Movement is a skill, an ability. Are you able to move well? Do you move often? Yes, I’m referring to Gray Cook’s famous quote, “move well, move often.” However, I wanted to touch on something that most people don’t really discuss. That is, not just having the movement capability, or possessing the ability to move[…]
This topic comes up quite often in daily discussions between athletes and coaches. It has always interested me to hear different viewpoints on the subject because there are so many. Of course there will be biases toward whatever type of sport that person is involved. Psychological vs. Physical We examine separate qualities of toughness instead of[…]
What’s old becomes new again and everyone thinks they’ve invented some kind of new training technique or method. We see it all the time; a get-rich-quick scheme unravels before our eyes on a commercial, while the veteran strength coach to our right laughs aloud. He states, “we were doing that 20 years ago!” There are[…]
Below is an article I wrote for an assignment when I was an intern at the Olympic Training Center. I should note that I hate the term “core” and prefer to use “trunk,” but I’m going with the crowd for the sake of the article. Training Contradictions There are a few contradictory methods on training[…]
What CAN Be Seen As coaches we often are working on improving qualities that are quite visible. Athlete X may need more muscle for “good” weight because he plays the line. Athlete Y may need more max AND absolute strength because they’re just too weak for their sport. These are qualities that are easily seen[…]
You thought it was going to say “save your breath,” right? Well, that’s kind of what I meant, but your breath is just one part of it. Read on as I go over the importance of movement efficiency and how improving this leads to better energy utilization and improved performance. Movement Efficiency There is not[…]
The training process can become cumbersome at times if, as a coach, you are constantly trying to digest new information. This is especially the case for how many methods of training there are out there and how many exercises you have at your disposal. There’s so much that can be done, but so little time[…]
Key performance indicators (KPIs) are well-known in the business world for monitoring progress and deciding what variables may affect performance. What variables should be focused on to show whether there is progress or not? Well, why not use this in training? What would a strength coach use for his or her key performance indicators? Athlete[…]
Concurrent Training Concurrent training can simply be stated as training multiple, opposing physical qualities in the same phase of programming. So, if you’re focused on strength AND endurance, you’re training concurrently. Why is this a bad thing? Well, for one, there is a phenomenon called interference where adaptations to training are dampened; especially for strength[…]
