132: Adarian Barr on Ground Impulse as a Biomechanical Lynchpin | Sponsored by SimpliFaster

01/10/19 • 58 min

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...

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131: Sheldon Dunlap on Oscillatory Isometric Integration into Triphasic Training | Sponsored by SimpliFaster

Today’s episode features strength coach Sheldon Dunlap, one of the most creative strength coaches I’ve met who is doing big things with strength training for speed enhancement. Sheldon has been a strength coach at UC Davis 3 years, one of his primary sporting assignments being track and field. Prior to UC Davis, Sheldon was a strength coach for the NBA D-league Erie Bayhawks and was an intern at Duke University. I first met Sheldon at the First Annual “Bay Area Sports Performance Seminar” put on by Dr. Ramsey Nijem, as we sat at a table together while listening to presentations. In learning of some of the things that Sheldon was doing in the weightroom with his track athletes, and the impact it was having on their performances, I discovered I was sitting next to a young pioneer in our field. Today’s show is all about Sheldon’s strength system for track, which has unique ideas in the sequencing and integration of oscillating reps, as well as training methods for the hip flexors (TFL in particular) and the feet. This is an awesome “nuts and bolts” episode with training ideas that anyone can instantly integrate into their own system (as I have). 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 Sheldon is doing with his track program’s strength and conditioning How Sheldon got into tendon elasticity considerations in his program How Sheldon replaced the isometric phase of Triphasic Training with an oscillating isometric phase The types of lifts Sheldon used in his program Sheldon’s approach to hip flexor work, specifically TFL work How skateboarding impacted Sheldon’s long jump takeoff Sheldon Dunlap Quotes “Tendon elasticity is the name of the game in track and field” “I replaced the isometric phase (of Triphasic Training) with oscillating work... we had our Blue and Gold meet that year and people were getting PR’s left and right, left and right” “The first time around I did this we did two weeks of eccentric, two weeks of oscillating, and then they went home, and I used 5-3-1 for their concentric phase while they were at home” “I want a “black mini band” type of athlete (an athlete who produces more movement power respectively through the power of the fascial system” “(After a deep oscillating squat phase) I felt like lightning coming out of the bottom of the squat, but I got stuck halfway up” “After going TFL pops, the next day after bounding, my TFL had never been so sore in my life” “The stronger your TFL is the less you have to rely on your psoas” “In skateboarding you are able to produce a lot more elasticity because you are putting your foot on the ground with a great amount of force in a small amount of time” Show Notes Oscillating squats https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOZHVwKfCOM TFL Pops https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=su4xw9h4pKc&feature=youtu.be About Sheldon Dunlap Sheldon Dunlap has been a strength coach at UC Davis 3 years, one of his primary sporting assignments being track and field. Prior to UC Davis, Sheldon was a strength coach for the NBA D-league Erie Bayhawks. Prior to the Bayhawks, he spent 2.5 years as an intern at Duke University. Sheldon attended Appalachian State University and is certified by the NSCA.

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133: Jérome Simian on Building a World Record Holding Decathlete | Sponsored by SimpliFaster

Today’s episode features Jérome Simian, French physical preparation coach. Jérome is a coach who not only has been trained by some of the best minds in the world (Jay Schroeder and Charles Poliquin) but also works with some of the greatest athletes in the world, notably Kevin Mayer, the new decathlon world record holder who broke Ashton Eaton’s old mark with an incredible score of 9126. After Kevin Mayer broke the record, Jérome wrote a fantastic article on Strength Sensei about some of the training that allowed Kevin Mayer to overcome back and foot issues, as well as a weak start in his races to progress to a point where he is now the world record holder. One of the big issues with physical preparation is that the higher the level the athlete is, the less weightroom and barbell lifts will transfer to that athlete’s on-field performance. All too often forgotten is that it is not what you do but how you do it. Jérome is truly a master of the how. This episode is a must-listen for any track and field or strength coach, as what Jérome did with Kevin Mayer is truly phenomenal. On today’s episode, Jérome will cover his approach with Kevin Mayer, how he fixed some of Kevin’s imbalances, his approach to maximal strength training (and then eventually a lack thereof) with Kevin in his lead up to setting the world record. There are also many tips to the nuances of exercise performance within this episode. 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 Jérome’s training of Kevin Mayer, world record holder in the decathlon How Jérome approaches basic barbell strength training for athletes in terms of posture, position and muscle firing Kevin Mayer’s initial performance needs when he came to Jérome Why Jérome decided to stop doing any significant barbell lifting in Kevin’s training for a period of many months Why exact exercise selection is not nearly as important as how you do what you are doing in the weightroom or track Jérome Simian Quotes “Strength training and resiliency are not separate qualities” “Kevin’s muscles were fighting each other in lifting... it was more a coordination problem” “There is constant control around the joint at all times; there is no time where the muscle is completely relaxed” “You want to pull (down) with your hip flexors when you squat” “For the RDL I’ll pinch the skin on the lumbar spine... and that teaches them how to get into the proper position... I don’t like telling them pull with this, think about a muscle, etc.” “Extreme ISO’s are supposed to be movement” “(When he came to me) Kevin was more a kangaroo than a racehorse” “We never get very far from ATG squats because that keeps his hips loose” “(Regarding a period of time in Kevin Mayer’s training) No (heavy) squatting no deadlifting at all from October to March” “It’s the concept of metaphors; if you are producing 300lbs one way, but resisting 75lb the other way, you are better off producing 200lb one way and zero the other way (in terms of building efficient movement)” “If you want to lift and be good for sport you have to have a healthy disregard for the amount of weight on the bar” “Do you want to be strong, or do you want to lift heavy weights, they are not necessarily the same” About Jérome Simian Jérome Simian started his coaching career in 1998. Since then, he has coached athletes to compete in seven Olympic games, to World and European medals, as well to national records and dozens of national championships. His experience ranges from track and field to professional rugby, to figure skating, to mention only a few. In a country where good athletes are helped for free and coached by the federal system, his private practice was built on helping those who did not f...