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Pacey Performance Podcast REVIEW- Episode 331 Danny Lum

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This blog is a review of the Pacey Performance Podcast Episode 331 – Danny Lum

Danny Lum

Research Gate

Background: 

Danny Lum

Danny is Head of Strength & Conditioning at the Singapore Sports Institute for seven years,and also currently doing a PhD with a research focus on Isometric Strength Training for Sports Performance.  Prior to that he was the Strength & Conditioning Officer for the Singapore Armed Forces so was dealing with Military Training.

Danny completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Western Australia (UWA) prior to doing the role in the Military for two years.

 

Discussion topics:

What options have we got when it comes to Isometric testing?

”There are single joint testing options as well mainly using the biodex equipment for rotator cuff internal/external rotation of shoulder, knee flexion/extension.  We also have multi-joint isometric testing such as isometric squat, isometric mid-thigh pul (IMTP), isometric bench press and isometric prone bench pull.”

 

Why would we go down that route in the first place with Isometric testing vs. something more dynamic?

”The information we can get from isometric testing includes not just the peak force, but also the rate of force development (RFD) and if we combine the data we get from the counter movement jump (CMJ), and IMTP for example, we can actually calculate the dynamic strength index, which I believe many coaches are using it as an indication of whether they should train their athlete more with plyometrics or with heavy strength training.

 

Some of the advantages of isometric training is that it is much safer because there is no movement involved you don’t get injured that easily, and it’s pretty quick, 5-seconds and you’re done.  The disadvantage is you can’t really use it for exercise prescription, like a 1-RM strength test.

 

Quite a lot of studies have shown the peak force and the RFD are significantly correlated to activities like sprinting, jumping and change of direction.  There are also studies that have looked at striking, throwing and recently we did a study with sprint Kayaking.  I want to think that isometric strength assessment data will have a high correlation with activities that has mainly concentric contractions like cycling and sprint Kayaking, but the relationship with dynamic activity that requires the stretch-shortening cycle with the eccentric and concentric phase might not be as great.

 

 

If you look at the literature and take IMTP and isometric squat for example, the relationship you get from the peak force with CMJ range from R = 0.30-0.80 so the range is pretty huge.  There could be a lot of reasons for this; it could be because of the familiarization, different athletes with different training experience and different strength levels and also the time of the year and the training phase they are in.

 

Another thing to look at is the joint position where the test is conducted.  So for example, if you look at the literature you will see that the isometric squat when tested at a 90 degree knee angle vs. 120 degree knee angle; the relationship between the isometric peak force obtained and CMJ jump height will be higher when the peak force was obtained at a 90 degree knee angle, and same for sprint performance.  What we can get from this, is that if you want to conduct the isometric strength test to see if there is any relationship with a certain activity, probably get the person to adopt a joint position whereby the concentric force is initiated at 90 degrees.  This makes sense because the CMJ is usually initiated from a position where the knee is at an angle of about 90 degrees.

 

But there is something interesting- that works for squat, but IMTP doesn’t work that way!  You can see that a IMTP is usually conducted at a knee angle of around 130-140 degrees, yet the  magnitude of the correlation with the CMJ height is as high as that obtained for the isometric squat at 90 degrees!  This is something I personally do not understand!!”

 

What is the dynamic strength index and why would coaches be interested in it/calculate it?

”First we collect the peak force from IMTP- theoretically that is the highest amount of force your lower limb can produce.  You can also obtain the peak force of the CMJ.  Then you can divide the peak force of the CMJ by the peak force of the IMTP

 

Dynamic Strength Index = Peak Force IMTP / Peak Force CMJ

The isometric peak force on an IMTP is the maximum amount of force you can produce and how much of this force can you translate into a dynamic movement.  The Dynamic strength index provides you with an indication, so I think if it is below 0.65 this indicates that your athlete might need a little more ballistic training like plyometrics.  But if the dynamic strength index is above 0.80 then the athlete probably needs more heavy strength training.”

 

Isometric training as a training tool- what benefits are people going to get from isometric training?

”First of all, similar to the isometric testing, it is simple, the risk of injury is very low.  You can see that in most of the injury cases, injured athletes will start off with isometric training to get the muscles activated (even when they are in a cast).  The exercise physiologist would advise the patient to perform some form of isometric contractions.

 

The disadvantage is that people believe that with isometric training you only gain strength in that specific joint angle that you train at, of course when you look at the literature, this is not true.
It really depends on the joint angle.  If I position the knee angle at 90 degree vs. 150 degrees.  At 90 degrees my quadriceps will be stretched more compared to at 150 degrees.  So if I train my quadriceps at a knee angle at 90 degrees where it is stretched a little more then the strength gains will increase across a greater range of motion as compared to a quadriceps at a short length.  So based on literature, if you train your muscles at a longer length using isometric strength training, then the strength gain might range up to about 40 degree from the angle you train at.  But if say, you train at a short muscle length, which is about 150 degree knee angle, then the strength increment might range up to about 15 degree from the angle you train at.

The adaptations from strength training are similar to dynamic strength training.  You still get increased neural firing, neural recruitment and hypertrophy of muscle.  One of the adaptations from isometric training that is superior to dynamic strength training is the increase in tendon stiffness.

 

This has high implications on RFD, so with greater tendon stiffness the force transmission from the muscle can be more efficient and will improve force production and RFD.”

When creating isometric exercises in some very sport specific positions what kind of creative process are you going through when thinking about integrating some of that into these sports?

”Two things.  First thing is I’m always looking where the concentric action is initiated, and second is the position which reflects the bio-mechanically most disadvantageous position, for example the sticking point of a squat.
With a group of Kayakers I replaced two sets of squats, two sets of bench press and two sets of bench pull with the isometric version of it, and the joint position they adopted was initiated from a similar place where the pull phase of the Kayak stroke was initiated.   What we found was that by replacing two sets with isometric training as compared to a normal traditional strength training programme, the Kayaker’s strength actually increased and performance on the ergometer 200m time trial was improved more than the group that only did the traditional strength training.
What I believe is that by performing the isometric training at the position where the stroke was initiated this increased their ability to overcome the initial drag force they would face as they initiate the pull phase.

I just completed one study with recreational runners where we compared plyometric and isometric training for endurance running performance.   For the isometric training they did a IMTP and an isometric plantar flexed ankle, so the ankle was in a neutral position when they did the plantar flexion.  What we found was that running economy was actually improved with the isometric group as compared to the plyometric group.  One possible reason is because recreational runners tend to avoid heavy strength training so with the isometric exercises as a stimulus that greatly improved their strength.  In that sense, people might ask if that would work with elite runners, and that would need to be researched.”

When it comes to programming isometrics within the wider programme (annual plan) where does it fit?

”That is an interesting question, and honestly, I have no idea at this moment in time.  Personally what I do with my athletes is slot in the isometric training somewhere in the middle of a strength phase, because we know that if you have been training with the same method for a long period of time you tend to plateau.  So with the addition of the isometric training for a few weeks that might help to break the monotony and you might see some improvement.
We don’t know at this point in time that if we continue to get the athlete to perform isometric training, will there be a long term benefit (because all my studies have only been 6 weeks long)?
The next thing I do is as we get closer to important competitions I get my athletes to perform complex training, and I usually use the isometric exercise as the conditioning activity to induce the post activation potentiation (PAP) effect, before they move onto the ballistic exercise
One reason is because they get to perform maximal contractions so that helps to maintain their maximal strength and because it’s an isometric movement we are reducing the risk of injury close to competition.”
Is it possible to manipulate some of the variables within isometric training to target different physical qualities such as hypertrophy etc?
”When you look at the research you can categorize isometric training into two different methods- yielding and overcoming.

Overcoming

Overcoming- is the method I have been researching where you push maximally against something you can’t move.

Yielding 

The yielding or ”holding” method where you lift a weight that you can actually lift around 60% of your 1-RM, get to your sticking point and hold it there for about 10-seconds before you push it concentrically.
When you look at the research on isometric strength training, in order to get maximal strength increases you want to be contracting as near to maximally voluntary contraction (MVC) as possible in a range of 80-100% MVC and each contraction you don’t want to be holding for too long, otherwise you might compromise the adaptation.
When it comes to hypertrophy you want to perform the contraction at a lower intensity and sustain the contraction for a longer period of time, as long as 10-30 seconds in one go.  Recently, there is one study which showed that the inclusion of isometric training might be able to induce a stimulus similar to blood flow restriction training.  So when you are sustaining the isometric contraction you are actually constricting the blood flow.
Another study by Brett Shaunfield showed that performing isometric contractions in between sets increased the hypertrophy training effect.  So during the hypertrophy phase one of the things you could do is perform a lighter load in the final set and doing a long duration isometric contraction at the sticking point to increase the hypertrophy effect.
In terms of other variables, first we need to know what we want to achieve before we start talking manipulating the variables.  Variables we can manipulate include the joint position.  I mentioned earlier that if we train at a joint position that induces a longer muscle length your strength improvement will be greater throughout a greater range of motion.
At different joint positions you might induce hypertrophy at different parts of the muscle.
So for example, if I was sustaining isometric contraction at a long muscle length most of the hypertrophy training effect might take place at the middle of the muscle belly (midsection).  If I perform it at a shorter muscle length, most of the hypertrophy might occur at the proximal or at the distal portion of the muscle, so these are things that people will need to consider.
To increase maximal strength you will need to contract at a high percentage of MVC, and to increase RFD you will need to contract at a high contraction speed, so in sports performance you should always try and contract explosively because we are not just talking about how strong you are but we must also ensure the athlete can produce the force as quickly as possible.”
Are there any gaps we are looking to plug in the research?
”Firstly there is training at long muscle length vs. multiple joint angles.  I mentioned that if you train at long muscle length the strength gains will be higher through a greater range of motion but if we train at multiple angles it might actually be more beneficial.  So if I compare 3 sets of bench press at 90 degrees vs. 1 set of 180 degree, one set at 90 degrees and one set at another angle we could compare multiple joint angles
The other limitation of what we know is how long this beneficial effect can last?
The other one is comparing the training effect of a yielding method (more similar to an eccentric method) to the overcoming method (more similar to a concentric method).  So get someone to push against 80% MVC and the other guy resisting against 80% MVC and comparing the adaptation.
When doing this in training I would probably a certain number of sets so for example if I am going to get the person to do back squats 4 sets I might have them do two sets dynamic and two sets isometric.  The isometric is better at improving the strength at a specific joint angle, but when it comes to a full range of motion, isometric effect is still not as good as dynamic strength training, so I wouldn’t use isometric training as the main bout of the training but I would recommend the isometric training as a supplement to improve the force production at the sticking point or at the bio-mechanically disadvantageous position.
In a complex setting, I would do the isometric exercise as the conditioning tool I would reduce the number of repetitions rather than trying to get them too fatigued.  But at the moment I haven’t done a study to identify the ideal number of sets.”
Can you explain to us what we mean by quasi-isometrics (I know this is something Alex Natera has mentioned?
”Take the hamstring for example, which is a bi-articular muscle so when we are running and the hip is flexing the proximal portion of the hamstring is stretching but when the hip is flexing the knee will be flexing as well.  So the distal portion of the hamstring will be shortening.   So in that sense one portion is lengthening and the other portion is shortening, so that pretty much looks like an isometric contraction, and that is what is meant by a quasi isometric contraction.
So if you take the hip thrust but with the knee in a slightly more extended knee position (around 150 degrees) with the shoulder on the floor, with the hip in the air, the hamstring closer to the knee will be trying to produce a concentric contraction so you can stay up.  But while the hip is heavy gravity will be pulling it down so the proximal portion will be in an eccentric contraction.  So the distal portion will be in the Push isometric contraction while the proximal portion of the hamstring will be performing a yielding contraction.”

Top 5 Take Away Points:

 

  1. Isometric is a safe and effective way of performing strength testing and training.
  2. Dynamic strength index = Peak Force IMTP / Peak Force CMJ
  3. Importance of range of motion- strength gains will increase across a greater range of motion as compared to a quadriceps at a short length.
  4. Importance of tendon stiffness- one of the adaptations from isometric training that is superior to dynamic strength training is the increase in tendon stiffness.
  5. Considerations when choosing position- the place where the concentric action is initiated, and the position which reflects the bio-mechanically most disadvantageous position.

 

Want more info on the stuff we have spoken about?  Be sure to visit:

 

Twitter:

@DannyLum82

You may also like from PPP:

 

Episode 372 Jeremy Sheppard & Dana Agar Newman

Episode 367 Gareth Sandford

Episode 362 Matt Van Dyke

Episode 361 John Wagle

Episode 359 Damien Harper

Episode 348 Keith Barr

Episode 298 PJ Vazel

Episode 297 Cam Jose

Episode 295 Jonas Dodoo

Episode 292 Loren Landow

Episode 286 Stu McMillan

Episode 272 Hakan Anderrson

Episode 227, 55 JB Morin

Episode 217, 51 Derek Evely

Episode 212 Boo Schexnayder

Episode 207, 3 Mike Young

Episode 204, 64 James Wild

Episode 192 Sprint Masterclass

Episode 183 Derek Hansen

Episode 175 Jason Hettler

Episode 87 Dan Pfaff

Episode 55 Jonas Dodoo

Episode 15 Carl Valle

 

Hope you have found this article useful.

 

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How the ballistic quarter squat can support your athletic performance

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With the initiation of a third lock down in the UK we thought it would be a great idea to engage our readers in some motivating posts to help keep you motivated.  We welcome back APA coach Konrad McKenzie with a weekly guest post.

 

During Lockdown, I have tasked myself with gaining an increased knowledge of anatomy and physiology so I have greater accuracy in my prescription of exercises. By this I mean, gaining a thorough understanding of how this particular exercise can positively affect performance. Today I wanted to talk about the ballistic quarter squat. Particularly, a concentrically focused variation. People looking at athletes performing this exercise and criticising the “lack of depth” need more context.

So today, I wanted to talk about why I would like to include this exercise in my programme for field and court based sports. This blog will consist of the following sections.

  • Principle of specificity
  • What is the Ballistic quarter squat
  • Why is it relevant?
  • When to include the ballistic quarter squat

Principle of specificity in Strength training

I was digging up some old material and I found this book, which I plan to reread “Periodization Training for Sports” by Tudor Bompa. They say nothing is new, just repackaged so it seems prudent to go back over the old texts. I’ll briefly go over some of the components of specificity and give a brief summary of them. Specificity is of huge importance as the body adapts in specific ways to a recurring stress, see “SAID principle”. There is a reason you form callouses on your palm, not your face when participating in frequent weightlifting (I hope).

SAID

A common term used in the area of strength and conditioning is an acronym for “Specific adaptations to imposed demands” meaning that the body will make adaptations that will allow the body to get better at tolerating a specific form of stress that is placed upon it.  Some of the variables to consider when determining an exercise’s specificity to the sporting demands include:

Joint range of movement

This refers to the joint angles regularly displayed by athletes performing the sport. For example, a tennis player preparing to initiate movement from a ready position. Or a front row rugby union player pushing in a scrum.

Bioenergetics

This refers to the energy system demands of the game for example, a game of junior tennis is predominantly an aerobic based sport with intermittent bursts of anaerobic activity. Another example would be the short sprints with high demands on the anaerobic-alactic system. Understanding energy systems will help decipher the work to rest ratios of the sport you are working in. Check out my blog on the “demands of the game” for tennis performance.

Planes of movement

Body movements occur in different planes around different axis. The three planes that you are typically taught are the frontal, transverse and sagittal plane. Field and court based sports would typically move in all the planes mentioned. For example, when hitting a groundstroke in Tennis a player will be predominantly working in the transverse plane however, when moving forward for a volley or dropshot there may be more of an emphasis in the sagittal plane. This is quite reductionist and planes of motion in sport could be an article in itself.

Muscle contraction (type and speed)

This is interesting and most recent conversations in this lockdown period, have forced me to ask how a muscle is “behaving” during a specific activity. What is the contraction type? How fast and how hard does it contract? For example isometric activity of the glute maximus in the stance phase of sprinting.

When constructing a needs analysis a coach would typically have these in mind when preparing a training programme. See my blog on Fundamentals underpinning a physical development strength program for the youth athlete.

 

What is the Ballistic Quarter squat?

Firstly, a ballistic method is a type of training where the athlete’s body (or object) is explosively accelerated throughout the entire movement. If we go back over our notes and look at Henneman’s size principle we know that motor units are recruited in a precise order according to their force output. It seems as though there is a superior activation of type two fibres with heavier loads as opposed to lighter ones (Henneman, 1965). Additionally, when exercises are performed in a ballistic manner they seem to have a superior potentiation effect compared to non-ballistic counterparts.

The Ballistic quarter squat is a squat variation with a heavy concentric focus. The lifter is asked to concentrically propel the barbell vertically using upper and lower limb, from a quarter squat position, as shown in the picture below.

Why is it relevant?

The Ballistic quarter squat is an exercise that I have come across recently, what was interesting to me was the “Ballistic” element of this exercise and rate of force development required to perform this exercise well. High levels of Power is the result of work divided by time, or in simpler terms, applying the highest amount of force in the shortest amount of time, significant for most field or court-based sports.  With some more research I found that performing this exercise at around 90% of one repetition maximum had superior effects on sprint and vertical jump performances (Weiss, 2000).  Other studies have also advocated the integration of quarter squats in a conditioning program (Rhea et al, 2016).

Possible reasons for this was again, the joint angle specificity but also the ability to overload the intensity at this joint angle. Highly trained athletes may squat 30-45% more in a partial range squat compared to a squat with full range.

Whilst this blog is not going to compare the differences between the full depth squat and quarter squat variations (readers are encouraged to read this paper if interested in that) it enables us to understand the relevance of the ballistic quarter squat.

  1. Joint angles

Although it is said that many explosive movements in sports are initiated from a knee angle of approximately 90° (Suchomel, et al 2015) these include sprinters in the blocks, wrestling NFL linemen etc, I would argue that knee joint angles shallower than this are also executed. Thus, if we remind ourselves of the laws of specificity, training explosive strength from these similar joint angle positions would be beneficial for performance.

  1. Propulsion

In order to overcome the body’s resting inertia, athletes need to be strong. How strong, is a topic for another day. But, muscles of the lower body (Glutes, Calves and quadriceps) most forcefully extend to project the body forward. If you look closely at my first picture under “What is a ballistic quarter squat” you will see the athlete forcefully extending knee hip and ankle. This extension occurs with high levels of intent and speed, although a heavy ballistic squat may not be specific to the speed of contraction, it will certainly enhance the force potential of leg musculature.

When to include the ballistic quarter squat

If we tie in the joint angle specificity, the muscle contraction type/speed, motor unit activation from heavy loads and the bioenergetics of the movement, the ballistic quartet squat seems to have a place in my exercise inventory.

Due to the reported benefits at performing this movement at 90% or 1RM it seems rational to include this in a power phase, more specifically a strength-speed phase of the annual plan.

 

Thanks for reading guys,

Konrad McKenzie

Strength and Conditioning coach.

 

Liked This Blog?

You might like other blogs on this topic from APA:

APA review of the Middlesex Students S&C conference 2014

The Dubious Rise of the Corrective Exercise ”Pseudo-Physio” Posing as a Trainer- My thoughts

as well as two recommended articles:

This article on weak Glutes during Squatting

And this one on Exercise Modifications 

Do you feel that this would be a perfect time to work on the weak links that you have been avoiding? The things that you know you should be doing that you keep putting off? Would you like us to help you with movement screening and an injury prevention program? Then click on the link below and let us help you!

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Follow me on instagram @konrad_mcken

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Since you’re here…
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Are Banded Sidesteps Doing What We Think They Are Doing?

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With the initiation of a third lock down in the UK we thought it would be a great idea to engage our readers in some motivating posts to help keep you motivated.  We welcome back APA coach Konrad McKenzie with a weekly guest post.

This Lockdown 3.0 I tasked myself with diving further into Anatomy to give me even more clarity as to what exercises I am doing, why I am doing them and how I can vary them to get the response I want. I quite like this personal auditing and I will be doing this more regularly.

The exercise I want to discuss on today is the popular Glute Band Side Step, a popular exercise used to “activate” or “wake up” the Gluteal muscles. Whilst there is research supporting Gluteal Amnesia, your glutes simply do not switch off. Reciprocal inhibition (Sherrington’s law) teaches us that overactive muscles could cause a reflexive relaxation on opposing muscles. In this case the over activity in the hip flexor complex may cause underactivity in the Gluteal. Lastly, low levels of glute activation and coordination may lead to altered biomechanics and extra stress placed through the spine, as the hamstrings and lower back are asked to compensate in hip extension.

The ”prehab guys” suggest that prolonged sitting may cause slight damage to the nerve supplying the glute however this is not significant enough to cause muscular atrophy in most cases. Moreover, your glutes do not simply turn off otherwise you would probably be a pile of human on the floor, due to the glutes’ role in keeping us bi-pedal humans upright.

 

The role of the Glutes in Athletic performance

The gluteals are the primary hip extensors, external rotators and abductors of the lower body. In athletic activities such as sprinting, jumping and throwing the glutes play a large role in hip extension. During sprinting it is said that the glutes play a vital role in hip extension velocity during acceleration and in the stance phase of sprinting.

When performing exercises such as landing from a box on a single leg the hamstrings contract the hardest and the earliest but the Glute Medius performs a higher degree of muscular work in the frontal plane. Additionally, knee valgus seen in lower body functional tasks such as bilateral or unilateral squatting may give us an indication that the Glutes are under performing.

The benefits of having strong gluteal muscles are now well established with more people more than ever hip thrusting, bridging or performing the glute banded sidewalks. But, is this exercise doing as much as we think it is doing? Is this an exercise being given, perhaps, too much of the limelight? Today I want to dive into this.

Banded sidewalks and glute activation drills

It is apparent that banded side step works the hip in abduction and external rotation. Not only does the band stress the stepping limb, it challenges the standing limb too, as the athlete is asked to perform a lateral walk. Some great research by Lewis et, 2018 has suggested that placing the band around the feet increases both Glute Med and Max activation

Glute activation is quite a common theme in an athletes warm up, the idea is that the athlete spends part of the warm up performing, as an example, two sets of banded sidewalks for 15 repetitions to increase Gluteal activity, or in some case “wake up the glutes”. But, is this too simplistic? And does the side band walk have an increased performance outcome?

Whilst, I take everything with a pinch of salt, the more I learn is that what’s occurring is a result of a pre-fatigue and whilst it may be great for an athlete to feel their glutes, I am not sure it helps with performance outcomes, such as fixing knee valgus. Some research even suggests that pre fatiguing muscles leads to muscle activation in the synergistic muscle groups as opposed to the specific muscle you are targeting!

The aforementioned leads me onto the next topic post activation potentiation (PAP) which is a short term improvement in performance as a result of a conditioning exercise. For example, a countermovement jump (CMJ) and a back squat.

“A phenomenon by which the force exerted by a muscle is increased due to its previous contraction” (Robbins, 2005)

 The conditioning exercises is said to place the muscles in a “potentiated” or “Activated” state thus, increasing (in this case) CMJ performance. Whilst the research of this is quite mixed, heavy loads (> 80% of 1RM) appears to be more effective than using lighter loads. If we are talking about activation, then this is quite a contrast. Whilst I am not throwing the baby out the bath water my question is.

“What assumptions are we making?”

Ok so do we not do this exercise?

Firstly, you will hear this in the strength and conditioning communities quite a bit. Context is king. There have been great research on side banded walks particularly in the rehab settings to help rewire neural pathways or to teach a young athlete muscle awareness.  I just do not expect a magical solution from this in athletic performance.

Before I dive into specific exercises, I want to take you back to basics and suggest that simply getting your glutes strong, increasing the your hip mobility and stiffness in your core will go a long way in getting in enhancing performance outcomes from the Glutes and enhancing cross sectional area (size). Great exercises include Barbell hip Thrusts, high step ups and good old fashioned back squats, performed with good technique.

Structural adaptation

We know that in order to create structural adaptions we can:

  • Increase Cross sectional area
  • Increase muscle activation
  • Increase muscle- tendon stiffness

The literature around PAP, forced me to think that high volume, low load was probably not adequate in the “activation” of these muscle groups for performance enhancement. So how could I alter what I do to potentiate these muscles? Here are some ideas (I would also love to hear yours)

  • Fewer repetitions
  • Higher intensity
  • Yielding Isometrics

Whilst these are not revolutionary or specific exercises it gives something to think about, for example take the typical clamshell exercise pictured below

There are ways that we could modify this, perhaps, by using a heavy plate loaded six second isometric or using a very heavy band that can only be pushed for 3-5 repetitions. With some of my full-time athletes I would typically use a heavier plate loaded isometric hold to “activate” the muscles of the glutes, which is progressed through time.

On a final note, I want to stress that I am not anti-band sidewalks, I just think they need to be taken a bit more lightly for activation purposes. They certainly have their place in clinical rehab or as a teaching method, to feel the muscle but this comes down to your “why”.

 

Thanks for reading guys,

Konrad McKenzie

Strength and Conditioning coach.

 

Liked This Blog?

You might like other blogs on this topic from APA:

APA review of the Middlesex Students S&C conference 2014

The Dubious Rise of the Corrective Exercise ”Pseudo-Physio” Posing as a Trainer- My thoughts

as well as two recommended articles:

This article on weak Glutes during Squatting

And this one on Exercise Modifications 

Do you feel that this would be a perfect time to work on the weak links that you have been avoiding? The things that you know you should be doing that you keep putting off? Would you like us to help you with movement screening and an injury prevention program? Then click on the link below and let us help you!

? TRAIN WITH APA ?

Aspiring Pro Training Support Packages

 

 

Follow me on instagram @konrad_mcken

Follow Daz on instagram @apacoachdaz

 

Remember:
  • If you’re not subscribed yet, click here to get free email updates, so we can stay in touch.
  • Share this post using the buttons on the top and bottom of the post. As one of this blog’s first readers, I’m not just hoping you’ll tell your friends about it. I’m counting on it.
  • Leave a comment, telling me where you’re struggling and how I can help

Since you’re here…
…we have a small favor to ask.  APA aim to bring you compelling content from the world of sports science and coaching.  We are devoted to making athletes fitter, faster and stronger so they can excel in sport. Please take a moment to share the articles on social media, engage the authors with questions and comments below, and link to articles when appropriate if you have a blog or participate on forums of related topics. — APA TEAM

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The Lower Limb and Why It Should Be Important to You

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With the initiation of a third lock down in the UK we thought it would be a great idea to engage our readers in some motivating posts to help keep you motivated.  We welcome back APA coach Konrad McKenzie with a weekly guest post.

 

Hi guys,

Today I wanted to talk about one person’s friend and another person’s enemy. The calf. The time where it gets to summer and you realise neglecting your calves all winter makes itself apparent in shorts. But, did you know that the calf plays a pivotal role in physical performance? I’m here to explain why.

At APA we have been having some great discussions around the calves and I am excited to share some of this information with you. Before we dive into training the calf, I wanted to briefly talk about its anatomy, as it will allow the reader to understand what role it plays in sprinting. The two muscles that I want to focus on are the Gastrocnemius and the Soleus. Both muscles insert in to the Calcaneus via the Achilles tendon however what is interesting to highlight that the Soleus (mono-articular), unlike the Gastrocnemius (bi-articular), does not cross the knee joint.

 

The Soleus explored further

Whereas the gastrocnemius plays more of a propulsive role the Soleus (coming from the latin word “Solea”) plays an important role in stability during running.

The Soleus will work hard to keep the tibia over the Calcaneus to prevent you from falling forwards, during this time forces up to eight times bodyweight can be tolerated. The Soleus is predominately made up of Type 1 Slow twitch fibres.

Due to the higher proportion of type one fibres the Soleus is known as the “Workhorse” due to its high endurance capability and high importance in stabilisation.

 

The Gastrocnemius explored further

Whereas the Soleus plays more of a supportive role in Explosive activity the Gastrocnemius are able to provide a significant source of power in propulsion due to the higher proportion of type two fibres.

“Our simulation reveals that the ankle plantarflexors are the primary contributors to both propulsion and support of the body mass center during late stance” – (Hamner et al, 2010)

The Achilles tendon explored further

Also known as the biological springs, tendons play a vital role in assisting muscle work by storing energy known as elastic strain energy. This allows the human movement system to go beyond its intrinsic muscle properties, once this energy is released. As a result this amplifies power output. It is important to note that “Amplification” does not necessarily mean adding energy to the system but rather its rapid release.

I have always been fascinated by the “spring” in the Masai warrior, a real display if athleticism, the reader is encouraged to have a look at this on YouTube.

What role does the high strength & stiffness in the calf complex in injury prevention?

 

“Strengthen your calves, save your hips”

With the lockdown upon us and many more people participating in running based activity it is useful to incorporate some exercises to help keep you robust. During running the Soleus works eccentrically to slow the forward movement of the shin, with the aim of reducing knee load. Additionally, having strong calves will help you move with biomechanical efficiency preventing problems further up the body particularly in the hip region.

Give this a try

Rather than perpetually stretching your calf muscles, have you ever thought they might be weak?

If you haven’t got access to fancy force plate testing systems, try finding a bench or a step. Perform a straight legged, single leg calf raise till voluntary failure, how many repetitions did you get? Does your technique begin to breakdown before 20-25 repetitions? Then it may be time to add some calf strengthening to your routines.

OK my Calves are weak what can I do about it?

  • Bodyweight to loaded progressions
  • Aim for 2-3 sessions a week
  • Aim for 3 sets of 12-15 repetitions

Mastered this? Now let’s look at loaded progressions?

The muscles of the calf complex are strong and to train them effectively, once they reach a certain level, will require significant amounts of load, to put this into perspective elite athletes will use 20% of their bodyweight of each leg for three sets of 20 repetitions. In some cases athletes will handle loads of 200% of bodyweight in an isometric contraction (3-5 second holds). Additionally, performing exercises, e.g calf raises, with a bent knee will bias the Soleus.

What about plyometrics?

You have performed a knee to wall test and you’ve determined you have ample range of movement. Does this mean you have bullet proof lower limbs? What if I told you that having too much flexibility without pre-requisite strength and stiffness could create joint instability? Thus risk of injury.

When broken down into its parts. Running is a series of hops from one leg to another, therefore musculo-tendinous units need sufficient “spring” and pre-activation for propulsion and injury prevention.

Once you have determined that your lower limb has suitable levels of strength and endurance it will be a great time to add in some plyometrics into your program. A good approach I like to use is extensive to intensive exercises. E.g pogo jumps progressing to activities that place greater demands on musculo-tendinous structures.

Ultimately, nothing will eliminate the risk of injury entirely unless you stop playing sports entirely, but we can give our bodies the ability to at least tolerate the demands placed on the body by sporting activities. The lower limbs are often overlooked but once we understand a bit about their role and function in sports, their importance becomes apparent.

Although simplified, as the human body is more complicated than we think, I hope this blog has been insightful and given you some things to think about and explore in further detail. I want to leave you with a quote from Albert Einstein

“Make things as simple as possible, but not simpler”

 

Thanks for reading guys,

Konrad McKenzie

Strength and Conditioning coach.

 

Liked This Blog?

You might like other blogs on this topic from APA:

APA review of the Middlesex Students S&C conference 2014

The Dubious Rise of the Corrective Exercise ”Pseudo-Physio” Posing as a Trainer- My thoughts

as well as two recommended articles:

This article on weak Glutes during Squatting

And this one on Exercise Modifications 

Do you feel that this would be a perfect time to work on the weak links that you have been avoiding? The things that you know you should be doing that you keep putting off? Would you like us to help you with movement screening and an injury prevention program? Then click on the link below and let us help you!

? TRAIN WITH APA ?

Aspiring Pro Training Support Packages

 

 

Follow me on instagram @konrad_mcken

Follow Daz on instagram @apacoachdaz

 

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  • Share this post using the buttons on the top and bottom of the post. As one of this blog’s first readers, I’m not just hoping you’ll tell your friends about it. I’m counting on it.
  • Leave a comment, telling me where you’re struggling and how I can help

Since you’re here…
…we have a small favor to ask.  APA aim to bring you compelling content from the world of sports science and coaching.  We are devoted to making athletes fitter, faster and stronger so they can excel in sport. Please take a moment to share the articles on social media, engage the authors with questions and comments below, and link to articles when appropriate if you have a blog or participate on forums of related topics. — APA TEAM

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Pacey Performance Podcast REVIEW- Episode 298 PJ Vazel

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This blog is a review of the Pacey Performance Podcast Episode 298 – PJ Vazel

PJ Vazel

YouTube Channel

Background: 

PJ Vazel

PJ started as a sports journalist for the IAAF and began coaching in 2004 in the same year, coaching sprinters from Nigeria, Greece and France, Switzerland and Senegal.  He has most recently been coaching in throwing at World championship and medal level since 2015 when he came back to France.

 

Discussion topics:

 

Where did that love of sports history come from?

”I like the search of origins.  From a coaching perspective I had some ideas but I was not sure how to implement them, I was searching for what had been done before so not to replicate the mistakes and to go faster.  I wanted to know how the technical and resistance training had evolved over the decades, including the rules and regulations.”

 

How did you first get into coaching?

”I was asked to help a young sprinter find a coach.  I asked around and actually no one was willing to help him, so some people told me: ‘coach him, go ahead and start!

 

Working with a young Nigerian sprinter he had never had a coach, and I had never had an athlete, so it worked very well.  He had no bad habits and we were discovering everything and eager to learn together.  He was very motivated as every race he had was a way of living for him.

 

I was travelling with him and sleeping on the floor, but what I learned is that really you meet some athletes who have extra motivation and they are killers on the track and that’s the kind of people you are going to meet, and you have to prepare athletes for that!

 

Fortunately a huge part of sports history is the history of training methods so I kind of learned by accident the methodology of training so I integrated it.  The most difficult thing was to gauge the volume of training and basically what I did was cut everything in half from what I was reading in the books.  I kind of felt what he needed and the connection with the athlete.  I needed to trust the athlete and observing him, listening to what he had to say because he had a lot of experience.  Athletes use their body once or twice a day as their main work tool, so they know more more and as coaches we have to listen more to them.”

 

Do you think with your lack of experience you were more willing to listen to your athletes rather than thinking that you know best?

”Not really because we all start from scratch.  The funny thing with my coaching debut was that I was still not fluent in English at all, so I had nothing much to say to them in English.  I was just listening to them, and I think that was better because I think that as a young coach I thought I knew a lot.  I think that if I had started with a French athlete I would have told them everything I knew, which I think is the wrong approach.

 

If I had something to say I was managing to tell them [in English] but the important thing I was saying was the only thing I was saying.

Because I was a young coach, others were not afraid to tell me their secrets.  I remember going to every athlete/coach who made the final and asked, ‘are you doing weights, and if yes, what weights are you doing?’  I found that everyone who made the final were doing weights.  I then went back to my athlete who was the first out of the semi-final: ‘look you are the only one who is not doing weights, and you are the only one who has not made the final, so maybe we need to do something different next year.”

 

How has the history of sprinting changed in the last twenty or so years?
”I believe that nothing much has changed in the last 20 years or so compared to perhaps the changes that took place in the earliest part of the 21st century and even up to after the war, where science and methods evolved every four years.  In the last 20 years high tech technology yes but the concepts have not evolved.

Take ancient Greece, they weren’t very concerned about times and to record it because they didn’t have a way to measure it with accuracy.  It was only in the late 18th century when we started to do sprint races where we could time it which influenced a lot the training methods of the 19th and 20th century.
Perhaps you could say there is more of a focus on High-intensity now, not only in sprinting but also in weight training and also in team sports.  But it is a throw back to what was done in the early 20th century when athletes started to specialise in certain events (before they were all round athletes in the 19th century) and the physique was not that specialised either where the same person could win the short sprints and the long sprints.  In the 20th century it was deemed that you were either born fast or for endurance, with certain psychological traits associated with those disciplines.  This lead to the idea that in order to get fast you just needed to sprint, and don’t go against your nature.  And I think we see this now, where you are told to sprint with high intensity and low volume, but that’s what they did back then in the early 20th century.

If you look at the results you get from this [specific] approach, you improve very fast in what you are doing because you are mostly doing the same thing but you reach a plateau very soon and you get tired, and you don’t improve anymore and you may even regress.

There are more efficient approaches utilising more general training in the winter because they could see they could improve over a longer time during winter and get ready for summer competitions.  Because if you only sprint fast, within a few weeks you will plateau.  This concept of variability was very well understood in the 1960s.  Maybe now we are very focused on top speed and power, and finding out the exact power output you need to train.”
What about the introduction/use of strength training- what impact has weight training had on the sport? And did it go too far and perhaps become too important and now it has regressed?
”So in the 19th century athletes were lifting weights because they were also throwers, power lifters etc and doing all kinds of training.  When sprinters started to specialise there was this idea that you needed to be light and doing weights you would get big, so weights are wrong.
Now you can still find sprinters doing weights just for conditioning using dumbbells throughout the centuries but what really changed was science tried to prove whether it was meaningful to lift weights or now, so in Eastern Europe a landmark study in 1946 was done, because everything even politics had to have a scientific justification.
They did a study comparing athletes who did weights and athletes who didn’t do weights, and looked at who is improving the most in terms of results.  It was found that throwers and sprinters who added weights to their training had better results in competition in their main event.

However what was interesting, and a point that was lost in this research over the years, was that yes you need to do weights but it should not be at the expense of amplitude and relaxation of movement.

This advice got lost because when they started to quantify this type of training they noticed that the more you train the better the results, which is true.  It is an observation that you cannot deny.  But the experience of coaches in the field, showed them that there was a limit to this.  But far from being unified the research was full of contradiction and controversies and the articles back then showed a big battle between coaches and scientists who disagreed over how much weights to do!”
Why has there been so much more focus on Maximum Power?
”If we think about weight training, they soon discovered that there was an optimal amount and they needed to improve maximum strength as well as speed so they started to record the bar speed, and jump height in the late 1950s as opposed to just the max squat strength (absolute strength).
The only concept that was not really important for the coaches in the 1950s that was not important then but is important now is the concept of max power.  But back then the concept of variability of training meant that to improve your power you needed to improve your max strength and your speed-strength.  But in between just focusing on that max power doesn’t make sense because you need variability.

Using a variation of power athletes in the 1950s were improving more than the athletes using the exact power of their specific event) which is the 7kg implement of the shot put.  Only using the implement is less efficient than changing.  Why? Because of variability.  You are improving your technique because of the feeling of the muscles, small variations makes you a better skilled athlete.  Also the best intensity is not always 100%- at 90-95% you can still work at a high enough intensity to be relevant to your nervous system but you can also do enough volume to get the repetition of practice needed.  If you train 100% every time, you are crushing your nervous system, you can’t train at enough volume and you lose your relaxation!
Most elite athletes who have achieved their best throws will tell you, that it felt easy, and they felt they could have done more!”

What do you think about some of Frans Bosch’s ideas?

”He presented a lot of interesting exercises when I listened to him present.  I think a lot of coaches focus more on the exercises rather than thinking about the philosophy and how to implement/progress them.
With instagram you now have athletes who will say to their coach, ‘I want to do this exercise.’ Usually the exercise is too advanced for the athlete and you have to explain to the athlete that there is a progression.   I think that most of what Frans presents is far too difficult for the athletes, even elite athletes.  Many athletes are great compensators and have developed crazy skills that hide great weaknesses.  And those are the weaknesses you need to address, and sometimes those fancy and complicated exercises are not pointing the finger at the weak part of the chain.”

Top 5 Take Away Points:

 

  1. Importance of variability- you can improve for longer without crushing your nervous system
  2. Listen to your athletes- Athletes use their body once or twice a day as their main work tool, so they know more more and as coaches we have to listen more to them.
  3. Earn the right! Many athletes are great compensators and have developed crazy skills that hide great weaknesses.  And those are the weaknesses you need to address, and sometimes those fancy and complicated exercises are not pointing the finger at the weak part of the chain
  4. Importance of relaxation- yes you need to do weights but it should not be at the expense of amplitude and relaxation of movement.
  5. Paradox of intensity- alternate days of high intensity with low intensity.

 

Want more info on the stuff we have spoken about?  Be sure to visit:

 

Twitter:

@PJVazel

You may also like from PPP:

 

Episode 372 Jeremy Sheppard & Dana Agar Newman

Episode 367 Gareth Sandford

Episode 362 Matt Van Dyke

Episode 361 John Wagle

Episode 359 Damien Harper

Episode 348 Keith Barr

Episode 331 Danny Lum

Episode 297 Cam Jose

Episode 295 Jonas Dodoo

Episode 292 Loren Landow

Episode 286 Stu McMillan

Episode 272 Hakan Anderrson

Episode 227, 55 JB Morin

Episode 217, 51 Derek Evely

Episode 212 Boo Schexnayder

Episode 207, 3 Mike Young

Episode 204, 64 James Wild

Episode 192 Sprint Masterclass

Episode 183 Derek Hansen

Episode 175 Jason Hettler

Episode 87 Dan Pfaff

Episode 55 Jonas Dodoo

Episode 15 Carl Valle

 

Hope you have found this article useful.

 

Remember:

  • If you’re not subscribed yet, click here to get free email updates, so we can stay in touch.
  • Share this post using the buttons on the top and bottom of the post. As one of this blog’s first readers, I’m not just hoping you’ll tell your friends about it. I’m counting on it.
  • Leave a comment, telling me where you’re struggling and how I can help

 

Since you’re here…
…we have a small favor to ask.  APA aim to bring you compelling content from the world of sports science and coaching.  We are devoted to making athletes fitter, faster and stronger so they can excel in sport. Please take a moment to share the articles on social media, engage the authors with questions and comments below, and link to articles when appropriate if you have a blog or participate on forums of related topics. — APA TEAM

 

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Are You Taking Care of Your Feet?

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With the initiation of a third lock down in the UK we thought it would be a great idea to engage our readers in some motivating posts to help keep you motivated.  We welcome back APA coach Konrad McKenzie with a weekly guest post.

 

The wider the base the higher the peak, but do we spend enough time looking after our base?

Hey guys,

Konrad here and today I wanted to talk about foot health and strength, sometimes overlooked in the area of physical conditioning (I have been guilty of it myself). However, our feet are considered our suspension that plays a vital role in interaction with the ground.

 “Despite getting stronger, some athletes will still remain in “turtle mode” for reactive demands, while their peers train, get stronger, and are able to improve on the springy base they already have. What is this “springy base”? The answer is: the foot.” – Joel Smith

Before we dive into training methods I wanted to lightly touch on the anatomy of the foot to give the reader appreciation of the foot’s complex and pivotal role in athletic movements. A detailed inspection of the foot will fall outside the scope of this blog, but I thought the readers would benefit from an overview. As the saying goes ‘you can’t shoot a canon from a canoe.’

’

The forefoot

The foot can be divided into three areas the forefoot, midfoot and rear foot. The forefoot is an important part of the foot as this includes the Toe (First Metatarsal). As you can see from the picture above this bone is quite thick and short compared to the other metatarsals. It is known as the shock absorber and plays a vital role in propulsion. Try sprinting after a long layoff, I guarantee that big toe will be sore!

Midfoot

As you may see from the picture the midfoot is made up of five irregularly shaped bones called the Tarsals. Clinically, these are called the Cuboid, Navicular and the Cuneiforms (medial, lateral & intermediate). These bones form the arch of the foot, which provides stability.

Rear foot

The rear foot is composed of the Talus and the Calcaneus, the Calcaneus is also known as the heel and the Talus sits on top of the Calcaneus and provides a pivoting joint for the ankle.

Muscles and tendons of the foot

We have briefly spoken about the bones in the foot. Now we will briefly look into the muscles that control the foot. The musculature that controls the foot originated in the lower leg. These are then attached to the foot via tendons and ligaments. These muscles include the Tibialis posterior, Tibialis Anterior, Peroneus Longus and Brevis, Extensors and Flexors. These muscles move, support and allow movement of the foot.

Lastly, the tendons include the Achilles tendon (the largest and strongest tendon) which runs from the calf to the heel. This tendon is highly utilised in sprinting and plyometric activity. Other tendons include the posterior and anterior Tibial tendon. The reader is encouraged to explore the anatomical origins and insertions further.

Thought this would be an engaging picture. Check out the stretch in the Achilles tendon in frames ‘B’ and ‘C’.

You are now aware that our foot is a vital link between us and the ground. The foot’s ability to absorb many times our bodyweight, through activities such as jumping and sprinting highlight their importance in relation to health and physical training. Personally, I make sure that all my physical training programs contain exercises which focus around foot strength and stability.

Ok, we get it its importance how do we train the feet better?

I wanted to share some training ideas you could use to strengthen the feet. Some of these ideas will not be as complex as one may assume. These ideas presented will, hopefully, be practical enough that you can implement with minimal equipment and mental bandwidth!

More barefoot work

The beauty about this, is you can incorporate this method into your everyday training (provided it’s safe). Before we dive into this I want to quickly quote a highly respected Strength and conditioning coach Loren Landow, someone much smarter than me on this topic;

“The problem when people start doing ‘barefoot’ work is that they go for the gusto! It’s not about sprinting in barefoot, it’s about doing these intrinsic movements (such as standing on two feet or one foot and rotating around your feet to feel the eversion/inversion etc) to get you a better foundational stability.  I may squat them and do lunges but I think people are getting a little too carried away doing all their locomotive drills barefoot.  Is the juice worth the squeeze for the risks/benefit?”

Now, sometimes people are guilty of receiving thought provoking information and going to extremes, you can see this in ‘diets and training fads. However, small alterations in behaviours may elicit large pay offs. In this case, it may be worth doing some weight room and balancing activities barefooted to challenge stability and strength.

Where possible, a trainee should try incorporating more barefoot training for two reasons. 1) Increasing intrinsic foot strength 2) Improve the sensory processing between the feet and the ground. You will sometimes hear coaches suggesting to “feel the ground” during activities such as weightlifting. Shoes may make it more difficult to attain this sensory awareness. Moreover, training barefoot in different environments could great superior adaptations whilst your system tries to find stability in chaos.

Skipping

Since starting work in Tennis, I was surrounded by youth athletes who could skip with prowess and flair! It was so refreshing that a relatively simple training tool was a piece of equipment in every athlete’s bag. Additionally, we get so lost in the complexities of training methodology that we forget about the brilliant basics. However I mentioned in a previous blog that those who understand principles can employ any method. What are we getting out of skipping? Repeated submaximal and stiff ground contacts. Not mentioning other benefits such as rhythm and aerobic fitness (Depending on how you implement it). You could even try doing this on a barefoot for the reasons alluded to in the previous paragraph.

Intrinsic foot strengthening exercises

Intrinsic foot strengthening may not be seen as the most glamourous exercises but important considering the time spent in shoes, socks and walking on even terrain. Additionally, as you delve further into the human body, you will appreciate the dynamic and complex interconnections. This blog post about back pain being relating to the big toe highlights this.

“Due to cramped spaces and the inability of the joints to function in their natural range of motion, our brains lose the neurological connection to the muscles of our feet, causing compensations. Luckily, neuroplasticity (the ability for our brains to change the neural circuits to our bodies) dictates that it is possible to improve and even reverse chronic instability of the foot, and thus joint pathologies and pain.”

– Arash Rex Maghsoodi

The Prehab guys have some great content around foot strengthening, particularly around big toe movement, give some of their exercises a go. You can practice them in the shower!

Overall, this an area I will explore further and I hope you will too.

Many thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it!

Konrad McKenzie

Strength and Conditioning Coach

 

Liked This Blog?

You might like other blogs on this topic from APA:

APA review of the Middlesex Students S&C conference 2014

The Dubious Rise of the Corrective Exercise ”Pseudo-Physio” Posing as a Trainer- My thoughts

as well as two recommended articles:

This article on weak Glutes during Squatting

And this one on Exercise Modifications 

Do you feel that this would be a perfect time to work on the weak links that you have been avoiding? The things that you know you should be doing that you keep putting off? Would you like us to help you with movement screening and an injury prevention program? Then click on the link below and let us help you!

? TRAIN WITH APA ?

Aspiring Pro Training Support Packages

 

 

Follow me on instagram @konrad_mcken

Follow Daz on instagram @apacoachdaz

 

Remember:
  • If you’re not subscribed yet, click here to get free email updates, so we can stay in touch.
  • Share this post using the buttons on the top and bottom of the post. As one of this blog’s first readers, I’m not just hoping you’ll tell your friends about it. I’m counting on it.
  • Leave a comment, telling me where you’re struggling and how I can help

Since you’re here…
…we have a small favor to ask.  APA aim to bring you compelling content from the world of sports science and coaching.  We are devoted to making athletes fitter, faster and stronger so they can excel in sport. Please take a moment to share the articles on social media, engage the authors with questions and comments below, and link to articles when appropriate if you have a blog or participate on forums of related topics. — APA TEAM

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Finding Opportunities in Chaos- Corrective Exercise

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With the initiation of a third lock down in the UK we thought it would be a great idea to engage our readers in some motivating posts to help keep you motivated.  We welcome back APA coach Konrad McKenzie with a weekly guest post.

Good afternoon guys,

“In the midst of chaos there, there is always opportunity” Sun Tzu

Today I wanted to talk about finding opportunities in chaos, Chaos being a disruption to our normal routine. Opportunity, using this time to 1) work on the activities we may have been neglecting 2) work as close to plan A as possible.

Whilst I do not want to turn this into a philosophy lesson sometimes it is helpful to know that we have the power to control our daily actions regardless of circumstances out of our control. This is why for the next seven weeks I want to give you the opportunities, in the form of weekly blogs & exercises, to keep on top of your education and training regardless, of location.

Today’s blog is going to focus on the activities we may have been neglecting and that is correctives. Lower magnitude exercises which aim to restore muscular balance and functionality in the body. Some practitioners like to do these as part of a warm up, rest periods in between core lifts or at the end of a session as part of a robustness circuit. It’s really up to you and your sequencing method.

Next comes the question well what correctives shall I do?

This will depend on your individual needs, after an assessment and a previous injury check. But a quick and handy assessment is an overhead squat.

Believe it or not this this assessment requires a lot of athleticism, movement functionality and structural alignment in the ankle, hip & shoulder. If you want a test that gives you a lot of information with minimal time input the overhead squat is a go to.

Additionally, this test can be manipulated to answer some questions (Most of us are aware of the term regional interdependence and how the body is an interconnected system). For example, how might a person be able to solve the movement problem (Overhead squat) “if I were to elevate their heels? Will it improve? If so, could a tight ankle complex be an issue? Why is it tight?” Deeper thought and a conversation arises.

Common impairments

Knee Valgus (Inward rotation of knees)

Now before we dive into the causes and the potential solutions of the problem I want to give some of my insights on this hotly debated topic. Sports will sometimes place the body in unfavourable positions and granted the athlete has the capacity to tolerate this, they tend to come away injury free. Additionally, during the ascent of a squat, muscles of the adductor complex play a role in hip extension. Finally, during some kinematic analysis of sprinting, occasionally you will see some elite athletes display slight internal rotation and subsequent pronation of the foot during acceleration. In my view it’s all about context (athlete level, age, gender etc.) I personally, would not be happy with a young athlete performing a loaded squat with knee valgus particularly, in the eccentric portion of the lift or landing from a box. I think  youth need to master the basics and build good habits.

Arms falling forward

I see this in a lot of youth Tennis players, due to the probable over activity of the Pectorals (major & minor) and the Latissimus Dorsi. Consistent lengthening of the back musculature and the shortening of pecs in the forehand and the serve, it is not hard to understand this occurrence. Additionally, bad postures as a result to binge watching television and IPhone usage may further add to this recipe. Whilst perfect structural symmetry is hard to achieve, sometimes undesirable, it is important to strengthen the upper back musculature as much as we can to reduce likelihood of shoulder injuries.

Finding the culprit

Now, sometimes we perform the overhead squat and for example, see that the young athlete displays an ‘excessive forward lean and excessive lumbar arch’ in their movement assessment. How do we figure what the potential issue is? Here is a quick guide.

Option 1: Place two weight disks (or something to elevate the heels) Does the squat improve? In my personal experience I have seen about 90% of young athletes improve after doing this. Placing a weight disk underneath heel takes away the stretch from the Soleus allowing athletes to display better squat patterns. This may indicate a tightness in the calf and ankle complexes.

If squat still looks sub-standard then there’s a chance that you will have to look into what is occurring at the hips.

Option 2: Ask athlete to place hands on the hip as they squat, does it improve? Again I regularly see improvements in squat performance. If the squat makes an improvement after this adaptation then it is likely the Lats and muscles surrounding the shoulder capsule are overactive.

Now, I do not want to sound reductionist and too linear in my article. As know the world, the human body operates as a system, with lots of cofounding variables. However, recognition that a noticeable compensation could be as a result of a dysfunction somewhere else is profound. For example, a problem at the foot and ankle could cause pain in the shoulder due to the interconnections of fascial slings. If muscles are overactive in particular areas then we have to try and discern why, not just instinctively and perpetually stretch it.

Whilst a movement screen such as an overhead squat is not the answer, it is certainly a start point, where practitioners can be combine this information with other measures to create a story.

‘Let the questions be the curriculum’ – Socrates.

If I find these compensations what shall I do about it?

In this last section I want to give you a couple of exercises, from my toolbox to help you combat the two issues presented in the ‘common impairments’ section.

Banded Clamshells

Often knee valgus, is present when muscles of the hips (external rotators) are underactive. So we think of exercises used to stimulate this area. One of my favourites is the banded clamshell as it places a great emphasis on the external rotators. This exercise can also be regressed and progressed as needed. I find that some of the stronger players benefit from progressing this to a plate loaded clamshell (holding a weight plate isometrically, on the outer thigh instead of a band).

 

Bent over external rotations

This exercise is one of my favourites. In Tennis, the serve is considered a ‘high powered movement’ and strong back muscles help decelerate the arm after ball contact is made, this exercise targets muscles such as the rear Deltoid, Rhomboids & Teres Major, which are placed under duress in the high powered movements. Squeezing the shoulder blades together helps with working the Rhomboids thus Scapular control and subsequent reduction in shoulder injuries.

As mentioned above these activities are a range of potential solutions. It is up to us to truly understand the problem, before implementing a solution this is the tricky part.

Many thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it!

Konrad McKenzie

Strength and Conditioning Coach

 

Liked This Blog?

You might like other blogs on this topic from APA:

APA review of the Middlesex Students S&C conference 2014

The Dubious Rise of the Corrective Exercise ”Pseudo-Physio” Posing as a Trainer- My thoughts

as well as two recommended articles:

This article on weak Glutes during Squatting

And this one on Exercise Modifications 

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Pacey Performance Podcast REVIEW- Episode 297 Cam Josse

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This blog is a review of the Pacey Performance Podcast Episode 297 – Cam Josse

Cam Josse

Website

Background: 

Cam Josse

Cam is Performance Coach for American Football Indiana University since March 2020, and spent most of his career in the private sector, most notably at DeFranco’s Training from 2013 to 2020.

 

Discussion topics:

 

What are the benefits of Max Speed training for Team sport athletes?

”I will never argue that team sport is acceleration dominant in nature, your bread and butter is going to be your ability to accelerate.  But through the research I have done and talking to researchers like Ken Clarke, who has done a lot of research on top speed, I have the approach to training that I don’t want to leave any stone unturned.

 

So what are some of the benefits we are seeing from maximal speed training?

 

  1. It is going to affect your entire speed curve- if you can be faster and hold onto that top speed then you are going to be faster at every segment below that
  2. The biggest game breaking plays are going to involve these explosive longer distance runs over 60 Yards and they are in a high speed environment where often they struggle because they don’t know how to cope with the dynamics in that environment.  Even though they are very rare that doesn’t mean we should neglect them.
  3. It is so neurologically unique there is no other way to really operate and train that. We can’t do much in a weight room setting, or outside of achieving top speed to help the athlete develop in that environment.  It’s a very elastic environment (in contrast to the more muscular actions of acceleration).
  4. Developing ability to active and utilise the elastic components and not just the muscles is going to protect their structures.”

 

Why do you focus so much on the split times, such as 10 Yard segments?

”When I look at the different segments to me it paints a picture and tells a story, and every 10 Yard segment is going to tell you a different story.  Just looking at the 40 Yard sprint and the total time we see the outcome but we don’t always see the story of how they got there.

 

  • First 10 Yards – high force production and horizontal orientation (strength-speed)
  • 10 -20 Yards – you will see the pure explosive qualities coming to light there (speed-strength)
  • 20-30 Yards – reactive and elastic ability
  • 30-40 Yards- max speed ability

 

 

At a recent study of NFL combine in 2016 everyone was at around 95% of their maximum speed by around 20 Yards and obviously the ones who were faster and had better velocity capability were at a lower percentage of their maximum speed because they could spread it further, but some of the slow or stronger guys like linesmen were almost at 100% by 20 yards.

 

The only way I think you improve the segment beyond 20 Yards is sprinting at high speed, I don’t think there is much of anything else that is going to help develop that further.

 

With regard to the exercises that might be associated with different segments Cam used the example of someone dominating the triple broad jump, you are probably someone who is going to be very powerful and have longer coupling capability- meaning you are able to produce power over large ranges of motion with your hip, knee and ankle.  You are probably going to dominate hill sprints, light resistance sprints.  You have a lot of power against lighter resisted activities.

Once you go beyond 20 Yards that’s where the benefit of some of those more general activities start to fizzle out.  I think you have to make it more specific to what is happening on the field.  Some plyometric activities such as long bounds, or dribble runs (A runs) and shorter coupling activities where you are working through shorter ranges of motion and truly elastic, truly plyometric activity, you’re probably still going to be good up to 30 Yards.

 

Beyond 30 Yards it’s about how well you operate at >95% of your maximal speed capabilities.

 

Do you think there is an overemphasis on ”drilling” of speed in the team sport setting?

”Yes 100% and I have been guilty of that myself, I have learnt a sprint technique and feel like I have this secret sauce, so now I’m going out seeing all these athletes and saying he sprints like shit, and if they were in my programme I would be able to work with them! I think that the problem is, a lot of coaches just want to be heard because we are passionate about what we do, and like to feel like we have some influence over our players.

 

Know your role! We are facilitators not dictators.

 

We give them hints and provide them with environments that they can then utilize and develop themselves to realise their own potential; we are not here to just hold their hand.

 

I can give you an example of some work with an athlete I did a few years back who was getting prepared for their NFL pro day.  I was not able to attend his pro day.  I hand held him through the entire process of training, I over drilled him, I over cued him, I was constantly just like if he made one small error I had to fix it there and then!  Needless to say, he went to his pro day and I was not there to hold his hand and he completely shat the bed!  He needed me to tell him what to do at every segment of the run.  That was where it hit me that I didn’t give him ownership of his own develop!

 

Look at what are the stable components of movement (attractors)- so for example, how do we get them to understand how to create a positive shin angle in acceleration, maybe it’s not a cue at all from the coach, maybe its to use some resistance so they can feel it.  Or maybe for change of direction, a general principle of movement is to lower your centre of mass (COM) towards your base of support (BOS).

 

What do you think about borrowing the technical model from a sprinter and trying to generalise it to team sports?
”I’m of the opinion that if we are going to borrow from a certain discipline we should try to understand the efficient principles of that discipline.  So if we are going to squat an athlete, let us try and search through the strongest and healthiest power lifters to find out what they are doing right, and borrow that.  Same thing for Olympic weightlifting, to understand how to do it in an efficient manner, and it’s the same for sprinting.

So think about why we would do a linear sprint, it’s not to necessarily to develop game orientated speed because ‘game speed’ is incredibly complex.  It’s because we want to develop the athlete’s SYSTEM to produce very high speeds.  So if we are going to develop the athlete’s central nervous system to produce very high speeds in a safe and efficient manner, maybe they aren’t ever going to hit their top speed in a game, but we are doing it to overload the speed side of things and push that athlete’s speed ceiling a little bit higher.
 
So that’s where we do look to track & field for that specific context.  It’s not that we think it’s a cure all that if someone just runs the fastest linear sprint possible they will be a great team sport player, because I think we can all agree that is absurb, otherwise we would just try and get Asafa Powell and Usain Bolt to play football!
What are the team sport athletes common faults when sprinting?
”Check out the article on SimpliFaster- Sprinting in Team Sport: The Butt-kicking Epidemic.  Three classic butt kick types are discussed:
1.  Classic Butt-kicker
2.  The Forward-Leaner butt-kicker
3.  The Over-Arching butt-kicker
Are there any general methods you can use to correct these butt-kicking errors?
”Be aware that people with very long limbs might look like they are butt-kicking to the naked eye because the heel is getting close to the butt, but it’s not really where it is in relation to the butt, it’s more where it is in relation to the centre line (the landmark that really matters).  It just looks like butt kicking because the athlete has a really long shin.
Yes there are general-individual methods I have come across (which seems to work for around 80% of people):
  1. Cueing to make them realise where their limbs should do in time and space- but it’s very rare that this would fix it alone as they have been doing something a certain way for so long
  2. Cueing to develop Force application into the ground – getting the athlete to understand a concept using motor term descriptors such as ”pop off the ground” when you are at top speed.  Another cue is imagine that the ground is getting hotter and hotter with every step you take.  I prefer pop to punch, as the athlete can sometimes punch far too hard, and it wasn’t smooth, fluid and graceful.  Punch is a better for acceleration, as it’s more aggressive.
  3. Cueing to think as if you are running upstairs as you move towards the horizon- it seems to promote front side mechanics better as when you run up stairs you have to have great front side mechanics!
  4. Drill/cue-  Med ball punch run (4-6lbs) held in front of their body right around the level of the navel and then I just tell them to run and try and contact your quad to the med ball.  It promotes a cyclical high knee activity which is very similar to top speed sprinting (similar to Altis who use the dribble run).  With the med ball you don’t need to go full speed but it just gets them used feeling what it feels like to achieve that front side lift, and it gives them something to aim for.   They may feel a weakness in an ankle when the limb comes down from that kind of height as they are not used to transmitting that much force through the ankle.

Top 5 Take Away Points:

 

  1. Importance of speed reserve- increasing top speed is going to affect your entire speed curve- if you can be faster and hold onto that top speed then you are going to be faster at every segment below that
  2. SAID principle- to get faster at top speed  the only way I think you improve beyond 20 Yards is sprinting at high speed, I don’t think there is much of anything else that is going to help develop that further.
  3. Know your role! We are facilitators not dictators- it’s better to say no little than too much.
  4. Top speed isn’t the cure all- we don’t think that if someone just runs the fastest linear sprint possible they will be a great team sport player, because I think we can all agree that is absurb
  5. Find cues that work for your athletes

 

Want more info on the stuff we have spoken about?  Be sure to visit:

 

Twitter:

@IUcoachJosse

You may also like from PPP:

 

Episode 372 Jeremy Sheppard & Dana Agar Newman

Episode 367 Gareth Sandford

Episode 362 Matt Van Dyke

Episode 361 John Wagle

Episode 359 Damien Harper

Episode 348 Keith Barr

Episode 331 Danny Lum

Episode 298 PJ Vazel

Episode 295 Jonas Dodoo

Episode 292 Loren Landow

Episode 286 Stu McMillan

Episode 272 Hakan Anderrson

Episode 227, 55 JB Morin

Episode 217, 51 Derek Evely

Episode 212 Boo Schexnayder

Episode 207, 3 Mike Young

Episode 204, 64 James Wild

Episode 192 Sprint Masterclass

Episode 183 Derek Hansen

Episode 175 Jason Hettler

Episode 87 Dan Pfaff

Episode 55 Jonas Dodoo

Episode 15 Carl Valle

 

Hope you have found this article useful.

 

Remember:

  • If you’re not subscribed yet, click here to get free email updates, so we can stay in touch.
  • Share this post using the buttons on the top and bottom of the post. As one of this blog’s first readers, I’m not just hoping you’ll tell your friends about it. I’m counting on it.
  • Leave a comment, telling me where you’re struggling and how I can help

 

Since you’re here…
…we have a small favor to ask.  APA aim to bring you compelling content from the world of sports science and coaching.  We are devoted to making athletes fitter, faster and stronger so they can excel in sport. Please take a moment to share the articles on social media, engage the authors with questions and comments below, and link to articles when appropriate if you have a blog or participate on forums of related topics. — APA TEAM

 

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Pacey Performance Podcast REVIEW- Episode 292 Loren Landow

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This blog is a review of the Pacey Performance Podcast Episode 292 – Loren Landow

Loren Landow

Website

Background: 

Loren Landow

As of March 12th,2018 Coach Landow is now the full-time head Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Denver Broncos Football Organization. He maintains his ownership/founder of Landow Performance in Centennial, Colorado.

 

Discussion topics:

 

Tell us a little bit more about your background and education

”When I came out of school (did a degree in Kinesiology with a minor in Nutrition) I got involved with my first mentor Greg Roskopf who was the developer of the Muscle Activation Techniques.  I took a year long course which was pretty intensive and extensive, and during that time I was still working with and training athletes and used my Middle school athletes as my guinea pigs in 1997-98, and trying to figure this thing out that we call performance training.

 

I got involved with Velocity Sports Performance through Lorence Seagrave, and around that time I got to know Dan Pfaff, which was followed by the start of Landow Performance, and the vision I had.  This vision involved needing a lot of space to train athletes in, and I wanted to pay people really well, who could make a living in this field and not having to worry about holding down two or three different jobs to pay their bills.   At the time of writing I have 30 staff and around 12 what I would call full-time staff.”

 

In your UKSCA presentation why did you put so much emphasis on the importance of frontal and tranverse plane drills?

”Steven Plisk, who is another mentor of mine, always said that in periodisation and programming:

 

to be a better specialist you need to be a better generalist

 

To be a sniper in our field you need to understand your biomechanics, anatomy, biochemistry, programming and all the different subject matters which make up what we do; you have to be really good at those general subjects to really dive in to be able to give somebody something pretty specific and pretty individual.  When we look at movement, there are infinite movements we can do, but when you really break it down to fundamental quadrants and cardinal directions, what can you really do in those planes?

 

So I started breaking it down, not reductionist, but a generalist mindset, and say ok, if I can be really good in moving in the sagittal, frontal and transverse plane those are really the crux of how you build change of direction.  At the end of the day I’m going to use a transverse or frontal plane type of movement to bridge two gaps of acceleration.

 

People talk about reacting to the environment, and the environmental constraints…well we have constraints within our body, and if we are not a good locomotive athlete, not a good mover, we don’t understand fluidity and coordination, you can make the environment as dynamic as you want, I don’t think I am going to be as efficient as I could be, as if I spent a decent chunk of time mastering myself and how I move in space.

 

When it comes to structure and function you can really narrow all common movements down into four common forces:

 

  • Shear
  • Distraction
  • Torque
  • Compression

 

So if I can build closed models where I work on the robustness of the athlete, and marinate in those movements to make you more resistant to the torque and shear forces that take place at the knee joint, I do believe we can teach the body and the neuro-muscular system to be more robust against those types of forces, when we are exposed to them on the field.”

 

What teaching progressions do you use when you are teaching an athlete from scratch through deceleration?

”I’ll teach them good squat and lunge patterns in the isometric fashion and being able to get into those bent knee positions that ultimately look like deceleration, and I’ll do that even with my elites as they don’t bend and move as well as you would think.  Maybe it’s because of their training age saturation, and maybe they just didn’t seem to care when they were going through these rudimentary stages of learning.  For me, it’s not that I want to make everything closed, because I’m very big into open movement.  But I think early on you have to teach some closed patterns.

 

I’ll start with different skipping patterns then they’ll have to absorb into a BILATERAL deceleration, they might start with jogging and sitting down into the squat position.  But once they start having better control with that, I’ll take it into a light acceleration and then we are going to decelerate into a split stance.  So those of the kind of things I may pay attention to early.  The thing I love to do, say I’m doing a linear acceleration, is put on the brakes into a good deceleration, then I’ll take them into a back pedal action and have them put on the brakes.  Now I’m getting that good deceleration, eccentric loading in those reverse mechanics and I get great deceleration on the achilles.  Over time there are some good things happening in terms of tissue tolerance and I do these things at low intensity.  Things are progressed over time and that ultimately becomes, okay, you’re going to accelerate for 15 yards and put on the brakes at 7 yards; now you’re going to put on the brakes at 5 yards, now at 3 yards, now you’re going to put the brakes on when I clap.   So there are different ways to make these drills go from closed to open.’

 

[Daz comment: check out this article ”Taking a step back to reconsider change of direction and its application following ACL Injury]  There was a very interesting reference to research looking at what percentage of maximum speed could be attained prior to changing direction- in this case back pedal].

 

Eccentric control of pronation/supination

 

Principles change based on  foot position.  When we are jogging, running and sprinting, there are different elements of stride pattern and positioning.  When I’m in a frontal plane it’s on the edges, I start to use the inversion/eversion qualities of the foot, still pronation/supination of the foot but it’s in a different plane so I’m stressing those structures of the foot differently up the chain.  You don’t want too much of one , or two much of the other so how do I find the ability to manage and mitigate both supination and pronation?  I love the side shuffle drill.  Even though in sporting action it’s usually one step and go, I like to saturate the skill and put them under different forces and different loads so they absorb those forces.

 

In terms of ongoing assessments during training how are you identifying where people are potentially having energy leaks and where you potentially need to spend more time?

”I used to think that you take someone out of their shoes and you see them squat or lunge and you see this great contoured [high] arch, and you’re like, that’s a strong, stable foot, that’s great.  And it might be, but in many cases we see people who get their dorsi flexion from their phalanges (toes), and what happens is that they actually keep the mid-foot plantar-flexed so the foot still looks like its got that contoured arch, and that’s not a good thing because the talus can’t move and glide.

 

 

What I look for now is you need to have stiffness in the foot, but you need to have compliance in the foot.  You need the fore foot, mid foot and rear foot mold and adapt to that flooring, and so you do want that, it’s just a matter of degrees. So now, I actually look for someone who has a little bit more of a flatter foot, a foot that can actually splay (spread) to the ground, not arch up, because that’s when you get those intrinsic stabilising and eccentric control.  When the foot is clawing that’s more of a concentric action, and I want more splay that creates more eccentric control that allows me to have cleaner motion from the rear-foot, mid-foot and fore-foot, not to mention the ability of the talus to glide and the tibia to move forward and back really well.

 

 

[Daz comment: the muscles in the anterior (aka extensor) compartment are responsible for dorsiflexing or extending the foot.  Extensor digitorum longus extends or lifts the second to fifth toes.  Extensor hallucis longus extends the big toe, aka halux]

 

So now I ask an athlete to dorsi flex and if they are pulling up more from their extensor digitorum (longus) and extensor hallucis (longus), more than their anterior tibialis, you’ve got to pay attention to that.  Because if you just look at dorsi flexion with shoes on you are going to be biased to what you are seeing.

 

The problem when people start doing ‘barefoot’ work is that they go for the gusto! It’s not about sprinting in barefoot, it’s about doing these intrinsic movements (such as standing on two feet or one foot and rotating around your feet to feel the eversion/inversion etc) to get you a better foundational stability.  I may squat them and do lunges but I think people are getting a little too carried away doing all their locomotive drills barefoot.  Is the juice worth the squeeze for the risks/benefit?

 

The knee is the servant of the foot and the hip, emphasizing the importance of what is going on above and below.  The foot has more than three degrees of freedom, so there is a high availability of movement and therefore instability and the hip is the same thing.  The knee doesn’t have that, it is mainly sagittal, it has a little bit of rotation but not much so at the end of the day, if you are unstable through the hip and/or foot that knee becomes the torque converter through what those two joints maybe can’t decelerate, so to me it is really important that you have a programme that looks at the eccentric control of these joints.  People get hyper focused on the knee, especially during injury, and they’re not spending enough time working on the foot and the hip, and the trunk!

What goes through your mind when you’re trying to work out where athletes need to spend their time when you’re trying to fix and improve their deceleration patterns?
”I’ll pay attention to the athlete doing a closed drill in front of me or maybe watch some of their footage on film in their sport, and look what happens when they go to decelerate, is their base really wide, is it really narrow, how unaware are they?  Then, I’ll look at what does their next action look like when they come out of it? Who are the athletes who can decelerate with one foot, with the awareness, strength and mobility to decelerate with one foot and the other one is on the gas, and is already going into acceleration.  Is it a relative strength issue, is it a base issue, is it a lack of locomotion coming out of the deceleration?
Even though I do like closed drills I try not to over coach.  Let them get eight reps in before I say something, then I might say ‘try this.’  I want them to feel it.
If I’m constantly giving you a cue or something to change, you’re never getting a chance to feel something on your own.
How are you identifying from a linear speed perspective how and what the athlete needs to spend time on when time is so precious?
”I think I have to look at the sport, and where it lives, and in most of the sports I work with it lives in acceleration.  So I spend a good amount of time on acceleration, but I still spend time on maximum velocity qualities because I think it’s critical to develop the skill of maximum velocity even though some athletes may never even touch it in their given sport.  But it’s important that when that should happen they have the prerequisite skills so they can pull it right out of their pocket.
I’ll try and build a good understanding of acceleration patterning, how you should punch forward and minimise heel lift up to the rear end and keep a low heel lift as you go through your thigh punching in acceleration; the better I coach that in a team sport, the more the athletes can auto regulate when they go to their change of direction work.  If I’ve done a good job of grooving those patterns in, and then on their change of direction days I’ve shown them, hey the same things we worked on acceleration on the Monday, this is the bridge on your changing direction work.  The better job I have done on a Monday the better it blends into their Tuesday and Friday change of direction days.

I don’t get carried away with a tonne of crazy drills.   These aren’t track & field athletes; I might have some athletes that have genetic potential to be track & field but they don’t play that, so I need to teach off a technical model and I need to have bandwidth off what is acceptable based on what their jobs are.
I look for:
  • Posture
  • Patterning– rhythm
  • Positioning– limb positioning
  • Placement– foot strike (what part and where is it hitting the ground)

 

The first two are the most important to me, and then what I do is I think what are the three drills I can use that can influence all of those factors. Going back to that generalist specialist idea, if I take care of those four P’s a lot of the rest of it takes care of itself.  I find drills that are marching, skipping and running in nature and will allow me to replicate that.  And then, when they get on the field, they will self organise, do what you do when you play your position.

 

Tissue tolerance vs Motor Skill

 

People might get the wrong impression that all I do is closed drills, and that couldn’t be further from the truth! One final thing I want to stress about my philosophy is that it is a periodised view of movement.  Yes early in my off-season we will do more closed drills, more rhythm based, such as shuffles and cross-overs. Then I get into closed drills that have a deceleration emphasis, then I get into open drills, where you don’t know when you’re stopping.

 

People always talk about motor learning and you should never do the same drill twice.  Well, yeah, that’s great but how do I get stronger on a bench press?  Do I get stronger by doing one rep on a bench press, then go do a rep on a single arm DB press, then do a rep on an incline? No, you have to SATURATE!!  If we talk about the Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands (SAID principle) I have to impose enough of a response to adapt to.

Top 5 Take Away Points:

 

  1. Be a Generalist- to be a better specialist you need to be a better generalist
  2. Common forces- you can narrow all common movements down into four common forces: (shear, distraction, torque, compression).
  3. Eccentric control of foot- appropriate dose of barefoot work to strengthen the intrinsic muscles of the feet
  4. Four Ps of Coaching observation- look at posture, patterning, positioning and placement.
  5. Tissue tolerance vs. Motor Learning- you have to ‘saturate’ a drill to impose enough of a demand on the structure to adapt.

 

Want more info on the stuff we have spoken about?  Be sure to visit:

 

Twitter:

@LorenLandow

You may also like from PPP:

 

Episode 372 Jeremy Sheppard & Dana Agar Newman

Episode 367 Gareth Sandford

Episode 362 Matt Van Dyke

Episode 361 John Wagle

Episode 359 Damien Harper

Episode 348 Keith Barr

Episode 331 Danny Lum

Episode 298 PJ Vazel

Episode 297 Cam Jose

Episode 295 Jonas Dodoo

Episode 286 Stu McMillan

Episode 272 Hakan Anderrson

Episode 227, 55 JB Morin

Episode 217, 51 Derek Evely

Episode 212 Boo Schexnayder

Episode 207, 3 Mike Young

Episode 204, 64 James Wild

Episode 192 Sprint Masterclass

Episode 183 Derek Hansen

Episode 175 Jason Hettler

Episode 87 Dan Pfaff

Episode 55 Jonas Dodoo

Episode 15 Carl Valle

 

Hope you have found this article useful.

 

Remember:

  • If you’re not subscribed yet, click here to get free email updates, so we can stay in touch.
  • Share this post using the buttons on the top and bottom of the post. As one of this blog’s first readers, I’m not just hoping you’ll tell your friends about it. I’m counting on it.
  • Leave a comment, telling me where you’re struggling and how I can help

 

Since you’re here…
…we have a small favor to ask.  APA aim to bring you compelling content from the world of sports science and coaching.  We are devoted to making athletes fitter, faster and stronger so they can excel in sport. Please take a moment to share the articles on social media, engage the authors with questions and comments below, and link to articles when appropriate if you have a blog or participate on forums of related topics. — APA TEAM

 

=> Follow us on Facebook

=> Follow us on Instagram

=> Follow us on Twitter

Pacey Performance Podcast REVIEW- Episode 295 Jonas Dodoo

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This blog is a review of the Pacey Performance Podcast Episode 295 – Jonas Dodoo

Jonas Dodoo

Website

Background: 

Jonas Dodoo

Jonas looks after a group of Elite Track and Field Sprinters who have attained success on the Olympic and World stage. He also oversees the Speedworks Charity Program for a fast-evolving Development Group which runs out of the Lee Valley Athletic Centre and is now the Head Coach for a new academy based in the East Midlands.

 

In addition to this, Jonas has consulted with many many Professional Sports Teams and individual players, including Derby County FC, West Bromwich Albion, Arsenal, Bath RFU, Northampton Saints, Wasps Academy, and Rugby 7’s.

 

Discussion topics:

 

Tell us a little bit more about your background and education

”I grew up playing sport, lots of different sport. Was always explosive and elastic, but couldn’t stay in one piece. I’ve got terrible feet, terrible ankles, no movement in my toes. But it sent me down a road to learn, to understand. I think originally it was to go and fix myself, which was my biggest driver. And then I got exposed to great coaches, great therapists. And I did my master’s thesis under Dan Pfaff or studied him as my thesis and had an opportunity to do a PhD in sprinting or to go and try and coach someone to at least be a bit faster. And I went down that route.

 

So I started in rugby, ended up in athletics and during my athletics coaching career I got exposed back into rugby. And then since that point, maybe over the past eight or nine years, I’ve worked with, you know, various individuals in rehab projects. I’ve worked with various teams in short and long-term projects and really the past three years for me, I’ve been based at Loughborough University with my elite squad of sprinters and then used essentially my down days, so 20% of my week, spent either with Derby County, at one point with West Brom and with England rugby in the build up to the World Cup. So those would be my major projects. And alongside that, I run workshops. I do a lot of coach education and a lot of mentoring.

 

So it’s been an up and down journey, always driven by my hunger and curiosity about how to make people faster.  I’ve also been very inquisitive for sports science, very inquisitive, probably because I’ve been surrounded in British Athletics by some great biomechanists and great strength and conditioning coaches. And it’s made me question, did my athletes do well because of me or despite? Did I just choose really good athletes who’ve chosen the right parents, who had good genetics?

 

I’ve got this constant need to reflect and ask myself, could that be better? And so it’s driven me down the road to developing for a labour of love, our binary video analysis app. And basically it’s a poor man and dumb man’s dart fish.

 

Binary Motion Analysis App

 

The first thing Dan Pfaff pushed us to learn as apprentices is observation skills.  He would say, leave the programming to me. Here’s a program, carry on with it. Don’t worry because that could rack your brains for hours and hours a day. Instead, watch movement, watch video, watch from upstairs, watch from downstairs, zoom in, zoom out. And when you’ve got this injury problem, understand what you can do from a movement perspective, from a coaching perspective, how you can create an environment that will distract the athlete from that injury or that pain and redirect their focus towards more effective movement and pain-free strategies.

 

And so coaching eye was something that was really hammered down very early for me. And by accident, I realized that coaching eye was something that everyone wanted to learn from me.

 

People come and said, okay, what are the cues, what do you see? And so I’m constantly trying to develop my coaching eye but what we’ve done here with binary is we’ve developed an app that allows you to say rather than have a debate about stride length versus stride frequency, what’s more important. What model, what shape is the priority? Is it this big, long shape? Is it a bit of a smaller shape with more frequency in deceleration mechanics? What’s the priority?

 

There’s so much debate and lack of consensus in sports science, that if you’re an inquisitive coach, you can easily get lost, easily buy into one side of the argument. I’m saying, take a step back. What’s our priority? Velocity, that’s our priority. And what do we want the shape of velocity to look like? We want it to keep getting faster. If we can find a way to make it get faster really steep and keep it continuing to get faster, we have high acceleration and we have high velocity. We have a good RF and we have a great DRF, right? That’s JB Morin’s language.

 

Daz comment: (definitions explained)

 

Ratio of Force (RF)– is a ratio of the step-averaged horizontal component of the Ground Reaction Force (GRF) to the corresponding resultant force.

 

Index of Force Application Technique (DFR)- expresses the athlete’s ability to maintain a net horizontal force production despite increasing velocity throughout accelerated sprinting.

 

In practical terms RF reflects the ability to project a large amount of your force in the direction you want to go

 

In practical terms DFR reflects the distance over which athletes are able to accelerate (i.e., distance to peak velocity).

 

The reality is what binary does for us is it helps us take a step back from our bias and go based on what we’re seeing, what’s happening with the data, what’s really happening. And in elite settings, people have Lasers and speed guns and video analysis, 3D analysis, Opto jump. People have got these tools, 1080, great tool. Dyno speed, very similar tool. They’ve all got these tools that give you some of the information or all of the information. And all I’ve been trying to do is go, okay, this is what I’ve experienced. This has helped me in my journey. How do I simplify it, distill it and make it available to anyone that has an Apple device? Yeah, at least to a more recent one, iPhone 5 not good. Yeah, but I have an iPhone 7, it records at 200 frames per second, it does the job.

 

My expectations are probably based on my bias. This is what I think good movement looks like and fast speed looks like. And I think over the past five years I’ve been able to take a step back from my bias or at least combine my bias with reality, with real data, with real numbers and actually maybe close the line between what I perceived them to be able to do and what they actually do. A long winded way of describing it.”

 

Can you tell us more about your reflection process

”So I guess during my degree and doing my masters in coaching science it really wasn’t about the science of sports science or anything like that, but really more about psychology. For me, my learning through my masters specifically, learning from great people I always noticed that no matter what they did, they look back and say, ”it could be better or where could it be better, at least?” They asked that question. So when I think about reflection, I think about reflection in action. You know, some people say I’m a great scrambler, no matter what the session plan is, I’m rarely scared or even intimidated about changing the plan on the go within the set, yeah, within the minute. If I see something and I think it can be better, I’ll make the change within reason. And so there’s this reflection in action and I think I can only do that because I’ve been coaching for so long and I’ve coached so many different types of people and I’ve made enough mistakes and I’ve had enough regret for making those mistakes that it really influences my decision making.

 

And there’s reflection on action, like reflection in hindsight. My wife was an Olympia, my wife was an elite coach, has coached to really high level and in multi events, in long jump and she was probably the biggest influencer on my coaching philosophy and specifically around training design, session design. And she is an important reflective, almost mirror for me. She knows what to say, when to say it. She really knows what not to say. That’s probably her gift.

 

That’s what I’ve learned from her, is that I give too much information. I’m too honest sometimes. And I’m not just too honest, I’m also a bit black and white. So like I’m a bit too direct sometimes. I’m a bit too frank and she’s almost the opposite.  Reflection for me is a big deal because the better we can reflect, the better we can accelerate our development. And I think maybe that’s always been my issue is that I’m in a rush and not a bad rush, but I don’t like wasting time. I like being efficient with time. So if to apply that to my own philosophy as a coach, it means that whatever I can learn in a year, the question is, can I learn that in six months.

 

Now, a great coach Mike Afilaka says ”you can’t microwave experience’‘. And it’s true, yeah. Even if you learn every single thing on speed in Wikipedia, everything to do with speed right now over this six weeks, seven weeks of COVID, does that make you a better coach? Actually, you might get worse because you’ve now got more information, you don’t know what to do with it, you know all these new rules, but you don’t know how to apply it into your environment. Some of them seem like they contradict what you’re already thinking. And you now have to practice and make sure that will balance up within like a training scheme.”

 

In terms of developing your business and having a business head on as well as a coaches head, how difficult has that been?

”That’s been really tough. I’ve always believed coaching should be selfless because athletes generally are selfish, and we need that balance. And so I’ve done that, but people see the website, people see the successes, the consultancies, the athletes’ performances, but they don’t see my bank account. And they don’t see the fact that I spend 80% of my time on the track, but track only brings in 20% of our household income. So I spend all my time chasing consultancies, doing extra work, work until midnight, just so I can coach. That’s the luxury of being an elite coach. Most of us are doing other work or just coaching track and field in general, most people do other work and the passion of the sport is driving them to the track on a daily basis.

 

That was fine when I was young and dumb and single and no kids. And then I had Logan, so that was five and a half years ago and actually that was all right. But even then that there was a sign. I was burning myself out.  From that point I noticed that the stress and pressure of being a dad and being the main source of income and also being a lead coach in an elite group, where I am their dad as well and trying to run a business or at least keep everything in balance was too difficult.

 

In my experience, the way I invest my energy into my coaching and to my athletes, I’ve realized that my family, my kids needed that energy as well. And so when I was giving that energy to both parties, I was burning the candle from both ends. So the small things that we’ve done, moving to Loughborough because I was working in Derby County and it was all close, it was real easy. My athletes, all of my consultants had been in one place at least for a year or two made sense.  It was very well balanced. Then I started working for England RFU. So I’m driving back down to London now and even further than London, I’m driving down to Berkshire.

 

The balance for me has been very difficult and I’m in debt as a result. And would I go back and change it? I really don’t know because also I got to be completely in the deep end, in the deepest ocean of coaching and I’ve been experienced and exposed to amazing opportunities, amazing players and athletes and systems and coaches. , Everyone says high performance sport is not healthy for the athletes, their bodies, for us and our emotional energy and all of those things.

 

I see many, many coaches who really shoot up to the top of, let’s say of whatever it is. Yeah, they’ve got really high status who follow managers around, maybe where managers are going from club to club or follow athletes around when they’re going from country to country, when they’re relocating who’ve had two marriages, who don’t have kids that really liked them, who have lots of money in their account. But when they go home and sit down and really look around, they, you know, they’ve maybe sacrificed their family for their career. And I was very happy to sacrifice myself for my own energy, my own social time for my career and that’s paid off, but I’m not happy to sacrifice my family for my career. And that’s been an important turning point for me.

 

If during the most stressful times you don’t feel you can carry on committing to what you’re doing, then you shouldn’t take it on because that’s what you need to be prepared for. When things go smoothly, that’s the easy time. The hardest, most challenging and sometimes the most exciting time is when everything’s going wrong, because that makes you have to adapt. You either adapt or you die. And if you don’t have that adaptive energy, because you’re spending it with your family, then the coaching dies. If you don’t have that energy for your family, because you’re spending it with your athletes, then your family dies essentially. And so the reality is finding that balance has been really important for me. Knowing my worth has been important for me. Showing my work in my unique way, I’m dyslexic. I like to read, but even just yesterday, I did a tweet, spelling mistakes everywhere. So I’m not going to be writing the most informative blogs. But I know my topic, I know my subject, I know coaching, I know people, I have emotional intelligence and I like to summarize and simplify things.

 

So finding my business side has been difficult because not many people do things the way I do it. And so I didn’t have a model or template to copy. But actually my business and mentoring and consultancy and stuff has happened by accident more than on purpose. People come to me and have come to me and asked me more and more questions, it’s made me go, oh, you’re an expert or you’re an elite person and you’re asking me this question that I think is fundamental. That’s my bias. It’s fundamental to me, but it might not be to you. Maybe there’s a product there. Maybe I can replicate that and share that with more people. Do you think more people be interested? So I’ve gone into business almost not by looking for a product and trying to sell it. I’ve almost been just people come in to take this product and I’ve gone, I should repackage that and make that available for other people.”

 

It’s what you’re doing already that you’re just modifying and tweaking to make a business out of it.  And that’s not a businessman talking, that’s a coach talking to make a business.  I think that’s really interesting to me.

 

”For me, it’s love, like I know that if I love something and I might love it because it’s interesting ‘cause it’s a puzzle. I like puzzles, because it’s challenging and forcing me to be outside my comfort zone. But if you love something generally when you’re tired or when you’re pissed off it, you don’t give up. Yeah, and maybe it makes you work harder. And you take a step back from it, maybe you sleep on it and actually you have some deep reflections and you’re better, right. So for me, it’s always been about the love. If I love a topic, if I love a subject, then I’m going to , generally, I’m going to be good at it and I’m going to understand it.

 

And through that understanding I’m going to pull it apart, like a video machine. I’m going to open it up and look at all the parts and I’m going to put it back together and I’m going to summarize it really simply. And that’s how I like to just live in my world. And it just happens that that’s how people enjoy learning on deep topics. They just want to know to heuristics. They just want to know the rules are and the KPI’s. You know, it’s one thing to know the rules, but if you need to apply those rules in your setting and break those rules, do you just need to know the rules before you break the rules or do you need to know these broken rules too?

 

So it’s one thing to know basic mechanics and another thing to know what can I do right now, next week to make my players better, to make me better as a coach.”

 

 

Let’s talk acceleration principles, what are the principles that you live by when it comes to acceleration?

”If we’re just talking about the basics of acceleration, the goal is to get from A to B. So if we took a hundred metres, the goal is to get from zero to a hundred as fast as possible. And obviously we can break that into phases. And when we’re speaking more specifically about initial acceleration, obviously we can in team sports and even in track and field, we can measure a 10 metre time, right? Five metre or a 10 metre time is traditionally used to get an understanding of someone’s ability to accelerate.

 

But many of my clients and many teams will put down timing gates. You know, if they want to do speed training at their club, they believe that if they put down timing gates and they drive intent, this is an important thing, a lot of people talk about that sometimes the biggest priority in speed training is just getting the players to try hard and actually intent, high intensity in the effort and the speed and the timing gates can help that then they give them a time.

 

If your goal is your 10 metre time only, then you might be missing a trick because I can run to 10 and you can run to 10 in the same time but I might be at a higher velocity than you.

 

And all that means is we’ve got to 10 metres at the same time, maybe you’ve been a drag car and you’ve got there by really your first four steps going and then actually your rate of acceleration drops off. So you did most of your work in the front side of the race. And maybe I’m still a drag car, but I’ve got a tiny bit less horsepower, but maybe I’ve got less drag too. Like literally I’ve got less air resistance and so I might get to five metres in 1.0, let’s say you get there 0.90 but we still both get to 10 metres at 1.7. I’m accelerating still. You give me three more steps I’m in front of maybe even one more step I’m in front of you.

 

So when we talk about acceleration, we’ve got to be careful that we’re not setting a goal over a 10 metre time and encouraging a technique and a strategy that gets us there fast, but puts us in a bad position.

 

And then you think rugby, you think, okay why does it matter? If my aim is to get to the 10 metres, if my aim is to get to my defender or my attacker as quick as possible, and that 10 metres is in front of me, I just need to be there as quick as possible. But actually you look at, you know, you listen to someone like Frans Bosch or John Pryor or Dean Benson and Eddie Jones, they talk a lot about options positions, right? You need to be able to get to 10 fast, but be in a position where you can organize your body to make a decision. And that position is often in a position where you can remain reactive with your feet and you still have control of your center of mass. You’re not over rotating.  You’re in a position with your pelvis and your trunk where you can rotate and you can do other actions where you can scan if you need to, and then use your upper body if you need to, while still using your legs to push you to go faster.

 

And that position is an efficient position. The reality is by the time I get to 10 metres, I need to be in an efficient position to make a decision in team sports. And I also need to be an efficient position to keep getting faster in a linear sport. So for me, efficient acceleration, no matter where we’re at looks the same. You maintain a frequency and a stiffness that allows you to be energy efficient, but also be in a position to make choices and make decisions. So that would be my first start of acceleration. I haven’t talked about postures. I haven’t talked about shapes. I haven’t talked about what the fundamentals of athletics in 100 metres versus hurdles versus maybe long jump, that’s all a secondary discussion.

 

Can you produce the right forces and throw yourself where you need to go? That’s again, JB and RF, yeah. What ratio of your forces are you directing forwards? That’s how effective you are and you can be really effective without being efficient. We can both run a 1.70 and we could say 1.70 is the time that we need in our sport, but I might do it in a way that really allows me to one, save energy, two, be in a position to make a decision or three, be in a position to keep getting faster. That might take more stress off of my lower limb and that might just give me a bit of an energy reserve that I can use better to continue going for repetitive actions in the game.”

 

Coaches are often deciding which metrics such as stride length, stride frequency to focus on etc.  Do you think there is too much focus on that?

”So I think there’s too much focused on it, yes. I think or I know that the effective and efficient strategies are about the best combination of your spacial temporal characteristics. So your ground contact, air time, step length and if you’re going to look at a drive index or you’re going to look at some kind of way of combining those numbers, that is all about combinations. And neither is it about maximizing your stride length, neither it is about maximizing your stride frequency. It’s about finding this optimal because of the fact that our limbs don’t work in isolation, energy transfers through our pelvis to each limb. So it’s not about getting the most out of the pushing leg and getting a massive toe off distance and making a massive shape because if you do that, what you may end up doing is not having any pretension in your swing leg that’s in front.

 

So if you really think back to what are the biggest priorities in sprinting or in performance it is one to project yourself towards where you want to go from A to B. And it’s another thing to be prepared for the next step.

 

Those are the two priorities; project and be prepared. And if you over project you’re under-prepared, and if you’re over-prepared, you’re under projected or you under project.

 

So we’re always looking for this balance and the great thing about binary is that we’ve got all of the spatial temporal numbers. We’ve got all of the angles and orientation numbers. We’ve got everything, most things that you can get, everything that you can get from motion analysis, we can get, but if you’re only going to go for one thing, I’ll go for velocity or go for acceleration. I’ll go for the reality of the fact that we want to be fast, we want to spike our acceleration and maximize our speed, is those two things. So we care about speed and acceleration. Now, acceleration as a number or power as a number normalized, average, horizontal external power, but let’s just call it power, versus acceleration, they kind of give you a similar thing and the great thing about them is they take into context, the velocity you’re moving at and the rate of change as well.

 

So those would be metrics that I would hang my hat on because they don’t tell a lie. You can make a perfect shape and if your acceleration is less and your velocity is less, it’s not fast. It’s not what you really want. With that you need to take into account that people develop over time. Sometimes when they learn something new, it slows down and it gets faster. So there is a bit of art behind recognizing what you should hang on to and be patient with and what compliments that exercise.

 

If that’s a shape you want to do, are you complimenting it with some strategies around training it, creating what capacity, increasing the mechanical properties of that muscle group or that system. If you combine teaching and training, then that new movement pattern is more likely to be successful, but regardless, look at velocity, look at acceleration. Rarely is it something we can look at because we don’t have the tools. We don’t have a 3D Vicon system or a pitch or in your clinic and now we do.”

 

Is it only experience that can allow you to differentiate what you need to change?

”No. I think for me, pretension and preparation for the step are key things to understand (Daz comment: that perhaps doesn’t rely on extensive experience if you know what to look for). We definitely want to project ourselves where we need to go, and we definitely need to be prepared for the step. I’ve said this before. So no matter what change we make, we have to make sure that there’s an acceptable bandwidth of projection and preparation. So let’s say velocity goes down because we’re working on something and we’ve interrupted the habitual flow of the athlete.

 

We’ve maybe given a taboo internal cue, but it was necessary for them to make sense of it. That we’ve played with some drills to give them some context and for them to find a feeling so that internal cue is now poo-pooed because now they understand the feeling of it. And then they’re working on it. Sometimes when you understand a feeling of it, but you’re still working on it, you might decrease maybe your velocity. Your rate of force development might reduce a bit, because you want a bit more control.

 

So velocity it might go down, but you want to see the classic spatial, temporal variables, ground contact time, step length. You want to see rhythm. That’s what you want to see, even if they get a bit slower and even if you’re coaching something within a session, and you’re having undulations really in how well they’re applying the skill, you want to see flow. You want to see a gradual change. You want to see that if you looked at your step length, that every step is getting a bit longer.

 

If you looked at ground contact time, every ground contact time is reducing. If you’re looking at initial acceleration, you want to see that the ratio of air to ground is changing and that they’re spending less time in the air, more time in the ground in the first step and that this relationship remains at least for your first three to four steps. And then we start to see a break point, which is essentially where they start to spend a bit more time in the air and less time on the ground.

 

So there are some rhythms that we expect in running smooth flow, like a plane taking off. You want to see a smooth flow. And there are some rhythms that we want to see in velocity, velocity, gradually getting faster. And once you understand those rhythms and we want to stick to those rhythms, we understand that there are also rhythms in all of the other characteristics. Gradual change really is the name of the game and John Keily, and I think maybe Craig Pickering had a paper on smoothness, and it’s the best paper ever for me. I love John Keily’s work because it’s just a great summary of what we want in our data.

 

We talk about smoothness and we know what smooth, silky movement might look like or smell like or sound like, but we don’t know what smooth, silky data should look like, smell like or sound like. And actually it’s very similar. It’s very, very similar. You can look at someone’s data and see their step have gradually changing. And suddenly there’s a bad rhythm. You know, suddenly, you know, it was increasing by 10 centimetres each step and then suddenly it increases or decreases by 20 centimetres. There’s something going on. Or it stays the same when it should have been changing. There’s something going on.

 

So it’s not just experience. I think if you know what to see in good data and good movement, you can figure out and decipher what you see in your environment.”

Can you comment on team sports versus sprinters?  How can team sports go about trying to best utilise the 20 minutes warm-up time?

 

Athletic Performance Academy

 

”I think, this is where like I’ve always talked about projection, switching and reactivity. I’ve always said that these are really important umbrella terms that help me make sense of the world. And I think if I was going to focus on acceleration and I wanted to maximize the learning, as well as the mechanical load or development of specific muscle groups, I’d pull a pulley. I’d pull X-Genies, I’ll pull a sled, I’ll do something resisted, right? And a lot of our clients and teams, especially with this new preparation for preseason, have bought 20 X-Genies. And they’ve linked them all to the walls, players can’t share equipment. If they’ve bought 20 X-Genies, they put them all in a wall and they recognize that the resisted running does lots of the teaching for them.

 

Projection I really think has orientation. ‘Cause when you say projection, we’re not really saying where, which direction you want to project. I feel like if we’re talking about orientation, we’re talking about some of the summaries from one of the resistance running research, which is RF again, keep coming back to it. Are you able to project a large amount of your force in the direction you want to go? Is that large ratio of force going forward, going horizontal? So for me, that’s one of my first priorities, orientation, and I’m going to use resisted running for it. Another priority is range of motion. If you have a relatively large range of motion on the front and the back side of your running cycle, not just the front side, not just the back side, if you have a relatively large range of motion on both sides of the flexing leg and the extending leg, then that tells me two things:

 

One. It tells me that you’re extending the leg, you’ve pushed your center of mass outside and away from your center of support. So you’ve had a nice extension of your posterior chain. So great. You’ve got a large range of motion in the backside. Two. On the front side, if at the moment of toe off, when you finish extending your knee is relatively high, even in acceleration (so we’re saying your hip angle is maybe closer to 90 degrees than 110 degrees), then clearly during the step, your thigh has punched forwards. But if at the moment of toe off, when you finish extending your front thigh is actually down here, then clearly during the stride, your thigh didn’t come forward quick enough. So at the moment of toe off is a great time to see, okay, what’s happening with extended leg. What’s happening with a thigh in front?

 

So finding an effective range of motion in your legs during projection and orienting yourself forwards just describes a lot of things, but for a novice coach, if I just want to make sure all the forces go forward, I’ll use a sled. Are they utilizing their range of motion? If not, then why? Is it because they’re not pushing against the ground or is it because they’re not punching their knee forward? And the nice thing about punching your knee forward whilst pushing against the ground is it pushes your center of mass out in front. It makes it easier to orientate your forces forwards.

 

So this RF puzzle that’s the all our real goal is, and can be solved by orientating yourself forwards and separating your limbs really well. So once you’ve done that, that’s the projection part done. That’s the pushing part done. Then you got to be prepared for the next step. So then the question is, once they’ve done these actions, and then they swapped their limbs, does their shin land in a position where it’s stiff, the ankle is stiff, the heel doesn’t drop. (Daz comment: this is the reactivity part).  The shin is stiff, is stable and allows the hip to extend early. Or does the shin land vertical, the heel drops, the shin has to roll forwards before the hip can push again. And if you’re in that position, that’s less stiff, that’s less reactive. Do you want some compression, some load before you explode? Yes. As any performance that can have a bigger touchdown distance and during a tiny bit of deceleration on the step and tiny bit of breaking it, they almost use that time to multiply and potentiate extension, right? They’re getting that highest eccentric to then load the concentrate action.

 

So fine, but there’s a bandwidth. There’s landing too far behind and too stiff and not enough pressure to push and there’s landing too far out in front and almost decelerating too much. So that’s five or six minutes talking about what I would be summarizing for a coach. So I’ll go back to it. If you orientate yourself well and go forward with good range of motion in your legs and then switch your limb so you can be reactive and do it again, then I think nearly all performance can do that. Rugby, football, forwards, backs. There’s a bandwidth to it. Maybe you get a bit less out the back, a bit less out the front. Maybe you’re landing a bit further out in front, a bit further out behind, but I’m talking about centimetres. And, generally the summary is the same for everybody. And so when we look at our teams, well players, if I was in a setting and I had 20 athletes, I would just be getting them to pull heavy things, recognize how to orientate themselves well with a good range of motion. The heavier it is the more horizontal I have to be and actually the better I have to switch because I have no air time.

 

If more horizontal you are, you don’t have air time. No air time, less time to be prepared. I’ll pull medium things because I still have to orientate myself, but I have a bit more time. I’ll be pulling medium weight because it gives me a bit more velocity. It’s more challenging. I’d be running without any resistance. Same drill, same task and I think that differential loading allows them to explore different strategies to do the same task. So it’s just movement variability. It’s just giving them options.  Are we doing resisted running for the physical, mechanical loading, or are we doing it for the teaching and the differential learning and almost creating a constraint for these guys to make sense of the world and, to explore different strategies?

 

I think we’re doing both. I think on some days we do minimal amounts of runs and we’re really just using resistance running for teaching and potentiation and on other days do large amounts of resisted running done with variability and combined with plyometrics.  This would allow us to create a massive work capacity to do anything else when it came to speed work, because it meant that we had lots and lots of contacts, high velocity contacts into the ground conditioning the Achilles, conditioning soleus, conditioning foot position, conditioning knee to be stable, the hip to be the prime mover, really locking in lumbar and just making sure these guys push through their bums and stabilized through their feet. And so when we move to either more pre-planned or more rugby related stuff, the guys just seemed to be able to tolerate it more than usual. Lower limb injuries went away, hamstring stuff minimized, and actually we seemed to see that when we dropped some gym work on a specific day and replaced it more with resisted running, that they didn’t just run faster, run PBs and run fast times and GPS. Their next gym session, they also came in and they seem to be wired.

 

Yeah. So again, long-winded but I think for me the summary is if we clarify that our goal for all our performers is to orientate large forces forwards with a decent range of motion and to make sure we can be prepared for the next step, then our RF will be good, but our DRF will also be good. That’s easy to coach. That’s easy to do in large squad because you’ve really got two goals; if go forwards when you pull something heavy and you don’t orientate yourself forward, you don’t go anywhere. So it’s great for athletes to feel because when they pull something heavy it can suddenly change something about their synchronization of their limbs or sequence of their movement or spine discipline.   Because the priority is really, do you have good spine discipline? Do you have good shin discipline? And the shins would tell you a story about the whole run just by looking at the shins, right.

 

That’s really easy to teach because if you don’t, if you’re trying to pull something heavy with bad spine discipline and shin discipline, you won’t go anywhere. You just won’t go anywhere. You won’t move anywhere. So the athletes figure it out. And the athlete who don’t figure it out, that’s when you intervene. But if you have tools that teach what you want for you and you just have to provide some feedback, then you can get large changes in acceleration and velocity within large squads. You don’t have to be super coach to make those changes happen.”

 

Can you finish off by commenting on GAME SPEED, the teaching versus training, and how we ensure transfer from one thing to another?

”I think they’re two different things. Firstly, so ”teaching” and ”training” for me is really down to the fact that just because someone looks pretty doesn’t mean they’re going to actually run fast and then just because they can run fast, it doesn’t mean they’ll do it in a game. So if you want to make sure that technique turns into fast running and physical robustness to do those actions repeatedly, you almost have two tasks there. Can you run fast, great. Can you do that eight times within a eight minute period? Yeah, it’s a different discussion, right? Teaching and training for me is understanding what exercises, what mechanical properties are necessary to run fast.

 

What does that mean? It means that for me, that if I want to develop someone’s ability to run really, really fast in outright running, I’ve got to make sure they also have the physical tools based on things that I’ve done maybe in the gym with eccentric work, with flywheel work, with isolated versus inter-segmental work. But also I need to probably in team sports, more importantly design running conditioning sessions that develop the technical movements, but under some duress. And you know, everyone’s like if you’re doing speed work and you’re not giving people enough recoveries, then you’re a bad coach. But when you’re training for speed or you’re training speed is two different discussions. If I’m training for speed, I sometimes have incomplete recoveries. When I’m training for speed, I want the movement to look similar, but I also want to create the physical underpinnings, the energy system, the work capacity, the tolerance to essentially mitigate risk when I trained speed.

 

So that’s a really important concept. Everyone wants to sprint now in sports, but people are now getting more injuries again because they’re doing too much sprinting at the wrong time. They don’t understand phase potentiation. They don’t understand how to drip feed it over time. And when they drip feed it, what else they should be doing on the field with resisted running, with repetitive speed endurance or repeat speed endurance and with your gym work. You do that so that when you need to run really, really fast, you can do it. You can recover from it and it’s got less stress on the body. So movements and muscles or teaching and training, that’s where it comes to.

 

Game speed is more about once they’re confident and clear and they have repetitiveness, they have the ability to do it almost under fatigue and under some kind of distraction, game speed is more like, can you replicate these movements, high velocity actions whilst being super distracted when you don’t really care about the movement? Where you care only about the outcome. You don’t care as much about thinking about it. You know you need to be in the right position and be there fast but you’ve got a number of distractions. So game speed to me is a big deal. Eddie Jones loves speed work, loves speed training but if it doesn’t finish with some game speed, if it doesn’t look like what they need to know, and if we don’t put them in positions and scenarios and stress test those scenarios for them to be able to run fast and be efficient or and be effective in the skill work, then there is no transfer and he won’t be happy.

 

I’ve done most of my learning with the great team coaches. Mike Ford, originally at Bath, said it’s great that you do speed work, but firstly, do they stay healthy? Secondly, does it turn into the game? And if is a no to any of those, you failed your task. And so really for team sport coaches, if you do the first stage and you do the right teaching and you underpin it with physical qualities, the likelihood of transfer just increases without even game speed. Yeah, that’s the reality. If your guys have the physical capabilities to repetitively do what you want them to do, and that’s their path of least resistance, that’s probably the most important thing here. That when they’re under stress, that when their body decides I need to get from here to here as soon as possible, the body knows that the most efficient way for me to do is use this movement pattern. That doesn’t happen because they’ve done wickets or pulled the pulley once or twice. That happens because the strongest muscle groups in the most efficient chain for them to use are the ones they choose to use. It’s a chain that you’ve trained. And until it is, then you just have people running fast, running straight lines, running PBs and GPS, great. But then when there’s a break and I have to do a box to box, they completely regress to what is comfortable, what is normal. What is the path of least resistance.

 

So I think game speed is a complete separate topic. I think game speed, you have to learn and design your game speed from top down. You have to have good skill coaches, good head coaches who are clear about what they want, clear about what their players do or don’t do very well and can teach you. I’ve been taught by some great technical coaches about what they want and I’ve just regressed it, reverse engineered it and gone, oh, that’s just a skips for height. And I was talking about high balls on one of our mentorships the other day about going up for a high ball in rugby and the skill of doing that is just a skip for height. Is really just a skip for height, under lots of pressure on a, maybe an unstable surface because you’re running and jumping but it’s skips for height.

 

So if you can dissect the perception action from the physical, and you can be clear about the two, you can develop the physical and make sure that they’re clear about the technical as well as have the physical capabilities. And then you put them under more and more stress so that they can connect this new skill under the main skill, then it transfers. Some people, have the perception. So make sure they can perceive it, great. But if they don’t have the wheels or they don’t have the chassis or they don’t have the suspension to do the task, it is great that they make the right decisions, but they’re in a Ford Focus, not in a, I don’t know, Porsche Boxster. I don’t know. I’m not very good with cars. I don’t know why I use this analogy. But hopefully that kind of gives you a flavor of where I would go with things.”

Top 5 Take Away Points:

 

  1. Coaching eye- one of the most important skills to learn as an apprentice coach is observation skills.
  2. Step back and remember the goal- What’s our priority? Velocity, that’s our priority. And what do we want the shape of velocity to look like? We want it to keep getting faster.
  3. Coaching vs Business- they don’t see the fact that I spend 80% of my time on the track, but track only brings in 20% of our household income
  4. Outcome vs Process- If your goal is your 10 metre time only, then you might be missing a trick because I can run to 10 and you can run to 10 in the same time but I might be at a higher velocity than you.
  5. Projection and Preparation- biggest priorities in sprinting or in performance it is one to project yourself towards where you want to go from A to B. And it’s another thing to be prepared for the next step

 

Want more info on the stuff we have spoken about?  Be sure to visit:

 

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