Just Fly Performance Podcast

Today’s episode features strength coach and sport scientist Mladen Jovanović. Mladen is the owner of complementarytraining.net and is a thought leader in physical preparation, particularly in the arena of building the best possible training programs for team sport athletes. Mladen brings in the work of many of the world’s great philosophers and thinkers in his process, fielding universal principles that often supercede existing periodization theory.

Mladen has worked in a variety of elite level sports in countries including Serbia, Sweden, Qatar, Turkey, Australia and the USA. A leading individual in the sport science community, Mladen’s interests include velocity based training, statistical modelling and the philosophy/management of sports programmes.

I’ve been looking forward to having Mladen on the show for some time, as I’m always impressed by his work and thought process. It’s always great to chat with those who utilize reason from a variety of other fields to lead us towards a better path in athletics. One of the biggest things I initially wanted to chat with Mladen about was the use of mental heuristics in how we tend to view and create workout programs, but our chat led us down the paths of flow and free play in athletic performance, robust vs. “peak-performance” training, flaws of classical periodization theory and real-life experiences, as well as velocity based training ideas.

In the aftermath of episodes such as with Dr. Tommy John, and then our sport play roundtable, as well as my own experiences training with intuitive minds such as Paul Cater, I’ve realized the shortcomings of strict, planned, drill and internal cue based sessions, and how “breaking out of the robot factory”, so to speak, is one of the most powerful lessons coaches can learn and use.

Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster.com, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more.

View more show notes at Just-fly-sports.com/podcast-106-mladen-jovanovic/

Today’s episode features coach, biomechanist and inventor, Adarian Barr. Adarian has been my primary mentor in the field of human performance over the last year and a half and has completely changed the way I view the majority of athletic movements. Through a greater awareness of what to watch and look for in athletic movements, to equaling (or bettering) things I did as an athlete in my early 20’s, to completely rewiring my approach to sprint and jump biomechanics, coach Barr’s work has been a complete game changer.

Adarian has experience coaching on a variety of levels, and has had a number of stops on the collegiate track and field circuit before his current work as a private coach and consultant. His methods are innovative, and he has the greatest awareness of various factors that go into a movement outcome that I’ve ever seen. Coach Barr has the ability to pick apart virtually any athletic feat into its core components, and then train those components with athletes of all levels.

*For those interested, I’m hosting Adarian in Santa Clara for the first leg of the “REWIRE” clinic series (Just-fly-sports.com/rewire)*

On today’s podcast, we talk heavily about asymmetry in athletic performance. Not too long ago, coaches were talking about Usain Bolt’s asymmetrical stride, and then we just witnessed the longest long jump in the last 20 years, done by a 19 year old from Cuba with an asymmetrical run up and a very long last stride. Knowing the principles behind the approach and the takeoff allows understanding and subsequent individualization of our athletes to their best performances. In this regards, we’ll be chatting asymmetry in regards to jumping and sprinting, as well as how it plays into plyometrics and timing. Adarian finishes things off with a conversation on training the foot, and how the foot is not as “weak” as we often think it to be.

Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster.com, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more.

View more show notes at Just-fly-sports.com/podcast-105-adarian-barr

Today’s episode features Angus Ross, physiologist and strength coach at High Performance Sport New Zealand.  Angus is making his second appearance on the podcast, and is following up on his initial chat on aspects of eccentric strength training with lots of practical knowledge in the realms of stiffness, fascia, and performance.

Angus has worked with a number of sports at an elite level within the NZ system including sprint cycling and skeleton in recent years. Angus has a PhD in exercise physiology from the University of Queensland and has also worked within the Australian institute system with stints at both the Queensland Academy of Sport and the Australian Institute of Sport. He is also a Winter Olympian in his own right having competed at the 1998 and 2002 Winter Games.  Angus is one of the most intelligent, and curious coaches I know, as well as incredibly pragmatic, seeking what works and delivers results.

As with any training method, eccentric training is just one tool for the job, and learning about the means, and how it fits into the total training process also opens up the questions of usage of training such as maximal overcoming isometrics and plyometrics, as well as monitoring which athletes might respond optimally to one method or the other, or knowing which sequence these means should be presented in over the course of a training year.

On today’s podcast, we will go in depth on double versus single leg stiffness, and what that means for team sport athletes versus track and field sprinters.  We’ll also cover the benefits and use of plyometrics versus overloaded eccentric training, and how to look at using these methods in the course of a training year.  Finally, Angus has some fantastic thoughts and ideas on muscular versus fascial driven athletes that resonate with many of my own thoughts and things seen in previous podcasts, such as our recent episode with Randy Huntingon.

Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more.

View more show notes at Just-fly-sports.com/podcast-104-angus-ross

Today’s episode features track and field master coach, Randy Huntington, who is in his 42nd year of coaching athletes to go faster, higher and further.  Huntington is currently a national track and field coach for the Chinese athletics association and is rated as a USATF Master Coach in the jumps.  In his work in China he is directly responsible for the development of their sprinters and horizontal jumpers, and is working with such elite athletes as Su Bingtian (100m and 60m Chinese record holder).

Huntington has been the coach for many world-class athletes over the years, including eight Olympians and seven World Championship Team members. Mike Powell and Willie Banks set world records in the long jump and triple jump, respectively, while under his tutelage (Powell’s record still stands!). Six of his athletes have been in the U.S. all-time top ten in their respective events.

Huntington has also coached Olympians Joe Greene (long jump bronze medal in 1992), Sheila Hudson (American indoor and outdoor record-holder in the triple jump), Al Joyner, Darren Plab, Tony Nai and Sharon Couch. At least one of his athletes has competed in every summer Olympic Games since 1984.  Randy also has experience with speed training for other sports, particularly American football.

It’s always an amazing experience to be able to sit down with such experienced and legendary coaches in the field and gain insight into their process and wisdom.  With so many of the world records and high marks in the jumps, not only on the world level, but even American high school, coming out of the 1980’s and 1990’s, it is awesome to talk to coaches like Randy Huntington about what made those athletes successful, and which core principles we cannot forget.

On today’s episode, Randy talks about his 3 and 4 day a week setups for sprinters and jumpers, and how to determine who fits into what mold.  He also talks about long term development of sprinters and jumpers, as well as an extensive talk on strength training for the sake of sprint and jump development.  This is a legendary talk for anyone who is interested in getting athletes faster and jumping higher.

Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster.com, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more.

View more show notes at Just-fly-sports.com/podcast103-randy-huntington

Today’s episode features track and field coach, and training organization expert Derek Evely.  Derek made his original appearance on episode #43 of the podcast where he spoke extensively on the core principles of the Bondarchuk training system, and how it’s ideas it can be applied into sprint training.  Derek is back now, talking on many more facets of the system, particularly in terms of understanding and tracking adaptation and exercise variation, which are two absolutely critical training variables when dealing with advanced athletes.

The Bondarchuk training system was invented, of course, by Anatoliy Bondarchuk, and has yielded the most consistent Olymic medal sweeps (in the hammer throw) by any country in history.  The core of the training system is doing the same exact workout or workouts (composed of a specific exercise, CE, a special strength exercise, SDE a strength movement using the same prime muscles, SPE, and then basic general exercises that incorporate multiple planes of movement, GPE), and repeating that until an athlete reaches their peak performance with that “exercise set”.   In this manner, many variables, such as the weight on the bar each day, are fixed, so that the effectiveness of each component of the cycle can be monitored as much as possible in terms of its contribution to the athletes adaptation.

Derek is a true master of training organization, and is considered by many to be the best in the world.   He has trained world-class athletes such as Sultana Frizell, Dylan Armstrong and Gary Reed, and has the real-world success to go alongside his knowledge gained from experience and the practices of other world class coaches.  On the podcast today, we’ll talk about delayed transformation, the role of variation in producing overload, creating an optimal peaking cycle, and also a great discussion on the “parts” system, or complex training, in eliciting training gains out of already advanced athletes.

Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more.

View more show notes at Just-fly-sports.com/podcast-102-derek-evely/

Today’s episode features Dr. Tommy John, chiropractor, sports performance specialist and pioneer in youth sport injury prevention.  

Dr. John is the son of the famous major league pitcher, Tommy John, whom the famous elbow reconstruction surgery is named after (I actually went through that surgery myself as a result of throwing the javelin, but moreso due to poor technique than the typical chronic overtraining and lack of rest and movement most young athletes encounter).  He carries Master Degrees in Health and Exercise Science from Furman University, and brings over 17 years of health experience to the table.   He had stints as a professional baseball player himself before a shoulder infection from a surgery ended his career.

I first came across Dr. John’s work in my search for a better explanation of Jay Schroeder methodics.  As I learned more about him, I found that he is a wealth of knowledge, not just on some of the things he learned from Jay, but also on human movement and performance, training psychology and youth injury prevention.  Dr. John combines his extensive background in sports performance and chiropractic to deliver a unique training experience and insight that can push forward our coaching.

On today’s episode, Dr. John will go into his time learning from Jay Schroeder, bodyweight training as a staple, how and when to utilize barbell training, movements all athletes do well, and thoughts on injury prevention in youth and general athletic performance.  Dr. John has a new book coming out on exactly that topic called “Minimize Injury, Maximize Performance, A Sport Parent’s Survival Guide” which I would highly recommend.

Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster.com, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more.  

View more show notes at Just-fly-sports.com/podcast-101-tommy-john

Today’s episode features a special roundtable featuring experts Jorge Carvajal, Zach Even-Esh and Jeremy Frisch.  Together, these coaches have over half a century of training expertise, and have worked with a wide sweeping range of athletes.  In addition to this, their experience is with many athletes ranging from very young to professional level, and have also seen the changes sport culture that have come about over the last few decades (if you aren’t aware, those changes have resulted in injury rates magnitudes higher than what was seen in the 1990’s).   Today’s topic is the injury crisis in youth sports and the related deprivation of movement and physical literacy of the coming generation.

I was asked a while ago if I had anything special planned for the 100th episode of the podcast (I can’t believe it’s gone so far!).  I didn’t have much in mind for it, but I’ve actually saved this recording a few episodes to be 100, since I feel that it checks a lot of boxes on what makes this podcast what it is, and that is the time and willingness of great coaches to be a voice to help other coaches, and ultimately, help athletes reach their highest potential.

I think that the message today that these three coaches bring is honestly the most important one of all, more important than getting an extra tenth off your 40 yard dash, and a higher calling than tacking 2 extra inches on one’s vertical jump.  That higher calling is the physical literacy and movement crisis that so many young athletes are facing. It is one that elicits burnout and injury like never before seen, and also feeds into the nature of our educational system itself.

Topics covered on the show include the age an athlete may actually be ready to specialize and when that is appropriate, how local culture impacts which sport a child plays, how depriving students of movement is harming students educational and global experiences and how to bring physical literacy back into our culture.

Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster.com, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more.  

View more show notes at Just-fly-sports.com/podcast-100

Today’s episode brings back Christian Thibaudeau, speaking further into neuro-typing, particularly on the impact of brain chemistry on athlete training invidiualization and coaching.  Sport psychology is generally under-appreciated, as coaching of the highest order fully appreciates and understands the impact of an athlete’s mental state on competition and important training sessions.  When one knows brain chemistry’s influence, there is less guessing, and the ability to more precisely prepare an athlete for their optimal performance.

Coaching is also impacted by neurology, and on today’s episode, coach Thibaudeau goes into how each neuro-type is gifted with particular abilities to coach athletes.   Some athletes are immensely attracted to, or frustrated by, the styles of particular coaches, so knowing potential links or conflicts created by brain chemistry and neuro-typing is a must to get the most out of your own coaching and your athlete’s performance.

Finally, this podcast goes full circle, as the same things that create difficulty in responding to the highest competition for athletes also create difficulty in their ability to respond to workouts of a high neural intensity.  Christian digs into the common brain chemistry behind these phenomena, and how our understanding can help us create better programming on the week to week basis, in addition to better competitive strategies.

Finally, I recommend listening to my first podcast with Christian, episode #77  if you have not done so already, to get an overview of the neurotypes, since Christian hits the ground running on them in today’s show.

If you are interested in becoming certified in Neurotyping, check out my review of Christian’s course HERE.

Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more.  

View more show notes at Just-fly-sports.com/podcast-99-christian-thibaudeau

Today’s episode features biomechanist Gary Ward, author of “What the Foot” and founder of “Anatomy in Motion”.  

Starting his interest in the foot as a ski-boot fitter, Gary is now known for solving unsolvable pain in minutes, not months.  His passion for the foot hugely influenced his interpretation of human movement. He is increasingly sought after by all types of practitioners in the fitness and therapy industry, teaching an evolution that starts with the foot and results in whole body integrated movement solutions.   

One of the things that has drawn me to Gary’s work is his holistic assessment of human biomechanics.  When it comes to becoming the best athlete one can be, it is important to have core rules of human movement by which we can define our programs and practices.  I haven’t read a work where those rules are as clearly defined as “What the Foot”, and after learning from other great resources in the field such as the Postural Restoration Institute, and then the dynamic field work on Adarian Barr, Gary’s work makes good sense.   Examples of such rules are things ilke “Joints act and muscles react”, and “Everything orbits around centre”.

On today’s episode, Gary will go into his background, and how he began interest in the foot.  He’ll talk about the big rules of movement, particularly how human position dictates muscle firing, and not the other way around.  We’ll also talk about finding an athletes centre and what that means for training, as well as the importance of pronation in explosive human movement.

Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster.com, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. 

View more show notes at Just-fly-sports.com/podcast-98-gary-ward/

Today’s episode features speed and athletic movement expert Lee Taft, making his second appearance on the podcast.  Lee has unique experience as an athlete, educator, sport coach and speed coach that puts him on another level in terms of dissecting movement that leads to success.  He has 3 decades of work under his belt in the speed development industry, and hearing him talk about the fine points of speed both reveals the fine tuned complexity of an athlete in motion, as well as helping us as coaches find the best way to steer athletes towards the optimal model.

One of the things that I’ve always been interested in is not coaching speed out of athletes.  Until you have a thorough understanding of how athletes move properly, it can be tough to know when to actually instruct an athlete in movement, and how to do so.  That is where Lee’s deep dives into speed become so valuable.

In terms of speed, I love track and field, but movement in team sport certainly has differences from top-end sprinting.  On today’s episode, Lee talks about some of the key differences, not just between a track and team sport athlete, but also a court sport and field sport athlete.   We go into the importance of well-rounded speed development, but how this changes as an athlete matures in their sport. He also digs into the development of reactive agility through his favorite games, as well as how he uses reactive versus closed components within each speed training session.  This episode is particularly valuable for coaches working with a range of athletes

Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster.com, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more.

View more show notes at Just-fly-sports.com/podcast-97-lee-taft/