ELITETRACK Blogs

Over “Dos” on Sleds

2008-12-02T12:58:19Z

Thanks to our friends on Elitetrack.com we have more Guru Gotcha moments with this Santa Claus training program. After this link was posted on the blog discussion thread I had to professionally refute this method of training. I am not sure if Coach Dos is getting ready for Reindeer Combine training after the holidays but this nonsense is an example of what I call entertrainment. Entertrainment is the combination of too much emphasis on cool and trendy and not enough on coaching and good decision making. Over the last few years sled training has become popular because of the used car salesmen trainers hocking catalog equipment and the application is poorly coached. Obviously athletes can get improvement in acceleration by nearly any means if they have a limited training background. Neophytes that are in high school and college are in growth rich years and will respond to many different programs and talent will surface anywhere. Still, we must make everyone better and max out genetic potential. Honestly I see more eye candy here and this is a recipe for disaster when kids see this on youtube.

Acceleration is applying force properly. Granted more force applied will give you a better chance to run faster but like with most things in life there is no guarantee on anything really. Athletes may respond by doing sled marches but time and energy are finite and I would rather focus on more absolute qualities like rate coding, elasticity, strength and power, and coordination. With the athlete looking like a zombie in the Dos video (closest to us) (1) , I must say that a pragmatic approach would better serve the athletes. Sprinting from a french crouch will help force application and give a time that an athlete can run all out instead of slower. With overtraining plaguing our industry (from both too much or being out of shape) why not work on sprinting fresh? Vests, tires, chutes, and sleds slow down the athlete period. I think we need less equipment and more pure speed work to get faster.

I will quote the legendary JJ Hunter, who before the legendary Waffle House secret meeting at the Level III school years ago, used the phrase "teaching the athlete how to apply force" with severe belief. That statement rings to me every time I step on the track as we are teachers first. I amf frankly not impressed with teaching of technique I have been seeing on video lately. Teaching the athlete must be done first or the increases of strength and power may not transfer. In addition to fail to transfer or transfer as much, the athlete may strengthen or exaggerate errors, resulting in a burden of problems later with possible injuries or muscular imbalances. Building more strength is important and I will never let my long day interfere with what needs to be done at the weight room, but if you are on the track or field it's time to coach.

Coaching acceleration is observation of lines. For me this was much easier to view after doing several anatomy illustration courses, as lines of movement are based on the skeletal motions. While many will drop shin angles and triple extension, I found that dance brought my attention to the entire run more clearly. Zooming in on shin angles is vital for force application but the entire run must be viewed as a whole to see what is the underlying issues besides foot strike. Flight times and ground contacts must be evaluated to see the strength and weaknesses of the athlete. If the speed of the runs are not fast enough to elicit the need for elastic responses the sled is just a weak strength exercise that happens to be more specific than a lunge. We must focus on central overload more with beginners and more specific with actual sprints rather than give in to what gut instincts may tell us is a good idea. What one does with sleds is beyond just this blog post but I would rather get into the coaching demands first than the training protocols.

I am fairly confident that most of us can coach the actions we need athletes to do, but some cues and concepts below have helped me get athletes to accelerate a little bit better:

(1) Lock and Load- While speed and weight of sleds are important, at the end is the look of the runs. My eyes focus on the ankle joint to make sure that excessive dorsiflexion does not occur. When viewing many videos you can see where the weight of the sleds are too much for the ankle, causing the athlete to learn slow ground contact times and kill stiffness. I say lock and load the ankle and many times do my best Pope impression by blessing the ankle with stiffness from my hands to make them appreciate the need to concentrate on removing slack in the joint.

(2) Commit to the push behind you- Athletes that rush the steps fail to get proper stride distance, causing a poor race model set up and general reduction in speed. When I use the word commit to athletes I want them to learn the paradoxical patience of applying the right temporal action. Pushing behind you allows athletes to focus on not pushing down only, a common precursor error of popping up in races. I do believe that athletes will find their natural acceleration posture and shank positions if they relax to the timing patterns stated above. Many times I cue piston action to have them remove too much rotary action from the push as recovery mechanics are more spinal.

(3) T-Pressure- Athletes need to get comfortable with the lean out of the blocks. The body will adapt and learn to be comfortable with a falling sensation only if successful steps from reflexes are matched with it. Otherwise the shin angles will get to vertical too soon as the body will focus on self preservation rather than performance. T-Pressure is something I robbed from swimming as the head may be the rudder to the body many times in sport but the center of mass is king. In between the shoulders (in the middle) is the area I like athletes to guide their posture with as it's above their center of mass but doesn't allow the head (vision and vestibular responses) to disrupt good acceleration mechanics and flow of the step patterns. Too many athletes tuck the chin and think they have good pelvic alignment but end up looking like Mo Greene wannabees and fail to push enough.

(4) Violent Arms- I like to see aggressive arms and often athletes overthink the arms, resulting in slow actions. When the athlete has a nice symmetry in the arms with good pulling action I then try to adjust the joint angles later unless they are truly mangled. I find that the body is more likely to find better angles at good speeds than try to speed up artificial positions later. Correcting technique at near full speed creates a higher rate of retention.

1. Robert Remedios. (2008). Sled Pull HEAVY [Video] Retrieved December 1, 2008, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbrtB-AnhLc&NR=1

Tired of Tires

2008-12-01T13:13:34Z

Tire flips are not an exercise that should be placed in a program to add spice or "entertrain" kids . I am not an expert on tire flips but when I see poor technique I will call out any guru no matter who it is. The attached photo (1) is an athlete doing a tire flip with dangerous form. First, the motion should be like a front squat, using the chest (friction) to push the side of the tire up 45 degrees or so. While the arms may grab from below, the action is not a deadlift and from the picture you can see a severely flexed spine. Why does this athlete need this exercise at all? They should be working on their lifting technique instead of add more demands on their plate. Tire flips are not the problem as the exercise can be done safely and has a specialized role, but having college kids do it when many times they need to be working on conventional exercises is poor decision making. Instead of writing books and producing crappy DVDs make sure your athletes are not youtube boobs. Can I do better in regard to the technique of tire flips? Maybe, maybe not. What I do know is that I know when to say when.

References

1. Robert Remedios. (2008). Tire Flippping [Video Snapshot] Retrieved November 29, 2008, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2AI0JPdaC8

Dynamic Posture and more Spine Tuning

2008-11-30T15:13:56Z

Posture training requires a lot of time and effort, so it is more likely to see transformations with body composition than body alignment. The focus now is on getting thoracic motion to a spine that is likely to be too kyphotic. I believe that the spine will move properly if you train properly. Instead of focusing on corrective exercise prescription I focus on improving technique. The lumbar, cervical, and thoracic zone will rotate, flex, extend, and laterally bend at values that will naturally be safe as our bodies have evolved to do so. If your upper back is restricted you may rotate in the lumbar area too much in a scorpion exercise, but don't blame modern society for everything. We still must be accountable for our own training.

The attached photo (1) is an example of why front squats may not be for everyone. This clean catch demonstrates why those spending a few minutes a day on tennis ball crunch protocols are doomed to be and example of "another brick in the wall". With high loads constantly pushing down the spine into flexion and even near posterior tilt it is frankly foolish to patch a program with corrective exercises. The back squat, one of many options, can be used to teach spinal extension and cleaning from the floor is another option that teaches stiffness and better postural forms. No wonder we are activating glutes all the time when poor choices ruin natural connections.

I suggest those that are busy activating muscles look to your own programs and see if you are deactivating your own body. Over the last year I realized that specific reflexes in the body were not being triggered, causing an increase of soft tissue therapy and now we are better. I have not cracked the code by I know when to call a spade a spade. Looking at the photo again I ask "where's the beef" in terms of posterior chain development. 1. Robert Remedios. (2008). Power Shrug and Hang Clean [Video Snapshot] Retrieved November 25, 2008, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bx3gBcEJpTI

Nero Fiddled

2008-11-29T15:15:04Z

I need to preface this post by saying that in 2004 - 05 I worked for the New York Mets, not the greatest of times, but a big time learning experience. I also want to emphasize again that this is not a political blog, but sport and society are intertwined. This also could be interpreted as another baseball bashing, so be it. When I found out that Citibank, the latest financial institution to go on corporate welfare is going ahead and paying $400 million for naming rights to the Mets new stadium I went ballistic. This is wrong, that is your money and my money they are spending. Just think how many teachers and mortgages that could be funded for that money. The Mets owners are fiddling while Rome is burning. Having caught their act for almost a year I must say I am not surprised. Shame on you!

Pretension and Joint Flow

2008-11-28T18:12:59Z

Stiffness and mobility are often looked as isolated modalities but they are a complex interaction when trained. It would be convenient that one can just do some mobility drills or bridges to become a great athlete but that is far from the truth. Reducing muscle slack at key times and allowing controlled motion requires very good coaching abilities, hence why interns at various performance centers produce robots instead of cats. In horror, I observed an overly simplified deadlift without teaching or cuing back stiffness. We are back to the dark ages again. Pretension is building up enough force to resist the bully of gravity for a short period of time, therefore creating temporary force bridges along joints. An obvious example is skipping rope with those that are skilled. The small joint angles of the knee and little range of motion in the ankle complex allows people to bounce effortlessly, while those that are not skilled leak the forces out by allowing joints to melt into larger than optimal angles or apply less force over longer time periods. Some athletes are natural with stiffness and some are not, but it can be trained and that is our job. To get the best better and those that are not the best better.

Mobility is about keeping the internal resistance reduced so that the joint can flow without any restrictions besides the natural decelerators of the body. The speeds of mobility range from slow eccentrics to ballistic actions. The motions are natural but with over a hundred joints in the body, one must look at program design to cover the huge demands. Mobility is not a few PT exercises but integrated coordination. An example of this is a physioball walk-out (stomach on the ball in a push-up on the ground and crawling out hand by hand) with pointing of the toes and allowing internal rotation of the femur. A simple exercise will prepare for pushing actions and bridge the spine.

Training athletes to do movements that are athletic and intelligent will improve mobility and stiffness naturally and better. Teaching athletes to have a stiff back during a clean or having athletes do speed hops do reduce muscle slack is nothing new.

Convenient

2008-11-28T15:16:22Z

What is convenient is not always right. Just because something is easy to measure does not mean it will improve performance. If we train for what we measure then hopefully that will improve, but if what we measure is not relevant to the sport we are training for, then we have the athletic equivalent of no child left behind - a bunch of athletic dolts who can do mindless repetitions of cone drills but can’t play the game. They know how to take the test, but don’t know how to apply it to the game. Our job as athletic development coaches is not to do what is convenient and easy, but to do what is right, to do what improves performance in the game. Sometimes it is basic, sometimes it is complicated, but it should transfer. Sometime it is measurable and sometimes it only shows up the field.

Ostrich Award

2008-11-26T14:15:17Z

I have decided to institute a new award among the numerous awards given in sport. I am sure this sure will soon rival the ESPY’s in prestige. It will not be an annual but will be awarded more frequently to honor those who have buried their heads in the sand as deep as possible to avoid the most obvious of problems. The first winner is George Mitchell, that tireless anti- drug crusader who did his best to expose and eradicate drugs from professional baseball. Eleven months after his commission report here are his words: “There is an awareness of the problem and a focus on dealing with it,” George you and your friend Bud Selig and all those fat cat owners need to wake up. The problem is there, but there is no problem if the people involved don’t admit there is a problem. Home run balls flying out of the park and 100 mph fastball draw fans. Asses on numbers make money. Get real this is entertainment not sport, right up there with WWF. If baseball was serious why did the club that was the epicenter of the drugs in baseball just rehire the strength and conditioning that was at ground zero during that whole period and then was personal trainer for one of the biggest abusers? Hypocrisy!

2 Great Quotes

2008-11-25T16:50:37Z

I’ve thrown for forty-five years on an average of 10,000 throws a year. That’s 450,000 throws and not one of those throws has ever been perfect. There was always something else I could have done to make the prior throw just a little bit better. I think if we attack life in that same manner we can do some wonderful things on this earth.
-Al Oerter Four time Olympic Gold Medalist

Leadership is the flower. Responsibility is the seed. If you don’t get responsibility planted early, leadership never flowers.
-Author Unknown

Stayability or Stability

2008-11-25T16:36:06Z

Stayability = This is a posed fixed position, there is not very much transfer to real world athletic movements. There are not very many sports where you stay there. Artificial and sterile.

Stability = This represents an instant in time, it is not a position or a posture, it is definitely not a still picture. A javelin thrower or a swimmer needs great shoulder stability, the ability to maintain integrity of the joint at high velocity and under imposed stress. In some ways it is a moving target. A good sound strength training programs that is proprioceptively demanding, works multiple joints and is tri-planar will address stability.

Closed Systems, Tangled Hierarchies, Killer Bees

2008-11-25T14:13:55Z

Training should be a simple as possible but not simpler. I personally have a vendetta against those who pontificate KISS and other approaches to training design and programming. The stupid in this world haven't don't much so why are we trying to dumb things down? I would rather clarify than to simplify. With three requests for my training system I got this weekend I say with dramatic pause, the system one runs is your experience and thought process and not much else. Yes I incorporate the laws of periodization, discovered by those earlier than me, and use the principals of training and coaching by the godfathers of sport.Paint by number can only get you something your uncle Joe will put up in his den but will never hang in a museum.

Building on the biomotor abilities principal illustrated by Frank Dick, the most common mistake of organizing training is by systems in isolation. Biological systems are not closed systems and they interact with each other. During a personal discussion with Vern Gambetta we talked briefly about the interplay of all of the systems in the body, and how a reductionist approach to training isn't always the right answer. An example of this is doing rhythmic bounds for an athlete who is in great shape and can handle the eccentric forces of such a plyometric activity. We are training multiple systems when we do such an exercise. The obvious stimulus is of course elastic power but what about the indirect adaptations that are not the focus but exist in an unexpected gift? During bounds the hips are getting ballistic mobility responses, more effective than doing some lemming like movement prep nonsense. The distance of the bounds and contacts dictate the metabolic influences as well as muscular adaptations like core strength, it's not just the nervous system. Speed is also affected as the bounding motion is very locomotive in nature. What are we not training here?

Today we see segregation of biosciences in the performance industry. Instead of integration we see educational resources with some sort of vitiable taxonomy of training with Moblity DVDs and "Hardcore Strength Secrets". While isolation work will be necessary in rehab and some corrective exercise protocols, training should be an inter-disciplinary approach that focuses on the interactions of complex movement. My hope is that we will see the adaptation alloys with an understanding on how to exploit the merging of training.

Simply Sia

2008-11-25T00:24:27Z

I went to the MFA with my friend Sarah last week to see some of my favorite exhibits, as well as take a look at the Herb Ritts gallery. His photography was known for clean lines, the classic Greek ideals, and of course black and white. I like photography, but because the medium is used by non artists it is hard to take full advantage of the art without study. So I read more about photography and learned more about the subtle effects of what can be done. That week I looked at motion much differently as the task of taking a complex action of hurdling needed to be deduced to solving one problem at a time. Everyone watches training, but I think I learned what it takes to truly observe. I have eyes and can see errors and correct action like most, but I think I expanded my vision just a little bit better.

Must Reads

2008-11-24T15:18:51Z

Two classic books that are must for every coaches, trainers and therapists library. They are both out of print, but if you search I know Total Body Training is available, the KiphutTTl Body book How To Be Fit is hard to find but still out there. The information and ideas on training may come as a surprise to some of the millennial generation that thinks training began in 1998. Total Body Training by Gajda and Dominguez is the first book to actually define the core.

False Prophets

2008-11-24T13:50:55Z

I was reading a few articles about Alessandro Calvesi, a pioneer in track and field in regard to hurdling mechanics. He was also known in athletic circles as the Sorcerer for his abilities to evoke change in performance. What a compliment for a coach to be named something so powerful. Yet today I see more illusionists and street magic with the performance enhancement industry in order to make a quick buck. In Track and Field their is the tape and clock, so in time the smoke and mirrors will fail and then render the con artists exposed. In our world we are not built for show but built for go. But now the performance industry has magic words like addbuttcadabra (via glute bridges), magic formulas (corrective exercise formulas that lead to the need for more maximal strength), magic wands (cheap cold lasers), Magic Carpets (large overpriced airexpads), and old slight of hand (acute reciprocal inhibition movements that last as long as a fruit fly). My favorite is the coach that claims he is an apprentice of a master, only to blow up athletes using the "Magic Modules" later or fail to get them better.

We see it every summer. A strength coach converts a normal stance squat to one that is very wide and uses a box that is too high. Soon 100 lbs are added to the bar in August and we are magically stronger. After practicing 40 yard dash starts kids are dropping 1-2 tenths but seem to get burnt like last year when football begins again. Or the the kid adding great amounts of muscle mass only to loose it during two a days because they removed conditioning from the program because they are using fast food training times and only "crush iron" and leave in an hour. Illusionists are everywhere. My suggestion is to read this story below and question everything. Question me. Question books. Question everyone.

This post's purpose is not to place religion into training but the story is a good one and I am not trying to convert anyone to any faith. This is a great passage and Elijah adds a little dry sarcasm to the story. Make sure you use your best Samuel L. Jackson voice when reading the bible passage for full effect.

Elijah on Mount Carmel

So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him, and Ahab went to meet Elijah. When he saw Elijah, he said to him, "Is that you, you troubler of Israel?"

"I have not made trouble for Israel," Elijah replied. "But you and your father's family have. You have abandoned the LORD's commands and have followed the Baals. Now summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel. And bring the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel's table."

So Ahab sent word throughout all Israel and assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel. Elijah went before the people and said, "How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him." But the people said nothing.

Then Elijah said to them, "I am the only one of the LORD's prophets left, but Baal has four hundred and fifty prophets.Get two bulls for us. Let them choose one for themselves, and let them cut it into pieces and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. I will prepare the other bull and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the LORD. The god who answers by fire—he is God."Then all the people said, "What you say is good."

Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, "Choose one of the bulls and prepare it first, since there are so many of you. Call on the name of your god, but do not light the fire." So they took the bull given them and prepared it.Then they called on the name of Baal from morning till noon. "O Baal, answer us!" they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made.

At noon Elijah began to taunt them. "Shout louder!" he said. "Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened." So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed. Midday passed, and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice. But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention.

Then Elijah said to all the people, "Come here to me." They came to him, and he repaired the altar of the LORD, which was in ruins. Elijah took twelve stones, one for each of the tribes descended from Jacob, to whom the word of the LORD had come, saying, "Your name shall be Israel." With the stones he built an altar in the name of the LORD, and he dug a trench around it large enough to hold two seahs of seed. He arranged the wood, cut the bull into pieces and laid it on the wood. Then he said to them, "Fill four large jars with water and pour it on the offering and on the wood."

"Do it again," he said, and they did it again. "Do it a third time," he ordered, and they did it the third time. The water ran down around the altar and even filled the trench.

At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: "O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. Answer me, O LORD, answer me, so these people will know that you, O LORD, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again."

Then the fire of the LORD fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench.

When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, "The LORD -he is God! The LORD -he is God!

Then Elijah commanded them, "Seize the prophets of Baal. Don't let anyone get away!" They seized them, and Elijah had them brought down to the Kishon Valley and slaughtered there.

Green Banana Hurdles and Skill Work

2008-11-21T16:11:46Z

Fundamentals or Advanced Training? I don't think drills are bad but they tend to fail to prove that they transfer as much as we think to believe. Some drills may have different effects on various athletes and various times of development. A drill at an early stage may teach a part but at advance levels may hinder change. Some drills are just physical tools to stretch or strengthen parts of the event and allow athletes to display their natural CPGs (central pattern generators). I am not of the belief that their must be accountability with drills as athletes like doing them as they are easier to find success in. Not running well? Do drills and work on technique. Coaching is not just plugging in a few cues or drills. I hope we should use the term derivative exercises more than drills to ensure we are not over drilling. I think banana hurdles are useful for athletes that are trying to work on running off the hurdles. Based on the research of top hurdling, the steps off the hurdles can be drain peformance by parasitic errors, such as departure angles and upper body mechanics.

Running over the small hurdles allows a gradual increase of frequency to be infused into the step patterns of 42 inches, so when the trail leg is fixed (technique wise) via take off angle, it can meet the ground when it lands without the common error of dropping of the center of mass and or have a slow step down. Drills can't replicate this very much but they can allow a feeling that is right when the trail leg is fixed. Another problem with a take off angle that is too vertical is that is really adds a lot of stress to the body as the COM is too high, thus adding flight time and higher eccentric landings that can beat up a hurdler. I think that athletes should do more general eccentric work as well as correcting the departure angle of the take off. Many times a rushed take off will cause a vertical strike vs a vertical strike and roll, causing the trail leg not to bey delayed and slowing down the recoil of the elastic reflex. The flexors of the hip are stretched only when the pelvis and led leg create a split of the femurs, not jut having the right take off distance so the athlete needs to dive into the hurdle to create a good pelvic position.

There are no rules to mini hurdles but only specific rationale to use such a tool. Many drills are shown during documentaries of elite athletes and developmental athletes can be seduced into using them,and this, is a major problem. Perhaps that drill got them from 13.2 to 13.0 but would cause a 14.0 hurdler major problems as it may be inappropriate? We are currently using the banana hurdles for specific work of running off the hurdles and overclocking the step patterns between the hurdles. I am seeing improvements between the hurdles now but we then need to have the air mechanics sped up to keep the pace of the improved ground speed.

Improving Movement

2008-11-21T15:07:44Z

All training is about improving movement. Training movements not muscles is not my idea that comes from the literature, neurologically the brain does not recognize individual muscles, it recognizes patterns of movement. I think the mistake we make is thinking that training is an end unto itself; training is ALWAYS a means to an end. We have to focus on the fact that we are preparing the athlete to thrive in the competitive arena, to be highly adaptable and efficient in all aspects of performance. That demands a multifaceted training program that challenges the athlete to solve increasingly complex movement problems. There is nothing wrong with measuring strength, or jump performance or any other physical quality that can be measured, but those measure must be put in context. Just because you bench press X amount or jump Y height does not necessarily mean you will be a better player. The problem is that it is easy to get caught up chasing numbers like this and be fooled. Essentially these are random numbers unless placed in context. We must also remember that most of our classical performance tests measure one part of the performance paradigm - force production. We know from biomechanical analysis and experience that force reduction is a bigger limiting factor and proprioception lends quality to the movement. Both are more difficult to measure, so they are often ignored. Sound training should balance out all elements of training and recognize that we do not train various systems of the body independently, the endocrine, hormonal, nervous, muscular and cardiovascular system all work together synergistically to produce performance.