Another month, another list of random thoughts that have been going through my head. Enjoy!
- The brain remembers the last rep that an athlete does…don’t finish on a bad rep. – Gray Cook
- A great way for the athletes you work with to realize how much you care is to be there beyond just the strength & conditioning. Be at games. Show up to practices. Build relationships with them. It will go a long way in getting more buy-in when they come into the weight room.
- Great coaches are constantly seeking feedback on ways that they can be better. The great ones never think they know it all, it’s usually the complete opposite.
- Produce race horses, not plow horses. – Tony Holler
- If you spend any time around hockey players you will quickly notice and realize that most all of them can not get into full hip extension. Bridge, bridge, bridge! Bridge in the warm up with Cook Hip Lifts. Bridge in the training session with slideboard leg curls and 1-leg shoulder elevated bridges. The skating position constantly places hockey players in a flexed hip position and in my opinion it is extremely important to constantly fight against this with hip extension based exercises.
- Be an essentialist. Identify what is absolutely essential for the athletes you are working with to be successful at their sport – then be great at those essentials.
- In a lot of ways we as strength coaches overthink a lot of things. Get people moving better. Get people moving stronger. Get people more conditioned. Do these things and chances are everything will work out alright.
- I think, without a doubt, that the ankle is the most overlooked jointed in the body even though most would agree that it has a huge influence across the entire kinetic chain. It’s probably a great idea to constantly have some ankle mobility work in the program.
- Using the previous thoughts as a jumping off point, squatting with the heels elevated instantly makes almost everyone a better squatter and is probably should be one of the first correctives that will clean the squat up extremely quickly along with a mini-band below the knee. I might go as far as saying that I think most people should just go straight to squatting with their heels elevated starting day 1.
- It’s not what you know, its what you can get your athletes to do well. – Carl Valle