Landon Evans, who has both an RD and CSCS, shared a blue collar presentation of what he does at the CSCCA yesterday. Landon always keeps me in check to ensure that what I am experimenting is practical and valid. He pushes me in both directions and it's nice to see a no-nonsense approach to conditioning and training. My favorite slide was the rhythm of testing and how open he was to showing best p [...]

I am approaching 15 years of coaching, or about a quarter of the way through my journey as a person who enjoys being part of sport. I am not a guru or even a collegiate super coach, but just a guy who is seeking the truth. At times the truth was rather humbling and now it's more exciting because it's about the relationship, not just the accolades. Unfortunately the process of getting better has [...]

[This is a guest post by Drake Webster. Drake is one of the coaches at my training center, Athletic Lab. Drake has his CSCS, USAW Level 1 and USATF Level 1 certifications and coaches youth to professional athletes at Athletic Lab] Some will only read the title and say, what pro’s? As sport scientist we all know that there is a lot of research saying that training speed/power athletes or anaerobi [...]

Yesterday I was sent a link to an article of why cleans may not be the best option for everyone. What was concerning is that many coaches are shying away from the olympic lifts more and more, and now lifting in any form besides single leg options with light loads is the new normal. No exercise is magical, and ten years ago I wrote an article about overzealous coaches demanding that everyone do oly [...]

Start with a clear picture of the finished puzzle, the picture on the cover of the box. What do want the athlete to look like physically and performance wise at the end of the training program? Keep this picture in mind all the time. This is the ultimate goal of the training puzzle. Build from the corners and the edges in to the middle. Take of advantage of the straight edges the easy things to ac [...]

One of the mysteries of Sprinting is how brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is elevated at rest with international level sprinters in Brazil over their domestic counterparts? With strength training not showing any real changes or adaptations to BDNF, why are they elevated? Some things are brewing for Rio. One sub 10 sprinter recently tested at 4800 pg/mL at rest and nearly 8000 pg/mL post r [...]

"A second use of neurodoping might be in skill acquisition. Skills learned in the context of anodal tDCS are acquired more rapidly and reproduced more accurately than those learned without."Dr. Davis from Neurodoping: Brain stimulation as a performance-enhancingLooks like the Doping community is ahead of the testing with brain drugs. Years ago nootropics were popular because many of them were le [...]

"I also found it extremely valuable at measuring velocity through the phases. This being from board to end of the runway just before the sandpit. The major nemesis to triple jump is loss of horizontal velocity."-Kenta BellSome interesting talk on what models can be found in the Triple Jump based on the last 5 world championships and 4 olympics. After listening to a few of them I asked how does o [...]

This past weekend, I presented at the NSCA BC Provincial Clinic on Biomotor Development for Speed Power Athletes. Here's my slidedeck from the presentation. As usual, I'll try to answer any questions on the presentation in the forum. Biomotor Development for the Speed-Power Athlete from Mike Young [...]

Movement is quite simple and from that wonderful simplicity comes the complexity of sports skill and performance. Twenty-five years ago in an attempt to better explain movement and how we should effectively train movement I came up with this simple diagram I call the Performance Paradigm. It was somewhat like what Albert Szent-Gyorgi, once said, “Discovery consists in seeing what everyone else h [...]