The mic is hot and the game is on. You're listening
to News for the Nation podcast by Aces Nation,
where we talk about nutrition, sports performance,
the journey of a student athlete, and more. I'm
Claire. I'm Zach. Time to level up. Welcome back
sports fans. Today we have an awesome episode
that's going to be kind of off the track of what
we normally do where we're not picking a research
topic or we're not talking about one sport or
one element in particular. Today, Tiana and I
are gonna share questions back and forth about
training and kind of put each other on the spot
and let each other think a little bit about how
we would train. an athlete or a team from a certain
sport to get a certain result. It's going to
be pretty interesting, I think, for the listener
to hear two different professionals talk about
how they would train teams for certain results.
And then at the end, I'll do almost like a lightning
round type of thing, draw from a hat. and ask
Tiana just a few questions about that at the
end. So like I said, we're gonna go back and
forth. And so this is gonna be pretty interesting
here. Okay, so I'll take the first question.
And so before I start, I just wanted to say that
at ACEs with all of the interactions we get with
coaches regularly, we do hear among any sport
you throw out, we hear, you know, one to five
things that coaches want to improve and they're
almost always the same within that sport. So
with that said, let's go with soccer and change
of direction or agility training first. Okay,
so good question here. So just off of the two
things I think we've already talked about in
several other episodes. I know we've talked about
what agility is versus what change of direction
is. And recently we've covered research about
change of direction and I believe we have a blog
post up about it as well. So change of direction,
right? Research says you should be sprinting
more and doing plyometrics more in order to enhance
change of direction. So for soccer, I would,
I mean, most of the time people are going to
do some type of fitness assessment like the beep
test or a yo -yo intermittent recovery test so
that that has an element of change of direction
in it too especially if you use it for training
you're going to get that hopefully you're doing
both sides back and forth if i would improve
change of direction ability i think one of the
first things for soccer players overall is to
figure out where their athletic base is and to
train from that and how to get back to that quickly.
I think this is one of the things that's overlooked
in youth sports is you teach them how to run
and change direction or how to jump and change
direction and stuff like that. And then they
get into the sport and it's like they're running
and then somebody else stops fast and it's like
I've got to take a million steps and my body's
all over the place. I know our podcast listeners
can't really see me. doing the visualization
here. But I think to get to learn what your athletic
base is and how to get back to it quickly, I
think that allows you a platform to make multiple
decisions out of like from a athletic or a physical
standpoint, you can make those types of movement
decisions. I think that's important. Honestly,
to do some directional jumps, whether that be
jumping off both feet laterally and then back
to that same point. I think that's a good spot.
If you're doing like hurdle jumps forward continuously,
that's good. So your feet are getting back to
a similar position every time. Maybe if you're
doing single leg jumps, your foot is getting
back underneath, right? If you do a single leg
jump forward and you land back in athletic position
on that one leg, you're getting that kinesthetic
awareness. so that your brain is kind of knowing
where your body is in space and you're able to
find that. So I would do a lot of jumping. Sprinting
I think is obviously great for kinesthetic awareness
and just for your muscles to be used to contracting
at those types of speeds. Maybe throw some deceleration
on the end of some of your sprints whether that's
a coach saying stop or giving a reactional like
visual cue like they are moving in a direction
or they're putting one foot forward and so the
kids are having to mirror that um whether kids
are actually doing mirror or tag drills with
each other those things can improve change of
direction ability not a lot of like hey run to
this cone and back i think uh just what that's
just what the research says however I do think
you can do some of that. You should, right? You
need to get people used to finding those change
of direction angles quickly so that their body
is used to doing that. So adding in the decelerations
at the end of your sprints, doing a little bit
of change of direction and doing some plyometrics,
getting it starting double leg, but getting into
those. directional like 45 degree bounds or lateral
bounds or single leg bounding or something like
that even if it's like single leg jumps going
lateral over cones or something just getting
your body used to absorbing force slowing down
momentum from where you just came from and then
reapplying it you know so i think those things
are important for helping somebody change direction
better, which would give them a great foundation
to help them be more agile when they have to
make a decision in sport. Now that that all addresses
that change of direction kind of on the field.
What do you think or are there things that come
to mind when somebody says they want to improve
change of direction when it comes to the weight
room? Resistance training. So again, Referencing
back to the podcast where I covered all that
research resistance training added into speed
and plyometrics was also the best option to improve
change of direction. So if your lower body is
getting stronger at that point, or if you're
focusing on multi joint lower body movements,
you're squatting or lunging, you're hinging of
some sort. Maybe doing bridging as well, like
all of these things. globally or generally are
going to help you. So if you have a stronger
lower body, you're going to be able to slow yourself
down better. So going full range of motion and
like lunges, squats, working up to not necessarily
like the heaviest weight you can do. But once
you're getting movements down, you're building
up some tolerance to the stress. So you've been
training consistently for a while. And then just
continuing to push yourself, you know, not necessarily
so far past the limit, but just going a little
bit past the limit every once in a while so that
you're creating a better resiliency towards those
higher forces that you would experience in trying
to slow down. Yeah, and then sometimes, you know,
doing continuous jumps to build up a little capacity
or doing some light weighted jumps can also help
you. And those are all things you can do in the
weight room as well. So just get strong with
your lower body, and that'll help you with everything
that you're going to do on the field. All right,
my turn. Another one that we get a lot from coaches
is in the sport of volleyball. And of course,
play volleyball, you want to increase your vertical
jump. So Tiana, what would you do to increase
vertical jump in volleyball players? Yeah, so.
When it comes to vertical jump, I would say,
you know, some of the same things in terms of
plyometrics or single jumps applies here. So
learning how to transfer force vertically in
the most efficient way is going to help with
vertical jump and then weighting the body in
an explosive manner. So things like we program
cleans a lot now there is a learning curve when
it comes to movements like the clean and you
know there's different variations of that whether
you start from the floor you're starting from
the knees but learning how to use triple extension
in a way that's effective is going to help you
improve jumping vertically because that is essentially
what you're doing when you are gaining height
off the ground so you know, anything to do with
with box jumps in the gym, as long as they're
being used properly. And by that, I mean, you're
landing in a proper manner on top of the box
where you're not just trying to jump as high
as humanly possible and landing in some kind
of strange position that you wouldn't be utilizing
off the ground to make a jump up for a ball.
And then, you know, any sort of explosive movements
in the weight room, as well as your, you know,
foundational strength for the lower body, same
as you mentioned in soccer in terms of just becoming
stronger in your entire lower body. Now, I know
you and I obviously know how to coach Olympic
movements and the benefits of them. But what
if what if someone or if a volleyball coach doesn't
necessarily have the skill set to coach them
or doesn't believe in coaching Olympic weightlifting
movements, what alternatives could they have?
I think there's a range, you know, you can do
something as simple as a jump squat to kind of
mimic that type of movement. Or you could do
a quarter squat where you're waiting a bar and
then you're, you know, you're not necessarily
getting into the full squat position you're utilizing
that upper portion of the squat to be able to
move weight um quickly and work on speed on the
bar um for yeah those are two things that come
to mind all right are we ready for our next sport
let's go all right um i hear this one a lot And
usually, well, you know, whether what this means
exactly to the coaches, I'm not it usually varies,
but we'll hear from football coaches a lot of
time that they're looking for explosive power.
Yeah, yeah, I've heard that as well, right? Honestly,
what I think it comes to is acceleration in some
manner, whether that's taking off and sprinting.
reaccelerating or it's accelerating their body
out of bilateral stance or out of two feet into
somebody right like I think it comes down to
acceleration so really in my head we're gonna
train sprinting there's gonna be probably more
of a speed emphasis in your resistance training
I think that when training this it's more seasonal
It's not like I'm doing this for the entire year.
You're probably doing elements of it here and
there, but it's not like the sole focus for the
entirety of your program. I think definitely
for football, you need to have a strong strength
base. I think a lot of teams and coaches do a
pretty good job of developing a good strength
base. And then at that point, it's really about
velocity if you're in the weight room it's about
moving the barbell at certain speeds whether
that is utilizing Olympic weightlifting movements
or they any of their derivatives having an emphasis
on squat where if you're going full range of
motion half range of motion quarter like to have
an emphasis to drive up as fast as possible if
you've got some type of feedback from a velocity
tracking device, whether that's camera or it's
tethered to the bar. I think that's super helpful
to give that immediate feedback to athletes,
which in turn creates internal competition and
competition with those around them. So internal
and external there. Yeah, I think the plyometric
element as well right being able to control your
body weight redirect force on impact That's essentially
what sprinting is at full speed so I think Those
elements right there. So we talked about honestly
kind of some similar things that I mentioned
in soccer But to be able to re -accelerate, apply
as much force as possible in a short amount of
time, right? I think that is how you would get
someone to be more explosive, if you will. Have
a lot more sprinting. You could probably... I
think you might find some benefit to the athlete
themselves if you... Change starting position.
Maybe that takes some monotony out of it for
them. That's I'm in push -up position, which
I've seen a lot I'm seated seated facing a different
direction standing facing a different direction
You know one hand on the ground two hands on
the ground, whatever whatever it is changing
position like that might help them to Find positions
that they might be in during a game or practice
and then be able to apply And maybe a more practical
element, but yeah, I think bar velocity in the
weight room needs to be an emphasis So finding
the sweet spot between what how much weight you
can have on there and move pretty fast but also
Going into I need to have lighter weights and
move the bar a lot faster So I think the balance
between those two maybe that's having different
emphasis on different days of the week that you're
training. Definitely having a sprint element
at least once a week in there and having a plyometric
element at least once a week in there as well.
Whether that's in the weight room with like many
hurdles or it's out on the field with bounding
or more hurdles out on the field, you know, whatever
that is. That's how I think you could train someone
to be explosive for football. Yeah, and I think
you know explosiveness and speed are synonymous
a lot and One of the kind of age -old debates
is the difference between football fast and track
fast like sprint fast What comes to mind when
you you know hear that brought up or what is
the difference to you between? Football speed
what's effective there versus maybe what a hundred
meter sprinter speed would have to be well So
what's what's interesting I think is There's
a lot of GPS data out about how far the average
football play is right and how long that lasts
Well a hundred meter sprint is always a hundred
meters every single play quote -unquote if you
will right so the average distance is a hundred
meters the average time that varies based on
the the heat right and the level of that heat
so Honestly, I don't think it needs to be very
far. I think the average is like way less than
40 yards, but So I think that those shorter distances
probably it's probably acceleration like pure
acceleration that needs to be focused on not
necessarily top -end speed all the time right
there are players like defensive backs, wide
receivers, they may reach top in speed on a play
because they're running a route and they're trying
to get open even if the ball doesn't come to
them at that point, right? So, and then running
backs if they break free obviously, but I think
really what it comes down to besides how far
you may actually run in a play is also two different
elements here. Football sprinting is like weighted
sprinting in the game and It's also elusive sprinting
for the most part either you're trying not to
get Try not to be in contact with somebody like
on the offensive or defensive side, right? And
then at some point there's contact gonna happen
But really it's it's not straight line or around
the turn It's it's moving around bodies and moving
in space trying to take different angles. So
Those are probably I listed three things right
there three things that I think make it different
Yeah, I agree with all of those and and also
thinking about kind of like the angle that that
speed has to be carried So, you know not always
around bodies sometimes into bodies So, you know
the difference there and how you have to accelerate
in order to actually hit your target versus just
to get in a you know Ideal position to be fast,
right? Right. That's completely different. But
you see those when you get those track athletes
who come to play football, when you put them
in the right positions, in the right situations,
you can really tell it's different, right? If
you get them around the corner, you know, and
they're able to break free and just go sprint
and not have to worry about making a move on
somebody, they're elite, you know, and you can
tell it's different. Yeah, you see that same
crossover to with, you know, more of the indoor
track version because it's shorter. of a distance
is not 100 meters. But you see it in that in
that field, too, because you can have football
players that just come fresh off of playing their
sport and hop right in and can be elite there.
So that's awesome. Yeah. All right. Moving into
the next one. Going into baseball or softball,
obviously, the sport's a lot different. I want
you to talk about developing power. That's another
loose term, you know. um because this is a rotational
sport there's not as much running uh involved
in it so how would you develop power um for baseball
or softball yeah um you know the I think in terms
of baseball and softball like you said with rotational
movement there's a lot you can do there in terms
of isometric training you can utilize resistance
bands to kind of mimic some of that rotational
movement that the athletes are going to be doing
and a lot of times with those sports there's
so much potential for overuse. That training
kind of just to prevent injury and strengthen
joints is a big part of that as well. So, you
know, you just want to keep your players healthy
and recovering quickly. So with baseball and
softball, I think a lot of the training for strength
and power the way you would traditionally do
it with squats, but also including single limb
movements. So you know, your dumbbell training
with single arm presses or military presses,
single leg movement on the lower body. So whether
that's single leg squatting or Romanian deadlifts,
but anything you're doing that's going to help
with stabilizing joint movement and preventing
that rotational or overuse injury around joints
is a good place to start in terms of just overall
strength and like we were talking about before,
athleticism for that particular application for
their sport. Yeah, I agree. Lower body is a very
important part. even for rotational sports because
all of that rotation starts of how you're applying
force into the ground. And I don't know, sometimes
it gets lost on people. It's like I got to train.
I don't know, train my upper body rotation or
what have you. But one thing I wanted to add
there just because I was one of the authors on
this publication was utilizing landmine rotations
or variations of landmine rotations. for rotational
athletes is definitely beneficial because of
the I guess more transferable forces that you
may be able to create by using that type of exercise
selection. Yeah and that core stability as well
is a big factor in that rotational movement so
the landmines are yeah perfect. We have one more.
Yeah, but it's my turn to ask you again. This
is a back -to -back for you. I think training
track for speed Track for speed I feel like when
you ask a track coach that question that's very
loaded. There's just that's the whole thing So
it is everything it's everything. Yeah, we could
go on forever on this subject, but um initially
what I would say would be you know the plyometrics
that we've brought up on almost everything that
involves speed so you're going to need the plyometric
aspect and in this sense you're going to need
the multi -jump movement whether that's with
double leg contact or single because of course
you're pushing off in a double leg fashion at
the beginning of a sprint when you're coming
out of the starting box or even if you're standing
it's not going to be quite as explosive as from
the box position but you still need to be proficient
in that and then you're going to need the single
leg abilities because obviously each foot contact
in the sprint is going to be one at a time. As
far as speed itself you need to train sprinting
fast to be fast. So one thing we see a lot outside
of kind of the college range when it comes to
track and field is people are afraid to move
quickly too soon. And I think that's a big mistake
because if you want to be fast, you need to be
sprinting. So the earlier you can start working
on sprinting at top end speed, the better. But
that comes with the caveat of programming it
properly. So you want to start with those shorter
sprints, full recoveries, working on just that
foot contact and accelerative speed in the beginning
and then you can work up to those longer distances
where you're trying to carry that acceleration
out into your main portion of your sprints. The
other drill that comes to mind that gets utilized
often is the wicket drill. I'm not sure if you've
used wickets where they're measured out in a
certain pattern but this is something that most
sprint coaches will do and there's there's all
kinds of uh theories on what the exact stride
length should be and the foot contact should
look like but most coaches will measure this
out and it's going to start out in a way that
each stride length and frequency is a little
bit shorter and closer together as your kids
are untrained. And then those wicket distances
are going to move apart as kids are more trained
and stronger and more explosive. And by wicket,
I mean, you can do them with those little mini
hurdles. that sit on the track or the field surface
or you can tape out the marks or chalk them whatever
you want to do but working on stride length and
stride frequency and giving people a visual understanding
of what that looks like to be as fast as they
possibly can especially in the acceleration zone
Super important because a lot of kids naturally
will just when they first start sprinting They'll
take some tiny steps in the very beginning just
to get them in and feel like they're moving their
body quickly So that means they're going faster
when in reality they need the power and the foot
contact Time to be able to push off the ground
and move themselves more quickly. So The wicket
drill is one of them the main ones I would say
along with the plyometric training and just sprinting
itself Awesome quickly before we need to move
to the lightning round here What maybe a couple
of things you would use in the weight room to
supplement? speed for track Yeah, this is a big
one here where Um, I would say that Olympic lifting
is applicable So if it's something that you haven't
started yet I think taking the time and energy
to go through teaching it properly is important
because The amount of explosive training that
you can get through doing proper power cleans
or clean and jerk or snatch or whatever that
may be Uh is is going to help you in the long
run all the way through your career and track
um, so That type of training and then any of
those weighted jumping movements So, you know,
even if you're using some mini hurdles in in
the weight room or something and you have a weighted
fast Working on ground contact and overcoming
ground contact that's weighted is A good way
to train that explosive power for sprinting So
question I wanted to ask you here. I want you
to define athleticism define it in whatever terms
that you can think of simplest terms most expanded
terms define athleticism um okay well for one
it's the ability to adapt to sport movement um
that's outside of what you your skill set or
what you've already learned just based on the
physicality of your body already. Like that's
what comes to mind when I think about you know
who's an athlete because you might not be like
super skillful at whatever particular sport so
say you're say you're a track athlete and then
you walk out there and you attempt jiu -jitsu
but you know nothing about the skill set Can
you still hang enough to participate in a way
just using your own internal? And you're like
current physicality to compete so you're able
to adapt quickly to whatever kind of. Situation
that that. Sport course. Trying to think of other
examples of people like you know you'll see I
don't know like a Michael Jordan like somebody
that can. as high as they can possibly be in
one sport and then can switch over and still,
you know, be an elite athlete in another sport.
What about you? I think that. I think there's
a difference between being athletic and being
a skilled sports player. I think there's a difference
between the two. So I'm not going to even attempt
the skilled sports player definition, but in
simplest terms, I think being athletic is it
comes down to force expression in the shortest
amount of time. I can see that, especially when
you remove the skill sets. Right. Right. If you're
an athlete, you're typically able to jump high,
run fast, your very good at change of direction.
A popular term is twitchy, like a fast twitch
or quick twitch guy or girl, you know, I think
a lot of coaches say that use those terms. But
essentially that comes to now comes down to force
expression in the shortest amount of time, whether
that's a very large amount. And it typically
is it's like how much force can you exert in
the shortest amount of time? I would say that
you say that someone who maybe is a cyclist and
then competes in triathlons when they've never
swam or uh run then goes out there and does that
they're not twitchy but maybe they adapt really
well and they're elite in that area are they
not athletic is that an athletic event or is
that an endurance event in my opinion it's an
endurance event i think athleticism includes
endurance in some respects. I would never say
that a triathlete, an Olympic triathlete is not
athletic. I would never, that would never come
to mind to me. Interesting. I would not say that.
I wouldn't say they're athletic. I would say
that they're You know, I would say that they
would just excel in endurance events like maybe
you could put the Qualifier endurance athlete
on there if you want But when I think about athletic
I think about sports that require Reactions to
the body to other external bodies or external
things or they require, like I said, force expressions
in a short amount of time. So a multi -event
athlete in track, I think that person's athletic,
right? They have to jump, they're gonna have
to throw, they're gonna have to sprint. I think
that person's an athlete. They're doing multiple
things at a high level. Yeah, well, and since
the beginning of time, that was the definition
of athlete. So that would make sense. But I don't
know, I think I'd boil it down to saying physically
adaptable at the highest degree is an athlete
or athleticism expression of athleticism. So
I don't know. That's interesting. That's a hot
take. We should put that one out there. Yeah.
I can get behind the adaptation thing, right?
Because then I think you get into different levels
of athletes. So typically, elite athletes adapt
better to training, to stimulus they get from
competition. So I agree with that statement that
if you can adapt faster, You're going to be a
better Performer, let's say not necessarily.
Let's not say necessarily athlete or Skilled
sports player you're going to perform better
if you can adapt more quickly So I definitely
agree with that addition there's also the like
kind of genetically born gifted athlete situation
and then the Athlete who has in them the ability
to learn quickly but may not Instantly be athletic.
Do you know what I mean? So like there's that
guy that's just built You know super tall already
has great musculature Already can move well or
there's that guy that maybe is a little bit smaller
but like extremely quick to learn in terms of
Like mental understanding of what's going on
and adapt physically quickly so that's interesting
too because it's like Can athleticism only be
born into you or is athleticism learned? That's
an interesting concept as well because When I
think of learned skills, but when I think of
learning I think of that as a cognitive ability
To retain information and make a decision off
of a new problem with that information To me
that moves into the skill side and not the athletic
side. I think of training not learning as the
Let's say the brains response to that adept or
the brains adaptation to that stimulus is as
you train the brain teaches the body to be a
little more efficient, I guess you could say
and the body, the body's the learner at that
point, not you the individual or like the brain
is not the learner at that point, if that makes
sense. Yeah, I think so. But there's some people
that have that already, like naturally. And then
there's some that adapt or pick that up quickly.
You know, there's those kids that we see that
have that are very raw, if you will, in the skill
area. And well, you know, you immediately look
at them as a coach and you're like, No, but that's
an athlete, like they can learn the skill side,
because it's already in them to be an athlete,
versus the kid that, you know, you see some potential
and may already have some skills, but you know,
you can build on them. So interesting. Yeah,
I've heard I've heard football coaches say this
before, like, this person's really fast and like
you know you can't coach that you can't coach
speed right there like that you know it's just
naturally in them um versus you know this kid's
really good at you know adapting to film but
they're not the fastest person you know on the
team that type of thing yeah i i agree there's
that those two types of uh individuals that you
have in sports as well that they start at different
levels but have They have different ceilings
in different areas of what they need to achieve
to be a little more elite or just be better than
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All right, so getting to lightning round here
so I can draw these out of a cup here. These
are all for you, Tiana, right? This is great.
No! So staying in the track realm here, track
for hypertrophy. When would you train it and
maybe a couple of movements that you think were
great for hypertrophy? I would keep that in your
early training, off -season training leading
up into your season. So that's going to be obviously
your higher volume training. I would stick to
the basics and not get too crazy here. I'm thinking
squats, deadlifts, bench press, that type of
stuff. Yeah, nice. Next, football conditioning.
What would you do? Oh, all those suicide runs
and gassers are the most common, I would say.
Yeah. Yeah, those work well. All right. Last
one here. Last one. Championship view of this
here, jumps in track for off season. How would
you train jumpers off season? All the plyometrics,
we train them in every respect you can think
of from high volume, small jumps with like low
amplitude. We talked about what amplitude meant
last time. to anywhere from full on bounding
and single leg cycling and all the pieces of
triple jump and things like that. So all the
playoffs. Well, lightning round for me. Here
we go. OK, here we go. How would you get the
most out of training in the weight room for athletes
in sports like cheer and dance? Oh, general strength.
I think they're going to get better if they just
learn how to Move, weight, if they just become
stronger, move better. So like move better, get
stronger. That's it. Okay. Upper body improvements
for strength and injury prevention for swimmers.
Wow. That's actually really tough. I do more
pec work for breaststroke. For all of them, I
probably back off a little bit during the season
because that's a heavy thing. Peck work, this
is going to be controversial, but I would probably
do a lot of pullovers with dumbbells or something.
You know, like I think people call them lat pullovers
or something like that. Research says it's more
peck than lat, so it's not really a lat pullover
at that point. But I think that's great. Different
variations of push ups would be good, I think,
as well. No need to go into like heavy bench
press or anything like that. I think you can.
Stay away from traditional movements in that
range because they're going to be using those
muscles a lot because training and competition
is work in swimming and You're just basically
adding on more stress at that point So it's kind
of finding the balance between like what's the
most important and how do I not add extra fatigue
to these people? Yeah, good stuff. Yeah Well,
thanks everybody for listening. We just wanted
to give you some insights to what we think about
training for different sports and kind of throw
scenarios out there that we've been asked about
in particular and then obviously a little fun
lightning round that we did at the end there.
So if you have any questions about any type of
programming for your sport at any time of year,
please reach out to us. We'd love to help give
you some insights to that and help you along
the way. You can find us on YouTube, Instagram,
Check out all the information about our connect
app. We've got some great blogs out there on
our website In any way that we can help we'd
love to so just reach out to us. We will catch
you on the next one See you next time