Just Fly Performance Podcast

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Angus Bradley, a Sydney-based physical preparation coach and co-host of the Hyperformance podcast, dives into innovative training techniques. He emphasizes the importance of learning from outside the fitness world, linking artistic expression to scientific training principles. Angus discusses the critical 'knees behind toes' strategy and explores the biomechanical parallels between Olympic lifting and sprinting. He challenges conventional strength training norms, promoting a creative balance between structure and play in athlete development.

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.

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.

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.

Neurology expert and personal trainer, Scott Robinson, discusses the power of self-affirmation and mental reinforcement in training. He explores visual training methods, warm-up techniques, working with the subconscious mind, and the placebo effect. Additionally, he shares insights on rehabbing injuries, improving visual motor skills, enhancing eye function, and understanding mental and emotional states in training.