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Floating Heels: A New Way To Load

Long story short, I came across this research paper (link here) and it highlighted the beneficial training effects of a “floating heel” while performing jumps. The idea of a floating heel is quite simple. The mid/forefoot is raised and the heel is no longer in contact with the ground, hence the name “floating heel”. Your mid/forefoot have to become quite active and force the arch the work a little harder than it might otherwise, as the weight and load is now place on the only spot that has contact with the ground, being the mid and forefoot.

The idea is that with the heel no longer in contact with the ground, the constraints based approach forces you to work the ankle complex in a way that might be more favorable and transferable to sport. The position of that of a floating heel and contact during a plyometric are quite similar, see image below.

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Post Activation Potentiation: Its about you

Post Activation Potentiation (PAP) is the concept that a specific type of stimulus imposed on the body can facilitate “potentiate” the performance of the following movement to be performed. In less scientific terminology, its the idea that doing one exercise, like a back squat, before another movement, like a jump will help increase the performance of the jump to a greater extent than simply performing the jump by itself.

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Supramaximal Eccentric Training For Posterior Upper Body Strength

By: Drake Berberet, CSCS

 

By now we should all know what eccentric strength is. If you don’t, you should probably purchase Triphasic Training right here (I’ll even provide the link, no affiliation).

 

Eccentric movement in its most simplest form is the reverse muscle action to concentric movement. Concentric movement is what we all think of when we think of lifting weights. For example, during a bicep curl the concentric movement is the actual “curl” part. The eccentric movement is the lowering down of the weight down…pretty simple right?

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Assessing Energy Transfer in the Vertical Jump

Author: Drake Berberet

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Transfer of Energy 

The ability to maximize transfer of energy in sport is typically what sets the elite athletes apart from the rest. Not only does it allow them to jump higher, run faster, and move more efficiently, it also allows them to save valuable energy so that they are not burnt out at the end of the game. In the long run, efficient transfer of energy may also prevent the risk of injury. It is well established that fatigue masks fitness, and injuries typically present themselves at the end of the game when the athletes are in a high state of fatigue. If transfer of energy is optimized, that athlete might never reach that level of fatigue that puts them at a risk for injury.

What are the two assessments?

The two assessments that can be used to assess energy and power transfer in jumping are the Eccentric Utilization Ratio (EUR) and Stretch-Shortening Cycle % difference (SSC%). Both assessments help find deficiencies in jumping performance and can help practitioners create a more “optimal” jumping profile going into competition (i.e. when all of your training matters most).

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Creative Ways To Train Rotational Power

 Coach: Bill Miller

Baseball, golf, tennis, track & field…the list goes on and on of sports that rely heavily rotational power. It has been well-documented how important strength is for all athletic movement. After all, Power (Force/Time) requires Force in order to be displayed. The issue for many athletes and coaches may become the application of that strength through higher speed movements, especially in the right planes of motion. Rotational power (Transverse Plane) requires kinetic energy built up from the lower body and transferred to the upper body and through the hands.

Rotational movement pattern in most athletic scenarios:

  1. Static energy built up on rear leg
  2. Kinetic energy transfers through the front leg (front side bracing mechanic)
  3. Torque is created between the rotating pelvis and torso (hip/trunk separation)
  4. Energy is dispelled through the upper body as the torso and arms continue rotation

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Integration of Velocity-Based Training and Heart Rate in Training

Using data to manage training takes out the guesswork that a coach may deal with when trying to determine optimal load or rest time for an athlete. There are different types of data to help manage a program: external metrics and internal metrics. Velocity-based training is an external metric that I use daily to track bar velocity via Gymaware, and an internal metric I use daily is a Polar heart rate monitor. I am going to talk about how to integrate these tools in a training session simultaneously to autoregulate programming for an athlete. This means that from set to set, from day to day, or one training block to the next, I can manage load and rest time correctly to try and give the athlete optimal amounts of both.

Why Use Velocity-Based Training?

Velocity based training allows us to see external outputs of the athlete on a given day. An athlete’s output can change daily based on sleep, diet, physiological and psychological stress, so working off a %1RM that was tested 3 weeks ago may not be the most accurate loading strategy. Instead, we can use the Gymaware to determine how fast the athlete can move a given load based on their current state. If I want the athlete to move the bar at 1.0 m/s for a back squat, the Gymaware allows intra-set feedback to the athlete so he or she can understand what 1.0 m/s actually feels like, not to mention the added motivation to beat the previous rep’s velocity.

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6 great exercises you’re probably not doing

Coach: Bill Miller

I’m a washed up meat head ex-baseball player who loves to train. As lame as this sounds, one of the few advantages is that I get to experiment with my training on a very consistent basis without fear of failure. Sometimes these exercise experiments turn out awesome. Try these if you’re looking for something new to add to your training arsenal!

 

AntiRotational Sled Shuffles/Walks

This exercise is a real ass-kicker that will definitely expose your weaknesses. If you lack core stability, hip strength, knee or shoulder stability, the sled won’t budge a whole lot. All these areas are extremely important for an athlete’s health and performance.

Tips

  • Take out all the slack in the tether before beginning the exercise. Start in a perfect position and don’t “yank” the sled.
  • Take your time. I’m often all for shuffling/lateral running with the sled as fast as possible, but this exercise is meant to be slow and controlled! Add weight if necessary to make it more difficult.
  • Keep a neutral spine. The initial response to get the sled to move is by leaning to the side with the torso. Don’t do that. Keep a perfect posture and engage the hips to allow the shuffle motion to move the sled.
  • Use it for conditioning when needed! This exercise is relatively low taxing on the spine. It’s also, as stated before, a real ass-kicker! It’s fairly simple to perform as well. For those reasons, I think it can fit into a conditioning circuit well.

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Potential Versus Expression

 

Force potential is the maximal amount of force one could possibly express if all contractile properties were to act in an optimal fashion. It is dependent on the raw physiological properties of the body. Force expression is the amount of force one actually expresses in a movement. Force expression is much more complex. It involves the dynamic nature of skill (neuromuscular timing), which is what ultimately the limiting variable in force expression. Think about jumping to dunk versus performing a single arm, maximal arm flexion against an isokinetic device. Both movements require maximal force expression (in context) to get the best results, but the complexity of the jump compared to the single arm flexion is exponentially greater.

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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.

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General Adaptation and Specific Adaptation

The process of the “general adaptive response” is conceptually a very simple process. Without going into great molecular detail, the following stress response occurs in the body

  1. Recognizes a stressor
  2. Hormones are released
  3. Mobilizes energies to deal with the stressor
  4. Structures may be destroyed while dealing with the stressor (myosin heads during a muscular contraction)
  5. Magnitude and duration of the stressor determines the amount of destruction and mobilization of energy
  6. Once stressor is removed or defeated (like a cold), the body can begin the repair process
  7. Energies that were used and structures were broken are rebuilt in a stronger fashion to allow the body to deal with future stressors of the same nature

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