Blog

Today we visit the Saraland High School 10,000-square-foot mega facility, located just outside of Mobile, which houses an incredible indoor turf area and an even better weight room facility. Coach Jon Hersel, in his sixth year at Saraland High School, leads the Sports Performance department and this incredible multipurpose facility! Coach Hersel, the 2019 NHSSCA Alabama Coach of the Year, brings over 20 years of experience in the field, including previous stints at LSU, York Comprehensive School, and IMG Academy.

Design

Coach Hersel trains up to 120 athletes at a time in this weight room, which he is able to do because of the setup of the facility. Saraland has 10 full rack/half-combination racks—meaning that on the side closest to the wall is a full cage rack, and the side closest to the platforms are only the half racks with spotter arms.

PLAE installed 20 platforms that are seamless in the ground; it’s a choice I love for the ability to still have flat flooring to space all of those athletes out safely, says @johndelf99. Share on X

PLAE was hired to handle all of the flooring, and they installed 20 platforms that are seamless in the ground; it’s a choice I love for the ability to still have flat flooring to space all of those athletes out safely. Coach Hersel programs the room in four sections: his athletes start from the far left of the room and work to the right of the room, which allows the flow of the space to handle the large groups of athletes that pour in.

This facility is the optimal way to plan a space: the 5,000-square-foot turf facility can be used for warm-ups, speed work, and also as a backup practice area. The 5,000-square-foot weight room is designed similarly to a galley kitchen, where the four stations are set up in a straight line instead of moving all over the weight room. A bonus of having the double racks (from Wright Equipment) is that Saraland saved money and space for 20 rack stations, which typically take up a lot of square footage in the weight room.

“I wanted the room to be able to flow well and take advantage of having access to our covered turf to incorporate sprints, jumps, and medicine ball throws,” Coach Hersel said, “which is the reason why we have the full/half rack combos as well as the platforms.”

Purchasing

This project was a district plan to help improve their athletics as well as offer a tornado protection shelter (being in Alabama, that’s important). Wright Equipment was selected at the state bid level, which is what coaches deal with sometimes with a weight room project. This process means that companies bid to be able to outfit the space (and then are typically chosen by the district and not by the strength coach who is the professional working in that space). These decisions can often come purely down to cost, but fortunately, in this case with Coach Hersel, Wright won the bid, and they are an excellent option for weight rooms, offering the ability to customize.

I don’t see many racks that feature full branding on the rack—you always see the shields on the backs of the racks—but the racks at Saraland have their “pillars of success” on the sides of their base and their fronts. Wright also follows the new industry norm of 3×3 steel racks with 1-inch holes, so if there is a specialty attachment that Coach Hersel wants from many of the bigger companies that make those tools, they will work on these racks. Because he works with so many different teams and athletes, it is important to have extra bars, multi-grip bars, and safety bars on every rack.

“All of our full/half rack combos have two standard Olympic bars,” said Coach Hersel. “In addition, they also have a multi-grip and safety squat bar, while our storage units have our open-ended hex bars, Thompson Fatbells, landmine attachment, and DC blocks.”

Specialty Equipment

Safety bars, trap bars, and multi-grip bars are still considered specialty bars because of the wide range of options available, but they are becoming a more standard addition in new facilities.

One newer and more revolutionary type of equipment that Saraland has invested in is the Thompson Fatbells. If you have never heard of these (pictured in image 3 under the med balls), they are essentially hollowed-out kettlebells with which you can do any exercise you can perform with a dumbbell. The weight encases your hand instead of being above/below your hand like traditional dumbbells.

With this being a high school, it’s also only fitting to see a smart education board/TV in the weight room—which I think is an elite way to deliver the programming with some of the iPads Coach Hersel uses. This piece of technology is a rarity, and the ability to interact with athletes and the program can be beneficial.

Finally, the turf field joined with this facility can also be used as a specialty piece of equipment, with the ability to do sled work, med ball throw work, and integrated speed work with training. Y’all, I am jealous.

Coach’s Tips

The district had been planning this facility for a while. Although Coach Hersel was not involved in every decision—which is more normal than we would all like to admit—the space is really special. I know many performance coaches outwardly make it look like their department is the frontman and decision-maker for projects like this, but the reality is that budgets, dimensions, and outside relationships have more of an influence than the fact that we are the experts in this area for our schools.

The reality is that budgets, dimensions, and outside relationships (often) have more of an influence than the fact that we’re the experts in this area for our schools, says @johndelf99. Share on X

Sometimes, all we can really do is offer our advice, hope to help the decision-makers make the best choice, and then hope to get the equipment we need to run the program that the individual coach wants to run.

“Space and multi-use equipment are, in my opinion, the two most important things that you need when designing a facility,” Coach Hersel said. “Those as well as equipment, because you don’t usually get the opportunity to renovate or rebuild multiple times.”

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

When attendees are asked whom they’d like to see return to The Seminar, my good friend Dr. Bryan Mann is always at the top of the list. Dr. Mann has been on the docket multiple times at CVASPS and has contributed several fantastic chapters to The Manual as well.

A highly driven professional who is always pushing on the research side to help practitioners better understand how to be more productive with the time we get to work with our athletes, Doc is also as humble as they come. He has been a sounding board for me throughout my continued development as a coach, impacting me in ways I can’t even describe. As great of a coach, teacher, and researcher as he is, he’s a first-team “All Good Guy” in my book as well, and I couldn’t be more excited to sit down and listen to his latest thoughts.

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

Bryan Mann: I think probably the biggest mistake is that people aren’t looking at their own athletes and their own data. They are listening to what others are saying and sharing, but I think there is often a lack of examination of what they are doing. I think there could be a lot said for simply categorizing your athletes into things like age, strength level, performance level, injured or not, and performing really basic statistics like correlations or t-tests and seeing what happens for your groups.

The biggest mistake S&C coaches are making is not looking at their own athletes and data. Instead, they are listening to what others are saying and sharing, says @jbryanmann. Share on X

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve looked at the research and then gone and performed my own tests and found that my athletes and the researcher’s subjects did not match at all. Why did they not match? It could be a plethora of things. It could be that your style of play is different.

I often remark about the transition between Quinn Snyder and Mike Anderson at the University of Missouri basketball program back in the mid-2000s. Quinn Snyder had his style of offense, and Coach Anderson brought in “the fastest 40 minutes” style, like his mentor Nolan Richardson. The athletes who were used to Coach Snyder’s style of play did not do well with Coach Anderson’s style of play. Those not used to full court pressing and flying around the entire time wore down quickly and were often injured. Likewise, I’d wager that those who did well in Coach Anderson’s style of play may not have been as successful with Coach Snyder.

What I’m saying is that it’s not just the sport but the style of play within the sport that dictates what type of athletes you will need and who will be successful. It could also be that the level of athlete is different. Remember, there’s a reason that not every athlete in high school is a college athlete, and college athletes often vary across divisions. If you’re looking at NCAA Division III athlete research—where the rules are very different for how they can train—and trying to apply it to the NCAA Division I athlete who has every opportunity to enhance their performance, the outcomes may be very different. This could be due to genetics, training age, and other factors.

I’m saying that it’s not just the sport but the style of play within the sport that dictates what type of athletes you will need and who will be successful, says @jbryanmann. Share on X

At the end of the day, you have a responsibility to examine your data and see what happens. While you should have expectations based on the research out there, you should also be open to examining what happened in your data. See what happens for your people—does everyone respond in the same manner? If you’re running a single program: Did you do a force-velocity profile pre and post? How did that look? Did the people whose data was similar respond in a similar manner or different? Did everyone who was at a force or velocity deficit respond in the same manner? Did everybody of all of the training ages respond in the same manner?

Most often, the answers to these questions are no, and then it’s fun to figure out why. Once you figure out why, stratify your athletes accordingly and (re)apply the scientific method.

Most people will probably say, “I need SPSS and a bunch of additional skills. I don’t have time to do that.” Well, not so much. Most statistics you can do in Excel with some formulas. If you’ve got some coding background, R should be easy to pick up, and it is a free and powerful statistical tool. The statistics can also be done anytime, anywhere.

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 the scientific and practical information to improve the methods used to improve performance?

Bryan Mann: Go to the people who innovated the method, not those who imitated it. There are so many people out there who will call themselves an expert but have never done anything. Don’t follow or look at them. Look at the trailblazers. The Al Millers and Al Vermeils, the Yuri Verkhoshanskys, the Issurins, Boscos, Bondarchuks, and Kraaijenhofs of the world. These are the people who have been there, done that, have the t-shirt, and also probably gave it to someone else since they’ve got 10,000,000 of them.

I’d recommend using Google Scholar and Research Gate. Google Scholar is a Google search engine that only searches research articles as opposed to general articles. Research Gate is like Facebook for researchers (or it’s supposed to be). I don’t get on it much, but many people put their work on there for free. It’s a great place to get articles.

If you work in higher education, combine Google Scholar with your university’s library website. Find the article on Google Scholar, as its search engine seems to be better than the library one (at least for me). If the article isn’t available for free, search for it on your library site. It will then find it through its subscriptions and can also do interlibrary loans, where someone scans the article and sends it to you.

Also, I recommend looking at some of the resources people have already put out on specific topics. Find out who the top people are in the area you wish to examine and go find the resources that those people have already put out. Passionate people will put forth clues that everyone else can use to not have to reinvent the wheel. That’s why we started with cave art and then went on to books.

Discover the top people in the area you wish to examine and find the resources those people have already put out. If you really like someone’s info, buy their books and courses, says @jbryanmann. Share on X

If you have someone whose info you really like, buy their books and courses. I can speak for myself in saying that I go into much greater detail/depth with the books and courses I’ve done than what I’ve put out in a tweet or an IG post.

After you’ve done all of that, see where the overlap lies. There is your truth. This is the concrete direction—where everyone in different areas agrees.

CVASPS: For readers unfamiliar with your history, can you provide some background on your niche in the world of athletics, the educational/career path you took en route to your current role, and any notable publications, courses, or products you have available that you’d like to direct readers toward to dive deeper?

Bryan Mann: I’ve been in college S&C since 1998. I started as a student assistant under Rick Perry at Southwest Missouri State (now Missouri State), and within a couple of weeks, I had my own teams. Realize S&C in 1998 wasn’t like today. There was one guy and 500 athletes, so if someone could competently turn the lights on, you had a good role. I happened to know how to do the exercises and spot the exercises, and I had read enough about how to write programs that I hit the ground running pretty quickly.

From there, I interned under Joe Kenn at Arizona State and Pat Ivey when he was at Tulsa, and then back to Rick and SMS. The following spring, in 2004, Pat got the job at Missouri, and I went and worked with him for 15 years there before coming to Miami as a professor—and now, director of sports science and an associate professor. I’m not someone who likes tooting my own horn, but I’ve got a couple of books out there on VBT, a course on it through Stronger Experts, and some content on Strength Coach Network. I’m currently working on getting a plyometrics course and a “deep diving with your data” course, where we will examine relationships between tests and how to use equations to get more out of what you’re already doing.

CVASPS: Can you provide a sneak peek at the topic you will be covering at The Seminar as well as a few useful takeaways on the presentation for those who may not be able to attend?

Bryan Mann: I’ll be talking about force-velocity profiling and how to do it in a meaningful way that won’t kill your time budget.

CVASPS: What’s one question or topic that no one ever thinks to ask you about (or that tends to be under-discussed across the board), and what would you like to add on that subject?

Bryan Mann: I’d like to get up on a soapbox and say that your first priority should be to be a good person and help others be a good person first—winning in sport should be secondary to this. If we would all work together for the common good rather than for our own gain—in real life, on social media, in the metaverse, or wherever—that’s how we all win and push ourselves forward.

If we’d all work together for the common good rather than for our own gain—in real life, on social media, in the metaverse, wherever—that’s how we’d all win and push ourselves, says @jbryanmann. Share on X

It’s basically Game Theory, and the guy who created it won a Nobel prize for it. If we’d quit the infighting of who’s most right and work toward what’s best for everyone, we’d have a lot more questions answered. I believe it was Harry Truman who said, “It’s amazing what can be accomplished when no one cares who gets the credit.”

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

This is the story of how I don’t actually remember asking my mentor to be my mentor. Here’s the scene: it’s the end of August before I head off to start graduate school and I’ve coached at the same facility the prior two summers. The Director of Coaching and I always have great conversations, he asks insightful questions, and I genuinely enjoy our interactions. He’s helped me learn and grow beyond just the regular coaching hours, giving advice and direction for my time spent outside the facility. And just like every other young professional, I’ve heard about the importance of having a mentor…except, at this point, no one ever elaborated much beyond that. I never heard about how to find a mentor, how to be a good mentee, or examples of what mentorships look like in real life.

But hey, in theory, it all made sense to me.

Going into grad school with a full ride to be a graduate assistant was simultaneously exciting and nerve-wracking—I’m viewing this as my first actual job in the field. In order to maximize those two years, I know I need help to be the best GA I can be. I need someone who has already done the things that I want to do and someone to provide an unbiased opinion as I accumulate all these first-time experiences. A few days before my departure, about to move over 1,000 miles away from home, I decide I’m going to ask the Director of Coaching to be my mentor. Already having game-planned and rehearsed what I wanted to say, I walked up to him, nervous, heart racing, and reminded myself not to talk too fast.

“I’ve really enjoyed our conversations these last few years and as I go off to graduate school, I’d love for you to be my mentor.”

“Sure, that sounds great. What’d you have in mind?”

“I don’t really know. I just know having a mentor is important.”

This, of course, is pieced together from the bits and pieces I do remember and him retelling me that conversation an entire year later.

Deciding to ask for a mentorship was one of the best things I did as a young professional. At first, our mentorship was nothing more than being email pen-pals and connecting every two or three weeks, but I had someone who “gets it” that was in my corner. The one story I vividly remember from our emails was me almost deciding to leave grad school after barely being there for 30 days.

Deciding to ask for a mentorship was one of the best things I did as a young professional, says @CoachBigToe. Share on X

That first month, I spent an overwhelming majority of my time reading research papers on bar speed, power, and cluster sets of training (and, mainly, squatting). In and of itself, there’s nothing wrong with that. But coming from a coaching/applied background and knowing what I wanted to do (coach), as well as how this role was described to me initially…it just didn’t line up.

My thoughts were, “How do I tell them I’m leaving?”, “What do I even say to justify leaving?”, and “What am I supposed to do when I get back home?” I was miserable, didn’t know what to do, and there was no light at the end of the tunnel—a calm panic would be an accurate way to describe what I felt. I communicated this all over a few emails with my mentor, hoping for an answer (and, honestly, his approval to quit and come back). In response, a simple phrase came across my screen: “The grass is always greener on the other side.” A few other insightful comments followed, along with advice to “Stick it out a little longer, because you never know what could happen.”

Fast forward two weeks—everything changed. I started working with a few sports teams, I wasn’t stuck in a lab all day, and it started feeling like why I wanted to go there in the first place. And that was the beginning of an amazing experience in graduate school. Who knows if I would’ve stayed if I didn’t have the opportunity to express myself, feel heard and understood, and receive advice from an experienced professional?

I’m fortunate enough that this person has continued to tolerate my persistent question-asking to this day and that I can still receive mentorship. Not to give myself too much credit, but beyond simply wanting and seeking advice, I’ve done a bunch throughout our time together to make the mentorship more of a two-way street to maximize it for both of us. In this article, I’m going to share the two action steps that I always made sure to complete that have greatly accelerated and improved the mentorship experience. Additionally, I’ll be sharing the two biggest reasons why this strategy is incredibly valuable for both you and your mentor.

Steps & Strategies

Although this was never an explicit conversation—nor something written out as a deal to officially be a mentee—I settled on two simple but effective action steps. As the mentorship went on, the cycle I found us in was:

1. I had topics and ideas I wanted to talk about.
2. I took the advice that was given to me and acted on it.

Doing steps one and two then gave me ideas for the next topic to talk about. Rinse and repeat. It was this feed-forward momentum of conversation, action, conversation, action that built on itself week after week.

Then, as I continued to grow as a professional and the topics of our discussions shifted towards leadership and mentorship, I received feedback about how powerful it was that I took action on almost everything we talked about. I had no master plan at the time—simply put, we had a conversation and the solution made sense, so I acted. But looking back, there would’ve been no growth for me or the mentorship if it ended when the conversation ended.

I received feedback about how powerful it was that I took action on almost everything we talked about, says @CoachBigToe. Share on X

Step One: Be prepared

Odds are, if your mentor is someone you find valuable enough to have as a part of your journey, they already have a lot going on and their free time isn’t always the most abundant. It’s your responsibility to make your time together as valuable, efficient, and effective as possible.

1. Know what you want to talk about. This is not to say that every minute of your meetings needs to be planned out, but even just having a few topics ready beforehand is going to give so much more structure and better results. Something is better than nothing, the more specific the better, but set both yourself and your mentor up for success by coming prepared. The last thing you should ever do is meet simply because it’s your “usual time to chat,” come in unprepared, and assume you’ll both be satisfied by the end.

• There are two types of topics: theoretical and real life. Theoretical topics are general ones like “off-season periodization” or “managing different athlete personality types.” Which to the general mentee, might seem specific enough. But that’s similar to someone asking me as a Speed and Performance Coach “How do I get faster?” Yeah, that’s a topic, but where the heck am I supposed to start? You can have general topics, but you need specific contexts.

For example, if I wanted to become a college strength and conditioning coach, here’s how I would present a topic with a specific context: “Let’s talk about off-season periodization in the college setting, and how about for a fall sport like football and spring sport like baseball.” Then, to take this to the next level and be even more prepared, I’d look up the football and baseball team’s schedules from Northwestern University (my local Power 5 school, for example) and use those dates. That meeting is going to be immensely efficient and also effective by the end.

• The second type of topic is real life. If you are in a mentorship, I’m assuming you have a job/assistantship/internship that you’re working each day. This should give you plenty of opportunities on a weekly basis, if not a daily basis, to come up with examples to discuss. Be conscious of topics arising from your daily life and write them down before you forget.

For example, I was recently on a consulting call about speed training with the performance staff at a university. It went well enough: not awful, but not amazing, and in the end I wasn’t satisfied with the closing of it all. I brought that to our next meeting along with the notes I had taken, and shared the story from beginning to end. The entire next hour was a whiteboard talk clarifying where it went wrong and brainstorming ways to handle that situation in the future. I had closure on the topic and tools to help me navigate my next call like that. The lesson being: “How do I close the deal when consulting for universities?” paired with “Here’s this detailed and specific example that just happened to me, can we go through it, please?” will set both you and your mentor up for incredibly more successful conversations.

• Lastly on this topic, it’s important to note the theme that it all comes back to real life and it aligns with where you want to go. Theoretical examples are rooted in real life contexts, and pursuing your goals gives you real life examples.

Theoretical examples are rooted in real life contexts, and pursuing your goals gives you real life examples, says @CoachBigToe. Share on X

2. Take notes. This does NOT mean be glued to your notebook or laptop during your meetings or that you need to write down word for word the entire conversation. But taking notes is a simple way to expedite the learning process and set you up for more success in the future. Additionally, having to ask the same questions multiple times because you forgot your mentor’s answers isn’t very professional and shows you don’t really find the answers valuable enough to remember. Even if you dedicate 10 minutes after every conversation to summarize the topics and main conclusions while the thoughts are still fresh, that’ll yield much greater results than just assuming you’ll remember everything later on.

• Below is an example of notes I took after a conversation with my mentor. For the record, the legibility of my handwriting does not reflect my ability to write articles or coach athletes….

• Eight total bullet points took me five minutes, including some underlining and bracketing for what stuck out to me the most. If you’re actively listening (as you should be), you should be able to concisely summarize each chunk of conversation in a bullet point or two. It’s titled, dated, and concisely summarizes what we chatted about. My brain works by writing stuff down, but the more you do it you’ll learn what clicks for you.

If you’re actively listening, you should be able to concisely summarize each chunk of conversation in a bullet point or two, says @CoachBigToe. Share on X

Step Two: Act on the advice

This is the most important one. A good mentorship is a two-way street and this is your opportunity to hold up your half of the bargain. You are seeking advice because you want to improve—you receive the advice so you should act on it to bring it to life.

For example, I was chatting with my mentor about the value of the autonomy of coaching in the private sector and my facility at that time. As long as I know what direction I want to go as a professional and in my career, I can be as creative as I want to be with my athletes and fellow coaches to help me get there. Of my wanting to pursue sports science combined with speed development, he said, “As long as the athletes don’t get hurt, they do get faster, and they want to come back (which are all the basic tenants anyways) and whatever you want to do falls in the scope of our programming, go be a mad scientist. Every session you do can be an ‘experiment.’ Then document it and talk about it.”

My first “experiment” was “Are athletes faster when they race?” It was something we always said, but something I wanted to KNOW. Not to repeat the article I wrote detailing the process, but I slightly modified what we were already programming (which included racing), collected the numbers, and talked about what I found. In that moment it didn’t seem like much, but looking back, that’s what mentorship is and should be: an open conversation about wanting to achieve something more, a collaboration in brainstorming, and then action.

On the flip side, not acting on advice from a mentor is like not following a nutrition plan for weight loss that you paid for: you might feel good in the moment because you bought the plan, but at the end of the day and many weeks/months down the road, you’ll still be in the same spot you were when you started. Additionally, what kind of message is that sending to your mentor when you accumulate all this time together only to NOT act on the advice? Either that you don’t believe them or don’t actually want to improve. In either case, that mentorship probably won’t last long. When a conversation with your mentor is finished and you’ve both determined an action plan for the advice, do it.

When a conversation with your mentor is finished and you’ve both determined an action plan for the advice, do it, says @CoachBigToe. Share on X

Being prepared and taking action brings a pair of benefits:

Benefit #1: You are providing value back to your mentor.

As I mentioned, mentorship is a two-way street. People choose to help others because it makes them feel good, they’re “giving back” to young professionals, and it inspires them in return. But eventually, those feelings can fade. You can only take (their advice, their time, their knowledge) for so long until it becomes completely lopsided if they aren’t receiving any value in return.

Consequently, by acting on the advice of your mentors, you create stories for them as well. From mentoring you, they now have mini case studies where their advice is tested. They’ll learn what works, what doesn’t, and receive your feedback along the way. Then, when it’s the next time for you two to chat, you’re not only bringing engaging topics, but also anecdotes and feedback to elevate the conversation.

For example, my mentor and I were discussing how social media and building a personal brand are significant foundations for growing as a professional nowadays. My mentor always says that the positive results of consistently posting are unquantifiable. As you subtly become part of the social media algorithms and people see you consistently enough, they’ll reach out to you when something comes up. Then, from there, it snowballs and builds.

As you subtly become part of the social media algorithms and people see you consistently enough, they’ll reach out to you when something comes up, says @CoachBigToe. Share on X

Our staff did a seven-day social media posting challenge. I was successful in my seven days and shortly after was asked by a follower to be on a podcast; then, shortly after that podcast was posted, a professional soccer team reached out about consulting. This is not only proof of concept, but also a powerful story that my mentor can now use for the power of his beliefs on social media.

Saying this isn’t intended to take away from the authenticity of a mentorship; not all motives and interactions are transactional, this all happens subconsciously. But the value the mentor receives in return changes over time: they go from feeling good for giving back to receiving actionable intel. Make your mentorship as much of a learning opportunity for them as it is for you.

Benefit #2: You start to create and accumulate your own stories.

How engaging would it be to listen to a podcast if the guest just recited their notes from Strength and Conditioning Theory 101 or Advanced Exercise Physiology? Probably not very engaging…but what if the guest shared their personal stories about applying that training theory to different age groups or how they applied that exercise physiology knowledge but had developed their own more practical version from doing it with a bunch of athletes? Probably much more engaging. The point is we all have the same information, but what makes someone interesting and intelligent is their lens and twist on that information based on their personal experiences.

I think one of the hardest parts about starting as a young professional, whether it be interviewing, trying to network with other professionals, or even mentoring coaches younger than yourself, is not having your own stories. You can really only speak on theory, what you’ve read in a textbook, and what the standard coaching answer would be. You don’t have enough experiences (aka stories) and anecdotes to share your own perspective. So, when it comes time to answer a tough interview question or share about your current situation when connecting with others, you need your own perspective, beliefs, and relatable stories to stand out and show that you actually know what you’re doing.

A former intern from my current facility is now a full-time strength and conditioning coach at the college level. He reached out wanting to discuss programming for top speed training. He came with specific examples of what he was doing and his first round of potential solutions. We discussed how many sprints per session depending on the time of year (pre-season, in-season, off-season), days of the week, and how to evaluate the data.

But the tone of the conversation flipped when I asked, “At how many flying 10-yard sprints do you start to hold your breath and get a little nervous that it’s too many reps?” He said, “I don’t know, 6 or 7. How about you?” This is when it switched from textbook talk to sharing my own experiences. We talked about my successes and findings from being creative with our top speed training, what I seem to always come back to despite all the variations, and what I’ve found from the data of my own athletes.

My advice resonated more with him because it wasn’t a one-and-done statement, it was advice followed by “and here’s why: (insert real life experience).” Although that anecdote might or might not be a direct result of me being mentored, it’s an awesome example of patience (something my mentor reiterates often, and I’m rolling my eyes just thinking about trying to be patient), knowing that I wouldn’t have been able to have that conversation and give that advice without all the stories I accumulated while coaching.

My advice resonated more with him because it wasn’t a one-and-done statement, it was advice followed by ‘and here’s why: (insert real life experience),’ says @CoachBigToe. Share on X

Takeaways

Mentorship is a two-way street and just showing up to your meetings and saying you want to get better isn’t enough. That’s not going to maximize your time together, nor set you or your mentor up for as much success as you could. Instead, be prepared and take action. You must come prepared with questions and topics and take notes along the way. Then, your homework is to act on the advice and find out for yourself the truth of the advice in real life. Finally, come prepared to your next chat by bringing those results so they can learn too.

One of the stories my mentor references the most—and one of the stories I’m most proud of—goes like this:

On a random November evening, I’m outside doing yardwork and come back inside to find a voicemail on my phone. The message is from a very well-known coach in the field—in fact I own his book—and at first I almost don’t believe it. Once the shock fades, I pause and think to myself, “Wait, how the heck did they get my number?” Then I listen to the voicemail and hear that they’re calling about a job opening and want to gauge my interest.

But that’s not the crazy part…the crazy part is how they got my number. A technology company recommended me for the job…but not just any technology company. This company I had worked with on a variety of projects and whose products I had created content about for my own brand. This all combined as a demonstration that my knowledge, expertise, and professionalism were deemed worthy enough to recommend me to the coach. Not to go into the specifics, but this is a perfect example of connecting with and working hard for the right people, making good content geared towards where you want to go, and being patient (insert eye roll if you must). Those three things are some of the biggest themes of our mentorship together.

I know that my mentor uses me, the advice he has given me, and the stories I’ve created from our time together when it comes time for him to share his own experiences and anecdotes on leadership. And that’s how it should be. So not every session has to be ground-breaking and change the coaching world, but ask yourself every few meetings or after a big project, Would my mentor be excited to share this story with others? And if so, you’re on the right track.

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 the chaotic world of competitive sports, upper body power is required to successfully strike, block, throw, and absorb the high-impact forces that occur throughout the upper extremities. If these areas aren’t adequately prepared, it can lead to consequences down the road, increasing the potential risk of injury to the wrists, elbows, and shoulders.

Although the body should be trained as one system, specific upper-body-focused training may sometimes be necessary. Combat athletes (such as boxers and mixed martial artists), football linemen, and baseball, softball, and volleyball athletes may require additional attention due to the dynamic actions required of the upper limbs in these sports or positions.

Upper body power development should receive a similar amount of focus as the lower body. Programming upper-body-specific power exercises in training programs is a start. This article will lay out exercise options with that goal in mind and explain how to implement them into a training program.

Training Considerations

The upper body will follow the same training principles that apply to the lower body: progress movements from slow to fast, general to specific, low to high intensity, and so forth.

The force-velocity curve and breakdown of extensive- or intensive-based movements still hold the training accountable. Differences between their two body segments will determine how your athletes respond to the training and the rate of their exercise progression.

Even if you’re not purposefully training the lower body for power, chances are high that athletes already have a much better base build in comparison to their upper half. Share on X

Even if you’re not purposefully training the lower body for power, chances are high that athletes already have a much better base built in comparison to their upper half. Considering that we live our lives on our feet, play sports with high impacts on our lower body, and hopefully had great childhoods where we played and jumped off tall structures…our lower body has already been exposed to high demands.

When prescribing upper body power exercises, start at a lower training volume and intensity. Progressing exercises only when appropriate will help keep everyone injury-free throughout the training process.

Extensive Upper Body Training

Extensive-based movements are performed at submaximal levels with the intention of fluidity, rhythm, and quality of exercise execution. Think of these exercises as building up the training base. This is done to build resiliency and robustness in the upper body and to prepare better for the more aggressive intensive exercises to come.

Medicine Ball Extensive Series

Training extensive qualities of the upper body can be challenging compared to the lower body. As mentioned, you cannot load the upper body with as much volume, and there aren’t as many viable options, such as skips, hops, and jumps, as performed with the lower body.

Medicine balls will be the star when training these qualities—specifically, rubber-encased, hard-shelled medicine balls. One that, when you forcefully throw it at a wall, bounces back at you with equal force for you to absorb.

Video 1. Athletes can perform these throws to the wall from the chest, overhead, or forehead position, as well as with various starting positions and speeds. They can perform them for repetitions or for time. These movements are fantastic to help create upper body rhythm and timing.

Regardless of the exercise, when performing it, stand around an arm’s length away from the wall and maintain a strong body position—nothing should be moving except the upper extremities performing the exercise.

Perform with a lighter medicine ball of 4–6 pounds before progressing, but even then, these movements aren’t intended to be done with a heavy medicine ball. Keep the repetitions around 5–10 per exercise and 2–4 sets per session. When performing for time, I saw these first through Mike Tucker’s annual Sprinttember plan. Perform them off the clock: 10 seconds on, 20 seconds off, for 3–5 rounds. 

Intensive Upper Body Training

Intensive-based movements are performed maximally, in lower volumes, with the intent to increase power outputs. When programming these more powerful exercises, it’s important that athletes perform them as violently as possible.

When programming these more powerful intensive-based movements, it’s important that athletes perform them as violently as possible. Share on X

Medicine Ball Intensive Series

Medicine balls will be used again here, but this time focusing on throwing maximally as opposed to making fluid and rhythmic throws.

Still, use a lighter medicine ball—6–8 pounds, depending on the exercise—and focus on releasing the ball as violently as possible. The throws here will be done for 10–20 total repetitions per workout. You can progress to heavier medicine balls, 10–15 pounds, but don’t forget that the ball must be blasting out of the throws.

Video 2. Several throws will be performed from a kneeling or supine position to ensure that the upper body is the primary mover, but don’t feel you need to be limited. You can utilize countless variations; the video demonstrates a few commonly used exercises.

Sled Training Options

Using the sled to train upper body power with movements such as presses and rows can be beneficial to isolate the upper half. However, if I had to choose only one exercise with the sled, I would go with sled throws.

Video 3. Essentially, use the sled the way we did with the medicine balls: starting on the knees, focus on pushing the sled away from the body as explosively as possible. You can progress this by performing the throw as you fall into a push-up position.

Follow similar training recommendations for these exercises, 10–20 total repetitions per series.

Push-Up Depth Drop Series

Similar to depth drops, the push-up depth drops should only be programmed for individuals who have built up a strong base of training and upper body preparation. If the athlete struggles to perform bodyweight push-ups, this would not be an appropriate movement.

The series will progress upon each movement, starting with just a simple drop and catch and then leading up to the full drop and rebound:

• Push-Up Depth Drop—Catch
• Push-Up Depth Drop—Catch, Rebound with Pause
• Push-Up Depth Drop—Rebound

Start with 8–10 total reps, and increase the volume before progressing to the next level. Ensure that the athlete can demonstrate control throughout the exercise.

Video 4. I recommend performing these exercises off a height of around a few inches. A pair of 45-pound bumper plates, or small boxes around a similar height, works great.

Increasing the height of the drop would not be my main priority with this exercise, but it could be appropriate in certain cases. 

Drop-and-Catch Chin-Up Series

The drop-and-catch chin-ups follow the same guidelines as the push-ups. I would only use this exercise with those athletes who are fully prepared and have a high training age.

Video 5. Keep in mind that just because an athlete can do something doesn’t always mean they should—if the juice isn’t worth the squeeze for this exercise, there are plenty of other options.

Assisted Plyometric Push-Ups

If used correctly, overspeed training methods can be very effective: apply this to the push-up with just a resistance band. Loop the band across the safety pins of a power rack a few notches above the ground and start with the band slightly under the chest.

Video 6. When performing an assisted plyometric push-up, drop down explosively and focus on pushing the body away from the ground.

The amount of force required to withstand the return down will be beneficial enough, along with exposing the upper body to this higher output. This can also be introduced by first performing with a pause between repetitions or by performing off a bench to create a more advantageous starting position.

Perform for 10–20 total repetitions per series.

Concentric-Only Training

Barbells and dumbbells certainly have a place in this training guide. Performing some of our tried-and-true movements, such as presses and rows from a static position, is a fantastic way to isolate the concentric portion of the movement.

Video 7. For each exercise, set up the implement on pins or blocks around the starting position. This position can get more specific if necessary to meet the needs of the individual or sport.

Each exercise will be performed from a complete dead stop. Perform the concentric portion as fast as possible. Then, control the implement, returning it to the starting position. The movement should be at a complete rest, back in the dead stop position, before performing the next rep.

If performing a set of five, for example, break up the set so it seems to be five individual reps.

Programming

Understanding how to program these exercises with the larger picture in mind is important. Having exercises that can be solutions to a problem is great, but if not applied appropriately, they could do more harm than good. Start by assigning basic movements, and progress steadily throughout the year. If working with individuals one-on-one, you can tailor this specifically to their needs; but even in a larger team setting, these movements can be laid out efficiently.

Some variables to consider when programming for upper body power are the individual, needs of the sport, and time of year. Share on X

Every situation will be different, depending on several variables—when in doubt, though, err on the side of caution for exercise and volume prescription. Some variables to consider when programming for upper body power are the individual, needs of the sport, and time of year.

Time of Year

When training upper body power in athletes, keep these four phases of the year in mind.

Off-Season

The off-season is set up to make strides in developing for the upcoming season. This time ideally should be the longest period devoted to physical preparation (with less time dedicated to the technical and tactical preparation of the sport).

The off-season should be used to primarily train extensive exercises. There still needs to be some intensive training focus, but this time is to build the base for the future.

Train extensive qualities spread out 2–3 times per week, following the guidelines listed in the exercise. One to two intensive-based movements are appropriate but dependent upon the individual.

Pre-Season

This is the final stage, ramping up to the season. By this point, training for upper body power should begin shifting to more intensive-based exercises. Focus on specific high-output movements that will prepare athletes for the demands of their sport.

Train intensive-based qualities twice a week, following the guidelines listed in the exercise. Train extensive-based movements throughout the warm-ups as necessary.

In-Season

In-season training is unique to each situation. The focus is on maintaining health and keeping the athletes available throughout the season. While we want to keep a grasp on training for power, it is important to examine what the sport itself may be providing.

The ability to perform all the dynamic actions of the upper body is vital to fully prepare our athletes for competition. Share on X

For example, if working with an offensive lineman in-season—who is getting plenty of upper body reps on the field in the trenches of the line—then you should use your training program to aid the on-field work and not continue to pile on additional volume of the same.

Prescribing even 1–2 intensive- or concentric-based exercises per week can go a long way. The nature of the exercise will limit muscular soreness and help develop or maintain power qualities: a win-win situation.

Post-Season

Immediately following the competitive season, I recommend stepping back from training and allowing the body and mind to recover. If there is training happening, I would keep volume and intensities low and focus on extensive exercises.

These are just some very general training guidelines. Every situation will have its own unique set of problems to solve, but these are some guidelines to offer a start to your training layout.

Final Takeaways

The ability to perform all the dynamic actions of the upper body is vital to fully prepare our athletes for competition. Implementing upper-body-specific training doesn’t have to alter a program completely. Utilize the exercises and principles shown throughout this guide to develop power qualities in the upper body successfully.

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

If the first thing that comes to mind when you hear about pool training is older adults working out at the YMCA, I can’t say I blame you.

I think I can speak for all of us when I say that our first introduction to using the water for physical fitness is either in older populations or youth swimming lessons—and that’s fair. Pool training (or aquakinetics, as it’s sometimes known) is a fantastic tool for improving strength and maintaining movement qualities as we age. It’s also a great (and potentially life-saving) activity for kids to get involved in, regardless of their athletic aspirations.

I believe we’re really leaving an uncut gem on the table if we don’t give aquakinetics a second glance for both fitness and sports performance, says @rewirehp. Share on X

All of this being said, I believe that we’re really leaving an uncut gem on the table if we don’t give aquakinetics a second glance for both fitness and sports performance.

What Qualities Does It Help Develop for Sport?

Let’s kick off with credit where it’s due—I first learned about the concept of using pool training for performance from strength and conditioning pioneer Marv Marinovich. I remember always being amazed at the level of results he would get in his athletes, in both a performance and rehab context—and the pool was a massive part of his programming.

After diving in (sorry, I had to) and integrating pool training in my own programming over the years, I’ve seen it check a number of athletic development boxes. These include speed, agility, movement economy, durability, and reciprocal inhibition/contract and relax cycles (the ability to turn on and off or “twitch” in lay terms).

How Does It Work, and How Do I Think About It in a Programming Context?

Wilt Chamberlain was one of the first mainstream athletes to integrate aquatic resistance exercise. First introduced to it through rehab, Chamberlain later used it supplementally for performance.

The concept of pool training is actually fairly simple once you understand the mechanisms of action. The first is omnidirectional resistance. This is the part that’s really challenging (if not impossible) to replicate without aquakinetics. It essentially refers to the water’s ability to load the body in all planes of motion, which allows athletes to load entire movement patterns in a more integrated capacity (as opposed to more isolated muscle groups). Obviously, there’s a place for both, but this really helps develop coordination in a drop-dead simple capacity.

You can have athletes perform underwater sprints, trunk and pelvis dissociations, jumps, throws, punches, and much more in a way that allows you to load the entire pattern with the intent to move fast for strength, power, and speed development. The water essentially acts as a global feedback mechanism, so your body rotates, adducts, abducts, pushes, and pulls against it concurrently in whatever pattern you want to train.

Video 1. A full-body movement in pool training.

In my experience, outside of the basics, more complex speed ladder and agility drills often don’t produce the intended adaptations. A lot of them end up looking like highly choreographed movements that athletes have to overly think about, and many may limit velocity (maximal expression of the nervous system in this context) in doing so. You know what I’m talking about—we’ve all seen the ladder drills that look like tap dancing. In contrast, the pool provides simple kinesthetic feedback to all parts of the body to help coordinate movements that athletes can perform using max intent.

The pool provides simple kinesthetic feedback to all parts of the body to help coordinate movements that athletes can perform using max intent, says @rewirehp. Share on X

That said, you can also isolate certain micro-movements. More on that later.

Speaking of resistance, the second concept is what’s known as drag resistance. This refers to the water resisting the surface area of your body to create load. The more force the athlete inputs into the water, the more force the water gives back. In that sense, the water is a form of adaptive resistance similar to isokinetics. This also helps make it a highly effective training modality for older populations and in return-to-play rehab scenarios.

If a rehabbing athlete can only produce 70% of their previous capacity, the resistance will only match their current output abilities. It’s also great for taxing tissues without joint load due to the ability to remove gravity from the situation. The lack of gravity-based load can also help decompress the body, and well-designed movements can help hydrate the fascia as well.

The aforementioned coordinative abilities also mean more integrated movements, which means the forces an athlete encounters are more likely to be distributed throughout the kinetic chain (as opposed to excessively being “absorbed” in one or more joints in compensation). This means the resistance is adequate for all levels—therefore, as the athlete’s power and speed progress, so does the resistance stimulus.

Although you can absolutely train without equipment (outside of needing the pool, of course), the best results I’ve seen come from pairing the pool work with aquatic ankle fins, hand bells, and drag resistance “barbells.” These increase the surface area the water resists to create an even greater stimulus for more strength, power, and velocity development. There are several companies in the space, but I’ve found the best results using Aqualogix’s hand training bells and fins (your baseline set) and rotating in the Hydro-Tone bells for more resistance. That’s our bread and butter, with the Hydro-Tone barbell or Hydro Revolution aquatic swing trainer being great options for push-pull and/or rotational movements and sports.

Video 2. Punch movement performed with hand bells.

The next unique feature of pool training is the dual concentric resistance, similar to certain dual concentric isokinetic machines. Whereas traditional strength training generally features concentric load followed by eccentric resistance (in a bracing capacity), pool work is a little different in that athletes will have concentric resistance followed (or preceded) by intentional yielding or pulling on what would be the “eccentric portion” of the movement.

The next unique feature of pool training is the dual concentric resistance, similar to certain dual concentric isokinetic machines, says @rewirehp. Share on X

For example, if I’m performing an alternating row press underwater, one arm is pushing concentrically while the other is simultaneously rowing concentrically. This is huge for developing reciprocal inhibition of tissue groups and helping train athletes to turn muscles on and off at appropriate times in a contract-relax capacity. Many athletes who perform too much excessive eccentric bracing without a requisite training balance could dampen their neurological abilities in these key areas.

This also dovetails back to the coordination piece. Let’s say I want to improve running gait for durability and speed purposes. One major piece is improving my athletes’ contralateral reciprocation abilities: this refers to the rotational qualities of the kinetic chain, wherein one side of the body has a certain posterior chain engagement while the opposing side sees certain anterior chain behavior simultaneously taking place in a reciprocating fashion.

For a simple example, let’s isolate the lower body in this context. On one side, you’d see dramatic hip flexion and knee elevation while, simultaneously, the rear trail leg exhibits dramatic hip flexion. The pool can be a way to develop this reciprocating frontside and backside mechanics action by stimulating the appropriate muscle and fascial tissues involved in a coordinated capacity.

This last bit isn’t so much exclusive to the pool, but the water does provide a unique way to develop conditioning abilities through the aforementioned movement pattern loading, as well. I’ve often recommended this for combat sports athletes in camp, as per Sports Lab and Coach Nick Curson of Speed of Sport.

What Kinds of Exercises Do I Generally Prescribe?

Like Marv, I keep things relatively simple and general across all sports.

Underwater sprint and jump variations are a staple, as are reciprocal row-press or rotational torque movements that improve the relationship between the pelvis and thorax. In fact, these exercises check both performance and corrective boxes simultaneously and can even out kinetic asymmetries. Thus, you may be able to cut down on some time spent doing corrective exercises.

Video 3. Underwater sprint variation.

For forward locomotive sports, I may have athletes perform coordinative movements for agility, such as loaded pelvis-rib cage dissociations, as seen in basketball and football. Depending on the group size, I usually use the Aqualogix and Hydro-Tone training bell and fin combos here.

Speaking of, explosive underwater suplexes (think a medball suplex) using the aforementioned Hydro-Tone Barbell are a staple for posterior chain development, as are underwater “kettlebell” swings using the hand bells.

That’s the bulk of it as far as upper-drives-lower forward locomotive sports go. As far as lower-drives-upper rotational sports, like baseball and combat sports, some of these general movements, plus underwater swings, throws, and shadow boxing, can be beneficial and deserve consideration.

For more isolated corrective movements, simple push-pull actions at various joints can be really useful. Some examples include hip abduction-adduction twitches, hamstring curl-knee extensions, and chest fly-rear delt fly combos (remember, the dual concentric makes these combo exercises).

I recommend aquatic ankle fins, hand bells, and drag resistance ‘barbells’ to progress pool exercises…. The upside is that pool cross-training equipment is highly cost-effects and lasts forever. Share on X

If possible, I do recommend the basic set of equipment I mentioned earlier to progress exercises in a meaningful way. The upside is that pool cross-training equipment is highly cost-effective and lasts forever.

What Are the Drawbacks?

Let’s start by saying the obvious—not everyone will have access to a pool.

In this case, the best solution is to find a school, public, or private pool where you can host drop-in days for athletes to supplement their weight-room, speed, and plyometric work with pool training. We’ve done this on and off over the years, depending on availability and interest.

Another suggestion here would be for coaches to prescribe supplemental “homework” to athletes who may have access to a pool on their own if they can perform the exercises safely. That’s what we’ve historically done for both in-person and remote athletes.

It should go without saying that youth athletes and people who don’t feel comfortable in the water need appropriate supervision from qualified professionals. That said, all of our pool work involves the water only going up to chest or shoulder level at a maximum—many hot tubs may suffice, too. The pool training I’m referring to is not meant to include some of the pool training you’ll see where people do long-duration breath holds underwater or carry loads across the bottom of a pool—that’s a different conversation from a safety perspective.

Video 4. Pool training where the head and shoulders are above water minimizes particular safety concerns.

This isn’t so much a downside but more just adding context: athletes still need to get in their other training modalities for strength, speed, and the like. I just feel like I have to add that context since some people see things in stark black and white. That said, I do think a training diet comprised of more pool training can absolutely suffice in older adult populations as well as in the case of certain neurological conditions.

All in all, finding a location (even if it’s not part of a weekly training cycle) will be the biggest hurdle for coaches and athletes. Even then, that’s a fairly minor deterrent that goes away once you take the time to find an accommodating situation.

I should also note that this is an area of training that’s relatively immature when it comes to research looking at outcomes of aquatic resistance exercise in athletes. A lot of research is understandably overfocused on older populations, and some looks to compare outcomes from land versus aquatic training when an either/or approach is not what I’m recommending here.

That said, some very encouraging research exists, and there are many case studies or observational instances of aquatic training having benefits in athletic populations. Moving forward, there needs to be more direct research observing some of these specific resistance exercise interventions in athlete populations.

All You Need Is a Pool

The real takeaway here should be that a simple yet brilliant addition to our training has been hidden in plain sight all these years. In an era of increasingly complex equipment, training concepts, corrective exercise strategies, and nuanced ideologies, one simple (and natural) addition can be a unifying modality that checks so many boxes across all these things.

The real takeaway here should be that a simple yet brilliant addition to our training has been hidden in plain sight all these years, says @rewirehp. Share on X

Outside of getting set up with a pool, it’s insanely easy to integrate. It also enables us to train durability and performance at the same time.

I suggest that athletes and coaches give it a shot and see if it moves the needle in their movements and athletic ability. If you’re rehabbing or helping recondition an athlete, it’s a no-brainer that can support almost every rehab scenario I can conceive.

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

Becker, BE. “Biophysiologic aspects of hydrotherapy.” In: Comprehensive Aquatic Therapy (2nd ed.). Cole, AJ and Becker, BE, eds. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier, Inc., 2004. pp. 19–56.

Colado JC, Garcia-Masso X, Rogers ME, Tella V, Benavent J, and Dantas EH. “Effects of aquatic and dry land resistance training devices on body composition and physical capacity in postmenopausal women.” Journal of Human Kinetics. 2012;32:185­–95. doi: 10.2478/v10078-012-0035-3. Epub 2012 May 30. PMID: 23487349; PMCID: PMC3590866.

Eckerson J and Anderson T. “Physiological response to water aerobics.” Journal of Sports Medicine & Physical Fitness. 1992;32:255–261.

Faíl LB, Marinho DA, Marques EA, et al. “Benefits of aquatic exercise in adults with and without chronic disease-A systematic review with meta-analysis.” Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports. 2022;32(3):465–486. doi: 10.1111/sms.14112. Epub 2021 Dec 24. PMID: 34913530.

Farinha C, Teixeira AM, Serrano J, et al. “Impact of Different Aquatic Exercise Programs on Body Composition, Functional Fitness and Cognitive Function of Non-Institutionalized Elderly Adults: A Randomized Controlled Trial.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2021;18(17):8963. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18178963. PMID: 34501553; PMCID: PMC8430467.

Gulick DT, Libert C, O’Melia M, and Taylor L. “Comparison of Aquatic and Land Plyometric Training on Strength, Power and Agility.” Journal of Aquatic Physical Therapy. 2007;15(1):11–18.

Martel GF, Harmer ML, Logan JM, and Parker CB. “Aquatic plyometric training increases vertical jump in female volleyball players.” Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. 2005;37:1814–1819.

Melzer I, Elbar O, Tsedek I, and Oddsson LIe. “A water-based training program that include perturbation exercises to improve stepping responses in older adults: study protocol for a randomized controlled cross-over trial.” BMC Geriatrics. 2008;8:19. doi: 10.1186/1471-2318-8-19. PMID: 18706103; PMCID: PMC2532994.

Nagle EF, Sanders ME, and Franklin BA. “Aquatic High Intensity Interval Training for Cardiometabolic Health: Benefits and Training Design.” American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine. 2016;11(1):64–76. doi: 10.1177/1559827615583640. PMID: 30202315; PMCID: PMC6124844.

Payton, S. “Brief Review of Beneficial Properties of Aquatic Exercise.” International Journal of Complementary & Alternative Medicine. 2017;7(4). 10.15406/ijcam.2017.07.00229.

Peng M, Wang R, Wang Y, et al. “Efficacy of Therapeutic Aquatic Exercise vs Physical Therapy Modalities for Patients With Chronic Low Back Pain: A Randomized Clinical Trial.” JAMA Network Open. 2022;5(1):e2142069. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.42069

Poyhonen T, Sipila S, Keskinen KL, Hautala A, Savolainen J, and Malkia E. “Effects of aquatic resistance training on neuromuscular performance in healthy women.” Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. 2002;34:2103–2109.

Robinson LE, Devor ST, Merrick MA, and Buckworth J. “The effects of land vs. aquatic plyometrics on power, torque, velocity, and muscle soreness in women.” Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2004;18:84–91.

Thein JM and Brody LT. “Aquatic-based rehabilitation and training for the elite athlete.” Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy. 1998;27(1):32–41. doi: 10.2519/jospt.1998.27.1.32. PMID: 9440039.

Wilder RP and Brennan DK. “Physiological responses to deep water running in athletes.” Sports Medicine. 1993;16:374–380.

Brody and Geigle. Aquatic Training Programs Benefit Injured Athletes.

Gregory Haff. Aquatic Cross Training for Athletes: Part II.

Pull-ups, and the accompanying performance gains, have been an area of specialization for me over the past couple of decades. I am the Director of Human Performance for a Special Warfare Squadron. I’ve also spent four years as the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach for Team USA Gymnastics, Wrestling, Boxing, and Judo, all sports that require tremendous upper back muscular development and pulling strength.

Working with so many elite performers who utilize pull-ups as a mainstay of their development, I’ve tried a variety of methods. This article will highlight the safest and most effective ones I’ve found. The program will help you improve, whether you are trying to do your very first pull-up or reach an elite performance level.        

This pull-up program will help you improve, whether you are trying to do your very first pull-up or reach an elite performance level, says @CoachSchwartz8. Share on X

This is a program you can incorporate into your regular training. Although you can use it as a pull-up specialization program, it certainly doesn’t need to be. However, the main goal is to increase strength, so it will work best if used during a strength phase for your other body parts.

Always remember, strength gain is an adaptation that requires recovery. If the body doesn’t have enough fuel, such as during a fat-loss phase, it becomes increasingly difficult to gain strength. It’s not impossible—elite athletes in weight-class sports do it all the time—but it takes a tremendous level of commitment, time, and resources.

Before we get into the program, it’s important to pick the lowest-hanging fruit. Whenever someone has hit a plateau in training, the first thing I look at is their technique.

Technical Issues

Obviously, the lats are bigger and have greater strength capabilities than the biceps. However, a lot of people have a hard time recruiting their lats. If you struggle to feel the lats working during a set, here are a few things to try.

1. 1. 1. Think of your hands like hooks. Get the bar deep in the hand so you’re gripping with more than just your fingers. Grip the bar hard, but put your mental focus on driving the elbows down as opposed to thinking about pulling your body up.

    

   1. 1. Squeeze the shoulder blades (scapula) down and toward the opposite hip. This is especially important at the top of the movement and will help you get your collarbone above the bar. If you have trouble using your back, the first few times you do this will result in an incredible pump or even cramping. This is great feedback that your technique is improving, and any discomfort will subside.

    

   1. Following up on the last point, in training, we want to pull as high as possible to finish the rep. Try to get your sternum to the bar. As we fatigue, it’s common to let the chest sink in. This is the opposite of what we want. If the chest sinks in, we are now using all arm and have taken our strongest muscles of the upper back out of it. Additionally, this ability to finish with a big chest will develop the muscles that support the shoulder so we can stay healthy and train harder for longer.

As we fatigue, it’s common to let the chest sink in. This is the opposite of what we want. If the chest sinks in, we now use all arm and have taken our strongest muscles of the upper back out of it. Share on X

4. Once you feel like you’ve mastered the ability to use your back, go ahead and start doing pull-ups in a way that feels more natural. These points are simply skills to be learned and now incorporated into your way of moving.

*Whenever you learn a new technique, expect it to feel weird or for performance to decrease temporarily. This will all lead to new personal record levels of performance as long as you are disciplined and have a perseverance mindset.

Primary Limiting Factors

To find a solution, we need to assess the problem accurately. Once technique is solid, we start looking at the ability to produce force in large amounts and for a long time. Pull-ups measure strength relative to body weight. So, the stronger we are, the easier it is to lift ourselves each rep. In the same light, the less weight we have—let’s say, hanging on us—the easier each rep.

In the world of elite performers, athletes, and operators, we have conditioning tests. It’s very common to see someone who struggles in pull-ups also struggle in their conditioning test. If you fall into this category, you may get a better return on investment by working on your conditioning and nutrition rather than ONLY doing a pull-up-specific plan. Just being honest.

If body composition is a problem, clean up your nutrition, bolster conditioning, and hammer the program in the next section.

We find the importance of max strength for improving pull-up reps by looking at simple math. If someone weighs 200 pounds and can do a pull-up with significant weight hanging from a dip belt, then each rep at body weight is a smaller percentage of their capability.

For example:

• 200-pound athlete using a dip belt with 100 pounds = 300-pound 1RM

200 pounds of body weight is now 66% of max strength

vs.

200-pound athlete using dip belt with 20 pounds = 220-pound 1RM

200 pounds of body weight is now 90.9% of max strength

It stands to reason that if we’re pulling a lower percentage of our capability, we’ll be able to do more reps. Additionally, if we’re pulling a lower percentage, we’ll be able to pull it faster. (I’ll explain how that helps next.) Admittedly, these are oversimplified explanations, but they work.

Whenever a challenge is done for time or max reps, most people burn out by the 45-second mark. Knowing this, we attack it from two angles. As mentioned above, we want to be able to pull ourselves up faster to get more reps in before fatigue becomes a factor.

On the other end of the equation, we want to increase our capacity to delay fatigue as long as possible. If you’re already at a level where you have high work output for 45 seconds, there may not be much potential for improvement here—some, but probably not much. However, if you start to struggle before 45 seconds, the window of opportunity is open. I address this in the next section with eccentric chins, inverted rows, and 60-second farmer’s walks.

Starting Point

For the purposes of this article, I’m using our USAF SPECWAR OFT standard for men and the Marines PFT standard for women to determine where you should start in this program. If you can’t do 11 pull-ups (men) or three pull-ups (women), then your base exercises are eccentric chins, inverted rows, and farmer’s walks (as outlined next). If you are above these standards, your initial phase will begin in the section Max Strength, but it’s good to read over these explanations for reference.

Day 1

• : Eccentric Chin 3 x :60 (lowering your body)

 

• Farmer’s Walk 3 x :20 as heavy as possible

Allow 72 hours of rest for your back, biceps, and grip. Ex: Day 1 = Mon, Day 2 = Thur

Day 2: Inverted Rows 3 x 1RIR
Farmer’s Walk 3 x :60

Eccentric Chins Technique

Video 1. You are up to 40% stronger when lowering your body than when lifting—we use eccentric chins to take advantage of this.

If you are using the rest-pause technique, let’s cap your total attempts at three each rep, so a total of nine over the session.

Whenever someone has hit a plateau in training, the first thing I look at is their technique, says @CoachSchwartz8. Share on X

Farmer’s Walk Technique

Posture is paramount! Keep the head up and the cervical spine in neutral.

Video 2. With basic variations or these advanced farmer’s walks, we’re looking at posture, cueing the athlete to walk as if they have a book on top of their head.

We hit the farmer’s walks each day with a different emphasis. On day one, we target max strength for the grip, and on day two, more strength endurance. In the pull-up, once the grip starts to slip, energy transfer becomes less efficient, and some of your arm/lat forces are leaked out at the hands. We must have a solid base of contact to maximize our efforts.

Inverted Row Technique

Video 3. Hold a pause at the top of each rep to double down on the effectiveness of these inverted rows.

RIR means reps in reserve. We want to take each set one rep from failing. We do this so we have a little energy left for recovery.

Programming and Moving Forward

Use these exercises as your main work on back/pulling days. Continue reading to see the rest of the program, particularly the sections Builder Exercises and after.

Once you can do eccentric chins for 60 seconds for all three sets or a rock-solid set of 25 inverted rows, go ahead and retest your pull-ups. I would encourage you to give your back, arms, and grip at least 72 hours of recovery before testing so that fatigue doesn’t mask any performance gains. When you hit your standards, move on to the next part of the program.

Max Strength

As mentioned above, increasing max strength increases pull-up performance by making your body weight a lower percentage of your max. Additionally, when we layer in the density of that new strength, we can now add reps to our pull-up test.

Start your program by testing your 3RM in pull-ups. Essentially, do three reps, add a little weight to a dip belt, and do three more. Keep going in this manner until you find the heaviest weight you can successfully do three times with excellent technique. For overall athleticism, I generally keep rest periods approximately 90 seconds long. If you are solely focused on improving pull-ups, then you can rest for up to three minutes.

At this point, you will train to improve your max strength pull-ups one day a week. This is known in the program as our Max Effort Day. One week following your test, warm up to 90% of your 3RM and perform five sets of three.

But there’s a kicker. In the section Technical Issues, we talked about the importance of strength and stability in the scapular region. So, to enhance these qualities, we superset with some form of standing military exercise. It can be with a barbell or dumbbell—dealer’s choice, as long as it’s strict. No leg drive, no arching the back, look straight forward, and finish with the bar directly over the head when the arms are fully extended.

The additional work of the standing military provides support for the pull-ups and specifically the shoulder joint by strengthening the mid and low traps. Healthy shoulders pull harder! The superset may challenge your work capacity and limit your output at first. Over time, your work capacity will increase and help you crank out more pull-ups.

Below is a straightforward but effective protocol. Typically, we incorporate percentages and vary the exercises more frequently to fit our overall program. For a direct impact on pull-ups, this progression works very well.

Max Effort Day

A1. Pull-ups at 90% of 3RM x 5 x 3. Rest 60 seconds.

A2. Standing military 5 x 5 heavy* Rest 60 seconds.

*Heavy means you can do all five and maybe a sixth with strict form.

We will keep this setup until all five sets of three with 90% of 3RM become easy for two weeks in a row. Easy means you could definitely do a fourth rep in all five sets. Please don’t do the extra rep, however. We want to leave some gas in the tank for recovery. We preach Train, Recover, Adapt! It is recovery from training that leads to the adaptation of strength gain.

Leave some gas in the tank for recovery. We preach Train, Recover, Adapt! It is recovery from training that leads to the adaptation of strength gain, says @CoachSchwartz8. Share on X

We use the same weight the following week and perform pull-ups 5 x 5. It is very normal not to be able to complete five sets getting all five reps at first. No worries. Get what you can with great technique in each of the five sets. Don’t chase the overall 25 reps. If the first week you get 19, that’s still an increase of more than 20% from the 5×3 work, so you’re on your way!

Once the 5 x 5 becomes easy for two weeks, progress to 5 x 6. Once those become easy, retest your 3RM and start over at 90% of 3RM x 5 x 3. At this point, I suggest changing the grip from a traditional overhand to neutral or supinated for the next cycle.

Pull-Up Builder Exercises

Rows, rows, and more rows! I really don’t care what variation you use, just hit the points made about the scapula in Technical Issues. After your max effort superset, hit 1–2 row variations for 3–5 sets of 6–10 each and take all sets 1–2 RIR.

We also use band face pulls or mini band pull-aparts for 3–4 sets of 25–30 reps. You may do one of these before your pull-up and military superset to really prime the upper back and the other as your last exercise of the day. There’s some freedom of choice here; just get ’em in.

We also use the snatch grip RDL to strengthen the grip and mid and low traps. If you have a setup where you can pull against bands, even better. Sometimes we have this in the program as the exercise before the max effort superset. Other times we have this as the primary exercise on our second pulling day, known as Rep Effort Day.

We perform rep effort 72 hours after the Max Effort Day. Where we place the snatch grip RDL really depends on the overall goal of that training cycle, but both setups work very well. So again, we have some freedom in the program design.

Rep Effort Day

A staple of the Rep Effort Day is heavy farmer’s walks or KB bottom-up waiter’s carries. We’re trying to develop an iron grip to get the most out of our pulling force from the upper back and arms.

The benefit of the farmer’s walk is the loading provided to the upper back and core. The benefit of the waiter’s carry is that the fingers and wrist must dynamically respond to the subtle changes of balancing the kettlebell upside down while walking. This forces us to crush the handle rather than just hang on, which provides a nice stimulus for grip strength. Additionally, the shoulder and core must also dynamically stabilize, which provides several benefits outside the scope of an article about pull-ups, but they’re very important nonetheless.

I like to use “Training Challenges” with our athletes/operators, and a bodyweight farmer’s walk for time is a favorite, says @CoachSchwartz8. Share on X

I like to use “Training Challenges” with our athletes/operators, and a bodyweight farmer’s walk for time is a favorite. A 200-pound athlete will hold a 100-pound dumbbell in each hand and go for a walk as described in the section Starting Point. In my experience, completing one minute is a sign that the athlete is fairly strong. However, everyone on our current Top 5 board is over two minutes, with strict posture.

After the farmer’s walks or waiter’s carries, we perform some variation of overhead pulling that differs from the variation used on Max Effort Day. These may include underhand or neutral grip pull-ups, lat pulls with slightly different hand spacing than pull-ups, machines, or cables. Typical workloads are 3–4 sets x 8–15 reps with 1–2 RIR. Then we repeat the same row volumes from Max Effort Day, just using a different row variation. As long as progress is going well with the pull-up work, we finish with some high reps on rear delts, 2-3 x 25–30. If progress is struggling, we eliminate this extra isolation of a smaller muscle group at the end. 

Biceps Isolation: Friend or Foe?

I see this as an IF-THEN question. If you’ve been doing a lot of direct biceps work, and you’re not happy with your pull-ups, then you would probably benefit from giving your biceps more recovery to get stronger. A 4–8-week cycle of prioritizing your upper back with no direct biceps or rear delt work may be just the stimulus you need to add reps on the pull-up bar.

If you haven’t been doing a lot of direct biceps work and you’re not happy with your pull-ups, then you may benefit by adding some reverse curls, hammer curls, or KB hammer curls with the bell out. Pick 1–2 exercises and perform 2–3 sets of 5–10 reps.

I can’t stress this enough: I find it rare that someone (especially men) has undertrained biceps. For that reason, I recommend always ending biceps sets with 2 reps in reserve, says @CoachSchwartz8. Share on X

I can’t stress this enough: I find it rare that someone (especially men) has undertrained biceps. Just my experience, but for that reason, I recommend always ending biceps sets with two RIR. Whenever in doubt, we choose to keep the direct biceps volume low, which worked nicely for us.

Shoulder Pain

It is not uncommon for athletes pursuing more pull-ups to experience some shoulder pain, especially in the front delt area. This is often caused by biceps tendonitis. We recommend a few different approaches to this problem:

1. 1. 1. Seek out a sports doctor. People tend to push through pain until something is intolerable and then seek help. Doing this only delays our progress.

    

   1. 1. Perform band shoulder mobilities. Pre-workout, we do them dynamically, hitting a stretch for three seconds and moving on to another with the option of returning to the most-needed stretches as often as we feel like. The pre-session lasts 60–90 seconds per arm, with the option for more if the mobility is really poor. Post-workout, we stretch statically for 30–60 seconds in each position. Ensure you hit all the major muscles and pay particular attention to the pecs and biceps.

    

   1. 1. Be sure to change your grip between overhand, underhand, and neutral throughout different exercises during the week.

    

   1. Change your grip width during the week as well. Even moving one hand width will change the stressor. The pain may be a sign that you’re doing the same thing the same way too often.

Training Template

For those of you who skipped ahead to see the meat and potatoes, here you go. Just know that we’ve gone over a lot of context critical to our mid-stream decision-making during training.

*Heavy means you can do all five and maybe a sixth with strict form.

*You may notice that each training session begins with a heavy lift right after the A-series. Regardless of the training cycle goals, I like to start with a power, speed, or strength stimulus. These methods also include plyometrics, Olympic lifts, MB throws, acceleration, or agility.

Safe and Effective Methods

I’ve used many methods to increase pull-ups. These are the ones I find safe and effective and deliver the quickest results. You may notice that a few common strategies are missing.

I’ve used many methods to increase pull-ups. These are the ones I find safe and effective and deliver the quickest results, says @CoachSchwartz8. Share on X

I’ve tried band- or machine-assisted. They’re okay, but I find their results come slower than the methods I’ve outlined.

Some people like kipping to cheat and get a few more reps. Kipping is a gymnastics skill that takes a lot of dedicated work under the direction of a qualified gymnastics coach. This is generally taught when athletes are 6–8 years old, and it uses many progressions.

For the purposes of increasing pull-ups, I do not teach the kip. The risk of shoulder injury far outweighs the benefits of a few extra reps. I find our methods are safer and more effective. As a matter of fact, I don’t teach kipping for muscle-ups either, but that’s a story for another time.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions or leave comments.

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

Working in the NFL gave me an opportunity to delve deeply into the vast array of data in the game of football. I worked with data across the entire business of the sport, including the Salary Cap, game stats and contract analysis, electronic medical records, and player performance information. I learned the importance of capturing and connecting every bit of information because it very likely would become a valuable asset to the organization.

I co-founded RockDaisy AMS to deliver value from data by making complex information easily accessible and understandable—one of our key targets is athletes and their supporting organizations. Athletes produce a wide array of performance, fitness, and effort information. This article discusses a small segment of what can be accomplished by collecting wearable GPS data, layering in conditional formatting to spot outliers, and connecting it with the broader base of data accumulated for every athlete.

Key GPS Metrics

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based navigation system that provides location and time information in all weather conditions. It is important because GPS devices are relied on to track athlete movement and physical activity accurately. GPS data can help coaches and trainers monitor their performance, recovery, and injury risk.^1,2

There are five key metrics that all GPS vendors make sure their devices track. These specific metrics are essential because they cover three separate areas of training: volume, intensity, and speed.

1. 1. Total distance covered: Provides information about the amount of ground covered by the athlete during a training session or game. It helps the coach determine the athlete’s intensity and workload and adjust their training program appropriately.³

 

1. 1. High-speed running distance: Measures the distance covered by an athlete at high speeds and provides information about the athlete’s explosive power, acceleration, and deceleration.⁴

 

1. 1. Accels/Decels: Both accelerations and decelerations can contribute significantly to a player’s load and are useful indicators of external load; therefore, their value within athlete monitoring seems to be gaining importance.⁵

 

1. 1. Sprint count: Measures the number of times an athlete exerted an effort that was above a defined speed threshold.

 

1. Maximum velocity: Provides information about the highest speed reached by an athlete during a training session or game and helps to determine their overall speed and agility.¹

A coach should be concerned if certain GPS metrics for a training session go above or below a certain threshold, as it can indicate a potential problem with the athlete’s performance or health. Share on X

A coach should be concerned if certain GPS metrics for a training session go above or below a certain threshold, as it can indicate a potential problem with the athlete’s performance or health. The specific thresholds for each GPS metric can vary depending on a number of factors, including the sport, the athlete’s position, and their individual characteristics. For example, a soccer player’s average speed during a game might be expected to be around 5–7 meters per second, while a sprinter’s maximum velocity might be expected to be about 10–12 meters per second.

However, some general guidelines are given below:

1. 1. Total distance covered: A decrease in total distance covered could indicate fatigue or injury, while an increase could indicate improved endurance.

 

1. 1. High-speed running distance: A decrease in the high-speed running distance could indicate a decrease in explosive power or an increased risk of injury, while an increase could indicate improved conditioning and reduced injury risk.

 

1. 1. Accels/Decels: A decrease in accels/decels could indicate fatigue or injury, while an increase could indicate improved conditioning and reduced injury risk.

 

1. 1. Sprint count: A decrease in sprint count could indicate a decrease in speed and agility, while an increase could indicate improved explosive power.

 

1. Maximum velocity: A decrease in maximum velocity could indicate a decrease in speed and agility, while an increase could indicate improved explosive power.

Comparing an athlete’s performance across two different periods is an effective way to see performance trends. For example, the RockDaisy Athlete Management System includes a Performance Comparison Date Range filter. The Performance Comparison Date Range filter can be set with a start and end date (e.g., the beginning and end of a season) to compare against daily data. This filter allows you to compare an athlete’s performance for a particular metric against their average for a season (or a comparison time frame you select).

The Performance Comparison Date Range filter also enables users to set standard deviation thresholds to understand a significant increase or decrease in an athlete’s performance.

This can be seen in the color coding of this Daily GPS Report (dashboard design provided by Benjamin Creamer, @coachbencreamer, Director of Sports Science at University of Washington).

The In-Season Average is key because it drives the functionality of the legend. If an athlete is within a certain standard deviation of their average, their data will be colored on the bucket they fall in. For example, if an athlete goes two standard deviations above their average for the season, that metric for the athlete will have a red background and be considered a “very hard” day.

It is important to note that these are general guidelines, and the specific thresholds for concern will depend on the individual athlete and their sport. Moreover, several other data sources can be useful to overlay with sports GPS data to get a complete picture of an athlete’s performance.^6–11

Other suggested metrics that can be overlayed with GPS data:

• • Heart rate data: By overlaying heart rate data with GPS data, coaches can better understand the athlete’s physiological response to exercise and determine if they are working at the appropriate intensity.

 

• • Biomechanical data: By overlaying biomechanical data such as joint angles and muscle activation patterns with GPS data, coaches can better understand the athlete’s movement patterns and identify any areas of movement that may be contributing to injury risk.

 

• • Nutrition data: By overlaying nutrition data with GPS data, coaches can better understand the impact of diet on the athlete’s performance and recovery.

 

• • Video analysis: By overlaying video analysis with GPS data, coaches can better understand the athlete’s technique and movement patterns and identify areas for improvement.

 

• Sleep data: By overlaying sleep data with GPS data, coaches can better understand the impact of sleep on the athlete’s performance and recovery.

Additional metrics can easily be imported from spreadsheets, from third-party APIs, or by leveraging customizable data collection forms. These metrics can then be easily overlayed with GPS data.

By combining GPS data with other data sources, coaches can understand the athlete’s performance more comprehensively and make more informed decisions about their training and injury prevention strategies.

By combining GPS data with other data sources, coaches can better understand an athlete’s performance and make more informed decisions about their training and injury prevention strategies. Share on X

RockDaisy has worked with multiple GPS vendors, and we understand the key performance indicators that are recorded during a training session. Our GPS report pack is a collection of GPS reports that are ready to use and/or can be customized to your needs. With our unique data visualization tools, we provide insight into your data outside of just the raw numbers. Feel free to contact us for more information.

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. Cummins C, Orr R, O’Connor H, and West C. “Global positioning systems (GPS) and microtechnology sensors in team sports: a systematic review.” Sports Medicine. 2012;43:1025–1042.

2. Theodoropoulos JS, Bettle J, and Kosy JD. “The use of GPS and inertial devices for player monitoring in team sports: A review of current and future applications” Orthopedic Reviews. 2020;12(1).

3. Aughey RJ. “Applications of GPS technologies to field sports.” International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance. 2011;6(3):295–310.

4. Rampinini E, Alberti G, Fiorenza M, et al. “Accuracy of GPS devices for measuring high-intensity running in field-based team sports.” International Journal of Sports Medicine. 2015;36(01):49–53.

5. Wing C. “Monitoring Athlete Load: Data Collection Methods and Practical Recommendations.” Strength & Conditioning Journal. 2018;40(4):26–39.

6. Backhouse SH, Whitaker L, Patterson L, Erickson K, and McKenna J. “Social psychology of doping in sport: A mixed studies narrative synthesis.” Prepared for the World Anti-Doping Agency. 2016.

7. Backhouse SH and McKenna J. “Doping in sport: A review of medical practitioners’ knowledge, attitudes and beliefs.” International Journal of Drug Policy. 2011;22(3):198–202.

8. Bădescu D, Zaharie N, Stoian I, Bădescu M., and Stanciu C. “A Narrative Review of the Link between Sport and Technology.” Sustainability. 2022;14(23):16265.

9. Halson SL. “Monitoring training load to understand fatigue in athletes.” Sports Medicine. 2014;44(Suppl 2):139–147.

10. Seshadri DR, Drummond G, Craker J, Rowbottom, JR, and Voos JE. “Wearable devices for sports: new integrated technologies allow coaches, physicians, and trainers to better understand the physical demands of athletes in real time.” IEEE Pulse. 2017;8(1):38–43.

11. Wilkes JR, Walter AE, Chang A-M, et al. “Effects of sleep disturbance on functional and physiological outcomes in collegiate athletes: a scoping review.” Sleep Medicine. 2021;81:8–19.

12. Wisbey B, Montgomery PG, Pyne DB, and Rattray B. “Quantifying movement demands of AFL football using GPS tracking.” Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport. 2010;13(5):531–536.

13. GPS Dashboard image (Figure 1). Dashboard design provided by Benjamin Creamer, Director of Sports Science at University of Washington.

Training in the private sector of sports performance exposes coaches to athletes in every age range. This comes as a surprise to no one; however, it can reveal a coach’s biases that can negatively affect certain segments of that age spectrum.

Having spent most of my time coaching in college athletics, working with younger athletes (middle and high school) wasn’t something I was accustomed to. As Coach Matt Tometz spoke about previously, I’ve quickly found out that youth athletes are not small adults. Treating and training them as such is more detrimental than it is elevating—in every sense, but in this context specifically, with regard to speed development.

Oftentimes, we hear coaches talk about the need for sprinters to be able to produce high levels of force. Force and strength are highly important to speed. Want to run faster? Train to produce higher amounts of force.

There is an amount of truth to this thought process: the ability to produce force is important. What happens to this foundational truth of speed development, however, when the athlete you are training is 13 years old? Is their ability to run faster still predicated on their ability to produce force? Not many 13-year-olds in the Chicago area have reached the strength level that many of these coaches say is a prerequisite to running fast. It seems that if force cannot be the differentiating factor in speed development, we have to search for answers elsewhere.

Therefore, every other corner of speed development must be explored before turning to force output: stride frequency (thigh velocity), ankle stiffness, rhythm and timing, the direction of force application, etc. All of these factors are more important qualities when training a younger athlete compared to total force output. Their ability to produce force will grow as they do. Now, if their ability to produce force grows in conjunction with their ability to orient their limbs through space quickly and in a coordinated fashion, then the application of that force will help.

A Missing Piece

Speed development for high-performance athletes can mirror that of the youth model to an interesting extent. Typically, when a collegiate athlete walks into our facility for the first time, it is on the back end of a collegiate career, and they are looking to continue playing at the next level (such as college football players coming to train for their Pro Days or soccer players with contracts to play overseas). One of the things that stands out about these athletes is a lack of the same qualities that we hammer away at with the younger population.

Many of these college/post-collegiate athletes are coming in after three or four (sometimes five-plus) years of training in college S&C programs that emphasized their ability to produce maximal force and deemphasized the qualities we try to capture with our youth athletes.

It seems that qualities like stiffness, frequency, rhythm and timing, etc. fall out of the athletic spectrum once strength and force output become an overriding emphasis of training. Share on X

To be clear, this is not an article on college S&C versus private sector performance. This is a review of the training qualities I’ve noticed as I’ve interacted with athletes of many ages and abilities. However, it seems that the qualities we have already talked about—stiffness, frequency, rhythm and timing, etc.—are the qualities that fall out of the athletic spectrum once strength and force output become an overriding emphasis of training.

While youth athletes are unable to rely on their limited ability to produce force for their speed development, the inverse is true for high-performance athletes. The force component has been trained SO much that it is relied on completely to “muscle” through speed workouts. To paint a mental picture of what this type of runner may look like: think strained, pulling, not bouncy off the ground, legs moving in slow motion, etc. (Not to say that it’s impossible to “muscle” your way to a fast run—it certainly is.) With many older athletes coming in at this point of training, the “non-force stuff” becomes an integral part of their training.

Of course, the ability to produce force is not completely ignored. Again, it is important. However, rarely have I found that the reason a high-level athlete is not fast is because they are not strong enough. They are, typically, plenty strong. They fall short because their ankles collapse on ground contact, their thigh velocity is slow, their rhythm in sprinting is awkward, and they fail to apply their strength in the right direction.

Recognizing problems is valuable, but solving problems is significantly more so. Here are five of the most common ways that I try and rectify the “not enough of anything except for force” situation:

1. Ankle Stiffness Variations

Video 1. A few common ankle-jump variations for building ankle stiffness: angled (light prowler in front to help maintain angle), forward and backward, alternating single leg. Ankle stiffness supports every phase of sprinting!

Interestingly, one of the populations of youth athletes that do come in physically prepared to sprint is basketball players. The stiffness and spring in their lower bodies compared to, say, their baseball counterparts is striking. Obviously, they need coaching on the technical aspects of sprinting, but physically, they have qualities that sprint coaches desire. Trying to build that spring in other athletes is a necessity. Unfortunately, years of bilateral strength work tend to loosen those springs.

2. A-Run Variations

Video 2. Two examples of the many possibilities of A-runs: banded in place A-run and ascending A-run.

3. A-Switch Variations

Video 3. A-switches have a near-infinite number of possibilities. Demonstrated here are an in-place A-switch, double A-switch, triple A-switch, and triple A-switch with bounce.

Getting the lower body to move quickly is a quality that is, again, built into “springier” athletes. Thigh velocity is an essential part of sprinting. Often, one of the issues for athletes with long training histories in the weight room is their inability to quickly “switch” the position of their legs while running.

A-switch and A-run variations are great tools for youth athletes because the drills train their ability to coordinate high-speed limb movements quickly and consciously. This is a great challenge for youth athletes, especially as they fight the awkwardness that puberty can bring. While higher-level athletes are not fighting the battles of puberty, we do want them to re-establish an emphasis on thigh velocity that may have been lost over the previous few years.

4. Single Leg Hurdle Step-Over Drill

Video 4. Progression used for single leg stepovers: walking single leg with hurdles, shuffling single leg with hurdles, shuffling single leg (no hurdles), shuffling single leg to bleed out.

5. Bounding Variations

Video 5. Again, there are many variations of bounding. Here are two I commonly use: sled bound and speed bound.

How do you objectively measure rhythm? It’s difficult. Still, I would venture to say that most coaches would agree that it’s important. Have you ever seen an athlete try to bound and then start to skip—or an athlete try to skip and then start bounding? Was that athlete fast? Probably not. Lack of rhythm? Maybe. Similar to the rest of this article—the athletes who tend to struggle with that rhythm are typically the more “force-driven” group.

Variations of all these drills are commonplace in our speed development workouts from youth through professional (of course, this is just a sample of those drills). None of them have any emphasis on higher force production.

It’s a Balancing Act

High-level athletes are high-level athletes for a reason. This seems obvious. Every successful athlete has physical qualities that make them successful. For some athletes, their ability to produce force sets them apart from their competitors. This, though, is not the superpower of every athlete.

The ability of some athletes to produce force sets them apart from their competitors, but this isn’t the superpower of every athlete. Many coaches are intent on training their athletes as if it is. Share on X

It seems that many coaches are intent on training all of their athletes as if it is. However, this training style can lead to adaptations that take away from the qualities that may make another, less force-dominant, athlete successful. It can act, instead, as their kryptonite. So, let’s lean into the superpowers of the athletes we work with (the qualities that make them fast!), and be mindful that not everyone is the same. Treating them as such is detrimental. Train a 13-year-old. See how well they do when you cue them to push the ground away further and harder (probably not well).

It’s interesting how funneled our thinking can get when we are only exposed to a specific population of athletes and how we create these truths about athletic development in our minds because every athlete we encounter comes from such a similar athletic playbook. But when one of those fundamental truths gets removed from the equation? How does that make you rethink the fundamental truths that no longer seem so fundamental?

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

For the past seven years, the month of March has brought the same fundamental problem: how do I take a group of high school track and field athletes and get them as fast as possible before that key first weekend in June? With this question, a few subordinate questions follow: What is the right balance of speed and endurance training? Is it worth sacrificing speed days to focus on building my athletes’ endurance, or is building speed the only thing that truly matters? And will the endurance part take care of itself as the season progresses?

These are the questions every sprint coach faces at the start of the season. But what are the strategies coaches use to find the answers to these questions? Truthfully, until this year, my strategy has been “listen to coaches who are more successful than I am and copy what they say,”—which is a tried-and-true coaching method. But sooner or later, every coach must decide what works for them, why it works for them, and if there is more than just anecdotal evidence to support these notions. More succinctly—as coaches, we must be prepared to give an answer for why we do what we do.

There are far too many athletes who exhibit symptoms of overtraining and are told to power through it in the name of getting better, says @DillonMartinez. Share on X

There are far too many athletes who exhibit symptoms of overtraining and are told to power through it in the name of getting better. It is even more concerning that many of these athletes are sprinters. Symptoms of overtraining include prolonged general fatigue, inability to relax, poor sleep, and a pervasive feeling of tension or depression. These symptoms increase when an over-worked athlete also has poor nutrition and inadequate sleep.

Overtraining can lead to various types of injuries in high school athletes, depending on the sport and the individual’s training regimen. Some of the common injuries that may result from overtraining in high school athletes include:

1. Stress fractures: Overtraining can cause repetitive stress on the bones, leading to tiny cracks known as stress fractures. This injury is common in athletes who participate in high-impact sports like basketball, soccer, and track and field.
2. Muscle strains: Overuse of muscles can lead to muscle strains, which can cause pain and weakness in the affected muscle. Athletes who participate in sports that require repetitive motions—such as baseball, tennis, and swimming—are particularly prone to muscle strains.
3. Tendinitis: Overtraining can cause inflammation of the tendons, leading to tendinitis. This injury is common in athletes who participate in sports that require repetitive movements, such as running, jumping, and throwing.
4. Joint pain: Overtraining can put excessive stress on the joints, leading to joint pain and inflammation. This injury is common in athletes who participate in sports that require a lot of jumping, such as basketball and volleyball.
5. Decreased immune function: Overtraining can weaken the immune system, making athletes more susceptible to illnesses and infections.
6. Mental and emotional fatigue: Overtraining can also cause mental and emotional fatigue, leading to decreased motivation, mood changes, and even depression.

As a result, it is crucial to prioritize balance in training routines by incorporating rest and recovery measures.

My purpose with this article is to give speed coaches tangible ideas for programming to increase endurance while also increasing max velocity. To achieve this balance, it is critical to explore alternative approaches to exposing athletes to the necessary levels of aerobic training. This approach should prioritize the athletes’ safety and overall health as they prepare for upcoming competitions.

Furthermore, it’s an added bonus if the training regimen can also enhance the athletes’ maximum velocities. By taking a holistic approach to training—not focusing just on endurance or just on speed development—coaches can ensure that their athletes not only perform at their best but also maintain their overall well-being.

My purpose with this article is to give speed coaches tangible ideas for programming to increase endurance while also increasing max velocity, says @DillonMartinez. Share on X

As I am working through my doctorate focusing on speed development and coaching, I decided it was time to see what the research says in this regard. The results of my personal lit review have impacted how I coach, but more importantly, I can now give evidence-backed reasons as to why I format our sprinting program the way I do. Diving into this type of research can be intimidating, as many of the words used in the articles can look like they’re from a different language, but once it is sifted through, the knowledge gained will be meaningful and impactful to any program.

The Dosage Debate

My research question centered around the idea of “minimal effective dosage” as it concerns cardiovascular endurance. This is a popular buzz term in the sprinting community as it pertains to speed development, but I was curious as to its relevance to the conditioning aspect of training as well. This question led to a 2012 article in the Journal of Physiology by Martin Gibala (et al.,) the Chair of the Department of Kinesiology at McMaster University. This work, titled “Physiological Adaptations to Low-Volume, High-Intensity Interval Training in Health and Disease,” became the foundation for my training methodologies.

This study compared the effects of high-intensity, low-volume training to a more traditional steady-state, endurance-style modality (see table 1).

These training styles are very different. Group 1’s workout only had 2–3 minutes of work time, or time under tension, which is the traditional mark of how much work has been done. By contrast, group 2 had a total work time of 40–60 minutes a day! They did the same amount of work in a day that the high-intensity group did in the whole six-week study, for a cumulative 200–300 minutes of time under tension a week. This idea of time under tension is a derivative of the weightlifting and bodybuilding sect, and it has migrated into the heads of speed coaches.

Those who want to build lean muscle know that the more time under tension a muscle experiences, the more micro tears are created—and when those tears heal, it results in a larger muscle mass. This is a micro-trauma that induces a desired adaptation in the body. The point of this type of training is inflammation and muscle tears, both things we should aim to avoid in speed training.

Traditional thinking would say that because they did significantly more work, the second group would have better results than the high-intensity group. Surprisingly, this was not the case.

In the high-intensity group, which completed 90% less volume and spent 67% less time training, it was found that there were still “training induced markers of skeletal muscle and cardiovascular adaptations….” These adaptations included:

• Increased resting glucose levels in the blood.
• A reduced rate of glycogen use and lactate production during matched-work exercise.
• An increased capacity for whole body and skeletal lipid oxidation.
• Enhanced peripheral vascular structure and function.
• Improved exercise performance as measured by time to exhaustion tests.
• Increased maximal oxygen uptake.

These are significant findings, but are they corroborated by other studies looking at the same issue? The short answer is yes. These findings are supported by Burgomaster et al., 2005, 2008; Gibala et al., 2006; and Rakobowchuk et al., 2008. Furthermore, this type of training was shown to specifically improve athletic performance in competition, as proven using cycling time trial studies (Gibala et al., 2006; Little et al., 2010).

But ultimately, my question was, what is the “minimal effective dosage” as it pertains to cardiovascular endurance? This study, as well as another conducted by Burgomaster et al. in 2008 titled “Similar Metabolic Adaptations During Exercise After Low Volume Sprint Interval and Traditional Endurance Training in Humans,” both found that this training protocol increased max VO2 to the same extent as “traditional endurance training despite a markedly reduced time commitment and total training volume.” And if that wasn’t enough, Psilander et al. (2010) found that a single bout of low-volume, high-intensity training (7×30 seconds, 4 minutes rest) stimulated an increase in “mitochondrial gene expression that [was] comparable to or greater than the changes after more prolonged bouts (3 x 20 min at 67% of max VO2) of endurance exercise in well trained athletes.”

What Does This All Mean to Us as Coaches?

This all means we can chase speed, and as a result, our team will also become more conditioned. But the key is the intent; each rep conducted in these studies was done at max effort. This is the key to optimizing this training strategy for conditioning, and, conveniently enough, that is also how max velocity is increased.

This means we can chase speed, and as a result, our team will become more conditioned. But the key is the intent; each rep conducted in these studies was done at max effort, says @DillonMartinez. Share on X

The only way to get fast is to run fast. Our central nervous system (CNS) can only adapt to stimuli it has been exposed to in the case of speed development. You cannot get faster in any type of meaningful way if you are not training at max velocity, with max intent. How convenient that this type of training is also proven to increase VO2 max capacity in athletes!

Tangible Programming Ideas

What would a program look like that employs this type of training? In my programs, I don’t have any five-day cycle with more than two of these types of workouts, especially in the late portions of the season. Here is an example of how I set up a season.

Things to note from this setup.

• I count meet days as both speed and endurance days.
• I focus significantly more time on speed than I do on endurance. “The last 100 meters of a 400 are always going to hurt,” as Coach Tony Holler says.
• I place a very high priority on technique work. Having shorter workouts has resulted in significantly more time to focus on correcting form errors and developing good habits in my athletes’ running form.

In the past, I would have dedicated almost the first three weeks of the season to submaximal endurance work to “lay the foundation” of endurance for the late season. This is wrong on a few levels.

1. If my athletes lack speed, it won’t matter how in shape they are. I am training sprinters, not distance runners.
2. Emphasizing submaximal endurance work at the beginning of the season may not be the most efficient use of training time and resources. This is because submaximal endurance work tends to improve aerobic fitness, which may not be the limiting factor for sprinting performance and my athletes’ success on the track.
3. Focusing too much on endurance work early on in the season may lead to detraining of other important physical qualities such as power, strength, and speed, which are critical for sprinting performance. This could ultimately hinder an athlete’s ability to perform at their best during competitions later in the season.

Focusing too much on endurance work early in the season may lead to detraining of other important physical qualities such as power, strength, and speed, which are critical for sprinting performance. Share on X

Using speed work as a means to also train endurance has been a key method for success in my training programs.

Other Considerations

The beauty of less work is that there is less physical stress on the body. As track coaches, we are all too familiar with the plague of shin splints. Shin splints result from too much volume, too soon, with improper form. It has been shown that when runners land with a heel-first pattern, there is a higher propensity for shin splints to develop. When we are running submaximally, the likelihood that the heel strikes first also goes up.

Conversely, when athletes sprint, if they employ proper form, they land on the ball of their foot, reducing stress on the anterior tibialis and the risk of shin splints altogether. Also, the less time spent on training endurance, the more time open to focus on honing approaches, block starts, and other field event work. When your team is gearing up for a state run, all events must receive the appropriate amount of focus because every point matters!

Final Thoughts

In any type of training, we need to keep in mind the intended adaptations we are hoping to elicit. If we run submaximally, we can expect our bodies to become proficient at submaximal running. If we sprint at full speed, we can expect our body to understand that its needs to make the necessary adjustments to become proficient in that type of movement.

Make sure that when you program, what you select as a training modality will serve to further the goal of the adaptation you hope to target, says @DillonMartinez. Share on X

Make sure that when you program, what you select as a training modality will serve to further the goal of the adaptation you hope to target. For our purposes, you can be confident that if you focus on maximal exertion, you can expect also to see a growth in endurance in your athletes.

Chase speed. Gain endurance.

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

Burgomaster KA, Howarth KR, Phillips SM, et al. “Similar metabolic adaptations during exercise after low volume sprint interval and traditional endurance training in humans.” Journal of Physiology. 2008;586:151–160.

Gibala MJ, Little JP, van Essen M, et al. “Short-term sprint interval versus traditional endurance training: similar initial adaptations in human skeletal muscle and exercise performance.” Journal of Physiology. 2006;575:901–911.

Gibala MJ and McGee SL. “Metabolic adaptations to short-term high-intensity interval training: a little pain for a lot of gain?” Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews. 2008;36:58–63.

Gibala MJ, Little JP, Macdonald MJ, and Hawley JA. “Physiological Adaptations to Low-Volume, High-Intensity Interval Training in Health and Disease.” Journal of Physiology. 2012;590(12):1077–1084.

Little JP, Safdar A, Wilkin GP, Tarnopolsky MA, and Gibala MJ. “A practical model of low-volume high-intensity interval training induces mitochondrial biogenesis in human skeletal muscle: potential mechanisms.” Journal of Physiology. 2010b;588:1011–1022.

Psilander N, Wang L, Westergren J, Tonkonogi M, and Sahlin K. “Mitochondrial gene expression in elite cyclists: effects of high-intensity interval exercise.” European Journal of Applied Physiology. 2010;110:597–606.

Rakobowchuk M, Tanguay S, Burgomaster KA, Howarth KR, Gibala MJ, and MacDonald MJ. “Sprint interval and traditional endurance training induce similar improvements in peripheral arterial stiffness and flow-mediated dilation in healthy humans.” American Journal of Physiology-Regulatory Integrative and Comparative Physiology. 2008;295:R236–R242.

Following the Jane Fonda era of at-home workouts (shout out to “Physical” on Apple TV), the ’90s introduced a new wave of fitness trends in the United States: Billy Blanks’ “Tae Bo,” Tony Little’s “Gazelle,” and Susan Sommers’ “Thighmaster”—just to name a few.

It wasn’t hard to notice fitness infomercials flooding the airwaves, all promising a slimmer figure to eager customers who yearned to remove the “work” from working out.

But amidst all the noise, one particular trend was actually offering sound advice. This upstart trend had a unique selling point: encouraging people to work out in a completely new direction—specifically, with exercises focused on the frontal plane (aka side-to-side movements), which was unlike any style of training currently marketed by traditional fitness brands.

Enter the slide board.

Now, if you were a comedy nerd like me, you might remember the 1995 Judd Apatow-penned cult comedy “Heavyweights,” which starred Ben Stiller and then up-and-coming actor Kenan Thompson. To this day, comedy cinephiles continue to echo the movie’s most famous tagline—“I’m feeling skinny, Tony!”—a response uttered by one of the blindly loyal disciples of Tony Perkis, the notorious, fat camp coach (played by Stiller) who was on a mission to slide pounds off his feeble camp counselors through painfully watchable slide board workouts.

But before slide boards got their big break on the big screen, the lateral movement was already underway two decades earlier—in a much cooler arena. (Trust me—the pun will make sense soon.)

From the Farmhouse to the Podium

The first slide boards actually date back to the 19th century, when Dutch speed skaters used wax-coated barn doors to practice their skating motions. But their impact in the U.S. wouldn’t emerge until centuries later, beginning in the 1970s with Eric Heiden—the former Olympic gold medalist speed skater who was the first to win gold medals in all five events (500m, 1,000m, 1,500m, 5,000m, and 10,000m).

Eric Heiden noticed a need for speed skaters to improve their performance on the ice through a dryland training tool that mimicked the lateral push movement relevant to the sport, says @JimmyTMartin. Share on X

After retiring from the sport, Heiden studied medicine, later becoming an orthopedic surgeon. He noticed a need for speed skaters to improve their performance on the ice through a dryland training tool that mimicked the lateral push movement relevant to the sport. So, with two wood bumpers, a slick plastic surface, and hospital-like booties to put over your sneakers, Heiden created “The Heiden Board” (go figure!), pioneering the movement of slide board use in the USA.

In the late ’80s, the success of the Heiden Board amongst the speed skating community soon inspired Dr. Louis Keppler—a former speed skater and fellow orthopedic surgeon—to follow in Heiden’s footsteps. While working as a team physician for the Cleveland Indians (now Guardians), Keppler began to notice an abundance of ACL and patellofemoral injuries in his athletic patients. This led Keppler to develop his own slide board training protocol called “The Keppler Method” (noticing a pattern here?). Keppler later patented his slide board, called “Euroglide” (never mind), and soon his method began to greatly impact the use case for slide boards in the rehabilitation space. Jeff Markland, a former NFL tight end for the Pittsburgh Steelers, used Keppler’s method to mend his career-ending knee injury.

The “Keppler Method” utilized a slide board for knee rehabilitation and provided patients with a specialized exercise program designed to help them recover from knee injuries or surgery. The program simulated skating motions and exercises that strengthen the muscles around the knee joint, improve range of motion, and promote healing.

Seeing firsthand the healing powers of Keppler’s method, Markland sought to find a way to bring this miracle rehab tool to the masses. This mission prompted him to partner with Reebok University’s Program Developer, Kathy Stevens, who was tasked with creating a successor program to their wildly popular “Step Reebok” series.

And in 1994, just a year before “Heavyweights” debuted, Slide Reebok introduced slide boards into the greater fitness community. These were the industry’s first roll-up board, paired with “slide aerobics” workouts that could be done both at home via VHS tape and in a group fitness setting at your local gym.

This wave of excitement for slide boards soon inspired a new cast of celebrity-backed workouts from the likes of Denise Austin, Kathy Ireland, and Cheryl Ladd, all leading slide aerobics exercises on the new lightweight, roll-up model of slide boards. But despite Markland and Stevens’ best efforts to inspire the next generation of lighter-weight slide boards and aerobics-inspired workouts, users outside of the step aerobics crowd weren’t getting on board (pun intended). Additionally, the roll-up design—though convenient to move and store—lacked the durability and stability needed to convince customers to get on board day in and day out.

Soon after, Reebok pulled its funding for the program, and the end of the ’90s saw the end of the once-thriving slide aerobics era. But, as the buzzy ’90s trend was slowly losing its steam, a Northwestern University grad named Barry Slotnick was slowly reengineering a custom-made slide board that carried more weight (quite literally) and served the demographic that initially put slide boards on the map: athletes.

A native of Illinois, Slotnick built his first slide board in 1992 in his off-campus apartment as a cross-training tool for cyclists. His board soon caught the interest of the Northwestern tennis team, which was searching for a frontal-plane-dominant training tool to help players perform better while reducing the risk of knee injuries (meaning: side-to-side exercises). A year later, Slotnick received a call from the Chicago Bulls, requesting longer slide boards built for their taller athletes.

Slotnick’s board caught the interest of the Northwestern tennis team, which was searching for a frontal-plane-dominant training tool to help players perform better while reducing knee injury risk. Share on X

This opportunity prompted Slotnick to form his company, Varisport, and he began his journey as the American-made manufacturer of the UltraSlide Board—the fitness industry’s first eco-friendly, 8–10-foot slide board made for high school to Olympic athletes, as well as rehabilitation centers all across the country. But it wasn’t until 2004—just a decade later—that I would glide across (sorry—couldn’t help myself) Slotnick’s 10-foot UltraSlide board.

While training as a Division I college athlete on George Mason University’s wrestling team, I noticed this long white board on the floor of our strength and conditioning room.

“What’s this?” I asked.

“The most important piece of equipment in this room,” the trainer replied.

After only 10 minutes of continuous effort, I realized that this simply made product was not only one of the most versatile pieces of equipment I had ever used, but it actually packed a punch that I had never felt before as a high-caliber athlete. We did abdominal work, unilateral leg strength exercises, sliding push-ups, and sprinter slides—which instantly turned me into a sweaty and sore human.

Following the workout, I asked the trainer what he meant by this being the “most important piece of equipment in the room.” He proceeded to explain how most sports are multidirectional in nature. And given the historical pitfalls of most modern-day equipment—which primarily focus on sagittal plane exercises (aka forward and backward movements) on equipment such as treadmills, rowing machines, and bikes—it wasn’t surprising to him that athletes were experiencing a rise in muscular imbalances and injuries, specifically to their hips, groin, and knees, as a result of their bodies not being capable of moving in all directions.

These imbalances and injuries could have been avoided if there was a greater emphasis on adding frontal plane training to the equation—which is where the slide board comes in, says @JimmyTMartin. Share on X

Personally, I saw this firsthand with our school’s baseball, volleyball, tennis, and basketball players who had suffered a variety of hip and knee injuries while pivoting in action. And to my trainer’s point, these imbalances and injuries could have been avoided if there was a greater emphasis on adding frontal plane training to the equation—which is where the slide board comes in. Simply put: if athletes want to improve their odds of enjoying an injury-free career and train smarter for their sport, the slide board needs to be front and center with training.

And from that point forward, it was hard not to find a slide board under the feet of any athlete when walking through our training room doors.

Next Slide, Please

Fast forward to 12 years later, when I was creating the concept for Brrrn with Johnny Adamic to launch the world’s first and only cool temperature (50°F) fitness experience in New York City. We both knew that we needed a workout that would give people goosebumps but in a different way. Johnny and I saw not just a need to change the conversation about temperature when it came to exercise but also the conversation about the direction that we move when we exercise.

I spoke about my experience using a slide board as an athlete and with my personal training clients and the value it brought to the health of our bodies. In my opinion, the key selling point of the slide board was how it offered the right balance of being fun and challenging. It offered the user a way to experience a novel movement that would keep their interest in real time while also raising their heart rate, increasing muscular fatigue, and flooding their skin with sweat in such a short period.

From that point on, we sought to redesign the slide board so that it could not only stand the test of time but also wow customers of all ages and abilities in the heart of fitness in New York City. So, when it came to finding the right person to help us design our Brrrn Board, only one name came to mind: Barry Slotnick of UltraSlide. Through this collaboration, Johnny and I were able to celebrate the past in real time by designing our signature product with an industry leader who would be threading his legacy through our brand.

From our launch in 2018 until March 2020, we had more than 23,000 customers through our studio doors and received press from The New York Times, “Live with Kelly and Ryan,” “Good Morning America,” and Bloomberg TV and Radio (and many, many more) for putting slide boards back on the map. And given the overwhelming interest from our customers, we were prompted to develop a Peloton-inspired at-home fitness workout built around the unique programming we had done thousands of times in our studio. After brainstorming ways to develop this fitness experience, Slotnick eventually became an investor in our company.

As fate would have it, however, the pandemic forced our company to make a “lateral move” and focus our entire efforts on creating a direct-to-consumer business inspiring users to get on board with lateral movement training. After a few months of redirecting our efforts, filming hundreds of classes with 20+ instructors, and building an e-commerce platform from scratch, we proudly launched our on-demand fitness platform built around our newly made 5–6-foot adjustable Brrrn Board.

To date, we’ve received investments from the likes of Apolo Ohno (8x Olympic medalist and the most decorated U.S. winter athlete of all time), been featured on “The Today Show,” and received awards from Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Good Housekeeping, and Rolling Stone Magazine. We also created the industry’s first and only accredited slide board training certification (recognized by NASM, ACE, and NCSF), which educates health and fitness professionals about properly applying slide-board-based exercises for one-on-one training as well as small and larger group fitness classes.

We’ve also become an instrumental training tool for youth and adult athletes in sports like hockey, baseball, wrestling, and pickleball. We’ve helped physical therapists help their patients rehab their knee and hip injuries post-surgery. We also increased attendance and retention for many boutique and big box studios by creating impactful programming through Brrrn’s unique slide board training methodology.

As an innovator, I believe you have a responsibility to improve the systems of your predecessors. And with the Brrrn Board, we’ve distilled the best qualities from the slide board these past few decades to create an inimitable fitness experience that can serve every body.

I would argue that you won’t find a more multipurpose, multidirectional training tool that offers a rehabilitative yet competitive experience than a slide board. Fun fact: our Brrrn branded “taps” slide (below) can allow your body to access all three planes of motion in just one movement.

Most importantly, in a world where we are dodging in and out of the way of obstacles and threats to move closer to our desired goals, the slide board serves as the most underrated longevity tool in the fitness industry. By preparing you to move in any direction that life may take you, the slide board can allow you to do the things you love for longer by providing a well-rounded fitness experience that is enjoyable and accessible—both in price and in use.

The slide board can allow you to do the things you love for longer by providing a well-rounded fitness experience that is enjoyable and accessible—both in price and in use, says @JimmyTMartin. Share on X

So, whether your clients are youth athletes (hockey coaches), fitness enthusiasts (personal trainers or studio owners), or older adults (physical therapists), I can’t recommend the benefits of slide board training enough when it comes to improving balance, coordination, upper/lower body strength, core stability, and overall athletic performance.

Hopefully, you can look forward to lateral movement training as much as I do and are open to sliding this incredible training tool into your weekly workout routine!

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