Force Plates
“The rate at which these force plates have become accessible has far outpaced the rate at which the scientific literacy to use them properly is moving.”
“Clinical environments, great. High performance environments, great. Research environments, absolutely. Average Joe strength coach, I would be really circumspect about the value it’s going to bring.”
“If you understand the physics and the classical mechanics and what these force plates are giving you, you’ll quickly realize you don’t need these force plates.”
“You’re skipping all these intermediate steps as the practitioner. You do the movement, you see the number, and then it’s supposed to inform training practices for your athletes. The disconnect is massive right now.”
The Force Velocity Relationship
“The applied strength and conditioning world has taken this lab-based phenomenon and applied it to whole body movements. That’s just not how it works.”
“In sprinting, it’s high velocity, high force. The forces you’re applying are massive when you’re moving really, really fast.”
“Elite sprinters will strike the ground with forces close to five times their body weight. You’re not doing that during a squat.”
Time as the Constraint
“The number one constraint for sprinting and whole body movement in general is time. It’s the time you have available to apply the force. In a back squat, you have all the time in the world.”
“The forces and tension the hamstrings experience at the velocities and timing windows in sprinting are completely different than the tension and time window you get in a deadlift. It’s not even the same thing.”
“People really overlook the effects and importance of time as a variable. Not time as in exposure over time, but time in the moment of the movement.”
“The important thing to do when you’re trying to be a better sprinter is to sprint.”
Actin and Myosin
“The force comes from myosin holding onto actin. That physical connection, the cross bridge, is where the force comes from.”
“As shortening velocity increases, fewer myosin are able to grab onto actin, because actin is moving over it too quickly.”
“Titin is the molecular spring inside the muscle cell. Titin can actually contribute to reshortening with more force.”
Muscle and Tendon in Sprinting
“Predominantly the length change that’s occurring, and the energy storage and return, is coming from tendon. The muscle is maintaining its length more or less.”
“We say quasi-isometric. It means close to isometric, but not purely isometric. A very small element of lengthening when you touch the ground, and a very small element of shortening when you leave the ground.”
Length Tension and the Force Reserve
“There’s a zone of optimal overlap where as much myosin is able to grab onto as much actin as possible. That’s the point where the muscle can produce its maximum force.”
“We’re going to operate at a muscle length a little bit shorter than optimal, because I might be subject to some unexpected lengthening. I give myself a force reserve.”
“I’m in a really bad length tension spot here for my bicep, but I can hold the dumbbell all day, because that torque balance is essentially handled.”
Fascia
“Leaving the compartment intact, with all the fascia connecting things together, contributes to force production.”
“This in no way supports that fascia training is a viable method for increasing performance. We can’t isolate fascia any more than we can isolate bone.”
“You do get lateral force transmission from other muscles to the muscle you’re looking at. Their only relationship to each other is that they’re touching.”
The Nervous System
“There’s no innervation at the ligament level or the tendon level. It goes directly into the belly of the muscle.”
“It’s a feed forward mechanism. If it was a reflex, the tension would come after you’ve hit the ground, and that’s too late.”
Philosophy and Practice
“A theory is backed by basically all the evidence we have. The bar for something to be a theory is really, really high.”
“Running fast is all about applying more force with respect to your body mass. Once you understand that, you can look at the athlete in front of you and ask how we’re going to achieve that end.”
“It’s important that coaches understand the short list of things we want to be targeting, and then put their artistic hat on for how to achieve that with the athletes in front of them.”
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