SimpliFaster

cart
You are here: Home / Blog

Blog

Rapid Fire—Episode #15 Featuring Kyle Brown: What is Universal Speed Rating (USR)?

Blog, Podcast|

As always, please share & review this episode! This podcast is also available on Apple and Spotify.

Episode Summary

In this episode of Rapid Fire, Justin Ochoa sits down with Kyle Brown — former Team USA Skeleton athlete, Owner of Kyle Brown Performance and Northeast Speed Lab Director for Universal Speed Rating (USR). Kyle dives into:

  • His transition from sprinting on ice to sprinting development as a coach.
  • The power of data with USR — and how it’s changing the game for athletes of all ages.
  • Lessons learned from Mike Boyle, Les Spellman and Stu McMillan.
  • His strategy for scaling a business with his name on it.
  • And why early sport specialization might be one of the biggest threats to athletic development.

They wrap up with the first-ever lightning round of rapid-fire questions covering favorite lifts, pizza toppings, speed training mistakes, pet peeves and more.

Key Quotes

  • On USR’s value:

    “Data is great. But what you do with the data — that’s where USR really separates itself.”
  • On scaling a personal brand:

    “My goal is for every client to feel like I was there… even if I wasn’t coaching them that day.”
  • On lifting year-round:

    “If you’re not going to play another sport, weightlifting should be your other sport.”
  • On specialization:

    “Specialization is killing athletic potential. It’s okay to suck at something — go get better.”
  • On business systems:

    “Hire people who believe in your philosophy. Then build systems that let you step back and still deliver results.”

Time-Stamps

  • 00:00–03:00 — Kyle’s intro and background in skeleton racing
  • 03:00–06:00 — Competing on the World Cup circuit + training with Mike Boyle
  • 06:00–12:00 — What is Universal Speed Rating (USR) and how Speed Labs work
  • 12:00–16:30 — Mentorship from Boyle, Spellman, Stu McMillan & carrying that into business
  • 16:30–21:30 — How to scale a business built on your name + staffing and delegation advice
  • 21:30–28:00 — Inside KBP’s athlete onboarding, assessments, and daily programming
  • 28:00–34:00 — The dangers of early specialization + why lifting should be the “other sport”
  • 34:00–36:30 — Encouraging kids to try new sports and lean into challenge
  • 36:30–40:00 — 🔥 First-ever Rapid Fire Lightning Round
  • 40:00–End — Where to find Kyle and how to get involved with USR

Connect with Kyle Brown

Why We Don’t Perform Hang Cleans

Blog|

A shirtless man with dreadlocks lifts a red medicine ball overhead in a gym, appearing focused and strong, with wooden wall bars visible in the background.

If you have been in the strength and conditioning profession for at least a minute, you’ve most likely heard arguments for and against Cleans, Hang Power Cleans, and other Olympic weightlifting movements and their derivatives. You will hear how good they are for Rate of Force Development, how good they are at helping athletes receive force, and how fun they are to teach and perform. Equally, however, you will also hear how they are hard to teach, dangerous, and not as effective as loaded jumps.

So….pick your side of the fence.

Additionally, if you scroll S&C social media for 45 seconds, you will most likely see at least a dozen videos of Olympic lifting being done—some good reps and some bad ones. But whether it is a CrossFit athlete, an Olympian, or a high-school football team, everyone is doing cleans and showing off their stuff. People know the benefits, how the lifts correlate well to sprinting speed, skating speed, and jump performance. Everyone loves them, everyone seems to do them, and sometimes my athletes do as well (which, then, probably has you confused as to the title of this article).

Do No Harm: Limiting Factors with Oly Lifts

Our Men’s and Women’s Volleyball athletes do a heavy dose of Olympic weightlifting movements all year long. They love it and do the lifts very well. I’ve actually written an article on how I program our Olympic movements with our “Rep-Drop Method” (you can read that article here).

I’ve also started using that method with our Track & Field groups, with a lot of success over this past season. BUT…almost no other team I coach does them. Now, with so many benefits that I would want our athletes to have (RFD, speed, power, etc.) why not just get everyone to Olympic lift? (Especially considering that I was a competitive Olympic weightlifter for 5 years, so I know all the movements and how to coach them.)

My opinion is simple—I just don’t think the juice is worth the squeeze for most of our in-season athletes. You see, Olympic lifts—cleans in particular—require a high level of mobility, technique, and power to execute well and get a benefit. Many of the athletes we see simply do not have the requisite mobility to be able to perform these movements safely. Whether it is from previous wrist injuries or having long forearms, they are just not able to get into the “catch” position for a clean safely.

But, for whatever reason, we have found that almost all of our volleyball players and a large majority of track athletes can get into the positions we need. Could be because volleyball needs really good shoulder and t-spine mobility, so they have that inherently to make them good at their sport? Could be that track doesn’t use their arms as much, so they haven’t been damaged from contact or bracing falls? Honestly, I am not totally sure the reasons, but it is a trend I have seen in our athlete population.

Olympic lifts require a high level of mobility, technique, and power to execute well and get a benefit. Athletes we see simply do not have the requisite mobility to be able to perform these movements safely, says @chergott94. Share on X

In the past, I’ve done tons of mobility drills and stretches, trying to get my athletes into these positions safely—but nothing seemed to work. Then, after examining their anthropometrics (limb lengths), I realized that those who have long forearms simply can’t get into the right position without the bar crushing their windpipe. While my examination works, I should have seen it earlier when I saw these same athletes doing Front Squats in a cross-arm pattern, not a front rack. After all, if you can’t hold a front rack in a squat, chances are you won’t be able to get into it in the blink of an eye to catch the bar in a clean.

Another issue stemming from this lack of mobility is the higher injury risk that comes with it. Whenever you try and fit a square peg into a round hole (i.e., force someone to catch a clean when they don’t have the movement pattern locked in), that greatly increases the risk of something going haywire and busting down the chain, like a wrist or shoulder. My number one job with my athletes is “Do no harm.” For most of our kids, I can get them to do a well-executed squat plus some jumps and sprints to cover what we need—such as rate of force development, fast-twitch muscle fiber usage, and force production in multiple planes of motion—with even less risk of injury.

If you can’t hold a front rack in a squat, chances are you won’t be able to get into it in the blink of an eye to catch the bar in a clean, says @chergott94. Share on X

Sprint, Jump, Throw

Now, many of you might be thinking why not just teach them how to do the lifts over the summer or off-season so they can do them in-season. Agreed. 100%. But the issue with our setting (and many university settings, especially in Canada) is that our kids go home for the summer—meaning, I would be programming cleans for them to try on their own in some big box gym somewhere and hoping that goes well. Yeah, not a great idea.

Which leads me to my latest craze in programming and the main point of this article: Sprint, Jump, Throw.

I know that didn’t just introduce you to any new concepts and this is something you are all doing in some capacity—but over the last year, these simple tools are something I’ve really doubled down on. Knowing that I needed to enhance the transfer of our weight room work, I started to play around with different set and rep schemes, as well as different exercises. Nothing was having the effect I wanted. Why not? Because sport isn’t squatting. It isn’t benching. It isn’t 3×5 or 2×10. It’s sprinting. It’s jumping. It’s throwing (or shooting).

So why not train those more?

Over the last year, I’ve decided to ramp up my focus in those areas. Whereas before I would maybe have sprint exercises 1-2x p/week, a couple jumps and maybe a throwing movement as well, for most of our teams I now program all three each day. We do a sprint, a jump, and a throw each session (2-4x p/week). This gives our athletes exposure to high velocity movements along with the higher force weight training we still do (surfing the force-velocity curve). I believe this approach greatly enhances the transfer of our sessions by getting the athletes to apply their strength and power in movements they actually need to perform in their sport (again, sprints, jumps, and throws).

We do a sprint, a jump, and a throw each session (2-4x p/week). This gives our athletes exposure to high velocity movements along with the higher force weight training we still do, says @chergott94. Share on X

I do have some general classification systems for each of these, just to keep them sorted in my head. I’ve stolen a bunch of ideas from great people like Matt McInnes-Watson and his tier system for plyos, but basically this is how I structure things:

Sprints

In a 3-day program, we will sprint each day right after our warm-up. We do this in our gymnasium, which is adjacent to our weight room, or outdoors (weather permitting). Day One is linear, but with a varied start so they get used to putting themselves in the right sprint position from different start positions. Sports are weird and have you in all sorts of positions, so I want our athletes to be able to “go” from anywhere their sport asks of them. These starts include starting on one knee, starting on your belly, or starts facing the opposite direction of the finish line. Day Two will have a change of direction component in the sprint: could be a simple 45 degree cut, a stop and comeback sprint, or a curved sprint.

A bag of colorful balls Description automatically generated

Image 1. Reaction Balls.

My goal is to expose the athletes to speeds at various angles that sport demands and make sure they have the necessary movement capability—additionally, I want to expose their feet, ankles, knees, and hips to those game-relevant angles and forces (I steal lots of stuff from the 8-Vector System on this day). For our Day Three speed work, I’ve started to incorporate a reaction component. This includes tennis ball drops, sprinting on a “go” call, or actually using Reaction Balls (see image above). This day involves—by far—the most effort…and is also the most fun. This way, we get linear speed, change of direction, varied starts, and reaction work (plus effort and smiles) all in a single week of work, each and every week.

A table with a list of days and dates Description automatically generated

Figure 1: Sprint program ideas.

Jumps

I won’t go into a deep dive into other people’s work here (i.e., Matt McInnes-Watson), as that is way beyond my brain power. But for me I try to categorize jumps into:

  • Single Leg or Double Leg
  • Single Effort (i.e., one broad Jump) or multi-response (i.e., double broad jump)
  • Linear or Change of Direction (jumping in a straight line or jumping back and forth/in various directions)
  • Deep Tier/Slower or Stiff/Springy/Fast

    • Deep Tier—Staying low and bouncing in and out of a low position (like the bottom half of a squat and pulsing up and down).
    • Stiff—Staying tall and trying to have minimal knee/hip bend on each rep.

Within that, you could have a broad jump (double leg, single effort, deep) OR a single leg zig zag pogo (single leg, multi-response, change of direction, stiff). Lots of variety, lots of progressions, lots of fun. To give you a brief insight into our progression model, I always start our athletes with something that is the least complex, like a double leg pogo on a spot. Then, we progress throughout the season in one area. For example, we might move from double leg to single leg, or double leg but then we are moving laterally. Then, we just layer on top one area of complexity at a time as the athletes master the movement and get better at it. There is no sense rushing through progressions if they can’t do the previous ones well.

A close-up of a list Description automatically generated

Figure 2. Jump programming ideas.

Throws

I don’t have as formal of a template for throws. I just try to get some rotation work like rotational tosses, some horizontal work (chest pass), and some vertical work (slams). I will play around with the foot positioning to get a varied effect, but these have the least structure to how I program them. Just grab a ball and let out some frustration!

Some of my favorites are:

  • Med Ball Chest (horizontal upper body power).
  • Med Ball Slam (vertical upper body power).
  • Rotational Throw (rotational power).

Video 1. Med Ball Slams—cue for max intent, “break the floor.”

From these, we can then change up the leg position: for example, from two feet under hips to a staggered stance to taking a step into the throw as the athletes get more competent and are able to master the upper body movement coupled with leg action (which better mimics the coordination demands of sports). I always cue athletes to “break the wall/floor” as the only goal with throws/slams is to move balls as fast as possible. I recommend they use a med ball that feels sort of heavy, but they are still able to move it really fast. Always err on the side of too light rather than too heavy for this.

I always cue athletes to break the wall/floor as the goal with throws & slams is to move the balls as fast as possible. I recommend they use a med ball that feels sort of heavy, but they are still able move it really fast, says… Share on X

While these med ball throws are pretty general, this system keeps it simple while making sure we aren’t just training the same thing over and over. Plus, over the last year this approach has yielded a ton of positive benefits, including:

  1. Better testing numbers.
  2. Reduction in injuries.
  3. A more positive reception of the programs overall.

Gone are the days of athletes asking “Can we do more plyo or speed work in our lift?”—because now they now get a heavier dose of these every time they walk in.

The last and biggest benefit from doing more Sprint, Jump, Throw work in place of Olympic lifts is that it doesn’t take 1-2 weeks to learn the movement, get better at it, get stronger, and then add some weight to get an actual benefit from it, like first time Olympic lifters do. The athletes can get a benefit immediately from sprinting, jumping, and throwing as it is all stuff they know how to do (and can do better than I can demo most of the time too).

Choosing the Right Exercise for the Right Result

While Olympic lifting is a fine way to get faster, gain explosiveness, and learn to receive force, I can get the same adaptation from a method that is simpler and easier to learn. Which, at the end of the day, is what my job is—deliver results/get adaptations. It doesn’t matter what exercise I use, I just need to deliver the goods. Again, this doesn’t mean we don’t clean or snatch, but just that over the last year I’ve shifted away from them more and more, as I have had success with the Sprint, Jump, Throw approach.

While Olympic lifting is a fine way to get faster, gain explosiveness, and learn to receive force, I can get the same adaptation from a method that is simpler and easier to learn., says @chergott94. Share on X

So, if you use cleans and I use sprints, jumps, and throws and both of use get our athletes better…then who cares? As much as I love a good online debate, to me, as long as you are doing your best to serve the people you work with and get them results, you are doing your job. So use cleans, or don’t. Just make your athletes better.

Peace. Gains.

1080 Sprint: Four Essential Tips You Won’t Find in the Manual

Blog|

A man in athletic clothing sprints on artificial turf, attached to a resistance band anchored behind him. Colored cones mark a path ahead on the field near a gray building.

Summary

Jonathan Ward provides practical advice for coaches using the 1080 Sprint system to enhance training and data accuracy. The key takeaways include:

  • Choosing the Right Velocity Metric: The article emphasizes the importance of selecting the appropriate velocity metric for analysis. It recommends using “Top Speed,” which is a filtered metric, over “Peak Velocity” (raw and unfiltered) for more reliable and consistent results, especially when comparing data across sessions, athletes, or with other measurement tools like GPS. “Top Speed” was found to align more closely with GPS velocities (around 2-3% higher), whereas “Peak Velocity” showed significantly higher values (8-10% higher).
  • Prioritizing Safety by Keeping the Cord Straight: When using higher resistance (Gear 2, >15kg), it’s crucial to ensure the cord is not twisted before an athlete’s repetition. This simple check can prevent damage to the cord and equipment, save costs, and most importantly, protect athletes from potential injury.
  • Optimizing the Anchor Point: The placement of the external anchor point is critical. Anchoring the cord too high or offset to the side can pull the athlete upwards or sideways, negatively impacting their sprint mechanics. The recommendation is to anchor the cord low and in line with the 1080 Sprint machine to minimize any disruptive influence on the sprint.
  • Ensuring Accurate Timing with Proper First Steps: The 1080 Sprint begins timing when the cord exceeds a velocity of 0.2 m/s. If an athlete takes a step backward before starting, it can introduce slack into the cord. This slack will delay the start of the timing mechanism, leading to inaccurately faster recorded sprint times. Coaches should instruct athletes to drive out directly without rocking back to ensure precise timing from the first step.

The article highlights that attention to these seemingly small details can significantly improve the quality of training sessions, the reliability of collected data, and the overall safety and effectiveness of using the 1080 Sprint system.

The 1080 Sprint is a powerful tool for measuring and training speed, but as with most equipment, it’s the small details that can make the biggest difference. After using the 1080 Sprint for 6 years, I’ve picked up a few things that aren’t always obvious in the user guide but can make an impact in both the quality of your data and the safety of your athletes.

These lessons came from real sessions, real athletes, and real moments where the numbers didn’t match what my coaching eye was telling me. When the 1080’s Peak Velocity was consistently higher than our GPS readings, it made me question: which number do I trust when giving feedback, and will it hold up next session?

I also started noticing timing inconsistencies when athletes looked their same consistent speed but suddenly “improved” by 0.3 seconds…that is, until I saw the slack in the cord and realised that was skewing the start trigger. I also recognized unique cord-anchoring issues when I began sharing turf training space; meanwhile, every snapped cord told the same story as it always broke where the rope was twisted (not at the carabiner).

These small-but-pivotal moments helped refine how I make best use of the 1080. Based on those experiences, in this article I’ll share four tips that I now rely on in every session. From choosing the right velocity metric for consistent analysis to best practices for setup and safety that will save you time, avoid injury risks, and improve the quality of your sessions:

  1. Which velocity metric should you record?
  2. Safety first—keep the cord straight.
  3. Find the optimal anchor point.
  4. Get the first step right for accurate timing.

1. Which Velocity Metric Should You Record?

In working with the 1080 Sprint, one of the first decisions coaches face is choosing which metrics to focus on. To analyse sprint velocity, for example, you can choose from Peak Velocity, Top Speed, and Average Velocity.

For our purposes today, I’m going to talk about Peak Velocity and Top Speed. You may say “aren’t they the same?” And on the surface, the measures may appear interchangeable…but they’re not:

  • Peak Velocity is 1080 Sprint’s raw, unfiltered velocity metric.
  • Top Speed is their filtered velocity metric.

Back when I first started using the 1080 Sprint, we used the Peak Velocity metric; since that time, however, 1080 Motion began to include Top Speed in their latest software. So, does it really matter which one you take? Put simply, yes! And it comes down to resonance, or the cord whiplash effect (as seen in Video 1 below).

When the cord whips back and forth it can create noise, and this noise can lead to spikes in velocity that are not the true representation of the athlete’s velocity—for this reason, 1080 Motion applies a filter.


Video 1. Cord resonance in linear sprint.

To dive a little bit deeper, I conducted in-house testing with four professional rugby players across a range of resisted sprint conditions—from 15kg at 10 meters down to 1kg at 30 meters—while recording their speed using GPS and the 1080 Sprint. You can see the results, averaged across the four players, in Table 1 and Table 2.

What I found was:

  • Top Speed, which is the filtered metric, closely matched the GPS velocities, typically coming in around 2–3% higher.
  • By contrast, Peak Velocity, which is unfiltered, showed markedly higher numbers than the GPS values by 8–10%.
A table showing load, distance, GPS top speed, 1080 unfiltered peak velocity, and 1080 filtered peak velocity for four loads (15 kg to 1 kg) with speeds increasing as load decreases and distance increases.
Table 1. Comparison of GPS and 1080 Sprint Velocity readings across varying loads and distances.
Table showing velocity differences for various loads and distances. Columns compare GPS unfiltered and filtered measurements, showing differences in m/s and percentages for 15kg, 10kg, and 5kg loads over 10-30 meters.
Table 2. Velocity differences between GPS and 1080 Sprint (Filtered and Unfiltered) across sprint loads.

Interestingly, I expected the heavier resisted conditions to reduce the cord resonance, which in theory should reduce the gap between unfiltered and filtered velocity readings. That, however, was not the case. In fact, the data showed a slight trend in the opposite direction—as the load decreased, the velocity values between GPS, filtered, and unfiltered readings became more similar. This suggests that cord behaviour and signal smoothing are not improved by heavier resistance, and that resonance variability persists regardless of load.

The take-home message? Use the Top Speed metric when analysing data for more reliable results, especially when comparing across sessions, athletes, or to other tools like GPS.

Use the @1080motion Top Speed metric when analysing data for more reliable results, especially when comparing across sessions, athletes, or to other tools like GPS, says @jonobward. Share on X

2. Safety First—Keep the Cord Straight

When using Gear 2 on the 1080 Sprint—which allows you to impose >15kg of resistance—coaches need to check that the cord isn’t twisted before the athlete’s rep starts. It’s a small detail that doesn’t seem like much of a big deal…until it is.

Green turf with white yard lines resembling a football field, gym equipment on the right, and a resistance band being pulled diagonally across the image from left to right.
Image 1. A twisted cord for the 1080 Sprint.

In Image 1 (above), you can see the cord is twisted. When the athlete runs with the cord twisted, it creates friction that can eventually cause the rope to suddenly snap. I’ve had this happen, and when it does, the athlete doesn’t get a warning: the cord snaps mid-sprint and they end up face planting. I was worried about injuring the guys in training and then having to go tell the Head Coach a player is out for the upcoming weekend game. Not what you want!

Now compare that to Image 2 (below), where the cord is untwisted. That’s what you want to see before every sprint. It only takes a few extra seconds, but checking the cord before each rep—especially when you’re running in Gear 2—should be part of your routine. It’ll save your cord, your budget, and most importantly, your athletes!

Close-up of orange gym pulley with attached cables, positioned over green turf flooring marked with white yard lines and numbers, resembling a football field. Weightlifting equipment is visible in the upper right corner.
Image 2. The way the 1080 cord should look before an athlete sprints.
It only takes a few extra seconds, but checking the @1080motion cord before each rep should be part of your routine. It’ll save your cord, your budget, and most importantly, your athletes! Share on X

3. Find the Optimal Anchor Point

This tip is also important when using Gear 2. If you’re using a wall attachment to attach the cord to an external anchor point—in my case, a squat rack—make sure that anchor point is only slightly higher than the machine. If it’s attached too high (Image 3) or offset to the side (Image 4), the cord can pull the athlete upwards or sideways, disrupting their sprint mechanics.

A gym squat rack with various colored weight plates is shown. An orange arrow points to a mechanism on the rack. In front, a black 1080 Sprint machine and pink 25 kg weight plates are visible on the floor.
Image 3. Cord attached to an external anchor point that is too high.
A 1080 Sprint training device with two red weight plates in front, set on artificial turf with white letters. An orange arrow points to a cable attachment on the device.
Image 4. Cord anchored off to the side of the 1080 Sprint.
Anchor the @1080motion cord low and in line with the 1080 Sprint to minimise the impact the cord placement can have on the sprint, says @jonobward. Share on X

Several of my athletes have said they can’t “get low” when the attachment point is too high, as it pulls them out of position, especially during the early phase of the sprint. When I’m coaching my athletes to rise progressively over the first 5-10m, I don’t want the cord pulling them upright and disrupting their run. My take home message here:

  • Anchor the cord low and in line with the 1080 Sprint to minimise the impact the cord placement can have on the sprint (see Image 5 below).

A 1080 Sprint training device is set up in a gym with red weight plates nearby. An orange arrow points to a metal chain attachment connecting the device to a squat rack.
Image 5. Optimal anchor placement with the cord fixed in line with and just above the 1080 Sprint.

4. Get the First Step Right for Accurate Timing

Lastly, coaches collecting data need to be mindful of how their athletes initiate the first steps of their sprint. The 1080 Sprint begins timing once the cord exceeds a velocity of 0.2 m/s. If the athlete takes a step backward before sprinting, they can introduce slack into the cord (see Video 2 below).


Video 2. Starting a sprint with unwanted slack in the cord.

The machine doesn’t start timing until after the slack is taken up—so in the example above, this will make it seem like your athlete was faster out the blocks than they really were, giving an inaccurate sprint time. To avoid this, tell your athletes to drive out and don’t rock back to then drive out.

The @1080motion Sprint begins timing once the cord exceeds a velocity of 0.2 m/s. If the athlete takes a step backward before sprinting, they can introduce slack into the cord, says @jonobward. Share on X

Final Message

The 1080 Sprint is an awesome bit of kit, but like anything, the value is in how you use it. These four tips might seem minor, but over time they make a big difference. Whether it’s picking the right metric, checking the cord, setting the anchor, or cueing that first step, these are habits I’ve built into every session and learned from the field.

If you’re using the 1080 Sprint regularly, make this part of your checklist as you’ll save time, protect your gear, and get much more out of your sessions.

Running Through Time: An Athlete’s Story of Resilience and Recovery

Blog|

Split image: On the left, a woman runs on an outdoor track. On the right, she does a Bulgarian split squat with a barbell in a gym, one foot elevated behind her on a bench.

The walk to the Devil’s Loop is loaded with anticipation, with those who show up expecting a circuit of self-inflicted punishment. Though some come to run for pure enjoyment or solitude, others push themselves out of necessity. Their eyes linger on the vivid blue path, almost distracting themselves from the small amount of oxygen they take in with each stride. 

The Devil’s Loop doesn’t get its name from treacherous terrain or excessive heat beating down on your shoes and back; rather, it refers to the toll it takes on your psyche. Tackling the Devil’s Loop doesn’t just test my endurance, it confronts something deeper within me: a constant cycle of self-reflection, pain, and perseverance that feels…never-ending. Every step forward marks the struggle of pushing through doubt, a reminder of the unforgiving loop of suffering and growth. 

To most people, running comes naturally—they do it without a second thought. In my case, the hesitance comes from numerous professionals telling me I couldn’t for half of a year. It feels almost as if there is a stamped stop sign in the folds of my brain telling me not to take that first stride. The mind is a powerful tool—it can be the thing pushing you forward or backward. Having to outrun doubt when that is the very thing holding you back seems almost impossible. 

My​​ body is physically healed, but my mind remembers the pain, the setbacks, and the fear of re-injury. The excruciating pain I felt taking my first step after surgery, the frustration I endured from not progressing fast enough, and the fear I faced, constantly questioning whether I will ever be the same athlete I once was. Training my mind to fully trust my body again is like a wall I am slowly trying to break through. There is a wavering caution where instinct used to be, and echoes of uncertainty blanket my mind. 

Training my mind to fully trust my body again is like a wall I am slowly trying to break through. There is a wavering caution where instinct used to be, and echoes of uncertainty blanket my mind. Share on X

Toeing the track, I remembered sitting in the office of Laura Jones, a faculty member in health sciences and neuroscience. Sunlight shone through the bright, open windows, casting soft shadows on the plants that perfectly colored the room. The cushiony seats across from her desk invited an open conversation, the kind of space that made you want to share your whole life story without hesitation.  

In that moment, Laura described the new instincts of hesitancy creeping in because you can feel your body pulling back…even when you want to move forward. 

“But really, how do we help athletes build new coping skills?” she said, ​​​​her voice soft, with a slight southern accent. “Help athletes become more resilient in the face of struggle, get them connected, and do anything that we can to prevent the exacerbation of any mental struggles?” 

There was something about the way she spoke that made you lean in, not just because of what she was saying, but how she said it. Every phrase was a story worth hearing.  

When talking about self-doubt, she gave me something to hold on to. 

“Imagine yourself being successful,” she said. “Whatever success means to you. If it’s becoming more resilient when running, picture yourself working through that situation and being successful. Imagery is about seeing yourself succeed, however, you define success.” 

A woman in athletic wear runs on a blue outdoor track, smiling. Bleachers and trees are in the background, and a water bottle sits near the track. The sky is partly cloudy.
Image 1. Sage Branch, a University of North Carolina at Asheville Women’s soccer player, running on the track.

Defying Doubt 

I blink. 

I catch myself staring ahead, my torso is already leaning over the starting line. 

​​​Naturally, loop one is the feeling most people remember. No layers to shed yet because the cold is still creeping in—only thoughts of how the next eight laps will feel when my legs start to bear the heavy presence of fatigue, the track starting to feel like drying cement.  

Before I even start my run, I fixate on one question. When my legs begin to cycle, will the hard impact of the ground shoot that familiar pain through my knee? Or…will the first few steps feel effortless, the traction of the track offering comfort, only for the pain to come creeping back in and remind me of my past defeats. I can’t help these thoughts, they come and go as they please. This isn’t any different from when I first started weight-bearing again. I remember knowing I had to take those first steps, forcing myself to have faith that my body will hold me. And then, just like clockwork, I am here again, standing behind the line, the first real sense of normalcy I’ve had in a long time. 

I don’t know how this run will feel or how I’ll push myself through it, or if I will even be strong enough to finish. This uncertainty is terrifying, but at the end of the day, I am on my own.  

That has to be enough. 

I don’t know how this run will feel or how I’ll push myself through it, or if I will even be strong enough to finish. This uncertainty is terrifying, but at the end of the day, I am on my own. Share on X

To distract from these troubling thoughts, I watch a man in a neon green shirt who has been consistent in his regular turns on the track, always showing virtually no emotion when he runs. His pace is nearly a walk, but he moves his arms as if trying to catch the person in front of him. No telling how long he stays after others depart, but he’s always the first and last to leave the loop. 

​​​In the second and third laps, the experience begins to shift, like the start of a never-ending story. My once-pale façade has flushed as my breathing becomes more vigorous, and the ground beneath my feet no longer seems as smooth as it once was. The last turn of the third lap serves as a key reminder that the remainder of the journey will only get more difficult.  

Knowing that I’m showing clear signs of struggle, I see boys in matching black and blue uniforms, carrying baseball bats and gear, casting looks of discernment. With their own season on the rise, the young men share no glances of envy but will surely pay their dues on the loop soon enough. 

Drawing my eye back—refocusing on the task at hand—I push through these laps and realize that this run is its own test…but not the first one I have faced. Before I could drive my legs to run for the first time, I had to rebuild my body from the ground up again. 

Split image: Left—woman with a prosthetic leg holds a kettlebell while stepping up on a platform. Right—same woman uses a bench and barbell to perform a single-leg squat in a gym.
Image 2. Single-leg lifts in the weight room during the return to play process.

Recovery isn’t just about healing your body, it’s about rebuilding. That means molding a stronger version of myself while leaving the old one behind. In the weight room, in the rehab facility, in every painful step I have taken to get to this point. The last time I felt myself first facing a truly taxing workout was when I started strength training again. That was the early stage of my return to play process. I remember the moment I finally stepped up to the rack again, gripped the steel of the barbell, and loaded the plates. Taking that first deep split squat made my body tingle: I filled my lungs with air and braced for the moment I’d have to drive and push the weight back up. 

Recovery isn’t just about healing your body, it’s about rebuilding. That means molding a stronger version of myself while leaving the old one behind. Share on X

Even stepping up and down from a box, a simple movement, became one of the biggest challenges of my day. Those early stages of recovery were their own battle, but also became a source of motivation. Reflecting on where I started—compared to where I stand now—I realize the pattern is the same. I have to keep pushing and moving forward, because I know where I want to go. And I know I can get there. 

Two women perform strength exercises in a gym: one does a goblet squat on a platform with a kettlebell; the other does a barbell split squat, with her rear foot elevated on a bench.
Image 3. Reaching the top portions of the lifts.

By the fourth and fifth laps, I can feel the weight of effort in every muscle—it’s a battle of mind against body, but both sides are losing. The acceleration of my inhales and exhales forces the body to surrender, and unfamiliar sounds escape from exhaustion. A whisper of self-doubt runs through my mind, but other voices push back. I catch a glimpse of my coaches’ shadows along the pavement as I pass by, their presence guiding me through the loop. 

“Get through it and grind,” Coach Andy hollers from my right. 

“Hold yourself accountable,” Coach Bella advocates from my left. 

Taking their words to heart reminds me that this pain has a purpose. This is not about completing the run—it’s about proving to myself I can accomplish anything if I keep going. The way their voices encouraged me forward felt familiar, a memory of another moment in my recovery process. 

A whisper of self-doubt runs through my mind, but other voices push back. This is not about completing the run—it’s about proving to myself I can accomplish anything if I keep going. Share on X

I think back to the first time I stepped into a team lift again. After weeks of training in isolation, that moment felt like a return to something bigger than myself. Plates clattering on the floor, the ringing voices of encouragement heard throughout the gym, it all brought me back to what I had so desperately missed. The first time I walked up to my rack again, I saw the nods, the smiles, the simple acknowledgments that I had fought to see again.  

For a moment, life felt still. 

That day gave me hope. The camaraderie, the shared struggles, the powerful presence of others pushing me harder than ever before. It was a reminder that I was never in this fight alone, and just as before, pushing through these laps, I know I won’t stop. 

I remember sitting in my coaches’ office, their voices stern but encouraging, telling me to set little goals for myself. Once I achieve all those goals, then I will set bigger ones. Even though running is a little goal, it still feels like enemy territory—at any moment, I fear I could be shot down. 

The coaches understand how hard it is being away from my sport. ​​I feel like an outsider, watching instead of having a sense of belonging. During this time of loneliness, being involved in practice in any way is crucial for me. Whether it is acting as a stationary defender for players to practice their moves around, feeding balls into drills, or even counting scores during games, it gives me something to do and keeps me engaged. These small tasks allowed me to stay connected with the team—sitting on the sidelines and watching the action happen without being a part of it can feel isolating. Being active in training, no matter how small the role, can make a big difference in feeling a sense of belonging, even when you feel the most distant. 

Being active in training, no matter how small the role, can make a big difference in feeling a sense of belonging, even when you feel the most distant. Share on X

I know that each step gets me closer to my end goal—to be back on Greenwood field again. 

Suddenly, though, a devil perches on my shoulder, craving defeat…but just as quickly, a light shines through, illuminating perseverance with each heavy stride. I chose the light, brushing off the devil’s temptation to give up, drowning out the outer noise with my own internal voice, over and over, speaking empowering words of affirmation. 

The last stretch of the fifth lap marks the approach of the end. The body yearns for relief from the endless loop. Vision becomes less clear, lost in the rhythm of exhaustion—a man stretching nearly gets toppled, sending a brief jolt of panic through my chest, accelerating it further. He doesn’t seem to mind, offering a quick nod of encouragement to continue. 

A Fight to Finish 

With the end in sight, ​​the sixth and seventh laps merged. There’s a burst of energy that wasn’t expected, but each step brings me closer to relief. The beginning of the end almost feels promised, just like being cleared to lift, to jump, and finally to run with intensity. These have all been checkpoints throughout my journey, each one drawing me closer and closer to the finish line.  

I hear my heart pounding fast, loud, and the hot gasps of air fighting the cold winter wind. Water swells up in my eyes from the striking dry air, the current world blurs around me. 

All at once I’m thirteen again, chasing a ball down the field, trying to outrun the girl beside me. At that age, it felt like you either gave your all or it was nothing, there was always something to prove. 

“Run faster 28!” my dad fiercely calls from the sideline, urging my little legs forward. 

The opposing coach starts countering my dad’s words. 

“SHE’S FASTER THAN ALL OF YOU COMBINED!” 

“GIVE YOURSELF ROOM SO YOU DON’T GET BEAT!” 

A cheeky grin peaks from my face, unable to contain how humorous the opposing team’s frustration with me was. Turning to my dad, he let out a proud and deep chuckle. He gave me one final look, a signal to leave everything out on the field. And just like that, I was off again, running as fast as I could across the pitch. Not stopping until the ball was in the back of the net to secure victory for my teammates. These memories soon faded as I rubbed my eyes, clearing my vision. 

I wasn’t in my little white and burgundy uniform anymore. 

My bright pink knee-high socks ceased to exist. 

And my messy bun returned to my sleek ponytail, braided to waist length. 

You never realize how quickly time passes until it’s gone. As a little girl, I never believed I could get hurt, never imagined that everything could be gone in an instant. It was the only period in time I had no fear, when the voices of parents on the sidelines fell quiet in my head and my mind was clear of uncertainty.  

You never realize how quickly time passes until it's gone. As a little girl, I never believed I could get hurt, never imagined that everything could be gone in an instant. Share on X

Now, I hear everything—even the things that aren’t there. 

There are faint words of encouragement from the field above, they are there: “You got it, Sage!”  

That was the push I needed to finish the last lap with pace. Every stride became just a little longer, and thoughts of tiredness faded into the background of the laps I’d left behind. The finish line loomed ahead—with ragged breaths and sharp pains shooting through my calves, the courage to continue held firm. Inch by inch, the last reserves of strength peaked out of every pore to cross the final line. Without hesitation, the timer was paused, and my hands caught the ground, bracing before my knees hit the track. 

A woman in athletic wear stands outdoors on a paved surface, holding and then tossing a blue-and-white soccer ball while stepping through colorful hexagons arranged on the ground. Trees and greenery are in the background.
Image 4. Performing dynamic and reactive agility exercises in return to play.

After finishing the run, all I could think about was how far I had come…and also the day I could barely walk off the field during warm-ups. I was moments away from hearing the first whistle, the ball being pinged around the field, and the cheers from my team’s bench.  

Everything changed the moment I took one wrong step.  

With my eye on the ball, my right foot planted slightly at an angle and then a hard crunch and snap forced me to my knees. A flood of emotions entered my mind and I couldn’t stop the water from flowing.  

“Help! Something is wrong!” I screamed, loud and hard until I was red in the face. 

The trainer rushed to me and bent down so he could meet my gaze, his touch firm but careful. He tested my knee, comparing my left to the right with precise yanks and pulls. I studied his facial expressions as he bent my leg in different directions. He was calm, almost reassuring, but his eyes told me something different. He didn’t want to tell me what he was thinking, so he avoided my questions, steering the conversation away from a truth I wasn’t ready to hear. Instead, he pulled my coaches aside, speaking with them in low voices.  

Their body language and expressions confirmed what he wouldn’t say loud enough for me to hear. This wasn’t just a minor tweak, it was something more. 

I had done everything right, I don’t know how I could have stopped it from happening. But none of it mattered at that moment. Every athlete’s worst nightmare. It happened to me. Giving up was an option, but I knew better than to just throw it all away. Pain is temporary, and I wanted to be able to look back and say that I pushed through. 

Giving up was an option, but I knew better than to just throw it all away. Pain is temporary, and I wanted to be able to look back and say that I pushed through. Share on X

After a few moments of stillness, the burning in my lungs began to settle. The sharp winter air no longer felt like an adversary; instead, it cooled the sweat clinging to my skin. Slowly, easing upright with hands pressing against sore knees, I took a long look to the loop as my airways re-opened. 

Other runners passed, breaths visible in the crisp air, their battles just beginning. The man in the neon green shirt was still there, moving with that same slow but determined rhythm. 

Step by step, I moved away from the loop and past the gate, my thoughts lingering on exhaustion and muscle aches. The loop wasn’t just a place of struggle—it now represented how adversity can be overcome. A final glance back at the vivid blue track brought a sense of pride in my completion, much like others who had just finished their runs.  

This marks the end of the beginning for me. Months from now, this moment will blur into the past, a distant memory of struggle and doubt. The fear of it all will fade, and when the time comes, it will be me on the field again. Sprinting without restraint, chasing the ball, and finally feeling connected with my teammates again. Playing in my first game back, that is the moment I will hold onto forever.  

Rapid Fire—Episode #14 Featuring Rodrigo Alvira Isla: Training Smarter in the NBA and G League

Blog, Podcast| ,

A bearded man in a tracksuit smiles while sitting in green stadium seats. Next to him is the Rapid Fire Powered by SimpliFaster logo, with Episode 14 and Rodrigo Alvira written below.

As always, please share & review this episode! This podcast is also available on Apple and Spotify.

Episode Summary

In this episode of Rapid Fire, Justin welcomes Rodrigo Alvira Isla, Head Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Motor City Cruise, the NBA G-League affiliate of the Detroit Pistons. 

Rodrigo shares insights into his journey through the S&C industry, from internships to his current position in the Detroit Pistons organization. He shares how he filters useful tech data in high-level environments and gives a deep analysis of countermovement jump (CMJ) force plate testing.

The two also discuss the importance of making training enjoyable and sustainable for pro athletes, as well as the evolving use of velocity-based training (VBT) beyond traditional velocity zones.

A must-listen for anyone passionate about performance, coaching and building human connections in sport.

Key Quotes

  • On Force Plates:
     “The best tests are the ones you can do often — and actually use to make decisions.”
  • On Tech Use:
     “We collect a lot, but we don’t always use much. Find the one data point you can consistently act on.”
  • On Athlete Buy-In:
     “Don’t make it personal if they don’t want to lift. Help them see it’s about their health first — not your ego.”
  • On Velocity Zones:
     “Strength is contextual. Velocity zones shouldn’t box athletes into made-up categories — use numbers, not labels.”
  • On Career Growth:
     “Everything can change in 24 hours. Focus on small steps every day — and build real relationships.”

Time-Stamps

  • 00:00-02:20 — Rodrigo’s path: From visa struggles to NBA/G-League coaching.
  • 02:20-08:20 — How Rodrigo filters valuable tech in a data-saturated environment.
  • 08:20-17:00 — Deep dive: How to read force plate CMJ data effectively.
  • 17:00-23:30 — Building enjoyable, sustainable training environments for athletes.
  • 23:30-35:00 — Rethinking VBT: Moving beyond traditional velocity zones.
  • 35:00-42:00 — Life and career advice for young coaches: relationships, patience and persistence.
  • 42:00-End — Rodrigo’s projects, Spaniard Performance Podcast and final thoughts.

Major Takeaways

  • Selective Tech Usage: Don’t overwhelm athletes — use simple, repeatable tests like the CMJ and learn to extract deep insights from a single jump.
  • Real-World Force Plate Applications: Focus on curve smoothness, left-right asymmetries and understanding how propulsion stems from good deceleration.
  • Training Buy-In: Building trust and adapting to athlete needs is more effective than rigid, one-size-fits-all lifting protocols during the season.
  • Updated VBT Thinking:
    • Forget rigid “velocity zones.”
    • Focus on intent (moving fast) and use real-time velocities to adjust training loads.
    • Program by effort and velocity loss instead of just reps and percentages.
  • Relationships Drive Careers: Knowledge matters, but your ability to connect, stay humble and be persistent ultimately opens doors.

Connect with Rodrigo

Maximizing Success in the Weight Room: A College Strength Coach’s Playbook

Blog|

A man lifts a barbell while bench pressing at the gym. Next to him, a laptop screen displays a fitness dashboard with graphs and data tracking workout progress over time.

As the Director of Strength & Conditioning for the Colorado Men’s Basketball and Olympic Sports teams, my priority is to create an elite training environment where athletes can perform at their best. This requires a strategic approach that balances workload, readiness, and individualized programming. Over the years, I have tested numerous technologies, but often felt there are trade-offs between efficient weight room flow and useful/accurate tech.  

In this playbook, I will break down four key training protocols and philosophies that drive our success: 

  1. Velocity-Based Training (VBT). 
  2. Readiness monitoring. 
  3. Return-to-play markers. 
  4. Driving intent and competition in the weight room. 

I will also summarize how the Output Sports system helps us achieve a unique balance of accuracy and efficiency in each these areas while also be simple enough for our athletes to run themselves. Output is and end-to-end system for strength coaches which utilizes a single wireless, portable sensor for athletic testing and VBT, a mobile/tablet capture app that directs S&C sessions and drives athlete intent, and a centralized coaches’ hub for leaderboards, analytics and building and managing athlete workouts. We chose Output because it provides a unique blend of versatility, simplicity, efficiency, and affordability for weight-room technology and it prevents the age-old issue of needing a whole suite of technology to drive a data-driven S&C session.  

We chose Output because it provides a unique blend of versatility, simplicity, efficiency, and affordability for weight-room technology and it prevents the age-old issue of needing a whole suite of tech to drive a data-driven S&C… Share on X

1. Velocity-Based Training (VBT): Enhancing Precision in Strength Development 

Why & What: VBT is essential for modern strength training because it provides real-time adjustments based on an athlete’s actual performance rather than relying on estimated percentages of one-rep max. It also helps drive intent to maximize athlete adaptation. This approach ensures that training loads align with an athlete’s daily physiological state, optimizing gains while reducing unnecessary fatigue.  

This is especially important given our athletes’ busy game and travel schedule at Colorado. By utilizing bar speed as a performance indicator, VBT helps prevent overtraining, facilitates progressive overload, and allows for dynamic adjustments based on fatigue levels. Unlike traditional fixed-percentage training, which may not account for day-to-day variability, VBT ensures that every set is performed at the optimal intensity. 

By utilizing bar speed as a performance indicator, VBT helps prevent overtraining, facilitates progressive overload, and allows for dynamic adjustments based on fatigue levels. Share on X
A man straining as he lifts a barbell while bench pressing at the gym, with another person standing behind him, spotting and assisting.
Image 1. Buffaloes athletes utilising VBT to maximize their training intent.

Furthermore, VBT helps in power development, particularly for explosive sports like basketball and track, where speed of movement is just as critical as strength. Training at specific velocity zones enhances neuromuscular efficiency, ensuring that athletes produce maximum force at game-speed movements. 

How Output Helps: 

  • Provides real-time feedback on bar speed and power output, enabling athletes to adjust loads instantly whether we are on the road or at home in our weight-room. 
  • The athletes view their VBT workouts in the app and seamlessly follow their guidelines for the day. 
A smartphone and laptop display a fitness app with a Performance Testing Day 1 - Strength & Power workout plan. A small black device with blue light sits beside the phone. Both screens show lists of exercises and workout details.
Figure 1. Output workouts.

2. Readiness Monitoring: Knowing When to Go and When to Slow 

Why & What: Athlete readiness is a cornerstone of effective training and injury prevention. Each athlete responds differently to stressors such as high training loads, travel, and competition. Monitoring daily readiness ensures that we adjust workloads accordingly, aiming to reduce the risk of injury and maximizing performance. When readiness is overlooked, athletes may train too hard when fatigued, leading to poor adaptations, decreased power output, and increased susceptibility to overuse injuries. 

When readiness is overlooked, athletes may train too hard when fatigued, leading to poor adaptations, decreased power output, and increased susceptibility to overuse injuries. Share on X

Readiness testing evaluates neuromuscular and physiological markers such as jump height deficits, mobility restrictions, and reactive strength. This is particularly crucial in team sports like basketball where external stressors, including travel and game schedules, significantly impact performance. By tracking trends over time, we gain insights into how individual athletes respond to various stimuli, enabling us to optimize recovery protocols and make informed decisions on training loads. 

How Output Helps: 

  • Measures jump tests, RSI, and mobility to assess neuromuscular fatigue. 
  • Customizable ‘traffic-light’ dashboards for any combination of surveys and measures that fit our training use-case. These also allow you to set custom thresholds for when to flag a measure that is in the red or green. 
  • Allows remote monitoring for athletes away from campus. 
A smartphone displays a fitness app summarizing a 10-5 Test with metrics like reps, RSI, contact time (bar chart), jump height, and flight time, all under the Colorado Center header.
Figure 2. Sample 10-5 reactive strength data in the Output capture app. The sensor is placed on the foot to get accurate jump data and we have a sensor for every athlete—meaning we save a huge amount of time versus testing with force plates or jump mats.

3. Return-to-Play: Data-Driven Rehab and Recovery 

Why & What: The return-to-play process must be carefully structured to ensure full recovery while minimizing re-injury risk. Subjective assessments alone can lead to premature return, increasing the likelihood of setbacks. Objective data allows practitioners to track progress and make evidence-based decisions about an athlete’s readiness for return. 

Rehabilitation should focus on restoring full function, not just reducing pain. This means systematically rebuilding strength, mobility, and power while addressing movement compensations that could have developed post-injury. By comparing pre-injury baseline data with recovery progress, we can ensure that an athlete’s movement mechanics, strength levels, and explosive capabilities are fully restored before they return to competition. 

By comparing pre-injury baseline data with recovery progress, we can ensure that an athlete’s movement mechanics, strength levels, and explosive capabilities are fully restored before they return to competition. Share on X

An effective return-to-play protocol also considers asymmetries between limbs, which can lead to compensatory patterns and increased injury risk. By tracking these metrics, strength coaches and medical staff can implement targeted interventions to correct imbalances before the athlete is cleared for competition. 

How Output Helps: 

  • Provides objective movement data to track rehab progress and ensure progression. This includes early-stage markers like balance and mobility and late-stage markers like single limb power and reactive strength. 
  • The Output Hub enables us to create rehab dashboards that show key targets, any asymmetries of significance, and engage the athletes in the benefits of their rehab exercise.  
A laptop screen displays a dashboard with a line graph comparing metrics over 365 days, and charts below showing detailed statistics for back squats, including overall peak power and estimated max.
Figure 3. Sample dashboard used for RTP and athletic development tracking.

4. Driving Intent: Fostering Competition and Engagement

Why & What: Athletes perform best when they are fully engaged and motivated. Training should not only develop physical attributes, but also cultivate a high-performance mindset. Creating an environment where athletes push themselves fosters long-term development, resilience, and competitiveness. 

A key factor in driving intent is providing immediate and meaningful feedback. When athletes see real-time performance data, they develop a stronger connection between effort and outcome. Leaderboards, benchmarks, and peer competition reinforce this culture, ensuring that each training session is executed with purpose. 

A key factor in driving intent is providing immediate and meaningful feedback. When athletes see real-time performance data, they develop a stronger connection between effort and outcome. Share on X

While leaderboards and intent have long been a focus in weight rooms for compound lifts like back squat and bench press, we implement competition across the whole force-velocity spectrum including plyometrics, med ball work, kettlebell movements and ‘traditional’ VBT exercises. 

How Output Helps: 

  • Displays real-time leaderboards to enhance competition. These can be updated in an instant to a new metric and exercise. 
  • Relative leaderboard option enables people to rank versus their percentage of their own personal best—this creates competition across all athletes and the chance for anyone to top the leaderboard. 
  • Versatile measurement of movements where max intent is essential (e.g., med balls, plyometrics).  
A person uses a laptop displaying a sports fantasy dashboard with player lists, stats, and team management options on the screen. The interface shows various selectable tabs and user information.
Figure 4. We use Output leaderboards in real-time to create competition for the exercises and metrics that matter the most.

Final Thoughts: A System That Elevates Performance

By embracing real-time feedback, seamless integration, and objective decision-making, coaches can unlock their athletes’ full potential while fostering a competitive and efficient training environment.  

Output Sports has become an integral part of our training programme and philosophy. It isn’t just a tracking device—it’s a performance optimization tool that bridges the gap between coaching intuition and data-driven programming. By implementing Output Sports into our VBT, readiness, return-to-play, and athlete engagement strategies, we maximize every session in the weight room without the traditional complexities of multiple technologies.  

While there can be a stifling amount of weight-room tech options on the market right now, if you prioritize intent in your athletes’ training, simplicity and efficiency in analysis and intervention, and don’t want to spend a crazy budget, I highly recommend trying Output for your program!  

RTP Module #3: Force Plates and Decision Making—A Conversation with Brian Buck

Blog|

Two men sit on chairs in a brightly lit indoor sports facility with large windows and green turf. One wears a black Hytro shirt, the other a white BLDR RCK shirt, and both look toward the camera.

Within the last decade, technological advances have captivated the human performance industry. From radically advanced testing capabilities to a spectrum of biotracking and software devices, we have officially entered a new era in our industry. Leading the way for the majority of us has been the interjection of force plates. What was once seen as a costly and sophisticated piece of lab equipment has suddenly become a standard of necessity.   

By most accounts, the infusion of tech and data-centric practice in our space has already proven to be largely beneficial. For several decades, our industry was plagued by—and therefore minimized due to—a lack of objectivity. Prior to 2010, human performance testing was relatively scarce. Apart from a few individuals/organizations, force plates, motion tracking, and so forth were only really being conducted in university or lab settings. Beyond the general inaccessibility, advanced diagnostics were costly, lacked efficiency, and were often impractical due to the constraints of software capabilities.  

Safe to say, we’ve come a long way in a short period of time.  

Once seen as a costly and sophisticated piece of lab equipment, force plates have suddenly become a standard of necessity, says @danny_ruderock. Share on X

Learning to Ask the Right Questions

Despite the progress and validation that the commercialization of force plates have provided human performance, it has not come without cost—both figuratively and literally. Costs aside, coaches have commonly experienced challenges such as understanding the bounty of measures, changing their session/daily routines, and irritations with glitches and accuracy. We should also be cautious about falling into the trap of paralysis by analysis. In other words, just because something can have a number or a pretty radar chart…doesn’t necessarily mean it should.  

So, this begs the question: is it worth it?  

 I’ve been candid in expressing my own struggles and frustrations adapting to the technology era of human performance. Safe to say, it has not been a seamless transition for me, and the most challenging aspects have been centered around the perceived disruption to my routines, along with implementation and data interpretation. My philosophy has always been that if I’m going to change my structure or approach, it needs to significantly influence my decision making.  

We should be cautious about falling into the trap of paralysis by analysis. In other words, just because something CAN have a number or a pretty radar chart…doesn’t necessarily mean it SHOULD, says @danny_ruderock. Share on X
A presentation slide titled Key Takeaways from Rude Rock Strength & Conditioning. It lists points on testing diagnostics, pre-post results, and learning insights, alongside six charts showing scatter plots with trend lines and data points.
Figure 1. Learning to apply Hawkin Force Plate data to inform decision-making processes.

Analyzing and utilizing the deeper data and truly understanding how that influences programming decisions have been my primary shortcomings. Initially, I questioned the expense because I wasn’t really changing much about how I coached or trained athletes. That was until I met Brian Buck, who is a lead consultant for Hawkin Dynamics and someone who has been utilizing and teaching on force plates for over a decade.   

People like Brian have been instrumental in helping many of us navigate the expanded implementation of force plates. While many may claim it, very few individuals have mutual degrees of expertise on both the sport science and strength and conditioning sides of the field. Collecting extensive data is great, but without understanding the back-end and how it influences decisions thereafter, we aren’t moving the needle the way we think we are. Brian has been a game changer for me, and has completely revamped my appreciation for—and ability to utilize—my force plates.   

Collecting extensive data is great, but without understanding the back-end and how it influences decisions thereafter, we aren’t moving the needle the way we think we are, says @danny_ruderock. Share on X

Which brings me to the motive of this article: what does the data mean, and how does it affect our decision making thereafter?  

Video 1. Full webinar discussion with Brian Buck and Danny Foley on how to integrate Hawkin Dynamics force plates into specific training sessions and ways to apply the data the improve the performance of your athletes.  

A few months back I had the pleasure of sitting down with Brian to talk candidly about these challenges of force plate utilization. If you’re like me at all, this conversation will be highly valuable, as we cover a range of subtopics relating to force plates.  

What I took away from this conversation is that when you are new to force plates, start with a handful of key metrics, and understand them thoroughly before analyzing more. Rather than trying to ‘jump all the way in’ and immerse yourself, go piece by piece. It’s better to be effective with a small pool of knowledge than be misled by plethora of numbers. I hope you all enjoy this talk as much as I did. 

The Connection—Episode #4 Featuring Chase Pfeifer: “Revolutionizing Coaching with Dashr Technology”

Blog, Podcast|

A man in sunglasses and a gray t-shirt stands outdoors holding a clipboard. Beside him are logos for The Connection, Chase Pfeifer, and Dashr on an orange background.

In this episode of The Connection, Nathan Huffstutter interviews Dr. Chase Pfeifer of Dashr to discuss their latest innovation—the Dashr Silver reflectorless timing system. Designed to streamline workflows for coaches, the new system removes the need for reflectors, making setup quick and hassle-free. Coaches can simply place the device on the ground, turn it on, and start collecting accurate timing data without worrying about alignment or environmental interference.

Dr. Pfeifer highlights how the system improves sprint timing, especially at the start. With LED visual feedback, athletes know when they’re correctly positioned, and coaches can make fast adjustments without realigning equipment. This leads to more consistent, repeatable data, especially for benchmarks like 40-yard or 100-meter sprints.

The conversation also explores Dashr’s user-friendly app and dashboard, which allow coaches to manage rosters and data efficiently. Athletes can connect using a simple code and instantly receive performance feedback on their mobile devices. The platform also encourages athlete engagement through competitions and personal profile building.

Looking ahead, Dashr is expanding its technology suite to include jump mats, velocity-based training, acceleration profiling tools, and reaction training devices. They’re also partnering with a rehab hospital to create tools for injury recovery and neurological rehab. Dashr’s goal is to unify all these tools under one platform, simplifying the coaching process and enriching the athlete experience.

The Connection Epsiode 4. Watch the full episode with Chase Pfeifer 

Takeaways 

  • The Dashr Silver system simplifies setup for coaches. 
  • Reflectorless technology enhances timing accuracy. 
  • User-friendly app connects athletes and coaches seamlessly. 
  • Athletes can track their performance in real-time. 
  • Dashr aims to consolidate multiple training metrics into one platform. 
  • Future innovations include change of direction measurements. 
  • The app allows athletes to compare results with peers. 
  • Dashr is focused on making coaching workflows more efficient. 
  • The technology is designed to be portable and easy to use. 
  • Dashr is committed to continuous innovation in sports technology. 

Connection Short Take #1: Reflectorless Technology in Action 

Connection Short Take #2: Consistent Starts for Pro-Level Accuracy

 

Rapid Fire—Episode #13 Featuring Matt Tometz

Blog, Podcast| ,

A man stands holding a marker in front of sports jerseys. To the right, the Rapid Fire Powered by SimpliFaster logo appears above the text Episode 13 Matt Tometz.

In this episode, Justin Ochoa talks with Matt Tometz (a.k.a. Coach Big Toe), a former speed coach turned marketing strategist for 1080 Motion. They discuss Matt’s career transition from coaching at Northwestern to his behind-the-scenes marketing role with 1080, where he manages content, strategy, and global coordination.

Matt shares deep insights on load velocity profiling (LVP)—explaining the importance of athletes “peaking out” to get valid performance data, how to assess R² values for data accuracy, and the practical decisions involved when results don’t match expectations. He emphasizes tailoring protocols to the athlete’s experience level and maintaining consistency in data collection.

The conversation also covers the evolving role of sports technology. Matt underscores that while tools like the 1080 Sprint offer powerful data, effective coaching still hinges on intuition, experience, and observation. He differentiates between being “data-driven” vs. “data-informed”, advocating for coaches to use data as a guide rather than a rulebook.

For coaches with limited resources, Matt recommends cost-effective tools like resistance bands for speed work, and explains how to implement velocity decrement training using simple tools like a stopwatch and Excel.

Keep up with Matt Tometz on Instagram and Patreon!

Rapid Fire Epsiode #13: Full Video

Rapid Fire Excerpt #1: Matt Tometz on resisted sprints

Rapid Fire Excerpt #2: Matt Tometz on the difference between “data driven” and “data informed”

Stream the episode on Spotify or iTunes!

A Buyer’s Guide to EMG in Sports: What You Need to Know

Blog, Buyer's Guide /

A person holds a tablet displaying colorful waveforms and graphs while another person, viewed from behind, lifts a barbell in a gym setting.

Let’s face it—the world of electromyography (EMG) can be intimidating. But if you’re serious about sports performance or rehabilitation, understanding muscle recruitment dynamics isn’t just nice to have—it’s becoming essential.  

I think the reason why there’s an intimidation factor is because this is a rare instance of injecting medical-grade technology involving a decent amount of data into the weight room. But it doesn’t have to be intimidating, and the data can be reasonably straightforward while leading coaches to actionable insights. Whether you’re a strength coach looking to optimize an athlete’s performance or a physical therapist guiding someone through recovery, EMG technology offers incredible insights that were once only available in research labs. 

Whether you're a strength coach looking to optimize an athlete's performance or a physical therapist guiding someone through recovery, EMG technology offers incredible insights that were once only available in research labs. Share on X

What’s EMG Anyway and Why Should You Care? 

EMG, short for electromyography, captures electrical activity from your muscles—either directly from the muscle itself or from electrodes placed on your skin. Think of it as eavesdropping on the electrical conversations your muscles are having when they work. 

The applications? They’re pretty exciting: 

  • Researchers use EMG to uncover relationships between muscle firing patterns and movement. 
  • Therapists use it for biofeedback, helping patients to reestablish neuromuscular dialogue—assessing efficient communication between brain and body (or software and hardware, as it were). 
  • Performance coaches can use EMG to pinpoint inefficiencies in an athlete’s movement and potentially identify neuromuscular deficits and/or asymmetries. 

The coolest part? What was once bulky and financially-out-of-reach research equipment is now available in smart textiles and wearable tech, making EMG accessible for everyday training and rehab scenarios. Practitioners can use EMG insights in order to provide a type of biofeedback in order to enhance “mind-muscle” connection. It’s also possible to get clinical-grade insights into strengthened (post-training intervention) or weakened (early-stage rehab scenarios) neuromuscular dialogue as well as identify key asymmetries. 

What was once bulky and financially-out-of-reach research equipment is now available in smart textiles and wearable tech, making EMG accessible for everyday training and rehab scenarios, says @RewireHP. Share on X
Line graph comparing right vastus medialis muscle amplitude before (darker blue) and after (lighter blue) an intervention over time in seconds, showing higher amplitudes post-intervention.
Image 1. Sample pre- and post-biofeedback for a client using mDurance. Sometimes objective data can help clients really hone-in on a particular muscle group from the perspective of a sensory experience.

Is EMG Right for Your Setting? 

Let’s be honest—EMG isn’t for everyone. Applying the technology requires knowledge, some experience, time, and the right corresponding workflow (process) to be truly effective. 

For EMG to really work in your program, you’ll need: 

  1. Actual time to collect, analyze, and act on the data (no, it’s not a “set it and forget it” tool that athletes can self-apply). 
  2. Manageable group sizes—you can’t effectively monitor 30 athletes simultaneously, making the tech instead ideal for one-to-one or ultra-private settings. 
  3. Buy-in from your athletes—they need to be engaged in the process. Don’t invest in EMG as a perceived value-add if you’re not really engaged in using it to guide your correctives/training process on the whole. 

Feeling overwhelmed already? Don’t be. While adding another technology might seem daunting when you’re already time-starved, the right EMG setup can actually prevent bigger problems down the road. It’s especially valuable in return-to-play scenarios, where athletes often wonder “Is my muscle actually firing in the right patterns with as high a level of signal activity as it was pre-injury?” That peace of mind alone can be worth the investment, because it provides a form of objective feedback so clients can see their progression. 

While adding another technology might seem daunting when you're already time-starved, the right EMG setup can actually prevent bigger problems down the road, says @RewireHP. Share on X

The Nitty-Gritty: How EMG Collection Actually Works 

There’s no way around it—proper EMG requires some setup. For larger, prime mover muscles (think quads or hamstrings), skin electrodes work well. Smaller muscle groups might require fine wire methods (yes, that means what you think it means). 

Before testing, you’ll need to: 

  • Shave and clean the skin where electrodes will be placed. 
  • Establish baseline measurements through isometric/contraction testing. 
  • Understand how to clean up signals and interpret the data. 

The good news? Modern software handles much of the heavy lifting with data processing. The challenge is contextualizing that data to make it meaningful for your specific athlete and situation. 

Your EMG Options: From Research-Grade to Wearables 

The EMG market has evolved dramatically. Today, you have two main paths: 

Research-Grade Systems: These offer precise targeting of specific muscles (remember, “hamstring” isn’t one muscle but three: semimembranosus, semitendinosus, and biceps femoris). These systems deliver wireless connectivity and real-time feedback with high accuracy. That said, if you’re a coach or rehab specialist reading this—the more advanced systems probably aren’t practical or necessary. 

Garment-Based Systems: These smart textiles provide general insights about muscle activation areas rather than pinpointing specific muscles. They’re more convenient, but less precise. They can potentially be effective for getting more global, workable insights that can inform training decisions. 

Buyer’s bottom line? If you need publication-quality data, stick with higher end, research-grade equipment. If you’re looking for practical feedback to guide training or rehab, basic systems or garment options might suffice—especially for easy-to-measure tissue sets like the glutes. 

My take from a coach’s perspective is that EMG is a worthwhile investment IF you are involved in rehabilitation and/or performance rehab. I don’t feel some practitioners in the space—even if they see the value in EMG—will ultimately need it for their day-to-day training. A speed coach, for example, isn’t going to see this as a worthwhile investment. That said, many movement-based coaches who work with athletes that are in some level of pain or are having some level of dysfunction can find a ton of value in using it as an assessment tool and progress tracker. EMG will also provide objective data for clients, which enables more buy-in at the end of the day. 

If you need publication-quality data, stick with higher end, research-grade equipment. If you're looking for practical feedback to guide training or rehab, basic EMG systems or garment options might suffice. Share on X

The Technical Stuff Made Simple

Every EMG system has three key components: 

  1. Electrodes: These capture the electrical signal from your muscles. 
  2. Signal relay: This transmits the muscle information to a receiver. 
  3. Receiver: Usually connected to a computer that processes the data. 

Raw EMG data looks like squiggly lines that won’t mean much to most people. That’s where filtering comes in—cleaning up the signal to extract meaningful information. Good software will handle this and present the data in ways coaches and therapists can actually use. 

A screenshot shows a wave audio analysis and video of a person running (top), and below, a report with graphs, data tables, and three images of a person sitting and performing leg exercises.
Image 2. Some systems—like Noraxon—offer synchronized videos to help paint a picture of what’s going on in real time. They also offer separated data sets to make interpretation easy. Some systems offer individual graphs where you can see things like left/right asymmetries, neuromuscular signal strength, time to facilitation or inhibition (velocity), fatigue level compared to baseline, and more.

Top EMG Systems in the Market

Research-Grade Systems

Delsys – The research powerhouse founded by EMG pioneer Carlo De Luca. If universities and hospitals trust Delsys for clinical-grade insights, you know it’s serious business. Their wireless systems offer real-time biofeedback and exceptional signal quality. 

Noraxon – The Swiss Army knife of biometric data. Their user-friendly software can integrate data from multiple sources, making them popular in clinical settings, universities, and pro teams. Their reporting features are particularly impressive. Depending on setup and budget, Noraxon are a company that has been able to find success both with options in research settings as well as in the private sector. They also feature such a wide-array of diagnostics that practitioners have the option to fold in EMG into the greater context with a battery of other tests (e.g., pressure mapping, force plate data, and much more). 

BTS Bioengineering – This Italian company brings both style and substance to EMG research. Their design-focused approach makes their systems both powerful and aesthetically pleasing. 

CONTEMPLAS – This German company integrates EMG with force analysis and video capture. Their all-in-one software approach makes them popular with running stores and bike fitting specialists. 

MuscleLab – A pioneer in sports science tech, this Norwegian company seamlessly integrates EMG with force, motion, speed, and contact measurements. Their tablet compatibility makes MuscleLab great for field testing. This is ideal for coaches looking for an approachable, portable option as opposed to some of the comparatively more involved, research-grade options. 

Cometa – This Italian company has carved out a niche with waterproof EMG for aquatic movement assessment. They’re particularly visible in sport applications across Europe. What’s interesting is that pool training (or aquakinetics, as we’ve written about before) is actually an ideal pair with EMG—they involve similar assessments and corrective exercise, as it offers an ability to load the body in entire patterns as opposed to “isolated” muscle actions. 

BIOPAC – A staple in academic research, BIOPAC offers reliable EMG as part of their broader biosignal equipment lineup. They’re primarily focused on research applications. 

Shimmer – This Irish company provides biosignal solutions beyond just EMG. They’re expanding globally with offices in Asia and North America, focusing on both clinical and research applications. 

Cadwell – Specializing in electrodiagnostic equipment, Cadwell combines EMG with electrical muscle stimulation. Their systems are particularly valuable for nerve testing and function assessments. 

Convenient Wearable Systems 

Somaxis – Their inexpensive biosignal system connects directly to smart devices via Bluetooth and captures not just muscle activity, but also heart and brain electrical signals. A great entry point into EMG. 

Myontec – The pioneer of EMG shorts, this Finnish company offers garments that measure muscles below the hip, with options to include glute measurement. They’re making inroads with teams worldwide. 

Athos –This California startup offers full-body monitoring with garments for both upper and lower body. Their cloud-based platform and web portal make them popular for team environments and return-to-play scenarios. 

Additional Systems Worth Considering 

Myon – Swiss precision meets EMG. Their systems offer exceptionally low latency and high sampling rates, making them ideal for synchronizing with motion capture systems. Myon is particularly popular in research involving rapid movements—making them potentially attractive for sport with this ability to examine movement at velocity. 

TMSi – This Dutch company specializes in ultra-low noise amplification, making their systems excellent for detecting subtle muscle activations. Their Mobi system offers clinical-grade EMG in a portable package. 

Trigno™ by Delsys – Their specialized sensors combine EMG with accelerometry, allowing simultaneous measurement of muscle activity and movement. The latest versions include additional physiological sensors for comprehensive monitoring. 

XsensDot with EMG module – Combines inertial measurement with muscle activity monitoring, allowing for detailed movement analysis alongside EMG data. Their fusion algorithms help correlate motion patterns with muscle firing. 

Plux Biosignals – Their modular approach allows you to build custom EMG setups based on your specific needs. Popular in both research and clinical applications where flexibility is valued. 

GripAble Pro – Specialized for hand and forearm rehabilitation, this system combines EMG with grip strength measurement and gamified exercises. Particularly useful for stroke recovery and hand injury rehabilitation. 

mDurance – This company has been making waves in Spanish-speaking markets and offers a highly reliable, robust system with easy-to-interpret data for practitioners. 

MR EMG – Another company to watch, they have silently been building a strong reputation for delivering accurate data that’s reliable for coaches to integrate into their training process to monitor before and after results of training interventions. 

 

References  

“Electromyographic Asymmetries During Fatiguing Exercise: Influence of Lateral Dominance and Fatigue.”Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology, 2014. DOI: 10.1016/j.jelekin.2013.12.004
 

“Comparison of Muscle Activation Patterns Using Surface and Intramuscular EMG during Dynamic Movements.” Journal of Neuroscience Methods, 2012. DOI: 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2012.04.002
 

“The Use of Electromyography to Measure Muscle Contraction Velocity and Its Correlation with Force Production in Resistance Exercise.” European Journal of Applied Physiology, 2011. DOI: 10.1007/s00421-010-1864-1
 

“Use of EMG to Quantify Muscle Fatigue during Static and Dynamic Muscle Contractions.”
Journal of Applied Physiology, 2006. DOI: 10.1152/japplphysiol.00464.2005
 

“EMG Signal Changes as Indicators of Muscle Fatigue during a High-Intensity Resistance Exercise Protocol.” Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 2013. DOI: 10.1519/JSC.0b013e31828c2d01
 

“Asymmetry of Muscular Activation During Functional Movement Tasks in Athletes.” Sports Medicine, 2017. DOI: 10.1007/s40279-017-0740-7
 

“EMG and the Timing of Muscle Activation during Rapid and Slow Movements.” NeuroReport, 2015. DOI: 10.1097/WNR.0000000000000406
 

“Real-Time EMG Monitoring to Detect Fatigue in Skeletal Muscles during Continuous Exercise.”
Clinical Neurophysiology, 2010. DOI: 10.1016/j.clinph.2009.09.004
 

“Effect of Muscle Fatigue on the EMG Signal: A Systematic Review.” Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology, 2017. DOI: 10.1016/j.jelekin.2017.06.005
 

“Asymmetry of Electromyographic Activity and Its Correlation to Performance in Healthy and Injured Athletes.” Sports Biomechanics, 2016. DOI: 10.1080/14763141.2016.1153447 

How to Create an In-Season Training Program for College Baseball Players

Blog|

A baseball player in a white pinstripe uniform prepares to bat as a pitcher in a green jersey throws the ball. An umpire crouches behind the batter. The scene is set on a sunny outdoor baseball field.

The density of the college baseball schedule creates a challenge for coaches and athletes to train in a way that will consistently enhance the athletes’ performance.  Consequently, approaching our latest season, I spent a lot of time thinking about the optimal way to organize training, calling other coaches who have worked in baseball and looking at a range of different ways to conduct in-season training via the internet and books.  

I have spent the last three years working with Division 2 baseball, and my process and organization of training for those seasons has morphed into what I will present in this article. This could be used as a framework for coaches who are facing similar challenges. 

In-Season Schedule

Our typical schedule consists of four ballgames a week: One game on Tuesday (often out of conference), then games on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (typically in conference). Our baseball team typically plays about 60% of our games on the road, with travel times generally between 2-5 hours. On a regular basis, our athletes are spending time on moderately long bus rides plus full weekends in hotels.  

A weekly schedule with columns for each day; the word Game appears on Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday columns are shaded blue.

With this schedule, we are essentially left with Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday to complete our weight training. 

A weekly schedule chart with days listed left to right. Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday are marked Lift. Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are marked Game. 

Bucketing by Position

The easiest training schedule to look at is the position players—they will go total body with their lifts all three days. The first training day is a power-focused day with moderate intensity and moderate volume. Coming off a three-game series, this lift should be fairly easy to recover from and not make them fatigued for their Tuesday game.   

The first training day is a power-focused day with moderate intensity and moderate volume. Coming off a three-game series, this lift should be fairly easy to recover from and not make them fatigued for their Tuesday game. Share on X

The second day of training is a strength-focused day with low volumes and high intensities. This day is the hardest to recover from, which is why we plan it the furthest out from game day—I want to leave as much time as possible to recover while still driving a strength stimulus throughout the year.  The last day of training prior to the weekend series will be low-volume plyos and med ball throws to try to create a potentiation effect for the series. This lift will also include a handful of auxiliary movements and oftentimes mobility as well.  

Since the day before was challenging to the CNS, the following day should not be very strenuous to allow time to recover for the upcoming series.  I would consider this the least important day of the week and it could be supplemented with some potentiation work on game days and/or some auxiliary work sprinkled in after the ball games. On Thursdays, the guys should feel better leaving the weight room than when they came in—I make sure this lift isn’t more than 30 minutes.   

Designated hitters and Redshirts can have a slightly more aggressive training schedule to supplement the lower volume of gameplay they experience. 

A weekly relief/position starter schedule showing training activities each day: Lift or Game with classifications and notes on targeted tissue, primary target stimulus, and CNS effect. Friday and Sunday are rest days.

I use this template for relief pitchers as well. They may have to play on any game day. With their unpredictable schedule, organizing their training in the same way as the position group is the most effective. Movement selection may change between these groups, but all else stays the same.  

Relief pitchers may have to play on any game day. With their unpredictable schedule, organizing their training in the same way as the position group is the most effective. Share on X

Tuesday starters will have a lower body, power-focused day on Monday. For these pitchers, the rest of the week can be organized in several different ways.  A strength-focused day could be used on that Wednesday after throwing, or a power-focused upper body. The schedule for the weekday starting pitchers is the least optimal and clear to organize, but it is also the smallest group—for the pool of players that may land in the Tuesday starter group at some point, communication with the athletes is crucial to see what schedule they feel better on.  Most of the time, the Tuesday starter will just see action as their total game load for the week—and, on rare occasions, they may throw a couple of innings on a Saturday or Sunday as well. It is hard to plan for this in advance on my side, as this will be an “as-needed” decision from our coaching staff. 

A weekly training schedule chart showing activities for each day: alternating “Lift” and “Game” sessions. Targets shift between lower, total body, and upper, with varying power, strength, and CNS effect levels.

Weekend Starters 

The group of pitchers I work with like to train upper-body as far away from hard-throwing as possible.  This leaves us to train lower body, closer to their start.  

So, with this group, our first day of the week is the total body, strength-focused day. Wednesday is an upper body day with an emphasis on power, and Thursday is a lower body day with an emphasis on power. Volumes on both Wednesday and Thursday are low-to-moderate, with each lift typically taking about 30-40 minutes. 

The group of pitchers I work with like to train upper-body as far away from hard-throwing as possible. This leaves us to train lower body, closer to their start. Share on X 

A weekly training schedule chart with columns for days and rows detailing the type of workout (Lift or Game), targeted tissue, stimuli (strength or power), and CNS effect (high or moderate) for each day. 

Post-Game Considerations] 

A common trend in baseball sports performance is to lift the weekend starters the same day they throw, putting their hardest weight room session right after their time on the mound. This seems like an effective strategy, but it can be hard to implement with the constraints of college athletics and the lack of access to facilities while traveling.  

Many strength coaches at small schools do not travel with their teams, which creates implementation and accountability issues. While playing home games this strategy could be viable; typically, however, these constraints will not allow for the routine use of this strategy. 

A common trend in baseball is to lift the starters the same day they throw, putting their hardest weight room session post-game. This seems like an effective plan, but can be hard to implement with the constraints of college athletics. Share on X

The use of post-game mobility training for both the starting and relief pitcher groups may be effective. As we have seen in literature, pitchers may experience significant decreases in shoulder internal rotation and elbow extension (McGraw, 2019). A post-game arm care program that includes exercises to regain ROM in the shoulder and elbow a few hours after a game may be of value. A short bout of weight training targeting athletes’ deficiencies or strengths may be effective as well, especially for the Friday and Saturday starters.   

The other consideration is comparing what is more effective:  

  • Is it better to train a pitcher after their most stressful bout of throwing and work to consolidate the stressful stimulus?  
  • Or, is it better to allow 24-72+ hours of recovery (depending on what day the starter threw during the weekend) and then train hard in the weightroom, maybe pushing harder than could have been achieved after intense bout of throwing?  

Final Thoughts 

For coaches, organizing quality sports performance training for athletes in-season will always be an ever-evolving process. This style of organizing training has showed promise with our team and there have been positive increases in strength and power—the more exciting piece, however, is the buy-in that this organizational style has helped create.  

When you have your players executing different training programs in the same room at the same time, those can become slightly harder to coach. But once the athletes understand that I have organized the week in a way to be the best for their playing/throwing schedule, they appreciate it and become more bought in to the process. 

References 

McGraw, Michael H., et al. “Shoulder and Elbow Range of Motion Can Be Maintained in Major League Baseball Pitchers over the Course of the Season, Regardless of Pitching Workload.” Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine, vol. 7, no. 2, 1 Feb. 2019, doi:10.1177/2325967118825066.  

Still Competing? A Conditioning Guide for Adult League Athletes (or Anyone) Over 35

Blog|

A man exercises in a gym, pulling a sled with weights across green turf. Behind him are racks of dumbbells. He is wearing a black t-shirt, black shorts, and light-colored sneakers, using straps to pull the sled.

We all know how this goes…you go through your twenties loving life, working out whenever you want and still seeing results even if you were out playing beer pong until 2am the night before. No worries—just chug a protein shake, then sweat it out while watching your veins pop.  

This high-flying stage of life has its benefits, but it’s not a long-term reality. In fact, those habits are why many men get stuck when it comes to losing weight and staying fit to compete in adult leagues or Masters competitions in their late thirties, forties, and beyond.  

You see, your body goes through cellular aging, and this takes a toll on the amount of macrophages to clean up, repair, and recycle bad cells to keep immunity strong and your body recovering at rates higher than the two burglars in Home Alone.  

If you also get married, have kids, and work at a stressful job…this all creates more havoc on your system. Most guys revert back to their “traditional” methods, which is like watching the Steelers still try to dominate the run game because that was their Old School mentality, yet the new ages have yet to show them that they have no offensive line to make it work.  

 Since your methods of getting lean and jacked just won’t work like they used to, here are some suggestions for staying conditioned to compete even as you get older. 

Conditioning Methods for the Athlete Over 35 

First, let’s recap a few types of cardio you have available. 

Cardiac Output Method 

Guidelines: 

  • 30-60 minutes of steady-state conditioning. 
  • Heart-rate 60-70% for the duration (or using the Maffetone Method (MAF) of ‘180 minus your age’ for more aerobically trained individuals). 
  • Exercise Selection: Cyclical 
  • Sample Programming—EMOM 40: 
    • Minute 1: 45s Easy run 
    • Minute 2: 45s Air Bike 
    • Minute 3: 45s Jump Rope 
    • Minute 4: 45s Med Ball Slams  

Video 1. Air Bike sprint as part of cardiac output method.  

Mixed Modality Conditioning

Guidelines: 

  • 20-30 Minutes Conditioning 
  • Heart-rate 70-80% of max 
  • Exercise Selection: Cyclical & Kettlebell Complexes 
  • Work/Rest: 1:1 – 1:3 
  • Sample Programming—5 Rounds of: 
    • KB/DB Complex of: 5 Double KB Swings + 5 Double KB Cleans + 5 DB KB Thrusters 
    • Ski Erg x 12 Calories 
    • Rest 2:00 or until HR comes down to 110 

Video 2. Kettlebell complex in mixed modality conditioning. 

High-Intensity Intervals 

High-Intensity Intervals aim to use a variety of sustainable exercises with incomplete bouts of rest after each round. The intent is to stimulate higher oxygen utilization and improve the aerobic abilities of fast-twitch fibers. 

High-Intensity Intervals aim to use a variety of sustainable exercises with incomplete bouts of rest after each round. The intent is to stimulate higher oxygen utilization and improve the aerobic abilities of fast-twitch fibers. Share on X

Notice, I used the word sustainable. So when we think about movements that can be sustained for longer durations, we are not thinking about using locally demanding movements like a push-up or pull-ups that have high rates of peripheral fatigue. Most trainees will be limited by local muscle endurance, not their overall level of aerobic conditioning. 

When we select movements, they need to be movements you could sustain for 30-60 seconds without stopping. 

Guidelines: 

  • Low resistance movements that can be sustained for the entire interval without stopping. 
  • 15-20 minutes in total duration. 
  • Incomplete rest intervals. 
  • 1-2 sessions per week. 
  • Sample Programming—5 Rounds of: 
    • Air Bike for Calories x 60s 
    • Russian KB Swings x 60s 
    • Rowing for Calories x 60s 
    • Box step-ups (unweighted) x 60s 
    • Rest x 60s 

This anaerobic systems work is for adult athletes who struggle to maintain a high level of output in the 60-90 second range—this work is the ability to sustain anaerobic energy production for extended periods of time. 

Video 3. Ski Erg sprint performed in high intensity intervals.  

Video 4. High intensity interval of kettlebell swings. 

Glycolytic Capacity Work 

This type stimulates an increase in buffering mechanism involved with allowing anaerobic glycolysis to continue. This work also increases glucose storage and utilization potential. A wide variety of exercises can be used, from sprints to plyometrics, but I tend to favor global patterns such as running, thruster, and burpees (if they can be done safely). 

Guidelines: 

  •  Each set is 60-120 seconds. 
  •  2-5 sets with incomplete rest intervals, 1-2 mins. 
  • Goal should be complete fatigue. 
  • Sample programming—Every 4:00 x 5-6 sets:
    • 3 Sandbag Cleans 
    •  9 Calorie Air Bike 
    • 12 No Push-up Burpees 
    • *Sets should NOT last longer than 2:00, otherwise volume prescriptions will need to be tailored. 

Video 5. Sandbag cleans in circuit. 

I also like doing work tires or sleds here.  

Video 6. Work tire flips for glycolytic capacity work. 

Know Your Health Profile 

Now that we know the cardio types you can pick from, the key is implementing the right ones at the right times!  

Let’s talk about what NOT to do first, since I see this more often. The average guy wanting to get into shape will inevitably clear time, get motivated with David Goggins, and then head to the gym to do things like 75 HARD, P90X or other high intensity interval-based workouts, adding in some basic strength exercises on machines.  

If the guy is a beginner, he might also hop on the elliptical for 40 minutes then do some machines for strength for 20 minutes.  

Now, I am one for saving time in the gym, so I am not here to say combining strength and cardio is wrong. But, you have to be strategic about it and also remember how you can use both in one type of workout, not having to dissociate cardio from strength.  

However, your first order of operation must include you taking a good, in-depth look at your health profile.  

Things to check: 

  • Lipids 
  • Stress 
  • Sleep 
  • Glucose 
  • Free Testosterone  
  • Free T4/T3 and Reverse T3 
  • SHBG 
  • LH and FSH 
  • Estrogen  
  • Cortisol  
  • CRP 
  • Vitamin D 
  • Iron  

Now, you don’t need to be perfect across the board—and being down in some of these won’t “hurt” your conditioning efforts like some may claim—but trying to train hard and get results with high stress levels is like pouring gasoline on fire.  

You can’t expect a car to run empty, and while you can’t gain weight in a deficit, your body will hate you and feel like you should give up nearly every day trying to fight a fitness or fat-loss battle with your health not where it needs to be.  

You can’t expect a car to run empty, and while you can’t gain weight in a deficit, your body will hate you and feel like you should give up nearly every day trying to fight a fitness battle with your health not where it needs to be. Share on X

Issues from depression to mood swings to poor sleep to gut issues and food intolerances can unfold, which can lead to more issues with hormones…and this all affects metabolic rate and your ability to recover.   

Nothing there sounds good, so I would first cross off your health markers.  

Training Blocks and Programming 

From there, it’s a matter of setting a lifting routine based on your goals. I like focusing on “blocks” of training where I have: 

  • Endurance Phase (higher reps, shorter rests, circuits, and nothing to failure.) 
  • Hypertrophy Phase (8-10 reps, pushing to failure, longer rests and exercises with more stability.) 
  • Max Strength Phase (3-5 reps, more sets and more compound lifts with accessory lifts to fill gaps.) 
  • Power Phase (3-8 reps, lifting FAST and explosive, shorter reps, multiple sets, and aiming for peak intensity.) 
  • Athlete Phase (Here, I do more plyometrics, coordination, stability, stamina, and power or add some glycolytic capacity work.)  
  • REST and REPAIR (yes, key after 35 is to focus on adding these in so you can still get your body to rebalance, repair, and grow. These don’t need to be as long as the actual lifting phases.) 

Now that we have blocks, you can work your lifting days into a scheme that works for you. Some options include:   

  1. Push/Pull/Legs 
  2. Upper/Lower 
  3. Full Body  

I like these three for most men between 35-55. There is no need for body part splits and your goals should match. As for your lifting days, it’s quite simple: spend 30-45 minutes on your strength work 3-4 days a week, totaling 2-2.5 hours.  

Next, fill in the gaps with your cardio and treat it as your side dish. For example, you lift full body workouts and do Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Then, Tuesday you can do a more cardiac output method for your day one cardio, then a more high intensity interval for day two.   

I would use this in either the endurance phase or power or athlete, but not so much in hypertrophy and max strength. 

Video 7.  Stationary sled training in conditioning programming. 

Saturday? Take the day off and try to mix in some stress-relieving parasympathetic work. Sunday plan a RUCK hike or GPP (general preparedness work like carries and sleds or mixed modality).  

Using this general outline, the total comes to 3-4 hours of training per week, provided your cardio is 30 minutes or less. This is much more sustainable and something you can be consistent with vs. body split days of 90-minute workouts doing straight sets.  

If I have guys who can ONLY work out a total of 3 days, then we will go full body routes and incorporate cardio into their training days as metabolic finishers.  The other option is to just have a block of 2 months strength then 1 month cardio, and then repeat. 

Either way you slice it, as long as you’re consistent and it works for you, this plan will help generate results. For the majority of guys I train, they feel less empowered when heading to the gym to walk the treadmill or watching the cooking channel while doing the elliptical. To me, that’s more masculine-energy draining, so I tend to use my gym-time cardio for efforts that elicit the benefit of toughness plus eliminate boredom!  

As long as you follow the principles I’ve outlined in this video, you will see how cardio work should not be avoided, but used more as a “side dish” to the entree of your weight training.  

A weekly training schedule with days listed as columns. Activities include weight training, cardio, walking 10k steps, rest day, interval cardio, and a ruck walk. Each day has specific notes about duration or intensity.
Figure 1. This chart shows an example of a weekly plan for an athlete who has 45 minutes to train 5 days a week, with the goal of gaining fitness for an adult league sport or losing fat for general health.

Whatever route you choose, remember that your best way to make progress is through smart recovery. If you focus on healing your body, the results will be better and your cardio sessions become easier—and then, a way to even facilitate that recovery.  

CONTACT INFORMATION

13100 Tech City Circle Suite 200

Alachua, FL 32615

(925) 461-5990 (office)

(925) 461-5991 (fax)

(800) 634-5990 (toll free in US)

Logo of BuyBoard Purchasing Cooperative. The word Buy is yellow and shaped like a shopping cart, while Board and Purchasing Cooperative are in blue text.

SIGNUP FOR NEWSLETTER