Just Fly Performance Podcast

Today’s episode features performance coaches James DiBiasio and Collin (CT) Taylor.  James and CT work at T3 performance in Avon, Ohio, and have a progressive approach to athletic performance training, encapsulating strength, movement, athleticism in a holistic manner that fits with the progression of athletic skill, and leveling up one’s abilities as a human being.  James and CT were both college athletes in baseball and football respectively, and CT played arena football after his NCAA years.  In addition to their coaching, James and CT have been running the “Cutoffs and Coffee” podcast since 2020, having interviewed nearly 50 different guests. It’s been enjoyable to see more elements of chaos, risk, perception/reaction, and overall athleticism, emerge in the sports performance process in recent years.  Humans are the species on this planet with the greatest overall dexterity of skills, and yet, this dexterity is rarely leveraged in the average “training program” to a shade of its potential.  “Training” is something that is traditionally heavy on data, but low on chaos, and yet, sport, as well as the array of FLOW inducing human movement practices, are quite the opposite.  Yes, we still want to perform movements that improve the strength of muscles and tissues, while increasing capacity, but at the same time, we also want to give athletes challenges that allow them to expand their athleticism.  On the show today, James and CT get into how they have incorporated a variety of athletic skills, flips, and calisthenic movements into their training, how much their athletes enjoy it, and how it links to dynamics on the field of play.  They chat about how to leverage principles of intuition and chaos in the training day, and even week, speed training constraints, and finally, James and CT finish with an insightful view on the role of “difficult” training routines, and higher volume capacity-oriented training sets.  This was a fun podcast with a lot of take-aways, and highlights the ways that the field of athletic performance training is expanding and evolving. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Lost Empire Herbs, and the Elastic Essentials online course. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 3:58 – Who wins the “bang energy” drink quantity competition between James, CT and Will Ratelle 6:49 – How James and CT use calisthenics, flips and tricks to level up their physical abilities 13:02 – How training movement skills and a variety of abilities has inspired the linking of these various flips, tricks and skills with traditional athletic performance 26:15 – How risk becoming involved in a skill changes the dynamic nature of that movement 36:00 – How James and CT look at training in its ability to prepare an athlete for working with other coaches, or situations where the work may be unpredictable 38:36 – How James and CT’s evolved training programs are perceived by parents and other coaches, and how they have gained trust over the years 43:05 – Moving through an “intuitive warmup” into a more programmed primary strength training session, and how a powerful warmup with a lot of “human” elements can make the strength training portion much better 52:31 – Changing the environment and the drill to get an outcome vs. trying to coach and cue excessively 1:04:07 – How to put difficult/capacity training exercises in context, and how to utilize higher volume training to athlete’s advantage “We’ll play around on the bars when we are in a training session with athletes, we’ll goof around and do different warmup styles, front flips and rolls, exciting and non-normal movements that can pique curiosity, and maybe after the training session, those kids will pull out the mat again” JD “That’s another way to get immediate buy in (the ability to do muscle ups, flips and tricks) because they know we are exploring training and we are training just as hard, if not harder than these kids are, and it can leave the 4 walls of the weight room” CT “I tell our young coaches to train like your career depends on it; and that doesn’t mean, “increase your back squat”” JD “There is an addicting feeling that first time you go to try something you are not sure if you can do; the amount of nerves that you get, and the physical response that happens in your body” CT “If we are only working hard in the same direction all of the time, the diminishing returns are going to happen really quickly” JD “We have your traditional speed work which is a traditional day for acceleration, then we have small sided games, and open games” JD “Our small sided games could involve med ball tag, 4 on 4, 4 on 1” JD “Kids come with a lot of tension, and one of the first things I do is make fun of them, or make fun of me; and they see the guy in the coach bucket cap doesn’t take himself too seriously” CT “No matter what we do in the weight room, we’ll have success, because we are coming in with that intent, and coming in off the field where we were sweating (laughing) and working hard, and we are ready to produce those outputs in the gym” CT “We want kids to laugh, we want kids to fail, and we want to show them that we do that too” CT “That’s more powerful for me to change the environment than to cue the same thing over and over again, and not get a result, and when I realized that, it opened up into pretty much every category of speed we could do” JD “(Rotational sprint philosophy) is not going to work with a 12-year old kid, and it’s not going to work with a college kid who has been taught that acceleration is at a perfect force vector of 45 degrees and moving like a robot” JD “I try to intentionally get away from the point where I am talking more, and I am listening” CT “Now, the next time you are faced with something difficult in life, understand that with a little bit of intent, you can now accomplish it” CT “Doing things because they are hard is not a good enough justification” CT “We do 15-minute lunges to warm up on Wednesday before we play a game” JD Show Notes CT Wall Flip   View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Collin Taylor (@therealct) About James DiBiasio James is the chief development officer at T3 Performance in Avon, Ohio.  He graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University with a B.A. in Human Health and Kinetics and minors in Education and Psychology. At OWU, James was a 4-year starter for the baseball team, and 2-time All NCAC selection. During his freshman season, he was awarded the NCAC Newcomer of the Year award. James also played football at Ohio Wesleyan during his final semester, helping the team win their first conference championship in over 25 years. James spent two summers playing with the Ironmen in the Prospect league, earned a spot on the All-Star team, and was selected as the First Team All Prospect League Second Basemen. He graduated from Westlake High School in 2008 with a 3-time all SWC selection, and was named to the Mizuno All-Ohio team for baseball. About Collin Taylor (CT) Collin Taylor is a performance coach and offsite training director at T3 Performance in Avon, Ohio.  CT earned his bachelor's degree in Sports Broadcasting with a minor in Communications from Indiana University. He also played football at Indiana. CT has his training certifications in A.C.E. and is also USAW certified. He has been a coach at T3 and has continued his education with T3 Performance over the past two years. After Collin graduated in 2009 he played Professional Arena Football for 7 years. His last 3 seasons were spent with the Cleveland Gladiators, where he led the team in receiving yards over the course of those 3 years.

Today’s episode welcomes back coaches Cal Dietz, Dan Fichter and Chris Korfist in a truly epic multi-guest podcast.  The amount of coaching and learning experienced between Cal, Dan and Chris is staggering, and they have been influencing the training practices of other coaches since the early 2000’s. Speed training is always a fun topic, with a lot of resonance to many coaches, because it is the intersection of strength and function.  Training speed requires an understanding of both force and biomechanics.  It requires knowing ideas on both cueing, and athlete psychology.  Since acquiring better maximal velocity is hard, it forces us to level up on multiple levels of our coaching, and that process of improvement can filter out into other aspects of performance and injury prevention. On the show today, fresh off of their recent speed training clinic collaboration, Cal, Dan, Chris and I talk about a variety of topics on speed and athletic performance, including “muscular vs. elastic” athletes, the importance of strong feet (and toes), reflexive plyometric and speed training, as well as the best weight room exercises and alignments that have a higher transfer point to actual sport running.  This was a really enjoyable podcast to put together. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Lost Empire Herbs, and the Elastic Essentials online course. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 2:50 – Who wins the quality sleep award between Cal, Dan and Chris 5:45 – Looking back on elastic vs. muscular athletes in light of the DB Hammer era, relative to now where we are talking more about wide and narrow ISA athletes 15:42 – Thoughts on athletes who do better to train with weights above 80% of their lifting max, and then athletes who do better with less, and how to train these athletes year-round 19:12 – Dan’s take on altitude drops, and how much athletes can progress into drops, or be more responsive to it than others 22:25 – The reflexive nature of things like dropping, falling and “plyo-soidal” oriented over-speed training 33:00 – Some different strategies Chris sees in sprinting on the 1080 with elastic vs. muscular athletes in mind 40:21 – Foot and toe strength, athlete function, and the role of the nervous system 50:05 – Thoughts on foot positions in light of weight-room work, and its link to sport speed 54:38 – How stronger athletes can manage a wider step width in a sprint start, vs. weaker athletes 1:03:58 – How athletes work off of coach’s mirroring of a movement 1:07:55 – Cal, Dan and Chris’s favorite single leg training movements for speed and athletic movement, particularly the “Yuri” hip flexor training movement 1:18:10 – Moving past “barbell hip thrusts” in training into standing or 45 degree hyper type versions “I think the elastic component boils down to altitude drops” Fichter “Everyone is going to deal with that collision in a different way, sometimes it is going to have to do with tendon length, or isometric strength” Korfist “Isometrics correlated a lot closer to increasing power, after an isometric block with my throwers, than it did my sprinters” Dietz “The throwers produced a lot more force above 60%, the runners produced a lot more force below 60%” “I can give you examples where something works for my athletes, and then 16 weeks later, it might make them worse, and that’s the art of coaching” “Is the hormonal/global response (from lifting heavy weights) going to outweigh the negatives?” Korfist “We’ve trained a lot of people without jumping at all, just landings” Fichter “I tested a kid with some reflexes that were off, and as soon as we implemented some overspeed work with the 1080, those reflexes turned on” Dietz “I’m not pulling them any faster than they can run, but it changes the way they run, because it gets into this “I have got to be perfect, or I am going to get hurt”” Korfist “The one freak almost dislocated my thumb (when I tested his toe strength)” Dietz “If you can tie the foot and hip together, you are going to have a much more bulletproof athlete… we spend so much time on the knee, the knee is just a hinge joint” Korfist “Some of the best female athlete that I have come in raw, have been kids that have been Irish dancing” Korfist “Rhythmic motions heal your body” Fichter “I had a kid that loved static stretching; I hate static stretching, but it seemed to work for him; so if he liked it, go for it” Korfist “In the strength phase, our stance is wide, and then we go with a mid-stance in the power phases, and we go in a narrow stance on the glute ham, in the speed phase” Dietz “Really weak kids have very narrow starts; really weak kids cross over when they start; I don’t think you can have that width if you don’t have a really strong foot” Korfist “The brain knows exactly where to step; if you try to coach “wide” (in a start) I don’t think it’s a coachable point… I think there are a lot of things people try to coach, that you shouldn’t actually coach” Dietz “People forget that velocity gives you stability” Korfist “Someone with a wider stance gait has a vestibular issue” Fichter “You want to see if someone can get to the big toe, crawl” Fichter “You don’t tell a horrible/weak athlete to get a good shin angle” Dietz “Tangential (rotational) velocity is the name of the game, and the (Yuri) drill does it” Korfist “I had hip thrusts in all my lifts, I pulled them all and went to (the Yuri)” Dietz Show Notes Coaching “The Yuri” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDtWZ2GVrqw&t=5s About Cal Dietz Cal Dietz is currently the associate director of athletic performance for men’s and women’s Hockey at the University of Minnesota, and has worked in the athletic performance department since 2000.  He has consulted with Olympic and World Champions in various sports and professional athletes in the NHL, NFL, NBA, MLB, and Professional Boxing.  During his time at U of M, he help founded and chairs the Sport Biomechanics Interest Group with its purpose to explore the physiological and biomechanical aspects of advanced human performance encompassing the various aspects of kinesiology, biomechanics, neuro-mechanics and physics.  Dietz has also given numerous lectures around the country, as well as publish several scientific articles and dozens articles on training. Dietz has co-authored the top selling book, Triphasic Training: A systematic approach to elite speed and explosive strength performance. About Dan Fichter Dan Fichter owns and operates WannaGetFast Power/Speed Training, a sports performance training business in Rochester, NY that offers training to elite athletes.  Dan is one of the leading applied neurological training experts in the world, and has made numerous connections between clinical level neurology, and athletic performance and sport training.  Dan has coached athletes in all sports from all over the country, and is in two different Halls of Fame for his own athletic prowess in football. Fichter’s clients have included pro hockey players Chris Thorburn (Winnipeg Jets), Stanley Cup champion Brian Gionta (Buffalo Sabres), Ryan Callahan (Tampa Bay Lightning, US Olympic Team), Shane Prince (Binghamton Senators), Olympic track and field star Victoriya Rybalko from the Ukraine, NY Yankee shortstop Cito Culver, UFC fighter Mike Massenzio, Oakland A’s 2nd baseman Andy Parrino, Washington Nationals Infielder Chris Bostick along with Washington Nationals pitcher Brian Dupra. About Chris Korfist Chris Korfist has been a high school coach in track and football for almost 30 years, with more than 80 All-State athletes. He has also been a strength coach at the college and high school levels, working with many sports. Korfist owns a private facility called Slow Guy Speed School that helps develop athletes ranging from World Champion to middle school. He has consulted with professional sports teams all over the world, including the NFL, MLB, NBA, and Rugby League. Korfist has published research on sprint training and is an advisor for Auckland University of Technology’s SPRINZ. Additionally, he co-owns Track Football Consortium (@TFConsortium), is co-founder of Reflexive Performance Reset, and has discussed training in countless blogs and podcasts.

Today’s episode features Pat Davidson, Ph.D..  Pat is an independent trainer and educator in NYC.  Pat is the creator of the “Rethinking the Big Patterns” lecture series, is a former college professor, and is one of the most intelligent coaches I know in the world of fitness and human performance.  As an athlete, Pat has an extensive training background including time in strongman, mixed martial arts, and many types of weightlifting activities.  He has been a guest on multiple prior episodes of this series. The human body is quite complex, as is the potential array of training interventions we can impose on it.  To ease this process, and help us to direct our focus, it can be helpful to categorize means and methods.  We have spoken on this podcast often about compression, expansion, mid-early-late stance, and other biomechanical topics.  Outside of these ideas, training can also be, simply, considered in light of spending more, or less time on the ground and in contact with objects. On the podcast today, Pat shares his thoughts on a new idea in categorizing athletes and training means, which is based on that contact with the ground and deformable objects.  This goes beyond muscles, and into the sum total of a variety of muscle, joint and pressure system actions that deal with more, or less points of contact for an athletic movement. Within this system of “high ground” and “low ground”, Pat goes into exercise classification, as well as an explanation why more “aerial” exercise, such as movements involving a level of balance, are as popular as they are, based on the ground/aerial spectrum and links to athleticism.  Pat also gets into the role of the feet, particularly in mid-stance, on the tail end of this enlightening conversation.  This talk really helps us see a number of training means in a new and helpful light. Pat and I had a long and awesome talk here; based on some logistics with production and time, we’ll be jumping right into the meat and potatoes of our talk. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Lost Empire Herbs, and the Elastic Essentials online course. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com Find out more about the the online course, Elastic Essentials, by heading to justflysports.thinkific.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 4:10 – How the number of movements and skills involved in a sport can impact the training concepts 6:17 – How sports can be “more grounded” or “less grounded” 22:32 – The links between good movers, and their ability to move when the amount of “ground” is reduced for them 30:36 – How far to take and maximize “high ground” activities, in light of other athletic activities 38:31 – The link between “low ground” athletic activities and “functional training” methods 49:00 – Single leg vs. bilateral training in terms of being “high ground” or “low ground” 1:01:04 – How being in hockey skates/rollerblades, or sprinting in track spikes make movements “higher ground” 1:05.45 – Pat’s thought’s on addressing mid-stance in light of “more ground” or “less ground” 1:16:56 – The role of mid-stance in transitioning to “forefoot rocker”, or up onto the ball of the foot “The more stuff there is outside of you that you can push against, and the less deformable that stuff is, the more “ground” (type of athlete) that is” “The low ground athletes are like half-pipe skateboarders, snowboarders, olympic divers, acrobats” “High ground individuals; a powerlifter is the highest ground I can think of, weightlifters, bodybuilders, interior linemen in football” “If you look at the characteristics of low ground and high ground athletes, they tend to be very different from each other” “The 100m is an instructive thing, where it’s changing in ground as it goes throughout the race” “I basically, in the rethinking the big patterns model, without realizing it; the progressions are based off of removing influences of ground to the person” “As ground goes away; you have to create your internal ground, your fluids and forces you can distribute to create the right pressures to move off of” “A barbell is tremendous grounding” “Feed more ground to the exercise, and the person has a higher probability of being able to do it right” “The higher ground, easier to learn exercises, would also be good choices for driving a hypertrophy stimulus” “Functional training to me just means a bias towards “low ground” exercise selection” “I think psychologically, some people trend towards lower ground movements better” “I think that once the lower load bearing foot is kicked out laterally, that is the most challenging stance (from a low-ground perspective)” “You are going to have an easier time doing the higher grounded version (of an exercise)” “Ice skating is lower ground; you are standing on butter-knives on top of ice” “The higher homunculous areas are smarter places to coach from” “You need to feature strong eversion and pronation of the back foot; that is going to unlock you to be able to lateralize your pelvis (in a swinging motion)” “I break movement down to what way are you trying to turn, are you trying to turn left or trying to turn right.  If you are doing something bilaterally you are doing the same direction turn on both sides at the same time, and it squeezes you into one direction” “One of the things that I usually hear good golf swing coaches talk about is, if I set you up properly, the right stuff should just happen” About Pat Davidson Pat Davidson, Ph. D., is an independent trainer, consultant, author, and lecturer in NYC. Pat is the former Director of Training Methodology and Continuing Education for Peak Performance, and former Professor of Exercise Science at Springfield College and Brooklyn College. Author of MASS and MASS2 and developer of the “Rethinking the Big Patterns” lecture series and upcoming book on the same topic.

Today’s episode features track and sport performance coach, Jeff Howser.  Jeff has been coaching track and field since 1971, and was himself a 6x ACC champion, named as one of the ACC’s top 50 track athletes of all time in 2003.  Jeff was a sprints and hurdles coach at Florida, UCLA, NC State, Duke and UNC before his time as a speed and sports performance coach, back at Duke University. If you caught the classic episode on oscillatory strength training with Sheldon Dunlap you may have heard Sheldon mention Jeff as a source of his oscillatory rep training knowledge.  In addition to a number of elite track and field competitors, Jeff also trained the top high school 40-yard dash runner in history, who ran a 4.25 second effort. In the world of speed training, many folks gravitate towards the “neat, packaged” training methods that are easy to understand and copy, such as sprint skip drills (A-skips, etc.).  Unfortunately, these drills don’t transfer to speed in nearly the capacity that we would hope for.  As Jeff says “I’ve never seen anyone skip their way to being fast”.  True speed is a little more complex, as it involves horizontal velocity and rotation, but is still, simple at its core given the self-organizing ability of the body. In his decades in track and field, Jeff has seen numerous pendulum shifts in how speed is coached, and has experienced a wide variety of training methods.  As Jeff has said, we often go to clinics and seminars to be fed the same information with a different coat of paint.  The “dark side” of the moon represents what we haven’t seen in the world of performance, and this episode is an epitome of that. On today’s show, Jeff goes into how sprint training has changed in the last 50 years, what he does, and doesn’t find helpful in speed development, a variety of sprint and speed training constraints and self-governing drills, oscillatory lifting and power development principles, and much more.  This show blends several important elements of biomechanics, strength and program philosophy that are impactful for any coach or athlete. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 3:57 – Jeff’s background and story in track and field, and his transition to university speed and strength coaching 8:29 – What track and field/speed coaching was like in the 1970’s, and how it has progressed since then 16:17 – What is the same, and what is different in training team sport athletes, and track and field athletes, in regards to their sprint technique 23:55 – Mistakes Jeff seeing being made in synchronizing the strength and speed components of a program 26:25 – Discussing the role of oscillation training in power development for the athletic program 33:22 – Running a periodization model on the level of “syncing and linking”, going power first and building strength on top of it 39:56 – Jeff’s thoughts on the “canned” (mach) sprint drills that are very popular in training 43:16 – “Down-the-Line” sprinting, and how this benefits athletes and emulates aspects seen in elite sprinters 50:25 – Why Jeff uses “flat footed” running as a sprint constraint, and how this can help substantially once they go back to “normal” running 51:50 – How and why Jeff started using “groucho” runs, which are similar to “squatty runs” 1:01:33 – Details of Jeff’s training of an athlete who went from 4.45 to a 4.25 40-yard dash and ran the fastest high school clocking of all time “Back in my day (in the 1970’s) I was actually taught to stay on the ground and push as long as you can, as hard as you can… I had to change my philosophy, I used to coach the way I was coached; when the evidence is there, you can make the choice, you can do it correctly or not do it at all” “We put 2x4’s down instead of stick drills, because people would really reach out in stick drills” “About 3-5% of team sport athletes actually run pretty well” “Team sport athletes are “frequency freaks” (in regards to their stride frequency as opposed to length)” “The braking phase (of sprinting) in field athletes is way too long” “The problem with team sports (and speed) is we don’t get them consistently, and often enough to do a good job” “It’s really easy to build a garbage truck in the weight room” “The type of strength you develop is more important than the absolute strength itself” “The numbers driven coaches just care about “are my kids getting stronger” without any regard to what kind of strength it is” “Obviously strength is the basis of power work, but a lot of power work can be done without a lot of strength behind it” “If you take that (static catcher position) and do some bounce work with it, and do it at some different angles, you’ll be surprised at how fast you get strong” “(Oscillatory training is typically used) in the early preseason; it’s typically fatiguing, but you get strong very very quickly” “Slow heavy (lifting) basically disrupts coordination so he likes to start with power, add strength too it, and then “sync and link” again” “I used to be the old-school guy, starting with strength and going back to power.  Now I find it much better to start with power” “I’ve never seen anyone skip their way to speed… the proprioceptive value of the (sprint skip) drills are the greatest (benefit) I’ve seen” “I personally have never used a wall drill, because I don’t like locking the shoulders down” “I do down-the-line runs a lot to get the shoulders to link with the hips” “Team sport athletes have a significant stride width between the knees… Stride width is something that effects top end speed; the people who run the fastest have the least distance laterally” “The theory between running on the line is letting the hips and shoulders go through a full range of motion” “I’ve had some really good results with my athletes doing box step ups with the heel off of the box” “When you bring athletes back to a normal run (after flat footed running) they say “wow I feel so much faster”” “When you are doing a squatty/groucho run, you can’t mess up the frontside component” “Running with “high knees” doesn’t go well at all; you have to put athletes in a self-governing situation” “There’s no force being applied in an A-skip” “More elite sprinters tend to run with more knee flexion at take-off than slower ones do” Show Notes Running on a Line Over Mini Hurdles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i06qnc1AV4   Drop Lunge Into Start Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIaK97C4B9I   About Jeff Howser Former ACC champion and All-America Jeff Howser is in his 20th season as Duke’s speed and conditioning coach. A graduate of Duke, Howser was a six-time ACC champion, and was named as one of the ACC’s top 50 track athletes of all-time in 2003. He went on to earn a bronze medal at the World Championships in the 110-meter high hurdles and was an alternate on the U.S. Olympic Team. Howser ran on the international level for 17 years, was a four-time U.S. Olympic Trials qualifier and two-time U.S. Olympic Trials finalist. He served previously as the sprints and hurdles coach at the University of Florida, UCLA, N.C. State, Duke and the University of North Carolina, and was on the British national staff for Track and Field from 2004-2008. Howser also has coached a number of top-world ranked professional track athletes such as Anwar Moore (13.00-110m hurdles), Jason Smoots (6.51-60m, 10.01-100m),  Bershawn  Jackson (47.30-400m hurdles), Leonard Byrd (44.45-400m), Michelle Collins (50.00-400m ,  22.18-200m indoor), Daniel Caines UK (44.98-400m), Crystal Cox (50.34-400m, 22.34-200m), Jordan Vaden (19.98-200m), Marion Jones (7.08-60m, 10.91-100m), and other athletes from Jamaica, Great Britain, Trinidad, Ghana, Bermuda, Finland, Barbados, and the Bahamas. He also has served as a consultant in training program design for several other top-ranked track athletes from various countries which include LaShawn Merritt, Tyson Gay and Veronica Campbell-Brown. Howser also assists Athens 2004 Head Olympic Coach George Williams in coaching the Nike GW Elite Track Club. His coaching resume includes seventeen Olympians, five Olympic Gold Medalists, four World Championship Gold Medalists, and one World Cup Gold Medalist. In addition, one of Howser’s athletes ran the fastest high school electronic 40yd dash ever recorded (4.25 electronic at the Nike SPARQ Combine), which is also the second fastest time in history. He holds certifications from: National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) - Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) US Track and Field Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) - Certified Speed Specialist US Track and Field Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) - Certified Sprint / Hurdle / Relay Specialist US Track and Field Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) - Certified Endurance Event Specialist US Track and Field Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) - Certified Strength and Conditioning Coach USA Track and Field Association (USATF) - Level III Certification Sprints / Hurdles / Relays…..National Coaches’ Registry National Sports Performance Association (NSPA) - Certified Speed and Agility Specialist National Association of Speed and Explosion (NASE) - National Certification Instructor / Certification Curriculum Coordinator / North Carolina State Director USA Track and Field Elite Athlete Coach USAW (USA Weightlifting) Level 1 During his time at Duke,

Today’s episode features sports psychologist, Simon Capon.  Simon is a hypnotherapist, Master NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) practitioner, as well as the author of the book “It’s Time to Start Winning.” Since 2006 Simon has worked with professional athletes, using variety of techniques including skills from NLP and hypnotherapy.  He has inspired athletes, footballers and numerous others to achieve national, international and world titles. Simon’s philosophy is simple, create self-belief and your behaviors and actions will change and so will your results.  Simon previously appeared on episode #198 of the podcast, speaking particularly on the link between body language and mental state in athletics, as well as managing the emotional brain for performance. As Logan Christopher puts it, we are always “mentally training” whether we think we are or not.  If we do nothing dedicated to improving the processes and habits related to managing the mind well, we will simply revert to the default programming.  By focusing on the role of the mind, we can improve our motivation, consistency, clutch performance, physical abilities, as well as find a greater sense of purpose and enjoyment in each training session. In this show, Simon speaks at length on methods to stay in the present moment, how to use particular strategies to engage the sensory systems of the body, turn of the judging mind, and get into FLOW states.  He discusses the role of visual focus (peripheral vs. narrow) in sport, linking higher purposes and emotions into our movement/training, as well as a “process oriented” approach to goal setting. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 4:45 – Why spending time on a cell-phone between training sets takes one out of the present moment, and what to focus on between sets instead 13:15 – The link between modern lifestyle technology use, dopamine addiction, and the negative brain chemistry momentum generated by continually checking one’s phone 16:45 – Principles that lead to the “unconscious” flow state in sport performance 19:45 – Strategies on how to get into the FLOW state in sport 25:45 – The “Know-Nothing” state and how to use one’s senses to get into FLOW states 31:45 – How one’s visual field adjustments factor into one’s sport skill performance 35:45 – Principles of non-attachment and over-trying in sport 38:45 – “Chunking” a long and demanding task into smaller parts to improve mental focus and resilience 45:45 – Digging into purpose and higher emotions in the course of difficult training sessions 61:00 – Balancing process vs. outcome goals “Wherever you are, be there…. (if you are on your phone) we aren’t really present in the gym” “Energy flows where focus goes… wherever you are, put your heart and soul into it” “It’s not just about the gym, it’s in other areas of your life as well” “(In an athletic flow state) There’s no internal dialogue, there’s no judgements, there’s no thoughts” “We can’t always keep (the critical inner voice) quiet, but we can keep it occupied” “(Widening your field of vision, noticing your breathing, using all of your senses with your internal and external environment) allows you to play your sport freely…… it comes from a technique called the “know-nothing state”” “Mental focus follows visual focus” “Every time you go to the table, your job is to execute the strategy (not to “win the game”), it’s to be at your best, and if you are at your best, winning the tournament will most certainly happen” “Purpose is one of those things that we often under-estimate” “We all have an ego, but when you can channel it so it has a contribution to other people, then that’s great” “If a goal doesn’t excite you, it’s probably not worth having” “The next part of (goal setting) is monthly standards, and weekly and daily tasks” “Consistency (in the process of goal setting) is the main word” Show Notes How to Find Balance in the Age of Indulgence: Dr. Anna Lembke (Author of Dopamine Nation) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEfkx3DsXjs   About Simon Capon Simon Capon is a sports psychologist, NLP Master Practitioner and NLP Trainer, as well as a Hypnotherapist. Since 2006 Simon has worked with professional sports men and women. He is committed to his clients achieving the goals and ambitions they strive for. Simon has the ability to make huge psychological changes in an astonishingly fast time. He uses a variety of techniques including skills from NLP and hypnotherapy. His beliefs are that everyone has the resources to change the programmes they run in their minds so they become focused, confident and generate total self-belief. Many clients including established professional sports people have battled for years to overcome the psychological problems of coping with pressure of match play. Simon has inspired athletes, footballers and numerous others to achieve national, international and world titles. He has written articles about his work for Tennis life UK magazine, and is the author of the book “It’s Time to Start Winning”.  He has a selection of mind programming recordings available on MP3 downloads from Amazon, iTunes and Nokia.

Today’s episode brings back Rick Franzblau, assistant AD for Olympic Sports Performance at Clemson University.  In his two decades in athletic performance, Rick has worked with a wide variety of sports, as well as gained an incredible amount of knowledge in both the technology, and biomechanics ends of the coaching spectrum.  Rick, as with many other biomechanics topic guests on this podcast, has been a mentee of Bill Hartman, and has appeared previously on episode 94, talking about force/velocity metrics in sprinting and lifting. There is a lot of time spent, talking about an “optimal technique” for various sport skills (such as sprinting).  We also tend to look for “optimal lifts” or exercises for athletes, as well as optimal drills athletes are supposed to perform with “perfect form” to attain an ideal technique. What the mentality described in the above paragraph doesn’t consider is that athletes come in different shapes and structures, which cause what is optimal to differ.  Wide ISA athletes, for example, are fantastic at short bursts of compression, have lower centers of mass, and can manage frontside sprint mechanics relatively easily.  On the other hand, narrow ISA individuals use longer ranges of motion to distribute force, have a higher center of mass, rotate more easily, and can use backside running mechanics better than wide-ISA’s.  Additionally, there is a spectrum of these athletic structures, and not simply 2 solid types. On today’s show, Rick goes into detail on the impact and role of compression in human movement and performance training, the strengths and weaknesses of the narrow vs. wide ISA archetypes, what differences show up in locomotion and sprint training, as well as how he approaches strength training for the spectrum of wide to narrow individuals.  Today’s show reminds us (thankfully) that there is no magic-bullet for all athletes, and helps us with the over-arching principles that can guide training for different populations to reach their highest potential. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Lost Empire Herbs, and the Elastic Essentials online course. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com Find out more about the the online course, Elastic Essentials, by heading to justflysports.thinkific.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 4:00 – How the direction of Rick’s performance testing and KPI’s has changed over the last few years 8:00 – How structure and thorax build will play a strong role in what Rick is seeing from them on rate of development on the force plate 23:00 – What to give to a compressed narrow individual to help them in a vertical jump 25:00 – Narrow vs. Wide ISA acceleration mechanics 34:00 – Thoughts on how to help a narrow ISA improve their ability to get lower and achieve better compression in sprint acceleration, and why Rick has gotten away from heavy sled sprints for narrow ISA athletes on the 1080 44:00 – How a coach’s own personal body structure can create a bias for how they end up training athletes they work with 47:00 – Wide ISA athletes, and why they may have an easier time accessing front-side mechanics in running 56:00 – Narrow ISA athletes and backside sprint mechanics, as well as attaining appropriate range and sprint bandwidths for each athlete 58:00 – How force plate data and structural bandwidths determine how to train team sport athletes for the sake of injury prevention and sport specific KPI’s 1:10:00 – How Rick alters weightroom training for narrow vs. wide ISA athletes 1:17:00 – Rick’s take on oscillatory reps in the weightroom, and quick-impulse lifts, especially for narrow infra-sternal angle athletes “(Regarding infrasternal angle archetypes) It’s not to claim buckets that people fall into; it’s a spectrum…. You can have wide ISA’s, somewhat narrow, and narrow as hell” “Understanding where an athlete’s center of gravity is, forward, back, left, right…. And how they get there is affected by their structure… from there what shapes can they and can’t they produce, through their foot, their pelvis, their thorax, and all these things influence how they produce and dampen force, and their idiosyncratic movement in sport” “A narrow (ISA) is going to be really good at rotation; they have leverage through the external obliques, pulls the ISA down, compresses the viscera, which pushes the guts into the pelvic inlet which opens up and allows them to rotate better” “So if I take a skinny tube of toothpaste and I squeeze it; compress it from up top… that’s the only way a narrow, narrow person will be really good at high force in short windows” “If I’m a wide (ISA) I’ll have more of a nutated sacrum… so I’ll have all of this space to move into posteriorly, that’s why a wide is better at deadlifting” “If I’m a narrow, that’ll create a concentric posterior pelvic floor and an eccentric anterior pelvic floor… they are good at vertical hip displacement, a true squatty squat” “A narrow may be able to create some good vertical jump height, but their rate metrics are not very good…. They’ll get a second positive double bump on the force plate graph” “If a narrow is in a rate-dependent sporting movement, they are going to be very compressed” “Let’s say I have a soccer player, a winger, if they have a big jump height and a lot of relative motion, which may not play well in their sport, some anterior to posterior compression is going to be a good thing” “What shape changes can they make, what do they need for their sport, and for their structure individually, and understanding from there how you are developing a plan for them” “A wide ISA, inverted pylon has the steepest RFD ability” “A narrow, their center of gravity is higher; a wide’s center of gravity is lower” “It’s the narrows who have to orient the pelvis more down (in acceleration) and that’s why you often see these backside mechanics… we’d be trying to clean it up, but a lot of times, it’s structure” “That’s what his structure (narrow ISA) is going to dictate (backside mechanics) for him to get force down into the ground (in acceleration)” “We don’t want to get rid of your superpower (if you are a baseball player and it’s rotation)” “Can you give (a narrow) access to IR positions which will help them compress a little bit better” “One thing I’ve steered away from is (very heavy sled resistance training) with narrows” “The reason someone would create anterior orientation of the pelvis is to put force down into the ground… it puts them forward so they get closer to max propulsion quicker” “If I’m a wide and I have a bigger IR space (acceleration) is right in my wheelhouse” “If I take a narrow ISA and I do a shit ton of trap bar deadlift, long slow heavy grindy stuff, that’s going to compress them on top, that’s going to push their outlet way down, and they don’t have that space, so they are going to run out of room at the pelvis so they are going to create the IR top-down from the spine” “If you want a narrow to lose every bit of rotation in their body, trap-bar deadlift the hell out of them…. For a wide-ISA, a linebacker, a position player in baseball, could be a good exercise for them” “I wide doesn’t have much access to late stance, so they aren’t going to hang on through the forefoot” “A lot of narrow-ISA Olympic sprinters will pull pump-handle down to get compression” “On sprinters you are often going to have low hip IR values” “For a pitcher, more output may not have anything to do with lifting, but we give them more early stance ER and IR, they can expand and rotate better, and they have more of an on-ramp (into their throw)…. ” “You need ER to superimpose IR on top of it… I need space to create the downforce” “What happens with powerlifters? That’s the most anterior to posterior compressed sport” “We need to be careful with wide-ISA that they maintain enough ER bandwidth to store and release energy (since they are better at lifting and can do more of it than a narrow)” “If I don’t have foot (tripod) contact, I don’t have relative motion” “If there was a simple line for everybody, this shit wouldn’t be any fun” “Getting a wide ISA just back to mid-stance is often enough for them to be able to release energy from their connective tissues” “With our narrows we don’t trap bar deadlift anymore; we do a split deadlift with an open ended bar” “If you take someone super narrow, and have them do a bilateral barbell RDL, 1 they are not going to maintain their lordosis because they can’t nutate worth a damn, or if 2. they find a way to do it, they are creating the most compressive strategy in the lumbar spine… so that’s out of the program, first thing is do no harm” “If you are super super narrow, that’s when we are doing shorter impulse type stuff…. With a really narrow person, you should never see the sticking point.  If you see the sticking point, the impulse was too long and they are really going to push into late-stance” “Say I’m a pylon; that’s a ton of downward velocity, those are people who are going to have a hard time over-coming gravity” “To blanketly (make RDL a staple lift) across all populations is going to do a lot of harm” “A great thing for narrows is to get on a trampoline or gymnastics floor to develop timing (and to “catch” the concentric element of the pelvic floor)” “Wide ISA’s may do hurdle jumps with a longer contact time to learn to use connective tissue energy release” Show Notes Femke Bol: Rate-Dependant Sport Athlete: Narrow ISA needing compression to apply force to ground rapidly https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQTfXzVH1y0 Ricky Henderson (wide ISA) vs. Billy Hamilton (narrow ISA) https://www.

Today’s episode brings back Alex Effer.  Alex is the owner of Resilient Training, and has extensive experience in strength & conditioning, exercise physiology and the biomechanical function of the body.  He also runs educational mentorships teaching biomechanics to therapists, trainers and coaches.  Alex was recently on the show talking about the mechanics of the early to late stance spectrum and it’s implications for performance training. Something that has been dramatically under-studied in running, jumping, cutting and locomotion in general is the role of the upper body.  Since the arms don’t directly “put force into the ground” and the world of sports performance and running is mostly concerned with vertical force concepts; the role of the arms gets relatively little attention in movement. This is unfortunate for a few reasons.  One is that sport movement has strong horizontal and rotational components that demand an understanding of how the upper body matches and assists with the forces that are “coming up from below”.  Two is that the joints of the upper body tend to have a lot in common with the alignment and actions of corresponding joints in the lower body.  When we understand how the upper body aligns and operates, we can optimize our training for it in the gym, as well as better understand cueing and motor learning constraints in dynamic motion. Today’s topics progress in a trend of “expansion to compression”, starting with a chat on the expansive effect of aerobic training (as well as the trendy thera-gun) and Alex’s favorite restorative and re-positioning aerobic methods.  We then get into rotational dynamics in squatting, focusing on the actions of the lower leg, and finish the chat with a comprehensive discussion on the role of the upper body in sprinting, how to train propulsive IR for the upper body in the gym, as well as touching on improving hip extension quality for athletic power. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 5:00 – Why Alex thinks that the Theragun is actually a useful tool in the scope of training 15:00 – Thoughts on the use of aerobic training, and blood flow as an “inside out” expansive stimulus to the muscle and the body in general 22:30 – The importance of tibial internal rotation, and how it fits in with the ability to squat and bend the knee 33:30 – How to restore tibial internal rotation for improved squatting and knee mechanics 38:15 – Talking about Chris Korfist’s “rocker squats”, and viability in regards to specifically improving tibial internal rotation 44:00 – Isometrics and work done at shallower knee angles for knee health in respect to the vastus lateralis and vastus medialis muscles 51:00 – The importance of hip and shoulder internal rotation in sprinting, and the role of the upper body in helping the lower body to get off the ground more quickly. 1:07:30 – Narrow vs. Wide infra-sternal angle athletes in regards to upper body dynamics , and general biomechanics in sprinting 1:13:00 – Alex’s take on hip extension in sprinting and how to improve it 1:22:00 – The role of hill sprinting in improving hip extension, as well as the benefits of walking down the hill in terms of priming the body to leverage the glutes better on the way back up 1:24:00 – Why Alex likes hip thrusts with the feet elevated, relative to hip height 1:28:00 – Some key exercises to improve shoulder internal rotation for sprinting “The vibration aspect of the Theragun I really like; if you slow the landing of running or sprinting, you will see a vibration or wave-like effect of the muscle upon impact” “Whatever my upper back or torso is going to do; I am going to have similar changes at the pelvis” “My favorite (aerobic/expansive) tool now is the elliptical.  For the elliptical I cue a heavy heel the whole time; it’s going to keep you back in more of a mid-stance, internal rotation type of range; I’ve used that to improve mobility significantly to some people” “That tibial internal rotation allows the patellar tendon to be in a position to absorb force; and allows the VL to be in an eccentric position…. It allows me to bend my knee so the (tibial tuberosity) turns inwards” “To stretch the Achilles is un-necessary because if you feel your Achilles is tight and needs to be stretched is because your foot isn’t dynamic enough, or because your knee can’t bend.  Your Achilles will naturally stretch like an elastic band when I’m able to dorsiflex properly, and pronate properly, as well as bend my knee” “Like 9/10 people (this is anecdotal) don’t have (tibial internal rotation) because external rotation gets us off the ground faster… but not spend enough time on the ground which is what IR does” “You have to roll to the inside edge of your foot to get to big toe extension” “One thing you can do (to help control tibial internal rotation) is a step-down because it is going to force you to control knee flexion” “Toes elevation stuff is going to be very good (for helping to engage internal tibial rotation)” “(Long hold) isometrics are very expansive” “Anyone who has big valgus or varus in their knees, I may refrain from (squatting) to 90 degree…. Going to 90 degrees to start, the VL is going to over-power the other (muscles)” “It doesn’t have to be “corrective exercise”, it’s just training but you are modifying the depth or your center of gravity” “External rotation is about getting me off of the ground” “The collision made you pronate (in sprinting) not my body; and I have this external rotation force coming up towards my hip” “As I swing my arm to shift my torso forward, that is the internal rotation coming top-down; it’s not landing underneath me, it’s landing in front of me” “Just think of the lower half of the body, that’s externally rotating, and the fact that my torso is being pushed forward because my arms and swinging; that’s going to allow me to put force into the ground to propel off of the ground faster” “A collapsed foot; you are glued into the ground, you can’t create external rotation” “If I can’t (internally rotate my shoulder) I am going to hit the ground and my arch is going to collapse into the ground, and I am going to stay on the ground way too long” “The upper body has a massive influence on the leg’s ability to absorb the forces; and release the forces” “The front deltoid helps with humeral internal rotation” “If you are running with the elbows coming too far back; you aren’t going to have enough time to get that elbow forward across your body” “The sprinters that are narrow have more of a horizontal bias of running, where as the wides are more vertical, they go up and down” “With the split squat, I’ll cue them to press the balls of the back foot into the ground” “I’ll cue the met head (in the rear foot of a split squat) and they don’t feel knee pain in the back leg anymore” “(To improve hip extension) I could do hill sprints, I could do carioca’s up the hill; you could also have them walk down the hill (which pushes their shins back which pushes their center of mass back so that their glutes don’t have to push them as far forward)” “What I much prefer (to regular hip thrusts) is your feet are on top of something that’s higher than your hips (that’ll allow you to get the full hip extension, rather than using your back to do it” “To improve my shoulder IR during arm training, I can do front shoulder raises, because that’s going to leverage that anterior deltoid; and keep it below 90 degrees to maximize the IR range of motion… I could do bent over pronated grip tricep extensions, I could also do triangle bar tricep extensions, I could do hammer curls, even lateral shoulder fly’s can be very good, chest flys are very good” “Diamond pushups are awesome (for shoulder IR)” “The best one to me is side plank position with your palm on the ground, bent arm, heavy hand… those people need to push on the inside part of their wrist (not their thumb which is fake pronation of the hand)” “I’m going to get internal rotation of the shoulder, the elbow and the wrist.  My ankle is my wrist, my elbow is my knee, and my shoulder is my hip; I need all three of those to be in a position to gain internal rotation to gain true shoulder rotation.  If I don’t have those three or one is missing I am going to compensate somehow, it’s going to be fake” Show Notes Spanish squats for improving tibial IR https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzBj2XEzySc   Abby Steiner Sprint Technique (Forward Arm Action to Drive IR and Counter Foot Collisions) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=341OAuSUw8A   Femke Bol Sprinting Technique https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvKgjsgwmOw   High Jumper (narrow) vs. Wide (powerful sprinter) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfcUCiWDuTk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaIbajLH0kc&t=179s     Glute Bridge with Feet Elevated (Limiting Low Back Compression) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r12PcnT-NeE About Alex Effer lex Effer is the owner of Resilient Training and Rehabilitation, a name that emphasizes Alex’s unique approach to fitness, which is one that combines both aspects of normal fitness and rehabilitation principles to achieve long- lasting pain free results. Alex uses his comprehensive knowledge and passion in exercise science, autonomics, respiration, rehabilitation, and biomechanics to develop programs that promote injury prevention, sports performance, and rehabilitation through quality of movement.

Today’s episode features a question and answer session with Joel Smith. On the show today, I answer questions related to “are there any bad exercises?”, sport speed concepts, jump training, “switching” sprint drills, and much more.  I love being able to highlight and integrate information from so many of the past guests on this podcast into my own training, coaching, and ultimately, the answers I provide on this show.  In many senses of the word, this is truly an “integration” episode of the podcast series. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 3:16 –Is there any such thing as a bad exercise? 17:19 –How do we speed up soccer players? 30:25 –Do you find value in spending time on switching drills? 45:07 –Athletes who take too many steps in a start or acceleration. 53:19 –Does walking affect fast-twitch fibers? 54:45 –Setups for high jump off-season/yearly plyo program for high level jumpers? 1:01:36 –How to speed jump like elite high jumpers? About Joel Smith Joel Smith is the founder of Just Fly Sports and is a sports performance/track coach in Cincinnati, Ohio.  Joel hosts the Just Fly Performance Podcast, has authored several books on athletic performance, and in 2021, released the integrative training course, “Elastic Essentials”.  He currently trains clients in the in-person and online space. Joel was formerly a strength coach for 8 years at UC Berkeley, working with the Swim teams and professional swimmers, as well as tennis, water polo, and track and field.  A track coach of 15 years, Joel coached for the Diablo Valley Track and Field Club for 7 years, and also has 6 years of experience coaching sprints, jumps, hurdles, pole vault and multi-events on the collegiate level, working at Wilmington College, and the University of Wisconsin, LaCrosse, along with his current work with master’s, high school and collegiate individuals. Joel has had the honor of working with a number of elite athletes, but also takes great joy in helping amateur athletes and individuals reach their training goals through an integrative training approach with a heavy emphasis on biomechanics, motor learning, mental preparation, and physiological adaptation.  His mission through Just Fly Sports is: “Empowering the Evolution of Sport and Human Movement”.  As a former NAIA All-American track athlete, Joel enjoys all aspects of human movement and performance, from rock climbing, to track events and weightlifting, to throwing the frisbee with his young children and playing in nature.

Today’s episode welcomes back to the show, Rob Gray, professor at Arizona State University and host of the Perception & Action Podcast.  Rob Gray has been conducting research on, and teaching courses related to perceptual-motor skill for over 25 years.  He focuses heavily on the application of basic theory to address real-world challenges, having consulted with numerous professional and governmental entities, and has developed a VR baseball training system that has been used in over 25 published studies.  Rob is the author of the book “How We Learn to Move: A Revolution in the Way We Coach and Practice Sports Skills”. You cannot separate the world of athletic development, even pure “power” training, from concepts on motor learning.  If we look at interest in athletic performance topics by “need”, speed training will typically be first on the list.  At its core, sprinting, lifting (and every other athletic skill) has its roots in how we learn. The great thing about motor learning knowledge, is that it can both allow you to have a better training session on the day, as well as month to month, and year over year.  Training done only on the level of raw “power” as a general quality, and explicit instruction will create early ceilings for athletes in their career.  Understanding motor learning allows for more involved daily training sessions, and better flourishing of skills that grow like a tree, over time.  Whether you work in sport, in the gym, or as a parent/athlete, understanding how we learn goes a massively long way in becoming the best version of one’s self athletically and from a movement perspective. In episode 293, Rob got into the constraints-led approach to movement vs. “teaching fundamentals”, and in this episode, he goes into CLA’s counter-part: differential learning.  Rob will get into the nuances of differential learning on the novice and advanced level.  In the back end of the show, we’ll talk about “stacking constraints”, games, exploration, using the “velocity dial” as a constraint, and finally, the promising results of Rob’s research showing the effectiveness of a variable practice model. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 5:07 – How differential learning is different than the constraints led approach in athletic development 12:10 – Using differential learning as a recovery tool from intense training means 15:51 – Using constraints within the scope of differential learning and vice versa 21:28 – If and how differential learning or the CLA led approach can be too “widespread” vs. focused towards a movement goal 25:02 – Some games Rob would specifically utilize in training tennis players using constraints and differential learning 28:11 – The advantage of free flowing sports with limited rules and setups for children in the process of youth sports 36:05 – How performing exploratory movements in the weight room can fit with differential learning concepts 41:55 – Rob’s take on the innate ability of athletes to figure out movement on their own, and when to dig into constraints more deeply to help determine why they may not be solving a problem well, and the integration of analogies into the process 44:23 – Thoughts on manipulating velocity and time as a constraint, and the relationship between intensifying constraints, and the amount of movement solutions 53:30 – How using variable learning and constraint led approaches can improve players ceilings in long-term development 59:52 – The specifics of Rob’s landmark study with baseball players and long-term development “The constraints led approach is a bit more focused… you have a rough idea of where they want to be, and you want to help guide them” “Differential learning has the same goals (as the CLA), but instead of adding a constraint to push you a certain way, we are going to have you do a different thing every trial.  So maybe I’ll get you to do different stances, feet close together or far apart, different shaped barbells, different surfaces… we are trying to get you try a bunch of different things with the hope that you will find the solution space on your own, rather than trying to push you a certain direction” “Differential learning is more variability for variability’s sake” “Learning a skill (in a differential manner) actually reduces the incidence of injury” “You would never do differential learning where you did a task on a computer screen” “I would add differential learning on top of (the constraint of trying to hit a ball over a fence) by using different bat weights” “Now what I do is start (learning) with games, and if you do it right, that stroke will come along on its own” “There are certain key variants that have to be there, if not, you have to step in as a coach” “We’re doing this with the idea that we are all moving towards an elite sport endpoint… why can’t we teach kids that moving around is fun? Not everybody can be elite” “When you really ramp up the constraints, short times, high force, it really amounts of the amount of solutions you can do… so when a person is really struggling how to do something, there is really not that many options… increasing velocity can really push people, but not beyond what they can handle” “Once you work with an athlete who has the basic pattern, then you are adding in variability to optimize it” “So the group that got more variable conditions, they did better in the tests after the study, they did better their next season of high school, and they got drafted more often” About Rob Gray Rob Gray is a professor at Arizona State University who has been conducting research on and teaching courses related to perceptual-motor skill for over 25 years. He received his MS and PhD from York University in Canada with a focus on the visual control of movement. An important aspect of his work has been applying basic theory to address real-world challenges which he has done in positions with Nissan Motor Corp, the US Air Force, serving as an expert witness for driving accident cases, and consultant roles with several sports teams and organizations. In 2007 he was awarded the Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution to Psychology from the American Psychological Association.  Rob is the author of the book “How We Learn to Move: A Revolution in the Way We Coach and Practice Sports Skills”. One of the accomplishments he is most proud of is the baseball batting virtual environment/virtual reality that he developed over the course of several years and which has been used in over 25 published studies. In 2017 (Gray, Frontiers in Psychology) he published the results of a 10-year study using a virtual reality training protocol which led to clear evidence of transfer of training to real performance. In his career, Gray has strongly emphasized the communication and dissemination of scientific knowledge. In 2015, he started the Perception & Action Podcast (perceptionaction.com) to help bridge the gap between theory and the field. With over 350 episodes and 2 million downloads, it has become a critical resource for individuals working in areas including coaching, talent development, training and rehabilitation.

Today’s episode features Kyle Dobbs.  Kyle is the owner and founder of Compound Performance which offers online training, facility consulting and a personal trainer mentorship.  He has an extensive biomechanics and human movement background (having trained 15,000+ sessions), and has been a two time previous guest on this podcast. In the world of training and performance, it’s easy to get caught up in prescribing a lot of exercises that offer a relatively low training effect in the grand scheme of things.  Healthy and capable athletes are often assigned a substantial load of low-level “prehab” style and corrective exercises that they often do not need.  In doing so, both a level of boredom, fatigue and just simply wasting time, happens in the scope of a program. For my own training journey, I’ve seen my own pendulum swing from a relatively minimal approach to the number of movements, to having a great deal of training exercises, back down to a smaller and more manageable core of training movements in a session.  As I’ve learned to tweak and adjust the big lifts, and even plyometric and sprint variations, I realize that I can often check off a lot of training boxes with these movements, without needing to regress things too far. On the show today, Kyle will speak on where and when we tend to get overly complex, or overly regressive in our training and programming.  He’ll talk about what he prioritizes when it comes to assigning training for clients, as well as a “macro-to-micro” way of thinking in looking at the entirety of training.  Kyle will get into specifics on what this style of thinking and prioritization means for things like the big lifts, speed training, and core work, as well as touch how on biomechanical differences such as infra-sternal angle play a role in his programming. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 3:41 – How Kyle’s run training has been developing, since he has been getting back into his two years ago after being a high level college 400m runner 7:41 – Kyle’s thoughts on where we tend to get overly complex in the physical preparation/strength & conditioning industry 11:58 – How Kyle prioritizes exercises based on the task requirements of the athlete 16:19 – Thoughts on working macro-to-micro, versus micro-to-macro 28:50 – How Kyle will avoid trying to regress individuals to a low-level, rudimentary version of an exercise if possible, and his take on “pre-hab” work 36:50 – The usefulness of hill sprints as a “macro” exercise for glutes, lower legs, and hip extension quality 40:56 – The spectrum of perceived complexity as athletes move from a beginner to a more advanced level 48:40 – Kyle’s take on some gym movements that “check a lot of boxes” in athletic movement 56:01 – How much of Kyle’s programming ends up being different on account of being a wide vs. narrow infrasternal angle “If we can’t match the stress that an athlete is going to be encountering in their actual sport, it isn’t going to have a huge return” “I want to be able to pick the biggest return on investment from a training perspective; those are going to go into my primary buckets from a programming perspective” “If I have somebody who really needs to zoom into the micro, and we really need to get into the biomechanics weeds and decrease the training stress, those are people that we refer out to another specialist… having a good network allows you to focus on the things that you are good at and that you really like to do.  I learned early in my career that, I don’t like to be the rehab guy” “That’s my problem with the biomechanics led approach, is we take biomechanics down to such a low stimulus” “Passive assessments really don’t give me a lot of information that’s useful” “If a person is pain free, I’m not going to take them through our “glute firing patterns”, I’m just going to re-leverage their strength patterns to create a better pattern for hip extension” “I will do pretty much anything I can to not regress somebody” “The term “pre-hab”, and the way it’s been marketed, I have more of a problem with… if you have a well-rounded program that is individualized to the person in front of you, that’s about as much injury prevention as you can achieve” “The thought process of “pre-hab” I don’t mind that much, it’s the marketing I have a problem with” “You start watching (kids play games with no warmup) and you realize, I might not need to be doing all of the things that I am doing just to prepare to train, and if I do need to be doing those things, then I probably need to change my goal to get to the point where I don’t need to do as much of them” “The end goal of corrective exercise or prehab should be to not have to do it anymore” “Hills in general are the most under-utilized, high yield exercise that more athletes could be using” “I’m a huge proponent of sled pushes, lateral sled drags, backwards sled walks” “For upper body movements, for my athletes, we’re doing a lot of alternating reciprocal stuff” “When I look at pelvis and ribcage orientation, I sneak that in with ab work” “If I can reinforce (my wide ISA needs) from an ab perspective, that’s a much easier and more applicable drill to me than doing some of the classical respiration exercises; and I’m still going to be applying some strategic exhalations while I’m doing those” About Kyle Dobbs Kyle Dobbs is the owner and founder of Compound Performance which offers online training, facility consulting and a personal trainer mentorship. Kyle has trained 15,000+ sessions, been a legitimate six-figure earner as a trainer, managed and developed multiple six-figure earners, and has experienced substantial success as a coach and educator.  Kyle has an extensive biomechanics and human movement background which he integrates into his gym prescriptions to help athletes achieve their fullest movement, and transferable strength potential.