Posts

James Marshall

Moving beyond the plank

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There is a tendency within the education and scientific world to measure things. We benchmark things or test things, create an intervention, and then measure again to see if progress has been made. As the human body is immensely complex, we can’t measure everything, so this process requires us to isolate and reduce to simple measurements. What starts out as in innocent project can quickly become a dogmatic approach to training or education, where we “teach to the test” and lose sight of what our original aim was. Read more

Martin Bingisser

GAINcast Episode 165: Minimalist training (with Tony Holler)

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We all know less can be more, but doing less is hard. We all hate to be out worked. Coach Tony Holler came to track and field coaching as an outsider and stumbled upon the benefits of minimalist training. On this week’s GAINcast he joins us to talk about how his training program came about, how it is put together, and additional thoughts on training speed. Read more

Vern Gambetta

LTAD is becoming cliché

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Let’s look at where we have been over the past seventy years. What has changed? Society has changed immensely; youth sport has become commercialized. There is no longer mandatory physical education in the schools. Then and now child development does not follow a neat linear progression, so-called windows of opportunity for development of various physical is a myth, sport development is all over the place, youth phenoms rarely turn out to be senior champions. Read more

Martin Bingisser

HMMR Podcast Episode 199: Q&A

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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

Martin Bingisser

May 2019 in review: the young athlete

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Sometimes we take training young athletes for granted. Give them almost anything and they will see some initial growth, but true long-term development requires a more thoughtful process. This month on HMMR Media we explored training the young athlete. Through 3 new videos, 4 podcasts, and 4 articles from 11 world class coaches we explored examples of training methods, long-term athlete development, key issues facing youth athletics, as well as ideas on how these concepts can be transferred to older athletes as well. Read more

Martin Bingisser

Thoughts on progressing the athlete

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I’ve been thinking a lot about progressions lately. This month’s site theme is the young athlete, and that goes hand in hand with progressions. I’ll also be moderating a panel discussion on the topic at GAIN in two weeks. As a result I’ve got a bunch of random ideas floating around in my head on the topic. The following is not a set of answers on how to progress the athlete, but rather a compilation of things I am thinking about. Read more

Martin Bingisser

HMMR Podcast Episode 198: Building bandwidth (with Jeremy Frisch)

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We can complain about it as much as we want, but the decline of physical education and the rise of early sports specialization are trends that are here to stay. We might not be able to change the system, but we can still actively work to help athletes at an individual level. Jeremy Frisch has taken that challenge upon himself to reinvent training for the kids he is working with by bringing in varied influences from physical education, speed training, motor learning, strength and conditioning, and more. What is even better is that he is sharing his experiments with the world on social media. He joins this week’s episode to discuss where his approach came from and how it has evolved. Read more

Martin Bingisser

GAINcast Episode 161: Range (with David Epstein)

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Look at the top athletes in the world and you’ll notice they come from a variety of backgrounds. Tiger Woods began specializing at a young age, while Roger Federer only specialized as he started to achieve success later. Why did Federer benefit from a generalist childhood vs. a specialization one? Author David Epstein has focused on the topic for his upcoming book Range. He joins the GAINcast this week to talk about what he has found in the research on early specialization in sports, and as well as in other aspects of life. Read more

Martin Bingisser

GAINcast Episode 160: Beyond pathways (with James Marshall)

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There are dozens of long-term athlete development models out there that try to explain the best way to turn youth athletes into champions. The problem is that they incorporate much more theory than practice. In reality, success cannot be broken down into one pathway or plan. On this episode of the podcast, leading youth coach James Marshall talks about how the systems fail us and what he’s doing to make youth athletics better in his community. Read more

Martin Bingisser

GAINcast Episode 108: Counterculture (with Steve Myrland)

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Sometimes changing culture is about taking baby steps; other times it is about creating a counterculture. Throughout his career in elite sport Steve Myrand started to realize his approach just didn’t match with the traditional strength and conditioning culture. So now he is walking the halls of his local high school trying to start his own culture from the ground up. That means getting head coaches on board, redefining how his success is measured, reprioritizing physical education, and addressing the unique physical and cultural problems inherent in coaching teenagers. On this week’s GAINcast we dive into those topics, as well as some thoughts on training youth athletes. Read more