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Early specialization, club ball, the year-round athlete—one precipitates another. When these topics arise, conversation among the collective sports medicine community, high school coaches, and especially strength coaches skids into grumbles, complaints, concerns, and misconceptions. Unfortunately, no matter how many big names in the sports world state their condemnation or how many conclusive articles spell out the dangers, society refuses to look back.

This is not to say that we, as strength coaches, should cease educating or voicing our platforms for long-term athletic development (LTAD)—or generalizing before specializing—but specialization is the reality for millions of kids. Those of us who work with these single-sport athletes have an obligation to help them through careful attention and thoughtful action.

Specialization is the reality for millions of kids. Those of us who work with them have an obligation to help them through careful attention and thoughtful action, says @rachelkh2. Share on X

Working closely with these groups, as I and many of you do (seven of my eight teams, including track, compete year-round), is as much a niche as coaches who train collegiate, professional, or tactical athletes. I’m a full-time strength coach at a 6A high school in Denton, Texas. My role is uncommon (unfortunately) across the country, but the frustration of working with year-round sports is widespread.

For the purpose of this article, I refer to volleyball to demonstrate my points, but I intend for the following concepts to be applied to other year-round sports (e.g. baseball, soccer, basketball).

So, How Do You Train Year-Round Athletes?

To some of you, what I’m about to describe will sound very similar, but to others, this may be a new perspective: 100% of my current varsity volleyball team plays club. The high school season spans 12–13 weeks from August to early November, depending on their postseason run. Light to moderate club practice begins after Thanksgiving and tournament play starts in January, ending in late June, totaling anywhere from either 34–36 weeks or 46–49 weeks.

This is just practice and play, not the extra workouts or private lessons these kids likely undergo. More on that later.

If you train or work with year-round athletes, or any population for that matter, your job is to leave them better than you found them. But how do you add to the betterment of an athlete when there is scarcely room to add anything?

My insights are not the final word, but I think you’ll find that applying and expanding the following concepts will help optimize the training time you do have with year-round athletes:

1. “Undo” volleyball all year long
2. Individualize training when necessary
3. Train strength consistently
4. Less is more

‘Undo’ Volleyball

A lot of what we do as strength coaches, regardless of level, is reverse the consequences of repetitive movements and overuse of year-round athletes. For volleyball athletes, the hours they spend in ankle braces, the volume of swings and serves they do, and the travel time spent bunched up in planes and cars would be staggering if totaled. Again, the specific nuances of this can be applied broadly.

A lot of what we do as strength coaches, regardless of level, is reverse the consequences of repetitive movement and overuse of year-round athletes, says @rachelkh2. Share on X

“Undoing” the chronic wear and tear that their bodies endure takes a permanent front seat in my program. I do this by devoting time specifically to the following areas on a weekly or daily basis:

• Feet and ankles
• Hips
• Soft tissue
• Shoulders

Feet and Ankles

In my opinion, the feet and ankles are the unsung heroes of athletic performance and more than deserve their due consideration. Stiff, immobile ankles cause a cascade of problems, and for volleyball players, knee pain appears to be the most prevalent.

Warm-ups, whether in the weight room or before practice, are done barefoot in order to “free” the foot. Not only does this strengthen the bottom of the feet and ankles, it improves range of motion in plantar and dorsiflexion and excites the sensory feedback loop from the feet to the brain. Isolated ankle mobility is addressed through band distractions or the knee-to-wall exercise before lift, or it is sometimes paired with a primary movement.

Hips

Keeping the hips mobile is crucial for a plethora of reasons, including knee health, and is something we also address on a daily basis by squatting deep in warm-ups, typically in a sumo stance. Of course, we also practice flexibility and mobility in isolated areas like the adductors, glutes, and hip flexors, but sitting deep into the hips every day is the simplest, most effective way to keep them healthy.

Soft Tissue

I’m fortunate to work with a head coach who prioritizes the physical well-being of our volleyball athletes by frequently putting her own program agenda on the back burner. The program purchased enough 18-inch foam rolls for each athlete to check out and keep throughout the year.

Once per week, the team does soft tissue stations addressing common problem areas including the TFL, quads, glutes, calves (also improves ankle mobility), QL, lats, and adductors. Lacrosse balls are used for traps, pecs, neck, and rotator cuff, and I frequently include a station for active isolated stretching (AIS) for calves, quads, and pecs. The volleyball coaches implement this on non-lift days after skill work for 20–30 minutes.

At the beginning of each season, I do an education session on the foam roll and AIS stretching to reacquaint athletes with how to target different areas and how it translates to performance. Having their own foam roll and understanding how to use it encourages them to use it when at home or travelling.

Getting your head coach to buy in or allot this time must start with your athletes. Female athletes, in particular, are looking for a connection or bond, whether you’re their coach, athletic trainer, or strength coach. Sitting down with them and educating them on how to foam roll and stretch is a great way to initiate this. Not only does this build a bond of trust, it provides them with tangible feedback because they can physically feel what you’re teaching them. And although this is done as a team session, it becomes individualized because sensory feedback is unique.

Shoulders

Keeping the shoulders healthy comes down to balance and consistency, as overhead and front-sided shoulder volume with volleyball athletes is exorbitant. Restoring and maintaining thoracic spine extension and rotation is paramount for shoulder health and can be accomplished several ways.

I employ ground-based movements weekly, whether as part of warm-up or as fillers between primary lifts. Supporting body weight on the hand(s), balancing, or maneuvering the body around the hand(s) is an effective way to improve the mobility and stability of the shoulder and thoracic spine.

Some of the movements I utilize are downward dogs, sit-throughs, and bear crawls, as well as some traditional movements like deadbugs with floor slides, thoracic extension on a foam roll, and quadruped variations. Upper body pulls and rowing movements are prescribed every lift; most commonly, we use TRX straps or bands for face pulls in high volume (2–3 x 10–15) and chest-supported or 3-point rows for strength (3–4 x 5–8).

Video 1. Athletes can do remedial work that acts as a great warm-up and mobility solution. Sit-throughs can be modified and programmed in countless ways.

Individualize Training

As I mentioned earlier, practice and play volume is not the only thing to account for when working with year-round athletes. A group of my volleyball athletes play for the same club; a club that contracts a strength coach. Additionally, it is not uncommon for club coaches to put them through “conditioning” workouts or strength workouts of their own every week. Private lessons that include jumping, swinging, and serving may also take place, sometimes prior to a three- to four-hour practice. The amount of time on their feet, impacts incurred, and volume of overhead work would be startling if it was audited.

Consequently, communication is imperative—before you add to the pot, you must know what else has been poured in. The old saying, “too many cooks spoil the broth,” is true, but when working with year-round athletes, too many cooks will poison the broth unless someone takes the time to simply ask some questions and then make a decision based on what is best for that athlete at that time.

Too many cooks will poison the broth unless someone takes the time to simply ask some questions and then make a decision based on what is best for that athlete at that time. Share on X

What does individualized training look like in real time? While I half-heartedly applaud the clubs and coaches for making an effort to include strength, it often falls short of the mark. For those kids who lift at club on Monday nights, it means there is no bandwidth to squat on Tuesday mornings with me. I wish it was an exaggeration to say these kids were subjected to high-volume (5×8 some days or 5×10 others) back squatting (and no, not with just the bar) for four months straight. There is perhaps a time and place where this protocol might serve a purpose, but all things considered, it’s far from an ideal prescription.

How do I know they are telling the truth? Because I’ve built relationships with each athlete, which goes back to communication and trust. Forcing them to front squat with me simply because that is what is programmed is not in their best interest. Instead, they do some posterior chain work like RDLs or band pull-throughs and additional sets of accessory work like chest-supported rows or suitcase carries.

Sports coaches often have the outlook that individualism has no place in a team setting, and while that view is needed for a variety of reasons, the extent of that philosophy can have varying breadth depending on the population you train—among other things. For collegiate programs, stricter adherence to that view is easier to enforce because all members and athletes are unified under the same team, with fewer outside variables (like club workouts) to contend with.

When it comes to culture, everyone should be on the same page, but when it comes to the health and well-being of an athlete, making individual adjustments to workouts is a minor detail in a much bigger picture. Making decisions based on what is best for the athlete is your job as a coach, anyway.

Train Strength Consistently

Most athletic endeavors take place on the bottom right of the force-velocity curve, where high impact forces are also incurred from stops, breaking, changes of direction, and landing. Year-round athletes spend double the time in this zone, which makes training on the opposite end even more prudent.

Year-round athletes spend double the time in the bottom right zone of the force-velocity curve, which makes training on the opposite end even more prudent, says @rachelkh2. Share on X

Consistently spending time in the weight room and performing movements that require high force development (squats, hinge variations, chin-ups, upper body pressing movements) helps balance the curve by providing better shock absorbency, which leads to fewer injuries and nagging pains in the long term.

Getting strong and staying strong is akin to insurance for any athlete. The nuances, opinions, and standards of “What is strong?” make for a valid discussion but are not the focus of this article. Squatting 1.5–2x body weight is commendable, but difficult to accomplish with year-round athletes for numerous reasons. Focusing weight room time in the pursuit of a metric leaves other important qualities on the table, and can set you and your athletes up for failure.

Ideologies and dogmatic notions about training have no place at the table regardless of population, but especially with year-round athletes. This is not to say you can’t employ your preferred method (I like 5/3/1), but knowing when and being flexible is key for your success.

Training athletes who play year-round is not the setting for stubbornly adhering to a program simply out of the fervent belief that said program is gospel or because so-and-so does it over at X university. The question, “What is best for the athlete?” should drive every single decision regarding training. Not, “What method is going to boost their squat numbers the fastest?” or “We’re squatting 85% today because that’s what is programmed.”

One of the many great things about working with youth and high school athletes is their ability to get stronger simply through maturation. It is also important to remember that strength gains still occur even when training with submaximal weights.

The bottom line is that you are lifting consistently rather than obsessing about what exercises you’re using or how much is on the bar. That said, straying too far from squats, lunge variations, hinging, upper body pushes and pulls, and carries is not advisable.

It happens often that we’re in the middle of a strength cycle, but a regressed pattern like goblet squats will be better for the athlete(s) on that particular day than heavy front squats. Sometimes this allows me some freedom to shift the focus of the lift to the upper body movement, typically by including more sets. It can be frustrating in these scenarios because although you know developing strength is crucial to the health of the athlete, it cannot come at the expense of their health. Training strength consistently matters more than the exercise, method, or program.

On days where pulling is the emphasis, we commonly perform concentric-only deadlifts or rack pulls. The eccentric stress is dosed into exercises like Nordic curls, glute-bridge walkouts, and chin-up variations.

Less Is More

As a rule, in strength and conditioning, sports performance, human performance—whatever you call it—the minimum effective dose is the recommended dose. Again, this is dependent on a host of factors, but those are not the point of this article. Conceptually, less is more can be applied to more than just volume—intensity, duration, frequency, or mode also apply.

As mentioned, seven of my eight teams, including volleyball, lift twice per week, year-round. Volleyball lifts Tuesday and Thursday during club season and Wednesday and Saturday during high school season.

Would three times be ideal? Yes, but we aren’t training kids in an ideal world to begin with. Twice per week, year-round, is sufficient because they are in season year-round.

Additionally, attendance is a factor because, during club season, Friday is a travel day, and many athletes are en route to tournaments. Routinely, for those who are present, Fridays are designated work capacity days that include low- or zero-impact movements like slide-board, spin bikes, and suitcase carries.

Not all my kids have the situation where they lift at club, but they do share in the fact that they are playing (jumping) extreme volumes on the weekends from January to June. When they play in convention centers around the country, it is not uncommon for them to be on concrete, which takes an unforgiving toll on their bodies.

Blasphemous as it may seem, I rarely program jumping. There is a small window from the middle of November until mid-December that I squeeze in some basic single leg hops, emphasizing control and landing. Once high school preseason begins, I program low-volume jumps as part of post-activation potentiation work (PAP) for about three weeks, then negate all jumping when high school season starts.

Again, in an ideal world, it would be prudent to train more jumping, but given the volume of jumping they already do, there is no room left in the bucket, nor is it necessary. I’ve found that by simply getting stronger, jump performance and landing capacity can and will improve without including it as part of training.

I’ve found that by simply getting stronger, jump performance and landing capacity can and will improve without including it as part of training, says @rachelkh2. Share on X

I test verticals every 1–2 months with the Just Jump System. The chart below shows athletes’ verticals at the beginning of the 2017 season until the end of the 2018 season. The peaks occur in May after we complete our max strength work, before summer adjournment when club intensifies and lifts are less consistent. Then they peak again in October at the beginning of post-season. Both peaks occur when strength training has occurred consistently, and again, the only jumping is what is done at practice or in games.

Lastly, I teach the hang clean, and we use it and its various derivatives throughout the year. However, if I had to choose one tool for implementing explosive movements, it would be dumbbells. Not only are dumbbell snatches, cleans, and jerks easier to teach and more forgiving on the body, but they allow you to train unilaterally. For year-round athletes, restoring and maintaining balance is critical for health and longevity. Minimize input to maximize output.

Small Drops in the Bucket Add up

Training or working with athletes who play year-round can be a daunting task, but rather than focusing solely on the problems of year-round athletics, focus your attention on how you can help these athletes without overfilling the bucket. Fight for their health, fight for the need for a qualified strength coach in every high school, and fight for generalization before specialization. It is a tireless task that may be slow to yield comprehensive results, but prioritizing your athletes’ health will not go un-thanked, least of all by them.

Rather than focusing solely on the problems of year-round athletes, focus your attention on how you can help these athletes without overfilling their bucket, says @rachelkh2. Share on X

You may only be able to add small droplets at a time rather than a continuous stream, but as the saying goes, “More is not better, better is better.”

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As the influx of dedicated strength and conditioning coaches grows every year, it’s important for roles to be discussed, defined, and boundaries set. In this article, we look at the viability of a sport coach as a replacement strength coach, whether by choice or out of necessity. Just as sports medicine practitioners have had to navigate this path, strength and sport coaches must get on the same page or risk an adversarial and untrusting relationship as professionals.

Most of us in the strength and conditioning world have spent time on social media. If you have, then you’ve seen many things you enjoyed and agreed with, many things that you didn’t, and probably more things that leave you shaking your head in disbelief. Some of us choose to keep scrolling, and others engage in the debate to various levels. For better or worse, I seem to fall into the “engage” category. I enjoy discussion, which can end up being a very time-consuming process for sure.

If you follow these discussions, there’s a sense that lines are drawn between certified strength coaches and non-certified sport coaches. Is the divide growing? Isn’t physical education a certification? The next question to pose is: What is qualified? A person can reach a point of competence in a field. Does that make then qualified? If not, what does qualified look like?

Every field of study has a level of artistry and craftsmanship. In addition to the questions above, we need to look at the role these skills play within our profession. How much experience does it take to achieve a skill level where we can call ourselves professionals, and does experience mean more than the fact we earn money doing it? Also, we must take into account that all experience is not equal. The quality of education, either formal or informal, also looms large in the equation. There seems to be much labeling and generalizations on both sides of the debate. Why do so many strength coaches feel that the majority of sport coaches are somehow not qualified for the job?

On the flip side, many strength coaches wonder why so many sport coaches believe that by playing a sport and having even a high skill level in coaching the sport makes them qualified to run a sports performance program. In the days before schools had a widespread ability to provide certified athletic trainers for sport teams, that responsibility fell to sport coaches. There’s little debate that sports medicine situations are better handled by an available dedicated professional. Why is the field so divided on reproducing the same outcome in the sports performance arena?

Strength coaches must learn to accept, educate, and support sport coaches when they need us, says @YorkStrength17. Share on X

These are all important questions to ask and discuss for the field of high school strength and conditioning. I have no illusions that this article will answer all the questions that arise. I do know that we need honest and open discussion as opposed to sneers and ridicule. As strength coaches, we must learn to accept, educate, and support sport coaches when they need us. Even the ones who post to Twitter workouts we don’t agree with and videos we may not value.

Sport coaches must grasp a growth mindset and stay in constant pursuit of evidence-based S&C best practices, says @YorkStrength17. Share on X

Sport coaches must play their part by grasping a growth mindset and stay in constant pursuit of evidence-based best practices. This article will not solve these issues, but I hope it leads to some honest discussion on the future of high school sports performance.

Football Coach vs. Strength Coach?

One area that’s really drawn me in over the last few years is the “football coach vs. strength coach in the high school weight room” debate. It seems to be a never-ending battle, creating a divide full of resentment in high school strength and conditioning. Dive deeper into the debate, and the main sub-category seems to be certified vs. non-certified coaches in the high school weight room.

Most schools have no requirements to run a strength program, and this leads to many sport coaches being in charge, specifically football coaches. Often, full-time strength and conditioning professionals are not happy with this setup, which leads to lots of debate over how to run a high school weight room.

This article represents my opinion on this topic. My background gives me a unique perspective. Many of my colleagues in the strength and conditioning world followed the traditional route—a college program in sports performance or exercise science followed by internship hours that led to more education and a full-time job. My route started as a social studies teacher and football coach who ran the weight room because I was the biggest guy despite my lack of any formal training.

I progressed to physical education teacher, certifications, and further education in Kinesiology and Exercise Science that led me to give up football and create a strength and conditioning position at my school. This position led me to a full-time high school Director of Strength and Conditioning position that forbids me from coaching a sport.

My experience has allowed me to see and live both sides of this debate, and I want to share my perspective to help others see my unique point of view.

There Is No Cut Off Point to Competent

First off, I need to say that the biggest sore spot for me in any of these debates is intense generalizations that people throw out on this topic. There is no black and white when it comes to the certified vs. non-certified debate. I know many, many non-certified coaches who do a great job in the weight room. I know a few certified coaches who do some things I would question. There is a wide range of quality on both sides of the equation. So when I see coaches taking a stand on this talking-point, I shake my head. There is no room in this argument for generalizations and labels. There are simply too many variables. We need to look deeper into each situation before making any judgments on who is a qualified strength and conditioning professional.

I think most of us agree that a certification does not automatically make you a qualified coach, which leads us to the next obvious question. One that’s tough to get a solid answer to and represents a gray area in our profession. What makes a coach qualified? The next question, for me at least, is whether you can be qualified and not have any certification or educational background in sports performance. Finally, can you be a qualified strength and conditioning professional and a full-time sport coach? Is there even time in the day for that?

Let’s first tackle the hardest question to answer. What makes a person qualified? If not certifications, then what? For me, the answer lies in a coach’s mindset. Are you a growth mindset person or a closed mindset person? If you have a closed mindset, you’ll never be a qualified strength and conditioning professional, regardless of certifications. How do I define a growth mindset? Understanding the concept of “I don’t know what I don’t know.” Please let me say my opinion comes from my experiences. If you coach your athletes and don’t know exactly why you do everything you do, you need to work to reach the qualified status.

I’m very adamant about this, as it stems from personal experience. When I look back at my early days as a sport coach who ran a strength program, I was not qualified. I had no idea why we did anything outside of the most rudimentary knowledge gained as both as an athlete and the BFS book I read. I coached my sport, and what we did in the weight room was secondary and much less important to me. My athletes all did exactly the same workout, regardless of training age and ability. I could go on and on.

Having traveled this road, I clearly see how unqualified I was at that point. My life and profession changed very quickly when I was challenged to get better and had the opportunity to learn from one of the best in the business. Each time I learned something new, I realized how little I actually knew about the field. I would chase the next bit of knowledge and again be humbled. This was the key moment of my career. I had two choices: I could decide that I knew enough about the field and stop asking questions and seeking knowledge or I could make the conscious choice to realize I didn’t know what I didn’t know and dive in head first to be the best I could be. Growth mindset was my decision, and I’ve not gone a day since without asking questions.

Knowing the why behind everything you do is the first step to becoming #qualified. It requires you to learn, says @YorkStrength17. #strengthcoach Share on X

So for me, step one to qualified is knowing the “why” behind everything you do. This requires you to learn. One of the huge reasons I wrote this article is the “terrible whiteboard workout” phenomenon. We’ve all seen it and many of us have interacted. A coach has a workout written up on a whiteboard with multiple sets of 10, high volume, no percentages, no pull to push reps, etc. Does a qualified coach write these workouts? Simple question for me. Does whoever wrote that know why they wrote it? Is this a hypertrophy day? Maybe part of a designed plan?

Just because we don’t like the workout doesn’t mean it’s wrong. What makes it wrong is when the person who wrote it was guessing. It’s a blunt comment, but if you don’t understand which set-rep-intensity programming induces which specific adaptation, you’re probably not qualified to program workouts. The good news? That doesn’t mean you can’t learn. It also means you don’t necessarily have to become certified to check off this box toward qualified. You need a growth mindset and the willingness to chase that knowledge. It’s out there. All you have to do is ask.

What About Craftsmanship?

Another aspect of qualified is understanding and making sure you’ve mastered the progressions and regressions for each of the movements you plan to program. How and when to use each part of your plan is extremely important in developing efficient and safe movers. Loading dysfunction is a huge mistake. In a previous article, William Wayland wrote, “The key takeaway is that movement quality drives loading strategy and not the other way around.” This is an absolute as far as my definition of qualified goes.

Understanding the adaptation you want and having a plan for teaching it from the most basic movements forward are two separate things. You do not want your child coached by a person who has every freshman and every senior doing the same program. It’s a bad and dangerous recipe that can easily lead to injuries. I know from experience.

Having a growth mindset and willingness to chase knowledge and education can #qualify you as a strength coach, says @YorkStrength17. #strengthcoach Share on X

So again, we go back to certified vs. qualified. Does having a well-thought-out and evidence-based plan and understanding progress and differentiation based on training age come only with certification? No. Once again, a growth mindset and willingness to chase knowledge and education can qualify you. It’s not easy, but it’s definitely possible. Obviously, I could keep going with this list. These are two of the many things that combine to make a sports performance coach qualified.

There is one common thread to the two ideas listed above and the many others left out. They require a great desire to become educated in best practices. They also require a willingness to be a lifelong learner. One of the greatest high school strength coaches I’ve ever known, Gary Schofield, said once, “The question is, have you coached 32 years or one year 32 times?”

A qualified strength professional continues to learn to stay on the cutting edge of best practices, says @YorkStrength17. Share on X

That point hits hard. It’s possible to be qualified and allow yourself to slip into a danger zone. If you were once qualified to work on computers but have failed to continue learning as technology develops, you’re no longer qualified to work on a computer. Being a strength coach is no different. While many aspects of our job are timeless, much more change quickly. A qualified professional will continue to learn to stay on the cutting edge of best practices.

Experienced But Not Certified?

Can you become qualified without any certifications or formal education in the field? Yes, but it’s very difficult. If you lack formal education in an area of sports performance as well as certifications, you have to be a highly motivated learner, and it requires many years of study and networking. It’s possible, and we all know coaches who fall into this category, but it’s rare. Spending time with great coaches led me to desire more education. That pursuit led me to get my first certification, which led to more questions, more education pursuit, etc.

I can tell you without reservation that a physical education degree alone is not enough. The degree is important to have and will make your pursuit of jobs at this level exponentially easier. However, the curriculum is sadly lacking in understanding of sports performance. The process of pursuing a sports performance education and certification often leads to a great desire to obtain more. Without at least one of these motivating factors, you must be highly motivated and driven to be great at what you do.

Sport Coach as a Strength Coach Replacement?

Can a person who identifies as a full-time teacher and sport coach be considered a qualified sports performance coach? Is there even time to be great at both?

There are many layers to this question as well. For one, it’s extremely difficult to be a head sport coach and also a strength coach for more than just your team. It happens, and we all have examples to point to, but it’s a big commitment. Being an assistant coach and strength coach is much more doable. If you have classes during the school day, it’s even more possible.

That said, the issue is not whether it’s possible. The discussion is about being qualified if not certified. How can you find the time in the day to teach, be the best sport coach you can be, and do the job of a strength coach? These are three full-time jobs. You can do it, but something will suffer.

I gave up coaching a sport for this exact reason. I spent tremendous time working to be the best football coach I could be. As I got further into the job of strength and conditioning, it became clear that something had to go. I chose the job I loved the most and let football go. When I did, a new world opened to me, and I’m a much better strength coach to many more athletes. I had no idea what I didn’t know until I had the time to learn it. It’s very difficult to be the best at your job doing both.

Sometimes there is no other alternative. While high school strength and conditioning is booming, there are still more schools than not depending on sport coaches to run the programs they have. These are the situations that lead to this entire debate. It’s up to those coaches to decide if they want to be qualified or only do what they know—right or wrong. That’s the sore spot for me.

Too many sport coaches running strength programs treat it as an afterthought, says @YorkStrength17. Share on X

Too many coaches running strength programs treat it as an afterthought. That’s why we see “whiteboard workout” issues. It’s why so many strength coaches ridicule these situations. While I totally agree with the side that says “maybe those guys don’t know better and we should educate instead of ridicule,” I question why more coaches are not seeking the education and certification to make them qualified.

I question why more sport coaches are not seeking the education and certification to make them qualified strength coaches, says @YorkStrength17. Share on X

If a coach is seeking help, nobody I know in our field will turn them away. It’s our absolute responsibility to educate those who seek improvement. I seek it daily and have never had a coach turn me away. It also falls on the sport coach to want to improve and have a desire to learn. When you don’t have the educational background in sports performance, you better want to learn if you want to be qualified to work with athletes in this arena.

“My kids are strong” is not something to hang your hat on. That’s literally the easiest thing to do in sports. If you send kids to a field to pick up rocks and have them get a bigger one every day, they will get stronger. You could teach a child to coach that and be successful.

The real objective is to keep athletes healthy and safe and make what you do translate to the sport. That’s the science and the art of strength and conditioning. You must be willing to grow your knowledge past “That’s what we have always done, and we win” or “That’s what Coach X told me they do, and they win.”

The Bottom Line

The bottom line is that both sides need to recognize that we’re on the same team. Yes, without a doubt in my mind (unpopular opinion alert) every school would benefit greatly from a dedicated sports performance professional on staff. There was a time when coaches taped ankles and made medical decisions at practice for the athletes. The integration of certified athletic trainers into high schools revolutionized the situation. That’s their job and only focus. Coaches don’t have to spend time on athletic training duties so they can coach.

Now imagine if the sport coach didn’t have to worry about anything sports performance related? I used to tell coaches to spend 80% of the time on coaching and 20% on strength and conditioning. Now they spend 100% on coaching, and I spend at least that amount of time on strength and conditioning. Which situation improves the depth, width, and attention to detail of both programs? I don’t think there’s a good argument for not having a qualified strength and conditioning coach when possible. But that’s not always possible.

As much as the field is booming at the high school level, there are more schools than not where sport coaches are responsible for the strength program. There is still zero reason to not have qualified coaches on staff. That’s where strength and football coaches being on the same side comes in.

You don’t have to spend large amounts of money, get expensive certifications, or anything else to be considered qualified. Read, study, reach out, and network with strength coaches. Join the National High School Strength Coaches Association and get involved. If you have any doubts about what you are teaching, find out if it’s best practice or not. We have to be unified and not divided.

And strength professionals need to understand that many schools need their sport coaches to run their strength program. Accept this and make an effort to bring as many as possible to qualified and not as concerned with certified.

Meanwhile, many football coaches need to realize that classically educated and certified strength coaches can almost certainly help them improve their programs, the same way athletic trainers improved their schools’ sports medicine programs. It’s time all involved recognize the value of the other. The best thing for our student-athletes is to have a qualified strength coach to depend on. And it’s a reachable goal if all involved are willing. Allowing our egos or beliefs about certifications or any other topic prevent us from reaching that attainable goal is a disservice to those we are tasked to serve.

Since you’re here…
…we have a small favor to ask. More people are reading SimpliFaster than ever, and each week we bring you compelling content from coaches, sport scientists, and physiotherapists who are devoted to building better athletes. Please take a moment to share the articles on social media, engage the authors with questions and comments below, and link to articles when appropriate if you have a blog or participate on forums of related topics. — SF

In mid-June, I had the fortune of attending my 9th Track Football Consortium. As always, I left with many takeaways from a lineup full of incredible speakers. The last session I attended was led by the ridiculously successful Steve Jones, head football coach of the Kimberly Papermakers in Wisconsin. Coach Jones opened with his version of a story told in Joshua Medcalf’s Chop Wood, Carry Water: How to Fall in Love with the Process of Becoming Great. In the story, an elite builder named Kota is set to retire but reluctantly agrees to construct one last house. While building, he does not put in the effort he did in previous endeavors. After he finishes, his employer gives him the keys to the house he just built as a retirement gift.

Jones then discussed the importance of being a coach who leads by principles, and he had us build our “House of Principles.” A version of mine is below, and the remainder of this article is a personal reflection on my why.

Take Care of #1 to Serve Others More Effectively

In my professional life, I’m a teacher and a coach. At the core of my choice of profession resides a need to help others. On top of this, I’m a people pleaser and have difficulty saying no to requests. This combination has put me in a bad place numerous times throughout my life. I need a constant reminder that to be at my best while serving others, I must be diligent in providing myself with what I need to thrive.

The four items I identify as a foundation of living a healthy lifestyle are simple: sleep, nutrition, exercise, and relationships. What I find amazing is how they’re interconnected.

When I exercise regularly, I tend to eat healthier and have better sleep quality. Each of these items keeps fueling the next and helps me operate optimally, which lets me be more effective in the relationships I have with others.

When one of these items suffers, a snowball effect typically occurs. I can always tell if I’m getting adequate sleep when I pass a fast food restaurant. If I’m disgusted by the thought of eating the food, I’ve been sleeping well. If I have the urge to stop and buy some of the food, I’m lacking sleep and in survival mode. I’m debating trademarking this as the “Taco Bell Theory.”

Many of us in the teaching and coaching profession find ourselves taking on more than we can handle because of our desire to serve. We should strive to maximize the quantity of service we provide, but it should not come at the expense of the quality of service. There is no doubt the quantity and quality balance is a challenge to manage, but I commonly go back to the question: “How will increasing the quantity impact the quality of those I am currently serving?” If there’s a substantial decrease in quality, finding a way to no is essential and should not harbor guilt.

Make Someone’s Day Every Day

I recently reread Dale Carnegie’s classic, How to Win Friends and Influence People, and decided that one of the areas I could improve upon was giving honest and sincere appreciation to others. Early in my life, my parents instilled the power of handwritten thank you notes, a mode of showing gratitude underutilized in today’s society. The amount of meaning of a handwritten note carries is 100 times the amount of something typed. That being said, a text or email is better than nothing. Carnegie states, “The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.” I put this into action with the following text sent to our handyman who finished our basement:

Recently, our daughter has been sleeping in our bedroom, which has caused me to begin showering in the basement so I don’t wake her up. First, I love the shower! Second, having the space in the basement gave me a place to work out in the winter and spring, so I have been waking up 30 minutes early and exercising every morning. Since I go down there to shower, I don’t have an excuse not to do something active beforehand. The result—I haven’t felt this good in years! It may sound corny, but the basement has transformed my life! The work you do matters!

His response:

Thank you so much for sending this, it made my week! Not corny at all, it is very much appreciated. It is great to know my clients/friends are happy after a project.

It took me less than two minutes to send the note, and I made someone’s week. Do you have two minutes to spare? Be sure to find two minutes and continuously encourage those you interact with to pay forward the kindness you show them. Our world needs it.

The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

No matter what stage of life we’re in, we are always busy. I’ve rarely had a conversation with an adult where he or she says, “Rob, I got to tell you, I just have nothing going on in my life. I just can’t fill all the time I have.” Before I was married, I thought I was busy. I wasn’t. Before I had children, I thought I was busy. I wasn’t. I may have viewed myself as incredibly busy in my early 20’s, but I somehow found a way to binge watch 24 episodes of the television show 24 in 18 hours. Being busy is not a badge of honor we should wear. Our time on this planet will be filled in some way, which we can look at in this manner:

• Maximize the time spent which aligns with our principles
• Create more time to have the power of choice of what to do with our time

Binge-watching a television show is not necessarily a bad thing. It could be a way to recharge your battery after maximizing “principle time” so you can maximize it again in the future.

A few years ago, Tony Holler encouraged me to read Greg McKeown’s Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, and I find myself revisiting it often. According to McKeown, “Essentialism is about making the wisest possible investment of your time and energy in order to operate at your highest point of contribution by doing only what is essential.”

Kill multiple birds with one stone if you can and enhance what you choose to do with your time to the greatest extent possible, says @HFJumps. Share on X

What this means to me is finding a way to kill multiple birds with one stone as much as possible while enhancing what I choose to do with my time to the greatest extent possible. The Healthy Lifestyle Pyramid is an easy example to revisit. When I improve in one area, one or more areas tend to improve, which results in better use of time. These are some of the questions I ask myself to enhance each component:

• What can I do to improve sleep quality and quantity?
• Given minimal time, what type of exercise gives the biggest bang for the buck?
• How can I work more vegetables into my diet?
• What can I do to improve my relationships with those who are important to me?

Asking these simple questions and acting upon them has enhanced my quality of life substantially. I also know that I’m no more than a work in progress. When I falter, a great reminder is the following from Bruce Lee, “It is not daily increase but daily decrease; hack away the unessential.”

Be Present

In a world where all are connected, it’s easy to lose sight of what’s in front of us. Instead of being in the moment, it’s become more important for people to capture the moment. The headline of the article in which this photo appears is a perfect example. We all want to document our experiences not so we can look back at them, but so we can show others our significance. My question is this: In this obsession of documenting, what are we missing in the process?

In the book, Go Wild: Free Your Body and Mind From the Afflictions of Civilization, authors John Ratey and Richard Manning tell the story of anthropologist Richard Nelson who does his research by living among those he is studying. One such group was the Koyukon, caribou hunters located in the bitter cold interior of Alaska. The Koyukon live a life which we would probably describe as primitive and unplugged.

After some time with the tribe, Nelson moved to an island in the southeast part of Alaska, which had a different maritime climate from the Koyukon. Nelson invited a few of his Koyukon friends to his new home, and upon their arrival, they initially gave him silence instead of a happy reunion. They were entirely out of their element, and they searched the island taking in the minutest details. After days of silence, they finally spoke to Nelson, describing his home in far greater detail than he could after years of living there. Their ability to be present allowed them to notice items most people gloss over.

Your athletes deserve to have you one hundred percent engaged in them, says @HFJumps. Share on X

With all the distractions present in our world, mindfulness—focusing one’s awareness on the present moment—can be difficult to attain. Like many, the greatest barrier to this for me is technology, specifically my smartphone. The easiest way for me to manage this distraction is to turn it off or put it out of reach. Instead of being consistently tempted to check my phone, I control my access to it and use it in chunks once an hour (or every few hours). I find peace by focusing on what is going on as opposed to what else is going on. I’m also able to address the following truths:

• It’s foolish to expect students to engage in a lesson if I’m modeling behavior that showcases disengagement.
• The athletes I coach deserve me being 100% engaged in their reps.
• My children deserve my full attention while we complete a puzzle.
• My wife is more than worthy of my full attention on date night.

I think substituting “being present” for “culture-building” in the following quote by educator Amy Fast is something we all can practice to increase the number of positive interactions we have with others:

The real work of culture-building is in our genuine and consistent micro-behaviors: eye contact, smiles, head nods, leaning in, listening, and really hearing.

“Shake Up Your Bones, Shake Up Your Feet—DBTD”

During high school and college, one of my favorite music groups was the Dave Matthews Band (DMB). The quote, “Shake Up Your Bones, Shake Up Your Feet—DBTD” is from one of my favorite DMB songs, “Pig.” While I think the entire song is powerful, these lyrics are the ones that speak to me the most. DBTD stands for “Don’t Burn the Day.” Both parts serve as a reminder to live life to the fullest. It is in my nature to be passive and conservative. Taking risks terrifies me, even though my logical side continually tells me risks are necessary for growth.

My wife recently expressed interest in a family Spanish immersion program next summer. Little does she know that she caught me at a good time for this proposition. I had just formed my House of Principles, and telling her no would be going against this particular principle. Even though the immersion program is well outside of my comfort zone, I’m excited about making it a reality.

This principle also applies to my productivity. In general, it can be challenging for me to start a task, but once I get going, I’m incredibly productive. In Christian Thibaudeau’s Neurotyping System, I’m a type 2A, which means I have low adrenaline levels but am extremely sensitive to it. Therefore, I have significant motivation issues with tasks in which I have minimal interest. When I face such a scenario, I raise my adrenaline by telling myself I have an opportunity to practice essentialism and being present (two of my other principles). And I reward myself when the grunt work is completed (type 2’s are reward-driven).

At the core of “shake up your bones, shake up your feet” is identifying my why. Whether I’m making decisions as a son, brother, husband, father, teacher, or coach, clearly understanding the reasons for doing something makes the initial motivation less of an issue. It also makes this principle easier to adhere to. If you don’t know your why, why are you wasting your time doing it?

Why I Write

I’ve been asked this a few times, and the first response I always give is because I’m selfish. Writing allows me to reflect and sort out my thoughts at a particular moment in time. It creates something permanent I can go back to (and edit if needed, as I hope to be perpetually evolving). Creating this piece was important for my personal development—remember, I’m selfish. I now have my own House of Principles and written rationale to refer back to whenever I need a reminder, which will happen because I regularly fail to adhere to my principles. And it will be much easier for me to re-aim since I have a target.

Also, through the process of sharing, I hope to address the other reasons I write: to get people to think (one of the main goals of any teacher) and to provide information which can help those who read. I hope my personal reflection sparks a desire to build your own house.

Since you’re here…
…we have a small favor to ask. More people are reading SimpliFaster than ever, and each week we bring you compelling content from coaches, sport scientists, and physiotherapists who are devoted to building better athletes. Please take a moment to share the articles on social media, engage the authors with questions and comments below, and link to articles when appropriate if you have a blog or participate on forums of related topics. — SF

The development of realistic, task-specific training sessions is hugely important when it comes to preparing elite athletes for the demands of competition. As a means of enhancing athlete performance, I often find myself thinking about how to design more realistic training sessions that are more representative of competition. I’ve written about this previously.

Training aims to prepare athletes to compete. Yet, quite often, a session focuses on improving an individual skill or trait in isolation—frequently in a way that does not match the demands of competition. Of course, for the majority of sessions, training does not have to represent competition; to enhance performance, we often have to isolate either a key skill or a physiological or psychological adaptation. But, by failing to routinely shift the training focus from individual skills to a practice that better represents competition, I wonder if we’re preventing our athletes from reaching their true potential.

Practice as Rehearsal

Looking back on my athletic career, I’ve written quite widely about my disaster in the 4x100m relay at the 2008 Olympic Games, where I was responsible for the disqualification of the Great Britain men’s team. But I’m not the lone athlete to experience this exact failure—the Great Britain men’s relay team was disqualified (or failed to finish or messed up a changeover) at:

• The 2000, 2008, and 2012 Olympic Games
• The 2001, 2011, 2013, and 2015 World Championships
• The 2010 and 2012 European Championships

That’s a lot of missed medal opportunities.

The reasons for these competition errors are potentially varied, but I recall doing very little competitive changeovers. In general, we were very good at passing the baton in isolation; but in competition, we lost this ability—possibly because we had not practiced under competitive conditions. Had we practiced passing the baton under competitive—and therefore truly representative practice conditions—perhaps our flaws would have become more obvious, and we might have rectified them sooner.

Game Scenario Training Drills and the Latest Research

Sports scientists, researchers, and coaches are becoming more interested in how to design and develop representative training sessions. The concept of tactical periodization used most widely in soccer allows for integrated training sessions during which many component skills and abilities are honed as a whole, often under real-world conditions.

Tactical periodization sharpens component skills & abilities as a whole under real-world conditions and may improve performance, says @craig100m. Share on X

Similarly, performance analysis across a range of other sports highlights areas where we might want to focus our efforts on increasing the real-world representations of training. For example, a recent paper investigating skill patterns in Australian football revealed some important gaps in best practices within AFL training session development. Here, the authors looked at game scenario training drills and compared performance during game scenario sessions to actual match performance.

Direct physical contact from an opposition player occurred more often in matches as opposed to training, says @craig100m. #TrainingForCompetition Share on X

The results showed that physical pressure situations (i.e., direct physical contact from an opposition player) occurred more often in matches as opposed to training. Conversely, low-intensity defensive pressure—defined as when opponents were more than five meters away—and situations with no defensive pressure were less common in matches than in training.

There were also differences in kicking. In match play, kicks performed after 0-1s possession time were more common than they were during training, meaning players had less time on the ball. Furthermore, longer kicks and kicks made after collecting the ball from the ground, or when deflected from a player, occurred more often in matches than training sessions. Overall, the majority (~54%) of kicks in a match were executed in less than two seconds, and the number of kicks made while under a tackle doubled the number in training. Also, handballs—the passing action used in the AFL—were more frequent in training than in matches.

Team training sessions did not accurately represent match performance and the skills required to be successful in a game, says @craig100m. Share on X

These results suggest that the AFL team training sessions often did not accurately represent match performance and the skills required to be successful in a game. For example, in one match, players completed twice as many kicks in less than one second than in training. And the kicks occurring in the match were twice as likely to come under competitive training.

This means that AFL clubs may want to include more training scenarios where athletes are forced to kick both in a short amount of time and under competitive pressure. This could be drill-based, or perhaps more realistically, accomplished by modifying the constraints of a small-sided game to drive these conditions (most likely by increasing the number of players per team and reducing the pitch size).

Also, there were more kicks from the mark in game situations; in the AFL, when a player catches the ball from a kick without it bouncing, they can take an unopposed kick. Again, this suggests increasing set kicks in training to mimic the demands of a match better. These results were predominately mirrored in another recent study, again in the AFL.

Training Meet Conditions and the Long Jump

Track and field researchers have used a similar approach, specifically with the long jump. In a paper published earlier this year, a group of authors analyzed male and female long jump performance from 108 different competitions during 1999-2016. Researchers aimed to understand how different situations affected performance and then explore how this information could impact training session design.

The results suggested an interesting global trend: the mean elite long jump performance is decreasing by just over 1cm per year. This means performance has stagnated and is perhaps beginning to regress. Additionally, around 30% of all jumps were fouls. These results tended to be different between rounds: in round one, the average jump distance was lower than in all other rounds, and the total percentage of foul jumps was much lower. This suggests that athletes are typically performing reasonably safe jumps in the first round, most likely because after three rounds those who are beyond a given cut-off are eliminated from the competition.

Another interesting finding is that jump performance across rounds is connected. Instead of viewing a competition as six (or three) discrete jumps, we have to consider it in its entirety. Performance in a preceding jump appears to influence subsequent jump performance; as such, the first round jump becomes increasingly important, potentially setting the tone for the competition as a whole. If the first round jump was a foul, for example, the odds of the next jump being a foul increased by two-thirds. In females, foul jumps were about 50% more likely in rounds four and five than in round one.

In a meet, the outcome of each long jump influences the constraints of the next jump, says @craig100m. #TrainingForCompetition Share on X

Why this inter-connection? It’s because the outcome of each jump influences the constraints of the next. For example, a foul in the first round increases the pressure on the long jumper to achieve two outcomes in the next round—not producing a foul while jumping far enough to qualify for jumps 4-6. The pressure increases because the jumper knows that failure to register a valid jump in round two—having fouled in round one—leaves them in the highly stressful position of pulling off a long enough legal jump with their final, third round effort.

Coaches can use this information to inform specific long jump training sessions. Coaches may wish to prepare athletes for the high-pressure scenario of nailing a second-round jump following a first-round fail in during competitive training sessions. This adds to the training complexity by moving a specific jump session from a series of individual, discrete jumps—which does not represent a long jump competition—into a more real-world scenario. Coaches can design mini-stories or scenarios for training, which break up the repetitiveness of training and provides variation that may enhance learning.

Athletes may handle environmental variations in competition better if they're exposed to different environmental conditions when training. Share on X

Environmental variation also has significant effects on long jump performance. The study mentioned above reported that, for every 1 m/s of wind speed, long jump performance was affected by ~4cm. Wind affects running speed, which requires modifying the long jump run-up. If an athlete is continually exposed to different environmental conditions (typically by training outdoors), then they may be better able to handle environmental variations in competition.

Conversely, if an athlete always trains indoors—a relatively benign, unchanging environment—they will be less likely to tolerate variations during competition. While we might often think that, as coaches, we dictate the constraints of the performance, the ambient environment does too. And we should take advantage of that.

Considerations On the Field and On the Track

There are times when designing representative training is not feasible. Returning to the example from the AFL paper, physical contact was much more frequent in games compared to training. This might be by design—increasing physical contact during training may harm recovery from the previous game and increase the risk of contact-based injuries. Running full-contact sessions during the week between games—which would be more representative of competition—would likely compromise recovery, and contact-induced injuries and niggles would take longer to heal. Clearly, a pragmatic approach is required.

There are some further caveats to designing highly representative training sessions. First, most of the research has focused on elite adult athletes. Using this approach with developing or non-elite athletes may not be optimal because it’s not clear whether the constraints and performance dynamics are the same at these levels as they are at the elite level.

In the AFL, for example, we don’t know whether match dynamics at the pro level are equivalent to those at the youth level (i.e., age 16-18 years). Do the lower physiological capacities of players influence the match demands? For example, if the players have lower levels of physical fitness, they are less likely to close down the opposition kicker promptly, which may decrease the proportion of kicks occurring in less than one second during a match.

Also, competition rules may be different at the developmental level. In track and field, for example, the height of the hurdles is lower, which may alter certain performance constraints. In team sports, the pitch size or number of allowed substitutions may affect match play.

When it comes to sprinting, we know that stride length and frequency and their related constructs (e.g., ground contact time, flight time, etc.) dictate sprint performance. We have a pretty good idea what the optimal average values are for these—Ralph Mann details them extensively in his book. We’re less clear, however, on what these variables should look like in a developing athlete.

So, if an elite male sprinter has a 2.4m stride length, what should a top under-18 sprinter’s stride length be? Also, how do factors such as training age and maturation affect this? Of course, the solution is for teams and governing bodies to analyze players and athletes at this level, and then use this to inform optimal athlete development protocols (an approach that would be expensive in both costs and resources).

Finally, when attempting to apply this approach to athletics, we need to consider individual variation. While we know what elite athletes achieve on a certain measure on average, there is often a considerable acceptable bandwidth around this average. What comprises this bandwidth isn’t always clear, and we run the risk of becoming over-prescriptive with this data. Instead, we should use this information as a guide—where the athlete is now and where should they progress to—and then use the coach’s knowledge of the individual to understand how the athlete’s nuances may affect this “optimal” training.

Since you’re here…
…we have a small favor to ask. More people are reading SimpliFaster than ever, and each week we bring you compelling content from coaches, sport scientists, and physiotherapists who are devoted to building better athletes. Please take a moment to share the articles on social media, engage the authors with questions and comments below, and link to articles when appropriate if you have a blog or participate on forums of related topics. — SF

Conditioning for golf. What do these three words mean?

To most junior golfers, it means getting out on the course and practicing, walking eighteen holes every day, maybe more. It means being on the golf course for at least five to six hours per day working on your game. Occasionally it will mean stretching and doing planks in their rooms at night to build a good core.

To most parents of junior golfers, it means their kids should do yoga and bodyweight exercises or only play the game of golf without any other physical work. Parents are afraid of stunting their child’s growth if they introduce them to weights. These beliefs come mostly from golf instructors, the Golf Channel, and other parents who tell them what their kids do.

To many adults and senior golfers, it means good, long, slow cardio a couple of times a week; it doesn’t matter if it’s on the elliptical, treadmill, or bike. They believe they need at least 30 minutes of cardio a few times a week so they won’t tire on the back nine.

To some collegiate strength and conditioning (S&C) coaches, it means running: stadium stairs, 400m sprints, running a mile and a half in under twelve minutes—anything to increase the team’s mental toughness and get them in shape.

To other college S&C coaches, it means giving golfers high rep, low load programs focusing on bands, medicine balls, and circuit training so they don’t hurt themselves and get the golf coach mad.

And to still other collegiate S&C coaches, it means training golfers like power athletes. Low volume, high intensity is the name of the game, and if they run, it’s not more than a 200m sprint. They walk 5-6 miles every time they play, and that’s enough cardio, according to these coaches.

To many of the collegiate golf team coaches, it means their teams run two to three miles and do a lot of stretching and band work. They stay away from heavy weights and definitely don’t lift heavy the week of a match—that will decrease the golfers’ performance. Many force this onto the S&C coaches assigned to their teams regardless of which of the three types of S&C coaches above is working with them. The S&C coach often has to oblige or risk losing their job.

At this point, you’re probably confused about the definition of these seemingly simple three words. What is conditioning for golf? Don’t worry, almost everyone involved in the game of golf is confused.

To define these three words, we have to start where any intelligent sport performance mind would start. That place to start is here: What are the demands of the sport of golf?

Physiological Demands of Golf

The only way to decipher which of the numerous opinions out there is correct is to describe first and foremost what’s undeniable—golf’s demands on the body from a physiological perspective. If we can agree on this, the rest of the answer will fall into line and clear out 90% of the false beliefs about golf conditioning.

The Golf Swing

The golf swing in its entirety takes less than two seconds for most players. Even if you throw in a long pause at the top like Hideki Matsuyama, you’re not sniffing three seconds. The backswing takes the majority of this time while the downswing takes less than one second.

During the downswing, the average golfer on the PGA Tour accelerates the clubhead from 0 mph to 113 mph in this incredibly short amount of time. The LPGA Tour average is 0 mph to 98 mph. And this is just the average. According to our data from more than 800 golfers, 99% of golfers swing the club above 125 mph in less than one second. That’s an incredible acceleration profile.

When looking at and measuring kinematic data on golfers, the average PGA Tour player will rotate their hips with speeds close to 500 degrees per second, their torso about 800-900 degrees per second, and their hands around 800 degrees per second. These are some serious speeds, and they’re just the averages. The fastest players will rotate 200-300 degrees faster at segments.

The Walking and Waiting

Between each of these explosive events, the golfer has to walk to their ball and wait for other players to hit. The average time between one-second explosive bouts of swinging varies based on how many people are playing in the group, if a ball is lost and has to be found, etc. On average, it’s safe to say that the time between maximal effort explosive swings is probably five minutes conservatively.

And this is just the time between the drive and the approach shot on a par 4. If it’s a par 5, the player might have another shot into the green which would give them three full swings into a green each about five minutes apart. This does not take into account time once the ball is on the green, the time to walk to the green, and the time it takes the entire group to complete putting out. The time between the final approach shot and their next drive is more likely 10-15 minutes apart, depending on the pace of play.

Do you sense where this is going? Less than one second of max-effort and then a minimum of about five minutes of rest before the next maximal effort.

Golfers exert less than one second of max-effort followed by at least five minutes of rest before their next maximal effort. #GolfPerformance Share on X

Now for the walking distance. This varies based on the yardage the golfer plays, the distance from green to tee between holes, and how much left and right a player does. For non-golfers reading this, left and right mean the player is hitting the ball without much accuracy and that, instead of striping it toward the pin, they go left into the woods and then right into the rough, etc. This makes for more walking back and forth and ultimately, more distance covered. On average, it’s safe to say that we’re probably looking at between four to six miles of walking during the entire round of golf.

Summary of Physiological Demands

So, to summarize the demands of the sport:

• Less than one-second max-effort about 40 times over four to six hours with at least five minutes rest between each of these bouts.
• Walking at a pace that’s less than 4mph (if walking fast) for a total of four to six miles with most walking bouts shorter than 300 yards at a time.
• Each walking bout is broken up by at least two to three minutes of rest while deciding which shot to hit and waiting for other players to play up.

Can you begin to identify which of the definitions of golf conditioning are false beliefs?

Each phase of a players’ year should consist of different types of conditioning. The other variable is the players themselves. Their practice routines, habits, and needs will dictate the specific conditioning needs.

As big data has made its way into the highest level of sports, the total load on a player has become a big topic of discussion. Most major sports teams track with GPS the total distance run, changes of direction, top speeds, etc. for all of their athletes in practice and play. Based on these metrics, training is modified for peak results. This has not become mainstream in golf yet, but it should.

Early Off-Season

The off-season is tough to define in golf. Honestly, it doesn’t exist. Instead, we look for a 6- to 12-week period where the player is possibly playing less important events or dedicated to working on aspects of their game.

To give non-golf readers a perspective, collegiate golfers have both a fall and spring season, and the spring season is longer and more important. Naturally, you would think of the winter hiatus and summer break as their off-seasons. Think again.

Golfers play the big national and international amateur events from late spring through the entire summer. If the player is good enough and has the funding, they could travel around the country and world all summer playing in prestigious amateur events at a clip with more density than most professionals. Winter is when these golfers travel to warmer climates and play in qualifiers to determine where they can play the next year, etc. It doesn’t stop.

Junior golf is pretty much the same as collegiate and professional. Adult and senior amateur golf seasons tend to be decided by the climate the golfer is in, so it’s slightly easier to distinguish the in-season from the off-season.

Whenever the season ends, early off-season is the time to work on serious recovery and preparing the player for the next year of their career or development. It’s often necessary for them to take a few weeks to focus on restoring mobility and tissue health and addressing imbalances that popped up throughout the season’s rigorous demands.

Early off-season focuses on recovery and career development with no formal golf conditioning. Share on X

There should be no formal conditioning in this part of the season. In addition to getting healthy physically, the athlete needs to recover mentally so they’re ready to hit the off-season with fully refreshed energy to crush their goals next year.

Active recovery like hiking, biking, or other physical activities they enjoy during this period work great. The length of this phase depends on their schedule, where they are in their career, and where they are in their development.

An established Tour player who can skip the first part of the season can take full advantage of this phase and have a more traditional off-season. Compare that to a player just coming out of college who needs to play through four stages of Qualifying School and, depending on which Tour they land on, may have to start playing right away.

Golf is not a contract sport; golfers only continue playing if they continue performing. And money is not guaranteed. Because of this, you may have a player who’s forced to play 8-10 weeks straight while an established player takes their off-season. 

Off-Season

As the player has recovered from the demands of their long season and moved through the early off-season, they should enter this part of the year relatively rested and ready to go. It’s is the only part of the year that I have my players do cardio. At this point, the goal of any cardio is to build thresholds for better recovery during the season and better capacity as we get into pre-season and eventually the long season.

High intensity-based work is ideal here with a focus on building aerobic capacity for recovery and anaerobic capacity for improved power over long periods of time in-season. If a player loves to go for longer runs, we’ll try to encourage more interval-based running. But if they’re adamant, this is the time of the year where a longer run each week won’t kill their progress.

Off-season is the only time for cardio training—high-intensity work to build aerobic & anaerobic capacity. #GolfConditioning Share on X

That being said, golfers are not runners. Let me say that again—golfers are not runners. We need to be aware of running’s repetitive nature and that golfers are not conditioned from a young age to run like basketball players and field sport athletes. The last thing we want is a golfer to develop shin splints or some other form of overuse injury from repetitive off-season training.

I’m not saying that running is bad or should be avoided completely. I am saying, however, that as with any other training modality or tool, we need to use it appropriately with the right athletes at the appropriate times and with the correct dosage.

If we’re going to train aerobic threshold, we typically shoot for 10-20 minutes of continuous work at 75-80% max heart rate.

If we want to train anaerobic threshold we typically plan for a 1:1 work to rest ratio and one minute work periods for max total rounds of 10 (20 minutes total time of workout). We are looking for about 90% max heart rate here.

If we train cardio, we have a training purpose in mind. Too often, I hear from my collegiate golfers that they have to run as punishment for bad play or showing up late to a lift, etc. We need to stop using conditioning as punishment in a way that doesn’t help them improve their performance and puts them at unnecessary risk of injury. If an athlete needs a little correction, they should do something that will help them, not worsen their shin splints, make them swing slower, and miss tournaments.

As you’re considering which training prescription to go with, always keep in mind the physiological demands of this sport. Golf is a power sport. Golf is a glycolytic sport. It is not an aerobically dominant sport and at no point requires a golfer to run for time. Train appropriately.

Golf is a glycolytic power sport. It is not aerobically dominant & never requires a golfer to run for time. Train appropriately. #GolfPerformance Share on X

During the off-season, training in the weight room starts to focus on training toward maximal strength goals culminating in the pre-season power focus. It’s here where programming looks quite different based on the golfer’s developmental characteristics. Younger juniors may concentrate on a muscle-building phase to gain some mass and decrease their relative effort to swing faster while adults and seniors might work to improve their maximal functional strength.

Whatever the goal, as this phase begins to transition toward pre-season, the rep schemes and the conditioning should start to have lower volumes, shorter conditioning bout times, and higher intensities. For golfers, this means ensuring all the elements of our training programs are synced up and make sense.

For example, it does not make sense to have our golfers do 20-rep sets of medicine ball throws with 6×10 sets of squats and 10x400m sprints. Along the same lines, it also makes no sense to have them do 5×3 squat sets, sets of 3 for clean pulls and running 3 miles 3 times per week. The system training goals need to match up across all elements of a solid program, as I’ve alluded to in my earlier posts about rotational training.

As S&C coaches, we have a responsibility to make sure all of our system goals align. The conditioning, rotational strength training, weight room power training, plyometrics, and the reasons why we do each of these with our golfers should be outlined and explained. If we hold ourselves to this standard, there will be a lot less confusion about what qualifies as good conditioning for golf.

Pre-Season

Pre-season is the time of the year when your golfer will start hitting a lot more balls and playing a lot more. The total load on their body will increase on the golf side of the equation, so lower the volume in the weight room and on their conditioning.

In the pre-season, lower the training volume as your golfers increase ball hitting and playing time. #GolfPerformance #GolfConditioning. Share on X

In the weight room, it’s pretty simple. Continue decreasing volume and increasing intensity as you move the athlete toward their max power training goals. On the conditioning front, this is where confusion and insane prescriptions start to rear their ugly heads, particularly in the junior and collegiate worlds.

If we’re holding fast to our goals of reducing volume while increasing intensity outside of the golf-specific training (i.e., hitting golf balls and playing the sport), which ramps up in volume significantly this time of year, we need to do the same with any conditioning—if we do conditioning at all.

I’m not a fan of conditioning in terms of running at this point in the training cycle, and we definitely don’t do any long-distance running. Golfers will be (or at least should be) walking every day on the course while they’re playing, which means walking at least 4-6 miles per day plus all of their practice time. That’s plenty of long, slow conditioning.

If the golfer plays regularly, their endurance for walking 18 or 36 holes in a day will not be in question. Of course, this assumes their nutritional plan is solid, and they’re completing their other training in the gym. This is why we do the threshold training in the off-season; doing it now would conflict with our current goal of training powerful and efficient glycolytic athletes.

We focus on sprints under 10 seconds with progressive quick direction changes and reactionary drills with a minimum of 5:1 rest to work ratios. Our typical rule of thumb is that an athlete rests one minute for every 10 meters they sprint.

We also concentrate on building tendon capacity for stretch shorten cycle efficiencies and explosiveness. We use jumps for this because we also use them in-season to maintain power outputs. They don’t require a lot of equipment and can be done pretty much anywhere the athlete travels regardless of facilities, which is important. Our athletes also skip about 400 meters at the end of each training session to meet this goal.

When a golfer is hell-bent on getting their heart rate up in training, we’ll build out lower neural days, which operate as a circuit, as an alternative to going for long runs. The circuits are structured so the player doesn’t stop moving for about 30 minutes, and they complete a lot of their auxiliary work with power or speed moves thrown in (i.e., jumps or medicine ball throws). These speed and power moves are objectively measured for output on each rep during the circuit. The goal is to see if the athlete can produce the same speed and power outputs as they fatigue as they did at the beginning of the circuit.

Although this post focuses on conditioning for golfers, it’s important to mention that throughout the early off-season and the core of the off-season, we continue to improve and maintain the necessary mobility to swing a golf club effectively without injury. Mobility cannot be overlooked.

Quick Notes About Running

Before we jump into the final stage of the in-season and what conditioning looks like there, I want to discuss a point that is blatantly overlooked by parents, golf coaches, and S&C coaches when they make golfers run long distances for training, punishment, or whatever reason.

If you do this, hopefully the information above gives you pause. But if you still insist on it, I ask you to do these two things at the very least:

• Just as your golfer gets fit for clubs, if you make them run miles or stadium stairs, act responsibly and make sure they have the right shoes to fit their feet needs. Don’t tell a golfer with hypermobile, totally pronated feet to go running in any capacity with minimalist shoes—it will end poorly. Conversely, don’t let a golfer with hypomobile and supinated arches do all their prescribed running with incredibly rigid shoes. Step one is to ensure their footwear is appropriate for proper landing and push-off mechanics. Overuse injuries are already a big issue in golf; we don’t need any from running.
• Assess the running technique, please. Most golfers are not runners—they don’t run for their sport and probably have not run before. Assess them, coach them, and train them to run properly to limit these types of injuries.

Golfers are not runners by nature, so if we use running as a modality to achieve a training goal, we have a professional responsibility to ensure that we’re setting them up for success. We’ll never turn golfers into elite sprinters, but we can make a huge difference by taking a few minutes to go over the basics of proper mechanics.

In-Season

OK, you’ve arrived at the in-season. Your golfer is ready to take on the competition and have the season of their life. Now what?

Of the small (but growing) percentage of junior golfers who complete the off-season and pre-season training programs, the all too common answer is “play golf and start training again after the season.”

Most collegiate golf programs don’t train during weeks of competition for fear of being sore, and their off-season programs are not great. (A quick note—there are some outstanding programs with amazing S&C coaches; unfortunately, they are the exception and not the rule).

Most adults and seniors will substitute their three days on the treadmill for 30 minutes of rounds of golf.

Hopefully, you fall outside of these norms. But if you don’t, it would not be uncommon to hear complaints such as getting fatigued on the back 9, averaging 2-3 strokes higher on the 2nd and 3rd days of tournament play, and getting hurt 6-8 weeks into the season.

If you don’t use it, you lose it. This needs to be ingrained into the heads of golfers, golf coaches, and parents of junior golfers. If golfers have trained appropriately leading up to this point, they will not be sore training during the week of a tournament. But if you stop their training or substitute playing for another form of cardio without any S&C program to supplement, you’ll see a decrease in power and will likely fight aches, pains, and injury.

In-season, train one to two days per week so your golfers will maintain most of their power, strength, and club speed. #GolfPerformance Share on X

When it comes to in-season, we’ve found that training one to two days per week is ideal. Our golfers experience less than a 3% decrease in power and strength from the end of the off-season to end of the in-season (usually about 9-10 months). We always prioritize the first day of the week as one of our high neural-focused days and the second day as either a second high-neural day or, depending on how recovered the athlete feels, a low-neural day.

Failing to keep the intensity high and training consistent usually causes significant loss of strength throughout the season and subsequent loss of club speed.

Three Case Studies

Three extreme examples of high school senior golfers who went to three different high level Division 1 programs exemplify this epidemic well.

The first is a girl who, in a single semester, lost 6 mph in club speed (~18 yards) and 40% in her squat strength compared to when she left for college. The program did not touch a barbell once during the semester. Instead, she only did circuits with bands, balls, and dumbbells and did not work out during tournament weeks.

The second is a boy who, over many semesters, dropped significant percentile points in his club speed for his age group and also dropped in every single power metric that correlates to club speed compared to when he left for college. He experienced the same type of circuit-based programs as the girl above and no lifting during tournament weeks.

The final is a young woman who’s program prescribed her to run long distances, stadium stairs, etc. in her pre-season for conditioning and then again for various reasons throughout the season (mental toughness, etc.). She ended up missing tournaments because of shin splints from running and could not practice half the season. Her case is a vivid example of the golf team coach telling the S&C coach what to do, unfortunately.

These are just a few examples of poor ways to train the systems that are required for high-performance golf. If coaches in these situations followed the standard of explicitly describing the demands of the sport and then explaining how every element in the training plan supports these demands, I wouldn’t have these stories. And that would be great.

Closing Thoughts

Unfortunately, the stories go on and on and not only in the collegiate world. They’re also prolific in the adult and senior golf world where long, slow distance cardio is believed to be the solution to all things physical:

• Want to lose weight, do more cardio.
• Want to play better golf, do more cardio so you don’t get tired.
• Want to get your legs strong, do more cardio but mix it up among the bike, the rower, and the elliptical to maximize your strength gains.

These are serious beliefs held by many adults and senior golfers.

To break these false beliefs in all areas of golf performance, from juniors to seniors and everything in between, we need to rephrase the question. Move away from asking “what sort of conditioning should I do for golf?” toward “how do I train for peak performance?”

It's time to start training golfers for peak performance and stop conditioning for golf. #GolfPerformance Share on X

Training for peak performance in golf encompasses all of the sections of this post. Golfers need to have the mobility to get from point A to point B in their golf swing. They need to be strong enough to produce enough club speed to enjoy the game and be competitive. And they need to have enough physical capacity to endure an entire round of golf while maintaining these mobility and power output needs. If a golfer fails in any of these three realms, they will struggle.

So what does conditioning for golf mean to you? How should you do it? If I’ve done my job, you know the answer now.

Since you’re here…
…we have a small favor to ask. More people are reading SimpliFaster than ever, and each week we bring you compelling content from coaches, sport scientists, and physiotherapists who are devoted to building better athletes. Please take a moment to share the articles on social media, engage the authors with questions and comments below, and link to articles when appropriate if you have a blog or participate on forums of related topics. — SF

I wrote a Romanian deadlift article for SimpliFaster some time ago. Since I’m not content to sit still, I continue to implement this lift in its purest form and with an expanding number of variations aimed at solving problems that can be answered by what is, at its core, a simple hip hinge movement.

In this article, I’ll cover more of the raw technical elements, as even with great guides being available, there is some consternation as to what constitutes a “pure” RDL and what mechanics we actually get from the movement. I’ll also cover implementation of complex contrast and clustered methods to the RDL and how we need to shift our thinking about the movement away from just considering it a mere assistance exercise.

RDL Technique and Its Potential Role in Hamstring Management

I see constant disagreement in the S&C community over hamstring muscle activation during the Nordic curl and whether it effectively activates the biceps femoris. During the Nordic curl, the muscle lengthening occurs at the knee joint and not at the hip and knee joint simultaneously, as can be argued with the RDL. From the McAllister et al. study from 2014, we see very high biceps femoris activation in the RDL like the glute ham raise, and their final suggestion matches mine: Train both GHR/Nordic type patterns and RDLs.

In most research, however, RDLs are loaded far too lightly. For instance, Boeckh-Behrens and Buskies (2000), who conducted an extensive EMG series, did not test the weighted Romanian deadlift with maximum weight due to “security reasons.” At least McAllister had people lifting double their body weight. This loading issue is where I suggest people rethink their approach to the RDL, as it should be given greater billing and not be consigned to the 3x 10-12 graveyard as a third- or fourth-string exercise. Its true potential shines at loads of 80% and far beyond.

In most research, RDLs are loaded far too lightly. Their true potential shines at loads of 80% and far beyond, says @WSWayland. Share on X

RDL technique is something I suggest you take a deep dive on. I mentioned it in my original article, and you should also give this video from Mark Rippetoe a thorough watch.

Much consternation is expressed about knee angle, with no more than 8-10 degrees at the knee being optimal. The key consideration is that the knees just need to be slightly unlocked and the bar swept into the legs, allowing the hips to be pushed back to allow a deeper stretch. If the bar isn’t kept close, this creates a lot of sheer force through the back, upsets mid-foot balance, and generally spoils execution.

I find that advanced RDL users can still achieve good hamstring feel even with a knee that’s slightly more bent. This is because advanced users are confident in really pushing the hips backward to achieve greater stretch. Anatomy matters, too. It may seem silly to point out, but athletes with larger hamstrings will appear to bend their knee more.

Additionally, arm length will obviously influence termination of the hinge, as will hamstring flexibility. Therefore, giving out strict depth requirements really doesn’t work. Somewhere between mid-shin and the bottom of the knee is usually about right. Straps are generally fair game, as most athletes will struggle to keep a grip over long times under tension or with near maximal load.

Key Coaching Points for RDL

Here are some key cues for athletes doing the Romanian deadlift:

1. Set bar high in the rack just below lock out.
2. Set hips before you pull bar out of the rack to avoid overextension.
3. Take a minimum number of steps backward—aim for 2-3.
4. Contract lats and belly breathe.
5. Unlock the knees.
6. Lead with the hips backward.
7. Keep the bar in contact with the legs. Keep the lats active throughout.
8. Descend using feel in the hamstrings to dictate depth.
9. If you feel the need to unlock the spine to go lower, that is low enough.
10. Squeeze the glutes and press the big toe into the floor to reverse the movement.
11. At the top, breathing and lat reset may be necessary on very heavy RDLs.

Cal Dietz and Chris Korfist changed the way I cue RDLs by encouraging toe up on the descent and a short big toe mechanic on the way up. I was initially wary, but they made a compelling argument. The idea is to root the foot and hook the big toe to the floor—a lot of people assume it means curling the big toe/foot, which is different. Rooting the foot and curling the big toe appears to prompt a greater contraction response from the glute.

By adding big toe drive to the RDL, I discovered two things: athletes felt the movement more in their glutes and bar velocities went up at a given load, says @WSWayland. Share on X

I suggest checking out this great simple guide by Roy Pumphrey. The classic demonstration is of an ordinary RDL and then another where the big toe is driven into the ground. While test-retest has its shortfalls, it’s a great way to demonstrate the concept. By adding big toe drive, I discovered two things: athletes felt the movement more in their glutes and bar velocities went up at a given load. Some smart EMG usage in the future can hopefully figure out whether this is a real neurological phenomenon or an athlete intent issue.

Common Mistakes, and How to Polish Technique

RDLs, while outwardly simple, do have a number of technical pitfalls trainees can fall into, especially if they have faulty hinge mechanics. This ranges from just maybe adjusting grip slightly to having to give external cues and regressions to fix problems.

Unlocking the Knees at the Bottom

This occurs when the trainee attempts to go lower. They’ll often push their knees forward to find depth. This is countered by working on fundamental hinge mechanics, cueing pushing the hips backward, and then feeling for stretch in the hamstring.

Bar Drifting Away

This is often the result of not being active with the upper back. Cueing athletes to engage their back and lats will often result in them pulling the bar back into thigh contact. It’s important this is coached out quickly because, with high loads, this adds a lot of sheer force through the spine.

T-Spine Flexion as a Depth Strategy

Again, this is often a case of someone not having spent time practicing solid hinge mechanics. The same cue for bar drift often works well. If this occurs in heavier loaded RDLs, it is often a lack of good upper back strength, so focus on rows and practicing isometric horizontal pulling.

Overextension

This is more common with very heavy RDL users, who use lumbar extension to get a greater stretch in the hamstrings. While a small amount of extension is tolerable, overextension can lead to impingement and irritation of the lower back. By encouraging the athlete to find neutral and take a solid belly breath, it becomes much harder to use overextension as a setup. The other thing to check is that they are not overextending when they unrack the bar and not subsequently fixing their position.

Extreme Cervical Extension

While, outwardly, this seems like a small technical oversight, this is often a strategy used to maintain good spinal position and drive global extension. Encourage chin packing and building good mid-back strength. This is also a strategy we see if we employ snatch grip RDLs as an extension strategy.

Improper Grip Causing T-Spine Collapse

When the grip begins to open, athletes chase the bar with the T-spine. It may seem obvious, but using straps, chalk, and proper grip width close to the body can eliminate this issue. It’s an oversight that can stop heavy RDLs from being effective.

Supramaximal RDLs and Considerations for Hamstring Injury Prevention

I have written about supramaximal methodologies before, suggesting: “Compressed intensive training is a period in which we apply the greatest stimulus to accumulate the desired response in the shortest time possible—this is where we apply supramaximal training. Supramaximal training is one of the approaches that excites muscular physiologists, as it leads to rapid adaptations and a reduced need for the repeat exposures we get from the same contraction focus at submaximal loads. Time, as a commodity, is always in short supply.” It’s not for the faint of heart, nor the inexperienced.

This approach is how I have gained enormous ground in getting more out of Romanian deadlifts. Supramaximal RDLs represent the highest intensities we can achieve with this movement. Supramaximal RDLs are a challenge to the entire organism from head to toe—traps, posterior chain, grip, and the ability to withstand a certain amount of spinal sheer are all elements in the movement.

Video 1. Going very heavy requires excellent technique and patient progression of overload. Use a load that you know would be nearly impossible to perform strictly with a concentric effort.

The other important element that I believe supramaximal RDLs promote is quality lengthening of hamstrings fascicles. This is very difficult to do with the current schema of RDL exercises we see endorsed. I’ve talked before about the force/stability relationship at low velocities. Single leg RDLs, which seem to be an injury prevention/rehab staple, are limited in their usefulness. If you are going to make meaningful qualitative structural changes, you need load and lots of it, and that isn’t possible on one leg.

If you are going to make meaningful qualitative structural changes, you need load and lots of it, and that isn’t possible on one leg, says @WSWayland. Share on X

By making the most of bilateral facilitation, we can dig deep into what the hamstrings are capable of tolerating. Carl Valle had this to say on the subject: “Another reason I don’t do too many single leg RDLs is that fatigue of the low back needs to be considered, as well as time constraints. If I do three sets of heavy RDLs and use typical rest periods, it’s far more efficient than doing six sets to ensure both legs are trained with the same approximate load. While a fresh leg might be ready to go after the other leg is completed, the lower back is still used and needs a break.”

While I encourage the usage of supramaximal RDLs, this method comes with a few caveats. If your population is not very exposed to RDLs, start with conventional RDLs at submaximal loads and modest eccentric tempos to build tolerance. High-speed running athletes also need to be careful, as this type of movement will heavily reinforce hamstring tonus and tension. Performing this type of work with concurrent maximum velocity running would make for a poor combination. If you use them together, do it prudently.

A supramaximal block would then be best followed by band overspeed eccentrics (mentioned later in this article). This type of work for field athletes fits squarely into the off-season or farthest from competition periods. One positive is that repeat exposures build tolerance with supramaximal methods. A caveat is that this method has the potential to make some individuals incredibly sore. Supramaximal exercises slot into my programming for athletes with higher training ages. Anecdotally, I usually bring these in year 2 or 3 for athletes who spend several repeat off-seasons with me.

I use two approaches in sequencing supramaximal eccentrics, terminating mid-shin and supramaximal isometrics pausing somewhere between mid-shin and the knee. We do not perform one rep maximums, which require both a descent/lowering and concentric/upward lift, since a technical aberration here could be highly injurious. Instead, we do our best with doubles or triples as the jumping-off point for applying up to 25% more load to make the movement supramaximal.

Usually, I’ll have an athlete perform singles for durations of 7-10 seconds to keep the movement alactic, but also assure enough time under tension. Two spotters will then hoist the bar back to starting position. Lifting straps are allowed and even encouraged; the challenge here isn’t on grip, but on the posterior chain. Due to the concentric-free nature of this movement, I often pair it with something like heavy KB swings or light rack pulls.

Table 1 below shows the conventional triphasic integration from the original submaximal approach, as outlined by Cal Dietz. While I still use this with athletes at lower training ages, I now look to include near or supramaximal loading schemes (table 2).

You can employ this as a compressed method, as I outlined in “Applying the Compressed Triphasic Model with MMA Fighters.” You can use supramaximal methods to spur rapid systemic changes when done prudently.

Contrast, Clusters, and the RDL

I’ve recently started adding contrast/complex and clusters to the RDL. I introduced this big change when I stopped considering the RDL just another assistance exercise and started seeing it as a performance driver. These can be bolted on with varying complexity to your conventional RDL programming. If you do decide to employ these methods, I suggest checking out this article on clusters and their versatility and this one by Joel Smith on complex and contrast training.

Video 2. Isometric exercises can help athletes break through stubborn plateaus when the primary lift slows down in improvement. KB swings with bands are also effective either for complimenting the isometric RDL or performed in isolation.

I added contrast/complex and clusters to the RDL when I stopped considering it just another assistance exercise and started seeing it as a performance driver, says @WSWayland. Share on X

I won’t labor over the explanation of the concepts here, as I would just be repeating their main points verbatim. Contrasting is the simple method of having a heavy loaded movement followed by a mechanically similar movement, albeit at much high velocities to take advantage of the potentiation phenomenon and counteract the overactive braking heavy eccentrics can give us. By employing contrast exercises, we get a training effect across the V/F spectrum. I add these because the pure RDL is not a great power builder in competent populations. The best partnered movements I’ve found are banded KB swings, Dimmel-style pulls, and hinge-based horizontal med ball throws.

Example Contrast Methods:

A1) RDL 4 x 3

A2) Heavy KB swing or Dimmel deadlift 4 x 5

French Contrast:

A1) RDL 4 x 3

A2) Banded KB swing 4 x 5

A3) Overspeed RDL 4 x 3

A4) Horizontal med ball jump (holding on to med ball for assist) 4 x 5

Potentiation Cluster:

A1) RDL 4 x 1,1,1,1

A2) Med ball overhead throw 4 x 1,1,1,1

Performed alternating with moderate rest between singles.

French Contrast Potentiation Cluster (FCPC):

A1) RDL 4 x 1,1,1,1

A2) Banded KB swing 4 x 1,1,1,1

A3) Hang high pull 4 x 1,1,1,1

A4) Horizontal med ball jump (holding on to med ball for assist) 4 x 1,1,1,1

Performed alternating with moderate rest between singles.

The FCPC represents the most integrative, dense, and sophisticated of the above options. I suggest it only for athletes with the right training age, time, and space to perform all the necessary components. Having options like this available can help turn RDLs into performance drivers in combination with smart clustering and training density moderation.

Other RDL Implementations and Variations

The RDL family of movements includes the widely popular single leg RDLs, Zercher good mornings, and DB RDLs. Opportunity for variation lies not just in mechanics, but also in the speed of application, which give us plenty of combinations to experiment with.

Extreme Duration RDL

I started playing around with extreme duration RDLs, but only lightly loaded with small dumbbells and just plates. Then I started to add barbell variations. This stretch under load is a great way for trainees to really feel their hamstrings contribution on a hinge movement, provided they maintain a solid neutral spine and don’t hang out through their lower back. The difference between this and, say, the supramaximal RDL is that submaximal loading and the total time under tension are usually around 30+ seconds. I’ve found these work well as GPP exercises or as end stage exercises in hamstring rehabilitation.

Band Overspeed Eccentric RDL and Drop Catch RDL

Athletes who operate at high speeds need high-speed hamstrings to match. I usually follow heavy RDL patterns with periods of conventional and then finally overspeed movements, where the athlete actively punches the barbell to the floor either with or without bands. This combination of elastic response and rapid contract relax takes the heavy structural changes we can achieve with supramaximal work and adds a much-needed neural component.

Video 3. The catch of a ballistic RDL is to teach rapid contraction and isn’t a true eccentric overload exercise due to the weight used. Still, it’s a great exercise for many environments outside of speed athletes.

Sumo RDL

The Sumo RDL is the red-headed stepchild and increasingly Insta-famous member of the RDL family. Its wider stance adds a greater adductor element to the movement and obviously places greater stretch on the hamstring. The Sumo RDL also acts as a great remedy to a lot of the technical issues I mentioned earlier in this article—getting trainees to sling their arms between their legs leads to a much more natural feel and intuitiveness to the movement. With a wider stance, this is obviously an accessory for Sumo deadlifters.

Video 4. If the sumo position is suitable for your athletes, it may be a great option. Choose a foot position and width that is in harmony with the anatomy of the athlete.

Snatch Grip RDL

I touched on the snatch grip variant in the last article, but I didn’t explore it fully. The Snatch Grip RDL can be plugged into a program in lieu of the conventional RDL. The movement calls for greater ROM, massive T-spine stability, and strength, so if an athlete lacks the lat, posterior shoulder, trap, and T-spine strength for conventional RDLs, this acts as a great starting point.

There is less total intensity for the lower body because of the limit the upper body tolerance places on the movement. Because of this, it often makes appearances in my in-season programming. With upper body recovery rates being higher, the feel of intensity remains but the total systemic load is lower. It’s great for athletes who like to feel worked, but don’t need or desire the lower body hammering conventional RDLs can dish out.

Video 5. Using a snatch grip can work if you make sure you are careful with barbell racking and try straps if necessary. The snatch grip is a great option for many situations and offers an effective variation for coaches.

While setup and execution are like the conventional RDL, on setup I usually suggest this movement be trained on blocks or catchers. That’s because the J hooks on racks can interfere with snatch grip setup if you go from a top-down setup and subsequently try and return the bar to the catchers.

Making the Most of the RDL

I’ve been coaching long enough to understand the flaw in being attached to any exercise, but with attachment comes the potential for greater understanding of the nuances. The RDL was something I was taught before I saw the modern nomenclature of the “hinge” make its appearance—what is old is new again. I remember being at a seminar with a well-known coach demonstrating his “hinge” principles and I remarked that it was just an RDL. Sure, “hinge” is a snappier name, but we are really just arguing semantics.

I’ve been coaching long enough to understand the flaw in being attached to any exercise, but with attachment comes the potential for greater understanding of the nuances, says @WSWayland. Share on X

My interest only grew when I made the jump into triphasic training and started exploring it more deeply through various mode of contraction. Hopefully, some of these ideas I laid out can help you make the most of the humble RDL. Just make sure you match the athlete’s competencies to the method, and the RDL can be an enduring staple of their training for a long time to come.

Since you’re here…
…we have a small favor to ask. More people are reading SimpliFaster than ever, and each week we bring you compelling content from coaches, sport scientists, and physiotherapists who are devoted to building better athletes. Please take a moment to share the articles on social media, engage the authors with questions and comments below, and link to articles when appropriate if you have a blog or participate on forums of related topics. — SF

As coaches, we love to be in control. We work hard to minimize variables and create scenarios for our athletes that we can rehearse and repeat. After all, “we are what we repeatedly do so excellence is a habit.”

This mindset is definitely seen in most off-season training programs, as coaches use closed chain movement patterns and traditional lifting patterns to improve performance. While many of these movements are great tools to build an athletic foundation, we need to assess if they are the best use of our time for improving performance. Time is our biggest limiting factor in improving performance, so we want to make sure our exercise selection and programming give us the greatest amount of transfer to our sport.

Time is our biggest limiting factor in improving performance, so we want to make sure our exercise selection and programming give us the greatest amount of transfer to our sport. Share on X

It is this thought process that has led our staff to look at using asymmetrical training methods in our off-season training. Sports, particularly team sports, demand that athletes create force in a variety of planes with asymmetrical forces. Athletes need to be equipped to create these forces in a variety of scenarios, including:

1. Running on a curve that requires athletes to use different forces on the inside/outside leg.
2. Transferring weight and changing directions.
3. Working through contact forces found in sports like football, lacrosse, soccer, and basketball.

Traditional training methods that lean heavily on bilateral lifts and linear plane movements often don’t meet these demands. As coaches, we had to make a choice: prepare our athletes to win at our off-season exercises or prepare our athletes to win on the field. To us, the choice was simple. The question was how to best implement this in our training.

While there are countless ways you can incorporate asymmetrical training into your program, we settled on these five easy-to-implement methods for ours.

1. Use curved runs in our speed development.
2. Add partner forces to apply pressure in different planes.
3. Use bands in our speed/agility work to create asymmetric loads.
4. Choose more unilateral movements.
5. Use unstable loads.

For this article, we will focus on methods 1-3.

Curved Runs for Complete Speed

We have incorporated curved runs in a variety of ways to help our athletes. We love how they make us navigate different forces and also compel us to learn how to change postures in our running mechanics. With that in mind, we looked to progress our athletes from:

1. Curve to upright (e.g., curved approach flying sprint).
2. Curve to change direction (e.g., three-point run to coach signal, tennis ball drop).
3. Upright approach to curve (e.g., straight fly to full speed curve).
4. Upright to curve to upright (e.g., approach to three-point run to finish).
5. Reactive based on partner (e.g., three-point chase, curved fly to chase, etc.).

We love how curved runs make us navigate different forces and compel us to learn how to change postures in our running mechanics, says @LUCoachTreske. Share on X

We look to make our speed work as reactive as possible, so all runs are based on a key movement or partner movement.

Key coaching points for the curve:

• Lean into curve.
• Head leads the body.

Video 1. Running a few sprints tracing the three-point line on a basketball court is a great way to feel asymmetrical centripetal forces to the body. If you want to add athleticism to the drill, include variations like tag or chasing.

Partner Forces for Immediate Feedback

As a football coach, I love utilizing partner force runs because they definitely replicate the contact we encounter on the field. However, as we’ve worked with our other team sports, we’ve found great ways to create drills that simulate the uneven contact basketball or soccer athletes encounter as well. Contact on the upper platform changes how the body needs to navigate movement. From face-to-face contact at the line of scrimmage in football to an offensive player looking to disengage a defender trying to cut them off on a sprint to the hoop or goal in basketball/soccer, upper body contact is a common occurrence, and we want to train our athletes to navigate movement through the contact.

As with the curve runs, we looked to create a progression that increased the variables and difficulty for our athletes.

1. Linear sprint against partner in front/offset.
2. Linear sprint with partner on side.
3. Curved run with partner in front/offset.
4. Curved run with partner on side.
5. Partner-resisted sprint to reactive finish.

With all of these methods, we look to use a few coaching points.

Cue 1: Drive Out

This was something I learned after talking with Chris Korfist a few years ago. We were discussing the start of the sprint and how too many athletes often focus on keeping their shoulders down (trying to “stay low”). It hurts their stride length because they are applying force in different directions. Chris shared that he cues his athletes to “drive out.” He explained that the key to the start was for the athlete to project their hips out as quickly as possible. This is true of a push-resisted sprint as well, as the forces needed for both skills are horizontal.

Cue 2: Pop the Ground

Sprinting against forces is no easy task. As with traditional acceleration mechanics, ground contact times can be long, particularly for athletes with a weaker foot/ankle complex. This is even truer with resisted sprinting. As a result, we want our players focusing on strong, quick contacts. We use verbal cues, calling of the hands, etc. to reinforce. We also use elevated surfaces (e.g., a thin rubber mat, piece of track, etc.) placed through the run to force them to contact quicker if it is still an issue.

Cue 3 (for Side Forces): Lean into the Force

When our athletes work against side forces, we want them to treat it like a curved run. We want them to lean into the force and drive the off arm and leg as hard as they can. We feel this gives two benefits for one cue: It helps them continue to accelerate into the force, and it also provides a reduced contact area for an opponent to push them.

Resisted Sprints for Learning

We have found bands to be an incredible tool for biofeedback and body positioning. We also like that we can localize the resistance point. This is especially useful to help our athletes feel/focus on the key coaching points rather than just hearing a verbal cue from us.

Video 2. It doesn’t matter if you are pushed or pulled, adding asymmetrical force to conventional sprints or acceleration works very well for athletes in team sports. A small amount of chaos is great for preseason conditioning when practice time is unavailable, but you still need to be ready to play sooner than later.

There are a variety of ways to use bands within speed and agility work, but the framework we begin with is proximal to distal. We want to begin with the resistance closer to the athlete’s center of mass so they can control the movement and have strong patterns. As they improve, we work further out, usually with the band strapped around the opposite shoulder. Here are a few examples of the ways we incorporate bands.

• Band-resisted sprints with the band on hip and behind.
• Band-resisted sprint start with the band around hip and to the side.
• Band-resisted sprints with the band across the opposite shoulder and behind.
• Band-resisted sprint start with the band around the shoulder and to the side.

We use similar strategies with bands for change of direction mechanics, but that’s for another article.

Unilateral Movements – Bridging Maximal Strength for Transfer

Asymmetric training isn’t just for the field, gym, or track. We love to use asymmetrical movements in the weight room as well. While we still utilize bilateral movements such as the deadlift and squat variations to improve acceleration, we believe in supplementing our training with asymmetrical methods to aid in COD, top-end speed, and nonlinear movements on the field/court.

Video 3. A combination movement like the rocker is more than just a single leg squat, it’s also a mobility exercise and an activation drill. You can put the rocker into a lifting program, a warm-up, and even a recovery day.

When using asymmetrical methods in the weight room, we begin with simple unilateral movements and loading. From traditional movements like lunge variations and single leg deadlifts to single arm presses/rows, we’ve found that using asymmetrical training helps us improve performance. One thing to note when programming is that we look to progress the athlete to unilateral movements with single limb or variable loading due to the challenge in stability and execution. As you design your program, just know there are myriad options to solve the puzzles your athletes present, and you’re only limited by your creativity.

Here are a few of our favorite asymmetric weight room movements to start with.

Single Limb Lifts

Single leg RDL

PNF raises

Kneeling step-up

ISO RDL to step-up

ISO RDL to one-arm row

Single Leg Plyos

Rocker jumps

Kneeling jump

Video 4. The band-supported (or assisted) rockers are great for ankle range of motion and learning the motion. Assisted rockers are not explosive or strength exercises.

Variable (Unstable) Loads

Asymmetric training in the weight room is not just limited to your movement selection. In addition to the movements I talked about, we also love the use of variable loading in our movements. We feel using uneven loading or variable loading compels our athletes to problem-solve to execute fundamental movements. They learn body control by handling different forces throughout the duration of the movement.

Asymmetric training in the weight room is not just limited to movement selection. We also love the use of variable loading in our movements, says @LUCoachTreske. Share on X

We believe that using variable loads more closely mimics the situations our athletes encounter on the field and court. Contact and force change as the game is played, and we want our athletes to be prepared for that. One thing to note: This is a more challenging method and one we progress to over time. I will also say the training age of our college athletes allows us to progress a little faster than if we were at the high school level.

Loaded Movements – Details That Matter

As I mentioned previously, only your creativity and equipment limit you in developing unstable loads to solve your athletes’ problems. We have used a wide variety of movements with variable loading, but here are a few of our favorites.

Phantom/Uneven Weights

This method was first introduced to me by Eric Donoval, the Associate Director of Sports Performance for Football at the University of Wyoming. We utilized a “phantom step-up” by performing a traditional barbell step-up using uneven loading on the bar. By loading the side opposite the step leg, we forced more glute med engagement and lateral hip/core stability. You can utilize this method with a wide variety of movements to help the athlete learn to stabilize and control a load. We progress the movement by increasing the load disparity.

Video 5. The use of a phantom step-up adds variety with a purpose to any training program. The asymmetrical loading pattern is very mild and just enough to keep athletes honest.

Medball Catch to Redirect

This method is great because it’s easy to teach and implement, especially in large group settings. We begin by placing the athlete in a critical position (start, toe off, COD position, jump landing, etc.). The athlete then receives a medball toss from a partner and has to display the sequential movement.

There are a variety of different movements you can do following the catch, but we typically progress it as follows: catch to throw, catch to jump, catch to sprint. To progress the loading, we change the plane, location, and velocity of the initial catch. This has been a great method to target upper body rotation, particularly with our change of direction work.

Video 6. Many coaches get bored with using the same routines so spicing things up without getting silly is the name of the game. Add important movement patterns by learning to load and release with asymmetrical patterns.

Aqua Bags (Banded PVCs with Weights)

Frans Bosch and Chris Korfist have popularized this method. Aqua Bags are phenomenal tools for providing variable loading, and I learned firsthand how challenging they can be to control when shadowing one of Chris’ track workouts. If you aren’t able to purchase Aqua Bags, there are alternatives.

If you are handy, one option is to purchase a thick PVC pipe, fill it with water, and seal it. Another option is the method we utilize with our athletes, and that is to wrap bands with light weights looped in around each end of a PVC pipe. The slack in the band allows for the weights to move as the athlete moves. It is an effective method that we love to use with any movement that requires hip stability, though admittedly the Aqua Bags are the easier option to use for athletes.

Mastering Banded Movements with Athletes

Bands are a tremendous way to add variable loading in the weight room. This method is by no means new, as the Westside Barbell and powerlifting community has utilized it with great success for quite some time; however, the method is often overlooked as a way to address asymmetrical needs and individual weaknesses. There are a ton of great resources on incorporating bands in the weight room, but there are a few things that have worked for us in progressing the movements and loads.

The incorporation of bands in the weight room is often overlooked as a way to address asymmetrical needs and individual weaknesses, says @LUCoachTreske. Share on X

Movements: We progress the banded weight room movements from bilateral to unilateral, both for movement difficulty and for the challenge in implementation.

Example of Bilateral Movement: Band-Resisted to Band-Assisted Broad Jump

We are big fans of using bands with our broad jumps, especially from a pause start, as it forces the athlete to generate power from a start position with no countermovement. From this position, we execute both a resisted jump (to emphasize the initial push phase) and an assisted jump (to emphasize hip extension). We add hops or small depth drops to the approach as well.

Example of Unilateral Movement: Band-Aided Pistol Squats to Assisted Single Leg Jumps

The band has been a great tool to help teach single leg motor control and ankle mobility. Once we can get the athlete to demonstrate strong positions (shin/torso angle parallel), we implement jumps and transitions from the position. We start with holding the band during an eccentric on the descent to releasing it on a jump. We then progress to bodyweight movements and later to band-assisted jumps where athletes have to learn to control greater forces from a single leg stance.

Loads: We progress the bands from the angles we attach first (proximal to distal) to higher resistance bands. We love this because we can do the same movements with a different effect and intent.

Example of Proximal to Distal Load: Band-Aided Pistol Squats/Assisted Single Leg Jumps

Utilizing the same movement we described before, we can use the band location to force the athlete to handle the load differently. When we want to emphasize the ankle and foot’s ability to handle the load, we place the band further in front of the athlete. When we want to target lateral hip stability, we begin to work the band further to either side of the athlete. As we mentioned before, we progress to bodyweight transitions and assisted jumps. We also alter the planes we begin with and the type of approaches we use as the athlete progresses.

A Few Recommendations

The demands of sport don’t require preparation in one plane; nor do they require balanced loading and transfer of force. Asymmetric training is one way we can prepare our athletes—particularly those who encounter contact—to excel in their given sport. In addition to the exercises discussed in this article, we aim to use the weight room to address asymmetric needs as well.

Our staff feels we are only scratching the surface for ways to incorporate this method, and even a quick glance at Twitter shows others are as well. I look forward to sharing more of what we do and learning from great minds in the coaching world.

Since you’re here…
…we have a small favor to ask. More people are reading SimpliFaster than ever, and each week we bring you compelling content from coaches, sport scientists, and physiotherapists who are devoted to building better athletes. Please take a moment to share the articles on social media, engage the authors with questions and comments below, and link to articles when appropriate if you have a blog or participate on forums of related topics. — SF

Back when I taught forensics, I used to tell my students that they needed to understand their opponent’s argument just as well—if not better—than their own. In the sports realm, an ongoing issue coaches continue to debate is strength training as it relates to both sprinters and distance runners. As you’ve perhaps noticed, most coaches have strong opinions on the subject.

Although health issues caused my unanticipated retirement from coaching, I still enjoy being part of the discourse and sharing views with colleagues from around the country, as well as the current members of the Lisle High School coaching staff. In this post, I’ll present the strength training argument from different perspectives.

There is no Holy Grail of #StrengthForSpeed. The perfect training, like a perfect cup of coffee, is always going to be subjective, says @Zoom1Ken. Share on X

In this regard, I’ve covered two positions on this issue. Neither of these sides actually represents my current thinking on the debate, but they do highlight that there is no Holy Grail of strength for speed. The perfect training, like a perfect cup of coffee, is always going to be subjective.

Barry Ross, Allyson Felix, and Breakthrough Training

I began my pursuit of strength training for speed in the 1970s with exercises performed on a Universal machine—that’s all the school owned, and they wanted coaches to use it to justify the expense. Later, I experimented with Olympic lifts a few years after Valeriy Borzov’s success in the 100m and 200m dashes in 1972. I paid a lot of attention to the outstanding translations of Russian research, thanks to the efforts of the great Dr. Michael Yessis, for whom we all owe a debt of gratitude for translating such an important body of research. After that stretch, I went through a period of no lifting, believing that some of the fastest sprinters at the time, like Carl Lewis, didn’t follow any strength training protocols. My next run at the high office of elite sprint coaching involved no lifting but lots of jump training and plyometrics.

That changed in 2004 when Barry Ross—a high school throws coach and renowned garage lifter from the 1960s—contacted me about a strength program he had been using at LA Baptist with the legendary sprinter Allyson Felix. That approach, which involved heavy deadlifting, was based on his interpretation of the seminal research on ground support forces conducted by Dr. Peter Weyand at Harvard University. Many criticized Ross’s method, which he highlighted in his book, Underground Secrets to Faster Running: Breakthrough Training for Breakaway Running.

Part of the interest he generated, as well as some of the criticism, was because of his link to a genuinely elite young sprinter, Allyson Felix. Some wondered if the Holy Grail he claimed to have found was not a specific strength training program but simply Felix herself—a rare talent who would have performed brilliantly under any coaching regimen.

Though it seems Barry capitalized on the performances of such a gifted athlete, the reality—as he points out in his book—was that Felix approached him, saying “I want to lift weight with you.” Felix made that decision after returning from a US Junior National Championships event where, even though she was just a high school freshman, testing revealed that she already ranked at the elite levels in almost every category—except her strength, where she was below the minimal rating scale.

Rather than relying on the established “garage routines” he had learned from the great George Wood and Dave Davis, Ross carefully studied the seminal works of Dr. Peter Weyand and Leena Paavolainen. Weyand’s research introduced him to the concept of mass-specific force, and Paavolainen’s study pointed out that reduced contact times were a significant factor in faster running speeds.

The Barry Project: Applying the Ross Method with High School Runners

During my numerous and lengthy conversations with Barry Ross—via a phone my family referred to as the Barry Hot Line—I proposed a challenge: I would train a single subject, a fairly successful distance runner (10:03 two-miler), who had never touched a weight his first three years of high school. The challenge required that I follow Ross’s procedures to the letter and send him video clips of the athlete’s progress. The results were quite astonishing. The runner, who struggled to deadlift slightly more than his body weight (119 lbs.) in the first two sessions was pulling 300 just seven weeks later and maxing for the season at 340.

The plyometrics routines also showed dramatic improvement, to the point that, on a fairly warm day in January (a 50-degree day in Illinois being an oddity), we went to the track to test his fly-in speed over 75 meters. He improved from a career-best of 9.56 to 9.26. That spring, while suffering from a pulmonary infection, he struggled in both the 3,200 and 1,600, but in the 800, he went from a best of 2:18 to 2:08. For the first time in his prep career, he ran the opening leg of our state-qualifying 4x800m relay.

That performance was certainly impressive, but when we later adopted the program with our entire team, I began to wonder if his dramatic improvements could have been achieved without any specific protocol simply because he had no prior strength training experience. Dramatic gains in novices are not that unusual. Nevertheless, I stayed with the Ross protocol because all our athletes had impressive strength gains and enjoyed trying to make Ross’s deadlifting Hall of Fame by pulling 2.5 x body weight. I had to send Ross images of my athletes at different points of their qualifying lift to validate that the lift was indeed authentic and not just staged, a requirement that further excited team members.

Debate—A Regulated Discussion Between Two Matched Sides

Some of the things below you’ll agree with; others you won’t for good reasons. The title of this post, “The Politics of Strength Training for Speed,” refers to something Senator Eugene McCarthy once said about politics being a lot like football: “You have to be smart enough to understand the game,” he said, “but dumb enough to think it’s important.”

My version is slightly different. Strength training for speed is indeed a lot like politics: You have to be smart enough to understand the best approaches by which strength training can improve speed, but dumb enough to think coaches will all agree on the best way to achieve this end.

I’ll begin with two insights, one that addresses Weyand’s contribution to Barry’s thinking, and the other that highlights why Paavolainen’s insights made sense to him. Dan Cleather noted the following: “Many of the capabilities that people train for (e.g., acceleration, velocity, agility, power) are just variations of a person’s ability to express force.” According to Cleather, it’s critically important to remember that the capacity that determines the ultimate performance within a skill is the ability to express force.

Dutch coach Frans Bosch has very strong opinions on strength training for speed. Because he believes that distance runners are just sprinters with bad coordination, his insights reflect that endurance runners should take strength training seriously for their events as well. “When highly trained endurance athletes reach a ceiling in their oxygen uptake,” Bosch said, “greater mileage will not improve it.” He believes the best way to further increase V02 max is through maximal strength training.

So, here’s my point and counterpoint on strength training. While these do not reflect my current views, I present them as viable arguments.

The Argument for the Ross Protocol: Should the Future Look Different than the Past?

Should the future look different from the past? I recently raised this question—and the next question below—after considering how contemporary views on strength training are moving away from the reductionist thinking that seemed so attractive to me years back.

If I were coaching for another five years or more—understanding that the focus is moving toward co-contraction and velocity based training—would I change my approach (deadlifting protocol) to accommodate a growing body of evidence corroborating the efficacy of taking into account the coordination of muscles groups as well as the speed of movement?

My conclusion: I would continue with the deadlift as we have in the past. The Ross protocol I used with my high school athletes accomplished what Ross believed is critical for strength to have an impact on speed:

• Athletes need to produce superior strength with minimal mass. According to Ross, athletes who can deliver additional ground force of 1/10^thof their body weight would realize an increase in maximum speed of one full meter per second.
• The strength training program takes into account the appropriate regeneration of the phosphagen pool; athletes have to recover to sustain intensity.
• The lifts should engage multiple joints and muscles.
• High school athletes have varying degrees of skill and, to achieve the mechanical adaptations necessary for faster sprinting, they need to sprint. The program should be efficient as well as effective in getting the athletes running fast on the track.
• For our situation, the program required minimal equipment and reduced preparation downtime. We were able to deadlift right on the track during good weather and in my classroom on inclement weather days. Like a traveling circus, we could set up and take down quickly.

In terms of results, our athletes got stronger without getting bigger; Ross believed that the disadvantage of added mass was a greater gravitational pull. As Dr. Mike Young often notes, “fat don’t fly.” If the goal is to generate and transmit muscular force to the ground, and if increased forces result in greater speed, our results were similar to those Rory Fawley found with his University of Idaho athletes (see Image 4 below).

A focused, high-intensity workout using just the bench press and the deadlift resulted in significant gains in strength and significant increases in speed. He concluded that “this program could be greatly beneficial to any coaching staff that wants significant gains in strength and speed in an abbreviated time frame.”

Ross believed that his training method for increasing mass-specific force “should be preferred until it is proven wrong, while every aspect of training that is irrelevant should be removed.” His formula for success is indeed attractive in its simplicity:

• Base all sets and reps on 1RM’s, staying at or above 90% and 100% as often as possible.
• Randomly select between intense days and high volume days.
• Keep pushing to establish a new max when you can easily do three reps of your current max.

Many coaches who struggle to add more aspects of contemporary training into their programs appreciate the simplicity of a strength protocol like this. For the level of athletes my colleagues and I coach, the actual training ages of these athletes, and the results they achieve in terms of moving metal—and moving faster—Ross’s breakaway training can result in breakaway running. As the great Russian strength coach Pavel Tsatsouline might say, it’s a program that is “simple and sinister.”

The Counter-Argument on the Ross Protocol: Although the Ross Method Initially Improves Some Aspects of the Rate of Force Development, Is This, In Fact, the Best Approach?

I’ve made the argument for continuing the Ross protocol, but here is a very powerful argument as to why a reductionist approach in terms of strength for speed might not produce similar results as athletes increase their training age.

In fact, there are good reasons for considering that heavy strength training might limit the potential for speed improvement, and the early successes can mask long-range problems. As Mel Siff used to say, “Any idiot can train another idiot for the first year successfully.”

Although strength gains in an exercise do occur as a result of conventional heavy lifting, these gains don’t transfer from the exercise to sprinting movements. In other words, we need to focus on what the muscles are actually doing while our athletes are trying to sprint faster.

Research shows that the hip extensors (gluteus maximus, adductor magnus, and hamstrings) and the hip flexors (iliopsoas and rectus femoris) are the most significant contributors to lower body power. Since this is the case, we should concentrate on what happens during a sprint’s swing phase. Knee extensors (quadriceps) and knee flexors (hamstrings) contribute most to lower body power during the swing phase, and ankle plantar flexors (soleus and gastrocnemius) contribute most to lower body power in the stance phase.

Despite beliefs to the contrary, what happens in the stance phase is not associated with running speed. So, if we want to run faster, hip extensor and flexor power, and knee extensor and flexor power need to increase.

The best way to improve the ability of the hip extensors and flexors to generate power in the swing phase is to use high-velocity exercises, like jump squats with light loads and kettlebell swings (for the hip extensors). Over the past several years, I’ve moved to more kettle activity and trap bar jump squats.

The best way to improve the ability of the knee extensors and flexors to absorb power in the swing phase of the sprint is to use eccentric training that involves activities like reverse Nordic curls (for the knee extensors) and either Nordic curls or lying leg curls with eccentric overload (for the knee flexors).

With this in mind, here’s my conclusion for this side of the debate:

Heavy strength training is not the best way to produce the adaptations that contribute efficiently to force production for faster sprinting. It can work—and it appears to work well—with beginners and athletes with lower training ages. The argument I raised years ago about the neural adaptations I believed were taking place can be just as easily attained by high-velocity or eccentric training. High-velocity strength training for the hip extensors and flexors, combined with eccentric training for the knee extensors and flexors, may be a superior approach.

And that’s why I was excited about Bar Sensei for analyzing the lifting velocities. Though the simplicity of the Ross protocol for improving sprint speed remains popular, I’m not convinced it improves intramuscular coordination. And we know that even the slightest drops in intramuscular coordination can result in a huge drop-off in performance.

The most effective methods for training muscle groups used in sprinting may be those that target key muscles in the way that they will perform during high speed sprinting.

Closing Arguments

I hope these points reinforce that strength training is a lot like politics in that coaches—like candidates—have strong opinions on the best ways to help athletes achieve faster times in their events. But according to Bosch, strength is not an independent phenomenon. “The strongest athletes are by no means the fastest,” he said, “and evaluation of training always shows that, in technically complex sports, increasing force production does not automatically lead to improved performance.”

Coaches will continue to confront the negative relationship between overload and specificity, says @Zoom1Ken. #StrengthForSpeed. Share on X

Bosch once described conventional strength training as a “dead-end street.” Though seemingly controversial, he was pointing out that coaches will continue to confront the barriers presented by the negative relationship between overload and specificity. This central and peripheral model poses challenges. Strength activities that target the movements of sprinting—the central approach—are more specific, but difficult to overload. And strength activities that focus on overload—the peripheral approach—are not as specific to sprinting but are easily loaded. It’s like a teeter-totter.

The coaching conundrum is that exercises that achieve significant overload but are less specific, and exercises that are very specific but provide little overload, are “pointless.” And this leads Bosch to remind us, “There are no holy grails in training.” As a result, the choices we make in terms of strength training are often a cup better to keep passing on, knowing that we’ll never resolve the arguments either way.

I will conclude with one of my favorite insights from Mel Siff: “Science is not perfect; practice is not perfect; but together they have a greater chance of going a great deal further than separately!”

I believe the same applies to coaches. Our approaches and concepts may not be perfect, but by sharing our ideas without completely dismissing divergent points of view, we can accomplish more for our athletes than we would by working separately. I’d like to believe that, though none of us can lay claim to having found the Holy Grail of strength training, we’ll find some common ground, and, in the spirit of collegiality, “take a cup of kindness yet.”

Since you’re here…
…we have a small favor to ask. More people are reading SimpliFaster than ever, and each week we bring you compelling content from coaches, sport scientists, and physiotherapists who are devoted to building better athletes. Please take a moment to share the articles on social media, engage the authors with questions and comments below, and link to articles when appropriate if you have a blog or participate on forums of related topics. — SF

Additional References

Bosch, Frans. Strength Training and Coordination: An Integrative Approach. 2010.

Cleather, Dan. The Little Black Book of Training Wisdom: How to Train to Improve at Any Sport. 2018.

The purpose of this article is to explain the equipment and setup needs for an authentic youth athletic development program. In my training facility, training young athletes is not simply just an extra revenue stream. Athletic development for the youth athlete is what we do! We believe in long-term athletic development; therefore, our programs start with very young children learning with simple movement ABCs and physical literacy all the way through the high school, college, and adult athletic realms. The age group I spend most of my time with is between the ages of 9 and 13, which is late preadolescence to early adolescence.

An athletic development program for preadolescents and early adolescent athletes is not the same as a program for teenagers and adult athletes. To put it into the simplest terms, when you think about the typical strength and conditioning program exercises, exercises like deadlifts, squats, and Olympic lifts typically come to mind. For a youth athletic development plan, on the other hand, you should think in terms of exercises like jumps, hops, skips, and rolls.

A youth conditioning program should look more like a gym class from the 1950s than a 2018 strength and conditioning facility, says @JeremyFrisch. Share on X

Whereas the goal of the adult program is to develop qualities like speed and strength, the youth program aims to develop coordinative abilities like spatial awareness, balance, and movement adequacy. Although an introduction to strength training is an important component in any youth program, equipment like barbells, kettlebells, and trap bars are not must-haves when it comes to working with youth. A youth conditioning program should look more like a gym class from the 1950s than a 2018 strength and conditioning facility.

The following list contains some of the equipment pieces needed to develop all-around athleticism in young athletes age 6-13, and ideas on using them.

Gymnastics Mats

Fold-out or roll-out gymnastic mats are No. 1 on my list of equipment needs for youth athletic development. First and foremost, as a safety issue, they provide a soft surface in case someone falls. When working with kids, especially younger kids, falls happen all the time.

Video 1. Getting mats in the gym is a priority—both in terms of safety and for teaching needs. Good mats add value for all ages and activities, not just kids and gymnastics.

We have quite a few children who are just starting to play contact sports like football, hockey, wrestling, and lacrosse, so we introduce them to games like kings and pawns that have a rough-and-tumble component. Although looked down upon by some cautious parents and school administrators, rough-and-tumble play, especially for boys, is both completely natural and beneficial to developing long-term emotional control.

Second, mats provide a fantastic surface for doing what we call “floor work.” I consider floor work to be any movement or exercise done on the hands and feet. Kids can do these movements in place or as a form of locomotion.

Crawling will always have a place in my youth athletic development program because it trains so many qualities at once: namely coordination, systemic strength, and core stability. Share on X

The best-known floor work exercise that probably comes to mind is the bear crawl. Although crawling has become a bit over-sensationalized by the fitness industry and bastardized as a form of conditioning by crappy coaches over the past few years, it will always have a place in my youth athletic development programs because it trains so many qualities at once: namely coordination, systemic strength, and core stability.

Crash Pad

The crash pad is easily one of the most popular pieces of equipment with our young athletes. My facility is small, and the crash pad against the wall allows the athletes to sprint to full speed and not have to worry too much about decelerating too quickly or tripping into a brick wall. The kids often run hard into the pad, have a laugh, and continue on.

The crash pad is also a wonderful piece to use for landing from a dive, vault, roll, or flip. These movements provide the young athlete with a great opportunity to develop a better sense of where they are in space. We often combine sprinting, jumping, and diving with catching a ball, which is a movement seen in many sports. We believe these movements are trainable.

In the book “The Athletic Skills Model,” the authors mention a form of balance called “air balance”: “Maintained balance while in the air is important for running and sports involving jumping, hitting, smashing diving, rotating, falling, swaying or moving in the air while throwing, hitting, catching or kicking.” The book goes on to say, “These skills are also necessary for maintaining balance while rotating in the air in, for example, volleyball, baseball, basketball, handball, American football, rugby, and football.”

Mini Trampolines

Mini trampolines offer the young athlete the ability to increase air time. With increased air time, the athlete has the unique opportunity to practice various combinations of jumps and turns/spins along with creating efficient landing solutions. The first time I saw the use of mini-trampoline work was in the book “Refining Human Movement,” written by Paul Uram in 1968. The book had a progressive series of jumps consisting of 90- to 180- to 360-degree turns, as well as pike and tuck jumps.

It only took a few sessions of playing with the mini trampoline to see the wealth of movement opportunities it could offer the developing athlete. For jumping purposes, we combine continuous bounces, which are more vertical in nature, into a jump and landing off of the mini tramp, which is horizontal in nature. While the athlete is airborne, we look to slowly add progressively bigger turns.

Video 2. We love using trampolines with kids, as it encourages them to take flight and not fear falling. Athleticism in the air sometimes requires assistance and many key sporting actions occur off of the ground.

One of our favorite movement combinations consists of three consecutive vertical jumps, making sure we attain maximum height with good body control, into a jump off with a 180-degree turn and landing. Immediately upon landing, the athlete executes a backward shoulder roll. This combination of movements is called linking, where we combine different movements into one complex movement pattern to improve all-around coordination.

Blocking Pads

Anyone who ever played American football knows these pieces of equipment are a staple at football practice. These versatile little buggers are often used for teaching blocking or tackling techniques. When I had the chance to purchase a set of these pads for cheap, I jumped at the opportunity. Just one look at them gave me hundreds of movement ideas for young athletes.

Video 3. You can use Block Pads to make the environment more dynamic and exciting while still providing purpose beyond the teaching and training. Block Pads are the right combination of protection and firmness for nearly all exercises.

We often put them flat on the floor and use them as a warm-up tool to develop different fundamental movement skills like shuffling, backpedaling, and high stepping. With our older athletes, they work great as barriers for plyometrics-type activities. With our young children, we often stack them on top of each other and combine them with mini trampolines to create jumping and vaulting patterns.

Adjustable hurdles can also be a staple of youth training programs. With young athletes, flexibility training is not a huge concern. Kids, by their very nature, cannot sit still for very long, so holding long static stretches with any intent is not happening. Instead, we focus on moving through large ranges of motion.

Video 4. Stepping, ducking, crawling, and jumping using the hurdles provides a fun and challenging task that hits those large ranges of motion.

Tennis and Foam Balls

No youth training program would be complete without some type of safe ball catching and throwing. Catching and throwing has crossover into many, many sports, like baseball, softball, and football, so it is important to include various aspects of those movements in any coordination development program. And let’s not forget two of the most epic catching/throwing games: pickleball and dodgeball. These two classic games not only train throwing and catching skills, but also other physical skills like reaction and agility.

Video 5. Kids should throw, catch, and dodge soft and safe foam balls such as the Gator Skins from Gopher. Their performance site also sells great training equipment for sports development.

No youth training program is complete without some type of safe ball catching and throwing, as it has crossover into many, many sports, says @JeremyFrisch. Share on X

The Patch

The Patch is an adjustable indoor/outdoor obstacle course. Its lightweight but seemingly indestructible design with large beams and wide bases allows for multiple setups to practice many different fundamental movement skills, like crawling, leaping, jumping, and vaulting. When you break it all down, using the Patch allows for three basic activities: go over something, go under something, and go around something. This is a very simple but powerful concept for young athletes to understand.

Video 6. One of the most creative ways to get athletes balancing athletically is to use the Patch. Build endless patterns and challenges, all while making it safe for young athletes to play on.

Most of the time, I simply set up a series of obstacles and then let the kids figure out how to navigate through the course. The variety of different combinations is endless, and when combined with other equipment, it exposes the young athlete to a variety of movement challenges.

Stackable Trapezoid

Usually used in gymnastics academies, these Velcroed foam blocks are a great addition to any youth athletic development program. Similar to the Patch, the blocks provide endless variety. They can be broken down into separate pieces to run around and jump over. Stacked together, they provide varying heights to teach climbing and vaulting skills. Laying on their side, the children can run up the ramp or roll down the hill, both of which are great fun.

Video 7. Barriers and vaults are great for kids and are versatile for different activities. Older athletes can use them as well, provided you have the right plan.

Slant Boards

I was always a huge fan of “American Ninja Warrior,” especially the beginning of the race where the athletes have to leap back and forth from diagonal boxes without falling into the water. I thought it was such a great idea that I made a smaller version for the young athletes I work with. Although the Ninja Warrior setup is still a fan favorite of the kids, we’ve played around with the slant boards quite a bit and have come up with many other uses.

Video 8. Lateral agility and creative problem-solving activities radically improve when you add slant boards into the equation. They are perfect for all sports and age groups—but make sure you know how to safely set them up.

From an injury prevention standpoint, I really like jumping on and off these boards. The ankle complex gets challenged in different ways than from flat ground and jumping can be done in multiple planes and directions. To work on eye-hand coordination like catching, we often throw tennis balls off the boards.

Wrecking Ball

Football and strength coaches may be familiar with this oversized medicine ball, which looks like a round Mexican punching bag, and is used for specialized practice and contact drills. A giant boulder may look intimidating, but the shape and padding will not cause injury if used properly. Years ago, the military used large, oversized medicine balls for physical preparation, but youth athletes can benefit because it creates a simple constraint for games and other activities.

Video 9. You can use rolling pin style options or just an oversized medicine ball for fun and games. Here, the wrecking ball is a nice way to get kids to race and jump as an alternative to competing against each other.

For older athletes, change of direction drills can be more chaotic without increasing risk beyond what is necessary for sports preparation. Buying brand-new balls isn’t expensive, and it can be tricky to take in old equipment from outside sources due to bacterial risk from sweat and high use. Choose a ball that you can easily clean and maintain. While they are heavy, they do roll, so you can store them easily. Carl Valle started using them again after seeing videos on Twitter, and now believes they should be a staple from age 8 to pro levels.

Scooter Boards

Rounding off this list is a fan favorite of old-school physical education occupational therapy: the scooter board. Scooter boards are a fantastic tool to develop gross motor skills and functional strength in children. With wheels that roll and swivel smoothly, scooter boards offer plenty of freedom of movement. Children can move themselves along on the knees, supine, and prone, strengthening both the arms and legs.

Video 10. Scooters are a timeless, cost-effective option that can be incorporated in numerous activities.

One my favorite positions is the prone crawl. Many children these days present with poor posture, weak upper bodies, and poor visual tracking skills. In the prone position crawl, the child must alternately pull with the arms, which provides plenty of tactile feedback and arm strengthening, as well as eye tracking from side to side. The child must also keep their head up and extend at the spine. This is a fantastic all-around movement for young children.

Do Your Homework Before You Buy

This is by no means exhaustive as to the equipment needed for a youth athletic development program. It is simply a list of equipment that I have found useful working with children from the ages of 4-12 over the past 10 years. Our main goal when working with children is to improve coordination and fundamental movement skills. Thus, we lay a foundation to develop other athletic skills on top of later on.

There are too many facilities trying to train children like miniature adults, says @JeremyFrisch. Share on X

There are too many facilities trying to train children like miniature adults. Strength training for children is great, but let’s not put the cart before the horse. We need to first make sure children enjoy movement, and then become good, coordinated, all-around movers. After that, we can worry about organized strength and conditioning programs.

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