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Not long ago, I wrote a post on social media stating, “The acceleration versus max velocity debate bores me these days. The reason you expose an athlete to maximum velocity is because it is the greatest stimulus that can be given to the nervous system.” I was not expecting much feedback from the Tweet outside of responses appreciating the use of the Randy Watson GIF, but conversation exploded both within the thread and outside of it. Before we continue, I would like to outline items I view as axioms.

The reason you expose an athlete to maximum velocity is because it is the greatest stimulus that can be given to the nervous system, says @HFJumps. Share on X

Sprinting Axioms

Sprinting at maximum velocity is a one-of-kind stimulus. The combination of force, ground contact time, and coordination required cannot be replicated. For example, I can achieve the forces via unilateral hops, but the ground contact time will be much higher. I could come close to ground contact times via assisted bilateral jumps, but the jumps would be bilateral, and the forces would be lower. Furthermore, neither of these activities require a coordination demand which is even close to maximum velocity sprinting.

Sprinting at maximum velocity is a one-of-kind stimulus, says @HFJumps. Share on X

Training at maximum velocity also trains acceleration, because one must accelerate to reach maximum velocity. The only possibility for this not to happen is to be placed on a high speed treadmill, but that is even debatable, and not applicable to most.

Training acceleration does not necessarily guarantee maximum velocity will improve. If a person trained by only performing 10m sprints, an improvement in top end speed would be unlikely. However, if the same person also did 40m sprints on another day, then improvements in top end speed would be likely. Yes, there are probably exceptions to this, but in general, training acceleration with an expectation that maximum velocity will improve is a faulty strategy. I know because I have made this mistake more times than I would like to admit.

When it comes to sprint training, instantaneous velocity is a better metric than average velocity. Unfortunately, most programs do not have a device like the MuscleLab Laser or 1080 Sprint which gives this metric. If you utilize timing gates or Freelap, the metric you receive is an athlete’s average velocity between the gates. The advantage of lasers, a 1080 Sprint, or Dynaspeed is that they allow a coach to see the full sprint profile (hypothetical graph below), which gives better data to determine interventions necessary in training.

Repairing Cracks in the Foundation

I think it also necessary to set the table as to why the majority of the information I put out promotes sprinting. I believe the three biggest issues with youth athletic development are as follows:

• Early specialization.
  • A wider base of coordination allows for a higher ceiling. Kids should be exposed to a variety of gross motor patterns, and they will transfer to sport-specific skills.
• Lack of free play.
  • The number of items which keep kids at home and sedentary is constantly increasing. In 1990, if I wanted to play video games with a friend, one of us had to ride a bike to the other’s house. Chances are we would get tired of the game and go outside and play. Now kids do not have to leave the house to play video games with one another, and when they get bored with the game, it is often too much work to go outside and play!
• Youth sports are predicated on a conditioning model as opposed to a high performance model.
  • The youth through high school practices I observe rarely offer athletes the opportunity to sprint with full recovery. Much of the training produces repeatable, but average, output. This puts a limit on the ceiling an athlete can attain.

In the Just Fly Performance Podcast #233, movement and speed guru Lee Taft stated the following in regards to youth learning a skill:

When I teach athletic movement skills…whenever possible, I think athletes have to be taught to react and go full speed so that their central nervous system adapts to the speeds in the limb control that they need. If younger kids are taught to move fast, and we gradually build in the technique, they are going to be okay…. When they get older, if they have had exposure to that speed, they can grow off that.

I think this can be applied when discussing the stimulus of sprinting—give youth athletes exposure to maximum sprinting and develop technique as you go. Before proponents of sub-maximal work go crazy, this can certainly include slowing things down at times to get athletes to feel certain positions and movements! However, especially with younger athletes, maximum intensity should almost always be present multiple times in the weekly program.

While I try to address these three items through my social media presence and writing, there is no question that I spend the most energy addressing sprinting at maximum velocity. I think specialization and lack of free play are structural issues that require a shift in society. In other words, these are really, really, BIG problems. Incorporating sprinting is something that can be done within our current structure that does not completely fix it, but does make it better.

I think specialization and lack of free play are structural issues that require a shift in society, says @HFJumps. Share on X

Two Loves

Since I promote maximum velocity sprinting, I have been placed by some in the “maximum velocity crowd” of coaches. I have no problem with this, but being pro-maximum velocity does not mean I am anti-acceleration. Sometimes it is okay to have two loves in life. For example, I love Lou Malnati’s deep dish, but I LOVE my mom’s homemade pasta sauce (gravy for the Italian readers). Sometimes, I have them both during the same meal, and that is basically the stuff that dreams are made of. That is what I view a sprint with maximal acceleration where maximum velocity is attained. I call it a max velocity blast.

Having a weekly acceleration-focused day is logical, says @HFJumps. Share on X

Even in a hypothetical piece where I pushed the limits of maximum velocity dosage, I finished with stating that having a weekly acceleration-focused day is logical. Furthermore, one of the most important lessons I have learned in the nuts and bolts of writing track and field training programs comes from Marc Mangiacotti: train acceleration in some way, shape, or form every single training session. This can be done via the exercises listed below, which can be appropriately placed in maximal, submaximal, and regeneration training sessions:

• Sprints of 5m-30m
  • Possible starting positions: two-point, crouch, rollover, kneeling, push-up, three-point, four-point, and block.
• Resisted Sprints and/or Marches
• Jumping
  • Large flexion present in hip/ankle/knee such as a broad jump.
• Multi-Throws
  • My favorite is underhand forward as it allows the athlete to unfold and translate forward.
• Wall Switches
• Wall Push to Vertical
  • Athlete leans into a wall at an acute angle and marches toward the wall, feeling how the pushes into the ground contribute to posture becoming vertical.
• Cusano Hurdle Push
• Low Lunge March
  • In my opinion, this is the best exercise in Chris Korfist’s arsenal (he calls them Chuck Berry Walks), but few will do them consistently because they are not sexy enough.
• Overcoming Ankle Isometrics
• Acceleration-Themed Weight Room Activity
  • Squat, split squat, hex bar deadlift, Olympics from the floor.

Blurred Lines

Where is the breaking point for when a sprint workout shifts from becoming acceleration focused to maximum velocity focused? The standard measurement in track and field training is 30 meters, but that does not really tell the story. Defining if the focus is early acceleration, late acceleration, peak velocity, or exposure to speed decay (what happens post-peak velocity) is probably a better structure, and as one works their way up this chain, the previous item(s) are being addressed.

Like many coaches, I enjoy research and I use it to assist with creating generalizations for program design. However, I also know that individualizing training as much as possible tends to lead to higher achievement. It should be noted that most of my career has consisted of 40:1 athlete to coach ratios where I was responsible for three event groups (sprints, hurdles, high jump). Because of this, I have experience with trying to meet the instructional demands of a large group while maintaining smooth workflow within the various constraints of our facility. So how can one individualize in a large group setting in regard to sprint training?

The difficult part is providing each athlete with technical feedback. There is no question it can be overwhelming, but it is one a coach must undertake because it is a great way to build trust with the athlete. People respond well to people who show interest in them. Programming, at least at the high school level, does not have to be nearly as difficult as most athletes will fit into a relatively general progression. For example, a simple off-season training program for a field/court sport could be:

In addition, on acceleration days, I would include deceleration-acceleration and/or change of direction work after the sprints. On maximum velocity days, I would include curved and/or serpentine running before (and/or after) the sprints. I have noticed athletes respond well to linear sprinting after a rep or two of curve work. Creative coaches could even combine these concepts together: timing 20m coming out of a zero degree cut or timing a 10m fly coming off of a curve. The possibilities are endless.

I have noticed athletes respond well to linear sprinting after a rep or two of curve work, says @HFJumps. Share on X

My guess is a program such as this would meet the needs of at least 80% of high school athletes. For the other 20%, who tend to be veteran athletes in the program, advanced variations such as longer sprints or sprint-float-sprints may be required.

An easy way to determine if variations are needed can be done through observations followed by a simple test. Let’s say that an athlete has been stuck at the same 10m fly time and it does not appear that normal cuing and suggestions are creating an improvement. If the 10m fly included a 30m run-in, the coach can create a new training stimulus and assessment by:

• Giving the athlete an additional 10m in the run-in, making the total sprint 50m
• Creating three timing windows: 20m–30m, 30m–40m, 40m–50m

The test becomes a 30m fly with a 20m run-in. We know most young athletes hit top speed somewhere between 20 and 30 meters, but the comparison of the three splits would give a coach a better idea of where peak velocity is occurring. The reason I say better idea is that it cannot be said where peak velocity is occurring unless you have an instrument which measures instantaneous velocity, which timing gates do not. To illustrate, here is an example of splits from a high school female I have worked with.

The fly zone was 30m with a Freelap cone every 10m. The following was done on the same day. Two reps of each. The times are color coordinated to represent the segment covered. Red: 10m–20m. Blue: 20m–30m. Purple: 30m–40m. Green: 40m–50m.

The fastest split displayed occurred on the last split of the last rep. As a side note, I was surprised by the performance of the first 20m run-in rep, so on the second, I set up another 10m segment to time 50m-60m. The time was 1.43. Based on the average velocities on last repetition with the extra 10 m segment, I can assume that peak velocity took place somewhere between 20m and 50ish-m.

Many would make the assertion that peak velocity must have occurred during the split of 1.33, but that is not necessarily true. The only guarantee about an instantaneous velocity is that it has to equal the average velocity at one or more points during the interval (this is the Mean Value Theorem in calculus). In other words, peak velocity could have occurred during an interval with a lower average velocity. An example similar to this is as follows:

• Two cars travel a 100 mile distance.
• The first car travels the entire distance at a constant velocity of 100 mph. The average and peak velocity are 100 mph. The time taken to cover the interval is one hour.
• The second car travels the first 50 miles at 200 mph, but the second 50 miles at 25 miles per hour. The peak velocity is 200 mph, but the average velocity is 44.44 mph. The time taken to cover the interval is 2.25 hours.
• Therefore, the second car has a higher peak velocity (200 mph versus 100 mph), but a lower average velocity (44.44 mph versus 100 mph).

The takeaway from this is that a coach can use this type of test once every four to six weeks to help determine where peak velocity may be occurring, and then target that interval, and possibly go beyond it, during training. In the example above, I walked away confident that the athlete received training at maximum velocity, and it helped me construct future training sessions for her next block.

We all can only do the best we can with what we have, says @HFJumps. Share on X

Common arguments against using a fly 30 meter with a 20 meter run-in are:

• I do not have the space!
  • A real issue to be sure (especially in the winter months). We all can only do the best we can with what we have. However, I would try to find a way to make it work outside when the weather cooperates.
• I am afraid of athletes getting injured.
  • Another legitimate concern, but if training is progressed at a reasonable rate, the risk would be minimized. Coaches need to analyze the risk versus reward in their setting. I tend to go resort back to ensuring athletes will be able to handle the demands of maximum velocity if they are faced with it in competition.
• I do not have the time.
  • If you are already performing sprints with your athletes, I would beg to differ. A workout of 4 x 20m would take about 10-12 minutes. 2 x 50m would take the same amount of time. It would also not have to be done for every single athlete—just those who have made it through your progression and may need alterations to get through a plateau. If you think it would take more than 12 minutes in your setting, I would consider omitting a lift or plyometric once every four to six weeks to perform the test.
• I do not have the equipment because of budget concerns.
  • Timing with software like Dartfish is not friendly in a big group setting, but it is budget friendly, and can be done for the small number of athletes who are in need of greater stimulus.

Why Maximum Velocity Matters

I have had numerous conversations with field and court sport coaches who are all about sprinting, but only work up to 20m or 30m. Their reasoning is that their athletes will rarely sprint beyond 20, so why train beyond it. I typically respond by asking how many times they have seen an athlete in their sport with a barbell on their back during the game.

A coach cannot argue against maximum velocity training because it is not specific, but think squatting/deadlifting/pulling/pressing is the answer to every question. Training is often at least a generation or more removed from sport, and often includes items which are an incredible stimulus, but do not occur in competition. We need to be okay with this from both a weight room perspective and a sprint perspective!

Another argument I receive as to why sprints over 30m are not necessary is based off of research done by Ken Clark’s group on the 40 yard dash at the NFL Combine. The study found athletes reached 93-96% of their maximum velocity within the sprint by 20 yards. Similar findings are shown from Nagahara’s group in a study of 18 male participants who hit 95% of maximum velocity at 23.1m. It is worth noting that the participants in the study had 100m bests in a range of 10.54–12.30 (mean +/- standard deviation of 11.28 +/- .36), which corresponds nicely to high school males!

The argument given is if athletes are hitting 95% of maximum velocity prior to 30 meters, isn’t sprinting to 30m enough? In my opinion, the answer is a resounding no, and here is why.

Both the aforementioned study by Nagahara and another (21 males, 100 m bests 11.27 +/- .27) give vertical forces of each step over the course of a 60m sprint. The results show logarithmic growth, meaning that forces are increasing at a decreasing rate. The visual below will help make this clear, as the velocity curve shown earlier is also logarithmic.

In both studies, vertical forces began to level off between steps 13 and 15, meaning that beyond this, increases in force were relatively small. For spatial reference, most high school males will hit the 20m mark between 12 and 14 steps, and the 30m mark between 16 and 19 steps (exceptions exist of course).

To digest what I will outline here, it may be helpful to view every step in the sprint as an individual repetition. If we were dealing with an athlete in the study that was near the upper end in terms of 100m performance, and the workout of the day was 20 meter sprints, he would not get any repetitions of steps where forces begin to level off. If the workout was 30m sprints, he would get around four. If it was extended to 40m sprints, around eight or nine total. The point here is that just beyond 20 meters is where forces and contact times are starting to provide a unique stimulus, and athletes should be exposed to that stimulus! While there is merit for sprints of 20m and lower (improving acceleration is important), not going beyond that distance is definitely leaving something on the table!

While there is merit for sprints of 2m and lower…not going beyond that distance is definitely leaving something on the table, says @HFJumps. Share on X

So now you may be thinking that 30 meter sprints would be enough. To quote Lee Corso: “Not so fast my friend,” and here is why. The studies stated vertical forces began to level off at step 13 and beyond, following the logarithmic model. However, in a mean vertical force versus percentage of maximum velocity graph, Nagahara’s group showed this relationship follows an exponential model.

The graph below shows an exponential curve to provide a visual, but it IS NOT an accurate depiction of what was found in the study. For our purposes, we just need to understand the exponential behavior of vertical force as the percentage of maximum velocity increases. The function below shows mean vertical force increasing at an increasing rate (the slope of the curve is getting steeper as the percentage of max velocity increases).

The reason why this is important is that if athletes do not get higher percentages of maximum velocity (especially 90% and above), they are missing out on the exponential increase in force. As stated earlier, one of the Nagahara studies found the participants hit 95% of maximum velocity at 23.1m. Like before, if sprints are capped between 20m and 30m, the exposure to the portion of exponential increase in mean vertical force is minimal.

Parting Thoughts on Peak versus Acceleration

We also need to take exceptions into consideration. Let’s say there are two athletes who have made it through a sprint progression up to 30 meters and Athlete A reaches 100% of maximum velocity by 25m, but Athlete B reaches 95% of maximum velocity at 30m. Here the same workout is giving the two athletes different stimuli, and the reality is Athlete B is getting short-changed.

This example is also why it is important to attempt to determine where an athlete is hitting peak velocity—so workouts can be designed up to and beyond that point. Acceleration work is extremely important, but exposure to steps at 95+% maximum velocity matter, both in the lead up to peak velocity and the time after as speed begins to degrade. The forces, contact times, and coordination demand cannot be replicated.

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One of the most important questions we must answer when it comes to physical training for golf is which characteristics will have the most impact on improving a golfer’s health, safety, speed, and overall performance. As mentioned in my previous article, the game of golf is fast, and it’s getting faster every year. The speed increases seen at the junior level will soon creep up into the college game and developmental tours, and those with the most elite speed will not only be occupying the winner’s circle on the PGA and LPGA Tours, but dominating the playing field as well.

Bryson Dechambeau has certainly put a notch in the belt of this argument by dominating the U.S. Open. It was a course designed to penalize the longest hitters, and yet it gave him and Matt Wolff, another young bomber, a clear advantage over other competitors. Dustin Johnson, another lengthy driver, walked away with The Masters this past fall, as well as the Fedex Cup, the highest purse in golf.

When it comes to physical preparation, time in the gym must neither take away from sport-specific practice, nor cause players to need to decrease their practice time because they are fatigued or cannot perform at their best. Efficiency is super important to maximize both on- and off-course improvements due to the high practice time demands of elite golf.

Therefore, analyzing and assessing the physical performance metrics of a golfer is just as important as in any other sport. The downside is that, unlike sports with more established histories of training, the fitness world is still incredibly new to the golf community, let alone true performance training.

Our goal at Par4Success is to develop the most comprehensive and predictive model of performance assessments and training programs for golfers. To date, we have one of the most comprehensive and longitudinal databases of athletes across the age range of golf.

Jumping, for Golf?

One of our assessments is a standard countermovement jump. Many golfers, especially our older golfers, laugh at this concept: “I play golf specifically so I don’t have to jump!” While initially we believed it was simply a good substitute for general lower body strength and power, new understandings of the physics of the golf swing have proven why this test is so valuable.

Ground Reaction Forces in Golf

One of the biggest advancements in physical and technical training for golf has been the adoption of force plate analysis by many instructors and biomechanists, similar to its adoption for advanced analysis in track and field and team sports athletes. The golf swing is a unique movement in that it utilizes all three planes of motion while remaining relatively stationary. There is no mound to project oneself down, nor is there a ball to chase, at least while you are performing the sport’s main action. Subtle adjustments to the swing plane don’t need to be made at a moment’s notice like the swing of a baseball bat or tennis racquet, and there’s no running start like the javelin throw.

The golf swing is a unique movement in that it utilizes all three planes of motion while remaining relatively stationary, says @bprengle. Share on X

After analyzing millions of swings, instructors, biomechanists, and performance coaches have come to understand the importance of the timing, duration, and amount of the three ground reaction forces—vertical, horizontal, and torsional. Trends have started to show amongst players, both male and female, with elite club speeds (greater than 130 mph for males and greater than 105 mph for females).

For years (really, up until recently), golf instructors focused their efforts on hand position, club position, shoulder tilt, and countless other body movements that are simply the result of an athlete’s interaction with the ground. Put simply, the focus was on kinematics and movement, instead of kinetics and forces. Now, armed with a better understanding not only of physics but also of the specific motions and forces that occur during the swing, we are all coming to realize how subtle changes in these forces can have drastic impacts up the body’s kinetic chain, even influencing the path of the club itself.

Physics Primer

You have three options when it comes to interacting with a (relatively) stable and sturdy ground. You can push down into the ground or perpendicular to the surface, which we would call a vertical force. You can also push parallel to the surface in two directions. In relation to your body, the horizontal force would be side to side. What we deem a torsional force is really just a forward force with one foot (heel to toe) and a backward force with another foot (toe to heel). A common, simple way to understand these if you’re not already familiar with them is by using a swivel chair as shown in the videos below.

Videos 1a and 1b. What we deem a torsional force is really just a forward force with one foot (heel to toe) and a backward force with another foot (toe to heel). Using a swivel chair helps athletes understand this.

Forces in the Golf Swing – Why the Vertical Jump?

Of the three ground reaction forces, by far the biggest from a pure force production standpoint in the golf swing is, somewhat counterintuitively, the vertical force. For example, very high horizontal forces on one leg will be in the 400-500 Newton range, and extremely high toe to heel forces will be in the 200-300 Newton range. Even very low vertical forces will be more than 600 Newtons, with many high-speed females exerting more than 900 Newtons just in their lead leg, and high-speed males producing well over 1,300 Newtons! While all three forces play a critical role in optimizing a player’s swing and speeds, by far the factor that contributes the most of the three is the vertical force, purely from a force production standpoint.

Interesting Database Findings

Long before we had our force plate analysis system, we were seeing a trend in our athlete testing database, which hosts more than 1,200 data points from golfers aged 9 to 79. As I mentioned previously, we test all our athletes on a vertical jump test. Validity of the jump mat aside, we saw a slight trend that increasing vertical jump height in our countermovement test related to changes in club speed. Sadly, it was not consistent enough to latch onto as an integral and key part of our programming.

While sifting through the numbers one day, a simple idea came to mind—what if, like in many other sports, a value was calculated that took into account an athlete’s body weight and their jump height? Golf is also a fairly unique sport in that many different body types are asked to do the exact same thing, and many different body types can be successful in this sport with that same task. Compare this to a sport like football, where one body type is not remotely ideal across the position spectrum, and while players can be grouped, you’ll never ask an offensive lineman to run a downfield comeback route. In contrast, every golfer must hit their shots off the same tee box during a competition.

Simply calculating an athlete’s peak power, which factors an athlete’s weight with their jump height, produced our single greatest relationship between changes in that athlete’s club speed. Share on X

Sure enough, simply calculating an athlete’s peak power, which factors an athlete’s weight with their jump height, produced our single greatest relationship between changes in that athlete’s club speed. Furthermore, it was our strongest differentiator between athletes with similar characteristics but different swing speeds. For example, given two high school female athletes with similar scores on golf-specific mobility tests (which have been well established by Titleist Performance Institute and others) and similar playing levels, the athlete with the higher “jump score” was almost guaranteed to swing faster. Further, and where a big shift in our training focus occurred, was that this jump score was the biggest predictor of increases in club speed for each individual golfer. Based on statistical analyses, an improvement of 1,100 watts of peak power calculated by the jump score guaranteed at minimum a 1 mph improvement in swing speed, regardless of age, technique, and skill level.

More Database Proof

The entire point of sports science, in our opinion, is to improve decision-making when it comes to programming both on a micro and macro level for athletes, and a benefit of a database this large is to start differentiating between high and low performers. Looking further into our jump power score, we wanted to see if having a certain level of power could almost guarantee a specific club speed. If these measurements are actually valuable, then the highest jumpers will also have the highest swing speeds.

When looking at the top 95th percentile of jump scores for males (which ended up being over 9,000 watts), this group’s average swing speed was 118.8 mph, with a range of 99.9-133.1 mph. For our entire sample of 700 male golfers for whom we calculated a jump score, the average swing speed was 98.7 mph, lower in fact than even our slowest male with a high-end jump score.

For the females, with a sample of 312 ladies for whom we calculated a jump score, the average swing speed of our top performers (jump score over 7,000 watts) was 96.4 mph, far above the average for the entire data set of 84.1 mph. Our minimum swing speed in the high-end jumping group was relatively lower than their male counterparts, at 77.3 mph. This means the relationship was not as concrete for the females as the males when it comes to having both high-end (for this population) jump power and swing speed.

To give an idea of where this puts athletes in terms of weight and jump, a 185-pound athlete will need to jump 28 inches to reach the 9,000-watt threshold. As you can see, for most sports this is a relatively low threshold.

Isn’t This Obvious? Almost Every Sport Tests and Emphasizes Vertical Jump!

While it is accepted in most sports that jumping is a vital performance metric, sadly this is not yet the case in the golf community. Part of our interest at Par4Success in joining forces with SimpliFaster was hopefully to draw more golf performance training professionals into the realm of track and field and team sport performance measurement and evaluation. Lower body power tests such as a vertical jump are not standard operating procedures in most golf fitness analyses but are rather substituted for things that look far more “golf-like” and make sense to the average golfer for looking enough like a swing to probably be helpful. It is also our goal to combat the utter lack of data that exists for these golf-like movements and drive the industry toward accepting data-backed outcomes as the main determinants of performance.

The beauty of using our scaled score was that it also brought up conversations with our athletes about their weight. For our juniors, it drove a bigger emphasis on fueling their high activity levels in order to produce good muscle mass and protect their bodies. With many of our juniors playing and practicing four or more hours per day, they burn a serious amount of fuel, especially in hot and humid North Carolina. Without the proper caloric intake, we saw a stall of weight gain, or even worse, weight loss. Despite the players’ best efforts in the gym, their speeds were not increasing. After even a few weeks of focusing on basic nutrition concepts, we saw an increase in speed and energy levels and a decrease in common overuse injuries like low back pain and wrist pain.

For our adults, our conversations turned into ways to keep their entire body healthy. We wanted to make sure their nutrition backed up the efforts they regularly put into the gym. For them and our juniors, there seemed to be a tipping point in our data where more body mass was beneficial up to a point—Bryson Dechambeau is certainly doing his best to find out where that line is! Focusing on better nutrition, while some folks lost weight, aided in producing better recovery from workouts, better improvements in jump height, and overall better scaled jumping scores, which saw an improvement in swing speed as well.

Mass = Gas?

This phrase is gaining popularity as more data is collected on the relative sizes of the fastest pitchers and hitters on the planet in baseball, and many golfers are asking questions about gaining mass based on Bryson’s recent success and the subsequent attention drawn to the hulking figures that compete in the sport of long drive.

During our initial data investigation, what also stood out when it came to weight was an overall positive correlation between weight and swing speed in our junior athletes, but a negative correlation between weight and swing speed in our adult and senior golfers. However, once we settled on the jump score, it became effortless to determine if weight gain was useful for golf performance or not. If an athlete gained weight and jump height either remained the same or even increased, then a higher power output would be recorded, and we would see a corresponding improvement in swing speed. However, if jump height decreased by too much, almost regardless of weight gain, then the power output would decrease and, usually, we would see a corresponding decrease in club speed.

When communicating this to athletes and other golf performance professionals, mass does not in fact equal gas. It is only the amount of mass that can be accelerated that will lead to gas. Share on X

When communicating this to athletes and other golf performance professionals, mass does not in fact equal gas. It is only the amount of mass that can be accelerated that will lead to gas (assuming technical timing and force production metrics are still met in the golf swing).

Improving Vertical Power in Golfers

Things are only worth measuring if action can be taken to improve them. There are three simple ways to increase vertical force output that most team sport strength coaches are probably familiar with. Sadly, these methods are seriously underutilized in the golf fitness world.

Scroll through a social media feed related to golf fitness and you will not see a significant number of posts focused on increasing maximal force output, improving rate of force development, or utilizing the stretch-shortening cycle. Since most performance coaches are familiar with these methods, the scope of this article will focus on how they relate to golfers and hopefully get other golf fitness professionals to think about their own methods in a new light.

1. Maximizing Force Output

The majority of golfers have next to no physical training background, and many of those who do are not emphasizing the right physical characteristics. A typical golfer’s fitness routine includes, incorrectly, a significant amount of cardiovascular exercise and high rep exercises in an effort to reduce fatigue felt during a 4- to 5-hour round of golf. While being able to walk 18 holes multiple days in a row is important for the competitive player, this can easily be accomplished with sufficient practice time on the course. Much more important is maximizing lower body force outputs, also known as maximum strength.

Two of the most common problems we run into with golfers are the overuse of the low back and a lack of both relative and absolute strength.

First, similar to my previous article about the hip hinge for golfers, it is important to make modifications to the squat exercise such that the athlete does not further fatigue and over-use their low back any more than they already are in their sport-specific practice. While strengthening the low back is important, I find it hard to believe many performance coaches would argue a loaded squat is the best way to do so.

We frequently use goblet squats as a main movement or warm-up to get our athletes to disengage their low backs as a prime mover during a squat. It is advantageous in golf to have a mobile spine, especially into lumbar extension, and many athletes new to squatting will attempt to use this strategy to move the load. Again, taking into account sport-specific versus general adaptations, it is usually our goal in the weight room to minimize lower back involvement as a main mover, especially for lower body exercises.

Goblet squats can certainly be loaded heavily, but after a certain point a landmine squat variation or, if appropriate mobility and stability exist, a front squat variation can be used. A previous SimpliFaster article went into great detail about how to improve and coach athletes into better front rack positions, which was spot-on with what we see in the golf population. Many golfers have tight and weak thoracic spines, so while we work on building a better base before loading those tissues with a true front squat, we also love using a zombie squat. The back squat is also a staple in our programs but only if an athlete can create the correct amount of external rotation at the shoulders to have proper bar placement.

Videos 2a and 2b. Many golfers have tight and weak thoracic spines. We work on building a better base before loading those tissues with a true front squat, and we also love using a zombie squat.

Inspired by the work of Matt Rhea and others in the world of sprint performance, we have set ourselves on a journey to determine a ceiling effect of squat strength as it relates to improving speed and power output. Despite our large number of participants and their dedication to their programs, the number of athletes who can squat the proposed ceiling effect of 1.7x body weight is so small it is not a general concern for us! However, we do not work with many World Long Drive professionals, with men moving a driver at 140+ mph and women at 115+. These athletes almost always have a background in powerlifting, weightlifting, or other rotational field sports such as shot put or discus.

Lastly, single leg strength must be analyzed, especially due to the different demands placed on the trail leg versus the lead leg in the golf swing. We have run into many cases where the golfer struggles to increase speed or deals with frequent back pain because their lead leg is weaker and less powerful than their trail side. In the golf swing, especially vertically, the lead leg generally produces anywhere from 300-800 Newtons more force than the trail leg. Currently, in our research and programming, any athlete who exhibits less than 95% limb symmetry in our jump tests gets flagged, and as always, our goal is to quantify how a specific training program can reduce these asymmetries and improve golf performance.

2. Increasing Rate of Force Development

Many other articles have explained in much greater detail the shortcomings of this concept, but I will use this term until another is created. Most importantly for the golf swing, there is a finite amount of time during which force can be applied to the club, and there are only small improvements you can make to change that amount of time. For example, increasing a golfer’s thoracic rotation may help them create more shoulder turn, but this may provide only an extra 10 degrees of arc in which to produce force—in the grand scheme of things, this is very small.

Therefore, the amount of force a golfer can apply only matters if they can apply that force during that short amount of time in the golf swing. Impulse is becoming a more important metric by the day when using 3D force plate technology to analyze a golf swing. If a golfer can create 4,000 Newtons of force generally, but they can only express 800 Newtons of it during the downswing, it would be much more time efficient, safe, and effective to work on expressing that force quicker than it would be to try to add more force!

All sorts of jumps and medicine ball training (but only under 8 pounds—anything else would be too heavy (just kidding)) can be useful to improve a golfer’s rate of force development. Many golfers enjoy this type of training as well because the application to the golf swing is much more evident than when performing a back squat. Debates can be had about the weight of the medicine ball that athletes should use, especially when the heaviest of clubs doesn’t even weigh 1 pound, and this is another question we hope to answer through our research at Par4Success. One of our most recent 12-week in-house studies investigated the improvements made by junior golfers who emphasized rotational med ball work or more sagittal plane upper and lower body power development. Let’s just say the results were so surprising we are running the study again with different athletes to confirm the results!

We put much of our effort toward developing basic skills such as jumping and landing that will in turn create better jump heights and impulses during the golf swing, says @bprengle. Share on X

Plenty of other resources talk about jumping and plyometric progressions. My addition to this body of work is to say that most golfers do not have extensive multi-sport history—it is a sport like few others in its drive for early specialization. Much of our effort is put toward developing basic skills such as jumping and landing that will in turn create better jump heights and impulses during the golf swing. Start simple, and you will often see better-than-expected results.

3. Utilization of the Stretch-Shortening Cycle

One of our future areas of interest is determining the differences in high- and low-swing speed players with regard to their reactive strength index (RSI) and eccentric utilization ratio (EUR). While these tests have been used to drive training recommendations and differentiate athletes in jumping and team sports, little to no work has been done to evaluate these and other measures of the use of the stretch-shortening cycle of the lower body in golf.

One popular measurement uses biomechanical sensors to determine a golfer’s X-Factor Stretch. X-Factor is the difference between the golfer’s hip angle and torso angle in relation to their position at address, and the X-Factor Stretch is the difference between a golfer’s peak X-Factor and the measurement at the top of their backswing. As evidenced by research from Dr. Phil Cheetham and others¹, X-Factor Stretch is a determinant in club speed differences in amateurs compared to professional players—pros tend to have a much higher and more consistent Stretch value than their amateur counterparts. This is an interesting line of research in that it looks at, from a physiological standpoint, the stretch-shortening cycle utilization of the trunk in the golf swing, whereas most tests are focused on the SSC utilization of the lower body, specifically the ankles and knees.

Again, the golf swing is relatively static compared to other sport movements, and it is also unique in that almost the entire speed of the movement is determined solely by the athlete and nothing else—there is no reactionary component to it. Some research has looked at classifying golfers into different categories based largely on their swing mechanics and tempo in an attempt to drive training into either high-speed or low-speed plyometrics. What is interesting is that relatively high swing speeds can be achieved in a lot of different ways. Hopefully, we will find more answers to these questions backed by evidence-based performance tests.

The golf swing is unique in that almost the entire speed of the movement is determined solely by the athlete and nothing else—there is no reactionary component to it, says @bprengle. Share on X

Changing the Game of Performance Training for Golf

For team sport athlete coaches, I don’t think most of this information should come as a surprise to you—the vertical jump is a well-established means to testing your athletes’ explosive capabilities and even fatigue levels during hard training blocks. In fact, it is such a basic test that years of research has been spent on creating better tests!

For those in the golf fitness realm, I beg you to begin collecting objective data that will guarantee success for your clients. The game of golf is only getting faster and spending precious training time on BOSU balls and with low load rotation belt movements promising improved “feel” in the golf swing will not prepare your athletes for what the game is going to become in five years or less.

You may be lucky to come across an athlete who is so naturally powerful and flexible that you will still see improvements even though training time is spent on exercises with little carryover to the physical requirements of swinging a golf club, but these athletes are once in a lifetime. In order to reach their potential, I would staunchly argue that they would make even further improvements if training time was spent on evidence-based techniques designed to improve the three major ways to improve vertical force I outlined above.

Lastly, if you are a golfer who stumbled upon this article, I hope it encourages you to learn more about your body and how it affects your golf swing. If you want to improve your performance on the golf course, I would highly recommend utilizing a program that not only trains vertical power production but measures it as well.

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.Cheetham, P.J., Martin, P.E., Mottram, R.E., and St. Laurent, B.F. “The importance of stretching the ‘X-Factor’ in the downswing of golf: The ‘X-Factor Stretch’.” Optimising Performance in Golf. 2001:192-199.

Some stereotypes are real. As a born and bred Parisian, I do not always carry a baguette under my arm (although I would if it weren’t for dietary concerns), nor do I own a beret. However, yes, I can’t start my day without a strong black coffee, and most of all, like many of my fellow Parisians, I love to debate.

In the strength and conditioning community, debating is second nature. How to increase strength, the ideal post-workout shakes, or which gradient is best for blood flow restriction—every subject seems to have its share of fiery, opinionated comments and ongoing investigations.

The warm-up, though, is not a sexy subject. Talking shop about your warm-up routine is a hard sell. Unlike strength, power, or speed, the warm-up is rarely attributed to the success of an athlete; and since it doesn’t involve rankings or records, it does little for egos.

Considering that an athlete’s training regimen ultimately plays a part in their success, the warm-up should be a main concern. Share on X

However, considering that an athlete’s training regimen ultimately plays a part in their success, the warm-up should be a main concern. Indeed, no athlete trains strength or aerobic stamina every session, but every single training includes a warm-up. If you do the math, there is a high likelihood of your athlete spending more time warming up than developing any single particular physical quality over an entire season.

So, why not give the warm-up the debate it deserves?

Practice with a Purpose

In team sports, ask any player to describe the warm-up and the most common responses will likely be boring, routine, useless, and long. The main reasons for these perceptions are that—because of the warm-up’s constant occurrence day after day and its lack of recognition as a critical aspect of physical development—many of us give up on making this moment a learning experience for the player.

Instead, we default to what we feel comfortable with and what is easy in organizational terms. Out on the pitch? Let’s do running mechanics and pretend we don’t see that players just go through the motions in meaningless gesticulations. In the gym, we distribute foam rollers and massage balls because it’s better than nothing. We often give our players an implicit message whether we mean to or not: We tell them that the unique goal of the warm-up is to reduce injury risks through some sort of activation.

Warming up, in fact, has at least three main goals: pre-activation, mental and sensory preparation, and potentiation.

1. Pre-Activation: Preparing the Body

The first role of a warm-up is to prepare the body for the physical activity that will follow. Almost all studies on the warm-up are only concerned with that aspect. A well-designed warm-up can confer a number of physiological responses that could potentially increase subsequent performance. Those physiological responses can be categorized as:

• Temperature related
• Non-temperature related.

The narrow scope under which the warm-up has largely been studied resulted in practitioners designing warm-up routines aimed at three main purposes:

1. Raising temperature (light sweat).
2. Raising oxygen uptake (higher breathing rate).
3. Increasing range of motion (open up articulations).

What would be guaranteed to easily hit those three targets? Some slow aerobic work topped up with a little bit of stretching…and that is how many warm-ups can still be described today.

The problems with such a simplistic approach to warm-ups are numerous. First, its low level of specificity to the sport and the particular type of session it is supposed to prepare the player for make it a poor strategy for positively impacting execution and/or motivation. Second, this type of warm-up routine is generally repetitive. Thus, players quickly reach a high level of habituation and instead of increasing their readiness to train, the stimulus actually does the reverse: monotony and boredom decrease neural activation.

Some of those shortcomings are addressed by a much better protocol: Raise, Activate, Mobilize, and Potentiate (RAMP).This protocol, created by Ian Jeffreys, is composed of three phases:

1. Raise – Activate: Increase muscle temperature, core temperature, blood flow, muscle elasticity, and neural activation.
2. Mobilize: Focus on movement patterns that will be used during the activity.
3. Potentiate: Gradually increase the stress on the body in preparation for the upcoming competition/session.

The RAMP protocol puts some emphasis on specificity, which is lacking in the more traditional approach. By focusing more on movement quality during the warm-up, the subsequent quality of the session may be raised—which, over time, can add up to significant improvement in performances.  Here the focus is not on flexibility but on mobilization, or actively moving the body through the movement patterns and ranges of motion athletes will be required to master for their sport and for their performance capacities.

By focusing more on movement quality during the warm-up, the subsequent quality of the session may be raised—which, over time, can add up to significant improvement in performances. Share on X

Much better, yes, but not perfect. If the RAMP protocol seems to address the question of warm-up as activation convincingly, this isn’t the sole purpose of a warm-up.

2. Mental and Sensory Preparation (Get in the Zone)

A well-designed warm-up should not just prepare bodies, it should get the player into a state of focus and receptive to learning experiences. In order to achieve such a state, it is fundamental that a warm-up protocol includes mental and sensory preparation.

In the 1960s, American neuroscientist Paul MacLean formulated the “triune brain” model, which is based on dividing the human brain into three distinct regions:

• Reptilian or primal brain (basal ganglia).
• Paleomammalian or emotional brain (limbic system).
• Neomammalian or rational brain (neocortex).

According to MacLean, the hierarchical organization of the human brain represents the progressive acquisition of brain structures through evolution. The triune brain model suggests that the central grey nucleus was acquired first (assumed to be responsible for our primary instincts), followed by the limbic system (responsible for our emotions or affective system), and then the neocortex (assumed to be responsible for rational thinking).

The reptilian brain is dedicated to survival, and to basic needs. Part of this primal brain is called the reticular activation system. The reticular activation system (RAS) participates in the fight-or-flight response. Recent findings on the nature of the activity generated by the RAS suggest that arousal is involved much more in perception and movement than previously thought. The reticular activation system is a cholinergic system, which means that its activation involves the production of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine (ACH). Acetylcholine is used in muscle contraction and in the brain, where it helps regulate the central autonomic nervous system (sympathetic and parasympathetic) and plays an essential role in memory, attention, and motivation.

If you want to avoid repeating yourself countless times throughout the session—as well as avoid the numerous mistakes often made at the start of a session (that we attribute to concentration)—the secret is to start by activating the RAS. Activating the brain by stimulating the RAS is possible through the vestibular or visual system. For example, when we yawn, we essentially activate the ligaments of the tongue that are connected to the vestibular system. Yawning or pushing your tongue against the palate thus “wakes up the brain.”

Getting your players to yawn during your warm-up probably won’t attract praise from the coaching staff, so another solution is to reproduce the infinity sign through infinity walks. Getting the player to walk, then run, then do running mechanics drills following a figure-eight pattern while keeping their eyes on a specified target is a great way to start a field session. Juggling while performing some easy movement (lunging, squatting) can be another option. Finally, playing some reaction games such as “shadow bowing” or “finger fencing” would do the job in an entertaining way.

Next comes the limbic system. Here again, an essential role in the movement should be emphasized. Responsible for emotions, this part of the brain determines the athlete’s state of mind and the resulting quality of movement. For the coach, being able to generate a state of motivation in the athlete is one of the critical aspects of the successful learning of complex motor tasks. Without an optimally functioning limbic system, all learning will be fleeting.

The corpus callosum, which connects the two cerebral hemispheres, is a key structure in activating the limbic system. The best way to ensure athletes are in the right state of mind—one where cortisol production is under control—is to include tasks in the athletes’ warm-up that require “crossing the center line.” Animal walks, bear crawls, and other crawling motor activities activate this region of the brain, connecting the two hemispheres, and should be a part of any warm-up routines.

Training sessions are learning experiences designed to make an athlete better. We know that in a state of “fight or flight” and under too much sympathetic activation, our learning abilities are reduced to a minimum. We know as well that being overly relaxed isn’t exactly the best way to get the most out of the training content. When players show up to a session, the state of their central nervous system influences how meaningful the practice will be to them.

The warm-up is the airlocked entrance separating the learning experience from the rest of the athlete’s day. Letting them carry over disappointment, anxiety, euphoria, or anger into the training session—all emotions that a team selection meeting can easily trigger, for instance—can largely annihilate any positive physical or technical adaptations. It is the duty of the warm-up protocol to include mental preparation tools aimed at refocusing players on the now and rebalancing parasympathetic and sympathetic systems.

It is the duty of the warm-up protocol to include mental preparation tools aimed at refocusing players on the now and rebalancing parasympathetic and sympathetic systems. Share on X

It is also paramount that the warm-up strategy activates the RAS and provides some sensory stimulation. Some may argue that this sensory activation is really where injury reduction takes place. Often, non-contact injuries result at least partly from a discrepancy between mechanoreceptors expectations in terms of the amount of vibrations about to enter a muscle or joint and the actual amount of vibration (this goes beyond the scope of this article); simple sensory stimulation can help fine-tune the receptors to the environment.

Before trapping the vast number of precious mechanoreceptors present in the foot in a tight boot, thus reducing to a minimum the quantity of information received through vibration, it is a good idea to get the player to spend some time barefoot. The information fed back to the brain by the feet is critical to the optimal execution of movements such as running, jumping, landing, changing direction, and kicking.

The tight shoes used in most sports make it hard for the feet to capture quality information; however, it is possible to “prime” those mechanoreceptors beforehand, making them more receptive to vibration changes. A few simple plyometrics drill such as single leg hops, landings, and bounds on three to four different textures, from hard to soft (box, grass, mat, sand, for instance) would ensure the players’ feet are fully activated and ready to contribute to the quality of further movements.

3. Physical Potentiation (Revving up the Engine)

How the warm-up ends is another critical aspect that is easy to overlook. How does a warm-up protocol that finishes with five minutes of stretching carry over and impact a high-intensity running session? How can another set of A-skips assist the player to smoothly transition to a tactical session?

After preparing the body, the mind, and the sensory system, a good warm-up should directly contribute to the success of the following session by nimbly bridging the gap between activation stimulus and the session’s targeted outcome. Ultimately, a well-designed warm-up should make the remainder of the practice seems easier.

Ultimately, a well-designed warm-up should make the remainder of the practice seem easier. Share on X

When the warm-up precedes a strength, power, or speed session, the physiological effects of potentiation can be used. Potentiation results from the phosphorylation of myosin regulatory light chains that enhance the actin and myosin function of the muscle. To achieve a potentiation effect, the exercises that conclude a warm-up protocol should drive the neuromuscular performance from an overflow of the H-reflex, thus increasing the athlete’s performance.

The potentiation effect can be elicited through three main methods:

1. Ballistic
2. Plyometrics
3. Tension overload

The ballistic method uses light load and focuses on the maximal acceleration phase of an object’s movement while limiting deceleration. Commonly, this is achieved through the use of various medicine ball throws. From experience, it works very well as part of a circuit to finish off the warm-up before an upper body strength or power session.

The plyometrics method uses jumps, hops, and bounds, where the focus is placed on rate of force development or the maximum amount of forces in short time intervals. It is great to use as a contrast with the exercise it aims to potentiate in a power or strength session. For example, take a lower body power session where the main lift is a power clean, and the rep/set scheme is 6×2 @ 85% of 1RM. Before the first attempt, including four sets built up (2 @ 50%, 2 @ 60%, 2 @ 70%, 2 @ 80%) interspersed with three hurdle jumps or high box jumps can do the trick.

The tension overload method focuses on maximal tension, where the goal is to fire up the central nervous system before performing an explosive movement. The best way to achieve this stimulus is through the use of heavy isometrics. Like the plyometrics method, tension overload works really well as a contrast.

Properly chosen potentiation exercises have been shown by numerous studies to increase performance in the subsequent exercise performed. If your gym session starts with a main lift, or if you are out on the pitch about to work on accelerations, using such a tool to get more out of your athlete is a no-brainer. Among the reported benefits of a potentiation strategy are increased power, increased arousal, and lower perceived fatigue. However, benefitting fully from the potentiation effect isn’t just a simple addition. Studies report highly individual responses as well as possible excessive additional fatigue (especially in less trained athletes).

The timing is another very important aspect of the success of a potentiation strategy. Indeed, you may have the perfect exercise combination in mind, but if your head coach likes getting his speech done after your warm-up, this is going to be a problem. Logistics are another limiting factor: the best possible potentiation exercise choices may not be realistic. Olympic weightlifting may work best to spark up your athletes before a power-orientated session on the field but taking barbells and plates onto the pitch would give the head groundskeeper a heart attack and damage the training field. When on the road, it is also often the case that access to equipment is restricted. Finding medicine balls to get a potentiation circuit done can be quite tricky.

When the training session is aimed at aerobic development or is a long, highly specific tactical session, performances could be increased by including breathing exercises at the end of the warm-up.

Nasal breathing cleans the air as it enters the body, produces nitric oxide (NO), and while utilizing nasal breathing, the same amount of work can be performed at a lower energetic cost.  The release of NO helps control blood flow by diffusing to the underlying smooth muscle cells. The strong vasodilatory effects of NO lead to increased oxygen uptake, reduced pulmonary vascular resistance, and arterial oxygenation.

The benefits of increased NO productivity include increased aerobic capacity, reduced hypertension, improved insulin sensitivity, and glucose tolerance. Also note the existence of a positive effect on capillarization and angiogenesis. An added benefit of NO is that it increases neurogenesis, the process by which new neurons are formed in the brain. These physiological conditions can positively influence the performance of an athlete. More studies are needed to fully validate its use as a true potentiation strategy, but nasal breathing could well be a potent tool to add to your warm-up protocols.

More studies are needed to fully validate its use as a true potentiation strategy, but nasal breathing could well be a potent tool to add to your warm-up protocols. Share on X

Putting It All Back Together

A good warm-up does not go unnoticed, and an indifferent one is a real missed opportunity to get more out of each and every session. Before diving into the core of a learning experience—whether to elicit a physical, technical, or tactical improvement—not only does the body need to be adequately prepared, but the sensory system does as well. Mental preparation is equally necessary to ensure athletes are fully engaged and train with purpose. Finally, when it is deemed appropriate, the warm-up can serve as a ramp, propelling a player’s performance through the use of potentiation or breathing exercises.

An easy way to ensure we take full advantage of a warm-up protocol is by making sure it connects athletes to the now, to the environment, and finally to the specific stimulus of the training session.

Maybe you think that a full hour of preparation before getting to the beginning of a session is unrealistic, or that the protocol proposed is a nice philosophical piece but unlikely to be transferable to the reality of day-to-day operations. I hope I can change your mind with a couple of practical examples.

An easy way to ensure we take full advantage of a warm-up protocol is by making sure it connects athletes to the now, to the environment, and finally to the specific stimulus of the training session. Share on X

After using this protocol for a few weeks, some observations I have made:

• Objectively, the number of technical errors (dropped balls and kick negatives) recorded at training seemed to decrease, though more data is needed before assuming any statistical significance.
• Subjectively, the players enjoyed the process and reported feeling more energized and powerful during practice.

It hasn’t been an entirely smooth ride, however, and the first few times the extensive protocol received criticism from both players (the “in and out” mentality being strongly voiced) and coaches, who struggled to accept the additional lag between the meeting or video session and practice.

As a happy medium, I use this protocol only before the first session of the day where sensory and mental preparation is the most needed, and now no one wants to go back to the old way!

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

Developing a particular aspect of your year-round programming is similar to developing a recipe for a dish. You have many different ingredients that you combine in different ratios and proportions. Many of the ingredients will be used year-round but in different amounts. The training periods of the year include the post-season, early off-season, late off-season, pre-season, and in-season portions.

The post-season is the time directly after the season has completed. I believe the post-season is an extremely important time to build the foundation for the rest of the off-season. This is a crucial step in the complete off-season program that may often get overlooked. I want to cover the goals of our post-season training in this article to give some insight into how our program is constructed.

I believe the post-season is an extremely important time to build the foundation for the rest of the off-season, says @bpatel515. Share on X

We typically give 1-2 weeks off from all sport-related activities and then will go through a week of testing before beginning training. Post-season training will typically last 3-6 weeks depending upon how long the season was, the training age of the group, and injuries that occurred during the season. The goals of the post-season are the following:

1. Restore range of motion that was lost during the season.
2. Build work capacity for the off-season so higher volumes of training can be handled.
3. Reinforce technique in the major primary lifts.
4. Rehab any injuries.
5. Build connective tissue strength through higher eccentrics, isometrics and longer duration movements.
6. Teach proper position of movement skills.
7. Establish mentality of the team for following season.
8. Establish individual goals for physical improvement.
9. Build a flexibility reserve.
10. Teach movements/exercises that will be performed during the off-season.

I want to make sure that these areas of training are covered first and foremost before we begin to work on developing max strength, speed, power, and specific conditioning. A good recipe must always start with laying the ingredients out first.

Goal #1: Restore range of motion that was lost during the season

Due to the nature of sports and the length of the season, many athletes can lose joint range of motion during the season. Very few sport movements are done through a full range of motion, especially in the lower body. When a large volume of these movements occurs during the season (repetitions) in a shortened range of motion, the body starts to adapt to these ranges and becomes less efficient in getting into the greater positions of extension.

Due to the nature of sports and the length of the season, many athletes can lose joint range of motion during the season, says @bpatel515. Share on X

It’s important that we as coaches address these issues and start teaching our athletes how to move their joints through a full range of motion to re-establish optimal mobility/stability relationships at each joint. This is done to minimize compensations and restore ideal movement patterns before engaging in a more intense off-season program.

Goal #2: Build work capacity for the off-season so higher volumes of training can be handled

Specific work capacity for physical development tends to decrease in-season because the majority of time is spent on developing specific work capacity for sport skills. It’s important that we re-establish a good fitness base in the post-season before engaging in longer training sessions during the off-season where multiple strength qualities are trained in the same session throughout a microcycle (speed, power, strength, etc.).

If an athlete cannot handle the stress of training, proper adaptations cannot be attained which may result in illness, injury, or over-training. Therefore, it is essential that work capacity and the ability to handle greater volume are addressed during the post-season before throwing a ton of volume at athletes.

Goal #3: Reinforce technique in the major primary lifts

During a late-season push towards the playoffs, strength training sometimes can be reduced in an effort to try and “peak” athletes for major competitions. This may mean that primary movements (squats, presses, deadlifts, etc.) may not be trained. Then add in the off weeks at the conclusion of the season and some athletes may not perform these movements for 3-4 weeks.

The power lifts and Olympic lifts that constitute many coaches exercise menus as “core,” “primary,” or “foundational” movements need to be re-taught, so that technique is reinforced prior to heavier loading. These are technical movements that require the coordination and synchronization of multiple joints and muscles simultaneously. They need to be rehearsed and performed on a continual basis so athletes understand the movements and feel confident with their technique with lower loads before loads are increased. Re-teaching also allows your older athletes to help coach the younger athletes which can be beneficial for team building purposes.

Goal #4: Rehab any injuries

This is an important step in the post-season prior to engaging in higher volumes of training.  A long season can cause a number of little injuries that can be played through or managed while still trying to compete. But once the season is over, it is vital that these injuries are taken care of to ensure that another injury in the same area will not occur again. According to Gray Cook, previous injury is the number one predictor of another injury. It’s crucial that athletes take care of their injuries so the body won’t compensate and cause another injury.

It's crucial that athletes take care of their injuries so the body won't compensate and cause another injury, says @bpatel515. Share on X

Having a skilled athletic trainer or physical therapist who knows biomechanics and understands how the body can compensate will play a huge role in rehabbing these injuries. The strength and conditioning coach and trainer or therapist should be communicating about how best to handle the athlete so they can continue to train and work around their injury while rehab is occurring simultaneously.

Goal #5: Build connective tissue strength through higher eccentrics, isometrics, and longer duration movements

Muscles adapt faster than tendons and ligaments, and for proper long-term training to occur during the off-season the connective tissue needs to be prepared to handle sufficient stress prior to heavier loading. Jumping quickly into adding heavier loads or higher speed contractions in training is a sure-fire way to aggravate joints and slow training down.

Training is a progressive process and requires the connective tissue to be resilient enough before volume, load, and speed are introduced. The most effective way to prepare the connective tissue is through the use of slow eccentrics, isometrics, and movements with a longer time under tension. Slow eccentric tensions are very effective for strengthening tendons because in eccentric movements one can generate greater muscle tension than one’s max in concentric movements. In other words, one can lower greater weight than one can lift.

Training is a progressive process and requires the connective tissue to be resilient enough before volume, load, and speed are introduced, says @bpatel515. Share on X

Tension, if not excessive, stimulates tendons to grow stronger (lay more connective tissue fibers and line them up right). The cumulative muscle tension that can be generated in a given number of reps is greater in eccentric and isometric movements than in concentric or natural movements (combined concentric and eccentric, with the amount of resistance determined by the concentric movement). Once the connective tissue has been properly prepared, plyometrics, movement training (linear and lateral), and heavier loads can be introduced (higher speed eccentric contractions that take place in plyometrics, sprinting, and agility training place a high load upon the tendons).

Goal #6: Teach proper position of movement skills

Teaching proper movement skills of dynamic activities that will occur during the off-season training is necessary in the post-season. I’ve found that by teaching athletes where their weight should be distributed and how to push into the ground during certain exercises gets them to understand how to better use their bodies and also develops body awareness. I teach these movement skills through the use of isometric exercises.

Some of the benefits of isometric exercise are listed in goal #5, but they also allow the coach to teach the athletes and fix the athlete in the moment of the exercise, which can be difficult during a dynamic activity. Using exercises such as split squat holds or squat holds can teach the athlete how and where to distribute their weight on their feet, how to position their hips and torso, and which muscles are active during the movement. This can help when progressing to sprinting, changing direction, and jumping exercises

Goal #7: Establish mentality of the team for following season

The post-season is a time where the returnees (the previous year’s freshmen, sophomores, and juniors) have a unique opportunity to lay the foundation for what kind of team they will be the following season. The seniors are gone and new opportunities arise for leaders to emerge and for individuals to step up and accept larger roles.

Typically, there won’t be a large amount of time to practice so the strength and conditioning coach will play a large role in developing the work ethic and discipline, and will cultivate the message that the coaching staff wants to send as they prepare for the next season. The mentality that I look to establish in my teams is one that preaches togetherness, communication, a high degree of effort, consistency, attention to detail, a sense of urgency, and a positive attitude. These are the things that the team can hold onto during times of adversity and can help mold individuals to achieve more. Do not overlook the importance of this.

Goal #8: Establish individual goals for physical improvement

Setting goals in the post-season gives athletes a map of where they want to go. Goals are used to help plan, guide, and motivate athletes throughout the off-season. I have my athletes set goals for themselves and then we meet to determine how to achieve them, if they are realistic, and what it’s going to take to make the goals a reality. It allows me as a coach to understand where they want to go and what they want to achieve. It also helps me understand how to motivate each individual athlete and what works for them. Goals can be a powerful thing for motivation and are necessary to facilitate improved performance.

Goals can be a powerful thing for motivation and are necessary to facilitate improved performance, says @bpatel515. Share on X

Goal #9: Build a flexibility reserve

A flexibility reserve is essentially possessing more flexibility than is needed to perform regular movements needed for the sport. This reserve comes into play when executing movements that require greater range of motion and allows athletes to perform these movements with greater speed while also giving the athlete more wiggle room when it comes to range of motion that is typically lost in-season. Most sport specific movements tend to occur in a shortened range of motion and rarely require the need to get to end ranges.

When you perform a high volume of movements (reps from practice, games) and don’t put your joints through their full available range of motion, the body starts to adapt and lose some of that end range of motion. My goal in the post-season is to start to develop a flexibility reserve which is essentially regaining any range of motion that was lost in-season. This allows us to increase the available range before increasing training volume in the off-season and before the upcoming season begins.

Goal #10: Teach movements/exercises that will be performed during the off-season

Not every athlete is fortunate enough to train at school year-round, and they most likely will be training on their own with the program that is given to them by their strength and conditioning coach. It is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT that you send your athletes home for the summer or off-season knowing how to perform the exercises you give them.

You can set-up an on-line database of exercises (YouTube) or write a description, but everybody knows that compliance will be higher if athletes know how to perform the movements that you ask them to perform. Use the post-season period to teach and reinforce proper technique in movements that you will ask them to perform.

Use the post-season period to teach and reinforce proper technique in movements that you will ask them to perform, says @bpatel515. Share on X

The off-season is the most opportune time period to increase general and specific qualities that are needed for sports. To make the most out of your off-season training, you must set your athletes up for success by strategically taking advantage of the post-season period.

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

Groin pain is a common occurrence in multidirectional field sport athletes. According to a 15-year prospective UEFA injury study, groin pain accounts for approximately 12%-16% of all time-loss injuries in men’s football (soccer).¹ The complex anatomical nature of the region makes groin pain challenging to diagnose, manage, and rehab, with high recurrence rates of ~20% for many football athletes.^2,4,5 The interactions and interconnections of muscles, ligaments, and tendons around the hip and pubic symphysis make it difficult to differentiate which structure is pain sensitive and which is the primary cause for pain.^2,3

This trend in injury rates and severity highlights the complex nature of the region and the historical inconsistencies that have existed when it comes to diagnosing and defining groin pain. Share on X

While the UEFA study does show the rate of hip and groin injuries have decreased slightly, (figure 1), the injury burden (figure 2) remains unchanged, even suggesting a slight increase in injury severity. This trend in injury rates and severity not only re-emphasizes the complex nature of the region, it also highlights the historical inconsistencies that have existed when it comes to diagnosing and defining groin pain.

Groin Pain Terminology and Diagnosis

Until recently, there had been poor agreement on the diagnosis and terminology of groin pain. The Doha agreement²offers a global, standardized framework for groin pain and has been a positive development for consistency of diagnosis and terminology. The clinical entities as defined in the Doha agreement (see figure 3) can be used by practitioners to assist with clinical examination, exercise prescription, and return to performance guidelines. Another resource on groin pain diagnosis is this video from FIFA, which can help practitioners understand clinical differences during physical examination or when diagnosing different clinical entities of groin pain.

The most common type of groin injury is acute adductor-related pain (figure 4), which is likely to occur during activities such as change of direction or kicking. Despite acute pain being more common, it is gradual-onset or longstanding pain that is a greater cause for concern. Recent evidence suggests insidious onset pain may be responsible for a high number of undiagnosed or unrecorded groin injuries, which has resulted in athletes playing through pain or discomfort. These types of groin injuries are complicated, with the athlete often presenting with pain across multiple anatomical sites, acute pain at the tendon insertion, and possible boney edema on imaging (see figure 5).

If an athlete presents with such symptoms, or any clinical findings as defined within the Doha agreement, evidence recommends a comprehensive examination of the entire hip and groin region. It is worth noting that no current evidence suggests imaging can further assist with diagnosis or return to performance timeframes. This is important to consider when assessing an athlete with long-standing groin pain, as imaging is a common procedure but can often lead to overinterpretation of results. Rather, evidence supports groin pain diagnosis and prognosis be guided by the individual athlete’s symptoms, clinical presentation, and functional restrictions.

While imaging is a common procedure…evidence supports groin pain diagnosis and prognosis be guided by the individual athlete’s symptoms, clinical presentation, and functional restrictions. Share on X

Risk Factors of Groin Pain

While injuries are multifactorial and unpredictable, a good level of evidence suggests the factors shown below may lead to an increased risk of groin injury.

Other factors often associated within the literature include:

• Pain on hip adduction squeeze test.
• Reduced hip internal rotation.
• Reduced bent knee fallout range of motion.

It should be noted that there has been some conflicting evidence when discussing range of motion impairment and its association with groin pain.

Monitoring and Managing Groin Pain

As mentioned previously, the major concerns for hip and groin injuries are either insidious onset pain at multiple anatomical sites or long-standing groin pain that results in performance decrements. The key to successfully managing groin pain is to develop a monitoring framework that attempts to mitigate the risk of athletes developing insidious groin pain. Wolin et al. developed a framework of a monitoring system, useful for the early detection and management of groin pain⁸ (see the original framework here).

Before applying this framework, you should consider the context of your sport and the strength qualities and capacities that your athletes require for success.

Best practice would be to establish baseline strength data and perform an internal reliability test using a strength testing apparatus such as the ForceFrame from VALD Performance. O’Brien et al.¹³ has provided a great overview in this paper of validity and normative values in males athletes using the ForceFrame. Baselines can be leveraged to monitor individuals or groups and easily detect any minimal changes in lower body strength. A recent report from VALD Performance demonstrated hip adduction normative values for European football players across a longitudinal period (figure 7), which is often used by practitioners to understand and compare baselines across their athlete cohort.

Performing a groin squeeze is a useful way to monitor pain levels and strength decrements that may persist following a match. It is important to determine what constitutes a meaningful change per athlete, per test—this paper from Thornton et al. provides a great overview of different strategies to determine what constitutes a meaningful change.¹⁰One example would be to visualize an athlete’s mean score +/- 1 standard deviation on a longitudinal graph. By viewing the data longitudinally (as seen below in figure 8), you can understand the athlete’s normal response to training and game stimuli.

As demonstrated on the above graph, this athlete had three instances where strength levels dropped below their normal variance. If associated with pain or a performance decrement, it would be important to follow up with a physical examination and/or an intervention; the latter may be manual or exercise therapy.

The most important component is to reassess and determine whether there has been a positive change to the strength levels of the athlete, which means they would continue to train, or if there is still residual strength loss. If there has been strength loss, a decision will need to be made on whether the athlete requires a modified training load and strength exercise prescription. An example of how this monitoring protocol based on the framework from Wollin et al. would be implemented for a six-day turnaround in field-based sports can be found below (figure 9):

Example Case Study: Iliopsoas-Related Groin Pain

The following case study depicts a multi-phase return to play strategy, which aims to highlight various strength and monitoring methods that can be used to help athletes successfully return to game demands.

Athlete

28-year-old male football (soccer) athlete

History

Gradual onset lower abdominal and right anterior hip pain. Pain usually present at the start of a training session but decreases once “warmed up”; some discomfort with kicking long. Pain increases post training session for approximately 24-48 hours.

Examination

Palpation pain over anterior thigh/lower abdomen. Pain provocation on resisted right hip flexion VAS 5/10 with crossover sign and resisted sit up VAS 6/10. Hip flexor range of motion slightly restricted on right compared to left with some discomfort. Right hip internal rotation restricted but no pain with FADIR; bent knee fallout clear.

Manual therapy able to improve hip flexor range of motion and increase hip internal rotation. Pain decreased but still present with hip flexion 3/10 and sit up 4/10.

Hip profile strength testing was performed to assess any further strength deficits that may have occurred due to the onset of groin pain and decrement of performance. Figures 10a and 10b illustrate the difference in hip profile strength following the athlete’s presentation of symptoms—a significant reduction in hip flexion, extension, and adduction strength was found in comparison to previous baseline data.

Given the symptoms, palpation tenderness, resisted hip flexion pain, and strength loss, the athlete was diagnosed with iliopsoas-related groin pain as per the Doha agreement guidelines. Due to the severity of pain, performance decrement, and strength loss, the decision was made to stop the athlete from running and kicking and to proceed with conservative management. The key components that were identified as having to be addressed during the reconditioning process were:

1. Decrease hip flexion pain.
2. Improve hip extension range of motion.
3. Improve hip flexion, extension, and adduction strength.

These key components helped create the framework for development of a criterion-based reconditioning strategy for the athlete, which was broken down into four main phases, as listed below.

Phase 1:

This initial phase focuses on hip profile strength accumulation and movement competency. A low level of pain is allowed during this phase of exercise, with the recommendation being below 3/10 on the visual analog pain scale (VAS). Another important consideration is load modification; removing running and kicking addresses the most pain provocative movements and reduces the load on the tissue to allow for strength accumulation. Some running drills can be used to maintain low-level stimulus on lower limb muscle and tendon structures, which can act as a bridge for the athlete to return to run progressions.

Progressing to phase 2 will depend on findings from the athlete’s presentation and clinical examinations. Using both the HAGOS score and ForceFrame, practitioners can objectively assess hip profile strength and create an individualized exercise prescription.

Phase 2:

The time taken to achieve phase 1 criteria will heavily dictate how quickly you can progress the reloading of linear-based running. The longer an athlete is unable to run, the slower their progression back to normal sessions and weekly volumes will be. This paper¹¹ investigated the impact of workloads on subsequent injury. Further contributions from Matt Taberner on the control-chaos continuum¹² also demonstrate how practitioners can interlink the progression of GPS variables while simultaneously increasing perceptual and cognitive challenges throughout the rehabilitation process.

During phase 2, individualized strength exercise prescription (refer to figure 13) is determined based on the athlete’s strength profiling and their strength improvements. Linear running and agility intensity and complexity will progress as comfort allows. Integrating skill- and technical-based development with the assistance of sport coaches is another important consideration for practitioners in this phase, as it provides a good link to the skill integration that follows in phase 3.

Improvements in hip flexion, adduction, and extension strength should continue, and the progress of this is easily measured by the ForceFrame. Pain provocative movements, such as agility and running, should begin to feel comfortable for the athlete.

Phase 3:

The priority in this phase is the athlete’s reintegration into team skills, leveraging both the technical and tactical components of team training to condition the athlete. Monitoring strength and exercise prescription progress during this phase is pivotal, as it helps the athlete in building tissue resilience that will withstand the increased loads of high-intensity running and agility. Individualized conditioning can also be supplemented to build training volumes as required. Skill and technical developments can continue as per phase 2 of team reintegration.

End of phase 3 criteria should see the athlete maintaining hip profile strength, as measured on the ForceFrame. This strength will help guide running speed and agility progressions, all of which they should perform pain free.

Figures 18a-18c below illustrate the change in strength from pre-groin symptoms to the end of phase 3, which shows large improvements in all hip profile strength measurements for both limbs. Interestingly, the athlete demonstrated a decrease in external rotation strength when compared limb to limb, but following further assessment of previous raw values, the right leg external rotation strength was within the athlete’s normal variance.

The fourth phase is the most important assessment of the athlete’s physical capacities to determine their return to peak performance and competition. During this phase, it is important to assess how the athlete responds to increases in running intensity, agility, and skill integration. Exposure to adequate training loads, maximum-velocity running, and full contact training is essential for the successful return from injury. Not only should the athlete experience all conditioning progressions pain free, they should maintain individualized hip strength protocols. These should align with regular lower body strength and power exposures, as all will assist with tissue resilience and continued adaptation to training and game loads.

Conclusion

Hip and groin injuries in football athletes are a common occurrence. Most cases are complex and multifaceted, which highlights the importance of an athlete’s management and rehabilitation plan. The development of a comprehensive monitoring framework is important to inform individual variations to training and game stimuli. The combination of a thorough clinical examination as guided by the Doha agreement and hip strength testing using tools such as the ForceFrame is pivotal to inform practitioners and guide key decision-making processes during multi-stage rehabilitation of hip and groin pain.

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. Werner, J., Hägglund, M., Ekstrand, J., and Waldén, M. “Hip and groin time-loss injuries decreased slightly but injury burden remained constant in mens professional football: the 15-year prospective UEFA Elite Club Injury Study.” British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2019;53(9):539-546.

2. Weir, A., et al. “Doha agreement meeting on terminology and definitions in groin pain in athletes.” British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2015;49(12):768-774.

3. Falvey, É. C., King, E., Kinsella, S., and Franklyn-Miller, A. “Athletic groin pain (part 1): a prospective anatomical diagnosis of 382 patients—clinical findings, MRI findings and patient-reported outcome measures at baseline.” British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2016;50(7):423-430.

4. Waldén, M., Hägglund, M., and Ekstrand, J. “The epidemiology of groin injury in senior football: a systematic review of prospective studies.” British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2015;49(12):792-797.

5. Orchard, J. W., Seward, H., and Orchard, J. J. “Results of 2 decades of injury surveillance and public release of data in the Australian Football League.” The American Journal of Sports Medicine. 2013;41(4):734-741.

6. Thorborg, K., et al. “Clinical examination, diagnostic imaging, and testing of athletes with groin pain: an evidence-based approach to effective management.” Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy. 2018;48(4):239-249.

7. Serner, A., et al. “Mechanisms of acute adductor longus injuries in male football players: a systematic visual video analysis.” British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2019;53(3): 158-164.

8. Wollin M, et al. “In-season monitoring of hip and groin strength, health and function in elite youth soccer: Implementing an early detection and management strategy over two consecutive seasons.” Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport. 2018;21(10):988-993.

9. Oliveras, R., et al. “Field-based evaluation of hip adductor and abductor strength in professional male ice hockey players: Reference values and influencing factors.” Physical Therapy in Sport. 2020;43:204-209.

10. Thornton, H., Delaney, J., Duthie, G., and Dascombe, B. “Developing Athlete Monitoring Systems in Team Sports: Data Analysis and Visualization.” International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance. 2019;14(6):698-705.

11. Stares, J., Dawson, B., Peeling, P., Drew, M., Heasman, J., Rogalski, B., and Colby, M. “How much is enough in rehabilitation? High running workloads following lower limb muscle injury delay return to play but protect against subsequent injury.” Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport. 2018;21(10):1019-1024.

12. Taberner, M., Allen, T., and Cohen, D. “Progressing rehabilitation after injury: Consider the ‘control-chaos continuum’.” British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2019;53(18)1132-1136. bjsports-2018. 10.1136/bjsports-2018-100157.

13. O’Brien, M., Bourne, M. N., Heerey, J., Timmins, R. G., & Pizzari, T. (2019). “A novel device to assess hip strength: Concurrent validity and normative values in male athletes” [accepted manuscript].

The best training method is the one you aren’t doing. Simply put, it is the stimulus you haven’t adapted to. The other side of the coin is that consistency is needed to drive results, and if you continuously program jump, you won’t see meaningful progress. As strength coaches, we must navigate these contrasting ideas to best utilize our time with the athletes we train.

This article is part of a series aimed at providing time-tested training methods that actually get results with athletes. As strength coaches, we all want to do a great job and help facilitate success with our athletes. But as humans we naturally have a built-in fear of being left behind when we see the newest trends popping up around us. This fear of missing out on the newest trends has caused many strength coaches to go far down rabbit holes of purposeless training.

We’ve all been programmed to demonize the coach who says, “I’ve always done it this way, and I’m always going to do it this way.” But let’s be real, that guy really doesn’t exist anymore. Unfortunately, the pendulum has swung drastically the other way, and we have a generation of coaches who listen to a podcast or see a video on social media and think to themselves, “This changes everything.”

I think the “this changes everything” coach is more terrifying than the “always done it this way coach” because at least the “always done it this way coach” is grounded in a belief system, whereas the “this changes everything” coach values what they do so little that they’ll switch up everything at the drop of a hat. There needs to be a balance.

There are many ways to find balance between convention and innovation, but in its simplest form, coaches can find balance by using previous experiences to guide future program design while simultaneously being receptive to new ideas that enhance decision-making.

But what if you lack a strong foundation in previous experience? That’s okay. It doesn’t make you a bad coach, and we’ve all been there. Some of the best wisdom I can offer is “success leaves clues.” Look around you and figure out what the best strength coaches have in common. Then go down rabbit holes on the similarities between these coaches.

Video 1. Depletion-style workouts require great technique and careful programming to work. Incorporating advanced training methods with an athlete and coach who are not able to do the basics isn’t recommended.

As an entry-level coach, I put together a list of who I thought the best college strength coaches in the country were for the sole purpose of figuring out what they had in common. Indeed, there were many differences between them, but what they shared, amongst other things, were well-thought-out, highly organized, and technically executed training programs.

The longer I’m in the team sport setting, the more I appreciate the nuances of training strength generalists compared to training strength specialists. Weightlifters, powerlifters, strongmen, etc. are strength specialists and have advanced training ages with the barbell. Team sport athletes are strength generalists, and to be honest, very, VERY few ever reach an advanced training age. This is because what we do in the weight room for team sport athletes is simply a means of saturating attributes in order to enhance transference to sport.

In the practical application of strength training, this means that we don’t see many athletes advance past the intermediate level, and we must program accordingly. When we first start with our athletes, the majority of their gains can be attributed to improvements in neuromuscular coordination. Essentially, they get better at learning a motor skill. As they move into an intermediate level of training, gains are best achieved by consistently applying intelligent progressive overload schemes to proficient movement patterns. This is where I see a lot of lackluster training, and where I hope to provide value with different training methods in this series of articles.

Sure, old training templates from the 1950s might not be sexy, but many of them have withstood the test of time for a reason—they work, says @CoachAlanBishop. Share on X

Don’t get me wrong: There is a time and place for the vanilla “straight sets” methods of the 5×3, 3×5, 3×10, etc. approach to training, but that time and place isn’t the entire 4-5 years as a college athlete. Going back to “the best training program is the one you aren’t doing” concept, we need to do better than this. Sure, old training templates from the 1950s might not be sexy, but many of them have withstood the test of time for a reason: They work.

Over the course of this series of articles, I’ll dive deeper into many of my favorite methods. Many of these methods are well known, others might be considered lost arts of training. They all work when applied into a well-thought-out and intelligently coached training program.

Mechanical Advantage Drop Sets

A muscle fiber that is recruited but not fatigued is not trained. – Vladimir Zatsiorsky

Drop sets are a technique where an exercise is performed to technical failure and the weight is reduced to continue getting reps until failure is reached again, at which point weight is reduced a final time to continue extending out the set until a concluding bout of technical failure is reached. While there is no limit to the number of weight drops in a set, three different weights used each set is common.

I believe mechanical advantage drop sets to be a more “functional” drop set for athletes trying to simultaneously develop strength and hypertrophy attributes, says @CoachAlanBishop. Share on X

While traditional drop sets have a time and place, mechanical advantage drop sets (MADS) are a method I really like using to extend out a set after technical failure has been reached. I believe MADS to be a more “functional” drop set for athletes trying to simultaneously develop strength and hypertrophy attributes. If you want to get big and strong, you have to lift heavy weight for reps.

From my experience, the final weights used in traditional drop sets are far too light to elicit a “functional” training adaptation of strength and size. If we’re trying to saturate athletic attributes, I don’t know that using vastly submaximal weights will do much more than elicit a localized muscular endurance response.

To perform MADS, we select three variations of a similar exercise and perform each exercise to technical failure before “dropping” to an easier (more mechanically advantageous) exercise in the series. This sequencing allows the athlete to extend out a set and continue getting reps even after the muscle is fatigued. The resistance can be applied via dumbbells, barbells, bodyweight, etc., but the key is to maintain the same weight for all exercises. Example sequencing of exercises include:

• Exercise 1: High Incline Press; Exercise 2: Low Incline Press; Exercise 3: Flat Press

or

• Exercise 1: Pull-Up; Exercise 2: Chin-Up; Exercise 3: Neutral Grip Pull-Up.

For athletes looking to pack on size while still gaining strength, excessive volume is not a good thing. We need to find effective AND efficient exercise selections to get as much motor unit recruitment and muscle fiber stimulation as possible without endless volume. With MADS, we can efficiently stimulate and fatigue muscle fibers in fewer sets by effectively recruiting more muscle fibers as the exercise drops to a more mechanically advantageous position.

I have traditionally implemented this over the years in one of two ways. The first is by using it in my A series of exercises for the day with 3-4 work sets before moving on to accessory work. This is something I’d program if accumulation is the goal of the training card we’re on. When performed as an A series exercise, I tell my athletes to finish one rep short of failure at each variation. This is done when our time is limited, and we need to find a way to get more done in fewer sets.

With MADS, we can efficiently stimulate and fatigue muscle fibers in fewer sets by effectively recruiting more muscle fibers as the exercise drops to a more mechanically advantageous position. Share on X

The second way I implement it is by using it as a “finisher” at the end of a training session for one all-out set to failure at each variation. This is something I might program when intensification is the priority of the training card, but I don’t want to fully neglect the benefits of added volume as part of accessory work.

Training goal should dictate loading parameters, but I recommend that the number of reps in the first exercise be determined by training goal. For example:

• Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy: Select a weight that can be used for 10-12 reps on a mid incline press, stopping one rep short of failure. Move to a low incline press and again working to one rep short of failure, then move to a flat press working to one rep short of failure.
• Myofibrillar hypertrophy: Select a weight that can be used for 6-8 reps on a mid incline press, stopping one rep short of failure. Move to a low incline press, again working until one rep short of failure, then move to a flat press working to one rep short of failure.
• Strength: Select a weight that can be used for 3-5 reps on a mid incline press, stopping one rep short of failure. Move to a low incline press, again working to one rep short of failure, then move to a flat press working to one rep short of failure.

Consistency is needed to drive results, and I’d encourage you utilize this method for three weeks before moving on to a new method. Mechanical advantage drop sets have been around for many decades. They have withstood the test of time and been an effective training tool for many athletes. If you end up utilizing this method, please reach out to me afterward and let me know how it went.

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

Winning, while the goal for most athletes in sport, is a double-edged sword. Though we typically focus on the process of getting to the point of victory, we often don’t consider what happens after we win—and this can cause problems.

Winning, while the goal for most athletes in sport, is a double-edged sword…one of the hardest things to do in sport is to sustain success, says @craig100m. Share on X

Success can often get in the way of future success: Some athletes might struggle for motivation after they win, and struggle to get back to their previous level, hampering their own performance. Others may feel the pressure that success brings, and either become obsessive around what they do—potentially leading to burnout or injury—or break under the expectations, real or imagined, for future success. As a result, one of the hardest things to do in sport is to sustain success; surprisingly, the consequences of success on the future performance of elite athletes are somewhat poorly studied.

Surveying the Research

In 1993, Kathy Kreiner-Phillips and Terry Orlick, both of the University of Ottawa, authored “Winning after Winning: The Psychology of Ongoing Excellence,” their seminal paper on the topic. Although it’s almost 30 years old, the paper has many important implications that are worth considering when it comes to attempting to sustain success and performance in athletes.

For their paper, Kreiner-Phillips and Orlick carried out in-depth interviews with 17 elite athletes (male and female) from seven different sports, who had won at least one major world class competition between 1964 and 1988. They then divided the athletes into three groups:

1. Continued success – These athletes continued to have success in their sport after their initial major competition win.
2. Decline and come back ­– These athletes saw a decline in their performance immediately after their first major competition success, but after at least a year away from winning, they returned to success.
3. Unable to repeat – These athletes won one major competition during their career, and despite continuing to compete, could not return to that level of performance.

The question Kreiner-Phillips and Orlick wanted to explore was this: Were there any recognizable differences in approach between athletes in these groups? 

To begin with, they explored the mindset of the athletes prior to their first world-class competition win. Before the event, the athletes could be broadly categorized into one of three buckets:

• Almost 60% of the athletes stated they were in a belief plus focus on task mindset—they both strongly believed they could perform at this level and were totally focused in the pre-event period on how they would do this. Their belief generally came from prior performance (perhaps they had almost won a previous race or recalled a good performance when previously feeling under pressure).
• Just under 20% of the athletes were in a belief plus extra boost mindset—they also had a strong belief in their ability but felt some additional incentive for success during the competition (for example, competing in a home Olympics).
• Finally, the rest of the athletes (23%) reported feeling more relaxed than usual ahead of their first win. This was brought about by either not expecting to win or shifting their focus away from winning for this particular competition.

Within the event of first success itself, the athletes’ focus could be broadly split into two categories: autopilot connection and attacking connection. In the former, experienced by 82% of the athletes, they reported being on autopilot during the competition, something we would potentially term today as being in a flow state. In the latter, attacking connection, the athletes reported both being connected to their performance and simultaneously focused on getting the most out of each of their actions. This could include aggressive and/or determined self-talk. Both states are examples of the mindsets that elite athletes have when being successful.

Pursuing the Skill of Continued Success

After their initial success, different patterns of behavior began to emerge between the groups. While before their first win there were no differences in approach between the continued success (seven athletes), decline and come back (six athletes), and unable to repeat (four athletes) groups, afterward there were.

The continued success group were able to recreate the focus of their first major win in their subsequent competitions and remained both very confident of being able to win and totally focused on the task at hand, maintaining the autopilot approach. However, in the other two groups, the performance focus shifted away from the actions themselves and to the result. This shift in focus was made into one of four different categories:

• A focus on the outcome as opposed to performance.
• A focus on expectations to win (either theirs or others).
• A loss of focus.
• Trying too hard.

Clearly, being able to refocus on the process and not the outcome during subsequent competitions is important—making it a skill that requires development.

Once the athletes had won for the first time, they experienced a large increase in the demands placed upon them. This included increased pressure to perform (real or perceived), difficulty in finding the required time to train and rest, and a lack of free time due to the increased demands from the media and sponsors. Two-thirds of the athletes reported that their rest time or training time was adversely affected in the period following their win. However, athletes from the continued success group were the least affected: Seventy-one percent of these athletes reported being able to maintain their normal training and rest times following success, when compared to only one (!) athlete from the unable to repeat and decline and come back groups.

Another important finding from the study was that, before winning, none of the athletes had prepared themselves for what was to come afterward in terms of the increased demands, says @craig100m. Share on X

Another important finding from the study was that, before winning, none of the athletes had prepared themselves for what was to come afterward in terms of the increased demands. As a result, there were substantial differences in how well the athletes were able to deal with these new expectations and distractions. Those who handled them the best typically approached them with a positive attitude, viewing these new demands as part of the territory—but, crucially, maintained control over what was happening, with the ability to say no when it interfered with their training or recovery time. Being able to prioritize what was important (training and recovery) over what was nice to have (sponsors and appearances) allowed athletes to maintain their success.

Finally, the authors asked the continued success group how they were able to maintain their high level of performance across subsequent competitions. There is no doubt an element of hindsight bias in play here—which is important to keep in mind—but the general themes were focused around staying on task, keeping things in perspective, and continuing to find enjoyment from the sport. One way to maintain enjoyment and focus is to find new challenges within the sport and view continued success as a challenge to achieve—as opposed to being under pressure to achieve—which seems to have supported the athletes toward their continued high levels of performance.

The decline and come back group also has important lessons to offer here, as they saw an initial drop-off in performance before being able to recover. These athletes spoke about how they were able to refocus on what was important—the process—and reduce what was not important: often, the external demands on their time.

Keeping the Proper Focus

For me, there are many key takeaways from this study, despite it being more than 30 years old. First, prior to initial success, an athlete’s belief in their ability appears crucial: This can be built from good performances in either previous competitions or in training. Being able to cultivate this belief is therefore important, and so selecting competitions that allow the athlete to grow in confidence or providing a boost in training sessions prior to the competition is likely very important.

Once success happens, it’s important to retain the conditions under which it occurred. In the two groups that did not have sustained success, the athletes reported changing their focus, either to the outcome as opposed to the process or on the expectations that they were being placed under. Keeping athletes focused on what made them successful in the first place is, therefore, crucial, especially in the face of increased demands from the media, sponsors, and fans. Being able to maintain the required time for training and rest/recovery is an important pillar of this.

Being able to handle the demands and changes that come with success is an important factor in future success, says @craig100m. Share on X

The clearest theme throughout the whole paper is the need to focus on doing what is important. For athletes, this is training, recovering, and preparing for competition in a similar way to what they were doing when they had their success. This is summed up in the conclusion by the paper’s authors, where they state that the best performers both respected the patterns that allowed them to excel and had strategies for dealing with the distractions that came with success. Being able to handle the demands and changes that come with success is an important factor in future success—something that we all must keep in mind.

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

The conversation around sleep has become ubiquitous: It’s one of the most important aspects of enhancing recovery and performance, not to mention its benefits for mental processes like memory consolidation. Athletes need to develop sound sleep habits, and we know this.

However, many coaches don’t arm themselves with strategies to help athletes maximize sleep and recovery when life and sports inevitably get in the way of a perfect sleep routine. In particular, we have to take into consideration: athletes play games at night, all but guaranteeing they won’t get to sleep at a decent hour.

Competing late at night causes an influx of sympathetic hormones, like cortisol and adrenaline, while suppressing the secretion of parasympathetic hormones like melatonin.

When athletes train in the evening, it elevates sympathetic hormones and suppresses parasympathetic hormones at exactly the time when we want it to be at its lowest—near the onset of sleep. Share on X

In an optimal sleep pattern and circadian rhythm, melatonin rises in the evenings as we prepare for bed and cortisol sinks to its lowest point. When athletes train in the evening, it elevates sympathetic hormones and suppresses parasympathetic hormones at exactly the time when we want it to be at its lowest—near the onset of sleep.

The solution to this would be obvious: Set up schedules with more day games and eliminate late-night practices. However, life and logistics get in the way, and the reality is that sports are usually played at night.

At the highest levels, (NBA, MLB, NHL) athletes need to compete at their best between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. Combined with the brutal playing schedule, where teams need to play back-to-backs—and three games in four nights—this can lead to chronic issues with sleep and recovery.

This is not just a professional sports issue. College athletes play in the evening as well, and often on back-to-back nights (Friday and Saturday). High school teams often compete in the evening, with schedules that can be dictated by field/facility availability. Youth sports have perhaps the worst schedule of all, as they often have practices scheduled at 7 p.m., 8 p.m., or 9 p.m. several evenings per week, even during a school week.

As performance coaches, we may have some influence over practice times. For the most part, though, game times and travel schedules are largely out of our hands, and it’s our job to take the schedule given to us and make the best of it.

Here are some proven strategies to help athletes recover after nighttime competition and training.

The Post-Game Hormonal State

After a game, sympathetic hormones are rushing through an athlete. Our job is to provide athletes with strategies to shift into a parasympathetic state as swiftly as possible.

Nearly all strategies to induce quality sleep after a game revolve around this concept. Generally speaking, we want athletes  to limit activities that cause an uptick in sympathetic hormones and encourage them to make changes that support the flood of parasympathetic hormones.

We won’t be able to completely reverse the downsides of playing sports in the evening. Rather, we do the best we can to get athletes back into a state of relaxation and recovery. As the performance coach, it’s our job to work with our athletes to discuss which strategies will work best for them and their lifestyle, ensuring they’re both accessible and practical.

We won’t be able to completely reverse the downsides of playing sports in the evening. Rather, we do the best we can to get athletes back into a state of relaxation and recovery. Share on X

In my experience, helping athletes make changes starts with educating them on why it’s important and why it matters to them. With adolescent athletes, ask them questions like whether they’re tired during the day after they stay up late after hockey (they likely are). Implant that it’s possible to wake up with energy and feel great, even after late-night games or practices, by making a few changes.

Or, if they’re exceptionally competitive, appeal to how much better they’ll perform in their sport. Ask them to imagine the best they’ve ever felt in their sport—a day where they could do no wrong and they felt great. By improving their sleep, they can always feel like they’re at the top of their game. Ultimately, just like implementing any suggestions to athletes, they have to see what’s in it for them.

Many of these strategies won’t require any technology, although I do recommend athletes monitor their recovery looking at their daily HRV score on their wearable device so they can get a sense of which activities help or hamper their sleep.

Add a Foam Roll (or Massage) Session with Deep Breathing

Foam rolling and deep breathing can increase vagal tone¹ and therefore facilitate activation of the parasympathetic nervous system. Right after a game ends, have the foam rollers right there in the locker room so that, as they shower and get ready to leave, athletes can use a few minutes to pair deep breathing with foam rolling. As for quantity, a little bit can go a long way. Thirty seconds is better than nothing. Choose a few body parts that are typically tight after a game (hip flexors, glutes, mid back) and take 3-5 deep breaths per body part.

All told, this will take your athletes less than five minutes, but it’s a key step to shifting to a parasympathetic tone quickly, which will ultimately help the athletes get to sleep sooner and improve the quality of that sleep.

Like foam rolling, traditional massages can also activate the parasympathetic nervous system.² Even in pro settings, having a massage therapist on hand is a huge luxury, but I encourage athletes who have another person who’d want to give them a massage (like a significant other) to include it as they wind down for the evening.

Deep breathing is a powerful tool, and intuitively I think we all know that if you take a few deep breaths, you’ll instantly calm down and relax. More scientifically, slow, conscious breathing increases activation of our vagus nerve, which in turn blunts the sympathetic nervous system and increases activation of the parasympathetic nervous system.³

After games (assuming there’s no post-game lift), players should pair deep diaphragmatic breathing with a quick foam rolling and stretching session. Share on X

And, of course, deep breathing is something anybody can do, pretty much anywhere. You can encourage your athletes to do it immediately after competition. While this would help, in my experience athletes will stick to a post-game breathing regimen if they have some structure. That’s why, after games (assuming there’s no post-game lift), players should pair deep, diaphragmatic breathing with a quick foam rolling and stretching session.

Post-Game Nutrition and Sleep

Of course, athletes need to eat. And they need to eat well. Getting to bed 20 minutes earlier at the expense of getting in the nutrition they need is not a good trade-off. However, there are some foods that will harm sleep more than others.

Ideally, at night our digestive tract is slower than normal, and a heavy meal will require our digestive system to work overtime and potentially disrupt sleep.⁴ But athletes need to eat. A solution to this is to encourage athletes to consume faster-digesting foods.

In a perfect world, this would be a shake. And some athletes can make an absolute beast of a shake that contains all the nutrition they need. However, other athletes—like younger athletes trying to gain weight—need a full-fledged meal. Encourage them to make little shifts toward faster-digesting foods. Choose white rice over brown rice, eggs over steak. Educate them on digestion times of different foods so they can make better decisions. A protein shake can supplement their caloric needs here.

Of course, the nutritional needs of every athlete will vary, but all else being equal, choose the faster-digesting foods.

Manage Blue Light Input

Having a bit of structure immediately after competition will go a long way, but there are still several hours from the time the athletes leave the facility until they go to sleep. During that window, a huge step all athletes should take is to manage their blue light input.

Along with exercise, light entering through our skin and eyes is one of the main regulators of our circadian rhythm. Without getting too deep into a discussion of evolutionary biology, we evolved to be awake and alert when the blue skies were out. On the flip side, with the absence of blue light (and a presence of red lights, like fires), we evolved to shift into relaxation and sleep. The less blue light exposure athletes have after games, the more melatonin will be secreted—which will not only help them get to sleep but help them get higher-quality sleep.

The less blue light exposure athletes have after games, the more melatonin will be secreted—which will not only help them get to sleep but help them get higher-quality sleep. Share on X

With the rise of technology and smartphones, getting athletes to put the phone and other screens away is one of the biggest challenges (especially if you work with high school athletes). Yet, it’s also one of the best steps we can take to help with their recovery.

Here are some specific ideas to help athletes limit blue light exposure after late-night games. Of course, you won’t be able to strictly monitor whether your athletes follow these suggestions or not, so it has to be an ongoing conversation with each one of them.

1. Make sure night mode is on. This one sounds so obvious and so easy. In fact, it is obvious, and it is easy. And yet you’ll be surprised to find out how many of your athletes have the brightness all the way up on their phone right until the moment they go to bed. This is low-hanging fruit, and if you can’t even get your athletes to do this, you have further buy-in problems.

Often, athletes—especially younger ones—will have to be on their devices in the evening doing schoolwork. Without getting into a broader discussion of study habits for young athletes, take the extra few seconds to also put the laptop on night mode.

While night shift mode is a good start, the next level for this is to also turn on grayscale. The grayscale feature also has the benefit of making phones less addicting⁵, and therefore might help athletes put the freaking things away just because they won’t be continually craving more dopamine hits. Doing these things won’t eliminate blue light, but they are helpful first steps.

2. Encourage athletes to have a screen curfew. A coach won’t be able to enforce this, but it’s the best step for actually eliminating blue light after a game to prepare for bed. Right after a game, the athletes have their night mode and grayscale on. Once they’ve gotten home (or to the hotel room) and had their meal, it’s time to unplug for the night.

To a lot of younger athletes, this can be borderline traumatizing, so you have to offer them alternatives for things they can do in place of being on their phone. Oh, and no—TV is not an option.

Again, you’ll have to work with each athlete to figure out what will work best for them. Of course, factors like schoolwork, home obligations, and—let’s be honest—their social lives may push this back, but help the athlete understand that whenever they don’t need their devices, they should try to put them away. Their social life will still be there in the morning.

As a general guideline, the athlete should aim to put all screens away one hour before they plan on being asleep. So, if they get home at 10:30 (a bit optimistic, but let’s stick with it), and have the goal of being asleep by midnight, then put away all screens at 11.

3. Options for athletes to replace screen time.

●      Read a Book. Now, getting athletes to read a physical book can be as challenging as nearly anything, depending on the athlete. It arguably deserves its own article. However you go about this discussion, reading is a natural option.

●      Journaling. This is one of those new-agey practices that you’ll hear in all the latest self-help books. However, despite this connotation, a journaling practice can help athletes consolidate their memories, stresses, successes, and thought processes, helping them gain a clearer sense of the world, relax their mind, and prepare for sleep.

●      Conversation. Ask your athletes if they’ve thought about actually talking to the people they live with. In the case of older professional athletes, this usually means talking to their significant other. Besides the sleep benefits, who knows what kind of positive impact it can have to spend some time talking instead of on screens before bed. Just a thought.

There are limitless options—as long as it doesn’t involve screens, you’ll be helping out your athletes.

Encourage Athletes to Meditate

Meditation is a concept that gets thrown around a lot—and, depending on whether you talk to a neuroscientist or a traditional Buddhist practitioner, you’re going to get very different definitions. You can read more about some the benefits of meditation here, but within the context of sleep, meditation has some interesting research because it can help slow down brain waves, which are a measure of the electrical impulses of the brain⁶.

While we’re awake, our brain waves are faster than when we’re sleeping. In fact, deep sleep is also called “slow-wave sleep” precisely because our brain waves are their slowest during this phase of sleep.

While meditating, we won’t get into “delta” or slow brain waves, we can leave “beta” (our normal waking brain waves) and enter “alpha” or even sometimes “theta” brain waves through meditation. And then, once we are asleep, we’ll have an easier time getting into deep, restorative sleep. So, not only will meditation help us get to rest, but it can also help us get deeper sleep. And, of course, deep, restorative sleep will be way more valuable to athletes than light sleep.

Not only will meditation help us get to rest, but it can also help us get deeper sleep. And, of course, deep, restorative sleep will be way more valuable to athletes then light sleep. Share on X

Doing this in the evening will help shift our brain into relaxation (not to mention meditation also often involves deep breathing). There’s also interesting research that shows meditating at any time of day helps the brain calm down later in the evening. In one study, insomniacs meditated for eight weeks in the afternoon (10 a.m.-2 p.m.); after eight weeks they had improved, suggesting that learning how to relax during the daytime can help people get to sleep at night⁷.

Strategies to Help Athletes Meditate

Now, it’s one thing to understand the benefits of meditation, it’s another thing—as every performance coach knows—to get your athletes to establish the habit. And meditation, in my experience, has been one of the tougher sells.

But meditation has a benefit that a lot of other aspects of our job—like speed and power training—don’t have: athletes appreciate the benefits much more quickly. But, that’s only if it can click for them. This often begins by breaking down misconceptions surrounding meditation. I often have to explain that it’s not about sitting still for hours on end; it can be as simple as bringing conscious attention to something (like your breath or an object) and then recognizing when the mind wanders from that. Regardless of whether it clicks right away or not, it’s crucial to lower the stakes at first.

Encourage your athletes to set a timer on their phones for just three minutes, and to try to stay aware of their breath. Don’t change it, just notice it. The three minutes will go by quickly. Over a bit of time, you can have them work up to 10 minutes.

By the time an athlete is doing it for 10 minutes and is starting to “get it,” you often won’t have to mention it. They’ll come to you next week talking about how they downloaded a meditation app (like Headspace or Calm) and have been doing it every day.

Smart Supplementation

When it comes to sleep, there’s one mineral that a huge proportion of the active population is deficient in: magnesium. One study showed that 68% of Americans are deficient.⁸ For athletes, this estimate is likely higher because magnesium is lost through sweat.

Additionally, magnesium is not easy to get through whole foods, so supplementing with it is usually the correct route. However, this gets even more complicated, because most supplemental forms of magnesium aren’t bioavailable, and in fact, they act as a laxative. Rushing for the restroom is not what you want your athletes doing the morning after a game.

Many have made suggestions such as a magnesium cream you can rub on your skin or taking Epsom salt (magnesium sulfate) baths. However, research on whether our body can absorb magnesium through the skin is mixed.⁹

Another option is to do deeper research on which forms of magnesium are better absorbed in our body. One form that’s showing promise, and in particular brain-health benefits, is magnesium l-threonate. However, these high-quality forms aren’t cheap, so you’ll have to educate your athletes on the benefits and let them make the decision. To avoid serious deficiency, encourage them to eat a few servings of leafy greens each day to cover the bases.

What About Post-Game Lifts?

In the last few years, training after games has become more and more popular among professional sports teams. The logic here is simple: In a jam-packed game schedule, there’s very little time to get quality training in. By training immediately after a game, the athletes have the maximum amount of time to recover from the lift before the next game.

Post-game lifts, though, have the obvious downside of pushing back the athlete’s sleep even further. However, in the professional ranks, these post-game lifts are only 20 to 30 minutes. If you’re organized, you can get a lot of critical training work done in this short time span. And the athletes are already in a heightened sympathetic nervous system state, so they can just stay in a sympathetic state for an extra 20 minutes. Adding a few extra minutes of sympathetic activity to a get a lift in usually makes a lot of sense.

Post-game lifts have the obvious downside of pushing back the athlete’s sleep even further. But if you’re organized, you can get a lot of critical training work done in this short time span. Share on X

The alternative might be to have the team come in early the next morning, which will have its own drawbacks. The third option would be to just not train. As the saying goes, you can’t make an omelette without breaking some eggs, so every option has trade-offs. Depending on the specific schedule, in a lot of cases training right after a game is the best decision.

Immediately after that training session though, have the athletes do what they can to get into a parasympathetic state to jumpstart the recovery process and help them get better sleep. Have the rollers ready and take them through some deep breathing.

Assessing What Works

While I’ve outlined a lot of different strategies here, of course you don’t have to implement all of them with your athletes. Here’s where the art of coaching comes in. It’s your job as a coach to select and gently encourage athletes to try whichever methods will work best for them; this, in all reality, is likely whichever method the athlete will actually stick to.

Second, you’ve probably noticed I didn’t say anything here about getting more sleep. In the busy life and crazy schedule of an athlete, the amount of sleep is obviously important. As performance coaches, that’s often out of our control, and it’s part of our job to help athletes improve the quality of their sleep.

Finally, you’ll want to have a plan to measure and assess whether these changes are effective, so that you and your athletes can see the difference. A simple way to do this is to measure HRV on a wearable device. As I talked about in-depth in this article, HRV pulled while you sleep essentially measures the activity of your parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system. A higher HRV indicates more parasympathetic activity, so you can use the wearable device to track what’s actually supporting the athlete’s sleep and recovery.

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. Lastova, K., Nordvall, M., Walters-Edwards, M., Allnutt, A., and Wong, A. “Cardiac Autonomic and Blood Pressure Responses to an Acute Foam Rolling Session.” Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2018;32(10):2825-2830.

2. Diego, M. and Field, T. “Moderate pressure massage elicits a parasympathetic nervous system response.” International Journal of Neuroscience. 2009;119(5):630-638.

3. Bergland, C. “Diaphragmatic Breathing Exercises and Your Vagus Nerve.” Psychology Today. 5/16/17. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-athletes-way/201705/diaphragmatic-breathing-exercises-and-your-vagus-nerve

4. Dantas, R.O. and Aben-Athat, C.G. “Aspects of sleep effects on the digestive tract” (in Portuguese). Arq Gastroenterol. 2002;39(1):55-59.

5. Nield, D. “Try Grayscale Mode to Curb Your Phone Addiction.” Wired. 12/1/19. https://www.wired.com/story/grayscale-ios-android-smartphone-addiction/

6. “Brain waves and meditation.” Science Daily. 3/31/10. Submitted by The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100319210631.htm

7. “Meditation May Be an Effective Treatment for Insomnia.” Science Daily. 6/15/09. Source: American Academy of Sleep Medicine. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090609072719.htm

8. King, D.E., Mainous 3rd, A.G., Geesey, M.E., and Woolson, R.F. “Dietary magnesium and C-reactive protein levels.” Journal of the American College of Nutrition. 2005;24(3):166-171.

9. Gröber, U., Werner, T., Vormann, J., and Kisters, K. “Myth or Reality—Transdermal Magnesium?” Nutrients. 2017;9(8):813.

In Iten, a small town in Kenya known around the world (and on social media) for the large training groups shown in popular photos, more than 200 runners often come together for a morning run. Interestingly, the same group of runners going for a one-hour morning run includes 800m track runners together with 42km road runners and all others in between, performing the same workout.

(Photo above of runners arriving for a fartlek run in Iten, Kenya, by Steven Vanlancker.)

“At times I join the large training group of Kimumu in Eldoret for my morning runs only on Mondays, but I have a different program for the rest of the week,” Bethwell Birgen, the 2017 world indoor tour 1500m winner and 2018 3000m world indoor bronze medalist, once told me. Birgen is a 1500m runner, but most of those in the mentioned group are marathon runners.

Even if there were somehow a perfect training program that suited everyone, it would still be impossible for everybody to diligently follow it. That “perfect” program would be interrupted by normal personal inconveniences like work schedules, injury, and illnesses, as well as uncontrollable events like floods, heavy rains, heat waves and—in some areas—political instability.

Endurance Programs and Apps

Some elite long distance runners openly share their training programs, and fans and other runners try to copy everything they do in the hope of reaching the same level. With advances in technology, runners in training can now easily check apps like Strava and Garmin Connect to see the training programs other runners follow.

“Coach, you gave me a long run of 30 kilometers, but I checked and an elite runner I follow is always doing 38 kilometers in their long runs.”

These are the type of comments and questions any experienced coach hears from their runners. But it is not necessarily straightforward that the programs others use will apply to everybody else, depending on different fitness levels, goal races, weather patterns, and other factors.

It is not necessarily straightforward that the programs others use will apply to everybody else, depending on different fitness levels, goal races, weather patterns, etc., says @kenyanathlete. Share on X

Advances in technology have also led to an emergence of fitness wearables and apps that offer advice on how long to run or how long to recover. But most of these devices can be inaccurate at times. I had to call one of the clients I coach online to inquire if he was still alive when I checked and saw his heart rate was showing 0 bpm in the last stages of his run! At times, the device may advise you to recover for seven hours after your afternoon run, which would put you in an awkward situation of having to wake up in the middle of the night to go for your next run.

Coaching Considerations

Below are some considerations that an endurance coach and a long distance runner should make while modifying programs to suit their different situations.

Abilities

One man’s food is another man’s poison, goes the old saying. There are runners who run an easy pace in 3:50/km while others do their threshold runs at around a 5:00/km pace. It would only be proper for a coach to separate runners according to their abilities and give them different workouts.

One of the best ways to go about this is to base the training programs more on duration than on distances.

It is only proper for a coach to separate runners by their abilities and give them different workouts. One great way to do this is to base the training programs more on duration than on distances. Share on X

A 1-hour 10-minute easy run may take some runners about 16 kilometers to finish, while others may cover around 8 kilometers. However, at the end of the day, they all went for a 1-hour 10-minute run.

Goals

A coach should know what their runners are aiming to achieve in their runs in terms of race times and when they are expected to compete next. It won’t make sense to ask a runner whose goal is to finish their first 10-kilometer race to go for a 35-kilometer long run with another runner who is preparing to run a marathon.

There is also a time to simply build up mileage and endurance, and there is a time to focus more on speed workouts and tempo runs, depending on the nearness of the targeted races.

Age

As runners grow older, they are more prone to injuries, and there are workouts that are more suited for the older generations. For example, shorter Fartlek runs of one-minute hard and one-minute easy repetitions may not work well for runners over the age of 60 years.

There are mixed opinions about children under the age of 18 running marathons, and while there are no sufficient studies to support or disapprove this, it comes naturally that allowing children to run grueling distances borders on child abuse and exploitation.

A coach should take into consideration the age of their athletes and give out workouts that are proper for them. Older runners should not be given a lot of short, explosive track intervals, as they would easily end up injuring themselves.

Circumstances, Injury, and Illnesses

Some runners are too competitive to accept the fact that they need to stop their training momentarily for their own benefit. It is the job of a coach to observe the behavior of their runners and know when something is amiss, when they should slow down their training, and when they should even stop it for a while.

There are case-by-case individual circumstances that may arise. Some runners may be allergic to cold and need a different time of the day to run, while others could be recovering from injuries and illnesses that may require them to do some easier training.

Discipline and Determination

A coach needs to learn more about the character of the runners they coach. There are those who tend to have too much drive to train hard and end up overtraining, and there are those who always feel that the workouts they have been given are too much. A wise coach will know how to get the runners from both extremes to come to a middle ground that the coach feels is the best workout for them.

“For athletes who are used to asking for more workouts, I normally give them slightly less so that when they ask and I allow them to do the ‘extra workouts’ they actually end up meeting the threshold that I had designed for them in the first place; for those who complain, I give them a little extra and will allow them to stop when they have done what I had in mind for them.” Sammy Mitei, a famous coach in Kenya, told me this bit of advice once during an interview we had together.

Schedule Conflicts

There are runners whose work schedules don’t allow them to have more than one run in a day. Instead of a one-hour run in the morning and another 50-minute run in the evening, a coach could find a middle ground and give the runner a 1-hour 30-minute run for the day.

Not just work schedules but other conflicts may interrupt the normal training for the day. A coach should look at the training week as a whole, note the areas that have not been covered, and reschedule the next program to cover that. It may mean moving a long run into the following week, among other adjustments.

Modifications Runners Can Make on Their Own

A distance runner in a training group can also adapt their program based on a number of factors relative to the other runners in the group.

Fitness Level

If a runner has been out of training for a while and is just resuming their training, it is likely they have gained some weight. Joining a group doing some track intervals in this state is a sure recipe for injury: These runners should begin with slow and easy runs as their body adapts to training.

The other sense of fitness level is being honest with one’s maximum ability at the moment. It takes a lot of patience to be able to run like some of the world’s top runners, and it is only wise to gauge oneself and not fall into the temptation of trying to outdo everyone in training. Training should not be a competition or a way to always measure oneself against others.

Distance Specialties

A runner should know what exactly they want to gain from a particular group’s workout. For example, a middle distance track runner may choose to go with a group of marathon runners on a long run, but they should know when to stop and let the rest continue.

Previous Workouts

In an effective training program, a hard day should always be followed by an easy recovery day. A runner should avoid being drawn into the temptation of doing hard workouts every day. The previous workout may have been easier for the group but hard for you. Or, you may have done a different workout from that of the group.

Sickness

During sickness and immediately after, it is good to allow your body time to recover before getting back into hard training. Impatient runners often get back into their normal training too early and spend more months ahead wondering why their bodies are not responding well to training.

Patience is a virtue that most of the successful endurance runners possess. It is better to live to fight another day than to keep struggling without seeing any improvements.

Patience is a virtue that most of the successful endurance runners possess. It is better to live to fight another day than to keep struggling without seeing any improvements, says @kenyanathlete. Share on X

Improving Weaknesses

A runner may realize that they lag behind in a particular area in training. Perhaps they may have been away when others were concentrating on speed workouts. In this case, while others may go for a different workout, the runner may decide to schedule more speed workouts in their individualized programs to try and catch up.

It’s okay for a runner to skip a certain workout in the group and go back to repeat a speed workout after a recovery day between the previous workouts.

Decision-Making in an App-Based Program

The advantage of app-based training programs is that they can easily detect when you are improving, when you overtrained and need a longer recovery, or even when you may be sick, advising on the appropriate time to rest accordingly.

Runners who follow app-based training programs may also need to modify their scheduled training based on individual factors the software doesn’t account for.

Security

Sometimes, the time the app recommends for you to run may not be the right time according to the reality on the ground. From storms to political violence to odd night hours, it is always good to make judgments for yourself on when and for how long to go for a run.

Group Training

There are benefits from group training, especially when it comes to long runs and speed workouts. Groups can make it easier to pull resources together to hire a pick-up truck to provide you with rehydration drinks on the course or for transportation to a good course to run on. In this case, a runner may have to adjust their training program to be in harmony with the program of the group members.

If as a runner you see the need to join a group for a quality workout, and your app is giving you a different program, feel free to ignore the app.

Work and Family Demands

There are occasions in life that require your full commitment, be it work- or family-related. This will force you to reschedule some runs for a later day. This is fine. But make sure you note the particular workout you missed and find a way of compensating for it. Reschedule the workouts only if doing so won’t interfere with the other workouts ahead of the week.

Most of the time, I would recommend skipping the workouts you missed rather than letting more than two hard workouts follow each other consecutively. You will end up not having quality training in your second workout and not recovering well from your first workout.

Injury and Sickness

You don’t need the app to recommend a rest for you when you tear a hamstring. As a runner, you should always give first priority to your health and well-being.

Making Individualization Work

Back in 2007, the first full-time coach I got lucky to work with as a runner was Erick Kimaiyo, who currently coaches Brigid Kosgei, the women’s marathon record holder at 2:14:04. This was when I joined a high-performance altitude training camp for the first time in my life. The camp, Kapsait Nike Athletics Training Camp, is at an altitude of over 9,600 feet above sea level and continues to produce some of the world’s top runners.

Looking back at how Erick used to issue his training programs and how he would deal with us as a large group of runners, I can now fully understand why he did so. There were instances when he would assign runners into different groups in the evening before giving out programs to be done the following morning. One group would be taken to a faster course, while the other group would be taken on a tougher course—often, the slower runners would be given the tough course!

I remember one day when he described a route of about 38 kilometers to go for a run, then asked if anyone wasn’t feeling well and needed a shorter course. Some runners came forward. He scrutinized them closely, then said we were all going for the 38-kilometer run.

Over the years, I have trained under other coaches, and I took many lessons from them and also from my personal experience as a long distance runner. In all these, the main aim of an individualized program has been to cater to the specific goals and circumstances of an individual runner. A coach or a long distance runner needs to be quick and flexible in identifying and adjusting to situations that require customization for better results from their training.

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