Body Boss Fitness

We filed for a Trademark late last year for the rights to "What gets measured gets improved". It's really one of the foundational pillars of Body Boss. Heck, it's on the back of our t-shirts. 

We're big proponents of collecting data to make smarter, actionable decisions. For the longest time, collecting data was just cumbersome and people didn't know what to do with it. The cries for hard work were loud, and oftentimes, working hard wasn't coupled with smarts. Every athlete is built differently, and even with periodized load progressions, programs have been peanut-buttered across all athletes. This is effective for large groups to an extent, but without data, coaches and trainers may be not recognizing the right patterns in athletic development.

The goal of Body Boss is to give coaches and trainers and the athletes themselves the tools necessary to gain insight into progress (or even plateaus or regression). Given, Body Boss does not cover the full gamut of what could be valuable, the Stats pages with ability to view absolute, pound-for-pound, and improvement over time for athletes is a step towards a smarter, stronger, faster, and bigger future.

Like we said, "What gets measured gets improved."

Source: http://blog.stack.com/wp-content/uploads/Screen-shot-2011-04-26-at-2.40.17-PM.png

Word on the social media street is that the common thing to do on Thursday is to post old-school, past pictures using the hashtag #TBT. Well, since we publish blog posts on Tuesdays, we’re switching up the normal routine… by bringing the throwback idea to Tuesday. We’re Boss, afterall.

This week’s post goes back to Kris Berg’s (Ph.D. University of Nebraska Omaha) article posted in the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) Journal from February-March in 1982 – “Anaerobic Conditioning: Training the Three Energy Systems”. This article gave many a good foundation for which to build a holistic athletic strength and conditioning program. Below are some of the key principles from the article.

Athletic movements call on energy from three primary systems:

ATP-CP system (adenosine triphosphate and creative phosphate) – the most energy expended with duration 15 seconds or less (the power, speed, and strength-oriented movements).

LA system (lactic acid) – intense activities last from 15 seconds and 2 minutes. Oxygen debt and lactic acid development is greatest in these activities.

LA-oxidation system – activities lasting longer than 2 minutes where energy created via aerobic processes to a greater extent, and to a lesser extent the anaerobic metabolism.

The four training principles [1]:

Training should be holistic or multi-faceted, and so include appropriate development of speed, strength, power, muscle endurance, aerobic power, flexibility, and skill.

Allowance should be made for gradual progression in training to minimize injury.

A substantial portion of the training program should concern itself with mimicking and/ or practicing the actual athletic event.

Adequate recovery must be provided. Two consecutive hard days of training are beyond many athletes’ capabilities and three consecutive hard days only invites injury, delayed recovery, and a sense of failure. One and sometimes two easier days of training are necessary to dissipate lactic acid and restore muscle glycogen before further vigorous training can be done.

Most sports use the non-oxidative/ anaerobic system for short bursts of energy – power, speed, and strength. However, sports with short bursts of energy also call on the LA and LA-oxidative systems due to the nature of interval-like events. In football, for example, each play may require ATP-CP energy, but as the plays may occur in quick succession (especially if you’re an Oregon Duck), the LA system is taxed as well. Thus, it’s imperative for athletes to work in all three systems.

Other great take-aways:

Traditional weight training can be very effective for acceleration – just think about Force = Mass * Acceleration. Training via added weights in the ATP-CP system can help build explosive athleticism.

In more rhythmic events/ sports such as hurdles or soccer, it is beneficial to operate at near competitive speed with minimal weight or simply body weight.

Peak lactic acid synthesis occurs around 1 minute of intense activity. Training around 20 seconds of intense activity can give athletes a minimal recovery time to perform another 20 seconds of activity. The longer the activity (rising to a minute or longer), however, can have disproportionate recovery time to be adequate.

Research suggested the best recovery activity to use between training activities is light aerobic activity including a light jog to facilitate the oxidation of the lactic acid.

Offseason conditioning should include staying within the sport to ensure the major muscles stressed in the sport are being conditioned. Though energy systems may be taxed by different activities, muscle recruitment may not be.

What is your background?

I interned at UT-Chattanooga, Tennessee, and LSU at the collegiate level. I also interned with Gayle Hatch in Baton Rouge, LA. I have been the strength coach for multiple state champions in multiple sports at the high school level.

Why did you go into Strength & Conditioning?

I always had an interest in the weight room. My senior year of high school we didn’t have a weight room due to construction on campus. We finished with multiple injuries and the worst record in 10 years. Even at that age I realized the weight room and athletic success were strongly correlated with each other.

What are some challenges coaching today's players?

Today’s players have so many different distractions that we did not have to deal with as athletes. There are many other things to do besides play sports in our society today. I feel you have to make sports participation meaningful and worthwhile to capture their attention. I think it is very important to try to build intrinsic motivation in your athletes to yield optimal results.

What philosophy(-ies) do you subscribe to?

I use Hatch Periodization meshed with Joe Kenn’s Tier System set up. We believe in proper progressions as well as developing proper movement patterns above everything else in developing our athletes.

How do you feel about Battle Ground's S&C program?

I am very passionate about it. I believe it is unique, and I believe that we are working extremely hard to develop our athletes in the best manner we know how.

What advice would you give to those aspiring for a career in S&C?

It can be a thankless job sometimes. Keep plugging away and keep grinding. Keep developing professionally, and be ready when you get your chance to advance.

It was about five years ago when I really started to evaluate what I was doing in terms of speed and movement with my athletes. Our 10-yard, 40-yard, and pro-agility times would always go down and improve every off-season as expected, but I felt something was missing when I watched our athletes perform on the athletic fields. I felt that I wasn’t seeing the transfer from our speed and movement work and testing data that I really wanted to see. I did see some improvement in their movement, but the more I reflected the more I began to question the more traditional methods of speed training we were engaging in as a team.  I really started to feel that we were getting really good at linear speed techniques and a variety of cone drills.  I started to realize that I was getting good at teaching the test, and my athletes were getting good at passing the different tests I was presenting to them. I wanted something more with my athletes.

I began to really analyze what types of movements were needed to develop true speed on the football field. Most of the material we have on speed training is based around techniques we have adapted from the world of track and field. The A skips, B skips, etc. that are used to develop linear speed are just a small component of what is needed to move successfully on the football field. I was from the school that we did our [DL1] linear speed on our Olympic days, and we did our agility work on our strength days. I just never saw the transfer I wanted to see. These two programs felt like two separate programs to me. The question for me was simple: How do we combine these movements in order to truly develop football specific speed?

I really began to challenge conventional speed training methods in my own mind at this point. At the same time I was conflicted because a multitude of linear drills that included sleds, vipers, and traditional cone change of direction drills had been a staple in my speed programs for years. These methods were all I knew, and I was comfortable with them. I thought surely if coaches at the collegiate level used similar methods I was on the right track.  I am not trying to say that there is not value to some of these methods. I just wanted to find out what the very best method for true football specific speed development was and implement it with my athletes.

I had been reading Dale Baskett’s speed report in American Football Monthly for years, and I had been intrigued by his fresh approach to speed training.  I had many questions that I felt I needed him to answer in regards of how to develop explosive, football specific speed so I decided to seek him out to get the answers.  I decided to keep an open mind and get out of my comfort zone in terms of what I had been taught about speed development my whole career to that point. I had to fund it myself, but I saved up the money to pay Coach Baskett to come in and consult with me at 2 different schools. I brought Coach Baskett in for 2 consecutive years before I ever implemented his methods into our speed program. I wanted to make sure I fully understood his program and progressions. I also wanted to make sure I was proficient in teaching the movements as well as being able to make corrections and adjust as necessary.  Lastly, I wanted to make sure that I truly believed that his methods were the best route to developing the type of football specific speed we are all looking for as strength coaches.

What I found in this speed system was exactly what I had been looking for. This system had immediate transfer to the playing field! The system is principle based, progressive, and creative. The three guiding principles are:

Line (position of the body),

Sync (synchronization between the arms and the legs) and

Strike (striking the ground properly)

Of course it is a little more technical than that when it comes to some of the other nuances of the system, but these are the three principles that have to be present in order to be successful in any human movement. There is a linear component, a lateral component, and then both of those components are meshed together in creating drills. A principle based approach to develop great transitional speed, change of pace, momentum displacement, acceleration, and deceleration is the result of this mesh. In my opinion, this system has all of the elements of speed you need to develop a fast and efficient football player. Another thing I found interesting was the attention to the technical application of movement in order to eliminate wasted motion. As we all know, this can help an athlete of average speed look much faster than they really are.

I am not trying to sell a speed system to you. I am just asking you to evaluate what you are doing movement wise in order to best develop true football specific speed. I urge you to look outside the traditional track and field methods used to train football players and keep an open mind when developing your speed programs each year. Think about the movements that are truly needed to be successful on the field.  

If I can do anything to explain what we do at Battle Ground in terms of speed training please contact me and I will do my best to explain our philosophy to the best of my ability. I am attaching a couple of examples of our advanced speed drills to give you a visual example of what we do.  The running back in the video is the same kid in the drill video.

(Source: http://www.nsca.com/Education/Articles/Hot-Topic-Teaching-the-Olympic-Lifts-in-the-Group-Setting/)

A couple months ago, we posted a blog post about an Olympic training progression of exercises – “Progressing through the Olympic Lifts – from Beginner to Advanced”. With the popularity of Olympic lifting, it’s important to ensure proper, safe form is exercised whenever performing these lifts (pun intended). Especially as YouTube videos are just thrown out in the world, misinformed instruction can lead to severe injury.

In the National Strength and Conditioning Association’s Hot Topic, writer Greg Everett discusses some key elements for those to teach the Olympic lifts especially in group settings – “Hot Topic: Teaching the Olympic Lifts in the Group Setting”.

Let’s take a look at these 8 keys to Everett’s article:

Everett states the most important element to understand before undergoing a training regimen is understanding time. That is, what are the time constraints – time for a session, frequency of sessions, etc. And the second important element to training is understanding the purpose. Are the lifts to promote a more advanced level athlete?

Importance of knowledge and humility to be able to either learn the skills necessary to implement, or hire an outside expert to teach. You’re coaching athletes, sometimes young ones. It’s important to put their safety first.

Different skill levels, especially, in a group setting. Simple(-r) exercises ensure athletes can grasp concepts and details quicker with limited coaching and oversight. Exercises stressing simplicity further ensures athletes of diverse skills and abilities are able to perform.

With many athletes, lifting is not the goal. Coach Kenn (“House”) says it best of his athletes – “they’re football players, not weight lifters or body builders” (paraphrasing). The simpler the movements, the faster players can accomplish what the coaches are looking to achieve, and move on.

Athletes should be assessed to determine the abilities and limitations of the athletes. The assessment should enable the coach to build a program to address limitations and correct any improper form, rather than building a program on improper form and limitations.

Most common limitation for exercisers is flexibility. This, in turn, will limit the range of motion for most athletes to more “power” variations. You can check this even in last week’s post regarding the full back squat – “What are you Squatting about?! Get down and give me a full squat!”.

Designing the program should stick within 3-4 week blocks. This gives ample time to learn the movements while also giving just enough time so as not to “bore” athletes. And rep ranges should not exceed five reps so as not to fatigue the athlete both physically and mentally. Schedule 20-30-second rest periods.

If athletes have similar schedules, drills should be practiced in group formats.

Everett then goes into a sample program with 3 workouts per week for 4 weeks at about 30 minutes per workout. He advises using an empty Olympic bar or even PVC pipes or wooden dowels to start with. His sample program is created for athletes to start in the hang position, rather than from the floor. This ensures athletes develop a strong base for future advancement for the snatch, clean and jerk, and beyond. Check out some snapshots of the program below. You can view the full 4-week program at the NSCA’s site in the link above.

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/img/photos/2012/12-756-03/squat.jpg

Okay, before you continue reading, do a squat real quick. You can do just your simple bodyweight, and then remember how you did it.

Done? Okay, now, you can continue…

The Crux of the Problem

The squat has been a staple in many Workout programs ever since it was “invented”. There’s a handful of exercises that are critical to any and every sports team, and the squat is one of them. The squat is the staple of most Strength & Conditioning programs around the world for its many benefits especially to not only develop the athletic base of players, but also as a critical exercise to strengthen the muscles to support every postures.

However, go into any gym, and you’re not likely to see the squat performed to reap the full benefits. James Speck of somastruct.com describes the reasons/ benefits of performing FULL squats in an article published in September of 2012 – “5 Reasons To Full Squat”.

Speak explains the full or deep squat refer to the position where the knees are flexed so that the back of the thighs rest against the calves and heels remaining firmly planted to the floor. Many of today’s modern conveniences have eliminated natural squatting motions, especially as much as we sit these days in front of computers.

To complicate current issues with squatting, today’s footwear also exacerbates the problem where most heels are raised. Thus, today’s shoes actually cause shortening of the calves and Achilles tendon. The result? Limited ankle mobility and squats where the heels actually lift off the floor – dubbed the western squat.

So what are the benefits?

So what are the benefits of full squats? Speck provides reasoning to the below:

Ankle mobility. Limited ankle flexibility (ankle dorsiflexion) is linked to a myriad of issues including over-pronation, bad posture, and runner’s knee. There’s a greater rigidity in the ankle joint which does not promote proper athletic movements (like exploding off a launch, avoiding a tackle, etc.).

Back pain relief. Many people have excessive curvature in the lower back where the pelvis is being pulled down in the front due to less mobile hip flexor muscles. The full squat enables the muscles around the spine to elongate and stretch. The position of the full squat enables spine to decompress similar to a traction effect (where you hang upside down).

Hip strengthening. Those with weak hip muscles tend to have an inner step, which can put the knee at an awkward angle and lead to injuries. Performing the full squat can strengthen the hip muscles to properly abduct and adduct muscles.

Glue strengthening. The gluteus maximus is one of the largest and most powerful muscle of the human body. It controls and supports a number of functions including walking, running, and jumping. It is a major stabilizer muscle of the body and the legs. However, the glutes are not activated in the squat until past the half-position, and thus, the proper way of recruiting the glutes is through full, deep squats.

Posture correction. Strengthening the lower body through the full squats has compound effects to the body’s posture. Joint mobility and strength enable improvement to both the static and dynamic postures.

Source: http://www.somastruct.com/5-reasons-to-start-full-squatting/

The diagram above from Somastruct illustrates how the Western squat forces the center of gravity behind the base of support. Going any lower would likely render the squatter to becoming off-balance. It is critical to maintain the heels to stay flat on the floor. This, again, promotes ankle flexibility and the myriad of benefits mentioned above.

For those who find difficulty in keeping their heels flat, performing more ankle flexibility exercises may be necessary including ankle and calf stretching.

In closing…

The full squat is a natural posture that is exercised especially in young children and in Asian cultures (where squatting is substituted for sitting). However, in Western cultures, many of our activities and even fashion has negated the need for squatting motions. This comes at a cost of ankle immobility and lower body instability which can lead to injuries either in athletic movements or everyday static and dynamic postures.

The full squat is a beneficial exercise for everyday exercisers. In fact, the benefits of full squats under proper instruction is especially demonstrated in most athletic programs. Strength & Conditioning Coaches know the full squats significant benefits to their athletes to develop the power and athletic performance needed on the field.

We attended the Glazier Football Clinic in Atlanta Feb. 7-9, and met with several hundred coaches. For those unfamiliar, clinics in this realm is similar to conventions or conferences in the business world. Last year, the event had over 1,800 coaches; and early Glazier reps said there was likely more. The coaches ranged from youth football (pre-middle school), middle school, high school, and beyond with mixes of all sorts of coach in a football team including head coaches, assistant coaches, strength coaches, and the like.

There were stark differences in this year’s Clinic versus last year’s. Largely, our experience had fine-tuned our messaging. However, there were also changes in the market, too. Here are some take-aways from our experience this year:

Clinics are just like high-school reunions that conferences are in the business world. No pun-intended, either, as most of these coaches are from the high school ranks. It’s a great way for coaches to reconnect and network with new coaches.

Significant growth of smartphone and tablet penetration in sports. Most coaches were now rocking iPhone and Android-flavored phones. Most coaches with tablets had the iPad.

More coaches have been looking for workout programming apps on mobile devices. There is a growing trend showing that this is still an early market, but many are looking to get into the market soon as they’ve seen how apps can benefit their programs.

Coaches have used a variety of software that were more tailored to the computer and are antiquated. They are kluge with limited interaction with players.

Younger programs including middle schools are interested in ways to teach their players and the parents. The ability to share video tutorials with the players and show how to perform drills can empower the parents to ensure the players perform work at home and at the park away from formal practices.

There’s growing interest amongst many programs to implement programs designed by professional strength coaches. Many high schools do not have budgets for strength coaches with actual certified credentials in exercise science.

Spreadsheets and whiteboards are the norm, but most coaches hate them. They feel that for the longest time, spreadsheets were easy to implement, if not difficult to extract any other benefit such as insight on how players are actually progressing. It takes a lot of effort for coaches to chart the progress of players individually.

It’s an arms race. Social motivation is alive and well, as is the competitive spirit to have the latest and greatest to one-up the competition. In a market where so many adversaries may be just mere miles apart, schools draw largely from the same pool of talent. Distinguishing a winning program comes down to preparation.

Glazier Clinics – well, clinics and conferences in general – are a great way for coaches to check out the latest and greatest developments the markets have to offer. It’s also a great way to run into a huge concentration of like-minded coaches, and hear from a stellar line-up of speakers. There’s a lot to learn from these marketing events for not just the coaches, but also for exhibitors as well.

(image source: http://blog.saucony.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/StrideRate2-610x360.jpg)

“56% of recreational runners and as high as 90% of runners training for a marathon will sustain a running-related injury each year. Approximately 50% of all running-related injuries occur at the knee with nearly half of those involving the patellofemoral joint” [1].

Ah, what a great day it is today in Atlanta (Sunday when I wrote this). It’s 54 degrees, vibrantly gorgeous… this, just days after Snowpocalypse 2.0. It’s probably a great time to also write about one of the greatest physical activities people do on beautiful days like this… run. In this case, my physical therapy friend sent me an article that I was extremely interested in about step rate, and how adjustments to step rate can have a drastic impact on the force on your lower body, specifically. If you’re a runner, you’ll want to read this… and if you aren’t, you’ll want to read this anyways.

The Running Clinic in Canada posted this article from the Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise: “Effects of Step Rate Manipulation on Joint Mechanics during Running” by a team of writers (check the footnotes below for the authors). The research was done in association with the Departments of Orthopedics and Rehabilitation and Biomedical Engineering of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The article delineates the effects of both energy absorption and energy generation through a step cycle on three particular joints – the ankle, knee, and hip. A [full] step cycle in this case will be the take-off and landing of one’s foot. The researchers cited that oftentimes, it’s the lower extremity joints’ inability to sufficiently control the force applied during a take-off as one of the leading causes of injuries.

So let me share with you the tables they provided regarding the Energy Absorbed and Energy Generated…

I’m not going to reproduce all the different graphs since it’s just straight from their article. However, I wanted to point out a several keypoints from the article. To better understand, “Preferred” in the above charts is the “natural” step rate of the test subjects where the -% represents a decrease in step rate, while a +% represents an increase in the step rate. And a change of up to 10% from the preferred step rate did not require a significant change in metabolic processes. As such, variances of more than 10% in either direction of the preferred step rate were not considered.

20% to 34% less energy was absorbed at the knee when the preferred step rate was increased by 5% and 10%, respectively. In fact, a decrease in step rate resulted in a proportionate increase in energy absorption at the knee.

The knee joint experienced the most significant reduction in energy reduction vs. the ankle and hip joints.

The researchers measure the load response of a full cycle – again, energy absorbed (landing) and energy generated (take-off).

The biomechanical changes when step rate was increased are similar to those found when running with barefeet or even with minimalist footwear.

As a means to adjust step rate, the researchers suggested using a metronome.

Increasing step rate can also be used not only for injury prevention, but also to re-introduce injured athletes into a running regimen.

The researchers further found that with an increased step rate, to cover the same distance, as you can imagine, would actually lower the distance between each step. As such, there was an understanding that the total energy absorbed and generated from the total volume of added steps with increased step rates may actually negate some of the benefits of an increased step rate.  However, citing shorter strides can actually reduce the risk of tibial stress fractures, the researchers concluded that the benefits would outweigh the costs.

In the end, the researchers shed light in a number of areas regarding the effects of changes in step rates with more analysis for the hip and ankle joints than I relayed here. They also described some effects and benefits of hip adduction and abduction due to lower leg extremities when increasing step rate. For more great results and analyses, do check out the article linked above.

And of course, the opening of the article discussed the focus on the energy and injury prevention using an increased step rate due to the take-off of runners. However, in many sports other than long-distance running, the landing is actually oftentimes the most injury-prone moments. There should be larger studies in a more specific group of athletes, while also measuring the impacts of the more common start and stop with more abrupt change-of-direction movements.

What are your thoughts of the study? How would you implement a change in step rate?

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This past weekend, the Body Boss team attended the Glazier Football Clinic in Atlanta, GA. Last year, this was our coming out party having launched Jan 1 of last year. We learned a lot from that first clinic, and then the many subsequent clinics thereafter.

This year, we also took a slightly different approach. Over the past year, we learned a lot about not just from coaching philosophies, but we also fine-tuned our value to coaches and players. Aside from the benefits of Body Boss to motivate players, this past year, we wanted to target specifically the “old-school” way of tracking athletic performance – spreadsheets. Heck, ever seen one of these eye charts?

Spreadsheets in workout programs has always been “it’s always been like that”. However, with the advent and proliferation of technology, it’s high time a new technology stepped in that offered greater convenience. So with that, we wanted to hear more from Coaches about what each Coach at the Clinic hated spreadsheets, or what’s the pain of the “old-school always done it this way” method. We started with a blank whiteboard, and kicked off the fun with one of the most common pain points…

Yes, you read that right. We wanted to find out why spreadsheets sucked for working out. At the end of it, this is what we had on the board…

Some of the most popular responses were:

Time consuming

Workout cards were always strewn everywhere

Too much work to always update spreadsheets and print out new cards

Unsure what to do with the workout data from collection

Using spreadsheets can be confusing

With Body Boss, workouts can be tracked on-the-fly with the latest and greatest technology with smartphones or tablets, especially with the release of the new Body Boss iOS and Android apps with the Pods feature. This was apparent to coaches who quickly understood the value we could offer.

Nicu Vlad… ever heard of him?  He’s credited as one of the greatest weight lifters of all time, and arguably where the name Romanian Deadlift (RDL) was born.  Check out his YouTube video of his 1985 Clean & Jerk of 215 Kg (474 lbs!) here -- video.  Impressive.  Vlad won Olympic Gold at 1984 Games, Silver in the ’88 Olympics, Bronze in ’96, and three (3) World Championships in ’84, ’86, and ’90.  Color me inspired.

Matt Foreman, football and track and field coach at Mountain View High School in Phoenix, AZ, wrote in 2008 in Catalyst Athletics about his time at the Olympic Training Center (OTC) training three weeks with the famed Romanian – “Lessons from Romania: Nicu Vlad at the Olympic Training Center”.  Foreman writes about the awe-inspiring performances and mentality of Vlad and his coach Dragomir Cioroslan. 

The article is a great read, and one that applies to athletes, not just weight-lifters.  In fact, the article hones in on some important lessons that should be revered in everyday life.  Here, let me summarize some of Foreman’s key points:

Vlad is a beast, and a marvel.  I needed to start with that…

Impeccable technique.  Vlad performed with perfect mechanics for every exercise, never mind the weight.  Foreman writes how perfect technique means “make 50 kilos look exactly the same as 150 kilos”.  Every movement was identical for an exercise regardless of the weight.  Think about that for a second…  how do you apply great detail to everything you do, regardless of the “challenge”?

Short-term memory.  Foreman recalls one of Vlad’s “bad workouts” where Vlad missed the Snatch for 170 kilos the first time, then made it a few minutes later.  Vlad progressed to 180… missed that twice.  He then put on 185.  He paused in clearly a very concentrated position.  Then, after 10 seconds, grabbed the bar, and nailed it – “the easiest, strongest snatch of the day”.  There was no remark, no “temper tantrum” when Vlad missed the prior lifts.  Instead, he loaded the bar, and concentrated to nail the number he was gunning for that day.  See how this is could be applicable to you?  If not, give me a call.

Quit making excuses – all you need is in you.  Foreman writes about how many junior athletes at OTC complained about the gym being too small, dorms too hot, bars did not “spin well enough”, etc.  The junior athletes would later quit within years.  Vlad, Cioroslan always looked on and shook their heads.  Nicu remarked in an interview later, "In Romania, I train on a bar that is bent.  My gym has bad lighting and very little heat in the winters.  Here in America, you have everything you need to train.  It’s not in the bar or the gym or the platform… it’s in you.”  Foreman loved this principle, and I’m a big fan of it as well.  Too often, we get used to our comfortable lives, and start making excuses as to why we don’t exercise, get work done, etc.  At the end of the day, excuses just get in the way of accomplishing greatness.

Vlad was clearly a beast in more ways than weight-lifting.  I believe that’s what Foreman is also ultimately trying to convey in his writing.  As we coach today’s players and even live our everyday lives, the principles instilled in those around us and in us have lasting impressions far greater than in the weight room or on the field.  And of course, there are some great take-aways for weight-lifting, too, from the Great Vlad…

Source: The Strength and Conditioning Blog, Setanta College

Dr. Liam Hennessy wrote a piece with Sean Hogan of Setanta College’s The Strength and Conditioning Blog on the parents’ roles in a child-athlete’s development.  Specifically, the article is titled, “A Parents Perspective: The Pathway of Long Term Player Development”.

Dr. Hennessy writes about the unique roles parents have with their visibility and understanding of their children’s development as a critical means for long-term development.  Players have “Windows of Trainability” where physical attributes have an optimal development period focusing on the following major attributes:

Movement skills

Suppleness

Speed

Stamina

Strength

Dr. Hennessy reminds us that even if there are windows, these are only “optimal”, and development should occur before and after as well.

The article talks specifically with hurling, but there are key concepts that are portable to child-athletes in general.  Some of these key points include:

Timing of the windows are against the child’s Peak Height Velocity (PHV), and can coincide near or during a child’s growth spurt.  Though every child’s Windows are different, in general, boys are between 11-13 years of age, and 13-15 for girls.

During the Windows, parents should introduce the child to various other activities other than a specific sport to build on the physical attributes including:  Suppleness – gymnastics or swimming; Stamina – bike rides, general runs; Speed – playing various sports that engage the whole body or even specific parts of the body while combining to round out development; and Strength – general playground fun, exercise.

Imperative that parents share with the child’s coach changes in the players experienced at home as coaches have limited visibility into changes of the player.  With knowledge of a player’s changes, Coaches may be inclined to focus less on skills development and more on conditioning.  This will allow players to still take advantage of the stamina window, and reduce negative effects of specific coordination skills as children adjust to their growing bodies.

Additionally, it is important to remember that growth in physical attributes may not coincide with growth in emotional maturity.  Many parents may opt to thrust children into a higher or lower leagues due to their children’s physical attributes (smaller or bigger), but neglect the mental and emotional maturity of the child.

PerformBetter.com’s Wil Fleming offers up a progression of movements to build up to Olympic lifts – “Olympic Lifting Teach Progressions”.  Oftentimes, I get asked, especially by high school coaches, what is the right progression for their players to enter Olympic lifting.  Olympic lifting has some strong cases as exercises that engages the whole body, and develop the speed and explosiveness required in many sports. 

Battle Ground Academy’s (Franklin, TN) Strength & Conditioning Coach Fred Eaves starts his freshmen with sticks when performing exercises like the bench press, squats, etc.  It’s imperative that Eaves’ players learn the mechanics of proper lifting before introducing weights.  (You can read more about Coach Eaves’ philosophies in the June 2013 post where Coach Eaves presented at the Hammer Strength Clinic in Atlanta in “Body Boss at the Hammer Strength Clinic in ATL: Who we met, and what we learned”.)

Wil Fleming provides the following progression when introducing players to Olympic lifts:

Hang Power Clean.  Key points: keep the bar close to the body, finish the second pull with explosive hip extension.

Power Jerk.  Key points: quad dominant variation of the Power Clean, watch for overhead positioning

Power Clean.  Key points: from the deck, drive with your legs on the first pull, explode with traps on the second pull

Split Jerk. Key points: builds on the “norm” where feet do not always land together or at the same time in sports, teaches force absorption

Hang Power Snatch. Key points: explosive hip extension, requires significant movement coordination of the body

Power Snatch. Key points: wide grip from the floor similar to that of a deadlift, wide grip requires the upper back stay tight, demands mobility in the hips

Squat Clean.  Key points: shoulders slight over the bar at the start, shift knees back as hips rise, “feel the steel” as bar grazes thighs on first pull (more)

1. What is your background?

My background is in football.  I played throughout college and then continued on in coaching for the first few years of my career until switching to strength and conditioning full time in 2000.

2. Why did you go into Strength & Conditioning?

I entered strength and conditioning as a means to help others achieve their potential.  I had an excellent strength coach at West Virginia Wesleyan by the name of Brian Jozwiak.  He taught me that writing programs was easy, but finding a way to motivate the athletes to want to come back was the tricky part.  He inspired me by the way he worked for the betterment of each athlete, regardless of ability or position on the depth chart.

3. What are some challenges coaching today's players?

We are in the “have it now” era of humanity.  Everything is on fast forward.  You get information in an instant, and almost anything can be had at a moments notice.  Unfortunately, this is the antithesis of our field.  It is difficult to get athletes to embrace the process for the long-term result.  Most want to see results right away or they move on to the next thing.  Getting them to understand that change takes time is our biggest challenge.

4. What philosophy(-ies) do you subscribe to?

My philosophy is that the only way to truly be a relevant agent of change is to care.  The best coaches I have ever met care about the people they lead.  And the people who are being led know that they are genuinely cared about.  Honest, integrity, objectivity, and caring are the tools of success.

5. How do you feel about Davidson's S&C program?

I love what I do.  Davidson has given me the opportunity to continue to pursue my passion for helping remove the obstacles that keep athletes from living greatly.  We are constantly evolving to fill the ever-changing needs of our athletes and athletic programs. 

6. What advice would you give to those aspiring for a career in S&C?

My best advice would be to continue to learn throughout the entirety of their careers.  Expand your knowledge base, not only in programming and strength training, but also in leadership strategies, motivational techniques, sports psychology, and human development.  It is important to keep in mind that we are in the relationship business.  Unless you can learn to understand your athletes, develop trusting relationships with them, and learn what motivates each one, your program will never achieve greatness.

The messenger is just as important as the message.  People who are respected and connected can exert enormous influence over others.  This “power of one” can be used to influence positive behavior or task completion, however, their athletes must accept this individual as a man of character and respectability for the influence to take hold.  Character has nothing to do with the way you write a program or your exercise selection.  Character is derived from how you carry yourself and how you interact with others.  Too many coaches view their athletes as commodities that have a four-year shelf life.  To be successful, you must find a way to connect and see your athletes as human beings who have lives outside of athletics that influence their moods (both highs and lows) and adds volume in the form of stressors that can be recognized and overcome.

Success is more than the challenge of reaching the next level.  It is a measure of who we are.  It is the reward for setting high standards of who we want to be, and then working hard to become that person.  Quite often there is no tangible reward for achieving success, but merely the satisfaction that we are better now than when we started.  The most powerful incentive is our own evaluation of our behavior and accomplishments. 

Often athletes react to their tasks and environment as if they were on autopilot, mindlessly plodding through their activities.  They don’t consider how their immediate actions connect to their values and personal standards.  This means that when they make mistakes, it is not as if they are choosing to do the wrong thing, but more that they are not choosing at all.  It is that lack of thought, or lack of presence, that enables the wrong action.

Athletes won’t attempt or be compliant in a program unless two conditions exist.  First they must believe the activity is worth the effort, and secondly they must believe that they can do what is required.  Not to say that the activity must not challenge the edges of their performance level, however, they must believe they are up to the challenge.  If not, why try?  Fear of failure is a very real deterrent.

Despite the fact that most coaches are convinced that athletes who show poor self-discipline need to exert a stronger will, the truth is demanding that they suck it up, dig down, or show character doesn’t improve performance.  More likely, by breaking down complex tasks into achievable short-term goals, providing constant feedback of progress, allows those athletes to continue on until the end.

Many coaches fear that rewarding incremental improvement means rewarding mediocrity.  That cannot be farther from the truth.  What you are rewarding in these situations is effort and more importantly focused effort on the right behavior.  If all we ever do is reward the final outcome, athletes will find the short cut to achieve the outcome and thus we reward behavior that ultimately hurt the team.

Build mini goals.  By focusing on small goals, monitoring them daily, and meeting them, athletes focus on something they can see and control.  This self-efficacy clarifies the intent of the program, validates its effectiveness, and increases or motivates compliance.  You have to make sure that the expectation of success grows concurrently with their ability.

Rewards and punishments can get tricky quickly.  Rewards should be linked to small, measurable tasks that are achievable in small increments, not always held out until a bigger task is achieved.  Often the lack of small measure celebration leads to athletes mulling over whether the endeavor is actually worth it.

Viewing being unsuccessful as failure creates anxiety, tension, and pain that are unnecessary.  Failure cannot be avoided.  The best in the world are unsuccessful at times, so it is safe to assume that your athletes will be unsuccessful at times as well.  By seeing a lack of success as an opportunity to learn and improve, it makes the experience more tolerable to the point that it allows us to develop.  Setbacks are lessons in improvement; they are the only way we can progress.  When athletes think about the experiences that have taught them the most, they most likely involve times they have failed or have faced monumental challenges.  Self-confidence comes from knowing our weaknesses and learning from our failures.  Self-esteem comes after an accomplishment.  Too much of it and we will believe that we have arrived before the journey has begun.  It should be a byproduct of success.

Taking risks is part of being alive.  It is a natural progression to living greatly.  However, getting your athletes to take risks, which includes potentially failing, is a matter of trust.  They must trust you the strength coach, not that your programming is solid, but more that you are there for them when they fail.  They must trust that you care about them as a person, not just the end result.  They need to believe and trust that you will help them up when they fall, without ridicule or contempt for the shortcoming.  Only when they believe this and trust you, will they risk and thus achieve greatness they never imagined.

First, Happy New Year to All!  Alright, onto the first blog post for 2014…

A couple months ago, Georgia State’s Devin Vernick and Jacob Lonowski wrote a piece about GSU’s training regimens – “A different take on mobility training by Devin Vernick and Jacob Lonowski of Georgia State University”.  The article focused on GSU’s rather innovative approach to using bands to mobilize joints especially in group settings.  Well, Coach Vernick and Lonowski’s article helped shed some light in another article written in the NY Times by Greg Bishop -- “Stanford’s Distinct Training Regimen Redefines Strength”.

Stanford has long been known for its rigorous academics and entrepreneur alums.  However, in the last several years, Stanford’s been surging in another ranking – football.  On January 1st, Stanford reached its fourth consecutive Bowl Championship Series game.  A key part of Stanford’s success can be attributed to its Director of Football Sports Performance, Shannon Turley.

Turley lends his expertise to the NY Times examining how his training regimens focus not on building strength (not necessarily directly), but on Function, Balance, and Flexibility.  Bishop writes, “His approach is grounded in physics, on the premise that low man wins on contact, that to get low requires mobility and stability and the ability to apply force in the opposite direction.”

Turley noticed from his days at Virginia Tech as an Assistant that the best players were rarely the strongest in the weight room.  Even Turley’s freshmen come into the program not lifting weights, but instead, focus on “body work” exercises such as push-ups, pull-ups, squats or lunges… This should sound familiar if you’ve read several Body Boss blog posts in the past where many coaches from high school to college focus, especially, on body weight exercises especially for beginners.  As players progress from high school to college, many of the college player development coaches rarely know the lifting programs of their incoming freshmen so it’s important for the college coaches to establish a strong foundation with players. 

Turley goes on to talk about several other key elements of his program including the following:

Stretch and stretch and stretch.  Turley says his players stretch before and after lifts and practices… even stretching for fun.

Functional Movement Screen (FMS) scores. “[A] predictive, quantitative analysis of quality of movement”.  The FMS evaluates seven movements and grades the players based on balance, functional, overpowered, dysfunctional, and injury prone.  The FMS even evaluates based on symmetry (or asymmetry) – if a particularly side of the body is more adept than the other.

Yoga.  Again, stressing the need for balance.  Development of opposing muscle groups without over-focusing on one side or the other.

Let young players and athletes into a weight room and the first exercises they’ll do are bench press, incline bench press.  The second?  Biceps curls.  It happens time and time again where young athletes largely workout those two – the chest and the biceps.  It’s why strength coaches and strength programs are so important – players won’t know what to do, nor will they do the exercises that are necessary to build a strong, athletic base.  Oftentimes younger players neglect the muscles in the Posterior Chain where much power is derived.

The Posterior Chain is critical in just about all athletic movements not just because of the explicit movements they provide, but also as the contrast muscles to the anterior muscles.  The Posterior Chain is responsible for movements including jumping over obstacles, running down the sideline, and pushing players back.  It includes a myriad of muscles along the backside including [1]:

Multifidus

Erector spinae

Gluteals

Hamstrings

Gastronemius/ Calves

External obliques

T-Nation provides the following as good examples of compound exercises for the Posterior Chain [2]:

Barbell Hip Thrust

Deadlift

Glute-Ham Raise

Romanian Deadlift (RDL)

Pull Through

You can and should add other auxiliary exercises to focus on specific posterior chain muscles just like any other workout.  

Working the Posterior Chain not only benefits (and is critical) for forward propulsion, but it also helps develop the strength necessary to prevent injury.  So ensure your players are getting in a good dose of posterior chain exercises in addition to the anterior and rotational chain exercises to build stronger, more athletic players.

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[1]: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/superior-poster-workout-posterior-chain-training.html

1. What is your background?

My background started as a youth soccer player playing for one of the top soccer clubs in the country (Austin Capitals). I was coached by Wolfgang Sunholz - former Under 23 National team coach. I received a full scholarship to Drury University and captained the team to its first NCAA tournament in 2009. I was also captain of the Springfield Demize for two years - professional development league while at Drury University.  

2. Why did you go into Coaching?

I got into coaching because I had a passion for the game and wanted to teach players how to play with the right fundamentals from a young age so they can play competitively. 

3. What are some challenges coaching today's players?

I feel like there is TOO much information out there that confuses players. They get the wrong information sometimes and often when that happens, their minds will be closed to learning new things. I am a technical soccer trainer who focuses on playing with the right technique in order to play at the highest level possible. 

4. What philosophy(-ies) do you subscribe to?

My philosophy is starting from ground zero with every player I train. That could be an 8-year-old or a college player. Every player’s game needs to be dissected and analyzed in order to improve quickly so they can learn from their own weaknesses and build on their strengths. I am a technical soccer trainer who focuses on playing with the right technique in order to play at the highest level possible. 

5. How do you feel about training as it relates to soccer players (concerns, growth, adoption)?

I feel that players could train MUCH more than they normally do. If you look at players in Europe, they are training 2-4 hours per day on their technical skills. Youth players in America typically train 2-4 hours per week. If you watch closely in other leagues around the world you can notice how good the players are technically. The United States has grown in this aspect the last couple of years, but I feel that we are still behind the curve because players don't train as much. 

6. What advice would you give to those aspiring for a career in coaching and training?

My advice is to study the game and learn from other trainers who are successful in their craft. It is important to always be learning so that you are the expert in your craft.