I was recently contacted by Yosef Johnson about some books he's selling from all-time great training mind, Anatoliy Bondarchuk. He asked that I take a look and review some of the material. As a sucker for Russian Training pron I excitedly agreed. I received the book (Transfer of Training in Sports) about a week ago. When I unpackaged the book, my immediate impression was how unassuming it look [...]

I will use a cooking analogy to illustrate the training process. I can take a recipe from one of the finest chefs in the world and try to make an elaborate thanksgiving dinner. Unfortunately no matter how hard I try, even with the exact ingredients my meal will not be the same, probably not five star quality. Why? Very simple if it was just about the recipe. I could obtain a book with champions wo [...]

Dan Baker is the Strength coach for the Brisbane Broncos (Australian Rugby League) In my eyes he is the consummate professional. He just completed his PhD under Rob Newton at Edith Cowan University. It was a joy watching the strength training sessions this past May when I was with the Broncos. His ideas and concepts could have a huge impact in American football,but it would require a huge paradigm [...]

It seems we all preach more is not better but then when it comes down to it we end doing more. As my good friend and colleague Gary Winckler so succinctly states “volume is not a biomotor quality.” I think there must be some comfort in doing more. What we need to focus on instead is the concept of the stimulus threshold. I define that as is the threshold amount of work that is the opti [...]

The other day Jim Radcliffe and I were talking about planning and how people are making it way too complex with terms like reverse periodization, undulating and linear periodization. He gave a great analogy which cuts to the chase. His analogy was as follows: If we are going on a trip together, first we determine the destination. Then we decide how we want to get there and how many stops we want t [...]

This is a short excerpt from a forthcoming article in Training and Conditioning http://www.momentummedia.com tentatively titled “Following a Training Road map.” Eachjourney is unique, even if the destination is not. Sometimes theweather will be clear, other times stormy. Sometimes construction or aspecial event may slow you down or steer you toward another route. Ifyou’re taking a ful [...]

Yesterday Iwas searching for some information for a project when I came acrossthis on a university’s strength and conditioning site: Philosophy:Linear/Undulating PeriodizationOlympic-style Weightlifting Whatexactly does this mean? Is this philosophy? This remands me of thecoach who told me his philosophy was to train the “Big Three.” I alwaysthought a philosophy was an underl [...]

Here are three words that I feel should be eliminated from the lexicon of training. If you eliminate something then you should replace it with something better, in this case I have carefully selected terms that more accurately describe the ultimate desired action. I was taught a long time ago that words create images in the mind, and that those images are then transferred into action. Therefore we [...]

Anonymous wrote the following in reply to my previous post on periodization: I realize that it's impossible to "periodize" to the extent the eastern Europeans did, but Bompa defined Periodization as "a process of structuring training into phases". Isn't that still the basic idea?!No, not really. I am not sure it ever was the idea. Just dividing training into phases is e [...]

This was one of the questions asked at a presentation I did to Athletics and swim Coaches at University of Queensland.It is an important question, certainly not one to be taken lightly.Periodization as it has been commonly taught by Bompa et. al. is dead!That neat defined world of general preparation, special preparation,competition and transition does not exist any more. Contemporaryreality is th [...]