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 ...Keep Reading

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

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 ...Keep Reading

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!

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 ...Keep Reading