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Most of us who have been in the field of athletic preparation for a while are familiar with Vern Gambetta. For those who aren’t, Gambetta is a 40-plus year veteran in the athletic development profession. His experience has run the gamut in terms of levels (professional, Olympic, high school) and sports (baseball, soccer, swimming, track). Gambetta’s ability to keep things simple and help his athletes master the basics has made his insights and applications timeless.

One such application I’ve employed and adapted is the leg circuit that bears his name. He developed the Gambetta leg circuit in the mid-1980s as a tool to serve as a foundation for lower body training for all athletes, at all levels, at various points in their training. Leg circuits develop general strength and work capacity in the lower body for explosive, speed, and power athletes. These general qualities will form a foundation for more intense work in the future (i.e., absolute strength and plyometrics). As we’ll learn, the pace and progression of leg circuits (LCs) are key to developing local hypertrophy in the muscles, resiliency of the connective tissues, and efficiency of the vascular tissues.

According to Gambetta, the benefits of leg circuits go beyond horsepower and engine size; he has also employed LCs as return to play criteria in lower extremity injury rehabilitation. Share on X

According to Gambetta, the benefits of leg circuits go beyond horsepower and engine size; he has also employed LCs as return to play criteria in lower extremity injury rehabilitation, bridging the gap between physical therapy and athletic preparation. The goal for athletes is to complete five full leg circuits uninterrupted, with elite performers clocking in at just above five minutes. Although this is rare, we are looking at 250 reps in that amount of time.¹ From a practical standpoint, this makes complete sense, as the first load any athlete (or person, for that matter) should be able to handle is their own body weight in an athletic manner.

The Classic Progression and Execution

The Gambetta leg circuit consists of four exercises, performed in order:

1. Squat
2. Forward lunge
3. Dynamic step-up
4. Squat jump

Repetitions have three level distinctions—the mini, half, and full—that you can use as progressions and adapt to needs (think short-long spectrum here). The mini leg circuit consists of five reps in the squat, three reps per leg for the lunges and step-ups, then three squat jumps, and it serves as the entry point for leg circuits. The next level is the half LC, where repetitions increase to 10/5e/5e/5, respectively. The full leg circuit consists of 20 reps of the squat, then 10 reps each leg for lunges, the same for step-ups, and 10 squat jumps.

Gambetta views the full leg circuit as the standard and the pinnacle, if you will. For Gambetta, performance of the full LC for five consistent sets (no rest between sets) serves as the hallmark of an athlete’s general fitness and readiness to play, existing as a test and a goal.²

For Gambetta, performance of the full leg circuit for 5 consistent sets (no rest between sets) serves as the hallmark of an athlete’s general fitness and readiness to play. Share on X

Leg circuits progress via a systematic increase in volume and decrease in rest intervals. The first session consists of three sets of the circuit with 30 seconds of rest between exercises and one minute between completion of each circuit. Each subsequent session calls for adding one more set of work, culminating at five sets after three sessions. If athletes can complete the circuits with proper technique and make the rest intervals, then the next session will start again with three sets with the rest between exercise eliminated but preserved between circuits. The final progression would be three, four, and five circuits without rest between exercises and circuits.

The key to the effectiveness of the leg circuits goes beyond sets, reps, and the volume progression. Gambetta espouses that the rhythm, tempo, and speed of the repetitions are key to mimicking the eccentric loads seen in practice, play, and higher intensity preparation. In my understanding, the fast-down/fast-up pace (with the goal of one rep per second on squats and one rep per 1.5 seconds on lunges and low step-ups) accentuates the eccentric forces without having to resort to riskier tactics. This makes LCs ideal as a prerequisite for external loading and withstanding landing forces, cutting forces, and impact forces.²

Vern Gambetta warns that this fast-eccentric work may result in extreme soreness; although not the goal, soreness will give the athlete and coach feedback that the proper exercise tempo was executed.¹ I’ll add that coaches can use this to drive buy-in in this ever-growing age of those who equate the value of the work with how bad their body feels afterward. Many young athletes (especially endurance-based) are about “feeling it,” and I can say from experience that they surely will!

Even without the use of external load, intensity is raised by the consistent exposure to rep pace and the gradual accumulation of work density via the dwindling rest periods. In my experience, this is what makes the Gambetta leg circuits a tremendous tool to raise several critical general qualities at once without having to get too fancy.

The beauty of the leg circuits lies in the versatility of the concept. As much as the mini, to half, to full leg circuits are progressions, they can also flow the other way when employing more advanced means or when having to scale them back a bit during a peak or taper phase. We will also find that the ability to stretch, condense, and vary training cycles (based on these circuits) can help coaches scale their plans to fit training age, needs, and time of season.

LDISO Leg Circuit

One variation I discovered is marrying long-duration isometric holds into the circuit at the onset of a beginner’s program. Readers of this website should be familiar with the benefits of LDISOs, and I won’t go into all of them here, but I will add that their placement in this variation serves as a building block for brain and body. Physiologically, LDISOs are paramount for building the musculo-tendon, musculo-fascia, and neuromuscular structures. Targeted long duration isometrics re-educate the tissues to target optimal fascial lines to establish neural networks. The LDISO attacks the origin and insertion points in the extreme lengthened position. The thickening of these points increases the durability and elastic response.³

Psychologically, this increased exposure to time (in the “weakest” joint position) builds a tolerance for discomfort and “slows” things down enough for the athlete to garner familiarity with proper position and posture. In turn, coaches can teach in “live time,” cueing and correcting the athlete’s technique as well as encouraging their effort in the struggle to hold. As most of us intuitively know, tolerance to pain is as much mental as it is physical, and it is a bit of a lost skill in most of today’s athletes.

In the LDISO variation of the leg circuit, the squat, lunge, and jump squat with body weight begin with an isometric hold that precedes five repetitions (the lunges serve as two exercises to train each leg). The first session is comprised of 15-second holds, followed by five repetitions of each respective exercise. We add five seconds to each hold every session, culminating with 30-second holds. Volume is not waved over the four sessions, as we are in an introductory phase and will remain at three sets of each circuit per session.

I discovered the value of marrying LDISOs to the leg circuit while training an athlete via Zoom—the LDISOs allowed them to get a feel for the proper position via physiological signals. Share on X

Believe it or not, I discovered the value of marrying LDISOs to the leg circuit while training an athlete via Zoom this past spring. The lack of physical presence, as well as my normal equipment, called for some critical thinking skills to figure out a way to teach without being there. In my experience, the LDISOs allowed this athlete to get a feel for the proper position via physiological signals.

The Broken Leg Circuit: Put It on the Clock!

The next step in my progression resembles the order of the standard leg circuit, with a few new caveats. We keep the squat as the first exercise, followed by alternating leg forward lunges, then we introduce the dynamic low step-up, and finish with squat jumps. Accompanying the slight change in exercises is the introduction of the “broken” format, where each exercise is performed on a certain clock interval, as opposed to continuously. (I’m borrowing the term “broken” from the swim world, which denotes breaking up a specified distance with short periods of rest. It is used to train distances in more intense chunks usually above a race pace.)

The clock does a couple of things for us here:

1. Athletes can keep an eye on the clock to gauge rep pace. In the first phase, the fatigue from the ISO hold may inhibit the speed of the rep pace, which is okay in my book at that stage because our focus is technique and tolerance. Now, we can give them a goal of rep pace.
2. The clock keeps our rest periods honest. The preference here is an EMOM interval, where each exercise is done on subsequent minutes. If we keep the rep goal of one per second on squats and one per 1.5 seconds in lunges and step-ups, then we get a work ratio of 10-20 seconds for the half leg circuit and 20-30 seconds if we use the full leg circuit.

This format allows us to train the aerobic and lactic zones for a prolonged period, as the work-to-rest intervals lie in the 1:2 and 1:1 ratio for the half and full leg circuit variations.⁴

In broken leg circuits, we do not take an extended rest period; rather, we stay on the interval until the prescribed number of sets is complete. The micro progression (session-to-session) follows Gambetta’s volume prescription, adding a set of work each week. In session 1, the three circuits are done within a 12-minute time, then four circuits in 16 minutes, culminating with five circuits in 20 minutes in the third session (for the sake of milking the slow cooker, we apply a fourth session at week 1 volume).

The macro progression (every four sessions) follows the short-long spectrum, leading off with the half leg circuit for four sessions before applying the full leg circuit for the next four sessions. A cyclic progression will look like this:

• Sessions 1-4: Broken half leg circuit with body weight
• Sessions 5-8: Broken full leg circuit with body weight

From here, I’ve found two places we can go:

1. We can add 15-25% bodyweight load and repeat the format. Loading options include dumbbells, sandbags, or weight vests. I’ve found this helpful for athletes who need a bit more strength or need to preserve power.
2. We can condense the interval to bridge the gap to continuous leg circuit. I prefer the E45O45 (every 45 on the 45) as this seems to fit a 1:1/2 work-to-rest ratio that will allow athletes a lead-up to the pace of the unbroken circuit.

The amount of time you have with your athletes and the time of season will determine the frequency of the sessions. A compressed progression calls for biweekly leg circuit days, which will get you through each cycle (phase) in two weeks. If you decide to apply the broken EMOM, broken E45O45, to “unbroken” (short-long) progression, you will complete the three levels in six weeks as long as you adhere to the technical execution.

For athletes who have a short time to prepare for practice and play, this compressed model serves as a great general lead-up into competitive season. For the beginning athlete, the compressed model will quickly develop work capacity adaptations and faster learning via frequent practice.

Putting the leg circuits on the clock allows coaches to scale the stress based on needs while checking off many boxes on the GPP list in a fraction of the time. Share on X

Coaches can also stretch this on a weekly basis, doubling the time to complete each cycle. This situation would be ideal in longer preparation periods or an in-season model. Putting the leg circuits on the clock allows coaches to scale the stress based on needs while checking off many boxes on the GPP list in a fraction of the time.

The Rapid-Fire Leg Circuit

Another variation—based off of Gambetta’s mini leg circuit—that I’ve applied with power or explosive development in mind is what I call the “rapid-fire leg circuit.” Three derivatives of this variation that cover the force-velocity spectrum have evolved for us over the years and have served us best with athletes nearing peak competition or entering a camp. The force emphasis variation is hallmarked by heavier loads in the squat and lunge and intensive efforts for the jumps—this influences the exercise selection for appropriate loading. The idea here is to produce high outputs for repeated efforts along a spectrum of high-force muscle contractions.

The heavier loads in the squat and lunges potentiate the output of the jumps by priming local muscular activity as well as the CNS globally without a high level of fatigue.⁵ The versatility of this variant allows coaches to adjust exercise selection based on which end of the force-velocity spectrum they are working.

The force emphasis rapid-fire leg circuit is executed using concentric-based movements to emphasize “force-based” output. For the squat exercise, I prefer the bottom-up squat (squat from pins) with the barbell. I keep depth at half or quarter depth to further draw adaptations of higher transfer. Some coaches may argue that the experience and skill level of the athlete need to be high enough to handle a barbell, and I don’t disagree. Movement precision under load is a must so that athletes maintain technique and posture as fatigue mounts, especially in this format.

This where I believe the bottom-up squat can serve as a self-regulator of sorts. Each rep commences from the weakest position of leverage from a dead stop position. Not only does this enable maximal concentric output, but (as practical experience has shown me) it allows athletes to squat correctly without the fear of missing. In other words, if they miss the lift, it won’t budge; the goal is simple—“Push!” For those coaches who use percentages of 1RM, 70-80% for the squat works well.

The lunges call for the classical forward lunge technique:

• Project the hips forward with the back leg.
• Reverse your forward momentum with your front leg.
• Explode back to standing position.

If using a barbell, 50-60% (of squat max) for the lunges is more than enough. And again, we can add “transfer” here in the form of horizontal force by selecting cord lunges, per Dr. Yessis. In this case, you would use a cord that slows you down a bit, minimizing displacement of the body after the rep.

In keeping with our force priority, the dynamic step-ups and squat jumps can be done with external load in the form of a weight vest or sandbag for the step-ups and a kettlebell for the jumps at about 15-25% body weight. By nature, the dynamic step-ups begin with the jump leg in the position of weakest leverage, so we do not have to make any tweaks here. The preferred jump squat calls for the non-countermovement version where the kettlebell (or weight) will start from the floor. The athlete can jump onto a box of moderate height or keep it floor level. The Just Jump mat is a great tool to keep intent honest, as the visual result of their efforts will show them the story.

You can also adjust the format of this variation to fit preservation of higher quality of output or the ability to repeat it. Our rep template is based off of four squats, two lunges each leg, two dynamic step-ups each leg, and two squat jumps (14 reps total). If we train for increasing output, then we simply go through the circuit continuously and rest at least double the time it took to complete. If this is the case, then using the jump height to manage overall volume may be a wise application so as not to tip the CNS bucket too far over, especially during periods of quality retention or in-season. We typically cap the number of sets to five or cease sets if an athlete cannot maintain 90% of their best jump. The intent is to hit personal bests on a session-to-session basis while preserving that higher end quality.

For specific work capacity development, we repeat this sequence continuously three times and time the duration of the set. Rest runs about half of the running time before repeating. You can certainly track jump height here, but accepting a larger drop-off (80% of best) will help your athletes reach the volume necessary to develop the repeat quality.

In this variation we attempt to wave volume by adding a set of work each session. In week 1, the groundwork is laid with three rounds of the circuit done at a 1:1/2 work-to-rest ratio (126 total reps). The next session we aim for an extra round through as long as the athlete can maintain that 80% of jump height, and on week 3, we’ll attempt to culminate the cycle with five sets (168 and 210 reps, respectively). If we have more time, we’ll give a six-session limit here for athletes to earn the five sets or just simply see what we can do in three sessions. (The 80% marker is akin to the 20% bar speed drop-off that was found to better increase vertical jump height and overall growth of the type II explosive muscle fibers discovered by Dr. Mann.)

Video 1. Featured here is a lite version of the above, used with younger athletes who don’t have a large experience with higher force movements, but you can get the idea.

If we really want to prime the system for higher outputs with higher intensity via speed, then we can break this down a little further. In this Cal Dietz-inspired variation, we ratchet the exercise selection to the velocity end with loaded jump squats (at half or quarter depth), split jumps, dynamic step-ups (low box), and the countermovement jump. (For more qualified athletes, you can substitute the lightened split jump and the depth jump for the CMJ.)

The reps go down to a scheme of two, one each, one each, two, and repeat this sequence 3-5 times (24-40 reps), à la the potentiation clusters seen in the triphasic high-speed methods. The rest between rounds should be double the duration of the set or more, to allow for adequate rest so that outputs can increase each set or be preserved, at the very least. The high-quality emphasis dictates a volume limit, so we do not add a set per session but rather aim at setting bests in jump height (or at least preserve our day’s best).

Video 2. Creating higher intensity via speed in the “rapid-fire leg circuit.”

The genius of Gambetta’s leg circuits is that they allow for bilateral and unilateral lower body training across a variety of muscular contractions. Adding elements such as long-duration ISOs, interval based, and adjusting the exercise selection can give coaches viable options along the general-specific spectrum. The marriage with LDISOs adds benefits to developing the aerobic base, as well as technical learning.

The genius of Gambetta’s leg circuits is that they allow for bilateral and unilateral lower body training across a variety of muscular contractions. Share on X

Bridging this gap by putting the base movements “on the clock” gives athletes a progressive segue to the “right of passage” earned in the continuous circuits. The rapid-fire variations offer a more specific training option for explosive leg development that coaches can adjust along the force-velocity spectrum to meet needs.

Some of the greatest coaches in history have a simple catalog of “plays,” but myriad effective variations of them. For those with leg circuits in your catalog, I hope this writing adds variations to your creative arsenals.

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. Gambetta, V. “The Gambetta leg circuit.” HMMR Media. 12/18/10.

2. “Legs, legs, legs.” GAINcast Podcast #187. 4/27/20.

3. Fox, E.L. and Mathews, D.K. Interval Training: Conditioning for Sports and General Fitness. W.B. Saunders Co., 1974. pp 40.

4. Demayo, J. The Manual Vol. 3. Central Virginia Sport Performance, 2018. pp 138-139.

5. Schmarzo, M. and Van Dyke, M. Applied Principles of Optimal Power Development. E-book, 2018. pp 17.

A pervasive narrative runs through the discussion around training for the sport of surfing—circulated both by coaches of elite surfers and surf websites appealing to recreational surfers—which is to only use surfing to get better at surfing. This does not help surfers, as many surf sessions can in fact be unremarkable. Dictated by fickle swells, tides, and wind, the sport itself isn’t always the best stimulus for physical development.

Yoga and bodyweight-only training are other infatuations in the surf community, with many convinced that these methods alone can keep them aligned, believing you only carry your body weight when you surf, so that is how you must prepare. This camp seems to underestimate the sheer force and power of the ocean.

Finally, there are the Indo Board and balance ball fanatics, who are convinced that the sensorimotor demands of balancing on a plank or ball replicate an ocean because they share an uncanny visual resemblance.

My fellow surfers may be quick to label me as well when they know I work as an S&C coach for a rugby team: in the meathead camp? What you must understand is that I am not in denial about the potential benefit of the above elements for training in a surfer’s program. Instead, I am disillusioned by the narrative of being married to one approach at the expense of all others. Monogamy does not apply to training methods.

I am disillusioned by the narrative of being married to one approach at the expense of all others. Monogamy does not apply to training methods. Share on X

Additionally, I am curious and observant. As a coach, I am constantly challenged to find evidence-based ways of improving performance. As a surfer, I still see surfing’s resistance to effective preparation lingering at all levels of the sport, despite its inclusion in next year’s Olympic Games.

It may be that people in the sport are just trying to keep it soulful and carefree, while sticking their fingers up at the jocks (an integral part of its culture). I love it and salute it. As coaches, however, we need to show that we’re not here to wring the fun from the pursuit:

• If you find yourself getting better at something, does this give you a sense of fulfillment?
• If you love something and you’re forced out of it with an injury, do you feel less fulfilled?
• If you know you’re preparing effectively for something, do you not feel more confident in your abilities?

These key questions provide the catalyst for surfers to understand that training for their sport aims to provide more fun, for the competitive and recreational surfer alike. With this in mind, and with the hope of slowly chipping away at the current narrative, I’ll provide training tips for surf athletes from the evidence base. I believe much of the content I will cover in this article would also be applicable (with some tweaks) to other board sports (skateboarding, snowboarding, and paddleboarding, etc.). Today, we kick off with dryland strength and power training tips and what I see as six essential exercises.

Warning! Before delivering any of this content to a surfer, you may have to counsel them through their unease.

Luckily, I’ve created a quick cheat sheet of replies:

• “You won’t get big and bulky, unless your diet is out of control and you’re taking special ‘vitamins’.”
• “You won’t become as stiff as your board if you train through a full range of motion.”
• “World Surf League (WSL) surfers aren’t the only ones who are allowed to train for their sport.”
• “If there’s waves, get in the bloody surf.”

For Paddling

(Photo courtesy of Sebastian Potthoff.)

What’s Happening Here?

Believe it or not, 44-54% of the time in a surf session is spent paddling.¹ Paddling into the lineup. Paddling across to the peak. Sprint paddling into waves. Paddling happens a lot.

Faster. Move faster. C’mon, for #$@&% sake! These are the thoughts that rush forward when a big set rolls through and a surfer gets “caught inside” and is paddling for safety. And then, reaching the lineup after having had to bail their board as the wave dumped its payload on their head, there is relief mixed with annoyance that “just two strokes more and I would’ve made it over the back of that one.”

Faster paddling has been found to be a determining factor between different levels of surfers…thus, paddling is perhaps the most important quality to improve through training. Share on X

Faster paddling may not only spare the anguish of getting caught inside; it has been found that it is also a determining factor between different levels of surfers.² In WSL competitions, surfers with a higher sprint paddling speed achieved better competition results. Those surfers with a sprint paddle of <1.7 meters per second tended to be eliminated before round 5, compared to those who had a sprint paddle of >1.9 meters per second, who reached the quarters at least and could go on to win the final.²

Higher sprint paddling allows competitive surfers to paddle into steeper waves with a faster entry momentum into those waves, increasing the number of maneuvers and therefore enhancing fun and/or scoring potential.³ Thus, paddling is perhaps the most important quality to improve through training.

How Do We Improve It?

Paddling will increase paddling ability. But increasing strength will also massively improve this skill. In paddling, you anchor your arm in the water and “pull” and then “push” your body across the surface. There is no contest as to which are the best exercises for improving this action: pull-ups and dips are the most integral movements that mimic this movement pattern and activate the correct musculature.⁴

These two relatively simple exercises should of course be trained through a full and comfortable ROM. Surfers new to strength work may need assistance through the use of banded pull-ups from higher to lower elasticity. For those better versed in training, bodyweight reps and then additional plates added through the use of a weight belt should be the goal.

Standards of upper body strength that can be targeted are outlined below. Some of the world’s best male surfers can have a pull-up of 1.4 times their body weight. For an 80-kilogram surfer, that would mean 35 kilograms extra weight added for a total weight of 115 kilograms. This is not a huge pull-up relative to other sports, but highly sufficient for the demands of surfing. However, even a progression from doing three reps with a band to three reps at body weight should give appreciable improvements in paddling ability.

For Turns, Snaps, and Carves

(Photo courtesy of Sebastian Potthoff.)

What’s Happening Here?

Turns, snaps, carves, or cutbacks all look and feel best when there’s spray fired all over the lineup. Achieving maximum spray in these maneuvers requires adequate lower body strength and power to displace as much water as possible through the application of force through their legs and onto their board.⁵

If a surfer can apply more force, or apply it more quickly to exhibit this, competitive judges have the potential to score maneuvers more highly. For recreational surfers, those paddling back out into the lineup will be thinking Jesus’ juice is falling on them. They will not fathom that, in fact, it’s just them hitting the lip.

How Do We Improve It?

Talent, technique, and timing clearly have significant parts to play for flowing yet powerful turns, but a surfer having adequate levels of lower body strength will go a long way toward better displaying these skills. In these maneuvers, the surfer compresses and loads up their legs before extending their hips at just the right moment. The best exercises for improving these actions would be two bread-and-butter strength movements: barbell back squats and Romanian deadlifts (RDLs). They are often done, and rightfully so, because there are few better movements to load the ankles, knees, hips, and the powerful musculature of the quadriceps, hamstrings, and glutes.

Talent, technique, and timing clearly have significant parts to play for flowing yet powerful turns, but a surfer with adequate levels of lower body strength will better display these skills. Share on X

Like any athlete, but particularly surfers who may have never entered a gym, it is imperative that they master technique before piling on load in these two exercises. My cues for the squat: With a just-outside shoulder-width stance, sit down as far as is comfortable in between your hips. Think about pushing your knees out slightly as you go down to activate your glutes and push through your quads on the ascent.

For the RDL: Pick up a bar with a just-outside shoulder-width grip and pull the shoulder blades back and together as if you were trying to crack a nut between them. Unlock the knees and push your rear-end back as far as you can (like the Insta models do) while dragging the bar down the thighs to mid-shin before coming back up again. For both movements, keep a controlled tempo on the descent of about two seconds (loading up) and fire back up as fast as possible with control (extend) on the ascent, just like a turn.

Those new to strength training can perform a standard progression of goblet squats and dumbbell hinges before moving on to using the barbell. Lower body strength standards are outlined below.

For Aerials and Floaters

(Photo courtesy of Sebastian Potthoff.)

What’s Happening Here?

Airs and big floaters are obviously advanced moves incorporating a multitude of complex skills, but the evolution of the sport has entered the territory of skateboarding and snowboarding and is set to stay there. Shouldn’t every surfer prepare for the day that they begin to dabble in these dark arts? For the day that they get 0.1 seconds of air that does not include falling off the back of a wave?

Essentially, airs can be broken into three phases: takeoff, flight, and landing. The take-off and landing phases of airs and the landing phase of floaters are the ones we can most affect with physical training, as that is when the body meets the most impact.

How Do We Improve It?

This “impact” I am talking about is clear: stomping airs and floaters provide the greatest potential risk for injury of any maneuver⁶ (two-time world champion John John Florence’s ACL injury is just a recent example), particularly if surfers don’t possess adequate lower body strength and power. While landing one of these maneuvers, surfers commonly absorb forces of up to 4-6 times their own body weight through their ankles, knees, and hips.⁷ Having well-developed strength and power will also enable surfers to launch themselves higher off the lip of the wave, getting some of that sweet, sweet hang time.¹

You have to be strong and powerful to get a heavy bar off the floor quickly with good technique or to come up with a heavy weight on your back. Therefore, the squats and RDLs above will allow surfers to absorb this weight, just like air and floater landings. But to go one step further, we must also replicate the movement pattern of these complex movements and their landings on land to develop injury robustness through proper joint alignment. 

Video 1. Drop & Stick, Jump & Stick, and Rebound & Stick.

A box or step that is around knee height (~50 centimeters) is required. The progressions start with a basic drop and stick (D&S), replacing the drop with a jump (J&S) and then finally onto a rebound and stick (R&S). For all of these, “sticking” the landing in a surf stance/quarter squat position without excessive knee valgus is desired (there will be some knee valgus in the back leg, as this position is essential in the sport). The aim of the landings here should be to land softly, as if you didn’t want to wake up someone sleeping in the next room, which is especially hard after a chaotic rotation. This will teach absorbing the force of landings and better coordination of the body in space when in the ocean.

To help in applying that force off the lip in the take-off phase of airs and getting some tasty height, jump training replicates these movements and will be highly effective in improving them due to the development of vertical power through the lower body.

Video 2. CMJ, rotational CMJ, and loaded CMJ.

The key exercise here is progressing a basic countermovement jump (CMJ): In your squat stance, in one flowing movement, go down to a comfortable depth (~quarter squat depth) and jump as high as possible to the ceiling. No need to bring the knees up, but aim to get hips as high off the ground as possible. Land as described above. Progressions (below) aim to add complexity through surf-specific rotations before finally adding load in the barbell CMJ.

Strength and Power Work Can Be a Lucrative Performance Enhancer

(Photo courtesy of Sebastian Potthoff.)

Just like yoga, bodyweight, and balance board training, strength and power work is only one small element of the performance model to improve surfing performance. However, it is especially important to adopt due to the current narrative within surfing culture that steers most surfers hastily away from anything gym-based. The six exercises above—coupled with finishers of supplementary work for torso/core strength and power, ankle and hip mobility and rotator cuff robustness—will provide a great foundation for the training of surfers.

Considering surfers’ low training ages, increases in whole body strength & power through these generic exercises may be particularly beneficial for performance enhancement. Share on X

Furthermore, considering surfers’ low training ages, increases in whole body strength and power through these generic exercises may be particularly lucrative in terms of their potential for performance enhancement.

Join me soon for another part in this series, which will take a look at energy system development for surfing.

All photos courtesy of Sebastian Potthoff, Instagram: @saltwatershots

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. Tran, T.T., Lundgren, L., Second, J.L., et al. “Comparison of Physical Capacities Between Non-Selected and Selected Elite Male Competitive Surfers for the National Junior Team.” International Journal of Sports Physiology & Performance. 2014.

2. Sheppard, J. “Masters & servants: How the preparation framework serves the performance model.” UKSCA Conference Presentation. 2017.

3. Farley, O., Harris, N.K., and Kilding, A. “Physiological Demands of Competitive Surfing.” The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2011;

4. Coyne, J., Tran, T.T., Secomb, J.L., et al. “Maximal Strength Training Improves Surfboard Sprint & Endurance Paddling Performance in Competitive & Recreational Surfers.” The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2016.

5. Secomb, J.L., Farley, O.R.L., Lundgren, L.E., et al. “Associations between the Performance of Scoring Manoeuvres and Lower-Body Strength and Power in Elite Surfers.” International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching. 2015.

6. McArthur, K., Jorgensen, D., Climstein, M., and Furness, J. “Epidemiology of Acute Injuries in Surfing: Type, Location, Mechanism, Severity, and Incidence: A Systematic Review.” Sports (Basel). 2020;8(2):25.

7. Lundgren L.E., Tran, T.T., Nimphius, S., et al. “Comparison of impact forces, accelerations and ankle range of motion in surfing-related landing tasks.” Journal of Sports Sciences. 2016;34(11):1051-1057.

Is swinging hundreds of times to the nondominant side worth the time, effort, and awkwardness for golfers? There are certainly many people in the industry who believe so. Should we take their word for it?

Many say it prevents injury and “balances” the golfer side to side—they’ve “seen it work.” They say the chances of getting hurt swinging in the opposite direction are less than if you don’t do it. How do they know that?

Others say it increases motor unit recruitment and “strengthens” the golfer’s ability to decelerate the golf club. Does it increase their ability to produce force in the true sense of strength? Or is it more of a central nervous system effect?

More say that you can only swing as fast as you can decelerate and that training nondominant-side swings creates faster permanence. Who tested this to figure it out? Where is the data? How do they know that a causational relationship exists between deceleration and top-end swing speed and it is not just a collateral effect? Do they have objective data on it, or is it just a theory that can be made to sound reasonable?

Alternatively, naysayers bring up that you don’t train sprinters to be world champions by having them run backward or counterclockwise on the track to “balance” them out. Some professionals who have worked with the best in the world have even said that asymmetrical muscle imbalances are beneficial to performance—if they were to fix it, the runners would no longer be the fastest in the world.

So why would we want to “fix” asymmetry in golf but not in other sports? Is it really a problem, or is it actually a beneficial performance adaption?

Then there are the baseball and tennis arguments for why we don’t have pitchers throw as hard as they can with their nondominant arm. Do the top tennis players in the world practice serving as hard as they can on their opposite side to prevent injury and maximize their speed? If they do, and their speeds increase, how do they know it was solely because of the opposite side training and not because of other things they did?

The list goes on…

I was part of a very long Twitter thread on this topic recently, and when it came to asking either side of the coin to produce objective information, the proverbial Twitter crickets killed the conversation. Really smart people become entrenched on different sides of debates like this based on theory and opinion…yet few actually have the grit, desire, and/or resources to go research and actually test it themselves to see. Hence, the Twitter crickets and trolls reign supreme.

What was even more apparent, and frustrating, was the clear lack of understanding of the actual point of opposite side training. What physiological systems or benefits are actually being trained? There were more opinions than choices on a Cookout Shake menu.

What’s even more apparent and frustrating is the clear lack of understanding of the actual point of opposite side training. What physiological systems or benefits are actually being trained? Share on X

I’ve decided to see if I can answer these questions instead of getting into endless debates and conversations on theory and case data. Hopefully, this article will help move the conversation forward. Nothing frustrates me more in a conversation than a rebuttal of “We don’t have data, but we don’t make this up. We’ve worked with hundreds/thousands of people, so we know it works, and you should just trust us.”

Let’s stop puffing chests and hiding insecurities. Instead, let’s start filling data sheets with actual objectively collected data. I find that to be so much more productive.

So, enjoy the ride as I work through the exercise of presenting each of the opinions/thought processes one by one and dissecting them to see if we can bring some clarity to the discussion, or at least an intelligent starting point…

Theory 1: Opposite Side Swings Reduce Injuries in Golfers

Let’s start with what we know.

We know that lead side extremity and low back injuries are the most common injuries that we see in golf, which is rampant with overuse injuries. This is very clear in the literature. Further, it has been documented in a number of studies that lead side hip internal rotation deficit is highly correlated to low back injury.

What we further know from all the research we have done at Par4Success (with more than 1,300 golfers in our database longitudinally) is that if the four main rotational centers don’t have enough motion (hip internal rotation, shoulder external rotation, thoracic spine rotation, and neck rotation), there is an increased frequency of injury and a decreased swing speed. When these rotary centers improve, pain decreases and speeds increase.

We also have seen a very alarming trend with injuries when general power percentiles for age/sex compared to swing speed percentiles for age/sex are low. If all the rotational centers are cleared, but there exists a greater than 15 percentile point deficit of general power numbers (shot put, vertical peak power, and seated chest pass) relative to the golfer’s swing speed percentile, they are more likely to be injured.

We are also seeing early trends of elite level golfers being injured or having injury issues if they are in the top 10-15% of swing speed for their age groups but don’t meet certain strength requirements, such as deadlift loads or other strength metrics in squat and bench press.

So, there are definitely clear ways identified in research, objectively, to decrease the likelihood of repetitive overuse injuries by getting golfers stronger, getting them more mobile in the rotary centers (unless already hypermobile, then doubling down on strength), and making sure their technical abilities and equipment don’t outpace their general power numbers for club speed.

Other Studies, and a Resulting Question

There have also been a number of studies done to look at asymmetrical muscle mass, rotational power, and rotational endurance abilities in golfers compared to the normal population (non-golfers). In all of these studies there was a significant increase to the dominant side in mass, power, and endurance (generally speaking) among the golfers compared to the non-golfers, which shouldn’t be surprising. There also was no negative ability to produce power or endurance on the nondominant side (aka the side not used “concentrically” during the swing) during the testing compared to the general population.

Interestingly, in none of these studies did any researcher raise a concern over injury due to the imbalance, but instead stated the imbalances may be an adaptation that is advantageous for performance.

This brings up an interesting question.

If golfers swing to their nondominant side as often as non-golfers (aka never), why would we want to swing to the nondominant side in golfers but not in non-golfers? Clinicians certainly aren’t recommending to non-golfers that they swing a club fast as a way to prevent injury, so why do we do it to golfers?

Clinicians certainly aren’t recommending to non-golfers that they swing a club fast as a way to prevent injury, so why do we do it to golfers? Share on X

Is perhaps the increased muscle mass and ability to generate power unilaterally protective in nature and obviously advantageous for performance? The natural rebuttal is, of course, “Well, non-golfers don’t swing to the dominant side thousands of times, Chris. That’s why they don’t have imbalance issues and therefore don’t need to balance themselves by swinging to the nondominant side.”

You would be right in that non-golfers don’t have an imbalance from swinging in one direction all the time. But so what? How do we know asymmetrical mass and power production to the dominant side is a problem? How do we know that fixing it (if that is even possible) will stop someone from being injured? I have struggled to find anything that suggests the power, force, and muscle differences side to side are injury-causing if all rotary centers are full, and power and strength metrics are where they should be.

A question to think about: What if we tell a non-golfer to go swing the golf club 1,000 times and then tell a golfer who has the asymmetrical adaptions to do the same? Who would you put your money on getting hurt first? I would bet the house on the non-golfer who is “balanced” being injured way sooner.

Assumption Fun

Let’s assume that asymmetrical imbalance is a problem for golfers that increases risk of injury because the golfer will have trouble “decelerating.” Let’s further assume that slowing down or “deceleration” is an active eccentric musculoskeletal event. “Strengthening” concentrically with nondominant swings would be a pretty inefficient way to remedy this assumption for a number of reasons, both physiologically and ideologically, but we’ll address those issues later.

Alternatively, perhaps slowing down the swing to the dominant side is more of a stretch-shortening cycle event without a strong contraction back to the nondominant side, sort of like a rubber band just absorbing the force and decelerating the body. Is this more of a central nervous system and/or tendinous event?

If this is the case, should we look at training for tendon pliability and specific plyometrics to better absorb these forces? Opposite side training certainly wouldn’t accomplish this in its current commonly used form, unfortunately. Currently, golfers swing as hard as they can to one side or the other individually, failing to incorporate a plyometric event at the end of the swing, and instead just stopping after each rep.

To make the movement plyometric, a maximal effort nondominant-side swing would have to take place immediately following a completed maximal dominant-side swing. This would require full absorption of the energy eccentrically in the dominant direction, storage of it isometrically, and transfer into the nondominant side concentrically to maximize usage of the stretch-shortening cycle. Basically, a golf-specific swing plyometric exercise.

Video 1. Golf training use to be lost in sport-specific exercise, but now it’s making sure it’s appropriate for the sport and athlete. Focus on a combination of transfer and complimenting overuse patterns with more general loading.

Further thought might lead to training the tendons and tissue plyometrically in the lower half of the body, as well as via exercises like 180-degree rotational jumps or depth drop jumps into a 90-degree box jump, etc. These would all be much better and more efficient avenues for lower body tissue and nervous system loading.

Additionally, it would allow the golfer to practice the kinetic sequencing that occurs during the golf swing in an overloaded environment. Because the amount of force that needs to be absorbed in all of these examples would be greater than that in a nondominant-side swing, the nondominant-side swing seems to lose its appeal quickly as a way to reduce injury.

Theory 2: Opposite Swings Help to Balance the Golfer on Their Off Side

I don’t think I need to spend much time on this theory after the above section. Mass will be built in response to the repetitive overload that you apply to the tissue. A competitive golfer will swing to their dominant side at least 1,000 swings per week, but more likely close in on that per day.

If we think solely about the time it would take to have a golfer swing that many times to the nondominant side to “balance” them out from a volume perspective, it borders on ludicrous. Would you ever tell a golfer that instead of working on their putting or letting their body recover—or in a junior golfer’s case, to go be a kid—that they should spend hours swinging to the opposite side to achieve true balance via an equal number of reps? Common sense would reign supreme here, I hope.

So, the next thought is how we could achieve this result in a more time-efficient way…assuming it is even an important element.

I think it is safe to say there are much bigger (and researched) fish to fry when it comes to minimizing injury risk in golfers than swinging to the nondominant side. Share on X

At this point in the discussion, we don’t know if opposite side swings are important for performance. We also technically don’t know at this point if doing nondominant swings decreases injury risk. However, with the research and data that we do have, I think it is safe to say there are much bigger (and researched) fish to fry when it comes to minimizing injury risk in golfers than swinging to the nondominant side.

Theory 3: Being Balanced Actually Reduces Injury Risk

Again, this is a tough nut to crack, and there is not a lot of clarity here. There certainly are a lot of studies in baseball, tennis, volleyball, and other overhead sports that have tried to answer these questions. While asymmetrical shoulder blades or muscle imbalances from dominant to nondominant sides have been tough to tie to injury, there is definitely a strong suggestion that if the eccentric abilities of the shoulder rotators are not able to produce equal or more force than their concentric counterparts, injury could be more likely.

If we take this and make a leap (disclaimer, this is a leap, so feel free to tear it apart), then we could theorize that the golfer’s eccentric force creation ability to their lead side should be equal to or greater than their concentric ability to that same side. Again, this is a leap and discusses force creation, aka strength.

If we accept this as true, then opposite side swings do nothing to help the golfer in this instance. They concentrically train the tissues that need to work eccentrically during the dominant side follow-through—not helpful for sport-specific need—and they would eccentrically train the tissues that need to move concentrically during the dominant-side swing. It’s cool, but not physiologically helpful in this context.

Video 2. This is what a dominant-side swing looks like for a right-handed player. Conversely, this would be a nondominant-side swing for a left-handed player.

What would be more helpful in this context is eccentric overload in rotational patterns with tools such as flywheels, which can provide eccentric overload to the tissues in the dominant direction. When training this specifically in a six-week randomized trial at Par4Success, we saw a 150% swing speed gain compared to the normal average for 12 weeks for an adult golfer. While this doesn’t speak to injury prevention, it certainly points to the value of improving eccentric force creation to the dominant side for performance.

The performance gains, when put together with the leap to needing to make sure eccentric strength rotationally to the dominant side is as strong or stronger than the concentric side, would make a case for potential value on the injury prevention side.

Theory 4: Nondominant-Side Swings Improve the Strength of the Opposite Muscles to Decrease Imbalance

Ok, now it’s later in the article, and we’re going to dive into this theory as mentioned in the injury prevention section. The short answer is that physiologically, this is not one of the stronger thoughts.

When swinging a golf club that weighs around 300 grams at most, you obviously won’t overload the tissues to a point where a strength response will happen. To be more specific, you won’t be able to train an individual’s muscles to put out more force via mechanical overload at the tissue level. The club is way too light, and most of the angular velocity will be created in the first 25% of the movement anyway, with the rest being momentum—there’s not much more to say there.

If you look at it more from a central nervous system perspective, however, then we get into the coordination debate and the idea of neurological carryover. I’m sure you’ve heard the explanation that if you can get better on your off side, the brain doesn’t know left from right, and it will carry over to the opposite side. Sounds good, right? But, so did “If you can do it on a Bosu ball, imagine how much better and powerful you will be when you are back playing your sport on the ground.” Oops…

A lot of this comes from rehabilitation work and neuro rehabilitation. In my time in the acute rehab setting, I used this carryover or overflow theory quite often in stroke patients, with great success. If a client was working on left leg knee extension in sitting (a long arc quad), and they couldn’t move the leg, you would have them go ahead and do 20 or so on the right leg, and magically, the left leg would move. (Disclaimer: Watch how you are sitting if testing this with a patient and do not position the affected leg between your legs. I was kicked out of a few chairs when the affected leg suddenly “sprang to life” and actually extended.)

At Par4Success, we have been testing the opposite side shot put for many years on thousands of golfers and operating under the assumption that increasing nondominant power numbers made sense and translated to performance. The raw correlations were above 0.8, so all is good, right?

Well, as we have gotten more data and started to be able to look more into causation, what variables actually need to change to cause performance change (swing speed), and what variables just happen to change, the opposite side rotational power theory appears to be losing steam. We see it not being a factor that directly changes club speed unless another variable improves as well. There are other factors that, if they solely change, club speed does too. Opposite side rotational power appears to be left behind a bit as we gain more understanding and data.

Without giving away the house, there is a definite need for more study here, and we are working on it.

To wrap up this section, one question is does nondominant side training have to be golf-specific? What about general nondominant work like med balls thrown on the opposite side? Would those work?

A thought… We know, from the research, that jumping three times before you swing will increase your club speed by 2-3 mph immediately. Is swinging a club in the nondominant direction just a general nervous system stimulus that produces increased club speed, much like performing some countermovement jumps on the tee before you swing will do?

While the answers to these questions are certainly left open to opinion and need to be looked into more, one thing has become clear through this line of thinking: Nondominant-side swings will not increase a golfer’s strength in any meaningful fashion or bring muscular balance to their bodies.

Theory 5: You Increase Motor Unit Recruitment by Swinging to the Opposite Side and Make It More Permanent

There are three ways to elicit maximal motor unit recruitment:

1. Max Intent Effort – above 60% (relative to your max; the lighter the load, the more you have to make up for it with your speed).
2. E-Stim
3. Fast Movement (plyometrics) – with a focus on decreased amortization phase to maximize power outputs via maximal magnitude, maximal rate, and shortest duration.

When looking at these three, obviously #1 and #2 are out when it comes to nondominant swings. The load is not nearly enough, unless you are my 1-year-old son, and e-stim on your body while swinging is just not practical but would be fun to watch.

That leaves us with #3.

The more specific the movement is to the activity that is going to be completed, the better. Some considerations to think about for specificity are the motion itself, the angular velocities at play, the loads, and the metabolic demands.

When you consider these, the actual max effort swing starts to make some sense, in the dominant direction. But only with an immediate change to the nondominant-side swing as equally explosive to take advantage of the stretch-shortening cycle.

This is an instance where you could also start with a nondominant swing, immediately transitioning into a dominant-side swing, but that is less specific and therefore would fall lower on the priority list. You obviously could argue global training effect here, but again, it is less specific and therefore would be lower on my list if I have to pick for the sake of efficiency and minimal effective dosage.

The other consideration is metabolic. After 15 seconds, your chances of maximal motor unit recruitment are a thing of the past. You will need to let your body recover. Generally speaking, at least a 1:5 work-to-rest ratio…at the VERY least.

Much like with the earlier discussion of trying to balance out a golfer by matching the same number of nondominant swings to dominant ones, we find ourselves at the mercy of time. If you have your athlete do opposite side swings with appropriate rest intervals, how much time are you willing to allocate to this training as opposed to other critically important areas? To do this well, at most, the athlete could get 4-5 swings in a 15-second time period. Assuming you do the minimum 75 seconds of rest, that is 90 seconds per set. Doing 10 sets would take you close to 15 minutes, at a minimum—for optimal exertion, effort, and results, you are more likely closer to double that time…and that is just to one side.

How much will this move the needle compared to other options out there? That is an incredibly important question to answer.

The last part of this theory about permanence has always been interesting to me. So much so that it has been a point of focus to understand as we have trained and collected data on the thousands of golfers here at Par4Success. In terms of what “permanence” means, no one ever really defines it, and honestly, I don’t think any training makes anything permanent. That would imply that if I reach a certain club speed, strength, and power output level, I can stop all I’m doing and maintain that speed, strength, and power.

Honestly, I don’t think any training makes anything permanent. Share on X

That would be nice, wouldn’t it?

The facts, however, are these…

• If a golfer stops working out, their club speed drops.
• If a golfer travels a lot or has lots of stress (typically during their season), their club speed drops.
• If a golfer stops working out but continues just doing nondominant-side swings, their speeds drop.
• If a golfer continues to work out during the season, maintaining their power outputs high with low volume, and has a lot of travel and stress, their club speed will drop…but their strength numbers often will still go up (or at least maintain), leading to a quick recovery of speed once the central nervous system recovers, and there is an actual long-term net gain that occurs year over year.
• If a golfer continues to work out during the season and maintain their power outputs high with low volume, continues with nondominant swings, and has a ton of travel and stress, their club speed will drop…but their strength numbers often will still go up (or at least maintain), leading to a quick recovery of speed once the central nervous system recovers, and there is an actual long-term net gain that occurs.

There has been no difference in speed maintenance or gains with or without nondominant swings that we have seen in this light. The biggest predictor of “permanent” gains or speeds that continually go up year after year is continued improvements in strength and power metrics with maintained rotational mobility, not how many nondominant swings they do.

**Theory 6: You Can Only Swing as Fast as You Can Decelerate, and Nondominant Swings Improve How Well You Can Decelerate

This one has always perplexed me and made me think.

Effectively, what we are saying here is that your body has a protective mechanism on it, “a governor,” that will preemptively restrict you from swinging faster than it feels you can control. I think of Golgi tendon organs and not letting my tendons tear when I hear this. It makes sense, and I’m very thankful to Mother Nature for those. As many of you know, the idea is that with training, you can move the “governor” to kick in at higher speeds and/or loads, pushing your “red line” higher.

My first issue with this theory is that I know my athletes can swing faster than they can control (i.e., they can swing faster than they can under control and lose their balance). They definitely have one peak playing speed that they can control, but they can swing at least 5-10 mph faster if they are not trying to hit a ball and put in play.

So physiologically, my next logical question is what is the best way to train so that I can alter my governor’s “fall-over speed” so it becomes higher, thereby increasing my “playing speed”? How also can I close the gap between my “fall-over speed” and my “playing speed”?

If we think about it from a force production standpoint, we can handle more load and tissue stress eccentrically than we can concentrically. If eccentric strength is what we need to improve to decelerate better, then it would be common sense to train eccentric-specific overload.

I think we should define that, however, as it does not mean the athlete using a cable machine or a strap wrapped around them and repping out rotational training. Overload means you have to eccentrically control more weight than you can move concentrically. One way would be by having a coach help the athlete get to the end of the concentric part of the rep (using a load they could not otherwise move), and then the athlete has to control the eccentric portion of the rotation on their own before the coach helps them again (i.e., on a cable machine).

Another option would be a flywheel and having someone help the athlete pull the wheel faster/harder than the athlete could concentrically themselves. This leaves them to have to decelerate and change the direction of the movement back to the starting position. If you are not using flywheel with this intent, it is not truly eccentric overload training, it is just another form of variable resistance training.

So, I now know how to increase my eccentric force outputs. The next question is, how do I improve my nervous system’s ability to not give out?

This is the other argument we hear, that opposite side swings increase motor unit activation. What is the peak way to get motor unit activation? There are three simple answers: load, intent, and speed.

Simply put, if I want to train to swing faster than my current “playing, not fall-over, speed.” Swinging a driver or a slightly lighter club faster in the dominant direction is all I would need to do, while maintaining maximal effort above and beyond what I can generate when playing and paying attention to appropriate recovery intervals. That will be an “overload” for the CNS to have to control.

Swinging faster to the dominant side and having to change direction quickly would be best, not concentric contraction to the opposite direction (traditional nondominant-side swings). Share on X

If I want to increase my “fall-over speed” ability to generate force, I have to increase my force output via strength training and/or plyometric-type drills to optimize my stretch-shortening cycle efficiencies with specific plyometric activities. Therefore, swinging faster to the dominant side and having to change direction quickly would be best, not concentric contraction to the opposite direction (traditional nondominant-side swings).

Video 3. This is how traditional nondominant swings looks for a right-handed player. Conversely, this is what a dominant-side swing looks like for a left-handed player.

Theory 7: Nondominant Swings Improve Kinematic Sequencing and, Ultimately, Speed

Now this is one that makes the most sense to me thus far.

When we start talking about kinematic efficiency, which definitely has a positive impact on club speed, opposite side swings can help with coordination, deceleration, and sequencing per some companies in the field.

I have yet to see overly convincing data on this, but at the surface, we can rationalize the potential benefit here based on the couple of case studies that have been presented.

When Par4Success did our studies looking at kinematic sequencing with lighter and heavier sticks than a driver, there were definite increases in hand and upper body speed, as well as altered kinematics with lighter sticks and increased x factor or lower body separation with the heavier sticks. Sometimes for the better, sometimes not.

These changes in kinematic sequencing based on the implement used pique my curiosity on the potential benefits of nondominant-side swing training when it comes to kinematic efficiency.

It will be interesting to see what actual data is produced.

Theory 8: Opposite Side Swings Improve Ground Force Production

This final one is definitely one we will test here at Par4Success when our GASP dual force plates arrive in a few weeks. The theoretical claims made that people can increase their ground force production with different drills and changes of directions definitely make sense.

Focusing on specific force vectors and improving the timing of the production of those forces obviously can be advantageous to increasing swing speed. It will be interesting to see what nondominant-side swings will show on this frontier, however.

My hypothesis is that, due to lower coordination and overall lower ability to produce force in the opposite direction, the results will kinetically be less than exciting, with other strategies proving to be more beneficial and effective. We know that improved ground forces positively impact club speed, and I am hedging my bets that opposite side swings will not be the most effective way to do that.

We know that improved ground forces positively impact club speed, and I am hedging my bets that opposite side swings will not be the most effective way to do that. Share on X

Maybe there will be other benefits to kinetic sequencing and transfer, but we will have to see!

A Repudiation of Benefits

As I have gone through each of the above points, the benefits of nondominant swings from a physiological perspective appear to be minimal and, in some cases, not viable.

The benefits to reduce injury appear to be minimal. Even if there are some benefits, there are far more effective and impactful areas to focus on. Rotary center mobility, power percentile relative to swing speed percentile ratios, and general strength to bodyweight relativity numbers in the squat, deadlift, and bench press are all much higher on the list and proven.

The benefits of “balancing” a golfer out by doing nondominant swings to reduce injury are questionable at best, and ultimately become irrelevant when you consider how much volume they would have to complete to be meaningful.

The plyometric benefits from a stretch-shortening cycle training perspective, if doing immediate maximal opposite direction “rebound” swings, are present with dominant swings specifically, but with nondominant swings only possibly globally.

The benefits of nondominant swings from a coordination standpoint to produce more force and have causational relationships to club speed gains appear to be more limited than initially thought based on early causational change data.

The benefits of nondominant swings to train deceleration to improve eventual top-end speed seem to be overstated, particularly since swinging to the nondominant side would be training the “decelerators” concentrically versus how they are used—eccentrically (which requires more force output than concentrically). Concentric contraction generally leads to a lower motor unit recruitment potential and is a complete training of the wrong specific swing direction.

Simply swinging a driver or a slightly lighter club (6-10%) faster than the golfer can do while hitting the ball would seem to produce enough of the “overload” stimulus needed to train higher level deceleration in the dominant direction, which they will actually use in sport and translates to performance. This would be the most specific form of training with a higher level of demand in deceleration.

The possible benefits of kinematic sequence improvements of a golfer’s swing make sense, and the few cases studies that have been presented look promising. However, they are case studies, so I am waiting for the additional data promised by some of those in the industry before making any calls on this one.

The kinetic benefits of nondominant swings remain to be seen, but I am not optimistic for them as compared to other training implements and strategies that for sure will make big changes in golf performance.

I am struggling to find where nondominant swings make sense from an injury prevention or performance perspective other than potential kinematic changes. Share on X

I guess as I read back through this, I am struggling to find where nondominant swings make sense from an injury prevention or performance perspective other than potential kinematic changes. I am intrigued by the idea of plyometric swing-specific training and the possible benefits to improve stretch-shortening cycle efficiency and potentially translate to performance and injury prevention.

I am sure there will be many who disagree with this article and want to have further discussion, and that is what I hope for! You can reach me @par4success on Twitter, or you can connect with us to further the discussion at www.par4success.com.

Let’s continue to move this conversation and our field forward while starting to cut the menu of theories down and replacing it with a database of objective facts that give golfers and coaches a clear path to longevity, speed, and performance.

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 best products are the ones that you use daily and experience that A-ha! moment with, where you think: “Wow, I can’t believe I didn’t invent this. This is such a great idea.” Inventions provide solutions to common problems or upgrade solutions currently in place. Whether it be in the weight room or in day-to-day life, the products we use the most are the ones that help us more efficiently accomplish the task at hand.

In the weight room, our main products are barbells, dumbbells, weight plates, and benches. With those four things, you can honestly run a high-performance program. Would it be ideal? Probably not. But would it be enough? Definitely.

While there’s nothing wrong with the basic tools, we live in an era of innovation and not considering new solutions would be flat out irresponsible. As a coach, for me to not consider utilizing new, advanced equipment such as specialty bars would be like using Alexander Graham Bell’s original 1876 telephone design instead of at least checking out the new iPhone.

For me, to not consider utilizing new, advanced equipment such as specialty bars would be like using Bell’s original 1876 telephone design instead of at least checking out the new iPhone. Share on X

Specialty bars are exactly what they sound like. Special. They provide a specialty. They aren’t meant to replace all of our basics, but rather to enhance the adaptations we may be looking for when using them.

Whether it’s tall athletes deadlifting with a trap bar for better biomechanics, coaches utilizing a safety squat bar to allow for hand-assisted lifts, or athletes following a return-to-play protocol by lifting with an Earthquake bar, specialty bars can help us fill voids that we may not be able to fill with our standard equipment.

This article will highlight five of my favorite specialty bars, which I can confidently say are well worth the investment for you as a coach and for your athletes.

1. Earthquake Bar

The Earthquake bar by BandBell is a bar that I never knew I needed until I got my hands on one. I dismissed this bar for years, thinking it was a circus trick for Instagram likes and follows. Boy, was I wrong.

Shame on me for not doing my due diligence and research, because I probably could have helped a lot more athletes by implementing this in our programming earlier. BandBell was started by Jim Seitzer (a founding member of Westside Barbell), and his goal was to help find ways to train big movements without pain.

What started as a broomstick with mini bands and kettlebells attached to it has now turned into several different specialty bars, my favorite being the Earthquake bar.

At just about 6.5 pounds in weight and 1.5 inches in diameter, this bar is capable of handling 300 pounds of external load. Unlike a normal bar, the weight is not loaded directly onto the sleeve but rather hung from bands at the ends of the bar. This setup is what creates the unique benefits of O.K.E.

Oscillating Kinetic Energy

O.K.E., or oscillating kinetic energy if you want to sound super smart, is not a new concept but one that has been truly mastered by the use of this specialty bar. Using O.K.E. is great for both rehab and training goals because the stimulus comes from the oscillations, pulses, and perturbations that create varied levels of multiplanar instability. At different loads and kinetic energy levels, we can alter these exercises based on the desired adaptation.

For example, if you want an athlete to really wake up their central nervous system and tap into all those stabilizing muscles, it would be wise to use a setup with tons of kinetic energy. By hanging several lightweight kettlebells from the bar via bands, you can create the instability you’re looking for. I’ve had a lot of success introducing this early into programming when athletes return from an upper body injury or have high pain levels with traditional upper body lifts.

On the other hand, if an athlete is aiming for a good pump, you can hang heavier weight plates from the bar and even decrease the amount of band slack to make it more stable. Now you can move some pretty good weight with low levels of O.K.E. and work more of the prime movers of the lift without as much stress on the joint. This setup is really good for hypertrophy work on seasoned athletes who may want to avoid any undue joint stress or discomfort.

There are so many variables and customizations you can make with this bar. It’s much more than creating the chaos training effect. You can really fit lifts to each athlete’s needs in a truly beneficial and safe way.

How We Use It

While there are several ways to use this bar in a clinical setting, that’s not the field I’m in. If I were a physical therapist, this would be one of my go-to tools for rehabbing shoulders, elbows, hips, knees, and ankles. Instead, on the performance side of the business, I really love using the bar as a dynamic coordination tool. We’ll often operate in that medium kinetic energy range to get a little bit of the benefits from each end of the spectrum.

On the performance side of the business, I really love using the Earthquake bar as a dynamic coordination tool, says @JustinOchoa317. Share on X

The Earthquake bench press is great for athletes looking to find ways to press without pain, due to the lower overall load being used and the bar’s slightly thicker handle, but it’s also really helpful as a recovery and autoregulation tool.

On days when we might have some sort of bench press variation programmed, but the athlete comes in with a really low level of readiness, we can easily swap that out for the Earthquake bar. Maybe they’re sick, maybe they’re tired from practice/games, maybe they’re hurt, maybe their significant other dumped them, maybe they slept poorly. Those things can affect an athlete’s mental state, physical state, and overall ability to perform. Sometimes coaches have to recognize that and make the proper adjustments.

The benefits of this programming menu are twofold. As coaches, we’re able to alter an athlete’s workout to fit their level of readiness, which can help them ultimately reduce the risk of weight room injuries or the waste of having a lousy session that doesn’t benefit them. Secondly, we can possibly boost their morale with the introduction of something a little bit more unique and stimulating.

By giving the athlete something they might find fun and enjoyable, there is potential that their previously poor mental state and readiness can improve a bit mid-session, and they can finish off on a strong note with some normally programmed work.

Another really valuable exercise we’ve implemented into our speed development programming is the Earthquake split squat. We typically will use this on days when athletes are doing resisted sprints as a way to prime the nervous system without taxing it. The lift itself really challenges the lower extremity stability, which also translates over to their sprint work—especially if they’re working against any type of resistance.

When we first started using the 1080 Sprint, we noticed a lot of athletes would try to drive so hard and stay so low that they would sometimes stumble forward in acceleration. Anecdotally, we believe that the use of the Earthquake split squat before resisted sprints has helped athletes lock into their positions because of their increased single leg stability.

Anecdotally, we think using the Earthquake split squat before resisted sprints has helped athletes lock into their positions due to their increased single leg stability, says @JustinOchoa317. Share on X

At around $250, the Earthquake bar is a bargain. As I said, it’s more than just hanging bands from a bar for Instagram likes. There is so much you can accomplish with this bar, whether it’s sports performance, physique competition, or powerlifting, the bar is worth its weight in gold. If you are in a setting where you work with a lot of professional athletes or in small group or personal sessions, this would probably suit you very well.

2. Trap Bar

The trap bar, sometimes referred to as a hex bar, is a very common specialty bar that you may already have a lot of experience with—of the five bars listed in this article, the trap bar is probably the most widely used and well-known. And with prices starting around $150, it’s a low-cost, no-brainer investment.

This is a versatile bar, especially for deadlift, loaded jump, and loaded carry variations. You can get wildly creative with this bar, but that’s not really my thing. I like to keep it simple and stick to what I know helps our athletes.

Neutral Grip

When it comes to the benefits of a trap bar, I believe one of the keys is the use of a neutral grip. I am a huge fan of neutral grip exercises—whether it be upper or lower body, I think a neutral grip can really make a positive impact on our athletes’ results.

Oftentimes, grip can be a limiting factor in a deadlift. I have no issue with athletes working on their grip strength, but depending on the time of year or what their training schedule looks like, it may not be the best use of our time. Introducing a neutral grip can instantly take this issue away. Grip no longer becomes the limiting factor. As long as that athlete is in a field, track, or court sport and not a barbell sport, then it doesn’t negatively impact their results in any way.

Not only that, but switching from a mixed grip or a pronated grip to a neutral grip allows athletes to get a little bit better shoulder joint centration and shoulder blade retraction, two major cues that can also instantly improve their deadlift.

Center of Mass

Another really unique benefit of a trap bar is that the athlete actually stands inside the bar, rather than behind it. This puts the external load in a much different position relative to the athlete’s center of mass.

This can help athletes avoid lower back pain, injury, or discomfort because the load is in a much more advantageous position. Plus, with the benefits of a neutral grip, their lats and upper back are more engaged and less likely to lose positioning during straining points of the lift.

Traditional barbell deadlifts are amazing but might not be the best fit for everyone. Clean variations are great but might not be for everyone. Implementing a trap bar on jumps or deadlifts can give athletes a hybrid approach that allows them to find a better position to work from.

How We Use It

We use the trap bar in two very simple and effective ways: deadlift it and jump with it.

The trap bar deadlift is one of our main movements in terms of hip-dominant strength options. It has completely replaced the barbell deadlift in our programming. I love to program this lift to help athletes build up a heavy deadlift and strong posterior chain.

The trap bar deadlift is our force-driven exercise selection along the force-velocity curve. We sometimes go against bands or chains to increase velocity a little bit but still focus on heavier loads.

On the opposite end of the continuum, our velocity-driven selection is a trap bar jump. You can either choose to go all-out on velocity with much lighter loads and peak velocities in the 3.0 m/s range or focus more on power output with speeds more in the .85–1.25 m/s range. Both options definitely have their place.

Something that I’ve always found interesting is that the trap bar jump (from hang) allows us to put out more power and faster bar speed, at identical loads, compared to a hang power clean. Why?

• Possibly due to better leverages.

 

• Possibly due to a much easier learning curve.

 

• Less technique requirements could also be a factor.

I’m *this close* to calling the trap bar a standard must-have for all strength coaches. It’s just too versatile and valuable to not capitalize on, says @JustinOchoa317. Share on X

In the end, it’s definitely food for thought as to which may be a better choice for programming. At this point, I’m *this close* to calling the trap bar a standard must-have for all strength coaches. It’s just too versatile and valuable to not capitalize on.

3. Safety Squat Bar

The safety squat bar (SSB), sometimes called a yoke bar, is a unique bar with a wide array of benefits. Unlike the trap bar, which powerlifters kind of frowned upon, powerlifters popularized the SSB as a great training tool. And it is…for all types of athletes.

The unique design of the SSB, which rests on the athlete’s back and has a neutral grip handle at chest height and cambered ends, provides lifters with several key benefits that their body structures may not allow them to experience naturally.

Limits Shoulder Demands

One of the most important differences between a barbell and the SSB is the change in hand placement. Take, as an example, the traditional back squat: With a barbell, the athlete must place their hands on the bar to secure it throughout the lift. This is not easy for many athletes because of the demands of shoulder mobility. Similar to throwing a ball, achieving this position takes decent levels of shoulder abduction and external rotation. Not only do athletes need the mobility to reach this position, but also the strength and stability in that position to be able to support the bar.

With the SSB, the athlete can use the handles to secure the bar without any significant limitations at the shoulder. In rare cases, athletes may have a history of joint damage in the shoulder region that could be irritated by how the bar rests on their collarbone area. For the most part, though, using the SSB is like night and day for athletes who normally struggle to back squat.

Squats with the SSB and with a barbell do have slightly different levels of activation when it comes to muscle groups, but not enough to deem one better than the other. The two can work synergistically, or you can choose your favorite and probably not miss out on much from the other.

Hand-Assisted Lifts

Hand placement on the bar is a benefit, but my absolute favorite perk of the SSB is the hand placement off the bar. I am a huge fan of hand-assisted lifts using the SSB, often referred to as Hatfield variations. Implementing Hatfield SSB split squats, rear-foot-elevated split squats, and tempo squats has been one of the most game-changing decisions I’ve made over the last 10 years.

With the SSB, the athlete technically does not even need their hands to be on the bar because of how it is designed to rest right over the collarbones. This frees up the hands to perform hand-assisted lifting. Most of the time, racks will have mounted pegs/handles for these, but you could also rig up this setup by using an extra barbell against the rack.

You can choose to use the hand assistance for supramaximal load or supramaximal speed. Both have amazing neural benefits that can supercharge your athletes’ results.

How We Use It

As I alluded to earlier, Hatfield squat variations are the go-to for us with the SSB. There are so many ways to incorporate it for general strength, special strength, power, and speed.

I’ve been amazed watching athletes crush this lift for 2-3 times their body weight. No, we can’t really measure the hand assistance, but it’s still wildly impressive for athletes to single leg squat this amount of relative load.

You can get a high-quality safety squat bar for under $400. Buying dozens of these in a team setting would not be a bad investment, but I totally understand if the funds aren’t available. In the private sector, having one is plenty to get the job done, as you can get enough bang for your buck out of just having it available.

4. Swiss Bar

The Swiss bar, or football bar, is a multi-grip bar often used for pressing exercises. The bar designs vary, and all of them are extremely useful. Most Swiss bars feature at least three neutral grip options at various widths. More high-end bars may incorporate those neutral grips along with angled grips, also at different widths.

For presses, the Swiss bar is one of the most versatile tools coaches can use to help athletes find their optimal grip and posture, says @JustinOchoa317. Share on X

Athletes can press vertically or horizontally with the Swiss bar, performing the exercise standing, supine, or seated. For presses, this is one of the most versatile tools coaches can use to help athletes find their optimal grip and posture.

Grip Options

I’ve talked about the benefits of a neutral grip with the trap bar deadlift, and neutral grip alignment can also benefit our presses for the same reasons: better shoulder joint centration, better stability through the range of motion, and a more pain-free comfort level.

A neutral grip and/or altered grip width can also change the muscles emphasized throughout different points of a lift. The Swiss bar allows athletes access to multiple grip widths, something I’m a huge fan of when having athletes perform press-oriented lifts.

It’s extremely important for athletes to train in all zones along the force-velocity curve, spending time working on strength, power, and speed, respectively.

In the Westside Barbell speed bench (dynamic effort) method, they are very adamant that athletes train with at least three different grips during their dynamic bench press days. Those following Louie Simmons’ methods typically use a barbell and go narrow, normal, and then wide grip. Taking that concept, you can actually determine if a non-barbell bench press would be a better fit for the athlete and incorporate the same principles with different neutral or angled grips at other angles. Of course, this helps hit the muscle groups targeted at multiple angles and ranges, but also helps the athlete press pain-free and safely.

How We Use It

Staying on the topic of pressing, the Swiss bar is an elite option for doing just that. One of the most underrated aspects of improving sports performance is having an explosive and powerful upper body.

This is where I think a lot of coaches miss out on crucial gains. Many view the bench press only as an upper body strength exercise, and something that doesn’t transfer to certain sports. My outlook is different. I think the bench press is an amazing option to train in the power and speed ranges, and it transfers over to every sport.

Sprinting and jumping are two of the most athletic actions you can do, no matter the sport. Sprinting and jumping are both full body movements, and the upper body plays a crucial role in both. By incorporating speed bench press variations, you can improve your athlete’s upper body explosiveness, which can then transfer to better arm action during their jumps and sprints.

The Swiss bar is not only for presses, you can also use it for the same benefits with row variations such as seal rows or even use it as a varied-grip pull-up bar laid over the top of a power rack. For around $250, I think this can be one of the more valuable bars in any gym. If you work with a lot of overhead athletes, this would probably be a high-priority investment both in the team and private setting.

If you work with a lot of overhead athletes, the Swiss bar would probably be a high-priority investment both in the team and private setting, says @JustinOchoa317. Share on X

5. PVC Pipe

Last, but definitely not least, is PVC pipe. I realize this is a little out of left field but hear me out. PVC pipe may not be a strength training tool, but at a price point of around $2, it delivers a massive bang for your buck.

You can get plastic pipe at any local hardware store in various shapes and sizes. I’ve seen coaches make hurdles out of PVC pipes, make their own vertical jump testing system out of PVC, and even make water-based slosh pipes with it.

PVC pipes are also a great tool for technique enhancement for beginners to prep their movement patterns in a warm-up routine.

How We Use It

All of those innovations mentioned are great uses for PVC, but I’d like to really showcase how this simple tool can help your athlete’s speed development.

Overhead PVC runs, or fixed arm runs, really help the athlete utilize their hips more optimally in sprints and sprinting drills. In addition to faster and more powerful hips, it also forces the athlete to maintain great posture and integrity during drills.

PVC sprint drills can allow us to uncover breakdowns in an athlete’s techniques, especially in the lateral chain. Although perfect symmetry is usually not attainable, it is important to help get athletes as balanced as they can be whether it’s in the weight room or on the field, court, or track.

Evaluating ROI

All of these bars would be great to have, but there’s this little thing called money, and it doesn’t exactly grow on trees. Understanding program budgeting, finances, and ROI is something that most of our formal preparation for the strength and conditioning industry does not prepare us for.

When it comes to investing in a new piece of equipment, whether it’s $20 or $20,000, there are three simple questions that I ask myself to determine if this is a smart investment.

1. Does this product solve a problem? It doesn’t matter if it solves a single person’s problem or 20 problems at once. If it solves a problem, we can ask question number 2. If it doesn’t provide a solution to a clear-cut issue that you are experiencing as a coach, it’s not necessary. It may not be worth it at the moment.

If a product doesn’t provide a solution to a clear-cut issue that you are experiencing as a coach, it’s not necessary. It may not be worth it at the moment, says @JustinOchoa317. Share on X

I have always wanted wearable EMG garments. I’ve tried so hard to come up with a justification to get some. But they simply don’t solve a problem for me. In my setting, it’s not filling a true void.

2. Can I afford this product? Aside from starting up a new business where you may take on some debt or loans, this is a great question to ask yourself before any major purchase. If you want a $450 trap bar, but you don’t have $450 cash available at the snap of a finger, it may not be the right time.

That’s not to say definitely don’t pull the trigger, though. There are solutions. Maybe you can find a similar model for a lower cost. Maybe you can find a used bar for much cheaper. Maybe you can use a credit card with 0% interest for 12 months and pay it off monthly, if you’re in a position to do so. Or, as I mentioned earlier, maybe this is rolled into a start-up loan with a new business. Not having cash is not automatically a no, but it can help you dig deeper into the logistics.

When I started training, I was in a commercial setting and did not have any influence on the equipment available. I ran into a situation where I needed a trap bar. I had a client who experienced a lot of lower back pain during hinge-based exercises and I knew from personal experience that a trap bar would probably be a great move for him.

I went out and bought one for $200, kept it in my trunk, and brought it into the gym with me whenever I needed it. Sadly, I did not have $200 to my name at the time. I was living paycheck to paycheck. But I knew that if I got one, that client would provide me with revenue that exceeded $200 every month, so it ended up paying for itself in one month and turned out to be a fantastic investment. This is just an example of how you might still be able to pull it off even if it appears you can’t afford it.

3. Do I know how to use it? Lastly, are you ready to rock when you get this product? Hopefully, after reading this article about these bars, the answer is yes. But going back to the EMG wearables, even if I did get some, I’m not even sure if I’d know how to interpret the data, best practices on usage, etc.

Do your due diligence on the product. Make sure you do research and get the exact brand and model that suits your program the best. Read reviews, good and bad. Bad reviews are telling because you can see if someone else’s displeasure may have to do with the same reason you are thinking about purchasing. A one-star review for poor customer service and slow shipping? Eh. I can deal with that. A one-star review because the quality feels cheap and it rusted out in one year? Okay, that means something.

Seeing how other coaches use the product, and even what athletes think about it, will also be great feedback for any purchase you’re thinking about.

All of the above listed bars bring their own unique value and purpose to a training program. While they certainly aren’t necessary to get great work in, it’s hard for me to imagine our program without them. Equipment doesn’t make us better coaches, but if we leverage it correctly, we can definitely help our athletes find an edge in their training with special equipment.

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

Coaches and trainers often adopt movements that appear to have the greatest “transfer” to an athlete’s sporting discipline when designing a training program. Once they’ve deemed what they believe to be essential, they commonly scrap or disregard any movement outside of that for its relative ineffectiveness or inapplicability. Of course, we only have so much time to train, and we simply cannot do it all, but how do coaches decide what movements an athlete should do or what is most important? Is it as simple as taking what appears to work from a surface level and disregarding the rest?

Performance coaches commonly make decisions based on the assumption that if a sporting action moves through a given plane of motion, exercises replicating (or closely mimicking) the same action automatically correlate, thus reigning as superior to those that do not. Coaches then fight tooth and nail over programming elements—like whether athletes should back squat or not—saying that it doesn’t emulate a skill like sprinting and therefore is useless. In reality, however, when properly programmed and transferred into the skill of sprinting, squat lifts can most certainly enhance performance.

Most of these topics have been beaten to death over the years, and you can simply scroll through social media to find coaches throwing literature in one another’s faces to justify or assert their position. That is not the intention of this article—the goal, rather, is to inform the reader on why it is inadequate to rely on certain theories for programming, mainly the force-vector theory.

Understanding the Literature

The force-vector theory is a recurring concept that some coaches have leaned on, where movements are classified based on the direction in which force is expressed in relation to the global coordinate frame. This means that activities such as sprint acceleration would fall under the horizontal acceleration umbrella, whereas maximum velocity sprinting would reside under the vertical. Subsequently, “horizontal” or “vertical” exercises would be more specific to their respective categories.

While at first glance this may seem like a sound theory, the principle of dynamic correspondence contends otherwise, showing us that there truly is more to human kinetics than meets the eye. Sure, athletes require unique training methods depending on their sporting discipline, but we could argue that a number of universal movements assist athletes no matter what they are doing.

Sure, athletes require unique training methods depending on their sporting discipline, but we could argue that a number of universal movements assist athletes no matter what they are doing. Share on X

It’s easy to understand the assumption that an exercise loaded similarly to that of a particular sporting action is as simple as a 1 + 1 = 2 equation. Take the 2018 study that examined and directly compared the relationship of vertically directed exercises (loaded and unloaded vertical jumps and half squat) and horizontally directed exercises (hip thrust) to sprint performance in top-level track and field athletes.¹ Testing results for speed at the 10-, 20-, 40-, 60-, 100-, and 150-meter marks indicated that horizontally directed movements (hip thrusts) were more strongly associated with the maximum acceleration phase, whereas vertical movements (loaded and unloaded vertical jumps) were more strongly associated with top-end speed phases.

Loturco et al. concluded that “the force-vector theory is thereby an emergent methodological approach, based on a solid and well-established mechanical foundation.”¹ Essentially, this newfound theory would allow coaches to select exercises based on their relative direction and apply them to the specific phase of running or sport skill the individual athlete needs to improve. Boom! That’s it! All we need to do is train athletes with exercises loaded in a similar fashion to that of the plane they travel in their sport, right?

Sounds nice, but think again.

This is most certainly a broad generalization, and according to Fitzpatrick et al.², comes as a “direct opposition to the most commonly accepted criteria of mechanical specificity used in strength and conditioning, that is, the principle of dynamic correspondence.”

While it is true that during high-speed running, ground reaction forces are predominately vertical, whereas during acceleration, there is a greater horizontal force relative the global frame, it cannot be explained by the force-vector theory. Rather, it is simply due to the athlete’s body position.² During acceleration, the athlete must lean forward to project greater horizontal force, meaning that the ground reaction force relative to the global frame of the body is simply projected in a more horizontal fashion.

Kugler and Jahnsen⁴ demonstrated the same when looking at both horizontal and vertical jumping, finding that the direction of ground reaction force is relative to the athlete, and whether they travel forward or not depends on whether they lean forward. Thus, how the body and the ground reaction force are oriented at toe-off dictates where the athlete travels. This is all further proof that perhaps the development of strength, speed, and power in athletes across the board is more similar than some would like to admit.

Dynamic correspondence supports that activities like back squatting are, in fact, mechanically similar to more “horizontal” motions such as acceleration because the direction of the ground reaction force relative to the athlete is similar despite it being different in the global frame. There is a reason fundamental movement patterns (e.g., squat, hinge, lunge, press, pull, push, etc.) have been around so long in the general physical training of athletes and will continue to be—because they work in the development of foundational qualities needed across most sports.

What Matters Most

If we were to adopt the force-vector theory to guide our programming and decision-making, how would we know when a particular movement goes from being horizontal to vertical, and vice versa?

Take our acceleration and sprinting analogy—there is not an immediate change from one to the next, but rather a gradual shift in the ground reaction forces that propel the athlete forward. Even further, how does something like a hip thrust (knees flexed at 90 degrees) directly transfer to the ground reaction forces of an athlete during closed kinetic chain leg extension?² It certainly doesn’t, and neither do any other exercises for that manner, which is why we don’t program based on the idea of “replicating” what we see. Loturco et al.¹ were certainly on to something when they popularized the use of the hip thrust and similar type exercises, as these movements have been shown to have the potential for greater glute and hamstring activation versus the back squat, which may assist in more hip-dominant skills. That would be a more justified reason to select one exercise over another within a program, not that one happens to fall in line with the force-vector theory.

For this reason, we also must do our research and select an array of movements in our programming to determine what is most beneficial for our athletes, ultimately helping contribute to better athletic potential. Nick Winkelman said it best (and I paraphrase): Athletes are a lot like racecar drivers and we as coaches are a lot like mechanics. We don’t tell the athlete how to drive the car, we just help give them a better and higher performing car to drive.

Perhaps the greatest error a coach can make is getting stuck in the dogmatic thought process that lures many into believing that anything in human performance is universal, says @jimmypritchard_. Share on X

Perhaps the greatest error a coach can make is getting stuck in the dogmatic thought process that lures many into believing that anything in human performance is universal. The cliché “It depends” gets tossed around a lot, and rightfully so. Is a hip thrust better than a back squat for acceleration or speed development? It depends. Numerous factors play into the required development for an individual in their given sport and the forces they encounter on their body concerning the global frame.

Having a truly deep understanding of the sport in which the athlete participates, and subsequently the physiological, biomechanical, and competitive skills they must have to be successful, is no doubt the most important factor. This leads us to the realization that there are many ways to skin a cat, and in sport a multitude of ways to get to our destination. We should prioritize helping the athlete develop the ability to produce force and produce it quickly, or display greater feats of strength, power, endurance, and speed in the context of competition.

Application of Dynamic Correspondence in Exercise Selection

The force-vector theory prioritizes the direction of force relative to the global frame, while what is clearly most important is the direction of force relative to the athlete. Adopting this theory and applying it in practice is rather problematic in that it violates the basic tenets of the relationship between the way a body is oriented and the ground reaction forces that occur on it, thus creating a great deal of misunderstanding.

Obviously, we know that the more effective approach is to make decisions based on dynamic correspondence, but how does one actually do this?

The force-vector theory prioritizes the direction of force relative to the global frame, while what is clearly most important is the direction of force relative to the athlete, says @jimmypritchard_. Share on X

First and foremost, identify precisely what metric or performance parameter you wish to improve. Say, for example, that you know an athlete must improve their foot ground contact time while sprinting in order to get faster, and that a specific athlete is currently somewhere in the neighborhood of 85 milliseconds. Ask yourself what exercises or movements would most effectively improve this quality in order to get to a more desirable number, like 80 milliseconds? The right answer is whatever exercises increase the performance—and what certainly does not matter a bit is the direction in which they execute the movement.

By starting with the end in mind, it is easy to work backward from this end performance goal as well as decipher whether an exercise translates to performance or not. In the case of ground contact time, you may choose to incorporate an array of vertical, horizontal, and multidirectional plyometrics to improve performance.

Lastly, we must not forget that any and every action we choose to execute is in fact a supplement aimed at improving performance. It is easy to get lost in the minutiae of all the training details we encounter while working with athletes, but at the end of the day, whatever improves the athlete’s performance most is what really matters.

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. Loturco, I., Contreras, B., Kobal, R., et al. “Vertically and horizontally directed muscle power exercises: Relationships with top-level sprint performance.” PLoS One. 2018;13:e0201475.

2. Fitzpatrick, D.A., Cimadoro, G., and Cleather, D.J. “The Magical Horizontal Force Muscle? A Preliminary Study Examining the ‘Force-Vector’ Theory.” Sports. 2019;7:30.

3. Bryanton, M.A. and Chiu, L.Z. “Hip-versus knee-dominant task categorization oversimplifies multijoint dynamics.” Strength & Conditioning Journal. 2014;36:98-99.

4. Kugler, F. and Janshen, L. “Body position determines propulsive forces in accelerated running.” Journal of Biomechanics. 2010;43:343-348.

Building dynamic qualities and sustaining long-term growth within an athlete is an art. For new athletes beginning their sports performance journey, the simplest answer is often the most effective. Basic progressive overload and a consistent dose of sprinting and leaping goes a long way.

In the beginning, nearly anything reasonable works, but it will not work forever. As the athlete nears exhaustion of their initial adaptative reserves, it becomes critical to have a long-term strategy in place to maintain progress. This plan should include management of energy resources (acute versus chronic loading) as well as an effective means to develop specific muscular actions/contractions (isometrics, eccentrics, concentrics) by employing a variety of “similar, but not congruent” methods to tastefully shake things up at the appropriate time and avoid stagnation.

Speed-oriented exercises that can both dissect and ultimately rebuild the stretch-shortening cycle faster become necessary to maintain the growth of explosive attributes in an athlete. I like to affectionately refer to this process as “teasing out the twitch” because it is so delicate and unique to each individual athlete. With that said, you should view this blog post more as a compass and less as an absolute road map. It provides general insights accompanied with more specific “bang for your buck” exercises and examples to hopefully set you in the right direction and allow for your own critical thought and experimentation at important training crossroads.

Defining “Bounce”

It is easy to see when an athlete is light on their feet. However, expressing this quality in words can be a bit more difficult. Adjectives that describe bounce can be subject to interpretation and take on different meanings for different people. In the world of strength and conditioning this can be fodder for contentious debate.

Without getting too caught up in semantics, I find “bounce” to be synonymous with elasticity, which is defined as the ability of an object to return to its original state or shape after experiencing stress. Visually this aligns nicely with the simple one-dimensional model of the stretch-contraction cycle typically used to explain how muscles absorb and ultimately produce force. The tendons then provide the critical link, allowing transmission of energy from force-producing muscles to the skeletal system permitting movement. Since the entirety of the musculotendon apparatus is critical to movement, it is important to make sure both tendon and muscular function are developed equally. Unfortunately, all too often the tendons are overlooked at the expense of the muscles.

Lack of balance in the development of both tendons and muscles will not only limit performance but also put an athlete at risk for injury, says @houndsspeed. Share on X

It’s easy to become fixated on exclusively chasing muscular development. After all, the muscles are the most conspicuous and quickest to adapt, allowing for faster appreciable change, so they become the ultra-attractive, low-lying fruit. Tendons are stubborn—like ligaments, they have poor blood flow and are significantly slower to develop as a result. Tendons lack the same visibility that muscles do, so out of sight, out of mind can frequently apply. Just keep in mind, lack of balance in the development of both tendons and muscles will not only limit performance but also put an athlete at risk for injury. Too much, too fast can cause unnecessary and easily avoidable setbacks.

Extensive Ground Contacts: Building a Strong Foundation

Slow cooking the intensification process is always best practice as it relates to training in general but maybe even more so as it relates to building better bounce. As previously stated, tendons are slow to budge, so subtlety is most effective. This contrasts with the more overt measures required to develop the explosive, muscular-driven torque created by heavy squats, pulls, and presses, as well as singular throws and jumps. Elasticity is delicate and needs to be coaxed out gently. Extensive ground contacts then fall under the broader umbrella of posture, balance, and rhythm drills that are designed to both condition soft tissues and develop a high degree of familiarity with the ground.

Video 1. Simple rebound jumps for stiffness are the cornerstone for learning to bounce with elasticity. Do them multiple times a week to get better—far more effective than lazy sessions of skipping rope.

I always stress with my athletes in the Riverhounds Development Academy that I want them to be able to feel the ground without having to look at it. One of the most telling things I see with young athletes (and older athletes who lack formal training) is their propensity to want to look where they are going at all times with eyes fixed on the ground. This immediately lets me know they at least subconsciously do not trust their own movements when decisive movement with conviction should always be the aspiration.

In general, basic low-impact, two-footed rhythm hopping in all planes of motion is a great starting point for soft tissue prep as well as posture, balance, and rhythm. These drills can be progressed to one leg to drive proprioceptive abilities that push for higher degrees of self-awareness. These same drills can then be translated into more run-specific motor patterns such as skips, prances, gallops, and dribbling.

Pogo Hops, Progressions

My love for pogo hops has no bounds, pun intended! It is perhaps the single most effective exercise for establishing posture, balance, and rhythm. “Strong as steel head to heel” is a simple way to reinforce just how valuable the entirety of the body is to even the most rudimentary drills. Maintaining a neutral head position with eyes fixed forward and not down is also critical to the final quality regarding execution.

My love for pogo hops has no bounds, pun intended! It is perhaps the single most effective exercise for establishing posture, balance, and rhythm, says @houndsspeed. Share on X

As previously suggested, rhythmic hopping in place with good posture is the goal, but it is not necessarily as easy as it sounds on paper. Common pitfalls include piking at the hips and eyeing down, which typically contributes to the piking as result of inefficient posture. One of the first things they teach young gymnasts is that the body will follow the head, so being extra critical of head positioning becomes important for all extensive plyos. Posture and movement standards begin here, so you must coach them hard. If an athlete cannot maintain position or defaults to poor shapes under limited duress, there is no way they will magically adopt the appropriate position under the more intense conditions experienced in maximal outputs such as sprints, leaps, and heavy lifts.

Video 2. Hops should be done in all directions and at all angles. Side-to-side options are great for cutting and reducing ACL risk.

The best place to start is the athlete beginning with two feet in place and going for as long as they can maintain quality. “Quality” is subjective, so make sure you know exactly what you are looking for. For me, I specifically want to see the extensors of the ankles and knees working in a coordinated manner while maintaining the previously mentioned good posture. As a coach, it should not only look rhythmic but sound rhythmic. You should be able to look away (depending on surface and footwear interaction, of course) and still know the objective is being achieved.

This is a great opportunity for coaches to warm up as well. Acuity in a coach’s senses is rarely if ever talked about, but it needs to be trained just as much as their athletes’ bodies do. Each individual athlete will have their own nuance in movement strategy and unique cadence, so using low-level extensive work to familiarize yourself to the individuality of the athlete is helpful.

After an athlete demonstrates comfort in place, the addition of mobility in all planes of motion—sagittal, frontal, and transverse—under the auspices of maintaining fluid, rhythmic bounce are simple progressions. From this point, removing the arms in a variety of manners is a subtle way to progress and avoid stagnation. Removing the arms immediately forces an athlete to stabilize through the core in a more specific and functional manner. Ground-based anti-rotation and anti-extension work will always have a place, particularly on low-CNS days when it is best just to get an athlete off their feet. But when given the opportunity and choice, opting to incorporate bracing within extensive skill work is an effective time management strategy.

Hands on hips, hug, plane, prisoner position (hands behind head) and arms extended overhead are all great variations, and each brings their own unique problem that the athlete must solve. Typically, the higher you hold your arms and the further you spread your arms out from the center of mass, the harder it becomes to maintain stability. Here there is no right or wrong, as there are unlimited degrees of freedom and myriad progressions, so feel free to experiment. Just make sure you do not lose the plot.

If positioning becomes disruptive to the rhythm and quality of ground contact, regress or change trajectory. Adding subtle constraints would be the next step—small hurdles and low boxes or stairs are great options to challenge the athlete’s spatial awareness. Like anything, constraints have their time and place, so it’s best to fall in like as opposed to love with certain modalities and drills.

As with the arm positioning, feel free to explore and experiment, but just be mindful it does no harm to the skill and coordination of the drill. Since most constraints require hopping onto or over something, too often these exercises become a demonstration of “knee tucking” instead of ground striking, and there is a huge difference between the latter and the former.

Not All Extensive Hopping Is Created Equal – Think LATERAL!

If extensive multiplanar hopping is the gold standard for movement and tissue prep, then more lateral single-leg and rotational single-leg ground contacts are the platinum and double platinum standards, respectively. They are so important and unique that they warrant their own subsection within the intensification process. Great intensification within the individual session is so subtle that it is hard to discern where the warm-up ends, and the work truly begins.

While making sure to be mindful and not rush this process, the quicker you can progress an athlete to one leg and moving laterally and eventually rotating, the better. One-leg hopping is a great way to organically increase an athlete’s self-awareness without overly complicating the process. To fulfill rhythmic bouncing on one leg, an athlete must strike the ground correctly right under their center of mass. What an athlete might be able to get away with on two legs, they cannot hide on one. Single leg hopping then becomes a great litmus test for a lot of important athletic qualities.

What an athlete may be able to get away with on two legs, they can’t hide on one. Single leg hopping then becomes a great litmus test for a lot of important athletic qualities, says @houndsspeed. Share on X

Merging single leg benefits with greater glute medius recruitment by moving laterally amplifies the return on time management investment. Efficiency is accomplishing more by doing less and should always be the goal of the training process. Thus, one-leg lateral movement has extraordinary “bang for your buck.”

While traditional glute/hip band walks have value, they lack the velocities experienced on the field. The increased speed demands crank up stresses ever so slightly and fire up the nervous system in turn. Adding rotations and arm constraints “doubles down” on the neural recruitment, sending proprioceptive feedback through the roof.

Joint Angle-Specific Isometrics

Developing isometric strength by holding task-specific joint angles is a great way to add integrity and back the extensive ground contacts with some serious substance. These positions are highly specific to each individual due to differences in limb lengths and torque-producing tendencies, so it is important to put the athlete in positions that are both advantageous and disadvantageous for performance at times. Isometric holds in unfavorable positions are great ways to address weak points and enhance general preparedness qualities while advantageous positioning fortifies already strong kinematic positions. Both are necessary, but sport specificity is found in the more favorable angles yielding a greater performance effect, so having a strong idea of what you would like to accomplish with isometrics and working backward becomes helpful.

Holding sport-specific positions allows an athlete to feel critical intermuscular and intramuscular links before complicating with movement and velocity. Experience has shown that simultaneously intertwining extensive ground contacts and isometric holds proves to be a formidable stimulus to really “grease the groove” and prepare the athlete for the more intensive efforts to follow. As it relates to positioning, a good hold should begin on the ball of an athlete’s foot and unify the ankle, knee, and hip extensors (soleus, VMO, glute med/max).

Video 3. Simple medial hops were popularized by Ted Banks in the 1970s and can be traced to when Bud Winter was coaching high jump. Remember, speed athletes need to be good at simple plyometrics, not be competitive horizontal jumpers.

Athletes should never be caught flat-footed, and this is a great opportunity to reinforce this sentiment. The more “acute” the joint angles an athlete can adopt, the more aggressive their athletic position. Acute is typically far from comfortable, so isometrics become a great way to condition the athlete to becoming comfortable with being uncomfortable.

For dosing, I have found 10- to 15-second efforts of max intensity appear to be optimal for allowing the individual to maximize tension and maintain high quality. To progress the holds, I prefer to increase intensity as opposed to increasing duration. You can accomplish this by placing the athlete in a more challenging position, adding load, or incorporating contract relax-type principles.

The contract relax method is unique because it requires the athlete to quickly relax and recreate tension with tiny oscillations at the specific joint angle in question. I like this because it captures the best of both worlds with respect to position while encouraging subtle movement, which more closely resembles what is happening real time on the field, as athletes are not statues. Specifically, a simple superset of a loaded isometric immediately followed by an unloaded oscillatory iso is a great way to quickly fire up the nervous system!

Concentrics: Overcoming Inertia

Newton’s first law of motion states that an object at rest will remain at rest or an object in motion will remain in motion unless acted on by an external force. Being able to harness these forces means everything to an athlete. Moving explosively out of static positions, then being able to skillfully maintain and eventually stopping or redirecting is a tremendous undertaking. Therefore, I often like to remind our athletes that inertia is an athlete’s best friend and worst enemy at the same time, the ultimate catch 22!

Specifically as it relates to “bounce,” deliberately disrupting the rhythmic fluidity of extensive ground contacts at certain times is a neat trick to maintain continual progress. Eliminating the stretch phase and forcing an athlete to overcome any variety of static positions with a dynamic movement are the simplest ways to go about developing this unique quality. The classic example of this is the relationship between the squat jump (no stretch) and countermovement jump (stretch).

Eliminating the stretch phase and forcing an athlete to overcome any variety of static positions with a dynamic movement are the simplest ways to go about developing this unique quality. Share on X

The countermovement jump should be about 10-15% better than the squat jump. If the margin of difference is too narrow (< 10%), more “bounce” development is in order; conversely, if the separation is too extreme (> 20%), more strength is likely needed. For strength building and the efforts skewed more toward maximal force and rate of force development on the force-velocity curve, concentric-only deadlifts—trap bar deadlifts with different starting heights with different stances—are great for developing an athlete’s ability to overcome. However, if it is speed you seek, med ball throws are king.

Video 4. Adding an external load and larger knee angle will decrease the elastic energy, but it does teach the body to use momentum properly. Experiment with ways to jump efficiently without tendons and elastic energy.

To stay on topic with the concentric-only theme, I am specifically referencing concentric-only “scoop” throws both vertically forward and overhead backward, or any other throw from a static position. Med balls are great because they are subtle. They are heavy enough to enhance feedback but still light enough to really create some velocity.

When it comes to incorporating speed with concentrics, I gravitate more toward throws, as I see them as an opportunity to very lightly load. Additionally, in my experience, releasing an object naturally teaches extension better than not releasing an object, as athletes capitalize on continuing to accelerate as joint angles become increasingly favorable. When emphasizing development of maximal outputs like speed and power, which tend to skew toward heavy (strength speed, max force) or ultra-fast (bodyweight sprints and jumps), it’s often easy to overlook the value of more subtle means like lightly weighted throws.

Mastery over Stretch Reflex: Hit the Brakes!

The stretch reflex is one of the most powerful tools an athlete possesses, and developing powerful brakes with hard decelerations and landings from various heights and angles is an invaluable way to challenge the eccentric muscular function under more sport-specific velocities. Slow eccentrics will always have their place in training and are of great value to young athletes establishing positions as well as more advanced athletes deliberately seeking increased time under tension during periods of general prep for instance. However, outside of a handful of specific scenarios, fast eccentrics will always have greater carryover to the field.

Athletes endure lots of stress from the high velocities and abrupt braking forces, and they cannot efficiently overcome what they cannot first absorb. To deal with greater forces, bigger brakes must be built with a good strength training regime and more sport-specific decelerations and landings. If an athlete struggles to deal with these stresses, the resulting visual is continually being a step behind and, even worse, potentially one step away from soft tissue injury.

Video 5. Looking at the medial hops again, you can see how the foot contacts are long enough to help roll the body towards the inside.

Gradually preparing the athlete for higher forces in training then becomes important, and building an athlete’s braking apparatus by gradually increasing eccentric velocities becomes the fourth and final piece to accompany the low-intensity ground contacts, sport-specific isometric positioning, and concentric medicine ball throws. The human body is incredibly resilient and will adapt to the demands imposed on it (SAID principle). An athlete can then be gradually conditioned to endure greater and greater magnitudes of stress in training, so when exposed to the same scenarios within the game, they are first and foremost likely to stay healthy and, as a by-product, perform at a higher level.

“Extreme training” in a highly controlled and tastefully progressed manner best prepares an athlete for the field of play. Limiting an athlete to submaximal outputs in training and merely hoping for the best typically never goes as intended on match day.

Decelerations, Altitude Landings

My starting point for high-velocity eccentrics begins with simple two-footed “snap downs.” To execute properly, an athlete starts tall in a fully extended position and then must move with maximal intent into a flexed, athletic position as quickly as possible. In essence, they are violently jumping straight down and abruptly hitting the brakes trying to freeze as if they are a statue in their joint angle-specific athletic set. Again, this will vary from athlete to athlete because of different heights and limb lengths, so it’s not necessary to try to fit square pegs into round holes.

Athletes should move their feet during the landing process, and as they get increasingly better and better at the skill, the landings should get louder and louder. As a coach you should be able to HEAR the force. As they move their feet, it is equally important that an athlete specifically locate the balls of their feet. It does the athlete no good to land flat-footed, as this is the last thing we want happening on the field.

Braking with maximal purpose and abruptly locating balance on the balls of the feet is much trickier than it looks, so it is good to drill it continuously to reinforce development for youth athletes and quickly touch on it frequently as professionals even if during warm-ups. To progress the snap down slowly, adding heights of just a few inches at a time subtly increases the stress upon landing. Again, the strictest landing mechanics must be maintained, as eventually there will be a specific height for each individual at which the quality degrades and intended effect is lost. Quality always supersedes quantity and best to “stop a mile early than one inch late.” Next would be adding lateral falls and falls with twists and eventually restarting the entire process over on one leg in a similar progressive manner.

Drop Jumps, Depth Jumps

After thoroughly dissecting the stretch-shortening cycle, drop jumps and depth jumps tie the entire stretch reflex together again. Upon falling from a height, the athlete now must quickly reverse the landing upon ground contact and leap explosively vertically, horizontally, or eventually off a single leg. Initiating with a fall increases an athlete’s acceleration prior to takeoff and, if executed correctly, should yield higher resultant force. Simply put, athletes should be able to jump higher or bound further after the fall.

Video 6. Box to Bounce to Box is nothing more than depth jumps with the right height. Monitor the Reactive Strength Index (RSI) in order to make changes in box heights.

If an athlete lacks the requisite strength and the fall hinders performance, then you should regress the exercises to a lower height, or they should not do them until they are strong enough. The amount of time spent on the ground is directly proportional to the height of the fall so attention to detail really matters, and it is important to know the desired effect. Drop jumps are more speed-oriented and require quicker ground contacts, so box heights must be lower.

Visually they look like a pogo with limited knee bend and maximal lower limb stiffness upon reversal. However, depth jumps are slightly more force-oriented and require more hip-dominant torque so encourage slightly greater heights, and they closely resemble your typical countermovement jump. Both variations are necessary, particularly when the goal is to tease out highly specific qualities. For instance, if you look at ground contact times of sprinters, the slowest grounds contacts occur during the first propulsive steps of acceleration, and the fastest ground contacts are demonstrated during max velocity.

Despite the subtle variations in speed and execution that exist between the two exercises, they both fall under the same distinction of plyometric exercise designed to enhance the speed of the stretch-shortening cycle and are just slightly varying degrees of FAST! Simple jumping and rate of force development exercises such as weighted jumps and throws often get mischaracterized into this category. For an exercise to be a plyometric it must have a fast ground contact (approximately 0.2 seconds) and specifically address enhancing the speed of stretch, transition, and contraction.

Be mindful that these specific types of plyometrics are force- and energy-intensive, so you need to closely monitor volume and use them only sparingly. I liken drops and depth jumps to a “NOS button” for performance, and I like to use them prior to more significant competitions or showcases for our youth academy or to quickly burst through a training plateau and jump-start further progress.

Keep It Simple!

Maximizing bounce and developing any speed-related quality takes time, as it is the last adaptation to manifest itself, so extreme patience is required. Good development should never be rushed—maintain a process-oriented approach and stay the course with the lower-intensity, skill-building, extensive ground contacts and the obligatory strength work to maintain health and build power, and it will pay off in the long run. This truly should comprise most of an athlete’s training, as it keeps them prepared and healthy. After all, there’s no ability like availability!

Maximizing bounce and developing any speed-related quality takes time, as it is the last adaptation to manifest itself, so extreme patience is required, says @houndsspeed. Share on X

Tastefully injecting more intensive plyometrics in controlled doses at just the right time will raise the ceiling just enough to make sure trends can always remain favorable, but it’s all about picking and choosing your moments. Doing the simple stuff better and being able to get the simple stuff to create the desired effects is truly the name of the game in the end, and it will keep your athlete light and springy along their athletic journey.

 

I want to tell you a story. So often as coaches, we find ourselves poring over research articles, attending conferences, and getting into Twitter arguments with each other, and sometimes we need to step back and read stories. We need stories because they remind us of reality: that coaching is a human endeavor, not just a scientific one. Stories remind us that we can suffer hard times, battle with mental health issues, and overcome.

We need stories because they remind us of reality: that coaching is a human endeavor, not just a scientific one, says @litt_strength. Share on X

Strength and Conditioning and Burnout – My Story

On July 6, 2019, in a cabin in the mountains of North Carolina, I got out of bed with the full intention of taking my own life. I would say I woke up with that intention, but to be honest, I hadn’t slept in 24 hours. I don’t think I had slept well in six months.

Thankfully, by a coincidence I am more inclined to consider an act of God, that intention was thwarted by the fortunate presence of someone at the camp I worked at. In the following weeks, like someone who nearly falls off the edge of a cliff, I tried to catch a mental breath and understand how I wound up there in the first place. I went from coaching full teams, clubs, and groups on a weekly basis to a boy’s camp tucked away in the mountains, lacking the desire to live.

While admittedly, I was likely at higher risk for depression based on family history, this is not a story about depression. And it is not a redemption story either. It is a reminder of the nature of what we do as coaches and some of the issues we face.

By anyone’s thought process, I was “too young” to burn out. I was only 25, and I hadn’t been considered a “coach” for long enough. What happened?

When I finished my bachelor’s degree in 2016, I blindly entered a field in which I thought I knew what I was doing. Right off the bat, I got turned down for job after job, and I realized that I was unprepared for the true nature of strength and conditioning.

I had no experience. I had only done one internship and coached weightlifting at a few CrossFit gyms. The first door that opened was working as a personal trainer at a big box gym chain, so I jumped at the chance. I started putting in 10- to 12-hour days trying to accumulate clients and continued to throw my resume into the wind.

I got out of corporate fitness about as soon as I got into it, moving to a job as a performance coach at a youth training facility in November 2017. What I failed to realize was that I was replacing not one individual at the facility, but three, all of whom had resigned their positions in a span of three months. I quickly dove into 60- to 70-hour weeks at the facility, for much lower pay than I had been earning at the big box gym. I entered the facility at 9:00 in the morning and left some time after 7:30 in the evening.

This is not unusual for strength and conditioning coaches. In fact, it seems to be an odd bragging point, showing that they are “committed to their athletes” or that it’s a sign that they “love what they do” so much. Because of this, I thought I was paying my dues in the profession.

Additionally, it did not help my situation that I was in a long-term relationship with someone who was emotionally dependent upon me. And to add fuel to that fire, it was a long-distance relationship. As I’ve continued to meet more coaches, I’ve come to realize that the best coaches have the best life-partners on the home front. Thankfully, caring people in my life intervened and pointed out the disconnect. I ended the relationship, which led to expanding my work hours even more as a poor coping mechanism.

Continuing Down the Same Path

I then continued adding more poor coping mechanisms to my repertoire, first by picking up my endeavors on the weightlifting platform and then by starting to earn a master’s degree. To put it simply, I fell for the game of tight t-shirts, big lifts, and an endless list of initials after my name. In the space of five months, I ended a serious relationship, began competing in weightlifting meets, and started a master’s degree program. I was also still working at the sport performance facility 50-60 hours per week and training a team at a local school five days per week at 6 a.m. I was doing what I thought every coach was supposed to do in their climb up the ranks.

I was doing what I thought every coach was supposed to do in their climb up the ranks…I constantly fought boiling over like a whistling kettle, says @litt_strength. Share on X

As this was happening, I became the go-to guy in our facility for cleaning up the mess made by the frequently poor decisions of mid-level management. The more time went on, the more often those decisions led to more pointing fingers in my face than I should have accepted on behalf of my director. I constantly fought boiling over like a whistling kettle.

By the time May 2019 hit, my life felt like it was becoming a movie playing on a screen in front of me. In three consecutive weekends, I travelled to a sibling’s graduation, competed in the USA Weightlifting National Championships, and was spontaneously given tickets to three days at SummerStrong at Sorinex headquarters in South Carolina. I remember sitting there, listening to coaches tell stories of passion and hardship, and feeling completely alone in a packed room. It was a good experience, but even in a sea of people, I had never felt more anxious or lethargic as I did then.

A month later, I quit my job and disappeared into the woods to work at a boy’s camp as a cook. That was June 30, 2019.

Now, at this point, you might wonder where this story is going. Perhaps this is where I share the light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel moment or the moral of the story? Well, I would, but the story doesn’t stop there.

As fate would have it, I found purpose in my pain that summer when the man whose presence prevented my self-harm had his own near-death experience three weeks later. That purpose gave me time to heal, reflect, and formulate a plan for how I could avoid burning out again.

Several weeks after I came back out of the woods, I got a phone call from one of my former coworkers at the training facility, asking if I’d be willing to come meet with them about something. It turned out that the former director’s poor decision-making led to his eventual firing, and in seeking changes to how things had been done, they offered me his position.

Admittedly, I laughed inside when they handed me the job description and the pay associated with it. They were asking me to do almost everything I had previously done for the former director, but at double my pay from before. On October 4, 2019, I started back at coaching in the same facility I had left only three months prior. But I had no idea what was in store…

Job Loss to Life Gain

In the early stages of 2020, the world as most of us knew it turned upside down.

In the U.S., March 13 became the day that I’ve noted as the “Oh crap moment” for what would become a very difficult time for gyms and sport performance facilities. I was in Orlando at a coaches’ summit when the pandemic started to spike, causing the U.S. government to declare a state of emergency. The talk among coaches quickly became the best process for dealing with restrictions on gatherings and how they would adapt their own facility’s policies. The final day of the conference was cancelled, and many coaches headed home to start prepping for the forecasted storm of shutdowns and social distancing.

I prepared for the worst when I got home. However, things didn’t start getting bad until late that week, when I was told that we needed to cut back some of our staff’s hours. The next day, in the meetings with those coaches, I was blindsided when our GM laid them off instead. To date, that was the hardest part of all that has happened this year. Sitting in a meeting and watching two individuals, who are like family, lose their jobs felt like a gut punch. And because the directive to our GM was given by our ownership, I knew there was nothing I could do. I don’t drink often, but admittedly I did that night.

On March 23, the North Carolina governor issued a shelter-in-place order that closed all businesses deemed “non-essential.” This included gyms and fitness centers statewide, though our isolated area in the mountains would not see a single COVID-19 case for another two weeks. The owner of our facility, both the sport performance business and the sports complex in which we were housed, was generous enough to keep us on staff as we navigated online training with our athletes and clients.

As I kept up to date with information from sources that my sister, a lab coordinator with a PhD in infectious diseases, suggested to me, I started to come to terms with the thought that this would be the final nail in my coaching coffin. That what ended my chances of coaching was something so small you’d need a microscope to see it. But the tides would eventually turn in my favor…or so I thought.

We barely pulled through the shutdowns. Despite attempts to provide as much opportunity to continue training as we could, business was slow. When the governor allowed day camps to open in Phase One, we quickly took advantage of the fact we worked with kids and labeled every training group a “day camp.” We went through all of the sanitation steps and even started to grow again. As the program director, I kept an eye on the numbers and knew we still had a long fight ahead.

At the end of August, I got the text that I had been dreading from our GM, asking if I could meet the next morning. In our meeting, I was told that we would be temporarily closing the facility. Due to the economic impacts of the shutdowns and lack of interest in our program, they could no longer afford to pay the staff. We were effectively dead in the water, and in the end, the remaining staff would be without jobs. This leads to today, as I sit at my desk typing away on the first day of not having a job to go to in the morning.

So, where do we go from here? Every story has to have a moral or a lesson to learn, right? Perhaps. I would be remiss if I didn’t say that there is something to be learned here. But what can be taken from a story where there is no hero, or where the traveler winds up in the wrong location? Well, hindsight is 2020.

A Road Map to Hope and Recovery

First, I need to acknowledge that we are not Supermen (or Wonder Women). We have weaknesses, and we can be prone to struggling with our mental health. Coaching is like being an oil wick candle, and if you don’t take the time to put more oil in the base, you eventually burn out. Take time off when you can, spend time with family, invest in hobbies, and be present outside of the weight room. Burnout also does not have to be the death sentence for your coaching career. You can get back in if you want to, or you can choose to move on.

Coaching is like being an oil wick candle, and if you don’t take the time to put more oil in the base, you eventually burn out, says @litt_strength. Share on X

Second, the light at the end of the tunnel is more blinding than you may think. I would have never thought that I would have two “last day of work” moments at the same job, but I did. And yet, within 48 hours of being told I would be laid off, I was asked to interview for a PE teacher’s position at a middle school. A few days after I learned that I wasn’t selected for that position, I got an email from a professor at a local college with an invite to guest lecture in their exercise science department. A week later, a coach I met at SummerStrong called me out of the blue, offering his advice and some opportunities to learn and develop as a coach. This light at the end of my tunnel made me realize that most of us have a light shining brightly for us, but we often shield our eyes from it.

Third, in the past year and a half, one thing has become increasingly clear to me: We should hope for the best while preparing for the worst. Burning out was, and likely will be, the lowest point in my coaching career. But even with the mental stress of the COVID-19 shutdowns and the eventual loss of my job, I am the happiest I have been since I started coaching. I attribute part of this to mentally preparing for the worst: the loss of my job and the closure of the gym. This is not to say that we should dwell on negative thoughts, but rather embrace the multiple outcomes of a situation.

If I leave you with anything, it would be to not give up hope. While we should be prepared for the worst, we should also hope for the best. Have hope that doors will open when others close, have hope that our roles will remain intact, and have hope that there will be a stronger future.

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…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

While not blessed with the genetics to excel at sprinting, I consider track and field to have treated me very well. To offer some perspective, I am a masters athlete, having recently turned 38 years old, and I have never broken 11 seconds for 100 meters or 23 seconds for 200 meters, and at this point I assume I never will. I have spent four years coaching youth athletes in Dubai, and although I’m not currently coaching, it is something I see myself returning to in the future. However, largely due to being in the right place at the right time, I have been extremely fortunate to cross paths with some of the world’s leading sprinters, coaches, and authorities in speed development.

This is not something I have taken lightly, and I am under no illusion that my athletic capabilities warrant the input from some of the great minds that have offered me help and advice over the past 20 years. With this in mind, I have counted my blessings and endeavored to learn something from each encounter and tried to apply any lesson where appropriate as I progressed through my involvement in the sport.

In no particular order, I have decided to offer a lesson learned from some of the athletes and coaches I have interacted with. Some of the knowledge was imparted by extremely prominent names, other wisdom was derived from lesser-known sources, and there are many more names I could add to this list. Some of the lessons I have learned along the way have been fairly specific, but I have tried to reflect upon and share some of the broader concepts I have picked up on. This is due in part to the fact that I think in recent years the speed development community has become prone to consumption by minutiae, and I feel stepping back, considering the big picture, and being more holistic in the development of sprinters could be a positive thing.

1. Craig Pickering – Keep the Big Picture in Mind and Think Critically

When I first joined what was then Milton Keynes Athletics Club, an athlete four years younger than me named Craig Pickering had also recently joined. Many readers will be familiar with his name, as he has written fairly extensively for SimpliFaster and now has a role in high-performance sport with Athletics Australia.

At 14 years old, Craig won the national Under-15 100m title and went on to have a strong senior career, finishing with personal best times of 10.14 over 100 meters and 6.55 over 60 meters. He made the Olympic team in the 100 meters in 2008 and qualified for the 2014 Winter Olympics as part of the British bobsled team, before injury forced him to retire prematurely from international sport. In my opinion, Craig has an excellent understanding of the details related to training and athlete development.

Craig and I still speak regularly, and what continues to impress me is his ability to process new information, take a step back, see where it fits, and apply it, without getting drawn down rabbit holes. Prior to his role in Athletics Australia, Craig worked for a company involved in genetic research and testing, and he introduced me to the ACTN3 gene. The ACTN3 gene is also known as the “sprint gene,” and it relates to the body’s ability to produce type IIx muscle fibers, with an individual’s genotype offering clues as to how they may most appropriately be trained to develop speed and power qualities.

Whereas I went down that proverbial rabbit hole, Craig was able to reflect on this and consider that, while there may be some merit in applying some of this information to training programs, a sprinter still needed to be able to clear the blocks effectively, accelerate efficiently, and reach a high maximum velocity that they could also maintain well. Therefore, regardless of an athlete’s ACTN3 status, these qualities required regular development in training.

When I am now faced with some new information, instead of mindlessly attempting to apply it, I try to consider how Craig Pickering may interpret it. Where does this information fit? Share on X

When I am now faced with some new information, instead of mindlessly attempting to apply it, I try to consider how Craig may interpret it. Where does this information fit? Is my context suitable for the application of this information? Ultimately, this has led to a more holistic thought process with regard to my sprint training.

2. Greg Rutherford – Listen to Your Body, and Rest Is Underrated

At around the same time I met Craig, there was another athlete there who was also four years younger than me named Greg Rutherford. When I introduced this article stating that luck was involved in the paths I crossed, part of that luck was joining a club when it was on the brink of becoming a national hotbed for youth athletics talent. Greg was prodigious and won his first European medal—long jump silver—at 19 years old, before going through a golden spell in his career that saw him become Olympic, World, European, and Commonwealth Champion, as well as British record holder in the event with 8.51 meters. Additionally, he was a useful sprinter with personal best times of 10.26 over 100 meters and 6.68 over 60 meters.

One of the key influences (in my opinion, and likely in Greg’s as well) that led to Greg’s golden spell was a reduction in training volume and frequency. At the time, I recall (arrogantly) thinking Greg was lazy. There were times when we were due to train together, and Greg would cancel because he had taken his dogs for a long walk or had been installing windows in his new house, and I recall thinking “Imagine how good he could be if he devoted himself.” Upon reflection, however, I now think Greg was exceptionally in tune with his body and knew when he needed to back off in order to deliver the required intensity and effort when he did train. The reduction in training frequency and volume saw a reduction in injuries, and the rest, as they say, is history.

As I have gotten (a lot) older, I now try to consider this lesson when faced with a training session. Am I ready to deliver the appropriate intensity? If not, is it a better idea to back off and live to fight another day? My circumstances are fairly busy, and around a full-time teaching job and a 3-year-old daughter, my recovery is often not optimal, so it’s become paramount to think carefully about when I can “go hard” or whether I should “go home.”

3. Dave Lease – Train Speed Year-Round

In 2003, I moved to Cardiff to study sport and exercise science at its university, and one of the reasons I chose the institution was its sports facilities. They had an indoor, banked 200-meter track, which was unheard of in those days in the U.K. Those facilities meant that there were elite athletes who made that venue their training hub, and this enabled me to witness high-level sprinters and sprint coaches operating on a daily basis. Dave Lease was known for coaching Jason Gardener to a world indoor bronze medal over 60 meters in 1999 (behind Maurice Greene and Tim Harden) and for helping him to run 6.46 over 60 meters and 9.98 over 100 meters.

Dave was perhaps the equivalent for me of Charlie Francis for many people. In my first year at university, Dave delivered a lecture for my course, and one point that stood out was that he tried to coach Jason as though they were based in Southern California year-round as opposed to an outdoor track in Bath, England. Dave had staple year-round sessions for Jason, such as 3×30 meter fly runs with six minutes’ recovery between the repetitions, or block sessions consisting of runs over anywhere from 1-6 steps.

These kinds of workouts were almost unheard of to me, and up until that point my training had typically consisted of far higher volume. With maximal sprinting, the overall volumes an athlete can achieve within a session are quite limited, and in order to replicate maximal intensity, the recovery intervals need to be extended. Otherwise, you are no longer sprinting maximally, and the stimulus and therefore the adaptation are impacted. Jason had appeared to thrive with this type of training incorporated into his program, and the times mentioned above remained his personal bests for the rest of his career.

Having seen the way Dave Lease constructed his training programs, I have always incorporated some form of maximal intent sprinting throughout the year, and not just in season. Share on X

It stands to reason that if you want to sprint maximally in competition, at some point in practice you will also need to sprint maximally and probably reasonably regularly. Doing so helps develop the body’s physiological capabilities to reach and operate at higher velocities. Having seen the way Dave constructed his training programs, I have always incorporated some form of maximal intent sprinting throughout the year, and not just in season.

4. Linford Christie & Darren Campbell – Not All Short Sprints Need to Be Carried Out with Maximal Intent

Linford Christie is perhaps Great Britain’s most famous track and field athlete after he won the Olympic 100-meter title in 1992 and the following year posted the still-standing British record of 9.87 to win the World Championships. In the winter of 2005, Darren Campbell allowed me, with an (at that time) 100-meter personal best of 11.8 seconds, to join in with his training group. In 2004, Darren had been a member of the Olympic gold winning 4×100 meter relay team, and in 2000 he had won an Olympic silver medal over 200 meters. I was fairly starstruck and ready to soak up knowledge and apply myself in order to improve as an athlete. While Linford was not based in Cardiff, he came down from London fairly regularly to oversee training sessions and set many of the workouts.

One of the concepts that stood out to me from the training sessions was that a lot of the runs were completed as either “good pace,” which was essentially a submaximal effort that felt pretty comfortable, or build-up runs, in which the repetition distance was split into thirds, and each section got faster. Often these formats of runs were all incorporated into one workout, alongside maximal intent sprints, and the distances of the runs containing submaximal sections were as short as 30 meters.

The purpose of these runs was not initially obvious to me, but they were an integral part of the training that year. I beat my old personal best times by nearly three-tenths in the 60 meters and by four-tenths in both the 100 meters and 200 meters, so it was clear that whatever I was doing in training was having a positive impact on my performance, even if I didn’t understand why. Fairly recently, I have had conversations on social media with PJ Vazel and Jonas Tawiah-Dodoo, and both have suggested that motor learning occurs more optimally at submaximal intensities, thus providing an explanation for a potential mechanism behind this type of work.

Although the fact that something works should be enough of a reason to incorporate it, an understanding behind the methodology helps to increase buy-in of an idea, says @SprintFasterDXB. Share on X

This is a lesson I have not done a great job of applying over the years. I think there are two possible reasons for this. First, I did not understand why something could help me. Although the fact that something works should be enough of a reason to incorporate it, an understanding behind the methodology helps to increase buy-in of an idea. Secondly, I think on a basic level it is quite counterintuitive to think that slower running can help an athlete to ultimately run faster. My target has recently been, and will continue to be, to incorporate more submaximal efforts where the foci are rhythm, timing, and coordination.

5. Simon Duberley – One Technical Fix Can Bring About Other Technical Fixes

Simon Duberley is perhaps a name that will not be familiar to a lot of the readers in the U.S. In his day job, Simon works for a company that manufactures ejector seats for military aircraft, and he coaches athletes in the evenings and on weekends. Simon has produced some very successful athletes, including two under-20 athletes: Rion Pierre, who ran 21.23 indoors over 200 meters, and Deji Tobais, who ran 10.30.

While I had considered the importance of technique throughout my early involvement in sprinting, Simon took that understanding to a new level. Based upon his understanding of physics developed through his job, Simon was able to break down the running stride and consider the importance of various biomechanical indicators. I learned that altering one biomechanical aspect can have a knock-on effect and impact other positions.

For example, a dorsiflexed position allows the gastrocnemius to relax, which subsequently allows it to assist in knee flexion throughout swing leg recovery. This, in combination with the fact that the center of mass of the lower segment of the leg is shifted closer to the knee, allows the knee to angle to close more tightly throughout the leg recovery, due to the fact a short lever is a faster lever. The same concept is then applied around the hip. With tighter knee flexion, the center of mass of the leg shifts closer to the hip, which allows the thigh to swing through more rapidly and therefore get into a good position for ground preparation earlier in the stride, thus setting up a more optimal subsequent ground contact, which sets up the following stride, and the cycle continues.

Whenever I analyze sprint mechanics and notice a technical issue, I now aim to consider what happens prior in the gait, and how that may influence what I am seeing. By the same token, I consider what impact the issue may have upon technical aspects later in the cycle. Ultimately, the body is built up of many interrelated systems and effecting a change on one variable will impact many other variables. It is therefore important to understand what other factors you risk changing by making a technical alteration, and the same can be said with regard to programming.

6. Terrence Burke – Coaching Is Teaching

Terrence Burke may also not be a name familiar to some readers. Terrence coached in the Bay Area for many years at the high school and collegiate levels, across various event groups. It is perhaps due in part to his more general background that one of the cornerstones in his philosophy is teaching. I met Terrence more than 10 years ago on the old Charlie Francis forum, and since then he has always shared his wealth of knowledge on programming and the history of the sport with me.

For years, I tended to lean toward effective programming and exercise prescription being the key elements in producing successful results on the track. Terrence often spoke to me about the importance of teaching, and as I am a classroom practitioner, one of the concepts that received a great deal of focus during my professional development was understanding via which method the student is best able to access learning. Some learn simply by being told, others learn using visual props, and some learn through guided discovery.

I believe that placing athletes in scenarios where they are best able to learn makes improvements more meaningful and more likely to withstand the pressure faced in a competitive environment. Many years ago, Terrence first introduced me to the concepts of Vince Anderson, who many readers will know, and who was perhaps the first coach to regularly use “wickets.” I bring this up because I see this as a great example of placing a constraint upon an athlete that brings about a technical change.

In this case, the athlete will not want to step on the mini hurdle (wicket), so the barrier directs where the foot will contact the ground. Many times, this is used to prevent overstriding, and it encourages the foot to contact the ground closer to a point directly under the athlete’s center of mass. As would happen in a classroom, the process can progress as the learner becomes more comfortable and needs to extend. For example, some of the hurdles could be removed from the lane either at the end or, perhaps for extra challenge, in the middle of the run, and it can be assessed as to whether the athlete is maintaining the desired stride length and location of ground contact relative to their center of mass.

It’s worth noting that perhaps the concept of teaching is more relevant the earlier the athlete is in their development. Once they have reached elite status, there will likely be fewer opportunities for an athlete to take learning points away from workouts.

While coaching in Dubai, I worked with youth athletes. I challenged myself to deliver learning points to the athletes I worked with, so that they left as many sessions as possible with an improved understanding of sprinting, or a related activity, in the hope it would ultimately lead to them becoming a better athlete.

7. Michael Khmel – Volume Can Work

In late 2008, Tim Abeyie, a good friend of mine, made a coaching change to Michael Khmel, introducing me to him and his training group in Loughborough. Michael has a list of very successful athletes on his coaching resume, with Joel Fearon, Matt Shirvington, Harry Aikines-Aryeetey, James Dasaolu, Craig Pickering, and Leon Baptiste as some of the names that readers may recognize. Very kindly, Michael allowed me to join in with some workouts, as well as observe him and the group and offer input on occasion.

The first workout I did with the group was two sets of four repetitions of 200 meters with a couple of minutes of recovery between each run. First, I had to negotiate the warm-up, which felt like an entire workout in itself based upon any training I had done prior to that. I was generally pretty good at tempo-type workouts and could hold my own with athletes who were far faster sprinters (which is a lesson in itself), and by the eighth 200-meter repetition, only Leon Baptiste and I remained in the workout. The target time for the runs was 28 seconds, and I vividly remember giving it everything I had on the last effort and managing 28.5. Meanwhile, I watched Leon stride way off into the distance and clock 24 seconds. For the next two years, Leon completed these kinds of sessions and improved his 100- and 200-meter times, culminating in a victory and gold medal over 200 meters at the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

Around this period, I posted regularly on Charlie Francis’ forum, reading posts and information that training runs in the 75-95% intensity ranges should not be incorporated into a sprinter’s training, and I was very much about the concept of keeping track work as specific as possible. If a run was not near-maximal, then I could not see the benefit. However, here was Leon excelling off a program that had plenty of volume of submaximal efforts in the intensity range that I believed was too slow to be specific, yet fast enough to bring about more prolonged fatigue. To provoke more thought, Harry Aikines-Aryeetey ran his lifetime personal best time of 6.55 over 60 meters in 2010 as well.

I do not believe it is the optimal strategy for everyone…but I have seen many athletes who seem to improve when they have more training volume, says @SprintFasterDXB. Share on X

This was another lesson I did not learn right away, but as I reflected upon my experience with Michael over the following years, it became apparent that some athletes responded well to a more volume-based approach. I do not believe it is the optimal strategy for everyone, and I still could not give you a detailed explanation of the mechanisms involved, but I have seen many athletes who seem to improve when they have more training volume, and regress when approaching training with a higher-intensity, lower-volume style of programming. This example, combined with similar others, makes it impossible for me to disregard a higher volume approach as being “wrong”; I simply think you need to be aware of the type of work the athlete responds best to.

8. Tim Abeyie – Maximum Strength Can Have Diminishing Returns

In 2005, I began training with Tim Abeyie, as he was one of Linford Christie’s athletes at the time. Over the next year, Tim improved his 60-, 100-, and 200-meter times to 6.64, 10.22, and 20.66 respectively, earning himself a spot on the British team for the 200 meters at the European Championships.

Around this period, I was under the impression that the power clean was an essential lift for any sprinter, and common questions amongst the British sprint community were “What can you clean?” and “What’s your body weight?”, therefore enabling a ratio to be calculated. I felt the unspoken belief was that, as that ratio improved, your sprint time would improve.

Over the next four years, Tim continued to get stronger, and he was ultimately able to power clean 155 kilograms, more than 20 kilograms heavier than in 2006, with very little change to his body weight. That year he ran 6.74, 10.43, and 20.75. Ultimately, sprint performance is multifaceted, and many variables were at play that meant Tim did not run as fast as he had four years earlier. However, if maximum strength is such a strong predictor of sprint performance, I would not have expected to see significant strength gains coincide with a decrease in sprint performance.

Strength training is one aspect of sprint performance that I understand less than others. My feelings are that for most people, a “baseline” level of strength development is beneficial, but past a certain point, chasing numbers in the gym can be futile for some. I think that all things being equal, the stronger athlete is perhaps the faster athlete, but as I mentioned earlier, sprinting is multifaceted, and a change in one variable impacts many others. As with the volume and intensity spectrum on the track, I imagine the role weight training plays in an athlete’s training varies between individuals, and the qualities that make an athlete successful perhaps determine how important that role is.

My feelings are that for most people, a ‘baseline’ level of strength development is beneficial, but past a certain point, chasing numbers in the gym can be futile for some, says @SprintFasterDXB. Share on X

As a younger athlete, I relentlessly attempted to pursue new personal best lifts in the weight room, under the pretense it would almost guarantee better performance on the track. I would try and lift heavy if my back or my knees were not feeling great, and occasionally I got injured. More recently, I have taken a step back from the gym and view it simply as a means to an end, while keeping the primary goal, times on the track, at the forefront of my mind.

I had no access to a weight room throughout lockdown, and my body seems to be feeling better with fewer aches and pains. This allows for greater intent in track workouts and potentially a decreased injury risk, thus possibly allowing for more consistency, and therefore a better chance of improved performance.

9. Dan Pfaff – Athletes Are Individuals

Dan Pfaff likely needs no introduction to the readers of SimpliFaster, as the coach of Donovan Bailey and countless other elite sprinters and track and field athletes across various speed and power events. Greg Rutherford introduced me to Dan in late 2009, when he moved to England in the lead-up to the home Olympics.

Greg split his training between Lee Valley’s indoor 200-meter track in North London and a couple of venues around his home, some 40 miles north of London, and he regularly trained on a long hill near his home. In a conversation with Greg early on in his partnership with Dan, he explained that Dan had not seen the hill yet, but he was happy for Greg to complete his Saturday workouts on it. Initially I found this strange, as I was not sure how Dan could make this decision without seeing the surface and the gradient of the hill clearly.

I was perhaps getting lost in the minutiae again, and as I grew to understand Dan and his methods better, it struck me that perhaps he was focused on keeping his athletes happy and feeling good. A confident athlete heading into a competition period is likely going to perform well, and it was obvious that Dan did a great job of managing this with Greg, who did not want to move to London, away from his home. Dan saw how important it was that his athletes were in a positive and happy environment and facilitated that within the parameters of his programming.

Dan Pfaff saw how important it was that his athletes were in a positive and happy environment and facilitated that within the parameters of his programming, says @SprintFasterDXB. Share on X

As the athletes I coached in Dubai matured and I got to know them better, I encouraged them to take more ownership of their training. It was possible to guide this within certain parameters by providing them with options and ranges, something I had also learned from Dan. For example, I may have them set between four and six repetitions over 150 meters, so that if they’re tired, they can stop after four, or if they feel great, they can complete six. I believe this empowered the athletes, kept them happy, and as an added bonus, contributed to their learning.

Find Your Own Path and Reflect Wisely

These are some of the lessons I have learned from some of the people I have met in my track and field journey over the last 20 years or so. Some I learned through my interaction with them, and others I learned after some reflection. The whole experience has taught me that there are very few occasions when it is not possible to gain knowledge that can shape future practice.

The whole experience has taught me that there are very few occasions when it is not possible to gain knowledge that can shape future practice, says @SprintFasterDXB. Share on X

More recently, it has come to me that perhaps we are too quick to point out what we see as the flaws in the practice of others who may not agree with our philosophy, as opposed to considering aspects that may be able to help us develop as a practitioner. Finally, it taught me that context is key, and some lessons were applicable in the setting in which I observed them, but perhaps would not be appropriate in different circumstances. I think that this is the art of coaching—knowing when to apply which scientific principle.

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

Since March, like many others, I have had a lot more time on my hands. As exercise shifted from the gym to my stationary bike, and activities on evenings and weekends moved from social events to time spent indoors, the amount of time I had available grew massively. The positive within all of this is that I finally had the time to do things I’d been putting off, including making my way through an ever-growing list of sports documentaries.

I enjoy the insights of these shows, as they often demonstrate how sports stars and teams operate on a daily basis and reveal the underlying foundations of their success. There are many lessons we can take from these documentaries, and in this article, I highlight some key take-homes from my recent binge watching of all things sport.

1. All or Nothing: All Blacks

There’s a great moment in Amazon’s All or Nothing documentary series on the All Blacks (New Zealand’s national rugby team): They’re losing 22-20 in a match against Argentina in the Rugby Championship, the annual Southern Hemisphere tournament that also includes Australia and South Africa. Having just scored a try, New Zealand has a chance to level the game by kicking the conversion. Lima Sopoaga, usually the second-choice fly half, steps up to take the kick. In the documentary, he talks us through that moment. As he is setting up, he catches a glimpse of the scoreboard: two points down, this is a pivotal moment in the game, and the All Blacks need him to make this kick. The pressure from his teammates, and even from his whole nation, is on him.

How we react in situations like this tells us a lot about ourselves and our character. Sopoaga, in the face of all this pressure, realizes “these are the moments you ask for.” Instead of wanting to avoid the pressure, wanting to be anywhere else but there, he actively embraces it, and the chance to perform that comes with it. This, to my mind, is one of the crucial lessons from this documentary series: Elite athletes are not scared of being in situations where failure might happen. Instead, they embrace it.

This is one of the crucial lessons from this documentary series: Elite athletes are not scared of being in situations where failure might happen. Instead, they embrace it, says @craig100m. Share on X

Although I was never of the same level as Sopoaga, I have raced in two World Championships finals, and I remember the feeling of nerves, the pressure of potential success, and thinking to myself there is nowhere else I would rather be. For elite athletes, there is often something inherently enjoyable about embracing uncomfortable situations; the challenge for coaches is to develop these traits in their athletes so they can perform without fear on their biggest stage. Overall, the All or Nothing series is a fantastic watch, giving amazing insights into how the best team in the world operates and how the best players carry themselves and prepare for their biggest moments.

Key Takeaway: Truly elite athletes embrace the pressure of performance and want to put themselves into situations where they will be tested. To support our athletes, we need to develop this attitude.

2. The Last Dance

In comparison to the All Blacks, there are many athletes and teams where the culture is less than positive, often with an under-explored or rarely discussed dark side. Within this theme, there is no better place to start than the Michael Jordan documentary The Last Dance.  

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last six months, it’s highly likely that you’ve at least seen clips shared on social media, but the whole series is highly enjoyable. Ostensibly about the 1997-1998 Chicago Bulls team, the docuseries covers MJ’s whole career, as well as key moments from the Chicago Bulls dynasty during their period of sustained success.

A crucial lesson for me came from the clips of the U.S. basketball team at the 1992 Olympics, commonly called the “Dream Team.” The videos show how fiercely competitive their practices were, which many players stated were the hardest games they ever played in. If coaches and players can develop training situations in which they have to work harder than in competition, they will no doubt develop the confidence and skills required for success.

A second lesson comes from how Phil Jackson, coach of the Bulls during this period, deals with Dennis Rodman—who we might charitably describe as a free spirit. In the series, Rodman is shown going on a week-long party tour to Vegas, missing some important training sessions. Rather than punish Rodman once he returns, Jackson instead just carries on like nothing has happened. Jackson—whose book Eleven Rings is also hugely enjoyable—appears to be of the opinion that Rodman needs to party and needs to rebel, and that trying to constrain him to “normal” professional behavior would be counterproductive.

In my own experiences, I know of one multiple Olympic medal-winning coach who, dealing with an athlete of a similar disposition, developed one key session for the week. His goal was to get the athlete to do that session—anything else was a bonus. That athlete now has their own Olympic gold medal, demonstrating that sometimes it is better to work with your athletes (and their perceived weaknesses) than fight with them for perfection.

Sometimes it is better to work with your athletes (and their perceived weaknesses) than fight with them for perfection, says @craig100m. Share on X

There is, however, a dark side to The Last Dance. Jordan is clearly obsessed with winning and exhibits some highly toxic behaviors. The question—which is unanswered in the documentary—is how much coaches and athletes should tolerate this as the price of success. On more than one occasion MJ demonstrates bullying behaviors—including actual physical assault—and this appears to be somewhat accepted by his team as the cost of success. Certainly, MJ thinks so, reflecting as such during one tearful soliloquy. Given the recent sporting abuse scandals that have been widely reported, this should be uncomfortable watching for everyone, and it should drive more conversations around what is the acceptable price of success and what behaviors we will and won’t tolerate on this journey.

Key Takeaways:

1. There is an important need to practice like you compete. As a result, coaches should seek to develop realistic training sessions to better support their athletes in being able to perform when it matters.
2. Success often comes at a price. As a society, we need to have better conversations about what that price is and whether it is acceptable to us. Building on this, we need to be clear on what behaviors we will and will not tolerate in the pursuit of winning, and continually reinforce the desired behaviors.

The Edge

The British documentary The Edge details England cricket’s transformational journey from no-hopers in 2009 to the number one ranked side in the world in 2013. Although not necessarily its main theme, the film explores the darker (or at least more private) side of sport. We see Jonathan Trott openly discussing his mental health and anxiety battles, which demonstrates how athletes are people too and subject to the same battles that we all go through. Other players detail the highs and lows of their sporting journey, which further adds to our understanding that all is not always rosy in elite sport.

Like The Last Dance, The Edge asks the question of what is the acceptable price of success—which is demonstrated by Coach Andy Flowers’ relentless drive for it and his own reflection that he has often got the balance wrong. Finally, we see how, once the team reaches its goal of being number one in the world, it is somewhat of an anti-climax. This topic is similar to that of the HBO Sports documentary The Weight of Gold, which covers the mental health of athletes who have reached the top and find it to be much less fulfilling—and substantially more empty—than they thought it would be.

All involved in sport should, as highlighted in this documentary, be increasingly aware of the mental health challenges posed by elite sport, says @craig100m. Share on X

I went through similar, but far less extreme, experiences during my career. After winning a bronze medal at the World Under-18 Championships in 2003, I remember struggling for motivation at competitions I viewed as not at the same level, and I perhaps didn’t celebrate my selection for the 2008 Olympics—the pinnacle of my career—as much as I should have at the time. I think it’s an important reminder for us all that the journey is often more enjoyable than the destination. If we build up the goal result and put it on a pedestal, thinking that everything will be amazing afterward, we will inevitably be disappointed.

Key Takeaway: We often expect that success leads to happiness, but in many cases the journey is more fulfilling than the destination. All involved in sport should, as highlighted in this documentary, be increasingly aware of the mental health challenges posed by elite sport—and winners are far from immune from this.

4. Building Jerusalem

Switching sports, but staying with England, I finally got around to watching Building Jerusalem, which, like The Edge, is a story of how an England team rose from underperformers to world champions. In this case, it is the England rugby team; knocked out of their home World Cup in 1999 at the quarter-final stage, they turned themselves around to become World Cup winners in 2003. The documentary has multiple key themes—one of the main ones is how Clive Woodward, the England coach, led this revolution through innovative thinking and approaches. Matt Dawson, the England scrum half, even comments that if you were a half-decent salesperson with a sports science product, Woodward would likely have bought your services—he genuinely wanted to leave no stone unturned.

One of Woodward’s innovations was hiring a vision coach, Dr. Sherylle Calder, who is still involved with the team today. Calder worked on improving the peripheral vision and spatial awareness of the players, but also had a secondary, unplanned, important role—she taught the England forwards Afrikaans, allowing them to understand the lineout calls of South Africa, England’s opponents in a crucial group game, and subsequently nullify their threat. Woodward is perhaps one of the key drivers of what eventually became known as marginal gains, a now somewhat maligned approach to leaving no stone unturned in the pursuit of success.

Building Jerusalem also has important lessons for game day performance. Although strong favorites to win the World Cup, in a group game following their win against South Africa, England was struggling against relative minnow Samoa: At half time, Samoa led 16-13. A key part of this story was England’s ability to grind out results. They might not be playing well, but eventually they proved too much for Samoa, running out 35-22 victors. They then struggled against Wales in the quarter-final—again trailing at half time before turning it around.

While we might expect and desire to win in dominant fashion, sometimes it’s important to ‘win ugly’ and just drag yourselves over the line, says @craig100m. Share on X

This is an important lesson to us all: While we might expect and desire to win in dominant fashion, sometimes it’s important to “win ugly” and just drag yourselves over the line. This belief in the process was illustrated in the final, which went to extra time. The message to the England team at this point was just to do what they usually do—nothing special—and, if they did that, they would be successful. This success came with 26 seconds left, as Jonny Wilkinson kicked the winning drop goal.

Jonny Wilkinson brings us back to the key themes discussed in other documentaries. At this stage of his career, Wilkinson was an obsessive: He couldn’t leave training without kicking six consecutive penalties successfully and would typically take 500-600 practice kicks per week. This obsession propelled Wilkinson and England to World Cup glory, but it came at a price. There’s an amazing moment in Building Jerusalem where Wilkinson describes his emotions in the seconds before the end of the game. He knows that England has possession, and that they’re going to just kick it out to secure victory, but he doesn’t want the game to stop. In those few seconds, Wilkinson knows that they will win the World Cup, but that they’re still on the journey—the process by which he is obsessed—and have yet to arrive at that destination. He knows the referee’s whistle will bring an end to this journey, but he doesn’t want it to end.

The next 18 months were an injury hell for Wilkinson, as his obsession drove overtraining: He played just 940 minutes of rugby during this period. Wilkinson eventually found happiness, embracing Buddhist principles and ending his career with a hugely successful five-year period playing for Toulon in France. In the last match of his career, in typical Wilkinson fashion, he scored 84% of his team’s points, leading them to victory in the Top 14 Final. Nevertheless, this happy ending should not obscure the dangers of obsession with sport, as Wilkinson’s career is a powerful reminder that we should develop the whole person, not just the athlete.

Key Takeaways:

1. Once the basics are taken care of, an innovative approach to athlete development and elite sport can support success. Even if it has no direct effect, if the athletes believe that they are the best prepared, that can give them masses of confidence.
2. Elite athletes are at risk of developing perfectionist behaviors; while this certainly helps them achieve success, it tends to come at a cost. A common symptom of this is excessive training, which may be an important warning sign to look out for.

5. From The Inside Out

Despite having lived in Australia for five years, I’ve yet to truly get into Australian Rules Football. However, in my constant search for interesting sports documentaries, I came across From The Inside Out, an hour-long film that covers Collingwood, an AFL team based in Melbourne, and their 2018 season.

The documentary details a club in transition; in the 2017 season, Collingwood—or the Pies, as they are commonly known—finished 13th in the table, well outside of the playoffs. There were calls for their charismatic young coach Nathan Buckley to be fired. Instead, the club offered him a two-year contract, and in the 2018 season detailed in this documentary, they came in third in the league and made the Grand Final, losing by five points. The documentary, as with others discussed here, has a mental health angle; in this instance, Adam Trealor, a key Pies player, discusses his battles with anxiety. What is really pleasing to see is that Collingwood rallies round him; their Chief of Culture and sports psychologists support Trealor in overcoming his issues, and he plays in their Grand Final loss.

From The Inside Out also deals with a culture change—Buckley is aware that the club has a long reputation for being aggressive, causing them to be disliked. He tries to instill a more welcoming culture, using strong links to the local community and fans to develop the player’s collective story. There are many examples of this in the documentary, including bringing fans with illnesses to speak to the players about what the club means to them. You can see the effect this has on the players—some of them are moved to tears—and it results in an overall change in culture, with the well-being and development of players as good people being paramount. At the end of the documentary, Buckley reads a letter from a lifelong Collingwood hater, congratulating him on the great work he has been doing—an example to Buckley that his process is having a positive effect.

Key Takeaway: Culture change can be difficult and “fluffy”; an important step appears to be defining and then operationalizing the desired behaviors (i.e., what does “respect” look like?), and then promoting these behaviors through a variety of means—in the case of Collingwood, often though storytelling.

Hungry for More?

Similar to From The Inside Out, and sticking with the theme of culture change, Amazon’s The Test tells the story of the Australian cricket team, and their rehabilitation from the 2018 ball-tampering scandal. New coach Justin Langer, a former international cricketer for Australia, is keen to change the perception of the squad, and it’s an interesting watch as to how he goes about doing this—but there is a small hint of propaganda throughout!

Andy Murray: Resurfacing is a very enjoyable documentary that details the rehabilitation process for athletes, warts and all. In this case, it covers Murray’s battles with hip pain, his attempts to overcome and deal with it, failed treatments, and potentially a comeback. It illustrates the psychological toll injuries have on athletes; many times, we see Murray getting frustrated or emotional.

This documentary is a great example of the retirement process for many athletes, and the doubt it causes—making it an important watch for those involved in sport, says @craig100m. Share on X

Throughout, there is a storyline that this might be the end of his career; at one point, we see Murray in his hotel room, considering whether this will be his last competition. He can’t decide: He clearly loves the sport, but his body has had enough, and it’s sapping his enjoyment. Murray calls his wife, who says “If you’re looking for someone to give you permission to retire, this is it.” Murray makes up his mind, but then changes it, before changing it back. It’s a great example of the retirement process for many athletes, and the doubt it causes—making it an important watch for those involved in sport.

Finally, The Australian Dream is an eye-opening account of AFL player Adam Goodes and his battles against racism in sport. It’s really uncomfortable to watch, acting as a strong reminder how sport often acts to intensify social issues, and how, while we think we as a society are doing well, we can always do better.

Let me ask you a question: Have you ever observed or coached alongside someone who just seemed to have a presence? This coach controls the flow of the session in a deliberate way and always seems to have a captive audience. They consistently achieve their desired outcomes, whether that is promoting a high degree of learning, producing incredibly detailed and individualized programming, or delivering a massive amount of energy and “buzz,” no matter the situation.

This experience can be quite hard to describe, but you definitely know when you see it and can almost feel it in the room. Watching good coaches operate—basically the complete opposite of what you see on Last Chance U—you get this feeling of unspoken energy in the room I like to call “session climate.” I use that phrase to describe the intangible factors that go into a good session delivered well.

Watching good coaches operate, you get a feeling of unspoken energy in the room that I like to call ‘session climate’—the intangible factors that go into a good session delivered well. Share on X

There is an old adage that a bad program delivered well will work better than a good program delivered poorly. Now, ideally you shouldn’t ever need to make that choice, but it shows that sometimes what we deliver isn’t as important as how we deliver it and why. Having good coaching processes allows you to achieve a positive session climate consistently.

Bringing the Art of Coaching to Life

This is an area that you don’t really get taught much about at university: You learn the underpinning physiology behind programming decision-making and perhaps why you might use certain training prescriptions. But the major roadblock for many young coaches is finding a way to make the program come to life off of Excel.

Why is this?

Well, unfortunately, there isn’t really any replacement for time spent in the trenches coaching! This is why it is so key for young S&C coaches to spend time coaching, whether that’s with a pro sports team, in a college setup, or just training the general population. You have to go out and coach someone…anyone! This is also why there’s a great benefit to exposing young coaches to multiple environments and contexts—for example, if I spend all my time working with a small group of introverted golfers, I’m going to need to adapt my coaching very quickly if I’m then thrown to the wolves with a group of 30 extroverted rugby players!

To develop this “coaching art,” there aren’t many alternatives outside of spending large amounts of time coaching, often developing your craft through trial and error. This is where working outside of pro sport can be so valuable. It might not be as glamorous, but it is a fantastic opportunity to improve your coaching skills. I worked for a few years at a university and coached so much with such varying groups that I couldn’t help but improve my coaching craft!

One helpful resource is a growing body of literature looking at the “science of the art,” with outstanding work from the likes of Nick Winkelman with his book The Language of Coaching and from Brett Bartholomew and his concept of “conscious coaching.” But as coaches, our default setting when furthering our own learning tends to be to look deeper at set and rep schemes, or to look at why we should or shouldn’t do certain exercises. We often know the what very well, but we tend to let the how develop by accident.

Proper Planning: Checklists & Notes

A way of combatting this problem is to take a personal look at our own coaching processes. It sounds simple, but actually sitting down and working out your own process for coaching is worth investing time in. If we have a good coaching process, we can foster a session climate that is appropriate for the session and the athletes we work with, which will lead to us being much more successful. From there we can develop a coaching checklist that ensures we get the most out of every session, every time.

It sounds a bit silly and certainly isn’t the most interesting of topics, but as some of the great work from Atul Gawande shows, implementing checklists can have dramatic effects^1. (See this short clip from his TED Talk—a coaching checklist may not save lives like in this example, but it will certainly save you from delivering a poor session!)

Not only can writing checklists help better prepare you for the session, but it provides a framework for you to more effectively self-evaluate post-session as well, reinforcing the loop of constant refinement of your own coaching process. These might include things you do naturally, such as where you stand in the gym to control the group, or in warm-ups whether athletes go in single file, in small groups, or all at once. Putting some thought into these things helps to sharpen the sword of your own coaching and also allows you to do the “pre-mortem,” as Daniel Kahnman explains in his book Thinking Fast & Slow.

Checklists help better prepare you for the session and provide a framework for you to more effectively self-evaluate post-session, reinforcing the constant refinement of your own coaching process. Share on X

Forecasting to spot the car crash before it happens allows you to be aware of any potential threats to your session climate and put a plan in place to combat them. For example:

• If I’m coaching one player who really struggles with a lift in a large group of 40 athletes, how much one-to-one attention should I give him if it steals from the rest of the group? Do I have a plan for how I deal with this athlete?
• If I have all my athletes do an exercise, but there are only two pieces of equipment for them to do it on, how do I combat the choke point to the session this might cause?
• If I coach a client one-on-one among a large group of the general population, how do I ensure I still achieve the best session flow?

From making mistakes, you can’t help but find better answers to these questions, which allows you to achieve better session climate, because you are better prepared.

One of the things that I have found helps me personally with my own coaching is to have something to refer to while I am on the gym floor or on the field. I would say the most important tool I have in my coaching toolbox is the Post-it Note…yes, the Post-it Note! I now use small Post-it Notes in pretty much every single session that I deliver.

I am not claiming this will work for everyone, but for me at least, the notes help bring clarity in my own mind of what I’m going to do, what I’m going to say, and key themes (or issues I need to look out for). Just the simple process of writing things down—even if you don’t refer to the notes in session—is said to better commit things to memory², so at the very least it can help you be more prepared. Sometimes it may be a plan with themes and cues I want to get across; other times I might write an outline of the gym program so I know what the session flow will look like. (An unintended consequence is that I now have the ability to write so small that if I ever went to prison, I’d certainly be the guy tasked with smuggling notes between inmates!)

A formalized coaching checklist doesn’t necessarily have to be written down, but it is good to think about chronologically, so you can visualize the flow of the session. Prior to the session, consider:

• Is the gym well laid out?
• Do my drills on the field flow from one to the next without choke points?
• Do I need a session briefing at the start?
• What themes should I bring up?
• Will I be doing any education?
• How am I progressing the session from the one before?
• Will the athletes know whether they have been successful in the session? How?
• How am I “packaging” the session?

All of these things help the athletes buy in more to what you’re delivering and grow the session climate.

A Bit of Branding

Packaging sessions can be a great way to liven up a generic session, helping to drive training intent. For example, a standard hypertrophy session could be named “Flex Friday,” or you could have certain athletes enroll in “Speed School.” These packaged sessions add an extra bit of window dressing, tend to be more fun, and give the players much greater ownership of the session.

At times, the athletes will see themselves as custodians of that particular group. For example, to join Speed School, the athletes might first need to earn the right to be there (as judged by the players already “enrolled”), performing a particular rite of passage before being permitted to join the group. One example of this from my coaching was a hypertrophy group that required a Great British Bake Off in order to join, where an athlete had to bake a protein-based snack for the rest of the group (with the players of course judging whether the baked goods were good enough to merit entry!). Another example was a speed session with Premier League-style relegation and promotion to the top group, complete with Champions League music playing before the final sled race!

Competition = Intent

One of the easiest ways to affect session climate is by including elements of competition in a smart and simple session design. This is a surefire way to ensure a positive session climate and drive training intent. Adding external rewards such as prizes can work well—for instance, in a rugby environment, I’ve found the players are more motivated to stitch their teammates up than they are to win prizes! So physical punishments or embarrassment for not winning often helps drive banter in the group, as the players are motivated to see their mate have to do something embarrassing or face some hardship.

Structuring sessions to include game elements or challenges is also a great way to put a bit of special sauce on a session that can otherwise be quite generic, says @peteburridge. Share on X

Structuring sessions to include game elements or challenges is also a great way to put a bit of special sauce on a session that can otherwise be quite generic. For example, when upper body sessions get stale and 5 x 5 becomes too monotonous, a challenge between players to do as many reps as possible in an allotted period of time can be a great change-up.

“Energy” is a term that gets thrown around a lot by coaches, but it is a real thing and the “vibe” of a session can either help give energy to a group or take it away. Energy is a hard thing to put a finger on at times, but it can be controlled by the coach. Depending on your own coaching style, you may be the lead energy guy/gal (think of your college football strength coach in a SMedium polo!), or alternately, you may help certain individual athletes express their own personality to give energy to a group.

This is where allowing your extroverted players to express their personalities can be really useful to provide energy to their teammates. At times, this can be even more powerful than a coach having to always be the driver of energy in the session. The coach can then settle into the role of a conductor, letting the orchestra make the music while you subtly influence the behaviors you want from them in the background.

Being solely reliant on yourself or a few athletes to bring the energy every day is a big ask, so you can make your job easier by letting the environment or task help drive the session climate if the energy is wanting. In a warm-up to get athletes going, playing a couple of fun games that still lead to physical outcomes can be a very effective tool to drive energy and foster a positive session climate.

Videos 1 & 2. Who says warm-ups have to be boring?! You can still achieve maximal accelerations or prepare the players to handle deceleration…it just so happens they are playing naughts & crosses (tic-tac-toe) or running after a rubber chicken! Again, your imagination is the only limiter here.

Gamification of sessions can be a good way of taking the session climate to even better levels. For example, turning a Wattbike session into “Le Tour de Leicester” or having WWE-like Tag-Team Elimination Chamber style max rep challenges with the right group, at the right time, can have a great impact.

This isn’t limited to the gym either; in fact, this strategy works more fluidly on the field in agility and speed games with rules and constraints such as “game-breaker moments” and “power-ups.” This gamification may start out quite abstract in basic tag-based evasion games, but you can actually use it in quite sport-specific drills in a more game speed setting.

Video 3. Gamification works best on-field when tied to the sport. In this game the physical outcome was a max effort acceleration over a large distance, whereas the rugby outcome was kick chase intent and high ball catch skills. In an attempt to tie the two together, the players are in teams that have to score points by cleanly catching the ball in the zone. The further the zone (and so harder the kick and bigger the distance to accelerate over), the more points for your team.

Using exercises that are measurable and then displaying that feedback through leaderboards is a great way to generate competition. This is where exercise selection can be dictated by the ability to drive energy and competition within a group. For example, broad jumps feature significantly in my programs because we have measurement lines heat transferred into our floor—it’s quick and easy to use competition to see who has jumped the furthest because it’s there for all to see.

Another easy way to get athletes to compete is through the use of VBT: Having an iPad feeding back scores is an effective method of creating competition. To optimally improve power, we know that maximal intent is needed no matter the load on the bar³, so finding ways to dictate the environment to get that behavior is key.

A Dose of Our Own Medicine

Once you’ve implemented your ideas and understood your own process, the next thing you want to do is work on refining that process and look for ways to improve it further. At times, this can be tough to do if it’s just you in the gym with your athletes, because you don’t really have anyone but yourself to evaluate how the session went. This can then quite easily lead to you falling into the trap of doing what you’ve always done. But putting some thought post-session to how it went can be key to making improvements.

Sometimes coaching with a GoPro on or at the very least setting up a camera in the corner of a gym can help you understand elements of your own coaching process, says @peteburridge. Share on X

An even better method is to actually record your sessions: We often challenge our players to analyze their performances and watch film of their training and games, but when was the last time you sat down and analyzed your own coaching sessions? It can be quite an awkward proposition to do self-analysis, but sometimes coaching with a GoPro on or at the very least setting up a camera in the corner of a gym can help you understand elements of your own coaching process:

• Have you stood in the most effective position to coach?
• Do you control the group?
• What is your body language toward the players?
• Are there blind spots with athletes’ technique that you miss or don’t see?
• Have you verbalized your coaching in a way that’s easy to understand?
• Do you say enough to impact a player’s movement quality?
• Are you saying too much? (This is where having access to a mic or the Voice Memos app on an iPhone can be very enlightening.)

I’ve found, especially with my on-field coaching, that hearing what I’ve said allows me to be more concise and have clarity with my words the next time I use them. This ultimately improves my ability to coach and allows me to get better at my craft in the same way that I challenge my players to do.

Don’t get me wrong, at times you can get some funny looks if you do coach with a GoPro on or with glasses with a camera attached. But when you get over the awkwardness, the footage you get is fantastic for analyzing your own coaching. Matching this with more formal self-evaluation can be a powerful method to judge your own coaching or model another coach’s style.

I have adapted the SPICE system used in teaching and public speaking⁴ to help me better evaluate my own coaching, and from time to time to improve my own coaching process.

Being equipped with higher levels of self-awareness around your own coaching process will allow you to more consistently achieve a positive session climate. This helps what you deliver become a more emotive experience for your athletes and provides the backdrop for so many more positive outcomes. With higher levels of engagement, our athletes buy in and are better primed for more education on what to do and how to do it. This allows us to further influence our athletes’ behaviors (whether in the gym or on/off the field). It is also likely that our athletes will develop greater autonomy over their own development and the training process.

Being equipped with higher levels of self-awareness around your own coaching process will allow you to more consistently achieve a positive session climate, says @peteburridge. Share on X

The methods we use to achieve this, whether through competition, fun, greater challenge, or more stimulation doesn’t really matter, as long as it ultimately leads to us being able to better connect to our athletes. If better session climates allow us to do all of that, then we set ourselves up with the best possible platform for our players to succeed…no matter what we decide to program!

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References

1. Haynes, A. B., Weiser, T. G., Lipsitz, S. R., et al. “A surgical safety checklist to reduce morbidity and mortality in a global population.” The New England Journal of Medicine. 2009;360:491-499.

2. Mueller, P. A. and Oppenheimer, D. M. “The pen is mightier than the keyboard: Advantages of longhand over laptop note taking.” Psychological Science. 2014;25(6):1159-1168.

3. Tillin, N. and Folland, J. “Maximal and explosive strength training elicit distinct neuromuscular adaptations, specific to the training stimulus.” European Journal of Applied Physiology. 2014;114(2):365-374. doi:10.1007/s00421-013-2781-x.

4. Jahangiri, L. and Mucciolo, T. A Guide to Better Teaching: Skills, Advice, and Evaluation for College and University Professors. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. 2017.