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In conventional gait analysis, a person will run on a treadmill at a given speed while a clinician makes subjective observations or collects additional evidence, typically slow motion video. Analysis performed at an indoor, static location certainly has its place and can be appropriate when control over conditions is required. But for any runner, real performance most likely occurs outside the confines of a clinic, lab, or store—on the tracks, roads, or trails where they run their regular workouts.

Today, when I perform a full gait and biomechanical analysis at my clinic, I always include a portion of the analysis in an indoor controlled environment and also an outdoor assessment. The indoor section allows me to collect high frame-rate video of the sagittal and frontal planes with the runner in situ and also conduct multi-pace testing with the ease of a treadmill’s speed adjustment.

But the real “acid test” for me is sending the runner outside to run a predetermined course with the same wearable sensors that they wore on the treadmill. In this part of the analysis, I can see how their running gait responds in a real environment where their feet stay stationary during the contact phase, and the terrain includes uphills, downhills, and potentially even technical underfoot conditions.

The Evolution of Wearables

The workflow that I use today is the result of seven years of continuous iteration and refinement focused on what really adds value to the assessment interpretation and ultimately to the runner’s future direction. During this same period, the development and application of wearable technology in this niche have multiplied with more and more products entering the market, and more acceptance of the value of wearables among gait analysts.

When I began helping Garmin (the arm formerly known as Dynastream Innovations) in 2012, Garmin’s footpod measured high-level metrics such as pace and cadence. When I worked as a consultant in gait analysis for dorsaVi in 2016 and 2017, we were refining the application of vertical ground reaction force numbers. And today, wearable solutions can now measure a multitude of direct and derived parameters indoors and outdoors, including:

• underfoot pressure
• power
• pronation excursion
• pronation velocity

RunScribe

From a clinical standpoint, one of the biggest values in gait analysis comes from recording bilateral data, where we can then compute percentage asymmetry values between the left and right sides. When comprehensive bilateral data collection is combined with a wearable solution that measures accurately and reliably in any environment, the scope of what’s possible significantly expands. In this realm, RunScribe is a technology that’s always stood out for me.

As a gait analyst who’s performed more than 2,600 assessments using wearable technology, I need a wearable gait analysis solution to tick certain boxes. It needs to be light and small, quick and easy to attach and detach, and—most importantly—be completely unnoticeable by the runner. In addition to having a long battery life, I also need the sensor to be:

• able to start and stop recording autonomously
• easy to charge
• fast and reliable at offloading data
• inexpensive enough that if I lose a unit or two, I’m not dropping to the floor with chest pains

RunScribe has continually delivered on all of these fronts and is my go-to solution when I’m monitoring runners in the field away from treadmills and electricity. So much so that, for a recent trip to Kenya to work with the top running training group there, I packed only RunScribe sensors. The pods worked perfectly every day—even as the relentless red dust built up, I was able to perform some really insightful outdoor analysis.

“As a physiotherapist and athlete, I love biomechanics,”  NN Running Team physiotherapist Marc Roig Tio said, reflecting on this process. “I always try to understand it better, both for helping my athletes and to try to run faster myself. Until now, biomechanical analysis was only done in the lab, with lots of limitations to understand what happens in outdoor running. With RunScribe, I can record the data of a full marathon, a speed work session, and many more without disturbing the athlete, just putting the sensors on the laces. And I get valuable info, especially on symmetry and running efficiency.”

Remote Gait Analysis with RunScribe

Working closely with Tim Clark, RunScribe’s founder and CEO, during the past 14 months, it became clear that, while outdoor analysis was a great application in itself, there was another step forward that made total sense for using RunScribe. This next logical evolution was remote monitoring and analysis, where the runner can collect their own gait data anywhere in the world and have it analyzed remotely by a highly experienced assessor.

A runner can collect their gait data anywhere in the world and have it analyzed remotely by a highly experienced assessor, says @malckentrun. Share on X

In effect, I’d been trying out this case since 2016. I was sending RunScribe footpods out to runners across North America; they would collect their data and then send the pods back to me for interpretation. Formalizing this into a dedicated RunScribe feature was a logical progression.

Why Do Runners Use Runfisx?

In March 2019, my company Runfisx partnered with RunScribe to offer remote gait analysis to runners around the globe. Runners anywhere in the world who have RunScribe footpods (or who can purchase or borrow a set) can allow Runfisx to connect to their online account to enable the interpretation. The process requires:

• A minimum of eight workout datasets collected with RunScribe pods
• Treadmill video including side and rear views
• Connecting the data to Malc at Runfisx

Runfisx then issues a report including the data analysis and interpretation.

Performing remote gait assessments with RunScribe, I’ve seen certain trends in what runners are seeking from the service. Most of the runners I’ve helped have a history of running injuries—either a recurring issue or a variety of potentially related issues. They have invested in a set of RunScribe pods to try and understand why they are getting injured. In some cases where gait is a key factor, the analysis can stand alone as a way to understand the issues. In other cases, the analysis can form a complementary interpretation that integrates with the work of the runner’s local clinician.

We’ve also provided analysis and feedback to runners who respect the importance of “prehab.” In these cases, they often have a target race looming in the future and are keen to ensure that they stay injury free all the way to the starting line.

Another topic that we’ve been dealing with for both rehab and prehab cases relates to shoe comparison. Often, when we’re assessing the data collected by the runner in their own time, they will have worn different shoes during the workouts. Naturally, part of the analysis includes a comparison of the runner’s gait metrics in each pair of shoes. For some runners, this will vary little from one shoe model to another while for other runners, the change in gait metrics in different shoes can be very pronounced.

For one of our runners based in Hawaii, Todd Corliss, this was a key part of his assessment. Todd had been recording data in a variety of different Altra running shoes. There was a significant difference between his gait metrics in two of the three shoes, a variance which held true in controlled conditions during treadmill workouts. He was able to use this insight to gain real value in understanding which model of shoes worked better for him.

The Objective

Tim Clark and I have seen that, while more and more advanced running metrics would appear to be a good thing, in reality, many runners struggle with knowing how to interpret the data and get meaning and value from it. The same question kept arising, which is also the question associated with a lot of advanced wearable tech: Now that I know that my number is this or that, what does it mean? Is this good or bad? What do I need to change?

By taking the lessons learned through developing several running wearable tech products and integrating them with the knowledge gained from thousands of wearable gait analyses, our objective is to provide actionable meaning to runners around the world who are committed to using wearable technology to understand better how to stay injury free and perform their best. For us, every time we can help one more runner understand their gait and go on to reduce their chance of injury, it’s a win!

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

Many strength coaches stress performing a triple extension during dynamic barbell movements such as cleans and snatches. After all, if the triple extension is good enough for powerful Olympic-style weightlifters, it must be good for any athlete who wants to run faster, jump higher, throw farther and, well, do just about everything better. Not quite.

I’m here to tell you that the triple extension is not what elite weightlifters are doing, and it’s not what the coaches of other athletes should be teaching. Further, triple extension exercises such as pulls adversely affect the technique of the full movements and do not produce as much power. As for hang power cleans, I’m not a fan, as those who’ve read my work already know. So, what is a triple extension?

The triple extension is often defined as “achieving full extension of the ankles, legs, and hips to produce maximum power.” Frequently accompanying such a definition is a photo of a weightlifter rising on their toes, fully extended with their shoulders shrugged. Sometimes these photos show the lifter with their feet several inches off the floor, supposedly confirming the belief that weightlifting is simply “jumping with weights.”

Another aspect of triple extension mythology is the belief that the only purpose of lifting the barbell from the floor is to get it into position to finish the lift. Thus, it would make sense to ignore the first pull altogether and concentrate on cleans, snatches, and pulls from the mid-thigh. Let’s break down all this nonsense, starting with power.

Power Is Power

One familiar equation used to represent power in weight training is force x velocity x distance/time. Another is force x velocity. However you define it, the bottom line is that you can have more power or less power, but you can’t have explosive power or non-explosive power. Power is power. With that understanding, consider that the maximum power production for snatches and cleans is not produced at the top of the pull.

If you watch modern elite weightlifters, especially the Chinese women, they go up on the balls of their feet as the bar passes knee level. This approach is in contrast to the proponents of triple extension, who recommend staying flat-footed until the legs have fully straightened after the bar passes the knees. Why should we care?

When the legs are straight, neither the gastrocnemius calf muscle nor the smaller soleus calf muscle can contribute much to the bar’s vertical movement. Stand up, lock your knees, and try to jump—not much happens as far as the calves contributing to force production. Further, this technique causes the barbell to drift away from the center of mass.

Let’s try another experiment. Grasp a stick and stand sideways, next to a mirror, legs straight. Place the stick on your mid-thighs. Look at the end of the stick, and then come up on your toes. You’ll see the bar move forward. As such, triple extension forces the athlete to use a different bar path than the full lift. Elite performance requires consistent technique. Why perform exercises that have a different movement pattern than the primary lift you want to improve? It would be like an NFL quarterback practicing with a fully inflated football in practice and then throwing a deflated one in a game!

#Tripleextension forces a different bar path than the full lift. Why perform a different movement pattern than the primary lift you want to improve? Share on X

There is an argument that using the calves early creates a dampening effect, reducing the force produced by the quads. It’s not true. The soleus assists with knee and hip extension (pulling the shin backward) and contraction of the gastrocnemius enables the quads to more effectively transfer additional force into the floor. These actions, along with the contributions of the elastic properties of the plantar fascia that is activated when the heels raise, combine to maximize power production well before full extension.

Lifters don't jump upward with a barbell during a snatch or clean; they contract the flexion muscles and jump down. Share on X

Some coaches note that in watching elite lifters, their feet leave the floor, giving evidence that the pull is a jump—again promoting the idea that lifters are jumping upward with a barbell. No, they are not. At this point in the lift, these athletes are actually contracting the flexion muscles and “jumping down.” 

If you look at sequenced photos of lifters performing a snatch or clean and use their torso as a reference point, you’ll see that although their feet may leave the ground, their torso descends. Thus, it’s not that a lifter pulls the barbell to a specific height and then lets gravity do the rest; the athlete actively moves under the bar before it achieves maximum height.

During the initial pulling portion of a clean or snatch, especially when using heavy weights with quality barbells, the ends of the barbell are lower than the center. As the lifter moves under the bar, the ends of the barbell are higher than the center. This action occurs because the lifter is pulling their body under the bar, resulting in an upward force on the barbell. With a pull exercise, whether it’s performed from the floor or the blocks, this whipping action does not occur. 

 

A Brief History Lesson

This knowledge about lifting technique is not a sudden revelation. In a 1974 Russian sports science textbook, translated by sports scientist Bud Charniga, researchers analyzed the speed at which weightlifting superstar David Rigert moved his body. They calculated that during the non-support phase (when the feet don’t apply force into the floor), gravity could influence a free-falling object (in this case, Rigert) to drop 21 centimeters (8.2 inches) in 0.2 seconds. In fact, he dropped 59 centimeters (23 inches) in this amount of time! How is this possible?

Charniga explained that Rigert defied gravity because he used the barbell to pull himself down and flexed the hips, knees, and ankles—along with relaxing the extensor muscles used to lift the barbell during the initial pull off the floor. For these reasons, Charniga emphasized in his teachings that no jumping occurs in weightlifting—it’s the opposite of jumping.

As for hang power cleans, the effects can be even worse because the barbell’s initial movement is often diagonal, not vertical. This is especially true with the way many coaches teach the hang power clean.

In an attempt to have their athletes use their lower back muscles to produce force, many coaches teach athletes to start the hang power clean by extending their shoulders well in front of the bar. Besides not effectively using the power of the quadriceps, this starting position places high compressive forces on the spine. By having the shoulders so far in front of the body’s center of mass (which is about in the middle of the foot), the bar’s initial movement primarily is diagonal, not vertical.

After launching the bar off the thighs with this hip thrust, the lifter has to pull the bar backward (in a looping motion) that further increases the stress on the spine. The torture isn’t over, as now the athlete must receive the bar and stop suddenly rather than absorbing and redirecting the force as would occur in a full clean.

Triple Extension and Partial Lifts

Finally, there’s the idea that you can break apart the classical weightlifting exercises into their component parts. As such, we could duplicate a clean and jerk by combining exercises like a deadlift, hang clean, front squat, military press, and lunge. Sure—and the sky is blue because it reflects the ocean. Except for the hang clean, these movements are performed relatively slowly and don’t use the elastic properties of the connective tissues.

The strength developed with slow movements won't necessarily enable athletes to display their strength quickly. Share on X

We can trace this problem down to the cellular level as it involves the sarcomere, the primary contractile element of the muscle. With a focus on relatively slow, partial-range exercises, we create a different training effect on the sarcomeres than we would if we focused on dynamic, large amplitude movements such as a clean or a snatch. Although this discussion deserves an article by itself, you need to understand that the strength developed with slow movements will not necessarily enable athletes to display their strength quickly.

Another troublesome aspect of this blind devotion to triple extension is the suggestion that coaches are focusing on just producing force. Athletic fitness involves more than the ability to produce force; athletes also must absorb, store, and redirect force.

Athletic fitness involves more than the ability to produce force; athletes also must absorb, store, and redirect force. Share on X

When we see an athlete make a sudden change of direction in competition and injure their ACL or ankle, we hear comments from sports coaches and strength coaches like, “Such is the nature of sports.” Or, with female athletes, these injuries are falsely attributed to their inferior anatomy or hormone fluctuations that make them more fragile in the first place. How else could they explain why the majority of ACL and ankle injuries are non-contact?

Athletes can achieve physical superiority by ignoring the functional training hype about the #tripleextension and doing Olympic lifts as intended. Share on X

In their effort to bring attention to their programs (or ignorance), many coaches have been giving out bad advice about how to perform dynamic exercises. Do the Olympic lifts the way they were intended, ignore the functional training hype about the triple extension, and watch your athletes achieve physical superiority.

Header photo by Viviana Podhaiski.

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

References

Charniga, Andrew, Jr., “The Ankle and the Asian Pull.” European Weightlifting Federation Scientific Magazine. No 12: January-April 2017.

Anderson, Frank C., and Pandy, Marcus G., “Storage and Utilization of Elastic Strain Energy During Jumping.” Journal of Biomechanics.

Van Ingen Schenau, G.J., “From Rotation to Translation: Constraints on Multi–Joint Movements and the Unique Action of Bi-Articular Muscles.” Human Movement Science.

Roman, Robert A., “The Training of the Weightlifter in the Biathlon,” Moscow, FIS, 1974. Translation by Andrew Charniga, Jr.

Formicola, Donato, Ph.D., “The Biomechanics of the Sacromere, The Origin of Muscular Force: Part Three.” European Weightlifting Federation Scientific Magazine.”

Lyons, Todd, Dynamic Fitness Equipment, Personal Communication, March 2019.

If you asked me in 1997, as a college freshman, where I thought the profession would be today or where I would be, I would not have even been close with my prediction. Over my two decades in the field, I have witnessed the growth and power behind social media, the rise of entrepreneurism, multi-level marketing companies selling every kind of magic potion or piece of equipment you can think of, endless specialized certifications in every possible category that falls under the fitness/performance umbrella and beyond, online coaching/mentoring with Skype for a price, and so much more.

I am excited for the profession. I am happy to see the earning potential giving people financial opportunity and the freedom to live more-balanced lives. I am also worried about how fast and business-driven the industry is becoming. The industry is getting divided by letters after our names and/or the products and associations we pay for or potentially earn a profit from.

Filter the Online Information and Get Real Education

I am not an expert and I am far from perfect. I make mistakes, I have weaknesses, I miss the target sometimes. My focus is simply to do what I personally have to do to make fewer mistakes, strengthen my weaknesses, and make my misses less noticeable. I am just a coach with lots of experience at many levels and positions throughout this field who pays attention to the current trends. I am not someone who dictates or forces.

I want to help influence conscious, educated, and open thinkers. I just want to share my views and opinions with an industry that is being driven more by quick business and financial potential and less by results and long-term success. Don’t get me wrong, everyone deserves to maximize their business potential, but I see the process of success skipping major steps for quick dollars. There is a lack of education, experience, and guidance.

As an example, to get a driver’s license, you first need to pass a written test before you can get your driver’s permit. Then, there is a specific amount of time you have to wait before you can attempt to get your license. The fitness industry is quite the opposite now for many entering the field. It’s like you can just go pick out a car of your choice and it drive away. Some people can get away with this, but too many of them crash and burn after that fresh car smell disappears.

A good coach is simply a good coach based on metrics like results and progress, says @GYM_Ferris. Share on X

I do not think you have to train 10,000 sessions or hours before you can write, speak, or educate. I just do not want coaches thinking they have to write and speak to be successful. A good coach is simply a good coach based on metrics like results and progress. I have learned over the years and changed my opinion on many things. I truly believe writing and speaking can actually help you become a better coach, but you have to do it at a pace that works for you. I am 19 years in and would say that is a major weakness for me. I am okay with it. I know what I bring to the table, and I know what I need to do to continue to develop.

The lack of education and training experience is very troublesome. Ask a coach to show you what their training model is, and many will show you pictures from their Instagram account, where they’re in some weird pose doing a duck-face Zoolander look with some crazy filter and a hashtag. The videos and content you can see on social media are frightening. Form, exercise selection, etc. are all ignored and get camouflaged by music and filters. We need structure. We need results. If we don’t have them, we will continue to be an entertainment industry instead of a results industry.

Are coaches educated enough? Are coaches experienced enough? Have coaches been in the game long enough to teach or mentor? Are coaches doing business with good morals? I am not here to judge anyone. I am not here to point fingers. I am not here to dictate. I am simply here to share and hopefully help shed light on topics that will push our industry, as a whole, in the right direction. I want to see everyone succeed.

The videos and content on social media are frightening. Form, exercise selection, etc. are all ignored and camouflaged by music and filters. We need structure. We need results, says @GYM_Ferris. Share on X

You Have to Go on Your Own Journey – Not Someone Else’s

The journey to be a successful coach is simply not the same as it once was. That is both a good and bad thing. Going to college to receive an undergraduate degree, doing multiple internships, going to grad school, and working multiple side jobs to make ends meet is a story many of us in the industry share and tell with our own twist to it. If you wanted to work in the college or professional ranks, you simply had to do things a specific way.

The independent coaching and specialized fields are growing fast, with private coaching, boot camps, sports performance, fat loss experts, boutique fitness instructors, and more. I do not expect it to stop. The consumer seems to enjoy the options. Instead of fighting or arguing against it all, can we help make it better? Can we raise the bar on the foundation of education for all? We will not be able to do it by ignoring it. The way we can address it probably starts with networking and helping locally.

My journey is my own. It helped mold me into who I am today. When I help mentor coaches, I do not want them to go through what I went through. I want to help them avoid mistakes, save time, and save money. I want to take the guesswork out of as much as possible.

I did not sleep in my 20s. I did not make much money in my 20s. I am partially to blame for that because I was not thinking outside the box much and my time was simply limited. I bartended 2-3 nights a week until 2 a.m. and clocked in to work as a coach at 7 a.m. with an oversized Dunkin Donuts coffee in my hand.

Back in 2002, there were maybe three sports performance training gyms around the Philadelphia area. I was a young and hungry intern looking to make his mark at the best one. I knew this was my shot. What other options did I have? Not many. I could not scroll on my Nextel back then and just browse whatever I wanted.

I had no network. I had no real idea of where the industry would lead me. I was just going along for the ride. I had my foot in the door working for a very successful sports agent, Steve Mountain, and I knew I had to put in the time or else I would probably end up applying to the local YMCA or LA Fitness for an entry-level position. That would mean walking new people through the introductory machine workout series for eight hours a day at minimum wage.

Let’s face it: Many of us came from an era where we felt like we were Frodo Baggins on a long, risky, uncertain journey to Mount Doom where, if he was wearing a Fitbit, it would have hit 100,000,000 steps easily. In today’s world, you can just deliver that ring via FedEx while swiping right or watching a Netflix series.

I guess you can say I profited from my experience in the NBA, which helped transition me easily into private practice through access to a strong network of players, coaches, and agents. I did not have a business model. I just had clients, day in and day out. I just coached. I still coach. I just do it with a better training model, supported by a better business model that makes those I work with better and allows me to have a life.

How the Iron Game Has Changed for Coaches

The industry has changed so much, especially for the people entering it now. For many, their coaching timeline is to retire from the coaching floor in five years so they can focus on their business and brand, and write their book. Yes, that is probably an exaggeration, but I think you get my point. Nobody I entered the field with was writing a book or blogging much 20 years ago. We were just coaching every single day because we loved it. We were not really business people and that was probably missing from our undergrad curriculum.

I do not know about you, but my college experience was pretty science-based and did not address much about the potential career paths or business reality that we would have to face. I think the business side today is so much better. We can create careers for people instead of jiggling and bouncing jobs. But the timeline is being pushed too fast. This is why we continue to see coaches and businesses fail. There is no model. There are no results. There is just a surge of something, and it dies out because it was just some hot trend. This is not an easy field to succeed in if you do not have the education, experience, training model, and business model to keep you in the game.

In today’s world, you can quit your 9-5 job on Friday, take an online trainer course on Saturday morning, order equipment with one-day delivery on Amazon, wake up on Sunday morning, and post on your social media that you are starting a boot camp in your garage Monday morning. PS—If you like and share the post, you get a discount on a supplement line that has a top-secret proprietary blend that is yummy in the tummy.

The initial earning potential of a coach/trainer is much better today and that is truly great to see. I do not want to see future generations go through what many of us went through. I want to see careers and lifestyles improve for everyone. Balance was and still is a struggle for many. We work odd hours, weekends, and holidays with no set income. There needs to be a business model that complements your training model so you can maximize your life-outside-work model. This will be different for everyone, but there are ways to get it done and do it with respectful business morals.

There needs to be a business model that complements your training model so you can maximize your life-outside-work model, says @GYM_Ferris. Share on X

Upon entering the field, imagine not training anyone for your first four years. You simply studied, observed, assisted, and volunteered. That is not the case anymore. Now you can just jump in with minimal experience and call yourself whatever title you want. We have to find a way that education, exposure, and experience can be gained the right way. We need young coaches to be okay with being Robin before they can be Batman.

We rush things because social media is so fast and so many “online” specialists are trying to sell you what they think is right. One’s personal opinion and experience is not the end all, be all. I simply suggest you follow, read, and invest in more than one certification and/or coach. Too often, I see people calling something or someone “the best.” That has no validation for me when you have only learned from one source.

We need to help create conscious, educated thinkers, instead of just following a format because that is how “someone” built success in the ’60s, ’70’s, or ’80s. Everyone’s starting point is different today, depending on where they are in life, as well as their educational journey, personal experiences, finances, and location. I was once told that if I wanted to train celebrities, I should move to L.A. If I wanted to train Amish people, I should move to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It makes a lot of sense when you think about it.

Preparing the Future by Enjoying Coaching Every Day

I look to help build and influence coaches to have an old-school mentality with a new-school way of thinking. Evolution is a part of life and we all must recognize that what got us here will not keep us here. We have to continue to push forward together. This is not about us. It is about the people who invest their time and money in us. We have to raise the bar of professionalism in all spectrums of what we do.

I look to help build and influence coaches to have an old-school mentality with a new-school way of thinking, says @GYM_Ferris. Share on X

I have discussions with high school kids and young professionals all the time, and I am not even sure a four-year college degree in exercise science is even the answer if you just want to go work in the private sector. If you really want that college experience, I honestly recommend a degree in another field and possibly getting a minor in the field. Or just study a recommended list of material, intern at a few places, and find a few solid mentors to study under. Save the student loan money if you can. You can be a really successful coach with the right guidance and experience.

It is still very uncomfortable for me to have these conversations because when people look up to you for your guidance and opinion, you do not want to let them down or mislead them. Where is the industry going to even be in 10 years? I have no idea. I just know that if you can produce results and treat people well, the odds are in your favor to succeed.

The journey, the ups and downs, the success and failures, will be different for all of us. It took me almost 20 years to get to a well-balanced business model. My passion is coaching, and I do it 40+ hours a week via private sessions, small group, team training, and mentoring. I hit the trails or golf on the weekends and spend time with my beautiful wife. I am doing what I always wanted to do, and I hope to inspire and help others get to where they want to be. I am a success story. I am proof that you can make a career in this field if you work hard, have good business morals, and do things the right way.

Have an Open Mind and Eyes

I respect thinkers. I respect other professional views. I am open to discussions and professionally debating. Our industry needs help. You can be part of the problem or part of the solution, and I choose to be part of the solution. I want to listen to what others say because they come from an education and experience journey that I did not have.

Your success defines my success, and I will do all I can to help you succeed, says @GYM_Ferris. Share on X

In the comment area below, I ask that you respond and share your answers and thoughts. This is not about being right; this is about being helpful to others. My hope is that this will open the eyes of many out there who are starting out or are simply lost. The purpose of training is to train with purpose. Your success defines my success, and I will do all I can to help you succeed.

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

Midway through the first day of classroom work for my U.S. Soccer D License, there was a mutiny. The course instructors—a sage pair of A-Licensed coaches with decades of experience in U.S. Soccer—were whiteboarding the course curriculum and underlying methodology when, one by one, the two-dozen club coaches in the room began to revolt. We’re not talking about a minor quibble here or a semantic objection there—what ensued was a four-hour debate, calling into question the basic foundations of the program and threatening to derail the entire course.

The issue? Play-Practice-Play.

Known as PPP, the play-practice-play paradigm is a core element of U.S. Soccer’s “grassroots” initiative, largely inspired by the soccer development model in the Netherlands and U.S. Soccer’s Director of Sporting Programs, Nico Romeijn. Very simply, it’s a prescriptive model for organizing every practice session in the mode of that titular format:

• Play 1: Kids arrive at the pitch and immediately begin playing a scrimmage or largely uncoached series of small-sided games.
• Practice: Roughly one-quarter to one-third of the way into practice, the coach progresses into a game-inspired training session.
• Play 2: For the final third of practice, there is a full-sided scrimmage played to standard goals, ideally keying on the focal concepts from that practice portion.

And that’s it. Nothing more.

The question then raised (repeatedly, and in many cases, rather stridently), was the obvious one: If the players don’t actually have the technical skills, tactical understanding, or physical literacy to effectively perform in Play 1 or Play 2, when exactly are you supposed to teach those qualities?

Why PPP? A Digression

The D License (part of U.S. Soccer’s licensing pathway and traditionally geared for club or school coaches working with players above the age of 13) requires two full weekends of classroom and field work, separated by eight weeks of remote, mentored sessions and weekly homework projects.

During the two-month gap separating that spirited opening session and our final weekend of on-field evaluations, I took my youngest daughter out to practice pitching on what also happened to be the first day of fall practices for the local recreational soccer league. While she worked on locating her fastball and change-up, out on the grass in the distance a team of U14 girls launched their new season in two lines of eight players, with a girl from each line dribbling one at a time, down and back through five linear, evenly spaced cones. Each turn through the cones took 30 seconds or more, leaving over three minutes of inaction between low-intensity reps. The girls waiting in line were volleyball-bumping their soccer balls, chatting, or cloud-watching.

Closer to the softball infield, a team of U12 boys opened their season by taking several painfully slow laps around the full field complex, consuming anywhere from 12-18 minutes. With his gassed players sprawled out and sucking wind, the coach then spent the next 15 minutes lecturing his new team on a personal list of in-game pet peeves and everything they were absolutely not to do during the forthcoming season (defenders turning the ball towards the middle, attackers being called offside due to lazy positioning, being whistled for an illegal throw-in by lifting a back foot, and so on).

Rec soccer is the entry point into the sport for most players, yet 30 minutes into day one of a new season, one team still hadn’t touched the ball and the other was just killing time. Share on X

In a word, these practices sucked. Sucked to watch, and judging by the body language of the players, sucked to be captive to. Yes, these were recreational practices led by volunteer coaches, but recreational soccer remains the entry point into the sport for a majority of players. Here we were, 30 minutes into day one of a new season, and one team still hadn’t touched a ball while the other was already killing time.

The scenarios in those recreational practices are exactly what the PPP model is meant to prevent. What if, instead of bumping and setting their balls at the back of a line or lying half-dead and listening to a lecture, these players had showed up and immediately begun playing? Wouldn’t that make them more likely to:

• Make a continuing effort to arrive on time or perhaps even show up early?
• Be engaged from the moment practice begins, rather than needing to be herded and prompted?
• Have numerous live touches on the ball in a range of numerical alignments?
• Develop game-relevant fitness?

Most importantly, wouldn’t that be a sport they’d want to continue participating in? After all, it’s a game: You’re supposed to play it, and it’s meant to be fun.

Learning by Doing vs. Learning Then Doing

To support the philosophical foundations of PPP, in the D Course we watched a short video clip of a street soccer game being played in a dirt alley. Pickup style, with players spanning different ages and genders, all adapting to the constraints of the space while showing the creativity, decision-making, spacing, technical flair, and combination play characteristic of the beautiful game.

In addition to being more fun (and thus encouraging a higher percentage of youth players to stay in the sport), PPP is also designed to address a perceived shortcoming of high-level U.S. soccer players: They’ve been “overcoached” to the point of robotic predictability. So while the country produces instinctive and creative athletes on the basketball court and football gridiron—sports where it’s common for five or six kids to find a hoop or patch of grass and play their own version of the game—the U.S. has not managed to develop an Iniesta or Modrić or Pogba, those alchemic creators who capitalize on patterns and combinations in the game before others even recognize those elements exist.

U.S. Soccer designed play-practice-play to address the perceived shortcoming that high-level U.S. soccer players have been ‘overcoached,’ says @CoachsVision. Share on X

In the new grassroots initiative, U.S. Soccer hopes to inspire more pickup-style games and improve the country’s aggregate soccer IQ.

For those of us watching the video in the D Course, there was a natural follow-up question: How did the kids in that street soccer game learn to play a fluid, technical, and competent version of the game?

Yes, we can point to slick pickup basketball as a model for how players can test drive 1v1 moves, succeed and fail on their own terms, and flourish in a free-flowing and self-directed version of the sport. But what differentiates a fast-paced and electric pickup hoops game from a ball-hogging hack fest of chucked bricks and vigorously disputed traveling calls?

Answer: Well-coached players who bring their relevant skill sets to the pickup game.

I grew up playing pickup basketball on everything from school blacktops to community center gyms to a dank grid of courts below the freeway underpass, and my running mates were future high school, small college, and Division One players. A big reason we could seize and hold any court was that from third through eighth grade, our age group’s basketball team had a pair of outstanding coaches (one a former D-1 player himself) who taught us how to box out, set a pick, run a basic motion offense, fill the lanes on a fast break, make a proper bounce pass, and so on. Because we’d been taught how to play, we had the ability to jump into a pickup game and play with creativity and freedom. And because we knew how to play with creativity and freedom, we could then bring those elements back to our high school, small college, and D-1 teams.

Perhaps you see what I’m getting at.

What does a pickup version of soccer look like if you have a dozen kids whose parents did not grow up watching or playing the game, who have not yet learned basic technical and tactical skills, and who do not ever practice the sport on their own time?

Suffice it to say, we’re not talking about el jogo bonito.

The coaches rising up as part of the D Course mutiny had seen that scrimmage. It’s slow-motion kickball, with players setting off on a desultory hike for each successive ball booted way out of bounds. It’s a tiny fast kid dribbling up one sideline with a bumblebee clump from both teams trailing a pace behind. It’s toe kicks and bickering about handballs.

That game is the reason these coaches have jobs. They are paid to eliminate that version of the game via the design and purpose of their practices, not to use those practices to replicate it.

The Middle ‘P’ Is for Practice

As taught by U.S. Soccer, there are five basic elements for the “practice” portion of PPP, which should be present in every practice session:

1. It must be organized (planned).
2. It must be game-like (meaning there are opponents attacking and defending; the flow of play is directional; and there should be no interior cones, zones, or restrictions).
3. There must be repetition (a chance to rehearse and improve).
4. It must be challenging (a balance between success and failure).
5. There must be proper direction (coaching).

Challenging point No. 2 was where our D-Course mutiny truly gathered force.

Stealing the ball is far easier than dribbling, passing, or trapping it. So how do you develop the latter fundamental skills if there is always an opponent kicking the ball away from the players’ feet? How do you teach spacing to young kids who don’t understand positional terminology without utilizing artificial landmarks like cones and zones? How do you develop passing techniques if there is always a goal and kids never stop cracking off shots? What if you happen to believe non-directional games like rondos and keep-away encourage possession, first touch, and 360-degree field awareness? If players start playing the moment they arrive, how do you conduct a functional warm-up?

Making it clear that they were channeling U.S. Soccer’s current perspective and not necessarily their own longtime coaching methods, the answers from our course instructors were:

• There will always be a defender in the game, so learning to dribble, pass, and trap with a defender present IS learning to dribble, pass, and trap.
• If kids only understand spacing by being restricted to the boundaries of a coned-off zone, they don’t truly understand spacing.
• Why wouldn’t you want your players cracking off shots every chance they get? Scoring goals is the object of the game.
• Sorry, that one’s a sticky wicket, but non-directional rondos and keep-away without goals do not meet the game-like criteria for a core practice activity in PPP.
• Players U10 and below can hit the ground running. If your players are older and you have an injury-prevention warm-up you believe in, do what you have to do when you have to do it.

Some of these answers make a great deal of sense when you think about them, some make sense in certain contexts, and some are completely unsatisfactory. Among our group in the licensing course, a Los Angeles-based coach took great pride in teaching individual ball skills to his teams of top flight teenage boys, and in that technical aspect, he dug in his heels to strenuously oppose PPP.

“What if I want to teach my boys how to do a step over? In this model, you’re telling me that I can’t do that in a practice session. You’re telling me we can’t slow down, remove the opposition, and teach the technical moves that will help them be more sophisticated and complete players. There’s no way this can work.”

Paradigms Come and Paradigms Go, But the Coach Is Still the Coach

It’s a good question, actually. How, in fact, do you teach a step over?

The answer is the usual one: It depends.

Personally, I learned the step over the same way I learned a crossover dribble in basketball: On my own. On the basketball court, playing the position I wanted to play required the ability to break down a defender, so I spent countless hours in my backyard practicing an arsenal of moves that I could use in a game.

So, if your players can already do a step over, easy enough, you don’t need to teach it. If they can’t do a step over, but also can’t dribble from Point A to Point B without falling headfirst over the ball, easy again, you have far more pressing needs and don’t need to teach it. If you have the time and ability to teach 1v1 moves in practice and your players are able to use that coaching to effectively execute those moves on the field, awesome, do your thing.

Coaching sports—like playing them—is about problem-solving. Just as we don’t want robotic and predictable players, we don’t want robotic coaches; there is no single solution that will be effective across the board and there is no model that will apply to every situation.

Coaching sports—like playing them—is about problem-solving. Just as we don’t want robotic and predictable players, we don’t want robotic coaches, says @CoachsVision. Share on X

As an absolutist structure to follow for a calendar years’ worth of practices, PPP is, to say the least, highly debatable. As a lens to scrutinize your own practice design, PPP can be very useful to help sharpen your purpose and approach:

• In this session, are your players learning to play at speed, or are these skills they can only replicate in static situations?
• Are there elements of attacking, defending, and transition that apply directly to the dynamic elements of the game?
• Are they learning to make their own decisions in the context of the game, or do your players need to be “joysticked” by a coach to make effective plays?
• Is this 90-minute session any fun? Would they want to come back and do the exact same practice again?

If you coach a rambunctious gaggle of 8-year-olds, PPP might very well be an effective method to harness that energy and structure the bulk of your practices. If you coach a group of steely-eyed 14-year-olds who show up each day expecting you to push them one step closer to a spot on the next high-level team… perhaps PPP is a changeup you toss in every so often for variety’s sake. The model is something that you can use all of the time, some of the time, or not at all (but if not at all, you ought to have sound reasoning for why not at all).

Several years ago, when I took the E License course, U.S. Soccer taught a completely different, progressive plan for structuring training sessions:

1. Warm-up
2. Small-sided activity
3. Expanded small-sided activity
4. Game

In those small-sided activities, the coach targeted a skill or game moment and tried to impose conditions to emphasize it. The topic given to me for the final project of my E License evaluation was “coaching the wide midfielders to receive and turn.”

Quite a specific topic, as were the rest. For our field evaluations in the E Course, each coach invented a technique-specific game that highlighted their topic with a baroque set of rules, constraints, and scoring systems that were, theoretically, meant to inspire repeated execution of that focus skill.

Perhaps at some point you’ve tried inventing such a game for your own players—perhaps it even worked. In my experience, however, each time I create a unique game with its own set of rules, scoring systems, and constraints, I then have to spend 15 minutes that I will never get back explaining those rules, scoring systems, and constraints, all while my once-warmed-up players gradually become de-energized and confused.

Typically, those players then pepper me with very logical questions about hypotheticals, contingencies, and gray areas in the rules I hadn’t anticipated. Then, they play this inventive new game at ~60% speed because it’s very hard to sprint all-out while simultaneously figuring out new rules. Ultimately, the big takeaway becomes the efficient ways they learn to cheat the game and rack up easy points, rather than getting any better at the focus skill.

Two major lessons from that practice model:

1. The only way to effectively play a game is to understand the rules. If you stick to rules the players already (mostly) know—meaning the standard laws of the game—your players will spend more time playing at speed and you will spend less time in formal arbitration over esoteric rules or exhorting your players to please, please, please compete with game intensity.
2. While manipulating games to emphasize a focus topic may not work too well, having a focus topic for every practice session gives shape to those sessions and provides building blocks from week to week.

Having a focus topic for every practice session gives shape to those sessions and provides building blocks from week to week, says @CoachsVision. Share on X

Though U.S. Soccer no longer promotes that system, I like the flow of it and often plan practices with that four-part structure. Tellingly, though, while I have never once considered replicating my final E Course session for one of my own practices, I have used variations of my PPP design with players ranging from U10 Recreational All Stars to U14 competitive players, with equally positive results.

Improving the State of Youth Soccer

Let’s get real. Players get better in practice, but they aren’t made there. Athletes who already have the physical skills and mental attributes to excel at the game also tend to succeed on the training pitch—but it is not an A/B test where those players would be X-amount better if one practice model had been applied versus another.

Those who lament the state of youth soccer in the U.S. have ample avenues for complaint: Club soccer is cost-prohibitive; the pressure for early specialization discourages talented multi-sport athletes; there are major issues with burnout, overuse injuries, and competitive stress; and so on.

In my lifetime, however, I’ve seen an exponential improvement in youth soccer. Growing up in a mid-sized city in the 1980s (Eugene, Oregon) and playing on the most advanced teams in the area from first grade through high school, my teammates and I could name exactly three soccer players: Pele, Juli Veee, and the guy Stallone played in Victory. I had my driver’s license before I had a soccer coach who’d ever set foot on a soccer pitch as a player, being coached instead by a succession of volunteer dads who’d never so much as seen a soccer match on television, then a middle school wrestling coach, then a freshman cross country coach, and finally a high school coach who’d played the sport but didn’t care one bit for teaching it to teenagers.

As the game has exploded in the U.S. over the past three decades, the question is not so much how to improve the state of youth soccer, but how to do so in a more sustainable way. U.S. Soccer’s grassroots framework and PPP model are positive steps in that direction, recognizing that there is an entire generation of players who have grown up practicing two, three, or even four times a week in order to play a weekly game that’s shorter than any one of those practices. Correspondingly, there is a generation of soccer parents who believe that training for the sport should resemble SAT test prep—they associate drills with a concrete ROI and scrimmaging as a cousin to recess. When they pay club fees and fill out coaching evaluations, they envision a coach running a soccer boot camp, not one standing out of the way while the players just… play.

As the game has exploded in the U.S. over the past three decades, the question isn’t how much to improve the state of youth soccer, but how to do so in a more sustainable way, says @CoachsVision. Share on X

Consequently, as an extracurricular activity, youth soccer is often described with phrases like: it’s a grind, it’s a long haul, it’s stressful, it’s exhausting, it’s tedious. These descriptions, however, are a response to the practice demands of the sport, not the game itself. Coaching, again, is problem solving. If your players love to come to practice—Bingo! You’re probably doing something right. If they begin associating the sport with a boring, obligatory, time-consuming grind, it’s worth considering ways for them to play more with methods like PPP. After all, it’s a game, you’re supposed to play it, and it’s meant to be fun.

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Chances are, you’re already using biofeedback and don’t know it. Or like most coaches, you’re familiar with it enough to do something proactive but not enough to feel like you’ve reached its full potential. We believe in using technology, but only enough to make a difference, not so much that we feel dependent on it or it slows us down (although sometimes this is unavoidable). In our experience, athletes love technology and we value data. But we don’t want it to get out of control and turn into another selfie experience.

In the last two years, we’ve invested heavily in technology to get more information on our athletes so we can design better workouts and improve our results. We learned that technology that provides a measurement has helped us tremendously. Each passing week and season, we get a little more versed in its role and its shortcomings. Trends don’t always dictate action, but when science and experience link up, it’s hard to ignore.

Differences Between Biofeedback and General Feedback

Perfectly defining biofeedback is not easy, and the things we’re doing with biofeedback only scratch the surface. I’m not even sure everything we label biofeedback qualifies as such but, for now, it’s close enough. A good definition for biofeedback is included in the article “Biofeedback for Sport and Performance Enhancement.” Although I recommend reading the article, I’ll save you the exploratory search and include the definition here:

“Biofeedback training is a technique of gaining control of self-regulation, based on information or feedback received from the athletes’ body and mind.”

When you hear the term biofeedback, most coaches think about relaxation drills to lower heart rate or hooking up an athlete’s brain to help them discover how to get into the zone. Honestly, we don’t teach many sport psychology methods for relaxation at our facility, but we’ve used stress monitoring for years with heart rate variability apps. We should not stigmatize biofeedback as a way to teach athletes how to deal with nerves. We should see it as a method to connect the real world to what athletes experience internally.

#Biofeedback connects the real world to what athletes experience internally, says @ExceedSPF. #athleteperformance Share on X

There’s a difference, however, between helping a minimally-trained athlete understand their body and using biofeedback to pull the last bit of performance out of a well-trained elite athlete. Using technology and common sense to monitor and manipulate an athlete’s program constantly (relax, it doesn’t have to be changed every day because of a bad HRV score or jump performance) takes experience using the technology and a lot of time to understand the data and what it’s telling you. But it’s application is invaluable.

We’re not trying to redefine biofeedback, but when we add a direct measurement, good training has the potential to be great training. While coaches have always used feedback from their eyes, direct measurements cut the middleman out of the equation. It doesn’t hurt our ego if an athlete is independent. We should be nudging them forward and not hand-holding all the time. At our facility, you’ll see Sean and me coaching—you’ll also see independent training when an athlete is properly educated.

General feedback is any information given to the athlete while biofeedback comes from a specific measurement added to the mix. General feedback is important, but without measurement it’s limited. We do both, and the results are far better than they would be if we excluded either one.

Barbell Tracking: Getting the Most of Every Rep

Don’t worry, we won’t bore you by rehashing the same ideas that are in just about every velocity based training (VBT) article released. We want to make a point about taking the next step rather than simply copying the latest fad. Plenty of research and coaching blogs talk about bar speed and getting athletes better just by showing them their velocity readings. Using velocity feedback helps, but why not crank it up a notch and consider barbell tracking as a whole?

Biofeedback on distance and bar path could be just as valuable to coaches and athletes. Arguably, a beginner athlete might not need to focus on velocity when they’re not sure how to set up their feet, but a tool that provides more information about depth and bar path could prove very beneficial for engraining a pattern. Although it’s not always about more information, when is the right information ever wrong?

Video 1. Coaches care about three goals during lifts, which become very simple when the loads become heavy. Having an athlete maintain technique, effort, and awareness of fatigue is everything when working with large groups.

Just the other day, a research article on feedback using GymAware was pushed on social media, promoting the idea that giving the athlete more information increases their power when training. I like that. Although you shouldn’t need a piece of technology to tell you when to pull a kid back and polish up technique, you can easily display such information to the athlete using the right tool. We love autoregulation and have plenty of ready-to-go templates for athletes who earned their right to self-select (some of) their programming. Using a GymAware keeps everyone honest, including the coaches.

We care about accountability—making an athlete value the disciplined lifting requirements that differentiate an athlete who is just doing a workout from the athlete mastering their training. In the short run, using GymAware makes an athlete compete and instantly aware of what they’re doing. In the long run, with back-end reporting, we see the little differences that show they achieved the desired result.

Biofeedback isn’t only for the athlete to get higher wattage. It also lets the coach see if the athlete is adhering to the instructional side of training and how coachable they are. We’ve used the GymAware system for a while now and realize it’s not new, but we’ve seen trust foster when an athlete knows what we say matches up with what the device’s readings.

Digital Pacing and Conditioning with LED Rabbit

If you’ve ever been tested in a group setting or competed in race events, you’ll know a lot about pacing. Biofeedback with pacing works. Instead of showing an athlete what they can do, the feedback helps an athlete become aware of how fast they should go. Pacing with technology is chasing a ghost you can never beat, but you’re not truly competing with a machine.

Instead of showing athletes what they can do, #biofeedback helps them become aware of how fast they should go, says @ExceedSPF. #athleteperformance Share on X

In our experience, a percentage of athletes fail conditioning tests due to their ignorance and a lack of understanding about the pace needed to pass. With the LED Rabbit, we now have a way to add instant visual feedback as an athlete learns and practices pacing. Nothing is wrong with an old school stopwatch and whistle, but making an athlete feel like they’re in a video game beats them sitting on a couch all day.

LED Rabbit offers instant visual feedback to help athletes learn and practice pacing, says @ExceedSPF. #athleteperformance #biofeedback Share on X

At the gym, we joke about how athletes will start calling shuttle tests the light test instead of the beep test in a few years. The basic timed beep is biofeedback, but adding LED lights moves a program from medieval to high tech. The solution is literally “flashy,” but don’t confuse engaging for entertaining. Light pacing systems are perhaps one of the best ways to connect athletes to what they’re doing when implemented properly.

Track and performance coaches will be most intrigued by the light system. Having pacing lights for long sprints (400m) and endurance work requires a curb to have LED lighting, but you can do so much more. Performance coaches can use the LED Rabbit to set and keep athletes on pace. Conditioning tests are the most difficult to sell to athletes, but nearly any team coach worth their salt wants to know if the athletes are just as fit as they are fast. And besides, although disheartening to some extent, it’s easier to sell a coach and team on fitness rather than speed.

Video 2. Pacing shuttle tests with smart LED systems will not be the trend—it will be the future as the research supports the approach. Adding pacing improves the workout, as better data is not just about accuracy, it’s about knowing how an athlete can push themselves.

We have some great ideas for the future, such as using the LED Rabbit as a coaching tool. While we trust our eyes and have video, having a light system for an athlete is like a metronome for a musician. We’ve barely even started with light-pacing and other technologies and plan to watch this space as it grows and matures. After one trial, the value was obvious. And we expect creative coaches to find a way to make this even more useful and effective in the next few months. 

EMG: Are Your Muscles Firing?

Everyone in this profession has heard an athlete or fellow coach ask about a muscle not firing properly. If someone knows or feels that a muscle is not functioning, then let’s stop the guesswork and see for ourselves. If you don’t trust the research and are suspicious of the information shared by the lab coats, try getting your hands on electromyography (EMG) equipment and experiment for yourself.

#EMG #biofeedback is fantastic for experimenting with exercises when research isn't available, says @ExceedSPF. #athleteperformance Share on X

We are no strangers to EMG but don’t use it often and don’t claim to be scientists. We do have access to equipment that we could use for lab experiments, but as coaches we care about simple and easy wins. In our experience, EMG is strictly for research and simple biofeedback; it’s not a perfect monitoring tool yet. For something to be used as an everyday monitoring tool, it must check a few boxes:

• Simple set up and implementation
• Quick feedback and easy to interpret data
• Group-friendly

EMG isn’t going to solve every problem, but we’re huge fans of getting your hands on a device and experimenting with a few exercises “to get to the bottom of things,” pun intended, with all the glute activation hype.

Exercise selection and EMG are tied together a little too much, but where there’s smoke, there’s sometimes fire. Enough science behind EMG tells us that it’s acceptable to trust the measurements from experiments. The only problem is that not every exercise is researched, especially with machines and movements that are less common.

Here at Exceed, this is our second year using Athos. We just got the second generation product, and clearly they’ve upgraded the shirt and pants. Coaches who are engaged enough to purchase an EMG system are probably smart enough to know the difference between in-the-trenches use and a formal research study. Watching a screen change colors is not coaching and certainly not science. When you have a specific purpose, however, EMG feedback is fantastic.

Video 3. Knowing when muscle activity is absent is just as valuable as knowing when the muscle contracts. Using wearable EMG to assess a movement’s effectiveness is an established practice, but real-time feedback is just as exciting.

Early return to play is the area we expect to see the product working well for us in the future. An injured athlete is desperate for answers and is a far more willing participant with wearable technology. From working with athletes in the past, we’ve also learned they can have trust issues and sometimes feel betrayed by their bodies. EMG can reduce issues athletes have with confidence by showing that they can get their injured muscles working as well as the muscles that help reduce injuries. Right and left symmetry is tricky and requires analysis on the back end with the portal, but with early stage rehab, the app is straightforward enough.

Heart Rate Monitoring: What’s Old Is New Again

It’s true, heart rate monitoring is old news. Some coaches have chosen not to worry about it and have gone “organic,” trusting an athlete’s ability to listen to their body. Other coaches are like lab technicians and spend enormous amounts of time hooking up gear to their athletes looking for a magic number to crack the code. Don’t be in a tribe or camp that’s polarizing. Don’t be obsessed with heart rate data or ignorant of the research. Heart rate data helps model performance and recovery and is one of the most well-established ways to monitor training.

Directly providing feedback to athletes has been done with cycling mounts and wrist watches. These are great options for endurance athletes, but what about rowing circuits or tempo runs over longer distances? Mounting flat screens or even small displays isn’t a real solution for everyone. A more connected solution is smart glasses. The Google Glass attempt failed to hit the mainstream, and the ReconJet product line died, but we’re hoping that the Solos product pans out.

Instantaneous heart rate is very useful for conditioning, showing an athlete the actual work they’re producing rather than the “perception deception” that often occurs on days where they may be a little tired and experience unrealistic indications of fatigue. Though smart glasses aren’t for everyone, they’re likely to become more common, so it’s best to prepare for them.

Jumping and Speed Performance: Adding Intelligence to Effort

Last is the most obvious way to gauge effort and improvement, providing feedback for jumping and sprinting. It’s useful to know how fast an athlete is or how well they jump out or up. The two questions coaches must consider are whether they want to test athletes frequently and whether they want to enter the realm of training with velocity and distance. The technology to do both exists, but the bandwidth for coaches working with groups in real time is challenging and may not be for everyone.

Biofeedback doesn’t need to occur in every session. In fact, running on full throttle all the time can burn out an athlete. It’s not necessary to always use adrenaline for the dirty work—and it’s a little reckless in our book. Sprinting, while far more complex, is actually easier to manage than jumping.

While IMUs are viable and marketed as a jumping solution, they only estimate performance and don’t provide an accurate way to monitor jumping in the wild. In an isolated test, sure you can test an athlete, but coaches want to see information in real time with high accuracy. What is the solution? Know how much information is enough to get better, not to feed a curiosity addiction.

There’s a lot of excitement over flying sprints or short sprints, but what about the work between high-intensity training days? From middle school to pros, we see what happens when you gaslight everything all the time. The cost of sprinting on the body is enormous, so sprinting fast without chasing personal records is a responsibility we bear for our athletes in the long run.

Knowing an athlete's best current performance & what relative #speeds they respond to is everything, says @ExceedSPF. #athleteperformance #biofeedback Share on X

Using speeds between all-out and barely stimulatory is about 10%, so the margin of error is wide for coaches to get results without sprinting all-out. Athletes have different responses to effort: some improve technique, some maintain it, and of course, some fall apart. Knowing an athlete’s best current performance and what relative speeds they respond to is everything.

Although it takes longer and requires more work, programming speed and timing is only the starting point. True, arousal and adrenaline help, but so do rest and recovery. Timing is not only about bringing the best out of an athlete for one session but also knowing how to “release the hounds” properly for the whole season. Timing and monitoring are extremely helpful as feedback tools because, as many coaches know, our 70% and their 70% and their friends’ 70% are often vastly different.

Video 4. Force analysis is great for planning, but simple measures like height are valuable as well. It doesn’t matter which testing system you use for immediate feedback, though deeper analysis does require more information than contact mats provide.

At our facility, we have a considerable number of athletes who roll through each day. It wouldn’t benefit them, or even be possible for that matter, to test and monitor them using all of our technology everyday. Depending on the time of year, we treat them on a case by case basis, at least in a global view, considering the level of athlete, the frequency of their training, and sometimes just for the hell of it.

We test some athletes as a monitoring tool. Some of them train using technology to ensure effort and purpose. And others train and test periodically just to ensure they’re “trending” positively. There are many ways to use jump and sprint testing as biofeedback tools. There is no if, just how you want to do it.

Don’t Only Keep it Simple, Keep it Transparent

There are plenty of other options, including video feedback (which we swear by), but that would take an entire article to cover fully. We wanted to show how simple additions of the appropriate technology could improve a workout. Technology doesn’t make your job obsolete; it makes you more effective and more productive. If you add one piece of technology to training to help with feedback, you’ll start to see the results pile up. Don’t forget that feedback includes human interaction, as honest reminders of effort and timely compliments can mean everything to an athlete. Let the sports technology do the monkey work and focus on doing what you do best as a coach.

#Technology doesn't make coaches obsolete, it makes us more effective and productive, says @ExceedSPF. #athleteperformance #biofeedback Share on X

Nobody wants to make things unnecessarily complex, but the human body is a very complicated organism. While we never try to dumb down the process at Exceed, we understand that if the information is not bite-sized, it will likely backfire. We have rarely experienced a paralysis by analysis from information overload, but we do see an argument that too much feedback all the time can get messy. You don’t need to ensure everything all the time, but we never like making absolute statements of what we believe without getting a number we can trust.

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 frequently hear coaches repeat the mantra that kids are not miniature adults, only to see them then turn around and program exercises and practices using adult-driven ideas rather than youth-centered principles. Don’t believe me? Raise your hand if you (or someone you know) work with prepubescent children and use any of the following approaches:

• Foam rolling.
• Functional movement screens.
• Standards to advance young athletes from one phase of training to another, such as every athlete must be able to complete 20 push-ups before they can bench press.
• Words and phrases like “mental toughness,” “grit,” and “drills.”
• Using the term “elite” for youngsters under 12 years of age.
• Cherry-picking the “best athletes” for your U-10 team while the others ride the bench.
• Having an “A” and a “B” team.

OK, you can put your hand down now. While there are many examples in our current sports/strength and conditioning cultures, these seven “deadly” sins illustrate the point that many coaches say they are youth-centric, but what they do tells a different story.

Many coaches say they are youth-centric, but what they do with their youth athletes tells a different story, says @rihoward41. Share on X

Where is the evidence for these practices? While some of these approaches have not necessarily been shown to be detrimental, their use has no evidence grounded in science and could be more harmful than beneficial. Since there have not been controlled studies conducted in the prepubescent population, we can’t be sure yet, as there is no evidence one way or the other. These pursuits, however, are based on adult thinking, showing that coaches don’t always really mean it when they say kids are not miniature adults. Just because it works for high school, college, and pro athletes, does not necessarily mean it is applicable for youngsters (hence the mantra in the first place, kids are not miniature adults).

Each of the following seven practices (which match up to the seven bullet points above), are evidence-based and help kids reach their potential. To be truly youth-centered, consider using the following practices:

Let Kids Solve Movement Problems

Get kids to move and encourage movement in all three planes of motion. For this first recommendation, letting kids solve movement problems achieves the same benefits for them as foam rolling does for adults: increased blood flow, improved movement, increased range of motion, and decreased risk of injury. Once they can master movement in all three planes separately, have them move in a combination of planes.

Let kids move in all of these scenarios: on their own, with some guidance, and under direct supervision. Encourage them to move regularly. Move with them! Many kids do not get the opportunity to move often enough. Help them increase their movement vocabulary before prescribing more work for them where they do not get to move, such as some popular mobility and flexibility techniques that are intended for adults but may not be justified for use with children.

Use Your ‘Coach’s Eye’ to Observe Foundational Movements

Screening only a few movements will not tell the whole movement story and has not been shown to be valid and reliable in kids. Instead, consider whether kids can adequately master motor skills in the locomotor, object control, and body awareness categories. These are important first steps before you attempt complex movements incorporating more than one motor skill.

For example, kids should be able to run well and kick well before attempting to run and kick (you remember playing kickball in elementary school recess and some kids would miss the ball, right?). Kids should also focus on the seven primary movements: hinge, squat, lunge, brace, rotate, push, pull (and many coaches now include carry). Also consider adding movements kids can use for sports and for the rest of their lives (swimming, biking, etc.).

Promote Opportunities for Kids to Develop Competence in All Fitness Attributes

Trainable health-fitness attributes include muscle strength, muscle endurance, flexibility, and cardiovascular endurance. Skills-fitness attributes include “ABC-PS”: Agility, balance, coordination, power, and speed. Always incorporate motor skills. When including strength movements, remember it is difficult within the construct of strength to compare a measure of relative strength (strength per body weight, such as a push-up) to a measure of absolute strength (strength moving an external object, such as a bench press). The two are not necessarily related. If you are truly building movement vocabularies for kids, you will find a way to include both exercises at the level that best matches each child’s ability.

Focus on the Phrase ‘Physical Literacy’

Use sports, fitness, activities, and free play to find what works best on any given day. Make sure to provide youngsters with opportunities to move in a variety of ways on a variety of surfaces under a variety of conditions (this is why drills are not always effective). Let them try different things and figure it out their way. Build off of successful movement. Use positive cueing (keep your head up instead of don’t look down, for example).

Provide youngsters with opportunities to move in a variety of ways on a variety of surfaces under a variety of conditions, says @rihoward41. Share on X

Replace ‘Elite’ with Words Like ‘Wellness’ and ‘Balance’

These terms apply to physical, mental, social, technical, and tactical abilities. Our role is to build successful movers. Some of us do that through sports, some through physical education, some through strength and conditioning, and some via positive parenting. All of us are in this together to help kids be successful movers from cradle to grave, not to be on the championship U-10 A team.

Focus on holistic development for every child, and balance their physical, emotional, social, psychological, and educational wellness. The wellness wheel is flat if you don’t help kids develop all aspects of wellness. Remember, they are kids. Some play sports. Some play video games. How are you getting them to be healthy, fit, ready to learn, and the best they can be?

Teach Kids Every Position in a Variety of Sports (and How to Play on Their Own)

Since the majority of coaches are not tracking peak height (and weight) velocity, it is difficult to tell whether your tallest player at age 10 will be the tallest player at age 16, for example. Why not teach every player every position and have league rules that dictate that every player must play x number of plays at y number of positions?

Be sure that kids learn to play different positions in a variety of sports. At best, every player can grow and develop and be ready to play the position that best matches their stature. At worst, every player develops a sense of what each different position is like. This may benefit their “field sense,” which is their awareness of their surroundings and anticipation of what will unfold on the field of play.

Instead of an ‘A’ and a ‘B’ Team, Mix Kids of All Abilities Together

Since you are coaching a team (remember, Together Everyone Achieves More), make it a team effort. Have the kids with a specific skill set work with those that are still learning. Rotate kids of different abilities into different roles so they become successful through the teamwork the group can instill. We love to watch the videos on social media showing someone who we would not expect to succeed having their shining moment due to the selflessness of their teammates. Why not make this a common occurrence?

Further Considerations

When we repeat that kids are not miniature adults, here are some developmental considerations so that we can make the right decisions for strength and conditioning and sports practice:

Physical: Children’s growth and development is nonlinear, meaning it does not always follow a straight path. Watch kids who seem to have a decrease in performance (especially during their growth spurt, which is why it is called “adolescent awkwardness”). Meet them where they are across the developmental continuum.

They do not have the fully mature physical size, strength, and stamina of an adult, so they should not be trained the same way. Always err on the side of caution. Kids have thinner skin (literally). Children breathe in more air per pound of body weight, while taking fewer overall breaths per minute. Children have less fluid in their bodies, so fluid loss has a bigger effect. They often believe they are not working as hard as they are, so coaches should monitor them and provide adequate rest breaks.

Emotional: Children feel less of a sense of control in many situations, understand less about certain situations, and have less experience at bouncing back from challenging situations, so mental stress can be harder on them. They may not feel situations with the same intensity as adults. That does not mean they need to be mentally tougher—it means they are kids. Coaches must recognize where each athlete is on the developmental continuum for physical, emotional, and social growth. That said, kids need to be able to fail, and know that is often how learning occurs.

Kids need to be able to fail, and know that is often how learning occurs, says@rihoward41. Share on X

Social: Kids tend to be self-centered, developmentally—meaning they focus mainly on themselves. Their own personality is not yet fully developed. Their role models are adults, usually their parents. They have not yet developed empathy. Youngsters need a caring, child-centric coach who understands the developmental differences and needs of kids.

When coaches focus on the physical, emotional, and psychosocial developmental needs of kids, it cultivates a kids-first culture and ensures that their physical literacy through sport, fitness, and play is nurtured. Youngsters exposed to this type of environment are more likely to be motivated to participate since their needs are being met. Kids also will drop out less as they will be having fun (not having fun is the No. 1 reason kids stop playing sports; not playing and getting yelled at are two reasons kids don’t have fun).

This approach provides kids with a wide variety of movement opportunities across a broad spectrum of sports. Since fitness, play, and fun are included, aspiring athletes will have a reduced risk of injury. Since all kids are given consistent opportunities to enhance their movement capabilities, they will develop the movement competence and self-efficacy that is so important for them to want to continue to move in sports and throughout their lives.

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 baseball pitchers has long consisted of work that is non-specific to the demands of the game. Often, what you find on baseball fields all over America is a combination of long, slow, distance work or high-intensity interval-type sprints with incomplete recoveries. Not only are these not specific to the energy system needed for the sport, but they compete with adaptive reserves that could be more useful in other processes.

In truth, any talk of energy system development with baseball athletes should start and stop with the alactic system. The question becomes whether there is a purpose for developing the oxidative or anaerobic-glycolytic systems in baseball. The oxidative and anaerobic-glycolytic energy systems may have their place in other sports, but I tend to disagree that they are useful for baseball athletes.

The oxidative and anaerobic-glycolytic energy systems may have their place in other sports, but I tend to disagree that they are useful for baseball athletes, says @ZachDechant. Share on X

All too often, coaches judge the training for a sport by “how much?” and “how hard?” If it doesn’t max out those two qualities, then training was a waste of time. Possibly the most misunderstood concept in training athletes is that of developing energy systems or “conditioning.”

Energy systems do not work independently, despite what virtually every student in an exercise science class is taught. All three energy systems are always active in every aspect of performance. One doesn’t kick in at a certain time and shut off at another time in succession. Each system’s contribution varies according to the intensity and the duration of the activity being performed. So, if all systems are active at any one point, why wouldn’t it be beneficial to train all three systems?

One reason is adaptive reserves. It makes little sense to spend a large amount of time on training something that contributes very little, if at all. Athletes only have so much energy to adapt to training stimuli. When more and more gets added to their plate, they lose the ability to adapt to a specific stimulus, and this, for a pitcher, should be alactic power. Over the course of long seasons, high volumes of non-specific work will take their toll on the body.

Physical and Mental Demands of Pitching

With that in mind, let’s look at the average action of a baseball pitch. A pitcher’s total motion is usually in the range of about 1.0-1.5 seconds in duration, from initial movement to ball release. The ball is thrown back and the next pitch is started on average around the 12- to 15-second mark. This is a 1:10+ work-to-rest ratio if we’re being conservative, but it could easily be higher. If we look at the standards for work-to-rest ratios according to the NSCA guidelines, this places pitching in the alactic zone.

Pitching isn’t always an all-out maximal effort throughout the motion, either. If we compare throwing a pitch to another 1- or 1.5-second event, for most athletes this would be a 7- to 10-meter sprint. The sprint, however, is an all-out maximal effort event. Pitching—and this is very dependent upon the individual—is often a controlled buildup of momentum and energy into a maximal effort at release.

Coaches have traditionally adored running pitchers to no end in season. After all, they need their legs under them to be able to pitch, right?! Baseball has long been a slave to the belief that pitching is built around a foundation of running to condition the body. General running is not specific, nor is it complementary to speed or the power development needed by pitchers. Too much long, slow, distance work or too many lactate-producing interval runs can compromise gains on the other end of the spectrum.

What about high heart rates in games…

What about the case of the heart rate? Heart rates do often climb, with starting pitchers in the 140-170 bpm range. However, studies have shown that elevated, in-game heart rates are more associated with perceived stress and anxiety when on the mound than to physical activity. In fact, one study on heart rates during pitching showed the highest heart rates were during home games in the first two innings, followed by a gradual decrease each inning thereafter. Compared to road games, there was a significant difference. Again, this shows how much emotional excitement in front of the home crowd affects heart rates.

Well, we run them to clear lactate from previous starts…

Yes, the old theory of running endlessly to clear lactic acid out of the arm is still around. A pitcher’s effort generally lasts less than 1.5 seconds, with long rest as detailed above. This does not even come close to a buildup of lactate. Soreness in the throwing arm following an outing does not come from lactic acid buildup. Lactate is actually a good thing when it comes to energy system development, but that’s for another time.

Pitcher soreness comes from the massive stretch shortening cycle, as well as eccentric forces placed upon the arm and body, not lactic acid buildup, says @ZachDechant. Share on X

Pitchers become sore from the massive stretch shortening cycle, as well as eccentric forces placed upon the arm and body from rapid acceleration and deceleration. Huge distraction forces up to 1x bodyweight are placed upon the shoulder during every throw.

What is the role, if any, that each energy system can play in the grand scheme of the pitcher?

Benefits of the Aerobic System for Power Athletes

The aerobic energy system is built for the long haul for low-intensity bouts. It was previously thought that the aerobic system kicked in around 90 seconds to two minutes into exercise, but it is now known that the aerobic system is present from the get-go and much more important than originally thought. The benefits of a properly functioning aerobic system often go beyond long-distance running sports. There are several advantages to developing the oxidative system.

Vagal Tone and the Parasympathetic Nervous System

One of the biggest benefits of aerobic training pertains to autonomic nervous system regulation. The autonomic nervous system (ANS) makes up one part of the body’s nervous system. The ANS is broken into two parts: the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.

The sympathetic nervous system (SNS) is known as “fight or flight.” This system is related to stress. The SNS runs overtime when stress is present, whether in the form of competitions, strenuous training, money problems, relationship issues, etc. For the most part, the SNS is overly active in most Americans due, more than anything, to our thoughts. But you can see that high-intensity training and competitions also fall under the umbrella of the SNS, which relates back to athletes. The SNS runs overtime for baseball athletes who play multiple competitions per week.

On the flip side, we have the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS). The PNS is known as “rest and digest.” The PNS is where we want athletes to be when not training or competing. It stimulates recovery in the body and athletes make gains when recovering, not when training. Low-intensity aerobic methods stimulate the PNS. A foundation of aerobic development helps the body recover from sympathetic stressors. It helps to lower everyday energy usage and prepare for future stressors.

A 2012 study by James, et al. demonstrated that subjects participating in severe exercise bouts experienced an increased sympathetic influence on the heart and a decreased parasympathetic tone. It was shown that intense repeated training stressed the subject’s ability to engage the parasympathetic nervous system and maintain homeostasis.

ATP Replenishment

Another huge benefit of the aerobic system is its ability to regenerate ATP and the removal of waste products during bouts of alactic work. The aerobic system is hard at work during short, high-intensity bouts of alactic training. Rest periods rely on the aerobic process to replace substrates essential to the replenishment of ATP. A large foundation of aerobic development can mean a more powerful alactic system, especially when it comes to alactic capacity, or the ability to reproduce high-powered outputs for a long duration. This doesn’t necessarily affect the game of baseball, but a very small case could be made for pitchers.

While the aerobic system can play a vital role in energy-system-dominant sports, it’s still not a main player in the sport of baseball, says @ZachDechant. Share on X

While the aerobic system can play a vital role in energy-system-dominant sports, it’s still not a main player in the sport of baseball. Athletes can achieve the necessary aerobic adaptations with work that doesn’t stray far from the ultimate goal of speed and power development.

Guidelines for Movement Circuits and Dynamic Warm-Ups

Two great methods for creating an underlying foundation of aerobic capacity are movement circuits and extended dynamic warm-ups. These are excellent for pitchers on the day following a start or high-intensity mound effort. Keeping the heart rate elevated in the range of 120-150 bpm for 20-30 minutes can create a low-intensity aerobic capacity adaptation.

A quality movement series the following day restores ranges of motion throughout fascial and muscular systems. It pushes lymph throughout the body, which aids in the elimination of waste products and supplies the tissues with oxygenated blood.

It’s no surprise that a one-sided asymmetrical activity would cause motion adaptations, so using movement circuits the following day helps to kill two birds with one stone. Not only do we stimulate recovery processes in the body, but we can do so while training and developing the oxidative system to a small degree and assisting the body’s ability to easily return to a parasympathetic state.

A properly put together, daily, dynamic warm-up can stimulate a foundation for aerobic adaptations.

Parameters:

1. Heart rates maintained at 120-150 bpm even during rest periods.

2. Lower reps – generally between 5 and 10, at most.

a. Usually no more than 5 each side.
If reps are too high, heart rates will climb, and lactate accumulation can begin to outpace elimination. We don’t want that happening at this time.

3. Rest periods

a. HR stays above 120 bpm.

4. Movements

a. Total body compound movements.
b. We often superset a lower movement, upper movement, core, and mobility movement for multiple sets. You may ask how we do a large compound movement but then suggest a lower, upper, and so on. An upper body movement may be a push-up with rotation or push-up into a DB Row. These use the entire anterior and lateral chain, in many cases. Five reps per side and most athletes’ heart rates will climb. Use a short rest that allows it to drop back to the 120-bpm mark before the next movement begins.

Tempo Runs and Pitchers

Tempo runs are low-intensity sprints performed at 65-75% of max speed. They are essentially between full-out sprints and jogging. They were termed “tempo runs” by the great Canadian sprint coach Charlie Francis. He utilized tempo runs as not only a form of aerobic development for sprinters, but a means of recovery in his high/low system of programming.

Tempo runs are an excellent means of recovery work on low-intensity days. Staying in the 65-75% range for max speed is essential for nervous system recovery. Francis’ beliefs focused on eliminating the middle ground of sprinting at 76-95% intensities. These intensities are too slow to be utilized for speed development, and too fast for recovery. They become too intensive to recover from quickly and create residual fatigue for the next high-intensity day. When that happens, the main work can suffer. Tempo runs give athletes a more specific training effect without substantial nervous system fatigue.

1. Aerobic Development

Tempo runs give athletes the benefits of cardiovascular development in a fashion more complementary to the rest of their training. They are essentially short sprints followed by rest intervals long enough to keep lactate at bay.

2. Capillary Density

A huge benefit that Charlie Francis touted with tempo runs was increased capillary density. Low-intensity tempo runs build a larger capillary network throughout the muscle. Increasing capillary density provides several benefits to baseball athletes.

a. Staying Warmer
Increasing capillary density creates more heat throughout the muscle and allows for the muscle to stay warmer longer. This is hugely important for Olympic-level sprinters, as their training runs often require 10-20 minutes of rest to ensure full recovery. The ability to stay warm is key. With baseball, this is an absolute no-brainer. Pitchers are always active while on the mound, but they have long periods of sitting and waiting to go out for the next inning.
b. Blood Flow and Nutrient Transfer
Enhanced capillary density improves blood flow throughout the muscle complex. Increasing blood flow not only enhances heat, but also improves oxygenation and nutrient transfer. Nutrient transfer is important not just for the benefits of more nutrient availability on the good side, but also the removal of waste products on the bad side.

Tempo Parameters

Rest Intervals

I prefer a walking rest interval based upon distance during tempo runs. This is generally a 1:2 ratio in terms of yardage. Take the distance of each rep and walk half that between each run. If athletes do 100-yard tempo runs, I have them walk to the 25-yard line and back for their rest interval, for a total of 50 yards.

Intensity

The intensity is the most important element of tempo runs. Athletes should stay within the zone of 65-75% of maximum speed. Calculations can be made based upon an athlete’s best 60-meter time or other sprint time, but I find it unnecessary to do a bunch of calculations. I rely on the athletes to determine their own 65-75%. The best indicator of proper intensity is an athlete being able to perform the first rep and the last rep at the same intensity. An athlete running too fast will begin to fatigue, and the last reps will be slower and more tiring than the first. Tempo runs should be almost refreshing to the body. Fatigue should not be a large factor.

Total Volume

The total volume depends on goals, but I often stay between 1,000 and 1,600 total yards of volume. At times, we may work up close to 2,000 yards, but those times are few and far between. Charlie Francis used 2,000+ yards as his standard for 100-meter sprinters. Coaches should build volume gradually, just as they would with any other new stimulus.

Distance

Each run varies from 50 to 100 yards, but a variety of distances can be effective.

Location

In general, tempo runs should be performed on a softer surface. Grass makes for the best surface to eliminate any repetitive pounding that many baseball athletes may not be used to.

Alactic Methods and Training Concepts

The anaerobic-alactic system is our bread and butter when it comes to baseball development. The alactic system is also known as the Phosphagen, or ATP-PC system. This system relies on few processes to rapidly produce energy for explosive efforts, but it comes at the cost of being very short in duration. For baseball athletes, that cost rarely comes into play, as the alactic system usually reaches its limits after 10+ seconds.

The ultimate goal for baseball is producing higher alactic outputs, says @ZachDechant. Share on X

Alactic means and methods consist of short-duration movements dealing with strength training, jumps, medball throws, sled pushes, sprints, etc. The duration, intensity, and rest intervals of each determine whether it is truly alactic or not. Training for strength, speed, and power is generally considered alactic. The ultimate goal for baseball is producing higher alactic outputs.

1. Strength Training

a. Dynamic effort
• 40-70%
• Maximal acceleration
• 1-3 reps
• High number of sets

b. Rep and max effort

• 70+%
• 1-5 reps
• Low to moderate number of sets

2. Speed Training

a. 5-50 yards
b. Acceleration and maximal speed runs
c. Full recoveries
• 1 min. per 10 yds

3. Medball Throws

a. Maximal intent throws
b. 3-5 reps per side
c. Full rests intervals
d. Movement patterns
• Rotational
• Linear forward/backward
• Specific

4. Jump Training

a. 1-5 reps
b. Maximal intent
c. Full rest intervals
d. Variety of movements available
• Double leg
• Single leg
• Alternating






Anaerobic Lactic System

The anaerobic lactic system is the second part of the anaerobic system. It is also known as the lactic or glycolytic energy system. This system is responsible for energy production following the slowdown of the alactic system at around 12 seconds. It produces ATP faster than the aerobic system, but again, comes at the cost of its duration and by-products.

I’ve seen graphs that state baseball is 80% alactic, 15% anaerobic-glycolytic, and 5% oxidative. This is ridiculous. The lactic system has nowhere near a 15% contribution for baseball athletes.

The lactic system rarely, if ever, gets used on the baseball field, says @ZachDechant. Share on X

The lactic system rarely, if ever, gets used on a baseball field. Plays on a baseball field rarely exceed 10 seconds and when they do, athletes get more than enough rest to return to the alactic system. Yes, there are exceptions to every case, but it is rare (if ever) that the lactic system would play a role in a baseball athlete’s training.

I often think of the lactic system as the middle ground that so many “conditioning drills” get built around. The middle ground refers to intensity and rest intervals. Intensities are in the 75-95% range with rests that don’t fully restore an athlete. Intensities over 75% stimulate the nervous system and therefore cannot be classified as recovery or restoration, yet aren’t fast enough to stimulate alactic power or true speed training.

The 300-yard shuttle is a staple for professional baseball organizations in spring training. Rest intervals are incomplete and do not allow for full short-term restoration. They are often classified as a 1:3 work-to-rest ratio, which, as we know from above, is nowhere close to the game of baseball. A 60-second, 300-yard shuttle is commonly given three-minute rest intervals before repeating. And these become tough runs made with large buildups of lactate.

The lactic system makes up much more than its fair share of “baseball conditioning.” If you’re running sprints or drills that last over 10 seconds with incomplete recoveries, then you’re training the lactic system. Not only is this training not specific to the demands of the sport, but it can actually hamper the development of the aerobic system and the ability of the body to recover.





All this means no bow-and-arrow sprints, no ladder poles, no 300-yard shuttles. Those may have their purpose at one time or another, but continually conditioning baseball athletes with this type of running has no purpose.

Parting Thoughts

Conditioning a pitcher to throw 90+ pitches is not all that energy-system-dependent, as many believe. The real conditioning is skill-specific. The ability to throw 90 pitches in a game doesn’t come from road work and miles on the legs. It comes from building throwing workloads gradually and the ability of the body to handle those workloads. We can take anybody who is in shape and it won’t mean they can throw 90 pitches in a game.

On the flip side, you see many out-of-shape guys who can still dominate on the mound. Conditioning is general and doesn’t aid that aspect. Any talk of baseball and energy systems should basically start and stop with alactic development. Are there benefits that can be derived from the other energy systems? Yes, but in the grand scheme of things, the benefits derived from other energy systems are small and often secondary training effects.

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





References

Cornell, David J., et al. “In-Game Heart Rate Responses Among Professional Baseball Starting Pitchers.” Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2017; 31(1): 24-29.  doi:10.1519/jsc.0000000000001465.

Haff, Greg, and N. Travis Triplett. “Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning.” Human Kinetics, 2016.

James, D.V., Munson, S.C., Maldonado-Martin, S. and De Ste Croix, M.B. “Heart rate variability: effect of exercise intensity on postexercise response.” Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport. 2012; 83(4): 533-9.

Before reading this article, I want you to close your eyes, sit still, and relax. I want you to imagine the most amazing high-performance sport program you can. Conjure up imagery of every detail and every aspect. With your eyes closed, take your time looking around—what do you see?

Labs? Testing? Grandiose facilities?

Make a list. Think, also, about some of the common phrases and slogans you’ve heard:

• At our High-Performance Summer Camp, we strive to help athletes reach their true potential
• Our High-Performance Program is the best in the country!
• Join our High-Performance Team and apply now
• Cutting edge programs
• Ground-breaking methods

Is high performance a spacious training environment with shiny new equipment? Does it include a coaching staff wearing matching Polo shirts, all moving about the facility to collect data using sophisticated computer tech? Is it about extensive laboratory testing or predictions of Olympic medals?

Or, is high-performance something else?

What Exactly Is High Performance?

If I were to ask you to define the term, could you? Is it even a definable and measurable construct? Is it something we can all picture and agree on?

Now, imagine you’re an athlete or a new practitioner seeking to be part of a high-performance program. Would you know what to look for? Would you be aware of the common denominators shared between all high-performance programs? And would you be able to identify what is missing?

My point is, the world of high-performance programs and high-performance sport are not clearly defined. Meaning we have no current checklist that neatly outlines what a high-performance program is (or is not); however, it seems everyone is offering this type of service.

Since the term itself is unclear, I decided to pretend I was a prospective athlete looking for a high-performance program using nothing but a handy internet search engine. During my non-scholarly Google crusade, I came across several definitions of high performance:

“High-performance sport or elite sport is sport at the highest level of competition… where the emphasis is on winning prestigious competitions” (Wikipedia, 2019).

High-performance sport overlaps with professional sport but is not the same; for example, the English football league system and Minor League Baseball include lower divisions whose teams’ members are full-time professionals. On the other hand, elite competitors at the Olympic Games or World Games in some minority sports may be part-time or rely on government grants. Likewise, student athletes, especially in college sports, are often high performance despite being amateurs (Wikipedia, 2019).

Clear as mud right? Okay, googling further:

In high-performance sport, “Administratively, National governing bodies for a particular sport often have separate administrative units for supporting elite athletes and for administering mass competitions. National Olympic Committees are often concerned with the funding of athletes likely to win Olympic medals. National Training Centers and Sports academies have also popped up with the goal of developing and nurturing promising young athletes. Such institutes may set goals in terms of national ranking on the Olympic medal table” (Wikipedia, 2019).

Thanks, Wikipedia, but this does little to help the prospective athlete or budding practitioner—or anyone else for that matter—seek and ultimately find a high-performance program to help them reach their respective goals. Perhaps many people think that the realms of high-performance sport are untouchable and reserved for only the very elite (whatever that means) and that it requires a state-of-the-art facility and a testing laboratory to do any real, valuable work.

High-performance programs are about the attitude of people running it & their drive to do what's necessary to develop the athletes, says @carmenbott. Share on X

In reality, high-performance programs are about culture. And culture is more about the attitude of people working for the athletes and the drive they demonstrate to do what is necessary to foster the athlete’s development. Notice I did not use the adjective elite. Since there is no current definition of a high-performance program that offers a “bells and whistles” insight, I’ll take a stab at honing in on the level of professionalism, service, and drive necessary to live up to that title. As an athlete or a practitioner, these are the qualities you should shop for.

I want to share this insight with athletes, their parents, and potential practitioners looking to join a high-performance team of professionals. Having coached in several different environments that were all deemed high-performance, I found some environments were much better than others. And from this lens, I’d like to share my view on the key targets of a high-performance culture that all high-performance sport programs should embody.

Target 1: Consistency

High-performance culture must be about the consistency of service delivery. Every single day, each staff member must show up with the same level of vigor, drive, and patience they did the day before. A staff that can perform and deliver—no matter the circumstances—sets a level of modeling for the athlete that is imperative. Energy and focus must not fluctuate.

Target 2: Growth Mindset

A high-performance culture is about a growth mindset. We can improve every day. Complacency and procrastination have no place in a high-performance environment. High-performance team members must admit their knowledge gaps and demonstrate their resourcefulness by doing daily research for the betterment of their professional development. It might involve looking up an answer to a question, seeking a new drill to improve a motor skill or a consulting with another professional. Get better every day.

Target 3: Calculated Risk-Taking

A high-performance culture is about calculated risk-taking. Sometimes a risk needs to be taken. Meaning, there is going to be doubt about a training method, or a taper, or even a training schedule. We cannot predict every outcome, and sometimes we are faced with uncertain circumstances. These are times to be brave. And to put the eggs in one basket and confidently face the storm. At worst, we’ll learn from our errors. We instill this in our athletes, do we not? Well, again we must practice what we preach. This does not mean we are whimsical or emotional in our decision-making; it means sometimes we risk a negative outcome. And such is life.

Target 4: Collaboration

A high-performance culture is about collaboration. Barriers to this often include fear and ego. If you approach another professional and express an opinion and they are not open to discussion, don’t take it personally and don’t bother “going in the ditch.” Not everyone is ready for you and new ideas. You need to know this and instead seek those who are not afraid of debate. Debate and collaboration are the same in my mind. We can disagree and approach problems very differently from one another but still arrive at a similar end point.

Collaboration means we can disagree & approach problems very differently from one another & still arrive at a similar end point, says @carmenbott. Share on X

True collaboration is about knowing the strengths of those around you and putting your ego aside when you need to ask for help. Collaboration, though, works best when two or more individuals have a similar value system and work ethic. If you find people just want to milk you for your knowledge, find a new colleague. That’s not reciprocity, and it’s not about the athlete.

Target 5: Frequent Communication

A high-performance culture is about frequent communication with athletes. Very little is new in sport science in terms of training methodology. However, we can be innovative about how we deliver programming. With so many accessible platforms for high performance athletes, it’s easier and faster to communicate than ever before.

Besides the face-to-face communication during training sessions, it’s important to touch base with athletes regularly and ask for their feedback: text, instant message, phone, or video chat. Athlete feedback should be the basis of our decision-making, and we won’t know how athletes are feeling or experiencing the training until we ask. Having a close relationship with high performance athletes is not unprofessional. Trust must be built, and it’s through open channels of communication where we can be foster it even further.

Target 6: Aligning Core Values

A high-performance culture is about aligning core values. In the world of sport, the performance team is large with many moving parts: sports medicine, physiology, psychology, statistics and analytics, strength and conditioning, the board, coaching staff, and more—and at the center of it all is the athlete. Each team member must be aligned in core values, and this needs to be clearly defined and communicated from the outset.

Each performance team member must be aligned in core values, which need to be clearly defined and communicated from the outset, says @carmenbott. Share on X

I’ll take this further and suggest a written document of standard operating procedures, a code of professional conduct, and a communication stream. Each member must be selfless and in it for the athlete’s benefit, not for their glory. Having said that, all team members should be recognized and appreciated for their work; praise and acknowledgment are important.

Target 7: Basis in Science

High-performance culture revolves around science and the scientific method. All team members must make choices based on what the body of evidence suggests as best practice. A high-performance program is not about the latest fitness trend or nutritional supplement. It’s also not about the general population. Athletes are special, and we must make informed choices for them based on scientific evidence. It’s okay to be cutting edge and innovative, but the evidence still must be founded upon rigor. Meaning, science that applies to an untrained soccer mom does not mesh well with an NFL superstar. Not. The. Same.

Target 8: Modeling

A high-performance culture is about modeling. Each team member must be living and breathing excellence. I am not saying perfection, but it’s important that we show our athletes that we, too, are executing a high-performance lifestyle. We’re eating well. We’re sleeping well. We’re communicating well. We’re engaging in self-care. We’re not allowing ourselves to burn out. We are healthy, fit, and strong, and have a relentless appetite for good hard work. Plus, we are fun to be around!

Without a foundation of high-performance culture and solid teamwork of caring individuals, the extras lack significance, says @carmenbott. Share on X

High performance sport is not about anything tangible, is it? It’s about the culture of a team, agency, or organization made up of amazing humans who, on a daily basis, are role models for athletes and who place the athlete at the center of all their decision-making. The shiny hubcaps are the fancy facilities and world-class laboratories. Without a foundation of high-performance culture and solid teamwork of caring individuals, the extras lack significance.

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

Late last year, we learned that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was considering including esports—competitive computer gaming—at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. This news was generally met with derision from the sporting community, which advocates that sports should include some form of physical performance.

Philosophical questions aside, the Olympics need to remain relevant as time progresses, keeping the next generation interested in the whole movement and ensuring advertisers have a worthwhile market to justify their sponsorship outlays. It’s not only the IOC that’s exploring the use of computer games. Manchester City, for example, recently announced an esport-specific sponsorship partnership, viewing esports as a crucial way to break into the Chinese football market.

Beyond esport competitions, emerging evidence suggests that computer games along with virtual reality (VR) have the potential to revolutionize more traditional sports. For example, a common issue with sports training is managing physical load. We generally understand that too much load leads to undue fatigue and increases the risk of injury. As such, coaches have to limit their athletes’ exposure to physical stress. Computer simulation-based training can completely remove, or at least reduce, the physical component of training, allowing for more total training to occur and, ideally, larger improvement.

Performance training with #virtualreality can reduce physical load, allow for more total training, & improve tactical skills, says @craig100m. Share on X

A second issue for sport coaches is their ability to produce realistic training environments. As much as they try, it can be hard to replicate the heat of competition. This is especially true for tactical training. If you’re setting up your team to carry out a specific action to reduce the effectiveness of an opposition player—and you don’t have the specific opposition player to practice against—it can be tough to understand if your intervention will be effective.

Building on this latter point, a number of NFL teams have shown interest in VR-based training for their quarterbacks—perhaps most famously in the case of Tom Brady. In theory, VR-based training allows the quarterback to become immersed in the game, spotting their receivers in the pattern and picking the ideal pass in their progression while avoiding defensive players. This adds to the hours of game footage the players watch to hopefully provide additional realism above that of the game tape.

How Effective Are Computer Games and Virtual Reality in Enhancing Performance?

There are a few studies in this area, all of which suggest computer technology has potential. A 2009 study, for example, randomized 32 university students to undertake bowling training on a Nintendo Wii or no training at all before a bowling skill test. The researchers found that those who trained on the Wii had better bowling performance.

A more recent 2019 table tennis study found similar results. Here, subjects underwent a table tennis assessment and then were randomized to receive either six VR table tennis training sessions or no training at all before undertaking a second table tennis assessment. Again, the VR training group showed significantly greater improvements in real-world table tennis performance compared to the control group. Comparable results for darts throwing have also been reported.

There are still plenty of questions in this area that require resolution. First, we need to understand better how computer games and VR might sit alongside physical training. In both the table tennis and bowling studies, the subjects either undertook VR training or no training at all.

But what happens if the control group undertook actual table tennis training, as opposed to doing nothing? We’d assume that they would show greater improvements. But we should also consider how this would work throughout a 3-month training program, especially with training load and injury risk. Might we expect that strategic computer games and VR sessions in replacement of, or in addition to, more standard physical training sessions would lead to greater performance enhancement? Time will (hopefully) tell.

There is plenty of evidence suggesting that computer-based and VR training potentially can enhance sports vision—the ability to detect relevant stimuli and execute the correct skill in a given match context. It’s not yet entirely clear, however, how well they’ll transfer to real world performance.

Fortunately, a 2017 study by Rob Gray gives us some initial insights as to whether training carried out in a virtual environment transfers to the real world. Here, Gray randomly assigned 80 experienced, male baseball players to one of four groups:

• A virtual environment group that faced 30 virtual pitches
• A real-world group that faced 30 real pitches
• An adaptive virtual environment group which faced 30 pitches varied according to an athlete’s skill level
• A control group

The training groups undertook two 45-minute sessions per week for six weeks. All sessions were in addition to regular training sessions. Overall, the adaptive virtual environment group showed the greatest improvements in batting performance. That this group outperformed the athletes who underwent real-world batting training suggests that there’s sufficient transfer from VR training to real-world performance, at least for baseball.

High school baseball players who underwent #virtualreality batting training performed better than those who had real-world training, says @craig100m. Share on X

Interestingly, these subjects were high-school baseball players. In general, around 0.5% of high schoolers are drafted into the MLB; in the five-year period after this study was completed, 10% of the adaptive virtual environment group were drafted, which suggests that this type of training may drive longer-term changes—which is clearly very promising.

Implications for High Performance Athletes

As identified in a recent review, the majority of these studies use beginners as opposed to advanced athletes. This could skew results because beginners generally require less work to improve. They also tend to show improvements from a variety of different interventions, regardless of the general efficacy of a specific intervention. As such, we clearly need more research on high-level athletes, a group in which improvements tend to be difficult and hard-won. If computer game and VR training enhance performance in this group, then they’re likely here to stay.

Visual and Perception Training

An area in athletics where VR may be useful involves my own training history. I’ve written before about how I was responsible for the Great Britain 4x100m relay team’s disqualification at the 2008 Olympic Games, which was somewhat of a career-defining experience for me. I had trouble seeing the checkmark in relation to the incoming runner, and this, combined with the high-pressure environment and my inexperience in running 4^thleg, caused me to leave early.

In the three weeks before the Olympics, I took part in five relay training sessions with about 20 changeovers and three different incoming runners. This meant that, heading into the Olympic Games, I only had 8-10 changeovers practiced with the guy handing the baton to me, none of which occurred in a race situation.

It’s clear how VR could have assisted. By wearing a headset, I would have trained my visual-perceptive system to better spot the checkmark and the incoming runner. I could modify the size of the checkmark, making it smaller to test my abilities. I could vary the speed of the incoming runner. I could alter what he was wearing. I could have eight avatars of the same incoming runner in different lanes, making it harder for me to spot the right one. I could change the weather, making it sunny or wet, which affects how easy it is to spot the checkmark. And, crucially, I could have practiced this daily with no physical strain in addition to the physical changeovers I practiced in the real, physical world. VR would have augmented my improvements and, perhaps, helped avoid my costly mistake.

There is a huge amount of potential here. By reducing the physical training load, it may be possible to increase the total training volumes undertaken by athletes, allowing them to enhance their cognitive, visual-perceptive, and skill-based performance. This is good in the sense that practice makes perfect. As with physical performance, however, this aspect will need to be monitored to avoid burnout.

Return-to-Play

Another potential area is the return-to-play of a previously injured athlete. Typically, athletes who have undergone an extended absence from their sport due to injury return a bit rusty. By using computer games and VR, it may be possible to maintain and even enhance their psychological skills during injury, enabling them to slot back into the team once they return to full fitness. Return-to-play is an area of huge promise and, as the prices of these technologies drop and validation increases, it’s likely to become more common in teams across a variety of sports.

Concluding Thoughts

There are still many aspects surrounding these technologies that we don’t fully understand in a sport setting, and many more typical brain training games have little evidence supporting their use within sports. Accordingly, we need a far greater body of research before these technologies become mainstream. At present, they represent an interesting glimpse into the future of performance.

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 a high school coach, I am responsible for the development of a sizeable group of athletes each and every season. I have written before about my belief that athletes need to first become better movers in general.

I love keeping it simple in the weight room. Nothing makes me happier than a good-looking squat or deadlift, but chasing numbers in the weight room is not something that I care to do. I know that an athlete adding strength slowly with an emphasis on technique is the best choice. Strength is a skill that needs to be developed.

I tell my athletes that running fast should look effortless because there is nothing beyond top speed except coordination erosion, says @grahamsprints. Share on X

Coaches often give cues such as “project your hips” or “stay tall.” These are good cues, to be sure, but they assume that athletes understand the movements and the feel behind what we are trying to say. There are plenty of simple options with large groups that allow athletes to develop general motor skills and feel full ranges of motion while under control. I don’t always have the time to write a specific program for each kid, so on circuit days or in warm-ups I choose items that will allow me to enhance the main workout, depending on the need. Most of our athletes have a low training age, so I believe improving general qualities will absolutely enhance the specific tasks.

Classifying the Routines and Movement Patterns

Sprinting is a complex activity that is dependent on many other things. To improve the act of sprinting, I believe you can attack it through certain exercises that break sprinting into its components: posture, hip/trunk control, and ankle stiffness. Working on the individual parts in conjunction with quality sprint training can strengthen the whole, especially with developmental athletes.

Posture

“When posture is correct, movement of the limbs is often correct.” –Mike Young

This fact drives most of our training. An athlete who displays correct posture will appear to be more fluid. Correct posture in speed work, as I view it, starts with the head.

I look for a relaxed head and neck with no tension. I want my athletes’ eyes looking out ahead. Trust me, trying to convince them not to turn their head and check out the competition in the middle of the race is often a challenge by itself. I have athletes who bobble their heads left and right, and up and down. I need to devote time in practice to working on this so that I get more quality reps in practice. To get better at calculus, a math student needs to do calculus, but hopefully they have also taken a few algebra classes along the way and know their math facts.

Sprinters should display a stacked vertical posture: neutral neck and head, hips up and forward with a slight posterior pelvic tilt. Doing this will allow for better front-side mechanics. It will become easier to run fast. I tell my athletes that running fast should look effortless because there is nothing beyond top speed except coordination erosion.

Better force application through better posture is the best way to lengthen stride, says @grahamsprints. Share on X

Sometimes wickets are used as a means to artificially increase stride length. I think communicating in this way leads to overstriding and an increase in braking forces. Better force application through better posture is the best way to lengthen stride. Because of better force application on the ground, which allows more time to properly position limbs for ground contact, there is less braking force. It all starts with correct posture. No matter what the athletes are doing in practice, they should understand this.

Hip/Trunk Control

Hips are commonly cued or referred to in certain drills. As mentioned earlier, a common cue during the wicket drills or block starts is for the athletes to project their hips. My athletes have poor hip control, as do lots of high school athletes. The important thing to know is that even though we want stable posture, there is still rotation present. This is normal, but I never want to see over rotation that lacks fluidity.

One of the best examples of this is Usain Bolt. He is able to control the rotation of his hips and use it to explode powerfully forward. This is an advanced athlete who has years of experience and movement on his side. My athletes need time to explore and acquire these skills in simple fashions.

I need my athletes to be able to do these three starting skills:

1. Move between anterior and posterior pelvic tilt with control.
2. Disassociate their pelvis from their trunk (or vice versa).
3. Disassociate their hips with good posture (one side in flexion, one in extension).

The definition of disassociation is “the disconnection or separation of something from something else.” Hip disassociation means being able to move the hip in its socket without compensating elsewhere—hip mobility.

It sounds like a huge undertaking, but I try to keep it as basic as possible to avoid it becoming time-consuming. As I have written previously, sharpening the tools that I already have is the best bet. The athletes will get better at the exercises and I will get better at pointing out certain things because I see them and use them so often.

Ankle Stiffness

When posture is correct, lower limb stiffness will increase naturally because there is more time to be properly positioned to absorb the force. I have always considered that although posture improves ankle stiffness, directly working on ankle stiffness can also improve ankle stiffness.

In sprinting, lower limb stiffness is a good thing. Dynamic Achilles and calf work increase elasticity and allow for better force absorption and production. This results in less ground contact time and higher vertical displacement, which leads to better foot strike positions closer to center of mass. This goes hand in hand with the aforementioned importance of posture.

Although posture improves ankle stiffness, directly working on ankle stiffness can also improve ankle stiffness, says @grahamsprints. Share on X

These exercises also highlight the importance of dorsiflexion and proper strike with the ball of the foot. The athlete can be made to actively feel the sensation of good foot strike and stiffness. Feeling this can enhance more specific work like block starts, fly work, and wicket runs.

The Exercises

Here are some exercises that I use to address the aforementioned movement patterns. Some are fun, some are specific, and some are a little strange. I am always playing around with different variations of exercises to add a different dimension or new challenge to the movements. I want my athletes to become more athletic and to move more fluidly while never straying too far from the basics.

Jumping Jack Variation (Front Jacks) – Posture Focus

I like this basic exercise because it is a fun and easy way to get the day started by working on a posture-specific exercise. Front jacks are done like traditional jumping jacks, but the arms abduct/adduct opposite to the legs in the sagittal plane rather than the frontal. This adds a bit of chaos to the timing and rhythm of their movement. Timing and rhythm benefit all sprinters and athletes.

I ask my athletes to keep a relaxed head/neck and start with hips up and forward. I love drills like “prime times,” but the athletes I work with tend to want to lean back too far and display incorrect posture with too much posterior tilt and feet cast out from their center of mass.

This sagittal jumping jack variation serves as a great reference point for rhythm and appropriate positioning with more specific items. Once they have had some repetitions of this drill, I often add a rotational component to the exercise. Can the athletes still rotate with good timing, symmetry, and rhythm? I prefer for them to return the arms to the thigh as a cue to not push their hips too far forward and disturb their neutral pelvic position.

Video 1. What may be a great warm-up for some athletes is a great coordination drill for others. Jumping jack variations are timeless and very safe on the joints.

Jumping Jack Variation (Scissor Jacks) – Hip Disassociation

This is another simple variation of the traditional jumping jack. I can easily demonstrate these with a group of 30-40 athletes and they can be done anywhere. They keep things light and fun as well. In addition to correct posture, scissor jacks also give meaning to vague cues such as “isolate the hip.”

This exercise calls upon athletes to move in the sagittal plane between hip flexion and extension, keeping the hips hiked while not disturbing the neutral pelvic position. The arms retain the frontal plane movement of the traditional jumping jack with a clap overhead as a cue to “stay tall.” Again, throughout the whole movement I want the athletes to exhibit control and rhythm. I have also done rotational scissor jacks with my athletes to provide an additional challenge.

Video 2. The scissor variation provides another option for coaches who want change but still challenge coordination. Focus on sharp stiffness and not on time or volume when implementing this drill. 

Figure 4 Glute Bridge – Hip Flexion and Extension

There are a ton of great drills out there to teach this. We have used hip thrusts in the weight room, and I think there is a great benefit to doing these with sprinters. We have to get to that point first. This allows me to teach movement patterns commonly seen in the weight room and on the track to large groups of athletes at different levels.

This basic movement is great to teach hip extension unilaterally. One leg in the sprint cycle will be in hip extension at toe off and at max vertical displacement. Squats and deadlifts also require extension of the hips. As Tobey and Mike explain in “Single-Leg Glute Bridge”: “Strength and stability in the core of the body…provides an optimal platform through which distal limbs can function… As such, muscle strength and power of the hips and pelvis are critical components of the overall impact of both resistance training and athletic performance in a multitude of sports.”  The glute bridge puts this all together.

I look for the athlete to start lying down with one knee up, with their other leg crossed over in an externally rotated hip flexor stretch. I usually like the heel to rest right above the knee. The leg on the ground should have the heel driven into the ground with the toes up, and the arms should be anchored to the floor, palms down. With the glute, they should extend their hips with control until their pelvis is neutral. After a short pause, they should return to the floor and repeat for the desired number of reps.

Once exposed to this movement, athletes could progress to a single leg hip thrust with shoulder blades on a bench with the chin tucked and then, finally, barbell hip thrusts.

Video 3. A simple glute bridge is a great way to bring awareness to an athlete. You can add this exercise to warm-ups or recovery days.

Cat/Camel – Lumbopelvic Dissociation

This is a great exercise to help reduce stiffness in the body, strengthen the core, and free up the limbs for good movement. As someone who has had a slew of nagging back issues, I myself have gotten great benefits from doing this simple exercise.

The goal of cat/camel is to move seamlessly with control between anterior and posterior pelvic tilt, as well as display good spinal flexion and extension to improve thoracic mobility. This is also used as a point of reference when cueing good posture. “Remember the cat and camel drill that we did? Yeah. Stay tall, right between those positions.”

Do your athletes understand how to move their pelvis independently of their femurs and back? Coupled with the t-spine mobility in the movement, these are things that also help with squat mobility and reducing compensation patterns such as the “butt-wink.”

For simplicity, I like to have athletes start on all fours in a quadruped position.

• The athlete keeps their hands under their shoulders and their knees under their hips. They should have a partner place a hand on their lower back and watch their femurs.
• Without changing the position of their femurs, they should arch their lower back into their partner’s hand (spinal flexion). Be sure they move slowly through the movement, including the lumbar and thoracic spine, and maintain a good breathing rate.
• Pause and hold here and then extend the pelvis towards the floor and allow the femurs to still retain their original position.

Video 4. While many coaches are familiar with the cat and camel yoga asana, it’s perfect for sprinters and jumpers to learn motor control. The spine and hips are important to speed athletes, and this exercise does more than mobilize the spine.

Pelvic/Trunk Dissociation Drills

These are used to control motion of rotation and strengthen core muscles with better lumbar-pelvic rhythm. Sprinting has some rotation. Trunk stability doesn’t mean rigidity. I need athletes to be able to separate their hips from their trunk to better learn to control movement at max velocity.

I need athletes to be able to separate their hips from their trunk to better learn to control movement at max velocity, says @grahamsprints. Share on X

Slower runners can often appear stiff and tight when sprinting, which makes them unable to “load to explode.” I see this most often when I do lower-intensity hurdle top/board accelerations/runs with my athletes. The hurdle top is held across their back and it is visibly obvious to the coach when over rotation is occurring because of faulty backside mechanics and lack of trunk control/strength.

I believe most of my athletes can benefit from working on pelvic and trunk control.

The first exercise is more of a diagnostic tool, although it could certainly be done for reps.

They hold a PVC or a light bar across their shoulders with their arms folded over in slight hip hinge position. Without moving the bar from its parallel position to their body, I want to see if they can isolate their hips from the belt and swivel about, left to right, in a controlled manner. If they can’t do it without turning their shoulders, I may have a partner hold their shoulders stable. If they can do it now, this lets me see whether it is a stability issue (trunk strength) or a mobility issue.

When it comes to sports like basketball, football, and soccer, I think this is an important skill. To exhibit optimal trunk rotation in sprinting, I think athletes need to explore and improve their own movement with control. I never cue this, but I try to put them in positions to do it naturally. Sometimes telling them too much causes overthinking.

Video 5. Twisting is about rotation while keeping the pelvis under you, so adding this drill is great for teaching an athlete how to control their upper and lower torso. Because of its low stress demand to the body, you can place this drill anywhere in a program.

From here, I prescribe a similar exercise, except they can plant the bar into the ground and use it to go through controlled ranges of motion with their hip swivel again. They should breathe properly and focus on moving with control. These are great for not only control, but trunk strength as well. They should feel a deep burn while doing this.

Video 6. Teaching relaxation of the spine is important for athletes, including sprinters and jumpers. The bar adds a relaxation element to the movement equation.

The last drill is the pelvic dissociation dance. I have athletes stand on a line to make sure that the only movement that occurs is from the hips and below. They can rapidly swivel and switch between the left and right side while keeping the trunk stabilized and not rotating.

Video 7. Dance is an activity that promotes control and fluid movement. Adding motions outside an athlete’s comfort zone expands their horizons with coordination.

Ankle Rocker Squat – Ankle Stiffness

Ankle rockers are great in warm-up routines, as are ankle rocker jumps. I recently used the ankle rocker squat. Ankle rocker is the position of the foot/ankle when going from stance to toe off. Chris Korfist says, “That movement is the ability of the ankle or body to get the center of mass through the midstance phase and create forward movement.”

Ankle rocker squats are done the same way as ankle rocker jumps. I have athletes use a body bar with the opposite-side arm for balance since the exercise is so challenging. I have them move the knee over the foot first without changing their hip position (in between big toe and second toe), then get the hips into position by hinging. I look for the torso to be at about the same angle as the shin. From here, they drive through their big toe into a calf raise with control while extending their hip. This is similar to the propulsive action of toe off during sprinting. This attacks not just their ankle mobility, but also their strength at this range of motion.

Video 8. Single leg ankle rocker squats are excellent for maintaining ankle mobility and for teaching a solid co-contraction of the hips and knee. Use the bar to help add balance so the athlete can focus on pushing down and up.

Wall Drill Foot Pop – Ankle Stiffness 

The wall drill foot pop is more a tool for teaching footstrike, a rigid ankle, and to not cast out to apply better force (squash the bug). This is a motor skill with a sprint-specific focus. It has almost the same setup as regular fence/wall drill, but they start flat-footed and with a more vertical posture. Athletes should drive the ankle down, striking with the ball of the foot, and they should feel themselves pop upwards. This is an elastic response similar to the stretch shortening cycle of sprinting that results in vertical force and good vertical displacement. This allows an athlete to see that striking the ground in proper position close to their center of mass is a beneficial thing for them.

I sometimes have them purposely do the same exercise with the foot out from them (cast out) to see if they get the same “pop” (they don’t). I want them to avoid this habit of casting out and, more than that, understand the negative effects that this action has. The next time we do wickets and they try to artificially lengthen their stride rather than “projecting over with the hips, and driving down with their foot,” the wall pop becomes another great reference point.

Video 9. Ankle pops won’t transform an average athlete into a power dunker, but they’re great for working plantar flexion and posture. Again, this exercise isn’t a plyometric activity, but it’s a good preparatory movement.

Single Leg Stair Drop

This is another thing stolen from Chris Korfist. The single leg stair drop is a great way to teach absorbing force with the correct part of the foot. I usually don’t have athletes start too high up on the stairs, for obvious reasons. They start by grabbing the railing with their inside hand and hop with the opposite leg. I find hopping backwards keeps the hip loaded more, rather than the knee loaded when hopping forward. It also allows them to land dorsiflexed.

I have never done forward drops because there would be too much reaching/plantar flexing causing braking forces. I want to avoid this. Once again, the hips are cued to be up and forward. When they drop, athletes should make an effort to minimize collapse and stay stacked in their posture. My more-seasoned athletes can string together most of the stairs without much of a pause. Newer athletes usually have a pause between. The truth is, I don’t think it matters. It is a great drill that drives home an important concept.

Video 10. Landing is a skill that you should learn first before rushing to higher heights. Just low amplitude works well for youth athletes, and the training effect is enough to make a difference in performance.

Programming the Drills

Correct posture, hip control, and lower limb stiffness are key pieces in becoming a better sprinter. Sprinting is comprised of all of these things at once in a delicate balance. The challenge then becomes sorting out where we insert these items without overtraining.

Correct posture, hip control, and lower limb stiffness are key pieces in becoming a better #sprinter, says @grahamsprints. Share on X

I use an x-factor circuit one time a week to program many of these items. The stations are centered around feet/ankles, hips/pelvis, core/trunk, and a lower-intensity plyometric such as a landing drill. I don’t want this day to be another thing to recover from. It serves as a low-intensity remediation day to reinforce key concepts that I will not always be able to get to.

An x-factor day might look like this in the early part of the season:

1. 3×5 ankle rocker squats each leg or 3×5 stair drops each leg (ankle stiffness)
2. 3×8 cat/camel (lumbopelvic disassociation) or pelvic disassociation dance 3×10 each side
3. Jumping jack variations (posture and hip disassociation)
4. 3×5 each leg figure 4 glute/bridge with 2-second pause (core/hips/glutes)
5. 3×5 landing drill snapdown from a 10” stair/step (low-level plyometric)

The athletes rotate through the stations. This is pretty much the layout for the season. On a deload week, the x-factor day may just be playing a game such as “medball volleyball.”

The low reps and focus on movement enable me to set up the rest of the season. If the movements are stale or “mastered,” I may swap them out for something along the same lines and purpose, but with a bit more of a challenge. This doesn’t mean I do away with them completely. Often, they are just moved to the warm-up.

On days when we sprint or accelerate, some form of hamstring, glute, hips, and trunk exercises are included. It depends on what I want to see out of my athletes. Some drills, like the wall drill foot pop, I do early in the season right before doing wicket drills. It makes sense to put it there for me, but it might not for you.

Always Changing

The truth is, I don’t know which of these pieces I will keep from season to season. I experiment with the simplest movements that reach the most athletes at once. Consideration of the following questions always help me program exercises:

• Can I do it myself and describe it effectively to the athletes so they can see and feel it?
• Do I have space, time, equipment, etc. to do this?
• Is there value in this drill/exercise to support sprinting?
• Is it safe and something that benefits athletes in the long term?

I experiment with the simplest movements that reach the most athletes at once, says @grahamsprints. Share on X

I want everything I do to be easily achievable and understood by the athletes, and to support the segmented pieces of sprinting. I try to be innovative when possible and ask questions about how to improve a certain movement and where to put it to make the most sense.

• Can I add a band to this? Do I need to?
• Is higher better or harmful for this athlete?
• What does adding weight accomplish?
• Is this a maximum velocity or acceleration tool?
• Well, this is getting stale. How do I make it seem new without compromising quality? What new dimension can I add?

These inner dialogues have made me rethink and solidify my stance on certain things. Think about what works for your athletes, as well as what skills they need in the weight room and on the track. Most importantly, make sensible progressions and never over-complicate things.

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