Joel Smith is the founder of Just Fly Sports and the JFS Podcast. He is an assistant strength and conditioning coach at the University of California, Berkeley, where he works with swimming, tennis, and water polo. Smith is the author of the books Vertical Foundations, Vertical Ignition, and most recently, Speed Strength. Before coming to Cal-Berkeley, Smith coached track and strength and conditioning at Wilmington College of Ohio.
Coach Smith has earned both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in exercise science, the first from Cedarville University in 2006 and the second from Wisconsin LaCrosse in 2008. He is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist through the NSCA and is also a USATF-certified coach.
Joel takes questions from listeners in this episode covering a range of topics including speed training biomechanics, vertical jumping, single-leg Olympic lifts, and trunk and core training.
In this podcast, Joel discusses:
- Myths of speed training.
- How much poor coaching affects an elite athlete.
- Frans Bosch.
- Training the ankle.
- Unilateral Olympic lifts.
- The role of plyometrics in improving sprinting.
Podcast total run time is 52:12.
Joel has written for SimpliFaster about vertical jumping, optimal athlete movement patterns, and more.
Keywords: speed, vertical jump, plyometrics, core training
