Always build and rebuild your athletes from the ground up. Emphasize training movements that connect and coordinate. Start with fundamental movements and add complexity as the athlete’s gain mastery of the fundamentals. Don’t worry too much about being sport specific; instead emphasize movements that are sport appropriate to prepare the athlete for the sport demands. Read more
The typical warm-up lasts around 10 minutes and starts most training sessions or classes. It is either a garden blooming with possibility or a wasteland of lost potential. Unfortunately, it usually the latter, a perfunctory prelude rather than training with specific long term adaptive and educational goals. Read more
Working on landing as an isolated skill is probably misdirected work. Here is my thought process: aside from long jump, final jump in the triple jump and landings in gymnastic where sticking the landing is part of the judged routine, seldom if ever is landing a terminal action. Read more
The purpose of this article is to give any readers an insight into how I think about and prepare people for change of direction tasks. These change of direction tasks are simply that, not agility tasks. We want athletes to be able to change direction powerfully, quickly and efficiently in competition. In preparation, I like to look at these qualities in reverse: efficiency, speed and power. Change of direction all starts with promoting efficiency by understanding the attractors of the movement. Read more
As with any area of training, when it comes to training the legs we often fall back to our same training routines and exercises. That’s a shame since it is one of the most fundamental aspects of training. We wanted to help coaches get out of that rut this month by exploring some different ways to train the legs. Through the month we published 12 new articles, 2 new videos, and 1 new podcast on the topic from a 9 different contributors. Read more
No matter the sport or the movement, it’s all in the legs. And how you get results is all in how you train the legs. A lot of people understand the importance of legs, but not everyone understands how to optimally train them. On this week’s GAINcast we dive into Vern’s approach to training the legs and discuss sample programs. Read more
On this week’s GAINcast expands on my vintage Legs, legs, legs video and looks at training the legs. We wanted to include some sample programs to give an idea how the parts can be put together. Read more
Usually any injury negatively affects movement patterns in the short term and, if left unaddressed, indefinitely. Whether it be due to pain, inhibition or central motor control changes these alterations in movement need to be addressed early, consistently and progressively in a rehabilitation program. Good quality, simple movement in rehab is the cornerstone to regaining function. Read more
Last week I wrote about programming in the time of coronavirus, with a focus on athletes that had access to at least limited equipment. This week on Instagram I have been posting videos of the general strength circuits I have given athletes that have no training equipment. The objective of each circuit is to cover the lower body, upper body, core, as well as all three planes of movement (sagittal, frontal, and transverse). I learned these from my college coach Glenn McAtee and find them just as useful nearly two decades later. Read more
When coaches or athletes ask me what is a quick way to maintain or improve total body strength for your sport before or during a season, I answer Dumbbell Complex. The Dumbbell Complex in the video below is one I learned from coach Vern Gambetta. Read more
