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Interview with Dan Pfaff: 5 Questions

Jimson Lee — Fri, 18 May 2012 08:00:00 +0000

This is Part 4 of the weekly “Friday Five” series where I ask 5 tough questions to world class elite coaches. Week 1 was with renowned jumps coach Boo Schexnayder. Week 2 had Dr. Mike Stone of the USOC and NBA and Week 3 was performance specialist Henk Kraaijenhof.

Dan Pfaff is the Director of the Lee Valley High Performance Center in North London.

His resume includes coaching 29 NCAA champions, 33 Olympians to seven Olympic medals and 45 athletes to the IAAF World Championships, where they have won 10 medals.

Prior to London, he was at the US Olympic Track and Field Training Centre in Chula Vista, California. At the Collegiate level, he was women’s track and field head coach at the University of Texas-El Paso and assistant coaching positions at the University of Texas-Austin and LSU.

More information on Dan Pfaff can be found at the “Learning from the Legends” seminar alongside with Tom Tellez.

Friday Five is sponsored by Freelap Track and Field, a leader in electronic timing.

Interview with Dan Pfaff

Q1 – SpeedEndurance.com: Acceleration is a major quality to the jumps, sprints, and hurdles. In the short sprints many people struggle in the later phase of acceleration because of elastic abilities. Could you share specific examples through jump training that have made an impact with your sprinters? Any staples in your program that seem to help?

Dan Pfaff: In my experience the struggles with late phase acceleration often are found in mechanical violations more so than elastic capabilities. Awareness of axes, force application angles, foot strike position and timing are just a few of the areas where it goes wrong. That said, there may be a tendency to use more muscular volitional force than needed because of improper elastic strength development or applications. As referred to in Henk’s interview we use a lot of short end multiple jumps, various types of endurance plyometrics over 40-60m and exaggerated elastic running techniques working on the transition zones. It is essential to control contact times and flight distances on these activities.

Q2 – SpeedEndurance.com: You often get a lot of athletes with laundry lists of injuries, especially post collegiate. With the throws being so ballistic to the body how do you keep the spine healthy when pushing large explosive athletes to their limit?

Dan Pfaff: Integrated soft tissue work combined with joint manipulation schemes is paramount in spinal health with large power/speed athletes. We do major blocks of training and session components with medicine balls, weight plates and various other appliances to explore, develop, denote function, etc. We spend a great deal of time doing rotational work as described above and constantly move the fulcrum of rotation by changing the moment arm angles. It is critical to maintain proper postures and mechanics in all movements from the warm-up to the cool down. We are very strict in the weight room and during plyometric sessions about these markers and metrics. We undulate loads based on functional analysis daily.

Q3 – SpeedEndurance.com: Maximum speed mechanics require a dramatic contrast of explosive contractions and rapid relaxations. What things can coaches do to help develop the ability to relax antagonists besides max sprints and the psychological areas? Can non-sprinting methods help generally or is this something that must be hardwired through sprinting?

Dan Pfaff: I have come to believe that “switching” is a poorly understood and researched area of movement. I think using an agonist/antagonist approach is a bit too reductionist for my taste. The symphony of muscle groups is very precise and involves very small units of time. Many major muscle tears occur under fatigue and what we are finding from our tensiomyographic research is that even minor fatigue disturbs activation potentials, rate of force development and latency of muscle recovery from extreme firing orders. If these big ticket items are disrupted, we then have to ask what is going on in reflex loops, efferent/afferent feedback systems, et al.? Timing and relaxation are complex skills influenced by numerous variables. The art of coaching is to discover correct function at lower stress levels and then evolve this as intensity, pressure and completion stressors arise. It is a complex blending of neuropsychology, physiology and biochemistry for sure. As coaches, we don’t always have access to lab monitoring devices so pragmatic field schemes must be created and monitored for these factors.

Jimson’s Note: TMG is Tensiomyography, a tool that the English Premier League uses as well as other top soccer leagues. Elite sport is using it in Track & Field and one of the leading experts will be interviewed soon on SpeedEndurance.com.

Q4 – SpeedEndurance.com: You have talked about doing blood analysis with athletes during the season in the past and have looked at several biomarkers such as neurotransmitters. Many coaches in the speed and power wish to challenge the body by depleting the nervous system to build what you would call a bigger battery. How do you safely overreach?

Dan Pfaff: I think that as one increases load volume or stress it is imperative to have field metrics and markers to monitor nervous system reactions. As Henk stated in his interview, there are various ways to use jumps or throws to aid in this cause. We have batteries of throwing movements, jump movements, bar speed parameters, coordination indices on all components of work just to name a few items of monitoring. There are some really good semantical surveys out there on the web for monitoring things also. Training diaries are critical provided the athlete is honest and thorough. We have found that surveys are just as accurate for most of our needs when compared to TMG or short blood pulls pre-training.

Q5 – SpeedEndurance.com: Every athlete has a style to fit their expression of tasks. Could you share what coaches need to do better with identifying what things to leave alone and what to change at the early developmental phases in order to make it easier to succeed later? Any general guidelines or tips?

Dan Pfaff: This again is the art of coaching influence when it comes to error detection and correction skills of the coach. I have always worked to seek the most gross errors that violate large biomechanical principles and that appear to be a source of re-occurrent injury factors that turn chronic. I think it is critical to have a model of movement for each phase of the athlete’s activity and once that is obtained, then as stated, look for major violations. Look for things that look cumbersome or that drain the energy faster than other movements. Some coaches are afraid to tamper with gifted athletes especially if they are producing at a high level. I think this is a huge injustice to the athlete for major violations only lead to burn out or chronic compensation patterns that eventually lead to poor function. Knowing a model and being wise in training prescription values based on thorough research of what is truly being done at the top levels is the foundation for educated change mechanisms.

Most Popular articles for 2011:

400 meter Training and Racing:

800 meter Training: Training 800 meter runners

Sprint Starts: Usain Bolt training regimen video: The Start

Football 40 Yard Dash: 40 yard dash times for Usain Bolt & Ben Johnson

Baseball 60 Yard Dash: Baseball 60 yard dash: What’s a good time?

Recovery: Ice Baths for Workout Recovery

Supplements: Nutrition for recovery: The Post-workout drink controversy

Analysis: Usain Bolt’s 100m 10-meter splits and speed endurance

Strength Endurance: Matt’s 60-second pull up World Record Video

Ballistic Power for Better Athletic Performance

Jimson Lee — Thu, 17 May 2012 08:15:00 +0000

This article was written by Kenta’ Bell, a two time Olympian (2004, 2008) in the Triple Jump and the 2001 Gold medalist at the World Student Games in Beijing, China. His PR is an impressive 17.63m and he is also the 2003 & 2010 USA National Champion.

His website is www.thinkingfeet.com and you can reach him at horizontalvelocity (at) hotmail.com

This is a new series on “When Athletes become Coaches”. His previous post was Advanced Plyometrics for Jump and Sprint Training, a must read.

Ballistic Power for Better Athletic Performance

Kenta Bell. Photo Credits; Viewimages

Where balletic and athletic meet to create ballistic movement

The ability to accelerate, change directions quickly, and jump high are all directly related to explosive power. The common misconception of explosive power is often mistaken for how much weight the athlete can move.

Unfortunately, Much of this weight is improperly lifted technically for the sake of lifting more weight. The growing sentiment in most strength and conditioning programs is based upon the term "building a bigger engine". The ability to be dynamic and explosive in athletics are directly affected by Rate of Force Development (ROFD or RFD). Their is a necessity in athletics for the ability to start, stop and change directions quickly. When an individual possesses these skills he or she is typically termed athletic or skilled. I define this as heightened body awareness, and high ROFD. What many of the so called gurus don’t understand is this type of dynamic skill isn’t developed by just applying more weight to a bar and squatting lower, nor is it gained by loudly stomping your feet when performing Olympic lifts.

Unfortunately bigger and stronger doesn’t guarantee faster. In most cases there is significantly more benefit to decreasing body weight and improving the strength to weight ratio. Performing the specific necessity at a higher rate of speed can only attain high skill and speed acquisition. Contrary to most thoughts and beliefs an individual can yield high strength gains without lifting extreme weights.

At what point are we strong enough? At what point does lifting more weight come with diminishing returns?

RATE OF FORCE DEVELOPMENT

Probably the most important and under-recognized area of applied science pertaining to strength training and athletes. ROFD essentially refers to the speed at which force can be produced. I can’t think of a single example in athletics that wouldn’t benefit from a faster ROFD. A faster ROFD results in quicker, more explosive movements and gets the bar moving faster. One study found that three times as many motor units (MU) were activated during a ballistic contraction compared to a slow ramp contraction.

We constantly argue the science and theory of slow and fast runners based upon slow twitch and fast twitch MU. Science has shown us that the fastest runners apply higher vertical forces into to the ground in the shortest amount of times. Together, slow and fast twitch MU produces more force than either can individually. Greater recruitment in a shorter amount of time incites intramuscular tension more rapidly. Superior technique combined with correct muscle firing sequences and high rate of force development more often than not will put you in position of athletic Excellency.

EXERCISES

For this article we will look at three of my favorite exercises for developing motor unit recruitment and neuromuscular coordination as applied to ROFD. Each of the exercises have been tested individually as well as in combination for the purposes of athletic performance enhancement. Strategically applying strength to skill and speed to performance through isolated integration.

1) Depth Drop (shock tension jump)

This particular exercise is often called a shock tension jump and categorized as plyometric. The very nature of this exercise is strength building and power training at both the most basic and highest level. As previously mentioned the most important requirements of being athletic and efficient lie within the ability to stop and start rapidly. In the cycle isometric – eccentric – concentric when looking at the elastic principles of force reduction and production we address 2 of 3. Muscle contractions when sprinting and jumping don’t occur slowly. The time and speed of contraction is rapid and forceful. This type of contraction when the muscle lengthens is referred to as an eccentric contraction.

There is also substantial evidence that confirms pre-tensing before contact results in greater motor unit recruitment during the eccentric phase. Before now there has never been sufficient data that allowed the coach/athlete to know what types of forces were specifically generated and in what duration of time. Based on laboratory study that I have done we now have a much clearer picture. Dropping from a height as low as 10” produces (pound) forces upward of 1,400lbs in as little as 0.4seconds. This type of force time curve would be impossible to replicate doing a traditional squat movement. This data is valuable in understanding the application and implementation of this type of training.

See the video below:

2) Box Squat to Box Jump

This is one of my favorite non-weight bearing power explosive exercises. This multi-joint, multi-complex movement challenges the athlete in a variety of ways. This exercise produces raw explosive power while forcing the athlete to overcompensate for any height/barrier perception issues. Likewise, it produces the full spectrum of muscle contraction/muscle recruitment firing processes. Beginning with iso-eccentric immediately transferring to concentric and finishing in an eccentric stabilization. In order to complete this exercise he or she must complete triple extension in the process of dynamic hip extension and gluteus recruitment.

We do box squats because they teach correct form and MU recruitment. In combination with the explosive power development of plyometric box hopping drill this exercise is hard to beat. Also noted that it is safe for all age ranges and categories from developmental to professional elite.

3) Squat Jump (Elastic Band Assisted)

This exercise can be classified as a plyometric depth reactive jump. As a result of the external pull support helping overcome inertia and the pull of gravity this exercise is far more forgiving on the joints. Performed similar to your basic dumbbell squat jump. However, for this particular exercise we will be assisting the concentric muscle shortening contraction through the strapping of overhead elastic pull support. By reducing the ground contact time one thus improves the ROFD and improvement in explosive reactive properties. As previously noted this type of ballistic exercise creates greater intramuscular coordination leading to higher yield in muscle tension and recruitment of 3x the motor unit.

Each of these particular exercises is regarded as central nervous system training. This as a result of the high nervous system activity and speed of muscle contraction. There are several other exercises and modalities that assist one in the improvement high rate force development. When performing this type of training quality outweighs quantity and one should strive for technical mastery.

Most Popular articles for 2011:

400 meter Training and Racing:

800 meter Training: Training 800 meter runners

Sprint Starts: Usain Bolt training regimen video: The Start

Football 40 Yard Dash: 40 yard dash times for Usain Bolt & Ben Johnson

Baseball 60 Yard Dash: Baseball 60 yard dash: What’s a good time?

Recovery: Ice Baths for Workout Recovery

Supplements: Nutrition for recovery: The Post-workout drink controversy

Analysis: Usain Bolt’s 100m 10-meter splits and speed endurance

Strength Endurance: Matt’s 60-second pull up World Record Video

Research Review: Testosterone, Growth Hormone, Nutrition and Training

Jimson Lee — Wed, 16 May 2012 08:00:00 +0000

Here is a follow up on my case study on How to Track and Improve your Testosterone & Zinc levels Naturally with InsideTracker.

Q – SpeedEndurance.com: After reading Dr. Stone’s interview, it seems that heavy training is important to help hormones for power and recovery. Any special considerations regarding nutrition and training that I should be aware of to maximize my testosterone and growth hormone levels? What can I do naturally to get an edge in speed, power and strength events? I heard brief workouts keep testosterone up and ZMA helps. Any ideas here?

Answer: Unfortunately very little can be done to increase hormone levels, unless you are severely impaired by overtraining or are malnourished. The endocrine system already does a great job regulating itself, but you can ensure optimized training and recovery by getting adequate nutrition. The classic Hakkinen and Komi study on junior weightlifters showed an increase of testosterone and power over time, but hormonal levels proved more difficult to interpret.

Training should challenge the body so that it learns to adapt to the demands of stress and competition. Those that have more power are more resistant to injury and overtraining. Research has found that intense, explosive multi-joint exercises elicit favorable adaptations for speed and power athletes. Sports teams with less training time benefit from maximizing, but throwing events do have the luxury of including more power-based exercises. Acute hormonal response from intense exercise is very difficult to monitor, so it’s best to look at changes over long periods of time rather than week to week. Sometimes (hormone) downregulation has had rebound effects in performance, but this hasn’t been proven in the scientific literature without invasive measurements..

Proper nutrition starts with the basics, such as caloric needs and basic micronutrient needs. No legal supplement has been shown to increase testosterone, but current protein and carbohydrate drinks have anabolism benefits without increasing testosterone. Growth hormone is very misunderstood and currently nothing can be done to increase the levels naturally in athletes. ZMA is popular, but research shows it does nothing for normal athletes who aren’t severely deficient. In fact, most athletes have normal levels of zinc and magnesium, although it may still be wise to monitor mineral levels during heavy training periods.

In summary, you should think about preserving your natural anabolic profile by simply getting sufficient sleep, making better food choices, and progressively overloading the body. Baseline screening of testosterone is a great way to create a handy reference to refer to if you see signs of overtraining – although by then it’s usually too late. To successfully avoid overtraining, experts suggest that you should get screened 3-4 times a year. Remember that you don’t need to have high testosterone to be a world-class athlete, but having low testosterone may be a sign of something wrong in either your training or diet.

For more information, visit InsideTracker.com

Most Popular articles for 2011:

400 meter Training and Racing:

800 meter Training: Training 800 meter runners

Sprint Starts: Usain Bolt training regimen video: The Start

Football 40 Yard Dash: 40 yard dash times for Usain Bolt & Ben Johnson

Baseball 60 Yard Dash: Baseball 60 yard dash: What’s a good time?

Recovery: Ice Baths for Workout Recovery

Supplements: Nutrition for recovery: The Post-workout drink controversy

Analysis: Usain Bolt’s 100m 10-meter splits and speed endurance

Strength Endurance: Matt’s 60-second pull up World Record Video

Heart Rate Variability (HRV) for Sprinters & Power Athletes

Jimson Lee — Tue, 15 May 2012 08:00:00 +0000

Every week, ithlete will cover general questions on training and recovery, as well as specific best practices with Heart Rate Variability (HRV).

If you have a general question or a specific question on how to use ithlete you can email ithlete.support@myithlete.com.

Q1 – SpeedEndurance.com: A lot of coaches use the term “stimulate” or “deplete”, what are examples of this type of training and how does one decide what to do. I am a 200m sprinter and sometimes do the 4 x 400m.

Answer: Usually coaches use the term stimulate as a term to create an adaption with the minimal dose of work, while deplete is to challenge the body maximally, usually creating deep fatigue. Ideally one would just do the minimal threshold of training to get results, but eventually everyone will stagnate and hit a plateau. When stimulating, most methods are less risky and very conservative in both method and volume/intensity. Depletion is more of a volume approach at the specific intensity required to elicit a deep rebound effect.

Deciding when to use either approach or combination is more of a philosophical approach rather than something that is concrete in training theory. With any risk, the reward must be carefully weighted against other options, so depletion is not suggested unless one is an elite athlete and the training in the past was sound and well planned. Often plateaus are problems in training design, and improvements can be made without resorting to more aggressive methods.

Most options for stimulating are brief but intense options such as 3 x 150m, but depletion work is closer to 6-8 of the same distance. Running the 4×400 volume via depletion may help with the conditioning needs, depending how important the relay performance is to your team and coach.

Q2 – SpeedEndurance.com: I see there is a lot of research showing that HRV can be an effective training tool for endurance athletes, but does it work for speed & power athletes as well?

Answer: A lot of lab based research has been done on runners & cyclists, primarily for convenience reasons – it’s much easier to line up study participants on treadmills or fixed bikes than it is to go out to the track or weights room with sophisticated equipment. The principles behind using HRV remain entirely valid for the wider athletic population though. HRV measures the body’s response to training & competition, and fatigue of the energy systems shows up just as well with speed & power athletes. A good example is a study performed in 2011 on powerlifters and reported in the Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research reported that:

After training, weightlifting performance of the subjects decreased below baseline in parallel with suppressed parasympathetic power (high-frequency [HF] HRV), whereas sympathetic power (normalized low-frequency HRV) was slightly elevated at 3 hours of recovery (p , 0.05). Both weightlifting performances and parasympathetic power returned to baseline values in 24 hours and further increased above baseline during 48–72 hours of recovery in a similar fashion (p , 0.05). Circulating DHEA-S level dropped at 24 hours (p , 0.05) and returned to normal values by 48 hours. Muscle pain increased at 3 hours after training and remained higher than baseline values for the 72-hour recovery period (p , 0.05). Our data suggest that parasympathetic power, indicated by HF HRV, is able to reflect the recovery status of weightlifters after training.

Most Popular articles for 2011:

400 meter Training and Racing:

800 meter Training: Training 800 meter runners

Sprint Starts: Usain Bolt training regimen video: The Start

Football 40 Yard Dash: 40 yard dash times for Usain Bolt & Ben Johnson

Baseball 60 Yard Dash: Baseball 60 yard dash: What’s a good time?

Recovery: Ice Baths for Workout Recovery

Supplements: Nutrition for recovery: The Post-workout drink controversy

Analysis: Usain Bolt’s 100m 10-meter splits and speed endurance

Strength Endurance: Matt’s 60-second pull up World Record Video

Interview with Jimson Lee

Jimson Lee — Mon, 14 May 2012 08:45:00 +0000

This is Part 6 of a multi-part series from my recent trip to Orlando & Clermont, Florida.

Part 1 was with Dennis Mitchell. Part 2 was with Brooks Johnson.

Parts 3 & 5 was Hurdle Touchdown Times with Kellie Wells Training and Part 4 included Håkan Andersson.

Here is a rare interview of myself being interviewed. Usually I am asking the questions, but while I was in Vancouver, Derek Hansen of RunningMechanics.com stopped and asked me about the road to London 2012. There is a Canadian connection as several of my Canadian coaches are working for UK Athletics.

Here is the link to the original article. The video was recorded on May 1, 2012.

Most Popular articles for 2011:

400 meter Training and Racing:

800 meter Training: Training 800 meter runners

Sprint Starts: Usain Bolt training regimen video: The Start

Football 40 Yard Dash: 40 yard dash times for Usain Bolt & Ben Johnson

Baseball 60 Yard Dash: Baseball 60 yard dash: What’s a good time?

Recovery: Ice Baths for Workout Recovery

Supplements: Nutrition for recovery: The Post-workout drink controversy

Analysis: Usain Bolt’s 100m 10-meter splits and speed endurance

Strength Endurance: Matt’s 60-second pull up World Record Video

Dr. Mike Stone Interview: 5 Questions

Jimson Lee — Fri, 04 May 2012 08:00:00 +0000

This is part 2 of the weekly “Friday Five” series where I ask 5 tough questions to world class elite coaches. Week 1 was with renowned jumps coach Boo Schexnayder.

Mike Stone PhD is currently the Exercise and Sports Science Laboratory Director in the Department of Kinesiology, Leisure, and Sport Sciences (KLSS) at East Tennessee State University (ETSU). Prior to joining ETSU he was the Head of Sports Physiology for the Unites Sates Olympic Committee (USOC). From 1999 through 2001 he was Chair of Sport at Edinburgh University in Scotland. Dr. Stone’s service and research interests are primarily concerned with physiological and performance adaptations to strength/power training

Recently (Feb 2012), Dr. Stone has been elected to the scientific advisory panel for the National Basketball Strength Conditioning Association.

Before you begin reading this interview, one of my curiosities revolves around the bilateral deficit… something Dennis Mitchell had mentioned during my time in Clermont, Florida. A bilateral deficit refers to a situation where the sum of individual muscle forces when each limb is working on its own is greater than the combined forces produced when both limbs work simultaneously (bilaterally).

You can read more about that in NEURAL ACTIVATION AND PERFORMANCE IN POWER EVENTS by Warren Young.

Friday Five is sponsored by Freelap Track and Field, a leader in electronic timing

Interview with Dr. Mike Stone, formerly with the USOC

Q1 – SpeedEndurance.com: The bilateral deficit is often a cited physiological piece of evidence to show single leg exercises are superior or a replacement to bilateral exercises. Could you explain what unique benefits the bilateral exercises offer so coaches can combine both options (single leg and bilateral movements) for proper development?

Mike Stone: First of all the bilateral deficit is only apparent in untrained individuals – training bilaterally almost always eliminates the BLD within a few months to about a year. The use of unilateral movements is largely justified by the concept of specificity – however, there are many different ways of mechanically executing unilateral movements – and I doubt there is always much specificity. The current scientific literature does not show any clear cut benefit of using unilateral movements over bilateral in terms of developing maximum strength. Certainly in terms of (for example) bounding triple jumps might benefit from single leg bounds (weighted and unweighted).

Q2 – SpeedEndurance.com: It seems that power development is a lost art with Performance Enhancement, perhaps because the role responsibilities have expanded beyond strength and conditioning, thus diluting the abilities of the coach. Could you share your views of the responsibilities of a team in reducing injury by increasing power? Perhaps the NBA position you have could share the unique challenges coaches in that sport have with their schedule and demands of the sport.

Mike Stone: Not sure this is true. – However, there is a good deal of evidence that among relatively weak athletes getting stronger will increase power output and explosiveness (RFD). Once reasonable levels of strength are attained (about 2 x body mass parallel squat for example) switching to power movements can increase power to higher levels. There is also some evidence that if maximum strength levels begin to fall – eventually so will maximum power levels. There is data suggesting that injuries are decreased with increased strength – as power tends to increase with strength as well – then yes increases in power tend to reduce injuries.

Q3 – SpeedEndurance.com: Bar path or trajectory on the Olympic lifts is a key component in ensuring the right muscle groups are challenged in order to make athletes more explosive. Could you share how a bar path too far away from the body could be dangerous to the body or reduce the ability to transfer the load? Perhaps a connection between center of pressure through the foot could also explain why great technique has a better transfer to performance. Could too many athletes don’t recruit leg musculature because they lift with their backs?

Mike Stone: Allowing the bar to move horizontally away from the body requires extra energy to bring it back – provided it can even be done (i.e. bring it back) – the connection to performance – is multifactorial – such as – these lifts will increase strength, power and explosiveness, – the better the technique the more likely these positive alterations are to occur . As the proper technique (double knee bend) is similar to a number of other athletic activities (e.g. jumping , parts of sprinting etc. ) then they (theoretically) should have greater transfer to these activities then less mechanically specific exercises. Certainly poor technique will reduce transfer.

Q4 – SpeedEndurance.com: Hormonal adaptations are often used to monitor athletes during the year. Could share a best practices of what teams can do to not only screen basic health, but to find more decisive conclusions of classic heavy lifting helping athlete long term? Many teams are afraid of lifting moderately heavy loads, could they be short sided in this conservative approach?

Mike Stone: Yes – if you want to get strong – you have to lift heavy weights at some point.

Q5 – SpeedEndurance.com: Team sports have an endurance demand, but often they look at the strength and conditioning elements being mutually exclusive. Could you share how endurance qualities performance wise can benefit from a solid strength program? Often inappropriate methods such as high rep strength training is often though as a solution to improving endurance in the weight room.

Mike Stone: High rep training will increase high intensity endurance capabilities – however, getting stronger will also increase certain aspects , especially as it concerns absolute endurance. (stronger athletes can do more reps at a given load). When to perform high reps etc. etc. is part of the periodization process – there are times that every athlete should perform high reps – but other aspects of training have to be deemphasized or the total volume may overwhelm adaptive abilities – high reps all the time will be counterproductive in the long run.

Most Popular articles for 2011:

400 meter Training and Racing:

800 meter Training: Training 800 meter runners

Sprint Starts: Usain Bolt training regimen video: The Start

Football 40 Yard Dash: 40 yard dash times for Usain Bolt & Ben Johnson

Baseball 60 Yard Dash: Baseball 60 yard dash: What’s a good time?

Recovery: Ice Baths for Workout Recovery

Supplements: Nutrition for recovery: The Post-workout drink controversy

Analysis: Usain Bolt’s 100m 10-meter splits and speed endurance

Strength Endurance: Matt’s 60-second pull up World Record Video

Interview with Håkan Andersson

Jimson Lee — Wed, 02 May 2012 14:45:00 +0000

This is Part 4 of a multi-part series. Part 1 was with Dennis Mitchell. Part 2 was with Brooks Johnson. Part 3 was Hurdle Touchdown Times

One of the highlights of my Orlando-Clermont trip was shadowing a session with Håkan Andersson of Sweden. Since I am Canadian, his wife is also from Canada, so we had a lot in common!

He was the coach of Peter Karlsson (100m PB and NR of 10.18 with a 9.98w to his credit) and is currently coaching Stefan Tärnhuvud among other athletes, including para-Olympians. Stefan’s Blog is here, but it’s in Swedish!

Hakan Andersson (center), Christopher Glaeser (right)

I don’t have any video or interviews with Håkan as any recording at ESPN Disney Wide World of Sports Complex is forbidden without written authorization. But I do have pages and pages of mental notes!

But all is not lost or hidden!

Enter Mladen Jovanovic.

He is currently the head physical preparation coach in Hammarby, a soccer club in Stockholm, Sweden, and it was only fate that these two experts had a chance meeting.

A lot of our discussions can be found in Mladen’s interview, and I highly recommend reading it. There are so many take home messages, which I will discuss and critique at a later date.

You can read it here:

http://complementarytraining.blogspot.com/2012/04/interview-with-hakan-andersson.html

Most Popular articles for 2011:

400 meter Training and Racing:

800 meter Training: Training 800 meter runners

Sprint Starts: Usain Bolt training regimen video: The Start

Football 40 Yard Dash: 40 yard dash times for Usain Bolt & Ben Johnson

Baseball 60 Yard Dash: Baseball 60 yard dash: What’s a good time?

Recovery: Ice Baths for Workout Recovery

Supplements: Nutrition for recovery: The Post-workout drink controversy

Analysis: Usain Bolt’s 100m 10-meter splits and speed endurance

Strength Endurance: Matt’s 60-second pull up World Record Video

Boo Schexnayder Interview: 5 Questions

Jimson Lee — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 16:35:00 +0000

This is part 1 of the weekly “Friday Five” series where I ask 5 tough questions to world class elite coaches.

Irving "Boo" Schexnayder is regarded internationally as one of the leading authorities in training design, especially in the Jump events. He coached triple jumper Walter Davis, long jumper John Moffitt, and 19 NCAA Champions.

Boo will be speaking at the Boston Sports Medicine and Performance Group (BSMPG) on May 19-20, 2012.

You can also see his complete jumps DVD package for the Long, Triple and High Jump (plus a weight training bonus).

Friday Five is sponsored by Freelap Track and Field, a leader in electronic timing.

Q1 – SpeedEndurance.com: A lot of confusion and mystery lies with the true volumes of jump training that is sufficient for stimulating neuromuscular adaptions and teaching. While small doses are often looked at as the goal, teaching takes repetition. Could you expand on how important the sequence of the training year and the quality of foot strike? Can you explain why it seems that some programs thrive off of higher volumes while some just lead to injury?

BOO: As far as foot strike, the ability to properly dissipate impact forces through full-footed landings is obviously a huge help to staying injury free while jump training. I think there are two other, more subtle keys to successful progression and remaining injury free in jump training. The first lies in variety, specifically advancing training cycles in a timely fashion. The other is taking a purposeful approach to the process.

Just as athletes do, we as coaches tend to settle into comfort zones. You get your athletes doing particular forms of jump training. Then, as mastery is approached, it’s time to move on to something else, but our natural tendency is to breathe easy and admire our work for a while. Periodic shifts in exercise choice, volume and intensity are critical, even though they might make life for the coach tougher. Successful higher volume programs do this and show a bit of a pioneer spirit.

Also, everything done must have a very specific purpose. That purpose might be establishing initial volumes, technical development, high end or low end elastic strength development, or whatever. It’s easy to fall into a “this is my fallback workout” philosophy if you are not targeting something specific. This is the primary rationale behind the small volume programs, and I think this is the key with high training age athletes who have already accumulated injuries and other physical issues over the course of a career.

In either case, whether it is failure to progress or mindless repetition, at this point jump training quits being a stimulus and becomes simply another piece of baggage that must be carried around that increases injury risk.

Q2 – SpeedEndurance.com: You mention that Olympic lifts are great harmonizing agents to a program. With your experience could you address what mechanisms and systems such as posture and coordination enable the lifts to transfer to sprinting and jumping?

BOO: The results I see in my program are the main reason I feel strongly about using Olympic lifts. I don’t want to give anyone the impression that I researched them first and then started to use them. My personal journey was more of a matter of seeing huge gains and then figuring out why.

I think the orders of joint firing and the mixing of absolute strength, power, and eccentric activity show huge transfer into sport specific skills. Also, the need to stabilize the core while performing something functional like an Olympic lift does more for the body’s core than all the crunches in the world. In short, they are highly functional.

I am a fan of functional training. But I have never gone completely that way, always keeping a base in more old school approaches. Maybe it’s because I started my career in football, but it’s also because I have watched too many great athletes train that way to scrap it.

I think a key variable in strength training is the amount of muscle tissue activated in the course of a repetition. That variable, more than any other, affects blood chemistry and endocrine responses. Many exercises are functional but don’t elicit enough muscle fiber activation to accomplish this. Olympics are where gross movements meet functional training and old school meets new school.

Q3 – SpeedEndurance.com: The triple jump requires a great pelvic orientation to sustain velocity. One of the hardest things is to help intermediate athletes distribute the phases evenly with slightly different expressions of power within each phase. Could you share what training aspects seem to make an impact with keeping the rehearsals of the task close to competition but submaximal enough to train throughout the week without excessive fatigue?

BOO: As far as pelvic orientation and phase distribution, the key here lies in the basic concept of teaching throughout the multijump training program. 90% of triple jump technique must be addressed outside of what one might call the “triple jump practice”. While most coaches get this, some key parameters are often overlooked, and unfortunately too much coaching time is wasted on things that seem to be the body’s default setting anyway.

I get hundreds of coaches each year who write, asking me to help fix phase distributions. I don’t mind, but I also always want to ask the question, “did you put this athlete through a patient progression of multijump skill teaching before throwing them in the event?”

As far as approaching meet intensities to insure stability in technique before competition, I frankly don’t think you can. This event is truly unique in that competition specific practice results in the inability to perform in a meet. The pounding associated with these types of practice intensities makes jumpers apprehensive and causes accumulation of too many physical problems to compete well.

In this event I have always taken a unique approach of keeping things calm in practice, and approaching the meet with a “leap of faith” mentality. It works because the athletes feel great and are excited about competing, rather than being worried about protecting a heel bruise or some other ailment. The meets themselves become a big part of the technical progression plan and the athletes understand that. I always want the athlete going into the meet feeling great and thinking they can, rather than going into the meet beat up and apprehensive. If you are going to get that close to competition intensities, you are better off in the high adrenaline, sense-of-urgency environment of competition.

Q4 – SpeedEndurance.com: You have some great rehabilitation strategies including a focus on intensity while most of the legacy methods are dated. What was your experience in dealing with injuries before this enlightenment? Many coaches are often managing injuries because much of the rehabilitation methodology is so backward some elite track coaches are often scripting the medical side. Any specific thoughts?

BOO: I guess I experienced the same frustrations most coaches feel when they see ineffective rehabilitations. The typical vicious cycle: the athlete isn’t progressing, then the trainer increases the volume of the ineffective stuff rather than critically evaluating the program, then the athlete stops going to rehab because it not working, then the trainer blames the failure on the athlete’s absence. It’s happened millions of times. As a coach who was always interested in the process as much as the end results, what frustrated me was the lack of a systematic approach to rehab, absence of systematic progression of some key variable.

I definitely stop well short of incriminating a profession, but unfortunately there are many persons entrusted to carrying out rehabilitations that are simply not purposeful in their work. The basic premise is that throughout the rehabilitation process, the tension levels applied to the injury site must progressively increase until they reach competition level intensity. This seems to get lost in a maze of sets, reps, and pet exercises. In rehabilitation sets, reps, weights, exercise choices, etc. are tools, but the key variable to progress is the tension level applied. This might be subjective, and this is where wise exercise choices come in.

Compounding this is a frequent misunderstanding of the differences in concentric and eccentric work. Tension levels in eccentric work can be as much as 200% of maximal concentric work tensions. Since competition is eccentric, it’s easy to see why concentric rehab only gets you so far and at some point rehabilitation must become eccentric. I have seen purposeful applications of eccentric work in rehab accomplish in three days what three months of concentric work couldn’t.

Q5 – SpeedEndurance.com: While cues and verbal communication are not essential, many exchanges with athletes help them prepare for bounds, jumps, and hops. You have mentioned that skips have a rocking chair roll but could you share how you get athletes to have quality technique with a combination of tasks and cueing? The cliché "the ground is hot" is a staple for some coaches but I am sure you are thinking beyond that. What do you do in terms of getting athletes to have great technique without paralysis by analysis in terms of too much verbal feedback?

BOO: This is a great question, everyone thinks about the teaching and the technique but nobody ever thinks about the classroom. The exercises or drills you choose are a critical component in the entire teaching process. They must give you a chance to address all the technical components you need to address, and should follow some sequence that makes pedagogical sense and challenges the things you’ve taught in a controlled way. Just because I am known as an “anti-drill” person, don’t think I don’t give lots of thought to this. The exercise groups you see in my training inventory are assembled that way for pedagogical purposes as much as any other reason.

That being said my technical checklist is very short, and so must yours. I address overall rhythm, trajectories, and the swing leg. That’s it. Any other error is almost always a symptom of a problem in one of those. Even postural issues are embedded for you in this teaching system.

I mentioned earlier that most coaches spend too much time teaching things that are default settings. Unless poorly taught previously, even the worst athletes inherently do far more right than wrong. For example, heel to toe, rolling contacts are important, but athletes do them naturally. I think of them as a default setting. So, if they aren’t happening, my thought process is that instability due to incorrect trajectories or a backside dominant swing leg are producing the problem. Poor swing legs result in poor pelvic alignment. Poor amplitudes of movement, excessive ground contact times, or insufficient ground contact times are related to rhythm.

The trick to being effective in teaching these skills is to develop an understanding of these cause and effect relationships. Understanding the body’s natural reactions to distress and instability are the key to efficient coaching and understanding those relationships. That’s why I make it a point to address this in any biomechanics course I teach.

Most Popular articles for 2011:

400 meter Training and Racing:

800 meter Training: Training 800 meter runners

Sprint Starts: Usain Bolt training regimen video: The Start

Football 40 Yard Dash: 40 yard dash times for Usain Bolt & Ben Johnson

Baseball 60 Yard Dash: Baseball 60 yard dash: What’s a good time?

Recovery: Ice Baths for Workout Recovery

Supplements: Nutrition for recovery: The Post-workout drink controversy

Analysis: Usain Bolt’s 100m 10-meter splits and speed endurance

Strength Endurance: Matt’s 60-second pull up World Record Video

Boston Sports Medicine and Performance Group (BSMPG) May 19-20, 2012

Jimson Lee — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 08:00:00 +0000

Anybody within a 1 hour drive or flight to Boston should really consider making this conference a priority.

The Boston Sports Medicine and Performance Group (BSMPG) is proud to announce May 19-20, 2012 as the selected date for Sports Medicine and Strength professionals for another monster conference!

Like last year, this seminar will be divided into three distinct educational tracks including a Hockey focus, a Basketball Focus, and a clear Sports Medicine/Rehabilitation Track with Keynote Speakers throughout the weekend bringing each track together for common lectures.

Attendees may choose to stay within one track throughout the entire weekend or mix and match to meet their educational needs.

You won’t want to miss another great summer seminar presented by BSMPG.

Here is the list of keynote speakers:

BILL KNOWLES – Return to Competition Strategies for the Joint Compromised Athlete
CRAIG LIEBENSON – Regional Interdependence: How Functional Pathology Limits Performance
IRVING “BOO” SCHEXNAYDER – Multi-jump Exercises: Applications for Teaching, Training, & Rehab
CHRIS POWERS – The Hip As a Factor in Knee Pain
ALAN GRODIN -The Importance of Seeing the Big Picture: Choosing the Appropriate Intervention Strategy

For more information, see http://www.bsmpg.com/2012-summer-seminar/

Most Popular articles for 2011:

400 meter Training and Racing:

800 meter Training: Training 800 meter runners

Sprint Starts: Usain Bolt training regimen video: The Start

Football 40 Yard Dash: 40 yard dash times for Usain Bolt & Ben Johnson

Baseball 60 Yard Dash: Baseball 60 yard dash: What’s a good time?

Recovery: Ice Baths for Workout Recovery

Supplements: Nutrition for recovery: The Post-workout drink controversy

Analysis: Usain Bolt’s 100m 10-meter splits and speed endurance

Strength Endurance: Matt’s 60-second pull up World Record Video

Advanced Plyometrics for Jump and Sprint Training

Jimson Lee — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 19:00:00 +0000

His website is www.thinkingfeet.com and you can reach him at horizontalvelocity (at) hotmail.com

This is a new series on “When Athletes become Coaches”.

CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM TRAINING FOR MAXIMUM POWER

Kenta Bell. Photo Credits; Viewimages

INTRODUCTION

Training is usually defined as a systematic process of repetitive, progressive exercise, which also involve learning processes and has the ultimate goal of improving the athlete’s systems and functions in order to optimize athletic performance. A training plan must follow the concept of periodization, well planned and structured, and be sport specific, so as to cause the athletes energy systems to adapt to the particular requirements of the sport.

In order to achieve such goals, power is essential. Explosive, reactive power is the ability to apply force at a rapid rate in order to accelerate the body or projectile at a high momentum (Power = force x Velocity). An athlete can be very strong and still not be very powerful. This is simply due to low rate of utilization, i.e. the ability to contract already strong muscles in a very short period of time.

The most important factors in determining jumping and sprinting performances is the ability to quickly apply forces to the ground. Previous research has shown that faster runners can apply greater amounts of force down into the ground during the brief ground contact period than slower runners. This high rate of vertical force application leads to shorter ground contact times as well as longer stride lengths, thus allowing the faster runners to attain greater maximum speeds

What many fail to realize is that gains in strength can only be transformed into power by applying very specific power training methods. For decades it has been probable that one of the most successful methods of training is the employment of plyometric exercises.

PLYOMETRICS

Also known as reactive training, the stretch – shortening cycle, or stretch reflex. The exercises known popularly as plyometric are those in which the muscle is loaded in an eccentric (lengthening) contraction, immediately followed by a concentric (shortening) contraction. It has been demonstrated that a muscle that is stretched or pre-tensed before a contraction will contract more forcefully and rapidly. What many fail to realize is a third type of force known as isometric which occurs just before touchdown of the foot before the eccentric contraction, and again at full support just before the concentric contraction. See figures below.

ISOMETRIC CONTRACTION

an isometrics contraction of a muscle generates force without changing length. An example of an isometric contraction would be carrying a weight in front of you. The weight of the object would be pulling downward, but your arms and hands would be opposing the motion with equal force going upwards. Since your arms are neither going upwards or downwards your bicep would be isometrically contracting. The force of an isometric contraction is wholly dependent on the length of the muscle while contracting. When looking at the bounding sequence of an alternating right to left contact one has to understand the sequence as (isometric – eccentric – isometric – concentric).

CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM TRAINING

What is CNS training (central nervous system training)? The fatigue induced by high intensity depth and depth reactive jumps knows as plyometric and bounding exercises are two fold: local and fatigue affecting the CNS. Local fatigue is a result of depleting energy stored in the muscle, the fuel necessary to perform such explosive movements (CP- creatine phosphate and ATP), and the production of lactic acid for repetitions longer than 10 – 15 seconds.

During training athletes are fatiguing the CNS, the very system which is determinant in sending powerful signals to the working muscle to perform a given amount of quality work. This is why power and strength training with loads of 70% of maximum has been called “nervous system training”, a way of acknowledging the importance of the CNS in high quality training.

Plyometric training is performed as a result of nerve impulses sent by the CNS to the working muscles. These impulses have a certain SPEED, POWER, AND FREQUENCY. Any high quality training requires that the speed of contraction, its power, or frequency, be at the highest level possible.

PLANNING

A training plan has to be simple, objective, and above all flexible. Its contents may have to be modified to match the athletes’ rate of progression as well as adaptation to the physiological challenges and improvements in performance. A coach is only as efficient as he/she is organized. A Central Nervous system/plyometric program is successful only if it is well designed, based on scientific knowledge available in the field, and if it considers the periodization of strength and power training throughout the year.

PERIODIZATION OF STRENGTH

1. ANATOMICAL ADAPTATION (GENERAL PREP)

Multiple sets and high repetition with an emphasis on creating muscle endurance, while enhancing muscle tone, and creating suppleness in the connective tissues. In duration of 4 – 6 weeks

2. MAXIMUM STRENGTH

Refers to the highest force that can be performed by the neuromuscular system during the maximum voluntary contraction. Demonstrated by the highest load that an athlete can lift for multiple reps. Strength and speed combine to perform maximum force in the shortest period of time. In duration of 1 – 3 months

3. ELASTIC STRENGTH (special strength)

Development of neuromuscular coordination through isolated integration, specific to the strength as concerned to the prime movers of the selected sport. The properties of this phase are highlighted by various implement throws, low intensity depth reactive jumps and hops. The use of weighted belts and vest are often implemented as well. Duration of this work should go throughout the competitive phase of the year.

4. MAINTENANCE (combo special strength and maximum strength)

It has been noticed in elite jumpers where than can become a negative relationship between the development of maximum strength and special strength. Through trial and error I have developed a methodical approach of alternating maximum strength work with special strength work. During this portion of the preparation I recommend that maximum strength work be limited to 8 weeks. After a period of 8 weeks undesired ultra-structural changes in the muscles can be seen, such as hypertrophy of type I fibers that will hamper elite performance. Before such changes happen, other training methods able to develop type II fibers (mainly IIB) should replace maximum strength loads. High velocity eccentric strength work shows an effect that is exactly the opposite of the explained above. Type IIB fibers are recruited first in this case because they need less time to relax after the action. (i.e. jumps from a fall)

PERIODIZATION OF BOUNDING

Most programs randomly employ the implementation of bounding randomly into the athletic training year with little to no thought of the adaption and progression of the organism. Anecdotal prescriptions of bounding and plyometric work can often do more harm than good. Central nervous system (CNS) power based training with the aim of improving eccentric strength, and force velocity curve without the proper power based platform can lead to severe injury and time away from the main competitive season. In most cases, plyometric exercises are planned on the same days as other activities such as technical and/or tactical work are performed. For instance, following aerobic training the overcompensation is reached in approximately 6-8 hours. The same dynamics are not true for speed and power, the recovery or overcompensation from high intensity CNS activities is a minimum of 24 hours. In other term, the CNS suffers the most fatigue and the nervous cells recover seven times more slowly than the skeletal muscle cells. From my personal experience as a coach and elite athlete I have seen the overcompensation phase take upwards of 72 hours in elite jumpers and 48 hours in elite sprinters.

When looking at the annual planning of technical/tactical, strength, and plyometric training the preparation should uniformly progress and develop cohesively. Taking a loser look i.e.

ANATOMICAL ADAPTATION (GENERAL PREP)

Low intensity power endurance development
High repetition 50-300 with 2-3 minutes recovery per set
Included examples of work during phase
Skipping
Jump roping
Sand work (barefoot)
Low bench or box hops
Light ball throws (2-4kg)

MAXIMUM STRENGTH

Aim at improving working capacity and developing the skeletal muscular system for future progression and improvement
General bounding work on grass field or soft surfaces
Volume ranges from 1200 – 2000 yards

* Example of a typical mid -Fall bounding session for the development of strength and endurance

Total Volume 2000 yards (1828 meters)

Set 1

1 set
2 reps
Distance 100yds
Volume 1600yds

Set 2

2 sets
2 reps
Distance 50yds
Volume 400yds

Straight leg bound regular bound
Single leg straight leg bound RT. right-right-left-left
Single leg straight leg bound lft. Lunge jumps
Power skips frog hops
Backwards Paw Sprint
Side shuffle bound
Single leg hop right 50yd
Single leg hop left 50yd

ELASTIC STRENGTH DEVELOPMENT (stretch receptors)

Eccentric strength development phase aimed at improving the force time curve.

Very high intensity 75 -120 reps, 8-10 minutes recovery sets
Depth and depth reactive jumps
Heavy medicine ball throws
Jumps over high benches 18” (see thinking feet system)

The optimal height for depth reactive jumps for speed training is between 30 inches and 43inches in order to make gains in dynamic strength (power).

MEASURING AND IMPROVING DYNAMIC SPORTS SPECIFIC MOVEMENTS

“When adaptation of strength has reached a plateau which cannot be surpassed through maximum strength, as related to rate of force development, some new element of greater stimulation usually has to be applied”. Through science we have identified that elite sprinters and jumpers are able to apply greater vertical force to the ground. These forces not only give them an improvement in stride length, and phase length. They also improve ground reaction time and stride frequency. Ground contact is very short ranging from 0.080 – 0.105 seconds, being able to make improvement in vertical force at such a high velocity until now posed many unanswered questions. This type of training would require velocities higher than those at competition speed. Eccentric strength in regards to shock tension demands would be greater than traditional bounding and depth jumps, Likewise, the ability to improve the concentric shortening time of the explosive push off and heel recovery would be very high.

SPEED BOUNDING: EXTERNAL PULL SUPPORT FOR GREATER GAINS

To facilitate this new motor programming I have found the use of external pull support in bounding and depth reactive jumps yield extreme benefits in speed and power. Sprinting involves a series of jumps from one foot to the other; increasing the power at push off and jumping further without touching the lead foot down ahead of the hips lengthen stride. Elastic power is the main muscle at foot strike, activating “stretch receptors” which result additional muscle fibers resulting in more force. Decreasing external load when performing jumps and hops is a great stimulus at developing velocity and explosive strength. Motor patters can be produced when introduced to this type of systematic training. These patters of CNS recruitment can also be reproduced when the facilitation of the external pull support has been removed. This is a method that provokes central nervous system learning. Includes examples would be:

Depth reactive jumps
Squat jumps
Straight leg speed bounds
Alternate right – left bounding
Single leg hops right
Single leg hops left.

The decrease in ground contact time along with external pull support facilitates greater contraction in the concentric phase. This means an improvement in ballistic, explosive power. A simple way to test and monitor the progression of this explosive strength training would be to perform a fly 30meter sprint test where a 30meter acceleration zone is used. A speed-bounding test to develop a power score would also be used as well. Using a 15-20m acceleration perform a 30m alternate right-left speed bound. Count the number of contact as well as time the effort of the 30m bound. Take the number of contacts (x) time of execution to get your score. For example 9 contacts (x) 3.5 seconds = 31.5 After 12 – 15 sessions of the prescribed drills repeat the 30m fly sprint and the bounding test. One should highly marked improvements in both areas.

I recommend that maximal rest be taken between repetition of performance during workout as well as adequate overcompensation between sessions. This type of CNS training can best be described as super-maximum training and adequate attention has to be placed on the duration and succession of workouts. In most cases less is more, quality of training and maximum effort placed on each repetition or jump far outweigh countless repetitions.

Most Popular articles for 2011:

400 meter Training and Racing:

800 meter Training: Training 800 meter runners

Sprint Starts: Usain Bolt training regimen video: The Start

Football 40 Yard Dash: 40 yard dash times for Usain Bolt & Ben Johnson

Baseball 60 Yard Dash: Baseball 60 yard dash: What’s a good time?

Recovery: Ice Baths for Workout Recovery

Supplements: Nutrition for recovery: The Post-workout drink controversy

Analysis: Usain Bolt’s 100m 10-meter splits and speed endurance

Strength Endurance: Matt’s 60-second pull up World Record Video