February 2012 Blog Posts (48)

Create Your Legacy: Kolohe Andino from Nike Surfing on Vimeo.

Legacy is defined as "something received from an ancestor or predecessor from the past" (Webster) It also means how someone is remembered, and what…

To be an effective coach you must communicate clearly with those who you are coaching. Communication completes the feedback loop that gives you and the athlete a sense of self worth. Sometimes it is not so much the content of the message, but the mode and medium of the presentation that ultimately determines the effectiveness of the message. It was Marshall McLuan who said: " that the medium is the…

It is so easy when designing a training program to include too much “stuff.” I know over the year I have been guilty of this. I want to make sure that I touch all the bases so I end adding an exercise here, a drill there and pretty soon I have so much “stuff” I can’t see the forest for the trees. This shotgun approach aims to hit a little bit of everything but mixed training yields mixed results. The result is that…

This is post nu mber 1,000 since I switched the blog to TypePad, I think it only fitting that this is about grabbing the brass ring,…

No pain, no gain was a very prevalent attitude when I began coaching in the late Sixties and surprisingly it continues to persist today. I have never been able to figure out the appeal of this approach. Proper training in the weight room or on the field demands that the athlete test their limits. Some workouts are very difficult and other workouts will be quite easy. This ebb and flow of hard efforts interspersed with…

Body control is the body’s ability to put together a series or pattern of movements that allow the individual to execute a task smoothly. With that being said I believe the display of body control during all forms of training is paramount to athletic development. Nothing screams "ATHLETE" more then fluid, coordinated movement executed with precision at high speed.  Besides safety in training, this is the main reason I focus so hard on technique. Ripping a bar off the ground with no technique…

Functional Training is the systematic progressive integration of training modalities (medicine ball, stretch cord, dumbbells, body weight etc.) to produce significant adaptation in specific performance parameters based on the “Step to Success Model.” The step to success model is based on the following paradigm:…

What are solutions to breaking a plateau or preventing the occurrence of a plateau? The most basic solution is to carefully plan your training and competition. Be sure that built into the plan there are frequent systematic changes in the training stimulus, the training routine, as well as the training environment. In the plan pay particular attention to the sequence of work so that training components are complementary.…

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Training for Function

 Training for Function and Injury Prevention go hand in hand. Anyone who participates in athletics or in everyday life choirs needs to train for function. The majority of sports are played upright on the feet, flexing, extending and rotating in various…

Once an athlete has been training for any period of time it is inevitable that a plateau in training or performance will occur. Usually the reaction is one of panic. What now? There is no need to panic just realize that plateaus are a normal part of training progression. Performance improvement and training progress are not linear. There are periods of stagnation, just as there are periods of rapid improvement, hopefully…

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In strength training the hamstrings are one of the most under developed muscles in the body. The hamstrings consist of the biceps femoris, semimembranosus, and semitendinosus muscles that cross over the knee joint and insert into the posterior region of the lower leg. I…

With the instant availability of thousands of drills on the Internet I wanted to give some of my ideas on using drills effectively. My first question always is: Does the drill lead to something? If it just something you learned at a clinic or saw on the internet that looks then think again before using it. No drill is an end unto itself. Can you design a progression involving the drill that will enhance what comes after?…

Post from USA Today:

INDIANAPOLIS – Cam Newton was determined to take the scouting combine by storm last February.

Maybe too determined.…

Today’s lift consisted of a variation of bench press that’s called fast bench press. The athlete controls the weight on the eccentric contraction of the chest, ideally for 2 to 2.5 seconds, and then explodes as fast as possible concentrically contracting on the way up. The sets and reps were 5X5. The weight was 60% of the athletes 1RPM. I’m in favor of this type of lift because of how it can be applied to sport specific movements, particularly in football and even more specifically with…

Best clinic I have been to in a long time.  Many thanks to Coach Balis and his staff for a fantastic job.  Great speakers and demos.  Made some great contacts and got some great ideas I can use with my own athletes.  Anyone who lives in the Mississippi area needs to come to this clinic next year.  Well worth your time.

The 2012 NSCA Wisconsin State Clinic will be held Saturday, April 14 at Carroll University's Center for Graduate Studies in Waukesha, Wisconsin (just outside of Milwaukee). The lineup includes professionals with experience in personal training, rehabilitation, and strength and conditioning. It will be a great opportunity for learning and professional networking. A link with more information and online registration is included below.

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What are disadvantages of using unstable surfaces? The inherent disadvantage of using unstable surfaces is that the ground moves under you. This only happens in a few sports. If the surface is too far away from the normal competition surface there is a risk of developing a skill set that makes them able to handle the very unstable surface but has no relationship to the actual activity. The danger is that overuse of the…

With the NFL combine coming up, many in the world of strength and conditioning are begining to focus on "combine prep", which is completely different then preparing to play your sport. Combine prep prepares you to be successful at the specific tests that are to be performed at the combine, not to develop the attrinbutes that will help you improve on field performance. The 5-10-5 and L-Drill are programmed agility drills that give a comparison of lateral movement skills. The problem is that…

Lets take a quick look at how using unstable surfaces in training evolved from my personal perspective. About 25 years ago I began to experiment using unstable surfaces with healthy athletes after observing that athletes coming back for ankle sprains and even ACL tears seemed to have better functional balance and control of their bodies. I felt that if we could incorporate what they had done in rehab with healthy…