Just Fly Performance Podcast

Today’s episode features swim coach Andrew Sheaff.  Andrew is an assistant swimming coach at the University of Virginia, winners of the last two NCAA women’s championships.  In addition to swim coaching, Sheaff has an extensive background in strength and conditioning, including an internship under Buddy Morris.  A collegiate swimmer at Pittsburgh, Sheaff was named the Senior Athlete of Distinction. He was a four-time Big East Academic All-Star and a four-time University Scholar Athlete.  He writes on numerous aspects of coaching education at his website, coachandrewsheaff.com . A quote on Andrew’s blog that made a lot of sense to me was a quote by former cricket player and ESPN writer, Ed Smith, that “Because the important things are hard to coach, it is tempting to take refuge in the small, irrelevant things because they are easy.”  I find this to be extremely relevant to many approaches to athletic development where drills are often over-emphasized and over-controlled, while the actual sporting skill is often left relatively un-changed from season to season. I have found it a common theme, in modern coaching, to attempt to overly “control” an athlete’s technique through the over-use of drills, exact positions, and discrete instructions.  This can range from cues in the weight room (butt back, chest out, through the heels!) to the track (heel up, knee up, toe up!) to exact arm positions for swimming movements. On the show today, Andrew speaks on elements of control vs. athlete empowerment in coaching.  He talks on training methods that lead to lasting change in technique and performance, with an emphasis on the constraints-led approach.  This podcast was a fun cross-pollination of ideas between the worlds of swimming, track and physical preparation, with important concepts for any coach or athlete.  Whether you are interested in speed training, technical development, or just overall coaching practice, you are sure to find this a really informative conversation. 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: 4:51 – Why Andrew got into both physical preparation/S&C, as well as swim coaching, in his coaching career 6:35 – Why Andrew believes swim training remained so “old school” (based on large yardages and distances) for so long, compared to track and field 8:53 – Why so many coaches take refuge in the small/easy/controllable things, when more focus is needed on bigger, but more rewarding, real problems in athletics 12:10 – How coaches seeking “too much control” plays out in the world of swimming 15:36 – Basics of how Andrew uses constraints to allow swimmers problem solving opportunities, vs. trying to control smaller elements of the stroke 23:46 – Bondarchuk’s “Push the Hammer” cue, and the power of slightly ambiguous coaching instructions that don’t over-control the athlete’s movements 31:28 – How the unique situation of training in a 25 yard or 50 meter pool, can create more interesting training options for swim athletes in terms of constraints 35:13 – How Andrew uses constraints that are purely for exploratory perspective, versus constraints from a timed perspective 41:23 – How fatiguing particular body sections or muscles can offer a unique constraint in both swimming, or land activities such as plyometrics 46:04 – The spectrum of “boredom tolerance” between athletes, and how Andrew manages this in practice 51:58 – Why and how Andrew thinks more “standard volume” type training methods can be successful, and if they are sustainable or not 55:12 – The importance of not taking away individuals “athletic identities” away (such as excessive weightlifting or speed-endurance work) if the athlete identifies with it 58:54 – How Andrew specifically creates engagement for swimmers in his training process 1:01:32 – How looking at athlete’s overall states of readiness can become overly-mechanistic, compared to simply asking an athlete how they are doing, and comparing it to their training times 1:11:47 – How to help athletes to “undo” a poor technique, when they first start working with Andrew “A lot of times, there is a focus on the nuances, little things that are almost asthetic, but they don’t really determine performance” “(Small changes the coach can see) don’t really get down to the fundamentals that actually matter” “In swimming, the things to work on are kind of subtle and not really obvious” “You give them a puzzle to figure out, and you use constraints to take away some of the options that they would use to cheat it, and then the only way they can solve that problem is to move in different ways….. they may not figure it out in today, a week, or a month but whenever they do figure it out, you know that you have made a change that matters” “I think your training should be your technique work, and that’s where those constraints come in” “Bondarchuk had one cue: “Push the hammer”” “You focus on the one or two things that matter, and you have to ignore everything else, and you don’t give them feedback on anything else, and you make sure they just get that one thing… if you take that approach, you have to know what the fundamental thing is, and you have to apply that” “In the short term you might think you are getting more out of it by telling people exactly what to do, but in reality you aren’t really addressing the real problem” “From an exploration standpoint; as soon as they get the right idea, we are training” “When you time stuff, it’s not always maximal, but its fast enough to be relevant” “Short-term fatigue can be really useful for challenging skills too, because you are going to have to figure out a way to move differently” “If you give people success, and they see results from what you are doing, they will do pretty much anything” “In general, you need to be careful of taking away people’s identities as athletes, or as groups” “You’re not going to be able to change everything (in an athlete’s technique) so pick the thing that’s going to have the biggest impact” “Most people don’t change anything (technically), ever, they just change some cosmetic stuff” “(An athlete might not have a technique issue) they might just be out of shape” “Sometimes you have to be more extreme, and that comes with more risk… you have to put them in situations where they can feel new ways of moving, versus just telling them what to do” About Andrew Sheaff Andrew Sheaff is an assistant swimming coach at the University of Virginia, winners of the last two NCAA women’s championships.  Andrew carries a background in strength and conditioning, and writes on numerous aspects of coaching education at his website, coachandrewsheaff.com . Andrew helps coaches tackle the problem of faster swimming for every athlete, examining all opportunities to improve one’s coaching practice.  Andrew believes that our answers lie in the questions we ask.  He is interested in the relationships between components, rather than the components themselves. Prior to Virginia, Andrew was the associate head coach for Northwestern men’s swimming from 2012-2017, where he also handled dryland and strength training duties for the team, particularly the sprinters.  Andrew also served in coaching at Bucknell, Maryland, and the Bison Aquatic Club. Sheaff has an extensive background in strength and conditioning. In 2007, he worked as an intern at Pittsburgh before interning with the Cleveland Browns throughout the summer. A collegiate swimmer at Pittsburgh, Sheaff was named the Senior Athlete of Distinction. He was a four-time Big East Academic All-Star and a four-time University Scholar Athlete.

Today’s episode features Rob Assise.  Rob has 19 years of experience teaching mathematics and coaching track and field at Homewood-Flossmoor High School. He also has coached football and cross country, and is also the owner of the private training business, Re-evolution athletics.  Rob has appeared on multiple prior episodes of the podcast, speaking on his unique approach to jumps training that combines the practice with many sport-like elements. Track and field offers us a great insight as to the effectiveness of a variety of training methods, because each method will be ultimately judged by how fast an athlete ended up running, how far or high they jumped, or how far they threw.  In track and field, we combine power alongside technical development in the process of achieving event mastery. Rob has a creative and integrative process to his own training methods, and on today’s show, he speaks largely on some “crescendo style” adjustments to common plyometric and sprint drills that he uses to help athletes improve their technique and rhythmic ability over a period of time. On the show Rob talks about his recent sprint-jump complexes, use of asymmetrical plyometrics, and where he has gone with the “minimal effective dose” style of training.  He also shares his thoughts on tempo sprints in the role of jump training, and as we have spoken on in other podcasts, manipulating velocity in a movement in order to improve not only one’s speed, to help them clear up technical issues. 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: 4:17 – How Rob’s last track season turned out, and an overview of some things he changed and learned 7:15 – The purpose, and implementation of “crescendo” style plyometric training 23:05 – Specific “nuts and bolts” of “crescendo” style plyometrics in terms of sets, reps and intensities 28:20 – Thoughts on the crescendo effect, and wave-loading for fly-10 sprints, and then in the weight room 34:09 – Rob’s ideas for using basketball hoops with his track and field jumps group, and ideas for a warmup and training circuit blending basketball and track ideas 38:54 – Some of Rob’s training complexes that mix top-end speed, and controllable jump takeoffs 42:31 – How biomechanical issues in sprinting and jumping could be potentially solved via increased velocity 46:34 – How Rob has moved away, within his training group, from the “minimal effective dose” idea, especially in the volume of his long-jump approaches 50:35 – Rob’s take on tempo training and long sprints with his training group 57:34 – How Rob has been using asymmetrical skips and bounding to better replicate some jump takeoffs, and then to help teach bounding better “That skill (how to bounce) isn’t necessarily there with athletes” “We brought (the crescendo principle) into all of our regular plyos, the bounds, the gallops, the skips, the run-run-jumps” “If an athlete isn’t getting the RSI I want, I’ll make it a “speed gate golf” game, and we’ll (try exactly for a lower RSI) for a few sets, and then they’ll come back and hit a PR” “Something I need to more of that has a lot of power is the single leg bounds or hopping… with the crescendo style, that’s something I’m going to focus on more, moving forward” “If I played basketball, and I could only make layups or 3 pointers, there may be a role for me, but it would be better if I could hit a mid-range jumper, right?” “Whenever I write up a practice plan, it’s all a complex” “Now days I have no problem with having athletes take 10 long jump approaches in a session, where before, I may have capped it at 4” “I get a lot of benefits of tempo from doing jump type circuits; you’ll take a couple short approach jumps, then do a couple wicket runs, then a jump rope run, then an isometric hold, one to the next, and we are working through that circuit for 30-40 minutes… that’s how I handle tempo; and I don’t have a lot of wear and tear issues when the jumpers” “I’m not opposed to tempo, but I am opposed to abusive tempo” “It’s a good bridge, you are going to do the asymmetric skip for distance with your left, and then your right, and now you are going to do a traditional skip for distance” “Some athletes really aren’t ready to bound, like a max power bound, but they can handle it (going asymmetrically)” About Rob Assise Rob Assise has 19 years of experience teaching mathematics and coaching track and field at Homewood-Flossmoor High School. He also has coached football and cross country, and is also the owner of the private training business, Re-evolution athletics. Additional writing of his can be found at Simplifaster, Track Football Consortium, and ITCCCA. He can be reached via e-mail at robertassise@gmail.com or Twitter @HFJumps.

Today’s episode features Will Ratelle.  Will is a strength coach, at the University of North Dakota, working with football, basketball, volleyball and tennis athletes. He is also the owner of “W2 Performance”.  Prior to working in the performance field, he spent time as a professional football player, spending time with the Atlanta Falcons, Kansas City Chiefs, and Saskatchewan Roughriders (CFL). In the supportive role of physical preparation/S&C, it is very easy to partition the process of weightlifting away from the actual needs and demand of explosive, chaotic sports.  It’s also easy to get carried away with excessive auxiliary work, or “atomizing” facets of power work/RFD that don’t end up transferring to actual explosive sport skills.  In this sense, it’s helpful to personally spend time in sport, in skill acquisition, and in strength development one’s self, to intuitively understand the balance, and synergy, between athletic components. Will’s athletic background, love for sport and play, and raw “horsepower” is a unique combination.  He was a semi-pro athlete, can clean and jerk 198kg, dunks a basketball with ease, and also loves to play a variety of games and sports.  Will has an analytical process to his performance programming, and asks important questions that have use really dig into the why of what we are doing in the gym (and beyond). On the show today, Will talks about his athletic, game-play and strength background, and how despite being more than physically capable, did not make the pro level of football.  Will then goes into ideas on what we should actually be looking to improve/intensity in the gym setting.  He chats on how to avoid training things that really don’t matter in the grand scheme of everything an athlete is asked to do.  Will finishes with his thoughts on the specificity of potentiation, jump and sprint variability training, and then a great take on the “Olympic lifts vs. loaded jumps” debate. 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: 3:40 – How many “Bang” energy drinks Will believes the typical strength coach should consume daily 4:51 – Will’s background in athletics, sport, and athletic performance 9:53 – The importance of play in fitness and boosting overall athletic qualities 16:02 – Why Will, despite being athletically physically superior to many other football players, did not make it as a pro-football player and what he has learned from that 21:35 – Will thoughts on things he would choose to intensify in the gym, such as barbell velocity 27:17 – Thoughts on “generalized” power training methods 33:39 – Will’s take on not wasting time in the gym, and how to avoid redundancy in the course of training 47:58 – Will’s thoughts on heavy strongman work, squats and deadlifts and the optimal potentiation for sport skills 55:15 – How Will approaches jump and sprint variability in his warmups for training 1:03:46 – Will’s take on loaded jumps versus Olympic lifting, and the utility of Olympic lifting in sport preparation “It’s really difficult to get people,who are my peers, on a Saturday afternoon, to go play racquetball, or go play pickleball, or something like that…. When you do get a group of people to go play a game like that, they always say, “we should do this more often”” “I think a lot of times (playing) is going to have a better training effect than going in the gym for an hour” “I didn’t have the (tactical) ability that would have been required for me to play at that level… the general perception action abilities were right up there with anybody else, I just didn’t have the specific perception action abilities” “I think it’s a good idea to improve your ability to produce outputs, and once you reach a certain threshold of producing these outputs, we need to improve the context by which you can produce those outputs” “I think a lot of extensive plyos is kind of a waste; it depends on the sport, but take basketball, I don’t think they need to do any extensive plyos because that’s what basketball is; submaximal contacts up and down the court” “I do not like the rationalization of doing loaded jumps to improve “rate of force development”… I like to think of them as “you are improving jumping competency”” “I do not like the comparison of loaded jumps and Olympic lifting…. In Olympic lifting you are interacting with an external body of mass” “I try to teach snatch before clean, for a variety of reasons” “The reflexes are being trained much faster in Olympic lifts, than if you are going to do repeated, loaded jumps” About Will Ratelle Will Ratelle is a NCAA Division I strength and conditioning coach at the University of North Dakota, working with football, basketball, volleyball and tennis athletes. Prior to working in the performance field, he spent time as a professional football player, spending time with the Atlanta Falcons, Kansas City Chiefs, and Saskatchewan Roughriders (CFL). He has a passion for solving problems to issues and questions with his athletes regarding performance issues. He takes a principled approach to his training philosophy while also critically thinking about important topics in the field.

Dan John, strength coach and writer, discusses the importance of whole movement training in explosive sports like volleyball. He emphasizes the value of creativity and variability in athlete training, while cautioning against overwhelming athletes with too much information. The podcast also explores bridging the gap between training and competition, the significance of rules in a training program, and the importance of fundamentals and basics in improving athletic performance.

Today’s episode features coach and inventor, Rolf Ohman.  Rolf was born in Sweden but grew up in Brisbane, Australia. He has worked for over 40 years in international sports, as an athlete (Decathlon) and as coach at International and National level.  He was the Head Coach for the Dalian Olympic Sports Center 2016-17 and Assistant Head Coach Chinese National Team Sprints/Jumps 2018-19.  Rolf is the inventor of the 1080 Technology (such as the 1080 sprint device), and has substantial experience in both the data-based and practical aspects of coaching and training. In the recent Randy Huntingon podcasts, Randy spoke about how doing hurdle hops over too high of hurdles had the tendency to “kill elasticity”.  Rolf Ohman has worked with Randy, and has substantial experience linking the ground contact times in plyometric exercises, as well as the impulse times of various movements in the weight room, to what is observed in athletics.  Track and field athletes have faster impulse needs than team sport athletes as well, and Rolf has worked with both populations, and understands which metrics should be optimized in training for different situations. On today’s podcast, Rolf will speak on the specific drawbacks to using too high of hurdles in bilateral plyometric training, and gives his specific recommendations for which heights he feels are maximally beneficial for both track and team sport individuals.  He’ll speak on various elements of transfer in the weight room, such as the progression of the Olympic lifts, as well as thoughts on the transfer present in different elements of gym training, such as the impulse dynamics of lifting seen in elite athletes.  Rolf finishes with some thoughts on youth and long term development on the terms of speed and power.  Ultimately, this episode helps us to better understand closing the “gap” we often see between the gym, and the forces present on the field of play. 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: 4:42 – Rolf’s take on the height in hurdle hops, and how it impacts the elasticity of the exercise, as well as drawbacks to using too high of hurdles in the movement 11:13 – What the typical hurdle heights Rolf uses for track and non-track athletes in plyometric training 17:50 – Why Rolf chooses to progress the Olympic lifts in the course of training like he does 24:37 – Rolf’s use of partial vs. full ranges of motion in strength training for athletes 38:29 – Thoughts on oscillating isometric exercises with lifts, compared to a Keiser or air-powered machine setup 52:08 – How contact times and hurdle hop heights change for team sports vs. track 58:59 – How limb speed gets “set” before the age of 15 in athletes, and if athletes miss critical speed windows of training, they will be in a limited place in future performance “There aren’t a lot of guys around who can produce any sort of RSI index from 1 meter drop jumps… when I use high hurdle hops, which I rarely do, it might be in a setting when I’m seeking some kind of force production” “If I build maximum strength for my long jumpers with contact times in the 250-300ms range, is that going to help me?” “If whatever you’re doing in training is on one end of the spectrum, and competition is on the other end of the spectrum, that is “gap-osis”… if that gap is too big, you are going to be in trouble” “In the first 100-150 milliseconds (of a lift) the athletes who are the best really shine there” “We’re coordinating the neural system (in the weight room) we are creating the same coupling times that we see in competition…. It makes no sense in choosing weight room exercises that causes velocity to go to the other end of the spectrum” “Peak power comes much much earlier in normal mass, than what we thought.  The normal consensus is that, once you jump off the ground, you hit peak power just when you leave the ground.  But when you are lifting a bar, you have to slow the bar down before you reach the top, so you are reaching peak power much much earlier in the lift vs. the end” “If you put 140kg on a bar, vs. 140kg on a Keiser, you are going to generate about 25% less power (on the bar) because the weight is not getting lighter as you move” “(In hurdle hops) for me, I virtually never use anything over 30 centimeters” “You build sprinters at the age of 8-13,15, that’s where you build speed.  Whatever windows you open up, or shut down, in that age bracket, that’s what you’ve got to work with later on” “When you get to age 12-13, that’s when you have the highest limb speed you will ever have…. After that you can’t increase limb velocity anymore, it’s set” About Rolf Ohman Rolf Ohman was born in Sweden but grew up in Brisbane, Australia. He has worked for over 40 years in international sports, as an athlete (Decathlon) and as coach at International and National level.  He was the Head Coach for the Dalian Olympic Sports Center 2016-17 and Assistant Head Coach Chinese National Team Sprints/Jumps 2018-19. Rolf has worked extensively with training and testing of physical performance of individual athletes in Track & Field as well as professional soccer and ice-hockey teams. He worked with the Italian National Football Team Fitness Staff in 2012, Udinese FC Serie A Italy in 2013-14, and tested Everton FC in 2015. He has lectured in coaching and sports testing in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Switzerland, Germany, Australia, USA, England, China and Italy. Rolf is the inventor of the 1080 Technology (such as the 1080 sprint device), and has strengths in both the data-based and practical aspects of coaching and training.

Today’s episode features Tim Anderson.  Tim is the co-owner of the Original Strength Institute, and has been a personal trainer for over 20 years.  He has written and co-written many books on human performance including The Becoming Bulletproof Project, Habitual Strength, Pressing RESET, and Original Strength Performance. When it comes down to it, his message is simple yet powerful: We were created to feel good and be strong throughout life. It is because of Tim that I’ve developed a fascination with crawling, and largely, a fascination with bodyweight training in general.  So often, our thought on bodyweight training is one that revolves around ways to produce copious amounts of muscle tension, such as in gymnastics, which is great, and do so in volumes that can produce slabs of muscle.  At the same time, bodyweight training is much more than simply looking for alternative ways to seek hypertrophy.  Training with one’s bodyweight allows for a variety of reciprocal movement actions, where energy is stored and released, transmitting itself through the hands, spine, pelvis and feet.  Training with one’s bodyweight also allows us to hone on rudimentary and reflexive movement skills, such as crawling. Tim appeared on episode #154 of the podcast, talking about the power of crawling and reflexive movement.  On the tail end of that show, Tim discussed rolling for a few minutes, but I wanted to get him back to dig more thoroughly into that topic. On today’s show, Tim goes into the benefits of rolling, and how he progresses and instructs it for his clients.  He speaks about rolling on the level of the vestibular system, joint rotation (particularly internal rotation), the gait cycle, sensation and awareness, and more.  At the end of the show, we talk about modulating speeds and rhythms in ground-work, and finally, Tim gets into how his own personal workouts and training have progressed over time, and how rolling plays an important part of his own daily strength routine. 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: 3:28 – The purpose of rolling for human performance, and how Tim progresses it for clients 7:09 – The possibility of rolling to improve balance, coordination and dexterity through stimulation of the vestibular system 13:46 – Tim’s description of segmental rolling and how to progress it over time 23:30 – How much rolling Tim prescribes for various clients and individuals 26:53 – The specific elements in the process of rolling that helps to “connect the X” of the torso 32:21 – Ideas on using rolling or similar connective movements between more intensive main training sets 39:17 – How Tim looks at rolling and similar movements in light of their capacity to help improve internal rotation in individuals 46:44 – Addressing various speeds or rhythms to training movements 50:27 – What Tim’s early workouts looked like, and what his training has transitioned to now that he has gotten into his Original Strength workouts 58:29 – Ideas on super-slow crawling and the benefits of controlled bodyweight movement 1:04:02 – What the head and eye position should be like in the course of rolling “Our skin is our largest tactile organ, and when we roll, we are stimulating the skin a lot” “If you could imagine that your body is a sponge, and everything out there is information; so when you are rolling on the ground, you are trying to take that sponge and soak in the information everywhere” “If we do these three things, we’ll more than likely stay healthy throughout our lives: The first one is breath properly with your diaphragm, nasal breathe, keep the tongue on the roof of your mouth.  The second is aggravate your vestibular system, and you can do that through eye and head rolling, things like that, and the third is to activate your gait pattern” “When you add in the extra information that the brain is not getting that the nervous system is looking for; it really takes the brakes off of everything” “A roll should look graceful and beautiful; a lot of people look like a log, they move like one whole piece, rather than a piece at a time” “It’s the soft stuff that allows you to do the hard stuff better, safer, more free” “If the body is a big “X” and when we roll, a great way to do it is to take your right shoulder towards your left hip” “People want to do things too fast, most of the time I am trying to get them to slow down” “I love using slow movements to fill in the gaps so people can demonstrate full control over how their body moves” “When people really have control over their body, fast movement still looks beautiful” “I spend every morning, 30-40 minutes rolling around, or rocking on the floor” “In my regiment, super-slow crawling is a part of it, and it is literally how slow can I crawl and control every facet of the ground.  And sometimes only two limbs are on the ground for a long time” “When a child is rolling, they have an intention (something they are reaching for)” “We try to teach crawling in a way where if a leopard is crawling, it should look beautiful, so if a human is crawling, it should look just as beautiful” “What you are seeing at the zoo is the truth of movement, while what you are seeing at the gym is the well-intentioned, misguided, notion of exercise” Show Notes Segmental Rolling https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HBzwAfLscI&t=167s About Tim Anderson Tim is the co-founder of Original Strength, and has been a personal trainer for over 20 years. He is an accomplished author and speaker and is known for streamlining complex ideas into simple and applicable information. He is passionate about helping people realize they were created to be strong and healthy. Tim has written and co-written many books on this subject including The Becoming Bulletproof Project, Habitual Strength, Pressing RESET, and Original Strength Performance. When it comes down to it, his message is simple yet powerful: We were created to feel good and be strong throughout life.

Today’s episode features Rafe Kelly and Charles St. John.  Rafe is the owner of Evolve Move Play, and has studied and taught a multitude of movement practices spanning gymnastics, parkour, martial arts, weightlifting, Cross-fit and more for decades.  His passion to is help people build the physical practice that will help make them the strongest, most adaptable and resilient version of themselves in movement and in life.  Charles has been training parkour since 2009, and coaching it since 2012. He carries multiple parkour coaching certifications and is a certified personal trainer for general fitness, while he currently coaches at the APEX Denver Parkour (Apexdenver.com) and Circus facility in Colorado. Motor learning is the worldview by which you keep yourself from over-compartmentalizing elements of a total training program.  It’s how you discover the window, or lens by which an athlete acquires mastery in their sport, and also determines how you go about constructing a training session with the “whole” in mind.  It allows one to see the forest from the trees in the process of athletic mastery.  If we only listen to “speed”, “output” and “drill” oriented material, and leave out the actual over-arching process of motor learning in any sort of athletic performance discussion, we end up with a more over-compartmentalized, less sustainable, less effective, and less enjoyable model of training On the podcast today, Rafe and Charles speak in the first half, on games they particularly enjoy from a true “generalist” point of view; games that encapsulate the most essential elements of “human-ness” in movement.  These game principles can be plugged into either general (for the sake of better outputs for the subsequent training session), or specific warmups (for the sake of “donor” learning to the main session).  In the second half, we get into a detailed discussion on dynamic points of learning and coaching, speaking on points of drill vs. holistic approach to skills, frequency of feedback (and types of feedback), working with highly analytical athletes, checking the effectiveness of one’s cues, and much more. 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: 4:41 – Why Rafe and Charles love rugby as a multi-dimensional game that encapsulates a lot of human qualities and opportunities 14:12 – “Hybrid” games that coaches like to play as a generalist warmup to a strength training session, and the emergence of “king of the course” 23:21 – How to craft a “donor” activity to prepare for your primary training activity 32:49 – What the balance is, in parkour, on teaching actual technique, vs. decisions 52:08 – How to properly tell stories and frame skills to an athlete, without letting words get in the way 1:02:11 – How many efforts to let an athlete perform, before coaches should seek to intervene in the form of a cue or instruction, and how to help athletes be better self-learners 1:14:34 – Cueing and instructing athletes who may desire more structure than others 1:22:37 – Thoughts on velocity of a movement, and the transferability of drills, or slower versions of skills, versus fast movements 1:27:02 – “Feeding the Error” and principles of variable learning that can assist in skill development 1:32:38 – How to improve learning by reducing potential “fear” constraints in sports with a potential risk element “I would contest that (rugby) is the best designed ball sport… it’s the only sport I played that allowed for a range of body types” “Team sports have all of (generalist fitness) demands in them… and you have to do it in a team manner, you have to cooperate with other people” “I think that rugby and football are under-rated as self-defense arts” “For kids, having a free flow based sport as their base is really important, and it’s difficult (for them) to deal with all the stoppage in play (in more structured sports)” “Making everybody miss (tackling you) seems like such an extraordinary expression of athleticism” “The fundamental things we think you should be able to do are: martial arts, parkour, some sort of team sport element, and be able to manipulate objects… sticks, balls, ropes… and you shouldn’t just be competent in each of those areas, you should be able to blend them” “If you think about the goals of (your sport) you can try to abstract a game from those goals rather than just trying to warm up through lighter technical variations of the same technique you are going to be covering anyway, it becomes less redundant and a lot more fun” “You gotta warm up the brain and the emotions.  You are going to have a better lift if you have a game and are laughing, before you get to the lift” “When I was training in nature, because that was where I was training, what I found is that a lot of the movements that I had expected to have to decompose for people and give them a lot of cues to get them through, they automatically self-organized” “A lot of times we think they need technical fixes, and it is a physical problem, or is it just like an awareness issue? When its’ awareness, athletes are thinking of the skills as independent expressions, rather than having expression towards something.  So what I like to do is teach principles, before techniques.” “Instead of saying, here’s why you should step your leg fully to the ground, I introduce the idea of having full control of the rhythm of your movement” “I can tell you what you did, or what you should do, but that doesn’t mean that on the next repetition you’ll be able to do it.  There is a little more problem solving that goes into that, so how can we set up a constraint for you that can allow you to start expressing the behaviour that you are trying for” “Sometimes it is a mechanical problem; you need to get the mechanic to fix the thing.  So as coaches, we need to think in these levels of systems.  Is it because the glute can’t fire well, or the tibia can’t glide at all?  Or is it because it’s a habitual pattern the athlete has and there is no physiological limitation, we just need to do differential learning or feed the error so they can start doing some kinestheic mapping to control the position” “Pick the highest progression of the skill that can be failed safely” “That really does matter to people, your ability to empathize with their journey” “Something as high order as actually doing martial arts skills, can give you mobility.  But you can spend years trying to perfect your mobility and have no physical skills to show for it” “I try to avoid giving a cue until I see someone do something at least 3 times” “Check your cues with your athletes.  Just like they need feedback in your movement, you need feedback on your coaching” “If you work with high school and college athletes who are part of a team of coaches who are probably variable in terms of competency.  So if you can install in students, respectfully a way to know what works for them, to be able to say, thanks but no thanks, to that cue, it’s going to help a lot in athletes being able to sustain themselves in that maelstrom that getting input from 6 different coaches can be” “That’s the problem I think we have with that type of (hyper-analytical) personality; how can we get them to be more focused on the perceptual information in the environment, and getting an autonomous relationship to it in the expression of their sport” “A huge issue with those absolute maximal jumps is that they are very easy to break athletes with” Show Notes King of the Course https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqJpiAMuz0w   Bill Boomer Water Flow Exercise https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAslSR8-Etc&t=147s   Mountain Goats Climbing a Near Vertical Face https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfTH1VHqmUU   About Rafe Kelley Rafe Kelley is the owner of Evolve, Move, Play, a business designed to use movement practice to develop more resilient and embodied humans. Raised by two yoga instructors, he was a basketball player and gymnast (and gymnastics coach) in his teens.   Rafe started in the martial arts at 6 years old, studying Tang Soo Do, Aikido, Kung Fu, Kick Boxing, Brazilian Ju Jitsu and Muay Thai. Rafe also has experience in modern training disciplines such as sprinting, gymnastics, crossfit, FRC, modern dance and many others.  His primary specialization is in parkour, the practice of navigating obstacles by jumping, running, flipping or swinging over them, a skill set he primarily taught himself by watching videos and training deep in the woods. Rafe co-founded Parkour visions at age 23, and eventually left to form Evolve, Move, Play.  His students have included world-class parkour athletes and MMA fighters, as well as untrained grandmothers.  His passion to is help people build the physical practice that will help make them the strongest, most adaptable and resilient version of themselves in movement and in life. About Charles St. John Charles describes himself somewhat paradoxically as a fitness industry professional and an athletic amateur, in the literal sense of the word. He dabbles in a variety of disciplines for the love of movement, but takes a very academic and business-oriented approach to both his digital marketing for fitness businesses and his coaching and personal training. Most relevant to our conversation today, he has been training parkour since 2009, and coaching it since 2012. He carries multiple parkour coaching certifications and is a certified personal trainer for general fitness as well. He currently coaches at the APEX Denver Parkour (Apexdenver.com) and Circus facility in Colorado.

Today’s show features biomechanist, coach and author, Rocky Snyder.  Rocky is the owner of “Rocky’s Fitness” in Santa Cruz, California.  Rocky is an accomplished personal trainer with an absolutely immense library of knowledge in multiple disciplines of human performance, such as biomechanics, exercise selection and neurology. Rocky is the author of the book “Return to Center” and has a track record on being able to restore functional movement ability to even the most difficult client cases. In the world of training, we have a “muscle-centric” approach, and then a “joint-centric” approach to performance.  I have found that while training and centering one’s efforts on muscles and their actions can definitely be helpful, an approach that can serve a greater percentage of clients in a sustainable manner is one that understands joint mechanics, and how muscles will respond to one’s joint positions.  Muscles that are long, short, weak or tight are as such, because they are responding to an individual’s joint mechanics, and therefore the related demands they are constantly placed under. Today’s episode focuses on the joint mechanics of the feet and hips.  Rocky starts by highlighting elements of proper pronation and supination (with an extra emphasis on the action of the foot’s transverse arch in movement, it’s link to glute function and how we can assess how well it is being utilized) and how we can look for a deficiency in either area.  Rocky then gets into practical exercise interventions in the world of lunge motions, standing twists, and why Rocky favors spiraling single leg training to glute-bridge oriented exercises for a functional glute training effect.  Finally, Rocky gives his take on how loaded carries fit with the gait cycle, and can “balance out” and restore athletes from compressive gym work. 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 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: 4:28 – How Rocky got started in fitness, and the different areas of the field he has layered onto his approach, such as biomechanics, neurology and breathwork (evolution from outdoor athlete, to gym rat, into functional fitness/neurology/biomechanics) 10:43 – Rocky’s experience in coaching youth sports 13:39 – What Rocky thinks on the idea of “over-pronation” and what that term means to him 22:30 – The importance of “anchoring the transverse arch” on pronation mechanics and glute utilization in gait 34:26 – How to improve pronation, and solve the issue of “over-pronation” in an athlete 40:17 – Considering barbell hip thrusts in light of knowing more about pronation and spirals in the body, to activate glutes 46:48 – What Rocky is looking for on the level of the pelvis when it comes to pronation 53:35 – The link between sprinting, anterior and posterior pelvic tilt 58:05 – What Rocky is looking at in a reverse glider lunge exercise in terms of pronation and supination 1:03:30 – The importance of a straight back leg in the isometric lunge exercise in terms of the reciprocal action of the body 1:07:52 – The importance of supination in the foot, and how to create a balance of pronation and supination in the feet in various exercises 1:16:45 – How loaded carries fit with expansion bias and functional core strength, for the human body “I couldn’t stand gyms when I was growing up, I grew up in the backwoods of New England, I grew up doing rock climbing, cross country skiing, whitewater canoeing, but I was also a gymnast and got into wrestling” “My work originally started with muscular-centric loading… but now there’s also motor neurology and being a biomechanist, that’s where I am today” “In pronation we need to have opposition in the sagittal plane between the rearfoot and forefoot, in the frontal plane, as well as transverse.  If somebody is lowered in all of those places, that would be over-pronation, where they are not able to re-form to a neutral position where there is some shape of arches to the foot” “In order for pronation to occur, the heel rolls inward while the forefoot is level with the ground, for the most part” “We need to see there to be a difference of motion between the rearfoot and the forefoot” “If you can anchor down 1st and 5th met-head, and let the heel move the way it should, you are going to have really great foot mechanics” “When you look at Roman architecture, you see a keystone at the top of the arch, it keeps the arch rigid, and when there is weight coming down onto that arch, there is even more rigidity… the three arches (of the foot) have three points of contact, and they have keystones… and when we are talking about the transverse arch, there is the middle cuneiform (keystone)” “Pain is really measured in millimeters, so is success” “We could have one minute adjustment somewhere in your body and it could have a cascading effect somewhere else” “I don’t give a lot of hip bridging away in terms of program design” “We are so muscle-centric in the gym setting, just simply by watching joint motion could be a huge shift in how somebody coaches and looks at program design” “Just by assessing how the pelvis moves, it’s going to tell me a lot about what’s happening down below” “Once that pelvis is there, it’s going to send the proper mass down through the leg, and into the foot, and if the foot responds in kind, man, you’ve just made yourself a bulletproof athlete, and acl and high hamstring pull is going to not be there, there are a lot of things that happen when we get the joint mechanics to behave properly” “We may not see full extension of the knee, if we’re not seeing full extension of the hip” “If we are not teaching the back leg to lengthen, then what is its power potential when the foot comes off of the ground?” “Can I give joints this experience in 3 dimensional space, and change how its’ behaving, if it needs changing” “Pronation is your lowest point, supination is your highest point (in running)” “If you look at Olympic wrestlers, a lot of them came from the farm-belt” “When it comes to loaded carries, chaos reigns supreme” “Loaded carries are all about anti-gravity since we are driving away a heavy load” Show Notes Reverse Valslide Lunge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTbvuQJ42Hw   Standing Plate Twist for Pronation and Supination https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoaD3FwfHsU   Using Wedges to Fill Space in the Feet   View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Joel Smith (@justflysports) Rocky Snyder last appeared on episode #209: The Gait Cycle, Single Leg Work, and True Functional Training for Elite Athleticism About Rocky Snyder Rocky Snyder grew up outside of Boston and moved to Santa Cruz in 1991. He met his wife in 1997, and is a proud father to a daughter and son. He is an accomplished and avid surfer and snowboarder, and well known as a regular on KSCO 1080am since 2002, with his Surf and Ski Report every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings at 6:25 am, and every weekday on KPIG 107.5fm at 8:25 am. Rocky is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist, an NSCA-Certified Personal Trainer, Certified in Applied Functional Science, NASM-Corrective Exercise Specialist, a licensed US Soccer Coach and a USA Weightlifting Coach. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Rocky has written three books on sports conditioning, has been featured in many publications and his fourth book, Return to Center is now available with all major booksellers

Today’s show features a roundtable discussion featuring Jeremy Frisch, Austin Jochum and Jake Tuura.  Jeremy is the owner of Achieve Performance Training, Austin runs Jochum Strength, and Jake is the owner of “Jacked Athlete”.  All three of these individuals were previously strength coaches of NCAA DI institutions before getting into the private sector of training. Recently Jake hosted Austin on his podcast, having a conversation about quitting their jobs as NCAA strength coaches to venture into the private sector.  I found that talk very interesting, as I’ve recently been in the same situation, and I think a lot about the way that modern sport and university “systems” are put together.  Often times, we are victims of either in-effective, or over-structuring in organizations, in a way that can leave us disconnected and/or overly-compartmentalized.  In a variety of “private sector jobs”, people tend to wear more hats.  In sports performance, this could be: strength coach, skill coach, fitness coach, and physical educator to name a few. Today’s show isn’t so much about quitting a scholastic strength coaching job, but more-so on the experience of now-private sector coaches who wear those multiple-hats.  It’s on how that helps us view the predicament of modern sports in a new way, along with engineering solutions.  Despite our coaching setting, we all should aspire to be problem solvers. On today’s episode, our panel speaks on paths away from the college training sector, and how getting into the private sector has allowed them to really focus on the pressing needs in modern sports, such as the “lost” art of physical education, play and then a greater understanding on building robustness and keeping athletes healthy.  Whether you are a scholastic or private coach, this is a great show to step back and take a more zoomed-out perspective on effectively training athletes for long-term success. 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: 3:22 – Jeremy, Austin and Jake’s story of transitioning into the private sector of performance 12:30 – How the extra work a college strength coach puts in can fall to the wayside when a sport coach doesn’t listen or runs a poorly designed practice plan 22:12 – What are some of the big elements of change that have come with moving from the college gig to the private sector 36:10 – “Weaponizing” what you are passionate about in training and performance 38:12 – What Jeremy Frisch has seen from 12 years of being in the private sector, how much he feels kids can get back if they miss critical movement skills early on 42:44 – Where Austin and Jake see their process moving in the next 10 years as coaches, now that they have more freedom to explore things they want 51:35 – Jeremy’s take on the importance of physical education for strength and sport coaches 58:34 – Questioning old narratives of warmups and training in sports performance 1:03:46 – Closing thoughts on the integration of sport and strength and conditioning “Why is everything so isolated in sports, why do we have so many people who specialize in one thing” “My first month (as a DI strength coach) I realized that a lot of athletes had limitations that I wasn’t going to fix, and over time that sort of got to me, and I realized I could really make a difference if I went back and worked with younger athletes” “When I was at Holy Cross I had 15 teams throughout the year” “We have to earn our jobs with new tools, with new shiny toys we present to the sport coach” “I never feel like I am dying in a game when I am going out to catch a pass, I’m pretty recovered, we don’t have to run to death…. Now I don’t have to worry so much about what the head coach or anyone above you (is thinking) being in my own facility you can make those decisions you need to make and not worry about who is looking over your shoulder” “I started realizing, if I would have just had this kid a few years earlier, it would have made a huge difference” “Being a dad of 4, I’m so much more patient than I used to be” “I do less strength and conditioning now, and more sport skills training now” “(When being a private sector coach) Winning is not your customer anymore, now that athlete is your customer… you actively get rewarded for getting better” “(In the private sector) There is nothing to complain about, if I’m in the private sector, it’s all on me” “If you can teach kids these movement skills before they hit puberty, you are really going to help them out a lot… when their body they are really going to hold onto those things” “Kids that have done gymnastics or just any movement based background, they pick up new skills faster… how can you get people better at picking up new skills? I think that’s where the sports performance model can go to” “If you specialize early, the chance of patella-femoral pain is twice as much as it was before” “Humans, dogs and horses get tendonopathy, and they are the only animals getting it” “Have a different passion, have a different hobby, be interested in something that’s outside of the weightroom” “Many coaches would be better off getting a minor in phys-ed along with the strength and conditioning training” “If all you know is how to lift weights, and you want to make money off of kids, you are going to train them like little adults… and the kids are bored as hell” “If you want me to look like a good strength coach, then get a good recruiting coordinator” “The best athletes are the best and we still don’t know why they are that way, but it’s probably not because of the model we have as a strength coach” About Jeremy Frisch Jeremy Frisch is the owner and director of Achieve Performance Training in Clinton, Mass. He is the former assistant strength and conditioning coach for the Holy Cross athletic department. While there, he worked directly with the Crusader men’s basketball team, in addition to serving as the strength coach for Holy Cross’ men’s soccer, men’s and women’s lacrosse, baseball, softball, field hockey, tennis and women’s track & field squads. Prior to joining Holy Cross, Frisch served as the sports performance director at Teamworks Sports Center in Acton, Mass., where he was responsible for the design and implementation of all strength and conditioning programs. He also served as a speed and strength coach for Athletes Edge Sports Training, and did a strength and conditioning internship at Stanford University. Frisch is a 2007 graduate of Worcester State College with a bachelor’s degree in health science and physical education. He was a member of the football and track teams during his days at Worcester State and Assumption College. About Austin Jochum Austin Jochum is the owner of Jochum Strength where he works with athletes and washed up movers to become the best versions of themselves. He also operates The Jochum Strength insider which is an online training platform for people trying to feel, look, and move better. Austin was a former D3 All-American football player and a hammer thrower (MIAC weight throw champion) at the University of St.Thomas, About Jake Tuura Jake Tuura, MS, CSCS currently works at Velocity Training Center as a strength and conditioning coach. Prior to Velocity, Jake was a collegiate S&C coach for 7 years. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Superior (2014) and his Masters from The College of St. Scholastica (2015). His website: jackedathlete.com helps athletes gain copious amounts of muscle, jump higher, and rehab from jumper’s knee.

Today’s show welcomes back track coach Randy Huntington, a track coach who has spent his recent years as the national track and field coach for the Chinese Athletics association.  Randy has coached numerous Olympians, gold medalists, and world record holders in his time as a track coach, and one of his recent successes was training Su Bingtian, Asian record holder in the 100m dash.  Bingtian, en-route to his 9.84 second run, covered 60m in 6.29 seconds and 40 yards in 4.08 seconds as per NFL combine timing. The past shows with Randy have been loaded with the wisdom of an elite coach and have been very popular.  For this episode, Randy took listener questions, and gives his answers on a variety of topics.  Some particular trends for this show included his specific speed training workouts and intensities, his thoughts on traditional strength and hypertrophy methods for speed and power, coaching relaxation and sprint technique, as well as Randy’s thoughts on the ever-debated Nordic hamstring exercise (and hamstring injury prevention training in general).  This and much more is covered on this tremendous Q&A episode. 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. 4:11 – The importance of intuition in coaching and performance 7:33 – How understanding the response of animals can help coaches gain better intuition with training human athletes 11:27 – How to “rig” a seated calf machine to attempt to replicate the Keiser seated calf machine 15:23 – Randy’s thoughts on strength development for speed 22:49 – Randy’s favorite top speed and acceleration sessions 28:25 – How does Randy teach relaxation in sprinting, and his thoughts on mini-hurdles/wickets 31:03 – Why Randy doesn’t have his athletes train flying sprints at their maximal speed 37:02 – Considerations in how Randy uses “time of task” sprints, versus simply sprinting a distance for time 42:35 – A recap of how Randy uses water and general strength based recovery methods 45:17 – More thoughts on how and why Randy doesn’t train his flying sprints at maximal velocity each week 48:09 – How Randy’s training has evolved over his years as a coach 52:46 – Teaching acceleration mechanics to young athletes who don’t have much physical strength yet 54:56 – What key data points does Randy use to assess his athletic process 1:00:00 – Randy’s thoughts on overspeed “wind-shield” training such as used by Marcell Jacobs 1:06:39 – How Randy alters strength training when sprinters are in-season 1:07:51 – How Randy would train an athlete who is naturally weak, and if he plays to an athlete’s strengths, or works primarily to bring up weaknesses 1:11:38 – Randy’s thoughts on hamstring injury prevention and Nordic hamstrings “I try not to do too hard of strength training, until people can execute the technical (speed) component I want them to, unless that technical component needs strength to happen.  I don’t look at strength training as a way to create anything, because I first want them to be able to get them to move through the (skill) positions that are necessary, and then we add strength on top of that” “We still interpret power as force only… mostly because we haven’t had very effective ways to test it” “My basic pattern is heavy sled, 50% of bodyweight or higher, then 1080, using 15-20% of bodyweight, then unloaded” “We mostly use 6” mini-hurdles” “I rarely go above 95% (of max speed) (in flying sprints in training)” “I use (time of task) sprints specifically for testing” “I only test the 30m fly (max) at most every 6 weeks, and usually every 2 months” “Flying 30 is my big (“data oriented”) test” “I don’t look at the weight of the clean, I look at the power of the clean” “100 guys get the 40 (second test), 200 guys get the 45 (second test)… I won’t take Su past the 20 second test” “The horse trailer behind a car (overspeed) gives the opportunity to run so relaxed” “If I am doing (hypertrophy) I would do 1 day a week, over a 3 week cycle, if we did two cycles.  It’s not a steady diet of it; you substitute one with a little more hypertrophy stuff to get this kid to get a better cross sectional area to express more force along with the elasticity he has” “(Nordic hamstrings) are too much for a track athlete unless you are barely doing any running at all” “If (Nordics) were the key for being fast and performance, Su would have trouble with 15 kilos and my female long jumper would knock out 30 kilos… I like it for injury prevention, but the Keiser moving fast and powerfully; you got a really nice injury prevention going on there” “I use the Keiser leg curl, really fast (for hamstring training)” About Randy Huntington Randy Huntington is currently the national track and field coach for the Chinese athletics association and has over 45 years of coaching experience.  Huntington is rated as a USATF Master Coach in the jumps – one of only five in the U.S. He has been the coach for many world-class athletes over the years, including eight Olympians and seven World Championship Team members. Mike Powell and Willie Banks set world records in the long jump and triple jump, respectively, while under his tutelage. Six of his athletes have been in the U.S. all-time top ten in their respective events.  Randy has coached Su Bingtian, the Asian record holder in the 100m dash who ran a time of 9.84 seconds, and recorded the equivalent of a 4.08 40-yard dash en route to that 9.84 second time. Huntington coached Powell to the Olympic Games in 1988, 1992 and 1996, where Powell won a pair of silver medals in the long jump. On Aug. 30, 1991 in Tokyo, Powell broke Bob Beamon’s 23-year-old long jump record that was expected to never be broken, leaping 29-4 1/2 (8.95m) – a record that still stands. Willie Banks, who Huntington coached to the 1988 Olympics, broke the world triple jump record with a mark of 58-11 1/2 (17.97m), June 16, 1985 in Indianapolis, and under Huntington’s coaching twice jumped over 18 meters, which is the longest in American history. Huntington has also coached Olympians Joe Greene (long jump bronze medal in 1992), Sheila Hudson (American indoor and outdoor record-holder in the triple jump), Al Joyner, Darren Plab, Tony Nai and Sharon Couch. At least one of his athletes has competed in every summer Olympic Games since 1984. Powell, Greene, Hudson, Couch and Nai were all World Championship team members that he coached, along with Kathy Rounds and Kenta Bell. Huntington has also worked with professional athletes in other sports, notably football. He has worked as a conditioning and/or speed consultant for several teams including Indianapolis, St. Louis, Miami, Denver, Philadelphia and Cincinnati, and has worked with numerous individual players including Trace Armstrong, Terry Kirby, Henry Ellard and Ed McCaffrey. He has also worked with college football programs at Florida, Oklahoma and Notre Dame including training for the NFL combine, working with athletes such as Kyle Turley and Grant Wistrom.