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By Ken Jakalski

Tony Holler and I had a recent discussion regarding the training devices we’ve purchased and used over the years that turned out to be, as Chief Dan George might say, “a road that leads nowhere.”

Tony describes his ventures as the “follies of his past.” I like that description. There are probably many things that we’ve tried and then abandoned for various reasons.

That discussion got me thinking about an article highlighting a few specific things coaches might wish to consider before investing in any training device.

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Cost Benefit

Is the device cost effective relative to my budget, and can I justify its expense were I to get the necessary funding for the device? Booster Clubs will often try to fulfil a coach’s request, but the question that members will most frequently ask is: how many athletes will actually use the device, and how often will they use it?

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Knowledge

Do I have a sufficient knowledge base to successfully implement the device or explain why it is essential for my program? It’s not enough to say a particular high school uses the device, and they won a state championship. Those willing to fund a training device are not interested in testimonials or anecdotes. They want to know if I’ve done my homework. Do I fully understand what the device is intended to do, and can I justify its expense?

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Potential for Injury

Is it possible that using the device could end up doing more harm than good? The coach who developed the training device clearly had a specific concept in mind, but is the final product safe to use? Could an athlete be seriously injured using the product–not just through either the coach’s or athlete’s negligence–but because of a flaw in either the concept or design of the product? As I weigh risk to reward, is it clear that the benefit of the device far outweighs any possible risks assumed in choosing to use it?

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Workflow Efficiency

Is it something I can use with a larger number of athletes within the time constraints of a typical practice? In other words, how many of the training devices will I need? Might a limited number of these devises create a workflow issue? Might I be wasting limited training time because not all athletes will have access to the device or equipment at the same time? There may be things worse than having a group of sprinters standing around waiting to use the device, but I agree with Brooks Johnson about sprinters being immediate gratification athletes.

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Assessment

Do I have methods of assessment in place to indicate that the device is indeed a key factor in any speed improvement? Of course, I can say that sprinters have improved their times, but can I directly attribute the gains to the training the athletes have done using that device? Might those gains just be a matter of applying a novel stimulus that allowed the athletes the opportunity to restore and recover?

So let’s begin down the road that for me led nowhere.

If you don’t know where you are going, every road will get you nowhere. — Henry A. Kissinger

Parachutes

I began using parachutes twenty three years ago.

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Figure 1: Speed Parachutes

They were the chutes first introduced by Ben Tabachnik and purchased through Atletika. As I noted in my Track Technique article from 1998, “test results, apparently performed in a secluded stadium outside of Moscow, proved that the speed chute was superior to all other devices designed to improve maximal speed, start acceleration, and speed-endurance. Tabachnik notes a dramatic reduction of 0.2 to 0.4 seconds in 100 meter dash times.” I stopped using the chutes after one season. Which of my criteria questions was I not able to answer?

1. Did I know why I was using them? Was I really improving acceleration? What mechanics was changing while running with the chutes? Were these changes beneficial? As athletes ran faster, the chute increased resistance. Was this desirable?
2. Were the chutes safe? Well, they easily tangled, and three of them ripped in the first two sessions because they got caught on either a fence or hurdle. And what about runners who might experience a cross wind? Could a strong crosswind alter the chute’s direction, resulting in sheering forces at the sprinter’s knee?
3. I had a limited number of chutes in various sizes (different resistances). Were all my sprinters able to use the chutes at the same time? Which ones would get the bigger chutes?
4. How was I assessing the chute training sessions? Quite simply, I wasn’t. I had no idea how much resistance the chutes were applying to various sprinters, or to what extent changes in wind could affect any data were I to time various repetitions. And the chutes, as you can see from the image, were unstable. Could the flapping or position influence the times I recorded?

Overspeed Tubing

I began overspeed training– surgical tubing that came with plastic connectors under the product name SST–even before parachutes.

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Figure 2: SST Surgical Tubing

1. Did I know why I was using lengths of tubing extended 2 ½ times its length? Was I really improving speed via “overspeed”? Was mechanics changing positively through their use?
2. Was the tubing safe? I had no idea how long the rubber would last before it had the potential to snap if continually stretched, or even if it was indeed safe (just because 2 ½ its length was recommended) to repeatedly extend the hose lengths. The tubing was tied to the plastic connectors attached to the belt harness.
3. Could these come undone over repeated training bouts? What happens if the athlete holding one end of the tubing were to let go? I was concerned that the harness was attached by belt above the sprinter’s crotch, and as the tubing returned to its natural length, sprinters had to step carefully to avoid tripping over the relaxed hose. This certainly was altering mechanics.
4. Could a larger number of sprinters use the SST cables? With one cable, one sprinter holds the line while the other walks back extending the tubing to the recommended length. One section of tubing could accommodate two athletes, so several sections of tubing could be an effective for a group of sprinters.
5. How was I assessing overspeed via the tubing? I wasn’t. Was I filming athletes to see what was changing relative to where and how they were landing? I wasn’t. So, why was I using surgical tubing as a training device?

Ultra Speed Pacer

The Ultra Speed Pacer was the “next generation” of overspeed training. It was an ingenious application of the “block and tackle” concept whereby the sprinter is pulled along at a 2 to 1 ratio to the outgoing harnessed runner’s speed.

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Figure 3: Friction burns a hole in the Ultra Speed Pacer

1. Did I know why I was using the device? Yes. I believed it was safer than surgical tubing. The speed was controllable in a sense that the outgoing runner’s speed determined the speed of the sprinter being towed, and if the towed sprinter thought he was losing control, he or she could slap away the cord from the harness.
2. Was the device really safe? It involved the kind of technology one could find in any hardware store: two pulleys, a plastic extension line reel, and 300 feet of smaller gauge nylon cord. And therein lay the problem. Were the pulleys designed to stand up to repeated bouts of sprinters traveling at eight to nine meters per second? The one I used couldn’t. The wheel of the pulley was plastic. During a session, it appears as if the bearings in the pulley seized up, which meant that the cord was still being pulled “over” the wheel…until the friction of the cord heated up the plastic to the point that it actually burned through the wheel.
3. Could a large number of sprinters use the Ultra Speed Pacer? It was effective in that two sprinters were engaged with each unit. One was accelerating while the other was being towed. The problem was that the end of the Pacer cord had to be connected to either a fence or post, and this could result in multiple Pacers in use at the same time requiring suitable anchoring points that could get in the way of other runners on the track.
4. How was I assessing the Ultra Speed Pacer? At the time, most sprint coaches were noting that assisted sprinting should not exceed 10%, the point being that if a sprinter were towed beyond the 10% window, he or she would begin to initiate braking actions to avoid falling, and because these actions result in increased ground contact time, they would be inhibiting correct maximum velocity mechanics. However, I never timed these sessions, and was never sure exactly how fast any of my sprinters were running, or for how many meters they were sustaining faster speeds.

Kolka Thigh Trainers

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Figure 4: Kolka Speed Trainers

Speed Trainers are Velcro thigh wraps with pockets for placing up to three pounds per wrap. This was the invention of the late Leigh Kolka.

1. Why did I begin using these? I had found some corroborative research indicate the importance of hip flexor strength for sprinting. I believed the added weight via a thigh wrap was a simple way of increasing leg swing resistance.
2. Was the device safe? The Speed Trainers wrapped tightly around the thigh and were additionally supported by a waist belt. The weights themselves fit snugly into the neoprene pockets.
3. Could a large number of athletes use the Speed Trainers? Yes. At one point, I had ten pair of trainers and could order more had I needed them. These stored easily and didn’t take long for the sprinters to put on. We did have some minor issues with slippage, and sprinters would often have to re-tighten wraps between repetitions.
4. How was I assessing the Speed Trainers? The trainers were intended to improve the speed at which the limb could be positioned, but as per the findings of JAP2000, if the maximum speed at which limbs can be repositioned appears not to be a trainable entity (at least implicitly from the analysis of fast and slow runners in the study), then the I didn’t have a complete grasp of what sprinting in these resistance cuffs was achieving. The Harvard researchers whom I had asked for feedback believed that the weights would probably increase the support forces at a given speed, but would not alter ground support forces at higher speeds. A sprinter would just not be able to run as fast, and at slower speeds the ground forces would be lower. Indeed, this is exactly what I observed a few years later via OptoJump technology.

Bullet Belts

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Figure 5: Bullet Belt

The Bullet Build was the clever invention of Lane Gainer. Many still use the devices and are satisfied with the product and the results. My original model had a solidly designed waist belt, an eighteen inch Velcro tail, and a 48 inch release handle with a special rip-release cable.

1. Why did I begin using these? The concept made great sense. My concern with resistance devices prior to the Bullet Belt was that the possible disruption of a smooth pattern of acceleration might offset any “advantage” the device offered. The Bullet Belt could vary the resistance simply by changing how much of the Velcro the straps were attached to.
2. Was the Bullet Belt safe? Yes. The belt was well designed, and the explanations for implementing them in training were very clear.
3. Could a large number of athletes use the Bullet Belts? Yes. Two sprinters could work with one belt—one controlling the belt while the other begins to accelerate against the resistance. For a larger number of sprinters, more Bullet Belts would be needed.
4. How was I assessing the Bullet Belt resistance runs? This was an issue for me. The resistance only lasts for as long the straps are joined to the Velcro. Might the best benefit of the Bullet Belt be in starting and block clearance? Perhaps, but as Ralph Mann noted, “At the end of the push phase for both the rear foot and front foot, the knee is not fully extended. This indicates that the athlete is not pushing the leg through full extension.” He concludes by noting that the “actively pulling the foot off the blocks prior to full knee extension is critical for the success of the start.” In the regard, I agree that this correct action may best be mimicked and developed in the weight room via “full squats that stop at an upper angle of around 315 degrees and a lower angle of around 90 degrees, and half squats that stop at an upper angle of approximately 270 degrees and a lower leg angle of 135 degrees.”

Dorsiflexors

The dorsiflexor was an offshoot of the Speed Dynamics videos of the mid-eighties. At least two such devices were designed to accustom the sprinter to holding his or her foot in a dorsiflexed position. The intention was for athletes to go about regular training wearing these “dorsi-flexors.” At least two types of these could be purchased from Track and Field supply companies.

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Figure 6: Williams DorsiFlexor

I never purchased or used either of these, and that may have been because of my second criterion. Were these safe? Forcing the foot into a more-or-less locked anatomical position just didn't seem to be a very practical thing to do, especially if we were missing something critical about what is occurring on the ground once an athlete is up to speed. The great Willie Williams, legendary sprint coach at the University of Illinois, even developed his version of this dorsiflexor.

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Figure 7: Dorsiflexor

Willie, who 10.1 for 100 yards on a dirt and cinder track back in 1950, and then ran 10.1 for 100 meters in breaking Jesse Owen’s twenty year old world record six year later, never heard of the significance of dorsiflexion, and never trained with his foot in that mechanical position.

Nevertheless, he was convinced that this mechanics intervention influenced both the speed of the swinging limb as well as braking forces on landing. What was my assessment that suggested this might not be a beneficial device? I had no evidence via video analysis or OptoJump that proper execution of this mechanical position was resulting in either shorter contact times or larger vertical forces.

I have no issues with coaches who find these any of these devices to be beneficial in improving the ability of their sprinters to achieve faster speeds. What I know is that fast limb velocity into the ground, along with stiff ground contact, will result in fast running speeds and large forces. I’m just not certain these devices were, at least from my perspective, helping to achieve these ends.

I won’t deny that I’ve been influenced by the observations of the late Mel Siff, who once noted the following:

One is made to feel ill-equipped and ill-educated if you do not implement detailed programs using multiple isolated tools like balance balls, wobble boards, foam rollers, special treadmills, special shoes, as many Pilates contraptions as possible, plyometric balls, boxes, exercise and plyo sleds, gym machines, underwater jogging devices, dorsiflexor devices, ‘bodyblades’, grip strengtheners, rebounders, plyo hurdles, plyometric benches and so and so forth.

In the sport specific setting, the athlete generally wants to devote most time to the sport itself, not to numerous time consuming supplementary activities -so why devote 15-20 minutes of a session to playing around with balancing toys, intricate technical procedures, and a functionally integrated series of multi-dimensional holistic exercised, when an entire workout with free weights could be done in not much more time than that?

In all six examples, each device fit the first criterion. The devices were all affordable. What is clear is that the most practical expenditure for me should have been assessment equipment–either timing or video—that would have given me a better idea of what exactly was happening as my sprinters were being resisted or assisted. Over the past twelve years, I’ve invested in virtually no training devices other than a slide box for pole vaulters. But I have invested heavily in timing and assessment equipment such as LYNX Reactime, SiliconCoach, OptoJump, and, yes, I now have twelve Freelap watches and eight transmitters!

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Figure 8: Coach Mullin records the Freelap splits.

Please share this article so others may benefit.

By Tony Holler

Since the age of 22, I have been a teacher.  I have taught Physical Science, Contemporary Science, Fundamental Science, 7th-grade Life Science, Biology, AP Biology, Anatomy & Physiology, Chemistry I, Chemistry II, General Chemistry, and Honors Chemistry.  I presently teach Honors Chemistry five times a day to 150 students.  I was pre-med as an undergrad until I realized I didn’t like blood, needles, broken bones, cancer, pain, etc.  In addition, I hate hospitals.

I have never coached an Olympian.  I’ve never coached at the college level.  However, my coaching experience has been diverse.  I have coached basketball at both the freshmen and sophomore levels.  I served as head varsity basketball coach for nine years at two different schools.  I’ve coached freshmen, sophomore, and varsity football.  My freshmen football teams have won 28 consecutive games (we have not lost in three years).  I’ve been a track coach for 34 years.  I’ve coached at schools with enrollments of 600, 1700, and 2500.  I’ve coached in two different states (Illinois and Tennessee).

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I learned this demo from a chemist named Walter White. Seriously. Episode #1. And yes, I enjoy teaching my students the “Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle”.

My resume is not meant to impress.  Instead, my background indicates the opposite.  I am not an expert.  I make $40,000 less than my 15 year-old students will make as 24 year-old pharmacists.  I’m proud to say I don’t have a Master’s Degree or a PhD.  As my college chemistry teacher, Dr. Leland Harris, used to say, “Everyone knows what B.S. stands for.  M.S stands for ‘more of the same’.  PhD stands for ‘piled higher and deeper'”.

My only claim to fame is that I’ve worked 34 years in the educational trenches.  Teachers are treated like privates in the bureaucratic army of education.  A veteran teacher has the status of an entry-level worker at Walmart.  Reforms are top-down.  When my career started, schools were run “collectively”.  Now teachers do what they are told and keep their opinions to themselves.  Our pay is determined by the public’s interest in paying higher property taxes.  Tenure and teacher pensions are under attack from both Republicans and Democrats.  Our ivory-tower generals put more on our plate every year as public education attempts to reinvent the wheel at the expense of kids. Sorry for the rant, but background gives color to my writing.

Once a month, teachers at Plainfield North are required to attend a one-hour “professional growth” session after school.  We meet as departments and usually waste our time discussing a book written by some former-teacher turned author.

This year, my science department is trying something new.  We are doing teacher-led professional development.  For the first meeting of the year, I was asked to present.  I decided to present something out-of-the-box.  Imagine teaching “The Simplified Science of Sprint Training” to a group of 15 high school science teachers at the end of a long school day.  I call myself a “professional simplifier” but this assignment made me nervous.  Of the 15 science teachers, only three were coaches.  The others might be casual fans of the Cubs, Sox, Blackhawks, Bulls, and/or Bears, but not much more.  None of the teachers in my audience had ever worn spikes (and if you ain’t wearing spikes, you ain’t sprinting) .  My audience was a middle-aged mix of science nerds.  Adapting my clinic presentation to this group was going to be a challenge.

If you can’t explain it to a six-year-old, you don’t understand it yourself. — Albert Einstein

I’ve been to track clinics where my brain rebelled and disengaged because the material was a convoluted labyrinth of unknown vocabulary and bewildering graphs.  Science is complicated.  My goal is to teach science to coaches and teach sprint training to science teachers.

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. — Leonardo DaVinci

Biochemistry of Sprinting

Let’s get real simple about sprint training.  Sprinting involves the anaerobic energy system.  Before I lose the football coaches here … anaerobic means “without oxygen”.

The entire day of the average adult is spent aerobically, or “with oxygen”.  We walk, we sit, we eat, and we sleep.  Some of us ride bikes.  I am a runner.  Being a “runner” at age 55 is code for being a jogger.   Despite the fact that I’ve run four marathons, I do nothing anaerobically with the possible exception of weight training.  People my age usually weight train without intensity, so I’m pretty much 100% aerobic these days.

The average adult is a terribly trained sprinter.  Maybe we should consider the great lyric from Tom Petty’s “Last Dance With Mary Jane” … “Never slow down, never grow old”.  In the real world, people age and slow down.  We are only fast when we drive our cars.

Sprint training is simple.  Run fast to get fast.  Train with intensity for short duration.  You don’t get fast by running slow.  Never run slow.  Train anaerobically.  Rest and recover long enough to run fast.  Never run tired.  Never sprint train when your body is incapable of top-speed running.  When you finish your short workout, eat well and take a nap.  Rest and recover the next day, then repeat.

So why is there a dichotomy between sprint training and distance training?  Simple.  It’s due to energy systems, anaerobic vs. aerobic.  Let’s investigate further.

People eat food.  Food has chemical energy locked into the bonds of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates.  All food can eventually be broken down into GLUCOSE.  It is glucose that enters our cells.  Whether you eat a candy bar or a ham sandwich, the fuel that enters your cells is glucose.

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Inside the cells and only inside the cells, glucose is broken down further to create ATP.  ATP stands for Adenosine Triphosphate.  Don’t stop reading.  ATP is the energy compound that fuels everything.  Our body is fueled at all times by ATP. ATP is the fuel of sleeping, sitting, thinking, jogging, sprinting, etc.  ATP comes from glucose and glucose comes from food.  By the way, plants make glucose for animals by converting sunlight into chemical energy.  The god of the sun was worshiped by the Egyptians (Ra), Greeks (Helios), and Romans (Apollo).

The first step in the transformation of glucose to ATP is called glycolysis.  “Glyco” means sugar and “Lysis” means split.  Yep, the 6-carbon glucose molecule is split into two 3-carbon pyruvic acid molecules.  The benefit of this action is the production of two net ATP without the use of oxygen.  ATP production without oxygen is anaerobic respiration.  Sprinters listen up … this is your energy system!

Obviously, there is lots of chemical energy left to be harvested from the two 3-carbon pyruvic acid molecules but that will require a steady uninterrupted flow of oxygen, something sprinters won’t have.  For those of you wanting to know more about this aerobic phase, here goes … the pyruvic acid molecules enter the mitochondria and goes through the Krebs Cycle, also known as the Citric Acid Cycle, the Tricarboxylic Acid Cycle, the Melvin-Calvin Cycle, or the TCA Cycle.  Sprint coaches, ignore all of this.  Yes, aerobic respiration efficiently provides us with energy to live our lives but does not fuel sprinters.  Aerobic respiration allows people to run marathons but has nothing to do with running 200 meters in 20 seconds.

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In review, anaerobic respiration happens inside the cell but outside the mitochondria.  Anaerobic respiration creates 2 ATP from one glucose molecule but requires no oxygen.  Aerobic respiration creates 36 ATP from the two pyruvic acid molecules but requires lots of oxygen.  Both types of respiration creates ATP.  Sprinters don’t have the oxygen needed to create boatloads of ATP, so glycolysis must be the focus.  Don’t get confused by terminology.

Energy Systems

1. Phosphogen System or ATP-PC System.  This is simply getting energy from ATP.  I call this training the PHOSPHATE ZONE (anaerobic).
2. Gycolytic System.  This is the splitting of glucose outside of the mitochondria to make ATP.  Lactate is the eventual byproduct of glycolysis.  I call this training the LACTATE ZONE (anaerobic).
3. Oxidative System.  This is the harvesting of ATP from pyruvic acid inside the mitochondria (Krebs Cycle).  Sprinters should never be trained long and slow (aerobic).

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I still don’t understand this crap. Biology teachers pretend to know it but they don’t. Just because you memorize something doesn’t mean you understand it. Here is the good news … sprint coaches can ignore the Citric Acid Cycle, and everything else that goes on inside the mitochondria.

Training Based on Energy Systems

Here is the good news … sprint coaches can ignore the Citric Acid Cycle, and everything else that goes on inside the mitochondria.

At the risk of over-simplification, you must train the correct energy system.  If you are a marathon runner, train aerobically.  If you are a sprinter, train anaerobically.

You have some ATP in your muscles ready for action at any given moment.  When all-out intense effort is required (like sprinting), these ATPs provide the first five to ten seconds of energy.  After that first five to ten seconds, ATPs from glycolysis provide energy for up to 90 seconds.  Remember, glycolysis is the splitting of glucose without oxygen.  Adults who sit, walk, and sleep will not have high-powered anaerobic engines.  Pigs will fly before untrained adults are capable of sprinting 60 seconds.  People who live their entire lives in the “aerobic zone” will run pathetic 400 meter times.

So how exactly do you train a sprinter?  First of all, my sprinters run the 100, 200, and 400.  Some obviously are more successful in the 400, some more successful in the short sprints.  However, they are all in the same training group.  400 meter runners are not “middle distance” runners.  I’ve often had the same 4-man relay team run my 4×1, 4×2, and 4×4.  My sprinters train in what I call the “phosphate zone” most of the time.  The phosphate zone is 100% effort for a period of 4 or 5 seconds followed by a 20 second rest.  Sounds like football, doesn’t it?  Our sprint drills take about five seconds each.  Our workouts are so short that I encourage a “caffeinated” approach at every practice.  With or without caffeine (I like caffeine and it’s legal), I want my sprinters to look and act like they’ve just had a venti Sumatra with a shot of espresso.

In a typical week of off-season sprint training, we will stay in the phosphate zone every day.  I believe three days a week is enough.  Monday, Wednesday, and Friday works perfect.  Tues and Thursday gives time for rest and recovery.  Saturday and Sunday gives time for rest, recovery, and growth.

Even though the focus of this section is anaerobic training, remember this type of sprint training is heavy on technique.  In addition, caffeinated training teaches the nervous system to fire quickly.  Sprinting is more electrical than it is muscular.  Ever notice how strength is a very poor indicator of speed?  Guys that squat 200 pounds can out-sprint guys that squat 400.  High school freshmen who run 4.60 in the 40 are typically foreigners to weight training.  You don’t get fast in the weight room.  Run fast to get fast.

Let’s get back to energy systems.  During the track season, we train the “lactate system” once or twice per week, never more.  Lactate system?  What the hell is that?

My high school coach back in the 1970’s used the term “lactic acid” all the time.  I think all track coaches talk about lactic acid.  If you ask them what it is, they can usually give you a short answer … “Lactic acid is the waste product of anaerobic respiration.  This is what creates the ‘burn’ in your muscles and makes you sore the next day.”  This is not far from the truth except for the “sore the next day” part.  Soreness comes from lengthening a contracted muscle (eccentric contraction), not lactic acid.

The true chemistry involved in lactate training goes back to those two 2-carbon pyruvic acid molecules.  Pyruvic acid, during prolonged intense effort, is converted to its conjugate base pyruvate which is converted to lactic acid which is converted to its conjugate base, lactate.  Lactic acid is not measurable, lactate is.

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Lactic acid is short-lived.  It quickly loses its hydrogen ion and becomes lactate.  The hydrogen ion is responsible for the nasty side-effects of anaerobic training.  For those of you who have forgotten all chemistry, acids increase the hydrogen ion concentration of water.  This conversion of lactic acid to lactate results in a lowered pH, sometimes called acidosis. Acidosis will shut down glycolysis.  Glycolysis can’t go on forever.  I’ve read that 90-seconds is the upper limit.  Aerobic respiration is infinite but the door to glycolysis will slam shut.  No one sprints the 1600.  Acidosis will cause blurred vision, dizziness, and nausea.  Many runners lose their lunch when doing lactate training.  Puking is a response to acidosis.  Purging hydrochloric acid will help restore homeostasis.

Sorry for throwing these complex terms at you.  Let’s simplify.  Pyruvic acid, pyruvate, lactic acid, and lactate are all such similar terms that we can lump them all together and start calling them simply lactate.

Lactate is found in the blood when sprinters are at pushing their limits.  Amazingly, marathon runners exhibit near resting-levels of lactate despite their exhaustion.  Distance running uses a different energy system.  Coaches don’t do blood tests on athletes to check them for blood lactate levels.  Even though I can’t measure blood lactate it’s not hard to spot … dizziness, glassy eyes, and nausea.  Like Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart said about pornography, “I know it when I see it.”

Here is a story about lactate fitness vs. aerobic fitness.  I went to Oswego High School with a guy named Dave Finnestad.  Finnestad was a distance runner and a star basketball player.  Finnestad was 6’4″ and once scored 49 points in a 32-minute high school basketball game.  He later went on to win the NAIA National Championship in the 5000 (1981) and still holds the 10,000 record at Malone University (29:05.74).  In the 1975 IHSA State Cross Country Championship, he placed 4th with a time of 14:24.  Two days later Finnestad was the only guy throwing up after doing “suicides” and “killers” at the end of basketball practice.  You see, Finnestad had incredible aerobic fitness but the rest of us had been trained in the lactate-zone.  Dave Finnestad was well-trained for 14-minute runs, poorly trained for 30-second sprints.

Two important things happen when sprinters are trained in the “lactate-zone”.

1. Training increases the rate of lactate clearance.  The body is a smart machine that adapts to almost everything.  Maybe you remember doing biology vocabulary work and looking up “homeostasis” in the glossary.  Homeostasis is the body’s ability to keep internal conditions stable and relatively constant.  If lactate levels are high,  the liver converts lactate into glucose.  The more this happens, the more efficient the conversion becomes.
2. Training increases lactate tolerance.  Trained athletes continue to perform at intense levels in spite of high amounts of lactate.  Consider this “biochemical toughness”.  The football coaches in the crowd will like this concept (if they are still reading).

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I had a good seat at the 2012 NCAA Championships. If you think these 4×1 teams got fast by doing long tedious aerobic workouts, you are probably a distance coach.  Andrew Riley ran lead-off for Illinois after running a 10.03 in the 100 prelims the day before.  He later won the NCAA 100 and 110 Hurdles.  Wow.

So, how do we train the lactate system?  It should be obvious.  Sprint more than five to ten seconds.  Most coaches make the mistake of over-training their sprinters.  When you require a fast kid to run 5 x 300, they will run each one at 45-50 seconds.  A 45-second 300 is good training for a 2:00 800-runner, horrible for a sprinter.   The ground contact time will be long and their stride will change, creating bad habits.  Here is a list of lactate workouts done at Plainfield North High School.

• 23-Second drill … sprinters run solo for 23 seconds at full speed trying to go as far as possible.  Chalk marks on the track will indicate the distance they achieve.  My best sprinters will typically run 200-210 meters.  Eight minutes later, they run 23-seconds one more time. The goal is to come within 5 meters of their first mark.  I record, rank, and publish their numbers.  This drill must be done in a high-spirited electric atmosphere.
• Fly-500 … sprinters will run 5 x 100 with the wind (we like to do this drill on windy days).  The sprints start on the fly (run-in start).  Sprinters walk back to the starting line taking no more than two minutes.  Every time is recorded.  The five times are averaged, ranked, and published.  This drill teaches sprinters to run fast but efficiently.  You could almost consider this a lactate-threshold drill for sprinters.  After the first 100, sprinters are dealing with lactate issues.  This year we will use Freelap technology to get automated times for each guy.
• 4×4 Predictor … sprinters will run 3 x 200 with fly starts and with the wind.  Sprinters will walk across the football field diagonally to begin the next 200.  The rest will by only 3 minutes.  This year we will use Freelap technology to record times.  The times are added together then multiplied by .67.  I then add 2.0 seconds to the product.  These calculated times are recorded, ranked, and published.  The times will accurately reflect the 4×4 speed of each sprinter.  Once again, lactate levels get relatively high and sprinters must run fast regardless.  This drill also teaches the idea of long sprinting.  My cues are always “fast & loose” or “make it look easy”.

Timing systems are critical to sprint training.  In the past, I’ve used the Summit System but it was wired and bulky.  Summit could not be used in high winds or rainy conditions.  I was basically limited to indoor use or outside on perfect days.  In addition, I was limited to timing short distances like 30-meter starts and 10-meter flys.  My new Freelap system will be used almost every day.  “What you measure, you improve.”

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I started with the Sprint-1 Coach for $750. I’ve since purchased three more watches ($249 each). I hope to have eight watches by the time my winter training (phosphate-zone) begins.

Coaches need to understand, track meets are lactate workouts.  I want my sprinters to run 2 or 3 races at every meet.  I want my sprinters to either run the 400 or the 4×4 at every meet.  A perfect workout would consist of running all three sprint relays, the 4×1, 4×2,and 4×4.  Running the 4×1, 400, and 200 is another perfect workout.

My off-season sprint training is 100% phosphate-zone.  In-season training is about 60% phosphate-zone, 40% lactate-zone.  Here is a typical week in April.

• Monday:  Triangular Meet … lactate
• Tuesday:  Sprint Holiday … rest
• Wednesday:  Speed drills and strength work … phosphate
• Thursday:  Speed drills and block starts … phosphate
• Friday:  Speed drills and handoffs … phosphate
• Saturday:  Invitational … lactate

Notice in the week above, both workouts were actual meets.  Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday would be short practices.  Less than 40 minutes.  If we only had one meet, we would do a lactate workout in practice.  Why not three lactate-zone workouts per week?  Three hard workouts in a week will lead to diminishing returns.  Sprinters get injured.  Sprinters get depressed.  Happy and healthy sprinters maintain a “bounce” through the season.  The combination of rest, sleep, hydration, and nutrition is more important to a sprinter than any workout.  Coaches flatter themselves by thinking they create a sprinter.  At every clinic, coaches are searching for magic workouts.  Great sprinters are found (or recruited) and then nourished and maintained.  The cumulative effect of two lactate workouts every week for 10-20 weeks will result in sprinters learning to sprint 400 meters … or run multiple races at top speed.  Banged-up depressed sprinters are never successful.  Less is more.  Don’t train hard, train smart.

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Lactate workouts are hard. Pictured is Annile Williams who was an all-state hurdler last year in his junior season. Annile ran 14.55 in the 110 Highs and 38.90 in the 300 Intermediates. Eventually sprinters get better at lactate CLEARANCE and lactate TOLERANCE. You can’t achieve this if you stubbornly stick to high volume workouts.

When I present my ideas at track & field clinics, the first question is always the same.  “But what about the 400?”  People who ask that question fail to understand that quarter-milers are sprinters and vice versa.   I train all my sprinters the same.  I’ve been a head track for 25 years.  My 4×4 teams have won state medals 15 times.  You can ignore aerobic training and win the 4×4.  Our sport is inundated with distance coaches having aerobic mindsets.  Repeat after me … Cats don’t jog … Cats don’t jog … Cats don’t jog.

“Don’t forget that the most important problem to solve is to make easy what is difficult, and for this goal we need to be very simple in our approach, bringing our athletes to train more without too much pressure from hard workouts.”  – Renato Canova

So, when do sprinters do aerobic training?  Never.  Sprinters, like all of us, live aerobic lives.  There is no need to jog.  Slow running is counter-productive.  Enjoy aerobic activities but sprint training must be short, caffeinated, and intense.

Anatomy & Physiology of Muscle Fibers

Let’s get away from the biochemistry of cell respiration.  Let’s talk muscle.

Most coaches have heard of fast-twitch and slow-twitch muscle fibers. Fast guys have a high percentage of fast-twitch fibers.  Great jumpers are also predominately fast-twitch.  Slower guys have a high percentage of slow-twitch fibers that are better for endurance and strength over longer periods of time.

Fast-twitch fibers are white due to less blood flow.  Why do they have less blood flow?  Because they are anaerobic in nature.  Fast-twitch fibers have fewer mitochondria.  Why is the worth mentioning?  Fast twitch fibers are the muscle fibers of sprinting, therefore less blood-flow, less oxygen, and fewer mitochondria are needed.

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On the other hand, slow-twitch muscle fibers are red.  Slow-twitch muscle fibers are red due to blood flow.  Lots of capillaries bring oxygen to mitochondria to harvest ATP through aerobic respiration.  Slow-twitch fibers are aerobic.  Long sustained effort is accomplished by the work of red slow-twitch fibers.

What does all of this mean for sprint coaching?  First, find fast-twitch athletes and build your track team around those guys.  How do you find these fast-twitch freaks?  Identify the boys in your school who can dunk a basketball.  Develop relationships with the running backs, receivers, and defensive backs on your school’s football team.  Create an atmosphere where kids want to be timed in the 40-yard dash and the 10-meter fly.  Use Freelap to time kids, then record, rank, and publish.  Promote excellence.  Celebrate improvement.

Here is an interesting question:  If your muscle composition is predominantly slow-twitch, are you doomed to a lifetime of distance training?  The answer is yes and no.  Fast-twitch athletes are born with an advantage.  If you look at the elite sprinters, none of them started as slow white guys.  In my experience, 90% of all elite sprinters were very fast by the time they were 15 years-old.  Training did not create their speed.  However, some muscle fibers are “in-betweeners”, with the ability to evolve into fast-twitch or slow-twitch based on training.  I have read where 40% of muscle fibers are transitional.  So how do you push those transitional fibers toward fast-twitch?  You sprint and jump.  You jump and sprint.  You train with short duration and high intensity.  You don’t run mileage.  Your training does not include four-hour bike rides.  You don’t swim countless laps.  “You don’t plant beans and grow corn.”  Do I need to say more?

Physics of Sprinting: Overcoming Gravity

Sir Isaac Newton stated that  “Any two bodies in the universe attract each other with a force that is directly proportional to their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.”  Since the earth is quite large and we are quite close, gravity plays a monumental role in our lives.

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No calculations are necessary to understand gravity’s relationship to sprinting.  However, you must understand that gravity is a huge force compared to the horizontal forces encountered by a sprinter.  Horizontal forces include wind resistance (drag) and friction.

I once heard a track coach instructing a young sprinter to “grab the track and throw it behind you”.  This would indicate that horizontal forces are the biggest concern of a sprinter.  This is wrong.  Totally wrong.  This biggest concern is gravity and that must be the focus of proper running mechanics.  Note, I am talking about sprinting here, not drive-phase acceleration.

Elite sprinters have minimal ground contact.  In a way, they fly.  To create minimal ground contact sprinters lift their foot in front of their hips and then hit the track hard.  Good sprinters hit the ground with so much force that the foot bounces off the track.  Ground contact times of world record holders have been measured at .080 seconds.  Sprint spikes have no cushion.  Cushion makes for a soft-landing and longer ground contact times.

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These three guys allowed Plainfield North to medal in the 4×1, 4×2, and 4×4 in 2011. The lead runner, Quest Young, was a 48-second quarter-miler with great mechanics (with the exception of a floppy back-hand). His posture was terrific. Note how tall he runs. The tallness allows for great knee-lift. I love his dorsi-flexed foot. His mechanics allowed him to “hammer down” exerting lots of vertical force.  By the way, the “hammer back” action of the arm adds to the vertical force of the foot strike.  The other two guys, Marquis Flowers and Randy Gordon were also very good.

How do you teach minimal ground contact?  Basically you do drills of short duration and high intensity where you bounce off of the track.  Drills where you land and jump at the same time are called plyometrics.  Like all speed training, plyometrics must be caffeinated.  Like all speed training, plyometrics must be limited because they are very intense.  I love bouncy sprinters.

Gravity is the reason that coaches should never encourage a sprinter to gain 20 pounds.  Gravity makes big people slow, unless they can proportionally increase their ability to exert force into the ground.  It’s easy to gain weight, hard to improve explosive force.  When I see football players getting thick through the chest, back , and arms, I immediately think uh-oh, weight gain = speed loss.  Natural weight gain through puberty, growth, and well-designed strength training is fine.  Artificial weight gain (eating entire jars of peanut butter, etc.) will slow you down.

I believe in strength training but not body-building.  I believe in lifting in ways that translate to speed.  Before blindly adopting a weight training program, ask yourself, “Are elite sprinters great at these lifts?”.  Do deep squats improve speed?  Does the bench press improve speed?  Do pull-ups improve speed?  Do power cleans improve speed?  In my experience, sprint training often counter-balances the negative effects of weight lifting.  I’ve seen no evidence that proves the correlation between weight lifting and speed gain.  Boo Schexnayder’s strength training program is probably terrific.  Arnold Schwarzenegger’s body-building programs of the 1970’s would ruin a sprinter.  Sad to say, most high school football coaches are more like Arnold and less like Boo.

In last spring’s NFL Combine, only ten guys ran times less than 4.40.  The average height and weight of those ten players was 5’10” and 188 pounds.  Weight training and weight gain in the absence of speed training is delusional Neanderthal thinking.  Greyhounds are faster than Mastiffs.

Specificiy & Simplicity

You can skip Biology, Chemistry, Anatomy, and Physics if you understand the “Principle of Specificity”.  Training should be relevant and appropriate to the sport for which the individual is training in order to produce a training effect.  “You don’t plant beans and grow corn.”   If you are a swimmer, swim.  If you are a cyclist, cycle.  If you are a sprinter, sprint.

Coaches waste time when they believe weight lifting creates fast runners.  Coaches waste their time when they believe that long monotonous aerobic sessions will benefit their sprint relays.  Coaches waste time when they put their sprinters through Navy Seal training thinking toughness creates champions.

In addition to specificity, think simplicity.  I train sprinters at max speed for about five seconds at a time.  Max speed is damn important.  During the season we do two lactate workouts per week.  Simple.

Fill in your practice time with blocks starts, accelerations, hand-offs, hurdles, and field events.   Trust the fact that sprinting is anaerobic.  Keep distance coaches away from your sprinters.  Do your best to influence transitional muscle fibers to become fast-twitch.  Make vertical force the holy grail when you teach sprint mechanics.  Teach sprint mechanics daily.  Understand that over-trained, banged-up, depressed sprinters will never rise to the occasion.  Keep it specific, keep it simple, and above all, keep it fun.

The simplified science found in my presentation are the facts as I know them.  Many coaches get lost in the science and resort to the lowest common denominator … coaching the way they were coached.  Connecting science to sprint training makes sense to me.

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By Carl Valle

Ask a football player what their 40-yard dash time is, and you will, usually, get two different responses—hand time and electronic time. The biggest problem I see with sports training is the simple lack of understanding what electronic timing is when discussing speed development. I have used technology to measure the athletes’ speed since I bought my first video camera, nearly 20 years ago, using frames per second as a crude way to get more accuracy than a stopwatch. I was in high school and wanted to know how fast one of our school sprinters was running in miles per hour, after hearing what Carl Lewis was able to achieve in the early 1990s. A few years later, when talking to a great coach, Jason Trott, who was a strength and conditioning coach in the MLB at the time, he shared his best 40 time, adding“electronic” as a punch line when asked about his own athlete abilities. He scoffed at “hand times” (using a stopwatch), and that conversation in 2000 created a vivid reminder of the simple need for valid measurement of speed. The fundamental lesson in this article is that most performance coaches are paid to make athletes faster, yet if you were to ask about timing and testing, only a small percentage would say they did any. For years we have read about different programs that create breakaway speeds and drop two-tenths in the 40, yet when asked if they had even timed it, the awkward silence is deafening. This article will simply explain how timing is done with various forms of technology and share why it’s dangerous to make claims without testing.

Drops, Gears, Frames, Beams, and Magnetic Pulse

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Figure 1: The former USSR had some innovations for military security, and one of them was using beam-based alarms to not only indicate motion detection, but actually fire a gun if an intruder broke in. Beam-based timing is still used by a number of tripods, and track real estate makes me a fan of magnetic pulse technology and its wearable options.

An argument can be made that the first real tool for timing was the water clock that used a drip to count seconds, but it’s likely that the frames of film were the best sources of valid speed measurement. Technology evolves, but science is timeless and must be understood. The first step in understanding electronic timing, before getting into current standards, is to go before electricity and find out how one could capture precise measurements. Most of the changes in technology are more about consumer-friendly evolution than actual improvements in accuracy. We assume that something is not good because it is old. Technology is as ancient the Neanderthals using a marking system on bones for the first time, and we need to appreciate the mathematics and the thought behind the resourcefulness of materials, not by taking into account if the product is using Bluetooth or has a jazzy app.

In my opinion, the most important milestone in sports timing is the use of photography, distance, and simple algebra to get precise timing. The photo finish name conjures up a lot at the finish line, as 2008 and 2012 had two major controversies with Michael Phelps and Allison Felix, respectively. It’s not just the number that people think of; it’s the athlete in time and space that, usually, creates a value of what is going on. Time and speed are all values, but distance enables coaches to visualize speed and time. Currently, after over a hundred years, the photo finish at the end of the race is still the gold standard, because you know who won the race, just as well as how fast they went.

Technically, performance timing started going electronic as soon as people discovered electricity, but for the most part, the idea of removing human reaction or responsibility and introducing a machine automated the process. The inconsistency and human error associated with using a stopwatch made precision and accuracy too unreliable, and equipment improved all areas of timing. The term “fully automatic timing,” or FAT times, became a gold standard because time after time, the equipment worked as designed. It wasn’t that humans couldn’t be trusted, photos would tell of who wins a race, but the practical side of photos when coaches needed convenient measurements of point A to point B became too important to use painstaking techniques such as counting frames to get exact performances.

Timing at the consumer level took off with photocells since coaches wanted something portable and flexible. A sensor to indicate when an athlete initiates movement and when the athlete crosses a specific distance was a perfect match for those wanting something convenient. The light sensor is a beam that indicates when an object passes through, triggering a time stamp specifically on the start and stop. One benefit that photocells had then was the ability to have a series of time segments or splits, allowing a deeper analysis and the ability to see how speed is gained and lost. In the 1980s and 1990s, photocell timing was a standard, and then in the early 2000s, Dartfish was born, and that changed everything. They removed manual frame counting, and the software chronometer allowed not only splits and displacement, but the ability for the coaches to see how time and movement interacted. While this is a powerful feature within the software, it is not instantaneous and must be done manually. Coaches want quick and convenient things like timing devices.

The current milestone is wearable technology matching timing with how fast the body moves, versus a limb or body part hitting the beam. GPS technology is not accurate enough to do sprint testing, and even if it were, you still had to manually break down the information into usable tables of data, such as pairing each segment of distance with a corresponding time. Coaches are familiar with distance and time and prefer finding ways to get faster and lower times, so this is the current direction of evolution. Sensors are small and unobtrusive, and individual athletes are timed based on their displacement, not by tripping over a laser. Now, athletes can be tested at the same time while they are right next to each other, taking advantage of arousal and competitive efforts.

Is a Stopwatch Electronic Timing?

Technically, a modern stopwatch is electronic timing because of the battery, but the manual or human side of its use reduces the accuracy and precision, so it’s not in my book. When one is hand timing, several things can go wrong, and the coach can’t use hand times with authority. Years of use makes a coach more consistent or repeatable, but not more accurate. Some coaches are close, especially on longer sprints with less effect of error. A sprinter running a 150m in 15.6 hand time versus 15.42 electronic isn’t a big deal, but a flying 20m sprint of 2.76 and 2.89 is unacceptable.

What goes wrong with hand timing? A lot more than we think. First, the visual reaction of movement is different with people and even varies with individuals because of sleep and fatigue. This may not appear like much, but the very reason we don’t see hand times at the Olympics is because the lack of confidence in the times being valid, even with a mythical 0.24 second conversion. Do I use hand times? Yes, mainly for circuits, but not for speed.

What about Laser Timing?

As soon as you bring up the word “laser,” many assume that it means the future or science fiction-like technology. Lasers are simply beams of light, and the use of this technology is nothing new. For the most part, the evolution of beam-based technology has not changed in 30 years since all lasers with timers use a binary indication of a body part passing by at a distance. Laser timing only considers the breaking of the light beam and not who or how the beam is broken. Passing by a beam with an extended limb, such as an arm or leg, may affect accuracy by a fraction of a second, but the real constraints with beam timing are the lack of tracking during simultaneous runs and the amount of space needed for tripods. A high school track of six lanes requires half the sprint for one athlete, and even in college or elite standards of eight, this is still too much. Finally, the visual debris in the lane creates what I call a “claustrophobic hallway” effect that you get when visually running with timing gates next to you. While the lane may still be the same width, visually, it has an unnerving response to many athletes who like the free feeling of running without excessive apparatus next to them.

New Technologies and Culture Change

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Figure 2: The next evolution in timing is moving away from two gates to get one lane to one sensor for two athlete in two lanes. Not only is this far easier to set up, but it removes the visual, psychological sensation of being squeezed, and allows athlete data to be collected effectively.

One of the major changes in my coaching happened a few years ago when I decided to invest in using the consumer-friendly timing of Freelap. I mainly used video timing, and it was nice when the entire track was mine, but it was impossible to do in groups because it took too long and required no walking in front of the camera, something I had a hard time implementing when on my own. Using a wearable device allowed me to track and aggregate all of the splits and rest periods, and after a year, the simple addition of constant electronic timing fell into a groove. It felt natural, and it allowed me to remove the burden of managing equipment and the fear of missed times. The biggest change came from doing speed work with small groups that were doing sprints at the same time. When doing starts or short sprints from starting blocks or the similar, I could finally get everyone’s time all at once. Everyone knows that when you have a bunch of athletes, the juice starts flowing at once, and the output is higher. Adding measurement and group competition made workouts so much higher that I actually had to worry about overtraining; I adjusted rest periods and efforts later on.

The sensor, be it a chip or a watch, uses a magnetic pulse from the small transmitters to indicate movement through time and space. In the past, a beam was like a finishing ribbon and was not group- or practice-friendly; it was suitable just for periodic testing. After it was liberated from cumbersome gates and changed to small pods that worked with practice venues, timing became a part of enhancing workflow rather than a wrench slowing it down. With the availability of constant and objective feedback and precise data, workouts became more of an engineering project than a trial-and-error (wait and hope) effort. In addition to getting more times in practice, video analysis started doing what it was designed to do—getting kinematic or motion information from the recording—instead of making it difficult to get splits. Timing now is no longer a luxury, but an indispensable part of effective practice.

Electronic Timing Wrap-up

My early Freelap experience was humbling, enlightening, and, best of all, exciting. Having convenient, objective feedback of the most important quality in sports performance—athlete speed—changed how I trained sufficiently to compromise my development if I did not use it on a regular basis. The key lesson here is that, to help people become better, you need to get a clear measurement of change, even if the information is not what you want it to be. By appreciating the sensitivity and slow development of athlete speed, I am far more precise with training and have a clear idea of cause and effect in my practice. While in track and in combine testing you can see the fruits of your labor, you need to make sure your harvest is growing properly and should not wait until it is too late to fix things. Speed is a very clear quality to interpret, so by testing consistently and prescribing very precise workouts, you can help athletes get better results.

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By Travis Hansen

Since standardized testing for speed via the 10, 20, 40, and 60-yard dash was first practiced, coaches and/or testing administrators have opted for the use of handheld stopwatches. Not only is there a tremendous amount of variance associated with this approach, but it’s a complete disservice to any athlete who seeks a legitimate speed measure.

Wouldn’t it be great if we simplified all of this controversy and just made it mandatory for all coaches, trainers, parents, athletes, etc. to test with a Fully Automated Timing System (FAT), so that there was no potential for error, just like in track and field? Each athlete’s start and finish of a sprint would be measured with “failproof” electronic technology.

Of course, there would be a relatively small investment that needs to be made; however, increasing reliability and integrity of the target skill is what is most important here. If you analyze the credibility of any single athletic-based skill, speed is hands down the absolute least reliable! We all know of those people who claim that they or their athlete runs a 4.4 40-yard dash, yet when the time comes to test, they either cower, are injured, or yield a 5.2. Of course, there exists a very small percentage of these individuals who are indeed telling the truth, but they are few and far between, in my experience.

It’s past time that we, as coaches in the industry, stand up and start doing things the right way and test speed through an accepted and proven protocol. Look at how strict bodybuilding, powerlifting, and Olympic lifting competitions are regulated. Speed testing should be no different.

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Other issues that I think are affected by the handheld approach are the methods for recruiting and signing bonuses for athletes. I’m referring mainly to football players right now, since football is the only sport that puts any emphasis on linear speed, although baseball is on the rise here. If a kid has an electronically verified 4.5 40-yard dash on a FAT system and he is coming off an injury or just had a bad day and happens to run only a 4.7 on his or her recruiting trip, then the coach knows without question where that kid is in the speed department and the impact it could bring on the football field. Essentially, using a FAT system makes the job of coaches a bit easier and builds trust in the testing approach. Multiply this across the entire country and you now have a valid system that effectively delivers for everyone.

I think the biggest fear for the majority of people is the “culture shock” this would have on all of the times you have heard in the past. However, there is an easy solution for this. Here is an article from CBS Sports that discusses the potential dilemma. It is noteworthy that the NFL has established a committee who has evidence of FAT times, but has failed to report the results from the past 3 NFL Combines to the general public.

According to studies at the 1972 Munich Olympics and several other sources, there exists an approximate .20-.24 tenths of a second difference between handheld times and FAT times. 1 2 The fix here then becomes simple and easy. As long as you have a FAT reference time, you can subtract two-tenths from it to yield an accurate handheld time. It’s that simple. In the video below, I’m matched up against Denarius Moore of the Oakland Raiders, who recorded a 4.37 second 40-yard dash in this video and then ran the exact same time at his pro day at Tennessee two weeks later. The timer on the screen has been re-formatted to match the timer of the FAT system we use at our training facility. As you can see, the numbers add up: 4.67-.24 tenths of a second equals 4.43!

Hopefully, this short article helped open up some eyes to the world of speed testing in team-sport settings. We shouldn’t overlook this issue—I have seen it affect people, and it will continue to do so until we make FAT mandatory everywhere.

References

1: The Truth About Speed, NFL Combines and the 40 Yard Dash!

2: Hand-timed versus Electronic-timed 40 Yard Dash

About the Author

Travis Hansen has been involved in the field of Human Performance Enhancement for nearly a decade. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in fitness and wellness and holds three different training certifications from the ISSA, NASM, and NCSF. Travis was the head strength and conditioning coach for the Reno Bighorns of the NBADL for their 2010 season, and he is currently the director of the Reno Speed School inside the South Reno Athletic Club. He has worked with hundreds of athletes from almost all sports, ranging from the youth to professionals. He is also the author of the hot selling “Speed Encyclopedia”, a performance writer, and the leading authority on speed development through the International Sports Sciences Association.

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By Craig Pickering

During my athletics career, I had a love-hate relationship with sleep. I was aware that sleep was an area that was to be prioritized, so I did. I spent many hours asleep, even though I would have much liked to do other things, such as read or play computer games. From time to time, something would go wrong with my sleep cycle, and I would end up with some mild grade of insomnia. Not being able to sleep is miserable; I have taken sleeping tablets a few times in my life as I had no other option. As per my personality, sleep became something I obsessed over early in my career, and I had to get as much as possible. A poor night’s sleep would leave me worried for days that it would affect my performance. As I got older, I found this wasn’t the case. I competed in the Olympic Games off two hours sleep and won major championship medals in sleep deprived states. As my career wore on, I also got more knowledgeable in the area of sleep. I found that I could improve the quality of my sleep, as well as remove some of the anxiety around it. In this article, I will examine the need for sleep, and how athletes can get the most out of the third of your life spent sleeping.

What is sleep?

Sleep is odd in as much as there isn’t really a scientific consensus as to why we need it. The Restorative Theory states that sleep helps replenish bodily resources that have been depleted in the time prior to sleeping. The evidence for this is that if we are more active in the day, we tend to need more sleep in the evening. Failure to get this sleep leads to decreased energy levels the next day. A competing theory is the Energy Conservation Theory, which states that sleep helps to conserve energy. It points to the fact that highly active mammals need more sleep, and if they didn’t get this sleep, they would use up too much energy. Regardless of the cause of needing to sleep, one thing is clear; without sufficient sleep, we are less healthy, and eventually lack of sufficient sleep will lead to death.

Once we fall asleep, there are multiple stages within sleep itself. We start off awake, and then as we drift off we enter stage 1 sleep. Here, the muscles are active, and the eyes open and close moderately. This stage lasts between two and five minutes before we enter stage 2 sleep. Our heart rate and body temperature both drop in this stage and full muscular relaxation occurs (including our throat, which is what causes snoring). Moving into a deeper sleep, we enter stages 3 and 4, which is where slow wave sleep (SWS) occurs. Here, we have very slow brain waves, and we are incredibly hard to wake up. This stage of sleep is vital to health; the hormones that enable us to grow and repair are released during this stage, and it is generally a highly anabolic environment. Important information from the day is also consolidated into memory during SWS.

After about 30 minutes of SWS, we quickly shift back to stage 2 sleep and then into REM sleep. REM stands for rapid eye movement, and it is in this stage that dreams occur. Our muscles are paralyzed (to stop us acting out our dreams), but our brain is highly active. REM sleep plays a large role in the creation of memories and problem solving. After a period of REM sleep, we will then have a brief micro awakening, of which we will have no memory of when we wake up for real. We then move back into stage 2, then into SWS. This cycle is repeated over the night; deep sleep tends to occur in a greater proportion earlier in the night, and REM sleep occurs in a greater proportion later in the night. In a typical night, 50 percent of the time is spent in a light sleep, 20 per cent in a deep sleep, 25 percent in REM, and 5 per cent awake. Each sleep cycle takes roughly 90 minutes.

The need to sleep is governed by a number of things, including circadian rhythm and homeostatic sleep propensity (the need for sleep increases the more time elapses from our previous sleep). Circadian rhythm refers to our internal body clock, which helps to determine when we want to sleep, wake up, eat, go to the toilet, etc. This internal clock can be thrown into disarray by travel across numerous time zones (jet lag), irregular bed and waking times, and disrupted daytime rhythms. Age also appears to have an effect of circadian rhythm, with teenagers suffering the most. Teenagers suffer a circadian shift of around three hours – generally they aren’t sleepy until late and night, and struggle with early mornings. This is at odds with the typical school day, and can lead to academic underperformance.

With regards to circadian rhythm, humans fall into one of two different chronotypes; “larks” and “owls”. Larks tend to fall asleep and wake up earlier than owls. Larks don’t like napping (owls do), do their best work between 9am and 4pm (compared to owls, which work best between 1pm and 10pm). In general, larks tend to be introverts, logical, and reliable. They tend to do better academically, although this is probably because their best working hours match up with the school day. By contrast, owls tend to be extroverted, and generally have four times as many partners in their lifetime. I am a lark, although I think that most sprinters are owls, especially if you consider their stereotypes and reputations!

What happens if we don’t get enough sleep?

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Fine motor skills, such as shooting, are more readily affected by sleep deprivation than gross motor skills such as sprinting. “World Class Athlete Program – WCAP – Best Of – United States Army – FMWRC” by U. S. Army.

The general recommendations are that adults should aim to sleep for between 7 and 9 hours per night. The lack of sleep is associated with a wide range of health and performance issues. From a health point of view, sleep deprivation is associated with an increased risk of all cause mortality. Lack of sleep can more than double the risk of death from cardiovascular disease. Short sleep is a risk factor for weight gain (it causes an increase is ghrelin, the hunger hormone, and a decrease in leptin, the hormone that makes you feel full), hypertension, and type II diabetes (sleep deficiency reduces insulin sensitivity). Disrupted circadian rhythms are also bad for your health; shift work is categorized as a carcinogen by the World Health Organisation. The mechanism for this is that melatonin, which causes you to feel sleepy, limits the production of hormones that associated with causing cancer.

From a performance perspective, long-term sleep deprivation is not ideal. Student athletes with an average sleep duration of less than eight hours are 1.7 times more likely to suffer a sporting injury over the course of a month than those sleeping for more than 8 hours (Milewski et al., 2014). Sargent et al. (2014) found that shorter sleep durations were significantly associated with higher levels of pre-training fatigue. Halson (2014) reports that long-term partial sleep deprivation (i.e. not sleeping enough per night over a long time period) increases the perception of pain, decreases the immune response (making us more likely to get ill), increases feelings of depression, tension, confusion, fatigue, anger, and reduces feelings of vigour. Overall, it should be obvious that these are not positive aspects.

Do athletes get enough sleep?

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When napping or sleeping in a room with poor curtains, the use of an eye mask can prevent light from disturbing sleep.

This is a tough question to answer, as there isn’t any real hard and fast rules available for the amount of sleep humans require, outside of the general 7-9 hour rule. It follows logical senses that if athletes are expending more energy and causing more muscular damage on a daily basis, then they would require more sleep. Trinder et al. (1988) reported that for trained athletes, aerobic training caused an increase in the need for SWS sleep, as well as a decrease in time to get to sleep. Faigenbaum et al. (2002) discovered that 94% of US student athletes believed they required more sleep than they were getting and that their median time asleep was 7.5 hours.

Other studies have examined the time athletes spend sleeping. Sargent et al. (2014) found that athletes obtained an average of 6.5 hours sleep per night, ranging from 5 hours to 8 hours. Lastella et al. mirrored these results. (2014), finding that average sleep duration for an elite athlete was 6.8 hours, ranging from 5.5 hours to 8 hours. It would appear from these results that athletes probably aren’t getting sufficient sleep.

Halson (2014) explored some of the reasons why athletes might not be getting sufficient sleep. These included:

• Early morning training sessions,
• Poor sleep habits and hygiene,
• Nocturnal waking to use the bathroom (athletes tend to be better hydrated than lay people, and as such going 8+hours without urination is tough!),
• Caffeine use, and
• Excessive thinking/worrying/planning.

From my experience, I am notoriously bad at waking up in the night to use the bathroom. As my career progressed, I worked hard at this aspect of my sleep hygiene, reducing my overnight toilet visits from 3-4 per night to a maximum of 1, with the target being zero. After competitions, which usually take place in the evenings, I would often struggle to sleep until 3-4am due to the high amount of caffeine I had taken pre-competition. One particularly memorable experience saw me racing at 9.30pm, not sleeping, leaving the hotel at 3.30am, and having three successive flights to catch in order to get to my next race.

The good news for athletes is that short-term sleep deprivation does not appear to affect performance. This is incredibly good news because athletes typically sleep very badly before competition; a mixture of nerves, excitement, and early starts contribute to this. I’ve already mentioned that I only got two hours sleep before racing in the 100m at the Beijing Olympics – the 4.45am wake up for my race certainly played a role here. Souissi et al. found that 24h without sleep had no effect on anaerobic power variables. Similarly, Blumert et al. found that 24h sleep deprivation had no effect on US Collegiate weightlifters in the weight they could lift for snatch, clean and jerk, and total training session weight. 2.5 hours sleep deprivation over a period of four nights had no effect on swimming performance in a group of elite swimmers. Knowing these facts, and becoming more experienced myself, lead to me feeling much less anxious about sleep the night before a competition, which in turn lead to me sleeping much better.

Is more sleep better?

So, we’ve examined whether sleep deprivation affects sporting performance. But can more sleep improve performance? Mah et al. looked at this. They asked a group of basketballers to sleep as much as they could over a two-week period. The results showed an improvement in both sprint and free-throw ability. Similarly, high-level swimmers sleeping for 10 hours per night for seven weeks see an increase in their 15m-sprint time, reaction time, turn time, and mood. Mah also reported the sleep times of some well-known sports people; Roger Federer sleeps for 11-12h per night; Usain Bolt for 8-10h, LeBron James for 12h, and Maria Sharapova for 8-10h.

Another factor to consider is that sleep is linked with skill learning; when we sleep, our brain consolidates the information it has picked up during the day. Ensuring optimal sleep should help improve skill acquisition, and hence is another factor as to why athletes should attempt to maximise their sleep.

So, what can we do?

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Strategic naps can help reduce the disturbance of early morning starts for training and travel.

Daily

It is important to practice good sleep hygiene on a daily basis:

• Blue light exposure from electrical screens reduces melatonin release, which can cause a decrease in sleep quality and increase the time to fall asleep. Try to avoid electrical screens for an hour before bed. If you have to use a computer screen, then try orange tinted glasses that filter out the blue light.
• We need to ensure we are comfortable in our rooms, which requires them to be quiet and dark. If you are consistently disturbed by noise, then earplugs are a good option. If you are woken up by outside light, consider an eye mask or black out curtains.
• Keep a to-do list to reduce anxiety. I have a to-do app on my phone; if anything pops into my head as I am trying to sleep I can just type it in there, and I no longer have to worry about it.
• It’s also a good idea to avoid stimulating activity immediately before bed. I used to have a three hour pre-bed routine that involved me progressively dimming the lights as the evening progressed (to simulate the natural darkening cycle) and then reading for 60-90 minutes pre-bed to limit my exposure to blue light from TV.
• Limit liquid intake in the few hours before you sleep, in order to prevent waking up in the night to go to the toilet. If you do have to get up, try to turn on as few lights as possible.
• Consider the use of a tryptophan supplement / food source to help melatonin production. 300g of turkey provides around 1g of tryptophan, which is a good dose. Don’t just add your tryptophan to a pre-bed protein shake, as I used to do, as the presence of other amino acids in the blood in high concentrations reduces the amount of tryptophan that can enter the brain. I wasted my money on that one.
• Consider tart cherry juice, which may increase melatonin production.
• Try to avoid caffeine after 2pm, as it may affect how long it takes you to get to sleep.
• Alcohol reduces sleep quality, and so should be avoided where possible.
• Have a regular sleep and wake time to ensure a strong circadian rhythm.
• Consider napping during the day, especially if you have early morning training sessions.
• If possible, try to sleep for 9 hours or more on a regular basis.

Competitions

66% of athletes report worse sleep than normal pre-competition (Halson 2014). This can be down to excitement/nerves, unusual sleep surroundings, and sharing with a roommate. To overcome these issues, here are my tips:

• Understand that one poor nights sleep will not affect your performance the next day.
• If you consistently struggle to sleep pre-competition, consider increasing your sleep in the days leading up to the competition. I used to do this; I knew it would make me less tired on the night before a big race, but it would offset the anxiety of not getting enough sleep.
• Try to pick a roommate that you have shared with before, and that you know won’t disturb you overnight. The amount of athletes that I have roomed with that either snore or stay up late watching TV (or both!) is ridiculous, which is why I settled on a regular roommate during my career. Having a consistent roommate also removes some of the anxiety about whether or not you will get a good nights sleep.
• Pack earplugs and an eye mask – if the hotel or your roommate is noisy, you can take care of this!
• When travelling across time zones, allow approximately one day per time zone for acclimatization.

Coaches

• Understand that early morning training sessions are probably affecting the sleep quality and duration of your athletes. You can offset these affects by allowing athletes to nap during the day. Early morning training sessions are especially hard on teenagers.
• Understand that individuals perform best at different times of day, and where possible schedule training to account for this.
• Promote good sleep hygiene habits.
• Try to schedule travel around competitions so that it does not affect your athlete’s sleep. An early morning return travel after a competition will severely hamper an athlete’s recovery, especially if the competition was late at night. Similarly, traveling to a competition and arriving late at night will have a knock on effect onto the athletes sleep.

Please share so others may benefit.

References

Bulbulian, R; Heaney, J & Leake, C. (1996) The effect of sleep deprivation and exercise load on isokinetic leg strength and endurance. Eur J Appl Physiol 73: 272-7

Faigenbaum, A; Mediate, P & Rota, D. (2002) Sleep need in high school athletes. Strength and Conditioning Journal 24(4): 18-19

Halson, S. (2014) Sleep in elite athletes and nutritional interventions to enhance sleep. Sports Med 44(S1): S13-23.

Lastella, M; Roach, G; Halson, S & Sargent, C. (2014) Sleep / wake behaviours of elite athletes from individual and team sports. Eur J Sport Sci 4: 1-7.

Mah, C; Mah, K & Kezirian, E. (2011) The effects of sleep extension on the athletic performance of collegiate basketball players. Sleep 34(7): 943-50.

Mah, C. (2008) Extended sleep and the effects on mood and athletic performance in collegiate swimmers. Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies.

Milewski, M; Skaggs, D; Bishop, G; Pace, J; Ibrahim, D; Wren, T & Barzdukas, A. (2014) Chronic lack of sleep is associated with increased sports injuries in adolescent athlete. J Pediatric Orthop 34(2): 129-33

Sargent, G; Lastella, M; Halson, S & Roach, G. (2014) The impact of training schedules on the sleep and fatigue of elite athletes. Chronobiol Int 15: 1-9

Souissi, N; Sesboue, B & Gauthier, A. (2003) Effects of one night’s sleep deprivation on anaerobic performance the following day. Eur J Appl Physiol 89 (3-4): 358-66

Trinder, J; Paxton, S; Montgomery, J & Fraser, G. (1988) Endurance as opposed to power training: Their effect on sleep. Psychophysiology 22(6): 668-73

Wiseman, R (2014). Night School: Wake up to the power of sleep. Macmillan.

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By Chris Korfist

The best assistant coach a track coach can have is an electronic timer. An electronic timer doesn’t lie or cheat. He makes athletes and coaches deal with reality. He tracks athletes’ progress. He motivates without talking. He solves team problems. His only downfall can be reliability.

I found all of these facts out when I started to use a timer in 2001. Timing with a stop watch was not giving me the feedback that I needed to chart my runner’s progress. Meets that were timed with students and parents holding a stop watch were inconsistent. Weather in a Chicago spring was never helpful as well. Running fly’s with a string with a handkerchief tied to it didn’t work either (stand at the finish line and when the handkerchief falls, start the clock). Video could work, but the process was very slow and lacked the instant feedback that creates Flow inside of an athlete. All of these circumstances created a very frustrated coach.

So, catalog shopping, here I come. I bought the wireless Brower Speed Trap II, which had poor stands and radio transmitter. That had lasted a couple of weeks before it started having major problems. Timing indoors with a radio setup was not effective. Waves bounced everywhere and getting a time was about a 50/50 chance. From there, I tested the wired Brower Speed Trap I. It was improved and more consistent but one beam broke, and it took forever to get it back. The beams were also difficult to line up indoors. It was picky about the color of shirts athletes wore when running. It must have been the lighting in the field house. It was time for a major upgrade and investment.

The best assistant coach a track coach can have is an electronic timer. An electronic timer doesn’t lie or cheat. He makes athletes and coaches deal with reality.

I started looking at systems that they used to time skiing. I figured the equipment had to be accurate and durable, the two most important attributes of a timing system. I look at Tag-Hauer, Lynx and Optojump. I thought Optojump could offer the most information but the dollar was way too low to the Euro and I didn’t know what kind of customer service I would get (the third most important factor in a timing system and something non-existent in Brower). I finally talked to someone who knew exactly what I wanted and understood what I needed. Fred at Phoenix sports said he could get me two Alge beams and hard wire them together. He thought the Alge timing system would be too much computer for what I needed and sent me to Ernie at Summit Timing. Ernie custom built a timer that could do flys and starts as he built a touch pad for athletes to put their hand on. The system came in a Pelican case. The beams came with heavy duty stands that have endured everything except getting hit by a car or a freshman girl running into it like it was a suicide mission. Ernie made a heavy duty cable that has been spiked and still worked with easy to change banana plugs. It has been dependable and accurate. When something is wrong, Ernie is a phone call away, and Fred will get you a new beam in 24 hours while he fixes the broken one. Now, this all comes at a price. I think my machine totaled out to $4000.

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Figure 1: Summit Timing System

Was it worth it? Absolutely. There is not a more effective training program for speed than running through beams in my opinion. With electronic timing, athletes will always run the best that they can. And if they don’t, you can figure out who doesn’t want to be there. Nothing builds speed like running at top speed. A race will bring out a 100% output, and “training” is less than that. But with timing, I can create that environment more often. Athletes will run at top speed more than once a week and distances that focus on top speed, 10-30’s. With these distances and times, it creates my line-up. My top 4 times on the flys are my 4×1 and 4×2. My top 2 block 30 guys are my 55/100. My top curve/block runner is my lead leg in 4×1 and 4×2. If an athlete is not improving, it is time to figure out why. Is it me or him? Am I overtraining him or is his form off? Each athlete is different and responds differently. One of my best sprinters made the most progress by running flys on Monday (the basis for all of my workouts) and nothing else to the meet. He ran faster every workout in his flys. If he did anything more, he ran slower. His best fly 10 was a 0.968. In this case, the ends justify the means.

Flying Sprints

So, how do I use my system? Some of the methods are pretty simple, but one has changed my relays. Flys are the most obvious use of the laser timing systems. They scream top end speed development. I have read people argue that it is difficult to develop, but I would disagree. Most athletes have never learned to get to top end speed and the ones that have it lose that gear from doing too much long sprint work. That is why flys are the basis of my workouts. A sprinter will only be as fast as his top end speed. Or any runner for that matter. I have had low 4 min 1600 guys who could run 1.09 fly 10. Athletes that have run 47 in 400 were all sub 1.0 in the fly 10. I have not had a great 400m runner who has run slower than 1.04 seconds.

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Figure 2: Alge Laser Timing Gate

We start the season with fly 10’s for about 3-5 weeks and build up from there, always cycling back to a fly 10. I increase the distance when we start to stagnate or if it gets warm outside and we can go out. Very rarely does this happen in Chicago. I don’t measure the run up distance. I think Tony Holler does. I should. It would give more validation to my testing. Once outside, we will vary runs with and against the wind and will do some repeat fly 30’s for speed endurance. Run a fly jog back and repeat. Once a runner slows to a certain threshold, we stop. We also run flys on a curve. Except for the 100, half the race is on a curve, so we practice it. We don’t do this indoors. It tends to lead to injury unless you have the technique down (another article, another time).

Accelerations from Starting Blocks

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Figure 3: Block Start with Wired Touch Pad

Indoor season we will run flys on Monday and do acceleration work on Wednesdays that is block work. As with the fly’s, this is a timed event. We can make changes in foot placement and short strides or long strides and see what works for each runner. One runner may do well with a Ben Johnson start where another does the John Smith head drop or the Jamaican drag. We can find that out in a highly competitive environment. And like with flys, most of our races start on a curve, and it is the perfect scenario to see who runs the best curve. I usually take this one out to 60m whereas indoor we run 30m on a straight.

Timing the Relay Exchange Zone

Lastly, I use the electronic timing with exchanges. It is a very powerful tool. It takes the guess work out of the exchange. Let’s say that realistically, we want to run a 45.0 4×1 (it makes the math easy). Take 1 second away for the start, and I know everyone needs to run 11.0 fly. The distance I will measure is 30m. That gives me my distance and speed. From there, I can figure out how fast the baton needs to travel through the 30m segment which also happens to be the length of the acceleration and exchange zone. As the incoming runner will start his run, the outgoing runner will be just inside the beam. When the incoming runner hits the take-off mark, the outgoing runner leaves. Incoming runner starts the clock and makes the exchange. From that point, he will veer out of his lane so the outgoing runner will stop the clock when he passes the beam. From there, we can adjust the take-off mark. Move the mark back to give the outgoing runner more time to accelerate or move it forward if they are missing. It also gives the runners the sense that it is really about moving the baton and not how many steps you need. Even more importantly is that you are giving the athlete’s the sense that they are perfect. Practice in different wind conditions so they can see how important making adjustments can be as well. That has been effective in the 4×2 and 4×4 as well. Although I use a radar gun to get the proper speed for those and then practice the exchanges. 21 mph for the 4×2 and 18 mph for the 4×4 is usually the ball park. I usually time their speed at the end of the race during the season, so I know how fast they need to be.

I am about to learn the new Freelap timing system and see what I can do with that as well. Regardless of the system you have, electronic timing is an incredibly effective coaching tool.

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By Chris Korfist

Throughout my followings of internet gurus, I have met, tried, experimented, visited, believed and argued many different points at different times. Louie Simmons was my first. I subscribed to Powerlifting USA to read his column, bought chains, bands, glute ham machines, reverse hypers and a Westside Barbell T-shirt which he gave me (the dog on the shirt was actually his dog). I spent multiple days at the old pizza shop in a strip mall on Demorest Ave in Columbus. Louie is a great coach, incredibly knowledgeable and a great person. In fact, he is such a great person that he said to me it was time to move on and learn from others because what he does, powerlifting, could only get me to a certain point. I needed new concepts that would get me closer to my goal of developing sprinters. He introduced me to John Davies, and I learned a lot. But I still needed more. I saw Bompa, Verkhoshanky, Siff, Weyand, Schroeder, Poliquin, Pfaff, Seagrave, and others speak on multiple occasions. I was one of the first in the US to have a Nemes vibrating plate sold by the Kraaijenhofs and delved into the Bosco stuff. My success was good but not where I wanted to be. Dan Fichter of wannagetfast, got us connected to DB Hammer who was selling limited consultations; we paid to have questions answered and teach us how to build programs that got great results for high school athletes. DB taught me the importance of the Bulgarian split squat and isometric strength. Thus, my love affair began.

Split Squat Technique Generates Biggest Gains

Test an athlete on a movement that matters—40 yard dash, vertical jump, etc.—create a workout, stay with something for three weeks and remeasure. Repeat with others and see what works.

Along this journey, I have kept data on my athletes. I am a track coach who has access to many athletes with a variety of capabilities, and I have a gym and train athletes in a one on one/small group setting. And with these groups, I have always tried to keep notes, film and results on my athletes because my quest is to find exercises that improve athletic development and more importantly sprinting speed. Test an athlete on a movement that matters—40 yard dash, vertical jump, etc.—create a workout, stay with something for three weeks and remeasure. Repeat with others and see what works. For me, the isometric split squat has been a staple that generates powerful athletes. My fastest guys, 10.5-10.8/100m range have always had the strongest “holds” – that is what we call them – and they all jump between 35 to 40 inch vertical jump.

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Figure 1: Hammer Strength Deadlift Machine

The evolution of the exercise for me has been an interesting journey. Holding heavy weight in that position can be difficult, even with the safety squat bar. So, while assembling my gym, I came across a yellow Hammer Strength Deadlift machine on eBay for $200 in Seattle. I won it and paid $400 for shipping, and it changed my gym. It came with a bar installed to put your back foot on, and all we had to do was grab and hold for the allotted 30 sec. The problem was that grip strength became the limiting factor. We added straps, but that didn’t work. We tried a variety of belts, OK for some people. But thanks to iron mind straps and Spud belt-squat belts, we put together a system that is very effective because the weight goes to the lower body and is not limited to upper body strength.

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Figure 2: Deadlift Machine with Athlete

The position of the athlete may vary. But, basically, one foot goes forward, and one goes back. The weight should hang along the side of the hip, so the weight doesn’t pull the athlete forward. When the athlete squats into position, the knee moves forward over the second toe, and the hips sink back into a squat position. My cue for the athlete is to think that a rope is pulling your knee forward, and a rope is pulling your hips back to stretch the hamstring. It should look like a chair tipped forward. The athlete should feel the pressure in the glute and hamstring of the forward leg and a stretch in the hip flexors in the rear leg. If an athlete feels it in the lower back or quad, their form is off, or the weight is too much. Some athletes get a more intense contraction going down deeper while others get a better contraction not going down as far or even slightly leaned forward. I think the ankle rocker (knee going forward) is key. Once the ankle breaks 90 degrees, the athlete will get a good glute contraction. Another cue is that the shin should be parallel to the spine. That is the perfect position to get a good hip drive in my opinion. We start with a hold in that position for 30 seconds and continually add weight as we progress. You will be shocked to see how fast people increase weight. After a couple of weeks of the 30 second holds, we progress to the Cal Dietz Triphasic holds, where the athlete drops down fast holds for a three count and powers up. A coach can always change the workout with supersets and giant sets by adding single leg jumps or drops from a box.

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Figure 3: Deadlift Machine Sideview

What I have found is that the stronger athletes get at this exercise, the faster they run and the higher they jump. I have had athletes who could squat the house but couldn’t run or even hold their body weight in the position. But, once their body learned the position and strengthened this aspect of their movement, they ran faster and jumped higher. Athletes that start with me who can already run may not be great at some of the traditional lifts but always seemed to do very well in the isometric exercises.

Why do I think this is the case? Isometric strength is responsible for stopping the momentum from an action. So, going down in a vertical jump, there needs to be a strength type to stop the movement going down. Most people are slow to reverse this momentum and lose energy in the concentric portion of the jump. Another way to look at it is that it creates a platform to push from. A rubber ball works great on concrete but not so great on sand.

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Figure 4: Athlete demonstrates Bulgarian Split Squats on the kBox. Photo courtesy Exxentric.

My latest excursion takes this concept one step further, inertial training. Or in my case, an Exxentric kBox from Flywheel USA. It is a flywheel concept where one pulls on a cable that is connected to a flywheel. As they pull, the wheel spins. At the end of the strap, the flywheel reverses directions and pulls the strap back to the origin. The key is that the athlete stops the spin and reverses the wheel. By the way, the wheel pulls back harder than the concentric pull. Some people call this eccentric training and it is. But, as I sit and spot on my kBox, I have noted that the more explosive people are the ones who can stop that wheel more quickly than others. Again, they are stopping a momentum, in this case a fast moving cable trying to suck them through a small hole in a 25 pound machine. Even more interesting is that fact that as some of the athletes who are less explosive got stronger in their isometric squats, the better they reversed the wheel and the higher they jumped and the faster they ran. So the combination of these tools has been very effective in training athletes to be more explosive.

By Carl Valle

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Figure 1: The Australian company Kinetic Performance boasts a decade of experience working with the best teams in the world and have committed to updating their software for the demands of North American teams, not just Europe, NZ, and their backyard.

A Numbers Game or Time to Slow Down?

Over Labor Day weekend, a few coaches asked me about the use of barbell velocity tools that are out on the market now. In the early 2000s, Tendo was all the rage and stayed on top until a few years ago when the Australian product Gymaware started to hit North America. Linear Positional Transducers are over 20 years old and are not new to Europe, so why the rise in popularity again now? Besides my articles promoting accurate training, an increase in wanting more data is because training is getting a big wake up call and audit with validation. Last year I read Bryan Mann’s guide to Velocity Based Training (VBT), and it was a nice way to introduce and outline the ins and outs of bar speed. Included in the manual by Mann were personal history, fundamental concepts of barbell speed tracking, but nothing on some of the technology considerations I felt are confusing coaches. His science and practice was a great read, but now people are asking questions on what to do with investing into equipment.

Stepping back from the needs of budgeting, technology requirements, and even workflow, a bigger need is to ask what the purpose of weight lifting is for sports performance? It may sound strange at first, but a big problem in strength and conditioning is that very few coaches can explain how their program improves athlete speed and power with real data. Add in the need for added mass in some sports such as rugby and American football, VBT must demonstrate the clear transfer of explosive power for jumping, sprinting, and adding mass. If you were to ask any football coach what characteristics they want in a player besides skills of their position, size and speed are paramount. When I read blogs about perception of bar speed for bench press like a subjective RPE for velocity, we are now back to the stone age with technology and methodology, and this is frustrating. In this three part series, I will ask and answer the tough questions, keep things very clear and straightforward, and share what some of the best coaches do to use VBT with their athletes.

Getting the body to displace faster or move the bar faster?

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Figure 2: The continuum shared above by Pushstrength.com is popular in some circles, and the convenience of actual velocity parameters is intriguing. A raw speed indicator can be enough to look for fatigue if lifts are not hitting precise thresholds and coaches can use small drop-offs of .2-.3 meters per second for exploring the interplay between peripheral and central fatigue. Bench Press and lower body lift discrepancy metrics are starting to show how global and local changes are happening, and soon we can understand how fatigue can be sliced as data is collected with team training. While the middle of the curve is a death valley for me, it is useful for managing recovery periods since the speed strength lifts do help with adaptation identification.

Does moving the barbell faster transfer to moving the body faster in general? Nobody is going to believe that bench pressing faster will result in game breaking speed, and even those that do speed lifting will dominate the 100 meter dash. So why the barbell tracking rage now? Several coaches look at me like I just shared that no Santa Claus exists when I explain the following:

Most athletes care about momentum or their speed relative to size in their sport. Nearly every successful program wants to improve speed and repeated speed, so weight training is only a part of that formula. Since Velocity Based Training is a sub-component of weight training, it’s more important to evaluate the speed of the body versus the speed of the bar.

So should we just throw away our Tendo systems or convert the new Push Strength gauntlets into Batman costumes for our kids for Halloween? No. Velocity Based Training has purpose and value, but always think about what the hierarchy of importance in training. It is no mystery that I am biased that speed is essential to most sports, and I also have the benefit of it being true in the research.

History of Velocity Based Training

Over 100 years ago, during the early stages of sports training, velocity was about how fast one was going, be it a person or many times a horse. The reason I interviewed Bill Pressey and wrote about electronic timing was because some young strength coaches are polluted with the addiction to strength equals speed; in reality the combination of speed training, explosive exercise, and strength work drives the improvement. My first exposure to Velocity Based Training was nearly 20 years ago when reading the work of college coaches from the ASCA World Books. In fact, the cream from the 1970s to now is my reality check of what matters in training, and I review the materials every fall. The two years that I didn’t review the information I got lost in a sea of complexity and lost my bearings, failing to get real improvements and was humbled. What was key? Meters per second was the backbone metric for nearly every speaker. Every chart and every workout eventually were distilled to time and distance, not physiology. My first A in school was in Biology, and my last A in college was kinesiology. I say this because some courses like chemistry and physiology are difficult to apply because they are describing the exchanges internally, but simple math and crude physics trump everything. Physiology describes why something happened performance-wise, but rudimentary physics shows what happened in great precision.

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Figure 3: The American company Assess2Perfom gambled on making the sensor attach to the bar for the team and scholastic market. 90% of the needs of coaches are traditional barbell exercises, so this was a smart play, but the consumer market may disrupt things down the road with athlete data syncing. The reality is not all training needs to be measured and tracked, just the key sessions.

Three swimming topics made me rethink how training should be guided. One was the lactate information from the work of the 1980s, the engineering side of technique from Bill Boomer, and the epic strength training panel with Dr. Tom McLaughlin fighting off the Ph.D. guys from Nautilus and Isokinetics Inc. Those three presentations should be the foundation to any coach, not just swim coaches. All three topics were unique, but all of them focused on velocity measurement for performance. What resonated with me was how everything presented connected, meaning how all three subjects and presentations had a common thread of moving a body faster. Fast forward to today and some companies providing GPS tracking are on the right path, sharing peak velocities of athletes, but are still not understanding the core values of speed, and how to connect training to the end result.

Due to the limitations of rule constraints, using tracking options only reveal relative speed and without linear testing the data is in a vacuum. Even linear testing without sport perspective is still limited as well. When absolute speed, sport specific speed, power testing, training benchmarks and programming are connected, can Velocity Based Training for the weight room be useful. A successful weight-training program may not create a successful speed result on the field. Only when the cause and effect of Velocity Based Training shows up on the speed testing, it may have a chance in game situations.

The Differences in Barbell, Ball, and Body Speed

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Figure 4: Before you measure a workout you need to plan the training. Coaches have still resorted to Excel because much of the software available stinks. Teambuildr and other companies that are hardware providers such as Push are offering ways to generate, collect, and analyze training data.

When I teach athletes to do Olympic lifts, I progress from what I call a body, ball, and bar sequence in order to maximally train and gradually learn. I realize that better coaches exist and teach the snatch or clean and jerk better than me, but it’s not a race to be better in the weight room; it’s to be better overall more consistently with a large diverse population of athletes. If you can’t move well with just your body, adding a ball complicates things. If you can handle a medicine ball overhead throw properly, you should rethink what you are doing with a heavier and more complicated exercise. What is confusing is that most coaches start with the most complicated. I have no emotional attachment to any lift, and have advocated Olympic lifting to those frightened by not being able to teach them, and removed the use when it was not appropriate. When coaches want to use devices that measure bar speed, the question is what exercises are appropriate, and what do you do differently if you get the information? This is not attacking the use of Velocity Based Training as I am a proponent, but marketing is corrupting the science and practice from “crowdfunding trailers” designed to seduce coaches to bring boring science into video game reality complete with floating charts and dancing numbers. When I see Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaigns using the terms exercise signatures and power while doing push-ups and kettlebell swings I get worried. Force Plates become Farce Plates, and power is now portrayed in a smartphone app, complete with slick rendering from potato chip eating coders in start-up incubators.

The digital dark age has new light though, so don’t despair. Strangely the influx of Crossfit saved the slow death of Olympic style weight training after the HIT plague and functional training only crowd put that information on life support. The Olympic lifts were back in demand, and technology companies saw plenty of new users beyond high schools and college athletes. While medicine ball throws are nice, and speed squats are an option, most coaches like the large amount of high threshold motor units being recruited from weightlifting (Olympic style). Coaches are talking and debating of what does the data mean to on the field results, and now we have better answers with the research and real evidence.

Instead of equating Velocity Based Training to barbell tracking, I think we should focus on the different speeds in training and sports performance. They are the following:

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Body Speed – How fast athletes can accelerate, change direction, and maximally displace themselves.

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Bar Speed – Metrics of power exercises that create large outputs based on common bilateral exercises.

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Ball Speed – Peak velocity of a known training projectile with specific exercises.

Note the similarities and differences with the three speed qualities. Having great body speed may not equate to excellent ball speed, and bar speed is not a magic ticket to running faster. Finally, throwing a medicine ball 18m may not make you the next sub 10 second sprinter, but at least you can now know if the distance was indicative of ability with new technology. Body speed being a premium, the question is how do the other two speed qualities help feed into higher performance?

Does Velocity Based Training Work?

A simple question people are asking is it worth tracking bar speed at all if slow lifts like squats are helping early acceleration, the area that determines so much success in sport. Also, if athletes are doing sprinting are high-velocity lifts worth it? The answer is not a blanket one, since each sport, each program, and each athlete is unique. On the other hand, some universal principles exist, and general guidelines can be tweaked to fit each circumstance.

Back to the 1981 ASCA conference, Dr. McLaughlin pointed out in the study from Stone and Garhammer, a classic principle of weight training. He stated that the intent or effort had to be equated, not just the velocity of the lift. Effort and bar speed are not the same, since an athlete may reach a metric but not feel needed to go beyond it. Submaximal training drives much of the changes, so doing maximal lifting with a slow movement may create better adaptions at specific time periods. High speed doesn’t mean faster athletes, unless the power produced shows up later in testing and transfer of sport activities.

Also, the goals of weight training are not as simple as increasing contractile dynamics of the neuromuscular system, as the Olympic lifts and specific squat protocols are a different beast. For example, the Olympic lifts such as the clean and squat have a rhythm that may be much different than jump squatting in terms of average power and peak power. During early development periods of some athletes time under tension does matter a bit, since you are learning positional awareness and some muscle groups need more exposure times during lifting. A common example is squatting and wanting to pause at the deep bottom position of the lift. Not only is one teaching proper depth, posterior muscle groups are getting excellent activation differently than shallow squatting. Speed concentrically may be a distraction when athletes are learning to lift properly. Teaching is part of the equation and getting bar speed too early is leading down a bad path.

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Figure 5: The most important quality besides valid data is the ability to use the product in a group setting if you are coaching teams. Workflow should be the same or better with technology, and any equipment and software user experience that interferes with speed and simplicity needs to be fixed, or adoption is not happening.

Speaking of path, bar path matters as well. The same lessons from chasing total weight numbers in the training facility applies to chasing bar speeds as well. For example one coach bragged about having great clean numbers with his athletes, but their verticals simply didn’t match their weights. Several reasons can explain the poor relationship between weight room numbers to more athletic tests, and Bryan Mann shared that in his manual in great detail. One factor that was not talked about is the bar path needing to be close to the body and have the limbs and axial skeleton be in harmony with the kinematics of the athlete. Too much swinging of the bar recruits muscles inferiorly, and poor jumping can be a result. Also performing the lifts properly is not about how much power one develops in the activity, it’s about how much load they can legally move sport wise, and that may not be better. The Olympic lifts or weight lifts are about total loads, and skills may allow a weaker athlete to achieve a higher success with a heavier load via better timing. Most sports are about being ballistic in nature such as sprinting and throwing. Lifting, unless the exercise has a release or body displacement, usually decelerates bar momentum. The transfer may not be mechanical, but it may be neuromuscular and or general in nature with global adaptations. It is up to the program to decide what is working and why, since no single research study can unlock what is going on in a holistic system.

Some coaches scoff at measuring power at all because sport actions usually are during very narrow time periods, but if you are in the weight room measure what you are doing in it, then one can see if changes are happening elsewhere. Only when you have all of the data can one connect the dots. So it’s better to think about how measuring bar speed can manage power with higher accuracy, versus using a methodology of bar speed to push training practices. At the end of the day, the fastest athletes are not the best because of the metrics of bar speed, and to say that Usain Bolt would run faster from it is a stretch. What is safe to say is that athletes that need a focus on acceleration, a period that overload benefits the most, those looking to get athletes better with weight training may want to investigate Velocity Based Training to all three areas. The interaction of medicine ball training and sport throwing, weight training, and speed workouts generates enough data if done right to know how to refine results and improve a team program. Coaches should know what areas to focus on and what is likely not going to create the “smallest worthwhile change” in training, and pick the right battles with the right data. Bar tracking has three primary best practices, and several coaches have set a standard of what to do for testing and training.

Future Considerations

In closing, the goal of the article was to understand better what the underlying mechanism coaches should focus on is. Tracking barbell or weight training outputs is not new, and for decades this information was already researched. Currently, a lot of interest in barbell and implement tracking is resurfacing because of data being the new oil and technology is more widely available. I think taking a moment to slow down and think about what our true goals are, usually developing athlete momentum, should be the primary responsibility. Athlete’s “Body Speed” is far more important than looking a small percentage of weight training, and coaches should look at how their training is improving sport speed and capacity to repeat it. In the next article, we will investigate the relationships between resistance exercise and improving speed based on the research and available historical data.

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By Craig Pickering

Social media is becoming an increasingly large component of the role of a high-level athlete. Managing your social media profile well is a win-win situation for athletes as it increases the number of followers and fans you have, which in turn makes you more attractive to sponsors or event organizers. A poorly managed social media image, on the other hand, can repel fans and sponsors away from you and cause you a lot of trouble.

How To Get The Most Out Of Your Experience

Having to be good at social media is a reasonably new thing for athletes. Up until about 6-8 years ago, social media wasn’t a mass-participation thing. If you were involved in social media pre-2005, it was a reasonably small niche and limited to instant messaging services such as MSN Messenger. However, since the emergence of Facebook, Twitter, and then a whole host of other social media services, it is important that today’s athletes manage themselves well online. The rules regarding athletes’ use of social media are also changing. When I was selected for the 2008 Olympics, we were told we weren’t allowed to blog during the Games, and putting photos on our social media was also prohibited. Now, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has relaxed their stance somewhat, and athletes can now put photos from the Olympics across all their social media platforms. Sponsors, too, are waking up to the idea that athletes who manage their social media profiles well are a valuable asset, and so utilizing social media well could play to your advantage.

What Social Media Services Are Available To Us?

There are a lot of social media services around these days. The main two are Facebook (1.23 billion monthly users) and Twitter (271 million monthly active users). The secondary social media platforms include Instagram (200 million monthly active users), LinkedIn (187 million monthly active users), Snapchat (100 million monthly active users) and Vine (40 million total users). Google+ is also quickly emerging as an alternative social media platform.

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How should athletes use different social media platforms?

Twitter

I recommend that athletes use Twitter as their first and foremost social media platform. Twitter has 100 million active users daily, 78% of whom are accessing it through smartphones. This means that 78 million people can check their Twitter anytime they have cell coverage. It’s quick, constant, and easily navigable. Journalists can find you very quickly, and they don’t need to send you a friend request to see your thoughts. Fans can find you and see what you think about various things without the need for a friend request. The fast pace of Twitter means that you can quickly give a reaction to something that has happened in the news or on TV and interact in real time with people around the world. The more followers you have, the greater your online influence, which makes you an attractive proposition for sponsors and event organisers. More followers also mean an increased profile for you as an athlete, which is always positive.

How can you get a large following on twitter?

1. Be successful – this is largely the biggest predictor as to how big your Twitter followers can be. The more successful you are as an athlete, the more followers you will have. However, you can offset some of this by having a good Twitter policy.
2. Have a memorable/easy-to-use Twitter handle – it should sum you up well. It should be easy to remember. It should be short enough to fit easily into a tweet. Mine is @craig100m. It serves its function well; it contains my name, my event, and is short and memorable. Lolo Jones (an incredibly successful twitter athlete) has @lolojones as hers. Again, short, descriptive, memorable. If mine were @craigpickering100m, it would be descriptive and memorable, but not short enough to fit comfortably into a tweet. Don’t change your user name often (if it all) – it makes you harder to find for other users who will be used to your previous name. The more your Twitter name can be linked to you, the more likely media outlets are to use it when they refer to you in a tweet. If these news outlets have a high number of followers, this is a good change for you to attract a few more followers, so make it easy for them to do so.
3. Show the real you – this is your opportunity to show what you are like in the 99.9% of your time that exists away from being on TV. You can choose how much or how little to give away, but it’s your chance to show a side to you that other people don’t know exists. On TV, I come across as intense and a bit moody, whereas in real life, that couldn’t be further from the truth. I use Twitter to put this side of me across and show my other interests. It also allows you to give an insight into the daily life of a sportsperson, showing things your average fan might not know about.
4. Be authentic – if you have a Twitter profile, make sure it’s you that’s tweeting. Most users can tell if the tweets are coming from somebody else, and it’s a real big turn-off for your followers.
5. Engage! – This is your chance to interact with fans and followers. Encourage them to ask questions or to find out more about you. Ask them questions. Embrace the community aspect of Twitter, and you will gain far more followers. Very occasionally, I will get a tweet from someone famous, and it makes my week; you can have that affect on other people!
6. Don’t take yourself too seriously – If you can be funny, you will do well on Twitter. People that are funny have plenty of followers. If you’re not funny, that’s fine, but please don’t take yourself too seriously. There are going to be people that don’t like you and will want to call you out; let them. If you can think of a funny comeback, then by all means, go for it. I personally believe that if somebody says something rude or mean to you online, you’re well within your rights to say something back, just as you would in real life. For some reason, people seem to think they can say what they want online. If someone has said something offensive, let them know. However, don’t let it degenerate into name-calling – know when to walk away.
7. Know when to tweet – Don’t tweet when you’ve had alcohol, and don’t tweet when you’re angry. You’ll only say something you’ll regret.
8. Use pictures – a picture is worth a thousand words, which means you can fit in about 38 tweets worth of information in one photo. Pictures are eye catching; they stand out on user’s timelines. Pictures also tend to increase engagement; through my use of Twitter analytics, any tweet that contains a picture tends to get more retweets/favourites.
9. Retweet – be useful to your followers. Retweet things they might find interesting or things that are funny. You should also retweet positive feedback you get from various sources – but not too much! You don’t want your timeline to come across as endless self-promotion. Remember, a retweet is an endorsement, so if you’re going to retweet something, make sure it’s something with which you agree.
10. Don’t have a private profile – you want as many people to see your posts and be able to retweet/tag you as much as possible. Making your account private defeats this purpose.
11. Be aware of Twitter’s policy of use – News organisations can use whatever you tweet so long as they link to the actual tweet. So, if you say something on Twitter, make sure you’re comfortable with that being reported.

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Facebook

In my opinion, there are two ways to use Facebook: either as a more personal experience than Twitter (where you interact more with people you have selected as your friends) or as an additional way to increase traffic to your profile. I use it mostly as the former—it’s a bit more private than Twitter, so I can interact more closely with people. It’s also a great way to catch up with friends and family whilst you’re out of the country at training camps or competitions. There are some things to consider when using Facebook:

1. Privacy settings – How you’re using Facebook depends on how strict you want your privacy settings to be. I think it’s a good idea limit the audience of your posts to friends of friends, so at least you have some say over what is thrust into the public eye. I also have timeline review enabled, which means if I am ever tagged in a post or picture, I can review it before it goes onto my timeline. This is useful in the event I’m tagged in any pictures I don’t want the public to see, but as I am old and boring, that won’t happen anyway.
2. Setting Up a “Like” page – Facebook also enables you to set up a like page. This can be useful if you want to keep your profile for personal use, as you can use this like page for more general social media posts.
3. Decide on your “friending” policy – who do you want to be your friends? This will depend on what your goal of using Facebook is. I accept every friend request I get because I have the policy that the more exposure I get across social media networks, the better. Therefore, I have to vet carefully what appears on my timeline as it all contributes to me public image.

Other Social Networks

Instagram is a fast growing social network that allows you to post pictures and videos. I don’t personally use Instagram all that much, and the people that do tend to just re-post pictures they have posted onto Twitter. One positive of Instagram is that it can increase your social media reach somewhat, although most people that use Instagram also use Twitter.

LinkedIn is a much more professional and business-like social media platform and should be treated as such. It’s not the place to post photos of you from your free time or sporting career, but more a place to cultivate your business interests and network. Most people using LinkedIn do so in a fully professional capacity, and so you should too; failure to do so will lead to you coming across badly.

Vine is another fast-growing social network. Vine works by allowing users to upload up to 6 seconds of video. This can be useful as it allows you to show action shots of various things, such as you competing or giving your opinion on things. Vine has the added advantage of being integrated into Twitter, so it can help your Twitter image too. I don’t use Vine because I hate being in front of the camera, but some athletes use it well to give a bit more insight into their day-to-day lives.

Finally, there is the option of using a more traditional blog site, such as WordPress, or a mixture of blog/curator sites such as Tumblr and Pinterest. These sites have the advantage of not being character/word limited like as Twitter. You can create much longer pieces by giving your opinion on various things. If you do so, make sure that you use your other social network outlets to promote it. I Tweet about every blog post that I do as Twitter is an excellent way to increase the visibility of your content.

Elite Athletes Show Their Social Media Skills

Lolo Jones demonstrates her sense of humor by providing feedback on hurdle technique.

Disagree. Bad lead leg. It is turned inward. Dangerous. RT @MichaelBuckelew: Todd Gurley can do it, too! pic.twitter.com/jZj1jNDrGD”

— Lolo Jones (@lolojones) September 29, 2014

Dai Greene using social media to promote sponsors.

Who is that pasty Olympic finalist? pic.twitter.com/aw2buwMCsV

— Dai Greene (@DaiGreene) March 9, 2014

Tyson Gay is very good at interacting with fans.

"No sir i have Zurich @TheJonRush: @TysonLGay what's been up Bro? no Stockholm, No Warsaw.."

— T -REZZIE (@TysonLGay) August 24, 2014

Danger Points

Social media has the power to increase and improve both your image and exposure. However, it also gives you the opportunity to wreck your public image completely. Here are some things you might want to consider:

1. Remember, it’s there forever – What you tweet is there, on the internet, forever. Even if you delete it a tweet, it hangs around in the background. We’ve all heard the stories of people that have tweeted inappropriate things that have come back to haunt them years down the line. Don’t be that guy.
2. Avoid scandal – Similarly, we’ve all heard stories of people tweeting sexually explicit pictures of themselves that have then been leaked. This is obviously going to be very embarrassing, and also hurts your public image. Don’t do it.
3. Remember your goal – You want to come across well. Don’t swear, be racist, sexist, xenophobic, or abusive.

Overall, social media can be a positive tool for athletes, and utilized well can increase your profile and exposure. There are many examples of athletes who are good at using social media, so you can always look to them for inspiration and guidelines. Or, failing then, you can tweet me at @craig100m, and I’ll try and help you out.

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Further Reading

Twitter Tips for Athletes

How Twitter is Impacting Professional Athletes and Their Sports

By Chris Korfist

In a previous post, I wrote about how your electronic timer could be your best assistant coach. But how can it plan your workouts? Easy. Autoregulation.

Part of my path has always been to question why we do things. However, when I started coaching track in the early 90’s, I didn’t know enough to ask questions or was too scared to ask the questions. So, when an older coach gave me a workout, I just went with it. For example, on Tuesday, if the sheet said to run 10×200 with 2 minutes rest in between, I would go out and run that number. And over time as the reps increased or rest period decreased, I could kind of figure it out that we were increasing the workload over a period, therefore building up work capacity so we could improve our speed endurance. It made sense to me at the time. Say something over and again, eventually it becomes the “truth”. And, every other coach was doing similar workouts. If everyone else is doing it, why shouldn’t I be following suit. If things didn’t go well, I could always say that I was doing the appropriate workouts, it must be the athletes. Those darned computer games. I didn’t blink an eye when the sheet said 3×400 with 3 min rest. And it only got worse with message boards and web sites that posted various workouts; a coach would jog out to practice a few minutes late because the printer jammed with a cool workout they just found online.

The Master Plan

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Our journey to the mountaintop was hampered by a Chicago snowstorm.

The following season, I decided to try to plan my own workouts. I did some reading, and remember this was pre-internet days, so it was as easy as doing a search. I landed into the world of Eastern European training and learned that I needed to periodize my workouts. I bought Periodization: Theory and Methodology of Training by Tudor Bompa. I read that book and knew it backwards and forwards. I used a new program on the computer called Excel and made micro, macro and meso cycles. I had a math teacher who knew how to make the cells add and planned out all of my workloads and had a drop off at the end of the season. In a stroke of luck, Tudor Bompa was coming to speak in Chicago at DePaul University. I made plans to go with a couple of other young coaches to attend who had no idea what they were in for. The night of the clinic, Chicago was rocked with a snow storm. I would not be deterred by weather. That would not be very “Chicago” of me. So, we made it. 100 minutes for 16 miles. We walked into the 100-plus-year-old building and followed the room numbers to the basement and sitting in a small classroom with a pillar down the middle was an older gentlemen. It was Tudor Bompa. The weather had its impact. When time came to start, it was Dr. Bompa, me and my two colleagues, who had no real idea who Bompa was. I bribed them to come down with a pizza dinner afterwards. So, I got a 2 hour, one on one with the good Professor. He was a brilliant guy who was a great teacher. When I surfaced from the bowels of the old building, I knew periodization pretty well. I used it for the next couple of years with success and had awesome looking plans that I could prepare in December and not have to think about what I was doing on a day to day basis. “Here is my plan; I am going to stick to it” was my mentality.

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I had maticulously planned every workout to four decimal places. What could possibly go wrong?

But, then it dawned on me that my training only took into account my training loads. What about the added stress of homework, lack of sleep, poor diet, angry girlfriends and any other stressor that my athletes encountered? The Eastern Bloc had the advantage of controlling their athletes’ life. And if things weren’t testing the way they had planned, they could drug their athletes to keep them on track.

Lack of Control

I did not have that luxury. And then, I realized that periodization for the high school athlete may have some holes in it, especially when they didn’t peak when it counted. I questioned at what point did I add too much weight or distance to the workouts? What did my athletes do to undermine my great plan that I charted out to a decimal and color coded? My chart could not possibly be wrong! Look at that meso-cycle and how my micro cycles build into my pre-season macro cycle, which I coded red to show the importance of that training block to my athletes. I digress. I eventually realized it was me and not them. In reality, I don’t have that much control. And in reality, periodization for me was a good guess. For me, it was a hopeful guess with the best intentions in place. It was a security blanket that in case things went wrong I could cling to it for security to make myself feel better for the lack of success that my athletes achieved. Or, I could throw it in the garbage.

Autoregulation

With the advent of the internet and Google, I stumbled on to DB Hammer with Dan Fichter and bought his book, The World’s Greatest Sports Training Book. In an early chapter of the book, he introduced the concept of Autoregulation or AREG. AREG is a concept that you can monitor an athlete’s progress based on their times or performance and adjust the volume accordingly to what their body is ready to do. And, from Hammer’s findings, you can determine your short term gains and have a constant improvement.

AREG Example

Let me explain by showing how I use AREG. My goal is to run a faster fly 10. Day #1 of training will be to run a fly 10’s. So we run the fly, and it is electronically timed. Let’s say the athlete runs a 1.000. (I time to the thousandth so we can even see small progress. Thousandth’s add up over time). From here, he gets an 8-minute rest before his next run. Due to fatigue, he may get a 1.012 on his second. So on and so on until he runs 3% slower than his best time of the day. In some cases, it may be by his 3rd sprint or his 6th, depending on his system that day. The athlete’s performance determines the number of repetitions. When he runs slower than 1.030, he is done for the day. He found that for a power exercise like a short sprint, 3-4% was the appropriate drop to show some improvement in the following workout of a similar nature. In a perfect world, then, we would rest 3-4 days to allow for super compensation to occur. I never do the same workout back to back, so my next workout might be a speed endurance workout or a block workout, again using AREG to figure out how many reps we should do. The following Monday we would go back to doing fly 10’s again. If they improve, that number becomes their new PR of which you base the 3% to. If they increase past the 3% on their second one, they are done. If they don’t PR, it is time to change the workouts.

The Importance of Rest

There are two keys to the workout. One is rest. Most coaches never allow enough rest time to let the changes occur. And rest means rest. It doesn’t mean tempo runs or time in the weight room. Rest is rest. How do I deal with this as a track coach? Simple. We don’t practice. Some coaches can’t handle this lack of control. They feel the need to do something every day. Even if their athletes are not improving, they will still hit the track and blame it on their kids. It is not a five day a week job. Use AREG to manage fatigue and make adjustments. If you want to try to add something, re-time them and see what happens. If they improve, you are OK. If they didn’t improve, don’t add more. I know that this is not perfect. If it were, we would all have Usain Bolt’s. But for most of us reading this site, we work with high school athletes for a short amount of time before our season ends. Due to that, we can make some significant improvements on their time before they go off to another sport or the season ends. And, I have seen drops over a four-year period. Tony Holler wrote about this on previous articles for ITCCCA and Freelap.

Failure to Improve is a Signal to Change

The second key to AREG is to change the workout if the athletes are not improving. Even though the system works better when working individually, you can still get away with assessments of the group. So, when most of my athletes don’t improve, I change the workout. I may lengthen from fly 10’s to 20’s. Or later in the season, we may go back into the weight room for a week or two. Yes, that is right. We don’t lift during the season. For me, it becomes too many variables to manage. I don’t like to put too many spices in the cake. We lift pre-season and off-season but not in season. I have found that going into the weight room stalls our results at a faster pace than if we don’t. The goal is to run faster, not to see how much you can squat or deadlift. I digress. Try adding more power specific exercise, like hurdle jumps or from the other spectrum, maybe take an extra day off. We have our biggest improvements after snow days.

The first key to autoregulation is rest. The second key is to change the workout if the athletes are not improving.

23 Second Test

We do this with longer runs as well. The 23 second run is the other base workout. Athletes run as far as they can in 23 seconds. Mark the distance. Rest 8 minutes and repeat. Early in the season, we give them more rest. Because this is more of a rate drill, we cut the drop-off to 2%. So, we measure back 2% of the distance, and that becomes their target. If they make it, they earn the right to run another. If they don’t, they are done. We figure if we can get four guys to run 23 second 200 meter runs indoors, we can place the top three in the state. So, everyone is focusing on that distance. And when the timer goes off, they can physically see how close they are to the goal. It is a powerful workout. As their endurance builds, they also increase their work load. Christopher at Freelap is helping design a system to use the timers to become more accurate with our measurement system which I will try this year.

Accurate, Real-Time Measurement

So, where does periodization come in? It doesn’t really. I plan based on what is going on with my athletes. If they are tired, I pull back. If the prom is on a Saturday, we don’t practice on Monday. If they are running great, I may add more. If not, I cut stuff out. And the only way I can get this information is by timing them electronically. It is the most accurate, real-time measurement to get the most out of your athlete on that day. When their body is ready for more, they will show it.

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By Chris Korfist

Hip extension is the name of the game in athletic development. It is the thrust that drives your athlete forward or up, or both. The stronger or more powerful your thrust, the faster and farther you will go. This is the path that has driven our industry. Some people think the way to develop hip extension is through powerlifting. Hence, the rise of the weight room in athletics. Boyd Epley, Bigger, Faster, Stronger, and a whole bunch more have made a fortune on this concept. Get into the squat rack and start cranking out the squats. ATG, parallel, pause, wide stance, narrow stance, high bar, etc., all are trying to drive hip extension, so we have more explosive, powerful athletes. Throw in the Nautilus machine for hip extension. Remember that one, lie on your back and scissor your legs against the counter-balance? It was a great concept.

Olympic Lifting for Hip Extension

When research surfaced that showed Olympic lifters had a block time similar if not better than sprinters, the war began between coaches who hated the Olympic lifts and those who swore by them. Yes, that was a debate for a couple of years. When NSCA finally took sides on the issue, they became “institutionalized,” which of course opened up a whole new realm of training techniques, DVDs, certifications, and, why not, kettlebells and the rise of that industry. Now, we have cleans, snatches, and pulls, all with the goal of driving hip extension.

The Glute

The next phase was on to Bret Contreras with the hip extension exercise and research. Here is a guy who put some research behind the movements and then wrote about it in his variety of books, which I own and recommend people read. The power muscle is the glute max, and his work shows the most efficient way of developing that muscle. I like his work so much that some of the movements in his book are staples of our weight room workouts. I have yet to see a great athlete who did not have great gluteal development. Some of you will ask about the skinny guy who can run and jump. Put him face down on a table and see the proportion of his glutes to the rest of his body, and you will see that he has a well-developed gluteal muscle. However, no pun intended–I can’t pass on cheap puns–I like to make an ass of myself. I have also had athletes that have great glutes but are still not explosive, and this is where it gets interesting.

The Ankle

On the other end of the chain is the ankle. It is a very complex joint that has a bunch of muscles that do a bunch of things. There is nothing glamorous about it. It does not “sell” in advertisements. However, you will never see a model with a “cankle.” And certainly, you do not see debates over the proper way to train ankle function. In fact, everyone seems to leave the ankle alone (Maybe throw in some calf raises and everything will be OK). Its purpose is crucial in the gait cycle. In fact, I would say it is the most important aspect of the gait. But still, we leave it alone.

Gait Cycle

In the gait cycle, a person is on one leg. While on that leg, the body has to find out a way to move the body’s mass forward. So, how can the body move the mass forward in the most efficient way and create momentum forward. The most efficient way to do so is to go through the “rocker” cycle. There is heel rocker, ankle rocker, and forefoot rocker. The heel rocker is the contact phase and begins to move the weight forward. Most people don’t have a problem here because it is a contact response. The ankle rocker is the big one. That movement is the ability of the ankle or body to get the center of mass through the midstance phase and create forward movement. Notice that I said ankle or body. If the ankle is locked, for whatever reason at 90 degrees or less, the body has to find a way for the center of mass to move forward. The ankle rocker is, by far, the most efficient manner, but if something has happened at some point that your ankle doesn’t want to bend, your body will compensate or find some other way to move forward. The most common “cheat” is for the hip to rotate outward and swing around the leg that is on the ground. It is even easier to place the foot centrally, and the hip doesn’t need to swing around. This is very common for people who have wide hips or weak gluteus medius. An athlete’s knee may knock inward, almost buckle, to move the body mass forward. Someone may throw their arm far forward and jut out their jaw to get momentum going in a forward manner, almost a tilt of the body, in an extreme stumble pattern. Or, they may flatten their arch on their foot and collapse over the top to stumble forward once again. Or, the bouncy guy who seems to walk on his toes with the incredible calf development, turns his feet out and bounces over the top. This athlete is a good sprinter for a while until he blows his hamstring. All of these movements can be seen from watching a runner from the front. Stop the film when an athlete seems to be at mid-stance phase, and draw a line up from the outside of his heel, and see how straight the line is. From here, the coach should notice what is in line and what is not, considering the shoulder and hip points are parallel. Your best sprinters should have their foot directly under the appropriate hip. The only way that happens is if the ankle is bending properly.

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Figure 1: Comparison of Heel Rocker, Ankle Rocker, and Forefoot Rocker.

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Figure 2: Here is a world champion sprinter. Notice how there is a straight line going down his side. His momentum and vectors will be straight ahead.

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Figure 3: Here he is at midstance. Great position with his ankle rocker ready to engage to bring his momentum straight ahead.

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Figure 4: Here, he is between mid-stance and toe-off. You can see his ankle bending so his momentum will go straight ahead rather than rotate around hip shin.

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Figure 5: Here is an inefficient ankle rocker. The outside of her heel is on the other side of the body. She has little ankle rocker so she can turn her feet out to get around her shin, helping the movement by driving with her arms. This is very common with female soccer athletes.

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Figure 6: Here, she is from the side, almost at mid-stance but no bend coming in the ankle.

Believe it or not, it is proper ankle rocker that dictates an athlete’s ability. If you are telling people to get low out of a stance, it is the ankle bend that gets you there, regardless if you are talking out of the blocks or a lineman stance. It is also what gives you quick feet off the ground. If your hips are in line and your weight rolls through, little time is spent having the weight move around the leg or the foot spinning on the ground. All momentum is moving forward. Energy is saved, and the runner has more energy at the end of the race. This brings up an interesting tangent. What if time improvements were about increasing efficiency and not about all of the volume work athletes do? It’s just a thought.

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Figure 7: This is a freakish ankle rocker in this elite athlete. He has an easier time staying low if his shins can keep the angle. Telling athletes to stay low may be detrimental to their performance if their ankles can’t bend, forcing them to keep their torsos low while their shins are high. Now, they can’t pick up their heads or their butts are too high. How many high school line coaches have yelled to keep butts low and faces up? It puts them in a very disadvantageous position.

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Figure 8: Big or small, the ankle rocker is key. This is a 300-lb Big Ten center. He can run a good 40 because his ankles bend, and he keeps low out of the blocks. His 300 lb of momentum is going forward and not rotating while moving forward.

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Figure 9: Michael Jordan could stay low and cut due to his freakish ankle rocker.

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Figure 10: I am from Chicago. If I have Jordan, I need Walter Payton too. Again, this is a freakish ankle rocker although at a bad angle. Look at the shin angle. Plus, I just needed to get him in the article.

Progression

How does a coach go about developing Ankle Rocker? It is a progression. And it takes lots of reps and time. It starts with the ability to pull your foot into dorsiflexion. If you are sitting on the floor with your legs out, you should be able to pull your legs back to 110-120 degrees. Now, try it with your knees slightly bent. You should be able to do it about the same either way. Try rotating your feet side to side, like a windshield wiper. Do you notice that your range of motion may change as you rotate through your range of motion? An athlete can progress to sitting in a chair. With his feet on the ground, have the athlete practice pulling his forefoot up while keeping his heels on the ground. Again, shoot for that range of motion. To challenge the athlete, slowly bring the heels under the athletes’ butt while sitting. Notice how the range of motion shortens. So the goal is to get your feet as far under your butt while maintaining the range of motion. The next progression is to get off your butt and get to a single leg. A supported single leg squat is a great way to develop the rocker, but now comes a twist. To help strengthen the rigidity of the foot, we will pull our toes back and just allow the balls of our foot to be on the ground. We are trying to teach a proper tripod. The importance of a good tripod is that when your body feels a stable platform to push on, it will push. If not, it will roll or spin until it feels strength, and it will then push. This is how you develop foot quickness. It is more of an ankle squat on a tripod. Think as if your knee were getting pulled forward, and when you start the hip bend, go into it a tiny bit and drive your shin straight. Notice how much glute is getting involved in the squat. Some people believe the more ankle rocker, the more glute gets involved. Also, use your glute med to support your hip. The opposite hand can help stabilize your body. The final skill to learn is the ankle rocker shuffle. Dr. Shawn Allen of the Gait Guys, whom I learned all of this from, explains it perfectly on his YouTube clip. He has some other great videos on the topic as well. The early ones are my camera work; that is why I am not in Hollywood.

Every track practice or workout of mine has some form of ankle rocker exercise involved. We may be shuffle walking and doing rocker pops, ankle rocker up stairs, etc. to constantly work on this movement. It is also a great way to reduce injury. It is quite a stress on the body to rotate or spin around an ankle that doesn’t work. Watch old video of Tyson Gay and watch his right ankle spin. I would guess that he has limited ankle rocker in that ankle, and the curves weren’t helping it either.

Ankle Rocker. Is it a magic bullet that we have all been looking for? No, that doesn’t exist. Running is incredibly complicated. But is it something that if we give our athletes, they will improve? Yes, I do believe that is true.

Please share this article so others may benefit.

By Tony Holler

Baseball is huge in our area.  It seems that every red-blooded boy plays baseball by the age of five.  Travel teams and clubs are everywhere.  Kids wear big league uniforms before they learn to chew tobacco.  Seems like every travel team gets invited to some mythical “national championship”.  Quasi-coaches promote baseball as a ticket to a free college education despite the fact that no one ever gets a full ride in baseball.  The maximum number of scholarships at NCAA schools is 11.7 and those are typically split into halves and quarters.  But that doesn’t matter.  Most of our baseball kids are one-sport athletes.  50 freshmen tryout for baseball at Plainfield North and only half will make the team.  Only a handful will start as seniors.  No one will win a full scholarship.  I feel sorry for kids who have wasted their youth chasing a myth.  I like baseball but I don’t like specialization.

Coordinated athletes, especially if they have some size, play basketball as soon as they can make a shot.  Almost all basketball players are now specialists.  Despite the fact that high school basketball is hard to watch (too many three’s, too much dribbling, and a non-stop wrestling match in the paint), kids continue to drink the AAU Kool Aid.  They dream of the NBA.  Back in the day, basketball players were outstanding track athletes.  Now they dribble all spring.  I can’t get the 10th man on our varsity basketball team to consider track.  As they used to say back in the 70’s, they’ve all been “brainwashed”.  I like basketball but I don’t like specialization.

Every son of a football dad is wearing eye black and a helmet sometime during their elementary years.  Football may not last another 50 years, but it’s almost a religion in our time.  Right or wrong, many families plan their lives around college football and the NFL.  In the last ten years, profiteers have learned to prey on high school football players.  Ex-jocks call themselves personal trainers and make ridiculous promises.  Parents line-up to pay whatever the fee.  Ex-quarterbacks offer year-round training for future Peyton Mannings.  Other entrepreneurs have started “7 on 7 leagues” to capitalize on the football craze.  The more the cost, the more beneficial these businesses are perceived.

Everyone seems to agree that “you get what you pay for”.  High school sports are relatively inexpensive.  High school coaches are not highly paid.  Parent’s are eager to pay some washed-up wide receiver $40 an hour to work with their kid.  Personal trainers will have these kids pulling sleds, running with parachutes, and over-speed training with bungee cords.  Despite attempts at making football a full-time obsession, it’s not.  Football, unlike baseball and basketball, has an off-season.  Illinois football teams suit up for 25 practices during June and July, but there is no spring football.  Our football players practice from June through November.  Track season starts in January and ends in May.  Perfect.

Almost every fast kid not playing basketball or baseball at Plainfield North joins the track team.  However, recruiting is an every day job.  I spend most of my time recruiting late-blooming kids (not good enough to star in youth sports), poor kids (too poor to afford youth sports), and football players.

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Quintin Hoosman gained over 2400 yards in his 10 football games this  year (32 touchdowns). Quintin anchored my state-qualifying 4×2 team last year.  All four relay team members return in 2015.  Quintin holds our school record in the 30-meter block start (FAT) = 3.95 … At 190 pounds, his speed stats are equal to those of Kapri Bibbs of the Denver Broncos.  Quintin has scored 32 touchdowns in 10 games but he does not have a D1 offer.

Every year, I attempt to recruit our best football players to the sport of track & field.  Track does not sell itself.  This article will focus on how I recruit athletes to the Plainfield North track program.  Some of the things we do will not be universal.  Hopefully this article gives track coaches some tools to promote your sport.  Hopefully this article will help athletes and their parents to develop a balanced approach to athletic participation.  The only adults promoting specialization are jackasses who benefit from specialization.  All true educators promote balance.  John O’Sullivan recently wrote an article that should be required reading for every parent, The Race to Nowhere in Sports.

With that being said, let me tell you about Plainfield North.

Plainfield North’s football team made the IHSA playoffs this year with a 6-3 record.  We are good but not great.   Our sophomores have won 18 straight (9-0 as freshmen & 9-0 as sophomores).  My freshmen went 9-0 for the 3rd consecutive year and our freshmen coaches are riding a 30-game winning streak.  The regular season ended with our combined three levels averaging 40.2 points per game.  Our school is less than 10 years old.  With an enrollment of 2130, we are the 69th biggest school in Illinois.  After nine years, our football program is 42-43 and 0-4 in the playoffs, but great things are on the horizon.  We have produced one NFL player, Kapri Bibbs, who is a running back with the Denver Broncos.

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Kapri Bibbs gained 2646 yards and scored 38 TDs in his senior season at Plainfield North.  Even more amazing, those numbers were accomplished in only NINE games.  Kapri also ran track.  His speed numbers:  FAT 10-fly = 1.02 … FAT 30m block start = 4.03 … hand-held 40 = 4.35 … 100m dash = 11.04

Besides being the head freshmen coach, I serve as our speed coach in the winter and the head track coach in the spring.

Running is used as punishment in the ball-sports … “I’ll run your asses off !!!” … “On the line !!!”  … “Put the balls away, we’ll just run !!!” … “Take a lap !!!”.  Kids hate to run by the time they come to high school.  In bad track programs, kids will whine, “Do we have to run today?”.

Track & field is a tough sell.  A kid in our area is more likely to play lacrosse or hockey than compete for a youth track club.  To make matters worse, the track & field experience at our middle schools is less than optimal.  Here is the situation at our nearest middle school.  The other seven middle schools in our district are basically the same.

• 250 kids (coed)
• 7 coaches
• 8 meets
• no track facility;  just a parking lot and a grass field
• the season ends with the “Paw Pac Meet” (8 Plainfield middle schools) and not the  IESA state track championship

The meets are nearly unmanageable.  Kids are told to sit in a group in the stands until it’s time for their event.  Imagine gray skies, 50 degrees, howling winds, and sitting on aluminum bleachers with a huge group of middle-schoolers.  Negative experiences are hard to overcome.

Track coaches everywhere face significant obstacles.  By sharing my challenges, I hope to help other coaches overcome theirs.  The only way my track program can excel is through promotion and recruitment.  We must work harder than the ball-sports.  We need to keep our athletes happy.  Happy athletes are the best recruiters.  The ball-sports don’t recruit athletes because they don’t have to.  Ball-sport kids have eager parents who have invested large amounts of time and money.   Most of those parents believe a college scholarship is the light at then end of the tunnel.

My track program does not solely focus on the varsity level.  We value freshmen & sophomores as much as we value juniors & seniors.  One of our previous athletic directors believed freshmen should play their football games on the practice field, not the game field.  He repeatedly told people, “No freshman ever won a scholarship”.  He didn’t last long.  Should we minimize the freshmen experience?  Why should athletics exist for the benefit of upperclassmen?  Should we focus on scholarships with a laser-like intensity?  Do we minimize freshmen academically while we glorify seniors?  Maybe I’m old school, but athletics should be a classroom, not a revenue-driven exercise in greed.  Every kid should have a good experience, not just the gifted.

TEN REASONS TO JOIN THE TRACK TEAM:

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YOU ARE NOT AS GOOD AS YOU THINK.  Sorry but this is the truth.  NCAA football scholarships go to freaky talent.  At Plainfield North we’ve only had a handful of NCAA Division-1 scholarship football players.  Scholarships are rare.  Despite the fact that major college football teams give 85 scholarships, less than 1 out every 100 high school football players will receive a free college education.  It may not be a good strategy to invest all of your time and effort in the pursuit of such a long-shot.  Financial advisers encourage investors to take a balanced approach.  Smart people never invest in the lottery.  College football players are freaky-big or freaky-fast, or both.  The size of your muscular-skeletal system is basically predetermined.  Track is the number one way to improve your speed.  Why not play a second sport?

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SPEED KILLS.  The most important football skill is speed.  Like it or not, speed may be the key to getting recruited and the key to getting drafted.  It is simplistic and fundamentally wrong to believe in weight gain as your ticket to the big-time.  Yes, NCAA football players are big, but they not artificially big.  300-pound linemen are 6’5″, not 6’2″.   230-pound running backs are first and foremost FAST.  Big and slow running backs went extinct 40 years ago.  #Speedkills.  If you want to improve your marketability, you should join the track team.  Don’t be an idiot who hires a personal trainer two weeks before a football combine.  Anyone who values the weight room more than sprint training probably has thick ankles and suffers from speed envy.  Slow guys love the weight room.

Even big guys need to be fast.  The top three tackles of the NFL Draft were taken in the first round at picks #2, #6, and #11.  All three were huge and super fast in the 40 yard dash. #2 pick, Greg Robinson of Auburn was the 2nd fastest offensive tackle in the draft, running 4.92 despite being 6’5″ and weighing and incredible 332 pounds.  #6 pick overall was Jake Matthews from Texas AM.  Despite being 6’5″, 308, Jake ran 5.07 in the 40.  The speed-star of the offensive tackles was Taylor Lewan of Michigan. Taylor Lewan was drafted #11 by the Titans.  When you watch the 6’7″, 309-pound OT run the 40 in 4.87, you can understand what made him a first-rounder.  Lewan was the FASTEST offensive lineman in the draft despite his enormous size.

The top guard picked in the draft (the only offensive guard picked in the first two rounds, #33 pick) was Xavier Su’a-Filo of UCLA. 6’4″ and 307 pounds, Su’a-Filo ran the 2nd fastest time of all offensive guards,  5.04.

The top center in the draft (the only center taken in the first two rounds, #43 pick) was Weston Richburg of Colorado State, the FASTEST center in the draft.  At 6’3″, 298, Weston ran 5.10.  The New York Giants wanted the fastest center available.

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WHAT YOU MEASURE YOU IMPROVE.  We measure everything.  We use Freelap to measure fly 10-meter sprints.  We time 40-yard dashes.  We time 30-meter block starts.  Our focus is on explosion, acceleration, and max speed.  We time lactate workouts.  All data is recorded, ranked, and published.  Graphs are used to show improvement.  And that’s just practice.  Track meets pit the best against the best.  When you run a 10.65 100-meter dash, every coach in America knows you are legit fast.  The whole world knows you have the athleticism to play at Florida State, Alabama, Auburn, etc.   You are what you do.  If you lift weights, you become a weight lifter.  If you focus on weight gain, you get fat.  If you sprint, you become a sprinter.  It’s your choice.  See an article I wrote last year, “Inertia and Data-Driven Speed Training“.

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YOU WON’T SIT THE BENCH IN TRACK.   I love kids that play in the marching band, but football players are usually better athletes.  You are strong, fast, and tough.  There is a place for you on our team.   If you are not good in track, you probably aren’t as good as you think your are in football.  Join the team and get faster.  We have 18 events.  Almost all of our meets have a fresh-soph and a varsity division.  Your participation is guaranteed.  I will find a spot for you.  Unlike the ball-sports, track teams are not breeding grounds for jealousy and pettiness.  Your spot on the team will be based on measured performance, not based on the opinion of your coach.  Every kid that’s ever sat the bench in a ball-sport has secretly hoped that a teammate would screw up.  In track, we cheer for everyone, even our opponents.  Track is not a zero-sum game.  Your success is not based on your opponent’s failure.

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TRACK IS NOT A “TIME ROBBER”.  Ball-sports block out the sun.  The time expectations are immense.  Some teams practice three or four hours.  Some teams require weight lifting before school.  Most teams require 25 days of practice in the summer.  Do you like selling cards or cookie dough door to door?  My track practice will begin at 2:35 and you will be on your way home at 3:25.  If you want to stay and lift weights, great.  If not, OK.  If you want to stay and work on hurdles, great.  If not, OK.  You can vacation in Florida over spring break because we don’t schedule practices on non-school days.  We don’t have a summer track program.  If you want to come to Speed Camp, great.  If not, OK.  Our fund-raiser is the Fast Cat 5K and 10K, so you will not sell door to door.  Track will not block out the sun.  You will go home every day with gas left in your tank.  Enjoy the spring.

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MIDDLE SCHOOL TRACK AIN’T TRACK.  If you “don’t like track”, you don’t know what you are talking about.  In middle school you did not practice on a track, you practiced on grass.  Here, we practice on a 180-meter indoor track and a 400-meter outdoor track.  In middle school you competed against other middle schools from Plainfield.  In high school, we compete against the best schools from all over the state of Illinois.  We run on the finest indoor tracks in the state: University of Illinois, Eastern Illinois University, and The Shirk Center at Illinois Wesleyan.  We make two southern trips, Belleville West & Edwardsville, both overnight.  We have only one coed meet.  You will be treated like men and expected to act like men.  We have 21 meets including the Top Times Meet (Indoor State) and the IHSA State Championship, a three-day, two-night trip.  The best state championship in Illinois is the IHSA Track & Field State Championship at Eastern Illinois University.  No Illinois state championship event draws a bigger crowd.

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Our team includes distance runners, jumpers, sprinters, and throwers; ages range from 14 to 19. Only in track can two guys like Patrick Willhalm and Nick Wolf become good friends.

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YOU CAN BE A VIP AS FRESHMEN.  YOU CAN BE A VIP AS A ROOKIE.  We have tryouts and keep between 75-85 athletes.  Our 2014 roster included 28 freshmen.  If you are a good football player, you will make the team.  Last year six freshmen won varsity letters.  Try doing that in one of the ball sports.  It’s not uncommon for freshmen to make the trip to state as a competitor or a relay alternate.  Last year, four freshmen made the three-day trip to state as relay alternates.  We keep freshmen records.  We give freshmen awards.  Freshmen practice with the varsity every day.  Unlike the ball-sports, freshmen are a part of the varsity program.  Our coaches will know your name.  You get the same attention as a senior.  Our upperclassmen are taught to be good “big brothers” to our freshmen; you are the future of our program.  Both of our over-night meets have fresh-soph relays, so our best freshmen will make the trip.  In the past five years, we’ve had three rookies become All-Staters.  Jayden Gerber quit baseball as a sophomore and ran lead-off on our All-State 4×1 in 2011.  Randy Gordon had never played on a sports team but came out for track his senior year (2011).  Gordon ran on All-State 4×2 and 4×4 teams.  Like Gordon, Evan Flagg joined the track team as a senior, thinking he would be a high jumper.  Instead, he anchored our 2012 All-State 4×4 team.

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Our freshmen broke our school record in the Fr 4×1 (44.99). By the way, these two guys are outstanding running backs. The guy in front, Nico Capezio, long jumped 20’0, triple jumped 40’0, and high jumped 6’0, despite being 5’5″. #SpeedKills

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YOU WILL BE A PART OF A TERRIFIC TRACK PROGRAM.  We have sharp uniforms with lightning bolts on our sleeves and a tribal tiger on our back.  We wear black.  Our schedule is as good as any team in the state.  Our website, pntrack.com, is loaded.  Pictures are taken at every meet and posted.  We have one of the most active twitter accounts in the state (@pntrack).  Our coaches are the best.  Coach John Singleton was a nationally ranked hurdler and has the longest dreads in the state.  Our distance guru, Coach Andy Derks was an IHSA State Champion in the 1600 (1998).  Derks ran the 2012 Chicago Marathon in 2:26.23, placing 53rd.  Our throws coach, Sean Carlson was an All-State linebacker in high school and coaches the linebackers for the Plainfield North varsity football team.  Our jumps coach, Dr. Brian Damhoff, is an A.R.T.-Certified Chiropractor and competed at Lewis University.  If you played freshmen football, you already know me.  We speed-trained last summer.  You know it’s fun.  You know my sprinters get fast.  #SpeedKills

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ATHLETES CHOOSE TO COMPETE.   Call me crazy but I think football players need to compete more than nine times a year.  What kind of athlete would choose to practice and train for 356 days and play only 9 times?  The 2014 Big Ten recruiting class included 305 athletes from 14 teams.  89% of 2014 Big Ten recruiting class played multiple sports.  100% of Iowa’s recruits played multiple sports.  In the 2014 NFL Draft, 222 of 256 players played more than one sport (87%) .  Four out of every ten players drafted in 2014 were 3-sport athletes in high school.  Only five of the 32 guys picked in the first round of the NFL draft were one-sport athletes.  Alec Holler, track & football coach at Edwardsville says, “If you aren’t good in track, you probably aren’t as good as you think you are in another sport; so my advice would be to run track and get more athletic.  You may think you are getting better with your personal trainer, but you’re not.  One thing you can’t duplicate is the intense competition of a true sport.”  I couldn’t agree more.  Call me old-school but one-sport athletes are part-timers.

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FACTS DON’T LIE.  The following comes from a terrific website, trackingfootball.com.  I spoke with one of the co-founders, Aaron Hunter, recently.   “Track performance in itself does not always tell us a guy can play football, however it does show inclinations on who does not have the ability to play.  Thus track performance is a great indicator of D1 athleticism.”  

• Of all 2014 Big Ten football recruits, 59% ran track.  45% played basketball.  Only 8% played baseball.  73% of Minnesota’s recruits ran track.
• 59% of the players in 2014 NFL Draft ran track.  49% played basketball.  Only 6% played baseball.
• The top five quarterbacks in college football all have track backgrounds.  Athleticism Is Key
• Most people consider Georgia’s Todd Gurley the top running back in the NCAA.  Is it due to toughness and strength?  Gurley ran the 100 meters in 10.70 and the 110 hurdles in 13.66.
•  Sammy Watkins of the Buffalo Bills was the first receiver taken in the 2014 NFL Draft.  Was Watkins #1 because of his soft hands and precise routes?  Sammy Watkins is big (6’1″, 210) and fast.  Watkins was the Florida state champ in the 200 meters running 21.11.  Check this video from five years ago.
• Justin Gilbert of the Cleveland Browns was the first cornerback taken in the 2014 NFL Draft.  Was Gilbert #1 because he had good football stats?  Justin Gilbert ran 10.47 in the 100 meters and 21.29 in the 200 meters.
• The ESPN #1 ranked high school recruit of last year, Leonard Fournette, now plays for LSU.  Fournette was #1 because of his athleticism (size and track stats).  At 6’1″ 225, he ran 10.68 in 100, 21.57 in 200, 41.37 in 4×1, and 1:26.83 in 4×2.
• The #1 ranked wide receiver in college football is Rashad Greene of Florida State.  Why?  At St. Thomas Aquinas H.S., Greene ran the 400 in 48.27 and ran on a 41.60 4×1 team.
• Mike Singletary of the ’85 Bears was only 5’11” 230 pounds.  5’11” guys don’t get drafted unless they have something spectacular to offset their size.  How about 63’6″ in the shot put?  How about running the 4×1 despite being 230 pounds?  Some people still think it’s all about desire, dedication, courage, toughness, etc.
• Last years #1 pick in the NFL was Jadeveon Clowney.  Clowney was a good football player but there is more to the story.  At South Pointe H.S., Clowney anchored a 4×1 team running 42.71.  Jadeveon Clowney was 6’6″ 247 as a high school senior.  By the way, Clowney played basketball too.
• The 2014 Alabama recruiting class included two of the nation’s top hurdlers.  Marlon Humphrey (13.24) and Tony Brown (13.28).  They weren’t bad in the 100 either, 10.63 and 10.37.  Alabama also recruited six shot putters over 50 feet.
• The 2014 Auburn recruiting class included three shot putters over 55 feet and three discus throwers over 150 feet.  Braden Smith threw 61’03 and 188’0.  Auburn also inked 3-sport athlete Roc Thomas who was a 5-star recruit.  Great running backs are great track athletes … 100 meters 10.94, long jump 21’7″, high jump 6’04”.
• The 2014 Oregon recruiting class included three big-time sprinters, Justin Hollins 10.52, Tony James 10.52, and Charles Nelson 10.58.  Sprinters like these are worth their weight in gold.
• The 2014 TCU recruiting class included six guys who ran on sub-42.00 4×1 teams (41.55, 41.10, 41.29, 41.24, 41.44, 41.24).  TCU is currently ranked #7 and leading the NCAA in points per game, 50.4.  TCU is scoring 25.3 points per game more than last year.  #SpeedKills
• The 2014 Georgia recruiting class included three sub-10.70 sprinters.  Nick Chubb was one of them.

I was asked if #UGA RB Nick Chubb might be a bit stiff. No, he's not. Here he is showing that 40-inch vertical. pic.twitter.com/kgnlgbbncd

— Radi Nabulsi (@RadiNabulsi) May 13, 2014

This tweet went viral last spring. Football coaches who don’t attend track meets just don’t get it.  Every track meet is a showcase of athleticism.  You think these guys might be able to play football?

Tracking Football has observed a track emphasis in the South.  In SEC football country, skill athletes are expected to run track.  When comparing the top schools of the Big 10 and SEC, the numbers look about the same with the exception of the average 100 meter dash time.  Any track coach understands that 11.15 makes 11.36 look slow.  Maybe the attention the SEC pays to track is making the difference.

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The PAI (Player Athletic Index) may revolutionize college football recruiting and NFL scouting.  The PAI is a trademarked formula that takes into account height, weight, and track stats.  Tracking Football is proving that track statistics are strong indicators of athleticism.  For example, Adrian Peterson is 6’2″ 217 and ran 10.33 in the 100 meters.  Peterson has a PAI of 5.0.  Bo Jackson was 6’1″ 227 and ran 10.44 in the 100 meters.  Bo also had a PAI of 5.0.  Kapri Bibbs of Plainfield North and the Denver Broncos has a respectable PAI of 3.5.   Kapri is a great football player but he’s not Adrian Peterson and he’s not Bo Jackson.

People working in Las Vegas are now paying attention to Tracking Football’s PAI.  Teams with a high Player Athletic Index seem to win games.

Enlightened football coaches have always known the symbiotic relationship between football and track.  The Player Athletic Index will eventually simplify college recruitment and NFL scouting.  Coaches will not have to rely on inaccurate 40 times at some one-day combine.  Track & field statistics will become the quantifier of explosiveness and speed.  If you are big, strong, and fast you will get noticed no matter where you play or who coaches you.

Should you spend your off-season gaining weight and improving your bench press?  Or should you join the track team?  The decision is yours.

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By Carl Valle

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Figure 1: Bar Sensei specializes in barbell specific metrics and is one of those devices that while not wearable, lowers the price point to the prosumer level. Because the device attaches to the bar, each station can be measured, appealing to the facility market.

Recently the biggest buzz in the weight room is what system one is using to measure training, specifically the barbell speed and metrics that are coming from those calculations. Coaches fueled on the notion that data is the new oil, are flocking to companies looking for the best hardware and available software. As a track coach and technology geek, my email is flooded with questions comparing all options, some popular and some lesser known. Instead of a long reply to the emails I have elected to share what I think represents the top options available with a comparison chart and some guidelines. The new normal is finally here with data in the weight room, since the field and track found traction in heart rate and timing long ago. If you are a coach or athlete and are interested in getting more out of the weight room and training, this article should help you decide which tools are best for you. The dark truth is that all of the technology will only amplify coaches, and if the noise is loud it will only get worse. If the training is great to begin with, velocity based training and the new direction of Power Development Analysis is forcing coaches to make choices in training like never before.

Some Back History

In my first article on Velocity Based Training, I wanted to define the core principles of power measurement, specifically the use of body speed, ball speed, and barbell speed. In this article, I wanted to flesh out the weight room before heading to ballistics (sport balls, medicine balls, and implements) in Part 3. I have used devices to measure power since the late 1990s and remember when my only tool was a notebook and pen, and technology is something that goes beyond a gadget or computer. Velocity Based Training is older than the coaches you are training; it’s only consumer friendly now that everyone has a ubiquitous smart phone. The introduction of new devices are exploding because applications and the computing are now moving towards the phone or tablet directly, or using the cloud indirectly via the Bluetooth connection. Why is this important? Expect the technology to permeate more and more. As any technology grows, so do the growing pains with culture shifts and best practices though. The good news is that I jumped on a grenade for you by outlinjing not only the best way to see the market of products, but set up the consumer with expectations and important questions about the data quality and the added value options being sold by the companies.

Measuring Work in the Weight Room

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Figure 2: The overload of eccentric forces from the Swedish Exxentric Flywheel delivers an unholy amount of force to the lower body. For decades people have used belt squats with traditional loads, and the EMG readings are science fiction. Research on hamstrings and hormonal responses are available, and I think we will move away from Nordic hamstring exercises to something more closed chain with the above product. Using Smart Coach software one can measure the extreme forces beyond gravity-based equipment, and the sensation is like a high-speed black hole pulling you in.

Terms like workout always remind me that we take a lot of words for granted. Questionable terms like “Power Endurance” get tossed around too casually by coaches, and I even deal with semantics from time to time. Work is a term used to describe the output of an action, and when measurements get involved, then things get interesting. One of the benefits of technology is that devices do a great job repeating a mundane task, provided that the measurement is accurate, precise, valid, and repeatable. Those four words must dance around in a coach’s head, or the entire process is corrupt and tainted. I see this frequently when discussing time, and recently had to ask a combine software vendor about 40 yard dash times and how they were authenticating them. When he responded the talk led to talks about stopwatches and this service was responsible for the recruiting of many athletes in the area, and it was placing a top performance metric in jeopardy. Without being condescending, I decided to share my definition of the key characteristics of performance and training data before getting into products. I could care less if the app has 3-D animation or if some guru is endorsing the product. If the data is bogus it’s like getting a bathroom scale that spits out random numbers from last night’s Power Ball reading. Here are the specific power measurements terms explain with the context of peeking into the window of the weight room and testing.

Accuracy — How close a measured work value is to the actual absolute value? We have all seen the example of the bull’s eye being hit by a dart, and that is accuracy, hitting what you wanted with a measurement.

Precision — How close the measured work values are to each other, usually including an error rate and sometimes bias. A device may be consistent or precise, such as a scale that is constantly off by the same number but isn’t representing the true value.

Repeatability — A key principle of the scientific method is reproducibility of the measurement. A simple example this is when a test is new to an athlete, and they change their technique each time, making the value questionable. We see this with squat depths, athletes getting different directions and using different protocols in the test. By far we see the most problems with this in sport, so details and interpretation are essential here.

Resolution — The smallest change that a sensor can detect in the quantity it is measuring. For example, a camera may be filming at 60 frames per second or 200 frames per second, making slow motion much more sensitive. A GPS may be sampling at 5-10 times per second, making it questionable for speed evaluation of a flying 10 m sprint.

Validity — Does the test measure what it’s supposed to measure. A classic example of this is testing squats for power without getting velocity of the bar to calculate actual output properly. Many misnomers like Powerlifting create testing nightmares for coaches who simply are measuring the wrong variables.

Drift — The most underrated of measurement qualities. The rate of change of the signal from the measuring instrument over time is common with sensors. Coaches are familiar with re-calibration of measuring equipment, and this is always happening with force plates.

One can keep going into more sport testing, and this is perhaps best suited for experts like Jose Fernandez or Mladen Jovanovic. Start with the above basics before getting into familiarization of tests or similar. I have not evaluated any product listed for the above measurement details so do your research.

Geeky Stuff that will Change your Job Forever

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Figure 3: Dallas Stars Strength Coach pictured above is using the Team System from Push Strength. Push Strength provides coaches a portal to create workouts and analyze data. The company is based in Toronto and is one of the few North American companies in this space.

To keep things moving, coaches have to look at the cost of the solution they are buying versus the cost of gadgets or subscription needs of SaaS (cloud products). Every budget is finite, but the real cost of information is measured in time and opportunity. So before shopping on price, coaches should move one step beyond value and see the big picture of what the companies are providing. In general, coaches want hardware, directors or high-performance advisors want software, researchers want firmware, and consultants like me want algorithm options. Why is this important? When you write the check ask yourself what is important to you. For me, user experience is number one. If my athletes don’t like it, I don’t want it. My goal for technology is to keep training fun and rewarding, and when it becomes a burden, I am out the door or yelling at the development guys on the phone with social media threats. Jokes aside the truth is the workflow of getting data, time and effort looking at it and managing it is most important.

Hardware — Most coaches love hard toys and get giddy when FedEx arrives with equipment. Every week use to be Christmas to me, and now my mailbox is an inbox of work. When evaluating hardware coaches must look for specific features to ensure functionality, but good design is beyond just technical specifications. With 3-D printing allowing for iterations of development, you would think the products are better now but some are surprisingly crappy. Some products satisfy my love for design and some companies listen to critical customers like me. When shopping for hardware look for something to be intuitive, rugged, and have an attention for detail that removes headaches. Bad hardware focuses attention on shiny and ornamental qualities to mesmerize goons; great design usually makes the hardware so natural it’s unnoticed.

Software — Eventually data will come to a hub to store, display, and calculate the numbers from the sensors. Now we are in the age of smartphones a many products are pushing data through Bluetooth or a wireless protocol. Mobile apps are inappropriate and should only act as a relay to the end game, having the data to an AMS service or cloud storage option. The key to a good app is function at high speed, and that means elegant minimalism. I hate phones in the weight room personally, and consumer products being one to one and not enterprise, rely on smartphone apps to do it all. Pro Teams, clubs and colleges may have thousands of teams, but the real market for investors is the mass market. Teams are usually the bait for the average Joe and personal trainer wanting to provide a professional service or experience an elite one; team products are often an afterthought. I hate investors. Most of them want products for their bottom line and not products for their users, so I only work with companies that use their product. You would be amazed how many companies sell products that middle management have never seen or used! Software should do the monotonous and key parts of managing the data and nothing else. It’s better to have software that is incomplete but very polished then a vast wasteland of label dressing. Avoid companies that sell a product by adding a lot of weak features to look like it’s going to launch nuclear warheads.

Firmware — A lesser-known area and infrequently talked about component is firmware, the control programs for devices. The key word here is program or light software coding to manage the electronics and sensors of measurement devices. To me, I see way too much slack here and get annoyed when devices are not doing what they have the potential to do. Firmware can range from just minimal or essential to heavy dependence based on the vision of the company. Why is this important you ask? Simple. Many of the things we take for granted depend on good firmware such as traffic lights and other parts of modern life. Many talents for some reason don’t like firmware because we don’t see it like software or feel it like hardware. Firmware is the translator to the two parts to technology, and most products are constantly updating because companies don’t have the time to maximize the components fully inside. I spend a lot of time doing teardowns because the CTO is usually out of touch with their product and is sales driven, forgetting what it is like to depend on their product. Coaches need to know the pipeline and roadmap of the firmware as companies that are not committed to the development are usually focused on 2.0, meaning another hardware product or the subscription of what they really want. Most companies consider the hardware the Trojan horse to get eyeballs for subscriptions so watch out.

Algorithms — I wrote about algorithms for years and in the beginning I was a lone voice in a room. An algorithm is a buzzword now like metrics or data driven, but algorithms are useful for solving repeated monkey work or very complicated estimations. Algorithms are calculations or instructions used by companies to help with solving for hardware limitations. Also, algorithms are growing to help coaches do some of the repeated analysis of raw data the hardware and firmware are spitting out to the software. Forecasted last year in my article on HRV and blood analysis, algorithms will be a new market.¹ I stated the following paragraph earlier and is a black market with elite consultants, and will be more consumer friendly in a few years.

“Software with effective algorithms using validated research can accelerate the interventions and see relationships that are more preventive than reactive. The new frontier will be algorithm development to help support athletes to find the most effective approaches to performance and player health.”

Currently, the algorithms are just light summaries of combination metrics like wellness questionnaires and movement screens, but some of the metrics I have seen are extremely powerful and focus on prediction. Experienced coaches, sports medicine staff, and sport scientists have gut feelings when seeing patterns of data. Algorithms ride gut feelings and sort out strong predictions by using creativity and good statistical practices. One example of this is a coach seeing a lot of grinding in the squats with what I call “neurological stalls” and realizing that the load was good enough to complete but may have spilled over to unnecessary fatigue. Bar speed sensitivity can optimize the load and subjective feedback from athletes is playing roulette and anyone claiming this is a fraud. The goal of strength training is to create an adaptation and anything that doesn’t provide that and creates additional fatigue is an error. Volume and density can assist capacity for future work and tapering, but too much will just delay improvement. If hardware and algorithms are not accurate, coaches may be visually alerted to something not looking right because of a great eye, but only after things not working down the road does the mystery get solved with the autopsy data and poor results manifest. So, good algorithms are very similar to scars from the past that reincarnate as watchdogs from not making the mistake again.

Application Programming Interface (API) — An important factor when selecting devices is the vision of getting a way to share data effectively. Collecting and displaying data are the first steps, the real end game is what one does with it and that requires passive and rapid sharing through what is called an API. API stands for application program interface and coaches want them because they are usually using an online software package that is seeing multiple data sets. Any vendor that supplies a hardware tool thinks they are the only system coaches are managing, and a web API can create great sharing options. An API does more than web sharing, but the needs of this article is to remember that data is usually presented in isolation with software from the hardware companies. Most coaches now realize that the interaction of all the data matters, and vendors are inbreeding their products so bad they no longer provide the same benefits those coaches grown to love in the first place. Most products can export to a CSV file that can be imported into Excel for analysis. Companies that can provide an API for sharing passively makes life easier for coaching. Saving time and reducing monkey work matters people (this means you VBT companies) so the API is a great solution to make power users happy. An API is not to be confused with an SDK or software developer kit mentioned later as that area is important to open source hardware mentioned in the comparison section.

Athlete Management Systems (AMS) — The explosion of cloud products that manage the athlete are growing and will eventually stabilize in the next 3-5 years. In the past Apollo AIS and Edge10 were the leaders because in the US was available besides garbage EMR products from the 1980s. Unfortunately most AMS products from soccer reflect the culture, and that means most of the UK products have feeble weight room or strength training options. Smartabase from Fusion Sports took an Apple approach and provides both hardware and software, but the product is still cartoony but being Australian, much more coaching friendly. The good news is that CoachMePlus in the US is penetrating the market because of the understanding of what coaches want; an aggregation of data feeds to manage teams. Coaches are frustrated by lazy software engineers on fat salaries with no skin in the game. They want stuff they can use and have grown up with computers and expect the same quality of innovation they enjoy on the weekend with Facebook debates and YouTube montages. Lame software doesn’t cut it. Just displaying data on the screen isn’t enough; coaches need software to work for them instead of being slaves to the data they are creating in training.

Training Design Software — Excel has been the tool to design training for years, but it’s main purpose is to organize data and perform simple calculations for coaches. I love Excel from Microsoft as it’s stable and flexible, but it’s not a design solution ideal for coaches. So far no product satisfies me, but Teambuildr is a great product for those wanting something that potentially can be both a workout planner and light AMS solution. Gympro is also similar that it’s good for very rudimentary programs. Remember, the need to create well-planned workouts is cornerstone, and the imbalance of this can be felt by the limited options with products that design training. Companies wanting to appear turnkey, usually deliver a diluted series of features that look great on a feature list on their website, but leave coaches disappointed. I have said for years that coaches are four art experts in one. Coaches are composers, conductors, choreographers, and critics. Coaches must conduct practices, teach movement, critique the results, and of course compose workouts. Software companies don’t understand this and when I sit in conference rooms and the kid from Silicon Valley shows me something that is limited and stuck in bodybuilding magazine level, I unleash fury. If John Mayer can create an album with Garage Band why are brilliant coaches like Boo Schexnayder given Microsoft Office to limit them?

Obviously the technology outlined above was a lot to digest, but it’s important because buying anything means education first. When people buy without doing their homework because they “have a brother that works in technology” I cringe, and wait for the private meeting with the AD or GM when dust collects on the stuff they buy. No matter what your situation is, be it a self-coached athlete or big D1 University, do your research and choose wisely.

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Figure 4: Gymaware is releasing a new team app with other innovations now, and in Q1 of 2015. The new app focuses on the user experience that was popular with Tendo’s hardware. Having no need to swap to new screens and to have all information on one location is a popular request.

The Big Comparison Chart

Now comes the part everyone wants, the comparison among systems available for measuring power in the weight room. Most of the devices are hooking up a sensor to the bar or the body, but some products are connecting to pressure mats and force plates. I decided not to include anything that is measuring foot contacts because those are jump testing products and are overkill and not appropriate to strength training. Some companies are very professional and work with researchers, and some are preying on coaches and marketing hype. I will not speak on the behind the scenes but will focus on the most pertinent information such as primary areas like sensor type and if the software allows for pushing workouts or not. Some details such as Leaderboard options and pricing I purposely left off because the information is very dynamic and doesn’t represent the true cost. Some products are strength equipment and supply measurements as an add-on or as a feature, so it’s hard to separate costs. Finally, open products like the LPT from Chronojump have human power costs that require time and development, so the true expense is beyond the hardware. Last but not least, some out of the box products like video must be taken into consideration as well, because hardware is only one option.

Note: I currently use a Turbocharged (Hacked) Gymaware from Kinetic Performance when doing weight training, and the metrics of choice are likely to be available in the near future and will be covered later. I am using CoachMePlus as test kitchen so far as an AMS solution for performance data to see the fusion of metrics and I am underwater with progress until I can finish a few projects. I have a few clients using other devices and anticipate a busy innovation period for 2015. All of the companies have great people, and I expect this market to double next year.

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Figure 5: Obviously many more power testing products exist but they have not proven to be delivering the standard that coaches want now or are not going to be able to catch up to the players in the future. Why would someone want a Tendo unit today when Gymaware exists now? Why would someone want GymWatch today when other wearables are more sophisticated? I purposely didn’t include any force plate product because it’s a dead market after coaches are educated on the data details of those products. Finally if the product has very little market penetration I made the cutoff at 10 systems because none of the remainders had anything different or unique to contribute.

The Weight Room of the Future

Nobody knows what the future holds, but it’s likely to have to manage the reality of decades earlier. One example of this is the obvious need for technology companies to realize that touch screens don’t jive with sweat and gym chalk. The nerds coding at the local start-up incubator need to leave the workspace and visit a hardcore gym or university for a dose of reality. Any time you see a video remember that like a movie, this is not live; its usually scripted or simulated to promise a false utopia. The use of technology is going to increase, and it’s up to the coaches in the trenches to pull back to what one needs and remove the hype and nonsense from gurus. One metric or even all technology is just a tool, so think how technology is working for you. When technology becomes too big of a job for coaches, it hurts developments of the athlete.

References

1: The book The Cathedral and the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary by Eric S. Raymond is fitting for the algorithm “market” that will be like the app or song market now and is a good roadmap for companies trying to get better with software development.

Please share this article so others may benefit.

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By Craig Pickering

My Story

I’m lying on my side with an oxygen mask over my mouth. The anaesthetist is sitting next to me. It seems to take an age for me to understand what he is saying; “Can you feel that? Does it hurt?” In my head, I slowly register his words through the fog of sedation. It does hurt; it hurts a lot. And it would hurt – after using a hammer to insert a metal tube into my spine, my surgeon is now using a saw to cut out bits of my disc. I’m kept awake so that I can move my leg if required, which is an important step to make sure I’m not suffering any permanent nerve damage. Although sedated, I can feel pain. Fortunately, my anaesthetist can turn up the sedation and put me to sleep, putting a temporary end to it all. After three hours of surgery (which was supposed to only last 45 minutes), I am wheeled into the recovery room to wake up fully. This is where the most painful experience of the whole operation occurs. All the deep tissue that lies around the spine, which has been in spasm for three months to protect the area of instability, suddenly realises it can relax a bit. All the toxins and waste products that have been building up in the tissue are released, and an intense feeling of pain hits me in my lower abdomen, which lasts for about 15 minutes, until the pain killers administered by the nurse kick in.

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Figure 1: Disc that was removed during surgery.

So, how did I get to this point? I suffered my first real back injury when I was 18. Although I didn’t have an MRI scan on that occasion, judging by the symptoms I experienced, I was probably suffering from a disc issue. Then, when I was 20, it came back again. My back would seize up from time to time, making any activity difficult for a few days. It had a nasty habit of doing so in warm-ups for races, which made running difficult. This time, I did have an MRI scan, which showed dehydrated discs and a few protrusions in my lumbar spine. A plan was devised to work our way round this problem, and I managed well, suffering no real back symptoms after that year for the following three competitive seasons.

Then, in 2011, I was in the gym doing deadlifts. I’d love to say I was lifting a heavy weight, but the truth is I wasn’t – it was only about 60% of my rep maximum. About halfway through the set, I lifted the weight from the floor, and as I did, I remembered thinking that my back position wasn’t quite right. As soon as I thought this, I felt a weird shift in my back, like something moving backwards, followed by a shot of pain at that specific site, which then transformed into a very global, very severe pain. Every single muscle, from my knees to my neck, had spasmed. The spasm on my right side was so great that it pulled my pelvis towards that side, which made walking pretty hard. An MRI scan showed a pretty severe disc bulge in one of my troublesome lumbar discs. I rehabilitated for the next 12 weeks, got back into some decent running, and managed to run 10.19 that season.

Off the back of this 2011 season, I was all ready to go to the 2012 Olympics, which were taking place in my home country. I had been looking forward to this for ages, had moved to a place and a training group I thought could enable me to do this, and had just had a reasonably successful season despite missing a lot of training due to my back. I can’t remember the exact day I started to feel pain in my right hip, but it was around the start of November. I had another MRI, which showed that one of my discs had further degenerated, and would probably require surgery in about five years. As November turned into December, my symptoms were slowly getting worse; I’d wake up in the night and not be able to feel my right foot. I wouldn’t be able to lift my right leg high enough when running—all classic signs of reasonably severe disc dysfunction. But, because I wanted more than anything to qualify for the Olympics, I pushed it to the back of my mind. Another MRI in December showed that I would probably need surgery after the Olympics; that was fine by me as long as I could get there. At the end of December, I had an epidural and some injections in my back to settle down the symptoms and traveled to South Africa for a warm weather training camp. On the fifth day there, I woke up one morning, unable to move. There was no acute incident; I only went to sleep one night, and I woke up a wreck. I knew then that this was very, very bad. I didn’t train for the rest of the camp; I flew home and saw the surgeon, who recommended surgery. My MRI now showed a herniated disc severely impinging on my sciatic nerve. My surgery was set up for two months later. Living through those two months was tough; because my sciatic nerve was affected to such a degree, I was comfortable only in two positions, exactly straight (standing or lying) and exactly on my left side. Every other position caused excruciating pain and pressure in my leg. If I wanted to sneeze (when I had a cold), I used to have to stand in a doorway, brace my body and head against the door frame, and sneeze there to prevent my head from jerking forward, which was agony.

Fortunately, my surgery went well, and I ended up with about 50% of my L3-4 disc getting removed. I slowly rehabilitated myself, switched to bobsleigh, and got selected for the Winter Olympics. Sadly, once I was there, my back injury flared up again, and I was forced to withdraw and retire.

Why do we get injured?

If you are reading this and have taken part in sports at any level, you will have suffered a sporting injury. My back injury was on the severe end of the spectrum, but injury is something we all have to deal with. There are two types of injury: chronic and acute. An acute injury is a sudden onset, and the inciting event is identified by the application of some external force (Meeuwisse 1994). A chronic injury is an overuse injury, where repetitive micro trauma eventually causes an injury. But why do we get injured? Bahr and Krosshaug (2005) developed the “Comprehensive model for injury causation,” and, as the title suggests, it is very comprehensive! For an injury to happen, they state that there is an inciting event on a susceptible athlete. The more susceptible the athlete, or the more severe the inciting event, the greater the chance of injury.

Internal Risk Factors

Bahr and Krosshaug identified the following internal risk factors that make an athlete predisposed to injury:

1. Age (maturation, aging)
2. Gender
3. Body composition (weight, fat mass, anthropometrics, bone mineral density)
4. Health (history of previous injury, joint instability)
5. Physical Fitness (strength, power, resistance to fatigue, joint ROM)
6. Anatomy
7. Skill Level (technique, postural stability)
8. Psychological factors (competitiveness, motivation, perception of risk).

How well athletes score in these regions depends on how susceptible they are to injury. Take gender, for example. Being a woman significantly increases your chances of suffering anterior cruciate ligament injury (Arendt and Dick, 1995), potentially due to increased femoral tilt.

Interestingly, recent research has shown that our genetics can increase our predisposition to certain injuries. For example, a specific variant of the COL5A1 gene is associated with chronic Achilles tendinopathy (September et al., 2009).

Take my back injury as an example. I was at a massive risk of injury at that point of my career. I was genetically predispositioned to suffer from a back injury due to a syndrome I have, which means I have enlarged transverse processes, reducing my flexion and extension range, which, in turn, puts more pressure on my discs. (I’ve also recently had a DNA test done, in which I scored off the chart for injury risk!) I had a lot of previous injury in this area, which is an additional risk factor. My previous injuries had probably affected my movement patterning, which meant I wasn’t strong enough in certain movements, placing my already at-risk back in further likelihood of injury.

Exposure to extrinsic factors

Once an athlete with a high injury predisposition is exposed to external risk factors, the chance for injury is further increased. The external risk factors include sports factors, such as rules, protective equipment, and the environment. Within track and field, examples include a high training volume on a hard running surface potentially increasing the risk of shin injuries in athletes, or training outside in cold temperatures potentially increasing the chance of a musculoskeletal injury.

Using bobsleigh as an example, the environment in which the sport takes part is usually cold (I recall competing in -27 degrees Celsius), which increases the chance of musculoskeletal injury. There is also the possibility of injury from crashing, either an impact injury against the bobsleigh or track, or an ice burn from being held against the ice whilst being upside-down, travelling at 80 miles per hour. To reduce the risk of injury, we wear helmets and burns vests and strengthen our exposed areas to be able to handle the impact better.

Inciting Event

When we have a susceptible athlete who then comes into contact with an inciting event, then we have an injury risk. An inciting event could be a game-based situation, such as contact with another player or object, or falling over. It could be down to a biomechanical issue, such as a player changing direction and injuring his or her knee. In the case of a chronic injury, the inciting event could occur over a long period, eventually causing injury.

The inciting event for the injury that caused me to retire was pulling the brakes in the back of a bobsleigh. Pulling the brakes is a loaded spinal extension exercise, going from a position of sustained maximal spinal flexion to extension whilst pulling a load. I was already a severely at-risk athlete, taking part in an activity that exposed to me significant external risk factors (early morning activity, cold weather, technical requirements of maintaining extreme spinal flexion), which meant the chance of an inciting event was high. Had it not happened at that particular time, on that particular day, I strongly believe it would have happened at some point close to that, due to the fact that both the intrinsic and extrinsic risk factors were so great.

Can we predict an injury?

Once we know why we get injured, it would be useful to know if we can predict the chances of us getting injured. There is some evidence that we can. Obviously, every single athlete is predisposed to injury in some way through the mix of intrinsic and extrinsic factors, but there are ways we can predict who is more likely to be injured. The first is through a screening process. Gray Cook developed the Functional Movement Screen (FMS), which assesses athlete’s competencies at a variety of movements. Athletes that score poorly on the test are thought to be at more risk of injury. The jury is still out on the usefulness of screens such as the FMS. Kiesel et al. (2007) used the FMS in pre-season training with a football team and found that those that scored poorly were more likely to report an injury over the playing season. Freckleton et al. (2014) tested single leg hip bridging in a group of Australian Rules Football players in their preseason. The players that showed one leg to be significantly weaker than the other were much more likely to injure the hamstring in the weaker leg over the course of the season. Although it is still early days, genetic testing might be useful to give a picture of injury risk. Collins and Raleigh (2009) found that there is a wide variety of genes potentially associated with musculoskeletal injury. The ability to test genetics and use movement screens is potentially a really useful way to create effective training programmes to lower the injury risk.

Periods of high intensity or high volume of training are also a potential point of injury. Hullin et al. (2014) found that large increases in workload in a group of elite cricket fast bowlers were a reliable indicator of increased injury risk.

Poor nutritional status is also a risk factor for injury. Athletes that are in energy deficit are more likely to be in a fatigued state (as their recovery is potentially compromised) and so are at an increased injury risk. Various micronutrients also play a role in injury, including calcium and magnesium in bone health. Low levels of vitamin D have been linked to a decrease in bone mineral density as well the loss of muscle strength (Cannell et al., 2009). Athletes are generally vitamin D deficient, and so this is an easily modifiable risk factor.

How do we reduce our chances of getting injured?

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Figure 2: Boxers wearing gloves and protective headgear. WCAP boxers medal at U.S. National Championships – FMWRC by US Army

Is there anything we can do to prevent ourselves or our athletes from getting injured? In a recent meta-analysis on the effectiveness of injury prevention techniques, Lauersen et al. (2014) found that strength training is highly significant in reducing injuries. The mechanism for this is that the musculoskeletal system adapts to strength training, allowing the athlete to handle high loads more easily. Proprioceptive and co-ordination training were also shown to be helpful in reducing the injury risk. However, passive stretching pre-training or pre-competition does not show any protective effect. In my opinion, if a muscle is tight enough to restrict the range of motion at a joint, then this places you at an increased injury risk, and steps should be taken to address this. Chronic tightness in a muscle increases the chance of injury in that muscle through a variety of factors, and also potentially increases the global injury risk as it could cause other muscles to have to overwork.

Tips to Reduce Injury Risk

• Consider a regular physical screening to assess current movement competencies, and pick up on any imbalances or strength deficits that may contribute to injury.
• Ensure appropriate strength training is in place with adequate and sensible progressions for your age and maturation.
• Make sure that your body composition is at the correct level for your sport. Being too heavy can increase the stress and force going through your joints, muscles, and ligaments. Some adipose tissue may be useful in contact sports to protect against impact.
• Consider the sport specific demands of what you do, and ensure that your body can meet these demands. As a case in point, when I converted to bobsleigh, I had to ensure I could hold and maintain a large amount of spinal flexion in the back of the bobsleigh. To begin with, I couldn’t, but I designed a pre-habilitation programme to enable me to do this. Soccer players require greater conditioning of the ankles in order to handle cutting movements and also reduce the risk of ankle sprains in a tackle. An additional bobsleigh example of my own was the need to increase my neck strength so that if we ever crashed, I could use my head to lift my body off the ice, preventing ice burns. With regard to sprinting, the hamstrings have to be able to handle a large eccentric load throughout the sprint cycle, so they should be adequately conditioned to manage this task.
• Try to avoid large, sudden increases in training volume or intensity. If these can’t be avoided, then ensure that appropriate recovery techniques are used.
• Strive to meet the energy demands of your sport. Training and competing in a fatigued state increases the injury risk, so make sure you are conditioned enough to meet the demands.
• Ensure that you have an adequate range of motion in the correct joints and that all areas are working well. If one joint has a less-than-adequate range of motion, it increases the chance of injury in that area and the pressure on the surrounding joints.
• Fully recover from any previous injury. Keep rehabilitation going until there is no strength deficit in the muscle and normal motor patterning has returned.
• Make sure your nutritional status is good; you should get sufficient vitamins and minerals to ensure that your bones and immune system are healthy.
• Work on your posture and ability to hold this posture under fatigue. Being in the correct position at the correct time ensures optimal technique, which reduces injury risk. Being able to contract the right muscles at the right time is crucial to reduce injury risk. Let me illustrate this point: I currently suffer from right knee pain because my right gluteus medius has atrophied (due to nerve damage), so, under load, I can’t control my thigh as well as I used to in the past.
• Make sure you aid your recovery from training. Sufficient sleep is important!
• Improve your technique as much as possible. Poor technique is a risk factor for injury as it is usually less economical and can overload certain muscle groups.

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Further Reading

Becoming A Supple Leopard: The Ultimate Guide To Resolving Pain, Preventing Injury, and Optimizing Athletic Performance by Kelly Starrett

Ready To Run: Unlocking Your Potential To Run Naturally by Kelly Starrett and TJ Murphy

Athletic Body In Balance by Gray Cook

Movement – Functional Movement Systems: Screening, Assessment, Corrective Strategies by Gray Cook

References

Arendt, E., & Dick, R. (1995). Knee injury patterns among men and women in collegiate basketball and soccer: NCAA data and review of literature. Am J Sports Med 23(6), 694-701.

Bahr, R., & Krosshaug, T. (2005). Understanding injury mechanisms: A key component of preventing injuries in sports. Br J Sports Med 39, 324-329.

Collins, M. & Raleigh, S. (2009). Genetic risk factors for musculoskeletal soft tissue injuries. Med Sport Sci 54, 136-149.

Cannell, J., Horris, B., Sorenson, M., Taft, T., & Andersen, J. (2009). Athletic performance and vitamin D. Medicine and Science in Sport and Exercise 1102-1111.

Freckleton, G., Cook, J., & Pizzari, T. (2014). The predictive validity of a single leg bridge test for hamstring injuries in Australian Rules Football player. Br J Sports Med 48, 713-717.

Hullin, B., Gabbett, T., Blanch, P., Chapman, P., Bailey, D., & Orchard, J. (2014). Spikes in acute workload are associated with increased injury risk in elite cricket fast bowlers. Br J Sports Med 48, 708-712.

Kiesel, K., Plisky, P., & Voight, M. (2007). Can serious injury in professional football be predicted by a pre-season functional movement screen? North American Journal of Sports Physical Therapy 2(3), 147-158.

Lauersen, J., Bertelsen, P., & Andersen, L. (2014). The effectiveness of exercise interventions to prevent sports injuries: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised control trials. Br J Sports Med 48, 871-877.

Meeuwisse, W. (1994). Assessing causation in sport injury: A multifactorial model. Clinical Journal of Sport and Medicine 4, 166-170

September, A., Cook, J., Handley, G., Van der Merwe, L., Schwellnus, M., & Collins, M. (2009). Variants within the COL5A1 gene are associated with Achilles tendinopathy in two populations. Br J Sports Med 43, 357-365

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By Chris Korfist

My affair with the squat started a long time ago, back in 1982. I was going into 7th grade, and I was attending the University of Illinois Football camp in Champaign, Illinois. The football camps were very different than they are today. It was a camp for kids to have fun and the coaches make some easy money. Introduce the campers to some fundamentals, let them play on the Astroturf, go into the locker room, get a T-shirt, play some 7 on 7 and finish with some awards and a watermelon eating contest. But a rotation that caught my attention and started my 34-year quest was the visit to the weight room. The coach did some fun stuff to impress the campers. But, I didn’t buy into the fluff. I thought there was something more than the parlor tricks. And when he started talking about the program and the different core lifts, I was glued. And then he got to the squat. And he said, “our fastest player, Mitchell Brookins, runs a 4.4 40, and he also squats 500 lbs. …the more you squat, the faster you will run.” For me, that was my own Christmas Story epiphany. That was my Red Rider BB gun with pump action. I wanted to play college football and was ready to start my journey (Mike White did a good job of selling me). All I needed to do was to squat 500 lbs. The strength coach had posters for sale that had all of the lifts you should do and the prescribed amount of sets and reps. And a whole row of explanation about the squat. I bought it. And now, I started my journey to 500 and a 4.4 40. Unfortunately, there was no one around warning that I would shoot my eye out.

In my basement, I had the classic Sears plastic weight and the classic bench. I would load up my 100lbs and somehow lift the weight from the tiny forks and start cranking out my squats, and when I finished, I managed to land the weight on those tiny forks again. Looking back, I am amazed I never dropped the weight and cut my head off. So, for the next two years, I cranked out my sets until I got to high school. I had a good freshman year and like every other kid, after the season, I went down to the weight room. My work paid off as I surprised the coach that a tall skinny freshman could bench 155 and squat 250. I surprised myself because I didn’t have that much weight at home so something must be going right. My coaches supported the squat notion, and I drove on for the rest of my high school and college career. My only problem was that while I hit the 500lb mark, I was not the 4.4 forty guy that I thought would be promised to me. And at NIU, my 4.6 was not that impressive next to fellow wide receiver who was state champion in the high hurdles, but I could squat quite a bit more than him.

My lack of results began to make me question does squatting more make you faster. While I wouldn’t give up on my favorite exercise, there were some indicators that started to rock my confidence. When I was Graduate Assistant in the weight room, I saw some raw athletes that claimed they never squatted before, but could put up big weight with perfect form. Leshon Johnson would then go on to be a finalist for the Heisman and have a nice career in the NFL. He walked into the weight room from a rodeo and squatted 405 no problem. He was also the quickest person I had ever seen.

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Figure 1: Leshon Johnson

But then there were also guys who couldn’t squat much but they could run and jump. When I moved on to high school, I coached football, track and ran the weight room. I stayed with my squat program. I even added all the Westside barbell stuff I could afford. I could get my guys to put up big numbers in the weight room, but the times on the track did not correlate. We were stronger but not as fast that I had hoped. There was a guy or two who seemed to improve but for the most part, the effect on team speed was not what I was hoping for. Or, the time we put into the rack was not showing on the field.

I had to get past the emotion and tradition of the exercise and start exploring what was going on to see if I could get better results. Remember, when you point your finger at someone or something, there are 4 pointing back at you. I started to study film, movement, mechanics and anything else I could find. But mostly it was from trial and error. From this journey, here is what I have learned.

When athletes go into the weight room, they have one goal, get bigger, faster stronger. No football player wants to be the guy who has a 10 and a 5 on each side of the bar in the squat rack. I think we all remember the pride of slamming 45’s together on the pins. Big boom. And athletes will do anything to move up the chart and get a 500lb club shirt. And this is where the problems begin. Technique goes out the window. Spine shape changes, cervical shape change, pelvis rotates, knees knock in, one ankle bends more than another, etc. Once we find that groove, that becomes our strong pattern. Neurons encase and strengthen the message to the body to lift the weight. Once completed, endorphins flood the body. Job well done! Or, the coach, in his best intentions and greatest love wants the athlete to go down deeper, regardless of what it does to the body. Again, they are strengthening a pattern that doesn’t always mean that it will translate into faster, more explosive movement. In fact, I think it hinders athletes more than helps.

With this process in mind, I started to look at athletes that had good squat strength and filmed them sprinting and jumping.

Part of the problem with the squat and its connection with putting up big weight is the recruitment pattern. The big weight is changing the shape of the spine. When the brain feels the spine is not aligned, it shuts off the glutes. Try it yourself. Sit or stand and put your spine in a position where it is not aligned. Now try to squeeze your butt. Can you get a good contraction? Most people cannot. Imagine putting 300 lbs on your back and see what you can get from your glute. That is your body protecting itself. Why give big power to big muscles if your body knows this is a quick way to get hurt. The reptilian brain takes over to ensure that we are not eaten by a large, predatory creature. From this point, I think the secondary drivers take over. So as the athlete descends into a position that they have been coached, their legs bend until they feel they lack the isometric strength to hold. For most, this position is not nearly deep enough for their overzealous coach. So, they bend in the spine/lower back to get depth. Now it is all spinal erector. When they reverse the weight, they initiate the movement with their spine and finish with their quads. As they rep and strengthen this movement, the body learns that these are the major movers and bypasses the muscles that are supposed to move the body forward.

Great theory. But how do I see this in movement in sport? To start, I muscle test all of my athletes to see what is moving their body-hip flexion and hip extension. I have found that athletes who have been living in the squat rack, mostly football players, never test well in their glutes. They are usually “shut off.” Have them lay face down on the table, lift their leg off the table with their heel as close to their butt as possible and push down on the middle of the hamstring. They should be able to hold a substantial amount of weight. If you can push the thigh back to the table, their glute is not firing. If they can’t get it to fire in an isolated position, it will not function optimally. I have found that athletes who can fun fast and jump high have a great contraction when I test the muscle. I have had young kids who run well, but have not been in the squat rack hold my body weight. I have had athletes who are “500lb” squatters fail miserably. They also do not run well.

When I film these athletes running, they resort to what I call a push run. What I see happen, usually, is the athlete’s foot lands slightly in front of their center of mass, sometimes striking first with their heel (Figure 2). They then allow their center of mass to pass over their plant foot. You may notice that the athlete is usually in a quarter-squat position.Once they pass that point, from that quarter squatted position, they use their quadriceps to propel the body forward. Watching them on film backward, you may notice the body “porpoises” or bounces up and down. Their toe-off phases will have the knee well beyond the outside edge of their glute. I determine this by drawing a line from the outside edge of their glute. Ideally, when the toe is coming off the ground, the knee will be under that line. If they are pushing, they will want to stay on the ground as long as possible. So the foot and knee travel well beyond that line (Figure 3). The athlete may also have a forward lean to help the body go forward. It is almost like they are jumping their sprint down the track. Some people become quite efficient in this technique, but it has a limited ceiling as far as reaching top speeds.

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Figure 2: Here is a push athlete about to make contact. You can see he is about to heel strike, and foot contact will be in front of the center of mass. Trail leg is way behind.

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Figure 3: The athlete’s toe off has the knee well beyond the outside line of the glute. This athlete is using his arms to help drive and even shrugging shoulders to help lift mass off his drivers. The body becomes very clever in creating cheats to help the compensation pattern to reach their goal of running faster.

What should be happening is that the foot strike lands directly underneath the center of mass. That pushes the shin forward, into ankle rocker, and gets a good glute contraction (Figure 4). Since the muscle fired, the body feels the need to bring the foot forward and the cycle starts again. This explanation opens up many different discussions. First, this is a good explanation for what Dr. Peter Weyand may prove in his research. With the spinal erectors and quad driving, you get more of a horizontal push. And the ground contact time is much longer. With the foot trailing so long, it takes time for the foot to come forward. And like Dr. Weyand says, there is not much difference in repositioning the legs or the swing phase. So, the knee cannot drive as high, and the runner becomes “late” in their gate cycle. A good indicator of that is to look at the position of the swing leg at midstance. If the swing knee is in front of the plant leg knee, timing is good. With an efficient contact, the glute gives more vertical push and the toe-off phases occur much sooner (knee should be under the butt at toe off) which gives the athlete time to bring his knee higher on the drive. That gives his body time to travel farther, so the contact happens underneath his center of mass. Yes, in my opinion, all of that happens because an athlete has poor squat technique.

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Figure 4: Foot strike and midstance phase is at one point for this athlete. Swing knee is already in position, and arms are more synchronized with leg movement.

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Figure 5: Good toe off. Knee is directly under glute. You can see the vertical drive, a la Dr. Weyand. Knee drive and arm drive are synchronized.

How about the vertical jump? Take the same athlete, with his squat erector and quad squat technique and film him jumping. What I have found is that they mimic the same positions. They go down into a squat. Since the erectors are stronger than the legs, the erectors will do more of the movement, and the knees don’t go bend much. A good indicator is to see what he body looks like in their lowest position in the jump. If their erectors are doing most of the work, the relationship between the torso and shins will not be parallel (Figure 5). On their drive up, the spine pivots up, and the hands usually drive first. So, before their legs have started the drive up, the torso is almost erect, and the arms are almost parallel to the ground (Figures 6 & 7). In reality, the erectors have lifted most of the mass upwards, and the legs just finish the drive. Two small muscles are doing most of the work in a test that requires major muscles to move the body. The only option the body has to move is to rotate the torso in an upward fashion. The hips are usually late in coming forward. In some cases, their forward thrust is minimal.

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Figure 6: This was a division 1 fullback who could squat 600lbs but had a very limited 40 and vertical. He needed to improve his numbers to get on the field. You can see that his shins and spine are not parallel.

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Figure 7: Thighs still in same position as the torso rotates up and forward.

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Figure 8: A further position in his jump but still no leg or hip drive. Arms are moving fast though.

In an efficient jump, the athlete’s spine always stays parallel to their shins regardless of the depth. The relationship stays the same throughout the movement. As their body starts to move vertically, the athlete’s hips will drive forward. And his arms are more synchronized to the movement. This is why in all of my exercises, I try to keep the athletes shins parallel to their spine; it forces better hip drive. Now, that pesky ankle rocker comes back into play. The more forward the shins go, the better the angles you can get when you jump and the more vertical hip drive an athlete can achieve.

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Figure 9: A 300 lb Big 10 lineman getting ready to launch into a 28 inch vertical jump. Not great ankle rocker with heels up but a great position. A candidate for deep squats.

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Figure 10: His finish. Torso and shin relationship remains parallel. Upper arms and thighs are parallel as well. When we got his heels down, he went higher. Also, a big squatter but he did it properly.

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Figure 11: A textbook position. He is all the way down, and everything is parallel.He has never squatted but runs a sub-10.0. He will hit 38 inches. Not my best though. I have had three over 40 off the just jump mat.

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Figure 12: Notice how his body keeps the proper angles when he absorbs the force from a 24 inch depth jump.

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Figure 13: This is as deep as he goes. He has a lightning quick takeoff and doesn’t need to go any further. He hit 39. But he is also a 7’6 high jumper.

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Figure 14: Note the same body position when he is dropping off a 24 inch box.

So, how did this all play out for my athletes? Last year at York High School in Elmhurst, IL, I had a variety of athletes that were in my varsity group. I had about 30 in all. Some were football players, and some weren’t. I mention this because the football players were subject to the off-season weight room stuff before school. Why this is allowed is beyond me but that is another rant for another article. The football players were usually the slowest of the group and progressed the least. They were the ones who would miss some practice with some hip flexor problems that tend to surface with poor technique as well. Toward the end of the season, I had eight that could help the team. Only one football player, but he was one who refused to do the “off-season” stuff. To put them into a relay team was interesting. I ran my second team; bottom 4 of the 8 based on fly times at the county meet in Naperville at the DuPage County Meet, the oldest meet in Illinois. In the last ten years, if you win that meet, you win the state championship. My bottom 4 ran 42.4 and set the meet record. four weeks later, my top 4 went 41.48, 7th best time in the history of the state. And just think, we never squatted one workout.

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Figure 15: York High School Track Team with State Championship Trophy.

In the world of movement and compensation patterns, the body will always go with its strongest, safest recruitment pattern. Continue to strengthen a bad pattern, and it will take over most movements.

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By Tony Holler

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What is the correlation between speed and coaching?  At the risk of painting with a broad brush, it seems our best coaches were slow athletes.  Yes, slow may be a coaching prerequisite.  In my experience, the best athletes don’t make the best coaches.

Let me clarify.  When I speak of athletes, I speak of athleticism.  By athleticism I’m speaking of sprinting, jumping, and explosion.  Athletic basketball players dunk.  Athletic football players are fast and explosive.  Athletic baseball players combine home runs and stolen bases.  “Athletes” are well-defined, lean, and symmetrical.  Several years ago I had a friend who was a  scout for the New York Mets.  I asked Terry Tripp what he looked for in a prospect.  He said nothing about courage, determination, or work ethic.  Terry Tripp told me he looks for a “high butt.”  Hmm.  The glutes are the most important muscles of sprinting, jumping, and power.  I get it.  The Mets were recruiting athleticism, not skills.  In 1995 I was speaking to a college basketball coach, Mark Coomes, about a player who was averaging over 25 points per game.  Mark asked one question, “Is he explosive?”  In basketball talk, explosive is code for dunking.  The ability to dunk indicates athleticism.  Non-dunkers are usually slow and can’t guard their position.  Basketball coaches don’t recruit hard workers and good shooters, they recruit athletes.  Football recruits athleticism to the extreme.  Size, speed, and power is the holy trinity of modern gladiators.  And the people doing the recruiting are usually slow white guys.

Think about it.  Who coaches baseball?  Catchers.  Catchers are the slowest athletes on a baseball team.  Last season, 10 of the 28 major league managers were catchers.  36% of baseball managers are catchers despite the fact that catchers make up only one-ninth of a team.  Outfielders are baseball’s elite athletes.  Despite making up 33% of a baseball team, only 14% of major league teams are coached by former outfielders.  Slow guys make better coaches.

Who coaches basketball?  Shooters are the most likely candidates.  Tall, graceful, long-armed dunk contest winners are not your typical basketball coaches.  How many windmill dunks did Tom Thibodeau execute as a player?  Was Coach Krzyzewski a high-flying shot blocker?   Coach K and I discussed West Point in the Oswego High School weight room back in 1976.  Coach K was in his first year as West Point’s head coach (All I could think about was his awful haircut … no way could I go to West Point).  Did Jim Calipari record any dunks as point guard at Clarion University?   The Michael Jordans of the world generally don’t coach.  Basketball coaches are shooters, not dunkers.

Who coaches football?  When I think of football coaches I think Bill Belichick.  Belichick played center at tiny Wesleyan University in Connecticut.  How many wide receivers are head football coaches?  Nick Saban was a defensive back at Kent State.  Urban Meyer was a defensive back at Cincinnati.  Gus Malzahn was a receiver at Henderson State University.  Jimbo Fisher was a quarterback at Salem College.  I’ve observed the same pattern in high school football.  It is rare to find a head football coach who was a gifted athlete.  The coaching fraternity rewards those who had to work for it.

Track and field is the only sport coached by athletic fast guys.  Actually that’s not the case.  At the risk of losing friends, most head track coaches are slow guys.  Distance runners are the skinny guys who couldn’t make the sprint relays, couldn’t jump, and definitely couldn’t throw shot or discus.  Distance runners never wore helmets and shoulder pads.  I like and respect distance coaches.  They set their own alarm, make lists, remember birthdays, read books, and are as loyal as the family dog.  However, distance guys lack athleticism.  Remember, my definition of athleticism is sprinting, jumping, and explosion.  Distance guys are aerobic, not anaerobic.  Distance coaches don’t understand “cats.”  Fast-twitch sprinters drive joggers crazy.  Like catchers in baseball, shooters in basketball, and generic white guys in football, most head track coaches are slow.

Converting the Infidels

It’s hard to explain speed to slow guys.  It’s tough to teach slow-twitch guys how to train fast-twitch athletes.  The majority of coaches at all levels of sport were not gifted athletes.  They achieved limited success as a participant by out-working their competition.  Generally speaking, coaches are workaholics who live by a litany of motivational quotes.  As you would expect, coaches identify with athletes who have similar traits.  The coach’s “favorite” will always be the scrappy guy that hustles, not the prima donna with all that God-given talent.  I’ve been around hundreds of coaches.  I am a 2nd generation coach.  I went everywhere with my dad.  I lived in locker rooms, coach’s offices, and gymnasiums.  Elite athletes may win games, but coaches love the underdog.

My most recent article, “10 Reasons to Join the Track Team” was the most popular article I’ve ever written.  I said things that track coaches wanted to hear.  However, I may have been preaching to the choir.  Of course my ten reasons were right on target.  Of course football players should run track.  Of course, specialization is like a cancer.  But, did my words reach those who needed to hear it? 

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The guy in the orange head band is Craig James who made the 2014 Preseason All Big Ten Freshmen Team (football, Minnesota). The guy in the sun glasses won this race, state champ Antonio Shenault.  Ironically, Shenault has committed Minnesota and will become a teammate of James.

It’s fun to rally the base, but consensus is the goal.  We must convert the infidels.  Slow guys must learn the value of training sprinters, jumpers, and throwers.  Coaches must stop worshiping the gods of courage, toughness, dedication, loyalty, perseverance, determination,  hard work, and discipline.  If I hear a coach talk about “playing hard” one more time, I think I will vomit.  Why is it that so many coaches resort to simple-minded nonsense?  Once, my son’s basketball coach addressed his losing team after a game by writing “courage” on the board with his left-handed illegible penmanship.  The 25 point loss had nothing to do with being out-manned at every position?  Courage?  Deep down, coaches know that athleticism is the key to success.  If these coaches could detach themselves from themselves, maybe they could be converted.

As I explained in “10 Reasons to Join the Track Team”, baseball and basketball have succumbed to specialization.  I’ve also received feedback that volleyball, wrestling, and soccer are just as bad.  As track promoters, we might as well give up on those kids.  Parent-driven athletes don’t think for themselves.  Basically a track team will be a diverse conglomeration of cross-country runners and football players.  Once in a while I find a rare gem walking the hallway.  I call it “panning for gold.”

Athletes Win Football Games

We must set our focus on changing football coaches’ attitudes towards track.  We must break the belief, faith, and worship of the weight room as football’s ticket to the big time.  The job will be exasperating for some of you, especially in Illinois.  Many football programs totally boycott track.  Some track programs get no football players to join the team.  This sickens me.

As a disclaimer, I work closely with our head football coach, Tim Kane.  I serve as his freshmen coach.  I have known Tim for over 40 years.  Our fastest football players run track if they don’t play baseball.  I wish more of our big guys would throw, but all things are a work in progress.  When I speak of Neanderthal football coaches, I am not speaking about my friend, Tim Kane.

Too many football coaches have a testosterone-driven ego that makes them impossible to work with.  Football coaches are the emperors of high school athletics.  Some have more power than the bosses.  Head football coaches are the hardest working coaches I know, but most of them are tightly-wound and hard-headed.  How can a track coach change the culture ?  How can a track coach break the cycle of bigger, fatter, slower?  How can a football coach learn to embrace athleticism and denounce specialization?  Can you teach the value of a wheel to a caveman?

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Landon Collins is projected as a top-10 first round pick in the 2015 NFL Draft. Did specialization create this superstar? I would argue that track & field was the key. Landon Collins ran the 100 meters in 10.50 at Dutchtown High School. In addition, he ran on a 4×1 team with an incredible time of 41.10.

Here is the deal.  College and professional coaches are looking for track & field athletes.  The NCAA and NFL recruits athletes, not football players.  Athletes … guys that can sprint, jump, and explode.  Size combined with track and field excellence is the ticket to the big time.  High school stats are basically ignored.  High school MVPs often go unrecruited.  Oh, you say that scholarships shouldn’t be the goal of high school athletics?  I agree.  I think we should help every kid become the best they can be.  Maximizing athleticism fits into the most under-rated aspect of high school sports, winning.  Yes, winning is under-rated.  When you put participation above winning, sports become recreation.  Nope, sports are about excellence.  Excellence includes winning.

The best way to win is through athleticism.  Scrappy guys who “play hard” will get beat by bigger, faster, more powerful teams.  Why are class 8A football teams better than class 1A teams?  Is it the coaching?  Is it the strategy?  Is it specialization?  Is it a commitment to the weight room?  Is it courage, toughness, dedication, loyalty, perseverance, determination, hard work, and discipline?  No way.  If these intangibles were responsible for winning, small schools would routinely beat big schools.  The difference is athleticism.  Big schools have more athletes.  This is indisputable.  Even science-denying Republicans will accept the fact that the best athletes will win games.  All else is tangential (hardly touching the matter, peripheral).

Here’s another fact that needs to be considered.  Weight room strength numbers do not measure athleticism.  “Hey coach, can you send me the bench and squat numbers for your running back?” … said no coach ever.   Jadeveon Clowney was picked #1 in the NFL draft despite an embarrassing bench press.  Clowney managed only 21 reps at 225 pounds (Chicago Bears’ punter Pat O’Donnell did 23 reps).  300-pound Hall of Famer Warren Sapp only managed 16 reps in 1995.  No problem.  Weight lifting is over-rated.

Once your football coach converts to weight lifting agnosticism, maybe he will go to track meets.  Oh, yeah, this article is titled “13 Things That Confuse Slow People”,  I will get to that soon.

Scientific Law and Crimson Tide

Some of my most popular articles have addressed football.  The five articles included:  last year’s “Speed Kills” and “Kapri’s Quest For Speed“, last summer’s “Sprint-Based Football“, last week’s “10 Reasons to Join the Track Team“, and the sequel, “Baylor Recruits Multi-Sport Athletes.”  The Baylor article was 90% written by Baylor’s Director of Athletic Performance, Chris Ruf.  When Aaron Hunter of TrackingFootball.com read the Baylor article, he sent me an incredible spreadsheet with every Baylor athlete going back to RG III.  When I studied the spreadsheet, I had an epiphany.  The link between football and track is not just an argument to be debated, it is scientific law.  The quantified ability to sprint, jump, and explode is the core of football athleticism.  There is no debating where football players should spend their spring.

But Baylor is just one school.  Scientists don’t cherry pick their facts.  Baylor is just anecdotal evidence.  Well, I am a scientist.  When I learn something, the answer leads to more questions.  It’s a never-ending cycle.  How about other schools?  How about Alabama?  Alabama does it the old-fashioned way, right?   Alabama wins because of their HUGE offensive line.  Their players must live in the weight room.  Muscles burst out of their uniforms.  Alabama is Paul “Bear” Bryant country.  Alabama is old-school, not that new-wave track and field bullshit.

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“Luck follows speed.” -Paul “Bear” Bryant

First of all, don’t discount Bear Bryant.  He once said, “A good quick team can beat a big slow team anytime.”  Bear Bryant’s teams were slow compared to today’s standards, but that wasn’t his fault.  The tipping point came on September 12, 1970.  For the first time, Alabama hosted a fully integrated football team, USC.  After losing 41-21 to a faster, stronger, more athletic team, Alabama featured their first African-American athlete in 1971.

The three biggest football states are Florida, Texas, and California.  Aaron Hunter of Tracking Football told me, “When we see a football player coming out of Florida, Texas, or California, we immediately assume they ran track.”   But how about old-school Alabama?  Aaron Hunter sent me a data base of 95 athletes entering Alabama’s football program from 2009-2014.  76/95 (80%) were track athletes.  When I saw that star wide-receiver Amari Cooper was NOT a track athlete, I was disappointed.  However, Cooper did play basketball, a breeding ground for athleticism.  Amazingly 16/19 Alabama football players who did not run track played basketball.  Picture this.  Coach Saban is addressing 95 players.  “Everyone who played basketball or track in high school take three steps forward.”  Only 3 would remain.  I repeat, only three guys in the data base from 2009-2014 did run track or play basketball.  Seven of the 95 at Alabama played high school baseball.  Only three wrestled.

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Tony Brown of the 2014 Alabama recruiting class. Check out that vertical force!  By the way, he’s the guy on the right.

So, Alabama is like every other football school in the NCAA, they recruit football players who run track (or play basketball).  If track athletes make great football players, then football coaches (generic slow white guys) need to start attending track meets.  In addition, football coaches need to learn track & field.  Back in Franklin, TN, I was on the football staff of former Vandy star, Tim Johnson.  Johnson later starred in the Kenny Chesney music video, “Boys of Fall.”  Anyway, after our Great-Eight meet at Vanderbilt I told Tim that his 5’8″ wide receiver, John Hewitt, ran the 400 in 47.99.  Tim Johnson asked me,  “Is that pretty good for a junior?”

How can football coaches embrace a foreign sport?  Can football coaches learn the complex relativity of times and distances?  I think they need help.  We need to keep them informed.  We need to supply football coaches with event rankings from the state, the area, and the track team.  We need to ask them to follow us on twitter.  Then we need to tweet track information with football in mind.  We need to stop bitching about football coaches and bring them on board.  If your track team does not have a football guy as a throws coach, I wonder why.  If your track team does not have a football guy as your sprint coach,  I don’t understand.  Track needs to infiltrate football.  Football needs to infiltrate track.

Track coaches are in the business of developing athletes.  Remember, athletes are sprinters, jumpers, and throwers.  Please don’t get angry, but distance events do not fit my definition of “athleticism.”  I have competed in four marathons, and I respect endurance.  However, my athleticism at age-55 is about a 1 on a scale of 10.  I will run two miles today and lift weights tonight, but I’m slow, can’t jump and have no explosive power.  And, even though the best pole vaulters are marvelous athletes, they are seldom football players.  The vault is a strange event of specialists.

Thirteen of the eighteen track events are athlete-developers.  We need to make sprint, jump, and throw performances understandable to slow people.  Just because a football coach never ran 100 meters in 10.55 should not keep them from attending meets.  Last year I had three juniors and sophomore run 42.22 in the 4×1.  We were 10th best in the state.  Three of those relay guys were football players.  I would hope, someday that football coaches would recognize 42.22 as a pretty good time.

The 13 Events that Quantify Athleticism

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100 METER DASH … The 100 may be the best quantifier of speed.  The NFL Combine tests the 40 yard dash.  While I have found the 40 yard dash to be a perfect tool for training sprinters, 40 times are often misleading.  My best sprinters run 4.4, but there are some imposters than also run 4.4.  For example, when considering the spreadsheet of those 95 players at Alabama, ten guys were rated at 4.4 in the 40.  However, the 100 meter dash times of those 4.4 forties varied from 10.18 to 11.67.  I have nothing against the 40; I time close to 10,000 40s every year.  However, given a choice between someone who runs 10.18 and 11.67 in the 100, I would recruit the 10.18.  Ha.

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Baylor running back Devin Chafin (left) was fast in high school running 10.82 in the 100 meters. However, Baylor has seven guys faster. #SpeedKills

What is fast in the 100 meters?  First of all, only consider times with two decimal places.  Two decimal places indicates Fully Automated Timing (FAT).  Hand-held 100 meter times are bogus and should never be passed around as factual data.  I’ve had three guys run 10.4 in the 100.  All three involved unreliable timers and with substantial wind.  With that being said, if a freshmen in high school runs 11.50, he is probably the fastest guy on the football field in every freshmen game.  If a varsity athlete ran under 11.00, he will never get caught from behind.  Our FAT school record is 10.97, and we are known for our speed.  The Illinois State Champion, Cole Henderson ran 10.53.  Alabama has four guys who, in high school, ran 10.18, 10.37, 10.48, and 10.50.  36 guys at Alabama (2009-2014) ran the 100 in high school.  17 of Alabama’s football players would have set the Plainfield North school record.  I watched Baylor destroy Oklahoma last week with their three incredible wide receivers, K.D. Cannon 10.32 (TX state champ), Antwan Goodley 21.40 in 200 (and basketball), and Corey Coleman 10.83 in 100. Coleman also high jumped 6’7″ and long jumped 22’1″.  Corey Coleman caught 15 passes for 224 yards.

If you don’t have automated timing, just watch for muscular guys who win the 100, then ask them what football offers they’ve received.  None of these guys ever slip between the cracks.

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200 METER DASH … The 200 is usually won by the same guys that win the 100.  I do believe that wide receivers may be better in the 200, while running backs and DBs are better in the 100.  Stride length and efficiency are at more of a premium in the 200.  FAT timing and wind are also factors in 200 times.  By the way, to convert hand-held times to FAT, simply round-up to the tenth, then add 0.24.  For example, if you time someone at 22.33, round-up to 22.40 then add 0.24 to get 22.64.

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DeAndrew White ran 21.18 in the 200 meters.

What is fast in the 200 meters?  If a freshmen in high school runs under 23.0, he is elite.  If a varsity athlete runs under 22.00, he is also a freak in football.  Our FAT school record is 22.00.  Our state meet was won by a young phenom, Kahmari Montgomery, from nearby Plainfield Central.  His time was a blazing 21.25.  Alabama’s roster includes a 21.18, 21.25, and 21.51.  Eight guys on the Alabama roster would be 200 meter record holders at Plainfield North.

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400 METER DASH … The 400 is a long sprint and a test of speed, efficiency, and a top-flight training program.  Unlike the 100, the 400 is not as popular with football players.  38% of Alabama’s players ran the 100 in high school, only 10% ran the 400.  If a freshmen in high school runs under 52.00, he is a star.  If a varsity athlete runs under 49.00, he is elite.  Our school record is 48.44.  Kahmari Montgomery, the 200 champ in Illinois, also won the 400 (46.82).  2014 Alabama recruit Marlon Humphrey ran 47.30.

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4×1 RELAY … The 4×1 is the greatest race in track and field.  Football players own this one.  My hope every year would be a freshmen team under 45.00 (last year 44.99), a sophomore group under 44.00 (last year 43.82), and a varsity team under 42.50 (last year 42.22).  The state meet was won by Edwardsville at 41.46.  Landon Collins of Alabama ran on a 4×1 team blazing 41.10.  26 guys on Alabama’s roster ran the 4×1 in high school.  As I mentioned in my last article, TCU had six guys in last year’s recruiting class who ran on sub-42 teams.  No wonder TCU leads the nation in scoring.

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Want to know what a 4×1 team looks like? This was a good one back in 2008. The smallest guy was a basketball player, the other three played football.

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4×2 RELAY … Like comparing the 100 to the 200, the 4×2 sprinters are usually the same as the 4×1.  However, the event conflicts with the 400, so your 47.50 400 meter runner never gets to run the 4×2.  In addition, the 4×2 is less than 20 minutes from the running of the 300 hurdles, so those terrific athletes are often absent from the 4×2.  The 4×1 always has an A-team event, the top four sprinters from every school.  The 4×2 is not.  Football players are everywhere here.  My 4×2 last year was anchored by Quintin Hoosman, who led the state of Illinois this year in rushing (2400 yards and 32 touchdowns in 10 games).  My hope every year would be a freshmen team under 1:36.00 (last year 1:35.02), a sophomore group under 1:33.0 (last year 1:31.84), and a varsity group under 1:28.0 (last year 1:28.61).  The Plainfied North school record is 1:27.14.  The Illinois state meet was won by Schaumburg at 1:26.13.  Nine guys on Alabama’s roster ran the 4×2 in high school, Landon Collins ran on a team that went 1:26.55.  Baylor has three guys who ran on high school teams running 1:25.45, 1:25.84, and 1:26.02.

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My 4×2 set the Illinois Class A record in 2001 running 1:28.06. Not bad for a school of 600 kids from a poor coal-mining town in Southern Illinois. The same guys ran 42.50 in the 4×1 (another record). The big guy in this picture, Braden Jones, long jumped 23’4″ and ran 48.8 in the 400 despite being 6’3″, 215. He later started at LB for Northwestern, TE at SIU, and played for the Vikings. The other guy, Brad Brachear, ran 10.70 in the 100, 21.64 in 200, and played for Jerry Kill at SIU. They were the key players on Harrisburg’s state championship football team, sweet-sixteen basketball team, and state championship track team.

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4×4 RELAY … This should be the football coaches’ favorite.  No other race resembles a backyard brawl.  In this race, you can apply all of those words football coaches love … courage, toughness, dedication, loyalty, perseverance, determination, hard work, and discipline.  Four guys at the end of a meet, beaten and battered from earlier races, courageously put it all on the line.  No one feels good, but there is something inherently “manly” about the race.  Four are warriors racing one last time.  This gives me goose bumps just thinking about it.  Yes, I was a 4×4 guy.  My hope every year would be a freshmen team under 3:40.0 (PN Fr record 3:39.71), a sophomore team under 3:32.00 (PN Soph record 3:30.84), and a varsity team under 3:20 (PN Var record 3:19.30).  The Illinois state meet was won by East St. Louis running 3:16.59.

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The 4×4 is the track & field’s most competitive race.

Only four guys from the Crimson Tide ran on their high school’s 4×4 team.  This is not typical.  Baylor’s roster has 16 guys who ran on their high school 4×4 team.  Five of those guys ran on teams going sub-3:20.  After watching both Alabama and Baylor last week, I think Nick Saban needs more 4×4 guys.  How many football players at your school run the 4×4?

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110 HIGH HURDLES … This is the only event that competes with the 100 as the ultimate race of athleticism for football players.  See Derek Hanson’s article “Why Do Hurdlers Make Great Football Players?.”  My son, Alec, is a terrific hurdle coach.  When asked to describe the qualities of elite hurdlers, he said, “Speed, coordination, rhythm, power, and coachability.”  College football coaches like those kinds of players.  Plainfield North has been blessed with great hurdlers.  Much of that credit goes to my three sons.  In 2009, Alec was my hurdle coach, Troy was a senior hurdler, and Quinn was a freshmen hurdler.  They got it all started in the early days of Plainfield North.  My hope every year is to have a freshmen under 17.00 (last year 17.00), and a couple of varsity guys under 15.00 (last year 14.55 and 15.04).  The 2014 Illinois state champ was Antonio Shenault of Lake Park running 14.14.

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Tony Brown of the Crimson Tide showing athleticism. Brown ran 13.38 but was not the best hurdler in Alabama’s 2014 recruiting class.

Even though 14.14 is a great time for the Lake Park junior, the Crimson Tide has two hurdlers who would have made Shenault look slow.  Marlon Humphrey ran 13.24, and Tony Brown ran 13.38.  These guys are future Olympians.  Baylor’s football hurdlers aren’t quite as good.  Ishmael Zamora ran 13.68, Chance Casey ran 13.80, and Austin Jupe ran 14.14.

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300 INTERMEDIATE HURDLES … Like 100/200 stars, almost all hurdlers do both events well.  I have coached three 300 Intermediate state champions.  Every year I want one freshman under 45.00 (PN freshmen record 42. 77) and one varsity guy under 40.00 (last year 38.90).  The Illinois state champ was Conor Dunham of St. Ignatius running 36.90.  Humphrey and Brown of Alabama ran 35.60 and 37.32.  Baylor’s guys aren’t bad either, three guys under 38.00.

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Marlon Humphrey of Hoover High School, now an Alabama football player.

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LONG JUMP … The long jump may be one of the most under-rated tests of athleticism.  When I coached 6’3″ 215-pound Braden Jones, I would tell him “run fast and jump high.”   Braden went 23’4″ and later played for the Minnesota Vikings.  Running fast and jumping high is a dynamic combination.  Every year I want a freshmen jumping 20’0 (last year 20’0) and a varsity athlete going 22’0 (last year we had a junior who went 21’0″).  The 2014 Illinois state champ went 23’1″.

The Crimson Tide has thirteen players who long jumped over 21’0″.  Anthony Averette went 25’2″ and DeAndrew White went 24’0″.  Baylor’s football team has four guys who would have been Illinois state champions in the long jump (24’10”, 24’02”, 24’01, and 23’10”).

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TRIPLE JUMP … It’s hard to get kids to triple jump.  Without proper technique, the triple jump is a nightmare.  When guys do it well, it is impressive.  The triple jump has been an embarrassment for my track teams.  Hopefully that will change.  We had a 40’0″ freshmen last year.  The 2014 Illinois state champ was Marcus Jegede of Lake Park at 48’5″.

DeAndrew White (the guy making the one-handed catch in the earlier picture) of Alabama went 48’0″ in high school.  Darius Jones of Baylor went 49’6″.

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HIGH JUMP … The NFL Combine tests vertical jump, but I’d rather have a high jumper.  Last year I had a 220-pound high jumper who went 6’7″.  Everyone wanted to know where he would play football.  However, Manny Bofah was from Ghana and chose to play the other type of football, soccer.  I’d be happy every year with a freshmen going 5’10” (last year 6’0) and a varsity guy going 6’4″ (last year 6’7″).  The 2014 Illinois state champ, Jonathon Wells of Fox Lake Grant, jumped 7’0″.

Alabama has a 6’6″ high jumper.  Baylor has a 6’11” high jumper.

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Manny Bofah high jumped 6’7″ for me despite his size, 6’3″ 220.  Manny is shown here clearing 6’6″ with ease.

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SHOT PUT … There is no test of explosive power better than the shot put.  Athletes must combine size with speed, coordination, and explosion.  I’ve never met an elite shot putter who did not have NFL potential.  When I’m looking for shot putter, I want big guys who can grab the rim.  If I was a varsity football coach, every big kid in my program would be a shot putter.  Our freshman standard is 40’0.  Our sophomore standard is 45’0″.   We had two varsity guys who were decent, 50’11 and 49’10”.  These numbers pale in comparison to our state’s best.  Martinus Mitchell of Collinsville threw 61’01” to win the state.  Mitchell is 6’6″ 240, with a 7’1″ wing span.

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Grant Hill of the Crimson Tide is 6’6″ 306. This offensive lineman threw 58’10” in the shot and 203’07” in the discus.

32 guys on Alabama’s roster threw the shot put in high school.  At Plainfield North we can’t get our biggest and strongest freshmen football players to throw the shot, and I’m the freshmen football coach.  Where is the disconnect?  I don’t know, but if one-third of Alabama’s football roster were high school shot putters, maybe ALL big & powerful high school football players should take note.  Two offensive lineman for the Crimson Tide were elite in the shot put, Grant Hill threw 58’10” and Anthony Steen threw 58’9″.  Baylor’s LaQuan McGowan threw 62’1″.

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DISCUS … Most guys good at the shot put are good at the discus.  However, elite discus athletes remind me of power forwards in basketball.  I want freshmen who throw 120 and varsity guys who throw 150.  The Illinois state champ, Stephen Hubona of Benet, threw 185’1″.

The Crimson Tide’s Grant Hill threw the discus 203’07”, 59-feet further than my best thrower last year.  Baylor has guys at 184’02”, 182’10”, and 178’06”.  How do discus throwers train?  They sprint, they jump, and they lift.  Strength and quickness are keys to success.  Big guys need track and field.  Track and field needs big guys.

Time for the Pitchforks and Torches

How much more information do we need?  Elite football are not specialists.  Galileo was put on house arrest because he said the planets rotated around the sun.  When this article is published, the authorities may come knocking at my door.

Why do Athletic Directors fail as leaders?  They shrug their shoulders and consistently allow coaches to directly or indirectly encourage specialization at the cost of kids.  When will we put kids first?  High school athletes are being recruited by sports entrepreneurs.  Entrepreneurs want the parents’ money.  Parents make the wrong choice for their kids.  Elite football players run track or play basketball.

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Specialization and athletic entrepreneurs are ruining youth athletics. Time for pitchforks and torches!

If I was a principal, a superintendent, or a board member, I would speak against specialization.  No educated person speaks for it.  No one.  I would want my entire athletic program to be terrific.  Sports may be only 5% of the pie, but the athletic program is the “window to the school.”  Great schools have winning athletic programs.  Not just football, all programs.  A rising tide floats all boats.  Specialization is the cancer of high school athletics.

The thirteen events listed above are measuring sticks of athleticism.  Understanding the numbers may seem impossible for speed-challenged people who never participated in track and field.  Becoming a fan may seem impossible for a football-centric single-minded coach.  That is why Tracking Football is becoming such a valuable service to college football coaches.  The PAI (Player Athletic Index) is a proprietary “height, weight, speed, and power ratio” designed for football players at each individual position.  The PAI makes it easy for college football coaches to rate players, no track PhD needed.  Aaron Hunter of Tracking Football is in constant discussions with NCAA football coaches.  The most recent meetings have been with the Stanford football program.  College coaches recruit athletes and athletes run track.

I will leave you with this phone conversation that may or may not have ever occurred:

NCAA Coach: So tell me about your linebacker.
HS Coach: He is 6’0″, 230, and led our team in tackles.  He lives in the weight room and can squat 500 pounds.
NCAA Coach: Does he run track?
HS Coach: No, none of our guys run track.
NCAA Coach: Coach, all three of our starting linebackers threw the shot over 55-feet, one guy threw 58-feet.
HS Coach: Is that good?

Please share this article so others may benefit.

You may also enjoy reading Tony Holler’s, “10 Reasons to Join the Track Team”.

By Carl Valle

It’s hard to narrow down the top weight room tests, but after plenty of requests here are my current favorites, including the origins and influences of them. Some of them are well known, some are exotic, and some require a little equipment outside the weights used, but all of them are scientifically valid and team friendly. It can be difficult to choose the tests for many reasons, but the most difficult decision was to choose tests that a wide audience would find useful. With an appreciation for data and technology, some of the tests will require a little help from measurement tools and coaches should think about what is important to them.

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Figure 1: Photo Credit – Funbobby Kwasny at Crossfit SubZero, Thunder Bay Canada.

Selecting the Right Tests

When I get asked what tests I find valuable, I respond first with what transfers and what influences long-term development. It’s important to know what activities can give you a more rapid and easier improvement acutely, and what activities will be a long-term investment. For example doing snatches from blocks is a staple of mine with some athletes because they are quick to teach and are great tools when working on power. Very few of my athletes jerk unless they are power athletes with a history of great strength training experience. Athletes typically require proficiency in the jerk pattern as well as cleaning to get the bar up. Not too many soccer athletes can jerk, but getting an athlete to snatch 75% of their bodyweight in a year shouldn’t be a hard challenge.

My criteria for tests are straightforward. They should be part of the training process and act as workouts themselves. Vertical jump testing, for example, is very revealing, but nobody is going to product the next Klokov from repeated jumps, and weight room tests should include external weight. I included jump squats and weighted countermovement jumps since they had an additional load instead of bodyweight only. I did not include traditional jump tests or field tests. The goal of any weight room test is to have some transfer to sport, and an easy way to see changes in global performances is to do linear and change of direction speed tests. Some tests are more indirect in transfer, but don’t underestimate the value of general strength and power. Last, the need for the tests to be clear and practical is essential.

Final Considerations of the Tests

I included some outside expert advice and the influences of why I chose tests so readers can see my reasoning. Also included with the tests and rationale behind their selection, are some details in the administration of the data. My hope is that all of the tests are a guide for coaches trying to apply sound sport science and intelligent coaching. One last parting thought on safety, always be wise and walk away with something than push things too far. None of the tests are dangerous but with any training risk is involved. Be sane and focus on the process rather than record boards and making team coaches happy.

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The Classic Maximal Strength Test 2.0

Everyone should know what a maximal strength test is, but not everyone should be doing it. Most maximal strength tests are usually barbell tests, but some include machines or alternative options like using dumbbells or other loaded equipment like weighted vests. I prefer the idea of a near absolute one-repetition max and take advantage of current methods of evaluation from experts like Mladen Jovanovic. His recent innovation on strength testing improves the accuracy of estimated one repetition testing with submaximal loads. Every coach worth their salt worries about injury when doing heavy loads, and the goal of intelligent training is to improve athletic performance without increasing the risk during training time. So if I can get very accurate and valid estimation of maximal strength without the cons of absolute testing, I am interested. I do a lot of singles with exercises but choose to use specific outputs with power measurement tools than just prescribe loads and percentages. The reason for focusing on bar path, bar displacement, and bar velocity is the need to get very granular data on the true potential of the athlete for that exercise.

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Figure 2: Strength tests are with current technologies and innovations in data analysis. Above is Michael Boyle demonstrating the Rear Foot Elevated Split Squat. Using Velocity Based Training and Mladen’s formula for getting repetition maximum estimation based on speed of the lifts, it’s a good compromise to get submaximal lifts to see estimated absolute abilities rather than what one can do for just five reps or similar. Using sound math and technology, coaches can continue to employ their methods while adding deeper insight.

Mike Boyle prefers to use a combination of weight vest and kettle bells for his Rear Foot Elevated Split Squats (RFESS) testing, and I recommend an enterprise wearable power device for his athletes. This way he can do submaximal testing for his athletes without changing the protocol. Higher rep testing is harder to select weights that hit the range selected, and being too light will decrease the accuracy of the estimation. If an athlete is skilled enough and experienced, exercise can detect the output accurately with a wearable, thus increasing the accuracy of the ability. Traditional testing of squatting and benching will find near unlimited options for testing strength, and adding other measurements can sharpen the information gathered from the results.

Take Home Lesson- I know body composition is a tricky thing, but in college it’s not just performance but health. If you can get something beyond weight, it makes athletes start thinking about their body speed being a power to weight ratio when doing a strength test. I strongly recommend reading Mladen’s work on using Gymaware for estimating 1 RM from bar velocity. I prefer squatting over deadlifting for transfer, but most strength tests are not predictors of success, just indicators of change from the program.

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Snatch Options for Power Indices

Many coaches ask me why I don’t find cleans to be the best options for athletes, and I respond I love them for training but not for testing. What I have changed over the years is the use of more snatching because I find more people can modify their body mobility than wrist mobility, and I can use lighter loads overall. When training for power, I like high wattage but have come to the agreement that Bryan Mann found years ago that improvements in cleans are not tickets to improving performance. Coach Mann’s test on Velocity Based Training provides thought provoking ideas on bar speed and adding more precision in training. Bryan Mann coined the term Velocity Based Training and focused on science instead of branding, helping the profession evolve further. Two primary driving variables are popular now with bar tracking technologies, but peak or average power and speed are not ideal metrics. Recent advancements of Coach Mann and others like Dan Baker are leading us away to raw metrics and sending us to combination metrics that include ratios and other forms of the numeric expression. The reason I like snatches from small blocks is that the double knee bend can be evaluated and compared to above the knee hang or high block snatches. Focusing on the length and higher extension of the exercise provides better transfer and muscle recruitment, and the exercise is more valid in expressing power beyond just peak or average scores.

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Figure 3: Two-time Olympic Athlete Hector Cotto is doing Snatches in Puerto Rico. Using tools that can address body types that may be less advantageous with specific exercises, coaches can see more information about how athletes are improving rather than just crude outputs.

Moving a bar fast over time (average) and having a great snap (peak) is not sufficient. Average speed with load is too crude to interpret, and having a maximal output without technique (kinematic information) is not responsible. The argument is that testing for power may be a fool’s errand or wild goose chase, but if you are doing the training test to see if at least you are doing a better job improving that activity. Some tests are not going to show any correlation or causation to ultimate performance, but most training has little transfer in isolation at all. For example, some of the best finishes on the podium in Olympic events never had an all-time test performer in the weight room, but our goal is to make sure one is sufficiently prepared. Power testing increases the probability of evaluating improvement, and one can get a dozen metrics of power without using a force plate. When snatching coaches have two choices when trying to test the exercise.

Above the Knee (hang or blocks) – A nice option for athletes who are not very experienced in the snatch exercise. You want to see the bar distance and mean power to get an audit on full range and high output provided the exercise is done correctly. I am not a big fan of mean or average power, namely because most exercises are more complicated than a simple expression of force, but gross movements are just raw indicators.

Below the Knee (floor or blocks)- The better option is to include some way to allow a double knee bend for interpreting some use of the stretch-shortening cycle. The more elastic contribution of an exercise, the more likely the information is useful because of transfer rate. Peak power and bar displacement is important. Impulse metrics, or force times time can’t be distilled easily with accelerometers, so make sure one is using video or an LPT to gage the algorithm sensitivity.

Take Home Lesson- Let’s start looking at wattage differently than averages or peak points, since we are at the point to look beyond those metrics with the right tools. The future is body type profiling and creating metrics that summarize the output in kilograms, wattage, and temporal factors. Bar path and distance matters, and force-time profiles are what coaches want.

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Speed Bench for Central Fatigue Estimation

The only upper body exercise that made the list is the bench press for several reasons. First, the lift is simple and clearly enjoyed by many athletes and coaches, making it a good candidate for testing. Second, many team sports do not tax the upper body in training or in competition−throwers, in season contact and combat sports are excluded−making bench press a possible way to look into the fatigue of the central nervous system. While not perfect and the research is scant on information here, speed bench can address system fatigue when the upper body is not fatigued from training. Looking at the ratio between the lower body lift and running/skating output compared to upper body lifting can show a light correlation to fatigue states that are local (peripheral) and more global (CNS).

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Figure 4: When looking at the wide ranges of bar speed athletes, the ability to see the difference between very heavy loads, medium loads, and light loads isn’t valuable. Knowing the difference between very obvious loads is nice but what coaches want is to see the differences between similar loads over time and the sensitivity requires technology. Ask an athlete if he can tell the difference between 185, 250, and 345 pound bench days is foolish. Coaches want to know if similar workouts not to failure are creating adaptations or digging an athlete further in overreaching states. (Development and Validity of a Scale of Perception of Velocity in Resistance Exercise J Sports Sci Med. 2014 September;13(3):542-549)

Two or three years ago I was told that the golden ratio of two to one (2:1) or double bodyweight bench press was the magic ticket, but the fastest men in the world have lousy bench press numbers. To think Usain is hitting 190 kilos or 400 plus pounds is a joke. The real evaluation is the drop-off from a personal best and the current status of pressing output and the relationship of upper and lower indices for central fatigue. When athletes who are not spending a lot of time pushing or pressing see drops in training numbers, it’s likely that overreaching is happening and a general reduction of load is better than changing a training program.

Take Home Lesson- Fatigue monitoring and Power Management are about seeing internal and external loading and the interaction of the weight room. Doing this is very hard because a huge sampling pool is needed with the necessary articulations to get the context of upper body fatigue as well. By having all of the data in one AMS system like CoachMePlus, Smartabase, and tools by Haloview, coaches can see what is interacting with training.

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The Loaded Reactive Jump Squat

I love reactive jump squats because of the eccentric values (lengthening against resistance), not just the concentric (shortening against resistance) information that bar velocity provides. Some coaches have endorsed the RSI or reactive strength index for evaluating the performance. That is foolish for several reasons. Performance should be tested directly as much as possible, and the RSI is not a great test for team sports outside rugby. Olympic sport maybe, but if you looked on the results of every Olympic athlete who won a medal and asked if they have done depth jumps to get them better you will see a mild level of users. If you polled the NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB, and professional soccer clubs if they do it, you will see less than 5% doing this regularly. Jump testing for jump athletes is adding fuel to the fire, since the only time you want to get this information is during training, and most athletes are overloaded because seasons are long and designed for entertainment rather than athlete health. Athletes are too banged up to do jumping, and teams can’t spend time in line with contact mats. Even if one is to buy more mats, the problem of observing and recording data becomes a challenge since many teams don’t have favorable coach to athlete ratios.

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Figure 5: Repeated Squat Jumps with the Gymaware are valuable for coaches wanting to compare the differences between Countermovement Jumps and Repeated Jumps. This comparison requires a load that is very light otherwise the exercise loses elastic responses. The sensitivity needed to determine the kill point of the elastic response requires a device with the precision and accuracy. Gymaware meets these requirements in the LPT market. So far I have not seen validation studies with accelerometer metrics, but the algorithm can do this with enough time since Myotest proved to show value years ago. It’s up to the companies and users to work together to make sure the metrics are valid and reliable.

So why reactive jump squats? Hard to define reactive since it’s not clear about contraction speed, but I like any jump squat activity that includes elastic responses that are better than squat jumps from a static start. Eccentric contractions are major stimulators to adaptation and are also very demanding for recovery. A compromise is to get just enough elastic response for stimulation, but not enough to retard recovery of the body. Coaches want two things from Reactive Jump Squats, a metric of work done (power compared to load and body weight) and the ability to be consistent with the technique. Reactive jump squats are not heavy because the athlete must have sufficient airtime to get a good foot contact, and they need enough impulse to generate enough power to get off the ground.

In addition to using force plates and spending time on video analysis, coaches want estimations that are actionable. A good solution is accelerometers on the bar or LPT products like Gymaware. Tendo doesn’t have enough tension and slack while dropping down into a loading position eccentrically will not be accurate enough to use the data. Also angle sensors correct the lack of horizontal data, so bar bath and athlete technique differences can be accounted for. You want to create a force-time curve that is slower than the RSI, but more useful than a CMJ (countermovement jump).

Take home Lesson: Eccentric and elastic information matters. I hate the Tendo Unit for many reasons, but the lack of a quality way to get eccentric data is why accelerometers and angle tools with Gymaware make Tendo obsolete and worthless accuracy numbers. Jumping is demanding for team sports or those banged up from heavy training, so a compromise Reactive Jump Squats. Getting high effort, sufficient elastic response, and minimal impact on connective tissues.

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The Raptor

Over the last few years, several coaches and experts have influenced me to go beyond staying in my comfort zone and after months of literal blood and sweat, and tears of joy I have the uber metric. Thanks to hard working athletes and great advisers, my favorite test is four sets of four different exercises progressed by blending the contractile dynamics of muscle into something beautiful. Be warned though, this test requires additional metrics outside the weight room, so I lied a bit with the title.

• Set 1 Bar Complex of Choice after general warm-up
• Set 2 Jump Squat X 5
• Set 3 Counter Movement Jump X 5
• Set 4 Reactive Jump Squat to Early Fatigue 6-8 reps

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Figure 6: Combination metrics and fusion between other measurements outside the weight room is the future. Here is an iPhone screenshot of a training session with one of the best coaching minds in Ireland, Shane McCormack. Note the move away from one metric only on the Push Strength device reading. The display is shown as a horizontal presentation for this article; the actual screen display is a portrait and not split landscape.

This, believe it or not, is not a workout. If this is too much testing for you rethink your athlete capacity a bit as I have seen this work with soccer athletes at high levels, provided they started the season lifting real loads and not doing workouts for retirement homes. If every athlete can do this once a week or twice a month, you can reveiw a large amount of information. If you are doing hormone testing and full biomarker analysis, you are good shape. If you add readiness data and TMG and Myoton readings, then you are ahead of the curve. So far only six consultants in the world do this, and no North American Sports team has the algorithm to interpret this. Doesn’t matter, just do the tests and see what you can glean out of it.

Benefits of doing the test series above

• The entire series is a gradual rise of output that makes a safe, but explosive warm-up for a great training session.
• The cumulative work does give athletes some small capacity in the weight room, and this adds up and pays off at the end of the season.
• Most coaches are familiar with the exercises, and they are rather simple.
• Coaches can look at the EUR or Eccentric Utilization Ratio between sets 2 and 3, and contrast stiffness metrics between sets 3 and 4.
• Blood profiling and TMG can get an indication of the fiber estimation, and hormone and endurance biomarkers can track changes over the season to personalize training in-group environments.
• The testing can calibrate against physiological markers like CML, EEG, and HRV
• Real-time data with a simple iPad can help athletes on the fly decide if they are going to do the workout as requested or do something submaximal by backing off just a bit. I like Olympic lifting and then doing some squatting.

Take Home Lesson- You don’t need a force plate and much more than a VBT device. As the products become cheaper, expect high school coaches to rethink what sport science and administration is demanding of them. It’s no longer cookie drive sales going to pay for uniforms; it’s going to be additional fundraisers to pay for equipment in the weight room beyond the barbells and stations. The goal of good testing is to make it camouflaged as training and use the data by mining it as much as possible.

Closing Thoughts on the 5 Tests

Maybe you have your tests and better metrics. Good! The key is to write down why you like some tests and ways to make them better. A wise coaching adage is good testing is simply good training, and conversely good training is testing in some way. Coaches can create a culture or work with existing cultures by embedding testing (Marco Cardinale Term) into workouts. Some words of advice with testing too often, testing not enough, and test days. I don’t like resting too much for tests because it’s hard to compare the tests during heavy training or competition phases so don’t add more than an extra day or two. Make sure the music and shouting is a minimum, since arousal levels can inflate scores and make athletes dependent on external resources instead of the training. Finally, the rhythm of testing is enough to keep people honest and not burn them out. Just like training, athletes get bored of doing the same things so make sure you don’t test more than once a week, and don’t leave a gap of more than 30 days from testing.

Special Thanks- Many people should be given credit to this article as I am not writing from meditations at the nearby coffee shop. Please read Strength and Power in Sport by Paavo Komi and do your homework. The tests and my interpretations are not perfect, so feel free to comment below.

I wanted to thank Inigo Mujika, Landon Evans, Mladen Jovanovic, Hakan Andersson, Bryan Mann, Marco Cardinale, Mike Stone, Henk Kraijinhoff, Dan Pfaff, Jose Fernandez, The Alosi Brothers, Ryan Reynolds, Mehis Viru, Jim Snider, Mike Potenza, Boo Schexnayder, Gary Winckler, Roger Enoka, Gil Blander, Mike Boyle, Matt Delaney, Dan Baker, Dr. Ashley, and the late Carmelo Bosco. Especially my grandfather who tutored me in math and physics for 1000 hours from 1990-1994.

Many have influenced me so my apologies if I missed anyone.

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By Hewitt Tomlin and James Peters

The Founding

Before founding TeamBuildr, we recognized a fundamental flaw with strength and conditioning at the high school, college and professional level. Coaches have used several methods of prescribing and tracking strength and conditioning programs in the past two decades. However, few have been effective and affordable enough to impact strength and conditioning programs materially in schools and at the professional level.

The most common example includes creating thick paper packets that athletes fill out during the off-season. Other examples include emailing Excel spreadsheets, creating Facebook groups, sharing PDFs, color-coded binders and other inventions that may get the job done, but fall short of what the 21st century has to offer.

The idea struck that if technology could be utilized (notably software and the internet), then coaches could not only create individualized, custom workouts for their athletes, but also save time doing while doing it! Even more, we imagined that we could apply social media elements to create competition and accountability often seen in the weight room – and put it online for a generation of tech-users.

After building a modest Minimally Viable Product (MVP) and getting oriented with the NCAA regulations, TeamBuildr ran a beta with Johns Hopkins lacrosse. That trial period taught a valuable lesson in the importance of the feedback loop and interpreting behavior & usage. In other words, it was quickly realized that the product is never “built,” but continuously “being built.”

The Business

The first two years were the hardest at TeamBuildr because of the business decision to “bootstrap” the company without funds rather than raising investment money. Among other reasons, we simply believe that a company willing to listen to its users without the pressure of quick profitably will make for a better quality product and overall experience.

Largely with the help of a core group of loyal, high school and collegiate S&C coaches providing feedback, TeamBuildr has been able to grow to what it is today. We cannot express with words how grateful we are to these coaches who spent precious budget dollars on a half-baked product – they are the foundation of what many coaches enjoy now.

Our purpose is simple: Help high school, college and professional coaches run a more streamlined and efficient strength and conditioning experience for their program.

The Platform

TeamBuildr does not provide, sell or promote any strength and conditioning programming. The software is a simply a platform on which strength coaches can build their workouts. Again, this is based on our philosophy as a company: We are software developers and therefore create software. Our customers are strength and conditioning professionals; therefore, they should be the ones making the decisions about to strength and conditioning.

TeamBuildr is web-based and is, therefore, accessible on any computer, tablet or smartphone. It allows coaches to send workouts electronically or print them out in the weight room. Lastly, TeamBuildr stores and secures fitness data, which allows coaches of all skill levels to make better decisions when training their athletes.

The Calendar

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Figure 1: The Calendar.

The core of TeamBuildr is our Workout Calendar. The Workout Calendar allows coaches to create the actual programs that are assigned to their team. The Calendar has gone through several iterations, and we consider it a feature that will continue to improve (a new beta calendar is currently in testing today).

The Workout Calendar can be multiple calendars – one for each team or position group. A coach can simply toggle between calendars in order to build workouts for different groups within his or her program. The calendar can also be grouped – it’s often common for the Football calendar to have many other calendars underneath it. This allows the user to build the common components of a workout for a team in one place (warm-ups, cool downs, core, etc.), while only inserting specific workouts on separate sub-calendars.

Obviously, creating a workout from day to day is not efficient for coaches. So, we allow coaches to save their workout programs and load them into the calendar, which essentially creates a “library” of saved workouts. As one can see, this feature alone is why many coaches are spending more time with their athletes and less time with a computer.

For any given day, a coach can build a workout by adding:

• Notes
• Warm Ups
• Lifts
• Runs or Cardio (including footwork and agility drills)
• Circuits
• Cool Downs (available in beta currently)

Coaches can also attach a video or document with each exercise for the athlete to refer to in our app.

Team Feed, Messaging and SMS

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Figure 2: iPhone app to track attendance.

Once coaches build workouts on the Calendar, athletes can then receive the workouts in a variety of ways: text-message, email, printouts, and via our mobile app.

In addition to accessing the prescribed workouts, athletes can also receive group text messages from their coaches. Typically, the head coach will send texts to the whole team, whereas position coaches may send texts to their respective position group. Coaches can opt to send team-wide emails or even use the TeamBuildr built-in private messaging.

Since TeamBuildr stores maxes, coaches can assign percentage based lifts, which will calculate suggested weights for the players to use on each set of a given exercise. Also, Total Volume Load as well as Rep Count can be calculated for reporting purposes. Each lift can require weight input, rep input or simply check completion. Once a player completes a workout, the coach may assign post-workout feedback. Feedback can range from “How would you rate the intensity of the workout on a scale from 1-5?” to “How many hours of sleep did you get last night?”

When athletes interact with TeamBuildr, they typically enter the following:

1. Number of the weight they are using (if not already provided based on the assigned percentage)
2. Number of reps recorded (if the workout is AMRAP or other)
3. Time for circuits
4. Velocity if using Tendo units or other trackers

Once players input data back into TeamBuildr, the Team Feed begins displaying information, such as the setting of new personal records and recent changes in rankings. Players may comment on posts and coaches may also make announcements here as well, essentially making the Team Feed a social media platform for the strength and conditioning program.

Reporting

At the moment, our company is focusing on bringing advanced strength and conditioning metrics to our coaches. Our latest beta release includes Volume Load and Rep Count, which is calculated by combining the set and reps coaches assign the players and what the players report to TeamBuildr.

In addition to the beta features, the software platform allows for attendance and workout participation tracking. Many of our high school coaches will use our attendance feature on a tablet in the weight room to keep a running record of attendance, as opposed to using a clipboard or Excel file.

Plans for Advanced Reporting include more extensive metrics on volume load, rep count, average load (per team vs. per player), total volume load and more.

Using TeamBuildr in the Weight Room

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Figure 3: Max Tracking

TeamBuildr has evolved into a tool that coaches and trainers use year-round, not just in the off-season. Many coaches and trainers have found ways to use TeamBuildr while in the weight room working with their athletes. Some schools mount iPads or other tablets near weight racks for players to enter their workout data in real time. Other coaches display current leaderboards and rankings on television screens in the weight room.

One common use for coaches in the weight room is recording maxes. While many coaches record maxes using Excel or a clipboard, coaches using TeamBuildr can simply use a tablet to log numbers directly into the TeamBuildr cloud. That number will immediately become part of that player’s workout history. Better yet, maxes are posted to the Leaderboard immediately and are editable by the coaches that record them.

The Future

While many fitness technology companies look to make major disruptions in the industry, TeamBuildr feels like its best chance at helping the most people possible is by solving small problems. By optimizing many processes commonly found within a strength and conditioning program, TeamBuildr immediately provides a huge boost in efficiency and time-savings.

We would like to be able to help every coach run better, more efficient, and more intelligible strength and conditioning programs. However, we realize that if there were a magic formula to do so, it would have been done already. Our contributions to the coaching world come from listening carefully to our user feedback, aggregating it, and making the hard decisions about which features can benefit the most coaches today.

That being said, it does not mean that our company does not have an aspiring vision. In the end, we would like TeamBuildr to be a tool that is just as valuable and delightful for our athletes as it is for our coaches. This may be the hardest task. We believe that when an athlete and coach are both motivated (and enabled) to be the most efficient with the task at hand, then the potential for gains is optimized.

For more information, visit our website at TeamBuildr.

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By Carl Valle

Most coaches want to take flying sprints of various lengths and units of measurements and convert them into velocities. This table provides the split times on the left column and converts the 10m split into three expressions of velocity. The second column is the meters per second expression, followed by the kilometers per hour column, and finalized with the miles per hour list to the far right. If you are doing a longer fly run, such as 20 or 30 meters, simply divide by 2 (for 20m splits) or 3 (for 30m splits) and you have the 10m time split. While the 10m will be an average time, it is assumed that the athlete is actually holding speed throughout the sprint. If you are getting a flying sprint from combine testing and you are still using yards, convert the 10 yard split with the formula below.

(10 yard / time split) * 0.91 = Max Velocity m / s

For convenience a full table is here so coaches can quickly at a glance see their splits match with the corresponding velocities.

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Time Speed Conversion Chart

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By Tony Holler

Football coaches are full of slogans.  Recently I spoke to a former athlete who played football in the Big Ten.  The idea of “creating toughness” through abusive coaching still lives.  An entire culture of small-minded football coaches exist, even at some of our most prestigious universities.  “I have a drawer full of football propaganda t-shirts.  All-In.  Courage.  Passion.  Relentless.  We talked a lot about mental toughness.” In ancient Greece, Spartan boys were forced to endure beatings to make them strong warriors.  Some football coaches continue this archaic practice.  My former athlete, along with his teammates, were subjected punitive conditioning, punitive hitting drills, and other forms of creative abuse.

I continue to search for happy & healthy sports programs.  Happy and healthy kids perform well.  Too many programs produce misery as they attempt to create toughness.  I may be on a quest for an unrealistic athletic utopia but my Quixotic journey continues.

Your purpose in life is to find your purpose and give your whole heart and soul to it. — Gautama Buddha

My journey began many years ago.  Being the son of a teacher and coach combined with my innate ability to over-think made me a strange student.  Evaluation of my teachers and their methods often overshadowed the subject matter.  I have total recall of my former teachers and coaches.  On the other hand, I can’t remember the phone numbers of my children.

I am told that I love praise.  I don’t know if that’s good or bad, but I’m probably guilty as charged.  To this day, I love encouragers.  My favorite teachers and coaches treated me with respect and believed in me.  I hated punishment.  I still do.  In a previous life, I must have died in a Spartan beating.

My track program attempts to be the best of all worlds.  We train smarter, not harder.  Practices are short.  Athletes work hard by choice, not by demand.  We cherish winning but we celebrate individual improvement.  We make track & field into a team sport.  My program is not alone.  Many enlightened coaches have chosen to abandon the old ways.  I wrote about one of those programs last summer in “Sprint-Based Football“.

In a perfect world, a teacher or coach should be a beacon of light.  Kids, win or lose, should have a terrific experience.  Students should go home with stories about the classroom.  Athletes should look forward to practice.  Many programs have other objectives.  Too many football locker rooms should take down their silly slogans and just tell the truth.

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My Journey

My journey has led me to a football team in LaGrange, Illinois.  Nazareth Academy is a private, Catholic high school of less than 800 students.  With the IHSA multiplier, Nazareth plays football in Class 6A in an 8-class system.  The team is coached by Tim Racki.  Racki won four consecutive state titles at Addison Driscoll in 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004.  His overall record at Addison Driscoll was 76-13.  Nazareth is presently 13-0 and will play Lemont (13-0) for the 6A state title at 1:00 Saturday, November 29th, at the University of Illinois.

Talent is the key to winning.  Athletes win games.  If given the choice, I will always take the team with the most athletes.  FBS teams award 85 scholarships, FCS teams offer only 63 scholarships.  Alabama would be a 40-point favorite over Alabama State.  Why?  Alabama has 85 highly ranked recruits.  Alabama State has 63 lesser-ranked recruits.  Enough said.

However, when the levels of athleticism is similar, other things come into play.

For the past several weeks I’ve studied something that should be of interest to all of you.  I have written three articles on the subject, the introductory “Hamstrings, Activation, and Speed“, the follow-up “Speed Never Sleeps“, and “You Only Know What You Know“.  The last article was written as a summary of everything I learned in a 20-hour “Be-Activated” seminar with Douglas Heel of Cape Town, South Africa.  The first two articles were written as an outsider looking in.  The third was written from the inside.

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Douglas Heel working on Bartlett coach Eric Kramer.

Nazareth is the home of the only football team in the country who has adopted the teachings of Douglas Heel and has fully installed “Be-Activated”.  When I say fully installed, I am not exaggerating.  Activation is central to Nazareth football.  When I first asked coach Tim Racki about Activation, he replied without hesitation, “It’s a difference-maker”.

Let’s get one thing straight right now, “Be-Activated” is not MAT (Muscle Activation Techniques).  MAT has been made famous by Greg Roskopf and his famous patient, Peyton Manning.  In addition, “Be-Activated” is not ART (Active Release Technique).  There is no business model for “Be-Activated”.  I am not a part of some advertising campaign, pyramid scheme, or religious cult.

Some of you will question my excitement.  Some of you will question my lack of skepticism.  People can think what they want, but I am a science guy who doesn’t believe in ghosts, demons, or zombies.  I don’t believe in jinxes, karma, or fate.  I teach my students, “there’s no magic, there’s only science and illusion”.  I have a very sensitive “bullshit meter” and live by Mark Twain’s advice, “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it’s time to pause and reflect”.

I did not drink the Kool Aid.  I did not pledge my life to a religious doctrine.  I am not trying to sell you anything.  What I am sharing will not make me a dime.  “Be-Activated” is something that can change a football team and maybe change your life.  That’s all.  Ha.

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Injury Prevention and Rehabilitation

Football coaches are all too familiar with the Steinbeck idiom “the best laid plans of mice and men”.  Football teams all over the country are decimated by injuries.  Seasons filled with championship dreams often end with a sad whimper.  Most football teams regress during the season.  I am a track coach.  At least in football, guys get taped up and play.  Track athletes who are 5% reduced by an injury go from first to last.  There is no margin for error in track & field.  Rest, recovery, and health dwarfs whatever can be accomplished in practice.

The typical football team has a trainer or two at every practice.  Trainers typically tape ankles and diagnose injuries.  They apply ice.  They do concussion protocol.  Without injuries, trainers have very little to do.  Trainers react to injuries.  Activation is proactive, not reactive.

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2014 ESCC MVP, Juilan Love, is shown here with an activation stick before practice. Julian is activating the psoas. The entire team activates themselves during this period. Pre-practice and pregame team-activation is warmup, activation, focus, and breathing all wrapped into one 15-minute session.

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Team activation lasts 15-18 minutes. Here Dex Kelly is using a stick to activate his quads. Ryan Kramer is in the background.  The slogan on the activation stick reads “ACTIVATE & DOMINATE”.

In Nazareth’s 13th game, only one player on a roster of 53 was injured and unable to play.  98% of the Nazareth’s roster was activated and healthy. In 9 of Nazareth’s 13 games, no more than TWO players were out of competition.  In each playoff game, 52 of 53 players were ready to go.  46 of Nazareth’s 53 players played in all 13 games. 

The seven-year injury data is compelling.  “Be-Activated” was first implemented three years ago.  Prior to activation, the entire Nazareth football program averaged 73 injuries per year.  Injuries are defined as something causing a player to miss at least one practice or one game.  A season-ending injury is considered one injury.  One missed practice is considered one injury.  Since activation, injuries have been reduced by 45%.  In 2008, there were 87 injuries, in 2014’s extended season, there has been only 31.  The number of combined fractures and surgeries have been reduced from 9.0 per year to 1.5 per year.  I realize this is just one team, but 83% reduction in fractures and surgeries is significant.

Concussions may end football as we know it.  Boxing was on top of the world when I grew up.  Not anymore.  At Nazareth, concussions have been reduced by 28%.  From 2008-2011 Nazareth averaged 13.3 concussions per year.  Since activation, the yearly average has dropped to 9.3.  This year Nazareth’s program had eight concussions, but only ONE of those concussions involved a varsity player.  Wow.  Activated muscles supporting the head may have a positive effect on limiting concussions.

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The green bars indicate injury stats after activation had been implemented in 2012. As with all programs, activation has improved since since implementation. The lighter-colored companion bars indicate the combined number of concussions, fractures, and/or surgeries per year. The total number of severe injuries in the past two seasons, entire program, was only 17.  In 2010, the number of severe injures was 30.  In 2011, the number was 22.

How does activation decrease injuries and increase the speed of recovery?  When muscles are working in sync, in sequence, and fully activated, the body moves correctly.  Too many simple-minded people treat a hamstring injury by treating the hamstring.  To prevent hamstring injuries, the same people try to make the hamstring bigger and stronger.  Athletic movements are sequenced chain-reactions.  Weak links in the chain and improper sequencing leads to injuries.  When the same compensation patterns are reinforced, injuries linger and recur.

In addition to activation, it is important to note that Nazareth typically practices for less than two hours.  Team activation is a part of that two-hour practice.  Practices usually include nine 10-minute segments.  Nazareth never tackles to the ground in practice.  Enlightened college and professional coaches are moving away from excessive contact in practice and limiting time on the field.  In my mind, this makes sense.

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Performance Enhancement

When activated, players immediately feel ready to perform.  Obviously the word “feel” leaves everyone wondering, “is this a placebo effect?”.

One of the critical points in the process is the testing before and after activation.  The ability of a muscle to function correctly is measurable.  I can not take you through the entire process but take my word for it, a non-functioning glute can easily be diagnosed.  An activated glute is measurable.

Sequencing must happen from Zone One outward to Zone Two and from Zone Two to Zone Three.  If the sequencing does not originate with the psoas, all bets are off.  I will not rewrite my last article here but the psoas and diaphragm basically function as the same unit.  The diaphragm expands the lungs downward, the psoas connects the lower vertebrae to the femur and functions as a hip flexor.  The reciprocal muscle to the psoas is the glute.  The diaphragm, psoas, and glute make up Zone One.

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This is what breathing looks like. Notice the lower abdomen of 6’1″ 196-pound Jordan Brooks. Also, notice Jordan’s FOCUS.

It’s impossible for coaches to prove points with scientific data from massive studies.  We rely on anecdotal evidence and the art of coaching.  Chris Korfist’s last article,  “Is Your Squat Making You Slower and Wrecking Your Vertical Jump“, showed seven guys who look like they might be the leaders of the philosophy club.  York’s group of sprinters were amazing.

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Chris Korfist, with an emphasis on activation, produced a 4×1 team that finished only .02 behind our state champion, Edwardsville. York’s B-team ran 42.40 and their A-team ran 41.48. Anecdotal evidence? Yes. York won the team state title. When you consider the fact that Chris Korfist worked weekly with the IHSA Cross Country State Champs, Hinsdale Central, your interest in activation should be heightened. When you find out that Chris Korfist activates Nazareth football players, you might want to keep reading. To quote Stephen Stills, “There’s somethin’ happenin’ here”.

I have only completed the “Level 1 Workshop”, so I’m just a beginner.  Last week, my junior sprinter, DeVaughn Hrobowksi was activated for the first time.  DeVaughn ran 0.96 in the 10-meter fly.  I have timed thousands of 10-meter flys in the past six years.  DeVaughn set our school record without having a sprint workout in the past six months.  Last year we had only one recorded time below 1.00 … just one, 0.99.  The year before, we had none.  We do fly-tens over 100 times per week.  Anecdotal evidence?  Yes.

Activation must be experienced to be understood.  Dr. Tom Nelson believes activation must start with the head coach.  From my experience, those who experience Be-Activated “get it”.  Those on the outside looking-in are skeptics.  My last article was titled, “You Only Know What You Know”.  Those who speak against activation only know what they know, and they don’t know activation.

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Impressive to see the sprint coach of the track state champs working on Dex Kelly before the Lake Forest game. Notice that Dex Kelly is rather uncomfortable.

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Focus and Awareness

Am I the only coach who believed adrenaline was a good thing?  Pregame motivational speeches stimulate natural performance enhancers, right?  The threat of losing makes everyone play harder.  If players know they will be punished for poor performance, they will fight like hell.  Fear is a powerful drug, right?  Isn’t fight or flight central to the competitor in all of us?

Track is a strange sport.  We run meets all year with a handful of people in the stands.  Sometimes I joke that I coach a team of orphans.  Parents routinely boycott track meets.  The cold, wet, and windy weather of the Chicago area may be the reason.  The fact that track is considered by many to be a recreational activity may also be a factor.  Running our final contest in front of 20,000 people is a paradigm shift for everyone competing in the state meet.  I always tell my kids, “90% of all state qualifiers will not run their best at the state meet.  Train wrecks are everywhere.”  My advice is to detach and stay relaxed, no need to get excited, just stay focused on doing your job. Usain Bolt was in his own world when he set Olympic records in Beijing.  Bolt was oblivious to the billions of people watching his race.  He was in a zone.

Football is different.  We have to prepare players for high-speed collisions.  With the exception of the quarterback, everyone should “play like their hair’s on fire”.  I’ve witnessed the prototypical pregame locker room.  I’ve experienced the yelling and the banging on lockers.  Players work themselves into a frenzy.  I once coached a running back who nearly overdosed on energy drinks before a game.  If you agree with this nonsense, you need a weekend with Douglas Heel.

Activation is a connection between mind and body.  Adrenaline interferes with that connection.  Activation moves the body towards the parasympathetic, not the sympathetic.  The sympathetic is all about fight or flight.  Freeze is the third f-word in the description.  Flight, flight or freeze is exactly what happens to those track athletes at the IHSA State Meet.  Athletes who stay connected mind, body, and spirit, … they are the exceptions.  The exceptions set records.

I recently heard someone speak of Tom Brady’s unique ability “to turn excitement into focus”.  While others are intentionally trying to lose themselves, players like Tom Brady find themselves.  Activation helps athletes to find certainty, purpose, and confidence.  Have you ever been “in the zone”?  I once made seven consecutive perimeter shots in a college basketball game.  The rim seemed huge.  What if there was a drug that could put you “in the zone”?  Activation may be the key.  “The Zone” is also described as “Flow” by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi.  Flow is the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity.  Would any coach reject this?

Nazareth

I first observed Chris Korfist doing activation about one year ago.  I completed a 20-hour seminar in October.  Douglas Heel personally activated me.  After my personal experience, I needed to see activation in a group setting.  Dr. Tom Nelson D.O., the Nazareth team doctor, invited me to visit.  Tim Racki is the head coach, but Dr. Tom Nelson may be the soul of the team.  The authenticity of Dr. Nelson is unique.  I have not encountered many people in my life with a larger life-force, spiritual energy, charisma, etc.  The activation work done at Nazareth Academy is greatly enhanced by the presence of Dr. Nelson.

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Dr. Nelson activating 6’6″ 275-pound highly-recruited offensive tackle Jack Shutack before the Lake Forest game.

Alone, Dr. Nelson would not be effective.  Tim Racki is the key.  The head football coach is critical to activation.  Without 100% buy-in, activation will wither on the vine.  Even if the team doctor, trainers, and coaches are gung-ho, activation will be a joke if the team remains skeptical.  This is not the case at Nazareth.  I witnessed a commitment to activation equal to the commitment to win games.  I know this seems bizarre, and it is.  Imagine this … it’s halftime and the team takes their seats.  Fire and brimstone?  Blocking assignments?  Defensive adjustments?  None of the above.  Dr. Nelson leads the team in breathing.

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Halftime of the Lake Forest game … I’ve been in thousands of locker rooms with dozens of coaches. I’ve never experienced this. Dr. Nelson is leading the team in breathing.  All-ESCC RB Nolan Dean and All-ESCC linebacker Dex Kelly both have their eyes closed, 100% focused. You can see their lower belly expanded. Powerful stuff.

Breathing is the key.  Correct breathing that expands the lower abdomen, relaxes the body, and allows the deepest muscle in the human body, the psoas, to function correctly.  Athletes are brought back to a sense of focus and awareness.  Flow is rekindled.  Players individually regroup and get back into “the zone”.  In addition, the breathing is done together.  I tingle when I write this.  Together.  Is there a more powerful word?  Together is coaching Nirvana.  Breathe.  Breathe.  Breathe.

Relaxation will allow us to play faster with more awareness. — Tim Racki

When I learned about this focus on breathing, I was skeptical.  I expected breathing to be mentioned a few times during warmups.  Maybe after a fumble or interception some Zen-like coach would calm a kid down by telling him to breathe.  When I attended my first practice I witnessed activations done by Dr. Nelson and the Nazareth trainer, Andrew Wyman.  The team activation session resembled a non-talking totally focused warmup.  Self-activation was a part of that session.  Players were instructed to breathe and they did this together.  Assistant coaches assisted only with hydration, no talk.  In matter of fact, the previous day, Coach Racki got upset with his assistants for talking to players during activation.  Tim Racki can be a hard-nosed taskmaster.  You definitely want to stay on Racki’s good side.  Breathe.  Breathe.  Breathe.

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Coach Racki is activated and in control.  I loved his pregame statement, “If tomorrow wasn’t promised, what would you give for today?  Win and advance!”

When I attended my first game, I experienced everything but the team mass at 9:00 am.  From 10 am to 11 am, Dr. Nelson and Freelap’s Chris Korfist activated player after player.  Picture acupuncture done with fingers.  Picture a hybrid of surgery and massage.  Dr. Nelson and Chris Korfist talked to every kid as they were activated on tables.  The words were spoken softly, calmly, and confidently.  Players were encouraged.  I love the word encourage … “to give courage”.  Players want to be activated.  The pain is intense but every kid wants it.  Players believe in activation because it works.  Before the St. Francis game the following week, Dr. Nelson and Chris Korfist were joined by Dr. Eric Janota, D.O.

At 11:00 am players went to a beautiful auditorium.  In total darkness, Coach Racki took the team through visualization.  I lost count after I heard “breathe” 100 times.  Later in the visualization, background music increased the effect.  There was no talk of winning and losing.  No one spoke.  Total focus.  Eyes closed.  Total darkness.  Breathe.  Breathe.  Breathe.  The last segment of visualization was a loud football music video full of incredible plays and big hits.  One was from Mississippi State who ironically got beat later that afternoon.  At the end, the lights went on and Coach Racki barked, “Activation at 12:10″.

At 12:10, I saw no passes thrown, no plays reviewed, and no footballs.  Instead I saw activation sticks.  After I heard “breathe” for the thousandth time, I realized I was experiencing something special, something unique, “a difference maker”.  A strange thing occurred to me, I had not considered Nazareth losing to Lake Forest.  Winning and losing never crossed my mind.  I had been swept away by the “flow”.  Like the players, I was “in the zone”.  Dr. Nelson asked me, “What would you give to play one more game?” and I almost teared up.

The players took the game field for a short warm-up.  The temperatures were below freezing but no one was cold.  Nazareth beat a good Lake Forest team 54-24.

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#36 Devonte Dunn is a 6’2″ 260-pound sophomore. This is how activated players play.

Game number 13 was more of the same with Nazareth winning 56-28 over Wheaton St. Francis.  Nazareth scored 28 points before St. Francis made a first down.

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215-pound running back Nolan Dean has nearly 2000 rushing for the year.  6’3″ 255-pound All-ESCC Pat Kilcommons leads the way.

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Julian Love was the ESCC MVP. In the first half against St. Francis, Love scored four touchdowns, three different ways:  two touchdown receptions, one interception return, and a 95-yard kick-off return. The week before, Love returned a punt for a touchdown. Love ran track last year as a sophomore, running 22.86 in the 200 meters. Julian Love has been offered by Illinois.

In my introduction I said some bad things about Spartans.  However, I loved the 1998 book “Gates of Fire” by Steven Pressfield.

Spartans routinely beat their sons and forced them to endure unimaginable hardships.  In addition, babies deemed weak or imperfect were left to die of exposure or sold into slavery.  Despite the repulsive acts of the militaristic Spartans, the Spartans fought well and fought together.  “Gates of Fire”, later to be made into a cartoon-like movie “300”, told the story of the Battle of Thermopylae.  Like all history, the truth is shrouded in mythology.  Even if the story is nothing but a fable, I use it every year to teach athletes a valuable lesson.

Nazareth Academy is 13-0 and will play for the Illinois Class 6A State Championship on Saturday, November 29th.  Their opponent is 13-0 Lemont.  Predicting the outcome is impossible.  There will be a battle, that’s all we know.

The Nazareth football team has given me a gift.  They have allowed me into their tight-knit group to understand activation.  Coach Racki has given me total access to all things Nazareth.  In return, I would like to share with the Nazareth football team a story I tell my teams every year.  I tell the story of the 300 Spartans.

When the Persians brought 100,000 warriors to conquer Greece, they had to enter through a narrow passage called Thermopylae.  In an attempt to slow down the Persians, the Spartans chose a group of 300 warriors to delay their advance.  The best warriors were not chosen.  Instead, the 300 warriors with the strongest wives were chosen.  You see, the mission was a suicide mission.  All of the warriors’ children would become fatherless.

Your football game next week is not a suicide mission, but the outcome is anyone’s guess.  The Spartans understood their fate and had no illusion of victory.  However, they went into battle with their heads held high, full of confidence.  The confidence had nothing to do with the outcome, their confidence was due to readiness and training.  More important, they believed in each other.  On their shields was the Greek symbol for unity, lambda.  Confidence, certainty, awareness, focus, and togetherness … brothers breathing as one.

As in all mythology, the exact words are in question but I like the following interpretation.  When representatives of Xerxes, the Persian king, were negotiating for free passage through Thermopylae, the leader of the Spartans, King Leonidas, refused to negotiate.  Xerxes sent the message, “We will blacken the sky with our arrows.”  And to this, a Spartan officer named Dienekes, responded, “Then we will fight you in the dark”.

As a coach, I’ve always believed excellence is our mission and winning is our objective.  Every game, we lay it all on the line.  We compete like there is no tomorrow.  We should not fear losing.  We are never certain of the final result, but are certain of our training and we will fight as one.  The game is just a game, but the significance of that game is beyond the understanding of those never experiencing battle.

Somewhere in our DNA, we long to be a part of something, to stand together, and to fight as brothers.

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Control what you can control.  Be fearless.  Be certain.  Be activated.

Breathe.  Breathe.  Breathe.

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