Happy August! As usual, here are 10 random thoughts that been going through my mind in the last month or so. Hope something on this list makes you think.

Enjoy!

1. As a strength coach or personal trainer you are dealing with other peoples health. Don’t forget that.

2. Athletes don’t buy into coaching, they buy into coaches. – Kevin Carr

3. As simple as it sounds, understanding exercise selection along with proper technique can lead to some really great things.

4. A new common theme in our field is everyone trying/wanting to sound really smart. The reality is doing simple things is usually much more effective. Simple usually wins.

5. Everyone is open-minded until they find out everything they know is wrong. Then they aren’t very open-minded anymore. – Charlie Weingroff

6. People and/or teams don’t win by accident – principles of success have common themes. Study the greats and figure out what it is that makes them great.

7. This gets said a lot, but not all athletes are the same. It can be more difficult in the team setting, but coaches need to individualize things as much as possible.

8. Are you chasing numbers or chasing health? Getting better or cooking the books for the head coach? – Patrick Ward

9. Simple fixes to get people/athletes into neutral according to PRI: left leg down, right leg up on half kneeling exercises.

10. Don’t let ego cloud decisions.

Landed in Seattle last week after a 6 hour flight/10+ hours of traveling and had to get something in, had to just move a little bit. Not the greatest set up here at the hotel gym (50lb. DB was the limit) but while on the road you need to make it work with what you have. Here’s what I did… 20 minutes, as many rounds as possible.

DB Snatch x3
1DB 1-Leg RDL x8 each
Alternating DB Bench Press x8 each
Goblet Split Squat x8 each
DB Row x8 each
Treadmill Tempo Runs x10

No excuses, make your own health a priority.

Recently I was looking back through some of my notes that I have taken when listening to some podcasts. In doing so I realized that Charlie Weingroff has some really good thoughts and quotes that really make you think, many of which are worth sharing. And since I’m all about things that make you think a little and grow as a strength coach, I thought I would share some of the quotes that I found to be the most thought provoking.

Enjoy!

1. If you have symmetrical 2’s (FMS) and an athlete still isn’t good at something, it’s a coaching issue.

2. The goal of strength & conditioning is to develop athletes that are fit and resilient enough to deal with the demands of their sport.

3. You can’t coach someone through a stiff joint.

4. If you try to train in positions that the body doesn’t own…that’s an injury risk.

5. Fitness is just becoming resilient to stress.

6. Corrective exercise should change a movement immediately. If it doesn’t, it probably never will.

7. You can have a strong core in one pattern, yet not in another.

8. Loss in centration in one joint leads to loss of centration in every other joint.

9. Use enough weight in the get up and let the weight teach you to be in the right position.

10. Lactic capacity is the monster.

11. FMS: Can the joints get into the correct positions to absorb and adapt to stress?

12. If you can’t do something correctly and do it anyway, you’ll eventually lose.

13. It’s not that hard to be cutting edge, you just need to be willing to learn.

14. Do you have to use barbells? Do you have to use kettlebells? No, you have to win.

15. Biomechanics and EMG don’t lie, they just don’t tell the whole story.

16. If something doesn’t change the way you move or make you more fit, it’s a warm up or a cool down.

17. Move well enough, move strong enough, move for a long period of time.

18. The most important core muscle is the diaphragm.

19. More people would rather do it their way, the way their comfortable, the way they were first taught, instead of doing what’s right.

20. Russian twists (flexion & rotation) are a great way to crush your spine in an inefficient manner. If there is one thing the spine hates, it’s the combination of flexion and rotation.

21. Stability is control in the presence of change.

22. I could give two shits what they can lift in the weight room. I only care what they do in sport.

23. You can have a ton of 21’s on the FMS, but if your training is terrible they’ll still end up hurt.
24. Little girls that can do pull ups don’t sprain their ankles.

Here is a very random post that has 20 different thoughts that have been going through my head. Enjoy!

1. It is by no means an absolute, but I think athletes that can perform legit sets of 1-Leg Squats are going to be less likely to tear an ACL. Lots of proprioception, stability and a lot more strength required then most people give the exercise credit for.

2. You should never get hurt during strength training or because of strength training – strength training is essentially performed so people don’t get hurt!

3. Lateral sled work is grossly underrated. For any athlete/sport that has a tendency to have groin injuries (hockey, soccer) lateral sled crossovers are a phenomenal way to strengthen the adductors in an extremely functional way and are also extremely important for athletes that play a sport that requires them to cut a lot. Additionally, getting into the frontal plane is always a win.

4. Athletes don’t buy into coaching, they buy into coaches.

5. Performing some version of Turkish Get Up’s every single day may go a long way in improving T-Spine mobility.

6. If your clients are terrible, you’re a terrible trainer. If their technique sucks, you suck. – Mike Boyle

7. The two biggest issues in our field are stupidity and ego.

8. After working with the hockey population for a decent amount of time, it is clear that glute function is a major issue, most likely because of tight hip flexors. Bridging is much more difficult then it should be…therefore I think more bridging is always a good thing for the hockey athlete.

9. Something we’ve played around with is pairing low level corrective exercises and core exercises with our power work. This seems to be a great way to build in enough time to recover between sets.

10. Everyone wants to test well, but ultimately what matters most is how they play their sport and staying healthy. Too many people spend too much time trying to chase numbers that don’t and won’t help them at their sport.

Want to improve acceleration? Push a heavy sled.

One of the biggest misconceptions is that sports are about speed. They aren’t. Team sports are all about acceleration, not top speed. And it doesn’t matter what sport you play, improving acceleration will enhance athletic performance.

Heavy sleds develop specific strength that targets the exact muscles used in sprinting/acceleration, something that nothing else can emulate. The sled teaches the athlete to produce force in a forward motion just like they would in sprinting/acceleration.

In addition and often overlooked, sleds can also be great in-season, as there is no eccentric portion of the movement and soreness shouldn’t be an issue.

Simple Off-Season Progression: Sled March, Sled Sprint, Contrast March to Sprint

“If you want to improve your conditioning and turn it into a weapon then you must work on it year round.” – Joel Jamieson

In my opinion, one of the biggest mistakes strength coaches make in their off-season programs is not maintaining adequate conditioning levels throughout the entire off-season. In a lot of cases, conditioning gets overlooked for other qualities during the off-season period, with a conditioning only becoming a focus 4-8 weeks out leading into the season.

I obviously understand that conditioning can’t be put at the forefront during the off-season as other qualities are ahead on the pecking order, but I do believe some level of conditioning needs to be maintained throughout the off-season. Simply put, to get into the appropriate shape that will be needed to get an athlete through the rigors of the entire competitive season, and get through it as healthy as possible, a handful of weeks of dedicated conditioning isn’t going to be enough.

As an example, any college strength coach will tell you that it takes time to develop the necessary strength and power to compete at a high level in college. Additionally, any sport coach will tell you that you can’t practice your sport for a couple of weeks and think that the teams’ tactical skills will be at an appropriate level.

Why would conditioning be any different?

As Joel Jamieson states in his book Ultimate MMA Conditioning:

“You can have great strength and power but without proper cardiovascular development and muscular endurance, you won’t have the energy you need to put your strength to good use as the fight (sport) wears on.”

What coaches need to realize is that all the strength and power in the world won’t make a bit of difference if an athlete doesn’t have the needed conditioning levels to use it, especially as the game/match/competition moves to the later stages. If an athletes conditioning is a weapon for them, they’ll have more fuel and a greater ability to generate power and strength at all times throughout their sporting event.

As a result, giving an athlete to access their power and strength should be the goal of any well thought out and planned sport performance program…and most athletes need to produce power and strength for a prolonged period of time!

So what’s the point?

As a coach you need to perform conditioning year round if you want to have a team or an athlete competing at their very best. Generally speaking, aerobic and anaerobic-alactic work should be developed/maintained throughout the majority of the off-season. As the athlete or team approaches the start of the season, roughly 3-4 weeks out in most cases, the focus on the conditioning program should shift to anaerobic-lactic development.

It’s June, so that means another edition of random thoughts for the month. Here are a few thoughts that have been going through my head. Enjoy!

1. “Our responsibility as coaches is to close gaps that limit performance not create them. Give athletes what they need not what we like/want.” – Ryan Horn

2. We as coaches are often too worried about numbers in the weight room, rather then the effect the training is having on the athlete.

3. Hip extension is very important for athletes…but we need to make sure how glutes are the ones driving hip extension. Far too often you will find athletes substituting lumbar extension instead of hip extension which will lead to various other issues.

4. Athletes must be strong, but only to the extent that it can benefit them in their sport.

5. A question to ponder: Does it matter how much weight we can lift slow?

6. Piggybacking off the two previous thoughts, generally speaking, I think for team sports power is the most important, most crucial quality we can help develop. But you can’t have power without strength. The goal should be to get athletes strong enough to benefit them as much as possible in their sport and then make them as powerful as we can.

7. The two biggest issues in our field are stupidity and ego. Simply pull up some YouTube training videos and you’ll soon realize that a lot of programs are doing a lot of stupid things. Ego, on the other hand, may be the reason coaches/programs continue to do stupid things and are slow to evolve. I firmly believe people would rather continue to do what they’ve always done then make changes because they would look ‘wrong’. You don’t know what you don’t know. There is nothing wrong with changing, change means you are evolving and getting better…change is a good thing.

8. The weight room needs to be a fun, exciting, positive atmosphere. You catch more flies with honey then you do with vinegar.

9. I am without a doubt, a generalist when it comes to programming. I would say that 85-90% of what I do is the same across all teams. The differences from sport to sport come in that other 10-15%, but the big rocks are the big rocks no matter what team I am programming for.
10. Great strength coaches adapt to the needs of the players they coach and the coaches they work for.

A lot of times it’s the little things that go a long way when trying to keep athletes healthy in the long term. A perfect example is a simple 1-leg hip lift.

The 1-leg hip lift is a great exercise to help an athlete use the glutes properly ➡ as a hip extensor, which most young or weak athletes are unable to do.

Because so many athletes can’t use their glutes properly we generally see the athlete substitute lumbar extension for hip extension, which can lead to lower back issues. Teaching an athlete to not use the lumbar spine to create motion will go a long way in low back health.

Another great benefit to the hip lift is teaching the athlete to use the glutes as a hip extensor instead of overusing the hamstrings. Using the glutes and hamstrings together as a hip extensor will play a role in decreasing hamstring injuries down the road.

Finally, the hip lift will help develop some flexibility in the hip flexors because of the reciprocal nature of the exercise – it is impossible to both contract the glutes while also contracting the hip flexors. As a result, we get a stretch on the front side hip flexor.

1. Isometric Leg Lock Hip Lift
2. Isometric Tennis Ball Hip Lift
3. Tennis Ball Hip Lift (reps)
4. Marching Hip Lift

Typically the hip lift is simply incorporated into the warm up period as an ‘activation’ exercise

In sports where there is a chance for potential collision-related shoulder injuries, whether it be a collision with an opposing player or a collision with the boards in the case of hockey, a well-rounded strength program that emphasizes upper body pulling strength is crucial. The key is strength. The function of the shoulder muscles during a collision is to simply maintain joint integrity. It’s highly recommended that upper body pulling exercises are emphasized as much, if not more, then the upper body pushing exercises.