Henk Kraaijenhof has been in the world of sports performance since 1975 and is considered one of the world’s leading experts in the areas of speed and power development. Before he became an advisor to some of the world’s top athletes and teams, he was an accomplished coach in the sport of track and field. Kraaijenhof specializes in the study and research of the effect/management of stress and fatigue on athletic performance. He is the Founder and Director of VortX, a company specializing in the evaluation, prevention, and treatment of mental and physical stress-related issues.

Coach Kraaijenhof is a former track athlete from the Netherlands. He has coached world-class athletes from the Olympic to professional levels, including multiple World Champions and former world record holders in track and field. He has a wide variety of experience outside of track and field, including in professional soccer, the NHL, Olympic field hockey, and Olympic volleyball. He currently works as a mentor for Olympic athletes and coaches in Holland.

Henk covers training transfer in relation to athletic speed. He and Joel talk about the purpose of standard “strength to body weight” levels and where they even came from. Henk also digs into some of the modern training tools we see now, such as instability bags and weighted vests and shorts, and if they are necessary or not to develop a useful program. He also discusses the application of blood flow occlusion in training and when that may be most useful for athletes.

In this podcast, Coach Henk Kraaijenhof and Joel discuss:

• Specific exercises that transfer to speed development.
• Bar velocity and its transfer to athletic movements.
• Using instability training in the pursuit of athletic development.
• His opinion on the transfer of the full back squat to sprinting.
• The use of velocity-based training in the past.

Podcast total run time is 48:35.

Keywords: transfer of training, speed development, velocity, occlusion training