Strength matters. There is no way around it. Force makes us move and moving is what we do in sport. There is more than enough research to highlight the fact that strength training improves the force producing abilities of the muscle. However, sport is highly dynamic and clearly does not only rely on raw strength/force producing abilities. Aside from that, strength training puts a strain on the body that reduces the body’s immediate functional abilities. Thus, strength training during the season or for an athlete who constantly at work may not seem too enticing. A reduction in functional capacity is not the greatest thing to deal with in season. However, there are two sides to the coin and any reduction in strength also reduces the functional capacity of the athlete (fatigue causes weakness and weakness causes fatigue).
Volume Training
Volume is one of the most talked about aspects of training. Almost regardless of what program you do, there is nearly always some type of volume phase. This is probably not by accident. Success leaves clues and over the years a volume phase has been shown to be a critical part of any training program. The question is, why?
Well, this is kind of where some of the debate may set in and I will provide my two cents on it. I think the volume phase has a two-fold benefit.
Continue reading “Volume Training”
Hamstring Training
The need to train your hamstrings for both injury reduction and performance is near inarguable. They are one of the most common sites of injury in sport and typically one of the most the underdeveloped muscles. However, unlike the quads, which for the most part are monoarticulate (crossing one joint/expect the rectus femoris) the hamstrings are biarticulate (crossing two joins).
Because the hamstrings are biarticulate, their function is slightly different than that of their anterior counterpart, the quadriceps. In short, the hamstrings are primarily responsible for hip extension, knee flexion as well as isometric stiffness (for energy transfer). Isometric energy stiffness is obviously not a joint action, but it stems from the fact the hamstrings are not always primary movers and instead, act to transfer energy across the kinetic chain during sporting movements.
Understanding a Product
When we buy a product I think it important we understand why it exists. This understanding is what can unify the company and the customer. Remember, the company exists for the customer and without the customer’s wants and needs being at the core of the company, a strong disconnect can manifest itself in a poor relationship. For this reason, I think it is extremely important for the company to highlight why they believe a product was made and then go out into the world and hear how the customer actually uses it!
What is the G-Flight
The G-Flight is portable contact grid used to measure jump height, ground contact time and reactive strength index. The why from my end (the company side) may appear quite obvious at first “we want to help coaches measure these variables”, but that is only part of the picture. To get a better understanding of our goals, I sat down and asked my self “five whys” and then trekked into the real world to see what I was missing.
Auto-Regulatory Training and Jump Heights
Auto-regulatory training is a pretty straightforward concept. It hinges on the idea of not just showing up and doing something on a lift-card just because it was written on the lift-card. Instead, you might have a workout on the lift card, but you use some sort of test to determine whether or not you think what is written on the card is actually what you should be doing that day. Now, instead of using auto-regulation to completely change your entire training day, you can use it in many other different facets. Fore example, you can use auto-regulation to assign what load you should be lifting today, how many reps you should lift a load for, or how long you should rest between loads.
Personally, I see value in all types of auto-regulatory training. However, not all types of auto-regulatory training are useful in all situations. For example, the more complex the auto-regulation gets, the more supervision and trust is required. This is the exact reason why it may not always be best to do the most invasive form of auto-regulation… you just don’t have the time to do it for 30 athletes. So, what can we do?
First off, we need to define what we are training for and how we are going to train for it. Use training for power as an example…Typically, we train for power with maximal intent and high quality repetitions. If we want to build power, we need quality and well, for the most part, quality suffers at hands of fatigue. Either athletes do too much or rest too little to keep velocity and therefore, power high enough. We can’t always control effort, but we can somewhat control recovery via rest times. This is where auto-regulating rest intervals comes in to play. If we make sure athletes are rested for the next set, we know we have the full capacity to develop power (effort is another story)
A simple pen and paper can do the trick. Continue reading “Auto-Regulatory Training and Jump Heights”
The Power Of Jump Metrics
The rehabilitation process is a very complex, multidimensional endeavor. It is extremely hard to determined when an athlete is truly ready to return to perform at their highest level. Despite the fact that psychologically they may be more than ready to return, their body may not permit it, or visa versa. There is no “best answer” to this problem. It is much more of a sliding scale (kind of and maybe) than it is binary (ready or not).
One aspect of return to play that is often overlooked in the sports performance world is the standardization of measurement. For example, strength coaches may use a series of physical performance tests to determine an athlete’s physical profile, while on the other hand an athletic trainer or a physical therapist may use a separate set of metrics. Now, this isn’t to say one metric is superior to the other, it is simply to point out that lack of standardization can make comparing before and after profiles quite difficult.
To solve this problem, open communication is the quickest answer. How many physical therapists (PTs) and athletic training (ATs) know an athlete’s max squat, 40 yard dash time, single leg vertical jump or yo-yo score prior to the injury? My guess not many… If the performance coach, who is responsible for the development of well, performance puts value into these metrics as an indicator success, then it might be wise for the athletic trainers and physical therapist to value these metrics as well. Now, the same can be said for the strength coach as well. If the ATs and PTs value certain metrics, maybe the performance coach should understand the significance of these metrics. We can sit here and debate all day as to which metrics we should value over others, however at the end of the day, it comes down to utility. Are these metrics easy to obtain and do we have the equipment for it? If so, how easy is it to use this equipment and how applicable is it in our given setting?
The Not So Confusing Guide To Sports Science
At times, the term “sports science” feels so nebulous, that regardless of what organized attempts you make to integrate sports science, you will always fall short in capturing the whole picture. As a matter of fact, that is 100% correct. Regardless of what you do, what you think you do, or what you want to do, you will never be able to fully understand a single individual, let alone every individual you work with… Sounds like an uphill battle, right?
Well, the good thing about sports science is that it is a failure driven process. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying through their teeth. Unlike what might be the initial hopes and dreams of someone looking to get into or take on sports science, it will never be a utopia-like, rainbow filled process that will elucidate all of your problems. However, the exciting aspect of sports science is that right there! We don’t know, which means what we are currently doing without the use of sports science is also unknown. So, instead of not asking questions and thinking we are right, we might as well start looking for answers and accept the bumps along the way.
Continue reading “The Not So Confusing Guide To Sports Science”
G-Flight User Manual (Beta)
Attached in the link below is the G-Flight user manual for the beta versions. The final will be similar, but wireless
G-Flight
G-Flight
(Find It Here http://www.exsurgo.us/gshop/)
The G-Flight is a portable, affordable, accurate jump height measuring device. It can measure jump height (time in air), ground contact time (GCT), and reactive strength index (RSI).
Training Day 1 (Explosive Strength)
Warm Up
5 minutes of active mobility (Your choice)
Target Areas
- Ankles
- Hips
- Spinal Articulations
- Single and Double Leg
5 minutes of dynamic prep
- Walking lunge and twist
- Low level 2 foot hops
- Lateral lunge and step
- Low level skips
- Straight leg skips
- 3 40 yard build ups 60,70, and 85%
Plyo Prep
- 3 in place max vertical jumps (repeated jumps) x 2 (40 second rest between)
- 3 horizontal broad jumps (repeated jumps) x 2 (40 seconds)
- ALL MOVEMENTS SHOULD BE LES THAN 5 TOTAL SECONDS
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