Top Performance Strength

There is a common question that gets asked constantly when it comes to athletic development- how strong is too strong? I by no means have all the answers, but I do believe there is point of diminishing returns when it comes to strength development and if time isn’t being spent focusing and developing other performance qualities, then we’re doing our athletes a disservice when it comes to their overall development.

At what point in an athletes development are we taking away from other physical qualities that need to be developed? It’s safe to say that what we do in the weight room is very general in terms of developing fundamentals movements and getting stronger in those areas, but at some point we need to learn how to convert strength into higher levels of speed, rate of force development, and power to maximize athletic performance.

Finding out where an athlete fits on the absolutist strength- absolute speed end of the continuum is a good place to see where their strengths, weaknesses, and deficiencies lie. Now we can go to work on them and build the necessary performance qualities we’re chasing by replicating specific movement patterns, speeds, and loads they’re going to encounter on the playing field.

This is where it’s also useful to have the ability to measure force outputs. We all know what gets measured, gets managed. has been a great tool for us to train and monitor power and velocity to ensure we’re staying on the right path and making better coaching decisions for our athletes as the goal is to drive results without beating them up. We’re also utilizing to monitor bar speed to ensure we staying within the proper m/s zone to elicit the adaptations we’re chasing. We have had success utilIng other tools like or even a radar gun to monitor medicine ball throws to drive intent, competition, and better outcomes.

The most important component to athletic development in my mind is giving them the availability to play every day when the time comes. Some of the technology and data has given us immediate feedback we need day-to-day to ensure we’re not beating athletes up, keeping them healthy, and driving results.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cll9WAuvZTk/

There is a common question that gets asked constantly when it comes to athletic development- how strong is too strong? I by no means have all the answers, but I do believe there is point of diminishing returns when it comes to strength development and if time isn’t being spent focusing and developing other performance qualities, then we’re doing our athletes a disservice when it comes to their overall development. At what point in an athletes development are we taking away from other physical qualities that need to be developed? It’s safe to say that what we do in the weight room is very general in terms of developing fundamentals movements and getting stronger in those areas, but at some point we need to learn how to convert strength into higher levels of speed, rate of force development, and power to maximize athletic performance. Finding out where an athlete fits on the absolutist strength- absolute speed end of the continuum is a good place to see where their strengths, weaknesses, and deficiencies lie. Now we can go to work on them and build the necessary performance qualities we’re chasing by replicating specific movement patterns, speeds, and loads they’re going to encounter on the playing field. This is where it’s also useful to have the ability to measure force outputs. We all know what gets measured, gets managed. @proteusmotion has been a great tool for us to train and monitor power and velocity to ensure we’re staying on the right path and making better coaching decisions for our athletes as the goal is to drive results without beating them up. We’re also utilizing @vitruvefit to monitor bar speed to ensure we staying within the proper m/s zone to elicit the adaptations we’re chasing. We have had success utilIng other tools like @trainwithpush or even a radar gun to monitor medicine ball throws to drive intent, competition, and better outcomes. The most important component to athletic development in my mind is giving them the availability to play every day when the time comes. Some of the technology and data has given us immediate feedback we need day-to-day to ensure we’re not beating athletes up, keeping them healthy, and driving results.

We always ask every athlete the same question- what are your goals? What do you want to achieve this off-season that will drive performance enhancement on the field? This sets the stage for understanding why athletes come to us and how we can relate everything we do from a health and performance enhancement standpoint to their goals. Today I want to demonstrate how we break down long-term goals into short-term manageable goals by reverse engineering the process.

Every baseball player wants to improve their throwing velocity and exit velocity. The first step is to always evaluate where they are from a performance standpoint so we have an understanding of where we need to go and how we are going to get there.

Let's say for example a sophomore baseball player with no training experience wants to throw 90 MPH by their senior year of high school. Their current throwing velocity is 70 MPH and they have two years to increase their velocity by 20 MPH to achieve their end goal. On paper, an increase in 20 MPH seems like a lot. When you break it down over the course of two years, we want to see an average increase of 10 MPH per year, 5 MPH every 6 months. Much less intimidating and more manageable when the long-term goal is broken down into yearly, monthly, weekly, and daily goals.

Everything we do from a strength and conditioning standpoint needs to be related to the athletes goals and how it goes to help them achieve their goals. Everything from mobility, movement quality, speed, strength, power, agility, conditioning, and recovery will play a role in an athletes ability to achieve their goals and be successful on the playing field. Every piece of the training process will play a role in their ability to stay healthy, enhance performance, and stay in the game for the long-haul.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Clb9JmUu0jf/

We always ask every athlete the same question- what are your goals? What do you want to achieve this off-season that will drive performance enhancement on the field? This sets the stage for understanding why athletes come to us and how we can relate everything we do from a health and performance enhancement standpoint to their goals. Today I want to demonstrate how we break down long-term goals into short-term manageable goals by reverse engineering the process. Every baseball player wants to improve their throwing velocity and exit velocity. The first step is to always evaluate where they are from a performance standpoint so we have an understanding of where we need to go and how we are going to get there. Let's say for example a sophomore baseball player with no training experience wants to throw 90 MPH by their senior year of high school. Their current throwing velocity is 70 MPH and they have two years to increase their velocity by 20 MPH to achieve their end goal. On paper, an increase in 20 MPH seems like a lot. When you break it down over the course of two years, we want to see an average increase of 10 MPH per year, 5 MPH every 6 months. Much less intimidating and more manageable when the long-term goal is broken down into yearly, monthly, weekly, and daily goals. Everything we do from a strength and conditioning standpoint needs to be related to the athletes goals and how it goes to help them achieve their goals. Everything from mobility, movement quality, speed, strength, power, agility, conditioning, and recovery will play a role in an athletes ability to achieve their goals and be successful on the playing field. Every piece of the training process will play a role in their ability to stay healthy, enhance performance, and stay in the game for the long-haul.