Mike Barber came to the javelin as an outsider, but a fresh perspective has helped him rethink the event and led Kelsey-Lee Barber to World Championship gold last month. On this week’s GAINcast we talk with Barber about how his career has developed, his approach to the javelin, and how he navigated complex waters in the lead up to the World Championships. Read more
When it comes to field sport training, our go to resource is John Pryor. The Rugby World Cup just came to an end, so it is a good time for us to check in with him and his colleague Leigh Egger about their experiences preparing Fiji Rugby. They also dive into the evolution of their new training app focusing on the foundations of performance: core strength and hip function. Read more
Core training is a staple in the training program of most athletes and general fitness goers. “Core” stability training arrived around the end of the 1990s and was largely derived from studies that demonstrated change in timing of activation of the trunk muscles in lower back pain. Core stability, the argument went, was the key to relieving chronic lower back pain. This has led to worldwide teaching of trunk bracing and “tummy tucking” for lower back pain and injury prevention. Read more
Some of the training concepts laid out by Frans Bosch in his book Strength Training and Coordination: An Integrative Approach can be intimidating. Many disregard his ideas without even reading the book. Others read it and get lost in the details of motor learning or anatomy, as I did at first. But when you look at the coaches successfully putting the ideas into practice, it is quite easy to see that it doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, even Bosch himself takes a very straightforward approach to implementing the ideas. Read more
Team sports require a mix of physical qualities to be trained concurrently due to the performance requirements, but one stands out above the others: speed. Speed is often the difference between elite and sub-elite teams. Speed is not just about that one breakaway play, it underpins all aspects of the game such as the overall tempo of play or the ability to execute skills at high speeds. Therefore, there should be an emphasis on training speed “in” within a structured training period. Read more
As a young coach, one thing I didn’t realize was how variable speed requirements are between different sports. We might think of speed as a single quality trained in a single way, but the reality is that speed manifests itself differently in each sport and therefore needs to be trained differently. As I have gained experience in different sports, my thought process has slowly evolved. Read more
Vern Gambetta’s GAIN event brings together top practitioners from around the globe in a variety of fields. While the presentations are world-class, what makes it special is the side conversations that we strike up. We tried to recreate that on this week’s podcast by interviewing three faculty members live from GAIN: Angus Ross, Greg Gatz, and John Pryor. Read more
Like his methods or not, it is hard not to agree that Frans Bosch has been one of the most influential coaches in strength and conditioning over the past few years. Since publishing his most recent book Strength Training and Coordination: An Integrative Approach in 2015, Bosch has created a conversation about how strength coaches can help improve coordination and motor learning, not just strength. Read more
Two years ago I compiled list of four key points I learned from Frans Bosch’s work after reading his book Strength Training and Coordination: An Integrative Approach. Since then I’ve had the change to try out some of the concepts in training, talk more with Frans Bosch, and see how John Pryor has implemented the ideas. Therefore I thought it was time to add to that list. Read more
On last week’s GAINcast we started a discussion on agility with Frans Bosch and John Pryor, looking at transfer, traditional strength training, and common misconceptions of their work.Bosch and Pryor have formed a strong partnership that has helped redefine strength and conditioning by bringing together the science of coaching and art of coaching. On this week’s GAINcast we continue the conversation to look at the first step in implementing Bosch’s ideas, redefining general training, connecting movements, and more. Read more
