If you are a coach or athlete, then you appreciate the need for speed training in your program. Speed determines how fast you intercept the opposition or how you finish on the track. Every coach dreams of fast athletes and in fact, some of the best players in NFL and NBA are more renowned for [...]
Performance coaches in the private sector get a bad rap sometimes with coaches who coach a club team or school team. And to be honest, I’m getting tired of it. My athletes come back to me telling me, “My coach told me this, or my coach told me that.” And it usually involves a [...]
This past weekend I was at the NSCA Ohio State Clinic and listened to a lot of great speakers. One of the speakers, Chris Powell, talked about developing linear speed. This is essentially your straight ahead running and how fast you can get your first initial steps of acceleration. For most athletes, developing linear speed [...]
I have been lucky enough to work with a lot of great athletes and great teams. One in particular was the 2003 Columbus Academy football team which won the state title that year. I was the strength coach at Academy so I got to work with all the teams (if they chose to send their [...]
Anybody who does our program always starts off with an individual assessment. We have to see what each athlete is about, what their goals are, and what they need to work on before we can put together the appropriate program. The assessment is completely separate from our program. Athletes can do our assessment and never [...]
I have sat down with so many parents in my career discussing their athletes that I can probably sound off the reasons they want to do speed/strength training. Get Faster/Stronger Rehab An Injury Make My Team Make All-State Play In College And The List Goes On But, one reason that I hear every so often [...]
When a new athlete comes to train with us, our business has chosen to use the Functional Movement Screen (FMS) to give us a basic idea if any flexibility or strength imbalances exist. I know it isn’t the end-all-be-all, but it gives us an idea where the athlete is with his/her athleticism. At the very [...]
Let me ask you a question. The Columbus Crew play roughly around 37 regular season games from March to October. Ohio State’s soccer team plays about 17 regular season games and then enters the Big Ten tournament. How many games does your young athlete play? If you have an athlete playing “serious” soccer (which means [...]
I have officially been an older adult for a while now. I am no longer the young generation and I talk about this new generation like my parents did about us. The difference nowadays is the technology and how it is making our communication skills diminish. We’ve all heard the complaints. Kids won’t pick up [...]
It is mid-summer and we have been getting our fair share of basketball players wanting to improve their vertical jump. Whether they are hoping to be able to dunk or block a shot into the stands, jumping is a big part of the basketball player’s game. An average improvement we’ve seen for a vertical jump [...]