I received this comment on this portion of my post from earlier today."the winner is the person who can maintain the highest percentage of their maximum speed for the duration of the race." This is not true. Basic physiology, since the main components of speed and endurance are different energy systems.This is the basic problem, until we get past thinking about energy systems, we will not pro [...]

My basic premise is that the body is very intelligent and self organizing. It instinctively knows what to do, how to do and when to do it. Daily life activities and sport activities happen way to fast to think about some of the things people try to teach the body to do - proper lifting technique to prevent back injury comes to mind – you can bend your knees in a sterile environment when you have [...]

Perhaps the most amusing aspect of this profession is new problems created by corrective exercise and injury reducing approaches. The new dysfunctional/postural epidemic is caused by the ripple effect of profit and marketing, and it is now hitting us like the current economic crisis of today. False prophets are now backpedaling every time new blood publishes information that proves what they are n [...]

Frans Bosch in several of his presentations has defined Strength Training – as coordination training with resistance. I think that is a good starting point. My adaptation of that definition is as follows: Coordination training with the resistance and mode that is appropriate for the sport or activity trained for. I think this definition gets us away from chasing numbers in terms of maximums and [...]

Are we losing sight of the big picture by focusing on minutiae and triviality? Movement is not a solo performance, it is a symphony, all the pieces must play in harmony. If you just work on the pieces and never put the whole orchestra together how do you get them playing together? [...]

I was privileged to attend the USA Track & Field Coaching at Loyola University in Chicago from June 30 to July 3. I attended the presentations by Frans Bosch to Sprints and Jumps group. He did six presentations on six topics. I found them all very thought provoking and stimulating. He is an individual who literally combines art and science. He is an artist and brings the creativity and the eye of [...]

Why do vibration platforms get such a bad rap? There's a growing list of research evidence to suggest that they can be a valuable tool to enhance strength, flexibility, and power output yet all I hear about in the coaching community is mocking. I know uber-coach Randy Huntington used one while he was the coach at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista. I realize they are costly, and I know [...]

The first consideration when looking at endurance sports is the type of strength that is necessary to improve performance. This strength is focused on improving skill of the events and efficiency. The goal is to improve an athlete’s ability to streamline in the water; maintain an aerodynamic position in the saddle producing maximum power per pedal stroke on the bike; and ability to use the g [...]

Carl Valle said something to me in an email that struck a resonating cord. Can you be too specific? Is it possible to increase pattern overload from too many highly specific movements in training. I think you can. Training for an activity is just that training to prepare to do that activity. It is not the activity itself. The most specific movement is the activity itself. Each repetitive activity [...]

Frans is an artist (to my left) who has had many professional exhibitions, his are is biomechanics and Ronald (second from right) is an exercise physiologist. They both teach at a Sport School that is roughly equivalent to our teacher colleges. Also joining us for dinner was Dick Lam,(right) he is a coach of youth and masters runners and works for A Film the distributors of the running DVD. (Go to [...]