Just Fly Performance Podcast

Today’s episode features Alex Natera, Senior Athletic Performance Specialist at the GWS Giants.  Alex has over twenty years of experience in high performance sport including time spent as a professional sportsman, a technical coach, a sport science lecturer, a published scientific researcher and his primary role as strength & conditioning coach.  

Prior to the Giants, Alex was the Senior S&C Coach of Aspire Academy Athletics specializing in the sprint events.  Alex has extensive work with the physical preparation of track and field athletes.  He also has worked as a Rugby head coach, and has done physical preparation for over a dozen Olympic and Commonwealth games sports.  Alex is currently completing his PhD from Bond University where he is investigating a novel aspect of power development, high volume power training and repeat power ability.

I first heard of Alex on the Historic Performance Podcast, and was truly intrigued by Alex’s way of thinking, which centered on using a series of maximal, specific isometric holds for speed development, and whereby his athletes were having great progressions in their overall training.  I had never seen or heard of isometrics being used in such a manner for the training of track and field sprinters, and digging deeper, connected with Alex and in our correspondence, he put together one of the greatest Q&A pieces that Just Fly Sports has put out.  Many months after its debut, it still continues to get likes and shares on social media.  

Not only are Alex’s isometric methods different, but they get results.  His methods also make sense.  If you have followed the training ideals of Christian Thibaudeau, Anatoliy Bondarchuk, Michael Yessis, Cal Dietz, Bret Contreras, and DB Hammer and put them together in a simple way that helped to get sprinters maximally fast, then you would have the system of Alex Natera.  

Today’s podcast was designed as a follow up to his article, and we dig into Alex’s background as an athlete, coach, and how he created his system of specialized strength training for speed and its progression.  We will get into questions and ideas of supramaximal and isometric strength training, combining isometrics with plyometric training, specialized exercises for building speed, yearly progressions, 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-86-alex-natera/

Today’s episode features track and field coach Mike Goss.  Mike is a physical education instructor of 20 years, and has been coaching track and field on the high school, club and NCAA Division I collegiate level for over 25 years.  Currently Mike is coaching independently the club “Flying Without Wings”, and is an assistant at Parkview HS, the Georgia 7A state runner-up in 2017.

I first met Mike at the Central Virginia Sports Performance Seminar back in 2015, but I knew of his work well before then by reading his track and field, jumps training articles on Speedendurance.com.  Mike is an experienced coach, has a thirst for knowledge, and has lots of success over the years, coaching numerous track and field champions in the long, high and triple jumps.   His creative and unique practice methods contain ideas that we can all utilize in our efforts to get the most out of our athletes while building a great environment for them.  

Not only is Mike a great coach, but he is also one of the most generous people I know in terms of giving his time to coach those in need of assistance.  His spirit and love for the sport is something we can all aspire towards.  

One article of Mike’s that stuck with me, and prompted me to purchase Tadeusz Starzynski’s book on jump training was looking at his work with speed squats, where he tracked the amount of time it took athletes to perform a particular amount of reps, and weight could only increase given only a small increase in the time needed to perform the repetitions.  

For today’s episode, we’ll cover Mike’s philosophy on training track and field jumpers, coaching rhythms, approaches to plyometrics, particularly in setting up competitions for those plyometric exercises, as well as strength training for jumpers.  

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-85-mike-goss/

Today’s episode features Michael Zweifel, owner of “Buiding Better Athletes” performance center in Dubuque, Iowa.  

Michael was a key contributor on the incredibly popular agility, perception and sport movement roundtable with himself, Shawn Myzska, and Scott Salwasser.  Michael is a CSCS, IYCA certified practitioner, and was the all time NCAA leading receiver with 463 receptions in his playing days at University of Dubuque.  

Michael is not only one of the most well studied individuals on methods of improving athletic speed, jumping and overall power (you may have read his contributions to Just Fly Sports in this regard over the last few years), but he is also a field-leader in transferable training methods to on-field reactive ability.  As we’ve discussed in past episodes, great speed and strength doesn’t win games if athletes can’t react properly to their opponents.

Michael is continually pushing the envelope in this area, particularly in the target of the private sector and scholastic athletes.  He is continually finding new methods to give athletes chances to improve their reactive power through a variety of creative methods, many of which you can catch on his Twitter and Instagram profiles.  

Michael’s talks on our last roundtable were really intriguing and brought up a number of new questions that I was excited to follow up with for this solo episode.  Topics today will be the relation of linear speed to on field success, transitional speed, quantifying training for sport speed, agility, learning enviornments, building reactive warmups, 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-84-michael-zweifel/

Today’s episode features Bret Contreras, returning for his second podcast appearance.  Bret is one of the world’s foremost experts on strength and performance, and is the expert on all things glute and hip extension training.  If you are interested in getting athletes faster, Bret’s knowledge is first-priority info.

Last time on the podcast, Bret talked all things hip thrust, hamstrings, squat depth and cueing.  This time, Bret is back to go in depth on the recent research that came out regarding the hip thrust exercise and speed.  After a promising New Zealand youth study showing superior speed adaptations compared to a front squat, a couple of studies dealing with college populations showing no transfer to sprinting faster. (Studies can be found in show notes at Just-fly-sports.com/podcast-83-bret-contreras)  

Bret wrote in depth on this afterwards, but in this podcast, Bret gives a vast array of ideas that coaches have thrown out there as to why those studies may have not shown transfer to sprinting faster (21 of them to be exact!).  Most of these reasons don’t hold water, but a Bret noted a few that do, and those few are actually very important guideposts when considering any strength exercise that might transfer to speed or dynamic sport movement.  This alone makes this required listening, in my opinion, for any strength coach looking to get athletes faster.  

Outside of this, Bret went in depth and unplugged on how so many well-meaning sports medicine professionals end up setting athletes up with nocebo effects by telling them how “dysfunctional” they are when Bret sees otherwise when those people end up training with him.  He also talks about the common fallacies of corrective exercise.  Between Bret’s 21 topics on the hip thrust and speed, and this bit, this podcast is a heavy hitter.  It’s always great to have Bret on the show, and this episode is another gem.

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-83-bret-contreras

Today’s episode features guest Cody Plofker, Co-Founder of Adapt Performance and Rehab in Lawrence Township, New Jersey.   Cody has worked with athletes of all levels and ranges, including those in the NFL and collegiate ranks.   He is an expert in blending PRI principles with modern athletic performance methods.  For those of you who enjoyed the lifting concepts talk with Justin Moore, this will be another incredible episode along the same lines of thought.

About a year ago, I first got introduced to the Postural Restoration Institute (PRI) through a seminar put on at the US Olympic Training Center.  Since then, I’ve realized that the biggest piece missing in my coaching paradigm for my collegiate population is an intimate understanding of the spinal engine, posture, respiration, and how to optimally assess and correct athletes based on these concepts.

So often as strength coaches, we get in to reductionist thinking of just rolling and stretching tight muscles, to achieve better movement patterns, but the fact of the matter is that the body is a more complex system, and the brain will increase the tone of particular muscles for a reason.  This is where Cody’s experience is such an incredible help for athletes, as well as educating coaches.

Cody Plofker has been a student of not only PRI for many years, but also has experience using common assessment systems of the FMS and SFMA, as well as Functional Range Conditioning.  Since these are very common tools in the sports performance and personal training world, I’m excited to chat with someone as intelligent as Cody in regards to which aspects of which systems he finds useful, and how his athlete assessment currently plays out.

On today’s podcast, we will talk about Cody’s assessment methods, blending aspects of PRI and SFMA, as well as dealing with common athlete issues such as “tight” ankles, internal rotation deficits, and extension pattern problems.  We’ll also get into optimizing hip extension and talk a great deal about squatting progressions and patterns.  One of the amazing quotes of Cody’s that I think sums things up well is:

“You gotta go after the pelvic position first; I’m not going to stretch something until we get that”

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-82-cody-plofker

Today’s episode features a special coaching roundtable featuring three experts in the implementation of the “1x20” training system: Jeff Moyer of DC Sports Training, Matt Thome of Michigan Tech University, and Ryan Bracius of Wisconsin Whitewater.

Most folks familiar with Just Fly Sports and the podcast know of Jeff Moyer, as he has been a frequent guest and writer, and is also the first guy to really get me intrigued by the 1x20 system, and its benefits for athletes. Since then, Jeff has been a huge contributor to Just Fly Sports, and I’ve had a number of coaches ask me about the 1x20 system since our first episode together. I met Matt Thome and Ryan Bracius in person at the Track Football Consortium VI in Chicago this past December. Matt is the head strength coach at Michigan Tech, working with football and basketball, and Ryan is developing some of the best football athletes in NCAA Division III at Wisconsin Whitewater. Both are getting fantastic results with rock-bottom injury rates. Matt had the idea of talking not just about “1x20”, but particularly about “life after 1x20”, or how to transition athletes to the next step in their training after the 1x20 system has run its course. It’s important to realize that coaches using the 1x20 model use much more than just this singular set and rep scheme.

For those unfamiliar with the 1x20 system, a simple explanation is as follows:

Start athletes out with 5-8 exercises, with 1 set of 20 reps each, building up to around 18-23 exercises over time. Instead of pushing the gas pedal down the first day with the intensity, the exercises are “slow cooked” by gradually adding weight over time. When athletes reach adaptation (stop improving) on the sets of 20, then the next phase is 1x14, and finally 1x8. This system was taught to many coaches today by Yosef Johnson who was mentored by the inventor of the system, Dr. Michael Yessis. Coaches who have used the system have noted good to great gains in strength, but also in athletes explosive KPI’s compared to other systems, as well as a reduction in injury rate.

On the episode today, we go in depth on each coach’s introduction to the 1x20 system, how they implement it, and what kind of results they are getting. We’ll also talk about why the 1x20 works so well from a physiological and neural level. The second half of the episode talks about the transition from the 1x20 system into other training methods, such as velocity based, and special strength training.

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-81-moyer-thome-bracius/

Today’s guest is Cal Dietz, returning for his second appearance on the Just Fly Performance Podcast. Two of Cal’s books, Triphasic Training (the original) and then the Triphasic Training manual for Football (written with Chris Korfist) have had a huge impact on my program writing. I’ve seen Cal speak several times, and have always walked away with great new ideas on training and performance.

Cal Dietz has been the Head Olympic Strength and Conditioning coach for numerous sports at the University of Minnesota since 2000. He has consulted with Olympic and World Champions in various sports and professional athletes in the NHL, NFL, NBA, MLB, and Professional Boxing. He runs the website xlathlete.com, and is one of the founders of the RPR (Reflexive Performance Reset) system. Cal has been a mentor to dozens of up-and-coming strength coaches in the field, including 2-time podcast guest, Matt Van Dyke.

In this episode, we get into a lot of nuts and bolts of Cal’s views on speed training, particularly assisted and resisted methods, jumping and plyometrics, cueing in the weightroom, as well as all topics of lifting and the posterior chain. We’ll also get into training the feet, which has been a large interest of mine in the past year.

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-80-cal-dietz

Today’s guest is Håkan Andersson, elite Swedish sprint coach and consultant. Håkan has more than 30 years of experience, has had periods of serving as the national sprint and relay coach, and is or has been the personal coach for many successful track and field sprinters. He also involvement in speed and power in other sports, such as swimming and boxing, and has consulted with many professional organizations.

Looking at how good the Swedish sprinters are, with as small of a population as the country has, and how poor the climate is for sprinting (sunlight is generally a big indicator of speed, just look at how great of percentage of the USA’s best sprinters are from Florida, Texas and California), you know that Håkan is really doing some great things. Looking at some of the progressions of these athletes, such as Peter Karlsson going from 11.70 to 10.18 in the 100m, and you know something special is happening in his training groups.

Everything I’ve heard from Håkan in the past is the “top of the line” in terms of combining knowledge of speed and power research into good practice. With his many years of coaching experience, as well as creativity on training his athletes in the far North, to excellent results, Håkan is a guest I’ve been looking forward to having on the show for some time.

On this episode, we’ll be talking about a spectrum of speed training topics, ranging from sprint mechanics and forces, to all means of strength training and their relationship to speed, and finally, breaking down actual sprint training programming.

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-79

Today’s guest is Justin Moore, performance education coordinater at Parabolic Performance & Rehabilitation.  We’ve had some prodigious young coaches on this show, such as Matt Van Dyke, Cameron Josse, and Max Shmarzo, and Justin is no exception to that rule.

I first came across Justin’s work on Darkside Strength, and it has been one of my top resources this past year in terms of applying Postural Restoration (PRI) Institute principles into my strength and conditioning practice.  For those not familiar with PRI, it is a way of looking at the body from a standpoint of respiration, and its impact on joint position.

I’ve found over the years that athletes who tend to thrive more, as they gain weight room strength, in terms of their performance in track, or swimming, are those who have alignments that are closer to optimal.  Athletes who have poor position of the thorax will generally hit glass ceilings of their sport performance, or even go backwards when heavily loaded over time.

In my mind, those coaches that are integrating PRI into strength and conditioning based practice are pushing the industry forward in a big way, and can help all of us give our athletes the positioning, and subsequent training they need to reach their highest level, and prevent injury in the process.  Today on the podcast, Justin shares his knowledge on PRI principles, cueing strategies, squat and deadlift sequencing, the role of the hamstrings in lifting, and much more.

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-78-justin-moore/

Today’s guest is coach, writer and speaker Christian Thibaudeau.  If you are familiar with T-Nation, and don’t live under a rock in general, you are likely aware of Christian and his work on strength and human performance.

Although Christian is often looked at as a bodybuilding type coach, he is very much a strength, power and athletic performance coach, and a great one at that.  If you haven’t read his book, “Theory and Application of Modern Strength and Power Methods”,  you are really missing out on some great work in the realm of explosive athletic preparation.

In the last few years, one of the biggest areas of intrigue for me, and possibly the biggest “game changer” I’ve been utilizing in coaching is that of neuro-typing athletes.  I started with the Braverman test several years ago, read the “Edge Effect”, and then recently I’ve been listening to some of the new work that Christian has come out with on the level of neuro-typing focusing on three general athlete classifications, five in total, that really make great sense when considering what has worked, or hasn’t worked, for me or athletes I coach.  I’ve been devouring everything Christian has written on the topic, and it has made true changes in my coaching for the better.

The five types coach Thibaudeau will discuss are type 1A and B (neural/dopamine types), type 2A and B (muscular/adrenaline types) and type 3 (serotonin type).  This podcast goes in depth into individualizing training programs based on these types, and how to get the best results you possibly can for each individual.

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-77-christian-thibaudeau/