I’m in the process of digging up some old gems. This article is by Dan Fichter from wannagetfast.com and originally appeared on inno-sport.net. Enjoy!
It never fails in every weight room across the country that I have the opportunity to visit, I see terrible posture and position. In the weight room, on the track, or just moving around in basic movement patterns, position dictates everything! From standing as straight as possible to maintain the normal curves in your spine to making sure you use the proper lifting technique to avoid injury. Position and posture might be the most under coached skills in performance training.
Do you coach position and posture in every task in the weight room and on the track? The quickest way to see results hit a plateau is to stop coaching position and posture. With Inertial training we focus everything we do around holding positions and having perfect posture. Correct posture helps the body let go of huge amounts of energy. When the body begins to fatigue the brain will try to convince the body that form and/or posture is not essential. If the shoulders slump or shrug while throwing a baseball in the ninth inning or your hip height drops in a 100 meter sprint, your performance will drastically change in a negative way. All position changes will affect your bodies ability to produce force. Let’s take the bench press for an example. Always video tape everything so you can evaluate position and where in the lift it might break down. Monitor position during each rep. Being able to bench for reps is being able to maintain correct position so that the force can be applied correctly and efficiently. The basic position for this for a quick example is no different than what most experts preach. Shoulders down toward the hips, squeeze the bench with the shoulder blades, chin on the chest without raising the head off the bench, elbows at 45 degrees, lower arms perpendicular to the ground, rigid wrist, squeeze the glutes tight, lower legs perpendicular to the ground, feet driving through the floor. The key becomes to watch the position each and every rep. Can you keep this position during the eccentric movement? Can you hold this position during the concentric part of the movement? And, most importantly when heavy loads or top speed is called upon can you hold this position?
Potential performance drops and or stale mates can most always be traced back to position. This might be the best value of Isometric work in the weight room. It teaches proper position. Forget the firing pattern dilemma, forget about specificity, and just think about position. Most young athletes don’t understand parallel or chest up and but back in the squat yet often times we want them to go right into down and up movements in these exercises. Even worse yet is when some coaches have their young athletes do speed reps. If you cannot maintain proper position at slower speeds or lighter weight, how do you think you might make out with heavier weights and higher velocities?? If you can’t create the position and hold perfect posture, you can’t create ultimate force. Let them feel the musculature being worked before the movement is added. Some are flat out not strong enough to hold themselves in the correct position. Either way, it’s about getting into that position and holding it. The first thing we do at my facility is talk and go through position work. No exceptions to the rule! Matter of fact, I like younger kids to be able to hold these positions for longer periods to show me their strength with the desired musculature.
The monkey brain is always working in your body. What is the monkey brain? It is the essence of our survival instincts. Freezing with fear is fine and good when you are a caveman and do not want to be seen by a tiger ready to eat you, but it doesn’t serve us very well when driving a car at 70 mph and being confronted with an eminent accident. When confronted with fear or stress (emotional or physical) we will adopt postures that are fine for lateral fleeing motions but not so good for forward assault. When talking with the creator of the Inertial Exercise Trainer, Steve Davison, here is what he had to say about position. “When under stress, your stance will widen and your head will stick out forward of the acromiom. This totally changes our core’s ability to perform the movements necessary to support vestibular balance in the human body. As a result, when performing athletics in a less than optimal posture (but emotionally comfortable) we substitute muscle activation inefficient to our bodies design performance criteria.” The cure for this folks is to focus on being pretty while running and or training. In a fatigued state train with perfect posture. Therefore, when fatigued in competition the body will adopt muscle activation efficient to our design performance criteria. The result………fatigue equals proper posture instead of the reverse. And, muscle activation efficient to our bodies design performance criteria will result in the elimination of injury as a substitute. We are in essence rewiring your neural system. Steve Davison goes on to say, “The human form will not exert any force greater than its ability to preserve its balance. Hence, head alignment with the line of the back and body core are essential in communicating with the vestibular system the orientation and energy flow of the body while in motion.”
With the inertial machine the focus as you know from the last article is on turning on musculature at the proper time in the movement. The underlying focus is always on posture. The initial preparation is to be able to hold your body in position to utilize the preferred muscles at the right time, making the correct type of contraction, and of course being able to relax these contractions (antagonist) to the same intensity and velocity as the contraction. Inertial training can teach you these things and more!!! So with out further a do, get out there and get into position!!!
Distance Running
I have done a ton of research on strength training methods for distance runners. It appears that plyometrics and maximal strength training are the keys to improving running economy and running performance. This fly’s in the face of the common dogma of long duration sets in a futile attempt to meet the energy system requirements of endurance athletes with strength training. The two are diametrically opposed, however from a neuromuscular standpoint strength training and plyometrics improve running economy which has been called the critical factor in distance running performance. It may be best to allow the sport coaches to handle the energy system development and let the strength coaches develop running economy.
My simple philosophy for distance athletes:
1.Proper recruitment
2.Maximal strength
3.Complex training
4.Plyometrics
Roger Nelsen’s HARTT was developed based off of Deitrich Buchenholz’s Torsion Training Progression. Torsion Training is a more vertical application of force while HARTT is a horizontal application of force.
Following is DB’s Torsion Training article]
Where We’re Headed With This
Imagine an athlete like Yao Ming, for instance, who could control his body like a gymnast. Really, imagine that. Now, if he was taught how to control his body and gain perfect balance at all times, like a cat, regardless of how complicated the movement pattern was, how would that impact his performance? Imagine, now, if he masters these skills, increasing the rate of exection, how easy he would be able to float through the movements commonly demanded of him by sport and how easy he’d be able to dominate the court? Imagine this: An “Allen Iverson” in a Yao Ming body. Got the picture?
The Old Approach
The reason why such an athlete doesn’t currently exist is because most coaches are going about it ass-backwards. Instead of teaching basic movement patterns under force and then increasing the complexity of these movements under force they commonly isolate the only real challenging work to be done in sport, with reliance on basic slow-speed strength training movements being done in the gym. For instance, you could never take a guy like Barry Sanders and have him increase his reaction cordination if you spend a considerable amount of time having him stand on inflatable pillows. In order for an athlete to gain balance in sport he must do so dynamically in training, especially if he truly wants to develop. The same holds true for “agility ladder” work, “dot drills”, and the likes; these are good for beginning athletes but are about as useless when it comes to actual on-field development for a top athlete as plucking his eyebrows. In other words, you can stand like a stork on an unstable object but it doesn’t mean you won’t fall apart when movement, especially variable force, is added into the equation. And, besides, standing in balance is more of a sign that your skeleton is in good alignment for linear mechanics…But, that says little about your ability to cut, juke, twist, turn, etc. Take a sprinter trying to convert to a wide reciever. In the perfect world you would be able to take a 10.0 second 100 meter sprinter and throw him on the football field without a problem. But, in the real world, that isn’t as easy at it may sound. Aside from worries regarding if he can catch the football, he has to learn how to cordinate his body in order to run effective pass patterns(i.e. develop braking skills, lateral movement, rotational movement, body control and joint positioning for each, etc). Needless to say, the fastest track athlete in the world will get burnt time and time again on the gridiron, unless he develops into a football player.
The Un-mistakable Demand
Make no mistake about it, athletes rarely run straight lines. Baseball players swoop out to round the bases well before they reach it. Stealing a base requires a rapid pivot on the start. In fact, athletes who don’t train this will not develop this. Track burners turned baseball players commonly find themselves not recovering from the problems that exist during that simple pivot and sprint movement on the basepath until they are about ready to slide into the next base! Throwing a baseball, hitting a baseball, an outfielder making an effective break on a baseball, etc…all examples of the need for “torsion training”.
Every football player on the field has to control his body in non-linear mechanics. Spinning to avoid a tackler or to juke a blocker; rushing on angle of pursuit by an outside linebacker; twisting under control to hand off the ball; making an effective cut as a wide-reciever to gain separation; making an effective cut as a defensive back to hug the reciever; etc…all examples of the need for “torsion training.”
For a basketball player, dynamic balance is huge. Virtually every action on offense and every reaction on defense is composed of a complexity of three-dimensional movement. Every time direction is changed, lateral movement ability is added to the equation(to variable degrees). And it is not uncommon see a defensive player have to rapidly open and close his hips in order to stay in position to guard the offensive player(rotational mechanics), with many of these movement patterns ending in an “awkward” jump(i.e. awkward in the sense that they rarely, if ever, have the chance to perform a purely symetric down and up jump). In fact, aside from a jump ball and the rare “clear out” dunk by a center, the rest of the game is played with a ton of direction change.
The New Approach
So the question becomes; How do we effectively train for this?
We know from “The Sports Book: Best Training Ever!” that the nervous system functions needed in sport must be learned and attached to movement patterns required in sport. This means that “strength training on multiple planes” is definitely not the answer, just as much as training strictly by sport is not the answer. Now, I won’t mis-lead you into thinking that sports training is composed of simple solutions- it’s not- but I will break it down into general solutions that will allow you to quickly incorporate “torsion training” into your own performance efforts, as well as show a basic flow of events, from novice to elite.
Novice To Elite
An athlete must learn how to control his body as early on in his sports training efforts as he can. This involves two major criteria: He must be able to move many different ways(horizontal, rotational, vertical), AND he must be able to generate a great deal of force when doing it.
Horizontal movement consists of anything that is relatively on the same line of attack. Running, defensive slides, backpeddling, etc…all horizontal movements. Vertical movements are easy to imagine. These consists of any movement where the hips of the athlete are moved up or down. Jumping, a catcher pouncing up to gun out a runner, a running back bracing into a cut and acclerating out of a cut, etc…all consist of vertical movement. Rotational movement involves twisting or turning, spinning and cycling, etc. For the purposes of this article, we are going to leave it at that. And, in doing so, anything that involves rotational mechanics will be dubbed rotational movement in this article. So, in short, if you watch the hips of an athlete in motion than any movement where his hips slide forwards, backwards, side-to-side, etc, is horizontal; any time his hips rise or fall is vertical; and anytime his hips rotate is rotational.
When we talk about the generation of force, especially in dynamic actions such as these, we are concerned about the measure of force “in” versus the measure of force “out”. In other words, you could keep increasing the body-to-ground force of a fall by increasing the drop height, but if you don’t harness that potential energy given to you on the down-stroke, evident by the release on the up-stroke, then you have wasted your efforts and placed the table for injury. Those of you who are familiar with my reactive jump appraisal test(which I have written about on this site) should now make note that it is allowing you to evaluate this force-funtion graph without having to analyze the somewhat sophisticated force data; precisely like how the “duration test” outlined in TSB allows you to do the same thing. Anyone can read off lab data, friends, the real genius comes from knowing what to do with it (i.e. how to extract it to real world tests such as these). Without that transformation from raw data to usable data, all scientific studies are a waste of time. That said; Another way to analyze an athlete is to perform force tests and analyze the data. And even though these evaluations are very useful for the trained eye when looking for minor flaws in an elite athletes system, I don’t think this method is a very practical option for the broad class of sports trainers out there. Not to mention that lessons on deciphering the data(i.e. learning how to understand what it is telling you), which let me remind you is a world of difference from being able to just “read off the numbers”, is a topic that requires numerous articles by itself to fully examine. So I will spare you at this time. (but please make note that you will have to leap that hurdle sometime in the future if you want to advance your training once more, especially leading into collecting neuro-dynamic data in respect to each muscle involved in the action)
Broad Athlete Classes
In order to keep this conversation relatively simple, we are only going to divide all the athletes in existance into two classes: Class A and Class B. The decision as to which category you fall under is important because it will allow you to manage your progression from the three phases we define below, learning a bit more about the approach you should take from a psychological standpoint when training different athletes. Neither classes or phases have much to do with your level of competition, per say, or your age. In fact, the body control of a 12 year old gymnast is often far beyond that of a 22 year old baseball player. But, ensuring that a Class B gymnast is truly ready to evolve to the next Phase may mean the difference between Olympic glory and catastrophic injury. Not only does this tell you that age is mostly a non-factor, but there are different degrees of dynamic body mastery for different sports. Hence, preparing the athlete for sport should never leave the back of your mind. You have to recognize who you are working with just as much as what they are working for.
Class A Athlete
The first class of athletes are typically slower learners. That is, they have the chance to become good at sports that are relatively predictable but have trouble in sports that have a great degree of variability. For instance, an athlete in this class may do well as a quarterback in a strict system where the movement patterns are consistant. But when he has to become innovative in scrambling or breaking the mold of the original play, it becomes difficult for him. He excels in rhythmic offenses where it is “three-step, release” versus being in a “play maker” offense. He attaches to timing and familiarity. For instance, a baseball player could be of this class. Even though making contact with a baseball is a rather sophisticated set of operations, members of this class typically have the patience and persistance to learn how to do it, and do it well. They usually take a bit longer to match up their timing during spring training, but once they come unto their own they are as good as any hitter in the league. The downside is they are streaky players. Throw off their rhythm and you can easily get them in a slump. In basketball, a Class A athlete is one in which he may be a great set shooter but his field goal percentage plummets when asked to shoot on the run. From a coaches perspective, he won’t learn what you don’t teach him. For instance, he may shine during plays you work on in practice, but if you have to draw up a play during a game he can commonly be found out of position.
Class B Athlete
The Class B athlete has freaky adaptability. He enjoys the challenge and freedom of less-structured sports. He will commonly be the artistic player who will pack the stands. On the downside, his affinity to challenging conditions may leave him prone to injury. This is especially true in cases where the athlete always asks for a new challenge and the coach always gives it to him. In other words, this athlete needs more discipline and more focus on mastering the basics before he can be cut loose. Don’t mistake his courage for readiness. As a gymnast, the Class B athlete will often lay everything on the line for the big skill, but only if you let them. With these athletes, you should critically concerned with finite technical details before progression is announced because they usually won’t give you many overt signs of worry, unlike the Class A athlete.
Comparisons Between the Two Classes
In comparison to the Class A athlete, the Class B athlete gets bored with things like hitting a golf ball (whereas the Class A athlete lives it up). His over-ambition to try new things will leave him at a greater chance for injury if he is not appropriately restricted. The Class A athlete on the other hand with usually only move on to a task that he is truly ready for. This means that a Class A athlete needs a bit more encouragement, and a different angle of psycho-physiological training than the Class B athlete. The Class B athlete wants you to stress detail for him, because he will be more concerned with the ultimate movement objective then the finite characteristics that make up that movement. This is much the opposite to the Class A athlete. He will often focus too much on the subtle details that he will wreck his performance. For example, a Class A sprinter may analyze his technique to death, insomuch that he commonly gets stiff and rigid. This results in unpredictable performance, a lot of times, and may even be so bad that injury become a greater concern.
Class X Athlete: Splitting the Divide
Even though a fair share of athletes are definitely within one of these two classes, the majority of athletes fall somewhere in the middle. That is, they will love to be challenged but want to know that what they are doing is technically correct. They may over-technique their shooting form in basketball, for instance, yet have only moderate dynamic mastery and control during movements such as driving the lane, adjusting defensively, etc, but go at it full steam ahead.
The Coach’s Challenge
It is up to the coach to determine what athletes are what. They need to assume that every athlete is a Class X athlete, starting out, until the information they recieve consistantly tells them otherwise. Then they need to modify their coaching style to the athlete. The old belief that the athlete needs to modify himself to your coaching style has proven less than as-effective. This doesn’t mean that you won’t have the respect of your players. It simply means that you will make the necessary accomodations for each player under your wing. Your rules don’t change…but you do.
For instance, you may have to spend considerable time controlling the Class B athletes on your team. This may even come in a aggressive way. He will constantly feel out the boundaries, so to speak, and unless you draw the line then he will keep roaming. The Class A athlete, on the other hand, will be much more reserved. He will generally make note of what you find acceptable with the searching Class B athletes, and stay within those confines that you set. So your worry is that they will know when to break the mold and when not to. You will need to spend more time teaching them what is acceptable versus what is not acceptable. A Class A running back may run up the backs of his blockers because the original play was designed for that hole. So telling him that it is okay to move to the open hole may be a frustrating task on your part. The Class B running back, on the other hand, will be quick to dart outside and show off his ability to innovate. So, obviously, coaching a Class B athlete to dart to the open hole as soon as he sees the chance will be counter-productive. He will need you to explicitly state that you want him to hit the hole until he is face mask to shoulder pads with the lineman in front of him, then dart out to the opening. The A Athlete will be better served if you tell him to dart out as soon as he sees the chance And this conversation can be carried over to sports training in the gym. For instance, all of you Class B athletes out there reading this are probably going to leap straight to the last phase that I present below, whether or not you are ready. The Class A athlete will probably understand that when I say “progress based on readiness” that I mean exactly that; assume yourself to be a Phase 1 athlete until you prove the need to advance! Now, can we move on?
Three Phases of Difficulty
To help you learn the fundamentals of this article, I have broken up the progression to “Torsion Training” into 3 Phases. Each phase will prepare you for the next, and the skills learned in each phase will be assessed functionally as well as technically for readiness to move on to the next Phase.
Phase 1: Basic Force Imposed Movements
In this phase, you want to familiarize yourself with the basic movements that I will carry through during this introductory lesson of Torsion Training. Understand that this isn’t even a comprehensive lower body list of exercises, let alone a complete list of possible movements altogether. It would be impossible to release every movement for every athlete involved in every sport at this time. But hopefully some of the basics rub off on you enough. Notice that this isn’t a workout session, it is a progression that is carried through within the phase. Most likely, you will only use one or two movement(s) per session, thrown in with other Neuro-Dynamic components of your training routine. Start this Phase with the first exercise and exit to Phase 2 with mastery of the last exercise.
Down and Up Vertical Jump: you should be able to move your entire body in a sequence of fluid motions in order to descend and then ascend into the jump, as well as land softly and under perfect balance(i.e. like the perfect dismount of a gymnast).
Forward ADA Drop Squat: step forwards off a box height equal to your vertical jump. Concentrate on enhancing your ability to land effectively.
Lateral ADA Drop Squat: step sideways off a box equal to your vertical jump height, landing efficiently in squat stance.
Backwards ADA Drop Squat: step backwards of a box equal to your vertical jump height. Don’t look for the landing; rather, prepare yourself for the blind-side landing and then once you begin to feel it, quickly absorb the impact and bring yourself into good jump-ready squat position.
Blind-Folded Vertical Jumps: seal off your vision completely using a soft cloth material. Set yourself, then perform a down and up vertical jump. Once you can achieve the same jump height as in your standard down and up vertical test, as well as land softly and efficiently, then you can progress to the next Phase.
Phase 2: Intermediate Force Imposed Movements
This phase takes the basics of Phase 1 a step further. You will learn how to utlize more neural energy and master exercises that have greater difficulty and much greater carryover to the general sport arena(i.e. related to our goals of being able to respond and react better, as well as cut, juke, and control your body with better overall mastery).
Forward ADA Split-Squat Drop: step forwards of a box equal to your vertical jump height with one leg in front. Push off with your back leg in order to give you some horizontal movement. Land in split-squat position, well balanced so that you could explode out in any direction.
Lateral ADA Split-Squat Drop: get in staggered-stance position on top of a box equal to your vertical jump height, with your leg closest to the side you wish to drop-off of in front. Take your front leg/close leg and reach it out sideways, effectively stepping off the box laterally. Land in split squat position, with the step off leg in front. You should be controlled in the landing, building energy throughout your system so that you could explode out in any direction if needed.
Backwards ADA Split-Squat Drop: using a box height equal to your vertical jump ability, step off the box backwards and land in a split-squat. Be sure to have your feet make contact at the same time, stress good plantar flexion dynamic minimization of the rear leg, and be in ready position to move in any direction required.
Single Leg ADA Landings: performed from a height equal to 40-55% of your vertical jump height, this is actually 6 movements rolled into one. That is, landing on one leg with your free floating leg held behind you for one version and in front of you for the other version, you will master landing on each leg for each step off(forwards, backwards, and sideways). A deficiency in either one restricts you from further progression.
RA Squat Jumps: using the same format listed in my reactive jump appraisal, find your peak reactive jump ability for a two-legged squat-style forwards reactive jump, sideways reactive jump and backwards reactive jump. That is, step off in each direction, land as you have learned in the previous steps, but this time you will react out into a vertical jump.
Phase 3: Advanced Force Imposed Movements
This phase builds upon what you just learned one degree further. Now you will be requested to arouse your feedforward mechnisms of your body to a greater degree, which will really help bridge the divide between visual reaction times and physcial reactiveness. In real world terminology, this means that you will better your ability to physically react to visual stimuli in sport. Many athletes can visually recognize what they need to do, but it is only the ones that have the skills to physically do it that prevail. To extend the old cliche; You can tell your body what to do but it doesn’t mean it will do it…unless you teach your system how to do it. And to say that turning visual recognition into physical reaction is a huge player in being a successful athlete is like saying converting more horsepower to the wheel is something that may help make your car go faster. Duh! (My friend and associate calls it “the difference between an arm-chair quarterback and an NFL quarterback”.)
ADA Cycled-Split Drops: we commonly do these one of three ways so I’ll list them all here. The first way is a forward step off from your peak reactive jump drop height. Step out and off the box with one leg in front, and push out with the hind leg. As soon as you are in free fall, quickly bring your rear leg to the front and your front leg to the rear(cycle in mid-air), effectively landing in split-squat position. Again, you should land in perfect balance, so if I cued you to react out in any direction after impact that you could do it, quickly. The lateral version is a lot the same. Step off sideways with your close-side leg and push out(not down or up) with your trail leg. The instant you get off the box you need to bring your step off leg in a rapid front-back-front cycle, with your trail leg(inside step off leg) in a rapid back-front-back cycle. You will then land in the ground with your step-off leg in front and on outside(away from the box). You should be well balanced when doing these on both sides(be sure to always land with outside leg in front). The third way is to step off backwards with one leg, pushing back with the lead leg. Once in flight, rapidly switch the back leg to the front and the front leg to the back, landing in a perfectly balanced split-squat position.
AMT Landings: using your reactive jump height box, you will fasten enough overspeed band resistance so that your reactive jump with those shooting down(released at contact) will be about 7-8% less than your normal reactive jump height. Perform forward, backward, and lateral step-offs and landing in a jump-ready squat position.
ADA Torsion Drops: using split-squat style because it is much more sport specific than a squat stance, you will perform three somewhat difficult movements. The first entials that you stand in split squat position on the top of a box. Whichever leg is in back will be the side you jump off. The goal is to perform a 180 degree turn in the air, landing with the front leg on the outside(away from box). You can initiate the turn in both directions(clockwise or counter clockwise) for each side, just be sure to always land with outside leg in front. The next movement is a backwards jump off from split squat position. Rotate so that as you jump back and turn you are facing away from the box, but don’t forget to land so that you are absorbing the force of impact with your front leg hip abductors. This means that whichever direction you are spinning just prior to impact, that side-leg should be in front. (If you are spining to the right, right leg in front..visa versa) You may also perform these by jumping off forwards in split-squat position. Simply rotate to the side of the front-leg and land facing towards the box in split squat, jump-ready position. As your balance gets better, you may integrate cycled-split actions in the air.
AMT Jumps: this one doesn’t need much explaining, especially since it has been covered before. Just remember to react out after your absorption phase is complete. Far too many athletes try to turnover too quick. Step-offs in all directions will better prepare you for sport than just a step-off in one direction. Remember that.
AMT Torsion: at this point you have developed the ability to know where your body is at all times, when and how to crank up the dial for your nervous system output, how to use feedforward processes to increase your firing rate, increase your ability to react, and you have effectively put it all together. Now you need to be challenged with a moderate degree of difficulty(I call this the advanced phase, but it doesn’t end here). Selectively perform any or all of the movements previously detailed, using AMT methodics.
Torsion Training
As you can see, I place a good deal of stress on developing the ability to be under control at all times. An athlete out of control is an athlete at risk of injury. An athlete in control is an athlete who can perform. That is, his body does exactly what it is supposed to do, and exactly what he tells it to, when it it is supposed to.
The material listed in this article is by no means the end. In reality, the information presented in this article is not even the tip of the iceberg(heck, we haven’t even talked about upper body movements, let alone anything other than “drop-jump” variations). Considerations have to be made in order to integrate these movements and the Torsion Training Philosophy into a complete training program. This takes knowledge of my SuperSeven Sports Training Principles, detailed in “The Sports Book: Best Training Ever!”, for starters. This takes knowing what Athlete Class you are in so that you don’t feed your flesh to the sharks, so to speak. It takes understanding that horizontal and vertical training has its limits, especially if the imposed force is slow to build(i.e. much in contrast to going from 0 to 600kg of force…in under 0.10 seconds…with your upper body when bracing from fall in sport!). But, force isn’t the only answer. Balance isn’t the key either. The solution is to progressively work with your system, building it to the point where it can regain balance from awkward positions, regardless of how much force is present in the movement. This is what makes you elusive as a running back, “sticky” as a defensive back, evasive as a quarterback, effective as a basketball player, “sponge-like” as a baseball infielder…and bomb-proof from injury no matter what sport you play!
The key is to learn how to manage force in any circumstance, regardless of what position your body is in, and regardless of how it ended up in that position. You don’t have time to think about it in sport(sorry A Class Athletes). You have to be prepared to handle anything that comes your way. You can’t shy away from the nasty situations you will get in on the playing field, you have to attack those head on with intelligence(keep this in mind, B Class). Squatting off-balance is definitely not the answer, as anyone with any Modality understanding knows this. And beachball workouts don’t cut it either, unless you are preparing for the circus.
You must be able to move any which way at the drop of a hat, and do so with so much force that you can stomp a hole in the ground!
Welcome to that league, my friends. The first progression is called Torsion Training, and it is now in your toolbox. Now stop screwing around…go become an athlete today so you are prepared to be a champion tomorrow! There is no opposite!
Louie Simmons once said something along the lines of, “A strong man is strong on the back of his body.” And whether it was intended to or not, it was these words, along with his training advice, that sparked off a wave in the S&C industry. Following in the steps of the famous Westside gym leader, people everywhere began to turn their focus away from their sweeping quads and redirect it towards the less mirror-friendly group of muscles commonly referred to as the posterior chain.
Consisting of the spinal erectors, glutes, and hamstrings, the muscles of the P-chain work to stabilize and generate force across the hip, and knee. Over the past few years, the words “posterior chain” have become all but synonymous with athletic speed and power thanks to Louie Simmons and those who have successfully adapted his methods to popular sports (such as trainer Joe Defranco). But in this torrent of box squats, glute-ham raises, reverse hypers, and good mornings, some people have lost sight of the P-chain’s equally important, but much less glamorous counterpart, the anterior chain.
Positioned directly opposite of the posterior chain, the anterior chain consists of the abdominal muscles, the illiopsoas, and the rectus femoris. And where the posterior chain works to create spinal and hip extension, the anterior chain works to create spinal and hip flexion.
At first glance, spinal and hip flexion might not seem too important in most sports, but a closer look reveals the exact opposite, especially where sprinting speed is concerned. Though the P-chain is responsible for generating the force that propels us forward in a sprint or upwards in a jump (along with the quads of course), the A-chain works in a couple of different, though no less important, ways.
The first purpose the A-chain serves is as a pelvic stabilizer during athletic movement, primarily whilst running. The abdominals and hip flexors work in concert with the glutes, hamstrings, and spinal erectors to control the positioning of the pelvis and ensure the optimal transfer of force across the hip. Weakness through either the abdominals or the hip flexors (the rectus femoris and illiopsoas) can cause the pelvis to rotate either anteriorly or posteriorly and reduce the leverage of the propulsive muscles (the quads, glutes, and hamstrings) or put the body in the wrong position to generate force in a movement immediately following.
Looking at running specifically, if the abdominals aren’t strong enough then the pelvis rotates anteriorly and the trail leg will tend to flail too far behind the body after each stride. If the trail leg is allowed to travel excessively far back before it’s brought forward to get ready for the next stride, then the athlete’s illiopsoas and rectus femoris will rarely be strong enough to bring it back around in time to assume the optimal position during the support phase (ground contact phase) of the opposite leg. If the leg isn’t brought around in time and doesn’t find the optimal position then the athlete won’t be able to generate optimal power in their next ground contact (Bosch and Klomp, 2001). And since sprinting is a cyclical activity, the problem will perpetuate itself during the following leg cycles, essentially handicapping force production, and therefore speed, with each stride.
As you can clearly see, abdominal strength is huge in determining sprint speed, but surprisingly enough, so is powerful hip flexion. Though it’s somewhat counterintuitive, studies have shown that hip flexion strength is a better predictor of sprint speed than is hip extension strength amongst trained athletes (Blazevich & Jenkins, 1998). Similarly, other studies have demonstrated significant decreases in short sprint (3.8%) and shuttle times (9.0%) after a period of hip flexor training (Dean et al, 2005) and have found a link between larger illiopsoas (when compared to the quadriceps) and 100M speed (Hoshikawa et al, 2006). But how do strong hip flexors make you faster, you ask. There are two ways.
The first way in which the hip flexors help generate speed is through faster and more complete repositioning of the leg after it has left the ground. By moving the leg back into position faster and having the strength to move it higher, the athlete will demonstrate greater frontside mechanics when they run. What this means is that the legs will spend more time in each cycle in front of the body rather than behind it (backside mechanics). If one takes a look at top sprinters and compares them to average , slower athletes, the first thing they’ll notice is the different in mechanics.
When sprinters run, they display a neutral or posteriorly rotated pelvis, high and fast knee lift, and their legs spend more time in front of their body than behind it during each sprint cycle. The reason for this is not because of the time they spend on technique, but because they have strong enough abdominals and hip flexors to hit such positions.
In stark contrast, when a slower athlete runs, their pelvis will oftentimes be anteriorly rotated, their knees won’t reach nearly as high, and their legs will flail back behind them after each stride. They can try to hit the same positions as a sprinter, but won’t be able to do so effectively because they simply lack the strength in the relevant muscle groups (the anterior chain).
The second way in which powerful hip flexion strength can aid in speed is through something called the inverse-extension reflex. The inverse-extension reflex is an involuntary mechanism which causes the hip flexion of one leg to facilitate hip extension of the opposite leg (Bosch and Klomp, 2001). A more powerful flexion of one leg will lead to a more powerful reflex-potentiated extension of the opposite leg. In this way, the strength of the anterior chain will actually direct increase that posterior chain. Pretty cool, huh?
So, as you can see, if you’re an athlete who’s sport requires them to run, regardless of the distance, then training for the anterior chain is a must, and I don’t just mean doing high rep crunches in between sets either. As is the case when training for any sport, muscles are best trained the way they will be needed to function on the field, and the A-chain is no different.
Taking a look at conventional A-chain training, there’s really not much “chain” work going on at all. Crunches are a long time favorite exercise of the casual gym goer, but they’re completely ineffective for two reasons. One, they take the hip flexors entirely out of the movement and therefore aren’t of much more functional use than a leg extension. Two, the abs are muscles too, they need load in order to get stronger and grow. And don’t think squatting will cut it either, because it won’t.
All too often people get to talking about how squats and deadlifts are the best core exercises, but in this case, they’d be sadly mistaken. Though the abdominals are called in to stabilize, the brunt of the load of both exercises is taken by the quads and p-chain, most notably the spinal erectors. So while you can build a strong back with two of the classic powerlifts, and in an integrated movement pattern no less, you won’t be doing much for the front of your body.
In order to best train the A-chain, you’ve got to train it just like you would any other part of your body, in sequence with the relevant muscle groups (in this case we’re referring to training the abdominals and hip flexors together) and under a heavy load (sorry, but there are no 50 rep ‘burn’ sets here).
Also, since it’s fairly common to develop problems with overly shortened or tight illiopsoas, all of the prescribed exercises will work them at an extended length and over the range of motion in which they’ll be called upon to perform in sport. Since muscular the tension and length of the muscles (aka flexibility) is controlled primarily by neuromuscular processes (Siff, 2003), training the muscle group in a lengthened state will promote better active flexibility gains than stretching alone (Iashvili, 1982). Meaning, if you train them in a lengthened state, you’ll never have to worry about tight hip flexors again.
Now that we’re done with that, let’s get to the training recommendations. I’m not going to outline an actual program, but I am going to suggest several very useful exercises for building up your certainly lagging A-chain and explain just what they do and why/how.
Split Squat
The split squat is like a almost exactly like a lunge, except that once you get your feet planted they stay there for the rest of the set and you merely rise up and down instead of taking a step forward or backwards. In order to do the exercise optimally, it’s necessary that you position your feet so that four things happen:
1) At the bottom, your front shin is perpendicular to the ground and your weight is on the heel.
2) You’re able to maintain a neutral (not arched) back. (This will take some abdominal control.)
3) The weight is distributed evenly between the hip extensors of the front leg and the hip flexors of the rear leg.
4) You can keep your legs in line throughout the movement (no knees or ankles externally rotating).
If done correctly, the split squat trains the hip extensors of one leg in concert with the hip extensors of the other and it does so at the length they’ll be used at while running. Similarly, the act of keeping a neutral pelvis throughout the set will help to coordinate the abdominals with the hip flexors and extensors. This increased coordination will show up on the playing field as greater speed and stability while moving.
The movement does have a problem though, and that’s that it’s performed over a relatively small ROM. This can be dealt with quite easily though. To get the most out of the movement, I suggest doing sets of 5-8 reps per leg with a paused isometric hold of 3-5 seconds at the bottom of each repetition. Either a barbell or dumbbells can be used to add load.
Ab Bench Holds
When sprinting, the primary type of strength required by the A-chain is isometric in nature. At the moment the leg transitions from going back to being brought forward it’s isometric strength that determines the speed of the movement, and this isometric strength needs to be displayed over a very specific range of motion. To develop this strength, we turn to the decline ab bench.
Usually used to perform sit ups, the ab bench can be a culprit in producing overactive and tight hip flexors, but we’re going to get around that by performing the exercise with the illiopsoas in a lengthened position while simultaneously coordinating them with the abdominals.
In order to do this exercise properly, get in an ab bench or decline ab bench just like you normally would and put your pelvis into a neutral position. Lean your torso back as far as possible while maintaining a neutral pelvis, stopping when your back starts to arch (go into extension). Now, once you’ve reached that position, just hold for time. I recommend sets of 20-30 seconds.
The above variation strengthens the abdominals more so than the hip flexors, but this can be fixed by performing the exercise with only one leg hooked into the bench and the other allowed to stay free. Performing the holds in this manner will primarily stress the illiopsoas and rectus femori while putting less stress on the abdominals. Think of it as single leg work for the front side of your body.
Depending on where your weakness lies, you can pick and chose a variation.
Leg Lowering Holds
The final strength exercise I’m going to recommend is the leg lowering hold. To perform this exercise, lie on your back and stick your legs straight up in the air while keeping them together with the knees locked. Bracing your upper body if necessary, slowly lower your straight legs towards the ground while focusing on keeping your lower back on the ground. To keep your lower back on the ground, you’ll need to prevent your pelvis from anteriorly rotating by contracting your abdominals. Only lower your legs as far as you can while keeping your lower back firmly on the ground.
Once you found how far you can go before form breaks down, just hold your legs there for 20-30 seconds. To make the exercise more difficult you can do two things. One, you can try to get your legs closer to the ground, but this will require higher levels of control and flexibility. And two, you can hold a DB between your feet. Don’t add load until you can get your heels within 6-12” of the ground while maintaining form.
Like the ab bench holds, this exercise works the A-chain isometrically and helps to coordinate the firing of the abs and hip flexors.
Out of the Weight Room
Once you’ve built up your strength in the weight room, you can bring your new strength and movement patterns out on to the field of play by using a few higher velocity, lower load exercises. Here’s where you first get to witness the rubber meeting the road.
-Sprints (30-60M in length)
-Hill Sprints (again, about 30-60M in length)
-Broad Jumps
-Tuck Jumps
-Kicking a heavy bag
-A-skips and B-skips
By keeping the discussed principles in mind and applying the recommended exercises for the often ignored A-chain, you’ll be able to balance out your body and take your sport performances to the next level. But don’t go overboard. Balance is everything, and making sure to train your body from all sides (A-chain and P-chain) is more important than developing strength in a lopsided manner.
So, while it’s not glamorous, and won’t get you many glances from the hot gym bunnies, hammering your A-chain is necessary if you want to reach your fullest potential.
References:
Blazevich AJ, Jenkins DG (1998) Predicting sprint running times from isokinetic and squat lift tests: a regression analysis. Journal of strength and conditioning research Vol 12: 101-103
Bosch F, Klomp R (2001) Running: Biomechanics and Exercise Physiology Applied in Practice. Reed Business Information
Dean RS, Chow JW, Tillman MD, Fournier KA (2005) Effects of hip flexor training on sprint, shuttle run, and vertical jump performance. Journal of strength and conditioning research 19(3): 615-621
Iashvili A (1982) Active and passive flexibility in athletes specializing in different sports. Teoriya I Praktika Fizischeskoi Kultury 7: 51-52
Siff MC (2003) Supertraining 4th Ed. Supertraining International, Denver
Welcome to the new site of Evolutionary Athletics.
Evolutionary Athletics is based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Our vision is clear:
Take sports performance to a higher level.
To do this we have a simple, results based, philosophy:
Teach the body how to move properly
Improve the body’s ability to maintain proper athletic position
Improve the bodies ability to produce force
Teach the body how to produce force rapidly
Improve specific work capacity
We are proud of our work with DT Jarron Gilbert from SJSU. First, and foremost, Gilly is a hell of a football player. In 2008 he lead the nation in tackles for loss and won Co-WAC defensive player of the year. He is a projected NFL Draft pick, youtube.com sensation, and all around great guy. Additionally he has been featured on ESPN.
Here is the clip that generated the stir:
Kids remember, jumping out of a pool is fun but it doesn’t mean you are a great football player. Leading the nation in tackles for loss does. 🙂
Here is another clip of Gilly showing his incredible strength:
“The techniques Alex and Evolutionary Athletics taught me helped me have a great senior season and pushed me one step closer to achieving my dream. Playing in the NFL.” – Jarron Gilbert
We are proud to announce that we will be sharing our cutting edge techniques with the rest of the South San Francisco Bay Area. Yes, we will share the same methods that helped Jarron lead the nation in tackles for loss.
EA: Thanks for agreeing to the interview Roger. First tell everyone a bit about who you are.
RN: Thanks for having me, Alex.
As for me, there’s not much to tell. I’m a college student going into my senior year up here in Anchorage, Alaska and am majoring in psychology, though I’m still somewhat up in the air about what I’m going to do when I graduate. I spend my time enjoying the outdoors (for around four months per year), playing video games, reading, hanging out with my friends and family, and of course, obessing over sports science.
I spend far too much time reading, writing, and talking about training, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. The human body is an amazing machine and seeing just how far it can be pushed is a compelling quest.
Beyond my interest in the topic and my presence on a number of sports training boards, my only real involvement in the field is that I train as a short sprinter. I picked it up a few years ago at 18 after never having done a sport before and haven’t regretted a moment of it. I’m not fast, far from it as a matter of fact, but I enjoy the learning process and am consistently improving.
EA: Now considering your “lack” of credentials why should we listen to you?
RN: You know, that’s a good question.
I don’t have a degree in the field, or even a certificate, but I’ve spoken regularly with several top professionals and have read dozens of books, hundreds upon hundreds of studies, and tens of thousands of total pages in an effort to learn everything possible. When I find something that interests me, I study it obsessively, and training is no exception. Despite my relative lack of experience and total time spent in the field, I’ve crammed a lot of learning and interaction into a very short period.
I’m also a fairly smart guy, but I wouldn’t want you to take my word for it. ;D
If you were going to listen to me, the one and only one reason you should is because I back up my writing with citations from people who do have doctorates in field. By properly citing the research backing what I write, I can lend my material credibility. From there, it’s just up to me to put everything together.
EA: This is a big question, Can you outline your training philosophy for the readers?
RN: Damn, that is a big one. I don’t think I can get all of it across here, but I’ll give it my best shot. To make things easier, I’ll give an example of how I’d start with someone looking to become a general athlete from scratch. And by a “general athlete” I mean someone who can perform capably in nearly any test of athleticism, feats like swimming or distance running notwithstanding.
The first thing I’d look to do would be to develop active flexibility through every major joint while simultaneously building strength over the entire ROM. To do this I would use a combination of medium duration (20-30 seconds) yielding isometrics done at the end range of the ROM combined with various activation drills. Most of the movements used for isometrics would be unilateral in nature to help teach balance and general proprioceptive ability, and most of the activation drills would focus on teaching the athlete to coordinate the muscles stabilizing the pelvis. The ISOs would be done 2-3 times per week and intra-session volume would be controlled via looking for drops in performance. The activation drills would be done daily. Once the correct firing patterns, range of movement, and general base of strength had been laid, I would start moving into more specific training.
With the base laid, it would be time to expose the system to reactive-based movement, while maintaining strength and activation patterns, of course. We’d start with something low intensity and cyclical, like RFIs, maybe even something as simple as jumping rope. As proficiency allows, we would move to more intense drills, before finally moving from bilateral RFIs to unilateral RFIs. The whole time, relaxation and easy of movement would be stressed. Once the athlete demonstrates proficiency in single leg RFI work, it’s time to start getting into real training.
Having established a healthy ROM, developed strength at all muscle lengths, taught the right muscle activation patterns, and ingrained relaxation and general movement efficiency, it would then be time to start exposing the body to higher levels of force. At this point, I’d start with low, bilateral depth drops into a general athletic stance. As ability allowed, the drop height would gradually increase and then new stances would be used. Other stances could include deep squats, split squats, or single leg depth drops. Once the athlete showed themselves to be able to absorb force in multiple positions and muscle groups, it would then be time to train them to put that force back out. This process is pretty much the same as the above, but instead of depth drops, we’d be using depth jumps. When that progression had run its course and the athlete was now able properly absorb and put back out large amounts of force, it would be time to move into sport-specific training.
At this point, the athlete would already be fairly impressive and would be able to handle actual sporting skills. At this point, training would consist largely of the activities the athlete wanted to perform well in. Sprinting, approach jumps, throwing, and the sporting movements themselves would become the primary training. When results slowed, the athlete would step back and teach their system to absorb more force through depth drops or overload methods and would then come back to their sporting movements. Wash, rinse, repeat.
Once more, damn, that was a big one. Sorry for rambling. I’ll try to sum it up a little better.
-Build strength, ROM, and proper activation patterns
-Learn to relax and move easily under low force conditions
-Learn to absorb high forces
-Learn to generate high forces
-Practice your sporting skills
Beyond that, I really try to stress quality over quantity. I also like autoregulation as a means of determining volume and I don’t think one can put a price on attitude or determination.
Again, sorry for rambling, and I hope that was clear enough.
EA: Excellent answer Roger.
A while ago you wrote an E-book about your training perspective. How has you philosophy changed since then and why? Additionally, to piggyback on that question, how has your philosophy changed since you began studying sport science?
RN: Thanks Alex. Truth be told, the hardest part was making it so short. Ha-ha….
As for the E-book, it was more of an E-pamphlet. Since then though, I don’t think my philosophy has changed much. Some things are more clear than others, but all of the same building blocks are still there. The e-book didn’t really go over my philosophy either. It was meant as somewhat of a primer to teach people not so much how to train, but how to look at and understand the various components that comprise training. I strongly subscribe to the “teach a man to fish” school of thought, in that the best way to help anyone is to teach them to do it on their own.
How I’ve changed since starting up on sports science is an entirely different story though. Though it was hardly science at the time, I first got interested in training through ads in “Slam” magazine for strength shoes and Air Alert. I’m not proud of it, but I still have a pair of Jumpsoles gathering dust somewhere out in my garage. At that point, I knew nothing except what the programs told me and I figured higher reps and more work were what lead to improvements.
Thankfully, I was able to reason that high rep programming didn’t make sense and that the Jumpsoles only seemed to be hindering my workouts. Seeking out answers, I stumbled across Louie Simmons and Joe Defranco and I took their word as law. Strength training was all there was and squats were king. But again, as I learned more, I could see that there was more out there. This revelation was largely caused by being introduced to the writings of Kelly Baggett (who has since influenced me directly for years, often through blunt words and solid advice) and seeing the science behind them.
It was at about this point that I stopped listening to coaches just because they were experts and set out to understand the underlying mechanisms behind everything.
After a few years of scouring textbooks, journals, and any other sources of information I could come by, I arrived at roughly where I am now. Whereas before I was only looking at bits and pieces of the picture, I now try to look at both the big picture and each little piece of the puzzle that makes it up. Basically, before I took the words of coaches because they were supposed to be experts, but now all I do is ask “why” and try to understand every little thing as fully as possible. As one would expect, this has lead to a marked shift in how I train and think.
No more 100 rep sets or senseless preoccupations with squats for me, thank you. Now everything I do is strongly (more or less) backed by fact and reason.
EA: It seems you get in more internet wars than almost anyone I know. I think it may be time to start another. Are there any sacred cows you would like to slay? What common training ”truths” drive you nuts?
RN: Wow, you’re not just looking for a good interview, but a controversial one too, huh?
Nah, seriously though, I do get into e-scraps every once in a while, but I can’t help it. I don’t like seeing bad information passed around to people who don’t know better. One bad piece of information can ruin a kid for life. High depth jumps or 50 rep rhythm squats for example.
As for sacred cows, I’ve openly called out most of them by now, but there are a few I wouldn’t mind looking at again.
For one, I really don’t like the “no high intensity ab work” thing that somehow proliferates in sprint training circles. Somehow people think that hundreds of un-weighted crunches are good enough for the abs and hip flexors, yet they need heavy weights for every other muscle group. Sorry, but it doesn’t work that way. The abs and hip flexors need tension and volume overload to adapt just like the rest of the body.
Along that same line, I don’t like the continuous pushing of p-chain work and the constant advice to arch one’s back hard. Both of these things set athletes up for having poor pelvic control and stability and a weak anterior chain. Instead of falling into the trap, people need to be focusing on keeping their pelvis neutral and training all sides of the body in a balanced manner. The front of the body is just as important as the back, and unless there’s balance, people will always be short of their potential.
And not to keep beating a dead horse, but I can’t stand the “squat or go home” guys. If you listened to the average Westside disciple you’d think squats not only build up the glutes, hams, quads and abs, but cured cancer and paid off your mortgage too. As a matter of fact (and I know I keep bringing up the abs here, but they’re very important to proper athletic function), the mere claim that the abs are adequately trained by squats and DLs is downright stupid. The abs act to help stabilize the pelvis, often poorly, but that’s all. They’re not a primary mover. Claiming squats, GMs, and DLs train the abs is the equivalent of saying that
decline sit ups train the spinal erectors.
Besides that, I don’t like the general misconceptions floating around about strength as it relates to athletes. People need to understand that the athlete who squats more isn’t necessarily stronger. As far as most athletes are concerned, there’s never any reason to display maximal strength in a 1RM bilateral lift. The demands of sport are just far too different from a maximal squat. As it matters to athletes, strength should be thought of as the levels of intramuscular tension they’re able to generate, not their performance in an unrelated drill like the squat. Training at and around one’s 1RM is risky and provides no benefit over other, less stressful, more specific types of training.
I’ve got more. Believe me, I’ve got more, but I think I”ll stop complaining for now. Just trust me when I say there are tons of misconceptions out there and most of them can be picked apart with a little bit of knowledge and a little bit of sound reasoning.
EA: What is the most common mistake that you see young/new athletes making in their strength and conditioning programs and how would your approach address the issue?
RN: The number one problem I see in most athletes, not just the new or young ones, is that they oftentimes focus too much on the amount of weight lifted while paying no heed to ROM or correct muscle activation patterns. Hell, I was guilty of this not more than a year ago. The fix is relatively simple though.
All you need to do is remind them that just lifting more won’t make them run faster or jump higher, but strengthening the right muscle groups and instilling the right activation patterns will. In otherwords, make sure they know and understand that lifting a lighter weight or dropping from a lower height correctly will help them out more than lifting heavier or dropping from higher if they are done incorrectly. With the ego on most young males, these reminders have got to be pretty much constant too.
As for the largest programming error, I’d have to again go back to the lack of balance between posterior and anterior chain development. Yes, the muscles of the posterior chain are responsible for almost all of the drive in most athletic movements, but they can’t function correctly if the pelvis isn’t properly stabilized by equally strong abdominals and hip flexors. And not only will developmental balance between the front and back of the body lead to better performance, but it will help reduce the chances of injury as well.
EA: If you had one piece of advice for most athletes that would improve their training what would it be?
RN: If I could only give one piece of advice I would tell them to learn everything they can about what they’re doing. I believe very strongly in educating one’s self about how and why things work the way they do out in the world, and training is no exception.
For actual training specific advice, I would tell them that there are no magic bullets. Athletes are built through long term programming, not one-off special exercises. Results take time, and what nets the most results today may impede progress in the future.
EA: You have been accused of over complicating the training process. How do you respond?
RN: Funny enough, I would agree with that accusation, at least as it refers to me in the past. I did used to over complicate some things, but I’m getting a lot better about it now. Some people may still think the way I view training is overly complicated at times, but I think I’ve reached a good balance between detail and simplification. Any attempt to try and condense or streamline things further would involve omitting important information.
EA: Could you briefly outline your current training program and discuss why it is set up the way that it is?
RN: My current training is nothing special. I’ve been doing two main training sessions on Monday and Friday with a supporting session on Wednesday. On Monday I have been doing slight downhill overspeed running. On Wednesday I’ve been doing a session of RFI drills longer than 15 seconds in duration combined. And on Friday I’ve been doing longer full speed sprints, usually 150s. Volume is controlled through autoregulation. And depending on how I feel, I also include a small volume of yielding isometrics after about 2 sessions per week. On off days I try to do a little activation and dynamic mobility work.
It’s set up like this because I’m trying to get my top speed and speed endurance in place for the upcoming track season (it starts late in Alaska) while simultaneously building a little extra strength. Everything’s at high intensity too, so I take plenty of time off between more draining sessions.
After the season if over I’ll probably start rebuilding from the ground up.
EA: Considering all of your reading, who have been your influences?
RN: Throughout the years I’ve had a number of major influences, but perhaps the biggest one of all was Kelly Baggett. It was his writings that turned me on to the science behind training and without him I’d probably still think it was all about squatting and deadlifting your way to athletic success. Years of personal exchanges with Kelly have also been the prime factor in doing away with my overanalyzation. Harsh, informative, or both, his words have always pointed me in the right direction.
Another major influence for me was Brad Nuttall and the Inno-Sport system. The system provided me with an entirely new way of looking at training organization and it did the same for understanding how to label and piece together various training methods and modalities. Without this framework of classification, general programming would be much harder. But perhaps even more important than the system itself are the brilliant people I’ve met while learning about it. Funny enough, you’re one of those people Alex, and without your writings on T-Nation I probably never would have found the Inno-Sport system. You’re also largely responsible for my focus on correct muscle activation, though Chris Korfist and the other guys at WGF also played a part.
I also like the writings of Charlie Francis. And though I don’t follow his system, his insights on sprinting have been invaluable and the information I’ve gleaned from his forum has been irreplaceable, especially that from a certain gold medal winning 400M coach who chooses to remain publicly anonymous.
And to avoid leaving anyone out, I’d also like to include the many members of the DB forum. Nowhere else on the web can such a knowledgeable membership base be found, and without our interactions, I don’t know where I’d be.
EA: Rumor has it you have invented an exercise called “flying Nelsens”. Could you describe the exercise and discuss it’s purpose?
RN: Haha, I did invent the exercise, but I did not coin the name. I would’ve chosen something less clunky.
Anyways, the exercise involves a special platform that allows athletes to perform band resisted jumps while standing parallel to the ground. Through the design of the platform and the band resistance, the jumps are actually p-chain dominant. Also, there is both an overspeed and an accommodating resistance component to the exercise due to the bands. All in all, it’s a very unique means of training and should theoretically do very well in developing strength specific to sprint acceleration.
I say theoretically because my platform broke shortly after I built it. Unfortunately I’m a better thinker than a carpenter. There have been positive results reported from others who saw my design, replicated it, and used it with their athletes though. Either way, the platform still has a lot of potential and I may get around having one welded together when the I get the time and money.
EA: You’ve also developed a plyo progression called HARTT. Tell us a bit about what HARTT is, how you came up with the idea, and how you would integrate it into a training program.
RN: First of all, HARTT stands for Horizontally-loaded Absorptive and Reactive Torsion Training and the name was given partially tongue-in-cheek. While the words do describe what it is, I made it overly complex because I thought it would be funny.
That having been said, HARTT was a progression of jumps and landings designed to teach athletes how to absorb and generate force coming at them from odd angles and during rotation, much like they would encounter in their sports. What it basically consists of is jumping a set distance horizontally and landing in a specific way. As the athlete progresses, they would add distance to their horizontal jump to increase the landing force, and they would also start landing in different positions, such as on one leg or in a split position. Later, rotation would be added in, as would a rebound back to the starting position. All of these things would combine to increase the athlete’s ability to change direction out on the playing field.
By limiting the intensity, HARTT could be used by athletes of nearly all levels of preparation and would be a sure way to help reduce injuries. It could be incorporated by including 1-3 variations for a few sets and a few reps a few times per week. Sorry to be so vague, but the volume is largely up to the individual. As long as the progression is followed and the volume is kept manageable, it can be added into nearly an program.
EA: Is there anything you would like to add that has not been touched upon?
RN: Well, as much as I like pointless rambling, I don’t have much here. I can think of one thing that’s commonly overlooked though.
Of course coaches need to worry about the physical development of their athletes, but I feel they need to worry about their mental and emotional development as well. In my opinion, a good athlete should be an informed athlete and as long as they’re capable of it, an athlete should know why they’re doing what they are. The reasoning behind this is that if an athlete knows and understands what they’re doing, they’re much more likely to have confidence in the system, and if they have confidence in the system, they’re much more likely to give their effort to it completely.
Without true effort and hard work, even a perfect training program would fall short, and athletes need to understand that. Their coach can only take them so far. After a point, it’s up to them to want it badly enough.
EA: Thank you for your time. This has been an informative interview.
RN: Thanks again for having me, Alex. I really enjoyed it.
Roger and Andrew Darqui are planning on launching an sports performance training website tentatively titled Pure Dedication Athletics in June 2009. Keep your eyes peeled.
Evolutionary Athletics Blog 