Dr Paul Comfort is a Reader in Strength and Conditioning at the University of Salford, UK, where he leads the Masters Degree in Strength and Conditioning and consults with numerous professional teams in the UK. Paul is a founder member and accredited member of the UKSCA, and part of their editorial board. He is a senior associate editor for the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research,and has authored / co-authored >100 peer reviewed journal articles, numerous book chapters and edited three textbooks.

Quotes

“No matter what you are trying to do, strength is going to underpin all athletic tasks”

“You’re always going to do some power training (no matter how weak a person is) but you’ll get more bang for your buck when you are strong”

“Jump height alone is not sensitive enough to identify any form of neuromuscular fatigue”

“It can be pointless doing jump testing on a daily basis unless you can react to it”

“I use every weightlifting derivative depending on athlete ability and which aspect of the Fv continuum I want to train."

“RPE appears to be just as sensitive as most of these expensive devices”

“If you’re competent, there is minimal force absorption with catching Olympic lifts”

“I’ve gone away from optimal load to think are we emphasising force characteristics or velocity characteristics more”

SHOWNOTES

1) Paul's background

2) The role of strength in athletic tasks and how strong is strong enough?

3) How to combine power and strength training and how you re-evaluate an athletes force expression over time

4) Modifiable and non-modifiable factors in vertical jumping and differences in impulse using force plates

5) Countermovement jumps and the use of RSImod for monitoring athletes

6) What Paul would use in a club if hired tomorrow and his rule of thumb cut off for neuromuscular fatigue using jumps or bar velocity

7) How Paul uses weightlifting derivatives and why if you really want to empathise force or velocity, you have to exclude the catch and may want to add a countermovement

8) When you would prioritise catching for an athlete and when just pulling

9) Thoughts on optimal power load and how to progress programming around loads based on athlete needs

10) Force velocity profiling using as little equipment as possible e.g. just an isometric mid thigh pull or just RSImod or a simple squat/CMJ

11) Practicalities around horizontal v vertical force vectors

12) Contrast training and how to use contrast methods for athlete buy in

13) Paul's typical session template i) pull variation ii) squat variation iii) loaded jump variation iv) jump variation v) posterior chain variation

People mentioned

Phillip Graham Smith

Tim Suchomel

Jason Lake

Guy Hornsby

Duncan French

Dan Baker

Adam Archuletta

Brett Bartholomew