105: Power in Athletic Asymmetry with Adarian Barr | Sponsored by SimpliFaster

07/04/18 • 64 min

Today’s episode features coach, biomechanist and inventor, Adarian Barr. Adarian has been my primary mentor in the field of human performance over the last year and a half and has completely changed the way I view the majority of athletic movements. Through a greater awareness of what to watch and look for in athletic movements, to equaling (or bettering) things I did as an athlete in my early 20’s, to completely rewiring my approach to sprint and jump biomechanics, coach Barr’s work has been a complete game changer. Adarian has experience coaching on a variety of levels, and has had a number of stops on the collegiate track and field circuit before his current work as a private coach and consultant. His methods are innovative, and he has the greatest awareness of various factors that go into a movement outcome that I’ve ever seen. Coach Barr has the ability to pick apart virtually any athletic feat into its core components, and then train those components with athletes of all levels. On today’s podcast, we talk heavily about asymmetry in athletic performance. Not too long ago, coaches were talking about Usain Bolt’s asymmetrical stride, and then we just witnessed the longest long jump in the last 20 years, done by a 19 year old from Cuba with an asymmetrical run up and a very long last stride. Knowing the principles behind the approach and the takeoff allows understanding and subsequent individualization of our athletes to their best performances. In this regards, we’ll be chatting asymmetry in regards to jumping and sprinting, as well as how it plays into plyometrics and timing. Adarian finishes things off with a conversation on training the foot, and how the foot is not as “weak” as we often think it to be. 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: Thoughts on recent developments in the track and field world The importance of the “arm flap” movement (Rotational vs. Linear Movement) “Big-Step, Little-Step” rhythm Fundamental difference between big last step vs. little last step How to improve/construct your jumping approach The “Big-Little” Rhythm from a 3-point stance/sprint start/block set-up Importance of maintaining rhythm throughout a race Asymmetry in distance runners and field/court based sports The importance of rhythm in double leg jumps and single leg jumps Importance of timing in jumping How to integrate asymmetry and plyometrics Mistakes in training the foot “The backside arm controls the impact of the front side leg” “We need to stop saying bad technique, imperfect technique, incorrect technique.” “Running is the base of every movement.” “Exceptional athletes have exceptional timing.” “Never train anyone how to stop.” “If you’re trying to take up slack, you don’t want to do plyometric training.” “Athletic posture takes up slack in the system.” “A shortened muscle is the best muscle to work with.” Show Notes: Juan Miguel Echevarria Long Jump 8.83 About Adarian Barr Adarian Barr is a track coach and inventor based out of Woodland, California. His collegiate track and field coaching stops have included UW-Superior, Indiana State, UNC Pembroke, Yuba City Community College. He has invented 9 devices from footwear to sleds to exercise devices. Adarian is a USATF Level II coach in the sprints, jumps, hurdles and relays. He has a master’s degree in Physical Education. Adarian’s unique coaching style gets results, and his work on speed and biomechanics is being adapted by some of the top coaches in the nation. More Adarian Barr Episodes: 64: Adarian Barr on Biomechanical Truths and Coaching Myths in Sprinting 132: Adarian Barr on Ground Impulse as a Biomechanical Lyn...

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104: Speed and Power with Angus Ross | Sponsored by SimpliFaster

Today’s episode features Angus Ross, physiologist and strength coach at High Performance Sport New Zealand. Angus is making his second appearance on the podcast, and is following up on his initial chat on aspects of eccentric strength training with lots of practical knowledge in the realms of stiffness, fascia, and performance. Angus has worked with a number of sports at an elite level within the NZ system including sprint cycling and skeleton in recent years. Angus has a PhD in exercise physiology from the University of Queensland and has also worked within the Australian institute system with stints at both the Queensland Academy of Sport and the Australian Institute of Sport. He is also a Winter Olympian in his own right having competed at the 1998 and 2002 Winter Games. Angus is one of the most intelligent, and curious coaches I know, as well as incredibly pragmatic, seeking what works and delivers results. As with any training method, eccentric training is just one tool for the job, and learning about the means, and how it fits into the total training process also opens up the questions of usage of training such as maximal overcoming isometrics and plyometrics, as well as monitoring which athletes might respond optimally to one method or the other, or knowing which sequence these means should be presented in over the course of a training year. On today’s podcast, we will go in depth on double versus single leg stiffness, and what that means for team sport athletes versus track and field sprinters. We’ll also cover the benefits and use of plyometrics versus overloaded eccentric training, and how to look at using these methods in the course of a training year. Finally, Angus has some fantastic thoughts and ideas on muscular versus fascial driven athletes that resonate with many of my own thoughts and things seen in previous podcasts, such as our recent episode with Randy Huntingon. 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: New happenings with Angus Ross Reactive strength and stiffness in sprinting Double versus single leg stiffness Maximal isometric or overcoming exercise versus plyometrics Ways Angus has been experimenting with a more frequent alteration of the training stimulus How fascial driven athletes can benefit from exercise that helps “fascial tightness” How muscle driven athletes can often PR after a few weeks of rest or almost complete rest Angus’ thoughts on velocity based training EMS and strength performance Quotes: “I’m sure stiffness from sprint data would show the same things as a single leg drop jump (athletes deficient in a single leg drop jump leak energy at maximal velocity)” “The plyos might really develop tendon stiffness, while the longer slower contractions (i.e. supramaximal type work) still might develop some stiffness, but may also develop compliance as well” “If I was going to periodize it, I might be doing some supramaximal eccentric work with some isometric work initially, because they marry well in addressing tendon properties, and you could do it with a small amount of plyos, and then morph until faster eccentric work, and towards plyos” “The great coaches have the intuition to change (the emphasis of the program) when needed” “When you got the motor patterns from 20 years of plyos in the system, they are there, if you makea change in the system, you will improve” “What I’ve been doing essentially is a 4 week block on repeat, with a different week each block... for some athletes it’s worked great, but other athletes don’t feel like they are getting enough time on a stimulus” “Changing the stimulus on a regular basis is a good thing.... some people it’s worked really well for” “Some people are more resilient towards maintainin...

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106: Flow Based Training and Planning for the Robust Athlete with Mladen Jovanović | Sponsored by SimpliFaster

Today’s episode features strength coach and sport scientist Mladen Jovanović. Mladen is the owner of complementarytraining.net and is a thought leader in physical preparation, particularly in the arena of building the best possible training programs for team sport athletes. Mladen brings in the work of many of the world’s great philosophers and thinkers in his process, fielding universal principles that often supercede existing periodization theory. Mladen has worked in a variety of elite level sports in countries including Serbia, Sweden, Qatar, Turkey, Australia and the USA. A leading individual in the sport science community, Mladen’s interests include velocity based training, statistical modelling and the philosophy/management of sports programmes. I’ve been looking forward to having Mladen on the show for some time, as I’m always impressed by his work and thought process. It’s always great to chat with those who utilize reason from a variety of other fields to lead us towards a better path in athletics. One of the biggest things I initially wanted to chat with Mladen about was the use of mental heuristics in how we tend to view and create workout programs, but our chat led us down the paths of flow and free play in athletic performance, robust vs. “peak-performance” training, flaws of classical periodization theory and real-life experiences, as well as velocity based training ideas. In the aftermath of episodes such as with Dr. Tommy John, and then our sport play roundtable, as well as my own experiences training with intuitive minds such as Paul Cater, I’ve realized the shortcomings of strict, planned, drill and internal cue based sessions, and how “breaking out of the robot factory”, so to speak, is one of the most powerful lessons coaches can learn and use. 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: What’s new in the life of Mladen Jovanović How much training should be planned versus spontaneous and free flowing The point of gym work with (team sport players such as soccer) is to be robust, rather than to run as fast or jump as high as possible Guidelines for velocity based work and bar speed monitoring Thoughts on delayed training effects and phase potentiation Mladen’s thoughts on planning robust training for team sport athletes Quotes: “I think we are missing the play element in training” “You need to be a snake to sneak in the hard work without it clashing with the athletes (soccer players who find lifting boring)” “You need to find a balance between giving players freedom, and having strict training” “There are multiple applications for using velocity based training” “We still need to rely on coaching intuition and traditional (stuff), you cannot just rely on velocity based training” “Using (VBT) percentages is biased based on the initial rep” “The main benefit of velocity based training is live feedback. If your intent is maximal then you are going to get higher levels of strength.” “(Regarding periodization) let’s find the things we need to do, and do them all the time” “Every time you push an athlete, especially on the highest level of competition, they are going into the unknown, you can’t rely on the studies on student population that bench press 70 kilos (to validate what you are doing at this point).” “(With team sport athletes) we rotate things more often so that they don’t hit the (training) ceiling.... What happens after the peak? It’s the volley. You don’t want this in team sports” “In team sports, (your periodization) is always limited by logistics. At the end of the day, rather than having “perfect” training, you want to have “robust” training. Robust training is training that works in several scenarios.”