For those of you that have been following the progress of Nick's long jump training, you know that his primary issue last year was fouling. He had quite a few jumps over 7.65m but they were all fouls. So this year, one of the main foci of training was improving accuracy at the board. Last year, we had used some practice variability but I think it was incorporated too inconsistently for the gains [...]

OK. Here's my last video (at least until I return home from a family visit in NY). This one's a 5 minute clip from the DVD titled, Penultimate and Takeoff Mechanics in the Long Jump. The video was shot at the HPC ELITETRACK Gold Medal Clinic held at the 2008 Olympic Trials. In this video, legendary coach, Tom Tellez, teaches the mechanics that made Carl Lewis and many others to elite status in t [...]

Are perfect mechanics an achievable objective in training? I would propose that you must have a concept or an image of what “perfect mechanics” would be for the movement you are preparing for, but to achieve perfection in terms of mechanics is at best a moving target. It depends on how you define perfect. I believe that in each activity there are acceptable ranges that vary from perso [...]

Are you really seeing what you think you are seeing? Admit it or not we all have built in bias that clouds our vision and judgment. In many ways we are actually burdened by previous experience. Everything happens too fast in real time to make some of the assessments coaches think they can make. Even with video we tend to narrow our focus. There are two worlds in terms of technique and game analysi [...]

Just to cause more frustration I have posted this video of what's the limit? to share more about Zoology. In this clip we review a special insight to the thought process of excellence and my intent on the first post was to spark some thought about movement as a whole. When I view technique I like to create general motion patterns and a understanding of locomotion in general. Not just humans but n [...]

There is a clear cut difference between coaching someone and training someone. I have been to training sessions all over the world in the past few years and this distinction is clear in any language and in any culture. Those who are training the athletes are counting reps, looking at the stopwatch and shouting out times. Those who are coaching are closely observing the athlete, commenting on techn [...]

I was talking to a swim coach theother day and he made the following comment: “I saw something on a website on Kettlebell training and it looks really hard. I think I willput it in my program.” I took a deep breath and admonished him to takea step back and think about what he was trying to achieve. It is hard,but is it beneficial training in the context in which he wants to useit? Kett [...]

I found an interesting article on the USVBA web site the other day. The article entitled " Necessary Relationships: Volleyball and Sports Science," by Peter Vint, Ph.D. There was a particularly revealing and thought provoking paragraph that even though written specific to Volleyball is applicable to other sports. “Volleyball is a dynamic and complex team sport. Therefore, it is imp [...]

On my way back from Sarasota today I came up with a list of the top ten myths I hear about sprinting mechanics. Check it out and let me know what I left off. The elbow angle must stay at 90 degrees. Who came up with this? What’s the rationale? What’s the benefit? Ask someone to provide answers to those questions next time you hear that ridiculous idea. Not only is it not beneficial, it [...]

One of my heroes and I do not have too many is Jimmy Radcliffe at University of Oregon.He gets it and has gotten it for a long time. Bellow is some excerptsfrom an article Rob Moseley in the Eugene Register Guard for SundayJune 15 titled “Building More Than Muscles.”This is a guy who flew all night to Chicago to hear two talks fromFrans Bosch at The USA Track & Field Level III Coaching [...]