I work with a variety of athletes from different events in Track & Field as well as many athletes from other sports. Although the technical and biomotor qualities necessary for success may be very different across the spectrum of events and activities I train, one training commonality is that everyone sprints. At least a little bit. There’s an obvious need for some type of sprint training in [...]

It was a great night for Spain and those that worked hard to prepare the team for neutralizing Germany and controlling the Dutch Boys. During the World Cup it was great to watch Paul the Psychic Octopus predict winner after winner. Basically winning a coin toss 7 times in a row is not a reason to start believing in magic or super powers but it did make me think of what the future will hold in the [...]

Evaluating career development is tricky. Did the sprinters develop good acceleration mechanics? What about speed endurance? How lean are they? How about their elastic power? How do we score all of this? How do we track progress? I like the classical methods of the US Military from WW2. Get down to the raw basics and let the specialists take care of the minor details. Sure I am seeing people talk a [...]

I was reading some great lectures that were transcribed before I was born this morning. It was about money and coaching with club swim coaches from 40 years ago. The coach was sharing his experience about being a professional and what to do with salary and job duties. I like the fact coaches are more professional regarding salaries and how they should get paid. Many HS coaches are teachers, and so [...]

Art Horne did a wonderful job bringing together some great speakers at the BSMPG, but I was left fearful of what the direction would be. With some great responses in blogs by D1 Coaches, such as the blog by Aaron I am starting to feel that coaches are waking up to reality. This morning I was on skype to review some of the information some therapists are sharing and I am excited that in two years [...]

One of the highlights of my visit to Colorado Springs was getting to catch up with Jack Braley. Jack is one the real pioneers in the strength and conditioning field. He was an assistant football coach and the first S&C coach at the Air Force Academy. He was doing all this stuff when I was still in high school. I first meet Jack at an NSCA Convention in the 1980’s (Back in the days when it was a [...]

In the second part of this series on training injured athletes I'd like to look at what is likely one of the worst athletic injuries I'll ever experience as a coach. The athlete in question was one of the top football players on one of the top football programs in the country. He was also a fairly accomplished track and field athlete, having qualified for 2 high school National Championship meet [...]

Today I was sent an email that asked me to comment on the following workout that had been published on a very popular training and conditioning website as an appropriate workout for football players:Complete the following sprints:2 x 20 Meter Sprints (rest 20 seconds between efforts)Rest 30 seconds then...4 x 30 Meter Sprints (rest 30 seconds between efforts)Rest 30 seconds then...10 x 10 Meter Fl [...]

Yesterday during training I had a some time to step back and observe the athletes, not just my athletes but the football players and wrestlers who were in the weight room at the same time. On my drive home from workout, about twenty minutes, I reflected on what I saw with more focus on my Volleyball players. (The drive home is my time to reflect on the just completed workout and begin planning for [...]

If you coach long enough you're going to deal with a serious injury to an athlete. I have several athletes that I'm working with right now who are returning from acute catastrophic injuries. Two of them came to me with the injuries looking for help and the other one, Jade Ellis, had been with me prior to the injury. Each athlete was competing at a very high level prior to the injury and wants to [...]