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“All it takes is four cones and a pair of shorts,” said my friend and fellow performance coach Jim Liston in a conversation almost 15 years ago. He was teaching me how to present world-class training in a team sport practice with little to no equipment. He reiterated to me that all you need is some open space and creativity to give a team a quality athletic development session.

All you need is some open space and creativity to give a team a quality athletic development session, says @JeremyFrisch. Share on X

As a young coach at the time, I couldn’t imagine spending any time outside a weight room. I mean, how could I train any athletic quality without a barbell, platform, and bumper plates? But over the years those words stuck with me, and as I began to spend more and more time coaching young athletes, I realized their magic.

Use Practice Sessions to Develop Essential Skills

Things have certainly changed the past few years. I am now a father of four young children, and although I still have my coveted weight room, my focus these days is youth athletic development. Spend enough time around young children and you don’t need to be a genius to realize that kids don’t need complex training programs. Instead, they need exposure to basic physical education and movement skill development. The development of movement coordination, balance, stability, spatial awareness, and range of motion should take center stage in a young athlete’s development between the ages of 7 and 13. What better time to develop these skills then during a practice session for sport?

During weeknights and weekends, both my wife and I can be found coaching our children in the various sports they participate in. In the past seven years I have coached youth tackle football, youth flag football, t-ball, Little League baseball, rec basketball, travel basketball, and youth lacrosse, and I even took an at-home course on learning how to cartwheel and do a handstand so I could practice with my gymnast daughter.

There are two things I realized quickly when coaching youth sports. The first is that most youth coaches are volunteers, and although they have the best intentions, they are not professionals. The second thing is that, when it comes to basic coordination and movement skill development, children are all over the map in terms of their athletic ability. Some kids are naturally good movers while others need some time to practice and develop.

As I said, most coaches are parent volunteers not professionals. They do not have a background in physical education or athletic development. Many just want their children to be active, learn a few new skills, and have fun. We know kids these days have less access to quality movement opportunities than the generations before them. Less recess, less physical education, and more sedentary entertainment like phones, iPads, and gaming systems.

Finally, we know that better all-around athletic ability makes learning sports skills easier and playing any game more enjoyable, and it will serve them well later in life when they are trying to stay fit and healthy. With this in mind, I set out to develop a basic framework that youth coaches can use to provide athletic development training during youth practice sessions.

An Updated Youth Practice Session: Football

The genesis of this program occurred when I started coaching youth tackle football. The sport of tackle football is notoriously stuck in tradition. Most coaches practice the same way they did when they played. The beginning of practice is set aside to jog a few laps around the field, followed by static stretching, then right into football practice. Then, to finish practice, coaches usually implement some type of conditioning, which is usually something like wind sprints or suicide runs with little to no rest.

All of this work is in the name of mental toughness and hardly specific to the work/rest ratios of a football game. As a former player and now coach, this old-school mentality is a huge waste of time. Two things that young football players don’t need much of are static stretching and conditioning. What these young football players’ bodies are starving to do is move their joints through full ranges of motion. They need to work on balance, coordination, stability, strength, speed, and getting comfortable in each other’s contact space.

Young football players don’t need much static stretching and conditioning. What their bodies are starving to do is move their joints through full ranges of motion, says @JeremyFrisch. Share on X

So, I set about figuring out how to use the first 10-15 minutes of practice not only as a proper warm-up, but to also expose the kids to activities that will make them more athletic and better football players over time. Then I had to figure out how to use the last 10 minutes of practice in some type of competitive game environment that is similar to the demands of the game of football.

We know that, like any dynamic sport, the game of football requires a combination of speed, agility, strength, and toughness. It’s a contact sport where the players need to be comfortable in each other’s personal space. Players need to be adept at fundamental movements like running, jumping, pushing, pulling, tackling, and catching a ball. Furthermore, since proper tackling and finding yourself on the ground are main parts of the game, players should have a good grasp on how to properly fall on the ground. So here is the setup for the beginning of my football practice.

Warm-Up Fundamental Movement Skills

My warm-up skills are simple, basic movements to get young athletes moving in a variety of ways. Kids are rarely exposed to these sorts of movements these days. Furthermore, the game of football will involve different types of movements going in a variety of directions. So, practicing these fundamental movement skills is better than a slow jog in a straight line any day of the week. With these movements, we can improve coordination and develop a better sense of where athletes are in space.

• Skip
• Shuffle
• Bound
• Run to backpedal
• Backpedal to run
• Stride

Video 1. Football Warm-Up Drills: These fundamental movements develop coordination and prepare the young athlete for the practice ahead. We dedicate five minutes to them each practice session.

Range of Motion Development

In my opinion, young athletes do not need static stretching. Young athletes by their very nature are very excitable and energetic. Making them sit and hold different positions goes against the way their nervous systems are developing. We have to remember that many of these young athletes are growing rapidly. Bodies change so fast that kids can literally look different at the end of a season than they did at the beginning. With growth comes change, and, for example, kids get bigger and stronger but at the same time may lose some flexibility and coordination.

Activities that make young athletes move slowly and deliberately through full ranges of motion help develop suppleness and improve strength and coordination, says @JeremyFrisch. Share on X

The goal here is not to create yogis or bore the kids to death by holding static stretches, but to try to improve global suppleness and coordination. We do this by using activities that make them move slowly and deliberately through full ranges of motion. These activities not only provide the young athlete with a chance to develop that suppleness, but they also improve strength and coordination.

• Spiderman crawl
• Low lunge walks
• Low lateral walks
• Leg kicks
• Bouncy inchworms

Video 2. Football Mobility Drills: These dynamic flexibility drills allow the young athletes to move through a wide range of motion with a variety of different movements. We spend five minutes each practice and on game day exploring these exercises.

Groundwork and Foot Work

In order to thrive in a chaotic sporting environment that involves contact, like the game of football, we have to have a body that is capable of attaining and remaining in certain positions and postures. For example, getting a young athlete in a basic athletic stance to be able to teach blocking or tackling. Getting into these positions takes a fair amount of strength and stability/balance. Therefore, as coaches we should look for ways to develop these qualities for them to be both a better athlete and a better football player.

• Bear balance with partner
• Crab reaching
• One-leg balance with partner

Video 3. Football Stability and Balance: Balance is an element that is still developing in many young athletes. Do these exercises prior to more dynamic movements like sprinting and agility drills.

Pre-Contact and Grappling

What better way to prepare a young athlete for the contact of football than by getting them comfortable in a close space with an opponent? Tacking and blocking do not come naturally for all kids, so coaches must find ways to introduce these concepts and develop better players over time.

• Clamp drill
• Under hook
• Shoulder battle

Video 4. Football Pre-Contact Drills: Pre-contact drills get young athletes more comfortable and confident in each other’s personal space. Do these exercises before tackling skill work each practice.

Practice Finish

For kids, I always recommend any type of competitive game or race to finish practice. These competitive situations get the kids excited, work on specific skills, and develop conditioning without the kids even knowing it. Some of my favorite activities are tag games and relay races.

An Updated Youth Practice Session: Basketball

Here in New England, when the fall weather changes to winter cold and the football season ends with a celebratory Thanksgiving dinner, it is time to move indoors for basketball. Basketball is one of those sports that can be played fairly easily in some form or another by young children all the way through adulthood. Basketball is a fast, dynamic game that involves running, jumping, catching, throwing, and shooting, with plenty of change of direction. In short, it takes a decent level of athleticism to play successfully. What better time to develop those athletic skills than during youth basketball practice?

As with football practice, many volunteer coaches use the same drills in basketball practice that they used when they played basketball. Most of the time you see two alternating lines of players doing layups for 10 minutes before real practice begins. The problem with that drill is that one player is actually doing something while the rest of the team essentially stands in line watching. In my eyes, this is a complete waste of time.

A proper basketball warm-up will look to develop elements of athleticism like coordination, balance, strength, speed, mobility, and injury reduction, says @JeremyFrisch. Share on X

First off, most of the team is simply standing around doing nothing, and secondly, the actual movement of a layup hardly prepares the body for the faster-paced, dynamic practice/season ahead. A proper basketball warm-up will look to develop elements of athleticism like coordination, balance, strength, speed, mobility, and injury reduction. We can prepare the body for practice and at the same time improve movement skills in the long term. With enough exposure to the right kinds of warm-ups, we can improve things like running form, defensive position, and jumping ability and be less prone to injury.

Part 1. Movement: Baseline to Half-Court with Partners

Goal: Improve coordination, move major joints through large ranges of motion, get warm

• Skip forward dribble
• Skip backward dribble
• Side shuffle with circles
• X-over dribble
• X-over backward dribble

Video 5. Basketball Warm-Up: A warm-up series that combines fundamental movements along with dribbling skills. This is a fantastic way to combine basic skills with sport-specific skills.

Part 2. Strength (Partner)

Goal: Develop a strong base of support in different athletic positions

• Iso squat ball out front taps
• Iso lunge ball overhead taps
• Push-up hand on ball taps

Video 6. Basketball Core Strength: The goal of these exercises is to develop a strong base of support in a variety of different positions. Again, using a basketball adds sports-specific feel to general athletic development.

Part 3. Balance

Goal: Prevent ankle and ACL injuries

• Sissy squats w/ball overhead
• One-leg reach to overhead
• One-leg side-to-side dribble
• One-leg lateral line hops

Video 7. Basketball ACL Prep: This exercise series aims to develop single leg strength and stability for the prevention of ACL and ankle injuries.

Part 4. Speed

Goal: Develop game speed

• Speed dribble/sprint chase ball tip

Video 8. Basketball Tip Drill: This is an acceleration/situational awareness drill to develop game speed. By using a dribbling fast break, we can work on teaching our young athletes how to run down offensive players.

An Updated Youth Practice Session: Baseball

When the spring thaw begins and the snow melts, everyone starts looking forward to green grass and warm sunny days. And with those warm days comes one of my favorite seasons: Little League baseball. Out of all the youth sports I have coached in the past few years, youth baseball seems to have the widest range of abilities. Some kids begin playing in T-ball, while other kids start playing much later.

So, while some kids feel comfortable catching, throwing, and swinging a bat, other kids look like it’s their first time. I wish more kids would play pass and catch with mom and dad or Wiffle ball with kids in the neighborhood before they begin playing organized baseball, but the reality is that many kids start organized sports lacking many basic athletic skills. It’s because of this that I came up with the following series for my youth baseball players to work on basic coordination, core strength, and flexibility.

Movement Series: Fundamental Movement, Lower Body Strength, Crawling Patterns

Goal: Warm up, improve basic coordination, and develop upper and lower body strength. On the grass for 10 yards (same as Video 1).

• Skip
• Bound
• Run to backpedal
• Backpedal to run
• Stride

Range of Motion and Strength

Goal: Use a baseball bat to develop sport-specific strength through a full ROM

• Diagonal lateral chops – 10x each direction
• Split lateral bending – 10x
• Split squat forward/backward reach
• Lateral lunge and reach – 5x each direction

Video 9. Baseball Bat Mobility: A simple series of exercises where each player can use their bat to move through a variety of different movements and ranges of motion. The goal is to develop sport-specific strength through a full range of motion.

General Athletic Skills

Goal: Develop power, coordination, balance, throwing, and grip

• Athletic stance/vertical jump – 5x
• Athletic stance Lateral jump – 5x
• Athletic stance 180 jump – 5x
• Bat drops – 20x
• Eye tracking: tennis ball get up drill

Video 10. Baseball Athletic Development: I dedicate 5-10 minutes each practice to developing general athletic skills. One or two sets of each exercise each practice really adds up over an entire spring season.

During a youth sports season, a coach may spend up to 2-3 hours per week coaching their team. Devoting 10-15 minutes each practice solely to athletic development can go a long way when it comes to learning new skills. By the end of an eight-week season a team can accumulate 250-300 total minutes of athletic development training. Considering that most kids have P.E. only once a week, it’s imperative that kids find other avenues to learn to move. We can find that avenue at youth sports practice.

You Can Build Foundations

Parents and volunteer coaches are our first line of defense to make sure that kids stay active, learn new skills, and, most importantly, have fun, says @JeremyFrisch. Share on X

Parent and volunteer coaches are our first line of defense to make sure that kids stay active, learn new skills, and, most importantly, have fun. Many youth coaches are looking for ideas on how to fill the time in their practice schedules. Hopefully, some of the ideas in this article will provide youth coaches with ways to implement basic athletic development into the beginning of each practice. At the end of the day, we all know that a better all-around athlete is not only better at their sport and tends to enjoy playing sports, but is also healthier overall and less susceptible to 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

Over the last several years, there’s been a massive growth in the demand for “sport-specific training programs.” While I believe the intent of people seeking these programs and those who propagate them is good, the premise behind sport-specific training programs is flawed, and it wastes time. We can attribute the boom in demand partly to the visibility granted by social media. We are living in the Golden Age of Social Media. Anyone can create and post content regarding anything. This ability has generated an issue within the performance sphere: visibility and accessibility give the illusion of credibility to those who are not credible in the slightest.

To strike while the iron is hot and capitalize on this trend, “trainers” and “gurus” advertise training that will make an athlete better at a specific sport. Often, these training methods are ineffective and downright dangerous. So why are people wasting their money? In short, they’re looking for an edge. We live in a world that doesn’t like to wait. We live in a microwave society of instant gratification. Why is this a problem? Training is like a crockpot. It takes some time. Changes occur slowly and in small increments. For coaches, parents, and athletes who want results in a hurry, these trainers and gurus seem like the answer they’ve been seeking. Often, the program is nothing more than a waste of time and money. In this post, I’ll discuss why your energy is better focused on training foundational movements and qualities that create long term improvements in overall strength and athleticism.

All athletes, regardless of sport, benefit from certain physical traits and qualities. All athletes benefit from being stronger. All athletes benefit from being faster. All athletes benefit from increasing agility. All athletes benefit from being more resilient to injury. All athletes benefit from increased confidence. These are the qualities that I take into consideration, no matter what the sport is: strength, speed, agility, resilience, and confidence.

All of these are trainable and translate from the weight room to the field of play. Isn’t that the goal? To have what we do in training show up during competition? Of course it is. And it’s why strength coaches get so frustrated when they see trainers placing athletes in harm’s way. The problem? Most people don’t realize they’re putting the players in a position to get hurt—but they are. They take the training they see on social media and try to apply it to their athletes. Or they take specific movements performed during competition and load these movements. Both of these tactics are unsafe. Focusing on the five qualities mentioned above is a much better use of time and energy.

Trainable Qualities that Translate from the Weight Room to the Field

Strength

I use six basic categories of movements when programming for strength: pressing, pulling, hinging, squatting, bracing, and rotating. These categories cover all the movements that any athlete will encounter during their sport. Using simple and effective training principles to address each of these is the best way to increase your athlete’s strength. No BOSU balls or circus acts required. We can facilitate training these categories with just a bar, dumbbells, and a few bands.

Be careful, though. It can be easy to confuse the purpose of training. Athletes do not need to be strong for the sake of being strong. Athletes need to be strong to be successful in their sport. When we establish our measure of strength as nothing more than how much weight an athlete can move in one rep, we’re in danger of realizing Goodhart’s law. According to Goodhart’s law, when a measure becomes a target, it is no longer a good measure. When we make one-rep maxes our end all be all, we create a conflict of interest with the rest of the training. The athlete is tempted to focus only on excelling at the one-rep max, which is a recipe for disaster unless your sport is powerlifting or weightlifting.

Speed

Speed kills. We’ve all heard this, and it’s absolutely true. You can tell when one team is just flat-out faster than the other. Speed creates advantageous situations in team sports. No coach in the history of the world has ever watched their athletes and thought, “Geez fellas, I wish we were not so fast.” That said, speed training is one of the most mismanaged aspects of athletic development.

Speed is tied to how much force an athlete produces, not how fast their feet move. Sprint maximally & time it to track changes, says @CoachTQuick. Share on X

Speed is directly tied to how much force an athlete can produce. Speed does not depend at all upon how fast an athlete can move their feet. The phrase “slow feet don’t eat” has caused more athletes to waste time and money than almost anything else. Seeing athletes spend hours running through speed ladder drills in the hopes of getting faster is becoming more and more commonplace. These things do not make you faster. They simply make you proficient at doing the drill. If athletes truly want to increase their speed, they need to sprint maximally and time it so they can track changes. Sprinting is one of the most taxing activities on the CNS that athletes perform. And it offers an easy way to monitor whether they’re getting faster or doing too much training and damage is occurring.

Agility

People get very confused here. To some, agility is doing change of direction and footwork drills. Just like speed ladders, this does not help. Performing drills with set parameters over and over only makes you better at doing the drill. While change of direction is a part of agility, we often overemphasize the change of direction component and underemphasize the response to outside stimulus.

Drills will improve agility if they require athletes to process unknown and unexpected information, says @CoachTQuick. Share on X

To truly train agility, an athlete needs to respond to an unknown and unanticipated stimulus. Changing directions on a line or at a cone does not help increase this skill. Having to change directions accurately on a verbal or visual cue does much more for the athlete’s agility skills. The ability to process information quickly and react to it translates directly to the field of play. This is why people often loop speed and agility together. Sports other than track require athletes to be fast while processing information and reacting to their environment. Going through drills that don’t require athletes to process unexpected information will not improve agility.

Resilience

Two of the biggest buzz words in the industry right now are injury prevention. While preventing injury is a noble undertaking, it’s impossible to avoid injury completely. It is possible to mitigate the risk of injury through training. In fact, a 2014 study by Lauersen et al.¹ stated that strength training could reduce injury rates by as much as 69%. That’s a massive reduction rate, especially when compared to stretching. According to the study, stretching reduces injury risk by 4%. The final findings showed that strength training “reduced sport injuries to less than ⅓ and overuse injuries could almost be halved.” ¹Reducing the risk of injury by 70% is a huge plus for any program.

There's a difference between reducing injury & mitigating risk: the goal of strength training is to decrease the severity of injuries when they occur. Share on X

Understanding the difference between reducing or mitigating risk and reducing injuries is essential. There are obviously extenuating circumstances that we can’t account for—freak accidents happen. The goal with strength training is to decrease the severity of injuries when they do occur.

Confidence

“The number one transferrable quality from the weight room to the field is confidence.” This quote is from none other than Joe Kenn, the longtime NFL strength coach and founder of Big House Power. This could not be more accurate. Consistent strength training yields results. The results allow athletes to increase the loads they lift. When athletes begin to see increases in their ability to handle heavier loads, their confidence grows with it. When confidence rises, athletes play faster and more “loose.” For lack of a better term, they play with more swagger. Some refer to this as the tight jersey effect. When the sleeves on their jersey and shirts fit a little tighter, they feel stronger. When they feel stronger, they play stronger.

Sport-Specific Programming

So what do these five qualities have to do with sport-specific programming?  So glad you asked. These qualities should shape all of your programming. When we address the qualities consistently, improvements occur, making the athlete a better overall athlete. A better overall athlete will make a better baseball player, football player, soccer player, cheerleader, etc. Balancing one-legged on a BOSU ball while curling a Tsunami Bar and singing “We are the Champions” does nothing more than make them better at this activity. Build your base from the basics. There is a reason that the basics are the basics. They are time-tested and proven.

So how do you sell this? I’m a former collegiate football player. I played offensive line and am still a pretty big person. Because of this, the biggest concern I hear from sport coaches, parents, and athletes is: “Are you going to just do a football workout with them?” That question is often driven by previous bad experiences or content they considered sport-specific. Coaches and parents want the best for their athletes. I understand completely. I have to take time with these parents and coaches to explain my system and training process so they feel comfortable.

I take time with parents and coaches to explain my system and training process so they feel comfortable, says @CoachTQuick. Share on X

Communication is a foundational building block for effective coaching. It’s essential to address the concerns of sport coaches and parents. From this point, I will discuss how to get these people on board with a training-centered approach that increases athletic ability while dispelling their concerns and fears in a respectful and soothing way.

Sport Coaches

What is the number one job of a sport coach? To win. Period. Their job is to take a team or individual and win. The vast majority of sport coaches I’ve had contact with understood that the weight room is important, but they know this only in the context of it helping them win. They often don’t care to hear about the science behind what we do and don’t want to know the withertos and whyfores. All they want to know is if Johnny is getting stronger, faster, and staying healthy. If this happens because of the strength program or despite it is irrelevant to them.

When it comes to training philosophies, there’s often friction between the sport coach and the strength coach. Sport coaches are usually perfectly happy to do things as they’ve always been done. To point out flaws in their methods can be taken as a personal insult to any success they’ve had doing so. Coaches may also credit their process for their success on the field. But sometimes, coaches and programs are successful in spite of their process because talented players adjust and overcome them. For someone to examine all aspects of their program to discover that it’s not causing the team’s success takes incredible ability and humility. If it’s not broken, they often don’t try to fix it. Why would a sport coach want to change things if they’re winning?

Discussing biomechanics, bioenergetics, & kinematics with sport coaches often gets you nowhere. Speak their language, says @CoachTQuick. Share on X

One last piece of advice is to understand how to talk to sport coaches in their language. This is paramount. Trying to discuss biomechanics, bioenergetics, and kinematics often gets you nowhere. They don’t care about what’s behind the curtain. Learn to speak their language so you can effectively communicate what you’re doing and why it will help them win. After all, that’s their job. To win. If you can show them how you help them win, the friction often dissipates.

Parents

This may be the hardest group to engage. Parents want what’s best for their kids—plain and simple. Parents are also some of the most informed people on the planet. Is that information always correct? No. But they’re informed nonetheless. In our society, professional athletes are the height of celebrity. Fame and fortune come with being the best at a sport. What parent wouldn’t want that for their child? Often, parents go to extreme lengths to provide their children with every opportunity to succeed, and this has bled into sports performance. Parents want to give their child a leg up on their competition. Of course, they want them to have the advantage.

Seizing the opportunity are private trainers and gurus who wax poetic and expound about their secret sauce that will make Little Johnny into the next Mike Trout, LeBron James, or Patrick Mahomes. The problem? None of these guys are the athletes they are because of the training that they did when they were 12. Did the training help? Of course it did. But their genetics are the biggest reason they are who they are. And this can be a hard pill for parents for swallow. It doesn’t mean that their child cannot be great at a sport, but a 5’9″ 165lb senior in high school probably won’t start at quarterback in the Super Bowl one day. No matter how hard they try or how much money they spend on gimmicky training and gurus, there is no way to make an athlete grow taller than what their genetics will allow. Sorry, Mom and Dad, the height thing is kind of predetermined.

So how do we, as performance coaches, navigate these waters with parents? I’ve found that the answer is often, “It depends.” Some parents welcome the education and want to know why the information they’ve known to be a commonly held belief is wrong. Others do not. It doesn’t matter what we say or how we say it; they’ll think we just haven’t figured out how to do sport-specific training yet. If you’re lucky enough to encounter parents who genuinely want to learn, great. Educate them. Get them involved. Invite them to watch the training sessions. When parents are involved in a positive way, athletes benefit.

However, if you come across parents who don’t want to learn, sometimes telling them what they want to hear goes a long way. When they ask if your training is sport-specific to whatever sport, just say yes. Technically, it is. Saying yes doesn’t mean you have to start putting the kid on a BOSU ball to juggle kettlebells. At the end of the day, remember that they also want what’s best for their child. Variances in understanding and use of terminology are insufficient reasons not to train their child.

Athletes

For the most part, athletes are much more active on social platforms than their parents. They’re exposed to limitless information daily. Some of that information is great. Some is horrible. Athletes can regularly find videos of the professional players they aspire to imitate performing terrible nonsensical movements that are often dangerous and negligent on their trainer’s part. Or they see their athletic idols performing advanced level movements and using high tech gadgets and equipment. Obviously, they want to imitate these athletes. They naturally assume that because a professional athlete is doing something, it must be from the best training money can buy. The thing is, it may be.

It does not, however, mean it applies to an adolescent athlete. With videos of advanced movement, what’s not shown is the many years of training it took to earn the right to perform those movements. We don’t start our kids in calculus doing differential equations. We begin learning to count single-digit numbers. Training is the same. Athletes have to prove they’re ready for the next level by mastering the basics and advancing from there. In the case of gimmicky training that’s nonsensical and dangerous, there’s often lots of wow factor that looks cool on Twitter or TikTok. The wow factor and ability to go viral is almost literally currency to our young athletes today.

To get athletes to buy in to your training principles, video them performing well and post to social media with positive comments, says @CoachTQuick. Share on X

One way to get them to buy in to your training principles is to use social media to your advantage. Video your athletes as they own ranges of motion or execute a perfect technique. And post it. Tag them and explain how and why what they’re doing is so great. The basics are simple, and that’s not sexy to the masses. However, there is a large audience that needs to see sound training principles, and using your athletes to do so will create some great buy-in. Always remember, simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication.

Next, answer them honestly when they ask why. If an athlete asks why they are doing a specific movement or a certain amount of reps, tell them. In the overwhelming majority of cases, they aren’t disrespectful when they ask. They are simply what their world has made them. When I was growing up—and all the generations before me—we relied on adults to provide us with the truth. We did not have social media and limitless information literally in the palm of our hands. Athletes today have been able to find answers to their questions whenever they wanted. They’ve never had to trust that the adults in their lives were always honest. And they genuinely want to understand. If you don’t know why or cannot explain why to them, you need to reevaluate the movement. Never program something you cannot defend to anyone who asks you. Don’t speak science jargon. Explain in terms they understand that relate to their sport.

For example, I had an athlete ask me why we performed lateral lunges. I could have answered with science jargon, names of muscles, and kinesthetic principles. Instead, I explained how the lateral lunge would improve his cuts. He was a running back, and he had to make lateral movements quickly. Having the ability to produce force laterally was essential. The lightbulb turned on, and he attacked those reps with great attention to detail from that point on. I also overheard him telling other athletes how the lateral lunges would help them, encouraging them to perfect the movement. Are lateral lunges sexy? Nope. They are not. Did that kid get excited about lateral lunges when he realized they made him a better football player? Absolutely.

Communication is key. Learning how to speak your athlete’s language and connect with them is so important. One more piece of advice—when they ask why you don’t program certain movements or exercises, be honest. They’re excited about training and want to share that with you. Explain the principles of your program. Don’t belittle the specific movements. They don’t need us to make them feel stupid. It’s much more productive to say something like, “That’s cool. We do such and such to achieve the exact same thing.”  Your athletes are our most precious resource and the sole reason we have jobs. Without them, there’s no need for us. Don’t isolate them by being the know-it-all coach who reminds them all the time that you are far more intelligent than they are.

If training causes adaptations and enhances qualities that make athletes better at their sport, it's sport-specific, says @CoachTQuick. Share on X

Sport-specific training is just training. If the training causes adaptations and enhances qualities that make athletes better at their sport, it is sport-specific. How we understand this and relate it to those who employ us and those in charge is everything. The desire for sport-specific training is not going away anytime soon. It’s our job to educate people respectfully and consistently. Bashing them over the head with textbooks, research studies, and jargon will do nothing more than drive them to other sources for information and training. We can all agree, that’s less than desirable. Let’s all be leaders by taking the first step meeting in the middle with sport coaches, parents, and athletes.

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

Reference

1. Lauersen JB, Bertelsen DM, and Andersen, LB. “The effectiveness of exercise interventions to prevent sports injuries: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials” British Journal of Sports Medicine 48, no.11 (June 2014): 871-77.

Strength and core training in golf is much like the game itself—traditional and steeped in years of “we do it this way because that’s how we’ve always done it” thinking. The uptick in sports science being done in the field has challenged that belief in recent years. This comes at a time when the young stars of the game are defying many of its old ideas: from fashion to etiquette to what really matters when it comes to cashing a check.

The last couple of years of stats on the PGA and LPGA tours have proven that the age-old saying of “Drive for show and putt for dough” is inherently wrong. The updated saying for 2020 is now: “Drive for show and cash checks for millions.”

These seven types of training and exercises are valuable in golf performance training but are often left out of traditional golf fitness plans. Share on X

What follows are seven exercises and types of training shown to be valuable in golf performance training, but often left out of traditional golf fitness plans. These are things that Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, and even Tiger Woods had no idea about in their primes. In fact, many of the top Tour players and their trainers are still discovering the value and place that these seven critical elements hold in the best performance plan for a golfer.

kPulley Straight Arm Rotation

Rotational training is nothing new in core or strength training for golf. It has been around since the invention of training for the game. Medicine balls, bands, cables, and anything else you can hold while you rotate are all used to “train the core” for better separation in the golf swing. “Without a strong core you can’t create separation” is a common saying you will hear from a trainer whenever they work with a golfer. While we don’t know if it is true, we do know that if we train rotation with a specific intent, we can produce 150% better gains in swing speed than seen in traditional rotational training.

The kPulley is a machine that helps coaches train golfers with rotational eccentric overload in a way that has not been available in the past. The flywheel and Bluetooth outputs allow a coach to train different traits of a golfer, from speed to power and many things between.

The straight arm rotation was the exercise we used in our 2018 study, which demonstrated 150% more swing speed gains in golfers in six weeks compared to just using bands or cables in the traditional way. Raw numbers, for perspective, were a 2.5 mph gain compared to a 1 mph gain, which equates to about a 5-yard difference in gain off the tee.

Video 1. This exercise is more stabilization and strength than power. Using a bar enables an athlete to focus on the trunk rather than using the upper body too much.

The straight arm rotation on the flywheel offers a couple of options to the coach in terms of sequencing and ground force applications that can be trained depending on the goals of the exercise. If straightforward rotational “core strength” is the goal, having the athlete stand while keeping the hips straight forward and just moving the upper body is a way to isolate the upper half and be able to load the pattern with upward of 30% overload eccentrically, as we have seen in training. This would obviously require lower body stabilization and separation of the lower and upper halves.

If a coach wants a more athletic-looking movement that is similar kinematically to the golf swing, another approach to take with this exercise is to have both the upper and lower body moving through, with active use of the lower body to assist with the rotational horizontal pull. The benefits of taking this approach also include the opportunity to coach the athlete on proper use of the ground with a focus on load and horizontal drive initially off the instep of the trail foot and then working into torsional (and even vertical drive, if desired) as each repetition is completed.

Five yards gained off the tee using this exercise is massive compared to traditional methods employed more predominantly in golf today. Share on X

The coach can best decide when and how to use this exercise with the overall program in mind; however, I cannot understate the benefit of this exercise. Five yards gained off the tee when this exercise was specifically used is massive compared to traditional methods employed more predominantly in golf today.

kPulley Wrap Low to High

The strap that wraps around a golfer or other rotational athlete has been around for a while now. Its popularity is spreading mostly via social media campaigns and higher profile athletes utilizing it in various social media posts. Beyond that, however, the use of a strap-wrap to drive performance gains continues to remain on the sidelines of traditional golf performance programs. When coaches utilize it, they’ve brought it in for variety’s sake or to combat boredom by athletes here or there; it doesn’t often have a targeted performance-based purpose.

I will contend that while the strap has value, as I will discuss shortly, the real value in this exercise is in what the strap connects to. This is why we utilize it with the kPulley with our golfers.

Video 2. Rotation and twisting can become difficult to differentiate in real-life. Using a strap with solid leg drive is an awesome overload option for golf and other sports.

As described with the horizontal rotational pull, the eccentric flywheel proved to produce superior results to the traditional tools of bands and cables when it came to creating gains that transferred to the sport because of the eccentric overload opportunity that the device offers. For this reason, we aim to utilize the eccentric flywheel whenever we can with our rotational strength training work.

The other added value that we have seen with the use of the flywheel along with the wrapped strap is the increased opportunity as a coach to have your athlete focus on how they kinetically use the ground. Because they do not have their arms connected to anything, the only way that they are able to create movement is by using their legs. This becomes their only focus, and when coaching it, you can really help them tune into how they use the ground.

Most golfers sequence kinetically from horizontal to torsional and then finish vertically. This is how we look to cue our golfers to move when they use this exercise in their program. Even more helpful, though, is that if your player needs to work on more horizontal force creation, then you can help cue that. Move the connection to the flywheel higher so it is more at the hip level as opposed to truly low, like when you might want to train more vertical drive at the end.

Finally, as a coach, you can also look to train the athlete to focus on improved impulse on each repetition. This is becoming a buzzword in the golf world these days with some recent research findings, and rightfully so. The better the impulse a golfer is able to create, the faster their club speed will be. Helping them to work on getting to their maximal power output on each rep as fast as they can, as opposed to a long low-level ramp-up, is also a very important skill to focus on during this exercise.

Hop Back Iron Man Throw

Iron Man throws are not necessarily a new concept in the golf strength and conditioning world. The idea of when to use a hop back variation versus a standard throw versus a step behind variation versus a dropdown variation, however, is not so common in progressive and periodized programming, traditionally.

When looking at the types of training that are most effective for golfers across the age spectrum throughout their careers, triphasic training has shown to be very effective for golfers in their adult and senior years. That being said, it would make sense to periodize the plyometric/impulse training-focused exercises to progress through a triphasic program along with a strength component.

A hop back variation of an Iron Man throw is a great way to train a golfer’s ability to absorb and store force during an eccentric phase. It is also a great way to start to help the golfer understand what it means to load and use the ground correctly. Many times, we see golfers roll to the outside of their trail foot the first few times they try this exercise. We also see them fail to get down “into” their trail hip, leading to them “floating” through the throw. They are not able to use the ground appropriately, and this leads to significant decreases in how they create force.

Video 3. The Hop Back Iron Man Throw isn’t common, but the benefits are more than they appear. This demonstration shows controlled use of the hip, and as athletes progress, the speed can increase as well.

When measured on force plates, we have noted that how you coach the athlete to load directly impacts the kinetic sequence as well as the magnitude of ground force that is created in significant ways. We cannot understate the importance of the athlete’s focus on the quality of how they use the ground during this exercise.

I cannot understate the importance of the athlete’s focus on the quality of how they use the ground during the hop back Iron Man throw exercise. Share on X

The lack of this and other variations of medicine ball exercises being used incorrectly in traditional golf performance training are both, in my opinion, due to a severe dearth of understanding in how to use medicine ball throws with maximal efficiency. There have been a number of SimpliFaster articles on the optimal use of medicine ball training and the importance of periodizing medicine ball use throughout the year.

Unfortunately, more often than not, medicine ball throws such as the Iron Man throw are included to fill time rather than achieve a training goal need. If you can think about what the variation of the throws attempts to accomplish from a kinetic standpoint as well as a training system standpoint, it starts to become more apparent when and where to use them for maximal results.

Drop Rotational Box Jump

As mentioned in the Iron Man hop back variation, improving a golfer’s impulse is paramount for them to be able to produce more club head speed when they compete. The Iron Man variations allow for single leg focuses and are probably more “sport movement specific,” as they tend to mimic the way a golfer specifically moves in the golf swing. That being said, we all know that training does not have to look like the golf swing to be extremely helpful and transferrable.

The drop rotational box jump puts the golfer in an environment where both legs have to absorb force and then express it out as quickly as possible, with a torsional and horizontal component to rotate 90 degrees and land on the box to the side of them. This will lead to greater force generation and is generally easier to introduce from a coordination standpoint than a dropdown Iron Man throw.

As the athlete progresses, changing the height of the drop box as well as the height of the box they have to land on (if there’s one at all) allows the coach to manipulate the exercise based on the appropriate training goals for the athlete and where they are in their training.

One of the most common things that we see in traditional golf fitness programs is the misuse of box jumps and other jumps, similar to how medicine balls are used. You don’t have to look far to see golfers and others in the golf fitness industry touting how high they or their athletes can jump onto a box.

Video 4. Due to the planned motion, the exercise is safer than it sounds. Regardless, coaches need to program this only when the athlete is ready.

There are two common issues at play here. The first is the basic understanding of why we would program a box jump in the first place. Box jumps should be used to train improved impulse magnitude and, if we use a drop, to decrease the time of that impulse as well as the amount of force the system has to absorb. A higher box is easier for the system, not harder.

If an athlete has a vertical jump of 24 inches, then jumping and landing on a 30-inch box means that they have to flex their hips up at least 6 inches to land the jump. That is a negative 6-inch absorption of load. If, however, that same athlete steps off a 30-inch box and has to stick the landing, they just had to absorb way more load. So, which is more helpful? It depends.

If you want to decrease the load acceptance requirement for an athlete, a higher box jump is where you want to go. If, however, you want to maximally train an athlete for force absorption and impulse improvement, a drop jump is where you want to be. Understanding what the exercise accomplishes allows a coach and an athlete to start to figure out where and why it belongs in training. Without this first part, the second is impossible.

Higher definitely looks cooler for social media posts, but accepting load when dropping down off a box is definitely more challenging for the athlete’s system. Share on X

This confusion over which type of box jump is “harder” might be the biggest misunderstanding that I see in training golfers on a daily basis. Higher definitely looks cooler for social media posts, but accepting load when dropping down off a box is definitely more challenging for the athlete’s system.

Velocity-Based Resistance Training

Velocity-based programming or training, depending on who you talk to and what they like to call it, is definitely not traditional by any stretch of the imagination. It is relatively new, in general, and we all know that golf is not known for being at the forefront of anything when it comes to strength and conditioning. It shouldn’t shock you that velocity-based training is not traditionally in a golf-specific training program.

The apparent value of this type of training is becoming more and more obvious in the research and in practice. The idea that you essentially have a leading fatigue metric every day an athlete comes in to train that will self-regulate their load to keep them in the range you want them to train is extremely appealing. While it is a mind shift for any coach or athlete used to percentage-based training, it is one that comes relatively quickly and shouldn’t be a barrier to adoption.

One of the bigger logistical barriers is the need to assess athletes to determine their individual profiles for each lift. In golf, however, this is much less of a barrier, as golfers are individual athletes, and we don’t run into the issues that large football or other team sports do where a coach needs to profile 40+ athletes. Even at the collegiate level, where golf is a team sport, there are rarely more than 10 athletes, which makes it not an issue logistically.

In a recent article published by Dorrell and colleagues¹, there was a noted, significant improvement in strength and countermovement jump performance despite the group using velocity-based training having done less volume. The authors commented on the potential value of this for managing fatigue of athletes during competitive seasons. With golf at the professional levels being essentially a year-round sport at this point, this is a huge finding and potential benefit for golfers.

There is still an obvious barrier to the inclusion of this type of training in golf on a large scale. The travel that occurs during the long season means that athletes at the professional level do not have access to barbells and/or the technology all the time, making year-round use of this type of training challenging sometimes. That being said, the wearable market for velocity-based training is improving in its accuracy and ability to produce reliable readings for athletes to use it on the road when they travel.

As the research and the benefits of this training become more defined and the technology continues to improve, I would not be surprised if velocity-based programming and training starts to trend as the “norm” more than anything else on this list.

Lateral Sled Pulls

Sleds are not often used in traditional golf performance training as it is, never mind a lateral pull variation. The benefit of this type of pull is that it requires increased use of the adductor muscle group. This is an extremely difficult group of muscles to train in an explosive manner in the gym. As such, despite it being one of the most important muscle groups in the golf swing, particularly on the lead side of the golfer, traditional strength and conditioning programs for golf performance often overlook it.

The exercise challenges the athlete to extend the hip with adduction, which is the exact movement that the lead hip completes during the golf swing. You can vary the load depending on what attributes you are looking to train (strength vs. power vs. metabolic, etc.).

We utilize lateral sled pulls in our programs throughout the year with our athletes, but we do so differently, depending on where they are in their season and what the overarching goal of their training program is at that time. For instance, in the early off-season, we utilize the lateral sled pulls but with a focus on metabolic goals to build a base or capacity for the upcoming season. We utilize different variations of workouts from low load, low recovery to pyramid schemes, and everything in between.

When we get into the middle of the off-season, we often utilize this exercise as part of a superset on a low neural day to continue to challenge capacity while it is okay for volume to be higher. As their program progresses toward later off-season, and we concentrate on impulse magnitude and duration for maximal power output, lower volume with good power output and longer rests becomes more of a focus.

When the athlete is in season, we apply this specific exercise as a bit of a warm-up to make sure we train that pattern and keep it clean, but we don’t put a ton of stress on their system with it. They are playing and traveling so much that we focus more on the compound movements for our big power outputs and consider this an auxiliary lift at this point in their programming.

The biggest barrier to the mass adoption of lateral sled pulls in traditional programs is the access to turn and/or sleds as well as a long-enough runway to make it worthwhile. Share on X

The biggest barrier to mass adoption of this exercise in traditional programs is the access to turf and/or sleds as well as a long-enough runway to make it worthwhile for the athlete. Particularly when athletes are on the road, finding gyms with this equipment can be tough. When you are able to find a facility that provides the opportunity to implement this exercise, however, go for it. You’ll be happy you did.

Triphasic Strength Training

This is not a specific exercise, but rather a type of training that has been found to be helpful to drive clubhead speed gains in older golfers. In adult golfers, a gain in club speed of more than 50% was seen when the subjects utilized triphasic training as opposed to traditional training (progressive load without tempo considerations). The opposite effect was actually seen in junior golfers, which is interesting to note.

In the study outlined below, a four-week phase focusing on 5- to 7-second descent followed by a four-week phase focusing on a 5- to 7-second isometric hold at the bottom of each rep flowed into a four-week conversion to power phase. Because of the increased time under tension in the first two phases, the adult and senior golfers used lower loads to achieve the results of the increased club speed than the traditional training groups. Subjectively, the individuals were much more comfortable with less load on their bodies and, as such, self-reported enjoying the program.

When using triphasic training, we have also found it productive to periodize rotational work such as medicine balls, cable/flywheel rotational exercises, and jump training. As mentioned earlier in this article with the different Iron Man variations, utilizing hop back variations during the eccentric phases to focus on storing energy and progressing to step behind or drop variations during the conversion to power phase improves impulse magnitude and decreases duration.

Video 5. Eccentric tempo work is timeless and popular for a reason. Controlling the eccentric portion of the lift offers a great foundation before advancing to maximal and rapid overload options.

There are no barriers to using this type of training like there are with some of the other exercises or VBT mentioned above. The only thing needed to utilize this type of training with your athletes is for them to be able to count to five correctly. It is simple to implement triphasic training on the road, and athletes pick up on how and why they should implement it very quickly.

Keep Pushing Our Athletes, and the Field, Farther

The golf fitness and performance industry is progressing in leaps and bounds every year, and that is nothing but great for the game and the athletes who play it. As demonstrated above, there is still a high ceiling that we can reach for to continue to push our field and our athletes even farther.

As technology & research continue to make available new methods and modalities, coaches need to continue to educate ourselves on what’s worthwhile to share with our athletes. Share on X

The common thread here is to utilize each of these seven exercises or strategies first with an understanding of why you would use it with an athlete and why that athlete would potentially benefit from it. Then, we need to be crystal clear as to where it fits in their program and when it would be most beneficial for them to achieve transferrable results on the golf course. Finally, as technology and research continue to push forward and make available modalities and methods that were not available before, coaches need to continue to educate ourselves on what exists and is worthwhile to share with our athletes.

The future is bright for golfers and their ability to continue to perform at levels never before thought possible. These are only seven of the many elements that will continue to become more and more mainstream over the next decade as “traditional” continues to be redefined on an almost daily basis.

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References

1. Dorrell, H. F., Smith, M. F., & Gee, T. I. (2020). Comparison of velocity-based and traditional percentage-based loading methods on maximal strength and power adaptations. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 34(1), 46.

Like many of my professional associates and peers throughout the country, over the course of my professional career I have rehabilitated and/or performance enhancement trained the athletes placed in my care. In my four decades of practice, I personally have worked with thousands of athletes participating in many various athletic endeavors. Included in this athletic population are the subset of overhead athletes, such as baseball players, football quarterbacks, track and field throwers, volleyball players, basketball players, tennis players, swimmers, etc. These athletes have competed at the high school, collegiate, Olympic, and professional levels.

With regard to the overhead sport athlete in baseball, football, and basketball, my clientele of athletes, like my other professional peers in the same occupational fields of practice, includes $100,000,000-contract athletes as well as Cy Young award-winning MLB pitchers, NFL quarterbacks, and MLB and NBA all-stars. However, contrary to what many of my professional peers do (as expressed to me via direct conversations with them), I prescribe my athletes specific weighted overhead exercises during their rehabilitation and/or training whenever no valid contraindications are noted.

Contrary to what many of my professional peers do, I prescribe my athletes specific weighted overhead exercises during their rehab and/or training whenever there are no valid contraindications. Share on X

Specifically, with regard to the overhead athlete and the upper extremity, these individuals are rehabilitated, involved in post-rehabilitation return to play, and/or performance enhancement trained for a variety of physical conditions including, but not limited to:

• Non-operative shoulder rehabilitation.
• Non-operative elbow rehabilitation.
• Postoperative shoulder rehabilitation.
• Postoperative elbow rehabilitation.
• Post-rehabilitation return to play and/or athletic performance enhancement training in preparation for their particular sport of participation.

Although it appears that overhead weight training has had a greater acceptance in recent years, conversations of concern still exist with medical professionals, parents, coaches, and, at times, the athlete themselves. During these conversations, I often contemplate the days of Dr. Karl Klein and his support of medical professionals and coaches who condemned the squat exercise, as there was a time where this deep knee bend exercise was considered absolutely detrimental to the ligaments of the knee. This squat exercise concern was proven to be unsubstantiated at least 25 years ago¹. These discussions often leave me with the impression that overhead exercise performance is the latest “taboo” in the new millennium.

I mentioned the clientele of outstanding professional athletes to reinforce a point: If specific overhead training exercise were truly detrimental to an athlete’s career, how then could we possibly incorporate them successfully into the physical rehabilitation and performance enhancement training settings? How could they be accepted by these accomplished professional athletes who have so much to lose?

Skill vs. Athleticism

During the course of physical rehabilitation, post-rehabilitation return to play, and the performance enhancement training of athletes, the emphasis is on improving the physical qualities necessary for optimal athletic performance. This achievement assists in optimizing the demonstrated physical skills of the athlete through the transfer of these enhanced physical qualities via the repetitive practice of these physical skills over time. Physical rehabilitation and athletic performance training enhance the athlete’s athleticism.

Unless the rehabilitation specialist and/or strength and conditioning (S&C) professional is also a sport skills coach (i.e., basketball shooting, baseball hitting, baseball pitching, etc.), it is the sport/skill coach who will improve the athlete’s skill level. This article will discuss the rehabilitation, training opportunities, and guidelines for the inclusion of weighted overhead exercises for the overhead athlete.

Vermeil’s Hierarchy of Athletic Development

We base our evaluation and programming for the rehabilitation as well as the athletic performance enhancement training of the overhead (or any) athlete upon the philosophy of USA S&C Hall of Fame Coach Al Vermeil’s Hierarchy of Athletic Development (figure 1).

These training and rehabilitation program philosophies have been described previously in both the literature^2,3 and a SimpliFaster blog post; therefore, a thorough review is not required at this time. A recommended self-review of this philosophical system will assist as a guide for the evaluation and testing of an athlete through the development of the diverse physical qualities necessary for optimal physical rehabilitation and post-rehabilitation return to play, as well as ideal athletic performance.

The Kinetic Chain of the Body

For the overhead athlete to achieve ideal levels of performance, it is critical for all muscle and neuromuscular activity of the body to transform from multiple individual segments to a single efficient entity. It has been demonstrated that the best athletes are those who can apply the greatest amount of force into the ground surface area in the shortest period of time⁴. For this phenomenon to occur, the athlete must establish a strong, stable base of support to maximize the forces initiated from the legs and hips, transfer these forces through the core, and conclude at the shoulder/upper extremity complex to the hand.

The automobile enthusiast may associate this relationship to an engine (i.e., leg and hips), where the forces established are transferred via the transmission (i.e., core) to the steering mechanism (upper extremities and hands) as upper extremity (i.e., baseball) velocity transpires from the ground up⁵. The kinetic chain of the body also assists to diminish the magnitude of the applied forces in throwing type movements and produce torques that decrease braking forces as a protective mechanism during the arm deceleration phase, the most stressful phase of throwing (overhead) cycle⁶.

Anxieties of Overhead Exercise Performance

The foremost expressed concern of overhead weighted exercise performance (i.e., the overhead/military press, push press, jerks, etc.) appears to be the potential injury to the rotator cuff musculature of the shoulder complex. The rotator cuff consists of four muscles: the supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor, and subscapularis (figure 2).

This apprehension is derived from the fear of the possible onset of rotator cuff “impingement” and/or tearing at the underside of the acromion (figure 3a) and/or the coracoacromial ligament/arch (figure 3b). Frequently expressed concerns also include the “dreaded” type III acromion (figure 3a) morphology, which, due to the extended osseous structure, reduces the subacromial space. This space is located between the inferior acromion and the head of the humerus and is approximately 9–10 mm in distance⁷.

It has been reported that at 0 degrees of arm abduction (arm at the side), the subacromial space is approximately 11 mm, at 90 degrees of upper extremity abduction it is 5.7 mm, and at 120 degrees of abduction it is 4.8 mm⁸. Investigators have also utilized Fuji contact film to measure pressures per square area on both the acromion and humeral head. With arm abduction performed from 60 degrees to full arm elevation, there was contact between the acromion and humeral head⁸. Therefore, it was concluded that contact between the acromion and humeral head during this range of elevation is normal.

The physical rehabilitation and S&C professional should take caution with overhead exercise performance in the documented presence of a type III acromion. As it is not financially prudent or even essential to perform diagnostic imaging on every athlete participating in a training program, it is necessary to investigate the scientific evidence to help determine where in the athletic population this specific type III acromion morphology may actually exist.

The concern of subjecting a young athlete to a possible increased risk of rotator cuff pathology due to the presence of a type III acromion is likely overstated. Share on X

In a study of 100 Division 1 college athletes (200 shoulders), it was determined that only 2% (four shoulders) exhibited a type III acromion⁹. In fact, there are a number of medical professionals who believe that the type III acromion likely presents in the later decades of life as a result of the accumulated physical stresses that may result in secondary changes, as occurs with any other aging joint surface. Therefore, it would appear that the concern of subjecting a young athlete to a possible increased risk of rotator cuff pathology due to the presence of a type III acromion is likely overstated.

Prerequisites of Overhead Exercise Performance

Prior to their introduction to formal training program design, the athlete must be prepared to ensure the safety and success of such training participation. Much of this preparation (including overhead exercise performance preparation) would occur during the work capacity phase of Coach Vermeil’s hierarchy. Unfortunately, this stage of training is often omitted in favor of direct participation in the formal training program. Once a work capacity is established, the following are some suggested additional criteria that the athlete should appropriately demonstrate prior to their initiation into a formal overhead training program.

Glenohumeral Scapulothoracic Mobility

The athlete must achieve 180 degrees of arm elevation (figures 4a and 4b), as shoulder flexion deficits of as little as 5 degrees or more have been found to increase upper extremity injury rates in throwers almost threefold¹⁰. The greater the deficit in shoulder flexion, the higher the level of stress placed upon the shoulder complex during repetitive overhead exercise performance. Also, 180 degrees of shoulder flexion will support the presence of the appropriate soft tissue compliance, thoracic spine mobility, and scapulohumeral rhythm (to name a few) required for overhead exercise execution. The accomplishment of full shoulder elevation via overhead exercise performance will assist in injury prevention due to the elimination of range of motion deficits, and the acquired full range of motion will be available for the start of the overhead sport’s pre-season and in-season activities.

Scapulohumeral Rhythm Alterations When Lifting a Heavy Load Overhead

There is a normal sequence of movement between the humerus and the scapula during glenohumeral (arm) elevation. The classic work of Inman and colleagues¹¹ has demonstrated a humeral (arm) elevation to a scapulothoracic upward rotation ratio of 2:1 during both sagittal plane flexion and coronal plane abduction between 30 and 170 degrees of motion (arm elevation). However, during dynamic humeral elevation the scapulohumeral rhythm changes, depending upon the phase of elevation and the amount of external load applied to the upper extremity. For heavy loads, this previously described 2:1 ratio changes to approximately 4.5:1¹². This adjustment in scapulohumeral rhythm is certainly reasonable, as a platform of stability (the scapula) is a prerequisite for the optimal mobility and dexterity of the upper extremity to successfully occur.

The Painful Arc of Motion

An additional concerning overhead exercise topic of discussion with healthcare professionals is the painful arc syndrome. The painful arc syndrome of the shoulder is characterized by pain, usually located at the lateral aspect of the shoulder and upper arm in the area of the subacromial space, the bulk of the deltoid muscle group, and/or its insertion. This shoulder pain may be felt at rest, usually at night, and is typically exacerbated during arm elevation in a specific shoulder arc of motion¹³. This painful arc of motion usually occurs during shoulder abduction and is situated between 60 and 120 degrees of arm elevation (figure 5).

Shoulder pain that occurs in this range of motion is usually indicative of a disorder of the subacromial region. During discussions of overhead exercise performance, some healthcare professionals have expressed the concern that non-symptomatic athletes exercising through this range of motion may develop the eventual onset of a subacromial shoulder pathology. I have found this concern, with proper preparation of the athlete, to be without substance empirically.

To help alleviate concerns over exercising through the painful arc of motion, initiate all overhead exercises from a racked position of the barbell with the shoulder at 90 degrees of elevation. Share on X

To help alleviate this concern, athletes should initiate all overhead exercises from a racked position of the barbell with the shoulder at 90 degrees of elevation (figure 6). Thus, overhead exercises with a barbell are now only executed through half (90–120 degrees) of this painful arc of motion. Avoidance of a starting racked position (elbow positioned low) still allows for exercise performance but will also include range of motion through the entire painful arc (i.e., 60–120 degrees).

To further address extreme concerns over the painful arc of motion, you may stack boxes (figure 7) to assist in eliminating the eccentric return of the barbell from the concluded overhead exercise in fully extended arm position. From this extended arm position, an athlete may drop the barbell to the extended box height prior to the execution of the next overhead exercise repetition.

However, there are substantial strength enhancements and additional benefits in performing the eccentric phase of the overhead exercise. Whenever appropriate, it is highly recommended to perform this eccentric (lowering) phase in asymptomatic shoulders. Eccentric strength qualities are essential during the deceleration phase of high-velocity overhead activities, as deceleration is the most stressful phase of throwing/overhead type activities.

To best avoid potential concerns with the overhead exercise in the painful arc of motion, it is recommended to: ensure proper shoulder and thoracic spine mobility, strength levels of the rotator cuff, and scapula musculature; perform overhead exercise in the plane of the scapula; and implement an appropriate exercise program design to avoid the onset of excessive fatigue. In my experience, following these guidelines, as well as Coach Vermeil’s hierarchy, resolves any apprehension of exercising through the painful arc of motion and allows for successful overhead exercise performance.

Perform All Overhead Exercises in the Plane of the Scapula

The scapula does not rest on the thorax in a position parallel to the frontal plane of the body. The scapula at rest assumes a position of 30–45 degrees forward from the frontal plane toward the sagittal plane of the body (figures 8a and 8b).

There are many biomechanical and anatomical advantages for performing arm elevation in the scapular plane of the body^7,14. Some of these advantages include, but are not limited to:

• The shoulder joint surfaces have greater conformity in this plane of motion.
• During arm elevation, the inferior capsuloligamentous complex and rotator cuff muscles remain untwisted.
• The supraspinatus and deltoid muscle group (rotator cuff-deltoid force couple) are optimally aligned for arm elevation.
• This plane of the body provides for the greatest scapula upward rotation.
• This plane of the body provides for optimal length-tension (force production) of muscles.

As previously noted, scapulohumeral rhythm adjusts from a 2:1 to a 4.5:1 ratio with the application of a heavy load. This change in the ratio implies an adjustment in the elevation and rotation of the scapula, as the application of a heavy load requires a strong platform of stability. Thus, overhead exercise execution in the plane of the scapula will ensure the optimal scapula elevation and rotations necessary to maintain an appropriate subacromial space to assist in prohibiting rotator cuff pathology.

An appropriate hand placement (spacing) on the barbell will ensure this plane of motion is “secured” throughout the overhead exercise performance. It is also important to note that, as the execution of the overhead exercise performance is now performed in the plane of the scapula and not pure shoulder abduction, the concern of the aforementioned painful arc of motion is minimized.

Rotator Cuff Muscle Activity During Overhead Exercise Performance

The execution of such exercises as the standing press, push press, and split jerk take advantage of the benefits of the kinetic chain in the standing position by initiating and transferring forces from the ground up, the same mechanism of force transfer that occurs during competitive sports. The overhead press also exhibits very high supraspinatus muscle activity¹⁵, the muscle most often associated with rotator cuff pathology. As a stronger muscle is less susceptible to injury, why would we not want to utilize the same philosophy with the rotator cuff of the shoulder, and more specifically, the supraspinatus muscle? The rotator cuff and deltoid muscle activity that occurs during the overhead press is presented in figure 9.

Also of note, the serratus anterior, a key entity in the serratus anterior-trapezius force couple, is also very active (82%) during the overhead press exercise¹⁶. A force couple occurs when separate and distinct muscle groups produce equal forces, creating a rotation by the pulling that occurs in opposite directions. This serratus anterior-trapezius force couple serves several critical functions in overhead activity^{17, 18}:

• Rotates the scapula, maintaining the glenoid surface in an appropriate position for the humeral head.
• Positions the deltoid muscle group to maintain efficient length-tension, ensuring ideal strength, explosive strength, and joint stability.
• Prevents impingement of the subacromial anatomical structures upon the coracoacromial arch.
• Provides a stable base of support, enabling axiohumeral and scapulohumeral muscles to move the arm against an external resistance.

The Effect of Exercise-Induced Fatigue on Shoulder Kinematics

Excessive exercise-induced fatigue can negatively affect shoulder joint kinematics. To comprehend this concept, there must be an appreciation of the rotator cuff-deltoid muscle force couple that occurs at the shoulder. The main function of the rotator cuff muscle group is to counterbalance the forces of the deltoid muscle group and maintain the position of the humeral head centrally in the glenoid fossa (joint) (figure 10b).

Arm elevation in the presence of an excessively fatigued non-pathologic rotator cuff disrupts this force couple, resulting in the same humeral head superior migration that occurs in a shoulder with a rotator cuff tear and/or pathology¹⁹(figure 10a). This superior migration of the humeral head may increase the potential for rotator cuff pathology, as the available subacromial arch spacing is now decreased. Additional consequences include increased inferior (downward) migration of the humeral head with the arm resting at the side of the body (figure 10a). Athletes should be cautious when executing overhead (i.e., press) and carrying type (i.e., farmers walk) activities in the presence of an excessively fatigued shoulder muscle complex.

Excessive exercise-induced muscle fatigue may also affect the supporting musculature of the scapula, resulting in decreased scapula posterior tilt, as well as increased scapula protraction, internal rotation, and increased upward rotation. This combined and altered positioning of the scapula, along with the associated superior humeral head migration, serves as an environment for potential rotator cuff pathology.

The establishment of an athlete’s adequate work capacity, as well as the implementation of an appropriate rehabilitation/training program design, is essential to avoid the negative effects of the onset of excessive fatigue of the musculature of the shoulder complex. Excessive muscle fatigue will result in an adverse influence upon the aforementioned shoulder kinematics and can lead to a potentially consequential soft tissue injury.

The Standing Overhead Press

The standing overhead press is a strength exercise that offers many advantages over other upper body strength activities. These advantages include, but are not limited to:

• Potential utilization in both the performance enhancement and physical rehabilitation environments.
• Enhanced strength and hypertrophy of the shoulders and upper extremities.
• Enhanced stability of the lower extremities, hips, and core.
• Execution of exercise in the standing position; thus, forces are transferred from the ground up, as transpires in sport activities.
• The glenohumeral and scapula-thoracic relationship is free-moving without external restrictions.
• The risk of pectorals muscle tears is likely zero.

Activities such as the bench press, incline bench press, and seated overhead press with a bench require the athlete to lie/sit upon this apparatus that includes a backing (figure 11). The bench backing creates a platform whereby the scapulae are “pinned,” so to speak, between the barbell weight, body weight, and bench backing, resulting in compressive forces of the scapulae against the thorax. One of the advantages of closed kinetic chain exercise performance is the stability provided by compressive forces that occur during exercise performance (i.e., the knee joint during the back squat).

Observe caution with regard to the prescribed exercise volume of the bench press, incline bench press, etc. when utilizing a bench backing. Share on X

If the scapulae are compressed and stabilized against the thorax during overhead exercise performance, would there not be a possible adverse disruption to the previously mentioned scapulohumeral rhythm? If the scapulae are “artificially stabilized,” so to speak, due to the described compressive forces during overhead exercise performance, are the scapulae musculature getting a “free ride,” resulting in a decrease in potential strength enhancement when compared to the scapula muscle activity required during standing overhead exercise performance? This is not to state that you should eliminate exercises such as the bench press, incline bench press, etc. from an athlete’s training program design, but observe caution with regard to the prescribed exercise volume in exercises utilizing a bench backing.

The Push Press

As athletes achieve appropriate strength levels with the standing overhead press, a progression for the physical qualities of both lower and upper extremity explosive strength is realized via the incorporation of the push press exercise into the training program design. Although a coordinated contribution of the shoulders, core, and upper extremities is executed during exercise performance, the push press places focus on the lower body. The push press is a knee-dominant activity due to the requirement of maintaining the racked barbell on the anterior deltoids of the shoulders to effectively and efficiently transmit impulse. The exercise has also been shown to produce peak power levels that are similar to the jump squat and mid-thigh power clean exercises²⁰, and it is an exceptional exercise that incorporates the upper extremities to enhance overall explosive strength qualities.

The Split Jerk

It is well-documented that the stride leg plays a critical role in the attainment and maintenance of ball velocity in baseball pitchers^21,22. Some of these stride leg advantages include, but are not limited to:

• The landing (stride) leg serves as an anchor, transforming forward and vertical momentum into rotational components.
• Posterior directed landing forces of the landing foot reflect a balance of inertial forces of the body moving forward to create baseball velocity.
• Pitchers with the highest ball velocity also demonstrate higher braking ground reaction forces.
• The ability to “drive” the body over a stabilized stride leg is a characteristic of high-velocity pitchers.
• High-velocity pitchers exhibit greater stride knee extension.
• High-velocity pitchers increase the forward motion of the trunk via stride knee extension during the acceleration phase of pitching.

It is fairly obvious that appropriate stride leg knee extension, stability, and braking abilities have a strong positive correlation to enhancing ball velocity. When reviewing the posture of the stride leg of a baseball pitcher (figure 12a), we see that his stride leg displays a remarkable similarity to the stride leg displayed during the execution of the split jerk exercise (figure 12b).

The split jerk also requires optimal stride leg positioning, stability, and high braking forces while enhancing core and shoulder stability, strength, and explosive strength qualities. The split jerk produces high peak power (i.e., 6923 W) and mean power (i.e., 4321 W) generated forces to transfer through the kinetic chain to the upper extremity^22,23.

No Place for Exercise Generalizations

If there is such a pronounced adverse concern by some rehabilitation and S&C professionals to incorporate weighted overhead exercises in the athlete’s program design, why don’t they express this same adverse concern during the execution of overhead activities such as pull-ups, chin-ups, and lat pulldown exercises? Not only do athletes perform these exercises with the arms fully extended overhead, but they execute them with the hands fixed to an exercise bar positioned both overhead and anterior to the midline of the body. Thus, these overhead exercises also include a component of joint distraction forces that potentially position the humeral head more superiorly toward the inferior acromion as well as the coracoacromial arch.

Are we, as professionals, also to believe that the concern with weighted overhead exercise performance is seasonal? Why does there appear to be less concern with the performance of overhead exercises during the off-season training of football quarterbacks versus the off-season training of a baseball pitcher or position player? Many of the athletes trained at our performance center are high school and college athletes who are quarterbacks during the fall sport season and baseball pitchers during the spring sport season. Where is the scientific evidence that documents the vulnerability of the shoulder complex/anatomy due to overhead exercise performance changes depending upon the time of the year?

Why does there appear to be less concern with the performance of overhead exercises during the off-season training of football quarterbacks than of a baseball pitcher or position player? Share on X

This discussion certainly doesn’t imply that overhead exercise “fits all.” Nor does it ever recommend the “cut and paste” method of program design. We should regard and treat each athlete in either the rehabilitation or performance enhancement training setting as an individual based on their own specific medical and training history. That stated, exercise generalizations have no place in either of these professional environments. When appropriate, overhead exercise performance is deemed both suitable and beneficial to include in the program design of an athlete participating in the rehabilitation and performance enhancement training environments.

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. Panariello RA, Backus SI, Parker JW. “The Effect of the Squat Exercise on Anterior – Posterior Knee Translation in Professional Football Players.” Am J Sports Med. 1994; 22(6): 768–773.

2. Panariello RA, Stump TJ, Cordasco F. “The Lower Extremity Athlete: Post-Rehabilitation Performance and Injury Prevention Training.” Oper Tech Sports Med. 2017; 25(3): 231–240.

3. Panariello RA, Stump TJ, and Maddalone D. “Post-Operative ACL Rehabilitation and Return to Play after ACL Reconstruction.” Oper Tech in Sports Med. 2016; 24(1): 35–44.

4. Weyand PG, Sternlight DB, Bellizzi MJ, et al. “Faster top running speeds are achieved with greater ground forces not more rapid leg movements.” J Appl Physiol. 2000; 89: 1991–1999.

5. Hirashima M, Kadota H, Sakurai S, et al. “Sequential muscle activity and its functional role in upper extremity and trunk during overarm throwing.” J Sport Sci. 2002; 20(4): 301–310.

6. Chu SK, Jayabalan P, Kibler B, et al. “The Kinetic Chain Revisited: New Concepts on Throwing Mechanics and Injury.” PM&R. 2016; 8(35): S69–S77.

7. Novotny JE, Woolley CT, Nichols CE 3rd, et al. “In vivo technique to quantify the internal-external rotation kinematics of the human glenohumeral joint.” J Orthop Res. 2000; 18: 190–194.

8. Soslowsky LJ, Flatow EL, Bigliani LU, et al. “Articular geometry of the glenohumeral joint.” Clin Orthop, 1992; (285): 181–190.

9. Speer KP, Osbahr DC, Montella BJ, et al. “Acromial morphotype in the young asymptomatic athletic shoulder.” J Shoulder Elbow Surg. 2001; 10(5): 434–437.

10. Wilk KE, Macrina LC, Fleisig GS, et al. “Deficits in glenohumeral passive range of motion increase risk of elbow injury in professional baseball pitchers: a prospective study.” Am J Sports Med. 2014; 42(9): 2075–2081.

11. Inman V, Saunder J, Abbot L. “Observations of the function of the shoulder joint.” J Bone Joint Surg, 1944; 26:1.

12. McQuade KJ, Smidt GL. “Dynamic scapulohumeral rhythm: The effects of an external resistance during elevation of the arm in the scapula plane.” J Orthop Sports Phys Ther, 1998; 27: 125–133.

13. Kessel L, Watson M. “The Painful Arc Syndrome: Clinical Classification as a Guide to Management.” J Bone Joint Surg. 1977; 59-B(2): 166–172.

14. Johnson T. “The movements of the shoulder joint. A Plea for the use of the ‘Plane of the Scapula’ as the plane of reference in movements occurring in the humero-scapular joint.” 1937; Br J Surg 25:252.

15. Townsend H, Jobe FW, Pink M, et al. “Electromyographic analysis of the glenohumeral muscles during a baseball rehabilitation program.” Am J Sport Med, 1991; 19(3): 264–272.

16. Moseley JB Jr, Jobe FW, Pink M, et al. “EMG analysis of the scapular muscles during a shoulder rehabilitation program.” Am J Sports Med, 1992; 20(2): 128–134.

17. Kelly M, Clark W. Orthopedic Therapy of the Shoulder. Philadelphia, PA: JB Lippincott, 1995.

18. Abboud JA, Soslowsky LJ. “Interplay of the static and dynamic restraints in glenohumeral instability.” Clin Orthop Relat Res. 2002; (400): 48–57.

19. Chen SK, Simonian PT, Wickiewicz, TL, et al. “Radiographic evaluation of glenohumeral kinematics: A muscle fatigue model.” J Shoulder Elbow Surg. 1999; 8(1): 49–52.

20. Comfort P, Mundy PD, Graham-Smith P, et al. “Comparison of peak power output during exercises with similar lower limb kinematics.” J of Trainology. 2016; 5: 1–5.

21. Kageyama M, Sugiyama T, Takai Y, et al. “Kinematic and Kinetic Profiles of Trunk and Lower Limbs during Baseball Pitching in Collegiate Pitchers.” J Sports Sci Med. 2014; 13(4): 742–750.

22. Campbell BM, Stodden DF, Nixon, MK. “Lower Extremity Muscle Activation During Baseball Pitching.” J Strength Cond Res. 2010; 24(4): 964–971.

23. Garhammer J. “Power production by Olympic Weightlifters.” Med Sci Sports Exer. 1980; (12)1: 54–60.

The field of athletic development and sport preparation often undergoes audits via the latest fads, trends, and paradigm shifts. Lately, many successful coaches have moved toward low dose, optimal dose, minimal effective dose, or insert your term here dose. This is especially true among the coaches I’ve been fortunate to interact with and listen to in the past three years. During that time, I attended the Track and Football Consortium (TFC), where Jeff Moyer outlined the idea of strength as a spectrum and how to execute that in a program such as the 1×20 system—a concept that stood out to me.

At TFC and conferences like it, the information often leaves one’s head spinning…in a good way! Each presentation has nuggets of gold and diamonds in the rough, and Jeff’s presentation contained both. In this application, strength training is one component of many that need to be trained in an athlete’s toolbox.¹

In a practical sense, a coach who has limited time to train his athletes (as many of us experience) needs to find a way to effectively and efficiently make improvements in the key indicators that matter. Spending time executing multiple sets and reps of multiple strength exercises not only takes time away from learning vital skills but also the athlete’s recovery and adaptation reserves. In other words, you can only run the well dry so long before you run out of water.

General Physical Preparation? Try Broad Spectrum Preparation

In Moyer’s words, “twenty rep sets are one of the least possible CNS costs to get a positive transfer.” The phase of 20s is also paramount to building a young athlete’s broad spectrum of needs, which include strengthening connective tissues, cardiovascular development, and capillarization of blood vessels, skill improvement, and maximal strength— all within a single set. Sounds like a way to get a bang for your buck.¹

All this got me thinking: How can I see or show this? In his TFC presentation “A Minimalist Approach to Building a Better Athlete,” Moyer mentioned that the 20s cover a spectrum of strength, including:

• Accelerative strength
• Strength endurance
• Maximal strength

It also includes immense carryover to power metrics, such as vertical jump, broad jump, and sprinting. The great thing about trends is that sometimes they produce nifty little tools. Enter velocity measuring devices!

I decided to measure the spectrum of reps in a twenty-rep set and see how these fell along the velocity zone-special strengths chart. In this case investigation, I used Open Barbell V2.0 and the accompanying IOS app in the ½ squat exercise with a pair of female soccer players.

A Mini-Case Study

As chance would have it, I had two perfect candidates to apply this idea with immediately after the conference—two female collegiate soccer players, Meg and Kate. Like many soccer players, they had a lot of experience and hours on the pitch, but only a brief training history consisting of pre-season work (meaning endless low speed running) with their high school team. Meg also had a short period of basic work with me before entering this system. At the time, both were entering their senior seasons and looking forward to Division 1 collegiate careers.

This brings us to a discussion about goals. The funny thing about high school kids is you’ll always get the vague “bigger, faster, stronger,” except in this case, many females choose “faster, stronger, and better abs” (cue the eye roll). The faster and stronger part we can measure, the better abs part may be translated as the following:

Coach: “Oh, you mean better shape? As in better condition.”

Player: “Yeah, that’s what I mean!”

That’s also not hard to measure. Or you can simply observe this as a “what the hell” effect, especially when employing 20s.

With all of my field athletes, I do an initial assessment involving a sprint, long jump, agility drill, and body dimensions. From a general standpoint, the numbers generated from this battery of tests seem to display the key interplay of strength, speed, and power for field athletes. In this case, it was particularly helpful with females who are typically self-conscience about getting “too muscular.” For both Meg and Kate, the absence of gaining body weight over this time period (127 lbs. and 142 lbs., respectively) had a two-fold positive effect. Functionally, as relative strength increased, these metrics improved. The density of their bodies allowed them to move more powerfully and efficiently. Perceptually, the young women were never hit by the scale demon and always fit into their clothes comfortably—if you’ve ever worked with high school females, you know how important this is.

The following images show the velocities of each rep during the twenty-rep set. I was able to track Meg’s progress over several weeks because she began training with me before Kate. So goes life in the private sector—once one athlete sees results, she tells her friends and, soon enough, you get more athletes working with you. But I digress.

As to why this transpired, my guess is that it was her first session attempting a twenty-rep back squat, and she was feeling her way through the movement before fatiguing a bit at rep 10. Being the competitor she is and knowing she can’t quit on a 20, Meg hits nearly a 0.7 on reps 13 and 16 (see image above) before dropping back down in the 0.5s.

On her last rep, she jumps near 0.6 again, probably because she was cued to finish fast—intent is everything when you get fatigued! Upon close examination, you see some fluctuations as the speeds certainly did not drop uniformly as they would in a perfect spectrum. Again, I attribute the jagged outputs to her first endeavor into the 20s.

In the second and third pictures above, we see that Meg slowed down a bit to 0.53 m/s but maintained a fluctuation in the low accelerative range for the remainder of the set. In other words, she was able to repeatedly display her accelerative ability for 14 reps after the initial fast reps.

What’s more interesting is that she displayed faster bar speeds with an additional 15 lb.-load. This gives us insight into the type of strength she’s able to develop in the 1×20 system.

As you can see in the sequence above, Kate begins really strong at 0.65 before dropping a bit into the low accelerative end in the mid-0.50s in rep 4. From rep 5, she maintains speeds in the low accelerative range until rep 16, when she begins to teeter in the absolute strength zone to 0.47 and near-uniform drop until the last rep at 0.42 m/s. We can attribute Kate’s finish in the low 0.40 range to a few factors. First, she is a taller athlete—about 5’10” vs. Meg’s 5’5″ so has further to work. Second, I believe this represented an optimal load where Kate finished in a range that was closer to the absolute strength zone after fatiguing in the accelerative zone for about 15 reps, revealing the spectrum effect of the 20s.

In retrospect, using velocity based training (VBT) to manage loads and cut-off points instead of “failure” may help coaches keep rep quality in perspective, avoiding potential injuries. Twenties can be a tricky demon where athletes will find a way to compete to get their reps. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing unless they’re tumbling under loads or slopping it up with spinal posture. Here, using a bar speed cut-off can sharpen the coach’s eye while providing visual feedback so the athletes can’t argue that they had more reps. Knowing each athlete’s cut-off speed will help coaches determine optimal loads.

Knowing each athlete's cut-off speed will help coaches determine optimal loads. #VBT #1x120System Share on X

About six weeks after her initial session with 85 lbs., Meg increased her squat to 132 lbs. (we jumped ten pounds every time she got to 20). As mentioned above, she did not put on one pound of bodyweight in the six weeks. **This will come into play in a follow-up article as I show how this transferred to her speed and agility markers.

In the sequence above, Meg maintains that force production capability until rep 15, where the “weight” of the load has become heavier in the 0.37 range. (In Dr. Mann’s recommendations, 0.30 m/s is the slowest cut-off for the squat lift [3; pg. 48]). Meg then maintains the high-end absolute strength zone for the 5 remaining reps.

Key Takeaways

Many contend that everything we do in the weight room or in our programming should complement and amplify an athlete’s skill—an outlook I share, particularly within the landscape I operate in of over-played, over-competed high school athletes. For Meg and Kate, this endeavor with the 1×20 system allowed us to stay safe while pushing up general strength and work capacity in an efficient manner. Given that training sessions will become few and far between with the pending season, this program helped lay the groundwork for the myriad of qualities needed during their season.

Using velocity based training with the 1x20 system allowed us to stay safe while pushing up general strength and work capacity efficiently. Share on X

The progress from this system also allowed us to leave a little on the table, given the low neural cost and the conglomerate of other qualities trained along the way. This will come into play as they progress to the collegiate level, where the work becomes more intensive as the stakes become higher. Also, the technical skills Meg and Kate learned in the weight room will prove invaluable as they’ll be expected to hold their own when they enter fall camp.

These days, collegiate strength coaches are on to the fact that most incoming freshmen they train will have relatively low, or no, training age. It’s always good to know my kids can get in there and know the “language,” the technique, the program, and the retention and response of the trainable qualities.

For me, as a coach, this experience spawned a couple of revelations:

1. I can certainly use a VBT device in the training of lower level sportsman. My old thinking was that athletes had to “qualify” to use it (meaning they had to be in a position where we would employ the dynamic effort method). If you work with developmental clientele, you’ll find this a rarity as a reserve of strength and consistent technique are a must.
2. The readings from the device serve as a calibrator of sorts, both for athlete and coach. If the urgency of doing a single set is not enough (no do-overs in my room!), the proof is in the numbers. For the more aggressive athletes who want to load at any cost, the numbers will tell us when to stop. For the complacent athletes who don’t (or simply will not) load the bar despite hitting the rep mark, we can keep it and show improvement or regression in the speeds. In either case, the intent is everything.

If you’re a coach battling with if and how the 1×20 can work, I hope this article answered some of those questions. In the follow-up to this post, I’ll present other metrics that grew congruently with this system. Even if you don’t have a VBT device, a keen coach’s eye, along with measuring things like jumps, sprints, and agility drills, may allow you a similar “scope on the rifle” that VBT offers with this system.

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. Moyer, Jeff. “A Minimalist Approach to Building a Better Athlete.” Track and Football Consortium VI, December 2017.

2. Mann, Bryan. “Bryan Mann Talks Velocity Based Training.” elitefts (website), April 2, 2015.

3. Mann, Bryan J. Developing Explosive Athletes: Use of Velocity Based Training in Athletes. Ultimate Athlete Concepts 2016.