How to Increase Power: Van Dyke and Schmarzo

Based on Episode 60 of the Just Fly Performance Podcast, a conversation between host Joel Smith and strength coaches Matt Van Dyke and Max Schmarzo.

If you want to know how to increase power, the honest answer is that it takes more than piling on Olympic lifts and plyometrics. Matt Van Dyke, who has done integrative performance work at the University of Denver, and Max Schmarzo of StrongByScience wrote a whole book on the subject, “Applied Principles of Optimal Power Development,” and in this conversation they lay out the principles that actually move the needle: training with maximal intent, using isometrics to potentiate, protecting the motor pattern you care about, and building strength across a full range of motion before you get specific. Power is force times velocity, so the real skill is knowing which side of that equation to push, and when.

Key Takeaways

• Maximal intent is the first principle. Every meaningful rep, isometric or dynamic, is done with the intent to move explosively, or the session trains at a suboptimal level.
• Build the base without wrecking the pattern. Train the primary lift with high intent and never to failure, then build the muscles themselves with general, non-conflicting work.
• Isometrics potentiate the nervous system. A max isometric pull at the critical joint angle ramps the system and, in a big team, autoregulates itself far more safely than chasing loading percentages.
• Full range of motion first, specific angles later. Strength built through a deep range gives an athlete a reserve that improves the shorter, sport-specific positions.
• Let velocity cap the set. Velocity-based analysis and cluster sets keep every rep at high intent instead of grinding athletes into fatigue.

Start with maximal intent

Both coaches put intent at the top of their book because it decides whether everything else works. Schmarzo frames it as a practical problem: you cannot just tell an athlete to move faster, so you need a way to define and check maximal effort.

Velocity-based training doesn’t mean moving something fast. It’s more like velocity-based analysis, because you’re using it to check and balance the percentage of one-rep max you applied. It lets you make sure the percentage you gave the athlete isn’t crazy for their readiness, and it tells you what their maximal intent for that day should be.

Intent matters even when nothing is moving fast. Schmarzo argues that maximal intent is a shotgun that covers adaptations coaches cannot individually target.

If you’re moving with maximal intent, our shotgun is going to cover the spray of all those adaptations, because we can’t pinpoint one. We know the macro outcome is what we care about.

Build the base without wrecking the pattern

Power sits on a base of force, but Schmarzo warns that the way you build that base can quietly sabotage the movement you actually want to improve. If the squat is your specific power exercise, hammering high-volume squats to failure teaches a different, slower motor pattern.

The squat should always be done with maximal intent. But if I want to hypertrophy my quads or posterior chain, doing high-volume squats at submaximal speeds is going to conflict with that motor pattern. That’s why intent is one of our primary principles.

His model for this is a program most speed coaches would not expect him to praise.

I’m a huge Westside fan. What they do well is they don’t train that motor pattern, the squat, to failure. They do it with very high intent, and then they train the muscles themselves through a general means.

In practice that means keeping the primary lift crisp and explosive while offloading the muscle-building work to step-ups, flywheel quarter squats, pogo hops, and similar general tools, so the athlete never learns to grind the pattern that is supposed to be fast.

Use isometrics to potentiate

Isometrics are the thread running through the whole conversation, and Schmarzo starts by splitting them in two. A structural isometric holds a load to change the tissue; a functional isometric exists to rehearse an explosive intent.

A functional isometric is much more predicated on movement pattern and movement intent, whereas the structural isometric is trying to induce specific adaptations in a targeted muscle and tissue.

The functional version is what he uses to potentiate, because the payoff in a ballistic movement happens in a tiny window right off the ground.

During ballistic movements, that initial concentric burst acts like a gun and a bullet shooting you upward. So having proper isometric strength over the critical joint angle, the transition joint angle, really aids in developing ballistic power.

Van Dyke likes this most for its practicality with large groups. A max isometric pull lets a whole team rotate through one rack in seconds, ramping the nervous system without the risk and bookkeeping of loading exact percentages on sixty athletes. Schmarzo adds the reason it is also safer: it regulates itself.

If you’re putting 450 on a kid who’s really 400 for the day, good luck. But a maximal isometric autoregulates itself, and it allows maximal force to be produced, unlike a dynamic effort where you technically can’t.

Train the full range first, then get specific

Van Dyke builds strength through a deep range of motion early, then narrows toward competition-specific joint angles as the season approaches. The logic is that a heavy lift only trains you hard at the position you actually reach.

If you’re doing a heavy lift for strength, you’re only at your maximal intensity for that one angle you’re training. A full-range squatter has trained all the more specific joint angles you’ll use later, so as you get specific, you’re stronger than you were.

Schmarzo offers a theory for why, and he is careful to flag it as his own idea rather than settled science. He calls it a range-of-motion strength reserve.

It’d be really bizarre if the body was only good at producing strength at a specific joint. If you can develop a full-range squat, it lets you develop the shorter-range squat better, because you have more of a strength reserve through that full range.

As athletes move toward their event, Van Dyke shifts to what he calls a sport back squat, bringing the feet under the hips and matching the chest angle to the shin so the force is produced where the athlete actually accelerates on the field.

French contrast and cluster sets, all year

Van Dyke runs a French contrast across the whole training year, changing its character rather than saving it for a peak. Early on it is general, built around a rapid pull into an isometric hold at the sticking point; later it gets specific and more reactive, and near competition it takes on running-based elements. The tool that keeps all of it honest is the way he manages fatigue within a set.

Can we do sets of two reps, rest 15 seconds, then two more? You still get your eight reps, and you can coach a much higher intent than if you push them to failure.

Cluster sets solve the same problem competitive athletes create for themselves, and Van Dyke leans on velocity feedback to know when a set is done.

Your athletes are so competitive that every rep ends up a little less than maximal, because they want to be the guy still jumping highest. If you pair velocity-based training with it, you can say you’re done, and that ensures maximal intent through the whole session. For us that’s right about three or four sets.

Frequently asked questions

How do you increase power in athletes?
Van Dyke and Schmarzo build power on a force base, then develop it with specific, explosive work done at maximal intent. The principles that make it work are training the primary pattern with full intent (never to failure), using isometrics to potentiate the nervous system, building strength through a full range of motion before getting specific, and using velocity feedback and cluster sets to keep every rep explosive.

What does “maximal intent” mean in power training?
It means trying to move explosively on every meaningful rep, whether or not the load is light or the movement is even an isometric hold. Schmarzo describes intent as a shotgun that captures adaptations a coach cannot individually target, which is why he and Van Dyke make it their first principle and use velocity-based analysis to define what maximal intent looks like on a given day.

Are isometrics good for developing power?
Yes, especially functional isometrics performed at the critical, or transition, joint angle. A max isometric pull potentiates the nervous system before explosive work, produces maximal force safely, and, in a large team, autoregulates itself instead of requiring exact loading percentages for every athlete.

Should athletes squat deep or shallow for power?
Van Dyke trains a full, deep range of motion early to build a strength reserve, then narrows to sport-specific joint angles, a “sport back squat” with the feet under the hips, as competition nears. Schmarzo’s theory is that full-range strength improves the shorter ranges, though he notes it is his hypothesis rather than established research.

How many sets should a power exercise last?
Only as many as stay explosive. Van Dyke uses velocity feedback and cluster sets (for example, two reps, 15 seconds rest, two more) to keep intent high, and finds that with a full French contrast his athletes are usually done at about three or four sets before fatigue erodes the quality.

About the authors

Matt Van Dyke is a strength and conditioning coach who, at the time of this episode, was doing integrative sports-performance work at the University of Denver. He co-authored the book “Applied Principles of Optimal Power Development” with Max Schmarzo, works from a triphasic-training background, and has contributed to SimpliFaster on auto-regulated in-season training.

Max Schmarzo is the owner of StrongByScience and a sport-science educator known for practical tools such as the Force-Velocity Profile Builder. He co-authored “Applied Principles of Optimal Power Development” and writes and speaks widely on the science of strength and power development.

Joel Smith is the host of the Just Fly Performance Podcast and the founder of Just Fly Sports, a former collegiate strength and track and field coach focused on speed, power, and athletic development. Listen to the full episode with Matt Van Dyke and Max Schmarzo on Just Fly Sports.