Just Fly Performance Podcast

Today’s show features biomechanist, coach and author, Rocky Snyder.  Rocky is the owner of “Rocky’s Fitness” in Santa Cruz, California.  Rocky is an accomplished personal trainer with an absolutely immense library of knowledge in multiple disciplines of human performance, such as biomechanics, exercise selection and neurology. Rocky is the author of the book “Return to Center” and has a track record on being able to restore functional movement ability to even the most difficult client cases. In the world of training, we have a “muscle-centric” approach, and then a “joint-centric” approach to performance.  I have found that while training and centering one’s efforts on muscles and their actions can definitely be helpful, an approach that can serve a greater percentage of clients in a sustainable manner is one that understands joint mechanics, and how muscles will respond to one’s joint positions.  Muscles that are long, short, weak or tight are as such, because they are responding to an individual’s joint mechanics, and therefore the related demands they are constantly placed under. Today’s episode focuses on the joint mechanics of the feet and hips.  Rocky starts by highlighting elements of proper pronation and supination (with an extra emphasis on the action of the foot’s transverse arch in movement, it’s link to glute function and how we can assess how well it is being utilized) and how we can look for a deficiency in either area.  Rocky then gets into practical exercise interventions in the world of lunge motions, standing twists, and why Rocky favors spiraling single leg training to glute-bridge oriented exercises for a functional glute training effect.  Finally, Rocky gives his take on how loaded carries fit with the gait cycle, and can “balance out” and restore athletes from compressive gym work. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and 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 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: 4:28 – How Rocky got started in fitness, and the different areas of the field he has layered onto his approach, such as biomechanics, neurology and breathwork (evolution from outdoor athlete, to gym rat, into functional fitness/neurology/biomechanics) 10:43 – Rocky’s experience in coaching youth sports 13:39 – What Rocky thinks on the idea of “over-pronation” and what that term means to him 22:30 – The importance of “anchoring the transverse arch” on pronation mechanics and glute utilization in gait 34:26 – How to improve pronation, and solve the issue of “over-pronation” in an athlete 40:17 – Considering barbell hip thrusts in light of knowing more about pronation and spirals in the body, to activate glutes 46:48 – What Rocky is looking for on the level of the pelvis when it comes to pronation 53:35 – The link between sprinting, anterior and posterior pelvic tilt 58:05 – What Rocky is looking at in a reverse glider lunge exercise in terms of pronation and supination 1:03:30 – The importance of a straight back leg in the isometric lunge exercise in terms of the reciprocal action of the body 1:07:52 – The importance of supination in the foot, and how to create a balance of pronation and supination in the feet in various exercises 1:16:45 – How loaded carries fit with expansion bias and functional core strength, for the human body “I couldn’t stand gyms when I was growing up, I grew up in the backwoods of New England, I grew up doing rock climbing, cross country skiing, whitewater canoeing, but I was also a gymnast and got into wrestling” “My work originally started with muscular-centric loading… but now there’s also motor neurology and being a biomechanist, that’s where I am today” “In pronation we need to have opposition in the sagittal plane between the rearfoot and forefoot, in the frontal plane, as well as transverse.  If somebody is lowered in all of those places, that would be over-pronation, where they are not able to re-form to a neutral position where there is some shape of arches to the foot” “In order for pronation to occur, the heel rolls inward while the forefoot is level with the ground, for the most part” “We need to see there to be a difference of motion between the rearfoot and the forefoot” “If you can anchor down 1st and 5th met-head, and let the heel move the way it should, you are going to have really great foot mechanics” “When you look at Roman architecture, you see a keystone at the top of the arch, it keeps the arch rigid, and when there is weight coming down onto that arch, there is even more rigidity… the three arches (of the foot) have three points of contact, and they have keystones… and when we are talking about the transverse arch, there is the middle cuneiform (keystone)” “Pain is really measured in millimeters, so is success” “We could have one minute adjustment somewhere in your body and it could have a cascading effect somewhere else” “I don’t give a lot of hip bridging away in terms of program design” “We are so muscle-centric in the gym setting, just simply by watching joint motion could be a huge shift in how somebody coaches and looks at program design” “Just by assessing how the pelvis moves, it’s going to tell me a lot about what’s happening down below” “Once that pelvis is there, it’s going to send the proper mass down through the leg, and into the foot, and if the foot responds in kind, man, you’ve just made yourself a bulletproof athlete, and acl and high hamstring pull is going to not be there, there are a lot of things that happen when we get the joint mechanics to behave properly” “We may not see full extension of the knee, if we’re not seeing full extension of the hip” “If we are not teaching the back leg to lengthen, then what is its power potential when the foot comes off of the ground?” “Can I give joints this experience in 3 dimensional space, and change how its’ behaving, if it needs changing” “Pronation is your lowest point, supination is your highest point (in running)” “If you look at Olympic wrestlers, a lot of them came from the farm-belt” “When it comes to loaded carries, chaos reigns supreme” “Loaded carries are all about anti-gravity since we are driving away a heavy load” Show Notes Reverse Valslide Lunge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTbvuQJ42Hw   Standing Plate Twist for Pronation and Supination https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoaD3FwfHsU   Using Wedges to Fill Space in the Feet   View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Joel Smith (@justflysports) Rocky Snyder last appeared on episode #209: The Gait Cycle, Single Leg Work, and True Functional Training for Elite Athleticism About Rocky Snyder Rocky Snyder grew up outside of Boston and moved to Santa Cruz in 1991. He met his wife in 1997, and is a proud father to a daughter and son. He is an accomplished and avid surfer and snowboarder, and well known as a regular on KSCO 1080am since 2002, with his Surf and Ski Report every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings at 6:25 am, and every weekday on KPIG 107.5fm at 8:25 am. Rocky is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist, an NSCA-Certified Personal Trainer, Certified in Applied Functional Science, NASM-Corrective Exercise Specialist, a licensed US Soccer Coach and a USA Weightlifting Coach. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Rocky has written three books on sports conditioning, has been featured in many publications and his fourth book, Return to Center is now available with all major booksellers

Today’s show features a roundtable discussion featuring Jeremy Frisch, Austin Jochum and Jake Tuura.  Jeremy is the owner of Achieve Performance Training, Austin runs Jochum Strength, and Jake is the owner of “Jacked Athlete”.  All three of these individuals were previously strength coaches of NCAA DI institutions before getting into the private sector of training. Recently Jake hosted Austin on his podcast, having a conversation about quitting their jobs as NCAA strength coaches to venture into the private sector.  I found that talk very interesting, as I’ve recently been in the same situation, and I think a lot about the way that modern sport and university “systems” are put together.  Often times, we are victims of either in-effective, or over-structuring in organizations, in a way that can leave us disconnected and/or overly-compartmentalized.  In a variety of “private sector jobs”, people tend to wear more hats.  In sports performance, this could be: strength coach, skill coach, fitness coach, and physical educator to name a few. Today’s show isn’t so much about quitting a scholastic strength coaching job, but more-so on the experience of now-private sector coaches who wear those multiple-hats.  It’s on how that helps us view the predicament of modern sports in a new way, along with engineering solutions.  Despite our coaching setting, we all should aspire to be problem solvers. On today’s episode, our panel speaks on paths away from the college training sector, and how getting into the private sector has allowed them to really focus on the pressing needs in modern sports, such as the “lost” art of physical education, play and then a greater understanding on building robustness and keeping athletes healthy.  Whether you are a scholastic or private coach, this is a great show to step back and take a more zoomed-out perspective on effectively training athletes for long-term success. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and 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: 3:22 – Jeremy, Austin and Jake’s story of transitioning into the private sector of performance 12:30 – How the extra work a college strength coach puts in can fall to the wayside when a sport coach doesn’t listen or runs a poorly designed practice plan 22:12 – What are some of the big elements of change that have come with moving from the college gig to the private sector 36:10 – “Weaponizing” what you are passionate about in training and performance 38:12 – What Jeremy Frisch has seen from 12 years of being in the private sector, how much he feels kids can get back if they miss critical movement skills early on 42:44 – Where Austin and Jake see their process moving in the next 10 years as coaches, now that they have more freedom to explore things they want 51:35 – Jeremy’s take on the importance of physical education for strength and sport coaches 58:34 – Questioning old narratives of warmups and training in sports performance 1:03:46 – Closing thoughts on the integration of sport and strength and conditioning “Why is everything so isolated in sports, why do we have so many people who specialize in one thing” “My first month (as a DI strength coach) I realized that a lot of athletes had limitations that I wasn’t going to fix, and over time that sort of got to me, and I realized I could really make a difference if I went back and worked with younger athletes” “When I was at Holy Cross I had 15 teams throughout the year” “We have to earn our jobs with new tools, with new shiny toys we present to the sport coach” “I never feel like I am dying in a game when I am going out to catch a pass, I’m pretty recovered, we don’t have to run to death…. Now I don’t have to worry so much about what the head coach or anyone above you (is thinking) being in my own facility you can make those decisions you need to make and not worry about who is looking over your shoulder” “I started realizing, if I would have just had this kid a few years earlier, it would have made a huge difference” “Being a dad of 4, I’m so much more patient than I used to be” “I do less strength and conditioning now, and more sport skills training now” “(When being a private sector coach) Winning is not your customer anymore, now that athlete is your customer… you actively get rewarded for getting better” “(In the private sector) There is nothing to complain about, if I’m in the private sector, it’s all on me” “If you can teach kids these movement skills before they hit puberty, you are really going to help them out a lot… when their body they are really going to hold onto those things” “Kids that have done gymnastics or just any movement based background, they pick up new skills faster… how can you get people better at picking up new skills? I think that’s where the sports performance model can go to” “If you specialize early, the chance of patella-femoral pain is twice as much as it was before” “Humans, dogs and horses get tendonopathy, and they are the only animals getting it” “Have a different passion, have a different hobby, be interested in something that’s outside of the weightroom” “Many coaches would be better off getting a minor in phys-ed along with the strength and conditioning training” “If all you know is how to lift weights, and you want to make money off of kids, you are going to train them like little adults… and the kids are bored as hell” “If you want me to look like a good strength coach, then get a good recruiting coordinator” “The best athletes are the best and we still don’t know why they are that way, but it’s probably not because of the model we have as a strength coach” About Jeremy Frisch Jeremy Frisch is the owner and director of Achieve Performance Training in Clinton, Mass. He is the former assistant strength and conditioning coach for the Holy Cross athletic department. While there, he worked directly with the Crusader men’s basketball team, in addition to serving as the strength coach for Holy Cross’ men’s soccer, men’s and women’s lacrosse, baseball, softball, field hockey, tennis and women’s track & field squads. Prior to joining Holy Cross, Frisch served as the sports performance director at Teamworks Sports Center in Acton, Mass., where he was responsible for the design and implementation of all strength and conditioning programs. He also served as a speed and strength coach for Athletes Edge Sports Training, and did a strength and conditioning internship at Stanford University. Frisch is a 2007 graduate of Worcester State College with a bachelor’s degree in health science and physical education. He was a member of the football and track teams during his days at Worcester State and Assumption College. About Austin Jochum Austin Jochum is the owner of Jochum Strength where he works with athletes and washed up movers to become the best versions of themselves. He also operates The Jochum Strength insider which is an online training platform for people trying to feel, look, and move better. Austin was a former D3 All-American football player and a hammer thrower (MIAC weight throw champion) at the University of St.Thomas, About Jake Tuura Jake Tuura, MS, CSCS currently works at Velocity Training Center as a strength and conditioning coach. Prior to Velocity, Jake was a collegiate S&C coach for 7 years. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Superior (2014) and his Masters from The College of St. Scholastica (2015). His website: jackedathlete.com helps athletes gain copious amounts of muscle, jump higher, and rehab from jumper’s knee.

Today’s show welcomes back track coach Randy Huntington, a track coach who has spent his recent years as the national track and field coach for the Chinese Athletics association.  Randy has coached numerous Olympians, gold medalists, and world record holders in his time as a track coach, and one of his recent successes was training Su Bingtian, Asian record holder in the 100m dash.  Bingtian, en-route to his 9.84 second run, covered 60m in 6.29 seconds and 40 yards in 4.08 seconds as per NFL combine timing. The past shows with Randy have been loaded with the wisdom of an elite coach and have been very popular.  For this episode, Randy took listener questions, and gives his answers on a variety of topics.  Some particular trends for this show included his specific speed training workouts and intensities, his thoughts on traditional strength and hypertrophy methods for speed and power, coaching relaxation and sprint technique, as well as Randy’s thoughts on the ever-debated Nordic hamstring exercise (and hamstring injury prevention training in general).  This and much more is covered on this tremendous Q&A episode. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and 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. 4:11 – The importance of intuition in coaching and performance 7:33 – How understanding the response of animals can help coaches gain better intuition with training human athletes 11:27 – How to “rig” a seated calf machine to attempt to replicate the Keiser seated calf machine 15:23 – Randy’s thoughts on strength development for speed 22:49 – Randy’s favorite top speed and acceleration sessions 28:25 – How does Randy teach relaxation in sprinting, and his thoughts on mini-hurdles/wickets 31:03 – Why Randy doesn’t have his athletes train flying sprints at their maximal speed 37:02 – Considerations in how Randy uses “time of task” sprints, versus simply sprinting a distance for time 42:35 – A recap of how Randy uses water and general strength based recovery methods 45:17 – More thoughts on how and why Randy doesn’t train his flying sprints at maximal velocity each week 48:09 – How Randy’s training has evolved over his years as a coach 52:46 – Teaching acceleration mechanics to young athletes who don’t have much physical strength yet 54:56 – What key data points does Randy use to assess his athletic process 1:00:00 – Randy’s thoughts on overspeed “wind-shield” training such as used by Marcell Jacobs 1:06:39 – How Randy alters strength training when sprinters are in-season 1:07:51 – How Randy would train an athlete who is naturally weak, and if he plays to an athlete’s strengths, or works primarily to bring up weaknesses 1:11:38 – Randy’s thoughts on hamstring injury prevention and Nordic hamstrings “I try not to do too hard of strength training, until people can execute the technical (speed) component I want them to, unless that technical component needs strength to happen.  I don’t look at strength training as a way to create anything, because I first want them to be able to get them to move through the (skill) positions that are necessary, and then we add strength on top of that” “We still interpret power as force only… mostly because we haven’t had very effective ways to test it” “My basic pattern is heavy sled, 50% of bodyweight or higher, then 1080, using 15-20% of bodyweight, then unloaded” “We mostly use 6” mini-hurdles” “I rarely go above 95% (of max speed) (in flying sprints in training)” “I use (time of task) sprints specifically for testing” “I only test the 30m fly (max) at most every 6 weeks, and usually every 2 months” “Flying 30 is my big (“data oriented”) test” “I don’t look at the weight of the clean, I look at the power of the clean” “100 guys get the 40 (second test), 200 guys get the 45 (second test)… I won’t take Su past the 20 second test” “The horse trailer behind a car (overspeed) gives the opportunity to run so relaxed” “If I am doing (hypertrophy) I would do 1 day a week, over a 3 week cycle, if we did two cycles.  It’s not a steady diet of it; you substitute one with a little more hypertrophy stuff to get this kid to get a better cross sectional area to express more force along with the elasticity he has” “(Nordic hamstrings) are too much for a track athlete unless you are barely doing any running at all” “If (Nordics) were the key for being fast and performance, Su would have trouble with 15 kilos and my female long jumper would knock out 30 kilos… I like it for injury prevention, but the Keiser moving fast and powerfully; you got a really nice injury prevention going on there” “I use the Keiser leg curl, really fast (for hamstring training)” About Randy Huntington Randy Huntington is currently the national track and field coach for the Chinese athletics association and has over 45 years of coaching experience.  Huntington is rated as a USATF Master Coach in the jumps – one of only five in the U.S. He has been the coach for many world-class athletes over the years, including eight Olympians and seven World Championship Team members. Mike Powell and Willie Banks set world records in the long jump and triple jump, respectively, while under his tutelage. Six of his athletes have been in the U.S. all-time top ten in their respective events.  Randy has coached Su Bingtian, the Asian record holder in the 100m dash who ran a time of 9.84 seconds, and recorded the equivalent of a 4.08 40-yard dash en route to that 9.84 second time. Huntington coached Powell to the Olympic Games in 1988, 1992 and 1996, where Powell won a pair of silver medals in the long jump. On Aug. 30, 1991 in Tokyo, Powell broke Bob Beamon’s 23-year-old long jump record that was expected to never be broken, leaping 29-4 1/2 (8.95m) – a record that still stands. Willie Banks, who Huntington coached to the 1988 Olympics, broke the world triple jump record with a mark of 58-11 1/2 (17.97m), June 16, 1985 in Indianapolis, and under Huntington’s coaching twice jumped over 18 meters, which is the longest in American history. Huntington has also coached Olympians Joe Greene (long jump bronze medal in 1992), Sheila Hudson (American indoor and outdoor record-holder in the triple jump), Al Joyner, Darren Plab, Tony Nai and Sharon Couch. At least one of his athletes has competed in every summer Olympic Games since 1984. Powell, Greene, Hudson, Couch and Nai were all World Championship team members that he coached, along with Kathy Rounds and Kenta Bell. Huntington has also worked with professional athletes in other sports, notably football. He has worked as a conditioning and/or speed consultant for several teams including Indianapolis, St. Louis, Miami, Denver, Philadelphia and Cincinnati, and has worked with numerous individual players including Trace Armstrong, Terry Kirby, Henry Ellard and Ed McCaffrey. He has also worked with college football programs at Florida, Oklahoma and Notre Dame including training for the NFL combine, working with athletes such as Kyle Turley and Grant Wistrom.

Today’s show welcomes back Bobby Whyte.  Bobby is an athletic performance and basketball skill enhancement trainer operating out of northern New Jersey.  Bobby recently appeared on episode 178 of the podcast https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-178-bobby-whyte/, speaking on his integration of strength and skill training for basketball. The world of sports performance can easily suffer from isolationism in the realm of strength, speed and movement skill.  In the recent podcast with Tony Villani, the difference between 40-yard dash speed, and actual game speed in the NFL was made very clear.  We need to understand more about the nuances, and principles of movement in sport to prepare athletes for it, instead of over-focusing on linear speed mechanics. When we understand the over-arching principles of learning and movement, we can apply them to any sport or skill.  Throughout this podcast, we’ve had intelligent minds like Adarian Barr speaking on biomechanical principles, and then folks like Michael Zweifel, Tyler Yearby, and Rob Gray talking about foundational principles of learning and skill acquisition.  Bobby Whyte has been using those principles, and tying it all together in his basketball performance program. On the show today, Bobby Whyte speaks how he has taken concepts picked up from Adarian Barr and applied them to movement training and acceleration in the game of basketball.  He shares his thoughts on key physical abilities in basketball, and how he uses motor learning principles to help athletes improve their specific skill array for the game.  Bobby will speak on how he has taken motor learning principles into landing mechanics and common injury prevention themes in training, and finally Bobby will talk about how he specifically seeks to develop the all-important confidence level in his players in his training sessions. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and 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 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: 5:21 – What Bobby has been learning and integrating since his last time on the podcast 2 years ago 6:45 – How Bobby has integrated some of Adarian Barr concepts directly into basketball speed and movement training 18:49 – How basketball, and related movement training, has universal application into many other sports, such as football 24:44 – Key physical abilities on the basketball court that can transfer into great gameplay 28:33 – The importance of chaos in basketball qualities and carryover 35:26 – How Bobby views landing and landing mechanics for his basketball athletes, and how good general strength training can go a long way in helping prevent injury without needing to do plyometrics where athletes need to move a “certain way” 42:45 – Bobby’s take on feedback and instruction in the course of coaching his athletes, and avoiding over-coaching 51:54 – How confidence in one’s specific game and skill abilities is a key and defining factor in athletes that make it to the next level of performance 59:01 – What is a “good drill”? 1:03:14 – Bobby’s thoughts on the benefits and drawbacks of the vast amount of information available to athletes today “The best athletes can maintain (Adarian Barr’s) athletic posture until… it’s time to cut, it’s time to shoot, etc.” “When I’m falling (to drop into a basketball move), I’m almost pulling myself down” “A lot of players will go into that horizontal fall, and there will be a pause before they get moving… our goal is to smooth that out” “They players that struggle with (coming up off the knees into an acceleration) struggle to get on their arches” “All of those physical abilities just give me more action capability; the athletes who succeed are the ones who understand how to apply their physical gifts in an effective way where they are making decisions in their sport” “I look at everything, not as a race to speed, but as a race to position” “If you spend all of your time shooting alone in the gym, with no chaos, it’s not going to hold up, so you have to experience that chaos” “We can’t train perfectly for a game that’s imperfect” “Give me an athlete that can do a 360 layup, and he’s not bad at finishing, it’s going to be hard to find one” “I try to have those opportunities to let athletes figure things out themselves” “The last thing I want to think of when I’m jump shooting is where my elbow is” “If there’s a hiccup, there’s a hitch (in a shot) there’s a whole bunch of things that simply adding speed will correct and make it fluid” “I don’t want you to have an emotional attachment to the goal (making the shot)” “This is what moves the needle more than anything, if you can rewire a player’s mind” “The best players I have, the ones that end up getting scholarships, they have very little or no self-doubt; on the other hand, I have players who get bigger, faster, stronger, get more skilled, and never really do much with it” “(when Bobby gives a star player a difficult challenge) The other players in the group will see the best player struggling, and overcoming it, and he becomes a teacher” “I don’t want to teach players how to move, I want them to learn how to move” Show Notes Coaching the “Two Falls” Specifically for the Game of Basketball   View this post on Instagram   A post shared by HyPower Performance (@bobbywhyte) About Bobby Whyte Bobby Whyte is an Athletic Performance and Basketball Skill Enhancement Trainer operating out of Northern New Jersey. Focusing on developing the complete player athlete, Bobby practices the “Evaluate – Educate -Empower” program he experienced first hand growing up training with now world renown trainers and specialists. His personal journey, beginning with a 12” vertical jump at age 15 to playing and coaching basketball internationally provide him understanding and the confidence needed to tailor programs which maximize individual development. With a quick wit, Bobby makes tough, challenging sessions entertaining. Bobby is a certified NASM Personal Trainer and FMS Movement Specialist.  He’s also certified with I’m Possible Training, the world’s largest basketball training company. He’s worked with athletes ranging from beginner to NBA/NFL/Overseas Professionals. Most recently, he spent 6 months working in China as the Head Strength Coach for the Guangxi Rhinos. Bobby has the ability and knowledge to develop skill and performance programs to deliver complete, healthy athletes. He believes growth takes place at the edge of ability and it his passion to bring athletes to that edge.

Today’s show welcomes Tony Villlani, sports performance coach and owner of XPE sports in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.  Tony has coached over twenty #1 finishes in the NFL combine and is the creator of the Game Speed and Separation Movement Web.  Tony has worked with many of the top NFL players in the league, but will tell you that his learning from those athletes was a much bigger deal in Tony’s development than the fact that he “trained them”. Clearly you have to have a level of speed that’s well above average to be successful at many high level sports.  At the same time, the fastest athletes in sports where having a level of speed is important, such as at the NFL combine, are not the successful ones in pro-football. Interestingly, the fastest receivers in the history of the combine have never had truly successful careers.  This brings up the question, not only why this is, but also, how can we distribute our training efforts over time to optimize the way that athletes actually move on the field?  Clearly, we need to work to get athletes fast in a linear sense, but how much are we helping if we overly focus on linear speed (and spend lots of time hair splitting linear speed in twitter arguments) and don’t address the types of speed utilized in sport. Tony deeply understands the nuances and categories of direction change in sport, and actively trains these components in his sessions.  This isn’t to say that Tony doesn’t love traditional speed training (just look at his combine success) but he also loves building speed that gives athletes the highest chance of success in their sport. On the show today, Tony talks about how he “ratios” linear speed training to game-speed training, as well as how he frames NFL combine style training in light of game speed to those trainees.  He’ll get into why he feels that the fastest athletes in the history of the combine have never been the best actual football players, and then gets into a substantial layout of his key points in change of direction training.  Tony also lists some key aspects of offensive and defensive agility, as well as how agility can differ between sports.  This was a podcast that you’ll never forget if you train any type of athlete for speed in their sport. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and 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: 6:07 – How having young children has taught Tony about the process of athletic development 7:47 – Tony’s take on the balance of how linear and game-speed training should progress as an athlete develops 23:48 – Tony’s thoughts on why the very fastest NFL receivers in the combine actually never had a good playing career 29:22 – Approaching linear speed development when an athlete is truly not as fast as they need to be from that perspective 36:14 – Tony’s take on the inverse relationship between the 40 yard dash times and 3-cone/shuttle events in the NFL combine 41:29 – How Tony feels the NFL combine agility tests transfer to performance, and what he does for agility instead 54:12 – Comparing types of game speed between athletes, and the general zones of speed pro football athletes will use in competitions 59:58 – Tony’s finer-point breakdown of change of direction technique 1:07:42 – How Tony views “first chance” opportunity in change of direction (one point of attack opportunity) in football vs. basketball or soccer “Everyone should get as fast as they can possibly get with their own genetics, but after that, I turn off the (linear) speed switch” “With our combine athletes, it’s, unfortunately, how to teach them to run out of control… I always tell our combine athletes, quit thinking of football, think track and being out of control” “It’s not that hard to (cut .2 off a 40 yard dash) you just have to shut down everything else and get them fast” “We spend about 30% of our time on linear speed training, but it’s not our holy grail anymore” “The younger you are, the easier it is to win with speed…if someone has always won with speed, and then they get on the field of play where they can’t win with speed, they are not equipped to” “I think increased speed hurts your agility” “I see too many coaches working on acceleration drills with kids but you need force to accelerate” “Watch us prepare 30 guys for the combine every year, and you’ll see the fastest guy require the most time on the 3-cone shuttle” “For the shuttle and 3 cone, we have to do it the perfect way, those are planned steps.  When we are out in the field (of play) we don’t know when those planned steps are going to change and we have to find 3-4 ways to do the same thing” “I call that “playing basketball”… you’re in a wide base, you’re shuffling.  When you are playing zone and man to man you want to “play basketball” as long as you can” “Anyone who is attacking on the lacrosse or soccer field is trying to play a setup for where they want to go” “(For all sports) Learn defense from a defensive back, learn it in tighter spaces from a linebacker, and learn how to fight from offensive and defensive linemen, and boxers” “Basketball, they don’t have to turn and run as much as you think; a DB doesn’t set up in a wide base like a basketball player, their shuffle is different” “The great players in the NFL have told me “teach me how to not run on that football field”” “Luca Doncic is not fast! He is one of the most un-athletic guys on that court, but he gets to the hoop at will, not by going around people, but by going through them… all of that dancing stuff, it doesn’t work, but it looks cool” “We are working on all of those techniques that allow us to win between that 14 to 18 mile an hour zone” “Instead of just running around cones for position work, my athletes ask me “how do you want me to run around that cone?... we change directions 6-8 different ways”” “Speed kills (the athlete’s ability to change directions) and fast-feet don’t eat… fast-feet are for salsa dancers.  Fast-feet don’t eat…. Feet that separate do” “(regarding the importance of first-chance opportunities) I’m setting (the defense in an agility drill) up for the loss because I’m not letting (the offense) dance, he’s got one move, he’s got to pick a shoulder and run right through it” “I understand why they got off the ladder… great strength coaches are like, I’m not doing dance drills with my athletes, I’m doing force application.   But force application into what? Force application into the right foot position; so let’s go back to the ladder and let them learn foot position, then throw your force application into the right foot position and you’ve got an athlete” Show Notes 4 Ways to Attack COD Using Ladder https://youtu.be/qDG2fMlWiyQ   Tony talks Agility and Change of Direction with NFL Pro Anquan Boldin https://youtu.be/hebzMFw-86o   Intro to “BPS”: Brake-Plant-Separate https://youtu.be/6sQMU2K9Vx0   About Tony Villani Tony Villani created XPE Sports in 2002 and has trained many top athletes in the world, most notably in the NFL. He loves creating speed in athletes, as shown by almost 20 number one 40-yard dash finishes at the NFL Combine, but more recently he has dived into creating a Game Speed and Separation Movement Web curriculum. This “Web” helps athletes, coaches, and trainers alike understand how to use speed and agility correctly to win on the field of play. Tony likes to say, “If speed is king, then agility is the queen that keeps the king moving in the right direction.” Notable athletes trained during his first decade were WR Cris Carter, WR Randy Moss, WR Hines Ward, RB Jamal Lewis, RB Dorsey Levens, LB Takeo Spikes, and DE Osi Umenyoria. The second decade under XPE Sports only got better as notable athletes included WR Anquan Boldin, DB Darelle Revis, S Eric Berry, DB Stephon Gilmore, RB Mark Ingram, OL Mike and Maurkice Pouncey, LB LaVonte David, TE Travis Kelce, S Justin Simmons, and many more. These names are important to Tony because he feels as though people think he “trained” them, but they were actually teaching and training him how to pass along knowledge and train others. Currently, Tony spends most of his time training athletes in Fort Lauderdale at XPE Sports with Matt Gates and his off-time with the development of the SHREDmill, a manually powered treadmill that is a key piece of XPE’s speed training.

Today’s show welcomes back chiropractor and neurology expert, Dr. Mark Wetzel.  Mark has been on this show numerous times talking about the effectiveness of long isometric holds, as well as digging into many aspects of their performance. So often in the training and performance field, we just look at exercises, sets, and reps, but then don’t desire to dig into the nuance of those movements we are programming.  With isometrics, we can certainly get results by simply having athletes hold positions indiscriminately, but we can multiply those results by understanding the underlying mechanisms that help make isometrics more effective. One of the beautiful things about isometric holds is that the lack of movement brings one’s awareness to a high level, and one’s ability to focus on things like breathing, posture, and muscle tensioning, on a higher level.  One’s mental and emotional state has an extremely close correlation with the length of time that you can hold the movement. Holding isometrics for extended periods of time also has an impact on the fascial lines of the body, and even the meridian lines (if your belief system takes you that far).  Isometrics are truly a “total body”, functional experience. On today’s show, Mark Wetzel gives his thoughts on how a positive mental state can increase one’s ability to hold an isometric position (or increase muscle endurance in general).  He’ll speak extensively on the postural and muscle-tone aspects of holding an isometric, as well as speak on the connections made between the fascial/meridian lines, electric signals, and organ function.  Finally, Mark gives his take on what he feels “neurological” strength truly is, and how this is manifested in a program. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 5:24 – Mark’s thoughts on the mental and emotional aspects of fatigue (and perceived fatigue) during a difficult or taxing movement such as an isometric 14:34 – What it means to be “in position” as an athlete gets into an isometric hold 24:47 – Why some athletes have a lot of trouble “pulling down” into an isometric position and discussing the use of “constraints” such as a band around the shin, to help an athlete pull down into an isometric 34:19 – Using a one-arm bench press hold to help improve the pushing ability and breathing of individuals who struggle with isometric pushup holds 42:01 – What “good posture” means for Mark 47:05 – Mark’s take on organ health, meridian lines, and reflexes, particularly in light of utilizing isometric exercises 57:52 – What it means to have “neurological strength” from Mark’s perspective as a chiropractor with neurological training 1:05:35 – Depth jumps and drop landings as an assessment of neurological efficiency Dr. Mark Wetzel's Quotes “When I am in those moments (of fatigue) I try to bring up some sort of happiness or joyful emotion to try and take my mind off of it” “The “fear based” mentality is almost a traditional way of training” “Posture comes back to the breath; typically when people have bad posture it is because they have bad breathing mechanics” “When you do a bunch of calf rebounds in a row, your body will position you in a way that (you have to be in to keep breathing under fatigue)” “You can accomplish so much in an isometric exercise by focusing on “where is my breathing”” “I always back up (a chiropractic adjustment) with exercise” “The meridian lines are all connected to an organ” “What’s cool about an isometric is that you are creating a lot of tone throughout the whole body” “If the brain is telling a muscle to stay weak, then it is going to stay weak no matter what you do” “The more you can stay calm, breathe, smile to yourself while you are going through that discomfort, I feel that transfers more to what that neurological strength is” “Where your intention is, is where your energy goes” Show Notes Single Arm Bench Press Hold https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsAlxydk9Lw Inner Smile Meditation for Increased Muscle Endurance (and Vitality) https://www.amazon.com/Inner-Smile-Increasing-through-Cultivation/dp/1594771553 About Mark Wetzel Dr. Mark Wetzel is a Chiropractor based in Nashville, TN. Dr. Mark received his Doctorate of Chiropractic from Northwestern Health Science University in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Dr. Mark has diverse experience and is an expert in the neurology branch of chiropractic care and sports performance. He completed his undergraduate studies at Indiana University while competing for the Indiana University Men’s Swimming and Diving Team. Dr. Mark has a passion for treating and educating people who want to achieve a healthier lifestyle and enjoys helping them reach their health and fitness goals.

Today’s show is with performance coach, Kurt Hester.  Kurt is currently the Head of Football Preparation at the University of Tulane, and was previously the head strength coach at Lousiana Tech University from 2013 to 2021.  He has decades of experience coaching in both the collegiate, and private sectors, and is the author of the book: ”Rants of a Strength and Conditioning Madman”. When it comes to the results we get out of a training program (or the experience an athlete has in a sport organization), we usually think on the level of sets, reps and exercises.  What we typically don’t consider as much, is how an athlete perceives the training from an emotional and sub-conscious, perspective, and how important building the right relationship is to the holistic success of the program. Kurt Hester is the kind of strength coach I wish I had when I was a young athlete.  When we talk about what it means to be a coach, and to be a servant-leader, Kurt is one of the first individuals that comes to mind.  He not only has been studying and living the art of physical training for almost half a century, but he also has a focused sense of how to train individuals on both the athlete, and human levels. On the show today, Kurt talks about how he connects with his athletes on the “human” level, to help improve their total experience as an athlete, gain trust, and improve the quality of training sessions.  He’ll talk about how he uses games and fun activities to improve, not only the emotional content of the training sessions, but also the total effort level of the athletes.  Finally, Kurt digs into some details around the sports performance industry itself, what he considers “mental toughness” to truly be, and gives his advice on developmental practices in leadership and communication. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 5:31 – How Kurt started to survey his athletes to learn more about them, and how this helped him to connect with athletes on a stronger level 10:14 – How to command a room in a coaching setting, while still getting to know athletes on a more personal level 13:27 – How players at Kurt’s former university rated the importance of the “strength coach” so high, in regards to why they attended the school 17:432 – Why Kurt uses games as a critical portion of his physical preparation program, as well as the injury prevention benefits of using game-based agility training 29:17 – Kurt’s learnings in his training with elite track and field athletes in the 1980’s and how many “modern” training methods have been around for a long time 32:14 – How strength coaches should have good all-around GPP, and be able to play games, do dynamic warmups, and demonstrate sprinting 40:15 – What Kurt would re-brand the field of sports performance 48:53 – What Kurt considers “mental strength” and “toughness” to truly be, in light of sports performance training 58:32 – Kurt’s advice on helping coaches to be able to understand athletes and lead them on a better level “You can’t serve who you don’t know” “The athletes who trusted me, and I had the best relationship with, those were the ones who excelled the most… the closer I had a relationship with them that was not about (sports) where they trusted me at a very high level, they developed at a faster rate than an athlete I wasn’t close to” “A lot of strength and football coaches think that, if you have fun, that you are not working hard or at a proficient, high level, and I never wanted to be in this field, to not have fun” “Most athletes don’t like to train, and that’s what most strength coaches don’t get… 99% of strength coaches do not understand that fact, they are not you! So that’s always in the back of my mind, how can I make it fun” “(In games) you are never going to get that out of a regular drill; that speed, that force into the ground in moving” “Most people would rather play (ghetto-ball) than their true sport” “(In a game) they will run harder than they will ever run on a timed sprint, or a tempo run” “Tag games was (track coach Brent MacFarlane’s) GPP” “From the 60’s to the 90’s, it was heavy, heavy on the lifting aspect, 70% was lifting, and 30% was running dudes to the ground, on the glycolytic level” “We’re still stuck in “lifting is more”; we have destroyed our DB’s and wide receivers over the years, and made them non-reactive because of so many years of them spending time in the weightroom; once you get to a certain level of strength, it’s not going to help you at all” “You are not going to beat an athlete into the ground, and make him a tougher person” “What will happen is (the bottom 10% of athletes who fold or quit in conditioning work) they’ll be a better conditioned 10%, but they are not mentally tough” “We changed their entire life, but we weren’t beating it out of them, it was from talking to them from a human aspect, and not an athlete aspect” “If you have that high trust level with your athletes, I’ve seen more guys make it, versus those athletes that I didn’t spend the time and get to know them on that human level” “Instead of buying new books, go back and read the books you already bought” “If you are still fighting over, “should we front squat or back squat”, then we will not progress as a field” About Kurt Hester Kurt Hester is Currently the Director of Strength and Conditioning for University of Tulane Football, and was previously the head strength coach at Lousiana Tech University from 2013 to 2022.  He is the author of the book: ”Rants of a Strength and Conditioning Madman”. Kurt served as a National Director of Training for the D1 Sports Training Center in Nashville, Tenn. since 2008, and worked with training several professional athletes in many different sports.  Concurrent to his tenure at D1 Sports Training, Hester also worked as the Director of Training at the Manning Passing Academy as he designed a training program for over 1,300 high school athletes and delivered a specific training seminar for high school and college coaches. From 1997-2008, Hester was the owner and Director of Performance at HS2 Athletic Performance in Mandeville. He developed and mentored area coaches for college and professional coaching careers with several going on to BCS-level schools and NFL teams. Over 500 athletes he worked with received collegiate scholarships during that time as he oversaw the development of over 400 junior and senior high students per day. Hester was an assistant strength coach at LSU from 1995-98, working with the speed development program for then-football coach Gerry Dinardo and worked primarily with the LSU baseball team as it won two national championships under legendary coach Skip Bertman. Hester also worked with the men's basketball, women's soccer and women's golf programs as well as with the varsity cheerleaders. Kurt graduated from Tulane University in 1995 with a Bachelors of Science degree in exercise physiology. He also served as a graduate strength coach at Tulane for two years.

Today’s show is with coach and educator, Dan Cleather.  Dan is a reader in strength and conditioning and the programme director of the MSc in strength and conditioning at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, UK.  Dan began coaching at Cal State Long Beach, and then worked at the English Institute of Sport.  He has coached national and international medalists across a wide range of sports, and in particular has worked with World and Olympic champions. Dan is the author of several books on the topics of science and sports performance, including “Force”: The Biomechanics of Training, and “The Little Black Book of Training Wisdom”.  Dan has published over 40 peer-reviewed and scientific articles, and is a founder member of the UK Strength and Conditioning Association. When it comes to performance training, coaches often cite a disconnect between what they are coaching, and what actually happens when an athlete competes.  We can gain a greater understanding of this issue by simply looking at how movement actually happens in sport, and how athletes actually manage forces.  Many control points in coaching tend to revolve around slow, or easily observable aspects of movement (usually the end-points), when the complex reality of movement renders coaching around these endpoints obsolete, if not counter-productive. On the show today, Dan will share with us how he views common coaching practices revolving around scientific terminology, such as “force absorption”.  He’ll go into some fallacies around force-based principles involving landing dynamics in sport, deceleration training, and how coaches go about instructing Olympic weightlifting.  Dan will speak on where science, and “evidence-based” practices fit in with one’s coaching philosophy and intuition, and will share his thoughts on the link between gardening plants and coaching athletes. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 4:37 – Dan’s background as an athlete and what got him into strength and conditioning 7:58 – Dan’s take on learning skills as a coach, in order to be a better learning (and coach) of skills 15:11 – Dan’s thoughts on what applying science to training actually is 22:42 – How coaches tend to frame “force-absorption” in athletics, and what it actually is 32:47 – Thoughts on the body dealing with forces from a perspective of being a “machine” or from a self-organizing perspective 41:27 – Dan’s thoughts on any sort of deceleration training for sport, and how coaches tend to spend too much time on versions of movement that are too reductionist 48:20 – The link between seeds, plants, gardening and athletic performance 52:58 – Dan’s take on traditional Olympic lifting practices in light of force development “The more skills you learn, the better you get at learning skills” “Evidence based doesn’t mean that the science is prescriptive, we see 8 parts of a 30 piece jigsaw puzzle, which are the bits of evidence we are getting from the science, and we work out the rest of what that puzzle looks like based on our experience, our discussions with the coaches, etc.” “The scientific evidence is an important part of our philosophy but it’s our philosophy that guides the decisions that we make” “If you do something because your previous coach did it, that’s the evidence of what they did” “Coaches find out what works, and 25 years later, the sport scientists come along and explain why… if you had to wait for the science before you were prepared to make a decision then you wouldn’t be able to do very much” “Absorption implies that there is something you have got that is being sucked up by something, and can be released later” “We call a softer landing with more flexion of the knees and hips “force absorption”, but we are not actually absorbing force when we do that, we are reducing the likelihood that we will have high peak forces” “Your muscles don’t absorb force when you land, they produce force… if you didn’t produce force you would collapse into the floor” “There is research that landing drills with at-risk populations will decrease their injury risk” “We have to remember that, in many cases, landing slow, in competition is a disadvantage” “I think it will be those kids who haven’t done that sort of play (jumping and dropping off of things in play) where you have to do more regressive things and teach landing mechanics” “As a profession I think we tend to over-teach things, we want to drill and control movement, where you need to make sure that your athletes are safe, but once you’ve done that, letting them work things out for themselves is more effective” “I’m not sure we’re mitigating much injury risk by having 80 players do something that most of them do fine (regressive drills)” “If things look too pretty, the athlete isn’t being challenged enough and they aren’t learning anything.  Keep pushing the envelope of what you are asking the athlete to do until they are not looking pretty anymore” “We can help ourselves to self-organize, or we can help our athletes to self-organize, but if you think you are going to control them, or they are going to control them, you are mis-informed about how systems work” “I do feel like gardening is a good practice for S&C coaches” “For me, weightlifting is jumping, and everything is built around that skill” “What people see in Olympic weightlifting is the end of the second pull because athletes aren’t moving there and they are about to go down again.  Inexperienced coaches can see that and so they then try and coach that, but the problem is they coach that with reference to what they are seeing, and why you are in an extended position is because of what happened earlier in the movement.  You don’t coach an extended position by saying “hit and extended position” you do it by having them do things earlier on” “When people cue people to hit a fully extended position, they are actually asking them to try and exert force at the point when they should not be exerting force and being ready to catch the barbell, and you see that a lot” “Loaded jumping and (Olympic) weightlifting are not the same movement” About Dan Cleather Dan Cleather is a strength coach, educator, author and scientist.  He is a reader in strength and conditioning and the programme director of the MSc in strength and conditioning at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, UK. Before joining St Mary’s he was employed as a strength and conditioning coach at the English Institute of Sport. Dan began his coaching career as a volunteer assistant strength and conditioning coach at California State University Long Beach. He has coached national and international medalists across a wide range of sports, and in particular has worked with World and Olympic champions in track and field athletics, rowing, canoeing and rugby. Dan is the author of several books on the topics of science and sports performance, including “Force” The Biomechanics of Training, and “The Little Black Book of Training Wisdom”. Dan’s PhD is in biomedical engineering (from Imperial College London) and his research interests include musculoskeletal modelling, functional anatomy and strength training. He has published around 40 articles in peer reviewed scientific and professional practice journals. He is a founder member of the UK Strength and Conditioning Association and currently serves the organisation as Director of Finance and Administration.

Today’s show is with Boo Schexnayder.  Boo is a current strength coach and former jumps coach at Louisiana State University, and is regarded internationally as a leading authority in training design.  Boo has been a two-time previous guest on the podcast talking about speed and power training setups.  In a world of complexity, and nearly infinite ways to train athletes, Boo knows the art of managing athletic performance by using training means that are not more complex than they need to be. In my coaching (and athletic) years, I have loved looking into all of the complexities, and details of the human body, training, motor learning and biomechanics.  It’s always been a swinging pendulum in terms of digging in to understand important training nuances, but then zooming back out, to pull along the key pieces of what it really important, both in general, and for each individual athlete. When we over-complicate training, over-coach, and give out exercises that require too much distraction from actual outputs or muscular adaptations, we create a diminished experience for the athlete, and also create a program that is harder to learn from as a coach.  Knowing how and when to make the complex simple is a mark of an accomplished coach who can really transmit training to an athlete in a way that allows them to self-organize to their highest potential, both on the level of skill development, and maximal outputs. On the show today, Boo goes in detail on his own upbringing and mentorships in coaching that have led him to become the coach he is today.  He speaks particularly how his work in the rehab process gave him increased confidence in his regular coaching abilities.  Boo will speak on the process of how far he will go on the complexity rung in the gym, and how he balances coaching skill and technique with the self-organizing ability of the athlete.  Finally, Boo gives some of his thoughts on training that focuses on an athlete’s strength, and his take on heavy partial lifts in the gym in respect to the total training system. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 5:02 – Boo’s early development as a coach, early mentors, and his work in rehab that led him to where he is now 15:30 – Some specifics that Boo learned from the world of rehabilitation that intertwined with his performance coaching practice, and how rehab and training follow the same principles and draw from the same well 21:50 – Boo’s advice on arriving at the place where things can be made optimally simple in coaching 25:10 – Why coaches end up chasing things in athletics that aren’t that important 36:28 – Where Boo draws the line on complexity in the weightroom to the point where exercises aren’t helping to accomplish the primary goal of training 40:26 – The extent of complexity Boo would utilize for single leg movements 46:01 – How athletes must train their strengths in order to potentiate their weaknesses 52:48 – A discussion on how the Buffalo Bills didn’t squat in season and still experienced substantial success 57:20 – Boo’s take on heavy quarter squats and partial step ups in performance training (vs. full range of motion) “The earliest (change) is when I finally understood specificity and I developed a healthy non-respect for coaching culture, I realized that a lot of coaching is traditional and needs to be evaluated” “Another bright light that came on is when I got involved in the rehab field” “I think the key thing to keeping things simple is understanding what you are trying to accomplish” “So much of what we do in traditional coaching cultures is just filler work” “I feel that one thing that holds back lots of coaches is technology, there is so much technology out there that so many coaches have been data collectors, but they really don’t know what they are doing” “Coaches are obsessive over (small pathological issues) don’t understand that those lie outside of the boundaries of what we try to teach” “Once you get athletes in (movement bandwidths) you have to trust them to do what they do…. I never had to coach athletes to perfection, I only had to coach them close to perfection and then allow their movement organization processes to take them the rest of the way and that’s how you keep it simple” “If athletes are training in the right direction, just shut the hell up, and let the athletes movement processes take over and trust them the rest of the way, and get involved when things aren’t going so well” “For everything I coach, I have got it down to 3 or 4 boxes that need to be ticked… I’ve developed this philosophy that all these things are not that complicated, what you are trying to do is build a body in the way to best execute those things” “Feedback addiction is a real thing; it’s not the healthiest thing for you to say something every single time” “When I look at my highest intensities of training, the Olympic lifts are probably about as technically complicated as I would get; that’s my ceiling as I might say” “I always keep it super simple when I’m trying to reach those highest levels of intensity.  The simpler the movement pattern, the more muscle mass that is going to be involved” “I’ve experimented with single leg Olympic lifts a bit, they are a nice change of pace, but you can’t build your program around them” “Skinny people are built to sprint, not to lift, so do more sprinting and less lifting.  Big people are built to lift, not to sprint, so do more lifting and less sprinting… a lot of times the athlete’s strong point is potentiating improvements in the weak area” “My track athletes, I don’t squat them in season but we do every variation of jump squt you could imagine, we Olympic lift, it’s not like we are not lifting, there are just many ways to do things” “So many of goofy running mechanics and change of direction mechanics go away when you start using full ranges of motion” “There are strategic blocks in my program where we will use super heavy quarter (squats) but they are not my default” About Boo Schexnayder Boo Schexnayder is a current strength coach and former jumps coach at Louisiana State University, and is regarded internationally as a leading authority in training design, possessing 37 years of experience in the coaching and consulting fields. Most noted for his 12 years on the Track and Field coaching staff at LSU, he is regarded as one of the world’s premier coaches, having developed 19 NCAA Champions and 10 Olympians. Schexnayder has coached multiple World Championship and Olympic medalists and has been on several national team staffs, including the staff of Team USA at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He also possesses 13 years of experience in NFL player development and combine preparations. He frequently lectures and consults domestically and internationally in the areas of speed and power development, training design, motor learning, and rehabilitation. He has operated Schexnayder Athletic Consulting and serves as director of the USTFCCCA’s Track and Field Academy and Thibodaux Regional Medical Center’s performance division. Prior to his collegiate and international career, Schexnayder was a successful prep coach for 11 years, coaching football, track, and cross country.

Nick Winkelman is the head of athletic performance & science for the Irish Rugby Football Union and a renowned expert in coaching science. He discusses the importance of blending psychological understanding with physical training to create meaningful learning experiences for athletes. The conversation highlights how effective communication and soft skills can enhance athlete engagement. Winkelman also emphasizes the power of storytelling in coaching and the beneficial role of external cues in improving performance.