Ten days ago I showed up for the Swiss Championships. As the six-time defending champion the meet should have been a walk in the park. Instead I threw 45.23 meters. No, that isn’t a typo . . . here’s the proof. It was my worst result since I was 18 years old and because of it I guess I’ll have to start calling myself the former Swiss national champion. Read more
You might have notice this episode arrived a week early. With some extra time over the summer Nick and I decided to try doing the podcasts on a weekly basis until we run out of time or ideas (whatever comes first). Read more
Looking back on this site, I can’t believe I have never covered the topic of the so called “work-life balance.” In interviews I am often asked how I balance everything I do, but I have never sat down to write about it. Part of the reason is that I am hardly alone. Just as I do, Nick also works, coaches, trains, contributes to this site, and devotes a lot of time to family. Unless you are top 10 in the world, this is the life of a modern thrower. Another reason I have not written about it is that there are many others that do it better than I do. One of those people is Kevin McMahon. McMahon was a two-time Olympian and top American thrower for more than a decade despite working a full-time job, coaching, and being married. We invited him on this week’s podcast to discuss his experiences in finding the right balance, priorities, as well as some of the advantages that we all have noticed can come from this balancing act. Read more
A good question for all coaches is “How much is too much?” We should ask this about all forms of programming, but it is perhaps most important in regards to strength as that is where many people overdo it. The tendancy is to think more is always better. But eventually we all learn that it isn’t the case. Read more
The one area of training that I write about most often is specific strength. Therefore it might seem odd to some people that I advocate a multisport approach to developing youth athletes. In elementary and middle school I played tennis, basketball, and baseball extensively. Only in high school did I begin throwing, but I also played on the tennis and football teams. Now I am focused on throwing but still enjoy the occasional pick-up basketball game. How do these two theories fit together? Read more
Everyone has that one athlete. They turn out for the team with a ton of talent but are constantly late, miss practice, or are just plain not focused. What can we do for them? On this week’s episode of the podcast Nick and I draw from our experience and discuss some ideas on how to get your athletes motivated to train with actions rather than words.
You can’t make an athlete want it, but you can show them what is worth wanting.
Last month’s post on the book Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder by Nassim Taleb was a surprising hit considering the book is three years old. Taleb covers a range of topics in the book from finance to medicine and risk, but the concept of antifragile can be used my anyone, coach’s included. Read more
With the post-season in full swing for high school and universities, it is a great time to talk about meet preparation and peaking. This episode starts off by discussion different ways to approach the days leading into a competition as well as mental preparation for meets. We then turn to the larger topic of peaking and compare both traditional approaches and discuss Bondarchuk’s method of tapering. Read more
On this episode of the HMMR Media Podcast another member of the HMMR Media team joined us to talk about periodization of training intensities. Both Nick and I have worked closely with Derek Evely and have gotten him to contribute to the site recently. He brings a diverse background thanks to his varied influences and his experience working with elite athletes in several event groups. One thing he has noticed in common is how training with many top coaches is polarized. This idea is gaining popularity with distance coaches, but is rarely discussed in the context of training for power sports. Read more
Earlier this month Nick Garcia and I launched the HMMR Media Podcast. For our second episode we look at the overlooked effectiveness of submaximal training loads. Read more
