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Picture this: You’re at a conference, and you know it’s an S&C seminar because there are a lot of oversized humans squeezed into khaki trousers they aren’t used to wearing. This might be one of the only times you see these people out of shorts. A speaker is presenting—a legend of the industry—but to be honest, their material isn’t that different from when you saw them speak a couple of years back.

Afterward, you go to sit at the table with the guys you know and enjoy their company, sharing the same stories you all told last year. You go to the bar to strike up a conversation with someone, but somehow, you’re once again agree-debating about which squat variation is best or why Olympic lifting is overrated. You go over the same arguments before turning in.

The next day, you tag some of the big names who were there on social media and enjoy the rest that the conference has to offer before heading back to your facility. On the journey home, you reflect on what you’ve learned, and you struggle to truly justify the weekend’s value to your director when you’re back. You came away stimulated, but a week later, not much has changed in your practice, and you settle back into doing the same things you’ve always done.

Sound familiar?

Dollar for dollar—or hour for hour—sometimes the whole conference CPD (continuing professional development) experience can leave you wanting for actionable, direct change and growth in your own practice. This isn’t to say that’s always the case; some conferences are fantastic learning and networking opportunities that further learning and broaden educational horizons. However, the passive conference experience—pay (lots of) money, get accreditation points, let everyone on social media know you were there, go home—likely doesn’t represent an efficient use of time or value for money when it comes to actually getting better.

Without wanting to sound preachy, if a big conference once or twice a year is what you view as furthering your own knowledge, you probably aren’t thinking big enough when it comes to bettering yourself. When we program for our athletes, we are deliberate and purposeful with what we do, so why shouldn’t our approach to furthering our own learning be the same?

How Can We Do That?

Well, first and foremost, you must truly own your own development. Take responsibility for “getting better at getting better.” We can bemoan a shallow conference experience or the sheer volume of information out there being paralyzing…or we can actually do something about it. This is the difference between being passive and being purposeful in furthering our own learning.

With so much information available and everyone so readily connected (if you can count someone you’ve never met on LinkedIn wishing you a happy birthday as a “connection”?!), it has become much easier to access expertise and engage in dialogue to grow our practices. However, with so much out there, sometimes it can be hard to filter the signal from the noise.

Dan Pfaff once said, “We are swimming in a sea of knowledge, without the life jacket of wisdom to keep us afloat.” This is exactly what it feels like sometimes when you go on Twitter! Having purposeful strategies to further your learning can make the process much more efficient and cost-effective.

Here are a few of the strategies that have helped me get better at getting better. Have a look and see if these can help you too so that when you look back, you can say that you have had over 10 years of experience rather than 10 one-year experiences!!

1. Adjust Your Attitude

The first step toward upgrading our practice is changing our attitude toward self-improvement. This usually starts with a strong dose of humble pie, admitting you have much to learn. Nothing is worse than being the guy high up on the Dunning-Kruger curve, thinking you know everything!

The Japanese have a concept of “Kaizen.” The word means continuous improvement—and it is a word incredibly relevant to coaching. Coaching is a never-ending process of evolution and refinement. Any time I ever think I’ve got it all figured out, I remember a quote I heard from one of the lockdown Zoom-athons (a time when everyone seemed more open to personal development, almost to the point of Zoom CPD call fatigue!). In it, Loren Landow spoke about the acronym “SAS,” which stood for “Still Ain’t Shit.” It means that it doesn’t matter what letters you have after your name or which teams you’ve worked for—the athlete doesn’t care; they just want the best you can give them.

To do that, you must continue to sharpen your own sword. For those who want to truly achieve this, it is imperative to accept the vulnerability of not knowing, be open to challenge, and, more than anything, be curious to know more about what we are lucky to do.

I once accessed help from a coach educator who made me analyze footage of myself coaching using a GoPro, tracking what I said and how I cued. It was excruciatingly awkward watching the footage, and I was a bit embarrassed watching it, frankly. But if we ask our athletes to be comfortable being uncomfortable, shouldn’t we do the same?

This process made me realize I talked too much and didn’t give my athletes space to fail, as I was trying to be heard all the time, likely reducing the level of learning going on. I gained a better understanding of the language I used and am less likely to fall into the trap of over-coaching.

I now use a self-evaluation tool that I adapted from the world of teaching and melded into an S&C context to critically evaluate my sessions. This has led to me being a lot more deliberate with what I see, what I say, and how I say it.

I worked with a coach a few years ago who, in his first meeting with the playing group, said that the team wasn’t performing and may not be good enough right now—not the most positive of starts! However, after this somewhat somber opening, he accepted that this was where we were, but it was okay because the playing group was going to learn faster than anyone else, and it was more about what we were going to become. After a rough start, they won the league two years later.

On reflection, this approach of being brutally honest—admitting that some things aren’t good enough but that this is acceptable as long as you get up to speed quickly—can be comforting when you realize there are knowledge gaps in your own practice. Shaky on your ability to coach cleans? Don’t control large groups very well? Unsure of how to program conditioning sessions? Rather than being seen as an area of weakness, that attitude adjustment allows you to turn it into a fantastic opportunity to grow.

2. Hunt Down the Experts

Knowing what you don’t know is the first step, but action is required to determine how you can improve those knowledge or skill gaps in your practice. Everyone learns differently, and many mediums are available to capture some of that wisdom to keep yourself afloat.

One of the easiest ways to start is to ask: “Who in this area is good?” or “Who do I know who knows more about this than me?” From there, you can decide how to best access the learning you are about to embark upon. A few tools can help in this area: If you’re a bookworm, a quick search of available textbooks might help. If you’re more science-y, utilizing sites like Research Gate or Google Scholar to find journals is a good way to dive straight into the research. At the very least, you can find out who is studying/publishing within this area a lot.

For a less academic entry point, finding those thought leaders on social media and following some of their work is an easy way to start filling that knowledge gap. Quite often, these people post helpful videos, presentations, or infographics. For example, Yann Le Meur has cornered the market on making infographics that sum up research papers. Jurdan Mendiguchia now takes his studies on changing sprint mechanics and uses short videos to get the main points across. For a more modern approach, you can use AI tools such as ChatGPT to guide you to expertise—you can even use it to geolocate the experts who are more local to you!

A recent example from my own learning was isometric training. I knew a bit about it, but I needed to know more before I had any chance of utilizing it effectively with my athletes. I started with an article by Alex Natera, then read a few chapters by Cal Dietz, before enrolling in an isometrics course that exposed me to other people who were already implementing it within their practice. I felt comfortable enough with the “why?” to experience more of the “how?” so I started adding run-specific isometrics to my training. Having stress tested it on myself (picking up cues, knowing the software, seeing the results, etc.), I was in a much better position to use it confidently with my athletes.

3. Set Up CPD Calls

If you are looking for a more interactive experience, direct CPD calls or chats can be a fantastic way to kick your learning into overdrive. Once you know which people have knowledge in an area, and you are curious to know more…reach out!! It continues to surprise me how much bespoke learning you can do by reaching out to experts and asking good questions. On numerous occasions, researchers have been more than happy to share their work and insight, and they quite often love hearing how it might be applicable at the pointy end of pro sport. It is relatively easy to set up once you know how, but the process I usually use is as follows:

• Find the person you want to talk to—read their research and understand their context, how they might have used this strategy or training tactic, and how this might be applicable in your environment.
• Find their contact details—Quite often, staff members’ emails are on team websites, researchers’ emails are on their papers, or they have active social media profiles to which you can send a direct message.
• Formulate good-quality questions—take your time and get a good understanding of what you want them to help you with and what you are curious to delve deeper into. You don’t want to waste their time, so ensure you’ve prepared beforehand. Sending a list of questions is advised, as it can help guide the conversation. Show that you are genuinely interested in their work and passionate about knowing more in this area.

From there, you might have a few questions that they can answer over email, often referring you to some of the key work done in that field. If they have piqued your interest, ask for a more in-depth call. Often this will be done on a professional basis, but I continue to be surprised by how some people are happy to chat for free if you ask good enough questions and offer insight from your viewpoint that might be useful to them.

I have too many examples to list, but what starts as a couple of emails can lead you to bespoke, usable insight into their areas of expertise. In the isometric example above, I ended up Zoom calling Paul Comfort, who provided great insight into the data hygiene aspect of tracking isometric training. When I was looking into F-V profiling, JB Morin was able to adapt one of the Excel resources from his website to fit how we captured our speed times.

With some practitioners, it has been mutually beneficial, to the point that I have been able to collaborate with them on projects in the applied setting at the elite level (which is rare for most sport science research). The scientists often want to hear our performance questions because that often helps guide their research, allowing them to go and hunt down the answers!

Make In-Person Visits

If you really want an immersive experience, an in-person visit is a great way to get a deeper understanding. It can take a bit of time to cultivate relationships, but they can be of great value. Seeing a conference presentation or following a few tweets is very different from seeing things up close in their proper context. Not only do you see the coaches in action, but you are afforded an opportunity to ask multiple threads of questions about what you saw on the day.

An example I had recently was a visit to see Lassi Laakso at Lugano Ice Hockey Club in Switzerland. It came about from me reading a very good article of his on resisted speed. I reached out with a few questions, and then we had a few discussions over email and Zoom on how we both implemented resisted speed training. Fast forward a year, and I was in my off-season on holiday in Lake Como with my wife. Knowing that it wasn’t too far from there to get to Lugano, I managed to sort out a day to see Lassi coach and talk shop on all things athletic performance.

I went there with a specific interest in resisted speed, but going to an environment outside of rugby allowed me to see a coach looking at things through a different lens with different performance problems. Lassi was doing some things around groin injury prevention that I hadn’t really been exposed to much before within rugby because it is a less prevalent injury than it is in ice hockey. Implementing some of these strategies has helped me put together a much better program for our kickers, who sometimes suffer from overuse-related groin issues. The best bit was that I dragged my wife to Lugano for the CPD visit, but Lugano was such a hidden gem that we stayed for two more days, and it was the highlight of the trip!

Another example is my journey of improving my speed training knowledge. One of the key influencers of my practice is Jonas Dodoo. I first saw him speak at a few conferences and really liked his philosophies around training that he shared on social media.

I realized I needed to get a more in-depth insight into how he went about things, so I paid to go to one of his coach development days. The insights picked up from there were game-changing. We stayed in touch and have collaborated on a few projects since then. He remains a fantastic sounding board whenever I have speed-related problems. All of this came about from an in-person visit where I had the opportunity to ask a million and one questions!

Another great way to do in-person visits is to get someone to come into your environment. This could be paying for a relevant expert to provide in-house learning or an interested practitioner who wants to see and learn from you as much as the other way around! Either way, there is great potential for them to cast an eye on your program and provide good checks and challenges.

A “philosophy document” or a “performance strategy document” that sums up your approach to developing key physical capacities (speed, power, conditioning, etc.) is not only a great resource to possess on its own, but it can also be used to frame conversations with experts when you invite check and challenge of your processes. Similar to the SOPs (standard operating procedures) the military uses, it acts as a North Star to guide how you do things. You can then use relevant experts to check whether you’re on the right track or if you need to change some of your practices.

Some of the most memorable visits I’ve been a part of have been ones where we have almost deliberately brought someone in who tended to see things differently or even outright disagree with how we did things. Doing this stops you from getting caught in intellectual echo chambers and challenges you to justify why you do things at a deeper level. Sometimes these kinds of visits force you to change your stance on things, and other times they can actually strengthen your beliefs, even with dissenting voices!

In-person visits also allow multiple staff members to experience the CPD, increasing the number of perspectives. Sometimes the most valuable conversations are when the person visiting has left! This is because the most insightful discussions often occur afterward, once you’ve all had time to digest and debrief as a group. This is another strength of the in-house visit; the broader perspective allows you to summarize the key takeaways as a group much more clearly.

I have tried to build the space to allow for a debrief into more visits. I find reducing the intensity of what can sometimes be quite an arduous day—by either going for food or catching up in a more informal setting afterward—adds even more value. I have found that going to Five Guys at the end of the day gets people to reflect a little more honestly, unincumbered by social politeness or not wanting to offend anyone!

One of my fondest memories of this was my first year as an intern S&C coach. I was tasked with being the chaperone for a group of researchers attending one of our games after they presented to us the day before. I went into this thinking I’d get a few hours to ask more questions all by myself and really nail down some key takeaways I could help grow my practice with—unfortunately, the researchers had other ideas. They got blackout drunk so quickly that the only takeaways were cheap pizza and doner kebabs!!

Putting It All Together

To sum up, all these strategies rely on you being able to plan and be purposeful with your learning. Much like how we periodize our players’ years, we should do the same with our own. An honest self-evaluation can help you “know what you don’t know” and provide a road map of how to best spend your time for CPD.

One of the things I do that has helped me is an end-of-year review summarizing the key things I’ve picked up during the year. This enables you to knit together all the different CPDs you may have done and see how it has truly changed your practice.

Finally, we need to understand that it is less about trying to be the finished product (no one truly is!) and more about the process of being curious to learn more and improve our own practice that counts. We challenge our players to be the best they can be; why shouldn’t we do the same with ourselves?! Having efficient processes for self-improvement is imperative in getting better at getting better.

Hopefully, some of the bits I’ve picked up on my journey can be useful to you on yours too. Failing that, I’m always available for a good burger and a chat about physical performance!!

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

Like many other health professionals (and lay people), I used to believe I needed to take dietary supplements like branched-chain amino acids and begin every workout with a pre-workout drink to maximize my gains. I thought that cutting carbohydrates was the only way to lose fat and that a yearly detox was essential to keep my body free of toxins.

More often than not, it’s fitness fanatics, gym rats, and weekend warriors who believe in dogma and myths—but this can also be true of health professionals like me. A lot of the myths about physical fitness and performance have their beginning in the fitness industry. Regrettably, these ideas and myths are passed on from more senior gym members to newbies. They are seen as facts and accepted as accurate without being questioned.

These myths often overcomplicate fitness and are, in many instances, directly counterproductive to people’s goals. Fitness myths can be viewed like viruses: highly contagious and resilient to extermination once they’ve spread. Ideas can either help us grow or destroy us.

Unfortunately, myths can be significant energy thieves. We only have a limited amount of energy each day. Spending a lot of energy on ideas that are counterproductive to our goals will reduce or even eliminate our chances of reaching them. If my vacation goal is to do a cross-country road trip from Chicago to LA, driving in the opposite direction will be a waste of time and disadvantageous to my goal. The same can be said for many of the myths below: they squander our valuable time and often also our hard-earned cash.

I still remember working late nights as a personal trainer in a small box gym, getting stressed since my evening meal was typically consumed late. I recall the self-directed anger and blame because I could not keep an optimal eating schedule; therefore, it was very liberating when I learned that frequent meals do not stoke the metabolic fire and that eating a late dinner would not magically turn the food into fat.

Rely on Research, Not Myths

The primary purpose of this article is to help people refrain from squandering a large amount of energy on counterproductive myths, thereby increasing their chances of succeeding with their goals. If knowledge is power, misinformation is inability.

To objectively and critically evaluate a given health claim, we need to look at objective research data. We cannot just rely on our own subjective experience. Experience and memory are highly prone to errors. They are subject to multiple statistical inaccuracies, not to mention that we lack a valid comparison between ourselves and a comparative control group.

Humans have an incredible capacity to fool themselves, which is why the scientific method is such an essential tool for gaining objective and reliable information. Therefore, if we want factual and accurate nutrition or physical fitness knowledge, we should use the highest quality of information, i.e., research.

The problem with your subjective experience is this: You’re trying to cut a big hole in your living room to fit an extra window but using your arms and hands to measure the size of the hole you need to make. The main problem is not that what you measure cannot be correct; the main problem is that you don’t know if you’re right or wrong. This is why we use a measuring tape; it adds a degree of objectivity to our measurements.

The List of Myths

Below are 21 of the most common myths in the realm of performance and physical fitness:

1. Cutting carbohydrates is the fastest way to lose weight and fat mass.

Fact: Cutting carbohydrates is not necessary to lose weight. A calorie deficit, which is a negative calorie balance, is the primary factor responsible for weight loss. The primary goal of any weight loss diet should be to maintain a calorie deficit.^1,2

2. Branched-chain amino acids are essential if you want results in the gym.

Fact: Branched-chain amino acids (BCAA) are not needed. Adequate protein is sufficient; aim for 1.4–2.0 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day. Using protein supplements is a safe and convenient way to increase protein intake. However, getting adequate protein can be done without supplementation, i.e., by eating ordinary food.^3,4

3. A yearly “detox” diet is needed for a healthy body.

Fact: Detox diets are nonsense, and you don’t need them. The idea that toxins accumulate in the body is a myth and not based on current knowledge. However, detox diets can increase health risks and lead to nutritional inadequacy.^5,6

4. Sugar and carbohydrate intake are the leading cause of the obesity epidemic.

Fact: Sugar or carbohydrates do not cause weight gain. Any macronutrients that lead to a calorie surplus can cause weight gain. Carbohydrates are not more fattening than fat. An argument can be made that protein is the least fattening compared to carbohydrates or fat.^7,1

5. Sugar causes diabetes.

Fact: Sugar does not cause diabetes. Diabetes (type 2) is a multifactorial disease, where a diet with a calorie surplus combined with a sedentary lifestyle leads to problems with insulin secretion and insulin resistance. Early developmental factors (such as prenatal exposure) also have a role in susceptibility to diabetes.^8,9

6. The obesity epidemic is caused by eating fast food.

Fact: Obesity is not only caused by eating fast food, and that is an overly simplistic view. The most plausible primary driver of obesity is a consistent caloric surplus, highly influenced by an “obesogenic” environment characterized by extreme availability of hyper-palatable, highly tempting, energy-dense foods.^10,11

Obesity is not ONLY caused by eating fast food, and that is an overly simplistic view. The most plausible primary driver of obesity is a consistent caloric surplus. Share on X

7. Stretching will lengthen your muscles.

Fact: Static stretching does not make your muscles longer. The idea that you can “lengthen” your muscles is a bit of a stretch because you can’t anatomically change the length of your muscle tissue; if you could, in fact, lengthen your muscles, it would compromise joint integrity and joint stability. It would also compromise the contractile properties and, as such, also lead to decreased functional capabilities.

“Plastic deformation” is the technical term for lengthening your muscles. Current research refutes the idea that we can lengthen our muscles through regular stretching routines. Most likely, the force needed for plastic deformation is far outside the human physiologic range—meaning it is outside the capabilities of regular stretching routines.

The main reason stretching leads to increased flexibility is alterations in the sensation such that stretch tolerance or the onset of discomfort occur at increased joint positions, thereby increasing flexibility. A curious fact is that research has shown that resistance training, when done with a full range of motion, has similar effects on flexibility as stretching.^12–16

8. Pre-workout static stretching is required to decrease injuries and muscle soreness.

Fact: Static stretching does not reduce injuries or decrease the risk of Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS). Do stretching if you like it, but skip it if you only do it because you think it will reduce injuries or muscle soreness. It should be noted that some research indicates that static stretching negatively influences performance¹⁷ during warm-up routines and should generally be avoided.^18–27

9. Protein powder will cause kidney failure.

Fact: Using protein powder (typically whey protein) is safe and has no negative effects, nor does it adversely affect renal function in healthy, active individuals.^28,29

10. Fasted aerobic exercise is needed to burn fat.

Fact: Exercising on an empty stomach in the morning does not burn fat better. Fasted aerobic exercise has the same effect as non-fasted aerobic exercise. Our bodies do not work that way; the body is not better at burning fat in the morning than later in the day.³⁰

11. Sit-ups are the best way to get visible six-pack abs.

Fact: “Spot reduction” is the technical term for reducing fat mass in a specific spot, like the abdominal region. Spot reduction does not happen; our bodies do not work that way.

As Professor Brad Schoenfeld noted: “It’s a physiologic impossibility. All the sit-ups in the world won’t give you a flat stomach.” The belief that you can spot-reduce most likely comes from wishful thinking and dubious marketing tactics, like some health professionals seeking to increase their popularity and revenue.^31–34

12. Running causes “wear and tear” in your knees.

Fact: Recreational running is not bad for your knees; recreational running actually has a protective effect against hip and knee osteoarthritis. Research has found that 13.3% of competitive runners have hip and knee osteoarthritis, while only 3.5% of recreational runners and 10.23% of sedentary and non-running individuals have it.³⁵ So competitive runners and sedentary individuals have almost similar occurrences of osteoarthritis. In contrast, recreational runners have a much lower occurrence of osteoarthritis.^36–40

13. Eating smaller frequent meals will increase your metabolic rate.

Fact: Eating smaller and more frequent meals does not increase your metabolic rate. Increased meal frequency does not increase total energy expenditure or metabolic rate. Frequent meals do not play a significant role in weight loss. Furthermore, the thermic effect of food is determined by the micronutrient type and size of the meal, not the specific time of eating it.⁴¹

14. Eating protein right after you work out and within the “anabolic window” is essential for gains.

Fact: Eating protein right after a workout is optional. The so-called “anabolic window” of opportunity is more like a barn door of opportunity; the feeding window is quite broad. The practical implications are that a 60-minute resistance training session could potentially have two 90-minute feeding windows on both sides of the session.⁴²

The so-called ‘anabolic window’ of opportunity is more like a barn door of opportunity; the feeding window is quite broad. Share on X

15. The optimal reps for muscle hypertrophy are only 8–12.

Fact: The optimal rep ranges for muscle hypertrophy are not only 8–12 reps. Recent research has found that muscle hypertrophy can be equally achieved across a wide range of rep ranges if exercise is done to near technical failure. Practical applications of this could be summarized as follows: if the goal is hypertrophy, do as many repetitions as possible.⁴³

16. Organic food is more nutritious and, therefore, healthier.

Fact: Organic food is not more nutritious. No significant health benefits result from consuming organically produced food compared with non-organic food. However, organic foods may decrease exposure to residues of pesticides and antibiotic-resistant bacteria. But this comes at a cost; organic products typically cost 10%–40% more than non-organic products.^44–47

17. Not eating breakfast is detrimental to weight loss.

Fact: Not eating breakfast is not detrimental to weight loss. Eating or skipping breakfast does not affect weight loss. Weight loss and fat loss are primarily influenced by total daily calorie intake. Any meal that leads to a calorie surplus will lead to weight gain, regardless of the time of the given meal. Research does not support eating breakfast as a good strategy for losing weight. Eating breakfast could, in fact, be counterproductive in that it may cause an increase in total daily calories.^48,49

18. Many dietary supplements are needed to get good results.

Fact: Most dietary supplements are not needed to get good results. BCAA, testosterone boosters like Tribulus Terrestris, fat burners, pre-workout (PWO), ZMA, omega-3 fatty acids, and multivitamins are all heavily marketed with large, undocumented claims. However, only three supplements have consistently shown an effect and are supported by the full body of research. The three supplements are: protein powder^28,50 (however, food is equally as good), creatine monohydrate,⁵¹ and caffeine.⁵²

19. Carbohydrates are more fattening than fat.

Fact: Carbohydrates are not more fattening than fat, and the reality is that carbohydrates are not easily turned into fat. “De novo lipogenesis” is the technical term for a highly regulated process in which carbohydrates, protein, or alcohol are converted into fat. Still, it does not, in most cases, contribute significantly to total fat balance.

Excess carbohydrate energy can lead to a caloric surplus, thereby increasing body fat stores. However, not by conversion of carbohydrates to fat; instead, the process of breaking down fat is reduced, and fat storage is thereby increased.^53–55

20. Coffee causes dehydration.

Fact: Coffee does not dehydrate. Coffee has long been claimed to be a diuretic and, as such, cause dehydration. Research data shows that when consumed in moderation, coffee has similar hydrating qualities as water. But research does indicate that high coffee intake (caffeine intake of 6 milligrams per kilogram of body weight) can cause an acute diuretic effect. However, that means an 80-kilogram/176-pound male needs to drink around five cups of coffee (225 ml/8 oz per cup) to get an intake of 480 mg of caffeine, causing an acute diuretic effect. As a reference, the FDA and EFSA (European Food Safety Agency) have cited 400 mg a day as an amount not generally associated with dangerous or harmful effects.^56–58

21. Experience gained in the gym is the only valid “evidence” needed.

Fact: Experience and memory are highly prone to errors^59–61 and are subject to multiple statistical inaccuracies. When trying to find causal connections (causality), experience in itself is severely flawed. “Causal inference” is the technical term describing strategies that allow scientists to draw conclusions about causality based on objective data.

As such, personal beliefs and experiences are unreliable sources of knowledge about causal connections.⁶² The scientific method should be utilized when assessing causality within our complex and multifactorial environment.

The primary weakness of experiences is that they are uncontrolled, subjective observations. As such, they are subject to numerous flaws, like confirmation bias, memory errors, confounding variables, and multiple other cognitive biases. The main problem is not that our experience cannot be right but that we do not know if it is.

Fairy Tales Aren’t Real

This research and its implications are both good and bad news. The good news is that, through advances in our knowledge, we have a much more complete picture of what can help us get results and achieve our goals. The bad news from this research is that there are no quick fixes or shortcuts; there are no magic training regimes or dietary supplements that are a quick shortcut to results and our goals. This is a challenge for professionals or companies trying to sell quick fixes unsupported by the research.

Hopefully, you now have some more quality knowledge, so you don’t waste a lot of energy on counterproductive myths and hard-earned money on something that is only a fairy tale. And aren’t we getting a bit old for fairy tales?

Remember that if knowledge is power, then myths are energy thieves.

Thanks to nutrition researcher and educator Alan Aragon for inspiration and feedback on this article.

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

References

1. Freedman MR, King J, Kennedy E. Popular diets: a scientific review. Obes Res. 2001 Mar;9 Suppl 1:1S-40S.

2. Sacks FM, Bray GA, Carey VJ, Smith SR, Ryan DH, Anton SD, McManus K, Champagne CM, Bishop LM, Laranjo N, Leboff MS, Rood JC, de Jonge L, Greenway FL, Loria CM, Obarzanek E, Williamson DA. Comparison of weight-loss diets with different compositions of fat, protein, and carbohydrates. N Engl J Med. 2009 Feb 26;360(9):859-73.

3. Jäger, R., Kerksick, C.M., Campbell, B.I. et al. International Society of Sports Nutrition Position Stand: protein and exercise. J Int Soc Sports Nutr 14, 20 (2017).

4. Plotkin DL, Delcastillo K, Van Every DW, Tipton KD, Aragon AA, Schoenfeld BJ. Isolated Leucine and Branched-Chain Amino Acid Supplementation for Enhancing Muscular Strength and Hypertrophy: A Narrative Review. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2021 May 1;31(3):292-301.

5. Klein AV, Kiat H. Detox diets for toxin elimination and weight management: a critical review of the evidence. J Hum Nutr Diet. 2015 Dec;28(6):675-86. doi: 10.1111/jhn.12286. Epub 2014 Dec 18. PMID: 25522674.

6. Tahreem A, Rakha A, Rabail R, Nazir A, Socol CT, Maerescu CM, Aadil RM. Fad Diets: Facts and Fiction. Front Nutr. 2022 Jul 5;9:960922.

7. Sacks FM, Bray GA, Carey VJ, Smith SR, Ryan DH, Anton SD, McManus K, Champagne CM, Bishop LM, Laranjo N, Leboff MS, Rood JC, de Jonge L, Greenway FL, Loria CM, Obarzanek E, Williamson DA. Comparison of weight-loss diets with different compositions of fat, protein, and carbohydrates. N Engl J Med. 2009 Feb 26;360(9):859-73

8. Zheng Y, Ley SH, Hu FB. Global aetiology and epidemiology of type 2 diabetes mellitus and its complications. Nat Rev Endocrinol. 2018 Feb;14(2):88-98

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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

Six years ago, I felt lost coaching track and field. I had mentors that couldn’t answer my questions. I wanted to learn more about programming and periodization. I wanted my head coach to offer me feedback or, even better, adopt my training recommendations. My USATF Level 1 Coaching course offered a basic guide to technique and technical coaching, but managing a team through the arc of a season eluded me. Instead of accepting these guidelines as my only path forward, I decided to write my own guide, “7 Principles of High School Track and Field to Guide Coaches in All Sports.”

Today, I still receive emails from coaches and parents about that article, and I’ve noticed some commonalities among their inquiries. With so many questions left unanswered, I didn’t want others to feel the same way I did when I started coaching. Revisiting my correspondence relating to the 7 Principles, I found that the most consistent themes from those email queries related to:

• Team management
• Resources
• Context for performance

If I had the opportunity to rewrite the article, I would embed these themes within the principles to which they apply best. Each theme fits every principle in some way. However, instead of a revised edition, I decided to use anonymous excerpts that exemplify these themes and then write my own generalized responses to their inquiries. I hope these FAQs resonate with you and that the responses support your continued efforts to offer the best athletic experience possible.

Team Management

Team management is planning. It’s programming and scheduling. Almost all the questions I have received include some reference to team management because this topic is largely ignored in track and field coaches’ education.

In my first years coaching track and field (or soccer), I struggled with this too. Stepping into any leadership role with a large team isn’t easy, especially when some athletes train for events within different event groups, like sprinting and throwing or jumps and hurdles. Effective planning ensures that each athlete receives the attention they deserve from their respective coaches. This may seem rather intuitive, but I assure you, without adequate assistance or a good plan in place, it is no easy feat.

Question 1 – Middle School Track Coach #1

“I’ve been recruited to coach track this spring for the first time… I have a throwing coach and a high jump coach, but I am left with the overall organizational role. We have a large team (60+ runners) and I’m feeling most overwhelmed with how to meet the needs of sprinters, distance runners, race walkers, hurdlers, and jumpers all at the same time, or at least with similar workouts and drills.”

Question 2 – Middle School Track Coach #2

“I am new to coaching T&F and will be coaching 5th–8th graders. What would be a good initial week of practices to get new kids excited while keeping ‘seasoned’ ones engaged and not bored?”

Response: Every athlete should know when and where to train every day of the week. The schedule for each event group should be posted and shared with everyone. Monday should have a plan, Tuesday should have a plan, etc. Whether you’re the only coach or you have three assistants, identify where and when you and your staff will spend their time during practice as well.

This may seem like a daunting task, but advanced planning will save you time. You’ll have more time to spend on coaching rather than managing athletes within any given practice. High school and middle school track and field are no different for team management. If anything, planning becomes more challenging in high school as coaches contend with more outside factors, like homework, social media, music lessons, and other extracurriculars.

Everyone should know the same dynamic warm-up, which shouldn’t last more than 20 minutes. After a quick team briefing, everyone splits into their respective event groups for two 45-minute workout blocks. Each block will train technique, fitness, or some well-crafted combination. When Block 1 is over, everyone moves on to Block 2.

Athletes need to learn how to manage their time too. Missing the last rep in a workout is not the end of the world. With purposeful, high-quality work, “less is more.” Practice ends after Block 2. If you’re efficient, you can be done sooner. Kids and their parents will appreciate you all the more for it.

Here are three sample practice days that can apply in a high school or middle school setting:

Mon 3:00 p.m.–3:30 p.m.

Warm-up and team announcements

Mon 3:30 p.m.–4:15 p.m.

Jumps coach: Easy jumping drills LJ and TJ

Throws coach: Easy throwing drills

Head coach: Running mechanics drills for distance runners, sprinters, hurdlers

Mon 4:15 p.m.–5:00 p.m.

Jumps coach: Hurdles workout

Throws coach: Weight room for jumpers and throwers

Head coach: Coach sprinters and send distance runners on a long run

Tues 3:00 p.m.–3:30 p.m.

Warm-up and team announcements

Tues 3:30 p.m.–4:15 p.m.

Jumps coach: Big day for all jumpers

Throws coach: Big day for throwers

Head coach: Distance runners run tempo workout/sprinters and hurdlers play fun, easy games within sight

Tues 4:15 p.m.–5:00 p.m.

Jumps coach: Hurdle drills

Throws coach: Throwers, sprinters, and distance runners in weight room

Head coach: Float and support others

***Jumpers go home early

Wed: All athletes OFF

Captains and coaches meeting, if necessary, 3:00 p.m.–3:30 p.m.

Coaches meeting, if necessary

You: Parent communication, planning, team management, etc.

As in question 1, the schedule assumes there is a head coach and two assistants. I have included a similar three-day schedule for a team with only one coach below. This assumes practice is outdoors on a nearby 400m track, with access to a weight room afterward. Notice how the schedule accommodates safety, training volume, and exercise intensity.

Mon 3:00 p.m.–3:30 p.m.

Warm-up and team announcements

Mon 3:30 p.m.-4:15 p.m.

Everyone except jumpers: Running drills and medium-intensity sprint workout

Jumpers: Big jumps for LJ and TJ with coach

Mon 4:15 p.m.–5:00 p.m.

Everyone: Weight room with coach

Tues 3:00 p.m.–3:30 p.m.

Warm-up and team announcements

Tues 3:30 p.m.–4:15 p.m.

Throwers: Big throws with coach

Distance: Long run, on track if MS, or trail near school if HS

Sprinters, hurdlers, and jumpers: fun, easy games within sight

Tues 4:15 p.m.–5:00 p.m.

Hurdlers: Drills and sprints through hurdles 1+2 with coach

*** Everyone else goes home early

Wed 3:00 p.m.–3:30 p.m.

Warm-up and team announcements

Wed 3:30 p.m.–4:15 p.m.

Throwers and sprinters: High-intensity sprint workout

Distance and hurdlers: Calisthenics circuit

Jumpers: Drills and easy jumps practice with coach

Wed 4:15 p.m.–5:00 p.m.

Everyone except distance: Weight room with coach

***Distance runners go home early

Wed 5:00 p.m.–5:30 p.m.

Planning, parent phone calls, captains meeting, if necessary

Programming matters because managing kids is and always will be the most challenging part of the job. Not every athlete needs to practice every day. Rest is just as valuable as training. Three practices per week are plenty. When athletes come up with excuses for missing their practice day, just let it go and move forward. Athletes who really want to improve won’t miss your practices.

Adapt and be flexible. You’ll find that it’s easier to coach kids when they know you’re willing to accommodate their needs. When you’re punitive, kids will lose interest, disappear, or become dishonest. Obviously, if they take advantage of your accommodations, then you have to be firm and hold them accountable. Put pressure on the seasoned veterans of your system. Be easygoing with your newcomers. Teach them to love the sport just like you do.

Resources

The available resources allow coaches to improve their practice. I receive inquiries about resources because parents see the context or coaches understand team management but still want more tools to diversify and improve the overall experience.

Question 3 – High School Track Coach

“I love and have a passion for running but never coached before or was on a high school track team. Can you direct me to sources?”

Question 4 – Venezuelan Track Coach

“I am from Venezuela… I am a Spanish teacher and athletic coach. I’d like to know what kind of books or courses you recommend to become a better sprinting/jumper coach.”

Response: There are plenty of resources available online and in books for what drill fits what skill. I can offer that advice, but I’ve lost interest in it because that information is already built into coaches’ education. Instead, I care more about sharing resources for team management. Not enough resources are dedicated to helping coaches design better practices suitable to their facilities and staffing.

Resources can be people, videos, articles, or equipment, but I will always believe that the best resources are great mentors—the coaches who came before you have so much to share. When my mentors don’t know the answer, then I go online. I visit SimpliFaster, I hit the textbooks, or I see what coaches in other sports are saying.

When I began coaching, I voraciously devoured articles, books, and athletic blogs. None of that came close to the effect my mentors have had on my coaching. Find the people who are willing to guide your craft. I was lucky enough to have some excellent mentors (and also some terrible ones) who nudged me along. They helped me contextualize what I was reading and put it into practice.

My best mentors let me make mistakes. My mentors taught me a lot about athletics, but more importantly, they taught me how to talk to athletes, how to motivate them, and how to accept my mistakes. Event-specific knowledge is secondary to your communication skills. When I outgrew their support, I found someone new.

Coaches often ask me about resources for making practice more fun. I tell them that the warm-up is the best place for that. Playing games during the warm-up can reinforce good technical habits, and it should prime the body for greater physical demands. Run an obstacle course. Complete a relay race with limited mobility, like crab-walking or zig-zagging through cones. Play European handball or ultimate frisbee.

Keep young athletes moving and changing directions. Don’t push the intensity too high, however. You can read more about using games in training from coaches like Dillon Martinez, Jeremy Frisch, and Brandon Holder.

The warm-up should include running drills. This is an easy way to drill skills in a low-stakes environment. Plus, it lets your athletes “tinker” with good form. It’s okay to let kids figure this stuff out for themselves. That’s what play is for—figuring things out. You can always give simple cues like “use your arms,” “chest up,” or “relax” to improve their mechanics.

A fun warm-up might also allow you to identify the kids who may not want to play or participate that day. Pull them aside and deal with them separately. Give them something they can lead, like dynamic stretching. Find ways to connect with everyone, always. When in doubt, play games and keep practice fun.

Sometimes, our best resources are outside our sport. I read SimpliFaster’s blog because it offers perspectives from many coaches, usually from other speed/power sports. I’ve learned a lot from Tony Holler, Latif Thomas, John Brumund-Smith, Carl Valle, Erica Suter, Brett Bartholomew, and many more coaches. Find your people. Use what’s tried and true. As long as your athletes are developing their skills a little bit each week, and you’re challenging their fitness, you are serving their needs well.

Resources are abundantly available online, but I’ve found that one of the greatest resources for strength and conditioning is Instagram. I follow several widely respected gyms and individuals that provide a steady stream of content that keeps me thinking. GarageStrength, Squat University, MoveU, Whealth, Art of Coaching, Joe DeFranco’s Industrial Strength, Coach Garrish, Mike Boyle Strength & Conditioning, and more.

Unfortunately, I don’t find nearly as much educational content for track and field. It’s not because coaches are trying to hide their secrets—I really don’t think there are any secrets at all. The problem is that track and field social media seems less dedicated to beginners and everyday folks. This is where S&C and CrossFit excel. They have found a way to make periodization, volume, and recovery accessible and important.

Context for Performance

This explains why an athlete is excelling, stagnating, or underperforming. I often receive questions from parents who are dissatisfied with their child’s experience or their performance on a school team. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with wanting to understand what variables affect performance, but it’s not always clear-cut whether those variables are coaching-related or outside our control.

Question 5 – Concerned Parent #1

“This year, I am very confused by my son’s college performance. His distance coach wanted him to try cross-country. He tried it and was not very good. In his first indoor meet, he ran the 600m and the 300m slower than he ran in high school.”

Question 6 – Concerned Parent #2

“I am frustrated watching an extremely athletic child get slighted by more than one of the coaching staff. As a junior, he had the fastest 400m, 800m, 1600m, and 3200m times, but he is not allowed to pick his events, and the coaches keep putting him in a non-competitive 4×800 relay. He is less than 2 seconds from the school 400m record and has only been allowed to run it once. He wants the record. He has not been allowed to run the 100m or 200m either.”

Response: Slight improvement should be the baseline for performance progression because teenagers expectedly undergo significant physical maturation during middle and high school. Great coaching, timely and consistent feedback, and a fun, rewarding team experience have the potential to progress athletes beyond that expectation.

I believe that no youth athlete should be told they cannot compete in the event of their choice. There are many coaches who don’t subscribe to that. I don’t get it. The athlete is number one. In 7 Principles, I stated that a coach’s “job is to guide (athletes) to success.” How can athletes be and feel successful if they’re training for events they don’t want to compete in?

I wish track and field teams weren’t like that, but it’s a reality that many athletes deal with. Avoid the long disagreeable parent phone calls by granting kids the opportunities they want. If you’re unwilling to budge on something as simple as this, don’t be surprised when athletes quit your team. Teams with new rosters every year are not a good look or a good sign. Kids are resilient—they will find a way to do the things they love, even if it means leaving their school team behind.

Performance can be compromised because there are too many athletes, and you don’t have enough time to specialize their training individually. The casual Monday/Wednesday athletes take time away from the dedicated athletes, who need greater technical support. Sometimes, athletic directors want these catch-all track teams to exist because they allow the kids cut from baseball or lacrosse to have a home. This would strain any passionate, knowledgeable coach who’s hoping to win a title or foster a stronger team culture.

Besides solid programming, independence and collaboration are among the best solutions for supporting advanced athletes. It’s okay to recognize your limits and encourage those athletes who need more to train elsewhere. After all, the athlete is number one, right? Their success will always come back to support your team! If you let those athletes co-plan the time you will spend together, you’ll have more time for the rest of the team, and you won’t feel like you’re underserving your best kids.

Keeping kids safe in a high-impact sport should be a priority. Often, I think coaches and athletes let limited time govern how much technical training they might complete in a given practice. One hour is enough time spent on technical skills when trained at low intensity for any youth athlete. That doesn’t mean they should go from triple jump drills to hurdles consecutively within the same practice! Instead, oscillate their weeks doing each event.

Perhaps in Week 1, they hurdle twice and jump once, and in Week 2, they jump twice and hurdle once. This should occur on separate days of the week. Double sessions with high-intensity events lead to injury, especially when compounded over consecutive days. Before you know it, athletes will have shin splints, and then they’re out for weeks to recover. Play the long game and keep your kids safe.

Call me a radical, but I believe youth coaches who don’t emphasize sprint technique and speed training do their athletes a disservice. Sprinting is foundational for long-term athletic success in track and field or cross country, and speed development is critical in all sports. Even if young athletes love distance running, a majority of their training should be sprint work.

As athletes get older, they will have a more successful path in either speed or endurance events due to a strong speed reserve developed from years of prior training. A background in sprinting keeps options open for specialization. A background in endurance does not. If you want to run marathons at age 30, great. Endurance training will get you there. If you want to run a fast mile in your junior year of high school, you need to focus on speed and endurance.

When parents tell me about their child’s failure to perform in the sprints during the indoor season, my first question is always, “Did they run cross country in the fall?” Performance is a reflection of training.

Revisiting the 7 Principles

This is just a slice of the questions I’ve been asked, or are worth asking, about youth track and field. Parents want context for their child’s performance because their child’s performance arc does not seem to be progressing, and many factors can diminish performance, even beyond a coach’s ability to provide adequate guidance. But these factors don’t excuse bad coaching or a wretched team experience.

The 7 Principles:

1. The athlete is number one.
2. Emancipate yourself from volume.
3. Practice technical skills at least three times per week.
4. If your coach can’t explain how a drill translates to your performance, don’t do that drill.
5. Sequencing matters.
6. Plan collaboratively.
7. Be positive and have fun!

I wouldn’t change much about the 7 Principles. Programming matters would be an appropriate revision to sequencing matters. Perhaps I would add an eighth principle that empowers skepticism in all stakeholders—parents, athletes, and coaches:

8. “If you’re not improving, start asking questions.”

I believe that athletes should feel empowered to ask questions no differently than they do in their academic classes. We would all be better coaches for it. Track athletes rarely see beyond their own experience. They lack the experience, perspective, or courage to speak up and speak out when things don’t go their way.

Middle and high school sports often exist in silos for which athletes never see beyond their training. A healthy dose of skepticism goes a long way. Ultimately, coaches are educators. I believe kids are resilient, but that should not excuse mediocrity. We should always leave our athletes better off than when they arrived.

The most frequently asked questions are honest calls for help. They are asked for good reason because something isn’t happening as it should. I’d like to believe that most coaches know what drill suits what skill, when it should be used, and how often their athletes should lift weights or have the day off. I learned a little bit about how often and how intense in my coaches’ education courses, but I never learned how to effectively manage 60+ middle schoolers with varying interests for two hours on a Tuesday afternoon. I learned this from my own coaching, observing the good and the bad, and discussing what’s ideal with my mentors.

I have less experience in other individual sports, like swimming or tennis, but all high school sports require programmatic planning, and most teams rely on one adult to coach the team. Track and field is not a complicated sport. Resources are abundantly available, and context is in the results. What’s truly missing is management and programming—where athletes and staff ought to be every minute of every hour of every practice all season long. With such a process in place, the wins will follow.

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

The name of the game for GPS use is efficiency. It all boils down to how I, as a performance coach, use this tool to the fullest extent to monitor athletes and make load-prescription recommendations to our sport coaches based on the demands of their game and their style of play. I serve over 250 athletes and eight varsity sports that use our GPS system, but there is only one of me. All the data in the world is meaningless unless I have a streamlined approach to get the data that matters to our sports coaches.

So, how do I establish routines and practices that make our systems more efficient? The truth is that the proper provider is better than any system I can develop on my end.

In the selection process, one primary question must be answered: Which provider gives an accurate, holistic view of what athletes are going through without requiring an immense amount of data filtering and sorting? A lack of efficiency in data management can cause a tremendous amount of data, resulting in users becoming overwhelmed and implementing only a fraction of the potential benefits of their GPS system.

In this article, I will discuss essential considerations and give my experience with entry-level units from both Catapult and Titan Sports. This article is not meant to endorse either product but rather to provide insight into the use of both products. Users should consider the constraints and goals of the program to determine which is right for them.

Considerations Within Data Management: Tracking Progress

The first question to ask is: How does this system track athlete progress over time?

This foundational question must be answered using metrics that each system tracks. All systems track variations to top speed, high speed/sprint yardage, acceleration/deceleration, and a GPS load. These metrics form what I term “Level 1 metrics,” or the metrics that I teach our sport coaches how to interpret. Where providers begin to separate themselves is access to more detailed metrics, which I term “Level 2.” These include acute:chronic work ratio (ACWR), accel/decel band counts, and video analysis.

Strictly comparing entry-level units—as this is the budgetary framework many high schools typically fall into—Titan offers a holistic view on the home screen. With Titan, every Level 1 and Level 2 metric, in addition to others, is found on the home screen. Catapult offers Level 1 metrics from their home screen, but ACWR and video analysis are not offered. Accel/decel counts, among other metrics, are available through CSV export.

Having this data at your fingertips with no sorting is essential for efficiency. However, the ability to compare collected data over time is a must. If I cannot establish how each athlete’s session compares to team and individual averages over a given period, I fail to identify necessary trends in practice volumes and intensities.

I found Titan’s ability to view athlete progress over time and use charts to track and communicate each session to coaches intuitive and user-friendly. This involved little to no data processing to produce usable data for coaches. With Catapult, these metrics were available but required some data processing to view trends over time. However, if the user aims to focus on specific metrics and keep the use of the data simple, Catapult’s home screen is streamlined and allows for easy toggling to monitor sessions.

Considerations Within Data Management: Tagging Sessions

The next question to ask is: How does the operating system allow you to tag practice and speed sessions?

Most providers allow you to “tag” practices and competitions into smaller segments to identify the demands of each drill and segment. This feature also lets you compare segments of competition with the physical outputs of the athletes. The “tagging” process is different for each provider.

• In Catapult’s platform, you can add tags to each session while syncing the pods or editing the session. After the initial session sync, you must resync the session and review it from the home screen if you want to add tags later.
• Titan allows the user to create a library of tags and, using a slider bar, identify the segment to be named. From here, users can review each segment of the sessions and easily change the metrics they want to view.

Tagging is one of the most useful and necessary tools for incorporating a comprehensive GPS plan. I must be able to identify the demands of practice periods and games but also track the work/rest demands being placed on our athletes.

Tagging practice allows me to ensure that our more intense periods of practice that are designed for contest prep meet the demands by matching a load/minute prescription. I must be able to filter this data to identify the segments of practice that meet these demands; thus, an efficient tagging process is crucial.

Considerations Within Data Management: Communicating for Success and Efficiency

Another important consideration in this process begins prior to purchase: a conversation with the sport coaches. GPS allows practitioners to identify trends in intensity and volume, monitor athlete performance, and identify potential needs for load prescription changes. One example is a volume spike. This could indicate fatigue, or it at least warrants monitoring athlete performance following this exposure to increased demands—think of a second-string defensive back being thrust into a starting role.

In an ideal scenario, conversations would occur with team decision-makers to account for potential trends in these spikes and prepare a practice plan with drills that account for the physiological needs of the competition. Some performance coaches are in situations that allow for an increased role in decision-making, and others are not. Before acquiring GPS, these conversations should occur to ensure that all parties are on the same page regarding the sport coach’s willingness to include the performance coach in this process.

For programs using this inclusive approach, you must be able to effectively communicate practice and game data with coaches who structure practice. Report data is a crucial piece to increasing efficiency.

With Catapult, users select metrics each session and export them to a PDF that can be emailed to coaches. Titan allows users to create custom dashboards with comparison metrics for individuals and team or position group averages. Once the user creates the dashboard, the dashboard is saved for any future use. Following each session, the coach can download the PDF and send it to the coaches.

The use of dashboards and report profiling for athletes over the course of an athlete’s career can provide valuable insight into the growth of an individual over four years. Again, efficiency in this process is key.

Customer Service Matters

Finally, the relationship between the provider and the client matters. Inevitably, the tech will not function properly, and troubleshooting must occur. When these issues arise, I, as a consumer, expect that compensation for the service will also provide support for the product when needed, just like when I have issues with my phone, I can take it to my service provider for a fix.

For instance, following a session, I forgot to turn our units off and not only proceeded to leave them on overnight but also drove across the state. I made one call to the provider, and they assisted with info on how to sort out all unwanted data because my athletes, in fact, do not run 81 mph. (Don’t judge me before you drive through Atlanta…)

Some companies advertise excellent customer service when, in reality, certain clients are prioritized in order to support certain levels of branding that favor the company. If you are in the market for wearable GPS, I recommend talking to multiple COACHES, not companies, who use different providers to gain insight into each of these considerations and identify which product fits your unique scenario.

GPS at the High School Level? My Experience

When I navigated a move from private-sector training to high school athletics, technology was an afterthought in my mind—I thought systems such as VBT, force plates, iPads at each rack, and laser timing systems were for the elite college programs and the occasional private school. This misguided view was largely due to ignorance on my part, but there is no denying that high school athletics have found technology, and they’re never going back.

My first exposure to GPS came at the University of Cincinnati, where I was fortunate enough to intern under Coach Brady Collins and the football performance staff. During this time, I saw how Coach Jeremiah Ortiz, who was in charge of GPS management, used GPS to monitor athlete performance and workload. I was blown away by the capabilities and endless options GPS offered, but I still wasn’t sold on its usefulness in the high school setting. I realized that, at the collegiate level, monitoring workload was crucial to managing athlete health and wellness. But were my high school athletes exposed to high enough outputs to require monitoring?

Enter Mark Hoover.

You probably live under a rock if you don’t know Coach Hoover. I’m joking, but seriously, he’s a coach you need to know, especially if you use any technology in your performance program. Coach Hoover and Coach Jon Hersel visited Cincinnati for a Glazier Clinic in 2019, right before the world shut down. They were gracious enough to sit with me for almost three hours and discuss everything from GPS and VBT to general training philosophy. During this conversation, I distinctly remember, while discussing GPS, saying, “I understand the need for GPS at higher levels, but I’m not certain that my athletes are experiencing volumes and intensities that require load monitoring.”

Coach Hoover looked at me and smiled as if he had been waiting for that statement and said, “Coach, if you’re not measuring what your athletes are exposed to, at best, you’re just guessing (the game demands).” This hit me like a ton of bricks. All along, I had assumed that our athletes weren’t experiencing a meaningful nervous system impact. Again, ignorance on my part.

Fast forward a couple of years, and now GPS is an increasingly common tool in the high school setting, and I can attest that GPS has helped us win ball games and keep athletes healthy at the high school level.

GPS is a powerful tool, but without a streamlined organizational system to manage this data, coaches can be easily overcome by the amount of data and metrics a provider can give. Careful consideration should be taken when selecting providers to partner with to avoid simply going for a name brand at the cost of effectiveness and efficient use, ultimately leading to a poor consumer experience and poor use of what most of us are short on—funding.

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’ve worked as a Certified Athletic Trainer at the high school level for the past 17 years. Anyone who has spent a significant amount of time in or around sports is aware of the trickle-down effect: things that we used to only see at the professional level 15 years ago are now commonplace at the college level. In continuation, normalcies at the college level have trickled down to the high school level. A few of these normalcies—specific offensive/defensive schemes, technology, film/game prep, and sports-specific training—are now far more prevalent in high school sports.

For the most part, these are all good additions, as they have improved the game in most sports, enhancing skill development as well as the complexity and pace. The current-day high school athlete also has to train like never before to keep up with the evolution of high school/club/travel sports (i.e., train like a collegiate athlete). The only problem with this progression is that high school athletes do not have the same support structure in place as collegiate and professional athletes do, so they may have limited or non-existent access to things such as:

• Training table nutrition.
• Education on the importance of sleep.
• Athletic training service.
• Therapeutic/recovery modalities.

A second problem for these athletes is that, as a society, we used to rely on experts in any given field for information or services, whereas now you can seemingly use Google for any question you have. Despite this access to information, most high school athletes do not possess the base knowledge to discern good information from poor advice. The various avenues to access this information range from forums to social media influencers to the advice of friends.

With this in mind, it is my goal to bring a sports nutrition expert to my school’s campus and provide access to quality information for student-athletes. Just this spring, when soccer was ramping up, one of my female soccer players—who typically has a solid grasp on training and nutrition—stated that she was about to start a cutting phase. Though it was the beginning of the second week of soccer, which undoubtedly requires the highest intensity of physical exertion, for some strange reason, she thought it would be a good idea to start this nutrition plan.

I informed her that if she did this, she’d be trying to perform at a high capacity while in a calorie deficit, and thus, I strongly discouraged her from making this decision. I took the time to explain why it was necessary, not only from a health aspect but also from a performance focus.  We talked about why an athlete must incorporate a substantial amount of protein into every meal, some healthy snack options throughout the day, and why carbs prior to practice/competition are so beneficial, with a big emphasis on how refueling the body after training/competition needs to be prioritized daily. Interactions such as these are less common than I would like them to be, and this particular conversation just added fuel to my fire.

The Importance of Connecting Nutrition as Fuel for Performance

Most athletic trainers should have a solid base understanding of sports nutrition, and I’d say mine is above average. This is great for fielding questions here and there and for having one-on-one conversations, but by no means do I have the experience or vast knowledge of a sport nutritionist/dietician. I knew going into my position that I would need to rely on someone else to gain the desired amount of traction on this topic for our community. I had done something similar at a previous school, but it was in a very rural area compared to my current school, so options in that community were limited (for example, 2–3 qualified people available to athletes).

As I now live in the suburbs, the options for these athletes seem limitless. The first hurdle was figuring out the best way to make these points of contact. I could have potentially just started cold calling/emailing sports nutritionists in my area to see if I could get anyone to bite, but instead, I decided to try some networking. Every fall, we have an all-coaches meeting where I get the opportunity to address my entire coaching staff in the middle school and high school—this year, I added two points of emphasis in addition to the expected support information offered by the sports medicine program:

1. A warm-up geared specifically to reducing injury and increasing performance.
2. Nutritional education addressing the dietary needs of the present-day HS/MS athlete.

When I mentioned these two things, I certainly had their attention. As I provided an overview of my perspective on middle school and high school sports, I mentioned the need to engage the nutritional aspect of our programs to support athletes and that I really needed their help. I asked them if they knew of or already had a good relationship with a nutritionist/dietician, could they please share that contact with me?

It turned out to be the correct path to take.

I got connected with several different people and organizations close to campus: one was a local university grad program, and another was one of our lower school parents who is a dietician. I appreciated meeting with a Georgia State grad student and discussing options, but as the program progresses, this person might not be exactly what I was looking for to kick off the program.

I also had a couple of great conversations with that lower school parent who is a dietician and would be a wonderful resource and huge proponent of what I am trying to accomplish here. Despite this, she was the first to say sports-specific nutrition is not in her wheelhouse. The beauty of networking, though, was that she just happened to be great friends with a nationally renowned sports nutritionist with a highly impressive resume and amount of experience.

When I mentioned her name to my strength coach and that she might be coming to campus, he nearly jumped out of his chair; he was so excited. This strength coach at our school has tons of experience in strength and speed/agility and a solid breadth of knowledge in nutrition, so I respect his opinion immensely. Though the resume of that nutritionist speaks for itself, I felt further confidence in pursuing her expertise when I saw the excitement of our strength coach (who is not the most excitable).

Finding Room in the Budget

The next hurdle was cost…if you are lucky enough to find a professional of this caliber willing to work with you, it doesn’t come cheap. Her fee for coming to campus was commensurate with her knowledge and experience. If you are venturing out and attempting this yourself, do not let cost be a roadblock. If your school/organization doesn’t have it in the budget, go find a sponsor or ask the person you are working with if they know of any sponsors/scholarship opportunities.

Prior to this endeavor, I hadn’t thought about that, and even though it is a simple solution, I may not have thought of it on my own. The fact of the matter is that the sports nutritionist found one for us—when she contacted me to let me know she found a company to sponsor her talk, I wondered why I didn’t think of looking for a sponsor!

Sponsors are great, but they typically come with strings attached—this particular sponsor required the talk(s) to range from K–12, but I was only trying to reach my high school athletes for this first attempt. Implementing a K–12 talk is simple, but properly cultivating it into actionable changes for our student body isn’t. I didn’t want to have this great speaker on the front end of things without being able to follow through on the back end. We’re keeping the K–12 as an option but are currently looking for budget approval. If that fails, I’ll be searching for other sponsors.

In the meantime, I am currently in the information-gathering stage. My next steps will be getting an online survey’s simple 2–3 questions for athletes and separate questions for parents. This will clarify what the presentation ought to cover. After gathering information from this outreach, I’ll set a plan to find the best time, date, and location to address the most pressing topics for my community.

Takeaways for Your School

Maybe you’re not ready to put in the leg work on an endeavor like this, and it certainly has required a lot more work than I had anticipated. There is so much great information accessible, so breaking this task up into manageable pieces is paramount. A great first step would be getting this info out to your coaches, athletes, and parent groups from the Collegiate and Professional Sports Dietitians Association.

Take the time to highlight a few documents for coaches and athletes, leaving the rest of the info accessible for those few who want to dive deeper. As a next step, look for other good resources in your area by asking questions and broadening your network. Find one or multiple options in your community.

There is so much information out there for us to consume, but not all of it is good—so having a reliable professional sifting through this content makes a huge difference. The most challenging step is getting started. Courageously start moving the ball; that’s the hardest part.

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

Chasing chickens, carrying logs in the snow, and hitting slabs of raw meat make great cinema, but it’s not how champion boxers train. Beyond these absurd Rocky workouts, there are many other myths about boxing that the entertainment media and even sports broadcasters have created. Having coached many of the best fighters in the world, I want to take some of the mystery out of strength and conditioning for this popular sport.

It’s impossible for me in one article to cover all the misinformation about boxing that the general public and the strength coaching community have been exposed to. That said, however, let me start with 10 insights I’ve learned in my long career as a strength coach of these athletes:

1. Professional fighters use periodization.

Periodization is not a mysterious, scientific formula taught in Ivy League kinesiology classes. Periodization is fatigue management, designed to break up training into phases (periods) because you can’t work all aspects of athletic fitness at the highest levels simultaneously.

After winning Olympic gold in 2004, Yuriorkis Gamboa competed in nine professional fights in a single year, gradually increasing the number of rounds in each fight. After that, he competed less frequently as it takes considerable time to recover from 12-round title fights. This is where periodization becomes especially important, as higher levels of intensity and volume can be programmed into longer, specific phases to produce stronger, faster, and more powerful fighters.

In the weight room, I use an approach developed by Canadian strength coach Charles R. Poliquin that breaks down the numerous loading parameters in each workout. Loading parameters include exercise selection, reps, sets, tempo (aka speed of movement), rest, and training frequency. Let me give you an example.

The early stages of training in preparing for a match could be considered the preparation phase. During this period, I would focus on heavy-bag training. In the weight room, I generally alternate between two-week periods of high-volume and high-intensity workouts to prevent training plateaus. Here are two examples of upper-body workouts I would use during this period, the first one emphasizes volume (accumulation), and the second emphasizes intensity (intensification).

Accumulation (High Volume)

Upper Body (Monday and Thursday)

A1. Decline press, dumbbells, 4 x 6–8, 30X0, rest 90 seconds

A2. Chin-up, semi-supinated grip, 4 x 6–8, 40X0, rest 10 seconds

A3. External rotation, infraspinatus, low pulley, 4 x 6–8, 30X0, rest 90 seconds

B1. Neck extension, Swiss ball, 4 x 4–6, 8 seconds, rest 5 seconds

B2. Scott Zottman curl, 4 x 6–8, 30X0, rest 90 seconds

B3. One-arm dumbbell press, 4 x 6–8, 30X0, rest 90 seconds

1. Grip hold (Atlantis), 3 x 1, 60 seconds, rest 60 seconds

Intensification (High Intensity)

Upper Body (Monday and Thursday)

A1. 45-degree incline bench press, with barbell, with bands, 6 x 3, 30X0, rest 10 seconds

A2. Medicine ball push (against the wall), 5 x 3, 40X0, rest 240 seconds

B1. Sternum or front lever pull-ups, 5 x 3, 30X0, rest 10 seconds

B2. Overhead medicine ball throw, 5 x 3, 8 seconds, rest 240 seconds

1. External rotation infraspinatus, cable or Cuban, 4 x 8–10, 30X0, rest 90 seconds

D1. Neck extension on Swiss ball, 5 x 3–6, 8 seconds, rest 90 seconds

D2. Seated dumbbell curl, semi-supinated, 5 x 1, 60 seconds, rest 60 seconds

D3. Dips, 5 x 1, 60 seconds, rest 60 seconds

1. Grip machine (Atlantis), 2 x 1, 60 seconds, rest 60 seconds

As a match approaches—the sparring phase—I have my fighters focus more on hitting double-end and speed bags. I also significantly reduce the overall volume and intensity of the weight training workouts so the fighters are not too fatigued to work on more explosive activities, such as plyometrics.

2. Winning in the amateur ranks does not guarantee success in the pros.

Success in amateur athletes does not necessarily guarantee success in the pros. Two examples are football and figure skating.

A college quarterback who excelled because of his running ability may not be considered for the NFL draft. Johnny Manziel was an electrifying college quarterback, rushing for 2,169 yards in his last two years at Texas A&M. As quarterback for the Cleveland Browns, Manziel threw only seven touchdowns (rushing for one) and was intercepted 15 times; his NFL career lasted only 15 games.

Figure skater Tonya Harding was the second woman to complete a triple axel in competition. But success as a professional skater is based more on showmanship and public image than jumping ability. Harding’s public image was so tarnished that a lucrative professional skating career was unattainable…and, oddly enough, she decided to try to become a professional boxer!

In boxing, even winning Olympic gold does not necessarily put a fighter on the fast track to professional titles. This is not just my opinion. A study that looked at 219 boxers who won gold in the Olympics since 1904 found that only 41 went on to win professional world titles, so 18.72%. One reason is the difference in scoring between amateur and professional fights.

Scoring in amateur boxing is determined by how many punches you land, not by how hard you hit. In the pros, the judges also look at the quality of your punches; thus, you get rewarded for trying to hurt your opponent. This distinction means that a professional fighter must be able to take more physical abuse than an amateur—a glass jaw doesn’t cut it in the pros.

There is also the matter of conditioning. An amateur fight lasts three rounds. A professional fight lasts at least four rounds and up to 12 for title fights. Except for power hitters like Mike Tyson and George Foreman, who tended to take care of their opponents in the early rounds, extended matches require a different emphasis on energy system training.

3. An elite boxer may not excel in MMA, and vice versa.

Conor McGregor is unquestionably one of the all-time great mixed martial arts fighters. He is known for his stand-up skills and punching power, with 19 of his 22 wins by knockout. On August 26, 2017, McGregor intended to “shock the world” when he took on the undefeated (49-0) world champion boxer Floyd Mayweather, Jr.

He didn’t.

McGregor landed few solid punches on the 40-year-old Mayweather and lost in the 10th round by a TKO, such that you wonder if Mayweather was holding back to give the crowd its money’s worth. If this were an MMA fight, McGregor would probably have finished the match in the first round. In fact, only about half of MMA fights go the distance, and it’s common for many to end in the first round!

The bottom line is that success in MMA involves excelling in many fighting skills in addition to boxing. In the early days of MMA, boxers who tried the sport could not defend themselves from fighters of other disciplines. “The stand-up fighters had almost no idea what to do on the ground,” said legendary UFC champion Royce Gracie in the early days of ultimate fighting.

4. Elite boxers adopt a healthy lifestyle.

To compete at the highest levels in boxing, fighters must take care of themselves outside the gym. They must eat well, get plenty of sleep, minimize stress, and avoid drugs and other “dissipations” that can affect their training. They also need to address soft tissue restrictions and use various recovery methods.

Because boxing is a collision sport, boxers are prone to developing chronic adhesions that can affect performance and cause pain. Traditional massage is helpful, but I’ve found the most effective way to release these adhesions is through Active Release Techniques® (ART), an aggressive, manual soft-tissue treatment created by Dr. Mike Leahy. I have access to an ART practitioner who helps my fighters stay in the game.

Two forms of recovery I use with my fighters are breathwork and cold exposure. I teach athletes to use specialized breathing methods and cold exposure to improve focus, mental toughness, and endurance and achieve optimal health by enhancing the immune system (video 1). I was fortunate to learn from Dutch breathwork guru Wim Hof. Nicknamed “The Iceman,” Hof founded the Wim Hof Method. I not only took courses from Hof but became his friend and received additional instruction from him through mentorship. 

5. You don’t buy a pair of boxing gloves—you invest in several pairs, each with a specific purpose.

Boxers should purchase several pairs of specialty boxing gloves to perform their best and minimize the risk of injury. For example, it’s unwise to use the lighter speed-gloves for heavy bag training because they will increase the amount of stress on your shoulders, wrists, and hands. Likewise, the open-fingered gloves used for MMA training have no place in a boxer’s gym bag.

The type of glove used for competition depends on a fighter’s style. Gloves have weight limits, so how the padding is distributed is critical. A stronger puncher wants less padding at the front of the hands to maximize punching power and make it easier to open cuts. There is also additional padding around the wrist to protect it and increase the strength of the punch. Examples of a “puncher’s glove” are Cleto Reyes® and Grant®. Yuriorkis Gamboa won 17 of his 26 by knockout using a puncher’s glove.

Boxers who throw more punches, relying on their speed to score more points, would want more protection for their hands. In training, fighters often use gloves with more padding at the front of the glove to protect their hands, such as the Winning® glove. However, a fighter might use Winning gloves for training to protect their hands but use a puncher’s glove in the fight to cause more damage. Floyd Mayweather, Jr., who has suffered hand injuries during his career, has used Winning gloves in training and switches to Grant gloves for a fight to cause more damage.

Use the appropriate gloves for the specific type of training you are doing, replace worn-out gloves, and pay careful attention to how you tape your hands.

6. Beginners are at a greater risk of concussions than professionals.

Surprisingly, beginners are at a greater risk of concussion than elite boxers. Elite boxers learn to protect themselves, wear the appropriate gloves, and perform specialized neck work.

Of particular concern are repeat concussions. I don’t like expressions such as “Getting your bell rung!” because a concussion is a traumatic brain injury that can lead to permanent brain damage. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “A repeat concussion that occurs before the brain recovers from the first—usually within a short period (hours, days, or weeks)—can slow recovery or increase the likelihood of having long-term problems.”

Most concussions in boxing occur when there is a sudden change in direction in the head, such as when a boxer receives a hit to the head without being braced to respond to the punch.

One way to reduce the risk of concussion, or at least lessen its severity, is by strengthening the neck. One study on football players at the University of Memphis saw a 50% reduction in concussions in a single year after implementing a neck-strengthening program.

Neck bridges are a specific skill in wrestling, and these athletes must practice these movements. I don’t like them for boxing because the exercise places unnecessary stress on the ligaments. Instead, I use a unique series of exercises for the neck performed on a Swiss ball. I also have athletes do exercises for the trapezius muscle, which fans out from the middle of the back to the base of the neck. Shoulder shrugs effectively work this muscle, especially with a hex bar that positions the hands at the athlete’s sides (rather than in front as with a straight bar). Also, the farmer’s walk will overload this important muscle group.

7. Grip work is essential to a boxer.

One of the major factors that should determine exercise selection for an athlete is to consider which areas are most vulnerable to injury. Whereas a sprinter may focus on hamstring exercises, a boxer needs to focus on strengthening the muscles of the wrists and hands.

Wrist curls and wrist rollers have their place, but I prefer to strengthen the wrists and hands with thick-handled equipment. The thicker diameters increase the work done by the fingers, wrists, thumbs, and forearms on any exercise, including presses. I recommend diameters of about 5–6.35 centimeters for dumbbells and 7.5 centimeters for barbells.

The thick-grip barbells and dumbbells in my gym have revolving sleeves, reducing elbow stress. I have kettlebells, but not the original ones, because the handles do not move.

Thick-handled equipment is expensive, but some attachments can be used with dumbbells and barbells to create the same effect, such as Fat Gripz™. The Fat Gripz attachments are made from a durable military-grade compound that feels like rubber. They have a slit on one side that enables you to slide a dumbbell or barbell shaft into it, at which point they close securely around it.

The farmer’s walk is one exercise I use to help my fighters strengthen their grip. Gamboa could carry cylinders that weighed double his body weight for 40 meters. Also, fighters must strengthen the muscles that extend their fingers to ensure structural balance. I use webbing and bands for this purpose.

8. Boxing is not aerobic.

On November 25, 1980, Roberto Durán conceded his WBC welterweight title in the eighth round to challenger Sugar Ray Leonard. Durán said he quit because of stomach cramps, but Duran allegedly told the ref, “No más” (which in Spanish means “no more”). For this reason, sportswriters have speculated that Durán may not have been in shape to go the distance with Leonard.

In boxing, a less powerful athlete with superior endurance can often win by outperforming their opponents in the later rounds. A boxing coach’s challenge is determining the type of endurance needed to perform at maximum capacity every round.

The textbook Interval Training for Sports and General Fitness by Edward Fox and Donald Mathews classifies the body’s energy systems to perform work as short-term, intermediate, and long-term or aerobic. Sports in which activities last less than 30 seconds primarily use the short-term energy system, events lasting about 90–120 seconds use the intermediate energy system, and events lasting more than 120 seconds primarily use the long-term energy system. These energy systems fall on a continuum, gradually progressing from the short term to the intermediate and long term.

Consider the following, perhaps surprising, energy system classification that Fox and Mathews gave popular sports.

A boxing round generally lasts more than 120 seconds, but there are many breaks and moments of lower activity in that bout that allow for recovery. Although accumulative fatigue develops during 12 rounds, increasing the contribution of the intermediate and long-term energy systems, about 70% of the energy contribution will be from the short-term energy system.

Boxers must be careful about aerobic work because it can make powerful fast-twitch muscle fibers behave like weaker, slow-twitch muscle fibers. In a decade-long Canadian study published in 1994 in the Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness, researchers found that subjects who performed regular distance running had 70.95 type I fibers compared to 37.7% in subjects in a control group. The researchers concluded, “The results revealed that endurance training may promote a transition from type II to type I muscle fibre types and occurs at the expense of the type II fiber population.” In other words, aerobic training can reduce punching power.

9. Knowing how to lose weight rapidly often makes the difference between winning and losing.

Whereas the heavyweights don’t have to worry about making weight, lighter fighters must do everything they can to be as light as possible during weigh-ins. It’s common to hear about fighters losing 4–6 kilos (about 8–13 pounds) the week of the fight through extreme dieting, cardio work, and dehydration.

If they have prepared intelligently, fighters will only have to lose about a kilo (2.2 pounds) the day before a fight. If they have not prepared well, they may be tempted to engage in methods that can be harmful, such as using diuretics or laxatives or spending excessive time in the sauna. Even the greats can make mistakes.

Before his loss to Larry Holmes in 1980, Muhammad Ali was taking a thyroid medication that speeds up the metabolism, causing weight loss. “I took too many thyroid pills,” said Ali. “Always used to double up on my vitamins. Bad idea with thyroid pills. Started training at 253, went down to 217 for the fight. Too much. People saying, ‘Oooh, isn’t he pretty?’ But I was too weak, didn’t feel like dancing. I was dazed. I was in a dream.”

Immediately after a weigh-in, boxers must consume carbohydrates to restore their glycogen stores. The amount to drink depends upon the athlete’s body weight and the product’s carbohydrate content—a carb percentage that is too high will reduce the rate at which the body absorbs the water (i.e., gastric emptying). Also, fighters should not gorge themselves, as this sudden increase in food may cause stomach upset.

After months of training for strength and technique, it all comes down to the last week before the competition. This tapering phase is all about hydration, nutrition, and weight. Pay attention to these final details and watch it all pay off.

10. The skills taught in boxing fitness classes often don’t transfer well to competition or the street.

Tae Bo® is a blend of Taekwondo and boxing created by Billy Blanks in 1976. By 1999, Banks’s workout videos had sold over 1.5 million copies. Can Tae Bo improve general physical fitness and be considered an alternative to aerobics classes? Sure. Are Tae Bo and other home-based workouts safe and an effective method of self-defense? Probably not.

A study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine in 2011 looked at boxing injuries in the U.S. over 19 years. In 2008, of the 17,000 reported injuries, 34% of those injuries occurred in home workouts. As for commercial gym boxing workouts, fitness instructors who teach these classes seldom have a boxing background and may teach punching techniques that place adverse stress on the shoulders, wrists, and hands.

Another issue with unqualified fitness instructors is that they don’t know how to teach their students how to defend themselves, which often results in serious injuries, particularly concussions. These classes can also create a false sense of confidence among the students in their ability to defend themselves in a street fight.

Finally, being able to give a hit doesn’t necessarily mean you can take one. Boxers need special exercises for the neck to improve their ability to take a punch, and they need corrective exercises to prevent muscle imbalances that can make them more susceptible to injuries, particularly to the shoulders.

If you want to see an example of a qualified coach, check out the YouTube videos of Eric Kelly. Kelly is a former world-class boxer who coaches at Church Street Gym in New York’s Financial District. His primary client base consists of businessmen with no background in boxing. Kelly’s methods may seem unorthodox to an outsider, and his potty mouth may offend some, but Kelly knows how to teach them not only basic boxing skills but how to defend themselves.

A win in boxing means money, fame, and a future. A loss means facing the bitter reality of not being good enough and the disappointment of coaches, trainers, and support staff. Losing once is bad news, but consecutive losses often lead to early retirement, as finding sponsors to cover training expenses becomes increasingly difficult. So, enjoy your action movies but consider these 10 training insights if you want to box or become involved in the sport in other areas.

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

Bysouth, Alex. UFC 1: “The Beginning: Playboy, Mortal Kombat and the hunt for an ultimate fighter.” BBC Sport. November 9, 2018.

Caine, Dennis John; Caine, Caroline G; Lindner, Koenraad J. Epidemiology of Sports Injuries. Human Kinetics, 1996.

Cidzik, Ryan. “Strong Necks.” Training and Conditioning. January 29, 2015.

Fox, Edward L; Mathews, Donald K. Interval Training: Conditioning for Sports and General Fitness. WB Saunders, 1974.

Fry, Andrew C. “The role of resistance exercise intensity on muscle fibre adaptations.” Sports Medicine. 2004 August;34(10):663–679.

Grant K, Habes D, Steward. LL. “An analysis of handle designs for reducing manual effort: the influence of grip diameter.” International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics. 1992;10(3):199–206.

Häkkinen K; Alen M; Kraemer WJ, et al. “Neuromuscular adaptations during concurrent strength and endurance training versus strength training.” European Journal of Applied Physiology. 2003 March;89(1):42–52.

Heads Up. A CDC website to help you recognize, respond to, and minimize the risk of concussion or other serious brain injury. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/headsup/index.html

Jordan B, Voy R, and Stone J. “Amateur boxing injuries at the US Olympic Training Center.” The Physician and Sportsmedicine. 1990;23:27–34.

Kostov, Plamen. “How Long Do UFC Fights Last? Data From the UFC.” Sweet Science of Fighting. May 17, 2022.

Kraemer WJ, Patton JF, Gordon SE, et al. “Compatibility of high-intensity strength and endurance training on hormonal and skeletal muscle adaptations.” Journal of Applied Physiology. 1995 March;78(3):976–989.

Potter MR, Snyder AJ, and Smith GA. “Boxing injuries presenting to U.S. emergency departments, 1990–2008.” American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 2011 April;40(4):462–467.

Thayer R, Collins J, Noble EG, and Taylor AW. “A decade of aerobic endurance training: histological evidence for fibre type transformation.” Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness. 2000 Dec;40(4):284–289.

TSZ. Is Olympic Gold a Precursor to Becoming a Professional World Boxing Champion? The Stats Zone, 2016.

Vecsey, George. “At 39, Ali Has More Points to Prove.” The New York Times. November 29, 1981.

Viano DC, Casson IR, and Pellman EJ. “Concussion in professional football: biomechanics of the struck player, Part 14.” Neurosurgery. 2007 August;61(2):313–328.

When you feel tight, what do you do? When your hamstrings or hips or lats feel tight and restricted, how do you make them feel better?

If you are a competitive athlete in your teens, you probably stretch or foam roll to fix these issues, and it makes them feel loose again…but did you really fix the issue? While stretching and foam rolling can provide temporary relief and improve flexibility, too often, we have to do it every day—which means we’re not actually fixing the issue.

What Causes Tightness?

Many different mechanisms in the body can cause muscle tightness. One important thing to really understand is the brain’s influence on a joint’s range of motion—your brain and the rest of your body are in constant communication (the brain and spinal cord tell the muscle to contract or relax, and the Golgi tendon organs and muscles spindles tell the brain where you are at in space, how stretched a muscle is, or how tense a muscle is), and one of the brain’s primary functions is to keep you safe and keep you alive. If the brain doesn’t feel that a joint or a muscle is safe and strong in a specific range of motion, it won’t let you into that range of motion.

“A tight muscle is a weak muscle.” – Greg Roskopf

When a muscle is tight, it is not magically shorter today than yesterday or too short for your body; instead, the brain is restricting that muscle from being stretched further. The brain is trying to keep that muscle safe.

For example, the most common muscle athletes tell me they feel tightness in is their hamstring. If a muscle around the hip is weak, injured, or overused, the brain will use the hamstrings (in this example) to guard against a person getting into a specific range of motion. It’s like walking on ice: when you walk on dry pavement, you might have a stride length of about 1 yard, but when walking on slippery ice and trying not to fall, your stride might shorten to 1 foot. Your brain doesn’t feel safe; it takes in the sensory input of seeing the ice as well as feeling how slick it is when trying to walk. If your brain doesn’t feel safe, it will restrict your range of motion. Go to the local roller-skating rink and watch: you will see seasoned professionals gliding around with long elegant strides and newbies moving inch by inch.

If your brain doesn’t feel safe in a range of motion, it won’t let you get there; if you let the brain know you are safe and can control a range, it will most likely allow you to get there. There can also be structural issues that limit flexibility, like a joint capsule, bony structures, and asymmetries/misalignments—I won’t touch on those, as that is a little out of my wheelhouse, but I will give two ways to best improve and solidify range of motion.

Stretching/Foam Rolling AND Strength Training

The most common way people improve their range of motion is by stretching. It works. I don’t know how long the effects last, but it will improve range of motion. Stretching pushes your body toward being more parasympathetic—relaxed. So, as you stay in a stretched position, your brain becomes more and more comfortable with the joint being in that position.

Like stretching, foam rolling works; it will improve your flexibility, at least in the short term. Some claim that using the roller will break up myofascial adhesions (knots or trigger points). A study by Chaudhry et al. found that to produce even a 1% change in tissue, there needs to be a force of 8359 Newton (852 kilograms/1,874 pounds) on the body. Foam rolling, obviously, does not produce that much force.

Then, how does it work?

Think of a weighted blanket and how it is calming; you may use it to reduce anxiety in yourself, a child, and even a dog. Think of the often relaxing feeling of a hug, the calm that comes from this sort of pressure on the body. Most likely, this is how a foam roller works. The pressure applied to the muscles isn’t enough to break up the knots but can influence the central nervous system to relax the muscle.

The issue with only stretching and foam rolling is that you don’t address the original cause of what limited the range of motion. Your brain didn’t want you there for a reason—most likely, there’s a muscle weakness around the joint.

One way to increase the benefits of stretching and foam rolling is to strengthen the shortened and lengthened muscles in that position. More specifically, when dealing with tight hamstrings, I have athletes stretch or roll out to open up the range of motion needed. Then, I have them strengthen that range of motion with a single-leg Romanian deadlift for the hamstring in that new long position and the hip flexor in the short position with a kettlebell hip flexor raise. Not only have you increased your range of motion and flexibility, but you are also now stronger in that newly opened position.

Stretching doesn’t cause a tissue adaptation. In order to create a change—an adaptation—you need to stress the body. Getting strong in the new range of motion is an adequate way to stress the body in the new position.

Isometrics

My favorite way to increase range of motion is through short-duration isometric contractions. Isometric muscle contractions are a great way to communicate with the brain that your joint is safe in a range of motion. Isometric, meaning not moving, are exercises where you actually don’t move but instead, you hold a position. Planks or wall sits are very common isometric exercises, but you can get very creative.

An isometric contraction in a stretched position is very similar to stretching but more effective. Methods such as muscle activation techniques (MAT), functional range conditioning (FRC), and proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) all utilize relatively short duration isometrics—under 15 seconds—and all are solid ways to improve range of motion. To briefly describe each (in an oversimplified way):

• MAT focuses on the isometric contraction of the shortened muscle.
• PNF contracts the lengthened muscle.
• FRC techniques contract both the shortened and the lengthened at different times.

For example, if you were sitting on the ground in the modified hurdler stretch position, MAT would look to contract the hip flexors, PNF would try to contract the hamstrings and glute, and FRC would contact the hip flexors for a certain period and then the hamstrings for the same amount of time.

Canadian chiropractor Dr. Ken Kinakin gave a presentation on increasing range of motion, and he referred to the technique he used as the “isometric agonist antagonist exercise.” This technique (similar to FRC ideas) involves getting the joint into the end range of motion in the specific area you want to increase and submaximally contracting the shortened muscle for five seconds by pushing into his hand, followed by submaximally contracting the lengthened muscle for five seconds by pushing the other direction into his hand. The patient or client performs a few repetitions in each direction, alternating between the shortened muscle (agonist) and the lengthened muscle (antagonist).

Video 1. Isometric agonist antagonist exercise for hamstrings and hip flexors, straight leg.

Video 2. Isometric agonist antagonist exercise for hamstrings and hip flexors, bent leg.

All of these methods, while distinctly different, utilize isometric contractions to improve range of motion. They all share the common theme of short-duration contractions, and most of these techniques prescribe low effort in these contractions: 20%–50% effort. These concepts all involve the idea of showing the brain that the joint is safe in this range of motion by proving that the muscles are strong here. The brain wants to keep the body safe and protected, so you just have to prove to your brain that the muscles can control and stabilize a range of motion.

Think about a crazy lower-body workout you have completed in the past…one of those workouts where it hurt to go up a set of stairs for a couple days afterward. How was your flexibility on those days right after the workout? It was probably near impossible to touch your toes, and it hurt to even think about trying. Your muscles are clearly damaged and temporarily weakened, and your brain knows this.

To minimize the risk of further damage (and potential injury), your brain doesn’t allow you to be flexible and reach certain ranges of motion. Your hamstrings didn’t become shorter because of the workout and need to be lengthened through stretching; instead, this is your brain’s way of trying to keep the body safe. By proving you are strong in specific positions, your brain will allow you to be more and more flexible.

Safety First

The brain wants to keep you safe. If it doesn’t feel safe in a certain range of motion, it won’t let you get there. Isometrics and strength training are good ways to solidify a range of motion by demonstrating that you’re strong and safe in that particular range of motion. For isometrics, a five-second contraction of the shortened (agonist) muscle followed by a five-second contraction of the lengthened muscle (antagonist) repeated five times will open up and strengthen a new range of motion.

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

The Future of Swis – The New Field of Weight-Training Sports Medicine 

Chaudhry H, Schleip R, Zhiming J, Bukiet B, Maney M, and Findley T. “Three-Dimensional Mathematical Model for Deformation of Human Fasciae in Manual Therapy.” Journal of American Osteopathic Association. 2008 Aug;108(8):379–390.

Inami T, Shimizu T, Baba R, and Nakagaki A. “Acute Changes in Autonomic Nerve Activity during Passive Static Stretching.” American Journal of Sports Science and Medicine. 2014 Jan;2(4):166–170.

www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/Takuya-Shimizu-2070675749

The first time I “met” Matt Gildersleeve was during the Coaches vs. COVID-19 clinic put on by Hawkin Dynamics, and his talk was world-class. When it comes to building out progressive ways to improve movement outputs that not only translate to the game but are measurable and quantifiable in competition, I will challenge you to find a better practitioner. I’m elated to welcome Coach Sleeve to CVASPS, not just because I know his presentation will be fantastic, but because he’s one of the best people out there in our vocation. Enough from me, though; let’s meet 2023 presenter, Kansas Football’s Director of Sport Performance, Matt Gildersleeve.

Matt Gildersleeve: First off, I would just like to thank SimpliFaster. What a great platform that continues to educate coaches from all over the world. So, it’s a tremendous privilege to be on SimpliFaster and also to talk about what a great opportunity we have with Jay DeMayo.

CVASPS: What are a handful of mistakes you routinely see made by strength and conditioning coaches in the United States and around the world? And what specifically do you feel should be done differently to correct these mistakes?

Matt Gildersleeve: The biggest mistake I constantly see is judgment without context. I believe we get these small glimpses and snapshots of programs, what programs do—whether it be professional, private sector, collegiate, whatever level that may be—and we see these small snapshots of what a particular coach or program does. And we make judgments on whether that’s good or bad or indifferent or anywhere in between.

I see this over and over and over again. And I do believe we have one of the most judgmental professions there are. I think we’re first to judge and defend. And it’s a mistake I see all too often.

So, what I would challenge people to do, even if they get a day, is spend it inside a program. There’s so much that goes into programming methodology, between culture and the different factors that go into what you do and how you do it, that even to be with a program for an entire day, there are certainly things that we can take and see and assess. But to try to make a judgment based on snippets and sound bites from programs or coaches, whatever that may be, it’s a very ignorant thing to do. And I think it’s one of the biggest mistakes we make because, if we dug a little bit deeper, I think that’s where we could find there’s a lot of value and resources in a lot of different places.

CVASPS: What advice would you give a coach to improve their knowledge as a process of continuing education? By which I mean, can you point our readers in a few concrete directions to find scientific and practical information to improve the methods used to improve performance?

Matt Gildersleeve: My absolute first recommendation would be anything and everything ALTIS. I know this is becoming a lot more popular than it was maybe five years ago when I started getting into all of this, but man, what an incredible resource in so many different ways. Every resource they have, that they put out—online courses that they do, podcasts that they’ve done, and even articles and email lists.

And I haven’t personally been out to one of their on-site clinics and conferences, but I’ve heard nothing but amazing things. All this is a great resource. And I promise you; they’re not paying me to say that. Other than that, the obvious answer is to join us at PLAE HQ this summer for CVASPS. It’s going to be an awesome weekend that I’m excited to be part of.

CVASPS: How do you feel coaches can find a path to being in a lead role in a department?

Matt Gildersleeve: While there’s absolutely significant value in finding a niche in the world of athletics, I think it totally depends on which route and which destination you want to end up in. In my particular case, to be a head strength and conditioning coach, especially in a football program—and I’m sure it applies to a lot of different paths—you really have to be a generalist in many different areas. Your job is to oversee the big picture of everything from sports science to strength and performance to speed development to conditioning to culture to management.… It’s such a large and vast role that if you get too detailed or specific in one particular niche, you can lose the ability to see the big picture.

So, I would say speed training and speed development as a whole are probably the things that I’m most interested in, and I really enjoy the on-field training. But if I say it’s my niche, I think when you specify in my role, that can cloud some things up.

I like to make sure that I’m constantly sharpening my sword in all directions. And I’ve heard some directors say it’s best to be dangerous at everything. That’s pretty important. I think if you have a very specific lens when you have to manage the whole process of total development, you lose the ability to look at things through a generalist lens of how the entire big picture works together.

I’ve always questioned, or just been curious about, certain programs that have a speed guy and a GPS guy and a weight room guy, and they program all those things separately. Well, those things all work in unison. And so that idea of unification in a program is, to me, very, very important. Sometimes when we get so caught up in niches, it can really cloud and complicate that.

I prefer when our staff programs all program together. Now, we have a guy who specifies more in speed, but we don’t just say, “You go write this, and you go write that.” It’s a power. We sit down, and we develop those things together. I do think, sometimes, developing and finding a niche can help you move up in certain areas—and if that’s your role and you love a specific thing, then follow your heart and follow that. But I believe there’s a ton of value in having more of a general perspective and lens when your responsibility is to oversee the entire department as a whole, to really give and be able to provide you with the perspective of the big picture.

CVASPS: Can you provide a sneak peek at the topic you will be covering at The Seminar?

Matt Gildersleeve: As I said, I’m so excited about this conference, this clinic, The Seminar. I just couldn’t be more fired up to get out there and meet everybody and talk and, honestly, to learn. In my presentation specifically, I’ll be covering a wide variety of topics, but it will mainly be related to developing and analyzing game speed. There’s such a large gap right now in our evaluation process of:

1. What we think speed is.
2. How we evaluate it.

We measure miles per hour. We measure 10-yard sprints. There are a lot of different measurements we take. And sometimes, we quantify those as getting faster.

Well, my personal definition of speed—at least, how we use it here at Kansas—is how it applies to your speed and your sport. And is that increasing or not? Because just getting faster, if it doesn’t cross over to actual development of game speed, I think we’re really missing the boat. And so, we will talk about a lot of things.

We’re going to talk about what game speed is. We’re going to talk about how we go about developing it. But we’re going to spend a lot of time on how do we analyze that and how do we look at that in the evaluation process of how we are all doing our jobs. We’re gonna go down that rabbit hole of skill acquisition when it relates to your sport.

CVASPS: After reading this, I’m sure you understand why I’m so fired up to welcome Matt to CVASPS this July. He’s a leader in every sense of the word and an open, honest, and candid person to push the profession forward—not just by following the herd but by challenging the status quo to hopefully find better and more efficient ways for us to help our athletes.

We would love for you and your staff to join us at PLAE HQ in Canton, Georgia, on July 21 and 22 for this summer’s edition of The Seminar. It truly is a unique event.

For more info, tap the link, and be on the lookout for the next installment of our presenter Q and A’s here on SimpliFaster.

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

In addition to owning a private training facility for over 20 years, I am also a full-time strength coach in a high school. A typical day for me is coaching three groups and seeing 150+ athletes. Time is limited, with each session lasting only 45 minutes. Sometimes, an in-season team will go for 30 minutes. During certain phases of the year, I have groups of 90 athletes with no help—just me coaching a packed house of athletes with varying levels of training experience.

When I first started coaching at this high school about four years ago, the warm-up was extremely simple in the overly crowded weight room (benches and machines were packed everywhere). We did two exercises for the warm-up: pause squats and push-ups. The majority of the athletes (including varsity and upper-level students) struggled to perform a bodyweight squat to parallel. They struggled to perform a proper push-up.

When I started this new position, I remember thinking to myself, these kids are probably going to have a good idea of how to train.

Why? There’s so much information freely and readily available on YouTube and Instagram. I assumed the baseball players and their coach had read up on Eric Cressey. I assumed the football players understood that squats should be a full range of motion and that benching is performed without a back bridge. I assumed the athletes were bombarded with information on social media regarding how training with the correct technique is the best thing for them.

Instead, I saw athletes perform death-defying 1RM benching every day and then curling for 30 minutes. I didn’t see one athlete squat—or, for that matter, do any leg training at all—and I realized I’d been stuck in my bubble for way too long.

Welcome to High School

I had spent my time training athletes at my private facility and the D1 level. I was used to athletes who showed up ready to listen, ready to work, and ready to be coached. Once I began training teams, I had to change the culture and teach them like I taught middle school athletes to train at The Underground Strength Gym.

If you’re starting a new program or taking over an existing one, never assume that the athletes understand what proper training is. In fact, assume nothing! Looking back at how shocked I was, seeing the difference in a high school compared to the athletes I trained at my private facility…now I shake my head and laugh at myself.

I’ll share with you my experiences and the mistakes I made so that you can hopefully avoid the same mistakes, save yourself time, and get results with your athletes at a faster rate.

Start Them from the Ground Up

Get great at calisthenics (push-ups, iso push-ups, recline rows, lunges, split squats, iso lunges, squats, pull-ups, etc.). Use calisthenics as a warm-up and then add them into the training program with low reps to accumulate volume throughout the training session. With large groups, I often use calisthenics added into the programming, where we sneak them in between sets of barbell and dumbbell training. With large groups, athletes can easily get distracted. Adding calisthenics keeps the athletes active, improves strength and GPP, and builds muscle with the added volume.

Use dumbbells to learn technique/movement patterns and build strength and size before “earning” the right to use the barbell (goblet squats, lunges, Farmer’s walks, military press, chest supported row, shrugs, curls, dumbbell benching at various angles). Have standards with the dumbbell training so athletes have to earn their way to the barbell. After talking with Jim Wendler a while back, I came up with some simple standards and modified them through experience. You can modify these as well to fit your philosophy and unique situation.

Squat Standards: Before an athlete can load their spine, I have the following standards:

• Goblet squats for 10 reps with 75 pounds (body weight under 175) or 100 pounds (body weight over 175).
• For girls, it is a 45-pound goblet squat x 10 reps.

My preference before loading the spine with a back squat is to teach the front squat, but this does not always go as planned. Some teams train year-round with me, while other teams only train in season. You learn to make decisions on the fly to avoid turning a training session into a teaching session. I firmly believe that athletes need to work, and sometimes that means the front squat will be introduced another day.

Bench Press Standards: Before an athlete can get under a bar and begin benching, here are the standards:

• Boys dumbbell benching with 40s in each hand for 10 reps.
• Girls dumbbell benching with 25s in each hand for 10 reps.

Do I ever break the “rules” and bypass the standards? Yes, mainly if I have a quiet group and it’s not a packed house, we might bypass the dumbbell standards and do technique work on the bench, squat, or front squat.

I will say this, though—anytime it’s crowded, and athletes try to sneak to the barbell without being anywhere near the dumbbell standards, we see a dangerous and poor technique. My advice to you is always lean toward earning the right to use a barbell.

I began these standards with one set of the designated weight with dumbbells and realized that some athletes could almost get “lucky” doing one set at the standard weight, yet they don’t have enough experience in training. It is a mistake to rush to the barbell. So, here’s what I did instead; I transitioned to three sets of these weights/standards to ensure the athletes could handle this work for more than one set and to stop athletes from trying to rush to the barbell.

Do I sometimes make an exception? Yes. If I am lucky to have a group that isn’t so crowded or if an athlete shows up with great frequency and consistency, I will break up a group and teach the barbell lifts earlier or have experienced athletes bring them into their group. This is a reward for consistency coupled with a safe learning environment.

At my private facility, we have, on average, eight athletes per group. Some groups might be four athletes, while at certain times, there are 15–18 athletes. Training 60–90 athletes at one time requires you, as a coach, to be much stricter with your standards and training options.

Simple Training to Maximize Results

While training large groups, I had to become adept at simplifying the training and the explanation of exercises. Having large groups and limitations in terms of space and equipment, I learned to make choices in our training that were easy to teach and easy to learn. This does not mean you’re a lazy coach. It means you must find ways to produce results rapidly and build a broad base of strength and athleticism.

For example, instead of me getting into the fine details of sprinting, I had to take the groups outside to hill sprint and get them to race each other. By racing others or chasing to tag a partner, the athletes began to understand the effort needed to run fast and produce power. It’s easy as a coach to get overly complicated—if you’re short on time, you must make sure you spend time training and getting the athletes better!

Hill sprints became a regular for my athlete groups at the high school. Getting athletes to perform hill sprints is one of the most effective methods to increase their strength! I began with large groups racing each other. Then, I started to make simple changes, such as different starting positions. From there, we began chasing a partner.

All of these small changes improved speed and power. It wasn’t fancy or complicated, but athletes got faster and stronger. If you sprint regularly, you will learn how their sprint work directly relates to improving their strength in the weight room. We have a hill of about 125 feet directly outside our weight room. I keep the volume low, but we sprint 2–3 times per week for 3–5 all-out reps.

Most teams train 2–3 times a week with me in the off-season. Athletes quickly learn that we will never train in the weight room alone, and we often sprint hills, throw med balls outside, and do a wide variety of jump training.

We sprint from different positions, and I get the athletes to race in some shape or form. They might have to tag someone who starts three steps ahead of them; they might have to race against teammates or another team. I might split the groups between first- and second-year students and juniors and seniors. The key here is getting them to sprint hard and learn to exert force. This has an immense impact on their sports performance, regardless of their sport. I also noticed that regular sprinting boosted their strength in the weight room.

I learned long ago that the athlete who lifts the most weight is not the best athlete. The days of chasing the 1RM to become a better athlete are long gone, but athletes still think it is helpful. This is why I place a premium on sprints, jumps, and calisthenics. I like to see an element of speed in our training. Without any technology at my school, I use the coach’s eye and RPE, emphasizing leaving a rep or two in the tank on barbell lifts and minimizing reps that are grind reps.

After 6–8 weeks of dumbbell training with new athletes at the high school, I usually introduce the trap bar deadlift. Slow and steady is how I get new athletes going. Teaching the trap bar deadlift is easy because they’ve spent six weeks performing the kettlebell farmer’s walk. The start of the farmer’s walk looks the same as a trap bar deadlift. Squat down with a flat back and line up the feet, knees, and hips. Lift! I am essentially reverse-engineering the training system for the athletes.

At my private facility, I am not training 50+ athletes, so I can add sled drags every training session (both during warm-ups and as a finisher), back extensions, sandbag/D ball carries, and lots of band pull-aparts, face pulls, etc. All of these basic exercises build up a tremendous base of strength and stability and help me progress the athletes much faster toward barbell lifts.

At my high school, I have four sleds, but when groups have 60+ athletes, I tell athletes to sneak one or two sets of sleds before the end of the training session. Is it perfect? Absolutely not. The goal is to accomplish the work, not so much to have the most perfectly organized training plan. It’s an emotional understanding in your own mind as a coach that the training is flawed, but you’re getting the crucial aspects of work accomplished.

Athletic Warm-Ups for Strength, Power, and All-Around Athleticism

The power of an athletic warm-up is underrated—I have seen how power skips, hopping, and hand walking (bear crawls, lateral push-up walks) improve an athlete’s power and coordination. The athletic warm-up is not something you want to rush through.

In my early years of coaching, I used to view the warm-ups as exactly that—a warm-up, nothing more. We did 10 reps of squats, lunges, push-ups, ab work, and band pulls for shoulders, and it was all to prep the athlete to train with the weights. Through the years—and now the decades—of coaching, seeing athletes showing up weak and under-muscled, I now view our warm-up as something that builds strength and hypertrophy and preps the mind and body for the work ahead. I call the warm-up a “Prep,” and the athletes understand that it is a crucial part of our daily training.

Some athletes are so tight in the ankles, hips, and hamstrings that bodyweight squats are not suitable for them. Instead, we use lunges as an exercise to strengthen the legs, stretch the hips, and improve ankle mobility and stability. Sled pushes and sled drags also improve ankle mobility and leg strength. I never imagined in my early years that a bodyweight squat would be a struggle for athletes, but the past 10+ years of coaching have proven me wrong.

When the freshman football players begin training with me at the high school in mid-June, we exclusively do bodyweight and dumbbell workouts. Almost everything is for sets of five, and then as we progress, I teach kids how to determine if they can do eight or 10 reps on a bodyweight or dumbbell exercise. The good ol’ 5 x 5 is GREAT for athletes, especially if you have a crowded weight room and need to keep the flow of the training session going to avoid kids waiting too long between sets and getting distracted.

For example, we have five adjustable benches at my high school. If we’re dumbbell benching or performing chest support rows, and I prescribe 10 reps instead of five, the wait time doubles. The athletes get distracted waiting their turn, as four or five kids might be in line for a bench. I came up with a simple system for training large groups where I can divide groups into two sections, and I vary where they start: sometimes they start with the main lift of the day, and other times they start with the assistance work. At the high school level, the world will not end if your athletes lunge before squats or do assistance work before benching or overhead pressing.

Below is an example of a lower body session:

1A) Pause front squat 4 x 4.

1B) ANY jump 4 x 4. (Athletes have a list of jump exercises they can choose from. Beginners do a basic vertical squat jump.)

1C) Push-ups or pull-ups/recline row (alternate each set) 4 x submax reps.

2A) Bulgarian split squats 4 x 10 / 10 (New athletes go bodyweight only.)

2B) ANY kettlebell carry 4 x turf. (New athletes farmer’s walk, experienced athletes choose from a variety of carries.)

2C) Biceps/triceps 4 x 10–15 reps. (New athletes perform hammer curls or push-ups, experienced athletes have a variety of exercises to choose from.)

I will review the workout in front of the whiteboard rather quickly to keep the athletes focused. My buddy Craig Fitzgerald spoke to me about this, as I told him how kids were fooling around as I broke down the daily training. He asked, “How long are you in front of the whiteboard?” I replied, “About 90 seconds.” Fitz said to me, “That’s too long. They get distracted too easily.” As a high school strength coach, you will constantly evolve as you learn more and experiment with what works and what doesn’t.

You will notice there is freedom and flexibility in exercise selection for experienced athletes, which the kids enjoy because it gives them the power to make choices. I encourage the athletes to have at least one partner so they can coach each other and help decide what exercises they want to use when they have the option to choose.

If a dumbbell exercise is subbed for a barbell lift (such as front squats), you simply double the reps, so goblet squats would be eight reps in this example, where the front squat is four reps. The training is focused on the lower body, but high school athletes like to get an arm pump, so this is another opportunity to make them happy, which keeps them coming back. Athletes who are happy and having fun will return to train and be more consistent. Our school trains after school, so even if a coach organizes team training, it cannot be made mandatory. Some athletes can’t get a ride, and others have to go to work, etc.

Building Body Armor

Today, when an athlete tells me they know how to back squat, clean, or bench, I jokingly ask them, “Are you TikTok certified or YouTube certified?” The kids who train with me regularly know you must earn your way to the barbell. This standard might be viewed as “too much” or “he’s not nice,” but my first job as a strength coach is protecting the athlete. This means safety and consistency must precede complexity.

At the high school level, don’t get overly specific with your hill sprints. Sometimes I cut the distance for the big football linemen, but Jim Wendler said something to the effect of, “If you’re in high school and you can’t run a mile or do 50 push-ups, what special program do you really need? How can your teammates trust you if you’re out of shape?” This reminded me how powerful and important it is for high school athletes to have a solid base of all-around fitness.

When I explain to parents at the pre-season football meeting that my number one job is to protect their son in a sport where kids have broken bones and even been paralyzed, I explain to them how this is accomplished. We get your son stronger, faster, and more confident, and we build muscle, aka body armor. I explain to them that this is a team effort, where Mom and Dad must cook and stock the fridge like their son lives on a farm. I expect their son to do extra stretching and calisthenics at home. Commitment and consistency must be present if results are expected.

I can’t protect an athlete who lacks consistency, has poor listening skills, and tries to do their own program that they learned from Uncle Bob in the basement. Dumbbells and calisthenics are a must, and they are highly underrated. When an athlete shows that he is upset that he can’t bench or squat with his friends, I tell him, “Don’t be upset; go ahead and bench or squat the 100-pound dumbbells. Prove to me that you’re strong!”

Another tip Paul Kolody emphasized to me after I mentioned to him that some of my groups have up to 90 athletes was this: “Tell every athlete that they are a coach! You spot each other, coach each other, and help each other with proper technique.” Now the athletes tell each other to squat lower, keep a flat back, etc.

Getting Athletes to Believe in the Program

Today, we not only use speed and agility training (I prefer to call it game speed, like Tony Villani) to better prep athletes, but these game speed activities also get athletes to “believe” in the program. Why do we use “speed and agility”? Because this speaks the language of the athlete. This is what they see all day on social media, so we need to make an emotional and psychological connection with the kids.

Field athlete or not, we implement game speed. Sprinting and an athletic warm-up are among the best ways to develop athleticism (training that has transfer to sport).

• Hill sprints (various starting positions, races, etc.)
• Power skip (height, distance)
• Frog jumps and broad jumps
• Hopping on one foot
• Jumping rope (a lost art form!)
• Racing against others
• Tag games
• Hurdles coupled with sprints

When training large groups at the high school level, focus on training that is easy for you to teach and easy for the athletes to learn, especially in the beginning. This allows you to deliver results for the athlete, and in turn, they believe in you and the program and want to show up consistently. Once consistency and a solid foundation of strength, muscle, and athleticism are developed, you can begin teaching more complex movements to your advanced lifters. It’s easy to get caught up in what other coaches are doing, but it’s crucial to look at your situation and coach accordingly. At the end of the day, it’s ALL about the kids!

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