The core fundamentals that guide our training are rarely the sexy things that will make us rich. Instead they are simple truths that simply work. On this episode Nick and I share some of the simple truths that make up the foundation of our training methods. Read more
Modern sport has changed drastically over the past several decades. More money has entered sports, seasons have gotten longer, travel demands have increased, along with many other changes. The result is that we are no longer training towards the same goals that we once were. Our periodization models, however, have not always adapted to keep up with the current reality. Read more
The past year was a busy one at HMMR Media with 97 new podcast episodes, 426 new posts, plus even more premium content for HMMR Plus members. Most important for us, we also added five new world-class coaches to our roster of writers: Nick Lumley, Jonathan Marcus, Danny Mackey, Sergej Litvinov and Bryan Mann. Combined they bring a variety of new viewpoints to the site from their backgrounds in endurance sports, rugby, and more. Read more
Germany is the world’s dominant power in throwing. Despite having just 15% as many citizens as the US, they had twice as many finalists in the throws at this year’s Olympic Games. To get an idea of how the country ticks and trains we spoke with leading coach René Sack. Sack leads a group near Leipzig including two-time World Championship medalist Nadine Müller. On this episode he talks about the German system, programming, priorities in training, and more. Read more
I’ve been coaching professionally for nine years and, like any young coach, I started out by reading anything and everything I could get my hands on, attending conferences and talking with other coaches. Scientists and coaches usually present research and theory behind training methodologies, combine them with practical experience and present positive results to support their work. Many of the basic principles of training I first learned about back then I still use today and have never let me down. Read more
On last week’s GAINcast Vern and I discussed the importance of connections in training. When it comes down to it, performance is about making connections. At one level it is about connecting muscles and joints to move together with optimal coordination. At another level it is about connecting ideas from different disciplines to find the best way to guide your athlete. At both levels we can learn a lot by looking at the field of ecology. Ecology, by its very nature, is a discipline devoted to connections: it is a branch of biology that deals with the relations of organisms to one another and to their physical surroundings. Barry Commoner was a leading ecologist and his 1971 book The Closing Circle
Earlier this week we celebrated the 30th birthday of the men’s hammer throw world record. When a record lasts that long, the inevitable question is whether it will ever be broken. The chances do not look good in the near-term future. Pawel Fajdek’s throw of 83.93 meters last year is the only all-time top 10 mark in the last decade and the winning distance at this year’s Olympics was the lowest since 1984. In the long-term many top coaches think a bigger throw is possible, but it will not be easy. It will require the sport to progress in terms of training methods, culture, and more. Below two Olympic champions share their thought on the future of our event. Read more
This is the time when coaches and athletes watch great athletes achieve astounding performances at the Olympic games. It is certainly inspiring and interesting to see what these athletes did in their journey to achieve that success. It is tempting to try to copy their training methods in an attempt to imitate their success. I know that because as a young coach and athlete I did that. Needless to say the results were less than spectacular and in a couple of cases disastrous. While what Phelps or Bolt do in training may be interesting, in 99.9% of the cases it is irrelevant with your athletes. Read more
We often think that the more complex something is, the better it is. Fancy sports cars, new computers, and Swiss watches all revel in their complexity. But in coaching simple is often better. Unnecessarily added elements can distract us from our core focus. On this episode we talk about the value of simplicity and ask how simple is too simple. Read more
Every coach wants to build a program. They want to not just produce a good athlete, but set up a factory that keeps pumping out champions. That is exactly what Bill Pendleton has done with the track and football programs at Esperanza High School in Anaheim. On this episode we take a look at the approach and philosophy that Pendleton credits with creating the program. Read more
