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The Top Three Misconceptions About Fitness in Soccer

Speed, agility, and fitness are perhaps the three most coveted physical attributes for a soccer player. On the surface, these are distinct and separate traits, but due to the demands imposed by a sport that requires continuous movement for more than 90 minutes, these physical qualities take on a unique blend that changes every game as well as every training session.

Speed, agility, and fitness do not exist in a vacuum, and as a consequence, each influences the other. As a result, a holistic approach that subtly develops all three concurrently is optimal. This is easier said than done when adding in technical and tactical sessions as well. Due to the complexity of this task, a lot is still misunderstood about the correct approach and far too often any physical shortcomings are perceived to be a “lack of fitness.”

There are many fallacies regarding fitness in soccer, but this article will quickly highlight three of the biggest misconceptions. What is often blamed on poor conditioning is in fact due to:

Lack of technical skill and/or tactical inferiority.
Lack of speed.
Too much steady-state cardio and detonating the glycolytic “bomb.”

1. Lack of Technical Skill and/or Tactical Inferiority

Building a bigger and more economical engine with well-executed physical prep is very helpful but still subordinate to the actual skills required to play the game. Good performance training supports and enhances the ability to carry out the specific task, but cannot replace playing the sport itself—which will always be the ultimate sport-specific prep. A team of superior athletes can be rendered useless if technical skill and tactical awareness are lacking.

A team of superior athletes can be rendered useless if technical skill and tactical awareness are lacking, says @houndsspeed. Share on X

In soccer, the team that dictates tempo and controls most of the possession will often appear to be “fitter” and “fresher,” particularly late in games, because the ball always moves faster than any player can and does so at no expense to the important energy reserves of the team in control. Conversely, the subtle defensive shifting and repositioning for the team chasing comes at a cost and slowly depletes fuel. This is often mislabeled as a lack of fitness, but the reality is that the other side is just technically and tactically superior.

To reconcile the technical, the tactical, and the physical, it is important to ensure that the physical development does not become detrimental to the sport itself, so training efficiency becomes critical. Compound exercises that develop multiple attributes, address the appropriate energy system (ATP-CP), and reflect the appropriate force-velocity relationships (speed and speed-strength) are best. Quickly pursuing optimal development, not minimal or maximal, with as succinct an exercise menu as possible will allow athletes to continue to grow physically in a holistic manner while still affording the necessary amount of time to master their actual craft.

2. Lack of Speed

Speed kills, and many game-changing plays can be accredited to pace or lack thereof. From a physical perspective, this is still likely the biggest collective “miss” in the soccer community. Despite its extraordinary value, very few coaches go about developing speed properly with maximal efforts of less than six seconds with complete recovery.

This is important because many endurance issues are the result of insufficient top-end speed. Quite simply, as an athlete becomes faster, they become more fuel-efficient at submaximal paces. Relatively speaking, the faster athlete will have to dedicate less of their energy reserves to run at the same speed as a slower athlete. This phenomenon is referred to as “speed reserve,” and despite being well known in the track community, it has yet to become mainstream in the soccer world.

Despite its extraordinary value, very few soccer coaches go about developing speed properly with maximal efforts of less than six seconds with complete recovery, says @houndsspeed. Share on X

Soccer players are not track athletes, but they most definitely can benefit from training methods like that of a short sprinter—particularly because the phosphocreatine system is the predominant energy source for both soccer players and short sprinters alike.

3. Too Much Steady-State Cardio and Detonating the Glycolytic ‘Bomb’

Devaluing maximal outputs such as speed and power is often symptomatic of inefficient energy system development. As it specifically relates to conditioning for soccer athletes, there is an over-reliance on slow, steady-state cardio and heavy glycolytic shuttles. Soccer primarily is a game of repetitive, alactic efforts built on a robust aerobic foundation. Having strong cardiovascular fitness allows for quicker recovery times between intensive efforts and the ability to build increased volume of alactic outputs over time.

Although slow, steady-state cardio addresses aerobic development, it does so inefficiently. Activities such as jogging train poor movement qualities that ultimately do not reflect the dynamic nature of soccer. Hard shuttles and extended anaerobic efforts of 15-45 seconds feel productive because of the resultant glycolytic burn but miss the mark in terms of intensity and duration. Specific conditioning is, and always will be, best developed by playing soccer.

The intensity of sessions can be manipulated by changing the size of sides, space provided, and duration of play, with intensity often being inversely proportional to the number of players as well as the size of the playing space. Good general prep must first acknowledge that nothing is more specific than the sport itself. This always establishes the appropriate reference point from which to work backward and toward more general forms of physical development.

Next, general conditioning should reflect the intensities and durations demonstrated within the game itself. Repetitive anaerobic outputs of less than 10 seconds—with limited recoveries—should be the goal for most soccer athletes. Organically, very high levels of general fitness can be achieved by changing nothing but recovery times, submax intensities, run distances, and total volume of distance run. As result, I have really grown to appreciate short tempo runs of 40-80 yards for soccer athletes. Specifically, these are a great way to simultaneously mirror the energy requirements of the game, support speed development, and alleviate some of the eccentric loading from a sport that requires continuous change of direction.

The tempo work can be further divided into more intensive or extensive types of sessions with good intensive work being defined as approximately 85%-90% efforts totaling 800-1,200 yards of volume and extensive tempos of roughly 75%-80% intensities equaling 1,500-2,000 yards total volume. Recovery times of 30-90 seconds (dependent on session goal, intensive versus extensive) maintain a good balance between sustaining an elevated heart rate and still being mindful of good speed principles.

Pure speed work that addresses both acceleration and max velocity with quality tempo work to support this should form the backbone of a good preparedness regime for the soccer athlete. Share on X

With this in mind, pure speed work that addresses both acceleration and max velocity with quality tempo work to support this should form the backbone of a good preparedness regime for the soccer athlete. Completely analogous to touches on a ball, quality volume as it relates to ground contacts matters from both a speed and a fitness perspective, so the objective would be to wisely build over time.

On the Training Ground

Speed, power, fitness, and technical skill can all peacefully coexist, but there must be a distinct hierarchy of priorities that starts with soccer and intelligently reverse-engineers to more general physical needs.

Pragmatically, looking at the energy requirements of the game and utilizing means that both reflect these demands and improve a player’s ability to navigate these same concerns is the name of the game for a performance coach. Mastery for the performance coach then should encourage pursuing the most direct path to the optimal end.

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Considerations for Training Middle School Athletes with Brandon Pigg

Freelap Friday Five| ByBrandon Pigg, ByCody Hughes

Brandon Pigg is a second-year master’s student in the University of Memphis’s exercise, sport, and movement sciences program and current Assistant Performance Coach at Madison Academy. He also operates as a private coach under his brand name, Pique Strength & Conditioning. His postgraduate aspirations include multisport high school strength and conditioning.

Freelap USA: What are the highest priorities in training middle school athletes?

Brandon Pigg: First and foremost, they must be able to safely navigate a weight room and training session. If they cannot execute use of the weight room safely, none of the tips or considerations given in this article matter. We do not want to shut down progress made in the weight room because someone got hurt.

The next overarching priority is to prepare our middle school athletes to be skilled and competent enough to train well in a high school environment. We do not have the time or luxury to spoon-feed freshmen in a high school training session. We teach literacy and competency in our “big rock” lifts, movement patterns, and athletic qualities like jumping and sprinting, so they are familiar with the expectations and coaching cues in a faster-paced environment. We are more concerned with movement skills than contractile element adaptations at this part of our development plan.

Freelap USA: How do you balance rigid technical strength training with “free play” with middle school athletes?

Brandon Pigg: Coaches must understand that there needs to be a balance between rigid environments of training and free play due to the maturity level of a middle schooler. We must balance wanting to reach the goals that are discussed in the previous question and allowing them to have some “free play” opportunities. I believe the tradeoff is worth it in the long run. Sometimes, expending energy by just goofing off with friends can have a positive return on the training program.

Coaches must understand that there needs to be a balance between rigid environments of training and free play due to the maturity level of a middle schooler, says @Brandon_L_Pigg. Share on X

I approach this by limiting the time we spend in one particular environment. For example, we block off our training sessions into 20-minute increments (60-minute session total). The first 20-minute block is spent on a holistic warm-up that covers all movement patterns and prepares the body for training. The second block has a true lifting focus to acquire lifting skills. The third block is designated for free play, whether that is on a playground, in small-sided games, or in something they are passionate about playing.

A major part of this model is packaging the last block to the kids as a reward. This helps to keep our priorities for the training session and drive the kids to take the beginning of the session seriously. Although the free play is programmed into the plan, it is delivered to them in a manner that is received as “extra.” If the kids are not focused at a level that is satisfactory, we continue the session with lifting skills and other resistance training methods. I have found this to consistently keep our reps at a quality level even though we only spend roughly 20 minutes doing so.

Freelap USA: When it comes to programming for middle schoolers, we must keep logistics, environment, and attention span in mind. What is your approach to these variables, and can you give an example(s)?

Brandon Pigg: As I mentioned in the previous question, the training is broken down into three separate time blocks to entice the athletes to focus. As far as logistics are concerned, I must set up training where I can see everything that is happening in my coaching view, no matter if there are three things happening at once or just one. We must keep safety our first priority.

Second, I am not a fan of “busy work” per se, but I understand that some middle schoolers do not have the attention span to watch and rest as their other teammates are training. The best-case scenario is to give our middle school athletes a task to do between main sets (some call this a superset) that is simple and safe, but effective for what we are trying to accomplish.

An example of this is a prone “iron man” exercise to engage the lats while we are training the trap bar deadlift. The movement is safe, simple to execute, and helps stack a feeling that is consistent with the positioning in the deadlift.

I noticed a major difference in training quality when using their environment and attention span to my advantage. Originally, our session would consist of traditional strength training one block at a time. I noticed I was able to keep their focus for about 20 seconds of meaningful tension per set before their attention span began to drift. I shifted to a station approach with smaller groups and found I could gain up to 50 seconds of meaningful tension per set before they were distracted by their peers. This approach has allowed me to get more meaningful work done with them.

Freelap USA: How can you progress the training of middle school athletes? How much variability do you use?

Brandon Pigg: I do not want our middle school athletes to feel like they are just surviving in the weight room—I want them to thrive in it. We progress to more advanced positions, such as unilateral variations, and use time as our main progression variable, not load (isometrics and eccentrics). We cover the fundamentals of all our positions of training so they will have a baseline of familiarity with whatever we have on our training card during high school training sessions.

My top three return-on-investment exercises for middle school athletes are the trap bar deadlift, any variation of a row, and skipping & sprinting, says @Brandon_L_Pigg. Share on X

Freelap USA: What are your top three return-on-investment exercises for middle school athletes?

Brandon Pigg: The first exercise is trap bar deadlift. We can get the most output from this exercise with the least amount of coaching. Second on the list is any variation of a row. I believe training the proper mechanics of a row will transfer to many other movements and exercises that they will use down the road. Lastly, skipping and sprinting are non-negotiable for middle school athletes to develop pure coordination and proprioception purposes that will transfer to sport.

Common Misconceptions About Reflexive Performance Reset (RPR)

Blog| ByChris Korfist

For those not familiar with it, Reflexive Performance Reset (RPR) is a simple system of breathing and tactile input that resets your body from a survival mode to a performance mode. Your body has two priorities: to breath and to move. In order to perform your best, you need to do both properly.

In a world of constant stress, our bodies find a way to meet those priorities by creating inefficient compensation patterns. In some cases, compensation patterns can limit performance and possibly lead to injuries. RPR Wake-Up Drills can help shift an athlete’s body out of these inefficient patterns and into efficient and powerful patterns to perform at their best, increase flexibility, and become more resilient to injury.

RPR Wake-Up Drills can help shift an athlete’s body out of inefficient patterns and into efficient and powerful patterns to perform at their best, says @korfist. Share on X

So, when you see your favorite team or players pushing or rubbing on different body parts, you will know they are “resetting” themselves for optimum performance. It was quite exciting to see both teams in the World Championships of women’s hockey on the ice performing their Wake-Up Drills as a team. It was also satisfying to walk through the warm-up area of the state championship meet, watching athletes in various stages of their “reset.”

But, like anything popular, effective, and simple…the process and message can get changed, and sometimes not for the better.

1. One Spot Needs One Reset

Too many times, people who don’t take the various courses just check online for someone showing a certain spot to reset a certain muscle. For example, if my knee hurts, I will do just the knee reset.

That can sometimes be effective for a short period of time, but it can also lead to a further compensation pattern or continued poor performance. Why? Part of the magic of RPR is the sequence of the Wake-Up Drills. Just like turning on a computer, there has to be a sequence of events to “boot” up. If something in the sequence does not start, all kinds of things may go wrong with your computer. The same can happen when our body goes to recruit muscles for a contraction. If a muscle isn’t getting the signal, other muscles will step in to compensate for that muscle so the movement can take place safely (but not always efficiently).

The sequence of the Wake-Up Drills is a reset to the recruitment sequence, thereby making sure that the muscle is ready to receive the message from the brain to work properly. The sequence also reminds the system of the proper recruitment pattern, so a glute can act like a glute and a hamstring can act like a hamstring. If a glute doesn’t want to start the chain of events, the hamstring will be asked to do two functions, which can lead to injury or a lack of performance.

2. Just Touching a Spot Doesn’t Have Any Impact

Our bodies respond to all kinds of input and stimuli. Think about the impact sunlight has on a body. Just five minutes looking toward the sun in the morning can set your entire circadian clock. Blue screens at night elicit a hormonal change. Injuring a toenail can change your gait instantly.

So why can’t touch create a change in the body?

The spots used for the Wake-Up Drills are tactile cues from human development. No one understands language when we are learning to crawl, but there has to be some cue that lets the body know it is ready to go. We tap into those cues to give primal input to the system to move. Plus, with RPR, you can instantly feel the change—which is why we have tests, so people can witness the change.

3. It’s Just for Athletes

RPR can be used by anyone, at any time. Since the three founders (Cal Dietz, JL Holdsworth, and I) are all athletic coaches, our intent was to bring a simple and fast method to empower our athletes by having them reset themselves with Wake-Up Drills to make sure they were at their best for practice or competition. It worked great with our athletes, and as other coaches started to expand the method’s use, we heard of all different athletes getting noteworthy results.

RPR can be used by anyone, at any time. It’s not just for athletes, says @korfist. Share on X

From there, RPR expanded further, and we’ve heard positive feedback regarding:

People in the work force performing manual labor.
Special Forces experiencing benefits in the field.
Babies experiencing changes from their caregiver’s use of the concepts.
Seniors not only improving in the sport of golf but in their daily quality of life.

We have recently brought RPR breathing and Zone 1 resets to school districts, to help alleviate test anxiety and teach students to get their system ready to learn. This is one of the great benefits of RPR: It is a system that not only recognizes how the body works together physically (like the chain of muscles required in the recruitment process) but also ties the physical with the psychological.

RPR breathing can get the body in a performance state, so it can not only more readily take physical input but also calm the system so it can take mental input as well. It recognizes the fact that if the body is “off” in one of the categories, physical or psychological, it can also impede the progress of the other. For example, if I stub my toe, that pain will have an impact on the decisions I make. The RPR system helps link the two systems together so there can be one whole system on the same page.

4. You Only Have to Do It Once

Our body is constantly dealing with a variety of stressors. They can range from the physical to the emotional, psychological, and even environmental. With these constant “threats,” our body is always looking for the safest way to navigate this scenario. From an athletic standpoint, the body can down-regulate muscle activity for a variety of reasons, ranging from a conservation of energy standpoint (bigger muscles require more caloric intake) to safety (the brain doesn’t think the body can withstand the power output from a bigger muscle, so it cuts power).

The RPR Wake-Up Drills send a message to the brain that it doesn’t need to down-regulate and can let power flow. It is this concept that allows our flexibility to improve with the Wake-Up Drills. The brain will allow length when it feels safe—hence the lack of flexibility while injured, cold, or even scared. Once we reset, it gives the brain the cue that we can perform and give muscles their length. Hence, the first time you do RPR, you have this great sense of flexibility, power, and movement because it may have been the first time you have experienced this mental state in quite some time.

But “life” will happen again, and the body responds to those stressors and can shut down again. A simple solution: because RPR Wake-Up Drills don’t take long, you can simply reset yourself. The more you reset, the more it moves the needle to the middle of the performance/survival spectrum.

5. Someone Else Needs to Do It to You

RPR is unique in that it is a system that you can do on yourself. You don’t need a medical professional, coach, or teammate to do the Wake-Up Drills. It is all self-applied. With that said, RPR does not replace any technique or modality that you may currently employ. It just makes it all better, because you are giving the nervous system the cue to accept future input.

RPR is a system that you can do on yourself. You don’t need a medical professional, coach, or teammate to do the Wake-Up Drills, says @korfist. Share on X

Also, while it doesn’t cure preexisting injuries, it does put the body in a state to let it know it is time to heal and get muscles that may have been inhibited to work again so the healing can take place. In fact, we get an improved response because, most of the time, the brain never has been given the input that an injury has healed, and we keep the compensation that was developed as a result of the injury. This is where we see recurring injuries, like torn ACLs on the same leg or recurring ankle sprains.

If all of this interests you, please go to our website to check out more about RPR.

And we hope to see you soon at one of our in-person clinics.

A Simple Guide To Effective In-Season Training

Blog| ByKeith Ferrara

The relative importance of in-season vs. off-season training is often debated, and through my eight years of being a sports performance coach at the collegiate level, there is no doubt in my mind that in-season training is the most valuable training period of the year.

In-season is when we are competing at the highest level in our pursuit of a championship. This is the time when we want to be at our peak performance levels, and to limit our training at this time of year is dangerous and setting the team up for failure. Training in-season isn’t as simple as prescribing reps and sets and letting the players get to work; it is a science to be able to run an effective plan while priming players for game day.

In-season is when we are competing at the highest level in our pursuit of a championship, says @bigk28. Share on X

In this article, I am going to discuss how to map out an effective in-season training plan, what to include throughout your training week, and how you can maximize time with your players so they are performing at peak levels on game day.

Establishing an Outline

It is impossible to make an effective training plan without understanding the demands of practice and competition. First, I would connect with your sports coach and find the answers to a few simple questions:

What days are competitions? (You can do this yourself by looking at your team’s schedule.)
How long is pre-season/in-season/post-season?
Are there different themes to practice for different days of the week?
Which days will we be conducting workouts?
Will we be conducting workouts before or after practice?

These are crucial questions you need to answer before beginning to outline your plan. Do not go in blind when creating your program—that can be extremely problematic when it comes to preparing the athletes for competition and could potentially lead to harmful situations such as overuse, neural fatigue, and injuries.

First, and most importantly, you have to know how the game schedule is set up for the week. This can change from week to week depending on the sport you work with, but you need to have a plan for certain outlines of multiple-competition weeks. For example, a workout week consisting of competitions on Wednesday/Saturday, will look completely different from a week where you compete Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday. Map out how many times these instances occur and map out different plans for those weeks.

Next, understand how the season outline will go and map out the length of each training period:

Pre-Season
In-Season
Post-Season

For example, with our volleyball program, we will always have two weeks of pre-season training followed by an 11-week regular season, one-week conference tournament, and one or two weeks of NCAA play. Knowing this allows us to plan what qualities we will work on at different points in the year and how long we have to train each one. We start every athlete that hasn’t been with us for quite some time in a general preparation block. There is a ton of value in building a foundation and teaching your athletes better movement. Start from there to set yourself up for training success throughout the whole year.

Next, understand the demands of practice. If you are lucky to work with coaches that understand nervous system demand, you will be able to structure your workouts to fit the theme of the practice. For example, if I know that we are about to have a high-speed practice that will have a high CNS output effect, these are days we will incorporate our max velocity work prior to practice.

If you are lucky to work with coaches that understand nervous system demand, you will be able to structure your workouts to fit the theme of the practice, says @bigk28. Share on X

Based on this understanding, the next step is to figure out what days of the week your workouts will be held. Full disclaimer: there are certain days that are more ideal than others, but you can hold workouts any day throughout the week. Just remember the main goal will always be to have them primed for game day. I usually like to pick one day early in the week, preferably Monday, and the day immediately after competition. I will go into the structure of the workouts shortly, but this has been my go-to plan for most of the teams I train.

The last piece of the puzzle is to establish what time workouts will be conducted: before or after practice. There is no question in my mind that the best time to hold workouts is prior to practice. The reason is simple: there are things we need to develop from an athletic standpoint that will simply not be effective after practicing for 2-3 hours. When referencing these qualities, I am 100% talking about speed and power work. I have done workouts before and after practices and speed work is simply not effective post-practice because the athlete is fatigued.

Video 1. Team sport athletes live in acceleration—it is a quality that must be trained often. We start every workout with theme-based sprint work for both acceleration and peak velocity.

Meanwhile, there are ways to structure your workouts to prime the athletes for the practice ahead with any type of low volume speed work and a total body lift. This really isn’t up to debate within my programming anymore—if we have the opportunity to train before, we will. If not, we will have to figure out another plan of attack.

Define Which Qualities Matter the Most

This has completely changed for me over my years of being a sports performance coach. I used to be hell-bent on training strength and being strong throughout the entire season. Although I wasn’t 100% wrong in my pursuit of strength, I wasn’t necessarily right either. It is important to maintain strength levels for three primary reasons:

Sets the foundation for acceleration development.
Sets the foundation for training other weight room qualities (power and speed).
Lowers the incidence of injury.

There is no question that you must be strong and work consistently if you want to stay healthy throughout the duration of a season. However, how much will strength carry over to helping your players become better athletes? For freshmen, I believe the carry over is high. A lot of the positive adaptations for freshman will come from being exposed to a new stimulus. That is why I believe the first one to two years of development for incoming players must focus on better movement and improving strength levels.

The first one to two years of development for incoming players must focus on better movement and improving strength levels, says @bigk28. Share on X

I would love to sit here and give you a number that is “strong enough,” but there are too many variables from individual to individual for that. Not only is there an individual factor, but the sport being played matters as well. This is my rule of thumb when it comes to strength development: if they are continuing to improve qualities that matter (speed and power), then continue to work that stimulus. As soon as they stagnate in their development, it is time to switch up your plan.

It is important to understand what is most important: keeping the players fresh for game day, says @bigk28 Share on X

Here is a list of assessments you can do in-season to assess different qualities.

1. Speed – This is where you need to invest in a fully automated timing system to get objective data to guide your program. My go-to assessment for speed is the 30m sprint, and from this one assessment I can get force, power, and velocity for each athlete. I am fortunate enough to have the Muscle Lab Continuous Laser, but if you are in a budget crunch, buying the MySprint App and a few cones will do just fine.

JB Morin has an amazing force-velocity spreadsheet that will spit out a range of metrics once you input them for the player. Most athletes that I work with hit peak velocity at 25-30m, so most of the time a 30m sprint will be enough distance for you to get an idea on their peak velocity. However, I will also use a fly variation somewhere between 10-20m with a 20m run-in to get a read on peak velocity as well. A simpler version of all of this would be to just get splits for anything 20m and under. If I only had two points, I would do 10-20m sprints for all my athletes to measure acceleration and fly 10-20m to measure velocity. If you have no timing gates whatsoever, a stopwatch can be used as well.

2. Repeated Power – If you are lucky enough to get a contact grid or jump mat system that measures repeated power outputs, then the Scandinavian rebound jump (5 jumps) would be my go-to test. Not only does this provide a ton of valuable information about the vertical power outputs of the athlete, but it will give you a really great reading on athlete readiness. This test is easy to implement and can be used at any point throughout the week (even gameday). If none of these options are available to you, then a triple broad jump is another great test.

3. Power – This one is simple. Use either a standing vertical jump or broad jump to measure singular power output

4. Strength – My go-to strength assessment is the isometric belt pull. The main reason for this is that there is usually a learning curve on most strength exercises to get an accurate read on strength levels. The isometric belt pull is an easy test to perform that requires a low skill level. Without it, I found it challenging to gauge where my freshman athletes were at with regards to strength, because a lot of them came in with no weight room experience. Now, if you don’t have access to a force sensor to accurately measure the belt squat, I wouldn’t recommend testing strength in-season without the use of velocity based training devices. This is where investing in velocity devices such as Vmaxpro come in handy. Instead of looking at a number like 1 RM, you can easily look at the velocity measurement of a given day compared to previous days and see if strength levels are improving. While this is at the bottom of my list for assessments, it is still extremely valuable to assess strength throughout the in-season for health reasons.

Video 2. All of our workouts have the same structure: Sprint Mechanics, Sprint Work, Plyos, Lift. Athletes will be grouped based on their assessments for lifting. In this video, athletes that showed a strength need performed Olympics lifts from the floor while those that showed a power need did Olympic lifts below the knee.

Building Out Your Daily Workout

Once you establish all of the criteria I’ve discussed to this point, you can begin building out your workout plan. I am a big proponent of utilizing the block model. Simply put, you are focusing on one specific quality in the weight room as opposed to multiple at the same time. The three main qualities we will work on throughout the year are:

Strength
Power
Speed

I also believe that your acceleration work should be matched to this theme. For example, if I am working on developing strength, I will also work on force development within my acceleration work. The only quality I will not pair with my strength work is peak velocity. Everyone needs to be fast at all times, regardless of the sport or position they play. That means that everyone should be training the peak velocity stimulus at all times throughout the year.

Everyone should be training the peak velocity stimulus at all times throughout the year, says @bigk28. Share on X

For freshman and incoming athletes, I follow this simple outline:

GPP
Strength
Power/Speed

We will train these qualities continuously; first by establishing a base of better movement with our foundational exercises, then by building strength, then switching the focus to power/speed as we get closer to our conference tournament and NCAAs.

For upperclassmen, in order to figure out what type of training they need, you need to figure out what assessment you will be using. This is where you need to find things that are based around athletic success. That is why I focus my assessments around two main skills:

Sprinting Assessments

Force Velocity Profile
10/20 Sprint Tool by Cal Dietz

Nothing too complex here. I have my athletes complete a 30m sprint, then look at the slope of the force velocity curve. If my athlete is force-dominant, we will work on speed work for the weight room and transition to max velocity for acceleration. If my athlete is velocity dominant, we will work on strength for the weight room and force with regards to our acceleration work. If my athlete is a balance of both, we will focus on power development in the weight room and with our acceleration work.

If you don’t have the time or tools to do that, Cal Dietz has done an incredible job with the 10/20 sprint tool. Basically, have your athlete run a 20 yard/meter sprint, with a 10 meter/yard split, plug it into the calculator, and work in the zone where your athletes need the most improvement.

Jumping Assessments

Eccentric Utilization Ratio/Stretch Shortening Cycle Percentage

Another easy one to perform. With their hands on their hips, have your athlete do a countermovement jump squat, followed by a rest period, then a squat jump with a 3-second pause. Use the following formula:

SSC% = (CMJ – SJ)/SJ

If I have an athlete above 10%, the emphasis of their plyo work needs to be on strength; less than 10%, the emphasis needs to be on reactive plyos. And if they are in that 10% range, the athlete can do a combination of both (French contrast method works well for this group).

Once our assessments are established, it’s time to build our workout. All of my workouts use the following structure:

Reflexive Performance Reset
Sprint Mechanics (drills based on acceleration vs. peak velocity focus)
Throws (acceleration only)
Sprint-Specific Work
Plyos
Lift

I like to match themes, so on my acceleration-based days we will do the following:

MB Throw Variations
Resisted Sprint Work (chains, hill, sleds)
Horizontal Plyos
Lower CNS Output Lifts (squat, deadlift, upper body press, pull, single leg movement, hamstring)

On peak velocity days we will do the following:

Low Ground Contact Time Sprint Drills (hops, a-switches)
Vertical Plyos
Speed Bounds
Fly Variations, Buildups, Drive Floats
Olympic Lifts

I have found that the themed-based workouts work really well. I usually put peak velocity-based days in the beginning of the week because that’s when my athletes were the freshest. I do acceleration-based workouts the day after competition because the stress is lower on the athletes’ bodies and we are still able to get quality work in.

I have found that the themed-based workouts work really well, says @bigk28. Share on X

In-Season Work Is Paramount

There is no questioning the importance of training in-season as it relates to the development of the athlete. We want to be in the most primed state in our pursuit of competing for a championship—designing and implementing an effective in-season training plan has provided my athletes with that opportunity.

By establishing an outline prior to the year to understand the demands of the practice and game schedule, I have been able to build out a strategy to train certain developmental qualities. I establish early on what qualities matter most to the success of the sport, and how I am going to assess those qualities throughout the season—you must assess if you are trying to optimize your in-season program. I develop a structure to my workouts and educate my players on the specifics of each day—at the end of the day, athlete buy-in is the most critical factor to the program’s success. Having them understand the why of the program is paramount for continuing to improve all the way through post-season competition.

Build a plan, follow through, make adjustments where necessary, and continue to grow your mindset and there is no question you will be able to implement a successful in-season sports performance program as well.

10 Common Misconceptions About Feed the Cats

Blog| ByTony Holler

Misconception: a view or opinion that is wrong or inaccurate.

We are only as good as the information we consume. People with misconceptions are not dumb or illiterate, they’re just poorly informed. In fact, highly intelligent people often pontificate about things they know very little about. I call it “articulate ignorance.”

People with misconceptions are not dumb or illiterate, they’re just poorly informed, says @pntrack. Share on X

With the growth of the “Feed the Cats” model of training (high-quality microdosed training that builds racehorses not workhorses, where tired is the enemy not the goal), many low-information coaches have voiced their dissent. I like to remind myself to ignore unsolicited criticism from people from whom I would never seek advice. But sometimes misconceptions need to be addressed.

Even though FTC is a growing movement in all sports, including endurance sports and the tough-guy sports of football, rugby, and lacrosse, I will focus this discussion on the sport where it all began, track and field.

1. FTC Is Only Good for (fill in the blank)

Elites? This take probably came about due to the success of Marcellus Moore. Marcellus ran a wind-aided 10.40 at age 14 and a wind-legal 10.31 at age 15 that broke the Illinois state record. There’s no doubt in my mind that Marcellus thrived in an FTC program, but his teammates showed even more improvement. Anyone who has ever coached an elite understands that elites are closer to their genetic ceiling than those new to training. With elites, keep them happy and healthy and celebrate little victories.

Developmental Athletes? Seems strange that some people argue that FTC is only good for elites while others take the flip side. Obviously, both sides are diametrically opposed and can’t both be right. In my 22 years of “feeding the cats,” I see both arguments without merit. On a further note, I wish college (and professional) coaches who label high school coaches as “developmental” coaches would start attempting to be developmental themselves. When 90% of college track athletes fail to exceed their high school PRs, the college model should be reexamined.

When 90% of college track athletes fail to exceed their high school PRs, the college model should be reexamined, says @pntrack. Share on X

Cats? There’s no doubt that the origin of Feed the Cats came from my shameless attempt to get every “cat” in my high school to want to run track. (Cats are fast-twitch athletes who can sprint and jump. Cats also have a reputation for not liking hard work and are considered lazy.) Many coaches agree with the pillars of FTC training but stay “old school” because they claim to “not have cats.” Coaches who don’t have talented kids choose fitness over speed and slow repeats over high-quality work, exacerbating the problem. I shared this with Marcellus Moore when he was a sophomore. Marcellus replied, “Don’t they understand that all athletes can become more cat-like?”

Smart kid.

High School Boys? What? Quality sprint-specific training is only good for boys aged 15-18? How about girls, middle school athletes, and college athletes?

The idea that girls should be run into the ground because they aren’t as fast as boys makes no sense. From testimonials of FTC girls’ teams, an emphasis on speed and power might very well be MORE EFFECTIVE for girls than boys.

It seems most middle school programs like to stretch and then run laps for practice. The “fitness approach” to training young kids typically results in soreness, injury, and depression. This aerobic approach to training may sound smart when you hear middle school coaches say that young athletes are not capable of high outputs, therefore they must be trained aerobically. In my opinion, the stretching and lap running is just an excuse to make practices easier to manage. Train them for high outputs! Every year I have to explain to freshmen that their miserable experience in middle school track will not be repeated in my program.

Ninety percent of college track athletes I talk to are miserable, frequently injured, and underperforming. If high school kids are good at things they like and look forward to, wouldn’t the same be true for college kids? If high school kids can improve their top-end speed, why can’t college kids? Coach Justin Kinseth has achieved amazing success with an FTC approach at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, finishing third at the NCAA Division III Men’s Outdoor Track & Field Championships in 2021.

2. FTC Programs Just Run a Couple 10-Meter Flys and Go Home

I teach sprint mechanics every day. We are what we do, so we make sprinting a habit. We hardwire speed. On speed days, we time three sprints. We always reach maximum velocity on our timed sprints. The focal point of our training is the 40-yard dash, half acceleration, half max velocity.

We time flys of 10 meters, 20 yards, and 35 meters. Our 20-yard flys are done competitively in pairs. Our 35-meter flys are done on the curve using 300 hurdle marks. We time 10-meter accelerations into a 20-meter fly using 4×1 exchange zones. Out of the blocks, we do 15-yard accelerations into a 10-yard fly. In season, we do around 10 lactate workouts (acidosis tolerance work) where we run 400-800 meters of work at a goal 400m pace or faster. A couple times, preseason, we do “sprint capacity” work, like 10 x fly 40 yards in 10 minutes or 5 x fly 100 meters in 10 minutes.

We also do our field event, hurdle, and handoff work after our speed work. Our D-Crew lives on their own island. Last year, Coach Andy Derks had 24 guys sub-60 in the 400, 28 guys sub 2:20 in the 800, and 25 guys under 5:00 in the 1600. We are a balanced track team with a speed focus.

3. FTC Programs Are Soft

Coaches are obsessed with HARD and SOFT. They should be obsessed with performance.

No matter how zen I become as an old man, I still want to punch people in the face when they claim my kids are soft. Happy, healthy, fast track kids who love their sport are the opposite of soft. Cats may sleep 20 hours a day, but when it comes time to eat, cats become apex predators—fast, competitive, and explosive killers.

We are NEVER soft in the hardest event in track and field, the 4×4.

We always excel on day 2 of the IHSA State Meet (prelims Friday, finals Saturday). In 2018 and 2019, Marcellus Moore won EVERY Saturday event after a full day of prelims on Friday. Marcellus didn’t wither with fatigue in the finals. Quite possibly the nicest and most gentle kid I ever coached, when Marcellus raced, I called him “The Assassin.”

You know who’s soft? TIRED PEOPLE! Yep, one of the toughest coaches in the history of old-school football, Vince Lombardi, once said, “Fatigue makes cowards of us all.” I would think that Lombardi might appreciate the title of my upcoming book, Tired Is the Enemy, Not the Goal.

4. FTC Spends Too Much Time at Max Velocity

When low-information coaches criticize Feed the Cats, they picture entire practices as maximum velocity. This is 100% crazy and, if you think about it, 100% impossible. Remember: when I use the term low-information coaches, I’m not referring to dumb coaches. Most coaches I know are highly intelligent. BUT remember, we are only as good as the information we consume. Too many smart people believe all their opinions are smart and often sound articulate speaking about things they know nothing about.

When low-information coaches criticize Feed the Cats, they picture entire practices as maximum velocity. This is 100% crazy and, if you think about it, 100% impossible, says @pntrack. Share on X

We only run maximum velocity on “speed days.” We usually have 2-3 speed days per week. On a speed day, we do a total of around 90 seconds of work at maximum intent in a 45- to 55-minute practice. Of those 90 seconds, we spend around six seconds at maximum velocity. Those six seconds are critical to the improvement of sprinters. Most programs spend zero seconds at max speed.

Everything we do in an FTC program is at maximal intent, but that’s not the same as maximum velocity. Bounding maximally is not the same as sprinting at 22-23 mph. In fact, sprinting maximally is the most extreme exercise in the human experience.

ALTIS sprint coach Stuart McMillan, who I’ve accused of being a passive-aggressive critic of Feed the Cats, claims to do no work at maximum velocity. That’s the hill on which he plants his flag. Instead of max speed, he trains “rhythm, timing, technique, coordination, fluidity, flow, etc.” This is all fine if you believe your athlete to be at their genetic ceiling, with little or no room to grow. However, if there’s room to develop speed, this “everything but max speed approach” is planting beans and expecting to grow corn.

If there’s room to develop speed, this ‘everything but max speed approach’ is planting beans and expecting to grow corn, says @pntrack. Share on X

It’s also important to find common ground with critics. On a Speedworks Training podcast, Stu stated that “99%, 98%, or 90% is, by definition, sub-maximal.” When FTC athletes are at “max velocity” in practice, we are likely at 99%, 98%, or even 90% of our TRUE maximum velocity in meets. Thus, my max velocity and Stuart McMillan’s sub-max velocity may be the exact same thing. Go figure!

5. FTC Athletes Are Weak Because They Don’t Lift

Sprinting is the best core exercise in the world. Sprinting is the best strength exercise in the world. Chris Meng once calculated that a sprinter I was training was putting 23 “body weights” into the ground per second. Try 4,000 pounds per second in the weight room.

Having said that, strength from the weight room is good. Period.

Then why do I have the reputation for being “anti-weight room”?

One reason for my reputation is the fact that I’ve done a ton of preaching aimed at bodybuilding, powerlifting, slow-footed meatheads in the S&C world—especially in the football arena. Sometimes you don’t get noticed when you tiptoe around the issue, making meek suggestions to hard-headed people. So, I will apologize for, at times, being hyperbolic when addressing the value of getting bigger and stronger as it relates to speed. Even Boo Schexnayder says “The strongest are seldom the fastest.” That doesn’t mean Boo is anti-weight room.

Infinite strength is detrimental to speed. Infinite speed improves strength. Weight training in the absence of speed training makes no sense unless you are a bodybuilder or powerlifter.

There’s not a single lift in the weight room that fast people do well and slow people do poorly. …No way can I predict speed by watching athletes lift weights, says @pntrack. Share on X

There’s not a single lift in the weight room that fast people do well and slow people do poorly. Think about that for a minute. Cleans might be an explosive lift, but slow guys can be good at cleans and fast guys can be bad at them. No way can I predict speed by watching athletes lift weights. If you want to predict speed, watch an athlete jump and bounce.

6. FTC Athletes Are Aerobically Unfit

In an FTC program, there is NEVER an aerobic workout. I believe this statement to be factual, otherwise I wouldn’t say it. All of our workouts are alactic in the off-season. We add lactate workouts during the season to create biochemical toughness and learn to sprint further and tolerate the accompanying acidosis. However, when we do alactic or lactate work, the Krebs Cycle is ongoing. We still breathe hard, and our mitochondria are still ticking through the step-by-step production of ATPs in the presence of oxygen. Aerobic respiration is ongoing and pushed to its limits even when we are FOCUSED on other energy systems. In other words, our aerobic engine is getting a workout even when we focus on short bouts of high intensity.

Our unintentional aerobic work allows us to recover between sprints and develop “sprint capacity.” Our unintentional aerobic work does NOT prepare us for long distance running, but that’s not our intent.

7. FTC Is Anti-Acceleration

Just like my mission of deemphasizing hypertrophy in the weight room, I also approach acceleration with the same heavy-handed message. ACCELERATION DOES NOT IMPROVE SPEED. Some coaches read this and see me as their enemy. But like some coaches saying 99% is, by definition, sub-max speed, maybe my view of acceleration and the views of my “enemies” aren’t all that different.

FTC coaches push and pull sleds (even though my team does not). FTC coaches also sprint up hills. These things are good for acceleration and get athletes used to the body angle required to push the track behind them. This also points to the fact that FTC is not a recipe. Many FTC coaches spend a lot more time on acceleration than I do.

You know what else is good for teaching acceleration? Accelerating!!!

My sprinters work on acceleration every time we sprint. Try getting to max speed within five seconds without accelerating. Every time we sprint, we accelerate, even though acceleration is not our focus (similar to getting unintentional aerobic benefits from a speed workout).

My sprinters work on acceleration every time we sprint… Every time we sprint, we accelerate, even though acceleration is not our focus, says @pntrack. Share on X

So why do I need to be such a polarizing figure between the max speed nation and the acceleration nation? Too many coaches focus ONLY on acceleration. There are several reasons why this is the case.

No one gets hurt doing 10-meter or 20-meter accelerations (until they pull a hamstring in competition because of a lack of exposure to max velocity).
Slow guys are NOT “exposed” in acceleration. Max velocity exposes lack of speed. Due to the fact that 90% of all coaches, from all sports, were slow as athletes, they see acceleration as teachable and improvable without the embarrassment of exposing and differentiating fast athletes and slow athletes.
In most field sports (aka “ball sports”), almost all movement is acceleration. Most sports (and most events in track) never get to max speed. Training specificity makes sense, so acceleration is emphasized and max velocity is neglected.
The final reason for “we only work on acceleration” is space. You need around 65-75 meters of straightaway to do max speed work. Those training in weight rooms and gymnasiums are stuck doing 10s and 20s. It’s the next best thing.

But we must remember one of the key foundations of feeding the cats: SPEED IS THE TIDE THAT LIFTS ALL BOATS! We’ve already established that sprinting is a strength builder and that speed workouts improve the aerobic system, even if that’s not the reason we sprint. Same with acceleration, speed work improves acceleration. Fast guys accelerate much faster than slow guys.

Low information friends used to ask me how fast Usain Bolt could be if he was better at his start. These friends were deceived by the fact that Bolt didn’t look all that special until he hit 27 mph at around the 60-meter mark. Bolt was actually a terrific accelerator. Usain Bolt’s 60m split (6.29) in Berlin in 2009 was faster than Christian Coleman’s 60m World Record (6.34).

What’s the best way to get better at acceleration? GET FASTER!!!

8. FTC Is Only Good for the Short Sprints

This is the hardest thing for an infidel to understand. If you’ve never drunk the Kool Aid of FTC and sold out to the unabashed pursuit of speed and power, you have no idea how speed can create speed endurance, aka speed reserve. Ten years ago, I wrote down something Latif Thomas said at a clinic in Wisconsin (WISTCA): “If you improve your maximum speed, you improve your sub-max speed.” To be a championship-level 400-meter runner in high school, all you need to do is run around 19 mph for one lap. Who has a better chance to run 19 mph for 48 seconds? A 23-mph sprinter or a 20-mph sprinter?

Latif believes FTC is too extreme, but he was a major influence in giving me the confidence to train the extremes. In my opinion, major breakthroughs don’t come from the status quo. FTC is a rebellious movement coming from the fringe, not the center. Extremes come from the extremes. If you want to be safe and comfortable, live in the center and don’t bother with Feed the Cats.

My 4×4 teams have done just fine. We’ve achieved all-state status in 10 of the past 22 years. Last year, we ran the seventh best 4×4 time in Illinois. And that’s in a state where great sprinters run the 4×1, 100m, 4×2, and 200m. And the 200m is the event prior to the 4×4. In other words, the best sprinters in Illinois typically don’t run the 4×4. If you want to take a deep dive into FTC 400 training, you can check out the course I recently created, FTC 205: Sprint the 400, with more than two hours of detailed content.

9. FTC Has Not PRODUCED Any Olympians

Produce: make or manufacture from components or raw materials.

Do coaches produce athletes? Hell no! We find them and feed them.

When I was trolled last year for FTC not “producing” any Olympians, I immediately muted or blocked anyone who retweeted such nonsense. The key to a good life is to surround yourself with good people; social media is no exception. If you associate with and encourage trolls, then YOU are a troll. I’ve taught kids for 41 years that your inner circle reflects YOU. Choose wisely.

It’s true, I’ve never coached an Olympian, but not many high school coaches do. There are almost 27,000 high schools in the U.S. I have a better chance of getting struck by lightning three times than coaching one Olympian.

However, some very good sprinters have come from FTC high schools.

Marcellus Moore ran for me for three years and ran the 100m in 10.12 last year for Purdue at age 18, good enough to be ranked third in the world U20. Marcellus was 17th at last summer’s Olympic Trials.

Kahmari Montgomery ran for Jon Pereiro at Plainfield Central just a couple miles from Plainfield North. Coach Pereiro was a former thrower and adopted an FTC approach to Kahmari Montgomery’s training. Kahmari won the Illinois Triple Crown in 2015 (100, 200, 400). His 400 time was a spectacular 45.24. Three years later, Kahmari, running for Houston, was the U.S. National Champion in the 400 (44.58). In 2019, Kahmari Montgomery was NCAA Champion in the 400 (44.23).

Brandon Battle, like Kahmari Montgomery, won the Triple Crown in Illinois last June. Montgomery and Battle are the only two big-school athletes to ever win the Triple Crown in Illinois. Brandon Battle was also trained as a cat. His coaches, Chad Lakatos and Alec Holler, both ran for me. Alec is my son; Chad is like a son. Brandon’s 400 time of 46.48 was the best individual performance at the 2021 IHSA State Meet. Brandon may not be an Olympian yet, but he’s going to have a great career at Arkansas.

Kenny Bednarik ran at Rice Lake H.S. for Matt Tebo. Matt’s a friend and FTC guy. At Rice Lake (WI), Kenny Bednarik ran the 100 in 10.42, the 200 in 20.43, and the 400 in 46.19. Last summer, Kenny ran the 200 in 19.68, winning silver at the Tokyo Olympics at age 22.

Joseph Fahnbulleh ran at Hopkins H.S. (MN) for Nick Lovas. Nick brought his entire staff to our 2017 Track Football Consortium featuring Carl Lewis. Nick is a friend and an FTC guy. In high school, Joe Fahnbulleh ran 10.35 in the 100 and 20.69 in the 200. Fahnbulleh was the 2021 NCAA Champ in the 200, running 19.91. He finished fifth in the 200m Olympic Finals. Not bad for a 19-year-old!

10. FTC Is a Cult

The word cult comes from the Latin word cultus meaning “worship.”

The Feed the Cats Nation is a tightknit group. Some people mistake it for a cult.

Cults typically meet four criteria:

Seen as strange or sinister to others.
Shared commitment to a charismatic leader or ideology.
Members gain answers to all of life’s problems.
Members don’t think for themselves.

There’s some validity to #1, #2, and #3, but #4 is totally false. Next-generation FTC coaches are better coaches than I am. They have benefitted from my mistakes and my evolution. These coaches have learned to cook, and their recipe evolves as they problem-solve year after year.

Next-generation FTC coaches are better coaches than I am. These coaches have learned to cook, and their recipe evolves as they problem-solve year after year, says @pntrack. Share on X

The passion for FTC comes from what I call “The Endless Feedback Loop.”

FTC coaches create a happy and healthy high-performance practice environment → Happy and healthy athletes perform well in practice → Athletes love track and see practice as the best part of their day → Coach becomes MORE enthusiastic → Coach continues to find new ways to create a happier and healthier high-performance practice environment.

(Lead photo by Christin Noelle on Unsplash.)

Strength Coach Pro: Intuitive Programming Software for an “Old School” Coach

Blog| ByPete Arroyo

If you’re an “old school” coach, then the recent blitz of tech probably has your head spinning as much as it does mine. Measurement devices for speed, jumping, readiness, and more have made things simultaneously easier and more complicated. The era of using the coach’s eye alone has ended and logging training via the old notebook is unfortunately passé (although these remain my go-to’s for review to this day).

For better or worse, the bells, whistles, gadgets, and flashy flickering lights are here to stay—as coaches, we must traverse the muddy waters of what we want to have, what we can have, and what we need to have with the underpinning of what holds the best utility for us.

As coaches, we must traverse the muddy waters of what we WANT to have, what we CAN have, and what we NEED to have with the underpinning of what holds the best utility for us. Share on X

For me, the lure of a tech-based programming tool became too enticing. I honestly tried using Excel printouts for some time, and while these did help clean things up, printing out sheets in ink became an exercise in futility as they would often grow legs, or I would have to toss them out with the ever-changing status of various clients. The seasons of young athletes seem to run into each other, making readiness and availability change as often as the Chicago weather. Even your general population clientele isn’t immune to the outside stresses of family, work, and play. For both demographics, the nicks and dings of life exacerbate the fluctuation of abilities to perform work, making that gorgeous long-term training block obsolete and irrelevant at any given time.

Browsing for the Right Solution

After considering several well-known software products that were both visually and functionally impressive, the subscription cost for my roster size couldn’t be justified as a small business. For private sector coaches, budget is a huge concern—and as much as having software to bring my program into the 21st century would improve the optics and potentially save me time, committing to a subscription was not in the cards.

Lo and behold, Steve Olsen (formerly Excel Training Designs), who designed the aforementioned Excel-based program, came up with the bright idea of marrying the functionality of Excel within a digital format with his Strength Coach Pro software (SCP). If you’re familiar with Excel templates or have designed your own, then you appreciate the ease with which you can choose your training parameters for every program you design. The setback would be changing anything on the fly given everything is on paper, printed in ink. The digital capabilities of Strength Coach Pro rectify this quite a bit because you can customize almost any parameter.

Excel Inspired Software — Figure 1. Strength Coach Pro is designed for coaches to be able to make a seamless transition from Excel-based templates.

As Steve initially rolled out Strength Coach Pro, it sounded a bit too good to be true: unlimited roster, build-your-own template, customizable schemes, exercises, and metrics. This program also offered metric tracking, video linking, and no upcharges on future updates—and all for a one-time price? For a coach functioning within the Stone Age, this sounded like the keys to the Batmobile. Of course, as with any potential business purchase, I asked myself the important questions of why not to buy it:

Will this work as advertised?
Will it help me save time?
What’s the cost?

Given the demo offer and one-time price, I took the dive in late 2019 and became a founding member. I figured that even if the software only functioned in the most basic sense in designing, assigning, and copying programs, that would at least justify the one-time cost. Two years on, it’s done much more than that.

Distributing Programs — Figure 2. Strength Coach Pro offers advantages for digitally communicating programming to athletes.

The Power of the Card

As I explored the software, I noticed it was set in an open style with some preset schemes, exercises, and metrics. Coaches can add or discard any part of the design program at their discretion. For me, this feature was key in streamlining the language, flow, and structure of my programs. I can adjust for individual, small group, and team settings based on the amount of time I have with each. If you’re in varying settings like I am, this becomes paramount for reserving brain space for the important stuff, like coaching.

I’ve always seen each setting as its own life, with its own language, themes, and environment. Having the ability to explain the nuts and bolts on paper (or in app form) is vital in delivering the consistent message you want to each trainee.

Video 1. Simple drag-and-drop features make the software intuitive and easy for any coach to use.

I’ve always looked at written programs as a fortification of your message and language. Everything from your exercise library to the loading schemes and actual programs serves as an extension of your coaching process, especially when addressing larger groups or when coaching individuals in the gaps. The “open set” of SCP allows me to put the elements we need in the order we need them, which conveys the consistency of what we do in live time and in turn facilitates the process of what we do in real time.

Your written programs fortify your message and language. Everything from your exercise library to the loading schemes and actual programs serves as an extension of your coaching process. Share on X

One mistake I made in the Excel days was underestimating the power of a training card with an athlete’s name on it. One surefire way to take the wind out of a kid’s sails is to not have a card with their name on it. Although a small detail, it shows that you care. With SCP, I can print a card, or even easier, they can access a digital card via their account. From experience, I can tell you printing sheets will get old fast (as well as being antiquated).

Excel Training — Figure 3. Older Excel programming cards lacked some of the flexibility to customize and personalize. Having the ability to convey your program digitally not only keeps coaches in the here and now but allows us old-school coaches to maintain the integrity of our whiteboard process.

Features and Functions

One of the first aspects I noticed about SCP was the simplicity of the interface and the accompanying ease of its operational use. The interface didn’t feature any exploding icons or annoying pop-ups, just a toolbar along the left margin and a main screen encompassing the rest.

SCP Toolbar — Figure 4. When using the SCP software, simply click whatever tool you want to work with and enter the information you want.

Given I’m not much of a user manual type of guy, this made learning the software a nearly foolproof process. Any time I was confused, I could click the question mark icon and up popped a quick how-to video taking me step by step through how the section works—this was far better than my gonzo method and saved a heap of time.

Even though the toolbox contains 13 icons, you’ll mostly be working with these four during program design:

Exercises
Metrics
Set/Rep Schemes
Program Design

1. Exercises

The Exercises tool contains some presets for the classic strength exercises prominent in most strength programs. This section is not limited to the presets, however, and you can create your own at any time, even going beyond strength exercises if you wish. The exercises aren’t merely text descriptions either—coaches have some versatility here in how they want to quantify and contextualize each exercise.

For instance, a classic approach for many coaches is to relate the core lifts to a 1RM in that exercise. For my inexperienced trainees and developmental athletes, this becomes problematic because we don’t have a 1RM established or extrapolated (as some may do by measuring bar speed) given their technical ability is often unstable at this juncture.

Any exercise can be deleted, reformatted, and/or created from scratch. Strength Coach Pro’s versatility in this aspect allowed for the novel application of relating any exercise to any metric. Share on X

Fear not…any exercise can be deleted, reformatted, and/or created from scratch. SCP’s versatility in this aspect allowed the novel application of relating any exercise to any metric (more on metrics later). My idea was to relate certain exercises to the athlete’s own body weight as opposed to a guesstimated 1RM (the proxy to this would be to enter body weight via the athlete bio in the metrics section). For my program, this allowed an appropriate relation of loading that grows with the individual and can help them gain an appreciation for relative strength as opposed to the load on the barbell.

A big obstacle for beginners is the intimidation factor of loading an implement such as the barbell—relating that load to their body weight can break the barrier of fear and allow them to achieve incremental markers along the way.

2. Metrics

SCP offers the same versatility in the Metrics section. Metrics serve three functions in my programs.

Visible achievements
Monitoring
Relation of loading

The metrics primarily serve as a visible marker of achievements in training, which trainees and coaches can review at any time. This section can go beyond the barbell as well, as coaches can create any type of measurable they wish. In this more athletic-minded day and age, tracking sprints, jumps, and throws can give coaches relatability to athletes of all ilk. The tracking charts also come in handy when reporting, as this saved my butt in keeping clients when their parents requested an answer to the “how are they doing” question that their kids could not quite explain (given that they are kids).

Speed Metrics — Figures 5 & 6. SCP supports data for primary lifts, as well as other exercises and KPIs. These metrics are useful for independent coaches for monitoring their athletes’ progress and communicating that to the athletes and/or their parents.

Another way coaches can use this tool is in monitoring trends via the peaks, valleys, and stalls that may occur along the way. In my mind, this is an attractive feature for those that apply a Bondarchuk-type system where finding peaks of sport form will prompt an emerging strategy of program design.

The Metrics tool is an attractive feature for coaches who apply a Bondarchuk-type system where finding peaks of sport form will prompt an emerging strategy of program design. Share on X

One unique way I use the metrics section is in relating exercises appropriately. For instance, in my example above, I mentioned why assigning a 1RM to beginning trainees may be problematic in practice and how relating exercise loads to body weight can serve as a solution. This very same feature allows coaches to design strength programs “off of” a 1RM, creating a training max (à la 531). Here, the training loads will be based off a portion (in percent form) of the 1RM.

For instance, let’s say we want to train our core lifts based on 85% of a 1RM. We simply design, label, and tag that lift and apply the desired percent related to the applicable metric. (For example, bench press @ 85% TM will be listed as “Bench-Press-85%-TM” related to bench press 1RM metric at 85%). It will list as a separate exercise, but the tags feature allows for a quick search. Now, any set/rep scheme you choose will present the loads for each core lift on the chosen percentage.

3. Sets/Rep Schemes

The Sets & Reps tool allows for the basic presentation of volume and intensity prescriptions along with a few novel options that make this section extremely versatile. Again, this section has its preset schemes that you can keep or delete at your discretion. Upon designing a new scheme, users have options for how long each scheme can last. Instead of having locked-in programs for X number of weeks, you can design a scheme for however long you want. This comes in handy whether you work with teams for a pre-specified amount of time, with month-to-month clientele, or with online trainees.

SCP features standard entry data of percent (%), sets, and reps, but offers four other optional entry points:

This feature is quite unique, as it offers relatability to interval sets using long-hold isometrics, strength aerobic sets, and timed max efforts.
Distance. I haven’t delved into this yet, but my assumption is coaches can use this to assign distances for carries, sled work, or sprints.
Rest interval. This is nice to have, especially in attempting to corral the “non-resters” and the “too-much-talkers,” as in either case it keeps everyone honest.
Reps achieved. My personal favorite, this feature allows the trainee or coach to enter the “actual reps” performed on each set. This has been a key feature in tracking progress on PR sets (as in 531), work sets (as in APRE), and any performance-based, autoregulatory scheme you can imagine.

Coaches can calibrate the load on the fly and as they see things in real time, allowing for that ownership-management dynamic to take hold among coach and athlete daily.

4. Program Design

The Program Design tab brings you to an empty digital canvas, where you can create any type of program you want and deliver it in such a way to clearly communicate the “what” and “how.” Coaches will have drag-and-drop options that they can place anywhere they want, including:

Training Block
Metric Block
Survey Block
Note Block
Multimedia Block

The Training Block is the place where you create the nuts and bolts of the day’s work. You simply select the exercises you want and assign the appropriate set and rep schemes, and you’re good! And if you happen to forget the name of an exercise or scheme, the unique “tagging” feature allows you to search via tags to narrow down your choices. This has come in handy more than once, especially with all the variants upon variants that are omnipresent in my programs. This section also includes a notes portion, where you can describe the details of each training block.

The Metric Block is another great feature here, where you can place a test at any point in the daily menu. This is key if you may have multiple “tests” within your program: for example, you may start off with a sprint or jump before your strength work or embed it with the training blocks, and you can also enter in personal bests for lifts if you wish.

Video 2. Data entered here digitally goes right into the athlete’s bio and records it in the specified metric. This really saves time!

The Survey Block isn’t something I’ve applied, but from a few online meetings, I know coaches in scholastic settings have employed it as a part of their department’s holistic approach. You can pre-design any number of surveys by clicking the icon in the left margin, enter it when you drop the survey block for whatever day you choose and display it for whatever week you choose. The information that each trainee enters will be saved in their profile under “Surveys,” a unique feature that expedites access to pertinent information.

The Note Block is simple—this is usually the place to write the warm-ups or any daily motivational jargon you may want to put in. It is basically a Word document with some text font and size options.

As great as the written word is, I usually complement this with the Multimedia Block, which features a linked video of the user’s choosing. You can link any video you want (usually in the form of a YouTube link), and this is a great place to have your own content—especially for those utilizing video platforms. I’ve customized my warm-ups quite a bit, so I have videos of myself or trainees performing them so they can get the visual—this visualization/modeling technique takes advantage of the mimic effect. The video linking is also available when creating or editing exercises—this was particularly useful in 2020 when I was designing programs for trainees across the country.

Videos 3 & 4. Coaches can use the multimedia blocks to provide their athletes with demonstrations of the movements and lifts in the program.

Final Evaluations

Given that SCP is the new kid on the block in the training software game, it wasn’t always easy in terms of what the founder had promised. In the first several months, there were operational bugs: sometimes what you entered didn’t always appear as written, advanced options weren’t always selectable for every exercise, client account access wasn’t always consistent, and user access was limited while the bugs were being repaired. I certainly second-guessed the value of the unlimited rosters, custom template building, schemes, exercises, and metrics, along with metric tracking and video linking, for that one-time fee.

These, however, were just bumps in the road for inaugural members. Thankfully, these bugs were dealt with in due time along with a myriad of updates (sans the upcharges for the founding members), and I can say this was worth the hassle of the early going.

I felt like I knew Strength Coach Pro like the back of my hand in no time, and I am quite satisfied with what is has allowed me to do thus far. Share on X

Knowing my learning curve was steep in figuring out how to use digital software for the first time, I planned to be patient with it. Surprisingly enough, I felt like I knew SCP like the back of my hand in no time and am quite satisfied with what it has done thus far. Saving time and effort and allowing a workable familiarity has made this purchase more than justified.

Steve has stuck to his guns and still offers a one-time price without upcharges for updates and the pending mobile app. For a coach who’s ballin’ on a budget, SCP is at least worth a look—I can honestly say that, although not fancy, it has more than met my expectations and has paid for itself in time saved and convenience.

The Velocity-Based Training Benefits That Nobody Talks About

Blog| ByJustin Ochoa

One of the biggest disparities between training and competition is that failures in either affect us in different ways. All mistakes are learning experiences; honestly, mistakes are probably the best way to learn. However, mistakes can also cost you a win—so there’s value in practicing perfection.

The chaos, high stakes, and intensity of a game can never be replicated in practice or training, but there is value in bringing a game-like mindset to training. We want perfection in games, so we should train to that same standard. Sometimes in training, then, we need to add more pressure. Higher stakes. Velocity-based training (VBT) is one way that I’ve been able to do that.

Sometimes in training, we need to add more pressure. Higher stakes. Velocity-based training (VBT) is one way that I’ve been able to do that, says @JustinOchoa317. Share on X

In training, every rep counts, and VBT is a tool to quantify that. Using VBT without a true strategy for bar speed or data collection defeats the point of using VBT in the first place.

Teaching athletes the importance of hitting these bar speed zones attaches a “winning opportunity” to the rep. That attaches intent, accountability, pride, and even a little bit of pressure to each rep an athlete attempts.

I think a lot of athletes can use these pressure situations (albeit low-pressure) to grow mentally—aside from the obvious physical adaptations. We need our athletes to have the mindset that missing a target bar speed is on the same level as missing a layup or losing a fumble. It costs us a winning opportunity.

VBT Data — Image 1. This is a screenshot of an athlete’s second set of speed deadlifts using a Vitruve Encoder. This game day lift called for sets of three until the set average velocity dropped below 1.0 m/s. Once the athlete drops under 1.0, they’re done. The goal was three sets, and as you can see, this athlete fell short.

This is not a mindset that every athlete can (or should) accept right off the bat, or even at all. It takes a lot of coaching, rapport building, and trust between coach and athlete. It also takes the right athlete. Using VBT doesn’t make you special or advanced in any way. It’s still our responsibility as coaches to use our best judgment on who, what, when, where, and why to implement any and all tools.

Just like in sports, not every practice is a perfect practice. We can’t win every single game. We won’t hit every single rep in the right velocity range…but the applied pressure of doing so and objectively knowing the data on each rep is truly an underrated component of VBT.

Training = Testing = Training

The purpose of training is to achieve some sort of positive outcome for the athlete. With the amount of technology available, coaches and athletes no longer have to guess on whether or not the results are there.

Although testing is vital, it can also become a distraction. Test days or max-out days seem like a great idea on paper, but they often turn into a mess of athletes loading the bar with weight they have no business attempting and grinding out ugly reps just to get their name on a leaderboard nobody has cared about since 1996.

Or, even worse, it becomes an all-out BROnanza fueled by caffeine, ammonia caps, and EDM music, resulting in overly inflated maxes that nobody in their right mind could ever repeat again without the same stimulus, which ruins the next training block because it’s based on fabricated training maxes.

I’ve always felt, even as an athlete, that a specified testing day was bogus. The beauty of VBT is that the test IS the training, and the training IS the test, says @JustinOchoa317. Share on X

I’ve always felt, even as an athlete, that a specified testing day was bogus. The beauty of VBT is that the test IS the training, and the training IS the test.

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Video 1. You don’t need testing days to hit a PR. Hit them in training.

The test results can come in many forms, such as higher load than the previous week, more reps at the same load as the previous session, higher velocity at the same load as the previous session, or higher power at the same load as the previous session. Sometimes athletes will actually PR in a lift, jump, or sprint in a regular ol’ Tuesday training session without the glitz and glamour of it being a true “test” day.

Of course, athletes will have their off days too, but VBT can help indicate that and allow the coach to dive deeper with face-to-face communication. As a coach, when you know where an athlete’s numbers should be and you’re seeing them fall short of that, it’s easy to just ditch all the tech and help the person in front of you with a face-to-face interaction.

Staying True to VBT Fundamentals

Although this article is mostly about lesser-known VBT benefits, I think it’s important to touch on the fundamentals of VBT as well. Velocity-based training is pretty much what it sounds like: training that is based upon the velocity of the load being moved rather than on the percentage of a 1RM, as is typically used.

SAID Principle

VBT complements a universal staple in all of training, which is the SAID Principle (Specific Adaptations to Imposed Demands). This concept simply means that when the body is placed under a specific form of stress, it will make adaptations to that form of stress to be able to better withstand that stress in the future.

The beauty of VBT is that it can really help pinpoint what demands you need to impose, and it allows you to objectively track those demands stressed over the course of a training program.

If an athlete’s 1RM is 225 and the program called for 80% of that, the load will be 180 no matter what. An athlete’s performance of those 180 pounds could vary by up to 15% on any given day. That means they could perform reps 15% faster or 15% slower, or even 15% fewer reps. Those variables change the stress imposed by the program.

Conversely, if you prescribe a bar velocity—say, .50 m/s—the load is no longer a set-in-stone amount. You know that .50 is a comfortable bar speed for 80% 1RM for 6-8 reps, and if the athlete begins to get too far away from the prescribed velocity, you can make the load adjustments necessary to keep them in the sweet spot.

This makes sure you are really getting close to that desired adaptation even with all the variables that athletes face day to day such as fatigue, stress, stomachaches, toxic relationships, and any of the other factors that affect performance.

Control What You Can Control

Speaking of performance-changing variables, I’ve got some terrible news: WE CAN’T CONTROL THEM ALL.

Just as we tell our athletes to control what they can control, we need to do the same as coaches. We see our athletes for 1-2 hours a day if we’re lucky. Outside of that, they have their own life to live, and we never know exactly how that looks.

Accumulating VBT data over time makes it very simple for coaches to see trends in performance and identify red flags when those trends start to deviate in a negative way. On the other end of the spectrum, it also can help coaches find “green” flags: meaning, times we can put our foot on the gas.

Obviously, people skills and building a relationship with the athletes both go way further here, but the data is a nice bonus. Since VBT can be used as a readiness indicator, it’s a great tool for managing the stresses an athlete will endure when they’re with you in training.

VBT won’t always expose poor recovery or readiness; sometimes it will reveal that athletes can push themselves harder than their current training level. That alone is worth the price. Share on X

VBT isn’t always going to expose poor recovery or readiness; sometimes it will reveal that athletes can push themselves harder than their current level of training. That alone is worth the price of any of these units.

Load-Velocity Profiling

Perhaps the most beneficial aspect of VBT is the ability to individualize programming based on an athlete’s load-velocity profile. This allows coaches to precisely prescribe loads, percentages, bar speed, etc. based on the athlete’s own unique profile.

Trap Bar Data — Image 2. This shows a before and after load-velocity profile of a high school volleyball player performing a trap bar deadlift. It represents a nice increase in overall strength and rate of force development.

I really like to get a profile on our athletes for what their “main” lifts will be over their training program. Things like deadlift, squat, and bench press variations are always a great option here.

We take an athlete through three to five sets of 35%, 45%, 55%, 65%, 75%, and 85% of their known or estimated 1RM on any given lift. As the load goes up, the velocity will drop, creating a force-velocity curve completely customized to that athlete in that specific lift.

There are various methods for completing this assessment, but I have found that using the set average velocity gives us the best data. We also allow the athlete to choose between three and five reps based on how they feel.

This profile can not only predict an athlete’s 1RM but also shows coaches where an athlete may lack consistency along the load-velocity continuum. Perhaps they moved 35% and 55% at around the same speed? This would lead me to believe they lack rate of force development and can benefit from training to help them learn how to produce force more quickly against lighter loads. Maybe they are weaker than expected and the 85% set moves entirely too slow or for not enough reps? This could indicate that a strength phase may be beneficial for the athlete.

These are just two common generalized examples, but the beauty of load-velocity profiling is that it is a 1:1 blueprint tailored to the athlete and their specific needs. Any changes to that profile reflect changes in that athlete, which is exactly what we’re trying to achieve.

These are incredible tactics we can employ with our athletes, but there are numerous resources out there that focus on each of them specifically. Again, I want to get back to talking about the benefits of VBT that rarely get discussed.

Always Connected

One last and extremely underrated benefit of VBT is that it’s technology based. One of the biggest myths and misconceptions about using technology in coaching is that it is somehow a “distraction” to the athletes.

I could not disagree more with that viewpoint.

VBT Deadlift — Image 3. This athlete performing a trap bar deadlift doesn’t seem fazed by the Vitruve Encoder unit in front of him. I think it’s safe to say he’s focused on nailing the deadlift.

It’s 2021. Kindergartners learn with iPads in school. Technology is literally ingrained into our culture. At this point, technology is normal—NOT using technology is abnormal.

I think coaches have the ability to make VBT work in all settings. It’s definitely quite a bit easier to implement in the private sector than in a team setting, but I’ve had success doing both. It’s all about how you present it and educate the athletes on it and, most importantly, if you truly give it a fair chance to “work.”

I think coaches can make VBT work in all settings. It’s all about how you present it and educate athletes on it and, most importantly, if you truly give it a fair chance to ‘work.’ Share on X

We should also consider the athletes we’re working with. Most of the current athletes today are Generation Z. These are athletes born between 1995 and 2012. That includes everyone from the kid learning how to lift for the very first time to current professional all-stars and MVP award winners. No tool is more widely accepted and utilized than technology for this generation of humans. Generation Z is not only tech-savvy, but they’re also borderline tech-dependent. In many ways, I’ve seen technology in training connect the dots for athletes in some situations more clearly and thoroughly than I could do by explaining.

As coaches, we adapt our programs, exercise selection, volume, and intensity to the needs of the athlete. I think we need to also consider that we should adapt our delivery of these methods to the current age of athletes as well.

Altogether, VBT is an incredibly valuable tool for coaches to continue to maximize our time spent with athletes. It’s not about having cool equipment or being the person with the most data in the room. It’s about being the person who can have the greatest impact on those who they work with and utilizing any means necessary to do so.

Rethinking Dryland Training for Performance in the Pool

Blog| ByRoss Garner

Swimming is a unique sport that poses a challenge for strength and conditioning coaches. It’s one of the few non-land-based sports in the collegiate or high school setting, and most—if not all—of our knowledge and experiences tend to be based on dryland sports. Still, swimmers need to develop the same performance qualities as any other athlete, and just like we trust them to perform their best when it counts, they trust us to rise to the challenge.

A quick online search on “dryland training” provides workouts centered on developing endurance through high repetition sets or intervals—this is the most common trait swim coaches want to develop, but it quickly becomes redundant if it’s the only quality we’re training for week after week. Eventually, we’ll reach a point where our focus on endurance takes over and speed and power fall out of focus. To develop a healthy and successful swimmer, we must pursue multiple performance qualities in and out of the water with the end goal of swimming faster times.

Speed vs. Endurance

Endurance is the enemy of speed. The more effort we pour into endurance, the more speed we take away. If you’re a short-distance swimmer, speed has a greater impact on performance than endurance. Is endurance valuable? Absolutely, but it is highly trainable and is retained over longer periods of time compared to speed or power. Our speed bucket needs to be deep and refilled weekly. Therefore, short-distance swimmers will find it beneficial to train with the High-Low Swimming Model in and out of the water.

Most swimmers have never trained with the goal of improving athletic performance. With this model, the goal is to improve movement proficiency, performance outputs, and the aerobic base. These qualities will reduce their risk of injury, improve speed, increase stroke rate, raise power outputs, and increase the efficiency of the cardiovascular system.

For swimmers, movement proficiency isn’t typically hindered by a lack of flexibility but a lack of motor control and coordination, says @coachrgarner. Share on X

For swimmers, movement proficiency isn’t typically hindered by a lack of flexibility but a lack of motor control and coordination. Most swimmers haven’t been exposed to sprinting, jumping, or the foundational movement patterns for land-based sports. Why is that exposure important for swimming? By improving coordination and motor control, we can limit injuries through an effort to eliminate improper movement patterns and increase joint stability, all while improving performance outputs.

Performance outputs refer to the speed, power, and strength qualities commonly pursued within the weight room setting. These qualities improve our swimmer’s ability to produce speed and power coming off the blocks, while turning, and through the water. These will be trained through sprints, jumps, and resistance movements.

Developing the aerobic base is arguably the first performance quality we should pursue—if swimmers don’t have a substantial aerobic base, they will not have the capacity to train at a high level, recover quickly, or handle multiple races in a day. Once this has been established, we can pursue maximal outputs and train their aerobic system as needed.

Weekly Layout and Training Frequency

During the week, we alternate between high- and low-intensity days. Training frequency dictates what type of training session we perform day to day, as shown in figure 1. We can move the training days to reflect our schedule, but the key is to keep high-intensity days 48 hours apart.

Weekly Schedule — Figure 1. Weekly layout and frequency. You can move the training days to reflect your schedule, but the key is to keep high-intensity days 48 hours apart.

For 2-3 dryland sessions a week, I suggest performing strictly high-intensity days unless your swimmers need to recover or improve their aerobic base. Early in the season, developing a robust aerobic base takes priority over max outputs. For 4-5 sessions, we alternate between high- and low-intensity days. For four sessions a week, the performance coach decides if the fourth day needs to be high or low based on their swimmers’ needs at the time.

Training Slow to Fast

As we progress through the week, dryland training goes from slow to fast in terms of emphasis. By doing this, we prime the nervous system to be ready for the rest of the week, which is a concept discussed by Cal Dietz in “Triphasic Training.” Monday is not the best day to perform max speed or strength work because the body will be sluggish from the weekend. Instead, we can use the beginning of the week to prepare the body for the more intense sessions later in the week. This will lead to higher-quality speed or strength sessions.

Starting Monday, we focus on acceleration. This means our first high-intensity session has a strength and/or power emphasis. Wednesday’s focus is max outputs: velocity, power, or strength. If we have a third high-intensity day, this is either a volume or speed day depending on the previous session, time of year, and training goals.

Daily Goals — Figure 2. Daily training goals. As we progress through the week, dryland training goes from slow to fast in terms of emphasis.

Wednesday, or the second high-intensity day, is the session we can hit hard. Focus on one quality for the day or train two qualities, such as speed/power or power/strength. Avoid combining speed/strength because they are on opposite ends of the spectrum. Speed requires fast muscle contractions, while strength requires drawn-out or slow muscle contractions (relatively speaking). Power can be trained on either day because it sits between these two qualities.

In season, I suggest performing strength on Monday, speed/power on Wednesday, and then max velocity on Friday. This way, you are truly working slow to fast to prepare the body for weekend meets. You want to make sure your strength work is far away from race day while speed work is close to race day.

Developmental Jump Program

A significant part of our dryland training is incorporating jumps into every high-intensity workout. This includes multi-jump and single jump variations. We perform a minimum of four broad jump and four vertical jump variations in a month, which are measured each workout. Following the same concept as our weekly layout, we progress from our slowest to fastest jump in terms of ground contact time (GCT) each week.

The idea is that our jump variations surf the force-velocity curve and teach our swimmers to be powerful from a variety of positions and joint angles. This improves body awareness and inter- and intramuscular coordination and leads to greater intent coming off the blocks or turns in the water. Furthermore, this aligns our jump variations with the goal of the day, adding to our overall stimulus.

Our jump variations improve swimmers’ body awareness and inter- and intramuscular coordination and lead to greater intent coming off the blocks or turns in the water, says @coachrgarner. Share on X

By the end of each workout, our athletes will have 7-8 measured jumps. This also gives us the opportunity to autoregulate training if we desire. Typically, my athletes PR between the fourth and eighth jumps of the day. As coaches, we know this is due to potentiation, which leads to higher outputs in the long run. Psychologically, this builds tremendous confidence and buy-in because they’re jumping higher when they think they should be jumping lower.

On average, after implementing this program our broad jumps improved 8 inches and hands-on-hips jumps improved 3.6 inches over the course of six months (including five weeks off for winter break), and this was even during COVID-19. Six swimmers improved their broad jumps by 10+ inches and four went up 12+ inches. For the hands-on-hips jump, four swimmers improved by 4 inches or more. Did improvements in technique play a role? Absolutely, but we don’t improve our broad jump by more than a foot with just improvements in technique.

Static Jump — Figure 5. Hands-on-hips jump measured on jump mat, September 2020 to April 2021.

Practical Applications: The Performance Warm-Up

The goal of the warm-up is to improve the resiliency of our athletes and prepare them to perform. We combine prehab movements with total body movements to increase body awareness, muscular coordination, and human performance while improving resiliency. Think of the warm-up as an opportunity to stimulate performance and microdose athletic movements.

We combine prehab movements with total body movements in the warm-up to increase body awareness, muscular coordination, and human performance while improving resiliency, says @coachrgarner. Share on X

As shown in figure 6 below, we have six categories of movements to choose from:

Shoulder health.
Crawls.
Posterior chain.
Ankle mobility/strength.
Human movement.
Jumping/sprinting.

By assigning categories to our warm-up circuit, it ensures we train the areas needed to lower injury rates and raise athletic performance. The added benefit of categorizing our warm-up is if we’d like to give autonomy to our athletes, we can give them a list of movements to choose from in each category, and they can decide what works for them.

Movement Categories — Figure 6. Warm-up selection. We combine prehab movements with total body movements to increase body awareness, muscular coordination, and human performance while improving resiliency.

Each day, we should pick one movement from each category and perform 2-3 rounds. At the end of each round, athletes perform a short sprint or whichever jump is being measured that day. We use this to measure progress, evaluate readiness, and improve coordination and power outputs in specific positions.

High-Intensity Dryland Days

High-intensity dryland days focus on developing strength, power, speed, and total-body coordination. This is done through resistance exercises, jumps, and sprints performed in circuit fashion. Although it is a circuit, that does not mean we let our swimmers go through as fast as possible. Instead, we use a steady pace and recover as needed between movements. The added benefit to not rushing through the circuit is that we’re inducing an aerobic stimulus as a side effect, thus improving our aerobic base even when it’s not the focus.

Each workout, athletes have six stations:

Lower body main.
Multi-rep jump or sprint.
Posterior chain.
Upper press.
Upper pull.
Measured jump.

Ideally, athletes perform the movements in this order, but logistics can play a factor. In my situation, I told the athletes to perform the main lower body movement and multi-rep jump or sprint back-to-back, and the measured jump last. The key is to perform the jump last because this ultimately serves as our program’s evaluation. Are we improving what we say we’re improving?

High Intensity Days — Figure 7. In-season high-intensity days. The key is to perform the jump last because this ultimately serves as our program’s evaluation.

Figure 7 gives an example of a weekly layout for in-season training (working slow to fast with a single focus each day). How we categorize specific movements, such as squats versus deadlifts, determines where movements land in our training week. For example, I categorize squats as my lower body strength exercise and deadlifts as lower body power or speed, considering the movement and loading parameters. This means we squat on Monday and deadlift on Wednesday.

As a note, we use heavy deadlifts, which may be considered strength, but I believe they have a higher correlation to promoting max velocity, which is why they are placed in the middle of the week. The idea is that we are priming or potentiating the nervous system to be heightened for weekend meets.

Low-Intensity Dryland Days

The goal of low-intensity days is to build up our aerobic base and drive recovery. By improving our aerobic base, we increase the amount of work our swimmers can handle while improving the efficiency of our cardiovascular system. This is accomplished through continuous aerobic circuits or interval training.

For continuous circuits, we place 20-30 minutes on the clock and get through as many rounds as possible. As the coach, you pick the movement and number of reps from five categories:

Squat.
Hinge.
Pull.
Push.
Carry or medball.

Following the table below, we can create unique circuits week-to-week or let our athletes choose any movement they want within each category.

Aerobic Circuit — Figure 8. Aerobic circuit categories. You can create unique circuits week-to-week or let your athletes choose any movement they want within each category.

Performance over Endurance

As swim coaches, we must acknowledge there are more buckets to fill than just endurance, says @coachrgarner. Share on X

Dryland training adds another layer of stimulus to our training model in and out of the pool. As coaches, we must acknowledge there are more buckets to fill than just endurance. To build faster swimmers, we must have them swim as fast as possible in the pool and elevate their central nervous system out of the pool. By creating an environment where speed, power, strength, and overall human performance are pursued, we will develop well-rounded swimmers who are better prepared for today’s training and tomorrow’s races.

Offset Training for Sports Performance

Blog| ByDanny Foley

A few years back, based on training an athlete with unique and extremely challenging physical circumstances, I had a happenstance introduction to offset loading. Prior to this, I had only seen offset training practiced in very remote corners of strength and conditioning—and while I was intrigued by what I saw, I could never wrap my head around the method’s practicality.

Offset loading is a somewhat unorthodox (or dare I say, nuanced) training application that can be performed in a variety of ways, but it most prominently involves intentionally loading each side of the barbell with moderately different weights. When progressively implemented and programmed appropriately, offset training can offer significant benefits to the right population.

For the sake of transparency and provisional safety, there are a few issues I want to quickly address:

This article will exclusively include anecdotal evidence. In fairness, there is virtually no formal research to validate offset training. (This is one of the few formal studies I’m aware of.) So, for my sport science crowd and those coaches and practitioners who live and die by what the research says, I regret to inform you that this article may leave you uninspired at best.
Although I’ve personally had success using this application, it’s important to understand this is not a form of training all individuals should utilize or all coaches should implement. There is a certain level of foundational strength and training proficiency (as well as coaching competency) that should be established prior to using offset loading.
While I am writing this for conventional sports performance, I have personally only utilized these methods with high-level Special Ops/Special Forces athletes, so to an extent this will be somewhat of an outsider’s perspective.

With that all said, I am confident there are several ways offset work can be just as pragmatic for the sport world as I’ve recognized with the tactical realm.

Over the last three years, I’ve been selectively implementing and investigating offset loading with a wide spectrum of individuals. In theory, the distinction with offset training is that it increases the overall demand on torque management (joints/ligaments) due to the inherent counter-rotation. The unbalanced load also puts a greater emphasis on trunk stability and deep core muscles.

By applying offset loading over the years with my athletes, I’ve seen significant improvements in hypertrophy, strength, general motor control, posture, and positional integrity, says @danmode_vhp. Share on X

Additionally, offset training is significantly demanding neurologically, so there is somewhat of a higher “bang for your buck” type of return. By applying offset loading over the years with my athletes, I’ve seen significant improvements in hypertrophy, strength, general motor control, posture, and positional integrity—results notable enough that I’m convinced the method isn’t just a novel gimmick performed for social media clout, but that there is absolutely something to this.

Offset Training 101

There are multiple ways you can apply offset loading, but my four primary applications are:

Band offset.
DB/KB uneven.
BB static offset.
BB dynamic offset.

I generally introduce and progress offset loading in that order, and each of these has its own nuances. But in addition to the benefits outlined above, I’ve found offset training to be highly effective for reducing the margin of difference between dominant and non-dominant sides (e.g., throwing athletes, athletes returning from extremity injury).

Video 1. Moving from an offset overhead march through a sequence of movements involving counter-rotation, with key coaching points and cues.

Offset training is very simple to work into your programming and can be highly effective for athletes once foundational strength has been developed. (For a full YouTube playlist of 55 offset loading exercises, click here.)

It should be clear that offset training is a modality that needs to be earned, especially the barbell applications. While the band offset and DB/KB uneven applications are reasonably low risk, I would not advise using the offset barbell applications until a robust foundation of strength has been established.

The main consideration with offset loading is the increased shearing stress it places on the spine and working joints, when compared to symmetrically loaded movements. Given the difference in weight between the left and right sides, the athlete will be required to fight the urge to be pulled out of position as they execute the movement (hence, counter-rotation).

The main consideration with offset loading is the increased shearing stress it places on the spine and working joints, when compared to symmetrically loaded movements, says @danmode_vhp. Share on X

Programming Factors

Offset loading is not something I would suggest as a mainstay, but more something that you can phase in and out throughout the calendar training year depending on your sport/population. From a macro view, I think using offset loading intermittently—but strategically—can greatly benefit athletes.

One such instance would be using a high-volume method during off-season/accumulation periods to drive overall work capacity/volume; another good opportunity would be for primary lifts during phases of the in-season period. In the latter case, the goal of offset loading would be to stimulate neuromuscular demand while not overtaxing the joints with heavy compressive loading. This can also be applied situationally, and sports that are more extreme in unilateral dominance may benefit from more offset programming.

Offset Blocks — Figure 1. Here is a sample for how I would apply offset across different training modes/focuses.

On a micro (daily) view, I normally get most of my offset work during the second block (see above). The most effective way I’ve found to program this is to perform the same lift that I had in the primary block (e.g., bench/squat/dead/push jerk), but reduce the intensity and rep count. I also typically apply tempos to offset work. The progressive overloading should be small and incremental. I would encourage you to increase the offset value (e.g., a 10 pounds offset to 15 pounds) first, then increase the total load. Obviously, the specific increases would be dependent on the specific exercise/athlete.

Given this article is directed more specifically toward the sport population, please check out a (free) recent webinar of mine that covers a more thorough explanation of the “101” for offset loading. But with that, let’s now pivot to some more sport-specific benefits.

Neuromuscular and Proprioceptive

The first perceived benefit that comes to mind is the potent neurological stimulus created by offset loading. Due to the unbalanced external load, there is a significantly greater demand for intrinsic stability, as compared to evenly loaded movements. Indirectly, I believe this increases neural activation due to the demand for more co-contraction and, thus, overall muscular activation.

The demand for intermuscular coordination is high with offset loading, and simply put, more muscles being called to duty would theoretically suggest overall motor unit recruitment is increased as well: think of this as greater global force summation. This is certainly beneficial for all athletes, but especially those who are coming off injury (poor kinetic integration).

An important caveat here is that the overall demand on the CNS with offset loading can be achieved at significantly lighter total loads when compared to the same movement bilaterally loaded, with the benefit then being that athletes can achieve similar neuromuscular efforts without as much compressive force being imposed. This can be specifically advantageous during in-season programming when time is limited and athletes are accumulating wear and tear from competition.

In and of itself, strength is very contextual and environmentally driven. While the importance of foundational strength by way of the conventional lifts is inarguable, I strongly believe we become overzealous with big numbers on big lifts while neglecting the variability of strength demonstrated in sport. Not only are pure strength and stability demands in sport almost entirely unilateral, but also much more reflexive and responsive by virtue.

Video 2. Barbell offset reverse lunge to step-up.

One of the best sports to illustrate this point is combat sports (e.g., MMA, Muay Thai, boxing). Think about the intricacies of striking, bending, and grappling, and how these athletes’ bodies maneuver around the cage. Constantly shifting center of pressure; always tracking and repositioning in accordance with their opponent. And, of course, the way in which forces are being applied and expressed when engaging their opponent. It doesn’t take much analyzing to observe the lack of symmetry in sport.

Offset loading promotes a general increased proprioceptive demand, as the body must heighten sensory systems to coordinate the movement and load application, says @danmode_vhp. Share on X

Rather than simply asking “how strong is strong enough,” the question really becomes: can you respond fast enough, orient your body accordingly, and then exert the requisite expression or resistance of force? As such, offset loading promotes a general increased proprioceptive demand, as the body must heighten sensory systems to coordinate the movement and load application. I would argue confidently that the proprioceptive demand is more applicable for most athletes than simply pursuing bigger numbers.

Torque Management

Due to the increased presence of torque, it would be reasonable to assume that the mechanoreceptors (joint receptors) are in a heightened state during offset loading. An increased torque demand means there is a stronger presence of shearing moments for working joints. If we examine injury reports across all major sports, we see some distinct similarities in both mechanism and types of injury. Among those similarities is a high rate of soft tissue injuries, particularly ligamentous injuries. Very bluntly, ligaments do not accommodate shearing stress well (rotational forces), as ligament injuries occur when the rate of external force is applied faster than the body’s ability to respond to it, or the force is applied in a manner or vector for which the body isn’t adequately prepared.

Remember, if it were as simple as an ACL tear being a consequence of insufficient force tolerance/expression, non-contact injuries would never occur and every athlete would just train like a powerlifter. But, as we know, this isn’t the case. Thus, I believe one of the most effective things strength coaches can do for their athletes is improve their ability to tolerate torque—and offset loading requires an inherent tolerance for managing shearing stress.

Video 3. Some fundamental differences between offset and bilateral loading in the same exercises.

Despite my belief in offset loading, it shouldn’t be misconstrued to say foundational (bilateral) strength isn’t very much a part of the recipe. Minimizing the likelihood of sustaining a soft tissue injury at a base level requires robust foundational strength. The same goes for pure speed and agility work—absolute sprinting is purely one of the best “soft tissue injury prevention” tools there is. My argument with the torque management is that conventional loading can become subject to diminishing returns for ligaments given the lack of torque demands, especially with more advanced/highly trained athletes.

One of the most effective things strength coaches can do for their athletes is improve their ability to tolerate torque—and offset loading requires an inherent tolerance for managing shearing stress. Share on X

Trunk Stability and Lateral Chain Strength

The emphasis on anti-rotation and resisting lateral bending is another marquee benefit of offset loading for athletes. Much of what we see in sport is an expression of fighting and resisting external forces/torques as much as it is producing forces (e.g., breaking a tackle, driving in for a dunk against contact, throwing a pitch). I perceive the spine and core musculature as an engine that functions predominantly off a reciprocating, coiling action in which one side is always working in concert with the other (this applies anterior-to-posterior as well).

Very rarely—if ever—is external load applied evenly, or muscular activation distributed evenly between left and right sides of the body, or the trunk in this manner. This reciprocity requires the ability to demonstrate stability at certain areas of the trunk while producing movement at others. This illustrates another element of offset loading that could be favorable for athletic populations—slightly different muscular activation patterns between the right and left sides that are also slightly changing throughout the course of movement.

Lineman Offset Power — Image 1. Washington Huskies lineman battles around Penn State blocker. (Photo by Kevin Abele/Icon Sportswire.)

I would also argue there is an increased engagement from deep core muscles during offset loading in an effort to maintain spinal and positional stability as the athlete executes the movement. Our deep core muscles—namely the multifidi, internal obliques, quadratus lumborum (QL), and transverse abdominis—all play quintessential roles in providing intrinsic stability and force summation. Moreover, the deep fascia, which is also at play here, is where it has now been suggested that a large portion of mechanical force is transferred through the body to achieve motion. In my belief, core training is fundamental to sport performance, and offset loading is a premier way to emphasize these regions. But don’t take it just from me, as Stu McGill has famously said, “proximal stiffness for distal speed.”

Safety

I can’t complete this article without highlighting some important risk and safety considerations, as this is an unorthodox style of training for most. It’s important that the athlete has developed a reasonably robust foundation with strength training, and equally important that the coach is familiar enough with this application to apply it safely and correctly. In addition, please see the graphic below:

Takeaway Points

Some final quick hitter points regarding offset loading for the sport performance population:

Offset loading is a great option for increasing work capacity; athletes will be quick to recognize the mechanical and metabolic taxation that occurs during offset variations. I believe this is an ideal justification for early off-season work during GPP/reacclimating phases.
Given the presence of injuries with tactical athletes, I can say confidently that offset loading is a great option once formal physical therapy/rehab has been completed. I believe the neuromuscular benefits (inter- and intramuscular properties) outlined above are the primary advantage here.
Offset work can be advantageous for in-season training periods, as high CNS stimulation can be achieved without the demand for high absolute load. Augmenting CNS stimulation without a high magnitude of compressive forces is typically a win for most.
Cognitive stimulation is significantly higher during offset loading, effectively precluding the athlete from being able to go into “autopilot.” In my opinion, driving cognition during training is woefully underappreciated and can have tremendous return for the athlete.

Assessing Neuromuscular Performance for Acceleration in Hockey

Blog| ByMike Croskery

Hockey is one of the fastest games in the world. Players rely on quick bursts of speed combined with highly developed motor skills to outmaneuver competitors and gain possession of the puck. The player who gets to the puck or into position first got there by converting high amounts of muscular force into acceleration. Although we know that stronger players are often faster players, using that strength efficiently by coordinating and activating their muscles efficiently can make the difference between teams scoring goals and teams trailing behind.

A multitude of field tests exist to assess power, force production, acceleration, speed, and rate of force production. These tests evaluate the sum of the muscle actions on the body to propel it through space and can be a valuable way to determine both if a training regimen is getting results and how an individual player compares to other players on the team. What is more difficult to tell from these tests, however, is how the athlete’s muscles are activating and coordinating to cause this movement—and if they are doing it efficiently to maximize their performance.

EMG analysis can show what field tests can’t—how the athlete’s muscles are activating and coordinating and if they are doing it efficiently to maximize the athlete’s performance. Share on X

For this purpose, EMG analysis can prove to be invaluable in helping pinpoint areas that need attention to increase the whole of the performance.

Assessment Methods

In this article, I assess an elite hockey player in a blue line to blue line all-out sprint (15.24 meters, to be exact). Doing this allows insight into how his muscles activate and coordinate during the test’s acceleration portion. We used a single inertial monitor (G-Sensor from BTS Bioengineering) attached at the S1 level to approximate the center of mass to measure his acceleration.

To gather muscle activation information, we used eight wireless EMG sensors (FREEEMG from BTS Bioengineering) secured to the gluteus medius (GMed), vastus lateralis (VL), medial gastrocnemius (gastroc), and biceps femoris (BF) on both the left and right sides. Since the G-Sensor measures acceleration in three dimensions (x, y, and z axes), it is necessary to take these three components and calculate the final 3D acceleration vector. We can get 3D acceleration, velocity, and distance from this initial calculation using the combined vertical, horizontal, and lateral movements. Because this calculation represents all up, down, and side-to-side movements, the final values can differ from pure linear measurements.

Velocity Distance Acceleration — Figure 1. These graphs show the mean 3D velocity, distance, and acceleration of the G-Sensor as attached at the S1 level for the three trials.

To reliably compare left and right sides, it was necessary to identify key movement indicators along with muscle activation cycles. Skating has two distinct movement phases:

The initial strides are more like running, with higher ground reaction forces during the maximal accelerative component.
The later strides incorporate a more prolonged glide phase, and these last strides result in lower ground reaction forces once the skater gets up to speed.

To help me determine the key points and kinematics of the skating stride, I consulted with Gabe Glasser, a biomechanical engineer who now works with Biomechanics Research and Testing. Gabe was invaluable in sharing his knowledge and insights in creating the final protocol.

To compare how muscle activation contributes to the performance during critical points in the skating stride, I used EMG readings combined with acceleration values. Share on X

To compare how muscle activation contributes to the performance during critical points in the skating stride, I decided to use the EMG readings combined with the acceleration values. As the propulsion phase begins, the foot is below the center of gravity and about halfway through the stride, where acceleration is just starting to turn positive. This time point also coincides with the muscle activation of the sum of the four muscles as it approaches peak activation. For the purpose of an accurate left and right comparison when looking at acceleration, I chose the first six full strides of the performance to examine, as muscle coordination and activation changes as the player approaches peak speed and moves more to a gliding phase. I did not include the initial push-off phase as this may have confounded the results in comparing the left and right sides.

Hockey Acceleration — Figure 2. Still photo of the athlete entering the propulsion phase of the skate stride, and two graphs representing both force and acceleration as these are directly related (F=ma) and combined muscle activity of the four muscles (gluteus medius, vastus lateralis, medial gastrocnemius, and biceps femoris). Red represents left side and green represents right side.

Looking at the charts, it may be intuitive that EMG activity would parallel movement, but remember it takes time for the electrical activity in the muscle to convert to force to cause motion. This effect is called electromechanical delay and can influence the interaction by approximately 50-100 milliseconds depending on the muscle that is being measured. To keep it simple, I have not considered this a significant trainable effect (although research has both supported and disputed this) that can contribute to acceleration in this case. Since electromechanical delay can influence interpretation, it is essential to remember that EMG activation that results in movement could happen up to 100 milliseconds before the actual movement occurs.

Assessment Results

After three maximal on-ice sprint trials, the left side showed a higher rate of EMG development and peak power (power was calculated as force x velocity every 1/100th of a second during the propulsion phase). In comparison, the right side showed a higher rate of force development (RFD was calculated by taking the derivative of the force curves), acceleration, and overall muscle activation during the sprints. Muscle coordination was more synchronous at the start of the propulsion stage on the right side (as shown by the line approaching the zero mark) than the left, suggesting a more asynchronous activation.

RFD Propulsion Stride — Figure 3. Coordination, rate of force development, and rate of EMG development during the skate stride. Vertical lines represent the start of the propulsion phase of the stride where acceleration increases beyond zero. The graph of propulsion power is from the start of the propulsion phase to the end of the stride. Red represents the left side and green represents the right side for all graphs.

Measuring median frequency (MDF) can also give us some insight into the motor units’ activity. Although somewhat controversial, MDF is more likely representative of the conduction velocity of the motor units. In general, larger and faster motor units tend to recruit at higher frequencies and conduction velocities and are also, on average, closer to the surface of the leg muscles. Many factors can affect MDF, such as fatigue, motor unit cross-sectional area, and depth of motor units from the electrodes. Although electrode placement can also affect MDF, the difference is not as sensitive or as large as amplitude measurements.

In this case, fatigue did not appear to be a factor, as the length of each sprint was close to three seconds and MDF frequency appeared relatively stable throughout the trials. The differences between the left and right GMed and BF frequencies were similar; however, the right VL and gastroc were higher by approximately 20%. This may suggest that the right VL and gastroc had greater overall motor unit conduction velocities that may have contributed to slightly higher acceleration and force generation on that side.

You would think a higher rate of EMG development (how quickly the muscle can activate to a certain level) would also result in a higher rate of force development (how quickly the body can develop a given force). Also, since the right side produced greater peak force at the beginning of the propulsion stage, you might surmise that it would also have greater power. Since power is force x velocity, you get higher powers by moving faster with higher forces. However, remember that the speed when the propulsive force is applied is also related to the last stride, so in this case, it might be difficult to tell if one side was more powerful than the other. We do know that the right side had a higher peak acceleration than the left, so it appears the right side transferred its force-generating capabilities better than the left.

Muscles Stride — Figure 4. Average median frequencies (in Hz) for the first three strides of the on-ice sprint.

Although the left side has a higher EMG development rate and higher peak power, the right side has a higher RFD, peak force, and acceleration, and better inter-and intramuscular coordination. Intramuscular coordination is how individual muscles recruit motor units and vary firing rates to produce more force. We know better intramuscular coordination occurs alongside a higher mean EMG activation and often with higher MDF frequencies. Inter-muscular coordination is how multiple muscles work together to cause movement. In the end, both types of coordination are essential.

Although there are a few ways to assess muscle coordination, I chose the more straightforward mathematical way by using a dispersion index as described in the article by Rejc et al. (2010). This approach looks at the sum of the differences between all the muscles together. As the graphed line approaches zero, the EMG activations levels are more similar since the difference between them becomes smaller. Farther away from zero indicates less similarity and less synchronous activity.

As you can see from the graph, the right side has good synchronous muscle coordination at the onset of the propulsion phase. In contrast, the left is becoming less synchronous, meaning the inter-muscle coordination is diverging, and the muscles are not contracting in a similar pattern as the right.

In a fluid movement, you want just the right amount of antagonist activity for joint stabilization, but not so much that it is resisting the action of the agonists. Share on X

In an ideal situation, you would want individual muscles firing precisely at the right time, along with high synchronous motor unit recruitment rates. Optimally activated individual muscles that contract at the wrong time result in lower performances, just as synchronous recruitment of multiple muscles with poor intramuscular coordination will not result in the best possible performance.

Even though we only looked at four muscles to get a snapshot of the whole picture, it is also good to know how antagonist muscle activity contributes. In a fluid movement, you want just the right amount of antagonist activity for joint stabilization, but not so much that it is resisting the action of the agonists. In our hockey player case, we focused primarily on agonist and synergist muscles while monitoring the activity of the BF. The BF is a double-jointed muscle that plays multiple roles in the skating stride. It can act as a knee stabilizer during eccentric knee extension, an antagonist and stabilizer during concentric knee extension, and a synergist during hip extension.

Gastroc Biceps — Figure 5. Left and right individual EMG activation during the skate stride as a percentage of the dynamic peak during the sprint. Vertical lines represent the onset of the propulsion phase. Red represents the left side and green represents the right side.

The other unique and exciting aspect of EMG analysis is sometimes you find things you didn’t set out to measure. Although the sum of the average activation of the four muscles is relatively close, when you break down the four muscle activations, there is a potential red flag. Typically, BF activation acts as a stabilizer while the knee extends and the quadriceps activate. This action helps protect the knee from an adverse movement that can stress the knee ligaments, such as the ACL.

The other unique and exciting aspect of EMG analysis is sometimes you find things you didn’t set out to measure. Share on X

In looking at the activation patterns of the four individual muscles of the left leg near the start of the propulsion stage, there is a noticeable drop inactivation of approximately 20% compared to the right side, where activation stays relatively consistent. Although you could argue that you would want deactivation of the BF during knee extension, this would also place the left knee at greater risk of injury due to the change in co-activation with the quadriceps, especially at high speeds. This type of activity is an additional individual factor that should be examined and possibly addressed during his off-ice training to help prevent future knee injury.

Training Recommendations

With the idea that we want good inter-muscular coordination with all the essential muscles firing simultaneously during the propulsion phase on both sides, we can address this issue by modifying the athlete’s training routine. Most research has found that muscle coordination patterns are generally individualized, especially in high-level elite athletes. The reasons for this can range from genetic factors such as bone, muscle, and tendon length to trainable factors such as early established neurologic movement patterns, the elasticity of tissues, and the force and rate of force capabilities of individual muscles.

There is a plethora of information on improving strength, power, muscle development, and speed through various training techniques. However, the research on improving unilateral muscle coordination through training is far from extensive and its importance is often mentioned more as an aside, unlike addressing it directly as is done for intramuscular coordination. With that said, some techniques DO NOT appear to help inter-muscle coordination and synchrony:

Bilateral movements (as athletes can unknowingly favor or weight one side over the other).
Fast, unweighted movements.
Lower-intensity resistance training.

Now that we know what probably won’t help this particular athlete, let’s examine what will.

Maximal Strength Training

To improve inter-muscular coordination, maximal resistance in the range of one to three reps per set has shown promising results. This type of high-intensity training should also include a comprehensive risk analysis that considers the athlete’s training history, fitness level, and time during the season.

To improve inter-muscular coordination, maximal resistance in the range of 1-3 reps per set has shown promising results. Share on X

The general rule of thumb is if the athlete can squat 1.5 to 2 times their body weight, we would focus on lower volume and higher intensity weights applied as unilateral exercises. Exercises such as a modified step-up or a single-leg squat might be good alternatives. If overall lower body strength were not as high, the focus would shift toward increasing overall strength. Current research suggests that improving strength, up to the previously mentioned level, affects acceleration more than applying specific techniques.

Resisted Ballistic Training Combined with Moving as Quickly as Possible

Notice I have used the word “resisted” (or added weight), as unweighted ballistic training has less of an effect on improving inter-muscular coordination. However, this can include plyometrics, which can also have a moderate impact on improving inter-muscular coordination. As there are substantial ground reaction forces during the first few strides, this is an appropriate method. However, around the sixth stride, there is a switch to a more gliding motion, which drastically reduces these ground reaction forces and renders plyometric training maybe not as relevant for overall speed.

During these exercises, there should be a purposeful intention to move the body as fast as possible regardless of whether there is a high level of speed. Remind the athlete to put their mind into the motion by getting them to focus on explosive movements. Drawing their attention to one side at a time will help train their neurological system to recruit as many muscles as possible at the same time. Exercises might include weighted, single-leg diagonal long jumps, unilateral sled work, or on-ice resisted drills.

Optimal power generation generally occurs at about 30% of maximum weight and should be performed separately from maximal resistance training.

General Notes

Additionally, keep the following in mind.

Train unfatigued. Fatigue has also been shown to change inter-muscular coordination, so it is best to perform this type of training first in the workout after an adequate warm-up. Different coordination patterns can emerge as other muscles try to take over from fatiguing muscles.
Improve flexibility at the end of the workout. Elastic properties of the connective tissue can also change muscle coordination patterns, so make sure both sides are equal in range of motion. Take an overall approach to making certain that flexibility is within a normal range by incorporating a mixture of static and dynamic stretches. Not only can this help improve skating technique, but it can also guard against potential injury. Since stretching can decrease activation, it is wise to do this at the end of the workout or separate it from coordination training.
Specificity. A classic principle applies here as it does to all types of training. Your movements should be as specific to the propulsion phase of the skating stride as possible to improve the necessary muscle activation timing. Generalized “gym training” appears to have very little to no effect on sport-specific muscle coordinative patterns. This statement reinforces the observation that despite the elite athlete gaining strength in the gym, there is often very little transfer to increasing performance. Acceptable approaches are machines and dry land multi-joint exercises that mimic the skating stride or on-ice resisted unilateral ballistic exercises.

Providing More Answers

To summarize, our hockey player has shown that the current left side inter-muscular coordination may not maximize his acceleration during an on-ice sprint. Even though the left side may activate faster and generate higher peak power values, the right side suggests better intra- and inter-muscular coordination, overall higher peak force and acceleration, and a higher rate of overall force development. To improve left side muscle coordination so that the muscles work together to produce a higher rate of acceleration, we would want to incorporate training for unilateral maximal strength combined with ballistic-type movements with added resistance.

Assessing muscle coordination can be a complex issue—muscle coordination patterns can be highly individualized, especially in elite athletes. Training for inter-muscular coordination is best for athletes above 16 who have also developed adequate strength levels. Using EMG analysis combined with inertial sensors can provide more answers to identifying, addressing, and resolving the issue and help to improve overall performance.

References

Rejc, E., Lazzer, S., Antonutto, G., Isola, M., and di Prampero, P.E. “Bilateral deficit and EMG activity during explosive lower limb contractions against different overloads.” European Journal of Applied Physiology. 2010;108:157-165.

Shell, J., Robbins, S., Dixon, P., Renaud P., Turcotte, R., Wu, R., and Pearsall D. “Skating start propulsion: three-dimensional kinematic analysis of elite male and female ice hockey players.” Sports Biomechanics. 2017;16(3):313-324.

Renaud, P.J., Robbins, S., Dixon, P., Shell, J.R., Turcotte, R., and Pearsall, D. “Ice hockey skate starts: a comparison of high and low calibre skaters.” Sports Engineering. 2017;20:255-266.

Burnie, Louise Annabelle.“The effects of strength training on intermuscular coordination during maximal cycling.” Doctoral, Sheffield Hallam University, 2020.

The Climate of Training in Minor League Baseball with Ryan Orr

Freelap Friday Five| ByRyan Orr, ByCody Hughes

Ryan Orr is a minor league strength and conditioning coach in the New York Mets organization. He is going into his second season with the Mets and his fourth in professional baseball. Ryan is co-owner of Catalyst Performance, and he has his Master of Science in Exercise Science from the University of Arkansas. He is a Registered Strength and Conditioning Coach through the National Strength and Conditioning Association.

Freelap USA: Strength and conditioning for professional athletes poses many challenges. What challenges do you have to overcome in order to continue adequate training?

Ryan Orr: One challenge that most coaches can probably relate to is the misinformation that so many athletes receive from social media. There’s so much information out there, but it can be difficult for athletes to filter out poor information or to understand that many elite athletes are successful in spite of their training, not because of it.

Another challenge is that there have been stigmas around training in baseball for a long time. Although most of the old-school training philosophies are no longer in the game at the professional level, many players grew up playing for coaches who believed in these old-school practices. Therefore, it can be difficult for a pitcher to unlearn things taught to them at a young age, such as pitchers running poles. Many athletes will buy into every aspect of a training program but still have a hard time letting go of these practices and ways of thinking.

Time is always a challenge that you face during the season. Your available time is always dependent on things such as report time relative to the game, team practice schedules, and individual work. One way to address this challenge is to assess the amount of time each training will take to finish when writing an athlete’s program and try to make it as time efficient as you can while still getting the desired stimulus and adaptation.

Travel is also a constant challenge, as it takes up half of your season’s schedule. Each road trip brings its own challenges, whether its game times, double headers, facilities, or overall accessibility. Being adaptable and having a plan for any and all possibilities will help you be ready to face these.

By the time players reach the High-A level, they’ve probably had three other strength coaches and experience in high school/college, which means they’ve been exposed to multiple philosophies. Share on X

By the time players reach the High-A level, they’ve had probably a minimum of three other strength coaches, plus usually some sort of experience in high school and/or college—which means they’ve seen that same number of different philosophies. This is usually simply resolved by emphasizing relationships and educating players on the thought processes behind your programming. It’s very common for players to train with other coaches in the off-season as well, since they are spread throughout the country. This, again, most likely adds a different style of training for the athlete, so it can be very important to get this information from the athlete and attempt to build a connection with their off-season coach.

Freelap USA: Pitching rotations in professional baseball can vary. What approach do you take with training your starters, high-inning relievers, and low-inning relievers?

Ryan Orr: Starters are the most individualized based on their previous experiences and routines. For example, some guys prefer to throw their bullpen two days after their start instead of three days after. In my time in pro ball, I’ve seen players who enjoy doing some sort of potentiation lift before their start and others who perform a full lift after their start.

The main focus is pairing their heavy throwing days together and keeping high CNS days high and low CNS days low, so pairing their start and bullpen days with lifting as much as scheduling will allow. However, this can be dependent on factors like what day their bullpen day falls on and how many days between starts they will have. If they have more than five days between starts, that provides more opportunities for stimuli. The goal is to always work backward from their next start and optimize recovery for that day.

With guys who are getting frequent appearances, you need to manage stress and recovery as much as possible. Those are the players who need a high priority on managing their schedule to pair their lifting and outings together with minimal stimuli between outings. Typically, these players have less volume as the years go on and the innings pile up and only need a minimal stimulus on the S&C side. A huge part of managing their schedule is to collaborate with them and the ATC to create a recovery plan.

The fewer appearances a reliever has, the more important it is for them to get proper stimuli both in the weight room and on the conditioning side. It’s also important to maximize their preparation for their appearances, as you want them to be able to perform well when they’re given their opportunity. That goes into any mobility and stability work but also teaching them to prep their body in the warm-up to get hot before getting off a mound.

Probably the biggest piece of the puzzle to optimizing their health and performance is working alongside the ATC and pitching coaches to make sure that they keep their throwing load at a high enough level to be prepared for the game. Overall, communicating with the ATC and pitching coach is the most important piece of maintaining and improving health and performance in a pitching staff.

Overall, communicating with the ATC and pitching coach is the most important piece of maintaining and improving health and performance in a pitching staff, says @ryanorr24. Share on X

Freelap USA: Roster transactions can happen at any minute in the minor leagues. What challenges come with players getting moved up/down/traded?

Ryan Orr: The biggest challenge is not being able to see the implementation of your program all the way through. No matter how unified you are as a staff, every coach will have a slightly different eye for the movements or a slightly different approach to development. With the amount of time that we spend with each player, we become very passionate about their success, so it can be difficult to give up control of the long-term plan you have for that player. However, if a player gets moved up or even traded, it’s usually a sign that player has had success, so you must understand that it’s all part of their overall individual development.

A player coming up has its own challenges separate from the other two scenarios. Many of these are players that you have to get to know and build a relationship with. It can take some time to build that relationship while the player is trying to get comfortable with their new surroundings at a new affiliate. You are also coaching a program written by someone else, and as I previously said, you could be coaching it differently than the last coach. For these reasons, it’s very important to have great relationships with the other strength coaches so you have established communication with them and can help each other see one another’s visions.

Freelap USA: Baseball players are creatures of habit and routine. How do you differentiate training for athletes who prefer different styles of training?

Ryan Orr: I think this is where the art of coaching really becomes important. It’s important to be willing to meet players where they’re at and develop and educate them on your philosophies. The better your relationship is with that player, the more trust they will have in your program. A very underrated component of creating buy-in is simply to listen to the player on why they may think differently. Communication is a vital piece of the puzzle.

This is also where having a sound understanding of the mechanics and biomechanics of the exercises plays a factor. Maybe a player doesn’t like the trap bar deadlift and is willing to sub it out for a SSB box squat. He’s happy because he can avoid an undesirable exercise, and I’m happy because I’m still getting the same relative motion of the pelvis and can manipulate the box height to create the same joint angles. This is an easy example, but you can apply it to most exercises by thinking through shapes and joint movements.

Freelap USA: What strategies do you use to help the players in the off-season continue the progress that they made during the year? Do you attempt to collaborate with their private coach if they have one?

Ryan Orr: We’re assigned a list of players, usually guys that we have during the season, and we stay in constant contact with those players throughout the season. We send out off-season programs to them and communicate frequently to make sure that we stay on top of any changes that need to be made to account for their situation and equipment available. We’re able to identify their needs and deficiencies via testing throughout the season enough that it allows us to really individualize each player’s programs. As a coach, it is my responsibility to help them understand that the off-season is the best time for them to develop physically and to help them prioritize their goals.

For players who train with an off-season coach, collaboration and communication are incredibly important. It’s my job to attempt to build a relationship with that coach and align their goals with ours. From there, it is a continuous cycle of communication with both the coach and the player. The key is to put your ego aside and understand that, ultimately, all of us want the same thing: success for the player.

7 Ways to Improve Your Recreational Soccer Practice

Blog| ByNathan Huffstutter

First of all, I get it—I’ve been there. Rushing straight from work to coach who knows how many players showing up at who knows what time. You’ve got the kid who moves like a cheetah and HAS to win every relay or 1v1 and the kid who hates recess and only smiles when you sub them off the field. There’s the kid with behavioral issues whose parents have run the numbers and figured out that recreational sports are a cost-effective form of childcare. There’s the kid who comes straggling up to the field five minutes after every game has kicked off, with the red-faced dad who sends angry emails to the league because his son has never been in the starting lineup. And there’s the kid with the polished first touch and passing skills who burned out on competitive soccer, and now it’s your responsibility to keep her from quitting the sport entirely.

These players are—or should be—the “grassroots” base of the developmental pyramid. There is no way of predicting at 7-8-9 years-old who will still be playing the game at 16-17-18, so that part of the base needs to be as wide and well-cared for as possible in order grow the game. But this crucial foundation tends to get forgotten when it comes to allocating time, coaching support, field space, equipment, and other resources. We consistently put the hardest coaching challenges in the hands of volunteers who have the best intentions but often limited experience.

We consistently put the hardest coaching challenges in the hands of volunteers who have the best intentions but often limited experience, says @CoachsVision. Share on X

Kicking off the fall season this year, I helped lead a coaching clinic for coaches who stepped up and volunteered on the recreational side of our club’s program. After a few weeks of watching the teams practicing out on our local fields, I realized that while I may have adequately demonstrated how to organize and execute a routine practice, I had failed to communicate a few crucial dos and don’ts that can really make a difference. With that end in mind, here are seven suggestions that will immediately improve a grassroots or recreational soccer practice (and like most things in life, I learned each of these by first doing them wrong myself).

1. Begin Every Practice with a Game

I understand the desire to turn chaos into order and snap every practice into instant atten-SHUN with a show of military discipline. In the practice space to your left, the coach is fighting a losing battle with the telescoping arms of his pricey collapsible goals while the dozen boys on his team are throwing around a plastic water bottle and tackling each other in a game that’s equal parts rugby and Lord of the Flies. The coach in the space to your right hasn’t even showed up yet—a handful of players are there milling about on their phones while one teammate launches punts 50 feet straight up in the air, watching the kids on their phones scatter each time the ball hurtles back to earth.

In this moment, nothing shows you’re running a much tighter ship than your counterparts like organizing your players into lines for drills that are tightly choreographed, highly technical, or physically demanding, or maybe all three. That FIFA 11+ warm-up? That non-dominant-foot-only dribbling slalom? That “last-man-up” interval run around the field complex?

Trust me—let that temptation go.

Instead, start every practice in a way that lets your players know they’ve come to the right place—they’re going to play, have fun, and get better. Tony Holler has summed this up best: Make your practices the best part of a kid’s day.

Set up a large goal or opposing mini goals or just cones for goals and see what the players do as they arrive. If they start playing 2v1 or 3v2 or 4v4, amazing, stay out of their way for a bit. If they create a game shooting on goal, all good, let them play it. With younger players, they may not yet have the ability or imagination to start their own game and will need direction—help them organize a shooting challenge or a mini scrimmage, or you can take over entirely and start your practice right off the bat with Sharks and Minnows or Red Light Green Light or the Numbers Game or whatever game you usually use as the “fun” activity later in a practice.

This concept from the Play-Practice-Play model is brilliant in its simplicity, and it works—set the tone and energy of your practices by having the kids play the moment they get there. That 10-minute game will check most of the boxes of a proper warm-up—and all those players who perpetually show up 5–15 minutes late because, why not, they’re just missing laps or static stretches or cone dribbling? Now they’re motivated to get to the field on time because start time is game time.

Set the tone and energy of your practices by having the kids PLAY the moment they get there…Ideally, instead of YOU turning chaos into order, your players will begin to be the ones doing it. Share on X

This can require swallowing some ego, because to all outward appearances, this opening “play” phase may not look like you have the tightest handle on things. Ideally, however, instead of you turning chaos into order, your players will begin to be the ones doing it—which is what attacking sports are all about.

Here’s an example: my competitive team of sixth- and seventh-grade girls has developed its own pre-practice game where players blast shots from 18–25 yards out while others line the goal line and deflect the shots. This game began with zero input from me—naturally, those players more inclined to attacking roles generally self-select as the shooters and those more inclined to defensive roles choose to be the blockers. They crack off shots, make saves, talk trash, and actively play their way into each practice—the game usually gets underway 10 minutes before practice formally starts, and I tend to let it carry on five minutes into our set start time and then begin from there.

In a summer tournament match, our keeper got caught outside of the 18-yard box on a challenge and the opposing player crossed the ball centrally to their open striker and…what do you know? Several of our defenders posted up on the goal line just like in their pre-practice game. The first shot on frame was deflected with a knee, the rebound shot was deflected with a shin, and what would have been the decisive goal in tournament play was prevented thanks to a warm-up game I never would have created on my own.

2. Throw Away That Dry Erase Coaching Board (and the Whistle Too)

If you want your players to sit with rapt attention, shortly after that FIFA 11+ warm-up and complex set of drills, gather them in to sit while you draw up formations or indicate tactical movements with the teeny round magnets on your coaching whiteboard. During this strategic talk, all eyes will be on you, and it feels like this is where the magic happens: you’re Pep, you’re Pia, you’re Mourinho.

When kids get 75% of what you are saying, they will pepper you with comments and follow-up questions to get the final parts of the picture. Kids who get 0% of what you’re saying will nod seriously and sit in absolute silence, lest they let slip they haven’t understood a word.

Put yourself in their shoes—you’re drawing triangles and numbers and arrows or sliding those little M&M dots in ways that appear backward or upside down. Someone’s head is right in their way, or they may not be close enough to see in the first place, and by and large, they will not have the cognitive ability to appreciate a number or shape indicating a “player” and visualize themselves in those positions out in space.

The reason they are sitting so quietly is that they do not understand the words that are coming out of your mouth.

Sorry, Pep. Throw. That. Board. Away.

White Board Trash — Image 2. I once asked the teens on a competitive team how much of what I wrote on my coaching board they actually understood and could apply. The answer? “None of it.”

Disc cones are an effective tool to show your players your basic playing formation—even better if you have different colors to represent different position groups, so you can also describe the mindset and responsibilities of each role on the field. Unlike the coaching board, cones are interactive—you can have players move them based on shifts on the field, or you can spread the cones out and have the players stand at each position to see what their basic formation looks like.

Cone Formation Soccer — Image 3. Some players still won’t easily connect cones to spatial relationships on the field, but you should have more of those “Oh, wait—NOW I get it” moments, like when someone who’s been pretending to see the hidden image in a 3D painting actually DOES see the hidden image.

Dowels or PVC pipes are useful with younger age groups to demonstrate connections between cones/players: you can use a dowel to show that your left back and left wing are connected and should be able to see each other at most points of the game without being in each other’s shadows. Meanwhile, your left back and right wing are not connected. If your right wing realizes they are in high-five distance of your left back, something has gone wrong.

On a similar topic, that whistle hanging around your neck has a fun, retro PE teacher vibe and you don’t need to actually trash it—keep it in your bag, because someday the ref won’t show up, and you’ll need a whistle as you simultaneously referee the game and coach it. That is what whistles are for—refereeing. Teach your players to play to the referee’s whistle while you coach with your voice.

3. Be Early and Make Your Space a Field

Yes, you’re coming straight from the office and your players should be grateful you sucked it up and volunteered in the first place—and, besides, when you do roll in, there’s that one team dogpiling each other while their coach wrestles with his portable goals and another team dragging through some type of Navy SEAL hell-week run. All things considered, you’re golden.

Still, however much time you’re volunteering, plan to volunteer 20 more minutes of it before each practice.

This is when you turn chaos into order. Being early allows you to set your space—most likely, you will not have a full, lined field all to yourself for your recreational practice, so create your field of play. Soccer is a game of space, and it lacks the more well-defined landmarks of sports like softball, basketball, and football—spatial relationships on the soccer pitch are even harder for young players to grasp if the playing space itself lacks boundaries.

Set the rectangle that will be your practice field for the day. Spatial relationships on the soccer pitch are even harder for younger players to grasp if the playing space lacks boundaries. Share on X

So, set the rectangle that will be your practice field for the day. Depending on the space provided to you, the age of your players, and what you’re planning to do in that day’s practice, your space may be 40 x 30, 60 x 45, 70 x 55… who knows. At a minimum, use large cones or poles for the four corners and a different color of cones for the two midlines and set all of your activities within that defined field.

Plan-Map-Field — Image 4. If practice-design software isn’t efficient for your needs, it’s simple enough to write up, map, and then execute your plan. Consider the opening game you want your players to play on arrival and have any large or mini goals in place for that. Without impeding that opening game, set whatever cones, poles, PUGGs, hurdles, ladders, or anything else you’ll be utilizing in the next phases of your practice.

As the players arrive, if the field setup looks different and purposefully designed each day, that sets their imagination going and makes them wonder what activities you have planned for the session. Plus, the earlier you are there, the earlier parents will realize they can safely drop off their players—so you can get them into the routine of playing their opening game before practice begins and then the full span of practice is yours to utilize.

4. If Your Drill Requires Lines of More Than 3 or 4, Do Something Else

For real. If you take nothing else away from this article, please, let it be this.

No matter how useful or valid the skill you are trying to teach, no matter how expertly designed your layout of cones or poles or obstacles… three is about the max number of players you ever want in any single-file line. One player doing the drill, one just about to do the drill, and one who knows that in a moment they will be the next one about to do the drill.

Beyond that, the fourth, fifth, sixth in line will need to occupy themselves with something else while waiting for their turn to be close to their turn, and that something else will inevitably set them up for failure once their time finally does arrive.

You want to teach the “give and go” to your team of a dozen exuberant 7-year-olds, but you’re the only one who can actually deliver that effective wall-pass back? Do not, do not, do not have your 12 players line up single file and pass you the ball for a give and go drill—calculate how many minutes it will take for each player to get through that line six times to perform the skill and think of how many touches on the ball they could be getting in those 15 minutes rather than standing in line cloud-watching or doing cartwheels.

If the only way you can do the thing you want your players to do requires lines of 6-7-8 kids standing and waiting for a turn… Do something else. That something will be better, says @CoachsVision. Share on X

All lines are not the enemy. Some of your activities may be physically demanding and short lines are a good way for players to have a natural rest between repetitions. Also, from a modeling perspective, being next in line and watching their teammates perform a skill or drill may be the best way for some of your players to learn the skill or the flow of a pattern. But if the only way you can do the thing you want your players to do requires lines of 6-7-8 kids standing and waiting for a turn… Do something else. That something will be better.

5. Make Your Warm-Up Multi-Task (and 5-10 Minutes, Max)

If you start opening your practices with a game, ideally that will elevate your players’ heart rates and body temps, prep specific muscles and tissues that will be used during that training, and switch their mindset from school/home mode into active/athletic mode—which, in and of itself, should accomplish the goals of your warm-up in the first place.

There are, however, other valid goals you may want to achieve via a structured warm-up:

Team bonding and self-organization.
Introducing specific movements that you value (skips, backpedaling, hops and jumps, shuffling, etc.).
Introducing foundational ball skills (toe-taps, bells, sole-rolls, and other skills that are great for both proprioception and basic conditioning).
Preparing players for what an organized pre-game warm-up will entail should they continue to higher levels of the sport.
Setting foundations for resilience and injury mitigation.

Personally, I happen to think every kid needs to be able to jump and land forward and backward on a single leg, alternate from a backpedal to a sprint, skip, shuffle, and change directions, so I add those movements to warm-ups. I also like to continue competing directly out of our opening game, so relay races are a game-based way to multi-task and perform those movements with intent.

And if you really want to do that 20-minute, FIFA 11+ warm-up? Sure, introduce it one week; there’s genuine value in teaching your young players the what, how, and why of an extensive warm-up. Just make sure that a warm-up routine isn’t a routine way to kill the first 15 minutes of every practice—the longer and more repetitive the warm-up, the sloppier the movements get over time. So, use variety and multi-task your goals—the next practice after your extensive warm-up, have your players do a five-minute warm-up with the ball at their feet combined with jumps and plyos:

Toe-taps, then skater jumps over the ball.
Bells, then four-corner jumps over the ball.
Standing v’s, then bicycle jumps.
Start/stops with the ball and without.

And so on. Keep the intent high. Soccer is a complicated game, and your players have a lot to learn.

6. Do Not Jog Laps (Not as Fitness, Not as Punishment)

Maybe someone forwarded you an article from Runner’s World or maybe it was a Trivial Pursuit question or maybe you ran a Google search and came across a fun fact stating that soccer players can run 7+ miles in a match. Consequently, conditioning may seem like an important place to start in terms of preparing your players for the sport.

I do unequivocally believe that any healthy athlete between 8 and 18 years old should be able to crank out a 3K without collapsing. The ability to jog 1–2 miles is a basic physical KPI that ought to be viewed as no less a foundation than the ability to perform a push-up, land a broad jump, hold a plank position, do a bodyweight squat, etc.

However, just because your kids should be able to run a mile doesn’t mean it’s a good use of your limited practice time to have them run a mile.

Just because your kids should be able to run a mile doesn’t mean it’s a good use of your limited practice time to have them run a mile, says @CoachsVision. Share on X

Your more athletic players and those with a more advanced game understanding will run more during a game, and your less competitive players will run less. By and large, even if they are not “game fit,” that lack of fitness is not the limiting factor in their performance—if a player isn’t covering much ground, the issue is more likely they don’t know where to go, aren’t sure what they’d do if they got there, and may not be sure why they should care in the first place.

So, to have them cover more space, use your time to teach them where to go, what to do when they get there, and why they should care. Spending 12 minutes jogging around your field complex won’t help much with that, but your other practice activities will.

Though not time-effective in the context of a weekly practice, being able to run for longer stretches is helpful on the soccer field. Encourage your players to jog when those opportunities come up in school, whether it’s running instead of walking laps in PE, participating in running clubs or jogathons, or running a route at the park or around the neighborhood with their dog. That extra effort combined with purposeful warm-ups, races, activities with high repetitions, and the weekly game itself will improve their overall fitness.

On The Ball — Image 5. Ball skills, anticipation, and “want-to” are far bigger factors in a recreational soccer game than fitness, so direct as much energy as possible to improving those first.

And, if you have a need to discipline your players for any reason, find a way to do so that does not involve running. As mentioned, your better players will naturally run more on the field—“work rate” on the pitch is as much a key to the game as first touch, and you want your players to associate running with being better at the sport, not with being in trouble with their coach.

7. Always End with a Game

This is not a free license to spend the last 45 minutes of every practice scrimmaging just because those 45 minutes then require no planning or execution. Figure out how long your players can play their best version of the game and play that amount of time to wrap up every practice. The game teaches the game, that is and always will be.

Figure out how long your players can play their best version of the game and play that amount of time to wrap up every practice. The game teaches the game, always, says @CoachsVision. Share on X

Most often, recreational players under 12 can play, really play, for a stretch of 15–20 minutes. Any longer than that and diminishing returns kick in. Fatigue strikes and the quality of play sinks. One side will be outplaying the other, because perfectly even teams cannot be set, and the side being outplayed will concede to being outplayed and lose intensity. Teammates who are friends will use that waning intensity to socialize.

As the game teaches the game, don’t let the game teach bad habits. Figure out how long your players can play their best version of the game and play that amount of time to wrap up every practice, so the players know that as they move through the activities of your practice plan, they are always building to the game itself.

Make Them Want to Come Back

The 10- to 12-week span of the average recreational season goes by fast, and young players have the potential to learn an incredible amount in that short time. The season will have highs and lows, and the final measure of the year won’t be based on which team happened to get the phenom who could dribble circles around everyone en route to a weekly hat trick, or even that satisfying, 6–0 spanking you put on the dogpile team with the coach who dropped a grand on his own set of full-size goals.

The success of this year will be measured in the next.

One year from now, are the majority of the players you coached still playing the game? Sure, some will move on to other sports, some will move away, and some will stop playing soccer for reasons independent of anything relating to your team or how you coached it. But, if you can make your practices the best part of your players’ day, if you can keep them excited and involved in the sport for another year, you will have given back more than your time and made a true difference.