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The Nordic curl proved to be a simple yet valuable exercise for sprinters to help prevent hamstring injuries; step-ups and Bulgarian lunges, on the other hand, did not fulfill their promise of turning athletes into cheetahs. The hip thrust is one more exercise that has proven disappointing for sprinters. Let’s take a closer look at why this glute builder doesn’t live up to its hype and explore how you can do better.

To avoid confusion, I’ll mention that the term hip thrust was first used to describe a lower body sled popular with football players. In physical therapy, hip thrusts belong to a class of exercises called pelvic bridges often used in lower back rehab protocols. Don Chu, Ph.D., a jumps coach known for his work in plyometrics, introduced me to this exercise during a physical education class I took from him in 1982.

To be clear, I’m not coming from the perspective that bodyweight hip thrusts should never be performed. Again, they are commonly used in physical therapy. However, you need to consider that there are risks associated with performing hip thrusts with a heavy barbell resting across your pelvis. With this background, let’s look at how we got into this state of confusion about glute training in the first place.

EMG Results and the Hip Thrust

We can track much of the initial hype over the hip thrust to studies using electromyography (EMG) machines, which measure the electrical activity of muscles. This information is especially important in the medical field for identifying neuromuscular diseases. That said, we have to question the value of EMGs for determining how useful an exercise is for improving athletic performance. Just ask sports scientist William Sands, Ph.D.

Sands did his dissertation on EMGs, saying these machines could determine which muscles are active and when they’re active. “However, after that it gets a little dicey. There is a nice linear relationship between magnitude of EMG and muscle force, but the relationship is only valid for isometric tension.” Since most athletes want to demonstrate strength at fast speeds, EMG results have limited real-world application to athletics. There is also the issue of how EMG testing is administered.

Since most athletes want to demonstrate strength at fast speeds, EMG results have limited real-world application to athletics. #speed #EMG Share on X

The most accurate EMG tests involve inserting needles into the muscles and performing maximal muscle contractions. Besides the challenge of finding volunteers to perform squats with needles stuck in their glutes, this practice can cause nerve damage. Further, the results of any hip thrust study can be misleading because participants perform exercises on the floor to lessen interference from other muscles. Sports coach and therapist James Jowsey addressed this issue when he said that, as the pelvis lifts during this exercise, “the only neurological drive goes to the glutes, hence the high EMG reading for the bridge.”

One well-publicized EMG personal experiment on hip thrusts was conducted by a fitness trainer who used less accurate surface EMGs to compare the hip thrust with other exercises for glute activation. He found that the highest reading for the gluteus maximus was not with the hip thrust. In fact, the single-leg reverse hyper produced double the EMG measurement, and the reverse hyper was also nearly double. He followed it with another study in which the hip thrust produced a slightly higher EMG reading than the reverse hyper. This second study, though, was rather pointless because he used a maximal load on the hip thrust and a submaximal load on the reverse hyper.

One study that looked at hip thrusts vs. back squats for improving several qualities of athletic fitness was part of a Ph.D. thesis. The hip thrust came out on top. However, the study only involved two people, which sent up my first red flag because it had poor “statistical power” (to use this individual’s own words).

My second red flag was that the subjects were twins, so it would be difficult to replicate the study. My third red flag was that the subjects performed either hip thrusts or squats, but did not switch protocols in the middle of the study. My fourth red flag was that the student shared the results of his research on social media before his thesis was approved, a practice my academic colleagues tell me is frowned upon. But my fifth, and darkest, red flag was the type of squat performed in the study.

From looking at the photos from the study the student shared on social media (which, for some bizarre reason, also included an inappropriate photo of the subjects grabbing each other’s glutes), the squats performed did not appear to reach the depth that would pass the judging standards of any powerlifting federation.

Contrast that to a 2014 paper on squats, which explained that squatting to an appropriate depth was critical to work the posterior chain muscles adequately: “Without squatting to the proper depth, the hamstrings and gluteus muscular complex may not be adequately challenged. Specifically, training at shallower knee flexion can influence quadriceps dominant sport skill performance that can limit performance and increase injury risk. Likewise, training at deeper depths will help benefit motor control positions that are common to sport.”

Will Hip Thrusts Help Sprinters Run Faster?

The short answer: probably not.

Let’s start with a six-week study that compared the hip thrust to the front squat for improving short sprinting speed. The research group included one individual who sold hip thrust benches. The authors concluded, “Potentially beneficial effects were observed for the hip thrust compared to the front squat in 10- m and 20- m sprint times.” Pretty shocking, until you see how the study was designed.

Rather than performing full front squats, the subjects performed parallel squats. If you’re going to play that game, then how about only performing partial hip thrusts? What’s just as troubling are the loading parameters of the front squat. Here is what they did:

• Week 1: 4 x 12
• Weeks 2-3: 4 x 10
• Weeks 4-5: 4 x 8
• Week 6: 4 x 6

Say what? Sets of 12?

With over four decades in the Iron Game, I’ve never seen any published athletic fitness workouts that recommended sets of 12 in the front squat. Holding a barbell on the shoulders compresses the chest and inhibits normal breathing, making it difficult to perform higher repetitions. Performing more than 3 repetitions also often leads to a breakdown in technique as the upper back muscles fatigue quickly, forcing an individual to use especially light weights. In this study, the average number of reps was 9. In my weightlifting circle, we often refer to sets of 4 reps in the front squat as cardio!

As for the hip thrusts in this study, the same number of reps were performed as the front squat. This exercise prescription doesn’t make sense because the range of motion is considerably shorter with a hip thrust than a squat, so the time under tension will be different and thus the training stimulus. Let me explain.

Although an average of 9 reps per set may be considered a mass building protocol for the front squat that transfers poorly to sprinting, performing the same repetition bracket for the hip thrust could be considered a relative strength protocol that would increase maximal strength with minimal increase in body mass.

The researchers should have used time-under-tension repetition brackets, performing both exercises for the same amount of time for each set. You wonder what the results would have been using, let’s say, sets of 2-3 front squats. And it should be noted that in 2017, one of the study’s researchers admitted in a podcast that the hip thrust might have a better transfer to running, not sprinting.

Because of all the hype surrounding the hip thrust, researchers from the UK decided to conduct an 8-week study on the effects of hip thrusts on athletic performance. These researchers apparently were not selling hip thrust benches so had no potential financial gain from the results. The study involved 21 college students (15 males, 6 females).

When hip thrust strength improved dramatically, the effects did not transfer to #sprinting speed. #hipthrust Share on X

Although hip thrust strength improved dramatically, the effects this strength had on sprinting speed were underwhelming. Here’s what the UK researchers said: “These findings suggest that increasing maximum hip thrust strength through use of the barbell hip thrust does not appear to transfer into improvements in sprint performance in collegiate level athletes.” Well, so much for that theory.

Is There Any Harm in Doing Hip Thrusts?

The short answer: perhaps.

A human spine is a column-like structure that is better suited for handling vertical compressive forces than the horizontal shearing forces that the hip thrust exerts on the spine. As for real-world evidence, sports coach Justin Kavanaugh followed the progress of 100 athletes performing hip thrusts. Forty of these athletes had back surgery or a history of back pain. Guess what?

“The athletes who did not perform the heavy barbell hip thrust had very little problems in terms of pain in their lower back. Those athletes that did perform the heavy barbell hip thrust, even the ones with no history of back pain or injury, were having issues shortly after finishing with this specific lift.”

Another issue with weighted hip thrusts is that the prolonged pressure of the bar resting directly over the pelvis compresses the fascia. The body may react to this stress by laying down more fascia, which makes this connective tissue less “pliable” (as Tom Brady’s trainer would say). The eventual result is disruption of the fascial system. If one of your training goals is to improve elastic strength so you can sprint faster, you should avoid performing activities that compromise the performance of these tissues.

But wait. What about those athletes who have glutes that “don’t fire”? Here’s the deal. The glutes help us maintain upright posture (which is why apes, who possess minimal glute development, have trouble standing for long periods). If your glutes didn’t fire, every time you took a step you would fall flat on your face.

You can, however, have glutes that are inhibited in their ability to contract if there is tightness in their antagonistic (opposing) muscles, specifically the muscles that flex the hip. This interference is known as Sherrington’s law of reciprocal inhibition. What this means is that before signing up for a “Bum Blasting Boot Camp” because someone said your glutes weren’t firing, try stretching your hip flexors.

Better Options to Develop Elastic Strength for Sprinters

If I’ve led you to become a bit skeptical about using hip thrusts in an athletic fitness program, let’s go a step further and consider some alternatives. But before sharing these with you, consider that one reason the hip thrust may not improve sprinting is that the exercise does not address the timing of the glute muscles in dynamic athletic activities. What do I mean by timing?

Performing an exercise that focuses on training one glute muscle at slow speeds (to avoid hyperextension of the spine) could affect the timing of how the glutes contract and relax in sprinting. And perhaps, as possibly demonstrated by the UK study, the glutes can become a weak link in the posterior chain that will adversely affect your ability to run fast. I say this because, if you don’t time your deceleration properly when the foot strikes the ground during sprinting, the amount of force you apply into the ground will be deficient. I discussed this topic in detail in my previous article on elastic strength, using the example of Usain Bolt’s knee action in sprinting.

#Flywheels offer fast eccentric loading to work on the timing of glute activation during #sprinting. Share on X

Since the reverse hyper got gold stars for its EMG results, consider that one of the best ways to perform it would be a horse-stance reverse hyper using a flywheel pulley for resistance. These flywheel machines provide fast eccentric loading that enables you to work on the timing of glute activation during sprinting.

Video 1. The reverse hyper can be performed unilaterally with a flywheel pulley machine. This machine lets you train the muscles that extend the hips at fast speeds.

To take this flywheel exercise a step further, you could perform a horse-stance kickback using a flywheel pulley. This variation strongly involves the quadriceps, as these are the muscles used when applying force into the ground during a sprint. Stride length is one of the keys to improving sprinting speed, and powerful athletes can apply more force into the ground to propel themselves further with each stride. Sprint coach Charlie Francis was a big believer in this type of movement, which he had his athletes perform on a horizontal leg press machine.

Video 2. The horse-stance kickback using a flywheel machine is an advanced exercise for developing sprinting power.

One possible workout sequence for sprinters would be to do a few sets of the reverse hyper flywheel exercise to strongly activate the glutes and then transition into the more advanced variation. After that, sprinters could progress to standing glute exercises with a flywheel—speed-specific exercises I could discuss (along with several others) in a future article if there’s any interest.

The lesson here is that coaches should stop looking for revolutionary isolation-type exercises and piecing them together into some strange Gestalt system of superior program design—remember the story about the blind men trying to describe an elephant? Muscles work together with the fascia to create biological springs to produce maximum speed and power. In other words, partial training produces partial results. This brings up the issue of pelvic stability.

One of the primary functions of the glutes during sprinting is to stabilize the pelvis, and there’s not much core stability involved in performing a hip thrust while lying on your back. In contrast, many exercises can be performed that address this issue. And the exercises that top the list for core stability are the Olympic lifts.

The snatch and clean and jerk are large amplitude movements performed at high speeds that develop the elastic qualities of the tissues and promote pelvic stability. In other words, they make you more powerful through a full range of motion. These lifts are not to be confused with the partial power clean nonsense promoted by those functional trainers who have their athletes shuffling across plastic ladders that teach them how to run in place really fast.

Concluding Thoughts

When you look at the preponderance of research and real-world evidence that dispute the claims of those promoting the hip thrust, it’s obvious that this exercise has little value to a sprinter. The takeaway is that rather than jumping on the latest training “secret” that carries the promise of dramatically improving athletic performance, look at these discoveries with a journalist’s eye and carefully read the research to see its true value, if any.

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

Koch, Fred. “EMG Testing: Does It Tell All?”

Jowsey, James. “Why the Glute Bridge Will Not Make Your Squat Better.”

IPF Technical Rules Book 2016.

Meyer, G.D., et al. “The Back Squat: A Proposed Assessment of Functional Deficits and Technical Factors that Limit Performance.”Strength and Conditioning Journal.

Dietmar Schmidtbleicher, Ph.D., NSCA National Conference, San Diego, California, 1990.

Contreras, B., et al. “Effects of a Six-Week Hip Thrust vs. Front Squat Resistance Training Program on Performance in Adolescent Males: A Randomized Controlled Trial.” Strength and Conditioning Journal.

Bishop, C.,et al. “Heavy Barbell Hip Thrusts Do Not Effect Sprint Performance: An 8-Week Randomized–Controlled Study.” Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research.

Kavanaugh, J. “The Heavy Hip Thrust Is Ruining Our Backs and This Industry.”

Francis, Charlie. Charlie Francis Training System, p. 50-51.

As a practitioner who has used electrical muscle stimulation for 25 years for performance training and return-to-play applications, it continues to amaze me the number of coaches, athletes, and even physical therapists who are unaware of the wide range of uses for this particular type of technology. I have even spoken to a number of representatives from companies that sell electrical stimulation products in the past few years, and I am equally surprised at how little they know about their own product’s potential, which puts them at a significant disadvantage with their sales and marketing efforts. At present, Dr. Ho looks like a marketing genius when it comes to consumer-based electrotherapy products. However, Dr. Ho represents the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the wealth of benefits sitting just below the waterline.

The number of coaches, athletes, and even physical therapists who are unaware of the wide range of uses for electrical muscle stimulation technology continues to amaze me, says @DerekMHansen #EMS. Share on X

Although electrical stimulation has been used extensively for muscular contraction purposes since the 1960s, there has been relatively slow innovation and growth in the technology, and in any associated electro-physiological protocols, in the last 50 years. Pockets of innovative use have developed throughout the modern age, but this has not translated to widespread usage despite the fact that—in the right hands—this technology can make a big difference. A handful of experts toil away with the technology and achieve significant results with athletes and the general population, but many of their successes go unnoticed. Additionally, scientific research lags far behind, as few researchers have the ability to think outside the box with the technology and move into new areas of development.

Thus, I continue to write these articles and speak on the subject with the hope that the rest of the world catches up. Much like the effort to convince people that they need more sleep—even though the benefits are obvious, significant, and readily achievable—we can only present the information and let the masses make their choice.

Provided below are my key reasons for promoting electrical stimulation as a “front-and-center” feature of my return-to-play process. As you will discover during the course of this article, it is not the sole means of effecting positive change, but rather a tool that facilitates other rehabilitation and exercise objectives, almost distracting individuals from the task at hand in order to encourage enhanced focus and biomechanical compliance. I would also argue heavily in favor of the benefits of electrical stimulation as a “technological placebo” when used in the right settings and contexts. In my opinion, what you do with electrical stimulation is far more important than what it does for you, especially if timely, sustainable results are what you desire.

Encouraging Movement and Adding Load

No one will disagree with the concept that movement encourages healing. The primary objective of all rehabilitation professionals or recovery specialists should be to encourage movement in various forms, durations, and intensities. Common sense tells us that movement—whether for sustenance, general utility, or survival—leads to positive adaptations, growth, and, at the very least, maintenance of homeostasis. Movement with variable loads can be even more beneficial, particularly if the loading is achieved progressively.

Unfortunately, electrical stimulation fell into the domain of physical therapists, and lounging on a plinth with electrode pads wrapped or taped to the skin seemed to be the treatment of choice. Let me also point out that laying patients down on tables and hooking them up to modalities also makes for a more profitable physical therapy practice. This setup is often accompanied by the recommendation to set the intensity to a “comfortable” level while you lie back and relax. Sadly, the objectives of sustenance, survival, and function are not even in the conversation.

All of my return-to-play clients receive electrical stimulation while moving. Nobody is permitted to sit still, let alone lie down and fall asleep. Individuals are encouraged to—at the very least­—stand for the beginning of protocols to set an ambitious working intensity for current stimulation. “Comfort” is a taboo word. The goal is to push into zones of discomfort by taking the individual through ranges of motion that were not previously attainable, as well as improve overall strength through these new ranges. In some cases, standing protocols are performed in the initial part of the session to enhance recruitment, and then quickly followed up with voluntary drills that incorporate coordination, strength, power, and rate of force development.

In postsurgical cases, such as in the rehabilitation of a repaired anterior cruciate ligament, movements that involve flexion and extension of the knee are facilitated by the use of electrical stimulation, whether it involves recruiting the quadriceps during extension movements or stimulating the hamstrings to lengthen or shorten as appropriate. These movements can be acyclical in nature when using the electrical stimulation—as in a box step-up—but then followed by a cyclical motion without the stimulation, as you would with a marching or skipping drill. The intent is to create a pathway and a pattern that can easily be followed with voluntary work.

Employing Disruptive Methods

Even though electrical stimulation has been used in sport training and physical rehabilitation for over 50 years, I still consider it a “disruptive” technology for many reasons. If we examine the concept of “disruptive” technology, we find that these are innovations that significantly alter the way that businesses and industries operate and, in many cases, often create entirely new markets. While the electro-stimulation field is not changing the way we do business, I believe it is disruptive in the way it interacts with the body and nervous system. Locally and systemically, peripherally and centrally, electrical stimulation has the ability to disrupt existing patterns and pathways and enable you to develop new ones. This ability is often referred to as facilitating neuroplasticity.

The addition of “noise” into a system for the purpose of optimizing or improving the overall function of that system is referred to as “stochastic resonance.” I believe electrical stimulation employs the stochastic resonance model for optimization of movement and function on two levels. In cases where pain or edema is present in a region of the body, electrical stimulation introduces noise into a system, either to cancel out the pain signals or to hasten the movement of fluid out of a region, so that appropriate function can take place. Inhibition can be overridden in these cases and function restored immediately.

Of course, sustainability of function can only be attained through repetition and retention of the positive patterns. Often, the natural responses of pain and edema formation subside as the brain recognizes that a positive outcome has been arrived at and the body returns to “business as usual.” Once again, disruption can be positive and move the client forward beyond a stagnant homeostasis, with the right amount of noise introduction at the right time and correct frequency.

In an alternative scenario, electrical stimulation can improve function by introducing “noise” into a system to enhance muscle recruitment for strength production and overall muscle hypertrophy. A muscle that has experienced disuse or inhibition from injury can easily be brought back online to contribute to supporting the skeleton or moving the body. As mentioned previously, when combined with movement, it becomes much easier to “disrupt” older, less-productive patterns.

I believe that the brain and body yearn for proper function and optimal performance, as evolution has hardwired us this way for the purpose of survival, says @DerekMHansen. Share on X

I am a big believer that the brain and body yearn for proper function and optimal performance, as we have been hardwired through evolution as such for the purpose of survival. Technological innovation has made us much less biologically adaptable, leading to poor habits and patterns. Through electrical stimulation, you can reboot your system to disrupt these poor patterns and get your clients and athletes back on the true path.

Testing the Preparedness and Readiness of the Nervous System

The trauma of injury and the procedures that often accompany injury—including surgeries—can create significant disruptions to the central nervous system and the way the brain interacts with the body. Similar to safety sensors in a motor vehicle, the nervous system will inhibit normal locomotive abilities if it perceives that something is damaged or malfunctioning. Muscle systems can be shut down and reflexes inhibited to protect the organism from creating further damage. As we know, however, these “shutdowns” can inflict further harm by placing the load on other structures that were not meant to handle them, and also create overuse conditions that lead to chronic injury.

Through my experience with electrical stimulation, I have learned to use the device as a diagnostic tool. Anyone who has used electrical muscle stimulation regularly knows that injured or fatigued muscles require significantly more current to stimulate a contraction than a healthy, recovered muscle. This can be used to assess both the preparedness and readiness of a client.

In situations where I am working with a return-to-play case, we begin the session with electrical stimulation on an affected muscle group to assess their general preparedness and where we need to improve. In the case of knee injuries, a basic quadriceps placement can give you all the information you need on where the client is in their rehabilitation process. Where pain and edema are present in a knee joint, it is not out of the ordinary to see an intensity difference of 50-100% in the amount of current required to create a healthy contraction in the vastus medialis of an injured knee. In a more recent case where I was dealing with a post-surgical knee replacement client, we witnessed differences in excess of 200% in current intensity from the nonsurgical to surgical leg.

The fantastic part of this story is that as the treatment progresses—including electrical stimulation work, superimposed stimulation work, and voluntary work—the electrical stimulation device will communicate that these current intensity differences begin to narrow and match up with your client’s feedback in terms of function, pain reduction, and edema elimination.

I use electrical stimulation on healthy athletes to diagnose their overall readiness prior to an intensity training session, says @DerekMHansen. Share on X

Because I have had so much success with electrical stimulation diagnostics with return-to-play clients, I now use electrical stimulation on healthy athletes at the beginning of sessions to diagnose their overall readiness prior to an intensity training session. The session is brief but enlightening. We choose a muscle group that will be involved in the session, or that may have given this athlete problems in the past, and we turn up the current intensity to get a baseline of information that we can use to guide our session. Because we do this consistently, we have a historical database of how this athlete has presented with the electrical stimulation evaluation and how training and performances have progressed over time. It is a fabulous way to evaluate readiness and gain greater confidence in your approach moving forward from day to day and week to week.

Mechanical and Neurological Work During Periods of Inactivity

In situations where movement is not immediately indicated, such as in the early stages following injury or a surgical procedure, electrical stimulation is exceptionally handy for managing edema formation and muscle atrophy. While I previously mentioned that the majority of my work with electrical stimulation employs movement and loading protocols, there are cases where significant exercise is contraindicated. In these cases, electrical stimulation can be used to facilitate neurological responses as well as subtle mechanical work in the immediate stages following injury or surgery.

In the case of a hamstring strain, I often use electrical stimulation to encourage circulation to the injured tissues to facilitate flushing and, ultimately, repair of the muscle. The stimulation pads are placed peripherally to the injury site to provide a generalized flow of blood to and from the area. The stimulation current is also helpful in managing the muscle tone of surrounding muscles that are often in a hypertonic state in order to restrict movement and shift the load to other structures and muscles. And even in a general manner, electrical stimulation can maintain the health and strength of surrounding muscle groups during the initial moments of inactivity following injury.

With major surgery such as an anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction, I commonly employ electrical stimulation immediately following the procedure to appropriately manage inflammatory conditions and maintain general muscle fitness at low levels of intensity. Depending on the procedure, I may focus on different muscle groups to achieve the desired outcome. If a central-third patellar graft has been used, I typically focus initially on hamstring and calf pad placements so as not to put tension on the patellar tendon via quadriceps stimulation. Ultimately, we will incorporate quadriceps stimulation after a given period of time to reduce atrophy and begin basic strength work. In the case of semitendinosus grafts, the focus of stimulation will be on the quadriceps for strength and circulatory purposes, but also because quadriceps stimulation can assist with hamstring relaxation and lengthening, which is often a problem following the trauma of tissue harvesting from the hamstrings.

When injury or trauma has been inflicted on an athlete, use of electrical stimulation to manage the negative effects of inactivity is a no-brainer. Ultimately, the goal is to return the athlete to movement and loading as soon as possible, with superimposed electrical stimulation providing the bridge to fully loaded voluntary work. Without electrical stimulation, I have found that timelines lengthen significantly, sometimes with athletes missing those windows of opportunity for increased range of motion, function, and general capacity.

It is important to remember that #EMS stimulates not only the body, but also more importantly, the brain,” says @DerekMHansen. Share on X

It is important to remember that we are stimulating not only the body, but also more importantly, the brain and how this central processing unit perceives the state of the greater organism. Any tools we can employ that improve function and durability, and also convey a message of health, wellness, and competence to the brain, will go a long way to achieving sustainable results for all clients and athletes.

Future Directions

From what I have written, you may think electrical muscle stimulation is a panacea for training and rehabilitation. However, this is where it gets difficult. You need to know how to use this tool and how to adapt your treatment and training approaches to maximize its effectiveness. Uninformed electrical stimulation is simply bad electrical stimulation, and a lack of results will follow. This is exactly why many of the studies using electrical stimulation have fallen short, even though many studies have seen promising results.

Electrical stimulation by itself is not as effective as electrical stimulation superimposed on exercise. More intense electrical stimulation currents are far more effective than “comfortable” intensity settings. I cannot emphasize enough how the timing, frequency, volume, and pad placement details are synergistically important to arriving at superior results. I even promote to practitioners the placebo effect of using electrical stimulation as a visible input to an athlete’s training or a client’s rehabilitation. In the world of smartphones and wearable technology, athletes are clearly more engaged when doing their exercise with a glowing electronic device in their hand that is attached to their muscles, gamifying the experience and giving them control over the ability to contract their muscles. This is the reality that goes way beyond the research.

Electrical stimulation by itself is not as effective as electrical stimulation superimposed on exercise, says @DerekMHansen #EMS. Share on X

My own experiences and successes in this realm have encouraged me to develop a set of courses around the use of this technology to share the benefits with other practitioners in the performance, fitness and wellness, and rehabilitation fields. These courses and workshops will be available to the public very soon. With the right information, you can make significant progress in the life of your athletes and clients in just a few sessions. I see this firsthand on a daily basis, and it has changed the way I work with people. If Bill Gates’ dream was to, “have a computer in every home,” my dream would be to have a high-quality electrical stimulation unit in every health, wellness, rehabilitation, and performance practitioner’s hands.

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

Plyometrics are often used at the high school level to develop explosive athletes and train the stretch shortening cycle. They can enhance both an athlete’s elastic and explosive power. Like the weight room, too often it seems as though answers are sought here. There are no “white whale” drills/jumps that will yield overnight results.

Rushing to go higher and faster isn’t always better in the absence of consistency, progressive overload, and the teaching of quality movement. While social media videos often show stunts such as vending machine box jumps, it is important to remember that certain athletes can do certain things because of their natural talent or their prior training. One exercise did not make the athlete.

In a season that is 10-12 weeks long for most athletes, it is important to be selective about the usage of plyometric drills. Here’s why:

Plyometrics are not our only focus. Blocks, relays, weight room, speed work, plyometrics—something has to give. If we try to do too many things at once or too quickly, it is worse than not implementing anything at all.

If we try to do too many things at once or too quickly, it is worse than not implementing anything at all, says @grahamsprints. Share on X

First and foremost, sprinters should be doing some form of sprinting often. The most elastic, plyometric thing that anyone can do is a maximum velocity sprint. Ground contact times are as low as .08 of a second. This means that plyometric training should support quality sprint training, but it cannot surpass sprint training’s effectiveness. Over the course of the season, patience and quality need to be prioritized over volume and level of difficulty. The prerequisite to plyometric training will be general movements such as skipping. Until this area looks good, depth jumps are just a pipe dream.

Improve the general qualities first, where mistakes are more easily forgiven and less harmful. With large groups, less is always more. Using fewer tools will let the athletes get better from week to week.

Plyometric Progressions

There are a few rules of thumb with regards to plyometric training:

1. General movements before specific.
2. Quality over quantity (nothing in a circuit and 20-40 total touches).
3. Don’t do it under a state of fatigue. (It isn’t CrossFit.) Sprint before plyos and plyos before lifting (unless used as a part of contrast training).
4. Bilateral before unilateral.¹
5. Slow before fast.¹
6. Low before high.¹

That’s it. This heuristic approach keeps things simple because most of my athletes don’t need complicated and yours probably don’t either. This will also allow the tendons and ligaments of athletes with a low training age to properly adapt to the stress of these exercises.¹

The drills below are a great place to start.

General Plyometrics/Jumps 

• Skip for distance
• Field frolicker/gallops for height
• Primetimes
• Ankle pops
• Single leg drives

These five drills break the rules of “bilateral before unilateral” because they are basically general movements done with a higher degree of intent or maximum bounce. Some, like skip for distance, are more “explosive power” and others, like single leg drives, are more elastic in nature. The best part is they are not time-consuming to teach and the common linkage between these and all other plyos is the postural demands. They can often be part of a specific warm-up or included as main plyo sessions during general prep periods. My best athletes are almost always the best at these movements.

Video 1. General drills have elastic benefits. Just having a challenging warm-up is a good starting point before moving on to conventional plyometrics.

From here, I teach the first couple weeks’ landing drills and the hip hinge. The goal of these is to practice absorbing force. The landing drills are as useful to jumping as decelerating safely is to sprinting.

The entry-level drill is the snapdown from a position of triple extension. I cue the athletes with, “up, knees, ankles, hips” and arms overhead. The athlete “snaps down” into an athletic stance, not unlike the hip hinge drill. I look for the spine to be neutral and the eyes to look out. Stiffness is cued, although this is technically a misnomer as there is knee and hip flexion. What I am really asking is for them to land quickly and powerfully with a good base.

They should aim to keep their weight over midfoot (feel the floor with even pressure on big toe, little toe, and heel), feet under hips, and knees out, limiting valgus. Arms are cued to line up with the torso, shooting through the hips. This puts them in good position to redirect upwards on the concentric portion.

Video 2. Snap-downs are great ways to manipulate the body without creating a lot of soreness. Teaching the athlete to use their arms and range of motion is important when introducing plyos into a high school program.

It all starts here. This is the context for most other plyometrics. They must be able to quickly and repeatedly get to some variation of this position. If this drill doesn’t look decent, athletes are usually not ready for anything else, like hurdle hops or triple standing long jump.

Box jumps aren’t an inherently bad exercise, but they can become something they’re not very quickly, says @grahamsprints. #plyometrics. Share on X

Inevitably, some athlete will pipe up and ask, “When are we doing plyos?” (I’m assuming they mean box jumps.) The answer to that is “we already are,” and can best be summed up with this statement:

“Whatever force you can absorb, you can generate” – Tony Holler

Box jumps are not an inherently bad exercise, but they sometimes become something that they aren’t very quickly.

Jump training needs to improve COM displacement, not hip mobility, a higher box doesn't mean you’re jumping higher! pic.twitter.com/hEcKWcfjLZ

— Lachlan Wilmot (@lachlan_wilmot) September 23, 2016

Using the same cues, you might progress to landings from one step on a stair and then two, again working on stiffness. This gives an opportunity to work further on jumping without the pounding of executing an actual jump.

Video 3. Sticking the landing may not be great for little kids, but as athletes increase their body weight, it becomes a near necessity. Teaching athletes to jump starts with teaching them to land with the even distribution of joints.

These aforementioned landing drills and simple progressions set up the season and the athlete’s overall development, and fall under the bilateral/general categories. Landing and plyometric strength drills are the first boxes that need to be checked. Coach what you see and don’t rush. Your athletes need to learn to absorb and apply force safely and effectively before advancing to the power type plyometrics such as depth jumps, bounds, and high hurdle hops. You can’t be powerful without the presence of strength and technique. 

Getting More Specific (Acceleration-Themed)

From here, you can get more specific. First, consider why you are doing certain plyometrics. There are so many variations out there that it is easy to second-guess yourself. Keep it simple and focus on what you think is essential with your current group of athletes.

Shifting to a narrower focus with good movement as the aim is better than trying to do it all. From a dynamic correspondence standpoint, one of the most common usages is to program plyometrics into an acceleration or max velocity complex. Acceleration is commonly referred to as “pushing,” and max velocity as “bouncing” or “dancing with the ground.”

Consider why you do certain plyometrics. Shifting to a narrower focus with good movement as the aim is better than trying to do it all, says @grahamsprints. Share on X

Below, activities A and C serve as reinforcement and context for learning acceleration technique to be used during the “B” sprint exercise.

a) Acceleration drill (2 minutes rest)
b) Acceleration (2 minutes rest)
c) Jump/plyo (longer rest period)

Adhering to the “slow before fast” guideline, these drills are first done with no countermovement. I like to start early season, with a three-second pause before exploding in the concentric phase on acceleration-themed days. So, in essence, we have a bilateral-specific-slow variation. I like these for several reasons:

1. Teaches the athlete to get into an optimal position for good force application on the concentric portion.
2. Mimics the acceleration phases of sprinting with longer ground contact times.
3. Eliminating the countermovement reduces stored elastic potential energy that would be maximized with the stretch shortening cycle (similar to a block start). Three simple exercises specific to acceleration (longer, purposeful pushes) are ankle rocker jumps #1 (knee/no CM), #2 (knee & hip/no CM), and #3 (knee and hip with countermovement), stair drop to jump, and med ball diaper toss. These are all done with a three-second pause first. These all follow logically from the hinge and landing drills. I’m not sure you need to get too varied with the movements unless these become stale.

Video 4. Technically, pausing the landing and holding is not plyometric training, but teaching the entire movement from start to finish as soon as possible is vital for coaches who have little time. Groups can perform this drill safely and effectively.

Med ball diaper throws are great if the ability to hinge correctly is present. Start with a light load, as the usefulness of the med ball is less about the resistance it provides than the ball serving as an external cue to explode with the knees, ankles, and hips through the floor and finish with arms overhead. Once these look good in terms of the hinge and hip/leg drive, we add in a countermovement. High school athletes often use just their arms when first learning basic med ball throws. They should be cued to throw with their legs.

Video 5. Most medicine ball exercises are not plyometric, but they do help coaches teach jumping. Some medicine ball throws are more elastic and eccentric, but only if a rebound motion is involved.

Ankle rocker jumps have been popularized through the teachings of Chris Korfist and his foot/ankle complex work. Ankle rockers jumps are an excellent way for athletes to work on achieving the positive shin angles used during the acceleration phase and developing power at the end range of their ankle mobility while driving through the shin and finishing with the big toe. Going barefoot is a great option here to increase foot awareness.

Video 6. Ankle rockers are perfect for beginners learning to jump. In addition to teaching, ankle rockers reveal a lot about an athlete’s range-of-motion abilities.

Later, you can add in the countermovements and then continuous CMJ to further focus on powerful pushes. 

Unilateral Acceleration-Themed

As far as unilateral work, sprinting is already unilateral, so outside of the general jumping drills in the first section, there isn’t much of a need to overshoot too much here.

Unilateral work and bilateral work in different planes, like the Altis Rudiment Series, can be plugged into warm-up routines, lest our multi-sport sprinters become solely “sagittal monsters.” Even though our sport isn’t about agility and change of direction, some of the athletes do sports where that is the case.

These are great for general hopping rhythms and good contacts as close to midfoot as possible.

In the past, I have programmed dynamic single leg step-ups and box pops during general prep periods, but I can’t always get to it due to having only a few boxes at the appropriate height (thigh less than parallel on box). Single leg stair drops (Korfist inspired) also develop lower limb stiffness and improve unilateral force absorption.

Video 7. Single leg hops and single leg emphasis exercises can vary in intensity and complexity. Often exercises can be low-grade plyometrics and gradually add intensity later.

These are a good point of entry with unilateral plyos. I don’t rush to the advanced items on the unilateral menu because, as long as our athletes are sprinting and getting stronger first, I can afford to be patient. Progressions made too quickly without basic movement pattern work can severely dilute the quality. It is better to sharpen the tools you have first than to worry about adding more tools to your repertoire.

It’s better to sharpen the tools you have first than worry about adding more tools to your repertoire, says @grahamsprints. Share on X

Getting More Elastic (Max-Velocity-Themed Plyometrics)

Again, keeping it simple means matching up the plyometric with the sprint task. The only difference here is that instead of a blocked complex (a, b, c) like with the acceleration theme, I would run it as a series complex (a, a, a, b, b, b, c, c, c).

a) 20m dribble x 3 (mechanics and warm-up) with 3 mins between.
b) 10m timed fly x 3 (max speed metric) with 4-5 mins between.
c) Elastic plyometric to support max velocity training x 4 (5 reps per set). The series format allows the athlete to devote their full attention to each exercise and not fatigue themselves for their sprint reps. A and C still support B, but it keeps the sprint rep the main thing.

Entry level max-velocity-themed plyometrics (fast and shorter ground contacts) include:

• Partner-assisted pogos
• Unassisted pogos for height

Video 8. Partner pogos are popular because they are less stressful on the body and add to team culture. Pogos are great for all ages and abilities, but are mainly for youth athletes.

There is tremendous value in pogos alone when talking about developing elastic power and maximizing an athlete’s bounce and stiffness. These are easy to teach and a great introduction to elastic plyometrics of the high and fast variety. They are also a great way to screen bad posture, body movement, and incorrect foot placement before advancing to hurdle hops (low then high) and depth jumps. 

Unilateral Work

Bounding is the best example of unilateral plyometrics with short ground contacts. Unless the athletes are proficient with bilateral work, I don’t overshoot here either. A good place to start is the “walk the dog bound.” A partner holds the athlete’s opposite leg while they sync up their arms with the cycling of their free leg. The free leg should land with flat-footed contact and have minimal collapse in the hips. Simple to do, but not easy. The partner hold gives a slight assistive lift so the jumper can focus on keeping their optimal posture. This is also a great drill to identify prospective triple jumpers and then start to develop quality ground contacts under their center of mass.

After some time working on this drill, the partner hold could disappear and they can try to replicate the quality of the rep with a regular single leg bound.

Alternate bounds often aren’t the best option in a workout—especially with athletes who are solely sprinters and not jumpers—because they are too advanced.  I may periodically include them in warm-ups, where I can monitor and coach them with the whole group without wasting too much time.

Video 9. Walk the dog is another exercise that, if done right, teaches hops in a fresh way. The key is to ensure the hips are balanced and the foot is in front of the center of mass.

Simple Testing Plans

As coaches, we like having metrics to show that what we do works. It motivates us and promotes athlete buy-in. Looking ahead to the spring season, I want to include more data and testing. We have tracked our speed work during the last couple of years, but I have been unsure how to effectively and easily measure the jumps without creating a ton of work for myself. I know there is value here, but with large groups and an absence of fancy testing equipment to handle the logistics, it seems like a daunting task. After some thought though, I may have an imperfect solution.

On our two short sprint days during the first week, we will administer a triple standing long jump (three-hop test) or standing triple jump test to our athletes using the hash marks on the football field. I like these two tests because they are easy to teach and correspond highly to acceleration ability. One is unilateral and one is bilateral. They can help identify power athletes and which newcomers may be jumping candidates on day one.

Athletes will start at the end zone, lined up on the hash marks. Including the lines near the out of bounds, this gives us four “zones” to get the jump tests in simultaneously. Athletes can take their multi-jump attempt with a captain/spotter marking at each station with a yardstick. If an athlete sticks their landing past the 7-yard mark but not the 8-yard mark, the captain will spot and use the yardstick to measure the additional feet and inches from the 7-yard line (21 feet).

This poor man’s test should raise the intent and it adds another opportunity to record-rank-publish. The volume is low enough that even a complete novice will be fine. This will give you a starting number.

After athletes work on force absorption and application with the simple progressions mentioned previously, we retest them at the end of their general prep period (April vacation), and again before the postseason. 

Sprinters First

High school track coaches have limited time and are not always able to provide a focused lesson. The above progressions are not perfect, but they are simple to do. The No. 1 goal is speed development. Plyometrics are a training piece that, when used in low dosages, can reinforce good habits and develop strength and explosiveness.

Providing basic #plyometrics matched up with the day’s theme is a simple way to implement plyometrics without #overtraining, says @grahamsprints. Share on X

It is easy to get caught up in the hype of high box jumps and the latest cool, complicated exercise. It is important to remember that most of our athletes are developing and need simple and repeatable exercises. If, at the end of the day, their movement and efficiency improve, then how they got there doesn’t matter. Providing basic plyometrics matched up with the day’s theme is a simple way to implement plyometrics without overtraining. For sprinters already sprinting three to four days a week, quality over quantity is the way to go.

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

1. Max Aita. Strength Development for Weightlifting.

Let me ask you a simple question: Are you writing programs, or are you running a program? Yes, it’s a basic question, but it’s not an easy one to answer. I asked this same question of a coach I met at the NSCA Coaches Conference this past January, and like many of the other coaches I’ve talked to over the years, this particular coach responded with the same puzzled look everyone else had.

I like asking this deceptively innocent question because I want to see people thrive. There are so many things that are out of our control but still have such a huge impact on every training session that it would drive anyone crazy to try to plan for all those contingencies. A better approach is to spend time developing your ideas for what you can control. By my own trial and error, I’ve found that if you let athletes treat their training session like an “open house,” not only will their training results be mediocre at best, but you will spend more time dealing with petty issues than actually coaching.

Spend time developing ideas for the things you can control, and don’t drive yourself crazy trying to plan for every contingency, says @CarmenPata. Share on X

Instead, if you invest the time to make your expectations clear and start with those ideas, well, that changes things completely. Some people call that establishing your culture, but to me it’s more than that. Culture, to me, is how one group operates both inside and outside of a training session.

At my school, we have 19 sports and each of them has their own way of doing things, which is their culture. When each and every one of those teams and their athletes come into a training session, their culture is evident, but it also takes a back seat to something else—the athletic performance program. Because everyone experiences the same thing, it means that they have entered a brother and sisterhood together, which makes them a family.

Returning to the coach at the NSCA conference, our conversation started in the typical way. After leaving one of the presentations, we started talking about some of the ideas that were introduced and naturally asked about each other’s program. His story sounded all too familiar: multiple teams, more athletes needing help, and no assistants to provide greater coverage.

A few minutes into our conversation, he pulled out his computer and his mood changed. After initially looking defeated—shoulders slumped, head down—now he spoke with evident pride. There was a big smile on his face, his head and shoulders were up, and he was ready to show off everything he’d built on his laptop. To give credit where credit’s due—it was amazing. He had built a dynamic macrocycle for every team he worked with. I say dynamic because, with the click of a button, the program scrolled through each and every athlete on the team, adjusting their training load, and changing multiple charts and graphs on the spreadsheet with each person. I can only imagine the amount of work it took to develop this system.

As we kept talking, I let this coach detail everything he had programmed. His macrocycle laid out on an Excel sheet was a thing of beauty. Ever factor that could be accounted for was: set and rep schemes, running sessions, and monitoring systems were all set up perfectly for each team’s in-season and off-season work. I was a little jealous of his layout. All of this looked amazing on the computer, and if I was teaching a class on periodization, he would have gotten an “A.” After looking at all of this for a few minutes and hearing his rationale for why he was doing this and that with his athletes, I asked the next logical question: “How is this going?”

From the change in his body language, I could tell it wasn’t going well. He talked about how the athletes were not buying into his programs, the coaches were demanding things he couldn’t deliver on, and no one was taking him seriously. I felt his pain, because I’ve been there. When I landed my first job, it was all about programming the best workouts possible, reading every book or article on periodization, and researching what the top athletes around the world were doing. At that time, I didn’t understand that before you can work magic manipulating the acute and chronic responses to training, you first have to be able to run a program.

Before you can work magic manipulating the acute and chronic responses to training, you first have to be able to run a program, says @CarmenPata. Share on X

This was the exact same issue this coach was running into, except he hadn’t recognized it yet.

Let me explain. Being a strength coach is a tough job and, while I’m in charge of what happens at each and every training session, I ultimately don’t have the final say on many things outside of what happens in the gym. While it’s common for me to be referred to as the head coach of the off-season—which I do appreciate—that title carries very little weight, as I will almost always lose an argument to a team’s actual head coach.

In moments like this, where the views that I have conflict with the views of the head coach, I don’t hold any grudges. The head coach and I are both trying to protect the integrity of our programs. Yes, strength coaches have to be able to apply the right amount of stress at the right time in order to force adaptations to the body—but, if you are the head coach, your duty is much greater than that. Protecting the integrity of the program is the ultimate job of the head (strength or sport) coach.

This is what the coach I was speaking to at the NSCA clinic didn’t understand yet. He was so concerned about programming the right exercises for the athletes that he lost perspective on how to run his program. By perspective, I’m not talking about his set or rep scheme, or style of program (like Westside, Triphasic, H.I.I.T., weightlifting-based, or any other style), because those ideas will always be in a state of change depending on the trends and research in our industry.

You don’t have to look too far for examples. It feels like if you still catch or receive a bar in a clean or a snatch, then you are “old school” in your training programs. If that hits too close to the heart, think about all the balance or unstable surface training tools that were “must-have” equipment and in vogue about a decade ago. Both of those examples are part of the overreaction and under-reaction cycles that we all experience, but the integrity of a program is something completely different.

The integrity of a program consists of those founding ideas that never go out of style and give your program substance over the years. While the ideas that are central to my program may not be the same ideas you find important, they are the things that make my program different than those of other coaches. Sure, like every program in the world, we do some sort of variation of the bench, squat, and clean; we run; and we perform all sorts of different jumps.

A program’s integrity consists of those founding ideas that never go out of style and give your program substance over the years, says @CarmenPata. Share on X

Unlike many programs, the principles of how we expect athletes to behave are not up for debate: It is simply the way that we do things. If athletes don’t do things correctly, there will be a consequence. Being consistent with those consequences is the key to all of this. Whether they are an All-American or a walk-on, it doesn’t matter to our coaches. The message to the athletes is the same: If you mess up, be a man or woman and admit it. Suck it up and accept the consequences. Then put it behind you and move on.

Dress Code

If you walk into our gym at any given time, you will notice a uniform look for all of the athletes. It doesn’t matter the team: every athlete wears a grey workout shirt and full-length black shorts. There is not a cutoff or a hat to be found. Everyone has their shoes tied and their socks on. Male or female. It doesn’t matter who you are or what team you are on, everyone wears the same uniform.

This is another layer of our athlete readiness screen, making sure that the athletes haven’t merely shown up for their lift, but have actually thought (no matter how briefly) about being ready for it. I admit that this idea was taken from the military and how they handle their recruits. Much to my dismay, we can’t have a standardized haircut, but since everyone looks the same with the way they dress, it helps reinforce the idea that they are all part of the same program, no matter what sport they play.

Body Language

Have you ever been watching a game and you just knew one side had given up? How could you tell? Most likely their heads were down, their shoulders slumped, and there was an overall lack of energy. Body language, either positive or negative, doesn’t whisper—it screams. Since body language is on the list of traits people can control, it is something that we can train and improve. In order to do that, people must be aware of what their body language says.

We call out people that display poor body language in the middle of their workout. If that doesn’t help fix the issue, using a camera usually does. We take pictures of the person and ask them: Do you look like you are adding energy to the room? Do you look like what you’re doing is important? What would happen if your entire team acted like this? Being confronted with the cold, hard evidence that pictures or videos can provide usually fixes their bad body language.

Earn It

The book by legendary football coach Woody Hayes, Hotline to Victory, contains a line that was one of the most impactful phrases in my coaching and personal life. “Any time you give a man something they haven’t earned, you cheapen them as a person.” Once I really understood what that line meant, it immediately changed the way we coached our athletes. From calling depth on their squats to getting a compliment or a “good job” from me or my staff, it doesn’t happen unless that feedback is actually earned.

Needless to say, some of our athletes have a hard time getting used to this idea. They have been given simple but unearned compliments by coaches who, when they don’t know what else to say, will throw out a default “good job.” Don’t get me wrong, we encourage our athletes all the time. We are the biggest fans and supporters of everyone that walks through the door. However, if they want to pick a song to play, to catch a clean or snatch, or even to receive a compliment, first they have to earn it.

Celebrate

There is a flip side to demanding that athletes earn their privileges: When they do earn the right to move on to something new or they set a new personal record, you have to celebrate with them. Take a moment and put yourself in the mind of a young athlete. They have tried and tried and been stuck in what they’ve been doing. Day after day, they have remained more or less the same—until, one day, something changes. All of a sudden, what was impossible yesterday is now something they can do today.

When our athletes achieve a breakthrough or personal record, everyone in the gym celebrates it with them, says @CarmenPata. Share on X

Some people call it a miracle, some people call it a breakthrough, some people call it a personal record. I call it the result of hard work. In the gym, we have an old bell mounted on the wall and any time an athlete sets a new personal record, they ring the bell and everyone in the gym celebrates with them. The bell ringing signifies all the hard work the athletes have put in to earn these breakthroughs. It’s an amazing moment, and one that needs to be celebrated.

Accountability

If I had to narrow down the most important part of our program to one word, it would be this: Accountability. Everyone is accountable for their own actions. Of everything that we teach in the weight room, getting people to understand that they are responsible for everything they do is by far the hardest part of our job. It takes time, but we start by having the athletes stop making excuses by showing them how ridiculous they sound.

We always go back to the idea that you are accountable for your own actions and for your response to what happens around you, says @CarmenPata. Share on X

It’s difficult, because the excuse always sounds good to the person making it. For example, when an athlete oversleeps and misses a morning workout, we usually hear “My alarm didn’t go off, Coach.” No, no it didn’t. You didn’t check to make sure it was on or the volume was turned up before you went to bed, or you didn’t ask a teammate to call you to make sure you were up. Some people grasp this faster than others, but we always go back to the idea that you are accountable both for your own actions and for how you respond to what is happening around you.

Certain Concepts Never Go out of Style

After I laid out these ideas, that other coach and I sat in silence for a few moments. I could tell that his brain was spinning, trying to unwrap everything that I had just talked about. I’m sure he was expecting that our conversation would be about the specific training programs that we use, not the broader coaching points that we talked about instead.

If you stick around strength and conditioning for long enough, you will notice that many things that were once popular fade away for a while, only to come back again in the future. You don’t have to look too far for examples. Consider the debate about carbohydrates. First, they were good for people. Then, they were bad. Wait, are they good again now? You see what I mean.

Depending on scientific research and overall popularity, people can have their opinions swayed about all sorts of things, including the best type of programming you can do for athletes. That’s why I’m not particularly attached to one set or style of workouts—it will most likely change sometime in the future. I am, on the other hand, always attached to running the best program I can.

While I’m not particularly attached to one set or style of workouts, I’m always attached to running the best program I can, says @CarmenPata. Share on X

In order to run that program, there are things we put in place that help guarantee everyone has the same experience. These ideas—which you’ve read—are the right ones for me, but they might not be the right fit for everyone, depending on their coaching situation. If these aren’t right for you, use them as a starting point for a conversation about which important ideas you will hold your athletes accountable to.

The ideas that you come up with are more important than any sort of set and rep scheme, or whether or not you are going to catch a power clean. I’ll leave you with the same final question I asked the coach I was talking to at the NSCA conference: Are you running a program, or simply just programming?

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 don’t care if you are an athlete, coach, physical therapist, or fitness enthusiast. If running is required for your success, then this article is for you. Financial constraints, poor weather conditions, and/or an abundance of information to sort through can leave you scrambling to determine what your best option(s) may be to achieve results. I propose a simple answer: in-place running.

In-place running can effectively accommodate speed development, tempo running, and return to play, says @huntercharneski. Share on X

Regardless of your role, I am going to guide you through three training modalities that in-place running can effectively accommodate:

• Speed development
• Tempo running
• Return to play

In-Place Running: Speed Development

I don’t often speak in absolutes, but I really believe that the ubiquitous trait everyone wants more of is speed. So how do we go about enhancing this quality by merely running in place? The simple answer is ground-contact time (GCT), or rather, a lack thereof. How do we limit ground-contact time through in-place running? I have found success for myself, athletes, and other coaches with the help of Gerard Mach’s work. 

Gerard Mach

Gerard Mach is one of the more prominent track coaches to ever walk this earth, so let’s just get that out of the way. Second, he is notorious for his “A’s, B’s, and C’s”—more commonly known simply as “Mach Drills.” Since I want this process to be (perceived as) creative, not cumbersome, I will delve into the “A-Drills” exclusively.

Mach originally designed and implemented these drills to accommodate his athletes in the winter months, when weather was unbearable and space was sparse. The A-Drills have a myriad of benefits, including (but not limited to):

• Posture
• Limb mechanics
• Rhythm
• Technique
• Elasticity
• Strength
• Power

Once the weather became warmer and more sprint-friendly, these drills transferred seamlessly to the track. The A-Drills are as effective as they are timeless, which makes them a perfect match for anyone with time constraints.

Modification and Application

Now, I understand that many of you are not elite-level sprinters and/or are not working with elite-level sprinters. Therefore, I will modify the means to help you on your quest for speed by using an elastic band harnessed around the athletes’ hips:

1. Banded A-March
2. Banded A-Skip
3. Banded A-Run(s)

I know it looks fairly benign, ineffective, or like not “enough work,” per se. Follow and trust. I would rather you maximize the mundane than fall prey to outside entities that are complex and unintentionally incompetent.

In order to reap the benefits of the A-Drills, I highly suggest tethering the athlete(s) to a power rack, squat stand, or something similar. The band serves you and your athletes in many ways:

• Less movement restriction, as the band provides a sense of security for the athlete. It feels safer, which allows for more natural, free-flowing movement, especially in the upper extremities.
• Excitation is one thing, but inhibition is another thing entirely.
• Clean up foot-strike patterns, making it nearly impossible for the athlete to not step directly underneath their center of mass.
• Increase general strength and strength specific to running fast.
• Appease both the athletes and outside entities, as it is tangible and gives the illusion of “hard work.”
• “Pulls” the athlete into more optimal angles, whether acceleration or max velocity.
• Organic development of front-side mechanics.
• (Pertaining only to A-Runs): The band’s level of oscillation lets the coach know whether or not the athlete is keeping their frequency high enough to achieve the desired result. If the athlete’s frequency is subpar, the band will reveal a great deal of “up and down” action, (meaning their hips are dropping with each cyclical action). Conversely, if the band appears to be steady, that is a good indication of great vertical displacement between their hips and the floor.

Video 1. We mainly use the Banded A-March as a means to develop and enhance an athlete’s posture and proper limb mechanics.

Video 2. The objective of the Banded A-Skip is to develop rhythm and relaxation for the athlete to transfer to sprinting.

Video 3. The Banded A-Run is a phenomenal means to develop elastic qualities and reduce ground-contact times, both of which are essential to faster running.

Regardless of the variation, the quadriceps and hip flexors (both are kind of important for acceleration-based sports) propel the action in all three exercises. Simple doesn’t sell, but it works. Sometimes we need to tell the consumer what they need, right? Like Henry Ford said, “We don’t need faster horses, we need cars.”

The application of the A-Drills to your situation is just as simple as their modifications above. No different than an ideal speed session, we should be transitioning our athletes from slow to fast, or longer GCT to shorter GCT, right?

Makes sense, right? Fast individuals spend less time on the ground. Knowing this, why wouldn’t we train our athletes to mimic—or come close to—the GCT needed in order to run fast?

If your thirst for novelty needs to be quenched, you can play around with the varying step-over heights and angles of the athletes.

“Is that it?” Yes. That is all. I am a fan of brevity. With everything else on your plate (warm-ups, jumps, throws, plyos, lifting, cool-downs, etc.), the simplicity of this session will be more than sufficient to move the needle on getting faster.

In-Place Running: Tempo Running

Speaking from first-hand experience, I have found tempo running to be one of the most, if not the most, beneficial rejuvenation means for human optimization, second only to a good night’s sleep.

#Temporunning is one of the most beneficial rejuvenation means for human optimization, says @huntercharneski. Share on X

What Is Tempo Running?

I was first made aware of tempo running through the work of the late, great Charlie Francis. In short, tempo running consists of interval-based runs aimed directly at building work capacity. Charlie had two subcategories for these:

1. Extensive tempo
   1. Lower velocities
   2. Aerobic
   3. Develops general fitness
   4. Promotes recovery via circulatory mechanisms
2. Intensive tempo
   1. Higher velocities
   2. Adaptation to lactate tolerance as well as removal
   3. Strength endurance
   4. Useful for those performing in aerobic/anaerobic sports

Modification and Application

Whether your aim is directed toward extensive or intensive tempo, in-place running with an elastic band can accommodate either protocol.

Having experimented on myself with the above equivalents, there are two points I must stress to practitioners who wish to apply this to their situation:

1. Work-to-rest ratios of 1:1 are more than sufficient, provided the intensity is submaximal (less than or equal to 75%*).
2. Execute in a lower amplitude Running A fashion. I suggest a shin step-over. The frequency will be high enough to limit GCT and provide a circulatory effect, yet low enough not to blunt recovery and disrupt the central nervous system.

*An easy, practical way to gauge proper aerobic intensity: You should be sweating, but the difficulty should not make it impossible to hold a conversation with yourself or your workout partner(s) during the session.

Video 4. In-place tempo run with bands.

How Much Tempo Running?

As Derek Hansen’s work has shown, the amount of volume needed per session, as well as on a micro-cycle basis, depends on the demands of the sport. Here is what Derek has suggested, along with the equivalents I have provided:

With traditional tempo running, upon completion of the set(s), you will walk the length of one working rep (i.e., ~100m). With banded in-place running, just simply idling for 60 seconds has been more than sufficient, in my experience. We are not reinventing the wheel here. We are simply being innovative. As far as the exact sets and rep scheme(s) are concerned, I’ll leave that to you, as you know what will keep your athletes’ output and engagement at a high level.

In-Place Running: Return to Play

A little over a year ago, I decided to go “all in” on sprinting. To better myself, of course, but also to become a better coach for my athletes. In doing so, I had to piece together more than four years of athleticism that had been lost since my time as a collegiate athlete. Throughout that process, I had more injuries than I can count on both hands and feet. Pulled hamstrings, torn plantar fascia, deformed gastroc, you name it.

Fortunately, as Ryan Holiday wrote in The Obstacle Is the Way, I was able to turn a perceived problem into a tremendous triumph. Each injury was another wonderful learning opportunity. With the help of Derek Hansen and his return-to-play (RTP) protocols, outside entities had a difficult time discerning whether or not I was injured. Why? I was training.

When it comes to RTP, medical professionals are chomping at the bit to throw you in a boot, cast you up, and/or completely immobilize your periphery for no less than 6-8 weeks. If you ask me, this is beyond stupid: It is damn near malpractice!

Imagine—considering you’re healthy—putting one of your legs in a boot for six weeks. After that time has come and gone, you will be extremely detrained, weak, and in bad shape, right? Knowing that, why the hell would you put someone who is injured in that position? Why not make tiny steps in the right direction every day rather than standing still? Nurture > Nature.

Return-to-Play: What

In-place running with the help of a band (depending on injury) has served me and those I have worked with very well. Injuries that have been remedied with this method include:

• Torn Achilles
• Torn Plantar Fascia
• Torn Pectineus
• Torn Gastroc
• Low Back Strains
• Torn Pec Major

In-place running with a band has helped my athletes return to play (depending on the injury), says @huntercharneski. Share on X

Return-to-Play: How

With in-place running being an effective rehab process, the next question you may wonder is, “How is it so?” I’m sure I sound like a broken record when I say ground-contact time is the answer. Now, if you have a high-speed camera (120 frames/second), you can easily see whether or not the GCT is comparable to before the injury happened. Me? I trust my eyes. If the injured athlete is achieving four or more strides per second, then I know we are on the right track. How? Because I have been there myself.

Video 5. Using in-place running with the help of a band in return-to-play based sessions.

Begin your athletes with higher frequencies and lower amplitudes. From there, it is no different than the accumulation of volume in any other aspect of training. An example:

• Day 1:
  — Dribble 3 sets 10 sec. in an every minute on the minute (EMOM) fashion.
• Day 2:
  — Dribble 4 sets 10 sec. in an EMOM fashion.
• Day 3:
  — Dribble 4 sets 20 sec. in an EMOM fashion.
• Day 4:
  — Higher amplitude means (Ankle Step-Overs) and follow same set and rep scheme as the following days before progressing to higher amplitudes.

But what about training surface? I’m glad you asked! Depending on the injury, of course, you may want to start your athlete(s) on sand, grass, or turf, before going to a harder, more elastic surface like your gym’s flooring.

Video 6. Training on sand as an option in return-to-play scenarios before moving on to harder surfaces.

Okay, GCT makes sense for all lower-leg injuries. Now sell me on how in-place running remedies injuries in the trunk! No sweat. Watch what is happening during in-place running—no matter the amplitude.

What is happening? An abundance of contractions throughout the torso (provided the arm action is appropriate) induces a great level of blood flow to the area. Over the course of 3-4 sets, there will be some upper body hypertrophy induced. My friend and colleague, Thomas Bowes, suffered an acute low back strain and he could not extend his hips. What were we to do? Simple: “micro-extensions,” if you will, with Dribbles and Ankle Step-Overs until he was able to fully extend his hip through Running A’s. 

Video 7. Thomas Bowes performing Dribbles and Ankle Step-Overs in process of recovering from acute low back strain.

From there, ask questions, receive feedback, trust what your eyes are seeing, and be a coach. That should give you all the information you need to determine the next day’s surface, means, and intensities. At the end of the day, the RTP protocol of your choice boils down to the SAID principle: Specific Adaptations for Imposed Demands.

What adaptation are you pursuing? Apply the means with careful vigilance and base your decisions on what the athlete is presenting.

A Sensible Approach

The industry is at a crossroads. On the left is the way things have always been done: novelty-based, convoluted, and full of pitfalls. On the right, however, is a smooth, simple, and, dare I say, “boring” path to success.

Whether your situation inhibits an ideal speed session, lacks a facility and climate for work capacity training, or needs to get back to health, I believe there is a place for in-place running despite its lack of pizzazz.

In a day and age where young coaches are easily influenced by random acts of buffoonery on social media, it seems as though common sense isn’t so common. Nutty is now the norm. My advice falls in line with what Mark Twain once said, “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”

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

“Wait, I know, wait,” she says, her eyes alive with inspiration. “Before warm-ups, we should do a team icebreaker!”

The Scene: April 2018. Del Mar, California. The first spring practice to kick off the Flex soccer team’s second competitive season, with more giggling and oh-my-goshes than quality touches as the players gathered for a pre-warm-up routine of partner juggling. Pair upon pair, each shanking balls off shins and knees due to a combination of rust, social exuberance, and those spring growth spurts that alter a young athlete’s basic spatial kinematics. The introductory icebreaker—pitched by the team’s free-spirited holding midfielder—was equal parts ironic and sincere: The girls needed no introductions and had, after all, just wrapped up our inaugural season two months earlier.

On the other hand, nowadays taking a couple months completely away from a competitive sports team feels like forever and is—as the players recognized—unusual.

“Okay, okay,” she says, waving her teammates into a circle. “Everyone say your name, where you go to school, and your favorite ice cream topping.”

The Art of Juggling

Two years ago, none of the players on the Flex team (introduced in “How One Club Is Changing Youth Soccer”) could juggle a soccer ball. Currently made up of 7th and 8th grade girls—multi-sport athletes who also compete in softball, field hockey, flag football, volleyball, rock climbing, gymnastics, rugby, swimming, tennis, and basketball—the team is fast, physical, and aggressive. Compared to the year-round club teams they’ve been playing the past two seasons, they are also, at times … technically outclassed.

Juggling a soccer ball is one of those simultaneously meaningless/meaningful skills, somewhat akin to mastering a sequence of around-the-back and between-the-legs dribble moves in basketball. The ability to execute that skill, in and of itself, means absolutely zero on the court: If you can’t pass or shoot out of the move, or are too slow, too weak, or too timid to break down a defender, all the slick handle in the world won’t make any difference. But, like ball handling in basketball, the ability to juggle a soccer ball is indicative of key qualities in the sport: first touch, anticipation, body awareness, bilateral coordination, and—most of all—a commitment to self-directed and purposeful practice.

From beginning juggling scores of two or three or at most five, we now have multiple players who can juggle well over 100 and all 16 players on the team regularly expect to reach 15-20 during warm-ups. While learning to keep a ball in the air in the literal sense, the Flex girls are also, metaphorically, learning the same skill in their athletic lives. One of the key lessons is that any dramatic change in timing, pattern, or rhythm can cause the entire operation to go awry.

“The first thing people say is this is great,” said Richard Monette (head of Active for Life), discussing multisport participation and the grassroots campaign to support it in CBC Sports. “And then the second thing they say is that it’s impossible in reality.”

Impossible? No. Challenging? Oh yeah.

During the article introducing the Flex multisport model, I detailed a hard-fought loss early in the team’s first league season. As it turns out, that has been the girls’ only league loss in two club seasons. After starting off 9-1-2 for a third place finish our debut year, this past fall the Flex team won our division championship with a 10-0-2 record—all against teams that have the opportunity to clock far more practice hours than we do throughout the calendar year.

Practice hours are not a commodity that can be banked, wherein the player with the most total hours of practice automatically holds a higher active balance, says @CoachsVision. Share on X

Ultimately, there is no magic in the accumulation of volume. Practice hours are not a commodity that can be banked, wherein the player with the most total hours of practice over a year (or years) automatically then holds a higher active balance than a player with substantially fewer. Yes, in both the short and long term, practice improves skill (see exponential improvements in juggling). Practice also equates to experience, and that specific experience on the pitch is an added resource to draw from at the technical, tactical, and psychological levels. But when you put 12- and 13-year-olds on fields as large as 120 yards long and 60 yards wide, competing in an invasion game of angles, anticipation, and space—bigger, faster, and more powerful is still bigger, faster, and more powerful.

Within this, of course, is the basic conundrum of year-round specialization. It works—to a point. Players practicing month after month become demonstrably more skillful, and those observable improvements in turn justify the writing of all the large checks that support this continual practice. But, isolated in open space, athleticism beats skill as surely as rock beats scissors. So, the key question becomes how to develop bigger, faster, and more powerful athletes, while cultivating enough skill to express that athleticism on the field.

While there is no magic in volume, there is magic in intensity. September, October, November, December: During these four months, the Flex girls prioritize soccer and are on the pitch with a ball at their feet at least three days a week, and in many cases, considerably more. With high sports IQs and solid foundations of speed, explosiveness, mobility, and coordination, the ramped-up fall schedule leads to dramatic technical and tactical improvements.

Isolated in open space, athleticism beats skill as surely as rock beats scissors. The question becomes how to develop bigger, faster & more powerful athletes. Share on X

As opposed to incremental gains over a calendar year, that intense regular season period is electric—the players rapidly become more connected to each other and to the ball, the spark of those connections builds confidence, confidence builds momentum, momentum inspires passion, and passion begets peak performance. When the Flex girls take the field at kickoff, they are clearly not a group of girls out playing yet another ho-hum Saturday game in an endless string of Saturdays—they are, instead, unleashed.

During our debut year in 2017/2018, after peaking through the league season and reaching the final of our first post-season tournament in December, the Flex team won our second tournament over the first weekend of January, knocking off an A-level team from the host club in the process (at that time we were classified a C team).

Is multisport participation impossible at a competitive level? No. Hoisting that tournament trophy, the girls realized they could raise their game and compete against anybody. True to Monette’s words, however, a reality check was waiting around the corner.

The Scene: February 2018. Escondido, California. The Cal South State Cup. The Flex girls take the field at Southern California’s marquee, year-ending tournament, an event many of the players have wanted to compete in for years. They are quiet—a silence rooted neither in intense focus nor nervous butterflies. Instead, collectively, they seem out of sorts. Once the ball is in play, they lack cohesion and connection. Anticipation and direct routes to the ball are usually a hallmark of the team, but they can’t find the shape of the game, stuck chasing and reacting rather than attacking and defending. Not only do they appear indecisive and unfocused, for once, this group of dynamic and versatile athletes looks … slow.

What happened?

Whether juggling a soccer ball or juggling the schedules for multiple sports, a primary challenge is adapting to significant changes in timing, patterns, and rhythm.

A Few Brief Lessons in Overlapping

In order to effectively break the rules, you need to understand the rules in the first place. Out on the field with the Flex team, one of my favorite tactical lessons our first seasons has been teaching the girls to overlap in space. The concept is somewhat mind-blowing for young players who have finally reached the point where they understand all 11 positions in our formation and know the relevant numbers and responsibilities for each. Now that they’ve fully grasped our 4-3-3, here I go, encouraging them to overlap in the attack, where a player in one position advances out of formation at will, taking on the space, position, and responsibilities of a more forward teammate.

There aren’t many analogues to this in the sports these girls play. Sure, the second baseman may rotate over to cover first base on a bunt, but there are no fluid situations in softball where the center fielder simply elects to rush in and assume the shortstop’s space. The libero in volleyball doesn’t just choose to replace an outside hitter mid-point. Admittedly, a fair number of low posts in basketball actually do think they should rip down a defensive rebound and run the fast break from the point guard spot, but their red-faced coach hollering OUTLET THE BALL suggests that their team’s transition attack has been drawn up differently.

Players who grasp how to invade a space (and defend space from invasion) can escape the rules of their position and create attacking situations that overload the opponent’s defense. Share on X

For the Flex team, I teach our #2 and #3 (right and left back) to overlap our midfielders and fill wide spaces at speed. We teach our #8 and #10 (left-center mid and attacking center-mid) to overlap our strikers and wings to challenge open spaces and create numerical mismatches. If the players understand what it means to invade a space (and defend space from that invasion), they can then break out of the rules governing their positions and create attacking situations that overload the opponent’s ability to thwart an advance.

In sync, this shape-shifting should be as fluid as a murmuration of starlings; out of sync, you end up with superfluous clusters and vulnerable gaps.

Return to Scene: 2018 Cal South State Cup. After winning our first game—thanks to scoring a pair of transition goals against the run of play—the Flex girls then lose back-to-back matches and are bounced from the tournament in the opening weekend.

What happened?

January 2018 marked a major season shift, during which a majority of the Flex players launched into the competitive seasons for other sports. They needed to be game-ready for Select tournaments with their softball teams and gym-fit for weekend-long travel tournaments with their volleyball clubs. They had field hockey tryouts to prepare for, basketball games to play, and gymnastics meets to compete in. After four months of learning to play the game like a legit soccer team, the Flex girls came out in February and looked like a mishmash of volleyball players, softball players, field hockey players, and gymnasts, all chasing soccer players around a field.

Multi-sport athlete is not multiple sports at the same time… #LTAD

— Jeremy Frisch (@JeremyFrisch) January 30, 2019

One of the keys to overlapping is that as soon as the tactical advantage no longer exists, the overlapping player must hustle back and resume their original position.

During the fall and winter months of the league season, the Flex players had overlapping practices for other off-season sports at times, but soccer was the sport they practiced and played at the most intense, competitive level. In January and February, many of the Flex players directed their energy and intensity toward different teams in different sports.

In this case, the issue wasn’t one of overuse or fatigue, with players prepared to play but lacking the physical readiness to demonstrate their abilities. Instead, due to the limits of time in a school week and the disruption to their established practice and game pattern, their overall preparedness to play began to trend downward.

Within weeks, after dispersing to play sports with different physiological demands, observable de-training effects set in. The Flex girls also began playing sports with substantially different tactical and psychological demands: One of our top goal-scorers was a defensive specialist on her volleyball team, our goalkeeper a flame-throwing pitcher. That’s not simply shifting fields of play, that’s taking on completely different attacking and defending mindsets, and completely different athletic identities (all amidst a developmental phase in life that’s complicated enough as it is).

For a six-week stretch, between our tournament win in early January and our State Cup appearance in mid-February, we played no real soccer games, while the girls were playing competitive versions of their other sports. Multiple players regularly missed our practices due to schedule conflicts, and the resulting short-handed practices lacked the connectedness, passion, and purpose of our regular season sessions. Scrimmages were listless, with the girls’ competitive fire being expended elsewhere. Momentum was clearly trending in the wrong direction.

In the big picture, that natural shift in energy & changing of the seasons—that falling back to position after an overlap—makes these players who they are Share on X

Or, perhaps, not the wrong direction. Sure, for our immediate competitive purposes relative to a season-capping tournament it was the wrong direction; but in the bigger picture, that natural shift in energy and changing of the seasons—that falling back into position after an overlap—is what makes these players who they are.

The High Press (or Tag vs. Keep-Away)

“First, we’d like to congratulate our opponents. Their coach has taught them to play a … very aggressive style, with lots of energy.”

The Scene: December 2018. Mira Mesa, California. The Presidio Cup. The head coach of the Hotspurs offers a backhanded compliment to the Flex team during his trophy acceptance speech. After playing in the Presidio C-League for the regular season, the Flex team entered the A-Division for the round-robin post-season tournament. During pool play, we had dominated the run of play against the Hotspurs but lacked our finishing touch and ran out of time in a 0-0 tie. Re-matched in the final, we lost 2-1 on a last-minute rebound goal as both teams were making their final subs to prepare for PKs.

Though the intent was dismissive, the coach’s remarks were true: We play the game differently. While we have not been competing at the highest level here in Southern California—our club has a highly accomplished Girls 2005 team that plays in the Elite Clubs National League (ECNL) and two other Girls 2005 teams that have been competing in more challenging regional and local flights—our girls play a frenetic, high-pressing style that is rarely seen by our opponents.

Because club soccer at younger age levels is something that originates with parents signing their kids up to play—rather than an organic and earned process of natural selection—youth soccer coaches often have players who have the parental support and encouragement to meet their commitment to the team, but they’re not naturally all that fast, powerful, or elusive. Their parents see the “pay to play” system in genuine transactional terms, believing that the head start from all that extra coaching and practice will carry their kids forward in the sport.

With kids who are not athletically dominant, the trick is then to make the ball and the dimensions of the field do the work instead. Consequently, many youth soccer coaches use the asset they have (time) to compensate for the resource they lack (athleticism) by teaching a version of the game that does not depend on speed, size, or elusiveness.

In short, they teach keep-away.

Keep-away happens to be a fantastic warm-up activity and a perfectly fine game for developing first touch, passing accuracy, composure, and a respect for the value of possession. The game itself, however, is non-directional and non-goal-oriented—and because kids are energy-efficient and don’t like to run in circles, keep-away tends to inspire a reactive defensive strategy rather than one defined by direct pursuit angles and on-the-ball challenges. As a result, players in a keep-away-based system become accustomed to waiting for a mistake rather than creating that mistake, because there is no specific space in the keep-away game in which a turnover is more advantageous than any other.

On the soccer pitch, however, if you can press in the opponent’s back third and create a giveaway via a tackle or steal, you have already succeeded in your invasion of the opponent’s territory. With a single athletic act, one player can accomplish what the opposing team is trying to generate via a complicated sequence of 7-8 passes spanning the entire field: get possession of the ball close enough to goal to create a scoring chance.

The majority of teams we play line up in a 1- or 2-striker set, since keep-away coaches love to pack 4-5 midfielders in their formation to foster diamond passing patterns. Those target strikers sit high at the midline, waiting for service out of the back—in transition that striker may offer token pressure, but they’re out on an island and many backlines are accustomed to being able to patiently build out with moderately contested passing combinations.

Keep-away, the game, does not resemble a sport. Tag, on the other hand, does—it features attacking, defending, transition, and a clearly defined objective. Share on X

Taking advantage of the asset we have (athletes), on the Flex team we blitz a rush of big, fast, and powerful attacking players. The moment possession changes and the opposing defense has the ball at their feet, our three forward positions ambush first balls like third basemen charging a bunt or field hockey players brandishing a stick, because that’s what they are. In the midfield, then, our shortstops and center fielders lie in wait to take an angle on the hurried second ball, disrupting the point of attack.

Keep-away, the game, does not resemble a sport. Tag, on the other hand, does—it features attacking, defending, transition between the two, and a clearly defined objective.

I also coach softball, and with my baserunners the goal is to create chaos. Run and run and run, forcing keep-away players to play tag and make throws they don’t normally want to make. My baserunners become accustomed to it—what appears to be chaos begins to make sense to them on a fundamental level of attacking and defending—but to opposing coaches it tends to look like a very aggressive style, with lots of energy.

As a high press coach, not only do I encourage an aggressive style of play on any field, but when momentum is heading in the wrong direction (as it was leading into the 2018 State Cup), the natural default is to press harder.

For multisport athletes, however, that approach doesn’t work—at certain phases on the calendar, the hours and energy are simply not there for them to play harder. Sure, some players need a push in the right direction from time to time to reach their full potential, but others need to be let go, trusting that when they come back, they’ll be stronger, faster, and energized by their play on other courts and other fields.

Rather than pressing harder and “grinding,” when dealing with these multisport athletes I’ve learned to:

1. Individualize Attendance Expectations. Over the summer I received my US Soccer D-License, and in one of our classroom sessions the two-dozen other participating coaches shared their attendance policies, all of which revolved around playing-time based consequences for missed practices and non-compliance. When I said that I have 16 different, unwritten policies for 16 different players, the other coaches (and the course instructors) unanimously shared the opinion that I had completely lost my mind.

But it works. My players write down short-term soccer goals, long-term athletic goals, their own ideas for what they can do to be better teammates, and how they plan to achieve these various goals. This season, the girls shared their goals with me and one other teammate—and those goals create the expectations I hold them to. If a player has to miss practices or a game due to a conflict that keeps them on course to achieve their long-term athletic goals, that is acceptable. If a player misses team activities for reasons that I see as roadblocks to their long-term soccer or athletic goals, that is a different matter and they will hear it from me.

2. Individualize Training Intensity. This can be done in overt or subtle ways. The first time one or two players are held out of sprints or a high-intensity activity because they happen to be in the midst of a demanding training week for another sport, their teammates will complain. Loudly. For those who complain, I offer to take them out on their off-day from soccer and push them through a workout comparable to that of their teammate who was excused from sprinting, after which they too will be excused from certain practice activities. No one has yet accepted that offer.

The athletes who might need a break, however, very rarely want it—they’re wired to go, go, go. So, practice intensity can also be individualized in a number of ways that go completely unnoticed. It could be a simple matter of grouping them in relays or activities where 90% will suffice and they won’t have to dig as deeply into their reserves.

Rather than pressing harder with my #multisport athletes, I’ve learned to adjust rotations, times, & numbers to account for their different weekly loads. Share on X

There are also practice activities that involve server or bumper players who do not have as intense a load. There are ways to manipulate numbers or formations in small-sided activities to boost the intensity for players who need it and reduce the intensity for players who don’t. And there is always an ability to adjust rotations, times, and numbers in ways that account for the different weekly loads that multisport players face.

3. Set a Culture Where We Rest When Hurt. It’s a rough, physical, demanding sport. We’ve been fortunate thus far to have very few games lost to non-contact injuries (a rolled ankle here, a tender calf there), but there are always the bumps and bruises accumulated from playing an aggressive style (with lots of energy). We treat injuries and pain as something to STOP and recover from, with the big picture in mind that all the games the girls will play in the future are more important than today’s contest.

This is part of empowering the athletes to understand their bodies, know their limits, and speak up with agency. The question is not can you play? Of course, they can. They can play on one leg and with an arm hanging off. That question is an unfair test of “heart” and the willingness to make the sort of sacrifices someone who knows better should prevent them from making.

So, after any sort of knock, collision, or injury, the question instead is can you play at 100% full speed? If the answer is yes, then okay—show me. And if the answer is no, I think maybe 75-80%, then that player is allowed the time and space to recover until they are 100% and it has nothing to do with team commitment or will—it’s simply a neutral performance metric that must be met.

Play Short to Play Long

While I don’t care much for keep-away-driven passing in the midfield, I do love attacking patterns based on playing short to play long—purposefully drawing defenders closer in order to then exploit the new space created behind them.

Unlike the tight combinations of a keep-away game, where teammates deliver crisp passes to each other’s feet, this pattern relies on delivering a speculative ball to where their teammates should be. It requires a sort of second-order thinking and a shared goal—knowing the object is to invade the opponent’s territory, several high percentage short passes are made to pull in defenders and offer the appearance of being contained, after which a longer ball is then played into the open space where we wanted to be all along.

Heading into our third year with the 2019-2020 playing season, the Flex team has evolved. Nearly half of our players start high school in 2019, a number of whom plan on trying out for their high school teams for the winter 2020 season. The two largest high schools in our area are among the top 50-60 programs in the state and thinking about a future on these teams would have been inconceivable for our players just a few short years ago—they were not on any sort of track that would have made that a possibility.

That goal is now within reach because they’ve been given the space to keep playing.

Following our first season, we lost two of our original 16 players: one moved out of state (where she now plays on a top club soccer team and runs cross country); the other dropped soccer to focus full-time on club volleyball (her volleyball coach was very much a non-believer in the Flex/multisport mindset and treated that athlete like a cheating spouse any time her soccer activities infringed on her court time). After our second season, we again lost two of our 16 players: one younger girl transitioned to a team her own age at the club, and another tried out for and earned a spot on one of the club’s year-round teams that plays in a higher-level league.

Three years in, and 19 out of 20 of the 12- and 13-year-olds who have participated in the Flex model are still playing soccer (with the lone exception competing in a different sport). Statistically, these numbers aren’t significant enough to prove anything, though they are worth chewing over in the context of national trends for youth sports participation and attrition rates, particularly for teenage girls.

3 years in, 19/20 of the 12- & 13-year-olds who participated in the Flex model still play soccer. In the context of national trends the numbers are notable. Share on X

The Scene: February 2019. Del Mar, California. The Cal South State Cup. The Flex girls come out hungry. Opening against a polished team from Temecula (who we’d played to a 1-1 draw a month earlier), the Flex girls high press, overlap, and work short-to-long combinations on the way to a dominating 3-0 win. As opposed to the prior year, where the Flex girls took the field at State Cup looking like a team that didn’t quite belong, this time they outplayed all three of their opening opponents, deservedly winning their opening four-team bracket and advancing to the round of 32 (out of 72 teams entered). Moving on to the next round in San Bernardino, CA—expecting to win and keep winning—they knocked off an undefeated top seed with a 2-0 victory before finally losing 1-0 in overtime to a very good team from central Los Angeles (who then advanced to the Final Four).

What happened?

A lot of things. Their goals as athletes have changed. Soccer may not be something they’re devoted to 365 days of the year, but they are all now seriously invested in playing the sport at a high level. Additionally, their skills and connection to each other have stabilized by staying together and continuing to play. Relative to the season overlap, another contributing factor has been the heavy storms hitting Southern California through January and February, stalling the onset and flow of the competitive seasons for their other sports.

Our overall approach this January and February has also changed—partly by rain-caused necessity and partly by design. Instead of using practices this month to cap a late-season phase and scrambling to work in set pieces and key tactical plays, I’ve instead approached these training days like the beginning of a developmental push for the high school tryouts way out on the horizon in November. We’ve done far more off the ball than we did at this time the previous winter, putting effort into speed development, change-of-direction games, explosiveness in space—priming the athletic qualities that make these girls who they are on the field.

The girls will, again, take a post-season break, though a shorter one so that we are able to fully prepare our older players for the challenge of making a high school roster. While using the spring months to focus on further developing athleticism and technical skill, we will not put on jerseys and play a competitive game again until July—the majority have other games to play on other fields, and for all of the Flex girls, their most important games are still those that will happen some time in the future. We’ve drawn them in with the short ball: Come play on this multisport team, we’ll make it work with your schedule and it will be fun. Now, the long ball is an open option for those who choose to play it.

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

The best athletes in any team sport are almost always not the best in the weight room (at least the way the weight room is classically quantified, via 1-rep maxes, etc.). How many times do we need to hear this from great coaches (strength coaches included here) before we start to believe it?

It is important to be strong and fast enough to play the game, absolutely! Even as this is true, absolute strength is really not difficult to build safely in the grand scheme of things. Progressive coaches scour the training landscape for things that will transfer better to what actually happens on the field of play, and we find things like robust running, perception and action, and combative movement training (grappling and tumbling), as well as a growing interest in motor learning among physical preparation professionals.

Here is a little background. As a track coach at Wilmington College, I wore the hat of a strength and conditioning coach, where I primarily helped with men’s basketball. To this end, my goal was simply to get everyone to pack as many inches on their vertical jump as possible. I really just viewed physical preparation through the lens of my track and field glasses: the improvement of raw markers and sprinting and jumping as much as I could.

(Sure, lower level athletes often can and do benefit from improving strength and basic power markers on the level of team sport success. Athletes need to be big, strong, and fast enough for the basic standards their sport requires. The confidence that comes with improving a landmark physical marker, such as the ability to dunk a basketball or running under a particular time in the 40-yard dash, is very important for many).

As I transitioned to “strength and conditioning coach,” I immediately focused this lens on skill-sport athletes, frequently measuring things like vertical jump, or perhaps a 10-yard dash. (I still do these tests, I just don’t look at them them as an absolute, but more as a guidepost to show I’m on the right track.)

After a few years, I began to realize that 1RM strength improvements at my level (university athletes) really didn’t seem to make a difference that I could see in sport play results given the athlete was already adequate in this department. On top of this, many athletes who weren’t among the best on the team often found validation by at least regularly hitting good numbers in the weight room. My strongest players were definitely not my best and the lesser players found validation through an emphasis on 1RMs.

Dynamic markers such as sprint and jump ability were closer to what counted in being good on the court, but some of my fastest players have not had winning success. Hearing ideas on how the improvement of speed without a corresponding improvement in technical-tactical ability and the ability to react to opponents (think about a soccer player who got faster, but now just goes off-sides more often; something I heard on a podcast with Dave Tenney) did not lead to better sport results really got my wheels turning

In individual sports, my initial depth of knowledge of track and field biomechanics helped me to steer a track strength program more towards what mattered in track speed and away from what didn’t. Through the years in swimming, I have seen some athletes get globally “stronger” without improving times in the pool, and have been in the process of determining the qualitative reasons for these cases. (On the flip side, I did see my lifting program make a substantial impact on a lot of aquatic athletes).

Finding out the exact “how” of what helped and what didn’t takes more digging than looking at a research study or some sort of quantitative analysis. It takes a deeper observation of the movement patterns athletes utilize in the gym. After over a decade in the field, with time learning from many of the best coaches and their protégés, I have found that the weight room is a place where athletes can improve not just their strength and power, but more importantly for many of those athletes, the patterns by which they move and produce force.

The weight room is a place an athlete can improve the patterns by which they move and produce #force, says @JustFlySports. Share on X

I believe that the qualitative element of the “how” when it comes to training an athlete is many times more important than the “what” (as in what exercise to pick or what sets and reps). We live in a world of quantifying every piece of the training program, but we miss many things happening between the numbers. (We also know a pure quantitative driven training program doesn’t work.)

We all know that elite athletes play differently than the bench-warmers, but is there more to just having more “skill” in the game from a general perspective? What did the great multi-sport athlete at your high school have that the other kids didn’t? We know that they can open and close feedback loops quicker than the non-factor players (i.e., they perceive and react better), but what are the mechanisms here? We know that, perhaps most importantly of all, the best players are the most consistent in their performances, while the second-tier competitors may just exhibit flashes of greatness, but then lose the wave of momentum in a game and let it turn into a landslide.

This pattern that results in a great player is found in the mind, and before we start leafing through mental training books, realize that this mind-body connection is trainable in the weight room setting without getting a Ph.D. in sports psychology. This isn’t to downplay traditional mental training at all—I’ve seen it work wonders and I’m a huge believer in visualization, hypnosis, and the gamut of training means that are often tossed to the wayside in an often-superficial approach that pays homage to the idea that “it’s all mental” but then ignores spending real time improving it.

When the attitude of the mind and the movement of the body blend in training, true magic can happen. With what I’ve learned in the last five years as a coach, and particularly this last year, I’ve become more adept at finding ways to make the way we do things better in the gym, and not just finding more exercises or periodization models. Like Jerome Simian and other coaching greats will tell you, “the pattern (of movement) is king.” It all starts there. Ignore the pattern in the gym, and you’ll often find yourself “over-intensifying wrong.”

Movement-oriented coaching really isn’t optional for the highest success of those we work with, says @JustFlySports. Share on X

I’ve collected my thoughts on athletic patterning and performance into seven points. They can help you steer your awareness to where mine has gone after learning from enough elite coaches to understand that movement-oriented coaching really isn’t optional for the highest success of those we work with. I’m not saying these ideas can turn a bench-warmer into a starting player, but they can have a profound impact on a team and individual sport athlete alike. These points are not so much hard rules as ideas that you can plug into a variety of exercises and training mediums to expand your own circle of awareness.

Pay Attention to How the Best Athletes Move in Their Sport (and Not Just the Weight Room)

I am a firm believer that answers are found in nature. Scientists and inventors alike have studied animals to get the inspiration for their robots or inventions that mimic movement. In the same manner, I believe that we need to be students of the best competitors in sport. In the realm of human beings, the elite in sports aren’t just “freaks” that we shouldn’t try to emulate because they “cheat the rules” (I believe the “freaks” create the rules when we take a deep look at what they are doing), but rather individuals who we should see as a puzzle to unlock on the level of human movement organization.

How often do we, as physical preparation coaches, spend time watching videos of Olympic lifters or powerlifters compared to watching the best soccer, basketball, tennis, football, swimming, baseball, etc. athletes perform their sport? If you had 100 hours to watch videos to help you better train athletes, would you spend it watching athletes lift weights or athletes playing their sport? We like glancing at videos of, say, a cheetah running in slow motion, but what is it about the cheetah that gives it speed?

When we sit down and watch athletes playing a sport, we tend to start seeing some commonalities.

• The ability to tense and relax muscles rapidly.
• A mastery of breathing, relaxation, and body control in any game situation.
• Good posture and alignment (good posture is relative to the sport).
• Great sense of where one’s body and limbs are in space.
• An ability to react and be creative in the midst of fluctuating circumstances or even circumstances not yet encountered.
• The ability to sense and react to specific patterns faster than one’s opponents.
• Enough force-production capability and body mass to get the job done for their sport.

When we look at tension and relaxation, the epitome may be Bruce Lee’s “one-inch punch.” Any athletic movement is a pure symphony of muscles turning off and on in the proper sequence. Muscles that are on when they shouldn’t be cause slow movements and invite injury. A problem is that the weight room tends to focus on when muscles should be on more often than when they should be off. The performance of simple movements such as oscillatory reps can be a game-changer for athletes who have been on a steady diet of concentric-based lifting for years.

Video 1. The oscillatory isometric split squat (a movement I talk about extensively in “Speed Strength”) is one of many ways to put athletes in situations where their ability to manage muscle tension is assessed.

Watch an elite competitor and, regardless of the game situation, they have mastery, composure, and control of their breathing and physiology. It is this composure that allows great players more consistent play and the ability to be more “clutch” when the game is on the line. The team that is in charge of their breathing and fight-or-flight mechanisms in the last minutes of a game has the advantage.

Good posture occurs in context of athletic movements, particular those with a low center of gravity, says @JustFlySports. Share on X

Great athletes have good posture and alignment, which often features a vertical torso in relatively squatted positions. Posture and alignment are important, but it’s hard to say these days what good posture truly is. It’s certainly not standing up ramrod-straight and consciously thinking not to round one’s shoulders forward.

Good posture happens in the context of athletic movements, particularly movements with a low center of gravity. “Squat dexterity” is the product of great posture and timing in a squatted position and is a trademark of the most agile athletes in the game. Good posture is reflexive and happens innately as a result of proper training. (For me, that’s a combination of time spent isometrically in the proper posture with ancillary Postural Restoration Institute work when needed.)

The importance of proprioception and the ability to sense the body in space is well-known, but at the same time, is looked down upon in favor of raw force and a lack of quantification. If we could quantify this skill for athletic performance outcomes (we can quantify it in rehab settings), perhaps we would train it more often.

Pay Attention to the Athlete in the Weight Room and Not Just the Barbell

In the process of coaching, I believe in an “athlete first” model that centers around high-velocity athletic movement (watching an athlete sprint maximally as a “movement screen” is a simple example). This model looks at how the rib cage and spine respond to core athletic movements such as squatting and hinging. It looks at how “ripples”—small subtleties in joint movement—become “waves” in later movement. For example, notice how cheating just a “little bit” in ankle rocker jumps can elicit a much higher jump than being completely strict with the test.

Although it’s easy to take a barbell-oriented way of looking at training, an athlete-oriented strategy that starts with bodyweight mastery is really key. Does an athlete move in a fluid or segmented manner on basic exercises such as a Spiderman push-up? When you give them a cue or instruction, do they over-do the movement around the joint or body part you are cueing (more on internal cues in a bit) or can they make the instruction fit in fluidly with the whole?

Instead of focusing on barbells, use an athlete-oriented plan that starts with bodyweight mastery, says @JustFlySports. Share on X

A common misconception I discuss in Speed Strength is to talk about how fast sport movement is, say, sprinting at 10 meters per second, and then talk about how much slower the weight room is, relatively speaking, at say, .8m/s for a squat or 2.75m/s for a quick clean or snatch. Although this is true for the barbell in the gym, it’s not true for the speed that joints move at to produce those barbell speeds. When we look at hip joint extension speeds in an Olympic lift, we can see speeds of 400 degrees per second (DPS) for a full-catch lift and likely around 600 DPS for a fast power clean or high pull, which matches with the hip extension velocity at the sixth step of a sprint.

From a raw barbell speed perspective, things don’t match up, but from a joint perspective, things change. This also helps us to find that point in traditional lifts where we truly can no longer match the joint speeds of sprinting and need to look at other modes and medians of working transferable strength.

Some coaches preach for or against particular lifts in a generalized context, such as “all athletes must (or must not) parallel or deep squat.” The same thing can be said for the hang clean, depth jump, or anything else, and a lot of this comes from pre-existing exercise preferences and biases of the coach. When it comes down to an exercise’s effectiveness, it’s all about how the athlete responds to it, what their sport or event is (and how the lift transfers to the joint-based technical model), what their hip and joint structure allows for, and what their training strategy is.

Be Aware of the Effects of Internal Cues

When we think about instructing an athlete in the weight room, or even in their sport movement, we tend to think of speaking to the athlete in a “do this” manner. In other words, we tend to look at coaching as a “push your hips back,” “chest out,” “knees up,” “stay tall,” or “brace your core” type of role. These represent “internal cues,” a method of coaching by directing attention to a body part or a position to achieve. In sport skill coaching specifically, it’s common to see coaches tell athletes to put their limbs in a particular position that is deemed “good.” This is often based on what high-level performers do or, in a less favorable case, what the coach was originally instructed to do when they were an athlete.

Many coaches are aware of the implications of these “internal” cues versus “external” cues (external relate to things that exist outside of the human body, such as the ground, sport implements, or even the space around an athlete.) Internal cues can result in more force output in a specific joint or muscle group, but result in a lower overall performance because the increased force output in one joint comes at the expense of timing and harmony of the system. Internal cues have higher muscle EMG readings, but lower performance outputs¹. In other words, this cueing system draws muscle that doesn’t need to be there into a movement.

An ‘internal’ cueing system draws muscle that doesn’t need to be there into a movement, says @JustFlySports. Share on X

In the weight room, we get this a lot, such as continually telling athletes to “brace” things—their abs, core, or trunk. The thing is, how fast could you run a 40-yard dash while consciously “bracing your core”? (I first heard this idea from Cal Deitz.) The answer is not very fast; you’d be laden with un-needed co-contractions of muscle.

The same applies to any sport skill. Why? Among other things, when you consciously or volitionally brace anything, there are muscles that are “on” when they shouldn’t be. The more internal cues you put into the system, the more muscles that end up being “on” when they shouldn’t be, and this becomes a mentality. Even in the weight room, where heavy loads are lifted and safety is crucial, we still want to be mindful of the effect of every internal cue given that turns on “extra” muscles that go above and beyond the brain’s natural motor program.

“Pre-programming” is an idea that can refer to coaching an athlete to cognitively place a limb somewhere in preparation for force application. One of the best and most apparent examples of this comes from the world of swimming, watching athletes do a stroke such as the butterfly. A pre-programmed athlete will, as soon as their hands leave the water, steer the hands in preparation for water impact. A fluid athlete’s hands will spiral naturally in the air in preparation.

You can see this show up in a myriad of track sprint drills—athletes who get their knees high and exaggerate their arm action for every movement or do a stiff hip-to-pocket pattern. The problem is that these athletes are rarely the fastest. The fastest athlete is the one who looks kind of “lazy” while warming up. Take Usain Bolt in his warm-ups (see 1:03 when Bolt actually starts his warm-up running): Most coaches would deem him lazy, or not deliberate, but a close eye (Adarian Barr, in particular) can see exactly how his warm-up shows up in his running style. These athletes often rehearse how they are going to run fluidly and unconsciously.

Consider every positional cue given to athletes in a dynamic running context before saying it, says @JustFlySports. Share on X

In this regard, coaches should very seriously consider every positional cue given to athletes in a dynamic running or sport cue context before saying it. On the flip side, I am in favor of internal cues for the sake of isometric work since they don’t have a poor impact on a dynamic motor pattern.

Don’t Look to ‘Specific Lifts,’ Look for Specific Movement Patterns

We all hold our own particular views on barbell training that tries to be “specific” to a sport movement, the biggest commonality being things that try to transfer specifically to acceleration or sprinting. At the higher levels of any skill performance, strength is very specific. Parallel squats won’t help anyone improve their top-end sprinting speed, but Alex Natera’s plantar flexion iso-pushes can have a beneficial impact.

Outside of isometric work (which is some of the most beneficial work you can do in the weight room regardless of the sport skill being trained, due to minimizing the interference of poor execution patterns while being able to produce a very high RFD at specific joint angles), things that are “specific” can really take away from the ability to do actual sport skills. This is the same paradigm that all other barbell work can take away from it by sustaining bracing, pre-programmed, and segmented movement patterns.

Take an athlete who tends to tense their jaw and fists while running and moving. Do you think that having them do a single leg clean with a step-up to a box finish is going to help or hurt the extremity-tensing movement paradigm? (This isn’t even taking into consideration the timing of the push mechanism in the clean itself relative to where the push happens in sprinting.) Will this help the athlete or just reinforce their tendency to over-muscle things?

When it comes to everything done in the weight room—again, the pattern is king, says @JustFlySports. Share on X

When it comes to everything done in the weight room, again, the pattern is king. I would much rather have athletes do bodyweight isometrics and then basic movements like a Russian lunge with good body control, position, and patterning, before even thinking of anything else. I do truly enjoy specific isometric work, and speaking from a perspective of transfer, these movements are the first place I would go once a good pattern is established.

Superset Barbell Work with Dynamic Work

Everything is a poison and a medicine. The key with barbell training and athletes is to give them just enough medicine each time they are in the gym to benefit and minimize the effects of the poison. Just take Dr. Bondarchuk’s ideas on lifting in the submaximal strength ranges—how it maximizes the benefits of the movement while minimizing the risks.

Besides having a coach’s eye for athlete movement skills, the simple act of inserting dynamic movement with heavier strength work helps the body to get out of a sustained contraction mode and works strength into the “contraction-relaxation” or “static-spring” paradigm of sprinting and jumping. French contrast is the epitome of this type of work, and thousands of coaches have found inherent success in improving athletic power production this way.

I look at the work of Paul Venner in his study²of the effect that mixing weightlifting in with batting practice has on bat speed versus doing hitting practice and then lifting. Mixing the work results in a more robust motor program than simply hitting and then going to lift. The brain likes variable programs and puzzles to solve and the fatigue and/or potentiation from strength training gives plenty of room to work with in this regard. The novelty factor is excellent here too, and those familiar with Derek Evely’s anecdotes on how effective simply changing the structure of a program is on athletic results can relate.

I think beyond the better motor pattern, there can also exist the simple effect of alternating “contraction” work with “static-spring” work inherent in sport, and routinely going back to the sport movement to avoid athletic patterning with excess tension and co-contractions. Paul Cater of the Alpha Project has taken this in his own direction, not only in training constructs like “deadlifts and dingers” (deadlifts and batting practice in a complex), but also things like taking breaks between lift sets to throw darts at a dartboard or putt a golf ball. Can you go from “sympathetic to parasympathetic” easily and effectively, as well as achieving the body control and relaxation necessary to succeed in the spaces “in between” lifting sets?

Utilize High-Velocity Proprioceptive Exercises and Randomize This Work (and Practice at the Speed You Will Play)

One thing I’ve seen from coaching greats such as Jay Schroeder, Marv Marinovich, and, recently, Rafael Maldonado, is a priority on the use of high-velocity exercises with a proprioceptive demand (i.e., the ability to control limbs in space via high-velocity bodyweight or lightly weighted movements that put athletes in a better place to apply impact to the ground, sport implements, or a competitor). A Russian lunge is one of the simplest possible examples of this movement, where an athlete simply jumps from a lunge position into an airborne reversal.

Checking for how the athlete handles this on the levels of posture and position, speed, breathing, and movement patterning is key. Athletes who can squat the house, but are terrible at things like this, aren’t resilient or able to use their force appropriately. For a simple example of this, we can take the fluid performance of a Russian lunge (see Dr. Tommy John Jr. perform this at :46) and the pre-programmed performance of it that is accentuated by a mechanical and pre-determined arm action.

Marv Marinovich brought to the training world a more free-flowing version of this with physioball work that resulted in an even higher proprioceptive demand. To do this work well, the ability of the athlete to relax muscles and control limbs in space is a priority. In my experience, regardless of maximal strength levels, athletes who are great in their sport tend to be great at these exercises.

Athletes who are great in their sport tend to be great at high-velocity #proprioceptive exercises, says @JustFlySports. Share on X

To take this work to another level, introducing spontaneous commands or outcomes is highly effective in not only helping athletes to not get stuck in a single movement pattern and “bear down” into it with lots of excess tension, but it also mimics the spontaneity of sport. Strength training purists will scoff at an elite player who likes to do work on balance discs. However, if introducing elements where they have to work hard to control limbs in space is motivating to that particular athlete, and it can replicate at least the chaotic nature of sport mentally, is it really all that bad for an athlete who already meets the physical strength and armor standards for their level of play?

Examples of spontaneity in movement can be things like calling “full,” “half,” or “quarter” reps on movements, or instant reverses and changes of direction. For example, while doing a hex bar deadlift, you could call “full” or “half” reps where an athlete had to instantly respond to the command and perform either a rep to the knees, or to full standing from the floor. You can apply this idea to virtually any training scenario. “Reverses” work well with movements that prioritize twisting movements and the transverse plane.

Watch What Happens During Fatigue or Cognitive Challenge

One “element of power” I saw written on the wall at IMS Academy (an MMA and kick-boxing gym in Santa Cruz) was “breath-endurance.” To me, this refers to the ability of an athlete to keep a proper breath pattern in the midst of fatigue, cognitive challenge (think a new situation where the player must outwit the defense), or pressure (game is on the line). A good coach watches players in action to determine tendencies in particular situations, and then tries to emulate these conditions in practice if possible. Marv and Gary Marinovich famously trained fighter BJ Penn, one of the most untouchable fighters ever in his prime, and one of the first things they did was put a heart rate monitor on BJ while he fought. The movements that caused his heart rate to skyrocket were the ones that they trained the most.

It is always interesting to me how, in many games, the first three quarters of play seems to be a bit of a formality (especially in the NBA, but don’t get me started on that) and then the last quarter of the game is what really counts. I don’t think that this should be the case at all, but some teams have an ability to just “know how to win,” and the ability of a good coach to understand all methods that can prepare players for these situations based on their individual responses is invaluable. For the physical preparation coach, there are obviously specifics that can’t be trained, but from a physical preparation sense, it’s important to do what we can in our observation and implementation of the sympathetic and parasympathetic physical responses that happen in the midst of fatigue and mental stress.

Taking on Movement Coaching

Physical preparation is a multidisciplinary field, and there are many elements of helping athletes from a qualitative and quantitative perspective. In getting to the “art” of coaching—one where a coach can grow in the skill of observing the nuances of athletes and the distinguishing factors of success from a movement perspective— I believe that this list is a good starting point. If nothing else, starting to watch the ability of athletes to contract and relax muscles appropriately in space while holding position and maintaining breathing patterns will provide a good armament of better movement ideals.

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

1. Wulf, Gabriele, et al. “Increased Jump Height and Reduced EMG Activity with an External Focus.” Human Movement Science, 2010; 29(3): 440–448. doi:10.1016/j.humov.2009.11.008.

2. Venner, Paul., Theis, Nicola., Goodwin, John. “Effects of Variable Local Fatigue and Potentiation Within a Constraints-Led Approach on Skill Development in Elite Youth Baseball Hitting.” Msc Strength & Conditioning, School of Sport, Health and Applied Science, St. Mary’s University Twickenham. 2016.