Kieran Young is currently the Head of Sport Science for an elite tactical organisation where he oversees all aspects of the physical preparation. Prior to this, he was the Head of S&C at the Queensland Academy of Sport and the Canadian Sport Institute Pacific working with numerous national, world, Commonwealth and Olympic medallists, most notably in field hockey, gymnastics, water polo and rowing. He's certified as a Master Coach by the ASCA and was awarded the Bruce Walsh award in 2013. Kieran was awarded his Master of Sport Science with his research focussing on the assessment and monitoring of strength and power in elite athletes.

Quotes

“Once I had stolen all the Aussies secrets to success, I moved back to Canada”

“Trust is just another word for relationship”

The closer you can align your training philosophies to the coach, the more success you’ll have”

“If you had a ratio of less than 0.75 (in the DSI), you would work on ballistic stuff and if you had a higher ratio, you would work on maximal strength”

“The biggest… difference between high and low performers was absolute 1RM and relative 1RM strength”

“We consider team sports to be quite chaotic but in the world of special operations, it is absolutely chaotic”

Shownotes

1) Working with other coaches – knowledge, demonstration of hard work, empathy and compromise 13.30

2) Building a relationship with a very successful former USSR gymnastics coach who did not think strength training was necessary 14.49

3) An almost 250% bodyweight bench press 17:35

4) Management styles used in both Australia and Canada and the importance of earning the right to perform an exercise 20:27

5) The Dynamic Strength Index to determine an athlete’s window of opportunity 26:04

6) The bare minimum adequate levels of upper body strength for most athletes (male or female) 29:56

7) Other options to force-velocity profile athletes if you don’t have a force plate 31:17

8) How to apply the DSI in practice with athletes 33:00

9) Thoughts on other variables you can obtain from force plates e.g. eccentric RFD 36:30

10) Differences between high and low performers in water polo 39:56

11) Considerations for throwing athletes (e.g. water polo, cricket, T&F) and making sure you look after the hip 43:53

12) Training volume & intensity concerns for tactical operators 48:30

13) Maximal strength’s role for tactical operators and specific body parts that need strength training 51:10

14) Conditioning focuses for tactical operators and maximal aerobic speed (MAS) with body armor 55:05

15) The emergence of technology in S&C and how coaches can use it 58:42

16) The benefits of academia for S&C coaches 1:09:30

People mentioned

Anthony Giorgi

Jeremy Sheppard

Andrew Lulham

David Watts

Michael Davie

Vitaly Scherbo

Kelvin Giles

Paul Comfort

Chris Thomas

Warren Young

Matt Jordan

Dan Baker

Anthony Finley

Joe McCallum

Tyler Goodale

Dana Agar-Newman

Nick Clark

Jamie Dwyer

Mark Knowles

Pietro Figlioli

Fergus Connolly