Every year about this time (for those new to snow) or earlier (for those use to dealing with the cold), the northeast weather throws a big monkey wrench to "great on paper" programs. I have been in the lovely Tampa area for 6+ years and spent most of my life in Massachusetts and understand why Robert Frost sounds depressing. Snow on the ground changes everything but not as much as one has to bel [...]

I would like to congratulate Monica on her induction into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. I had the opportunity to work with Monica for a brief period in 1998 and 99. What a wonderful person, a terrific role model for the young female athlete. She was a great athlete, very quick and explosive. It was very interesting talking to her about her training with her father who was a triple jumper, [...]

Gilles Cometti and Wolfgang Ritzdorf have some great information on plyometrics (reactive training for the gurus) that I have used last summer with some athletes but not with any jumper this past year as I didn't have anyone with a good training history of proper jump work. Wolfgang argues that plyometrics should either redirect momentum (power) or minimize ground contact time (speed/stiffness). [...]

Those who follow my training log will know that I started Assisted Jump Training today. As this training method is not commonly used, I wanted to share my video from today and begin to discuss the training method in more detail. Assisted Jump training is taken from the concept of over-speed training for improving sprinting speed. Here, the athlete will sprint at maximal velocity down a slope of 3- [...]

A couple days ago it occurred to me that I had one more blog entry to reach 400 and figured it would only be appropriate if my 400th blog post was about the 400m (thanks to Nick for the suggestion). The 400m is one of the weird birds of track and field. Probably more so than any other event (other than the 800m) the 'Many Roads to Rome' concept seems to hold true. I'd like to take a look at why [...]

A common error in training with the clean is catching it incorrectly. During attempts for records it looks like someone's back in action! This is the guy that speaks on olympic lifting technique? This VIDEO is a clear example of common efforts to grab attention with the better athletes while forgetting that each athlete deserves care. Instead of being negative I will share some of my experiences [...]

While I was catching my breath on a rest interval during a tempo running workout at my local park yesterday, I gazed up at the hill that surrounded the large grass field I was running on like the sides of a bowl. The hill was about 30m up at an incline of about 30 degrees. I'd probably never have anyone do serious running workouts on a hill like that because the surface was too uneven and the inc [...]

Weight training is just a general stimulus? Everything works? Yes. Everything can work with someone at some point, but again perhaps not with you or your athletes. The real questions should be what works most often with most athletes and most effectively. Note the word efficiently doesn't come up as coaching and training is not very efficient in Track and Field. 48 weeks a year of training 3+ hou [...]

For those joining us late in this discussion in regards to the use of the olympic lifts, The Thinker, has shared facts and opinions regarding the olympic lifts. What I liked about The Thinker is that he joined us and was polite on the discussion board and addressed all that he could in his spare time. The Thinker is a great addition to our forums as he places a lot of effort into sharing his opini [...]

"The O-lifts are efficient in their capacity to work many muscles, recruit many MU's, develop coordination, power, etc. They are not, as you know, effecient in their trainability with regards to (as you note) teaching a 100 athletes...Remember, Charlie's MU recruitment chart places sprints, throws, and jumps just as high as the O-Lifts. Consequently, considering we are developing football playe [...]