Episode 23- 'The Manufactured Athlete' with Joel Smith

Today on the Run Culture podcast, I chat to the host of one of my all-time favourite podcasts; Joel Smith. Joel is the host of, The ‘Just Fly Sports Performance’ Podcast, he’s also the author of a book called; ‘Speed Strength’ and is a very experienced S & C Coach.

Joel is driven by an intense desire to learn, he cares about the truth, he is ever curious, open and creative, he goes beyond the science, he isn’t afraid to acknowledge the; ‘art’, ‘soft skills’ and ‘difficult to quantify’ parts of human performance.

1.) Today, we discussed the idea of overcoaching…

“….I think any coach who's had children and watches them …..you start to realize how well humans are wired to solve movement problems and it's more about removing things that mess us up than it is programming things to do….”

2.) He defines coaching wisdom?

“….Is it the fact that you can treat a human like a machine better than the other person? Not really… Wisdom is the intuition, that helps manage the complex really well with simple story…..”

3.) He discusses the power of playing some pick up basketball or the like, to warm athletes up….

“….the human body is not a car, it is not a rocket, it is not an alarm clock we are so much more complex than that……..and that's the thing, people don't want to use basketball to warm up because it is hard to quantify …..it's social, it's emotional, there's reaction, there's present mindedness, there's flow states and it's fun, it's complex.”

4.) We then delve into the complexities at play when it comes to ‘running technique’.

Here Joel shares how he works with his runners. He discusses his view on running drills and cues. He discusses how important; physical capacity, dynamic awareness, rhythm and falling are.

Thanks again Joel, really enjoyed this chat!

If you want to listen to Joel’s podcast/check out his book; ‘Speed strength’ or course; ‘elastic essentials’, be sure to go across to his website at: https://www.just-fly-sports.com/