Much of what many track and field coaches of speed-power athletes do has what I'd call an "Endurance bias" in that they are using training protocols and methodologies directly from or influenced by the training theory and methods of an endurance athlete. Because the physical capacities necessary for success in speed-power activities is very different than those of endurance events, this approac [...]

Now that the World Cup is over with, it's time for another Spanish Inquisition. Foam rollers are being enhanced with vibration and what appears to be a off-road tire for some military tank. I do think foam rolling is a good tool, but foam rolling at the beginning of workouts just doesn't make much sense if you stop to think about things in depth. I think people fear some changes because other's [...]

The five biomotor abilities are often described as the elements in eastern medicine. Before people think I am trying to go voodoo or guru I don't like boxing things into pretty categories that much as many exercises and workouts are not purely one biomotor ability. Overlap exists and often the composite is unique. What happens to the low back type I fiber/musculature after one hour of olympic lif [...]

Remember when Cranial Sacral Therapy was the rage in the 90s? Sure DNS may have some points but can we train young men and women and less babysitting? I was talking to a friend that coaches strength and conditioning and he keeps reminding his GAs that we still have the same or less hours that we did ten years ago. I was interesting to see how he changed very little even when he spends so much tim [...]

The sad part of speed is that so many people train it out of their athletes. Especially with the endurance athletes, but I even see with speed and power athletes. It is about quality not quantity. Start with warm-up, some of these elaborate hour and fifteen minute warm-ups that include every drill under the sun are just getting the athlete tired not ready for explosive effort. Speed is about quali [...]

Last year I read Malcolm Gladwell's excellent book Outliers. In it he talks about success and some of our (mis) conceptions. At one point he talks about IQ and says, "Over the years, an enormous amount of research has been done in an attempt to demonstrate how a performance on an IQ test... translates to real life success." He then goes on to explain some scoring ranges (e.g., people below 70 a [...]

Many current gurus provide sample speed/power plans that recommend volumes of speed/power elements that I find paltry for the majority of situations. I think a lot of this bias can be traced back to incomplete backgrounds heavily centered toward the force end of the force/velocity curve (weightroom centric strength and conditioning backgrounds, heavily powerlifting based backgrounds, etc..) If [...]

A while back I remember discussing injury and a fellow coach insisting for the move from injury to opportunity. At the time he meant the opportunity to do great rehab, overcome, and set personal records. While covering the proper bases to rehabilitate the injury is priority number one, injury provides some other opportunities that wouldn’t exist in the course of a normal season or training. D [...]

Well it's been about 3 months since my last blog entry and probably not too much shorter since my last meaningful forum post. I was caught up in a whirlwind of 70+ hour work weeks and lots of business related travel. Thankfully being busy is a good thing for a business owner on a new venture. But now that I've tied up a couple projects I think I should have at least a little reprieve for the nex [...]

With all of the great responses from the Poetry in Motion blog I will throw out this common issue with training. How much feedback is necessary, and what style matches what athlete. I don't have the answer but my guess as little as needed. That is hard. No epic sagas but couplets and haikus. How to do it? Well that's why 20-30 years will bring more answers than questions. Currently in year 12 my [...]