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I recently attended the National High School Strength Coaches Association national conference in Nashville, Tennessee—the first in-person conference I’ve attended since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020.

During this three-day conference (coaches’ social included), I had the opportunity to hear and meet a phenomenal number of coaches from all ranks of performance enhancement—public school, private school, physical education teachers, and college and professional coaches. I’d had social media interactions with many of them but had never before met them in person.

One of the coaches I’ve had frequent interactions with via social media was the final presenter for the weekend: Cody Hughes, from Madison Academy in Alabama. Finally having the opportunity to speak with Cody in person during the coaches’ social, we touched on the topic of his presentation titled “Slow Down to Speed Up: Training Strategies for Robustness.” The underlying concept of Cody’s presentation, and our brief talk, was utilizing and extending time through movements (tempos) to improve the functionality, abilities, and durability of athletes by improving the physiological make-up of ligaments and tendons, which in turn will improve athlete health and availability for performance.

While all the scientific information he presented was great, the point he made that stuck with me the most was his last.

Paraphrasing Cody, if we as coaches are tasked with developing and coordinating plans that enable athletes to perform better, perform longer, and have the skills and information to live healthier lives, we too as coaches have to take care of ourselves: physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

Prior to the week of the conference, I made a knee-jerk decision to remove all social media platforms (excluding YouTube) from my cellphone.

This article is about why I did it, and why you should consider it too.

“Comparison Is the Thief of Joy” – Theodore Roosevelt

As a young Black sports performance coach and small business owner, much of what I do via my social media presence is showing:

• What I do with athletes and clients.
• Why we do it.
• How it’s beneficial to performance (i.e., context).

I touched on this in a podcast I am grateful to have been a guest on, sharing my experience as a Black person in the fitness/strength and conditioning field. People have preconceived notions about what I do—cones and ladder “quick feet” drills, burpees, moderate-intensity long-duration cardio, etc.—in the name of sports performance.

With the opportunities I’ve had as an athlete and young coach, combined with the people I’ve been able to network with over the years, I’ve discovered that it is quite the task to get the average person to understand what actual strength and conditioning for sports performance is. More times than not, I’ve found myself in arguments and “debates” with those who don’t understand those concepts or contextual parameters.

Even worse, I’ve caught myself scrolling through social media comparing my business—and training strategies—to other coaches and trainers who have more followers, more athletes/clients, better equipment, etc.

“Why do they have so many athletes, and that’s all they do?”

“Where did they get the money for this space/equipment?”

“I would never do that with an athlete.”

“When would [insert drill] be useful for [insert sport]?”

“How do I reach [gym/trainers] athletes to get them in my facility?” 

“That’s not how this works.”

These are some of the thoughts and questions that regularly flooded my mind when I scrolled through Instagram, Facebook, and other social media outlets that physical preparation professionals occupied.

I made a conscious effort to avoid using my cellphone before getting to work in order to avoid creating any premature anxiety before accomplishing my morning routines and responsibilities. Share on X

I made a conscious effort to avoid using my cellphone—the outlet through which I consumed all social media—before getting to work in order to avoid creating any premature anxiety before accomplishing my morning routines and responsibilities. However, after my day’s work officially began, it was essentially a matter of just finding time between clients to get a fix. Any new engagements, new client leads, likes on an old tweet—anything.

That only did two things, neither of them positive nor productive:

1. It removed me from my current reality of what was already in front of me.
2. It created anxiety and drive to control something totally outside my power.

“Be Where Your Feet Are” – Scott O’Neil

As a business owner, it is my ultimate goal to help every individual I can. That being said, a realization I came to relatively early into my career was “you can’t save everyone.” In the area I work, there are currently nine elementary schools, four middle schools, and four high schools (one in the same city but a different county).

In and around my geographical radius, there are enough youth athletes (and adults) I can be of assistance to that I don’t need to become a “poacher” coach. I don’t need to look for ways to “compete” with or attempt to acquire (steal) the interests of other individuals or recruit teams to leave their current training situation to join mine.

Some athletes choose to come into my facility regularly and trust me to deliver strategies to improve their performance…and, in some cases, their lives. If I had continued to try to keep up with the Joneses or searched for ways to increase gym engagement, I could possibly have left these athletes feeling neglected, less valuable, or not worthy of my full attention.

If I had continued to try to keep up with the Joneses or searched for ways to increase gym engagement, I could’ve left the athletes in my gym feeling neglected or less valuable, says @KoachGreen_. Share on X

I have a senior client who possesses a wealth of knowledge and served in the United States Navy for several years. He has mentioned a shipmate who often said, “the best ship I’ve ever been on is the one I just left and the one I’m going to next.” This implies that their current circumstances are unsatisfactory, and the one they travel to next will likely be better—a “grass is greener on the other side” outlook.

This is an ugly lie we all face regularly.

Should we be complacent with where we are and what we have? Probably not.

Should we be content with where we are and what we have? Emphatically yes.

If you’ve read other articles I’ve written, then you know I’m a definitions guy:

Complacence: “The quality or state of being self-satisfied.”

Synonyms: conceit, ego, pride, self-importance, etc.

Content: “Having desires limited to whatever one has.”

Synonyms: happy, pleased, joyful, etc.

Having the mental and emotional ability to be fully satisfied where we currently reside, making it the absolute best we possibly can while simultaneously being willing, able, and ready to move forward (or backward) when possible—or necessary—is a skill and tool we should all develop.

The book Make the Big Time Where You Are by Frosty Westering rings true.

Control What You Can Control

In the same vein, it is a fool’s errand to try to compete with another coach or trainer who, at the end of the day, is essentially in business to do the same thing as I am business-wise—regardless of how misleading I believe their approach is to the overarching idea of sports performance.

The individuals and teams I work with choose my services for a reason, and the same can be said for those who choose other options. That’s a challenging part of the business. The customer (client) decides whose products and services they will invest in for a plethora of reasons: convenience, location, the information provided (or not), perception of need, reputation, familiarity, etc. There is a very limited amount of control I can wield over any of those variables. But for those things I can control, I must do so with passion, creativity, and transparency.

Twitter Fingers

As mentioned in the introduction, before June 2022 (since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic), nearly all of the networking, “talking shop,” and professional development I’d done had taken place virtually via social media—primarily on Twitter.

Since May 2020, my Twitter account has had a decent increase in engagement (negative and positive), and my following has grown accordingly.

Having some form of influence on the internet—being able to express my ideas, philosophies, systems, circumstances, and general personality—has an addicting effect, especially when it’s among your peers. And I fell victim to it.

Having some form of influence on the internet has an addicting effect, especially when it’s among your peers. And I fell victim to it, says @KoachGreen_. Share on X

Along with the potential for virtual addiction, the easiest thing to do on social media is to create or engage in a frivolous, out-of-context argument or debate with people you’ve never met (and probably never will).

Again, I’m guilty.

While I can honestly say I never began with ill intent, it is hard to ignore the thrill of engaging in online banter with someone for the sole purpose of “proving your point.” From Olympic lifts for athletes to off-season track & field practice for non-track athletes, I ran the gambit in the span of probably 18 months with multiple people of varying degrees of expertise.

These arguments did absolutely nothing in terms of self-improvement and didn’t help further the profession as a whole or my place within it.

What it did do, however, was enhance the desire to proclaim my values and opinions publicly and die on a proverbial hill despite the perception I may have given of who I am as a person and a coach.

While Twitter can be used as an extremely valuable professional resource, taking a step back and focusing on where my feet are—giving my full attention to those directly in front of me—has been one of the best decisions of my professional career thus far.

While Twitter can be an extremely valuable professional resource, stepping back and focusing on those directly in front of me has been one of the best decisions of my professional career thus far. Share on X

I had to take stock even in my personal life. I have a wife and a dog, and I realized in hindsight that I’d neglected both on many occasions. Ironically, I was introduced to both of them via social media.

I’m a relatively introverted person but had seen my (now) wife on almost a regular basis and would wave, smile, and give a quick “what’s up.” From those brief conversations during my first semester in college, she took the initiative and sent me a message on Facebook. That simple online conversation blossomed into a great friendship and, eventually, our present-day marriage.

After being engaged for a while, my wife and I started talking about getting a dog. Growing up, I never had a pet other than the occasional fish that would inevitably depart this life prematurely, but I always wanted a dog. Although Craigslist isn’t social media per se, it still has all the attributes of what social media has become. After several days of searching I found a new litter of “American Bully” puppies that turned out to be an “accident” after the seven-year-old son of the owners of an American Bully male and APBT female let them out together by accident.

And now we have a little family, all thanks to the internet.

Having just turned 30 this spring, I came to another recent revelation: I was born and raised in a time when the internet was barely a thing (let alone social media), but I’ve also been old enough to watch social media be born and raised.

Social media has been, for more years than not, a part of my life—for better and for worse.

And I honestly think that’s a problem.

The internet—and social media in particular—has manipulated the human experience through devices that haven’t even been in mass circulation for a full generation (30 years).

The use of the internet and social media may be a significant factor in the progression of the profession and distribution of information, but we can’t neglect our physical or mental selves. Share on X

As time goes on, it’s becoming more evident that the use of the internet and social media will be a significant factor in the progression of the profession and the distribution of information. But, as Cody Hughes mentioned in his presentation, we cannot neglect our physical or mental selves at the expense of another like or retweet.

Before my exodus from social media, there was a trend of young (younger than me at least) strength and performance coaches aggressively and obnoxiously bombarding more experienced and tenured professionals with all the newest data points and findings. These were not even attempts to prove themselves right, but seemingly, to prove a veteran coach erroneous and obsolete—to begin accumulating belt notches and battle scars.

Not only does that behavior detract from actual professional development, but it also continues the stereotype about “type A” egotistical strength coaches and coaches.

Red Pill

The Matrix (the first one) is one of the greatest movies produced in my lifetime, and just like in that movie, we must be cognizant of how our perspective and worldview are being skewed due to the nature of social media.

The social interaction and engagement with like-minded individuals, and the opportunity to reach out and communicate with coaches with whom I could have never imagined I would have the chance to converse, is such a remarkable thing to be able to do.

But if the virtual engagement becomes greater than, or equal to, that of being in the present moment…is it even worth it?

I don’t think so, in the slightest.

And that’s why I left social media.

I’ll return as @KoachGreen_ eventually—it’s mildly difficult to run a business without it—but until then, I’ll be enjoying what the real world has to offer.

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

Yes, sprinting at max speed is the most common use for timing lasers, but it’s not the only use—not every run with the systems needs to be at 100% effort/speed or in a straight line.

Timing lasers (such as Dashr, Brower, VALD, Swift, etc.) provide an objective, repeatable, and reliable way of measuring speed. Personally, I’ve found a lot of value in programming and coaching with the VALD SmartSpeed timers. With that simple premise of timing from when the athlete crosses through the first laser to when they cross the last one, there are a variety of valuable uses for multiple aspects of speed training.

Sprinting at max speed is the most common use for timing lasers, but it’s not the only use—not every run with the systems needs to be at 100% effort/speed or in a straight line, says @CoachBigToe. Share on X

I’m here to highlight a trio of uses for timing lasers that include all aspects of preparing for sport and game speed (not just sprinting):

• Timing any type of run you can imagine.
• Building into top-speed sprinting.
• Return to play. 

Timing Any Type of Run You Can Imagine

Going back to the simplicity of timing lasers, measuring how long it takes the athlete to run through the first laser and consequently the second one, anything done in between the lasers is up to you:

1. Example: curve running. Determine how big you want the circle’s radius, set up the cones/rope/whatever you want the boundaries to be, and tell your athletes to run fast. They’ll have extra motivation and objective feedback on whether the rep was better or worse than the previous one.

Video 1: Athlete performing a timed curve run of a full circle.

2. Example: change of direction test. Besides the standard pro-shuttle/pro-agility/5-10-5 (can we figure out an official name for it, please?), how else do you assess your athlete’s ability to change direction? Below is an example of what you could do if the setup is precise and consistent. Sprint 5 yards, unilateral cut using left foot turning to the right, sprint 5 yards, unilateral cut using right foot turning to the left, sprint 5 yards, bilateral cut touching one foot on the line to turn around, sprint 10 yards through the finish.

Video 2: Athletes performing a 180-degree cut test to assess change of direction bilateral cutting.

Here’s another example of a change of direction test you can do. The 180-degree cut test uses a simple premise: the athlete crosses the beam to start the time and has to cross it again to stop the time. The athlete starts at the 0-yard line, runs and touches their foot 10 yards away, and runs back, with the laser on the 5-yard line.

Building into Top-Speed Sprinting

Athletes getting back into top-speed sprinting after extended time off can make coaches nervous (not because it’s immediately dangerous, but if done haphazardly, it can be). Using timing lasers can help objectively guide the progression from time off back into max effort sprints.

For example, here’s how you could build up to top-speed sprinting over the course of multiple weeks. Let’s say the athlete’s best fly 10 is 1.00 seconds:

• Session 1: Fly 10s with a 20-yard build-in at 90%, should be around 1.10 seconds.
• Session 2: Fly 10s with a 25-yard build-in at 90%, should be around 1.10 seconds.
• Session 3: Fly 10s with a 25-yard build-in at 95%, should be around 1.05 seconds.
• Session 4: Fly 10s with a 30-yard build-in at 95%, should be around 1.05 seconds.
• Session 5: Fly 10s with a 30-yard build-in at 100%, should be around 1.00 seconds.

If you know an athlete’s best, you can calculate the percentages and give them something to shoot for to drive progress objectively. But coaching with percentages like that can be challenging for some athletes to understand. With the example above, if the athlete is sprinting their fly 10s at a 1.20 pace, will that prepare them for 100% in the following weeks? Probably not.

Is the athlete actually at 90% of their previous best? Is the following session of 95% faster than the previous session at 90%? How else do you know if they’re hitting the speed they’re supposed to hit? Say the athlete’s “90%” is actually 80% speed and you need them to add some speed and intensity. Or, your athlete is excited, comes out at 1.04 when it should be a 1.10, and you need them to dial it back a little. Either way, it’s easier to do so with objective justification and being able to SHOW them their speed. Even if it’s telling them to hit the same speed again, it adds that much more reassurance to the athlete with the numbers to back it up.

Return to Play

Besides progressing through the typical return to play rehabilitation protocols—and eventually regaining the ability to sprint at 100% effort—how else do you evaluate progress? Timing lasers are an effective way to get objective feedback about how an athlete is progressing through rehab. I’ve used objective measurements like this by prompting the athlete “sprint 10 yards as fast as you feel comfortable” and tracking it over time. It might not always be pretty, and it might not be near their best speed pre-injury, but it’s another tool you have to provide even more information about an athlete’s progress.

Timing lasers are an effective way to get objective feedback about how an athlete is progressing through rehab… It’s the most direct way to compare if they’re at 100% of what they used to be. Share on X

Rehab can be a long, frustrating, and discouraging process. But how impactful would it be to show your athlete that they’re making improvements in the right direction toward their goals, even if those improvements aren’t drastic? How impactful would it be for you to justify calling an audible and modifying your protocols if progress objectively stalls after multiple sessions/weeks? Are athletes done with rehab because they progressed through the exercises or because they can consistently hit the same times as they could pre-injury? It’s the most direct way to compare if they’re at 100% of what they used to be.

Assuming you regularly time sprints in your speed training, you should take “pre-injury” or “baseline” data for your athletes. It’s not the timing lasers themselves but what you do with them and what they help justify that takes your return to play to the next level.

Bonus: Motivation

Not everything that is timed needs to be written down, and sometimes timing lasers can just be used as motivating feedback. You can make up a drill on the spot and instantly draw out more effort just by setting up timing lasers. Make it competitive, make it fun, and watch your athletes run that much faster.

Be creative in new applications of your timing lasers to level up your coaching. This is a different way to think about a tool you might already have to complement what you’re already doing. Whether it’s supporting drawing more effort out of your change of direction drills, helping build back into sprinting more safely, or helping your return to play process and decisions, the only limit is your imagination.

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

At bigger schools with large staffs, the strength coach with only two or three teams is available to attend staff meetings and work practices and competitions. And they can usually find time to meet regularly with coaches and athletic trainers without much trouble. But how can strength coaches at smaller schools with smaller staffs provide similar high performance value? When three of your teams are practicing at the same time that you’re lifting another group, it can be tough to stay on top of the daily goings-on for any given program.

Here at Lee University, my assistant and I work with about 300 kids. Between team lifts and open-hours sessions where we roll kids through seven half-racks (not to mention typical administrative work), unfortunately, we don’t have the ability to regularly attend as many practices or sports staff meetings as we’d like. To approximate a high-performance model in our context, we use technology to track some key performance indicators to create athlete data profiles that give actionable information to sports coaches, athletic trainers, and the strength staff.

This past fall, I used women’s volleyball as the guinea pig for our new Vitruve VBT units since it was the team whose practices I could attend the most. (The first few weeks were busy, as I was elevated to the head role just prior to school starting. I tried to average about one practice a week during the back half of the semester.) Being able to watch your team practice is such a benefit for the strength coach. You learn:

• What positions do they regularly find themselves moving into and out of?
• Can I learn some of the lingo to link our training with the language of their sport?
• What is the practice tempo—sure, reverse-engineering the work:rest ratios of competition is important, but they have to get through practice to make it to game day.

During breaks, I ask our coaches and athletic trainer how the girls have been looking, and it’s a good chance to quickly discuss how training has recently translated to the court. Luckily, with this team, our coaching staff is at every single lift. Some strength coaches may be wary of that, but I truly appreciate it—their presence shows that the weight room is important and keeps us connected as a staff since I can’t be at every practice. Regardless, a little face time at practice (and games, especially) goes a long way—you can pretend to care, but you can’t pretend to be there.

The kids and coaches eat it up when you can link your training exercises to a drill from practice or a sport-specific scenario, says wla_21. Share on X

As much as possible, maintaining a presence outside the weight room walls is also one of the easiest ways to get buy-in from administrators, coaches, and athletes. The kids and coaches eat it up when you can link your training exercises to a drill from practice or a sport-specific scenario. And the relationship factor obviously gets them to trust you quicker and more deeply. Often, the most effective staff meetings can occur in informal situations, like during practice breaks or passing by each other in the dining hall.

Technology Used

We use Google Sheets, TeamBuildr, the Just Jump mat, and the Vitruve VBT unit as our main pieces of technology.

To begin each session, the girls enter their body weight into TeamBuildr, and early into the lift, we get a four-jump RSI score and a vertical jump as a readiness method, both of which they enter into Google Sheets on one of our two laptops. A short questionnaire in TeamBuildr on stress, sleep, and nutrition reminds athletes of their ownership in “the other 20 hours” and can paint a picture for S&C and athletic training as the stresses of the in-season phase pile up. Fortunately, the Vitruve app is synced with TeamBuildr to automatically record tonnage, velocity, and power for selected lifts.

Peak power is the primary key performance metric we track for our weight work in-season—obviously, you have to move yourself with some suddenness to meet and contact the ball out on the court effectively. Grinding heavy weight for the sake of heavy weight doesn’t make much sense when factoring in mid-week games, travel, school stressors, etc. If a player’s power is slipping over the course of the semester, you need to manipulate your tonnage schemes, as power loss will show during competition.

There’s a balance: last year, our single leg power dropped a bit despite our other lower body metrics improving. I may have gone a little light in our weight selection there, although we only had one session for that lift in November, so the data is limited compared to the other months.

The athletes’ lift numbers are tracked each session, so we can compare them across time to their position group and team. Again, peak power is the figure I’m most interested in, and you can also prescribe lifts within velocity ranges if you’re so inclined.

In Google Sheets, the data validation function allows you to select an athlete from a drop-down menu, enabling us to rotate through each player’s profile quickly; all the numbers are copied from TeamBuildr into a separate “Roster” sheet that is referenced within the data profile sheet formulas. That “Roster” sheet also tracks changes over time for the assessments, while the data profile serves as a snapshot of a given testing week. In the future, we’ll be able to compare any given point of the season to the same point in time from previous years. Likewise, we can see the typical peak power for a particular position. With Vitruve and TeamBuildr’s combined tracking, I can get an idea of how set, rep, and tonnage variables affect power on both the micro and macro scales.

With Vitruve and TeamBuildr’s combined tracking, I can get an idea of how set, rep, and tonnage variables affect power on both the micro and macro scales, says wla_21. Share on X

By the end of the semester, I logged all their peak power numbers that Vitruve and TeamBuildr saved—I chose to track hang power cleans, squat, a split squat, bench press, a 1-arm landmine press, and split jumps. This range of exercises shows a total body, lower body, and upper body effort, as well as unilateral lower and upper body efforts. This weight room data is referenced in the master “Roster” sheet, which is then referenced to build their player profile. Color-coded charts show their (hopeful) growth as the semester progresses.

Varying your exercise selection allows you to improve the athletes’ KPIs with more specified lifts (e.g., moving from full to half to quarter squats, a strict landmine press to a push press to a jerk, etc.) without the training growing stale and progress stalling as you build a tolerance to exercises that don’t change. Did I try to cheat the system with my exercise selection choices to make our power trend upward as the season progressed? Absolutely—that is the entire point of periodization and hoping to achieve something of a peak in the team sport setting.

For example, the coaching staff felt that blocking was the skill that improved the most through the season; the vertical jump average increased 1.3 inches for our frontline rotation girls from August to November. The coaches and girls all felt that they were also striking the ball harder as the season progressed.

Integrating with Coaching Staff and Athletic Trainers

Comparing key sports statistics alongside the weight room numbers can provide good talking points with your coaching staff. Do a player’s stats match up with their athleticism? That question can start a conversation on the Four Coactive performance model (physical, tactical, technical, and psychological factors).

Might an explosive player be too slow reacting to visual patterns on the court? Are there any limiting factors keeping a girl with a high volleyball IQ from expressing it on the court?

Assessment lets us know exactly how each player compares to their teammates physically and in competition. If any area needs addressing, we know what we can work on. Particularly in team sports—where it can be tough to empirically quantify the effect size of drills/exercises/etc.—why guess in the few instances where you do have the ability to assess some factors?

Particularly in team sports—where it can be tough to empirically quantify the effect size of drills/exercises/etc.—why guess in the few instances where you do have the ability to assess some factors? Share on X

And we can’t forget our athletic trainers! Since we track their athleticism numbers, ATs can have a baseline for return-to-play protocols. We might not have GPS/heart rate monitors or force plates lying around, but knowing an RSI jump or a 5-10-5 time gives us a reference for criterion-based reconditioning when making sure kids are ready to return to full-intensity drills. If a cluster of injuries pops up randomly, the acute:chronic ratio could be a good place to check.

In the past, we’ve done some questionnaires and monitored acute:chronic ratios by combining practice duration and RPE with tonnages in the weight room, but we’re gotten away from these more subjective measures in favor of tracking power throughout. Accounting for the systemic load of accessory movements can be challenging, and starting every session on the jump mat serves as a quick readiness test, anyway. It can be interesting to compare the kids’ practice RPE to a coach’s RPE, though—if the range is always wide, that can lead to some questions.

Obviously, a coach may think that a given practice should feel easy, but players could feel otherwise if it involves a lot of time on their feet or lots of landing at the wrong time of the year. Much like we periodize our workouts, coaches can mix factors like time, intensity, skill drills versus scrimmaging, etc., to keep practices productive and efficient.

At the start of every practice, the girls mark on a whiteboard how they’re feeling physically and mentally; this is an excellent way for our coaches to holistically see how both the team and individuals are doing daily. There’s a trust factor required on both ends. For the players—do I believe I won’t get punished if I say I don’t feel so great today? For me—can I trust what my team wrote on the board? If they say they’re fresh, then we can practice as scheduled.

Smaller schools, or those with smaller budgets, may have to get creative to implement a high-performance model, but it can be done. If our job is to support our coaches and athletes, we need to use everything at our disposal to make a positive impact, no matter our budget.

If our job is to support our coaches and athletes, we need to use everything at our disposal to make a positive impact, no matter our budget, says @wla_21. Share on X

Choosing to train during the competitive period only makes sense if we’re increasing KPIs and giving the players a better capacity to express their sports skills. Tracking our power and trying to manipulate it upward through the season is a good way to feel confident that our training positively impacts performance. Technology can be a great supplement to the power of the conversations and the coach’s eye in a high-performance model.

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

At the collegiate level, my fellow strength and conditioning coaches and I are able to see our working environment and teams’ culture from a bird’s-eye view. We sit at the back of the meeting room for film and game day walk-throughs, and while we play a role in practice, we are certainly not at the center of it all (at least, we shouldn’t be!).

With this bird’s-eye view, we can offer honest, 360-degree feedback to our head coach on what we see and how this may be of good or of harm to the culture they are trying to uphold. Providing this feedback is important, and we must be brave as support staff to communicate with the head coach things we see that might be a blind spot for them.

If I am to provide this feedback, I’d better be in a self-reflective mood when assessing my role within the program as well. At the start of each off-season and in-season phase, I write a new “interventions” list and a daily checklist that hang above my desk as reminders of what I need to do to provide the best S&C program I can with the knowledge and experience I’ve accumulated.

I’m in my fifth off-season with Furman—working with men’s basketball and men’s golf—and the longer I’m in this profession, the more I value and make time to reflect on my previous years’ work and how I can improve it for the next macrocycle. Over the last couple of years at Furman, my biggest bird’s-eye view reflection was that I needed to incorporate technology into my S&C program to take it to the next level. Technology was an area I didn’t have any experience in, but I knew it would make a huge impact in providing the most holistic S&C program possible for my teams.

Adding technology systems to an already busy workload, like anything new, requires time and effort. It also requires us as coaches to be brave when communicating with the coaching staff about what the data is telling us, how we have assessed it, and what practical steps we should take to improve based on the data insight.

You’ll save time if you use technology correctly and get a deeper, more wide-reaching picture of many things that contribute significantly to your athletes’ health & performance, says @SCoach_Aldo. Share on X

This article aims to show you that with the right systems in place, technology doesn’t have to add hours to your already busy day. In fact, the opposite is true. You will save time if you use technology correctly, and you will get a deeper, more wide-reaching picture of many things that contribute significantly to your athletes’ health and performance. And this, at the end of the day, is how our jobs are assessed.

Good to Great

To clarify something before we move on, I know from discussions and various social media posts that this question is being asked a lot:

Do I need technology (force plates, GPS, heart rate, etc.) to run an S&C program and get good results in the weight room and on the field/court/pool?

I can hear us all saying to ourselves, “My days are already busy, my program is already good, I’ve had good results in the past; I don’t need technology to be a great S&C coach.” I don’t want to contest you on what you’ve done in the past. My challenge is to get us all into a proactive mindset with our thinking. What else can I do that will raise the level of my S&C program? How can I take it from good to great? What could move the performance needle if I added it into my program?

Following on from this, I want to propose some questions.

• • Is the team high-performing? How do you define and quantify high-performing?

 

• • How do you quantify your job performance? Wins and losses are tricky ones that we would all do well to tread lightly over. Program-best winning season, “it all starts in the weight room”; sub-500 record, “it all starts in the weight room.” My advice here would be to check yourself in the mirror, don’t take the bait, and just continue to add value where you can. Learn from the wins and the losses from a physical preparation standpoint and remember that a strength coach has never made a winning play (or any play!) in any game. We are support staff, not student-athletes.

 

• • What data do you have that you can show an athlete so they can see their progress, both in the weight room and on the field/court?

 

• • What data do you have that can show a coach their practice loads and work to periodize this better? After all, games are truly won and lost on the field/court, not in the weight room. Keep the number 1 thing as the number 1 thing: the sport the athlete is at the university to play. Your lifting sessions are just a mandatory add-on to that sport.

 

• What data do you have that can show a coach the team’s game loads? If we are to reverse-engineer the sport to best program and prepare the team to compete, we need game data/loads to work from and prepare for in the following pre-season period. Wins and losses don’t help you program a pre-season conditioning session. Having game data with a tracking system that shows game intensity and average work/rest periods does.

Wins and losses don’t help you program a pre-season conditioning session. Having game data with a tracking system that shows game intensity and average work/rest periods does, says @SCoach_Aldo. Share on X

• • What training program feedback are you getting? In this power block of training, how do you know if the athlete got more explosive? Does a 1RM power clean improvement equal an improvement in their force production? Did they get stronger, enabling them to get a new 1RM? Did the programming to work on the power clean lead to an increase in power?

 

• • Do you have a yearlong readiness and fatigue monitoring system in place? Wellness questionnaires are great but subjective; athletes can manipulate their answers (shocking, I know!). Do you have a quantitative way of tracking their fatigue/readiness throughout the season?

 

• • Can you provide the freshman with normative data that they can work toward to match the performance level of older athletes in the program?

 

• When assessing NBA/NFL talent and using these examples to motivate your athletes, do you look at their combine scores? Do you work toward improving your athletes’ combine scores? Isn’t this considered a test and retest using data to show progression and performance gaps? I assume you use some equipment, maybe even technology (speed gates), to run these combines—if you use technology and data to help your athletes reach the next level, why wouldn’t you incorporate it into your daily work to ensure more accurate, detailed, and player-specific programming?

You will get better results with the use of technology within your S&C program. Answering these questions without data, without evidence of improvements, and without quantifiable results is near impossible. You can turn a good program into a great one with technology because you are now getting player-specific feedback—internal and external load—that can help your decision-making as an S&C coach.

Data Reporting

With all sports technology systems, there is a range of different metrics collected and made available for analysis. The first few conversations with the tech company’s sports scientist are crucial in establishing what they perceive to be important within your sport and what you were looking to track and monitor (which is hopefully what led you to buy the product, not pressure to do so just to say you have “X” product).

After you have used the system for a few weeks, the analysis and subsequent interpretation of the data is the next, and arguably the most important, step. (It has been said that to get the most from the data, a full yearly training cycle should first be recorded before assessment.) As strength and conditioning coaches, it is highly likely that we are the ones who really like, care for, and are heavily invested in the data, not the coaching staff. It is our job to present this data so that our coaching staff understands, cares about, and can make practical decisions. Often, this involves adding context to the data—such as showing which drills produced the highest load or highlighting which players stood out in terms of high or low exertion during the session.

It is the S&C coach’s job to present the data so our coaching staff understands, cares about, and can make practical decisions. Often, this involves adding context to the data, says @SCoach_Aldo. Share on X

For example, as you can see with the slide below, I can describe some training recommendations that are in easy-to-understand terms and simple to apply practically. It requires no data analysis or extra work for the sports coach; they can tweak practice plans easily based on your detail and prior work.

Take ownership of the data and do a deep dive into what you find interesting and what could help the team prepare/recover and optimize game performance. These may be bigger projects to work on, but they’re likely important questions to find answers to. Only share with the coaching staff the crucial data sets that can answer specific questions you have been asked to report back on or proactively seek to improve. For example:

1. How you want to structure the pre-season differently this year compared to last year.
2. How your day-before-a-game practice load could potentially contribute to a fast start in the game or not.
3. How player X has been trending recently in practice/games.
4. How player X is working through their return to play protocol efficiently.

Practical Reporting Examples

When using Hawkin Dynamics force plates in the weight room, I will clean the data after every lift session and compare the latest jumps to the athlete’s previous session and total data set. We jump on the plates whenever the athletes are in the weight room to train. The more data points I have for them here, the better, both from a fatigue monitoring perspective and a training response perspective.

The picture below highlights a player’s jump height during their freshman year. Jump height is the main metric I look at and track with the countermovement jump, with time to takeoff and L/R average braking force. When players perform the drop jump, the focus is on seeing changes in their reactive strength: RSI and mRSI.

I like to share with the coaching staff via text when a player gets a PR jump. I’ll let my head coach know when the team average is very high above the average or very low below the average. I do this to create a conversation around the team’s upcoming training and how best we can program to ensure the team stays healthy and high-performing.

Reporting good news to the coaching staff from the weight room is always fun; if the team’s energy is good and their jumps are above average, it’s productive to reinforce the staff’s desire to have an intense practice. What makes a coaching staff impressive is their ability to use their eye and know when to pull back on intensity or duration of practice (or sometimes both). Even when the jump heights have been well below average, it’s been interesting to report this to the staff and see that the plan for that day or the next day was for a lighter court session or no practice anyway, which is a great connection between their instinct and the data. This isn’t always the case, of course, but this is where we have to be brave to report what we see and trust that the information is received and some training modifications, even if they are small, are made.

I am also very selective with what I share with the coaching staff about the on-court training. I no longer send out post-practice reports (Kinexon), as that wasn’t an effective way for me to communicate training loads to the coaching staff. I found that sending an email wasn’t adequate for sharing the sessions with them; texting them or printing out the data with context and putting it on their desks led to much greater conversation around Kinexon and our use of the system.

I look at the week as a whole and create a slide on Friday of each training week that shows the team practice loads for that week. I print this out and put it on my coach’s desk so that he can see what days were more intense than others. It can be a discussion starter for us on how to best plan for the following week. Using extra features on these reports to present the data in the coaching terms and vocabulary that we use as a program has also proven to be an effective way of data reporting (for example, changing the term “accumulated acceleration load per minute” into “high-intensity effort per minute”).

Producing work with a high level of detail will go a long way when presenting data to staff and wanting the desired outcome, says @SCoach_Aldo. Share on X

For bigger-picture questions, such as comparing in-game intensity from this past season to the previous season, I print out some slides and put these on the staff’s desks. I then text the group chat some background on what I have given them, my conclusions, and how to get a better result next time with some practical application points. Producing work with a high level of detail will go a long way when presenting data to staff and wanting the desired outcome.

Here to Stay

Whether you currently use technology in your program or not, one thing is for sure—sports technology isn’t going anywhere! To provide my athletes with the most holistic strength and conditioning program possible, I must integrate performance tech. The information these products provide is game-changing compared to not having it.

It’s 2022. There will continue to be more and more products on the market that will help us do our jobs as S&C coaches. There’s never been a better time to be in this profession, given what we have available to us to help program and coach our athletes to higher levels of performance.

Kinexon first started working with college basketball teams in 2018, and Hawkin Dynamics did as well. Both companies are market leaders in the service they provide, and yet they are only four years old in the basketball strength and conditioning world. Yes, technology may be harder for older coaches to get behind, as many have had good success without using any, but for me, if you’re in this profession now, the future path is clear. It involves great sports technology products that make our jobs easier and allow us to reach new levels of insight and performance.

Lead photo by John Byrum/Icon Sportswire

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

If you’re in the army, one of the standards to remain in the organization is the ability to pass their physical fitness test. For many years, soldiers performed the Army Physical Fitness Test (or APFT), which included push-ups, sit-ups, and a 2-mile run. Officially rolling out in October 2022, the new Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT) will replace the APFT, and this updated test better matches the demands on soldiers to get a more accurate idea of their fitness levels.

The new Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT) will replace the APFT, and this updated test better matches the demands on soldiers to get a more accurate idea of their fitness levels, says @Mccharles187. Share on X

To prepare for this test, we will go over programming considerations including:

• Exercise choices
• Sets and reps
• Weekly program structure to improve in the ACFT

The ACFT encompasses five major pillars of soldier fitness that the test measures to ensure a well-rounded, physically fit soldier as referenced in the FM7-22, which details definitions of Holistic Health and Fitness (H2F) and programming considerations for the army. You can check it out here:

The five pillars are:

1. Strength
2. Power
3. Muscular endurance
4. Anaerobic endurance
5. Aerobic endurance

The ACFT uses measurements from the following six events to measure the pillars:

1. Three-repetition maximum trap bar deadlift (strength)
2. Standing power throw (power)
3. Hand release push-ups (muscular endurance)
4. Planks (muscular endurance)
5. Sprint-drag-carry (anaerobic endurance)
6. Two-mile run (aerobic endurance)

Each event has a minimum requirement and maximum score based on gender and age. You can learn more about the ACFT and how each event is performed here.

After so many years of those in the army mostly running and doing sit-ups and push-ups, this new test required them to update their training methodologies with the help of the H2F team. My job is to teach my battalion at Fort Bragg how to train smarter to ensure they can stay injury free and exceed a passing score in the ACFT. The strength and conditioning coaches at H2F have collectively agreed upon the following six movement patterns (in no particular order) to include in their strength training two to three times per week to help improve each of the five pillars of soldier fitness:

1. Squat
2. Hinge
3. Upper press
4. Upper pull
5. Lunge/single leg
6. Carry/drag

After so many years of those in the army mostly running and doing sit-ups and push-ups, this new test required them to update their training methodologies, says @Mccharles187. Share on X

Squat

The squat can include a number of squat variations including back squats, front squats, kettlebell goblet squats, trap bar deadlift, land-mine squats, etc. This and the hinge pattern will be the best movements to perform to increase the three-rep max trap bar deadlift as well as keep the legs strong and healthy for running and performing other tasks required of the soldier.

Hinge

Hinge patterns include barbell/kettle bell (KB) Romanian deadlifts, deadlifts, trap bar deadlifts, hip bridges, KB swings, and more. Primarily, we are aiming to work on the glutes and the hamstrings for resiliency and to assist in improving the three-rep max trap bar deadlift. I also like to do single leg variations to work on body control so they can feel which side is weaker and work on bridging the gap.

Upper Press

I like to split upper press movements into horizontal, incline, and vertical presses to ensure we are training various areas of the shoulder, arms, and chest to avoid overuse and to strengthen weak areas a soldier hasn’t trained before.

I like to split upper press movements into horizontal, incline, and vertical presses…to avoid overuse and to strengthen weak areas a soldier hasn’t trained before, says @Mccharles187. Share on X

The army has used push-ups for a long time as a main exercise, so I tend to use horizontal presses the least and focus more on vertical and incline presses to work on neglected muscle areas; I throw in horizontal presses once in a blue moon (meaning we don’t use the Barbell Bench Press exercise very much). Exercises in this category can include barbell/KB incline press, barbell/KB military press, KB upright presses, barbell bench press, land-mine press (single or double arm), weighted push-ups, and banded push-ups.

Upper Pull

For shoulder and back health, I think this movement pattern matters the most compared to the upper press, only because the army has been doing push-ups since the dawn of time and many have neglected training their back—which may have contributed to shoulder and back injuries while training or out in the field. I include as many different back exercises as I can in both horizontal and vertical patterns to strengthen the rotator cuff and overall back strength. Exercises can include rows in their various forms, chin-ups, pull-ups, band pull-aparts, and band no monies.

Lunge

Exercises can include KB, barbell, or landmine lunges (forward, reverse, or lateral), split-squats, rear-elevated split squats, front-elevated split squats, and pistol squats. Similar to doing single leg hinge movements, these help strengthen the legs for body control and work on the weaker leg individually to bridge the gap from the stronger leg. For me, these are more focused on injury prevention, tendon health, and balance/stability.

Carry/Drag

In the sprint-drag-carry event, the soldiers have to drag a nylon sled loaded at 90lbs then later carry two 40lb kettlebells for a 25-meter shuttle each. So, we include variations of carries and drags to adapt to the demands of the test. Exercises can include farmer’s carry, waiters carry, KB upright carry, forward sled drags, reverse sled drags, and lateral sled drags.

Weekly Program Structure

Within a 5-day period, my goal is to be able to train each of the five pillars at least one to two times to drive consistent progress and avoid soldiers running excessively and to reduce overuse injuries. Each company I assist with programs a month at a time sends me their PT plans or has me in the room to guide how the week should look.

Within a 5-day period, my goal is to be able to train each of the five pillars at least one to two times to drive consistent progress, says @Mccharles187. Share on X

My general recommendation is that we strength train two times per week, do a long run one time per week, and do a speed and anaerobic conditioning session one time per week. Thursdays are an enforced “warrior/tactical PT” day led by our Division Commander, so the soldiers have to either go on a ruck (carrying a 25-35lb ruck sack with full gear and hike/walk for 2-6 miles) or do a tactical PT session using logs, tires, battle ropes, sleds, etc. in a circuit or competition-based event.

Bear in mind that we strength train in a small, Beaverfit gym-in-a-box that has four squat racks with five barbells, 10-20lb medballs, 6-24kg kettlebells, four metal sleds, and some bands—and this is shared by three companies (in my battalion, each company has about 25 soldiers). We can only have two companies training at the box at a time, so each company has a similar training schedule with all the elements in the table but the workouts are moved around to different days. For example, my Alpha Company strength trains at the box Monday and Wednesday, while my Head Quarters and Bravo Company strength train at the box Tuesday and Friday.

Normally, I would like to have the long run on Fridays since I consider that a high volume day, but that’s just how the schedule worked out. The army jokingly likes to call Monday a “detox” day anyway after the weekend’s shenanigans, so they don’t mind running on Mondays.

Strength Workout Example/Sets and Reps

From the table, you can probably tell that, outside the strength training days, the workouts are more endurance/high volume. Because of this set up, my workout volume when we strength train is extremely low because they are getting plenty of volume from the other days. Often, they come in to training with some level of fatigue from the day before, so I do my best to account for that to keep the effort and quality of movements high.

Often, athletes come in to training with some level of fatigue from the day before, so I do my best to account for that to keep the effort and quality of movements high, says @Mccharles187. Share on X

After a dynamic warm-up, we’ll do 3-5 sprints at 20-40 meters on Tuesdays and do 1-3 agility/change of direction drills on Fridays to wake them up and get the nervous system firing before we lift. When we are training the squat and hinge movements, I tend to stay under 25 total reps, as their legs are pre-fatigued from running/rucking. I’ll lean the upper press toward the higher volume side on the Prilipen chart, in the 70-85% range. The upper pull I’ll do very high volume and do >24 total reps, as most soldiers back muscles are very weak and underactive unless it’s a chin-up or pull-up and give a range of 3-10 reps depending on strength ability.

I’ll stick to 2-3 sets of 8-12 reps at a moderate weight for lunges/single legs to target strength/hypertrophy. Finally, we’ll do drags/carries from 25-50 meters to adapt to the demands of the sprint-drag-carry test. Below is an example workout we’re doing in the month of July on Tuesdays. Keep in mind that I have been training with these soldiers for seven months and have progressed movements and exercises slowly and safely to get to this point and do not recommend doing this on Day 1 of training.

Dynamic Warm-Up

3-5 Sprints at 20-40 Meters resting 1-min for every 10 meters of sprinting

A1. 5s Eccentric Back Squat 5×3

A2. Depth Jumps for height 5×3

A3. Kettle Squat Jumps for height 5×3

A4. Band Assisted Drop Jumps 5×3

B1. Land-Mine Explosive Pull to Press 4x4e

B2. Med Ball Alt Slam to Single Arm Chest Pass 4x4e

B3. Incline Plyo Push-Ups 4×4

C1. Kettlebell Front Elevated Split-Squat 3×8-12e

C2. 5s Isometric Pull-Up 3×3-8

C3. Barbell Zercher Carry’s (with elbow padding) 3×25 meters down and back

Mobility/Stretch

Our Brigade alone has 14 total strength coaches working down to the company level and every coach sets up their weekly schedule and workouts differently based on equipment, number of soldiers per session, schedule, etc., but we all strive to train each of the five pillars throughout the week and stick to the six main movement patterns when we are strength training.

Evidence of Effectiveness

Below is a before and after ACFT data sheet from one of my companies from Jan/Feb to March of 2022. For reference, I started working with this battalion in January. In short, they improved in every category and are sitting better than they were before, going from approximately 80% passing to 100% passing the test. On the second test, they replaced the leg tucks with planks so I was only able to look at the plank scores compared to the leg tuck.

Each event is given a score from 0 to 100 based on how you perform in each event that is adjusted for gender and age. You can look at a copy of the score sheet for each event here (need a minimum of 60 points in each event to pass).

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 installment of Facility Finders is unique because it is not about the biggest or the newest facility. Instead, we’ll be looking at a facility that was perfectly redesigned for its athletic population through a process that didn’t miss any necessary aspects.

Coach Pat Doyle is the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach at Grand Island Senior High School in Grand Island, Nebraska. While in his third year at Grand Island, Coach Doyle is in his fifth year at the high school level after previously working at Riverton High School in Riverton, Kansas. When he took over at Grand Island, the space was heavily designed around machines, as that was the priority with training at the time it was built. To adapt the space for his high school groups, he wanted a design where space was king.

Coach Doyle wanted to change the training space from one heavily designed around machines to one where space was king. Share on X

Video 1. Virtual tour of the Grand Island training facility.

Facility Design

This renovation was completed this past May—before the remodel, the space was original to its 1996 construction. The old facility had too many single-use machines, which Coach Doyle said made training youth athletes very difficult in a short amount of time and with limited space. He was able to get rid of the machines they had, allowing him to open up the area a lot more so he could add in power racks and other types of multi-use machines.

“When adding new equipment, the only ‘machines’ I bought were pit shark belt squats (HUGE FAN), posterior chain developers, and lat pulls,” Doyle said. “The posterior chain developers allow us to do so many variations of different exercises—really a universal machine.”

Flow is always critical in facility design, and Coach Doyle prioritized this with the renovation. To maximize the space around the racks and be able to move around, Coach Doyle decided on 10 double-sided racks and five half racks that athletes can use in their training. This enables him to keep his young athletes in one area for safety and better coaching; he was able to do this because of the choice to create an auxiliary space to house the non-rack exercise equipment.

“The combo racks saved some space and money and allowed us more room for an auxiliary lane for the pit sharks, posterior chain developers, dumbbells, and lat pulls and a turf strip running the length of the room into an entirely turfed area in the back of our room,” Coach Doyle said. “The turf allows us to do a lot of different things year round without having to rely on our football field for turf—pushing sleds in the snow in single-digit weather isn’t the greatest—and also to do some more sprints and change of direction drills inside our room without having to rely on gym space as much.”

Equipment

To me, choosing equipment is the hardest part of the whole process because the right company will make everything else easier on you so you can focus on COACHING. Power Lift did just that for Coach Doyle; they were involved in advising on the design for the space based on how he coaches and on his budget. Coach Doyle believes in the racks being where the athletes do all of their training, so those need to have everything there—with large groups of 14- to 17-year-olds, keeping them focused on what’s in front of them is the best way he saw to train his athletes.

The actual budget ultimately plays the biggest part in design—sometimes, it doesn’t come down to what the athletes need but what the program can afford. (This is okay because, as coaches, we can still get done what we need to do.) Longevity was a huge piece of why Doyle decided to use Power Lift again for this project. Power Lift outfitted the original building, and the equipment survived almost 30 years of use by Grand Island athletes. Y’all will love the response when I asked Coach what ultimately led him to pick Power Lift over everyone else.

“You obviously want to get high-quality equipment, and Power Lift is notorious for that, and their reputation confirms it,” Coach Doyle said, adding, “along with [it] being a great small-town company right here in the heartland of America. (Still… Nebraska > Iowa).”

Specialty Equipment

In terms of specialty equipment, Power Lift offers a range of attachments that allow Grand Island athletes to do A LOT at their rack station without creating more congestion by needing to move around the room. Each rack is outfitted with rotating utility pads, band pegs, dip stations, landmines, chains, bands, 10-, 25-, and 45-pound bumpers, an extra bar, and physio balls. Plus, there are almost enough trap bars for each rack.

“We also purchased safety squat bars for the ability to load a squat with poor mobility/injured upper limbs if necessary or to even do the hand-supported variations, which I am super excited about,” Coach Doyle said. “Our flooring is all custom inlaid platforms as well, which tops it all off. The auxiliary space houses pit sharks, lat pulls, glute ham machines, and a large turf strip, all of which were made possible with one phone call to Power Lift.”

Purpose

With the redesigned strength facility, Coach Doyle ‘ultimately wanted to create an environment that got kids excited about training and make it a spot they WANTED to come to every day.’ Share on X

“Ultimately, I wanted to create an environment that got kids excited about training and make it a spot they WANTED to come to every day,” Coach Doyle said. “I personalized as much as I could with Grand Island’s logo, ‘ISLANDER POWER,’ and our core values to really make it a home for our athletes. I still have plans in the works for adding some artwork to the walls and hanging some flags and banners from the ceiling to highlight all of our athletic teams.”

I think the core value personalization is really special because it allows the athletes to see what the fundamental goal of training is. The easy stuff is getting stronger and faster—the more challenging part is teaching young kids about stewardship or how important communication is because it is something they will need for the rest of their lives. So, seeing that every day was a stroke of genius from Coach Doyle.

Tips from Coach Doyle

Projects like this are more and more common because we have to find a way to make our current space work. This is sometimes harder because there’s an odd post in the middle of the room or the shape of the space is impossible to work with. New builds can be easier because you’re building that space to fit your needs, but with projects like this, you are really retrofitting the space with new equipment. A few key suggestions:

• Get an accurate budget and see how much wiggle room you have—then maximize what you can get with it.
• Create a list of needs and wants for your room and be able to recognize the difference between the two.
• Space is king.
• Brainstorm a lot of the common problems you see with your current training and reverse-engineer your weight room design to solve a lot of those problems.
• If you’re going to do it, do it right. Buy it nice or buy it twice, essentially.
• Flooring gets really dirty quickly once you get a lot of traffic going through, so pick your floor colors wisely. Black shows a lot that other colors don’t, so decide what you can tolerate and what you can’t.
• At the end of the day, make it a place where athletes want to spend their time and put a lot of value into as a part of their overall athletic experience.

When redesigning your gym facility, create a list of needs and wants and be able to recognize the difference between the two. Share on X

Projects like this are becoming more and more common because we have to find a way to make our current space work. Sometimes this is harder than starting from scratch because of things like that odd post in the middle of the room or, like Coach Doyle, you may have a weight room designed for the popular training methods of the 1990s that don’t match the training styles now. New builds can be easier because you’re building that space to fit your needs, but with projects like this, you are retrofitting the space with new equipment. It may be more difficult, but it’s entirely doable.

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 recent years, force velocity profiling in sprinting has become more accessible to coaches. With great works being published by JB Morin and Dr. Pierre Samozino, Micheal Cahill, Matt Cross, Cameron Josse, and many others, the popularity and accessibility of force velocity profiling has become easier to understand and perform for coaches with devices as readily available as a phone camera and an app or a spreadsheet.

From what I have read from other coaches, much of the process and training seems to follow these steps:

1. Perform force velocity profile testing with the athletes you coach. Depending on the results and interpretations, determine what distance and velocity decrement you need to have your athletes work at.
2. Perform a sled-pull load-velocity profile. If you are not familiar, a sled-pull load-velocity profile would involve having your athletes perform an unresisted, timed acceleration and then performing between 3-5 more sled-resisted accelerations with an incremental increase in weight on the sled. The results are then analyzed in a spreadsheet to allow you to determine the slope of the load-velocity relationship so you can predict what load will cause each velocity decrement.
3. Based on the velocity decrement you believe you need to target and based on the results of the load-velocity profile, set up a training cycle where your athlete uses a specific weight that is estimated to provide the specific velocity decrement you are targeting for the next training cycle.

The popularity and accessibility of force velocity profiling has become easier to understand and perform for coaches, says @CoachJonHughes. Share on X

I believe this method can be improved upon with some simple tweaks.

One problem with the above process is found in the testing of the load-velocity profiling. Like any other testing done with athletes in a real-world setting, the load-velocity profiling results can always be influenced by a variety of factors out of your control. For example:

• How much sleep the athlete got the night before.
• What their eating or hydration habits were like the day of testing.
• The weather on the day you tested (if you are not fortunate enough to have an indoor area).
• General athlete readiness.

This leads to downsides similar to those resulting from using an estimated one rep max for percentage-based training in weight room training. Sometimes, the estimated maxes are not accurate and day-to-day readiness can vary the true on-the-day max by amounts of up to 15%, giving you a 30% range to be working in.

This is one reason velocity-based training and autoregulation in the weight room has become almost a standard for many programs and coaches—it allows each athlete to work at the exact weight they need to be working at on that day based on their readiness. I believe this approach can and should be taken when it comes to training acceleration with sleds.

Velocity-based training and autoregulation in the weight room has become almost a standard for many programs and coaches, says @CoachJonHughes. Share on X

Proposed Improvements

I’m not going to rehash how to perform force-velocity profiling or load-velocity profiling, there are already many great research articles and resources written on how to perform those by authors much smarter than I. What I will cover below is a simple way to perform an autoregulatory approach once you have determined the velocity decrement you believe the athletes you coach need to be working at. One other positive of this approach is that it eliminates the need to perform load-velocity profiling in a dedicated testing session because it is essentially done on the fly during the workout.

In this example, we are going to assume it’s been determined through force-velocity profiling that the athlete needs to use the following workout parameters: 20m accelerations with a 20% velocity decrement.

Step 1 – Set up your automatic timing system to the distance your training session dictates.

Step 2 – After the athlete is warmed up, have them complete a rep unloaded. Note the time, and calculate the time needed for the specific velocity decrement. For example, let’s say the athlete runs 2.90 seconds to 20m.

1. First, convert the time to average velocity – 20m/2.90s = 6.89m/s.
2. Next, multiply the velocity by the percent of velocity the athlete would be running at after the decrement. So, for a 20% decrement, multiply their average velocity by 0.80. This gives you a velocity of 5.51m/s.
3. Then convert this back into a time: 20m/5.51m/s = 3.63 seconds.

So, the athlete needs to find a weight that with a maximum effort would slow them down to where they are running approximately 3.22s for 20m.

Step 3 – Using research that has established estimates for percentages of body weights that cause certain decrements to occur, take an educated guess at how much weight needs to be on the sled.

Step 4 – Have the athlete perform a sprint with that weight, note the time and then adjust the weight for the next rep if needed. Within 2-3 reps, you should have narrowed it down to a certain weight that gets the athlete close to the target time and velocity decrement.

The first time you perform this, it might take some trial and error to find the correct weight (one downside compared to just selecting a weight based on a profile). However, this is going to be much more accurate based on how the athlete is presenting on the day, and the benefits will increase throughout the training cycle.

When you start the next workout, you should have the recorded weights that were used during each rep from the last session along with the times hit. Looking back at this data will allow you to dial in the weight needed very quickly for the next training session.

The benefit of this method is that it is going to account for the athlete’s readiness each training session, as well as account for improvement throughout the cycle instead of just selecting a weight and using it for the duration of the entire cycle. This becomes even more dialed in if your workout includes a contrast session where you are mixing both loaded and unloaded reps.

Each time an unloaded rep is run, use that as the new target time and recalculate the loads for the next set (an example workout/chart is shown below under point 2). Many times, the athletes’ unloaded reps will end up being much faster because of the potentiation effect, allowing you to increase the weight for the next set.

The athletes’ unloaded reps will end up being much faster because of the potentiation effect, allowing you to increase the weight for the next set, says @CoachJonHughes. Share on X

3 Tips to Effectively Apply This Process in Your Sessions

1. Create charts. Calculating the target goal time needed for the velocity decrement for each athlete can take a little time, especially if you have multiple athletes and you are trying to stick to a strict rest schedule. I use a chart like in the picture below that allows me to just easily convert the time the athletes do hit to the target velocity decrement they need to hit. I have multiple charts for each decrement percent and distance I use for workouts and then have it laminated so I can take it out to the track.

2. Track each rep and the weight used. This is recommended for several reasons. One, it allows you to look back from rep-to-rep—as well as workout-to-workout—to see progress and know approximately how much weight each athlete needs to be using each week. Two, it will allow you to look at trends throughout the cycle and across multiple cycles. I use a chart like the one below that can be tweaked depending on the workout. Print it out and and track the weights and times in real time at practice.

3. Perform these sessions in a loaded/unloaded complex and set/rep scheme. For instance, a common scheme is two reps loaded, one rep unloaded. Many times, the unloaded rep after the loaded reps will be faster than the first rep performed that day because of the potentiation effect, meaning a weight adjustment needs to be made, usually adding 2.5-5lbs. Again, this only becomes clear by tracking the times in real time, making it a more accurate workout than simply selecting a load to use a whole cycle based on a load-velocity profile test that might have been done 3 weeks ago on a bad day.

Additional Notes/Suggestions

I perform these workouts using a Freelap timing system, with the start cone set 1m beyond the start line. It’s important the athletes are mature and focused enough to start in the same spot on the line and in the exact same way each time to help eliminate timing inconsistencies. If you are using a system that is set on the lane lines, make sure the athlete has centered the sled in the lane before they start running. I have had a few cones hit with the sled, but luckily no damage has occurred!

When the athletes know every rep is being timed, it also motivates them to use maximal effort during each sled pull. They begin competing against themselves by trying to hit a faster time to be able to put more load on the sled.

One thing to watch out for is the mechanics of the run. Your athletes must be disciplined enough to still understand that they need to hit good postures, shapes, and rhythms. While they are trying to run fast to the assigned distance, I want to make sure they understand that their rhythm still needs to be in context of running a 100 so that they do not lose the proper postures and overstride. There are ways to achieve a faster time to a short distance, but it does not set them up in good shape to be able to continue that acceleration down the track in the context of a 100m race.

Your athletes must be disciplined enough to still understand that they need to hit good postures, shapes, and rhythms, says @CoachJonHughes. Share on X

For more information on load velocity profiling and force velocity profiling, check out the work by some of the authors listed at the beginning of this article.

Let me know what you think of this process and training approach on Twitter: @CoachJonHughes

Further Reading

“A Spreadsheet for Sprint Acceleration Force-Velocity-Power Profiling,” by JB Morin & Pierre Samozino, jbmorin.net.

“Interpreting Power-Force-Velocity Profiles for Individualized and Specific Training,” by JB Morin & Pierre Samozino.  Researchgate.net, Dec 2015.

“Sled-Pull Load-Velocity Profiling and Implications for Sprint Training Prescription in Young Male Athletes,” by Cahill et all, Researchgate.net, May 2019.

“Force-Velocity Profiling In Sled-Resisted Sprint Running: Determining the Optimal Conditions For Maximizing Power,” by Matthew R. Cross. Auckland University of Technology, 2016.

“Force Production Capacities In Sprinting. How to Optimize the Force – Velocity Profile?” by Pierre Samozino, 1080 Motion webinar.

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The KATN® Strength Engine is a new piece of equipment that I have already found to be of great benefit to my athletes in their training sessions. The Strength Engine is a portable resistance trainer that can be used to develop strength and speed qualities. At first glance, it appears to be just another tool to add resistance to sprints, but I found that it offers much more.

At first glance, the KATN Strength Engine appears to be just another tool to add resistance to sprints, but I found that it offers much more. Share on X

The Strength Engine has been an asset due to its accessibility and versatility. These are the two key indicators I consider when buying new training equipment:

1. It can be used virtually anywhere, traveling in a backpack, and it’s easy to set up and break down.
2. It can be used in private or group training sessions with athletes of all levels.

While in use, KATN only takes up the space of the lane needed for the exercise; when not in use, it takes up virtually no room, and I store it under my desk.

The objective of this article is to dive into what the KATN Strength Engine is, how it’s worked for me, how I’ve found it compares to similar equipment, and finally, to show it off in action for you to see for yourself.

What Is the KATN Strength Engine?

The actual product is a small, orange, vented block with rope fed through it. The rope length can be customized and ranges from 50 to 150 feet, allowing you to select the appropriate size for your training space. The rope is stored on a spool, which makes setup and clean-up efficient.

The block has a turning mechanism that adjusts the amount of resistance given. This makes it quick and easy to adjust the resistance for different athletes or exercises. While not necessary, I wrote numbers on each corner of mine so I could be more exact with the tension provided and to make it easier to adjust when training multiple athletes.

How to Set Up the KATN

To set up the Strength Engine, you will need to use the anchor strap to lock down the block to a sturdy spot. Many facilities have anchor points in the walls or ground that can be used; if not, you can also anchor them to a heavy loaded sled. If outside, it’s easy to anchor it to a soccer or field goal post, and you can even anchor it to a car tire.

• Once anchored down, run the spool out until there is no more rope in it.
• When finished, you will be left with one long side of the rope and one short side where the exercise will be performed from.
• Then, take the spool and place it under the Strength Engine block. This will help with a smooth flow of resistance by supporting the block.
• Keep the rope lines straight and separate during training, ensuring an athlete doesn’t step on the rope.

How It’s Worked for Me

In the private sector, I work with a wide array of individuals with various needs. That is why it is essential to have versatile training equipment.

When considering how to lay out a training session, I want equipment that will make my life easier and benefit the athletes. Some things may look great on paper but aren’t optimal in the real world. Coaches must work within their own setting and reality.

My biggest concern was that the Strength Engine would slow down my larger group sessions. Now I primarily use it in my group training sessions, and the flow remains excellent. Share on X

At first, my biggest concern was that the Strength Engine would slow down my larger group sessions, leading to more headaches than help. Now I primarily use the Strength Engine in my group training sessions—up to around 10 athletes—and the flow remains excellent. While it is an effective training tool, a contributing factor to this efficiency was some front-end education and etiquette regarding the product. Teaching the athletes how to operate and adjust the tool has helped my sessions, and I think all training tools should be addressed in this manner.

In my larger group sessions, I have operated KATN in two ways. First, I keep a belt connected to each side of the rope the entire time.

• The athlete steps up and slides into the belt before performing the exercise.
• The other rope with the belt is pulled back to the starting spot for the next athlete.
• The process is repeated.

This works well, but the belt does create additional drag on the rope and can affect the resistance being given to the athlete performing the drill.

While this may not be a major issue, there is a second option if you’re just trying to get the group through the drill at a timely pace. Depending on how many belts you have, you could give each athlete their own belt or group them with another athlete to share.

We are fortunate to have several belts and can equip each athlete with their own, so the starting athlete walks up and hooks their belt to the end of the rope and performs the exercise. This drags back an empty rope to the start, which the next athlete will hook up to. Keeping the rope free allows the resistance to be a little more precise. Either method works well, and I have used both depending on the group.

I use the Strength Engine for several exercises but primarily with sprints and other movement exercises such as skips, bounds, and jumps. I find the easy-to-adjust resistance works best when training several athletes at once, and the resistance allows for fluid movement when performing rhythmic exercises like skips and bounds.

I apply it with my strength training sessions as well as incorporating overcoming isometrics and more traditional exercises like presses, pulls, and lunges. More movements will be demonstrated later in the article, but that is the bulk of my training with the Strength Engine.

How Does It Compare to Other Products?

While there are several other resistance-based sprint trainers on the market, I’ve found the accessibility portion to be what separates KATN from the crowd the most. I am biased, and the sled is my favorite training tool but carrying around a heavy sled to off-sites or fields is an inconvenience. If you’re at a facility that may not offer a lot of storage space, the Strength Engine can provide a solid alternative.

My training experience with other products is limited, so I do not want to speak about alternatives I haven’t personally used. I am only here to offer my experiences using the Strength Engine. You can make any decisions you like for what may be best for your specific situation, such as a Run Rocket, Vertimax Raptor, or EXER-GENIE.

I think future developments for the Strength Engine are where there will ultimately be more separation. Along with everything I have already mentioned, KATN also has a lifting platform and is in the process of offering a load cell with their product to test for force metrics when performing exercises.

This continues to add value to the accessibility and versatility of the Strength Engine. The lifting platform allows for a complete home gym setup where you can perform major compound exercises such as squats, deadlifts, presses, and rows, along with the necessities of bicep curls, triceps extensions, and any other accessory movements you may find fit.

Video 1. KATN RDL.

Video 2. KATN SA overhead press.

I used the lifting platform to perform two sets of five reps of squats, and it was unlike any squat session I have ever trained. I was exhausted, but I didn’t have the usual wear and tear from a barbell. I don’t think this will replace the barbell, but it certainly offers you a different training option and greater training experience if you train from home or on the road.

I don’t think this will replace the barbell, but it certainly offers you a different training option and greater training experience if you train from home or on the road. Share on X

Video 3. KATN squat.

The addition of the load cell is a more affordable means of finding and utilizing data for those who may not have been able to in the past. The load cell attaches to the Strength Engine and is then synched through Bluetooth directly to your phone to a training app. The training app will allow you to monitor current and previous numbers from an entire selection of exercises and ones you can create.

Video 4. IMTP.

When examining the specific training metrics of an exercise, you can easily edit and isolate periods of that movement to better pinpoint peaks and eliminate unnecessary information. For someone like me who isn’t deeply involved with technology, this is useful to my coaching sessions—I don’t feel like I’m in a laboratory, stopping to look at data ever set.

Movement Training

Movement and speed training is where the Strength Engine gets the most reps at our facility. It is a great option due to the consistent, smooth application of the resistance.

Movement and speed training is where the Strength Engine gets the most reps at our facility. It is a great option due to the constant, smooth application of the resistance. Share on X

I prefer using the Strength Engine when adding resistance to skips and bounds. These exercises require fluidity and rhythm, and the steady give from the resistance allows the athletes to be powerful but not choppy and hesitant like you may find when they perform these exercises with a sled.

Skips

I still perform the standard progressions of skips, starting with marches and gradually working toward more dynamic means of power skips. When given even a little resistance, I find that the athletes can create faster and more forceful ground contacts, enhancing the movement.

Video 5. A progression from marches to skips.

Bounds

Bounding helps teach athletes to be powerful and drive away from the ground upon contact. We perform straight or bent leg acceleration bounds within our program, and I highly recommend resisting with the Strength Engine instead of bands or sleds. 

Video 6. Resisted bounds.

Multidirectional-Based Movements

Multidirectional-based movements, such as lateral shuffles, runs, skips, and bounds, are great foundational movements that can be progressed through the Strength Engine. The additional resistance forces the athlete to drive with the appropriate edge of the foot and leads to higher intent for the movement.

Video 7. Lateral shuffles, backpedals, and other movements.

Sprints

Without a doubt, the primary movement we perform with the Strength Engine is sprints. Resisted sprinting is a vital part of speed development for athletes, and the Strength Engine is a fantastic option to use in your sessions.

Video 8. Resisted sprints.

Piston sprints are essentially an athlete running in place, moving slowly upon each contact. A set may be five seconds in duration but only go 3 yards. Turn the resistance high on the Strength Engine and allow the athletes to be violent in their sprint. If they are covering too much ground, crank the resistance up.

Video 9. Piston sprints.

Jumps

I love using the Strength Engine to perform jumps. The resistance forces the athletes to be powerful where it counts, focusing on driving away from the ground. And there is no elasticity with the Strength Engine, so there is no concern about athletes getting pulled back in like they can be with a band.

There is no elasticity with the Strength Engine, so there is no concern about athletes getting pulled back in like they can be with a band. Share on X

Video 10. Broad jumps.

Broad jumps are my go-to, and I often pair them with sprints (whether resisted or not). With the Strength Engine, you can perform single, double, triple, or continuous jumps. You can also begin working on other jumps, such as lateral jumps for a different stimulus and carryover.

Pogo jumps are another jumping exercise we perform with the Strength Engine. While pogo jumps are a more vertical-dominant exercise, the resistance allows the athlete to get some vertical height while loading the ankles and calves as they push down the field.

Video 11. Pogo jumps—I have athletes perform these with moderate resistance and cue my athletes for quick yet forceful ground contacts.

Sled Alternatives

Sled exercises are a staple of my programming for strength and speed development. While not the same (I think sleds look cooler), the Strength Engine can be turned up to a heavy resistance and be an excellent alternative for performing these exercises. KATN has measured the Strength Engine up to 900 pounds of resistance, so it is safe to say that your athletes will not be too strong for it.

Video 12. “Sled”-style drag exercises.

Though I still use sleds often, I admit that just turning the Strength Engine to create a higher resistance is easier than loading a sled with several 45-pound plates. Any exercise you perform on a sled can be executed with the Strength Engine.

Strength Training

The ability to also use the Strength Engine as a means for strength training makes this product much more beneficial at our facility. The absence of an eccentric component works well for youth athletes just learning to perform basic movements—and it can be safer—while the load can still be made heavy enough to challenge your strongest athletes.

The absence of an eccentric component works well for youth athletes just learning to perform basic movements, while the load can still be made heavy enough to challenge your strongest athletes. Share on X

There are countless exercises and variations that you can use for the upper body, but here are some specific examples I have used in training.

Upper – Pulls

Video 13. Upper – pulls.

Upper – Press:

Video 14. Upper – press.

Upper – Accessory:

Video 15. Upper – accessory.

Lower – Lunges:

Video 16. Lower – lunges.

While almost every movement performed off the Strength Engine will require some lower-body strength or involvement, I did want to make a note about the use of the Strength Engine with lunges—turning the Strength Engine to a moderate to high load will help you overload the lower body in that unilateral, lowered position.

Rotation

Using the Strength Engine to perform rotational exercises offers freedom and a different load than a band since the tension of the Strength Engine will be consistent throughout.

Video 17. Rotation.

There is no restriction here, but I have used it to perform standing rotations along with rotations coming from a press or row.

Overcoming Isometrics

Isometrics is something I keep in my athletes’ programming year-round. I specifically use overcoming isometrics for potentiation, training strength in a specific joint angle, and even to cue proper body positioning for those learning.

You can set up the Strength Engine for overcoming isometrics by either setting the resistance level so high that it won’t move or simply stepping on the line so it ceases any drag.

When performing the isometrics, you can use the sled handle attachments or the belt to perform a variety of movements.

Video 18. Iso with sled attachment.

Video 19. Iso with a belt.

Final Evaluation

The KATN Strength Engine has been a welcome tool in my training programs. It allows me to successfully train large groups without hesitation and is versatile enough for me to be able to perform almost any exercise needed.

I would highly recommend giving this product a try, especially if you train offsite, away from a typical facility, or are just looking for a more accessible way to load and challenge your athletes.

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Coaching a collegiate track and field team in the United States had been a dream of mine for 20 years. Being from the south of England, this did present some obstacles—not the least of which was that I was at best a mediocre athlete. So, I would be unable to fast-track the process by getting a scholarship to compete for an American university and get my foot in the door via that route. (Not to diminish anyone who has entered the profession that way, but it is clearly advantageous to be around the coaching staff as an athlete for four years if you then want to work at that institution.) I also didn’t have the reputation built by being an international athlete that, again, opens doors.

Having wrapped up my first year of college coaching at University St. Thomas in Houston, Texas, I wanted to write about my experiences—and a little background about where I had come from before that is important to frame my insights. Heading into this job, I had a pretty sound theoretical understanding of sprint training and programming and came from a career that developed strong communication skills. But while these are extremely important aspects of college coaching, there is much more to the job, and I am sure that as I continue to gain experience, I will learn there is far more that I still do not know.

Looking back on the past two decades, my desire to coach in college influenced quite a few decisions I made along the way. For example, I decided to qualify as a teacher, which:

1. Offered me the potential to travel (helpful when hoping to work in another country).
2. Enhanced my understanding and experience with regard to the pedagogical process.

As it turned out, this career move helped more than I could have realized once I entered the coaching profession.

As discussed in my article “9 Lessons I Learned from Speed Experts,” I was extremely fortunate to be able to interact with some of the best coaches and athletes in the sport and ask questions (at what I assume was—and still is—quite an annoying rate). Consequently, the different things I tried were not just stabs in the dark, but I was guided through some of the thought processes by excellent practitioners.

Taking advantage of the potential for travel that teaching offered, in early 2013, I applied for several jobs in the United States. Not only was I not offered any, but I did not even get an interview. At the same time, around 100 teaching jobs were advertised in Dubai, and I was lucky enough to be offered one. That’s where I got my first opportunity to do some paid coaching work, although it was typically on a session-by-session basis. I did not have a “squad” of athletes, but I was essentially consulting with athletes, typically teenagers, who wanted to get faster for athletics or another sport.

Throughout the early part of the pandemic, I became far more involved in the social media scene regarding sprint training and was invited to write for SimpliFaster—both of which helped get my name circulating a bit more (though I am under no illusion that I’m well known). In January 2021, my wife was offered a new job in Houston, and a friend of mine, Kieran Showler-Davis (who coaches at Carson-Newman), forwarded me a job posting for an assistant track and field coach at University St. Thomas. I reached out to a few people I had met through my track and field journey to see if they had any contacts at UST, and a couple did—Matt Kane at Florida State, and Richie Mercado at St. John’s High School in Houston. I passed on my resume via those channels while also applying through the official means, and after the interview process, I was delighted to discover I had been offered the job.

What follows are some of the aspects of my job that I didn’t understand much before I started. I think it would have been helpful to read something like this before I took the position.

Lead image of Coach Maris with Josiah on the left and Makale on the right, both 100m and 200m sprinters.

1. Know the Rules Involving the Calendar and Compliance

One of the first things required of me when I started the position was to take the NCAA Division 3 rules test. The test was in an open book format, so it was not hugely challenging. However, looking through the rule book, what struck me was simply the size of the document, a 259-page PDF! The rules are designed to protect the athlete and minimize the risk of their involvement in athletics impacting their studies and capacity to earn their degree.

A lot of the rules are common sense, so I approached every scenario as such. If there was anything I was unsure about, I would speak with our assistant athletic director, Nik Barjaktarevic, who looks after NCAA rule compliance for UST. For example, I was invited to be on a Twitter Space call discussing the recruiting process and my experiences, but I was not sure if I was allowed to do this since I might be interacting with some potential recruits. So, I had Nik check the details for me, and it turned out I was fine to be on the call, but I could not discuss the specifics of our program or promote it.

Additionally, the Director of Cross Country and Track and Field, Coach Ryan Dohner, took care of a lot of the planning, which helped navigate many of the obstacles that the rules had put in place. For example, as a Division 3 institution that participates in both indoor and outdoor track and field seasons, we are allowed to coach the athletes in person for 24 weeks per year, but Coach Dohner largely took care of arranging the training calendar. This did present some challenges, however, as we set our calendar to train from mid-September until the week of Thanksgiving and then had no in-person contact with the athletes until mid-January. Then, after one week of in-person training, we had our first competition of the season.

We provided voluntary workouts for the athletes during this period of non-contact, and they were able to ask questions and provide feedback. But as a coach, I could not stay on top of them regarding the sessions by following up and asking how they had done, so the ball was very much in their court in terms of communication. As with many teenagers, they were not too forthcoming.

Would the season have started better if we had more in-person contact with the athletes directly before the first meet? I’m not sure. I can say that the athletes all improved noticeably on their performances from the first meet, but that could just as easily have been down to them getting used to competing again and the specific stimulus from the competitions themselves.

2. It Starts with Recruiting

As I mentioned, I never got the opportunity to attend college in the United States and never went through the recruiting process as an athlete (nor did I see other athletes or coaches go through it). I knew that this was perhaps the most critical part of the job in terms of building a successful team. While, of course, speed can be developed through effective training, genetics will always be the trump card. There were also considerations regarding the athletes’ personalities:

• Would they be receptive to coaching?
• Would they be a team player and help support the positive environment we wanted to build at practice?

I never went through the recruiting process as an athlete (nor did I see others go through it). I knew that this was perhaps the most critical part of the job in terms of building a successful team. Share on X

Additionally, they needed to meet the academic requirements, and we needed to be confident they would be able to take care of their academics once admitted. Otherwise, the time they could need from us to ensure they maintain good academic standing is time we can no longer invest in other team members. Coach Dohner and the other assistant track and field coach, Jarrick Wright, were great at answering any questions I had, and they gave me some pointers to get going. Still, to learn, I just needed to get some time in the trenches and figure out the methods that were the most comfortable for me.

I essentially saw it as a numbers game: the more athletes I approached, the more who would be interested. Using MileSplit, I got a rankings list and worked out roughly what performance level would be appropriate for me to recruit…and then went to work. The MileSplit lists include the name of the high school that the athlete attends, so I hunted out the coaches’ contact information from the various high schools and reached out to as many as I could.

When doing this, I noticed that the responses that came back were typically short, regardless of whether they were positive or negative. I took this to mean that these coaches were busy (who knew?), so they probably did not want to read a lengthy email. Consequently, while I made an effort to personalize every email (I think generic emails can put people off in general), I kept them as concise as possible.

Once connected with an athlete, I did the same: personal and concise. Where possible, I communicated via text message, believing it was more in tune with how my demographic preferred to correspond. In addition, I always did my best to respond promptly to any contact from a recruit; while this is a natural trait of mine, it was reinforced in my teaching career. An easy way to help get a parent on my side was to respond to emails outside of work hours and to do so promptly. I believe it demonstrates that you genuinely want to help, and it’s not just a job.

I typically had one phone call with each recruit to learn a bit about them, tell them about the school and our track and field program, and provide them with the opportunity to ask questions. I got into a pretty good routine regarding the information I would give them, and the more I did it, the more I got a sense of what was important to potential student-athletes and what the benefits of attending UST may be.

With local recruits, in particular, I always invited them for a visit, and it soon became apparent that it made sense to have multiple recruits visit at the same time. Not only was it more efficient, but the group visits created more energy throughout the tour and gave them someone in their situation to speak with if, for example, they were watching the team practice.

It made sense to have a few recruits visit at the same time. Not only was it more efficient, but the group visits created more energy throughout the tour, says @davidmaris958. Share on X

However, it also became apparent that there was an upper limit to the number of recruits on a visit that was manageable. If I had four recruits visiting, and together we met the admissions team to discuss the academic and financial aspects of attending UST, then dealing with individual queries left other recruits listening to a lot of information that perhaps was not relevant to them. And I don’t want a recruit leaving UST feeling like they’d been left waiting or bored.

Of course, the rules dictated a lot of what I was able to do and not able to do while recruiting. This became a steep learning curve once recruits accepted offers and wanted to sign a celebratory form and put it on social media.

I think part of this is down to the cultural difference of being a Brit living in America. In Britain, we typically do not celebrate anything as much as is common in America. So, it was a foreign concept to me when recruits who had committed to UST wanted to know if they could now come for an official visit—which was essentially for ceremonial purposes—and when the best time to sign was. It took a few conversations with Nik before I was comfortable handling these requests.

3. Prepare to Offer Mentorship and Guidance

While I entered the job somewhat naïve regarding recruiting, it was something I knew would be a rather significant part of the role. I had not really anticipated the amount of time needed to mentor my athletes through aspects of their lives that had nothing to do with track and the importance of doing so.

I hadn’t anticipated the amount of time needed to mentor my athletes through aspects of their lives that had nothing to do with track and the importance of doing so, says @davidmaris958. Share on X

We have a couple of systems in place to support the athletes academically. They are expected to sign into the library for three hours per week to study, and we meet with them twice per semester on a one-to-one basis to check through their grades and offer advice should there be any issues in any of their classes (or we do this weekly if the athlete is ineligible or close to it). The main benefit of these policies is that they provide an extra layer of accountability.

Once a student goes to college, especially if they are living away from home for the first time, there is a level of newfound freedom that is highly seductive…but what perhaps is not quite so alluring is the responsibility required to manage this. As a department, we try to put a little structure in place to help ease the transition from being a high school athlete living with parents to being a college athlete living independently.

If any logistical issues arose, I was often the first person the athletes came to—and this has definitely been the case with athletes I have been recruiting this year, ready to start at UST this fall ahead of the 2022 track and field season. Issues regarding housing, information about signing up for classes, and getting schedules in place are all examples of things that athletes have asked me about. While I may not have all the answers, I can refer them to the relevant person, and I am becoming more familiar with how more of these processes operate.

In addition to academic and logistical issues, as coaches, we become the first port of call for some personal issues as well. Terence Burke, a friend of mine and former coach at San Francisco State, once told me that as their coach, we are probably the adult athletes see more than any other, so a bond develops. As with anything, though, it took experiencing this firsthand to really get a good understanding of what he meant.

It was humbling when athletes reached out and asked if I would write a letter of recommendation for them or be a reference on an application for a summer job. In many cases, the connection with the athletes goes far deeper than what happens for a couple of hours each day on the track or in the weight room.

It could be argued that effective mentorship is the most important part of the job as we help young athletes navigate the path toward adulthood, says @davidmaris958. Share on X

This is an area where my previous career in teaching was highly beneficial; a fundamental principle of being an effective teacher is building positive relationships with young people and guiding them through challenges, something that is directly applicable to a collegiate coaching position. While I mentioned that recruiting may be the most critical part of the job in terms of building a successful team, from a more holistic perspective, it could be argued that effective mentorship is the most important part of the job as we help young athletes navigate the path toward adulthood.

4. Time Management Is Critical

A factor that I had not considered when I began this role was time management and my schedule. Coming from teaching, time management was largely dictated for me. I knew exactly where I needed to be and what I needed to do at each point in the working day (except for lunch and free periods).

I am lucky enough to have a great head coach, Ryan Dohner, and a great athletic director, Todd Smith, who do not demand that I need to be in the office while working. I have about a 40-minute commute each way to work when there is no traffic, and those of you who know what Houston traffic can be like know that the journey time would most likely double if I were expected to remain at the office until 5 p.m.

When I first began in the position in late July 2021, we had no athletes on campus—there were no workouts to lead, and I didn’t know what I didn’t know. Other than compiling a list of athletes I was going to approach and try to recruit, I wasn’t too sure what else I was supposed to be doing…and this made me feel a little uneasy. I was sure some things needed to be done, but I wasn’t sure what they were. And if I had an idea, I also likely wasn’t sure of the best way to tackle that task.

Within a couple of months, I learned that this feeling would be counterbalanced by busy periods when I would be at the track at 6:30 a.m. to set up for a 7:00 a.m. workout. After training, I would head to the office and take care of administrative tasks and emails, or if I had a recruit visiting, I would show them around the campus. At around midday, we may have a weight room workout, so I would then leave campus and head home at around 1:30 p.m.

In the evening, I may have two or three recruiting calls. These typically take 30 minutes or so each by the time I’ve followed up after the call and sent the recruit information on majors they may be interested in, connected them with admissions to outline the application procedure, and sent them a link that can give them a guide as to how much of an academic scholarship they may be entitled to. Meanwhile, other recruits may be texting me questions or information, which takes time to manage.

Once the competition season starts, I could be away for a night or two for meets at the weekend, a time during which some of the other required tasks cannot be tended to. The point here isn’t to necessarily justify how busy I am but more to indicate that time management strategies are helpful in a job like this. These strategies can help create a more consistent work pattern and help me avoid times when I feel like I’m twiddling my thumbs and not doing a lot, while also avoiding times when I’m in bed at 10:30 p.m. managing texts and emails, knowing my alarm will wake me at 5:30 a.m. the following day for practice.

The point here is to indicate how time management strategies are valuable in a job like this, helping to create a more consistent work pattern, says @davidmaris958. Share on X

Toward the end of the year, I felt like I had a better handle on managing my time, but this is an area I think I particularly need to continue to work on to strike a better life/work balance.

Other Odds and Ends

There have been several other things that I had not really considered would be a part of my responsibility when going into collegiate coaching.

Taking equipment, such as batons, to the meet: This sounds ridiculous, but when competing in the U.K., I never thought about where the equipment came from. When it was time for a relay, an official simply appeared with a baton and gave it to us, and at the end of the race, we returned it. I had no idea I would be the one responsible for ensuring we had our own baton for any relays we entered.

Planning the team’s schedule: I think the slight cultural difference in the U.K. is at least partly responsible for my lack of consideration of this. In the U.K., track and field—or “athletics” for any international readers—operates inside a club system. The club is entered into a league within that system, and the club and league officials determine the fixtures. The coaches are then given a calendar for those meets, and the athletes are given the opportunity to race at those meets.

As college coaches, we are responsible for finding appropriate competitions, contacting their organizers, and entering them. This does bring with it some challenges as a small school in Houston surrounded by several schools with rich track and field heritages—we are not always automatically able to enter.

Arranging travel and driving vans: Again, in my experience as an athlete in the sport, the coach wasn’t responsible for travel arrangements. This was taken care of by the club officials higher up in the organization. While Coach Dohner takes care of most of these arrangements, I have been involved in ensuring hotels are paid and booking transport.

I wasn’t too surprised to discover I would be required to drive vans to local meets, but I have become VERY familiar with the stretch of the I-10 between Houston and San Antonio!

It sounds ridiculous, but one of the most challenging parts of the job is trying to provide meals on a budget that 30–40 athletes in their late teens/early 20s will all like, says @davidmaris958. Share on X

Arranging lunch for the team at meets: This is potentially one of the most challenging parts of the job! It sounds ridiculous, but it is a logistical nightmare to try to provide meals on a budget that 30–40 athletes in their late teens/early twenties will all like. I still have no idea what the best way to approach this is, as democracy doesn’t always keep everyone happy. Everyone wants to share their opinion, and getting food from multiple places becomes time-consuming and has its own logistical challenges.

Concluding Thoughts

I have had a great time in this job throughout my first year (except when arranging lunches), and I have really grown to enjoy the recruiting aspect of the role as well. The athletes I have worked with have all been great, and while there was a period of us getting to know each other and the expectations, I do not think it could have gone any more smoothly than it did. We had some great results from our athletes at the conference meet, including sixth place in the men’s 100 meters, three out of the top six places in the women’s 100 meters, and first place in the women’s 4×100 meter relay.

We have more great young people joining our team next season, and I think we will only get more competitive in our conference, which I’m excited about! This article has highlighted my lack of experience heading into this role. While I was transparent about that throughout the application process, I hope UST isn’t questioning why they decided to hire me!

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

Coaching is confidence. One decision after another, from team formation to practice design to in-game tactical maneuvers, a relentless and rapid express of yes this but not that, if X then Y and not Z, here we stop and there we go. And each of these decisions must be made with boldness and faith in the rightness of that choice—sure, coaches perpetually adjust on the fly, but even those course corrections are not an act of doubt but a demonstration of resolve.

Each successive decision about that which we will do simultaneously requires us to reject that which we will not. “Reject” seems like a harsh word, but in a choppy sea of it depends, unwavering absolutes are a means by which we can project certainty and vision: we never Olympic lift, we never play a zone against that formation, we never train in sand. To inspire trust in those we’re charged to lead, our coaching egos drive us to put a proverbial boot to the throat of each exercise, drill, tool, process, or option we’ve cast away—starving those alternatives of oxygen makes our own choices appear that much more robust.

Starving alternative exercises, tools, and processes of oxygen makes our own choices appear that much more robust, says @CoachsVision. Share on X

So we watch our coaching peers and make sweeping judgments: I may not know everything, but at least I know not to do what THAT Bozo’s doing.

That moment is bracing—a win. We know none of the why, none of the context, nothing about the past-present-future of the athletes involved, nothing but the immediate display of what we’ve deemed useless—and we grind down our boot heel and flex.

Warm-ups, Rituals, and the Lure of Low-Hanging Fruit

Nearly a decade ago, when I began coaching youth soccer and softball, I always knew what was wrong the moment I saw it. Indecision is paralyzing, and without relevant hands-on experience of my own, how else could I move forward absolutely certain that what I was doing was right?

In particular, watching other teams warm up, my judgment was a nail-pointed shiv.

The static stretching circle of players who’ve learned that if they just count to 10 REALLY LOUD during each variation, they won’t have to move a muscle for the next 10 minutes? The straggling jogathon laps around the goal posts before practice? The rote dynamic routine or Tom House arm care exercises, each performed like the obligatory Macarena at your uncool cousin’s way too hot outdoor wedding?

Trash.

As ready as I was to puncture those bloated and wasteful warm-ups, nothing got my blade out faster than watching elementary school-aged softball players come bouncing up to the practice field and, before anything else, be forced to take a knee across from a partner down the right field foul line for the sport’s pervasive, penitent, form throwing warm-up. Kids who’ve sat through a long school day showing up for a sport played out in the dirt, and on minute one, they’re immobilized in the outfield grass, wrist-flicking balls back and forth until allowed to stop and move on.

If I saw your players doing this, in that split second, I knew you didn’t get it. Didn’t get coaching, didn’t get kids, didn’t get athlete development, none of it.

Back in the day, I learned to throw the way you learned to throw—by throwing stuff. I threw rocks at light poles and street signs. I threw pinecones at the trunks and branches of the trees they’d fallen out of. I threw footballs, dodgeballs, tennis balls, baseballs. If something could be crumpled, wadded, and thrown at another kid’s head, I crumpled it, wadded it, and took aim.

When she was four, my older daughter, Riley, invented a game she called “Balls, Balls, the Incredible Balls Game.” This involved taking a bucket with every ball she owned out to the sidewalk—rubber bouncy balls from preschool parties and pizza parlor vending machines, baseballs, racquet balls, whiffle balls, tennis balls, golf balls—and then one after another, she would chuck every ball in the bucket as hard and as far as she could while I tried to catch each on one hop.

During the early stages of my softball coaching career, Deb Hartwig, then a director of coaching for USA Softball and an assistant coach for SDSU, led a half-day coaching course in San Diego in which she eviscerated the knee-down throwing warm-up, shredding the ritual in a merciless comedic diatribe. Validation! I was right all along! Just throw the damn ball!!!

The thing about low-hanging fruit, though, is those qualities—easy, ripe, sweet—are also things that don’t last, says @CoachsVision. Share on X

The static stretching circle, the pre-practice lap, the technique throwing warm-up, these rituals are low-hanging fruit. Dangling right in front of your face, ripe for the picking. Sweet. Grab it, fix it, and make a day-one difference. The thing about low-hanging fruit, though, is those qualities—easy, ripe, sweet—are also things that don’t last.

What Do Agility Ladders Have to Do With Any of This?

My soccer players don’t jog in practice. No lap around the goal posts, no patterns where the purpose is to accumulate running volume from point A to point B, no box-to-box gassers or suicides. In warm-ups, we focus on the first three steps of acceleration, COD variations, and short relays with and without the ball. We regularly sprint 30s. And for “conditioning,” we play a range of small-sided transition games that involve repeat, sub-max sprints with limited rest between reps.

This is partly a function of scheduling—I have at most two 90-minute practices a week, and jogging is slow and time-consuming. (I encourage my players to jog on their own as a self-directed activity and believe a basic KPI for any player over age 10 is the ability to knock out a 5K without keeling over.)

The absence of jogging is also partly due to my own playing experience. In high school, my varsity practices began with a “grass lap”: a 3/4-mile loop around the entire high school field complex. For capricious and arbitrary reasons, our coach would routinely interrupt each practice with multiple grass laps meted out as a group punishment for failures of execution or attitude—and then we concluded each practice with another 2–3 grass laps for “fitness.”

Every practice began and ended with a punishment, sandwiched around more in the middle.

Not long ago, however, I heard a very accomplished coach refer to the pre-practice laps as one of his most cherished moments in all of soccer. The lads roll out from the locker room, and this is their time—transitioning from the cares of their day to the joy, camaraderie, and demands of the pitch. The athletes run at a pace of their own choosing, banter and bond, and have a known constant before moving on to the ever-changing variations of training.

Same lap, different purpose.

The low-hanging fruit I’ve seized on in the past—what if we replaced that worthless jog with my focused series of hops, jumps, backpedaling, and sprint variations?—may appear obvious based on my own biased perspective, but what if that warm-up lap is serving a legitimate purpose?

I realized that an activity that seemed worthless based on my own biased perspective was actually deliberately applied by that coach and served a legitimate purpose, says @CoachsVision. Share on X

Sure, some pre-practice field jogs are nothing more than a diversion while a punctuality-challenged coach hurriedly cones off their pitch, just as some static stretching circles have no deeper purpose than being the way they’ve always done it. But those rituals can also be deliberately applied as a focused transition from the individual to the collective, as exercises in self-organization, as a culture-building routine by a coach creating the environment in which they believe their team will thrive.

The dreaded form throwing warm-up? What I used to zealously knife I now regard as something I just prefer not to do. The players I’ve coached through the years have strong, accurate throwing arms, and we come out to the field and let it fly. I also know a large number of players with strong, accurate throwing arms who’ve spent years starting every practice on one knee tossing the ball back and forth.

My starting point is the energy and intent to fire the ball around, and from there we teach and cue how to do that with the proper form and technique. Other coaches choose to begin with the proper form and technique, and from there they teach and cue the energy and intent to do so at game speed.

Different mindset, different tools, different process—same destination.

No, Seriously, What Do Agility Ladders Have to Do With Any of This?

The ladder is one of those ingenious products that can be summed up in two words: portable hopscotch.

Take a group of coaches out to watch kids playing hopscotch on a playground and they’ll pipe in with all the foundational athletic qualities they see being developed: coordination, balance, rhythm, jump and landing variations, proprioception, and the crucial kinesthetic awareness needed in team sports where players must control their bodies in concert with lines, zones, bases, balls, opponents, and other external factors.

Have that same group of coaches watch a 15-second clip of an athlete doing ladder drills on Instagram or Twitter, and it’s an attack-dog frenzy. Because, at some point, someone in marketing decided to call this simple tool a “speed ladder.”

I coach speed, chief…and that ladder, that ain’t it.

Low-hanging fruit. Easy picking. Knowing none of the why, none of the context, nothing about the past-present-future of the athletes involved, nothing but the immediate sight of that which has been deemed useless—post on social media your athletes using an agility ladder and RIP your mentions.

Knowing none of the why, none of the context, nothing but the immediate sight of that which has been deemed useless—post on social media your athletes using an agility ladder and RIP your mentions. Share on X

True story: seven years ago, after a softball tournament in central San Diego, an agility ladder materialized in my rolling cart with our buckets, balls, nets, and catching gear. Maybe another coach mistook my cart for their own, maybe they’d just seen a viral video of a trainer throwing their ladder in the trash and felt compelled to surreptitiously ditch theirs.

Whatever the case, depending on the age and experience of my players, I now bring that ladder out to the soccer field as often as every 6-8 weeks and as rarely as every six months.

• Higher frequency with young players who are first learning 1v1 skill moves. Just as a player who cannot yet balance on one leg cannot strike a ball with power, a player who cannot adjust their cadence cannot manipulate the ball with a 1v1 move on the dribble. The constraint of the ladder brings players to the front third of their feet and targets their approach to space, both keys to ball skills from sole-rollovers to scissors to stepovers. Moving from ladder patterns without the ball into skill moves on the ball makes a seamless and fun progression for a process that can otherwise feel like “work.”
• Lower frequency with older players, though ladders can be useful during those growth spurts where spatial relationships change and what took five steps a few weeks ago now suddenly takes four. Mostly, though, ladder warm-ups add variety—particularly when combined with mini-hurdles, poles, and other obstacles. High knees, bunny hops, in/out patterns, the Icky Shuffle, 180 and 360 jumps, the players get their heart rates up, apply multiple takeoffs and landings, and do so with enthusiasm and intent.

A useful tool—and no, no one has gotten any faster with it.

Videos 1 & 2. Ladder drills promote the postures and foot positions common with many 1v1 moves in soccer.

With older and elite athletes, Tony Villani at XPE Sports uses ladders as a principal element of his Game Speed method. These are used to train foot placement and change of direction angles to create separation or close space, essential elements of invasion games.

“We always use the ladder, not for footwork or even agility,” Villani explains, “but rather to learn one aspect of change of direction…which is FOOT PLACEMENT.”

Villani describes having a great change of direction as:

1. Being able to recognize or anticipate a COD as soon as possible.
2. Controlling your speed or being able to decelerate into a controlled speed to COD.
3. Then what FOOT PLACEMENT and body position numbers 1 and 2 help create.
4. Then a COD can happen. Depending on 1–3, that dictates what best COD can be used.

Video 3. Tony Villani demonstrates how he uses a ladder in four ways to attack COD: 1) Find force to stop; 2) Attack 45; 3) Roll 90; and 4) Sit inside and come down on your inside foot.

The 10-yard down marker is always 10 yards. The bases on a softball field are always 60 feet apart. The 18-yard box is always 18 yards from the goal line. And the ladder’s squares are fixed. Over time, players grow and adapt to how to reach these landmarks. When coaches verbally (or literally) trash ladders…it is like throwing away a perfectly good pancake flipper because it’s not so good for turning over hot dogs on a grill.

Semantics (or, Judging the What Without the Why)

Like many, I commonly refer to “speed ladders” as “agility ladders,” which I know is also a misnomer. No, ladders do not, in fact, train agility—there’s no decision-making or dynamic, reactive component. And while perhaps a cousin to closed COD drills, this tool for  “portable hopscotch” is really about developing foot placement, coordination, spatial awareness, and body control.

What you call something only matters if changing the terminology changes the purpose.

What you call something only matters if changing the terminology changes the purpose, says @CoachsVision. Share on X

Years ago, I worked with a sports scientist who viewed the term “muscle memory” with the same disdain I held for the form throwing warm-up: please, muscles are bundles of fibers; they have no capacity whatsoever “to remember.” We were talking about the identical phenomenon—consistently repeated movement patterns governed by the central nervous system—but that conversation about outcomes in training went off the rails over a debate between a layman’s shorthand and scientific literalism.

Different tools, same destination.

Yes, words matter…they matter because they are pliable, malleable, and powerful tools for human communication. When we use those tools to jockey for status, when we use them as a shiv, we have ceased to communicate.

Asserting semantic dominance—being the one to body up and impose our will over what a word must mean—flashes temptingly in front of our face; it’s that low-hanging fruit—ripe, easy. There’s no such thing as *mental toughness;* there’s only prepared or not prepared. A *sub-max sprint* is, by definition, not a sprint. *Aerobic base*…do you even know what either of those words means in the first place?

Now we’re not communicating.

Words are not numbers. I can’t say seven to effectively mean six or eight. But if I say agility ladder, and you understand that I mean a tool for portable hopscotch, we don’t need to argue the sports science definition of “agility”: the words have served their purpose. Then, we can rationally discuss whether portable hopscotch is a valuable way to spend ten minutes of practice time or whether perhaps another tool/method could produce an even better result with those same ten minutes.

It doesn’t matter if what you call mental toughness I call resilience and another coach calls grit—we mean the same thing, and what’s important is how we go about developing it with the players we have.

I don’t have to like a warm-up or implement it—I just have to be willing to respect WHY you choose to do it. From there, we are on common ground, says @CoachsVision. Share on X

In my days attacking the form throwing warm-up, one thing I never did was stick around and connect that warm-up to how that coach’s team actually played the game. I don’t have to like it or implement it—I just have to be willing to respect why you’re choosing to do it. From there, we are on common ground.

And when starting on common ground, we can begin to make progress.

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