Latest / Performance Explored Project / Exploring Basketball Performance with Zack Zillner from The University of Miami

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Exploring Basketball Performance with Zack Zillner from The University of Miami · Performance Explored Project

0:01
SPEAKER_00: Exploring movement, exploring our body.
0:03
SPEAKER_00: The HO center, inside edge of the foot, crushing you from here.
0:07
SPEAKER_00: Different angles.
0:08
SPEAKER_00: Like these kids don't want to be here.
0:12
SPEAKER_01: Perception is the engine that drives our entire experience.
0:16
SPEAKER_00: On today's episode of the Performance Explorer Project, I have Zach Zillner, the director of sports performance for men's basketball here at University of Miami.
0:23
SPEAKER_00: He's going to take me through his warm-up protocols with coming to walking patterns.
0:27
SPEAKER_00: We're going to get into some run-specific isometrics.
0:29
SPEAKER_00: He's going to talk about the ability to load the frontal plane, being dynamic with strength and locomotion, being fluid with our movements.
0:36
SPEAKER_00: This could be a fun conversation.
0:38
SPEAKER_00: We're not only exploring movement, but talking about coaching and his journey.
0:41
SPEAKER_00: Hope you guys enjoyed the episode.
0:43
SPEAKER_00: Let's get into this.
0:45
SPEAKER_00: So February, we are creeping in to the madness of March right now.
0:50
SPEAKER_00: So you are in season with guys, they're coming in, they're probably feeling fatigue from the games they had, the practice, that volume that's kind of built up over time.
0:59
SPEAKER_00: Um, how when that when someone comes in, where do you start them at to kind of get them through a training session successfully?
1:04
SPEAKER_01: You can ask all our guys.
1:06
SPEAKER_01: They give me crap for it all the time, but it's our cable walk series.
1:09
SPEAKER_01: So it's lateral walks, backward walks, 45 degree walks, um, a different variation every day.
1:15
SPEAKER_01: And I think it's a great way to get the boys moving.
1:18
SPEAKER_01: And it's not uh your traditional boring like step-ups or quad stretch or whatever dynamic one, like it's some kind of in the mix right away.
1:29
SPEAKER_00: I I was hearing you talk about it and seeing the guys last time I came down here to Miami do some of those things, it's getting them to these different angles.
1:36
SPEAKER_00: So it's not just like traditionally sagittal exercises.
1:39
SPEAKER_00: I you're kind of exploring that frontal plane, adding some rotation in.
1:43
SPEAKER_00: And I love that because when I think about rotation, like we're constantly thinking about rotation as like like rotation, where it's like the frontal plane is what guides rotation.
1:52
SPEAKER_00: You being able to load effectively through the frontal plane and that whole step series, that's kind of like like the main focus with some of those movements is kind of that like step over, step through position.
2:02
SPEAKER_01: I think it's a perfect warm-up for any of our lateral, like power development days or speed days, where most of the stuff we're doing in basketball is lateral.
2:10
SPEAKER_01: So it's a great way to kind of warm them up and it's an assessment that day, too, to see how they're moving in and out, whether they're staying low or high.
2:17
SPEAKER_01: Uh, that gives us different questions we can ask of uh you have knee pain, back pain, foot, ankle complex, all that kind of thing.
2:23
SPEAKER_01: So it checks a lot of boxes for one movement.
2:25
SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna start out first with lateral walkouts.
2:28
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
2:28
SPEAKER_01: Um, step inside the harness.
2:30
SPEAKER_01: We start pretty much every one of our sessions with a form of walkout, and lateral walkouts are probably my favorite one.
2:35
SPEAKER_01: Okay, we're gonna face the wall.
2:37
SPEAKER_01: Where are we positioning this at?
2:39
SPEAKER_01: Uh right, like about waist height, um, whatever's comfortable, uh, maybe a little higher.
2:43
SPEAKER_01: Perfect.
2:44
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna be in a good athletic position.
2:46
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna start with our right leg crossing over.
2:49
SPEAKER_01: Yo, how much weight did you put on this thing?
2:51
SPEAKER_01: Come on, man.
2:52
SPEAKER_01: Come on, man.
2:54
SPEAKER_01: We'll lighten it up.
2:55
SPEAKER_01: We'll we'll restart it.
2:58
SPEAKER_01: Here, give me some.
3:02
SPEAKER_01: Our guys are like uh 240 pounds.
3:07
SPEAKER_01: They're just tall.
3:08
SPEAKER_01: They're just tall.
3:08
SPEAKER_01: That's why they're good at this.
3:10
SPEAKER_01: All right.
3:10
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna so now we're stepping in.
3:11
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, good athletic position.
3:12
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna step with our right leg in front, stay low the whole time.
3:15
SPEAKER_01: Good.
3:16
SPEAKER_01: Step out again, perfect.
3:17
SPEAKER_01: One more step.
3:19
SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
3:20
SPEAKER_01: And then you're gonna reach back outside edge of your foot into the turf.
3:24
SPEAKER_01: As you reach behind you, stay low, come back one more step.
3:28
SPEAKER_01: Good to keep tension, they come right back out to the right.
3:31
SPEAKER_01: Or left.
3:31
SPEAKER_01: Yep, there you go.
3:32
SPEAKER_01: Perfect.
3:32
SPEAKER_01: Stay low.
3:34
SPEAKER_01: Coming out, excellent, two feet out, nice and slow.
3:37
SPEAKER_01: Outside edge of your foot to the inside.
3:40
SPEAKER_01: Perfect.
3:42
SPEAKER_01: Let's get one more rep.
3:44
SPEAKER_01: Where are you feeling that?
3:45
SPEAKER_01: My hips.
3:46
SPEAKER_01: Done.
3:47
SPEAKER_01: Perfect.
3:49
SPEAKER_01: Come back, big reach, pinky down, perfect.
3:54
SPEAKER_01: Excellent.
3:55
SPEAKER_01: So you're gonna stay right there, and we're gonna face the unit.
3:59
SPEAKER_00: When we're doing that, so that that is almost that kind of like like that penultimate step, like rolling the outside of the side.
4:07
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
4:08
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
4:08
SPEAKER_00: Is that the whole intention behind that?
4:10
SPEAKER_01: Uh, I think for coming out, the intention is just like staying low with that force coming, you know, pulling you back.
4:16
SPEAKER_00: And that's so we're crossing over, keeping our hips square, and you're coaching them outside of the foot, rolling over.
4:23
SPEAKER_00: Do you notice?
4:24
SPEAKER_00: Because obviously we have such taller after you have such taller athletes being basketball, like getting across their body.
4:30
SPEAKER_00: Do they have trouble with that?
4:31
SPEAKER_01: What you'll find is when people start this, they'll still stay tall.
4:34
SPEAKER_01: So you say get in athletic position, and this is their athletic position, they come through kind of like you were, and it pulls them back.
4:39
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so we got to lock in, stay short, come back down, come back and through.
4:44
SPEAKER_01: And the big thing that I like most is the coming back to the cable.
4:48
SPEAKER_01: Oh, for sure.
4:48
SPEAKER_00: It's so you feel that big stretch.
4:52
SPEAKER_00: Is I'm like reaching across a little bit of my groin adductors, trying to have some stiffness up into my pelvis as I kind of switch through.
5:00
SPEAKER_00: But it's almost like um I'm thinking about like change of direction.
5:04
SPEAKER_00: It's almost like we we we kind of go away from like you I remember hearing back in the day, like you never want to cross over, and then you watch sport, and you're like happens all the time.
5:12
SPEAKER_00: Every play happens all the time.
5:14
SPEAKER_00: Every play.
5:14
SPEAKER_00: The best athletes are the ones that can step over and get across their body and not.
5:21
SPEAKER_01: So it actually helped me with this.
5:23
SPEAKER_01: Is we get uh game photos of every game, and so guys will be in awkward positions, they're coming down the court like this, putting on the brakes like this, yeah, and we don't train that in here.
5:33
SPEAKER_01: And so this is where we kind of train it in a controlled way with load to kind of get them used to the high race of high rate of force development, like in a game.
5:41
SPEAKER_00: And they're getting this exposure every training system.
5:43
SPEAKER_00: It's like kind of correct.
5:44
SPEAKER_01: These are you can guarantee A1 or A2 is this exercise.
5:48
SPEAKER_01: And then you said next we go reverse.
5:50
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, reverse.
5:50
SPEAKER_01: And then we're gonna walk back just like a regular sled drag.
5:54
SPEAKER_01: So work on squeezing that quad, coming down and through.
5:58
SPEAKER_00: Where are you kind of focusing on the feet with this?
6:00
SPEAKER_01: So you're looking for the feet specifically?
6:02
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and then kind of driving through the ball of your foot when you come back, and then really squeeze this quad.
6:06
SPEAKER_01: Yes, perfect.
6:07
SPEAKER_01: And then we're gonna come back at a 45 degree when we come back.
6:10
SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna start with our right leg.
6:11
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
6:11
SPEAKER_01: Our left leg's gonna be straight.
6:12
SPEAKER_01: So you're kind of swag walking.
6:14
SPEAKER_01: So I'm outside of the edge of my foot, inside.
6:17
SPEAKER_01: Outside, inside.
6:20
SPEAKER_01: Both legs, I'm doing that same step.
6:22
SPEAKER_01: The left leg's just straight.
6:23
SPEAKER_01: Okay, okay.
6:24
SPEAKER_01: Perfect, and straight.
6:27
SPEAKER_01: Perfect.
6:29
SPEAKER_01: Good.
6:31
SPEAKER_01: Same concept, walking the back.
6:33
SPEAKER_01: Let's stick on that same side.
6:34
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
6:35
SPEAKER_01: Really get comfortable with it.
6:37
SPEAKER_01: Sink, yes, perfect.
6:39
SPEAKER_01: Sink, perfect.
6:41
SPEAKER_01: Outside edge, inside edge.
6:43
SPEAKER_01: Good, we'll do the other side.
6:45
SPEAKER_01: Stay low, squeeze that quad, perfect.
6:48
SPEAKER_01: A little tighter on that side, huh?
6:50
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, definitely a little tighter.
6:52
SPEAKER_00: Good.
6:53
SPEAKER_00: So that's almost like them setting up that penultimate.
6:55
SPEAKER_00: Like them jumping.
6:57
SPEAKER_01: That's exactly what that is.
6:59
SPEAKER_01: And so it's great you can get the backwards sledwalk knocked out.
7:02
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, because everyone loves that.
7:03
SPEAKER_01: And then this adds that extra layer where you can practice that step that they use a lot, especially if you got those high-flying guys.
7:10
SPEAKER_00: For sure.
7:10
SPEAKER_00: Well, I mean, even if you're not a high flying guy, you're taking off on one leg to jump up and put your hands up for a block.
7:16
SPEAKER_00: You know, you you are you're rarely jumping off two legs.
7:19
SPEAKER_00: No.
7:19
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
7:21
SPEAKER_00: Step good.
7:23
SPEAKER_00: Step perfect.
7:26
SPEAKER_00: Man, how do the guys, I would imagine it's almost like indirect kneecare.
7:31
SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah.
7:31
SPEAKER_00: So it's like hip focus and you're connecting the dot from the foot up to the hip, but is that direct?
7:35
SPEAKER_01: That's why I keep it in so much because you knock off ankle, knee, hip, yeah, adductors, glutes, everything.
7:43
SPEAKER_01: Kind of like the biggest bang for your buck if you're gonna warm up.
7:45
SPEAKER_01: And it's a super easy warm-up.
7:47
SPEAKER_01: Like you step into the harness and then you're walking back, walking forward, like it's nothing too crazy.
7:52
SPEAKER_00: And it's enough load that they got to take it seriously.
7:54
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
7:54
SPEAKER_01: You can't just go.
7:55
SPEAKER_01: It's a good check-in, too, of like, oh, my right side's tighter than my left, or vice versa.
7:59
SPEAKER_01: And then we can, you know, peel back the layers on that.
8:02
SPEAKER_01: How many reps are you programming with something like this?
8:05
SPEAKER_01: Uh, anywhere from two to five.
8:08
SPEAKER_01: Um, and that'd be each leg or each direction, um, just depending on where we're at in the week and how much time I'm allotted.
8:15
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
8:16
SPEAKER_00: That makes sense.
8:16
SPEAKER_00: That makes sense.
8:17
SPEAKER_00: So we'll go, you'll go lateral, then you're going reverse into that step.
8:21
SPEAKER_00: Is that how you kind of finish that series?
8:22
SPEAKER_01: And then we'll do the the easiest one is just backward walk out.
8:27
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
8:27
SPEAKER_01: And then we'll add a little wrinkle when you come back.
8:30
SPEAKER_01: So when you're coming forward, I want you to act like you're sneaking up on somebody, kind of twisting, being super quiet.
8:36
SPEAKER_01: Good.
8:37
SPEAKER_01: Try to get those knees to come over as far as you can.
8:39
SPEAKER_01: Good.
8:40
SPEAKER_01: Now send it on back.
8:42
unknown: Good.
8:43
SPEAKER_01: Squeeze that quad, squeeze that quad, perfect.
8:45
SPEAKER_01: Pretend there's a creaky wood floor coming down super quiet, light on your feet, drive that knee forward, perfect.
8:51
SPEAKER_00: So you're really coaching that ankle door.
8:53
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely as much as they can without pain.
8:55
SPEAKER_01: Good.
8:56
SPEAKER_01: Keep tension there and then come back.
8:58
SPEAKER_01: Roll rolling from the balls on the feet back to the heel.
9:04
SPEAKER_01: As far as far as you can get without pain.
9:06
SPEAKER_01: Perfect.
9:07
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
9:08
SPEAKER_01: Very sneaky.
9:10
SPEAKER_01: A bit of sneaky sneaky.
9:11
SPEAKER_00: Very sneaky.
9:13
SPEAKER_00: Perfect.
9:14
SPEAKER_00: Man, getting tall guys, that much tension on the on the knee, on the ankles, that's gotta they probably take this thing off and kind of like it.
9:21
SPEAKER_01: It feels better.
9:22
SPEAKER_01: You get good blood flow.
9:24
SPEAKER_01: And then what we do is like our scale is if it's three out of ten pain or less, you're fine.
9:30
SPEAKER_01: Um, if it's a little bit more, then less knee comes forward.
9:33
SPEAKER_01: So you can kind of self-regulate.
9:34
SPEAKER_01: Because some days you're gonna feel really good, and other days it's like I played 40 minutes, my knees are barking.
9:38
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, maybe I'm just gonna be at 90.
9:40
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
9:40
SPEAKER_00: Um, and you'll start the sessions with this.
9:43
SPEAKER_00: Correct.
9:43
SPEAKER_00: I I honestly love that because I am a big advocate of like blurring the lines from the warm-up.
9:48
SPEAKER_00: Like I don't want them to know when the warm-up stopped and the lift started.
9:52
SPEAKER_00: And the easiest way to do that is with load.
9:54
SPEAKER_00: I feel like traditional warm-ups, quads are lit up.
9:57
SPEAKER_01: And for me, like I hate warming up myself.
9:59
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
9:59
SPEAKER_01: So if it's a long dynamic warm-up, I'm probably not doing it.
10:02
SPEAKER_01: And I wouldn't expect our guys to want to do that.
10:04
SPEAKER_01: And something that, once again, as easy as this, you're walking.
10:07
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
10:07
SPEAKER_01: And if you can't handle that, then you probably can't handle it training effects.
10:10
SPEAKER_01: Very true, very true.
10:11
SPEAKER_00: When you said you've been coaching almost longer than my daughter's been alive, so impressive, impressive, but mostly basketball.
10:18
SPEAKER_00: And when I think about basketball and training and how much it's evolved, and seeing you kind of take the athletes through these things, um, is this kind of the first time they've like they felt something like that, like doing those cable walks and kind of working in that frontal plane?
10:32
SPEAKER_01: I think so, just because a lot of traditional strength conditioning, I was guilty of this too, is everything sagittal.
10:37
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you get the most bang for your buck in those positions, which I totally agree with.
10:41
SPEAKER_01: But looking more of like actually the pictures we get after the games of these guys in different shapes and positions kind of had me thinking.
10:48
SPEAKER_01: And my good friend Corey Schlesinger, we had these huge cable columns at the last school I was at, and we were playing around with them and we came up with this walk series, and it was a way where we could kind of load them out of that sagittal plane into more of a frontal plane, more dynamic, athletic type movement.
11:04
SPEAKER_01: This is what I call our cable hip internal.
11:07
SPEAKER_01: If you think of a better name for it.
11:08
SPEAKER_00: I like I like I like cable hip internal, man.
11:10
SPEAKER_00: It is right to the point.
11:12
SPEAKER_01: So once again, we're gonna practice.
11:14
SPEAKER_01: This is for like when we're changing direction, everything, we're gonna break it down to its lowest level with load.
11:19
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
11:19
SPEAKER_01: So my front plant leg, I'm gonna be driving through the inside edge of my foot.
11:23
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to see out on our pinky side.
11:25
SPEAKER_01: So I'm driving in, creating like a stake in the ground.
11:28
SPEAKER_01: I'm almost driving that knee inwards, which a lot of people are against.
11:31
SPEAKER_01: I think you do all the time.
11:33
SPEAKER_01: Drive it in.
11:34
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna internally rotate into this front hip.
11:36
SPEAKER_01: I'm dropping my left knee down, arms just here to hold onto the cable.
11:40
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna come through, squeezing this back glue.
11:42
SPEAKER_01: So drive all the edge in the inside of my foot, come through and twist.
11:48
SPEAKER_00: It's almost like a closed chain loaded rotation on that right hip.
11:51
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we'll call it cable closed chain.
11:52
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, no, no.
11:53
SPEAKER_00: Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope.
11:55
SPEAKER_00: But I almost look at this like a it looks almost as like you're doing a hip airplane almost.
11:58
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, it's it's kind of that same concept.
12:01
SPEAKER_01: Um, when you're coming through and changing directions, you know, we're here, it's dropping in, twisting, turning.
12:06
SPEAKER_01: So it's the same thing.
12:07
SPEAKER_01: We're just slowing it down, driving in, pulling it through.
12:11
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, okay.
12:12
SPEAKER_01: I'll walk you through it.
12:13
SPEAKER_01: See if you're a good listener.
12:14
SPEAKER_01: Oh don't get your hopes up, my friend.
12:17
SPEAKER_01: So start with that inside foot, perfect.
12:20
SPEAKER_01: Drive that knee in a little bit.
12:22
SPEAKER_01: Good.
12:22
SPEAKER_01: Inside edge of that foot, and bring this leg back a little bit.
12:25
SPEAKER_01: Or sorry, that wide.
12:26
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
12:27
SPEAKER_01: Load into this front hip, kind of let it pull you, perfect.
12:30
SPEAKER_01: And come through and then squeeze this glute.
12:33
SPEAKER_01: Good.
12:34
SPEAKER_01: This rep try to go as slow as possible.
12:36
SPEAKER_01: Turn into that hip, come through, excellent.
12:40
SPEAKER_01: Pivoting on my left footer.
12:42
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
12:44
SPEAKER_01: Good.
12:44
SPEAKER_01: Bring through, perfect.
12:47
SPEAKER_01: Let's go two more reps and we can build the speed a little bit.
12:50
SPEAKER_01: So turning that hip, not crazy fast.
12:54
SPEAKER_01: Good.
12:55
SPEAKER_01: And then let's play around with the torso angle.
12:56
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
12:57
SPEAKER_01: You can come down a little lower.
12:59
SPEAKER_01: Good.
13:00
SPEAKER_01: Less uh low back.
13:02
SPEAKER_01: Try to get rounded through here.
13:03
SPEAKER_01: Nice and smooth.
13:04
SPEAKER_01: Rounded, rounded, rounded.
13:06
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
13:07
SPEAKER_00: Man, the demand I'm getting on my left hip flexor and then this right posterior capsule back here.
13:12
SPEAKER_00: It's crazy.
13:13
SPEAKER_00: I haven't found anything else to really duplicate it like that.
13:15
SPEAKER_00: Man, this is yeah.
13:17
SPEAKER_00: I have yeah.
13:18
SPEAKER_00: It makes total sense.
13:19
SPEAKER_00: Getting in, loading into that angle, really just trying to feel that glute.
13:24
SPEAKER_01: Drive up and through.
13:25
SPEAKER_01: What I really like doing is playing with the shoulder position.
13:28
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
13:29
SPEAKER_01: So try this time round, round through like a horrible deadlift for it.
13:33
SPEAKER_01: Okay, okay.
13:35
SPEAKER_01: Good.
13:36
SPEAKER_01: Come through.
13:37
SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
13:38
SPEAKER_01: Reach long, long, long.
13:39
SPEAKER_01: Melt.
13:40
SPEAKER_01: Yes, good.
13:41
SPEAKER_01: Get one more just like that.
13:42
SPEAKER_01: What a cue.
13:43
SPEAKER_01: Melt.
13:47
SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
13:48
SPEAKER_01: Perfect.
13:50
SPEAKER_00: Dude, I I anytime we can load mobility or load a joint into with a progressive stimulus that you can walk it down, walk it up.
13:57
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
13:57
SPEAKER_00: Like for one, that your buy-in, your whatever in engagement's going to go through the roof because they're touching weight.
14:03
SPEAKER_00: So they instantly are going to take it probably more serious.
14:06
SPEAKER_00: But that rotation, feeling it through, the biggest thing though, I love is how heavy you are coaching um big toe down, that first metatarsal on the ground.
14:16
SPEAKER_00: I think when it comes to frontal plane work, uh, you see people doing like stuff like this or lateral lunges, and they are getting on the outside edge of their foot.
14:25
SPEAKER_00: You're wasting your time.
14:26
SPEAKER_00: Correct.
14:26
SPEAKER_00: If I see ever see an athlete on their heels or on the outside edge of the foot, like cooked, like that, that's how you make yourself not on a division.
14:34
SPEAKER_01: Like I care more about getting them in the right positions because I think efficiency can help us build speed or quickness.
14:40
SPEAKER_01: And coaches' big biggest complaints are you know, they're too slow laterally.
14:44
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
14:44
SPEAKER_01: And it's like, well, have we looked at their technique?
14:46
SPEAKER_01: And you watch their technique, and on the shuffles, they're here, shuffles they're here.
14:49
SPEAKER_01: It's like maybe it's not a speed thing, maybe it's a technique thing where it's inside edge of my foot, dropping my center support, shuffling.
14:55
SPEAKER_00: So it's almost like you're trying to give them the body awareness through a through a weight room standpoint to bridge that gap on the curves of all court.
15:02
SPEAKER_01: And then changing the spine as well.
15:03
SPEAKER_01: Like everything we do in the weight room usually is arched, everything's stiff.
15:07
SPEAKER_01: But if you look on the court, these guys are in totally different shapes all over the place, and we don't train that.
15:12
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
15:12
SPEAKER_01: And then we wonder why, like, oh, I tweak something here, tweak something there.
15:15
SPEAKER_01: It's because we were practicing everything rigid, which is great for weightlifting, but dynamics with sports, like you want to be dynamic and fluid.
15:23
SPEAKER_01: So this that cue of melt, melt kind of.
15:27
SPEAKER_00: We stole that from uh Corey Schlesinger.
15:28
SPEAKER_00: I mean, think about a bass, they're never.
15:30
SPEAKER_00: Why would you ever come down there?
15:31
SPEAKER_00: Like it's always this.
15:34
SPEAKER_01: You see that are strength coaches playing at mean ball.
15:38
SPEAKER_01: Guilty, guilt, valid, valid tort.
15:42
SPEAKER_01: Uh, another thing we can add with that is velocity.
15:44
SPEAKER_01: So usually what we'll do is start them out super slow.
15:46
SPEAKER_01: You'll find a lot of athletes.
15:48
SPEAKER_01: This is actually a foreign pattern for them to get in.
15:50
SPEAKER_01: It's it's uh done that reaching it.
15:52
SPEAKER_01: Not something that you know, some athletes pick it up first rep, and then other athletes, it's like a couple weeks in the making, but I think it's valuable enough to keep uh teaching.
16:01
SPEAKER_01: And then as we get closer to games or some of our speed type lifts, we'll add some velocity with it with either the cables or I really like with the bands, it kind of pulls you into that dynamic position coming right back out.
16:12
SPEAKER_01: Is this something you'll play with in season?
16:14
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
16:14
SPEAKER_01: So it's one of our warm-ups like I'm super boring, like our same warmups.
16:18
SPEAKER_01: If I think it hits everything, like we'll do that same warm-up every time we have a speed day or a strength day or a power day.
16:23
SPEAKER_01: Um, and yeah, I feel like if it makes you feel good, hits all the important spots, you don't need to change it up that much with variety.
16:30
SPEAKER_01: We can just change it with either foot position, torso position, velocity.
16:35
SPEAKER_01: Um, so keep the same movement, but just change the variables.
16:37
SPEAKER_01: Love that.
16:38
SPEAKER_00: After we've explored kind of that that movement prep, and then you've talked about how now you like to bridge that with like a almost like a running, a running series you mentioned.
16:48
SPEAKER_00: Um, what was the benefit?
16:49
SPEAKER_00: Because you have basketball players.
16:51
SPEAKER_00: I don't why are you doing run specific stuff, Zach?
16:54
SPEAKER_00: You're breaking rules here, man.
16:55
SPEAKER_00: So uh what what what brought that amount?
16:57
SPEAKER_01: And the whole lower leg complex.
16:59
SPEAKER_01: So when I actually saw the run-specific ISOs, it was when I tore my Achilles three years ago.
17:04
SPEAKER_01: And for some reason it really drew me into it.
17:07
SPEAKER_01: It was isometrics, which was like the hot thing to do.
17:09
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
17:10
SPEAKER_01: And then it was focused mainly on the lower leg foot complex.
17:13
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, hmm, what better stuff for my rehab?
17:16
SPEAKER_01: Because I was masterminding my perfect rehab together of what I could use.
17:20
SPEAKER_01: And that position two isometric um was awesome.
17:24
SPEAKER_01: And just adding, you know, there's so many different variations you can add with it.
17:28
SPEAKER_01: You can just do it with body weight, dumbbells, safety squat, barbells, whatever you can think of.
17:32
SPEAKER_01: Um, and it gets us in different positions where that foot can change, you know, pronated, supinated, um, inverted, everted, whatever you want.
17:40
SPEAKER_01: Um, and I think it just allows us to get in those dynamic positions um in an isometric fashion before we really turn up the speed.
17:47
SPEAKER_00: With the isometrics, I think it's one thing where it's like, I think people see it and they wonder like, is this an off-season thing?
17:54
SPEAKER_00: Is this an in-season thing?
17:55
SPEAKER_00: With basketball being a year-round sport, even though, you know, there's a season, many the kids aren't taking the off-season off.
18:02
SPEAKER_00: They're still getting shots up, they're still playing pickup ball, they're still, you know, college is different, but like in high school, they're playing year-round NBA, they're playing in summer leagues, they're doing stuff like that.
18:12
SPEAKER_00: Where do you integrate that into programming that you found to be effective?
18:16
SPEAKER_01: This is an in-season, off-season, every type of season for our guys.
18:20
SPEAKER_01: Love it.
18:20
SPEAKER_01: I think it promotes health of the lower leg complex, which you can play basketball with a broken hand, a broken finger.
18:26
SPEAKER_01: You can't play with a broken foot.
18:28
SPEAKER_01: And so I think the lower leg complex is so integral in what we do that it should be a priority all the time.
18:33
SPEAKER_01: So we'll add them in in season, off-season, anywhere we can.
18:38
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna add some sort of lower leg ISO than 99% of our lifts.
18:42
SPEAKER_00: When I think about isometrics, I think if coaches aren't using them, it's like, man, you are missing so much.
18:48
SPEAKER_00: Because when I think about a training room and you're training, how many guys do you have at one time, like in a training session?
18:53
SPEAKER_00: 15.
18:54
SPEAKER_00: 15.
18:54
SPEAKER_00: So you have 15, and it's just one of you.
18:56
SPEAKER_00: Well, you have other assistant coaches and stuff, but it's like there's so much movement happening.
19:01
SPEAKER_00: People are, you know, maybe a couple reps ahead.
19:03
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we're doing some sort of circuit.
19:04
SPEAKER_00: So you're kind of you can't watch everything specifically, but an isometric freezes.
19:09
SPEAKER_00: And it gives it gives you as a coach in that moment to kind of like, hey, we're really focusing on that.
19:14
SPEAKER_00: Do you feel that?
19:16
SPEAKER_00: Like when we were walking through it, you were like, hey, where do you feel it?
19:18
SPEAKER_00: Like asking those questions, because that gives you like a huge insight of that movement specifically.
19:24
SPEAKER_00: And when you talked about the isometrics and you talked about changing like the foot angle, like um, I'm gonna say repetition without repetition, but you're you're constantly changing that.
19:33
SPEAKER_00: Are you doing that like set to set, or like uh today?
19:37
SPEAKER_00: I'm programming only like an inverted position or inverted position.
19:40
SPEAKER_01: Usually I'll keep it one per day that we're doing it.
19:43
SPEAKER_01: And I think in our warm-ups is a great way to add variety.
19:46
SPEAKER_01: So variability within our warmups changes every day.
19:49
SPEAKER_01: Our main movements stay pretty similar.
19:52
SPEAKER_01: Um, I think lifting weights in itself is a skill.
19:55
SPEAKER_01: So those big bang for your buck exercises, we're gonna keep those pretty sound.
20:00
SPEAKER_01: Not a lot of variety with that, but I'll sprinkle in a ton of variety in our warm-ups.
20:04
SPEAKER_01: Next is our run-specific ISOs.
20:05
SPEAKER_01: So I got this from Alex Santara.
20:07
SPEAKER_01: He made these super popular.
20:09
SPEAKER_01: Also, Corey Schlesinger, he has them in his program all the time.
20:12
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
20:12
SPEAKER_01: Uh, I tore my Achilles about three years ago.
20:15
SPEAKER_01: I used to think lower leg training, you just need to do some calf raises and jump rope, and you'd be fine.
20:19
SPEAKER_01: Maybe do some ankle rockers.
20:21
SPEAKER_01: And during my you know, nine-month rehab, uh, had plenty of time to nerd out over some books and everything and realized there's a lot more to it than calf raises.
20:29
SPEAKER_01: So this is one of my favorite.
20:31
SPEAKER_01: It's a it's called a position to isometric.
20:34
SPEAKER_01: And so we're gonna be in a running position.
20:36
SPEAKER_01: So that uh left knee is up.
20:38
SPEAKER_01: My right knee is gonna be over that big toe, and I'm gonna drive up as high as I can through that big toe and then hold in this good running posture.
20:46
SPEAKER_00: So we're up on the that almost like that, that that padding of our foot, that first metatarsal, we're gluing that into the ground, lifting the heel up as high as we can, and you're not allowing so I I've seen people in the past do this and they let that kind of ankle like roll off.
20:59
SPEAKER_00: Right.
20:59
SPEAKER_01: You'll see a lot of this through the pinky toe.
21:01
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I don't want that.
21:02
SPEAKER_01: Yep, okay.
21:03
SPEAKER_01: Um, we can play around with you going pinky toe and big toe and let me know how you feel it differently.
21:07
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
21:07
SPEAKER_00: Um, and let's really just try to focus on keeping it straightforward.
21:10
SPEAKER_01: Yes, and then depending on load and everything, we'll hold it anywhere from 10 seconds to 30 up to 45 seconds.
21:16
SPEAKER_01: So I'm just kind of starting out, just up high up.
21:19
SPEAKER_01: Am I starting out high up on the balls and yeah, as high as you can get, bring that knee bend down a little bit, perfect.
21:23
SPEAKER_01: Get that heel up even higher.
21:25
SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes, yes, perfect.
21:27
SPEAKER_01: Right through that big toe.
21:28
SPEAKER_01: Now come out towards your pinky and let me know where you feel it differently.
21:31
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
21:32
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't feel very good, doesn't it?
21:33
SPEAKER_01: No, no.
21:33
SPEAKER_01: So that through that big toe.
21:35
SPEAKER_01: Perfect, yep.
21:35
SPEAKER_01: And you're gonna hold in there perfectly.
21:38
SPEAKER_01: And this is something with body weight.
21:40
SPEAKER_01: We could do you know a longer duration I saw this.
21:43
SPEAKER_01: So this would be something early on in the off season we're gonna hit just for that Achilles health, and even your foot starts starts to take over.
21:50
SPEAKER_00: Oh, for sure.
21:50
SPEAKER_00: For sure.
21:51
SPEAKER_00: Relax, relax, relax.
21:52
SPEAKER_00: So not only the calf that we're getting, but also the toe extension.
21:56
SPEAKER_00: Because toe extension, it's like one of those things not only on a court does it make Sense because you're rolling into your jump, but also in the weight room, you see people doing like heavy split squats or like lunge patterns, and they can't get into toe extension.
22:09
SPEAKER_00: And now they're opening up their foot to maintain that position, or worse, I've seen people, they're kind of like putting all the balance on their front foot.
22:16
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
22:16
SPEAKER_00: Because they're they can't get there with their back toe.
22:18
SPEAKER_00: And it's like their toes just kind of there is like a balance point.
22:21
SPEAKER_01: So what you'll find with a lot of like lateral reactive athletes, like think of basketball players, uh cornerbacks, maybe middle infielders and baseball, like that big toe is you see a lot of lack of big toe extension just because you need that big toe to decelerate a ton.
22:36
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
22:36
SPEAKER_01: And years of doing that with not really taking care of your feet, and chances of you getting turf toes somewhere throughout your career are pretty high.
22:43
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
22:44
SPEAKER_01: I'm just never addressing that issue.
22:45
SPEAKER_01: You'll find a lot of, especially guards or bigs who are like more dynamic bigs will have big toe issues like that.
22:52
SPEAKER_00: When it comes to isometrics, it's like my favorite thing to add in with athletes because is the it's the best way, in my opinion, that I can deliver a coaching cue and a point while they're feeling it.
23:03
SPEAKER_00: Because if you're doing a normal exercise, concentric, eccentric, you're giving a cue and you may have missed like when they've they've already gone to the eccentric phase.
23:11
SPEAKER_00: Correct.
23:11
SPEAKER_00: You're given a concentric cue or whatever.
23:13
SPEAKER_00: Where while they're holding it, you're literally driving home 45 seconds to give.
23:17
SPEAKER_00: And you're just filling them with filling them with this is why you're doing it while they feel it, and it's just it builds value with all of those exercises.
23:24
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
23:25
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
23:25
SPEAKER_00: So after that, after you go with more of a stroke, like a straighter legs.
23:29
SPEAKER_01: Yes, we can go down to this crouch position.
23:31
SPEAKER_01: So once again, you'll let me know where you feel it.
23:34
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
23:34
SPEAKER_01: But it'll be that same principle as we did before, but I'm just gonna crouch down in this position and hold it.
23:40
SPEAKER_01: Using the Benson basically support.
23:42
SPEAKER_01: So the idea is kind of like a standing calf raise versus a seated calf raise.
23:47
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
23:49
SPEAKER_01: Single leg?
23:50
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
23:50
SPEAKER_01: And you can just lift this one slightly off.
23:52
SPEAKER_01: Perfect.
23:53
SPEAKER_01: And where do you feel that more?
23:54
SPEAKER_01: Yo, wow, you're pretty good at this.
23:56
SPEAKER_01: Eh, you know.
23:57
SPEAKER_01: I do some uh isometric.
23:58
SPEAKER_01: We might have to do a longer duration for this one.
24:02
SPEAKER_00: Where are you feeling that?
24:02
SPEAKER_00: I got some eligibility left, I think.
24:05
SPEAKER_00: Uh honestly, heavy heavy in my quads, um, a little bit in my some in my calves, some in my foot, almost like the arch of my foot, because I'm maintaining that trying to keep my knee or my ankle and my my my heel centered and not rolling off to the side.
24:20
SPEAKER_00: So I'm getting a little bit of involvement of my calf, just kind of holding stable there.
24:24
SPEAKER_00: Hit, quad, uh honestly, a lot from that.
24:28
SPEAKER_01: So that one's that one's like the next step.
24:31
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
24:31
SPEAKER_01: Um, especially if your knees aren't feeling the best, stay away from this one in the beginning.
24:35
SPEAKER_01: Um, but I think, especially to your point, like the foot goes crazy in that position.
24:39
SPEAKER_01: You can play around with it, a high heel position, low heel position, and see where you feel it differently.
24:45
SPEAKER_00: I I'll program a single leg like wall sit sometimes, but I almost feel that it's more because I more because I get more, I don't want to say anterior, but I am more on my force, and then just hanging out, um, leaning up against the wall, plus taking some of my body weight off, or that was all my body.
25:01
SPEAKER_01: And you can use like whether you want, I'd recommend probably using a rack or something because some light benches you might go find.
25:07
SPEAKER_01: For sure.
25:08
SPEAKER_01: For sure.
25:08
SPEAKER_01: But we have a queue where it's like if I want them to hold on to it more um to take more load out of it, it'll be like a we'll just say grip it.
25:17
SPEAKER_01: And then our other queue, if I want barely anything, it's piano keys.
25:20
SPEAKER_01: So you can only use your hands to play the piano on the rack or the bench or something like that.
25:25
SPEAKER_01: Love it.
25:26
SPEAKER_01: Um, next one.
25:27
SPEAKER_01: So I had a great exercise science professor in college, and he would always say, change the angle, change the exercise.
25:35
SPEAKER_01: So shout out Andrew Fry.
25:36
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
25:37
SPEAKER_01: Um, so my meathead version of me in college just thought, you know, flat bench anchoring bench, military press.
25:44
SPEAKER_01: You know, I was like, this guy's a genius.
25:46
SPEAKER_01: What a revolution.
25:47
SPEAKER_01: And now it hits me in the face with this stuff.
25:50
SPEAKER_01: Like we just talked about ankle positions with the cable crossovers, the 45-degree walkbacks, and this is a way we can get in that same position and work on pronation and supination.
26:00
SPEAKER_01: So let's say with that right foot, I want you to do the same exact thing, but you're just gonna be on the ramp.
26:05
SPEAKER_01: Standing or monette?
26:07
SPEAKER_01: Standing, we'll be in that standing position here.
26:09
SPEAKER_01: And this will really have you cue the inside edge of that foot, driving through the ball of your foot.
26:15
SPEAKER_01: Good, try to go up through that big toe.
26:17
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
26:17
SPEAKER_00: Oh man, feel the difference?
26:19
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, way more challenging.
26:20
SPEAKER_00: Ton a ton in my glute, too.
26:22
SPEAKER_00: My glute is on fire holding this position, and I'm really trying to I'm having to actively drive my big toe down to the floor.
26:29
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think that's the biggest, like the front way you can get away with relax, you know, driving, not driving your big toe.
26:37
SPEAKER_01: But this one, if you're not driving, you're gonna fall onto the outside of your foot.
26:40
SPEAKER_01: Um, and it will switch it around for you.
26:42
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you even have the luxury of like it has a little bit of grip on that.
26:45
SPEAKER_00: Yes, but like you're I'm kind of sliding so that the toe is almost like a cue that you gotta grab on or you're gonna fall.
26:52
SPEAKER_00: Same thing here.
26:54
SPEAKER_00: Knee inside my uh knee inside my foot, Zach.
26:56
SPEAKER_00: You're breaking along.
26:57
SPEAKER_00: I know.
26:57
SPEAKER_01: Uh your leg's gonna explode that way.
27:02
SPEAKER_01: Good.
27:02
SPEAKER_01: Drive it up.
27:04
SPEAKER_01: Perfect.
27:06
SPEAKER_00: Where are we feeling that one?
27:08
SPEAKER_00: Ton in my abductor.
27:10
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
27:10
SPEAKER_00: My right adductor holding this position.
27:12
SPEAKER_00: It's almost because my pelvis wants to tilt so that adductor that that tension feeding up to my adductor, driving that big toe down, so I'm still getting a lot of glute.
27:20
SPEAKER_00: It's almost like that co-contracts and that adductor glute.
27:22
SPEAKER_00: Relax.
27:23
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think that's a big like to point you brought up.
27:25
SPEAKER_01: You feel in your adductor we're working the lower leg complex.
27:28
SPEAKER_01: So, how important is that integration to everything up?
27:32
SPEAKER_01: And everything, you know, we all agree everything starts in your feet, but what does that really mean?
27:36
SPEAKER_01: And I think if I can actually feel that, like, okay, my adductor is working as I'm working on my lower leg complex, it's probably more important than you know, originally thought.
27:45
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, oh, for sure.
27:46
SPEAKER_00: And you're building value.
27:48
SPEAKER_00: Um, it's something that turns into like a like a prep or however you said a rehab.
27:52
SPEAKER_00: But now we're also integrating the system upstream, which is the ultimate goal.
27:56
SPEAKER_00: Like, not saying we should isolate everything or shouldn't isolate everything, but like that slight isolation builds I have value with my hips as well.
28:04
SPEAKER_01: And then we can play around with it.
28:06
SPEAKER_01: Obviously, we can go forwards like this, and then adding load.
28:09
SPEAKER_01: So when we add load, it's gonna dictate how high you can get your heel off the ground.
28:13
SPEAKER_01: So if it's you know 225, 315, I might be able to only get my foot a quarter inch off the ground.
28:19
SPEAKER_01: That's still really good working at all ranges um with different strength levels through there.
28:24
SPEAKER_00: Are you are are you still doing this isometrically or are you moving through a range of motion?
28:26
SPEAKER_00: Uh we'll do isometrically.
28:28
SPEAKER_01: So we're just gonna do that same one we started with and bring that knee forward a little bit, drive up, perfect.
28:33
SPEAKER_01: So you'll play with the angle.
28:34
SPEAKER_01: So I'm like holding like a deep so you can hold it lower, higher, and then play around with that knee position.
28:39
SPEAKER_01: Bring your knee forward a bunch, good or back.
28:45
SPEAKER_01: And you can get really get creative and individualized with this of where they feel it the most is where they can hang out the most.
28:51
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
28:51
SPEAKER_01: Perfect.
28:52
SPEAKER_01: You're programming that for time?
28:54
SPEAKER_01: Anywhere from, you know, like we said before, 10 to 45.
28:58
SPEAKER_01: At what point will you start adding like an external stimulus, like a weight or usually if they can hold it like body weight in a good position for that 30 to 45 second mark, like that's when we'll start adding.
29:07
SPEAKER_01: And what I like doing is adding same side, same leg with a dumbbell first, and then we can go a safety squat, or a lot of people meet creative of holding whatever other implement they're.
29:17
SPEAKER_00: I know there's a big infatuation with being contralateral for the slings, but I I really like ipsilateral loading.
29:23
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because it I I think for one, I get so much more adductor and I get off the lower back, like with as much, because I mean we deadlift, we sweet, we do all the big lifts.
29:33
SPEAKER_00: So it's like if I'm doing something that's more low priority, which I would most people, I may say it's a priority, but then they're like, hey, can we finish this and sort of lift?
29:43
SPEAKER_00: For sure.
29:43
SPEAKER_00: So it's like if if I can give them a way to create some some value with this, and that I I really just love the ipsilateral, it forces you to kind of drive that big toe down so you don't roll to the outside edge of the foot, and I get the apple.
29:56
SPEAKER_01: Well, to your point, it feels so much better on your lower back.
29:58
SPEAKER_01: And we're gonna tax our lower back, running around, changing directions, lifting.
30:02
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I don't need to add to that with this.
30:05
SPEAKER_01: Uh, also for like in-season or out of season stuff, everything like you're getting, you know, a bunch of birds with one stone of you know holding on to the heavy dumbbell, um, whatever you want to do.
30:16
SPEAKER_01: So we got some grip training there as well as some.
30:18
SPEAKER_00: And you'll go with the safety bar too to kind of load that for you.
30:21
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
30:21
SPEAKER_01: And we'll do the same kind of cues where they're hold on, they can either hold on stiff or we'll do piano key playing on them.
30:27
SPEAKER_01: Love it, love it.
30:28
SPEAKER_00: Earlier, you told me you said um I don't have much variety.
30:34
SPEAKER_00: I'm very boring, but the way you speak about variety is almost like it's the same word, it's just in a different language, like we're trash, basura.
30:45
SPEAKER_00: Like it's like it's the same thing, but it's just slightly different.
30:48
SPEAKER_00: It's almost like your variations are just a slight deviation off of that main movement.
30:53
SPEAKER_00: Why do you why do you structure it like that instead of just having a completely different movement?
30:58
SPEAKER_01: I think it's easier for these athletes to keep track of the exercises.
31:02
SPEAKER_01: So we've all been strength coaches where an athlete can't remember what this exercise means and it drives you nuts.
31:08
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
31:08
SPEAKER_01: And this is a way where we can just keep the same name, but just change the foot position.
31:12
SPEAKER_01: And hey, you got to do the same cues you did yesterday, but all we're doing is putting a ramp under your foot, or all we're doing is we're gonna go a dumbbell in your hand, or we're gonna go a safety squat on your back.
31:22
SPEAKER_01: And that way we keep everything simple.
31:24
SPEAKER_01: The coaching cues are the exact same, and they can feel it in different areas, and you kind of explain to them like, here's why we're hitting this shape today, this one tomorrow.
31:33
SPEAKER_01: And then once again, if we can bleed that in with what we're doing on the court, you know, you'll hear me all the time with the inside edge stuff.
31:39
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
31:39
SPEAKER_01: Um, and this is a way where we can blend the two together.
31:42
SPEAKER_01: So this room looks a lot more basketball specific than it does weight room specific.
31:48
SPEAKER_00: But I've I've seen you have sessions now.
31:51
SPEAKER_00: Last time I was down in Miami, and it's it's almost like this fluid, this fluid feeling because you're you're touching all these patterns, you're touching these movements, but you're still loading heavy.
32:02
SPEAKER_00: It's like don't get don't get this twisted.
32:04
SPEAKER_00: We're still lifting, we're still lifting heavy, we're still getting strong.
32:07
SPEAKER_00: But I you're placing such an emphasis on um just like the the the basketball court awareness, like almost bridging that gap um to the basketball court.
32:19
SPEAKER_00: Did that when did that come on?
32:21
SPEAKER_00: But did that start early on in when you were involved with basketball and you're like watching it?
32:25
SPEAKER_00: Because traditional strength and conditioning, like education that we formal, that is not what that is not what we learn in college.
32:32
SPEAKER_00: It's everything within a rack.
32:34
SPEAKER_00: Step off the platform.
32:35
SPEAKER_00: Where is this?
32:35
SPEAKER_00: Like, where am I at?
32:36
SPEAKER_00: Like I can't do any exercises, I'm not standing on a platform for sure.
32:40
SPEAKER_01: So, where did that come from?
32:41
SPEAKER_01: Uh my mentor, my first one at the time, Andrea Hootie, she let me intern when I was a freshman in college.
32:47
SPEAKER_01: What a way to start.
32:48
SPEAKER_01: I know.
32:49
SPEAKER_01: I got lucked out, had no clue, no clue.
32:52
SPEAKER_01: And uh, I just remember she was so good with her language and coaching cues and how to make everything relatable to basketball, even if it wasn't inherently relatable.
33:02
SPEAKER_01: So for instance, this always stuck out to me like uh an athlete asks, why do we snatch?
33:07
SPEAKER_01: And she's like, Show me your defensive position.
33:10
SPEAKER_01: Hands up, feet wide.
33:12
SPEAKER_01: And we know that's not why we snatch, but like if that's can bridges the gap of like, oh yeah, that makes sense.
33:17
SPEAKER_01: And therefore they care more about it, you know, this is directly a basketball lift, they're gonna care more about it, they're gonna know that it translates to the court, like you won them over right then.
33:26
SPEAKER_01: Um, so I think it's ways of connecting the dots to give everything a purpose instead of we're just doing this because coach likes to do this exercise.
33:34
SPEAKER_01: And you gotta think like we love lifting weights.
33:37
SPEAKER_01: It's usually what got us into it.
33:38
SPEAKER_01: And if we have days where we're like, I don't really feel like doing this, you know, does this make sense?
33:44
SPEAKER_01: What do you think an athlete who this isn't probably their top 10 priorities of the day?
33:48
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
33:48
SPEAKER_01: And so it's a way of bridging that gap and getting out to practice.
33:51
SPEAKER_01: So I'm constantly listening to what are the assistant coaches preaching, what's the head coach preaching, and seeing how I can marry that into what we're doing here.
33:59
SPEAKER_01: And so you can see, you know, out on the court, it's like, hey, you're on your outside edge of your foot, your your balance is off.
34:06
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, okay, next time when he comes in or she comes in the weight room, we're gonna cue a bunch of stuff.
34:11
SPEAKER_01: So it's inside edge, inside edge.
34:12
SPEAKER_01: And it's like, hey, you're out of position on defense.
34:14
SPEAKER_01: This is gonna keep you inside of your man so you can guard them better.
34:17
SPEAKER_01: It's oh, instant green light of this stuff matters.
34:21
SPEAKER_00: I've I mean, I do a lot of work with football and inside edge, I've used that cue a lot.
34:25
SPEAKER_00: And it's almost like even if it doesn't make sense from like a strength coach standpoint, just by saying that, if they go, oh, then whatever, whatever, whatever words you want me to use to get you to have intent with this exercise, I'm gonna take it.
34:40
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't matter as long as they get what you need done.
34:43
SPEAKER_01: Um, be as creative as you want to help bridge that gap.
34:46
SPEAKER_00: When it comes to getting into that frontal plate, that rotation.
34:49
SPEAKER_00: So you were even talking about the value of a kid coming around a screen or getting under it, like that we you were coaching me up earlier, almost like a frontal plane penultimate step.
34:59
SPEAKER_00: Like I'm kind of loading in, like the outside edge of my foot, rolling into the front inside edge of my foot.
35:04
SPEAKER_00: And then you trade you to that to me as in like running around a screen or trying to get to the ball.
35:09
SPEAKER_00: Like I if I would think about if I was a college basketball player, I hear that and I go, Yeah, that's my problem.
35:15
SPEAKER_00: Or I'm getting pushed back on the screen, or you know, the eye can't catch up.
35:19
SPEAKER_00: Whereas something now you've connected the dots with the weight room.
35:22
SPEAKER_00: So now it's almost like you're bridging it for them.
35:24
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think that's the biggest thing of how can we connect things they're doing on the court to help them play better.
35:29
SPEAKER_01: And you can have prime examples and show it up on YouTube of guys that are really good at getting around the screens, overlaying videos of them and being like, hey, here's where you're lacking is that ankle stiffness or mobility.
35:41
SPEAKER_01: Here's how we can help you do that, and then we can take videos day one and then day 30, 60, 90.
35:47
SPEAKER_01: Uh, Corey Schlesinger helped me a bunch with this with the court stuff.
35:50
SPEAKER_01: So we did the day where we would shoot hoops before we would train.
35:53
SPEAKER_01: And one day we were trying to film all of our makes, and we were going around screens, all this stuff.
35:59
SPEAKER_01: And what I noticed when we got done is I thought I was super fluid back when I used to play basketball, and I moved like a frickin' robot.
36:06
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
36:06
SPEAKER_01: And he was giving me shit about it.
36:07
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, well, how do I get out of that?
36:09
SPEAKER_01: I was like, well, you're doing everything sagittal, stiff.
36:12
SPEAKER_01: You know, let's work on some of these different patterns that we do with the guys and see if that helps free things up.
36:17
SPEAKER_01: And so I'm like, had me totally rework everything I was thinking here of like, yes, outputs are great, but can you move in space?
36:25
SPEAKER_01: Can you be fluid?
36:26
SPEAKER_01: You look at your best basketball players, they're fluid, they're not stiff and robotic.
36:30
SPEAKER_01: And so it's like we need to do things that get them outside of that um traditional weightlifting uh, I guess, background that we're all used to.
36:39
SPEAKER_01: So we've done the dynamic walks with the cables, we've done the position two ISOs.
36:42
SPEAKER_01: Now we're gonna kind of put it together with this low-level uh plyo series.
36:47
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
36:47
SPEAKER_01: Uh we'll start going forward.
36:49
SPEAKER_01: Pay attention.
36:50
SPEAKER_01: No, hey, I'm walking.
36:51
SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna start on our right leg and we're gonna sink into our left leg.
36:54
SPEAKER_01: And every rep we're gonna restart.
36:56
SPEAKER_01: So what I don't want to see is you go left, right, left, right, left, right.
36:59
SPEAKER_01: Because then a lot of our guys like to do this and just run through it with that is extended.
37:05
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
37:05
SPEAKER_01: That's why I don't have any hair right now.
37:08
SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna start on our right leg, I'm gonna sink into it, just like you're creeping up on someone, just like on those cable walks, right leg, sink, creep.
37:16
SPEAKER_01: And how you can make this more challenging is play with the amplitude.
37:20
SPEAKER_01: Uh oh, of how much force I'm putting into it.
37:22
SPEAKER_01: Correct.
37:23
SPEAKER_01: So the first couple be a little lower and then get higher and higher and higher.
37:27
SPEAKER_01: So I'm just kind of correct.
37:34
SPEAKER_01: Perfect.
37:36
SPEAKER_01: Sink.
37:38
SPEAKER_01: Pay attention with that center of masses.
37:40
SPEAKER_01: Try to get on the inside of that knee.
37:42
SPEAKER_01: Good.
37:45
SPEAKER_00: I'll go the other leg.
37:48
SPEAKER_01: Walking around circles.
37:49
SPEAKER_00: When you're coaching them for something like that, so obviously I'm getting the deceleration on single leg, ton of adductor because I'm getting into like a deeper hip flexion position on single leg, so more adductor involvement there, obviously.
38:01
SPEAKER_00: But you're still coaching down inside edge of the foot.
38:04
SPEAKER_00: Same cue.
38:04
SPEAKER_01: So I want the same themes, so they hear me say that over and over and over, and then the light bulb is going to go off.
38:10
SPEAKER_01: That this is important.
38:11
SPEAKER_01: Another good thing about the sinking is it allows you to ask more questions.
38:15
SPEAKER_01: So a guy that is in this position, stiff like that, and he can't get into it.
38:19
SPEAKER_01: Why?
38:19
SPEAKER_01: Do you have knee pain?
38:20
SPEAKER_01: Where is it?
38:21
SPEAKER_01: Because a lot of times you'll ask guys how they're feeling, I feel great, and then you get halfway through the warm-up and they can't bend, and you're like, Does your knee hurt?
38:27
SPEAKER_00: And like, yeah, I just didn't want to say anything.
38:30
SPEAKER_00: That is, that is something.
38:31
SPEAKER_00: So it's almost like uh when people talk about their assessments and like, oh, I have this great assessment, or I do this, you know, FMS or this and that.
38:38
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, hey man, I don't care what you do, but like I like to look at every movement as an assessment.
38:42
SPEAKER_00: Like, correct.
38:43
SPEAKER_00: It's almost like I'm I'm tossing out like like like the how they fish, I'm tossing out a net with a movement like this.
38:49
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, it has value, but at the same time, I'm waiting.
38:52
SPEAKER_00: Like, does fish come back?
38:53
SPEAKER_00: Oh no, we're still good?
38:54
SPEAKER_00: Ah, perfect.
38:55
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
38:55
SPEAKER_01: Uh Andrea Hootie, one of my best mentors around, she would say every day is test day.
39:00
SPEAKER_01: So whether it's the warm-up, whether it's a back squat, whatever, like every movement is a potential test.
39:07
SPEAKER_01: So play around with this.
39:08
SPEAKER_01: We'll see if you're better on one leg or the other.
39:10
SPEAKER_01: Are you kind of coaching in the upper body English to kind of rotate in?
39:13
SPEAKER_01: That'll be kind of the next layer to it.
39:14
SPEAKER_01: So, like week one, it's like, let's see if you can sync, and then we'll get more creative with internally rotating, being more fluid.
39:22
SPEAKER_01: Good.
39:27
SPEAKER_01: There you go.
39:34
SPEAKER_01: Perfect.
39:36
SPEAKER_01: So you mastered that.
39:38
SPEAKER_01: So the next one, we're gonna add a little wrinkle to it so added more speed to it.
39:42
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
39:43
SPEAKER_01: And so I'm gonna start on my right just like we did before.
39:45
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna sink into my left and then explode onto my right.
39:48
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
39:48
SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna be here.
39:49
SPEAKER_01: Sink.
39:51
SPEAKER_01: Reset, right?
39:52
SPEAKER_01: Left.
39:53
SPEAKER_01: Right.
39:54
SPEAKER_01: Reset.
39:56
SPEAKER_00: Sink.
39:58
SPEAKER_00: Fluid movement, fluid, allowing them to gather themselves almost like when it comes to sport training, it's like we look at sport specific and we go, oh, that's bad.
40:09
SPEAKER_00: We don't want to be sport specific.
40:11
SPEAKER_00: But stuff like this, it is athleticism specific.
40:14
SPEAKER_00: And I feel like when you give some athletes are not good in the weight room, no, but they're great on that basketball.
40:19
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
40:19
SPEAKER_00: So if I can give something that looks like this, for one, they instantly go, oh, this is basketball.
40:23
SPEAKER_00: It's just whatever you want to call it.
40:25
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
40:25
SPEAKER_00: This is also gymnastics, it's also figure skating, it's also all these other things.
40:29
SPEAKER_00: But if you want to call it basketball, we'll call it basketball.
40:32
SPEAKER_00: Love it.
40:33
SPEAKER_00: So right leg, let's flow into the right.
40:35
SPEAKER_00: Right, yeah.
40:39
SPEAKER_00: There you go.
40:41
SPEAKER_01: Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.
40:43
SPEAKER_01: Restart.
40:44
SPEAKER_01: Restart, restart.
40:45
SPEAKER_01: Attention detail.
40:45
SPEAKER_01: Yep, yeah.
40:51
SPEAKER_01: Good.
40:52
SPEAKER_01: Play around with that first step, you can go forward, you can go 45 degree or however you feel comfortable.
40:56
SPEAKER_01: Good.
40:59
SPEAKER_00: Land inside edge.
41:00
SPEAKER_00: There you go.
41:01
SPEAKER_00: I felt myself going off to the side.
41:03
SPEAKER_00: Do you notice?
41:04
SPEAKER_00: So when you have a guy or girl that is constantly biasing that outside edge of the foot, do you have like any sort of way to kind of get them to think?
41:13
SPEAKER_00: Because if that's their natural way to organize landing on the ground, it's almost one of those things where it's like, unless you've given them the confidence, or if there's like a like a mechanical issue, then it's like you're never gonna like you're never gonna fix that when it comes to velocity or on the court.
41:27
SPEAKER_00: There's too much force.
41:28
SPEAKER_00: So how would you kind of coach them if you do see them?
41:31
SPEAKER_01: So in here, if they keep rolling over, I'll look and if they can't bend, that's usually like the first thing.
41:37
SPEAKER_01: Like if it's a lot easier to get off balance if you can't bend that leg.
41:41
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
41:41
SPEAKER_01: But we'll add in a false step.
41:42
SPEAKER_01: So what it'll look like, we'll do that same pattern.
41:45
SPEAKER_01: Let's say my athlete keeps going to the side, confidence sucks, but we want to keep them engaged in the drill.
41:50
SPEAKER_01: We'll jump and then gather step.
41:52
SPEAKER_01: So light hob.
41:56
SPEAKER_00: So try that, see how much easier.
41:57
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you intentionally are saying this.
42:00
SPEAKER_00: Well, or maybe we're just our frequencies disconnected.
42:02
SPEAKER_00: Another thing.
42:03
SPEAKER_00: There's something about when I see an athlete, and I've used this cue in the past, when their foot strikes the ground and they're like this, I'm like, I I don't like that.
42:12
SPEAKER_00: I I don't know if I just don't like the way it looks, or I don't like that that's not sport, but I'll do the same thing.
42:17
SPEAKER_00: I'd rather you pick your foot up and put it back.
42:19
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's what you're gonna do on the court, like very rarely, unless you're like about to fall out of balance, are you in this position?
42:24
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
42:24
SPEAKER_01: So why is it that big of a deal in this space?
42:28
SPEAKER_00: Alright, so same thing.
42:29
SPEAKER_00: Right leg.
42:33
SPEAKER_01: Then let's work on that false step.
42:35
SPEAKER_01: Remember, you struggle at this, so let's work on your double tap.
42:37
SPEAKER_01: Double tap?
42:40
SPEAKER_01: Gather?
42:41
SPEAKER_01: Perfect.
42:42
SPEAKER_01: See how you can snap down a little lower that time, a little more confidence?
42:45
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
42:50
SPEAKER_01: And this is great because you don't have to take someone out of the drill.
42:53
SPEAKER_01: They're just doing a different variation of the drill.
42:55
SPEAKER_01: So it's not like go on the side and work on this thing.
42:58
SPEAKER_01: It's like, no, you're still in the drill.
43:00
SPEAKER_01: You're just gonna add this false step to it.
43:03
SPEAKER_00: And in a group setting, it doesn't make them feel like it's a regression because it looks exactly the same.
43:07
SPEAKER_01: And that's the last thing you want to do is pull a kid or an athlete out of it.
43:11
SPEAKER_01: It's like keep them in it and just make the constraints a little different for them till they can move up and through it.
43:16
SPEAKER_01: Dude, love it.
43:16
SPEAKER_01: Love it.
43:17
SPEAKER_01: Um, another great part about this is you can keep it in season and out of season.
43:21
SPEAKER_01: So in season, it's a great warm-up.
43:23
SPEAKER_01: And then out of season, you can just add more volume to it, and it's great for tissue prep before we get into our big, you know, higher level plyos.
43:30
SPEAKER_01: Will they ever do stuff like this on the basketball court?
43:33
SPEAKER_01: Beautiful.
43:33
SPEAKER_01: I like it for a warm-up.
43:35
SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah, all those different stuff.
43:38
SPEAKER_01: Once again, like the boring stuff works, and I think you can just keep adding to it, and then you can play around with it.
43:44
SPEAKER_01: Do you know, jump higher, jump further, and there's always different ways to gamify it.
43:48
SPEAKER_00: When when you say you say boring a lot, you do say boring a lot.
43:52
SPEAKER_00: And uh I I I understand that it may feel like when people when young coaches specifically and they watch things, like when I see that.
44:00
SPEAKER_00: Is it basic?
44:02
SPEAKER_00: Is it boring?
44:03
SPEAKER_00: But that is so complex.
44:05
SPEAKER_00: We have a foot that's striking the ground.
44:07
SPEAKER_00: We're trying to balance our pelvis square to the ground.
44:09
SPEAKER_00: We're not dipping, like big toe down.
44:11
SPEAKER_00: There's so much complexity in that.
44:13
SPEAKER_00: It's like, does it made it look simple, but there's so much value there.
44:17
SPEAKER_01: Well, you got to look at the details, like, okay, is it a jump?
44:20
SPEAKER_01: Sure, but it's below surface level.
44:22
SPEAKER_01: There's a ton of things going on to your point of like lower leg complex, where's my torso at?
44:27
SPEAKER_01: Um, how much depth can I bend with my knee?
44:29
SPEAKER_01: And so it's this checklist that you can go through, and it's almost like your uh FMS test or whatever every day of okay, they're not bending as much.
44:38
SPEAKER_01: Maybe we need to do some more knee stuff, or their foot's not stable, maybe we need to do some more position two stuff, or they can't internally rotate their hips very well, maybe some more cable stuff.
44:46
SPEAKER_01: So it's just layered on top of each other.
44:49
SPEAKER_00: Beautiful.
44:49
SPEAKER_01: And then these are my favorite variations.
44:51
SPEAKER_01: So the same principle is we're gonna go lateral.
44:54
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
44:54
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna start on my right, jump up and out, depending on what you want, as far as uh how taxing you want it to be.
45:01
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
45:01
SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna sink in, reset.
45:03
SPEAKER_01: So I'm tall, sink, reset.
45:06
SPEAKER_01: The big thing I want to cue is just like we did before, inside edge of my foot, my center mass, so the middle of my sternum is on the inside of this knee.
45:14
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
45:15
SPEAKER_01: This will be a big one if you can't um get into a good position, you're gonna fall out in front of yourself.
45:21
SPEAKER_01: Perfect.
45:29
SPEAKER_00: Good.
45:30
SPEAKER_00: Love it.
45:31
SPEAKER_00: So much complexity, but that foot striking the ground, feeding that signal up into the hip.
45:35
SPEAKER_00: That's sport, man.
45:36
SPEAKER_01: And then you're getting getting them to think, because I've you've heard me say inside edge of your foot on 10 different exercises.
45:42
SPEAKER_01: So that's constantly going on in their head.
45:44
SPEAKER_01: So when they get out on the court, they can think inside edge when I'm changing directions.
45:48
SPEAKER_00: One of the best things I remember doing is going.
45:52
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, you have to go to practice, but being in the private setting, you don't ever have to be involved in sports, but that is the best way.
45:58
SPEAKER_00: So instead of saying, like, you know, coaches like to love to impress with words like, hey, valgus knee pattern or tilt the pelvis, it's like inside edge.
46:06
SPEAKER_00: That's a that's a that's a word they use on the basketball court area.
46:10
SPEAKER_00: Like, hey, stop being on the outside, stop being on your heels.
46:12
SPEAKER_00: It's like use the words they're used to hearing, and that instantly builds value to why you're doing it in here.
46:17
SPEAKER_01: For sure.
46:18
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you could ask one of the strength coaches, and they're probably not up to uh snuff with all the terms and everything.
46:22
SPEAKER_01: So if we're not up to snuff with it, you're gonna expect these athletes to be up to it.
46:26
SPEAKER_01: And so it's the same thing.
46:27
SPEAKER_01: They hear inside head from me, they hear inside aids from coach.
46:30
SPEAKER_01: That's automatic buy-in of this is basketball specific or sports specific.
46:34
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
46:34
SPEAKER_01: Next little wrinkle, we're gonna add some speed to it.
46:36
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
46:37
SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna be here, same thing we did before, quick step back, sink.
46:41
SPEAKER_01: So I'm here, left, right, left.
46:46
SPEAKER_01: Left, right, left.
46:48
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
46:50
SPEAKER_01: Boom.
46:51
SPEAKER_01: Boom.
46:51
SPEAKER_01: So start on your right leg, and you're gonna jump out, sink, and then be ready to go.
46:57
SPEAKER_01: So I want to see that inside edge of your foot, accelerate you back.
47:08
SPEAKER_00: Almost like I'm loading, I'm loading up.
47:10
SPEAKER_00: Almost like a skip.
47:12
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
47:12
SPEAKER_01: And then you can break it down if you want, of just if they're having trouble with that, you want to work on that back leg, you're here.
47:19
SPEAKER_01: So I'm here.
47:20
SPEAKER_01: Changing my level, coming back, changing my level, coming back.
47:23
SPEAKER_01: Same.
47:24
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
47:25
SPEAKER_01: It's the same movement.
47:26
SPEAKER_01: So now we're just adding velocity to that same movement.
47:29
SPEAKER_00: Damn.
47:30
SPEAKER_00: But you're are you doing this when you structure your your prep?
47:34
SPEAKER_00: I'm loading it first, kind of connecting the dots with the power.
47:36
SPEAKER_01: So we'll superset this sometimes of like work on the pattern, slow, correct.
47:40
SPEAKER_01: And then we'll come here.
47:41
SPEAKER_01: Remember that same concept, turn in internally rotating, exploding out, and the same thing over there.
47:46
SPEAKER_00: Beautiful Zach.
47:51
SPEAKER_01: Driving that foot, perfect.
47:52
SPEAKER_01: Inside edge, good, inside edge.
48:02
SPEAKER_01: Good.
48:03
SPEAKER_01: So it's all about changing your levels, and if they can't bend in those positions, of course they're gonna look slower out of position when they're playing defense.
48:10
SPEAKER_00: Well, I like the I like this, I don't know the word, singularity.
48:13
SPEAKER_00: I like the each rep is its own rep rather than it just turning into what you see like a skip series, and now there's just like ah there's a difference between doing it and doing it with intent.
48:24
SPEAKER_01: I think if you're not doing stuff with intent in here, you are it's a fitness class, it's not training or it's working out, it's not training.
48:32
SPEAKER_00: You kind of have a why for everything, which I appreciate and respect as not only as a friend, but as a colleague.
48:37
SPEAKER_00: Like there should always be a why.
48:39
SPEAKER_00: Like, why are we doing this exercise?
48:40
SPEAKER_00: Have you noticed any difference with the college athletes you're getting now?
48:44
SPEAKER_00: Like them being, it almost feels like I don't know if it's the growth of social media, maybe it's just the the interest, but I I feel like kids want that more.
48:54
SPEAKER_00: Like they are they they are the kids that are just like, okay, I'll do what you say.
48:57
SPEAKER_00: I feel like those are kind of going for sure.
48:59
SPEAKER_00: Like kids want to know, hey, why am I doing sometimes from not saying disrespect, but like, hey, why are we doing this?
49:04
SPEAKER_01: I'm curious.
49:04
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
49:05
SPEAKER_01: Well, I think it's the overload of information now at your fingertips.
49:08
SPEAKER_01: So you could be on pick your social media media platform of choice, and you're gonna see probably within the same doom scrolling sesh you're on of this is why back squats are good, this is why back squats are bad, this is a basketball lift, this is not a whatever.
49:23
SPEAKER_01: And so it's a way where like people are selling what they're trying to do, and you're honestly combating that of, hey, you know, this is really popular right now.
49:32
SPEAKER_01: Coach, why aren't we doing these?
49:33
SPEAKER_01: Hey, for you, you're telling me you have knee pain.
49:36
SPEAKER_01: Um, maybe the ATG split squat right off the bat isn't the best move for you.
49:41
SPEAKER_01: Here's where we can work to get you to that position, but maybe right now this isn't the best movement for you to do.
49:48
SPEAKER_01: Um, and then we can overlay that with, you know, the force plate data that we get of like, hey, this is how you move the best.
49:54
SPEAKER_01: These exercises, although you want to do Pilates or yoga, they might take away from the stiffness that we're trying to build on the court.
50:00
SPEAKER_01: So we could do that stuff, but it might take away from what you're really good at.
50:04
SPEAKER_00: Do you notice any difference?
50:06
SPEAKER_00: Like, um, because some of this stuff is is pretty different.
50:09
SPEAKER_00: And maybe even like head coach comes in and goes, hey, you know, what are what are you doing that for?
50:15
SPEAKER_00: And I obviously you explain the why or whatnot, but is there a hesitancy with doing things different, or do the athletes like it because it allows them to kind of express athleticism?
50:25
SPEAKER_00: Because I can tell, I I specifically can say some of the best athletes I've ever worked with look the most unathletic inside that's for sure, for sure.
50:34
SPEAKER_00: And then they step out of that cage and you're like, whoa, am I watching Space Jam right now?
50:38
SPEAKER_00: What just happened?
50:39
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think um the biggest thing is the explaining the why, like, why does this matter?
50:44
SPEAKER_01: I think when you can make something more dynamic, that's where these guys feel at home.
50:48
SPEAKER_01: And that it's I don't care if you screw up, like the loads we're using, like you're not gonna get hurt with 10 or 15 pounds on a cable comm doing a controlled hip by R movement or a walkout or whatever.
51:00
SPEAKER_01: So it's like be an athlete.
51:01
SPEAKER_01: I always tell them, like, be an athlete, be an athlete.
51:03
SPEAKER_01: And then you've probably heard me.
51:04
SPEAKER_01: I'm constantly asking, how does that feel?
51:06
SPEAKER_01: Where do you feel that?
51:08
SPEAKER_01: Um, do you feel better doing this before or after?
51:11
SPEAKER_01: And then I think it's that constant conversation throughout the 30 to hour session, and you can kind of build that rapport of, oh, he's tailoring this to me.
51:20
SPEAKER_01: So it's like if I notice a guy's having issues with the position two stuff, and he's like, I feel it really far down in my Achilles at the insertion points.
51:29
SPEAKER_01: Okay, let's drop your heel.
51:30
SPEAKER_01: How does that feel?
51:31
SPEAKER_01: Oh, it feels fine, cool.
51:32
SPEAKER_01: From now on, when you do it, this exercise, have your heel lower.
51:35
SPEAKER_01: Um, so I think it's a constant conversation of not just here's how we do it.
51:40
SPEAKER_01: You need to get in line and do it and shut up.
51:42
SPEAKER_01: It's more of let's tailor it, tailor this to you.
51:45
SPEAKER_00: When I hear it's almost like it's so close, but it's the difference of do you feel this here versus where do you feel this?
51:54
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
51:54
SPEAKER_00: And that conversation is so different.
51:57
SPEAKER_00: And I will never forget, man, years ago, I had a football player I was working with, and we had like a really big, not a really big, but an appropriate like kind of lower body, low, lower body day, heavy on some unilateral stuff, heavy bilaterally, just really got into his legs.
52:13
SPEAKER_00: And the next day, um, I was asking him, uh, we also sprinted before that, and then we did that, kind of like shorter bursts, pretty normal, and then kind of went more to our strength.
52:23
SPEAKER_00: And I remember asking him the next day, I was like, hey man, like, you know, how do you feel?
52:27
SPEAKER_00: And I remember him saying, Man, my quads are so sore, or my hamstrings are so sore.
52:34
SPEAKER_00: It was hamstrings, my hamstrings are so sore.
52:36
SPEAKER_00: And I was just like, Yeah, man, did I did I overdo it on the volume?
52:41
SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't think we sprinted that much, and we didn't do much targeted hamstrings.
52:46
SPEAKER_00: And he just kept saying, Man, my hamstrings are so tight.
52:49
SPEAKER_00: And I was just like, damn, like, okay.
52:52
SPEAKER_00: And then we so we're doing a bunch of like, you know, rolling hamstrings.
52:56
SPEAKER_00: Like, I had the uh I have a car buffer I love to put on that to kind of bring some vibration to friction to the area.
53:01
SPEAKER_00: And when I placed it on him, I remember he said, he was like, No, my hamstrings.
53:06
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, Yeah, and he was like, No, but yeah, there you go.
53:09
SPEAKER_00: It's like got it, got it different language, different language.
53:13
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so it's like asking just someone where like touch it.
53:17
SPEAKER_00: Like, don't try to name it, just where do you feel this?
53:19
SPEAKER_00: And you were asking me that on the the run specific two, where it's like, hey, where do you feel this?
53:24
SPEAKER_00: Because it if whether it's the calf, the quad, the tendon, like where at can tell you a lot of information.
53:29
SPEAKER_00: For sure.
53:30
SPEAKER_01: We'll find a lot with especially our bigs who are super reactive.
53:33
SPEAKER_01: They'll we'll do a position two or something so benign, and they'll be like, oh, it lights up my lower back.
53:38
SPEAKER_01: And you wouldn't think like uh position two ISO, like that has nothing to do with your back.
53:43
SPEAKER_01: But in that position they were in, maybe it's affecting them more.
53:46
SPEAKER_01: Maybe they're fired up from what we did days before that.
53:49
SPEAKER_01: And so it's a different checklist of like, okay, your back's lit up from position two.
53:53
SPEAKER_01: Let's scrap that and do something else to maybe get you away from that before we have practice.
53:59
SPEAKER_00: What is your thought process of a training session?
54:02
SPEAKER_00: So I've seen, I haven't been around you in the off-season, but I've been around you multiple times in the is season, whether it was uh previous school or here now, and I've watched the training sessions go on.
54:12
SPEAKER_00: What is normally the focus of an in-season training session when guys will come in?
54:17
SPEAKER_01: Uh so we'll kind of set it up in four different blocks.
54:19
SPEAKER_01: And so it's like our warm-up block, we'll have a lot of our variability within that.
54:24
SPEAKER_01: It's a lot of ISOs, um, cable walkouts, of course.
54:28
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
54:29
SPEAKER_01: Um uh and I kind of have a checklist of what's our main movement of the day.
54:35
SPEAKER_01: We work backwards from there.
54:36
SPEAKER_01: So if I were to say our main movement of the day is back squat, we're working on strength.
54:40
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna give you a million dollars if you PR today.
54:43
SPEAKER_01: What are the five to ten exercises you need to do in 15 minutes to get ready to PR?
54:48
SPEAKER_01: And I just go through that checklist in my head of like, okay, I probably want to do some walkouts, probably want to do some ankle mobility, I want to do some stuff for my T-spine, I maybe want to jump a little, probably throw a med ball, probably do some goblet squats.
54:59
SPEAKER_01: And then I go through that framework in my head, I'm like, okay, let's plan that into these blocks.
55:04
SPEAKER_01: And then right when they're ready for the main thing of the day, they should be ready to PR or give their best, best lift.
55:10
SPEAKER_00: As a coach that's you've been coaching for so long, um, I think especially younger coaches that are getting into it, um, and even I catch myself in this sometimes, like I'm trying to control the room.
55:21
SPEAKER_00: And when you have like me specifically, I'm having less than eight people normally.
55:26
SPEAKER_00: So it's it's easier for me to control.
55:28
SPEAKER_00: But the second you start getting 15 people or 20, then it's like, I'm not controlling this at all.
55:34
SPEAKER_00: They they kind of are.
55:35
SPEAKER_00: So, where as a coach do you kind of walk that line of like giving them like ownership of you know, going through the movements or coaching each other up versus like you needing to like be very rigid?
55:48
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I kind of married up to where we're at in the week.
55:50
SPEAKER_01: So if we're further away from a game, chances are it's a more technically savvy lift because it's more of a strength type lift.
55:58
SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna be like coaching hard, we're in it, moving around, doing everything.
56:03
SPEAKER_01: And then the closer we get to the game, the easier the lifts are gonna be.
56:06
SPEAKER_01: So a day before the game might be, you know, some mobility, throwing some med balls, some jumping.
56:11
SPEAKER_01: And those things, I'm more hands-off of like you self-organize, you jump, less feedback from me because you're getting ready for a game.
56:19
SPEAKER_01: I don't need to add more to it of another rap, blah, blah, blah, blah.
56:22
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
56:23
SPEAKER_01: And it's more of this of like keep them safe, but give them ownership of, hey, this is a box jump, pretty hard to screw it up.
56:30
SPEAKER_01: Let's see what you can do.
56:30
SPEAKER_01: Or here's a med ball throw.
56:32
SPEAKER_01: Throw it as hard as you can against the wall.
56:33
SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna coach unless I see they're in a bad position or gonna get injured or anything like that.
56:39
SPEAKER_01: So it's almost more coaching to less because the stress of the game, everything like that, they're getting coached hard on the court.
56:45
SPEAKER_01: The last thing they need to do is another guy yelling at them, you know, in the morning of a med ball throw or something like that.
56:50
SPEAKER_00: When did you notice that in your career?
56:52
SPEAKER_00: Like it was it, because I mean you you started out at Kansas.
56:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
56:56
SPEAKER_00: Like the the most pressure, especially back then, like I don't I don't know where they're at now, but I mean Kansas basketball.
57:02
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so pretty good.
57:03
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, they're they're there.
57:04
SPEAKER_00: So, like that demand, that stress, that like, hey, every training session matters.
57:10
SPEAKER_00: How did you did you always kind of have that personality because of the mentors you had, or has it become with time now, just being a little bit more confident in your coaching stuff?
57:18
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think a mix of both of them.
57:21
SPEAKER_01: Um, I think, you know, early on you just want it to be like structured and like regimented the whole time.
57:28
SPEAKER_01: And then once again, the more you go to practice, it's like it's pretty demanding in there of like verbal feedbacks, physical feedbacks, high pressure, yeah, yeah, yeah.
57:37
SPEAKER_01: And it's like, do I want to keep adding on to that system of they're stressed out, they're stressed out, they're stressed out.
57:43
SPEAKER_01: And why don't I make the weight room, which we can all agree is a positive place to still, we're still gonna have standards of execution and everything.
57:51
SPEAKER_01: But if you conduct yourself like a good contributing member of the team, like there's no reason I need to be on you all the frickin' time about everything.
57:59
SPEAKER_01: And summer is a different story.
58:01
SPEAKER_01: That's when I can coach you all the time because you don't have that added stress.
58:04
SPEAKER_01: But like, why would I add more stress onto the system like that?
58:08
SPEAKER_01: And I think when I say that, people think that automatically means like, oh, there's no standards, they're messing around, yada yada.
58:15
SPEAKER_01: It's like, no, you if you give respect and do everything as you're supposed to, I'll leave you alone.
58:21
SPEAKER_01: But if you need me to hold your hand and be on you, like you're gonna have another person in your ear all the time.
58:26
SPEAKER_01: So it's kind of like earning that right to do it on your own.
58:29
SPEAKER_00: When I hear coaches say that, I'm like, hey man, you it's actually the opposite.
58:34
SPEAKER_00: Like the second you stop the yelling and you do pull it back down to them and be like, hey, I I always try to tell the conversation, like, hey, if you want me to force you to do something, I can, but like if you don't want to do this, well, that's the like buy-in versus compliance conversation.
58:51
SPEAKER_01: It's like everyone's like, we have such good buy-in.
58:53
SPEAKER_01: It's like, do you have buy-in or do you have compliance?
58:56
SPEAKER_01: And I'd argue if I can come in and not say a word and they can do the lift perfectly up to the standard that we set for our team, we have buy-in.
59:04
SPEAKER_01: If I need to be there all the time counting guys' reps, making sure we're doing the correct form, making sure we're handling enough load, like you just have compliance.
59:11
SPEAKER_01: That guy's in there that day.
59:12
SPEAKER_01: So I think the the big question would be is your program a compliance program or a bought-in program?
59:19
SPEAKER_00: Damn, dude.
59:20
SPEAKER_00: Uh got into a little bit of a Twitter beef years back with someone around the words buy-in.
59:25
SPEAKER_00: We'll leave that kind of to the side.
59:26
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but when I hear those words, I always think of it as buy-in is a one-way street.
59:33
SPEAKER_00: Typically, yeah.
59:33
SPEAKER_00: The way you described it, that's different.
59:35
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
59:35
SPEAKER_00: But I've never heard a coach say, Hey, I'm really bought into my athletes.
59:39
SPEAKER_00: It's always, hey, we really need you to buy into the program.
59:42
SPEAKER_00: We really need you to buy into what we're doing in the weight room and be like, hey, how?
59:46
SPEAKER_00: How does that work?
59:47
SPEAKER_00: You're asking for the respect without allowing a collaborative moment for them to feel like a part of this journey.
59:54
SPEAKER_00: It's almost like if we're going on a road trip and we have a long road trip, you have these people for years, they should at least be able to pick which rest stops for sure.
1:00:02
SPEAKER_00: Like, hey, where would you have to stop to get food?
1:00:03
SPEAKER_00: Not, hey, GPS says we're not stopping.
1:00:05
SPEAKER_00: Well, I got a pee, bro.
1:00:06
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:00:07
SPEAKER_00: Like, we when do I get to to offer, like, hey, can we add this?
1:00:12
SPEAKER_00: Like the there, there should be that sort of buy-in.
1:00:15
SPEAKER_01: It's that common dialogue.
1:00:16
SPEAKER_01: And then I think the biggest thing is like athletes want results.
1:00:21
SPEAKER_01: And so they don't care if you're young, old, whatever.
1:00:25
SPEAKER_01: Like, if you can get them results, they will want to work with you.
1:00:28
SPEAKER_01: So that's on your end of the front end of how do I make this an environment where they're learning, they find value in it, they're getting better.
1:00:36
SPEAKER_01: We can show them metrics where they're getting better here on the court.
1:00:39
SPEAKER_01: And then after that, they're bought in because they know when they come into this room, they get better.
1:00:45
SPEAKER_00: Well, you're giving advice to coaches because I mean you've been coaching for so long.
1:00:48
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you're at Miami right now, high profile, uh new coach, like a lot of energy around the program.
1:00:55
SPEAKER_00: Um, what advice do you give young coaches when they reach out?
1:00:58
SPEAKER_00: Because you share a lot of information online, you share a lot of exercises, you share uh some of the stuff that you're doing with the guys, a lot of the stuff.
1:01:05
SPEAKER_00: Like, what advice would you give to those young coaches that are starting out?
1:01:08
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you hear all this time, like be a sponge, but what does that mean?
1:01:12
SPEAKER_01: And I think too many times, you know, interns or people, you know, who they get the first gig, and what's the first thing they want to do is leave and go do something else, or they want to coach right away.
1:01:24
SPEAKER_01: But it's like if your responsibility is cleaning the weight room, that's your one thing to do, or make sure it's all set up, do that to the best of your ability.
1:01:33
SPEAKER_01: So there's a funny story once again with Hootie.
1:01:36
SPEAKER_01: Uh, she said, I couldn't help coach men's basketball till the weight room was clean all the time.
1:01:42
SPEAKER_01: Like, and we had a huge football facility.
1:01:44
SPEAKER_01: And so I would get there super early, clean.
1:01:47
SPEAKER_01: I was checking under boxes, like all these things, because she was going to do the white glove test.
1:01:51
SPEAKER_01: And I had everything, I was like, I'm freaking good.
1:01:54
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna be able to help with men's basketball.
1:01:56
SPEAKER_01: I knocked on her office.
1:01:57
SPEAKER_01: She was like, Are you sure you got everything?
1:01:58
SPEAKER_01: I was like, Absolutely.
1:02:00
SPEAKER_01: Like I triple checked everything, all the logos are up.
1:02:02
SPEAKER_01: Go through the facility, we go upstairs.
1:02:04
SPEAKER_01: We had this like cardio room.
1:02:06
SPEAKER_01: She looks over the top thing and she goes, You didn't dust the top of the racks.
1:02:10
SPEAKER_01: And then just walked out the door.
1:02:12
SPEAKER_01: And I remember just being like, Oh my God, like I screwed it up.
1:02:16
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:02:17
SPEAKER_01: But then, you know, I cleaned the top of the racks, we were good to go.
1:02:19
SPEAKER_01: But it's just showing that you need to go above and beyond what others are willing to do.
1:02:25
SPEAKER_01: And when you're in these internship classes, like there's three or four interns with you helping out with football or basketball or whatever, like they're your friends, but they're also your competition.
1:02:35
SPEAKER_01: And so it's like, what can you do to be reliable, dependable, and hardworking?
1:02:40
SPEAKER_01: And if people can rely on you and you're competent, you're gonna go pretty far in whatever career you choose.
1:02:45
SPEAKER_01: So it's like go the extra mile, do whatever your task is, make it the big time.
1:02:49
SPEAKER_01: So if it's cleaning the dumbbells, make sure there's no chalk on them, make sure the logos are up.
1:02:53
SPEAKER_01: Like, take pride in those little things so they can trust you to maybe lead an athlete or lead a team or anything down the line like that.
1:02:59
SPEAKER_01: But I think too many people are they want to skip steps and they forget that like if you skip steps, it's eventually gonna come out and get you.
1:03:09
SPEAKER_00: Dude, I mean, you share so much good information.
1:03:13
SPEAKER_00: You've got uh uh programs online that if you're if you're a basketball player or basketball trainer, they can follow along with videos and uh very very professional with that as an entrepreneur, which is amazing.
1:03:24
SPEAKER_00: Um, you've mentioned a couple of the mentors you've had.
1:03:27
SPEAKER_00: I'm a big believer in like giving people their flowers, man.
1:03:30
SPEAKER_00: Um, are there people outside of the people maybe you've mentioned or that you'd like to readdress that like have stuck out to you?
1:03:37
SPEAKER_00: Because it's like uh it's almost like um people say like we're standing on the shoulders of giants.
1:03:43
SPEAKER_00: It's like that that optic, that eyesight that we get to have is only because of those people that came before us.
1:03:50
SPEAKER_00: That unfortunately, before social media, before you know, maybe they're not the most uh voistress online.
1:03:56
SPEAKER_00: So people don't know about them, they just hear loud mouths like myself, and they're like, oh, well, that must be like actually that's the dude.
1:04:03
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:04:03
SPEAKER_01: Like, um, you know, do there's pe any people like that that stick out to you?
1:04:06
SPEAKER_01: So I got so lucky when I was at Kansas that I didn't know it at the time, but I was in like in the melting pot of like some of the top strength coaches in the nation at that time.
1:04:16
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:04:16
SPEAKER_01: And just to be like a fly on the wall absorbing everything, like I when I moved, I found all my old notebooks of when these coaches would talk.
1:04:25
SPEAKER_01: I'd be in the room and I'd write down everything they're saying, whether it was like how to deal with coaches, how to program X, Y, Z or the other.
1:04:33
SPEAKER_01: And they would help me so much of little things like, okay, it's great that I know how to program or whatever.
1:04:39
SPEAKER_01: But they would bring me into head coaches meetings.
1:04:41
SPEAKER_01: So I could sit there and be like, okay, here's how you talk to a head coach that's not pleased, or you have to bring them bad news or whatever.
1:04:49
SPEAKER_01: And it was kind of ways of seeing, like, okay, so this is what it's really like.
1:04:54
SPEAKER_01: Um, so yeah, Joe Staub, Luke Bradford, Glenn King, Cody Roberts, all those guys were great.
1:05:00
SPEAKER_01: Um, Megan Young, our mutual friend, she's great.
1:05:03
SPEAKER_01: Um, I actually, my sister went to Auburn, so I reached out to Megan and was like, hey, can I come shadow you?
1:05:10
SPEAKER_01: And I went and saw how she did everything.
1:05:12
SPEAKER_01: And she's just been always someone that I can call with either like coaching questions or just like, hey, how do I navigate this situation?
1:05:20
SPEAKER_01: I got an unhappy head coach or an athlete that doesn't want to listen to me, or this, that, and the other.
1:05:25
SPEAKER_01: And then I think the head coaches who I've worked for, like they're tough cookies.
1:05:29
SPEAKER_01: And I think it's helped me a lot of how to navigate different situations of you're not going to get your way all the time, and how do you play nice in the sandbox to eventually, you know, sell what you're trying to do, get the coach bought in and what you're doing.
1:05:45
SPEAKER_01: And I think too many times we get frustrated with our head coaches.
1:05:49
SPEAKER_01: And for me, Vic Schaefer helped me look back and see, he'd always say, I've been coaching for 41 years or whatever.
1:05:56
SPEAKER_01: And I had to think of, okay, if I'd been coaching for 40 years and a young strength coach, and I had a bunch of success, and a young strength coach came in and told me dumbbells and barbells were BS and they don't work.
1:06:08
SPEAKER_01: Like, do you think I would change right away?
1:06:10
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:06:11
SPEAKER_01: Like, probably not.
1:06:12
SPEAKER_01: So it's like he's at his dream job chasing where he wants to be.
1:06:16
SPEAKER_01: And you're gonna have a, at the time, a 26-year-old being like, hey, we should practice like this or lift like this.
1:06:23
SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
1:06:24
SPEAKER_01: But you got to kind of put yourself in their shoes.
1:06:26
SPEAKER_01: So at the time it was frustrating, but I grew so much out of those moments.
1:06:30
SPEAKER_01: And I think honestly, the whole strength coach community, I found that um, especially through our podcasts and everything, these coaches you see online, the majority of them when you meet in person, like they're cool, normal people, um, which I think is great and reassuring because I think it's easy to bag on the field and whatnot.
1:06:49
SPEAKER_01: But I think if you look at the collective whole, like everyone's there to help.
1:06:53
SPEAKER_01: Um, I think everyone sees a little bit of them and you know, these younger coaches coming up.
1:06:59
SPEAKER_01: Um, so I'm just trying my best to give back at least close to what I've been served over the years.
1:07:04
SPEAKER_01: So now I'm truly grateful.
1:07:06
SPEAKER_00: When you say give back, man, I I think you do plenty of that.
1:07:09
SPEAKER_00: And uh I've taken stuff from you.
1:07:11
SPEAKER_00: Um, I've learned stuff from you, uh, watching you coach the stuff you share online.
1:07:15
SPEAKER_00: Um, so honestly, thank you for being on this.
1:07:18
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for being open-minded and sharing things.
1:07:21
SPEAKER_00: I think with coaches, a lot of times they're the lack of ability or unwillingness to share things, for me, it's like a red flag.
1:07:30
SPEAKER_00: It's like if you're worried about sharing too much, you probably don't have much to share.
1:07:34
SPEAKER_00: And I instantly, it's like, yeah, you just because you see an exercise does not mean you understand the context, the thought process.
1:07:40
SPEAKER_00: It's almost like when when people talk about overthinkers and they're like, What do you think about this?
1:07:44
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, I I I've I've thought about that, trust me.
1:07:47
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, but dude, thank you.
1:07:48
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for bringing on here.
1:07:50
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for being so open.
1:07:51
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for opening your doors, sharing all your information, man.
1:07:54
SPEAKER_00: I I truly appreciate you, not just as a professional, man, but but as a good friend.
1:07:58
SPEAKER_01: Appreciate it.
1:07:58
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for coming down.
1:07:59
SPEAKER_01: We'll have to get you a cafecito tomorrow.
1:08:01
SPEAKER_00: Not that strong.
1:08:03
SPEAKER_00: That's what I would be like.
1:08:06
SPEAKER_01: Thanks so much.
1:08:07
SPEAKER_01: Cool.
1:08:08
SPEAKER_01: Dope.
1:08:10
SPEAKER_01: Kill it.
1:08:10
SPEAKER_01: Kill the