Just Fly Performance Podcast

Today’s episode features legendary strength, fitness and track coach Dan John.  Dan John may have had the single greatest impact on me than any other strength writer, and has decades of experience in education, coaching and writing.  Dan has run an incredibly successful high school throws program, in addition to his strength training accolades. One of the things I feel Dan has to offer that many miss is his holistic teaching style.  His education in arenas outside of the sports performance field, and his ability to connect the dots and communicate it clearly is something I’ve routinely taken great value from.

Getting stronger and being a better athlete, especially in the modern digital age can be highly confusing.  There are so many training programs to choose from, as well as a strong desire to collect what one likes and toss it in the weekly workload.  Dan’s work has often been a hedge against that desire, and I generally find that more minimalistic programs tend to be less stressful to create, as well as easier to monitor, implement and get focus and quality from in athletes.  In reading Dan’s work (particularly Easy Strength), one can see that a simple solution that took a lot of life experience to get to is best practice.

Today, Dan John delivers the best 70 minutes of strength and performance knowledge and wisdom you’ll get a chance to listen to for a while.  For today’s show, Dan talks about how to simplify a program and cut out the unneccesary, the “Easy Strength” philosophy, and how to take it into track coaching events, the history and effectiveness of loaded carries, ownership and effectiveness of lousy training facilities and a lack of equipment, high rep strength training, and the effect of coaching in the digital age.  

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-96-dan-john/

Today’s episode features Rob Assise, track and field coach at Homewood-Flossmoor High School in the greater Chicago area.  Rob has been an accomplished writer in the last year, and has been a highly successful coach on the track and field level. His progressive workouts have netted him great success, as Homewood-Flossmoor has been a force on the state track and field level in Illinois.  

Specifically for Just Fly Sports, Rob has written “10 Low-Hanging Fruits to Grab for Optimal Performance”.  He has also been a speaker for one of the mecca’s of track and field training, the Track-Football Consortium, and will be speaking at the next iteration this June.  

Like Tony Holler, Rob has gone from a more volume oriented approach that he trained under, to a more progressive, low volume approach that more and more track coaches are utilizing, not only to help athletes to new personal bests, but also to make track and field more fun and engaging for the athlete.   To me, it is both Rob’s knowledge and creativity that make him someone I love to sit down and talk training with. One of the biggest game changers for me that Rob mentioned was doing curvilinear sprints for his track and field jumpers, which is just the tip of the iceberg in the many cutting edge methods he employs with his athletes.  

On today’s podcast, Rob talks about his background, training philosophy, speed and plyometric methods, weightroom concepts, the “constraint based” jump training system (a real gem) and more.

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-95-rob-assise/

Today’s episode features Clemson University director of strength and conditioning for Olympic sports, Rick Franzblau.   

During his time at Clemson, Franzblau has worked with 10 ACC champion track and field squads.   He has also worked with 8 individual NCAA champions, and 7 olympians in track and field. In 2013, he worked with Brianna Rollins, who set the American record in the 100 meter hurdles.  Rick’s current role has him directly responsible for baseball and soccer.

When it comes to a wide-sweeping view of athlete analysis and training, Rick’s system is unparalleled on the collegiate level.  His system utilizes force plates, Nordbord, 1080 sprint, PRI techniques, and more in gathering a complete picture of an athlete’s abilities and training needs.   Rick’s success in the world of speed and power athletes, as well as his expansive knowledge makes him a fantastic guy to talk to when it comes to all aspects of sports performance.  

On today’s show, we talk about Rick’s athletes assessment protocols, speed training progressions, velocity based training protocols, Olympic lift protocols and his utilization of neuro and structural optimization systems.

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-94-rick-franzblau/

Today’s episode features performance coach Dan Fichter.  Dan is the owner of WannaGetFast, a sports performance business in Rochester, NY, and is one of the most innovative and educated coaches in the field.  Dan’s knowledge of the neurological aspects of training is on another level. His work comes out of his time with many legendary mentors, such as Jay Schroder and Mel Siff, and also has been impacted heavily by the work of “DB Hammer”.   When it comes to training athletes, Dan is a coach that is absolutely driven by results, and pushes himself to learn more and get better on a regular basis.

Dan has been a two-time previous guest on the show, with a solo episode and a popular DB Hammer episode where he spoke alongside Chris Korfist.  Todays episode is in the neuro-dynamics vein, as Dan digs into his methodology on a number of training methods that center on the optimal function of the nervous system.  

Today, Dan goes into detail on long duration isometrics, and how he uses them to get better results out of barbell lifting.  He also goes in depth on a training method he mentioned in episode #8, oscillatory isometrics, which is one of my personal favorite training methods.  Dan also goes into detail on harnessing the reflex system to get athletes better results, as well as sensory inputs, amongst other topics of power and performance.  This is a true coaches episode, as lots of means and methods are described that can get athletes better results immediately.

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-93-dan-fichter

Today’s episode features French physical preparation coach Jérome Simian.   Jérome has a wide-ranging knowledge in working with athletes, and has one of the most holistic training philosophies in the world.

He has been a physical preparation coach to athletes gaining 22 major championship medals in track and field as well as the European record in the men's heptathlon in Kevin Mayer.  He has also worked with high level athletes in Tennis, Skeleton, Ice Dancing and Golf amongst other sports. I first heard of Jerome through his writings on Charles Polquin’s website and was highly intrigued with his methods, as I could see many of them resembled what I had seen from Jay Schroeder.  The fact is that Jérome has been mentored, and uses methods largely from both Schroeder, as well as Charles Poliquin, who are respectively two masters of the industry.

As such, I was truly excited to have a conversation with Jérome.  His methods work, and he gets great results where many other coaches will stagnate.  Kevin Mayer has impressed many as he has continued to get faster into his mid-20s, where many multi-eventers simply get stronger and throw things farther in these years but can’t jump any higher or run any faster.  

As the industry is learning, getting stronger doesn’t mean you get faster or jump higher, especially at a particular point.  It is here that many coaches just keep pushing barbell maxes because it’s all they have. Jérome’s work is so incredible because he is always finding ways that athletes can improve and push their limits, and his work in track and field shows that he gets dynamic results.  On today’s podcast, we talk about the construction of Jérome’s training philosophy, fixing weak links in athletes, intention based movement and problem solving, and what his training sessions look like.

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-92-jerome-simian/

Today’s episode features basketball head coach and strength and conditioning specialist, Scott Thom.  Scott has experience on the high school, collegiate and professional level in sports performance and basketball coaching.  He is the head men’s basketball coach at the University of Marin.  He was the former head strength coach for men’s basketball at Washington State University and the same role at the University of California-Berkeley.  Scott is the author of “Season of Strength” also happened to be the guest for the third episode of the Just Fly Performance Podcast back 2 years ago, so I’m excited to have him back.

Of all the coaches I’ve worked with or alongside, I’ve had a particular respect for Scott in terms of his ability to relate to his players, build a great team culture, and send his athletes on the path to success.  This is reciprocated in the professional players that Scott has worked with in the past that still continue to work with him after their time with him in their collegiate career is over.

In being a sports performance professional, or coach in general, we know that team culture and relationships are the first priority in the road to success.  The best training program, devoid of buy-in, discipline and team cohesion will fall flat in the grand scheme of things.  In our own journey as coaches, particularly as strength coaches looking to create a culture in the weightroom that will reciprocate success on the field of play, as well as life in general, Scott’s thoughts and ideas are of great value.

On today’s podcast, Scott goes into his transition from college strength and conditioning to a head basketball coach at college of Marin and gives insights on how he ties the weightroom to what he expects on the court as a head coach.  We’ll also chat on ideas on using the weightroom as a conduit to enhancing communication, motivation and overall 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-91-scott-thom/

Today’s episode features sport performance coach and consultant, Walt Cline.  He is the founder of AMPS Training Systems.  Coach Cline has served as an assistant athletics coach, private coach and consultant to teams and programs at multiple levels in the USA. His athletic projects include thousands of prospective scholastic athletes, collegiate athletes and professional athletes.  Cline's work and contracts are based primarily on movement biomechanics, team Sports, throwing & striking sports, speed development, strength & conditioning and curriculum design.

Our chat revolves around Walt’s arrangement of training, which features block and roll-over arrangement of three distinct training days: strength-endurance, strength and velocity.  I first learned of Walt’s work about 6 years ago, and found his approach to periodization, potentiation and cluster training unique and insightful. Walt is one of those guys you haven’t heard much about, since he is not very active on social media, but his experiences, mentors and knowledge of speed and power development is of an extremely high level.  

I’ve always been a huge training organization and structure guy.  I won’t write out a whole season before I get there, but I like frameworks and ideas for arranging training that make sense.  I am always thrilled to see a system of training in place that makes complex ideas simple, and helps me to understand what is doing on with my athletes, and how to better give them what they need as a season unfolds.  

In this episode, Walt gives a thorough explanation of his workout classification, which works on a color system, and matches what is happening on the track and in the weightroom.  It has resemblance to training structures such as the Cube system, as well as Dan Pfaff’s 3-day rollover, but is free-flowing and easily adaptable to any situation. Simply having an idea of how Walt does program design is sure to give any coach great ideas on how to make what they are doing even better.

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-90-walt-cline/

Today’s episode is a question and answer session where I take user questions from Instagram.  It’s always good to settle back and see what people are interested in, and things often tend to run in themes.  For this episode, themes revolved largely around lifting in positions of large ankle dorsiflexion and knee bend, training setups and concepts for jumps, as well as questions about Christian Thibaudeau’s neuro-typing system.  You can likely see throughout my answers that the different types of athletes in terms of nervous system strength, novelty need and the ability to utilize the stretch shortening cycle has made a big impact in how I create workouts.

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-89-joel-smith/

Today’s episode features Pat Davidson, Ph.D., director of training methodology and continuing education at Peak Performance NYC.  He is the author of MASS and MASSII and is a sought out expert in the field regarding all things training and human performance.    Pat has competed as a 175-strongman competitor, and was a 2x world championships qualifier, and also has experience in competitive submission wrestling and mixed martial arts.  Prior to his current work, Pat served 5 years as an assistant University profession in exercise sciences.  

Pat’s areas of expertise are many, and some of my favorite podcasts I’ve listened to had him as a guest discussing the nervous system and the brain.  If you’ve listened to earlier episodes of the Just Fly Performance Podcast, with Justin Moore or Cody Plofker, you’ve probably heard them mention Pat as a mentor to them, particularly in the universe of Postural Restoration Institute, and its relationship to strength and conditioning and athletic performance training.  In the world of writing, one of Pat’s recent articles really got my wheels turning, where he discussed the dynamics of the knees traveling inwards in a squat, and how simply cueing everyone to “shove their knees out” in squatting can set them backwards.

I’m always fascinated by Pat’s writing and work, and I’m delighted to have him as the next podcast guest, as his thoughts on the big lifts have an impact on everything we see in our athletes training movements. Today’s episode centers around breathing, and dissecting posture and setup in squatting and deadlifting, as well as other common bodyweight training exercises.   So often we coach and cue movements thinking that an athlete’s presentation that movement can simply be cued “in the other direction”, but there are much deeper ramifications to be aware of.  Other topics include muscular vs. impinging strategies in movement, internal rotation in squatting, neck alignment and breathing, training mindset, and more.

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-88-pat-davidson/

Today’s episode features the return of strength coach Mike Boyle.  Mike is one of the foremost experts in the fields of Strength and Conditioning, Functional Training and general fitness.  In 1996 Michael co-founded Mike Boyle Strength and Conditioning, one of the first for-profit strength and conditioning companies in the world.   He is the author of “Functional Training for Sports”, “Advances in Functional Training for Sports”, and “New Functional Training for Sports”.  

Mike made huge waves in the industry when he put down a firm stance against bilateral barbell squatting, in favor of goblet squats and single leg work, which he spoke on in his first guest appearance.  Although many doubters would arise, on last episode, Mike gave some very clear anecdotes on just how good of results you can get in standard NFL combine training  KPI’s without using the “sacred cows” of a barbell back squat.

For today’s episode, we pick back up where we left off, talking about the departure of standard powerlifting means in training athletes, now focusing particularly on posterior chain development.  With the exit of the barbell deadlift, Mike has an array of exercises and movements that heavily tax the muscles of the glutes and hamstrings, and can do so to a greater degree than typical bilateral straight bar work.  

For today’s episode, we’ll cover the biggest differences between the old and new functional training books, why coaches tend to be afraid of the term “functional training”, the evolution of Mike’s sprint training based on the ideas of Tony Holler, developing the posterior chain effectively and safely, and finally, Mike’s 3 “Go-to” total body lifts for developing 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-87-michael-boyle/