Just Fly Performance Podcast

Today’s episode features Max Shank, fitness coach and owner of Ambition Athletics in Encinitas, California.  Max has written 3 books, taught over a hundred courses in countries around the world and is the creator of the “5-minute-flow”.  Max is an avid learner, having picked up guitar, piano, and drums as an adult, in addition to the dozens of physical movement skills he has acquired.   As a personal trainer, Max has moved his focus from basic strength training to a holistic approach of overall fitness and health. One thing that I’ve really enjoyed in observing Max’s work over the years is his passion for movement and learning.  Max is a coach who is the epitome of getting outside the box, and taking a holistic approach to coaching, training and human development.  His methods of working towards becoming an “athletic ninja” have relevance towards the goals of any trainee. On today’s show, Max gets into skill training from a practical and philosophical perspective, music’s relationship with training, using play dance in training, developing elasticity, training the foot, and much more.  This is a fantastic show that blends a lot of different elements of life itself, to get a deeper view on our training practice.  Whether you deal with only athletes, or work heavily in general fitness, there is a ton of gold in this episode. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 3:50 How music fits in with physical music in Max’s philosophy 10:50 Why doing work that is more engaging emotionally is a more sustainable practice in exercise 21:20 Why a diversity and love of movement is often lacking in a strength and conditioning environment 25:50 What an exercise program means to Max and why we should pick means of training that come from intrinsic motivation rather than looking a particular way 40:45 How Max views the relationship between play and training 50:25 The mind-body relationship when it comes to difficult work and the sustainability of difficult training protocols 58:00 Some of Max’s favorite tools for strength and movement 1:02.45  How Max views elasticity and elastic strength development  “The use of a metronome is outrageous.  Playing too slow, playing too fast.  Doing it deliberately wrong, and seeing if you can work your way back into it.  Being able to express emotional content into what you are doing, whether it’s tennis or boxing, or wrestling or something, and doing the same thing with an instrument, there are so many parallels” “There’s the part from Bruce Lee in “Enter the Dragon” where he tells the kid to put emotional content (into his physical practice)” “Music is relationships and ratios put together in time” “Dancers are savage athletes who have a huge variety of skills and ranges of motion, and fantastic body control” “You have two hearts, and one of them is your feet.  You don’t get amazing venous return from your lower extremities without movement” “That’s the point of training is for it to be intrinsically enjoyable, so the experience right now, itself should be fun, and it should be something that you would want to do if you didn’t get any results from it… if you didn’t build one muscle fiber from it, would you still do the thing.  That’s a pretty good indicator that it’s a rich experience” “If you are just doing the pushups so your arms will get bigger, then you are sort of trapped.  Pick something that you would be happy to do even if it didn’t build muscle or lose fat” “I probably do at least a few minutes of drumming before I get my training done… it’s just fun, it feels good.  All of my training is that way.” “(Regarding training and play) Ideally you would want to structure your training playfully, so you look forward to it.

Today’s episode features strength coach and gym owner, Eric Cressey.  Eric Cressey is the president and co-founder of Cressey Sports Performance (CSP), with facilities in both Hudson, MA and Jupiter, FL.  Behind Eric’s expertise, CSP has established itself as a go-to high-performance facility to both local athletes and those that come from across the country and abroad to experience CSP’s cutting-edge methods.  Eric also works with the New York Yankees as the Director of Player Health and Performance.  In the past five years, 125 CSP athletes have been selected in the Major League Baseball Draft, and CSP works with players from all 30 MLB organizations. The field of sports performance is rapidly evolving, especially in the private sector where sport skills and specific strength are becoming increasingly blended.  Compared to a decade or more ago, strength and sports performance coaches are learning more and more about the specific biomechanics and KPI’s that lead to success of their athletes on the field.  Additionally, ideas on shoulder injury prevention and rehabilitation for athletic populations are also changing fast.  Modern sport coaching is also getting better, albeit more slowly than what athletes would like, in methods to develop an optimal specific work capacity for their players rather than old school methods of slogging laps. To keep up in a fast-changing world, I was really excited to catch up with Eric Cressey and see how his process has evolved in his years as a coach and business owner.  As a man who works with many of the top athletes, coaches and therapists in the world, seeing how Eric’s process has grown over the years is an enlightening conversation.  Some of the areas we get into specifically involve the blend of sport and strength coaching, shoulder health, work capacity, maximal strength training, and more.  This was a brief, but information dense episode that coaches and athletes of any sport (but particularly over-head and throwing sports) can get a lot out of. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more.   View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 5:55 How Eric got into coaching strength training and performance for baseball players 9:40 Eric’s transition into getting into the technical and biomechanical side of pitching 20:25 How getting into pitching mechanics has had an impact on Eric’s strength program 23:25 How Eric’s thoughts on strength training and powerlifting in working with athletes have changed over the years 27:55 How Eric’s thoughts on shoulder training and injury prevention have evolved over time 35:55 Pros and cons of using fixed vs. free scapular movements with athletes 36:55 Indicators from watching athletes move in the weightroom as to their chances of a acquiring a shoulder injury in sport 38:55 Building work capacity in baseball players 44:55 How Eric looks at asymmetry in baseball players  “I wrote up a weighted ball and extreme long toss program, and I got a text when he had thrown live against the hitters at Harvard, he said I was 91-94mph, then we saw some 95s and 96s, he had a life changing velocity jump” “A strength and conditioning coach is writing a throwing program, that’s never happened” “Weighted implements had been around for a long time, but they haven’t been utilized… it got me thinking about weighted balls, medicine balls (for throwing enhancement).  Training in those middle grounds seemed to have a lot of value” “There are things that are being coached mechanically that are well intentioned but they don’t take into account the limitations that an athlete has, he just can’t get into the positions they need” “Pitching mechanics are actually the most heavily debated topic out there” “We want to prepare our athletes for a chaotic world,

Today’s episode features strength coach and consultant, Dr. Matt Jordan.  Matt is a strength and conditioning coach/performance consultant for elite athletes with six Olympic cycles of experience. He holds a Master of Science in Exercise and Neuromuscular Physiology, and a PhD in Medical Science from the University of Calgary. Matt has consulted with more than 30 Olympic and World Championship medalists and provides expertise to high performance organizations in the NHL, NBA, NFL, and military. He is currently the Director of Sport Science at the Canadian Sport Institute Calgary and leads the Sport Science/Sport Medicine program for Alpine Canada. In training athletes, it’s very easy to simply get caught in the way of thinking that we were brought up into in our own time as athletes and as young coaches.  If we don’t ever get some sort of data behind the methods we are performing week in and week out, it’s hard to know what to change and why. When it comes to making meaningful decisions on key performance metrics, reducing the noise in a system, and using simple and consistent measures to help guide performance, Dr. Matt Jordan is the guy that you want to talk to.  On today’s episode, Matt gets into this subject, particularly on the topics of periodization and training organization, as well as data collection and the use of vertical jump profiling as a measure of performance fatigability.  He also gets into the job of a strength coach in context of a total high performance system with the idea of reducing noise in the system in mind. Ultimately, this show is about helping coaching learn to make their training decisions and their data collection more simple, meaningful and integrated to help improve clarity in programming, and results. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 3:15  Positives and negatives to the traditional model of periodization 12:30 How ideas on periodization might change when moving from a sport of high complexity to one of low complexity 21:00 Some thoughts on reducing the noise in a high performance system when there are multiple practitioners working with the athletes (strength coaches and team sport coaches) 36:00  How vertical jump profiling can fit into the bigger picture of an athlete’s total training for their sport 45:20  How performance fatigability differs from how well the competitive exercise is improving  “There is not a lot of good data to support periodization, but as anybody who has done this in the real world, we understand that sequencing and organization of training stimulus, and interference effects are very much real things and therefore require some thought which is the cornerstone of periodization” “In all disciplines, whether you are a teacher or a physician, there is a very big struggle to override your experience and the way you’ve always done things, rather than a data-driven approach” “Weather shaped how people trained for decades, even after they didn’t have weather to contend with” “If (as a strength coach) you can’t adapt to the culture (of a team sport) you can’t give those athletes what they need to succeed” “If you don’t have trust, you can’t have impact” “With an alpine skier, it’s really tough to pull a number out that says “this is how well you are performing today” “Performance fatigability is the effects of fatigue on performance” “In a lot of sports, the competitive exercise (CE) is just super complex” “I say to coaches, “what is your pan evaporation?”,  Find your simple metrics, repeatable over time, stick with them.  They help bring clarity to a complex world that we are trying to understand” “It’s really tough to understand things when you start noisy” About Matt Jordan

Alex Natera, senior athletic performance specialist at the GWS Giants of the AFL, discusses the origin of run-specific isometrics and their integration in team sport play vs. training sprinters. He talks about his approach to training sprinters using isometric exercises, and how he has adapted his system for team sport athletes. Topics include the history of isometric training, the use of functional isometrics, and training approaches for sprinters vs. team sport athletes.

Sports performance coach Scott Salwasser shares his practical and effective training solutions for speed training in football, including his program for linemen. He discusses force-velocity profiling, perception-action, and agility training. Scott also highlights his experience in helping athletes rapidly recondition after a layoff. The podcast covers topics such as the benefits of agility drills, integrating technology to monitor athlete progress, and training linemen in football.

Today’s episode features Jeff Moyer, owner of Dynamic Correspondence Sports Training in Pittsburgh, PA.  Jeff has been a multi-time guest on the show, appearing as a solo guest in two shows, and on three roundtables.  His expertise includes elements such as Soviet training systems, motor learning, skill acquisition, pain reduction and reconditioning.  Jeff is highly driven by learning and is continually on the cutting edge of the industry, yet is also highly practical and results driven in his coaching and training. ACL injury prevention, and injury prevention in general, is a massive portion of the job of a sports performance coach, yet, it is important to ask, is a good injury prevention program any different  in nature than a good performance training program? Jeff Moyer has gotten tremendous results, not only in the injury rates of his athletes, but also in the speed by which he assists athletes in their return to play.  Jeff has been known to help athletes get back on the field, 5 and a half months after ACL surgery, but the tools he uses to do so are not far removed from his primary philosophy on strength training, biomechanics and performance. In today’s show, Jeff takes us inside his methods when it comes to a deeper look at ACL injury factors, as well as how his reconditioning and rehabilitation program mirrors his performance program elements.  We also get into some essential details of some unique weightlifting elements, plyometric training, as well as his use of the “Total Motion Release” system, which harnesses the cross-over effect in the brain to help athletes move and function better Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 3:50 Jeff’s take on promoting a training program specifically as an “ACL Prevention Program” 11:50 How Jeff is developing athletes from a perceptual standpoint, that can not only improve performance but also with the potential to reduce injury 19:50 Key performance indicators in change of direction that can keep athletes healthier and performing better 25:15 Philosophy of training tempo in weightlifting, as well as utilization of the 1x20 program and other training means that are useful in a reconditioning setting 36:50 Jeff’s take on plyometric and jump training, and how it compliments his lifting program 38:50 A look inside Jeff’s rapid-reconditioning program, working reconditioning alongside, ACL rehab 47:40 Jeff’s use of the Total Motion Release System in reducing pain and improving performance, and discussing the power of the cross-over effect in the brain  “There was a perceptive aspect to the (ACL) injury, and defensive players were more likely to tear their ACL than offensive players” “I think it’s crap to say that we have a prevention program and a rehab program or whatever, I think they are all one and the same (performance and prevention).  I think a prevention program is something that doctors pitch to make money” “That’s how I do my workout, 50% of it is weights, and 50% is the perceptual side” “I want the outside leg being the leg we plant and cut off of (in change of direction)” “Our training and rehab program are similar, we both start on 1x20; exercise selection is a missing conversation I don’t hear a lot when other people talk about 1x20, they just talk about sets and reps” “I find that the kBox is more joint friendly than traditional barbells” “Not early on in a training career is eccentric training important, you should look more to general strength” “The first thing (in an injury) is I seek to fix what is being protected.  Scars can be very disruptive to fascia or meridian lines” “That is a cheap and easy tool to use (in rehab) just go lie on the grass a half hour a couple of times a day”

Sports psychologist Simon Capon discusses the importance of self-belief in athletes and the overlooked aspect of mental training in athletic performance. They explore the impact of the emotional brain, beliefs shaped by sensory experiences, and the messages relayed by parents and coaches to young athletes.

Today’s episode features segments with Paul Cater, Rachel Balkovec and Rafe Kelley in part II of our mini-series on perspectives in this time of social distancing and staying-at-home on coaching, training and becoming the strongest version of ourselves. Paul Cater is the founder of the “Alpha Project” in Salinas, California, and has over 18 years of experience as an international strength and conditioning coach.  Paul has worked with the London Wasps Premier Rugby Team, the Baltimore Orioles, USA Rugby, as well as numerous high school, college and professional athletes.  Paul has written a number of popular articles on Just Fly Sports on the topics of coaching, creativity and service, and makes his first appearance on the podcast. Rachel Balkovec is a pro baseball hitting coach, working with the New York Yankees.  She has made history in acquiring her role in her current position, as well as when she become a minor league strength and conditioning coordinator for the St. Louis Cardinals from 2011-15.  Rachel has also worked in strength and conditioning for the Houston Astros, as well as the Dutch national baseball and softball teams as well as many other successful organizations.  She recently appeared on episode 194 of this podcast talking about coaching and organizational leadership. Rafe Kelley is the owner of Evolve, Move, Play, and was a guest on episode 174 of the podcast.  Rafe’s primary specialization is parkour, and he also has experience in modern training disciplines such as sprinting, basketball, gymnastics, crossfit, FRC, modern dance and many others.  Rafe’s passion to is help people build the physical practice that will help make them the strongest, most adaptable and resilient version of themselves in movement and in life. This episode furthers our topic from last week, which is lessons learned from our “downtime” from in-person coaching, as well as how we are training and learning without our typical gym facilities.  Times where things “contract” (as opposed to the typical expansion), as well as times of necessity are always powerful learning experiences, and I’ve learned something valuable from each of the 6 coaches in this short series, and I know you will as well. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 3:00  How spending so much time running a business had taken Paul Cater away from the core of training itself 7:45  Expanding the idea of storytelling in a training session and the importance of creativity in coaching 18:00  How sprinting should be a solid root of an athlete or even coach’s movement and training practice 25:20  How Rachel Balkovec has been adjusting her training routine since being taken from her typical gym 31:20  How Rachel maintains awareness, as well as trains, her breathing in various situations 38:50  Things Rachel is learning in general in this time period 43:20  How Rafe’s personal practice hasn’t been altered due to his “atypical” training environment 53:20  How a typical play session in nature can shake out for Rafe 58:20  Comparing the physical effects of natural parkour to other barbell practices 1:03.50  How introducing obstacles and challenges into running can improve engagement and variability  “It’s been a blessing to be forced to stay home” Paul Cater “Most of the coaches I know and respect will put more of a priority on the barbell rather than the “sprint first” mentality, it’s the path of least resistance…. It’s harder to go outside and have a really in depth sprint session” Paul Cater “Every training session really, is an experience.  Within that every day is a story, an epoch, a saga of overcoming.  Hill running is a metaphor… there’s something about running up a hill” Paul Cater

Today’s episode (part I of II) is actually three talks in one show, featuring segments with Jeremy Frisch, Rob Assise, and Dr. Tommy John. In our current world situation, many have found themselves without our typical training structures.  This can be anything from not having a team, or partners, to train with anymore, a lack of gym space, and a lack of a training equipment in general.  It’s times like these that, although tough, can allow us to shave things down, to the essentials of how we are training, and perhaps more importantly, why we are training in the first place.  Each of our guests have had one or multiple appearances on the show before and were those who have a unique perspective on getting to the core essentials of training and movement. Jeremy Frisch is a former NCAA D1 strength coach who is now the owner of Achieve Performance in Clinton, Massachusetts.  He is a leader in youth training and play, as well as all-around performance coach who works with athletes of all levels.   Jeremy not only coaches physical prep methods, but is also involved in team sport coaching on the youth level. Rob Assise is a teacher and track coach at Homewood-Flossmoor high school who has written some fantastic articles (How I Deal with the Restrictions of COVID-19 and One Man’s Dive Into Extreme Isometrics) on his use of “Extreme Isometrics” in his at-home workouts, a topic of which we went into detail on for today’s show. Dr. Tommy John is a chiropractor, author and performance coach who is no stranger to this show.  Tommy has an awesome ability to blend health, training and big-picture ideas into a powerful message in our own performance.  His workout, training style, and overall message is one that brings out our true power as human beings. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 3:45 Jeremy Frisch’s take on how COVID19 is bringing children back to a more natural mode of play, albeit in context of current restrictions 8:50  The difference between movement and exercise for children, and when they are mature enough to make that distinction 13:35 Jeremy’s own workouts, and what he does to train in his basement gym setup 21:40  What Rob’s workout is looking like with his own daily schedule 29:45  How using extreme ISO’s offers good benefits for endurance of speed and strength qualities to athletes 35:00  Tommy John’s workouts and how they haven’t really changed much since quarantines 45:45  The importance of cultivating a creative practice in coaching 54:00  The inner meaning behind why we train, and the distinction between playing and training  “(kids) Riding bikes has been brought back from the ashes, which is nice to see” “I feel there is a silver lining, because of some of the things that are happening out in the world, we have to go back to what we were doing when we were kids” “While moving is great for kids, they don’t have the maturity to understand what exercise really is” “I felt like I could feel the (cycling of energy systems) in the last minute, or minute an a half of a lunge.  It’s something you have to try and see” “I hated doing the 5 minute ISO lunge while I was doing it, but afterwards I felt completely at peace.  I never regretted it afterwards” “(After doing 5 minute ISO lunges 11x a week) playing “old man basketball”, flat out, I just did not get tired.  I was able to go as hard as I could, for pretty much the whole game” “My training has not changed much, but my miles in walking have” Dr. Tommy John “We’re all artists, whether it’s programming or bringing in information in a creative way” “I love walking because it’s an ever-changing environment, it’s outside… there’s different people, there’s different flowers,

Today’s episode features Marc Bubbs, naturopathic doctor, performance nutritionist, and author of the best-selling new book "PEAK - The New Science of Athletic Performance That Is Revolutionizing Sport." An integrated and personalized approach to health, nutrition, training, recovery and mindset. Marc currently serves as the Performance Nutrition Lead for the Canadian Men's National Basketball Team and has a portfolio of elite and professional athletes in Canada, USA, UK and Europe.  He is also the host of the Dr. Bubbs Performance Podcast, bringing together insights from world-leading experts in health, nutrition, training, recovery and mindset. Having better health (things such as having good nutrition, a diverse gut-biome, strong immune system, adequate sleep and a de-stressed mind) is impactful for not only athletes, but the general population, and is therefore a distinctly “human” element of the human -> athlete -> specialist sequence.  When it comes to athletics, however, markers of health are not always put as much of a priority compared to training methods and sport skills.  As Mark mentions on the show, consistency as a result of good health is very important when it comes to achieving better training over a period of time. Topics on this episode include the essential elements of a health-centered approach to athletics and human performance, including sleep, gut-biome & nutrition, mental training and mindfulness in a “screen-time” age, and even concepts on team cohesion revolving around food and nutrition.  This is a podcast that not only helps to fill those gaps between training and the human being, but also is one that helps us to continually have a “human first”, “athlete second” perspective that is so important to the well-being of those we serve in the field. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 3:40 Marc’s background in the industry of health and athletics 6:10 The crossover between health and fitness/performance and importance of consistency 10:20 When health related decisions (e.g. sleep and nutrition) really start showing up for athletes in their performance 14:40 How cooking, food and the related community is an important part of team  culture and cohesion in sports 19:25 The “triage” list in starting to work with an athlete on prioritizing health before training modalities, and all this well before recovery modalities (Penfold’s pyramid) 24:55 Sleep debt and athletic performance 34:10 How humming and singing provides beneficial adaptations to the human body and can create more grounds for group cohesion 36:10 The importance of one’s gut microbiome in health and human performance 49:40 Mental and psychological training and relaxation methods for athletes  “When we look at some of the research around national to international competitors (in endurance sports), we see that international level competitors get sick 40% less than national level competitors, so if you can just show up every day in the gym or not miss practice, and just not miss days, at the end of that year or block of four years you are going to be that much further ahead than the competition” "If you have got a 44” vertical leap and are the fastest guy on the floor, do we really need all these other things, or is just keeping you healthy enough to show up every day the key performance lever?” “In the UK, half of the grocery bill is spent on processed foods…. If you head to Paris, only 14% is spent on processed foods” “A lot of (team culture) starts with food (sitting at the dinner table together)” “The night before a game, athletes tend not to sleep well” “If a guy is getting less than 6.5 and gets his sleep up to 7.5, he can improve his testosterone by 10-15%”