Just Fly Performance Podcast

Today’s podcast features Rafe Kelley, owner of Evolve Move Play. Rafe has studied and taught a multitude of movement practices spanning gymnastics, parkour, martial arts, weightlifting, and more for over 20 years. His passion is to help people build the physical practice that will help make them the strongest, most adaptable, and most resilient version of themselves in movement and life. Rafe has had a profound impact on my coaching and training philosophy and has helped me expand my views on the totality of the bio-psycho-social model of movement and human performance. Much of modern training is overly prescriptive, reliant on drills, and overemphasizes winning. This leads to practices with a reduced learning potential, a downplay of creativity, and a lowered ceiling of movement and skill potential. It also leads to less engaging practices in general. In today’s episode, Rafe delves into his unique methods and teachings that foster creative and adaptable athletic movement. He explores the interplay of constraints and play in sport and skill training, underscores the significance of creativity and improvisation in movement (and how to cultivate it), and shares insights on the role of joy in movement. Rafe also touches upon collaborative movement training, rough-housing, dance, and movement improvisation, and how these elements can shape better learners and movers in their respective sports or movement practices. By gaining a deeper understanding of play, exploration, and constraints, we can unlock the full potential of human performance. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr, the Plyomat, and LILA Exogen. Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off of any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer head to Lilateam.com TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. Use the code “JUSTFLY” for a free 30 day trial of the TeamBuildr software at https://teambuildr.com. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing.  Check out the Plyomat at www.plyomat.net View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Main Points 2:30- The balance between constraints and free play in coaching, as well as children’s skill development 15:30- Training based off of “following one’s joy”, versus more set skill rehearsal 25:30- Creativity and improvisation in human movement and sport performance 32:30- Athleticism, dance, and individual dancing versus dancing with others, in context of sport 41:00- Roughhousing and links to team sport movement and problem solving 48:00- Forms of play that are both done for winning, as well as learning, exploration and mutual growth 57:30- Scaling and continuums of effort in individual and team sports, for improved learning 1:07:00- The use of roughhousing, and contact improv oriented work, on facilitating play states, and opening up movement options in a donor sport format Rafe Kelley Quotes “Soccer works because there is a set of constraints; there are structures that allow the game to exist, but there are infinite degrees of freedom once the constraints are in place” “Usually I’ll have 3 areas I’m working in, and then one core skill” “At the end of the session, I’ll ask them “What was your rose, your bud and your thorn”. They get to reflect on what they want to hold going forward” “Sweet, we are playing tag. How do we add a little more speed demand to that tag. How do we play a version of tag that looks like this, and gives you the thing you are looking for?” “Creativity is the ability to create a solution to a movement problem, in a sport situation” “What made Barry Sanders special wasn’t that he did set plays better than anybody else” “A gymnast doing a high bar routine, is actually adjusting constantly to try to achieve the goal; they are not doing the exact same thing… but that’s far less ...

Former D3 All-American football player Austin Jochum discusses athlete-centered training prioritizing joy, play, and long-term growth. Topics include the balance of technique and play, emotional aspects of training, building confidence through play, and the importance of creativity and adaptability in coaching.

Scott Leech, URI's head S&C coach, shares insights on agility training beyond traditional methods, emphasizing task-based stimuli. He discusses the importance of on-field perception tasks, jump training, and strength work for athletes. The podcast delves into optimizing athlete performance with structured training, varied drills for speed and agility, and contact preparation techniques for football players.

Today’s podcast features Nicolai Morris. Nicolai is the Head of Performance for AFLW at Collingwood AFL club. She is also the strength and conditioning coach for World Champion and Olympic medalist high jumper Nicola Olyslagers (formerly McDermott). Previously, she worked as the Head of Physical Preparation of the Australian Women’s Hockey Team, NSWIS, and HPSNZ, working with NZ Rowing and leading NZ women’s hockey. She is an elite level 3 ASCA coach with a master’s in strength and conditioning and over 17 years of experience. Strength is far more expansive than what is gained from lifting barbells. It encapsulates a large number of qualities and abilities. When it comes to helping high-level athletes break through a performance barrier, what is needed is not simply “more barbell strength” but improving one’s total strength and movement package. Many forms of movement and strength can be employed to do this. This week’s podcast guest, Nicolai Morris, uses many strength and movement methods in her training. One of Nicolai’s athletes, Nicola Olyslagers, recently set the Oceanic high jump record at 2.03 meters (6’8”), and in today’s episode, Nicolai goes through the various strength and movement methods that helped set Olyslagers up for success on the high jump apron. Our discussion also deals with pole vault, swimming, and athlete autonomy. This episode was an expansive discussion on the role of strength and coordination in high jump training and beyond. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs and the Plyomat 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. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing.  Check out the Plyomat at www.plyomat.net View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Main Points 1:27- Personalized Cues for High Jump and Pole Vaulting 17:39- Enhancing Coaching through Diverse Skill Training 25:52- Surface Variety for Enhanced Athletic Performance 35:48- Cushioned Surfaces for Plyometric Training 38:06- Enhanced Foot Strength Through Sand Training 42:19- Dynamic Training Strategies for Athlete Development 44:40- Optimizing Performance: Balancing Creativity and Structure 55:45- Athletic Success through Joyful Training Mindset 59:07- Targeted Training for Optimal Athletic Performance 1:04:34- Optimizing Movement Quality Through Single Leg Training Quotes “I have to relax. And even in drilling, I do better when I relax rather than tensing up and trying so hard. So it's a really fascinating one. And yeah, in swimming, when you try hard, it destroys you in an event in a 200” “But we've been doing a lot of work on her weaknesses. For her, that's often single leg strength, stability and hinging, hip extension type work and cross chain work are kind of key elements that have come across the whole way through that” “So we added in a bit of an obstacle course where she'd land on different soft, hard, interesting, big surfaces. And I told her to be creative, and she's a creative person, and went, all right, just chuck a bunch of things down on the ground. Make it fun, make it challenging, but make sure you are landing on different surfaces, hard and soft” “But our traditional model will help. We don't really have access to a gymnastics facility over the next four, five weeks. Coming into world indoors, let's go backwards. And we went back to our traditional way of doing things and you could see the position wasn't there. And immediately after the competition, it was. Yet we're going back to gymnastics” “She's got a beach right near her and her initial training, no matter when she comes back, will always start on sand and grass rather than going straight on track, which isn't uncommon. But the sand, she's always done blocks of sand her entire life.

Ryan Jackson, TCU Football's Associate Director of Human Performance/Nutrition, discusses the importance of tendons in movement, Achilles tendon thickness correlations, infrasternal angle measurements, muscle mass dynamics, and training season impact on Nordboard metrics. He also explores the body variability in football players, natural Chinese medicine-based supplements for performance enhancement, weight room metrics associations with lifting performance, and Achilles tendon dynamics on athletic performance like vertical jump height.

This week’s podcast guest is Angus Ross. Angus is a former Winter Olympian employed by High Performance Sport New Zealand. He works with track and field and several other Olympic sports, including sprint cycling, skeleton, squash, rowing, tennis, and more. Angus has a PhD in exercise physiology from the University of Queensland and has been a multi-time guest on the podcast. He is an absolute wealth of knowledge on all things speed, power, and human performance. There is a lot that the world of sport can learn from track and field, but perhaps the most valuable lessons can be gained by studying the decathlon and heptathlon events. Most sports performance programs will jump, sprint, and throw, but the focused, competitive aspects of those events bring out the highest level of expression for pure outputs, along with the speed-endurance aspects. In today’s podcast, Angus discusses the relationship between the multi-events and the needs of team sports, including the dynamics of creating scoring tables in a performance program and the connective tissue development multi-event training brings about. He discusses the relationship between speedbag training and sprinting. He also gets into isometrics and elasticity, as well as plenty of case studies and examples of putting these principles into action. I always have fantastic conversations with Angus; this talk was no exception. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs, TeamBuildr and the Plyomat. TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. Use the code “JUSTFLY” for a free 30 day trial of the TeamBuildr software at https://teambuildr.com. 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. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing.  Check out the Plyomat at www.plyomat.net View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Angus Ross Main Points 3:00- Comparing “Rotational” and “Linear” Events in Track and Field 11:20- Loaded Mobility for Athletic Performance Enhancement 18:24- Enhancing Connective Tissue Quality Through Loaded Stretching 31:45- Heptathlon Training Impact on High Jump Success 35:28- Rotational Movements in Multiplanar Athletic Training 43:03- Elasticity's Role in Athletic Performance 46:26- The Role of Elasticity in Athletic Performance 54:53- Enhanced Athletic Performance through Speedball Training 58:19- Spinal Engine's Role in Speed Enhancement 1:06:03- Enhanced Performance Through Muscle Control Adaptations 1:09:23- The Role of Long Isometrics and the Nervous System 1:11:49- Enhancing Physical Strength Through Structured Workouts Angus Ross Quotes "I just think it's interesting how these different qualities degrade at different rates. And in terms of trying to maintain your athleticism, probably that elasticity, ability to bounce is probably something that we should be thinking about." - Angus Ross" “I talked at a high jump mini conference we had in New Zealand a little while ago. Made the analogy that it's really interesting, too, that the high jump + heptathlon is a really good combination. There's a lot of world class heptathlon athletes (who are really good at high jump). "With the decathlon. I kind of have this idea in my head, like the decathlon principle, in the sense of what could be applied for any event. Like almost this catalog of same but different skills to be good at if you want to be good at one thing." - Joel Smith" “But in contrast, volume of work probably is really good for your connective tissue and your fascial stuff and your tendons. And so perhaps the multi event is. And this is one of the things I was writing a couple of notes when you had some of those ideas to talk about. It's fascinating to me that we have now, we've got decathletes on the scene that can run 10...

Today's podcast features Paul Cater, a seasoned strength coach with extensive experience in both professional and private realms. Beginning his journey in collegiate football at UC Davis, Paul later ventured into international professional rugby with the London Wasps for seven years. Following his rugby career, he spent a decade innovating strength and conditioning systems in professional baseball with the Baltimore Orioles and Los Angeles Angels. With a research focus on performance and injury reduction in Seville, Spain, Paul now optimizes training methods for the tactical community and is designing "The Lab Monterey," a premier 'smart gym' in the USA. While training is often regarded as both an art and a science, the majority of time and resources are allocated to the scientific aspects, leaving the artistic elements overlooked. The art of training extends beyond communication with athletes, delving into the intuitive process of session unfolding and the natural processes of learning, movement, and community engagement. In today's podcast, Paul explores the alignment of performance with natural learning, emphasizing challenge and mimicry over verbal statements and rote recital of patterns. He details how to create an environment that breathes life into training sessions, fostering engagement, enhanced learning, and improved results. The discussion also covers the role of science in the context of "smart gyms" and how technology can liberate coach resources for more creative investments. In a rapidly evolving world, this podcast is a landmark exploration of understanding athletes and fostering a meaningful coaching process. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs, TeamBuildr and the Plyomat. TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. Use the code “JUSTFLY” for a free 30 day trial of the TeamBuildr software at https://teambuildr.com. 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. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing.  Check out the Plyomat at www.plyomat.net View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Main Points 2:30- How athletic dance movements fit with culture, and how it works into Paul’s training ideas 12:30- Priming the environment of the athlete for better results, with the influence of music selection 19:00- Key exercises and “attractors” to help drive flow states and learning via mimicry in training 27:00- How to manage structure and basic coaching guidelines, along with creating space for freedom of movement and exploration 37:00- The nature of how children play, and their background, and implications for training and performance 43:00- Paul’s process of teaching, and education for mentors and assistants 53:00- How upbeats, and downbeats fit with rhythmic movement flow and athleticism 1:07:00- What the ideal world is in training and coaching, in regards to the balance of technology and sports performance Paul Cater Quotes “To really understand a culture, you have to understand their dancing culture and their music integration” “I believe right now in America, we are establishing a culture that is devoid of identify and basic movement patterns” “Dancing is ingrained in battle, and in sport you are mirroring movements, mimicking movements” “I want to have young athletes be more readily available to accept challenges, versus seeing things as threats” “Music, and the opening salvo of exercises can (engage an athlete) on both levels (of challenge and innate movement patterning)” “Birds mimic the sound, and then they vary it” “Choosing a song, mimicing beats and rhythms, within a drill, with peers” “I think if we teach young athletes to memorize drills, or plays, we take away that creative inhibition”

Today’s podcast is with Alex Kanellis. Alex is the founder of Landmine University. He is a former state champion wrestler, Iowa Gatorade Player of the Year (Football), and University of Iowa football player. He has been a scholastic strength coach, wrestling and football coach, as well as having spent time as a performance coach for Weck Method. Currently, Alex’s focus is on training youth wrestlers, as well as his work with Landmine University. Strength training for athletes is fundamentally basic. The powerlift variations, as well as Olympic lifts recruit a large amount of muscle mass and are fundamentally stimulating. At the same time, with the potential to be over-used, “functional” training has emerged, offering light-weight movements with high demands for balance and coordination. Landmine oriented training movements offer a happy medium in a high potential for force application, a rotational and arc-like orientation, as well as short learning curves (unlike the longer learning curve of the Olympic lifts). On today’s podcast Alex goes into his experiences that brought him into landmine training, and how he uses the method with athletes. He also gets into the advantages and unique aspects of the method, and touches on the transfer points to a number of athletic movements and practices. Alex touches on isometric landmine variations, as well as gets into GPP methods for young athletes in general, and what we can learn from the athleticism of wrestling and combat sports. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs, TeamBuildr and the Plyomat. TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. Use the code “JUSTFLY” for a free 30 day trial of the TeamBuildr software at https://teambuildr.com. 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. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing.  Check out the Plyomat at www.plyomat.net View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 4:39- Enhancing Athletic Performance Through Rotational Core Movements 10:12- Rotational Landmine Training for Athletic Performance Gains 17:50- Rotational Landmine Exercises for Explosive Athletes 21:23- Spinal Engine Theory for Athletic Performance 32:00- The Role of Fat Grips and Unilateral Landmine Lifts 43:50- Rotational Resistance Training with Landmine Exercises 49:41- Building Athleticism Through Wrestling Movements 55:57- Focused Training for Elite Performance in Gymnastics 57:49- Enhancing Athlete Skills Through Wrestling and Free Play Alex Kanellis Quotes "Landmine lifts too is you really do feel the load go from one glute to the other glute and you can feel, and that's something that is really powerful and also just safe because they're just limited in a way that I like." - Alex Kanellis" "Your spine is the primary engine for locomotion, as opposed to bracing your spine to neutral and powering locomotion with your hips and legs." - Alex Kanellis "What if it's not an argument? What if you just started with more stuff like landmine cleans, or it's a lower bar to jump over, it's more athletic then maybe in high school or later (bring in Olympic Lifts)." - Joel Smith "If we are going to spend those skill points as a coach who's not their sport coach, it does feel really satisfying when just at least a couple of those skill points overlap with what they're working on in their sport." - Alex Kanellis" "Yeah, but it makes you play differently, and it gives you something. And so much. I think a lot of times we almost find things by accident that are because of these constraints." – Joel Smith “And you could ask Donnie Thompson or any of the guys that are into the fat grip stuff. But for me, I remember with even bench press, but deadlift,

Today’s podcast is with Mark McLaughlin. Mark is the founder of Performance Training Center, and currently works as a physical preparation/strength coach in the Lake Oswego school district. Mark has had a diverse sporting history as a youth, and has been active in the field of physical preparation since 1997. Mark has trained over 700 athletes at all competitive levels, from Olympic to grade school athletes, and has worked with organizations such as the NFL, MLB, NBA, NCAA universities, high schools, and youth sports. On the last podcast (#358), Mark spoke on his creative and wide-ranging approach to athletic performance, with an emphasis on movement training and athlete learning, as well as technology and the importance of the aerobic system in athletes. For today’s show, we center on a case study of one of Mark’s high school athletes who put 2 feet on his standing long jump and 11 inches on his vertical jump in just over 2 years time. Within this framework, we get into Mark’s ideas on athlete autonomy and feedback, jump training, progression and pacing of work, hill sprints, capacity, and more. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs, TeamBuildr and the Plyomat. TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. Use the code “JUSTFLY” for a free 30 day trial of the TeamBuildr software at https://teambuildr.com. 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. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing.  Check out the Plyomat at www.plyomat.net View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 6:25- The Role of Autonomy in Athletic Development 10:37- Gradual Increase in Plyometric Training Intensity 15:58- Optimizing Performance Through Reduced Training Volume 25:30- The Benefits of Diversifying Training Methods 35:33- Strength Training Concepts for Well Rounded Development 43:19- Optimizing Performance through Feedback and Monitoring 55:26- The Impact of Intent and Constraints 1:00:26- Jump Testing Device with Reactive Strength Measurements 1:02:59- Plyometric and Jump Training 1:09:16- Hunter's Varied and Intense Training Regimen 1:20:22- Hill Sprinting, Speed and Work Capacity Mark McLaughlin Quotes “So we just basically cut the volume almost by two thirds. And within the first month, his vertical increased like five inches” “Well, as a coach, sometimes I'm kind of constraint led as well. And so, kind of some of the things that I did to facilitate fun and progress was I started a gymnastics program, per se, within the athletic development model that I have there, and all the kids love it. So, number one, and that's part of the warm up. So that's one to get them there, the other thing that we do prior to training is game based. So they could play team handball, they could play ultimate football, ultimate Frisbee. We have a rugby ball, soccer.” “And again, when you ask kids, I think this is part of coaching in this country that is just bad to me, is we're never asking the athletes what they like. How do you feel about the training? Do you like what we're doing? No, I don't. Okay, then let's figure out what you do like. To keep you coming back. I do a questionnaire with every team twice a year to find out through my program what they like, what they don't like, my coaching style. So I can then refine this thing year to year to make it truly athlete centered” “This past year, I bought an adjustable hoop for the weight room, so we were doing different dunks and different jumping activities” “Yeah. I grew up with three younger brothers. We had a dunk hoop that would raise from, like, eight and a half to nine and a half feet, and you would watch Julius Irving dunk on somebody. Then you're trying to go out and dunk on your brot...

Today’s episode is a Q&A podcast with Joel Smith. Questions on this episode revolve around swim training, sprint training, plyometrics, and specific training means for athletic development. Much of my philosophy has gone towards motor learning and how athletes can intuitively learn explosive sport skills, that not only gets results, but is also sustainable over time. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs, TeamBuildr and the Plyomat. TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. Use the code “JUSTFLY” for a free 30 day trial of the TeamBuildr software at https://teambuildr.com. 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. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing.  Check out the Plyomat at www.plyomat.net View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 2:11- Explosive Athletic Training with Plyometrics 7:25- Retracting the Thorax for Effective Swimming 17:56- Enhancing Energy Recovery through Breathwork Techniques 24:07- Adjusting High Intensity Training for Sustainability 32:23- Exploring Foot Positions and Pressures for Single Leg Jumping 37:24- Constraints-led Approach in High Jump Training 39:50- Explosive Skills and Athletic Movement Enhancement 44:20- Optimizing Performance through Body-Mind Activation 56:39- Avoiding Impingement with Alternative Squat and Deadlift Variations 59:27- Optimizing Sports Performance through Specific Joint Angles 1:07:21- Enhancing Weightlifting Performance through Neural Activity Questions Best plyometrics to prepare for training them again after a long layoff? What's your approach in terms of S&C for swimming? Besides endurance, are there elements of swimming that translate to running mechanics? Top 5 best training modalities on recovery days? Training wisdom for training vertical jump after 40? Has your training changed since turning 40? Best way to organize a workout for a quad dominant athlete vs hip dominant? How do you improve an athlete who can't bring in speed into there 1 foot dunk? Top 3 tips to get better at high jump? What's the one thing you would program to progress with a track athlete from 7th-12th grade? Top 5 isometrics to do pre-court session? Thoughts on an open palm vs closed for sprinting? How to peak for 100m as a muscular driven sprinter in track sprint work? Does maintaining a strength for a sprinter in season matter? Show Notes Marv Marinovich Water Training https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUb1V7hBUMY Transcript  About Joel Smith Joel Smith is the founder of Just Fly Sports and is a sports performance and track coach in Cincinnati, Ohio. Joel hosts the Just Fly Performance Podcast, has authored several books and coaches in both the high school and private sector. Joel was a strength coach for 8 years at UC Berkeley, working with the Swim teams and post-graduate professional swimmers, as well as tennis, water polo, and track and field. A track coach of 17 years, Joel coached for the Diablo Valley Track and Field Club for 7 years, and also has 6 years of experience coaching on the collegiate level, working at Wilmington College, and the University of Wisconsin, LaCrosse. He is currently coaching high jump at Milford High School. Joel has coached 4 national champions, multiple All-Americans, and NCAA record holders in track and field. In the realm of strength and conditioning, his programs have assisted 5 athletes to Olympic berths that produced 9 medals and a world record performance at Rio in 2016.