Desire to Train

Editors Note: My new site is now at www.just-fly-sports.com Check it out for a wealth of information on jumping higher and running faster, all backed by research and practical experience!

This year's track season will soon be over, and a new season of training will soon begin. I always enjoyed the prospect of "starting over" in training, just because you no longer had to worry about what you felt like on meet day, you can just go train and that is the end of it. After nationals/state meets, most athletes take between 2 weeks and a month off before they get back to training again. This a pretty good idea, and the rule of thumb that I typically use in a transition period is just to go until I can't stand not training.

When you think about it though, the desire to train is often a great gauge regarding overtraining and fatigue. Aren't your best workouts typically on those days when you just wake up and all you can think about it getting to the weightroom or track? This is your body's system which is telling you that, yes, you are really ready for today's workout. Desire to train is definitely a good thing to keep track of when you are working out through the training year, and ESPECIALLY in the competitive season. If you go into a heavy jumping or plyometric session without really feeling enthusiastic about the workout, I GUARANTEE you are going to pay for it in a good week or two of dead legs. I have seen this in myself and also the jumpers which I coach. Now in coaching frameworks where a structured and unwavering microcycle is king, this can be a hard thing to deal with, but this is the "art" portion of the art and science of coaching. You need to know when to back off and let your athletes (or yourself) regain a strong desire to train.

A general rule of thumb with this, is that the more CNS intensive the activity, such as plyometrics, the more not being physically and mentally fresh into the workout is going to hurt you. (by plyometrics I am talking about depth jumps and heavy plyos) You can get away with being a little dull in activities such as 3 week blocks of lifting around 60-75% 1RM, because this is a little easier on the CNS and will allow fast recovery once you back off, while the training effect of depth jumps and heavy plyos can be monstrous if you dont allow enough recovery.



Joel

A short/medium length rant

Editors Note: My new site is now at www.just-fly-sports.com Check it out for a wealth of information on jumping higher and running faster, all backed by research and practical experience!

If you have been following my youtube videos lately, you might have noticed that I have had a fairly decent depth jumping and two footed jumping session recently. Based on this, I figured that I would at least have a DECENT high jumping performance at my latest meet, which was yesterday at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh. As much as I would have liked to do well, I did not, and I no-heighted at 6'4.25". The cause of this was only partly technical, but was mostly due to just a lack of single leg jumping ability (couldn't even scissor 5'8 in warmups).

Now my training has been excellent up to this point, I have been having fairly good high jump practices.......almost as good as I ever have had, but it seems like every time I get to a meet, I am just flat. Now compare this to my record season where I had good practices, but then GREAT competitions. The big difference between these two seasons is really just one thing.

Volume.

I don't train as much as I used to, partly because of work, and other factors, but I feel that when I hit the gym or the track, I really take care of business. Regardless, my adaptation rate and work capacity are down (over 2 weeks for the same depth jumping session that took me only 3-4 days to recover from), and this really hurts when you have competitions to take care of. I do, however, have a running 2 leg vertical that is just as good or better than ever. So what is the point of all this................


Research has shown that in order to improve from year to year, training volume must increase. I know there are special situations where this is not true, such as Jonathan Edwards WR triple jump, but as far as my personal experience goes, this is definitely the case. Every time I look back at my training log from my record breaking season.......I am surprised by how much volume I had, and how in the world I was able to tolerate it. Here is a typical fall training week from my PR year back in 2004-2005.

Monday:

Warmup
Forward Overhead Med Ball Throws x50 total
4 step high-jumps: x8 reps, work up to 6'2
standing triple jumps x6, around 28' (note: not the greatest distance!)
1x30m alternate leg bounding
Hang Snatch, 4x95lb, 4x115lb, 4x125lb
Cleans from Floor, 4x135lb, 4x175lb, 3x195lb, 3x195lb
Jerks, 3x6, 115lb
Overhead Lunge, 2x6, 95lb

Tuesday:

8x200m sprints: around 30-32s each, 3 minute recovery

Wednesday:

Hurdle Drills
Forward Overhead Med-ball throws x50
3 Step-Javelin Throws
17" squat (about 3/4 squat) 225x6, 275x4, 300x3, 300x3
Incline Bench Press, 125x6, 135x4, 145x3
Deadlift: 225x6, 275x4, 295x3
Reverse Hypers 2x10, 25lb+band
Abs

Thursday:

5x300m at 48-50sec with 3min recovery

Friday:

2x33" double leg hurdle hops w/30m acceleration
1x30" single leg hurdle hops
1x33" single leg hurdle hops
2x36" single leg hurdle hops
Incline pullovers 5x40,50,60lb
Hurdle stretch goodmornings: 65x2
abs

Saturday or Sunday: 1-2 mile easy jog and stretch

(Note: I never really felt great on any of these training days, and I worked on a 3:1 cycle or hard weeks to easy weeks. I think I just kept pushing through the volume and adapted.......something that is hard to do when you are training by yourself.)

Well, there you have it, nothing special, and certainly not anything to write home about regarding the weights or distances, although the hurdle hops weren't bad. I feel that part of what may have made that specific season successful was just the large volume of training in the fall, and then the largely reduced training in the winter/spring. Regardless, it is annoying when you know way more about training than you did 4 years ago and still cannot produce jumps in the region that you used to be able to.

My advice to you would be this..........if you are a track athlete, it is hard to sacrafice volume, because every year I have had a low volume season, I have failed! My work capacity and adaptability rates were just too low. Of course, not everyone is like this, but I feel that the majority of athletes will fall into this category.

Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice!

Post Workout Recovery

Editors Note: My new site is now at www.just-fly-sports.com Check it out for a wealth of information on jumping higher and running faster, all backed by research and practical experience!

Let face it folks, nutrition is extremely important to your success as an athlete and your recovery between workout sessions. Almost as important though, as what you put into your body, is how you time your nutrition. The most important time to facilitate nutrition, and particularly supplements is directly before and after your workout. This window has been referred to by some as the anabolic window, and demonstrates the amount of time your body has to switch itself from catabolic (breakdown) mode into anabolic (buildup) mode.

So how do you optimize your anabolic window? First of all, try a liquid solution which is fairly high in carbohyrates/or creatine right before and during your workout. Secondly, and most importantly, within 45 minutes of finishing your workout, you need to give your body what it needs in order to begin the important rebuilding process. In order to do this, you can buy an overpriced (4$ a serving on average) post-workout recovery drink..............OR, you can make this cheap and effective alternative yourself.

Post Workout Recovery Drink:

16fl oz chocolate milk
5g creatine powder
vitamins A,C and E. (take with drink)

Thats it!

Features: 3:1 ratio of carbs to protein, you will notice this ratio on other recovery drinks. Creatine helps faciliate rebuilding of ATP stores, and the ACE vitamins are anti-oxidants which help combat free-radicals and other muscle deterioration activities. You will find this as a cheap and effective post workout recovery. Try it!

Joel

The Fastest Way to Improve!!!! New Secret Training!!!

Editors Note: My new site is now at www.just-fly-sports.com Check it out for a wealth of information on jumping higher and running faster, all backed by research and practical experience!

Do I have your attention now? Ok, so here goes........and lets just use running vertical jump and dunking ability as an example today. So you want to jump higher and dunk better right? What is the FASTEST way to get better. Here are two options:

Option A:

Get your backsquat up to 1.5-2x bodyweight
then
Do plyometrics: bounding, depth jumps and the like
also
Stretch daily, do functional analysis on posture and gait, determine posterior chain vs. anterior chain strength and design a program combating these weaknesses.


Option B:

Get in a competitive environment and practice your jumping and dunking until your legs are sore. Repeat every few days.


Guess which option the 'top level' dunkers you see on youtube, etc.. use?

here's a hint.......it's not 'A'.


Ok, ok, ok.......so I understand your potential backlash and perhaps misunderstanding. I also realize that the youtube jumpers such as teamflightbrothers are genetic freaks and will be awesome no matter what type of training they do (which for them is just playing basketball and dunking). I am not saying here, that if you want to realize your ultimate athletic potential that you can get away with just practicing say, dunking, if throwing down nasty dunks is your goal. I am saying though, that you will never become the dunker/jumper you can potentially be if you get so caught up in weights/plyos/etc... that you forget the raw art form of the primary sport movement. This holds true more, the more dynamic the movement. Here is a continuum of sport movements which have increasing importance of practicing the actual sport movement.

Least Important:
Squat Jump
Standing Vertical Jump
Acceleration<10 meters
Running Vertical Jump (2 legs)
Running Vertical Jump (1 leg)
Top End Speed (flying 10 meter)
Top End Speed Endurance (300yd shuttle or 400m dash)
Most Important:

Take a look at some of the greatest athletes in sport: sprinters, jumpers, dunkers, even distance runners. What do they all have in common? They make their activity look fluid....effortless. Yet what do we do when we neglect our primary sport movement in favor of other movements. We get back to our sport specific movement and "muscle it" or "force it". Because we neglect it, it is less natural. We no longer use the SPECIFIC muscular and neural firing patterns for that activity and substitute it with other firing patterns.

Ok, so the number one way to improve any activity is what? To practice that activity, simple enough. What is the number 2 way to improve then? Depth jumps? Squats? Turkish Get-ups?
Not really, the second best way to improve is just doing a weighted version of the original. Practice dunking with a weight vest on, or sprint with a light resistance such as a parachute.

The third thing to do to max out your neural pathways is to overload the eccentric portion of whatever movement your sport is based on. This is accomplished by an exercise known as depth jumps. Research has shown that the more energy which is stored in the eccentric phase of a movement, the more energy will be released in the concentric phase. The final key to maximizing your efficiency in a specific event is by doing depth jumps and similar plyometrics.

In simple words, what do these three things do, practicing the original sport movement, weighted versions and then plyometrics? They max out your efficiency in that given activity. Once your efficiency is maxed out, or close to maxed out, only then will weightlifting really be the only way to improve. Of course weightlifting is handy before you max out your efficiency, but the closer you get to 100% efficiency, the more it will help you. Basically, practicing your movement and plyometrics will allow you to recruit the majority of your available motor units (except emergency motor units only recruitable by life/death situations), while lifting weights will increase the total motor pool available. It is as simple as that.

Here is a sample program which could help an intermediate athlete (1.25-1.5xbw squat, 26-30" VJ) get better based on the things I have just outlined.

2 Day per Week System:

Day 1:
PRIMARY
Practice Dunking/Jumping until noticable decrease in height jumped.
SECONDARY
3x8 Deadlift, with weight that you could do 10x with moderate/difficult effort

Day 2:
Practice Dunking/Jumping with weighted vest about 5-8% of bodyweight until noticable decrease in height jumped.
OR (if no weight vest)
Practice Dunking/Jumping off 18" box (depth jumps) until noticable decrease in height jumped occurs.

It really can be that simple folks.....this type of program will yield excellent short term results.

For good results over a long term, you might want to use a cycle like this alternated with weightlifting oriented cycles.

Joel

Go Getta Syndrome

Editors Note: My new site is now at www.just-fly-sports.com Check it out for a wealth of information on jumping higher and running faster, all backed by research and practical experience!
For some reason, I can't stop naming my posts by rap songs......

There are some athletes, including myself that are great to coach. They are the hard workers, the highly motivated, "go-getter" type of athletes. Most of them are intrinsically motivated by nature, i.e., they don't do what they do for the external rewards. They don't do it for the roar of the crowd, the medals or trophies, or the swoon of the ladies. No, they train and compete because of the deep inner drive that is within themselves to become the best that they can be. This type of athlete is not only well motivated, but also fiercely competitive. This type of athlete can be great to coach, except for one thing, which is the possibility of overtraining. The following is a list of good ways to overtrain in a speed-power related event, and are ways in my opinion, that hard working athletes fall more prone to.

References in Parenthesis:

Do plyometrics for more than a 3-4 week time period without a "rest week".
(Bompa, Myself)

Lift weights at greater than 90% of ones 1RM for an extended period of time (4-5 weeks).
(Siff, Verkhoshansky)

Do "partial" lifts at over 90% of 1RM for a short period of time (2-3 weeks)
(Myself)

Don't do enough light work between heavy workouts, and only do CNS intensive work when one does work out. (Vern Gambetta)

Lose their fitness level at the expense of CNS intensive work early in the training year. (Verkhoshanski)

Not take rest or transition periods when appropriate, which is often after 3-4 month blocks of training. (Kraemer)


Now there are a few helpful solutions to making your training program a little more nervous system friendly. The main one is just to make a plan and stick to it. Don't do more than you gave for yourself or your athletes to do on that given day, either in the weightroom or out on the track. Some of my best workouts I have had, my body crashed the days after, because I wore my nervous system out too much. A maximal competitive effort can wear the nervous system out for days to weeks, depending on the event. A prime example of this is olympic weightlifting, where after a peak competition, 6 meet lifts can keep an athlete from competition shape for up to a month.

Another helpful solution is to not get over-psyched in the weight room. This is a serious problem for a lot of athletes. We all love to watch the powerlifting and olympic weightlifting videos of lifters getting psyched and hitting a huge lift. This may be an effective strategy if the ultimate outcome of our sport was to lift X-amount of weight. As it stands, it is not, and thus we must take care in the weight room not to over-extend ourselves. It can be a valuable practice to check your heart rate immediately before performing sets in the weight room. If your heart rate is noticable higher for a big set, then you are likely over-exerting yourself, and the training effect of your set is going to be fairly large (it will take a long time to recover from). If you think about it, isn't this what we tend to do though.......we go through a period of weight training which starts fairly easy, and we don't have to exert ourselves too much, and then comes a day where we really start having to psyche ourselves up to get after it and hit the set we wanted, and then we find ourselves lacking progress from that point on. Now some people can get away with this, but all too often, it leads to CNS fatigue, especially in highly motivated athletes who don't have the resiliant, high work capacity systems that some elite athletes do. We can also get away with this once in a while, as the human body does go through various rhythms. It is not a good idea to always push through though. As the textbooks say, 75-80% is the magic bracket that most olympic lifters work in during the majority of their training sets over the training year. When you do decide to push it, you might want to stick to a 3 or 5 rep max lift, rather than a 1 or 2 rep max.


Finally, in order to keep from overtraining, rest and recovery periods should be woven into each aspect of the training cycle. Recovery sessions are often tacked into the nano-cycle (training day) of each athlete in a world-class training system. These recovery sessions are often in the form of aerobic work, stretching, massage, hydrotherapy, EMS and other methods. Recovery periods should also be integrated regularly into the meso and macrocycle format of training.

On a final note, don't rush your training program. We all want 6 inches of vertical or .2 seconds on our 40 right away, but the best athletes are built over a long period of time. It is a good idea to shoot for a gradual increase in weight room strength from year to year, instead of giant leaps. Research has shown that gradual year to year increase in volume is the best way to maintain progress.

Joel

Bar Clearance in High Jumping

Editors Note: My new site is now at www.just-fly-sports.com Check it out for a wealth of information on jumping higher and running faster, all backed by research and practical experience!

I have decided that it is about time for me to get back to a technical article of some sort. Most of what I have written recently has been about training theory in general, and not so much about the great sport of high-jumping. In my "technical high jump manifesto" I conclude that in most cases, the body will automatically respond to the bar in order to clear it. In most cases this is true, at least after a certain amount of hours spent in practice. I have realized, however, that there are some people that really have a gift to contort their body over the bar, while others struggle to control their body in the air at all. I would consider myself a holistic coach. I don't mess around with a lot of drills (I will write more on this later) because I feel that actually high jumping with accurate cues and feedback is much better than the sum of its parts.

One drill that I do like to use, however, is the standing backover. I often see many mistakes in the performance of this drill, which lead to bad habits. Before I get to those, here is a video of a standing backover in high-jump.




Now this is a great standing high jump, and the bar clearance is excellent. Notice the timing of the arch through the hips and the drawing in off the feet towards the buttocks. There are times, however, when this drill can lead to bad habits. One variation of this drill that leads to bad habits is standing too close to the bar when it is performed. When this happens, the dynamic chain which leads to successful bar clearance is compromised. This happens because the parabolic curve which the bodies center of mass is much more straight up-and-down then a typical high jump where there is far more horizontal displacement. Standing too close when performing this drill will lead to improper timing in throwing the head back, and bringing the hips and knees up. Here is a video of a good jumper with tremendous leaping ability who stands just a little too close to the bar when performing this drill:




My recommendation for a standing back-over would be to have your feet a distance from the bar that is simliar to where you actually take off from in high jump. Athletes who take off from very far away can move this mark in a few inches or even a foot if they take off from over a meter away. I would also advise those athletes whose best standing jump is less than 1.60m to use a booster box (6-12 inches) when doing this drill. This will help create more similarity between the backover and the bar clearance encountered in the actual jump.

The second aspect I would like to cover when addressing bar clearance is that of rotation. Rotation over the bar is primarily determined by the forces at take-off but can also be influenced by the shortening of the bodies levers over the bar. Proper rotation can be determined by a simple analysis. When the jumper is at their apex over the bar, their total body alignment (if they were to straighten their body) would be around parallel to the ground. Many jumpers who jump with inadequate lean at takeoff, or long levers will be at an angle to the ground, here is a helpful illustration.

This jumper is demonstrating proper bar clearance, and is in a good setup for the hips to clear easiler. This position comes from proper rotation and not just throwing the head back and arching. The next picture demonstrates an improper bar clearance/rotation.


Now here is a very common clearance position for a lot of jumpers who either have not developed their curve and takeoff properly, or just don't have coaches who know better. In this jump, the hips have not reached the high point that the upper back has, because of a lack of rotation. Now rotation can be achieved in two ways. The first is to learn the proper way to run a curve, and not come out of it on the last two steps. It is a common fault to see a jumper come "straight up" on the last two steps of their curve. Once a jumper has effectively learned a curve, they must learn to have short and effective levers in the air. Here is a picture of a jumper who has very short and effective levers in bar clearance.


Linus Thornblad

Here is another picture of a jumper who demonstrates good rotation and bar clearance.



Blanca Vlasic


Notice how she is actually rotated past parallel when she is clearing the bar. I have noticed that in jumpers with longer limbs, sometimes, more rotation is necessary than those with shorter limbs. This makes is possible for jumpers with longer legs to clear the bar more effectively. In closing, here are some tips for helping you or your jumpers clear the bar more effectively.

1. Backovers are an effective drill, but do not focus the marjority of your practice on them
2. The transition from a standing backover to a full high jump can be made easier by doing "running" 2-footed high jumps following standing backover work.
3. Cues such as bringing the feet tighter to the buttocks, spreading the knees apart, throwing the head back, and getting the hips up can all be used in standing and running 2 foot backover drills.
4. A drill that I like is a short approach high jump off of one leg where the coach stands behind the pit and holds up 1-5 fingers with his/her hand. The jumper must then look backwards during the jump and tell the coach how many fingers they held up. This is an advanced variation of the standing drill with holding fingers up.
5. Standing and running high jumps are different motor skills, always keep that in mind. Just because someone can do standing backovers well, does not automatically mean they will be good at the full jump, and don't let a jumper focus on standing backovers just because they are good at them and their standing backover jump makes them feel good about themselves. Focus on their weaknesses.
6. Perfect form in a full-high jump will be clearing the bar by simliar amounts with the shoulders, back, and hips, keep this in mind when a jumper comments on how far their back was over the bar in a given jump.


Finally, on a closing note, realize that sometimes when a jumper rotates too fast, or is not used to their speed of rotation, they may start kicking the bar off with their feet. This happens more often in taller, longer jumpers who need to compensate for the increased rotation with a more powerful foot kick. Work on a good extension of the legs as well as the other factors with these jumpers.

Good luck,

Joel

Rubber-Band Man Retraction

Well, I went and did it. I have thrown some ideas out in my last post that were not entirely correct. You see most of my last post was based off of research that I had looked at in a comprehensive review of around 50 scholarly-articles. A large amount of what I wrote was correct, but what is still up in the air, so to speak in the scholarly realm is if increasing tendon compliance is truly effective for increasing sport movement. Research by Keitaro Kubo shows that, yes, compliant tendons are more effective for stretch-shortening cycle movement, but, compliant tendons can also cause problems with force transmission from muscle to bone. After an email exchange with Dr. Kubo, he has concluded that it is still unknown if increased compliance or (increased stiffness) in tendon is truly useful for improving sport effectiveness. So basically, don't worry about specifics on improving your tendons. My advice is simply to put an emphasis on your primary sport movement, and the optimal tendon configuration should take care of itself.

I still do think my last article has some value in the relation of slow and fast twitch dominant athletes and sport performance. If nothing else, it is a valuable analytical tool. Finally, I would like to thank Roger "RJ" Nelson for his notes on my original article which led to this retraction. Sport science is something that is dynamic and evolving, and I try my best to stay on top of it. If anything is wrong, I will always let you know, and it is my utmost intention to keep everyone on the right track in the sport science world.

Joel