Just Fly Performance Podcast

Today’s episode features Rachel Balvokec, a professional baseball hitting coach working with the New York Yankees.  Rachel made headlines when she become a minor league strength and conditioning coordinator and coach for the St Louis Cardinals from 2011-15.  Rachel also has experience working with the Houston Astros, as well as the Dutch national baseball and softball teams, and has also worked with many successful organizations such as EXOS, Louisiana State University, the White Sox and many others.  She is also a former NCAA Division I softball catcher. When working in any sort of team environment, knowing keys of successful organizational culture is not an option if you wish to be great.  Those of us working in the coaching field often have many different “hats” that we wear, be it strength coach, sport coach, nutritionist, or “unofficial sport psychologist” (or maybe even official sport psychologist).  It’s very easy to get buried in the X’s and O’s of exercise selection and periodization (and it’s good to have these things mastered) but it’s critical to zoom out and look at the greater principles that lead to the success of an organization. This show is about both of those things.  On the front-end, Rachel talks about what she has learned as a strength coach that she’s carried with her into her time as a hitting coach.  She discusses what spurred her to move “up the ladder” in regards to the amount of change and impact she new she could make on players by moving to sport coach, as she moves towards her ultimate goal of being a general manager.  Ultimately though, this show is really about the second portion, which is high-performance leadership, team culture, and tough love.  It’s about what’s really demanded at the highest levels of competition and performance, whether in a sports, military operations, or business. 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 6:20  Rachel talks about her transition from strength and conditioning coach, to hitting coach, and her career aspirations 20:20  How Rachel approaches hitting coaching in light of her former strength and conditioning experience and how helpful it is for sport coaches to have S&C experience 24:40  How Rachel views periodization for working with hitters, and how hitting is  generally behind pitching in regards to the application of sport training principles 32:05  General concepts in regards to what good hitters can do from a weightroom perspective 36:40  Rachel’s rear view thoughts on the strength and conditioning industry and advice for strength coaches 41:35  Rachel’s perspective on what a strength coach offers from beyond a strength, KPI and “X’s and O’s” perspective.  What the heart of being a strength coach really is. 47:00  Thoughts on tough love and culture in winning teams 58:00  Rachel’s take on why Augie Garrido’s “chewing out” of his players an example of tough love and the importance of “high support, high demand” parenting, coaching and leadership 1:12:30 Critical Hardships in Rachel’s life that formed who she is now "There’s something to be said in having a larger role if you can have an administrative position” “No matter what was going on in the field, I could go and crush it in the weight room where 1+1 =2” “It’s not tough (not doing the strength and conditioning workouts anymore) because my passion has always been coaching” “Being a hitting coach is not that different for me personally (than s&c).  Now I’m just coaching the body to do something else” “Every strength coach’s dream is to have a sport coach who used to be a strength coach” “If you were to apply general periodization principles to hitting you would A: have days off, which never happens”

Nick Winkelman, Ph.D and head of athletic performance for the Irish Rugby Football Union, discusses the importance of coaching communication and cues. He explores the effectiveness of internal and external cues in skill acquisition and emphasizes the use of analogies. He also delves into understanding different types of athletes based on their thinking mindset and the role of visual cues and emotions in coaching. The podcast concludes with a discussion about Nick's upcoming book, 'The Language of Coaching'.

Today’s episode features biomechanist and foot expert, Gary Ward.  Gary is the author of the book “What the Foot” inventor of the “Flow Motion Model”, and gives his “Anatomy in Motion” clinics throughout the world.  He is a leading thinker in human movement and mechanics, and is a master of getting people to function better through giving them back their joint movement and sensation.  Gary was a guest back on podcast #98 where he went in depth on the importance of proper pronation and how to teach it along with many other concepts on foot health and performance. The foot (and human body in general) is an incredibly complex structure, and often times we reduce our understanding of it down to “just stretch this muscle and strengthen this other one”, or “let’s try to point those feet or knees in a particular direction that we deem correct”.  At the end of the day, the body is always doing the best that it can, given the sensory information that it has.  When we lack sensory information, we will have trouble moving our joints and bones properly, and things tend to go downhill from there.  Gary helps us to holistically understand the way the body works based on its own incredible ability to interpret information and heal itself. For today’s episode, Gary and I talk about some performance-driven issues and aspects of foot training.  We start out with a chat about those athletes who tend to walk with the toes “turned out” and if this is something that should be labeled as “dysfunctional” and in need of correction.  We also cover thoughts on athletes with high arches, and elements that are interfering with their ability to flatten the arch and pronate.  We also get into instructing athletes in single leg stance drills and how this relates to the concept of “finding center” (and how the use of wedges, paper or even blocks of cheese can help fill in sensory gaps in stance).  Finally, we cover the idea of pronation versus over-pronation, and how the oppositional action of the foot is an important consideration in the ability to “put on the accelerator without the brake” in movement and gait. 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. Key Points Thoughts on athletes whose feet are pointing outwards (duck foot) What does dysfunction really mean? Gary’s take on the idea of “dysfunction” and how to interpret it instead How to help athletes with high arches pronate correctly Gary’s thoughts on “finding center” and what stability really means How to instruct athletes who are performing single leg stance drills Pronation versus “over-pronation” in athletes   “I never really view anything as a problem, I view things as information” “I’m not a big fan of the word dysfunction, because it becomes something you want to fix, rather than something you want to understand” “If you turn your feet out, what you notice is that your foot will pronate” “The vast majority of muscles in the foot are supinators” “It’s impossible to externally rotate a femur on a pronating foot” “A foot that’s turned out will have a rotational influence on the pelvis” “When I see someone with their foot turned out, rather than think I need to turn that in and be the correction, the information I am getting from that person is that they are turning that foot out to generate that pronation” “What’s always been exciting to me is to see unconscious change… the more you try the less you get.  You have to get the environment right” “You don’t want to fight (the body) because we know that fight creates conflict… you need to remove the obstacles and encourage things to do the thing they are meant to do” “I say that joints give muscles something to do” “Most people’s feet end up very limited in movement”

Coach, biomechanist, and inventor Adarian Barr discusses working with gravity and fast-isometrics for better sprinting, jumping, and sport movement. They explore the relationship between athletes and gravity, working with gravity in sports movements, the movement of the foot for better sprinting, and the power of isometric holds in enhancing performance.

Grant Fowler, a creative coach and performance consultant, discusses his non-linear training program and the flow of exercise rotation. They delve into the benefits of non-linear training programs, exploring the influence of Louis Simmons and the concept of nonlinear periodization. They also discuss the benefits of the conjugate system, high frequency training, and isometrics in training programs.

Guest Evan Peikon, coach, physiologist, and educator at Training Think Tank HQ, discusses topics such as managing lactate in training, contrasting training views and results, importance of individualization, relation between oxygenation, PCR, and lactate production, bar speed monitoring units, approach to aerobic system training, impact of lactate accumulation on mitochondrial function, and individualizing training based on energy system feedback.

Neurology expert and personal trainer Scott Robinson discusses the impact of the nervous system on athletic performance, including inhibitive factors and the role of bioelectricity. He also explores the science behind foam rolling and the use of affirmations for enhanced performance. The podcast highlights the psychological warfare in sports, with examples from the All Blacks rugby team. Scott Robinson's online presence and collaboration with Integrated Vitality Retreats are also discussed.

Today’s episode features Logan Christopher, strongman, author, owner of Legendary Strength and CEO of Lost Empire Herbs.  Logan previously appeared on episode 111 where he discussed mental training in depth, including the utilization of hypnosis and mental anchors. Alongside his athletic and business pursuits, Logan has also written several books including “Mental Muscle” and “Powered by Nature”, both of which I have found impactful reads.  Logan is a master of using the natural machinery of the body and our environment to help us reach our highest potential as humans. I wanted to get Logan back on the show for a few reasons.  One was that he lives only an hour and a half away from me in Santa Cruz, and I knew that it would be a blast to train with him prior to recording the show.  Secondly, I had took some inspiration from my past show with Logan and started using his mental training hypnosis tracks prior to my training sessions, along with using his herbs, primarily his “Phoenix” formula (containing herbs such as Ant Extract and Pine Pollen) as well as an adaptogenic mushroom tincture I put in my morning coffee.  The results, were profound.  Although I don’t like to pin training gains on one thing only, I managed to jump higher that year at age 35 than I had in the last 5 years.  My training and overall strength had found rapid improvement, and I knew there was something special to this process.  Finally, I had been reading Logan’s articles around the time I started using his herbs and came across a drawing he referred to as the “Pyramid of Strength” (see show notes), and with everything I head learned about training the last few years, this made perfect sense to me, so I wanted to explore it in depth. On today’s show, we cover just that, the Pyramid of strength, and get Logan’s take on each layer (Mental, Training, Sleep, Diet,Herbs/ Supplements, Spiritual) of what makes us thrive as athletes and 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. Key Points How awkward objects and kettlebells can add value to a training sessions The layout and inspiration behind Logan’s “Pyramid of Strength” How mental state in the gym and training filters over into one’s sport How Logan approaches sleep and recovery in his own training An overview of performance herbalism and how herbalism differs from chemically driven supplements The drawbacks of typical chemical pre-workouts and herbal alternatives to these The primary herbs to look at for athletic performance Logan’s coffee additives (or replacement) for a more natural energy source   “For most guys the color pink is actually going to weaken them” “Every single (training) system out there is a limited collection of movements and if we are looking at health, all around athleticism, the more different movements you’ll do, the better off you’ll be” “We are thinking and feeling beings; that involves everything we are doing.  There is often a cursory acknowledgement of mental aspects of training, but there often isn’t a dialing into that and a mental understanding” “For performance, diet is not the most important thing, because how many Olympic athletes are eating Cheetos and crap food?  Most of these athletes are younger guys, so there is a period you can do that, but if you want long term performance, that is not a sustainable thing” “I would say that everyone is visualizing before an exercise, but they may not be aware of it, period” “Often, people think of just getting to this ideal technique, but there are layers and layers of improving your internal technique and how you are talking to yourself, things that are going on inside, and that’s still all technique as well” “Music is used to control state,

The podcast covers topics on sprint training methods, running biomechanics, and physical preparation. They discuss foot strength and single leg jumping, training program for U20 sprinters, volumes of sprinting for jump training, and thoughts on the POSE method in running. They also touch on topics like asymmetry in weightlifting, movement training, and optimizing training with ball work and perception training.

András Hegyi, a Ph.D. student, discusses hamstring function and impacts of sprinting and the weightroom. Topics covered include different exercises for hamstring injury prevention, differences between weightroom and sprinting, and variations of hamstring exercises. The podcast also explores the benefits of eccentric and isometric exercises, variability in hamstring function, the role of sprinting in injury prevention, and the significance of posture and kinematics in hamstring function.