Jake Tuura, performance coach and tendon expert, talks about training tendons for performance, including conditioning bones and connective tissue, changing foot strike patterns, and the impact of variability. He also explores the composition and aging of tendons, the benefits of herbalism products for performance enhancement, the role of hydration and the interfecicular matrix in preserving performance and longevity, and the importance of rest and muscle strength for maintaining tendon health.

Today’s podcast features coach and educator, Jamie Smith.  Jamie is the owner of Melbourne Strength Culture, a strength and performance-based gym in Australia.  Jamie worked at high-level S+C in Australia and the US prior to starting his coaching business with Strength Culture.  Now he is heavily involved in coach development and education for strength coaches. Jamie has a truly expansive viewpoint on how we consider training in light of more global concepts.  In performance training, we must look at human beings on a complete (holistic) level.  To do that, it’s helpful to look at prominent and long-established fields of human collaboration and research, medicine to be exact.  In medicine, the “biopsychosocial” model was conceptualized in 1977 and has been prominent, particularly in pain science. On today’s podcast, Jamie talks about both the biopsychosocial and top-down/bottom-up models and how to integrate them into a training model.  Without considering the importance of mindset and culture, as well as “bottom-up” (using intuition in the training process) coaching, athletes are not going to get the possible level of result or enjoyment of the journey.  As Jamie says on the show, building awareness in the athlete or client is one of the most important things you can do, and by defining the overarching structures of the BPS and top-down vs. bottom-up training, we can better understand how our program is actually landing with those we train. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs and Exogen wearable resistance gear. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for free (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 4:04 – Discussing the “beer mile” and “milk mile” competitions as track and field spin-offs 7:37 – The BPS, or “Bio Psycho Social” Model, and how it applies to training 13:28 – BPS-based ideas as to why two athletes can be on the same exact training program and get a completely different training outcome 17:42 – The philosophical concept of determinism, in light of the BPS model 23:28 – “Top-Down” vs. “Bottom-Up” methods in looking at training 39:52 – Looking at “Top-Down” vs. “Bottom-Up” concepts in training, relative to global concepts, such as investing 45:28 – Practical steps to integrating balance in Top-Down and Bottom-Up elements of a program 48:27 – Client autonomy in light of training constraints, BPS model, and buy-in 51:19 – A bottom-up approach to assigning training de-loads 1:02:15 – Skillfully assigning load ranges based on BPS and bottom-up concepts in training, and helping athletes feel “wins” in a program Jamie Smith Quotes “I think there are a lot of S&C coaches who have never really trained for events” “The biology (in the BPS model) is the physical nature of the human” “The psychological is your software, your thoughts, feelings, expectations… and ultimately those psychological things shape the lens that we see the world through” “Social is the environment in which we place the human” “Our thoughts, feelings, expectations, shape the way we enter processes; I truly believe the BPS model is the most encompassing model to view how we do things or look at outcomes in life” “When you understand the BPS model, you can’t remove the mental from the physical, or the culture; when you say something, how this is going to be perceived by an individual is influenced by everything they’ve done in their whole life” “A lot of people, became physically attached as a representation of what (rolling and smashing) would allow them to become; when a coach would come along and bash that idea, they are challenging a belief system” “The way in which we communicate matter, the history of a person matters, all of this stuff matters all at the one time….

Today’s podcast features human performance coach, Brady Volmering. Brady is the owner of DAC Performance and Health. His focus is on increasing the capacity of the human being.  Brady continually digs into what “training the human being” actually means and how that relates to improvements that go beyond the general, into specific sports performance and even one’s daily life.  He walks the talk on a high level through his own personal workouts and regularly discusses his training philosophy on his Instagram page.  Brady was a guest on episode 291 of the podcast talking about “human” level physical preparation, and high-volume training concepts. On the podcast today, Brady talks about his single leg depth drop practice, the recent changes he made in his programming to physically transform himself across the past year, and then how he has taken those programming concepts into his training for athletic populations.  As an already well-trained athlete, Brady’s progress is incredible to see, and the methods he used are simple in nature, and also relatively non-traditional in terms of the typical “rules” we put on training.  We also touch on oscillatory reps, high-frequency training, mind-body awareness, “wins and losses” in training, and more, in this episode. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs and Exogen wearable resistance gear, and the Sprint Acceleration Essentials Online Course. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for free (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. To learn more about the Sprint Acceleration Essentials course, head to justflysports.thinkific.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 3:45 – What led Brady to perform a 6-foot box drop jump 11:15 – How Brady scales drops and difficulty for the individuals that he works with 16:15 – Comparing high drops, to more traditional “serial” plyometrics, such as low hurdle hops 27:45 – Processing “wins and losses” throughout the training session and season 32:45 – The mind-body connection that exists between physical exercise, and sport, particularly within the scope of being presented with a failure 43:45 – The key pieces that have led to Brady’s physical transformation in the past year, one of which was based on training advice from Jay Schroeder 1:02:45 – Keys to high frequency, or daily, integration of a potent training means as opposed to using a training stimulus in a typical 2-3x a week frequency 1:10:45 – How Brady’s training regime filtered into his training concepts for athletes 1:20:45 – Oscillatory training reps and impulse rep concepts for the upper body Brady Volmering Quotes “Really with anything we are doing, I want to set up in a game format, where an athlete has a chance to succeed, an athlete has a chance to fail because that is going to bring that engagement up” “In a (single leg) depth drop, if you don’t learn to direct that intent, you are going to fail… you can learn to direct that intent into other places as well” “Everything after (a 6-foot single leg drop) feels much easier, much less stressful” “I ask, what does it mean when your body speaks to you? When you have pain, what does that mean? When you have tightness or restriction, what does that mean?” “I know what they are feeling right now, what would I do; when I am programming I want to gain enough information about what they are feeling, what they are experiencing… what would I do?” “That’s why I like a lot of the high rep, high volume stuff we do, where if you decide to stop, through that you understand how your system is processing that stimulus, what thoughts are coming in” “When you are training and the only thing that is stopping you is yourself, that is a mini-loss…. In the training session in that mini-loss where you have that threat of stopping,

Today’s podcast features Jason Feairheller (fare-heller).  Jason is the Co-Owner and strength coach at Function and Strength in Bridgeport, Pennsylvania, and has been training athletes since 2007.   He is the host of the Speed and Power podcast and has lectured on strength and conditioning as an adjunct professor at Immaculata University.  Jason has a passion for speed and athletic movement training and is a sought-after speaker on the topic of multi-directional athleticism.  He has developed the course “Improving Game Speed Through Multi-Dimensional Plyometrics”. Humans are complex and so is in-game movement.  One topic that I’ve considered ever since the start of this podcast was the idea of actually coaching change of direction and sport-speed techniques, versus decision-making being the priority, and then letting game-play dictate how athletes choose to technically move in space. Jason’s passion has been all forms of speed and movement in athletes, and on this podcast, he goes into the fundamental principles of change of direction versus agility (perception) training, and how each method works into his athletic performance programming.  Jason will also get into his use of plyometrics, and methods that quantitatively measure change of direction outputs, his take on deceleration training mistakes and misconceptions, agility games, and much more. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs and Exogen wearable resistance gear. 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 3:06 – What brought Jason into the game speed space as a primary focus of his training 8:49 –  Jason’s thoughts on the place of change of direction training, compared to agility/perception work 16:36 – How the interplay between planned/rehearsed change of direction, and live agility occurs in a training session 31:45 – How Jason looks to quantitatively measure improvements in change of direction ability 41:11 – Considering “deceleration” training in light of having athletes fully stop, vs. redirecting speed 49:08 – Perception/Reaction and game-oriented work Jason uses for his athletes 51:51 – What Jason’s session looks like in terms of warmup, speed/COD training, games, and strength breakdown 53:21 – Jason’s favorite simple COD games he uses in his training 57:12 – Plyometric training concepts, particularly on the level of small hops, leading into larger ones Jason Feairheller Quotes “What makes an athlete really good at (speed in training), it was the ability to link one movement into another” “When I do change of direction training, every single speed drill I do with someone is an assessment” “Ultimately, people need to redirect force, and then get the other foot down quickly” “For the most part, I don’t do a drill for more than 2 to 3 reps without changing it in some capacity” “If I have my feet close together; and I put my feet out to the side, and back, and do a straddle jump like that; what I’m looking at is, how far can an athlete actually get their feet to the isde, and what is that shin angle, where their head doesn’t go up or down; and that distance is close to what they would actually have on the field” “A 5-10-15 tells me how well someone can decelerate when speed is higher” “I watch a lot of video from all different sports, and try to relate change of direction work to some sport scenario in my head” “We have these rubber mats that are 2-3 feet wide, and we have max reps (pogo jumps) over the rubber (you can’t touch the rubber) for 8 seconds; a lot of jumps people track are vertical in nature; but a lot of what happens on the field is horizontal” “I rarely tell people to stick the landing on a drill, the only time is altitude drops or something like t...

Today’s podcast features Bill Hartman.  Bill is a physical therapist, and in-demand educator in his approach to restoring a pain-free lifestyle, and understanding the governing principles of movement.  He has been a mentor to, or has inspired the knowledge of many previous guests on this podcast, particularly in regards to movement biomechanics, infra-sternal archetypes, and the compression-expansion model.  Bill owns IFAST Physical Therapy in Indianapolis, Indiana and Co-owns Indianapolis Fitness and Sports Training with Mike Robertson, where he works with clients ranging from very young athletes to professionals. It is very interesting to look at how we approach the nature of “muscle weakness” and compensations in training.  For example, it is common to look at all compensatory action in the body as a “bad thing”, rather than looking at how the body actually uses compensatory action to produce force, or adapt to a particular sport skill, in addition to when that compensation might actually be a problem.  The human performance field has also looked at muscle weakness in isolation, rather than digging deeper into the underlying structural alignment of the body contributes heavily to what we are seeing out of muscle strength and function. In today’s podcast, Bill goes into the adaptive nature of the body and what it really means when we are seeing compensatory actions in movement.  Within this, Bill also gets into the nature of reciprocal, or more “locking” movement of joints, depending on the task an individual needs to accomplish.  Bill spends a lot of time talking about strength training, how it can be a positive, but also the dynamics of the interference effect that can lead to undesirable adaptations for athletes over time.  Bill also covers external rotation and pigeon-toed athletes, and the nature of power training for wide and narrow ISA archetypes, and much more. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs, Exogen wearable resistance gear, and the Just Fly Sports Online Courses. 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. To learn more about the Sprint Acceleration Essentials or Elastic Essentials courses, head to justflysports.thinkific.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 5:00 – Bill’s journey from working purely in the traditional therapy and training model, into one that embraces more of the complexity of nature, and universal principles of movement 15:28 – The adaptive process of the body, and how this leads into different alignments and representations 18:14 – The compensatory strategies of the body as an adaptive process 29:02 – Examples of when strength gains may end up creating an interference effect on the body 33:32 – How children are so flexible, and the role of shape change in human motion 36:50 – The role of mobility and “stiffness” in terms of speed and running efficiency 43:37 – General thoughts on stiffness and compliance for a typical field sport athlete 49:10 – Connective tissue and stiffness adaptations to heavy strength training, and the point where heavy strength can be a negative for explosive sport activities 1:04:45 – Relative motion and force production biomechanics in squatting, and knee mechanics as it relates to joint pain and injury risk 1:12:42 – The externally rotated, “bowlegged” representation of the legs, on the level of athleticism 1:23:16 – Power training with the needs of a Wide ISA type in mind Bill Hartman Quotes “When you start to look at the human as a complex adaptive organism, your perspective starts to change” “If you are made of water (fluid dynamics) is going to be one of the foundational principles” “The goal is not to negate everything that came before… but the level of reasoning is what the biggest change has been...

Today’s podcast features USA Football senior manager of education and training, Andy Ryland.  Andy has been with USA Football since 2010, has consulted with programs at every level of competition, and is widely recognized as a foremost expert on developing the fundamentals necessary for a successful shoulder tackle, as well as the developmental, and skill building process for athletes. He previously appeared on episode 170 speaking on a “humans first”, “athletes second”, “specialists third” approach to athlete development. In the process of developing athletes, it is easy to compartmentalize training components, ultimately to a fault in the overall process.  If we are working in a sport or skill building capacity with athletes, we should have a basic understanding of their physical capacities and capabilities, as well as how training adaptation and specificity work.  If we are working on strength and more base level movement components with athletes, we should have a handle on their needed skills and tactics on the field.  Ultimately, the more situations we can coach in, the more ages, and sports we work with, the better our overall intuition gets on the process of teaching skills, and guiding athletes to their highest potential. Andy Ryland has a deep understanding the developmental process that players need to succeed in their sport.  On today’s episode, Andy digs into key points on the art of athletic skill building.  A primary part of this is how he runs the “whole-part-whole” system, which can be adapted to more global, or strength based skills.  Andy discussing how to integrate “prescriptive extra’s”, or “work-on’s”, as well as micro skill development in sport and S&C.  He also covers key aspects of improving agility, teaching concepts in athletics, creativity in coaching, Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs and Exogen wearable resistance gear. 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 3:54 – The original “failed” games in American Gladiators, and the evolution of “powerball” into what it eventually became 8:57 – Andy’s take on practice plans, creativity, intuition and thoughts on changing the practice plan 17:53 – Thoughts on mixing in various micro-doses of skill and movement into gym-based training 28:06 – Alternating between working the “outer game” of more external strategizing, or outputs, and the “inner game” of the subtle nuance of skill performance, in training 34:53 – The integration of roughhousing into youth football 43:29 – How to use a game-based iterations of a drill, to better prepare for the actual skill execution 48:09 – The need for constant 1 on 1s, tracking and evasion-based work in sport, and how it’s not typically trained enough in sport 52:58 – The role of the “instant activity”, or “welcome game” in a sport practice or training situation 58:10 – The maximal “line length” Andy sees being viable in sport/skill practice Andy Ryland Quotes “I’m a huge whole-part-whole guy.  I’ll be the first to tell you, the part aspect is never scripted” “If our arms are terrible, if our legs are terrible, if our strike accuracy is terrible, that’s going to be our “part” (in whole-part-whole)” “If I’m doing a good job, my coaching intervention “part” aspect is not going to be some super stereotyped, copy and paste drill that’s been done since the dawn of time.  It’s who are my athletes, what are they struggling, what is the situation where they struggle, and how can I replicate that before going back into the whole thing” “My mentor Richie Grays, worked in professional international rugby for ages, they had prescriptive extras, every athlete had “work on’s” that fit their game.  They had a set of bags that was at the entran...

Today’s podcast features track and S&C coach, Matt McInnes-Watson.  Matt is the owner of Plus Plyos, an online coaching platform that provides plyometric training programs, courses, and systems for coaches and athletes. His initial coaching experience was as a track coach for jumpers and multi-eventers, which led him to work as the lead S&C coach for Itchen College Basketball in the UK.  Matt teaches and delivers seminars around Europe and the US, while working with athletes from football to figure skating, using his expertise in jumping and plyometrics to enhance performance. Plyometrics, in the general sense, are as old as time.  How we have classified them and integrated them into training for sport started with track and field, and now is branching out more and more into team sport.  Within both track and team sport, we have aspects of specificity, rhythms, coordination and integration that we can consider to really hone in our plyometric efforts on the ultimate progress of the athlete. For today’s podcast, Matt covers his background as a soccer player, and the role of swing leg dynamics in kicking, and in its link to jumping.  We talk about various plyometric combinations from the perspective of direction, height and distance, and how this factors into common exercises like bounding and hurdle hops.  Extensive plyometrics in team sports, especially in season, is a debated topic we cover, and we finish with Matt talking about the origin and implementation of the “deep tier”, or full range plyometric exercises. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs and Exogen wearable resistance gear. 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 2:36 – Matt’s background in soccer, and his introduction to jumping and track through basketball 11:42 – Single leg jumping in light of locomotion and the gait cycle 14:25 – The usage of the swing leg in a soccer kick, and how that fits with a single leg takeoff, or a bound 21:38 – How Matt looks at plyometrics for the sake of team sport development as opposed to track and field 31:52 – Matt’s take on high hurdle hops, and bounce-combos, in bilateral plyometric execution 42:00 – Thoughts on how much team sport athletes need to do extensive, high-contact volume, plyometrics, in light of their team sport demands 52:54 – Matt’s development and integration of “deep tier” plyometrics for athletes Matt McInnes-Watson Quotes “A big thing for me was speed on the ground in my takeoff, I went from .22s, to .17s when I jumped my best” “In terms of my abilities to pick up skills with my feet (a background of soccer was a huge help)” “It saddens me when you get a basketball player who cannot jump off of one leg” “One of my favorite combos is 2 forward, and 1 back, I think the real pinnacle of athletic movements is 2 hops forward 1 hop back, or 2 hops forward, 1 hop upward” “Especially for basketball players, lighter extensive work is hugely important for ankle rolls, if they have a history of ankle rolls” “I play with those (multi-lateral) rhythms with team sport guys, not so much with track guys” “You can’t hide in movements that are (inherently reflexive)” “(Deep tier) paired with the rudimentary stuff seems to be a recipe that is working really really well for us” “The deep tier is such great fun; there is a therapeutic side to achieving that full range of motion’ “There’s a safety net of providing a regular stimulus (with deep tier, stretch range plyos)” “So I play with a variation of deep tier, called a double dip, so when you drop down, you drop again quickly, and you pop out of it, and it plays with passive reflexes at the bottom ranges” About Matt McInnes-Watson Matt McInnes Watson, MSc,

Today’s podcast features guest Mark Hoover.  Mark works for SimpliFaster in a coaching and technical consulting capacity and is the Director of Athletic Performance at Metrolina Christian Academy in Indian Trail, North Carolina. Coach Hoover started his career coaching football at both the high school and NCAA levels. After spending nearly 20 years in the dual role of sport coach/strength coach (including 11 years as a head football coach), he made the transition to full-time strength and conditioning in 2015. Mark is a growth minded coach who is continually evolving his training process.  Mark is continually evaluating his program based bettering one’s abilities on the field of play.  The qualities it takes to be a weight room warrior are not the same as the fundamental speed and decision-making elements happening in the game itself. As an individual who was better in the weight room than he was in sport, Mark has dedicated his own process in a different direction for those athletes he works with, doing what he can to ensure that they are adept movers, in addition to being strong and robust. On today’s podcast, Mark talks about his approach to building game speed, rehearsed vs. problem solving agility movements, the role of basketball in overall movement development, and we finish with a brief chat on the role of the 1x20 strength system in Mark’s program.  This show delved into some really important concepts of athlete development, and although it primarily discusses work done with high school athletes, the concepts are helpful for those on all levels of performance. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs and Sprint Acceleration Essentials. 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. To learn more about the Sprint Acceleration Essentials course, head to justflysports.thinkific.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 2:13 – Mark’s original athletic journey, and how it has shaped the coach he is today 10:34 – What Mark would change in his own athletic journey to help himself become a better overall athlete 17:28 – Mark’s evolution in game-speed development, and how he has incorporated this into his training programs 22:44 – Training “fundamental” game speed, and agility movements, versus letting athletes purely self-organize in reactive game speed situations 37:07 – How to know when “fundamental” game speed training is linking into organic game-speed ability 41:32 – What sports the “planned” agility type work is most applicable towards, such as football on offense 53:25 – Sports that may need game-speed training more than others, and the “roll 90 test” that helps Mark find what athlete’s reactive speed deficits are 1:00:00 – Mark’s take on the edges of the feet, as it pertains to agility and game speed movement 1:03:59 – Mark’s usage of the 1x20 strength training system, and how he has used it and progressed it in his coaching Mark Hoover Quotes “As it turns out, the only time I was a star on that football field was when I was in that weight room” “If I could go back, I would convince my younger self to play every sport possible” “When people talk about mental toughness, it’s very task specific” “We don’t do a whole lot of A-skips, or things, we do a lot of where we partner up, and one person stands an arm’s length behind another one, and one person has to hop hop squat, and it has to be a variable squat, on one leg, on two legs” “This is probably blasphemy, but I would say (game speed agility/movement) is more important to master than squat, bench, deadlift” “We still, even as we progress the drills, build in those basic, “feel” cues, and then when they take it over into the reactivity stuff, they know” “That is probably the toughest concept of the whole thin...

Today’s podcast features track and speed coach, Chris Korfist.  Chris has been a high school coach in track and football for 3 decades with close to 100 All-State athletes.  He is currently the sprints coach at Homewood Flossmoor high school in Chicago, owns the "Slow Guy Speed School”, and has consulted with professional sports teams all over the world, including the NFL, MLB, NBA, and Rugby League.  Chris has been a favorite podcast guest on this show and is constantly evolving and innovating his methods. Sprinting is a simple, yet complex topic, and one that requires a continual analysis of mechanics, exercises and training models.  There are many ways to train athletes, and with this in mind, it’s important to understand the “first principles” of any training system.  With many first principles taken from the brilliance of the “DB Hammer” training ideals, Chris has steadily evolved his training system, year over year, to the place where it is today. This past season, Homewood Flossmoor won the Illinois state track championship, and won the 4x100m and 4x200m dashes on their way to the title.  Chris’s adjustments to his speed training models worked well, with some athletes chopping off a second or more off of their 200m times from the previous year. On the podcast today, Chris starts by talking about his mental training approach, and some unique mental training elements of this past year’s team.  He then gets into the main changes he utilized this past training year, including reducing the speed endurance component of the work, and replacing it with some potent “AN2” bracket (30-40 second) specialized training for the sprints.  Chris also goes into how he would specialize the exercises for sprinters of different archetypes (stompers vs. slicers) and much more. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs and Exogen wearable resistance gear. 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: 2:40 – How the state track meet went for Chris’s team this year, including a 41.03s 4x100m time and a state championship 7:08 – Updates on mental strategies for racing, and building mental highlight tapes for athletes prior to meets 20:49 – Some main changes that Chris made this year in his programming that proved successful in the team’s state championship performance 30:12 – Using the 1080 sprint for slow-speed iso-kinetic hamstring work to improve the injury resilience factor of the muscle group 33:53 – The specificity of the “AN2” (30-40 second) bracket of work for the special exercises that Chris’s athletes were performing 41:15 – “Stompers” vs. “Slicers” and how to train the weakness of each athlete 47:10 – Water bag training and the role of the trunk/core and arms in sprinting 49:33 – Hip flexor training and strength in speed development, and usage of the hip swing exercise 54:19 – How to use primetimes and flexed leg bounds in speed development 1:01:04 – Training frequency throughout the year, and how this was a lower frequency year for Chris’s athletes 1:06:49 – Final thoughts on working strengths vs. weaknesses, and when to stop trying to bring up weaknesses in a training year Chris Korfist Quotes “(The highlight/motivational videos for the kids) It’s just this constant feedback that you are all of that” “This year, instead of goals, I had them focus on telling their story” “Our self-talk this year became a story: This is where I came from, this is what I did, this is where I’m going; Tying in history and tying in stories to your self talk is really powerful, because as humans we all want a story” “You figure out what motivates that kid, and then you push that button when you need to” “I knew if we showed up to practice and did the exact s...

Today’s podcast features strength coach Kevin Hollabaugh. Kevin is a strength coach working at the New York Yankees Player Development Program, and is also the owner of Pro Force Sports Performance in Cincinnati, Ohio.  He has been working in strength and conditioning since 2009. He previously served as the director of baseball player development, and also currently an adjunct professor at the University of Cincinnati. Pro Force SP happens to be only a few miles from my home in Cincinnati, and I’ve enjoyed spending time there to play ultimate frisbee games with pro baseball players, as well as observing the data-points and training process on the 1080 Sprint with Kevin and his staff. It's important to check your training process with some level of numbers and quantitative feedback to go with the qualitative process of coaching.  Amongst other training tools, Kevin has two unique machines that allow him to pin data to athletic movements, on the level of the Proteus motion and 1080 Sprint.  This show isn’t so much about those technologies and data points specifically as it is how Kevin has used the data to refine his speed and rotational training methods over time, how he now looks at training given those data-sets, and how it has evolved his programming. In this episode, we’ll also talk about the Ultimate frisbee game variation that ProForce athletes love so much (as well as myself), balancing force vs. elasticity in swinging/throwing and sprinting, training weaknesses vs. strengths, and more. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs and Exogen wearable resistance gear. 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: 3:12 – The makings of the “Ultimate Frisbee Soccer” game that the ProForce baseball athletes (as well as myself) enjoyed playing immensely 15:26 – How Kevin started ProForce and his background as a coach 19:41 – The data-based backing of Kevin’s training and exercise selection process 27:09 – How the Proteus rotational training machine is helping Kevin to refine his core training programming 33:19 – The balance of training an athlete based on their strengths and weak-points, as per rotational power and linear speed in particular 41:14 – How to apply medicine ball training and rotational power to an athlete who relies heavily on the stretch shortening cycle, versus “concentric” muscular contribution 46:09 – How Kevin’s approach to speed training has been impacted by working with the 1080 Sprint machine and the associated data 56:53 – Kevin’s next steps in his coaching future Kevin Hollabaugh Quotes “It’s funny the evolution a simple game has taken, and how it can define the training in an off-season, but that’s kind of what it’s morphed into” “(In frisbee) you get those (high pressure) opportunities that you don’t necessarily get in sport that are more low key” “We’re all taught, here’s the way to teach speed, here’s the way to train core, and then you get on these pieces of technology (and data-based feedback) and you realize, “that didn’t translate”” “If you are struggling with the concentric strength and are good at strength shortening, we are using a heavier load (with medicine balls), with the proteus we are using a heavier load” “One way (to build concentric-start rotational power when you are mostly elastic) would be starting with static starts on heavier loads (with medicine balls, etc.)… by keeping it at a light weight you are just going to be able to whip it which you are naturally good at” “When there are increases in their hitting load, their pitching load, we back off on the medicine ball rotations and do more work on their non-dominant side” “I didn’t need to do 7 drills in a speed session (being able to ...