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Recently, my wife and I went on a crazy new adventure called “having our second child.” Yes, it was a huge blessing…but with some complications in the birthing process, our little angel was stranded in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) for about a week. That meant multiple trips to the hospital each day to see her, lots of quiet time watching her hooked up to tubes and machines, and many conversations with nurses about her health and progress.

The last point is the inspiration for this article. For those of you unaware of how our medical system shift-work functions in Canada, there are two shifts: day and night. Days are 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., while nights are the opposite. With our little girl there for multiple days, it meant that every 12 hours, there was a new nurse overseeing her station. Yes, over the course of a week, we had the same nurse multiple times, but I would say that over her seven-day stay, there were at least five different caretakers responsible for her care.

While every single one of these nurses was excellent at their job—and the level of care that our daughter received did not dip from one to the other—the way in which my wife and I experienced the care did change slightly based on who was on staff.

You see, each of the staff was excellent in their care of babies, with years of experience in that area. But one thing separated some from the rest—some had kids of their own, while others did not. Each nurse knew how to follow the protocols for our daughter, but those with children of their own had a different way of communicating with us as parents. It is hard to explain, but there was more empathy for us and more integration of us into the process. To give you an example, one nurse (who had kids) allowed us to take our daughter’s temperature and change her diaper while she was sedated, whereas later in her recovery, another nurse (who didn’t have kids) didn’t offer the same.

We got excellent information when speaking to these non-parent nurses, but it wasn’t delivered in a way that related to us 100%. I told my wife after the fact, “It felt like we were talking to a textbook.” Great information, but limited applicability outside of the hospital and what would happen for us next.

The same can be said for sport coaches in the youth system as far as those who have kids and those who do not. There is just something different about coaching when you have lots of experience interacting with kids, understanding their common issues/needs and how to handle them when they freak out. Now, it obviously isn’t necessary to have kids yourself before coaching youth sports, but similar to the nurse example, there is a deeper level of understanding for the whole process from those who do.

What is the whole point of this story?

While reflecting on the process in the hospital (and youth sport coaches), it struck me how similar this situation is to us as strength and conditioning coaches. There is a frequent debate in the S&C community as to whether you need to have played the sport you coach. As the Head S&C Coach at a Canadian university, I coach multiple sports, of which I have experience playing only a few. I was on the side of the argument that said you did not have to play the sport to be the best coach and get the best results for your athletes, as that was my reality.

While I still stand by that thought, my stance has softened a bit after this recent experience with my daughter in the NICU. You see, when working with a certain team, you can research that sport all you want. You can understand the rules, know the common injuries, and look up the energy systems at work. However, just as the childless nurses had a different feel and understanding than the nurses who had kids, even though they both knew their stuff, coaches who haven’t played the sport aren’t exactly like coaches who have.

You Can’t Play Them All

Once again, I currently work with eight sports and have only played four competitively. Does that make me a poor strength coach for those other four sports? No (well, at least I hope not). But for those four sports I have competed in, I feel more confident coaching, more confident using their language, and more confident relating to the players.

While I’m not a poor strength coach because I’ve only played four out of the eight sports I work with, I feel more confident coaching those sports’ players and using their language, says @chergott94. Share on X

Many of you might be in the same boat when it comes to the sports you currently work with. The whole point of writing this article is not just to highlight a gap you may have in your coaching but to help you address this issue since I know it is a common one. As S&C coaches, we often dream of working in the top league of our chosen sport. For example, when I first started, I wanted to be an S&C coach in the National Hockey League (NHL). I later fell in love with the university side in my undergrad and have never looked back.

Pursuing this path has automatically put me in a position to coach athletes on teams for sports I did not play. As an S&C coach, you might find yourself in the same situation, whether working at a university with multiple teams like me or with a single sport that you have not played. So, how do you start to bridge the gap in your knowledge and understanding to help you speak their language and fully get through to your players? Let’s take a look…

1. Start Playing the Sport (or at Least Practicing It)

This one might have jumped out to you right away. If you have never thrown a baseball and are working with a baseball team, that might be a good place to start. Yes, there are plenty of recreation leagues you could join for almost any sport, which means if you really wanted to dive in, you could become an athlete and learn the sport firsthand as you coach the team. For myself, with two kids, a wife, and multiple sports to learn, that wasn’t something that I could feasibly do.

What I have done is tried and practiced the skills of each of the sports. For example, we recently added disc golf to our varsity sports portfolio, and I had never really seen disc golf played, let alone thrown a disc myself. So, after researching the sport and understanding the mechanics, I figured I had it down pretty good. Then, our disc golf team invited me out to play a round with them toward the end of the season.

Wow…what a humbling experience.

Not that I misunderstood the rules of the sport or had the mechanics wrong from my “textbook learning,” but there is something much different than reading about it—and that is actually doing it. For example, the rotation of throwing a disc is much different than I anticipated. I am used to throwing frisbees, swinging a bat, and taking a slapshot, and none of those skills helped me with this. It was a whole other beast that I had to learn firsthand how to do, which in turn made me better at coaching exercises that helped it. It enhanced my “feel” for the sport, not just my brain knowledge. Plus, having the athletes see me fail at something and continue to try and learn was also great for buy-in.

Spending a few minutes each week refining your skills can help you understand the demands of the sport better and, therefore, your message on how to improve it, says @chergott94. Share on X

The same goes for any sport. Practice shooting free throws, taking corner kicks, or working on your jump serve. Spending a few minutes each week refining your skills can help you understand the demands of the sport better and, therefore, your message on how to improve it.

2. Study the Terminology of the Game

Another way to help yourself communicate better is to study the language of the sport. Yes, volleyball rallies last roughly 30 seconds with 30–60 seconds of rest, but did you know that if someone is “libbing,” they are playing libero, or that giving the ball a “tug” is slang for spiking it?

While these are not crucial to know for you to be a great S&C coach, by learning the language and better understanding the psychology of the sport, you can improve the way you relate your message to the team. Instead of saying the reason you do upper body strength work for hockey is that “We want you to have the strength to take hard slapshots and score lots of goals,” you can say, “We want you to be able to crank a howitzer bar-cheese from the hash”—then you are speaking their language, having more fun with it, and in turn increasing their buy-in because now they are thinking this guy/gal gets it. And, as we know, even if your program doesn’t change, if the effort put into it does, that is a HUGE win.

So, how do you learn the slang?

3. Ask Questions (Be Humble)

One of the best things I have done to help myself understand the language of sport more is to simply be humble enough to admit I don’t know and ask my athletes (or coaches) questions. Something I did over the COVID-19 year was arrange a meeting with each of our sport coaches, asking them to explain the way we play/train so that I could hear how they explain it. This helped me understand our systems better and helped me learn their language, which, in turn, created a more unified message to our athletes and helped them make the connection from the weight room to the pitch/track/court/ice.

Another thing I still do is frequently ask our athletes about their sport. I want to learn more, and the best people to explain it to you are those you want to explain it back to. That way, you can hear their language/slang and remember it when you explain it.

Another thing I do is frequently ask our athletes about their sport. I want to learn more, and the best people to explain it to you are those you want to explain it back to, says @chergott94. Share on X

As a simple example, when I was running a speed session for our men’s rugby team on our pitch a few weeks ago, I wanted them to start at half and run to the next line on the pitch. But before I simply pointed and said, “Run to there,” I asked a couple of the guys, “What do you guys call that line?” Their answer? “The 10.” So now my message was, “I want you guys to start at half and sprint through the 10.” It might not seem like a big deal, but that small change helped me seem like I understood the game more while also showing my vulnerability and trust to those whom I asked beforehand.

The same went for our disc golf team. As it was our newest sport and one I knew the least about (plus, there is literally NO research on it), I peppered them with questions every time they came in for a lift. “What is a hyzer?” “When would you throw forehand versus backhand?” “How long are tournaments?” So many questions but so many good answers and discussions. My willingness to be vulnerable and learn from them has allowed for a better relationship between me and the athletes on the team as we learn and grow together (most have minimal weight training experience).

The last thing that I ask is in reference to my “learn the language” tip. As mentioned, every morning, I watch a video about one of our sports to get a better understanding of the language, movements, or tactics used in the sport.

Some examples to give you an idea are:

• “How to Jump Serve in Volleyball”
• “How to Tackle in Rugby”
• “Cross Country Training Exercises”

Later in the day, when that sport comes in, I fire off more questions in reference to what I watched to check if it is legit and see what more I can learn. “I was watching a video this morning on making headers, and it said you need to time your jump right so you can propel your head into the ball to direct it to where you want to go. How do you practice that?” Conversation started. Knowledge gained (plus they will love that you are trying to learn more about them).

4. Make Mistakes

The last point is almost like a summary of all these, as it ties them all together—don’t be afraid to fail, say the wrong thing, or make a fool of yourself. Yes, there are times when you will say the wrong phrase, explain things too “coachy,” or talk about the why behind an exercise and then have confused looks staring at you. But you know what? That is how you learn.

Taking a quick moment to ask an athlete if what you said was correct, if it made sense, or why people looked confused is what helps you learn and move on.

I am not saying I am perfect at this. I still make mistakes in my explanations with a sport every day (even hockey—after all, it was a while ago that I played). But by tripping over your words, trying to make sense of everything, athletes will see that you are trying and want to get better. Plus, by asking questions, they will see you truly do want to learn more and will help you learn just as you are helping them.

Lastly, be an observant coach. Listen to your athletes, watch the sport, and practice the skills if you have time. Trust me when I say it goes a long way in crafting a message that is not only physiologically correct but also resonates with your end user and helps them see the bigger picture (which will lead to better effort, better buy-in, and better results). Just like the nurses I encountered in the NICU, while you most likely studied the science and what to do to enhance your knowledge of your job, it is important not to forget who the end user is and who you are communicating with. After all, it doesn’t matter what you said, but what they heard!

Good luck!

Peace. Gains.

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

There’s a renaissance of focus on breathing practices right now—it’s everywhere and almost ridiculous. That’s coming from somebody who has spent a large portion of their personal and professional life in the last decade studying, developing, and teaching breathing techniques to improve health and performance. If I’ve learned one thing over the course of that time, it’s the same darn thing I learned once I dug deep enough into any field: breath control is just not that complicated. The mechanisms are complex; you might even say miraculous. But the doing of the thing at its most fundamental is downright simple.

Breath control is just not that complicated. The mechanisms are complex; you might even say miraculous. But the doing of the thing at its most fundamental is downright simple. Share on X

Complexity bias causes humans to take what can often be boiled down into a simple heuristic and muddy up the application while waxing poetic about the nuances. In the performance environment, however, there’s no time to be wasted. Problems have to be solved fast and, in the process, at least not take energy away from the most important thing of all—succeeding at your given endeavor. While getting into the weeds of breathing practices can be fun for the super nerds like me, sport and strength coaches have bigger fish to fry and far more responsibilities than simply making sure their athletes are breathing “correctly.”

This article aims to explain the most fundamental and invariant aspects of breath control so they can be deployed quickly and efficiently in performance environments where more pressing skill development has to take place for the athlete (and the coaches) to accomplish what they really want: winning.

Autonomic Versus Volitional Breathing

All of the positive stuff that the 1,000 internet kung fu breathing techniques have to offer can be summed up in three simple words: Breathe on purpose.

As I’m sure anybody reading this is well aware, we mostly breathe on autopilot. The autonomic nervous system drives breathing through an incredible system of redundant feedback loops that constantly adjust for the dynamic needs of both our internal and external environments. Those feedback loops are deep in the brain and body—like brainstem, reptilian, iceberg-under-the-water deep.

Our nearly 25,000 breaths per day are powered by a system we are mostly unaware of. Unless, of course, there’s a malfunction like choking or even an exercise-induced asthma attack, then it’s all eyes on me and all hands on deck to restore breathing immediately. As far as triage goes, breathing is on the top rung of the ladder when it comes to surviving. Thus, lots of powerful software is built into it to keep the motor running.

There are chemoreceptors and baroreceptors in the carotid bodies of the neck as well as the aorta of the heart that provide a constant feedback loop about carbon dioxide in the arterial blood. There are a variety of stretch receptors in the lungs and thoracic cavity that help regulate pressure in the rib cage. These and many more signals commingle in a symphony that adapts to our needs (real and perceived) in real time and breath by breath. It is truly a marvel. The deeper you look, the more glorious the whole thing is. So why would we ever mess with such a beautifully self-regulating mechanism? Why would one breathe on purpose?

I’m glad you asked.

As I previously mentioned, the mechanisms that control autonomic breathing are located deep in our oldest evolutionary physiology. As such, their modus operandi completely and utterly revolves around two simple goals: survive and replicate.

Embedded in these criteria is the implicit regulation of metabolism, in which breathing plays no small part. Breathing is essential in the regulation of blood pH, which is tightly contained for the trillions of chemical reactions to take place every single moment of our entire lives. The idea of metabolic, and therefore energetic, regulation will be a core component of our discussion as we move forward, not only in how it applies to the potential development of physiological energy systems, as I’ve discussed in prior articles, but also in the forms of mental and emotional energy—which, by the way, are directly connected with the physiological. The only place they are separate, in fact, is in discussion.

Breathing responds not only to the energetic demands placed on the body by movement vigor and lethargy but, additionally, to both acute and long-term psychological and emotional distress and ease. These can become ingrained into this neurology as with any other habit and, when combined into a perfect storm, can inhibit the efficiency with which an athlete operates. When we are talking about squeezing every bit of juice out of the lemon of performance, a little bit of efficiency goes a long way.

Most of the time, the habits that develop around these things go unnoticed because, as the saying goes, “Your body is an obedient dog” (thanks Dr. Kelly Starrett). We will adapt and compensate for dysfunction to keep the train on the tracks in all sorts of amazing and interesting ways. Athletes with exercise-induced asthma can inhaler their way through competition; conversely, the obese may produce exhaust just from walking up a few stairs.

The human body is truly a marvel. The brain stem keeps that diaphragm pumping, and as long as things don’t go too far, organs will pick up the slack and keep on keeping on. This deep part of the brain just handles business.

Wait. Did I talk about the “on purpose” part yet? Sorry.

There’s some fancy deep reptile physiology that autoregulates the ins and outs of breathing (forgive the pun). But what is it about our human brain that can do really cool stuff, too? This is where things get interesting. Along with the development of the human brain came our ability to sense and make sense of our internal state more deeply. The frontotemporal-insular cortices and the cingulate cortex control and attend to our interoceptive perception, respectively. When we move our attention to breathing, the cingulate cortex fires, and we can better audit internal events of the body.

Try this:

• Hold your breath for 5–10 seconds.
• Now, breathe fast.
• Now, breathe slowly.

We’re the only animal on the planet that purposefully attends to and regulates rhythms of breathing for specific outcomes. Voluntary muscular activation of breathing happens via the phrenic nerve. Phrenic is an archaic word meaning mind (as in schizophrenia). The insight of the ancients alludes to one of the major benefits of breathing on purpose—you have better insight into the workings of your mind and, therefore, the ability to control your body’s reaction to it, and vice versa.

Breathing on purpose is a direct line of communication to the deepest layers of our nervous system, helping the symphony get back into tune. Share on X

Most of the time, the symphony plays the music without the conductor. But, on occasion, the brass and the strings get a little out of tune and need to be reeled back in. This is where breathing on purpose comes in. It’s a direct line of communication to the deepest layers of our nervous system.

Learning to tune in to and take control of breathing where appropriate provides athletes with a means to alter the course of their autonomic reactions to all stress in real time and over the long term. This could mean easing the jitters before a big game or calming mid-term anxiety that might mess with a player’s overall mental state. It could also be used to aid in recovering lost rest time for teams and athletes who have to travel for games.

This renewed awareness provides an opportunity for athletes to become agents in how, when, and where they distribute their energy. This is not only helpful for being better players on the field, but it also yields the fruit of managing stress outside of athletic events. Every coach knows a talented player who doesn’t have their head together won’t last under pressure. Volitional breathing, aka breathing on purpose, is an easy access panel to the vital systems that turn what is usually the luck of the draw into a learnable skill set.

Eight Year Olds, Dude

When it comes to applying breathing techniques, whether in a performance environment or as a simple health practice, far too often, they are far too complex. Confusing jargon, misappropriated lingo, and a lack of attention to how physical skills are developed in humans are all to blame for the lack of broad scaling of breathing techniques into performance-based environments. Additionally, time and resources are already often stretched thinner than a Parisian runway model. Even with those weaknesses, breathing techniques are remarkably efficacious for most people under the most controlled conditions. They tend to fall apart when they’re taken out of controlled environments to be used under the pressures of high-demand situations where our athletes are working at the very limits of their capacities.

One limiter I’d like to pay particular attention to is the way breathing techniques are often taught and how that particular approach is an inhibitor that creates unnecessary friction between the practice and the desired state of the end user—in this case, improved performance. I’m a growing fan of ecological approaches to skill acquisition, in no small part due to my friend and jiu-jitsu mentor, Greg Souders of Standard Jiu Jitsu. Most of the time, breathing teachers use an information-processing approach. Phrases like “use your diaphragm,” “belly breathe,” and other ambiguous instructions serve mainly to confuse and are rarely adaptable to live and chaotic environments.

Rather than offering step-by-step cues on how to breathe “properly,” as coaches, we can offer an avenue for athletes to develop a more robust relationship with their internal mechanisms and guide them toward solutions that work for them.

As a brief aside, I don’t want it to seem like I’m criticizing others from some perch of judgment. Not at all. My point of view on this topic has developed from teaching quite literally hundreds of people of various shapes, sizes, and experience levels how to employ breathing techniques. In addition, it had to be done with little time with those people and no promise I would ever see them again. Real learning had to occur for those people to walk away with agency over their own process.

We can provide clear constraints to the athlete and then allow them to explore the use of the breathing technique through their own felt experience. Share on X

Instead of step-by-step instructions, which will create a fragile architecture for these techniques and thus reduce their long-term efficacy, we can provide clear constraints to the athlete and then allow them to explore the use of the tool through their own felt experience. This creates a nearly instantaneous dialogue and leads to faster and deeper learning. You’ll know if your cues are working because an eight-year-old will pick up what you’re putting down.

Easy as 1, 2, 3

Over the last decade or so, many cues for breathing have come and gone, but three have really seemed to stick. These help direct attention to immediate tasks that have proven to generate tangible changes in behavior both in controlled environments that are off the field of play and during the unpredictability that comes with live action. These cues are best deployed in more controlled situations, like sport practice warm-ups or strength and conditioning sessions. This gives athletes an opportunity to get familiar with the language and adapt their attention appropriately. That way, when under stress, they can reliably use breathing for its intended purpose—to change how they are thinking, feeling, and ultimately performing.

Cue #1: Breathe on purpose.

Umm, duh. Right? “Breathe on purpose” is a cue to simply do that—no instructions about how deep, how long, or how frequent. Just attend to the fact. This alone shifts behavior. In fact, in his seminal study on volitional breathing, Dr. Jose Herrero showed that simply attending to one’s own breathing had beneficial effects on the coordination of brain activity.

The simple cue of ‘breathe on purpose’ gets athletes to momentarily direct their attention to their internal dialogue so they can make adjustments if necessary. Share on X

Using this cue under moments of intense stress gets the athlete to momentarily attend to their own embodied sense of their internal state and, if need be, do something to alter it. This simple cue gets athletes to momentarily direct their attention to their internal dialogue so they can make adjustments if necessary. For example, your star jiu-jitsu athlete steps up to the mat for their first match of the black belt world championship looking visibly stiff and stressed. You can say, “Breathe on purpose!” as a short, direct message that brings awareness to their need to self-regulate and, at the same time, gives them a route for doing so with immediate effect. Nothing fancier is required to get the outcome, and in fact, more detailed information may only result in confusion.

Cue #2: Fill the bucket.

Diaphragm, shmiaphragm. Is it an important muscle? Yes. Does it do all kinds of cool physiological stuff that we’d die without? Yes. Does getting better at using it improve all kinds of important energy system applications and create structural stability? Again, yes! Do athletes know how to feel it? No. Is it a good use of already limited training time for most to pursue it as a completely separate endeavor? Usually not. Does internal focus actually build robust skills that will stand up to the rigors of competition and life? The research says a resounding NO.

So, when teaching athletes proper breath mechanics, keep it super simple. If you fill a five-gallon bucket with water, it fills from the bottom to the top and out the sides. Simply instruct your athletes to do the same. This can be applied in any situation where they need to:

• Calm down.
• Get stable.
• Get focused.
• Address an injury.
• Improve spinal mobility.

Let your imagination run wild. The point is that it’s a simple verbal cue the athlete can create a direct connection to in order to alter their breath mechanics and change their felt sense. This, in turn, changes their psychological and emotional interaction with their environment.

Cue #3: Move the A.

To be more specific, the “A” is actually the infrasternal (ISA) angle at the bottom of the anterior portion of the rib cage. But who cares—we’re talking about getting athletes to change behavior, right? Acute ISAs are a real issue in athletic populations.

Sometimes, that’s an appropriate adaptation, but what we want is to have some reserve range of motion so we aren’t caught unprepared by sport or life. Cueing the athlete to “open and/or close the A” is an easy way to see what their limitations are in terms of whether or not they have access to lateral rib motion and thoracic extension.

These three that I’ve shared with you now are by no means the be-all and end-all: Coach, if you find something that works better, for god sake, please email me, and don’t just lambast this article to your three followers on Reddit. If you use them regularly and integrate them with other skills and drills the athletes already do, I promise you, you will see success. For more on the details of that deployment, check out the articles I’ve written on specific techniques for:

• Recovery.
• Return to play.
• Nasal breathing.

Happy Accidents

Most of the time, our breathing is a happy accident of biological design. It just kind of happens for us, and everything seems to work out pretty well both on and off the field. There is most certainly a wave of popularity in the sports performance world regarding the deployment of breathing techniques for recovery and performance enhancement. Most, though, require time, energy, and focus that neither coaches nor athletes frequently possess.

While the deep process of volitional breathing is truly a remarkable symphony of chemistry that is just shy of a miracle, treating it with a much more benign attitude makes it more accessible. Share on X

While the deep process of volitional breathing is truly a remarkable symphony of chemistry that is just shy of a miracle, treating it with a much more benign attitude makes it more accessible. Then, the magic of the practice can simply express itself. I, for one, am excited that there’s so much renewed interest in breathing techniques as viable avenues for athlete health especially.

With all of that said, it is essential we don’t blow so much smoke up the proverbial skirt of the whole thing that it’s inaccessible to those it’s intended for. In other words, just breathe on purpose and let the games begin.

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

From 1994 to 2006, anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstructions increased by an astronomical 924% in individuals under the age of 15.¹ Through a physical activity promotion lens, this number may indicate that young people continue to engage in sports, especially at competitive levels, even with some noted declines in overall youth physical activity participation. Interestingly, this data comes from a period when sport specialization and year-round sport models (>8 months/year) were not dominant; that is, youth were not exclusively playing a single sport during elementary years. The increased exposure to sports participation has clear physical, social, and psychological benefits,² but the medical burden and consequences of ACL injuries and reconstructions make it feel like the house is on fire.

Sports participation has clear physical, social, and psychological benefits, but the medical burden and consequences of ACL injuries and reconstructions can make it feel like the house is on fire. Share on X

In 2005, some seminal work with injury-related fear and ACL reconstruction began to emerge when physical function, return to pre-injury levels of activity/competition, and other clinical outcomes could not be explained by traditional laboratory measures like biomechanics, strength, etc.^3,4 Injury-related fear quickly became supported as a determinant of knee function, secondary ACL injury risk, and overall physical activity levels after ACL reconstruction. The difficulty in addressing injury-related fear—a complex and very individual response—can develop from a few areas:

1. Increased rates of ACL injury.
2. Who is at the center of the care team.
3. Bridging the gap for athletes to return to an unpredictable and dynamic environment.

Nassim Taleb, an economist and author, developed the black swan theory. Black swan events are improbable, have far-reaching consequences, and are both difficult to predict (they take everyone by surprise) but obvious in hindsight. Despite the staggering percentages given a few sentences earlier, if we sit down and calculate the hours of exposure for each ACL injury, we may begin to see ACL injuries as an extreme outlier (even if they’re a common orthopedic injury) that have drastically changed the landscape of sports medicine as we know it. Some have found the incidence of non-contact ACL tears less than 0.1 per 1,000 player-hours between males and females, which included over 5 million player-hours and 40 million player exposures.⁵ Another study has shown ACL injury rates at 6.5 per 100,000 athletic exposures from 2007 to 2012.⁶

However, as the stakes increase (athlete safety and longevity, injury reduction, medical burden, etc.), it feels like the notion of ACL injuries being “improbable” is misplaced. There’s no question that ACL injury is devastating on both physical and psychological outcomes and that there’s a growing rate of ACL injuries, with some expecting overall rates to double by 2030.⁷

In an effort to slow these rates down, researchers have focused on biomechanics, strength, and other physical measures or mechanisms. Researchers are often (fairly) critiqued for living in ivory towers and not engaging community stakeholders (coaches, athletes, athletic administrators, etc.), which may be stoking the fire a bit from inside the house.

Qualitative work has begun to be incorporated into sports medicine research, which creates an avenue for the inclusion of stakeholder perspectives—what are the barriers and facilitators you face as a (fill in the blank with your role in sports) when it comes to ACL injury reduction?^8,9 Sports medicine research has shifted from a disease-focused approach to a biopsychosocial approach or an emphasis on psychologically informed clinical care and athlete-centered care. Sometimes, care and performance enhancement can be as simple as asking someone what they want/need and supporting that through your skills and expertise.

The central drive to decrease ACL injury rates shouldn’t attempt to predict ACL injuries but rather build a robustness to negative physical and psychological stressors and exploit positive stressors. Share on X

Hot take: The central drive to decrease ACL injury rates should not attempt to predict ACL injuries but rather build a robustness to negative stressors, including:

• Physical (overtraining, undertraining)
• Psychological (lack of social support, school workloads, lack of sleep)

This should be done while, at the same time, exploiting positive stressors: we need to adjust to the existence of ACL injuries rather than try to predict them.

Adopting an Athlete-Centered, Multidisciplinary Approach

Sports medicine teams are uniquely suited to collaborate to improve athlete experiences AND reduce injury risk in active populations or build robustness in athletes. This should be a multidisciplinary approach between strength and conditioning staff, athletic trainers, physical therapists, and counseling and psychological staff—but the athlete must remain the center of this effort.

Evidence-based practice leverages provider experience and research evidence, but this model falls short without individual preferences and beliefs. As such, no single focus is likely to produce a great outcome—a focus solely on research evidence will fail if the care team doesn’t have the skills (or resources) to implement these methods. For a while, research on ACL injury homed in on strength and biomechanical deficits, which meant we missed out on these athletes’ psychosocial experiences, which we know now are a critical factor in this complex web.^9–11

Athletes are exceptional in their ability to compensate and adapt to the challenges they face. We expect our athletes to return to sport or activity despite these challenges, and they usually do. However, if we don’t consider the multifactorial consequences of ACL injury, we aren’t fully preparing our athletes to return to unpredictable environments. There is a critical gap to bridge between post-injury recovery and return to play after ACL injury.

The Integrated Model of Response to Sport Injury, introduced by Wiese-Bjornstal¹², provides a great visual to understand how pre-injury factors influence a stress (physical and mental) response leading to sport injury.

(Figure adapted from Davids et al, 2003.)

The focus here is the cycle of recovery outcomes, which is influenced by:

• Personal factors (injury severity, self-perceptions, coping skills).
• Situational factors (time in season, teammates and coaches, social support, access to equipment).
• Emotional responses (positive emotional responses, fear).
• Behavioral responses (adherence to rehab and sessions, effort and intensity, risk-taking behaviors).

Injury-related fear is an umbrella encompassing kinesiophobia (fear of movement), fear of reinjury, and other fear-avoidance beliefs.^13,14 There are several patient-reported outcome measures to assess these responses, like the Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia and the Athlete Fear Avoidance Beliefs Questionnaire.

If you work with an athlete consistently and have built an inclusive rapport, they may share feelings of anxiety, fear, or distrust in their body. Rehabilitation and return to sport take a massive physical, emotional, and psychological toll on our athletes. Most of them will have a strong athletic identity that is challenged when they miss a substantial amount of time in their sport, and some will have minimal coping skills, which lends to an inability to address stressors or a poor cognitive appraisal of situations.

As much you emphasize strength, speed & power during the season, include psychological coping skills. Hold athletes accountable but give them the space, time & resources to process their emotions. Share on X

As much as strength, speed, and power are emphasized during the season, psychological coping skills should be included. There is still a strong and prevalent stigma¹⁵ in athletics where athletes who show emotion or struggle are called out in front of their peers, shamed for their frustrations, called weak, and worse. Athletes can be held accountable but also given the space, time, and resources to process their emotions.

If you’re in a position working with young athletes, it is crucial to note that many of these individuals may also not have the emotional vocabulary to share exactly how they are feeling or have experience with regulating those emotions. The emotional-processing areas in the brain don’t fully develop until age 25, so “young” is relative and likely applies to athletes in most settings.

Fear and Return to Sport

Injury-related fear usually seems to manifest when athletes begin the transition in rehabilitation to functional activities (single-leg hops, decelerating, cutting, etc.) and return to sport. Some studies have shown that early measures (0–2 months after ACL reconstruction) of self-reported fear predict later levels of fear during these functional transitions.¹⁶

On the physical performance side, athletes need to be prepared for interacting with a chaotic environment and autonomously executing a massive number of movements in a variety of conditions.¹⁷ Motor learning should be a cornerstone of this effort—as important as programming and load management are, you should ground these approaches in motor learning theories. These theories can also help identify athletes who are struggling to improve their physical performance and/or experiencing a poor psychological response that is impairing their ability to perform.

Full disclosure: There’s not a single theory that encompasses everything, but my favorite is Newell’s Theory of Constraints (Dynamic Systems), which includes individual, task, and environment. In this constraint-led approach, there are emergent properties of the whole system (individual, task, environment) that can be used to understand the self-organization of the individual and intrapersonal relationships in the environment (increased high-risk contact, avoidance of contact, “lost in space”).

For individual constraints within Newell’s Theory, we can have sublevels for structural and functional changes. Structural changes after ACL reconstruction are well described for the knee: poor strength, inefficient force production, asymmetric functional movements, and plenty more. Researchers have also seen functional changes in brain activity and connectivity between brain regions after ACL reconstruction. These changes may indicate a shift in how ACL-reconstructed individuals use sensory information (visual information) and a predisposition to fear or anxiety (Grooms, 2017; Baez, 2021).^18,19

Injury-related fear has been implicated in both structural and functional changes.^20–23 Critically, if you suspect an athlete has feelings of fear or anxiety or hear them admit this, pushing through that exercise can be detrimental at the structural and functional levels. Athletes experiencing fear can adopt a more internal focus of attention, which will disrupt motor performance and break down coordination.²⁴

Injury-related fear has been implicated in both structural and functional changes. It’s not as simple as telling an athlete to ‘get over it,’ as there are incredibly complex relationships at play. Share on X

It’s truly not as simple as telling an athlete to “get over it”—there are incredibly complex relationships at play. Take the time to validate their anxiety and refer them out if their fear and anxiety are sustaining over two weeks or interfering with their activity or quality of life. Referral should be made to a sport psychologist, a licensed doctoral-level provider, or other appropriate mental services provider. Be very wary of those who advertise themselves as a performance coach but hold no formal training, extensive mentorship, or educational background (AASP or CMPC).

Coaches and other members of the sports medicine team can help athletes regain confidence by appropriately exposing them to exercises/drills, affirming and celebrating them during this process, and keeping them engaged with their social support (usually the team).

1. Graded exercise^25,26: Coaches, especially strength and conditioning coaches, are exceptional at programming and seeing the big picture performance peaks during seasons. On a smaller scale, load and exercise programming should be very intentional and individually graded. Some athletes may struggle with symmetrical squatting or running, so breaking down those complex exercises into smaller, easily accomplished exercises will help give your athlete the building blocks to be confident.

If you notice that progressing to exercises induces a regression in performance, this is partly expected—but give the athlete a chance to be “messy” before hounding corrections. Some athletes will naturally self-evaluate and know when a specific set wasn’t their best; acknowledge and affirm their feelings and give feedback if requested/required.

In the weeds: Focus of attention also plays a vital role in performance improvement and will benefit motor learning. An external focus of attention is directing attention toward things outside of the body, like the environment and goal of the movement. An internal focus of attention is concentrated on how their body moves in space. Most rehabilitation specialists and coaches use internal, which may be taxing mental resources.^27–29

2. Practice and return to sport structures^30–32: Differential learning capitalizes on purposefully creating a varied and random practice. With support from Newell’s Theory of Constraints, this method supports a self-organized process of learning movements and skills, which introduces a healthy variability of movements given the environmental context and constraints. Building on our graded exercises, changing task parameters could look like this—before performing a broad jump:

1. Skip with your right leg, or
2. Perform butt kicks, or
3. Perform a shuffle to the right/left.

To change the environment, perform exercises in different light conditions, without shoes, with loud music, etc. To change athlete parameters, have them complete exercises while fatigued, with additional weight (when safe), etc. Often, this is far from the standard in most rehabilitation and return to sport settings, where athletes are given a strict 3×10 of a particular exercise in a highly controlled environment. There should be an emphasis on safe progressions, but variety can otherwise be introduced in plenty of ways.

In the weeds: Contextual interference (CI) considers the variability of the tasks being performed and the scheduling of practices. CI can help speed up skill acquisition despite poor practice performance, which is intentionally targeted. High CI, or random practice order, yields better skill retention and transfer despite those poor performances. Low CI would mean one task is completed before moving to the next, which seems to be the standard across the board.^33,34

(slide via Sports Science Insider.)

3. Incorporating psychological support into the coaching process: Coaches can emphasize positive coping skills like mindfulness meditation, journaling, reframing, or other relaxation techniques.³⁵ It is also essential to normalize feeling bad or not normal sometimes—don’t tell them it could be worse or feel like you need to share your experience. Hear them, affirm them, and try to find the root, if possible.

Incorporating pre-season mental skills training seems to help reduce injury risk for your entire team and sets your athletes up with important coping strategies for when the season picks up. Share on X

Incorporating pre-season mental skills training seems to help reduce injury risk for your entire team and sets your athletes up with important coping strategies for when the season picks up.³⁶ If you’re working with an athlete returning from injury, mindfulness can be introduced at the beginning of each session to reduce potential anxiety and allow them the space to be ready to proceed. YouTube and other free resources are readily available if you aren’t sure where to start. Using the concepts above will also promote motor learning and enhance your athlete’s ability to relearn these skills after ACL injury.

Empowering Athletes and the Path to Recovery

Sports medicine teams are critical in helping athletes transition back to sport and improve their quality of life after ACL injury. These teams are often essential sources of support for athletes, no matter what stage of life they are in. Simple human-level things like building mindfulness into strength programming or imagery into rehabilitation support the physical and psychological well-being of athletes.

Whatever your specific role, you possess the expertise and capabilities to implement some form of psychologically informed and athlete-centered care. The escalating rates of ACL injury and reconstructions in sport demand a level of intentionality in engaging both physical and mental well-being, which will have far-reaching benefits beyond the athlete’s sport. Psychological skills should be trained and valued in the same manner that squats, sprints, and scores are.

Lead Image by Fred Kfoury III/Icon Sportswire.

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References

1. Buller LT, Best MJ, Baraga MG, and Kaplan LD. “Trends in Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction in the United States.” Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine. 2014;3(1):2325967114563664. Published 2014 Dec 26. doi:10.1177/2325967114563664

2. Pluhar E, McCracken C, Griffith KL, Christino MA, Sugimoto D, and Meehan WP 3rd. “Team Sport Athletes May Be Less Likely to Suffer Anxiety or Depression than Individual Sport Athletes.” Journal of Sports Science and Medicine. 2019;18(3):490–496. Published 2019 Aug 1.

3. Kvist J, Ek A, Sporrstedt K, and Good L. “Fear of re-injury: a hindrance for returning to sports after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction.” Knee Surgery, Sports Traumatology, Arthroscopy. 2005 Jul;13:393–397.

4. Chmielewski TL, Jones D, Day T, Tillman SM, Lentz TA, and George SZ. “The association of pain and fear of movement/reinjury with function during anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction rehabilitation.” Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy. 2008 Dec;38(12):746–753.

5. Chia L, De Oliveira Silva D, Whalan M, et al. “Non-contact anterior cruciate ligament injury epidemiology in team-ball sports: a systematic review with meta-analysis by sex, age, sport, participation level, and exposure type.” Sports Medicine. 2022 Oct;52(10):2447–2467.

6. Joseph AM, Collins CL, Henke NM, Yard EE, Fields SK, and Comstock RD. “A multisport epidemiologic comparison of anterior cruciate ligament injuries in high school athletics.” Journal of Athletic Training. 2013 Dec 1;48(6):810–817.

7. Maniar N, Verhagen E, Bryant AL, and Opar DA. “Trends in Australian knee injury rates: An epidemiological analysis of 228,344 knee injuries over 20 years.” The Lancet Regional Health–Western Pacific. 2022 Apr 1;21.

8. Little C, Lavender AP, Starcevich C, et al. “Understanding Fear after an Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury: A Qualitative Thematic Analysis Using the Common-Sense Model.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2023 Feb 7;20(4):2920.

9. Burland JP, Toonstra J, Werner JL, Mattacola CG, Howell DM, and Howard JS. “Decision to return to sport after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction, part I: a qualitative investigation of psychosocial factors.” Journal of Athletic Training. 2018 May 1;53(5):452–463.

10. Erickson LN, Jacobs CA, Johnson DL, Ireland ML, and Noehren B. “Psychosocial factors 3‐months after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction predict 6‐month subjective and objective knee outcomes.” Journal of Orthopaedic Research®. 2022 Jan;40(1):231­–238.

11. Burland JP, Toonstra JL, and Howard JS. “Psychosocial barriers after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction: a clinical review of factors influencing postoperative success.” Sports Health. 2019 Nov;11(6):528–534.

12. Wiese-Bjornstal DM, Smith AM, Shaffer SM, and Morrey MA. “An integrated model of response to sport injury: Psychological and sociological dynamics.” Journal of Applied Sport Psychology. 1998 Mar 1;10(1):46–69.

13. Meierbachtol A, Obermeier M, Yungtum W, et al. “Injury-related fears during the return-to-sport phase of ACL reconstruction rehabilitation.” Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine. 2020 Mar 26;8(3):2325967120909385.

14. Hsu CJ, Meierbachtol A, George SZ, and Chmielewski TL. “Fear of reinjury in athletes: implications for rehabilitation.” Sports Health. 2017 Mar;9(2):162–167.

15. Chow GM, Bird MD, Gabana NT, Cooper BT, and Becker MA. “A program to reduce stigma toward mental illness and promote mental health literacy and help-seeking in National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I student-athletes.” Journal of Clinical Sport Psychology. 2020 Jul 28;15(3):185–205.

16. Bullock GS, Sell TC, Zarega R, et al. “Kinesiophobia, knee self-efficacy, and fear avoidance beliefs in people with ACL injury: a systematic review and meta-analysis.” Sports Medicine. 2022 Dec;52(12):3001–3019.

17. Khadartsev AA, Nesmeyanov AA, Es’ Kov VM, Fudin NA, and Kozhemov AA. “The foundations of athletes’ training based on chaos theory and self-organization.” Theory and Practice of Physical Culture. 2013(9):23.

18. Grooms DR, Page SJ, Nichols-Larsen DS, Chaudhari AM, White SE, and Onate JA. “Neuroplasticity associated with anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction.” Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy. 2017 Mar;47(3):180–189.

19. Baez S, Andersen A, Andreatta R, Cormier M, Gribble PA, and Hoch JM. “Neuroplasticity in corticolimbic brain regions in patients after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction.” Journal of Athletic Training. 2021 Apr 1;56(4):418–426.

20. Genoese F, Baez SE, Heebner N, Hoch MC, and Hoch JM. “The relationship between injury-related fear and visuomotor reaction time in individuals with a history of anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction.” Journal of Sport Rehabilitation. 2020 May 29;30(3):353–359.

21. An YW. “Fear of reinjury matters after ACL injury.” International Journal of Applied Sports Sciences. 2018 Dec 1;30(2).

22. Paterno MV, Flynn K, Thomas S, and Schmitt LC. “Self-reported fear predicts functional performance and second ACL injury after ACL reconstruction and return to sport: a pilot study.” Sports Health. 2018 May;10(3):228–233.

23. Trigsted SM, Cook DB, Pickett KA, Cadmus-Bertram L, Dunn WR, and Bell DR. “Greater fear of reinjury is related to stiffened jump-landing biomechanics and muscle activation in women after ACL reconstruction.” Knee Surgery, Sports Traumatology, Arthroscopy. 2018 Dec;26:3682–3689.

24. Young WR and Williams AM. “How fear of falling can increase fall-risk in older adults: applying psychological theory to practical observations.” Gait & Posture. 2015 Jan 1;41(1):7–12.

25. Vlaeyen JW, de Jong J, Sieben J, and Crombez G. “Graded exposure in vivo for pain-related fear.” Psychological Approaches to Pain Management. A Practitioner’s Handbook. New York: Guilford. 2002:210–233.

26. Baez S, Cormier M, Andreatta R, Gribble P, and Hoch JM. “Implementation of In vivo exposure therapy to decrease injury-related fear in females with a history of ACL-Reconstruction: A pilot study.” Physical Therapy in Sport. 2021 Nov 1;52:217–223.

27. Singh H, Gokeler A, and Benjaminse A. “Effective attentional focus strategies after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction: a commentary.” International Journal of Sports Physical Therapy. 2021;16(6):1575.

28. van Weert MB, Rathleff MS, Eppinga P, Mølgaard CM, and Welling W. “Using a target as external focus of attention results in a better jump-landing technique in patients after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction–A cross-over study.” The Knee. 2023 Jun 1;42:390–399.

29. Gokeler A, Benjaminse A, Welling W, Alferink M, Eppinga P, and Otten B. “The effects of attentional focus on jump performance and knee joint kinematics in patients after ACL reconstruction.” Physical Therapy in Sport. 2015 May 1;16(2):114–120.

30. Gokeler A, Neuhaus D, Benjaminse A, Grooms DR, and Baumeister J. “Principles of motor learning to support neuroplasticity after ACL injury: implications for optimizing performance and reducing risk of second ACL injury.” Sports Medicine. 2019 Jun 1;49:853–865.

31. Gokeler A, Nijmeijer EM, Heuvelmans P, Tak I, Ramponi C, and Benjaminse A. “Motor learning principles during rehabilitation after anterior cruciate ligament injury: Time to create an enriched environment to improve clinical outcome.” Arthroskopie. 2023 Apr 26:1–7.

32. Kakavas G, Forelli F, Malliaropoulos N, Hewett TE, and Tsaklis P. “Periodization in anterior cruciate ligament rehabilitation: new framework versus old model? A clinical commentary.” International Journal of Sports Physical Therapy. 2023;18(2):541.

33. Gokeler A, Seil R, Kerkhoffs G, and Verhagen E. “A novel approach to enhance ACL injury prevention programs.” Journal of Experimental Orthopaedics. 2018 Jun 18;5(1):22.

34. Benjaminse A, Neuhaus D, Gokeler A, Grooms D, and Baumeister J. “Principles of motor learning to support neuroplasticity after ACL injury.” Sports Medicine. 2019 June;49(6):853–865.

35. Birrer D and Morgan G. “Psychological skills training as a way to enhance an athlete’s performance in high‐intensity sports.” Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports. 2010 Oct;20:78–87.

36. Reiche E, Lam K, Genoese F, and Baez S. “Integrating Mindfulness to Reduce Injury Rates in Athletes: A Critically Appraised Topic.” International Journal of Athletic Therapy and Training. 2023 Aug 28;1(aop):1–8.

The purpose behind the Best Evidence Rule is to prevent inaccuracies and false assertions of truth. In other words, there must be a guarantee of accuracy when claiming an objective fact, such as “my athletes are getting faster because…” by providing a document or other supporting evidence that is guaranteed to be accurate.

It’s important to know if athletes are truly getting faster because that’s how speed training programs are proven to be effective. Using misleading evidence to substantiate a speed training program is a disservice to the athlete and the speed training industry.

The Use of Maximum Velocity to Prove Speed Improvement Is Easily Manipulated

If you look at social media, you’ll see thousands of performance coaches and organizations claiming their athletes are getting faster by posting a faster mph next to a slower one. This is not good evidence, let alone anywhere close to being the best evidence. This is because this metric is easily manipulated.

All athletes get faster during a run, depending on how long the run is. Anyone can have an athlete who is actually getting slower falsely appear faster simply by taking the mph measurement at a longer distance. Another trick commonly used is to increase the fly distance before a split measurement so there is a higher entrance velocity.

Proprietary speed scores are another form of easily manipulated evidence. Some speed promoters claim to have the secret sauce behind teaching an athlete the ability to produce speed and also claim to exclusively have the secret sauce to measure this with their proprietary speed score. However, these speed scores lack any disclosed calculation. Although experienced trainers find these scores comical, unfortunately, many novice trainers rely on them without knowing what they represent and how they are calculated.

Using misleading evidence to support a claim that athletes are getting faster hurts the speed training industry because it attempts to set a standard that can easily be manipulated. Share on X

Using misleading evidence to support a claim that athletes are getting faster hurts the speed training industry because it attempts to set a standard that can easily be manipulated. It also removes a level of integrity that puts a bad light on those trainers who use best evidence to support their claims that their athletes are getting faster. Put another way, the novice speed trainers and organizations using poor evidence appear to be getting better results than the more experienced speed trainers and organizations.

This is not to say that maximum velocity is without value. The argument is that without a consistent and accurate context, the value is easily manipulated to show improvement.

Easily Manipulated Evidence

Below are examples of easily manipulated evidence used to substantiate a speed training program.

There are many examples of easily manipulated evidence used to substantiate a speed training program. And, to be fair, some very low-cost GPS systems only provide top speed, and that metric is better than nothing. At a minimum, that metric alone can get the conversation started around speed and become a starting point to grow into a more credible system.

Timing gates are another metric that can be easily manipulated. This is so because the distances of the timing gates are susceptible to human error. If the timing gates are 1 foot off, an athlete traveling at 16 mph would have a +/- of about .045 seconds. This could easily account for differences in the results below.

Another variable that must be constant when comparing timing gate results is the start. Some timing gates start with a pressure sensor, some with a laser, and some with an external cue, such as a gun firing. All these variables significantly affect the results. This is especially so when the start is with a laser because athletes can easily create distance before the start, thereby increasing their entrance velocity into the first laser. This manipulation can create variabilities greater than .1 of a second.

Faster Is Not Necessarily Better, even with a Consistent and Accurate Context

A faster athlete is not necessarily a better athlete. In the context of a 100m sprinter, a faster maximum velocity could be accompanied by a slower time if the acceleration phase, transition phase, or velocity maintenance phase decreased. Yet, just posting a faster maximum velocity time would give the illusion that the athlete is better when, in fact, they are worse.

Just posting a faster maximum velocity time would give the illusion that the athlete is better when, in fact, they are worse. Share on X

The same holds true for deceleration and COD training. Eric Lichter provides a clear definition of COD performance, stating:

“Let’s define COD performance in no uncertain terms: it is how quickly you can accelerate, decelerate, re-accelerate, stop, and change direction on the athletic field (and not necessarily in that order). It’s any combination of those skills. This is likely the biggest athletic factor that determines success over your competition in most field sports. Acceleration refers to speed and how quickly it can increase over a given time frame or distance. The same can be said for deceleration and how quickly speed can decrease over a given time frame or distance. What I’m referring to with change of direction performance is the ability to maintain body control, foot placement, and movement efficiency while combining all the components of COD.”

A faster entrance velocity into a 10-yard deceleration could result in a loss of speed control and, ultimately, result in injury or poor deceleration mechanics if the athlete is unable to control their center of mass or lacks judgment and experience to know how far they need to slow down or stop.

Curvilinear runs are another example where maximum velocity can be misleading. This is because curvilinear runs require the athlete to find that balance between speed and control. An athlete’s maximum velocity can increase beyond the athlete’s control, thus leading to a poor-quality curve that results in a greater distance needing to be run. This is an example where faster and farther don’t necessarily mean better. Think of a defensive back or a linebacker who needs to get to a spot on the field in as little time as possible.

How to Prove Athletes Are Getting Faster

Below are two devices that provide credible evidence of whether an athlete is getting faster: McLloyd GPS and 1080 Sprint.

When most people claim their athletes are getting faster, they really mean their speed is improving. The definition of speed is distance divided by time.

This is a very simple definition, and the result is not easily manipulated if two elements remain constant: starting position and time or starting position and distance. This makes perfect sense when thinking about track athletes because the starting position is always the same. The distance for the event is always specified, so when you compare one 100-meter time against another, you get an accurate representation of whether the athlete got faster or slower because the time either decreased or increased.

Distance as a unit of measure is not yet common practice, but it’s the best evidence to show whether an athlete’s getting faster or slower. I also think it’s the easiest to understand. Share on X

The inverse is true if you keep the starting position and time constant. This unit of measure is not yet common practice, but I believe it is the best evidence to show whether an athlete is getting faster or slower. I also think it is the easiest to understand—especially at the youth level. This is so because even the youngest athletes can conceptualize distance.

An example of this occurs when you line up two youth athletes and have them run for four seconds, holding a coin in one hand. At the end of four seconds, they drop the coin and see how much distance separates them. If there are 5 feet of distance between the coins, each athlete can easily understand what that distance represents. This is because distance is much easier to conceptualize than time.

Distance Is Easier to Conceptualize Than Time

Every day is filled with time that seems to go by fast and time that goes by slowly. However, we never come across a 1-foot ruler that seems longer than another 1-foot ruler. This is because our brains are wired in a way that makes it easy to conceptualize distance much better than we can conceptualize time. The perception that distance is easier to conceptualize than time can be attributed to several factors:

• • Three of the five senses measure distance: The distance between objects can immediately be seen. We can sense short distances physically when we grasp or touch objects. Sound also provides us with a sense of distance, like whether an ambulance is close or far and whether it’s traveling toward or away from you.

 

• • Tangible experience with distance: Humans interact with space and distance daily. Whether walking, reaching for an object, or navigating an environment, our daily experiences are filled with spatial interactions. This constant interaction makes distance something tangible and concrete in our minds.

 

• • Measurement tools: Humans have had tools and methods to measure distance for millennia, from simple ruler-like instruments to more advanced tools. In contrast, accurate tools for measuring time (like clocks) are relatively recent inventions.

 

• • Physical boundaries: Distance often has clear physical boundaries or endpoints. For instance, the distance between two cities has a definitive start and end point. Time, however, is continuous and abstract, without the same kind of physicality. Sunrise and sunset represent the timeframes day and night, which constantly change throughout the year.

 

• • Abstract nature of time: Time becomes an abstract concept, especially when considered beyond our daily experiences. For example, comprehending the span of a millennium or even just a century can be challenging. We often rely on events or milestones to give context to these large spans of time.

 

• Cognitive load: Processing time, especially in abstract terms, requires a cognitive load. For example, thinking about how long 10 years feels is more abstract than visualizing a distance of 10 miles.

The Best Evidence

The pursuit of excellence in athletic performance has always been underpinned by the drive to measure and validate improvements accurately. In the digital age, with a plethora of metrics and claims circulating on social media, the onus on showcasing genuine progress has never been greater. The “Best Evidence Rule” emerges as the gold standard in this context, emphasizing the imperative of accuracy and reliability when proclaiming an athlete’s speed improvement.

In the digital age, with a plethora of metrics and claims circulating on social media, the onus on showcasing genuine progress has never been greater. Share on X

Rather than relying on superficial metrics like top speeds, which can be easily manipulated and misconstrued, this section dives into a more nuanced, evidence-based approach. By employing one-second time segments to assess distance from a static start, it offers a more granular, objective, and consistent measure of an athlete’s acceleration and overall speed. As we navigate through this insightful piece, the importance of using GPS technology as a linchpin for this assessment method is highlighted, underscoring its precision, versatility, and credibility in athletic performance analysis.

It’s important to note that even though many GPS units only measure in .1-second intervals, depending on how the unit measures time, the accuracy of that interval can be in the nanoseconds. This is because the timekeeping systems in GPS satellites are the most accurate in existence due to their atomic clocks. Just for reference, a nanosecond in decimal form is 0.000000001 seconds. Therefore, you can be very confident that the time segment from one second to two seconds is exactly one second, give or take a few nanoseconds.

One-Second Time Segments

Imagine if all speed trainers and organizations used one-second segments to measure distance as evidence that their athletes are getting faster. Every speed training program could be compared to another, and the most effective programs would become easy to spot.

If all speed trainers and organizations used one-second segments to measure distance as evidence that their athletes are getting faster, every speed training program could be compared to another. Share on X

Using one-second segments to measure distance, especially from a still start, can offer several benefits when assessing the performance and progress of athletes. Here are some of the benefits:

• • Detailed performance analysis: Breaking down an athlete’s performance into one-second intervals allows for more granular analysis. This can help identify specific segments where an athlete might be underperforming or excelling.

 

• • Acceleration analysis: By measuring the distance covered in each one-second segment from a still start, coaches and trainers can assess an athlete’s acceleration capabilities. This is crucial in many sports where the ability to accelerate quickly can be a game-changing skill.

 

• • Identifying fatigue and strength deficiency points: By comparing the distance covered in each segment, it’s possible to identify points where the athlete’s performance starts to decline, possibly due to strength or fatigue. This can guide training regimes to address these weak points.

 

• • Progress tracking: Using consistent, one-second intervals provides a standardized method to track an athlete’s progress over time. If an athlete covers more distance in the same timeframe in subsequent tests, it’s a clear indication of improvement.

 

• • Tailored training regimens: Understanding performance at these granular levels can help coaches tailor training regimens to focus on specific segments where improvement is needed.

 

• • Feedback and motivation: Providing athletes with detailed feedback about their performance in each segment can be a powerful motivational tool. Athletes can set specific, measurable goals for each segment, leading to more focused training.

 

• • Consistency in evaluation: Using standardized timeframes ensures consistent performance evaluation across different athletes and training sessions.

 

• Technique refinement: Analyzing performance in short segments can help identify technical flaws in an athlete’s movement or form that might be affecting their speed or efficiency.

One-Second Segment Examples

Below are examples of 100m sprint data from the same athlete. Data was captured using a McLloyd GPS unit worn inside a lightweight vest. The first data set is from the opening meet, and the second set is from the following meet one week later. Each time segment analysis is described below. A data point of 0 mph is included rather than the athlete’s first movement because this is a meet where a starting gun initiates the clock.

Opening Meet

2nd Meet

The First One-Second Segment (0–1)

A one-second distance can range from 6 feet for beginner athletes to 14 feet for Olympic-level athletes. One-second distance is a good measurement to isolate the earliest acceleration phase, so the metric is specific to the start. This is a great segment to analyze starting mechanics and force output.

Notice how, in the first meet, only 9.51 feet were covered in the first one-second segment. After this event, the athlete primarily worked on starting mechanics while using the 1080 Sprint with the goal of improving early phase acceleration. This resulted in a significant improvement.

In the second meet, nearly 2 additional feet were covered in the first time segment. Using this analysis, it is easy for everyone, including the young athlete, to see that the athlete is improving.

The Second One-Second Segment (1–2)

The second one-second segment typically measures a segment starting after the third or fourth step. It usually captures the highest rate of speed increase, often resulting in more than twice the distance being covered than in the first. This is a great segment to analyze and compare acceleration qualities and trends.

In the first meet, the athlete covered 22.64 feet in the second time segment. In the second meet, the athlete covered 23.37 feet in the second time segment. Using this analysis, it is easy for everyone, including the young athlete, to see that the athlete is improving.

The Third One-Second Segment (2–3)

The third segment is good for analyzing the transition from the acceleration phase to maximum speed. But that isn’t to say the acceleration qualities aren’t inherently included because the better an athlete is at accelerating, the farther this distance will be.

Here, the athlete goes from 22.22 feet in the first meet to 28.74 feet in the second. Using this analysis, it is easy for everyone, including the young athlete, to see that the athlete is improving.

The Fourth One-Second Segment (3–4)

This segment is where speed really begins to level off. Athletes—in all sports—typically reach 90%–95% of their maximum velocity potential by four seconds. This segment captures the acceleration phase as well as the athlete’s ability to reach their top speed as quickly as possible. If you had to pick one segment to represent an athlete’s ability to accelerate and their ability to run at high velocity, this segment would be it.

Here, the athlete goes from 30.51 feet in the first meet to 31.34 feet in the second. Using this analysis, it is easy for everyone to see, including the young athlete, that the athlete is getting better.

The Importance of Using GPS as Best Evidence in Assessing Athletic Speed

In the age of technology, the role of precise and accurate data collection in sports performance cannot be overstated. Given the emphasis on the “Best Evidence Rule” in the analysis of athletes’ speed improvements, GPS technology stands out as a pivotal tool. Here’s why:

• • Precision and accuracy: GPS technology provides exact measurements for distance and speed. This precision is essential when evaluating the nuances of an athlete’s performance, especially in instances where mere fractions of seconds or inches can signify meaningful progress or regression.

 

• • Scalability: GPS technology can be used on many athletes simultaneously instead of queuing athletes to perform one at a time.

 

• • Objective data collection: Relying on subjective or visually assessed data can lead to biases or inaccuracies. GPS technology provides objective data, ensuring assessments and evaluations are based on concrete evidence rather than perceptions or estimates.

 

• • Consistency across measurements: As highlighted in the article, consistency in starting positions and measuring points is crucial. GPS allows for uniform data collection points, ensuring every athlete’s performance is evaluated under the same parameters.

 

• • Validation of claims: With the prevalence of misleading metrics on platforms like social media, having data backed by GPS technology ensures that claims about an athlete’s speed or improvements are validated. This adds credibility to trainers and organizations, especially when contrasting with those who might use easily manipulated metrics.

 

• • Real-time feedback: GPS provides instant feedback. This immediacy is beneficial for trainers and athletes alike, allowing for on-the-spot adjustments and tailored training sessions.

 

• • Versatility in application: While the article highlights the use of one-second intervals, GPS technology allows for versatile data collection across different intervals, distances, and contexts. Whether assessing curvilinear runs, acceleration phases, or deceleration mechanics, GPS provides comprehensive data.

 

• Historical data analysis: Over time, GPS devices store a wealth of data. This historical data can be instrumental in tracking an athlete’s long-term progress, identifying trends, and forecasting future potential.

Given the emphasis on the “Best Evidence Rule” in the analysis of athletes’ speed improvements, GPS technology stands out as a pivotal tool. Share on X

Below are two graphs automatically generated from GPS data that demonstrate how to use best evidence to show the athlete is getting faster. Keeping time at a constant 4.3 seconds, you can easily see that the athlete’s distance has increased from 35.2 yards to 39.6 yards. This is simple-to-understand evidence that the athlete is getting faster.

If we put the cumulative distance on the y-axis, it is even easier to see this athlete’s progress. Keeping time at a constant 4.3 seconds, it’s easy to see the improvement in speed and distance at this point.

The accompanying graphs, generated from GPS data, exemplify the importance of using best evidence to support claims that an athlete is getting faster. They illustrate a clear enhancement in the athlete’s speed—a distance jump from 35.2 yards to 39.6 yards within a constant time frame. Especially with cumulative distance on the y-axis, the progress at the 4.3-second mark is vivid.

In a world where precision, trustworthiness, and evidence-driven methods reign supreme, GPS emerges as the gold standard, guiding trainers, athletes, and institutions toward informed decisions. Share on X

Integrating GPS in athletes’ speed assessments is indispensable. In a world where precision, trustworthiness, and evidence-driven methods reign supreme, GPS emerges as the gold standard, guiding trainers, athletes, and institutions toward informed decisions.

Summary

This article discussed the importance of using the “Best Evidence Rule” in assessing athletic speed improvements, emphasizing that evidence must be accurate and reliable. The current standard, which involves posting top speed metrics on social media, is misleading and harms the industry’s credibility. This article also discussed that merely being faster doesn’t equate to better performance, citing instances where increased speed might adversely impact an athlete’s performance or result in injuries.

The core proposition of this article is to use a one-second time segment to measure distance at multiple segments from a static start. Benefits include detailed performance analysis, accurate progress tracking, and technique refinement. The article presents data from two meets, showing improvements in an athlete’s performance using this method. The distance covered in one-second intervals provides a clear, objective measure of an athlete’s acceleration and speed, making it easier for both trainers and athletes to understand and visualize progress.

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

About 20 years ago, a high school coach gave me a tour of his athletic facilities. We stopped by the weight room and saw a young man squatting, all the way down and without knee wraps, 415 pounds for five reps. When the coach asked what position he played on the football team, the young giant replied, “I don’t play football—I just like to squat!”

I eventually became a volunteer strength coach at that school, teaching a girls PE elective with athletes and non-athletes. After a few semesters, 12 girls cleaned 135 pounds (five over 150), and nine vertical jumped (no step) at least 23 inches. Although the athletes were impressive, many non-athletes demonstrated remarkable strength and jumping ability.

The point of these examples is that many males and females with exceptional athletic talent never play sports in high school. As for numbers, the Youth Sports Institute at Michigan State University estimates that 70% of kids quit organized sports by age 13. This means sports coaches in high school only have access to about 30% of their athletic talent pool. Think about this.

School districts separate schools into divisions based on the number of students. A school with 2,000 students will compete against schools with approximately 2,000 students, and a school with 1,000 students will compete against schools with about 1,000 students.

What if coaches who work in a school with 1,000 students could tap into another 10%, 15%, or 20% of its student population to try out for sports? It’s worth considering the advantages. Share on X

What if coaches who work in a school with 1,000 students could tap into another 10%, 15%, or 20% of its student population to try out for sports? That would significantly increase their athletic talent pool. Another 30% would double it, potentially putting them on equal footing with schools with twice their enrollment. Although it’s unrealistic to achieve 100% participation, it’s worth considering the advantages of expanding a school’s athletic talent pool.

This begs the question, “Why do so many kids give up on athletics before high school?”

The Fun Factor

A Minnesota Amateur Sports Commission study asked kids about their experiences with coaches. Here’s what the researchers found:

• 45.3% were called names, yelled at, or insulted by coaches.
• 21% were pressured to play with an injury.
• 17.5% were hit, kicked, or slapped.

With these red flags, it’s no surprise that one of the primary answers kids give for quitting sports is that they “are not having fun.”

Besides these coaching abuses, I would add to the list the coaches who discourage less-talented athletes from staying in the game. Let me expand on this point.

Several years ago, track and field athletes from one high school told me their head coach only paid attention to those who could score team points. Winning was top of mind, and he had no desire to spend his time or resources helping less-gifted athletes reach their potential.

Because this coach only wanted to work with the best athletes, he tried recruiting athletes away from other sports and encouraged his athletes to participate in indoor and outdoor track. This tactic backfired.

The year after he was hired, only one athlete on the football team went out for track. After two years, his track team went from state championship contenders to cellar dwellers. He would not coach a third season.

Yes, the football players could have benefited from participating in track in the outdoor season. However, the coaches didn’t want to risk losing their athletes, particularly because this track coach encouraged his athletes to compete in the indoor and outdoor seasons. (I’ve seen this conflict with weightlifting coaches. A weightlifting colleague of mine was coaching weight training at a high school. One of the best football players quit the team to focus on weightlifting year-round with my friend, and the athlete went on to compete internationally. However, the head football coach feared losing more athletes, so my friend was no longer allowed to work with football players.)

It’s a shame that so many athletes dealt with this track and field coach for so long, and a more extensive screening process may have prevented this problem. In fact, this coach had “allegedly” been pressured to resign from his previous coaching position in another state due to complaints from parents about his behavior. I understand this information was never passed on to the school administration because of privacy laws. So, what can be done?

A Question of Character

Although background checks are essential, they’re just one aspect of the hiring process. “What a background check does is show what kind of legal action has been taken against a person,” says sports liability consultant Dr. Marc Rabinoff. “If they’ve had a felony conviction, even if it was 20 years ago, and they’ve paid their debt to society, it would show up.” That’s the plus side.

The downside is that background checks are generally performed only once every two years. The process doesn’t include regularly checking someone’s criminal history and reporting new illegal activities to the hiring organization. “What happens when a coach comes through squeaky clean in a background check but gets convicted of a sex crime involving a minor a month after you’ve completed the background check? You will have to wait 23 months until the next background check is performed to hear about it,” says Rabinoff.

Rabinoff says employers must call references when hiring coaches, even volunteer coaches, and “ask the hard questions so you get a good grasp of an individual’s character.” He also recommends that incoming coaches be made aware of the expected behavior standards and sign a document stating they agree to them. For reference, Rabinoff says USA Soccer has developed documents that schools and sports organizations can use as templates. And there’s much more that can be done.

Bigger Faster Stronger (BFS) has conducted high school and middle school character education clinics for over four decades, often giving hundreds of presentations a year. Their instructors are primarily certified teachers and accomplished coaches. These four-hour clinics are called Be an 11, and their motto is “On a scale of 1 to 10, be an 11!”

The BFS clinics are designed to help athletes set worthy goals in all areas of life, determine the steps to achieve those goals, and be able to tell right from wrong. Another benefit is that they help athletes become role models that their peers would admire. What’s unique is that the clinics involve athletes, parents, and coaches—BFS wants everyone to be on the same page as to what’s expected of them.

Remember the Charles Atlas ads with a strong, muscular bully kicking sand in the face of a wimpy guy in front of his girlfriend? A “Be an 11” athlete would pull that bully aside and try to turn him into the type of person who might even encourage the skinny guy to train with him to build up his body and self-confidence.

Why focus on athletes rather than the general student body? One reason is that athletes are often admired and respected among their peers, often more than teachers. As the editor of their magazine, BFS, I interviewed hundreds of coaches and school administrators over two decades. Coaches often told me that when athletes become role models, there’s a trickle-down effect of positive behavior throughout the school.

Coaches often told me that when athletes become role models, there’s a trickle-down effect of positive behavior throughout the school. Share on X

Many other organizations offer character education workshops, each with its unique approach to helping kids. These may help prevent coaching abuses, create a supportive environment for kids to continue playing sports, and encourage some of the Forgotten 70 Percent to try out for a team.

Those are some of the social and psychological reasons why kids quit sports. Now, let’s look at some of the physical reasons.

Bigger, Faster, Older!

If you fill a room with 12-year-olds, some will have the physical maturity of an 11-year-old and some that of a 13- or 14-year-old. Therefore, from a physical perspective, a sports program with 12-year-olds could have a mix of 11-year-olds competing against 14-year-olds. Such an environment is not much fun for those less physically mature (“Ant, meet boot!”), and these weaker kids often quit.

A year can make a big difference in physical maturity. Although rare, I’ve heard of parents of football players holding back their sons a year in school so they will be older than their classmates. The extra year enabled them to become bigger and stronger than their teammates during their junior and senior years when the college scouts started paying attention. Consider the practice of redshirting.

College football teams often redshirt players to give them an extra year to improve their strength, power, and quickness. At Brigham Young University, a type of extended redshirting occurs because many linemen pause their education to go on a two-year mission for the Mormon Church. They can still lift during this period, packing on slabs of muscle mass to give them an edge on the gridiron. (When I coached at the Air Force Academy, I recall that the BYU offensive linemen were so physically imposing they could be classified as a different species!)

The bottom line is that coaches need to recognize that kids physically mature at different rates. Don’t rush nature; instead, encourage these young men and women to stay with the program. Your patience may pay off with big returns.

The bottom line is that coaches need to recognize that kids physically mature at different rates. Don’t rush nature; instead, encourage these young men and women to stay with the program. Share on X

The Training Edge

Besides chronological age, another factor to consider is an athlete’s training age, which refers to how long an athlete has been involved in a sport or physical training. I recently interviewed Ciro Ibañez, a 1983 Pan American champion in weightlifting who runs the Beyond Lifting Club in Montreal, Canada. His wife, Abigail Guerrero, coaches their daughter, Emily Ibañez Guerrero. Emily fulfills the definition of an outlier.

When she was six, Emily began extensive physical training, which included gymnastics and plyometrics. About 18 months later, she started lifting weights, focusing on technique. She is now 12 and therefore has a training age of six years. The result? Weighing 121 pounds, she clean and jerked 231 pounds and back squatted 319 pounds! Again, she’s 12.

Video 1: Emily Ibañez Guerrero fulfills the definition of an “outlier.” Just 12 years old and weighing 121 pounds, here she clean and jerks 231 pounds and squats 319 pounds!

While early sports specialization is often necessary to compete at the highest levels, it has drawbacks. Besides mental burnout, the risk of injury may be higher, resulting in athletes quitting their sport. For example, one study on 1,544 high school athletes found that those who played only one sport had an 85% higher incidence of lower-extremity injury. That’s the bad news.

The good news is that supplementary weight training significantly reduces overuse injuries and total injuries for athletes specializing in one sport. This is my approach with my golfer, Ava Andoscia.

As a high school freshman, Andoscia was the only girl to earn a spot on the varsity golf team and made the Providence Journal All-State Team. In practice, she has scored 76 on 18 holes and has a best long drive of 275 yards. Because she plays golf year-round, I give her specific exercises to prevent muscle imbalances.

Injury prevention is one thing, but what about injured athletes forced to take extended breaks from sports? Being out of the game too long may cause athletes to quit, thinking they might be unable to return to their previous level. Again, the weight room offers an answer.

Being out of the game too long can cause athletes to quit, thinking they might be unable to return to their previous level. Again, the weight room offers an answer. Share on X

The Art of the Comeback

Let’s say a high school football player has to quit the team during their freshman year due to a serious injury, then decides to rejoin the team in their junior year. Wouldn’t you think that young man might have a better shot of seeing playing time if he’d been lifting hard and packing on muscle?

When an athlete suffers a serious injury, such as an ACL tear or an Achilles rupture, they can still get involved in an aggressive weight training program. If an athlete injures their knees, train the upper body. If they injure their shoulders, train the lower body. Legendary Bulgarian weightlifting coach Ivan Abadjiev said if an athlete is injured so severely that they can only lift a finger, “They should go to the gym and lift a finger!”

With the right encouragement and a sound rehab program, injured athletes may return to their sport stronger than ever. This was the case with two of my track and field athletes at Brown University, Maddie Frey and Bretram Rogers. Both mastered the art of the comeback.

Frey was a high school soccer player who tore her ACL. After a long rehab process, she switched to track and field as the risk of reinjuring her knee was lower—she even competed in cross country. In 2020, she broke the 32-year-old record in the 200m at Brown. Likewise, in his senior year in high school, Rogers severely tore his hamstring, causing nerve damage. He broke Brown’s indoor 60m hurdles record set in 1959 and the 110m hurdles record set in 2007.

Of course, for athletes to come back from serious injuries quickly requires good training facilities. Machines often come in handy, particularly with athletes who have injuries requiring a limb to be immobilized. This brings us to the issue of athletic training facilities.

United We Stand!

One of the realities of coaching at the high school level is budget restrictions, particularly for weight rooms. Promoting a unified weight training program that involves all students, not just athletes, increases a coach’s resources.

A reality of coaching at the high school level is budget restrictions. Promoting a unified weight training program that involves all students, not just athletes, increases a coach’s resources. Share on X

In many schools, the athletic and physical education departments have separate budgets. At the high school where I coached in Utah, the weight room for athletes consisted primarily of benches, squat racks, and barbells and dumbbells that had seen better days.

At this same school, the weight room reserved for the physical education department received a grant to develop a large circuit of resistance training and cardio machines that probably ran north of $25,000. I saw the same situation in a nearby school with two weight rooms working with separate budgets—the cardio equipment alone in the PE room retailed for at least $20,000.

Why separate PE and athletic department weight rooms? How about pooling resources to make one master weight room benefitting both programs? Athletes could use the machines for rehabilitation and more sport-specific exercises. PE students could be introduced to dynamic free-weight exercises (such as cleans) and plyometrics to make them better physically prepared if they try out for a sport. Also, having athletes and non-athletes train together may help break down social barriers and thus encourage more of the general student population to give organized sports another go.

Having athletes and non-athletes train together may help break down social barriers and thus encourage more of the general student population to give organized sports another go. Share on X

“We don’t have the physical requirements for physical education that we had 30 years ago,” says Bob Rowbotham, CEO of BFS. “Based upon our experience, when the weight room is set up correctly, weight training becomes one of the most popular classes in the PE curriculum.” (By the way, my high school girls’ weight training class was an elective, and it grew from 20 students to 92 after a few semesters.)

One recruiting idea to take into the Forgotten 70 Percent is to consider having students from feeder schools participate in your summer weight training classes before high school.

Inviting feeder school athletes into a high school summer program reduces the amount of teaching required when an athlete enters high school. It also creates a safer training environment. These athletes will know how to perform the exercises, spot, read workouts, and behave in a weight room. It may even keep a few middle school athletes from dropping out of sports, as they will be exposed to the high school sports experience.

One coach who benefitted from this approach is Head Football Coach Matt Biehler at Conway Springs High School in Conway, Kansas. I wrote an article about Biehler’s program about a dozen years ago, and he noted that his feeder program helped avoid the hazing and bullying problems many schools face as the older players “take the younger players under their wing.”

Another option for weight training is to bring in the private sector. From 2015 to 2020, I coached over 150 athletes from 20 middle and high schools in three private gyms. The sports coaches loved this program as it allowed them to focus on their other responsibilities rather than spending several hours a week in the weight room. My program is not unique.

In Rhode Island, one personal trainer opened a 4,500-square-foot strength and conditioning facility in a warehouse about a half mile from a large high school near me. Brilliant!

Kids could receive high-level coaching and train with their teammates at a discounted rate. School administrators loved it, as they didn’t have to invest in upgrading their weight room or foot the expense of having staff coach all the kids who wanted to train. As a bonus, the gym was a great marketing tool for their personal training business for adults, such that the parents of the athletes would train during the early hours while their kids were in school.

If your goal is to win and expose more athletes to the joys of sports, consider these ideas to increase your talent pool by tapping into the Forgotten 70 Percent!

Summary

• Seventy percent of kids quit organized sports by the age of 13.
• One of the primary reasons kids quit sports is that it’s no longer fun.
• Abusive behavior by coaches contributes to kids quitting sports.
• Background checks and checking references help ensure more professionalism in coaches.
• Athletes physically mature at different rates.
• Chronological age does not necessarily reflect training age.
• Character education programs can help keep kids interested in sports.
• Weight training can prevent and rehabilitate injuries.
• Weight training enables athletes to return to the game faster and often in better condition.
• Pooling the PE and athletic departments’ resources improves the quality of both programs.
• Having athletes and non-athletes train together may increase the number of students participating in sports.

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

Goss, Kim. “The Hunter High School Experiment,” Bigger Faster Stronger, January/February 2010, pp 18–21.

O’Sullivan, John. “Why Kids Quit Sports,” Changing the Game Project, May 5, 2015.

Lench, Brooke De. “Abuse in Youth Sports Takes Many Different Forms,” Momsteam, June 21, 2018.

Minnesota Amateur Sports Commission, “Troubling Signals from Youth Sports,” Organized Youth Sports Today, 1993.

Rabinoff, Marc. “The Truth About Background Checks,” Bigger Faster Stronger, September/October 2010, pp 46–48.

Ibañez, Ciro. Personal Communication, September 26, 2023.

Goss, Kim. “Conway Springs High: Training with the Best,” Bigger Faster Stronger, July/August 2012, pp 14–16.

Skills will only improve as much as one’s ability to move athletically! A pitcher can spend hours on the mound at camps, work with private pitching coaches, throw in the backyard, compete in games, and pitch in practices to improve her velocity, pitch count, spin, and power. In my experience, however, I’ve realized that many of the girls I work with lack athletic development for basic movements. The less a softball pitcher can move athletically, the less she’ll be able to pitch faster, injury-free, and efficiently.

I ask the girls to work on a few basic athletic movements during our sessions.

• Squat.
• Hinge.
• Jump & land.
• Single-leg foot/ankle stability.
• Pelvis + trunk separation.

I utilize five tests to determine what the fastpitch pitchers I work with lack athletically. From these tests, I begin to implement programming that involves warm-ups, strength movements, lifting, and games that improve overall athleticism and movement—and, as a result (hopefully), the fastpitch pitcher’s skills.

I utilize five key tests to determine what the fastpitch pitchers I work with lack athletically, says @shestrength. Share on X

When implementing solutions to the tests, we start with the very basic parts of these lifts and progress them over weeks, months, and years.

Test #1: Can You Squat Well?

The primary keys I look for are:

• Whole foot on the floor.
• Neutral spine.
• Knees lined up with toes.
• Correct core brace.
• Butt back.

All of those = athletic.

Video 1. Keys to a good squat. 

Ways to Improve the Squat

Surprisingly, squatting well is something we have to teach to kids nowadays. The more kids sit, and the less they play, the more I find myself, as their coach, having to teach basic movement patterns. This includes how to squat well.

Common cues I use for squatting are:

• “Sit in a chair.”
• “Hover over a public toilet seat.”
• “Get in the ready position with hands on your knees.”

From there, I have kids sit to stand on a tall box to learn to initiate the proper hip hinge of a squat. Then, we practice isometric squat holds and eventually segue into loaded goblet squats. Next, we quickly move into split stance squat positions with isometric holds.

Video 2. Iso squat hold demo. 

Video 3. Iso split squat hold demo.

Test #2: Can You Hinge Well?

For the hinge, I look for:

• Whole foot on the floor.
• Neutral spine.
• Knees lined up with toes.
• Correct core brace.
• Butt back.

All five = athletic.

Video 4. Hinge athleticism test for pitchers.

Ways to Improve the Hinge

Hinging is a difficult movement for many athletes, especially younger kids. Common cues I use for hinging are:

• “Push the butt back.”
• “Shut the door with the hips.”
• “Pretend you’re hovering over a public toilet seat.”
• “Think of moving your hips forward and back, not up and down.”

For visual/tactile cues, I like using a foam roller or a target that the athlete can reach back toward with the hips.

Video 5. Hinging to a target.

Video 6. Hanging stance with support.

Video 7. Fake ball slams (SLDL). 

Video 8. Kettlebell deadlift jump and land.

Test #3: Can You Jump and Land Well?

For this test, I visually assess:

• Whole foot on the floor.
• Neutral spine.
• Knees lined up with toes.
• Correct core brace.
• Butt back.
• Squat + hinge to load, then powerfully extend knee, hip, and foot to jump up/out and land.

Those six things = athletic.

Video 9. Jump and land test for softball.

Ways to Improve the Jump + Land

Strong explosiveness off the rubber is key for a high-velocity pitch, but finding a way to land on a firm front-side leg is crucial for arm whip and rotation. Surprisingly, many kids do not know how to use the ground to push off for power and lack the strength/stability to absorb the force of that drive through front-side resistance.

Video 10. Single-leg DL and jump over hurdle.

Video 11. Pitching push-off and land drill.

Test #4: Can You Stabilize a Single-Leg Squat Hold Through Your Foot and Ankle for an Extended Period?

Keys for this quality are:

• Load big ball of foot and little ball of foot, heel lifted.
• Neutral spine.
• Knees lined up with toes.
• Correct core brace.
• Butt back.
• Low heel, high squat hold for 10 seconds.
• High heel, low squat hold for 10 seconds.

Video 12. Spring ankle test.

Ways to Improve Single-Leg Foot/Ankle Stability

An athlete’s ability to produce a ground force reaction from the foot into a powerful leg drive is dependent upon their foot strength. A few of my favorite exercises to help produce a strong foot and ankle connection are shown below.

Video 13. ISO ankle and knee drive into a wall.

Video 14. Ankle ISO hold and drive.

Video 15. Deep lunge ankle stability and hold.

Test #5: Can You Separate the Core from the Pelvis?

For this last test, I’m observing:

• Whole foot on the floor.
• Neutral spine.
• Knees lined up with toes.
• Correct core brace.
• Butt back.
• Keep the torso straight and rotate the pelvis forward and back like sliding your hips under a plane of glass extending sideways from your hip bones.

Video 16. Rotation test for pitchers.

Ways to Improve Pelvis + Trunk Separation (oblique sling)

The ability of the athlete to keep the pelvis aligned and the core activated through the oblique sling depends on their ability to separate the torso from the hips. The oblique sling activation depends upon foot load, core control, and separation.

Some of my favorite ways to help an athlete learn how to create separation are shown below.

Video 17. Pitching separation ISO holds

Video 18. Plyo + separation drill

Video 19. Front side resistance + rotation

Targeting the Five Qualities in a Session

We work through these steps one by one in each session. We break down how a pitch includes all these movements throughout, including when and where the squat, hinge, jump, land, and rotation occur. Then, we discuss why it’s important to do these basic movement patterns very well—to ensure efficiency, power, and safety are on point, pitch after pitch. Once the athlete can see how a pitch is broken down into these specific movements, we can usually get buy-in to the “less sexy” practice of squat holds, etc.

Session 1: We assess the squat, single-leg squat, and the ability of the athlete to hold this position. Then, we correct any issues and practice getting into a better position. If this goes well, we move into split squat positions and how to hold them well. From here, we work pitching drills from squat and split squat positions. 

Session 2: We assess the hinge and get into better hinging positions, both with bilateral and split stances. From here, we work on pitching drills with a newly acquired hinge pattern applied. We also revisit the squatting positions of a pitch we covered in the first session.

Session to session, we continue adding movements to the pitch. Jumping and landing and rotation/anti-rotation seem to be the hardest movements for athletes to learn or relearn. We spend most of our sessions on these patterns.

Jumping and landing and rotation/anti-rotation seem to be the hardest movements for athletes to learn or relearn. We spend most of our sessions on these patterns, says @shestrength. Share on X

As athletes begin to understand and better apply these movements to their pitch, they should notice a smoother and more efficient pitching pattern. A more relaxed arm and less hip/shoulder pain are good signs that the athlete is beginning to use their entire body to throw, not just the arm or front hip, AND is an indicator that the movement patterns and drill breakdowns are working!

**Author’s Note: Many of these thoughts/tests are inspired by other strength coaches and professionals such as Cal Dietz, Chris Korfist, Dynamic Neuromuscular Stability, ALTIS, and other pitching coaches. 

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

I could try to hook you with a let’s think outside the box or use equipment as a tool rather than a workout article, but I’ll keep it simple. I don’t have the money for a 1080 Synchro with two kids in expensive colleges, a slow business period, and, well… it’s just a lot of money. It doesn’t help that I’ve been to the University of Minnesota, where Cal Dietz has two Syncros that are rockin’ all the time, and the results he gets with them are incredible. Jealousy and lust prevented me from thinking clearly, which is why it took me years to realize that I could, to some extent, program the settings on my 1080 Sprint and do some of the same exercises.

It took me years to realize that I could, to some extent, program the settings on my 1080 Sprint and do some of the exercises enabled by the Syncro, says @korfist. Share on X

I admit the initial curiosity was more for myself than my athletes. As a 55-year-old who still wants to feel like I’m 25 and is tired of traditional lifting, I thought I would be a great guinea pig to see what I could do. This would mean that I’d have to get out of my comfort zone, start experimenting with electronics, and go outside the box of what I’m supposed to do or what I’m used to doing.

I would have to convert the speed machine I’ve been using for more than a decade and apply it in a different manner.

Beginning with N=1

I started to look at the situation in a force-velocity manner. Again, my investigation was personal: my two favorite things to do are scuba diving and slalom water skiing. While it is hard to get a soft tissue injury while scuba diving (without the help of a shark), getting up on a slalom ski can hit your front leg hamstring pretty hard, and I have seen multiple people pull their hamstring when trying to get up. So, I trained to not be the skier whose vacation is wrecked by a hamstring pull.

I remembered a JustFly podcast where the interviewee thought that hamstring injuries in sprinters sometimes resulted from insufficient focus on the amount of force placed on the hamstring in our exercises. If I wanted to train force, I knew I’d need something that moved very slowly. I knew that the 1080 Sprint had a function that could limit the speed of the line coming out. And I knew it because I always kept it at 14 m/s in gear one. But now, I could bring it down to .3 m/s. With the speed limit, the harder I pushed into the handle connected to the machine, the more force I would create.

Now to come up with a basic exercise to try it—I wanted to start with a glute exercise. I knew that if my glute got stronger, it would support my hamstring. I decided to do a full-range leg press. I put the handle around my foot, put my head toward the 1080 Sprint, and laid on my back. I set the pad and pushed. My first reps were wobbly and sloppy: not smooth at all. By my fourth and fifth reps, I could feel all kinds of other muscles trying to help. My groin was even trying to help. I knew I was weak and could understand what happens when muscles fatigue and how compensation patterns work.

Videos 1 & 2. Lower-body exercises with the 1080 Sprint targeting the hamstrings.

My second exercise was an upside-down, single-leg reverse hyper. I’d lay on my back with my head toward the 1080 Sprint, my foot in the strap, and my leg straight up in the air. The movement would be to bring my leg to the floor, emphasizing the bicep femoris—the one that worries me in my skiing. Again, I went to move the line and got the same results; my leg was all over the place, and my groin became involved by the third rep. Two sets of each were plenty. I felt great when I finished the workout but was mildly sore the next day.

I did a similar workout with my upper body. With my feet toward the machine, I could do a curl into a military press. Or, with my head at the 1080 Sprint, I would pull the handle over my head and move into a triceps push. I had similar experiences with the movements and feelings when I was done with the exercise.

Videos 3 & 4. Biceps curl to military press and triceps push.

Monitoring Progress

I stuck with the protocol and started monitoring the force. Within four weeks, I had a dramatic increase in force output. More importantly, I could feel the muscles working without compensation, and the movement was smooth. I started to gain muscle as well. My clothes fit differently in the important areas.

Within four weeks, I dramatically increased my force output. More importantly, I could feel the muscles working without compensation, and the movement was smooth. I started to gain muscle too. Share on X

I decided to try to lift weights to see if I truly did get stronger. What I normally did was now really easy. Even better, I didn’t have the usual neck and shoulder soreness from benching and neck soreness from putting a bar on my back. My typical pattern is to get really dedicated and hurt. This time, my body did what it could without getting hurt.

Over time, I started to change settings to emphasize the eccentric portion of the movement. I could increase the eccentric load and keep the velocity of the line coming back high and fight the machine. Sometimes, this ended with the middle-aged man failing and getting dragged across the floor. But I learned the way the body reacts to this eccentric force—if my body was strong enough, it could absorb the eccentric force, and I could reverse the movement. If I was weaker in the movement, a limb would bend funny to absorb, or it would lock, and I would drag across the floor in the stopped position, which could result in getting pulled over or spun.

But again, as I got stronger, I could absorb more eccentric force. For skiing, that was important to me. I have a 350-hp MasterCraft going full throttle to pull me out of the water: my left bicep femoris has to handle that kind of force.

Video 5. Being pulled by the line.

Expanding the Experiment

If you’ve made it this far, you’ve been waiting for the speed development stuff, right?

Yes, I did start experimenting with my athletes. For a two-week break in the middle of track season, we shifted to a force development workout for hamstrings to take a break from all of the hamstring velocity work of an indoor track season. When track was over, we started tracking data on various hamstring exercises, including traditional leg curls and what I call “hamstring slices,” which I’ve been talking about all summer in conjunction with Ken Clark’s research.

As you can probably figure out, the faster the athlete, the more they can produce in my upside-down reverse-hyper and leg curl. But what is interesting is that while some athletes have similar numbers in the exercises (but their sprint times are different), they all generate their force differently.

What is really cool about the 1080 Sprint products are the graphs generated with each rep. I have learned that faster athletes generate most of their force immediately in the rep, and the slope of the graph declines over time. Slightly slower athletes generate their force as they get moving. Slow athletes have a graph that looks like a silhouette of the Rocky Mountains.

In some cases, you can see this as a general nervous system strategy, as the graph shows in every movement. As they improve and the graph becomes more constant, they run faster. If you come to a TFC, I will show you all of the ways I train for these qualities.

By the way—I didn’t pull a hamstring waterskiing.

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

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…

Wait—time out. If you came looking for Dickens or that type of eloquent writing, you’re in the wrong place. You see, writing is actually outside my comfort zone. I am much more comfortable speaking at a clinic or in a video, where I can ad-lib. But this is my attempt to share with you the success we’ve had in our program teaching our athletes how to strain in the weight room.

Recently, I tweeted (I just can’t bring myself to say “I posted on X”) a thread about how our softball team develops the ability to truly strain in the weight room. Learning to strain is about getting outside your comfort zone, pushing yourself to places you haven’t been before. People commented on the tweet, saying it needed to be expanded into an article. I immediately retorted that I’m a bad writer and actually made a joke about it.

Later the same day, though, I began to have pangs of guilt over my insecurity about writing something for the world to see. As stated above, part of teaching our softball team to strain is convincing them to be willing to push themselves outside their comfort zone. I tell the players they each have a “potential tank,” similar to a water heater tank. Their job is to fill that tank effectively…and ultimately try to expand it into an even bigger tank.

Learning to strain is about getting outside your comfort zone, pushing yourself to places you haven’t been before, says @BrandonHerring0. Share on X

I also tell our athletes that using laughter and jokes is a defense mechanism when they’re uncomfortable. I see beginners, especially, nervously laughing and cracking jokes when they take those first steps toward straining. I truly believe straining is a skill that all lifters need to learn, and it takes time and real effort to achieve. Are you seeing where those pangs of guilt I mentioned were coming from? One thing I don’t like is a hypocritical coach, preaching something to young people, then turning around and doing the very thing they’re preaching against. I wasn’t willing to get outside my comfort zone, and I made jokes as a defense mechanism.

So, it’s time to put my money where my mouth is. In this article, I explain how I slowly teach our softball players—beginning in seventh grade—to truly strain in our S&C program. We have a culture built around that effort that I share with the world through X (you’re welcome, Elon). Our young ladies have learned to embrace strength as a quality they seek.

It all starts with Taylor Burt, our head coach. I’ve said this many times before, and I’ll say it again for anyone who’s missed it: Taylor may be the finest coach I’ve ever been around. I enjoy sitting in the dugout and watching her coach, and I’ve learned a lot from her. There’s a standard in the program that everyone is expected to meet, both players and coaches.

Coach Burt gives me the autonomy to design our S&C program how I see fit, but I’m always held to the standard. We’ve won three of the last four state championships and played for it the year we didn’t win it. In 2020, spring sports didn’t play due to COVID-19, and that may have been the most talented team she’s had here. What better situation is there to be in?

Nuts and Bolts of the Program

I begin to work with our girls when they enter seventh grade. Our program begins much like most others: we’re learning movements, chasing kinesthetic awareness and coordination, and learning motor patterns and how to control the pelvis and scapula. We use many bodyweight movements and iso exercises in this phase. Once we get this established, they begin their program using some light weights.

This is where one of the tenets of our system begins to show itself. I never want one of these young athletes to leave our gym tired and get really sore. My main objective during this time is for them to gain as much confidence as possible. I absolutely don’t want them to dread coming to the weight room, so I choose to give them ownership of their advancement in the amount of weight they lift. We simply add 5 pounds to the movement when they’re confident, provided they can lift it properly.

I choose to give athletes ownership of their advancement in the amount of weight they lift. We simply add 5 pounds to the movement when they’re confident, provided they can lift it properly. Share on X

I constantly remind them that they can add the 5 pounds when the preceding weight is done comfortably on the last set. What I want is all sets and all reps completed every time they lift. I very, very seldom tell any of them to add weight to a movement. I want them to make that decision, and when they do, it gives them a sense of ownership over their training, and that breeds buy-in. I had a mom tell me one time her daughter liked me because I “never made her do something she couldn’t do.”

That was music to my ears.

Another factor that contributes to our success is that those same seventh- and eighth-grade girls lift in the same room, at the same time, as our 9th–12th graders. They get to see the older girls lifting, and I remind them that every one of those older girls started precisely where they are now, adding the 5 pounds when they are ready to do so. Regularly, they get wide eyes when they see an older girl trap bar deadlifting 300+ pounds. Those are the girls these younger ones look up to. They want to be like them. What better way to encourage the strain than by witnessing it from those who have hoisted the state championship trophy several times?

What better way to encourage the strain than by witnessing it being done by those who have hoisted the state championship trophy several times?, asks @BrandonHerring0. Share on X

Now, some people may wonder how I manage 50+ athletes at the same time in those varying degrees of programming. I had a college student come shadow me one day, and she said, “This is chaos. How do you keep up with what everyone is doing?” In my opinion, if I’ve done my job properly, our older girls can lift safely without me hovering over them every second. They are technically sound, and I prescribe their intensities. I can afford to spend a little more time with our younger girls to get them on the right track. However, this doesn’t mean I’m not looking across the room to gauge what is happening. This system works for us.

The latest proof of concept came this past summer. I program our summer training as in-season because the majority of the players are playing travel ball. One day, I had 4×5 at 75% programmed on the trap bar deadlift. One of our girls asked, “Coach, can I do a money set?” Money set is the term we use for a plus set on the last set. I replied, “Are you playing this weekend?” and she said, “No.” So, I broke out my phone to video her set at 240 pounds. She performed 24 reps (240 pounds is no longer 70%) and immediately laid down on the floor, smiling and out of breath.

Video 1. High school softball athlete performs a “money set” of the trap bar deadlift.

While videoing, I turned and looked at our middle school girls, who were gaping at what they were witnessing. Afterward, I went over and told those girls, “One day, that will be you.” The very next week, one of the middle school athletes asked if they could try 45’s on the deadlift: seven girls hit 135 pounds that day, and I never told them to try it.

Boom.

The younger girls will stay in the linear periodization programming until I feel like they’re ready to progress. That timetable is nothing concrete; the decision is made by intuition. It also doesn’t have to be a wholesale decision for every single athlete. Some may stay in the linear periodization for longer than others. If they’re still benefiting from it, they stay on course. If they’re ready to take it up a notch, they move on to the next phase.

Progressing to 5-3-1

I credit the next phase to Jim Wendler. I have found his 5-3-1 program to be a goldmine for our athletes. If you’ve never studied the program, I suggest that you do so immediately—it has been hugely beneficial in training our softball players slowly, over time, to truly strain. I have tweaked his program a little to fit our program, but the main aspects are always present.

I assign a training max to each athlete based on my coach’s eye and where they were in the linear periodization model. I always err on the low side of this training max. I absolutely do not want failure at this time. Remember, we’re trying to build confidence, not break it. There is always a money set on the last set, and I believe this is where the girls begin to learn how to strain.

The program calls for a 10% reduction in the training max for each athlete. In other words, the intensities prescribed are taken from 90% of their training max. This always puts the athlete in a position to do more reps than prescribed. The key is for them to truly push themselves—to strain—and perform as many reps as possible.

This program calls for a 10% reduction in each athlete’s training max. This always puts them in a position to do more reps than prescribed. The key is for them to truly push themselves—to strain. Share on X

That effort doesn’t happen immediately. It takes time, but they gain more confidence each time they put that effort in. This is also the time when they’re introduced to some lower-rep schemes with higher intensities. They perform 4–5 sets of five reps during the linear periodization. In the second week of the 5-3-1, they move down to three reps, with the last set being a money set. This will likely be more weight than they’ve ever lifted, so it’s important that I set their training max at a weight I’m totally confident they can train at.

I want them to smash the three-rep money set. This will build their confidence for the next week, when the money set is at one plus. This IS NOT a one-rep test. They aren’t prepared to give the kind of effort it takes to truly perform a max effort lift. Again, they should be able to hit several reps in this set.

After the third week, I adjust their training max based on how many reps they performed in the one-plus set. Basically, I’m slowly turning up the dial. These money sets have become a source of pride in our program, similar to what you see with max effort one-rep lifts. Our softball players gather around and encourage one another: “Keep going!” and “You’ve got another in you!” are common shouts heard in the room. They’re learning to truly strain, and it’s infectious.

Additionally, as they move through these 5-3-1 cycles, I often set their training max above what they’d be able to perform for one rep. I’ve found that they can do the prescribed work off of a higher training max than what they could actually perform. I believe a lack of grip strength and the general shock of how heavy that weight is when they try it contribute to this. For proof of whether or not what we were doing was working, I compiled our hitting stats, including:

• Slugging percentage
• RBIs
• Home runs

I set those game stats beside their trap bar deadlift maxes, and the results were telling, to say the least. Our strongest girls were our most productive hitters, and I shared this info with them to further motivate them to work hard in the weight room.

Athletes will use other set/rep schemes as they progress through our program, but the 5-3-1 has become our foundation, says @BrandonHerring0. Share on X

They will use other set/rep schemes as they progress through our program, but the 5-3-1 has become our foundation. Also, money sets are always used regardless of the scheme. Sometimes, our older girls want to perform a one-rep max, and I let them because they have learned the effort it takes to do so. And they are supremely confident.

A Look into Our Annual Plan

Off-season training begins for softball when school starts in August. At this time, the girls are coming off the summer travel ball season, so the main objective is to build work capacity in the weight room. We train volume as well as some complexes for 4–6 weeks to achieve this. Following those 4–6 weeks, we begin a series of four-week training cycles.

The linear periodization and 5-3-1 programs are started here. As I stated earlier, I’ve taken the liberty of fitting the 5-3-1 model to work best for us. There are times in the off-season when I will add a set or two to the model. We may begin with a lighter set at around 50% to attack some speed work before the strength work. This is a great way to hit the entire force-velocity curve. Another adjustment may be to add a second working set at the same intensity that the last set—the money set—will be performed.

I should note that we have some pretty advanced girls, and I will program for them specifically if I think they would benefit from different programming, such as speed strength work. The off-season will run through Christmas and into the middle to later third of January.

Following the off-season program, we shift to in-season. The linear periodization and 5-3-1 schemes remain, but I add “caps” to the money sets. For instance, I will cap the total reps on a 5+ set at eight reps, 3+ at six reps, and 1+ at three reps. At this time, I may manipulate the weight being lifted with an intensity regulator in my programming sheets to account for the capping of the money sets. The reason I cap the sets is to keep the total volume down because they are in-season—the last thing I want is to send them to practice tired and/or sore.

Generally, we lift twice a week during the in-season, but there are times when the girls will ask for a game-day lift. This is just a primer lift, with medball throws, speed squats, and some sprints as examples of what we may do. As we head into championship season (May), I really back off the volume and mainly focus on speed and explosive work.

The summer training season, June–July, is a time when we want the girls to try to lift twice a week. The vast majority of our girls play travel ball, so I program it just as I would in-season. We set the sessions up for Monday and Wednesday so the girls can travel and play Thursday–Sunday. These are not mandatory lifts by any means. We just tell them that if they’re in town, come lift. We also want them to be kids, so vacations aren’t only okay but encouraged.

Main Lifts Used in Our Training

This is an area that can lead down a rabbit hole that is outside the scope of this article. There’s always discussion about “sport-specific” lifting and whether that is a real concept. I do believe certain things need to be focused on depending on the sport. However, the vast majority of high school-age athletes simply need strength.

Softball specific training.

Reminder: RDL’s are awesome#DoHardThings @hewittsoftball pic.twitter.com/HHZsE5ACt0

— Brandon Herring (@BrandonHerring0) September 29, 2023

Video 2. Softball strength: “Do hard things.”

If you ask our softball team, I’d venture to guess they’d say the trap bar deadlift is the bell cow of our program. It is a weekly lift in our program, and we have some athletes who can move some weight. The TBDL is the lift we use to compare to hitting statistics, as stated earlier. There is a significant grip strength demand, and I believe that translates well to hitting. Also, the TBDL is a lift that, once taught correctly, I trust our older girls to load heavily and perform well while I spend time with our younger girls.

We use the TBDL in varying intensities, and when 75% or lower is programmed, we’ll actually shrug-pull the bar, focusing on bar speed. The barbell RDL is a close second to the TBDL, and I’m constantly amazed at the amount of weight our players can execute in it. Rounding out our bilateral work is the clean pull. In our softball program, we don’t teach the clean. But I always offer the opportunity to learn, and we currently have four girls turning the bar over in the clean and having fun doing so.

We don’t teach the clean in our program, but I always offer the opportunity to learn. We currently have four girls turning the bar over in the clean and having fun doing so, says @BrandonHerring0. Share on X

As far as squatting goes, we are a major gait stance and single-leg program. Our beginners will goblet squat and front squat, but once they advance, we focus mostly on the unilateral domain. The safety squat bar reverse lunge and RFESS are mainstays in our program. The single-leg squat from a box and lateral lunge also find their way into our program quite often.

Our upper-body work is divided between horizontal and vertical movements. We bench press (we haven’t had a single girl experience a spontaneous explosion of the shoulder) along with various single-arm dumbbell exercises in the horizontal push category. We vary quite a few exercises in the horizontal pull domain, but the single-arm dumbbell row is a mainstay.

For vertical pushes, the landmine setup is a constant. We perform presses from kneeling and standing positions and also do some rotational presses. The chin-up would probably be considered the bell cow in our upper-body work—we make a big deal about it when one of our players hits their first chin-up.

Do Hard Things

This article is a look into our program and by no means a blueprint for anyone else. We have had some success, so hopefully, there’s something here you can use in your program.

The last thing I’ll leave you with is our team motto in our S&C program for softball. We simply say, “Do hard things.” This encompasses many things in our program, but none more than having the guts to come out of the loser’s bracket to win the state championship this past year. So, be well, and #DoHardThings!

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