Just Fly Performance Podcast

Today’s episode features Adarian Barr, biomechanist and inventor. Adarian is a unique coach who sees human movement in a fresh new light. His methods and insight has highlighted the majority of my own learning on sprinting, jumping, throwing and everything in between in the past 2 years, and I’m thrilled to have him back on the show. Today, Adarian is going to take us on a deep dive into the single most fundamental element of human movement and locomotion, the impulse the body delivers to the ground (or when the ground pushes back on you). When we coach athletes in various sporting skills, we will usually start with some sort of big, obvious external position, for example: knees up, or eliminate that backside sprint mechanic. The problem is that giving these cues, absent from the impulse that facilitated them will throw off an athletes timing and often positioning. This inevitably leads us on the trail of “keep doing this and eventually you’ll be faster”, but when athletes need to be fast, they’ll just do what they’ve always been doing! To this end, understanding the dynamics of the feet, the ankle, the way the body creates impulse into the ground, and how the mechanics of sprinting, jumping and everything else is built around the impulse, we can really start to dig into the core of movement, and why athletes sprint and jump the way they do. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Key Points Adarian’s history in training the foot Defining the impulse that projects athletes in sprinting or jumping How to assess an athlete’s impulse Impulse in relation to plyometrics and deceleration training Fundamental differences in athletes with athletes who depress the ankle very little or a lot in running steps How impulse impacts knee lift in sprinting Foot steering and how it impacts impulse and direction of force Adarian Barr Quotes “My question is, when does the ground push you back. If you don’t know when the ground is pushing you back, it’s a lost conversation” “The least amount of movement and the fastest movement is the best (in regards to the impulse and unloading of Achilles)” “If you can move a joint a quarter inch, faster, you can get a lot more out of it” “You can’t get a bigger step because (the impulse) is not going to throw you that far” “When the impulse releases, that’s your max speed” “If all you do is extend, extend, extend, when it’s time to run and jump, you don’t get the fold up portion” “Deceleration is already built into the movement” “The more the heel travels in a negative action towards the ground, the longer it is going to take to be returned to you, and as it returns, you need to make sure the swing leg matches that speed” “Your block start settings should be based off of the speed and depth of your impulse” “The four things to the impulse assessment is which way the feet steer, the depth of the shin angle change, the knees track and the magnitude of the impulse... with those four things we can determine how to set you up for any sport” “If you have a slow and long impulse, you have a high knee lift. If you have a short and fast impulse, you won’t have as high of knee lift. The knee rises as the heel drops” “You don’t want to get rid of backside mechanics, because it’s tied to the impulse” “(In sprinting) If we are talking about a push the ground person, we do want to get rid of backside mechanics... if we are talking about an impulse person, we don’t want to get rid of backside” “If you punch the ground, the impulse comes back so fast, you aren’t ready for the next step” “If the foot is turned out, then the heel must also turn out” “(with the foot turned out in athletes) the impulse is not going to come from the heel dro...

Today’s episode features physical preparation coach Pat Trainor, who is currently the Minor League Strength and Conditioning Coordinator for the Tampa Bay Rays baseball organization. In his current role, he oversees the physical preparation of the Rays player development system, consisting of about 175+ athletes and 8 staff members. Pat is a coach in the pro baseball ranks who is a master of context. When it comes to training high-level athletes who already have a high degree of sport skill; enough for them to get paid for it, there is never just one solution for every athlete. On top of this, integration of one’s training system into the grand scheme and vision of the sport coaches is critical to success, something Pat does a great job of and goes in depth into in today’s episode. Pro sports are often a tradeoff of skills as well, if you get faster and quicker, you may lose some hitting power, so managing what to change and how to do it is important. In today’s episode Pat goes in detail into how he builds his physical preparation program around the needs of his players, and in context of their skill demands. He also goes into the importance of the feet, his approach to maximal strength development as well as how to approach agility development in baseball. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Key Points How Pat integrates his physical preparation work in context of what the skill coaches are wanting to accomplish The importance of the feet in training baseball athletes Maximal strength considerations in context for minor league baseball The differences in physical readiness between players of different cultural backgrounds (USA and Latin America) Building speed and agility in baseball players and lynchpins that determine an athlete’s ability to move properly Pat Trainor Quotes “In field/court sports you don’t have this one variable you can point to and say “that’s what made this guy better” “We need to be able to train athletes to handle practice workloads” “The number one thing we can have the largest impact on is speed/acceleration (for baseball)” “We as physical preparation coaches always have goals, we want to make sure we spend some time on players weaknesses, but don’t want to spend so much time we take away from their strengths” “If we want to work on defense and speed, that’s part of the pie we are taking out of that guy’s day” “We use the 5-10-5 basic pro agility... it can be used as a measure of strength... we don’t use a 3 or 1 rep max test (outside of maybe January)” “Our outfielders may not need to do as much decelerative work as our infielders” “Agility is really weird in baseball... for me it more comes down to a mobility standpoint” “If players lack internal rotation, that’s saying something along the lines of that’s wrong from a tissue standpoint or a bony process” About Pat Trainor Patrick Trainor is currently the Minor League Strength and Conditioning Coordinator for the Tampa Bay Rays baseball organization. In his current role, he oversees the physical preparation of the Rays player development system, consisting of about 175+ athletes and 8 staff members. Prior to joining the Rays in his current role before the 2017 season, he has spent time with the San Diego Padres and Cleveland Indians, as well as a previous stint with the Rays as an assistant strength and conditioning coach at the Minor League affiliate level. Outside of professional baseball, he has held positions at the collegiate level with Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, PA (2007-2009) as well as Queens College in New York (2012), overseeing the physical preparation of varsity sports.

Today’s episode features Cal Dietz and Chris Korfist, two highly regarded individuals in the world of sports performance who are no strangers to this show. I was excited about getting Cal and Chris on the show together since they created one of my favorite sports training book on the market: Triphasic Training for Football. In this manual, French Contrast training is used heavily throughout the entire training cycle, and the results of the program on high school football athletes were huge gains in sprinting and vertical jump abilities. We’ll kick off today’s show chatting about how the Triphasic Football Manual came together, as well as the idea that French Contrast training is something that isn’t just for peaking situations. From there, we get into something that Chris and Cal have been working heavily on, and that is training the foot. A good athletic foot requires more than simply doing calf raises, and Chris Korfist in particular has a variety of isometrics specially designed to train the foot in different aspects of gait. Cal Dietz is well known for his use of oscillating repetitions and the great results he gets form them, and we also cover the use of oscillating repetitions, not just in peaking situations, but their effectiveness to bring out explosive strength in athletes to a greater degree than standard repetitions. We’ll also touch on the Exogen weighted fusiform technology that is revolutionizing technique and special strength training for sports. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Key Points The creation of Triphasic Training for Football Tissue change in deep squatting Importance of the foot in athletic performance/vibration pickup Elastic contribution to movement in athletes and animals Foot strength training progressions Usage of oscillatory reps in strength training in non-peaking situations Use of the Exogen gear in sprint training Cal Dietz and Chris Korfist Quotes “If you consistently do deep squats, then the pliability of that quad tendon becomes less; and then you have altered a ton of free energy return that is a quick and explosive contraction” “The foot dissipates about 30% that comes into the body so you can properly deal with it” “When the foot hits the ground, it’s absorbing vibrations of what the ground is” “Your gait changes momentarily when you switch from one running surface to another; the best athletes can change and adapt quickly” “We wouldn’t have knee problems if we ran on air... the foot is the problem” “The basis of the foot is getting the isometric strength down first... if you don’t have the isometric strength, it’s just not going to work very well” “The true value of oscillatory reps is very specific stress” “Start using Exogen with the calf sleeves.... you are talking about rotational inertia” “The common thing you’ll see with people doing a high knee action is to throw their torso forward” About Cal Dietz Cal Dietz has been the Head Olympic Strength and Conditioning coach for numerous sports at the University of Minnesota since 2000. He has consulted with Olympic and World Champions in various sports and professional athletes in the NHL, NFL, NBA, MLB, and Professional Boxing. During his time at U of M, he help founded and chairs the Sport Biomechanics Interest Group with its purpose to explore the physiological and biomechanical aspects of advanced human performance encompassing the various aspects of kinesiology, biomechanics, neuro-mechanics and physics. Dietz has also given numerous lectures around the country, as well as publish several scientific articles and dozens articles on training. Most recently, Dietz co-authored the top selling book, Triphasic Training: A systematic approach to elite speed a...

Today’s episode features Dr. Emily Splichal, podiatrist and human movement specialist. When it comes to the foot, many coaches and athletes realize its’ importance, but due to its’ complexity, we often don’t dig much further than realizing it is important to spend less time in socks and shoes, and more time moving around bare footed. Dr. Emily Splichal’s background in fitness and training offers a 1-2 punch that makes her an extremely valuable resource to the sport and exercise community. She is also the creator of Naboso technology, which offers textured surfaces to train on, such as exercise mats and insoles. Getting the feet to work properly is more than simply going barefoot, however, it is about understanding how the feet pick up sensory information, and then how to use that in exposing athletes to training environments that maximize the sensory capability of the feet. Too many times we will label a foot as “weak” when it really wasn’t sensing something it needed to in order for the proper muscles to fire and tense up the fascia that spirals up to the legs and trunk. In today’s podcast, Dr. Splichal will cover the ways that the foot picks up sensations, and how to manipulate training surfaces (and shoes) to maximize these sensations and improve performance. She also goes into the role of vibration in foot sensation, as well as how athletes must pick up on this vibration to deliver a proper impulse to the ground through the body. Finally she’ll give us her take on balance based work and the feet, as well as talking about Naboso technology. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Key Points Different types of nerves within the body, interoceptors and exteroceptors Ways the skin picks up sensation in the foot and the difference between slow and fast receptors How to utilize knowledge of the sense receptors in our footwear selection How vibration and surface type plays in to the athletes relationship with the floor Balance work in relation to foot sensation and adaptation Naboso Technology and textured insoles Dr. Emily Splichal’s Quotes “The four main mechanoceptors are broken down into two different classifications, two adapt to the stimulus slowly... the other two are fast adapting, which means that they respond to the stimulus and then they shut off... so they need a continuous on/off of a stimulus” “First slow adapting is Merkel disc and is slow adapting, sensitive to two-point discrimination (best analogy is braille)” “The second slow adapting is Ruffini ending, which is skin stretch” “Fast adapting, FA1 and FA2 are sensitive to vibration” “The vibratory mechanoreceptors are super important because they are tuned to the stimulus of impact... 70% of the receptors in the bottom of the feet are to pick up vibration” “If cushion in the shoes takes away vibration, it took away some of my athlete’s potential energy” “(On properly using elastic energy) You don’t want to be using your muscles for work, to take each step, when you do that you fatigue the muscular system and cardiovascular system” “Every surface vibrates differently” “Surfaces need to be a symbiotic relationship between the foot and the ground” “Dancing with the ground is the art and science of impact forces” “You have to have a sense of your body in space, how hard you are striking the ground, the rhythm of your movement patterns, the grace” “If you wear socks, wear as thin of a sock as possible... as much as I can I encourage people to go without a sock” “Surface hardness is really important, the softer the surface starts to become the more you disconnect the stimulus between surface, foot and brain” “Plantar fasciitis, Achilles tendonitis, IT band syndrome,

Welcome to the first episode of the Just Fly Performance Podcast, an online radio series that brings you some of the brightest minds in the sports performance industry. Our first episode is with Scott Salwasser, director of speed and power development at Texas Tech University.  Scott has a strong background in speed development for football and has an impressive resume in the world of speed, athlete assessment, team culture, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. In this podcast, we cover topics such as: Overall philosophy on speed development for football Assessment and balance of strength and speed qualities Common sprint errors and fixes in the football population (vs. track and field athletes) Plyometric implementation and use in assessment of reactive qualities Top assessment tools for football players Understanding speed development for football in terms of “The Minimal Effective Dose” Yearly Periodization of Speed Training Handling Large Groups in Speed Development And more! You also might want to check out Scott’s recent interview article on linear and lateral speed development for team sport success.