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An athlete of mine finished their sprint and immediately looked back at me and said “Was that a PR [personal record]?” I said “No, it was not,” then registered the disappointed look on their face. Keep in mind, this athlete is only 10 years old (but very athletic and very competitive). I know this is not a healthy mindset for speed training and athletic development, so I need a solution to this problem.

PR-itis is a term my colleagues and I have coined to explain the belief that any training rep that is not a PR is a wasted training rep. PR-itis stems from the story athletes tell themselves about the process of progress—it is an unrealistic set of expectations about what the process of progress in athletic development really looks like.

PR-itis is a term my colleagues and I have coined to explain the belief that any training rep that is not a PR is a wasted training rep, says @CoachBigToe. Share on X

The root of this issue is that numbers are easy to understand and that the process of progress does not always follow a linear track. Those factors, combined with the amount of technology and instant data available these days, can lead to athletes misunderstanding the context for their own training data, which sets the stage for PR-itis. It is important for athletes to understand that in the process of progress, PRs will not happen every day—but there are still other objective measures of progress.

My athlete and I then had a conversation where I showed him a range of numbers, looking at both their PR and what 95% of their PR is. Next, I explained that that is our range of what is considered a high-quality, high-intensity rep for speed gains. The following week, my athlete finished their first sprint and immediately asked “Was that within my range?” (wipes tear away after proud coaching moment).

Imagine how impactful this lesson will be for this athlete years down the road, now that we have addressed their PR-it is and replace it with a new story of what their own progress looks like on a day-to-day and week-to-week basis.

The Origin of 95% Threshold

Developed by legendary speed coach Charlie Francis and adopted by one of his mentees, speed coach Derek Hansen, 95% of a PR is the threshold I have targeted as a high-intensity nervous system stimulus to improve speed. With how objective and instant feedback is with technology, we need something just as objective to help combat PR-itis and create context for our athletes.

The 95% threshold gives an objective way for me as a coach to change the context and expectations of a daily training session.

The 95% threshold gives an objective way for me as a coach to change the context and expectations of a daily training session, says @CoachBigToe. Share on X

95% In Real Training Sessions

Below is a chart I created in Microsoft Excel (my favorite) that has 95% of a large range of PR’s. I printed this out, laminated it (also my favorite), and taped it to the wall right next to the laser timing gates in the facility where I coach. I use this chart in two primary ways:

1. For a quick reference of how to respond to my athlete asking “Was that within my range?”
2. A conversation starter in between sprints to educate my athletes on PR-itis.

The 95% threshold also opens up a conversation about the process of progress. I was going through this talk with a group of high school athletes and asked them to list all the factors that contribute to sprinting at 100% and getting a new PR. In the facility I coach at, our main sprint times we test 1-2x a week include a Flying 10-yard sprint and “5-15” acceleration (first and last timing lasers are 5 and 15 yards away from the start line, respectively). Their answers included:

• Sleep
• Nutrition
• The previous day’s training
• Mental readiness
• Motivation
• Playing on 3 soccer teams (in the case of my 10-year-old athlete from before…)

Then I asked “What happens when one or two of those things are off? How often are all those things perfectly aligned?” This was a big lightbulb moment: with all the factors of being an athlete—let alone a student-athlete—PRs probably are not going to happen as often as they would hope. But now they have an objective way to evaluate the process that is not a PR.

With all the factors of being an athlete—let alone a student-athlete—PRs probably are not going to happen as often as they would hope, says @CoachBigToe. Share on X

Designing speed training for my athletes, we are going to sprint and time our sprints every session. The data is consistent, instant, and relevant to their goals of becoming faster. However, only being together for 2 hours of their entire week, there are 168 other hours that can detract from what we are trying to accomplish. PR’s do not (and will not) happen every session, but we need improvement to justify continuing the plan. When life and being an athlete with outside influences affects our training session, 95% is a new gauge of progress that is not a PR.

Getting faster over time is a combination of improved sprinting mechanics and improved neural output. Knowing all the factors that go into sprinting a PR (and everything else my athletes have going on), we can determine progress by improving mechanics and giving our nervous system high-intensity stimuli that will add up over time. This is through knowing that increased performance will come when most of the outside factors align (actually recovering from training, adequate sleep, proper nutrition, etc.).

Surprisingly, I have found only 11% of the time my athletes are under 95%, but that is an article for a different day.

Below 95%

Within our 95% threshold, we also have below 95% and what that means. Just as easily as we can use a percentage of a PR to say “That was great, keep going,” we can also use it to say “Today might not be the best day for speed development” or “That was a little slow, how are you feeling today?”

On a normal training day, my athletes will walk in and I will ask how they are feeling, how was practice, how was school…but their answers never really get too deep. But if my athlete is under 95%, then I will definitely ask more questions.

Let’s say an athlete’s PR for a Flying 10 is 1.235 seconds. If they sprint a time slower than 1.297, I’ll check in with a question and conversation. It could have been that they just “felt” off, that they were thinking about technique too much, or needed that as a final warm-up. If they sprint two times that are slower, I will legitimately consider modifying the training session. It is hard to argue and say everything is okay with how objective the threshold is. However, it is important to open a discussion first with your athlete instead of jumping directly to a decision.

Then, I will learn that my athlete had 4 games in 2 days, they have not eaten anything that day, or they barely slept. These are all important details that athletes sometimes keep to themselves. With this new information, then I can make better decisions as a coach to guide my athlete and the rest of the training session.

One sprint under 95% opens a conversation and 2 sprints will almost always lead to modification. The premise of adapting the training session is that we are playing the long game. One session cannot make or break us, but it can take us in the opposite direction of our goal. How do we get the most out of today to help us achieve our speed goals in the future? What else can we do today that is not max-effort sprinting to help us achieve our speed goals?

One sprint under 95% opens a conversation and 2 sprints will almost always lead to modification, says @CoachBigToe. Share on X

The answer is mechanical work, active recovery, and/or sub-maximal lifting to set us up for success in the NEXT training session.

This is easier said than done, especially when dealing with one (or a few athletes). Within big groups, the issue is singling out a few athletes to stop training or do something different while everyone else continues. And that is always the issue with bigger groups: quality control. Understanding the dynamic of an athlete being in a group, assuming there would only be 3-5 timed sprints anyways, let them complete 3 and let the rest of the athletes do “bonus” timed sprints. Remember, it’s not always what you do as a coach but the athlete’s interpretation of it. Specifically making an athlete do less is different than letting other athletes do more.

Will an extra sprint or two under 95% ruin an athlete? No. But will it put them into a slightly more decreased state of performance than they were before, detracting from the end goal? Yes. There is no right or wrong, but there are consequences of both.

However, I must say that within groups of 8-12 athletes, when I do have 1 or 2 that are under 95%, they are OK with not doing all the sprints because I have set the foundation of explaining the 95% concept over the prior training sessions and time together. This is effective because I give an explanation to the athletes and also give an alternative option. “You’re under 95% today, so I’m going to let the rest of the group do two more sprints, let’s go through our sled marching series/A-series/whatever it may be in the meantime, then we will all do our agility work together.”

Below 95% justifies and opens a check-in with athletes about how they are feeling that otherwise might not have happened.

Near 100%

On the flip side, if an athlete is very close to a PR, I will almost always give them “bonus” sprints. Knowing PR’s will not happen all the time, let’s take advantage of when they are close.

Just because my program says “4 timed sprints,” does not mean I have to stick to it. If the athlete’s body and mind are in a state to sprint fast and sprinting fast aligns with the training goal, squeeze everything out of that training session.

Knowing PR’s will not happen all the time, let’s take advantage of when they are close, says @CoachBigToe. Share on X

Conclusion

Here is a quick cheat sheet for combatting PR-itis with percentage thresholds:

Our athletes want to succeed more than anything. They will give their all every session, try their hardest on every rep, and consequently want to see improvements from their efforts. Likewise, as a coach, we want to see our athletes improve and achieve success.

Understanding PR-itis and the 95% threshold does not discredit the pursuit of becoming better, but do not let the stories your athletes are telling themselves and their misunderstanding of their own data discourage and derail them from their process of progress. Use 95% of your athlete’s PR to combat PR-itis, justify conversations about the process of progress, and help them rewrite the story of what their athletic development actually looks like.

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

Without a vision for success, you cannot design the process necessary to realize your goals. My coaching story begins with that vision, but the story I’d like to share aims to instruct on the process. I hope that new coaches (or even veterans) will benefit from this analysis of my time with the Hunter Boys Varsity and Junior Varsity Soccer team. After four years coaching the team (three as head coach), I asked my graduating seniors to reflect on their experiences. This is their reflection as much as it is my own.

Hunter College High School (HCHS) is not your average school—its graduates consistently go on to attend Ivy League universities and top academic institutions like Stanford, MIT, and Duke. The school offers an array of challenging coursework and student-run extracurriculars ranging from cultural clubs to academic competitions. The school also boasts more than 40 sports teams for grades 7–12, but graduates are rarely recruited to Division 1 teams.

As an alum, I fit the HCHS student-athlete archetype: I played soccer, swam competitively, and ran track. I contributed significantly to the success of each team because I was a decent athlete who trained hard and led by example. You can imagine my surprise when I was promptly cut from Cornell University’s D1 Men’s Track & Field team after fall training—very simply, I wasn’t good enough to make the team.

That moment became my athletic inflection point.

Getting cut motivated me to ask questions about my high school sports experience that I hadn’t previously considered. Today, my coaching embodies the answers to those questions.

When I returned to HCHS as an assistant soccer coach in 2016, I wanted to lead a team for which sport was more than a means to diversify a college application. I wanted an experience that rivaled the value students and parents placed on the debate team, science research, and music performance groups. I wanted to coach a soccer team that could serve as a course in training theory, personal maturation, teamwork, and leadership for its athletes.

I wanted to coach a soccer team that could serve as a course in training theory, personal maturation,teamwork, and leadership for its athletes. Share on X

A few problems immediately stood in the way of that vision:

• Minor injuries occurred frequently.
• Our team’s performance depended too much on the presence of a few individuals.
• Our offense appeared chaotic and unguided by style or strategy.

To address these concerns, I needed a multi-year plan to cement lasting improvement and shift the culture of our team. I wasn’t trying to craft a miracle. I wanted to facilitate a better experience for my athletes—the experience I never had. I lost my junior year soccer season due to injury. In high school, our team’s individual skills were great, but our teamwork was poor.  Failing to address these problems in my own athletic experience, I became motivated to prevent such failures for the athletes I was coaching.

Balancing Fitness and Skill Development

To address the team’s offensive strategies, I began watching more professional soccer and reading the relevant literature. I also tried my best to listen to my athletes and logically apply their feedback as often as was reasonable. I presented various feedback opportunities to my athletes over the past four years, but they were never so formalized as the reflections I collected at the end of our fall 2019 season, which I have included here.

“I witnessed quite a few injuries during my time, including a broken wrist of my own during my freshman year on the team. The rate of catastrophic injuries was relatively stable throughout my first three years on the team. This year, on the other hand, we had almost no injuries—which is nearly unheard of on a team of more than 30 guys. Although this could be attributed partially to luck, I think the focus on strength training, adequate stretching, and healthy eating all contributed to our improvement. I am far from the strongest guy on the team, but this year I felt confident and safe on the field throughout the entire season.” – Eric, Midfielder, Class of 2020

Eric was a crucial member of our midfield, and his comment on luck is humbling because good fortune will always claim a role in sports injury assessment. I make no exception for Hunter Boys Soccer; however, Eric’s evaluation of catastrophic injuries is somewhat inaccurate. Injuries persisted throughout his first three years on the team, but they diminished more than Eric acknowledges in his reflection.

In fall 2016, Eric’s first year on the team, we lost five athletes to significant bone or muscular injury. In Eric’s senior year, fall 2019—when strength training shared the greatest portion of practice time since its introduction to the team—we had zero catastrophic injuries. Each year forward saw fewer athletes with a similar degree of injury. As one of Eric’s senior teammates explains below, the benefit of increased strength training extended well beyond injury prevention.

“While my teammates may not have appreciated it enough, each year saw massive improvements which played a role in getting us through longer games. For instance, in the round of 16 playoffs match of fall 2019 season, we played the full 80 minutes, plus extra time, and into penalties. Even in the last few minutes of extra time, our team was able to keep pushing forward and this was mainly due to improved stamina and conditioning.” – Matthew, Midfielder, Class of 2020

Matthew was another excellent midfielder who benefited greatly from our new balance of fitness and skill development. He was a proficient playmaker, moving the ball effortlessly from defense to offense, but I often worried that his thin physique increased his risk of injury in harder tackles. Matthew improved his deadlift by more than 50 pounds from his junior to senior year, and he saw less significant improvements—but improvements nonetheless—in his other lifts over the same period.

While the wider athletic community and its highest-level practitioners have known how crucial strength and conditioning is for competitive and recreational sports for decades, its intrinsic value remains poorly emphasized, or utilized, in most youth sports programs in New York City. In public high schools and athletic clubs, I have not observed coaches balancing the physical demands of their athletes’ technical skills. My experience as both a youth athlete and a coach in the city reinforces this training deficiency.

I introduced mandatory strength and conditioning to my soccer team because my coaching education indicated it was the obvious solution to reduce injuries. Many stakeholders on the team didn’t see it that way—initially, strength and conditioning was undervalued by my players, some of their parents, and even my athletic director.

Many of my soccer players didn’t want to hear that they needed less time playing soccer and more time in the weight room…In all fairness, players were right to assert their skepticism. Share on X

No different than my observations, my team struggled to adopt this new balance between fitness and skill development. Many of my soccer players didn’t want to hear that they needed less time playing soccer and more time in the weight room. Without getting too esoteric on the peer-reviewed sports medicine literature, I would tell athletes and parents, “You spend less time preventing injury than time lost due to being injured.” The bumper sticker ideology only carried so far, but as you’ll see, they eventually embraced this philosophy.

“I needed preseason to reaffirm my soccer skills and get comfortable with the team before I was able to perform to the highest of my ability. With a greater focus on strength work, I had trouble feeling comfortable on the field until midway through the season. However, by the end of the season, I felt better than I probably would have felt without strength training.” – Eric

In all fairness, my players were right to assert their skepticism. I was a first-time head coach and didn’t want to close myself off to feedback. Some of my practice drills were too complicated, and my judgments on positioning overlooked seasoned relationships between certain players. I knew how I wanted my team to play, but I was still working out my process for getting there.

“Practices weren’t necessarily seen as the best use of our time, since there was often discussion and explanation before our drills. Usually, I preferred drills that were rote repetition of a simple action or a combination of simple actions.” – Ben, Defender, Class of 2020

Ben was never an obstinate or obstructive player. He offers a glimpse at what was clearly on the minds of his teammates during my early years. Explanation of drills can feel redundant when athletes have performed them before, but a team deserves time for reflection on their collective and individual choices. As a coach, you have to guide those conversations to keep players’ comments positive, discrete, and goal oriented. Over the years, I have simplified the drills and promoted older players in leading reflections.

On the Offensive

A fast-paced possession game, in which no player holds onto the ball longer than two seconds, requires being in the right place at the right time. The speed and endurance necessary to sustain that style of play came from sprints in our warm-up and time in the weight room. I encouraged my players to perform their cardio development on their own.

The more difficult, cognitive component of “right place, right time” demanded a familiarity and trust among players through our drills in practice, which focused on perception, anticipation, and reaction to ball movement. Some coaches refer to these skills as “soccer intelligence” or “cognitive soccer.” With our offense, I emphasized cognitive soccer in practice over and above individual technique.

My emphasis on individual cognitive skills was foundational for building trust between players. Once that trust existed, I let my best 11 players solve their own tactical problems. Share on X

In fact, prior to coaching, I never realized that my success as a player derived greatly from my own cognitive skills rather than my footwork or finesse with the ball. My perception, anticipation, and reaction were instrumental to the tactical choices I made in a game, so it is no wonder I coach the Hunter Boys Soccer team the same way. My emphasis on individual cognitive skills was foundational for building trust between players. Once that trust existed, I let my best 11 players solve their own tactical problems.

Substitutes are not second-rate players when they train similarly to the starting 11. Instead, they serve as they are named: replacements to starters with little disruption in the relentless pursuit of scoring goals. In our league, substitutions are unlimited, and players are allowed re-entry.

Though our wingers are generally the most athletic players on the team, the demanding nature of their position requires frequent substitution. Speed and strength endurance underwrite their ability to defend, counter, sprint, and cross the ball. This strategy continues to work well for us. In addition to their athleticism, I appreciate our wingers who ask for a substitution when they feel fatigued. The weight room is a great place to acquaint yourself with humility.

I emphasized a style of play contingent upon positioning and quick-paced, intelligent passing. Strength and speed training prepared my team to play their game faster and more consistently than their opponents through the full 80 minutes or more.

Ideally, good clean soccer maintains possession and avoids dangerous tackles. Inevitably, this forces your opponents to utilize dirtier tactics to retrieve the ball, so increases in absolute strength became a necessity. I used the one rep max as my indicator for the ability to withstand a tackle.

This time in the weight room may have come at the cost of practicing fundamental skills, such as dribbling and shooting, but I didn’t believe many players needed to practice those fundamentals beyond the early part of our season. Most Hunter soccer players arrived already proficient, or even advanced, in those fundamental skills as freshmen because they had been playing soccer for several years with a local club team. The August preseason refreshed those fundamental skills—then, we gradually moved away from basic drills to embrace cognitive skills as the season progressed.

“…For any school team, the club players who spend all year playing soccer were able to translate these skills in the high school season and become standout players. Without a coach who was well-versed in soccer-specific drills and tactics, players were left wanting more out of each practice. While this lack of knowledge may have stunted technical growth, I feel our team was still able to develop physically and psychologically over my four years.” – Matthew

I admit that offensive tactics remain the weakest component in fulfilling my vision for the team, but Matthew’s words amplify the improvements made despite the weakness. I suspect Matthew’s concern for “specific drills and tactics” derived from his early soccer education. A different style of play probably would benefit my professional development, but it’s also possible those “specific drills and tactics” fit Matthew’s expectant style of play alone. If it challenged or slowed the organic, unified growth of our team, then I’m comfortable with their exclusion.

Matthew was a fantastic soccer player, whom I could trust with leading drills and fostering team culture. He wasn’t the coach. Each year, I had to be mindful of those differences to continuously craft a cognitive offense.

“Learning how to function relative to my teammates was something that came out of drills that allowed for multiple decisions, like a simple 3v3 possession drill, where you get a bit of a feel for how your teammates both defend you and move around you. It’s a wonderful feeling to be able to predict your opponent or your teammate and make a play off of that intuition.” – Ben

Teamwork took its shape organically from the trust developed between naturally talented players and teammates who made up for their skill deficits with hard work. We will always have keystone players, but strength and conditioning has diminished our reliance on them, creating a synergy for any individual player to insert themselves into the game smoothly without harming the offensive or defensive strategy.

We will always have keystone players, but strength and conditioning has diminished our reliance on them. Share on X

I expect that cognitive soccer will remain the core of our offense because gameplay encounters minimal disruption with our seniors’ departure. As long as the underclassmen have been practicing alongside older teammates and pushing numbers in the weight room, I expect a seamless transition to the new season.

Confidence Is Key

Confidence is a hard variable to measure: it’s intangible and unquantifiable. I have a few indicators to gauge team confidence, but I recognize that their credibility is limited.

At a selective preparatory high school like Hunter, there are innumerable competing factors for a student-athlete’s time. Music lessons, math tutoring (as tutor or pupil), debate team, school publications, and science competitions are just a few of the activities that consume students’ time besides their usual 3+ hours of nightly homework. Practice attendance may not be a great indicator for commitment outside of our school community, but it’s a reasonable gauge for our team.

“Everybody showing up is crucial to encouraging a motivated team.”– Ben

I counted many more absences in my early days coaching. Athletes show up because they know what you’re doing for them—and what they’re doing for each other—has value. Like I noted earlier, I began relying more on low-stakes games for warm-ups—like Lions & Tigers, variations on tag, and relay races— merely to increase the fun factor. As Tony Holler preaches, “lighting a fire” or “filling their tank” instead of draining it is the easiest way to keep kids coming back.

“One of the most significant differences that I’ve noticed throughout my time on the team is a change in the team’s mentality. With each passing year, I feel like the team has become more tightly knit and inclusive. As a freshman, I had a close bond with my fellow freshman members of the team, but I felt quite isolated from the rest of the team. Lacking the skill or fitness to compete for a starting spot, I wasn’t as motivated as I should have been at practice and saw the road to getting a starting spot as a matter of others leaving at the end of the year rather than me getting better myself. However, the level of commitment and devotion that I have seen from current freshmen and sophomores has improved significantly since my time in their shoes.

I believe that this change in mentality is a result of a more inclusive, but also a more competitive, environment where freshmen are seen as more than just benchwarmers. This season, both freshmen and sophomores were consistently present on the starting lineup, which had a big impact on the morale of younger players and the work ethic of older players, who were pushed beyond complacency.”– Eric

Eric’s reflection brings tears to my eyes. His words capture the first time anyone admitted that my vision for Hunter Boys Soccer had been realized, even if just partially. I appreciate the comparison he offers about his first year on the team to that of the freshmen in his senior year. He acknowledges younger players’ value and participation have risen.

I counted many more absences in my early days coaching. Athletes show up because they know what you’re doing for them—and what they’re doing for each other—has value. Share on X

I am fortunate for where the team’s attitude toward them has landed. Our youngest players deserve to be treated like rock stars, because they are the future of the team. They may not play the most minutes, but they are still the most important to sustaining the team’s success in the long haul. One of our freshmen, who had been known all too well by teachers like me for his eighth grade hallway antics, became an exemplary athlete for his work ethic and attitude.

“Going into this season, I had an expectation that I’d be riding the bench, carrying the gear, and fetching balls the whole season. And while I did my fair share of that, I also felt like I immediately got welcomed into a family—the Hunter Soccer team—which was really special. Throughout preseason, I heard many of the upper-termers talk about how much worse the team would be than years past, and I’ve definitely caught myself slipping into that sort of mindset going into next season, but we exceeded expectations from last season. I was proud of that. The season certainly taught me a lot. I began to understand a deeper, more advanced version of the sport that I’d been playing for 10 years prior, and I found a new passion in the weight room.” –Jules, Defender, Class of 2023

Jules’ confidence in the team and in himself encapsulates the personal growth possible in one season for a young player. Whereas Eric, Matthew, and Ben offer perspectives in hindsight, Jules’ reflection confirms our team’s multi-year shift in its present character. I’m horribly biased, but I would like to recognize the hope that Jules shares implicitly in his reflection too. Every freshman on every team should feel like Jules did at the end of their first season.

Takeaways for All Teams

While Hunter Boys Soccer always benefited from the leadership of its upperclassmen, past classes never emphasized fitness as much as I have since I became head coach. I raised our fitness expectations out of necessity to prevent injuries. My focus on speed and strength raised our ceiling higher than a similar emphasis on soccer skills would have over the same period. In my own reflection on the balance between skills and fitness, I find myself returning to a quote in my article “What to Do If Your Athletes Are Not Improving”: Australian track coach Alan Launder wrote “that which is technically desirable must be physically possible.”

In soccer, Launder’s maxim doesn’t apply to the technical skills necessary for any given moment, but rather their continuous performance throughout an entire game. Beyond one day’s session, a minimum requisite strength also applies to the demands of a week or a season. Increased absolute strength attenuates the compounded effect of soccer practice on the body. Heavy resistance training encourages teammates to push each other toward bigger numbers. If you can foster a supportive fraternal atmosphere during strength sessions, then that same spirit should easily extend to the soccer field, where it can reduce interpersonal conflicts and increase your opportunities to offer feedback.

When I collected these reflections, the Hunter Boys were one penalty kick away from the city championship finals. We played a shortened spring 2021 season with no playoffs due to the pandemic; when we returned fully in fall 2021, we went undefeated and qualified for the city championship finals. We didn’t win the championship, but again we leveled up—adding further evidence to support my process.

High school coaching really distills down to galvanizing your team toward a common goal and educating each athlete in the process for getting them there. Share on X

I’ll be the first to admit my understanding of soccer has not increased significantly. High school coaching really distills down to galvanizing your team toward a common goal and educating each athlete in the process for getting them there. Hunter Boys Soccer needed confidence, a more cohesive offensive strategy, and more explicit measures of improvement than just wins and losses. I reconfigured our process to address those deficits and accepted the multi-year timeline.

I don’t like to think of myself as an innovator—I am a young coach who heeds the advice of the best practitioners in sport. I’m still nervous on game day; I still agonize over the day-to-day planning, but that’s where game changers thrive. I know I’m doing something right when I feel like I can never get it right. A shift in team culture comes directly from the coach.

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

By Ash Buckman and Matt McInnes Watson

Plyometric performance dictates key movement actions within team, combat, invasion, and court-based sports. A soccer player outjumping a defender to win a header, the quick feet of a boxer to dodge an incoming punch, a winger in rugby cutting to evade a fullback, and a basketball player leaping up for a game-defining dunk all require the presence of plyometric competency. Proficient landing/takeoff mechanics in sports can be the 1% difference between winning and losing.

The use of plyometric training can improve these KPIs to enhance athletic performance. Effective long-term plyometric training can produce one of two responses:

1. An athlete who can produce force quicker.
2. An athlete who can produce more force over time.

If we can produce an athlete who adapts in one of these two ways, they have the potential to better execute locomotive movements by jumping higher, running faster, and being more agile. With research showing variations in plyometrics leading to more significant increases in performance, the recent use of plyometric training has increased, and development in the area is also growing. Thus, to account for the surge in popularity, work must be done to improve monitoring, coaching, and training.

As mentioned in our previous article*, the reactive strength index (RSI) is a valuable testing measure to identify an athlete’s ability to produce vertical force through flight time or jump height (FT/JH) over the time spent on the floor (GCT). When using RSI as a testing measure, we can assess peak performance output from protocols such as a drop jump or a 10/5 repeated jump, yet that is the extent of its use.

Furthermore, we believe RSI as a performance output value is fundamentally flawed. RSI intends to express the plyometric work performed by an athlete and how they have utilized their reactive strength. The issue with RSI lies in the fact that it does not consider the approach into the landing, in which an athlete must react to produce a performance output.

The issue with RSI lies in the fact that it does not consider the approach into the landing, in which an athlete must react to produce a performance output, say @AshBuckman & @mcinneswatson. Share on X

By creating a reactive strength ratio (RSRatio) to monitor plyometric momentum in horizontal movements, we have been able to appreciate the work that goes into producing an RSI value. If we break down the term “reactive strength,” we can gain a better understanding of what the term means and what is required to utilize reactive strength in given movements.

• Reactive – Acting in response to a stimulus rather than absorbing/controlling it.
• Strength – The capacity of an object or substance to withstand great force or pressure.
• Reactive Strength – The ability to withstand eccentric loading from a stimulus and reproduce with maximal concentric force into subsequent takeoff.

Breaking down and comprehending the definition makes it easier to understand why RSI might not be the best measure of reactive strength since it does not consider the person’s ability to be reactive to an incoming landing.

Approaches to landings vary in plyometric movements based on variables such as flight times, fall height, and speed. Thus, the levels of reactive strength needed to reproduce force will differ even if RSI values are the same. This is not a criticism of RSI, which is highly useful as a monitoring and tracking tool for coaches and athletes. However, the value has a strong focus on the performance outcome rather than the process.

RSI is more of a direct measure of the stretch-shortening cycle, with RSI having been adapted to account for CMJ with the RSI-Mod equation. Thus, it is arguably closer to a measure of impulse than reactive strength. If we want to measure an athlete’s reactive strength capabilities, we must consider not only the outgoing performance (RSI) but also the incoming momentum and how that will affect the outcome.

*Note: This article is a follow-up to “Reactive Strength Ratio: A New Way of Evaluating and Monitoring Plyometrics” by Matt McInnes Watson and myself—we would highly recommend using that article as your starting point.

Introducing Reactive Strength Output

As practitioners, we aim to quantify and analyze as much as possible to ensure we provide our athletes with the best coaching possible. RSI has been fundamental in measuring athlete progress and neuromuscular readiness, but we believe there is more to be derived from data collected in plyometric movements. By introducing RSRatio, we can now analyze plyometric movements’ fluidity and provide coaching cues to manipulate variables to enhance performance. Still, we believe there is even more scope for analysis. In many other exercise types, it is possible to measure the value of work done, whether that is force or power. This is an element of plyometrics that we can add to RSI to assist in exercise monitoring.

RSOutput was a metric created to add to the RSI value to identify the level of work performed during plyometric movements. This new metric aimed to consider the varying approaches into plyometric landings as part of the overall value to determine the neuromuscular strain and effort experienced during movements.

You can see a practical example of this when comparing two drop jumps from different box heights, where the higher box may produce a lower RSI value. However, by considering the load in the increased approach to ground contact, the actual work performed may be greater than the lower box height that produced a greater output. By just considering the RSI scores, coaches and athletes may be led to believe that the athlete experienced increased work during the lower box height. Using RSOutput, we can quantify the body’s ability to tolerate incoming load and produce an output measure (RSI).

Video 1. A comparison of two drop jump performances with similar RSI values of a 15-centimeter and 45-centimeter box height.

Measuring Reactive Strength Output

When creating a method to calculate reactive strength, we felt it was important to understand the impact of the approach on the movement and account for incoming RSI—this allows us to consider the athlete’s ability to manage eccentric landing forces from the incoming FT and then reproduce it. We can account for the mean workload needed to complete the plyometric movement by taking the average value of both incoming and outgoing RSI. A lower incoming RSI will reduce the mean compared to outgoing RSI, whereas a higher incoming RSI will increase the mean.

When an exercise has an RSRatio of 1, incoming RSI will not affect mean RSI due to a balance of incoming and outgoing plyometric momentum. By using this mean value, large incoming RSI values that lead to smaller outgoing RSI values aren’t solely dependent upon the output value and will account for the increased loading of the approach. However, by only collecting the mean of incoming and outgoing RSI, values may be equal in two plyometric movements even though one may have a much larger incoming RSI leading to increased loading to overcome.

Therefore, we must divide the value by RSRatio to account for the more significant neurological stimulus attained from increased incoming FT or drop heights. By dividing the average by the RSRatio, we can account for this increased loading of plyometric movements where RSRatio <1 generates a reactive strength value that reflects the movement’s demands.

When using RSOutput to measure a drop jump movement (fall from a box), you must double the incoming flight time to determine the box height as the apex of a full jump (the 0.6-meter box fall time is 0.350, but it is 0.700 in the equation). An example of the calculation process for a drop jump can be seen below.

RSOutput = ((Outgoing RSI + Incoming RSI) / 2) / (RSRatio)

Box Height: 0.3m = 0.247s Fall Time

Incoming RSI: Approach time – (2 * 0.247) / 0.185 GCT = 2.68

Outgoing RSI: Flight time – 0.550 / 0.185 GCT = 2.97

RSRatio: 2.97 / 2.678 = 1.11

RSOutput: ((2.68 + 2.97) / 2) / 1.11 = 2.54

In the above example, the fall into the ground contact is lower than the next flight time from the jump; thus, the incoming RSI will be lower than the outgoing RSI. This has reduced the overall mean RSI, as it would be perceived as easier than reproducing the same outgoing RSI from a higher box height. By dividing by the RSRatio score, we further reduce the RSOutput score due to the reduced eccentric loading experienced from the movement. This example has an increased concentric workload compared to eccentric, and the strain on the body would be less than if the athlete had fallen from a greater height.

While RSOutput isn’t an objective measure of work done like force or power, in the absence of force plates, it provides a useful metric to understand the athlete’s level of reactive strength. Share on X

While RSOutput is not an objective measure of work done like force (Newtons) or power (Watts), with the absence of force plates, it provides a useful metric to understand the level of reactive strength utilized by the athlete.

Implications for Training and Coaching

It is crucial to understand the purpose of RSOutput in terms of when we should use it, what it means for training, and how we can optimize athlete performance from the values we obtain. By combining RSOutput with RSI rather than replacing it, we can create a broader picture of the athlete’s performance and genuinely understand how the body works. With all three values (RSOutput, RSRatio, and RSI), we can obtain all the information required to assess plyometric movements.

By combining RSOutput with RSI rather than replacing it, we can create a broader picture of the athlete’s performance and genuinely understand how the body works. Share on X

We need to collect RSI, as it provides us with the performance output measure; however, by collecting RSOutput, we can identify training zones and exercises to help improve plyometric performance. And, finally, by including RSRatio, we can measure plyometric momentum in locomotive movements and determine whether the plyometric movement has a concentric or eccentric focus. We can adjust extensive plyometric exercises by adapting elevation and incoming FT during approaches to force an RSR of less than 1 and increase the level of reactive strength utilization while similarly controlling the approach to induce an RSR of more than 1 to work on mechanics and concentric effort.

Reinventing Drop Jump Testing

Identifying optimal height for peak RSI values has been part of research and coaching debates for many years, not just as a method of tracking athlete progress but also profiling them based on their ability to handle increased fall heights. Coaches and athletes have used tests such as drop jump profiling and the 10/5 RSI test to determine an athlete’s optimal RSI score through controlled and self-regulated fall heights. The aim from training, then, is to see improvements in RSI scores from self-regulated or set drop heights or to see increases in fall heights with a similar RSI depending on the required adaptation from training.

However, when looking to train athletes to see improvements in drop jump performance, coaches often train at a supramaximal height to increase the eccentric loading. Identifying the increase in drop height is random and uncalculated. Yet, by calculating values such as RSRatio and RSOutput, it is possible to increase the control over exercise prescription and intensity for plyometric exercises, especially when vastly differing box heights could have similar RSI values.

When looking to profile athletes using varying drop jump heights, coaches can obtain RSOutput values to provide a bigger picture of an athlete’s reactive strength, which can aid in the programming of plyometric exercises. The graph above shows a drop jump profile with RSRatio and RSOutput values plotted against RSI across varying drop heights. This allows us to identify optimal drop height for RSI as traditionally used but also to see the height at which an athlete is maximally working their reactive strength through RSOutput. This highlights that, as drop height increases, the level of reactive strength increases even when RSI has decreased, until a point where RSOutput will plateau and then eventually drop.

So, what does this tell us?

By pinpointing fundamental values such as peak RSI, RSRatio = 1, and peak RSOutput, we can start to identify potential training zones for not only drop jumps but locomotive extensive plyometric exercises. In the adapted graph below, we have plotted these key values and corresponded them to one another. We calculated predicted peak RSI using trendlines on Excel, which would suggest that for this athlete, an optimal box height would be 0.34 meters and was at an RSRatio of 0.97.

To generally improve RSI, we would suggest training at an RSRatio of around 1 in drop jumps and locomotive plyometrics due to the close nature of peak RSI to RSRatio = 1. Peak RSOutput was achieved at 0.5 meters; thus, when looking to maximally stimulate the neuromuscular system, we would suggest this particular athlete train around this value, and in extensive plyometrics, an RSRatio of 0.8 should be the target.

Every athlete will be different, and although most would follow a similar trend, it is worth profiling your athlete and getting accustomed to their profile and training based on their reactive strength to get the best adaptations from the training.

To Conclude

RSOutput is a practical value that can help identify an athlete’s level of reactive strength and provide guidelines to help with training zones within plyometric exercises. In conjunction with RSI and RSOutput, breaking down an athlete’s plyometric capacity and increasing plyometric training specificity depending on the athlete, block of training, and sport is possible.

RSOutput is a practical value that can help identify an athlete’s level of reactive strength and provide guidelines to help with training zones within plyometric exercises, say @AshBuckman & @mcinneswatson. Share on X

RSRatio and RSOutput are metrics that can be recorded through simple technologies and linked into many exercises to look to enhance sporting performance. We recommend that coaches explore their use with the athletes they train.

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

Matt McInnes Watson is a track and field and performance coach. He has a master’s degree in athletic development and is currently studying for a Ph.D. in plyometrics. Watson is the owner of Plus Plyos, a coaching business that provides supplementary plyometric programs through video format. He is currently teaching in the United Arab Emirates, and he coaches multiple athletes from the U.K. and U.S.

It’s extremely rare that I’ll make a claim like this one skill can help ALL athletes improve because just saying it out loud sounds like clickbait. But here we are…

I’ll get right to the point. Juggling. Yes, juggling is the one skill that all athletes can benefit from.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to the methods with which we train our athletes. Athletes are too different for there to be one best way to do things. This is why I said it’s very rare for me to claim that this one thing can help all athletes. But in the case of juggling, it is actually one of the exceptions.

Before we dive deep into the key benefits—hand-eye coordination, brain development, sport specificity, and motor learning—we must look at the big picture from a 30,000-foot view.

It’s universally accepted that the #1 job of a strength coach is to do NO harm. So, our job is to implement whatever strategies we feel are appropriate to elicit a training response with no harm done to our athletes. This means we must constantly evaluate the risk versus reward of our program.

Juggling is, by far, one of the most harmless training modalities I’ve ever come across, with a significant upside and potential for positive outcomes, says @JustinOchoa317. Share on X

Juggling is, by far, one of the most harmless training modalities I’ve ever come across, with a significant upside and potential for positive outcomes. This is why I feel so confident in saying that, literally, all athletes can benefit from learning this task.

How It All Began

This all started in the gym when one of my athletes randomly started juggling between his sets of deadlifts. I thought to myself, “That’s actually a really good idea.”

In the past, I have played around with vestibular and cognitive challenges as a rest period between sets:

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One of my favorites was to have the athlete close their eyes, and then throw them two different balls and shout out the name of a color. The challenge was to open their eyes when they heard the color, track the ball, and catch it. I found that these small games had multifaceted benefits.

First, you obviously get the visual and cognitive benefits. But you also get an excellent fatigue monitoring system built into the games. When athletes are more fatigued, their vestibular system won’t be as sharp. They often fumble or drop the ball. As they recover from the set, they start to improve their performance. This indicates that the system is restored and ready for the next set.

Juggling in this context never crossed my mind. Why? Because I couldn’t juggle and had never even attempted to. But something about how easy my athlete made it look that day and how much fun he was having doing it made me want to try.

I tried. And I sucked.

When I try new things and suck at them, you can basically guarantee that I will become obsessed with whatever that thing is until I figure it out. So, I did.

I learned how to juggle, practiced, and eventually got pretty good. And then, my wheels started to turn with ideas on how juggling could be beneficial given some general background of the known benefits. Here are four of those benefits.

1. Hand-Eye Coordination

The most apparent benefit of juggling is the improvement in hand-eye coordination. This also has the most significant impact on sports performance. You’d have to look far to find a sport where improving hand-eye coordination wouldn’t be a benefit.

The most apparent benefit of juggling is the improvement in hand-eye coordination. This also has the most significant impact on sports performance, says @JustinOchoa317. Share on X

Also, beyond sports, improving hand-eye coordination is never a bad idea. This could help with daily tasks such as driving, multitasking, and even using the handheld devices that are such a big part of our society today.

The first day I tried to juggle and failed, I decided to make myself into a case study. I used the Blaze Pod light reaction system to test my hand-eye coordination. This was my report on that day.

I practiced juggling for 10 minutes a day for one month and then retested. Not only did my juggling skills improve significantly, but so did my hand-eye coordination. I changed nothing else about my life or my training than the fact that I introduced juggling.

This wasn’t performed in a lab, nor is it a published research project, but it tells me pretty clearly that juggling has positive effects on hand-eye coordination.

And, just to make sure it wasn’t all newbie gains, I went ahead and went one more month and did another test. Sure enough, I kept improving. This time, my score improved to 56 hits and an average reaction time of .498 seconds.

In just 10 minutes a day, accumulating absolute zero fatigue, soreness, or injury risk, I was able to improve a universally sport-specific attribute. As discussed in the introduction, if you don’t have 10 minutes to spare, you can simply work it in between sets or throughout the day.

In just 10 minutes a day, accumulating absolute zero fatigue, soreness, or injury risk, I was able to improve a universally sport-specific attribute, says @JustinOchoa317. Share on X

Furthermore, even though I am a washed-up coach now, I still play basketball at a pretty high level 1–2 times per week with a solid group of ex-college and pro players. Anecdotally, I have noticed myself making much better reads and passes with my nondominant hand—something that truly stands out because I had been dealing with a broken finger on that hand.

This gave me the ultimate confidence to implement this with all my athletes, regardless of sport or age. And they’re all seeing similar results. Many of the skill development specialists in our facility—such as wide receiver coaches and hitting instructors—are also implementing juggling and noticing the same improvements with their clients.

2. Brain Development

The deeper science and research on juggling and its effects on brain development are genuinely fascinating. My case study above was me just being curious and operating on a hunch—once I realized there were positive results, I started to dig up actual research in this realm and was really blown away by the findings.

Many studies on brain development revolve around gray matter, which has proven links to our memory and focus. Gray matter is made of neuronal cell bodies and conducts and processes information to send to other body areas.

Although gray matter is thought to be fully formed by our twenties, we can still enhance it after that age, as proven by a brain study performed in 2008.¹ Researchers tested 20 participants with an average age of 26.5 years old to investigate the nervous system’s adaptive behavior to learning a new skill.

That skill? Juggling.

The researchers were able to confirm training-induced gray matter changes in the brain. They found a significant increase in brain gray matter during the exercise and in the short term after the study. There was no conclusive data for what happens to this grey matter after three months or after the skill is forgotten. Nonetheless, participants grew their brain’s gray matter, which unlocks a ton of potential for other motor learning tasks.

Researchers found a significant increase in participants’ brain gray matter during juggling and in the short term after the study, says @JustinOchoa317. Share on X

Amazing right?

What’s even more impressive is that researchers in a different study found the first-ever evidence of training-related changes of white matter in the human brain just a year later.² White matter constitutes the other “matter” of our brain. Made of axons and myelin, white matter is found in the much deeper tissues of the brain compared to gray matter. White matter interprets sensory information and has not been studied at the level that gray matter has.

In this study, juggling was again used as the training methodology. Researchers provided juggling materials to 24 participants, who were to practice for 30 minutes per day, and they had a control group of 24 participants who did not juggle. Both groups had MRI scans before and after the experiment.

After six weeks, the non-juggling group did not show any changes in the brain’s white matter. However, the juggling group showed growth in the white matter area of the brain, especially in areas related to vision and movement. What’s also interesting is that even the jugglers who had not yet mastered the task still saw the same benefits simply from trying to learn the new task.

I am no brain specialist by any means. Still, the positive changes that the actual brain experts are seeing in their studies—and the fact that they’re using juggling as a means of training—should speak volumes to just how impactful juggling can be for our brain development at any age.

3. No Limitations

Another great benefit of juggling with our athletes is that there are truly none of the limitations that exist in other aspects of sport. Height doesn’t matter. Speed doesn’t matter. Experience in sports doesn’t matter. It’s only limited by the time you put into it. A prime example is Casey Boehmer, a world-renowned juggler who only has one arm.

I really like this aspect of juggling because it’s an excellent tool for teaching confidence to athletes who may need some small victories of their own. For example, you could teach a below-average athlete who lacks confidence to juggle. They can learn the skill, outdo the “better” athletes in the group, and immediately gain confidence from that small personal victory. That could lead to more and more gains in other aspects of their game and training. Confidence has a unique snowball effect.

Because juggling has none of the limitations that exist in other aspects of sport, it’s an excellent tool for teaching confidence to athletes who may need some small victories of their own. Share on X

Although juggling is not a sport skill that appears in any sport, it enhances the qualities we use in several sports. This is the same as juggling with everything but your hands in the soccer world. All great soccer players master juggling the ball; it showcases rhythm, coordination, first touch, and body control. But it will never happen in a game, and that’s okay. It builds qualities that will occur in a game.

The same goes for dribbling tricks in basketball. Athletes don’t practice complicated trick dribbling routines to use the exact routine in a game but to challenge their hand-eye coordination, balance, rhythm, and ball control, so the simple moves they use in-game are maximally efficient.

Perhaps the example that drives the point home the most is a boxer using a speed bag. Have you ever seen Mike Tyson punch another human like he punches a speed bag? No, never. Tiny punches with the back of your fist aren’t going to knock anyone out, but the speed bag builds up the hand-eye coordination, hand speed, and upper body endurance that are crucial for fighters.

As coaches, we need to understand that not all training will look precisely like the sport. But as long as the result of the training will enhance our sports performance while doing no harm to the athlete, the juice is worth the squeeze.

4. Rhythm and Coordination

Finally, the rhythm and coordination that you experience with juggling can greatly carry over to other training modalities or sports. One of the keys to juggling that I’ve had success with is making it a whole-body motion. I find that when I get my knees and ankles bouncing with the rhythm of my catches and throws, I feel the most locked-in.

It’s no different than a basketball player using rhythm to change their pace on a drive to the basket or a marathon runner finding a good pace and rhythm during their run. So much of athleticism is based highly on rhythm and coordination, and this is a really simple way athletes can enhance that quality.

All the things covered so far—hand-eye coordination, brain development, confidence, coordination, and rhythm—are universally sport-specific.

Juggling will not make you better at your sport. The benefits that athletes achieve through juggling can help enhance their ability to perform the skill of their sport at a higher level.

This could lead to improved passing, ball handling, or defensive outputs for basketball. For a wide receiver in football, this could lead to better ball tracking and catching ability because that is precisely what juggling is—it’s just a different ball. For baseball/softball, we could see an improvement in hitting and fielding.

As I said, it would be challenging to try to name a sport where these neural improvements aren’t worth 10–30 minutes a day of non-fatiguing training like juggling.

Lastly, tennis balls and lacrosse balls have become very common in the sports performance world as reactionary tools. These are tools we all have lying around the gym.

A simple drill I love is the ball-drop exercise, where a coach drops the ball to start the drill, and an athlete sprints to catch the ball to complete the movement. Or the coach drops two balls and calls out a command for which one to catch. These are great reaction, speed, and agility drills. While the balls are out, why not juggle them to recover between sets?

These drills work all aspects of the system and genuinely get the most from our time with the athlete.

How to Juggle

All these benefits are fantastic, but the question remains…how the heck do you juggle?

I am by no means an expert juggler or juggling instructor, but I managed to teach myself in just a few days. At first, it was a rough learning curve, but I eventually got to a point where I could manage to do some tricks and juggle for long durations with no drops. Below is how I learned and how I’ve been teaching my athletes, broken down into very simple steps.

Tip: Start with a solid, moderately weighted ball about palm size like a baseball, bean bag, or hacky sack. I don’t recommend using tennis balls to start.

Step 1: Two-Throw Exchange

Video 1. Step 1 is what I call a two-throw exchange. This will involve two throws and a controlled catch, repeated over and over.

Start with two balls in your dominant hand and one ball in the other. With your dominant hand, toss one ball into the air. While that ball is airborne, toss the ball in the nondominant hand to free up that hand to catch the first ball thrown. Catch the first ball in the nondominant hand and then the second in the dominant hand. You should end up right back at square one, with two balls in one hand and one in the other.

This will build your general timing and get the pattern down for eventually juggling. Throw, throw, catch, catch, and then reset. Do not rush between reps. Treat each one as a single rep to get a feel for how hard and high you need to throw the balls.

Step 2: Three-Throw Exchange

Video 2. Building onto our two-throw exchange, you can progress into a three-throw exchange. This starts the same as step 1, but you’ll add an extra throw and then again end with a controlled catch.

So, you’ll throw the dominant hand, nondominant, then dominant hand again and catch the balls. Now, you should end up with two balls in the nondominant hand and one in the dominant hand. If you want, you can start the next rep from this scenario, flipped from how you started, or reset all the balls and go again. Personal preference.

Step 2 is a complete cycle of ball movement and the exact movement you’ll need to master to move on to step 3.

Step 3: Time Goals

Video 3. You repeat the three-throw exchange in this step but never catch the balls. Just keep the cycle going.

A simple rule that helped me put it all together is that you have to throw one to catch one. There will always be a ball in the air, and to catch it, you must toss one up to make room in that hand. If you just adhere to this simple rule, it will all come together for you in step 3.

The purpose of step 3 is to achieve time goals. I started with 15 seconds with no drops. That’s a major milestone. After that, 30 seconds with no drops is the next milestone. These are not easy tasks.

It’s frustrating. I once practiced for 30 minutes straight without getting a 30-second unbroken streak. But the reps add up, and one day it will click for the athlete.

Step 4: Space Goals

The final step is adding a space goal or a space constraint. Sometimes, you have to chase the balls around to keep them in flight, especially when trying to reach a time goal. This is more survival mode than juggling.

Adding a space constraint forces the juggler to focus on ball control and body awareness. The smaller the space, the harder it is.

You can start with a designated area using tape or cones to provide out-of-bounds lines, then move to tighter spaces like standing inside a tractor tire or hula hoop.

I’ve even been experimenting with long-duration isometric holds while juggling, says @JustinOchoa317. Share on X

I’ve even been experimenting with long-duration isometric holds while juggling. Holding a split squat or wall sit or balancing on one leg is a different ballgame when you’re also trying to successfully juggle for minutes at a time.

Bringing It to Your Facility

I realize that this article may not be for everyone—we all coach in different environments and have our own situational challenges in our setting.

With that said, I highly recommend introducing juggling, if at all possible. The benefits we’ve seen in a short time have been extremely impressive. Not to mention, it’s such a fun activity—even if you’re not good, it’s oddly satisfying just to continue to try.

We see a lot of circus tricks these days from trainers on social media, but this circus trick is actually a beneficial one.

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

References

1. Driemeyer J, Boyke J, Gaser C, Büchel C, and May A. “Changes in Gray Matter Induced by Learning—Revisited.” PLoS ONE. 2008;3(7):e2669.

2. Scholz J, Klein M, Behrens TEJ, and Johansen-Berg H. “Training induces changes in white-matter architecture.” Nature Neuroscience. 2009;12:1370–1371.

The most common issues I find in the weight room with softball players seem to revolve around three limitations of movement¹. The same movement limitations I see in the lifts we do also show up as restrictions to demonstrating accuracy, power, and speed on the field.

Because swinging, throwing, and pitching are very technical aspects of softball—due to the need for accuracy with each rep—patterning in quality movement reps in the weight room is even more crucial for athletes involved in these elements of the game. When an athlete completes reps of a movement 10-20x per session, 2-3x a week, the faults of their lifting patterns will also show up in the sport. These faults can affect accuracy, limit power, and promote the risk of injury.

When an athlete completes reps of a movement 10-20x per session, 2-3x a week, the faults of their lifting patterns will also show up in the sport, says @shestrength. Share on X

As coaches, trainers, and parents, paying attention to even the smallest details in our girls’ lifts can have the biggest impact on their performance in the sport of softball.

Problem #1: Curve or “C” in the Back with Heavy Lifting¹

I most commonly see this error in the weight room, with squatting, deadlifting, and overhead pushing/pulling movements. This subtle issue places the load of the weight onto the spine and off of the muscles of the glutes/core and legs.

On the field, I most often see this movement error in swinging a bat and/or pitching. This error prevents the athlete from accessing the oblique sling and the core as a connector between the lower body and upper body, leading to a loss of power and the athlete only using the upper body as a driving force to rotate.

Video 1. An example of power loss at contact through the core using the Core360 belt. In this video, the athlete loses her core stiffness at the desired contact point by bending her torso to the side leading with her head tilt. This loss is noted by the drop in the blue lines measured by the sensor at the same desired point of contact. Power loss is a common issue when an athlete cannot rotate correctly.

Video 2. An example of power increase at contact through the core using the Core360 belt. In this video, the athlete maintains core stiffness and does not swing with a “C” bend in her back. This is noted by the increase in core pressure at the desired point of contact in her swing.

Solution: Flatten out the low back by creating core stiffness.

In the weight room, I place athletes in positions for lifting that force the C out of their low back as much as possible, hoping that it eventually creates the correct patterns in sport. These are lifts such as landmine squats and landmine pressing, side planks, elevated boxes to deadlift from, and foot support (using a bench or box) for overhead pulling movements such as chin-ups. We also implement specific warm-up drills to help create core stiffness and pelvis control. These include slow and controlled exercises like deadbugs, bird dogs, side planks on knees and elbows, crawling patterns, rolling, and anti-rotation ISO holds using bands and a partner.

Video 3. A demonstration of the crawling core stiffness drill in warm-ups. The shoe helps the athlete have a tactile cue to keep her hips from swaying and her spine extending/ compressing as she crawls.

Video 4. A demonstration of a core stiffness drill with bird dogs and bands. This drill is a step up in difficulty from the drill in video 3; now, the athlete must maintain core stiffness in an offset loaded variant of the bird dog using a band and lateral resistance.

Problem #2: Stabilize Through the Neck

I commonly see an athlete tighten her shoulders, traps, jaw, and neck when doing rotation and anti-rotation exercises, ab exercises, and most pulling exercises. This removes the core as the stabilizing mechanism and places the power source in the neck, jaw, and shoulders. These are not designed to bear the load of that much power and weight. This issue also reduces the ability of the legs and core to get stronger.

On the field, we most often see this in pitchers who push off the mound headfirst. It also shows up in sprinting between bases and swinging a bat (pulling the head off the ball). This common error causes the same troubles for the body in sport as it does in the weight room—it forces the joints to take the brunt of the work instead of the muscles. This leads to a loss of power and speed because the legs are not the main drivers. And in hitting, this issue pulls the eyes off the ball, making it hard to connect with a pitch.

Using the neck as a stabilizer causes the same troubles for the body in sport as it does in the weight room—it forces the joints to take the brunt of the work instead of the muscles. Share on X

Solution: Use the feet and legs.

Most girls struggle with using their legs for strength and instead want to overpower a lift with their upper body. Cueing an athlete to find her feet, or push the floor away with her feet, or drive her legs/feet into the floor in almost any lift can help.

She has it figured out when she feels her legs begin to shake and her core fire up, releasing the neck from stabilizing the load being lifted. The idea is that feeling this in the weight room will allow an athlete to find her front leg both in a pitch and swinging a bat. This will provide a stable stance base for the body to rotate through. It also allows the ground force production from the foot to travel up through the core and out the hands.

Video 5. A demonstration of removing the neck as a stabilizer in pulling exercises. I use different strategies to help an athlete “feel” how to use their core and feet as stabilizers, NOT their neck. I hold a PVC pipe along the athlete’s spine and ask her to keep her entire spine aligned with the “fake spine” (PVC pipe) as she pulls the band back and down.

Video 6. A demonstration of using J-cups to help the athlete find their foot load. I flip the J-cups over and place the barbell under them, get into a squat position, and press up and into the J-cups using my feet. This elicits the feeling of active foot loading and creates core pressure if the athlete is in correct alignment from their ribs to hips.

Problem #3: Using ONLY the Arms for Rotation

In the weight room, I often see an athlete try to avoid true rotation through the core by bending or extending/flexing through her shoulders, arms, and wrists as compensation. I see this happen with anti-rotation and rotational ab exercises, rotational pulling, and pushing movements.

The arms and wrists can only provide so much power disconnected from the core and the lower half of the body. When the athlete avoids rotation by bending her elbows and arms/wrists, the core is bypassed as a source of strength. The old saying “when the joint ends, power ends” applies here. An athlete will eventually reach a ceiling in their strength progressions in the weight room because the upper body can only sustain certain compensations for so long.

On the field, we most commonly see athletes swing, throw, or pitch using only their arms and upper body. As in the weight room, this absence of the core connecting the lower body to the upper body leads to a loss of power.

Solution: Use the oblique sling connecting the feet, hips, core, and arms through rotation.

Learning what access to the oblique sling “feels” like is critical for athletes to know how to access it for strength and power.

Learning what access to the oblique sling ‘feels’ like is critical for athletes to know how to access it for strength and power, says @shestrength. Share on X

In the videos below, I demonstrate several ways to incorporate “feeling” the oblique sling to create core connectedness using bands and dumbbells.

Video 7. A demonstration of an anti-rotation exercise using bands.

Video 8. A demonstration of oblique sling presses using dumbbells.

Video 9. A demonstration of oblique sling separation using medicine balls.

Results on the Field

After addressing these three issues with athletes and spending consistent time working to break down old movement patterns, athletes can feel and see added power in their swings. We retest using the Core360 belt every 6-8 weeks to assess where athletes are in the positioning of their swings and how it translates to core power. I also constantly quiz my athletes and their coaches on what they see and feel in practices and games.

In addition to more power, many athletes report less low back and shoulder pain with their lifting. The last determining factor of measurement I use is athletes reporting new soreness in the specific muscles we are targeting because we have removed overcompensations. Now we are focused on true muscle activation and growth.

Special thanks to Allie Stipsits, sheStrength intern and Hutchinson Community College softball athlete, for her contributions and serving as the model for the infographics.

Attribution

1. I’ve learned many of these principles from chiropractors such as Dr. Jared Shoemaker (inmotionsmj.com), physical therapists, and other professionals mentored by doctors, neurologists, etc., in a new rehabilitation technique called Dynamic Neuromuscular Stability (DNS). These neurological techniques are based on clinical protocols to restore and stabilize locomotor function. From these techniques, I’ve found ways to creatively incorporate strength and motor function into workouts our softball players complete weekly to help rebuild better movement patterns for their sport.

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

The feet can easily be labeled as the most important body part when considering human performance. In addition to being the literal base of support for the body, they play a major role and are typically the limiting factor when examining dynamic movements such as sprinting, jumping, and cutting.

Additionally, the feet are also responsible for contributing sensory information that provides biofeedback of the world around us. If the feet are suffering from any issues, it will eventually work its way up the chain and become present in other areas, such as the hips and knees.

If the feet are suffering from any issues, it will eventually work its way up the chain and become present in other areas, such as the hips and knees. Share on X

I claim no specific expertise in this subject—people devote their entire body of work to the feet and podiatry—but I do have experience in taking the training and development of the feet a step further than the average strength and conditioning coach. In this article, I’ll cover some of the methods I use.

Barefoot Training

For simple, everyday foot care, it is optimal to be barefoot as much as possible. Shoes—especially fashionable high tops—imprison the ankles and foot, preventing many natural movements of development in the foot from occurring.

This is connected to the first step in proper foot strengthening and works to increase the mobility of the foot. While I do recommend barefoot training—or at minimum performing the warmup or certain exercises without the restrictions of shoes—too much of this can be dangerous.

Whenever a new athlete, especially those who are untrained, begin with the program they will typically go 2-4 weeks performing the warmup or exercises still in their shoes before exposing them to any barefoot movements. If this isn’t done gradually, it could create the perfect recipe for overuse injuries such as shin splints, or potentially cause structural damage to the feet!

Exposing the athletes to barefoot training, when appropriate, is a step in the right direction for training the feet.

Exposing the athletes to barefoot training, when appropriate, is a step in the right direction for training the feet. Share on X

Self Massage

Another area of focus is self-massage (though many rely on this too much). While it can be beneficial, just rolling your foot out on a lacrosse ball will not solve all of your problems. Performing self-massage exercises will, however, help initially increase range of motion for that day. This is important because, over time, increasing range of motion for the other exercises that day will help enhance the progression of the training.

The lacrosse ball is the most common self-massage tool for the feet; other tools such as foam rollers, massage sticks, and hard rubber medicine balls can be used on the other important muscles of the lower leg, the calves, shins, and perennials.

Video 1. Lacrosse ball foot rollout.

When beginning to roll out the feet, it is important to work the entire foot. Roll out the toes, the edges of the foot, and of course spend additional time on any tender areas. I will tell athletes rolling the foot out for the first time that there is no right or wrong when performing self-massage, that it is more just self-discovery and finding where they need the work.

There is no right or wrong when performing self-massage, it is more just self-discovery and finding where they need the work. Share on X

Video 2. Manual self-massage, lacrosse ball.

When massaging the lower leg, it’s important to hit it from all angles. Simply turning the foot in or out when rolling will adjust the musculature of the lower leg. This area is extremely tight so typically not much pressure is needed. Starting with a lacrosse ball or a massage stick and performing manual massage would be the least amount of pressure since you can better dictate the pressure being applied, then progress to a foam roller to roll out the areas before moving on to the medicine ball.

Video 3. Medicine ball rollout, lower leg.

The medicine ball works fantastic because it is basically a giant lacrosse ball and is easy to flow throughout the areas. Perform anywhere between 30 seconds to 2 minutes depending on the time available and what is necessary for the individual.

Mobilization

Following self-massage, mobilization of the foot and its surrounding structures of the big toe and ankle will be the necessary requisites to begin strengthening the feet.

Big Toe

If you have ever injured or even just stubbed your big toe, then you have firsthand experience in the importance of this seemingly small and insignificant body part. The big toe plays a major role in helping to maintain balance, arch support, and push off when sprinting, jumping, and even just walking.

If you have ever injured or even just stubbed your big toe, then you have firsthand experience in the importance of this seemingly small and insignificant body part. Share on X

Here are a couple exercises to develop this forgotten part of the foot.

Video 4. Big toe mobilization stretch.

For this stretch it is best to perform it with a yoga block or plyometric box. Start by jamming your foot up against the object, crunching your toes back as if they were going to touch your shin. Continue driving the knee over the foot throughout the stretch as you open the toes up and stretch the fascia of the bottom of the foot. Hold for 30-60 seconds each side.

Big toe lift offs: Big toe lift offs seem silly when performing them for the first time, but you feel helpless once you realize it is easier said than done. For this exercise you’re going to lift the big toe off the ground while keeping the remaining four toes glued to the floor.

If you can easily do this, attempt to lift each toe up in its own individual manner.

Perform 10-20 reps. While not the best, this is something you can do with shoes…you could even do it right now while reading this article.

Ankle

Moving up the chain from the big toe, we reach the ankle. The ankle is important because if it’s immobile, then the foot will be limited in its ability to move and produce force (as well as potentially causing issues in the hips and knees in the future). An applicable example of this is that many athletes in the weight room suffer from poor squatting patterns due to poor ankle mobility, hindering them from getting into those proper patterns. This is an easy sell to your athletes who want to squat a house but slack on the smaller, less exciting exercises.

The ankle is important because if it’s immobile, then the foot will be limited in its ability to move and produce force. Share on X

Here are some exercises that can help improve the ankle mobility.

Video 5. Seated ankle CARs.

Taken from Functional Range of Conditioning protocols, ankle CARs are a focused approach to the ankle circle. When many athletes perform ankle circles, there is unnecessary movement from the leg; performing them instead from a seated position and holding the shin in place will allow you to completely isolate the ankle and focus on each portion of the rotation.

Perform slowly for 3-5 circles each way.

Video 6. Supported ankle rolls.

This is an advanced movement and great for mobility of the ankle. Holding on for support, you will drop into a low squat position, then begin driving the knees forward as you roll onto your toes as far as possible. Once that range is met, slowly roll out of the position and repeat.

Perform slowly for 5-10 reps—keep this for athletes who it is appropriate for.

Video 7. Slant Board Exercises.

The slant board is such a diverse tool that can be used for stationary exercises and more dynamic movements to intensify an athlete’s landing. It’s a relatively new tool for my programming, but I have seen great improvements and confidence given to my athletes thus far. This is particularly true for athletes in sports like basketball and soccer, where ankle injuries are common and the foot gets contoured in odd positions. Performing some stabilization bounds with the slant board can better prepare them for when situations are less than ideal.

Foundational Foot Strength

Once the surrounding structures of the foot become more mobile, then more load can be placed through those ranges.

Stress the importance of training the feet to your athletes. Even in the weight room, having weak feet can lead to poor knee and foot position in compound movements like the squat and deadlift. Not correcting the issue just continuously reinforces these poor movement patterns and compensations throughout time, so not only are the athletes not getting as much benefit out of the movements, but you’re also putting them in a poor environment that could lead to issues later.

Here are some exercises to help create a solid foundation of foot strength. Many of these exercises will have an isometric counterpart, single leg counterpart, and can be progressed through the addition of load or by increasing the total work that is being completed. Before progressing, though, make sure each movement is performed with control throughout the entirety of the range.

When loading these exercises, I personally like using a belt squat machine or a safety squat bar set up with support, so balance is not an issue. They can also be performed with dumbbells or other means, but the more that balance gets challenged, the less the athlete can actually focus on perfecting the exercise at the foot.

The more that balance gets challenged, the less the athlete can actually focus on perfecting the exercise at the foot. Share on X

Heel Toe Rocks: Heel toe rocks focus on transitioning between plantar and dorsiflexion. When performing, keep the knees extended and have full control at each end range. The most common flaw of this movement is the athlete pushing their butt back while raising the toes off of the ground, taking the emphasis off of the feet.

Perform these reps slowly, between 5-10 reps.

Video 8. Heel to Toe Walks

Taking it a step further from stationary heel toe rocks, performing the heel to toe walks will have you moving down the field. Focus on an exaggerated walk, initially striking with the heel before rolling the foot flat and finishing by pushing through the toes and getting as much lift off of the ground as possible.

Perform for 10-20 yards.

Video 9. Heel Walks & Toe Walks

These walks will isolate one specific movement, so either walking fully on the toes or on the heels. Either way, ensure that the knees stay extended and keep the feet straight when performing.

When walking on the toes, I cue athletes to imagine as if they were trying to spread their toes out like their fingers of their hands. For heel walks, I cue to take the toes and pull them up to their shins.

Perform these walks for 10-20 yards.

Video 10. Calf Marching

Marching on the toes is beneficial for building more endurance in the feet. Athletes should focus on avoiding their heels from collapsing down and touching the ground if possible.

You can also perform these movements in a single leg isometric march position, flexing the hip up and holding for time.

Perform for 5-10 reps per side or timed sets of varying amounts from 20-60 seconds.

Video 11. Sled Calf Push

This is one of my favorite exercises to get athletes to feel muscles of their feet that they didn’t even know existed. Pushing even an empty sled down the field while up on the toes will torch the toes and feet. Though normal sled pushing or pulling also effectively trains the feet, this variation is more direct because it places such a high emphasis and isolates the foot in the exercise.

Perform for 10-40 yards.

Video 12. Supported Calf Raises (DL, SL, Straight, Bent Leg)

Calf raises are the standard lower leg exercise—if you were only performing one of the exercises on this list today, it would probably be the calf raise.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the calf raise. It should be varied, though, and given more focus as far as modifying:

• The foot position;
• The time held; and
• Whether it is bent leg or straight leg.

This will ensure total development from this staple exercise.

When performing these calf raise variations, be strict about going slowly through each phase: the raising, the hold at top, the lowering, and the stretch at the bottom.

When performing these calf raise variations, be strict about going slowly through each phase. Share on X

Perform for 10-20 reps, but this will vary depending on the variation selected.

Video 13. Ankle Spring Series (from Cal Dietz)

I first read about the ankle spring series from Cal Dietz on his YouTube page, so if you want more information on this exercise, you can go research it from the man who invented it.

After first performing the series myself and feeling the weakness in my feet, I began implementing it with our college athletes who were home over summer break.

What I liked about it initially is that the athletes feel the intensity and “burn” immediately. When prescribing most foot exercises, athletes aren’t as involved since it doesn’t feel as tough as cranking out 100 pushups.

When prescribing most foot exercises, athletes aren’t as involved since it doesn’t feel as tough as cranking out 100 pushups. Share on X

Not the case for the ankle spring series.

The athletes dreaded doing it throughout the weeks, but got much stronger as the weeks progressed in the various positions. If I have limited resources when programming for a new athlete and can’t do many exercises, I always make sure that this series is a part of that program one way or another.

Start slow, only holding each position for 10 seconds and performing it with bodyweight only and begin progressing time from there.

Video 14. Split Squat Iso with Heel Lift

Performing the split squat isometric hold with a heel lift can be done for reps or total time. When going through the exercise drive through the toes as if you were trying to crush the ground beneath you.

Perform for reps ranging from 5-20 and time held from 10-60 seconds. This is a broad range because if the athletes are just using their bodyweight, then the higher end of the range can be done; on the other hand, if they’re loading it heavy, then they will be working in the bottom range.

Video 15. Ankle Inversion / Eversion Hold

Wince we’re examining the actions of the foot, we also need to look at inversion and eversion (or the ability of the foot to withstand or restrict rolling in this case). Performing these holds off of a board is great to begin building the resiliency of the edges of the feet.

Start by placing the inside or outside edge of the foot on the board. You want to get as close to being off of the board without actually falling off. Once held for the desired time, switch sides.

Perform for 10-30 seconds each side.

Earlier I spoke about how if there was one exercise you were probably performing from this list then it would be the calf raises. If there is an exercise or muscle action that you probably aren’t performing is their opposite, dorsiflexion raises, or toe raises.

Similar to the idea of having a healthy ratio of pulling to pushing exercises in a program for shoulder health, you want to make sure to implement a dose of toe raises to focus on health of the shins and feet.

Many of my athletes—especially in track, basketball, and football—love performing these exercises because they feel it immediate burn through their lower shin. They also will typically claim they feel better after performing. Whether that has any merit or not, placebos are real and how they “think” they feel is also important to me.

Video 16. Wall Toe Raises

Performing toe raises off of the wall is a great starting point because there is no equipment needed and they can even do this exercise at home.

Start performing these for sets of higher reps, 15-25, and begin progressing by either taking the feet out farther from the wall or increasing the reps.

Video 17. Seated KB Dorsiflexion

The next progression will be adding some load; this can be done by placing a kettlebell around the foot to perform the exercise. Make sure that the athlete has most of their leg on the bench and they focus on just isolating the foot. The common mistakes are too much knee involvement, and shin rotation when raising up.

Perform for 10-15 reps, increase reps before attempting a heavier kettlebell.

For athletes who are new to this training, they will typically experience soreness in their calves and typically be surprised by the lack of controllable range they possess when performing some of the basic exercises like the heel to toe rocks or heel walks.

Dynamic Foot Strength

It is great to train the foot complex with these isometric holds, and slow, controlled exercises for strength. This is done to prepare them for more high-speed exercises that better resemble the demands of athletic actions.

It is great to train the foot complex with these isometric holds, and slow, controlled exercises for strength. Share on X

On the athletic field, everything is performed at full speed. The actions of change of direction, acceleration, and deceleration are performed maximally, and the feet must be conditioned to deal with these stressors. Exposing the feet to more aggressive and high-speed training must be a gradual process that is monitored closely.

Here are some exercises that can help raise the foot’s threshold and ability to handle high speeds.

Video 18. Pogo hop series.

Pogo jumps are submaximal jumps being performed through the ankle and knee. These are done to help build up that threshold in the feet to withstand force and should be built up gradually.

These jumps can be performed though various directions, stationary or moving, various body positions, and off of either double or single leg positions. Take it one step farther by performing them off an incline or step.

Video 19. Stair hop series.

With younger athletes, just getting them to jump rope is a great athletic building exercise which is often forgotten.

Video 20. Assisted pogo jumps

Once a base has been built through unassisted pogo jumps, adding some assistance to create an overspeed effect can be done through band assistance or by getting support on a racked barbell.

Perform jumps for timed sets between 5-10 seconds, or total reps 5-10. This can be raised of course as time goes on but initially less is more.

The feet are responsible for so much regarding athletic performance and overall health. Prioritizing them in our training programs is a must. Share on X

Final Thoughts

The feet are responsible for so much regarding athletic performance and overall health. Prioritizing them in our training programs is a must. It’s not a bad start to get out of our shoes and perform self-massage. Following that, begin to mobilize the surrounding structures. Then, once you begin focusing on strengthening them, move from a foundational base of isometrics and slow movements to more applicable high speed, dynamic actions.

These exercises can be easily placed in the beginning preparation of the workout or ending post exercises. Since there is so much that you can cover with training the feet, I would recommend sprinkling exercises of different focus throughout the training week and focus on building those specific exercises that you select.

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

Whether in training, a profession, or in life itself, balance is a key piece to sustained longevity. The pendulum can’t swing too far in one direction or else it leaves us susceptible to unfavorable outcomes (injuries, burnout, chronic stress, cognitive bias, etc.). For us coaches that train team sport athletes, balance is a major concept on which we hang our hats. A really solid team sport athlete is typically a Swiss army knife throughout their development. They are solid at just about everything, from both a physical and mental standpoint: they are simply what used to be called “athletic.”

For us coaches that train team sport athletes, balance is a major concept on which we hang our hats. Share on X

This athleticism is built through many sports, activities, and life experiences that have left them with a diverse toolbox to pull from in terms of movement solutions. As coaches, understanding this contrast can vastly improve the quality of athletes in our communities, along with the way we shape the development of these athletes from adolescence to their adult years.

Yin and Yang

Dating back to 3rd century BCE (or even earlier), Yin and Yang was a fundamental concept found throughout Chinese philosophy. The principle of Yin and Yang is that all things exist as inseparable and contradictory opposites, for example:

• female-male
• dark-light
• old-young

The pairs of equal opposites attract and complement each other. Neither Yin nor Yang is considered to be superior to its counterpart; instead, a correct balance must be struck between the two in order to achieve harmony. I posit that as physical preparation coaches, the most powerful fundamental understanding to have is that of finding the contrast and applying the contrast within your programs.

Organization of training

My decision to start the Common Sense Training podcast was partly influenced by my desire to highlight great coaches from all over the world. These coaches have had continued success and longevity over decades of working with athletes. One coach that I wish I could have had the opportunity to speak with was the late Charlie Francis. Charlie’s approach was unique in that it was applicable across any sporting activity and could be adapted easily by us coaches.

One of the hallmarks of Charlie’s coaching philosophy was his high-low approach to program design. In this polarized design, intensities would work in a contrasting manner in order to support the natural stress-adaptation rhythms of the human body. Some examples of the high intensity elements would include:

• maximal sprinting
• plyometrics
• medicine ball throws
• heavy strength training
• sport practice
• competitions

Low intensity elements would include:

• tempo runs
• aerobic activities
• strength circuits
• abdominal work

When utilizing this approach, it doesn’t mean that there aren’t certain forms of moderate intensity elements added in when needed.

Some reasons why contrasting intensities for athletes might be favorable are:

• If athletes are performing quality high intensity efforts, sustainability of those outputs must be preserved.
• Too much high intensity and volume can lead to excess fatigue, injury, burnout, etc.
• In terms of resource allocation, athletes only have a finite amount of energy which should be spent on the stimuli that can get them the biggest bang for their buck.
  • Low intensity elements can be general in nature which can be used as a low cost means to build strength, lean mass, work capacity, etc. (doesn’t empty the “cup”).
• Athletes need to recover in order to adapt. Low intensity provides that buffer and assists in the adaptation process.
  • Low intensity promotes recovery, resets tone, and helps rebound from high intensity sessions.

If athletes are performing quality high intensity efforts, sustainability of those outputs must be preserved. Share on X

In a recent conversation with coach Joel Jamieson, he talked about his recovery-driven process to training. Obviously, as coaches we have to give our athletes something to recover from in training. However, Joel makes a great point in saying an athlete can only get to a higher level of performance based on the status of their recovery from previous stressors.

Let’s use arbitrary numbers to work this out. Say an athlete has a readiness score of 100. They do a high intensity session and it brings that number down to 60. After a true high intensity session, an athlete might need 48-72 hours to fully recover (athlete depending). So, let’s say after 48 hours they have a recovery score of 80. They do another high intensity session and it drops them down the same 40 points as last time. This time, however, they started in a deficit—so now their readiness sits at a 40. You see where I’m going with this.

Yes, human beings aren’t so simple as a number on a page, but if you dig yourself deep enough into the rabbit hole of recovery, bad things tend to follow. We didn’t even take into account mental stress and how lifestyle choices affect the body’s ability to function. There is a point of diminishing returns. More is not always better. Having contrast in a program might help offset that if done properly.

Where We See Contrast in The Trenches

Contrast is present in many of our programs, even if we don’t realize it. Let’s take a look at some common forms of contrast that we may see in a physical preparation program.

Simple-Complex

In the words of legendary coach Boo Schexnayder “you can either be fancy or you can be intense.” The simple tools in training, like maximal sprints, jumps, tempo runs, squats, deadlifts, presses, chin ups, and many others, are fantastic ways to allocate your training resources. These menu items are simple to teach and oftentimes feel innate to athletes if they had appropriate exposure during their development.

Simple training can be used for all qualifications of athletes. If you are lucky enough to work with elite athletes, the simple training elements are ways to get in training while not zapping precious energy resources that are needed for their sport. Simple doesn’t necessarily mean easy. Simple means making training cut and dried enough where athletes can focus on execution and outputs.

Two major forms of simple and complex are home base-diversity and general physical preparedness-specific physical preparedness. Home base is your simple, yet effective training modalities that are present throughout the entire program. If you know the vertical integration concept popularized by Charlie Francis, these would be the major components that are threaded block to block.

Every once in a while, diversity is needed in a program. Diversity can break up training staleness or be the trump card needed to drive a favorable adaptation. An example might be acceleration and max velocity. In team sports, acceleration training would be the home base. However, on a frequent basis you would want to sprinkle max velocity sprints to aid in top speed and to inoculate against soft tissue injury.

Diversity can break up training staleness or be the trump card needed to drive a favorable adaptation. Share on X

The other form that us coaches should all be familiar with is GPP-SPP. How this fits into the simple-complex framework is in the specificity of work. GPP will consist of general training aimed to boost general qualities. Typically, GPP work will be far away from the sporting actions, although it may hit on a specific quality like regime of muscular work or energy system development. The goal of GPP is to prepare the body for SPP.

SPP is what it sounds like. On the sliding scale of training, athletes will now begin training more concentrated activities and abilities that hopefully will transfer over to successful sporting outcomes. The distribution of GPP to SPP will be different for every level of athlete. Striking that balance of what needs to happen will take shape after a detailed needs analysis.

An easy example of a GPP exercise for a football lineman is a squat variation. It strengthens and prepares the hip and knee extensors. A squat variation can then transfer into a heavy prowler push in SPP. A coach can then match the sets, reps, distance, and rest intervals to match that of a football game. The exercise still focuses on the lower body, but in a more specific manner. It is important to note that true specificity is found in the sport itself—anything done in the weight room or during S&C drills is relatively still general in its application.

It is important to note that true specificity is found in the sport itself—anything done in the weight room or during S&C drills is relatively still general in its application. Share on X

Acute-Chronic

The sport science sector has begun to peel away some of the layers that relate to player loading and potential for injury. One area that has received a lot of interest is that of acute versus chronic stress. Acute simply means short term. Chronic would then be a long-term view of the stressors applied. It is important for us coaches to begin with the end in mind when it comes to preparing our athletes for their sport.

I recently recorded a podcast episode with coach Aaron Wellman where he explained the importance of gradually building up workloads as opposed to acute ramp-ups like we see in many training camp environments. Aaron uses the phrase “callous don’t blister” when talking with coaches. We also talked about the role of sport science in physical preparation. The goal of collecting data isn’t to give our athletes more time off or less work; the goal is to properly progress them in a safe manner that allows them to do more work over time.

The goal for collecting data is to properly progress them in a safe manner that allows them to do more work over time. Share on X

That is the ideal situation. Having enough to slow cook athletes and nudge the needle to a place where they are hopefully prepared for the sport. It is important to remember that the first week of training camp is often the most intense period that an athlete will face all year due to the abrupt spike in stressors.

Another important area that Aaron believes to play a huge role in athletic performance is the accumulation of life stress. Training is just one spoke of the wheel. The sport they play is another. Mental stress, emotional stress, social stress, and lifestyle choices are all additional spokes to the performance and wellness wheel.

Visualize a full cup of water. The cup is our capacity to handle stress. Water is our energy. As we get stressed, we dump some of the water out. What happens when it’s all gone? Performance tanks, our bodies lose their ability to function optimally, we could get sick or run down, our resiliency is diminished, etc. Having that awareness as a coach will put us in a better place in terms of loading and having conversations with our players.

One small example for me personally is training my athletes during finals week. From a mental standpoint they are shot, but I have this wonderfully periodized plan and it is a high intensity day. Well, something has to change on my end. Not drastically though. Remember plan B is as close to plan A as possible. There is time where we can make some of this up; it doesn’t, however, have to be today. There’s a quote I like that says: “The intensity doesn’t come from the sheet of paper, it comes from the athlete.”

The intensity doesn’t come from the sheet of paper, it comes from the athlete. Share on X

Fast-Slow

There are many training modalities that come to mind when I think of fast and slow. My initial thought goes to a broad brush of what many team sport athletes might need: alactic power/capacity and aerobic capacity. Where these qualities may appear to be on opposite ends of the spectrum, you can adapt training to include both.

Alactic efforts are those that are very intense and brief in nature. Think maximal sprints, jumps, lifts, etc. Aerobic endeavours are best served at lower intensities with varying durations. The building or maintenance of aerobic capacities will support alactic outputs and allow for a condensed recovery period between repeated bouts. Aerobically driven activities are also non-competitive to the main alactic stimulus if programmed properly.

To paint a picture, think of training for sprinting-based activities. Our fast actions will include hard accelerations and maximal velocity sprints—these are meant to raise the ceiling of performance. But they also come at a high cost. To counterbalance our fast work, I will use “slow” training means. By slow, I am thinking of smooth tempo runs or running drills done extensively. Both serve as an important stimulus if dosed appropriately.

Another example of fast and slow could involve muscular actions—more specifically, eccentric and concentric. Both of these muscle actions are crucial in sports and movement in general. Eccentric muscle actions are typically done through lengthening and are fairly damaging compared to other muscle actions. Eccentrics are often referenced when we talk about “force absorption.” Concentric muscle actions are typically done through muscle shortening.

The concentric action is most commonly thought of as “force production.” There is growing interest in the eccentric portion of movement and its role in injury and performance. Something I hear frequently from coaches is that an athlete can only produce as much force as they can absorb—when that balance is too asymmetrical, that’s when injury risk creeps up.

There is growing interest in the eccentric portion of movement and its role in injury and performance. Share on X

The weight room is an obvious place to implement fast and slow movements. A good example could be shown with the squat exercise. To make a squat fast, you need to reduce load. Dynamic effort squats are done with 40-70% of your 1RM, using a controlled eccentric and a high intensity, fast concentric. This helps in the recruitment of motor neurons.

To slow the squat down, we can add a rep tempo. The rep tempo would bias towards a fairly slow descent; maybe like 4-8 seconds depending on load. This style of squat is often called eccentric training. Loading could be around 70-90% of 1RM and could even go as high as 120% of 1RM in qualified athletes.

Another form of fast and slow is French Contrast training. French Contrast utilizes varying loads and velocities in an attempt to hit each major landmark along the force-velocity curve. Two major differences in French Contrast worth noting are that heavier loads are used without a slow eccentric. The heavy load itself will slow the movement down. The second difference is the use of assisted movements. These assisted movements help velocities reach a level that wouldn’t otherwise be hit. Here is a basic template of what a French contrast series might look like for the lower body.

Short-Long

Charlie Francis would often use a short-to-long or long-to-short approach with athletes. The basic premise was to manipulate sprint volumes in order to properly progress training in an effort to avoid “too much, too soon.” For team sport athletes, the short‑to‑long approach seems to make sense based on the running demands.

In many sports, the furthest an athlete might run unabated might only be about 50 yards. That number generally seems to be much less than 50 yards, but my recommendation is to train those longer distances for the “break glass in case of emergency” situations so the athletes don’t get injured. The two major variables to consider in a short-to-long program are volume and intensity. In sprint training, depending on the level of athlete, I’ve seen average volumes hover between 200-500 yards per session.

Developing athletes are able to handle higher volumes because they have less horsepower and won’t do as much damage as an elite athlete. The higher volumes also allow for more repetitions to develop proper motor patterns and sprint postures.

Developing athletes are able to handle higher volumes of sprint training because they have less horsepower and won’t do as much damage as an elite athlete. Share on X

Intensity relates to the velocity achieved during sprints. Maximal velocity typically means anything over 90% of an athlete’s fastest time. It has been said many times, but in most cases, to get fast you have to train fast. That comes with increased risks—especially if the athlete is not prepared. Where the art of coaching comes in is how you manipulate each variable. Developing constraints or intensity limiters are a great way to program sprint training. You can do this by utilizing:

• Timed sprints (record performance drop-offs)
• Build up sprints
• Resisted or hill sprints
• Yardage limiters (athlete is asked to do a 40 yard-sprint and is told that the 20‑yard mark is where they can no longer accelerate past; whatever speed they built up to in that initial 20 yards is what they maintain for the second 20 yards)
• Play with complete and incomplete recoveries (rest intervals)

The key here is to slow cook progress and to not overlook technique. Running fast is much more than force production and rate of contraction-relaxation.

One other form of short-long that many of us coaches use is during ground contact times for plyometrics. Shorter ground contact times are found in movements like sprinting, depth jumps, hurdle hops, jumping rope, and other forms of extensive hopping. Longer ground contacts can be found during weighted jumps, broad jumps, and any jumps that aim to generate force over a longer time scale. Both are very important when it comes to training for general athleticism. A big push in the strength and conditioning field is using data to quantify if an athlete is force dominant or velocity dominant. Depending on what you find, training can then be specific to the needs of that athlete.

A coach that does a great job at this is Aaron Wellman. Aaron has found a way to seamlessly introduce data collection into his training sessions. Each athlete might be doing a jump exercise, but the emphasis area will differ for each group. One group might be doing a hurdle hop with jump mats. Another group might be doing weighted box jumps. This is just a small example of using short-long ground contacts within a session.

Stiffness-Compliance

The emergence of tendon research has brought this next form of contrast front and center: stiffness and compliance. I think a well-rounded approach to training muscles and tendons will serve your athletes better than simply focusing on one. Commonly, in a tendon-muscle relationship, there is both stiffness and compliance. Where the muscle meets the tendon, there must be some pliability there; where the tendon meets the bone calls for more stiffness. How these are trained will differ a bit.

If we have strong muscles but not enough tendon integrity, we can see injuries in these connective tissues. For increased stiffness, think dynamic movement. Dynamic in the form of sprinting, jumping, cutting, etc. This fast coupling is what builds cross links in the tendon, making it stiffer. As it turns out, inactivity also increases stiffness, but not in a positive way. Keith Baar has shown that tendons don’t need much more than 10 minutes of loading to see benefits.

If we have strong muscles but not enough tendon integrity, we can see injuries in these connective tissues. Share on X

This has interesting implications in the return-to-play world. From what I’ve gathered, it also seems that female athletes may be predisposed to tendon/ligament injuries because of an interaction with hormones and the development of cross links within connective tissues.

Compliance is another, equally important aspect of tendon-muscle training. If we make a tendon stiffer than a muscle is strong, muscle pulls can happen. An example of this might be observed during mini-camps in the NFL. Players are primarily doing fast, dynamic movements that increase stiffness. The weight room is often one of the first things to go. Without slower strength work, the muscle-tendon junction may be vulnerable to soft tissue pulls. The general recommendation to balance out stiffness with compliance is slow movements.

Heavy weight training can be applied as one means. Another is the use of isometrics. Holding an isometric for 30-40 seconds can be enough loading in the tendon to break cross links and build compliance. Again, Keith Baar is an excellent resource on all things tendons. A good rule of thumb for coaches is:

• First, prepare the athlete’s tendons and tissues to match what they will experience in their sport.
• Next, give the athletes what they aren’t getting in their sport.

If they are basketball players and are jumping all the time, plug in exercises for tendon health and compliance. A balance of the two seems to be a good starting point.

Lifestyle

It is often said that in life we need to find balance. While that holds true for a majority of situations, there are however some instances where contrast plays itself out in our lives.

The first example of that is in the contrast between sleeping states and states of wakefulness. Sleep and its importance in performance and health has been a big topic of conversation over the past few years. Matthew Walker has done a wonderful job of laying out actionable information for the layperson. Sleep is a vital aspect of our lives and, if possible, shouldn’t be compromised.

Sleep is a vital aspect of our lives and, if possible, shouldn’t be compromised. Share on X

On the other side of sleep—and an area that offers an interesting point—is the state of wakefulness. Wakefulness is exactly as it sounds. How we spend our day, more specifically our early and late hours, will either support or hinder the quality of sleep we receive each night. Our bodies are programmed to follow a certain cycle or rhythm. The basic term that represents this cycle or clock is called the “circadian rhythm.” This clock dictates specific functions and actions of our bodies that are important.

As we wake up, we need natural light exposure in our eyes. This light exposure helps initiate our clock and sets the stage for sleepiness to occur some 12-16 hours later. Without adequate light exposure we experience a delay or lag in wakefulness. We also need some natural light exposure in the early evening hours. Seeing the sun at a low position in the sky is useful for the body and its preparation for sleep.

It is important to get light in both the early and later parts of the day. A common recommendation is to get 10-15 minutes of exposure at both times. Depending on how much light is available in your area, that threshold will expand out to get sufficient lux.

Another way we can “hack” the body’s current state is through breathing. Breathing is another vital part of life and is something that has a massive impact on our quality of life. It seems that a more optimal form of breathing should be more or less reflexive and heavily involve the diaphragm. Breath is a way to use our physiology to shift into what is required of us in that specific context.

How we cadence and perform each breath can place us into a more sympathetic- or parasympathetic-dominant state. Generally speaking, sympathetic is our body’s “fight or flight” mode and parasympathetic is more of our “rest and digest” mode. Both are very important.

If we want to heighten our arousal levels, focusing on the inhalation portion of each breath will help us achieve this. A popular technique known as the Wim Hof method, uses a fast cadence in order to hyperoxygenate our bodies. This leads to a more “alive” feeling.

We can also use breath to down-regulate ourselves, which is very much needed in the high-stress environments that we all face in today’s society. To shift ourselves into a more parasympathetic state, our focus then slides to the side of exhalation. By extending and slowing down the rate at which we exhale, we tend to offload more carbon dioxide.

We can also use breath to down-regulate ourselves, which is very much needed in the high-stress environments that we all face in today’s society. Share on X

Stanford neuroscientist Andrew Huberman explained a specific action for dampening the stress response known as the physiological sigh. A physiological sigh is a pattern of breathing in which two inhales through the nose are followed by an extended exhale through the mouth. Huberman explained that the double inhale portion of the physiological sigh pops the air sacks (called alveoli) open, allowing oxygen in and enabling you to offload carbon dioxide in the long-exhaled sigh out. These are just a few examples of how contrasting our breath can alter our current status.

Finding Contrast In Your Life

Contrast exists in most dimensions of life. Without it, we have little context for comparison in our perceptual field. Our goal as coaches is to leverage contrast and use it most effectively with our athletes. These are only a few examples. I challenge you to find more within your programs and develop a fundamental understanding of how to apply them.

“The greater the contrast, the greater the potential. Great energy only comes from a correspondingly great tension of opposites.” – Carl Jung

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