Another interview with me

[101pro]

This was done a while ago. Hope you find it interesting and learn something

In your experience as a strength coach, what are the two or three most common deficiencies you see with the incoming freshman you get and what is the first step you do to start correcting each?

The #1 problem is core strength. As much as I hate to turn into "that core guy" it is true. These athletes cannot stabilize their torso. So when they run you see either their gut spill out (anterior tilt) or their spines flex. That tells me that they are leaking energy through their core and if we can stabilize their core then all the forces they are generating will go where they are supposed to: into the ground.

How to fix it was a problem. The WGF core DVDs do a great job addressing this issue. So I use the non-tripod and chair exercises. We do them slow and focus on quality rather than quantity. When you think about the non-tripod, it really is the perfect ab exercise. Every layer has to fire if you maintain neutral. Now the key is that you should see NO MOVEMENT in the spine. As a coach watch their gut; if it pops up on the way up during the lowering phase then they are not maintaining neutral. So their stomach should not move during the exercise. We also use a plank progression a co-worker developed.

Problem #2 is glutes. When athletes lift they cannot load their hips properly. Take an RDL: you either get the guy rounding his back or you get the guy who over arches their spine and turns it into a hamstring and lower back exercise. The key is to maintain neutral and push the butt back. If you do it right your ass should light up. If you don't primarily feel your butt then you are not in neutral. The glute is your primary hip extensor, meaning that if you can incorporate the glutes into a sprint they will get faster, a squat, they will get stronger. You get the point.

This is another challenge because, basically, everyone has moved wrong their entire lives. So reprogramming them is tough. What do I do? I use the prone glute extension. Again maintain neutral spine. Also the glutes extend, abduct, and adduct the hip. People tend to do focus only on abduction for glute activation. In my experience this is dangerous. Over developed abduction strength relative to adduction leads to IT, knee, and hip problems. Many of my knee guys have poor glute adduction strength relative to abduction strength. So for the prone glute we squeeze a med ball between our knees to get the adduction. I will try to balance adduction with abduction in my glute activation, but tend to err on the side of adduction. So there may be x-band walks, or we may wrap bands around our knees during a glute bridge. Staples are the prone glute, glute bridge, and bird dog. For all three remember to maintain neutral. On the bird dog you should feel your obliques fire due to the rotational forces. On the prone glute the athlete should only be able to raise their knee off the ground about an inch or so. Any higher and the spine starts to move. Remember we are ingraining a proper hip extension pattern, teaching them how to extend without using their lower backs.

From there we learn a proper glute dominated RDL, and then on to the squat and lunge. We begin with bodyweight ISO holds and progress to dynamic movements from there.

One more biggie is ankle rocker. I just started noticing it but it seems every football player and most other athletes have poor ankle rocker. To fix it I use toe pulls, and the Mike Boyle ankle mobility drills seen on Youtube.

It's funny once you learn to see the issues in peoples movement you see them EVERYWHERE.

The last tip for these problems is: treat them from a motor learning perspective and not a working out perspective. So do them right or you are wasting your time. Do them daily because frequency helps motor learning. It's less about strengthening and more about learning to use the correct muscles.
Question 2

Sticking with the freshman, have you noticed any common trends among the athletes who come in and get major playing time right away? Put another way, what (besides sport skill which is obviously the most important) can an outgoing high school senior be doing to gain an advantage as a college freshman?

This one is easy. The most important thing is to be coachable. Don't think you know it all. Listen to what your coaches tell you to do and then do it. Work hard at your craft. Master the skills, drills, and lifts you are doing. When a coach offers a tip, actually try and implement what they are telling you. The coaches are your allies. They want you to succeed as much as you do because if you are successful, they win games. When you get your chance to show what you can do in scrimmage or the game go balls out.

Guys that play a lot basically live at the weight room and practice field. They get extra lifts in, which allows for more individual specific one on one coaching. Then they go to the field and do extra position work. They make sure you know who they are. They are always asking "What can I do to get better?" and they take the answer to heart. They are very intrinsically motivated.

Take pride in what you do and be a professional.

We have had walk-on freshmen take starting jobs from NFL prospects. So it is possible, if you really want it.
Question 3

Now let?s talk about how you develop an athlete once he or she gets to college. What are the major differences between a senior who has been in your program for four years and a newly arriving freshman? This could be in terms of muscle mass, proficiency at a certain exercise, psychological factors, whatever.

Physiologically the seniors will carry more muscle mass, have a greater work capacity, move well, and be able to load their hips.

As far as training techniques would go I begin with core work, glute activation, dynamic mobility, ankle stiffness, and lots of isometrics. Building on isometrics, we then include bodyweight full-range movements: rows, chins, push ups, lunge, squat, glute hams, RDL, etc.

The next step includes core, glute, mobility, and ankle stiffness (they are staples). The isometrics turn into dynamic-effort movements- sub-maximal loads with a focus on compensatory acceleration. I feel this is easier to learn than training to fatigue. I approach the progression from a learning perspective. Repetition training is great for mass but so many reps are performed under fatigue and with poor form that it is almost a waste. I'd rather have a quality 8x3 than horrendous 3x8 to failure. I also begin plyos with the teams. A lot of drops and EDI type jumping. In my mind with EDI jump squats (we use yielding isometrics for the hold) the iso hold pre fatigues the muscle so the subsequent jump is sub maximal. This allows the guys to focus on landing technique and rehearse proper landing during the hold.

Next we incorporate maximal effort and repeated effort method. Hopefully, the dynamic work has taught proper form for the ME and RE work. I also include Maximal EDI's a la Schroeder, and kettlebells. From inno-speak this is all your absolute strength and strength endurance stuff. Modalities include everything found in the inno-system. Essentially we do a strength block plus plyos. Most teams train 2-3x/week so they do whole body workouts. Sorry no AREG. A general template would be:

warm up - mobility, core, glute, ankle stiffness, prehab
Workout - depth jumps/drops, squat/lunge, glute ham/RDL, kettlebell swings, upper push, upper pull, finish
cool down - foam roll and stretch

After the strength block, we move into power blocks which are essentially the RATE and MAG versions of the lifts. So I use reactive/accelerative work in place of traditional movements. Prime times are added, swings, and the upper work alternates between strength and hypertrophy blocks. Obviously this is an OVERSIMPLIFICATION. But, for the most part it is accurate. We also have some athletes use the impulse trainer. Nothing hard core, just 3x30 on a few exercises.

So for lower we alternate MAG+DUR An1, DUR An-2 with a block of MAG+Rate An-1, Rate An-2
Upper is DUR An1+2 with a block of DUR An-2+3

I also like Schroeder?s limiting the number of exercises. This allows for a more proficient mastery of the movement. Again think learning not working out.

My focus lifts are:
Squat
Lunge
Glute Ham
RDL/KB Swing
Push Up
Body Row
Pull Up

As they advance we just modify the methods for the movements. Push Up becomes bench press. ISO becomes PIM, PIM becomed FDA, FDA becomes REA, etc...

[101pro]

This is part 2 of an interview with a renowned collegiate strength coach. Part 1 can be found here. Enjoy the rest!
Question 4

In terms of program construction, I’ve heard you talk about setting up a strength template and a power template. Is that what you use with your athletes, and if so, can you give a quick breakdown?

I answered this to some extent in the last question, so I will defer to that to start with and then add a little more:

I'll add that I "Train on the fly as the body adapts" - DB Hammer

So while progressions are important, I also look at the athletes’ adaptation response and let their bodies tell me when they are ready for the next progression. Here is one example.

I used to program depth drops as follows:
Week 1: 20
Week 2: 30
Week 3: 40

Then switch to a similar progression for Depth jumps. At 3x/week volumes roughly correspond to Yuri V.'s work.

More recently, once I pared down the exercise menu, it became much easier to watch what their bodies were actually doing. As a result the strength and power templates, because exercise selection is very similar, are easier to adjust on the fly. So now, for drops, when the team looks springy I switch to depth jumps. I can audible to another movement that they are ready for. My results have been much better this way.

When coaching teams, calling an audible is tough. You have to monitor so many variables. You have the athletes (30 or more at a time), technique, method, and of course exercise selection. If the program has too many exercises it becomes very tough to adjust on the fly. Now, since everyone has mastered the movement patterns, the templates stay almost the same so you can easily say "switch to reactive squats." and the adjustment is easy because they already know how to squat.

It's the whole jack of all trades, master of none theory. I'd rather have my teams master a few basic movement patterns and then adjust the means and methods used for those than waste a bunch of time teaching new exercises.
Question 5

A couple months ago, we talked briefly about your “super-secret” agility development method. Okay, so maybe you didn’t say it was “super-secret,” but you did say that it would be easier to show in person. However, I’m still going to put you on the spot and ask you to briefly outline how you develop agility and change of direction in team-sport athletes.

Step 1: breakdown, gather your feet and drop your center of gravity.
Step 2: plant your whole outside foot in the ground (yes your heel)
Step 3: load your hip and explode out of the turn

other tips:

If your glutes, hams, and gastrocs are responsible for making you fast, your quads and heel slow you down. Thus, changing direction involves slowing down, stopping, and accelerating. Slowing down and stopping are the opposite of acceleration and top speed. They are quad and heel dominant. Logical conclusion but is missed on the majority of coaches.

I know it flies in the face of conventional thought but if you think it through you will see the logic. Turning fast requires good breaks. You wouldn't take a Ferrari around a 90 degree turn at 200mph. If you were racing around a turn like that you would need great breaks and great acceleration.

If you are a change of direction athlete you need quads and at times need to get your heel into the ground!

Getting your whole foot in the ground ensures all of your cleats are in the turf. If is is slick or raining this will help with traction. When guys slip in bad weather they usually didn't get their cleats in the ground.

Don't cross your feet over, you have no balance or power in that position.

If you slip in good conditions chances are you cut off your inside foot.

Keep your center of gravity within your frame. That means get low when cutting and don't let your shoulders get over your outside foot. Recall Emmitt Smith, Barry Sanders, Thurman Thomas. Everyone raved about their low center of gravity. When turning drop your hips and lower your center of gravity.
Question 6

Do you have any difference between how you train male athletes and female athletes?

Nope. I know people that give this a lot of lip service; they talk about hormone cycles, Q-angles, etc… I work with 150 athletes, there is so much other stuff to monitor- their gender isn’t that important. As long as they are moving correctly, that is all I care about. I don’t actually know any S&C coaches who do train them differently.

I will say that female athletes tend to listen better and pay closer attention to detail. They also aren’t as “bench-press oriented” as males, which makes them a little more fun to work with.
Question 7

Okay, the last question is more of a toss-up. Feel free to drop some knowledge on any topic that I didn’t hit. Talk about one exercise, method, or anything else related to training that you really like and one thing that you really don’t like.

This one's tough. The previous questions hit at the heart of my thinking.

Recently there has been a lot of debate between overanalyzers and underanalyzers. I'd like to think I fall somewhere in the middle.

Here's my take:

Overanalyzing is fun. If we didn't love the topic we wouldn't be in this industry. We'd be overanalyzing gaming systems or some other bs.

I really feel that overanalyzation is valuable because this is how we learn and progress. The problem with overanalyzation and being a strength coach that deals with LARGE groups of kids at once (anyone else here overseen 120+ kids at once) is that you cannot really apply what is discussed. This is where the inno-sport system fails. You can't hit 40 guys at one time. So messing around with the overanalyzed programming in relation to your own training, or in a 1-3 on 1 scenario can work, but it is not feasible at the university level or with large groups.

This is one reason why I said Mike Boyle was right. With large groups of kids you need to identify sport needs and key problems. What you end up with, surprisingly, is that most athletes need the same things. First, keep in mind the sport coaches tend to run their kids to death so conditioning is out of the question.

So let's eliminate conditioning.

What's left?

#1 Hip extension. If your athletes run, jump, or even swing a club, all movements are powered by hip extension. The focus should be on the glutes as they are the primary extensors.

#2 Core strength. So many athletes run with a flexed or extended spine. They are leaking energy that should be going into the ground. On to racket and club sports. How many athletes turn their hips prior to their shoulders as opposed to moving as one unit? All of them. Again hip extension is creating this large rotational force but it's getting lost in the core. Stabilize their spines and improve thpracic mobility and they will hit the ball harder and farther.

Honestly, I would be happy if every kid could load there hips and glutes properly and develop a strong, stable torso.

Improving those two things will have your jumpers jumping higher, your runners running faster (both sprint and endurance guys) your hitters hitting harder and your throwers throwing harder.

Once those two are taken care of add strength and power methods and 95% of your athletes needs will be met.