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. Read more
Our mailbag is full, so it’s time to go through some listener questions about a variety of topics. On this week’s episode we dive into questions on the barbell, peaking, explicit coaching, throwing technique, and how much strength is enough. Read more
One of the “Holy Grails” in sport is the ability to predict, with accuracy, whether someone has the potential to become an elite athlete or not. I’ve covered this in previous articles and papers in terms of genetics, discussing whether we can test for it or not and how we might think of talent in terms of the ability to respond to training. However, at present, predicting future performance remains very difficult. But we keep trying and a recent paper in Biology of Sport took a novel approach to trying to predict sprint performance. The researchers recruited 104 Croatian sprinters and collected a wide variety of data points relating to anthropometric, genetic, and psychological traits to create a rich data set for analysis. Read more
Yesterday as I watching the documentary Free Solo
There is something to be said about trial by fire. If you throw a coach into a difficult situation, they will learn fast no matter whether they are succesful or not. This describes the career of Chris McCormick, who has just started as the Head Strength & Conditioning Coach for Olympic Sports at Florida Atlantic University. Long before he was at FAU, he was a 23 year old coach running a one-man shop and hundreds of athletes at a Division II school. As he’s gained experience over the years, he’s learned along the way. He joins us on the podcast to talk about dealing with such situations, the logistics of running a strength and conditioning program, and setting up a training program. Read more
It seems that at least once every couple of months the question comes up as to how much strength is enough? I realize more and more that strength is totally contextual. Read more
“All other things being equal . . . “
How often have you heard that phrase? Perhaps you’ve used it yourself? (If so, please stop). The most common situation I’ve heard it used is in regards to weight training: “All other things being equal, the strongest athlete will win.” Read more
