Just Fly Performance Podcast

By Joel Smith, Just-Fly-Sports.comSports Science Health & Fitness Fitness

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Just Fly Performance Podcast episodes

May 21 516: Gary Gray on Rhythm, Rotation, and The Art of Athletic Movement
On today’s episode, Gary Gray goes into a deep dive on movement literacy, biomechanics, and the power of variability in athletic development. Gary shares lessons from decades of coaching and rehabilitation, covering everything from locomotor patterns and rhythm to adductor function, sprint mechanics, and why authentic movement should “feel like a dance.” The conversation explores how coaches can better understand human movement through context, three-dimensionality, and the body’s natural problem-solving abilities.
1 hr 30 min
May 14 515: Chris Chase on Plyometrics, Deceleration and Tendon Resilience
Today’s podcast guest is Chris Chase. Chris is a strength coach and performance specialist with extensive NBA experience, known for integrating biomechanics, movement quality, and strength training into practical systems for basketball athletes, with an emphasis on durability, adaptable movement, and long-term athletic development.
Chris Chase returns to discuss the evolution of modern sports performance training, from force outputs and plyometrics to deceleration mechanics, movement constraints, and load management in the NBA. Chris and Joel dive into the balance between “functional” and traditional strength work, the risks and rewards of plyometric training, resisted acceleration/deceleration methods, and why many athletes may benefit more from simplified, output-driven systems than excessive movement complexity. The conversation also explores basketball athleticism, reactive strength, tendon health, and the art of minimal effective dose training.
Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength and the Just Fly Sports Online Courses
1 hr 43 min
May 07 514: Ryan Banta on Evolving Speed Training Systems
Today’s podcast guest is Ryan Banta. Ryan is a leading sprint coach at Parkway Central High School, known for blending sport science with practical training. He has guided athletes to multiple state championships and national-level success, and is the author of The Sprinter’s Compendium.
In this episode, Ryan shares his unconventional path from politics to coaching, and how early success, and failure, shaped his evolution. He reflects on moving from ego-driven outcomes to athlete-centered development, emphasizing joy, community, and long-term retention. Banta dives into the growth of his “critical mass” system, blending speed, rest, and adaptability, while highlighting the importance of mentorship, self-reflection, and continual learning in building both performance and meaningful athlete experiences.
Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength and Lila Exogen.
1 hr 31 min
April 30 513: Dario Saisan on Foot Training, Deceleration, and Elastic Mechanics
Strength coach Dario Saisan joins to discuss how AI and research are evolving the field. We dive into biomechanics, skill acquisition, and why the next generation is moving toward adaptive systems that sharpen human intuition.
1 hr 30 min
April 23 512: Håkan Andersson on Acceleration, Elasticity, and the Future of Sprint Training
Today’s podcast guest is Håkan Andersson. Håkan is a veteran Swedish sprint coach with over 40 years of experience developing elite sprinters, jumpers, and team-sport athletes. Based in Sundsvall, Sweden, he has coached national record holders and Olympic finalists, and has played a key role in the evolution of Scandinavian sprint training.
For today’s podcast I join Håkan to explore the evolution of speed training, from early interval-based systems to modern high-velocity methods. We discuss the role of resisted and assisted sprinting, mechanized training tools, and how different athlete “types” respond to various workloads. Håkan shares insights on acceleration mechanics, overspeed training, and balancing intensity with long-term development. The conversation blends history, science, and practical coaching wisdom for building faster, more resilient athletes.
Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength.
Use the code “LILAJUSTFLY10” for 10% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com
Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer
View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/)
Topics
0:00 – Introduction and Background
5:34 – Evolution of Sprint Training Methods
7:16 – Environmental Influences on Performance
11:12 – Shifts in Sprinting Training Philosophy
14:14 – The Rise of Modern Sprinting Techniques
17:11 – The Mechanics of Resisted Sprint Training
24:08 – The Impact of Training Machines
27:47 – Exploring Overspeed Training Techniques
29:52 – Practical Applications of Assisted Sprinting
32:47 – The Impulse Problem
36:08 – Understanding Sprinting Mechanics
39:04 – The Future of Sprint Training
43:57 – Thoughts on Sprinting Strategies
1:08:20 – Håkan's Upcoming Plans
Håkan Andersson Quotes
"You try to do the best out of what you have, right? And if you focus too much on that [limitations of the environment], you're never going to succeed anyway."
"Remote coaching doesn't really work, you know. ...It's what you do every day that counts."
"I think your environment dictates how you train and your training program and so forth."
"Resisted sprinting, it slows things down; it makes it a bit easier to work with technical details."
"Resistive sprint, it can constrain the body into positions and timings that favors horizontal force acceleration. That is, of course, crucial for acceleration."
"I really, really never liked heavy sleds, you know, because I found that it disturbed the rhythm of the athletes."
"I find that below 10% decrement doesn't really give you enough stimuli."
"The goal is always to keep the mechanics intact, you know, not to overload this so much."
"Don't pull people to supersonic speed, but sometimes get exposed to almost competition speed. But never to go super maximum."
About Håkan Andersson
Håkan Andersson is a veteran Swedish sprint coach with over 40 years of experience developing elite sprinters, jumpers, and team-sport athletes. Based in Sundsvall, Sweden, he has coached national record holders and Olympic finalists, and has played a key role in the evolution of Scandinavian sprint training. Known for his practical, data-informed approach, Håkan blends traditional methods with modern innovations in resisted and assisted sprinting to optimize acceleration and speed development.
1 hr 10 min
April 16 511: Mike Guadango on First Principles of Building the Total Athlete
Today’s podcast guest is Mike Guadango. Mike is a performance coach and founder of Freak Strength, known for developing athletes from youth to the professional level across sports like baseball and football. A former All-American collegiate baseball player, Guadango blends strength, speed, and movement quality into a systems-based approach focused on long-term development, resilience, and high-level performance.
In this episode, Mike breaks down his evolving approach to athletic development, emphasizing general preparation as the foundation for long-term performance. He discusses building capacity through high-volume med ball throws, tempo work, and progressive strength layers, alongside the role of isometrics and elastic training. Guadango also shares his perspective on fascia, intent, and movement quality, highlighting how simple, well-executed principles drive adaptation more than chasing trends or overly complex methods.
Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength and Lila Exogen.
Use the code “LILAJUSTFLY10” for 10% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com
Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer
View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/)
Topics
0:00 – Welcome Back, Mike Guadango
4:39 – Modern Lifestyle Challenges
10:40 – The Power of Fasting
20:56 – Sleep and Productivity
28:58 – Training Mindset and Mastery
36:33 – Intent vs. Result
42:41 – The Role of Environment
51:04 – Creating a Training Environment
1:06:43 – Training Individuality
1:30:24 – Coaching Philosophy and Bias
1:36:26 – The Role of Fascia
Mike Guadango Quotes
"The nervous system doesn't care about the weight; it cares about the intent."
"Environment is the invisible coach. It's the thing that's working when you're not talking."
"You can have the best program in the world, but if the energy in the room is dead, the results are going to be dead too."
"Most people coach how they were coached or how they were successful as athletes. And that's usually the worst thing you can do for the person in front of you."
"Mastery is not about knowing more things. It’s about knowing the same things at a much deeper level and understanding how they all connect."
"We have to stop looking at training as just sets and reps and start looking at it as a way to manipulate the environment to get the result we want."
"If you can’t get the athlete to buy into the process, the science behind the program doesn't matter. You have to win the person before you can train the athlete."
About Mike Guadango
Mike Guadango is a performance coach and founder of Freak Strength, known for developing athletes from youth to the professional level, including competitors in the NFL, NBA, MLB, and Olympic sport. A former All-American collegiate baseball player, Guadango transitioned early into coaching, where he trained under respected figures such as Buddy Morris and James Smith.
He has served as a Director of Sports Performance at a high-level training facility and brings a holistic approach shaped by experience in both strength and conditioning and manual therapy, including work as a licensed acupuncturist. Through Freak Strength, Guadango continues to coach, consult, and educate, blending performance training with a systems-based view of long-term athlete development.
1 hr 46 min
April 09 510: Daniel Coyle on The Hidden Force Behind Great Athletes
Today’s podcast guest is Daniel Coyle. Daniel is a bestselling author and journalist known for his work on talent development and team culture. He is the author of The Talent Code and The Culture Code, and has written extensively on performance for The New York Times and Sports Illustrated.
In this episode, Daniel Coyle joins the show to discuss why elite performance is rooted in relationships and shared environments. Using stories from Alaska to professional sports organizations, he explains the power of "connective pauses" and the importance of athlete ownership. The conversation bridges talent, coaching, and culture, constraint-led learning, and team rituals, as well as fostering resilience and creativity. This episode offers practical insights for coaches seeking to build more connected, adaptive, and high-performing athletes.
Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength.
Use the code “LILAJUSTFLY10” for 10% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance gear. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com
Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer
View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/)
Topics
0:00 – Introduction to Dan's Journey
6:47 – The Value of Relationships
8:42 – The Power of Connective Pauses
12:14 – The Curiosity of Writing
15:20 – Individual vs. Group Dynamics
19:07 – The Role of Coaches
22:52 – Insights from the Cleveland Guardians
34:20 – Adversity and Team Resilience
40:48 – Learning from Each Other
48:15 – Creating Space for Play
54:19 – Embracing Exploration and Mess
Daniel Coyle Quotes
"The group brain's always better than the individual brain."
"If you can get one plus one plus one to equal 10, whether that's on the coaching side or whether that's on the athletic side, all that happens in the space between people."
"Relationships are what make us go."
"Connective pauses, where we can feed the relationships, ends up being the simplest and the most powerful thing you can do."
"The job of a coach is to identify really good questions and see where they lead."
"It ain't about what you know, it's about the questions you explore with other people."
"Community happens in moments. It's not made of information being exchanged. It's experiences."
"Athletes develop themselves. You don't do development to someone."
"Your job as a coach isn't to deliver answers, it's to create an environment where people can self-organize around obstacles and figure it out."
"You don't get better when you're obedient. You get better when you own the process, own the effort, and fail and navigate and figure it out."
"The relational piece is foundational to the whole thing."
About Daniel Coyle
Daniel Coyle is a bestselling author and journalist who explores the science of performance, talent, and group culture. He is the author of several influential books, including The Talent Code, The Culture Code, and The Little Book of Talent. His work focuses on how great performers and teams are built, blending neuroscience, psychology, and real-world case studies from elite sport, business, and military organizations. Coyle has written for publications such as The New York Times and Sports Illustrated, and is widely regarded as a leading voice on skill acquisition and high-performance environments.
1 hr 5 min
April 02 509: Danny Lum on Isometrics, Elasticity, and Sprint Transfer
Danny Lum is a Singaporean strength coach and sport scientist specializing in applied performance research. His work explores strength diagnostics, isometrics, and power development, and he is widely published and recognized for connecting sport science with practical coaching.
In this episode, Danny explores the intersection of sport science and real-world performance. Danny shares insights from his research on isometric training, PNF stretching, and velocity-based training, emphasizing how different methods complement rather than replace one another. The conversation dives into squat depth, unilateral vs. bilateral training, and the role of variability in power development. Throughout, Danny highlights a key theme: effective training is individualized, phase-dependent, and built on understanding how the body adapts.
Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength.
Use the code “LILAJUSTFLY10” for 10% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance gear. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com
Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer
View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/)
Timestamps
0:00 – Welcome to the Show
2:42 – Journey to Sprinting
5:10 – Strength Training Insights
14:38 – The Power of Isometrics
15:44 – PNF Stretching Explained
24:54 – Programming Isometrics
28:46 – Unilateral vs. Bilateral Training
36:33 – Velocity-Based Training
44:20 – The Importance of Variation
52:42 – Research on Isometric Strength
1:07:38 – Yearly Training Plan
Danny Lum Quotes
"When you lift heavy weights, if you have maximum intent, even though the external movement looks slow, there is rapid neural firing. It doesn't necessarily mean that slow movement during heavy lifting means you are not having a fast neural firing, which is relevant to sprinting."
"For sprinters, when the knee is lifted up at the highest point, they don't just allow the leg to drop passively. They actually start developing force and hammer down right from the highest point. That is where your hip flexion angle is about 90 degrees. So if you're not strong at that position, then you're not maximizing the amount of force you can develop through the full range of movement."
"If you're going to do static stretch during your warm-up, you might as well just perform isometric contraction at that position as well. That helps to not only activate your muscle, but you actually microdose isometric training every day."
"You're strengthening your muscle at the long muscle length, and that long muscle length is where the muscular-tendinous system is most vulnerable. If you are not strong at that range, then your risk of injury just increases. But if you can get yourself stronger at the long range, you're actually protecting yourself."
"If we are talking about loading the tissue itself...loading the muscle and tendon tissue, then doing unilateral work is probably going to benefit more because you can actually load the quads more by doing single-leg squat as compared to double-leg bilateral squat."
"Having a variety of load actually gives greater adaptation. I think that why that's the case is because you allow the person to have a little bit of velocity focus and a little bit of force focus in the training."
"If I contract rapidly, and I sustain for three seconds, because that allows me to build to a higher peak force, my strength actually increased more, and I also significantly increased my rate of force development. It allowed me to get the best of both worlds; both rate of force development and peak force actually improved."
"Isometrics actually improved running economy more than plyometrics. My theory behind it is that runners, while they are running, is sort of like a low-intensity plyometric. So with a higher-intensity plyometric versus isometric, which is a totally new stimulus, they actually adapt more with the new stimulus as compared to plyometrics."
"Today, the athlete might be able to lift 100 kilograms for five reps before he feels fatigue, and on a bad day, three reps. If I standardize in the program five reps every day, then on some days he might be overtraining, and that’s where velocity training provides the advantage. I’m still getting him to lift at his daily maximal of effort, but it’s self-regulated."
"I don't really go too movement specific. Usually, I'll be more general in that sense because I prefer to build up the physical capacity rather than being overly specific. But having said that, most of the exercises have to be relevant to how they function."
"Isometric training is probably the best way to improve angle-specific force generation capability. On the other hand, we also know that tissue adaptation is greater when training at longer muscle length. So you're actually stretching the muscle and the tendon a little more, and that will result in greater improvement in hypertrophy as well as greater tendon stiffness."
"As they’re closer to the major competition, I’ll replace the dynamic heavy lifting with isometric training. I won’t replace everything, but I’ll replace part of it just so that they can recover better with a lower level of fatigue, so that leading up, they won’t have a fried central nervous system."
About Danny Lum
Danny Lum is a Singapore-based strength and conditioning coach and sport scientist known for his work in applied performance research and athlete development. He has held roles in both academic and high-performance sport settings, blending research with practical coaching. Danny’s work focuses on areas such as strength diagnostics, isometric training, unilateral vs. bilateral force production, and optimizing power for sport. He is widely published in peer-reviewed journals and is a frequent presenter at international conferences, bridging the gap between sport science and real-world coaching practice.
1 hr 10 min
March 26 508: Sarah Miller on Movement Archetypes and the Missing Layer of Athletic Development
Sarah Miller is a strength and conditioning coach at Georgia Tech Athletics, blending a background in dance, theater, and stunt performance with collegiate S&C. Her work emphasizes coordination, rhythm, and adaptable movement alongside traditional strength and power development.
In this episode, Sarah Miller shares her unconventional path from dance, theater, and stunt performance into collegiate strength and conditioning, and how those roots shape her coaching philosophy. She explores how movement is deeply tied to psychology, emotion, and rhythm, challenging traditional, overly mechanical approaches to training. The conversation dives into habit, inhibition, and awareness, emphasizing the importance of freeing athletes from rigid patterns and reconnecting them with more natural, adaptable movement strategies.
Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength and the Vert Trainer
Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer
Use the code “LILAJUSTFLY10” for 10% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance gear. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com
View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/)
0:00 – Introduction to Sarah
8:08 – The Art of Falling
9:40 – Movement and Psychology
13:04 – The Role of Rhythm in Performance
19:54 – Exploring Movement Patterns
25:02 – The Interplay of Mind and Body
30:51 – The Trying Self vs. Non-Trying Self
37:03 – Integrating Exploration into Training
42:45 – Movement Archetypes in Dance
51:56 – The Challenge of Bound Movement
1:02:22 – Coaching Individualized Movement
1:15:21 – The Complexity of Movement Quality
Sarah Miller Quotes
"If you don't have complete awareness of your own physicality, of what your body communicates, you don't know what things you're selling and how that's being read."
"Psychology influences movement and what I call affective qualities of movement... even in something as basic and foundational as a squat, your mental state is going to influence your execution."
"We often want to chase automaticity, but you can really become a slave to habit. There's really great freedom in being able to break from what is habitual, especially if you're unaware of what's happening in that habitual action."
"If you believe that the body and mind truly are one, it's not that you just have a body that's controlled by your head or a body that influences your head... there can be an emotional reaction to doing something physical."
"The trying self is just focused on achieving an end goal. Rather than being grounded in the present moment, rather than being grounded in your senses and having an awareness, you're in your head because you're thinking about something in the future. The non-trying self is entirely in the moment, grounded in the senses, aware of what it's taking in from a touch perspective, sound, and what it feels like."
"I don't want you to focus on getting the rep up; I want you to focus on the process of getting there and feeling the right things."
"Ideally, they're not rigid; they're expressions of movement. They give the color to movement. I do find that athletes naturally tend toward one or the other, both in their personalities and then in how they move."
About Sarah Miller
Sarah Miller is a strength and conditioning coach at Georgia Tech Athletics, where she works with collegiate athletes to develop speed, power, and resilient movement. She brings a unique background to coaching, having started in dance and theater before transitioning into stunt performance and strength training. Her path into S&C blends artistic movement, body awareness, and high-performance preparation, shaping an approach that values coordination, rhythm, and adaptability alongside traditional strength work. Miller’s coaching reflects a fusion of creative movement roots with applied sports performance in the collegiate setting.
1 hr 28 min
March 19 507: Richard Burnett on Reactive Strength and Explosive Isometrics in Combine Prep
Richard Burnett is a sports performance coach with experience working across high-level athletic environments, including NFL Combine preparation, where he specializes in speed and power assessment, plyometric development, and preparing athletes for elite testing and competition.
In this episode, Rich Burnett digs into reactive strength testing, jump feedback, and what really matters when evaluating plyometric ability in athletes. Rich explains the differences between tools like the Just Jump mat, force plates, and Plyomat, emphasizing that context and consistency matter more than chasing perfect numbers. The conversation then moves into single-leg RSI, asymmetries, NFL Combine prep, and how reactivity profiles can reveal sprint deficiencies. Rich also shares how he uses isometrics, band-assisted jumps, and single-leg testing to build faster, more explosive athletes with greater confidence and movement efficiency.
Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength.
Use the code “LILAJUSTFLY10” for 10% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance gear. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com
Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer
View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/)
Timestamps
0:00 – Introduction to Jump Testing
4:55 – Context in Performance Metrics
8:11 – The Psychology of Feedback
11:59 – Transition to Combine Training
16:10 – The Importance of Single Leg Testing
20:06 – Analyzing Reactive Strength Index (RSI)
32:02 – Asymmetry in Athletic Performance
36:24 – Gamifying the Test
44:59 – Band-Assisted Techniques
55:30 – The Power of Isometrics
1:01:51 – Single Leg Reactivity Insights
1:07:08 – Exploring the Plyomat
Richard Burnett Quotes
"As long as you're using a piece of tech consistently and coaching well and all the things are the same, that's really what it's all about. That's why Mike Boyle still uses the same deal from 15 years ago and will continue to use the same one because he knows what it's telling him."
"The more information you start to uncover the more context you need. Whether it's inflated or not, I know like a 40-inch standing vert on the Just Jump mat is legit. And I also know a 36-inch is good. It still provided us with some key context to allow us to track improvement."
"I love RSI as a teaching tool. It's fantastic because a lot of kids don't understand. It's still gluing us in to what's going on with the athlete, how their strategies are. It's helping them understand plyometrics to begin with."
"It's also from a symmetry thing, really enlightening to see the difference between a left leg and a right leg when you're testing them independently. You're like, 'wow, that is a massive difference.' And let's remember the fact that this athlete has had two ACLs on this side."
"Single leg ground contact time and why you do some of these single leg reactivity drills in the first place because you're dealing with mass in your whole body on one leg. Contact time being rewarded in that sense is not necessarily a bad thing at all. And we're just seeing this clear separation of some of our athletes because of their ability to be more reactive on one leg."
"DRI factors in automatically what your initial jump height is. I love it because they want to self-select that. As opposed to stepping off of a box that you just maybe don't feel as confident in, self-selecting that initial jump and then rebounding just feels more confident, feels more engaging and fun for kids."
"What I had seen is a really high correlation with single leg max RSI and sprint ability in athletes. Higher than force plate jumps, higher than pretty much anything else."
"The step further is now the cyclical five hop where I'm having to really tolerate all of this landing force from my own jump height that I'm creating on the single leg five hop RSI. That's the one that I'm wanting to really flesh out even more to know who's lacking reactivity."
"The sprinting is enough for them to get that midfoot forefoot work but there's no real need to specify some sort of plyo around that when they're sprinting already and we sprint so much."
About Richard Burnett
Richard Burnett is a sports performance coach and the creator of Plyomat, an innovative training system designed to enhance plyometric development, coordination, and reactive strength across a wide range of athletes.
With a coaching approach rooted in movement quality and progressive overload, Burnett has built a reputation for blending traditional jump training principles with creative, constraint-based environments that challenge timing, rhythm, and elastic output. His work emphasizes not just how high or far an athlete can jump, but how efficiently they can organize force, absorb impact, and transition between movements.
Through Plyomat, Burnett has introduced a practical framework for integrating plyometrics into both high-performance and general athletic settings, offering coaches a scalable system that supports everything from foundational movement literacy to advanced explosive training.
His ideas and methods have been adopted by coaches working in team sports, track and field, and youth development, particularly those looking to bridge the gap between structured strength training and dynamic, game-relevant movement.
1 hr 10 min

About Just Fly Performance Podcast

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The Just Fly Performance Podcast is dedicated to all aspects of athletic performance training, with an emphasis on speed and power development. Featured on the show are coaches and experts in the…