I recently picked up a book You Haven't Taught Until They Have Learned by S. Nater and R. Gallimore. I've read a few chapters, faxed a few chapters to friends, and started some interesting discussions. Wooden was the consummate teacher who was organized, demanding, yet humble. One of the best chapters is "It's What You Learn After You Know It All That Counts Most". I think back to some earlie...

Published - Thursday, 11 March 2010 on Kebba Tolbert

March DVD Offer

For a limited time this month I am offering a DVD set with Tom Tellez, Dan Pfaff, and Boo Schexnayder. Tellez - Methods to Improve Sprint Starts and Sprint/Hurdle Mechanics (2 DVD set) Over 2 hrs of lecture, demonstration and video analysis by the master.Pfaff - Technical Problem Solving - 80 min lecture on how to detect and solve technical errors... covers a myriad of overlooked topics.Pfaff ...

Published - Monday, 08 March 2010 on Kebba Tolbert

Running Mechanics

Stumbled on this picture today while searching the internet for something in preparation for my talks this week. This is Kip Kieno and I think Peka Vasala from the early 70's, may actually have been 72 Olympic games. Regardless this picture speaks a thousand words. You don't get this from doing drills, you get this from running fast!Look at this from the PAL Paradigm.P = PostureA = Arm ActionL =...

Published - Monday, 08 March 2010 on Vern Gambetta

Periodization – Some Thoughts Random and Otherwise

There is so much mumbo and confusion in this whole area I am not sure where to begin. Perhaps these thoughts will lend some clarity.Lets start by defining Periodization, it is the planning and organization of training into a cyclic structure to develop all biomotor qualities in a systematic, sequential, and progressive manner for optimum development of performance capabilities.Another way to look ...

Published - Friday, 05 March 2010 on Vern Gambetta

Coaching Education Opportunities

I have a couple things that might be of benefit for professional development for some of our members.SOLD OUT Dynamic Warmup Considerations for Speed-Power Athletes DVD for only $14.95My DVD publisher misprinted several of one of my DVDs such that the DVD has the content of Dynamic Warmup Considerations for Speed-Power Athletes but the label of Maximal Velocity Sprint Mechanics is on the cover. Th...

Published - Thursday, 04 March 2010 on Mike Young

Physical Competency Assessment – A Rational Approach

Over the course of my career I have used various forms of assessment to determine the athletes readiness to train and compete. Sometimes they looked more like something you would see in physical therapy clinic and other times it was just pure end range jumping, throwing and running tests. I kept searching for an assessment tool that would give then information I was looking for. A few years ago s...

Published - Wednesday, 03 March 2010 on Vern Gambetta

Changing Technique - Quick Fixes

It is always interesting at this time of the year at the start of spring training and with the NFL combine to read the stories of how people have changed their technique. I have been following the Tim Tebow story with great interest. Apparently he has a team of “experts’ who have completely revamped his throwing style. He is not going to unveil his new technique at the NFL CONbine, but will wa...

Published - Saturday, 27 February 2010 on Vern Gambetta

Functional Training - Where to Start

Functional training is training. All training is functional, it is just that some training rates higher on a continuum of function than others. If you are not sure how to make your training more functional here are a few tips that should guide you. This not rocket science, I think you will see when you analyze successful long term athletic development programs that all these elements appear in som...

Published - Thursday, 25 February 2010 on Vern Gambetta

Corrective Exercise

The latest buzzword is corrective exercise. Is corrective exercise the latest fad like “drawing in “ was a few years ago? What exactly is corrective exercise? I think I know, but it is a misleading concept. What exactly are you correcting? It sounds to me like another reductionist approach to the human body based on pseudo scientific principles and marketing. The exercises that I see labeled a...

Published - Monday, 22 February 2010 on Vern Gambetta

Plan B

We often think of Plan B as something we go to when things go wrong (e.g., when athletes get beat up, weather conditions, injuries). But what about going to Plan B when things go right?Yesterday we had a Sprint-Float-Sprint workout planned with 6-8 mins break. The first run went so well, exceptionally well, that I had to make an important decision. I could:a) adhere to the rest/recovery time on th...

Published - Sunday, 21 February 2010 on Kebba Tolbert

2008 Olympics: Usain’s Insane 100m

Well, by now everyone in the world knows that Usaine Bolt is not a human being. At least not by the standards we have been using for the last couple millennium. His 100m performance of 9.69 was just mind-boggling. 9.69 beat Bolt's previous world record by 0.03 seconds and is faster than the WR of just last year by 0.05 seconds. That's like a swimmer breaking a world record by 4 seconds...never m...

Published - Monday, 18 August 2008 on Mike Young

We’re Drug Free!!!

As some of you may know, I'm an avid reader of DIGG. I love the semi-random mix of tech, social, and political news that is pushed to the top. Well, I was checking it out this morning and there was a story that caught my eye about steroids gone bad. Given the current spate of drug-related track news that seems to have eclipsed the actual performances on the track, I figured this might be a good d...

Published - Friday, 23 May 2008 on Mike Young

Why are so many gifted athletes pigeon-toed?

I was recently asked to contribute to the "Ask Anything" column in Maxim magazine. In this front-of-the-magazine section, Maxim solicits random questions from readers, thenconsult "real experts for actual, scientific answers." I was asked to answer the question why so many gifted athletes are pigeon-toed? Here's my answer (and a special thanks to CFKA for the ball analogies):While there�...

Published - Tuesday, 06 May 2008 on Mike Young

Dan’s Horizontal Jumps Lecture- The Entire Thing!

Due to the requests on the forum, here's the entire lecture of the snippet I posted earlier from Dan Pfaff's horizontal jumps talk in Las Vegas. Special thanks to Tom Kaberna for sending me a non High-Def version of this video that was small enough that I could actually upload the entire thing for viewing. ...

Published - Tuesday, 06 January 2009 on Mike Young

It’s Not About the Time

I understand times, but I think it is more basic than that. Ultimately it is about competition, the times will come. Think back to elementary school, everyone knew the fastest kid in the school or in the summer when you were at the pool you raced to see who was fastest. Time was not a consideration. At junior high school play days you raced to see who was the best, oh by the way they ran a faster ...

Published - Thursday, 02 October 2008 on Vern Gambetta

Some Interesting Insights from a Former Doper

Here's some interesting thoughts from former sprint prodigy-turned Balco bustee-turned returning prodigal son Dwain Chambers:When I came back from my suspension in 2006 I went to train in Jamaica and I never got tested once and I was there for six months. You would think that someone coming off a drug ban would be routinely tested but I wasn't tested once. You need to test athletes in October, N...

Published - Tuesday, 28 October 2008 on Mike Young

The Scarecrow of Straw Men

I am completely comfortable with not being popular among the fraternity of gurus, as my motives are not fueled by greed or glory. Paul Graham shared in his essays that the FBI decades ago had to change their investigation strategy with computer hackers, since a hacker's motives were not the typical drugs, money, sex, revenge. Curiosity was not on the list. I represent the irritating grain of sa...

Published - Saturday, 08 November 2008 on Carl Valle

Top 10 Myths of Sprinting Mechanics

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...

Published - Wednesday, 25 July 2007 on Mike Young

A Review of 400m Training Methods

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...

Published - Sunday, 26 April 2009 on Mike Young

My New Toy

A couple weeks ago I bought a pair of gymnastics rings and last week I started using them. I'm hooked. They are a great tool for enhancing the intensity of standard body weight strength exercises and also permit a ton of new multi-planar exercises to be performed. I'm a HUGE proponent of bodyweight strength exercises and the rings just add a lots of options to my extensive l...

Published - Tuesday, 27 March 2007 on Mike Young

2008 Olympics: Usain’s Insane 100m

Published - Monday, 18 August 2008 on Mike Young

A Review of 400m Training Methods

Published - Sunday, 26 April 2009 on Mike Young

14 reasons why Jamaica is the Sprint Capitol of the World

At this past Olympics, Jamaica put on a show. The tiny island with a population of less than 3 million people won more Olympic medals than every other country not named USA, Russia or Kenya. And when you consider the QUALITY of their medals, things are even more astounding. Consider these points:If we use the point system I described HERE, Jamaica (24 points) is actually the 3rd best track and fie...

Published - Wednesday, 10 September 2008 on Mike Young

Tyson Gay’s 100m performance in Eugene

We've recently been spoiled by the amazing feats of Asafa Powell's 9.72 personal best in Lausanne and Usain Bolt's string of sub 9.85s. So much so that it's easy to forget that someone other than these two actually produced the fastest 100m ever. EVAR. Tyson Gay. Remember him? He's that guy who didn't make the final at the Olympics due to lack of race fitness caused by an injury at the U.S. ...

Published - Thursday, 04 September 2008 on Mike Young

Top 10 Myths of Sprinting Mechanics

Published - Wednesday, 25 July 2007 on Mike Young

6 Reasons Why Jamaicans Dominate the Sprints

Yesterday I posted a couple videos with some insight in to what MVP club coach Stephen Francis is doing with his athletes. The discussion on this blog entry got me off my butt to write another blog that I've been meaning to write for some time – The Reasons Why Jamaicans Dominate the Sprints. In case you were in a cocoon in 2008, you witnessed one of the greatest sprint years by a single count...

Published - Wednesday, 01 October 2008 on Mike Young

Loren Seagrave’s thoughts on Absolute Strength

This weekend I had the chance to speak with Coach Loren Seagrave on his thoughts about absolute strength. Loren is a former LSU sprint coach, founder of Velocity Sport Performance and coach of some of the fastest individuals in the world. I've had the privilege of doing at least one speaking engagement with Loren each month for the past couple months and I've been able to pick his brain on topic...

Published - Monday, 18 January 2010 on Mike Young

12 Reasons to Squat Year Round

If you browse the forums much you know I'm a crusader for squats. I like the exercise. In fact I like it so much that for most of the athletes that I work with I actually keep it in the training plan for the entire year with a minimum frequency of once every 10 days and an average frequency of just under 2 times per week. Here's a list of my primary justifications for using the exercise year rou...

Published - Thursday, 15 January 2009 on Mike Young

de jure and de facto

Over the last few months I have watched the Bear Droppings thread grow to 11,000 views, great sign that people are investigating the importance of maximum strength training and the influence of speed and power athletes, specifically sprinters. Since I came up with the original post I will state my purpose is not to undermine the importance of strength training, but to share the reality of what is ...

Published - Thursday, 12 November 2009 on Carl Valle

Japanese Training Secrets

Why are people not creating a buzz with Japanese training? You would think the hype would be huge as the 4x100m went 38.03 and that is faster than the Soviet record. With wins in swimming and other sports such as wrestling, cycling, and gymnastics why do they get shafted? It doesn't matter but I think we need to embrace everyone's methods and not gravitate to the Yuri lemmings. Right now I am co...

Published - Friday, 11 December 2009 on Carl Valle

Author: Landin, Dennis, Nelson, Arnold, Schexnayder, Irving 'Boo', Winchester, Jason, Young, Michael
Type: Research Literature
Source: Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research
Topic: Flexibility, Sprints, Sports Science, Muscle Dynamics, Biomechanics
Level: Hard, Medium

The Latest & Greatest...

Random Blogs

Tags

Random Articles