10 Takeaways: Raymond Verheijen’s Course (Strength Coach Perspective)

“Football” = “Soccer”, not to be confused with “American Football” 1. Double Standards Two coaches showed up late to the seminar.  Raymond called them out and they laughed about it, thinking he was joking.  He wasn’t.  What if athletes showed up 15 minutes late to a workout?  So why is it okay for coaches to…

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Thoughts

If injuries are caused by accumulated fatigue, when is the point that warm-up/activation/injury reduction drills help (by preparing for activity) or hurt (by adding fatigue)? “Good” sprint technique for a team sport athlete (soccer, basketball, etc.) involves low center of mass, short strides, and a forward lean to allow for unpredictable changes of direction.  But…

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The Playmaker’s Advantage: 8 Takeaways

Takeaways from The Playmaker’s Advantage: How to Raise Your Mental Game to the Next Level: 1) Physicality or athlete cognition – what is more effective to focus on? “We spend a disproportionate amount of time trying to grow muscle and increase speed when the payoff would be much greater by focusing on cognitive instructions and…

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How to Get Fast Twitch Muscle: Rest

Humans have two basic types of muscle fibers – Type I (Slow twitch) and Type II (Fast Twitch). Type II fibers are further separated into Type IIa (producing high power/fast twitch) and Type IIx (producing the highest power/fastest twitch). If you want to jump higher, sprint faster, and be overall more explosive, you need to:…

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Nicotine: Eight Benefits

Nicotine stimulates the release of catecholamines, which helps to burn body fat.  Study here and here. Nicotine activates uncoupling proteins in mice, mitigating obesity.  Study here. Nicotine increases leptin (hormone that inhibits hunger) in rats.  Study here. Nicotine stimulates skeletal muscle mTOR (pathway of growth). Study here. Nicotine is a nootropic (enhancing cognitive function).  It…

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Football Periodisation: 10 Takeaways

1) Strength coaches should learn soccer language instead of expecting coaches to understand strength coach language “When, for example, a fitness coach from an outside football enters the football world, he often decides to keep using his own fitness jargon like aerobic and anaerobic.  Even worse, he expects everyone in the football world to learn…

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JACKEDTHLETE – High Frequency Training

JACKED [jakt] adjective – (of a person) having very well-developed muscles. ATHLETE [ˈaTHˌlēt] noun – a person who is proficient in sports and other forms of physical exercise. JACKEDTHLETE is meant for competitive athletes desiring both the physical development to compete at a high level (strength, explosiveness, etc.) paired with juicy muscularity (“look good to…

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Block Periodization: 6 Takeaways

From “Block Periodization: Breakthrough in Sport Training” by Vladimir Issurin: 1) Contrary to popular belief, animals warm-up before running. “When rabbit came out from its burrow, it looked around (moving its head and stretching its neck and back muscles) and trotted forth and back several times” before running across the field.  Therefore, the rabbit performed…

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Supertraining: Takeaways

Notes from “Supertraining: 6th Edition, Expanded Version” by Yuri Verkhoshansky and Mel Siff: 1) Movement is not just Biomechanics, but also involves the Brain and Behavior (3 B’s of Movement – Shawn Myszka) “Note that the term kinesiological pattern is used in preference to “biomechanical pattern” or “biomechanics” to emphasize that we are not simply referring to…

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How to Jump Higher: Accentuated Eccentrics

Holding weight in the hands and dropping it before going upwards in a jump is known as Accentuated Eccentric Loading.  Compared to normal body weight jumping, this method proves to be more effective. Short-term: In elite male volleyball players, block jumps were performed at Body Weight and with a 20kg eccentric load.  The body weight jumps were…

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