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Exploring Unilateral Training and Sports Performance · Performance Explored Project

0:01
SPEAKER_00: So I've seen you speak about like the eight-vector system and how you prepare different athletes for different ranges of motion, different changes of direction, how we use our body in space.
0:11
SPEAKER_00: Where did that come from?
0:12
SPEAKER_00: Because I know you played sports yourself.
0:14
SPEAKER_00: Is that seeing that gap?
0:15
SPEAKER_00: Is it seeing something that you noticed along the way?
0:18
SPEAKER_00: Where did that start from?
0:19
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so I mean, that framework of Bobby Shroop's gym with just that diagram on the floor was kind of a starting point.
0:26
SPEAKER_02: And when Jordan Newsma joined our staff, he kind of explained this eight-vector cut that he did.
0:31
SPEAKER_02: And I think I don't remember if that was the exact terminology used originally, but that's what it kind of grew into.
0:37
SPEAKER_02: And for myself, I always felt like my change of direction was really good in a game or uh in a drill, but didn't necessarily carry over to the game the exact same way.
0:50
SPEAKER_02: And I think so much of the cutting like we we went through in the eight vectors is you're actually hitting all those different angles.
0:58
SPEAKER_02: Versus like we talked about, so much of it is when you see change of direction, it's plant, reorient, linear sprint, plant, and it's just a lot of linear sprinting with starts and stops in between.
1:09
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:10
SPEAKER_02: And so truly exposing people to change of direction, crossover steps, push to move steps, getting in out of cuts at all of those vectors is really important from both just a safeguarding, but also a performance standpoint.
1:21
SPEAKER_02: And I think it just continued to grow from just a simple change of direction drill to there's so many areas that we can incorporate this in, like the ability to expose athletes to stress from a conditioning standpoint through all of those is important.
1:35
SPEAKER_02: Getting better from an explosive standpoint with plyometric work at these will lend improvements in our change of direction.
1:43
SPEAKER_02: So it just continued to grow.
1:45
SPEAKER_02: And I remember Mike Tucker had a double broad jump video, and I saw the jump on his Instagram.
1:51
SPEAKER_02: And for whatever reason, we have been doing our eight-vector cut stuff, I was like, we should be doing all of our jumps the exact same way.
1:57
SPEAKER_02: Like he just did a double jump, but why not jump out and then just redirect on the next jump?
2:01
SPEAKER_02: And that turned into okay, we have all these angles.
2:04
SPEAKER_02: How do we make it to where we can get a huge group of athletes to condition through all these angles?
2:08
SPEAKER_02: It's like, okay, the square is a 90-degree cut, the slalom is a 135-degree cut, and just working our way through kind of building out how it fits because we don't train one athlete at a time, like we don't have that convenience.
2:22
SPEAKER_02: So it can't just be an a la carte, like, oh, we'll do this today, do this.
2:26
SPEAKER_02: Like it has to be very systemized, but still prep them for the chaos of sport, which is why I love that framework overall.
2:33
SPEAKER_00: I know you do a lot of work with football.
2:35
SPEAKER_00: Does you guys train or use this for throughout all of the sports?
2:38
SPEAKER_00: Because I can see so much carryover with the baseball, softball, lacrosse, like getting in those angles and working in that pelvis, I feel like that transcends all sports.
2:48
SPEAKER_02: That's that's human movement.
2:50
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
2:50
SPEAKER_02: So, like our basketball team, for example, they'll do a lot of this stuff where it becomes they're in the center of the paint and it's a crossover step, crossover step, push to move step, covering ground.
3:02
SPEAKER_02: In every sport, you have an offensive attacking person who is trying to create space and separation.
3:08
SPEAKER_02: You have a defender who is trying to take away space and close space, close the gap.
3:13
SPEAKER_02: And those principles are true for lacrosse, basketball, ever football, all of those sports.
3:19
SPEAKER_02: And then even our soccer athletes, it's the same thing.
3:21
SPEAKER_02: And for them, we've done the eight-vector cut conditioning as part of our in-season work.
3:26
SPEAKER_02: Our coaches have taken it and used it with a ball.
3:29
SPEAKER_02: So it's incorporating as much of the sport into it as you can, but still having that checks and balances to make sure we're hitting all of these angles.
3:37
SPEAKER_02: And so it really holds true throughout all of our sports, except, you know, like a cross-country or track where it's so linear.
3:44
SPEAKER_02: We might not be doing eight vector cuts or some of the change direction explosives because it doesn't have as much carryover, but we will still put them in like the lunge series, the ISOs, just because human movement is essential to everybody.
3:57
SPEAKER_02: And getting them in some of those weird angles just creates a more robust, resilient athlete overall.
4:02
SPEAKER_00: I think when I'm I'm normally working with individuals or smaller groups, and people ask me, like, you know, how do you get them to do these movements and this stuff?
4:10
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, it's kind of fairly easy because it's just monoimano.
4:14
SPEAKER_00: It's very easy to kind of like, hey, how's this feel?
4:16
SPEAKER_00: How's this?
4:16
SPEAKER_00: But when you start to expand that out to 10, 20, 30, 50 kids at one time, this becomes a beast.
4:23
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
4:24
SPEAKER_00: Like this is a beast to manage.
4:26
SPEAKER_00: And I feel like that eight-vector system, it gives them like just enough to kind of like a little bit of guidance, like like almost training wheels, like, hey, that direction, yeah, not a direction you're comfortable in, that direction, that direction.
4:39
SPEAKER_00: And it it that system in itself can translate from the warm-up, like you said, power movements, conditioning, like it can be layered in everything.
4:49
SPEAKER_00: And if you said the sports coaches are doing it as well, the athletes are probably looking at this as this isn't just like a like a warm-up.
4:55
SPEAKER_00: This is this is prep for my sport.
4:57
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
4:57
SPEAKER_02: And as it starts to bleed into our agility game.
5:00
SPEAKER_02: So if we're doing a mirror dodge drill or we're doing like a moving mirror, for example.
5:03
SPEAKER_02: So it's you and I, we've got a five-yard buffer, we're at two and a half right in between, and I'm trying to beat you.
5:09
SPEAKER_02: Almost everything I do is 135-degree cut.
5:12
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna give you a fake hesitation this way, plant, try and get by you.
5:15
SPEAKER_02: You as the defender trying to close space, you're likely opening up, hitting that 45-degree angle.
5:21
SPEAKER_02: So we'll put them in truly kind of sport chaotic, agility based, instead of just change of direction based off of those vectors the exact same way.
5:29
SPEAKER_02: So we can design a drill where we know this is what the offensive guy is gonna hit, this is what the defender is gonna hit.
5:35
SPEAKER_02: They'll each get reps at both.
5:37
SPEAKER_02: And so again, it comes back to blending chaos and order in a humongous group of humans and doing it in a way that you're gonna get really good intent in the same way.
5:47
SPEAKER_02: And so, uh, to your performance explored, like we want to emphasize exploration.
5:52
SPEAKER_02: So if we do 135-degree cut, there's no perfect way to do it.
5:55
SPEAKER_02: Like a receiver, we want them to treat it like they're running the slant route.
5:58
SPEAKER_02: A defensive end, treat it like you're doing an up and under.
6:01
SPEAKER_02: There's room for individual expression in it, but we're all hitting the same angle.
6:06
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so eight-vector cut here is gonna be our first thing.
6:09
SPEAKER_02: And really, it's it's not just the cut, it's just a framework.
6:12
SPEAKER_02: So our eight-vector system that we've we've kind of talked about a lot at Elon all starts from in-place mobility work up to our like rudiment jumps as kind of a prep, uh, some of our lunge series work into the cutting aspect itself, change direction, which will bleed into our agility work, uh, and then even into our conditioning side of things, we will incorporate all eight vectors throughout the session.
6:36
SPEAKER_02: So uh, if we want to start first with just kind of the basic diagram here, basically you have your eight vectors.
6:42
SPEAKER_02: So if I'm I'm oriented straight ahead here, as I come out and move at a 45 or 135 degree cut, a 90 degree, then we've got 135, 90, or 45 back, 45 back, and then zero degree in both directions.
6:59
SPEAKER_02: So just a straight turn over the shoulder.
7:02
SPEAKER_02: That framework right there, all of those kind of vectors, quote unquote, gives us a checks and balances for preparation to make sure a lot of change of direction that you see is I I sprint, I hit a line, I orient my whole body this way, sprint, hit a line.
7:19
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
7:20
SPEAKER_02: And it becomes really linear change of direction.
7:22
SPEAKER_02: So we just want to make sure that we're hitting every angle possible.
7:26
SPEAKER_02: And it's that load is greater than capacity, you end up with an injury.
7:30
SPEAKER_02: We want to make sure they've been exposed to a load in every range of motion, essentially.
7:34
SPEAKER_02: So starting out our first one would just be like a lunge series.
7:38
SPEAKER_02: So we're gonna step out at that angle, we'll step out at the other one, same thing.
7:43
SPEAKER_02: We'll go 90, 90, and it doesn't have to be a huge range of motion.
7:46
SPEAKER_02: We're just trying to get into those positions, yeah, hit each one, and then a full open all the way back each direction.
7:55
SPEAKER_02: So it gave us just a quick test of where we restricted, where do we move well?
8:01
SPEAKER_02: Then one that we use consistently, if you want to demo here, is just an iso hold.
8:06
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
8:06
SPEAKER_02: So we'll use this one as a little bit longer duration.
8:08
SPEAKER_02: So if you want to step out at this angle with that left 45 degrees.
8:11
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
8:11
SPEAKER_02: And wherever you step, you're reaching back to this foot, is your base port.
8:17
SPEAKER_02: So we're really gonna try and sink in on this one, reach back and across exactly.
8:22
SPEAKER_02: Get us that length to where you have one of those instances on a field, you step wrong, you end up grass comes out underneath you in that unique position.
8:34
SPEAKER_02: We have been in that position, at least experienced it.
8:37
SPEAKER_02: So it'd be the same thing going this way, same thing at our 90.
8:41
SPEAKER_02: We're going straight out to the side, and then now reach back to this foot.
8:44
SPEAKER_02: Perfect.
8:45
SPEAKER_00: And we're just holding this for however much time.
8:47
SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
8:48
SPEAKER_02: We'll typically go about 30 seconds per Oh my god, Nick.
8:51
SPEAKER_02: Maybe a little bit less.
8:53
SPEAKER_02: Um, but it'll get tough for you.
8:56
SPEAKER_00: Well, I see that because it's almost uh I love giving some open-endedness with like warm-ups and stuff.
9:01
SPEAKER_00: Yep, but it's almost like if you give them too much freedom, then they kind of will just do the stuff that they that they're used to.
9:07
SPEAKER_00: It's almost like if I give someone a lunge matrix and they're really good, like opening up this way, then you kind of see those reps that you're like, I want a different rep every time.
9:16
SPEAKER_00: And it's like, okay, we're just like 40, 45, or a 50 versus giving them those clock or those big angles.
9:23
SPEAKER_00: It's like it gives them a little bit of guidance, but enough that they can still explore it themselves.
9:27
SPEAKER_02: For sure.
9:28
SPEAKER_02: And like we've done like a squat variability in the past where it's like, hey, 10 reps, make them all different.
9:32
SPEAKER_02: Like you said, guy that likes a shorter range of motion, he's hitting a bunch of high exact guy that loves like just a close, nice, comfortable stance, doesn't like a wide stance, they avoid the thing that they stink at.
9:42
SPEAKER_02: So trying to get to them in those positions.
9:45
SPEAKER_02: And this framework came from Bobby Stroop at his gym in Apex, I believe is the name of it.
9:49
SPEAKER_02: He has this like circle of tape on the ground, and he's big on like those lunge positions, unique hand positions when he's doing push-ups, you're at different angles.
9:58
SPEAKER_02: And we really took that.
10:00
SPEAKER_02: Jordan Newsma, who was on our staff uh with the 49ers now, he brought that when he came to Elon as kind of just this framework of cutting, and then it just kind of started to bleed into really a framework for us for everything in the program.
10:15
SPEAKER_00: So if you so what for if we have an athlete, so you did the warm warm-up prep, where we are kind of you know hitting like like you said, each angle, yep, touching them, touching them, and then opening back up to that 90 or zero zero degree back and hitting each angle, yeah.
10:36
SPEAKER_00: And then now you prioritize that strength at length of just kind of now holding that ISO in that deep range.
10:42
SPEAKER_00: Are you are you and you were going both sides, left or right?
10:45
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
10:46
SPEAKER_00: Are they are you coaching this out like while they're doing it, like blowing a whistle next spot?
10:50
SPEAKER_02: We'll we'll we'll have them on a cadence.
10:52
SPEAKER_02: So it'll be we're going left leg out of 45 or whatever angle we're at.
10:56
SPEAKER_02: They step out.
10:57
SPEAKER_02: When they step out, hold it, break them on a whistle, clap, whatever it may be.
11:02
SPEAKER_02: But we'll cadence those.
11:03
SPEAKER_02: The lunges, it'll typically be just one rep all the way through.
11:06
SPEAKER_02: Can you take it hit away all the way?
11:08
SPEAKER_00: Push me through that that ISO hold.
11:09
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so let's go.
11:10
SPEAKER_02: We're stepping with our left foot out of that 45 degree angle.
11:13
SPEAKER_02: You step out.
11:14
SPEAKER_02: Now we're reaching back, holding.
11:16
SPEAKER_02: We'll just go 10 seconds, not make you work too insanely hard.
11:20
SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
11:20
SPEAKER_02: But same thing, knee down, reaching back, good, incredible range there, and break.
11:26
SPEAKER_02: We would take them through each one all the way around.
11:28
SPEAKER_02: And then same concept next, everyone's holding it together.
11:31
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
11:32
SPEAKER_02: We're typically hitting this as a full group.
11:34
SPEAKER_02: We'll have maybe 40 guys in a group, everyone in their dedicated lines when they start.
11:39
SPEAKER_02: And to your point, there's that, especially in the world of football, blend of complete chaos and then complete order, like very militaristic.
11:47
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
11:47
SPEAKER_02: Trying to find the happy medium where we can explore movements with something like this, but we can do it in a really controlled fashion in a huge group setting.
11:55
SPEAKER_01: No equipment needed.
11:56
SPEAKER_02: Yes, and keep it under control.
11:58
SPEAKER_02: Love it.
11:58
SPEAKER_02: So from there, we would progress back into say it's just like a rudimentary hop on some of our lower intensity days.
12:06
SPEAKER_02: When we're doing uh you had McKinnon Swatson on, he did like a full plyo.
12:10
SPEAKER_00: I'm not the plyo guy.
12:12
SPEAKER_00: He made me look at I was like, dude, stop embarrassing me.
12:15
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
12:16
SPEAKER_02: But we there's been a couple things that like someone has tagged something where they're combining some of our eight vector stuff with his like deep tier plyos or or just extensive plyos in general.
12:25
SPEAKER_02: So if we're warming up, our typical jump is double leg to double leg.
12:31
SPEAKER_02: We've got our bounds, single leg to alternate, single leg, and then hop single to true single.
12:35
SPEAKER_02: So each day we're gonna try and hit all three.
12:37
SPEAKER_02: Cool.
12:37
SPEAKER_02: And if we're hitting that day, our intensive jump is some sort of a true jump.
12:44
SPEAKER_02: Our rudiment jumps might be a hop to where we're getting exposure on a true single leg every time that we're doing any of our explosive work.
12:52
SPEAKER_02: And then with that, so if we were doing a single leg hop, we'll just do clocks essentially, that same eight-vector framework here on a single leg.
13:00
SPEAKER_02: So we're just coming back to return and we're hitting every angle on that right leg all the way around the clock.
13:08
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
13:09
SPEAKER_02: Do the same thing on the way back.
13:10
SPEAKER_02: Something that's low intensity, but again, is giving us all those angles.
13:15
SPEAKER_02: You could do the same thing with a bound, just a simple return back to your base point all the time.
13:23
SPEAKER_02: So just thinking of that, whether it's a clock, whether you call it an angle, doesn't really matter, but working our way through all those vectors.
13:32
SPEAKER_02: We then, in our explosive work, so if it was a jump, we classify jumps, bounds, and hops, like I said, but then we'll go extensive, so 70% or less.
13:43
SPEAKER_02: And in a prep jump, we would call it, it's very low.
13:46
SPEAKER_02: Let's call that the 30% effort type range, just get the joints moving.
13:50
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
13:50
SPEAKER_02: But so we'll progress through those eight vectors through jumps, hops, or bounds, extensive, intensive, and then true shock.
14:01
SPEAKER_02: So we did the rudiment version of it, yep, and extensive.
14:04
SPEAKER_02: If we were going on that easiest angle here, since I'm demoing and I'm not super warm, we'll go a smooth, broad jump out into that first kind of 45 or 135 degree cut here.
14:16
SPEAKER_02: So we're out smooth, quick off the ground, stick.
14:19
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
14:20
SPEAKER_02: We can have the whole group again.
14:23
SPEAKER_02: Lined up on the lines.
14:24
SPEAKER_02: We usually have 12 lines across the field, four lines deep if we got 40 guys, and they are all.
14:32
SPEAKER_02: We explain the jump, what angle we're going, set, everyone's arms are long, whistle, and it can be done at 70%.
14:39
SPEAKER_02: We hit the ground, we stick, everyone sticks, we walk back to where we were.
14:42
SPEAKER_02: That's kind of our built-in rest.
14:44
SPEAKER_02: Same thing.
14:45
SPEAKER_02: If we're going 90, as we do these, it gives them a good chance to feel what they need to feel on change of direction.
14:52
SPEAKER_02: So we think of these jumps as one sagittal is great, it increases outputs, but we still need exposure to front of plane, 3D plane type movement.
15:03
SPEAKER_02: So on all of these, we want them to feel those positions and you start to learn where you really need to orient your body.
15:11
SPEAKER_02: Matt Gildersleeve had a great one of your shin is your steering wheel.
15:15
SPEAKER_02: So if my shins are facing this way, I can apply force to it.
15:19
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
15:20
SPEAKER_02: If I say inside edge of my outside foot, which I love to say consistently, they don't really feel that the way you say shins or steering wheel, get those shins pointed back, push off that inside edge, get back where you need.
15:32
SPEAKER_02: So as these extend from this first angle, I come in with high speeds, limited flexion.
15:41
SPEAKER_02: Like I don't, it doesn't take me getting dropping my center of mass to make a low angle cut.
15:47
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
15:47
SPEAKER_02: As we start to increase the cut, you've got to get lower center of mass, hips got to be open to the target, shins got to be pointing to it.
15:56
SPEAKER_02: And when we go through this jump series, you immediately feel that.
15:59
SPEAKER_02: So we want guys to learn if I'm doing a 90 degree here and I jump straight out on my first jump, it's gonna be really hard to change angles.
16:08
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
16:08
SPEAKER_02: So as I do my initial broad jump, I'm orienting my body and sticking.
16:13
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
16:14
SPEAKER_02: As I go to a zero degree, I should be facing that way with a slight drop in this foot, shins facing this direction to where I can get back to where I started.
16:25
SPEAKER_02: So we'll do those all the way around.
16:27
SPEAKER_02: We could do the same thing, extensive, intensive shock with a bound variation.
16:32
SPEAKER_02: So it'd be here, a hop variation, single, catching on the same single shock or intensive, intensive first is just max effort.
16:44
SPEAKER_02: Same thing.
16:44
SPEAKER_02: Broad jump, broad jump, as far as you can get.
16:47
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
16:47
SPEAKER_02: For our shock, we would just step back and add speed with two broad jumps in.
16:53
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
16:54
SPEAKER_02: So broad, broad, bang, hit your cut.
16:57
SPEAKER_00: Got it.
16:58
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's a such a simple way of looking at it from like a system standpoint.
17:03
SPEAKER_00: Because as a coach, it's almost like this can be applied to your anything, your movement prep, your strength work, your you even said you do this as your conditioning sometimes, getting some change of direction work.
17:13
SPEAKER_00: But it's I I think a big miss with a lot of change of direction stuff, as you see online, is it's a stop, turn my shoulders, turn my pelvis, and then go.
17:24
SPEAKER_00: But like that's not redirect, like that's not happening on a football field.
17:28
SPEAKER_00: Like they are setting themselves up for success, those slight deviations to be able to get out.
17:33
SPEAKER_00: And it's almost like you're giving them those opportunities in these precarious positions just based off of the system itself.
17:39
SPEAKER_02: For sure.
17:40
SPEAKER_02: And there might be a full season that someone goes without ever making a drop step back to this angle.
17:45
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
17:45
SPEAKER_02: But at least we've hit it in the offseason if they do have to hit it.
17:48
SPEAKER_02: And I think all of our sports, like if you we'll get into our eight-vector cut here next.
17:53
SPEAKER_02: So then I'll explain a little bit more.
17:55
SPEAKER_02: But if we'll start with a step stick, then we'll move into a one cut or a one-step, a two-step, and then we'll go to five yards, and then we'll make it reactive.
18:03
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
18:03
SPEAKER_02: So our step and stick is again giving them those feels.
18:06
SPEAKER_02: So you step out, hold that position, and then drive off that foot to where you can feel that shin steering wheel inside edge of the outside foot.
18:14
SPEAKER_02: Same thing if I'm going 90, I've got my foot turned, got my hips down, I got my shin where I want, and I push out, then we would go one step.
18:23
SPEAKER_02: So whatever foot we're cutting off of is back.
18:26
SPEAKER_02: We're taking one step, one step full speed, hitting that cut, working our way all the way around, however, we want.
18:34
SPEAKER_02: Right, left, working our way back.
18:36
SPEAKER_00: But as a coach, you've known you've checked all your boxes once you've hit all those angles, because I mean that's a very simple man.
18:43
SPEAKER_00: Especially with a big group, that is a way simple way of very, I mean, not simple as in like the sl of low level, but like it is a very easy way to think of the structure of something like that.
18:56
SPEAKER_02: And I like anything that provides us, like if you're just very principle-based, I think of this as an extra principle on top of what we do and just that mental model framework, whatever you want to call it.
19:07
SPEAKER_02: Everything we're doing, it's our checks and balances for just exposing tissue to all the angles we might face, getting in and out of cuts effectively, which is just a huge piece of performance.
19:17
SPEAKER_02: So, and if we're a basketball athlete, I'm in this center base position.
19:22
SPEAKER_02: I should have the ability to cross over or push to move step at every one of these angles.
19:29
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
19:29
SPEAKER_02: I'm in my base support, center of the key.
19:31
SPEAKER_02: If I'm a defensive lineman coming off the edge, this step is me hitting an up and under.
19:36
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
19:37
SPEAKER_02: This step's me hitting an up and under on the other side.
19:39
SPEAKER_02: This is one step up the field, flat down the line, flat or turning, chasing a quick toss.
19:46
SPEAKER_02: This is retreating a screen right over me.
19:49
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
19:50
SPEAKER_02: You think of any movie shortstops gonna be a little bit more.
19:53
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and we'll even use it for our quarterbacks as like a prep tool.
19:57
SPEAKER_02: So it'd be step out of this angle, throw, step at this angle, throw, because you end up experiencing a lot of off-platform throws.
20:05
SPEAKER_02: So it's just a chance to get them in some of those unique positions.
20:09
SPEAKER_02: But so our cuts go from the step stick, one step.
20:13
SPEAKER_02: Then when we go two step, it'd just be I have the foot I'm cutting off of in front, one, two steps full speed, get out of it.
20:20
SPEAKER_02: Then we'll go five yards.
20:22
SPEAKER_02: Everything is general to specific, adding speed and complexity to it.
20:27
SPEAKER_02: And then we would go like a partner variation.
20:31
SPEAKER_02: So as we get to the end of it, you can start to guess a little bit, but we want it to be reactive.
20:37
SPEAKER_02: So if you're in front of me, we're going both this direction here.
20:42
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
20:42
SPEAKER_02: So uh doesn't matter what foot you have in front.
20:45
SPEAKER_02: We just know, hey, we're going five yards and making a cut.
20:48
SPEAKER_02: I'm two yards behind you.
20:49
SPEAKER_02: Okay, back up some.
20:50
SPEAKER_02: All right, yep.
20:51
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
20:51
SPEAKER_02: So now it's just reactive.
20:52
SPEAKER_02: You go out, and we can just do it at a slow speed here.
20:56
SPEAKER_02: You can pick any of those eight angles you want.
20:58
SPEAKER_02: As soon as I see you cut, I've got to react to make the same cut.
21:02
SPEAKER_02: So we take off, we're just walking through it here.
21:04
SPEAKER_02: You cut, I cut at 90 degrees.
21:08
SPEAKER_02: So it just adds somewhat of a reactive element to it.
21:11
SPEAKER_02: Responsiveness.
21:11
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
21:12
SPEAKER_02: And then we can do the exact same thing facing each other.
21:14
SPEAKER_02: So we'd start five yards apart, make it more offense, defense.
21:17
SPEAKER_02: You're coming in.
21:18
SPEAKER_02: If you make a cut this way off that foot, I make a cut this way off that foot.
21:24
SPEAKER_02: Time that's a great way.
21:25
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
21:26
SPEAKER_02: Um, but then you brought up kind of conditioning too.
21:29
SPEAKER_02: So same thing, conditioning, we do regular shuttles, go out, touch the line, come back.
21:35
SPEAKER_02: We do tempo runs, we do linear conditioning, just like everybody else.
21:40
SPEAKER_02: But you want to add elements that are gonna prep that tissue in the same way.
21:44
SPEAKER_02: A lot of the fatigue that they're gonna experience comes from all the change of direction efforts.
21:49
SPEAKER_02: And you can't repeat that through touch the line at full speed, touch, touch.
21:54
SPEAKER_02: You just same thing.
21:55
SPEAKER_02: It's uh touch, turn the pelvis back this way, turns into a linear sprint.
22:00
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
22:00
SPEAKER_02: So if we're doing kind of our 135 degree cuts or that short angle cut, we'll just set up cones in a slalom here.
22:07
SPEAKER_02: So I'm going through and we'll start at 70% and we'll set up cones in a line going about 30 yards.
22:13
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
22:14
SPEAKER_02: They go through, they rest, next guy goes, next guy goes.
22:18
SPEAKER_02: We'll give them general to specific work-to-rest ratios.
22:21
SPEAKER_02: Then our 90-degree cuts is just a square.
22:24
SPEAKER_02: So you run up, plant, focus on all of those things, get the feels at a lower intensity.
22:30
SPEAKER_02: Then we can increase our intensity of it.
22:32
SPEAKER_02: A triangle becomes that 45 degree cut.
22:36
SPEAKER_02: So we'll just set up triangles in one spot.
22:40
SPEAKER_02: And then the true shuttle is our zero degree.
22:42
SPEAKER_02: You're out touching off the right foot the first rep, left foot the next rep.
22:47
SPEAKER_02: They've hit all of them.
22:48
SPEAKER_02: And then even in that, we'll always add one linear rep, one S curve, and then one true curve is kind of our you know unique curve linear elements that also don't get touched enough.
23:03
SPEAKER_02: And we have this diagram that we shared in our book that Jordan and I had wrote years ago outlining all of those stations.
23:10
SPEAKER_02: And so this is another way we'll get 40 athletes at a time, multiple athletes per station, two of each setup, and each guy sets up there.
23:19
SPEAKER_02: So it's you and I.
23:20
SPEAKER_02: I run my rep, you want run your rep, coach starts the next set, we run the opposite way.
23:27
SPEAKER_02: It's hitting every single angle in a huge group setting on one field.
23:31
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
23:31
SPEAKER_02: In a way that accomplishes just so many things that are really hard to accomplish in a session.
23:36
SPEAKER_02: And very organized.
23:37
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
23:38
SPEAKER_02: But chaotic at the same point.
23:40
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
23:40
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
23:41
SPEAKER_00: When we went from that eight-vector system and then getting into your your what'd you call it, your prime, your um performance prep.
23:48
SPEAKER_00: Three-station prep.
23:48
SPEAKER_00: Three station performance prep.
23:50
SPEAKER_00: You said something of we're putting our accessories first, almost like as a warm-up going to that.
23:57
SPEAKER_00: And I remember I did that one time with like calf raises.
24:00
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, man, I can throw these at the end of a lift, or I can do like some sort of bent knee soleus raise loaded and kind of touch the calves and prep for a unilateral thing.
24:10
SPEAKER_00: And I remember guys are like, man, what a what a great idea.
24:12
SPEAKER_00: Like I'm I'm still warming up, but the way you do you're doing it with like big strength movements.
24:18
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
24:19
SPEAKER_00: And how do the kids buy into that?
24:21
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
24:21
SPEAKER_02: So I think the very first time they did it, they're like, we have to squat after this.
24:25
SPEAKER_02: Like, what are we doing?
24:26
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
24:27
SPEAKER_02: But a big reason for the shift was if we squat and then we go to accessories, like from a nervous system and arousal standpoint, once you get done with a huge squat session, one, it takes a good warm-up to feel good to squat.
24:40
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
24:40
SPEAKER_02: Then you get out of it and you've kind of got that just arousal dump.
24:44
SPEAKER_02: Nobody's really geared up to go do a single leg squat or the three movements we did a band abduction, a long lever adduction.
24:53
SPEAKER_02: If we do those movements first, none of them are inherently like super, super heavy.
24:58
SPEAKER_02: Like a single leg squat is challenging, a single leg RDL potentially.
25:02
SPEAKER_02: Things that we're putting in there, we're creating load, it's accessory movement.
25:06
SPEAKER_02: We're loading it just like we typically say it's three sets of five.
25:08
SPEAKER_02: It's a true loaded movement.
25:11
SPEAKER_02: But anyone can do those movements early in a session.
25:13
SPEAKER_02: And when they get to their primary, they should feel better.
25:16
SPEAKER_02: Like nobody's ever entered a squat and been like, man, I wish my hips weren't so warm.
25:20
SPEAKER_02: Like I wish I hadn't done some adduction work.
25:23
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
25:23
SPEAKER_02: Typically it's the reverse.
25:25
SPEAKER_02: Like I don't feel good enough, and it takes a long time to actually ramp up to a heavyweight.
25:29
SPEAKER_02: So putting at first kind of two birds, one stone, we get better quality accessory work.
25:34
SPEAKER_02: And I think our primary has been enhanced one, because if it's just you and I at Iraq and maybe one other person, you're squatting, I don't have a secondary movement to go hit.
25:44
SPEAKER_02: My whole focus is on bringing energy and effort into coaching you and cheering you on as an athlete.
25:50
SPEAKER_02: And so the stimulus of it from an intent standpoint and arousal standpoint goes up just by it being a single movement, plus they feel better because they've hit everything that we should hit to make them feel better to get into that squat pattern.
26:03
SPEAKER_00: I feel like when you when it comes to the systems, you're talking about the eight vector, and then when we were going through the accessory movements, you were talking about the priority you place on the athletes to coach each other up, almost empowering them to be to be attentive, but also to be there for their for their teammate.
26:20
SPEAKER_00: Is that something you guys are pushing from a coaching aspect, or do you see that the kids naturally kind of possess that that nature?
26:26
SPEAKER_02: Uh, I think it's both.
26:27
SPEAKER_02: Like kids naturally possess that in most sports.
26:30
SPEAKER_02: Like you're anyone who, especially your natural captains on the team, yeah, but uh almost all research would point and say, like when you work in a team setting, ultimately everyone's goal is to win games.
26:40
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
26:41
SPEAKER_02: And winning games typically comes down to peer-to-peer leadership.
26:44
SPEAKER_02: It's always like um coach-fed, player-led, or they have all these sayings.
26:49
SPEAKER_02: But really, what is important is when you have peer-to-peer accountability, you have better teams.
26:53
SPEAKER_02: If I tell you as a coach to do something, our best athletes respond great, they fix it.
26:59
SPEAKER_02: And even some of our worst athletes, from a attention to detail standpoint, discipline standpoint, they still respond to a coach, but it comes completely different when it's a good friend of theirs or the guy who has status of their position coaching them up on those things.
27:14
SPEAKER_02: And when you take ownership and you have the ability to coach a movement, you're also getting better at the movement yourself.
27:19
SPEAKER_02: Like we want these guys to become better at training.
27:22
SPEAKER_02: Making them a part of the process and creating ownership in it is a huge piece for us.
27:27
SPEAKER_00: I think with sports, often, especially with younger athletes coming up, the captains are the best players.
27:33
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
27:33
SPEAKER_00: Like the normally the captain is the best, you know, the quarterback, the best player.
27:37
SPEAKER_00: And I think the weight room gives this interesting place that you could be not the best player on the team, but you can be a leader in the weight room.
27:44
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
27:44
SPEAKER_00: And especially when a coach empowers that, like, hey, say something, encourage your teammates.
27:49
SPEAKER_00: I I love the fact that that here at Elon, they are being empowered because you might not be the best player, you might be a backup quarterback, but in here in the weight room, you could be a leader that your team relies on, and that could be what you bring value to the team.
28:02
SPEAKER_02: For sure.
28:02
SPEAKER_02: And the best part of the weight room, like what makes our job awesome compared to a sport coach, is everybody is equal to an extent.
28:08
SPEAKER_02: And like it doesn't matter if you're a starter, you're a fifth string guy, everyone has the same opportunity to improve, grow, lead in the weight room.
28:16
SPEAKER_02: And we set up our rack assignments strategically.
28:18
SPEAKER_02: We set up our accountability partners strategically because you've got your top third of guys who are gonna do everything right, whether there was no coach in the session or not.
28:27
SPEAKER_02: You have your bottom third who are gonna need coached no matter what.
28:31
SPEAKER_02: And you have your middle third who you want to become top third guys.
28:34
SPEAKER_02: And it's typically what I've found in really successful teams is that middle third becomes better leaders.
28:41
SPEAKER_02: Like guys who have status, they're a starter, they maybe don't do all the things right, the little things that matter.
28:47
SPEAKER_02: But as they grow, the entire team kind of comes with them because they typically influence that bottom third more than the captains, who are typically less like them from a day-to-day habit standpoint and a leadership standpoint.
28:59
SPEAKER_02: So empowering everybody to lead and coach each other, I think just gets the best out of athletes.
29:05
SPEAKER_02: So we're gonna go three-station prep now.
29:07
SPEAKER_02: So this is a huge piece.
29:08
SPEAKER_02: A couple years ago, we changed and really implemented this.
29:11
SPEAKER_02: When we get into the weight room off of the field, or if we start a session just in the weight room, I've always hated the warm-up section of it.
29:20
SPEAKER_02: It feels like just kind of a filler.
29:22
SPEAKER_02: And you talked about it at Sportsmith of that field of dreams.
29:25
SPEAKER_02: Like once you cross into the training session, it should feel like training.
29:28
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
29:28
SPEAKER_02: And then a big piece too is just accountability within you've got 40 guys, and maybe it's limited coaches, even when we're overstaffed in the summer, where we've got interns, coaches, we want to elicit as much peer-to-peer accountability and coaching as we can, too.
29:43
SPEAKER_02: To where every time you do a set, somebody sees it.
29:45
SPEAKER_02: So if you and I are at a station, we've got three stations around the room.
29:49
SPEAKER_02: We'll demo one station here out of the three.
29:51
SPEAKER_02: But within it, we're hitting all of our accessory work for the day.
29:55
SPEAKER_02: So when we get into the session, we're hitting our one or two primary movements and we're done after these three stations.
30:03
SPEAKER_02: So each one will have a kind of primary accessory, a secondary accessory, and then some like tertiary one that is typically a body weight movement.
30:12
SPEAKER_02: The second one is some sort of loading typically, or just a really big strength at length type movement.
30:20
SPEAKER_02: And then our first one is typically a loaded primary accessory movement.
30:24
SPEAKER_02: So within this, we've got small groups.
30:26
SPEAKER_02: And if it's you and I partnered up, I don't do a set without you watching me.
30:31
SPEAKER_02: You don't do a set without me watching you.
30:32
SPEAKER_02: And then I've got a coach with just 12 to 15 athletes in that group.
30:36
SPEAKER_02: So, for example, here we're gonna start with that single leg squat.
30:39
SPEAKER_02: I just want you to go counterbalance.
30:41
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna go up on the bench here.
30:42
SPEAKER_02: Okay, and we've got a few different progressions, regressions here.
30:45
SPEAKER_02: Okay, but you're gonna hit a true single leg squat ideally.
30:49
SPEAKER_02: This foot just rides down, doesn't touch the ground, and you're trying to get below parallel, extend that out in front of you as you go down.
30:59
SPEAKER_02: So that's pretty good.
31:00
SPEAKER_02: Little foot touch, see if we can get one without better, really good.
31:05
SPEAKER_02: So this is a staple for us, and we'll go through the regressions here.
31:09
SPEAKER_02: But two things that I care deeply about that every athlete do, male, female, 300 pounds, 150 pounds, is they can single leg squat safely with a at least a counterbalance.
31:20
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
31:21
SPEAKER_02: Ideally, we would progress from this to a double dumbbell, just more load.
31:24
SPEAKER_02: You curl them up as you go down, keep it a little tighter to the body.
31:27
SPEAKER_02: We can regress though into a heel elevated.
31:33
SPEAKER_02: So ankle dorsiflexion is a massive limiter typically.
31:37
SPEAKER_02: So you are just gonna put your heel up here like a slant board.
31:41
SPEAKER_02: If we're using a bench, we've got built-in slant boards here.
31:44
SPEAKER_02: So this is uh the hack for everyone out there.
31:46
SPEAKER_02: Now you're gonna do the exact same movement.
31:49
SPEAKER_02: It should and did become a little easier, lost a little control, but the ankle is moving well, knee is out over the toe.
31:58
SPEAKER_02: Pretty good position.
32:00
SPEAKER_02: My foot's sliding on my shoe.
32:04
SPEAKER_02: There we go.
32:05
SPEAKER_00: Pretty good knee control.
32:06
SPEAKER_00: Dude, I'm gonna be honest.
32:09
SPEAKER_00: That is the easiest thing in comparison to putting like a like a plate.
32:14
SPEAKER_00: Like I've had taken like the 10-pound plates and putting them underneath someone's heel.
32:18
SPEAKER_00: That is so simple, and it is literally right there.
32:21
SPEAKER_02: And it should be rock solid, nothing like taking a unsupported, pretty hard squat and making it more unsupported with like something sketchy up on the bench.
32:31
SPEAKER_02: So, luckily, one of our assistants, I forget who, years ago, was like, hey, why don't we just crank those up?
32:35
SPEAKER_02: I was like, that's a really good idea.
32:37
SPEAKER_02: Great idea, and I've literally never seen anyone do that.
32:40
SPEAKER_02: Um but then our last regression, I'll demo this one if you want here.
32:43
SPEAKER_02: We'll do just a single leg squat down to the box.
32:47
SPEAKER_02: Okay, like a starting point number one.
32:51
SPEAKER_02: You are just gonna extend that out in front, control the lower, we get stability at the bottom, and then we drive back up.
32:58
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
32:58
SPEAKER_02: The biggest thing we want here with our young athletes is they get to about here, not the huge collapse down.
33:04
SPEAKER_02: So we just want to make sure everyone starts out controlled, eccentric, control the knee joint, tension at the bottom, drive back up, then progress into those.
33:13
SPEAKER_02: And like I said, this is one of our staples, the other being a full range of motion, pull-up, neutral grip, pull-up, chin up variation that everyone should be able to do.
33:22
SPEAKER_02: I feel like if you can do those two things, you are relatively safe from a general lower body strength, general upper body strength.
33:30
SPEAKER_00: And you're taking this serious, like this isn't like a warm-up that you're going through.
33:34
SPEAKER_00: They are looking at this like a strength exercise.
33:35
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
33:36
SPEAKER_00: So with them taking it more serious too.
33:38
SPEAKER_02: That's the goal.
33:39
SPEAKER_02: And with all of our three-station preps, if you come into a session, so each session we start with what we call an AED prep.
33:47
SPEAKER_02: It's just eight bodyweight movements, one player leads it, everyone else stays on cadence, kind of that chaos order.
33:52
SPEAKER_02: That's our order to start.
33:53
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
33:54
SPEAKER_02: Then we separate into these three stations.
33:56
SPEAKER_02: And the reason we originally switched this is I know as an athlete, if we had a pairing here of split squat, then we went over to this side and we're doing band abduction.
34:06
SPEAKER_02: All I care about is the primary movement.
34:08
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
34:09
SPEAKER_02: I'm a half ass over there.
34:10
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
34:11
SPEAKER_02: Some people might skip over there.
34:12
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
34:13
SPEAKER_02: And if a coach, you're watching this, not that.
34:16
SPEAKER_02: So when we moved our accessories first, I feel like it's twofold.
34:22
SPEAKER_02: They buy into the accessories because they didn't waste time with a warm-up.
34:25
SPEAKER_02: We call it a performance prep.
34:27
SPEAKER_02: Just think the language matters and how you word it.
34:29
SPEAKER_02: And then the three station prep.
34:31
SPEAKER_02: So when we get into it, it's loaded movements, it's that strength at length, it's mobility is maybe one of the movements, but even then it's like a couch stretch, it's a 90-90 pigeon, something where you really feel something happening, not like a rotate and reach or something that's very passive.
34:49
SPEAKER_02: So we want it, especially with football athletes, if they feel something and they can load it, the intent goes from here to here.
34:58
SPEAKER_02: So we want to load things as best we can within this three-station prep.
35:02
SPEAKER_02: And within our three stations, we're checking off all the things that we want to hit throughout the week, accessory-wise.
35:08
SPEAKER_02: And so when we're doing a single leg squat, we most likely have a bilateral squat is our primary movement.
35:13
SPEAKER_02: So once a week, we're gonna hit a bilateral squat, a unilateral unsupported, so that true single leg, and then our unilateral asymmetrical movement as well.
35:22
SPEAKER_02: Next one here, like I said, our secondary movement is gonna be some type of loaded movement as well.
35:27
SPEAKER_02: So throughout a week, you do a ton of stuff that we've taken in your explore type categories around the hip.
35:34
SPEAKER_02: So hip flexion, hip extension, like a glute extension, abduction, abduction, ankle dorsiflexion.
35:42
SPEAKER_02: Those are a lot of the components we're trying to hit with load.
35:45
SPEAKER_02: So this one here, you're gonna take that stick, take the band, throw it around that left foot there, and we are gonna go get out away from here a little bit.
35:53
SPEAKER_02: Just a band abduction.
35:55
SPEAKER_02: Typically, we can load it up even more.
35:57
SPEAKER_02: We've got cables.
35:58
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
35:58
SPEAKER_02: Um, but you're gonna take this foot all the way across your body, get a big range, and then go out as wide as you can.
36:05
SPEAKER_02: Keep that toe straight ahead here.
36:08
SPEAKER_02: Toe straight ahead, out as wide as you can.
36:11
SPEAKER_02: Perfect.
36:11
SPEAKER_02: So, again, that strength through length.
36:14
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
36:15
SPEAKER_02: All of these movements, we're trying to progress from somewhat general to somewhat specific.
36:21
SPEAKER_02: So our abduction eventually might be some form of a band-resisted push to move.
36:26
SPEAKER_02: We're adding speed and and more intensity elements to those things.
36:30
SPEAKER_02: A resisted chain march eventually.
36:33
SPEAKER_02: This category we want to be loaded, but general to specific throughout the entire offseason block.
36:38
SPEAKER_02: So that one added some strength to length to the abductors outside of the hip.
36:43
SPEAKER_02: Now we are gonna go adductors right here.
36:46
SPEAKER_02: We're just gonna go a long lever, okay, adduction.
36:49
SPEAKER_02: So you're gonna put that right foot up here, similar to a Copenhagen.
36:54
SPEAKER_02: And this is our tertiary category here.
36:56
SPEAKER_02: So these are typically just body weight movements, but again, we want strength at length or a feel, something that really promotes some sort of huge stretch on something at that end range.
37:08
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
37:09
SPEAKER_02: So for this one, you're gonna go right foot up here, left elbow down, okay, just like a Copenhagen, except let's get that bottom leg long too.
37:18
SPEAKER_02: Try and keep that leg up as tight to this one as you can when you lift up.
37:22
SPEAKER_02: But you're gonna lift those hips up, lift that bottom leg up, then a nice control to take those hips all the way down to the ground.
37:30
SPEAKER_02: Perfect.
37:39
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that'll do it.
37:43
SPEAKER_00: Nice long, nice long strength and length there.
37:45
SPEAKER_00: Um, is there a reason you like to have that leg um kind of straightened out, like suspended right now?
37:50
SPEAKER_02: So that bottom leg or the top leg?
37:53
SPEAKER_02: The bottom leg.
37:53
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, the bottom leg we want up to create a kind of co-contraction on that bottom leg.
37:57
SPEAKER_02: So you're trying to bring that thing up, match this, and control that lower.
38:01
SPEAKER_02: And we'll do it isometric as well.
38:03
SPEAKER_02: But on this one, we want strength and length, we're doing that full controlled lower as well.
38:08
SPEAKER_00: We started out with that the eight-vector system, and that could be a hop, a jump, a two-leg, or a single leg, but it does feel like you do prioritize unilateral movements.
38:17
SPEAKER_00: So a lot of those things were the lunge patterns, the ISO holds, and then we went to your uh performance prep, which were all kind of single-leg movements or working in different planes, but then you were talking about like your primary movements, so like the split squat variation and the RDL.
38:33
SPEAKER_00: You've the you look at those unilateral movements as primary movements and primary things.
38:39
SPEAKER_00: Um, you still do bilateral squats, bilateral pulls, but that emphasis, that switch, do do the athletes kind of be like, hey, what like I'm used to squatting as my primary lift.
38:49
SPEAKER_00: Now I'm split squatting.
38:51
SPEAKER_00: How has that shift been?
38:53
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
38:54
SPEAKER_02: So it's interesting for us, like now, especially in the transfer portal area era, we have so many athletes who start here and then move on.
39:01
SPEAKER_02: And it's kind of you don't know what you don't know.
39:03
SPEAKER_02: Almost every high school athlete that comes in, they've back squatted heavy.
39:06
SPEAKER_02: That's their primary.
39:07
SPEAKER_02: They typically clean.
39:08
SPEAKER_02: Uh we don't do a ton of Olympic lifts, we do a lot of just jumps, hops, bounds, uh, different things.
39:15
SPEAKER_02: And so they get in and they're like, well, this is different.
39:18
SPEAKER_02: We don't, this is what I've done.
39:21
SPEAKER_02: The stage typically comes, they switch to a unilateral movement.
39:24
SPEAKER_02: They're like, wow, this is really hard.
39:26
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
39:26
SPEAKER_02: Eight weeks later, they've gotten really strong.
39:29
SPEAKER_02: They're jumping higher, they're running faster, they see results, which almost any program with 18 to 20 year old kids, like, we don't need to overdo the job we're doing.
39:37
SPEAKER_02: Everyone is going to adapt.
39:39
SPEAKER_02: But what I found interesting is as we've had more and more athletes who are going to leave and go on to power four opportunities from here, when they leave, they typically all look back and be like, oh, how's the training going?
39:51
SPEAKER_02: And it's like, oh, like we just do a lot of bilateral stuff.
39:54
SPEAKER_02: Like all the things that I think we do really well, I think become gaps in a lot of programs.
39:59
SPEAKER_02: They're a little bit more old school.
40:01
SPEAKER_02: And our athletes intuitively feel that they liked some of the things that they were doing in our program.
40:07
SPEAKER_02: And I think overall, we've just had unbelievable buy-in.
40:11
SPEAKER_02: Like, if you get an athlete stronger, they get faster.
40:13
SPEAKER_02: Like if they see the results and they feel those things, they buy in pretty quickly.
40:18
SPEAKER_02: And then, two, uh, one of my favorite quotes, I heard it from Jake Anderson.
40:22
SPEAKER_02: It was like, more is uh caught than taught.
40:25
SPEAKER_02: And our staff trains really hard.
40:27
SPEAKER_02: I was a pretty good football player.
40:29
SPEAKER_02: Being a good football player and being strong doesn't make you a better coach, but it sure does make it a lot easier to get buy-in.
40:35
SPEAKER_02: So if they come in, they see an FL jersey on the wall, or guys that I've trained, uh, the rest of our staff, we have some guys who are good college players in different sports, uh, a great track athlete, great baseball players.
40:47
SPEAKER_02: Like they one was a college wrestler.
40:49
SPEAKER_02: There's an instant respect because they see us training.
40:52
SPEAKER_02: And then also there's respect that comes with just education and experience.
40:55
SPEAKER_02: So the more athletes you've coached, and it's kind of as a young athlete comes in and they're not shocked by anything because our older guys are so used to the way the program operates by that point that it's just this is what we do.
41:07
SPEAKER_02: Like, why wouldn't we be doing this?
41:09
SPEAKER_02: Um, but I think we've had unbelievable buy-in across the board.
41:13
SPEAKER_02: After we get through our three-stage prep, we go to a primary lift.
41:16
SPEAKER_02: For us within our primaries, we still do a ton of bilateral squatting, but unilateral squatting is a huge primary movement for us.
41:24
SPEAKER_02: I think most places miss the stimulus of making a unilateral lift a true primary movement.
41:29
SPEAKER_02: So if you think about sport, almost everything, whether it's a lineman, bracing, lineman taking on a blocker, a linebacker coming up, making a tackle, everything ends up in an asymmetrical stance.
41:41
SPEAKER_02: Very rarely are we here.
41:43
SPEAKER_02: Now, again, bilateral, sagittal, great for just driving outputs, but I think we're missing and leaving a lot of adaptation on the table when we don't push those unilateral lifts.
41:53
SPEAKER_02: So we've had a ton of athletes who, whether it's anthropometrics or something from a spine stability standpoint, bracing standpoint, when you load up a heavy bilateral squat, the limiter typically becomes the trunk core.
42:07
SPEAKER_02: As soon as I switch to a single leg, my trunk core become almost eliminated as a limiting factor.
42:14
SPEAKER_02: And so if we said, hey, we're squatting to drive up lower body strength, I would say let's use some unilateral movements because we're truly gonna create overload on the unilateral and the lower body specifically.
42:26
SPEAKER_02: So when we separate things, it's our single leg unsupported, that true single leg squat progression, and then our single leg asymmetrical.
42:33
SPEAKER_02: So our asymmetrical is that big primary movement.
42:36
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
42:36
SPEAKER_02: And we're gonna start, we'll face outside of the rack, which feels foreign here, but we're demo purposes.
42:41
SPEAKER_02: For the video.
42:42
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
42:43
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna go a split squat.
42:45
SPEAKER_02: And language is important.
42:47
SPEAKER_02: I've said that.
42:49
SPEAKER_02: We don't split squat the way other people do.
42:51
SPEAKER_02: So if I started with my foot back in a split squat and you just tap your knee like your traditional split squat, what is the the biggest thing that you see of a poor movement?
43:01
SPEAKER_02: It would typically be you touch that foot, and as you come up, this shoots back.
43:06
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
43:06
SPEAKER_02: And it turns into like almost like a worm type activity where it's hip back and it's not a glute extension and good quality finish that we want.
43:16
SPEAKER_02: So our split squat versus our lunge is split squat, back foot is set.
43:22
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
43:22
SPEAKER_02: Once we tap the knee, we're gonna extend those hips, bring that right foot through.
43:28
SPEAKER_02: So just go ahead and go down, tap the knee, drive up, and it creates an intent and movement quality without having to consistently go around and coach guys like, hey, I need you to drive through this front foot, extend through that front foot.
43:43
SPEAKER_02: It creates the quality we want, and again, it just adds intent.
43:47
SPEAKER_02: As soon as I step through with a little purpose to it, I'm adding some rate of force development, some speed to the movement itself.
43:53
SPEAKER_02: Then we would progress into a lunge where instead of setting that back foot, we're just tapping, driving right back up.
44:00
SPEAKER_02: And now they're already confident in that extension position.
44:04
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
44:05
SPEAKER_02: Love it.
44:05
SPEAKER_00: Man, great, great cue.
44:06
SPEAKER_02: We're rolling right from the squat to a hinge.
44:09
SPEAKER_02: So same thing.
44:10
SPEAKER_02: Throughout a week, we want to do a true single leg hinge, same reasons.
44:15
SPEAKER_02: When I do a heavy deadlift, a heavy RDL, the trunk core becomes somewhat of a limiter, the low back.
44:22
SPEAKER_02: As soon as I switch to a single leg, I'm really just loading that posterior chain distal hamstring in a different way.
44:27
SPEAKER_02: So we want to make sure one time per week, if we're doing a bilateral squat, we'll have a unilateral hinge as our secondary.
44:34
SPEAKER_02: Later in the week, if it was a unilateral squat, we'd have a bilateral hinge.
44:38
SPEAKER_02: So again, gives us just that kind of checks and balances to roll through the week.
44:42
SPEAKER_02: And it doesn't feel like the same thing every week and adds that variety with consistency through just a framework in place.
44:50
SPEAKER_02: So on this single leg RDL, when we're loading this one up, very similar to our regular RDL, all that matters is we are hinging.
44:59
SPEAKER_02: A lot of times, I'm sure you've seen it with an RDL, it becomes rounding the back or reaching, and it's a segmented movement.
45:06
SPEAKER_02: We want to think of it just like a door hinge.
45:08
SPEAKER_02: However far my head moves, my foot moves.
45:10
SPEAKER_02: So I'm gonna set up, get a real soft bend in that front knee, slight stagger in my stance, and I'm gonna reach back with that leg as my head comes down, body in a nice straight line, hips extend.
45:23
SPEAKER_02: And I want that back toe pointed down towards the ground, chin stays tucked, driving through that front leg.
45:32
SPEAKER_02: Our basic regression for this, or kind of a starting point, is when we're doing that single leg, we want that slight stagger.
45:39
SPEAKER_02: We'll just stay in this stagger.
45:40
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
45:41
SPEAKER_02: So we have an asymmetrical unilateral.
45:43
SPEAKER_02: We're loading up this right leg, tuck that chin, hips go back to right below the knee, extending those hips, spine, everything stays neutral the entire time.
45:53
SPEAKER_02: So this gives us a little bit more stability, but we can overload that single leg.
45:59
SPEAKER_02: From there, if we had to regress or we're starting with an athlete, I'm gonna take this stick from you.
46:05
SPEAKER_02: Our most basic variation that we start with on our foundation program is a stick RDL.
46:12
SPEAKER_02: Again, I love things that are somewhat hard to coach or just not intuitive for an athlete, finding things that make it really easy for them.
46:20
SPEAKER_02: So you will grab this thing right at hip height, you're gonna extend that arm, stick right on above those toes, right on the shoe.
46:31
SPEAKER_02: As I hinge here, it gives me a natural point where I have to keep that toe flexed.
46:37
SPEAKER_02: Got to get it straight down.
46:38
SPEAKER_02: I have this arm long.
46:39
SPEAKER_02: However far my head moves, my foot moves, keeps me in that spot, hinge back up.
46:44
SPEAKER_02: So it is a built-in cue for that perfect hinge pattern.
46:49
SPEAKER_00: Keeping that pelvis square to the ground as well, because you're actively cueing into that pipe.
46:53
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
46:53
SPEAKER_00: That's a great, and that's a great way to teach it, even before, even not even as a regression, like teaching someone how to do a hinge pattern.
46:59
SPEAKER_02: And so with our foundation program, when we first get athletes, kind of taken from Zach Dakin's movement over maxes, we have five movements that we hit every single day.
47:08
SPEAKER_02: And so where our older athletes do that three-station prep, right before that for our foundation group, it's a foundation block.
47:15
SPEAKER_02: And we'll go six to ten minutes on the clock, goblet, a squat pattern, hinge pattern, a push, which is almost all hand release push-ups.
47:25
SPEAKER_02: You just get really good at controlling your body weight, a pull, almost always an inverted row on the bar, and then a core.
47:32
SPEAKER_02: So whether it's a crawl, a dead bug variation, something that gets them to use their core effectively.
47:37
SPEAKER_02: And we'll just put six to ten minutes on the clock, five to ten reps, and same pattern.
47:42
SPEAKER_02: It'll be a bilateral squat, a unilateral hinge just like this.
47:46
SPEAKER_02: Hand release push-up, pull, dead bug next day.
47:50
SPEAKER_02: It would be a unilateral squat, bilateral hinge, push, pull, crawl pattern.
47:56
SPEAKER_02: So something moving, something stationary, and we'll just rotate through to where in an eight-week block or six weeks that we get with those freshmen.
48:03
SPEAKER_02: If we spend 10 minutes a day doing five to 10 reps, we accumulate a thousand reps as kind of an extension of our performance prep, just getting them the patterns that we want first.
48:14
SPEAKER_02: So we'll take those patterns and move them into the actual performance side when we start loading things, but just reingraining the quality patterns we want in an easy to learn environment.
48:24
SPEAKER_00: Have you had athletes for for one?
48:26
SPEAKER_00: I have plenty of athletes, and you mentioned it earlier, that they might not have the body to squat.
48:32
SPEAKER_00: And it's just like whether it's their torso, their limb length, whatever it is, but you get them in a split squat and it almost allows them to be an athlete under load.
48:40
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
48:40
SPEAKER_00: And it you would be surprised the weight that these guys are putting up.
48:44
SPEAKER_00: And I've seen videos, I mean, they're putting up five, five hundred pounds.
48:48
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
48:49
SPEAKER_00: And what does when that light bulb hits them?
48:52
SPEAKER_00: Because probably not putting that on a back squat, but now on a split squat, I would imagine their faces are just like the confidence that comes from that is like holy crap.
49:01
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, like we've had one of our best receivers is about 170 pounds.
49:05
SPEAKER_02: And I think people talk about like wide ISA, narrow ISA.
49:09
SPEAKER_02: That's not my realm that I've dove into.
49:12
SPEAKER_02: But I think when you see the anthropometric of athletes and the way that they move, you're really twitchy athletes, typically tight hips, tight ankles, the things that make them really springy off the ground, make them really bad movers and bilateral sagittal movements.
49:28
SPEAKER_02: And so a guy like him, who he can front squat pretty good weights for a guy his size.
49:33
SPEAKER_02: Pound for pound, usually a twitchy guy is somewhat strong.
49:35
SPEAKER_02: But as soon as we switch him into that unilateral stance, he's strong as can be.
49:39
SPEAKER_02: And again, it comes down to if you're really twitchy, typically you've got slender hips, like you're not a very wide guy.
49:47
SPEAKER_02: So that trunk stability, core bracing, all the things that are limiters on a back squat or even a heavy front squat are eliminated when we switch to that single leg.
49:56
SPEAKER_02: So the same athlete doing a front rack split squat with 315 for an easy triple that can maybe front squat 315 for a really gritty, kind of ugly, forcing himself down into position single.
50:09
SPEAKER_02: And again, that's where I think some of the buy-in comes from is athletes.
50:14
SPEAKER_02: There's a very small population of athletes who truly love back squats, cleans, like the meathead things.
50:21
SPEAKER_02: Typically, they become strength coaches like me.
50:23
SPEAKER_02: You know, most athletes don't love those things.
50:26
SPEAKER_02: So I think it gets even more buy-in when they're like, hey, we're doing something a little bit different.
50:29
SPEAKER_02: I'm gaining a lot of strength.
50:31
SPEAKER_02: This feels a little bit better for me.
50:33
SPEAKER_02: And we're still going to make them do bilateral movements, getting in ranges.
50:37
SPEAKER_02: There's there's a nervous system standpoint and just a strength and in-range challenging the knee joint component.
50:44
SPEAKER_02: But we want to really prioritize those unilateral lifts because some guys they'll get a huge benefit from bilateral programs, but a huge portion of athletes won't get the benefits that you want from just bilateral work.
50:57
SPEAKER_02: So I think that's where the unilateral emphasis comes into play.
51:00
SPEAKER_02: You're catching kind of both groups of guys at a better level.
51:05
SPEAKER_00: Everything you you've talked about, it seems like you've built like um, for lack of a better word, a system.
51:11
SPEAKER_00: Like a system around of a thought process, the system around how you guys train here.
51:15
SPEAKER_00: And we were talking off camera about how all of the coaches kind of have their little bit of a flair to it, but it it is based in that those movement principles and qualities in this system.
51:26
SPEAKER_00: Now, being in an AD role, do you find that that you needed to have this sort of system to kind of train the other coaches of how you think it's possible so you guys are all in the same playing field?
51:37
SPEAKER_00: Or this was before you even kind of stepped into that role?
51:40
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so um I would say it was before I even stepped into the role.
51:44
SPEAKER_02: I knew this was kind of what I wanted to do.
51:46
SPEAKER_02: Think my whole time as an assistant, maybe even too early, a little bit of Dunning Kruger.
51:50
SPEAKER_02: I was like, I'm ready to be a director.
51:52
SPEAKER_02: Let me just run a program.
51:54
SPEAKER_02: This will be awesome.
51:55
SPEAKER_02: Um, but I had prepped as an assistant to be a director.
51:59
SPEAKER_02: I was putting together my portfolio.
52:01
SPEAKER_02: Here's the things I want to do, here's the things that's important to me.
52:04
SPEAKER_02: And luckily, I had great mentors along the way.
52:06
SPEAKER_02: Like my college strength coach, we had seven GAs in our program, I think, at William Penn.
52:12
SPEAKER_02: And Ike Kammerley was my head strength coach, and he's had as big an impact on me as anyone.
52:16
SPEAKER_02: He's why I wanted to be a strength coach.
52:18
SPEAKER_02: And he had a system in place because every two years, you're getting new coaches in.
52:24
SPEAKER_02: So you lose three coaches every year, basically, and it's just a revolving door.
52:28
SPEAKER_02: And if you're the head coach for women's lacrosse, I'm the head coach for men's tennis, and every year or every two years, we're getting a new strength coach.
52:37
SPEAKER_02: We can't have just a complete overhaul.
52:40
SPEAKER_02: So I knew when I came here it should be really easy to make a football coach happy.
52:45
SPEAKER_02: I've trained football athletes my whole life.
52:47
SPEAKER_02: I can do a good job of coaching, but what makes my job important, if you're a director, which I came here to be, you have to make sure all 16 sports are getting a high quality training environment.
52:58
SPEAKER_02: Your entire staff is providing good training to those athletes.
53:01
SPEAKER_02: And we wanted all 400 athletes and all 16 coaches to have a great experience.
53:06
SPEAKER_02: So the way to do that is we've had 24 assistants since I've been here.
53:10
SPEAKER_02: We've had 100 plus interns.
53:13
SPEAKER_02: All of those coaches, when they came in, our head coach didn't have to have a lapse in confidence because, like, hey, it's gonna be Elon performance, just another person, plug and play.
53:25
SPEAKER_02: Like they'll have a different personality, and I'm trying to hire based off the personalities of the coaches uh and the athletes to an extent, but a lot of what they do is gonna fit that system to where there's continuity without continuity.
53:37
SPEAKER_02: And so that system is really important for us.
53:40
SPEAKER_02: This is coming up on my ninth year here, having that consistency in the way that we train across all of our teams without consistency in the same people being in those positions forever.
53:52
SPEAKER_00: So you took the system, and I know it's not X's and O's of coaching, but you have a book about leadership and creating those systems.
54:02
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
54:02
SPEAKER_00: You're not gonna plug it.
54:03
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna say it right now.
54:05
SPEAKER_00: Um, I've heard that it's been amazing.
54:07
SPEAKER_00: Um, what what prompted that?
54:09
SPEAKER_00: Like what made you want to want to get into writing a book with the limited time you have?
54:13
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so uh the director's manual um really was uh I had done just multiple articles or like you know, talking at events.
54:22
SPEAKER_02: When I talked to the KU uh clinic with Matt Gildersleeve, it was kind of on frameworks and better decision making.
54:29
SPEAKER_02: And so much of when I got my first job at the University of Iowa, my boss really encouraged us to read like good to great, other leadership-oriented books.
54:38
SPEAKER_02: And I believe that really good leaders in anything will be good leaders somewhere else.
54:44
SPEAKER_02: Like The Trillion Dollar Coach is one of my favorite books ever.
54:46
SPEAKER_02: He was a football coach, turned executive who ended up consulting for like Apple, Microsoft, and it's called the Trillion Dollar Coach, because he was consulting for Steve Jobs and other of the highest earners in the world, using his leadership background from football and other things.
55:02
SPEAKER_02: And so I think good leadership is good leadership.
55:05
SPEAKER_02: And those are the things that longer kind of age and stage in your career.
55:09
SPEAKER_02: Early on, it's like, I just want to coach athletes.
55:12
SPEAKER_02: Then it becomes coaching the coaches is just as fun as coaching the athletes.
55:16
SPEAKER_02: And leading an organization is really what excites me the most.
55:22
SPEAKER_02: Like building those systems, building frameworks to where things operate as effectively as possible.
55:27
SPEAKER_02: And those are the things that aren't taught.
55:29
SPEAKER_02: There's a million books on here's why we do X, Y, or Z exercise, this periodization model, speed work, etc.
55:36
SPEAKER_02: And I don't feel like there's ever been a book that encapsulates so many people get into the profession.
55:42
SPEAKER_02: If you work in college or are pro sports, usually there's some people that just want to be assistant forever, but most want to climb that ladder.
55:50
SPEAKER_02: And I think the Peter principle of you get to a certain position and then you find out you're unprepared for it, that happens so much where it's like you were a really good assistant, but nobody ever gave you the tools to be a good director or lead people effectively.
56:06
SPEAKER_02: And so I just wanted to, I felt like it's a passion area for me and then a unmet need in the field.
56:13
SPEAKER_02: So it just kind of converged into that.
56:15
SPEAKER_02: And I had written a few articles, I had done a few different speaking events, and I was like, you know, I I've always wanted to write a book in some way, shape, or form.
56:24
SPEAKER_02: And it felt like just kind of the perfect storm of things that led me to write on that area, dude.
56:31
SPEAKER_00: Nick, um, for one, not sure if you guys are aware, this was definitely a process of getting this.
56:38
SPEAKER_00: We had some bumps in the road, but dude, thank you for uh allowing us to come into Elon.
56:43
SPEAKER_00: Um, thank you for being so flexible with your schedule and and uh working with me and what you're doing for the field, dude.
56:48
SPEAKER_00: Like I can't tell you how many times when I said that I was having you, I had multiple people, many people that were like, I can't wait to watch his thing.
56:56
SPEAKER_00: So I'm not sure if you realize you have fans out there, but there are quite a few people that are very interested and thankful for what you're doing.
57:02
SPEAKER_02: Well, I think you know you got fans because I've had the same thing.
57:05
SPEAKER_02: Like, dude, you're you're linking up with Vernon Griffin.
57:08
SPEAKER_00: No, but uh friendship man, stand-up, dude, uh, what you're doing for the profession.
57:13
SPEAKER_00: I look up to you what you're doing.
57:15
SPEAKER_00: Um, that that literally, when we went through the eight system thing and we were talking about it, I was like, that is so just simple.
57:22
SPEAKER_00: Like, how how it's it's enough structure, but it's it's perfect exploring.
57:26
SPEAKER_00: It is like the perfect of both worlds.
57:29
SPEAKER_00: Um, please keep doing what you're doing.
57:30
SPEAKER_00: Please keep sharing, brother.
57:31
SPEAKER_00: And I I I really appreciate you, man.
57:34
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, man.
57:34
SPEAKER_00: Me too.
57:36
SPEAKER_00: Appreciate it.
57:37
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, bro.
57:38
SPEAKER_00: Exploring movement, exploring our body, aviation center.
57:41
SPEAKER_00: Inside edge of the foot, crushing you from here from different angles.
57:45
SPEAKER_00: Like these kids don't want to be here.
57:48
SPEAKER_02: Perception is the engine that drives our entire spirit.