Today’s podcast is a Q&A episode with Joel Smith. Topics include the role of roughhousing games for individual sport athletes, sandbag training, and rhythm-cadence in movement. Joel explores youth sports trends, breaking jump plateaus, and the benefits of flywheel loading. He also covers infrasternal angle training, rotating speed and plyometric days, and integrating team play with weekly speed work. This, plus, a discussion on the value of band resistance in sports training rounds out this comprehensive conversation on optimizing athletic performance.

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View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage.

Main Points

00:14- Roughhousing games for non-team sport athletes

08:42- Training Changes Over the Year

33:23- Observations on Youth Sports

36:44- The Role of Fun in Training

40:37- Jump Imbalances and Breaking Jump Plateaus

44:53- Flywheel Loading

46:37- Infrasternal Angle Concepts and Training over Time

53:36- Sprint and Jump Training Programming

59:14- Utilizing Exergeny in Training

1:00:43- Games as Speed Training

1:05:37- Basketball vs. Plyometrics

1:08:24- Band Resistance in Sport Training

About Joel Smith

Joel Smith is the founder of Just Fly Sports and is a sports performance and track coach in Cincinnati, Ohio. Joel hosts the Just Fly Performance Podcast and has authored several books and coaches in both the high school and private sectors.

Joel was a strength coach for 8 years at UC Berkeley, working with the Swim teams and post-graduate professional swimmers, as well as tennis, water polo, and track and field. A track coach of 17 years, Joel coached for the Diablo Valley Track and Field Club for 7 years and also has 6 years of experience coaching on the collegiate level, working at Wilmington College, and the University of Wisconsin, LaCrosse. He is currently coaching high jump at Milford High School.

Joel has coached 4 national champions, multiple All-Americans, and NCAA record holders in track and field. In the realm of strength and conditioning, his programs have assisted 5 athletes to Olympic berths that produced 9 medals and a world record performance at Rio in 2016.