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The Jumps Roundtable #2: Reducing and Managing Injuries

After the huge success and popularity of the first “Jumps Roundtable” series of articles, SimpliFaster asked Coach Nick Newman to trade his usual answers for questions. Nick interviewed eight accomplished jumps coaches for the second edition of this excellent six-part series.

We will publish one question from the “Jumps Roundtable Edition #2” per day over the next six days. The fourth question deals with the reduction and management of injuries. Please enjoy, and please share.

The Coaches

Bob Myers: Bob Myers is currently retired, but served as Associate Head Coach at Arizona and was a college dean and athletic director over the past 40 years. He has an M.S. in Kinesiology, specializing in Biomechanics, and a doctorate in education with his dissertation on “A Comparison of Elite Jumps Education Programs of Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom Leading to a Level III Jumps Education Program in the United States.” Bob was inducted into five Halls of Fame as an athlete, coach, and athletic director. He has published 31 articles in professional journals around the world and has lectured at over 50 locations throughout the world.

In his 13 years coaching at Arizona, Bob coached four national record holders, five collegiate record holders, and 27 All-Americans in the high jump, triple jump, long jump, javelin, and heptathlon. He is perhaps best known for coaching the University of Arizona women high jumpers to a 1-2-3 finish in the 1985 NCAA Outdoor Championship, where all three jumped over 6’3” (1.91m for second and third, and 1.93m for first) even though two were heptathletes. He also coached Jan Wohlschlag, who was ranked No. 2 in the world in 1989, won four USATF National Championships, and was the World Grand Prix Champion.

Todd Lane: Todd Lane entered his 10th season as a member of LSU’s coaching staff in 2017. The Tigers and Lady Tigers have flourished in eight seasons under Lane’s direction—he has coached 11 NCAA scorers to 35 scoring All-America honors in four different jumping events since joining the LSU coaching staff right before the 2008 season. His student-athletes have also captured six SEC championships and 36 All-SEC honors over the last eight seasons.

Nelio Moura: Nelio Alfano Moura has been a member of national coaching staffs in Brazil since 1990, participating in five Olympic Games, five Pan-American Games, and 17 World Championships (Indoor and Outdoor). Nelio has developed, in partnership with his wife, Tania Fernandes de Paula Moura, more than 60 athletes who qualified to national teams, and he coordinates a talent development program successfully maintained by the São Paulo state government. He is Horizontal Jumps Coach at Esporte Clube Pinheiros, and has a master’s degree in Human Performance from UNIMEP – Piracicaba. At least one of Nelio’s athletes has qualified to each iteration of the Olympic Games since 1988, and he guided two of them to gold medals in Beijing 2008.

Dusty Jonas: Former high jump Olympian, Dusty Jonas, was named a full-time assistant coach on the Nebraska track and field staff on July 12, 2017, after eight years as a volunteer assistant for the Huskers men’s and women’s high jump. Since joining the Huskers program as a volunteer coach in 2010, Dusty has coached nine Big Ten high jump champions and 10 first-team All-Americans. Twelve Huskers have cracked all-time Top 10 high jump charts in his eight seasons. In the 2015 indoor season, Dusty helped then-sprints coach Billy Maxwell coach the Huskers men’s sprints, hurdles, and relays, and that group went on to combine for 46 of the team’s title-winning 127 points at the Big Ten Indoor Championships.

Neil Cornelius: After a torn ankle ligament at 19, Neil started coaching in his free time at the age of 20. One year later, he coached his first National Junior champion in the triple jump (Boipelo Motlhatlhego, 16.07m). By 2011, he had his first 8m jumper (Mpho Maphutha, the youngest South African and the first South African high school athlete to jump over 8m at the age of 18 years). By 2013, Neil has his first national colors by representing South Africa as a team coach for the African Junior Champs. There, his athletes received three medals (long jump: Gold; triple jump: Gold (15.98 CR) and Silver). In 2016, Neil coached Luvo Manyonga to an Olympic Long Jump silver medal (8.37m) and in 2017 to a World Championship Gold (8.48m) and an African/Commonwealth Record (8.65m).

Since Neil first started coaching, his training group has amassed 88 medals (16 medals at various international championships and 72 medals at national championships). He’s currently the head Long Jump/Triple Jump coach for the Tuks Athletic Club (University of Pretoria), as well as the head jumps coach for the Tuks HPC and the Tuks Sport High School.

Kyle Hierholzer: Kyle Hierholzer has most recently worked as the 2017 Lead Jumps/Multis coach and education manager for ALTIS in Phoenix, AZ. During the 2015 and 2016 seasons, he was the co-coach of Jumps/Multis with Dan Pfaff. Over the course of Kyle’s tenure, the group produced podium finishers at the U.S. Indoor Championships, World Indoor Championships, World Outdoor Championships, and Olympic Games, and also a Diamond League Champion. Before joining ALTIS in fall 2014, Kyle worked eight years at Kansas State University. Kyle primarily assisted head coach Cliff Rovelto in the sprints, jumps, and combined events. He also served as the primary coach for the K-State pole vaulters.

Stacey Taurima: Coach Taurima has been the Head of Athletics of the University of Queensland for almost five years, where he has coached senior and collegiate athletes to finals in World Youth, World U20 Championships, Commonwealth Games, and World University Games. He has coached national medalists in both senior men’s and women’s sprints events, and in 2017 coached Liam Adcock and Shemaiah James to Silver and Bronze in the Open Australian Championships, along with Taylor Burns and Daniel Mowen to Gold in the 4x400m. Stacey has coached 16 national champions and 19 international athletes in a five-year period and many professional sporting teams utilize him for his expertise in speed-based programs.

Alex Jebb: Alex Jebb is the Combined Events and Jumps coach for John Hopkins University. In his first two years of coaching there, his athletes have earned six All-American honors, five Academic All-American honors, 15 school records, four championship meet records, and two NCAA Division 3 All-Time Top 10 marks. Alex was honored as the USTFCCCA NCAA Division III Mideast Region Men’s Assistant Coach of the Year for the 2017 indoor season. He graduated from John Hopkins with a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering and Applied Mathematics, and from Duke University with a master’s degree in Engineering Management. He is an engineer by day and coach later in the day.

The Question

Nick Newman: Injuries are often a necessary evil of elite performance. How do you prevent, manage, and alter your training around specific injuries? What important tips or information can you provide for coaches who have athletes that are often unable to tolerate the “ideal” training plan and always require alterations?

Bob Myers: Listen to the athlete, observe fatigue indicators, and keep an eye on total stress (school, emotional, social, etc.). Try to instill a daily working relationship between your medical staff, individual athletes, and the coach. Proper training and technical progressions are also critical in preventing injuries (such as developing a good background of plyometic work before moving to high-intensity plyometrics).

Regularly communicate off the track to keep your finger on the pulse of the athlete and make sure you are both on the same page. Every training plan is a road map; however, plans can change depending on injury, competition schedules, stress levels, etc. A great coach is one that can identify these issues (as early as possible) and adapt the training program to accommodate the athlete, while still following the overall intent of the program.

When athletes return from an injury, the training load must be adjusted downward. If possible, the coach should not skip ahead in the training program, but revert back in the training phase so the athlete has time to get back up to speed, or another injury is likely. For athletes who have a hard time following an “ideal” training plan (due to injury or other issues that may arise), keep in mind there is no “cookie cutter” training plan for each athlete. Plans should be individualized as much as possible, with as much data as the coach can obtain based on training age, medical assessments, and technical, physical, and psychological backgrounds.

Again, this is where the art or craft of coaching comes into play. No one program is the best for everyone and it is the experience of the coach, their communication with the athlete, and the rest of the staff (AT, PT, psychologist, nutritionist, etc.) that enable the great coaches to modify any plan when it is in the best interest of long-term athlete development.

Todd Lane: Certainly, sound training methodology would be the biggest goal, but when training groups, individualization is required. For me, variance in training is one of the keys in trying to alleviate injury possibilities. It’s easy to get locked into certain exercises and intensities. Varying these helps keep the body moving forward.

Variance in training is one of the keys in trying to alleviate injury possibilities. Share on X

Communication between the coach and athlete on a daily basis is key to the athlete’s health status and general overall feeling is HUGE. Tightness, aches, pains, etc., need to be discussed and evaluated. Training plans for the day should be altered if that’s what’s called for based on the athlete’s health. Often, it is the alteration of a single session and the athlete is fine.

If available, soft tissue work is the most desirable thing.

Every athlete brings some type of injury history to the table. If they get the same injury year after year, something needs to be figured out. Training needs to be set up to not only avoid the same injury, but also address and attempt to remedy the injury.

You go to Plan B, C, D, etc. I look at alternate training plans as to “what can I do to continue to feed the animal in a different way,” with the animal being the speed/power nervous system. Maybe it’s more time between the speed/power days to allow greater recovery. I can work through some injuries just by limiting the range of motion of certain exercises in the weight room or on the track. For example, cleans from the thigh instead of the floor, or bounding with limited flexion.

The coach needs to be constantly involved in rehabilitation programs performed by medical personnel. These programs often tend to be rooted in more endurance-type training and are far removed from the “feeding the animal” that I referred to earlier. I think a good rehab program has some aggressiveness in it and sometimes that means the coach needs to step in and employ training. I want the athlete back as soon as possible, even doing remedial work.

Nelio Moura: Injuries are really always part of the equation, unfortunately. This is particularly true when the athletes reach a level where they are able to express to the maximum their capacity to generate explosive strength. So, I am always trying to find a way to prevent injuries, with different degrees of success. I have noticed the best measures are the simplest: training in a smart way (paying attention to the ratio of acute to chronic load and avoiding load monotony, for example), good nutrition (real food is far more important than supplements, even though some supplemental strategies can be very helpful when guided by a sports nutritionist), and sleeping… two additional hours of sleep per day can make a huge difference!

I believe there is no “ideal” plan. Planning helps to organize the general actions taken, but changes should be made every day, considering the state of the athletes and the responses that they present. Systems of health and training load monitoring help me to implement those adjustments (the system that I use is AthleteMonitoring), but the coach must always pay attention to the athletes’ behaviors during practice, and we have to be open to listening to them.

Dusty Jonas: In a perfect world, no athlete would ever get injured; but in the real world of athletics, this is rarely the case. I think the best way to go about preventing injuries is with a well-designed training program that caters to an athlete’s strengths and improves upon their weaknesses. The first step in the process would be to identify an athlete’s deficiencies, injury history, strength levels, and movement patterns.

In the jumps, I commonly see tibial stress syndrome (shin splints), stress fractures of the foot bones, ankle sprains, patellar tendinitis (jumper’s knee), and the rare back or hamstring injury. Many of these are overuse injuries and can be avoided. Eventually, you start to get an idea about volumes and intensities that each athlete can handle without developing pain. Once armed with this knowledge, it makes planning for training much easier. Over time, you hope that athletes’ bodies adapt to training so that more volume or intensity can be added if necessary.

Some athletes will never be able to train in an “ideal” training program. You can design a program on paper with all of the best intentions, but in practice certain athletes always require alterations. What is considered “ideal” is relative to the athlete. Every one of them is an incredibly complex organism and all have different needs to develop.

Some athletes will never be able to train in an ‘ideal’ training program—‘ideal’ is all relative. Share on X

Early in my coaching career, I assigned volumes based on what I had done or others had done in the past. I discovered very quickly that when I did this, many athletes ended up torn to shreds. Eventually, I learned that “ideal” is different for everyone and knowing what exercises, volumes, and intensities each athlete responds to best has helped me to develop much more specific training programs that have resulted in fewer injuries and more consistent performances.

Inevitably during an athletic career, however, an athlete will have an injury of some degree. The degree and type of injury will have a lot to do with how a management plan is designed.

If an athlete is able to train at some level, which is common with shin splints, adjustments to the training plan are made. Using shin splints as an example, rest generally resolves the issue. During this time, rehab exercises are done in the training room until the issue subsides. I typically prescribe limited weight-bearing exercises that mirror the theme of the day. Biking can be a useful option for running days as you can prescribe different tempos, speeds, and rest intervals. Doing running or plyometric exercises in the pool is also a great option and allows for better posture during a movement than a stationary bike.

If an athlete’s injury renders them unable to train whatsoever (hamstring tears or ruptured tendons, etc.), the management plan falls to the athlete’s training staff and their doctors/surgeons, if applicable. During this time, I find that communication is incredibly important between the athletic training staff, strength and conditioning staff, and sport coaches. I’ve seen and heard of numerous examples of athletes that got lost in the shuffle when it came to injuries in this regard. Having a return-to-play plan that involves all three parties allows for a better outcome for the injured athlete.

If an injury prevents an athlete from training like they normally would or removes them from training altogether, it can be a crushing blow to their psyche. I find that having a clear plan to move forward can help in this regard, as many athletes are process-driven creatures. Giving them small goals to achieve over a period of time can be a great way to drive the sometimes monotonous nature of rehab. I also think that having them involved with the team during training times makes them feel like they have not been forgotten and gives them a chance to look at the event from the outside, which can be a fantastic learning tool.

Neil Cornelius: Every athlete is unique and they will all need adjustments at some time or another, but keeping an athlete healthy requires a competent team. My success in 2017 would have been nothing without the physio, the psychologist, and the biomechanist being there. Having a team keeping the athlete healthy and conditioned allows me to do the necessary and important work on the track that is required.

If there are athletes always struggling with issues, it’s best to identify what those issues are (the majority of the time the cause of the long-term struggler’s injuries are away from the area of trouble), identify the source of the injury, and go out and address it. Whether that is changing your training program completely or getting outside help (another coach, physio, etc.), you do whatever you have to do. Adapting the training program to that individual is a must. Just remember that there are no quick fixes or results in athletics, and such a fix may take a lot more time than you or the athlete would like (a month, a year, two years, etc.).

Kyle Hierholzer: Injury management and prevention is the second biggest separator in high performance coaching behind mental resilience qualities. There are some common denominators among coaches who have historically performed very well in regard to this topic.

These qualities consist of, but are not limited to:

Effective and consistent athlete debriefing (banging the drum here).
Operating in an appropriate manner with support teams.
Utilizing sound technical models.
Designing programs with appropriate volume, intensity, and density ranges.
Demanding high accountability in all areas.
Making wise decisions in the moment regarding training adjustments.
Maintaining an athlete-centered approach in all situations.
Having multiple options for each training day… Plan A, B, C, D, etc.

Let’s spend some time looking a little closer at a few of these topics. The second quality on the list, “operating in an appropriate manner with support teams,” can be the most challenging component of managing athlete health. As coaches, we need the expertise of professionals across many fields if we truly want to give our athletes the best opportunity for success. These fields include: soft tissue therapists, athletic trainers, chiropractors, doctors, nutritionists, psychologists, life coaches, strength coaches, etc.

In many cases, the quality of care your athletes receive will be directly related to the quality of your relationships with these individuals. I recommend striving to create an environment where everyone in that circle feels safe to express their opinion, and feels that the opinion they have matters. You don’t want to have a critical piece of information left unsaid. This doesn’t mean that you must act on every piece of information received, but you don’t want anyone in the circle under-reporting.

We often see situations where each field creates their own silo, and then fights at all costs to protect their silo. This creates infighting, jealousy, “white knight” syndrome, poor communication, resentment, and frustration, and it is overall not a fun place to be. As coaches, we cannot blame anyone in that circle if we have not taken the time to educate them on what our expectations are for performance and professionalism. We must know a little bit about each component, and each component must know a little bit about what we are doing.

Dan Pfaff and Dr. Gerry Ramogida refer to this concept as “performance therapy.” The effectiveness of this concept is only as good as the quality of the relationships within the circle. As coaches, we cannot expect those relationships to simply happen because we happen to be in the circle. They must be developed, with safety, trust, and empathy as the hallmarks. If those qualities exist, then the team involved will work tirelessly to help athletes achieve success.

Coaches can lead on this. Be a leader. For more on leadership, I’ve recently become a big fan of Simon Sinek’s work. Check out “Leaders Eat Last” and “Find Your Why” if you are interested in some non-sport reading (which you should be).

The second of these qualities I will dive deeper into is “using a sound technical model.” This should seem like common sense, but unfortunately, it is not always employed. One of the biggest temptations we can have as coaches is to study and emulate the model of the world record holder, or the most recent world or Olympic champion. This can be very dangerous, as it can lead to a departure from a sound model.

Many times, these athletes are outliers. There is literally nobody else who could or should use the unique model that they used. Also, we often don’t know the price those athletes paid for using these models. Athletics coaches have a professional responsibility to understand kinesiology, biomechanics, anatomy, etc. The more rules we break in relation to those topics, the higher the probability that injury will occur.

Will you coach outlier athletes who break those rules? Yes, if you coach long enough. Should everyone use the same model that your outlier did? No. How do we make decisions on when to allow athletes to break from sound technical models? When do we decide to change aberrant technique?

Try using the following questions as starting points before changing an athlete’s technical model.

How long has the athlete been executing in this fashion?
How proficient is the athlete at making change?
Does the athlete understand the risks/rewards of changing?
What is the quality of the therapy team’s ability to manage injuries?
Is there something else we should change farther up the chain?
Is the athlete physically capable of doing what we might ask them to do?

Finally, let’s discuss the last part of the original question regarding “ideal” training plans and alterations. I don’t think there is such a thing as the perfect training plan. If we think our training plan is flawless, then the only thing we can do is blame the athlete for not being able to execute it. This will create a toxic environment.

As coaches, we can individualize or “fine tune” our training plans in both the writing phase and during the implementation phase. In situations where an athlete is unable to handle the training as it’s written, that indicates to me that one of two things is probably going on. Either the coach and medical team are doing a poor job of adjusting training for that athlete on the day, or the athlete is doing a poor job reporting to the coach how they are feeling. Or both. Either way, it is the coach’s responsibility to address the situation.

Coaches should work to create environments where athletes feel safe reporting honestly. To do this, athletes need to believe that if they report a symptom, they will not be immediately shut down and sent to the trainers. This is where “decision making in the moment,” and “having a Plan A, B, C, etc.” come into play. We always try to find the closest thing to Plan A that an athlete can do before we remove them from the practice environment or intervene with a therapy modality. Over time, this creates trust and gives the coach more insight into how to properly prescribe training for that athlete.

We might be surprised at just how well some athletes can compete while doing what we consider to be Plan B training. Try using your workout plan more as a blueprint to drive big picture things you want to accomplish on the day or in a cycle. The correct implementation of that blueprint will be unique to your environment, style, athlete population, etc.

Stacey Taurima: Before we structure injury prevention programs, we need to know what we are preventing. Therefore, having a good understanding of the event requirements not only allows coaches to structure training programs to accommodate the event demands, but can also assist in mitigating possible injury risk.

Having a good understanding of event requirements can help coaches mitigate possible injury risk. Share on X

Modifying training programs to accommodate injuries can be challenging in the horizontal jumps events, depending on injury type. Creative programming and the establishment of solid medical/therapy networks both need to be implemented in the best interest of the athlete. Communication is paramount between all involved.

In my experience, horizontal jump athletes tend to express similar injury patterns to other speed/power ground impact sports such as basketball and volleyball, so, again, monitoring training load is vital in injury management and prevention protocols.

In the case of injury, we tend to do our best to remain as close as possible to the current program. We make modifications where necessary, but I like to keep the athlete close to the actual session plan if the athlete isn’t injured.

Again, depending on the injury type, we can duplicate training responses with other modalities such as bike or pool sessions.

Alex Jebb: For us, open lines of communication are the biggest factors in injury prevention. This goes beyond just asking the athletes how they feel before practice each day, as they warm up, and throughout the session. The athletes at Johns Hopkins are under incredible academic stress, and high performers will always put more stress on themselves as well. Since my main job is to develop them as people and aid in their preparation for careers and lives after college, we work around these stressors first and foremost.

It is normal for me to go around the room of athletes and ask how much each person slept the previous night. When I get answers such as “uhh…a couple hours” or “I promise to sleep tonight,” we make modifications to their workouts, such as swapping out a high-intensity day for a general recovery day. I can (and do) repeatedly stress the importance of sleep and nutrition, but I’m not naïve and I don’t necessarily disagree with them either—they’re at Johns Hopkins to prepare for medical school, PhD programs, Wall Street, or whatever passion they’re going to follow for the next 40 years of their lives. While they are incredibly passionate about their athletics, exams, papers, and internships are more important.

Keeping things in perspective and being realistic about college will minimize injuries due to lifestyle choices, as opposed to burying my head in the sand and treating the team as if it were a professional training group. I think this applies to all coaching situations as well—the balance of life on and off the track can’t be understated.

All coaching situations need to balance the athlete’s life on and off the track or field. Share on X

In terms of managing injuries and altering training, this situation again touches on communication. Luckily, we have amazing athletic trainers at Hopkins who are on the same page as to when to push things and when to hold back, and always keeping the larger picture in perspective. When an athlete is injured, we try to keep him or her active and fit by any means necessary without aggravating the injury. Most of the time, this contingency plan involves transferring sprint workouts to a stationary bike or pool and modifying the lifts to try to maintain as many of the benefits as possible.

For athletes who seem unable to tolerate the “ideal” training plan, I think it’s important to keep things in perspective. Taking a patient approach to training loads will alleviate a number of problems, as the gradual increases in loads over time accumulate to a well-developed training base. I’m actually going through this right now with one of my athletes—it’s a constant push-pull of having to corral the athlete with a history of injuries who is so eager to train.

This challenge is much better than the opposite scenario of an unmotivated athlete, but it is a struggle to drill the fact that consistently completing 80-90% of the written training is much preferable to alternating periods of 100% completion with periods of 0-20% completion. Keeping the end goal in mind and being patient when it comes to progressing towards that goal is, in my mind, the best way to handle alterations to training plans. The best ability is availability!

Tomorrow, we’ll feature the next installment of this Jumps Roundtable Edition #2 series: “Building a Technical Model.”

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The Jumps Roundtable #2: Tapering and Peaking

Blog| ByNick Newman

We will publish one question from the “Jumps Roundtable Edition #2” per day over the next six days. This third installment is on tapering and peaking strategies for athletes. Please enjoy, and please share.

The Coaches

Bob Myers: Bob Myers is currently retired, but served as Associate Head Coach at Arizona and was a college dean and athletic director over the past 40 years. He has an M.S. in Kinesiology, specializing in Biomechanics, and a doctorate in education with his dissertation on “A Comparison of Elite Jumps Education Programs of Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom Leading to a Level III Jumps Education Program in the United States.” Bob was inducted into five Halls of Fame as an athlete, coach, and athletic director. He has published 31 articles in professional journals around the world and has lectured at over 50 locations throughout the world.

The Question

Nick Newman: Tapering and peaking for big competitions is the name of the game at the top level. Generally speaking, reducing volume and increasing specificity over time are aspects of peaking. Please elaborate on your peaking strategies and how they differ among certain athletes. How much does the psychology of your athlete play a role in peak performance for the big competition?

Bob Myers: While preparing for peaking, technical training is at the top of the systematic technical progression pyramid and is paramount, along with competition-like training intensity and psychological training. The athlete must be confident, must have a competition plan for any condition and circumstance, and must be rested!

Training volumes become quite low since peak intensity in training is at its highest. Warmups, other than in cold weather, become dynamic and shorter. Jump technique is at its pinnacle, so in the high jump, approach rhythm and accuracy are locked in. Absolute strength should have peaked six weeks out and dynamic lifting should have peaked within 10-14 days before that peak.

Peaking strategies for athletes depend on training age, technical level, fitness, and mental state. Share on X

As speed-strength work gets higher and higher in intensity and technical work is of No. 1 importance, the volume of speed-strength work declines. Therefore, as the intensity curve of training goes higher (ultimately to its highest point), the volume of the training curve declines.

The last week before a peak technical consistency is critical (especially in the high jump, where misses in a competition are the difference in making the podium or watching from the stands).

Psychological work should parallel the technical consistency in the last week. Have a solid plan, but planning for the worst and hoping for the best is critical. As technique becomes solidified and consistent, so should confidence levels.

Peaking strategies for different levels of athletes depend on training age, technical level, fitness, and psychological makeup. Several aspects are the same for all levels of athletes: consistency of the technique or technical stabilization, and building confidence going into the competition.

Todd Lane: I’m not a huge fan of the word “peaking.” I think in today’s athletics world, we are sharpening the athlete, often for extended periods of time. When I look at the elite world scene, I see people who run 9.80 in April and 9.80 in June, 9.80 in August and 9.80 in September.

Once we get our intensities in training to a certain level, it really becomes about playing with the volume. We undulate and manipulate the volume to create situations where the athlete is sharp for competition, or increase the volume to be able to maintain training and prolong the season. It’s a micro dosing of volume. The greater the training age, the longer this can go on for, generally. Once you lose the volume for an extended period of time, you’ve begun that downward slope of being able to sharpen again for further competitions.

The density of the truly intense work is reduced and there are more general days to allow recovery.

Rest itself is often placed upon the athlete and placed into training, by default. For example, looking at the NCAA system, in the last 21 days of the regular season (regionals and into NCAA), you have four days of rest built in with travel days. There should be another two to three days of planned rest in there. So you’re looking at six to seven days in 21 that are already off (or very close to it), with more than half just due to the logistics of getting to meets. Lowered volumes and rest become the governor for “peaking.”

Psychology becomes 90% of the battle in preparing for the big meet “peak.” Really, it’s about confidence. You have things you do in training, whether it’s testing or a specific workout that allows the athlete to be successful to set that confidence. No offense to coaches, but I think sometimes we give our training plans and peaking strategies too much credit when things go really well for that big meet.

Competitive athletes know what’s on the line at the big meets. They get themselves into a mindset to compete and when they get around their competitors, it’s game on and incredible things happen. I liken it to the NBA. The regular season players are on cruise control to a certain extent, but come playoff time, some truly take over and step up their game to levels never seen before. There is a confidence and ability to take their game to new levels because of the competition and what is on the line.

Nelio Moura: There are many studies concerning tapering for endurance events, but far fewer that consider explosive events. Anyway, it is believed that the shorter the event, the shorter the tapering, even though we have to take individual differences into account.

For my jumpers, I plan five to 10 days of tapering (roughly, one week). Intensity and specificity are kept high, with a huge decrease in volume. Training frequency is also slightly reduced. Immediately before the tapering, some athletes, under certain circumstances, do one week of overreaching. The management of injury risk is always present, and I usually prefer a more conservative approach. Therefore, I don’t use this overreaching week too often.

Dusty Jonas: The first thing I do when planning for a taper is pinpoint on the annual plan which competitions are the most important for the training year. For some athletes, the conference championship is their major competition for the year, and for others it could be the NCAA championships, World Championships, or beyond. The planning of a taper should take place well in advance of it being used during the training year.

My tapering strategy generally involves a 21-day taper, but some athletes react better to a seven- or 14-day taper. Some athletes need more rest, while others need less to stay sharp. This goes back to knowing your athletes and the correct training stimulus to apply for them to succeed. My goal when planning a taper is to apply enough stimulus to avoid detraining or, in some cases, overtraining.

The planning of a taper should take place well in advance of it being used during the training year. Share on X

During the taper, I keep much of the volume fairly consistent, but decrease the density and increase recovery times. Our technical training starts to get more intense and specific to try and mimic the stress of high-level competition on the athlete’s body. The time spent on the track decreases and practices don’t last much longer than an hour to an hour and a half, including warmup and cooldown. I like to look at this time of the year as a sharpening period. If you have planned correctly, your athletes shouldn’t need a new edge, so to speak. It’s all about honing and sharpening the edge that already exists.

It is incredibly important not to ignore the technical or psychological aspects of peaking. For many NCAA athletes, championship season and final exam season coincide. During this time, it becomes necessary to monitor an athlete’s stress level and body language. A late night studying for a final exam can derail a planned training day, so communication between the athlete and coach becomes crucial.

A 2015 article in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research co-authored by Bryan Mann of Missouri suggested that injury rates among NCAA football players during times of high academic stress affected more athletes than at times of low academic stress or high physical stress. In 2010, the Stanford Sleep Disorders Clinic did a study on the Stanford men’s basketball team. Without getting into the finer details of the study, the results showed that a minimum sleep time of 10 hours per night resulted in a significant increase in shooting accuracy, faster sprint times, and a general feeling of being less fatigued. The research wasn’t done on track and field athletes, but the results of these studies shouldn’t be taken lightly and should be considered during this time of the year when looking to reach peak performance.

An athlete’s state of mind is of great importance at this point of the year. If an athlete leaves practice feeling like they got something important accomplished, they leave happy. Happy athletes are confident athletes and confident athletes perform well when it matters.

Neil Cornelius: I’ve never had a problem with athletes peaking at the right competitions. The trick is just keeping them healthy and pain- and/or injury-free to be able to do the right exercises to get them to peak, so injury prevention is a must. I just imagine the perfect form and technique my athlete has to have at the big competition and then work out the training and preparation necessary to get them there.

Usually, the exercises done are whatever need to be done and differ from athlete to athlete. Closer to the major competition (two to three or so weeks, again depending on the form), I like to let athletes do as few major things as possible. The training durations are the same and the quality and intensity are high, but there are a lot less reps. In a session of 45 minutes, we’ll do about five full run-up jumps or six 50m sprints—with ample recovery time between each jump or rep.

Psychological preparation is of big importance as well. The athlete must know when they are supposed to peak (which major meets) and what the goal is for the season. But it’s also important to keep the athlete calm and relaxed about the major competitions. I’ve seen too many talented athletes—favorites for medals—falter at the major ones. They tend to put the big one on a pedestal, like it’s this crazy, major hard-to-reach thing. Keeping relaxed and chilled on the big day has seen a lot of my athletes pull out upsets and PBs on the day.

We like getting our mindset to the point where we’re treating the big one just like any other normal competition and focusing on the job at hand. We also take everything step by step; i.e., during the qualifying round our focus is on getting the automatic qualifier, we don’t think about the final until we’ve qualified for the final, etc. And, during the final, we don’t focus on the medals, we focus on the jumps and making sure we get the distance in the first three rounds to make the Top 8. Once we’re in the Top 8, our attention goes fully towards the top position.

Kyle Hierholzer: Great question! This is one that I have changed my mind on during my career. I used to think it was all about setting up the peak. I thought that every single macrocycle, mesocycle, microcycle, and individual training session had to be expertly and meticulously structured. The culmination of this master plan was going to be an amazing, trumpets blaring, peak of performance that was totally due to the plan. I would spend hours agonizing over sets, reps, cues, distances, etc. I was chasing perfection.

Now, to be fair, I think that process was very, very, good for me. I learned what my style of training design was, and I began to formulate maps in my head. I started to not have to track volume, intensity, and density as much because I had seen it before. I had analyzed quadrennial plans, and compared quadrennials against each other. I knew how many reps of each exercise in the weight room the athletes did, how many times they threw OHB, how many approaches they ran, etc. I started to develop norms.

Eventually though, it started to become obvious to me that I could not predict how athletes were going to feel and react one week from now, much less 38 weeks from now, with any real amount of accuracy. I was taking myself way too seriously. I also started observing jumpers who were having great performances in February and equally great performance in September. If athletes are going to have a career in the sport while making a livable income, they had to perform at a high level for months on end.

The evidence against a one or two peak seasons started to grow for me. I started talking to my mentors, and closely observing how they were organizing training. Slowly, the traditional periodization model started to hold less water for me as a speed/power coach.

I had to tell you that story, so I could tell you this story. I think tapering is an effective technique, and we have a taper period going into major competitions. But I don’t think there is such a thing as a true training-induced “peak.” I think the “peaking” happens when a confident, mentally resilient, relatively healthy, technically sound athlete walks into a stadium full of people. They are representing their country or school, their friends and family are in the stands, and they know it’s the biggest meet of the year. If we can’t get up for that, then we have bigger fish to fry than training design.

Now, can poor training design negatively impact that environment? Absolutely. Do I think it creates that environment? No.

How do we come up with our taper design? We experiment throughout the season with different setups going into various competitions. Some athletes like to rest the day before a meet. Some two days before. Some like to do a light warmup every day leading into it. Some like to do absolutely nothing for a few days. Some like track stuff, and some like weight room stuff.

We experiment throughout the season with different taper setups going into various competitions. Share on X

We intentionally try various combinations in both training and competition setups. Afterwards, the athlete debriefs us on how they felt, and we make notes and adjustments. Once we see a trend begin to present itself, then we have a basis for what we are going to do heading into the major.

Here are a few general guidelines we have about tapering for major competitions:

Avoid the “one more” syndrome – safeguard athlete health.
Trust the athlete’s input in the process – they are the ones in the stadium.
It’s not a good time to try something new – stick with what got you there.
Keep the cues simple – you’re seeking flow state, not analytics.
Rest and therapy are critical – but again, don’t add new stuff unless needed.
Debrief frequently – it’s cathartic and can help the coach remove stress.
Set up as much of the logistics as you can – so there’s less for the athlete to think about.
Keep accountability measures the same as always for the individual.
Generally, women need to keep more volume, men more intensity
Generally, hold the last big neuro session no closer than five days out from the competition.

The psychology of the athlete plays a massive role in performance at major competitions. However, if you are addressing it at the major competition, it’s probably already too late.

Training mental resilience needs to happen in conjunction with all of your other training modalities. It should be part of your trend analysis, as discussed earlier, and most likely will have presented itself in the debriefing process. The athletes who don’t view mental resilience just as seriously as event technique will generally not do well under the big lights. However, the blame for that must lie with the coach, who did not do a good enough job educating the athlete on the importance of this topic.

I am guilty of this and have failed here many times. It takes some tough conversations, and lots of accountability. It’s not often discussed, but I think that coaches who create a lot of buy-in to a “peaking” process are inadvertently creating a very tough mental skills gap to overcome. If the athlete knows they can only “peak” one or two times per year, then what will they do at the third meet, or the fourth meet? Will it be in the back of their head that they have already “peaked?”

For example, as the college coach of an elite athlete, you need to perform well at Conf ID, NCAA ID, Conf OD, NCAA OD, USA OD, and WC. This situation makes thorough debriefing and athlete education on the process extremely important.

Stacey Taurima: I’ve had experience with many types of athletes who respond completely differently under training load. Generally, a rule of thumb is to reduce volume in some areas but, at the same time, maintain a level of training volume appropriate for that athlete at that moment in time.

Various factors such as travel, dietary influences, therapy/medical, recovery modalities, and emotional state are all considerations of training load, so the one or group of factors the athlete presents with will determine your path.

The actual training load leading into a major meet is pretty similar to what the program looks like four to six weeks prior. We don’t really change a lot going into the major competitions, but address the concerns when they arise.

In my experience, the individuality within the peaking process is generally the recovery and medical program. Some athletes enjoy different types of recovery modalities, such as manual therapies like massage, chiropractic work, ART, hot and cold baths, or medical interventions. Athletes can sometimes act like divas in this area, wanting only a certain physician to work on them at a particular time, so it’s important to accommodate these requirements where possible.

During major meets the psychological state of the athlete is one of my higher KPIs leading into the major championships. Another of the biggest concerns is the parents, other family members, spouse, girlfriend, and/or boyfriend of the athlete. Many times these people unwittingly derail the athlete’s performance on game day. Emotions are high for everyone and everyone wants involvement, so controlling these issues requires discussions prior to the major meet. This way everyone understands what needs to be done in the best interests of the athlete.

Various other distractions, such as athlete villages, other teams, living arrangements with shared rooms, etc., all lead to stressors that have a compounding effect on the athlete, so it’s vital to manage the athlete’s emotional state over the duration of the championship.

Plans are drawn up months before actual championships to accommodate possible changes that the athlete may face, so scenarios and mitigation plans are part of the discussions prior to all competitions.

Alex Jebb: I don’t think that I do anything special from a programming perspective when it comes to peaking athletes. While I allow for individual differences between athletes, I think the overarching themes of reducing volume and increasing specificity, and thus maintaining intensity, hold true for most everyone.

We employ a traditional 10- to 14-day taper outside of either our conference championships or the NCAAs, depending on the athlete. During this period, there is a significant reduction in training density and then volume, although we keep intensity high and fine-tune some event-specific work. Most of our work in the weight room is extremely light and fast for some neural work, although we still touch on max strength with one heavy session seven to 10 days out.

The mental component of a taper will determine the (controllable) success of the athlete. Share on X

I think that the athlete’s psychology plays the predominant factor in the success of a taper. As long as the above physical aspects of a taper are in place, then I think the mental component will determine the (controllable) success of the athlete. This is where I think the strength of the coach-athlete relationship is very much a determinant of success.

If the athlete has complete trust in the coach, and the coach knows which buttons to press on the athlete, then the rest takes care of itself. Some athletes need stimulation to come into a competition firing on all cylinders, whereas others need to be calmed down or re-focused. Some just need to be completely distracted. I believe that the coach and athlete having a well-established relationship truly makes championship season the most fun time of the year.

Tomorrow, we’ll feature the next installment of this Jumps Roundtable Edition #2 series: “Reducing and Managing Injuries.”

The Jumps Roundtable #2: Plyometric Training and Teaching

Blog| ByNick Newman

We will publish one question from the “Jumps Roundtable Edition #2” per day over the next six days. Our second series installment is on plyometric training and teaching. Please enjoy, and please share.

The Coaches

The Question

Nick Newman: Plyometric training can take on many forms and serve several purposes. Options include high shock depth jumps, alternate bounding, remedial low-intensity hopping activities, and many other variations. Describe your use of plyometric training and your progressions throughout the season. Do you link them with event-specific work? Do you incorporate them into weight room complexes or use plyometrics in other ways?

Bob Myers: Plyometrics are linked with event-specific technical work in that overall training load must be watched so as not to overstress the athlete. This is where complementary and compatible training is important to line up training that works well together and does not lead to overstress injuries.

The plyometric program must always fit together with your overall training plan. Plyometrics is just one component of a larger picture. Plyometric training is linked with event-specific work, and many times event-specific work counts as some of the plyometric volumes and vice versa. The use of plyometrics as complexes with weight training in the weight room should be accomplished as training exercise dyads in the late off-season and pre-season phases of training.

Plyometrics training should always go from “general” to “specific” as you proceed through the yearly training cycle.
Progress from low volume to high volume and then low intensity to high intensity. Don’t ever have high volume and high intensity during the same cycle of training.
Peak volume of plyometrics come after peak volume of weights in the yearly cycle.
Peak intensity occurs right before an athlete’s physiological peak.
The volume and intensity of plyometrics should match the training background of the athlete.
The technique is such that the athlete begins to have a muscular contraction before landing.

A sample inventory of general preparation (off-season) in-place jumps (10+ reps per set):

Ankle jumps
Back tuck jumps
Front tuck jumps
Rocket jumps
Lateral jumps
Bunny hops
Single leg tucks
Hurdle hops
Box drills

A sample inventory of specific preparation (pre-season) meso-power jumps (six to 10 reps per set):

Hops for height
Bounds for height or distance
Speed hops
Speed bounds
Straight leg bounds

A sample inventory of competition preparation and competition (in-season) short-end jumps (one to six reps per set). Note that these should be very event- or sport-specific!

Depth jumps
Speed hops
Curve hops – for high jumpers
Standing long jumps
Standing triple jumps

Volumetric Considerations (for high level athletes):

In-Place Jumps (low intensity with high volume): 250-500 contacts per session with 10 or more reps per set.

Longer Jumps (low intensity with high volume): Recorded in horizontal distance with a recommended volume of 40-100 meters per rep and 600-2,000 meters per session. These are mainly for runners and horizontal jumpers, like long and triple jumpers, where horizontal jumping ability is more important than vertical.

Meso-Power Jumps (higher intensity than in-place jumps): 150-350 contacts per session with six to 10 contacts per set. These are mainly for vertical jumpers, such as in basketball, volleyball, high jump, etc.

Meso-Endurance Jumps (the same volume and intensity as meso-power jumps): Measured in horizontal distance (meters or yards), not the number of contacts. Recommended 20-40 meters per rep, with a recommended volume of 400-1200m per session.

Short-End Jumps (high intensity and low volume): Recommended one to five contacts per set with 100-300 contacts per session for highly trained athletes.

Todd Lane: I’ll start simply in three areas:

With low-level, almost remedial, jumps, in place of jumps done in circuit fashion. Cueing foot contacts, absorbing the landing (to me this is often a neglected quality in plyometric training). This type of work also allows for the building of work capacity and conceptual teaching.
The other area is with short bounds. One to three takeoffs, which pairs well with acceleration work (another area we train from Day 1). Standing long, standing triple jump, double leg hops, combo single leg hops. Allows coordination and, again, foot contacts.
Very remedial hops—we call them baby bounds. Both horizontal and vertical displacement are very low, but we can teach foot contacts, absorbing again, swing segments of arms, and hips. Much of what we cue here carries over to all jumps, but especially the triple jump.

From there, the bounding will continue to increase in intensity, with more displacement and velocity added to it. We will add in things like hurdle hops, varying the spacing and/or height.

Once we get into the competitive season, the plyometric work drops significantly and we remediate back to some of the early season work such as jump circuits, short jumps, and remedial hopping, just to stay in touch with those qualities. The intensity of competition is more than enough, and I’ve found that trying to maintain high-intensity plyometric work with competition is an injury situation waiting to happen. I’d rather we undertrain in this area than try to squeeze more out of it and end up injured.

Trying to maintain high-intensity plyometric work with competition is an injury waiting to happen. Share on X

The ballistic lifts we do in the weight room during the competitive season—such as weighted jump squats and lunge jumps type of exercises—are also enough to feed the elastic strength.

People don’t think enough about the interplay between the weight room and plyometric work. Looking at the overall program throughout the year, one has to give for the other to be successful, and vice versa. What I mean is, within microcycles and/or mesocycles, the intensity and volume in one area means the other area needs adjustment.

I like complexes, such as a squat followed by a hurdle hop. I think it allows for motor units and proprioceptors to be challenged in different ways, it stimulates further adaptation, and it can really light a nervous system up in a positive way. Having said that, I’ve seen where complex training, if done for too long of a period, can just fry and flatten athletes.

Nelio Moura: Plyometric training is in the center of my program. It is probably the most specific way to develop strength, that is, by its turn, the key to high performance. I use some kind of plyometric training from the beginner’s first week of training until the week of the fundamental competition for experienced athletes. The final goal is that plyometric exercises develop throughout the athlete’s career, until they reach their mature, specific, and high-intensity form during the special preparation and pre-competitive periods of experienced athletes.

Some plyometric exercises that I use with experienced athletes are so similar to the target ability that it is difficult to say that the session is not a technical one. Almost all my weight training programs are organized into complex pairs (one lifting exercise followed by a plyometric one), taking advantage of the PAP phenomenon.

Dusty Jonas: I will attack this question from the perspective of the high jump and, more specifically, to the demands of the plant leg, and speak from the general to specific demands of the event.

In the grand scheme of the training year as a whole, any method of plyometric or multi-jump training needs to contribute to the overall mission as it pertains to the event. The high jump takeoff is no different than any other jumping event in that, at plant, there is a collision with the ground and a subsequent change of direction or deflection off of the ground. The difference is where the force is being applied and directed. There are massive lateral forces upon takeoff that affect the ankle and knee joints, and an athlete must be able to accept this collision and have the ability to amortize quickly with as little bend in the leg as possible. These demands must be addressed when incorporating plyometric training into a high jump training plan.

Generally speaking, plyometrics are a fantastic tool to teach pretension and correct postural positions when done at a low intensity and amplitude. During GPP, I like to do a lot of teaching about body position leading into ground contact, and how the foot/ankle should contact the ground and apply force quickly and efficiently. Dan Pfaff has referred to some of this as “rudiment work,” while Boo Schexnayder refers to it as “foot prep or multi-jump circuits.” When doing these drills, I like to teach full foot contacts because I believe that full foot contacts can teach force application over a greater area in the right direction. Full foot contacts can also help develop the elastic qualities of the Achilles tendon, as well as help people who are overly “toe-y” to stay off of the toe when the foot contacts the ground.

I like to keep this kind of work in all year long and incorporate it into warmups, cooldowns, and recovery days. These exercises include double leg hops and single leg hops, as well as right and left leg combos, and are done in all planes of motion.

As the training calendar and athletes progress, we decrease the volume and increase the intensity, as well as incorporate more specific work. Athletes that are more neutrally driven can be absolutely wrecked by what some would consider a light plyometric day in regards to contact numbers. Others can do massive volumes of multi-jump/plyometric training and recover relatively quickly. It is important to identify these differences in athletes when prescribing exercises and doses.

Specific work can be single or double legged in nature. When evaluating double leg box drop jumps, single leg box drop and hold, or double leg hurdle hops, the height of the box or hurdle is determined by the maximum angle of allowable deflection in the knee that I am looking at. I usually limit the maximum deflection angle to 20-25 degrees at the knee joint, as it is more specific to the event and can reduce the chance of injury to the patellar tendon and to the ACL in women.

As the competitive season progresses, much of the plyometric volume will decrease, traditionally speaking. Since max velocity sprinting is plyometric in nature, this is also accounted for, along with the volume of max effort jumps being taken during technical sessions.

A very general example of the season progression is as follows:

Early Season: Rudiment work, jumps circuits, split jumps, lunge exchange jumps, skipping for height and distance, etc. (Total volume per session: 125-175 contacts; Intensity: low.)

Mid-Season: Alternate leg bounding from stand or short run in, double leg hurdle hop variations, depth jumps (double and single leg variations), bounding complexes, event-specific technical work, etc. (Total volume per session: 50-100 contacts; Intensity: moderate to high.)

Late Season: Bounding variations, hurdle hop variations, event-specific technical work (Total volume per session: 45-75 contacts; Intensity: high.)

Neil Cornelius: Plyometrics are essential for any sprinter and jumper, but I like to keep everything I do event-specific. In the off-season, I use a variety of plyos in the gym and on the track, while in-season I keep the plyos just on the track. (I tend to mix it up to keep my athletes away from boredom. The same exercises can be done in different ways.)

I do mid/high intensity in the off-season with mid/high reps, while I keep the reps low in-season but the intensity at its highest. Keeping the plyometrics event-specific does more than just strengthen the right muscles the right away; if done correctly, it can be invaluable in teaching the athlete the right technique. Normal bounding on the run-up towards the pit is my favorite, and it makes teaching the right technique, form, and control so much easier when it comes to in-season preparation.

Kyle Hierholzer: I’m an advocate for a middle ground of thought on coaching, and keeping things as based on common sense as possible. In my opinion and experience, jumpers like to jump! Programs that disregard or de-emphasize plyometric training may be removing an element of training that can, at minimum, be very enjoyable to this population of athletes. Without getting into an overly lengthy discussion of plyometric classifications, periodization, and individual event needs, I’ve outlined some guidelines below to safeguard athlete health and training quality.

In general, throughout a training program we utilize the following general structure when classifying plyometric activities.

Low complexity, low intensity
Low complexity, high intensity
High complexity, low intensity
High complexity, high intensity

For clarity and context, when using the term “complexity,” I am talking about how challenging the demands of the movement are for the individual athlete. As an example, an in-place double leg hop would be very low on the complexity scale, while a depth jump from a one-meter box into a triple jump would be very high on the complexity scale.

Regarding the term “intensity,” I am referring to how much effort/force/amplitude/speed of movement, etc., the coach asks the athlete to put into the exercise. For example, in-place double leg hops that are cued to be executed with a low amplitude of movement are on the opposite end of the intensity spectrum from a 25m single leg hop for time and minimum contacts.

When prescribing plyometrics, remember the highest complexity/highest intensity task is competition. Share on X

Understand that complexity and intensity are often tied together. A complex movement may require a higher intensity because more effort is required due to the skill demands. On the flip side, there are situations where athletes may have to down-regulate intensity/effort to feel safe performing a complex plyometric while learning the skill.

I keep the following principles in mind when prescribing plyometric activities:

The highest complexity, highest intensity task is competing in the event.
The idea of “minimum effective dose” must be followed when prescribing plyos.
Mindfulness and skill execution must be held to high accountability standards.
An athlete’s health and well-being must take priority over “doing cool stuff.”
Gradual progression through categories is a must.

Now that you have a picture of how we categorize plyos, and you have looked at some of the key principles that guide our implementation, I’ll expand on a few further thoughts regarding implementation.

We’ll generally progress from category A to category D throughout a season or career. It’s important to remember that an exercise can move between categories. For example, early in the training season or for athletes of young training age, low amplitude in-place jumps can be perceived by the athlete’s system as high intensity and complex. This may lead to a strong stimulus and adaptation loop. However, as adaptation occurs and the season progresses, that same exercise can shift to low intensity and not be very complex at all.

At that point, the exercise can become more restorative in nature with a low stimulus for change. Eventually, it may become so general in nature that its value to training is very low. Thus, the need for increased complexity or intensity to keep challenging the system. Remember that with increases in complexity and intensity, the coach may need to change the density pattern of the prescription.

When coaching athletes during plyometric activities, I spend a great deal of my time focusing on foot position and firing order. I demand a high level of accountability for the athlete to land with a flat (dorsi-flexed) foot, and to avoid a toe-first (plantar-flexed) landing at all costs. This is connected to the second point, firing order.

Movement should be initiated from proximal to distal, and I prefer that the athlete thinks about movement initiation occurring prior to contacting the ground. Athletes often get anxious to be on the ground and thus fire the closest joint to the ground (the ankle), resulting in a toe-first contact. The firing should “start” from the hip and move down. Coaches have referred to this as “pre-firing,” “anticipation,” etc. Find the cue that works for you, and you will begin to see crisper and more-efficient force loops.

Depth jumps, plyometrics in the weight room, and extensive bounding can all have a place in an athlete’s training design. (Personally, I’m a fan of combinations in the weight room because they allow me to really hit home on points about firing order.) However, these exercises also may never have a place in an athlete’s training design. To me, this is where the real “art” of plyometric prescription comes into play.

Coaches try to put athletes in situations that cause their systems to create unique solutions. Share on X

We are trying to put athletes in challenging situations that cause their systems to create unique solutions to problems. What is challenging for one athlete may not be challenging for another athlete. Therefore, attention to detail, trend monitoring, and athlete debriefing are important on a regular basis. It’s important to have a large inventory of plyometrics to draw from, but it’s paramount to match up exercise prescription with athlete need.

Linking plyometrics with event-specific work in the same session does happen on occasion. However, we have generally found that during the competitive season, a plyo session the day before event-specific work seems to prime the pump for the following day. Remember that in the jumping events, event-specific work is a plyometric. Do you need more on the same day? If so, what’s your purpose?

I’ll close this topic with three notes that have recently been areas of interest to me regarding plyometrics. The first of these is fluid dynamics within the joint system, and the role of plyometrics in training this system. In lay terms, the fluid in the joint systems functions like the hydraulic fluid in a piece of heavy machinery. This fluid system allows the equipment to create more force for lifting loads or pushing objects than it could without the system. The interesting part to me is the role of plyometrics in not only training this system, but also in its restorative capacities. The idea is that plyometrics (especially low complexity, low intensity) help to return the fluid in the joints to a homeostatic state after a heavy impact session, thus preventing fluid imbalances and improper joint function.

The second note regards using plyometrics as a movement screen. Successful coaches have always paid attention to detail and adjusted as needed. Plyometric activities give us a unique window into movement because they are often rather novel activities for many athletes as compared to other movements. This means that it’s more difficult for even the “magician” athletes to hide faulty movement patterns. Look for differences in firing patterns, joint amortization, ground contact time, posture, etc. Try paying special attention to anything moving backwards.

Finally, just a little bit on ground contact time and athlete conversion abilities. Working with Coach Pfaff, we tried to put athletes into one of three different boxes: slow, medium, or fast converters. This describes how much time the athlete needs to spend on the ground to most efficiently apply force and re-organize their body for the most successful outcome. If we coach every athlete to get off the ground as fast as possible, or “hit and go,” we may be doing them a disservice based on their unique skill sets.

Realize that these are spectral boxes, and we can shift athletes some over time. It’s not always wise to use a catchall cue for an entire group of athletes. Use the cues that are best for each person, and know why you are using them.

Stacey Taurima: When introducing plyometric exercises into any training program, I’m looking at improving and enhancing certain capabilities within the athlete’s toolbox.

When implementing plyometric exercises, I’m generally looking at developing reactive strength, elasticity, power development, neural stimulation, and conditioning qualities. It’s important to understand the reasoning or purpose of plyometric inclusion.

When introducing plyometrics into an athlete’s program, I tend to focus more on vertical force applications than horizontal, especially with athletes with limited training years. This allows for athletes to maintain postural integrity while developing elastic and reactive strength qualities in a safe manner. We can progress into the horizontal applications once the athlete has developed the required capabilities.

Our introductory plyometric circuits are similar to the plyometric rudiment schemes developed by Coach Dan Pfaff. These schemes offer coaches better understanding of the athlete’s current capability and give insight into progression time frames. When progressing plyometric activity, we examine the relationship between volume and intensity, and what that looks like in the current training cycle.

The plyometric exercises should complement other aspects of the training program. For example, sprint acceleration is more horizontal force dominant; therefore, the plyometric exercises should complement a similar impulse. This can be carried out prior to acceleration, which leads into potentiation affects.

I believe plyometrics need to be respected, due to the neural demand they require. I tend to utilize them occasionally with some individuals in the squad, and more with others.

Alex Jebb: I believe in using plyometrics throughout the season because it’s some of the most comparable work to event-specific training. Our plyometric training is comprised of a broad annual progression of movements, beginning with low intensity in-place jumps and moving up the spectrum of intensity to possibly assisted-speed alternate leg bounds for my more-experienced athletes.

We start with drop jumps, in which the athlete steps off a box that is about as tall as his or her standing vertical jump, and simply stick the landing, as a precursor to depth jumps. Our bounding progression starts with different jump combinations to load the athlete in a variety of ways, and then moves to endurance bounding from a standing start until we gradually add more speed going into the bounding combinations. This progression finishes with a few high-quality bounds in which the athlete is either bringing maximum speed into each repetition, or bounding onto and off of boxes. (We manipulate the height and spacing.)

Be careful that the use of plyometrics doesn’t come at the expense of quality strength work. Share on X

I also believe in using plyometrics within weight room complexes. I think that strength and power exercises and the neural effect of plyometrics feed off of each other in a synergistic fashion. However, I think you have to be careful in ensuring that the use of plyometrics doesn’t come at the expense of quality strength work. Our efforts on the track are so ballistic and high velocity in nature, that I believe the best use of the weight room is as a complementary component to develop strength. So, while I do believe in the value of plyometric complexes in the weight room, I will quickly abandon them if I think they are sacrificing quality strength/power work.

Tomorrow, we’ll feature the next installment of this Jumps Roundtable Edition #2 series: “Tapering and Peaking.”

The Jumps Roundtable #2: Working with New Athletes

Blog| ByNick Newman

We will publish one question from the “Jumps Roundtable Edition #2” per day over the next six days. Our first is on the process of working with new athletes with high-level talent and/or world-class performances. Please enjoy, and please share.

The Coaches

The Question

Nick Newman: Professional and collegiate coaches often acquire high-level talent and/or athletes with previous world-class performances in their given events. Describe your process when beginning work with an athlete who has achieved a high level of success under a different training system or philosophy. Do you adapt your system based on information from the athlete’s training history? Or do you introduce them to your own philosophies and methods regardless?

Bob Myers: In working with a new athlete who has already attained a high level of success, communication with the previous school and/or club coach(es) is critical in determining training age, athlete strength and weaknesses, and psychological makeup. In-depth discussions with the athlete, usually begun through the recruiting process, also take center stage in assessing the background of the athlete. Procurement of a varied database of video is also essential in assessing the athlete and formulating the first training year.

Within this process the coach must not only determine physical background, but also psychological makeup, to determine what motivates the athlete, the athlete’s confidence level, cueing background, etc. Additional information is attained through a complete medical, athletic training, and physical therapy assessment, as well as assessment testing for physical levels and psychological and nutritional assessments. Within the initial assessment period for the athlete, the coach should spend a considerable amount of time with the athlete discussing technical, training, psychological, and nutritional philosophies so both know similar terminology and can move forward in building the foundation by which the evaluation results can lead to the new program. So, in short, the new yearly cycle of training is set up to be as individualized as possible (or at least grouping athletes with similar programs), combining input from all the data obtained from the athlete’s history and testing and various other assessments.

Todd Lane: Training age plays a part. The greater the training age, the more middle of the road approach I’ll take. It’s hard to do work within a system that is not your own, so it has to make sense as to why there are certain things happening in an imported system. And the younger the training age (incoming high schooler), the more I’ll introduce my philosophy and methods.

When experienced athletes look for my advice, they are looking for change. Share on X

Nelio Moura: Usually, when experienced athletes look for my advice, they are looking for changes, to try the philosophy behind my system. However, these athlete do not arrive as a “blank sheet”—they have a history I have to account for. They probably experienced some degree of success, so have done more right things than wrong things during their development. This is also an opportunity for me to learn. My system is open, and I try to incorporate any and all knowledge that can make it better.

Dusty Jonas: I think any time you get an athlete, it is important to know their training history, injury history, etc. Most of that information should have been learned during the recruiting process in regards to the collegiate system. If an athlete has achieved a high level of success before they get to you, it is clear to me that their coach before was doing something very well, whether it was the type of training, managing injury/rest/nutrition, etc. When possible, I find it helpful to compare and contrast the programs and see where the similarities lie. Other training philosophies can offer an opportunity to learn and advance your knowledge for your coaching toolbox.

Once the similarities and differences are identified, the athlete should be introduced to foreign training concepts or stressors slowly. For example, if an athlete hadn’t done any weight training in high school, it probably isn’t in anyone’s best interest to have them under a massive load in the weight room before learning the desired movement. The same can be said for running or plyometric/multi-jumps volumes.

During the transition from one program to another, communication between the athlete and coach is critical. Regardless of your philosophy, it is important to understand that all athletes have their own unique sets of strengths and weaknesses and are not created equally. Your training should account for this and be adjusted accordingly.

In regard to foreign athletes, most will need some time to adjust to a new school system, language, and culture. This is not unlike first-year American athletes who may be away from the safety net of home for the first time.

Neil Cornelius: Well, you cannot completely disregard an athlete’s coaching history, whether it was of high or low quality. I tend to introduce my new athletes, no matter the skill level, to my methods and ideologies. If an athlete has enjoyed a certain level of success with his old methods it doesn’t necessarily mean those methods are correct or are the best for him, but it does mean that there are at least elements that brought out success.

I usually tend to ease my new athletes into my methods while keeping in mind their old training that brought out success. I’ve never had athletes struggle to adapt to my methods and technique and the vast majority do improve, so I’ve never doubted introducing talented or professional athletes to my way of doing things.

Kyle Hierholzer: I believe this question gets right to the heart of why most coaches get into the coaching profession in the first place, which, in my opinion, is the opportunity to help others. It’s less about philosophies and systems, the latest research, the hippest new book, or growing social media followers. It’s more about leadership. It’s about coming alongside athletes and building relationships of trust, empathy, and accountability.

Keeping that vision in mind, I believe the biggest success factor in the athlete’s transition is the quality of the induction conversations and the thoroughness of the detailed debriefing process utilized prior to the start of training. This is where the rubber meets the road. This is where the vision statement turns into action points.

The induction process should target global concerns that may be raised by both parties. Topics addressed should include, but are not limited to:

Assessing and understanding the reasons why the athlete is making a change.
Protecting the existing training environment and culture…is it a fit?
Reviewing past coaching situations of the athlete, including successes and failures.
Identifying trends in behavior or communication styles…do they match?
Laying out clear expectations of performance from both parties.
Checking references from as many sources as possible, including previous coaches.

Once the coach and athlete both feel comfortable that these items are satisfactory, then it makes sense to move on to a more detailed debrief that may be more training-philosophy-oriented. This should be a structured process with the coach and athlete going through each section together and sharing thoughts or concerns.

Example sections may include:

Data from the previous seasons (SB, PB, averages, injuries, trends, etc.).
Items effective/not effective in the weight room.
Items effective/not effective on the track.
Training items enjoyed/not enjoyed in any realm.
Key therapy inputs.
Cue systems that have worked/not worked (time in career, time of year, etc.).
Level of event-specific knowledge.
Video usage skills, etc.

In this situation, it makes sense to give the athlete the opportunity to freely express their opinions as to why they have excelled in the sport. This will give the coach a great deal of information about what the athlete may be looking for, what they feel may work for them in training design, or maybe even some concerns about what they need to do in their career moving forward. The experience and knowledge of the athlete will normally dictate the level of discussion. Some questions may take more leadership from the coach, and others may simply require the coach to sit back and listen.

After the debrief, you will generally have a solid idea of where that athlete sits from a mindset perspective in relation to the training methodologies that you believe lead to success. Generally, this leads to one of three situations…

Strongly aligned philosophically, and many indications of compliance with normal training design.
Strongly misaligned philosophically, and training moving forward would require a massive shift by either coach or athlete in methodology.
Somewhere in the middle, and moving forward would require compromise to some degree by both parties.

Then it’s time to make a decision as a coach about how much you are willing to compromise based on everything you’ve learned in the initial induction and detailed debrief. It is possible for athletes in all three situations to achieve success over the course of the coach-athlete relationship. The more rigid the coach, the smaller their pool of potential athletes. The more open and flexible the coach, the greater their pool.

It should be noted that not everyone is a good fit, and it’s OK to say no. Sometimes, we may take people that don’t align with us in order to challenge ourselves or because we believe we can make an impact in another area of that athlete’s life. In many instances, we can bring athletes around to our foundational training beliefs through education.

At the end of the day, if the athlete feels safe and if they trust the coach, they will buy into whatever training system the coach feels is best. It is then the responsibility of the coach to maintain that culture and utilize their network and experience to put the athlete into the best possible environment for success. I’m happy to share samples of debriefs with anyone interested.

If an athlete trusts the coach, they will buy into any training system the coach thinks is best. Share on X

Stacey Taurima: It depends on the system you’re inheriting the athlete from: professional, collegiate, high school, etc. All have different considerations that need addressing prior to acceptance to ensure ease of transition into your training environment. A more junior athlete with limited training years or an injured athlete may need immediate interventions upon commencement; therefore, flexibility in the decision-making process must occur for athletes to reach their athletic potential.

In my experience, just because an athlete is a higher performing athlete, it doesn’t necessarily mean they understand the requirements to maintain and improve on their current abilities. This education process again requires flexibility and a non-biased approach.

The introduction process of a new athlete can be quick or drawn out over time, depending on the athlete’s history and individual needs. During this process, discussions will take place to educate coaching staff on the athlete’s event knowledge, training understanding, and lifestyle, etc. This will also encompass injury, medical, therapist, and treatment plans.

So, once we’ve established a performance baseline or “player/athlete profile,” we will commence the training process. This process will always be based around athlete’s health and well-being, remembering the athlete is already talented and has demonstrated a high level of skill in their event area previously. We believe that, to understand the athlete’s talent, we must maintain a simple program and focus predominately on the athlete’s dominant qualities.

In the first few weeks for healthy athletes, we don’t generally communicate a lot surrounding the training applications. Pre and post session briefings are always carried out, but generally during the session communication is limited as we like to see how the new athlete interacts with squad members, interprets a task, and problem solves, on the track and in the weight room.

In summary, flexibility in the decision-making process surrounding best practice for the athlete is our current philosophy.

Alex Jebb: While I have not worked with truly elite athletes at this point in my career, I think the process of working with a new athlete is the same as for the situation of a freshman coming in from a high-performing high school program. It is imperative to understand the training background of the athlete and what worked (and didn’t work) for him or her with a previous coach. This understanding should stem from discussions with both the athlete and the former coach and should encompass both the physical and mental backgrounds of the athlete.

I wouldn’t say I change my system for the athletes I coach; rather, I “tailor” my system to their needs. As with every coach, I implement my system because I believe, at the moment, that it is what will work best for my athletes, given all of the various constraints of working within the college setting. I also believe that it is my duty to experiment with the athlete’s training, at least a reasonable amount.

I wouldn’t say I change my system for the athletes I coach; rather, I ‘tailor’ it to their needs. Share on X

For example, if someone has had success with a heavy volume of tempo running in the past, then I might experiment with a reduction in volume for a bit to see what kind of response I get—who knows if that success was due to the volume of tempo, or in spite of it. This experimentation is especially true for freshmen, when I know I’ll have three more years with them. I’ll try to isolate what I feel are the two to three biggest question marks in their training history, whether for better or for worse, and then play around with those variables to investigate further.

My two current decathletes are a good illustration of this process of individualization. One is very elastic but also compliant, so we’ve found that he responds very well to heavy eccentrics in the weight room. However, he needs some time to recover from these periods and truly get out of the “hole” that we dig him into. My other decathlete, however, isn’t as gifted in terms of tendon structure, but he is an absolute workhorse when it comes to general training capacity. Thus, I know that he can not only handle high workloads, but more specifically needs heavy volumes of tempo running and speed endurance workouts.

As much as I would like to take credit for being able to just know these differences, it took a process of tinkering, following hunches, and talking to both the athletes and outside sources to eventually figure this out for them.

Tomorrow, we’ll feature the next installment of this Jumps Roundtable Edition #2 series: “Plyometric Training and Teaching.”

Buyer’s Guide to Contact Mats

Buyer's Guide / ByChristopher Glaeser

With the rise of force plates, you might think contact mats and jump mats would lose momentum on the market, but that is not the case. For decades, the contact mat has helped coaches gather data in the field, and professionals have recently started to look for options that can help capture the reactive strength index of athletes. While jump mats and their respective alternatives are not as informative as force plates, they are still valuable tools if you use them correctly and interpret the data properly.

In this buyer’s guide, we look at the market and the research on the validity of the contact and jump mats. We also present a short list that will help coaches get the information they need to make an appropriate purchasing decision.

What Is a Contact Mat or Contact Device?

A contact mat is basically a surface or sensor that detects a simple binary status of the athlete: whether they are on the ground or in the air. While the information may not seem very comprehensive at first glance, especially if compared to a velocity-based training device or force plate, it can serve as a very valuable tool for coaches. Researchers still use contact mats to see changes in training, and they are reliable options for standard purposes and information.

Contact mats are reliable options for seeing nominal changes in training. Share on X

Contact mats are usually a meter square and made of a thin, flexible material that senses if a body is on it. There are options for wired and wireless capabilities depending on preference. From an engineering perspective, the contact mat simply determines if the sensor circuit is on or off, and records the change over time.

Fusion Contact Mat — Image 1. Many sport scientists and teams look for convenient ways to test athletes, and contact mats are a staple for them. Contact times and flight times allow for simple and reliable data when athletes adhere to protocols and estimations are acceptable.

Most contact mats serve a consistent purpose—to estimate jumping performance by calculating air time based on the assumption that the mechanics of the movement are uniform and repeated. Coaches must know that a contact mat is not a true measure, but simply a very useful calculation that has limits. Due to errors (which athletes gaming the testing sometimes make on purpose), contact mats can be prone to accuracy issues if athletes are not compliant.

Some applications, such as the 4/2 and 10/5 reactive strength index (RSI), are excellent measures because athletes can’t really cheat the test as they can’t manipulate landing mechanics to inflate the scores. The most common use for contact mats is vertical jump testing; however, there are a multitude of assessments available including ground contact times on various jumps (such as a depth drop over a hurdle to evaluate correct drop height to maximize reactivity), Scandinavian Rebound Jump Test, multiple hurdle jump contacts (with multiple mats), and many other protocols really only limited by the needs and imagination of the coach/user.

How Science Evaluates the Technology of Contact and Jump Mats

The strength of the data, regardless of the equipment and calculation, starts with the procedure or protocol of the test. No matter what you invest in, an athlete’s compliance and the coach’s or researcher’s instructions all limit the equipment. Athletes are very clever and often motivated to get better performances. Sometimes they will find movement or test strategies to improve their score, but their abilities may not change. Testing is a responsibility, not just an event with a measurement attached to it. Both the coach and the athlete should be fully vested in the process, and understand what information is useful and what they must discard.

How fast a device can measure the contact period helps determine its value for use in analysis. Share on X

After testing procedures, you can evaluate the instrumentation limits fairly. A contact mat can sample (speed of sensing change) at different rates, thus giving precision and accuracy to the information. One millisecond may not sound like much, but due to the nature of dynamic movements, contact times that vary by a small amount can separate a national-level athlete from one that makes an Olympic team.

Nearly all the best investigations into the validity, accuracy, precision, reliability, and bias of contact mats are done with force plates and video. In summary, coaches need to know that a device can give a good indication of possible change in performance if they use the same setup. A contact mat may not reveal true ability; this is acceptable when a professional needs to know if a change resulted from an intervention.

The calculations of contact and jump mats are done with assumptions, meaning the readings require a compliant and strict execution of the jump. Jumping, especially for squat jumps and countermovement jumps, can be very problematic because a piece of equipment can’t determine if the athlete was complicit with the procedure and will still deliver a score. Force plates calculate jump height from the force into the device and athletes can’t cheat the measurements because they can’t jump high without putting force into the ground. If coaches understand limitations and proper use of the mats and enforce consistent execution by the athlete, they are an excellent tool to measure and assess progress.

Common Contact Mat Jump Tests

The contact mat is the oldest testing option for sports as they originated in war technologies, specifically landmines. Bosco popularized the contact mat by using it to help make jump testing more accessible for coaches and removed from the limitations and costs of force plates. As the contact mat became more commercial, the data became more inaccurate: the responsibility needed to perform simple jump tests declined because of the popularity of the NFL Combine’s jump and reach devices. A specific guide to using contact mats for jumping and a general guide to jump testing both illustrate the need for proper administration. Most coaches perform bilateral jumps, as hops are single leg movements.

Vertical Jump with Arms: Most athletes can jump using a movement strategy that combines their arms and legs. Many athletes jump to catch or block a ball, and even heading uses the arms to gather force transmission properly. The jumping ability of the body is not the same as the explosive jumping ability of the legs in isolation. Athletes can be excellent jumpers in sport but not very good jumpers in field tests—athletes often jump with preceding movement and speed, so sport-specific testing may be necessary.

Squat Jump (No Arms): An athlete can do squat jumps without arms using a light dowel or with their hands on their hips. The air time is estimated when the athlete becomes airborne and doesn’t make contact with the mat, and the landing leg mechanics can determine if the jump was inflated. If the athlete is consistent, this has a high degree of value to the coach.

Countermovement Jump (No Arms): Like the squat jump, the data can be wildly off if the athlete lands low with a deep bend. A countermovement uses the momentum of the body to transmit a greater force into the ground, which is the reason most athletes have a significant difference between their static (squat jump) and dynamic (countermovement) performances.

Reactive tests are far more useful for coaches if they use a jump mat. A contact time and flight time ratio is perfect for the device as that’s what it is designed to measure. Coaches can have athletes do repeated jumps (rebound) with one or two legs or jump off a box to challenge their reactivity. Drop jumps require the device to be very sensitive and precise as the contact times are usually less than a quarter of a second.

Rebound Jumping: Athletes that perform continuous jumps on the ground get RSI values, and contact/jump mats are excellent tools for this. The Scandinavian Rebound Jump Test is a specific repeated measure that extracts the best jump and uses it as an indication of elasticity and stiffness. 10/5 and 4/2 RSI tests are also common protocols. In these tests, athletes jump a total of 10 or 4 times, with the results given based on the average of the top 50% of the jump RSI scores.

Drop Jumps: Jumping off a small box or platform can help coaches with training prescription or fatigue detection, but is not as popular due to the lack of skill most athletes have with this style of test. Athletes tend to plantarflex their ankle and score poorly, and those that overthink the movement have delayed contact time periods that severely lower the score and are not indicative of their ability.

Hurdle Jumps: Jumping over a hurdle to measure contact times—either from an immediate vertical jump or over another hurdle—can be a valuable plyometric drill. Coaches can use contact time to monitor improvement and select correct individual hurdle heights for optimal performance, making for a powerful tool.

Top Contact Measurement Technology Options in Sport Testing

Several companies provide affordable testing equipment for jump testing and first movement timing signaling. Here are the leading options for coaches and researchers for contact time and flight time sports testing.

Skyhook: From RDM Innovation, Skyhook is a mat-based jump system that has the advantage of being wireless and portable. The mat itself is made of a rugged, plastic-like material with a built-in handle that makes it highly portable. The app is very user friendly for coaches or athletes, with a roster function allowing coaches to keep each athletes’s metrics stored for review at any time, from any device. The app provides charts and data tracking at a touch and also features a quadrant chart that will show coaches what areas the athlete may be deficient. Protocols are fully customizable with the ability to create jump height, contact time, or RSI tests, and results are quickly and easily deleted if need-be. There is a Just Jump conversion toggle that will convert the jump height record to the Just Jump score to allow comparable results from those converting from that popular mat. The aforementioned cloud function is a powerful tool that allows for export with ease and the cloud sync feature allows for virtual and remote coaches to see results immediately from wherever they may be located.

Plyomat: Plyomat is a switch mat-based option that uses a wired connection from the mat to a controller to instantly report ground contact times, jump height, and RSI to a phone or tablet via Bluetooth. The Plyomat app allows the user to customize protocols to their specific needs. Plyomat is known for its ease of use and ability to set rep counts and see results in a large, in-app display. The battery has recently been upgraded to allow for up to 3 weeks use on one charge. One helpful feature is color portrayal of contact time and jump height thresholds, which can be adjusted within the app settings. The app will store roster and results data; however, there is no cloud feature. This makes the data device specific. Plyomat also offers a feature that allows for the use of a Just Jump conversion.

Probotics Just Jump Mat: This analog product is still popular today because of the simplicity of its design. The mat is a little short of a meter long and uses a wired connection to transmit the data to a handheld LCD screen. The device can test vertical jumps or continual jumps with limits. You can connect the Just Jump system to a running test, and you can purchase an additional chip to get contact times for decent RSI testing. The data accuracy can be inconsistent if care is not taken to hold the athlete to a consistent standard of jumping technique. Athletes can sometimes kick their legs out or bring their knees up to increase air time, giving the illusion of a higher jump. With the presence of consistent technique the results will reflect actual changes in the athlete’s vertical jump over time.

SMARTJUMP by VALD: This contact mat, recently acquired from Fusion Sport by VALD, has features such as RFID connectivity for group workflow and can be used fluidly with VALD’s SmartSpeed system. Research on the system is available, and the data is reliable enough for some testing needs, such as the RSI and screening for basic asymmetries with hop tests.

Swift Performance EZEJUMP System: This contact mat is very durable and resembles a thin force plate, but only collects contact data. While the system collects each foot independently, it can’t truly assess the power or force of an individual leg like a bilateral force plate can. The system uses iOS to connect to an Apple device, and you can export the data via email if needed. The system is about a meter square, like typical contact mat solutions. This Australian company’s previous product was popular as it leveraged the simplicity of Apple iPads and Bluetooth technology.

ChronoJump Contact Mat: The least expensive option on the market is an open source project widely used internationally. The system is fairly useful for small projects and coaches and researchers who are very technology savvy, but you shouldn’t use it if you expect a plug-and-play experience. In addition to the contact mat, the company also provides other tools for sports testing, such as an LPT device and timing gates.

gFlight: The gFlight, developed by the U.S.-based company Exsurgo, is a straight to the point jump device offering several contact time-derived jump metrics (ground contact time, time in air, and reactive strength index). Its wireless setup and small footprint makes it ideal to travel with and easy to store. Metrics are immediately shown on the display screen, allowing for real-time objective feedback to both the coach and the athlete. The low price point and portability of the gFlight makes it quite unique when compared to other jump mat and contact zone technologies. The gFlight is part of a new wave of sports tech designed to be both budget- and user-friendly.

All of the equipment above has a digital reading or smart device display, or connects with a laptop or full Windows tablet. It is also all battery-powered or powered by a computer via USB or similar.

Practical Applications for Jump Mats

Although there are advances and price reductions in the force plate market, investing in jump mats is a worthwhile idea. Most of the indirect measurement devices are highly portable and simple to use, making them very suitable for training camps and coaches who need to perform field tests. Nearly every system can export data into either CSV files or Microsoft Excel.

Common uses go above and beyond jump height. Jump testing can be used to test the readiness of the athlete by comparing daily jump heights or contact times to historical data. Practitioners can individualize training by using ground contact times to bucket athletes by needs analysis. Coaches can also determine individualized drop heights on depth jumps to allow for the lowest contact times or highest jump height rebound. It can be used in the same way to individualize hurdle heights for plyometrics to utilize optimal ground contact times.

If you plan to buy a contact mat look specifically at the model and make, as there are several investigations available to validate the data integrity and show where they are strong within the market. Even with the smartphone app market growing, contact mats are staples and they are not going away. They are easy to use in groups and allow coaches to administer the tests without restrictions.

Hamstring Injury – Do You Know the Odds and Can You Beat Them?

Blog| ByCraig Pickering

If you’re an athlete reading this and have been involved in a serious training program for a length of time, it is likely that you have suffered a hamstring injury. Similarly, if you’re a coach involved in a speed-power sport, it is likely that you have had many athletes suffer a hamstring injury. Hamstrings are a sprinters “bogey” muscle – the one that seems to get injured the most. During my career as a sprinter, I suffered some bad hamstring injuries. In 2008, I tore it quite badly in February, and didn’t run again until April, missing a total of 7 weeks of running, which isn’t ideal in an Olympic year. The injury only settled down following a corticosteroid injection into the area, which made running tolerable, if not pain-free. I managed seven weeks of sprint training before my season opener, in which I promptly re-tore the same hamstring. This was problematic, as it was only five weeks until the National Olympic trials, and I still had to run the qualifying time of 10.21 seconds. Fortunately, I had a world-class physiotherapist who worked with me twice a day, along with a brilliant team of support staff. I made the team – just. I remember standing on the start line for my comeback race, knowing that I had to run to try and get the qualifying time but also being aware that my hamstring was really, really sore!

What are hamstrings?

We should probably begin by taking a look at what the hamstrings are. The hamstrings are the muscle group that runs down the back of your thigh. The hamstring muscle group is comprised of three actual muscles; biceps femoris (that has a long head and a short head), semimembranosus, and semitendinosus. The muscles group is bi-articular, which means that it works on two different joints; the hip and the knee. Specifically, the hamstrings work to extend the hip, and also flex the knee. This makes them important in sprinting because they control the lower leg movement throughout most of the stride cycle, and also assist the gluteal muscles in creating a powerful hip extension. The hamstring muscles also have a few other functions. They act as a secondary knee stabiliser and also play a role in controlling rotation of the whole leg (Koulouris et al. 2007). There is some evidence to show that the hamstrings also act as a shock absorber during foot contact in sprinting (Malliaropoulas et al 2012).

Like all muscles, the hamstrings can work both eccentrically and concentrically. Concentric muscle action is where the muscle shortens whilst it contracts, and an eccentric action is where the muscle lengthens whilst increasing tension. Eccentric actions occur with both a larger force and higher velocity than concentric actions, and so are more likely to cause injury.

During the sprint cycle, as the thigh reaches its maximum flexion angle in front of the body, the lower leg begins to escape forwards. This is crucial, as it allows the athlete to cover greater distance per stride, increasing their stride length. Whilst this lower leg is moving forwards, however, the hamstrings are working hard to control the movement. The hamstrings first slow the lower leg as it moves forward, bringing it to a stop. They do this eccentrically, because the hamstrings are lengthening throughout this movement. Once the lower leg has stopped moving forwards, it is then rapidly accelerated towards the ground. This is achieved mostly through hip extension, which requires the hamstrings to concentrically contract. The more powerful this movement, the shorter the ground contact time, which plays a role in improving stride frequency. Once the foot makes contact with the floor, the hamstrings continue to work in combination with the gluteal muscles, actively pulling the body over the foot (Mann 2011). These actions demonstrate the major contributions of the hamstring muscles during the sprint cycle.

Why do we injure our hamstrings?

Recalling what I have just mentioned, we can explore why hamstring injuries occur. Firstly, the muscles are bi-articular, and so work on two different joints. This increases the amount of movement that the muscles undergo, increasing the injury risk. Secondly, they undergo an eccentric action, which in sprinting occurs at high force. Muscles tear when they cannot handle the force that is being placed upon them. If there is an underlying issue within the hamstring, it is more likely to get injured at this point – and this is what the studies show. In a review article by Petersen & Holmich (2005), they found that most hamstring injuries occur during either eccentric contraction (particularly during the later part of this contraction) or just before foot contact. Malliaropoulas et al. (2012) add that the largest musclo-tendonous stretch occurs in the hamstrings just before ground contact time and identify this as the most likely point of injury.

As I alluded to earlier, hamstring injuries are very common in sports that require running and kicking. In professional soccer, hamstring injuries account for roughly one in five of all injuries (Petersen & Holmich 2005). In high-level sprinters, this rate is higher; in a group of national level sprinters from Hong Kong, hamstring injuries accounted for 50% of all injuries (Yeung et al. 2009). The IAAF reports that 48% of all injuries within the 2011 World Athletics Championships were hamstring injuries (Alonso et al. 2012). Even more concerning is the re-injury rate for hamstrings, which in professional soccer is up to 30%, and in sprinters is 38%. What this essentially means is that if you injure your hamstring once, you are at an increased risk of injuring it again. We all know someone who has persistent hamstring injuries – hopefully that is not you! In terms of hamstring injury rate, Yeung et al. (2009) found in their sprinter subjects that hamstring injuries occurred roughly 0.87 times per 1000 training and competition hours. This means that a sprinter training two hours a day, five times per week, will likely have a hamstring injury once every two years. The rate in sprinters is much higher than that in other sports. Black et al. (2006) reported that in professional rugby union in the UK, the injury rate was 0.27 injuries per 1000 training hours, and in professional American Footballers, the rate is 0.77 per 1000 training hours (Elliot et al. 2011). For professional soccer players, the average training and game time missed per injury is 18 days (Woods et al. 2004) and 17 days for professional rugby players (Black et al. 2006). This is likely to be higher for sprinters because the loads placed on the hamstring are greater, and so longer rehabilitation time is likely to be required, although I can’t find any data to support this.

Most hamstring injuries occur in the biceps femoris, which is the most lateral of the hamstrings, situated towards the outside of the thigh. One of the mechanisms proposed for this increased injury rate is that the bicep femoris has a shorter moment arm in knee extension and so the musclo-tendonous stretch is significantly greater within that muscle (Malliaropoulas et al. 2005).

With hamstring injuries, there are different severities that can occur. A grade I tear is one where only a few fibres are torn or injured, accompanied with minor swelling and discomfort (Petersen & Holmich 2005). Range of motion will normally return within 24 hours although there may still be some pain on contraction (Pollock et al. 2014). These injuries are the most common, and see a quick return to sport, often in around 18 days (Lee et al. 2011).

Slightly more severe is a grade II hamstring injury, in which there is greater damage to the muscle and/or tendon (usually between 10-50% of muscle fibres). There tends to be a significant loss of strength associated with this type of injury, and range of motion will be impaired for longer than 24 hours. Return to sport with these injuries is often greater than 30 days. Grade III injuries are those in which greater than 50% of fibres are torn, and a grade 4 injury is one in which the muscle is completely torn – this tear can often be felt by hand and may need surgical repair.

Risk factors associated with a hamstring injury

There are many risk factors associated with a hamstring injury, including:

Imbalance of Muscular Strength – Orchard et al. (1997) found that if the quadriceps were much stronger than the hamstrings, this increased the risk of a hamstring injury. They found that a ratio of below 0.6 for hamstring:quadracep strength increased the risk of injury. This ratio was mirrored in the Yeung et al. (2009) study on sprinters; the researchers found that if the ratio was below 0.6, then hamstring injury was seventeen times more likely to occur.
Muscle Fatigue – Woods et al. (2004) found that significantly more hamstring injuries occur towards the end of a game, indicating that muscle fatigue plays a role in hamstring injury. Pinniger at al. (2000) demonstrated that repeated sprint bouts reduced hamstring function, meaning that the fatigued hamstring muscles could absorb less energy before reaching the level of stretch that caused injury.
Hamstring tightness – Harting et al. (1996) found that hamstring flexibility reduced the risk of injury in a group of military recruits. This finding is a little controversial, as there are also a some studies that illustrate that lack of hamstring flexibility does not increase the risk of injury.
Insufficient warm-up
Previous Injury – Previous injury both within the hamstring muscles and surrounding muscles and structures increases the chance of injury. Koulouris et al. (2007) found that following anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction surgery, the risk of a hamstring injury was significantly elevated. This is because the hamstrings play a role in stabilising the knee alongside the ACL – and if the ACL cannot perform this function, the hamstrings are placed under additional strain and load.
Insufficient Recovery Period – Return from the previous injury before complete recovery
Inadequate strength in hamstrings – Yeung et al. (2009) found that hamstring injuries were more likely to occur early in the season, when hamstring conditioning was not as high. In their study, 60% of hamstring injuries occurred within the first 100 hours of a training program.

Hamstring Injury Recovery

If we know that we are likely to injure our hamstrings once every two years (or even more if we are training with increased frequency or placing our hamstrings under increased load) then it is a good idea to know what to do when injury strikes. In their 2005 review article, Petersen & Holmich mention that they are very few randomised control studies (RCTs) in the area of hamstring injury rehabilitation. This is problematic, as RCTs are the gold standard of trials. Nevertheless, there are some studies examining hamstring rehabilitation best practice, and Petersen & Holmich proposed some ideas within their article.

In the acute phase of injury (depending on the severity, this can last up to seven days), they recommended utilising Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation (RICE). This follows the typical recommendations that I came across in my career. The use of ice in soft tissue injury management has come under close scrutiny as of late. Reviews by Collins (2008) and Hubbard & Denegar (2004) indicate that there is insufficient evidence to suggest that the use of ice improves clinical outcome in soft tissue injury management – although it may reduce pain. Absence of evidence is not evidence of no effect, however, and many of the best soft tissue injury management programmes in the world do utilise ice during acute injury management. Similarly, the authors recommend the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) during this phrase, but again they acknowledge the controversy regarding this: Recent research has indicated that delaying the use of NSAIDs until two to four days post injury may be better, as it doesn’t interfere with the early repair processes (Paoloni et al. 2009). Finally, the authors recommend early movement within pain-free range of motion, in order to decrease adhesions within the connective tissue.

During the sub-acute phase of injury (3-13 days, depending on the severity; this phase begins when inflammation has stopped), it is recommended to start pain free concentric strength exercises. Again, it is key to stay within an achievable range of motion and to ensure that the exercises are pain-free. These exercises will both prevent muscle atrophy, and also promote healing. During this phase, non-hamstring loaded training can begin, such as stationary bike sessions, swimming, and upper body circuits (provided they are pain-free!).

Physiotherapist Stretches Female Athlete — Physiotherapist stretching patient with shortened hamstring muscles.

The next phase of rehabilitation is focused on muscle remodelling. In this phase, the injured hamstring should start to be stretched, which will reduce any loss of flexibility that may have occurred. It will also reduce muscle adhesion and scar tissue formation. In a 2004 study, Malliaropoulas et al. divided subjects with hamstring injuries into two groups. Group one conducted one stretching session per day, which consisted of four sets of 30-second hamstring stretches. Group two conducted four stretching sessions per day. The outcome was that the second group regained their range of motion in the injured leg much faster and also had a shorter overall rehabilitation period. During this phase, eccentric hamstring strengthening can also begin. Following this phase, the next goal is to return to full training. This should be comprised of a progressive increase in hamstring strength and flexibility exercises. Following a successful return to training, the athlete should maintain some rehabilitation exercises in the runup to return to competition. Competition is the final big test, as it represents an increase in intensity above that which occurs in training. Re-injury is a large risk in the return to the competition phase, so measures should be put in place to ensure that the hamstring is fully healed, and able to handle the increased demands placed upon it. During my time with British Athletes, I would be assessed by our doctor every 3 days, with an ultrasound scan to monitor how well the muscle was recovering. Following my early competitions, a followup with the doctor would take place, to ensure that no further injury had occurred.

Hamstring Injury Prevention

Now that we have looked at the best way to rehabilitate ourselves from a hamstring injury it is probably a good idea to look at how we can attempt to reduce the risk of hamstring injuries occurring in both our training and competition.

As I mentioned earlier, the role that hamstring flexibility plays within hamstring injuries is controversial. Harting et al. (1996) split military recruits into two groups. Group one conducted hamstring stretches three times per day for a period of 13 weeks. Group two didn’t do any hamstring stretching. Group one significantly increased their hamstring flexibility during the 13-week training period, and also had less hamstring injuries than the group that didn’t do any hamstring stretching.

The next thing to consider is strength training for the hamstrings. Askling et al. (2002) conducted a study in Swedish soccer players during their pre-season training. One group took part in a hamstring-strengthening programme, and one group didn’t. The hamstring-strengthening group had significant improvements compared to the group that didn’t do the exercises in both hamstring strength (unsurprisingly) and maximum running speed. The hamstring-strengthening group were also significantly less likely to suffer a hamstring injury. These hamstring strengthening exercises should also utilise eccentric movements. Mjolsnes et al. (2004) found that the addition of these types of exercise significantly increased the eccentric torque in the hamstring muscles. Whilst they didn’t directly measure injury prevalence post-training, they proposed that this would reduce the hamstring injury risk as athletes could tolerate the eccentric loading much better. Malliaropoulas et al. (2012) stated that eccentric hamstring exercises were useful as an injury prevention tool as they increased the load that the hamstring could tolerate before it failed as well as increasing the flexibility of the hamstring muscles. When designing a hamstring-strengthening programme, the authors recommended that exercises work both hip extension and knee extension, thus targeting both aspects of hamstring movement. They also recommended using both uni- and bilateral exercises in order to prevent muscle strength asymmetry. Finally, it was proposed that these strengthening exercises should occur at the end of a training session, in order to limit hamstring fatigue, which could increase injury risk if sprinting, were to follow. A final point regarding specific hamstring strengthening exercises is that they should provide a more favourable hamstring:quadricep strength ratio, further reducing the injury risk. Examples of hamstring specific exercise included single leg deadlifts, sliding leg curls, and Nordic hamstrings.

Finally, care should be taken to ensure that hamstring fatigue is well managed in the athlete. As mentioned earlier, a significant risk factor for hamstring injury is fatigue. Steps should be taken to reduce this fatigue; adequate training loads and recovery, soft tissue therapy, and placement of hamstring dominant exercises toward the end of the training session and training week to name a few.

References

Alonso et al. (2012) Determination of future prevention strategies in elite track and field: analysis of Daegu 2011 IAAF Championships illness and injury surveillance. Br J Sports Med 46 505 – 514

Askling et al. (2002) Self reported hamstring injuries in student dancers. Scand J Med Sci Sports 12 230 – 235

Brooks et al. (2006) Incidence, risk, and prevention of hamstring muscle injuries in professional rugby union. Am J Sports Med 34 1297 – 1306

Collins (2008) Is ice right? Does cryotherapy improve outcome for acute soft tissue injury? Emerg Med J 25 65 – 68

Elliot et al. (2011) Hamstring muscle strains in professional football players: a 10-year review. Am J Sports Med 39 843 – 850

Harting et al. (1996) Increasing hamstring flexibility decreases lower extremity overuse in military basic trainees. Am J Sports Med 24 137 – 143

Hubbard & Denegar (2004) Does cryotherapy improve outcomes with soft tissue injury? J Athl Train 39(3) 278 – 279

Koulouris et al. (2007) Magnetic resonance imaging parameters for assessing risk of recurrent hamstring injuries in elite athletes. Am J Sports Med 35 1500 – 1506

Lee et al. (2011) Our experiences with actovegin: is it cutting edge? Int J Sports Med 32 237 – 241

Malliaropoulas et al. (2004) The role of stretching in rehabilitation of hamstring injuries: 80 athletes follow up. Med Sci Sports Exerc 36 756 – 759

Malliaropoulas et al. (2012) Hamstring exercises for track and field athletes: injury and exercise biomechanics, and possible implications for exercise selection and primary prevention. Br J Sports Med 46 846 – 851

Mann (2011) The mechanics of sprinting and hurdling. Self-published.

Mjolsnes et al. (2004) a 10-week randomised trial comparing eccentric vs. concentric hamstring strength training in well-trained soccer players. Scand J Med Sci Sports 14 311 – 317

Paoloni et al. (2009) Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in sports medicine: guidelines for practical but sensible use. Br J Sports Med 43 863 – 865

Petersen & Holmich (2005) Evidence based prevention of hamstring injuries in sport. Br J Sports Med 39 319 – 323

Pinniger et al. (2000) Does fatigue induced by repeated dynamic efforts affect hamstring muscle function? Med & Sci in Sports Exerc 32(3) 647 – 653

Pollock et al. (2014) British athletics muscle injury classification: a new grading system. Br J Sports Med 48 1347 – 1351

Woods et al. (2004) The football association medical research programme: an audit of injuries in professional football: analysis of hamstring injuries. Br J Sports Med 38 36 – 41

Yeung et al. (2009) A prospective cohort study of hamstring injuries in competitive sprinters: pre-season muscle imbalance as a possible factor. Br J Sports Med 43 589 – 594

How Coaches Can Use Social Media Effectively

Blog| ByJohn Garrish

It takes a deliberate, intentional strategy to continually impact and guide young people in today’s world. The amount and extent of influence on our young boys and girls occurring outside of home, school, or practice is greater than it’s ever been. Perhaps it’s contrary to common thought to say that making a positive presence felt as regularly as the often-negative influences does not necessarily mean proliferating “face-to-face” interaction. Instead, remote relationship-building relies on maximizing genuine interactions instead of forcing them.

If you search for “social media” on Google Images, you’ll likely find avatars representing the likes of Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat. Understandably, not every coach will be comfortable utilizing and interacting on each of these platforms. If I may dramatize and compare: An effective principal in an English-speaking community wouldn’t ask the school’s French teacher to teach using only Mandarin and expect classroom success. Without supporting and equipping the teacher with the tools necessary to learn Mandarin and, further, use that Mandarin to teach French classes, she’s failed the teacher and her students.

This reminds me of a parable Gary Schofield often shares in which a coach from the States receives a call from a high-level German soccer team gauging his interest in working with the players. The coach accepts and then reflects on what he should do first to prepare for the position. The coach shouldn’t scroll through the roster or coaching staff to familiarize himself with their faces; he shouldn’t even concern himself yet with the training required for high-level soccer players. The first thing that he should do is learn to speak German!

Getting Started with Social Media

A coach looking to capitalize on the times and use what I would argue is the most underrated resource at a performance coach’s disposal should first learn the “language” of social media. If you wanted to learn Russian, you wouldn’t just pick up a Verkhoshansky book and figure it out. One of my old teachers called that reverse osmosis. I still haven’t figured out what that meant but I know it doesn’t work.

In actuality, to learn Russian you’d first learn letters, then how to say “hi” and “bye” or “please” and “thank you” before you got to the serious stuff. Similarly, social media usage should follow suit; to immediately embrace these platforms in their entirety would miss the greatest features and applications of the resource. Consequently, not knowing how to appropriately use a certain platform could lead to misuse, confusion, and mishaps comparable to using a language you don’t yet understand.

Chances are that you’re already using a form of social media, whether in training or communication. Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat are just a few examples of the seemingly endless social media platforms out there. Steven Wildman and Jonathan Obar defined social media as computer-mediated technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, career interests, and other forms of expression via virtual communities and networks. By this definition, performance coaches have been on social media sites for decades.

Coaches started sharing training videos, performance updates, career-related concerns, and subjective questions for each other back in 2003 on the Charlie Francis forums. In the time the site’s been active, we’ve seen media-sharing services such as YouTube, Google+, and Dartfish become staples of a strength and conditioning coach’s daily continuing education. Every week, staffs across the country meet for professional development, outsourcing off-campus experts via teleconferencing technologies such as Facetime, Skype, and Google Hangouts.

All of the common examples I’ve mentioned are tremendous methods for exchanging content, sharing ideas, and developing intra- and inter-professional networks in a space where coaches are comfortable. However, if we want to best capitalize on the positives of social media, coaches should find their space where athletes are comfortable and present. I respectfully disagree with the coaches that dismiss social media, saying “it’s not for me.” Twitter, for instance, was created largely as a platform for sharing what “is for you” and presents an opportunity to do so.

To best capitalize on social media’s influence, coaches should use the platforms that athletes use, says @John_Garrish. Share on X

I propose three primary categories of social media sharing and interaction: community (campus) interaction, professional (network) interaction, and personal (friends and family) interaction. These categories are all defined by their intended audience; however, unless the user chooses to add an additional step, posts are shared to all of these “audiences”—and often beyond them. To some, this is a concern; there are no closed doors in social networking.

Social media is the constant microscope that the responsible mentor sees as a “show me” opportunity, while the selfish attention-seeker sees it as a “look at me” opportunity. If we’re hesitant to enter the next generation’s “space” in part because we know that it’s where they dwell, we should also understand that they have a better pulse for these outlets and the intentional sincerity of its users. They’ll figure you out. As a good teacher knows, students will see right through you and easily identify what’s meaningful to you. Social media is no different.

Students, Parents, and On-Campus Interaction

There’s an unfortunate misconception on our campus that the “No Left Turn” sign just outside of the school’s gate is unmonitored by police and therefore unlikely to be ticketed. Though sometimes true, there’s obviously a reason our campus security and police department have placed the sign there. Whether it be for traffic regulation or student safety, it’s an order we should follow.

As educators, it’s our responsibility to teach our students to do the right thing and uphold their integrity even in the “smallest” moments. (Disclaimer: There’s no such thing as a “small” moment.) If, as their coach, I demand they honor the sign but then the students watch as I leave campus and make that left turn, it would reflect very poorly on my integrity and leadership. However, if each and every time a student sees me leaving campus I follow the sign and turn right, that student is more likely to follow my example because they see it really matters to me. This is an example of American psychologist Albert Bandura’s theory of observational learning and modeling.

I found this definition of the concept from Steve Wheeler, associate professor of psychology at Plymouth Institute of Education, to be especially relevant:

In essence, he (Bandura) believed that learning could not be fully explained simply through reinforcement, but that the presence of others was also an influence. He noticed that the consequences of an observed behavior often determined whether or not children adopted the behavior themselves.

“Presence of others” resonates most. Social media, like any other social environment, will without a doubt have its share of members present and an immeasurable amount of “observed behavior.” We can either hope that those present, along with their observable behavior, are positive influences or we can step in and take this experience on with our students. Like the off-campus right-hand turn, a student’s observation of a responsible coach’s social media usage will not only tell them more about the coach, it’ll provide a model of appropriate behavior to follow.

A coach using #SocialMedia responsibly provides a model of appropriate behavior for students, says @John_Garrish. Share on X

As adults in a position of authority, I believe the least responsible thing that we can do is limit or revoke a student’s social media privileges because of the “negatives” that might come from it. Those “negatives” are just the lowest hanging fruit. Words, both spoken and written, have been starting wars and ruining lives for centuries. The perpetual stage, immortal footprint, and boundless audience are what separate the voice of the digital age from that of any other era. The unceasing imprint of our words, immortalized through retweets and screenshots, leaves no room for error if and when we decide to use our “voice.”

Digital networking isn’t just the interaction of the future, it’s the hub of interaction for the present. Pre-adolescent kids say “the darndest things” because they’ve yet to learn what’s appropriate and necessary. If we want to teach an elementary-aged child what is and isn’t appropriate, we wouldn’t just tape their mouths shut to avoid the negative—we’d teach them how to communicate, which words to use, what should be said, and, of course, what shouldn’t. Furthermore, we’d teach them appropriate word usage through our own diction as Bandura’s theory suggests is more influential.

Learning to use language productively is a must-have in a young person’s development and educational experience because we understand that effective verbal communication is a prerequisite for just about every career. This may be an unpopular opinion, but effective social media interaction is set to be every bit as necessary as its audible counterpart in an individual’s career prospectus.

Foreign language teachers and teachers of English as a second language spend years developing their curriculum; years, frankly, that performance coaches don’t have to teach this digital “language.” At the beginning and end of the day, we have programs to write and young men and women to lead. Any formalized teaching beyond simply modeling behavior is an added benefit for the students and is encouraged, but not a necessity. It takes a village, so to speak, to raise (teach) a child. Coaches, teachers, and mentors stress proper social media usage on a daily basis simply by exemplifying proper social media usage.

Perhaps the best thing about social media for the responsible model is that all interactions are made visible. You can make a lasting impression on a young person via social media without ever making direct contact with them. If you’re a coach that commits to professional development, your young athletes will see and value your commitment to making yourself, and them, better. If you show your love for your significant other and family, it can provide an example of what a loving and healthy relationship looks like. Lastly, social media provides an opportunity (for better or worse) for coaches to share what they do in their free time.

As mentioned above, young people can see right through a façade and, sadly, too often find adults uninterested in them when the workday ends. It can’t be expressed strongly enough that the point is not to simply increase direct contact. A coach who visits other facilities, attends conferences, and maintains a socio-professional profile proves without direct contact that they care about their job and, more importantly, their students. As with anything, all things must be done in moderation. There comes a point where our over-willingness to share yields diminishing returns and dilutes the impact of our posts.

Professional Interaction with Other Coaches and Staff

For the sake of this article, when referring to “professional” interaction, I mean the profession as a community rather than professionalism as an action. Every post, comment, like, repost, retweet, message, picture, and video should reflect a constant, non-negotiable state of professionalism. Anything less and the coach should consider stepping away from social media entirely.

We’re lucky to call a profession home where people commit not just to themselves and their own, but to the profession as a whole. It’s the responsibility of the individual to give back to the profession and the responsibility of the profession to look out for the individual. In a conversation I had with Coach Brett Bartholomew, he suggested that not only is our social media presence about much more than ourselves, but that the greatest way for us to serve the profession, specifically through social media, is to “fill a gap” of need. With so much bad information out there, the onus is on strength and conditioning coaches to overcome that bad information with good information of their own: “fighting a winning battle” for the profession, as Brett B would say.

Various ways of giving back to the field include sharing content, promoting others, and participating in dialogue and debate. Social media provides an opportunity to both commend and criticize if/when the time and colleague calls for it. In moderation, you can rarely go wrong in commending another coach. With criticism, however, we should proceed with caution.

There’s a big difference between constructive criticism and destructive criticism. Constructive criticism is intended to uplift another professional and their athletes by providing insight and feedback that relates to a previous post. Destructive criticism is intended to discredit another professional and their post by referring directly or indirectly to a “better” way of doing things.

Now, if a coach shares a great deal of content, they should understand that they’re setting themselves up for comments and messages from coaches that don’t agree. When positive, this is a good thing and should be welcomed; if you’re not posting to create dialogue and help make your athletes and the profession better, why are you posting? However, when destructive or uninvited criticism does ensue, showing restraint and resisting the urge to reciprocate with destructive dialogue is then the responsibility of the original poster.

Personal Interaction with Athletes

Personal interaction refers to any activity regarding our personal lives outside of the workplace. This type of interaction typically involves friends and family members sharing personal hobbies and interests. Please note that personal life and private life are two very different things. My rule of thumb is if I wouldn’t use this moment as a teaching point during a post-lift chat with my students, I shouldn’t share it to social media.

Sharing positive moments in our own lives does nothing to trivialize our status as a leader and mentor for our students if we use the opportunity appropriately. I wouldn’t say there’s anything wrong with enjoying an alcoholic beverage with your friends in your alone time, but remember that alone time no longer exists when we’ve shared something online. If you were drinking with a buddy at a tailgate and an athlete and their family walked up to say hello, would you continue drinking or would you put the drink to the side for the duration of the conversation? Would you start a conversation with a student on campus by saying: “So, I was drinking a beer with my buddy”?

Probably not. However, there’s nothing at all wrong with starting a story with: “So, I was at dinner with my family.” Similarly, there’s no shame in sharing a picture of you and your spouse at your favorite restaurant. In fact, if there’s one thing that I’d encourage, it’s that. Young men and women need to see an example of what it means to be a productive member of a family and society in a space that’s saturated with unfortunate counterinfluences.

Connecting in Modern Times

Like the hallways of old, social media has become the hub of our students’ social environment. The expert mentor maintains a measured distance from the athlete’s social scene while still perpetuating his impact outside of the weight room. Through the unique dynamic of social networking, coaches should lead by example from within, in accordance with Bandura’s theory of observational learning, not from beyond or through evasion or deprivation strategies.

#SocialMedia is one of the greatest tools at a performance coach’s disposal, says @John_Garrish. Share on X

Social media presents a tremendous opportunity to build and expand the brand of your program on campus and beyond through interaction with students, parents, and administration. Additionally, it becomes the universal, and international, canvas for us to present our own personal brand. Networking profiles have become today’s living, breathing résumés, with an everyday opportunity to express who you are and what matters to you.

If you fail to use social media and its wide-ranging platforms for personal growth, performance enhancement, digital networking, continued education, and professional development, you miss out on one of the greatest tools at a performance coach’s disposal.

Buyer’s Guide to Sports Training Treadmills

Buyer's Guide / ByChristopher Glaeser

Every year, training facilities review the best options for preparing athletes, and often consider investing in a treadmill or fleet of treadmills. The market exploded a few years ago with numerous options to train and rehabilitate athletes, and the birth of new systems has made what was once a simple process into one that requires a lot of research.

In this buyer’s guide, we list all types of treadmills, but only include those that are appropriate at the professional level, not consumer products or models that have no purpose beyond casual fitness needs. All products here are designed for athletes looking to maximize performance or fully restore their abilities after injury. We have included leading brands and example models that coaches and sports medicine professionals can choose from.

How Treadmills Are Designed and What Is Important

A treadmill is more than a revolving belt that you run on, and it’s dangerous to simplify the system this way, especially the higher-end instrumentation treadmills. Treadmill manufacturers have the challenge of creating a landing environment that is safe and effective to sprint and run on, and each model has benefits and compromises. When investing in a treadmill, it is wise to determine your training goals and then select the models that can fulfill those needs.

Judge a treadmill on its ability to interact with the user in a way that achieves training goals. Share on X

People often base their investments on trends, which is fine for fitness facilities that cater to general populations, but that line of thinking is inappropriate for performance centers. Besides price and common purchasing decisions like warranty and durability, what matters is the design quality and the ability to create an interaction with the user that accomplishes the goals of training. Some treadmills are designed for rehabilitation, some for recovery, and some for sprint training. Each design has benefits and limitations, but when shopping for the right design, using the treadmill will likely be the final stroke before purchase.

Four driving forces influence the selection of the right treadmill: the type of tread, its platform shape, whether it is motorized, and whether it is instrumented in some way. Nearly every treadmill has the ability to collect and share data, and most of the treadmills have a way to display the user’s output, even if it’s human-powered. The three major design factors are:

Human or Motor Powered: The most obvious difference between human-powered treadmills and motorized treadmills is whether the tread revolves from active contribution of the user or passive contribution from the motor and settings. Powered options are about delivering a constant and even velocity and human powered treadmills require very specific friction treads and designs to function. Motorized are sometimes more expensive, but a fluid motion without a motor mechanism isn’t significantly different in price.

Contact Shape and Slope: Treadmills currently have either a flat or a curved contact surface, creating a kinetic and kinematic motion unique to each model and user. Contour surfaces also help create horizontal friction, but these changes are still under investigation so the way they influence an overall training program is unknown. Additionally, the incline or decline qualities of a treadmill are common enough to consider when making a purchase.

Instrumentation Options: Often, treadmills with instrumentation use force plates for research or heart rates for fitness. Some instrumentation options use pressure profiles, and nearly all research options include camera additions for gait analysis or estimations in limb motion. Some treadmills have no direct instrumentation, but are designed to work in conjunction with external systems, especially with cardiac rehab and screening.

When reviewing systems, the quality of the design and manufacturing will obviously drive your final decision, but the priority should be on matching your intended training goal with the treadmill that delivers that benefit.

Our Trueform Treadmills

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Training Effect of Treadmills

Treadmills are now considered both conditioning tools and speed development tools. In the past, most treadmill workouts were alternatives to running outside, but over the last few decades maximal speed and even acceleration have become mainstream approaches. Additionally, various forms of unloading, including underwater treadmills and suspension-type systems, have increased in use as the technology and awareness have grown. When investing in treadmills, those involved should decide the primary purpose of the treadmill and not expect it to be able to solve multiple functions beyond a few needs. While the velocity and incline are adjustable, most systems are designed for either continuous running or very short sprint intervals.

Conditioning, whether slow endurance type or longer intervals, is the primary reason that coaches and sports medicine professionals buy treadmills. Due to the convenience of observing athletes running in place and because they use small spaces, treadmills offer special advantages. Treadmills are also highly measurable, complete with onboard feedback of speed, grade, and duration.

Because return-to-play programs still have grandfathered protocols with treadmills, most institutions will buy treadmills to fulfill standard training programs. Cardiac rehabilitation and other medical needs rely on low-level conditioning with treadmills, but athletes in recovery perform simple walking sessions, especially combined with weighted vests and incline protocols.

HiTrainer Treadmill — Image 1. High-intensity interval training, or HIIT, is a common protocol for rapid improvements in fitness for regular joes and a popular conditioning option for athletes. Sport treadmills can be appropriate for both endurance and speed athletes, but each approach requires unique protocols and methodology.

Speed training, whether maximal speed or short acceleration sessions, is the fastest-growing use of treadmills today. High-intensity interval training, or HIIT for short, is a sprint approach to conditioning and speed development. Due to the fact acceleration requires a rapid change in velocity, most HIIT programs don’t use motorized propulsion treadmills. Users can do intervals with steady speed systems by manual approaches that require them to literally jump into the sprint, but those approaches are often risky and are not typical outside of research or aggressive training sessions.

Speed training is the fastest-growing use of treadmills today. Share on X

Rehabilitation or similar needs like recovery can sometimes incorporate one or a combination of the above methods in training after an injury. Due to the controlled environment, treadmills are popular with rehabilitation, but multidirectional needs must be done on the ground. Aquatic and unloading options have become the new standard in rehabilitation, but conventional treadmills are more than relevant because they promote more natural running.

What the Science Says About Treadmills

Most of the concerns over treadmills is that the training on them will not transfer to the ground or that they will teach the body a movement strategy that will increase the risk of injury from a compromised motor pattern. Such fears are understandable for coaches and rehabilitation, but the research doesn’t demonstrate that anything significant can occur from temporary or partial involvement with treadmills. In general, training on a treadmill is a safe and effective way to improve both the performance and return-to-play abilities of athletes.

Kinetics: The most common request for instrumentation is force analysis, and nearly all research treadmills include a force plate. Based on the research, running on a traditional treadmill has very similar kinetic forces. While horizontal forces can be collected with treadmills, the issue is that a gradual postural rise does not exactly replicate what is done in sport. Note that acceleration kinetics have overlap, but they are not the same.

Kinematics: The movement on a treadmill during steady state conditioning running is nearly the same as on the ground running. While some differences exist, no research has indicated long-term adaptations that are unfavorable to normal ground running. In fact, most gait retraining programs have shown success in improving running mechanics.

Stride Parameters: Some changes in stride parameters exist, usually because the ground surface has a different elastic response than a treadmill. The differences are enough to note, but like the kinetics and kinematics, the significance is not a major impact for most programs that combine both land and treadmill running.

Energy Cost: Environmental factors, such as temperature and wind, cause outdoor running to have a higher cost than indoor treadmill running, but all being equal, the difference is not enough to make a major advantage or disadvantage. The pacing of treadmills has been a primary factor in the reason some athletes use them in training, including very contemporary programs such as triathlons.

Most of the differences in treadmills are in acceleration, and enough similarities exist to attain an assessment of the athlete’s overall ability and receive the benefits of HIIT. Clearly, treadmills are linear speed and linear conditioning options, so the limitations in agility and some sport needs are points to consider when deciding how to integrate them into a full program. It’s safe to conclude that treadmills are close enough to linear running to expect no worries in their value, but realistically they cannot do everything that ground-based activities provide.

Types of Instrumentation and Common Options

The acquisition of treadmill data, specifically training and recovery data, is a standard need for professionals in sport. It is the new normal, and users expect treadmills to offer instant feedback on speed and other variables. After exploring the right treadmill for training or rehabilitation, it’s then appropriate to get data beyond standard feedback information. Three key data types exist, and they all have specific roles in training and rehabilitation.

Force Analysis: Research and applied clinical settings use force analysis to detect dysfunction or study how forces interact in performance. Some veterinary settings have treadmills, as human performance is not alone in needing them. In addition to basic force analysis, in-shoe pressure and other sensors like EMG are usually added to reveal more information on the swing phase and how footwear interacts with the ground.

Conditioning and Aerobic Testing: Treadmill testing is common in exercise physiology labs and hospitals for everything from testing stress to assessing V0₂ max scores. Conditioning tests are usually sub-maximal, meaning they are done to a level that is fast or hard enough to extrapolate, but not so fast or hard that it causes complete exhaustion or failure. Blood testing and gas exchange measurements are very common, and simple heart rate tests are also used frequently. Finally, EKG and other advanced heart analysis uses treadmills to create repeatable assessments.

Gait Analysis: Most gait labs use a combination of video and motion capture to understand the motions of running rather than forces, unless it’s a serious research facility. Gait analysis is used to help retraining, be it a stroke or other injury. Some gait analysis can be done on a treadmill, but those are only walking, running, or jogging.

HiTrainer Screenshot — Image 2. Basic biofeedback is important, but combining baseline or historical data for comparison or competition purposes is even more valuable. Athletes respond very well to immediate scoring, and systems that can provide feedback have a market advantage.

Beyond these three data types, not much else needs to be covered. External systems are available to acquire motion and aerobic profiling, but those systems are usually sold in bundled packages by distributors or sold together with company partnerships. Generally, force analysis is sold as one inclusive system, as the demands of post-production integration are too cumbersome and potentially dangerous to apply.

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Leaders in the Sports Training Treadmill Market

More than 50 treadmill companies exist in the general fitness and consumer world, but sports performance and sports medicine are more demanding markets. About a half dozen leaders exist, all specializing in delivering a unique benefit to teams, colleges, clinics, and private facilities.

Motekforce link: A great example of a small company that specializes in instrumentation treadmills, Motekforce link is the Dutch option for those looking for a lot of data and extreme treadmills. Similar to other brands, they offer skating versions of their equipment. The company uses dual belts and customized software to provide a rehabilitation experience that is perfect for hospitals and clinics. While not a large brand, Motekforce link represents how options outside the box can succeed even in a crowded market.

WOODWAY: This giant in treadmills has two primary lines, the conventional sport option and the new “CURVE” solution. WOODWAY is a serious commercial player in the fitness space, and their larger robust options have been in professional sports for decades. WOODWAY offers hockey-specific versions of its treadmill, and the contour system it provides has taken off in elite sport training as a vertical running alternative to tempo running. WOODWAY brought a lawsuit against Samsara Fitness over their TrueForm Runner treadmill, and it looks like the CURVE will remain a unique feature over the next few years. WOODWAY also has a relationship with the WattBike, and can provide clients with sales and support with that indoor cycling option.

HiTrainer: The Canadian company has been a leading pioneer in treadmill metrics since 2008. Its self-propelled trainer can collect an athlete’s speed, power, balance, and even profile fatigue data. While they help athletes in elite performance, such as the NHL and NBA, you can now see HiTrainers in local gyms for the benefits of interval training. The source of its conditioning power comes from positioning the user in a full-time acceleration posture in order to engage the maximum amount of force production while running with variable resistance.

The HiTrainer is often used with HIIT training, one of the most efficient tools to peak your metabolism by stimulating mitochondrial adaptations and neuromuscular power. The capability of observing their power in watts gives users immediate and quantiﬁable feedback on the intensity of their workout. Finally, the HiTrainer belt offers very little momentum, enabling safe introduction to all clientele, including children and rehab patients.

Technogym: Technogym introduced a high-intensity option called SKILLMILL, and its position is that it provides multi-directional speed and power. One of the key issues with treadmills is they are walking or running devices, but the Italian company added rotational and backwards pulling motions to the product. In addition to the alternative forms of training, Technogym has a front mount that allows for a deep pushing angle for high-intensity work. In business since 1983, Technogym has sponsored multiple Olympic Games and was involved with Formula 1. It has a rich background in the consumer market as well.

AlterG: A major advancement with teams, the AlterG is a harness and unloading system that is extremely popular with rehabilitation due to the fact it can adjust impact forces. Using an air system that resembles an inner tube, the AlterG treadmill can help with rehabilitation and recovery by increasing or decreasing the involvement of an athlete’s body weight. A key issue with AlterG is its price point, but after a few years on the market, the system is more affordable and you can see specialized oversized versions of the machine in the NBA. The AlterG is now entering wider markets, such as senior care and hospitals.

Precor: The rise of CrossFit and Rogue Fitness created enough room for Precor to come in and sell a high-intensity training option treadmill. While the AirRunner Assault product is known as a simple solution for fitness, it’s common in CrossFit boxes internationally as well as other gyms. Similar to the AirBike Assault, the popularity of the treadmill is based on the raw design that requires nothing but a user to get on it and go. The system does have a wireless connection option as well as LCD display, but for the most part it’s a stripped-down treadmill ready to help drive fitness in the high-intensity crowd.

HydroWorx: This last treadmill is an underwater option designed to unload joints and mimic enough of the running motion to encourage similar adaptations. Known internationally for rehabilitation, the water treadmill is a common tool for easier workouts for distance runners, and is also important for return-to-play protocols. Underwater treadmills are popular for post-surgery, as they have unique benefits beyond the unloading of the eccentric forces, such as changes in muscle contraction and hydrostatic benefits for lymph movement. HydroWorx is a leader in sports aquatic recovery, and the underwater treadmill option is mainly for elite facilities, not very small facilities.

Each year, new treadmill players come onto the market, but with the limitations of design, we have seen challenges with IP and maintaining market share. Focusing on new advancements and how older models perform year after year is a great approach to balance innovation with the need for sustainability.

Investing in Treadmills – Where to Start

Nearly any major facility or team will eventually need to decide on a treadmill purchase, and these guidelines and list of leading brands are enough to help you make an informed decision. Coaches and sports medicine professionals who focus on the training response, key features, and data needed have the right decision points to move forward. It is perfectly acceptable to use different systems if needed, provided the staff or users commit to knowing how to operate and sometimes interpret data from sports treadmills.

The profession will decide whether desired training data will come from wearables or treadmills. Share on X

In the future, more and more data will be expected from training sessions, and the profession will decide if the information will come from the wearable market or by more instrumentation in the treadmill space.

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Top 5 Glute Exercises for Sprinters

Blog| ByChris Korfist

I thought I knew all of the butt exercises. I bought the books and tried the exercises. But, what I found interesting is that sometimes athletes wouldn’t feel it in the butt. I couldn’t figure that out for the life of me. It is a butt exercise, but they don’t feel it in the right place. In my quest for this Holy Grail in training for speed, I started to learn about compensation patterns or the body using alternative muscles because the one that is supposed to do the work is not. So, if the glute does not extend the hip when it is supposed to, the hamstring or the spinal erectors will do its job. Why does this happen? It could be lots of reasons, ranging from stress, injury, inflammation, lack of opposing muscle inhibiting the drive of the opposite muscle or even lack of neural drive. In reality, no one knows.

But being the questing knight that I am, I needed to learn all I could. Dan Fichter and I were on a similar path. We both realized that this scenario existed but needed to learn how to fix it. Dan found a Cape Town, South African “Physio” who seemed to have a solution to our problem. Dan decided to fly out London, England to see what Douglas Heel had to say about our situation. I get a phone call from Dan from London. He is blown away by Douglas’ presentation. Through some negotiations, we convince Douglas to come to Chicago to present on his work. On a warm June day in Prairie Medical offices, Douglas rocked our world. What Douglas says takes the glute question back a couple of steps. He is concerned with hip flexion. He wants to know what muscle causes hip flexion. It can be the psoas, quad, calf or opposite arm. Hence, he shows us a chain of compensation patterns. Ideally, the psoas is the hip flexor if it doesn’t do its job, the quad or calf or opposite arm will do the job. And, if the psoas is not doing its job, reciprocally, the glute usually won’t be doing its job in hip extension. Again, it could be a variety of muscles to extend the hip as well—hamstrings, calves, quads, erectors or arms. What Douglas shows is how to disrupt the current recruitment and reset it to the proper recruitment pattern.

What we learned was how to determine what was an athlete’s main driver. And what was interesting was that when someone had a compensation pattern in their movement you could see it. So an athlete who was an arm driver would have an over-exaggeration in their arm swing, in their sprint or their timing. They would be off in their vertical jump where the arms were moving before their legs, therefore losing power and height on their jump. So, when a coach is telling their athlete to lift their knees higher, it may be impossible. The psoas is responsible for bringing the knee above a right angle between torso and thigh, and their psoas may not be the main mover. If a quad is the main mover, the quad can only get the knee so high because the psoas is not there to finish the movement. If an athlete is an arm driver, the knee can only go so high because the arms are synchronized. The arm can only go so high before the other arm is going to come through (this is why I am not a big fan of bounding, the timing is very different from sprinting). From the extension viewpoint, an arched back at toe-off is an athlete who is extending through spinal erectors.

When we learned to break up the pattern, we had athletes who felt completely different when they got up to move around. The immediate impact was on flexibility. Some people improved by as much as 30 percent in their hamstring range of motion. The reason being for this is when the brain senses that the body is in line, and the proper muscles are doing their respective job, it will let the other muscles go. If the glute is doing its job as a hip extender, the hamstring can relax and will lengthen. It reminds me of a coach who saw other teams being very flexible and tried to make flexibility a priority on his team and spent a fair amount of time stretching daily. His athletes’ bodies may not have been recruiting their muscles optimally, and they were tightening neurologically. The extra stretching may have been causing more damage than helping.

When the athlete tries out the new recruitment pattern, they feel light and springy. It is always fun to watch older ex-athletes go out and run and feel like they are young again. It is even better when competing athletes go and run or jump. A completely different athlete emerges. Timing patterns are back to normal, and they feel fast. And in most cases they are. We have set up timers and had athletes run a few flies. Douglas activated them, and they ran PR’s. We even tried it at an Indoor conference meet and the runner ran one of the fastest 800m runs in the state. A PR by 3 seconds. When they jump, they feel like they are flying. In some cases, we have measured a 2 inch increase in their vertical, on a pad. Why does this work? It works because the brain recognizes the correct pattern and will give power to the proper muscles. Don’t agree with that statement? Drop a weight on your toe and see how much power your brain will give your leg of the smashed toe. Think it is carnival tricks. Most people think that until they feel the difference after they go through an “activation”. Some people will discount it but have never experienced it.

How does this carry over to best glute exercises? To get the most out of your biggest muscle, it needs to be firing on all cylinders. And this is the “trick” to get it to go. When your brain learns that it can use all of the muscle, it will. This brings me to my first two exercises. Both of these go along with the activation stuff. The first movement is what we call a butt bungee. There is an actual butt bungee for sale on Douglas’ site. I usually have some, but they seem to grow legs when we take them to track meets. So, we take a big jump stretch rubber band and anchor it to something, like a pole and put the band around your waist. This is the important part; when you walk away from the pole and the slack tightens, you should feel your glutes tighten slightly. If you feel it in a different muscle, quads, etc., slightly move the band to a position where you feel the butt tighten. The glutes are now the driver. With feet square, reach your butt back as far as you can. You can bend knees slightly, but don’t squat. From the side, you should look like you are in a piked position. From here, drive your hips forward. You have now completed a hip thrust. The glutes should have been the main driver. This is mostly what it does. Complete about 10 of them and step out of the band. The athlete should feel like he is walking effortlessly. The glutes are now the driver. For naysayers, we have tried to have people complete the exercise when their glutes are deactivated and have found they don’t have the same feeling when they walk out of the band and their body moves differently as well. The exercise is for feel not how much you can do. We will get to power later. This is just the beginning of this glute thrust. We mix in breathing, voice and vision to see how to get the most out of the thrust. We got Stanford Women’s basketball guard Toni Kokenis to learn to use her voice with her glutes, and it changed her game. She held the streak for free throw percentage in NCAA most of the season a couple of years ago.

Glute Exercise 1 — Figure 1: Starting position of the butt bungee. Band is on the proper point on the waist. From there push your butt back and drive it forward.

Glute Exercise 2 — Figure 2: Midway point for butt bungee. Drive hips forward from this point.

Glute Exercise 3 — Figure 3: Standing psoas/glute exercise. Take deep diaphramatic breaths in this position.

Single Leg Stand

We also do a single leg stand. With the butt bungee on the waist, the athlete will stand on one leg and hold their knee above parallel and hold it for 10-15 seconds. Now we are working the glute of the leg on the ground, which is when you really need it and the psoas of the opposite leg. We are teaching them to work together. An advanced exercise is to do this on the exxentrix kbox. We use the smallest plate possible and work the swing leg thigh from parallel and up- pure psoas. The funny thing is that everyone complains about the burn in the glute of the leg on the ground. (I think this is one of the missing links in training sprinters, the timing of the exercises). There is some cool stuff about the psoas and sprinting. A TV show in Japan did a program comparing Asafa Powell and their national champ to see the difference between the two. Japanese sprinter was much stronger in his traditional lifts. They did a cross-sectional MRI to see muscle differences. The Japanese sprinter had bigger muscles except for the psoas. Powell’s was twice the size. Maybe that is why fast athletes look like they have tennis balls for abs. It is not the size of the rectus but the size of the psoas pushing out the rectus. By the way, Douglas will be in Chicago Feb 7-8 for a Level 1 seminar and a Level 2 the following weekend. To read about the experience, read Tony Holler’s article “You Only Know What You Know”.

You can contact me for info, [email protected].

Powell Asahara MRI — Figure 4: Cross sectional MRI showing muscle differences.

Bungee Exercises

So, that is my basis for my glute development. From there, we go on to other exercises. We start with a bungee on all exercises until they can feel the glute kick, and we wean them off the bungee. I do usually start with the Bret Contreras hip extension. I think that is a great exercise for general development. But, I have not seen a correlation between sprinting and strength in that exercise for faster runners. I have seen a correlation for athletes who are not fast and are weak in the exercise. Their improvement in sprinting coincides with strengthening in the exercise, to a certain point. I try to get people to 500lbs on my contraption. It is not a pure bar push like Bret does. Mine is a home-made machine/rig using straps from Iron mind. I connect the strap between two bars on my Hammer-strength machine and wedge their body under the strap and Glute Bridge up. His books are worth buying. (I know I keep recommending them. I have no stake in the purchase of them. I emailed him once, and that is the extent of my connection.)

The one from his book that there is a connection between fast sprinters and strength in the movement is a 45-degree hyperextension. The trick to teaching the movement is to think that it is a hip thrust and push your hips into the pad to extend the torso. If you feel back, you have extended too far. My best cue is to think of moving your belly button off the pad, so the extension comes from a much lower point. This is the same for the regular parallel position which I also like. We have variations on this as well, straight legs, bent legs, single leg, toes out and toes in for some adductor Magnus. Once you get it, start adding weight. Frans Bosch thought that a powerful athlete should be able to do 2 ½ times his body weight with a single leg. All of my 10.5-10.8 guys could do a ton of weight on these exercises.

Glute Exercise 4 — Figure 5: Anna Sloan is one of the top girl’s sprinters in the state of Illinois. Here she is executing the 45-degree extension with 185lbs. She weighs far less than that. She also sports 28.5 inch vertical.

Glute Exercise 5 — Figure 6: Anna at the top of the extension.

Single Leg Squat

Another staple is the single leg squat. If you read my article, My Love Affair with the Single Leg Squat, you understand why it is in this list. Again, depth isn’t the issue; it is about where you feel it the most in the glute. I have found that the cue of someone pulling the shin forward and hips back tends to get the most out of the glute. I like to hang the weight rather than hold on, so we don’t teach the body to drive from hands but through the glute. We do isometrics, iso and explode, fast, heavy and concentrically from the floor. For block work, sink into a squat and then tilt the torso forward for some extreme stuff. Of course, the kbox is incredible when it comes to a single leg split squat.

Step Up

I am also a step up fan. But I like the version from the Scandinavian sprint coach which I saw floating around. It is a mix of a hip thrust and step up. I have a Jumper Plus from www.docssports.net. I have added height to the back end. I have a box under the harness. We push butt back and jack-knife into the step up. We do it with bands, weight and into jumps.

Glute Exercise 8 — Figure 8: Starting point of a step up. Hips are back and foot is on the box.

Glute Exercise 7 — Figure 9: Here is the finishing point with swing leg knee up and hips driven forward.

Glute Exercise 9 — Figure 10: Finishing point for step up.

Kickbacks

Kickbacks are also a staple. I got this idea from the U of I coach’s poster that I mentioned in my previous article. He did it on an old Universal machine with the athlete’s shoulder against the dip bar. I use my Shuttle MVP. Kneel down on the sled and kick into the pad. The athlete will launch their body forward, and when they land again, they kick again. Want a great butt workout that will help your sprint, this is it. You can weight this down big time on the Shuttle MVP as well. Talk about developing vertical forces when sprinting. That is the answer. Want to work on ground reaction force and time; here it is in a completely controlled environment. For different force, we will also do this standing up and shoulder harnesses on with the hammer strength deadlift machine with light and heavy weight. Now, the athlete can add bringing the knee through and get up on their toe. And of course, my favorite, the kbox. As a side note, I do measure all of our lifts with my micromuscle lab. I have found, when you measure it, they go harder. Unfortunately, my encoder broke last week, and Ergotest has not responded to my emails for help. I am hoping Carl Valle can help me find a new machine.

Living in Chicago, we have to make the most of our time running outside. Some years, there are not many good days to perform great sprint workouts, which in my opinion, is why Southern/Texas schools have faster times. They get many more good training days. It may be May, but May can sometimes be 40 degrees with winter coats or 30 mile an hour winds that swirl. There is a reason they call it the Windy City and no to the people in New York; we don’t need to hold hands to cross the street (someone asked me that once). Even now, as I am typing in November, it is snowing and will be 14 degrees tonight. We need to make the most out of our indoor time. Instead of weighing your body down with huge weights and feeling beat up for the next three days, try these exercises and feel great, like you can fly.

New Year’s Resolutions for High School Track & Field Coaches

Blog| ByJohn Brumund-Smith

Coaches always talk about setting goals, but usually put the onus on the athletes instead of themselves. Coaches have just as much room for improvement as their athletes, and should set goals appropriately. I am currently in my 26th season of coaching, and 14th at Lake Forest High School in Illinois. One of the greatest lessons I have learned in those 26 seasons is to always be setting goals as a coach and reevaluating how to best serve my athletes.

Here are 18 resolutions for high school track & field coaches to get 2018 started on the right foot. If you have any suggestions for resolutions I left out, please write them in the comments. I love learning from other coaches.

1. Be Married to the Vision, Not the Plan

The only constant in track & field is change. I laugh when coaches or parents ask me what a “typical” day in our program looks like. There are so many variables in place, especially early in the season, that there almost is no such thing as a “typical” day. Before spring break, some days we practice at 3:30 p.m. and some days we practice at 5:30 p.m. It depends on what sort of practice space we get.

The only constant in track & field is change. Share on X

Some days all we have is the wrestling room. Some days we get one-third of the linoleum-floored fieldhouse, some days two-thirds, and on some wonderful days we get the whole fieldhouse to ourselves. Some days we get no space at all. We are not allowed to run in the hallways. The pool is always taken up by the water polo teams. The weight room is generally cluttered until 5:00 p.m. We have to share all our practice space with the girls team. I have two part-time assistant coaches on staff who can only come a few days a week, so we have to adjust practice plans based on their availability. The point is that there are many variables that dictate how our practice is run before we even account for the weather.

We write out a progression of what we want to do each year. For example, we need to do certain plyometrics before others, need to do two-point starts before getting into blocks, need to work certain drills to introduce certain skills, etc. But imagine if we were married to the plan instead of the vision. A coach who is married to the plan probably sends his athletes out on a windy 30° day to do a split-400 workout instead of either adapting the workout or holding it off for a better day. Being married to the vision means you know where you want to be, but are flexible with the plan. Many roads lead to Rome.

2. Keep a Cache of Resources

One of the best new trends I started for our program last year was creating a Google Doc with what I consider to be essential sprint training articles. I try to add an article a month to this list, and encourage my coaching colleagues to help me find other articles to add. If you know of a great training article that is not on my doc, please add it!

Going to coaching clinics is a great way to build your resources. In the past few years, I have attended four Track-Football Consortiums, the USATF Level 2 Clinic, the ITCCCA Clinic, the WISTCA Clinic, the Bureau Valley Track & Field Clinic, and the Glazier Track & Field Clinic. Keep all the notes you get from these clinics, get the email addresses of the speakers you liked, network with other coaches, and do as much as you can to learn from other coaches.

Twitter is great at keeping you up to date with the latest research and articles. My favorite follows are @SimpliFaster, @pntrack, @JustFlySports, @GiffUsStrength, @trainwithPUSH, @DerekMHansen, @BBAPerformance, @SandCResearch, @KenClarkSpeed, @HFJumps, and @TrckFootball. If you know of other great resources, please let me know!

3. Have a Mentor, and Pay It Forward

In his autobiography, Knight: My Story, Bob Knight tells a great story about former Cal basketball coach, Pete Newell. Knight played for some amazing Ohio State teams from 1959-62, with teammates like John Havlicek, Jerry Lucas, and Larry Siegfried. Ohio State’s coach, Fred Taylor, was very impressed with the defense displayed by Cal in their run to the 1959 NCAA Championship. In the summer of 1959, Taylor spent a week with Newell at the Concordia Clinic in Moorhead, MN, learning their defensive properties. Taylor then sent his assistant, Jack Graf, to California over the holiday break to ask Newell more questions.

As fate would have it, Cal and Ohio State played for the 1960 NCAA title. Ohio State won, thanks largely in part to the knowledge Taylor and his assistant gained in the time spent with Newell. Knight writes in his book, “I remember thinking that one reason this was happening for us was that the coach of the other team shared what he knew with our coach… He shared his knowledge and it came back to cost him in the most important game of the season, the national championship… What he represented to me in this case was the responsibility a teacher has to share with others whatever he has come up with that he found to be of some benefit.”¹

If you know something valuable, share it. Do not keep knowledge to yourself. Share on X

Speak at clinics if you have something valuable to share. Do not keep any knowledge to yourself. One of the reasons track & field is such a great sport is because nobody actively roots against each other. Track coaches do not lie awake at night trying to figure out how to slow the other team down. They lie awake trying to figure out how to speed their own team up. We want our athletes to be faster than the other team’s athletes, of course, but a rising tide lifts all boats.

If I have a question, there are a bunch of fellow coaches I can ask for input. One is Tony Holler, whose program I discovered in 2015 and adopted in 2016. Another is my college coach, Chip Schneider, who led my alma mater UW-Eau Claire to the NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field Championship titles in 2015 and 2016. Barely a week goes by that I do not discuss track with Brad Fortney, a former athlete of mine who is now the head girls track & field coach at Kenosha Bradford High School in Wisconsin. No doubt, we are all better because of our collaboration.

Relay Poster — Image 1: Dustin Hausherr of Downers Grove South High School made this poster of one of my 2017 seniors, Liam Pooler, unsolicited. He surprised me with it one day, along with the message, “Hey Coach! I know how much you like to promote your program… so I whipped you up a quick image that I think your guys are going to like. This is a new way I promote our program and my guys love it. I taught myself how use Photoshop over the summer. What do you think?” What do I think? I LOVE IT! When coaches work together and pay it forward, everybody wins.

4. Try a New Program

Changing philosophies or implementing a new program can seem like a big leap. Coaches will use the old “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” logic to justify keeping the same program they have run since 1994. The worst reason to do something is because that is the way you have always done it. Obviously, there should be some stability in your program, but many coaches are afraid to change anything at all.

In 2016, I switched philosophies completely from a volume-based approach to a speed-based approach. The results were amazing, and I am upset I did not make the switch earlier. Nearly a year of research led me to believe the switch was appropriate for my program. This is also the reason that Resolutions No. 2 and 3 in this article are important. You need resources and mentors to help you with the training, whether new or old.

5. Keep Records

Every team keeps school records. I envy the programs that also have accurate top ten lists or even top 25 lists for all the events in their school history. But outside of competition, we should still be keeping records.

The Freelap timing system we purchased in 2016 helped our record-keeping processes tremendously. If we timed something at practice, we catalogued it and shared it online in a Google Doc. Time those 10 meter flys, 40 yard dashes, split 400 workouts, mile repeats, etc. Rank and publish them. Make lifting sheets for athletes to chart their progress in the weight room. Last year we bought two Beast velocity trackers to get more feedback in the weight room.

Charting practice plans, progressions, and adjustments should be a priority as well. When you have data, you can track what worked well and what did not. If your athletes consistently peak early, go back to your records and figure out why. Data keeps the guesswork out of coaching.

40-Yard Dash Statistics — Image 2: Hall of Fame coach, Tony Holler, ranks, records, and publishes virtually everything his teams do at practice. As you can see, he gets staggering results.

6. Promote Your Team

You know how you can instantly become a better coach? Get better athletes. All of you have at least a few athletes walking your halls who would be tremendous at track & field, but instead go home at 3:00 p.m. every day in the spring. Some have never even considered our sport.

Talk to your current athletes and see if they know of any athletic kids who might want to join. Go to the football, basketball, soccer, and volleyball games, where sprinting and jumping talents are easy to see. Track & field is a wonderful sport where natural talent is all around us. Not every sport has this luxury. I have also coached swimming the past five years, and we have never had somebody just decide to try swimming as a sophomore in high school and end up qualifying for the state meet. But in those same five years, we have had 11 athletes just decide to join the track & field team sophomore or later and qualify for State. Three of those athletes qualified for State in their first year in the sport!

At Lake Forest, my track team competes with baseball, lacrosse, volleyball, tennis, water polo, and dozens of club sports for spring athletes. Yet we still get 120 kids out for the boys track & field team at a school of about 1,650. Where other sports are losing athletes every year, we are gaining them. The class of 2016 had seven athletes out as freshmen and 42 out as seniors. That’s a growth of 600%. Eight of those 42 athletes qualified for the IHSA State Track & Field Championships during their high school careers, but only one of those eight ran track as a freshman!

There are many ways to promote your program throughout the school and get more athletes. Share on X

How do we get athletes out? By promoting, recruiting, and attracting. Anybody who has seen my Twitter feed knows one of my hobbies is making posters that show the importance of track & field, especially in relation to football. As soon as the students at Lake Forest get back from winter break, they will see dozens of posters highlighting our program. Image 1 in this article shows a great poster made by Dustin Hausherr of Downers Grove South. He learned how to make those posters in just a few days.

Another way to recruit athletes is to let them know individually that you are interested in having them on your team. A personal message to a kid is powerful. I do not “poach” athletes from other teams, but I do send an email to all the fall athletes who do not sign up for a spring sport. Promote your program and ask those talented kids to come out for track. It’s always a “no” if you don’t ask.

7. Listen to Your Athletes

“My way or the highway” programs are generally unsuccessful in high school track & field. As coaches, we need to take advice from our athletes. Coach Norman Dale of Hoosiers famously said, “My practices aren’t designed for your enjoyment.” Well, not everything we do in practice should be fun, but I live by the notion that it is entirely possible to have a program that is functional and fun.

Your seniors and leaders can cue you into the pulse of the team. Maybe the team needs a break, or they really loved the last workout, or they feel one drill helped more than another. You will never know unless you ask them. Obviously, you should not bend your will completely to the wishes of the team, but do not view your program as a dictatorship. Instead, view it as a collaborative effort. John Wooden once said, “It is amazing how much can be accomplished if no one cares who gets the credit.”

The next several resolutions will relate to listening to your athletes.

8. Update Your Schedule

Perhaps the most important task of updating your schedule is to ditch the bad meets. If the meet is poorly run or the facilities are terrible, get rid of the meet and look for something else. Why would you keep going back to a meet nobody likes? Tradition? Chances are there are plenty of better meets in your area that would love to have your team.

Developing a philosophy for your meet schedule is important as well. Some coaches look for the hardest schedule possible. Others want an easier schedule to help their athletes succeed. Some coaches value facilities over competition, especially indoors. Other coaches focus on the format of the meet.

I make no secret of the fact that I love relay meets. In the past few years, we have gone to the Mustang Relays, Bulldog Relays, Wildcat Relays, Cougar Relays, Spartan Relays, Prospect Relays, and Madison West Relays. Outdoors, every year we go to four or five dual meets (required by our conference), the Lake County Championships, North Suburban Conference Championships, and Sectional Championships, all which have the same traditional meet format. We also host an invitational with the standard events. So, for our other invitationals, I like to change up the format.

In 2016, we started going to the Cougar Relays at Vernon Hills, and it quickly became everybody’s favorite meet. Instead of a 4x800m relay or 3200m run, they have a distance medley relay (1200-400-800-1600), and instead of a 200m dash, they have a sprint medley relay (200-200-400-800). They allow you to run a JV team in each relay, and they score those relays as varsity events. Athletes are not allowed to run JV in one relay and varsity in another. That adds a bit of strategy, which makes coming up with a lineup more fun (believe it or not, I love making lineups). Add in the fact that it is a coed meet—a rarity in Illinois—and you can see why most of my athletes look forward to it.

Destination meets are another great idea for a day trip or even an overnight trip. This is a great idea especially during the indoor season or early outdoor season. Most areas have a limited number of quality indoor tracks, so a long trip to a great facility makes a lot of sense. Here in the Midwest, traveling south for warmer climates in early April could mean running in 60° weather instead of 40° weather.² If you have a great relay team, consider making a big trip to the Penn Relays. I highly doubt any of your athletes will forget the experience.

Image 3: Naperville Neuqua Valley is consistently great in the long sprints and distance events, and brings their studs to the Arcadia Invitational in California every April. This is their 2015 crew. If you have studs and appropriate means, consider scheduling a trip to a prestigious meet.

9. Get Cool Apparel

I find this to be so important that I wrote a whole article about it. Bottom line: look good, feel good, play good.³ But beyond all that, apparel can help market your team. Every high school team should have an apparel page at the beginning of the season for the athletes to order team gear. You can even tie it into a fundraiser, which leads me to the next resolution.

10. Fundraise, Fundraise, Fundraise

Track & field is one of the most expensive high school sports. Even if you are fortunate enough to have your athletic department cover the cost of the facilities, hurdles, high jump pads, pole vault pads, starting blocks, transportation, and the other necessities, you still need plenty of other items to run a successful program. We spend our fundraising money on essentials like uniforms, tape measures, batons, shots and discs, and “luxury” items like mini-hurdles, mini-bands, sleds, tents, Freelap timing systems, velocity trackers, rollout runways, food for the athletes at long meets, and a dozen other things.

There are plenty of ways to fundraise. Car washes, golf outings, spaghetti dinners, runathons, potlucks, auctions, raffles, donations, or just straight-up salesmanship. If your inbox is anything like mine, you get offers for fundraising ideas on at least a weekly basis. Many businesses are more than willing to host a fundraising night for your team. Chipotle, Panera, Applebees, and dozens of other companies, as well as local businesses, are very happy to partner with you to achieve your fundraising goals. Those fundraising nights are great because they double as a team activity and do not require any startup cost from your program.

Ask other teams in your school and your area what they do for fundraisers. Odds are you will find out about great fundraising opportunities you had never even considered before.

11. Schedule Alternate Activities

What stands out about your program? What do you do that is unique or memorable? Hopefully there’s something, otherwise you’re going to have a problem retaining athletes and getting new athletes out. If every day is a boring repeat of the day before, what do your athletes look forward to?

In my life, I have coached cross country, swimming, and track & field, and in my 26 seasons I have seen dodgeball tournaments, T-shirt relays, team bike rides, pool aerobics, flexing contests, scavenger hunts, watermelon seed spitting contests, sibling relays, trivia contests, Slip ’N Slide relays, team pentathlons, dancing contests, movie days, skits, rap battles, banana relays, etc. All during regular practice time.

We play basketball the Friday before spring break every year at Lake Forest. I reserve the game gym and everything. Barely anybody is there because they are all on vacation. One program I coached for had the varsity cross country athletes run the Homecoming football back from the opposing team’s school on game day. They timed it out to jog the ball into the pep rally on Friday afternoon. I have always had an idea to finish a cross country meet in a football stadium on Friday night during the varsity football warm-ups. Try telling me your athletes wouldn’t love that!

12. Bring Alternates to State

The first State Championship I attended was the 1996 Wisconsin State Track & Field Championships in La Crosse, WI. I always had the desire to be a great athlete (my ability would take a few years to catch up with that desire), but tasting that State Championship as a spectator left no doubt what my goal was for the rest of my high school career: I wanted to compete at State. I never missed attending another State Championship again in my three sports, going to three more as a spectator and one as an alternate before finally qualifying for two as a competitor.

Bring as many alternates to State Championships as your budget and athletic department will allow. Share on X

There is an aura about every State Championship site; something that athletes needs to see and experience. When you do have athletes qualify for State, bring as many alternates as your budget and athletic department will allow. The seniors will see it as a reward for their services, and the underclassmen will see it as a goal for the future. I cannot emphasize this enough. Never have I had an underclassman travel to State as an alternate who was not motivated to get back there the next year. In Illinois, the alternates can even participate in the Friday night open track meet, one of my favorite meets of the year.

The open meet at State is AWESOME. pic.twitter.com/DbKhueUVsr

— LFHS Track & Field (@LFHStrack) May 27, 2017

Video 1: Friday night’s open track meet between days of the IHSA State Championships is basically one big celebration of our sport. There are sprint events, distance events, and even a steeplechase.

13. Understand the Value of 1%

Some coaches have a thick packet of rules they expect their athletes to follow. Other than general rules about showing up on time, respecting the equipment, etc., my team basically has two main rules:

When the coach talks, you listen.
No matter what the intensity is at, quality is always 100%.

For every drill, every skill, every repeat, and every step we take, the quality is at 100%. Even if our intensity is at 70%. Imagine if you did everything at 99% quality. That still sounds pretty good, right? Well, what if we lose 1% on our times at the end of the year?

Last year in Illinois, the AAA State Championships qualifying times in the 4x100m Relay and 4x200m Relay were 42.66 and 1:29.30, respectively. My teams ran 42.65 and 1:29.17 at Sectionals to barely make it. What if we had done everything at 99% quality all year? That 1% might not seem like a big difference, but if my relay teams had run 1% slower, they would have clocked 43.08 and 1:30.06, and watched State from home.

A 1% improvement in any aspect of training might not make a 1% difference in time, but those little differences add up. Understanding the value of 1% means finishing through the line on every repeat, focusing on every handoff or run-through, lacing your spikes up tightly even for practice, getting to bed earlier at night, choosing Raisin Bran instead of Fruit Loops for breakfast, and 100 other things the athletes have control over every day. Coaches must set these expectations!

14. Understand Minimum Effective Dose

You may think this resolution clashes with my previous resolution about understanding the value of 1%. However, when talking about minimum effective dose, I mean volume, not quality. If you can get the same physiological response from six reps as you can from eight, why would you do eight? Professional sprint coach Håkan Andersson suggests, “Train as much as necessary, but not as much as possible.”⁴ I love that quote. It is better to be 10% undertrained than 1% overtrained.

Joel Smith, whose website Just Fly Sports should be required viewing for coaches of all anaerobic sports, writes about understanding the minimum effective dose of lifting as one of the seven essential paradigm shifts in his coaching life. If you leave a few reps in the tank, you will not struggle with poor form and are ready to come back for more the next day. He writes that grinding teaches athletes to implode, rather than explode.⁵ Far too many coaches believe nothing is accomplished until everyone is exhausted. Those coaches are usually great at getting athletes exhausted, and not as great at getting them faster. For those coaches, I recommend they read Resolution No. 4 and try a new program.

Understanding minimum effective dose is especially important for sprinters and jumpers. Distance runners have to go to the well every once in a while. They are told to “get comfortable being uncomfortable,” which is great advice for aerobic events. You do not need to cajole most state-quality distance runners to work hard, though. Part of their talent is their capacity and love for hard work. Pulling the reins on these thoroughbreds can be just as effective as bringing out the whip. How many of you coaches out there know a distance stud who just has to hammer, even on a recovery run?

For those distance runners who think a constant grind is the only path to success, I recommend they read up on Hicham El Guerrouj. The greatest miler in history tripped with a lap to go in the 1996 Olympic 1500m final, then suffered a shocking loss after being outkicked as the heavy favorite in the 2000 Olympic 1500m final. He admitted to overtraining coming into the 2000 Olympics, running 10,000 meters’ worth of repeats when in years past he had only run 8,000 meters. Instead of making him stronger, the cumulative result of the extra meters was that it made him tired.⁶ He learned his lesson, scaled back his training, and won both the 1500m and 5000m finals at the 2004 Olympics. Sometimes, less is more, even for distance runners.

15. Do a Quote of the Day

You have probably noticed several quotes already in this article. We end every team meeting with a motivational quote. This can take 10 seconds or 10 minutes. Sometimes the quote is relevant to the day’s workout; sometimes it is just a general quote. We do quotes from athletes (Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan, Carl Lewis, etc.), coaches (John Wooden, Vince Lombardi, Dean Smith, etc.), and non-sports figures (Martin Luther King Jr., Zig Ziglar, Mister Rogers, etc.). Last year we even brought in our wrestling coach, Matt “Sunshine” Fiordirosa, to give a speech on toughness. Sunshine was 14-1 in his professional MMA career, so he had everybody’s attention.

About five years ago, I happened to do two Larry Bird quotes in the same week. The joke then became that every quote was from Larry Bird, so I play it up. Now when I do a Larry Bird quote, I wear my Larry Bird jersey under a zip-off hoodie and reveal the jersey right before I do the quote. Athletes remember that stuff a lot more than they remember what their splits were on a 6 x 200m workout.

16. Connect the Program

How many of your throwers are friends with your distance runners? How many of your seniors can name the best freshmen on the team? How many of your sprinters can tell you the best mile time on the team? Track & field is a wonderfully inclusive sport, accepting athletes of all talents and abilities, but event groups can become like cliques.

Find ways for the groups to intermingle. Some programs I know adopt the “Big-Little” strategy of college Greek life where every upperclassman is assigned an underclassman to mentor. The “big” and the “little” are both responsible for knowing each other’s events, personal bests, goals, etc. Other programs I know have a captain for each event group, and that captain must report on a different event group’s accomplishments at a team meeting.

Don’t let track & field event groups become like cliques—find ways for the groups to intermingle. Share on X

Coaches need to get involved as well. Though I am primarily a sprint and hurdle coach, I do a lot of research on all the other events as well. In case we have a prolonged period of time without a certain assistant coach, I need to feel comfortable helping out that event group. Occasionally, we will have “stations” at practice where each event coach will have around 10-20 minutes to coach a group of athletes. This gives the athletes some exposure to all the coaches on staff, and gives the coaches a chance to check out all the athletes in the program to see if some have slipped through the cracks a bit in certain event areas.

17. Invite Alumni Back to Practice

Virtually every successful program I know has a great alumnus following. Bringing the alumni back to practice connects the present with the past. This strengthens the sense of team and makes the current athletes realize they compete for more than just themselves.

I love reconnecting with alumni. Austin McIlvaine, who still holds our school record in the 4x100m Relay from 2014, sent me a video on Snapchat last year when he was back in Lake Forest for summer break. The Snapchat included the text “GLORY DAYS.” What was in the video? Was it his medals? A workout sheet listing the old season plan?

Nope.

The video was of him stepping out his mark for a 4x100m relay exchange. That was a memory from high school track he cherished. Athletes might not remember the workouts they ran, all the medals they won, or even what their personal records were. But there will be memories they cherish created by moments in your program. Sharing those moments is a great way to connect the past to the present, and maybe help your current athletes realize all the little aspects of the sport they will miss when it is over.

400 Meter Relay — Image 4: Austin McIlvaine (second from right) still has the 4x100m Relay school record at Lake Forest (42.06) and competed at the 2017 NCAA Division III Championships in the 4x100m Relay for John Carroll University. He is one of many alumni we invite back to visit each year and share how their experiences in high school athletics have shaped their lives.

18. Have Fun

Coaching is fun. Track & field is fun. Never forget that.

References

Knight, B & Hammel, B. (2002). Knight: My Story. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press.
Why Do Birds Fly South?
Look Good, Feel Good, Play Good
Andersson, H. World Speed Summit IV: The Pete Karlsson Sprint Study.
7 Essential Paradigm Shifts In My Coaching Life
Olympic Games 2004

A Buyer’s Guide to 3-D Motion Capture Systems for Sport

Buyer's Guide / ByChristopher Glaeser

The use of motion capture is growing in all areas of sport and entertainment, especially at the elite level. As the technology migrates from research into clinical and commercial training businesses, there are challenges in using the data to make informed choices.

In this guide, we look at the top options in motion capture and show the important differences in what the specific technologies can do and what they cannot. Motion capture is a very vague term, and this article articulates what exactly is true 3-D motion capture and what is not. Motion capture is evolving and increasing in use at all levels, and sports performance professionals must stay current on the best options and best practices available.

What Is 3-D Motion Capture?

Motion capture is a very loose term, and capturing motion can mean nearly anything now. However, it usually refers to a modified recording of total body motion in three dimensions. Now that IMU sensors have entered the market, an accelerometer with a gyro can seem like true motion capture, but there is a difference between measuring motion with a few sensors and capturing a body in action. Most readers will envision reflective markings on a body to digitize an athlete in three dimensions when the term motion capture is brought up, but it’s extremely important to know what makes up a true 3-D recording.

There is a difference between measuring motion with a few sensors and capturing a body in action. Share on X

A small sensor does have the ability to collect orientation data, but unless it collects all of the body, those systems should be seen as motion sensors, and some systems do create compete renderings of movement from recordings. The criteria for true 3-D motion capture is the following:

Creates a complete and fully authentic acquisition of total body motion.
Provides anatomical orientation of points of reference.
Requires a direct recording of three dimensions of data.
Able to collect ballistic activities with high frequency of measurement.

As you can see from this list, unless all of the requirements are met, it’s easy to confuse a single sensor recording of movement that’s raw and out of context as motion capture. IMUs used together can create motion capture data from calculations, but add another level of complexity to the challenge of measuring body motions. Markerless cameras, such as the Microsoft Kinect device, use an infrared laser and camera together to create depth in three dimensions, but those systems have limitations in sport.

How Does Motion Capture Work?

Motion capture is one part marking and tracking the body and one part converting that information into data that is useful for both research and applications in markets such as entertainment. The amount of detail and precision a user of motion capture needs determines how the data is collected, as each system has abilities and constraints with both accuracy and flexibility of the information. Some motion capture systems are designed for indoor use but have some outdoor functions that are effective and appropriate. Capturing full body motion requires a controlled environment for the system to have enough robustness to collect data properly.

Two clear options exist with motion capture: marker or optical systems and markerless solutions. Motion capture using video is possible, but most research-grade systems prefer using infrared cameras and reflective markers. Some less-precise systems are growing in popularity because they are inexpensive and solve easier problems, like treadmill analysis with running. These new, less-accurate systems are now taking over a narrow part of the motion capture market.

Wearable bodysuits, usually with IMU sensors, are becoming more popular because of their portability, but they are seen as more clinical options that demand less data granularity and precision. High-performance motion capture systems are so fine that they can see facial expressions and fingers move in great detail, such as a person playing the piano. Without oversimplifying the process, motion capture begins by recording motion from cameras and tagged body parts, or estimates motion by using more limited cameras and IMU sensors.

After the data is captured, additional filtering and calculations are performed to clean the data up and ensure that motion artifacts do not create false reporting. Reflective markers are placed on the body with specific guidelines to ensure the data is accurate and precise because muscle and skin can move at high velocity, creating a challenge with data quality. Anatomical landmarks are selected for their reliability and their value in connecting joint motion. IMU bodysuits and systems follow a similar approach with placements, but they have unique locations based on their equipment design rather than following a scientific best practice. Markerless systems require proper camera setup based on needs, as most systems look at motions that are stationary in positioning such as walking in place, squatting up and down, and doing other basic functions.

The final step is taking the data and converting it into reports or using a function that transforms it into animation or simulation. In addition to the data collected by the motion capture, companies create solutions that enable users to combine multiple data sets, such as force plates and EMG readings. Most of the development in the last few years has been on the software side of optical systems and the hardware side of markerless and IMU solutions. All types of solutions require a lot of data smoothing and cleaning, but more work is needed with IMUs in general versus optical options.

Different Options With Motion Capture Hardware

For the most part, motion capture hardware is designed for research or very progressive clinical needs. Video analysis is more common as a biofeedback option with coaches, but motion capture is growing due to the IMU market. The optical market, also known as the camera-based systems, tend to be more research appropriate, while the sensor market tends to be more clinical and sports performance oriented.

For example, Motus provides a single sensor option for throwing athletes, such as those that pitch (baseball), bowl (cricket), and pass (American football). While that system captures movements near the elbow, it is mainly a calculation because many assumptions are made when other data sets are not available, such as the trunk and legs. IMU systems tend to have less accuracy and precision, but the technology is improving and slowly closing the gap.

Motion capture technology’s most obvious value is its automatic analysis of data for the user. Share on X

We should not include conventional video—even with multiple cameras—as a motion capture option, for several reasons. The most obvious value of motion capture is that technology automatically analyzes the data instead of the software user having to do it manually. Some video systems automate video like motion capture, digitizing the series of cameras to calculate movement, but the issue with this technique is that lighting restrictions and other factors with visual data can limit high-precision requirements. Direct markers have a more reliable history of stable data, but due to the confines of competition, video is still viable because markers are not practical or appropriate.

Markers are commonly small ball-like attachments the size of a marble or reflective circles applied on athletes. Some systems use wrap-like attachments, like sweatbands and wristbands, and some systems provide suits fitted by trained users. Markerless camera options just use hardware to capture video, but they provide far less information and require the hardware to be extremely close to the user, such as a few feet away. Those systems currently can’t assess sporting actions that are very fast or have high displacement requirements.

Motion Capture Markers — Image 1. Reflective markers are a staple of motion capture technology, even with new technologies, because their precision is necessary for research-grade data. IMU systems, while markerless, still require time to apply to athletes.

Some systems provide synchronization hardware and other tools for advanced studies or specific needs, such as underwater filming and remote capturing. Most of the equipment beyond cameras and markers is designed to help trigger the start and stop of other sensors, like force plates, EMG, and in-shoe pressure. Some systems include virtual reality headsets or ways to connect to those devices, but most accessories are simple cabling and the like.

Understanding Motion Capture Software

Most software options for motion capture have two purposes: converting the motion data into an animation for either scientific replay or entertainment uses. Nearly all companies provide a replay option, and some of the software enables the viewer to choose perspectives and animation styles, such as line (stick figures), skeleton, or human figure. Advanced software can measure very precise movements in isolation or create reports based on analysis methodology best practices. Several options of software are hardware agnostic, meaning nearly any hardware can connect to the software.

The goal of the software for sports is to display motion that is free of the visual debris that video sometimes contains. Like video, motion capture helps as a way to connect other data sets that are less visual, such as EMG and force analysis. Researchers can see the relationships between movement and muscle recruitment, along with ground reaction forces if needed.

The goal of motion capture software for sports is to display motion without visual debris. Share on X

Sometimes the movements with motion capture are not actually measured, as users just want qualitative views to synchronize with quantified measures such as kinetic data from sensors. Manual analysis is sometimes performed with motion capture software, especially in research on cyclical movements. Endurance sports—those that are typically cyclical, such as running—usually average or statistically evaluate repetitive motions in order to gain insight into biomechanical faults or possible technique errors.

Software platforms can range from very expensive suites to streamlined 3-D players, but nearly all research software has enough overlap that differences are very minor. Some software platforms are only file manager options, as the expectation from hardware providers is that the platform market will allow for the analysis of analog data. Thus, they reduce their software development to focus just on hardware. Hardware-only and software-only options are rare, but a few small companies exist that only provide one or the other.

Best Uses of Motion Capture in Sport

Practitioners often use a motion capture solution to view the function of the body in all perspectives and extract joint angles. Those in the performance field, such as biomechanists, want the data to study how athletes move, while medical specialists want to see why athletes get hurt in the first place. The sports medicine field is interested in dysfunction prior, during, and after injury, and the performance space needs to learn what makes an athlete succeed regarding movement. There is a pattern of diminished performance and increased risk of injury when baseline data falls, and coaches and medical professionals sometimes use motion capture technology to handle important or complex injuries.

The most common motion capture use is gait analysis. While other movements are important in sport, nearly every land-based activity will include some sort of running motion, be it sprinting, jogging, or walking. Some clinics have spent an enormous amount of resources on reeducation programs for injured athletes, but most of the private facilities use motion capture analysis for brand or facility marketing, rather than true intervention-based solutions.

The workflow of motion capture is not a major burden, but it’s also not group-friendly, nor an instant feedback solution. Smaller applications, like single IMU sensor solutions, may leverage smart devices effectively for biofeedback; however, due to the incomplete picture, it’s not true motion capture and you should not confuse it with complete analysis.

Like video analysis, it is invaluable for athletes to have the opportunity to see themselves on screen in different speeds and perspectives. Most elite athletes in Olympic sports will eventually experience some form of motion capture, but plenty of athletes will only see it on TV.

Example Options in Motion Capture Technology

There are more than two dozen vendors of sport-specific motion capture systems, and plenty of other solutions are excellent and effective in adding value to teams, hospitals, and private facilities. We left several companies out of this review, including software solutions like C-Motion. This isn’t because they aren’t worth listing, but because access to every system (for review purposes) is nearly impossible.

Qualisys: One of the few companies outside the United States, Swedish-based Qualisys provides solutions for a myriad of needs beyond sport, such as animation and engineering. They focus on the virtual reality market and have solutions that help with underwater demands. One of the strengths of the company is the integration of its products with other systems (force plates) and software like MATLAB and LabVIEW. They are innovative, and quickly took advantage of the smartphone market by providing a 3-D player, as well as a trigger app for simple recording.

Vicon: This U.K. company is exceptionally strong in the optical camera-style system, but they recently took a risk by acquiring IMeasureU, a startup from New Zealand that provides a single IMU sensor option for athletes. Most of Vicon’s experience is in sports performance and clinical sciences, but they have success with entertainment as well. Like many companies in motion capture, they have traction in entertainment as well as engineering. Leading biomechanists and experts in movement science use Vicon as a way to quantify their work with athletes and patients.

Motion Analysis: One of the first companies to create a robust noise-free solution, Motion Analysis is from Santa Rosa, California, and got started in the early 1980s. Many of the pioneering studies on baseball started with Motion Analysis, and they have expanded to other markets like video games, animations, engineering, and even broadcasting. The company is well-known in sports due to their extensive development of cameras and software, and hundreds of research papers include their system as part of the materials section.

Xsens: A pioneer in wearable motion capture, Xsens is one of the leaders in the IMU-based option for movement analysis. Xsens is a Dutch company, but they have a strong presence in the U.S. as they are also located in Los Angeles. Their solutions range from sports to agriculture, as they are more than just a company looking to help with gait analysis and research. They are extremely connected to the engineering market, and have many applications outside biological sciences and sports performance. The strength of their system is that you can use it in real time, as well as in real-world settings such as manufacturing and outdoors.

OptiTrack: Another leader in motion capture, OptiTrack provides traditional optical solutions as well as the emerging markerless solutions. OptiTrack leads in animation, movement sciences, virtual reality, and robotics. They are an international company and provide their own proprietary software, as well as a software developer kit (SDK). They also offer additional plug-ins and tools to help synchronize force plates and other data sets. OptiTrack provides a validation study, showing it’s a viable solution for both research and the clinical market.

NDI: While not a sports performance motion capture option, NDI is a great example of how technology can maximize precision. Known as a medical solution, specifically surgery and hospital care, NDI provides both optical and electromagnetic tracking. However, NDI is not just for hospitals, as they provide military solutions and motion capture for body motion as well. NDI is a Canadian company, and has several patents and innovation awards. Finally, NDI is strong internationally, and has representation in Europe and Asia.

Phoenix Technologies, Inc.: This Canadian company is extremely strong in robotics and other technology markets, including space and industrial applications. The company focuses on portable cameras and wireless sensor solutions, and both can handle sport and clinical needs. One of the strengths of the product is its super-fast sampling rate and precision; features that explain why Phoenix has aerospace clients such as the International Space Station and NASA. While they have native software, they integrate with third-party options and can integrate with other platforms as well.

myoMOTION: Noraxon’s product, myoMOTION, has one of the most stunning visual displays of multiple data sets, and they are known for their EMG systems as well as their wearable IMU-based motion capture system. Noraxon is located in Arizona, and much of their past is linked to EMG. A few years ago, Noraxon made a strategic move to include more data integration with other sensors, such as force analysis and motion capture. Noraxon software creates reports and can be exported to third-party solutions for research as well as data mining.

DARI Motion: Kansas-based DARI started with a focus on athletics and high-end performance and has expanded into corporate wellness, military, and biomechanical research. DARI delivers validated kinematic and kinetic motion analysis, and deep biomechanical insight, in a completely markerless, optical system–with no sensors, no markers, no special suits, and no force plates required. Its reporting outputs deliver data in a variety of complexities, from simple, personalized reports to deep dives into the underlying biomechanics.

All of these companies have enough differences that they require more comparisons and research beyond this guide. The most common request is training, meaning how to use not only the product, but motion capture in general. Most of the hands-on experience with Ph.D. programs or progressive graduate and undergraduate programs should be sufficient to effectively use the listed systems. Venturing outside of biomechanics poses a challenge for coaches, who may not have the kinesiology background to fully use motion capture, but some applications are not too demanding as plenty of college performance programs use motion capture effectively.

Motion Capture Is a True Investment

The cost of most motion capture systems is not cheap, and a full lab is over six figures, on average. Most vendors have a sales department that you can talk to, and some will demo the product if they are in your area. The best way to invest in motion capture is to first visit the top options at universities, as most research departments are open and using the system for noble purposes, not to create marketing buzz for their facility or clinic.

Conversely, at times it’s wise to look at commercial settings that do indeed provide privatized services, as those centers must be efficient and effective to stay in business. Motion capture is growing, and the solutions are getting better every year. Down the road, the future will be even more cutting-edge, but time will tell if markerless systems phase out conventional options.

Buyer’s Guide to Portable Electric Muscle Stimulators for Sports

Buyer's Guide / ByChristopher Glaeser

Electrical muscle stimulation, or EMS for short, is a common addition to training and rehabilitation. In this guide, we cover the most popular portable sports EMS brands and their systems. Selecting the right system can be daunting with so many general health models in the market, but we have done the research to help you make the right decision.

Professional electrotherapy systems—the ones you would see at rehabilitation clinics—are not portable and are a different market. Coaches use consumer price options with professional athletes due to their portability, similar features to clinical systems, and settings that deliver specific benefits to the body. Five brand leaders exist globally, and we cover what makes a great EMS unit for all athletes, not just the pros or elites.

How an Electronic Stimulator Works

Neuromuscular stimulation simply uses electrical current from a device and transmits it through a wire to a select muscle. The electrical current activates the muscle’s action potential, thus creating a muscular contraction. This contraction is not the same as a volitional contraction from training, but some benefits exist to using it in conjunction with training. EMS requires the application of two surface electrodes on the skin in order for the electrical impulses to trigger a muscle contraction.

Benefits from sport EMS systems support the complementary benefits of actual muscle contractions. Share on X

Electrical muscle stimulation, also known as e-stim, is not the same as TENS (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation) or microcurrents. Electrotherapy comes in many different forms, and coaches use EMS to contract their athlete’s muscles with as much current as the athlete can tolerate. You can do non-contractile electrotherapy with different units, but the benefits from sport EMS systems support the complementary benefits of actual muscle contractions.

The neurophysiology is very specific with EMS, and confusion still exists over what precisely is going on with the muscle with the application of superficial external current. The contractions from the central nervous system and from EMS have similarities and differences. An electrically induced muscle contraction is not nearly as effective as actual training in developing qualities that athletes need, and while the benefits are small, they are still notable based on the research available. EMS is not a replacement, but an adjunct benefit for those already involved in a quality training program. It’s fair to summarize that without the involvement of conventional training, EMS has severe limitations because it can’t provide more than light comfort during travel or similar.

A nerve cell is “excitable,” meaning it has a discharge ability and, using external electrical impulses from devices, can override the CNS and cause a muscle contraction. Most of the scientific literature discusses the resting membrane potential of muscle, and the stylus of electrical current can change the status of the tissues. In order to induce a contraction, the pulse duration and amplitude of the current must be high enough to overcome the threshold (resting) or the muscle will not contract. The motor units of muscles will respond to electrical current in a different organization than a voluntary contraction. In fact, the contraction pattern is the opposite of a training or natural contraction, and that difference is still under investigation with researchers. Overall, the consensus is that the EMS effects are similar enough to training to deliver benefits, but not to render it a primary solution for health and performance.

From a technology standpoint, the process is rather similar to what was done 100 years earlier, but most coaches, athletes, and medical professionals are investing in its accessibility and convenience. A modern stimulator is basically a battery, a set of electrodes, and enough onboard processing or software to apply current to a muscle. Nothing in terms of technology creates an advantage of one system over another, as most of the differences in units are the programs selected by the companies. Research on current types or specific waveforms is available now for consumers to decide on what is useful and what is likely not valid. When shopping for an e-stim unit, focus most of your attention on the available programs and how they fit your needs with neuromuscular development.

Device Settings, Electrodes, and Waveform Protocols

One area that can frustrate even the experienced physical therapist or physiotherapist is the marketing hype behind therapeutic currents and how they affect patient outcomes. Very little effect, if any, occurs if EMS is used in isolation. Additionally, some research shows that combined treatments are also very limited in effectively changing function and strength in injured subjects.

Most of the marketing arguments for the failure of EMS to deliver results stem from the argument that the right waveform of the current was not used or the general protocol needed to be applied more frequently. In defense, most of the research doesn’t jive with the clinical practices, so a disconnect between science and practice does exist. Still, the specific type of waveforms is often made overly complex to disguise the fact that EMS is a complementary option and not a magic bullet.

Very little effect—if any—will occur if you use EMS in isolation. Share on X

Typical device settings are either manual selection of current output or a pre-programmed “recipe” of current characteristics and duration. Manual settings tend to be for professional products where there is an expectation of training and expertise, and programs are common with portable consumer products. Like a volume knob, many devices allow for the use of the same waveform, just enhancing the setting with more current. Most programs are more marketing than science, as it’s popular to create very specific protocols of “speed” or “endurance” with athletes, but most of the research only supports a neuromuscular enhancement or light circulatory benefit for lymphedema or similar.

Electrode Buckets — Image 1. Semi-permanent electrodes are usually available in three different types, each with different benefits for coaches. You can clean and maintain permanent forms, which may save clinicians money.

Most semi-permanent electrodes use snap, pigtail, and pin connectors and need replacing after a few uses or months of use, depending on the quality of the brand. Most of the portable systems use semi-permanent electrodes. The clinical ARP Wave has a reusable set of electrodes and features straps for functional EMS use.

Waveform, or the structure of how electricity travels out of the device, is a very difficult process to understand in just a paragraph. In simple terms, current runs from the battery to the muscle in a structure that resembles a wave, with very specific characteristics. It’s easy to get lost in terminology like voltage, ampere, pulse form, and phase charge. The takeaway is that manipulating the waveform of an electric current will modulate comfort, safety, and its physiological effects.

Marketing text throws around Russian current, DC current, and other terms, but they are simply modifications of the waveform and not major variables to concern yourself with. Inducing current that is tolerable, safe, and broad is enough to create general strength changes and mild contractions that are usually adequate to help facilitate an effect on the lymphatic system. The active pumping mechanism of exercise is far superior to EMS, but some settings done constantly (long durations) with weaker levels of current will provide a small benefit worth doing with athletes.

Advances in Wireless Technology and Design

The most noticeable changes to the EMS market in recent years are the wireless models and the rise of smartphone-guided options. The primary reason for the popularity of wireless is because it allows for freedom of movement by having electrodes and current directly on the body without wires from a device. The new EMS devices are not fully wireless, as the batteries still send current through a small wire to the electrode, but the difference is that the controller sends the information or instructions wirelessly through Bluetooth connectivity.

PowerDot, like many technology companies, realized that the cost of most EMS devices is the controller, and the smartphone could replace most of the expense and development. Instead of building a controller for their EMS unit, PowerDot focused on miniaturizing the battery to fit on the electrode. Compex followed suit.

Globus EMS — Image 2. Globus is one of the leaders in EMS, and its strength is in its programs and attention to detail with features and support. The Sprint Coach is one of the top solutions in serious sport, led by Derek Hansen, a pioneer in electromedicine.

The portability of EMS units is a primary reason that battery technology is important when considering a device. Because the playing field is rather level, no advantage exists between brands, but overall the battery life is far higher than it was years ago. Every system includes a charging cord or adapter, and the length of charge and recharging rate are typical with comparable products in the consumer technology space. PowerDot is the most portable, followed by the other systems, as they are small enough to fit in a carry-on travel bag without compromising storage.

EMS electrode surface size has limited bearing on muscle fiber action. Share on X

The electrodes themselves are very important; however, from a development standpoint, not much has changed besides the gel and adhesive manufacturing process. While the electrodes may be made more cheaply now, they don’t perform much better than they did 20 years ago. The reason for the lack of advancement is the electrodes are semi-disposable and designed to throw away. Some electrodes are manufactured to be cleaned and are more permanent, but conductive gels are messy and not popular with all consumers. The size and shape of the electrodes have no impact on performance, but most of them are just large enough to cover a sizable area to induce a contraction. We should note that not all of the muscle contracts during an EMS session, and electrode surface size has limited bearing on muscle fiber action.

Besides wireless advancements, not much has changed with EMS technology over the last few decades. We can see most of the evolution in the market in the modern styles of the EMS enclosures. The cases of the new controllers are sleeker and the LCD screens are updated to current standards. Generally speaking, the EMS market has not changed in 20 years, save for small incremental adjustments to batteries and subtle visual aesthetics.

Compex: Compex is an international industry leader in medical and sport muscle stimulators. For decades, the company has focused on both the rehabilitation and sport markets, and has pioneered advancements such as the Mi-Sensor, a feature that helps users calibrate the appropriate current setting. The Mi-Sensor uses a combination of accelerometry and the ramping up of current to calculate a chronoaxie, a measurement similar to an optimal threshold for electrotherapy. The Mi-Sensor is not available in the U.S., but you can purchase it in Canada and other countries.

Compex has evolved its higher-end products to include a wireless option that uses a controller and Bluetooth technology to operate the system. The included access to its cloud software enables practitioners to program and monitor client use, and the product is useful for functional approaches to EMS.

Globus: This Italian company is highly successful in the elite sport and aesthetics space, and promotes itself through the programs it delivers with its EMS line. The major influence on the Globus Sport line is Derek Hansen, one of the leading experts in sports training and a specialist in high-performance EMS with teams and elite athletes. Globus has several model options, ranging from aesthetic to professional grade muscle stimulation. None of the systems are wireless, but you can still use them for functional EMS because the length of the wires is sufficient for freedom of movement.

Globus offers the most extensive and precise set of programs, including settings designed to modulate long-term adaptations of the athlete. All of the settings outside of light circulation are highly sensitive to the program design of actual training, and you can find most of the information on periodization online on SimpliFaster or Derek’s website.

Marc Pro: A California-based EMS company focused on recovery, Marc Pro is a strong player in the pro sport and CrossFit markets. The strongest advocate is the sports medicine community that doesn’t use cryotherapy as a modality and favors movement or light muscle contractions. The strongest feature of the product is its enclosure—a gorgeous design that allows for the simplest user experience of all the products. Although it’s not wireless, it’s very portable and has two product models. Marc Pro uses a current setting that favors light circulation and doesn’t have research yet to demonstrate muscle performance. Users are extremely loyal and the system is consumer-priced, with monthly payment plans available.

PowerDot: PowerDot is the newest company on the list. It developed with assistance from a crowdfunding campaign and is a domestic player in the EMS sport space. PowerDot took advantage of smartphone components and focused their resources on the wireless future. Leveraging the smartphone, the PowerDot’s strength is its battery and electrode design, which enables the simultaneous administration of multiple muscle groups. The current settings are similar to Compex, and the product is the smallest and most portable system on the market.

Due to its wireless features and compact design, the PowerDot system is compatible with combined methods of training, specifically functional EMS. In addition to combined strength training and EMS protocols, the PowerDot is extremely useful for travel, as no wires are needed to feed from a controller. The system is also scalable, meaning you can start with one set and expand to more muscle groups with the purchase of additional electrodes.

ARPwave: The last product is the ARPwave, a system popularized by Jay Schroeder in the early 2000s. Recently, the company overhauled their product line by offering a portable and more clinical option. The selling points of the ARPwave are the DC current and its aggressive protocols. Much of the promise from the company is the business model and leasing agreement adopted by clinicians, but ARPwave is not truly a consumer product company.

Other Systems: There are more than 100 products claiming to be muscle stimulators, but most of the units are simply TENS devices. TENS is a current setting that was popular in treating pain, but the present literature is conflicting and most of the recent research shows TENS isn’t a valuable option for the treatment of injury. It does have a sensory response that the user can feel, but most of the results that favor TENS hint at a placebo effect. Sports performance benefits must have current settings that actually stimulate a muscle contraction, and recovery from EMS is yet to be established outside general comfort during post-competition periods.

A simple way to decide what system to buy is to look at the research and what it supports. The basic strength setting used by the Compex system, due to the popularity of the device, demonstrates value in different studies. Beyond that, the science doesn’t support much more than an athlete wellness effect with recovery or, more accurately, mild circulation and possible lymphatic activity. Extreme blockage within the body’s tissues post surgery is clinically popular, and all systems should provide benefit there.

Enterprise Solutions, Mixed Environments, and Final Suggestions

Coaches who make purchasing decisions for teams will want to look at the benefits of keeping technology uniform and weigh support demands with the benefits of having different EMS devices. A mixed environment—one with different models and brands—is perfectly fine with a well-organized team or organization. We recommend you use the model or set of models that fits your needs, and make sure you purchase enough electrodes and replacement batteries. The costs to support the use of existing products are about a quarter to half the cost of the device each year, due to the need to replace electrodes, swap out wires, and refresh batteries.

When buying an EMS device, make sure you also buy enough electrodes and replacement batteries. Share on X

Some systems, like the PowerDot and Compex, have enterprise management options that allow for remote monitoring of use and compliance, along with the ability to push a protocol to the athlete from the cloud. ARPwave has similar functions, but most of those are more for simple access of the equipment with settings than true management functions. Individuals may still want to use EMS devices that allow for remote access, as it’s useful to have the organizational benefits of the software and let experts access the information if needed.

Electrical muscle stimulation is a complementary solution for athletes that need a little bit more in their training or rehabilitation. Selecting the right device can be overwhelming at first, but focus on simple needs and try to experiment with a device beforehand by borrowing one from a friend or colleague. Each year, there is a new model released or a refinement made to existing models, and you should only consider upgrading when the benefits will make a difference in your setting.

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