Just Fly Performance Podcast

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

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

Strength coach Zach Even-Esh discusses the importance of chaos and imperfection in training. He emphasizes the need for play and intensity in athletic training, the misconception of strength training causing slowness, and the trend of kids being involved in multiple sports clubs yet achieving less. Embracing chaos and leaving room for community and extra effort are highlighted, while the negative effects of technology are discussed.

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

DJ Murakami, strength and performance coach, discusses breaking cognitive training barriers, muscle tensioning, and winning each workout. He shares his athletic and coaching background, highlighting the importance of prioritizing the quest of those he works with. They explore the significance of individualization, creating a safe environment, and working with injuries. They also discuss the use of sandbags and barbells as training tools, herbal supplementation, internal and external torque in movement, and joint health.

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

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

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

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

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