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With the NCAA tournament final on Monday night, I thought this email exchange I had Sunday morning might be of interest. As a little background, I was recently contacted by a local D3 basketball coach to help with his team’s off-season conditioning. As a little background, this team is a solid D3 program that generally loses in the first round of the NCAA tournament after winning its conference regular season title. I gathered some background information on the team, and even went up to check out a game a few weeks ago. Following the game, we met up, talked shop, and worked out some of the details on what I’d be doing to help them out; it was a go.
Then, I got an email that included the following:
We just met as a staff and when they were down in Atlanta they met with the a couple of coaches from the NYC area and decided to do a three day trip in mid December. Obviously this is a great experience for our players, but this trip cripples our budget. After punchig the numbers we literally have just under $400 dollars so now we have to adjust everything, including working with you. I appreciate the effort you have devoted to us since I first contacted you and I hope we are able to work something out, if not this year, certainly in years to come. When you find the time let me know what you think about situation.”
Honestly, I don’t really need the money, so doing this was going to be more for my own fun – and I liked the idea of helping out some coaches that were enthusiastic and open-minded (or at least I thought they were).
Here was my response:
Thanks for the update.
I have to be very honest with you: you guys are falling in to the trap that a lot of coaches fall into.
When my buddy and I left your game a few weeks ago, we remarked about how your team basically looked like a "good" high school team in New England. The thing is that neither of us really know a damn thing about the tactical aspect of basketball; we were referring to the speed of play, level of aggressiveness, and utter lack of athleticism. Your players were no different from their competition in terms of memorizing plays/defense, shooting, or anything tactically that could potentially differentiate them. They were just slower, fatter, and weaker - poor relative strength with reactive ability that was mediocre at best. Do you think that they remember plays any worse than the guys at Florida or Ohio St? Trust me, tactically, your guys are probably AHEAD of what you see in D1 ball (as evidenced by average scholastic achievement); they just aren't as physically gifted.
These deficiencies are readily trainable - and you get the added bonus of increased team camaraderie and attitude in the process.
Instead, you guys are going to spend more time on the tactical side of things - basically changing the engine on a car with square wheels. And, you're going to do it over three days while ignoring something more valuable that could span 16-20 weeks. Motor learning doesn't happen in three days.
The guys don't need a three-day vacation mid-season. They need to can the permanent vacation they've been on with respect to off-season conditioning and diet and get their act together. I would encourage you to think "different" instead of thinking "better" - otherwise you're just going to be waiting around until someone tells you what you want to hear.
Hope this wasn't too blunt.
Last night, the commentators noted that it would be very interested to see if Greg Oden of Ohio State – likely the most important man on the team – would be able to withstand the outstanding mobility of Florida’s big men. Mobility is a quality that is very easily trained.
Conversely, I didn’t hear anyone questioning whether Florida or Ohio State’s players could remember their defensive schemes or in-bounding plays.
Tomorrow night, when you’re watching the NCAA tournament final, consider who would be better off: the team that did a three-day crash course on the court in-season, or a team that worked the hardest and smartest in the off-season to prepare for the grueling in-season period.
For more information, check out UltimateOffSeason.com
Eric Cressey
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| When I look back on what I was doing and what I knew a few years ago (or even last year), I laugh. The health and human performance field is incredibly dynamic in nature, so if you aren't evolving, you're sure to be left behind.
For me, 2006 was a tremendous year of evolution, both personally and professionally, so I figured the new year would be a great time to reflect on some of the more influential revelations I had this year. This list certainly isn't exhaustive, but it should give you a peak into what a difference a year can make.
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| Without a doubt, the leg extension debate is one of the most heated in the fitness industry today. Let's take a look at what the research says and apply our findings in a practical manner.
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| The strength and conditioning field is like no other. Coaches have bitter enemies and die-hard devotees — and sometimes a person will qualify as both depending on the day of the week. There are insane egos and there are humble, incredibly bright coaches who go unnoticed. Finally, there are a lot of coaches who people really don't get.
On one hand, you have genuinely bad strength and conditioning professionals who couldn't coach their way out of a wet paper bag. On the other hand, you have extremely knowledgeable coaches who people really don't seem to understand — either because they don't try to understand them or because they're working off of false pretenses. Mike Boyle tends to fall into the latter category. In fact, he might be the world's most misunderstood strength coach.
Until last year, I really didn't "get" Mike Boyle either. However, I've had the chance to meet up with him twice recently, and we've exchanged a few dozen emails about training methodologies. We still don't agree on everything, but I can definitely say this is one smart, experienced coach who has a lot to offer the world of performance enhancement.
You don't have to like him or take everything he says to heart, but you're missing out if you're not at least listening with an open mind. So, without further ado, Mike Boyle.
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| In Part I, we discussed how your body type can hinder you on certain lifts while making you an absolute stud on others. We also covered how your body type can influence the way you should be training to maximize your performance in the squat.
Here in Part II, our goal is to take the guesswork out of bench and deadlift training and, in the process, take your total to an all-time high!
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| "I suck at squatting because I'm too skinny!"
"My bench is weak because of my long arms!"
"My deadlift will never go up. I'm just not built to pull heavy!"
Ever hear a training partner utter one of these lines? Or, worse yet, have you ever said these things yourself? If so, we're here to give you a fresh outlook on ways to improve your lifts.
Biomechanics buffs like us are always looking for scientifically applicable ways to improve our lifting. In this article, we're going to give you some new insights as to possible areas of weakness, as well as ways to address these weaknesses to take you to newfound levels of strength and performance! |
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| Just being strong isn't enough; you need to be strong for your size, too. Make no mistake about it, training for strength without markedly increasing body weight is a lot more challenging than just focusing on absolute strength.
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| It's been a while since Part IV so those of you following this program are probably chomping at the bit for the conclusion. Chomp no more, because this is it!
The program contained in this article is designed to reintroduce more of the traditional exercises that you've grown to love while still maintaining the emphasis on postural corrections through appropriate prioritization and volume manipulation. Essentially, it's one step closer to the balanced training programs you should seek to create. Remember, we shifted the balance in the opposite direction to start to take care of the problems created by lack of balance in previous programs.
This program will last three weeks (and is meant to follow the first program outlined in part IV), after which you'll want to have a back-off week consisting of markedly lower volume. Oh, and even if you're not following the entire "Neanderthal No More" program, you'll still learn some new exercises you've probably tried before.
Here are the goods:
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| I'm going to let you in on a little secret. There's a very simple way to improve your maximal strength almost effortlessly. Surprisingly, it has nothing to do with periodization, sets, reps, intensity, rest periods, exercise selection, neuromuscular coordination, or anything else in the gym with which you're concerned. You won't find it on an infomercial, either.
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| In Part I we covered some pre-training measures you can use to get your glutes fired up and ready to go. Now it's time to get to work on strengthening them. Before we discuss the exercises, let's go over four regulations. If you violate these four groundrules, we'll kick your ass (no pun intended).
1) You'll use a full range of motion (ROM) on all exercises, even if you're the most inflexible person alive.
2) You'll drive/lead with the heel and not prance around like a sissy on your tiptoes.
3) You'll keep the torso erect (chest high and scapulae retracted) to ensure a full ROM.
4) You'll check your ego at the door and decrease the weight if necessary to perform the exercises correctly!
Every rule doesn’t apply to every exercise, but more often than not, these little cues will help you to increase your gluteal function and strength. Now, let's move on to the exercises!
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