Be very wary of coaches who take absolute stances. You see this with many sprint coaches and strength coaches now a days. They are terrified of fiber type conversions, when in reality it is just a gross simplification of the process. Fiber changes are very complex. - Steve MagnessLatif Thomas, a sprint coach offers a structured approach in developing a sprint stable at the HS level with cross coun [...]

Someone send me this last week: “Mike Boyle's RFESS (rear foot elevated split squat) has made some serious waves in the strength and conditioning community. I think that is important that he dares say no to back squat or front squat any more.” I think this is a sad commentary on the strength and conditioning community. What will it be next, I am not interested in creating controversy or getti [...]

Does it really matter what exercises the championship hockey did last year? What relevance does what they did have to what you are doing? Are you coaching the same athletes? One of the biggest pitfalls in all of this is the monkey see, monkey do syndrome – so and so is the world record holder, we saw a picture of him or her doing squats on a physioball therefore to be a world record holder we ne [...]

The focus in the Athletic Development approach is not on the exercise. The selection of the actual exercise is the last step in a multi-step process. In the strength coaching approach it is all about the exercise. Apparently the latest go to exercise is the RFESS (rear foot elevated split squat), an exercise introduced twenty years by Angel Spasov in his tour of the US. I call it the Bulgarian sin [...]

Mike Boyle's RFESS (rear foot elevated split squat) has made some serious waves in the strength and conditioning community. I think that is important that he dares say no to back squat or front squat any more. My question now is with olympic lifts being bilateral, can the same be said with the back being a poor transducer (better stated as a coupling agent due to anatomical syntax) with cleans? I [...]

Perform these workouts five days apart. On your first sprint session, work your way up to four 100-meter sprints at 80% max-speed. On your second sprint session, work your way up to two 100-meter sprints at 90% max-speed. On your third sprinting session, work your way up to one 100-meter sprint at 100% max-speed. Have a buddy bring a stop-watch and see if you can set a personal record- Brett Contr [...]

Study Design: A biomechanical lumbar spine model was constructed to simulate three-dimensional spinal kinematics under the application of pure moments. Parametric analysis of the model allowed for the estimation of how much of the coupled motions could be predicted by the lumbar lordosis and the intrinsic mechanical properties of the spine.Morning research is always an interesting as it manages no [...]

Is the "Boylegarian" leg exercise the new front squat? We are back full circle with spinal loading with a split squat but that is another argument. Now I have nothing against Mike Boyle advocating single leg biased exercises but the math is not adding up. The RFESS (rear foot elevated split squat) is not a single leg exercise but more like a 1.5 leg exercise. I would bet that none of his freshma [...]

Mike Boyle has one of the most well rounded programs in Strength and Conditioning. He wrote an article on conditioning for Hockey and it is one of his best writings in my opinion. I think it should be mandatory reading for many new coaches on how to create programs as most like the "iron" part of strength and conditioning but not the "air". I suggest those wanting a great value go to his webs [...]

I am completely comfortable with not being popular among the fraternity of gurus, as my motives are not fueled by greed or glory. Paul Graham shared in his essays that the FBI decades ago had to change their investigation strategy with computer hackers, since a hacker's motives were not the typical drugs, money, sex, revenge. Curiosity was not on the list. I represent the irritating grain of sa [...]