Just Fly Performance Podcast

More show notes at https:/www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-276/

Today’s show welcomes back coach Michael Zweifel.  Michael is the owner and head of sports performance for “Building Better Athletes” performance center in Dubuque, Iowa.  Building Better Athletes focuses on building the athlete from the ground up by mastering the fundamentals of movement mastery, strength/power training, recovery modalities, and promoting ownership in athletes.  Michael is also a team member of the movement education group, “Emergence”.  He has been a frequent guest on this podcast, speaking on topics of perception-reaction, exploration in the weight room, creativity and more.

As I’ve grown as a coach (and a human mover/athlete) it’s been really enjoyable to experience sport, and movement in different ways.  In working in a college weight room, it was also very interesting to pay attention to the defining characteristics of the best athletes.  They weren’t always the strongest, or even the fastest, but they could move and react incredibly well in context of their sport… and they loved to play.  One of the things I’ve been enjoying doing recently, is coaching youth sports (5 year olds, to be exact) and it’s a learning experience that impacts my philosophy, all the way up the chain into high level performers.

With play and exploration at the core of athleticism and sport, why is it that the culture of the gym (and in many sports performance settings) completely the opposite?  So much of modern sport acts like athletes are robots, a culture based on lines and whistles, and a perception of needing to do everything one particular way.

On today’s show, Michael Zweifel goes into a deep dive on how his warmups fit with the key characteristics of elite athleticism. He speaks on how he connects his warmups to core human instincts and needs, and talks about how to develop a love for movement and play that transcends organized sport play.  Michael and I also take on a broad-scope discussion on the over-structuring that is rampant in sport (and our culture in general).  This show is truly important in light of our modern sport culture.

Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs.  For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly

Today’s show is with Kibwé Johnson.  Kibwé is the director of track and field at SPIRE Academy, in Geneva, Ohio, and the founder of FORTIUS performance.  Prior to SPIRE, Kibwe coached throws at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida for 4 years.

In his time as an athlete, Kibwé established himself as one of the USA’s best hammer throwers by being ranked first or second for over a decade, and his personal best of 80.31m/263’5” in 2011 the best mark by an American hammer thrower in over ten years.  He also owns the world’s all-time best HT/DT/WT combination of distances.

Kibwé has personally worked with some of the most well regarded coaches in the US and internationally.  His coach for his final 10 years, Dr. Anatoliy Bondarchuk, greatly influenced the development of Kibwé’s own methodologies.  Kibwé’s coaching philosophy is built on communication and cites his experiences as a husband and father with learning how to become more effective as a coach.

In my time as a coach, I’ve learned that technique and skill are more than a set of instructions, or a final “model” to shoot for through a series of drills and cues.  Although these instructions can certainly be helpful for lower level performers, once an athlete gets to a more advanced level of performance, drills lose their luster, and we must become more attuned to the actual interaction between the athlete and their environment (implements, the ground, gravity, etc.).

On the show today, Kibwé talks about his experiences as an athlete, particularly with Dr. Bondarchuk that helped him develop as a thrower, and in his eventual career as a coach.  He talks about the unique, high velocity and cyclical elements of the hammer that demand a particular relationship to the instrument, and things we can take from this relationship that can transfer to other skills, or life itself.  Finally, Kibwe speaks extensively about drills, vs. holistic skill performance, and the many “subtle” elements, such as awareness, that go into enhancing holistic performance on the highest levels.

Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs.  For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly

View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage.

Timestamps and Main Points

6:40 – Kibwé’s evolution as an athlete, and what led him to his philosophy of “The Tao of the Hammer”

10:25 – Kibwé’s experience in working with Dr. Bondarchuk and how the communication barrier actually helped Kibwé to figure out his throw without the use of words or cues

18:20 – How the hammer throw in track and field is unique in respect to other throwing events due to its unique, very high velocity rotational dynamics

21:10 – Kibwé’s take on teaching athlete’s fundamental positions vs. letting them figure out skills in a different manner (or on their own), particularly in context of the hammer throw

26:40 – How acquiring the “feeling” of a good throw is helpful to scale to throws of all distances

32:25 – How people tend to want a “list of things” when doing something, and the battle of getting an athlete outside of a list of cues, and to facilitate them figuring things out on their own

34:40 – How to learn, from a “Tao of the Hammer” perspective, and what awareness in a hammer throw means to Kibwé

46:40 – Examples of elite athletes who have had their mechanics “fixed”, as per a “technical model” and had poor seasons or failed to improve

51:25 – How Kibwé would address a “mistake” in an athlete’s throwing, and portions of an athlete’s technique

56:40 – Where drills fall short in training a complex movement, such as the hammer throw

1:02:40 – Reactivity as needed between the hammer and the athlete, and how to “do less” in the course of a throw from a perspective of actively putting force into the implement

“It really came down to trying to find the words to explain how I was feeling when I felt my best; because I wasn’t seeing that anywhere”

“It’s pretty typical that a coach will use a whole lot of words, but in all of those words, there is no space for that athlete to fill that with their own natural instincts, or nests.  What makes that own individual amazing gets tripped away with a ton of words, in my opinion”

“In track and field and the technical disciplines, the athletes who were allowed to grow and evolve and change on their own, are more artists in a way, if that makes sense”

“There is an importance to teaching a base level, “how do you move, kind of thing”…. But there is part of me what says, “why not?””

“Hammer throwers who started at 10 or earlier, it is beautiful to watch”

“My thing there is when an athlete is essentially connected to that feeling, and they can maintain that through the throw, you can have that feeling no matter how hard you throw”

“The next day, the feeling they received from that cue that you gave them (the day prior) is different, for an innumerable number of reasons”

“Both are needed, masculine and feminine, yin/yang.  Both are needed, but then there are points when one is not needed versus the other, or vice versa, and trying to work that out for yourself”

“It’s just being intentional with my movement, and that in itself is meditation.  With hammer and movement, it’s as simple as that, and it’s basically opening yourself up to really feeling what’s happening with your body in space.. and your mind too honestly, instead of not knowing how you got there”

“We lose so many athletes to (a highly technical coaching system) because we have this one-size-fits-all system that we are thrown into, and some have “success”, but the artists, they just fall off, never to be seen from again”

“When I trained with Dr. B I felt like I couldn’t do anything else, but throw a hammer… I found it funny”

“The hammer doesn’t go just because you want it to go far.  You have to work with it, and you have to be part of it… it doesn’t care how strong you are”

“By removing myself, the hammer is free to do whatever it needs to do”

“I don’t understand why you would coach everyone the same way, train everyone the same way, everyone’s different”

“Between eight and thirteen 80 meter guys, not one of us looked the same, (Dr. B) allowed for everyone’s individual-ness to come through, and everyone threw really far”

“When the opportunity is kind of stripped from you, you lose that opportunity to learn about yourself”

About Kibwe Johnson

Kibwé Johnson is the director of track and field at SPIRE Academy, in Geneva, Ohio.  He is also the founder of FORTIUS performance which focuses on track and field throws training.  Prior to SPIRE, Kibwe coached throws at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida for 4 years.

In his time as an athlete, Kibwé established himself as one of the nation’s best hammer throwers of all time by being ranked first or second for over a decade. In that time, he secured 5 US titles, 4 US runner-up, and numerous US national teams.  He has personally worked with some of the most well regarded coaches in the US and internationally in Don Babbitt, Bob McKay, Stuart Togher, 4x Olympian Jud Logan, and lastly Dr. Anatoliy Bondarchuk.  Kibwé deeply values his 10 years spent with Dr. Bondarchuk as their time together greatly influenced the development of Kibwé’s own training methodologies.

Kibwé’s winning toss and personal best of 80.31m/263’5” at the 2011 USA Outdoor Championships was the best mark by an American hammer thrower in over a decade, making him only the fourth American to ever to go beyond the mythical 80-meter line. Boasting a personal best of 65.11m/213’6” in discus, and 25.12m/82’5” in weight throw, Kibwé is the most versatile throws athlete of all time (All-Time World Best HT/DT/WT combination).

Kibwé’s coaching philosophy is built on communication and cites his experiences as a husband and father with learning how to become more effective as a coach.

Today’s show is with Alex Effer, owner of Resilient Training and Rehabilitation.  Alex has treated and trained a variety of clients, from professional and amateur athletes, to a wide spectrum of the general population, ranging from those with certain medical conditions, to postoperative rehabilitation and individuals with chronic and complex pain.  Alex has experience as an exercise physiologist, a strength and conditioning coach, and has consulted with a number of elite and Olympic organizations.  Alex has taken a tremendous amount of continuing education courses and is on the leading edge of modern training theory.

There are loads of different continuing education courses and theories, each carrying methods to train athletes from perspectives on breathing, corrective exercise, and exercise variations, to name a few.  It is in the process of getting to the core principles that define these many training systems, that we can gain a greater level of wisdom to make better decisions in exercise selection and training organization.

For today’s podcast, Alex speaks on his continuing education journey, and core principles that many current courses in human performance/assessment and biomechanics tend to have in common.  He speaks on how to dial up, or down, points of contact in a movement to help an athlete achieve better mastery over a skill or core human function.

In the second half of the show, Alex gives some analysis and progressions with functional training movements, such as crab walks, and bear crawls, and then talks about how some “meathead” oriented exercises are actually more functional than we give the credit for.  Finally, Alex talks about exercises that either “push an athlete backwards in the chest” or “push them forwards” from the back, and how those ramifications can go into, not ony the way we select exercises, but aso the way that we periodize and organize our training programs.

Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs.  For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly

View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage.

Timestamps and Main Points

5:15 – Common trends that Alex found in his educational process, having taken “all the courses”

13:30 – How Alex looks at force vectors in training and movement, and the difference between walking and running when assessing gait and looking at these force vectors

20:15 – Where Alex has gotten most of his information in training when considering PRI versus other educational systems (such as DNS or SFMA)

22:15 – Why it may be a faulty method to try to compare babies to adults in terms of baseline movement patterning

30:00 – How to transition a client from 12 points of contact, to only 2, and how to use the extra points of contact to improve one’s movement ability when athletes may struggle with standing motions

44:30 – Assessing crab walks, and explaining (or regressing) why athletes might not be able to lift their hips up while performing the crab walk

51:15 – Why some “fitness/bodybuilding” movement can have athletic movement applications, such as a tricep kickback or arm curl coupled with head turn

56:15 – How athletes doing exercises in a manner that “feels good” often times is an optimal method of them doing that movement, versus whatever the commonly accepted technical model for that exercise might be

1:00:00 – Alex’s theory on periodizing training based on early, mid and late stance oriented movements

1:12:15 – Viewing training intervention as either “pulling someone back” or “pushing them forward”

“When you take every single course, you kind of get mind-blown by them the first time… and then you hit a client that totally goes against all the algorithms and everything they say, and you have to pivot”

“(all the continuing education courses) believe in some sort of respiration and how that affects the body”

“You got two phases of respiration, so you got inhale which is more external rotation, and exhale which is more internal rotation.  You also have the three phases of gait, two of the phases are external rotation so you’ve got to believe there is some semblance with inhalation, and then you’ve got one of the phases, mid-stance which is more pronation, so you have to believe that is going to be more exhalation”

“If this person is limited in internal rotation, they must be limited in exhalation in that area”

“As I pronate my foot, I’m going to have an internal rotation force go all the way up near my head”

“If I can’t get the air in certain parts of my ribcage, or certain parts of my pelvis, then I am going to induce more muscle tone in that area… I now have to use a muscle strategy in order to pull the air in; I use my lats, I use my pecs, I use my SCM, I use my traps”

“Go into the anatomy app, and remove all the muscle, and start with “how do the bones move”

“So, position, breathing, gait, and force vectors: To me, those are the main things that I think about based on all of the different systems I’ve taken that influence me today and dictate how I may program and what I’m looking at from an assessment standpoint”

“Internal rotation is a downward force into the ground”

“Why do we pronate? Why do we internally rotate? Because we are hitting a ground that does not visibly deform when we hit it?

“What I really like from DNS, or what I took was the developmental sequences (lying on your back, side, quadiped, half kneeling) going from 12 points of contact to the ground, to just having 2, and how to manage that”

“You can get so sucked into the algorithm that you take thinking out of the equation”

“With every exercise I do on the ground, I try to have the feet involved”

“When I’m doing an assessment I ask, “how far forward on the toes is this person”?

“For me, the supine is going to help me gain range of motion, to be able to try something with more range of motion, and has more gravitational demand to it”

“Toe off and heel strike are more of a horizontal force vector”

“(In crab walking) I’m not able to flex my one shoulder as I’m walking forward; I can’t bring my arm forward because that rib cage doesn’t have the ability to flex… they are more sagittal plane driven and they don’t have the ability to rotate”

“Let’s say you do a crawling sequence, first you do a forward bear crawl, then a reverse bear crawl, then a crab walk, and see how that improves (because that is going to open up the manubrium).  Then if that still doesn’t work, side planks are going to help, tricep kickbacks are going to help”

“Bicep curls (with a simultaneous head turn) open up space in the upper back”

“Doing lower reaching or heel elevation exercises can bring me into a heel strike bias, which is going to open up some shoulder flexion, internal and external rotation, and then I can move onto a mid-stance phase; force production and strength”

“The first phase of an off-season is more heel strike, it’s more hypertrophy, let’s build some muscle mass, let’s restore range of motion; and then we move into more strength in the second phase… that phase is more mid-stance, I need to start producing force”

“Landing exercises are going to be more heel-strike bias, because that is deceleration”

“BFR, how expansive is that? That’s going to promote some external rotation for sure in those areas”

“In order to understand programming, at the top of the page, write heel strike, mid-stance, toe-off.  Then write down all different lunges, then squats, then deadlifts, then presses”

“A flexed thorax (more heel strike) is something we should be searching for… most people are being pushed from behind and going onto their toes, so we need to push them back.  I am asking, am I trying to pull this person back, or am I trying to push them forward?”

Show Notes

Supine cross connect

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lb1bVUNx-OM

 

Walking cross connect

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgugFWN3Gao

 

The manubrium

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eltLjT8j1r0

 

Erik Huddleston’s chart on training expansion and contraction

About Alex Effer

Alex Effer is the owner of Resilient Training and Rehabilitation, a name that emphasizes Alex’s unique approach to fitness, which is one that combines both aspects of normal fitness and rehabilitation principles to achieve long- lasting pain free results. Alex uses his comprehensive knowledge and passion in exercise science, autonomics, respiration, rehabilitation, and biomechanics to develop programs that promote injury prevention, sports performance, and rehabilitation through quality of movement.

Alex has gained extensive clinical and practical experience treating and training a variety of clients from professional and amateur athletes, high profile executives, older adults, individuals with certain medical conditions such as Stroke, Parkinson’s, Multiple Sclerosis, Congenital Heart Disease, Postoperative rehabilitation and individuals with chronic and complex pain.

Alex’s experience includes: Head Exercise Physiologist at Ace Sports Clinic Inc; Director of Return to Performance and Head Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Varsity Baseball, Women's Lacrosse, and Golf team at the University of Toronto; Consultant for the Varsity Blues Football, Hockey, Swimming Team; Head Exercise Physiologist for Balance Physiotherapy; and consultant to Olympic Swimming Athletes, and NBA players.

Alex earned his Bachelors of Kinesiology from the University of Toronto, obtained a Post-Graduate Certificate in Exercise Science for Health and Performance from Niagara

College and is a Certified Exercise Physiologist, Certified Strength and Conditioning Coach, and EXOS Performance Specialist.

Today’s show is with Lance Walker.  Lance is the Global Director of Performance at the Michael Johnson Performance Center where he designs and implements performance training programming for local and international youth, collegiate, and professional athletes in all sports.

Prior to MJP, Lance served as Director of Performance Training at Integrated Athletic Development, as well as having served as an assistant strength coach with the Dallas Cowboys, as well as the University of Oklahoma.  Lance is also a current Registered Physical Therapist in the state of Texas, giving him a unique blend of skills and lenses by which to observe athletic performance.

In looking at what makes athletes operate at a high level, we can’t go too far without looking at the actions of the pelvis and spine.  As both a strength coach, and physical therapist, Lance has detailed knowledge of both the anatomy and fine-tuned function of this region, as well as more global concepts, linking it to sprinting and general strength training.

For today’s show, Lance takes us on a journey of hip function, and how that function ties into sprinting and athletic movement.  He goes into pelvic dynamics in the weight room (including some important points on split squatting and the hips), as well as how using horizontal resistance combined with vertical exercises can drive unique and more specific adaptations.  Finally, talks about some key strength movements to achieve better pelvic function for speed and resiliency.

Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs.  For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly

View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage.

Timestamps and Main Points

5:30 – How Lance looks at the action of the pelvis in sprinting and human movement

19:00 – Pelvic dynamics in bilateral sagittal plane activity (squatting and deadlifting) versus sprinting, and helping athletes determine their own individual squat depth

21:30 – How a rear foot elevated split squat can create lumbo-sacral torsion that could provoke injury in the pelvis

34:30 – How to help athletes who are not reciprocal in the pelvis improve their pelvic action in sprinting, and Lance’s view on core and trunk training for athlete

38:00 – The role of hip flexors in training for speed and athletic performance

50:30 – How adding horizontal band resistance can dynamically change strength training exercises

54:30 – The idea of hip separation in fast sprinters (front knee and back knee distance) and if this is a good idea to specifically train in practice

“That pelvis motion, rotation and listing, that’s my focus now, both from a dysfunction standpoint and a speed standpoint”

“The body needs to set up and list the pelvis to be fast”

“Optimized motion should probably be the approach, and let’s just not stabilize the tar out of it and make everything move around this stable, fictitious pelvis”

“It’s like you are setting the spring so when you throw it, it abducts, externally rotates and extends, and when it hits the ground, it’s still rotating”

“There was this incredible increase in pubic symphysis issues… there was this mad rush to load this split stance stuff, because, nobody hurt their back anymore, and “it’s more functional””

“Hip flexor strength is a thing!”

“Just stretching the hip flexors, and strengthening the abdominal wall doesn’t help (anterior pelvic tilt) those people”

“When you are doing your leg drop series, don’t put your hands under your pelvis”

“(Regarding the supine leg drop test without the low back arching up) The one’s that have a lot of issues, the bottom 10-20%, chronic hamstrings, spondy, all those things, yeah that’s a test (that failing fits with getting hurt more often)”

“That’s a key concept in hamstring rehab is training the hamstring while training the hip flexor”

“We worked with elite distance runners at MJP, and the more elite they were, the more positive their Thomas test was (poor hip flexor mobility)”

“Fast freaks are not putting a lot of pressure into the ground after neutral… the ones that suck, they are the ones still putting pressure into the ground after center”

“These elite sprinters are not hitting directly below their body, they are hitting 6” in front of their body”

“I’m anti-deceleration, we are doing a dis-service by teaching others to slow down”

“All of us that get to work with athletes, or patients, we are shepherds to this adaptation, we are not driving adaptation.  Don’t kid yourself; the human body, that is the magic maker”

About Lance Walker

Lance Walker is the Global Director of Performance at the Michael Johnson Performance Center in McKinney, Texas where he designs and implements performance training programming for local and international youth, collegiate, elite, and professional athletes in all sports.

Lance previously served as Director of Performance Training at Integrated Athletic Development and was responsible for the training and/or physical rehabilitation needs of over 150 active professional athletes from the NBA, NFL, MLB, PGA, CBA, and CFL. Lance served three seasons as Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach with the Dallas Cowboys. Prior to joining the Dallas Cowboys, Lance held strength & conditioning positions at the University of Oklahoma and Casady School, Oklahoma City, where he worked directly with athletes across many sports, including football, basketball, track, golf, gymnastics and wrestling.

Lance also holds a Bachelor's degree in Physical Therapy and a Master's degree in Exercise Physiology from the University of Oklahoma. He has contributed to over 20 professional publications in sport science and presented at over 15 national conferences. Lance is a former Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and a current Registered Physical Therapist in the state of Texas.

Combining his sports medicine and rehab sciences background, with 23 years of performance training experience, Lance is recognized globally as a leading expert, innovator, and pioneer in youth athlete development, high-performance training systems integration, and multi-disciplinary sports performance training methodology.

Today’s show is with Christian Thibaudeau.  Christian has been a strength coach for nearly 2 decades, working with athletes from nearly 30 sports.  He has written four books and has pioneered multiple educational courses, including the Neuro-typing system, which goes in-depth on how to train athletes in the weight room (and beyond) based on their own individual dispositions.

I have had Christian on the podcast many times talking about neuro-typing, but more recently I’ve been digging into his knowledge of various types of training repetitions (Omni-rep) which we talked about on podcast 221.  As per any strength coach I am aware of, Christian has the greatest knowledge of set-rep schemes and combinations available for training, and, as such, I have really enjoyed the chance to speak to him on the terms of training complexes and schemes.

On the show, Christian gets into power training complexes, and the possibility of utilizing sport skills in the total framework.  He also talks about how to periodize and assign the use of complexes, as the method “costs” more in terms of the adaptive resources of the athlete. Finally, Christian spends time talking about training stimulus, and how to create the “purest” possible adaptation for an athlete with the minimal amount of noise in the system, ending with a description of his double and triple progression systems.

The interesting thing with this talk was that it was almost more about what not to do, than what to do.  In times like these, where coaches are armed with a massive arsenal of possibilities at their fingertips, the need for wisdom on how to actually utilize and progress the methods, without adding excess noise to the system, is at a premium.

Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs.  For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly

View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage.

Timestamps and Main Points

5:45 – Recent insights from Christian on watching his children grow and mature in regards to sport preference, behavior and physical abilities

13:30 – Christian’s thoughts on introducing specific sport skills into power training complexes

25:45 – Why more movements in a complex is more neurologically demanding, and how to choose how many exercises in a complex, based on the type of athlete you are working with

32:15 – Christian’s take on when to use (or not use) power complexes in a training year, based on the athlete

47:45 – How to increase training stimulus, and how to progress in training without adding volume, or even weight

59:45 – Why it is important not to give a client what you, as a coach, are currently in love with in terms of training methods

1:05:45 – How to make training the “purest” it can possibly be, reducing all un-necessary noise in a program to help athletes adapt in as direct of way that is possible

1:12.00 – Christian’s take on using bar-speed monitor units for athletes in light of adrenaline increases and intensification factors

1:22.00 – Using very simple lifts, such as a leg press, in order to put minimal stress into a training program where an athlete is doing a non-strength sport

1:28.00 – Christian’s simple-strength progression method, the “triple progression method” that offers a low level of noise and a long-term progression potential for an athlete

“The simple fact that it feels lighter (doing a light set, after doing a heavy set), it will make you more confident, and you will produce more force”

“The closer both movements are together, the easier the brain will connect both (for the brain to transfer to sport skill)”

“That’s one of the issues with complexes is that they will raise adrenaline more than any training benefit you can find; which is a benefit in the short term… the downside of that is the more adrenaline you produce in training, the more likely you are to suffer from training burnout”

“I prefer top range of motion (lifting) in the transfer phases; studies have shown that partial squats have much more impact on speed and jumping capacity than full squats”

“The more stations you have (in a circuit) the easier the transfer is”

“If you have the natural capacity to transfer gains easily, athletes who can take the gains in the gym and transfer them to the field, well you only need two stations because transfer is easy for you, you might not even need to do a complex.  But the reality is that many athletes are not that gifted when it comes to transferring the gains they make in the gym to the field.  They will need more stations in the complex, or periodizing their complex”

“Remember, the more stations in the complex, the harder it is on the nervous system, so if I can get away with only two stations in a complex, I will take that option”

“I’ve had people who will increase 5kg on their squat and jump higher and run quicker.  Others will increase their squat 30kg and not improve… those who are naturally explosive are normally those who transfer strength very easily to sporting movement.  People who are naturally less explosive, they will need a lot more time to transfer skills”

“For those who don’t transfer strength easily (to skill) they need to use complexes as early as possible”

“The harder (your brain) has to work to perform the workout, the more adrenaline you release”

“The more different tasks you have in a workout, the harder your brain needs to work”

“If you want to use more than one type of training in a training session; you need to factor that in and increase the number of rest days”

“You need time to stabilize the gains from the complexes (if an athlete gains skill transfer easily I would wait until 6-10 weeks out from peak competition)”

“If you are not good at transferring, you could add a sport skill to your complex”

“Most people see adding weight as the only way to progressively overload, and that is not the case”

“Most people do not get good results from progressive overload because they increase weight too much or too quick”

“The least amount of volume you can do, and progress at a satisfactory rate, the better off you are”

“When your body is not ready for that increase in load, you will have compensatory mechanisms going on”

“Crossfit checks all the boxes when it comes to increasing adrenaline; cortisol will actually increase adrenaline”

“(I use bar speed monitors) to teach an athlete how a fast squat should feel; I want them to know what fast enough feels like.  I found that, if you try to beat the machine every time, which is great for performance, but bad for recovery…. I need to decrease other variables to compensate”

“Science is cool, but there is such as thing as “too scientific… the more you can focus on the movement instead of something external, the better results you have””

“Instead of doing 60 meters, do 58 meters, or 63 meters, or a distance nobody trains… focus on the activity instead of the end-goal”

“Going from a front squat to a leg press, you know what it’s a much simpler movement so it will allow you to recover”

“In season, an athlete does not need an exercise with a high-transfer capacity…. in season I look for using the least neurological stress movement possible… in season what we (did) for the legs is pushing a heavy sled, let’s push a heavy sled forward and backward with a load that is challenging for 30m… with a heavy sled push, I tend to look at 10 meters = 1 rep… the main strength movement we have in season is the prowler push”

About Christian Thibaudeau

Christian Thibaudeau has been involved in the business of training for over the last 18 years. During this period, he worked with athletes from 28 different sports. He has been “Head Strength Coach” for the Central Institute for Human Performance (official center of the St. Louis Blues).

His specialty: being a generalist. He assists his athletes to develop the necessary qualities to increase their performances (eg: muscle mass, power, explosiveness, coordination). His work method enabled him to lead several successful athletes in a multitude of different disciplines.

Christian is a prolific writer with three books published, each of which translated into three languages (The Black Book of Training Secrets, Theory and Application of Modern Strength and Power Methods, High Threshold Muscle Building). In addition, Christian is co-author with Paul Carter in a new book, which will soon be released. He is also the author of two DVDs (Cluster Training, Mechanical Drop Sets).

Christian is also a senior author and head writer for the E-Magazine T-Nation his articles are read by over 200,000 people every week.

He competed in weightlifting at the national level as well as bodybuilding, He was also a football coach for 8 years.

As a lecturer, he has given conferences and seminars in both the United States and Europe, to audiences ranging from amateur athletes to health professionals and coaches of all types.

Christian Thibaudeau popularized the Neurotyping system. Neural optimization supersedes hormonal optimization because the neural response affects the hormonal response. This is essentially the founding principle and inspiration behind Christian Thibaudeau’s Neurotyping System. The bottom line is simple: you are more likely to train hard, be focused, and stay motivated if you like the type of training you are doing, and a training that goes against your nature causes a greater stress response that hinders optimal progression. “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” – Albert Einstein

Today’s show is with Gavin MacMillan, sports performance coach and founder of Sport Science Lab. Growing up in Toronto Canada, he participated in 7 high school sports, and received a tennis scholarship from San Jose State University.  In 2001 Gavin founded Sport Science Lab where he has experienced a great deal of success training athletes and teams at every level in multiple sports.

I’ve personally had a mixed relationship with barbells in the course of my own athletic career.  I’ve had positive (squatting sub-maximally 1x a week being a staple in my best athletic year), but also several negative experiences, one of which was my surprise at age 20, I had spent fall of work increasing my best clean from 225 to 245lb, yet high jumped only 6’1” the first two meets of the year (my PR from high school being 6’8”).  In my first few years as a college track coach, I learned quickly that an athlete who learns to lift barbells better is not necessarily a faster athlete.

When I was 21, I stumbled across a book called “Pro-Bod-X” by Marv Marinovich and Edyth Hues.  The training methods within were like nothing I’d ever seen, incorporating a lot of unstable surfaces, and they didn’t use heavy weights.  Doing the workouts for just over a month, I was pleasantly surprised by just how easily I was moving and jumping in my pickup basketball games.

Gavin MacMillan does not use barbells in his training program, and yet gets incredible results on the level of building speed, reactivity, jumping ability, and tremendous resistance to injury.  He has a strong use of balance and proprioception based movements in his training program.  Regardless of where you stand in closeness traditional weightlifting/lifting maxes as a form of progress in a program, you will be a better coach by understanding Gavin’s approach to training athletes, as well as his own experiences as an athlete that led him there.

On the show today, Gavin shares his background as an athlete, his results using a non-barbell based training program, concepts on force-production training without using barbells, foot training, and the role of athletic balance training that can be merged with resistance training means for big improvements in reactive outputs.

Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs.  For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly

View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage.

Timestamps and Main Points

6:15 – Gavin’s athletic background (which included ballet and figure skating), and how he got into sports performance coaching

12:30 – Gavin’s experience with traditional barbell weight training, and how he ended up going away from these methods in his own training, and with athletes he worked with

21:15 – Taking a step away from traditional barbell training, and how Gavin was able to transform the injury-reduction factor of a professional Rugby team, setting the record for the fewest player minutes lost

29:15 – Gavin’s answer to the question on, how to train an athlete who needs to get generally bigger and stronger, without using traditional barbell methods

33:00 – Gavin’s thoughts on how to train strength and force for people who don’t have access to advanced training machines

46:30 – Talking on what one sport might be able to offer another from an explosive perspective, such as the impact of figure skating in Gavin’s upbringing

52:00 – Elements of a fast transition to the ball of the foot

54:00 – How squatting with a foot on a balance disc fundamentally changes the exercise adaptation, soreness, and athleticism

1:04.15 – The various surfaces that Gavin uses with his athletes, that optimizes their interaction between the foot and the ground

1:10.30 – How Gavin uses isometrics to produce high rates of force development, without generating large amounts of muscle soreness

1:20.30 – Ideas on the rhythm of moving a load in training

“What a gift (ballet) was, because now I was taught balance, I was taught flexibility, I was taught to control my body in space.  And then in figure skating, I really had to find different ways to balance on small blades, and I was skating circles around people”

“If a system (such as barbell training) is relying on your form being perfect to work, that’s flawed from the outset”

“To be able to handle my own bodyweight at a higher velocity is imperative”

“In rugby for instance, the scrum is 2% of the game, so I’m not going to spend the entire training platform more than he’ll actually need it”

“You are not going to improve the ability to move an external load unless you move external loads; have you ever tried to bale hay in your life? I’d rather a guy is flipping tires than back squatting”

“A human can only produce force properly at certain joint angles”

“We’ll incorporate a balance element into almost all the strength work we do”

“The foot is so important because it’s a suspension system that the rest of the body has to stretch against, and the foot has flex as well”

“I don’t think people understand what balance is; balance is keeping your body in a centered position, no matter how it’s challenged”

“Great athletes control their limbs in space, in every range and plane of motion better than other people”

“Last year’s combine, every one of our linemen (vertical jump) went up 6 inches in 6 weeks, in whatever we had them for”

“People don’t’ understand that having just a standing vertical, this is not going to correlate to a moving vertical”

“If you don’t have the balance to control yourself at slow speeds, you sure as heck aren’t going to have the balance to do it at high ones”

“The best athlete not only can create contact well, they can avoid contact better”

“In figure skating, you had to hold these bent knee positions, and propel yourself the length of the ring to pass your exam”

“Your body is going to try and find the most efficient way it can (in athletic movement, including squatting)”

“We don’t just have strength at any position, we have optimal power positions (90 degree angles)”

“That’s one of the thing we really talk about when we talk about baseball hitting; you can’t have your head moving when you have objects being thrown at you at 100 miles per hour”

“DOMS is created from heavy eccentric loading, which our body never does, think about it.  Eccentric range, we either ballistically load it, or we hold it isometrically, we never load it slowly eccentrically, never happens”

“Where the strength business is going to go, is it is going to go where you need to increase the velocity of the load eccentrically”

Show Notes

SSL Foot Work

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khuz-KRg2HY

 

SSL Strength Work

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hF1wNq-A5hc

 

About Gavin MacMillan

Gavin grew up in Toronto, Canada. While in high school he participated in 7 sports, ice hockey being his main and favorite. He received a tennis scholarship from San Jose State University and graduated with a B.S. Degree in  Economics. In 2001 he founded Sport Science Lab where he has trained athletes and teams at every level in multiple sports. He has also been approached by various sporting teams and committees around the world to advise on conditioning and rehabilitation strategies.

Of late he often works with boxing legend Freddie Roach preparing fighters for events, Over the last 21 years he has accumulated a noticeable client list which includes Miguel Cotto, Will Blackmon, Troy Polumalo, Manny Pacquiao, George St.Pierre, Dominick Cruz, Will Blackmon, LA Sol women soccer team ...the list goes on and on!

More show notes at https://www.justf-ly-sports.com/podcast-270/

Today’s show is with athletic performance coach and long term athletic development expert, James Baker.  James is one of the co-founders of the LTAD Network, and is currently a Strength & Conditioning coach and Performance Support Lead at the Aspire Academy in Doha, Qatar.  James has a unique blend of skills and experience as a S&C coach, PE teacher, sport scientist and researcher.

So many times in sports performance, and particularly in the sub-set of speed and power training, we look to focus on the most high intensity methods we can possibly utilize to achieve adaptations in athletes.  Or perhaps, we inquire to the optimal technical or tactical methods for the sport in front of us.

Unfortunately, we don’t tend to look much at the entire, long-term process of an athlete achieving their best possible result in a sport, as well as being well balanced outside of their sport specific ventures.  To give athletes the best training experience, we need to have a thorough understanding on how they might respond various training methods along different points in their athletic journey. 

Look at the long term process; look at the love of movement and play outside of one’s specific sport, better understand the entire umbrella of what it means to be both human and an athlete

On today’s show, James will discuss the difference between early specialization and early engagement, and the need for athletes to love and appreciate other forms of movement and play as their sport career unfolds.  He will also take on free-moving sports like parkour in relation to ball sports, and then deliver some great ideas on progressing plyometric and strength training means over the course of an athlete’s development. 

For those of you who don’t work directly with growing athletes, realize that by learning more about how young athletes develop, you can learn a lot more about the mature athlete in front of you, and the process that led him or her there. 

Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs.  For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly

Today’s show is with athletic performance coach, Erik Huddleston.  Erik is currently the Director of Performance at Indianapolis Fitness & Sports Training (IFAST) and a performance consultant for a number of professional baseball & basketball teams. Erik previously spent time at Indiana University & Texas Tech University with the men’s basketball teams.

So often in the course of using barbell methods for athletic performance, there are often movements that are considered sacred cows of training.  There also tends to be common thoughts as to how these lifts should be performed, such as all athletes needing to squat heavy “ass to grass”.  In reality, athletes come in all shapes, sizes and structures.  Athletes of varying shapes may respond to various types of barbell lifts differently, and there are ways to optimize training for performance, and robustness when considering structural differences of athletes.

Advanced and elite athletes will tend to utilize the feet, and stance in different ways as well.  Knowing how an athlete is leveraging the gait cycle, and what points they are particularly biasing to achieve their performances, is important when thinking about which lift variations we might want to utilize with them over time.

For today’s episode, Erik takes us on a deep dive into squatting and how it relates to the “reversal ability” of athletes, given their individual shapes and structures.  He also relates the phases of gait (early,mid,late stance) to squatting and jumping concepts, to help us better understand how to give athletes what they need at particular points in their career.  Erik cover important elements of single leg squatting as well, in this highly detailed chat on performance training.

Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs.  For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly

View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage.

Timestamps and Main Points

4:00 – Some of the things Erik has learned from spending time in both the collegiate and private sectors of training

9:00 – Things that Erik looks at in training video that he may be addressing in the gym setting

15:00 – Managing squatting and squat training in light of the various phases of stance

25:20 – How to “bucket” athletes based on need in squatting, in terms of depth and heel-elevation, particularly those with wider hips and narrower shoulders

35:00 – How an athlete’s body shape and structure will tend to determine their functional ability and biomechanics

49:00 – Self-selection principles when it comes to strength and power exercises and coaching

52:00 – Shin angle principles in light of squatting and reversal power

55:00 – How single leg differs from double leg training in terms of pelvic-sacrum action and pressurization

1:00.30 – What Erik is looking for in the stances of the foot when an athlete is jumping or dunking

1:05.30 – Why banded work can cause athletes to “over-push” in jumping, and the impulse related nature of “point zero” in a jump

1:11.30 – More talk on jumping in regards to single leg jumping and accessing late-stance, and why advanced athletes tend to be more late-stance dominant

1:22:00 – Erik’s take on athletes who are early-stance dominant, and how to help them overcome resistance, create compression, and ideally get to mid and late stance more easily

“An ability to translate through the phases of gait is something that I look at (when assessing video)”

“Some kids are naturally not going to be able to get lower in that athletic stance”

“Gait is a constant falling and catching yourself as you go forward”

“If the tibia moves forward and your heel is on the ground, you are moving towards the middle phase of propulsion…. as soon as the calcaneus breaks the ground you are in a later phase of propulsion”

“(Internal rotation) doesn’t allow for a lot of general movement qualities… or a fluid variation in movement.  IR is compression, IR is force production, it is not necessarily fluidity of movement, it is meant to block things from happening; to compress and produce force”

“If someone is at that (max IR) point, and you ask them to change levels, then there is going to be a compensation”

“A lot of the higher end athletes I work with are biased towards this middle or late propulsion, so for them to squat, I need to bring the ground up to them (through a slant board)”

“Having only half of your foot, or just your heel on the slant, doesn’t put you in an early position (with heels on plates, the bias is still towards IR)”

“If they are spending too much time, and they are too shoved forward into middle and late stance, access to early (stance) is key”

“3rd world squatting, sitting on your heels is very early stance biased”

“Compensation is not a poor choice, you just need to have resources outside of that compensation”

“From a strategic standpoint it is difficult to get (narrow shoulder/wide hip individuals) to come out of the bottom of the squat with quality…. Putting them in a position that doesn’t allow much descent will allow them more ascent… I have 3 or 4 girls who do hack squats really really well; I don’t allow them all the descent of their pelvic floor that they would generally have”

“The rebound is a completely different position than the going down portion is (of a squat)”

“I’m looking for those first couple of inches (of the squat reversal) as it can be out of the bottom; I think that giving them that constraint, that raises the floor up a little for (narrow shoulder/wide hip), so they are not pre-disposed to over-dropping into a jump”

“The unique thing about the tibia and the sacrum is that they actually move together”

“The goal is to have smooth, fluid transitions between (all movements in the gym)”

“If you look at the typical basketball athlete, they are very output driven, not very input driven… they are springy people”

“That early (heel) position is really important for athletes to get into in jumping, because it gives them enough yield and expansion quality to get that energy capture before they are going to turn that around”

“(The bottom of a jump) is max internal rotation, maximal force production… at that point heel breaks the ground, and every transition from that point until their toe comes off the ground is going to be ER”

“If I need to bring an athlete back on their heel at all, how far back is that, and how do I manage that?

“Muscle itself is biased towards IR because there is a compressive nature about it”

Show Notes

Michael Jordan guarding Allen Iverson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4O04iA1Pack

About Erik Huddleston

Erik Huddleston is currently the Director of Performance at Indianapolis Fitness & Sports Training (IFAST) and a performance consultant for a number of professional baseball & basketball teams. He previously spent time at Indiana University & Texas Tech University with the men’s basketball teams.

Today’s show is with Ben Askren, former mixed martial artist and wrestler, who is now a wrestling coach (amongst his other ventures).  Ben is one of the most successful wrestlers, and MMA fighters of all time, known for his unique style and technical skills.

Ben’s NCAA career consisted of a 157-8 overall record. His final two years were dominant with an 87-0 record capped by back-to-back national championships (2006 & 2007). Ben was a four-time all-American, and two-time recipient of the Dan Hodge Trophy (the college wrestling equivalent of the Heisman).  Askren was the former Bellator and ONE Welterweight Champion, remaining undefeated for over a decade before competing in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, and had a final win-loss record of 19 and 2.  Ben has co-founded Askren Wrestling Academy (AWA) with his brother Max. They currently operate 5 gyms.

I am perpetually fascinated by elite talent in sport.  In training athletes, so often we take for granted, the long term process, the mental process, and the creativity that makes some athletes so elite.  It is very easy to get “sucked in” to sets, reps, exercises and positions, and fail to nurture both the individual creative and mental processes that are going to help athletes succeed as the level of competition rises.

On today’s podcast, Ben takes us through his early life in sport, and about when he made the transition from multi-sport athlete to specialist in wrestling.  He shares about the grounds the led to some big leaps in his creative ability as an athlete, and the balance between creativity and structure in the development of a young athlete.  Finally Ben shares lots of information on developing one’s practice of mental composition for athletic performance.

Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs.  For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly

View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage.

Timestamps and Main Points

4:53 – What inspired Ben to make the jump from wrestling to MMA fighting in his career

8:52 – Ben’s athletic background from a young age, starting from a multi-sport perspective, and how that eventually funneled into specializing in wrestling

15:52 – Prime coaches and mentors in Ben’s athletic career that impacted his formation as an athlete

18:16 – Ben discusses his practice of study in his own development into an elite wrestler and fighter

21:24 – The balance between creativity and structure in training wrestlers as they go from youth to a mature athlete

22:59 – How Ben’s wrestling academies teach children with individual facets of performance in mind

25:56 – Thoughts on teaching athletes to deal with adversity in their sporting careers, and as they advance in level of competition

33:14 – A conversation on the value of submaximal lifting versus heavy strength training in performance training

44:04 – Development of young wrestling athletes, and how early success is not a requirement for later successes

50:17 – How to educate parents to buy into the long term vision of success for their athletes, and why the youth sport system (and monetization) is not set up in favor of long term athlete success

55:40 – How to manage stress and anxiety in big competitions

58:03 – How Ben approaches mental training in practice and competition

1:03:49 – Tactics to minimize anxiety in competition

“(When I made the decision to specialize in Wrestling after freshman year of high school) At that time, that was totally unheard of… all specialization was much more limited at that point in time”

“I try to not let the parents push the kid into more participation, I want it to be the kid’s choice”

“I know there are some people who say you should never specialize, and I strongly disagree with that… at my academy, there are certain kids who going into their freshman year are 92 pounds, what other sports can they play?”

“A lot of (creativity) was me and my team-mates.  My team-mates were spurring innovation that happened, bouncing ideas off each other”

“I barely every studied opponents; I kind of saw it as a waste of time (compared to studying elite fighters instead)… my best end form is not highly tied to me needing to win this match”

“Inevitably when you compete at a higher level in sport, you are going to find adversity; when you find that adversity, how do you succeed from there?”

“Great champions have multiple ways to win”

“A lot of wrestling programs think the only solution is doing things more and doing things harder”

“I think I would go back and take away a lot of heavy lifting; it is not necessary for me to be an elite athlete”

“Most parents only pay attention to the year above and the year below their kid”

“Most youth coaches are not incentivized to do what is good in the long term for the kid… the incentive for the kid, and the incentive for what their bank account says is two different things”

“Don’t be too stuck on one method that is going to get you to the top; if you are really going to get to the top, you are going to need to do a lot of things… it’s going to be a multitude of things that are going to get you to allow you have the maximal amount of success”

About Ben Askren

Ben Askren is an American retired professional mixed martial artist and amateur wrestler. Askren was the former Bellator and ONE Welterweight Champion, remaining undefeated for over a decade before competing in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, and had a final win-loss record of 19 to 2.

Ben’s NCAA career consisted of a 157-8 overall record. His final two years were dominant with an 87-0 record capped by back-to-back national championships (2006 & 2007). Ben was a four-time all-American, and two-time recipient of the Dan Hodge Trophy (the college wrestling equivalent of the Heisman).

Ben co-founded Askren Wrestling Academy (AWA) with his brother Max. They currently operate 5 gyms.

Today’s show is a Q&A with Joel Smith.  We are back again for a series of your questions and my best answers.  Today’s show is by theme “The Speed Show” with a ton of questions on speed, acceleration, max velocity, muscle-relaxation speed, and even working with distance runners.  Sprinting is always going to be a synthesis of so many elements of human performance, and is one of the highest-reaching challenges for any coach in athletic coaching (which is why it’s also such a rewarding puzzle to solve).

Outside of the common speed questions; I also had an interesting question on how to assess “swings in the pendulum” of training methods.  The awareness by which we get to our own coaching biases is important, so I’ll dig into some ideas there as well.

Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs.  For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly

View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage.

Timestamps and Main Points

1:59 – How to fix heel-striking in athletes

12:56 – A step by step process on helping athletes improve hip extension and delay knee extension

19:50 – Thoughts on flat feet being an advantage since you enter mid stance more quickly?

22:16 – The top 2-3 faults, issues I commonly coach as it pertains to start out of blocks, acceleration in those first 2-3 steps, and common drills I utilize for correcting said issues.

33:57 – How to periodize maximal velocity work. Once intensity is at the max and assisted/overspeed is touched upon sporadically, where do we go from there?

43:18 – Thoughts on setting up a weight room/jumping/sprinting program for high school XC runners. Training age with me 1-3 years.

50:44 – How do you balance your stance/beliefs when training philosophy and paradigm swings like a pendulum?

56:54 – In regards to the Soviet research on muscle relaxation times being the differentiating factor between their elite and non-elite athletes, what are some methods to train relaxation times?

Show Notes

Dave O’Sullivan Slouches

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYD4Jx_IXSw

Usain Bolt Warming Up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aW9GxrrSDFg&t=163s

About Joel Smith

Joel Smith is the founder of Just Fly Sports and is a sports performance coach in Cincinnati, Ohio.  Joel hosts the Just Fly Performance Podcast, has authored several books on athletic performance, and trains numerous clients in the in-person and online space.  Joel was formerly 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 11 years, Joel coached for the Diablo Valley Track and Field Club for 7 years, and also has 6 years of experience coaching sprints, jumps, hurdles, pole vault and multi-events on the collegiate level, working at Wilmington College, and the University of Wisconsin, LaCrosse.

Joel has coached 2 national champions, multiple All-Americans and school record holders in his time as a track coach. 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.

In 2011, Joel began Just Fly Sports with Jake Clark as a central platform to promote information for athletes and coaches to reach their highest potential.  In 2016 the first episode of the “Just Fly Performance Podcast” was released, now a leading source of education in the sports performance field.  The evolving mission of Just Fly Sports is focused on teaching athletes to realize their true, innate power, and achieve the highest joy in their training, competition, and in the community.