Just Fly Performance Podcast

Today’s guest is Dustin Oranchuk, Ph.D. Dustin is a sport scientist focused on sprinting biomechanics, speed development, and force production. Known for blending research with practical coaching insight, his work explores how isometrics, elasticity, and coordination shape high-performance sprinting and athletic movement.

Isometric training is one of the “original” forms of strength training, and in the modern day has become one of the most popular areas of discussion and training methodology. Although the practice has exploded, it often lacks an understanding of physiology of adaptation with various methods.

In this episode, Dustin explores the evolving world of isometric training, including the origins of isometrics. We discuss differences between pushing and holding contractions, tendon and neural adaptations, and modern applications in performance, rehab, and longevity. The conversation also dives into eccentric quasi-isometrics (EQIs), motivation and measurement challenges, and how coaches can intelligently integrate isometrics alongside plyometrics and traditional strength work.

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/)

Timestamps

0:11 – Strength Training Beginnings

5:38 – Evolution of Isometric Training

8:38 – Modern Applications of Isometrics

9:52 – Neural vs. Morphological Adaptations

15:45 – The Importance of Long Holds

19:42 – Combining Isometrics and Plyometrics

39:22 – Exploring Eccentric Quasi-Isometrics

47:10 – Periodization and Isometric Training

1:05:48 – Future Research Directions

1:13:00 – Closing Thoughts and Reflections

Quotes from Dustin Oranchuk

"We can predict performance fairly well from a test where we're actually not moving at all."

"I think the main evolution is getting a little bit less towards building peak strength for barbell purposes and a little bit more universal utility for rehabilitation and longevity."

"Using isometrics at a variety of different muscle lengths and different contraction durations to try and rehab after a pectare or a quadriceps strain or something like that."

"The general or the more popular goal with the longer muscle length movements, or lack thereof, would be morphological adaptations."

"Instead of matching a position, you're just trying to get the most sort of bang for your buck out of the isometrics as far as causing hypertrophy, or being able to target tendon rehabilitation, or build work capacity, or some other sort of little bit more morphological adaptation."

"Tendons tend to need a certain threshold of intensity to get noticeable or meaningful adaptations. I think it's probably somewhere around 70 % of MBIC or max isometric contraction of a pushing ISO."

"It's okay for our SNC work to not look obviously like anything we do on the field."

"You can create a really good weight room environment where there's camaraderie and there's competitiveness without any objective measurements."

"Pushing into a rack is almost always going to be able to be done at a higher intensity than holding something."

About Dustin Oranchuk

Dustin Oranchuk, PhD, is a sport scientist specializing in speed development, biomechanics, and force production in sprinting and jumping. He holds a doctorate in sport science and has worked extensively with elite athletes across track and field, team sports, and high-performance environments. Dustin is widely known for his research-informed yet practical approach to sprint mechanics, isometric training, and elastic performance, bridging laboratory insights with real-world coaching application. Through consulting, research, and education, he helps coaches and athletes better understand how force, stiffness, and coordination influence maximal speed and performance.

Today’s guest is Kevin Secours. Kevin is a veteran martial arts coach, author, and former security professional with decades of experience across Japanese Jiu-Jitsu, Karate, and Russian Systema. Holding five black belts (including an 8th-dan), Kevin has worked extensively in real-world contexts while also teaching meditation, solo training, and strength rituals. He is the author of Rituals of Strength and Unconstrained, and is known for blending martial tradition, modern training theory, psychology, and philosophical inquiry into human development and resilience

The conditioning and tempering of the body in striking sports can draw interesting parallels to collisions needed in jumping, sprinting and landing activities. We can also draw many lessons and ideas from the exercise tradition that goes back centuries with martial arts practice. By understanding combat training disciplines, we can draw out universal application for general movement and performance.

In this episode, we explore the deeper purpose of physical training through martial arts and sport performance. Kevin reflects on early experiences with body hardening, cold exposure, and Zen-influenced practice, examining where such methods build resilience and where they become self-destructive. Drawing parallels to sprinting, jumping, and strength training, we discuss collisions, long isometric holds, ritualized discomfort, and fatigue as tools for cultivating awareness, reducing excess tension, and supporting longevity.

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/)

Timestamps

0:00 – Martial arts origins and body hardening

17:48 – Body tension, trauma, and reading the athlete

28:23 – Isometrics, Soviet methods, and slow strength

33:58 – Journaling, drawing, and learning through reflection

45:02 – Mindset, adaptability, and mental speed

56:46 – Representativeness, ritual, and resilience

1:04:26 – Simplify versus deconstruct in training

1:12:25 – Microdosing discomfort and daily resilience

1:17:24 – Comfort seeking and modern training challenges

Quotes from Kevin Secours

"We refer to it as a calculus of violence. What are you willing to risk for the payoff?"

"It's a meditative practice. You're learning the surfacing, and the alignment, and the variability. And you're learning the modulate, how much power you put in, that we all have enough to destroy ourselves."

"It's what's called Wolff's Law. You put the bone under stress and the bone is going to thicken."

"Some shortcuts are great. Efficiency is amazing, but some things just take time."

"You can't just mimic the weights and mimic the reps and hope to get the same result."

"The first thing you need to know is you're not buying this rank. It will be given if it's earned."

"It was largely psychophysical. Long marathon sparring, long marathon holds and positions, cold water exposure, long meditation right back into fighting. So it was a roller coaster of physical and emotional."

"Training should not be trauma."

"Don't for a second think they wouldn't have wanted warm showers if they could have had them. Yeah. We are comfort seekers."

"You have to educate to understand why you're doing what you're doing. You have to rehearse. So you practice under incrementally growing resistance and then you culminate in a pressure test."

About Kevin Secours

Kevin Secours is a martial arts coach and author focused on practical skill development, resilience, and real-world application of movement and combat principles. Drawing from decades of training and coaching experience, his work bridges traditional martial arts, modern performance thinking, and personal development. Kevin is known for clear teaching, depth of insight, and an emphasis on adaptability, awareness, and lifelong practice.

Today’s guest is Quintin Torres, a strength and performance coach specializing in Marinovich/Heus inspired training methods. With a background in martial arts, Quintin focuses on movement quality, coordination, and individualized methods that help athletes build strength that truly transfers to sport.

So often in athletic development, it is only the “hard” or easily quantifiable qualities that we look to develop. Although these are vital, sport itself (even output sports) live “in between the cracks” of maximal outputs, and then movement quality. Training rarely looks to infuse a full spectrum of athletic qualities, yet programming such as that put forth by Marv Marinovich years ago, does capture many of these dynamics.

On today’s show, Quintin and I explore the Marinovich nervous system training philosophy, contrasting “soft” qualities like reactivity, rhythm, coordination, and perception with traditional hard metrics such as max strength. We discuss why MMA has embraced these methods, the limits of barbell-centric programming, and the importance of observation, experimentation, and individualized coaching. The conversation emphasizes training transfer to sport, creativity, and maintaining athlete adaptability, longevity, and engagement beyond chasing isolated numbers.

Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength and the Just Fly Sports Online Courses

Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer

Use code “justfly20” for 20% off of LILA Exogen Wearable resistance gear at www.lilateam.com

View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/)

Timestamps

0:00 – Quintin’s background and entry into nervous system training

6:18 – Why Marinovich methods resonate in MMA

10:04 – Soft qualities versus hard qualities in performance

16:11 – Assessment driven training and athlete context

27:05 – One on one coaching versus group models

31:41 – Training quality, group size, and real world constraints

40:12 – Foot strength, barefoot work, and bottom up thinking

1:13:09 – Strength without compression and alternative tools

1:25:55 – Manual resistance and simple coaching tools

1:27:41 – Teaching, sharing, and coaching philosophy

Quotes from Quintin Torres

"The primary difference behind, say this training methodology to your traditional strength and conditioning methodologies, is that it prioritizes the development of soft qualities just as much as the development of hard qualities."

"Soft qualities is like your rhythm, your timing, your fluidity of movements, your speed, your reaction time, your coordination on top of how much power you can develop."

"We don't have any technology to measure how fluid an athlete is moving, how quickly they can acquire new skills."

"We focus on very key areas of the body to enhance these mechanisms that makes an athlete talented. Foot strength and neurological drive, muscle elasticity, fluidity of movements."

"We don't need you better at training. We need you better at your sport, better at the way you move, better at the way you acquire skills and better at you execute those skills under pressure."

"A lot of it's based on athletic assessment and what you can observe as a coach will kind of determine how you develop training methodologies for that athlete."

"Everything is trying to influence the nervous system to become more reactive and to adjust to chaos."

"Barbell does not equal maximal strength. Barbell is just a tool to try to achieve a neurological drive at maximum strength on the force velocity curve."

"When you go into different tools, now you can acquire different qualities when it comes to your strength, your speed, your force generation."

"These kettlebells, these barbells, these dumbbells, they're very limited on what you can do as far as developing maximal strength, speed strength, strength speed, or 1RMs."

"Sports performance community are not being trained on how to be sports scientists anymore, just coaches."

"You got to try new training methods, do experiments. That's why I started diving deep into evo sports system with Jay Schroeder, because honestly, I was getting bored."

About Quintin Torres

Quintin Torres is a strength and performance coach with a deep background in mixed martial arts and combat sports. A former competitive MMA athlete, he specializes in nervous system–driven training methods influenced by the Marinovich system, emphasizing reactivity, coordination, and movement quality alongside strength. Quintin works closely with fighters and athletes to individualize training based on biomechanics, perception, and sport demands, helping them build resilient, adaptable performance that transfers directly to competition.

Today’s podcast is a solo episode on keys to athletic longevity and ability. This isn’t just a “stay strong as you age” show, but rather, speaks to principles of comprehensive embodiment of the movement and strength training process.

Here I break down 10 core principles for true athletic longevity; physically, mentally, and creatively. Drawing from decades of coaching, training, and personal evolution, I explore why mastery of bodyweight skills, seasonal training rhythms, and “doing more with less” are essential as athletes age. I dive into the power of games, community, mythos, and ritual in keeping training joyful and sustainable, and explain how reflection, visualization, and a generalist mindset unlock deeper layers of performance. Whether you’re 18 or 68, I share a roadmap for staying explosive, engaged, and young at heart; so your training stops feeling like an obligation and starts feeling like an adventure again.

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/)

0:03 - Introduction to Athletic Longevity

1:09 - Mastery of Bodyweight Strength

7:15 - Doing More with Less

14:48 - Beyond Output: The Joy of Training

33:28 - Working with the Seasons

41:15 - Community and Gameplay

43:04 - The Mythos of Training

54:06 - Reflective Practices for Growth

1:02:29 - Staying Young at Heart

1:05:21 - Conclusion and Training Opportunities

Quotes from Joel

“Longevity is not about chasing numbers. It is about staying able.”

“Minimalism forces your body to become smarter instead of stiffer.”

“When you stop obsessing over the output, you rediscover the joy of the process.”

“If you follow the seasons, your training stays fresh and your body stays adaptable.”

“Gameplay brings out movement qualities you cannot coach in the weight room.”

“Your training story matters. It keeps you showing up long after the numbers stop improving.”

“Reflection is the anchor that keeps your training aligned with who you are becoming.”

“Staying young at heart is as much a training strategy as it is a mindset.”

About Joel Smith

Joel Smith is the founder of Just Fly Sports, a leading education platform in speed, power, and human movement. A former NCAA Division I strength coach with over a decade of collegiate experience, Joel has trained athletes ranging from high school standouts to Olympians. He hosts the Just Fly Performance Podcast, one of the top shows in the sports performance field, and is the author of multiple books on athletic development. Known for blending biomechanics, skill acquisition, and creative coaching methods, Joel helps athletes and coaches unlock higher performance through elastic strength, movement literacy, and holistic training principles.

Today’s guest is Dr. Jarod Burton. Jarod is a chiropractor and sports performance coach focused on neurology-driven movement. He blends manual therapy, strength modailities, and nervous system training to unlock better mechanics and athletic output. His work centers on identifying and clearing the neural limits that hold athletes back.

In training, there are many layers to human performance and athletic outputs. One critical layer is the power transmission of the nervous system, and how to unlock this ability in all athletes. Many athletes naturally have a more adept system, while others may need more bridges to reach their highest levels of performance.

In this episode, Jarod speaks on how his approach has evolved since entering clinical practice. He shares how he uses flywheel training to teach rhythm, “the dance” of force, and powerful catches rather than just concentric effort. He and Joel dig into spinal mobility, ribcage expansion, and even breakdance-style spinal waves as underrated keys to athletic freedom. Jarod then simplifies neurology for coaches, explaining how posture reveals brain-side imbalances and how targeted “fast stretch” work, loud/sticky altitude drops, and intelligently high training volumes can rebalance the system and unlock performance.

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/)

Timestamps

0:00 - Jarod’s background and early coaching lens6:55 - Internal vs external focus and simple cues13:40 - What good movement feels like20:10 - Speed shapes and improving posture29:18 - Blending strength with elastic qualities41:02 - Breathing mechanics and better movement options52:37 - Pelvis function and creating better positions1:00:15 - Skill acquisition and training that sticks1:11:48 - Programming principles and individual needs1:19:40 - Coaching philosophy and athlete communication

Jarod Burton Quotes

"Most of the time when people get into the flywheel there's a learning curve and I like to think of it as it's a nice dance."

"One of the biggest things I love about flywheels is that you can get a very powerful stick, like a very powerful impulse, like catch and then redirection of energy."

"The most important part is actually the patience and the catch at the very bottom. So you might squat up super fast and then you squat back down, but the flywheel is still turning and you're waiting for it to grab. And then as soon as it grabs you, then that's when you stick and then powerfully redirect the force."

"When you're getting that rapid catch and change of direction, you're getting your muscles to rapidly fire at a lengthened state, which would just also further help them recover."

"A postural pattern will reveal a side of the area of the brain that's underactive or overactive."

"When the system gets sensory overloaded, it down regulates the motor system. And so if I can keep the system balanced out, the motor system is going to be upregulated and it's going to be functioning at a much higher level."

"I always tell coaches, let's do 59 seconds of assessing and 59 minutes of training, essentially."

"Once you understand and you see all these individuals posture, you don't unsee it. And within four seconds, you know exactly how to train somebody."

"How your posture lies will tell you exactly which direction the muscles need to go to reset tone. And that's essentially all we're doing is when you reset tone, it rebalances out the brain."

"It turns out that a lot of the exercises that we do don't even come close to mimicking the same amount of stimulus that you get in a baseball throw."

"What I would find that would create the most amount of stimulus or the fastest rate coding high motor unit recruitment was rapid stops where you're basically catching something and you don't move."

About Jarod Burton

Dr. Jarod Burton is a chiropractor and sports performance coach who lives in the intersection of clinical practice, neuroscience, and high-performance human movement. A student of neurology and motor learning, Jarod works to uncover the hidden nervous system constraints that influence posture, coordination, elasticity, and power expression in sport.

His methods combine manual therapy, joint mapping, sensory integration, and movement-based diagnostics to create individualized solutions that free up range, recalibrate neural rhythm, and unlock athletic speed, strength, and resilience. Jarod is passionate about a holistic philosophy of performance; one where the brain, body, and environment work in concert to reveal the best version of the athlete.

Today’s guest is Reinis Krēgers, a former champion decathlete turned track and physical education coach. Reinis is dedicated to building complete movers: fast, coordinated, confident athletes who understand their bodies. His training blends classical sprint development with exploratory tasks, helping athletes develop physical literacy and long-term adaptability.

In sports performance, we often fixate on exercises, cues, and optimizing micro-qualities in the moment. What we discuss far less, yet what often separates the elite, is the role of play, creativity, and culture. By looking closely at events like the pole vault and hurdles, we can see how a developmental, curiosity-driven approach benefits athletes of every sport.

In this episode, Reinis shares the remarkable story of losing a finger, training exclusively with his non-dominant hand, and still setting a shot put PR. This opens the door to a rich discussion on cross-education, novelty, and how the brain actually learns movement. We explore play-based coaching, pole vault as a developmental super-tool, contrasts between Eastern and American coaching philosophies, youth sport creativity, and sustainable tendon development.

It’s a conversation full of insight, storytelling, and reminders of what truly anchors a lifelong athletic journey: curiosity, joy, and the art of falling in love with movement.

Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength and LILA Exogen wearable resistance.

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/)

0:00 – Early upbringing in Latvia and falling in love with movement

6:18 – Play, curiosity, and environment driven athlete development

14:50 – Injuries, setbacks, and choosing to continue competing

23:40 – Czech training experience and constraints based coaching

33:05 – European versus American development and long term athlete philosophy

45:10 – Games, novelty, and bringing play back into training

59:47 – Specialization mistakes and the importance of multi sport development

1:11:48 – Plyometrics, bounding, and gradual tissue adaptation

1:22:40 – Injury lessons, tendon health, and the value of long term gradual loading

Quotes from Reinis Krēgers

"In art of coaching, there has to be that mystery a little bit in some ways."

"I give a lot of constraints to kids for sprinting purposes, for actually developing their form and awareness in space. I try to explain them the constraint that you're developing something, you're developing the brain."

"The mess is good. The more mess the better, really. And embrace it. It's about changing the value system for coach, I think, and an educator."

"The world record holder played a lot. Why do we dare to say that we shouldn't?"

"Elite athletics is that like you just need to put in hours and reps and sets over years. Cumulative training effect: if you stay in the game if you don't have many disruptions and interruptions of training you should get somewhere like it's a formula."

"I was the oldest but the healthiest because they never took out sprints all year long. You're doing accelerations in off season four times a week."

"It will basically increase the recovery, the nervous system recovery if you do the opposite hand or leg."

About Reinis Krēgers

Reinis Krēgers is a Latvian track and physical preparation coach known for blending classical sprint mechanics with modern movement ecology. With a background in athletics and physical education, Reinis has built a reputation for developing athletes who are not only fast, but exceptionally coordinated, elastic, and adaptable across environments.

Drawing from European sprint traditions, plyometric culture, and cutting-edge motor-learning principles, Reinis emphasizes rhythm, posture, and natural force expression before “numbers.” His training sessions regularly weave together technical sprint development, multi-planar strength, and exploratory movement tasks, giving athletes the bandwidth to become resilient movers rather than rigid specialists.

Reinis works across youth, club, and competitive settings, helping sprinters, jumpers, and team-sport athletes gain speed, power, and physical literacy. His coaching is marked by clarity, intentionality, and an ability to meet athletes where they are, building them from foundational movement quality toward high-performance execution.

Whether on the track or in the PE hall, Reinis’ mission is the same: develop confident, capable movers who understand their bodies, enjoy the process, and carry a lifelong relationship with athleticism.

Today’s guest is Austin Jochum. Austin Jochum is the founder of Jochum Strength, a former All-Conference safety turned performance coach known for playful, movement-rich training. He blends strength, speed, and adaptability to help athletes build real-world capability and enjoy the process.

So often, coaches inadvertently play by the formal “rules” of coaching, through substantial instruction, within smaller boxes of training. Gameplay and sport itself are the ultimate example of task-based stimulation, chaos, and problem-solving, and the more we learn from it, the more effective our training can become.

In this episode, Austin Jochum and I explore how coaching transforms when you trade rigid cues for play, stimulus, and athlete-driven learning. We dig into why intent and novelty matter, how to “win the day” without chasing constant PRs, and the power of environments that let athletes self-organize. Austin speaks on his recent dive into improving his Olympic lifting, and subsequent improvement in explosive athletic power, along with the masculine and feminine nature of the snatch and clean and jerk, respectively. Finally, Austin also breaks down the JST Olympics—his team-based approach that’s exploding motivation, competition, and performance in the gym.

Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength and LILA Exogen wearable resistance.

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/)

0:00 – Austin’s background, wrestling influence, and early training lens

8:12 – How wrestling shaped his coaching, problem-solving, and creativity

14:30 – Working with movement constraints, unpredictability, and the “maze” idea

22:40 – Why he prioritizes exploration over instruction

31:18 – Building athletic bandwidth through games and environmental design

38:01 – Touch on wrestling in training and contact-oriented movement

45:10 – Heavy rope training, rhythm, and full-body sequencing

52:46 – Hiring coaches and building culture inside his gym

1:01:37 – Athlete intuitiveness, imitation, and imitation-driven learning

1:10:55 – Recovery methods, cold exposure, and principles behind them

1:18:42 – Breathing mechanics, sensory awareness, and relaxation

1:24:52 – Tempo, rhythm, and “feel” in athletic movement

1:30:48 – Coaching philosophy and where Austin is heading next

Quotes from Austin Jochum

"That was a big coaching shift for me is like working for the athletes in front of me and what their feedback was versus working for the Boyles, working for the head strength coach, working for the head sport coach, working for the head administrator that just wants to see pretty straight lines and their program regurgitated over and over again."

"Why can't today we give them a benefit, a reason to show up and have fun so that we can get to those long-term gains."

"It's all LARPing like we are LARPing as strength coaches when we do that and I don't know if it's just like they're not aware enough to realize they're LARPing, but it's like it's a video game they are playing and it's like they're trying to play off that they know something more than other people."

"You should not be here to correct an athlete's foot placements on a skip when it's like, man, when is that, when is that applicable?"

"The thing that works is getting intent and being excited for your training. If you're not excited to go Olympic lift, they're not going to work."

"You're going to become a faster athlete if you PR in your sprints every other week. Like why are we not going and approaching it that way to get that high stimulus out of the athlete?"

"If you can stack days of your wins, I'm telling you, you get the athletes way more stimulus and they're way more psychologically ready."

"Once I got to like 350 on my clean and got to like 225 on the snatch, I stopped noticing the direct benefit, just because it was a strength deficit. I stopped noticing the direct benefit to my sprints and jumps. Now the benefit comes when I'm hitting that 65 to 85 % range."

About Austin Jochum

Austin Jochum is the founder of Jochum Strength, a performance coach known for blending old-school grit with modern movement science. A former University of St. Thomas football player and All-Conference safety, Austin built his philosophy around “training the human first,” emphasizing play, adaptability, and athletic expression over rigid templates. His coaching blends strength, speed, breathwork, and movement variability, creating athletes who are not just powerful—but resilient and skillful in chaotic environments. Through his in-person gym in Minnesota, online programs, and the Jochum Strength Podcast, Austin has become a leading voice in community-driven athletic development, helping athletes and everyday movers reconnect with their bodies, build real-world ability, and enjoy the process.

Today’s guest is Bill Smart. Bill is a sport scientist and physical preparation coach specializing in elite fight-sports performance. As the founder of Smarter Performance and the Strength & Conditioning lead for the CORE MMA team, Bill integrates cutting-edge evidence with real-world high-performance systems to enable combat athletes to show up on fight day in optimal physiological condition.

Much of the conversation in sports performance hinges on speed and power development, or conditioning, as a stand-alone conversation. Sport itself is dynamic and combines elements of speed, strength, and endurance in a dynamic space. Training should follow the same considerations to be truly alive and effective.

In the episode, Bill shares his journey from cycling and rowing to combat sports. He discusses how long isometric holds develop both physical and mental resilience, and their implementation in his programming. The conversation dives into muscle-oxygen dynamics, integrating ISOs with conditioning, and how testing shapes his approach. Bill also explores flywheel eccentrics, fascicle-length development, and why sprinting is a key element for maintaining elastic power in elite fighters.

Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength and the Just Fly Sports Online Courses

30-50% off all courses until December 1, 2025. (https://justflysports.thinkific.com)

Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer

Use code “justfly20” for 20% off of LILA Exogen Wearable resistance gear at www.lilateam.com

View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/)

Timestamps

0:00 – Bill’s coaching journey and early mentors

6:04 – The importance of movement observation and intuition

11:35 – Why athletes plateau and how to identify limiting factors

20:42 – Strength training principles that actually transfer

30:01 – Using movement variability and play in training

40:36 – Coaching communication and creating connection

52:09 – The role of curiosity and creativity in coaching longevity

1:00:55 – Key lessons from years of coaching experience

Quotes from Bill Smart

"I know Gus and Angus Ross, who is one of my colleagues at HPCNZ he talks about those long ISOs as being basically your average motivated athletes training method because it's uncomfortable you've got to be very motivated to move through it."

"Soon as there's a bit of like involuntary muscle action, you're probably in quite a productive place in terms of timeframe."

"The cognitive element is something that gets brushed over a little bit, especially from scientific populations, which is interesting because essentially the brain governs everything that we do."

"I do think that it's quite common that we often disassociate cognitive from physical."

"Breathing is one of those other things that plays a large role in some of the efficiency components."

"Whatever the intervention is matches what we need for the sport and not an excess. And for fighters a lot of the times, conditioning is definitely not something that's lacking. So it's it's great to have these other means to elicit some of that."

"Skills training is like the absolute most important thing. So basically all training from a conditioning or strength standpoint needs to be maximally efficient to get to design results for an athlete."

"The primary area that you find mixed martial arts athletes will fatigue is the upper body because of like all the clinch work, the grappling work."

About Bill Smart

Bill Smart is a sport scientist and physical preparation coach specialising in elite fight-sports performance. As the founder of Smarter Performance and the Strength & Conditioning lead for the CORE MMA team, Bill integrates cutting-edge evidence with real-world high-performance systems to enable combat athletes to show up on fight day in optimal physiological condition.

Today’s guest is Sam Elsner. Sam is a former NCAA Division III national champion thrower turned motor learning writer and educator. He’s the author of The Play Advantage and creator of the Substack CALIBRATE, where he explores how humans learn movement through play, perception, and environment design. Sam brings a rare blend of elite athletic experience and deep skill-acquisition insight to help coaches and athletes move beyond drills toward true adaptability and creativity in sport.

As athletic performance is largely driven by weight-lifting. It digs into maximal strength and force-related outcomes in such excess that all other elements of athleticism are negated. Skill learning and high velocity movement are the wellspring of sporting success. As such, having a balanced understanding of the training equation is critical for the long-term interest of the athlete.

On today’s podcast, Sam and I dive into how athletes truly learn to move. Sam traces his journey from WIAC throws circles to Cal Dietz’s weight room, why a rigid “triphasic for everyone” phase backfired with a soccer team, and how ecological dynamics and a constraints-led lens reshaped his coaching. Together we unpack the strength–skill interplay, 1×20 “slow-cook” gains versus block periodization, the value of autonomous, creative training application. We touch on youth development, culture, and team ecology, plus where pros are experimenting with these ideas. This episode is loaded with both philosophy of training and skill learning, along with practical takeaways in program design.

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/)

Timestamps

1:18 - Early training experiences and triphasic background

5:44 - Implementing triphasic as a young coach

11:22 - The failure of rigid block periodization

17:49 - Vertical integration and maintaining all qualities

24:58 - Discovery of the ecological dynamics lens

29:57 - Why skill learning changed his view of strength

35:43 - 1x20 as a slow cooking strength framework

43:15 - Autonomy and stance/position freedom in the weight room

52:38 - Culture, environment, and how athletes learn

1:00:43 - Highlight play examples and perception-action

1:14:23 - Constraint-led models in team sport settings

1:20:55 - Where to find Sam’s work

Quotes

"I use track and field as a segue to bettering my performance and my physical capabilities for football, getting prepped for that."

"Traditional skill development or coaching really kind of hindered my capability of my ceiling."

"I've always had that overarching question in my head of how do I bridge the gap between practice and game day performance?"

"At the time I thought it was drill, rudimentary rote repetition type practices. I'm here today, I'm on the complete opposite end of that on what I believe."

"In order to do true Westside, you got to be in Columbus, Ohio at Westside with Louis Simmons or his very close people that he talked with. Otherwise, everything else is just an iteration of Triphasic. It's your own paintbrush on the canvas."

"Everything works to a point and it's not just like this way versus this way. No, there's integration. Everything that we do in life is blended together."

"If you're able to get younger individuals being able to explore and play, I think later on in their life, they'll be able to be that like "gifted athlete" and be able to allow to come up with their own artistic way of doing things."

"I'm in that bank of the more sports, the better as a younger age, like multi-sport athlete, no specialization."

"I tried to implement triphasic trainer right away, block periodization and it blew up in my face because it was their preseason work. They're slower. They're not able to adjust on the pitch or anything like that and they're just like slow and just non-athletic."

About Sam Elsner

Sam Elsner is a former NCAA Division III national champion thrower from the University of Wisconsin-Stout who has transitioned into a leading voice in motor learning and skill acquisition. A six-time All-American and 2018 discus champion, Sam brings a deep, first-hand understanding of performance and training into his current work, exploring how athletes truly learn movement rather than just repeat drills.

Now writing the popular Substack CALIBRATE and authoring The Play Advantage, Sam bridges neuroscience, ecological dynamics, and lived athletic experience to help coaches and performers unlock adaptability, creativity, and “feel” in sport. His work reframes coaching from rote technique toward curiosity, environment design, and the art of human learning in motion.

Today’s guest is Ben Simons. Ben is a British performance coach and two-time Olympic bobsledder with a background in sprinting and sports science. A former World Cup gold medallist, he’s now focused on helping athletes develop speed, power, and coordination through evidence-based, real-world training methods. Ben blends biomechanics, motor learning, and nervous-system training to build explosive, adaptable athletes.

Many speed training topics and conversations focus exclusively on the most stimulating possible methods; fewer get into individual factors, athlete adaptability, and how that speed and power training evolves with the needs of the athlete.

On today’s show, Ben and I discuss asymmetry, rhythm, and “aliveness” in sprint and power development. We explore when to let unique mechanics—like Byanda Wlaza’s galloping stride—run their course versus coaching toward a technical model. Ben gets into the general speed training lessons he gained from bobsled, and shares why he now favors yielding isometrics, unilateral strength, and med ball throws over heavy lifts, emphasizing longevity, reflexive strength, and movement variability. We finish with how curvilinear sprints, pool work, and playful, multidirectional movement help athletes stay reactive, adaptable, and pain-free.

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View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/)

Timestamps

0:00 – Asymmetry, gallop running, and what to do with extremes

12:25 – Air-time vs ground work: why the stuff in the air transfers to sprinting

16:08 – From long jump and 4x100 to bobsled trials and the push track

19:57 – Retirement, coming back, and the management needed for longevity

24:04 – Achilles management, playing sport, and the power of movement variety

31:09 – Practical coaching advice: get people back into the sport they love

41:31 – Curvilinear sprints, feeling safe, and bringing play into rehab

45:53 – How bobsled pushing changed Ben’s acceleration and posterior chain

52:28 – Hamstring training, velocity, and the limits of eccentric volume

59:46 – Practical tools: tank sleds, prowlers, glute-ham machines, and Zurcher split squats

1:08:19 – Why Ben minimized compound max lifts and what he uses now

1:24:46 – Programming for mature athletes: living off the strength bank and using yield isometrics

 Quotes from Ben Simons

"Almost all speed coaches are going to try and move their athletes back towards that perfect technical model."

"Kicking a ball thousands of times in your development... you very quickly fall into your dominant leg."

"One of the arguments with traditional A's and B's is that you're isolating one side and you're changing the learning process there because you're actually taking a reflexive action, which is the cross-extensive reflex that you get in a dribble."

"Modulating the pain is a huge piece within that rehabilitation because you're not going to compensate as much when you feel less pain."

"Just making sure we stay in touch with that reflexive part of the movement, you know, in the coupling phase, in the amortization is key."

"When you're upright pushing a bobsleigh... you have got to put that impulse through the sled itself. So it does feel like there's almost a punching going on with your handles."

"If you get him into a glute ham raise... can really feel that pelvis position under duress which is a great way to teach people where they are in space because a lot of people just don't understand the tension that they need within that pelvis and lumbar to get it neutral."

"I think in developmental stages, it's definitely those compound lifts and max strength methods are the easiest way to make gains in strength and output... But I just wonder once that money is in the bank, how far you need to pursue them."

About Ben Simons

Ben Simons OLY is a British performance coach and former Olympic bobsledder with a background in sprinting and sports science. A two-time Olympian (Sochi 2014, PyeongChang 2018) and World Cup gold medallist, Ben spent a decade representing Great Britain on the international stage, competing in over 120 events. Before bobsleigh, he was a Welsh indoor 60 m champion and studied sports science at Cardiff Met, experiences that laid the foundation for his lifelong focus on speed and power development.

Today, Ben brings that elite-sport experience to his work as a strength, speed, and performance coach. His approach blends biomechanics, motor learning, and nervous-system training to help athletes move efficiently and perform explosively under pressure. With an emphasis on coordination, recovery, and data-driven methods, Ben coaches athletes and teams across sports to bridge the gap between research and real-world performance, developing complete athletes who are as resilient and adaptable as they are fast and strong.