walks)” “Crawling doing infinity walks is crazy” “(Regarding the warmup) Breathing is key, getting your heart rate up, hitting your heels and creating an electrical vibration throughout your body, creating structural balance, addressing your reflex system, addressing certain joint angles, addressing tactile, and then the hemispheres of your brain. Just pick something out of those 10 things, there’s your warmup” “If you put your tongue between your teeth, and there’s some type of vibration going through it, your whole mandibular area relaxes” “Gaze stabilization is one of the most important things to teach an athlete… if you can find ways to keep your head still, threat disappears” “Your feet and your eyes dictate your posture” About Dan Fichter Dan Fichter owns and operates WannaGetFast Power/Speed Training, a sports performance training business in Rochester, NY that offers training to elite athletes. Dan is one of the leading applied neurological training experts in the world, and has made numerous connections between clinical level neurology, and athletic performance and sport training. Dan has coached athletes in all sports from all over the country, and is in two different Halls of Fame for his own athletic prowess in football. Fichter’s clients have included pro hockey players Chris Thorburn (Winnipeg Jets), Stanley Cup champion Brian Gionta (Buffalo Sabres), Ryan Callahan (Tampa Bay Lightning, US Olympic Team), Shane Prince (Binghamton Senators), Olympic track and field star Victoriya Rybalko from the Ukraine, NY Yankee shortstop Cito Culver, UFC fighter Mike Massenzio, Oakland A’s 2nd baseman Andy Parrino, Washington Nationals Infielder Chris Bostick along with Washington Nationals pitcher Brian Dupra.

231: Dr. Mark Wetzel on “Energy-System Oscillation” for Explosive Performance, Recovery and Maximizing Isometric Transfer | Sponsored by SimpliFaster Dec 03, 2020

Our guest today is Dr. Mark Wetzel, chiropractor and neurology expert based out of Nashville, Tennessee. Mark has been a guest on the show several times before, speaking about the physiological and neurological elements of the training method of “extreme isometrics” as well as the fantastic results that he achieved from using the method with a high school baseball team. Isometric holds of all sorts have become very popular in training in recent years, and for good reason. Where typical “up and down” lifting is a bit of a shotgun approach to performance, isometrics can isolate very specific elements of our physiology, and allow us to devote the body’s resources to these specific elements, rather than a wider array of general elements that we find in more traditional strength methods. One of the things you may remember Mark talking about on previous shows is the idea of “cycling through the energy systems” while performing a long isometric hold, and if one can make it through all of these energy systems, then a large benefit can be derived by the athlete. In recent conversations with Mark, he has been taking this further by teaching me how training maximally in one “energy system bracket” can optimize your performance in another “energy system bracket”. For example, most people in track and field are familiar with the idea of feeling more “warmed up” to do an explosive jump after running a 100 or 200-meter dash maximally. In the team sport world, playing a pick-up game of basketball is often a better warm-up for explosive jumping than doing basically any sort of “traditional” warmup that you might find. On the podcast today, Mark and I dig into these concepts, as well as reinforcing many important elements of the isometric hold itself, such as breathing, intention, posture and much more. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 5:05 Why do an “extreme isometric” for 5 minutes, instead of just 2-3 minutes in length 17:40 What Mark sees in the midst of fatigue in an extreme isometric hold and how this resonates with what happens in sport and life itself in uncomfortable circumstances 26:00 The role and sequence of breathing in isometrics and exercise in general and how it contributes to one’s results and recovery from other bouts of training 33:00 Staying in a parasympathetic state, and letting the body choose when it wants to go sympathetic 35:00 The role of intention and focus in isometric lunges and beyond 43:50 Thoughts on the idea of using one energy system to recover another, and how a longer duration burst can improve a lower duration burst and vice versa “The last 2 minutes (of a 5 minute extreme isometric) is when you can really tap into that Cori cycle” “When we lose focus during (those last minutes of an extreme isometric lunge), we have to restart the (energetic) process” “It’s not so much like, I need to grunt it out and hold that 5 minutes because it’s going to make me better at what I’m doing. It’s more about how much can I stay focused and how much can I hold the intention of what I’m doing in that 3-5’ window is going exponentially make you more successful at whatever you are trying to accomplish outside the isometric” “When you talk to yourself (positively) you release dopamine; and dopamine is going to help you hold on (to the isometric) slightly longer. Changing how you view yourself is going to help you hold on to that isometric” “When visual people start to suffer (in an isometric) their eyes start wandering… if you are an auditory person, you are going to yell a lot, and if you are kinesthetic, those are the figety ones” “Isometrics will teach you to keep calm through real life situations” “Exhaling longer than you inhale gets you more CO2 tolerance… if you are a stressful or anxious person, your body cannot tolerate CO2 very well” “When I do my isometrics, I try to breathe in for 4 seconds, out for 8, every single time” “You can trick your brain to think you are staying calm and collected by using slow breathing” “It’s about letting the body decide when you need to be in (the sympathetic state) versus amping yourself up for it. We know that staying in that state for long periods of time is not good for anything” “If you can hold onto an intention you can keep acetylcholine from breaking down” “When you stand erect, you will actually release serotonin while being in that position” “Every time you do an isometric, you need to ask, “what is my intention behind this isometric” “We have 4 systems, the initiation of muscle contraction (ATP), we have the anaerobic, followed by the aerobic, and lastly the Cori cycle. Every time you enter one of the systems, it recovers the previous system” “When we train, we train to recover and we don’t train to strain” (Jay Schroeder) “The harder I gave effort into my “recovery” exercise, then the more I would feel explosive in the first exercise I was doing” “Our body uses gluco-neogenesis a little to make sure we can wake up and start our day without having to eat something” Show Notes Tommy John and Vlad Curguz iso lunge hold 5 minutes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfEdRv7utNA&t=196s About Dr. Mark Wetzel Dr. Mark Wetzel is a Chiropractor based in Nashville, TN. Dr. Mark received his Doctorate of Chiropractic from Northwestern Health Science University in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Dr. Mark has diverse experience and is an expert in the neurology branch of chiropractic care and sports performance. He completed his undergraduate studies from Indiana University while competing for the Indiana University Men’s Swimming and Diving Team. Dr. Mark has a passion for treating and educating people who want to achieve a healthier lifestyle, and enjoys helping them reach their health and fitness goals.

230: Steffan Jones on Isometrics, Variability and “2nd Generation” French Contrast Training Methods in Fast-Bowling and Athletic Skill Development | Sponsored by SimpliFaster Nov 26, 2020

Our guest today is cricket fast-bowling coach and overall motor learning wizard, Steffan Jones. Stefan is the last “dual pro” between rugby and cricket, and is an ex-cricketeer turned coach. He is one of the world leading experts in regards to not only fast-bowling training, but also topics such as training individualization, motor learning and the process of reaching the highest possible level of one’s sport skill. Stefan has worked with many of the world’s leading organizations and athletes in his work in the sport of Cricket. He has written much about his own training process in the many articles that he has put forth on Just Fly Sports, which essentially amounts to a medium sized book. His synthesis of his motor-learning model he calls “The Skill-Stability Paradigm” which is applicable to any sport skill you can imagine. On our last podcast together, we went heavily into the specific strength needed to throw a cricket ball at high speeds, and some of the specialty methods used to train that strength, such as isometric training and isometric-skill complexes. This podcast builds on that episode by covering the means by which Stefan uses variability to further the training effect, and explore the possibilities of a sport skill to their highest potential. Topics today include: A chat on how Adarian Barr’s teachings on collisions factor into fast-bowling The role of training variability in skill building The role of fatigue in variability, “second generation” French Contrast Robustness How extreme-isometrics and stretch loading means can play a role in helping athletes to higher levels of skill on their sport, in conjunction with the necessary maximal power and elasticity needed. This is an awesome show for any coach or athlete interested in training, and goes well beyond cricket itself. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 6:00 What Steffan has been busy with lately in regards to his coaching, and how he tests his ideas on himself first prior to integration with athletes 7:45 What one thing Steffan is using now as a coach that he would “train” his former self with as an athlete 17:45 Maximal rigidity in limbs in athletic movements versus a more “controlled collision in training” 24:45 The role of general strength means in Steffan’s program 31:30 How extreme isometrics and stretch-loading impacts proprioception 36:30 How Steffan measures outputs and drop-offs in fast-bowling and isometrics 40:50 How Steffan adds variability into his training and exercise sessions 50:30 The “Two-Minute Drill” invented by Jeremy Fischer and how that can utilize fatigue to help athletes increase the amount of elastic elements in the movement 57:00 Thoughts on “second generation” contrast, and some of Steffan’s samples for using this method to improve the skill of fast-bowling “Technique underpins everything, you cannot run away from poor technique” “The fascia does determine the success of a skill that does happen as fast as a skill such as quick bowling does” “Adarian said, it’s not about deceleration (on front foot contact) it’s about controlling the collision and maintaining momentum, and that to me, shifted my mindset” “For me, concentrics, there’s no purpose for training sport. Sport happens too quickly for a concentric contraction” “For me, isometrics should be the number one exercise. Alex Natera is doing some good work and the skill stability feeds off of that” “I always have some sort of number when I’m doing isometrics” “Cognitive fatigue only affects submaximal work; cognitive fatigue doesn’t affect high intensity work” “Same but different, medicine ball work in my same drop and block position. My one intent with my speed gun is to throw the medicine ball as hard as I can” “Give me 4 (5) methods that I have to use with my fast-bowlers: Isometrics, whether that’s general, specific or skill-stability, wearables, LILA ball-bowling, and small isolation exercises as well… and fatigue is another one, isn’t it?” “We shouldn’t be afraid, because it is really important, and we should produce anti-fragile bowlers” “Monotony of repetition is motor learning’s worst enemy” “(In regards to training on the hard surfaces) Charlie Francis said about it, that you de-sensitize the tendon, because it really doesn’t have to work that hard because of the hard surface” “Try the two-minute drill with occlusion cuffs on, that is an awesome drill” About Steffan Jones Steffan Jones is the former Somerset, Northamptonshire, Kent and Derbyshire fast bowler who forged a career out of getting the best out of himself physically. He is an ex-pro cricketer of 20 years and is the last dual pro between rugby & cricket. Steffan is recognized as a global Fast-bowling performance expert. Steffan is currently one of the small number of people in the world who hold an ECB level 3 qualification as well as a UKSCA accreditation in strength & conditioning. He is the leading coach in England on teaching and using heavy ball contrast training for fast bowler development.

229: Adarian Barr on Decoding the Weight Room (and Olympic Lifts) for Athletic Performance Transfer | Sponsored by SimpliFaster Nov 19, 2020

Our guest today is Adarian Barr, athletic movement coach, inventor and performance consultant. Adarian has been a mentor to me for almost 5 years, and opened up my eyes to the movement potential of the human body, how to observe it, and coach it more optimally. He has been on this podcast for many prior episodes, and has recorded a number of webinars for Just Fly Sports. The best way I can describe Adarian is that he just sees things that nobody else does in human movement, and creates a wonderful groundwork for us to creatively express those principles in our own training setups. One of the biggest realizations, that I’m still regularly checking in on the implications of in my day to day coaching and athletic life, is how, when the joints and levers of the body are working optimally in “3D”, we tend to need much less barbell strength than we think we do to reach our highest speed performance potential. Not only this, but when we only operate in “2D” and don’t use our levers well, we need more weight room strength to be better athletes in that 2D paradigm. One thing that Adarian does not post about often is weightlifting. Part of this is because the world of coaching is very hung up on “force” as a binary entity in human movement, and we need more education on joints and movement, rather than how to split hairs on lifting sets and reps. Adarian’s eye for movement does go well into the weightlifting world, however, and was can learn a lot from his recent observation in the area. On today’s podcast, we dive into the Olympic lifts in particular, and how they can either foster athleticism, or suppress it, based on the lever systems we use in the execution of the lift. We get into this, and much more, such as the feet, torque, the drawbacks of hinging in the weight room, crawling, natural learning and much more in this in-depth episode. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 6:00 The redundancy of “coaching up” natural-skill-based human strength movements 16:45 Adarian’s history with weightlifting as a football player and track and field athlete 24:50 Deconstructing the Olympic lifts in regards to what transfers to athletic speed and what does not 33:40 Good and poor “class 1” levers of the foot 41:25 Thoughts on the initial stages of the pull off the ground in athleticism 45:25 Using the hands more effectively to change the emphasis of exercise to the body 50:10 Full catches in the Olympic lifts, foot pressure and internal rotation, and how these can be optimized for athletic transfer 57:10 Why Adarian is not a fan of hinging from a foot loading perspective “The feet are pointing out for a reason in (natural) squatting, because the calves are rotating them” “A lot of people equate lifting to athletic ability, that the lift makes you athletic. The biggest thing is when I see the levers…. Some people when they (Olypmic) lift to get strong, I see them shrug, then they do a plantar-flex, which is a class 1 lever, then they catch the bar. That’s not going to transfer over (to athleticism) they are probably just going to get stronger” “What do they say, look at the (lift) numbers he is doing that’s what made him fast. No! He can do those (lift) numbers because he is fast!” “I used to think (Olympic lifters) were bumping the bar with their hips. What do you actually see? When they hit the bar with class 2 (foot position) it bumps them backwards (class 2 being advantageous for athleticism)” “If the Achilles (tendon) isn’t working, you will be quad dominant or hamstring dominant” “There are two “class 1” motions, there’s inversion/eversion, and there is plantarflexion dorsiflexion. Those ones that use inversion/eversion are going to really do something… that reflexive class 1 saves the day” “That’s the beauty of the brain, it’s not going to let you hurt yourself… I’m trying to crash the plane (and let the brain save me)… It’s weird that people don’t let the brain work” “Everything is rotational, the direction is linear, but the movement is rotational” “Once the calves twist, the arches (of the foot) set with you. As I try to squat down, move the calf out of the way, and if you move the calf out of the way, everything else is going to work out below that” “One of the foot’s jobs is to sense movement, where you are in space and time, and how much load is on the body, but it can’t do that until they have been pressurized, in a sense” “Once you put the thumb down (in exercises) things start to change” “People crawl like a robot… once you rotate that calf, shin angles change and you don’t have to lift your butt up to get your leg through…. Just as I would rotate the calf to do a lift, I would rotate the calf to crawl, because I want pressure on the foot to tell me something” “Where is the information in the lift coming from, that’s really important” Show Notes Lift with More “Class 2” Lever Action in the Second Pull https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kW1D2hidqe4 Lift with More “Class 1” Lever Action in the Second Pull https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nopJgclbv5A Lifting with an “Eversion/Inversion” Dominant Class 1 Lever https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSQndyux4gM Donald Thomas Tremendous Foot Pressure Deforming High Jump Shoe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j3pbQH9nLU About Adarian Barr Adarian Barr is a track coach and inventor based out of Woodland, California. His collegiate track and field coaching stops have included UW-Superior, Indiana State, UNC Pembroke, Yuba City Community College. He has invented 9 devices from footwear to sleds to exercise devices. Adarian is a USATF Level II coach in the sprints, jumps, hurdles and relays. He has a master’s degree in Physical Education. Adarian’s unique coaching style gets results, and his work on speed and biomechanics is being adapted by some of the top coaches in the nation.

228: Mike Kozak on Building Speed and Athletic Movement from the “Arches” Upwards | Sponsored by SimpliFaster Nov 12, 2020

Our guest today is the owner of SOAR fitness in Columbus Ohio, Mike Kozak. Mike previously appeared on podcast #184 and has written several articles for Just Fly Sports. Notably, Mike has mentored extensively under Adarian Barr, and frequently posts the exercise and training progressions based on Adarian’s work. Speed is always en vogue in the world of athletics, but something important to understand is that running and moving right not only will make athletes faster, but also make them more resilient and robust, reducing injury rates. When we move as nature intended, and then amplify that in our training, we can make the most out of free-energy return systems. When we simply “produce more force” and muscle our movements, we may gain some speed in the short term, but we can do it at the cost of higher risks of injury and a lower total athletic ceiling. Mike has experience, not only with Adarian Barr’s methods, but he also has worked closely with elite physical therapists who have extensive knowledge of advanced methods such as PRI and the work of Bill Hartman. On today’s podcast, we are looking at the nuts and bolts of Mike’s performance program “from the ground up” starting with how he addresses the feet and an athlete’s posture, and then designs drills and tasks from that standpoint. We also touch on elements further up the kinetic chain, and how this can impact how we look at the entire athletic system. This was a fantastic, practical episode that features many important elements that we need to be addressing in the training of our athletes to fully integrate the feet, hips, spine and posture. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 5:30 How adjusting to outdoor workouts with no weights due to COVID restrictions created a unique and effective training environment for Mike and his athletes 16:55 How Mike does not have a formal strength and conditioning background, and how his own experience as an athlete, as well as his physical education experience, formed the base of how he now trains athletes 22:20 Staples of Mike’s program that he learned from Adarian Barr, starting from the level of the foot, and how he works his way up the kinetic chain 27:15 How Mike works on dorsiflexion (or doesn’t) and how he emphasizes the action of the foot as a second class lever in athletes 40:35 How Mike teaches the foot working as a second class lever to improve the efficiency of the Achilles tendon, as well as the preservation of kinetic energy 53:00 Ideas on the transverse arch of the foot and how this applies to athletic performance 58:00 How the feet relate to what is happening upstream in the kinetic chain (hip internal rotation, expansion, compression, etc.) “The start of our session used to be foam rolling, honestly just to take attendance (we don’t do that anymore). Let’s use the start of our session to do something these kids never do” “To me, level 1 is, do you have any idea what your feet are doing, and most kids do not… if I can get kids to now understand the tripod, not be a toe gripper, and then can I effectively get them on the inside edge (unless you are over-pronated)” “The main thing I try to get across to my kids is, “shin’s going down, heel’s coming up”” “If they (the athlete’s) do it already, I don’t have any reason to fill their minds with information they don’t need.. they are already there!” “If the shin keeps moving forward, and the heel stays down, you are staying in first class, you are just stretching the Achilles. If you are someone who has a lot of dorsiflexion range, then your athletic posture has to dial you into a start stance that gets that heel to pull up faster” “A person who has less dorsiflexion range may strike (in acceleration) with a little more vertical tibia, and that heel is going to come up faster” “The swing leg is tied to the impulse of the stance foot, if the swing leg is not in position to catch the impulse (coming up from the stance leg on the ground), your body is going to get desperate and do something else” “A lot of kids who don’t run well start to extend the knee before the hip extends (in swing phase)” “If you are stepping too far back, and that heel comes down and the knee straightens, that is the mechanism for an Achilles tear… we don’t want the Achilles to be stretching and loading at the same time, and that’s where heel taps come in” “We don’t want our kids moving forward with a straight knee, and the heel down” “In the simplest terms, I want kids to understand, that’s where they need the pressure (the transverse arch of the foot)” “A front-foot elevated split squat biases us more towards early and mid-stance, and a rear foot elevated split squat biases us more towards late stance” Show Notes Usain Bolt Sprinting (Barrel Chest, Foot as a Second Class Lever, and Shin Drop as Hips Pass over the Foot) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH-3cHxXAK0&t=44s DK Metcalf runs down Budda Baker https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ImdWvuzsCY Heel tap demonstration https://www.instagram.com/p/Burx-yIB_W4/ About Mike Kozak Mike Kozak graduated from Ohio State University in 2001 with a B.S. in Sport Performance and Coaching and a Master’s Degree in Sport and Exercise Education. In 2004, he became a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist through the National Strength and Conditioning Association. He has also added a Speed and Agility certification through the International Youth Conditioning Association. After graduation from Ohio State, Mike was a physical education teacher at a variety of Columbus Public elementary schools. He also coached 6th grade basketball and worked in conjunction with the G2 basketball camps. In 2002, he created Soar of Columbus with his business partner Nate Fugitt. In between 2002 and 2006, Mike trained youth athletes in a variety of settings throughout Central Ohio including Marysville, Hilliard and Worthington. In 2006, Soar opened its first facility in Lewis Center. There he has trained hundreds of youth athletes as well as a number of current and prospective college and pro athletes. In addition to his duties at Soar, Mike is also working with the NFL as a National Field Supervisor for NFL Regional Combines. Two simple qualities guide Mike’s training philosophy – expert teaching and sound program design tailored to the individual. Youth athletes receive the teaching that is necessary to establish a sound base of strength and speed technique. Advanced high school and college/pro athletes are trained in a manner that best prepares them for their sport or event. No gimmicks, no bells and whistles – just coaching at the highest level.

227: Dr. Pat Davidson on Pressure-Based Principles for Elastic Power and Athleticism | Sponsored by SimpliFaster Nov 05, 2020

I’m happy to welcome Dr. Pat Davidson back to the podcast. Pat is an independent trainer, consultant, author, and lecturer in New York City. He is the author of MASS and MASS2 and is the developer of the “Rethinking the Big Patterns” lecture series, as well as an upcoming book on the same topic. Pat is one of the most intelligent individuals I know when it comes to human performance, and communicates his knowledge in a manner that makes it easy to understand difficult concepts. He has been a guest on episodes #88 and #122 of this show as well speaking on topics such as an educated approach to movement screens and re-evaluating the “big lifts” in light of athletic performance. That combination of intelligence and communication is paramount for the topic we’ll be tackling today, which is pressure systems and their correspondence to our movement patterns. That sounds kind of complicated, but in reality, it’s as simple as looking at the dynamics of a bouncing ball, or the lungs expanding with air. Pat has extensive experience learning from leading organizations and individuals in this area, such as the Postural Restoration Institute and Bill Hartman. The ability to look at the human body as a pressure system is important because it helps us link what is happening in various gym exercises, as well as what we see in particular athletic presentations (internal vs. external rotation for example), and then look at how that fits to an elastic (tendon and static spring) based strategy of movement, and a more muscular strategy. In addition to a discussion on pressure, Pat also discusses his take on having a “strength score” for athletes in the weight room that normalizes performance metrics based on things like limb length and height. He also gets into ideas on how to “de-compress” the athlete who is compressed in a manner that may be negative to their overall performance. This was a really smart show with some powerful principles for any athlete or coach who wants to navigate the weight room without harming elastic power outputs. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage Timestamps and Main Points 4:40 Pat’s history of athletics and his recent thoughts in regards to normalizing weight room outputs across a variety of athletes with different heights and levers 30:40 Implications of athletes who “over-lift” in dynamic outputs and what physiological elements are playing a role in diminished movement abilities 35:30 Expansion and compression rules in regards to the movement of the human body 44:30 From a rib-cage perspective, what happens when the body becomes too compressed from a front-to-back perspective that often happens from excessive bilateral lifting 51:00 My personal journey in barbell squatting and Pat’s analysis of my tendencies towards compressive forces that allowed me to retain my elasticity well (and how I ended up hurting that elasticity later on) 1:12.10 How to work with athletes with substantial anterio-posterior compression to get into becoming more elastic and robust “Who measures the distance (of a lift), nobody measures the distance. It’s half of the equation of work” “You get punished in many ways, in the reward system of the weight room. If you go full range, and have to use less weight, that’s a “punishment”. If you have to do less reps, that’s a “punishment”.” “You are going to want to make progress so much (in the weight room) you will lie to yourself (by subtly cheating lifts)” “You can recognize people that have done a tremendous amount of strength training; it’s visually obvious. Watch wrestlers or bodybuilders go out for a jog. The whole body turns like a refrigerator” “Movement goes older than biology, it’s pre-biological. In-organic physics precedes everything” “That’s the original rule of movement, things have to accept, or yield this incoming matter, and that’s a good lesson to apply to every other part of that body. That’s the original rule of movement: Things are either moving into something, occupying it and expanding it, or something is compressing something out of it” “When I’m externally rotating a femur or a humerus, that’s expansion. When I’m supinating my hand or my foot, that’s expansion” “Compression is internal rotation, pronation, dorsiflexion… it’s all this compression strategy that we use to squeeze things with… ultimately you can be too biased towards one side versus the other” “The deadlift is kind of like a lower body bench press” “I want a rounded ribcage, because a rounded ribcage will roll like a ball through space” “If you get an athlete who looks like me (short, squat, wide) and you feed them a ton of these exercises that are going to compress anterior to posterior, and expand medial to lateral, you are going to make me run like a 2x4 that’s jerking and halting through space” “If I get an athlete’s whose spine is shaped like a paper towel roll (expanded A to P) by compressing them anterior to posterior, I might be giving them a lot of benefit” “Deadlift to me is sitting the pelvis backwards in space, posterior displacement of the pelvis to the greatest degree I possibly can (that’s a hinge) and vertical displacement of the pelvis to the greatest degree I possibly can (that’s a squat)” Where you will displace in a yielding manner is going to be based on which tissue is in an eccentric orientation… the only way I am going to be able to hinge and sit back, is if I allow the posterior pelvic floor to reach an eccentric orientation. The only way I am going to be able to squat is if I allow the anterior pelvic floor to be in an eccentric orientation” “If I want to purely hinge, and not squat down at the same time, I need to allow an eccentric orientation of the posterior pelvic floor to yield in that direction and I need a concentric orientation of the anterior pelvic floor to block movement going in that direction” “If I want to squat straight up and down, and I don’t want my hips to sit back, I need to reach a concentric orientation of the posterior pelvic floor and an anterior orientation of the anterior pelvic floor” “What is happening at the ankle is also happening at the pelvic floor, in a lot of ways” “In many ways, during these athletic movements for elasticity, my muscular system needs to be this re-enforced roll cage so everything else crumples” “100% (the knees in prevents the pelvis from descending/expanding in squatting)” “Internal rotation and adduction are compressive strategies, and you could very well say that what is happening at the femur is happening at the pelvic floor” “A wide obtuse infra-sternal angle is someone who is biased towards compression systematically, and a narrow infra-sternal angle is someone who is biased towards expansion” “(Intervention) could be not letting the AP compressed person do planks” About Pat Davidson Pat Davidson, Ph. D., is an independent trainer, consultant, author, and lecturer in NYC. Pat is the former Director of Training Methodology and Continuing Education for Peak Performance, and former Professor of Exercise Science at Springfield College and Brooklyn College. Author of MASS and MASS2 and developer of the “Rethinking the Big Patterns” lecture series and upcoming book on the same topic.

226: Brandon Byrd on Rotating Sprint Variations for Huge Speed and Performance PB’s | Sponsored by SimpliFaster Oct 29, 2020

Today’s podcast features speed and strength coach Brandon Byrd. Brandon Byrd is the owner of Byrd’s Sports Performance in Orefield, Pennsylvania. Brandon is an alumni of the University of Pittsburgh and has learned from elite coaches such as Louie Simmons, Charlie Francis, Buddy Morris and others. Brandon’s unique blend of rotating training stimuli, and his competitive, PR driven environment has elicited noteworthy speed, power and strength gains in his athletes. If you follow Brandon on social media, you’ll see the regular occurrence of sprint and jump records from his athletes. Brandon has some of the highest-output training out there in his ability to cultivate speed and strength. I always enjoy digging into the training of elite coaches, into the nuts and bolts that drives their systems. Some of the running themes on this show have been ideas such as the rotation of big training stimuli from week to week (such as in EP 190 with Grant Fowler), the power of resisted sprinting (EP 12 and 63 with JB Morin and Cameron Josse), overspeed sprinting (EP 51 with Chris Korfist), and then the power of competition and PR’s (EP 135 with Tony Holler). This episode with coach Brandon Byrd truly brings all of those elements together in a way that gets some of the best training results you’ll find. On today’s podcast, Brandon goes into the core of his system, and how he rotates his sprint efforts based on the needs of the athlete, to get the most out of their system. He also goes into his background with Westside Barbell, and the elements he learned from Louie Simmons that go into his training, as well as strength pre-requisites he carries for his athletes to optimize their readiness for the strength and speed program. (Note that when Brandon is talking about fly 10’s he is talking yards, not meters) Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage Timestamps and Main Points 5:00 Brandon’s main influences in athletic performance and speed training 11:30 How principles of West-side Barbell training show up in Brandon’s sprint training system 22:45 How Brandon rotates uphill and downhill sprinting to blast personal bests in speed 29:30 How Brandon uses wickets in context of his speed and sprint training 39:30 Concepts in using resisted sprinting, as well as jump training in Brandon’s program 45:20 More specifics on how Brandon rotates and progresses his speed and sprint training throughout the training year, and also how he modulates this for stride length, vs. stride frequency style athletes 58:50 What Brandon’s weekly sprint setup looks like for athletes 1:07.20 The power of “PR”s in Brandon’s system and how that feeds into his entire training session “Once you can control 90% of the force-velocity curve, you can create great athletes” “I don’t think the FMS is a great thing, because when you are sitting statically and not under high forces or high loads, everyone is going to look great, but once you are high speeds in sprinting, or high loads in lifting, you are going to see some weaknesses” “I believe your technique in sprinting is determined by your weaknesses… once you fix their weaknesses, then it is easier to fix technique” “Glute, hamstring, and opposite QL, those must fire explosively and fast, and they all must be strong… when I start an athlete, the first thing I do test is that QL” “In my gym, if you can’t do so much in a 45 degree hyperextension, I can’t put a bar on your back” “The body is scared to go faster… it hates change, so you have to force change by changing modalities… regular sprinting can’t do all those things (in context of using uphill, downhill and resisted sprinting to help break barriers)” “65-75% of the kids I get are heel strikers; they have to run forefoot on a sled, so that right there corrects their mechanics” “If they can break one of those records (uphill, downhill, flat sprinting) once or twice a month, they are happy” “I believe overspeed hacks the golgi-tendon complex” “I want my whole gym competing (team and track athletes) so I use yards (in sprint distances)” “When I look at film of my timed wickets, you can see the recovery (leg) go faster” “In my hurdle hops my guys get off the ground in .15 seconds” “If they are gliders (longer striders) we will do more downhill with those kids, I used to wait until the end, but now I feed it in every week or two weeks” “If they are short striders, I believe the resistance of the hill, that posterior chain will give you more power (they do downhills too), but they will be more on the hill and the sled” “The sled is good because it limits the soreness, if I was regular sprinting, I’d have to be more careful (because I have to be careful of competing against resources from training heavy in the gym)” “Sometimes we’ll do a sled, and then we’ll rest about 5 minutes, and do a downhill” “I have a list of probably 500 jump variations (to help athletes get more PR’s)… if they get a PR there, they are happy about it” About Brandon Byrd Brandon Byrd is the owner of Byrd’s Sports Performance in Orefield, Pennsylvania. Brandon is an alumni of the University of Pittsburgh and has learned from coaches such as Louie Simmons, Charlie Francis, Buddy Morris and Dick Hartzell. Brandon’s unique blend of rotating training stimuli, and his competitive, PR driven environment has elicited noteworthy speed, power and strength gains in his athletes. Brandon has trained state champions in multiple sports, Gatorade players of the year, and professional athletes.

225: Kevin Foster and Grant Fowler on Updated Non-Linear Training Methods for High-Powered Athleticism | Sponsored by SimpliFaster Oct 22, 2020

Today’s podcast features Grant Fowler and Kevin Foster. Kevin Foster is a former NCAA DI javelin thrower training for the 2021 Olympic trials. He is the owner of the Javelin Anatomy Instagram page, a regular writer for Just Fly Sports, and was the guest on episode #164. of the podcast. Grant Fowler is the owner of Fowler Fitness in The Woodlands, Texas. Grant works as a private training and online performance consultant and specializes in program design and injury prevention. Grant is a different thinker who has a distinctive “non-linear” and adaptable style to his training program design and previously appeared on episode #190 of the podcast. In one of my recent chats with Kevin, he mentioned how his training for javelin had exploded in his time working under the GPP programming of Grant Fowler. As we chatted about on episode #190, Grant has a rotating-PR version of training for performance, and uses a unique non-linear style in his work. Kevin’s strength and athleticism reached new levels using this method, and so on the podcast today, we dig into some of the specifics and philosophies that went into building Kevin’s training program. In addition to Kevin’s training for javelin throwing, we also get into some great discussion on mobility training, training holism and reductionism, general strength and capacity, and much more. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage Timestamps and Main Points 6:20 What Kevin Foster has been learning in regards to the importance and specifics of what a general foundation should look like for an athlete, and the negative aspects of skipping this type of work in favor of maximal power work too soon in a system 12:20 How much mobility do athletes really, truly need in their programs? 14:20 The possibility of looking at training “too” holistically, and never doing any specific isolated work to approach weak points 24:20 Ideas on time spent actually working on one’s maximal strength capabilities, and then how rotating those movements fits into continual progress with less effort 33:20 How Kevin’s training progress exploded while utilizing Grant’s training system in regards to lift strength and short-approach javelin throws 41:20 How Grant structured Kevin’s training program utilizing a rotation of maximal effort lifts, and any adjustments that have come in since last program 56:20 Ideas on individualizing workouts on a day in favor of athletes being able to make PR’s and create incremental progress 1:00.35 How to taper in a program where you have a non-linear progression 1:04.50 Kevin’s take on getting the needed general tools to achieve the highest specific mastery in sport, and considerations on where too much focus on maximal strength could potentially be a drawback 1:15.50 Grant’s two favorite recovery modalities for athletes “We go straight into these programs that revolve around powerlifting and Olympic lifting, max vertical jumps, velocity-based training, this that and the other, but we ignore the foundation of isolated joint mobility, getting your hips moving, spine moving, spinal segmentation” Foster “There are some people who look at training, almost too holistically. There was a point in time when it was almost too reductionist” Fowler “I think that stretching goes hand in hand with relaxation, and too many athletes have the ability to turn off their muscles. Relaxation is the single most under-appreciated elements of athleticism out there right now” Foster “We maximal strength train people for 20-30 minutes, maybe at the most, and in-between that we are doing a lot of other things” Fowler “When I go in the gym, it’s easy to pick an exercise, pick a rep scheme you haven’t done in a while, and that’s pretty much it” Fowler “A lot of people aren’t ready to train that intuitive, so you have to structure things more in the beginning, but a lot of people should get to that point (of intuitive training where they are responsible for a number of training decisions)” Fowler “You always had an opportunity to hit a new best (PR in training by means of variation), I think there is something pretty powerful about that” Foster “If you have a little too much variability with your big lifts, and those high-stress exercises, if you haven’t been exposed to that stimulus in a while, so we cut back the variability in some of the higher intensity stuff (in a taper period)” “If you are not scared of that 5-minute lunge anymore, week after week after week, then I think you are a better athlete for that, you are more confident and you can channel that energy” “My big takeaway has been always maintain that level of general strength and structure, and always have that in order to funnel into the specific work I am doing” About Grant Fowler Grant Fowler is the owner of Fowler Fitness in The Woodlands, Texas. Grant works as a private training and online performance consultant. Grant specializes in program design and injury prevention, and works with athletes on the high school, collegiate and professional levels. Grant is a different thinker who has a distinctive “non-linear” and adaptable style to his training program design. About Kevin Foster Kevin is a former Division I javelin thrower for the University of Connecticut. He is currently training to compete post-collegiately for the 2021 Olympic trials while working as a private trainer and consultant. He runs the Javelin Anatomy Instagram page whose mission is to break down and simplify the anatomy and physics that go into the javelin throw in a logical, critical, and holistic manner.

224: Michelle Boland and Tim Richardt on A Modern Approach to Exercise Categorization and Transfer in S&C | Sponsored by SimpliFaster Oct 15, 2020

Today’s podcast features Dr. Michelle Boland and Dr. Tim Richardt, speaking on the topic of exercise categorization and classification, as well as the process of selecting and integrating gym training movements based on the specific needs of athletes and clients. Michelle Boland is the owner of michelleboland-training.com and has several years of professional experience as an NCAA DI strength coach working with nationally ranked teams, and a wide variety of sports. Michelle is a leader in the integration of concepts rooted in the work of PRI and Bill Hartman into practical sports performance application. Michelle has appeared previously on this podcast on episode #108 speaking on functional performance training based on PRI ideals and more. (You can grab Michelle’s “Resource Road Map”, a compilation of the best resources in the fitness industry for free at michelleboland-training.com/resource-road-map) Tim Richardt is a physical therapist and CSCS who has been a competitive runner and strength training junkie since the age of 14. Tim has an awesome blend on knowledge on all things running, rehab, gait, and strength training principles. Tim’s personal journey through injury and rehabilitation, including 2 hip surgeries, has given him unique insight into effective long-term resolution of overuse injuries among endurance and strength athletes. In traditional strength and conditioning and fitness models, we tend to have things like “squat”, “hinge”, “push”, “pull”, and perhaps several other movements, based on our preference, when working with athletes. Although the “old-school” classification certainly serves to facilitate a general balance of forces and muscle groups, we can improve our process even further by understanding how the human body works in gait and dynamic movement, and then reverse-engineer our exercise selection from there. When our movement execution processes can match gaps, or reinforce strengths in running, jumping, throwing and sport movement technique, we can eliminate guess work and give our clients, and/or ourselves, greater results. On today’s show, Michelle and Tim speak on the evolution of their training processes and how they classify movements in the gym. We get heavily into running as a specific example, and how to reverse engineer training movements based on run technique. We also finish with chatting on how Michelle and Tim continue to integrate the “big lifts” into their programs, and what adjustments they have made in the versions of those lifts that stick with them in their training schemes. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage Timestamps and Main Points 5:20 Michelle and Tim’s recent modes of exercise and training and what they have learned from them 9:20 How Tim has been incorporating “one arm running” into his training and coaching routines 15:00 Tim and Michelle’s journey of evolving the lifts they utilized 20:50 What role do the big lifts still play in Michelle and Tim’s program, in light of other evolving categorizations 35:15 What starting point do Tim and Michelle go from when constructing a strength program for performance (for running specifically) 45:50 Adjusting the lifts in a program based on biomechanical running goals of the athlete 58:40 How a performance-driven session for Michelle goes in light of the big lifts and a modern idea on exercise classification “We need to get out of these gross (exercise) categorizations that have really come from other sports (powerlifting, Olympic lifting)” Boland “There is a difference between fitness and movement” Boland “I think there is a huge benefit to bilateral lifts because we can hit them as a high intensity stimulus and maintain that over time, and then use split stance, frontal and transverse plane activities as movements that will keep them healthy over time” Boland “We say the word “squat” but there are so many ways to squat” Boland “The first thing I want to see (in regards to determining an exercise program) is what their running looks like” Richardt “An individual (who is too vertical, and doesn’t generate horizontal force) might do really well with a rear foot elevated split squat to be able to fall, and “propulse” correctly. Conversely, if someone is falling forward too much, it might be worthwhile to elevate the front foot” Richardt “You are going to have to take that whole stack (head, thorax, pelvis) and orient that forward, to give you a much more advantageous position to push from. If that goes too far, then you lose the ability to create enough vertical force to support yourself, and then you are a series of un-supported falls in space” Richardt “How I view exercise categorization is, you need to pick two extremes, and then fill in buckets in between” Boland “Are we dealing with someone that is maybe, “overly concentric” and doesn’t yield enough, and then we might use a super-slow eccentric, we are probably going to load them minimally, or not at all. We are probably going to elevate the front foot and teach them a yielding strategy, because that’s what that person needs” Richardt “I use the warm up as increasing heart rate, blood flow, all that, while teaching them something that they are going to do later” Boland “There is always going to be an element of gait at play in bilateral activity… even though both things are happening on the left and right simultaneously, we’re still dealing with the gait cycle” Richardt “If we lose the ability to do a full-depth squat while chasing a 500lb deadlift, we are probably going to become a worse athlete, but if we can deadlift double bodyweight and squat pretty clean ass-to-grass, that’s going to be a more resilient athlete” Richardt About Michelle Boland Michelle Boland is the owner of michelleboland-training.com and is an in-demand writer and speaker in the field of human performance. She has several years of professional experience as a strength and conditioning coach at a Division 1 institution working with a nationally ranked top 5 Women’s Ice Hockey team, a nationally ranked top 10 Men’s Ice Hockey team, and other teams including Field Hockey, Women’s Soccer, and Men’s Basketball. She created Michelle Boland Training, in order to support others in achieving their performance and fitness goals to the best of my abilities. Michelle earned her Ph.D. in Exercise Physiology from Springfield College, has studied under mentors in the field such as Pat Davidson and is a leader in the integration of Postural Restoration Institute® based concepts into practical sports performance application. About Tim Richardt Tim has been a competitive runner and strength training junkie since the age of 14. He attended Penn State in order to pursue degrees in Biomechanics and Neurobiology, where he continued to run competitively at the club level. While in State College, he also helped to develop CrossFit Nittany, one of the town’s first CrossFit affiliates. Tim’s personal journey through injury and rehabilitation, including 2 hip surgeries, has given him unique insight into effective long-term resolution of overuse injuries among endurance and strength athletes. He continues to sport an addiction to lifelong learning as well as a passion for all things running, strength, and rehabilitation. In his free-time he can be spotted throwing around a heavy kettlebell in the gym, sprinting 200 meter intervals on the track, or enjoying a long trail run up a tall mountain. Tim has a B.S. in neuroscience from Penn State. He has attended Regis University’s Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) program, and currently resides in Boston, MA. Some of his certifications and course-work includes a CSCS, Crossfit Level 1, SFMA, exensive PRI course work, and a Dry Needling certification.

223: Charlie Reid on a Learner-Centered Approach to Performance and Dissolving the Term of “Corrective Exercise” | Sponsored by SimpliFaster Oct 08, 2020

Today’s podcast features personal trainer, massage therapist and musician, Charlie Reid. Living in the San Francisco Bay Area for 8 years of my life brought with it the opportunity to meet and learn from many wonderful and knowledgeable coaches and trainers. One of those that I met was Charlie, who I met at Pat Davidson’s “Rethinking the Big Patterns” seminar. Charlie and I later were able to both spend time at Kezar stadium learning sprint and movement philosophy from Adarian Barr, while having plenty of conversations on training. Charlie is one of the smartest and wisest coaches that you may not know. His base of knowledge is massive, as well as the range of those coaches and systems he has spent time learning from. If there is a system of thought out there in the world of movement and human performance, there is a good chance Charlie has experience with it. Charlie is not only a strength coach, but also a certified massage practitioner, and spent years as a professional musician. On the podcast today, Charlie helps us “zoom out” our views on things like stretching, corrective exercise and motor learning. At the core of our chat today is an extended discussion on the redundancy of the term “corrective exercise” and how to look at the body in a manner that leaves us wondering what truly needs to be corrected. We also get into a learner-centered approach, and how facilitating that approach may differ from working from novices, up to more advanced athletes. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage Timestamps and Main Points 5:50 What Charlie learned from a silent meditation retreat, and what he learned from that in regards to exercise and the body 9:50 The relationship between long isometric holds, fatigue and heart rate variability 17:00 Charlie’s experience with the Egoscue method, and what good could possibly come from holding a passive stretch for such a long period of time 23:20 Ideas on Feldenkrais and the body’s ability to heal itself, as well as teaching individuals to help themselves as the highest order priority in coaching 36:05 Charlie’s take on corrective work and rehab based on a learner-centered approach versus a structured approach 48:05 How being a massage and body-worker has helped Charlie to acquire a better understanding of the body and how to train individuals 57:20 How Charlie puts together a rehab/training program based on common principles and concepts 1:01:20 Where respiration and breathing has landed for Charlie and how he integrates it “As soon as we get the slightest bit of discomfort, we cringe up, and tighten up, instead of softening around the pain” “I wonder if you could look at someone’s HRV score, and correlate that with their ability to tolerate long isometrics” “Two of the most common reasons why bodies get better is novelty and graded exposure” “Feldenkrais never told you what to do, you got to come up with your own solutions, that is the highest level” “When you give constraints for a beginner, maybe it’s better to create more structure first” “The consumer really drives (which coach) gets the dollars, and that’s really frustrating (in light of a “position driven” versus “learner driven” approach to training)” “I’m less and less a fan of “corrective” exercise, it’s kind of a popular word, I know language is important, but I don’t know if we are correcting anything. They are low-force, inner directed mindful exercises to generate some awareness around something” “I’m always asking the questions, say you are doing a side-clam for your glute medius, but show me where that goes, show me where that’s eventually going to lead to” “I don’t love the term “corrective exercise”, it’s all just gradations of movement” “I will do quote-on-quote on corrective exercises if I have to; but only if I have to” “Anything that has a name like a “fascia blaster” I am probably not going to subscribe” “If you are feeling the need that you need to foam roll 30 minutes before the workout, maybe let’s talk about what’s going on, and maybe we can save you some time” “Foam rolling and doing low-level exercises is no guarantee that you are going to avoid injury; I’d rather you go home and take a nap” “I start there with all my people, learning how to get a rib-cage stacked over a pelvis” About Charlie Reid Charlie Reid B.S., CSCS, CPT, is a movement educator, coach and massage therapist based out of San Francisco, CA. His passion lies in helping others realize their physical potential through training smarter and learning to move their bodies in the most efficient way possible. He believes that physical health and well-being can be distilled from learning to master one's own body through guided discovery and consistent practice. When he's not coaching one-on-one, teaching workshops, or hosting seminars in the Bay Area, he is most likely drinking too much espresso whilst torturing a bass guitar. Some of Charlie’s certifications and education includes: B.S. in Kinesiology (San Diego State University) National Strength and Conditioning Association_-Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (NSCA-CSCS) American College of Sports Medicine-Certified Personal Trainer (ACSM-CPT) Functional Range Assessment Certified (FRA) Functional Range Conditioning-Mobility Specialist (FRCmc) Functional Range Release-Upper, Spine, and Lower Limb Certified Dynamic Contraction Technique and Ki-Hara Resistance Stretching Certified Precision Nutrition Level 1 Certified Transcripts: Joel Smith: So you were just telling me about a silent meditation retreat, and I'm curious, what did you learn on that? And in the sense that you could relate it to just things that perhaps we do in the gym or in rehab or quote-unquote corrective type work. Charlie Reid: Yeah. I mean, a little bit of backstory. I toyed around with some meditation things and I had done this thing called MBSR, which is mindfulness-based stress reduction. And it culminated in a one-day meditation retreat and it was kind of like a collection of different mindfulness techniques. So you got a little bit of exposure to different things, whether that's yoga, walking, meditation, sitting meditation, body scan meditation. But really the one day retreat, which was six hours long, was like the most powerful thing for me. So, you know, my brain was like, I want to do, what's like the Navy seals boot camp of meditation retreats? And talking with some friends and colleagues and whatnot, they said, Oh, the 10-day vipassana, you gotta do that. And so, my stepfather sadly had passed away in 2018 and I was like, kind of in this existential crisis. Charlie Reid: And I decided that this was the year that I was going to do this. So that's how I arrived as a little bit of the backstory there. But what's interesting. And I think for movement professionals, coaches, fitness professionals, we're such movement-oriented people. So I would say as it relates to movement and fitness, that taking some time to not move and just to sit is probably very, very challenging. At least it certainly was for me to be at this meditation retreat, having to, you know, you're meditating for 12, 14 hours a day and there's no talking, your exercise is basically walking in between, you know, hour-long or two hour-long sits. So, that was probably the most fascinating thing to me was kind of getting away from this idea of moving and starting to just sit with yourself. Charlie Reid: And also as we were discussing, just a moment ago that, sensations in your body physical sensations are transient a lot of times, they come and go. So they come and go into your awareness and they're not always permanent. So maybe as it relates to something like pain, oftentimes sensations of pain that you would feel in your body, or if you define it as pain are just a sensation like any other. And so you'll, for example, be sitting and I would experience like incredible back pain, but if I would just sit there for long enough, oftentimes it would go away. And what actually made the pain worse was like trying to want to be somewhere else other than with the pain, which could be a valuable lesson for people. Because we just, as soon as we get a little slightest bit of discomfort, we're just like, Ooh, no, we cringe and tighten up around the pain as opposed to softening around the pain. So those are just some of the many lessons I think that could be gleaned from that, but I'm sure everybody has their own experience and should have their own experience going through something like that. But yeah, it was a very, very cool experience. Joel Smith: I think in our general culture, we just don't tend to take much time period for anything that involves prolonged time periods of sensing and just being forced to sit with ourselves. It definitely takes some intention to do that. Was this before or after you and I were hanging out at Kaiser talking about extreme ISO lunges? I forget. Charlie Reid: That's a good question. I think it was afterwards or might've been right afterwards. Yeah, I can't remember. But I had been doing like isometrics... That actually be interesting to see, like if I did some isometrics beforehand and then did the 10 day sit and just see how the quality of that felt, or maybe I could sit with it for longer. I can't recall. Joel Smith: I think there's a lot of things to be learned out of like just the extreme isometric lunge, holding a prolonged, full stretch lunge position for time. And I think one of the thoughts that has crossed my mind is where is this pain coming from? Or what is this? And actually, I should say the most extreme,

222: Ty Terrell on Practical Speed, Squat and Core Training Methods for High Athletic Transfer | Sponsored by SimpliFaster Oct 01, 2020

Today’s podcast welcomes coach Ty Terrell. Ty is currently an NBA physical preparation coach and has a wealth of experience ranging from training athletes out of a garage, to coaching high school basketball, to being mentored by some of the top professionals in the coaching industry. Individuals such as Lee Taft, Bill Hartman, and Mike Robertson have fostered in Ty a unique and powerful perspective on blending gym-training methods with athletic biomechanics and outputs. A running theme of this show has been using gym training methods to cater to the organic manner by which athletes live and move, rather than working against it. In a recent episode, #220, Kyle Dobbs talked about “hingy, knees-out squats” and the cascade of negative effects these brought out in the athletic population. Personally, I had loads of elasticity in my teens and early 20’s, but I slowly started to lose the “elastic monster” by starting to train “by the book” according to current strength and conditioning methods and protocols. This show (and podcast in general) is about winning that elastic power back. Ty Terrell starts off by sharing some of the key points he learned in his beginnings as a coach under Lee Taft in regards to training athlete speed and movement. From there, we transition into all things squatting, and the load-unload, “expand-compress” paradigm that has come out of the work and ideas of Bill Hartman, and how this relates to athletic movement on the court or field of play. We finish with some practical ideas on how to make trunk and core training highly transferable, and represent the movement principles we want to embody in our total-body athletic movements. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 4:00 Ty’s start with Lee Taft, and some cornerstone teachings he has learned from Lee that have kept with him in his coaching 10:45 How to use bands and resistance to create lines of force on an athlete that can help them use joints better, or get into desired athletic positions 23:45 Approaching elite athletes versus youth in regards to training their sport movement ability 34:00 Questions on general versus any sort of specific skill movement training for a professional athlete 41:45 How athletic movement works in light of the expansion and compression of the pelvic floor, and the body in general 57:30 The effect of overly “hinging” every lift, and how a state of anterior tilt reduces aerobic capacity and even muscular compliance and elasticity 1:06.30 Reflexive core training and experiences to help athletes train their trunk and pelvis in a manner that reflects load and explode paradigms “When I started, it was important that Lee made me be a coach first (before the standard “textbook” learning)” “As long as you have forward momentum, it’s OK not to be perfect today” “Those are the three things that you are looking at in a single motion in athletics: Can you achieve the position, can you produce the force you need to in the time you need to, and can you do it in the context of the situation” “If you get a 10-year old, they are pretty compliant. They don’t have years of physical stress to let compensatory strategies come into play” “With the younger kids, you don’t necessarily have to focus on power to improve power because they are just improving everything” “It’s the simple stuff (the pro athlete) doesn’t do well (such as a basic squat pattern), because they never had to… I’ll say this, it’s the fundamentals that save pro athletes” “How many times can you do near-max efforts before your body can’t handle it, and says, “I need to cheat somehow”” “The number one thing I find (the NBA population) needs is the ability to squat. When I see someone who can squat, I can see someone who can maintain proximal control of their pelvis” “If I want to load something… I want to be able to squat, to expand” “Exhale is propulsion, it’s output” “If I’m going to do a cut and push right to left… if I can’t squat down, my push angle is going to be too vertical” “The inhalation, not only physically moves the pelvis backwards into a posterior tilt, so I can reach greater degrees of hip flexion, and so I can get depth, but it also expands the pelvis when you do that, and it creates that posterior weight shift that allows you to sit down” “Our industry (strength and conditioning) tries to find ways around faults (making things more of a hinge than a true squat)… maybe if your purpose is powerlifting, but if you want to demonstrate full excursion of moving, you need to be able to squat well, I call it squatting in a phone booth” “A lot of Olympic lifters, once they get the bars past their knees, the hips have to come forward” “When you are constantly in an anteriorly tilt position, an exhaled position, you tend to be less aerobically fit systemically” “For knee tendonosis, for the tissues to be pliable and move, you need to get the pelvis to move” “A concentric environment is a rigid environment, it has to be to produce force” “Rapid-fire med ball scoops is a good way to get a bunch of reps in to teach the body to reflexively turn the abs on” “Sometimes we need to do ab work that feeds us towards movement we need to get into, like a reverse crunch” About Ty Terrell Ty Terrell is a performance coach who has a broad range of experiences in the fitness and physical preparation industry. From his beginnings of coaching in a 2 car garage, Ty has built his philosophy coaching high school basketball, running speed camps, being a director at a YMCA, as well as working for tremendous leaders in our industry like Lee Taft, Bill Hartman, and Mike Robertson. This work eventually led Ty to become a strength and conditioning coach for a professional soccer team and ultimately ending up as a performance coach in the NBA, as he has synthesized all of these educational experiences into a training process based in science, practicality, and simplicity.

221: Christian Thibaudeau on Omni-Rep Training for Speed-Power Athletes | Sponsored By SimpliFaster Sep 24, 2020

Today’s podcast welcomes back coach Christian Thibaudeau to the podcast. Christian has been a strength coach for nearly 2 decades, working with athletes from nearly 30 sports. He has written four books and has pioneered multiple educational courses, including the Neuro-typing system, which goes in-depth on how to train athletes in the weight room (and beyond) based on their own individual dispositions. Christian has been a 4-time prior guest on the podcast, and is a true wealth of information. Our recent episode, #208, had lots of great information about the topic of adrenaline as an over-training marker, as well as how to manage this hormone in the course of programming and the workout session. One thing that I had hoped to cover on that episode, but missed out on due to time constraints, was to get into Christian’s take on using the 3-muscle phases (concentric, isometric, eccentric) in training athletes. Emphasizing various muscle phases in training is certainly nothing new. My own training design for athletes is often based on a hybrid of 14-day squat cycles, along with elements of the “Triphasic Training” system. Christian has been using rep-style emphasis in his programming for two decades, and has loads of practical ideas and training examples that can help us get a better understanding of these methods. You won’t find a more comprehensive episode out there on training using various contraction types than this one, as well as how each type fits into the individual characteristics and response of each athlete. Finally, although not required, I’d recommend you check out episode 77 with Christian, which is a tremendous overview of the 5 different types of athlete according to their response and preference to training means and methods. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 7:20 Why Christian is not going to write a book on golf training 14:05 Christian’s views on “alternative” forms of training, i.e. bodyweight, gymnastics, macebells, etc. 18:05 How the emphasis of “omni-reps” change when working with athletes vs. general population, and those simply interested in increasing strength and muscle size 24:20 How to approach hypertrophy training for athletes in regards to the neural intensity of exercises 30:35 Using all three types of muscle contractions in the same training week, versus using a single-mode and changing it every 2-3 weeks 39:20 Why you don’t need to train all three types of contractions to the same degree, in advanced athletes, versus novice and intermediate athletes 49:50 Particular phase of contraction methods that are most effective in regards to the three phases of muscle contraction 58:20 Dosage of advanced lifting methods in regards to adrenaline and neuro-type of the athlete 1:22.20 How plyometrics can complement or replace other phase-training methods in the process of the training cycle “I have a lot of respect for strength coaches working with rotational athletes, it’s a very big challenge” “Sometimes we do pure isometrics, but most of the time we do stato-dynamic contractions, which means we include pauses at various positions of the rep” “With average people just wanting to look better, I moved more towards a body-part, antagonistic split (chest-biceps one day/quad-hamstring another day); the main difference is that with average people who just want to gain muscle, we train all three contractions in the same workout” “The reason (for not doing all three modes of contraction in the same workout) is that athletes do other stuff than lifting; they are going to be sprinting, doing conditioning and practicing their sport. You want to keep neurological resources available you do not want to burn out your adregenergic receptors. People who just want to gain muscle; they don’t have that limitation normally” “If athletes, if I want to include isolation work, it would be on the 4th workout of the week, I call the 'gap workout.' So if an athlete needs more size, we might do hypertrophy work there using very low stress exercises” “For athletes, trying to increase hypertrophy using big compound lifts, I think, is stupid. When you want to add more tissue to your frame, don’t use more neurological stress” “You don’t have to make every single exercise functional in the training of an athlete, you must ask yourself why you are doing the exercise” “It will always be better to put emphasis on all three types of contractions, then just doing all reps normally” “Fast neural adaptations are gained in two weeks, but they are also lost in two weeks; you would need to stay with a certain type of contraction longer than two weeks for maximal results, in my opinion” “Slow eccentrics has been shown to increase activation of the motor cortex, which facilitates motor learning, and also improves coordination between the involved muscle. It will also increase tendon strength” “My main goal is to produce high force, at high speeds, at each type of contraction” “You can have a stretch reflex at any angle in a movement; each muscle fiber is actually a composite of several micro-fibers, connected as a chain together, and connected by a micro-tendon” “(Using the stretch reflex in an exercise) is more neurologically demanding than going slow the whole way” “The harder your brain needs to work, the more adrenaline you need to produce” “My last preparation set (warmup set) I want to be at the same weight as my first work set, or even higher, but with lower reps. Some people will respond really well to doing a single with more weight than the first work set, some people will not do well with that” “I moved to the RPE system about a year and a half ago… I was great at setting the proper weight for an athlete just looking at how they are lifting, and when programming for a distance athlete, I can’t do that. The RPE is the best way to program for distance/online athletes” “Most athletes should not go above an RPE of 8 in a big compound lift. I like to stick with an RPE of 7 or 8 for the work set” “In training, athletes should never train 'on the nerve'” “How much does your heart rate increase leading up to your set/workout? (An important measure of adrenaline/anxiety that diminishes from your ability to recover)” “The more complex a workout is, the more adrenaline you need” “The more you practice a certain lift, the less demanding it becomes on the nervous system” “If you are training for power (absent of heavy barbell training), you will not lose muscle strength for at least 6 weeks. Just because a lift goes down, doesn’t mean your muscles are weaker” About Christian Thibaudeau Christian Thibaudeau has been involved in the business of training for over the last 18 years. During this period, he worked with athletes from 28 different sports. He has been “Head Strength Coach” for the Central Institute for Human Performance (official center of the St. Louis Blues). His specialty: being a generalist. He assists his athletes to develop the necessary qualities to increase their performances (eg: muscle mass, power, explosiveness, coordination). His work method enabled him to lead several successful athletes in a multitude of different disciplines. Christian is a prolific writer with three books published, each of which translated into three languages (The Black Book of Training Secrets, Theory and Application of Modern Strength and Power Methods, High Threshold Muscle Building). In addition, Christian is co-author with Paul Carter in a new book, which will soon be released. He is also the author of two DVDs (Cluster Training, Mechanical Drop Sets). Christian is also a senior author and head writer for the E-Magazine T-Nation his articles are read by over 200,000 people every week. He competed in weightlifting at the national level as well as bodybuilding, He was also a football coach for 8 years. As a lecturer, he has given conferences and seminars in both the United States and Europe, to audiences ranging from amateur athletes to health professionals and coaches of all types. Christian Thibaudeau popularized the Neurotyping system. Neural optimization supersedes hormonal optimization because the neural response affects the hormonal response. This is essentially the founding principle and inspiration behind Christian Thibaudeau’s Neurotyping System. The bottom line is simple: you are more likely to train hard, be focused, and stay motivated if you like the type of training you are doing, and a training that goes against your nature causes a greater stress response that hinders optimal progression. “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” – Albert Einstein

220: Kyle Dobbs on Redeeming Internal Rotation in the Gym for Elastic Athletic Performance | Sponsored by SimpliFaster Sep 17, 2020

Today’s podcast features coach and consultant, Kyle Dobbs. Kyle is the owner and founder of Compound Performance which offers online training, facility consulting, and a personal trainer mentorship. Kyle has trained 15,000+ sessions and has experienced substantial success as a coach and educator. Kyle has an extensive biomechanics and human movement background which he integrates into his gym prescriptions to help athletes achieve their fullest movement, and transferable strength potential. He reaches thousands of coaches regularly through his Instagram account where he offers practical movement solutions in the gym to help people get stronger in context of how we are meant to move as humans. One of the topics that I am most passionate about in training is in regards to why in the world athletes can increase their strength outputs in the gym, but become slower and lose elasticity in things such as jumping in the process. I tend to see athletic outcomes of barbell strength tools as a sliding scale of increased performance due to increased power outputs and increased tissue strength, and then potentially decreased performance due to the body adapting to the needs of moving a heavy external object, and being coached to do so in a way that works against the gait cycle. This topic of the gait cycle and squatting/lifting is what this show is all about. In today’s episode, Kyle goes in-depth on all things squatting and the gait cycle, and offers real-world solutions to help athletes lift weights, as per the needs of one who needs to sprint, jump, cut and hit. Kyle also lays out helpful ideas on how to restore internal rotation abilities in those athletes in need of this vital element of movement. At the end of this show, you’ll know the crucial mechanical differences between back squatting and front squatting, powerlifting squats, and Olympic squats, that make a real difference on our biomechanics and transfer to athleticism. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 4:00 How doing manual labor and playing one’s sport through high school led Kyle to being more athletic than improving his squat and deadlift in college and becoming slower 7:00 How starting running again after spending years training primarily lifting and gym training has gone for Kyle, and what goes through Kyle’s mind in his run training 12:20 Thoracic dynamics, breathing and run performance concepts 24:15 Kyle’s evolution in the big axially loaded lifts, and their relationship to gait and reciprocal human movement 32:20 Internal and external femur rotation mechanics in squatting, and how hinging-squats have a negative effect on internal rotation capabilities for athletes 39:50 Distinguishing between “good” knees in, and “bad” knees in during a squat, based on adduction and internal rotation mechanics 46:30 Kyle’s taking on intentionally squeezing the glutes at the top of a squat 50:35 Reasons that you usually see Olympic lifters knees “clicking in” when coming up from the bottom of a squat, versus what you tend to see in a powerlifter 1:01:35 General principles in exercise selection and execution regarding squatting with athletes 1:04:50 Functional coaching points in unilateral training exercises 1:06:50 How to restore femoral internal rotation in athletes who are lacking it “I’m someone who for the last 5 or 6 years has done almost exclusively weight training, so getting back into unilateral reciprocal and trying to find femur IR, has been fun” “I think more about respiration (when running)” “As someone who has been doing a lot of bilateral, kind of more supinated based lifting, it is hard for me to get “inside edge” without consciously thinking about it” “What I get when I’m too (thoracically) extended, is I get a diaphragm that is more eccentrically oriented, and doesn’t really have as much of an ability to ascend and descend… I’m in more of this inhalation based pattern” “When you prioritize muscular integration, you are almost always going to sacrifice respiration mechanics” “Variability is not my friend (in the powerlifts)” “If I’ve got somebody who has good elasticity and good work capacity, but they have a strength deficit, that’s where I might need some bilateral lifting, just to give them a global stimulus, and give them more hypertrophy or more tissue development” “If I’ve got somebody who is extremely strong bilaterally, but they are short on coordination, work capacity and running well, then I need to get into more unilateral based work and need to get them balanced over one leg” “The actual rotational requirements of the femur and requirements of adduction change when you’ve got two points of contact on the ground rather than one” “When we run, we need forward translation of the knee. We need a knee that goes well over the toe, especially in late stance mechanics” “If I have someone with the hips back and chest up, old school squatting method, I’m not really teaching anything that is going to transfer over to gait from a coordinatin based pattern” “Me giving a powerlifter IR might give them too many degrees of freedom” “External and internal rotation aren’t a destination within athletic movements, they are a means to get to a certain point” “When we look at that hingy squat, that’s someone who is not able to access internal rotation very well” “If someone goes back, instead of down in a squat, they are basically just circumventing the need to internally rotate by repositioning their pelvis” “Power and max-load isn’t always the same thing” “The biggest thing that I see with the knees going in on a squat, and when it is good, and when it is bad has more to do with your ability to rotate” “If you are adducting a femur, but not internally rotating it, and not pronating at the foot, and you are just collapsing your arch, that’s a different story and that might be putting more stress on the knee” “When you are front loaded in a squat or clean-catch, that allows for a full squat and vertical translation of the actual pelvis, because that load if shifting your rib cage back over your heels, instead of forward over your feet. The load becomes your new center of mass and your rib-cage wraps around that” “Your ribcage is either falling forward or falling backwards when you are moving, it’s never truly stacked when you are moving” “I want a more vertical torso angle (in squatting) so I can get more vertical translation of the knees and an angled shin… that is going to be closer to what running looks like (and I am not going to replicate running in a squat)” “If I train a dynamic athlete, I am typically not going to back-load them unless their goal is to get as strong as possible” “(On lunges or unilateral lifts) if I can get the sacrum lined up with the instep, that is going to allow the femur to internally rotate during flexion” “Isometric split squats is how I line people up (in a straight line lunge for the purpose of restoring internal rotation)” Show Notes https://www.instagram.com/p/B9O8ESCgt7C/ Inline split squat for internal rotation restoration About Kyle Dobbs Kyle Dobbs is the owner and founder of Compound Performance which offers online training, facility consulting and a personal trainer mentorship. Kyle has trained 15,000+ sessions, been a legitimate six-figure earner as a trainer, managed and developed multiple six-figure earners, and has experienced substantial success as a coach and educator. Kyle has an extensive biomechanics and human movement background which he integrates into his gym prescriptions to help athletes achieve their fullest movement, and transferable strength potential. Transcripts: Joel Smith: Kyle you were mentioning before a little bit that, and I think we can both resonate with this is that we entered or what did you say? We left college as worse athletes than we entered. And I would say for me that was more probably in my later twenties when I started doing all the, the lifts as per technical specks, and squatting knees out and through the heels and stuff. But I resonate with that, man. So tell me a little bit more about that idea of you leaving college as a worse athlete, than you entered coming out of high school. Kyle Dobbs: Yeah, I think a few different things happened. I was a young athlete who just played sports all day. I grew up in the Midwest and did a lot of manual labor and kind of got strong swinging axes and pickaxes and shoveling and doing hauling hay and doing things like that. And then just playing my sport and being probably more of a lighter weight elastic based athlete. Like I went into college as a like 6'4" 185 pound runner slash basketball player and graduated at 220 pounds with a much better squat and deadlift, but a lower vertical and as a slower athlete from the, from that standpoint and, and with a lot more just wear and tear on my body. I had some injuries throughout that process too, and spent more time in a training room than I ever really did on a court or a track, which is unfortunate. But I think that's the story of a lot of strength coaches. And a lot of people that get into this industry is they kind of fall in love through the rehab and strength training process. And coming back from that end as their athletic dreams, kind of dissipate a little bit through that process, they kind of go into more of the strength and conditioning side or rehab side. Joel Smith: Did you go into college thinking you wanted to get into exercise and sport and all that, or was it, it was the injuries that got you there? Kyle Dobbs: I was actually a premed major.

219: Leo Ryan on Marathons with Zero Run Training and the Power of Breath Training for Athletic Performance and Mental Clarity | Sponsored by SimpliFaster Sep 10, 2020

Today’s podcast features performance coach and breathing specialist, Leo Ryan. Leo is the founder of Innate-Strength.com. He has studied athletic training, health and breathing since he healed himself of asthma in 2004. Leo has achieved a prolific amount of education in human performance and breathwork. He has attained multiple diplomas and certificates from many elite personal training, physical therapy and breathing schools including Dip. Buteyko Method, Wim Hof Instructor, Oxygen Advantage Master Instructor, Fascial Stretch Therapist, Strength and Conditioning Specialist and Pilates teacher. Leo’s love and experience for health and physical performance has seen him research more than 70 breathing techniques, mentor with coaches to Olympians, UFC Fighters and World Champions. Breathing is truly on the top of the totem pole when it comes to our day to day health and well-being (we take around 20,000 breaths per day). It has a massive impact on our mental state, as well as the physiology of the body, in addition to its implications for athletic performance. We can run longer, recover faster, and gain enhanced mind-body states through simple breathing drills, as well as becoming more educated on the topic. Today’s show was longer than average, largely because the concept of performance breathing is so expansive, and we as a coaching community, generally don’t approach it in much depth. Often times we are just told to belly breathe, or nose breathe, and leave it at that. In this show, Leo covers all aspects of our breath, including nose breathing versus mouth breathing for performance, breathing as a readiness assessment, performance versus recovery breathing, diaphragm release techniques, and much more (including his experience in running a marathon, and recovering from it extremely well, despite ZERO run training). This is yet another “staple” episode, as it truly covers this intersection of health, well-being, and athlete performance in the topic of the breath. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 5:30 Leo’s story of running a marathon on zero run training through optimal breath work and breathing techniques 16:30 Training repeat versus short sprint ability with nose versus mouth breathing 19:30 The importance of an aerobic base for the majority of athletes, and how breathing plays into this base 24:30 Why breathing and breath training is so under-appreciated by many coaches and individuals in training 29:30 How Leo uses breathing as a readiness assessment as opposed to HRV 43:15 Leo’s battle with asthma, and how that led him to studying breathing and breath for athletic performance enhancement 53:10 What people should be able to do with their breath, and “hardware” issues that could hold back the ability to breathe well 1:00:20 Breath training in context of a typical gym session with Leo 1:05:00 The link between breathing, adrenaline, and recovery times in training 1:15:00 Tensioning the body through breathing for improved power application 1:23:30 Methods to restore the function of the diaphragm “If I really wanted to perform in marathon, and hit a PB, and I trained for it fully, I wouldn’t mouth-tape (nose breathe)” “We know that pure mouth breathing will burn more sugar than nasal breathing” “Unless you are a pure power sport like Olympic weightlifting, a powerlifting type sport, you do want a decent aerobic base to you” “The benefits of breath training is all about recovery; for me, it is the main recovery modality, it’s where it all starts” “You don’t want oxygen just in the blood, you want it in the cell” “There are psychological aspects to breathing as well” “I only use HRV now with people who are not tuned into their breath” “There is a huge role for CO2 to play in anxiety, performance anxiety, and panic and fear” “You should have patterned in nose-breathing at rest; that should be your daily breathing pattern. If that’s not happening, then you’ll have a higher sympathetic drive, and that’ll have the knock-on effects of a high sympathetic tone versus a higher parasympathetic tone” “(Belly breathing only) is a weak technique, in my opinion… it can work, but it can take a long time to acquire only a diaphragmatic breath by just saying “belly breathe” or placing blocks on the stomach” “For the respiratory warmup, I will bring breath-holding into the general warmup phase. I will bring in 4-6 strong breath holds. Holding the breath through the nose has a lot of strong effects” “If it was pre-competition, I would have them hyperventilate; I call it supraventilation, which means, breathe more than normally. Maybe 5-10,15 breaths to dump CO2 out of their system so now they are more fresh and ready to go from the first whistle” “What people don’t realize is that breathing plays a critical role in emotional balance, and processing emotions as well” “If your diaphragm is retracted and not moving well, then your ability to contract and move the pelvic floor is reduced as well” “A very simple technique is 4-6 breathing, inhale for 4 seconds, exhale for 6 seconds, and repeat that for 2 minutes; it’s been shown to set you more into a parasympathetic state, and also open up the frontal lobe of the brain so that you can think more clearly” “4-6 I’ll use in recovery, box breathing I’ll use as a nice cam-way to get someone focused. 4-6 I’ll use to help them to sleep better, whereas box breathing (a symmetrical rotation of breathing in, holding, and breathing out; 4 seconds on each, for example) I’ll use in the morning time to get them more settled for the day” About Leo Ryan Leo Daniel Ryan is a Performance Coach and Breathing Specialist. He is the founder of Innate-Strength.com. He has studied athletic training, health and breathing since he healed himself of asthma in 2004. After graduating with a MSc from University College Dublin, he continued to educate himself prolifically throughout his professional career in Ireland and internationally. He has attained multiple diplomas and certificates from many elite personal training, physical therapy and breathing schools including Dip. Buteyko Method, Wim Hof Instructor, Oxygen Advantage Master Instructor, Fascial Stretch Therapist, Strength and Conditioning Specialist and Pilates teacher. Leo Daniel's love and experience for health and physical performance has seen him research more than 70 breathing techniques, mentor with coaches to Olympians, UFC Fighters and World Champions and he undertook several internships with the world-renowned Dr. Eric Serrano.

218: Matt Cooper on Fascial Systems, Proprioception and the Human Performance Engine | Sponsored by SimpliFaster Sep 03, 2020

Today’s episode features performance coach and nutritionist, Matt Cooper. Matt has been a multi-time podcast guest and writer on Just Fly Sports, and trains athletes and individuals out of his gym in Los Angeles, California. Matt is a bright young coach who has encapsulated many of the training concepts from top coaches, nutritionists, and human performance specialists, into his own system which keeps the athlete operating in proper neurological and fascial harmony. One of the things I’ve really enjoyed observing in the work that Matt is doing is his incorporation of the work pioneered by Marv Marinovich and Jay Schroeder, into his own training design. The combination of proprioception, reaction, and neurological emphasis is something that creates explosive and adaptive athletes, with a priority on the function of the body, rather than a priority on lifting a barbell max at all costs (and when you respect the nervous system in training, you tend to get improved lifting numbers without the neurological cost that comes from hammering away at bilateral sagittal plane lifts). Recently, a few arenas of training that Matt has been working through that I found particularly intriguing, were his thoughts on training the fascial system, as well as a recent article of his defending proprioceptive training, when we define its role in the training process correctly. For today’s podcast, Matt talks about the role of the fascial system in human movement, as well as its importance in regards to training in light of exercise selection. Matt also talks about proprioceptive training, its role in light of the greater training process, and practical exercises for training both the proprioceptive and fascial systems. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 6:15 What training the fascial system means to Matt 16:15 Methods to engage the fascial system appropriately in training 24:45 Reasons that barbell squatting can cause neurological irritants to high-performance athletics over time 37:35 Training movements that can improve tensegrity in the body and fascial function 46:15 How Matt programs Olympic lifting and Keiser/Supercat machines, in respect to the feet and fascial dynamics 53:15 The value of proprioceptive and dynamic balance work in training and performance “The fascia being well-wound together is not just an injury prevention concept, but the fascia being well-woven together like a basket, that actually helps store, transfer and release elastic energy effortlessly” “(In a powerlifting squat) the athlete’s fascia has to revolve around the bar path” “If the fascia is adapting around these big compound movements, and they are the centerpiece of our training, then we are sort of adapting athletes neuro-myo-fascially to be sagittal movers, and not everything else” “You can do corrective exercises in a way that get the neuro-myo-fascial segments of the body well-orchestrated” “The main emphasis of our training is one that respects natural biomechanics” “You are setting off a completely different muscle firing pattern by having someone squat off the heel; and the heaviest load is going to happen at the joint angle that is most compromised” “The engine of the car in humans is a lot more horizontal, it’s push-pull; this is the engine that really drives the car, and if you really (axially) stack the body, chances are you are not going to see that turn into more fluid movement” “If I’m doing a little too much sagittal lifting, the movement is too much about the bar and the bar path, and the athlete has to mechanically adapt around that load” “I’ve been having my guys do Olympic lifts, pretty much all off the forefoot” “The bread and butter should not be the pure sagittal linear lifts, that’s kind of my stance” “There is a case to be had that proprioceptive training is, more of a feedback mechanism than anything” “Doing proprioceptive exercises might be a way to get an athlete to feel parts of the body they might not have previously utilized” Show Notes Matt’s addendum to ideas on facial work in compound movements versus machines “In addition to the neuro-myofascial element, the athlete also has to create proprioception and engage stabilizers on some of those big compound movements that maybe would not compliment them for sport. What we should be trying to do as coaches is reinforce stabilizers, proprioception, and fascia in a way that respects the demands of the sport, whereas if you take something like a Keiser squat or a heavily loaded Super-cat squat, you’re not going to have the consequence of creating the wrong code of stabilizers, improper muscle firing patterns, not-necessarily-ideal proprioceptive maps, and unwanted neuro-myofascial connections” Supercat training for a more athletic strength stimulus and fascial adaptation View this post on Instagram A post shared by Matt COOPer (@rewireperformance) on Aug 13, 2019 at 7:21pm PDT Coiling lunges inspired by David Weck https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tN5LQYHbLE0 About Matt Cooper Matt Cooper (Coop) is a nutrition consultant, strength & conditioning coach, and human performance coach from California. Driven by an obsession to expand human performance, Coop spends his time researching, experimenting, doing nerdy things, and building better humans in general at Stand Out Performance (Fast Twitch LA) in Compton, California. Coop works with athletes and individuals-from developmental to professional levels-remotely and in-person to optimize their health, performance, and fitness. Coop translates research, experience, and human performance technology to design one stop shop services and programs that address relevant areas, including nutrition, health, training, sleep, mind/body integration, the nervous system, recovery, and beyond. Coop’s own personal journey began in athletics and fitness-until poor health and mental states befell him at an early age- this lead to him becoming his own practitioner and fuels his current work, marrying functional medicine and human performance to help others become superhuman. Certified Nutrition Consultant Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) NeuFit Electrotherapist Speed of Sport Affiliate; Certified Sport Performance Specialist Director: Wellness I Performance I Sport Science; Fast Twitch LA Director: Wellness I Performance I Sport Science; Black House MMA Consultant: The Third Wave Chief Scientific Officer, Ketone Score Over 1K Clients Helped (pro/developing athletes, individuals, businesses, addiction/trauma) Co-Author, The Ketogenic Diet: A Metabolic Manifesto For Dieter & Practitioner Communications; SSU Transcripts Joel Smith: Welcome to another episode terms like the fascial system and proprioception, I think have a bit of a mystique to them. Training those entities is probably not as directly measurable as doing a 12 week bicep/ tricep arm training program and measuring how much bigger your arm got, or even doing a 12 week squat program and seeing how much your squat run up, or a plyometric program and seeing how much your vertical jump went up. But nonetheless, these are components that feed into a good training program and addressing these elements will allow athletes to see improved outputs. Particularly if we're talking fascial training and proprioception, seeing it in dynamic output. Sprinting, jumping, athletic movement, explosive athletic movement. And I get asked every now and then, what's a good resource for these things. And I think the fact is that there's not a whole lot of solid, readily available material linking these concepts and entities to training. Joel Smith: And so that brings in our guests for the day, which is performance coach and nutritionist, Matt Cooper. Matt's been a multi-time guest on this podcast. He's written a lot of great articles for Just Fly Sports. And Matt is a coach who every time I talk to, I always come away learning something new. Not just something, but a lot of things. And he is one of the brightest young minds, the most inquisitive, a guy who is just really driven by learning from so many of the best and also most progressive coaching minds in the game. People like Marvin Marinovich, Jay Schroeder to name a few. Matt has a system that is truly driven on just driving neurologically optimal training means and methods to the athlete in the athletes program. So a few things that Matt had been talking about recently with me was ideas on the fascial system as well as the proprioceptive system. Joel Smith: And that was partly coming from an article that I had read that Matt wrote on Simplifaster about kind of redeeming proprioceptive training for athletes. I think we just, if it has to do with standing on a balance ball, we instantly write it off. When in reality body awareness and kinesthetic awareness and, and honing in the proper receptive system, it does offer benefits and can play a role in the training program if we just look for just distinctly what it has to offer. So that being said, Matt's going to get into the role of the fascial system and movement, how the fascial system adapts to different training methods, specifically axely loaded lifts versus more dynamic movements, how to mix that all together in training. And then he's going to get into the role of the proprioceptive system and training how to train it and how to address that is part of the bigger picture. Joel Smith: So this was an awesome talk. Matt is such a bright guy and always enjoyed having chats with him on training.

217: Brett Bartholomew on Communication, Human Dynamics and the Evolution of Coaching in Sport | Sponsored by SimpliFaster Aug 27, 2020

Today’s episode features performance coach, author, and speaker, Brett Bartholomew. Brett is the founder of “Art of Coaching™”, which works with corporations in the financial and tech sector, medical professionals, military, as well as professional sporting organizations to enhance their leadership ability through improved communication and understanding of human behavior. Brett is the author of the best-selling book “Conscious Coaching”, and has spoken worldwide on performance and communication topics. Brett has served as a performance coach for a diverse range of athletes, ranging from youth to Olympians, those in nearly every professional sport, as well as those in the U.S. Special Forces and Fortune 500 companies. Coaching is a rapidly evolving field. Strength coaches must grow in a multi-disciplinary manner on a variety of levels to stay competitive and serve athletes better. Sport skill coaches cannot simply use the same rigid cues and drill sets and methods that their coach used on them. Rather, a thorough understanding of human learning and psychology, a more holistic model must be found to facilitate the optimal technical and tactical development of the athlete. Brett Bartholomew has evolved greatly in his time as a coach, and his diverse coaching background has given him the means to see a large problem in the field: A lack of education, skills, and emphasis in general on communication and understanding of human behavior. Being a better communicator means acquiring better buy-in, more effort, and more enjoyment on the part of those we are coaching, and there are a lot of means by which we can improve in this arena as coaches. On today’s show, Brett talks about why communication has been under-emphasized in coaching (despite its importance) how improving in this area can improve athlete outputs, as well as practices and exercises that coaches can utilize to improve their own leadership and communication abilities. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 3:30 Key moments in Brett’s evolution as a coach, and his drive towards an emphasis on communication in learning 11:45 Why communication is under-emphasized in most coach education programs, and why coaches are often blind to their own coaching communication abilities 20:40 Concrete outcomes of better communication on the level of the coach and athlete 26:10 How improving one’s communication can help one’s evolution as a coach and leader 38:00 Impression management in life, as well as in the coaching profession 44:10 Types of activities that can make a coach better in a chaotic environment “Most leaders at companies at high level organizations are making decisions with less than 70% of the information that they need” “Athletes are people first… you have to show varying levels of yourself, building buy in requires you to get on the level of other people” “Why do we think we are so good at communication when so few people get evaluated (in communication)” “We think that just because we value getting information a certain way, that other people value that way as well” “When the foundation of coaching is communicating with others, and knowing how to translate literally and metaphorically what you mean to broader audience, and you can’t do that, something has gone wrong” “You need to be able to tune your message into different frequencies” “If you are a better communicator, you are going to get more out of people” “Success with high performance environments is not just about managing an athlete’s training, it’s about managing the athlete themselves, and their environment” “There’s 5-6 forms of various impression management tactics people use, and once you know them, you can’t help but see them everywhere. It’s not about are they right or wrong, it’s are they managed skillfully and ethically” “Coaching and communication and leadership is a non-linear thing… the only way to fight chaos is to become more adapted to chaos” “If you don’t put skin in the game, I don’t know that you are going to improve” About Brett Bartholomew Brett Bartholomew is a performance coach, author and keynote speaker. His company, Art of Coaching™ works with corporations in the financial and tech sector, medical professionals, military, as well as professional sporting organizations to enhance their ability to lead more effectively through a better understanding of human behavior, persuasion, and power dynamics. His book Conscious Coaching: The Art & Science of Building Buy-In, was named, The #1 BESTSELLER IN SPORTS COACHING ON AMAZON The #8 BESTSELLER IN BUSINESS & LEADERSHIP AMAZON TOP 100 BESTSELLER ON AMAZON Prior to his work in the leadership space, Brett served as a performance coach for a diverse range of athletes across 23 sports worldwide including those who compete in the NFL, NBA, MLB, UFC, MLS, and NCAA, the Olympics as well as members of the U.S. Special Forces and Fortune 500 companies. Transcripts Joel Smith: On this show, we're always trying to find, or grab those low hanging fruits of athletic performance, whether it be training the mind, nutrition, stress, and lifestyle perception, reaction, finer points of speed biomechanics, and really anything that exists that I feel is really underrepresented in the way that we seek to give athletes their best experience I'm always looking for. When it comes to coaching, Brett Bartholomew is addressing a very significant, low hanging fruit, and that is of understanding human behavior and communicating properly with one's team, athletes, whoever you're working with in coaching. That's something that doesn't just reside in the coaching field, but is universal. And it shows in Brett's work. Brett is the founder of the Art of Coaching, where he works with many corporations, such as finance, tech, medical professionals, military, as well as sport and athletic coaches. Brett is the author of the bestselling book, Conscious Coaching. Joel Smith: He spoken worldwide on performance and communication topics. And of course, Brett has put his years in, in the trenches coaching, having worked with a diverse range of athletes from youth to Olympians to those in nearly every professional sport, as well as those in U.S. Special Forces and fortune 500 companies. Coaching is really a rapidly evolving field, especially sports performance is so multidisciplinary. I think there's so many things that we can put in our own tool belt in our layers of awareness to just be better at what we do to serve athletes better, to give them the best in training techniques, but also the best experience, the best buy-in the best relationship with us as coaches. And so with that, our show with Brett has some really relevant topics lined up. He's going to talk about some key moments in his evolution as a coach and key moments where he really saw communication has a really important part or piece in the coaches arsenal. Joel Smith: He's going to talk about why communication is underemphasized, concrete outcomes of improving one's communication and knowledge of human behavior, and finally, some practical activities and ideas that can help coaches get a better sense of themselves, better awareness and improve the way that they speak and interact with their athletes on a regular basis. I'm excited to get you guys this episode, so let's get onto it. Episode 217 with Brett Bartholomew. Brett man, it's awesome to have you on the show. Thanks for being here today. Brett Bartholomew : Hey, great to be on here. Thanks for having me. Joel Smith: So I know that you've talked about this multiple probably podcasts in the past and many times on your own, but we have a kind of a multidisciplinary field in strength and conditioning and it, and it needs to evolve. And in some ways I think of things as becoming your own superhero, you know, what skills are you putting onto yourself and how are you evolving over time to serve athletes better? And so my question for you is, what are some skills at critical moments and skills that you've formed yourself as a coach over the years? Brett Bartholomew : Yeah. I think the ability to adapt a lot more effectively and efficiently by putting myself in dense and diverse environments, you know, there were a lot of times where it's one thing to coach athletes in a environment where you have all the tech, all the toys, all the tools you need. It's another thing when all of a sudden, you know, I was on a plane having to teach in a country where nobody spoke English, or all of a sudden I'm running a workshop somewhere else and you don't have half the things you were supposed to have. The logistics don't go well, and you've just got to figure it out. And I think that that's something that really is not great for emergent leaders or coaches, whatever term you want to define when they're so focused on controlling the environment. And so focused on trying to have everything locked and loaded that they don't know how to improvise. You know, research shows, Joel, like most leaders today, especially at high level companies and organizations, which coaches need to view themselves as, and in their own way, basically are making decisions with less than 70% of the information they need. And so I just think the willingness to be able to adapt, to adopt new strategies, to focus on communication, psychology, getting everybody on the same page so that we can have, you know, a longer term commitment, higher level commitment and better outputs has been the most critical thing. Joel Smith: Yeah. As I know, as you've with just coaching in general, you've been to a lot of places,

216: Paul Cater on Flow, Rhythm and Awareness: Exploring the Training Session as a Mirror to Sport and Beyond | Sponsored by SimpliFaster Aug 20, 2020

Today’s episode features coach Paul Cater, speaking on his holistic approach to athlete training sessions. Paul has pioneered a way of training that makes the session a heightened experience on multiple levels, versus a scripted “to-do” list. Paul is the owner of the Alpha Project, a gym in Salinas, California. He has worked with a wide variety of athletes, from those at the highest professional level in pro Rugby (London Wasps) and pro Baseball (Baltimore Orioles), to local youth sport athletes, as well as those in the general population in a wide variety of age ranges. Paul has lived and trained athletes internationally and has a wide swath of cultural experience. He has been a “partial episode” guest of the podcast on episode #197, where he discussed the art of story-telling in the training session, as well as a return to the importance of sprinting as a cornerstone movement in his years of coaching. Paul has also written a number of impactful articles on Just Fly Sports over the years on the level of taking the “robotic” elements out of sport preparation and bringing in a holistic, thoughtful, aware, and “human” form of coaching. Of all the individuals who have had an impact on my coaching and training, I don’t think I can say anyone has had more of an impact on how I run my training sessions than Paul Cater. Paul has taught me the art of bringing life and energy into a training session, and as well as using a combination of training methods and environment to be completely in the moment of the training itself. Through my own observation of, and training with Paul, I have gained insight that can make a training session really come to life in the same manner that sport, or a powerful life experience, does. On the show today, Paul will talk about his philosophy on the flow of a training session, and how his unique model presents athletes the opportunity to grow on multiple levels (awareness, vulnerability, rhythm, variable work modes, etc.). He’ll get into the “nuts and bolts” of awareness practices, music selection, rhythmic development, and much more. This is a unique and essential episode, and one that has the potential to really transform one’s coaching practice in a positive way. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 5:35 How life-threatening situations can create unique mind-body physical stimuli 11:05 Looking at the rhythm and flow of a training session, and how all pieces must work together to create a more optimal session 24:20 How Paul invokes awareness with his athletes at the beginning of a session, and how he helps them turn on a switch to enter the training state 32:05 Vulnerability in a training session and how it contributes to the total development of an athlete 38:40 Rhythm development, and the creative usage of music and dance elements in a training session 58:55 Other key elements Paul works to incorporate in his training session 1:02:05 How the workout changes and filters into the primary strength training element of the training day “These kids, it’s like they are adrenaline junkies, they have to have this massive hype, or musical element (to train)… creating an experience of a deep introspective state, all the way to the collective experience of competition, there is a whole spectrum there” “You have to create a natural awareness of rhythm, and melody, tuning, so to speak, at the beginning of a session” “Are the kids going through quiet time, before the hype time. It’s hard to sell rest time” “That’s what’s going to limit injuries going forward is knowing athletes beyond a data point or a typical analytic. It’s a courageous path, I think, to really have a comprehensive program at any level” “I try to impart on everyone who walks through the door that they are not just a number, I want to give them identity” “If I could give objective feedback to individual awareness, I’d do it” “I’m adamant that the music selection has to be on point from the start of the session. There has to be a safe feel, I don’t think there should be fight or flight when you walk in the building. These kids are already on high alert” “That’s the beauty, teaching athletes to react, and to be calm and collected before and after that” “The greatest expression of breathing, and elasticity in the hip and torso and shoulder is just sprinting, for a sustained period of time” “Teaching the athletes to match and mirror and work within rhythm, and dance, is maybe the training outcome in general, and then we just put increasing stress around those rhythms of that day, in the weight training” “I really think a coach needs to meditate and link in to the point of the whole session” “(Regarding music in training) I really try to eliminate words in the first 15 minutes… I find melody that works on a 4 count that people can match and mirror in an easy way so they can link into a simple dance step” “Any barrier that you have to get up and over (is good for working rhythmically and with music), a mini-tramp, a line on the floor, are all great tools” “Grip strength is a massive hole in a lot of these kid’s development” “To put it simply, there is 5 minutes in every session with the strength adaptation you are looking for. Everything from the grip, to the hamstring to the postural alignment, to the rhythmic alignments, the tempo and tuning, leads into that 5 minutes” “The one time athletes can be mostly in total control of their bodies, because you don’t have a coach whose gonna bench you, or you have a pitch that you swing and miss at, there is so much failure in sport. If we can have the training environment be a highly empowering redemptive experience, athletes are going to be happier and healthier and move rhythmically better, and in harmony elastically” “I think there is a hell of a lot of anxiety coming into the weight room” “That’s my mission statement, to teach young people to be advocates for themselves” Example of Paul’s rhythm-based warmup for athletes. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Paul Cater (@coach_cater) on Jun 26, 2020 at 5:30pm PDT 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 Transcripts Joel Smith: Welcome to another episode of the podcast. It's awesome to have you guys here, and I know I'm excited for every show, but this show is definitely a special one. This is the first full-length episode that I've done with my friend Paul Cater. Paul was actually on a small round table segment for episode 197, where we talked for about 25 minutes. And ever since then, I've just been thinking about that show… that full-length show we'll do when he comes back on. And so the time was finally right. Paul and I were able to sit down and just have a really great conversation on the fine details of his total training session. Last show, we talked for 25 minutes just about creating a story around training and as well as his return to sprinting as, as a prime or pinnacle portion of his coaching process. Joel Smith: But this one, we get into some other elements. And so just to give a quick background, those of you who are not familiar with Paul. Paul is the owner of The Alpha Project in Salinas, California, which is Monterey Bay area. For those of you who may not be familiar with that locale, Paul has spent time training athletes on just about every level from the pro ranks the London Wasps in rugby, Baltimore Orioles to training athletes of all ages and abilities. From local youth to collegiate athletes, to Olympians, to even grandmothers and grandfathers at his gym. And so a man of diverse experience cultural experience, Paul is a guy who he'll be in the gym training and then painting a painting in between sets. He's an outside the box thinker, and we can all learn so much from him. I absolutely have. Paul has changed my just vision as a coach to what I believe a good training session is. Joel Smith: And it's like, if you could see every year of my coaching process as a full-time strength coach, you could see Paul's impact on that every year. The more I learned from him and my athletes I've certainly was able to serve them better for that. So we're going to get into it today. The nuts and bolts to Paul's system. Then he's going to talk about rhythm and flow in a training session. He's going to talk about awareness, vulnerability, and all these elements that he's trying to cultivate and create an environment around that really lead up to that, that crescendo, that, that weightlifting experience. And I don't want to, I don't want to spoil the story at all. I don't want to try to steal any thunder. So we're just going to get right into that. This was an awesome show with my friend, Paul, and I know you guys are really gonna enjoy this one, so let's get onto the show. All right.

215: Chris Korfist on New Advances in Sprint Training and Mind-Body Concepts in Athletics | Sponsored by SimpliFaster Aug 13, 2020

Today’s episode features speed coach and human performance expert, Chris Korfist. Chris is a multi-time guest on the podcast and is back for a solo-interview show where he gets into his recent developments in speed training, as well as a great conversation about mind-body concepts and their relationship to sport, and even life itself. Chris Korfist has been a high school coach in track and football for almost 30 years, with more than 80 All-State athletes. He owns the “Slow Guy Speed School” that helps develop athletes ranging from World Champion to middle school. He has consulted with professional sports teams all over the world, including the NFL, MLB, NBA, and Rugby League, and is an advisor for Auckland University of Technology’s SPRINZ. Chris also co-owns the Track Football Consortium, and co-founded Reflexive Performance Reset. It is always good to sit down and just have a great sprinting/speed conversation, as in so many ways, speed is a universal concept to us as human beings, regardless of our exact sport or movement practice. Sprinting represents the highest coordination demand output that the human body can do, and improvements in maximal sprint velocity are some of the hardest earned in training, but also some of the most rewarding. Chris has been on several of my podcasts in the last few years, but we haven’t had a true “speed training” talk since our first episode together around 4 years ago. In addition to some great novel concepts on speed training covered on this show (such as asymmetrical sprint training and shin-drop methods), Chris also gets into a topic that may be more powerful and relevant for many athletes than particular speed training methods (although we want to do them all well), which is the power of the mind to impact posture, power outputs, sport skill, and attitudes of the opposing team. If you get all of the speed training right, but get posture and confidence wrong, one’s highest potential will never be reached. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 13:35 Updates and new ideas in Chris’s sprint program the last several years 26:05 Foot training, and how subtle variability can make a big impact on exercise outputs and effects 32:05 Using resisted sprint training to help technical elements, such as shin drop 40:25 Why Chris changed over from straight-leg bounding/primetimes into preferring flexed-leg bounding/flexed-leg primetimes 43:45 Mind-Body Training: The story behind saying “I am the Greatest!” before doing a sprint or jump, etc. and improving performance substantially 55:05 Mirroring in athletic performance “I think in the (bent-knee primetime) position, it is going to be more appropriate to changing the lever, loading the ankle, and getting a more realistic toe-position (than a straight-leg primetime)” “Where you walk on your knees and you try to crush your calf to your hamstring… that’s a great exercise (for sprinting)… We wear the LILA calf sleeves when we do those to bring the focus on picking the shin up” “It’s a monster of a workout, when you just put weights on one (LILA) sleeve… you can put it on the same arm, same leg, and now it’s a huge core challenge” “If I’m slowing down one leg, the other leg has to go faster” “Kids would run faster fly 10’s when we put the (LILA) sleeve on one side” “Change your toe position and do the (lateral line hop) and it’s a completely different exercise. The slightest variation in your limbs completely change what the exercise is. You are changing slack, distances, recruitment patterns, fascial patterns, and all that” “I started pulling kids out of the start. So I am focusing on, do I have time to get that shin down if that’s really what I’m focusing on” “We’ve been doing diagonal runs, where you keep your shoulders square to the finish line” “You have to make the body give a damn to be perfect” “You can’t cross-over (run) when you are doing a bent-knee primetime” “There is a huge angular component to overspeed that I think everyone just blows off” “These positive affirmations constantly drive your body into doing better” “We repress everything (human aggression)” “You are standing there like you are ready to lose, and it no longer becomes a game of “I can dominate you”, but rather, a game of “Who can make the fewest mistakes and eek out a win”” “One thing that’s really helpful is team breathing, our RPR breathing. You can look at the All Blacks doing the Haka before the game, they are yelling and screaming, but they are doing that together, and all breathing together” “When you are standing in a superman pose, that’s a dominant pose” “This day with phones, you should have your own highlight reel going” “We are meant to be social animals, if we can go down to the basics and breathe together, we are all going to be in the same place” “What is one thing you aren’t allowed to do anymore? Yell and scream. But it’s something that we are meant to do; we are repressed” Show Notes Diagonal Exergenie Sprints https://youtu.be/pBFvTW7R3LY “Chuck Berry Walks” https://youtu.be/o_9Gji7tQRg Flexed Leg Bounding About Chris Korfist Chris Korfist has been a high school coach in track and football for almost 30 years, with more than 80 All-State athletes. He has also been a strength coach at the college and high school levels, working with many sports. Korfist owns a private facility called Slow Guy Speed School that helps develop athletes ranging from World Champion to middle school. He has consulted with professional sports teams all over the world, including the NFL, MLB, NBA, and Rugby League. Korfist has published research on sprint training and is an advisor for Auckland University of Technology’s SPRINZ. Additionally, he co-owns Track Football Consortium (@TFConsortium), is co-founder of Reflexive Performance Reset, and has discussed training in countless blogs and podcasts. Transcripts Chris Korfist: Or even change what your, your, you know, change your toe position and do the line hop, or like you had on Instagram yesterday, where you had your toe checked up and you're doing single leg squats and you're, and you re reformat, or what you wanted the foot to look like while you're pressing up. And that that's, that's a completely different exercise. And people forget that, that the slightest variations in your limbs completely changed what the exercises, whether it's foot position, hand, position, all that different stuff, completely changes exercises. Cause you're changing s lack distances, you're changing recruitment patterns are changing fascial patterns and all that, but I'm sitting there and I'm at whether I'm in Anaheim, California, or Las Vegas or wherever. And there's 80 volleyball games going on at once. And he plays every couple hours. So I'm walking around and I'm just watching all these kids with this horrible body language, you know, and I'm like the most important thing is going on right now where you're standing there, like you're ready to lose. And it becomes a game of no longer of I can dominate you, but who's going to make the fewest mistakes and eek out a win Joel Smith: That was Chris Korfist. And you're listening to the just fly performance podcast. Joel Smith: Today's episode is brought to you by our longtime sponsor, Simplifaster. There are a lot of sports technology companies out there, but Simplifaster is the only website you can go to. That features an online store that covers the bandwidth of training technology from force plates, to timing systems, to muscle simulators and more, some products of Simplifaster that I use and love include things like the free lap timing system and Kbox or coaches favorites such as gymaware recently simply faster has that a two units as a coach, you should definitely take a look at the first is the muscle lab contact grid, which is an extremely affordable and portable step-by-step literally system to collect data on jumps, bounds, sprints, agility, hurdle hops, and really as much as your creative mind can imagine in what used to take a whole runway worth of collecting of data, collecting strips, the contact grid does it all with only two small strips that together cover up to 40 meters of sprinting ground contact time, step rates, rhythms, and beyond are at your fingertips with this device. Joel Smith: Another new unit, the VO2 master is an ultra portable gas exchange analyzer don't guess on energy system development, where you can get direct insight into VO2 capabilities in relation to specific sports skills rather than being hooked up to tubes on a treadmill or worse yet a cycle or gutter to get a VO2 max, think of the VO2 master as your own gas exchange lab without the tubes and wires. Deepen your analysis in the specific conditioning preparation of your athletes with the VO2 master today, these products incredible customer service makes simply faster your go to for your sports needs. I'm happy to have partnered with them in sponsoring this podcast. Their support has been tremendous. So check them out today at simplifaster.com, Joel Smith: That's simpli with "i" faster.com. Joel Smith: Welcome back to another episode of the podcast. It's great to have you guys here and we have an awesome show getting into the nuts and bolts of speed and sprint training today. And also the back end of this show is going to be loaded with a ton of really cool mind, body and confidence inducing techniques that I think you're going to find really helpful in working with your athletes to guide us. Our, our guests in this discussion is none other than Chris Korfist. Chris has been a high school track coach,

214: Scot Prohaska on Total Athlete Development, Leadership, and The Six Lanes of High Performance | Sponsored by SimpliFaster.com Aug 06, 2020

Today’s episode features athletic performance coach, Scot Prohaska. Scot is distinguished as a nationally recognized sports and executive performance consultant. Scot runs his performance center out of Los Angeles, California, and works with a wide range of athletes, from professionals and Olympians at the highest level, to scholastic athletes. Scot has traveled across the globe studying with leading experts in exercise physiology, kinesiology, physical therapy, biomechanics, strength, conditioning, nutrition, mental and emotional focus, as well as strength. Through his years of coaching, and learning from leaders in multiple fields, Scot has developed the “Six Lanes of High Performance”, which is a holistic view at looking at all elements that go into being an athlete (not just the physical element). Scot’s athletes not only find success on the field, but are impacted by his work on a holistic level, and often achieve positions of leadership in their subsequent athletic, and life, endeavors. As I’ve gone further along in physical preparation/athletic performance, I’ve truly realized that there is much more to offer athletes than simply increasing their 1-rep maxes in lifts, or even trying to increase KPI metrics, such as sprint ability or jump height. These improvements are enjoyable to attain, but I’ve noticed that they don’t always transfer to winning on the field. Through looking to other elements of athletics, such as the mental-emotional side, perceptual and visual ability, and recovery to name a few, we can offer athletes so much more than simply the ability to increase their muscular strength, and even physical outputs. On today’s show, Scot will cover some of his key mentors and life experiences that brought him to his current view of sport performance. He’ll cover the “6 Lanes of High Performance” (Psychology, Sensory Motor, Technical, Tactical, Physical Preparation, Recovery, and Restoration) and get into these distinguishing traits of high performers, as well as how he assesses and trains those traits in his own athletes. He also gets into the 11 leadership tenets he teaches, which have powerful effects on not only the success of the individual as a part of a team, but also into life beyond sport. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. Timestamps and Main Points 4:45 Defining moments in Scot’s career as an athlete and young coach that led him to where he is today 8:15 What success in sport really means to Scot 12:15 Some major mentors in Scot’s coaching process 16:25 An overview of the “six lanes” of performance and why they are important 32:40 The importance of universal distinctions for key facets of behavioral and emotional traits in athletes 35:55 How an experience in Scot’s facility, in relation to the 6 lanes, unfolds 43:35 The results of the “six lanes” in regards to high rates of leadership and sport captain position acquisition of Scot’s former athletes 47:00 Digging into the elements of leadership in Scot’s system, particularly that of ambition in athletes 59:40 How to teach/cultivate innovation in a weight room style setting 1.04:40 How Scott cultivates optimal communication in his training groups “If you are living your dream, you are feeling fulfilled, then that is success to me. Enjoying the daily optimal experience seems to be sustainable to me.” “Where I’ve really found immense value (in behavior chance, sport psychology, leadership and team cohesion) is Special Forces training” “It starts with self-regulation in three domains: the physical (can you push through difficult physical conditions), the mental (can they stay focused), and then there’s the emotional (can they shift into the right emotion at the right time)” “When you change behaviors you see a lot of things change physically, technically as well” “(The six lanes) came from me thinking I was really good at physical preparation, and seeing athletes still fail” “You think a football coach is good at strategic planning? Compare them to a 4-star general, and then see how good they are” “Psychology and behaviors form a better team” “A special operator commander can’t afford to lose… their competition isn’t trying to score on them, it’s trying to kill them” “You are either a transactional coach, or you are a transformational coach” “Early offseason, we work on your weaknesses. When you get close to camp/season, we work on your strengths, that is what got you there” “We may teach courage each month, for 15 minutes at the end of each session. The next month we will teach responsibility, the next month we teach honor, we’ll teach respect the next month. So each month you’ll get a deep, deep respect of regulation and behaviors” “What feeling do you want to feel? What feeling do you want to avoid? That’s what invokes action, especially in younger athletes, the feeling” “In today’s climate, it’s so competitive, practices are no longer practices” “I’ve found that… the athletes I had that were more athletic in multiple, multiple ways were just happier” “Everyone is a leader, watch my 2-year old son lead me and my wife around” “When you develop, and everybody is very clear on the language, you can execute actions so quickly, so precisely” Scot’s 6 “Lanes of High Performance” and “11 Leadership Tenents” 6 LANES OF HIGH PERFORMANCE PSYCHOLOGY LANE: “The development of intellect, emotions, and social skills. The ability to put technical and tactical skills into action on the field with greatest intensity-repeatability-accuracy!” SENSORY MOTOR LANE: “The ability of the athlete to use vision, perceptual, and reaction skills to make quick and accurate decisions during the play.” TECHNICAL LANE: “The intensity-repeatability-accuracy in which specific skills are performed on the field of play.” TACTICAL/STRATEGIC LANE: “The ability of your team and self to put technical skills into use and equip yourselves with the greatest likelihood of success against opposing players and teams.” PHYSICAL PREPARATION LANE: “Development of the proper fitness abilities that underpin the ability to express those abilities on the field of play with maximum intensity-repeatability-accuracy!“ RECOVERY & RESTORATION LANE: “The ability of the athlete to reset and become ready to compete sooner than later.” 11 LEADERSHIP TENETS COURAGE - Courage is not the absence of fear, but it is making effective choices, and taking effective and efficient actions, in spite of fear. HONOR - Honor is living up to a code of behavior in which the concerns of the group come before selfish concerns. RESPECT - Respect is to observe and understand how something affects your world and to choose to act accordingly. RESPONSIBILITY - Responsibility is having the power to act and making the commitment to meet a standard of performance. COMMUNICATION - Communication is shown through coordinated action dependent on having a shared background of experience. CONFIDENCE - Confidence is the level of certainty in your ability to produce an expected outcome. PERSEVERANCE - Perseverance is a continued action toward an objective, despite challenges, difficulties, and failures. INNOVATION - Innovation is bringing into the possible that which was impossible. AMBITION - Ambition is a desire to change the current situation into a different future situation. LEARNING - Learning culture is represented by groups of observable actions. LEADERSHIP - Taking effective actions and evoking effective actions in others About Scot Prohaska Scot Prohaska is distinguished as a nationally recognized sports and executive performance consultant. Scot specializes in elevating performance and developing the careers of elite athletes. His blend of world-class knowledge, research, in conjunction with creative application of an artist ensures there are no “cookie-cutter” programs or diagnostic work for his clients. Scot carefully evaluates each client and develops a specific program to address individual needs and opportunities, which includes nutrition and lifestyle. He is at the forefront of the newest techniques and discipline, allowing all his clients to maximize their fullest potentials by giving them the tools necessary to compete at the top levels of their field.   This has made him an invaluable asset to US Olympic athletes, professional athletes, student-athletes, and executives. Over the past 15 years, Scot has traveled across the globe studying with leading experts in exercise physiology, kinesiology, physical therapy, biomechanics, strength, conditioning and nutrition, and mental and emotional focus and strength. He’s been published in many wellness publications and is an accomplished author in the field of performance and exercise. Because of his expertise at bringing out the best in people physically, mentally, and spiritually, players in the NHL, NFL, CFL and MLB consider Scot a trusted friend and part of their inner circle. Someone they are extremely comfortable referring to their fellow players and associates. Scot has also improved the performance USA and Canadian Track & Field athletes. Additionally, he’s worked with members of USA Bobsled & Skeleton teams and with athletes from Division I sports programs.

213: Austin Jochum on Bringing the Training Session to Life: A Creative and Transferable Approach to Athletic Development | Sponsored by SimpliFaster Jul 30, 2020

Today’s episode features strength and athletic movement coach Austin Jochum. Austin is the owner of Jochum Strength where he works with athletes and “washed up movers” to become the best versions of themselves. He also hosts the Jochum Strength podcast, and was a former D3 All-American football player and a hammer thrower at the University of St.Thomas, where he is now the strength coach for the football team. In training athletes, amongst many other lessons, I’ve learned two big things in my 8 years as a full-time strength coach. One is that the athlete experience supersedes the need for a traditional written training structure, and two is that better performances in the “big lifts” are often not an indicator for having better performance on the field of play. To dissect these issues and achieve multi-lateral development with more potential transfer to sport, an approach that considers emotional and environmental factors in the training process is a must. Athlete autonomy, decision making, emotional growth, and creativity are universal structures that can find transfer to other areas of life outside the weight room, including sport. I was a guest on Austin’s podcast a few months ago, and in talking to him, truly enjoyed his approach to holistic athletic development, and his digging into the total process to a much greater degree than simply building up lifts and taking athletes through canned mobility and stability progressions. Austin is a young coach with a huge passion for finding transferable performance to athletes on all levels. Through a variety of methods, he gives athletes the maximal opportunity to become the strongest version of themselves through creative methods that prioritize autonomy, emotional development, and decision making. On today’s show, Austin covers the experiences he had as an athlete that has impacted his creative approach to coaching. He goes in-depth on the emotional development of athletes, fostering autonomy, and how each session facilitates a maximal “aliveness” and intention, as it moves from creative/perceptive movement training, into the primary strength work, and then autonomy-driven auxiliary training. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 7:05 Austin’s background as an athlete, how the weight-room directed mindset hurt his ability to fully express his athleticism, and how it has formed who he is as a coach 16:05 Mental toughness as specific to various outputs and game situations, and dealing with an athlete’s weak points 34:05 How Austin encourages problem-solving and athlete autonomy in his training sessions 42:05 Creating a training environment that allows for failure and exploration 51:10 Austin’s split between structured and creative training in his athlete sessions 56:10 How to approach auxiliary work at the end of a training session in a manner that keeps energy and intention up “This is how I look at it now, 'how can I expose athletes (to their weak points)' ” “As a strength coach, if I am not competing in a sport, or experiencing the same emotional stress, then I write this perfect program up of squats, bench, output-based.. they jump higher and sprint faster, so “I did a good job as a coach”, but can they process the emotional stuff?” “Is it output that matters, or is it sport that matters, and what you need to do in the situation?” “A lot of athletes come in these days and just want to be told what to do, but that’s not what happens, you have to make decisions” “Giving the athlete the opportunity to make the drill more realistic, the energy in the room went sky high. The athlete knows that environment better than you” “When do we fail in training anymore? When do we try to do something that we are not sure that we can complete?” “The number one coaching advice that I give is, 'figure it out' ” “The disrespect to the body (the body’s problem-solving ability) is something that drives me nuts a little bit” “Sometimes with auxiliary lifts, I’ll put 'get spicy' on it, and you have to do a variation of the lift” About Austin Jochum @austinjochum Austin Jochum is the owner of Jochum Strength where he works with athletes and washed up movers to become the best versions of themselves. He also operates The Jochum Strength insider which is an online training platform for people trying to feel, look, and move better. Austin was a former D3 All-American Football player and a Hammer Thrower at the University of St.Thomas, where he is now the Strength Coach for the Football Team.

212: David Grey on Barefoot Dynamics, Foot Actions, and a Joint-Based Approach to Relieving Tendon Pain | Sponsored by SimpliFaster Jul 23, 2020

Today’s episode features biomechanics specialist and rehabilitation expert, David Grey. David runs the Grey Injury Clinic and helps athletes with injury, pain, rehab, and performance. David has learned under a great number of mentors, and is influenced greatly by the work of Gary Ward who is a 2x previous podcast guest and the creator of the “Anatomy in Motion” system. David is also influenced by systems such as PRI and the martial arts. Through his diverse studies and experience, David is able to get athletes and clients out of pain who have previously been through months of traditional therapy with limited results. He previously appeared on episode #160 of the podcast where he spoke on the link between pronation and using the glutes effectively. In training and rehab, we so often look to exercises that strengthen, before we put a priority on biomechanics and joint actions. The problem is, that in treating pain, unless we fix the biomechanics, no matter how good the strength treatment was, the problem will eventually return. We know that in performance training, we want to build a “base of technique” because the way our body forms from a myo-fascial perspective as a season of training unfolds is going to be based on our technique. Bad technique can yield the result of muscles getting active and trained that shouldn’t, and other important muscle groups getting under-developed. By training the right joint motions, and getting the feet to work properly, we take a huge step in getting athletes to reaching their highest potential. On the podcast today, David goes through a joint-based approach to working with those who have Achilles pain, and particularly, knee pain. He gets into the necessary co-contractions needed to help stabilize the knee joint, and why calcaneus mobility is important for both Achilles tendon and knee tendon injury prevention. We start out the talk with a chat on the feet, how barefoot training might not be all that it’s cracked up to be for some athletes, and the balance between pronation and supination of the foot in performance training. All this and more is in the latest podcast. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 5:00 The importance of supination in human movement and athletics, as well as why it is more important to think in terms of pronat-ing and supinat-ing rather than pronation and supination. 12:00 How sensation on the sole of the foot is essential for pronating properly and why simply walking around barefoot may not be truly helpful. 26:30 Supination, and its relationship between running, jumping and power in propulsion 36:00 Why joint motion should be the root of our efforts in injury prevention, rather than simply treating the tissue through strength-based exercises 45:30 Major biomechanical issues that show up with those athletes who have knee pain 50:00 The importance of stiffness, when called upon, in preventing knee pain 54:30 Using isometrics to assist co-contractions to help improve knee function 1:04.30 Thoughts on a joint based approach to knee pain “I would be much happier with you having a flat foot that can experience some pronation and supination, versus a person with a neutral foot who can experience neither” “People saying that “pronation is bad” is like saying “you shouldn’t bend your spine to the left” “A collapse and a pronation are two different things” “I don’t sell posture as a way to fix pain, I only relate to posture as a way to access movement” “(In regards to tendon pain) If we are always going to presume that the tendon is the problem, then we are always going to assume that strength is the answer… but the problem is not always the tendon” “We can understand that the body is a reflexive system, and if we can tap into that, we can make big changes very, very quickly” “(Regarding the prevention of knee pain in athletic movement) Can you get co-contractions that happen around the knee… can you get an isometric at the knee; an inability to get an isometric at the knee is a huge issue for me” “Pain messes up the timing” “If the knee extends too soon, then the glutes are not getting a chance to get an active hip extension, the quads are doing all of the pushing, and that is not a happy knee” “If I ask you to show me stiffness, you should be able to show me that” “We need that stiffness, but if you are going to change direction, you need to pronate your foot” “(In an isometric glute bridge) The weaker people will try to lift up higher” “I try to give the person what’s missing; when a traditional strength and conditioning approach has not worked, we usually see huge limitations at the pelvis, ribcage and feet, and just getting those things to start moving again, combined with strength and conditioning, but with slightly different positions than “chest up”” “The ribcage is huge” Show Notes Isometric bridge with incomplete hip extension (for knee co-contractions that mirror what is needed in a sprint stride) View this post on Instagram A post shared by David Grey (@davidgreyrehab) on Feb 14, 2020 at 4:20am PST About David Grey David is a Biomechanics Specialist based in Waterford Ireland. He helps athletes and everyday people with Injury, Pain, Rehabilitation, and Performance. David assesses his clients in-depth and breaks their gait cycle down into incredible detail to help restore the movement(s) that they are missing or are struggling to access. A lot of his work begins with training the foot to re-experience the movements that it should be accessing during every single footstep. He believes that certain movements are ingrained into our DNA and that we can expect to see huge positive changes in pain and performance when we give the brain the opportunity to re-experience these movements. He has learned under a number of great mentors in the world Movement, S&C, Gymnastics, Stretching & Mobility, Chinese Martial Arts, and Biomechanics. He is greatly influenced by the work of Gary Ward, the creator of “Anatomy in Motion. Webiste: https://davidgreyrehab.com/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw3pEtC1AbTe3hZ3l6YsyBQ Intagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidgreyrehab/ Booking: https://davidgreyrehab.setmore.com/david

211: Cory Schlesinger Q&A on Autonomy-Driven Sports Performance, Isometric Training, and the Sport-Skill Continuum | Sponsored by SimpliFaster Jul 16, 2020

Today’s episode features Phoenix Suns' head strength coach, Cory Schlesinger (and myself) answering questions on athletic performance training sent in from listeners. Topics for this show ranged from programming based on athlete-autonomy, to isometrics, to foot training, as well as important questions on blending strength work into a level of high-performance play where sport skill development far super-cedes one’s physical strength development. Cory previously appeared on this show for episode #138 and is a popular speaker and podcast guest. Cory’s creative, yet practical style is an “athlete-first” method that gets results and leaves athletes with not only a first-class physical training experience but also facilitates their ownership in the process. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 4:50 The utilization of tumbling and wrestling means into athletes of various levels of development (college/amateur, up to pro) 22:40 What the “Sun Café” is, and how it deals with the power of autonomy 34:05 Cory’s favorite isometric exercises for athletes 44:10 Achilles tendon injury prevention and gait biomechanics 51:50 Using floating heel work to improve the connection from the foot to the hip 0:58 Progressing an athlete’s strength development in tandem with their skill development “You genetically gifted athletes who don’t need a lot of bar(bell) work, to be honest” “Certain people need experiences that are a new experience, or experiences that give them a lot of confidence” “Your grinders… what makes them confident? Squatting heavy weight, and you have got to give them that, but how do I expose them to things they are not good at to make their human capacities better?” “You leave breadcrumbs to where you think the athlete needs to go” “When I saw squat numbers go up, when I saw force place numbers go up… I did not see wins go up!” “I don’t care what squat pattern a kid does, I really don’t” “At Stanford, there was an environment where they got to pick the squat pattern, the extension pattern, whatever the meat and potatoes was that day” “There is nothing more intentful, than them getting to choose what they want to do… having that autonomy is going to drive more results than them getting to predict their own success” “Just because they do a between-the-legs dunk doesn’t make them a good athlete, that’s just one aspect of athleticism” “The biggest low hanging fruit to get work done for me, is isometrics” “My favorite (isometric) is a yielding isometric at the sporting angles that they create the most often” “One of my favorite movements to load up is safety bar split, with a Hatfield hold (with a floating heel)” “The one thing I do the most when identifying energy leaks, is super-heavy prowler pushes” “In isometrics, if you put them in a position for long enough, you are going to see where their energy leaks are” “The prowler was the original “floating heel squat”, if you do it right (without letting the heels mash down)” “That’s how most Achilles tears happen (in basketball), is that false step, right into that forward (drive)” About Cory Schlesinger @schlesstrength Cory Schlesinger is currently the head strength and conditioning coach at the Phoenix Suns. He has over a decade of experience as a strength and conditioning coach, having spent the previous three seasons at Stanford University. Cory also has experience working at UAB, and Santa Clara University. Schlesinger also has experience as a coach at the Olympic Training Center and as a sports nutritionist for Major League Soccer’s San Jose Earthquakes. Cory has worked with NBA and NFL players as well as Olympic Games athletes. Schlesinger served an undergraduate internship at Wake Forest in 2007 and at North Carolina during the 2008 and 2009 seasons, while Haase was an assistant coach with the Tar Heels.

210: Josh Hingst Interviews Joel Smith on Training Topics of Speed and Power Development in American Football and Field Sports | Sponsored by SimpliFaster Jul 09, 2020

Today’s episode features a special guest interviewer, Josh Hingst, head strength coach of the 2018 Superbowl Champion, Philadelphia Eagles, who interviews me on a number of questions related to training American Football. I met Josh in Barcelona, Spain back in 2005, and I’m happy that we’ve been in correspondence since that time. I originally meant to interview Josh for an episode, but Josh flipped the script on me, so to speak, asking if he could interview me for a show. Josh’s experience before working with the Eagles includes work at the Jacksonville Jaguars, the University of Nebraska, the Atlanta Falcons, and Florida State University. Josh has experience serving not only as a strength coach, but also in roles as a sports nutritionist, and he is the co-author of the book “The Athlete’s Guide to Sports Supplements” in 2013 while serving as the director of sports nutrition at the University of Nebraska. I don’t have much experience working in American football specifically, although I’ve been fortunate to be connected with, and be able to interview many experts in this realm in the past several years. In this interview, it is truly humbling to be interviewed by Josh, whose has such an incredible resume in his work with football on the college and professional level. It was good to get his feedback to my own responses as we cover many important topics to athletic development pertaining to football, although my answers cover elements that can pertain to all levels of sport development. In this show, we talk on speed development, hamstring injury prevention, training the foot, biomechanics, isometrics, and much more. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. Timestamps and Main Points 2:40 My take on sprint mechanics and running drills for athletes in team sports 18:30 How to coach the “squatty run” and how it ties in with acceleration and even top-end running mechanics 22:25 Major concepts I’ve learned from Adarian Barr and how they have impacted my coaching: Foot steering, “millimeters-to-waves”, Achilles tendon concepts, lever-class systems in the foot, and more 32:05 Concepts on the foot in athleticism and injury prevention 47:55 Thoughts on extreme isometrics and oscillatory isometrics 54:00 Hamstring injury prevention in regards to running mechanics and beyond 1:00.10 My take on yearly planning in regards to maximal strength training, as well as how to plan post-season transition periods and athlete autonomy About Josh Hingst Josh was named the Eagles strength and conditioning coach during the off-season of 2013. Since that time Hingst has helped the Eagles to pioneer an innovative Performance Science approach to training. Prior to joining the Eagles, Hingst spent the 2012 season as the assistant strength and conditioning coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars. From 2009-2011 Hingst served as the Director of Sports Nutrition at the University of Nebraska and during this time he co-authored the book‚ The Athlete’s Guide to Sports Supplements, which was published in 2013. His first NFL experience came in 2008 working as the Team Nutritionist for the Atlanta Falcons. Before his stint in Atlanta, Hingst spent five years in strength and conditioning and sports nutrition capacities at Florida State, where he earned his master’s degree in clinical nutrition with an emphasis in sports nutrition. A native of Hooper, NE, Hingst received his bachelor degrees in nutritional sciences and dietetics and exercise science from Nebraska in 2001. He also served as an assistant strength and conditioning coach for the Huskers while enrolled as a student.

209: Rocky Snyder on The Gait Cycle, Single Leg Work, and True Functional Training for Elite Athleticism | Sponsored by SimpliFaster Jul 03, 2020

Today’s episode features personal trainer and human movement expert, Rocky Snyder. Rocky is the owner of Rocky’s Fitness in Santa Cruz, California, and is an experienced personal trainer, as well as an accomplished surfer and snowboarder. Rocky has taken an absolutely immense amount of continuing education in human performance and is the author of four books. His most recent being “Return to Center” , which featured a unique integration of a joint-based model of training and movement coaching, combined with neurological assessment of effectiveness. “Return to Center” is the first training book in a very long time (outside of “Even with Your Shoes On” by Helen Hall that I read earlier this year), that I absolutely devoured (both books has heavy inspiration from Gary Ward, who has been a 2 time guest on this podcast, and developed the “Flow-Motion” model of tri-planar joint based analysis of human movement). When it comes to “functional training” we often think of things like working on balance boards, or perhaps in a more realistic world, things like single-leg training and lots of bodyweight gait-pattern style movements, like crawling and heavy carries. Even in using these movements which are inherently more tied to human gait, they are often still performed under “manufactured” paradigms that take them outside of the scope of natural human movement and elasticity. Rocky has an incredible command of human movement principles, and can describe how these principles are showing up (or not!) in any exercise done in the gym, which is really the core of what we might call functional training. For today’s podcast, Rocky tackles questions regarding his own joint-centered approach to training, as well as specifically how he looks at lunges and single-leg training in relation to the gait cycle, and how doing this optimally will improve joint health, VMO, and glute development, as well as athletic performance markers and injury reduction. This was a show that is a real key-stone in being able to truly train athletes on an individual level. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 8:10 Key aspects of Rocky’s journey of movement and learning about the human body 22:40 How Rocky assesses clients using a tri-planar and joint-centered approach 29:10 How Rocky uses lunges in all three planes to assess athletes 45:40 When inward knee travel becomes a problem to Rocky in athletic movement 56:10 How to observe athletes to determine if athletes have excessive medial knee travel in their general movements 59:10 How to train squatting under load with respect to the natural movement 1:03.10 Rocky’s take on bilateral to unilateral/functional work in a training program Quotes “When getting the body to move as joints are expected to move, amazing things can happen” “If we bring the body back into a more centrated place, the brain is going to allow a greater deal of force production” “If you’re not going to explore how the (frontal and transverse planes) move then it’s going to reduce your ability to produce force in the sagittal plane” “By knowing how the joints move in any exercise, it can tell the coach exactly what you are missing… the bottom line is that you should know how the body moves” “The knee, when it pronates, should be flexing and externally rotating… the knee joint itself is rotating towards the midline faster than the tibia… am I seeing that when someone is lunging, or are they keeping it over the second toe because they have been told that it shouldn’t drive inward” “A lunge is just an exaggeration of a walk, a gait pattern, that’s what a lunge should be” “(In a lunge) Is the pelvis rotating away from the back leg and towards the front leg” “There are some people who may clean their movements up by loading them” “We have got to stop just thinking of the foot when it comes to joint mechanics. There are pronation mechanics for every single joint, just as there are supination mechanics” “When the calcaneus rolls forward into pronation, the knee should flex” “That’s where we want to go is, “do we have oppositional movement in the body” whether it’s the foot, the hips, the skull, or whatever” “At the bottom of your squat movement, you are still going to have to drive your knees medially to turn on the glutes and everything else” “You can’t get away from (the knees traveling inwards at the reversal of a squat)” “When it comes to ACL re-education programs, it all comes down to, can that knee flex and externally rotate. Can it extend and internally rotate? Can it do it under load?” “The VMO is usually one of the muscles that doesn’t do its job, because it’s not being trained to do its job properly, because we don’t allow to let the knee to go inward or over the big toe… keep it over the second toe and you’re asking for an ACL tear” “(In assessing athletic knees through lunges and step ups) I would say mid-patellar should be over the first met-head in loading, before ascension, I want to see it traveling forward and laterally into that spot” “(With squatting) Is the goal to lift more weight, or is the goal to improve performance?” “Throughout life, man spends only 10-20% of time moving in a bilateral fashion, the other 80% of the time is spent moving in a contralateral fashion. I have my program mirror that, having 80% or better doing unilateral, contralateral, and opposing actions” Show Notes Bowler Squat View this post on Instagram A post shared by Joel Smith (@justflysports) on Jun 17, 2020 at 4:19pm PDT About Rocky Snyder Rocky Snyder grew up outside of Boston and moved to Santa Cruz in 1991. He met his wife in 1997, and is a proud father to a daughter and son. He is an accomplished and avid surfer and snowboarder, and well known as a regular on KSCO 1080am since 2002, with his Surf and Ski Report every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings at 6:25 am, and every weekday on KPIG 107.5fm at 8:25 am. Rocky is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist, an NSCA-Certified Personal Trainer, Certified in Applied Functional Science, NASM-Corrective Exercise Specialist, a licensed US Soccer Coach and a USA Weightlifting Coach. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Rocky has written three books on sports conditioning, has been featured in many publications and his fourth book, Return to Center is now available with all major booksellers

208: Christian Thibaudeau on Adrenaline, Muscle Tone and Optimizing Training Splits in Athletic Performance | Sponsored by SimpliFaster Jun 25, 2020

Today’s episode features strength coach Christian Thibaudeau. Christian has been involved in the business of training for the last 18 years, having worked with athletes from 28 different sports. He is a prolific writer and presenter, having written four books, as well as presenting to top coaches and organizations all over the world. Christian is also the creator of the Neuro-typing system, which classifies athletes according to the neurotransmitters they seek out. This system has the categories of 1A,1B,2A,2B and 3, and Christian has covered this topic extensively on this podcast, as well as many other shows. There are many intersections of the neuro-typing system, as well as other categories of individualization. As discussed on my recent talk with Ross Jeffs, the “concentric”, “elastic” and “metabolic” sprinter types tend to fit with the 1A,1B and 2A neuro-types in regards to their strengths and optimal training regimen. One element of training that I’ve been considering a lot is optimal training splits for sprinting and jumping athletes, and reconciling 4-day training splits (or even 6-day) where there is an intensive CNS element, versus more of a “high-low” split that Charlie Francis made so popular. This new podcast with Christian digs into understanding how to give athletes their best training split by understanding the relationship of adrenaline to overtraining. It also looks at things like muscle tone as how one can make a better assessment of an athlete, what training they may respond best to, as well as how to assess them on a daily and weekly basis, and make the best training adjustments. Christian covers this, nutrition, child development and creativity, and much more on this information-packed show. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. Timestamps and Main Points 6:25 Christian’s recent thoughts on child development 12:25 The importance of creativity in early age, and how to cultivate it in developmental stages 28:45 Overview and updates of the neurotyping system from a perspective of COMT, serotonin, adrenaline, and methylation 53:15 Muscle tone, neuro-types and training splits 1:17.55 The role of carbohydrates, cortisol, and adrenaline in training Quotes “Any type of blue light or screen time is the number one enemy to child development” “You will always have what I call grinders… they will never become the stars, and the stars are those that have that little extra something, and that comes from creativity” “That’s one trait of high acetylcholine individuals, they will be more creative” “Some people will break down adrenaline super-fast, and if they can do that, they can tolerate a lot more training stimulus. That is why some people naturally can tolerate a boatload of volume” “COMT is the enzyme that breaks down adrenaline. The one that is fast will break down adrenaline very quickly after release, on the other hand if I have someone with a slow variation of the COMT enzyme, when you release adrenaline it stays high forever” “The type 3 is very similar to the type 1a from a genetic perspective. Both have poor methylation, both have slow COMT, they don’t clear out adrenaline fast” “Carbohydrates control adrenaline” “The 1B is only aggressive under high adrenaline… they will be super chill until it counts” “The 1B if he fails he will just try again. The 2A, looking foolish is destructive, because what others think of him is super important” “Anxiety is nothing more than your brain firing too fast for you to control it” “That person (who has high muscle tone) always has high adrenaline. To me that person has slow COMT, he doesn’t break down adrenaline fast” “9 times out of 10 what we call overtraining is a desensitization of the beta-adrenergic receptors” “If the athletes has a normal muscle tone and all of a sudden he walks in and his muscle tone is low, he may be underloading, but in most cases it’s because they desensitized their receptors. One sign of overtraining is that the muscle feels softer” “The higher the muscle tone is, the more stimulated the adregeneric receptors are, or the greater the adrenaline activity in your body, so someone with low muscle tone means that your baseline adrenaline level is low” “Athletes with lower muscle tone are often more laid back, harder to motivate, more chill. Athletes with higher muscle tone are more aggressive, bigger mood swings, more jumpy, they will have a higher heart rate at rest” “If you have low muscle tone, of the best signs you are doing too much is that you have high muscle tone” “The better your receptors respond to adrenaline, the stronger, faster, and more motivated you are going to be… that is why when you deload for a week, your performances will go up!” “You don’t supercompensate neurotransmitters, you can recover normal neurotransmitter levels” “Cortisol increases adrenaline directly. The more cortisol you release, the more adrenaline you produce. When we deload, we want to decrease any variable that would increase cortisol, there are 6: Volume, Intensiveness, using RPE scale (not intensity), psychological stress, neurological demands (coordination demand), density, and competitiveness” “When I train athletes, I prefer to stick to the same exercises for a long time (as to not increase coordination demand and increase cortisol and adrenaline)” “If you include a lot of new exercises in the program, you had better decrease volume and intensiveness to compensate” “Carbohydrates can be a great too to decrease adrenaline. They help you control adrenaline by decreasing cortisol. When you have a lot of carbs readily available in bloodstream for fuel, you don’t need to mobilize stored glycogen, so you need less cortisol” “People with excessive muscle tone, these guys will need carbs to bring it down” “I will have carbs pre-workout if the athlete has high muscle tone or high cortisol… if the person is normal baseline I’ll have carbs after the workout” About Christian Thibaudeau Christian Thibaudeau has been involved in the business of training for over the last 18 years. During this period, he worked with athletes from 28 different sports. He has been “Head Strength Coach” for the Central Institute for Human Performance (official center of the St. Louis Blues). His specialty: being a generalist. He assists his athletes to develop the necessary qualities to increase their performances (eg: muscle mass, power, explosiveness, coordination). His work method enabled him to lead several successful athletes in a multitude of different disciplines. Christian is a prolific writer with three books published, each of which translated into three languages (The Black Book of Training Secrets, Theory and Application of Modern Strength and Power Methods, High Threshold Muscle Building). In addition, Christian is co-author with Paul Carter in a new book, which will soon be released. He is also the author of two DVDs (Cluster Training, Mechanical Drop Sets). Christian is also a senior author and head writer for the E-Magazine T-Nation his articles are read by over 200,000 people every week. He competed in weightlifting at the national level as well as bodybuilding, He was also a football coach for 8 years. As a lecturer, he has given conferences and seminars in both the United States and Europe, to audiences ranging from amateur athletes to health professionals and coaches of all types. Christian Thibaudeau popularized the Neurotyping system. Neural optimization supersedes hormonal optimization because the neural response affects the hormonal response. This is essentially the founding principle and inspiration behind Christian Thibaudeau’s Neurotyping System. The bottom line is simple: you are more likely to train hard, be focused and stay motivated if you like the type of training you are doing, and a training that goes against your nature causes a greater stress response that hinders optimal progression. “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” – Albert Einstein

207: Edward Yu on Slowing Down to Run Faster and Integrating Sensory Awareness into Technical Acquisition | Sponsored by SimpliFaster Jun 18, 2020

Today’s episode features Feldenkrais practitioner and human movement specialist, Edward Yu. Edward is a former triathlete, current martial arts enthusiast, and perennial student of Masters Li Xueyi and Ge Guoliang in the art of Bagua. Edward has worked with members of the US Olympic Track Team as well as those in the Portuguese National Ballet. Edward is also the author of “Slowing Down to Run Faster” the impetus of which came years after Edward quit running and discovered that conventional approaches to training are not always effective in turning people into better athletes. Edward’s interest in how people learn and process information has led him to mix the disparate fields of sports, martial arts, dance, psychology, cognitive science, information theory, and political economy into both his teaching and writing. Learning about human movement and the acquisition of technique in sport skill has been an incredible, yet humbling journey for me. After hearing cue after cue from coaches that never worked, I was always looking into how we actually process and acquire skills as human beings. Two areas that I’ve dipped my toe into that I feel are vastly under-appreciated in sports performance are the martial arts, and then the world of movement through sensory awareness (such as the Feldenkrais method). Today’s podcast is all about exploring human movement and sport technique from a wider lens. On the show, Edward and I cover many aspects that are particularly human when working on sport skills, such as over-trying, self-sabotage and motivational factors. Edwards also gets into his ideas on our sensory and motor development has humans, how our skills as adults hinge on things we need to learn as children, and how understanding that can lead us into new territory when it comes to guiding athletes to their optimal technique. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 6:25 Why people lose the joy of running and turn the action into a shuffle 13:25 The roots of “too much effort” in training and competition and how to combat it 21:55 How adult human beings self-sabotage their movements versus the purity of movements in children 34:40 How to look at motivation in context of our own movement practice, as well as learning to be easier on ourselves 43:10 How to improve one’s technique by learning to “slow down to run faster” 55:55 Ideas on exercises that can foster better learning in regards to running 1:08.25 How to use the slowing down method to gain awareness of the feet in running “If you don’t feel powerful (running), you aren’t going to enjoy it very much” “We have a culture that’s really heavy handed with using will power and discipline and pushing to try and get results” “I think if we look at the individual without looking at culture, and political economy, we are missing a lot. You have to look at both together” “The self-sabotage in our culture has a lot to do with habits. If you just removed (the chair (from our culture) you gain a lot of advantages” “If something is not learned in childhood, it is going to affect all more advanced/directed movement in the future. If we don’t go back and try to learn those fundaments, they will not be as efficient as they could be in the future” “The potential for learning is not as vast (in animals versus for humans)” “To learn to fun faster, you need to know what it means to learn” “The way we are often coached is to try to imitate the ideal, but you can’t imitate what you don’t know in your own body” “The fundaments for learning appear from the time we exit the womb, to the time we are 6,7,8, and a lot of that happens on the ground. It is very powerful to go on the ground, and explore movement in many different configurations and various constraints on the ground” “You are always trying to introduce novelty and patterns in the mind” “The nervous system can only handle so much novelty at one moment” “You can reduce the noise by slowing down dramatically. Slowing down does that, getting on the floor does that even more” “I do that with runners, you test something on the floor, and then you use some of those cues to play with while you are running” “You can really only pay attention fully to one thing at a time” “One way (to have more awareness of your feet) is to use your hands to feel the metatarsals” About Edward Yu Edward Yu is a former triathlete, current martial arts enthusiast, and perennial student of Masters Li Xueyi and Ge Guoliang in the art of Bagua, a.k.a. Baguazhang. Along with studying Bagua and Taichi, he has sampled enough boxing, kickboxing, and judo to know that sometimes it’s better to run for your life. Edward’s interest in how people learn and process information has led him to mix the disparate fields of sports, martial arts, dance, psychology, cognitive science, information theory, and political economy into both his teaching and writing. Edward has worked with members of the US Olympic Track Team as well as those in the Portuguese National Ballet (Companhia Nacional do Bailado). Edward is the author of “Slowing Down to Run Faster” the impetus of which came years after Edward quit running and discovered that conventional approaches to training are not always effective in turning people into better athletes (even if they are often effective in making them discouraged and neurotic). In his free time, Edward likes to roll on the floor, walk in circles, and stare into space.

206: Ross Jeffs on Individualizing Speed Training by Understanding Concentric, Elastic and Metabolic Sprint Types | Sponsored by SimpliFaster Jun 11, 2020

Today’s episode features track and sports performance coach, Ross Jeffs. Ross is a sprints, jumps and hurdles coach at the Aspire Academy in Doha, Qatar. He formerly worked in the Netherlands as a sprints and jumps coach at Atletiek Trainingscentrum Rotterdam, and has also coached under the guidance of Jonas Dodoo within the Speedworks system. Ross has also worked with a number of athletes from a range of sports including a grand slam tennis player, professional boxers, Olympic medallists from basketball and rugby sevens, and World Cup finalists in rugby. Ross appeared on the podcast recently in episode 145. In the training of athletes, be it in track and field or team sports, not all athletes respond to the same stimulus in the same way. Give 20 random athletes a diet of fast sprinting and heavy weightlifting, and some will respond amazingly well to it, others average, and some poorly. The same thing could be said of a plyometric focused program, as well as other types of setups. I first remember this idea of individualization in reading how the late Charlie Francis had mentioned some athletes liking heavy lifting, others plyometrics and bounding, while others responded well to the use of tempo training. Since then, I’ve been able to dig into things like Christian Thibaudeau’s neurotyping system, as well as Ross Jeff’s “trainers vs. racers” ideas on designing programs for athletes based on how far or close they can get to their competitive best in a practice environment. Ross Jeffs is one of my favorite coaches and thinkers when it comes to training setups and organization to get the most out of athletes. He is continually asking questions and getting outside the box in order to help coaches and athletes understand training, adaptation and peaking better. Our conversation focus today is on sprinting, and how the differences of “concentric oriented”, “elastic oriented” or “metabolic oriented” are going to impact how these athletes are best trained and coached. This episode is also incredibly valuable for team sport coaches, where there is guaranteed to be more diversity than in a single track and field event in the process of coaching. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 3:20 An overview of Ross’s classifications of concentric, elastic and metabolic sprinters 18:15 How the different sprint types (concentric, elastic, metabolic) might fit with Christian Thibaudeau’s neurotyping system 26:00 The squatted element of how concentric runners tend to enjoy the weightroom, squatting, and are better at sprinting and accelerating with lower centers of mass 30:30 How to help concentric dominant athletes become better at their weakness, which is top-end velocity running 35:25 Unpacking the need for variety in rhythmic upright running in elastic runners 49:10 Strength training ideas in regards to elastic sprinters 53:40 Metabolic sprinters and stride length/frequency concepts 56:10 How big of a factor nature vs. nurture is in the different types of sprinters 1:00:10 Rules of thumb in training strengths versus weaknesses based on sprint type 1:03.00 Thoughts on sprint typing and working in team sports 1:06.25 If the ideas of “trainers” vs. “racers” fits into the sprint typing model at all Quotes “Concentric sprinters run fast because of their strong strength and power capabilities. These are usually your 60m and 100m specialists. They perform very well in countermovement jumps and have a deeper lowering phase” “Concentric sprinters prefer less lactic tempo running” “They like to do jumps which utilize long stretch shortening cycle mechanisms” “They also seem to respond well to full-range heay movement” “When we sprint and strike the ground, the majority of energy is produced by the lower limb and in the foot and ankle complex. (Elastic sprinters) have a unique ability to reuse energy from that area of the body” “(Elastic sprinters) will dominate more in the maximal velocity phase of the (100m dash) 40-70m when upright, around their maximal velocity” “(Elastic sprinters) have a higher flight time and a lower ground contact time. They will dominate drop jump tests and have higher RSI’s” “(Elastic sprinters) seem to like variation and if you do too much of one program for too long, they will be stagnant. They like work that utilize short SSC mechanisms. They usually don’t need big heavy loads on the spine (in the weightroom)” “The gym is as much for bulletproofing as it is for output with (elastic guys)” “(Metabolic sprinters) will dominate because of how they use energy. Their style relies on economy” “(Metabolic sprinters) are the easiest to get wrong for the modern sprint coach” “If you try to make (metabolic sprinters) too frontside, then you take away their strengths and kill the beast” “(Metabolic sprinters) tend to have a more cyclical and less aggressive looking acceleration style, it’s more about getting their steps down efficiently” “(Metabolic sprinters) generally need a higher of volume of running in their program. These athletes need to be fit before they are fast” “Certainly an athlete’s previous training history will influence (what you might need to put in their program now) even if they are a different type” “When you squat heavy, you prep the neuromuscular system to have tension in your anterior chain” “(Elastic guys) have more tone and feeling around their ankle complex. You can only feel that if you have more space in front of you to strike the ground” “Do enough of (training their weakness) so it can reach a level where it’s not poor, but not so much that it hurts what makes them great” “When you’ve trained to your strength and you have that tonus, your skill acquisition is better as well” “For me, that is a different box, if you are a racer or a trainer” Show Notes Concentric Sprinters: Coleman/SAFP Christian Coleman 60m 6.34 Shelly Ann Fraser Pryce 100m 10.76 (Note SAFP next to Dafne Schippers who is more of the elastic-metabolic type) Elastic Sprinters: DeGrasse, Jeter Andre De Grasse 200m 20.19 Carmelita Jeter 100m 10.64 Metabolic Sprinters: Michael Johnson, Allyson Felix Michael Johnson 400m 43.18 Allyson Felix 200m 21.88 About Ross Jeffs Ross Jeffs is a sprints, jumps and hurdles coach at the Aspire Academy in Doha, Qatar. Ross formerly worked in the Netherlands as a sprints and jumps coach at Atletiek Trainingscentrum Rotterdam. He has worked with a number of athletes from a range of sports including a grand slam tennis player, professional boxers, Olympic medallists from basketball and rugby sevens, and World Cup finalists in rugby. He also spent time coaching under the guidance of elite British coach Jonas Dodoo within the Speedworks system coaching national and international level track and field athletes.

205: Boo Schexnayder on Training Organization, Variation and “Trump Card” Workouts for Maximal Power Performance | Sponsored by SimpliFaster Jun 04, 2020

Today’s episode features Boo Schexnayder, current strength coach and former jumps coach at Louisiana State University. Boo is regarded internationally as a leading authority in training design, possessing 37 years of experience in the coaching and consulting fields. Most noted for his 12 years on the Track and Field coaching staff at LSU, he is regarded as one of the world’s premier coaches, having developed 19 NCAA Champions and 10 Olympians. Boo is one of the world’s leading authorities on training for speed and power on a variety of levels. I get a lot of requests on the show to talk about training organization and programming, and we had a great chat with Grant Fowler for episode #190, but outside of that show, talks on programming have been a bit sparse, so I was really excited to get Boo back on the line to have a great chat on programming and organization. This show gets into it. It’s one of the best talks I’ve had on straight-forward planning and organization for speed and power training. Although Boo’s deepest and most well-known experience is with track and field, there is a huge gold-mine of information for working with team sport athletes as well. For the episode Boo takes us far into his thoughts on how he builds a power development program through the year, from his “home base” power workouts, working into his more intense work and “trump cards” that he selectively plays when he wants athletes to be their best. We also get into a lot of great information on recovery workouts, de-loading schemes, plyometric training for team sport athletes, full vs. partial range thoughts, and much more. This is not an episode that you casually listen to, it’s one that you really study. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 6:20 How Boo approaches changing themes in year round training for speed and power athletes, as well as Boo’s take on “proprioceptive staleness” 11:00 How Boo cycles his power training means throughout the year and how he leaves himself work to build on, as well as his “home base” workouts versus his high intensity power workouts 24:20 Boo’s take on training novice versus advanced athletes from a power perspective 25:20 Boo’s favorite “trump card” workout sets to use when peaking athletes for maximal performance 30:30 Boo’s take on building work capacity and how to optimally use recovery days 39:40 How to look at training a team sport athlete from a jump training and plyometric perspective versus a track and field athlete 45:55 Loading to deloading ratios throughout the year for various athletes 51:40 Using higher frequency work in training days, and how that fits in on the periodization timeline 57:25 Thoughts on unilateral work, bilateral work and range of motion in lifting Quotes “Mental staleness is something all good athletes have to trudge through, but physical staleness is a problem” “I think variety in training has a lot to do with proprioceptive shortness” “A lot of times I change (exercises) for the sake of change and variety” “Ultimately, my goal is to get the intensities in my power training as high as I possibly can. I always say that the intensity you reach is the level of performance you are going to get” “There is going to come a time when athletes have seen everything you have and you have to use variety, you have to use creative set-rep loading schemes to move them along” “I save most of the things I use for variety and variance like trump cards at critical spots” “Lower ends of power development provide support for the more intense bouts of reaching that you do: Things like acceleration development, light Olympic lifts, rudimentary plyometrics, those types of things are always in my program from day 1 to day last” “With older athletes, I do a lot of rollover training (Day 1 is neural day. Day 2 is a high-end speed power training day. Day 3 is a restoration day)” “(Regarding “trump cards” in training) The single biggest one is the single rep max work in the Olympic lifts is something I like to use as a high level stimulant. Most of my other trump cards are complexes” “I’ll take 6 different bars with 6 different weights and put them on the platforms, and they have to do squat jumps with all 6 bars” “Mastery is not what makes improvement, the struggle to attain mastery is what makes improvement” “If something is going to be part of your training program, it needs to be part of your training program in some remedial form at the very beginning” “When I hit my highest levels of intensity, I’m hitting max velocity, in doing depth jumping, and I’m doing Olympic lifting where they are going 100%... I’m hitting those types of sessions and those types of units every 10 days or so depending on the athlete. If I’m going to be intense, your exercises have to be simple” “You can be fancy, or you can be intense, you can’t be both… so I have to be simple” “In restoration days, I try to be as diverse as I possibly can, again, to try and alleviate the potential for repetitive movement syndromes and such” “He will do really high intensity plyometrics with his basketball players, once every 17 days. If you look at that 17 day window, there is one day you can fit in a depth jumping session, about 30 contacts or so” “Change of direction is very plyometric in nature, when I see change of direction and jumping, to me those things are more alike than they are different because of the eccentric” “If you are looking at the high intensity days I have, I start with 3 a week and then I progress to one every 10 days (depth jumping/maximal velocity) as the intensity increases” “I look at the key variable to progress being density” “De-loading enables loading, if you look at my work weeks, they are kind of scary, but if you look at my deload weeks, they are also kind of scary. The higher the highs, the lower the lows” “I work on 3 weeks hard, one week easy. My easy week, the whole week all we do is test. We won’t do any sprinting, but we’ll have a time trial. We don’t do any plyometric work but we might have a jump test, we don’t lift per say but we might max out on an exercise” “To be a good coach it isn’t so much about your program, but rather, what’s the appropriate play at this point in time. It’s like a card game.” “Everything I do that’s slow, I try to go full range of motion… if I’m squatting, you know it’s going to be a deep squat” “There are two reasons you are going to go partial range of motion (in the weightroom) the first is specificity…. the second is output. As far as partial vs. full, full is my default” “Doing half squats excessively causes all kinds of problems” About Boo Schexnayder Boo Schexnayder is a current strength coach and former jumps coach at Louisiana State University, and is regarded internationally as a leading authority in training design, possessing 37 years of experience in the coaching and consulting fields. Most noted for his 12 years on the Track and Field coaching staff at LSU, he is regarded as one of the world’s premier coaches, having developed 19 NCAA Champions and 10 Olympians. Schexnayder has coached multiple World Championship and Olympic medalists and has been on several national team staffs, including the staff of Team USA at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He also possesses 13 years of experience in NFL player development and combine preparations. He frequently lectures and consults domestically and internationally in the areas of speed and power development, training design, motor learning, and rehabilitation. He has operated Schexnayder Athletic Consulting and serves as director of the USTFCCCA’s Track and Field Academy and Thibodaux Regional Medical Center’s performance division. Prior to his collegiate and international career, Schexnayder was a successful prep coach for 11 years, coaching football, track, and cross country.

204: Max Shank on Primal Strength, Elasticity and Holistic Athletic Development | Sponsored by SimpliFaster May 28, 2020

Today’s episode features Max Shank, fitness coach and owner of Ambition Athletics in Encinitas, California. Max has written 3 books, taught over a hundred courses in countries around the world and is the creator of the “5-minute-flow”. Max is an avid learner, having picked up guitar, piano, and drums as an adult, in addition to the dozens of physical movement skills he has acquired. As a personal trainer, Max has moved his focus from basic strength training to a holistic approach of overall fitness and health. One thing that I’ve really enjoyed in observing Max’s work over the years is his passion for movement and learning. Max is a coach who is the epitome of getting outside the box, and taking a holistic approach to coaching, training and human development. His methods of working towards becoming an “athletic ninja” have relevance towards the goals of any trainee. On today’s show, Max gets into skill training from a practical and philosophical perspective, music’s relationship with training, using play dance in training, developing elasticity, training the foot, and much more. This is a fantastic show that blends a lot of different elements of life itself, to get a deeper view on our training practice. Whether you deal with only athletes, or work heavily in general fitness, there is a ton of gold in this episode. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 3:50 How music fits in with physical music in Max’s philosophy 10:50 Why doing work that is more engaging emotionally is a more sustainable practice in exercise 21:20 Why a diversity and love of movement is often lacking in a strength and conditioning environment 25:50 What an exercise program means to Max and why we should pick means of training that come from intrinsic motivation rather than looking a particular way 40:45 How Max views the relationship between play and training 50:25 The mind-body relationship when it comes to difficult work and the sustainability of difficult training protocols 58:00 Some of Max’s favorite tools for strength and movement 1:02.45 How Max views elasticity and elastic strength development “The use of a metronome is outrageous. Playing too slow, playing too fast. Doing it deliberately wrong, and seeing if you can work your way back into it. Being able to express emotional content into what you are doing, whether it’s tennis or boxing, or wrestling or something, and doing the same thing with an instrument, there are so many parallels” “There’s the part from Bruce Lee in “Enter the Dragon” where he tells the kid to put emotional content (into his physical practice)” “Music is relationships and ratios put together in time” “Dancers are savage athletes who have a huge variety of skills and ranges of motion, and fantastic body control” “You have two hearts, and one of them is your feet. You don’t get amazing venous return from your lower extremities without movement” “That’s the point of training is for it to be intrinsically enjoyable, so the experience right now, itself should be fun, and it should be something that you would want to do if you didn’t get any results from it… if you didn’t build one muscle fiber from it, would you still do the thing. That’s a pretty good indicator that it’s a rich experience” “If you are just doing the pushups so your arms will get bigger, then you are sort of trapped. Pick something that you would be happy to do even if it didn’t build muscle or lose fat” “I probably do at least a few minutes of drumming before I get my training done… it’s just fun, it feels good. All of my training is that way.” “(Regarding training and play) Ideally you would want to structure your training playfully, so you look forward to it. So you look forward to the stimulus you are trying to elicit, and create games around that, to get the training effects that you want… that’s what I would say” “One thing a person can do is take all of the movements they are doing right now on one end of the spectrum, doing them painstakingly slow, and then try to see how quickly you can do them with as little effort as possible” “You don’t get any points for extra effort (in training) if your goal is performance. If your goal is maximum hypertrophy at the cost of everything else and your goal is to be Mr. Olympia, then in fact, you are probably best served by grinding through those last couple repetitions. For the average person, if anything, you want to do your movements as effortlessly as possible.” “The goal isn’t to suffer and have a lot of effort, the goal is to move as smoothly as possible” “If the average person took some of their workout time and did a bit of singing and dancing, they would feel a ton better. And I would add… to create some music” “Don’t live as if you would die tomorrow, live as if you would happily repeat that day 10,000 more times” “By far the best piece of (training) gear is another human being” “If you have an enthusiastic partner and a place to hang, you can pretty much get it all done in the best way possible” “(How to build elastic development) dance for 5 straight minutes” “If you want to play the long game elasticity is by far the thing you want the most… what’s the opposite of elasticity? Rigid. Brittle.” Show Notes Bruce Lee on emotional content https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usUS4gEzm-c About Max Shank @maxshank Max Shank is the owner of Ambition Athletics in Encinitas, California. Since starting out as a personal trainer, Max has switched his focus from basic strength training to a holistic approach of overall fitness and health. Max has written 3 books, has taught over a hundred courses in countries around the world and is the creator of the “5-minute-flow”. These experiences have allowed him to help 10's of thousands of people across the globe improve their lives through physical fitness. Max is a firm believer that everyone should be strong, capable, and confident to handle any situation regardless of age or gender. Apart from being very active in Martial Arts, Max plays tennis regularly and recommends that adults spend more time in physical “play.” Max Shank has also received an Official Commendation from the United States Marine Corps for services rendered in the course of enhancing the athletic readiness of the 1st Anglico at Camp Pendleton. An avid experimenter and learner, Max has picked up guitar, piano, and drums as an adult. Recently, he built his dining room table with his own two hands using no screws or nails.

203: Eric Cressey on the Evolution of Shoulder Training, Work Capacity and Specificity in Professional Baseball Performance | Sponsored by SimpliFaster May 21, 2020

Today’s episode features strength coach and gym owner, Eric Cressey. Eric Cressey is the president and co-founder of Cressey Sports Performance (CSP), with facilities in both Hudson, MA and Jupiter, FL. Behind Eric’s expertise, CSP has established itself as a go-to high-performance facility to both local athletes and those that come from across the country and abroad to experience CSP’s cutting-edge methods. Eric also works with the New York Yankees as the Director of Player Health and Performance. In the past five years, 125 CSP athletes have been selected in the Major League Baseball Draft, and CSP works with players from all 30 MLB organizations. The field of sports performance is rapidly evolving, especially in the private sector where sport skills and specific strength are becoming increasingly blended. Compared to a decade or more ago, strength and sports performance coaches are learning more and more about the specific biomechanics and KPI’s that lead to success of their athletes on the field. Additionally, ideas on shoulder injury prevention and rehabilitation for athletic populations are also changing fast. Modern sport coaching is also getting better, albeit more slowly than what athletes would like, in methods to develop an optimal specific work capacity for their players rather than old school methods of slogging laps. To keep up in a fast-changing world, I was really excited to catch up with Eric Cressey and see how his process has evolved in his years as a coach and business owner. As a man who works with many of the top athletes, coaches and therapists in the world, seeing how Eric’s process has grown over the years is an enlightening conversation. Some of the areas we get into specifically involve the blend of sport and strength coaching, shoulder health, work capacity, maximal strength training, and more. This was a brief, but information dense episode that coaches and athletes of any sport (but particularly over-head and throwing sports) can get a lot out of. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 5:55 How Eric got into coaching strength training and performance for baseball players 9:40 Eric’s transition into getting into the technical and biomechanical side of pitching 20:25 How getting into pitching mechanics has had an impact on Eric’s strength program 23:25 How Eric’s thoughts on strength training and powerlifting in working with athletes have changed over the years 27:55 How Eric’s thoughts on shoulder training and injury prevention have evolved over time 35:55 Pros and cons of using fixed vs. free scapular movements with athletes 36:55 Indicators from watching athletes move in the weightroom as to their chances of a acquiring a shoulder injury in sport 38:55 Building work capacity in baseball players 44:55 How Eric looks at asymmetry in baseball players “I wrote up a weighted ball and extreme long toss program, and I got a text when he had thrown live against the hitters at Harvard, he said I was 91-94mph, then we saw some 95s and 96s, he had a life changing velocity jump” “A strength and conditioning coach is writing a throwing program, that’s never happened” “Weighted implements had been around for a long time, but they haven’t been utilized… it got me thinking about weighted balls, medicine balls (for throwing enhancement). Training in those middle grounds seemed to have a lot of value” “There are things that are being coached mechanically that are well intentioned but they don’t take into account the limitations that an athlete has, he just can’t get into the positions they need” “Pitching mechanics are actually the most heavily debated topic out there” “We want to prepare our athletes for a chaotic world, a lack of predictability” “When you have a powerlifting background, you have to emotionally separate yourself from those things that have been fun for you when training rotational athletes” “(For shoulder training) What you are going to do for a 65-year old man who has been sitting at his computer his whole life is a lot different than what you need to do for your athletes who are in extension-rotation sports” “You can’t just pin your scapula down on a bench and expect it to carry over (to sport) “When you train your elbow at your side, you’re not actually training it in a functional position, you want it to be strong in positions that really matter” “Don’t just work cuff strength, work cuff timing” “(With overhead athletes) When people do a lot of vertical presses, they often feel better” “We should be looking at free vs. fixed scapular pressing, and how much vertical vs. horizontal pushing and pulling, everyone needs something a little bit different” “I really don’t like floor presses because your shoulder blades are still stuck against the floor” “(As a shoulder risk indicator) We’ll see people get a lot of arm motion because the scapula isn’t moving enough” “Work capacity is incredibly specific” “I think there is a need for a strong aerobic base. For most athletes, getting a heart rate under 60 means that you are in a pretty good spot” “I like to train mobility circuits (for an aerobic base)” “Right-handed individuals tend to have more extreme asymmetries. Your lefties tend to find more ways to work out of it” About Eric Cressey @ericcressey Eric Cressey is the president and co-founder of Cressey Sports Performance (CSP), with facilities in both Hudson, MA and Jupiter, FL. Behind Eric’s expertise, CSP has established itself as a go-to high-performance facility to both local athletes and those that come from across the country and abroad to experience CSP’s cutting-edge methods. Eric also works with the New York Yankees as the Director of Player Health and Performance. In the past five years, 125 CSP athletes have been selected in the Major League Baseball Draft, and CSP works with players from all 30 MLB organizations. In 2017 alone, CSP was off-season home to both the American League and National League Cy Young Award winners. Cressey received his Master’s Degree in Kinesiology with a concentration in Exercise Science through the University of Connecticut Department of Kinesiology. At UCONN, Eric was involved in varsity strength and conditioning and research in the human performance laboratory. Previously, Eric graduated from the University of New England with a double major in Exercise Science and Sports and Fitness Management. Eric has been an invited guest lecturer in six countries and more than 25 U.S. states, and is a presenter on the Perform Better Tour, widely regarded as the premier lecture circuit in the fitness industry. Cressey has written over 500 articles and five books, and co-created four DVD sets; these products have been purchased in over 60 countries around the world. In addition to regularly consulting for professional sports teams, Eric also serves as a baseball consultant to New Balance. Eric served as the strength and conditioning coach to the USA Baseball Under-18 National Team that won the gold medal at the 2015 World Cup in Osaka, Japan. A record-setting competitive powerlifter himself, Cressey has deadlifted 650 pounds at a body weight of 174 and is recognized as an athlete who can jump, sprint, and lift alongside his best athletes to push them to higher levels – and keep them healthy in the process.

202: Matt Jordan on Bringing Clarity to a Complex World of Data in Training and Sport Science | Sponsored by SimpliFaster May 14, 2020

Today’s episode features strength coach and consultant, Dr. Matt Jordan. Matt is a strength and conditioning coach/performance consultant for elite athletes with six Olympic cycles of experience. He holds a Master of Science in Exercise and Neuromuscular Physiology, and a PhD in Medical Science from the University of Calgary. Matt has consulted with more than 30 Olympic and World Championship medalists and provides expertise to high performance organizations in the NHL, NBA, NFL, and military. He is currently the Director of Sport Science at the Canadian Sport Institute Calgary and leads the Sport Science/Sport Medicine program for Alpine Canada. In training athletes, it’s very easy to simply get caught in the way of thinking that we were brought up into in our own time as athletes and as young coaches. If we don’t ever get some sort of data behind the methods we are performing week in and week out, it’s hard to know what to change and why. When it comes to making meaningful decisions on key performance metrics, reducing the noise in a system, and using simple and consistent measures to help guide performance, Dr. Matt Jordan is the guy that you want to talk to. On today’s episode, Matt gets into this subject, particularly on the topics of periodization and training organization, as well as data collection and the use of vertical jump profiling as a measure of performance fatigability. He also gets into the job of a strength coach in context of a total high performance system with the idea of reducing noise in the system in mind. Ultimately, this show is about helping coaching learn to make their training decisions and their data collection more simple, meaningful and integrated to help improve clarity in programming, and results. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 3:15 Positives and negatives to the traditional model of periodization 12:30 How ideas on periodization might change when moving from a sport of high complexity to one of low complexity 21:00 Some thoughts on reducing the noise in a high performance system when there are multiple practitioners working with the athletes (strength coaches and team sport coaches) 36:00 How vertical jump profiling can fit into the bigger picture of an athlete’s total training for their sport 45:20 How performance fatigability differs from how well the competitive exercise is improving “There is not a lot of good data to support periodization, but as anybody who has done this in the real world, we understand that sequencing and organization of training stimulus, and interference effects are very much real things and therefore require some thought which is the cornerstone of periodization” “In all disciplines, whether you are a teacher or a physician, there is a very big struggle to override your experience and the way you’ve always done things, rather than a data-driven approach” “Weather shaped how people trained for decades, even after they didn’t have weather to contend with” “If (as a strength coach) you can’t adapt to the culture (of a team sport) you can’t give those athletes what they need to succeed” “If you don’t have trust, you can’t have impact” “With an alpine skier, it’s really tough to pull a number out that says “this is how well you are performing today” “Performance fatigability is the effects of fatigue on performance” “In a lot of sports, the competitive exercise (CE) is just super complex” “I say to coaches, “what is your pan evaporation?”, Find your simple metrics, repeatable over time, stick with them. They help bring clarity to a complex world that we are trying to understand” “It’s really tough to understand things when you start noisy” About Matt Jordan @JordanStrength Dr. Matt Jordan is a strength and conditioning coach/performance consultant for elite athletes with six Olympic cycles of experience. He holds a Master of Science in Exercise and Neuromuscular Physiology, and a PhD in Medical Science from the University of Calgary. Matt has consulted with more than 30 Olympic and World Championship medalists and provides expertise to high performance organizations in the NHL, NBA, NFL, and military. He is currently the Director of Sport Science (Strength & Power/Mountain Sports) at the Canadian Sport Institute Calgary (CSIC) and leads the Sport Science/Sport Medicine program for Alpine Canada. Matt provides science-based education courses for strength, fitness, and performance coaches of all levels through jordanstrength.com.

201: Alex Natera on the Origin of Run-Specific Isometrics and Their Integration in Team Sport Play vs. Training Sprinters | Sponsored by SimpliFaster May 07, 2020

Today’s episode features Alex Natera, senior athletic performance specialist at the GWS Giants of the AFL. Alex has over twenty years of experience in high performance sport including time spent as a professional sportsman, a technical coach, a sport science lecturer, a published scientific researcher and his primary role as strength & conditioning coach. Prior to the Giants, Alex was the senior strength and conditioning coach at Aspire Academy. Alex’s original article on isometric training that was specific to training sprinters “broke the internet” several years ago. In it, Alex laid out an approach to training sprinters (and speed in general) in the weightroom in a manner that was very novel to anything coaches had seen before, using isometric exercises to hone specific elements of the run cycle. This was followed up by podcast #86 where Alex took us in the nuts and bolts of the training system for sprinters. Since our last podcast, Alex, has spent a lot of time working with, not sprinters, but team sport athletes. As much as the specificity of Alex’s isometrics to running still ring true in the scenario of training team sport athletes, working with this population versus sprinters is really a different “beast” than sprinters, who are more or less fresh all of the time and are athletic freaks. On today’s show, Alex gets into the fine points of how he is incorporating his system into a team sport training regime. Other topics we will cover will be Alex’s take on hamstring training for team sport athletes vs. sprinters, as well as a fun story regarding how the run-specific isometric protocol originated in the first place. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 6:00 The history of Run-Specific isometrics, and the necessity that sparked the protocol that has now become very popular and effective in training sprint velocity 26:00 Strength norms for the knee, hip and ankle in run specific ISO’s 30:05 Some of the big differences in applying run-specific isometrics in team sport athletes, specifically Australian rules football, versus pure sprinters 42:00 How Run-Specific isometrics have a strong impact on running efficiency in team sport athletes who have long distances to navigate with each game 50:40 What Alex does when force plates are not available for Run-specific isometric training 52:30 Some of Alex’s methods in addressing hamstring injuries in team sport athletes Quotes “I was involved in isometric training, back to when I was a little kid in the martial arts” “I attest my strength in the scrum as a player completely to isometrics” “Our guys were getting a training effect from (weekly) mid-thigh pull assessments” “(A modern pentathlete) got 25% stronger in isometric mid-thigh pull, and then things like contact time at race pace, running economy, these things had a really positive shift” “I agree, isometrics are the safest mode of lifting work” “There is this minority group that can ruin themselves doing too much maximal isometric work” “(For the modern pentathlete) We did 3 sets of 3x4 second pushes (in the single leg isometric mid-thigh pull), mostly around the 90% effort mark” “It’s about 5x bodyweight for knee ISO push, for ankle ISO push, it’s about 3.5x bodyweight, for your hip ISO push, now it’s system mass, and it’s 3.5 times the system mass” “When it comes to team sports (versus sprinting), it’s a whole new level with fatigue; they are always fatigued” “The challenge is how do you incorporate isometrics into that program in a team sport athletes where the bucket it already full? Something has to come out of the bucket to put it back in” “The easiest thing to take out of the program is the volume of traditional lifting” “We certainly give small doses of isometric work, in some of our athletes, before they even go out on the training field” “If you are going to do a big isometric knee push, one of the best ways to get warmed up for that is to do some squatting” “You can use isometrics as a complex exercise. You can do an isometric calf, and go straight into drop jumps for example” “A good sprinter, they’ve never failed at looking like they could hold a Nordic hamstring forever. We need more research on sprinters, because they don’t fit it” “I prefer to work in variety (in hamstring training for sprinters) around their proximal hamstring work throughout the season” “What (team sport athletes) are missing is that sprint exposure, and the careful manipulation of sprint exposure and isolated hamstring work like in a Nordic hamstring curl, for example” “Team sport athletes ankles aren’t great, compared to a sprinter… focus on making them more reactive, and how that applies to the rest of the running cycle and gait is absolutely essential” Show Notes Run Specific Isometrics Original Article: Modern Speed Training: Q&A with Alex Natera on Isometrics for Running Performance About Alex Natera @alex_natera Alex Natera has over twenty years of experience in high performance sport including time spent as a professional sportsman, a technical coach, a sport science lecturer, a published scientific researcher and his primary role as strength & conditioning coach. Alex is currently the Senior Athletic Performance Specialist at the GWS Giants in the AFL. Alex was prior the Senior S&C Coach of Aspire Academy Athletics where he specialized in the sprints events. Alex had responsibility for the physical preparation of track & field athletes for the past eight years but he has also been fortunate enough to ply his trade, and learn his craft, from influences working across the globe in a variety of sports including Premier League Soccer and Championship level Rugby Union. Along with his current role he continues to provide technical leadership in Rugby Union as Head Coach for Doha Rugby Club playing in the West Asian premiership. As a previous S&C coach for both the English Institute of Sport and the South Australian Sports Institute, Alex has done extensive applied work in over a dozen Olympic and Commonwealth games sports, including Sprint Cycling, Canoe-Kayak and Modern Pentathlon. Notably, Alex has played his part in preparing multiple Junior and senior sportsmen for World Championship performances, Olympic Medal successes and World Records throughout his career. Alex holds a Bachelor’s degree in Sport Science, a Master’s degree in Applied Sport Science, the ASCC from the UKSCA and the CSCS from the NSCA and he is currently completing his PhD where he is investigating a novel aspect of power development- high volume power training and repeat power ability.

200: Scott Salwasser on “Zero-to-100” Training After a Long Layoff, Speed Work for Lineman, and the Agility Continuum | Sponsored by SimpliFaster Apr 30, 2020

Today’s episode features sports performance coach Scott Salwasser. Scott has been a multiple time guest on this show, talking about speed training in football, force-velocity profiling, and perception/reaction work. Scott is currently the assistant director of strength and conditioning for football at the University of South Carolina. Scott has worked as a sports performance coach for nearly 2 decades, and has worked at a number of NCAA DI universities, as well as in the NFL, and in the private training sector. When it comes to training, Scott is one of the most practical and grounded coaches that I know, and has an incredible ability to take complex concepts, and create a simple and effective training solution. Scott works with a variety of technologies, such as force plates, GPS, 1080 Sprint technology, and more, and is able to break things down to simple terms as to how he is utilizing them, and the tangible results he is seeing with his players. Today’s show covers a number of important topics such as going into Scott’s speed program for lineman, what tendencies they have from a force-velocity perspective, as well as giving more perspective on the nuts and bolts of his perception-action and agility program. A highly relevant aspect of today’s show is Scott’s experience in helping athletes get back to a high level of performance in a short period of time after a layoff, which is very pertinent to many situations coaches will be finding themselves in, in the near future. While working at Cal, Scott helped a key player who was down with a virus for the majority of spring training get back to competition shape quickly in the summer, using a variety of feedback tools, and goes in depth on his methodology in today’s episode. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 8:30 Scott’s transition from working with skill players in football to working with lineman 14:30 How the NFL combine, although limited in transfer to the game, does at least provide a level of comparison from year to year 17:30What Scott’s speed program looks like for a lineman 21:30 How Scott’s perception/action work has progressed throughout the year and his movement of closed into progressively more reactive movement scenarios 35:45 How Scott has leveraged GPS, heart-rate and force plates to help an athlete get back and ready to play fall football in a very short period of time in summer after the athlete was sick for a large portion of the spring training season 54:50 How Scott has been using force-velocity profiling, specifically with football lineman “What I do like about (predictable agility drills) is that they are very high-speed, high-force. It’s like exposing someone to high speed sprinting in many ways, it’s an overload” “(Perception/Action) isn’t just putting them out there and having them play tag” “Initially, you might work on closed cuts, that’s a predictable response. Then you start layering on and adjusting the environment, adding a reactive component to that response” “You then start to integrate (agility) into more real life situations, closer to the sport, it might be adding bodies, it might be manipulating the area, it might be manipulating the rules of the drill” “The need for (perception/action) drills are more or less necessary depending on what the coaching staff is doing. You want to focus on what the players are not getting” “The better we can understand each other’s specialties (in a high performance system) the better we’ll all be as a whole” “(My special teams coach) was able to start at a more advanced stage in special teams education because I had already done a lot of the introductory drills that he had planned on doing” “If you have a great decision maker who can’t move properly, then you have to get him to move correctly. If you have a guy who moves great, but can make decisions, then you have to be able to get him to make decisions better” “Lineman typically struggle to produce sufficient horizontal force (in force-velocity profiling)… they have the strength they just need to be taught how to direct it” “Load to a lineman is broken at the hip, choppy, that’s why when we do our technique work for the linemen, specifically for sprinting, I tell them that for this period of time you are a sprinter” About Scott Salwasser @CoachSSal Scott Salwasser is currently the assistant director of strength and conditioning at the University of South Carolina Football. Previously, Scott has worked as the Head Strength Coach for Football at Texas State University, the Director of Speed and Power Development at Texas Tech University, as well as on the strength and conditioning staffs at UC Berkeley, Sparta Performance Science, University of Louisiana-Lafayette, Sacramento State and the Oakland Raiders. He competed nationally in Weightlifting as a graduate student at Sacramento State, and played intercollegiate Football as an undergraduate at UC Davis. He has a Master’s Degree in Kinesiology and is CSCS certified, among other distinctions. He and his wife Katie have two daughters, Stella and Charlotte.

199: Jeff Moyer on The Synergy of Training, Reconditioning, and ACL Injury Prevention | Sponsored by SimpliFaster Apr 23, 2020

Today’s episode features Jeff Moyer, owner of Dynamic Correspondence Sports Training in Pittsburgh, PA. Jeff has been a multi-time guest on the show, appearing as a solo guest in two shows, and on three roundtables. His expertise includes elements such as Soviet training systems, motor learning, skill acquisition, pain reduction and reconditioning. Jeff is highly driven by learning and is continually on the cutting edge of the industry, yet is also highly practical and results driven in his coaching and training. ACL injury prevention, and injury prevention in general, is a massive portion of the job of a sports performance coach, yet, it is important to ask, is a good injury prevention program any different in nature than a good performance training program? Jeff Moyer has gotten tremendous results, not only in the injury rates of his athletes, but also in the speed by which he assists athletes in their return to play. Jeff has been known to help athletes get back on the field, 5 and a half months after ACL surgery, but the tools he uses to do so are not far removed from his primary philosophy on strength training, biomechanics and performance. In today’s show, Jeff takes us inside his methods when it comes to a deeper look at ACL injury factors, as well as how his reconditioning and rehabilitation program mirrors his performance program elements. We also get into some essential details of some unique weightlifting elements, plyometric training, as well as his use of the “Total Motion Release” system, which harnesses the cross-over effect in the brain to help athletes move and function better Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 3:50 Jeff’s take on promoting a training program specifically as an “ACL Prevention Program” 11:50 How Jeff is developing athletes from a perceptual standpoint, that can not only improve performance but also with the potential to reduce injury 19:50 Key performance indicators in change of direction that can keep athletes healthier and performing better 25:15 Philosophy of training tempo in weightlifting, as well as utilization of the 1x20 program and other training means that are useful in a reconditioning setting 36:50 Jeff’s take on plyometric and jump training, and how it compliments his lifting program 38:50 A look inside Jeff’s rapid-reconditioning program, working reconditioning alongside, ACL rehab 47:40 Jeff’s use of the Total Motion Release System in reducing pain and improving performance, and discussing the power of the cross-over effect in the brain “There was a perceptive aspect to the (ACL) injury, and defensive players were more likely to tear their ACL than offensive players” “I think it’s crap to say that we have a prevention program and a rehab program or whatever, I think they are all one and the same (performance and prevention). I think a prevention program is something that doctors pitch to make money” “That’s how I do my workout, 50% of it is weights, and 50% is the perceptual side” “I want the outside leg being the leg we plant and cut off of (in change of direction)” “Our training and rehab program are similar, we both start on 1x20; exercise selection is a missing conversation I don’t hear a lot when other people talk about 1x20, they just talk about sets and reps” “I find that the kBox is more joint friendly than traditional barbells” “Not early on in a training career is eccentric training important, you should look more to general strength” “The first thing (in an injury) is I seek to fix what is being protected. Scars can be very disruptive to fascia or meridian lines” “That is a cheap and easy tool to use (in rehab) just go lie on the grass a half hour a couple of times a day” “Square 1 System has been a game changer for me” “What is the biggest predictor for a future injury? It’s a previous injury” “I just had (an athlete) do a bunch of exercises on her right arm and her (left arm) shoulder pain went down to a 0, I didn’t even touch her” “For anyone who has pain, this is part of their warmup, they do it first thing in the morning (working the “good side” of their body)” “Any training program is going to be a good rehab program, is going to be a good prevention program” About Jeff Moyer @dcsportstraining Jeff Moyer is the owner of Dynamic Correspondence Sports Training, whose motto is, “We Build Better Athletes.” At DC Sports Training, athletes work on the physical, mental and visual aspects to the sports. Their goal is to deliver the athletes of the greater Pittsburgh area the highest, most efficient results year after year of training with us. We will exhaust our means in order for our athletes to achieve the highest results, and to create a system model that will develop our athletes both physically and intellectually. Education must be the road to which will help us set this standard. Our results will be the vehicle which to drive us. Jeff graduated in 2004 from Hartwick College where he was a two sport athlete (Football & Track & Field). Jeff has been a sport coach (Basketball & Football) at the youth, JV, Varsity and College level for football for over 10years. Jeff has been in the strength in conditioning industry for over a decade, having worked in the medical, private, team, high school and collegiate settings, training clients from youth development, to rehabilitation and sport performance. Jeff has a relentless passion for all things physical preparation. His pedagogy is heavily influenced by Eastern Bloc sport science, while apprenticing under Dr. Michael Yessis and Yosef Johnson of Ultimate Athlete Concepts. Jeff has also been fortunate enough to extensively study with and work with Dr. Natalia Verkhoshansky, Mike Woicik of the Dallas Cowboys, Louie Simmons of Wesitside Barbell and Fellowship under Dave Tate of EliteFTS.

198: Simon Capon on Mental Training, Body Language and Staying in the Present for Better Athletic (and Human) Performance | Sponsored by SimpliFaster Apr 16, 2020

Today’s episode features sports psychologist, Simon Capon. Simon is a hypnotherapist, Master NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) practitioner, as well as the author of the book "It’s Time to Start Winning." Since 2006 Simon has worked with professional athletes, using variety of techniques including skills from NLP and hypnotherapy. He has inspired athletes, footballers and numerous others to achieve national, international and world titles. Simon’s philosophy is simple, create self-belief and your behaviors and actions will change and so will your results, this will have the effect of reinforcing your belief as a winning performer. Belief in your ability is imperative at high-level competitive sport. For all of the time we spend on learning about training our muscles and nervous system, we probably look into the impact of our mind and belief systems on our results with about 1/100th of the intensity. This is ironic, because the linchpin for so many athletes in their sport success is one of a limiting self-belief, rather than gaining a few more inches on one’s vertical jump or tenths of a second in sprinting speed. Not only this, but one’s belief systems have a massive impact on how we train and condition our bodies to the point where a stronger mind can create better physical training results as well. I found Simon Capon’s book after coming across his hypnosis for sprinting (his is the only one I’ve been able to find across the entire world-wide-web). Shortly thereafter, I read Simon’s book, and found it a tremendous source of information, particularly on using our physiology in a positive way to impact our mind. On the show today, Simon talks about his process of assessing mental training needs, the link between our body and mind (and how to “hack” into our deeper emotional brain), how to unwire limiting belief systems, and the importance of the present moment (and how to live there, rather than in the past or future). This was an awesome show that has relevance far beyond just the field of play. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 6:00 Simon’s introduction to Sports Psychology and Neuro-linguistic Programming 14:20 Simon’s process of assessing mental skills and needs 23:50 The link between our body, our posture, and how it connects with our minds and our performance 34:20 Methods for using one’s body language and posture to create a mental and emotional response 44:15 How we can get a better handle on our emotional brain to keep our performance consistent and at a high level 55:45 How to unwire one’s thoughts caused from prior negative feedback from a coach 1:00.30 How athletes can fully engage themselves in the present moment “I had a great fear of what people expected from me as a player” “If I was more mentally prepared, I would have fulfilled my full potential (as a player)” “We need to create a state of mind that is exactly the same as whatever we are doing. So whether we are training or in a competitive state it makes no difference. The reality is that we are creating habits and automatic responses, so whatever you are doing, it is the same response time after time” “Whenever there has been a poor performance, we get a piece of paper and write all the ways we can make the next performance better… We don’t ask “what went wrong”” “We have to fail to be able to improve. Failure is a must and it must be accepted as feedback” “It doesn’t matter who you are or what you do, there is always someone who will come along and take the top spot” “Whenever I come out, you either get all of me, or none of me, and my confidence comes purely from my physiology: proud, tall, shoulders back, head held high, confident in each step” “If you can put your focus onto your state (your physiology) and your actions, the energy and the results, will take care of themselves” “If you said to yourself “I will not let myself go below an 8 (in enthusiasm) just imagine how much more productive you will be in your training session” “If you fall below an 8 (in enthusiasm), the first thing to do is to create some emotion” “Our (emotional/limbic) brain is designed to avoid failure” “Anxiety is very much based on things that have gone wrong in the past, or a perceived problem in the future. When we are in the moment, we can think about the job at hand” “Golf is about playing one shot multiple times. When you tee off, you will tee off like it’s the only shot you are going to play all day“ About Simon Capon Simon Capon is a sports psychologist, NLP Master Practitioner and NLP Trainer, as well as a Hypnotherapist. Since 2006 Simon has worked with professional sports men and women. He is committed to his clients achieving the goals and ambitions they strive for. Simon has the ability to make huge psychological changes in an astonishingly fast time. He uses a variety of techniques including skills from NLP and hypnotherapy. His beliefs are that everyone has the resources to change the programmes they run in their minds so they become focused, confident and generate total self-belief. Many clients including established professional sports people have battled for years to overcome the psychological problems of coping with pressure of match play. Simon has inspired athletes, footballers and numerous others to achieve national, international and world titles. He has written articles about his work for Tennis life UK magazine, and is the author of the book “It’s Time to Start Winning”. He has a selection of mind programming recordings available on MP3 downloads from Amazon, iTunes and Nokia.

197: How COVID19 is Taking us to the Core of Training and Human Movement, Part II: Talks with Paul Cater, Rachel Balkovec and Rafe Kelley | Sponsored by SimpliFaster Apr 09, 2020

Today’s episode features segments with Paul Cater, Rachel Balkovec and Rafe Kelley in part II of our mini-series on perspectives in this time of social distancing and staying-at-home on coaching, training and becoming the strongest version of ourselves. Paul Cater is the founder of the “Alpha Project” in Salinas, California, and has over 18 years of experience as an international strength and conditioning coach. Paul has worked with the London Wasps Premier Rugby Team, the Baltimore Orioles, USA Rugby, as well as numerous high school, college and professional athletes. Paul has written a number of popular articles on Just Fly Sports on the topics of coaching, creativity and service, and makes his first appearance on the podcast. Rachel Balkovec is a pro baseball hitting coach, working with the New York Yankees. She has made history in acquiring her role in her current position, as well as when she become a minor league strength and conditioning coordinator for the St. Louis Cardinals from 2011-15. Rachel has also worked in strength and conditioning for the Houston Astros, as well as the Dutch national baseball and softball teams as well as many other successful organizations. She recently appeared on episode 194 of this podcast talking about coaching and organizational leadership. Rafe Kelley is the owner of Evolve, Move, Play, and was a guest on episode 174 of the podcast. Rafe’s primary specialization is parkour, and he also has experience in modern training disciplines such as sprinting, basketball, gymnastics, crossfit, FRC, modern dance and many others. Rafe’s passion to is help people build the physical practice that will help make them the strongest, most adaptable and resilient version of themselves in movement and in life. This episode furthers our topic from last week, which is lessons learned from our “downtime” from in-person coaching, as well as how we are training and learning without our typical gym facilities. Times where things “contract” (as opposed to the typical expansion), as well as times of necessity are always powerful learning experiences, and I’ve learned something valuable from each of the 6 coaches in this short series, and I know you will as well. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 3:00 How spending so much time running a business had taken Paul Cater away from the core of training itself 7:45 Expanding the idea of storytelling in a training session and the importance of creativity in coaching 18:00 How sprinting should be a solid root of an athlete or even coach’s movement and training practice 25:20 How Rachel Balkovec has been adjusting her training routine since being taken from her typical gym 31:20 How Rachel maintains awareness, as well as trains, her breathing in various situations 38:50 Things Rachel is learning in general in this time period 43:20 How Rafe’s personal practice hasn’t been altered due to his “atypical” training environment 53:20 How a typical play session in nature can shake out for Rafe 58:20 Comparing the physical effects of natural parkour to other barbell practices 1:03.50 How introducing obstacles and challenges into running can improve engagement and variability “It’s been a blessing to be forced to stay home” Paul Cater “Most of the coaches I know and respect will put more of a priority on the barbell rather than the “sprint first” mentality, it’s the path of least resistance…. It’s harder to go outside and have a really in depth sprint session” Paul Cater “Every training session really, is an experience. Within that every day is a story, an epoch, a saga of overcoming. Hill running is a metaphor… there’s something about running up a hill” Paul Cater “There is something in animal intuition to ascend and to climb” Paul Cater “I’m not the star of the story, I have to make the athlete the protagonist” Paul Cater “I never pull a hamstring when I’m trying to catch a football” Paul Cater “My goal is to have everyone leave the gym (inside or outside) with a story to tell and an own, and some sort of own discovery of creativity and that boils down the the warmup” Paul Cater “These kids coming out of college are severely ill-equipped for teaching and engaging. It’s just a memorization game and a certification game” Paul Cater “Holding your breath underwater while you are performing physical tasks is… really hard! You get out of the water from this training and you are exhausted, but your body doesn’t feel “it”.” Rachel Balkovec “Holding your breath increases your CO2 tolerance” Rachel Balkovec “When I have time to myself, I really have more of an aware relationship with my breath” Rachel Balkovec “While I’m running, I’m trying to stay nasal breathing as long as possible” Rachel Balkovec “I try to take note of my breath and let that be the indicator of what’s going on with me physiologically speaking” Rachel Balkovec “Your body is so intelligent and often times will give you a signal of what is going on before you can process it… a lot of time we’re not cognitively aware, but our body is responding” Rachel Balkovec “I don’t think you have to study coaching to be better as a coach, sometimes… being a well-rounded human gives you perspective, I want to always understand a big picture global view and be able to relate to a lot of people ” Rachel Balkovec “That’s the level we are interested in: How do you make someone good at solving movement problems” Rafe Kelley “We evolved to move through (information rich) environments” Rafe Kelley “Why do you warm up? You need your body temperature to go up, you want to go through big ranges of motion, then you warm up also to get your nervous system and arousal up to an appropriate place and your emotions tuned in” Rafe Kelley “No plan survives contact with the environment” Rafe Kelley “Fundamentally it’s about being able to see the space, perceive it, and move through it… how do we improve the capacity of the athlete to move in their environment” Rafe Kelley “The outdoor environment is a forgotten aspect of our culture” Rafe Kelley “We fundamentally think that the purpose of your movement practice is the growth of you as a human being” Show Notes Evolve Move Play FREE Guidebook to Natural Parkour and Play Evolve Move Play Natural Parkour Course 50% OFF Membership 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 About Rachel Balkovec @rachel.balkovec Rachel is a professional baseball hitting coach working with the New York Yankees. She was formerly a minor league strength and conditioning coordinator and coach for the St Louis Cardinals from 2011-15 (as the first female strength and conditioning coordinator in pro baseball), then switched to the Houston Astros Latin American strength and conditioning coordinator. She worked with the Dutch national baseball and softball teams in the past year while studying for her second master’s degree. Rachel is also an international speaker, and entrepreneur. She has worked with some of the most successful organizations in sports such as EXOS, Louisiana State University, the Chicago White Sox, Arizona State University, Los Tigres Del Licey Beisbol, the St. Louis Cardinals the Houston Astros, and the New York Yankees. Rachel has two master’s degrees in human movement and performance, and is a native of Omaha, Nebraska along with being a former NCAA Division I softball catcher. About Rafe Kelley Rafe Kelley is the owner of Evolve, Move, Play, a business designed to use movement practice to develop more resilient and embodied humans. Raised by two yoga instructors, he was a basketball player and gymnast (and gymnastics coach) in his teens. Rafe started in the martial arts at 6 years old, studying Tang Soo Do, Aikido, Kung Fu, Kick Boxing, Brazilian Ju Jitsu and Muay Thai. Rafe also has experience in modern training disciplines such as sprinting, gymnastics, crossfit, FRC, modern dance and many others. His primary specialization is in parkour, the practice of navigating obstacles by jumping, running, flipping or swinging over them, a skill set he primarily taught himself by watching videos and training deep in the woods. Rafe co-founded Parkour visions at age 23, and eventually left to form Evolve, Move, Play. His students have included world-class parkour athletes and MMA fighters, as well as untrained grandmothers. His passion to is help people build the physical practice that will help make them the strongest, most adaptable and resilient version of themselves in movement and in life.

196: How COVID19 is Taking us Back to the Core of Training and Human Movement, Part I: Talks with Jeremy Frisch, Rob Assise and Dr. Tommy John | Sponsored by SimpliFaster Apr 02, 2020

Today’s episode (part I of II) is actually three talks in one show, featuring segments with Jeremy Frisch, Rob Assise, and Dr. Tommy John. In our current world situation, many have found themselves without our typical training structures. This can be anything from not having a team, or partners, to train with anymore, a lack of gym space, and a lack of a training equipment in general. It’s times like these that, although tough, can allow us to shave things down, to the essentials of how we are training, and perhaps more importantly, why we are training in the first place. Each of our guests have had one or multiple appearances on the show before and were those who have a unique perspective on getting to the core essentials of training and movement. Jeremy Frisch is a former NCAA D1 strength coach who is now the owner of Achieve Performance in Clinton, Massachusetts. He is a leader in youth training and play, as well as all-around performance coach who works with athletes of all levels. Jeremy not only coaches physical prep methods, but is also involved in team sport coaching on the youth level. Rob Assise is a teacher and track coach at Homewood-Flossmoor high school who has written some fantastic articles (How I Deal with the Restrictions of COVID-19 and One Man’s Dive Into Extreme Isometrics) on his use of “Extreme Isometrics” in his at-home workouts, a topic of which we went into detail on for today’s show. Dr. Tommy John is a chiropractor, author and performance coach who is no stranger to this show. Tommy has an awesome ability to blend health, training and big-picture ideas into a powerful message in our own performance. His workout, training style, and overall message is one that brings out our true power as human beings. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 3:45 Jeremy Frisch’s take on how COVID19 is bringing children back to a more natural mode of play, albeit in context of current restrictions 8:50 The difference between movement and exercise for children, and when they are mature enough to make that distinction 13:35 Jeremy’s own workouts, and what he does to train in his basement gym setup 21:40 What Rob’s workout is looking like with his own daily schedule 29:45 How using extreme ISO’s offers good benefits for endurance of speed and strength qualities to athletes 35:00 Tommy John’s workouts and how they haven’t really changed much since quarantines 45:45 The importance of cultivating a creative practice in coaching 54:00 The inner meaning behind why we train, and the distinction between playing and training “(kids) Riding bikes has been brought back from the ashes, which is nice to see” “I feel there is a silver lining, because of some of the things that are happening out in the world, we have to go back to what we were doing when we were kids” “While moving is great for kids, they don’t have the maturity to understand what exercise really is” “I felt like I could feel the (cycling of energy systems) in the last minute, or minute an a half of a lunge. It’s something you have to try and see” “I hated doing the 5 minute ISO lunge while I was doing it, but afterwards I felt completely at peace. I never regretted it afterwards” “(After doing 5 minute ISO lunges 11x a week) playing “old man basketball”, flat out, I just did not get tired. I was able to go as hard as I could, for pretty much the whole game” “My training has not changed much, but my miles in walking have” Dr. Tommy John “We’re all artists, whether it’s programming or bringing in information in a creative way” “I love walking because it’s an ever-changing environment, it’s outside… there’s different people, there’s different flowers, there’s different shades of light… it’s almost like a movie” “When you walk you pump your sacrum… you create a cerebrospinal fluid flush” “I’m very intentful when I do walk, I’m connecting with ideas, I’m connecting with my body” “When I watch athletes walk in from their car, they don’t walk well. The are not fluid… and then you put them into a cross-crawl test and they are discombobulated” “Training has to be stimulating enough and upsetting enough to change you” About Jeremy Frisch @achieve_performance Jeremy Frisch is the owner and director of Achieve Performance Training in Clinton, Mass. He is the former assistant strength and conditioning coach for the Holy Cross athletic department. While there, he worked directly with the Crusader men’s basketball team, in addition to serving as the strength coach for Holy Cross’ men’s soccer, men’s and women’s lacrosse, baseball, softball, field hockey, tennis and women’s track & field squads. Prior to joining Holy Cross, Frisch served as the sports performance director at Teamworks Sports Center in Acton, Mass., where he was responsible for the design and implementation of all strength and conditioning programs. He also served as a speed and strength coach for Athletes Edge Sports Training, and did a strength and conditioning internship at Stanford University. Frisch is a 2007 graduate of Worcester State College with a bachelor’s degree in health science and physical education. He was a member of the football and track teams during his days at Worcester State and Assumption College. About Rob Assise @HFJumps Rob Assise is a mathematics teacher and track coach at Homewood-Flossmoor High School. He also has experience coaching football and cross country. He can be reached via e-mail at robertassise@gmail.com or Twitter @HFJumps. About Tommy John With Master Degrees in Health and Exercise Science from Furman University, Tommy John brings over 17 years of health experience to the table. At completion of his studies Tommy played professional baseball for three years with teams such as the Schaumburg Flyers, Tyler Roughnecks and the LA Dodgers. Tommy was drawn to chiropractic because he realized there was a higher element missing from the healing, performance process and proper function of the human body in the innate intelligence and the nervous system: brain, brain stem and spinal cord. The primary goal of Tommy John Performance and Healing Center is to provide entire families with integrative, individualized care plans and treatment to improve their quality of life by reducing physical and emotional pain from injury and aging and minimizing the use of pharmaceuticals or surgery. Tommy John also has a book, “Minimize Injury, Maximize Performance: A Sports Parent’s Survival Guide” which is a unique program: a diet, lifestyle, and movement plan (Rethink. Rebuild. Replenish. Recover) for injury- and performance-proofing young athletes in every sport. John’s book is a fusion of thousands of hours of research, clinical experience, and personal experimentation he has used with kids and clients alike for years, merged with the same simple philosophy of healing his Dad used 40 years ago. But his book isn’t just about injury avoidance—and it’s more than just sports. It’s about correcting the developmental deficiencies that are happening right now in youth athletes. It’s a return to traditional methods and techniques—through making the right diet, exercise and lifestyle choices—to reestablish the functional movements lost today. It’s not just about saving an elbow—it’s about saving a life. And it’s about finally attaching the name Tommy John to something positive again.

195: Dr. Marc Bubbs on Gut-Biomes, “Phone-Vacations,” Sleep and a “Human First” Perspective to Athletic Performance | Sponsored by SimpliFaster Mar 26, 2020

Today’s episode features Marc Bubbs, naturopathic doctor, performance nutritionist, and author of the best-selling new book "PEAK - The New Science of Athletic Performance That Is Revolutionizing Sport." An integrated and personalized approach to health, nutrition, training, recovery and mindset. Marc currently serves as the Performance Nutrition Lead for the Canadian Men's National Basketball Team and has a portfolio of elite and professional athletes in Canada, USA, UK and Europe. He is also the host of the Dr. Bubbs Performance Podcast, bringing together insights from world-leading experts in health, nutrition, training, recovery and mindset. Having better health (things such as having good nutrition, a diverse gut-biome, strong immune system, adequate sleep and a de-stressed mind) is impactful for not only athletes, but the general population, and is therefore a distinctly “human” element of the human -> athlete -> specialist sequence. When it comes to athletics, however, markers of health are not always put as much of a priority compared to training methods and sport skills. As Mark mentions on the show, consistency as a result of good health is very important when it comes to achieving better training over a period of time. Topics on this episode include the essential elements of a health-centered approach to athletics and human performance, including sleep, gut-biome & nutrition, mental training and mindfulness in a “screen-time” age, and even concepts on team cohesion revolving around food and nutrition. This is a podcast that not only helps to fill those gaps between training and the human being, but also is one that helps us to continually have a “human first”, “athlete second” perspective that is so important to the well-being of those we serve in the field. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 3:40 Marc’s background in the industry of health and athletics 6:10 The crossover between health and fitness/performance and importance of consistency 10:20 When health related decisions (e.g. sleep and nutrition) really start showing up for athletes in their performance 14:40 How cooking, food and the related community is an important part of team culture and cohesion in sports 19:25 The “triage” list in starting to work with an athlete on prioritizing health before training modalities, and all this well before recovery modalities (Penfold’s pyramid) 24:55 Sleep debt and athletic performance 34:10 How humming and singing provides beneficial adaptations to the human body and can create more grounds for group cohesion 36:10 The importance of one’s gut microbiome in health and human performance 49:40 Mental and psychological training and relaxation methods for athletes “When we look at some of the research around national to international competitors (in endurance sports), we see that international level competitors get sick 40% less than national level competitors, so if you can just show up every day in the gym or not miss practice, and just not miss days, at the end of that year or block of four years you are going to be that much further ahead than the competition” "If you have got a 44” vertical leap and are the fastest guy on the floor, do we really need all these other things, or is just keeping you healthy enough to show up every day the key performance lever?” “In the UK, half of the grocery bill is spent on processed foods…. If you head to Paris, only 14% is spent on processed foods” “A lot of (team culture) starts with food (sitting at the dinner table together)” “The night before a game, athletes tend not to sleep well” “If a guy is getting less than 6.5 and gets his sleep up to 7.5, he can improve his testosterone by 10-15%” “Nowadays, everyone is lying there, getting treatment on their phones, so how do we rip the phone out of their hands so they can decompress?” “We know that if you have a processed food diet, the diversity in your gut is going to be low” “The higher the fiber in the diet the more robustness we are going to see in the gut bacteria” “The Hadza tribe is one of the longest living and healthiest tribes in the world (with a phenomenal gut biome)” “90% of all the decisions we make are based off of emotions and imagery” “To think that 70 Ph.d psychologists are developing your phone so you’ll always be using it… it’s like (the novel) 1984” About Dr. Marc Bubbs @DrBubbs Dr. Marc Bubbs ND, MSc, CISSN, CSCS is a licensed Naturopathic Doctor (Canada), Performance Nutritionist, and Author of the best-selling new book PEAK - The New Science of Athletic Performance That Is Revolutionizing Sport... An integrated and personalized approach to health, nutrition, training, recovery and mindset. Marc currently serves as the Performance Nutrition Lead for the Canadian Men's National Basketball Team and a portfolio of elite and professional athletes in Canada, USA, UK and Europe. Marc is also the host of the Dr. Bubbs Performance Podcast, bringing together insights from world-leading experts in health, nutrition, training, recovery and mindset. Marc is a Speaker at corporate events and regularly presents at sports, medical and fitness conferences in Canada, USA, United Kingdom and Europe and consults with professional sports teams. Marc has been working with elite and professional athletes, busy executives and motivated individuals aiming to improve their health for almost two decades, using an evidence-based approach to nutrition, fitness, and lifestyle modifications.

194: Rachel Balkovec on High Performance Team Culture, Tough Love and Transitioning From S&C to Hitting Coach in Pro Baseball | Sponsored by SimpliFaster Mar 19, 2020

Today’s episode features Rachel Balvokec, a professional baseball hitting coach working with the New York Yankees. Rachel made headlines when she become a minor league strength and conditioning coordinator and coach for the St Louis Cardinals from 2011-15. Rachel also has experience working with the Houston Astros, as well as the Dutch national baseball and softball teams, and has also worked with many successful organizations such as EXOS, Louisiana State University, the White Sox and many others. She is also a former NCAA Division I softball catcher. When working in any sort of team environment, knowing keys of successful organizational culture is not an option if you wish to be great. Those of us working in the coaching field often have many different “hats” that we wear, be it strength coach, sport coach, nutritionist, or “unofficial sport psychologist” (or maybe even official sport psychologist). It’s very easy to get buried in the X’s and O’s of exercise selection and periodization (and it’s good to have these things mastered) but it’s critical to zoom out and look at the greater principles that lead to the success of an organization. This show is about both of those things. On the front-end, Rachel talks about what she has learned as a strength coach that she’s carried with her into her time as a hitting coach. She discusses what spurred her to move “up the ladder” in regards to the amount of change and impact she new she could make on players by moving to sport coach, as she moves towards her ultimate goal of being a general manager. Ultimately though, this show is really about the second portion, which is high-performance leadership, team culture, and tough love. It’s about what’s really demanded at the highest levels of competition and performance, whether in a sports, military operations, or business. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 6:20 Rachel talks about her transition from strength and conditioning coach, to hitting coach, and her career aspirations 20:20 How Rachel approaches hitting coaching in light of her former strength and conditioning experience and how helpful it is for sport coaches to have S&C experience 24:40 How Rachel views periodization for working with hitters, and how hitting is generally behind pitching in regards to the application of sport training principles 32:05 General concepts in regards to what good hitters can do from a weightroom perspective 36:40 Rachel’s rear view thoughts on the strength and conditioning industry and advice for strength coaches 41:35 Rachel’s perspective on what a strength coach offers from beyond a strength, KPI and “X’s and O’s” perspective. What the heart of being a strength coach really is. 47:00 Thoughts on tough love and culture in winning teams 58:00 Rachel’s take on why Augie Garrido’s “chewing out” of his players an example of tough love and the importance of “high support, high demand” parenting, coaching and leadership 1:12:30 Critical Hardships in Rachel’s life that formed who she is now "There’s something to be said in having a larger role if you can have an administrative position” “No matter what was going on in the field, I could go and crush it in the weight room where 1+1 =2” “It’s not tough (not doing the strength and conditioning workouts anymore) because my passion has always been coaching” “Being a hitting coach is not that different for me personally (than s&c). Now I’m just coaching the body to do something else” “Every strength coach’s dream is to have a sport coach who used to be a strength coach” “If you were to apply general periodization principles to hitting you would A: have days off, which never happens” “Hitting is behind pitching in the technology space; the radar gun has been around forever” “(When coaching a skill) There’s research to show that more novice coaches are going to distal parts of the body and expert coaches are going to the center of the body” “I still will refer to the strength coach to learn about the character of the athletes, because someone can be very successful on the playing field, but not work that hard” “At the end of the day, if you are getting groups of people to work together, individualization is one of the most poisonous things you can do. I don’t believe in a snowflake approach, I believe in a snowman approach” “If you are in it to win, there has got to be some sort of standard to be held, and it has to be high. If you are pushing people to the limits of their ability, two things are going to happen. One is that not everyone is going to be happy, because that is a really uncomfortable place to go. Two is that you might push them too far” “The snowman must survive, even if some snowflakes melt away” “If you had to be successful to save someone’s life, how would you do it differently?” “It is a privilege to be held to that high of standard (the high demand found in high performing organizations, or the standard held by Augie Garrido)” “It’s actually the highest form of love to look at someone and say, that’s not good enough” Show Notes Augie Garrido Demonstrates Tough Love with His Team After a Loss View this post on Instagram A post shared by Rachel Balkovec (@rachel.balkovec) on Dec 31, 2019 at 5:11am PST About Rachel Balkovec @rachel.balkovec Rachel is a professional baseball hitting coach working with the New York Yankees. She was formerly a minor league strength and conditioning coordinator and coach for the St Louis Cardinals from 2011-15 (as the first female strength and conditioning coordinator in pro baseball), then switched to the Houston Astros Latin American strength and conditioning coordinator. She worked with the Dutch national baseball and softball teams in the past year while studying for her second master's degree. Rachel is also an international speaker, and entrepreneur. She has worked with some of the most successful organizations in sports such as EXOS, Louisiana State University, the Chicago White Sox, Arizona State University, Los Tigres Del Licey Beisbol, the St. Louis Cardinals the Houston Astros, and the New York Yankees. Rachel has two master’s degrees in human movement and performance, and is a native of Omaha, Nebraska along with being a former NCAA Division I softball catcher.

193: Nick Winkelman on The Language of Coaching and Skill Acquisition | Sponsored by SimpliFaster Mar 12, 2020

Today’s episode features Nick Winkelman, head of athletic performance and science for the Irish Rugby Football Union. Nick was formerly the director of education for EXOS, and oversaw the speed and assessment component of their combine development program. Nick is an internationally recognized speaker, and has his Ph.D with a focus on motor learning and sprinting. Nick also has an anticipated upcoming book called “The Language of Coaching” where he goes in detail on his learnings and methods on the impact that communication has on an athlete’s ability to learn and perform movements. Just like we’ve mentioned on episodes talking about mental training for sport, the art of communicating with athletes, and how we talk to their conscious and subconscious mind is heralded, but not given much actual attention in our daily processes. Perhaps its because coaching, and specifically strength & conditioning often seems to draw more numbers and qualitative driven individuals than those concerned with the inherent artistry involved in the coaching profession, and in being a human being in general. This being said, I’m really excited to have Nick on the show this week, because he is a master of the “conversation” we coaches have with athletes to help lead them to their highest potential on a physical, mental and emotional level. On today’s show, Nick goes into how he became interested in coaching cues and communication, ideas on coaching cue differences, the importance and effects of using analogies, and much more. This episode is a must listen, because this is the type of material that isn’t emphasized in modern coaching curriculums, but at the same time, might be the biggest thing holding coaches and athletes back from reaching their highest level of performance and enjoyment in sport and human movement. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Key Points How Nick got interested in the art of cueing and language to assist in skill acquisition Why some cues and coaching models cause technique to not be retained well and how we can make our technical coaching practice “stick” better Some primary differences between internal and external cues The power of simple awareness versus hardline internal cues The power of analogies in creating imagery for athletes that assists them in technical acquisition How creativity is an important element of becoming better at the technical instruction of athletes "And then I thought to myself, "What's the number one variable, what's the number one coaching strategy that I am using to manipulate how they run?" i.e. the coordination and quality of their movement, and it hit me: my voice, my cuing, my coaching." "When I say coach I'm really talking about movement professionals in general. So if you teach movement for a living, I'm calling you a coach. Because... ...my definition of a coach is anyone that helps to move others to the place they want to be.” "I'll define a cue as the last idea that goes in an athletes head before they move." "If I want to put a little bit more energy behind that cue, I might say, drive the bar away from the bench. So the bench itself has nothing directly to do with the outcome, but by giving that focused thought of, bar away from bench, it allows me to narrow my focus in on a very tangible goal and the environment helps me do that." "So internal and external cues tend to be literal, they reference the literal body or the literal world around me that I can touch feel and see. But analogies reference the figurative and leverage the mind’s visual system to be able to move 'as if'." "When it comes to the type of things you should think about while you move, to optimize performance now, but most importantly learning later, the cues that fall on the external and that analogy side, outperform internal language again, and again, and again." "When I give someone an internal cue and tell them to actively move a joint or a muscle. I am constraining or rather defining that complex movement by that micro component. Conversely if I simply ask you to observe something in motion, I'm not dictating how that motion takes place. And thus from a brain perspective, I'm not constraining the way the movement operates I'm simply asking you to become aware of that movement, possibly spotlighting one region." "I do think the vast majority of internal language that people feel works the best, actually is in the form of the awareness piece." "When you're initially teaching a movement, you're going to describe it. You're going to give a longer explanation... ...Then, from a teaching perspective, or again if you're doing video analysis, there's going to be some kind of visual feedback. So either a demonstration, or you're watching a video on a screen… still a form of demonstration. So we describe it and we demonstrate it, and these two pieces of the communication loop serve to increase our players knowledge of the movement. They're awareness of the movement, and it's in these two pieces that I believe, there's a home, there's a place for internal language." "The knowledge of what the movement is, and knowing how to do it, I don't believe those are the same thing." "Analogies are nothing more than little visuals in the mind." "Ultimately whether I'm seeing something, or hearing something that causes sight, in both of those cases we know they're more effective techniques, because they're brilliant. They hide the detail, giving the conscious mind just the intention." "Emotions are like hashtags, literally they are. And the more a language is colored with the right emotion, the more memorable the physical words are, and as a byproduct the more memorable the movements they encourage are. " "At the end of the day, the language we use to coach the movement, can tap into why they are even there moving in the first place, and don't for a second think your language is just building better movement. It is building better relationships between you and the client, and I'd argue better people in the process." Timestamps: 6:46 Nick Talks About What Got Him Into The Language Of Coaching 19:20 Internal Cues vs. Awareness 27:45 Where Internal Language Fits in the Coaching Equation 33:43 External Cues vs. Analogies And When To Use Them 42:52 Dealing With Over-Thinkers And Being A “Cue Converter” 47:01 Movement-To-Movement Analogy And Using Visually Rich Language 49:57 The Emotional Responses To Analogies 53:40 Nick Talks About His Book: The Language Of Coaching About Nick Winkelman @NickWinkelman Nick Winkelman is the head of athletic performance & science for the Irish Rugby Football Union. Prior to working for Irish Rugby, Nick was the director of education for EXOS (formerly Athletes' Performance), located in Phoenix, AZ. As a performance coach, Nick oversaw the speed and assessment component of the EXOS NFL Combine Development Program. Nick has also supported many athletes in the NFL, MLB, NBA, National Sport Organizations and Military. Nick is an internationally recognized speaker on human performance and coaching science, and has multiple publications through the UKSCA, NSCA and IDEA Health and Fitness.

192: Gary Ward on High Arches, “Turned Out” Feet and Awakening the Lower Leg for Optimal Movement and Athleticism | Sponsored by SimpliFaster Mar 05, 2020

Today’s episode features biomechanist and foot expert, Gary Ward. Gary is the author of the book “What the Foot” inventor of the “Flow Motion Model”, and gives his “Anatomy in Motion” clinics throughout the world. He is a leading thinker in human movement and mechanics, and is a master of getting people to function better through giving them back their joint movement and sensation. Gary was a guest back on podcast #98 where he went in depth on the importance of proper pronation and how to teach it along with many other concepts on foot health and performance. The foot (and human body in general) is an incredibly complex structure, and often times we reduce our understanding of it down to “just stretch this muscle and strengthen this other one”, or “let’s try to point those feet or knees in a particular direction that we deem correct”. At the end of the day, the body is always doing the best that it can, given the sensory information that it has. When we lack sensory information, we will have trouble moving our joints and bones properly, and things tend to go downhill from there. Gary helps us to holistically understand the way the body works based on its own incredible ability to interpret information and heal itself. For today’s episode, Gary and I talk about some performance-driven issues and aspects of foot training. We start out with a chat about those athletes who tend to walk with the toes “turned out” and if this is something that should be labeled as “dysfunctional” and in need of correction. We also cover thoughts on athletes with high arches, and elements that are interfering with their ability to flatten the arch and pronate. We also get into instructing athletes in single leg stance drills and how this relates to the concept of “finding center” (and how the use of wedges, paper or even blocks of cheese can help fill in sensory gaps in stance). Finally, we cover the idea of pronation versus over-pronation, and how the oppositional action of the foot is an important consideration in the ability to “put on the accelerator without the brake” in movement and gait. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Key Points Thoughts on athletes whose feet are pointing outwards (duck foot) What does dysfunction really mean? Gary’s take on the idea of “dysfunction” and how to interpret it instead How to help athletes with high arches pronate correctly Gary’s thoughts on “finding center” and what stability really means How to instruct athletes who are performing single leg stance drills Pronation versus “over-pronation” in athletes “I never really view anything as a problem, I view things as information” “I’m not a big fan of the word dysfunction, because it becomes something you want to fix, rather than something you want to understand” “If you turn your feet out, what you notice is that your foot will pronate” “The vast majority of muscles in the foot are supinators” “It’s impossible to externally rotate a femur on a pronating foot” “A foot that’s turned out will have a rotational influence on the pelvis” “When I see someone with their foot turned out, rather than think I need to turn that in and be the correction, the information I am getting from that person is that they are turning that foot out to generate that pronation” “What’s always been exciting to me is to see unconscious change… the more you try the less you get. You have to get the environment right” “You don’t want to fight (the body) because we know that fight creates conflict… you need to remove the obstacles and encourage things to do the thing they are meant to do” “I say that joints give muscles something to do” “Most people’s feet end up very limited in movement” “Why do people turn their feet out, they are trying to generate more movement than they have” “The reason your dorsiflexion is not great is because you can’t lower your arch” “When high arch people attempt to pronate, what you’ll notice is that they’ll lose the 5th metatarsal head (ball of the pinky toe)” “The brain will always find a tripod, if you can’t get weight on the first metatarsal head, then you’ll have it in the second” “If you reach down and have a feel for hard skin, and it’s under the 2nd and 3rd metatarsal head, then that is probably where your tripod is, 2nd and 3rd metatarsal head and the calcaneus” “We’ll place the wedges to meet the floating metatarsal head bones if you like…. You’ve created the conditions for pronation” “The higher the arch, the stiffer the bones and the more contracted the tissue under the foot” “One of the key aspects of the foot is that there is opposition between forefoot and rearfoot structures” “The spine is the same as the foot, we have to get articulation in every bone of it” (if don’t cut) “The more we explore the extreme possibilities in our movement, the more we load the tissue. The more we give tissue something to do, the more that tissue can react, and when tissue on both sides has an equal reaction to movement, then you can stand in a rested, centered position” “An over-pronating foot is an everting foot, we need to make sure there is opposition between the forefoot and the rearfoot in three dimensions” (you are not overpronating as long as you have opposition) About Gary Ward Gary Ward is the author of “What the Foot” and founder of “Anatomy in Motion”. He is known for bringing individuals out of pain when all other options had failed. A former ski-boot fitter, Gary is known for solving unsolvable pain in minutes, not months. His passion for the foot hugely influenced his interpretation of human movement. Increasingly sought after by all types of practitioners in the fitness and therapy industry, he teaches an evolution that start with the foot and results in whole body integrated movement solutions.

191: Adarian Barr on Working With Gravity and Fast-Isometrics For Better Sprinting, Jumping and Sport Movement | Sponsored by SimpliFaster Feb 27, 2020

Today’s episode features coach, biomechanist and inventor, Adarian Barr. Adarian Barr is a unique mind in the world of sport movement who has not only given me dozens of paradigm shifting, “aha” moments, but has also retooled the way that I personally think about human movement and the related coaching process. Adarian has coached at numerous Universities, and continues to train and consult athletes, as well as educate coaches through his work at barrunning.com. He has been on four previous episodes of this podcast, each one with unique and paradigm-shifting ideas on how we approach athletic movement, these being: Episode #64 on Biomechanical Myths and Truths in Sprinting Episode #105 on Power in Athletic Asymmetry Episode #132 on Ground Impulse as a Biomechanical Lynchpin in Sprinting and Athletic Movement Episode #147 on Foot Pressure and “Arch-Centered” Athletic Performance Many times in athletic movement, we see the fastest athletes doing things that are just a little different than the slower athletes, and I think that we subconsciously recognize these elements. Often, athletes who can sprint fast and jump high move effortlessly and gracefully, but also with a little bit of “swagger” and bounce to their movement. Today we are taking a deep dive into the bobbing that elites exhibit, and how this is a function of their relationship to the fall of gravity to better load, and unload joints. On today’s show, Adarian goes in depth on how athletes can learn to work “with gravity” and falling better, and also avoid interrupting the proper work of gravity through knowing how many coaching cues and drills can create problems. We also go into how the fastest sprinters are using gravity to accelerate faster than their competitors. In the back half of the show, we get into the idea of muscle isometrics as the ultimate fast-twitch “brake” of the body, how this works in sprinting, and how we can harness it in the weight room. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Key Points A description of the essential “two falls” that are happening during running and sprinting How common sprint cues or instructions can actually interfere with the way that we should be working with gravity in running How using gravity to “fall farther” in athletic movement can create faster sprinting and higher jumping Methods to move with gravity better for better sprinting and jumping How and why muscles will selectively fire isometrically to stop a joint in human movement Using isometrics and oscillatory isometrics in the weightroom as a compliment to athletic movement in sport How the body can use isometric muscle actions in top-end speed to increase the stride length “The things people are missing out on is: falling is it” “If you only fall an inch (while accelerating) there’s not much to it” “Instead of things working in pairs or tandems, we seem to make things conflict” “You have to understand you are falling first, and not interrupt it, second thing is you have to figure out how to fall faster” “When you try to punch the ground yourself (while running), the brain is not expecting that” “Those that fall the farthest (working with gravity in athletic movement) will run the fastest and jump the highest, it’s that simple” “There is a big difference between running 1 inch and 5 inches” “If you really want to work stairs or hills, you have to squat down low to get the (gravity) effect” “The pull gets you into the fall… if you go to push, it makes you stand up. You are trying to pull yourself into the fall” “The first step is to be aware of gravity, so we don’t interrupt it” “A skips and B skips are great interrupters (of gravity) because I am being trying to get my leg back down so fast before I get a chance to fall” “We have to teach you how to fall again, and to trust the fall” “Once the big toe gets loaded, you are coming off of it” “It takes less energy to keep falling then to “interrupt a fall, start a fall, interrupt a fall, start a fall” “Toe drag (in sprinting) is a fall, when you fall, your toe is scraped behind you. You don’t have to intentionally do it, you just have to fall at a fast rate and it just happens” “ISO is the best fast-twitch system ever, because I don’t want to hold (a joint position”) forever…. how do you stop something from lengthening? ISO.” “You’ve got to put the brakes on at some point in time, and if I want to stop something from lengthening and I don’t want to shorten it, ISO is your best friend” “ISO’s at a certain position is the strongest that we get” Show Notes Men’s USATF 60m Indoor Final: Note Coleman (In Black, Lane 5) and Kemp’s (Yellow, Lane 3) “Falling” and “Diving” Actions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4DfjjyX0cY Traditional “Borzov Jumps” (I’ve seen these done with someone holding the rear leg, however). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKp4aE5XyHs Modified Borzov Jumps Emphasizing the Downward Fall of Gravity https://www.instagram.com/p/B85H4zzHwZT/ Oscillatory Isometric Split Squat (Yielding to Gravity) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2rdbIpZZ30 About Adarian Barr Adarian Barr is a track coach and inventor based out of Woodland, California. His collegiate track and field coaching stops have included UW-Superior, Indiana State, UNC Pembroke, Yuba City Community College. He has invented 9 devices from footwear to sleds to exercise devices. Adarian is a USATF Level II coach in the sprints, jumps, hurdles and relays. He has a master’s degree in Physical Education. Adarian’s unique coaching style gets results, and his work on speed and biomechanics is being adapted by some of the top coaches in the nation.

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