From the Ground Up Athletic Performance Podcast Joel Reinhardt Episode 20 " Letting the sport build the proper profile, speed development, and isometrics"
On episode 20 I sat down with the assistant director of sports performance at UMass Joel Reinhardt. We start our conversation by examining Joel's views on athletic development, this provided a really nice summary of what the remainder of the conversation would focus on. Joel immediately emphasized the importance of understanding the needs of sports, and how he spends as much time as possible at the practices of the sports that he serves. A really good line of logic that he presents is that if the sport can build a certain capacity let it do so, if it does not adequately address a certain factor that's when constraints may be used in practice or within a prep area. We discuss some of the main metrics that he utilizes to examine the needs and overall readiness of his athletes. We spend some time on GPS data and the main metrics that he is able to utilize through GPS tracking. Joel also talks about the importance of getting the true max velocity profile of given athletes. He also talks about some of the newer technology that he is beginning to implement such as force plates and some of the different methods he plans to measure on the plates. Joel discusses how he naturally builds up the energy system demands of his athletes, through thoughtful tempo prep but most importantly simulations of games as they progress through the preparatory phase. We spend some time talking about how to deal with different reflexive issues in sprinting and how he would best attempt to facilitate and correct some of the more neurological/reflexive patterns of locomotion. We end our conversation by talking about a variety of factors centered around the use of isometrics. Joel talks about the importance of bodily awareness and feeling the movement in order to drive correct patterning in athletes. He also discusses how isometrics can be beneficial to tendon health and be a great complimentary method when paired with sprinting methods. Joel has a great podcast and website, make sure to check out the links for his podcast, website, and twitter.