Martin Bingisser

HMMR Podcast Episode 295: Pedal to the metal (with Scott Russell)

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With some athletes, the key to coaching is about getting them to put their foot on the gas. However, with elite athletes it can often the opposite. On this week’s podcast Scott Russell joins us to share some experiences from his career as a javelin thrower, PE teacher, and coach about when to step on the gas, when to take the foot away, and much more.

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Scott Russell is the Canadian record holder in the javelin. He is also an Olympic finalist and Commonwealth Games silver medalist. After retiring from throwing he has coached high school track and field, worked as a middle school PE teacher, and most recently a high school strength and conditioning coach in Eudora, Kansas.

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Key quotes and topics

  • 0:00 – Introduction.
  • 2:15 – Russell’s background.
  • 6:00 – Coaching yourself: “Once I started to write my own training Doug Reynolds took a look at it and just asked: where’s your recovery weeks in here? There weren’t any.”
  • 8:30 – Making training reactive.
  • 10:30 – Taking the foot off the gas: “How do you get into a 15 year old’s brain that lifting three, three to four times a week is plenty.”
  • 16:15 – Seeing transfer, data, and Bondarchuk’s methods.
  • 21:00 – Hex bar deadlift: “I think the Hex bar is kinda like the lower body version of bench. You could load it up a little bit. People like to do that because they can put some weight on it and it’s not painful.”
  • 24:30 – Injury prevention.
  • 28:15 – Sprinting for javelin throwers.
  • 32:00 – Multi-throws crossover.
  • 35:00 – Career and life transitions.

Complete transcript

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