Just Fly Performance Podcast

Movement coach Aaron Cantor discusses the outer and inner game of athleticism, emphasizing the importance of connecting with the body and environment. Topics include dynamic movement exploration, playful training for autonomy, and enhancing performance through joyful creativity. The conversation explores arm movement intricacies, collaborative feedback, and the balance between focus and letting go for high-performance feats.

Clifton Harski, with over 20 years of experience in human performance, discusses the importance of movement, variability, and adaptability in the strength and conditioning industry. He shares insights on rotational kettlebell training concepts, the role of movement coaching, and the significance of rhythm in training. Clifton emphasizes the need for diverse certifications and discusses training strategies for specific goals like dunking and knee pain prevention. Overall, this episode explores the holistic approach to human performance and athleticism.

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.

Internationally recognized coach Boo Schexnayder discusses athletic development topics such as proprioception, reflexive leg action, Olympic lifting, and pelvic mechanics. They also touch on the benefits of contrast training, motor learning, and herbal supplements for performance enhancement.

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.

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.

Chris Scott, a strength and parkour coach with a degree in Sports Therapy, discusses the impact of high depth drops in parkour training, the benefits of depth jumps in improving performance, and the effectiveness of incorporating depth jumps into winter training. They also explore the concept of seasonality in training and discuss the importance of play and exploration in parkour.

Trainer DJ Murakami explores the impact of disconnection from reality on physical training. They discuss gamifying training with storytelling, generating a tougher mindset, incorporating human interaction, exploring archetypes and stages of life, and the connection between mind and physical exercise.

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

Jake Tuura, performance coach and tendon expert, talks about training tendons for performance, including conditioning bones and connective tissue, changing foot strike patterns, and the impact of variability. He also explores the composition and aging of tendons, the benefits of herbalism products for performance enhancement, the role of hydration and the interfecicular matrix in preserving performance and longevity, and the importance of rest and muscle strength for maintaining tendon health.