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

01/17/19 • 50 min

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...

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

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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134: Jeremy Frisch on The Essentials of Skill Acquisition and Play in Athletic Performance | Sponsored by Simplifaster

Today’s episode features sports performance coach Jeremy Frisch. Jeremy is a leader in training young athletes, and has developed a training style revolving around play in favor of robotic or overly specific work for this population. Jeremy is the owner of Achieve Performance Training in Clinton, Massachusetts. Prior to that he served as a strength coach for Holy Cross, working with basketball, soccer, lacrosse, baseball, softball, field hockey, tennis and track and field. He was part of the panel of coaches on episode #100 of the podcast, talking about the injury and burnout crisis in youth sports today related to a lack of play in tandem with early sport specialization and over-coaching. For today’s podcast, Jeremy gets into the nuts and bolts of his own system with his youth athletic populations. We get into the roots of the skill acquisition and diversity that allows young athletes to become elite performers later in life, as well as concepts that can help adult athletes have more rewarding and effective training. It’s very easy to have tunnel vision with older athletes, not considering where they have been at points in their development. As Jeremy talks about his program, it’s easy to see that athletic development is absolutely a long-term process, and there is a lot of fun to be had along the way. Many times, play and fun is the answer to breaking out of a rut while staying healthy. 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 Child development and the role of observation of older athletes and modeling What are the key skills that young athletes should be able to perform and how Jeremy creates an environment for kids to attain them How to train athletes to play in a “deep” position Dan Pfaff’s “Alternative methods for developing strength power and mobility” article and how Jeremy has incorporated it into his work with athletes How sports played early on can give athletes skills in their bank to use later How “strength” gained from sports such as wrestling (grappling) can show up in the weightroom The importance of play in total athletic development “My youngest child learned by watching the other ones; he has done everything earlier than the other two boys. He has watched them more, so he mimicks them” “Beng able to take what the athlete learns when they are younger, and putting it towards one specific thing in the end will yield a higher result” “The first things we are going to attack are those fundamental movement skills: simple stuff like skipping and hopping, shuffling, backpedaling, sprinting and leaping and those type of movements, we are going to figure out ways for those kids to practice it” “If you play enough sports or play with your friends enough, you’ll develop those other skills, like catching, throwing, being able to stop a ball, dodge a ball, things like that” “That’s something I look at; what drill can we do where kids can do these movements (such as squatting) and not even know they are doing it” “Those (movement quality drills) have always been there in PE, it’s sort of lost but it’s funny to see it in strength and conditioning now” “I just love the connection between PE and strength and conditioning, it’s there you just have to dig it up” “We played a game of tag, but you had to run in a lunge... really low to the ground. I did it with them, it felt like an ISO extreme lunge... it was a great way for young children to develop strength in their legs, they are doing it without even realizing it” “Dan talks about doing duck walks and low lunge walks and things like that; and when athletes get really good at those things, it really cleans their (running form) up without practicing running” “I’d say in the last 2 years,