374: Chris Scott on Pushing Plyometric Limits and Understanding Adaptability in Explosive Training

Today’s podcast features strength and parkour coach, Chris Scott.  Chris has a degree in Sports Therapy and works at “Jump” gym in the UK.  Chris is an accomplished athlete in the parkour and acrobatics realm, who also holds a high level of bodyweight strength, doing single-arm pullups, and deadlifting in the realm of 3x bodyweight.

Parkour, as a sport, is one that not only highlights adaptability to one’s environment but is also remarkably “plyometric” in nature.  The leaps that parkour athletes make resemble long and triple jumps in track and field but in a highly variable fashion.  The learning that comes out of variability, makes parkour a sport whose plyometric component can be highly transferrable, or a “donor sport” to other more traditional athletic endeavors.

Chris’s skill as a parkour athlete has allowed him to train and perform extremely high depth drops and depth jumps, dropping from over 8 feet in the air, into a landing.  Chris has used the recent winter to explore an emphasis on the high-intensity drop training variable, to see how it transfers into other aspects of his reactivity, athleticism, and strength.  Training drops have played a large part in the preparation of other athletes, such as Adam Archuleta, owner of one of the NFL Combine performances of all time.

On today’s podcast, Chris talks about the results of his high drop training and has it has impacted his athleticism.  We also go into single-leg drop training compared to double-leg drop training, and the related implications. We also discuss the impacts of drop training in general, seasonal training aspects, experiential aspects of parkour-type training, variability in jumping, “impulse” training, and more.

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