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Every traditional Olympic weightlifting program looks inherently the same on paper. There is a combination or variation of snatch, clean, jerk, squat, push, pull, and common accessories; then rinse, wash, repeat. Intensities and volume prescriptions are based on the athlete’s competition schedule and how many weeks out they are from a meet.

This ideology of programming has worked for decades, and the beauty in this simplicity is that an athlete can train as long as they have a barbell and set of plates. But just as there is more to a basketball player than being able to dribble and shoot, a weightlifter needs more than just the snatch and clean.

In weightlifting, you have to play the long game. The only way to become more proficient in the lifts is through time and consistency. You have to be able to physically endure the high intensities and volumes to get stronger while still improving on the technical aspects of the lifts. If an athlete can’t endure the rigorous training density of a cycle, then frustration and lack of progress begin to set in. By providing the athlete with a better base to build from, we can avoid such stagnation—the whole is always stronger than one part.

GPP for Competitive Weightlifters

General physical preparation (GPP) gives an athlete the opportunity to step away from the barbell without crippling their training or suspending their overall goals. We can look at GPP as a phase in a program or as the accessory movements built into a more traditional weightlifting program. In either case, the overall themes of GPP are variability and durability.

We can look at GPP as a phase in a program or as the accessory movements built into a more traditional weightlifting program. Either way, the overall themes of GPP are variability and durability. Share on X

As a benefit, GPP supports athletes on a wide spectrum, from rehabbing injuries to developing a more athletic base. Training with alternative pieces of equipment forces the athlete to move differently, thus exposing some underlying weaknesses. Equipment variety (dumbbells, kettlebells, bands, medicine balls, etc.) can easily alter body position, load placement, and movement. This will keep training efficiency high and decrease the likeliness of plateauing due to years of adaptation.

Weightlifters are regimented in their training and are more likely to take time off due to chronic injury and overload—GPP can provide a solution to help heal a nagging injury or improve the athlete’s ability to withstand overall training density better through several cycles. The biggest benefits to GPP exercises, specifically those without a barbell, are to:

• Challenge the athlete in non-sport-specific movements and positions.
• Increase longevity and sustainability within the sport.
• Improve motor control and neuromuscular adaptations.

Non-Sport-Specific Movements

Weightlifting is predominantly a bilateral (with the exception of the split jerk) and sagittal plane sport. So, this is where the athlete is the strongest. These strengths often hide other deficiencies. Training unilateral movements will highlight weaker areas and provide the coach with more information on how to improve their athlete’s training and performance. This training will also help an athlete reduce the bilateral deficit effect, because training unilaterally will improve overall bilateral strength and power.

A common issue we see in weightlifting is an athlete not pushing evenly through both feet. We all know that every human has a stronger side and a weaker side, and when an athlete isn’t conscious of those asymmetries, it can lead to issues down the road. Broadly speaking, it can either lead to muscular compensation or create a technical flaw. GPP gives coaches an opportunity to include more unilateral work to help close any asymmetries between the right and left sides without affecting the overall goal of the training day.

GPP gives coaches an opportunity to include more unilateral work to help close any asymmetries between the right and left sides without affecting the overall goal of the training day. Share on X

The same is true for stepping out of the “sagittal box” and into more frontal and transverse movements. The human body is three-dimensional, so training solely in flexion and extension for the sake of the sport limits the athlete’s robustness and adaptability should something be thrown off during a lift.

Think about when you play Jenga: as you pull one block and place it on top of another, you make a crisscross pattern because that builds a stronger foundation. If you were to only stack the blocks in one direction, the game would never get far because the column wouldn’t have any true support from outside forces. The human body is no different. Our soft tissue structures are interwoven and all connected. If we aren’t training those cross sections to be durable, then we are limiting our athletes in their ability to grow and progress within the sport.

The KB SL Crossover Row is one of my favorite movements because it combines two common weightlifting accessories: the row and the RDL. Weightlifters need a strong back and posterior chain, and this movement checks all the boxes because the single leg crossover row takes it a step further with glute strength and stability on the stance leg and lat/upper back engagement on the opposite side (which, coincidentally, strengthens the posterior fascial sling).

Cue the athlete to “coil” around the hip of the stance leg to ensure they aren’t dumping their shoulder forward as the kettlebell reaches toward the ground. The spine and hips stay neutral, which also improves IR hip stability of the standing leg. Look to create variations from more traditional accessories, which will challenge an athlete and bring efficiency to the program.

Load Variation

Variability in training will also help avoid overuse and chronic injuries that creep in due to fatigue or the inability to tolerate programming. We see it all too often when an athlete has to take time off due to a chronic injury. They begin a cycle of PT and rehabilitation, and not only do they physically atrophy by not loading their body, but mentally their confidence and investment in training deteriorate because they feel like they are falling farther and farther behind. When a weightlifter’s sole purpose is to move more weight, being sidelined and relegated to band work and bodyweight movement is arguably more dangerous mentally than it is physically.

But what if it doesn’t have to be that way?

GPP can be utilized to stay ahead of these overuse injuries. Through strategic programming, the athlete can focus on building strength and technical proficiency.

Exercises often used in traditional rehab can be performed under load and viewed as prehab instead. Other exercises can give certain joints and musculature a break without completely eradicating an athlete’s training cycle. Load variation can either protect an athlete from incurring an overuse injury or allow them to continue training through an injury. In either case, we avoid a total sidelining of the athlete for an extended period of time.

The belt squat is a great way to load an athlete’s hips and quads without adding any additional compressive load or volume on the spine, says @nicc__marie. Share on X

One common ailment among weightlifters is low back pain. This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone due to the nature of the sport’s training intensity and the amount of pulling scripted in their program. The belt squat is a great way to load an athlete’s hips and quads without adding any additional compressive load or volume on the spine. The athlete can continue to squat heavy-ish and often without aggravating or straining the spine any more than it needs to be.

Video 1. Athletes can use belt squats as a substitute for back squats if training through an injury or as an accessory on days that back squats and front squats aren’t programmed. The belt squat also allows the hips to work through a deeper range of motion.

Mobilizing and strengthening that deep hip flexion shown in the above clip will prepare the athlete to better handle the dynamic load of the barbell when dropping into the bottom position of the clean or snatch.

Motor Control

An athlete should understand why GPP exercises are essential to their training. This autonomy creates buy-in and keeps them engaged. The Olympic lifts require a lot of mental focus, so when it comes time for accessory work, athletes often mentally disengage. But we never want our athletes to “go through the motions.” There should be intention and cueing behind each exercise. Having the benefit of understanding why they are doing something will produce better results.

Neurologically speaking, mental engagement or “intention” isn’t the only way the brain is involved. Two less obvious skills that are critical to a successful lift are proprioception and spatial awareness. Band loading is a simple yet effective way to challenge motor control and stability in major joints. We can utilize tempo and speed work, incorporate positional holds, and add band chaos for progressions.

Video 2. The Russian Lunge is an example of taking a rearfoot elevated split squat and adding a motor control component. By placing the back leg on a suspended heavy band, the athlete requires a greater demand of front leg stability, which emphasizes strength on the front leg’s hamstrings and glutes with posterior leg control.

In order for an athlete to have strong single leg balance, they have to understand how to ground or “melt” their foot into the floor to feel that connection. Foot/ground connection is a vital underlying part of weightlifting in terms of weight distribution, ground force production, and drive into triple extension. Intrinsic foot strength is also a strong predictor for dorsiflexion, which is critical in the bottom position of both the clean and snatch.

This exercise is also a good place to cue the intention and importance of the foot. As with each of these movements, don’t be afraid to build in progressions to challenge your athletes by holding equipment in different positions, such as:

• Overhead
• Single arm
• Goblet hold
• Barbell front rack
• Other variations

Below is a chart of some go-to exercises, and a playlist with demonstrations of each exercise listed is available here. I like to think outside of the platform and challenge my athletes to try things that are different. I want them to get out of their comfort zone in order to become a better athlete mentally and physically, and GPP/accessory movements are a great place to start.

I want athletes to get out of their comfort zone in order to become a better athlete mentally and physically, and GPP/accessory movements are a great place to start, says @nicc__marie. Share on X

There are infinite combinations of position/load/band placement for each of these movements to progress and add variety. Alternate from bilateral to unilateral, change the plane of movement, adjust load positioning, and add oscillating load. Some of these movements are sport-specific and others help improve positional work and limitations that are compensated for with a barbell. Regardless of how you create variability, it will expose weaknesses within your athletes to help improve their durability and longevity in the sport.

From Adaptability to Durability

The amount of GPP an athlete needs will be dependent on their training history, current sport season, and injury history. Not only do weightlifters benefit, but clientele in the general population who are interested in getting into Olympic weightlifting can look at these movements as a way to help develop the positional and muscular strength needed to start.

Athletes and the general population will always see a benefit to these movements, as long as they are presented and performed with proper volume, load, and intention. As coaches, we strive to keep our athletes healthy and continuously progressing over time. By incorporating more non-barbell exercises as a form of GPP training or accessory work, we can provide a better foundation for our athletes. Don’t be afraid to try something different and force the athlete to move and adapt. The more adaptable they are, the more durable they will become.

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

Whether the moniker is mat drill, winter workouts, or coach’s circuits, they’re essentially the same, just a horse of a slightly different color. Mat drills have been a spring football right of passage in a high percentage of college programs since the mid-eighties and the validity and subsequent use of mat drills will be a debate till the end of time. Whether you are an opponent or proponent of mat drills, there is one thing that I am confident in: they are not going away!

College football coaches will argue with their performance staffs on how vital the drills are to building a program. College strength coaches will argue with each other on the validity and ramifications of mat drills with respect to the development of their athletes. Proponents of mat drills will steadfastly dig their heels into the ground on the basis that these drills are necessary to develop mental toughness, even though there is no quantitative proof of this—any statement otherwise is purely anecdotal.

Till the end of days, you will never convince either side to change their colors. In thirty years of mat drill use, no one has offered a solution that would be agreeable to both sides of the argument—or, more importantly, an alternative solution that would better benefit the athletes as well as the team.

What is Mental Toughness?

I am a firm believer that mental toughness is a conscious choice. Former Navy SEAL Jocko Willink has said as much, stating: “If you want to be tougher mentally, it’s simple: be tougher!” Sports scientist Dr. Erik Korem goes a step further, claiming: “Mental toughness is task specific.”

I am a firm believer that mental toughness is a conscious choice, says @TheKurtHester. Share on X

Toughness, then, is highly situational. Different situations will develop different degrees of mental toughness; consequently, toughness in one situation does not result in toughness in another. In his book The Governing Dynamics of Coaching, James Smith quotes a scene from the movie Man on Fire: “There is no such thing as tough. There is trained, and untrained. Now which are you?” The more an athlete is physically and mentally prepared for a situation, the more that athlete will exhibit a higher grade of toughness in that domain. An athlete that is ill-prepared for a particular situation will exhibit a heightened stress response from that lack of preparation. If mental toughness is a key objective for a program, then they should be prepared for the task at hand to the highest degree.

From a logical point of view, the key to developing a tough team would be to set a system in place where the athlete is trained to a standard that matches how they will compete. This raises some questions: if we are not going to compete against another program in mat drills on Saturdays, why do they need to be so tough? And why should we even waste a month or more of valuable time executing them?

Now here is where I am going to lose my newfound fans that are opponents of mat drills: all teams, young and old, will not achieve a championship season if they are not held to the highest of standards in training, practice, academics, and social life. Mat drills are a modality that facilitates a high standard of training in a team setting with the entire football staff. Alone, the entirety of this setting cannot be replicated by the performance staff. Standards are set and upheld in every facet of the workout, and key factors are graded. Such factors include:

• Body language
• Conscious intent performing the drill
• Competitive spirit
• Leadership

The discipline of rising to the standard over and over in each drill is an expression of mental toughness. Everything that is graded can be taught to and accomplished by each athlete, if communicated in the right manner. Each athlete will have an opportunity to make the choice to compete—especially if they understand that competing at the highest level will directly benefit them.

The Purpose is the Bond

I feel that mat drills serve an important purpose in building team culture. Studies have shown that males will bond to a higher degree when they go through a mentally and physically taxing situation. The more stress they endure together, the tighter their bond. This is why I lean towards being a proponent of mat drills. Why do so many companies spend hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to send their employees to ropes courses?

Because it helps individual employees become a tribe.

The more stress the athletes endure together, the tighter their bond, says @TheKurtHester. Share on X

Here is where most performance professionals will disagree with their football coach brethren: these drills in no way enhance the physical capabilities of the football athlete. Most drills selected are basic, poorly performed change of direction drills that in no way develop the athlete at their respective position. There is zero technical information that is given to the athlete or processed by the athlete, just a lot of yelling to move faster.

These drills might include:

• L-drill
• 20-yard pro-agility shuttle
• Basic bag drills
• Zig-zag drill

That is why buy-in from the athletes is not very high. Most athletes want to compete and they want to outwork other athletes and other programs, but they want to do it while getting better at their position.

The Importance of Drill Selection

We only have 15 spring practice days a year and we only have 25 fall camp practices. The NCAA is currently talking about dropping it to 20 fall camp days. Out of 365 days, we have only 40 days to hone the football skills of our athletes as a full staff.

Most programs will initiate between eight and fifteen mat drill sessions per off-season in February/March leading into spring football practice. Time is an expensive commodity when it comes to developing a collegiate football team. With the short amount of time a staff has to develop a team, it stands to reason we should think through every opportunity. Why then, in the collective field of football and performance coaches, are we prescribing basic drills that do not carry over to the game when we could be getting a jumpstart on technical football training before spring football starts?

Time is an expensive commodity when it comes to developing a collegiate football team, says @TheKurtHester. Share on X

Performing eight to twelve days of individual drills before spring ball begins will enable the football staff to decrease the amount of individual drill time and expand more team drills. It will also cut down on long practices—thus keeping the players fresh—and it will decrease the chances of injury because the athlete would not be in a continual state of fatigue. The previous statement will not make football coaches happy because if you have 120 minutes to practice then we better damn well use all of them. Out of the 120 minutes of practice, you could at least alleviate 20-30 minutes of useless filler drills that only fatigue the athlete and increase their load. If you make practices faster and sharper with fewer mistakes and your athletes come out of it healthier…I think you won the day!

What constitutes a useful tool in the development of an athlete at each position? The archaic rules instituted by the NCAA will hamper us somewhat because of the lack of hand-held shields and the use of a football. This is where the art of programming, a deviant mind, and collaboration with the position coach comes in.

You don’t need a shield or pads to teach offensive lineman stance, stab steps, redirection, hand placement technique, or striking skills. You can utilize rugby balls, tennis balls, bricks, or HECOstix to perform ball security, catching, and throwing drills. For defensive tackling drills, incorporating the USA Football tackling system and adding tackling drills with a rolling doughnut will get the basics laid down before spring ball starts. Most position drills will be dictated by the system that the individual position coaches instill in spring and fall practices—a staff is only limited by their imagination and technical ability (or lack thereof)!

Setting Standards (or “The Way”)

I believe mat drills have a place in college football because they help build a tribe and cement standards. However, the drills do not do the work. Most football coaches believe that the culture of the team is set during mat drills and carries over through the fall season, but this is not the case. Coaches will say things like “We won X amount of games because of mat drills” or “We won conference because of mat drills.” Unless these coaches have exceptional athletes, they are probably going to be looking for jobs in January because mat drills don’t win football games, athletes do.

The standard is set the first day the athletes return from break in January, during off-season winter training. This standard allows for more technical training to be accomplished during mat drills, as well as solidifying the culture. The standard is then kept up through off-season summer training, allowing the performance staff to advance training schemes to ready the athletes for fall camp. This allows the football staff to progress the team faster in preparation for the first game. This process is repeated each week in preparation for each opponent. The standard is the standard, and is never lowered throughout the year. Some call it “The Process,” some call it “The Way.” It does not mater what it is called, as long as it is enforced year-round.

The standard is the standard, and is never lowered throughout the year, says @TheKurtHester. Share on X

The standard starts with how they enter the field, with strong body language and positive verbiage. If a player walks onto the field or doesn’t have a smile on their face, they are sent off to return appropriately. This progresses to the focus and attention to detail in the warmup. If one athlete is not focused, then the warmup starts over. Things fall apart when a coach gets lazy in paying attention to the details and the standard. The standard is the standard! If a coach expects an athlete to be mentally tough, then the coach should be mentally tough in upholding those standards. Every drill should have a communicated standard and it should be upheld. For example, the following is a list of things a coach should look for during a drill:

The drill: OL medicine ball stab step

• Focus
• Technical proficiency
• Speed of movement
• Competitive spirit
• Finishing
• Positive leadership talk
• Backstage coaching (older athletes coaching younger athletes off drill)

Every drill should be filmed and graded during each workout. Athletes could be put into different colored jerseys depending on how well they performed in that particular workout.

My biggest pet peeve with coaches running their drills is when an athlete does everything right but the drill itself and the coach doesn’t reprimand the athlete for it. The athlete moved fast, competed, and finished strong…but half-assed the drill. This translates into this same player giving an unbelievable effort in a game, but going the wrong direction during the play. Mental toughness is being disciplined in focus and action, repetitively, within a task.

Mental toughness is being disciplined in focus and action, repetitively, within a task, says @TheKurtHester. Share on X

The Art of Programming

It is difficult to convince the football staff that two mat drill sessions per week with position-specific drills would situate a team to take full advantage of their fifteen allotted spring practices. It is an easier sell to the staff if your programming during your winter training block can follow the same lines as the mat drill training block.

It is possible to correctly program around accomplishing two mat drill sessions per week without significantly decreasing the absolute strength and power outputs of your athletes. You will see decreases in speed and that will be tough to mitigate, but it can be done without skipping a step for the most part. Test your athletes in the vertical jump and a flying 10 every Monday before their lift throughout the mat drill training block. You will get a better feel for the training adaptations of your athletes and will be able to adjust your programming to keep the athletes progressing.

Technical skill before competitive will. What I mean by this is that technical skill should be taught when the athletes are fresh. An athlete will not perform the basics with any technical ability while fatigued. Once the athlete has mastered the basics, then initiate fatigue and stress. Technical drills should be performed in the early periods and competition/high intensity drills in the later periods.

An athlete will not perform the basics with any technical ability while fatigued, says @TheKurtHester. Share on X

There are many ways to skin the mat drill exercise. The more position-specific, the better the drill. I suggest working with each position coach on selecting drills that they would program into a practice schedule, and then writing a standard for each drill. Again, the standard at which the drill is performed is an aspect of mental toughness. To satisfy football coaches that want high intensity, effort, and strain, program change of direction drills or agility drills halfway through the workout and ramp up the intensity. There are several ways to format the training session, and the length of the session could be between 60-75 minutes to satisfy all parties.

Final Thoughts

By programming drills that directly affect the abilities of athletes in their respective positions, there is far greater buy-in from the athlete. With this increase in motivation, I have seen greater effort from the athletes, as they feel their intensity and focus is being rewarded.

The above mat drill scenario is not perfect and can be programmed to a higher level, but it is a start. Mat drills should involve micro-doses of speed work at the beginning of the session, then progress through a few agility drills before moving into position-specific drills and ending with either a position or team competition. Your athletes would therefore not lose any gains in absolute strength, power, or (more importantly) speed during the mat drill training block. You would then have something proponents and opponents would be happy with.

As a field we can always do better. Deconstructing and reconstructing mat drills is just one instance, though it is one that would loom large for a program. The key is to educate the football staff, and if they refuse to listen, do everything in your power to mitigate the adverse physical effects of mat drill sessions. As coaches, we owe it to our athletes and to the field to be better, do better, and progress from what has always been done.

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

Plantiga is a company that has developed a research-grade computer analysis platform and wearable sensor that slides into a pre-fashioned inner sole for the latest in wearable technology.

The sensor is an IMU (inertial measurement unit) that weighs just 17.5 grams. Depending on the footwear, the athlete is barely aware of it. This allows for data collection in the functional task of interest without the changes to athlete behavior that occur in a lab setting or using correlation studies to draw inferences back to the area of interest.

Plantiga’s IMU allows for data collection in the functional task of interest without the changes to athlete behavior that occur in a lab setting. Share on X

Wearable biometric devices are fast becoming a must-have for every athlete, from the recreational to the elite. Dr. Matt Jordan wrote for SimpliFaster outlining the history and development of wearable monitoring, the validation studies, and what sets Plantiga apart with its plans for the future using AI algorithms to aid the practitioner.

How to Use Plantiga

As a sports physio, my main area of work is in athletics. The basis of this article is how I have been using Plantiga in the field to improve performance as well as monitor and guide end-stage rehabilitation strategies. A future article is planned on how Plantiga is used within the clinic, but in the meantime, you can read many such articles on the Plantiga blog.

The Basics (Which Are Far from Basic)

The beauty of Plantiga is that you can select the test that is most relevant to you and your athlete. There are numerous suggested tests where normative data has been collected that demonstrated reliability. These are walking, self-selected pace running, change of direction, workload monitoring within session, countermovement jumps, repeated hopping, single leg hop for height, and single leg hop for distance. Plantiga has described and video guided a methodology via their app to assist with reliability.

The review function summarizes the metrics related to each task and highlights metrics that fall outside of the growing body of collected normative data to aid in further analysis. Data such as top speed, average speed, cadence, stride length, peak acceleration and deceleration, ground contact time, flight time ratio, and distance are all very usable measures that the practitioner can pull up within minutes of testing. (Example is image 2a.)

Plantiga then goes further…

By having the IMU in the shoe, it can act as more than just a contact mat. It can detect acceleration changes that will give information on force while the athlete is moving. The review will break down the overall load experienced within a session, as well as across limbs and over time (intensity). It then calculates the asymmetry across sides to provide information to the practitioner on right/left discrepancies in load, ground contact time, and stride length. (See image 2b.)

By having the IMU in the shoe, it can act as more than just a contact mat. It can detect acceleration changes that will give information on force WHILE the athlete is moving. Share on X

This can then provide meaningful baseline data on willingness to load and limb kinetic function, but more significantly, it can provide a signposted pathway of the athlete’s rehabilitation or performance history. We can see in image 2b under load asymmetry a graphical representation of changes over time that the dashboard automatically generates. For ease, the practitioner can create notes on the focus or intervention within each session for historical referencing.

Barrie Jennings of NZ Speedworks uses this feature with Cyclic CMJ in elite netballers.

By using Plantiga’s analysis system, Barrie was able to show the coaching staff objectively what they were observing in training. The athlete was using her right side far more than her left, affecting her performance and risking potential reinjury. The coaching team decided to modify the athlete’s training to reduce the number of high-intensity sessions. Retesting showed a return to pre-aggravation levels by September without setback or injury.

The Advanced

When I have an athlete, I like to perform the one-minute walk test and the two-minute (self-selected pace) run. These two tests provide wonderful insight into how the athlete moves habitually via the “movement map.”

I will utilize these “maps” to correlate with what I am seeing within the clinic or on the track.

Movement maps are complicated, and your interpretation improves with practice (and often after discussion with the amazing staff of Plantiga!). An outline on how they are generated can be found here, and image 3c is a guide to what part of the gait cycle you are looking at when attempting to interpret.

An entire article could be written on analyzing movement maps, but I will attempt to give you a snapshot.

In image 4, I have enlarged the last section of the walk test (image 3a), which measures the foot add/abduction motion. The highlighted section shows an increase in movement (longer lines) at left toe-off and right heel strike, as well as more movement variability (thicker lines) at right heel strike.

In a normal walking pattern, the left leg is in contact with the ground here, so my attention at the track and within the clinic may be drawn to what is creating this. In this case, this athlete has a mild left gluteus medius tendinopathy and left sinus tarsi irritation that may be affecting his left stance phase. Intervention here and then reassessment using Plantiga can help to determine this within the clinic.

With the image above, I have enlarged the top section of the run test, which looks at lateral accelerations. The highlighted section shows clearly that this athlete has an issue with the left limb from heel strike through swing to toe-off, as seen by the thicker lines (more variable movement) compared to the right limb. (See image 3c as a reference point for movement map analysis.)

This athlete has a long history of chronic left-sided limb injury, so we will aim rehabilitation strategies at improving their left lateral chain and abduction/adduction control before retesting to aid in determining their efficacy.

The Individualized

There are often times when a test does not highlight what we may see in the field, and it leaves us scrambling for objective data that not only tells us if we are progressing, but also informs our decision-making on where intervention may make the greatest impact.

This is where Plantiga is a game changer.

I am going to give two brief case examples of Plantiga helping guide athletes’ training focus both in the gym and at the track.

1. Within Session Changes to Block Starts

Since a back injury, an elite-level sprinter (10.40 PB) has found it difficult to generate the power out of the blocks that he successfully had in the past.

The above image highlights that the acceleration “out of the blocks” of the right leg (back leg in the blocks) was just 14.65G (unit of gravity).

Of interest are the grey areas indicating flight time of the limb, and consequently, the white shows when the limb is in contact with the ground.

A review of this section is shown in image 8. However, due to the deceleration phase being present, only maximum speed (8.56 m/s), peak acceleration (5.00 m/s²) and ground contact time (98 milliseconds left, 104 milliseconds right) are truly of interest.

So, what did we do?

The intervention for this is not in the scope of this blog post. However, I have written previously for SimpliFaster on direction bias assessment and direction bias programming and utilized these methods within the session before testing again.

Reassessment

The athlete repeated the block start to 30 meters and obtained improvements to 19.01G on the first step (image 10a), maximum speed of 9.13 m/s (from 8.56%), and peak acceleration to 5.21 m/s² (from 5.00 m/s²) (image 10b), and an improvement in load and ground contact time asymmetry from 9.80% to 4.88% and 5.77% to 0.00%.

While in this event it can’t be said that the intervention was responsible for the improvement, it does demonstrate the usefulness of Plantiga to the practitioner/coach at the track. Within a few minutes of testing, the baseline showed a large asymmetry to the right limb and the low acceleration observed at first step, which correlated with the athlete reporting that he “felt flat and couldn’t activate.”

An intervention based on past clinical assessment was supported by the objective data from Plantiga, indicating that it would be added to future warm-up protocols for the athlete’s sessions.

2. The Long Jumper

Plantiga was used with an elite long jumper (8.05-meter PB) to:

1. Determine the forces exerted at takeoff and the penultimate step to aid in finding limits to gym programming.
2. Compare force/load production between sides in a series of single leg bounds.

The data that we wanted to extract has been highlighted as 25.31G at the penultimate step and 21.94G at the left foot takeoff.

Bounding

The grey areas indicating flight time of the non-involved leg clearly show which leg was not “hopping” in the activity but also demonstrate the amount of load still experienced by that side. By hovering the cursor over the end of each loading phase, we are able to measure the load created at toe-off of each bound. Figure 5 (top) shows that the fifth “hop” experienced at 17.54G compared to the example on the left in figure 5 (bottom) of 12.83G.

Furthermore, there was a “drop-off” in load on the left over the six hops in this example of 10.7%, from 14.2G to 12.83G (average 13.57G), compared to a 3.0% drop-off on the right 17.9G to 17.3G (average 17.62G). This indicates that the left was not able to create and absorb the same load as the right and showed less capacity over repeated hops.

This information is a great way to create a conversation with the strength and technical coaches to discuss program design for optimal loading and then follow it up with reassessment. From this example, we went on to discuss that bounding was not eliciting the same force as the last two steps of a long jump, so adding a weight vest or more depth jumps progressively would be considered. Additionally, more focus would be placed clinically on the left side’s readiness to load as well as on eccentric rate of force development.

Future Use

Plantiga in its current form has a wide scope of use in the ways that have been discussed but also in athlete monitoring in rehabilitation, return to sport, and return to performance scenarios. Load asymmetry can be tracked over time and, when tests are repeated in a standardized format, so can performance and overall load and intensity values.

The monthly subscription model to Plantiga essentially pays for itself with 4-5 assessments a month, making it within financial reach for most practitioners. Share on X

From a financial point of view, clubs and individual athletes have been willing to pay for individualized testing of this research-grade equipment to give them insights on how to improve performance and reduce injury risk. Once satisfied, the athlete will return at important intervals (pre-season, pre-competition, or recent injury) to be reassessed for even deeper analysis. This shows that the monthly subscription model to Plantiga essentially pays for itself with 4-5 assessments a month, making it within financial reach for most practitioners. This in conjunction with its four-hour battery life, quick upload speed, unobtrusiveness, and portability, make it my favorite tool in and out of the clinic.

However, the really exciting part is what Plantiga is working on for the future. With its use of “deep learning” AI, it is collecting data on every test to not only improve its accuracy but also to start acting as a prediction tool for injury based on how the athlete moves. This is essentially the holy grail of sports medicine and just maybe it’s getting a little closer.

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

Squash match play can be fast and frenetic, characterised by many short, sharp explosive movements, accelerations, decelerations and changes of direction. Contemporary stars such as Mohamed El Shorbagy, Paul Coll and Miguel Rodríguez can be seen darting around the court, sprinting from corner to corner to pick up a drop shot or leaping sideways across the T to take an early volley. The high intensity, explosive moments usually determine the outcome of key points and the momentum and result of the match. Speed and agility are clearly vital attributes determining success in squash, and this importance should be reflected in the structure and detail of your training programme.

The biggest error that athletes and coaches make in training speed and agility is a lack of rest and a consequent lack of intensity and quality, says @Coach_ChrisG. Share on X

The biggest error that athletes and coaches make in training speed and agility is a lack of rest and a consequent lack of intensity and quality. If your goal is to develop speed and agility, then the repetitions need to be high quality, explosive efforts with long rest periods. Sprints need to be as close to maximal as possible. For speed development it is a case of quality over quantity. It may sound obvious, but a popular coaching expression is:

“To be fast you have to run fast!”

This phrase concisely explains the need for high quality, high intensity efforts with sufficient rest; positioned during your weekly and daily training programme when you are fresh and ready to be explosive. When a player is clearly fatigued and there is a breakdown in technical competence that should signal the end of the rep, set or exercise rather than blindly adhering to the number pre-determined on the programme.

There is, of course, some interplay between the different physical and physiological attributes required for successful squash performance. For example, training for speed is complemented by strength and power training, plyometrics, flexibility and mobility. These attributes are addressed in their own chapters within this book. Whilst it may be tempting to think of speed and agility as combined abilities, one does not necessarily translate directly to the other, and it is more appropriate to consider each quality in isolation.

Speed

The best place to look for strategies to develop speed, or at the very least guide you in the right direction, is with the experts from athletics. No one knows more about harnessing and improving straight line sprinting speed than track athletes and coaches. Whilst squash athletes are not 100m sprinters, nor will they ever get close to covering anywhere near that distance in a straight-line sprint on court (the maximal sprint would be under 10m), building your technical and physical training model from knowledge extrapolated from these experts is the ideal foundation. Whilst it is acknowledged that straight line speed must be translated into more sport specific movements, observing the training methods of a track sprinter can teach the court-based athlete a lot about violent intent of movement, explosiveness, application of forces and body angles.

“Intent is every bit as important as one’s movement quality…

…One must move boldly and with a ‘violent grace.’”

–Brett Bartholomew, Strength & Conditioning Coach and founder of Art of Coaching

If you want evidence of the need for speed in squash, go to YouTube and search for “outrageous dive & winner – best retrieval ever”! Speed, and sprint training, is important in most sports, not just athletics, yet many athletes never learn correct sprinting technique. The website squashskills.com provides a strong recommendation for the importance of speed training for squash players: “Speed training is all about quality over quantity – so short, sharp efforts interspersed with longer recovery periods. As your speed improves, think about trying to not just use your speed to retrieve the ball and defend, but to actually use your speed to apply pressure and attack by getting onto your shots that bit earlier”.

Speed is a global term that may represent several related, but individually distinct, abilities. Conceptually, speed can be considered to consist of the following elements:

• Acceleration – The rate at which an athlete can increase speed to maximal levels.
• Max Velocity – The maximal speed an athlete can attain.
• Speed Endurance – The ability to sustain maximal or near-maximal velocity.

The phase of greatest interest to a squash player is acceleration; the ability to move from stationary to achieving the highest speed in the shortest time possible. The majority of movements in squash involve only 2 or 3 steps, and the ability to initiate and execute these movements as quickly and explosively as possible can be the difference between winning and losing a point, a game and ultimately a match. A squash player may never sprint in excess of 10 metres on court, but it is common practice across many sports to train athletes to move quickly over distances greater than that which they will perform in competition. For example, football (soccer) and rugby players may sprint over 30 or 40 metres in training even though most sprints in a match are typically 10-20m or less. There are two major reasons for this:

• If you only prepare for the average demands of your sport you are under-prepared for the most demanding passages of play. These are usually the critical moments in a match!
• Optimal development of acceleration and speed demands that training occurs over more than the 5m, 10m or 20m an athlete typically sprints over in their sport.

If you only prepare for the average demands of your sport, you are underprepared for the most demanding passages of play. These are usually the critical moments in a match, says @Coach_ChrisG. Share on X

In trained athletes, acceleration occurs for 30-40m – even farther in elite sprinters. If you only practise moving quickly over 3 or 4 steps, you will fail to realise the full benefits of your speed and acceleration training. Therefore, it may be beneficial if a certain proportion of a squash player’s speed training is completed over distances in excess of 5-10m. Remember that your strength and conditioning work aims to enhance physical qualities above those of your typical squash training and match play. You are not trying to merely replicate the demands of the sport. The aim is to distort the game; to develop physical qualities above and beyond the demands of match play. If your capacity exceeds the demands of the sport, each point, rally or movement challenging that quality will be at a relative lower intensity.

Through understanding table 4.1, it becomes apparent that essential to effective sprint performance is the ability to apply the greatest force in the right direction in the shortest amount of time (whilst maintaining a smaller mass – speed is dependent on force relative to mass, highlighting the importance of body composition). Analysis of elite sprinters reveals that “faster top running speeds are achieved with greater ground forces not more rapid leg movements”. (Keep this in mind when speed and agility ladders are discussed later in this chapter!) It is the force applied to the floor and not the movement of the swing leg that differentiates elite level sprinters from slower counterparts. How the swing leg moves in recovery is largely dictated by what happens when your foot is on the ground. This knowledge should influence how squash athletes train for speed.

Normative data outlining performance standards for squash are not readily available, and so generic athletic standards or standards for other racket sports may provide a benchmark until such time as squash standards are published or you have collated your own data. It is useful to note that national governing bodies in tennis outline standards for 5m, 10m and 20m sprints for all age groups and across both sexes (refer to the Performance Testing and Athlete Monitoring chapter). Whilst tennis is contested over a larger court with larger sprint distances covered, it can reasonably be assumed that at least 5m and 10m sprint times would be appropriate performance indicators for squash.

Reaction Speed and Anticipation

Reaction time describes the interval between the emergence of a stimulus and the initiation of a response. It is not enough for a player to be physically quick; they must also recognise and respond appropriately to stimuli on court such as the movement and sound of the ball and the movement of an opponent’s body and racket. A major determinant of the transfer of speed and agility training to the court is the specificity of the stimuli used. The more specific the stimulus, the greater the transfer, and this is particularly important for the mental processing components. Players accumulate a large amount of time on court reacting to the most sports specific stimuli, and the abilities of reaction time and anticipation are best developed in squash specific drills. In speed and agility sessions, players are often responding to whistles, cones, verbal commands and signals reducing the specificity of these drills.

There is a compelling argument that strength and conditioning sessions are best devoted to developing physical qualities which enhance speed, says @Coach_ChrisG. Share on X

Therefore, there is a compelling argument that strength and conditioning sessions are best devoted to developing physical qualities which enhance speed. On-court sessions, under the guidance of the squash coach, may provide the most appropriate environment for developing sport specific skills of anticipation and reaction time. This can be complemented by maximal sprint training in strength and conditioning sessions. The concept of “give them what the sport doesn’t” is discussed in greater detail in the Coaching Philosophy and Guiding Principles section towards the end of this book. Speed training may still involve a certain amount of reactive ability such as responding to the coach’s command or in reaction to an opponent in a drill, but the emphasis should be on powerful and efficient movement mechanics.

Speed Reserve

As previously discussed, sprinting over greater distances in training can be beneficial to athletes who typically sprint over shorter durations in competition. Inclusion of longer sprints can benefit acceleration and other aspects of squash performance.

“Even though the confines of a court only allow them to sprint 5-8m at most, the benefits of sprints out to 30m in training can transfer significantly for these types of athletes in the form of CNS training, improving elasticity and overall general strength and speed benefits.”

–Derek Hansen, highly respected Canadian Strength & Conditioning Specialist

Athletes with a greater maximum velocity typically have a greater rate of change of velocity, more commonly known as acceleration. Athletes with a higher top speed accelerate faster and so reach higher velocities earlier in a sprint.

For a player with greater top speed, a submaximal sprint at any given speed is achieved at a lower cost relative to a slower opponent (figure 4.1). To illustrate this in simple terms, if an athlete has a maximum velocity of 9 m/s and they have to complete a number of 9 m/s sprints, then these efforts will be relatively more demanding (100%) for that athlete than another athlete with a maximum velocity of 10 m/s (90%). Having a greater potential for speed and acceleration means the sprints performed in a match are at a relatively lower cost to the athlete, facilitating greater energy conservation and efficiency.

Whilst many coaches understandably prioritise agility training over straight line speed, the value of squash specific practice to the development of squash specific movement skills should not be overlooked. With players on court four or five days a week, the volume of sport specific movements performed is very high, and this should be factored into the overall training plan. The recommendation is not for speed training to take precedence over agility. Instead, development of linear speed should be viewed as complementary to sport-specific movement skills.

The remaining bio-motor ability relating to speed, speed-endurance, has little value in squash. Speed endurance refers to the ability to maintain velocity at or close to maximum, occurring only once maximum velocity has been achieved. As squash players do not have the time or distance to create maximal running speeds, they have no need for being able to sustain or to train and develop speed endurance. This should not be confused with repeated sprint ability, which is the ability to perform several high intensity efforts, often with short or incomplete recovery.

Repeated Sprint Ability

“An athlete who has exceptional maximal sprint capabilities can still operate at very high speeds during a match or game and not fatigue, since most sports operate at much slower speeds as proven by GPS technology. Thus, an athlete that is well trained from a sprinting perspective will always demonstrate exceptional RSA throughout practice or competition.”

–Derek Hansen, highly respected Canadian Strength & Conditioning Specialist

Comparisons of the different levels in the National Squash programme in England, from talented juniors right through to established world tour players, led researchers to identify RSA and lower body explosive capabilities as key physical performance indicators for elite squash performance. (Reactive strength and lower body explosive power determine change of direction speed and thus influence RSA.) Whilst these “sprints” or high intensity efforts do not exactly resemble the image of Usain Bolt striding down the track, successful squash performance is linked to the ability to repeatedly produce fast, powerful, high intensity efforts interspersed with periods of lower intensity activity.

RSA can actually be a more complex metric than it may initially appear with a combination of neural and metabolic factors affecting performance, says @Coach_ChrisG. Share on X

RSA can actually be a more complex metric than it may initially appear with a combination of neural and metabolic factors affecting performance. Inherent to RSA are: the ability to perform a fast sprint, the ability to repeat close to maximal sprint ability again and again with minimal increases in time and the ability to do this with incomplete or short recovery.

To assess RSA, sports scientists will measure:

• Best Sprint time
• Total Sprint time (aggregated time of all sprints)
• Average Sprint time
• Worst Sprint time
• Fatigue Index (FI – the decline in performance from the best to worst sprint)
• Sprint Decrement (S_dec – comparing actual performance to an idealised performance where the best effort would be reproduced in each sprint)

Analysis of one or two of these measurements alone can give an inaccurate assessment of an athlete’s RSA. For example, an athlete who does not slow down much from the first sprint to the last will have a good fatigue index, sprint decrement and apparently a good RSA. But if their initial sprint speed is slow then they do not demonstrate effective RSA, and an athlete with higher fatigue index and sprint decrement but a faster best sprint time may in fact demonstrate superior RSA. A higher sprint decrement score does not always indicate a poorer RSA; greater RSA is demonstrated by superior average sprint performance, with or without a low fatigue index.

A higher sprint decrement score does not always indicate a poorer RSA; greater RSA is demonstrated by superior average sprint performance, with or without a low fatigue index, says @Coach_ChrisG. Share on X

“Repeat speed qualities start with the ability to produce speed first…

…the decay of output is usually not as important.”

– Carl Valle, USATF II Coach, Sports Tech & Performance Analysis Consultant

When training to improve RSA, two primary training theories have been proposed:

• According to the principle of training specificity, the best way to train RSA is to perform repeated sprints.
• Employ training interventions that target the main factors limiting RSA.

Research indicates that maximising RSA is linked to improving single-sprint performance. In addition, the ability to excel in an RSA sport is dependent upon the aerobic capability of the athlete. Furthermore, extensive review of the available research suggests there is not one type of training that can be recommended to best improve RSA and concludes:

“1. It is important to include some training to improve single-sprint performance. This should include (i) specific sprint training; (ii) strength/power training; and (iii) occasional high-intensity (>VO₂max) training (e.g., repeated, 30-second, all-out efforts separated by ~10 minutes of recovery) to increase the anaerobic capacity.

2. It is also important to include some interval training to best improve the ability to recover between sprints (if the goal is to improve fatigue resistance). High-intensity (80-90% VO₂max) interval training, interspersed with rest periods (e.g., 1 minute) that are shorter than the work periods (e.g., 2 minutes) is efficient at improving the ability to recover between sprints by increasing aerobic fitness (VO₂max and the lactate threshold), the rate of phosphocreatine re-synthesis and intracellular buffering (the removal of H⁺ build up).”
(Bishop et al 2011)

General recommendations for improving RSA are as follows: squash players should train to develop maximal qualities in speed, agility, strength and power. When maximal capacity is high, any given submaximal effort will be relatively less demanding for the athlete. These maximal capacities should be supported by aerobic interval training and more specific RSA efforts and incorporate sports specific movements.

Examples of different repeated-sprint ability training sessions include:

1. 10 x 20m sprints with walk back recovery
2. 10 x 6-10s cycle sprint w/ 30s recovery
3. 10 x 6-10s cycle sprint w/ 3min recovery. The different recovery protocols between ii and iii produce very different physiological responses. (ii assists in maintaining power output across each subsequent sprint effort in training and matches. iii enhances maximal power output).
4. 8-10 x 10-15s or specified number of shots ghosting w/ 30s recovery.

As RSA training can be highly fatiguing, and when inappropriately prescribed may lead to a decrement in RSA performance, this kind of training should be implemented at a lower frequency within the overall training plan. Research investigating the influence of ‘traditional’ sprint training on RSA is lacking, with many sports scientists believing such training may produce greater improvements in both best sprint time and mean sprint time. Therefore, specialised RSA training may be unnecessary.

The preceding article is excerpted from Chris Gallagher’s book Strength and Conditioning for Squash, which you can find here.

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

This past winter, I had a conversation with one of my collegiate baseball players (who I’ll refer to as JD) regarding techniques that are taught by current baseball coaches. Baseball has always paid homage to wisdom from the past and clung to the trends produced from this idolization—that is, until another “winning” coach comes up with something else. Unfortunately, this archetypal approach infiltrates the instruction of technical execution for hitting, throwing, and running.

Much of this classical instruction includes language embellished with pseudo-science that’s not much more than an old wives’ tale. While a coach’s words may seem good in theory, the opposite outcome may reveal itself in practice. With the dawn of video and advancements in biomechanics, baseball skill instruction in the modern era has evolved past the coach’s eye, as these movements are too fast to accurately analyze in live time.

Speed on the Basepaths

Returning to my conversation with JD: At this point in the pre-season, he and I were struggling to decrease his 10-yard dash time (from sideways start), which happened to be between 1.7 and 1.8 seconds depending on the day. Although undersized at 5’5” and 155 pounds, JD is strong and immensely powerful:

• Easily performs trap bar deadlift of more than 350 pounds for a set of five reps.
• Long jumps over 9 feet.
• Has a vertical jump of 32 inches.

For the moment, those boxes were checked off. So, I decided to look at his technique during the start. Although his alignment and angles looked solid, it appeared he was missing something that I could not quite put my finger on.

At that time, I recalled a SimpliFaster article by Chris Korfist that referenced the “0 Step,” citing the significance of projection at takeoff. Korfist discovered a way to measure projection distance via a gate system set alongside the runner, in which the objective was to hit a particular distance upon first step contact. Upon video review, I found JD was not covering much ground (if any) in the takeoff phase: at best, he was simply spinning off the lead foot to square his body to second base.

Video 1. JD performs a traditional crossover step in accelerating from a baseball lead.

Maybe this was the missing link?

When I asked JD how he was taught to steal a base, he replied: “My coaches have always taught me to crossover step.”

In contrast, what is referred to as a “wasted step” or “false step” becomes our optimal technique to steal a base. Here, the lead foot is lifted off the ground and “punched” toward first base with the foot, knee, and hip opening on an angle toward second base. This style lends itself to optimal acceleration in a few ways. From a posture and position standpoint, the negative step creates a positive shin angle in the direction of force, which in turn creates a forward trunk lean as the body’s center of mass is brought ahead of the base of support.¹ The key to this first step is to get momentum going in the direction you want, catch that momentum, and go.

What is referred to as a ‘false step’ becomes our optimal technique to steal a base…From a mechanical standpoint, it better utilizes the stretch-shortening cycle beginning with the foot. Share on X

From a mechanical standpoint, this “false step” better utilizes the stretch-shortening cycle beginning with the foot. The elastic properties of the tendon and the reflexive movements of the ankle, knee, and hip are enhanced as the foot aggressively returns to the ground after the lift. This action creates greater impulses via higher ground reaction force applied in a shorter amount of time, which decreases the time needed to reach peak force and overall push-off force. The combination of these mechanisms from the false step result in higher overall accelerations and sprint velocities via higher directional force, power, and velocity in the horizontal plane when compared against the crossover step.^1,2

This biomechanical explanation should stymie the argument that the crossover step eliminates losing ground and saves time generating forward momentum. But this explanation may leave many baseball coaches’ heads spinning. Instead, a simple remark of “losing ground to gain an angle” (Justin Kavanaugh) may have the trendy ring that communicates effectively.

How Do We Apply This Technique in Training?

As mentioned, JD checked off the requisite general strength and power boxes but needed to bridge the gap to the technical task. For us, this took shape in an exercise that was an evolution of the Yessis side lunge, where horizontal resistance is applied to the hip.

Technical points:

1. Begin by pushing off one leg (outside leg) laterally while displacing hips in that same direction.
2. Rotate the hips slightly in the direction of push as well as the same side knee and foot, at a 45-degree angle.
3. Land with the torso in an upright position with the spine long and head directly over the hips.

Benefits of the side lunge done with horizontal resistance (cords, bands, cable):

1. Athlete develops the “feel” of projecting the center of mass in lateral action.
2. Greater strength in the abductors in the push-off action. Elastic resistance lends itself well to more specific, explosive actions.³
3. Less stress on the spine via absence of axial load.

While this drill served as an effective entry point, we decided to increase specificity by adding the second step to further drive a precise and explosive path toward second base. This drill starts out as an explosive side lunge and finishes into a forward lunge.

On a closer examination of the first video, we can see JD does demonstrate a slight drop step and gets a good angle, but he lacks projection from his hips. His COM still lags, which creates a bit of a drag from the back leg (the swing leg is far behind the lead leg at ground strike). When his front foot hits the ground, his takeoff is delayed until his hips get ahead of his lead foot. While his position begins optimally, his torso dumps over his COM, and he stumbles his way down the basepath.

Video 2. Training the Stealer’s Two-Step with band resistance.

In the Stealer’s Two Step, we look to cue the movement of the COM with horizontal resistance around the hip and drive the reflexive action via an exaggerated lift of the lead foot. This forces JD to aggressively push his back leg to get his COM moving and elicits a stronger use of the SSC of the lead leg. As you can see, this puts his hips in front of the base of support upon ground strike that results in a reflexive action that eliminates drag of the swing leg. This reflexive scissor action of the legs creates a takeoff that takes less time, increases peak force, and optimizes acceleration posture for speed on the basepaths.

In the Stealer’s Two Step, we look to cue the movement of the COM with horizontal resistance around the hip and drive the reflexive action via an exaggerated lift of the lead foot. Share on X

This increase in speed was reflected our results, as JD dropped his 10-yard dash time to a best of 1.58, while clocking no slower than 1.65 on any given day during this six-week training period. No other part of the training was changed during this time to eliminate interference from other drills. If your baseball players are struggling getting out of the gate, give this drill a try!

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

References

1. Boss, S. “Comparison of three base stealing techniques in Division I collegiate baseball players.” Dissertations and Theses @ UNI. 2016; p. 4, 11, 13, 14, and 25. https://scholarworks.uni.edu/etd/314

2. Miyanishi, T., Endo, S., and Nagahara, R. “Comparison of crossover and jab step start techniques for base stealing in baseball.” Sports Biomechanics. 2017; 16(4): 552-566.

3. Yessis, M. Biomechanics and Kinesiology of Exercise. Ultimate Athlete Concepts, 2013.

If a sports performance coach wants to optimize the development of their athletes, they should look for ways to frequently assess them throughout the year. The three main areas I like to assess during the course of the year are:

• Speed (acceleration and peak velocity).
• Power (singular and repeated).
• Strength (% of bodyweight 1RM and bodyweight force output).

The only way to adapt a program to maximize the development of your athletes is to constantly assess their progress and see where change needs to occur. In order to correctly perform these assessments, you need equipment that will give you reliable results and metrics that are valuable in carrying over to the sport itself.

I can say with confidence that I will never look back: MuscleLab is the gold standard in terms of testing and correctly assessing athletes, says @bigk28. Share on X

Remember, we are training athletes and not just lifters—our workouts must have the goal of optimizing performance on the field, court, ice, etc. I have used many different types of equipment over the years for measuring linear speed and was lucky to be introduced to MuscleLab. I can say with confidence that I will never look back: MuscleLab is the gold standard in terms of testing and correctly assessing athletes. In this article, I will go over the ins and outs of MuscleLab and walk through how I use the equipment to adapt programs to maximize performance.

Using the MuscleLab Continuous Laser

It doesn’t get much easier to measure linear sprint times than it does with the MuscleLab laser. Instead of having to measure out distances and set up individual marks with traditional timing gates, MuscleLab’s continuous laser does all the heavy work for you. The setup is extremely simple:

1. Set up the tripod behind where the athlete is going to sprint.
2. Connect the USB cord to your computer (or use the wireless component).
3. Turn on the laser.

That’s it, you’re ready to sprint. The only challenge of using the laser is that athletes must run in a straight line—so use cones to make a lane for the athletes to stay within when they are sprinting.

Another beautiful part of the setup is that you set the distance at which you want the laser to stop recording. In the case that you want to record a 30-meter sprint, you would just set up the finishing distance 1 meter past that (so 31 meters), and the laser would stop recording at that point while giving you 5-meter splits and times along every step of the way. To ensure my athletes are sprinting through the entire portion, I put a finishing cone 2 meters past where I want them to run—this ensures we get 100% effort throughout the entire run. 

In addition to this simple setup, for a solo sports performance coach who doesn’t have the time to set up multiple pieces of equipment, the MuscleLab laser offers other advantages as well. Having just the one piece of equipment to set up helps you keep it relatively safe—for those working in a facility with limited space, you understand how dicey it can get when setting up equipment where there are multiple activities going on. When investing a lot of money in a piece of equipment, the last thing you want is for that equipment to be damaged beyond repair. For me, the MuscleLab laser gets a 10/10 for time and ease of setup.

How I Use the MuscleLab Laser to Assess Athletes

While the ability to collect data is invaluable, it doesn’t mean anything unless you know how to implement it into your programming. Here are the simple ways I use the data I collect to assess my athletes and make prescriptions.

1. Splits at 10/20 meters: As I’ve stated in previous articles, I don’t know of a better assessment for athletes and sports performance programming than sprinting. Yes, there are ways we can get cute in the weight room to show imbalances or percentage of one lift versus another, but those are short-sighted when it comes to the goal of improving sports performance. I used to be hell-bent on improving 1RMs, but if my athletes aren’t moving better, what does it matter?

Most team sports rely heavily on the ability to accelerate; this is why I like to use it as part of an assessment. I use the 10/20 sprint tool by Cal Dietz: I plug in our numbers, and it shows what our athletes need to work on with regard to the weight room (strength, power, speed). If lifting will have an impact on anything under 20 meters, I want to make sure I use an assessment that I know will maximize our time in the weight room.

2. Instantaneous peak velocity: I wouldn’t say this is necessarily a number I look at when it comes to prescribing programs for my athletes, for the sheer fact that I think every athlete, regardless of their sport, should be sprinting at top speed. This is a metric we collect to check improvements in individual speed, to monitor daily readiness, and to evaluate our average team speed overall. No one will set a personal record every day—it’s impossible. But looking at the average of sprints over time will show how your athletes are progressing.

I especially like to use this number with our in-season teams. If I notice over a two-week period that our numbers are trending in the wrong direction, that might be an indication to scale back, as their nervous systems are depleted.

3. Strength-Speed Factor: There are different types of acceleration that we should focus on developing:

• • Strength-speed.
  • Power.
  • Speed-strength.

Not all athletes are going to be similar in their acceleration needs. Some athletes will be really  strong at accelerating but struggle at top speeds, others will be weak at accelerating but fast at top speeds, and some will be a mix of both. Those three types of scenarios require different types of training. Enter the strength-speed factor; basically, a number that looks at the slope of the force/velocity curve of a sprint and tells you where your athletes stand in acceleration versus peak velocity.

After having athletes complete a 30-meter sprint (or a longer distance), I will see exactly which part of the spectrum they fall in for acceleration. From here, I group athletes based on their specific weaknesses.

Collect Data That Matters

The data from a single sprint on the MuscleLab laser is unmatched to anything I have ever seen before. In addition to what I’ve mentioned above, these are the metrics you can get from a single sprint at 30 meters (or farther):

• Instantaneous peak velocity.
• Distance to peak velocity.
• Time to peak velocity.
• Average power.
• Peak power.
• Peak force.
• Strength-speed factor.
• Time at 5-meter intervals.
• Speed (m/s) at each 5-meter interval.

These metrics have value in assessing your athletes and getting meaningful data on how to manipulate your athlete prescription for programming. With one 30-meter sprint, I get an idea of my athletes’ acceleration, their top speed within that given distance, how much power they are producing, and how far and how long it takes them to get to top speed. Those are all key performance indicators that we should be looking to improve within our training to maximize our athletes’ genetic potential and performance within their sport.

Within a single sprint, we don’t just get the end result of speed—we understand the strengths and weaknesses of the athlete and how they get to that end result, says @bigk28. Share on X

Within a single sprint, we don’t just get the end result of speed—we understand the strengths and weaknesses of the athlete and how they get to that end result. The final product is amazing to see in and of itself, but the metric has little value if you don’t know each step in the process of how they get there.

Keeping It Simple

Assessments need to be integrated into all sports performance programs on a frequent basis. When it comes to measuring linear sprint performance, the MuscleLab laser is unmatched and invaluable based upon the amount of data it provides. When looking to properly assess your athletes, make sure you have a protocol in place that is convenient to set up, easy to understand, and even easier to then make correct exercise prescriptions for your athletes. MuscleLab provides the information you need in order to make informed decisions on training your athletes to maximize their genetic potential.

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

In my experience, coaches either absolutely love medicine ball training or completely despise it (or, as a rare third option, simply don’t know or care that much about it).

I’ll be the first to admit that there are 4-5 times as many useless medicine ball exercises out there as there are actual useful exercises.

Medicine ball Russian twists? Toss those in the trash.

Chin-ups while holding a ball between your feet? Garbage.

Plyo push-ups with your hands on a med ball? I’m actually embarrassed these even exist.

Though there are poor applications for medicine balls, I’m a huge fan of them as a training tool. A tool is really only as good as its application, after all. There are plenty of instances where a medicine ball may be the right, or wrong, tool. It’s simply up to the coach to make those calls with the athlete’s best interest in mind.

A Bit of Background

In November 2020, we moved our facility, PACE Fitness Academy, from a 3,200-square-foot building to a 65,000-square-foot building, joining together with another sports performance team and a physical therapy clinic to build a full-service, performance mecca. Together our trio, PACE, Pro X & Team Rehabilitation, operates as one synergistic unit now under the blended Pro X PACE brand.

That alone could be an article in itself, as I’ve learned so many things throughout the process. One element that stood out, however, was just how much medicine ball training we had missed out on with our old, paper-thin walls and 18-foot roof.

Our new partners, Pro X, have carved out a solid niche in the baseball community, and from their youth programming all the way up to the big leaguers, I watched how masterful baseball players are when it comes to medicine ball training.

On the flip side, I’ve carved out a strong niche in the basketball community—in this realm, medicine balls are not a tool that’s part of the culture the way they are in baseball or golf. Unfortunately, what we do see is a lot of sport-mimicking movements with medicine balls, which just doesn’t cut it.

In the past, I’ve used medicine balls where I could, but not to a great extent; after all, when your ceiling is only 18-feet high, it limits all indoor overhead throwing for most athletes. If you’re familiar with Indiana weather, you know that training outdoors is only a real option for about half of the year, and that’s if Mother Nature is in a good mood.

These… can be specifically beneficial to hoopers due to the unique customization of force vectors, intent goals, and body angles you can use with medicine balls, says @JustinOchoa317. Share on X

While many basketball players may have been exposed to slams, chest passes, and occasional speed, agility, and quickness (SAQ) work, the exercises I’ll share in this article can be specifically beneficial to hoopers due to the unique customization of force vectors, intent goals, and body angles you can use with medicine balls.

The Downside of Medicine Ball Training

Like anything, there are pros and cons to med ball training, and on paper the cons look like they should outweigh the pros. One big question floating around the strength and performance industry is does medicine ball training really work?

I guess the answer is, define “work.”

For example, one major downfall is that most med ball training is not highly trackable. Unlike barbell training, we can’t quantify every little detail of a medicine ball exercise. The throw or slam speeds aren’t typically measured. The height or length of throws isn’t typically measured. Yes, there are ways to do these things, but usually we don’t. It’s just a really tough thing to track accurately.

Some coaches also say that it’s really difficult to get a true overload with medicine balls. For advanced athletes, medicine balls aren’t heavy enough for power or strength adaptation, in theory. But they aren’t light enough to move with velocities that elicit long-term neurological adaptation, in theory.

So far, this sounds like a dud of a training method. What a waste of time, right?

But then you see it in action, and the value is undeniable. Though there are research papers that support med ball training and research papers that don’t, it all comes down to context. We can’t rely strictly on research for everything we do as coaches—there is some level of instinct to this game. What I see with my own two eyes, in action, every day, tells me medicine ball training is 100% legit.

The Upside of Medicine Ball Training

As far as the pros go, I guess I could just add my two cents and rebut the cons above.

Most of all, I think medicine balls are an outstanding cueing tool: something physically tangible, connected to the body, providing constraint or feedback to the drill/athlete. This is huge. Whether you can track velocity, power, overload, or any of the so-called “cons” of medicine ball training, if you can help an athlete move more efficiently, that is a big win.

I think medicine balls are an outstanding cueing tool: something physically tangible, connected to the body, providing constraint or feedback to the drill/athlete, says @JustinOchoa317. Share on X

Additionally, I still do consider speed, power, and potentiation to be a key benefit of medicine ball training. For example, as a gross oversimplification of power production, we need two components:

1. Force (load or strength).
2. Velocity (move the load fast).

Medicine balls allow us to take jumps and throws that athletes typically perform with a much lighter load, or just body weight, and add a small amount of load to the force end of that equation to generate more power.

Something like a trap bar jump, which I love, is a great tool to use for very heavy loading. Something like a dumbbell jump could be useful for lighter loaded jumps. But both of these options take away one key component of a jump—the arms.

Incorporating medicine balls seems to exaggerate the arm swing in many cases, which makes it in a league of its own for heavier loaded jumps. Both arms-fixed and arms-free loaded jumps are amazing, and they can be used together.

Basketball players tend to get hundreds of game speed jumps per week. Game speed. The fastest and highest intent possible, which can never be replicated in a training session. That should drive adaptation to some extent.

If it doesn’t, and you determine that an athlete needs to improve their power output to improve those jumps, a medicine ball could provide that overload. Not only globally, but in specific postures or projection angles that the coach chooses. If the athlete’s most intense efforts in games and practices aren’t leading to these gains, implementing 2- to 8-kilogram medicine ball throws, jumps, slams, etc. is definitely a way to increase the force end of that power equation. This can help athletes bust through that performance plateau.

Another example of power comes from looking not just at force production, but at the rate at which that force is produced. Some athletes are very elastic and springy, while others are very muscle driven. Muscle-driven force producers typically have a slower rate of force development.

Using medicine balls to drive maximal intent and velocities in certain movements can expose these slow-twitch athletes to the higher rates of force development needed to break through their speed or power ceiling.

Using medicine balls to drive maximal intent & velocities in certain movements can expose slow-twitch athletes to the higher RFD needed to break through their speed or power ceiling. Share on X

Even if the initial changes are acute, over time with consistency and intent, they can be changes that “stick.” Medicine balls are incredible bridge tools, meaning they bridge gaps in our training. They can enhance not only our other exercise selections, but the performance and execution of those exercise selections.

The figure above shows the time (seconds) it took the player to reach 90% of peak force, power, and speed in a 20-meter sprint against 2.5% of his body weight in resistance. Not only are his outputs greater, but he reached those outputs in a shorter amount of time. I can anecdotally say that medicine ball training was a large factor in these changes.

Lastly, medicine balls are extremely versatile. They can be vector specific. They can be multiplanar. They can be skill specific. They can be load specific. They can be completely general. They are durable and moderately cost-efficient. They have a very low level of entry and easy learning curve. And they have stood the test of time. This isn’t always a good thing… but in this case, it is. Coaches are smart, and bad tools eventually fade. Medicine balls are, literally, ancient.

How We Incorporate Medicine Balls for Hoopers

The four main qualities we utilize medicine balls to train are mobility, power, SAQ, and conditioning. Below are some of my go-to exercises and why each one is a powerful tool for driving performance improvements in basketball players.

1. Mobility

Video 1. Hip IR slides are a simple drill you can incorporate into an athlete’s warm-up or as a daily mobility task.

Hip internal rotation (IR) plays a major role in the gait cycle, as well as two-foot jumping. Some of the best jumpers and sprinters in the world have tons of hip internal rotation during their takeoff and acceleration phases, respectively. Should we always mimic the top 1% of the 1%? Not always, but success leaves clues.

On the other hand, not all athletes have that natural ability to internally rotate. There are about three times as many hip external rotators as internal rotators, and they’re all mostly larger muscles and more overused muscles. Sometimes an athlete can get stuck in external rotation and use compensation patterns to navigate around their lack of hip IR. This is just an accumulation drill to expose them to some active hip IR and hopefully restore some of that function.

Video 2. Other than hip internal rotation, T-spine extension and rotation is another highly vital mobility attribute for basketball players to address. Not only is it a functional movement for the sport—think one-hand, cockback dunks—it’s also something that basketball players lack in terms of posture.

With long limbs and tall, slender frames, basketball athletes can develop forward head postures, anterior rolling of the shoulders, and just generally “round backs” over time. Some simple thoracic spine work may help free up some range of motion up or down the chain. I’ve seen this lead to better movement as well as mitigation and/or management of pain.

2. Power and Speed

This is the bread and butter of med ball training. Since the balls come in various weights, shapes, and sizes and can be thrown, slammed, or jumped with at various projection angles and velocities, this is a perfect tool for developing power, speed, and agility for basketball.

The lens I view this through revolves around three themes:

• Intent.
• Angle.
• Stance.

What is the intent of the drill? What do you hope to see the athlete achieve with the drill? What is the most important part of the drill?

The methods we use to get there are jumps, throws, slams, and catch and react actions. With the intent in mind, what is the best action to get the athlete to meet that goal? What projection angle of the ball works best with the intent in mind? What projection angle of the athlete’s body works best with the intent in mind? What will the athlete achieve by reaching these desired coordination and angular goals?

The stances we use are standing on one or two legs, staggered or split stance, tall-kneeling, half-kneeling, or supine. What stance connects the dots best with the given intent and angles selected for the drill? What stance can the athlete use free of compensation? What stance best lends itself to the action that the athletes will display?

Any of these methods, stances, and training goals can be combined as well. It’s all context dependent.

Using a medicine ball is not a mindless task. To get the absolute most out of medicine ball work, I think focusing on those themes and methods will help point you in the right direction. Below are some of my favorite variations targeting vertical, horizontal, and multi-planar power production.

Vertical Power Production – Overhead Throw Series

These are also jumps disguised as throws. The beautiful thing about this overhead throw series is that—similar to the physics of a box jump—you get maximal concentric intent on the throw/jump while minimizing the eccentric (or landing) loads on the joints.

Video 3. Bilateral: Static-start overhead throw.

Video 4. Unilateral: Single-leg overhead throw.

Video 5. Two-foot gather throw.

Working from most general to most specific, these are great options to add to increase any athlete’s raw power in a vertical vector. The violent triple extension, the maximal intent, the gamification of trying to touch the ceiling—it all transfers nicely to jump performance.

Video 6. Kneeling split stance static start overhead throw.

Video 7. Static start, single-leg overhead throw.

Both dynamic and static split stance throws are great “tweener” variations that aren’t really single leg or completely bilateral. The benefit of the split stance is that you have the freedom to go from a dynamic stance or a static stance. A dynamic stance will allow the athlete to utilize more of the stretch-shortening cycle (SSC), gain momentum during the eccentric phase, and rebound out to create power. The static kneeling stance will remove that from the drill, and the athlete will be forced to create power with no countermovement.

Speaking of the stretch-shortening cycle, if you want to utilize any of the above exercises in a reactive manner to challenge the SSC, you can perform them from a depth drop. Then, these overhead throws put more of the focus on rate of force development, creating peak power faster, and improving reactive strength.

Athletes who are very muscle-driven (or slow-twitch) may benefit more from these reactive variations because they lack the ability to generate their power quickly.

Video 8. This is great example of transfer, where an athlete’s reactive strength index (RSI)—or maximal flight time with minimal ground contact time—went from a 1.89 to a 2.45 on the Just Jump mat after a training cycle incorporating SSC-based med ball drills before each heavy lifting session.

Horizontal Power Production – Broad Jump and Chest Pass Series

These are jump and throw combinations that target an athlete’s horizontal power production. They can be completely customized based on the goal and level of the athlete by mixing and matching combinations of bilateral, unilateral, single response, or multi-response.

There are also coordination demands at play during these variations, as it requires a little bit more self-organization to land from a horizontal jump than a vertical jump since the body is actually displaced from the original takeoff space. The variations we use here are bilateral, multi-response bilateral, unilateral, and multi-response bi/unilateral.

Video 9. Unilateral variation: single-leg broad jump throw.

Video 10. Med ball throw to multi-response broad jump.

The classic chest pass series focuses mostly on upper body performance, although you can turn it into a full-body movement. These are great for targeting power through the torso and arms—again, you can choose the focus based on what the athlete needs by making it reactive (elastic), reset reps (muscle-driven), or supine (strictly upper body). I really like to use these as contrast exercises following heavy upper body lifts.

Video 11. Reactive variation: Standing med ball wall chest pass.

Multi-Planar Power Production

Medicine balls are a staple in rotational sports like hockey, baseball, softball, golf, and lacrosse. They’re also a key focal point in training with overhead athletes, which again covers baseball and softball along with volleyball.

What blows my mind is that nobody considers basketball players to be rotational or overhead athletes when the sport demands so much of both of those qualities.

What blows my mind is that nobody considers basketball players to be rotational or overhead athletes when the sport demands so much of both of these qualities, says @JustinOchoa317. Share on X

In this case, the benefits of these multi-planar medicine ball drills are just as relevant to the game of basketball as they are to any other more traditional overhead or rotational sports. We want to see weight transfer, balance, coordination, and rotational or lateral power. The footwork may be different, but the actions are all alike.

Video 12. Rotational wall throw from a scoop.

Video 13. Figure 8 rotational scoop throw.

Video 14. Med ball reactive bounds (as part of a lateral series including standard bounds).

3. Speed and Agility

Medicine balls are also fantastic speed and agility tools, but not necessarily for the same reasons they’re used for power training. That’s not to say that all of these qualities don’t cyclically enhance each other, but it’s just not the same focal point.

In power training, the ball is the loaded implement moved at high speeds to generate that power. In speed and agility training, I believe the best use of medicine balls is as a coaching tool—meaning it serves as feedback, aid, or a constraint to make the drill work in a certain way.

Video 15. Acceleration throws are a classic drill that every coach has probably utilized at some point. I love these for basketball players because the sport is such a short distance game that it’s very acceleration/deceleration dependent.

By adding some load to an acceleration—getting great momentum and force production going—you can enhance those takeoff qualities as well as challenge “the breaks” by adding a controlled deceleration to end the drill. This can come at a distance, a reaction to a command, or even a reaction to another person in the drill.

Hip Turn Series

This series focuses on utilizing hip and torso dissociation to create levers and positions out of which athletes can maximize their movements.

First, the hip turns get the athlete used to swiveling at the hips while the ball stays in front of their torso. Second, the hip shift turns into a plyo step, projecting them into whatever direction they choose with the ball adding an element of momentum as they transfer it from extended arms back to the hip. Last, the hip turn to shuffle marries the two first drills together for a more functional outcome.

Video 16. In the hip turn to shuffle drill, the athlete drops the ball: This is the “start gun” telling them to begin that phase of the drill. We challenge the athlete to get into their plyo step and first shuffle before the ball hits the ground.

The hip turn series does a great job at repatterning lateral change of direction, getting athletes to flip the hips and create momentum from the ground up rather than pivoting and putting themselves at a disadvantage.

4. Conditioning

Last but not least, an overlooked benefit of medicine balls is their value as a conditioning tool. I am a big fan of the HICT training (high-intensity continuous training) popularized by Joel Jamieson, which is the perfect conditioning for basketball players.

Building a robust aerobic system is vital for athletes, supporting the systems that improve performance—lactic and alactic—while also helping the athlete keep their overall health in check. The issue is that most aerobic training (like jogging, for example) is terrible for athletic performance.

So, what do you do? HICT.

This develops aerobic capacity of the fast twitch muscle fibers, rather than the slow twitch fibers. By utilizing these methods, athletes can improve ATP production, access explosive bursts for longer periods of time without fatigue, and maintain performance levels while still building up their aerobic base.

HICT is performed for durations of 8-20 minutes, with continuous and consistently high-intent reps every 2-3 seconds of the chosen exercise. I love to use very simple and easy-to-learn medicine ball exercises for HICT so there is not a chance of the athlete butchering an exercise for 8-20 minutes straight. Any movement featured thus far, or anything they’ve mastered, will serve them nicely in this case. Of course, actually playing basketball is an irreplaceable conditioning tool for basketball players, but this is just a helpful way to build up a foundation.

Selecting the Right Ball

Giving exercise variations and rationale to thousands of strangers is one thing, but me trying to give concrete answers on how you should program them in your own world would be negligent and flat-out arrogant of me. I don’t know your athletes or your coaching situation better than you.

What I can offer is some practical programming uses that have led to success for our athletes. This is far from a one-size-fits-all system, but it will at least help put some puzzle pieces together in terms of how to use some of these concepts.

First, let’s start with medicine ball choices. My favorite three options are:

1. Synthetic leather medicine ball.
2. Heavy-duty rubber medicine ball.
3. No-bounce medicine ball.

There are literally dozens of other types of balls out there, but these three are the best choices for most anything you could possibly need medicine balls for.

Synthetic Leather

Synthetic leather balls include brands like Dynamax and Rogue. These are 14-inch diameter balls that are extremely durable and versatile. You can accomplish every exercise I’ve discussed here with this type of ball. Although I like some smaller diameter balls for certain exercises, the 14-inch ball can still get the job done.

These balls are rugged and strong enough to throw and slam forever, but soft enough to be the safest option of any ball out there.

Heavy-Duty Rubber

Heavy-duty rubber balls are smaller in diameter, usually between 9 and 11 inches, and are exponentially easier to access when shopping for balls. Rubber balls also tend to come in more increments than other options, with extremely light and heavy options that are easy to find.

Unlike the synthetic leather balls, these balls are much harder to handle. They have a harder surface so aren’t as comfortable to catch. Also, while synthetic leather balls can be thrown against walls or the floor and bounce back at a manageable speed, heavy-duty rubber balls often fire back to the athlete too fast, which could be a health and safety concern. I’ve seen athletes pop themselves in the face by underestimating the bounce-back speed of rubber medicine balls, or simply not know the difference.

I would highly recommend using synthetic leather balls for anything that would cause the ball to come back toward the athlete, such as a wall throw, says @JustinOchoa317. Share on X

Any of the exercises discussed today could be executed with rubber balls, but I would highly recommend using synthetic leather balls for anything that would cause the ball to come back toward the athlete, such as a wall throw.

No-Bounce

Lastly, “no-bounce” balls—or dead balls—are a unique kind of rubber ball that have absolutely zero bounce back. The internal makeup of the ball is iron sand, which allows the ball to be weighted down in any situation. These balls come in 9- to 11-inch diameters and various weight increments as well.

A disadvantage of these balls is that the iron sand inside feels “loose” and athletes can feel the weight shifting around within the ball. Sometimes this can alter slam or throwing speed because of the awkward feeling of the ball in the athlete’s hands. Also, wherever the ball goes, it stays. So, if they’re standing 7 feet away from a wall and throwing the ball against it, the athlete will have to go pick it up and reset their position between every single rep. On the flip side, if you throw it straight up or down, it may decrease the amount of time between reps since it should land in the same vicinity it was launched from.

These three types of balls will be able to serve your athletes in any way you need. It’s nice to have all three types around, but any combination of weights and types is still a great scenario to get work done.

Choosing the Right Weight

I welcome any and all weights of medicine balls. I don’t think there is a non-negotiable limit that is too heavy or too light. I’ve had athletes use 2 pounds and I’ve had athletes use 30 pounds. Selecting a weight for the athlete comes back to intent. In general, this is a template that has worked for us when choosing a weight to begin a new drill with:

• For vertical power exercises: Medicine balls equal to 1-5% of the athlete’s body weight are a great place to start. More-advanced athletes can start closer to that 5% mark, while less-experienced athletes can start closer to 1%. This ensures that the overhead throw or jump will remain at high speeds with a moderate amount of relative load. It’s just a starting point, as a coach you can adjust as you see fit.
• For horizontal power exercises: The same scale applies, with a few deviations. In chest pass variations, I often like to contrast those exercises after a heavy upper body lift like a bench press. In some cases, I use a percentage of the load on the bar to select the weight of the ball. For supine passes, 1-2% of the bar weight, and for standing passes, 3-5% of the bar weight has been a nice starting point for our athletes.

This helps mitigate doing advanced power training for athletes who don’t need advanced power training. In other words, it might do them more good to just simply gain strength. If your 1RM bench press is 95 pounds, and you’re looking for a 1- or 2-pound medicine ball to throw, there’s your sign.

The other deviation is that I think the jump- and throw-based horizontal exercises are a good time to push it and maybe break some rules. Horizontal exercises come a lot more naturally to athletes than vertical force production options. Athletes will catch on more quickly and likely need to progress in weight faster.

Not to mention, acceleration requires a great deal of horizontal power. Loading up some extra weight on these without an exact percentage behind it is totally fine. It’s probably totally fine for all of these exercises, actually, but you have to pick and choose your knockout punches. This is one of them.

As far as the speed & agility exercises go, I think the best plan of attack is to choose the ball that the athlete can control with vicious intensity without losing the mechanics of the drill. Share on X

Lastly, as far as the speed and agility exercises go, I think the best plan of attack is to choose the ball that the athlete can control with vicious intensity without losing the mechanics of the drill. Most of the time, medicine balls under 8 pounds should be perfectly fine for all purposes along these lines.

How We Program Medicine Ball Throws

Finally, the million-dollar question: How should I program them?

I think some variation of these exercises should be in an athlete’s program year-round. Everyone has their own systems and programming templates, but I see these fitting the most on a universal level in one of three ways:

• In a warm-up before a lift, game, practice, or speed session.
• As a part of a contrast, complex, or superset scenario.
• Toward the end of a program as a technique refinement or conditioning drill.

None of these are your main lifts. You don’t get to never squat again and just toss medicine balls around. The medicine balls enhance existing lifts and bridge gaps in the training program.

You don’t get to never squat again and just toss medicine balls around. The med balls enhance existing lifts and bridge gaps in the training program, says @JustinOchoa317. Share on X

Our programming revolves around speed development. In early phases of training, we focus on acceleration. This training includes longer ground contact times, greater levels of eccentric and isometric strength, longer ranges of motion, and more closed chain drills. This means we tend to use heavier balls and force-dominant throws or slams, and synergize those segments of training.

As we progress the athlete, we focus more on power and speed-strength, turning some of the strength gained in the previous phase into power with higher velocity movements than they’ve been exposed to in training thus far. This includes now shortened ground contact times, shorter ranges of motion, and more reaction-based drills. Our ball training might be lighter and faster with more multi-response and RSI-based exercises.

Lastly, our programming leans toward absolute max velocity in the final phase. In this phase, we see our shortest ground contact times, our highest velocity outputs, our highest RSI outputs, and more partial ranges of motion. We then match our medicine ball training to enhance those traits. In this phase, the ball may be utilized for technique optimization and extremely high velocity slams, throws, or jumps. In a perfect world, we can execute all three phases of training with room for a slight deload or transition phase before going into a team camp, tryout, or season environment.

Medicine balls don’t replace the basketball or barbell—they bridge the gaps between them. For our basketball players, we can cover a multitude of athletic traits, postures, and purposes with a simple and easy-to-use tool. If you have the facility space and available equipment, I would highly suggest making medicine balls a year-round training tool for all the hoopers you train.

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

As a strength and conditioning coach in Minor League Baseball, being sent home from 2020 Spring Training meant a stop to hands-on work for what I initially thought would be eight to twelve weeks, not a year. Because of this, I lost time around our equipment and figured that would mean no more time around much—if any—strength and conditioning/sports science until returning for Spring Training 2021.

If you are at all unfamiliar with Minor League Baseball and how it is structured, strength and conditioning coaches are in multiple locations throughout the year. Therefore, during a normal off-season, we are not always at our organization’s facilities and likely are not able to use all the equipment we had at our disposal throughout the in-season.

Fortunately, not too long into quarantine, a LinkedIn message showed up from someone in Ireland. If not for it being on LinkedIn, I probably would not have given it a second look. I must admit, if there are two things I believe strength coaches need to invest their time in (beyond reading SimpliFaster articles and other relevant books/articles), they are having a professional looking LinkedIn profile and subscribing to Strength Coach Network.

Coaches in our field strive to appear professional and want to be taken that way, so it is imperative to act as such. Having a LinkedIn profile that is professional and investing in a network that allows for constant development and networking is ideal. However, without digressing further, it is through the fortune of that one LinkedIn message that I found out about Output Sports. At the time, they had yet to enter the U.S. market so the team sent me a system so I could be an early tester of their product to assess its potential for U.S. practitioners.

Having a LinkedIn profile that is professional and investing in a network that allows for constant development and networking is ideal, says @sgfeld27. Share on X

While remaining home for a year, it has been an absolute pleasure to use and watch the Output Sports system constantly improve, and to learn more and more about monitoring in a hands-on fashion. With all I have learned through using the system, I feel it is proper to share it with those who have not heard of or used it before and to help them determine if it is a system that suits their needs.

VBT and More

The Output system is quite simple and easy to use. All you need is a sensor, straps specific to the action being performed, and an Android device (all of which are provided in their kit). Functionally, it operates just like the Vmaxpro when used for barbell tracking, in that it is a sensor attached to a bar that uses a tablet or smartphone. By mentioning Vmaxpro I hope to show that these systems, while accomplishing some similar tasks, can be used together in the weight room. This is not at all to pit one against the other. However, at least for now with regards to bar path, Vmaxpro does have some features that the Output system does not yet have.

Output was designed to be more than just the next prototypical predominant velocity-based training device. If we looked at these two systems as if they were track athletes, we could say that it is like comparing a short sprinter and a decathlete. Output alone has a plethora of functions that allow it to work in all facets of a program.

Output was designed to be more than just the next prototypical predominant velocity-based training device, says @sgfeld27. Share on X

Jump Metrics

Through its sensor technology, Output has loads of jump metrics for both power and reactivity that it measures very easily. This is not to say that Output utilizes or is in competition with force plate technology, as they are two totally different devices. However, for a device that deals with velocity-based training, Output provides additional metrics for use that go beyond the standard ones measuring bar speed, the jump power and reactivity metrics being some of them.

As someone who loves having the chance to use a Hawkin Dynamics Force Plate, I will always want a force plate to use when and where I can. However, both force plates and contact grids, like the MuscleLab, are not at all inexpensive products. Fortunately, as Output continues to evolve, they do provide some of the metrics that both of the other products provide.

The Output sensor tracks and tests jumps including the countermovement jump (CMJ), drop jump (DJ), and 10-5 test. Performing these is as simple as putting the sensor with a strap on your foot, pressing record, and jumping. Some of the metrics Output has added to their jump testing include takeoff velocity, contact time, RSI, height, and others.

When it comes to the jump testing, Output has the ability to measure numerous metrics that a force plate system will cover without all of the bulk. While it may miss some of the variables a force plate will catch due to the constant shifting of forces throughout a CMJ, DJ, or any other jump test, the Output system still provides ample quality data. Overall, the data Output can provide for a bevy of jump tests is an excellent part of the system.

When it comes to the jump testing, Output has the ability to measure numerous metrics that a force plate system will cover without all of the bulk, says @sgfeld27. Share on X

Sprint and Field Metrics

Through their consistent development over the past year, Output has made the sensor far more versatile as they track contacts that go beyond the weight room. If the goal of tracking data for velocity-based training is truly to track all movements with velocity from 0.3m/s up to over 10m/s, then having a device that can measure all of these is a possible gamechanger. With the inclusion of all jump- and sprint-based field contact metrics, Output makes this possible.

Some of the features Output has recently added include airtime, contact time, and peak acceleration force. These are great additions to the timing feature they already had in their system, although it is not possible to use one system in multiple ways at the same time with the same device. Using these features to look at sprinting, sprint drills, bounding, and hurdle hops among other exercises really helps to create a more complete athlete picture.

Using these features to look at sprinting, sprint drills, bounding, and hurdle hops among other exercises really helps to create a more complete athlete picture, says @sgfeld27. Share on X

When profiling athletes, having data that includes both sprint speed and power can go a long way, and the ability to pair all this data with video makes it even more useful. Understanding how our athletes sprint and jump and move in general can likely tell us even more about them than understanding just their lifting capabilities. Within this system we are able to capture information that shows us metrics that can be directly translated to sport-specific activities.

Providing a system that allows sport-specific profiling is a major benefit of the Output system. While it is neither a contact grid nor a force plate, the Output system goes beyond that of a velocity-based sensor and can proves to somewhat successfully replace a grid and/or a plate.

Other Assessments

Depending on the sector you are in, not all strength coaches are accompanied by athletic trainers or other similar professionals as coworkers. Having an Output system can help replace others who may run specific assessments, including range of motion tests.

Of the multitude of tests the Output system allows for, there are a plethora of mobility tests for all limbs. From head to toe, having an Output system allows a user to see if their athletes can check off proper mobility at each joint. Additionally, the Output system can measure the angle of failure and speed of movement for Nordic hamstring curls, which can be used in return to play settings for eccentric hamstring strength. There are also balance options, which offer the ability to measure an athlete’s steadiness when standing, and stability options to observe trunk stability throughout planks.

Having diagnostic and assessment tools within their software makes Output systems a one stop shop for practitioners. Overall, they have created a product that works very well to capture not only velocity-based training but also metrics that fully provide details into every athlete’s whole profile.

Having diagnostic and assessment tools within their software makes Output systems a one stop shop for practitioners, says @sgfeld27. Share on X

Constant Improvement

As a newer system to the market, it is imperative that Output makes sure they develop at a rate that ensures they can compete and/or collaborate with other devices. Launched in February 2020, this is only year two for the company commercially, though the research behind the tech commenced in 2013. Nonetheless, their company has already proven that it truly is dedicated to consistently developing and improving their product in all facets. They are able to provide such great improvements by having a staff who knows both the back end and front end of what they are working with.

Staff and Accessibility

The Output team is led by their CEO, Martin O’Reilly, a former lecturer in biomechanics with a Ph.D. in Machine Learning in Sports. O’Reilly co-founded the company with sports medicine lecturer and researcher Dr. Darragh Whelan and award-winning physicist and national handball player Julian Eberle. The team prides itself on listening to the needs of practitioners, and constantly taking feedback and advice from end-users like me. They then aim to use their interdisciplinary skills to create new features and improve the value of the technology.

The team prides itself on listening to the needs of practitioners, and constantly taking feedback and advice from end-users, says @sgfeld27. Share on X

Even more important than their knowledge both of coaching needs and product creation is their easy access and constant development. While COVID times have created far more physical distance than ever and limited in-person events, connectivity has not felt too much different overall. While time zones and distances can feel like worlds apart, the ability to link up via Zoom and WhatsApp at almost any time creates social connectedness regardless. Having the ability to communicate at all times and input suggested changes or improvements will go a long way towards the success of Output.

Peak Behind the Curtain

Because it is such a young company, Output Sports is not quite yet at their full development. At the moment, a drawback is that they are only supported on Android platforms. As such, there are plans for iOS product workability in order to be accessible to most users by the end of 2021. Additionally, there are more functions to come for velocity-based training that may improve things like capturing bar path, among other options.

The additional features are almost never-ending with all the work the team does at Output Sports. Even more impressive is their willingness to listen and true desire for feedback to develop their product endlessly. This cannot be understated as it is certainly what it takes to become one of the better and more multipurpose products on the market.

Even more impressive is their willingness to listen and true desire for feedback to develop their product endlessly, says @sgfeld27. Share on X

Efficiency

Within college and professional organizations, travel is a mandatory part of the weekly routine. Having traveled with a force plate and NordBord previously, I can safely say that traveling with larger items like those is not an easy task. Of course, it can be done, but it is not exactly the most ideal thing. As force plates continue to develop in lighter fashions, though, that may change.

However, traveling with an Output system is so easy, you can practically forget you have brought it with you. If you already travel with an Android phone or tablet, then the heftiest piece of their travel kit has already been accounted for. If not, traveling with a tablet is quite simple as many of us already know.

If you have Output, even if you use other systems as well, the number of items you need when you travel decreases significantly. Having all or most systems combined into one is a great benefit of this product and can go a long way towards managing travel stress and hassle.

Hub

One of the greatest features of the Output software is their Hub. Their Hub allows for easy access of trends for all athletes throughout all uses of the device. Within the Hub are easy-to-make charts and graphs that highlight all of the device’s components.

The Hub provides great feedback for athletes to view their progress, and for coaches to see trends as well. Because Output provides a wide range of metrics, the Hub truly gives great insight as it does not require input from outside sources that then have to be merged—all the data is already right there.

From a behind the scenes perspective, navigating the Hub is very user friendly and great to work with. Within it there is the ability to shuttle between one athlete or a created group of athletes. Reports can be created within the Hub or exported to Excel to adjust further, and leaderboards offer the chance to rank athletes from event to event. Of course, having this to show to athletes can only help further incentivize them and make the system far more effective overall.

Cost

In general, any sort of sports science kit is no inexpensive cost, and many offer some sort of yearly subscription service. Having some combination of contact grids, timing gates, velocity-based training devices, and force plates can take no small amount of money and even potentially time to acquire and gain familiarity with.

That said, Output is not the most inexpensive itself and will run more expensive than a similar sensor system like that of the Vmaxpro. It also uses a yearly fee for service based on its features—but for all that it encompasses, the Output Sports system is very reasonably priced.

Takeaway

Overall, the Output Sports system is a great sports science kit. Especially when looking for a cost-effective versatile solution, the company provides a wonderful product.

One of the absolute greatest qualities about the company is their team and commitment to constant and consistent improvement. They are steady in their effort to develop a product that can serve just about all sports science needs in one place. With this effort, they have already created a user friendly system that works very well.

One of the absolute greatest qualities about the company is their team and commitment to constant and consistent improvement, says @sgfeld27. Share on X

While they are a very young company, their early returns show much promise for a successful long-term product. Although they may never be like their Irish countryman Conor McGregor and be the leader in a specific area of sports science, they are rightfully earning their name as a Swiss Army-type product by providing a plethora of options all in one place. As a company, they are also deeply focused on the potential for diverse performance data in one system.

Output Sports has started off well and the future is bright for them. If you have limitations in budget, space, or kit amounts, they are the perfect company to work with. I would definitely recommend getting to know them while they are still a younger company and building a relationship.

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