Last week, Perry Nickelston interviewed me for his podcast. We covered everything from the origins of my latest product, Show and Go, to baseball workouts, to running a facility. You can listen to the interview for free HERE.
Michael Boyle published this Q&A newsletter about quick feet and agility ladder drills last week, and I enjoyed it so much that I asked him if I could repost it here. Suffice it to say that I am not a fan of "agility ladder" drills, and while Mike does use them in moderation, he makes a great case for why we don't want to go overboard - or expect too much of them.
Q: A couple of threads on the Strength Coach forum got me thinking about the question of foot speed and athletes. I can't tell you how often I hear a parent or a coach ask, "How can I improve my son's/daughter's/athlete's foot speed or agility?"
A: It seems everyone always wants the shortcut and the quick fix.
The better question might be "Do you think you can improve foot speed?" or maybe even the larger question, "Does foot speed even matter?"
That begs the larger question, "Does foot speed have anything to do with agility?" I know coaches or parents reading this are asking, "Is this guy crazy?" How many times have we heard that "speed kills?" I think the problem is that coaches and parents equate fast feet with fast and quick feet with agile. However, fast feet don't equal fast any more than quick feet equal agile. In some cases, fast feet might actually make an athlete slow--often I see fast feet as a detriment to speed. In fact, some of our quick turnover guys, those who would be described as having fast feet, are very slow off the start.
The problem is fast feet don't use the ground well to produce force. Fast feet might be good on hot coals, but not on hard ground. Think of the ground as the well from which we draw speed. It is not how fast the feet move, but rather how much force goes into the ground. This is basic action-reaction physics. Force into the ground equals forward motion. This is why the athletes with the best vertical jumps are most often the fastest. It comes down to force production. Often coaches will argue the vertical vs. horizontal argument and say the vertical jump doesn't correspond to horizontal speed, but years of data from the NFL Combine begs to differ. Force into the ground is force into the ground. In spite of what Brett Contreras may say, vectors don't seem to matter here. The truth is parents should be asking about vertical jump improvement, not about fast feet. My standard line is "Michael Flatley has fast feet, but he doesn't really go anywhere. If you move your feet fast and don't go anywhere, does it matter? It's the old "tree falling in the woods" thing.
The best solution to slow feet is to get stronger legs. Feet don't matter. Legs matter. Think about it this way: If you stand at the starting line and take a quick first step but fail to push with the back leg, you don't go anywhere. The reality is that a quick first step is actually the result of a powerful first push. We should change the buzzwords and start to say "that kid has a great first push." Lower body strength is the real cure for slow feet and the real key to speed and to agility. The essence of developing quick feet lies in single-leg strength and single-leg stability work… landing skills. If you cannot decelerate, you cannot accelerate - at least not more than once.
One of the things I love is the magic drill idea. This is the theory that developing foot speed and agility is not a process of gaining strength and power, but rather the lack of a specific drill. I tell everyone I know that if I believed there was a magic drill we would do it every day. The reality is it comes down to horsepower and the nervous system, two areas that change slowly over time.
How do we develop speed, quickness and agility?
Unfortunately, we need to do it the slow, old-fashioned way. You can play with ladders and bungee cords all you want, but that is like putting mag wheels on an Escort. The key is to increase the horsepower, the brakes, and the accelerator. I think the answer for me is always the same. I wrote an article last year called "Is ACL Prevention Just Good Training?" In much the same way, development of speed, agility and quicknesssimply comes down to good training. We need to work on lower body strength and lower body power - and we need to do it on one leg.
I also love "agility" ladder drills. They provide excellent multi-planar dynamic warm-up. They develop brain-to-muscle connection and are excellent for eccentric strength and stability. We do less than five minutes of ladder drills, one or two times a week. I don't believe for a minute that the ladder is a magic tool that will make anyone faster or more agile, however I do believe it is a piece of the puzzle from the neural perspective. People waste more than five minutes on biceps curls, but we have long debates about ladder drills.
These are also a great tool to show to coaches who want "foot speed." Sometime it's easier to "yes" them than to argue with them. Give a guy with "bad feet" a jump rope and you get a guy with bad feet and patella tendonitis.
For more information on Michael Boyle, check out StrengthCoach.com or the Functional Strength Coach 3.0 DVD set.
It's been a while since I did a random thoughts blog; actually, it was October 6 - which is also known as the "Pre-Puppy Era" in the Cressey household. As such, we have a lot to get to, so let's not waste any time.
1. It's been interesting to watch the Giants - a team without a true superstar (aside from Lincecum, who's only thrown one game) - take control of the World Series. However, the most interesting part of the World Series for me was when former president George W. Bush came out and threw an absolutely effortless SEED to Nolan Ryan for the first pitch of Game 4.
It was a nice change of pace from what we often see with ceremonial first pitch appearances, as I wrote about previous in Why President Obama Throws Like a Girl. You almost have to wonder if him busting out the cheddar during election week was a calculated attempt to win some Republican votes!
Also, please refrain from political fighting in the comments section, kids; this is a bipartisan blog. I will, however, encourage everyone to please get out and vote tomorrow, regardless of your candidates of choice.
2. I am still waiting for someone to convince me that cold water immersion post-training does anything for athletes other than cause serious shrinkage and irritate them. It seems like it becomes more and more of "the rage" with each passing day, but I still haven't seen anything in the scientific literature supporting the efficacy of ice baths for recovery. This piece came out just recently: Post exercise ice water immersion: Is it a form of active recovery?
We do not advocate cold water immersion for our athletes right now because I feel that there isn't any evidence to suggest that it has any favorable effects, and for such an annoying experience, you need to be getting considerable benefit in order to be using it regularly. Moreover, I have seen a TON of pitchers who absolutely despise icing their arms after throwing outings, saying that it interferes with their arm bouncing back and gives them stiffness and difficulty warming up in the subsequent throwing outing. There is going to need to be some definitive evidence supporting cold water immersion before I even consider experimenting with it in any of our athletes.
That said, what has your experience been with cold water immersion and ice baths for recovery? Please share your thoughts in the comments section.
3. Agents paying college football players to sign with them is a very corrupt and unacceptable practice, but the most scary part of this article for me is that three of the 23 players in question were DEAD before they hit 30. Does anyone else find that a 13% mortality rate among this guy's potential clients kind of odd? My guess would be that they weren't the most ethical guys in question and probably were involved in some sketchy stuff on the side, but it is still pretty wild that the author of this article just tosses it in there as a quick closing sentence like it's nothing worthy of consideration.
4. We are kicking on all cylinders with our professional baseball training crew. As of right now, we have 44 guys from all over the country committed to getting after it this winter. It's shaping up to be a fun time and great atmosphere - especially when you factor in our high school and college baseball guys.
5. Speaking of Cressey Performance, we've got Nick Tumminello coming in this morning to do an in-service for our staff. Nick's a smart dude who teaches all over the world (he's headed to China right after us), and we're really lucky to have him. In this dynamic industry, if you aren't getting better, you're falling behind - so be sure to seek out opportunities to watch industry leaders present whenever you can. For more information on Nick, check out www.NickTumminello.com. Here's a little taste of some of Nick's stuff:
I announced this cool opportunity to my newsletter subscribers yesterday, but thought I'd throw it up on the blog as well. By entering your name and email address below, you'll get free access to the exact post-throwing stretches we use with a lot of our pitchers.
This will also subscribe you to my baseball content newsletter - which will be separate from my "normal" newsletter. So, if you're only subscribed to my regular newsletter and would like to have notifications whenever I've got new baseball content, be sure to subscribe.
Have a great weekend!
If you've had a groin strain (or adductor strain, for the anatomy geeks like me in the crowd) - or would like to prevent one in the first place - read on.
Those of you who check out this website regularly probably already know that I'm a huge advocate of good manual therapy - especially disciplines like Graston and Active Release. One area where we constantly see athletes really "gritty" is the hip adductors (groin muscles) - and it's one reason why we see so many groin strains in the general population. Note that treatments DON'T have to be this aggressive to yield favorable outcomes; it's just an extreme example of someone with a pale skin tone that makes it even more prominent:
Soccer and hockey players really overuse the adductors during the kicking motion and skating stride, respectively. And, even outside athletic populations, you'll see a lot of people who don't activate the gluteus maximum well as a hip extension - so you have the adductor magnus taking over to help out with this important task. The only problem is that the adductor magnus internally rotates and adducts the hip, whereas the glute max externally rotates and abducts the hip. Movements get altered, one muscle gets overworked and all fibrotic, and the next thing you know you've got a nasty "tweak" just south of the frank and beans (or female equivalent).
Really, that's not the issue, though. Nobody is denying that groin strains occur - but there are different treatment approaches to dealing with this issue on the rehabilitation side of things. Some professionals use manual therapy during their treatments, while others don't. Can you guess which school of thought gets my backing?
Well, it turns out that the "include manual therapy" side of the argument gets the backing of Weir et al in light of some new research they just published. These researchers found that athletes with groin strains returned to sports 4.5 weeks sooner when they received manual therapy plus stretching and a return to running program as compared to an exercise therapy and return to running program only. It took the average time lost down from 17.3 weeks to 12.8 weeks in those with good long-term outcomes! For a bit more information on the manual therapy discipline utilized in this particular study, check out this abstract.
Need a quick tutorial on how to come back from a groin strain?
1. Find a good physical therapist who does manual therapy.
2. Listen to and do everything he/she says.
3. If anything hurts in the gym, don't do it. In most cases, deadlifting variations are okay, but single-leg work will really exacerbate the pain. Squatting is usually a problem at first, and then gets better over time. It really depends on which of the adductors you strained.
4. When you are cleared for return to full function, keep hammering on glute activation and hip mobility as outlined in Assess & Correct.
5. Make sure you're continuing to foam roll the area and getting the occasional treatment on them with that same manual therapy you had during your rehabilitation. Here's a great self myofascial release option with the foam roller:
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I got the following questions from a Show and Go customer this morning and thought I'd turn it into a quick Q&A:
Do high-top basketball shoes provide any significant stability and safety advantages over low-tops that would make me NOT want to buy low-tops? When I played hoops in high school my ankles rolled over at least once every few months, so it feels obvious that there's a lot more to the stability equation than the height of the ankle on the shoe.
Rather than reinvent the wheel, I sent him to these two articles:
Nike Shox and High HeelsThe Importance of Ankle Mobility
Then, I gave him the following advice: "I would never put one of my athletes in high-tops. The introduction of the high top and the addition of big heel lifts in sneakers is, in my eyes, the cause of the epidemic of anterior knee pain and the emergence of high ankle sprains. And, you're right that there is more to the stability equation than the height of the shoe: the muscles and tendons of the lower leg (particularly the peroneals) actually have to do some work to prevent ankle sprains. Put yourself in a concrete block of a shoe and tape your ankles and you are just asking all those muscles to shut down."
For more information on truly functional stability training for the lower leg and core, check out my e-book, The Truth About Unstable Surface Training.
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Here are some recommended reads from the archives for today:
An Easy Way to Rotate Strength Exercises - One of the biggest frustrations of training in a commercial or home gym is that there just aren't enough opportunities to create variety and fluctuations to the resistance training stimulus. This post highlights one simple way to double your exercise index.
A Carrot, an Egg, and a Bag of Ground Coffee - This one is more of a "meeting life's challenges" post as it applies to the fitness industry.
Five Resistance Training Myths in the Running World - If this doesn't interest you, I'm sure it'll at least interest a dozen of your friends who are running addicts! Please spread the good word - whether it's via Facebook, Twitter, or carrier pigeon.
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Looking for a masochistic new strength exercise to add to your resistance training program? Try the Dumbbell Bulgarian Split Squat from Deficit, one of my favorite movements for improving hip mobility while really challenging lower body strength and frontal plane stability. If you need to shake up your workout routine, this is a great place to start - assuming you don't mind being miserably sore!
As I mentioned in a blog earlier this week, my wife and I got a puppy last weekend. "Tank" is absolutely awesome and we (and all the CP clients) love him.
Like any puppy, though, it is going to take some time to housebreak him. While he's going to crap on the floor and pee on the carpet quite a bit over the first few months, we have faith in the fact that if we praise him like crazy and give him treats consistently each time he "goes" outside, he will get the point eventually and make great progress. This "faith" has been present in every single pet owner with whom we've talked over the past month.
Nobody uses electroshock routines to try to "get through" to the puppy faster, and there aren't thousands of supplements out there to expedite outdoor crappy progress. People are patient and trust in the system.
Wouldn't it be nice if those beginning strength training programs were like this???
I am fortunate to know a lot of people who have made ridiculous progress in the weight room and dramatically changed their bodies. And, I can tell you that just about all of them chalk up a big chunk of their success to just consistently busting their humps - both in the weight room and the kitchen - for years. I've never met a world-class bodybuilder, powerlifter, or other athlete that devotes a huge part of their success to a supplement they use, or radical training program they did in their first few years of training. It's funny, though; when I meet an up-and-coming lifter or athlete (and particularly professional baseball players), the first question is "what supplements should I take?" I generally recommend "Shut up and Train" in softgel form.
I've commented before on how I attribute a big chunk of my success to the fact that I didn't miss a single planned resistance training session in roughly eight years - and to end that streak, it took 32 inches of snow in 24 hours (and I made the lift up the next day).
Consistency is the most important thing – especially in beginners. You don’t need reverse undulating cybernetic periodization with quasi-isometric inverted wave loading and contrast training; you need to shut up and pick up some heavy stuff, as anything will work as you begin as long as you are consistent. Heck, I did garbage weight training programs straight out of bodybuilding magazines when I first got started and made great progress because there was no place to go but up. All that mattered was that for two years, I went home after lifting and shoveled down about 1,500 calories of quality food each and every time. My diet and training may not have been perfect (or even close to it), but they were damn consistent.
So, the next time you think that you start thinking that you're super special and physiologically different from everyone else, imagine me standing out in my backyard at 5:30AM freezing my butt off while I wait for my puppy to drop a deuce so that he can take one more step toward awesomeness while you spin your wheels. It might put things in perspective and have you back to the basics before you know it.
To take the guesswork out of your programming, check out Show and Go: High Performance Training to Look, Feel, and Move Better.
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Because Alex Maroko is a good buddy of mine, I decided to make this webinar available to you at absolutely no cost. If you want to learn about the thought process behind each strength and conditioning program I write - for athletes that range from baseball players, to basketball stars, to professional boxers, to Olympic bobsledders - then look no further.
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