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As coaches, we make training decisions based on the relative efficacy of each selection. We choose exercises to match our athletes’ needs, determine how training should be structured, and select the intensity with which to train. Not surprisingly, most coaches implement similar structures—once a successful blueprint has been created, there is no need to reinvent the wheel. While a great deal of modern training principles are founded in scientific reasoning, others continue due to the reasoning of that’s the way it’s always been done.

One example that warrants reconsideration is the introduction of a hang power clean prior to the hang power snatch. A number of coaches believe that athletes must always learn how to perform a hang power clean before any snatch derivative because that has always been the traditional progression.

Hang power snatches appear more complicated because they require an athlete to catch the weight overhead, leading to the negative connotation that weights overhead inherently equals injury. While there may be cases where instructing athletes in the hang power clean is more beneficial than the hang power snatch, I have a rather unpopular opinion in the human performance world in believing that it can be beneficial to teach athletes the hang power snatch before the hang power clean.

Checking All of the Boxes

Before I dive any further into this article, I must stress the importance of checking all the boxes before even attempting to teach an athlete how to hang power snatch. An athlete must be able to perform an overhead squat with flawless technique and demonstrate adequate hip, ankle, and thoracic mobility. Attempting to build a snatch on top of poor fundamentals is a recipe for disaster, so don’t try it!

Besides inadequate movement capabilities, the only other reason why you should avoid introducing an athlete to the hang power snatch is for medical or health purposes. Previous hip, shoulder, or knee surgeries could be a red flag warranting a doctor’s consent before any training modality is prescribed (not just weightlifting).

Assuming everything is okay, there is no reason to be shy about teaching an athlete how to hang power snatch. Research suggests that weightlifting is no more dangerous than sporting activities with regard to the resulting number of injuries. In fact, Hamill¹ reported that school children playing soccer reported nearly 6.2 injuries per 100 hours of activity versus a mere 0.0017 injuries seen during 100 hours of weightlifting. The myth that weightlifting in itself is a high-risk activity has long been dispelled.

What Is the Hang Power Snatch?

Although the competition-style lifts are rather straightforward (snatch, clean, and jerk), we can use a variety of movements at various ranges of motion to teach and train our athletes. A hang power snatch is simply a derivative of the snatch, where we start with the bar above the knees and do not catch it at a significant depth. This motion can be further broken into a high-hang (upper thigh), mid-hang (mid-thigh), or hang (top of the knee-cap) power snatch. Again, I use each variation to some degree, but in this case, I will simply cover the hang power snatch starting at the knees.

Teaching athletes weightlifting exercises can be quite difficult, from both an instructional and learning standpoint. Beginning with the hang power snatch is beneficial because it provides an abbreviated motion requiring less mobility and technical proficiency to execute. Additionally, we bypass the first pull altogether and put athletes in a position to properly begin their second pull while learning to get under the bar.

A big issue I see athletes have when attempting to learn the snatch from the floor is pulling entirely too early and never achieving the proper double knee bend to generate the necessary force for an effective lift.

In order to execute a hang power snatch:

• Start with a snatch grip (hands wider than the shoulders) and lift the bar to a tall standing position.
• From there, slightly bend your knees and hinge your hips a bit while lowering the bar to the kneecaps (mid-thigh or upper thigh, if you were doing those derivatives).
• Once in position, begin the execution of the lift by driving your feet aggressively through the floor and extend the hips as the bar begins coming up your thighs. It is important to keep the bar tight to your body and ensure you keep your arms fully extended here.
• As you reach triple extension, you should begin to pull the bar upward toward your chin and continue pushing through your feet/ankles.
• From there, throw yourself aggressively under the bar while establishing a solid squat stance with your feet and punch your hands toward the ceiling.
• Stop your squat with the thighs above parallel and imagine trying to rip the bar apart with your hands in order to keep your arms fully extended overhead.
• While maintaining perfect posture, completely stand up with the bar and dump it safely or continue for the prescribed number of repetitions.

Reasons for Introducing the Snatch Derivatives Before the Clean

Whether or not you agree with my stance here, it’s okay—we can still be friends, I promise. Strength and conditioning coaches often get into heated debates over topics such as these, even when they agree on 99% of everything else. This article in particular is simply my own opinion based upon what I have seen anecdotally over the course of my career. If I experience any evidence to change my mind in the future, I’ll happily be the first one to discuss it.

That being said, I absolutely love the hang power clean and all of its derivatives. I incorporate them all within my own programming, and I teach a lot of my athletes how to do them. Quite honestly, the hang clean derivatives make up a much greater volume of the training I prescribe than the hang power snatch or its derivatives do. With that in mind, I think the hang power snatch is a fantastic teaching tool, and I prefer to teach it first for three primary reasons:

1. Unlike the hang power clean, athletes cannot easily cheat the motion with premature arm bend at lower weights prior to the catch. In order for an athlete to execute a hang power snatch, they must produce force through the proper areas (i.e., hips, knees, ankles) rather than relying on their arms to pull the bar overhead.

One of my professors in graduate school, the great Dr. Greg Haff, has said, “As soon as the arms bend, the force production stops.” What he means is that as soon as an athlete can cheat and rely on their upper body to do the work, then they are no longer producing force throughout the rest of their body. I often see athletes fail to understand the principle of keeping their arms straight for as long as possible while allowing the knees to extend, and they subsequently pull too early. Once the poor habit of bending the arms early is created, it is extremely difficult to fix.

2. Athletes must use lighter weights to execute the movement versus a clean and jerk. It is no mystery that they can clean significantly more weight than they can snatch due to the nature of the movement; however, I frequently witness “cleans” resembling ugly reverse curls for the same reason. This brings me back to the point I made earlier, highlighting that athletes cannot bend their arms prematurely and get away with supporting a weight over their head as easily as they can when the weight only needs to travel to their neck.

Faigenbaum² says it best: Even simple exercises like the bench press can initially be performed with moderate to heavy loads, whereas a snatch can only be learned with light weight or a wooden stick. The hang power snatch provides a level of complexity that modulates the load being used while keeping the focus on mastering technique.

3. It is extremely likely that once an athlete learns proper technique, they will easily pick up the hang power clean³. I don’t believe the same could be said for the other way around. This relates back to all of the aforementioned reasons, including proper force production, pulling technique, and mobility. An athlete who has the mobility to catch a bar overhead will certainly be able to catch it near their shoulders.

As coaches, we all know that time is extremely limited, and if I can get my athletes to master the technique of a hang power snatch and then quickly pick up the same for a hang power clean, I have saved an extraordinary amount of time. If you compare this to teaching the athletes the movements the other way around, you will likely spend a similar amount of time teaching the hang power clean with lower transferability to the hang power snatch and ultimately give up due to lack of time. Why not increase the chances of adding two tools to the toolbox instead of one?

Worth the Squeeze

While I understand that it may be daunting to teach athletes complex movements such as the hang power snatch and clean, I believe that, when done appropriately, the juice is worth the squeeze. The weightlifting derivatives are excellent tools to build better athletes and increase rate of force development as well as technical motor skills. Athletes are not competitive weightlifters, I understand, which explains why I often resort to teaching them simple derivatives of the movements versus a full squat clean or squat snatch. If possible, I would like my athletes to learn those movements, but I do believe they will take a much greater investment of time over the hang power varieties.

My goal in this article is for you to think outside of the box in the manner with which you coach or, if you are an athlete, the manner in which you learn. I challenge you to question the way you do things from an intellectual perspective and decide if what you are doing truly makes sense, or if you are simply following a blueprint as old as time. I don’t believe there is a one-size-fits-all approach to coaching and training, nor should athletes learn the hang power snatch over the hang power clean in every single case imaginable. My argument is that if you take a look at the way we learn, altering your coaching progression may yield some positive results.

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. Hamill, B. P. “Relative safety of weightlifting and weight training.” The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 1994; 8(1): 53-57.

2. Faigenbaum, A. D. and Polakowski, C. “Olympic-style weightlifting, kid style.” Strength and Conditioning Journal. 1999; 21(3): 73.

3. DeWeese, B. H., Serrano, A. J., Scruggs, S. K., and Sams, M. L. “The clean pull and snatch pull: Proper technique for weightlifting movement derivatives.” Strength and Conditioning Journal. 2012; 34(6): 82-86.

During my daily wanderings through Twitter and Instagram while shuttered inside of my house, I have noticed a large upswell in the amount of content about remote coaching being pushed. With the stay-at-home orders that are still in place around much of the country and the seasons cancelled, Olympics postponed, and campuses deserted, it is obvious why remote coaching is a hot topic for coaches on social media. We have athletes that we miss, seasons that are lost, and most importantly, a community that is looking for answers. And so, it becomes an important topic because nobody really has the right answers for what is best right now. Should I train? Should I feel bad about not wanting to train? How do I train without facilities?

The answers, like most things in life, are not clear, and what is appropriate for one athlete may not be for another. But what is clear is that the athletes are now, more than ever, responsible for themselves during a time when they have been used to having personal guidance.

In sprinting they say that only you can run your race, and that you are responsible for what happens in your lane. Regardless of the meet, it is your preparation that has put you at that starting line, and it is your decisions in the race that influence the outcome. It is your reaction, your race model, and your victory to cherish or loss to take. Most importantly, they are your lessons to learn.

As coaches, we teach the lessons of responsibility to our athletes from day one. Show up on time. Put in the work. Eat and sleep well. If you take a look at the social media for the world of coaching/strength and conditioning, you will see these lessons repeated daily. The athletes entrust three hours of their day to their coach, and the coach trusts the athletes to take care of the other 21 hours outside of practice.

Each day presents itself with new opportunities to build and develop that trust and responsibility, just as every loss or setback brings a chance to develop resilience—the ability to bounce back from losses or difficulties. This is athletics, and if you aren’t the winner, you are one of 7+ other losers. Every loss is on display for everyone to see with no place for the athlete to hide.

Building a Foundation of Fortitude

Resilience isn’t something that you just fall into when times get tough. It is built with intent, fostered by coaches and leaders who are unafraid of letting go a little, and it is drawn upon throughout life. I find the easiest way to build resilience is to view each problem or obstacle as an opportunity to learn about yourself. Any coach who teaches from a philosophy of learning to love the process will recognize the benefit of that mindset.

Being provided with teaching moments and practicing resilience in sport are both essential for preparing yourself for life. Between injuries, emergencies, life stress, and now pandemics, it is obvious that life is hard: harder than anything the track can throw at you. However, just as you build on the skills and abilities developed season after season, your mind builds on its ability to handle new stressors in order to help you succeed. My personal lessons of pulled hamstrings, training solo and without a coach, and not having facilities while pursuing my goal of racing at USATF were all the building blocks that, years later, gave me the resilience to keep moving forward during the hardest time of my life. But I’ll get to that later.

As we have had daily practices and weekly meets over multiple seasons that have provided ample opportunity to teach these lessons of trust, responsibility, and resilience, I have to question the current trend of remote coaching. If during the first sign of distress we turn outward for solutions instead of inward first, have the lessons even been learned at all? Instead of relying on remote coaching to solve all of our training problems during this shutdown, I offer a different solution: self-coaching.

For the sake of displaying my bias, I want to lead with the fact that I self-coached to all of my personal records after college. And I’m also giving myself three-quarter credit for college, because we only had five months in season, no strength and conditioning, and no prescribed off-season workouts. I had help, of course, with many people on various websites and forums providing guidance and advice for designing and monitoring my training. There was rarely anyone with me for workouts or meets, however, and that is why I have such a strong belief in the importance of building resilience. I see this moment in history as a perfect opportunity for this task.

Training Is Sometimes a Lonely Journey

Resilience is an important skill in track, especially if you live in the North. When I was competing in college in Wisconsin, my team was under strict conference rules that banned team practices before January. For any typical team, the easy workaround would be to have unofficial practices without a coach present. Practice typically requires facilities, however. My college technically had a fieldhouse with a three-lane, 150-meter track, but the bleachers covered each straightaway, and there was no safety netting. If you wanted to train, there couldn’t be anything else going on at the gym, and you were kicked out if something was starting before you finished.

We also didn’t have an outdoor track. Not that training outside would have been my first choice given how Wisconsin winters are, but it could have been a choice if we had one. None of that stopped me from becoming a multiple All-American (granted, genetics definitely played a part) because nothing was going to stop me. Well, injuries almost did.

My college career came to a screeching halt my senior year with a hamstring pull at the 60-meter mark in my conference 100m final. Three-plus races every weekend that season leading into a six-race conference weekend with 45-degree weather wasn’t necessarily a recipe for success—more like a recipe for catastrophe. Since I’d already qualified for nationals for the 100m and 200m, the pull left a sour taste in my mouth as I watched nationals via a crappy livestream that year with a six-pack of Guinness. It was an unceremonious toast to the end of a college career that had been riddled with injuries.

That 100m final, my final college race, occurred during the first home meet of my college career (the track had been just been completed), so I have learned to forgive myself for not speaking up about how beat up I was. Pressure was high, I was driven to win, and, in that pursuit, I tanked my chance at nationals. One of the downsides about being hyper-competitive is that I gave myself a few extra chances to practice resilience by pushing through injuries.

While I try my best to empathize with all athletes who have found themselves without a season, a coach, or the ability to train, it is obvious that the shutdown is not the same as a season-ending injury. The risk to the population is real during this pandemic, and people weren’t dying because I pulled a hamstring. There are far more life stressors now than from a simple season-ending injury. Differences aside, we can still try to take some lessons away from this all.

While the stay-at-home order has not been the defining moment in my story, it has certainly been an exercise in my resilience as a parent and active adult. For many athletes this will be the defining moment of their resilience. I believe that when this is all said and done, the athletes who emerge as standouts next season will be the ones who did not look outward for their motivation and coaching solutions, but who looked inward.

I will not mince words. When I talk about training, I do mean training. Instagram and TikTok workout challenges may be a fantastic way to get your heart rate up, but your body weight (typically) is not enough of a stimulus to be considered anything other than a different twist on cardio. The workouts are trending because they are everything that TikTok is, wrapped up in a package that resembles a workout: short, easily consumed by many, and requiring little to no thinking.

We’re better than this as athletes. Training is focused and measured. It has reason and direction. Not having a gym, track, or weights is not an excuse to not train.

So instead of not thinking, let’s take a step to the side and think about the last interview you had. Chances are that the interviewer asked a behavioral question along the lines of “Tell me about a time that you solved a problem, on the job or in life, that required a creative solution.” Those of you who are former athletes and in the workforce will probably have had a similar response to this question. These types of questions are one of the reasons that athletes typically do so well in interviews. Sport provides daily challenges that require resilience, grit, and problem solving. It provides the opportunity to lead and take responsibility. If the athlete and coach aren’t carrying this over into the real world when real-world problems pop up, however, the lesson has been lost.

Solo Training in All Sports

So, thinking creatively, how do you start coaching yourself when your options are limited? I think the first thing that needs to occur is a shift in mindset. You have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Of course, we are all athletes and are familiar with discomfort during workouts. Coaching yourself with no facilities exposes you to a different kind of discomfort, however. It is a mental test like no other that you experience in the sport, and it will test your problem-solving skill and resolve on a daily basis.

When it came to solving my training problems, one of the benefits of having relatively nothing to train with was that I could only go up from where I started. I was fortunate to live on a hill, which made acceleration work easy to figure out. What was more difficult was figuring out how to do it safely—as mentioned before, I was a short sprinter living in Wisconsin. That meant speed work in the winter with no facility access was necessary if I wanted to have any shot at success during the indoor season.

With the hill sprints in winter, it wasn’t so much a question of how to get warm, but how to stay warm. Spending 30 seconds outside in 5-degree weather to get to the hill, sprint, and walk back inside kept you cold for a heck of a lot longer than the recovery time. A trip to Goodwill and $15 later, I created a hot air wind tunnel inside my front door with used hair dryers. It was simple and effective, and I was now kept warm for the entirety of my session. Of course, this was only if I remembered to turn off a few lights or the TV so that I didn’t trip the breaker.

While recovering from my injury, I built on the creative solutions that I used during my college off-seasons and developed an entire training plan based on what would be a college’s poor plan B training. In researching tempo alternatives, I discovered Alan Wells using a speed bag for training. A cheap, used punching bag was the closest I could find, but I also ran across a hydraulic rowing machine discarded on the curb. It was the middle of summer and I was on a walk when I found it, so I carried it home 2 miles. It was heavy and uncomfortable, and I can only imagine what I looked like carrying a rowing machine down the side of a road. I didn’t care though: I was already getting very used to being uncomfortable.

When my hamstring allowed it, I began training again. When it was warm, I ran hills outside my house and did grass tempo runs at the park. I used landscaping stones as medicine balls for multi throws. Playground equipment became the tools for my recovery day bodyweight lifting circuits. When it got cold, I fired up the heat tunnel and switched to boxing and rowing circuits.

For weights, I had a used $99 Olympic set with a terribly rickety squat rack. It was a display model at K-mart when the store was going out of business, and I bought a wrench to take it apart in the store in order to fit it in my hatchback. I worked full-time and often split my sessions morning and night. I filmed everything and analyzed it after my practices.

Each day had its own struggle. Sometimes it was raining or snowing. Other times the park had a kid’s soccer tournament. One time the neighbor called the cops because I was wearing a hoodie doing hill sprints, and they didn’t recognize me. Each challenge was defeated, and in turn my resilience grew.

In the two years post college that I trained like this, I set PR’s both years. I went from running only a handful of 60s faster than 6.9 to running multiple in the 6.7 range. I went from a 21.91 200m on a flat, indoor, non-oversized track to a 21.65. I was helped by many but coached by me.

I was fortunate enough in the tail end of my career to have a Freelap timing system. This didn’t change my training; however, it did make analysis and feedback easier. Prior to having the Freelap, I used a cellphone and marks on the road or hurdles on the track to determine speed. This is much the same as how having medicine balls didn’t change my workouts from when I used landscaping stones at the park. I worked with what I had, and I measured everything. It kept me honest with myself. If you’re honest with yourself, you know that you have more than social media and basic bodyweight exercises.

Maturation in Life and Beyond Training

Life as an adult, removed from my truly competitive years, has given me time to reflect on those lessons in resilience that I learned during my training. I see now that those lessons helped me the most when my son was born with multiple heart defects. How do you spend every moment that you can with your child who may not survive and also work, pay the bills, and move? The plan was to move the month before Finn was due. We didn’t plan on him arriving a month early when a check-up didn’t go well, and they told us that my wife would need an emergency C-section that day.

Thankfully, Finn is now thriving. My wife and I made it through those difficult months in the hospital with an even stronger resolve and the faith that we can make it through the tough times and come out the other side stronger. That is why we are able to maintain a level head through this shutdown. For many, this shutdown may be the first big moment in their career that truly tests their resolve.

Growth doesn’t occur within the margins: you have to push, test, assess, step back, and reframe what you’ve learned to see what works, what doesn’t, and where to go from here. Resilience is what keeps you coming back for more, and like every skill, you have to practice it in order to develop it.

So instead of looking outward at solutions during this time, take a look inward first. Chances are that you can do this solo and come out even stronger at the end.

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

Many young athletes aspire to be great during their high school years in the hopes of playing at the next level. Young athletes train, run, condition, and sign up for additional specialized training. This type of motivation and hard work should translate into bigger, stronger, faster, along with greater success in the athlete’s respective sport.

However, hard work, good genetics, and athletic talent can only carry you so far. Most young athletes stay up late Snapchatting and watching Netflix, getting only 4-6 hours of sleep and then waking up exhausted the next day, rushed with minimal time to prepare for school or other obligations. Naturally, they skip breakfast, and then when 10 a.m. rolls around, their stomach starts to rumble with ravenous hunger and no high-quality snacks or nourishment in sight.

So, the young athlete goes to the vending machine to grab a bag of Doritos or Flaming Hot Cheetos and the banana that Mom or Dad threw in their bag, takes just a few bites, and washes it down with an energy drink. Lunch rolls around, and they consume maybe half of a turkey sandwich with a few bites of carrots and a candy bar. Up next is class, followed by training. Hunger strikes again, and it’s back to the vending machine or some type of granola bar from a friend before practice. Practice is tough, the coach pushes drills and conditioning hard, and water breaks don’t seem to come quickly enough. Practice ends around 5:30 p.m. and the athlete heads home for dinner, which is some type of meat, maybe some veggies, bread, and a baked potato.

Enter this common scenario:

Young athlete says: “I don’t want to eat that, Mom. Don’t we have anything good in this house? I’m starving!”

Mom kindly responds: “Didn’t you have that chocolate milk/yogurt parfait/smoothie I packed you for right after practice?”

Athlete responds in frustration: “No, I have no idea what you’re talking about, Mom. I’ve barely had anything to eat today. I guess I’ll hit up some ice cream and whatever else I can find tonight. Coach also said I need to put on weight, and I’m looking a bit slow lately. I have no idea what he’s talking about, as I’ve been showing up to conditioning and doing everything asked of me. Coach doesn’t even care that I have headaches, and I’m always tired. It’s like Coach just wants to pick on me and tell me to work harder. I have no idea how to even gain weight. I’ve been working so hard in the weight room, and I crush those mass gainer protein shakes everyone talks about. Many days I even have headaches. I just don’t know.”

Sound familiar? Headaches should not be a daily occurrence, and they are often related to insufficient fluid intake, inadequate sleep, and poor nutrition habits, coupled with too much screen time. It is time to slow down and take inventory of what we are doing and how and why we are doing it. A great place to start is with the basics: the fundamental habits that support growth, development, maturation, long-term health, and athletic performance.

It begins with food as energy. As a performance dietitian working with many young athletes, I teach the concept of “eating for health first and fueling for performance second.” This article focuses on fueling for performance. To be a successful young athlete, you must provide your body with a continuously supply of energy that is consumed in the form of calories coming from fats, carbohydrates, and protein.

The Realities of Youth Athletes and Diet

There are a few basic factors that young athletes must understand for you to get “buy-in” for fueling properly. Why? Because most athletes do not think that skipped meals, poor snack choices, and a limited intake of quality protein and carbohydrates really matter. Spoiler alert—they do. All athletes need proper nutrition for building lean mass, achieving a healthy body composition, and having a continuous energy supply for muscle contraction and brain function, while simultaneously mitigating risk of injury.

Many high school athletes misunderstand how many calories they need to consume because of the misinformation that circulates like wildfire. As I have said in previous articles, “navigating the nutrition world for quality information is like trying to drink out of a fire hose. It is uncomfortable and you’re left drenched in information.” For example, a 17-year-old, 200-pound high school fullback still going through growing tissues and bones and overall development will need 4,000-5,000 calories per day to account for both health and performance. His parents who are recreationally active in 5k races on the weekends will need significantly less.

This highlights how individual energy needs are not often well understood. So, how do we get a young athlete to understand the value of eating breakfast and a string cheese or hard-boiled egg in place of those mid-morning Cheetos? We talk about the consequences of poor food choices and what benefits opting for “higher quality” foods can produce.

Some consequences of poor nutrition as a high school athlete are:

• Lethargy
• Disrupted growth and development
• Decline in both athletic and academic performance
• Poor focus, concentration, and memory recall
• Increased risk for injury, illness, and infection
• Quicker fatigue and reduced reaction time
• Muscle loss and inability to gain lean mass
• Increased risk for stress fractures and bone injury
• Weight loss and inability to maintain weight
• Declines in strength, power output, and speed
• Chronic fatigue, joint pain, and soreness

If all of the aforementioned results are left untreated and unrecognized, they can lead to much larger implications in adulthood.

Some benefits of proper nutrition are:

• Greater focus, memory recall, and spatial awareness
• Greater recovery and reduced onset fatigue
• Increased strength and power
• Improved agility and mobility
• Greater speed and quickness
• Reduced risk of injury and illness
• Better long-term health
• Decreased risk of depression and overtraining syndrome

You can read more about nutrition considerations for performance in young athletes here. When things return to “normal,” there needs to be a greater investment in having dietitians in schools to work with young athletes just like registered nurses, athletic trainers, and sports performance coaches.

If you’re a parent of a young athlete reading this, what are the foods in your fridge and pantry? Do the foods in your home contain high-quality protein, calcium, vitamin D, and other essential nutrients? Nutrition is a key that unlocks the door to optimal health and athletic performance.

See the table below for a list of high-quality protein sources and carbohydrates that I encourage my athletes to consume: whole foods, around the clock, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

Tough Love with Sports Nutrition

What many people fail to understand is if you want to be great at something, you must prioritize the habits and behaviors that support that goal. If you want to be a healthier person, better athlete, and more studious student, power up with a high-quality breakfast. It is no secret what happens when breakfast and other meals are skipped or when a candy bar is eaten in place of a real meal.

As a society, we have gotten “soft” and allowed poor habits to become acceptable behaviors, which prevents greater success. Balance is important, but if we know better and choose not to do better, then we are not really living up to our full potential, are we? What I am getting at is we must increase our willingness to participate in habits and behaviors that support success both in the classroom and on the field. We need to hold ourselves, as well as our young athletes, accountable for the food and nutritional choices they make.

Encouraging water in place of soda is not enough. We need to do better. We need to establish healthy habits, which require structure and discipline. Sleeping until 11 a.m. on the weekends and staying up late isn’t part of a successful athlete’s routine. This article’s objective is not to harp on sleep, but to acknowledge how nutrition affects all of these modalities. So, let’s unpack.

Feeding the high school athlete can seem overwhelming, especially if you desire to also make their choices for yourself. I also tend to work with many of the parents of the young athletes I coach. In fact, many of the families as a whole try to make healthier choices within the household, and our check-in calls are a family effort. As I always say, “We need to get back to the basics, and that begins with real food and preparing meals in-house.”

Some simple tips to get you started: stop buying potato chips, cookies, cakes, doughnuts, and sugary granola bars that are “fake” health foods and avoid the highly processed foods in the grocery aisle that contain no nutrition and an exponential amount of sugar. I am all about balance, but there has to be some accountability. If you keep purchasing these highly processed, low-nutrient foods, they will eventually end up in your mouth or your young athlete’s, which leads to the aforementioned symptoms.

Added sugars in processed foods disrupt a teen’s appetite regulation in general. They can’t crave and desire what they don’t eat regularly. “But Wendi, my kid will only eat cereal in the morning and nothing else.” To this, I usually respond, “What is that sugary cereal providing them as far as nutrition for their brain, bones, and tissues? Is it helping support their health? What about their focus, concentration, or even, dare I say, athletic performance?” The answer is always: “I’m not sure. I guess I don’t know what to give them for breakfast.”

Capitalize on this opportunity. “Okay, now you’re asking the right question: ‘What should my high school athlete be eating for breakfast?’” Short answer—something high in fiber, protein, and quality carbohydrates like whole grains to support energy levels and satiety. Some great options include Greek yogurt parfait, whole grain oats, berries, a veggie omelet with whole grain toast, and nut butter. See other options for fueling up with breakfast via the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

Breakfast is non-negotiable for any of the athletes I work with. Many express that they are not hungry when they wake up or don’t have time, as if that is a viable excuse to dismiss their lack of planning and priorities. My argument as a performance dietitian who works with a wide range of people is that we all have 24 hours in the day—how we spend those 24 hours, however, is different for each of us. To say “I don’t have time” for something that can help you be more successful at an event that you are so dedicated to every single day is preposterous.

We can’t allow our young athlete to stay up late playing video games and scrolling through social media because these behaviors are linked to poor snack choices. This leads to a poor appetite in the morning, which hinders health, performance, and overall energy levels throughout the day.

Winning Sports Nutrition Strategies

Athletes must shop so they have more fruits and vegetables at home. Your teen is more likely to eat fruits and veggies as snacks if they are cut up and prepared for easy access. The calories and nutrients from an apple will be so much more satisfying and filling than those from a pastry. An apple contains key nutrients and fiber that support satiety and gut health. The pastry will offer empty calories with zero nutrition, leading to some sways in energy due to the high fluctuations in blood glucose levels. Many people fear the sugar in fruits, but keep in mind sugar in fruit is natural and not refined. For more direction on this, read “7 Ways to Get More Vegetables in Your Young Athlete’s Diet.” Keep in mind that a colorful plate is a healthy one, which will lead to a healthier body!

Your young athlete needs help regulating their appetite and hunger cues with mindful eating. This means having regular meal times for breakfast, lunch, and dinner when at home, along with proper snacks around training sessions to ensure their energy needs are being met. Discourage eating in front of the television, while scrolling through social media, or while playing video games. A 2014 study published by the American College of Cardiology found that TV was linked to poor snacking habits and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. There’s a correlation between screen time and low-nutrient food options. Your high school athlete needs structure and boundaries around their rigid training schedule.

Adopt healthy habits within your own household so that your young athlete follows. After a challenging day full of many tasks, it is critical to get a good night’s rest of 7-9 hours. I can’t tell you how many of the teen athletes I work with tell me they go to bed when their parents do, which is anywhere from 12 a.m. to 1:30 a.m. Research has indicated that the hours slept before midnight are the most powerful to support feeling “well-rested,” restored, and overly refreshed. Going to bed after midnight may lead to poor sleep quality, resulting in increased risk for injury, illness, poor focus, and delayed decision-making, as well as diminished performance. In fact, increased screen time throughout the day has been linked to insomnia and symptoms of depression in adolescents.

As we ramp up for fall, let’s talk nutrition for football. Football is a stop-and-go sport with quick and short bursts of intense play followed by rest. The primary fuel substrate for football is carbohydrate along with sufficient protein and overall calories to support recovery. Yet, for so many young football players going through camps to prepare for a healthy season, there is insufficient intake. The football athletes I have worked with typically have a low-protein and moderate-to-low carb intake with high fat.

The challenge is that young teens aren’t eating enough overall to support the two-a-day training sessions, and they skimp on protein along with quality carbs because they snack on high-fat foods or empty carb foods like doughnuts. Doughnuts offer sugar and carbohydrates but provide no good nutrition for a young athlete. It is essential to remind your athletes of the increased physical and mental demands of pre-season and camp, and the importance of proper hydration and replacing every pound of body weight lost with 16-24 ounces of fluid. Drinking 16 ounces of fluid at every single meal is essential, along with reaching for fruits as snacks to also support hydration and quality carbohydrates.

Practical nutrition tips to prepare for two-a-day play are as follows:

• Drink 20 oz. of fluid upon waking.
• Eat breakfast.
• Eat a second breakfast.
• Front-load your calories.
• Meal plan out the week so you have yogurt parfaits, whole grain turkey sandwiches, and other meals set for on-the go.
• Eat four meals per day at a minimum, containing a high-quality protein, carbohydrate, fruit, vegetable, and dairy source. Remember, eat the rainbow!
• Never skip meals or snacks. Soda intake should be limited, along with sugary fruit drinks and other beverages. If reaching for a sports drink, ensure it is only when you are on the field, to support hydration. Sports drinks are not for playing video games or while sitting around watching television.
• Hydration essentials include drinking 20-40 oz. of fluid per hour of practice. Consider refueling and rehydrating with chocolate milk.

What About the Game Day Meal?

The meals leading up to game day are much more important than the pre-game meal. Yes, read that again. If you haven’t been consuming sufficient calories, nutrients, and protein in the days leading up to the game or competition, then that pre-game meal doesn’t really matter. In fact, contrary to popular belief, pre-game meals do little to enhance performance. There are no magic meals. Championships are won in the off-season, pre-season, and camps. Again, the eating habits and behaviors carried out the weeks before competition have a greater effect on energy storage and recovery. That’s why champions eat breakfast, hydrate, and sleep according to their goals.

The main objective of the pre-game meal is to allot for adequate time for the food to digest. The key for the pre-game meal should be consistency and routine. Eat the high-quality carbohydrates and proteins emphasized in this article. The guidelines of fruit, veggie, protein, carbohydrate, and fluids are the guides for EVERY pre-game meal. If you want more of a visual, please check out the performance plates found at www.teamusa.org/nutrition.

Lastly, the last meal before a game should be, at a minimum, three hours before. Many athletes eat candies and sweets in hopes of that “quick energy”; however, this practice and ritual can hurt performance more than help it and should absolutely be avoided. Just because you can does not mean you should. It’s all about the basics and carrying them out consistently at a high level, day in and day out.

The strength of a building lies in its foundation. The objective of the foundation is to hold the structure above it, keep it upright, and prevent problems like ground moisture seeping in and weakening the structure. A high school athlete needs to view their nutrition as their foundation for health and success. A weak foundation leads to weakening of the structure it’s supposed to support and creates small cracks that can diminish the strength of the building.

If this metaphor hasn’t inspired you, think of it this way: Academics, recovery, sleep, training, and psychosocial are all links in a chain of controllable behaviors that are not only connected, but interconnected, affecting one another. “A student athlete is only as strong as their own weakest link.”

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

I am writing in the middle of the coronavirus shutdown, in a time when sports and athletics have effectively ground to a halt. Some tracks have been closed to the public, and track coaches everywhere are trying to supply their athletes with creative ways to get better.

This is merely an exercise in using the whole bag of tricks. A track is just a man-made oval pathway. Any surface can function as a track or training ground. I have always loved taking my athletes out of the structure that the oval provides while trying to get the right training effect.

The purpose of this article is to outline some unique benefits to each surface compared to traditional tracks, without being redundant, as well as list some possible do’s and definite don’ts from my view. Track or no track, we can always get better.

1. Synthetic Tracks

I will start with tracks, since that is what we are most comfortable with. High school coaches no doubt feel the urge to get as specific as possible, as soon as possible. This means putting the spikes on and banging out some fly sprints. That urgency is not lost on me. Tracks are fast, but they are also kind of boring if overused. Everything is neatly marked out, the pits are great, and the bleachers offer an interesting place to train hops and plyos. We aren’t exactly blessed with time, so this boring, organized setup is a lifesaver.

Most of this, of course, is the highest neuromuscular load we can place on a young sprinter’s body. Spikes have plates that are very hard and change sprinting by making it faster and more maximal. This is undoubtedly a great thing.

One 2010 study showed that, “The GRF experienced during running is significantly increased in competitive footwear compared to regular running shoes. Differences are evident in the larger peak vertical impact force, loading rate, stiffness (in spikes), and peak braking force.” To me, this also means that wearing spikes all the time during general prep periods with athletes returning to season is a potential injury risk.

Massachusetts is pretty cold in the early spring, so I love when the sun is shining, and we are spiked more often mid- to late-season and times are fast. Early season, however, meet times are often slower, and some of my athletes get frustrated no matter how much I tell them the weather affects them.

Tracks are necessary to have your team running its best, but track, by and large, is centered around an obsessive blend of repetition and routine. If I can safely accumulate volume and speed while placing them in different environments sensibly, I think it makes athletes more resilient and not so reliant on perfect conditions. Perfect conditions are a great aspiration on paper, but they can be a performance killer, and one that promotes excuse-making on meet day:

“I didn’t have anywhere to warm up.”

“This track is slow. I never run well here.”

Variety can help athletes be ready for any circumstance. Tracks are fast, but in my experience, getting too specific too early with neophytes can be injurious mentally and physically. I usually like to wait a couple weeks before introducing multiple track sessions, with spikes. Developmental athletes just beginning track season can get sufficient stimulus on an abundance of alternative surfaces. We can show our athletes that speed training has variety and that track is more than just “running fast and turning left.”

2. Concrete or Asphalt

We have all probably heard about the hardness of concrete, and that it is something “10 times harder than asphalt.” This implies that there is a great risk to our athletes. After spending time looking for research on the dangers of sprinting or running on concrete or asphalt, I was honestly left with more questions than answers. Some people say sneakers with cushioning reduce the risk, and some say they don’t matter.

One study found that “ground reaction forces (how hard you hit the ground) have no correlation with stress fractures, and loading rates (how fast you hit the ground) are only slightly correlated.” It would make sense that there is a greater level of biomechanical stress and increased neuromuscular load because of the harder surface. I just don’t think that means that we can’t use these surfaces at all if we apply some common sense and smart training.

All I know is I have trained speed athletes periodically on concrete and asphalt without issues. The important thing is that you don’t overuse it, and you get them off their feet or on softer surfaces as well. My favorite concrete training modality is the short hill acceleration on a low gradient. I much prefer this over grass runs, which can have some bumps and divots and some residual slickness on a damp spring day.

Carl Valle recently wrote a more nuanced article on incline sprinting. Hill sprints are an opportunity to watch an athlete in action before any real external cues are offered up. Acceleration is a little more of a conscious and deliberate phase of sprinting than maximal velocity, but this doesn’t mean I want an athlete in their head when accelerating.

The internal cues of “give me some violence,” “rise with rhythm, every step,” and “run up the stairs” make a whole lot more sense with a slope in front of you. I read a study that used 3- and 4-degree inclines and saw good improvements with the athletes. I have never calculated gradients of the hills before, but I do know a suitable and sprintable hill when I see one. Using the “Map My Run” app, I can see two of the slopes I use regularly are between 2% and 4%.

If I introduce a freshman to a set of blocks on day 1 and load them up with a dose of external cues filled with talk of joint and shin angles, I may have already set them back. This stuff has its place, to be sure, but hill runs can get athletes comfortable with thinking fast and being fast. I believe it is a great first exposure to sprinting, creating torque to overcome inertia, and moving horizontally with power.

Any coach worried about hardness or injury should know that acceleration runs of 10-30 meters typically carry a low injury risk. We have all seen athletes over-push to achieve a contrived triple extension that looks great in a still photo. Often, they jump and land flat-footed in the first few steps on the track. I have always found that hills provide athletes with feedback on how best to contact the ground with their feet to prevent this braking and instead build with every concentric push. The longer ground contact times can teach developmental athletes exactly what propulsion means.

Curbs and stairs also function as nice low boxes and are everywhere in parking lots and on streets. This is a great way to teach athletes to use their feet to maximize the elastic pop. There are some excellent plyo options on steps and curbs. Their low height places the premium on stiffness and development of coordination before progressing to higher plyos. Railings allow an intuitive control of downward velocity while volume safely accumulates, and the athletes learn with a more extensive volume of work.

Whether the jumps are locomotive or in place, they are great options on hard surfaces.

3. Natural Grass

You can do it all on grass. There’s no reason speed work can’t be done on a nice patch of grass that isn’t too tall. Personally, I love doing grass runs of 40-50 seconds with trainers on. I like the intuitive effort I can maintain on a nice soft surface without the traditional track markings. If I trained my athletes in the fall, I would add some grass runs as tempo work. There is something nice about being in a different setting while performing the same work. However, I am going to switch it up here and avoid talking about sprinting and running because variety is the spice of life.

There is a big benefit to being barefoot on grass. I confess I don’t know much about progressing barefoot running for my athletes and usually avoid it, save for the occasional cooldown walk.

General strength circuits with an aerobic focus done barefoot are an excellent chance for your athletes to reap some potential benefits without adding training stress. I love them as an alternative to tempo work. I would use these a lot with athletes on the heavier side who need some aerobic work or otherwise don’t love running.

Grounding is something that piques my interest. The concept of “grounding” “refers to contact with the Earth’s surface electrons by walking barefoot outside or sitting, working.” This study also said that, “Emerging evidence shows that contact with the Earth—whether being outside barefoot or indoors connected to grounded conductive systems—may be a simple, natural, and yet profoundly effective environmental strategy against chronic stress, ANS dysfunction, inflammation, pain, poor sleep, disturbed HRV, hypercoagulable blood, and many common health disorders, including cardiovascular disease.”

I can’t say if all these claims are true, and there is not a lot of research to go on. I do know on a 75-degree day, when restoration is the focus and the sun is shining, my athletes love a short practice that leaves them feeling recharged. I just think if we know the benefits of sunshine, and if grass MAY enhance that, then I am going to consider it. We owe it to our athletes to work this surface in, especially if it has positive effects on mood and mental health.

What would one of these circuits look like? I have always tried to avoid med ball work, jumps, and other overused modalities on restoration days. I also think keeping restoration days low-key helps prevent the speed and power days from becoming stale.

I usually love alternating upper-lower-core-movement or upper-lower-core with 40-meter easy skips between. I have borrowed bits of this from Latif Thomas and his circuits in the “Complete Speed Training Volume 2” program. Alternating it this way ensures everything is worked, but nothing is overworked. Exercises are simple, with the onus on the athletes to execute them well.

Workout Example A (40-yard loose skip between each exercise)

• • 10-20 push-ups

• • 10 reverse lunges each leg

• • 5-10 deadbugs each side

• • 10- to 20-second isometric push-up

• • 10 side-lying hip raises each leg

• • 30-second kick-though alternating legs

• • Rest 2 minutes, repeat 1-2 more times

Workout Example B (continuous no-skip transition, rest as needed)

• • 5 slow eccentric push-ups

• • 5-10 oscillating split squats

• • 20 shoulder tap planks

• • 30 jumping jacks

• • 5-10 tricep push-ups

• • 5 slow eccentric glute bridges

• • 5 birddogs each side

• • 30-second banded bear crawl

• • Rest 2-3 minutes, repeat 1-2 times

The simple exercises don’t matter as much as the desired effect. The goal is moving well under a little fatigue. It is a little support to weight room work with what I think they may need that we have not already done that week.

There is a bit of isometric work, which is great in the early season as an analgesic and to add some joint and tendon health. This is an easy way to get athletes on grass in season. This can develop just a little aerobic and strength capacity to handle more speed work and gym work. Using the grass this way can keep athletes happier and hungrier for the next speed day.

4. Trails and Wood Paths

The best features of a trail are the peaceful setting, nice surface, and long, flat spans. A trail lined with trees or other nature provides a nice opportunity for the athlete to focus on their rhythm and body position.

I have had 80% hearing loss since birth and wear two high-powered hearing aids. I have always appreciated the sound of the small crushed rock beneath my feet when running on a trail. To me, the sound is really unique and something you can’t get on a track, even in spikes at 20+ mph.

This increased sensory input has always enabled me to have a better body awareness and flow when on trails. If I had to guess, I would say that this has something to do with my vestibular system and inner ear getting something it otherwise lacks in noisy environments. Both tempo and special endurance-style 150-meter intervals are favorites of mine. They have a quick enough pace and long enough interval for an athlete to get lost in the running.

You can certainly work acceleration on surfaces like this, but I would advise drop-in style accelerations to ensure a foot contact that isn’t “slippy.”

There is a great opportunity to rehearse gaze and vision on trails as well. We know the head plays an important role in mechanics during acceleration and upright sprinting. Trails are a great way for athletes to understand the value of such concepts.

Jimson Lee has an excellent article that I always think about when sprinting longer distances on a trail. In it, he remarks that “when focusing or ‘fixating’ on a point much further away, you will find that you will run more easily and freely,” and “as you get closer to the finish line, it is better to focus beyond the finish line to elicit the best performance. Fixating your vision at the finish line may terminate your velocity prematurely.”

Indeed, I experience this myself and communicate it often to my athletes, especially for 400m runners in the middle of the home straightaway. Having this vision to go to as a constant in the late stages of a grueling race is a nice way for them to stay in control of technique and posture.

The opportunity to run intervals that are more than 100 meters in a straight line is also a great way to negate potentially harmful training effects that result from running counterclockwise on tracks, especially those distances 200 meters or smaller. Running in one direction has been shown to cause some asymmetries that can lead to injuries. The good news is that a nice, straight trail is something that athletes can use during general prep periods to build work capacity without as much wear and tear.

No matter what type of training you do, trail running/sprinting allows for some rhythmic rehearsals that can lead to sensory and soft tissue benefits.

5. Hallways and Indoors

Lots of coaches are forced to train inside in the hallways during the winter. Obviously, weather can catch any coach off-guard but having “sub plans” ready to go can make improvised training more organized. My sub plans in a hallway when we are starved for a speed session would be a rotating “series” complex of the basics.

One benefit of being inside is just how easy it is to organize a workout in close quarters. You get to see everything. If you have a set of hallways that make a “U,” you can run the main portion of the workout on the bottom part. On the adjacent hallways in the left and right arms of the “U,” you can have an area designated for plyometrics/in-place jumps and another for medicine ball work. Place a captain or leader you trust to get things done in each group, and you already create a nice culture.

Taking a cue from Latif Thomas, I make my kids time their own rest. I have to trust them to do that. I often write the entire workout on a wall or locker in dry erase marker, objective style. I find it easy to stride back and forth by the kids who are running Freelap sprints and monitor technique at the other stations and, if necessary, re-teach.

1. 1. Sprint work (ex: 30-meter three-point start, drop chip in plastic bag after finishing, record time on chart)

1. 1. Med ball work (ex: 5 mb slams and 5 chest passes against wall)

1. 1. Plyometric/in-place jump work (ex: choice of 10-second partner pogos/stair drops/line hops)

You can stagger the start so group #1 finishes the sprints before group #2 and group #3 go. Or you can start them at different stations and rotate through.

Lots of coaches who see my athletes working out in the hallways have reached out and asked if my athletes have shin issues. My response is always that we really subscribe to minimum effective dosing in hallways. To me, the biggest issue with running in the hallways has never been the hardness, but that I must remind the kids to decelerate safely.

If we run 20-yard accels, then they should “slow down gradually like a jumbo jet” at the 40-yard mark. They should lower their hips, control their movement, and let their kinetic energy safely dissipate. This can keep shins and soft tissue healthy without adding microtrauma. All those sudden stops just add more mechanical stress.

This is non-negotiable when in the hallways. I would throw in a 10-push-up penalty (gets the point across without killing them) or not let that athlete do as many sprints as everyone else. Perhaps this comes across as punishment to some coaches, but an injury—even a nagging one—in a 12-week season can seriously derail plans. Their health and consistency mean everything.

Lower your plyo heights and keep sprints in the acceleration range (10-30 meters), and high school athletes will have more than enough speed and power stimuli to bring about adaptations.

6. Fallen Snow

Let’s not kid ourselves that we get anything sprint mechanics-wise on these next two surfaces. You know what we could get? Fun.

I recall being about 10 years old and running high knees in a snowsuit and boots until exhaustion. Jumping out of deep snow as far as possible and back in felt like jumping out of a swimming pool. There are lots of LTAD opportunities here for parents to consider.

Imagine living in the Northeast, cooped up in the hallways for a couple of weeks due to the snow and frigid temps. The winter doldrums are hitting hard, and kids are starting to show signs of aches even though you have been careful not to overdo it. A good solution could be to get them outdoors after the tough stretch passes.

That is what Coach DJ Brock of Acton-Boxborough did this winter. He ran a 10×40 “400 the Hard Way” workout shuttle-style on a 40-degree day in the snow. When I first saw the video, it looked like the kids were having fun while working hard. He has helped build a great program that is among the most competitive in Massachusetts. A coach needs to balance caring and expectations to create buy-in not only with their knowledge, but also with their ability to inject some fun. Snow could be a fun twist on the usual stuff.

I can imagine drawing chalk targets on a wall and, on their rest periods, having the kids throw snowballs from a line. This could be a competition, and the winner of each round could get some sort of training reward such as picking an exercise or skipping a rep.

Kids play and dive in the snow all the time, so the occasional snow workout is not going to let all their prior neuroplasticity you have carefully laid go out the window. I think the best snow would be an inch deep and slightly crunchy to get traction and not be too fluffy or wet. As long as they are dressed appropriately, and there is not a layer of ice underneath, it is a better speed training option than sand.

I have had thoughts about using extended warm-ups and jumps with my athletes in nearly knee-deep snow as a specific strength-type workout. Unfortunately, I have not explored this, as soaking a pair of expensive trainers would be a fast track to getting on parents’ bad sides.

7. Sand Training

I am not going to load my athletes on a bus in-season and take them to the beach a week out from league championships. Although Apollo Creed and Rocky Balboa took part in an iconic beach scene, the surface is far too soft and doesn’t translate well with speed and power. This doesn’t mean it is completely useless as a training ground, especially when beach volleyball is a sport. I am also not telling your athletes to go sprint and jump as if there is zero risk.

It is clear from Carl Valle’s sand training article that there is a lot to learn about the long-term effects of sand training. I do like several things about sand training when done in the summer and early fall (if athletes don’t play a fall sport). At the beach in the summer, many weekend warriors run around, playing football and tossing the frisbee without ACLs being blown out, so a healthy high school athlete should be fine.

I think just doing a sprint warm-up once a week on the beach in the summer would be a nice, harmless way for them to get something worthwhile in without being random. All our athletes have copies of the warm-up routines on their phones, and there is no reason they can’t pull those up so they have something with more structure.

Carl Valle has noted that much of the benefits derived from sand training are psychological. When we talk about developing our athletes long-term and fostering a love of athletics, giving them options to explore what different settings can offer seems invaluable. Working out on the beach in the sun, near the beautiful water, just sounds more appealing. The five benefits that Carl observed are:

1. 1. Confidence

1. 1. Time to learn

1. 1. Muscular efforts

1. 1. Natural feedback

1. 1. Novelty

As a 37-year-old wannabe athlete, I can say that these are spot-on. I have had a few injuries over the years that have put what I call a “governor chip” on my nervous system. It has taken me forever to get comfortable with expressing speed and power again in a flow state. After a single sand session, I can say that flat ground locomotion just felt easier after my brain experienced the changes that sand provides. The unique surface provided a mental break. My ankles and muscles were able to get something in without getting sore, which was a nice change from heavy lifting and acceleration work. Staying healthy to train another day is the most important thing, so finding new ways to do this is useful.

I don’t know enough about this surface to suggest rehab protocols here, but small doses of this can keep a healthy athlete interested and invested.

The World Is a Training Ground

Any place is a good place to train if common sense prevails. Grass offers some potentially unique health benefits. Concrete hills and curbs provide an opportunity for athletes to self-organize during acceleration and to prepare for more advanced plyos. The novelty of sand is priceless, even if it makes for poor speedwork grounds. The sensory input that the peace of a trail provides is a great benefit. Hallways allow coaches to become essentialists and place the premium on organization. Snow is perhaps a completely uncharted training territory, but it sure seems fun.

The “what” is just as important as the “when” as a coach considers training surfaces. My suggested uses are:

• • Sand: drill sessions, summer 1x per week

• • Grass: GS circuit, in-season; grass runs early season or fall; accel work during GPP

• • Hallways: speed circuits, winter; include off-feet conditioning if using hallways

• • Concrete: hills for acceleration base, early season; get them on softer surfaces or off feet

• • Snow: coach’s best judgement, winter

• • Trail: tempo work, summer/fall 1x per week

At the very least, during the off-season athletes should know they don’t have to just do more of the same. They can attack training in nontraditional ways in nontraditional places and embrace the long haul that is athletic development.

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

I enjoy discussing key lifts with other coaches, as exercise selection is among the most basic parameters coaches can adjust. When talking with coaches in baseball about the way I have athletes use the trap bar to improve their golf performance, we found a lot of common ground. We remarked on how profound an impact we were having, particularly as we push load numbers to 2.5 x BW plus. It turns out baseball and golf —both rotational power sports—seem to benefit from large loads. Lifting heavy bilaterally seems to impact the ability to anchor for producing immense amounts of rotational force.

Whereas other sport coaches suggest back squatting as the primary lower body pattern, we found the trap bar enormously useful in this regard, as large amounts of force production can thrive when technical overhead is low. I’ve noticed that golfers take more readily to the trap bar deadlift than they do to barbell squatting—it might be novelty, it might be culture, but I will take improving important qualities now over improving them later for the sake of learning a lift. We can always prescribe other patterns skillfully in other ways to ensure thorough movement expression, as I will explain later on.

It seems like you cannot open up Twitter or YouTube these days without seeing strength coaches disparaging common exercises for a bit of popularity. The trap bar gets a lot of flak for not really slotting neatly into the canon of squat or hinge movements. Its expression can be a squatty hinge or a hinge-y squat, for lack of a better term.

On the other hand, we also have what is tantamount to trap bar abuse; some coaches should probably have them taken away lest they gift us with yet another trap bar variant. Let’s talk about the historic squat dead bar, the popular tool that was the brainchild of Al Gerard in the 1980s. I was probably introduced to it through exposure to old T Nation articles.

The trap bar deadlift’s rise in popularity is commensurate with its usefulness. Fitness is indeed a realm where some tools persist despite their redundancy, but scrutiny comes in many forms, including expert opinion and also evidence-based, successful intervention, and so on. The trap bar’s advantages are numerous, and Greg Nuckols, who describes it as underrated, cites these benefits:

• It is easier to learn than the barbell deadlift.
• No hyperextension at lockout.
• No need for a mixed grip.
• High handles for people with insufficient hip ROM.
• Less chance of getting pulled forward/spinal flexion.
• It can still be just as hip-dominant as a barbell deadlift.
• (Likely) higher transfer to other sports, thanks to higher outputs.

Greg, in the same article, goes on to say: “It allows for more flexibility in the movement, doesn’t require a mixed grip, is easier to learn, allows for higher velocity and higher power output (all other things being equal), and is safer for a lot of people.” This concept of output is where this tool absolutely shines.

A study from 2017 is even more compelling, showing velocity, power, and total work were all higher and time spent accelerating was significantly longer with the trap bar deadlift than the conventional deadlift, even when using the same percentage of 1RM. In Greg’s words: “This furthers the case that trap bar DLs may have more direct carryover to athletic performance than barbell deadlifts.”

The trap bar has its drawbacks, though, so let’s not fool ourselves. Here’s a legitimate list from Carl Valle, who has taken the time to examine his quarry:

• First, the hex bar is now a hybrid replacement for deadlifting and squatting with coaches who want to inflate numbers, so it looks like athletes are building strength.
• Second, athletes often perform the deadlift exercise with little to no eccentric strain.
• Last, as athletes use the hex bar more, teaching conventional barbell exercises becomes an additional responsibility, and we end up in a situation where we’re not building on experience.

Carl mentions how coaches looking for big chalkboard numbers can abuse the lift. But I am of the opinion that, in the right hands, it can be wielded to improve robustness and high levels of force production (higher outputs) for the right sports. The other concerns are obviously valid, but they can be addressed by smart exercise selection in order to deal with these deficiencies.

The way a trap bar is itself constructed is something that probably provides the most problematic variance. Because the trap bar is an ancillary piece of equipment and not used for a strength sport, its shape, aesthetics, and usefulness are all at the whim of the manufacturer. With a straight Olympic barbell, you know pretty much what to expect. However, trap bars come in two main types: solid steel and steel tubing.

While the collars are the same as the Olympic size, and sometimes longer, the height of the handles can vary a lot. The traditional trap bar had a handle height similar to that of a straight bar, or what would now be known as low handles. I generally suggest longer collars, avoiding trap bars made of box or tube steel, and avoiding bars that are more than 25 kilograms in weight.

It might seem odd to point out, but as a gym owner I notice that smaller male and female trainees find retrieving heavy trap bars unwieldy, difficult, and potentially dangerous. Most of the time we use moderately high handles, usually mid shin; however, if your handles start at nearly knee height, maybe take a moment before you get on social media to brag about your 600-pound deadlift.

The Collapsed Position and Making the Most of Posterior Expansion

Working on posterior expansion drills has drastically improved my approach to the trap bar deadlift. This is not the type of posterior expansion you see advertised on Instagram. Instead, the aim is to try to get athletes out of pulling with too much extension, which is a common issue in trap bar deadlifts, and into a more hips-neutral position. This is important for athletes who complain of back issues from trap bar deadlifts, since it is more often than not an overextension issue. I have begun to encourage a slightly collapsed spinal position and using posterior expansion drills to help athletes achieve a more neutral pulling position in the trap bar deadlift.

Extensive posterior expansion drills as part of our warm-up have helped enormously. These essentially force spinal flexion while belly breathing or chest breathing, with the intent of expanding posteriorly. I will not quibble over whether this has a mechanical effect or a neurological or psychological one. I have employed breathing drills like this for the lumbar, 90/90 hips lift, etc., but I never considered something like this for priming the thoracic spine (T-spine) until recently.

Strong athletes are good at generating stiffness and stability around the abdomen and rib cage. This can reduce mobility over time, so lumbar extension often becomes a shorthand for finding stability in these positions. Breathing drills (of which expansion is one aim or goal) can help to restore this and/or balance out the repeated compression and stiffness from lifting weights. This works well as a warm-up for the trap bar deadlift and also the bench press.

After forcing this excessively flexed position and adding breath, we get a reciprocal inhibition that allows for better T-spine extension, flexion, and stability, and greater proprioceptive feedback and more feel from the serratus and lats, both of which are important for stabilizing the trap bar. The cues for doing the trap bar deadlift become focused on a packed chin, a slightly flexed T-spine, and a big belly breath.

Encourage the athlete to get set, reach down for the bar rather than grip it, and then grip it first and set up everything else afterward. Most athletes find this position more stable and more like a push than a pull on executing the lift. It is important to keep the eyeline down, as looking up on the trap bar deadlift often leads to needless extension.

Trap Bar Variations

It has become incredibly trendy to invent a bunch of needless variations for every exercise, and the trap bar is no different. I’ve often argued that we need more focus on refinement. The constant pushing of novel variation is a result of the social media era we inhabit, where content creation trumps actual usefulness. Because we are taught to accumulate, this can become a never-ending process of acquisition. More is not always better.

While I am not asking for an ascetic minimalism in your exercise selection, what I do suggest is trying to figure out what you can do to make things better and sharpen your approach. Following are a few variations I actually use consistently; while I could populate the list with more, these are the ones I actually draw value from.

Staggered Trap Bar Deadlift

Staggered trap bar work is rapidly becoming a favorite derivative. By using a quasi-bilateral stance (staggered), we can emphasize glute far more, due to the lower starting torso position and thus a deeper hip angle. It makes the movement a little more challenging for the trunk also, and I prefer a rear foot elevated stance to further emphasize the lead leg. The benefit is more forceful unilateral work—something I discussed in my SimpliFaster post on hand-supported work. I usually program this in conjunction with the bilateral stance trap bar and staggered Zerchers and RDLs.

You can apply some variation in how far apart you stagger the feet: Wider stances are obviously less stable, but they also place more stress through the hamstring due to a greater forward torso. If I want a more vertical pull, I’ll encourage a much shorter stance. I usually encourage the rear foot to be in a ball of the foot position; when both feet are flat, I feel it emphasizes both legs more than targeting just the lead leg. Having both feet flat also requires a greater forward lean as a starting position.

This can also be used to emphasize yielding strength via eccentric work or isometrics at various positions. I’ve found this movement is best used at reduced volumes or with prolonged rests between each side, because the torso bleeds strength trying to main stability and form. If you are looking for an exercise that adds a lot of secondary upper body stress, then this a variation to try. And trying is important here, as you explore variations and find a stance or setup that works for your athlete. Additionally, do not listen to anyone who calls it a “kickstand” or “B” stance.

Isometric Trap Bar Deadlift

We all love a subtle variation on a classic, and this is a great one. The low pause, as used with conventional deadlift, has the same purpose. Tightness, bracing, and positioning must be maintained. Unlike the deadlift, the bar can potentially swing freely (a concern Mark Rippetoe has expressed, but also exaggerated), so with slightly biased T-spine flexion, this absolutely nails the core. Focus on staying slightly flexed, pushing the floor away, and not hanging out in extension.

An added pause also increases time under tension so traps, lats, and grip get a hammering. I have respect for barbell diehards, but when evidence and prolific expert utilization stand against you, you may—just may—have to make way for new tools sometimes.

Trap Bar Jump and Banded Trap Bar Jump

The trap bar jump has become a reliable staple in weight rooms, for good reason. I recall seeing it in a Joe DeFranco video 15 years ago and thinking it was something revelatory. It is easily scalable and loadable and technically simplistic, taking only minutes to teach.

Carl Valle discussed it in his trap bar for sports training article, stating “I favor using hex bar for jumps only when performed in isolation and not paired with a straight barbell lift. Also, the load of a hex bar jump must be light…the hex bar offers a compelling reason to swap or upgrade.”

The compelling reason for me was working with populations, particularly time-poor and/or travel-based, where low technical overhead is preferential. I use the trap bar jump extensively as part of complexes, as a loaded CMJ from catchers for a concentric-only jump. Much has been made of its power output versus Olympic lifting, but the argument for me is a simplistic one. How much time do you have and what do you trust the athlete to do well when you are not coaching them?

The upgrade for the trap bar jump is the banded trap bar jump. The reason why this may be the best replacement for the Olympic lifts is twofold: magnitude and accentuated eccentric.

The reactive nature of this jump means that a lot of work can be done in a very short time—in the amount of time someone takes to do five jumps, they may only achieve 1-2 reps of a more conventional lift. This is beneficial because the stimulus within a given time frame is greater, meaning there is greater training effect.

Cal Dietz suggests that this is 3-5 times the force produced with Olympic lifts when you account for the time, and as much as 5-10 times force using the drop jump version (which involves a rapid accelerated drop). I have measured ground forces in excess of 5-7 times body weight, which leads to the next element that makes it a good option. Magnitudes like this are an important but often overlooked component of exercise selection for power generation.

Attenuated eccentric is created by the bands actively slamming you back into the floor. This rapid eccentric deceleration has a number of positive adaptations that are absolutely crucial in building powerful athletes. I challenge athletes to try to turn over the whole thing in as short a time as possible. If you have force platforms, you can measure the time from start to finish. Or, alternatively, put a sub 3- to 10-second time of your choosing on the clock and challenge the athlete to get as many reps as possible.

Shoring Up the Trap Bar Deadlift’s Weaknesses

The trap bar deadlift represents an opportunity to load maximally from an advantaged position. I have found it useful for improving raw force-producing abilities, and the IMTP data we gather shows as much. But it has three glaring weakness, as Carl pointed out: quality eccentric load, particularly hamstring; glute engagement; and deep knee extension.

It likely comes as no surprise that my solutions to this are simply the front squat and Romanian deadlift. The Romanian deadlift, as I’ve explored before on SimpliFaster, is probably one of the best barbell lifts for glute and hamstring development. The front squat obviously hits the quads and forces the athlete into ranges of motion conducive to mobility and muscular development. I usually rotate in an ABA type setup for qualitative high force day, as seen below.

The Romanian deadlift also covers us from a coaching standpoint for teaching a quality hip hinge variation that may be of more worth than the conventional deadlift. I’ve always used a top-down hinge approach to learning the deadlift, and I find teaching the conventional deadlift after the Romanian deadlift is always so much easier. No single exercise can be expected to be a complete panacea to all our training woes, but the trap bar deadlift’s value is multiplied when it’s paired with the right accompanying exercises and movements. No coach is arrogant enough to take each on its individual value; a program is, after all, a combination of exercises.

Making the Most of Your Trap Bar

The trap bar is probably the most impactful piece of training equipment introduced to gyms over the past two decades. While it can be abused as a shorthand to achieving high loads and high outputs, this is also its best quality when employed smartly. Athletes need stress and load, and this is a straightforward way to achieve it. While it’s easy to get caught up in trap bar absurdity—and there are plenty of great examples of such on social media—dial in to the few variations that benefit your athletes, refine them, and repeat them.

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 the country’s infection and identification of the COVID-19 virus, several distinct restrictions and recommendations have been placed on the public in an attempt to control the spread of this disease. For athletics, these constraints have raised concerns for the sustained performance enhancement training of athletes and the future anticipation for the return of organized sports at the high school, collegiate, and professional levels of competition. Numerous news reports, internet blogs, ZOOM meetings, and podcasts have conveyed concern about the return to play (RTP) of “healthy” athletes who have had to modify, at best, their required training due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A noteworthy unknown is how athletes will fair physically at the time of the approval and initiation of formal, organized sport team practice sessions and eventual game day competition.

A training topic that has not had as much deliberation is the effect of the COVID-19 restrictions upon the injured and post-surgical athlete’s rehabilitation and their level of physical condition when they also return to sport team practice. As the pandemic has resulted in many athletes returning to their homes, the present circumstances have affected the athlete’s capability to continue with appropriate and effective rehabilitative care. Although physical therapy is classified as an essential business of the health care continuum, many private outpatient health care facilities, as with other various businesses, have either closed or suspended their operations. The restrictions in accessibility raise additional concerns of how the injured or postoperative athlete will fair in their physical preparedness for daily sport team practice and game day competition.

Competitive athletics transpire in a physical and, at times, hostile environment. It’s a setting where many unfortunate sport injuries, some requiring surgical intervention, may plague an athlete for an extended time. Once they complete their sports rehabilitation, they’re required to participate in a battery of tests to assess their physical prowess for a possible return to sport participation. The content of this post emphasizes our alternative perspective for the athlete’s post-rehabilitation RTP testing, and more specifically, the RTP testing of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injured and ACL reconstructed (ACLR) knee athlete. We’ve used this RTP testing program successfully and progressively modified it periodically over the past few years for the athlete’s safe and optimal return to athletic competition.

Present-day athletes are stronger, more powerful, and faster than the athletes of decades past. Training philosophies, programming, equipment, nutrition, sports science, and sports medicine services and techniques have evolved specifically to enhance the physical standards of athletic performance. Unfortunately, participation in athletic competition comes with the potential for athletic injuries. Sports medicine professionals and scientists have investigated the cause and effect of numerous sport injuries over the past decades in an attempt to improve both the prevention (reduction) and care of these injuries. One highlight has been the efforts to improve the surgical intervention, rehabilitation, and RTP testing of the ACL injured and ACLR knee athlete.

The RTP outcomes of these athletes during the COVID-19 pandemic remain relatively unknown due to the unfamiliarity of the current circumstances. The environment that confines the athlete’s ability to train compounded by the uncertainty for appropriate sports rehabilitative care makes for a valid concern for the athlete’s RTP outcomes. Also, some individuals may have some degree of hesitation for attending “face-to-face” rehabilitation sessions due to the pandemic.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, there were more than 300,000 ACL reconstructions performed in the United States annually, according to reports. Of these, 20% to 50% will not return to the same sport they participated in after surgery, and 10% to 70% of those who return will do so at a substandard performance level.^{1, 2} Investigators who performed an in-depth meta-analysis on this subject found only a 47% return to previous levels of sport participation several years after primary ACLR.³

Unfortunately, the RTP ACLR athlete often presents with deficits in the physical qualities required for optimal athletic performance, leaving them at risk for a later ACL injury.^{4, 5}Subsequent ACL injuries approach 49%,⁶ suggesting there are shortcomings in the current RTP ACLR testing criteria. Due to the COVID-19 alterations and limitations commenced in recent months, one may inquire whether the ACLR RTP outcomes will remain as reported or worsen when sport team practice and game day competition start.

Younger athletes (less than 20 years of age) who experience a second ACL injury also had lower “psychological readiness” 12 months after ACLR.⁷ This reduced psychological readiness is termed kinesiophobia, which may not be familiar to many strength and conditioning (S&C) and sport coaches. Kinesiophobia is an additional limiting factor in an athlete’s ability to return to optimal levels of athletic performance safely. Kinesiophobia is the fear of inducing pain or re-injury to the injured or postoperative anatomy and, explicitly for this discussion, the ACLR extremity. It results in a compromised physical performance that we may observe during physical rehabilitation, athletic performance enhancement training, team practice sessions, and game day competition. The fear of re-injury diminishes the athlete’s confidence and ability to distribute and receive substantial forces that are necessary for ideal levels of athletic performance. The kinesiophobia phenomenon in association with the physical deficits that may exhibit during ACLR RTP testing will result in a poor test score and prohibit the athlete’s return to sport.

Due to the causes previously noted, at the time of RTP testing, the ACLR athlete may present with a lack of strength. Strength is important for both force application and absorption, muscle and joint stiffness, joint stability, and injury prevention (reduction) and is the physical quality from where all other physical qualities evolve. The lack of ideal strength levels places the athlete at athletic performance and RTP testing disadvantage.

A deficiency in relative strength values may result in muscle and mechanical damage⁸ as well as decreased performance in sprinting, jumping, deceleration, and change of direction.⁹Weaker athletes also tend to rely more on their ligaments for joint stability in high-intensity situations, a phenomenon known as ligament dominance.¹⁰ Ligament dominance places the athlete at risk of re-injury by emphasizing knee joint stability upon the joint ligament structures, including the injured or reconstructed ACL as an alternative to the supporting knee joint musculature. Also, collegiate male and female athletes lacking relative back squat strength values of 2.2 and 1.6, respectively, may be susceptible to lower extremity injury throughout a sport season.¹¹ Strength is a physical quality we should not undervalue.

Our program design for the performance enhancement training and sports rehabilitation of our athletes is founded upon Hall of Fame (HOF) S&C coach Al Vermeil’s Hierarchy of Athletic Development (see Image 1). For many reasons confirmed in scientific literature, including noted published statements regarding the “shortcoming in the current RTP ACLR testing criteria,” we modified and adapted this hierarchy model for our ACL injury and ACLR RTP testing.^{12, 13}

Traditional ACLR Return-to-Play Testing

Traditional ACLR RTP testing commonly involves a limb symmetry index (LSI) strategy, where the athlete’s documented RTP test scores of the ACLR lower extremity are compared to those of the non-involved (non-surgical) lower extremity. The RTP test score is expressed as a percentage of the non-surgical limb test scores, i.e., 90%, 95%, etc. The athlete’s RTP “clearance” is based on achieving a test score that meets or exceeds the standards established by the physician and rehabilitation team. Activities commonly prescribed in the RTP testing model include, but are not limited, to:

• Manual ACL ligament integrity testing
• Knee ligament arthrometer testing (if available)
• Isokinetic testing (if available)
• Neuromuscular testing
• Various bilateral and single-leg strength tests
• Various bilateral and single-leg jump tests
• Various bilateral and single-leg hop tests
• Various running and change of direction (COD) tests
• Various agility tests

A concern with the LSI test strategy is that the non-involved extremity has also experienced a period of deconditioning from the time of ACL injury, surgery, and the initial periods of rehabilitation. Also, the required postoperative “healing continuum” of soft tissue and bone results in medically prescribed limitations in the athlete’s level of physical activity over an extended period. These physical activity limitations not only result in deficits of the physical qualities in the ACLR extremity but also the non-involved extremity.¹⁴ The addition of COVID-19 precautions and environmental (training and rehabilitation) restrictions likely compound the deconditioning of both lower extremities as well as the athlete’s overall physical deconditioning. Therefore, the question arises whether we should consider the non-operative extremity the sole physical “gold standard” when deciding the athlete’s safe and optimal RTP.

Wellsandt¹⁵ reviewed 70 ACLR athletes for LSIs compared to their estimated pre-injury capacity (EPIC), meaning the non-involved lower extremity estimated physical qualities before the ACL injury. Of the 70 athletes, 40 (57.1%) achieved a 90% LSI score, while only 20 athletes (28.6%) met a 90% EPIC score. Twenty-four athletes (34.3%) who obtained a 90% LSI score did not achieve a 90% EPIC score. The authors concluded that LSI scores frequently overestimate knee function after ACLR and may be related to a subsequent risk for ACL injury.

The Physical Quality Standards of Sport

Although LSIs have been recognized as a method to help determine the athlete’s physical ability for RTP, our opinion is that they are only part of the equation. There are required physical quality standards associated with optimal athletic performance, which include the specific sport as well as the position played or event. If this was not true, why do professional sport combines exist to help determine not only the draft selection but also the round of each selection? Why are there running distance and sprinting times, throwing distance, and jumping distance and height qualifications for track and field events? Why are there total weight achievement performance qualifications for weightlifting events?

We should not disregard the physical standards of sport. As an example, let’s review the RTP of a major league baseball (MLB) pitcher who sustained a throwing arm injury (and possible surgery).
At the time of their progressive rehabilitation throwing program, the basic throwing sequence would likely be similar to the following:

• Short toss
• Long toss
• Pitching from flat ground
• Pitching from a pitcher’s mound (with mound height progressions)

These types of throwing programs produce outcomes that are not limited to improvement in arm strength, enhanced arm velocity, improvement in the neuromuscular timing of the shoulder complex, and total body unit as well as enhanced pitching mechanics. All are essential for the throwing athlete’s optimal RTP. However, if the athlete’s most effective pitch is a fastball, and the MLB standard for fastball velocity is 90-90+ miles per hour (mph), wouldn’t the athlete need to attain this pitching velocity standard for their RTP performance to be effective? If the rehabilitated MLB pitcher demonstrates a top RTP fastball velocity of 80 mph, they likely would not be assigned to pitch in an MLB game. Thus, if MLB has a position (pitcher) and physical standard (velocity) for that position, why would it be any different for any physical quality necessary for success in any sport, position, or event? Why would this RTP perspective be any different for any other various injured athlete anatomy?

The performance enhancement training, nutrition, and sports science of athletes are evolving to result in stronger, more powerful, and faster athletes. These advancements also result in the proverbial “raising of the bar” concerning the physical qualities and performance standards of sport. Acknowledging these innovations and physical quality enhancements, why would the RTP standard for the ACLR athlete be limited to an LSI comparison of the non-involved extremity? Why would the RTP testing not include the physical quality standards of the sport, position, or event in addition to the athlete’s LSI?

The LSI test scores do not ensure that the ACLR athlete exhibits the physical quality standards necessary for their particular sport. Our rationale for incorporating these standards as part of our RTP testing initiative is this: these physical standards are presented daily by the athlete’s peers during sport practice sessions and by the athlete’s opponent(s) on the high-intensity day of competition. Image 2 provides an example of the physical quality standards for college and high school football athletes.

The RTP testing may also expose additional deficiencies of the remaining physical qualities in Vermeil’s hierarchy as related to the standards of sport. Therefore, in our opinion, LSI testing alone does not disclose a complete representation of the athlete’s potential on-the-field performance or potential risk of acute or ACLR re-injury.

ACL Injury and ACLR Return-to-Play Testing

As each physical quality in coach Vermeil’s hierarchy depends on the optimal development of its physical quality predecessor, enhancing each quality begins with strength. This is not to imply that we can’t address each quality simultaneously. However, we should emphasize the physical quality presenting with the greatest deficit, depending upon the athlete’s needs, in their performance enhancement training and rehabilitation. In our ongoing ACLR RTP study with over 300 high school and college athletes to date, we’ve found that RTP success depends not only on their time from surgery, as documented in the scientific literature, but also restoring their physical qualities based on the standards of sport for a safe return to optimal athletic performance.

Presently, the two most significant physical findings observed in our RTP testing are (1) deficits in the physical quality of strength, and (2) poor reactivity to the ground surface area, meaning propulsion, deceleration, and COD in vertical and deviating linear directions. We’re not insinuating that additional physical deficiencies are not exposed; however, due to these particular physical deficiencies, compensatory body postures are noted during the testing.The inability to apply appropriate levels of force as well as tolerate ground reaction forces result in extended time spent on the ground. This extended time places consequences on the overall RTP testing performance. Compensatory adjustments in body postures also put excessive and unaccustomed stresses on various anatomical structures. As these repetitive stresses accumulate over time, they may set the stage for possible acute injury or future ACLR re-injury. It’s also important to note that, when the discrepancy in strength is resolved, other physical qualities, ground reaction times, and body postures frequently improve as well.

Our RTP model, as in other reported post-rehabilitation lower extremity RTP testing, includes a variety of tests to assist in determining the athlete’s safe and ideal return to sport. Image 3 depicts the specific components of our RTP testing, as influenced by Vermeil’s hierarchy, where our experiences differ from “traditional” ACLR RTP testing.¹²

Active Knee Range of Motion

One of the immediate objectives during rehabilitation is to address knee range of motion (ROM) and, more specifically, active knee range of motion (AROM). After ACLR surgery, an urgent priority is to achieve full active knee extension as soon as possible. Full AROM knee extension is imperative during the normal ambulatory gait cycle, as full knee extension is the required joint position at heel strike. A lack of full knee extension will exacerbate the ACLR knee condition via the repetitive and accumulative joint stresses of each heel strike upon a flexed knee.

Comparatively, full AROM knee flexion is not usually stressed very early in the rehabilitation process. The emphasis placed on initial knee flexion is typically passive (PROM). PROM knee flexion can be attained safely and progressively over an appropriately prescribed time period. Full PROM knee flexion establishes the soft tissue compliance necessary to eventually achieve the active and efficient backside mechanics required for optimal running velocities.

At the ACLR RTP testing, we evaluate the athlete’s knee AROM before assessing their physical qualities. We’ve observed that full AROM is usually achieved for the athlete’s knee extension abilities but does not typically transpire for knee flexion. Full active knee flexion is required to attain an appropriate foot placement at the gluteal fold during the backside mechanics of the running gait cycle (see Image 4). Achieving the athlete’s AROM knee flexion during the rehabilitation process was a lesson presented to me over 30 years ago by my good friend Dr. Donald Chu. As running is a cyclical activity, poor backside mechanics will likely result in poor front side mechanics, and a poor single-leg running cycle will result in a poor overall running cycle.

AROM activities such as butt kicks and Mach series running drills prescribed in a safe and appropriate progression are two of the various activities that help achieve the desired active knee flexion. This active knee motion is significant and is a requirement for the athlete to return to their pre-injury efficient running velocities. Attaining full active knee flexion during rehabilitation will avoid the time necessary to accomplish this task when the athlete returns to athletic performance training.

ACLR RTP Testing of the Physical Qualities for Athletic Performance

At the time of the athlete’s ACLR RTP testing, we acknowledge the advantageous contribution of genetics in both the healing continuum as well as the athlete’s ability to execute optimally during RTP testing. We also recognize there are physical qualities that need to be reestablished for the athlete to RTP safely and allow for optimal athletic performance. When testing for a particular physical quality, it’s important to select an activity that appropriately measures the quality without any ensuing consequences from incompetent exercise execution. For example, consider the squat exercise designated as a strength test. If the athlete has never performed or is incapable of doing a technically proficient squat exercise, the consequences of a poorly executed squat will contribute to lower test score vs. a pure deficiency in strength qualities. Circumstances may arise, therefore, where an alternative exercise requiring less technical proficiency may be more suited for an athlete’s strength or other physical quality testing. During the testing process, it’s important to distinguish between the deficiencies in technical skill performance vs. an actual deficiency in the particular physical quality.

In our ACLR RTP algorithm (see Image 3), we assess each physical quality in the order depicted in coach Vermeil’s hierarchy. Strength is the first physical quality, and if the athlete passes the strength testing, they continue to the next quality of explosive strength. If the athlete passes this test, they test their elastic/reactive strength qualities, and so on. If the athlete fails a particular category, the testing stops, and they receive a training program designed to enhance the quality that failed. Once they complete the training program, the athlete returns for their scheduled retesting.

We don’t find it beneficial to continue an athlete’s ACLR RTP testing once they fail a physical quality category. In our experience, if an athlete fails a particular physical quality, they will likely perform poorly in the next physical quality test(s) in the hierarchy. For example, because strength is defined as the ability to produce force—and explosive strength incorporates a velocity component for force production—if an athlete is unable to produce adequate levels of applied force, how could they possibly exert adequate levels of applied force rapidly? When the athlete passes the entire ACLR RTP examination, we decide whether they should return to performance enhancement training, team practice, or sport competition. To make this decision, we have a collaborative discussion among the physician, rehabilitation team, S&C staff, and sport coaches.

Summary

The ACLR RTP testing is an integral component of our post-injury and post-surgical ACL knee rehabilitation program. Customary ACLR RTP testing uses LSIs to compare the involved lower extremity to the non-involved lower extremity, which is recorded as a percentage. In our opinion, LSI testing does not encompass the entire ACLR RTP criteria. This is especially a concern with the current training and rehabilitation constraints placed on athletes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Assessing specific physical qualities necessary for optimal athletic performance should be a consideration for the athlete’s ACLR RTP testing. And we should interpret these test results based on the physical standards of the athlete’s sport of participation as well as their particular position or sport event. Restoring the athlete’s physical qualities to equal the physical standards of sport will also instill confidence in their ability to apply and accept the forces placed upon them and their ACLR extremity in various athletic settings (i.e., team training, team practice, team competition). It also will help reduce, if not disregard, concerns of kinesiophobia. When we discount the physical standards recognized and exhibited by both the athlete’s peers during daily team sport practice and their opponents during the high-intensity game day competition, we may place the ACLR athlete at a physical disadvantage for athletic performance and present a possible risk for additional acute injury or ACLR re-injury.

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. Kvist J, Ek A, Sporrstedt K, Good L, “Fear of Re-Injury: A Hindrance for Returning to Sports After Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction,” Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc, 2005; 13(5): 393-397.

2. Chmielewski, TL, et al., “The Association of Pain and Fear of Movement/Reinjury with Function During Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction Rehabilitation,” J Orthop Sports Phys Ther, 2008; 38(12): 746-753.

3. Arden CL, et al., “Return to Sport Following Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction Surgery: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the State Of Play,” Br J Sports Med, 2011; 45(7): 596-606.

4. Hunnicutt JL, et al., “Quadriceps Neuromuscular and Physical Function After Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction.” J Athl Train, 2020; 55(3): 238-245.

5. Webster KE, Feller JA, “A Research Update on the State of Play for Return After Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction,” J Orthop Traumatol, 2019; 20(1):10.

6. Read PJ, et al., “Lower Limb Kinetic Asymmetries in Professional Soccer Players With and Without Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction: Nine Months Is Not Enough Time to Restore ‘Functional’ Symmetry or Return to Performance,” Am J Sports Med, 2020; 48(6): 1365-1373.

7. McPherson AL, et al., “Psychological Readiness to Return to Sport Is Associated With Second Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injuries,” Am J Sports Med, 2019; 47(4): 857-862.

8. Newton M, et al., “Comparison of Responses to Strenuous Eccentric Exercise of the Elbow Flexors Between Resistance-Trained and Untrained Men,” Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 2008; 22(2): 597-607.

9. Watts D, “A Brief Review on the Role of Maximal Strength in Change of Direction Speed,”J Aust Strength Cond, 2015; 23(2): 100-108.

10. Hewitt T, et al., “Understanding and Preventing ACL Injuries: Current Biomechanical and Epidemiologic Considerations–Update,” North American Journal of Sports Physical Therapy, 2010; 5(4): 234-251.

11. Case M, Knudson DV, Downey DL, “Barbell Squat Relative Strength as an Identifier for Lower Extremity Injury in Collegiate Athletes,” Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 2020; 34(5): 1249-1253.

12. Panariello, RA, Stump TJ, and Maddalone D, “Postoperative Rehabilitation and Return to Play after Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction,” Operative Techniques in Sports Medicine, 2016; 24(1): 35-44.

13. Panariello, RA, et al., “The Lower Extremity Athlete: Post-Rehabilitation Performance and Injury Prevention Training,” Operative Techniques in Sports Medicine, 2017; 25(3): 231-240.

14. Webster KE, Hewett TE, “Return-to-sport Testing Following ACL Reconstruction Revisited,” Brit J Sports Med, 2020; 54(1): 2-3.

15. Wellsandt E, Failla MJ, Snyder-Mackler, L, “Limb Symmetry Indexes Can Overestimate Knee Function After Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury,” J Orthop Sport Phys Ther, 2017; 47(5): 334-338.

16. Hoffman J, Norms for Fitness, Performance, and Health, Human Kinetics, Champaign, IL, 2006.

In the short hurdle events, all athletes perform a similar step pattern. The athlete who covers these steps the quickest will always win. Oversimplified, yes, but this concept reinforces the need for technical proficiency and proper race modeling. Along with quick coverage of the predetermined step patterns, accomplished hurdlers minimize airtime to the lowest acceptable duration for efficient hurdle clearance.

As I progressed in coaching and researching the short hurdles, a short list of “must-haves” quickly surfaced that allowed the best chance of a successful hurdle race. Note that these are not my own findings—I made this list from the wealth of existing hurdle research and based it off the work of great coaches and athletes, both past and present.

My five must-haves in building the technical model for short hurdlers are:

1. Proper accelerative rhythm to manage step pattern to the first hurdle.
2. Achievement of intended take-off (TO) distance from the first hurdle (and all subsequent hurdles).
3. Displacement of the hips at takeoff to set up the ideal parabolic path over the hurdle.
4. Active technique over the top of the hurdle (imposing back to the track).
5. Upright body position/front-side stride movement.

The must-haves making up the technical model are only a piece of the puzzle to becoming a successful hurdler. I’d be remiss if I didn’t include the need for psychological/competitive drive, proper training/strength levels, and balanced biomotor abilities. I will break down the must-haves for a technical model throughout the article and the subsequent drilling options needed to achieve these desired traits.

Breaking Down the Hurdle Must-Haves

The concept of “hurdle drills” looks different depending on who is asked. The need for a common definition will help frame the future points of this article. A drill is an exercise or planned movement with the desired goal of improving any single aspect of the hurdle movement for the betterment of the technical model. This doesn’t mean that all athletes hurdle the same or need the same drills—there will always be individualization.

Ultimately, the hurdle coach must have a large toolbox and an understanding of the goal of each drill in order to address any issue within their athlete. Each coach will have their own “everyday” drill sequence within the warm-up and, hopefully, another set to help diagnose and fix issues as they arise.

Proper Accelerative Rhythm

The hurdle start covers a predetermined number of steps at high velocity striving for a proper takeoff into hurdle 1. This must be talked about, rehearsed, and stabilized over time. Most male hurdlers at the high school and college levels take eight steps to the first hurdle. When the velocity being created overcomes the ability to productively use an eight-step approach, the athlete may move to a seven-step approach.

Seven steps affords more space to create (push) the highest velocity possible, although the rhythm will change drastically. Taller athletes, or athletes with a longer trochanter length (TL), may also find the seven-step approach more beneficial. No matter the selected starting step pattern, athletes and coaches need to rehearse both the seven- and eight-step approach patterns and observe which one allows for the highest velocity and optimal takeoff at hurdle 1.

Women generally utilize an eight-step approach, with a very limited group of elite female athletes working to successfully manage seven steps. These patterns within the female population may vary, with shorter or less-proficient athletes taking nine steps. A premium must be put on a rhythm pattern that allows the highest velocity and optimal take-off distance from the hurdle regardless of the number of steps an athlete uses.

The concept of rhythm within the short hurdle races was brought to my attention by Marc Mangiacotti of Harvard Track and Field. He presented charts mapping out per step distances to the first hurdle takeoff. These numbers created a visual roadmap for the athletes and coaches to manage throughout the start.

Generally, by the fourth step of an eight-step pattern, both male and female athletes will be somewhere between 4.52 and 4.71 meters from the start line. If the athlete can reach these four-step checkmarks, the likelihood of proper takeoff (distance) into the hurdle increases. These charts gave me an understanding that the hurdle start is not just mindless pushing (although that may work for some), but similar to a jumper’s approach with the goal of hitting a predetermined mark.

Proper Take-Off Distance from the First Hurdle

During hurdle races, the correct TO distance will allow for successful hurdle clearance and lay the foundation for all further rhythms and hurdle clearances. Not reaching the proper take-off mark may cause stuttering at the first hurdle, jumping airborne to clear the hurdle, lead leg mix-ups, etc. These athletes likely will not recover and will rarely be in the race after these anomalies occur. The first hurdle TO is as important as the takeoff in horizontal jumps, a strong plant in pole vault, and proper release in throwing events. The chance of a successful performance in any of these events without adequate completion of sequenced technical components is small.

Grounding the last step slightly in front of the center of mass (COM) at TO allows for stabilization. This stabilization allows for hip displacement as the COM (hips) passes over the grounded step toward the hurdle. Accurate displacements allow for the desired parabolic curve of the COM and the best chance to spend as little time airborne as possible. If this step casts out in front of COM, vertical forces will take the athlete off the ground at too high of an angle/parabolic curve. If this step is directly underneath (or slightly in front of) the COM, the likelihood of hurdle contact or low projection angles increases.

The first 6-7 steps are tied directly to the success of the last step taking off into the hurdle. A coach must often observe how the athletes manage these steps and if these athletes attain proper TO position (bandwidth for individuality). Conversely, great reaction to the gun, powerful block clearance, and/or ferocity of the first 3-4 steps won’t matter if they botch the TO (i.e., reaching, excessive vertical force, etc.).

Specific drills allow athletes to rehearse desired TO positions. Once they learn and stabilize these TO movements, the TO at higher velocities should be more consistently correct.

When the TO step is grounded, the hips will move past the foot toward the hurdles, and the athlete with “feel the foot behind them.” Based on the height of the hurdle (dependent on gender and TL), the hips will create a parabolic curve over the hurdle. Vertical force at takeoff will cause a high parabolic curve; conversely, a low parabola at takeoff could be a byproduct of too much horizontal force or taking off behind the desired TO mark. Proper TO positioning and hip displacement will set up an optimal parabola.

Any time the athlete leaves the ground, there will be some type of displacement in the hip, setting up a subsequent parabolic path back down to the ground. We look for the displaced parabola to hit the apex just before the top of the hurdle (displayed below), allowing the athlete to get back to the ground as fast as possible (barring outside technical influence).

Active Technique over the Hurdle

Humans can’t get faster in the air (without outside influence). If hurdlers take the same (or similar) number of steps over the duration of the race, then logic will point to maneuvering these steps the quickest to get the best results. If hurdlers take off, displace the hips, then hold the hurdle position (trail leg straight out to the side) until making contact back to the track, they will most likely overshoot their touchdown (TD) and delay the reacceleration into the next hurdle.

At toe-off, hurdlers should be cued to actively pull (snap) their lead leg down once the ankle has cleared the hurdle and use the stretch reflex in the hip flexors to accelerate the trail leg up and through. This active movement coupled with proper timing/sequencing will allow for a quick and efficient clearance. Coaches should cue “active hurdling” or “active trail” to prevent stalling or hanging in the air. This active understanding is also tied to correct sequencing of previous acceleration patterns, proper TO, and displacement.

Coaches can break the drill into partial hurdle movements. During these “half hurdling” drills, a premium will be put on active movement of individual limbs through snapping hurdle movements.

Body Position and Front-Side Mechanics

All previous must-have movements lead into upright positions between hurdles and front-side mechanics. Hips that sink into TO will likely cause sunken hips at TD off the hurdle. The resulting sunken position will lower the hips (COM) and force the athlete to “over push” and use backside accelerative mechanics to get to the next hurdle.

Conversely, seamless TO with tall hips, correct displacement, and active clearance will allow the athlete to manage the distance between the hurdles upright while attacking with front-side mechanics. This is especially true in above-average and elite men, for whom there is a need to manage (shorten) three high-velocity strides between 9.14 meters (including take-off and touchdown distance).

Adding Meaning to Drills

The must-haves will provide structure and meaning to all “drills” selected. Coaches need to understand the parameters and elements that bring about success within the hurdle events and ensure selected drills continually develop these proficiencies. There will always be blanket warm-up-style drills that prepare the athlete for practice, but as coaches learn deficiencies within their athletes, specific drills will allow for rehearsal and an environment of learning to better future movement.

The bandwidth of drills can stretch from something as rudimentary as a lead leg wall drill to understand the attack sequence to more-advanced three-step drills at reduced spacing to quicken inter-hurdle turnover. The following five drills encompass the ideals of the five must-haves. I break each one of these drills into a beginner and advanced subcategory to help provide clarity on the depth of each drill depending on ability level.

1. Guided Trail Slides

All large lower-body movements within hurdling work proximal to distal, meaning the movements originate in the hip and work down toward the foot. The path of the trail leg (initiated directly after toe-off) starts when external rotation and flexion of the hip joint begin. This movement assists the knee up toward the elbow of the lead arm as the athlete maneuvers the hurdle. Keeping this relationship in mind, the knee stays higher than the ankle to allow the entire trail leg to come up and through before attacking back to the ground.

If the ankle is higher than the knee during hurdle clearance, there will be an outward “whiplash” motion in the trail leg, causing other rotations and imbalance while maneuvering the hurdle. Poor hip displacement at takeoff resulting in a vertical “jumping” hurdle motion, impatience in allowing the ankle to fully clear the hurdle before finishing the movement, and the athlete not fully understanding the feeling of the correct positions are all potential causes of this improper trail leg sequence.

Beginners: The goal of this drill is to slide the inside of the ankle along the hurdle plank to feel external rotation of the hip (after toe-off). The athlete will also feel the path of the knee as the hip joint flexes, bringing the knee to the elbow of the lead arm. If done correctly, the knee stays above the ankle the entire movement. Beginning athletes can slide the ankle back and forth on both sides as they learn coordination of the hurdle movement.

Advanced: This drill is more beginner in nature, but advanced athletes can place the trail hurdle further back and do quick slide-throughs, bringing the trail leg all the way through and back down to the track. The athlete will then reset, slide through, and attack the ground again. You can utilize this in the beginning of a hurdle warm-up as the advanced hurdler progresses into later drills.

2. Wall Attacks

Wall attacks are a stationary drill for athletes to feel hip displacement at takeoff in a controlled environment. As discussed, hip displacement sets up proper parabolic paths over the hurdles and, once slowed down in a controlled environment, can be practiced multiple times in succession.

Beginner: Athlete uses a 1- to 2-step approach as they initiate body lean toward the wall. The COM passes over the grounded take-off foot, and the hips begin to move forward. As the hands of the athlete contact the padded wall or post, the lead leg knee is parallel to the ground as if the athlete were attacking a hurdle.

Advanced: Athlete begins with take-off foot (right foot of this example) staggered in front, 10-12 feet back from the wall. As the athlete proceeds toward the wall, they step down the left (to mimic the lead leg coming off the hurdle) and then step R-L-R, with the last right being the takeoff into the wall attack. This version is more specific to the hurdle rhythm and can gradually increase speed over time.

3. Trail Chase

At takeoff, hurdlers initiate a stretch reflex within the hip flexor/groin as their hips are displaced. This elastic energy within the muscle assists the leg as it initiates the trail leg pull-through. Hurdlers should actively work to pull the trail leg through after takeoff. Without this active pull-through of the trail leg, the motion will be delayed and could cause future issues coming off the hurdle and will also increase time spent in the air.

Conversely, pulling through too quickly will disrupt the sequenced rhythm of the hurdle clearance. These movements must be rehearsed in a drill environment to increase the likelihood of success when velocity is added.

Beginner: Starting with the hurdle at 28 inches or lower, the athlete sets up by stepping their lead leg over the hurdle and hanging it with 90-degree angles in both the hip and the knee. Once balanced, the athlete jumps off the grounded leg and cycles that leg (trail leg) around the hurdle. The landing will be nearly synchronized, with both feet stepping back down to the ground after hurdle clearance.

Advanced: This drill will morph into what is called the “drop and pop” drill. The athlete starts on a 6- to 12-inch box and steps off directly into the last two steps before the hurdle (cut step/take-off step). Limbs are kept tight and quick as the athlete hurdles and lands, similar to the synchronized landing in the beginner example.

In both versions of the drill, you can use lower hurdle heights and even scissor hurdles, as the intent is to work a quick trail leg cycle.

4. One-Step Drill

The one-step drill addresses both the take-off and touchdown rhythms, the coordinative needs within hurdle technique, and the relationship of varying forces (both horizontal and vertical) based on spacing. This drill tends to be for a more advanced hurdler, but you can make modifications to allow any hurdler to gain proficiencies. You can split this drill into “half hurdle” leads and trails to adjust to the one-step rhythm, and the spacing can stretch anywhere from 5-10 steps from the front of one hurdle to the back of the next hurdle.

Beginner: The rhythmic pattern is the main emphasis of the one-step drill, but coaches can ease the difficulty of the drill by lowering heights and discounting spacing. The TO and TD rhythm (ba-dum, ba-dum, both in and off hurdle) is the goal, with the addition of efficient and tight hurdle technique. With this in mind, athletes can start with wicket or scissor hurdles to take out the height component and focus solely on the rhythmic pattern. Athletes should aim for an optimal airtime to effectively clear the hurdle but not spend excess time in the air. Starting with lowered heights (discounted spacing) begins to engrain the pattern that hurdlers seek to achieve both on and off the hurdle.

Advanced: The spacing and the height of the hurdles dictate how advanced this drill can become. It’s important to diagnose issues that your hurdler needs to address in both their technique and race model. Early in the fall general prep, 5-7 steps (from front of hurdle to back of next hurdle) allows for a comfortable distance for athletes to TO, land, and push to the next TO. The horizontal velocity needed to effectively execute this drill at 5- to 7-step spacing isn’t extensive, so the focus can be on the technical model.

Advancing with 7- to 10-step spacing (front of the hurdle to the back of the next hurdle), will require more horizontal velocity and force the athlete to displace the hips at a higher amplitude into the next hurdle. After athletes initially understand the rhythm of the drill at closer spacing, you can stretch the hurdles to a longer spacing. This way they will need to bring more intent to the drill to accomplish the same efficient and tight hurdle positions throughout. You can raise the height of the hurdle as athletes gain proficiency, but the height should never detract from proper hurdle mechanics.

5. Three-Step Drill

The three-step drill emphasizes the TO and TD requirements of the one-step drill and incorporates the inner hurdle three-step rhythm. Spacing, height, and velocity dictate how advanced this drill will become, based on the needs of the individual hurdler. The general setup will have hurdles distanced from 12-28 steps (a wider range based on the needs of the hurdlers), and the athlete can split this into “half hurdling” that can isolate one side of the hurdle motion. Repeated takeoffs as well as the three-step inner hurdle rhythm will provide the athlete with many reps to lock in the rhythm of the hurdle race while focusing on the technical hurdle model.

Beginner: Similar to the one-step pattern, closer spacing and lowered hurdle heights allow beginners to start understanding and improving the efficiency of their inner hurdle rhythm. These discounted distances and heights allow the athlete to focus solely on the rhythm and clearance of the hurdles and not fear potential contact with the hurdles. Twelve to 15-step spacing (from the front of one hurdle to the back of the next) and lowered hurdle heights (12-24 inches), paired with the overall lowered velocities of the compressed spacing, allow a beginner hurdler to work on technical proficiency. 

Advanced: As horizontal velocity is increased and the spacing of hurdles is extended closer to the actual race distance, the hurdler’s level of proficiency needs to increase. An upright body position and front-side mechanics are a necessity, especially at higher velocities, as the max stride lengths of hurdlers are shorter than the top-end stride lengths of a sprinter. This means the hurdler must “shuffle” or “dribble” to manage the inner hurdle SL patterns at high intensities/speeds. Advanced hurdlers can use 18- to 25-step spacing, which requires higher horizontal velocity. These higher velocities allow for rehearsal of the “shuffle/dribble” front-side bias that all advanced hurdlers will possess.

A Helpful Ingredient for Success

Any coach worth their salt, whether they identify as no-drill or driller, will diagnose issues within their athletes and utilize movement patterns that allow for repeated rehearsal of the desired movement. In any event or sport, the movements that most mimic the actual event will almost always be the best way to improve. Hurdlers should hurdle and sprinters should sprint, but at times these movements will need to be broken down with the goal of gaining proficiency.

If a hurdler has an issue with casting out and braking at takeoff, instead of mindlessly hurdling over and over, cueing to cut the last step, a better solution may be allowing rehearsal in a controlled environment with a movement pattern that addresses the diagnosed issue. This will, at worst, allow a reference point for the athlete to bring to the full-movement pattern of the event.

The word “drill” falls under a large umbrella of intent and purpose. Purpose-driven coaches will become great at diagnosing issues and assigning subsequent drill sequences. Drills won’t replace the importance of the full hurdle motion, but think of them as ingredients to a PR hurdle race.

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

Mangiacotti, M. (2014). “Rhythmic Hurdling: The Search for the Holy Grail.”

Lindeman, R. (2015). “100 / 110m HURDLE TRAINING with respect to the Contemporary Technical Model.”

To initiate our GPP phase, we first had to ask the simple question: “Where do we start ’em?“ Following that, we’ve got them right where we want them—leaner, stronger, and more robust movers with a set of lungs to boot! Now it’s time for that undulated, conjugate, supramaximal plyometric program, right? Not quite yet, coach (or better yet, mom and dad)!  Given the age of our developmental athletes, we have two major assets in time and plasticity—and the nature of both can easily be abused.

For those developmental athletes who have progressed through the foundational program, the question becomes, “How do we keep our foot off the gas pedal while moving the proverbial needle forward?” In our programs, we apply a scope of progression: slow-fast, extensive-intensive, force-explosive, internal-external, and so on. Our initial programs have used the basic bodyweight/centralized external load strength movements as well as carries, crawls, and sled work. While the strength exercises have provided general movement skill, connective tissue strength, and global muscular endurance, the crawls, carries, and drags have allowed my athletes to move forcefully through the horizontal vector in the sagittal, frontal, and transverse planes.

In a way, this provided the base for faster, more explosive movements like cutting, sprinting, backpedaling, and certain jumps. The resistance of the sled forces athletes to find a position of optimal strength and slows the movement down, which I find helps with the connection to the brain. The crawls force them to maintain posture about the spine and load the shoulders in a dexterous manner, driving a coordination connection (cross crawl patterns and such). My guess is the carries add difficulty and asymmetry while in gait, which develop a more robust stumble reflex. But now we can speed things up a little.

Jumps, Throws, and Running Patterns

Jumps

I must add a word on how to implement jumps initially, and I’ll say the approach of teaching them to land and load will serve you well. In the progression section of his “Shock Method” presentation, Matt Thome describes a six-point jumps progression leading up to the shock method. This path encompasses the extensive-intensive approach further categorized by long-short coupling, multi effort-single effort (or rhythmic-output), as well as unloaded-loaded, with the latter terms hallmarking intensification. Thome goes on to explain level 0 jumps where you emphasize landing technique in single efforts with lesser qualified (beginning, developmental) athletes to learn the skill of absorbing and withstanding force quickly.¹

Taking off is another element layered in landing ability. In this case, we best serve our athletes by teaching them to assume the athletic position quickly. Sport coaches spew about this all the time, commanding their athletes to get low, stay low, and explode low. Most readers know that this is easier said than done and tremendously tough to teach young athletes who most likely have poor movement bases to begin with. The Rip Down series is one way to teach athletes how to load aggressively and serves as a precursor to deceleration training.²

• • The rip down technique helps young athletes learn the pace and timing of the stretch reflex as well as timing with the upper limbs.

• • You can use a rip down technique to drop into bilateral and unilateral positions, preceding jumping both vertically and horizontally. A simple example is performing a rip down to the athletic stance (1/2 squat position) to a box jump. A few sets of three to five intermittent reps serve as a good starting point.

• • Cue them to rip their butts to their heels and land like a ninja, silent but deadly!

• • Usual progressions start with double-leg landings, moving to single-leg landings.

• • Implement horizontal jumps over time.

• • Place the rep down techniques in the pre-strength portion of your session to allow time for explosive training qualities when your athletes are at their freshest, and their minds are usually more focused.

Throws

We can use the same philosophy for medicine ball throws to train explosive abilities of the trunk and upper body. In this case, single-effort throws using a paused catch help train the ability to withstand contact of an oncoming body or object. This is most applicable in American football and rugby upon tackling and blocking. But it’s also prevalent in ball handling sports like basketball when the speed of an oncoming ball can register large forces that require both local and total body absorption. The fingers, hands, elbows, and shoulders need to be able to withstand the ball’s force with help from the trunk, hips, and lower limbs. You can employ as many different patterns here as you like, and do them as a part of the pre-strength circuit that can serve as a stimulatory warm-up.

Running Patterns

As for running in this phase, it’s wise to hammer sprinting on the technical side and employ various running patterns for these late entry developmental athletes. Wicket runs are in high order, along with various skipping and slower bounding drills. We can break down cutting into the 3- and 5-step forward-to-backward and side-to-side patterns, beginning with walking pace and learning how to stick the foot in the ground. Stick! Sink!! Separate! Then, gradually speed up the approach. From here, we can implement oval, circular, and parabolic patterns, as real-life running in sport is never like the sharp forty-five and ninety-degree “Tecmo-Bowl” characters.

So Now Where Can We Take ‘Em?

Here is a program model we use to help our developmental athletes transition down the slow-fast, extensive-intensive, forceful-explosive spectrums (more on this later). In this program, we can transition the technical jumping into a more extensive style of jump training that emphasizes timing and rhythm in the session’s strength portion. The derivatives of the jumps and throws will take place where the crawls, carries, and drags were in our foundation program. This allows a controlled volume of the extensive jump training, and I find it affects motor learning in two ways.

A contrast of learning occurs when the skill exercise is followed by a strength exercise.³ I must note a context here, as the jumping and strength exercises are general in nature at this stage, but we can revert to the slow-fast spectrum. Here, athletes can get a feel by practicing the neural pathway slowly before engaging in faster activity. Slowing things down lets the athlete attain the position and posture of the body so they can move powerfully. An example would be performing the knee drive exercise to help an athlete achieve the feel of knee drive in the sprint. In this instance, the squat exercise can prepare for a vertical type jump, and a horizontal push exercise (pushup/bench press) may aid a chest pass throw.

If we continue to implement the 1×20 method here (possibly into the 14s at this stage), you better believe there will be some fatigue in the local musculature. This is not necessarily a bad thing—especially if we’re trying to stress the system further and improve motor learning. Conditions of fatigue can create a “sensorimotor chaos” that forces the organism to respond to the fatigued muscles by producing an output not previously registered by the brain.⁴

The key word here is fatigue and not exhaustion. Note that fatigue should be generated locally as opposed to globally. Think about a squat exercise fatiguing the legs as opposed to programming an Olympic lift variation. Using a strength exercise in this manner provides a fatigue overload that develops motor control resilience when in fatigued conditions (learning to deal with conditions of fatigue). It also allows a mechanical overload without having to add an external load. I’ll explain the significance of this practice when we discuss the relationship between higher intensity and neural rigidity. Effectively, we can stretch out our adaptive response without having to use exhaustive means.

Sample Progressions

Block I is the lower body emphasis of the session where we work three of the basic five movement patterns (squat, hinge, single-leg). Feel free to employ the single-leg squat exercises (with your bilateral version) in different planes as in a lateral lunge or a rotational lateral lunge. We’ll also add some ankle strengthening before jumps that emphasize the action about the ankle. You can keep these on the clock as well (EMOM protocol), and you’ll find your young trainees huffing and puffing once again—a practical way to use fatigue as an overload stimulus.

Block I: Lower Body Emphasis with Extensive Jumps

• A1) Squat: variation based on progression

A2) Box jump

A3) Hinge: variation based on progression

A4) Hurdle hop

A5) Single-leg variation: left

A6) Split jump on same leg/single-leg hopping/skater jumps

A7) Single-leg variation: right

A8) Split jump on same leg/single-leg hopping/skater jumps

A9) Calf raise

A10) Ankle jumps (may lighten the load by holding onto a stationary object or hanging overhead bands) or low box jump with minimal knee bend

Block II is the upper body dominant portion of the session. In this program, we continue to apply one multi-joint push and pull movement along with trunk strengthening exercises. With overhead throwing athletes, sometimes we do strengthening exercises for the posterior shoulder (YTW patterns) before some introductory “rebound” work with a light dumbbell or medicine ball.⁵  I must state that I first learned about rebound drills in a brief two-day clinic with Jay Schroeder in 2004.

Block II (general athletic development):

• A1) Horizontal/vertical push

A2) Med ball chest pass or “wall ball” throw

A3) Trunk flexion

A4) Med ball sit-up throw

A5) Horizontal/vertical pull

A6) Med ball slam or overhead throw vs. wall

A7) Trunk rotation

A8) Med ball twist throw

A9) Trunk extension

A10) Med ball scoop throw vs. wall

Block II (for a throwing athlete):

A1) Horizontal/vertical push

A2) Med ball chest pass or shot put throw

A3) Lateral raise

A4) Lateral raise rebound

A5) Horizontal/vertical pull

A6) Med ball slam or overhead throw vs. wall

A7) Posterior lateral raise

A8) Posterior lateral raise rebound

A9) Y raise or external rotation

A10) Y raise rebound or external rotation throw (extensive)

We’re not ignoring the trunk—we can put it in a separate set:

• A1) Trunk flexion

A2) Med ball sit-up throw

A3) Trunk rotation

A4) Med ball twist throw

A5) Trunk extension

A6) Med ball scoop throw vs. wall

This also offers a great opportunity to partner groups of athletes. And they can play catch with each other, which seems to coral their accuracy a bit as they are less apt to throw the ball too hard. Just be wary of doing this with swimmers because some lack hand-eye skills, and I’ve seen a few broken fingers over the years.

To continue to get aerobic benefits, keeping this program on the clock is a good idea. You may have to expand the interval in the early going to coach the newer exercises; E90O90 will work well here, eventually getting to an EMOM pace. You can expand or retract this into parts of a full session or plug and play parts of each if you run into time constraints. No matter the scenario, this bridge program can help keep the foot off the gas pedal while moving the needle forward without blowing a gasket.

The Why: The Laws of Time and Maturation

Skill, strength, speed, endurance, and flexibility are the major trainable qualities every athlete needs. Each of these qualities has optimal windows of trainability that can distinguish between early- and late-entry sports. Early entry sports are your non-contact, non-stick-and-ball sports like gymnastics, diving, and figure skating that require a high degree of skill and flexibility. Optimally, these are trained in early development (4-10 years old).

The development of the other three qualities exists inherently during skill training.⁶ For example, in gymnastics, the skills of the P-bars, rings, and handstands will sufficiently develop strength in the upper body. At the same time, the jumping, landing, and explosive running (vault and floor exercises) will aid in improving speed qualities. The need for formal or targeted strength, speed, and endurance training is a low priority (if a priority at all), as the cumulative stress on the system is enough to fundamentally cover all three.

For late-entry sports (field, court, contact), we typically introduce the qualities of strength, speed, and endurance (we’ll also refer to these as the output qualities) in early to mid-teenage years with the foresight of more aggressive, targeted training down the road. For coaches, parents, and young athletes in this boat, it’s easy to fall prey to solely working on one of these qualities in the absence of others. For example, although the optimal window of trainability for flexibility and skill has passed, this does not erase their place. Though their new existence may be planned informally at this juncture, they act as a security system, computer virus control, or a protective medication of sorts. In this way, skill and flexibility are constantly present but also adapting to the athlete’s growing body and mental maturation.⁶

As stated above, the beginning of the trainability window for the output qualities will typically occur during this period. The key word here is initiation, which would include a fundamental approach that covers a broad spectrum of these abilities and their subsets versus a specialized and aggressive approach. In other words, getting put through your paces with the basics can give us a larger bang for our training buck while leaving plenty of room to take advantage of more advanced methods later.

This phenomenon revolves around the stiffening of the plasticity of the nervous system with high-intensity work.⁷ If coaches rush athletes with high-intensity strength, plyometric, and endurance work, they can only improve with even higher intensity or more volume. Most readers would agree this approach is a ticking time bomb of physical and psychological injury, given that maturity levels of both have not yet reached their peak.

Even though the sub-abilities of speed, strength, and endurance are needed during competition and training in late-entry sports, their general application will provide the necessary blend of these specialized qualities. Furthermore, each ability has a similar trend of peak opportunity among both genders. For both young women and men, peak trainability occurs:

• • First with endurance in the high school years (F: 12-14; M: 16-18)

• • Second with speed in mid-HS to collegiate (F: 16-18; M:19-21)

• • Third with strength in late/post-collegiate (F: 19-21; M: 24-26)¹

Applying high-intensity specialized methods is a recipe for disaster regarding the athlete’s long term and acute health and will retard future progress. Let us also understand that these windows do not represent independent training silos, as these three qualities will contain blends of each other—strength endurance, speed endurance, speed-strength, and strength-speed, etc.

We need to know when to use what for our athletes in this age range. As coaches (and parents) of our junior high and high school athletes, we must understand that the slow cooker is still on.  Now there may be cases for the outliers where scholarship money or potential professional careers may be on the line, and then a brief time in the microwave may be called for.

“I tried to tell you time and time again
You know you’ll have to pay the consequence
Now you’re obsessed with such a pace
But slow and steady wins the race!”

—”Slow Down” by Ozzy Osbourne

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. Matt Thome, The Shock Method.

2. Zach Dechant, Movement Over Maxes: Developing the Foundation for Baseball Performance, (Zach Dechant, 2018).

3. Jeff Moyer, “Minimalist Approach to Building Better Athletes,” TFC 6.

4. Frans Bosch, Strength Training & Coordination: An Integrative Approach, (2010Publishers, 2016).

5. Tommy John, Minimize Injury, Maximize Performance: A Sports Parent’s Guide Survival Guide, (De Capo Press, 2018).

6. Derek Evely, “Putting It All Together-Abilities & Maturation Rates,” Understanding Youth Training for Parents Course, (com, 2020).

7. Joel Smith, “Jeff Moyer Q & A,” Just Fly Sports (blog), August 2, 2016.

As a Brit, the run-up to the 2000 Olympic Games was all about whether (now Sir) Steve Redgrave would prove successful in his pursuit of a record fifth rowing Gold Medal. Redgrave and his team received a lot of attention as the games approached, but Great Britain had several other rowing teams competing with the chance to win a medal. One team not necessarily expected to medal—let alone win—were the men’s coxed eight (men’s eight).

At the 1992 Olympics, when Redgrave won his third Olympic Gold Medal, the men’s eight came 6^th. In 1996, they finished 8^th. Before the 1999 World Championships, they had come in 5^th, 8^th, 6^th, 5^th, and 7^th (in chronological order) in their World Championships campaigns. Clearly, they were not a bad team—two Olympic top-8 finishes can hardly be sniffed at—but, relative to the results of the GB rowing program, they were significant underachievers. For Ben Hunt-Davis, ever-present in the men’s eight during this period, every year ended with disappointment.

And yet this team, slowly but surely, managed to turn things around. In 1999, they won a silver medal at the World Championships, and at the 2000 Olympic Games, the day after Redgrave’s triumph, they stormed away to win the Gold Medal—Great Britain’s first in this event since 1912.

Off the back of this success, Hunt-Davis wrote a book, Will it Make the Boat Go Faster?, which explores some of the tools and techniques this crew used to turn themselves from also-rans into Olympic Champions. The book has eleven chapters, and each chapter is split into Hunt-Davis’s autobiographical account of key steps in the journey, followed up by an analysis (along with his co-author) of the key themes. The book is typical in high-level content of many business and sports psychology books with the importance of goals, motivation, etc., but the information is highly applicable. Hunt-Davis’s accounts bring the book to life with key phrases that manage to impart the core messages of the story, and we can use these as valuable mental shortcuts. Here are some of the most notable ideas from the book.

Goals

“Will it make the boat go faster?”

Hunt-Davis and his teammates had a single goal, which could only happen at a set time on a set date: 10:30 am on September 24, 2000. During about five and a half minutes, they would have to outperform their competitors to win an Olympic Gold medal. To do this, they developed a layered approach:

1. The Crazy Layer—this is the all-important end goal. For Hunt-Davis, it was an Olympic Gold medal. For your athlete, it might be making a national final. As pointed out in the book, the problem is that we can’t put these high-level goals on a to-do list (April 24: do food shopping, win Olympic Gold medal). Instead, they have to be comprised of steppingstones, namely…
2. The Concrete Layer—This is the measurement underpinning the crazy layer performance. For the rowers, it was to row 2000m in five minutes eighteen seconds, a time they believed would win the Gold Medal. For an athlete aspiring to make the national championship final, it would be the time required to qualify. Hypothetically, we might analyze the last 10 national championships and note that a 100m time of 10.38s qualifies for the final more often than not. In this case, the concrete layer is to be capable of running 10.38s at the national championships.
3. The Control Layer—This is the constituent parts of the concrete layer. To run 10.38s, what should your 30m from blocks and flying 30m times look like? What other key tests are important in letting you know whether you’re adequately taking care of each constituent of performance?
4. The Everyday Layer—What you do daily to deliver your control layer. This is, essentially, what the athlete does in training and daily life, meaning that there is a clear link between Tuesday’s training session and the athlete qualifying for the national championships final next August.

This process led the team to their mantra, “Will it make the boat go faster?” A clear, shared goal allowed the team to set and analyze their control and everyday layer goals, determine whether they were on track, and make the necessary adjustments to keep them on the path to success.

Beliefs

“There were some things we could control and some things we couldn’t.”

On the way home from a competition, the team’s boat got severely damaged in a road accident so they couldn’t use it for training in the all-important run-up to the Olympics. This was obviously a source of anxiety to the team, but the coach reminded them of two key things: 1) if they wanted to win, they had to learn to deal with any problem that came along, and 2) eight years prior, the same thing happened to another team, and they still won. Instead of dwelling on the problem at hand—which they couldn’t solve—the team resolved to focus on what mattered in their preparation for the next race.

The crew also used three key sources for their beliefs, which we can copy and paste into our own contexts:

1. Personal memories—What have you done in the past that makes you confident you can succeed? Before any big race, I used to remind myself that I’d been here before and dealt with the pressure well, so I would this time too.
2. Role models—Who else has achieved what you want to? Are they that different than you? When I was doing bobsleigh, I was terrified of my first run down; what if we crashed? But I looked at everyone else—athletes from other countries—and decided, if they could do it, so could I.
3. Metaphors and analogies—I think a common story among team members is crucial. Hunt-Davis’s crew used the analogy of a stone gaining momentum; others have used the story of Shackleton’s voyage.

Motivation

“I raced Doran, the Romanian stroke, countless times… He must have thought I was there to make up the numbers, because I’d never beaten him… I wanted to beat them so badly, to settle the score, to make sure that they finally woke up and took notice of me.”

Hunt-Davis had a problem with the everyday layer; he wanted to win so badly, but the daily monotony of training often wore on him. The same was true for the rest of the squad, so together, they had eight strategies for maintaining motivation:

1. Believe (outlined above).
2. Make the journey entertaining—How can you foster fun around the seriousness of your goal? The composition of the training group is crucial here, as is the coach making the environment a fun and enjoyable place to be.
3. Get competitive—Use the thought of your competitors to get you through.
4. Make yourself hungry—Allow yourself a reward for when you become successful.
5. Daydream—What will it feel like to achieve your goal?
6. Flick the switch—Once you arrive at training or competition, how do you switch on to ensure you never waste an effort? When I competed in bobsleigh, our team had a rule of “never waste a hit,” which meant that whenever we pushed the bobsleigh, we did it with maximal effort.
7. Create measurable milestones and rewards—How do you keep motivated when the main event is months or even years away? Focus on closer goals, such as testing or less important competitions as a way of getting you through.
8. Use the 10-minute rule—Some days, I get to the gym and I don’t feel like being there. By committing to doing 10 minutes, I almost always complete the full session. Anyone can do 10-minutes of work.

Bullsh*t Filters

“Don’t talk bollocks to Basil.”

In the run-up to the Olympics, the crew was at a competition. After winning their heat in style, they got carried away and started believing the hype, and flopped in the final as a result. Buying into positive comments and attention around your performance is all well and good—until the moment you start believing it and take your foot off the gas. The team developed a system, which they termed bullsh*t filters, in which they only took praise and criticism from the people who mattered and whom they trusted. Everything else was noise. In building their bullsh*t filters, the team had four key themes:

1. Don’t talk bollocks to Basil—this is a very British phrase, but “chatting bollocks” means talking about things that are irrelevant (and Basil is a posh person’s name). This means you don’t spend time talking about irrelevant things to irrelevant people; the only exception is mandated press conferences.
2. Accept the facts, but challenge the negative interpretation—Before any major race, I was terrible in training a couple of days beforehand. I wanted to be good—to have a great session to build my confidence—but I tended to be much slower. The fact is that my times were down; the negative interpretation is that it meant I was out of shape. But flipping it around, perhaps it meant I was saving myself for the race itself.
3. Find a better interpretation—At the European Under-20 Championships in 2005, I was expected to win, but I lost my semi-final to my main rival. My interpretation of this was that it was the perfect scenario: it was a wakeup call for me, causing me to focus my efforts. And it increased my rival’s confidence that he would win, potentially distracting him. I won the final, but it would have been so easy to interpret my semi-final defeat as highly negative.
4. Use bullsh*t as emotional fuel—Embrace the negativity of other people, and use it to fuel yourself to prove them wrong! Hunt-Davis was motivated by anger, which drove him on. Those of you who have ever seen me race will know I’m the same—sometimes, I used to print negative comments people had made about me to read pre-race!

Process Driven

“If you want to win, you need to forget about winning.”

Hunt-Davis and his crew decided that, if they were to be successful, they had to focus on the processes that supported success—much like the everyday and control layers discussed in the goal-setting example. They did this three ways:

1. Getting curious about the recipe—What are the key constituents of success in your event? Are you improving on all of these? How?
2. Focusing their attention—What specifically will you work on in the next training phase? How will you know if you’ve been successful?
3. Changing how they measured success—We often measure success by whether we win or not. This can be misleading: you can win but perform poorly, and you can lose but perform well. Across the course of a competitive season, by focusing on how well you completed the process, you’ll be better set up for performance when it matters. If you focus on whether you’ve won or lost your tune-up races, on the other hand, you might get misled.

Change

“Get the crocodiles before they get you.”

In the book, Hunt-Davis recalls how the Great Britain 8+ lost to Australia in the heats of the Olympic Games, meaning they would have to take a circuitous route to the final via the repechage. They had to make some small adjustments to improve their performance over the coming days. We can use their principles to support the change and evolution that constantly must happen in sport to keep us at our peak.

First, we need to know when to instigate change. Can we spot upcoming issues (the crocodile) before they become problematic? In sport, this might be a gradual improvement (or reduction) in performance levels, major championships held in more extreme environments (e.g., heat or altitude), or a rule change. Being able to spot these opportunities and plan and react accordingly is crucial to seizing the initiative and staying on the front foot. Once the necessary change has been made, all involved must expect discomfort and commit to spending a set period of time on the change to see it through. This is an especially salient point given the current situation with COVID-19, in which we’re in an ever-changing and uncertain world.

Bouncebackability

“What’s the gift I haven’t noticed yet?”

Bouncebackability is a word popularized by Iain Dowie when he was the manager of Crystal Palace football club. Essentially, it refers to resilience: the ability to bounce back from disappointment. If you spend enough time in sport and push yourself to perform at the highest level, you’ll experience a lot of disappointments and setbacks. Hunt-Davis and crew experienced this in the Olympic heats, and I experienced it numerous times in my career, including at the 2008 Olympic Games. When it came to responding to adversity, the crew had three main strategy pillars:

1. Prepare before a setback happens—”What if?” conversations are useful for sketching out what might go wrong at a given place and time and allow you to consider how you might respond.
2. Accept the setback when it comes—Strengthen your beliefs (people have likely bounced back from similar—if not worse—situations before); understand the root causes of the adversity; remember that the negative feelings will pass, and attempt to turn it to your advantage by using it as an opportunity for learning and growth.
3. Do what you need to respond—Get on with it by putting it out of your mind initially. Control the controllable in the short term; reflect and learn.

Caveats

Of course, there are some important caveats to keep in mind when digesting the content of this book. Before I met my wife, Hunt-Davis delivered a speech based on his book to my wife’s mum’s workplace. Her reflections on the talk were that it was very good, interesting, and impactful, but that it’s possible to answer the question (“Will it make the boat go faster?”) in whichever way you feel you need to meet your motivations at the time.

For example, let’s say your team has the opportunity to go drinking at the pub. Will it make the boat go faster? You could argue no. The consumption of alcohol plus the late night and poor sleep you will doubtless have as a result will likely negatively affect your training quality over the coming days, making the boat slower. But you could also argue yes. The team bonding that you’d gain from a night spent drinking together would outweigh the slight reduction in training quality. Alternatively, imagine it’s a cold, dark, winter morning, and you’re in bed, procrastinating over your first training session of the day. Should you skip it? Will it make the boat go faster? Yes—you’ve been training hard recently, so some extra recovery will reinvigorate your training quality. No—you have to accumulate training load and fitness to improve. You can see how this has the potential to be a slippery slope.

A second caveat is that to best answer, “Will it make the boat go faster?” you actually have to know the constituents of performance very well and then make subjective judgment calls based on ever-updating information. This is obviously a very hard task, requiring high levels of experience and expertise.

Finally, I’m always concerned about the concept of working harder. In general, I find that athletes train very hard, so the solution to improving their performance is not making them work harder (the “grind”), but smarter. It’s easy to conflate, “Will it make the boat go faster?” with “I just need to outwork my opposition, as hard work and single-minded focus are what’s important.” That isn’t necessarily Hunt-Davis’s message, but I think it’s crucial to be explicit about the dangers of this approach.

Final Thoughts

As a concept, the question of “Will it make the boat go faster?” is an important prompt to stimulate our thinking, and it’s effective in its simplicity. Through their success, the men’s eight demonstrated the importance of collective buy-in toward a common goal and a key theme that had to underpin all their decisions. Furthermore, the idea that we have to focus on what it takes to perform well, with everything else being—to use Hunt-Davis’s own words “bullsh*t”—is crucial.

How can we, as coaches and athletes, drill down to what actually delivers results and avoid spending time and energy on that which does not enable us to be successful? This mental model or story alone makes it worth the time to read the book.

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