If you want to get better at something do more of it. This is another simple observation but it's frightening how few take it to heart. Within that statement are hidden several fundamental tennets of training theory. The "something" implies both specificity and intensity while "more" deals directly with volume and frequency. If I want to get better at sprinting I need to sprint either more, w [...]

Recently I was reading through the daily entries of blogs I follow and was reminded of a recommendation that's always bugged me..."don't add strength to dysfunction." This is a statement often used by corrective exercise specialists and therapists to justify having athletes fix asymmetries and movement dysfunctions before doing significant strength work. The thought process behind it is logica [...]

Since moving to Vancouver (Canada) several months back, one of the things I'm continually amazed by is the natural environment. It truly is one of the most beautiful and incredible places I've ever been. And one of the more amazing things you see are the trees. They grow to as high as 85m tall in the temperate rain forests here due to the ridiculous amount of rain and temperate climates. Among t [...]

Most successful coaches give significant thought to the effect of volume and intensity within their training plans over the course of the year but less consider the role of variation within the training plan. Variation is an alteration of the training plan that may be used for a variety of reasons. Variance can take the form of volume, intensity, density, frequency but also with things like exerci [...]

Every time I hear the term cross training I just shake my head in wonder. What are you talking about? Doesn’t good training involve utilize a variety of methods to elicit adaptation? Lets look at cross training and see if there is any method or if it is just madness. Hawley & Burke (P. 31) define Cross Training as: “… is when an athlete undertakes training in a discipline other than their ma [...]

One professional team invested 20,000 Euros into custom software filters for MRI and MSK US to track injuries and training adaptations. What is interesting is that much of the software was for the Equine Industry. We think of million dollar athletes in the NFL or NBA, but what about horses? Sadly much of the good innovation first comes from horses because they can't communicate pain like humans. [...]

After this mornings workout and watching a presentation on training adaptations, I don't believe in conventional energy system development. Placing conditioning into convenient pie charts or ATP flow charts are nice in the classroom but are we getting the wrong information? Now that I am re-reading the Buchheit and Bishop sprint information, I am thinking we need to look at byproducts more than s [...]

It is not where your start that counts, it is where you finish. That cliché’ underscores the need for progression. There is a mistaken notion that everyone needs to start at step one in a progression. That is a mistake I have made and see people to continue to make. You need to determine where the individual athlete starts based on their ability and their physical competency. Some will have to [...]

We have all heard the aphorism that if the onlytool you have is a hammer then everything becomes a nail. Truer words have never been spoken, so why do so many coaches use a hammer as their primary training tool? As a coach you are a skilled craftsman. You have an array of training tools at your disposal and you should know when and how to use tools that are appropriate for the task at hand. We co [...]

Perhaps the biggest mystery to performance improvement is where the contributions are coming from and when do we expect the changes to occur? I don't know but I just started asking coaches that have good record keeping about phase transfer rates. For example, how fast do various forms of training actualize in performance. For example if I PR in the snatch will that show up next week in the 60m da [...]