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In the realm of sports, the pursuit of excellence is an enduring journey marked by dedication, resilience, and a relentless commitment to pushing physical and mental boundaries. Athletes—whether seasoned professionals or aspiring amateurs—constantly seek ways to enhance their performance and gain a competitive edge. As times change and we learn more about the physiology of the body, we understand that superior athletic performance is not entirely inherited but can also be earned through hard work. As we learn more about this matter, it brings high school athletes to ask: “How can I make myself better?” I believe the answer is correct guidance from professionals, including coaches, athletic trainers, and performance coaches.

Recently, I worked with 15 schools in our county to record sprint speeds for athletes. This assessment was for high school baseball athletes, who were required to run a 60-yard sprint, which we set up on a turf field with an electronic timing laser. We asked every coach to nominate three to five of their best athletes; after those nominations, we had the athletes run through a dynamic warm-up. Following their warm-up, we had all of the athletes run that 60-yard sprint. To bring out more of a competitive edge, each high school ran back-to-back—after one high school’s athletes ran, their average time would be given, and then the next school would proceed.

For the event, the total average time was recorded at 7.3 seconds—we compared this to the average for the high school baseball team we work with, whose average time was 6.9 seconds. After discovering the difference in sprint speeds, I talked to coaches about their off-season training programs, which sparked interest and training discussions.

Training to Improve Speed in Team Sports

When athletes reach middle school and high school, their level of development begins to decrease. Many public schools do not have the funds to find a professional who can help with development during these critical times.

When athletes reach middle and high school, their level of development begins to decrease. Many schools don’t have the funds for a professional to help with development during these critical times. Share on X

Over the last few years, I have led a strength and conditioning program for a local high school baseball team that has proved effective compared to the other public schools in the area. Before arriving at the school in 2019, the athletes took training into their own hands. Some trained under another sport for the fall or winter to prepare themselves for spring (football, basketball, cross country), some sought out help from local professionals, some lifted at local gyms on their own time, and others did no training at all.

I began with just a few of the team’s athletes who were looking to train at my facility; after months of training, they were prepared for the 2019 season when the spring came around. Following that season, the individuals I trained made the All-Conference list, and the head coach called and asked if he could send me any athletes who were not playing fall sports. Each year, then, we were able to make the athletes bigger, stronger, and faster for the season.

During this time, the team’s biggest goals have been to improve sprint speed and explosiveness. Following our GPP phase, this is a goal we can accomplish easily—over the years, our athletes have achieved their sprint speed goals following our training strategies.

The three primary training methodologies I use with my athletes are:

1. Post-activation potentiation training (PAP). PAP refers to the phenomenon by which acute muscle force output is enhanced as a result of contractile history and is the premise upon which “complex training” is based. It has been postulated that explosive movements may be enhanced if preceded by heavy resistance exercise. This phenomenon uses loads from 75%–95% of 1RM (e.g., 85% 3RM back squat followed by a hurdle hop) (Robbins, 2005). Some of the standard PAP training methods we used were with our main barbell movements. In our last off-season programming, our athletes paired:
   
   • Barbell back squats with a hurdle hop following the squat.
   • Barbell split lunges and split jumps.
   • Single-arm dumbbell bench and medicine ball slams.
   • Trap bar deadlifts and depth drops.
2. Weightlifting movements. Various research studies have reported improvements in sport and related performance (e.g., jump, sprint, and COD) associated with the implementation of weightlifting-based training methods. Weightlifting movements can also be broken into key positions to be strengthened and enhanced for athletic performance (e.g., jump shrug or hang high pull). The use of these high-velocity movements became a significant piece in training.We used clean progressions as some high-velocity movements to train our athletes. The overall goal is to keep the weight light but move it fast! Typical movements in our program include:
   
   • Barbell back squats with a hurdle hop following the squat.
   • Barbell split lunges and split jumps.
   • Single-arm dumbbell bench and medicine ball slams.
   • Trap bar deadlifts and depth drops.
3. Stressing the stretch-shortening cycle. This is an eccentric-concentric coupling phenomenon in which muscle-tendon complexes are rapidly and forcibly lengthened, or stretch loaded, and immediately shortened in a reactive or elastic manner (Nimphius, 2016). We can stress the stretch-shortening cycle in many ways. To prepare our athletes for their season doing this, we used different jumps, medicine balls, and more. Some standard ways our program stresses the stretch-shortening cycle are with:
   
   • Broad jumps.
   • Depth drops.
   • Medicine ball throws (overhead, seated rotational throws, behind the back).
   • Loaded verticals (max weight 15 pounds).
   • Landmine single-arm presses.

Where Qualified Coaches Make the Most Difference

During the WNC Fall Baseball Day, where our athletes averaged times that were .4 seconds faster than the rest of the schools, the first school I talked to had the right intentions but incorrect implementations. The resistance training program they ran had no variability. The exercises, sets, repetitions, and load of 1RM stayed the same for months at a time.

Another key difference was the implementation of their post-activation potentiation training. Their training called for 3×8 on bench at 65%–70% of their 1RM. Following that, they were prescribed eight medicine ball slams—compared to our program, which prescribes a heavier bench of 75%–95% of 1RM and 3–5 repetitions to recruit more motor units. Instead of eight medicine ball slams, we would prescribe three explosive medicine ball slams focusing on the explosiveness of the movements.

When talking to the athletes about their lifting—if they did any on their own—the typical responses were repetitions to failure, mile runs, drop sets, ladder drills, high repetition sets, and power cleans.

All of the athletes and coaches I spoke to had the goal of being more explosive, faster, and stronger. Many schools in the area have programs led by athletes who played at the college level or their head coaches, with degrees ranging from history and business to coaching, physical education, and health promotion. I failed to find a weight room attendant or coach with any certifications or degrees in exercise science, exercise physiology, or kinesiology.

Two coaches run our program: me, with a degree in exercise science and a certified strength and conditioning specialist (CSCS), supplemented by a pitching coach with a degree in exercise science who is a certified personal trainer (CPT).

My conclusion, after speaking with athletes and coaches from other schools, was that many athletes without guidance train with a bodybuilder mindset (e.g., drop sets, reps to failure, AMRPS). The incorrect application of training by themselves or by an unqualified weight room attendant can lead to adverse training effects.

Many athletes without guidance train with a bodybuilder mindset. The incorrect application of training by themselves or by an unqualified weight room attendant can lead to adverse training effects. Share on X

Resistance training must be heavy and fast. This will facilitate the development of fast-twitch muscle fibers. Another way to develop speed/fast-twitch fibers is by stressing the stretch-shortening cycle. Post-activation potentiation training should be executed by a heavy training stimulus (75%–95% of 1RM) (Nimphius, 2016).

Athletic development should be nurtured over time to help youth and high school athletes grow and succeed. My findings show that success and growth are not 100% down to the work ethic of athletes—there are athletes working very hard, just not in the right manner. Success and growth are also largely due to receiving proper guidance from coaches.

With correct guidance from a professional, we can help develop athletes to be the best they can be. Receiving proper guidance from coaches off the playing field can be essential to the success of a program or an individual athlete.

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

References

Nimphius BH. “Program Design and Technique for Speed and Agility Training.” Essentials of Strength and Conditioning, Fourth Edition. 2016.

Robbins DW. “Postactivation Potentiation and Its Practical Applicability.” Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2005;19(2):453–455.

Williams CE. “Youth Performance and Fitness—Strength and Conditioning Information for Parents.” Personal Training Quarterly. 2013.

My phone had overheated, so I could no longer check, but by all accounts, it was just over 110 degrees in Lancaster, California, as—for the second time in three years—I was beginning the home plate meeting of a USA Softball tournament championship with an apology.

“I’m sorry—we’re done. We can’t give you anything close to a real game.”

The opposing coach shook my hand and nodded—he already knew. Coming out of the winner’s bracket, his team from San Juan Capistrano had reached our late Sunday final by winning a single morning semifinal. Meanwhile, after staying alive with a win well after 10 p.m. Saturday night, we’d climbed out of the loser’s side of a double-elimination bracket on Sunday with grueling back-to-back-to-back-to-back wins, starting at the crack of the dawn and battling onward through the day’s escalating heat.

An hour northeast of Los Angeles, on the western edge of the Mojave, Lancaster is mostly known for hosting sports tournaments and having a stretch of road that vibrates the Lone Ranger theme if you drive your lane at a designated speed. Across the city’s sprawl of field complexes and city parks, the desert wind blasts bullying waves of dinge and tastes like freeway exhaust and fryer oil. As the Capo Beach girls warmed up with pop flies and pump-it-up music, my middle-schoolers zoned out around misters in our dugout, trading cooling towels and ice cream dreams.

The plate ump, Joe, winked and said he would put the game on a clock—he came from a family of umpires and liked to joke with the players about how he could still show the correct ball and strike count despite missing fingers on one hand. Instead of the seven-inning final dictated in the USA Softball rules for the B-State Championship, we’d just play for an hour and 20 minutes or until a mercy rule kicked in, whichever came first.

The Unnameable: Where Poetry Meets Performance

“You must go on, I can’t go on, I’ll go on.” – Samuel Beckett

In the world of sport, one of the most galvanizing moments is the injured or exhausted athlete rising off the track to limp, hobble, or even crawl across the finish line. The time is no longer of any consequence; the pure act of finishing the race is a triumph of the human spirit. Stay down or get up, that you-can-do-it inspiration quickens and swells an innate rooting response among spectators whose daily lives turn on small and large iterations of that exact decision.

I can’t go on…I’ll go on.

Touching a similar nerve, speed coach Derek Hansen recently sparked a discussion by posting a quote from poet and playwright Bertolt Brecht:

“Great sport begins at a point where it has ceased to be healthy.”

Context matters, and there’s a lot to unpack with Brecht—inspired by boxing, the German author sought ways to use the visceral spectacle of the ring as a vehicle to revolutionize a stagnant theater scene, wanting to recreate the same stripped-down and primal connection between fighters and a crowd on stage between actors and their audience (and, beyond that, to illuminate ways that sport and art could revolutionize the proletariat against a corrupt and decadent bourgeois class sliding toward fascism in pre-Hitler Weimer Germany).

But just as the boxers in Brecht’s work grappled with turning points where their raw gladiator’s instinct and will to stand triumphant demanded a sacrifice to their own health,¹ storied moments of “great sport” frequently follow the same narrative, whether Christian Pulisic throwing himself into a collision to score a crucial World Cup goal or Pat Mahomes having his ankle folded sideways between two linemen and staying on the field to captain the Chiefs to a playoff win.

Those moments of bravery or will—daring any physical costs to win or to endure—are not foundations to build our youth sports models around, says @CoachsVision. Share on X

These moments of bravery or will—daring any physical costs to win or to endure—are not, however, foundations to build our youth sports models around. With young athletes, progress is the purpose—to play your next game even better than you did the game before. When my teen athletes want to grit their teeth and grind through common injuries, exhaustion, or illnesses, I always repeat one of Tony Holler’s core tenets: never let today ruin tomorrow.

On a larger scale, however, with youth soccer, softball, baseball, basketball, volleyball—you name the sport—the ability to survive the schedule plays an increasingly large role in success, whether managing the accumulation of games across a calendar year or the number of games stacked over a single day/weekend in a tournament or showcase. Attrition has become a defining feature of the model and one of the most substantial obstacles to long-term player development, with players derailed from reaching their athletic potential due to injuries, burnout, or overwhelming costs (dollars, time, sacrifice of other interests, etc.).

Those indelible images of runners crawling across the finish line? It goes without saying that those are not the winners of those races—the ability to endure and the ability to excel are not one and the same. That statement reads so black and white that you could print it on stickers and T-shirts, but it’s never so straightforward. There is the game…and there is the marathon. Both press on, simultaneously, in and out of sync, intertwining, merging, amplifying, severing, and—at times—veering into a direct, sabotaging conflict.

How Many Games Do Young Players Play?

In San Diego—where I coach eighth and ninth graders on multisport-based club soccer and travel softball teams—the weather allows outdoor sports to be played year-round. Driven single-sport athletes can compete in those sports 52 weeks a year, filling any breaks for their school or club team by playing games with other team(s) in that sport; multisport athletes, meanwhile, juggle the same superimposed, year-round schedules, just as a more complex factor multiplication problem.

This past year, one of our opponents on the 14U travel softball circuit played 154 games from August 2022 to August 2023—or very nearly the number of regular season games of an MLB team. This was spread out over a year rather than a seven-month pro season, and a number of those 154 games were informal “friendlies”… but still, there are not many who would argue that the purpose of a 162-game MLB schedule is for the players to get progressively better as a result of that dense accumulation of game play and therefore perform at a definably higher level on game #150 than they did at game #50. The length of the MLB season is what it is because it maximizes annual revenue within what’s been settled upon as an acceptable threshold of performance decrement and injury risk.

Should I repeat that? A professional season in any sport is the length that it is because it maximizes annual revenue within an acceptable threshold of performance decrement and injury risk.

Even at the professional levels, that “threshold” is the subject of heated debate, whether by coaching staffs addressing the demands on a Premier League star also juggling Champions League games and national team duties or in collective bargaining discussions on the length of an NBA or NFL season (and accompanying pre- and post-seasons).

What is an acceptable threshold of performance decrement and injury risk for developing teen athletes?, asks @CoachsVision. Share on X

For developing teen athletes, though, what is an acceptable threshold of performance decrement and injury risk? That question comes into starker relief once you remove the counterweight and operate on the assumption that annual revenues do not, in fact, need to be maximized for this population. These are, after all, the athletes we should be investing in and not relying on as income drivers.

Finding the right answers relies on asking the right questions, and for individual youth players, the question of how many games are too many games is broadly unanswerable and falls into the dreaded it depends zone because of the extreme variability in:

• Roster sizes
• Positions and roles
• Playing time
• Competitive level and playing intensity
• Game length and game rules
• Travel/academic demands

One-hundred fifty softball games for a 14U team with 22 players on the roster, including five pitchers and four catchers, is an entirely different thing than 150 softball games for a 14U team with 13 players, including three pitchers and two catchers. That 15-year-old ECNL soccer player from figure 2?  She could be on a club team of 22 girls and a high school team of 26 and therefore accumulate significantly fewer game minutes across 60 games than another 15-year-old who plays 50 games on small roster teams where she’s grinding out 75–80 minutes every game.

That’s all before you consider the heap of non-game stressors. Do they practice two days a week or four? Are their practices nearby after school, or do they need to commute an hour through evening traffic just to get to a session that ends under nighttime lights? Are games local? Regional? National? Are they traveling out of state to compete in weekend-long, pressure-packed ID camps? Are they also doing strength or speed training? Do they play another sport? Are they taking AP/Honors classes with a high-stress academic load?

To paraphrase Indiana Jones…It’s not the games; it’s the mileage.

Rather than how many games are too many games, a more specific question for coaches, parents, and players is: How much fatigue is too much fatigue?, says @CoachsVision. Share on X

At a more individualized level, then, rather than how many games are too many games, a more specific question for coaches, parents, and players is: How much fatigue is too much fatigue?

Kids These Days

“Unpopular volleyball training tip of the week—coaches and parents, let your volleyball player take time off. They compete, they train, they practice, they do private lessons year-round. For our club, we stop structured training Tuesday night because of Thanksgiving Break, and then our athletes are off through Sunday. That’s a perfect opportunity to let their bodies rest and recover.”

Coach Missy Mitchell-McBeth shared these thoughts in a video on social media shortly before Thanksgiving, compelled to frame the notion of spending a few days off to rest/recover with family on a national holiday as an unpopular, out-of-step opinion.

And it is.

This holiday stretch is useful to narrow in on as it represents an annual collision of game and marathon, of today and tomorrow. With pesky inconveniences like school and work out of the way, the weekends bracketing Thanksgiving are marketed as a grind time where “the real” separate from the slacker pack. Showcases, specialty skills camps, college ID camps, tournaments, sunrise trainings: It’s on—are you willing to do what it takes to make it to the next level?

Except…all those things have already been on: as Coach Mitchell-McBeth points out, competitive student-athletes will have been competing, practicing, training, and doing private lessons without a break since at least Labor Day, though more likely from some point earlier in the summer.

If you won’t take time off for a national holiday, when will you?

Ten years ago, during this November holiday stretch, I interviewed Jay DeMayo (CVASPS) about managing fatigue with Richmond basketball:

“An important thing I’ve learned is to give them as much as they need, not as much as they can handle. When it comes to exercise or training, it’s not a matter of ‘what can these kids push through.’ Eventually you’re going to run out of wood to pound the nail into. It’s a matter of ‘what’s the dosage you need to give them for them to improve.’ And after you get to that, then why do you need to go further? Why do you need to tap into reserves that don’t need to be tapped into?”

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A post shared by High Tide Huffstutter09 (@hightidehuffstutter)

Image 1. A few days before Coach Mitchell-McBeth’s Twitter missive, I posted a “Happy Thanksgiving” note to the multi-sport players on my softball team, encouraging them to relax and enjoy 10 days off for the holiday after competing hard across multiple sports for the previous four months.

It’s never completely black and white—should those reserves be tapped into? For uncommitted high school upperclassmen in a prime recruiting window for their sport, there are tournaments/showcases/camps during this time that provide legit and timely access to coaches from colleges they want to play for. In this case, digging in and tapping into those reserves today can help create a desired tomorrow.

For most, however, Thanksgiving showcases, camps, tournaments, and sunrise trainings are indistinguishable from those available the other 51 weeks of the year across what author Christine Yu refers to as the “$19 billion youth sports industrial complex”² in her book Up to Speed, writing in the chapter “The Phenom Years”:

“With little advice to guide girls through this stage of life, athletes, parents, and coaches are left to fumble through the dark in a way that may compromise a young person’s long-term physical, mental, and emotional health, not to mention their love of sports.”

Like most team sport coaches, I’ve been on both sides of the equation, with teams that peaked at just the right time and teams that barely managed to crawl across the finish line…and the vexing part is the model/planning/philosophy was largely the same.

So, how much fatigue is too much? Start with conditions that prevent athletes from taking time off:

Factor #1: FOMO Knows No Fatigue

Even when the marathon has ground down their bodies and passion for the game, competitive kids and parents still retain a powerful compulsion not to be the ones stuck without a chair when the music stops.

Two days after Thanksgiving, Jacob Whitehead and Liam Tharme published an article in The Athletic diving deep into how the obsessive *Mamba Mentality* stimulates and impacts reward centers in the brain: “An Addictive Personality Can Facilitate Sporting Greatness—But What Are the Consequences?”

“The path to mastery is steep, alluring and slippery,” sports psychologist Jeremy Snape told Whitehead and Tharme. “For elite performers, the same obsessive drive for continual improvement and gratification can spill over.”³

Standards are set by that obsessive more more more mindset and a valorization of the grind. For athletes growing up online, they scroll TikTok and Snapchat and Instagram weekend after weekend and see posed, filtered, and geolocated highlights of their peers traveling further and further and playing more and more games. The urge not to be outdone is deeply entangled with their identities as athletes.

Hence: Unpopular volleyball training tip of the week—let your volleyball player take time off. Time off is unpopular. It’s a hard sell.

Antidotes:

• Hype your recovery. Brand it. High school football coaches succeeding in Feed the Cats-inspired “sprint-based” football programs know they’re rebelling against a massive body of tradition. They’re conspicuously not positioning themselves as “readiness-based football” or “recovery-based football”—Brad Dixon’s pillars, relentless, rest, repeat can win a FOMO battle with embrace the suck by selling rest as that key bit sandwiched between relentless and repeat.
• Out-do game play with your recovery activities. In the heat of the past two summer tournament seasons, we’ve taken my soccer team off the field for weekend excursions to a popular recreational lake and an axe-throwing facility. Last October, my softball players were dragging, so we passed on entering a Halloween tournament and sent them on a team outing to The Haunted Trail instead. Whatever your players like doing as much as they like competing, substitute that in place of games in the name of recovery and team bonding.

Factor #2: Coaches Know Tomorrow May Never Come

From the pros to college to high school to youth levels, player movement has become a defining feature of sport—holding a team together is now one of the hardest tasks for a youth coach. And not just year-to-year, but month-to-month.

Holding a team together is now one of the hardest tasks for a youth coach. And not just year-to-year, but month-to-month, says @CoachsVision. Share on X

Because of factor #1, club coaches know that if they don’t keep their players constantly playing, their most ambitious athletes—those who drive the game—will soon jump to a team that does. And high school coaches needing to rival pay-to-play versions of their sport often only have a compressed 10–12-week season to do so, which means pumping up and maxing out a game schedule. Coaches then zero their sights exclusively on the game in front of them—if they start zooming out on the marathon, the athletes are gone.

Antidotes: 

• Bridge club and high school schedules. Players 24 hours from completing a 20+ game fall club soccer season will take the field for volume-accumulation practices and winter pre-season games with their high school teams. For the athletes, this is not by any definition the *start* of a season, but simply a non-stop continuation—and the same for club coaches getting those players back in the spring just days removed from their winter high school playoffs. In these transitional phases, training and games need to make sense in the context of mid-season play—activities modeled on a traditional pre-season ramp-up phase should be evaluated and trimmed accordingly.
• Break for holidays. Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, and the 4th of July offer five natural weeks of recovery time in a playing year. Plan a couple more two-week off-stretches, assume each player will take at least a week off on a family vacation, anticipate rain/inclement weather for a week or two, and now, even without a formal off-season, you’ve reduced the yearly game load. On the coaching side, by this point I’ve heard almost every concern and complaint under the sun—how come we’re not playing on New Year’s Day? is not one of them.

Factor #3: Problems? The Parking Lot Doesn’t Care.

Sore ankles and knees? Sleep-deprived? Burned out? Limping through games on top of games? The parking lot charging each car through the gates $15 doesn’t care. The venue charging a $12 entrance fee to watch your kids on the court doesn’t care. The tournament organization charging each team a $1,200 registration fee doesn’t care, and the roster management service tacking a 5% surcharge onto that $1,200 tournament entry doesn’t care either.

The youth sports industrial complex has determined that the acceptable threshold of performance decrement and injury risk is any. Or, to be more accurate, that threshold never factors into calculations in the first place. If you follow the money in professional sports, at some point, you’ll land at an ownership group that ultimately has some stake in how well their players can perform, particularly later in a season. If you follow the money in youth sports, you run aground at an archipelago of loosely connected enterprises that share a common formula: more games = more revenue. Period.

Antidote:

• Be willing to play outside the system. This concept can come into conflict with the above point about cutting out superfluous pre-season games, but the ability to plan and execute games where the only end value is to the players—not parents wanting spectacle, not the youth sports industrial complex—can balance an athlete development program with games in service of the marathon. If great sport begins at a point where it has ceased to be healthy… there can be something healthy and sustainable about games that do not aspire to be great sport but serve the sole purpose of maturing the investment in your players over the long run.

Déjà Vu All Over Again

The first time I began the home plate meeting of a USA Softball tournament championship with an apology, the tone and terms were different.

“I’m sorry—we’re done. I don’t think we can give you anything close to a real game.”

“I don’t even know if playing this game is the right thing to do,” the other coach conceded, as we both acknowledged that who would win was not, at this point, in question.

They were entering just their second game of the day, the first of which they’d breezed through in a three-inning, 15-2 mercy rule win. Meanwhile, to reach the late afternoon final, my team had climbed out of the loser’s bracket, winning back-to-back-to-back-to-back games spanning 26 innings and 10 consecutive hours camped out in the same dugout.

Is playing this game the right thing to do? It’s always a judgment call—coaches make one after another, small and large. How much fatigue is too much fatigue?

Look. Listen.

Girls in the dugout singing songs and playing hand-clapping games. Kids who hadn’t pitched or caught all weekend excited for their chance to finally pitch and catch, and in a championship game, no less. Ice cream dreams made real; all team rules thrown out the window with frozen treats brought over from the snack shack. Tomorrow? Nothing to do but sleep in and go to the beach. “Great sport” may begin where it ceases to be healthy, but willfully subpar sport can begin and end in completely different places.

Why do you need to tap into reserves that don’t need to be tapped into?

Before answering that question, you have to ask where did those *reserves* come from in the first place? You can’t bank what you’ve never had. Earning those reserves takes a process of stress, recovery, and adaptation—while never letting today ruin tomorrow, Tony Holler pushes his 400m sprinters through purposeful, demanding lactate workouts intended to build those reserves for a future race.

“These workouts, like the 400, require a leap of faith. Acidosis creates a discomfort most athletes have never truly experienced. To call the pain intense would be like calling fire hot. The good news: the pain is temporary, the body will adapt quickly to become biochemically tougher, and we don’t have practice tomorrow!”

When kids are surveyed about what they enjoy most about youth sports, the feelings of confidence and pride from doing something challenging and the feeling of getting better at something with their teammates typically rank higher than immediate gratifications like winning or flashy team gear. Those impacts can translate more deeply—a recent study by Emily Nothnagle and Chris Knoester posed questions about perseverance, resilience, and work ethic as they relate to the quality of “grit,” with the researchers finding:

“The demonstration of more grit among respondents who participated in sport continually, after accounting for their perceptions of their athletic experiences’ effects on their work ethic, suggests that sport participation affects the development of grit to a greater extent than many people even realize.”⁴

I can’t go on…I’ll go on.

The downside from that same study? Adults who played youth sports but quit or dropped out actually scored lower in markers for grit than adults who had never participated in sports at all.

Is playing this game the right thing to do?

Out in the dust and heat and wind in Lancaster, after conceding to the San Juan Capistrano coach that we couldn’t provide great sport, my players took the field to an extended, touching, and rousing ovation from the boisterous Capo supporters— stay down or get up…you can do it, girls! And the players believed they could—they’d been in the same position before, having won those back-to-back-to-back-to-back games and battled out that fifth and final game of the day two years prior.

The ability to endure and the ability to excel are not one and the same. After the hour-and-20-minute time limit had elapsed, Joe the ump called “ballgame,” with Capo winning 10-5. It was not great sport, nor was it ever intended to be, but the girls closed out the final without giving up or being mercied—as parents from both sides of the stands stood for another rousing ovation, Joe came over to our dugout and presented the girls with the game ball, saying “I never give these away, but you girls are warriors and showed something special out here today.”

The game and the marathon. Across the long haul of a young athlete’s career, they cannot excel without learning to endure, and they cannot endure without being healthy enough to excel. Share on X

The game and the marathon. Across the long haul of a young athlete’s career, they cannot excel without learning to endure, and they cannot endure without being healthy enough to excel. How much fatigue is too much fatigue? Look. Listen. Coaching is one judgment call—one leap of faith—after another.

(Lead Photo by Erica Denhoff/Icon Sportswire)

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

References

1. Rebeccah Marie Dawson. “SPORT IST DER NERV DER ZEIT”:
THE POLITICS OF SPORT IN GERMAN LITERATURE, 1918-1962.” UNC.edu.

2. Christine Yu. Up to Speed. Riverhead Books. New York, 2023.

3. Jacob Whitehead and Liam Tharme. “An Addictive Personality Can Facilitate Sporting Greatness—But What Are the Consequences?” The Athletic.

4. Emily Nothnagle and Chris Knoester, “Sport Participation and the Development of Grit.” Leisure Sciences. June 2022.

Maces and clubs are among the world’s first pieces of man-made strength training equipment. Originating thousands of years ago, these tools have stood the test of time and offered value to those applying them.

Utilizing maces and clubs in a training program can fill several gaps that aren’t always met through traditional means of training. The construction of both pieces of equipment creates an offset in the load, intensifying even basic compound movement patterns and challenging trunk and grip strength. This also allows the user to train the shoulders in more open, expressive patterns, creating a fun and more stimulating training experience overall.

Utilizing maces and clubs in a training program can fill several gaps that aren’t always met through traditional means of training. Share on X

I understand that in the saturated space of fitness gimmicks and fads, something like maces and clubs can be drowned out. Yet these pieces of equipment have been a staple of many training programs for a reason. Like any piece of exercise equipment, they can be effective when used within the proper context. My personal experience with mace and club training has all been self-exploration. Looking into alternative training options with special population clients, I purchased a few pieces and began experimenting and training with the tools on my own.

Yes, I did some research and reached out to others in the field, but I do not believe that you need to be a mace or club guru to benefit from their use. Baseball and softball athletes, who have unique upper body demands, love the feel of shoulder prehab work with the clubs, and the mace comes second nature to them for training rotational power. The offset shift and grip demand of both tools help build up the necessary qualities for combat athletes to grip, rip, and prepare for the chaotic demands of their sports. And even with general pop clients just trying to be awesome at life, maces and clubs are great to keep their training fresh and challenging through simple yet different movements.

The purpose of this article is to go into detail on how to integrate maces and clubs into your own prescribed training programs, allowing you to offer more to those you train.

Getting Started with Maces and Clubs

To begin, here are a few notes and considerations when first selecting the weights of the club and mace. Each situation could vary, depending on the athlete’s training experience and abilities, but these are my recommendations:

• When beginning with a mace, 10 pounds is a great starting point for a new client (male or female). This is typically the lightest option, although there are sometimes lighter choices—unless you want to make maces a larger part of the training program, the 10-pound mace is most appropriate.

This size will be great to gain a feel for the implement and learn some basic movements. This is also the weight I started with—I consider myself fairly strong, and this was still a challenge for me to start.

• When selecting a heavier mace, understand that the weight isn’t like when progressing a dumbbell or kettlebell. A 10-pound increase in a mace is a BIG difference. (I know because that’s what I chose.) The 15-pound option would work better with a majority of athletes’ and clients’ training. Remember, these tools just help supplement my training programs and don’t make them up as a whole, so I don’t stress over having every weight selection.

In a perfect world, you could have three maces. One 10-pound for introductions, warm-ups, and prehab work. Then, one of 15–20 pounds for primary strength work and an advanced option of 20–25 pounds.

• When it comes to clubs, I would recommend a 5-pound pair to start, primarily for the upper-body prehab exercises. These movements do not need to be performed with a heavy load but rather with proper intention and range of motion. I have seen lighter clubs used in clinical rehab settings, but that’s not my domain.

From there, a single, 10–15-pound club can be used to gain a feel for the tool and develop some basic skills before moving up to a heavier weight. The same principles apply, where a 10-pound jump goes a long way, and our previous experience with strength progressions doesn’t help as much.

• I would recommend a similar setup as the mace and have a lighter club or club(s), 5 pounds; a base strength option, 10–15 pounds; and an advanced option, 20–25 pounds.

I would go with steel for both options just for durability purposes and feel. Onnit is a great resource where you can get a start on purchasing your equipment and also learn a lot about the specialization of the equipment.

Introduce these new tools while performing exercises you are already familiar with and confident instructing. Athletes can perform squats, press, pull, and hinge with these tools, and they can feel like brand-new exercises.

A progression layout to follow would be:

1. Introduce isometrics within these movements.
2. Execute the exercises focusing on control.
3. Perform more dynamic, fluid exercises.

Each of these three stages builds upon the prior one.

Isometric Exercises

By utilizing movements your athletes are already familiar with, you can also help them to better familiarize themselves with the mace or club and its unconventional nature. The offset of load requires more stability throughout the entire body, and especially the targeted areas, without having to alter the movement completely.

When training with the mace, make sure to keep a strong grip; holding the mace, you want to have the intention of pulling the mace apart. Doing so creates total body tension and lays the groundwork for the exercise. Maintain the weight in as balanced a manner as possible when performing each movement, not allowing the end weight to lower or raise past the rest of the implement. Adjusting your grip away from the end weight—creating a longer lever arm—will increase the difficulty level and amount of balance and strength required.

While training with the club follows similar protocols, the tool’s shorter nature allows for less room to adjust hand grip in relation to the weight. This is a never-ending battle when training with both tools, as there will be a constant need to maintain balance and control of the unruly weight.

Video 1. Isometric squats, split squats, bent rows, and other movements with clubs and maces.

The Basics: Incorporating Compound Movements

Building from the isometrics, the next step is performing the major compound movements using these tools. No matter how strong someone is, performing exercises such as the squat or overhead press with a mace or club is an entirely different feel, and a different type of strength is required to do so.

No matter how strong someone is, performing exercises such as the squat or overhead press with a mace or club is an entirely different feel, and a different type of strength is required to do so. Share on X

Just because a client or athlete has a strong back squat, bench press, or level of athleticism doesn’t mean they will excel with these pieces of equipment. There is never a moment of complete comfort when using either tool. It is a humbling experience when a 10-pound weight has you shaking, sweating, and falling over yourself. When holding the club or mace away from your body, there is such a high level of total body isometric strength required to prevent that weight from tipping or falling to the ground.

You may just slide your grip a half inch farther down, and all of a sudden, you’re wrestling with the weight of the world pulling you down. Like a ship in a thunderstorm, there is never a moment you can completely relax and be at ease.

When performing the movements, maintain balance and alignment with the midline as best as possible; once that’s mastered, you can begin to work away from that position. For example, holding the club on the left side of the body will cause a huge disturbance to balance and require more stability throughout the exercise.

Video 2. Basic mace exercises, including overhead press, goblet squat, RDL, and more.

Video 3. Basic club movements, including squats, reverse lunges, shoulder raises, and more.

Training the Shoulders

The mace and club are fantastic for building strength, mobility, and durability in the shoulders. No piece of exercise equipment allows for the freedom of movement and fluidity to train not only the shoulders but also the elbows, wrists, and grip strength.

This exercise selection is more technical, including movements such as swings around the head, extensions of the pieces, and more. When swinging the mace or club(s), there is an additional layer of connection required to the piece to perfect the timing and rhythm of the movement.

When performing these movements, remember that the objective is to move the mace or club around the body rather than the other way around.

Video 4. Dynamic swings and switches with a mace.

Video 5. Dynamic swings, rotations, pullovers, and twists with a club.

Training the Trunk

Almost any exercises performed with the mace and clubs involve trunk strength. Any of the previously demonstrated movements require a great deal of trunk stability and control to perform correctly. While it is an option to perform additional core work with these tools, it may not be required if the individual is new to this unconventional form of training.

If you do want to include a different training stimulus for direct trunk training, the mace and clubs work great since multiple layers of movements are interlaced within a single exercise. Share on X

If you do want to include a different training stimulus for direct trunk training, the mace and clubs work great since multiple layers of movements are interlaced within a single exercise. When using these tools, you can use weight in patterns you may typically not have before: movements demonstrating rotation, lateral flexion, diagonal patterns from all directions, and everything else in between.

Video 6. Club and mace trunk training exercises, including pull-throughs, plank rows, and half-kneeling woodchops.

Using these tools in training doesn’t have to be complicated. I like performing many of these exercises in the warm-up for 2–4 sets of 10–15 repetitions on each side, depending on the exercise. It is great for the individual to perform something different that they’re not accustomed to, and that allows them to continue to develop and grow within their training.

Key Takeaways

When beginning to use these implements, I would recommend first performing them yourself and then following the progression listed. First, use isometrics to become familiar with the tools, then transition to performing controlled foundational exercises, and finally, get a little more creative working in greater ranges of motion and freedom for the shoulders and trunk development.

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

Golfers don’t sprint. They don’t even jog. Old men can ride in a cart and play 18 holes without ever working up a sweat.

How could a sprint program have anything to offer to one of the world’s least athletic sports?

Golfers aren’t athletes? Before I get inundated with hate mail, let’s discuss “athleticism.”

Like every coach, when I say, “That kid is an athlete,” I’m saying that kid is fast and explosive. In my days as a basketball coach back in the ’80s, I coached a normal kid who averaged 25 points per game. He was a TERRIFIC PLAYER but was slow and couldn’t dunk. I got in trouble on a post-game radio show for saying the kid wasn’t very “athletic” after he scored 40 points in a game.

Call me crazy, but building athleticism will make any athlete better at their sport. More specifically, I encourage athletes to sprint fast, lift heavy, jump high, jump far, and bounce.

Golf coaches, please don’t quit reading! I know exactly what you’re thinking. When playing golf, players NEVER sprint, lift, jump, or bounce. NEVER. So why should we listen to this crazy track coach?

Stop Reverse-Engineering Your Sport

Seems all my ideas are counterintuitive. What’s wrong with me? It’s so much easier to just go with the prevailing winds. But then again, only dead fish swim with the current.

It makes perfect sense to train athletes specifically for their sport. Here’s the problem: training specifically for a sport doesn’t create better athletes, says @pntrack. Share on X

It makes perfect sense to train athletes specifically for their sport. Swimmers need to swim, hockey athletes need to skate, and golfers need to swing. Here’s the problem: training specifically for a sport does not create better athletes.

In football, specificity will tell you that wide receivers need to do 60 sprints. Offensive linemen only need a couple of quick steps and to push things. But train specifically, and you will ignore athleticism.

In soccer, goalies don’t have to run or sprint. Other soccer athletes need to train like cross-country runners to prepare for up to 9 miles of running in a game. But train specifically, and you will ignore athleticism.

If Stephen Curry runs 3.1 miles in every basketball game, he better be doing daily runs of 3.1 miles, right? Nope, Stephen Curry needs to be the best ATHLETE he can be, especially as he ages.

At the risk of becoming redundant, stop training golfers as golfers!

Why Sprinting Makes a Better Golfer

Linear maximum-velocity sprinting, in spikes, getting timed, is the most extreme movement of the human body.

I repeat, linear max-velocity sprinting, in spikes, getting timed, is the most extreme movement of the human body.

Whether you are Usain Bolt sprinting at 27.6 mph or a 64-year-old track coach topping out at 12 mph, sprinting requires maximal involvement of the central nervous system (CNS). Nothing else comes close. In the weight room, maximum bar speeds never exceed 5 mph.

The CNS controls all movement, and the brain is a protective mother. Kids with poor eyesight never win races (consider the eyes as a part of the brain).

Speed is more electrical than muscular. Muscles are dumb; they do what they are told, at the speed that the CNS tells them to contract. Speed is neurological.

Since all movement is neurological, controlled by the CNS, speed is the tide that lifts all boats. When you train the EXTREME, you train the RANGE. Improving max speed not only improves efficiency at sub-max speeds, it also improves an athlete’s ability to move in all directions. I’ve often timed my track team running backward. Guess who wins? Yep, the fastest guy running forward is also the fastest guy running backward because the CNS controls all movement.

When you train the EXTREME, you train the RANGE. Improving max speed not only improves efficiency at sub-max speeds, it also improves an athlete’s ability to move in all directions, says @pntrack. Share on X

Acceleration? The fastest athletes at max speed are your fastest accelerators.

Let’s take this to the next step.

Want to improve skate speed for hockey players? Sprint.

Want to improve a basketball player’s quickness and ability to jump? Sprint.

Want to improve as a swimmer? Sprint.

When you train the EXTREME, you train the RANGE.

Unless you play a sport where there is absolutely no movement, you better be sprinting. Having said this, I’ve spoken to people who hypothesize that improvements in sprint speed may contribute to cognitive speeds. Chess?

Speaking of cognitive improvements, I study writers. Seems every writer claims WALKING is critical to the creative process. Writer’s block? Go for a walk.


My hypothesis: If walking is so good for the brain, the most extreme movement, sprinting, may be even better. What if we added a third composite brain to Dr. Hillman’s research? What would a brain look like after a 20-minute sprint workout? I predict all reds and yellows. We might be on to something!

Never Slow Down, Never Grow Old

Tom Petty knew his stuff.

I believe the fountains of youth are:

1. Weight
2. Speed
3. Sleep

Those three things are related because gravity is the number one enemy of speed, so being overweight makes you slow. And without sleep, the CNS does not reset and gets sluggish. Tired and sleepy people are slow. My final take on this subject: sprinting is really good for controlling your weight and getting a good night’s sleep.

I would love to see someone bold enough in the baseball world to train aging players differently. Instead of lifting and doing cardio, sprint-train aging baseball players. From what I know, no one does this. No one. I’m sure people will argue that they “run sprints” or that “running poles” is sprinting, but it’s not. Sprinting is not “running fast” or “working hard.” Sprinting is different.

I would love to see someone bold enough in the baseball world to train aging players differently. Instead of lifting and doing cardio, sprint-train aging baseball players, says @pntrack. Share on X

My definition of sprint: sprinting in a straight line at max speed, wearing track spikes, and getting timed. If you don’t push the limits of the CNS, the CNS gets depressed, and speed deteriorates. The road to getting slower is all downhill.

It’s no secret: when baseball players are over the hill, two things leave them—bat speed and cognitive speed (see the ball, hit the ball hard). The average professional baseball player retires before they turn 30, even though all of them are STRONGER than they were as rookies. I bet their sprint speeds are nowhere near where they were as rookies. They’ve gotten old and slowed down.

I Thought This Was a Golf Article?

Guilty as charged, but it’s important to see the big picture, too.

This article is really about the central nervous system and its absolute control over the most extreme movement in the human experience: sprinting.

I was having dinner a year ago with Les Spellman and Brian Kula. Les was talking about the undeniable relationship between the CNS and speed. I added my insight that too many people see speed through a muscular lens instead of an electrical lens. Then, Brian Kula told a story that will be forever etched into my brain.

Brian told us about improving the sprint speed of a female golfer and how she consequently improved her club head speed. Hmmm…maybe speed is truly the tide that lifts all boats.

Eleven months later, I wanted to hear the exact story so I could include it in this article. Brian referred me to his right-hand man, Taylor Nelson-Cook of Kula Sports Performance, who worked directly with two female golfers, Elle Higgins and her sister, Brenna Higgins. Both of these girls improved their maximum sprint velocity by a whopping two mph!

Of course, when max speed improves, acceleration improves, too, and it did. But here’s the stunner: their club head speed improved by 15 mph. Elle is now golfing at the University of Montana, and Brenna is at Valor Christian High School, where she was named 5A Golfer of the Year in Colorado.

Elle and Brenna Higgins were not trained as golfers but as sprint-based athletes. Their training was no different than Brian Kula’s training of Christian McCaffrey (who also attended Valor Christian H.S.). At Kula Sports Performance, they do not reverse-engineer sports; they create athletes.

Six weeks ago, I began consulting with Jonathan Ochoa, a golf coach in Spain. Jon has become a disciple of what he calls “Feed the Cats Golf.” Jon has initiated a “Sprint, Drive, Pitch, and Putt” competition with his students. In addition, Jon has started sprinting himself, improving his 40 time from a 5.07 to a 4.89. Jon’s club speed has improved from 110 mph to 117 mph.

Kyle Berkshire is the World Champion Driver. His club head speed is an eye-popping 157 mph (PGA average is 116 mph), his ball speed is 241 mph, and his world record drive is 579.6 yards.

In a 2020 article about his training, Kyle Berkshire listed four things. The most counterintuitive part of his training is, of course, SPRINTING:

“I’m a believer in doing things that allow your body to move at its fastest without relying on mechanics or positions. That’s why I like to do sprints. When you bust out of the blocks, you aren’t thinking about technique. You’re just going. That’s what long driving is all about, too. Release your inner athlete, no matter your age.” –Kyle Berkshire

To understand the freaky athleticism required to drive a golf ball 579 yards, you must check out this two-minute clip. It’s amazing!

What Would Speed Training Look Like?

What if I told you that your investment in speed could be less than three minutes a week?

Whether you’re a soccer player, lacrosse player, rugby player, baseball player, or golfer, three minutes of work in two to three speed sessions a week could do the trick. This is called my Atomic Workout.

Atoms are the smallest unit of matter but are also incredibly powerful. My Atomic Workout is NOT optimal; it’s atomic… the least we can do and still challenge the CNS. If highly organized, you can do the Atomic Workout in 15 minutes, and you will do only 60 seconds of work. Make sure you have a solid timing system. Hundreds of high school football teams have replaced their traditional worthless warm-up with the Atomic Workout.

The key thing here is to develop a sprint habit and stay as consistent as you can, sprinting two to three times a week. Perform the speed drills as well as you can, but remember, it’s the max-velocity sprinting that’s most important. Michael Boyle says consistent sprint training allows the body to “self-organize.” In other words, the body starts to figure things out. As you get faster, your drills will become more fluid. Your speed drills will feed your sprinting, and your sprinting will feed your speed drills.

The key thing with my Atomic Workout is to develop a sprint habit and stay as consistent as possible, sprinting 2–3 times a week. Remember: it’s the max-velocity sprinting that’s most important. Share on X

If you are already pretty athletic and want to optimize your work, you should not do more sprinting (remember, we should only sprint two or three days a week). If you want more work, you should do X-Factor exercises on one or two of your off days. These are exercises that fast people do well and slow people do poorly. The #1 rule of X-Factor work is never to burn the steak.

It takes time to get good at X-Factor work. My freshmen are typically awkward and uncoordinated. By the time they are sophomores, they are good enough to demonstrate for our new incoming class.

Nantes, France

On Monday, December 11, at 6:30 p.m., I will speak in St. Sebastien sur Loire, a suburb of Nantes. My presentation is titled “The Unexpected Benefits of Raising the Ceiling of Speed: From Bodies to Brains.”

My audience will include coaches, cognitive scientists, and sports scientists. The presentation will be open to the public, but you need to register. My presentation will be in English but will be translated into French.

Address:

Maison des Associations René Couillaud

6 rue des Becques

44230 Saint-Sébastien-sur-Loire

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

Core strength, along with defining the requisite anatomy, has been a longstanding topic of debate among strength coaches and practitioners. Despite the ambiguity and dismissiveness surrounding the subject, I have found significant value in emphasizing core strength with almost any athlete I’ve ever worked with. This became particularly evident during my time working with Navy SEAL personnel, who are often plagued by extensive injuries and movement limitations.

Regardless of sport or level of play, the core is essential for connecting and coordinating movements while also playing a primary role in transmitting kinetic forces, says @danny_ruderock. Share on X

Relative to conventional athletes, regardless of the sport or level of play, the core is essential for connecting and coordinating movements while also playing a primary role in transmitting kinetic forces. In this article, I will cover specifically what the core is, why it is significant for sport performance, and, importantly, how we can get the most out of our training to improve core strength and function by utilizing the Keiser.

Defining and Understanding the Core

Anatomically, the core can be observed as any muscles, connective tissue, or fascia that attach to or act on the spine, rib cage, or pelvis. Collectively, these tissues act to flex, extend, rotate, or bend the adjacent appendicular skeleton and assist in connecting the upper and lower extremities.

From a functional sense, the core muscles are arranged in a unique manner and tend to have lower relative contractile capacities than the muscles of the arm or leg. Additionally, these are generally smaller muscles with smaller cross-sectional areas while also having a wider range of orientation and pennation angles due to possessing more precise mechanical actions. For instance, the quadratus lumborum (QL) and the transverse abdominis are essential core muscles and, despite their relatively low contractility, play a key role in stabilizing and integrating the pelvis and rib cage.

Another way of understanding core anatomy and function is by observing the body through a fascial lens, which is something I have discussed at great lengths over the years. As it applies here, the myofascial lines provide a perfect illustration of the direct interconnectedness of the human body and the integrative function of our anatomy—no muscle ever, in any case, works in isolation.

As shown in the graphic below, the primary myofascial lines include several crucial core muscles, such as the lats, adductors, glutes, and obliques. When we are able to get beyond the myopic view of independent muscles and their isolated actions, we can better see the demand for having multiple independent structures providing specific functions that contribute to a global pattern or outcome. This, in the purest sense, is how the core functions.

The function of the core is multifaceted, but it can primarily be seen as transmitting and connecting forces throughout the body. This requires some combination of resisting forces, managing reciprocating forces (torque), rotating, bending, and transmitting forces. Common and straightforward examples of this include coordinating hip and arm action during sprinting, maintaining pelvic stability during single-leg landing, and thoracic rotation and trunk reciprocation during throwing actions. Analyzing the core in this way should help to illuminate the parallels to the primary fascial lines and how this significantly expands the relevant muscle groups and movements that can be classified as core training.

Rather than seeing core training as applying independent exercises, view core training as standard, global patterns that are modified to emphasize certain mechanical actions of the core. Share on X

You shouldn’t need me to tell you, but specific or isolated core movements like crunches, leg lifts, Russian twists, etc., should seldom, if ever, be utilized. The conventional applications of core training have very limited redeemable value for athletes. Rather than seeing core training as applying independent exercises, view core training as standard, global patterns that are modified to emphasize certain mechanical actions of the core. These standard patterns should simply reflect the actions and positions observed in sport.

For instance, as opposed to doing a standard Palloff press or static cable chop, integrate those actions into bigger patterns like lunges, locomotion, or bending. Having the athlete move from positions that are commonly experienced in sport while stressing the predominant vectors is really the boundary from which you need to work. And this is where the Keiser comes into the spotlight.

Benefits and Applications of the Keiser

As I covered in a previous article discussing the Keiser for arm care, the overarching benefit to using the Keiser is the wide range of variability that it can add to the movements being performed. Additionally, the Keiser makes it very easy to replicate sport-specific positions, patterns, and vectors; by default, I suppose this is why I find so much value in using the Keiser for core training.

The ability to load multiple planes, patterns, and positions is essential for beneficial core training. When we can adjust the height and angle of the arms and utilize very precise loading, we can stress virtually any fascial line and/or muscle group. The dynamic fulcrum of the Keiser provides a means to load very specific patterns, which can be beneficial by allowing athletes to move through patterns or sequences that are more comfortable or effective.

While we want to see certain foundations of movement, an overemphasis on “perfect” weight room technique may become consequential for athletes. For this reason, I emphasize variability with Keiser movements for my athletes. I believe a foundational element of core training is having some level of reactiveness integrated into the training, and when using the Keiser, no two reps will be identical.

I believe a foundational element of core training is having some level of reactiveness integrated into the training, and when using the Keiser, no two reps will be identical, says @danny_ruderock. Share on X

The resistance type is another definitive feature of the Keiser equipment and an aspect that is beneficial for core training. As I’ve covered, transmitting forces and connecting movement patterns is the central function of our core. The pneumatic resistance mechanism allows athletes to accelerate completely through ranges of motion, something not possible with static loading. But, in doing so, we are able to stress the core at angles and ranges that just aren’t possible with most contemporary equipment or load types.

An important note here is also the significance of applying eccentric load to the core in these types of positions. The muscles of the trunk—obliques, transverse abdominis, QL, glute med.—are rarely eccentrically loaded during daily life, sport, or standard training. I have found a lot of value in applying eccentric tempos during patterns that stress these areas.

Amplifying Core Training with Keiser Movements

Collectively, between the positions, ranges, and vectors we’re able to work through, along with the pneumatic resistance type provided, the Keiser offers a premium opportunity for strengthening the core. While just a handful of the countless movements you can utilize for the purposes of core training, the six exercises listed below are the ones I tend to program frequently with my athletes.

Some general notes and framework for each of the following movements:

• • Each of these can be considered an intermediate to advanced movement.

 

• • They should be classified as accessory (Block 2–4) movements.

 

• • They should be performed for 2–3 sets of 5–8 reps.

 

• • These should be progressed through increased load, tempo applications, stressing new ranges/vectors, adjusting load placement or implement, or adding variability to combinations/movements.

 

• Although the Keiser can be seen as the optimal means for loading, you can effectively replicate most of these exercises with a standard cable or band setup.

1. Cross Row to Press

What I like:

1. Controlling foot COP throughout transitions of movement.
2. Reciprocating trunk (thoracic) action.
3. Scapular demand/movement.

Video 1. Cross Row to Press.

2. Forward Lunge with Cross Chop

What I like:

1. Spring action of back foot under load.
2. Scapular demand/thoracic reach.
3. Eccentric load on obliques.

Video 2. Forward lunge with Cross Chop.

3. OH Side Bend from Split

What I like:

1. QL and oblique eccentric loading.
2. Lateral line/lat stretch.
3. Ipsilateral compression of rib cage.

Video 3. OH Side Bend from Split.

4. Dynamic Drop to Split

What I like:

1. Rib-hip disassociation (dynamic).
2. Thoracic reach.
3. Hip IR/foot pronation control.

Video 4. Dynamic Drop to Split.

5. Curtsy to Lateral Lunge with OH Reach

What I like:

1. Combination of lunge patterns (adductors/abductors).
2. Thoracic-pelvic coupling.
3. Loaded lateral hip flexion. 

Video 5. Curtsy to Lateral Lunge with OH Reach.

6. Dynamic Rotational Extension

What I like:

1. Loaded dynamic extension (safely).
2. Closed chain hip internal rotation.
3. High-velocity coordination.

Video 6. Dynamic Extension.

Keiser Is an Asset

Keiser equipment has become increasingly popular over the last few decades, and although it may not be a requirement for effective training and programming, it’s certainly a tremendous asset. As this applies to core training, there are several advantages to implementing Keiser for core work. Beyond the versatility, precision of load, and allowance of a wide range of vectors to move through, the Keiser permits the athlete to move intuitively and naturally in ways that best replicate the patterns observed in sport.

The Keiser permits the athlete to move intuitively and naturally in ways that best replicate the patterns observed in sport, says @danny_ruderock. Share on X

For all intents and purposes, Keiser work—especially core-specific work—can be viewed primarily as accessory options that are performed after your big/primary lifts. In some cases, such as return to play, we can utilize the Keiser patterns more as primary movements, but for standard cases, these exercises typically populate my later blocks.

I encourage you to be experimental with these patterns and, rather than just seeing increased load as the only route for progression, utilize an array of hand and body positions, movement combinations, and directions of applied load. You can progress and develop these movements in endless ways, and I believe coaches should prioritize this as they look to progressively increase the demands of core training.

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

Before diving into the specifics of the different energy systems, it’s important to define what the broad term “conditioning” means. Joel Jamieson defines conditioning as “a measure of how well an athlete is able to meet the energy production demands of their sport” (see author’s note below). This means that a basketball player who can jump, cut, and shoot efficiently while still making it back on defense for the entirety of the game is just as conditioned as a long jumper who can jump and recover three or more times during a meet.

Simply put—conditioning is specific to the sport at hand.

Oxford Languages defines aerobic exercise as any exercise intended to improve the efficiency of the body’s cardiovascular system in absorbing and transporting oxygen. The more efficient your body is at transporting oxygen to muscles, and the better your muscles are at absorbing oxygen, the better your aerobic fitness is. The aerobic system produces the vast majority of energy that we use during daily activities (walking, writing, standing up and sitting down, etc.) and can produce energy for hours on end. This energy is produced in the form of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is the fuel your muscles run on.

The aerobic system is often referred to as an athlete’s gas tank—the larger an athlete’s gas tank, the longer they can compete at or near maximal efficiency. It’s common to think that aerobic fitness is only important in endurance sports like cross country or swimming, but this is false.

It’s common to think that aerobic fitness is only important in endurance sports like cross country or swimming, but this is false. Share on X

Regardless of what sport is being discussed, all three energy systems are working behind the scenes at different times. For an Olympic weightlifter, where success is primarily based on the abilities of the anaerobic alactic system, the aerobic system is responsible for recovery between attempts. This is crucial for success, as first attempts are often used as an extension of the warm-up. If an athlete can’t properly recover between each lift attempt, their results will be poor.

An important note about the aerobic system is that it is the only energy system that can use both fats and carbohydrates to produce ATP. This is important because fat as a fuel source can produce approximately nine calories per gram, more than twice the amount that carbs can produce, at around four calories per gram. While this means the aerobic system has a much larger capacity for energy production, the process of breaking down fat for fuel takes much longer than breaking down carbs. With this increased capacity comes a decreased rate of energy production—meaning the aerobic system cannot produce energy for high-intensity, explosive movements (sprinting, jumping, etc.).

There are various ways to measure aerobic fitness. While the gold standard is a lab-based VO2 Max test, this is often not the best option for sports teams for multiple reasons (cost, test length, necessity for proper equipment, etc.). In a team setting, there are a number of standardized tests that will work well.

One of the most common aerobic fitness tests is the beep test. This test is straightforward, can be done with large groups, and can easily be used to assess the effectiveness of a conditioning program. I personally use the 1200m shuttle test, also called the Bronco test, to test my athletes’ max aerobic speed. This allows me to specify personalized distances for various conditioning workouts.

My coaching staff and I recently tested 80+ athletes’ max aerobic speed in under 45 minutes. Quick and efficient is often the name of the game in my world as a high school strength coach, and the 1200-meter shuttle test definitely fits that description.

This article will look at the aerobic system: what it is, the physiology behind it, and various methods to improve it in different levels of athletes (techniques to build an aerobic base as a beginner, intermediate, and advanced athlete). It will provide practical examples and methods for coaches looking to increase their athletes’ aerobic conditioning.

 Author’s note: Throughout these articles on conditioning, the main citation used will refer to Joel Jamieson’s Ultimate MMA Conditioning. While this book is specific to mixed martial arts, the methods discussed in it can be applied to any sport, from cross country to shot put. During my years as an athletic performance student, my mentors referred to Ultimate MMA Conditioning as the gold standard for energy system development (ESD). As I have ventured into running a year-round high school athletic performance program for various sports, I have found Jamieson’s methods to be second to none.

How Do You Improve Your Aerobic Fitness?

There are three main components of aerobic energy production:

1. Oxygen supply (responsibility of the respiratory system and the heart).
2. Oxygen utilization (efficiency of the muscles’ ability to utilize oxygen).
3. Substrate availability (amount of fats and carbs readily available).

Breaking down the aerobic system into these three parts makes it easy to understand what needs to be done to improve aerobic fitness. Simply put, you can improve your aerobic fitness in three ways: increasing the amount of oxygen supplied to the muscles, increasing the efficiency of these muscles’ ability to utilize oxygen, and increasing the amount of fats and/or carbs available for energy production.

To improve the heart and respiratory system’s ability to transport oxygen to the muscles, cardiac output needs to be improved. Cardiac output can be defined as the amount of oxygenated blood that your heart can distribute per pump. This can be improved by:

1. Increasing the size of the left ventricle.
2. Increasing how hard the heart can squeeze (contractility).

(This will be covered in more depth in the next section.)

Next is oxygen utilization. To improve the muscles’ efficiency in utilizing the oxygen that is transported from the heart, muscle fiber types need to be discussed. Muscle fibers can be split into two general categories: slow-twitch (type I) and fast-twitch (type II). For the aerobic system, an increase in the size and efficiency of slow-twitch muscle fibers is key.

Substrate availability is the third and final piece of building better aerobic fitness. The body stores fats and sugars, which are then used (along with oxygen) to produce energy during exercise. In the absence of these two fuel sources, the aerobic system basically runs dry. The more substrates the body can store, the better the aerobic system can perform.

If one of these aspects of the aerobic system is improved, aerobic fitness will increase. If two or all three of these aspects can be improved, aerobic fitness will be significantly better, and the athlete will be able to perform at a much higher level for a much longer period.

Improving the Aerobic System for a Beginner Athlete

For a new athlete with no aerobic base established, the focus should be primarily on the body’s ability to transport oxygen to the required muscles. If the heart and respiratory system can be made stronger and more efficient, the athlete will soon realize they have a lot of potential to increase the size of their gas tank.

For a new athlete with no aerobic base established, the focus should be primarily on the body’s ability to transport oxygen to the required muscles, says Alex Roberts & @Steve20Haggerty. Share on X

As mentioned above, cardiac output is the amount of oxygenated blood that your heart can distribute per pump. Training cardiac output is simple (not easy) and requires a high volume of low-intensity conditioning. Any exercise that can be done at a steady state for an extended amount of time (at least 30 minutes, preferably between 45 and 90 minutes) can be used for low-intensity conditioning. Think jogging, biking, swimming, jumping rope, etc.

Sport-specific drills can also be used here. The same exercise doesn’t have to be used for the entire session. An example would be: jog for 15 minutes, perform sport-specific drills for another 15 minutes, and finish with another 15-minute jog. This can break up the monotony of jogging for 45 minutes. Keep in mind what sport team is being trained: If the athletes play a field sport, jogging is ideal. Don’t have soccer players swim for 30 minutes and expect their on-field conditioning to improve.

Most beginner athletes with no aerobic base will likely be young athletes just getting into training. We run a summer strength and conditioning program for incoming freshmen every summer. If you’ve ever tried to have a freshly graduated eighth grader jog for 30 minutes in the Midwest heat and humidity, you know it doesn’t work very well. While we do perform long-duration, low-intensity conditioning with them, we also implement game-based cardio. We have various games and relay setups that will keep them working at a low intensity level, and they are much more content playing a game for conditioning than jogging for long periods.

An example of game-based cardio we use throughout the summer is “Ultimate Ball.” Fields that are 50 yards long and 30 yards wide work well, but dimensions can vary based on available space. Set up two end zones with cones, each 10 yards deep. An easy way of setting up fields quickly is to use the width of a football/soccer field as the field’s length. This way, three fields can be set up on one field.

The rules are as follows:

• Using a football or any other ball, teams pass the ball to each other with the ultimate goal of catching the ball in the end zone.
• When a player catches the ball, they can only take three steps forward. (They can move backward/laterally as much as they want.)
• The other team gains possession if a pass is incomplete and touches the ground.
• The crucial factor is that players are constantly moving—if players take too long to pass the ball, give them a “shot clock” of 3–5 seconds.

Teams of 5–8 are ideal, but we’ve run teams of 12 with large groups. The game lasts 10 minutes, and at the end of the game, we switch which teams play.

An important note: the easiest way to ensure that cardiac output is, in fact, being trained is to base the work off of heart rate, says Alex Roberts & @Steve20Haggerty. Share on X

An important note: the easiest way to ensure that cardiac output is, in fact, being trained is to base the work off of heart rate. To revisit the physiology of cardiac output: the main objective is to increase the size of the left ventricle and to increase the heart’s contractility. If the heart is beating at too high of a rate, the heart won’t fully expand and fill with blood, leading to a different training stimulus.

An easy heart rate guideline for cardiac output training is as follows: the athlete’s heart rate should be 130–150 beats per minute for high school- and collegiate-aged athletes. Teach athletes how to check their heart rate themselves. Have everybody count their beats for 10 seconds (using the carotid artery) and multiply that number by six to find their heart rate. To make it even simpler, give them an adjusted rate that can be used for a 10-second count. For example, they’re spot on if their 10-second heart rate is between 22 and 25. If any higher or lower, adjust as needed.

An easier but less accurate method is the conversation check. If an athlete can hold a conversation with a partner while conditioning, chances are their heart rate is in the appropriate range for cardiac output. Obviously, using heart monitors or a wearable device that gives heart rate readouts is ideal, but that’s not realistic for my setting at the high school level.

An example progression of cardiac output sessions can be found below.

Improving the Aerobic System for Intermediate Athletes

An athlete who has completed at least 12 weeks of consistent cardiac output training can be considered “intermediate” in the sense that their aerobic system has a good foundation that can be built upon. These athletes might be getting bored with jogging for 30+ minutes with their heart rate at 145 bpm. Increasing the time of these cardiac output training sessions every three to four weeks would be sufficient to continue to build up the athlete’s gas tank, and they can be easily progressed in this way for months on end.

Another option would be to add a second priority and focus on increasing the size and efficiency of the athletes’ slow-twitch muscle fibers. Rather than replacing the cardiac output session with a slow-twitch session, complete at least 30 minutes of cardiac output, then add a slow-twitch session afterward.

What does this look like?

A great way to increase the oxidative abilities of slow-twitch muscle fibers is via Jamieson’s ‘tempo method.’ An example of an aerobic tempo would be to assign a 2020 tempo during the squat. Share on X

A great way to increase the oxidative abilities of slow-twitch muscle fibers is via what Jamieson calls the “tempo method.” Most coaches are probably familiar with weight room tempos. They involve working under specific tempos during movements in the weight room. General tempos bring much value outside the desired conditioning stimulus (hypertrophy, coordination, fine-tuning technique) relevant to this discussion.

An example of an aerobic tempo would be to assign a 2020 tempo during the squat. This means the lift’s eccentric and concentric portions last two seconds, with no pause at the top or bottom. This is different from “normal” (strength or hypertrophy) weight room tempos; an important detail is that pauses at the top or bottom give the muscles a quick chance to recover, which will take away from the oxidative demands of these muscles.

Another detail Jamieson mentions is to use continuous breathing. Again, different than traditional tempos, but max strength is not the desired stimulus. To increase the oxidative abilities of an athlete’s muscles, the oxygen supply needs to be as continuous as possible.

To better understand why an athlete would want larger slow-twitch fibers when they’re not nearly as powerful as fast-twitch fibers, it’s essential to dive a bit deeper into the physiology of what slow-twitch fibers bring to the table. Apart from being responsible for long-endurance activities, slow-twitch fibers also assist in improving the endurance capabilities of fast-twitch fibers. Lactate is a byproduct of anaerobic exercise (which fast-twitch fibers are responsible for) and can be oxidized and converted into ATP with the help of—you guessed it—slow-twitch muscle fibers. So, the larger the slow-twitch fibers, the better the endurance of the fast-twitch fibers. A true win-win.

Three to five sets of 8–10 reps, with the 2020 tempo discussed above, are sufficient to improve the oxidative abilities of slow-twitch fibers. Any compound movement already included in the strength program can be used. As any coach who has used tempos in the weight room will support, that two-second eccentric/concentric tempo will quickly turn into a one-second tempo and might be half a second by the time the third set is reached. With this in mind, it would be smart to prescribe a 4040 tempo, knowing that four will probably be a two.

A notable advantage of the tempo method is that it takes place during strength training sessions, so it’s not another running workout. If the athletes are already familiar with the compound movements in which the aerobic tempos will be prescribed, this method can be trained at the same time as cardiac output. Simply add the tempo method to weight room movements during the accumulation phase of the program. This should fit well with everything else taking place at this point in the program and doesn’t require adding a session after the cardiac output session.

Improving the Aerobic System for Advanced Athletes

For those athletes who have built a legit aerobic base after training the two above-mentioned methods for at least 12 weeks each (either concurrently or separately), it’s time to intensify their aerobic training. As the competitive season approaches, cardiac output and the oxidative abilities of slow-twitch fibers should be solidified.

Explosive Repeat

As sports practices become more and more frequent and intense, athletes might even be getting cardiac output training during practice, depending on the sport. With the residual effects of aerobic endurance being around 30 days, the focus of aerobic training can be shifted to the aerobic endurance of fast-twitch muscle fibers. This can be done using the “explosive repeat” method, which Jamieson attributes to Yuri Verkhoshansky.

The explosive repeat method can drastically improve the recovery capabilities of fast-twitch fibers between explosive sport-specific movement, which is crucial in many sports. Share on X

A straightforward training method that can easily be progressed and intensified week after week, the explosive repeat method involves athletes performing explosive exercises repeatedly—hence the name. This method can drastically improve the recovery capabilities of fast-twitch fibers between explosive sport-specific movements, which is crucial in many sports.

The movement used should be as explosive as possible, with the goal being to get the heart rate as high as possible. The athlete is then given time to recover before repeating this exercise.

Optimal exercises for lower-body sessions are weighted squat jumps (can use a bar, goblet variations, or one dumbbell/kettlebell in each hand) or jumping weighted lunge switches (best using a weighted vest or a goblet variation). The best upper-body exercises are either plyometric push-ups or power-focused bench presses. Creativity helps here, as these are not the only exercises you can use. As long as the exercise is an explosive movement that athletes can perform for continuous reps, it should work.

Athletes should perform at least two series of 1–3 exercises, performing 6–10 sets per exercise. It’s extremely important to have athletes actively recover for 8–10 minutes between series. Work-to-rest ratios are as follows:

Week 1: 10 seconds of work, 60 seconds of rest

Week 2: 12 seconds of work, 45 seconds of rest

Week 3: 14 seconds of work, 30 seconds of rest

Again, it’s very simple to progress. Each week doesn’t have to have longer work and shorter rest periods. This can be done every two or three weeks, but at this point, the athlete should be well-conditioned aerobically and can likely handle this quick intensification schedule. An important note: it’s possible to use the explosive repeat method to improve anaerobic abilities as well, but with different work:rest ratios. Anaerobic explosive repeat work involves longer periods of work with shorter periods of rest.

Conditioning Is the Best Ability

A car with a one-gallon gas tank is not very effective or impressive. How frustrating would it be to have to fill a gas tank up after every 20–30 miles? This is the same as any athlete who cannot recover between bouts of exercise, whether between plays on the field, rotations on the court, or attempts on the platform.

The saying ‘availability is the best ability’ is often used when speaking of injuries, but the same can be said when speaking of conditioning, says Alex Roberts & @Steve20Haggerty. Share on X

The saying “availability is the best ability” is often used when speaking of injuries, but the same can be said when speaking of conditioning. An athlete can be the strongest, most explosive athlete in the game, but if they can’t compete at their potential for the duration of the competition due to a small gas tank, their stock decreases significantly. Increase your athletes’ aerobic capabilities and watch the team’s success increase with it.

References

Jamieson, J. (2009). Ultimate MMA Conditioning. Performance Sports Inc.

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

Steve Haggerty is a sports performance coach at Parkview Sports Medicine (PSM) in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and an NFL Draft Prep specialist at Bommarito Performance Systems (BPS) in Miami, Florida. He spent the last two years at BPS working with NFL Pro Bowlers as well as MLB and NHL All Stars in their off-season training. Haggerty took on the lead role of preparing college football players for the NFL Combine and Pro days. At PSM, he leads the youth “Edge” program with athletes from a variety of different ages and sports.

In the high school space, coaches regularly debate the need to keep things simple in training our student-athletes. This is a concept I definitely support but with a caveat: I believe in keeping things simple for the athlete but not limiting the tools or protocols I use to prepare.

From the coaching side, the way I approach programming, technology use, professional development, and other parts of my career does not need to be simple—those just need to be actionable with realistic means. In my current role, we are blessed to have access to a large variety of performance technology. In fact, our student-athletes have the opportunity to use so much that we take week-long “technology breaks” a few times a year just to de-load. Consequently, I replace the word “simple” with “actionable” when it comes to my use of technology and data collection.

Over the last decade, I have tested and used more technology than I could possibly list: some never made it to the floor with our student-athletes; some became a daily staple. During that time, the one technology piece that did not appear simple for our athletes or me was force plates.

• Did we need that much information?
• How difficult would the process of set-up and collection be?
• Would we be swimming in so much data that taking action on it would be impossible?

Luckily for our program, I had the opportunity to get answers to those questions and more. Force plates were not only extremely simple and intuitive to use for all involved, but they also provided an insight that proved to be a force multiplier for our data collection and action protocols.

Force plates are not only extremely simple and intuitive to use, but they also provide an insight that proved to be a force multiplier for our data collection & action protocols, says @MarkHoover71. Share on X

Missteps and Course Corrections with Hawkin Dynamics Force Plates

Early last spring, I acquired a set of custom-made Hawkin Dynamics (HD) force plates, along with a Zeus isometric rig. Unpacking the equipment, I still had questions about the feasibility of using force plates in a high school setting. As with much of the current technology for athletic development, you have to be cautious about falling into the trap of data overload. In fact, this proved to be my initial misstep when getting started with the force plates.

Hawkin’s ease of use had me up and running at full speed in a day—to my personal detriment, unfortunately. That extreme ease of use and expansive list of tests and metrics at my fingertips really led to self-inflicted data overload syndrome. My first week or so was spent trying out every cool test I’d seen on social media. I spent hours looking at every possible metric for our athletes: unilateral braking force percentage, braking force RFD, all possible types of left versus right deficiencies…it was all fascinating and got my mind running over possibilities. I found myself wading so deep through the weeds of potential uses that I lost sight of my goal: collecting actionable data to guide training.

At that point, I reached out and had conversations with several people who had more extensive backgrounds training with force plates. I needed guidance to keep myself in check. I discovered that I needed to step out of the weeds and develop a plan that would allow me to unleash actionable metrics that could be collected organically within the normal context of a training session.

Best Advice: “First Inventory What You Do”

The advice I received was to perform an inventory of our training templates. We needed to pinpoint:

1. Where the use of force plates fit.
2. How often they could be utilized.
3. Exactly what tests would give us the actionable information we sought.

What could we realistically use in our setting and time frame? We have 800 square feet, five power racks, a room full of teenagers, and about 35 minutes to get the job done. The answer was in a protocol we had been using already, the performance circuit.

Force Plates in Performance Circuits

Recently, I wrote an article about using performance circuits (inspired by Cal Dietz) and how that protocol solved many of the issues we faced at Metrolina Christian Academy. The same solution helped us fit the use of force plates into our training program.

Considering we had three days a week to train and the time and space limitations I previously described, it became apparent that we would be limited to no more than three tests per week (one per training session). The flow of the session and time restrictions we faced would not allow us to do multiple tests in a day (as I had originally intended). So, I narrowed it down to:

1. 1. Isometric mid-thigh pull. We chose IMTP (despite a learning curve of proper technique) because we knew we wanted one test that would give us a look into peak force outputs. I wanted a true test of the strength levels of our athletes.

 

1. 1. Step-off altitude drop with an immediate rebound jump (from a 24-inch box). The drop jump is important because I wanted to measure peak braking forces with an immediate re-acceleration. We wanted a way to look at deceleration abilities, but also if we were improving the power and speed that we were able to bounce from that sudden landing.

 

1. Three-rep countermovement pogo jump with hands on hips. The countermovement jump would give us a Reactive Strength Index metric to measure our in-season fatigue, among other things.

I sat down and selected seven basic metrics from those three tests that I felt would give me insight into how athletes were adapting to the stress of our training. Our final protocol looked like this:

• IMTP: max peak force and time to max peak force.
• DJ: max peak braking force, max jump height, and mean propulsive force.
• CMJ: average modified RSI and body weight.

For more on the difference between RSI and mRSI or any metrics/tests available from Hawkin Dynamics, please look here.

Within 2 weeks of beginning these protocols, the need for a coach to help the athletes use the technology was eliminated—the HD app is extremely user-friendly, and the athletes flew through the reps. Share on X

Here is an example of our in-season performance circuits, which we used with our varsity football athletes this season. We programmed anywhere from three to five rounds of these circuits depending on in-season variables. Regardless, we only prescribed two sets of force plate testing. Within two weeks of beginning these protocols, the need for a coach to help the athletes use the technology was eliminated—the HD app is extremely user-friendly, and the athletes flew through the reps.

In the end, the force plates became the easiest and smoothest technology we had available at our disposal, surprisingly even faster than ShredMill or EnodePro, which the athletes also picked up in no time. Hawkin is intuitive and fast to use. We were able to teach the athletes the procedures, allowing them to create a student-athlete-led data collection process that gave us valuable and actionable information.

Here is an example report from RockDaisy (its API works with HD) that allowed us to review each athlete’s historical data.

Another custom report we used for quick reference in RockDaisy was the Daily Metric Report, which kept up with rolling averages and maxes over a sortable period. It also provided team and positional information with just a click of a tab.

Individualizing and Managing Training with Force Plate Data

Our experience with HD force plates has been smooth and successful. The data proved to be extremely valuable and actionable when it came to planning and monitoring our week-to-week adaptations.

We use Hawkin Dynamics force plates in coordination with our GPS data to give us a multi-layered platform to individualize practice and training plans, says @MarkHoover71. Share on X

We used Hawkin in coordination with our GPS data to give us a multi-layered platform to individualize practice and training plans. We found that when we narrowed the focus of our testing, the data collection was fast, simple, and athlete-driven. Overall, I have discovered that force plates are not just a luxury; they are a practical asset to our athlete’s health and performance plans.

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

While listening to Episode 4 of Season 4 of the Voodoo Strength podcast (featuring Brandon Herring), the versatility of Jim Wendler’s 5-3-1 program came up as a topic. It reminded me of an application I’ve used in recent training programs. Most readers of this blog will certainly recognize the 5-3-1 as a foundational program featuring a simple loading scheme aimed at developing strength in the weight room. For those who don’t know, I encourage them to read Jim’s work in its entertaining and elegant simplicity.

One facet of the 5-3-1 program I’ve delved deeper into this past year is the “First Set Last” concept. In FSL, the first working set (65%, 70%, or 75%) of the workout is repeated as supplemental work with the same or a slight variation of the main lift. Two typical applications of FSL outlined in Wendler’s 5-3-1 are:

1. The FSL 5×5.
2. The “Widowmaker” set.

Applying 5-3-1 in Performance Training

For my programming, I’ve used the former a bit more than the latter. The 65%–75% zones work perfectly as a three-week wave for power applications. This is a bucket I fill with athletes who I know are doubling up with other programs (school) and seem to focus on the heavy end of the strength curve.

The ‘First Set Last’ 65%–75% zones work perfectly as a three-week wave for power applications. Share on X

The lion’s share of Wendler’s FSL application is in the five sets of five following the main sets. The author states, “The biggest reason why I like using 5×5 FSL is bar speed is never compromised.”¹ In my experience, the FSL 5×5 performed after main work enhances the PAP effect from main sets, allowing further precise practice of the lift while simultaneously building power. I’ve also used FSL 5×5 as the main work of the day for a “dynamic effort” type of feel. This helps if you are a bit beat up or lacking that snap, as the moderate loads moved quickly aid in garnering the power response.

The second way to do this (FSL) is to perform a “Widowmaker set”—a term borrowed from Dante Trudel’s Doggcrapp program, where 15–20 reps are done for a single set.¹ This can work wonders for the newer athletes that need a shotgun response. With the main sets serving as high-quality practice, the FSL WM set of 15–20 hits everything from hypertrophy to work capacity to strain ability (much like the effect of 1×20), not to mention its mental kick in the butt.

The FSL 5×5 is easy to program and, if using an appropriate training max, helps athletes recover more easily. It does not interfere with on-field abilities, allowing your gym work to stay in line with all-around progress. This then makes the FSL 5×5 template sustainable over a longer period.¹ For athletes in our program, the FSL is a “fail-safe”: whether it’s programmed as added volume or done as main work, for sets of five or higher reps, we can use FSL loads for power or hypertrophy work at points in the training year when such effects are called for.

Why the 5-3-1 Works

As a coach who routinely ponders the why behind training effects, I often dip my feet into both practice and science in search of where best practices and examination overlap. This search led me to the work of Dr. Matt Rhea and his study of “Optimal Resistance Load for Peak Power in Various Exercises.” His findings revealed some eye-opening aspects of weight-room work in relation to power development in American football.

“We have significantly altered our training focus from strength to power over the past 10 years among football players. This change is due to: A) football is a speed/power sport; B) improvements in strength with a power-focused program were occurring simultaneous to power whereas power was not improving significantly with a strength-focused program. In an effort to maximize power development, we have been investigating different training loads and their impact on acute peak power. What is the best % of 1RM for eliciting peak power in a given lift?”

Rhea’s investigation tracked peak power outputs in the back squat, bench press, hang clean, split squat, rear elevated squat, power clean, incline bench press, and hang high pull over the course of a year and a half. No more than five reps per set were done (very 5-3-1-like). Rhea found that 63% of 1RM showed the highest peak power, with 60%–75% appearing to be a consistently high power range across the various exercises.

If success leaves clues, we can clearly see the ‘First Set Last’ ranges (65%/70%/75%, respectively) fit nicely into this peak power range. Share on X

If success leaves clues, we can clearly see the FSL ranges (65%/70%/75%, respectively) fit nicely into this peak power range. Although each percentage is a precise piece of data collected from the most elite of elite athletes in Rhea’s findings, we can certainly distill the application down to using the FSL loading for developing athletes. Where Rhea’s studies reinforce the concept with precision, Jim’s coach’s eye led him to witness the positive effect on power.

Not one to leave personal interpretation and implementation on the table, I’ve recently employed two other ways to use the FSL to drive power adaptations. In using the traditional application, FSL 5×5, I simply track average velocity (using Flex Stronger units) across the whole set with the intent of moving the barbell as fast as possible. I’ll wave the percentages over three weeks, rinse, and repeat, aiming to set personal bests in velocity each session. As athletes grow stronger, you can even drop to five sets of three, which is also a great volume control when in camp or in season.

In my recent work with a female soccer team, I have been challenged by how to get enough high-quality work in a short amount of time—I’m given 15 minutes once a week for strength work (yes, 15 minutes is all I get). Much of this stems from the fear that:

• “Lifting will make them too sore to practice.”
• “Lifting is dangerous and will make them tight.”
• “We don’t want them to look like boys.”

Yes, we’re still battling this nonsense from a few naive parents and coaches, but we must press on!

Relative to an earlier point, these loads lend themselves to work along the power and hypertrophy spectrum. For the bulk of the team sport athletes I get who are in season or training in other activities, the 3–5-rep sets help preserve power quality; for the undersized athletes that need some muscle, the 10s are the spark for muscle building.

Given the constraint above, I thought, “Why not incorporate both?” What I mean here is if 10 reps at these percentages give us a structural response and 3–5 can keep power quality…why not use a cluster-style approach for 10(ish) total reps per set?

What I mean here is if 10 reps at these percentages give us a structural response and 3–5 can keep power quality…why not use a cluster-style approach for 10(ish) total reps per set? Share on X

To accomplish this, we use a cluster approach in the hex bar deadlift and a squat variation affectionately dubbed “Rapid Fire.” We break up the set of 10 into three mini-sets of three (nine total reps) or five mini-sets of two reps. To create more training density, we have added 2–3 box or long jumps immediately afterward. Here, the athletes go in a “follow the leader” fashion, and if weights need to be adjusted, they work as a team to load and unload each other’s bar.

Typically, we have groups of 4–5, and they can whiz through a “Rapid Fire” set in about 90 seconds—during the rest period, they each perform one set of predetermined reps in an upper body push or pull and a trunk exercise. The total set takes 3–4 minutes—we rest for a little and then go again.

For us, attaching a number to the execution of bar speed is key in driving home intent and purpose with otherwise disregarded loads. The “Rapid Fire” approach has filled the buckets of providing a higher-quality volume of work while driving a team-building environment, given the constraint of time. From the coaching side, these applications have allowed my program to be science-guided, principles-based, and inventive simultaneously.

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

References

1. 5-3-1 Forever: Simple & Effective Programming for Size, Speed, & Strength. Wendler, Jim. 2017. p. 59.

2. Rhea, Matt. “Optimal Resistance Load for Peak Power In Activity,” Linkedin.

The hex bar deadlift is a primary strength exercise in athletic fitness programs from middle school to college, and hex bar jumps have become popular for improving explosiveness. The hex bar also has many advantages over dumbbells. That said, there are a few downsides to using this unique bar too often, particularly with maximum weights.

I have a unique perspective on the pros and cons of hex bar training because I worked at Bigger Faster Stronger (BFS). BFS introduced the hex bar to the strength coaching community and promoted the hex bar deadlift for nearly four decades through their magazine and clinics.

BFS introduced the hex bar to the strength coaching community and promoted the hex bar deadlift for nearly four decades through their magazine and clinics. Share on X

Before the hex bar, BFS championed the straight bar deadlift as a core lower-body exercise for athletic performance. Their weekly program design for their core lifts was organized as follows:

Monday                                Wednesday                            Friday

Box Squat                             Power Clean                            Back Squat

Towel Bench Press               Deadlift                                   Bench Press

The downside of this program was that BFS found that athletes often rounded their lower back when deadlifting maximum loads, increasing the risk of injury. As a precaution, they said athletes should recruit a spotter during their heaviest sets to protect the spine (yes, you can spot a deadlift).

Spotting a deadlift involves having a spotter place one arm across the athlete’s chest and the other on the lower back. If the spotter felt the athlete’s lower back rounding during the lift, they would tell them to drop the bar. BFS coaches demonstrated this spotting technique at their clinics, often with participants attempting maximal weights.

Of course, we’re talking about 40+ years ago, and this hands-on spotting technique would not fly in today’s strength coaching environment. That is why BFS was excited to discover the trap bar in the early 80s.

Enter the Trap Bar

The trap bar was introduced to the Iron Game in 1986 by Al Gerard, a powerlifter with a history of lower back pain. To continue training heavy, Gerard developed a four-sided barbell that looked like two triangles arranged base to base, which he called the trap bar. Gerard would step inside the bar, grasping the handles with his hands at his sides rather than in front. This design put the bar’s center of mass (COM) in line with his body’s COM throughout the entire lift.

Gerard found that the triangle design of the trap bar enabled him to lift the bar with a more upright stance. This postural change shifted the stress away from his lower back and hamstring muscles and onto his quads. And unlike a sumo deadlift that requires a wide foot stance, a hip- or shoulder-width stance could be used with a trap bar.

It’s challenging for many beginners to assume the optimal starting position on a deadlift. At the start of a conventional deadlift, the lower back should have a slight arch to shift the stress from the disks to the muscles and connective tissues. With your hands at your sides, the shoulders are pulled back, making it easier to arch the lower back.

BFS found that the trap bar also helped athletes lift more weight in the squat, but not so much from a physical standpoint. Bob Rowbotham, the CEO of BFS, says lifting heavy loads with the trap bar gives athletes the confidence to try heavier weights in the back squat. For example, if an athlete can back squat 200 pounds and works up to a 300-pound trap bar deadlift, they will have more confidence when attempting a back squat of 205 pounds or more.

The trap bar was a great idea—the hex bar was even better.

BFS found that a trap bar easily tipped backward and forward and didn’t provide enough legroom for larger athletes—note how cramped the basketball player is in Image 1. This later point was particularly important to BFS because, at the time, their coaches were working with the Utah Jazz.

One solution was a hexagonal (six-sided) design. This design didn’t tilt as easily and offered considerably more legroom. The hex bar was an immediate hit with athletes, especially football players at the high school level. Strength coaches and PE instructors preferred the hex bar deadlift over the straight bar deadlift because it was easier to master and students were less likely to round their lower back.

As more athletes used the hex bar, BFS saw a need to develop several other types of hex bars. One popular version was a “combo” hex bar with regular handles as well as high handles to accommodate taller athletes so they didn’t have to bend down so far. This bar was followed by a heavy duty, 75-pound “Mega” hex bar. This bar had thicker, raised handles and longer sleeves that could hold considerably more weight for stronger athletes. But the evolution of the hex bar didn’t stop there.

Other equipment manufacturers caught on and began producing unique hex bars, such as one with an open-back design. Several equipment companies designed hex bars with rotating handles that offer different grips, and now there are even larger units than the Mega hex bar. BFS also saw the need for a 15-pound aluminum bar, which was suitable for children and for beginners performing hex bar jumps.

Before going further, let’s see if all this attention to the hex bar is deserved by reviewing some research.

The Science of Hex Bars

The increasing popularity of hex bars captured the attention of sports scientists who wanted to verify that the bar did what its proponents claimed. Let’s start with the belief that hex bar deadlifts produce less stress on the spine than straight bar deadlifts.

One study that compared the straight bar deadlift to the hex bar deadlift was published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. The authors found that the hex bar “significantly increased the peak movement at the knee and significantly decreased the peak movement at the lumbar spine and hip compared to the deadlifts performed with the straight barbell.” To use the popular terminology, the hex bar deadlift would be considered a “quad-dominant” exercise, and the straight bar deadlift would be a “hip-dominant” exercise.

To use the popular terminology, the hex bar deadlift would be considered a “quad-dominant” exercise, and the straight bar deadlift would be a “hip-dominant” exercise. Share on X

As for the value of hex bar jumps for developing explosiveness, another JSCR study found that vertical jumps performed with a hex bar were superior to vertical jumping with a straight bar on your shoulders. The researchers concluded, “The results of the present study demonstrate that if the resistance is moved from the shoulder to arms’ length using a hexagonal barbell, the athlete can jump higher and generate greater force, power, velocity and rate of force development.”

One reason the hex bar may be superior to barbell squat jumps is that the upper body is more involved with a hex bar jump. The shoulders can shrug while jumping with a hex bar, whereas the shoulders are motionless during a barbell jump. (You can prove the contribution of the upper body by jumping off a contact mat with your hands on your hips and then using your arms—you should be able to jump several inches higher when using your arms.)

Moving on, the researchers said, “The continuous frame of the hexagonal barbell will provide several advantages over dumbbells, including improved stability and greater capacity to apply a wider range of loads.” I would add that jumping with dumbbells is an excellent way to develop nasty bruises on your thighs.

Hex bar deadlifts and hex bar jumps are two of the most popular exercises performed with hex bars, but there are many other uses for these bars. Here are six of them:

1. Shoulder Shrugs. Having your arms positioned at your sides enables you to raise them higher than with a straight bar. To save time, BFS recommends that after the last rep of a set of deadlifts, while still erect, finish off with a few shoulder shrugs.

Another shrug variation, made popular by Mr. America Steve “Hercules” Reeves, involves grasping the inside plates rather than the handles. This “pinch grip” technique would be valuable for wrestlers and other athletes who need a strong grip. For more on shoulder shrugs, check out Kelso’s Shrug Book, a classic by Paul Kelso published in 1992.

Hex bar shoulder shrugs with a “pinch grip” technique would be valuable for wrestlers and other athletes who need a strong grip. Share on X

2. Push-ups. The push-up has been criticized for placing excessive stress on the wrists. This variation is performed with a high-handled hex bar. These handles allow the wrist to be aligned with the forearms, reducing the stress on the wrists; this is better than using many types of dumbbells, which can move. As a bonus, the high handles allow for a greater range of motion.

3. “W” Overhead Press. Paul Gagné, a Canadian strength coach and Posturologist, taught me this exercise. A neutral grip (palms facing each other) is considered easier on the shoulders than the pronated grip used in a military press. It is also more stable than dumbbells, increasing the amount of weight you can use. However, the setup is tricky with heavier weights; it’s best to rest the bar inside a power rack and step under it.

4. Split Squat. Open-back hex bars are ideal for split squats, including rear-leg-elevated split squats. It can be awkward to perform this exercise with dumbbells because you must bend down low to pick them up. The hex bar enables heavier weights to be used because it’s more stable than dumbbells and you can pick up the weights from a higher height. 

5. Rear-Leg-Elevated Split Squats. I have issues with today’s strength coaching love affair with rear-leg elevated split squats (see my article on Bulgarian lunges). If you’re going to do them, an open-back hex bar is the way to go. As with the regular split squats, you can pick up the weight from a higher height than dumbbells and the hex bar is more stable.

6. Farmer’s Walk. For strength coaches on a budget, the parallel grips for the hex bar provide a suitable substitute for farmer’s walk devices. Yes, dumbbells can be used for the farmer’s walk and offer a parallel hand position, but there is a higher risk of dropping the weight plates on your toes if you lose your grip. There is also the issue of bruising, as the dumbbell plates can bang against the thighs.

For strength coaches on a budget, the parallel grips for the hex bar provide a suitable substitute for farmer’s walk devices. Share on X

A high-handled hex bar is best for this exercise because these handles don’t require you to bend down as far to assume the starting position. However, the issue with conventional hex bars is that you must take relatively small steps; an open-back hex bar allows for a longer stride.

Those variations should add valuable tools to your weight training toolbox, and many other exercises can be performed with these bars.

Those are the pros of hex bars—let’s look at some cons.

The Dark Side of Hex Bars

Now that I’ve got you excited about the versatility and benefits of the hex bar, let’s look at seven special considerations to think about when using the hex bar.

1. Compressive Forces. I saw a relatively short male athlete using the high handles on a combo hex bar while standing on thick bumper plates. Perplexed, I asked him what he was doing. He told me that he wanted to perform the exercise through a greater range of motion. Although this athlete had performed hex bar deadlifts in high school, he didn’t realize he could flip the bar over and use the lower handles!

I share this story because high hex bar handles were originally designed for tall athletes to make hex bar deadlifts more comfortable. However, many strength coaches only have their athletes use the high handles because their athletes can lift more weight (and their video clips look cool on Instagram). I saw a female athlete doing a high hex bar deadlift for the first time a few years ago. Although her best squat was 160 pounds, she deadlifted 285 pounds!

The point is that using high hex bar handles rather than the standard handles enables athletes of average height to use significantly heavier weights, placing higher compressive forces on the spine. An occasional max-out day with a high hex bar may be fine, but you may be asking for trouble if you are of average height and max out too frequently. My colleague Paul Gagné shares my opinion.

An occasional max-out day with a high hex bar may be fine, but you may be asking for trouble if you are of average height and max out too frequently. Share on X

Gagné has trained over 500 NHL players. For many of those athletes, he had to be conservative with the hex bar deadlift as he found these compressive forces often led to hip impingement. When you are coaching athletes competing on the professional level, you must take a serious look at the risks vs. rewards of any weight training exercise.

2. Instability. Because the hands are held away from the body, the hex bar is less stable at the top of the lift compared to a conventional deadlift. This instability could cause adverse shearing forces on the spine. The problem is compounded because much heavier weights can be lifted than with a straight bar, and it’s worse when using bands.

Strength coaches often have their athletes use elastic bands when performing hex bar deadlifts. This is usually accomplished by attaching the ends of the bands to the outside sleeves, then having the athlete step on the band as they lift. The result is that as the athlete lifts the bar and the band stretches, the resistance curve increases to match the strength curve of the athlete. The issue is that bands further increase the instability of the exercise.

3. Specificity. The hex bar deadlift has little carryover to weightlifting pulling movements such as the clean, power clean, snatch, or power snatch. With the Olympic lifts, during the first part of the pull, the bar shifts from a position in front of the body’s COM to a position aligned with its COM. The hex bar starts with the resistance aligned with the COM and remains there throughout the entire lift. Besides the differences in muscle development, the pulling motion can adversely affect the biomechanics of the Olympic lifts.

4. Cheating. Bouncing the bar off the floor during hex bar deadlifts enables larger loads to be used but creates harmful stress on the spine, especially if the plates land unevenly. Instead, a relatively slow “touch-and-go” technique should be used.

Bouncing the bar off the floor during hex bar deadlifts enables larger loads to be used but creates harmful stress on the spine. Share on X

5. ACL Stress. With normal-sized athletes, high hex bar handles reduce the range of motion of the legs, such that the knees are in a position that applies the highest stress to the ACL.

ACL injuries are among the most common and severe to female athletes, affecting them as much as five times more than male athletes in several sports. Athletes recovering from an ACL injury, or those involved in sports with a high risk of ACL injury, may need to take a more conservative approach to programming the high hex bar in their workouts.

6. Plyometric Effect. Because the hex bar deadlift does not begin with an eccentric contraction, there is no stretch-shortening cycle (i.e., plyometric effect) that helps develop explosiveness. Can this exercise make the athlete stronger? Sure, but it will do little to improve explosiveness. Hex bar jumps are a better alternative if explosiveness is a primary goal.

7. Flexibility Restrictions. The hex bar does not allow the legs to work through a full range of motion. Performing only partial-range leg exercises reduces the muscle-building effect and may increase an athlete’s susceptibility to knee, ankle, and Achilles injuries. (For more on this subject, see my article.)

The hex bar has many advantages over the straight bar and dumbbells for developing strength and explosiveness. But if the hex bar is misused or if maximal loads are used too frequently with high-handled hex bars, you may be doing more harm than good. The bottom line with the hex bar is that it’s not only a matter of training heavier but training smarter!

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

References

Swinton, Paul A; Stewart, Arthur; Agouris, Ioannis; Keogh, Justin WL; and Lloyd, Ray. “A Biomechanical Analysis of Straight and Hexagonal Barbell Deadlifts Using Submaximal Loads.” Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 25(7); pp 2000-9, July 2011.

Swinton, Paul A; Stewart, Arthur D; Lloyd, Ray; Agouris, Ioannis; and Keogh, Justin WL. “Effect of Load Positioning on the Kinematics and Kinetics of Weighted Vertical Jumps.” Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 26(4); pp 906-913, April 2012.

Kelso, Paul. Kelso’s Shrug Book. Hats Off Books, Revised Edition, January 28, 2013.