Those are harsh words so when I was channel surfing last week and heard those words I stopped surfing and listened. One of the ESPN pundits, a former pro football player (so of course he must know everything about football and even more about strength training) was expounding on the recent failure and perceived deficiencies of a pro football team. He identified the fact that even though there had [...]

This is an article from yesterday's New York Times sports page. As soon as I read it I ran the gamut of emotions starting with astonishment and ending with anger. What are we trying to do here? Isn’t this just exploiting kids? Why don’t we just let them be kids? I have a long time interest in Long Term Athlete Development, youth sports and physical education, this concept and many o [...]

Here's another video from Coach Pfaff. This one's another from the HPC ELITETRACK Gold Medal Track Clinic. It's about training elite pole vaulters. Although Dan is known more for his sprint coaching pupils, he has also coached plenty of elite pole vaulters, most recently coaching Brad Walker to an American Record last year. One of the things that sets Dan apart from some of his fellow pole vaul [...]

Next in line of this video bonanza is an 8 minute clip from none other than the mighty, shiny-domed Dave Kerin. Although Dave has been made immortally famous and achieved rockstar status for his witty but semi-cryptic rants on ET; he is also well known for being one of the first to really point out the importance of eccentric strength development in the training of speed-power athletes. Dave is hi [...]

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. To help fight off post-Christmas depression, here's my last Pfaff lecture snippet from the USATF National Podium Project. (at least until I get back from visiting my family in NY that is). As with the other lectures, you'll find that although this one was given to throwers much of the talk actually remains the same and is generalizable to a wide range of ev [...]

Here's another 5 minute clip from Dan Pfaff from the National Podium Education Project in Las Vegas. This talk was on absolute strength and power development for world class horizontal jumpers. As you may be able to tell, Pfaff is a generalist and many of the themes that he uses for coaching one event group are used in what may appear to be very different event groups. Enjoy. [...]

Scott Belger wrote the following: However I noticed you dog Baseball from time to time. Most Baseball comments are blanket statements and not true for most Baseball coaches and/or Baseball organizations. Good observation Scott, perhaps you could contact the commissioner of professional baseball and ask him if you could help with their drug program. Just kidding. You are spot on with your comment, [...]

The anthropologist Margaret Mead once said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” The GAIN Apprentorship has a simple goal to chain the world of sport performance and rehabilitation by defining the field of athletic development. Last year was the beginning, join us June 18 to 23, 2009 and be pa [...]

I spent the first three days of this week at Kenyon College in Gambier Ohio. I consult with the athletic department on athletic development for all their teams. My first contact with Kenyon was through swimming and Coach Jim Steen who is always seeking ways to improve. He talked to Peter Smith, the Athletic Director to bring me in to work with the whole department. I love the 6:00 am workouts in t [...]

What is convenient is not always right. Just because something is easy to measure does not mean it will improve performance. If we train for what we measure then hopefully that will improve, but if what we measure is not relevant to the sport we are training for, then we have the athletic equivalent of no child left behind - a bunch of athletic dolts who can do mindless repetitions of cone drills [...]