I had a pretty good week last week and I hope you did too.  One of the things that I really want to continue to develop in my speed training business is relationships.  The more people that I know in the field and can learn from, the better I can help you out.  The more I expand my network of coaches in different sports, the more they might realize that I can help them out.  And that was what this past week was about.
My first stop took me to Ohio State University’s campus.  Living in Columbus, we are lucky enough to have one of the country’s biggest universities right in our backyard.  Plus, OSU wants to be awesome in all sports so they try and hire the best coaches.  That trickles all the way down to the strength and conditioning coaches that get these athletes in the best shape possible.

The Director of Strength and Conditioning for Olympic Sports is Anthony Glass, who I’ve known for a few years now.  Anthony is a good guy and treats me with a lot of respect.  One of his assistants is Andy Britton.  Andy is from Nashville and has been with OSU for about 7 years.  A personable guy who really knows his stuff.  When I spoke at the NSCA state clinic back in May, Andy had mentioned to me any time I want to come down and observe to just let him know.

I contacted Andy and we coordinated meeting him down at the Woody Hayes Athletic Complex last Wednesday to observe his session with OSU’s softball team.  My assistant, Bryan, and I went down there and really enjoyed the session.

It started off on the indoor field with the team doing a 10 minute dynamic warm-up.  Then they grabbed some parachutes and did some sprints.  They had different sized parachutes for different resistance.  After they ran, which was a variety of different length sprints (30 yards, 20 yards, 40 yards), they did some conditioning runs and then it was off to the weight room.

The OSU softball team during an off-season workout.

The strength session lasted about an hour which included a group stretch at the end.  The session was run with a lot of efficiency and discipline.  They were doing kind of a total body session, which included Snatches to develop speed and power.  Andy mentioned he was pretty stoked to introduce Snatches and other overhead lifts because the new softball coach said do whatever you want, even overhead lifts.  He also said that they would be doing max testing the next week, which is always fun to watch.

There was no gabbing, no screwing around in this weight room.  These were Division I softball players with a good strength coach and they both knew they had to come in, do their job (which was to do the routine Andy set up), and then get out.  It was good to watch and Bryan and I picked up a few tidbits that we will be bringing back to our facility.  A combination of a couple new exercises and a couple new strategies to implement.

What is great knowing Anthony and Andy is that if I have questions about my program or want to bounce ideas off of people I feel are qualified experts, I can fire off an email or phone call to these guys and get a response lickety split.  Plus, having them be only 15 minutes away certainly doesn’t hurt either.

My other visit this past week was over to Universal Gymnasts, Inc. over in Hilliard.  Once again about 15 minutes away.  I’ve developed a little niche training gymnasts to improve their speed for their vault and I’ve been wanting to meet their coach, Dave Anthony, for awhile now.  Gymnastics was never a sport I felt I could immediately help when I got into this business, but I’ve been proven wrong.

The gymnasts I’ve worked with need to improve their speed for the vault.  I’m sure you’ve seen it before.  It is a straight sprint down and then they hit this apparatus and flip all over the place.  If they can’t build up speed, they can’t get that pop they need for a good vault.  I’ve had some success with these gymnasts and it has really opened my eyes to how athletic these girls are.

Anyways, I met with Dave this past Friday to look at their facility and get him familiar with what I do and vice-versa.  I then watched a couple of the gymnasts I’ve been working with to see them in their environment so I could get a better idea how to help them.  A few videos of them in action with my iphone and I was able to get what I need.  These girls could do flips and movements that I only dreamed about in my ninja-fantasy daydreams.

Even though those gymnasts do some incredible things, there are always ways a speed coach can help them out.  The variety in the training (something a little different than the norm) could be what that gymnast needs to take her over the top.

I’m a firm believer that you should always be learning.  Never settle.  Don’t assume that you know absolutely everything that you need to know.  Learning from these coaches and what they do, will benefit me, but it will also benefit you.  The more I learn, the more I fine-tune my program, the better results you will have when you train with us.