Just Fly Performance Podcast

Danny Lum is a Singaporean strength coach and sport scientist specializing in applied performance research. His work explores strength diagnostics, isometrics, and power development, and he is widely published and recognized for connecting sport science with practical coaching. In this episode, Danny explores the intersection of sport science and real-world performance. Danny shares insights from his research on isometric training, PNF stretching, and velocity-based training, emphasizing how different methods complement rather than replace one another. The conversation dives into squat depth, unilateral vs. bilateral training, and the role of variability in power development. Throughout, Danny highlights a key theme: effective training is individualized, phase-dependent, and built on understanding how the body adapts. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength. Use the code “LILAJUSTFLY10” for 10% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance gear. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 0:00 – Welcome to the Show 2:42 – Journey to Sprinting 5:10 – Strength Training Insights 14:38 – The Power of Isometrics 15:44 – PNF Stretching Explained 24:54 – Programming Isometrics 28:46 – Unilateral vs. Bilateral Training 36:33 – Velocity-Based Training 44:20 – The Importance of Variation 52:42 – Research on Isometric Strength 1:07:38 – Yearly Training Plan Danny Lum Quotes "When you lift heavy weights, if you have maximum intent, even though the external movement looks slow, there is rapid neural firing. It doesn't necessarily mean that slow movement during heavy lifting means you are not having a fast neural firing, which is relevant to sprinting." "For sprinters, when the knee is lifted up at the highest point, they don't just allow the leg to drop passively. They actually start developing force and hammer down right from the highest point. That is where your hip flexion angle is about 90 degrees. So if you're not strong at that position, then you're not maximizing the amount of force you can develop through the full range of movement." "If you're going to do static stretch during your warm-up, you might as well just perform isometric contraction at that position as well. That helps to not only activate your muscle, but you actually microdose isometric training every day." "You're strengthening your muscle at the long muscle length, and that long muscle length is where the muscular-tendinous system is most vulnerable. If you are not strong at that range, then your risk of injury just increases. But if you can get yourself stronger at the long range, you're actually protecting yourself." "If we are talking about loading the tissue itself...loading the muscle and tendon tissue, then doing unilateral work is probably going to benefit more because you can actually load the quads more by doing single-leg squat as compared to double-leg bilateral squat." "Having a variety of load actually gives greater adaptation. I think that why that's the case is because you allow the person to have a little bit of velocity focus and a little bit of force focus in the training." "If I contract rapidly, and I sustain for three seconds, because that allows me to build to a higher peak force, my strength actually increased more, and I also significantly increased my rate of force development. It allowed me to get the best of both worlds; both rate of force development and peak force actually improved." "Isometrics actually improved running economy more than plyometrics. My theory behind it is that runners, while they are running, is sort of like a low-intensity plyometric. So with a higher-intensity plyometric versus isometric, which is a totally new stimulus, they actually adapt more with the new stimulus as compared to plyometrics." "Today, the athlete might be able to lift 100 kilograms for five reps before he feels fatigue, and on a bad day, three reps. If I standardize in the program five reps every day, then on some days he might be overtraining, and that’s where velocity training provides the advantage. I’m still getting him to lift at his daily maximal of effort, but it’s self-regulated." "I don't really go too movement specific. Usually, I'll be more general in that sense because I prefer to build up the physical capacity rather than being overly specific. But having said that, most of the exercises have to be relevant to how they function." "Isometric training is probably the best way to improve angle-specific force generation capability. On the other hand, we also know that tissue adaptation is greater when training at longer muscle length. So you're actually stretching the muscle and the tendon a little more, a

Sarah Miller is a strength and conditioning coach at Georgia Tech Athletics, blending a background in dance, theater, and stunt performance with collegiate S&C. Her work emphasizes coordination, rhythm, and adaptable movement alongside traditional strength and power development. In this episode, Sarah Miller shares her unconventional path from dance, theater, and stunt performance into collegiate strength and conditioning, and how those roots shape her coaching philosophy. She explores how movement is deeply tied to psychology, emotion, and rhythm, challenging traditional, overly mechanical approaches to training. The conversation dives into habit, inhibition, and awareness, emphasizing the importance of freeing athletes from rigid patterns and reconnecting them with more natural, adaptable movement strategies. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength and the Vert Trainer Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer Use the code “LILAJUSTFLY10” for 10% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance gear. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) 0:00 – Introduction to Sarah 8:08 – The Art of Falling 9:40 – Movement and Psychology 13:04 – The Role of Rhythm in Performance 19:54 – Exploring Movement Patterns 25:02 – The Interplay of Mind and Body 30:51 – The Trying Self vs. Non-Trying Self 37:03 – Integrating Exploration into Training 42:45 – Movement Archetypes in Dance 51:56 – The Challenge of Bound Movement 1:02:22 – Coaching Individualized Movement 1:15:21 – The Complexity of Movement Quality Sarah Miller Quotes "If you don't have complete awareness of your own physicality, of what your body communicates, you don't know what things you're selling and how that's being read." "Psychology influences movement and what I call affective qualities of movement... even in something as basic and foundational as a squat, your mental state is going to influence your execution." "We often want to chase automaticity, but you can really become a slave to habit. There's really great freedom in being able to break from what is habitual, especially if you're unaware of what's happening in that habitual action." "If you believe that the body and mind truly are one, it's not that you just have a body that's controlled by your head or a body that influences your head... there can be an emotional reaction to doing something physical." "The trying self is just focused on achieving an end goal. Rather than being grounded in the present moment, rather than being grounded in your senses and having an awareness, you're in your head because you're thinking about something in the future. The non-trying self is entirely in the moment, grounded in the senses, aware of what it's taking in from a touch perspective, sound, and what it feels like." "I don't want you to focus on getting the rep up; I want you to focus on the process of getting there and feeling the right things." "Ideally, they're not rigid; they're expressions of movement. They give the color to movement. I do find that athletes naturally tend toward one or the other, both in their personalities and then in how they move." About Sarah Miller Sarah Miller is a strength and conditioning coach at Georgia Tech Athletics, where she works with collegiate athletes to develop speed, power, and resilient movement. She brings a unique background to coaching, having started in dance and theater before transitioning into stunt performance and strength training. Her path into S&C blends artistic movement, body awareness, and high-performance preparation, shaping an approach that values coordination, rhythm, and adaptability alongside traditional strength work. Miller’s coaching reflects a fusion of creative movement roots with applied sports performance in the collegiate setting.

Richard Burnett is a sports performance coach with experience working across high-level athletic environments, including NFL Combine preparation, where he specializes in speed and power assessment, plyometric development, and preparing athletes for elite testing and competition. In this episode, Rich Burnett digs into reactive strength testing, jump feedback, and what really matters when evaluating plyometric ability in athletes. Rich explains the differences between tools like the Just Jump mat, force plates, and Plyomat, emphasizing that context and consistency matter more than chasing perfect numbers. The conversation then moves into single-leg RSI, asymmetries, NFL Combine prep, and how reactivity profiles can reveal sprint deficiencies. Rich also shares how he uses isometrics, band-assisted jumps, and single-leg testing to build faster, more explosive athletes with greater confidence and movement efficiency. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength. Use the code “LILAJUSTFLY10” for 10% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance gear. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 0:00 – Introduction to Jump Testing 4:55 – Context in Performance Metrics 8:11 – The Psychology of Feedback 11:59 – Transition to Combine Training 16:10 – The Importance of Single Leg Testing 20:06 – Analyzing Reactive Strength Index (RSI) 32:02 – Asymmetry in Athletic Performance 36:24 – Gamifying the Test 44:59 – Band-Assisted Techniques 55:30 – The Power of Isometrics 1:01:51 – Single Leg Reactivity Insights 1:07:08 – Exploring the Plyomat Richard Burnett Quotes "As long as you're using a piece of tech consistently and coaching well and all the things are the same, that's really what it's all about. That's why Mike Boyle still uses the same deal from 15 years ago and will continue to use the same one because he knows what it's telling him." "The more information you start to uncover the more context you need. Whether it's inflated or not, I know like a 40-inch standing vert on the Just Jump mat is legit. And I also know a 36-inch is good. It still provided us with some key context to allow us to track improvement." "I love RSI as a teaching tool. It's fantastic because a lot of kids don't understand. It's still gluing us in to what's going on with the athlete, how their strategies are. It's helping them understand plyometrics to begin with." "It's also from a symmetry thing, really enlightening to see the difference between a left leg and a right leg when you're testing them independently. You're like, 'wow, that is a massive difference.' And let's remember the fact that this athlete has had two ACLs on this side." "Single leg ground contact time and why you do some of these single leg reactivity drills in the first place because you're dealing with mass in your whole body on one leg. Contact time being rewarded in that sense is not necessarily a bad thing at all. And we're just seeing this clear separation of some of our athletes because of their ability to be more reactive on one leg." "DRI factors in automatically what your initial jump height is. I love it because they want to self-select that. As opposed to stepping off of a box that you just maybe don't feel as confident in, self-selecting that initial jump and then rebounding just feels more confident, feels more engaging and fun for kids." "What I had seen is a really high correlation with single leg max RSI and sprint ability in athletes. Higher than force plate jumps, higher than pretty much anything else." "The step further is now the cyclical five hop where I'm having to really tolerate all of this landing force from my own jump height that I'm creating on the single leg five hop RSI. That's the one that I'm wanting to really flesh out even more to know who's lacking reactivity." "The sprinting is enough for them to get that midfoot forefoot work but there's no real need to specify some sort of plyo around that when they're sprinting already and we sprint so much." About Richard Burnett Richard Burnett is a sports performance coach and the creator of Plyomat, an innovative training system designed to enhance plyometric development, coordination, and reactive strength across a wide range of athletes. With a coaching approach rooted in movement quality and progressive overload, Burnett has built a reputation for blending traditional jump training principles with creative, constraint-based environments that challenge timing, rhythm, and elastic output. His work emphasizes not just how high or far an athlete can jump, but how efficiently they can organize force, absorb impact, and transit

In this solo episode, Joel Smith explores the principles of programming for speed and power training. Drawing from his own evolution as an athlete and coach, he discusses early influences like high-volume jump programs, Soviet-inspired plyometrics, and classic periodization models. Joel outlines five key programming systems: high-low structure, potentiation sequencing, weekly changeovers, factorization, and autoregulation, while highlighting common mistakes such as excessive volume, overemphasis on one training variable, and over-programming. He emphasizes balancing speed, strength, and capacity, keeping systems simple, and using tools like AI as a thinking partner rather than a replacement for coaching intuition. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength. Use the code “LILAJUSTFLY10” for 10% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 3:30 – Early Training Influences 18:50 – The Big Three: Speed, Strength, Capacity 22:25 – System 1: The High-Low System 31:14 – System 2: Potentiation-Based Training 33:38 – System 3: Australian Jumps & Factorization 38:53 – System 4: Bondarchuk’s Pyramid of Abilities 43:24 – System 5: Triphasic & Wave Loading 49:00 – Programming Mistakes 57:25 – Principles that Work 1:06:31 – Using AI as a Programming Sparring Partner Joel Smith Quotes "We have to zoom out and look at that more slow-cooked, patient, or planned process to get the big picture of things." "Training is not just going out and doing skills; it is doing a set structure over a set of time." "We should understand what it's like to have that high-end training day and how long it takes to recover from it because a lot of training setups don't really account for that." "How do you know which of those stakeholders is really, if we look to the 80-20 principle, 20% of the program being 80% of the neural stimulus? How do we know how that thing is contributing?" "To maximally simplify any training process, we want to achieve a polarization." "Doing those easy days really well is one of the pieces of the art of coaching that's not talked about so much." "The system of an athlete is an amazing thing; it can adapt to the simplest thing. That's actually what makes humans and training and adaptability pretty cool, we don't need that much complexity to adapt." "Do simple better. It's an important place to start and remind ourselves." "With aggressive programs, use them strategically, not permanently." "Don't live inside one system. I think it's valuable to have a few tools in the toolkit with the systems you're familiar with, so you know when and how to use them." "Make [AI] a sparring partner, challenge your thinking. If you can use it as play and challenge, don't let it do your thinking for you." About Joel Smith Joel Smith is the founder of Just Fly Sports and host of the Just Fly Performance Podcast, one of the leading podcasts in strength and conditioning and track and field coaching. A former collegiate strength and track coach, Joel has spent over a decade studying speed, power, and human movement. He is the author of multiple books and online courses on sprinting, jumping, and elastic training, and works with athletes and coaches around the world to develop more powerful and creative approaches to training.

Tyler Franklin is a strength and conditioning coach and physical education instructor based in Murray, Kentucky. He works with athletes to develop strength, speed, and resilient movement through practical training methods. Tyler is also the founder of Feed the Dogs, a platform dedicated to sharing ideas on athletic development and performance. On today’s episode, Tyler discusses building speed, intent, and athleticism through creative training environments. He shares how chase games, partner drills, and simple tools can drive higher effort and engagement than traditional drills alone. The conversation also explores balancing “fun and boring” training elements, teaching discipline through conditioning, and the philosophy behind Tyler’s Feed the Dogs approach; training athletes to be both fast and well-prepared for life beyond sport. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength. Use the code “LILAJUSTFLY10” for 10% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 0:28 – Journey in Physical Education 3:29 – The Music Connection 10:28 – The Art of Intent 14:12 – The Spectrum of Training 21:27 – Competitive Spirits in Class 26:36 – Embracing Fatigue as a Teacher 48:08 – The Art of Boring Workouts 50:20 – Feed the Dogs Philosophy 58:17 – Mixing Conditioning with Fun Tyler Franklin Quotes "Don't be a molded strawberry... let's meet the standard, let's infect others with good vibes, and don't bring someone down to your level." "I finally had come to terms with I am a physical education teacher and I need to start incorporating some of this stuff because kids love it." "The warmups for our sprints, it doesn't have to be so rigid and it's a perfect time to explore with some of the stuff we're doing." "We still time all that stuff to just reinforce that what we're doing is working. You've gained weight. You're running the same speed, but you've gained 20 pounds. Those are all PRs in my mind." "Don't ever stop doing athletic things. Don't stop sprinting, jumping. Because if you do, it's going to be a bugaboo to get back." "I'm all about doing hard things... you're going to do it and you're going to compete and it's going to be fun and then you'll realize it wasn't that bad." "Once you put the work in, I think that's a big factor of it is you got to kind of disassociate and just go out there and perform... The amount of hours that those guys put in, I think that's a huge thing is just go perform. Don't be the gold medal guy, just go do it." About Tyler Franklin Tyler Franklin is a strength and conditioning coach and physical education instructor based in Murray, Kentucky. Through his work with athletes and students, he focuses on building strength, speed, work capacity and resilient movement patterns that support long-term athletic development. Tyler blends foundational strength training with athletic skill work, emphasizing quality movement and practical methods that translate directly to sport. He is also the founder of Feed the Dogs, working a balance of important qualities in athletes.

Today’s guest is Vern Gambetta. Vern is a world-renowned sports performance coach with over 50 years of experience across Olympic, professional, and collegiate sport. A pioneer in modern athletic development, he’s known for blending movement skill, strength, and long-term athlete development into a practical, coach-driven system. The more coaching and training leans into data points, KPI’s, rigid standards and an overly specialized model, the more true athleticism, movement and skill development gets choked out. By understanding all aspects of the athletic movement equation, we can give athletes a better total experience in their sport and movement practices. In this episode, Vern leans into his wisdom for a wide-ranging conversation on movement, skill, and the art of coaching. With over 50 years of experience across Olympic and professional sport, Vern shares insights on functional training, sport specificity, plyometrics, rhythm, and why skill expression, not rigid technical models, drives true performance. From jump rope to the dot drill to developing movement “signatures,” this episode is a masterclass in coaching the athlete in front of you. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength and the Just Fly Sports Online Courses Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer Use code “justfly20” for 20% off of LILA Exogen Wearable resistance gear at www.lilateam.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 3:00 – The Birth of Functional Training 10:39 – The Nature of Fascia 15:33 – Training Spectrum 28:16 – General vs. Specific Movements 38:00 – The Art of Movement 49:31 – Rhythm and Movement 55:15 – Plyometric Training Perspectives 59:50 – The Role of Technology 1:13:16 – Sketching Athletic Sequences About Vern Gambetta Vern Gambetta is a pioneering sports performance coach, educator, and author widely recognized as one of the foundational voices in modern athletic development. With more than five decades of coaching experience, Gambetta has worked across track & field, baseball, swimming, cricket, soccer, basketball, and rugby at youth, collegiate, professional, and Olympic levels. A former track and field coach and longtime advocate for holistic athlete development, Gambetta helped popularize the concept of “functional training” in the 1980s, while consistently emphasizing that training must serve the demands of sport, not marketing trends. His work integrates biomechanics, skill acquisition, rhythm and movement literacy, strength training, and long-term athletic development into a unified system. Gambetta has coached at the Olympic level, worked in Major League Baseball, and served as a consultant to professional teams worldwide. He is the author of multiple books, including Athletic Development and Building the Complete Athlete, and is a sought-after international speaker known for blending science, experience, and practical coaching wisdom. Above all, Gambetta advocates coaching the athlete in front of you, prioritizing movement quality, adaptability, and lifelong development over rigid systems or trends.

Today’s guest is Dan Cleather. Dan Cleather is a sport scientist, author, and lecturer specializing in biomechanics and strength training. He has worked across elite sport and higher education, helping coaches apply research to real-world performance. Dan is the author of The Little Black Book of Training Wisdom and The Little Blue Book of Training Wisdom, known for challenging conventional ideas and promoting evidence-informed coaching. If you search the internet for training methods and advice, you’ll invariably get a “do this, not that” mentality woven in your brain. The mark of true progress over time, and reaching athletic potential, is more about principles and management than it is picking all the “S-Tier” exercises. Being able to balance paradoxes, hone belief, refine movement and hone the dance of capacity and output defines the training of elite athletes and Olympians. In this episode, Dan discusses everything from developing exercise devices for astronauts in microgravity to the deeper philosophy of how performance truly evolves. We discuss Easy Strength, capacity versus skill development, fatigue as a motor learning constraint, and why adaptation is something we cultivate rather than force. The conversation weaves biomechanics, Tai Chi, Olympic lifting, and the yin-yang rhythm of training into a broader theme: great coaching isn’t about imposing perfection, but creating environments where flow, resilience, and high performance can naturally emerge. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength. Use the code “LILAJUSTFLY10” for 10% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 0:00 – Researching Exercise Countermeasures for Microgravity 2:51 – Recent Publications and the Learning Process of Writing 8:01 – The Science of Change and the Hierarchy of Coaching Skills 12:39 – Lessons Learned from Applying the Easy Strength Method 22:06 – Balancing Skill Building and Capacity Building in Strength Training 32:28 – The Benefits of Traditional Tai Chi Conditioning and Static Holds 45:22 – Historical Wisdom and Experiential Learning in Performance 1:02:15 – Leveraging Fatigue and Constraints for Relaxation and Flow 1:13:59 – The Yin and Yang of Accumulation and Intensification in Training 1:21:06 – Viewing Training as a Sustained Conversation with the Body About Dan Cleather Dan Cleather is a sport scientist, author, and lecturer specializing in biomechanics, strength and conditioning, and performance analysis. With a background in both applied coaching and academic research, Dan has worked extensively in elite sport and higher education, bridging the gap between theory and practice. He is the author of The Little Black Book of Training Wisdom and The Little Blue Book of Training Wisdom, where he challenges conventional thinking and promotes evidence-informed coaching. Dan is known for his clear, analytical approach to training science and his ability to translate complex biomechanics into practical strategies for coaches and athletes. Zac currently treats clients and consults internationally, while continuing to produce educational resources aimed at elevating the standard of movement practice in both clinical and performance settings.

Today’s guest is Zac Cupples, PT, DPT, OCS, CSCS, a physical therapist and strength coach known for bridging rehabilitation and performance. He’s the founder of ZacCupples.com and is respected for translating complex concepts around respiration and movement mechanics into practical tools coaches and clinicians can immediately apply to improve efficiency, reduce pain, and enhance performance. The bridge between sports performance rehab is an important one. In the midst of movement mechanics that drive good rehab, and high intensity lifting, lies the knowledge that can help athletes make continual gains while staying robust and healthy for their sport. On today’s show, Zac explores how an athlete’s structure influences movement, strength training, and even injury risk. He shares his track background and how it shaped his coaching, then unpacks concepts like narrow vs. wide “ISA” builds, why some athletes struggle to feel their hamstrings in traditional lifts, and how tools like front loading, box squats, machines, and sprinting can solve it. He also digs into long-duration isometrics, mobility vs. flexibility, and finishes with a fun lightning round. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength. Use the code “LILAJUSTFLY10” for 10% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 1:23 – Early Athletic Experiences 5:36 – Muscle Activation Challenges 11:22 – Structural Constraints and Movement 25:17 – Rethinking Traditional Strength Training 29:17 – The Role of Machines in Training 36:54 – Weight Shifts and Mechanics 40:45 – Long Hold Activities in Rehab 53:21 – Internal vs. External Rotation 59:27 – Flexibility vs. Mobility 1:07:06 – Lightning Round Questions 1:14:04 – Future Plans and Coaching Focus Zac Cupples Quotes "You got to preserve moving fast because that's how you catch yourself from falling." "It assumes everyone has the same body but no two people are going to perform both of those movements the same way, and it's not going to load the same way." "I start the majority of people with a box squat, because the way I think about a hinge is it's different from a squat because the hips are going to be moving more along that horizontal path." "It's way more useful to think, am I moving up and down? Am I moving side to side? And then just pick exercises within what a person has available." "If someone can't produce certain rotations, and I know that you need those rotations to do this movement, you probably got to find something else to train that pattern within their constraints." "You just have to find the hinge variation that they can execute. And if they don't have much to do that, you have to create constraints." About Zac Cupples Zac Cupples, PT, DPT, OCS, CSCS is a physical therapist, strength coach, and educator specializing in human movement, respiration, and performance optimization. He is the founder of ZacCupples.com and has become widely known for translating complex biomechanical and neurophysiological concepts into practical strategies that clinicians and coaches can immediately apply. Zac earned his Doctorate in Physical Therapy from Marquette University and is board certified as an Orthopedic Clinical Specialist. He has completed extensive post-graduate education through the Postural Restoration Institute (PRI) and integrates principles of respiration, pelvic mechanics, thoracic positioning, and neuromuscular control into both rehabilitation and performance training. Through his online courses, seminars, and educational content, Zac has influenced thousands of clinicians and coaches worldwide. His work bridges the gap between rehab and high performance, helping athletes move more efficiently, reduce pain, and unlock higher levels of strength and speed through better positional awareness and strategic breathing. Zac currently treats clients and consults internationally, while continuing to produce educational resources aimed at elevating the standard of movement practice in both clinical and performance settings.

Today’s guest is Tanner Care. Tanner Care is a high-performance specialist, currently serving as the Director of Player Performance for the BC Lions (CFL) and the Director of Athletic Performance for the Vancouver Bandits (CEBL). Since 2023, he has also held the role of Head Strength and Conditioning Coach at Simon Fraser University, where he oversees the physical development of athletes across 13 collegiate sports. On the surface, strength and conditioning is about increasing an athlete’s physical strength and capacities. To dig deeper and help athletes reach their highest potential, an understanding of sprint-specific forces, athlete archetypes, and dosage of inputs is essential. On today’s show, Tanner talks about his practical framework for elite athlete development. He shares how he integrates max-speed work into sport-specific drills, such as full-court basketball overthrows, and explains his “layered” coaching model, which progresses from foundational health and general capacity to more specific archetyping. The conversation also dives into the technical side of his toolkit, including the use of run-specific isometrics for sprint transfer, plyometric training, and how he balances force-velocity profiles across different athlete types. Ultimately, Tanner advocates for a “health-first” approach in the pro setting, favoring consistent, high-quality inputs over unnecessarily complex training schemes. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength and Lila Exogen. Use the code “LILAJUSTFLY10” for 10% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 0:03 – Introduction to Athlete Classification 2:19 – Innovative Training Drills 6:26 – Understanding Movement Signatures 11:32 – Exploring Strength Qualities 19:53 – Classifying Athlete Strength 32:02 – Benefits of Single Leg Strength 45:17 – Adjusting Training Based on Athlete Type 49:30 – Implementing Quasi-Isometrics 56:25 – The Complexity of Training Modalities 1:04:17 – Foot Positioning and Athletic Outcomes 1:07:47 – Closing Thoughts and Future Plans Tanner Care Quotes On Speed in Practice: "So the problem I was trying to solve was how can we check these speed residual boxes within the constraints of practice." On the Priority of Training: "That's layer one health has to come before performance. So removing any potential inhibition." On Dynamic vs. Passive Screening: "I've seen so many people get on a table, assess passive hip internal rotation and say there's some kind of limitation. But when we see it dynamically at sports speed, it's like, oh, there it is." On General Movement Competency: "I can't tell you the amount of professional guys I have come in that like can't do like rudimentary plyometrics like they can't hop or bound stationary let alone locomotively" On Local vs. Global Issues: "Do we have a Ferrari? Do we have a Honda Civic? Do we have a Ferrari with a flat tire? Like, sometimes we just have to deal with local issues, not necessarily broad systems of improving the overall organism." On the Limits of Strength: "We know that the strongest individuals aren't necessarily the most forceful individuals. At some point, there's a clear cutoff." On Stiffness and Propulsion: "Rate of force development and stiffness isn't always a good thing if they don't have the propulsive qualities necessary to actually displace their hips horizontally" On Force and Sprint Performance“If you’re able to generate adequate force at adequate time and attenuate high braking force, that’s always going to correlate positively with sprint performance.” On Weight Room Philosophy: "I try to remove skill or as much skill as I can within the context of the weight room." About Tanner Care Tanner Care is a credentialed strength and conditioning professional specializing in elite athlete development across pro and collegiate levels. He currently serves as Director of Performance for the Vancouver Bandits (CEBL) and the BC Lions (CFL), overseeing strength & conditioning, load management, sport science, and performance nutrition to enhance athlete readiness and longevity. Previously, he was Head Coach of Strength & Conditioning at Simon Fraser University (NCAA), leading programs across multiple sports including men's basketball and track & field, where he built evidence-based training systems. Tanner holds RSCC and CSCS certifications (NSCA), is an EXOS Performance Specialist, and earned his Master's (MS(c)) from the University of Florida. His background includes roles like Head S&C Coach for University of Ottawa rugby. He contributes to the field as a SimpliFaster author, podcas

Today’s guest is Paul Cater. Paul is a veteran strength and conditioning coach with over 25 years of experience spanning professional baseball, collegiate athletics, and high-performance team environments. Paul is known for blending traditional strength training with rhythm, timing, gravity, and a deeply relational, art-driven approach to coaching. His work challenges purely formulaic or data-driven models and puts the live training session back at the center of athlete development. In an era where training is increasingly automated, optimized, and reduced to dashboards and numbers, it’s easy to lose the human element that actually drives performance. This conversation explores how rhythm, feel, load, and coaching presence shape not just outputs, but adaptability, resilience, and long-term athletic growth. If you’ve ever felt that “something is missing” in modern training environments, this episode speaks directly to that gap. In this episode, Paul and I explore training as a live performance rather than a static program. We discuss using early isometric and axial loading as a readiness anchor, how downbeat rhythm and eccentric timing drive better outputs, and why chasing numbers too aggressively can undermine real performance. We dive into music, movement, art, and coaching intuition, and how creating alive, rhythmic sessions builds stronger athletes, and better coaches, without relying solely on rigid protocols or excessive monitoring. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength and Lila Exogen. Use the code “LILAJUSTFLY10” for 10% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 0:00 – Mountain Training Inspirations 6:00 – The Role of Community in Training 12:15 – Performance and the Observer Effect 23:27 – Shifting Training Protocols 32:32 – Balancing Data and Intuition 42:14 – Efficacy of Isometric Training 47:23 – Five-Minute Wonders 53:28 – The Art of Adaptation 57:44 – Embracing the Subconscious 1:28:06 – A Playlist for Performance Quotes from Paul Cater "We're really just trying to create meaning with our training, to justify it to other people, or wives, or coaches, or whatever, but also to really harness what the weight's doing or the external stimulus is doing for us" "I do approach it like it's a performance. A coaching session. And if you pawn so much off to the to the robotics or the formula, it becomes almost like it's a prison." "20 minutes of rolling around on the ground and trying to do the stretching warm-ups- I've just almost eliminated those. Full stop. I can't remember the last time I did an active dynamic or same static stretching things like that." "Can you match time, and beat? ...And that's really everything, because what else is there in the transfer of training if it's not related to that timing tempo and rhythm" "I use the tech throughout the session quite heavily actually, but I don't use it as the primary validator or guider." "The world's greatest warm-up for me is always, we've called it bartending. Where the progression is how much can you hold on your back for five minutes... I just do whatever. Walk around. Rules, you just can't touch the bar to the ground." "Get to that at that perfect point where you feel the adaptation happen then you walk away, and you don't need to do anymore. Like what's the minimal dose you need to do?" About Paul Cater Paul Cater is a veteran strength and conditioning coach with over 25 years of experience working across professional baseball, collegiate athletics, tactical populations, and high-performance team sport environments. He has served in leadership and performance roles with organizations including Major League Baseball, NCAA programs, and private high-performance facilities, and is known for his ability to blend high-intensity strength training with rhythm, coordination, and ecological skill development. Paul’s coaching philosophy emphasizes gravity, timing, and rhythm as foundational drivers of athletic performance. Rather than relying solely on rigid programming or isolated testing, his sessions are built around early exposure to meaningful load, isometric and inertial work, and rhythmic constraints that reveal readiness, alignment, and intent in real time. His work integrates elements of sprint mechanics, change of direction, elastic strength, and movement artistry to create training environments that are both physically effective and psychologically engaging. Currently working in a collegiate performance setting, Paul is deeply interested in coaching as a live, relational craft; treating each session as a performance that develops not just outputs

Today’s guest is Martin Bingisser. Martin is the founder of HMMR Media, one of the most trusted independent voices in throws and track & field education. A former competitive hammer thrower, Martin blends firsthand experience with deep historical and technical insight to analyze training methods, athlete development, and coaching culture. Through articles, videos, and interviews, his work bridges elite practice and practical coaching, earning him respect from coaches and performance professionals around the world. In a world of rapid-information delivery and short attention spans, the wisdom of master coaches is becoming increasingly rare. Martin has spent substantial time with two legends in the coaching world, Anatoliy Bondarchuk and Vern Gambetta. Spending time discussing the work of the past, and wisdom through the present is a critical practice in forming an effective coaching viewpoint. On today’s episode I chat with Martin in a wide-ranging conversation in coaching lessons on efficiency, adaptability, and performing under pressure (two throws, no warmups, huge crowds). We transition into Bondarchuk’s training philosophy: exercise classification, consistency, “strength” as sport-specific force production, and why weight-room PRs can distract from performance. The episode closes with motor-learning insights on rhythm, holistic cues, and how Vern Gambetta’s “general” work complements specificity. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength and the Just Fly Sports Online Courses Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer Use code “justfly20” for 20% off of LILA Exogen Wearable resistance gear at www.lilateam.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 0:00 – Martin’s background and training lens 7:05 – Why eccentric strength matters 15:40 – Isometric intent and force expression 24:30 – Tendons, stiffness, and elastic qualities 33:50 – Managing fatigue in strength training 42:15 – Applying eccentric and isometric work 51:20 – Athlete readiness and daily adjustment 1:00:10 – Long term development and durability Quotes from Martin Bingisser "You think, okay, big heavy rock, like it's all about strength. And instead it's about efficiency." "Even the most simple sport that looks like it's all about strength, it's not really just about strength." "It's measurable strength versus this kind of adaptable strength that can fit into different situations." "Is strength how much I can move on a barbell, or is strength how much force I can create in the ring?" "No one is saying you don't have to be strong. Everyone agrees you have to be strong. It's just how do we define strength? and how do we define that? Because all these guys are strong. They're just strong in different ways." "We're doing all the categories the whole year and you need to have that general stuff in there too. So you look at our program throughout the year, we put a lot of work into those general categories, but they're not the highest priority. And we're not doing stuff in the specific preparatory or the general preparatory stuff that's going to hinder our first priority stuff." "Probably 80% of the benefit of Bondarchuk's program comes down to two or three key things. And you can apply those to any type of program. It doesn't have to be Bondarchuk's methods, but one of the big ones is just consistency." "If I see something I like, I try not to say very much except do that again. Like, I don't care what you had to think about to do that, but just do that again. Like that's just reinforcing, those good habits." "Am I just trying to copy a good thrower or am I trying to find a solution that'll fit my athlete? ... But if you don't understand what they're trying to get out of it, you're just trying to copy what you see the video of, it's useless." About Martin Bingisser Martin Bingisser is the founder of HMMR Media, one of the most respected independent platforms covering throws, strength training, and track & field performance. A former competitive hammer thrower, Martin combines firsthand athletic experience with a sharp analytical eye to break down training theory, competition trends, and athlete development across all levels of the sport. Through HMMR Media, he produces in-depth articles, interviews, videos, and educational resources that bridge the gap between elite coaching practice and accessible learning. His work is known for its clarity, historical context, and willingness to challenge oversimplified narratives in modern training. Martin has collaborated with coaches, athletes, and federations worldwide, and his content is widely used by throws coaches, sport scientists, and performance professionals seeking thoughtful, evidence-informed perspectives.

Today’s guest is Aaron Uthoff. Aaron Uthoff, PhD, is a sport scientist and coach whose work sits right at the intersection of biomechanics, motor learning, and sprint performance. His research digs into acceleration, force application, and some less conventional forms of locomotion, including backward sprinting, with the goal of connecting solid science to what actually works on the field, track, or in rehab. Backward running shows up all the time in warm-ups and general prep. Most of the time, though, it’s thrown in casually, without much thought about what it might actually be doing for speed, coordination, or tissue loading. In this episode, Aaron walks through his path into performance science, which is anything but linear. From skiing in Montana and playing desert sports, to football and track, to a stretch training horses in Australia, his journey eventually led him to research mentors in Arizona, Scotland, and New Zealand. That broad background shows up clearly in how he thinks about movement. One of the big takeaways from our conversation is Aaron’s overview of research showing that structured backward running programs can improve forward acceleration and even jumping ability. We also get into how backward running can be used as a screening and coordination tool, and where it fits into rehabilitation, including what’s happening at the joints, how muscles are working, and how to progress it without forcing things. We finish by digging into wearable resistance, including asymmetrical loading, and why this emerging tool may have more upside for speed and movement development than most people realize. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength and Lila Exogen. Use the code “LILAJUSTFLY10” for 10% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Topics 0:00 – Aaron’s background and coaching lens 6:40 – Seeing movement through posture and orientation 13:25 – Why breathing changes how athletes move 20:45 – Tempo, rhythm, and shaping better movement 30:10 – Constraints based coaching and problem-solving 40:55 – Sprint mechanics without over cueing 51:20 – Using environment to guide adaptation 1:01:30 – Blending strength work with movement quality 1:12:15 – Coaching intuition, feedback, and learning to see Quotes from Aaron Uthoff "Backwards running is about 70 % of the speed of forward. 60 to 70 % of the speed of forwards running. So whatever your maximum speed forward is about 70 % of that backwards for somebody who's been doing it for a little while. So just there tells you that there's not going to be the same magnitude of force as there is with a forward sprint." "If you've got anterior knee pain, which happens with lot of plyometrics, jumping, you think a lot of court-based sports, jumping track-based sports, things like that, you can simply reduce their patellofemoral joint loading by having them go backwards." "What we see that I love preferentially is that we actually get really high hamstring activation concentrically, which is not the case with forwards running." "I've got an injured athlete who had a hamstring injury and just wasn't able to decelerate his shank when he was sprinting forwards. So I had him run backwards. And what that's done is that's trained his hamstring concentrically to basically contract really, really quickly without putting that undue eccentric stress onto the joint on the muscles." "I think it's a good screening tool to see, well, where are they at from a coordination proprioceptive perspective? And you might have somebody that's super duper fast going forwards, but you know, if they actually can apply that skill, then you know, their proprioception is likely off a little bit." "By removing that vision... you're just having to tap into a different system a little bit more. And I find that that's one of the things that allows athletes to really expand their skillset majorly. "Backside mechanics plays a large role in the elasticity that's going to happen and the power that you're to be able to deliver on the front side of the body. And if you shorten that up or you're inefficient or uncomfortable in that space, then you know, backwards running is a really cool way to learn how to do that in a way that is a little bit safer at a slightly lower speed where it's a new drill." "I want you to be racing your belly, basically your belly button and your chest are going to be racing to the finish line. But unlike forward running, I want your belly button just to slightly win. And that just puts them into a posture that allows them to have that, that slightly lean, but still be upright." "Another

Today’s guest is Hayden Mitchell, Ph.D. Hayden is a sports performance coach, educator, and researcher specializing in movement ecology and pedagogy, helping coaches design environments that support learning, resilience, self-actualization, and sustainable athletic performance through play and exploration. There is a great deal of conversation in sports performance around methods, including exercises, drills, systems, and models, but far less attention is given to coaching itself. Coaching methodology quietly shapes how athletes experience training, how they relate to challenge and failure, and ultimately how fully they are able to express themselves in performance. On the show today, Hayden speaks about exploring how coaching and physical education shape not just performance, but the whole human being. Hayden shares his path through sport, teaching, and doctoral work, including how life experiences changed his approach to leadership, control, and play. Together they discuss movement ecology, value orientations in coaching, such as mastery, learning process, self-actualization, social responsibility, and ecological integration, and why environment often matters as much as programming. The conversation highlights rhythm, joy, and exploration, along with practical ways coaches can use restraint, better questions, and playful constraints to help athletes own their development. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength. Use the code “LILAJUSTFLY10” for 10% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 0:00 – Hayden’s coaching background 6:42 – Learning through experimentation 13:55 – Movement quality versus output 21:18 – Constraints based coaching 30:07 – Strength that transfers 39:50 – Variability and resilience 48:26 – Developing youth athletes 57:41 – Decision-making under fatigue 1:06:10 – Simplifying training programs 1:14:22 – Long term coaching philosophy Quotes from Hayden "You start to develop more like moderate to really big like teaching orientations where you take away the command, you stop begging for repetition to be perfect and you allow things to become messier in due time." "For me, it's like discovering what somebody is afraid to do." "Whenever I get an adult who's in their like 50s or 60s, we're going to crawl. You have to have a certain charisma about this and you have to laugh and you have to do it with them. You got to be a willing participant in your own way. But once they do that, man, it lights them up." "If I'd just released them to dance, because they love to groove, they love to feel themselves, it would have gotten them into a position of real readiness and their nervous system would have been lit up instead of me exhausting them because we needed that perfect small-sided rondo warmup that everybody else is doing." "An athlete dancing is a joyful athlete and a joyful athlete is tuned in. I don't think there's too many things that offer more value than getting into rhythm throughout a session, before a session, after a session, you gotta feel into your body like that." About Hayden Mitchell Hayden Mitchell, PhD is a sports performance coach, educator, and researcher whose work sits at the intersection of movement ecology, pedagogy, and human development. He has coached and taught across a wide range of settings, from youth and collegiate sport to military, adaptive populations, and general fitness, working with ages 4 to 90. Hayden holds a doctorate in Human Performance and Sport Pedagogy and focuses on how environment, values, and teaching behaviors shape learning, resilience, and performance. His work emphasizes play, rhythm, and self-actualization, helping coaches and athletes move beyond rigid systems toward practices that develop both performance capacity and the whole human being.

Today’s guest is Dustin Oranchuk, Ph.D. Dustin is a sport scientist focused on sprinting biomechanics, speed development, and force production. Known for blending research with practical coaching insight, his work explores how isometrics, elasticity, and coordination shape high-performance sprinting and athletic movement. Isometric training is one of the “original” forms of strength training, and in the modern day has become one of the most popular areas of discussion and training methodology. Although the practice has exploded, it often lacks an understanding of physiology of adaptation with various methods. In this episode, Dustin explores the evolving world of isometric training, including the origins of isometrics. We discuss differences between pushing and holding contractions, tendon and neural adaptations, and modern applications in performance, rehab, and longevity. The conversation also dives into eccentric quasi-isometrics (EQIs), motivation and measurement challenges, and how coaches can intelligently integrate isometrics alongside plyometrics and traditional strength work. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength. Use the code “LILAJUSTFLY10” for 10% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 0:11 – Strength Training Beginnings 5:38 – Evolution of Isometric Training 8:38 – Modern Applications of Isometrics 9:52 – Neural vs. Morphological Adaptations 15:45 – The Importance of Long Holds 19:42 – Combining Isometrics and Plyometrics 39:22 – Exploring Eccentric Quasi-Isometrics 47:10 – Periodization and Isometric Training 1:05:48 – Future Research Directions 1:13:00 – Closing Thoughts and Reflections Quotes from Dustin Oranchuk "We can predict performance fairly well from a test where we're actually not moving at all." "I think the main evolution is getting a little bit less towards building peak strength for barbell purposes and a little bit more universal utility for rehabilitation and longevity." "Using isometrics at a variety of different muscle lengths and different contraction durations to try and rehab after a pectare or a quadriceps strain or something like that." "The general or the more popular goal with the longer muscle length movements, or lack thereof, would be morphological adaptations." "Instead of matching a position, you're just trying to get the most sort of bang for your buck out of the isometrics as far as causing hypertrophy, or being able to target tendon rehabilitation, or build work capacity, or some other sort of little bit more morphological adaptation." "Tendons tend to need a certain threshold of intensity to get noticeable or meaningful adaptations. I think it's probably somewhere around 70 % of MBIC or max isometric contraction of a pushing ISO." "It's okay for our SNC work to not look obviously like anything we do on the field." "You can create a really good weight room environment where there's camaraderie and there's competitiveness without any objective measurements." "Pushing into a rack is almost always going to be able to be done at a higher intensity than holding something." About Dustin Oranchuk Dustin Oranchuk, PhD, is a sport scientist specializing in speed development, biomechanics, and force production in sprinting and jumping. He holds a doctorate in sport science and has worked extensively with elite athletes across track and field, team sports, and high-performance environments. Dustin is widely known for his research-informed yet practical approach to sprint mechanics, isometric training, and elastic performance, bridging laboratory insights with real-world coaching application. Through consulting, research, and education, he helps coaches and athletes better understand how force, stiffness, and coordination influence maximal speed and performance.

Today’s guest is Kevin Secours. Kevin is a veteran martial arts coach, author, and former security professional with decades of experience across Japanese Jiu-Jitsu, Karate, and Russian Systema. Holding five black belts (including an 8th-dan), Kevin has worked extensively in real-world contexts while also teaching meditation, solo training, and strength rituals. He is the author of Rituals of Strength and Unconstrained, and is known for blending martial tradition, modern training theory, psychology, and philosophical inquiry into human development and resilience The conditioning and tempering of the body in striking sports can draw interesting parallels to collisions needed in jumping, sprinting and landing activities. We can also draw many lessons and ideas from the exercise tradition that goes back centuries with martial arts practice. By understanding combat training disciplines, we can draw out universal application for general movement and performance. In this episode, we explore the deeper purpose of physical training through martial arts and sport performance. Kevin reflects on early experiences with body hardening, cold exposure, and Zen-influenced practice, examining where such methods build resilience and where they become self-destructive. Drawing parallels to sprinting, jumping, and strength training, we discuss collisions, long isometric holds, ritualized discomfort, and fatigue as tools for cultivating awareness, reducing excess tension, and supporting longevity. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength. Use the code “LILAJUSTFLY10” for 10% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 0:00 – Martial arts origins and body hardening 17:48 – Body tension, trauma, and reading the athlete 28:23 – Isometrics, Soviet methods, and slow strength 33:58 – Journaling, drawing, and learning through reflection 45:02 – Mindset, adaptability, and mental speed 56:46 – Representativeness, ritual, and resilience 1:04:26 – Simplify versus deconstruct in training 1:12:25 – Microdosing discomfort and daily resilience 1:17:24 – Comfort seeking and modern training challenges Quotes from Kevin Secours "We refer to it as a calculus of violence. What are you willing to risk for the payoff?" "It's a meditative practice. You're learning the surfacing, and the alignment, and the variability. And you're learning the modulate, how much power you put in, that we all have enough to destroy ourselves." "It's what's called Wolff's Law. You put the bone under stress and the bone is going to thicken." "Some shortcuts are great. Efficiency is amazing, but some things just take time." "You can't just mimic the weights and mimic the reps and hope to get the same result." "The first thing you need to know is you're not buying this rank. It will be given if it's earned." "It was largely psychophysical. Long marathon sparring, long marathon holds and positions, cold water exposure, long meditation right back into fighting. So it was a roller coaster of physical and emotional." "Training should not be trauma." "Don't for a second think they wouldn't have wanted warm showers if they could have had them. Yeah. We are comfort seekers." "You have to educate to understand why you're doing what you're doing. You have to rehearse. So you practice under incrementally growing resistance and then you culminate in a pressure test." About Kevin Secours Kevin Secours is a martial arts coach and author focused on practical skill development, resilience, and real-world application of movement and combat principles. Drawing from decades of training and coaching experience, his work bridges traditional martial arts, modern performance thinking, and personal development. Kevin is known for clear teaching, depth of insight, and an emphasis on adaptability, awareness, and lifelong practice.

Today’s guest is Quintin Torres, a strength and performance coach specializing in Marinovich/Heus inspired training methods. With a background in martial arts, Quintin focuses on movement quality, coordination, and individualized methods that help athletes build strength that truly transfers to sport. So often in athletic development, it is only the “hard” or easily quantifiable qualities that we look to develop. Although these are vital, sport itself (even output sports) live “in between the cracks” of maximal outputs, and then movement quality. Training rarely looks to infuse a full spectrum of athletic qualities, yet programming such as that put forth by Marv Marinovich years ago, does capture many of these dynamics. On today’s show, Quintin and I explore the Marinovich nervous system training philosophy, contrasting “soft” qualities like reactivity, rhythm, coordination, and perception with traditional hard metrics such as max strength. We discuss why MMA has embraced these methods, the limits of barbell-centric programming, and the importance of observation, experimentation, and individualized coaching. The conversation emphasizes training transfer to sport, creativity, and maintaining athlete adaptability, longevity, and engagement beyond chasing isolated numbers. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength and the Just Fly Sports Online Courses Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer Use code “justfly20” for 20% off of LILA Exogen Wearable resistance gear at www.lilateam.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 0:00 – Quintin’s background and entry into nervous system training 6:18 – Why Marinovich methods resonate in MMA 10:04 – Soft qualities versus hard qualities in performance 16:11 – Assessment driven training and athlete context 27:05 – One on one coaching versus group models 31:41 – Training quality, group size, and real world constraints 40:12 – Foot strength, barefoot work, and bottom up thinking 1:13:09 – Strength without compression and alternative tools 1:25:55 – Manual resistance and simple coaching tools 1:27:41 – Teaching, sharing, and coaching philosophy Quotes from Quintin Torres "The primary difference behind, say this training methodology to your traditional strength and conditioning methodologies, is that it prioritizes the development of soft qualities just as much as the development of hard qualities." "Soft qualities is like your rhythm, your timing, your fluidity of movements, your speed, your reaction time, your coordination on top of how much power you can develop." "We don't have any technology to measure how fluid an athlete is moving, how quickly they can acquire new skills." "We focus on very key areas of the body to enhance these mechanisms that makes an athlete talented. Foot strength and neurological drive, muscle elasticity, fluidity of movements." "We don't need you better at training. We need you better at your sport, better at the way you move, better at the way you acquire skills and better at you execute those skills under pressure." "A lot of it's based on athletic assessment and what you can observe as a coach will kind of determine how you develop training methodologies for that athlete." "Everything is trying to influence the nervous system to become more reactive and to adjust to chaos." "Barbell does not equal maximal strength. Barbell is just a tool to try to achieve a neurological drive at maximum strength on the force velocity curve." "When you go into different tools, now you can acquire different qualities when it comes to your strength, your speed, your force generation." "These kettlebells, these barbells, these dumbbells, they're very limited on what you can do as far as developing maximal strength, speed strength, strength speed, or 1RMs." "Sports performance community are not being trained on how to be sports scientists anymore, just coaches." "You got to try new training methods, do experiments. That's why I started diving deep into evo sports system with Jay Schroeder, because honestly, I was getting bored." About Quintin Torres Quintin Torres is a strength and performance coach with a deep background in mixed martial arts and combat sports. A former competitive MMA athlete, he specializes in nervous system–driven training methods influenced by the Marinovich system, emphasizing reactivity, coordination, and movement quality alongside strength. Quintin works closely with fighters and athletes to individualize training based on biomechanics, perception, and sport demands, helping them build resilient, adaptable performance that transfers directly to competition.

Today’s podcast is a solo episode on keys to athletic longevity and ability. This isn’t just a “stay strong as you age” show, but rather, speaks to principles of comprehensive embodiment of the movement and strength training process. Here I break down 10 core principles for true athletic longevity; physically, mentally, and creatively. Drawing from decades of coaching, training, and personal evolution, I explore why mastery of bodyweight skills, seasonal training rhythms, and “doing more with less” are essential as athletes age. I dive into the power of games, community, mythos, and ritual in keeping training joyful and sustainable, and explain how reflection, visualization, and a generalist mindset unlock deeper layers of performance. Whether you’re 18 or 68, I share a roadmap for staying explosive, engaged, and young at heart; so your training stops feeling like an obligation and starts feeling like an adventure again. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength. Use the code “LILAJUSTFLY10” for 10% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) 0:03 - Introduction to Athletic Longevity 1:09 - Mastery of Bodyweight Strength 7:15 - Doing More with Less 14:48 - Beyond Output: The Joy of Training 33:28 - Working with the Seasons 41:15 - Community and Gameplay 43:04 - The Mythos of Training 54:06 - Reflective Practices for Growth 1:02:29 - Staying Young at Heart 1:05:21 - Conclusion and Training Opportunities Quotes from Joel “Longevity is not about chasing numbers. It is about staying able.” “Minimalism forces your body to become smarter instead of stiffer.” “When you stop obsessing over the output, you rediscover the joy of the process.” “If you follow the seasons, your training stays fresh and your body stays adaptable.” “Gameplay brings out movement qualities you cannot coach in the weight room.” “Your training story matters. It keeps you showing up long after the numbers stop improving.” “Reflection is the anchor that keeps your training aligned with who you are becoming.” “Staying young at heart is as much a training strategy as it is a mindset.” About Joel Smith Joel Smith is the founder of Just Fly Sports, a leading education platform in speed, power, and human movement. A former NCAA Division I strength coach with over a decade of collegiate experience, Joel has trained athletes ranging from high school standouts to Olympians. He hosts the Just Fly Performance Podcast, one of the top shows in the sports performance field, and is the author of multiple books on athletic development. Known for blending biomechanics, skill acquisition, and creative coaching methods, Joel helps athletes and coaches unlock higher performance through elastic strength, movement literacy, and holistic training principles.

Today’s guest is Dr. Jarod Burton. Jarod is a chiropractor and sports performance coach focused on neurology-driven movement. He blends manual therapy, strength modailities, and nervous system training to unlock better mechanics and athletic output. His work centers on identifying and clearing the neural limits that hold athletes back. In training, there are many layers to human performance and athletic outputs. One critical layer is the power transmission of the nervous system, and how to unlock this ability in all athletes. Many athletes naturally have a more adept system, while others may need more bridges to reach their highest levels of performance. In this episode, Jarod speaks on how his approach has evolved since entering clinical practice. He shares how he uses flywheel training to teach rhythm, “the dance” of force, and powerful catches rather than just concentric effort. He and Joel dig into spinal mobility, ribcage expansion, and even breakdance-style spinal waves as underrated keys to athletic freedom. Jarod then simplifies neurology for coaches, explaining how posture reveals brain-side imbalances and how targeted “fast stretch” work, loud/sticky altitude drops, and intelligently high training volumes can rebalance the system and unlock performance. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength. Use the code “LILAJUSTFLY10” for 10% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 0:00 - Jarod’s background and early coaching lens6:55 - Internal vs external focus and simple cues13:40 - What good movement feels like20:10 - Speed shapes and improving posture29:18 - Blending strength with elastic qualities41:02 - Breathing mechanics and better movement options52:37 - Pelvis function and creating better positions1:00:15 - Skill acquisition and training that sticks1:11:48 - Programming principles and individual needs1:19:40 - Coaching philosophy and athlete communication Jarod Burton Quotes "Most of the time when people get into the flywheel there's a learning curve and I like to think of it as it's a nice dance." "One of the biggest things I love about flywheels is that you can get a very powerful stick, like a very powerful impulse, like catch and then redirection of energy." "The most important part is actually the patience and the catch at the very bottom. So you might squat up super fast and then you squat back down, but the flywheel is still turning and you're waiting for it to grab. And then as soon as it grabs you, then that's when you stick and then powerfully redirect the force." "When you're getting that rapid catch and change of direction, you're getting your muscles to rapidly fire at a lengthened state, which would just also further help them recover." "A postural pattern will reveal a side of the area of the brain that's underactive or overactive." "When the system gets sensory overloaded, it down regulates the motor system. And so if I can keep the system balanced out, the motor system is going to be upregulated and it's going to be functioning at a much higher level." "I always tell coaches, let's do 59 seconds of assessing and 59 minutes of training, essentially." "Once you understand and you see all these individuals posture, you don't unsee it. And within four seconds, you know exactly how to train somebody." "How your posture lies will tell you exactly which direction the muscles need to go to reset tone. And that's essentially all we're doing is when you reset tone, it rebalances out the brain." "It turns out that a lot of the exercises that we do don't even come close to mimicking the same amount of stimulus that you get in a baseball throw." "What I would find that would create the most amount of stimulus or the fastest rate coding high motor unit recruitment was rapid stops where you're basically catching something and you don't move." About Jarod Burton Dr. Jarod Burton is a chiropractor and sports performance coach who lives in the intersection of clinical practice, neuroscience, and high-performance human movement. A student of neurology and motor learning, Jarod works to uncover the hidden nervous system constraints that influence posture, coordination, elasticity, and power expression in sport. His methods combine manual therapy, joint mapping, sensory integration, and movement-based diagnostics to create individualized solutions that free up range, recalibrate neural rhythm, and unlock athletic speed, strength, and resilience. Jarod is passionate about a holistic philosophy of performance; one where the brain, body, and environment work in conc

Today’s guest is Reinis Krēgers, a former champion decathlete turned track and physical education coach. Reinis is dedicated to building complete movers: fast, coordinated, confident athletes who understand their bodies. His training blends classical sprint development with exploratory tasks, helping athletes develop physical literacy and long-term adaptability. In sports performance, we often fixate on exercises, cues, and optimizing micro-qualities in the moment. What we discuss far less, yet what often separates the elite, is the role of play, creativity, and culture. By looking closely at events like the pole vault and hurdles, we can see how a developmental, curiosity-driven approach benefits athletes of every sport. In this episode, Reinis shares the remarkable story of losing a finger, training exclusively with his non-dominant hand, and still setting a shot put PR. This opens the door to a rich discussion on cross-education, novelty, and how the brain actually learns movement. We explore play-based coaching, pole vault as a developmental super-tool, contrasts between Eastern and American coaching philosophies, youth sport creativity, and sustainable tendon development. It’s a conversation full of insight, storytelling, and reminders of what truly anchors a lifelong athletic journey: curiosity, joy, and the art of falling in love with movement. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength and LILA Exogen wearable resistance. Use the code “LILAJUSTFLY10” for 10% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) 0:00 – Early upbringing in Latvia and falling in love with movement 6:18 – Play, curiosity, and environment driven athlete development 14:50 – Injuries, setbacks, and choosing to continue competing 23:40 – Czech training experience and constraints based coaching 33:05 – European versus American development and long term athlete philosophy 45:10 – Games, novelty, and bringing play back into training 59:47 – Specialization mistakes and the importance of multi sport development 1:11:48 – Plyometrics, bounding, and gradual tissue adaptation 1:22:40 – Injury lessons, tendon health, and the value of long term gradual loading Quotes from Reinis Krēgers "In art of coaching, there has to be that mystery a little bit in some ways." "I give a lot of constraints to kids for sprinting purposes, for actually developing their form and awareness in space. I try to explain them the constraint that you're developing something, you're developing the brain." "The mess is good. The more mess the better, really. And embrace it. It's about changing the value system for coach, I think, and an educator." "The world record holder played a lot. Why do we dare to say that we shouldn't?" "Elite athletics is that like you just need to put in hours and reps and sets over years. Cumulative training effect: if you stay in the game if you don't have many disruptions and interruptions of training you should get somewhere like it's a formula." "I was the oldest but the healthiest because they never took out sprints all year long. You're doing accelerations in off season four times a week." "It will basically increase the recovery, the nervous system recovery if you do the opposite hand or leg." About Reinis Krēgers Reinis Krēgers is a Latvian track and physical preparation coach known for blending classical sprint mechanics with modern movement ecology. With a background in athletics and physical education, Reinis has built a reputation for developing athletes who are not only fast, but exceptionally coordinated, elastic, and adaptable across environments. Drawing from European sprint traditions, plyometric culture, and cutting-edge motor-learning principles, Reinis emphasizes rhythm, posture, and natural force expression before “numbers.” His training sessions regularly weave together technical sprint development, multi-planar strength, and exploratory movement tasks, giving athletes the bandwidth to become resilient movers rather than rigid specialists. Reinis works across youth, club, and competitive settings, helping sprinters, jumpers, and team-sport athletes gain speed, power, and physical literacy. His coaching is marked by clarity, intentionality, and an ability to meet athletes where they are, building them from foundational movement quality toward high-performance execution. Whether on the track or in the PE hall, Reinis’ mission is the same: develop confident, capable movers who understand their bodies, enjoy the process, and carry a lifelong relationship with athleticism.

Today’s guest is Austin Jochum. Austin Jochum is the founder of Jochum Strength, a former All-Conference safety turned performance coach known for playful, movement-rich training. He blends strength, speed, and adaptability to help athletes build real-world capability and enjoy the process. So often, coaches inadvertently play by the formal “rules” of coaching, through substantial instruction, within smaller boxes of training. Gameplay and sport itself are the ultimate example of task-based stimulation, chaos, and problem-solving, and the more we learn from it, the more effective our training can become. In this episode, Austin Jochum and I explore how coaching transforms when you trade rigid cues for play, stimulus, and athlete-driven learning. We dig into why intent and novelty matter, how to “win the day” without chasing constant PRs, and the power of environments that let athletes self-organize. Austin speaks on his recent dive into improving his Olympic lifting, and subsequent improvement in explosive athletic power, along with the masculine and feminine nature of the snatch and clean and jerk, respectively. Finally, Austin also breaks down the JST Olympics—his team-based approach that’s exploding motivation, competition, and performance in the gym. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength and LILA Exogen wearable resistance. Use the code “LILAJUSTFLY10” for 10% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) 0:00 – Austin’s background, wrestling influence, and early training lens 8:12 – How wrestling shaped his coaching, problem-solving, and creativity 14:30 – Working with movement constraints, unpredictability, and the “maze” idea 22:40 – Why he prioritizes exploration over instruction 31:18 – Building athletic bandwidth through games and environmental design 38:01 – Touch on wrestling in training and contact-oriented movement 45:10 – Heavy rope training, rhythm, and full-body sequencing 52:46 – Hiring coaches and building culture inside his gym 1:01:37 – Athlete intuitiveness, imitation, and imitation-driven learning 1:10:55 – Recovery methods, cold exposure, and principles behind them 1:18:42 – Breathing mechanics, sensory awareness, and relaxation 1:24:52 – Tempo, rhythm, and “feel” in athletic movement 1:30:48 – Coaching philosophy and where Austin is heading next Quotes from Austin Jochum "That was a big coaching shift for me is like working for the athletes in front of me and what their feedback was versus working for the Boyles, working for the head strength coach, working for the head sport coach, working for the head administrator that just wants to see pretty straight lines and their program regurgitated over and over again." "Why can't today we give them a benefit, a reason to show up and have fun so that we can get to those long-term gains." "It's all LARPing like we are LARPing as strength coaches when we do that and I don't know if it's just like they're not aware enough to realize they're LARPing, but it's like it's a video game they are playing and it's like they're trying to play off that they know something more than other people." "You should not be here to correct an athlete's foot placements on a skip when it's like, man, when is that, when is that applicable?" "The thing that works is getting intent and being excited for your training. If you're not excited to go Olympic lift, they're not going to work." "You're going to become a faster athlete if you PR in your sprints every other week. Like why are we not going and approaching it that way to get that high stimulus out of the athlete?" "If you can stack days of your wins, I'm telling you, you get the athletes way more stimulus and they're way more psychologically ready." "Once I got to like 350 on my clean and got to like 225 on the snatch, I stopped noticing the direct benefit, just because it was a strength deficit. I stopped noticing the direct benefit to my sprints and jumps. Now the benefit comes when I'm hitting that 65 to 85 % range." About Austin Jochum Austin Jochum is the founder of Jochum Strength, a performance coach known for blending old-school grit with modern movement science. A former University of St. Thomas football player and All-Conference safety, Austin built his philosophy around “training the human first,” emphasizing play, adaptability, and athletic expression over rigid templates. His coaching blends strength, speed, breathwork, and movement variability, creating athletes who are not just powerful—but resilient and skillful in chaotic environments. Through his in-person gym in Minnesota, online p

Today’s guest is Bill Smart. Bill is a sport scientist and physical preparation coach specializing in elite fight-sports performance. As the founder of Smarter Performance and the Strength & Conditioning lead for the CORE MMA team, Bill integrates cutting-edge evidence with real-world high-performance systems to enable combat athletes to show up on fight day in optimal physiological condition. Much of the conversation in sports performance hinges on speed and power development, or conditioning, as a stand-alone conversation. Sport itself is dynamic and combines elements of speed, strength, and endurance in a dynamic space. Training should follow the same considerations to be truly alive and effective. In the episode, Bill shares his journey from cycling and rowing to combat sports. He discusses how long isometric holds develop both physical and mental resilience, and their implementation in his programming. The conversation dives into muscle-oxygen dynamics, integrating ISOs with conditioning, and how testing shapes his approach. Bill also explores flywheel eccentrics, fascicle-length development, and why sprinting is a key element for maintaining elastic power in elite fighters. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength and the Just Fly Sports Online Courses 30-50% off all courses until December 1, 2025. (https://justflysports.thinkific.com) Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer Use code “justfly20” for 20% off of LILA Exogen Wearable resistance gear at www.lilateam.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 0:00 – Bill’s coaching journey and early mentors 6:04 – The importance of movement observation and intuition 11:35 – Why athletes plateau and how to identify limiting factors 20:42 – Strength training principles that actually transfer 30:01 – Using movement variability and play in training 40:36 – Coaching communication and creating connection 52:09 – The role of curiosity and creativity in coaching longevity 1:00:55 – Key lessons from years of coaching experience Quotes from Bill Smart "I know Gus and Angus Ross, who is one of my colleagues at HPCNZ he talks about those long ISOs as being basically your average motivated athletes training method because it's uncomfortable you've got to be very motivated to move through it." "Soon as there's a bit of like involuntary muscle action, you're probably in quite a productive place in terms of timeframe." "The cognitive element is something that gets brushed over a little bit, especially from scientific populations, which is interesting because essentially the brain governs everything that we do." "I do think that it's quite common that we often disassociate cognitive from physical." "Breathing is one of those other things that plays a large role in some of the efficiency components." "Whatever the intervention is matches what we need for the sport and not an excess. And for fighters a lot of the times, conditioning is definitely not something that's lacking. So it's it's great to have these other means to elicit some of that." "Skills training is like the absolute most important thing. So basically all training from a conditioning or strength standpoint needs to be maximally efficient to get to design results for an athlete." "The primary area that you find mixed martial arts athletes will fatigue is the upper body because of like all the clinch work, the grappling work." About Bill Smart Bill Smart is a sport scientist and physical preparation coach specialising in elite fight-sports performance. As the founder of Smarter Performance and the Strength & Conditioning lead for the CORE MMA team, Bill integrates cutting-edge evidence with real-world high-performance systems to enable combat athletes to show up on fight day in optimal physiological condition.

Today’s guest is Sam Elsner. Sam is a former NCAA Division III national champion thrower turned motor learning writer and educator. He’s the author of The Play Advantage and creator of the Substack CALIBRATE, where he explores how humans learn movement through play, perception, and environment design. Sam brings a rare blend of elite athletic experience and deep skill-acquisition insight to help coaches and athletes move beyond drills toward true adaptability and creativity in sport. As athletic performance is largely driven by weight-lifting. It digs into maximal strength and force-related outcomes in such excess that all other elements of athleticism are negated. Skill learning and high velocity movement are the wellspring of sporting success. As such, having a balanced understanding of the training equation is critical for the long-term interest of the athlete. On today’s podcast, Sam and I dive into how athletes truly learn to move. Sam traces his journey from WIAC throws circles to Cal Dietz’s weight room, why a rigid “triphasic for everyone” phase backfired with a soccer team, and how ecological dynamics and a constraints-led lens reshaped his coaching. Together we unpack the strength–skill interplay, 1×20 “slow-cook” gains versus block periodization, the value of autonomous, creative training application. We touch on youth development, culture, and team ecology, plus where pros are experimenting with these ideas. This episode is loaded with both philosophy of training and skill learning, along with practical takeaways in program design. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength. Use the code “LILAJUSTFLY10” for 10% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 1:18 - Early training experiences and triphasic background 5:44 - Implementing triphasic as a young coach 11:22 - The failure of rigid block periodization 17:49 - Vertical integration and maintaining all qualities 24:58 - Discovery of the ecological dynamics lens 29:57 - Why skill learning changed his view of strength 35:43 - 1x20 as a slow cooking strength framework 43:15 - Autonomy and stance/position freedom in the weight room 52:38 - Culture, environment, and how athletes learn 1:00:43 - Highlight play examples and perception-action 1:14:23 - Constraint-led models in team sport settings 1:20:55 - Where to find Sam’s work Quotes "I use track and field as a segue to bettering my performance and my physical capabilities for football, getting prepped for that." "Traditional skill development or coaching really kind of hindered my capability of my ceiling." "I've always had that overarching question in my head of how do I bridge the gap between practice and game day performance?" "At the time I thought it was drill, rudimentary rote repetition type practices. I'm here today, I'm on the complete opposite end of that on what I believe." "In order to do true Westside, you got to be in Columbus, Ohio at Westside with Louis Simmons or his very close people that he talked with. Otherwise, everything else is just an iteration of Triphasic. It's your own paintbrush on the canvas." "Everything works to a point and it's not just like this way versus this way. No, there's integration. Everything that we do in life is blended together." "If you're able to get younger individuals being able to explore and play, I think later on in their life, they'll be able to be that like "gifted athlete" and be able to allow to come up with their own artistic way of doing things." "I'm in that bank of the more sports, the better as a younger age, like multi-sport athlete, no specialization." "I tried to implement triphasic trainer right away, block periodization and it blew up in my face because it was their preseason work. They're slower. They're not able to adjust on the pitch or anything like that and they're just like slow and just non-athletic." About Sam Elsner Sam Elsner is a former NCAA Division III national champion thrower from the University of Wisconsin-Stout who has transitioned into a leading voice in motor learning and skill acquisition. A six-time All-American and 2018 discus champion, Sam brings a deep, first-hand understanding of performance and training into his current work, exploring how athletes truly learn movement rather than just repeat drills. Now writing the popular Substack CALIBRATE and authoring The Play Advantage, Sam bridges neuroscience, ecological dynamics, and lived athletic experience to help coaches and performers unlock adaptability, creativity, and “feel” in sport. His work reframes coaching from rote technique toward curiosi

Today’s guest is Ben Simons. Ben is a British performance coach and two-time Olympic bobsledder with a background in sprinting and sports science. A former World Cup gold medallist, he’s now focused on helping athletes develop speed, power, and coordination through evidence-based, real-world training methods. Ben blends biomechanics, motor learning, and nervous-system training to build explosive, adaptable athletes. Many speed training topics and conversations focus exclusively on the most stimulating possible methods; fewer get into individual factors, athlete adaptability, and how that speed and power training evolves with the needs of the athlete. On today’s show, Ben and I discuss asymmetry, rhythm, and “aliveness” in sprint and power development. We explore when to let unique mechanics—like Byanda Wlaza’s galloping stride—run their course versus coaching toward a technical model. Ben gets into the general speed training lessons he gained from bobsled, and shares why he now favors yielding isometrics, unilateral strength, and med ball throws over heavy lifts, emphasizing longevity, reflexive strength, and movement variability. We finish with how curvilinear sprints, pool work, and playful, multidirectional movement help athletes stay reactive, adaptable, and pain-free. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength and LILA Exogen wearable resistance. Use the code “LILAJUSTFLY10” for 10% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 0:00 – Asymmetry, gallop running, and what to do with extremes 12:25 – Air-time vs ground work: why the stuff in the air transfers to sprinting 16:08 – From long jump and 4x100 to bobsled trials and the push track 19:57 – Retirement, coming back, and the management needed for longevity 24:04 – Achilles management, playing sport, and the power of movement variety 31:09 – Practical coaching advice: get people back into the sport they love 41:31 – Curvilinear sprints, feeling safe, and bringing play into rehab 45:53 – How bobsled pushing changed Ben’s acceleration and posterior chain 52:28 – Hamstring training, velocity, and the limits of eccentric volume 59:46 – Practical tools: tank sleds, prowlers, glute-ham machines, and Zurcher split squats 1:08:19 – Why Ben minimized compound max lifts and what he uses now 1:24:46 – Programming for mature athletes: living off the strength bank and using yield isometrics Quotes from Ben Simons "Almost all speed coaches are going to try and move their athletes back towards that perfect technical model." "Kicking a ball thousands of times in your development... you very quickly fall into your dominant leg." "One of the arguments with traditional A's and B's is that you're isolating one side and you're changing the learning process there because you're actually taking a reflexive action, which is the cross-extensive reflex that you get in a dribble." "Modulating the pain is a huge piece within that rehabilitation because you're not going to compensate as much when you feel less pain." "Just making sure we stay in touch with that reflexive part of the movement, you know, in the coupling phase, in the amortization is key." "When you're upright pushing a bobsleigh... you have got to put that impulse through the sled itself. So it does feel like there's almost a punching going on with your handles." "If you get him into a glute ham raise... can really feel that pelvis position under duress which is a great way to teach people where they are in space because a lot of people just don't understand the tension that they need within that pelvis and lumbar to get it neutral." "I think in developmental stages, it's definitely those compound lifts and max strength methods are the easiest way to make gains in strength and output... But I just wonder once that money is in the bank, how far you need to pursue them." About Ben Simons Ben Simons OLY is a British performance coach and former Olympic bobsledder with a background in sprinting and sports science. A two-time Olympian (Sochi 2014, PyeongChang 2018) and World Cup gold medallist, Ben spent a decade representing Great Britain on the international stage, competing in over 120 events. Before bobsleigh, he was a Welsh indoor 60 m champion and studied sports science at Cardiff Met, experiences that laid the foundation for his lifelong focus on speed and power development. Today, Ben brings that elite-sport experience to his work as a strength, speed, and performance coach. His approach blends biomechanics, motor learning, and nervous-system training to help athletes move efficiently and perform explosively under pressure. With an e

Today’s guest is Cody Hughes. Cody is a strength and performance coach at Farm & Forge in Nashville, blending over a decade of collegiate and private-sector experience into a practical, athlete-centered approach. His work bridges foundational movement with modern tools like VBT and GPS tracking, always anchored by the belief that health drives performance. With the rising influence of technology in training, it can become more difficult to look clearly at the core facets of athletic force production, as well as how to optimally use technology to fill gaps, inform decisions, and even motivate groups. On today’s episode, Cody traces his shift from heavy-loading bias to a performance lens built on force management, eccentric RFD, and training that actually reflects sport. We unpack depth drops vs. “snapdowns,” why rigid “landing mechanics” miss the mark, and how movement literacy, variability, and velocity drive speed and durability. On the tech side, we get into velocity-based training (VBT) as a feedback and motivation tool, using it to gamify effort and auto-regulate load, and knowing when to remove the numbers to protect recovery and intent. Leaderboards, incentives, and smart stimulus design all matter, but Cody keeps it clear that data supports the human element that produces real power. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength and LILA Exogen wearable resistance. Use the code “LILAJUSTFLY10” for 10% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 0:00 – Early lifting story and the hip replacement turning point 5:31 – Coaching development, biases, and error-driven learning 19:29 – The snapdown debate: context, progressions, and purpose 25:44 – What eccentric RFD tells us about athletic durability 30:42 – Strength as expression: assessments and force-plate logic 42:31 – Movement literacy and using competitive, decision-rich drills 49:30 – VBT explained: feedback, governors, and gamification 56:50 – When to hide feedback: elite athletes and psychological load 1:01:35 – Where VBT shines: youth and early training ages 1:25:28 – Wrap up and where to find Cody Quotes from Cody Hughes "You gotta have a minimum of like 135-140 minutes a week of training to be effective to get some type of minimum effective dose." "Movement efficiency is everything to be able to express any type of movement skill." "Too many people running high school weight rooms are simply sport coaches that felt like they know what they're doing. They pull out a manual from what they did or they think that they used a very shallow thinking model of X football team won X amount of games, therefore their program must work." "If you can't explain what you're doing with your program... it's just this carbon copy. It's a dead static program, not a living environment or a living complex system where you're making decisions based off of your kids." "Performance coaching... it's such an art. There is no straightforward answer, like period." "Load is inversely correlated with speed. Great. So now we can match velocities to the type of stimulus we're looking for on top of trying to gamify the training in order to amplify the stimulus of the training that already existed." "If you stand on a force plate, I can take three measurements with propulsive power, breaking power at MRSI and learn a lot about what you can do and how you express it." "You don't just want to reward the fast kid because if the fast kid may always be the fast kid, they need to be incentivized to try to be a more fast kid." About Cody Hughes Cody Hughes, MS, SCCC, CSCS, PSL1, is a strength and performance coach at Farm & Forge in Nashville, Tennessee. A former collegiate athlete with more than a decade of coaching experience across NCAA Division I and II programs, high schools, and the private sector, Cody brings a practical, athlete-centered approach to performance training. His work focuses on building strong movement foundations, using technology like velocity-based training and GPS tracking to inform programming without losing the art of coaching. At Farm & Forge, Cody leads programs for athletes ranging from youth to professionals in sports such as football, hockey, and tennis. Whether guiding a developing athlete or a veteran player, Cody’s goal is to help each individual move well, train smart, and perform consistently at their best.

Today’s guest is James de Lacey. James is a professional strength and conditioning coach and the founder of Sweet Science of Fighting, a leading platform for combat sports performance. He has coached in professional rugby leagues across New Zealand, Europe, and the United States, and has trained athletes in MMA, boxing, Muay Thai, and BJJ. Through Sweet Science of Fighting, he delivers evidence-based programs and education for fighters and coaches worldwide. Strength training for athleticism typically focuses on sets, reps, and general forces, but rarely gets into aliveness and skill management of the resistance itself. The former is great for building basic physical competencies, but in integrating the latter, we can breathe more life into a performance program. On today’s show, we dive into James' approach to building athletic strength and power across multiple mediums. We explore how Olympic lifting, especially pull variations, connects to real sport actions, and how striking and collision sports highlight the importance of timing, rigidity, and effective mass. We also break down resistance methods like oscillatory work, flywheels, and accentuated eccentrics, focusing on their alive, reactive qualities rather than just load. These principles carry into speed and power training, including plyometrics and sprinting, with rhythm and movement quality as a central theme. The episode makes strong connections between field sports and combat sports, showing how momentum, relaxation, and rigidity at impact shape performance. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength and LILA Exogen wearable resistance. Use the code “LILAJUSTFLY10” for 10% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 0:56 - Olympic Lifting Philosophy and Sport-Specific Implementation 4:26 - The Role of Bar Flex and Slack in Block Pulls vs. Rack Pulls 7:03 - High Block Work for Impulse and Technical Refinement 12:22 - Oscillatory Training and the Limits of Maximal Strength 24:49 - Upper/Lower Body Dissociation for Fluid Movement and Game Speed 52:25 - Controlled Eccentric Overload using Flywheel Technology Quotes "High pull was probably my favorite variation of all time, just because you're supporting heavy loads, you're having to maintain positions over the bar, and then you're having this violent extension pulling it vertically." "I found snatch variations tend to be easier on the shoulders for a lot of athletes, like especially in rugby and stuff. They're not actually that easier to learn than the clean variation because the front rack is so difficult for so many people." "The power rack holds the bar, whereas the blocks hold the plates. You have no slack. So it just makes it way harder." "I stole from Vern (Gambetta) the power lunge and lean. So like the medicine ball out in front, and as you step forward, you kind of rotate over, and it's like continuous. And then the same thing overhead and lean. Those two, I use those on warmups all the time. They're great." "Regarding the actual eccentric, people will say it's not eccentric overload because it gives you the same as what you put concentrically. But you can modify the way you either do the concentric or the eccentric to be able to create the overload." "I think a lot of these machines, the best applications are in the eccentric overload stuff, because you're limited with traditional lifting where you either have to do super heavy loads, multiple spotters, or weight releases." About James de Lacey James de Lacey is a professional strength & conditioning coach and the founder of Sweet Science of Fighting, a leading platform for combat sports performance education. He holds a Master’s degree in Sport & Exercise Science and has worked as an S&C coach in professional rugby leagues across New Zealand, Europe, and the United States, as well as with MMA, boxing, Muay Thai, and BJJ athletes. Through Sweet Science of Fighting, he creates evidence-based programs, courses, and research breakdowns focused on strength, power, conditioning, and technical performance for fighters and coaches. His work bridges sports science with the practical demands of combat sports, making high-level training methods accessible and applicable worldwide.

Today’s guest is Manuel Buitrago. Manuel is a PhD, along with being the founder and director of MaStrength, a global education brand dedicated to authentic Chinese weightlifting. Since launching MaStrength in 2014, he’s taught 100+ seminars worldwide, authored Chinese Weightlifting: A Visual Guide to Technique and Chinese Weightlifting: Technical Mastery & Training There are many misconceptions in the world of strength training, especially as the lens of a skeletal pressure-based view is not included in modern training systems. When skeletal pressure dynamics are understood, it allows us to see why athletes prefer particular variations of lifts, how and why they fail lifts, and what aspects of the lifts themselves lead to better athletic outcomes. On today’s episode, Manuel speaks on the practicalities of weightlifting and how it carries over to sport. He compares powerlifting and Olympic lifting from a technique and transfer standpoint, and gets into how body shapes, breathing, and set-ups affect a lift. Manuel also touches on connective tissue and why it matters for performance and durability. From this episode, you’ll learn concepts about the Olympic and powerlifts that can not only improve lifting performance but also facilitate a better transfer to athleticism and movement ability. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength. Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer at thedunkcamp.com Use code “justfly20” for 20% off of LILA Exogen Wearable resistance gear at www.lilateam.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 0:00 - From gymnastics and powerlifting to Chinese weightlifting 3:34 - First Olympic lifting exposure via IronMind footage and Pyrs Dimas 5:40 - The Chinese team’s systematic approach that sparked the study abroad 9:30 - Breathing, shapes, and the funnel concept for lifting 26:15 - Bottom-up squats: why weightlifting squats differ from powerlifting squats 30:45 - Training near the hip and block work to bias upward, explosive shapes 41:08 - Squat jerk versus split jerk - body shape, femur length, and selection 54:34 - Box squats, touch-and-go versus deloading - individualize by athlete shape 58:29 - Practical breathing cues to create and switch the funnel shape 1:07:24 - Applying shapes to sport - who benefits from which strategies Quotes "When you do the lifts, it's not just one shape you need because you have to go up, but you also have to go down. "If you're breathing like a power lifter in the start position, you're making your job more difficult." "In weightlifting, the squats happen after the catch. So all of your squats are from the bottom up actually." "People who overhead squat from the rack, they're not going to get as deep. They're not going to bend the same way as they would in a snatch because the snatch is unweighted when you get under it." "People would blame the nervous system, it's like, does not help me in real time when I'm coaching athletes. I need something else and the shape is easier to see." "You totally can bend bone, you know, and they do bend throughout the movements." "All of it is working together. And so you have to find a way to put it all together rather than try to separate it because you'll get lost." About Manuel Buitrago Manuel Buitrago, PhD, is a coach, author, and the founder/director of MaStrength, where he teaches the techniques, theory, and programming principles of Chinese weightlifting to athletes and coaches around the world. He launched MaStrength in 2014 and has since delivered more than a hundred seminars and training camps internationally while building a widely followed library of articles, videos, and social content on Chinese methods. Buitrago holds an honorary weightlifting coaching credential from Chengdu Sports University, reflecting years of study, mentorship, and translation work with Chinese sports scientists and coaches. He is also a certified USA Weightlifting coach and referee. His books—Chinese Weightlifting: A Visual Guide to Technique and Chinese Weightlifting: Technical Mastery & Training—distill the system’s technical model and practical programming into accessible resources that have been translated into multiple languages.

Today’s guest is Jack Barry. Jack is the founder of JB Performance and a former ABCA DIII All-American (York College, 2021) who played at Salisbury University. After college, he worked at Tread Athletics, then built a remote+in-person coaching model. Jack has coached athletes from high school to pro levels, appeared on Baseball America’s 90th Percentile, and hosts the “Just Rippin’” podcast. On today’s episode, Jack speaks on athletic potential as a function of work capacity with quality, deliberate practice. We unpack the mental side of training, how visualization, targeted self-talk, and timely pattern breaks calm performance anxiety and restore confidence. He also touches on how athletes thrive when they develop a unique identity, balance effort with recovery, and treat mindset and mechanics as equal partners. This is a dynamic episode, at the intersection of pitching skill and global human performance concepts. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength and LILA Exogen wearable resistance. Use the code “LILAJUSTFLY10” for 10% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 0:20 – From college ball to new competitive outlets4:10 – Work capacity, family influences, and cross-training7:10 – Adapting training: speed, volume, and specificity10:01 – Aerobic contributions in racket and throwing sports15:46 – Provoking reactivity: stumble drills and innate responses23:16 – Pattern breaks, the yips, and the "be sexy" mentality27:44 – Reactive throwing drills to clean the arm action31:15 – Pre-movement cues and subtle distractions to speed action43:21 – Visualization with highlight reels to build confidence52:25 – Essentialism in training: less and better59:50 – Start with less, progress intelligently1:00:25 – Barefoot training and simplifying the lower half Quotes "I'm probably not going to be the strongest guy in the gym, but darn it if I'm not going to have one of the highest VO2 maxes and work capacity and be able to cook you on the track." "If you want to get faster, if you want to increase your work output, you have to approach those two different sessions in the same way." "If you do want to get faster, if you do want to be able to run further for longer at faster paces, you need to kind of split up the focuses of each one of those training sessions and supplement them in throughout the week." "Racket sports with throwers, especially a lot of crossover there but as far as like the work capacity point definitely a lot easier to sort of program in or give to guys to when you give them like a competitive outlet." "Conditioning for court sports is miserable. If you put us indoors and you just give us lines that we have to go back and forth on for 200 times or whatever for an hour straight. That's the physical sport representation of the looney bin essentially." "The reactive component to pitching is completely unreactive in the sense that you start every play with pitching. You have 20 seconds in between throws and you're throwing to a stagnant target." "You need to verbalize it in order to give it less of an importance or a significance. I'm going to use the Y word." About Jack Barry Jack Barry, CSCS, is the founder of JB Performance, where he helps pitchers turn efficient mechanics and smart workloads into game-day velocity and command. His process blends slow-motion video breakdown, individualized drill progressions, and clear week-to-week plans that are simple to follow and easy to measure. Jack’s focus areas include strength & conditioning, throwing mechanics and workload management, pitch design, and mobility. Jack Barry Performance Before coaching online, Jack played college baseball at Salisbury University, then continued his career at York College (PA), where he earned ABCA Division III All-American honors in 2021. After his playing career, he joined Tread Athletics, sharpening his player-development chops inside a high-feedback, data-aware environment. BachTalk+1 Jack has been featured on Baseball America’s 90th Percentile podcast and hosts “Just Rippin’,” where he talks shop with coaches and athletes. He’s worked with pitchers from high school through the professional ranks, delivering concise feedback after each bullpen—what to keep, what to change, and exactly how to practice it—with objective checkpoints (velo, strike %, spin/axis when available) and long-term arm-health planning.

Today’s guest is Romain Tourillon. Romain is a sports physiotherapist and researcher specializing in the foot–ankle complex, with clinical leadership at the Swiss Olympic Medical Center, La Tour Hospital (Geneva). His PhD at Université Jean Monnet Saint-Étienne examined foot muscle strength and sport performance. It’s important to train the lower legs in athletes, but the question is what type of training is best, especially when it comes to working the toes and forefoot, versus more general calf and shin work. In this episode, Romain discusses his research on forefoot biomechanics and performance. He shares training that boosted MTP (big-toe) flexion strength ~28% in trained athletes and explains how stronger forefeet enhance sprinting, cutting, and jumping via better force transmission and stability. We also cover injury prevention, targeted foot/ankle exercises, challenges in measuring toe strength, and where 3D analyses may take the field— with practical takeaways for coaches and athletes throughout. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength and the Just Fly Sports Online Courses Check out the newest mini-course, Sprint Drills Reloaded on how to maximize sprint drills, their specific strength development, building of major sprint actions, along with better integration of sprint drills into sprinting technique. The special intro sale ends July 1st. (https://justflysports.thinkific.com/courses/sprint-drills-reloaded) Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer Use code “justfly20” for 20% off of LILA Exogen Wearable resistance gear at www.lilateam.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 0:00 Building a PhD Protocol from Real-Life Training 4:46 Using Everyday Objects to Innovate Foot Training 8:16 Surface Texture and Proprioception in Barefoot Work 11:27 Breaking Down Romain’s PhD Research on the Forefoot 16:22 Gym and Home-Based Protocols for MTP Flexion 22:11 Measuring Toe and Forefoot Strength Accurately 31:20 Mobility of the Forefoot and Its Role in Force Production 37:31 Results: How 8 Weeks of Forefoot Training Changed Performance 43:54 Explaining the Improvements in Cutting, Jumping, and Sprinting 53:01 Linking Forefoot Strength to Ankle Stability and Injury Prevention 58:23 Isolated Toe Training vs. Global Foot and Calf Training 1:15:09 Designing General Foot-Ankle Programs for Teams Romain Tourillon Quotes "One of my philosophy as a rehab coach is also you know to I would say be able to do all the exercises that I can give to your athletes. Also because you understand a little bit the feeling and the intensity or the way that you have to do it." "There is no good or bad exercise, there is just some parameter that you really have to focus on but you can really have different kind of way of targeting things." "From proprioceptive things we know that the foot and ankle really have the ability to change its biomechanics regarding to the surface that you are in contact with." "We know that if it helps you, your brain will know that and after you've put an ankle which turn off a little bit just to have a kind of economic things." "The idea of the PAG was really to... I would say investigate the role and the function of the forefoot flexion strength." "Those muscles are pretty sensitive to angle and to dorsiflexion. So changing the angle of the ankle, so putting your ankle into dorsiflexion or plantar flexion, change the force length relationships of the extrinsic to flexor." "We don't have an ISO. It's what I say. We don't have an ISO kinetic for the toes. So we don't have any gold standard." About Romain Tourillon Romain Tourillon, PT, PhD, is a sports physiotherapist, researcher, and educator focused on foot–ankle biomechanics in health, injury, and high performance. He leads the foot–ankle service at the Swiss Olympic Medical Center (La Tour Hospital, Geneva) and consults with elite athletes. Romain earned his PhD at Université Jean Monnet Saint-Étienne, with work centered on metatarsophalangeal (MTP) flexion strength and its links to sprinting, cutting, and jumping performance. His publications and talks translate cutting-edge research into practical assessment and training methods for coaches and clinicians.

Today’s guest is Sam Portland. Sam is a UK-based athletic performance coach and creator of Speed Gate Golf and the Sports Speed System. After a career in professional sport, he now consults with athletes and teams while mentoring coaches toward healthier and more sustainable careers. Sam has worked with athletes from Premiership Rugby, American football, the Olympics, and beyond, and also runs a grassroots “combine program” designed to fill key gaps in long-term athletic development. In this episode, Sam unpacks the evolution of modern athlete performance, highlighting the role of rhythm, movement, and overlooked details of transfer from training to sport. From the simple power of a jump rope to the deeper psychological layers of coaching, Sam’s insights spark critical thinking and creative training solutions. This is a conversation packed with practical takeaways, helpful for any coach or athlete. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength. Use code “justfly20” for 20% off of LILA Exogen Wearable resistance gear at www.lilateam.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 0:41 – Jump rope, rhythm, and movement foundations. 8:17 – Start with sport specificity: enroll in the sport first. 16:07 – Reject the bloat — prefer simple, efficient training. 23:13 – Simplicity wins: fewer, better training "flavors." 26:58 – Depth over width in warm-ups — give athletes time to groove. 31:09 – End positions are consequences — focus on what happens between them. 33:31 – Beware shiny systems — find what actually transfers to sport. 38:34 – Make training game-relevant: play, don’t just test. 40:37 – Play-first approach: teach skill through sport-like practice. 45:35 – Threat removal and the neurology of speed. 54:32 – Warm-up blueprint and the Sports Speed System (book). Quotes from Sam Portland “It's elastic driven… it requires lots of coordination, lots of timing. You have to be able to sit in this pocket of rhythm.” “I actually just ordered a heavy rope as well for conditioning… let's put it on steroids.” “What first module… needs to be enrolled in a sport? Because that's how you're going to be actually working backwards from the principle of specificity.” “Our profession is incredibly bloated in terms of… how much ownership of adaptation can we keep hold of and attribute to our job without them just playing sport.” “Now her best dish has three—that’s where we need to be heading.” “We're going to play in sport, Joel. That's what we're going to do.” “When you can get that speed not afraid, guess what—you've got space for sport.” “Secret is consistency. Don't change on that at all because that is your tick box.” “Residuals don't matter for team sports.” “The book was written as a field guide…if a 14-year-old picked it up could I make myself better? Yes. If a 20-year coach picked it up could they improve with nuance? Yes.” About Sam Portland Sam Portland is an athletic performance coach from the UK, the creator of speed gate golf and the Sports Speed System. Following a lengthy career in professional sport, he now consults with athletes/teams and helps guide coaches to happier, healthier, and more financially fulfilling careers. Sam has worked with premiership rugby, American football, Olympic athletes, and international competitors across a plethora of sports, including hockey, bobsleigh, and track and field. Aside from this, Sam keeps in touch with the grassroots aspects of athlete preparation by hosting his ‘combine program’. This program is a long-term athletic development program that fills the essential gaps in physical literacy that are not fulfilled at school or by club sports.

Today’s guest is Phil Nash. Phil is a Manager of Coach Education at EXOS. He is a seasoned strength and conditioning professional who leads EXOS’s efforts to develop and educate coaches worldwide. Phil specializes in bringing practical, science-based training methods—like plyometrics and medicine-ball work—into performance systems, and regularly shares his expertise at major industry conferences On today’s show, we dig into training models ranging from the force–velocity curve to the idea of infinite games, exploring how these frameworks influence the way we view athletic performance. Phil offers his perspective on blending structured training with the freedom of play, highlighting adaptability and growth as central themes in coaching. This episode provides clear, practical insights for coaches and athletes alike on building both physical capacity and mental resilience. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength and the Vert Trainer Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer Use code “justfly20” for 20% off of LILA Exogen Wearable resistance gear at www.lilateam.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 5:12 – Phil’s Journey into Coaching and Performance Training 12:40 – Exploring the Interplay of Science and Coaching Art 22:18 – Building Strong Athlete-Coach Relationships 32:07 – The Role of Autonomy and Curiosity in Development 43:51 – Balancing Physical Preparation with Mental Readiness 55:46 – Using Constraints to Guide Skill and Movement 1:07:12 – Learning from Mistakes and Coaching Growth 1:18:09 – Phil’s Reflections on Longevity and Evolving as a Coach Quotes from Phil Nash “Coaching isn’t just applying science; it’s interpreting it through the lens of people.” “Relationships are the glue that holds performance together.” “Curiosity is the foundation of growth; for athletes and coaches alike.” “Constraints aren’t restrictions; they’re invitations for creativity.” “Mistakes are part of the process; if you’re not making them, you’re not pushing boundaries.” “Longevity comes from curiosity and humility, not from clinging to old ways.” About Phil Nash Phillip Nash, MS, CSCS, currently serves as Manager of Coach Education at EXOS, the global, science-driven performance company founded in 1999 and headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona. With a background in strength and conditioning (as indicated by his CSCS credential), Phil leads initiatives that shape and elevate the training and development of performance coaches across EXOS’s network of facilities and educational platforms. Phil's role centers on designing and delivering innovative coach education programs that empower trainers, therapists, and performance professionals to implement EXOS’s holistic training system—built on Mindset, Nutrition, Movement, and Recovery- in diverse settings ranging from elite athletics to corporate wellness. He is frequently involved in delivering performance education sessions at major industry events.

Today’s guest is Tim Shieff. Tim is a former world champion freerunner and Ninja Warrior competitor, and the founder of Way of the Rope. After years of high-level competition, he discovered Rope Flow as a way to restore rhythm, coordination, and resilience in movement. Today, he shares this practice worldwide, blending athletic creativity with a simple, sustainable philosophy: low-tech equipment for a high-tech body. In this episode, we explore the transformative power of diverse movement practices in athletic training. From track and field to parkour, breakdance, swimming, and rope flow, we explore how these disciplines shape skill development and reveal the qualitative aspects of elite sport movement. Tim also shares his journey from traditional sports to discovering the benefits of innovative movement, offering powerful insights on how athletes can unlock agility, strength, and resilience by taking a holistic approach to training. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 5:36 – Exploring Yoga, Biomechanics, and Training Through Injury 10:43 – Discovering Movement Connections Through Slow Practice 23:26 – Parkour Training as a Unique Learning Process 31:41 – Balancing Intensity, Recovery, and Longevity in Training 42:08 – The Value of Gentleness in Building Strength 53:30 – Using Constraints to Improve Movement Awareness 59:08 – Applying Martial Intent and Precision in Movement 1:01:31 – Rope Flow as a Tool for Coordination and Rhythm 1:11:17 – Integrating Jump Rope and Rope Flow into Athletic Training Tim Shieff Quotes “Yoga gave me a way to keep moving through injury—it wasn’t about doing less, it was about moving differently.” “When you slow things down, you start to feel the sequencing. That’s when you notice where the leaks are.” “Parkour taught me adaptability. It’s not about repeating drills, it’s about solving problems in movement.” “If you chase intensity every session, you won’t last. Longevity comes from balancing work with recovery.” “Strength doesn’t always come from force. Sometimes it comes from gentleness and precision.” “Constraints are teachers. When you take options away, athletes discover new solutions on their own.” “You have to train both ends of the spectrum—the slow and the fast, the gentle and the intense.” “Martial intent is powerful. Every move should have purpose, not just be going through the motions.” “Rope flow is rhythm in motion—it’s about learning how to coordinate without overthinking.” “Jump rope gives you stiffness, rope flow gives you fluidity. Together, they balance each other.” About Tim Shieff Tim Shieff, founder of Way of the Rope, is a former world champion freerunner turned movement innovator. Born in Connecticut in 1988 and raised in Derby, England, Tim first expressed his athletic creativity through breakdancing before transitioning into a professional freerunning and parkour career. He rose to prominence by winning the 2009 Barclaycard World Freerun Championship and competing in international events like Red Bull’s Art of Motion, along with TV appearances on MTV’s Ultimate Parkour Challenge, American Ninja Warrior, and Ninja Warrior UK, where he captained Team Europe in the USA vs. The World specials. After years of competition, Tim began struggling with chronic injuries, which led him to explore biomechanics and new approaches to movement. In 2018, he discovered Rope Flow through inventor David Weck, an experience that became a turning point in his career. Inspired by the practice’s ability to restore rhythm, coordination, and flow, Tim trained extensively with Weck before bringing his own vision to life. In 2020, with Weck’s blessing, he launched Way of the Rope, an educational platform built around programs such as “8-Weeks to Fluidity,” which help people rediscover athleticism and body awareness through rope-based movement. Beyond physical training, Tim’s philosophy is rooted in simplicity and sustainability. He believes in the mantra, “Low tech equipment = high tech body,” and his team crafts ropes from recycled materials with biodegradable packaging, reflecting a deep commitment to both people and the planet. By making his work accessible worldwide and offering flexible pricing to those in need, Tim has transformed Way of the Rope into more than just a training method—it is a mindful, ethical practice dedicated to helping individuals move with freedom, fluidity, and purpose.

Today’s guest is Dr. Michael Schofield. Mike is a New Zealand sports scientist and track and field coach with a PhD in biomechanics and strength and conditioning. He has coached athletes to Olympic, World Championship, and Commonwealth Games finals in the throws, while also developing national-level sprinters and weightlifters. His strength and conditioning work spans multiple sports, from golf to stand-up paddleboarding. Mike has done substantial research in, and is a subject matter expert in the role of connective tissues in athletic movement and force production. This podcast explores the crucial functions of connective tissue in athletic performance. We examine how tendons, ligaments, and fascia support movement, prevent injuries, and contribute to force production. Mike also disperses exactly what fascia and connective tissue does, and does not do in animal (and human) movement profiles. Through the podcast, Mike reveals the mechanisms of connective tissue and how understanding it can improve training outcomes. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 2:10 – The Role of Connective Tissue 5:27 – Exploring Elasticity in Motion 7:25 – Muscle vs. Fascia: A Complex Debate 16:14 – Understanding Strength and Sequencing 23:49 – The Importance of Movement Literacy 36:13 – Fascial Lines and Their Impact 44:31 – Training the Fascial System 49:14 – Functional Training Insights 54:31 – The Role of Balance in Performance 57:26 – Understanding Tendon Stiffness 1:14:04 – Compliance vs. Stiffness in Athleticism 1:18:55 – Training Strategies for Different Athletes Michael Schofield Quotes “Connective tissue is not just scaffolding—it’s an active part of how force is transferred and how movement is sequenced.” “Elasticity is rhythm. It’s the ability to recycle energy instead of relying on constant muscular effort.” “When we talk about strength, we’re really talking about sequencing. If you load too heavy too soon, you can actually break the sequence.” “Movement literacy comes before strength. If an athlete can’t explore movement, then the strength they build is fragile.” “Fascial lines are not rigid anatomy—they’re adaptable patterns. They change depending on how you move.” “The fascial system responds to rhythm, variability, and oscillation. It’s a spring system, not a muscle system.” “Functional training is not about copying sport skills. It’s about training qualities that transfer.” “Balance is contextual. Sometimes you challenge it, sometimes you support it. Machines can actually help you wire high rates of force by providing stability.” “Tendon stiffness isn’t about being tight—it’s about efficiency. It’s how well you can store and release energy.” “Every athlete needs a different recipe of compliance, stiffness, sequencing, and raw strength. There’s no one-size-fits-all.” About Michael Schofield Dr. Michael Schofield is a sports scientist and track and field coach from New Zealand, specializing in biomechanics and strength and conditioning. He holds a PhD focused on track and field throws and a Master’s degree in strength and conditioning with an emphasis on golf performance. Over his coaching career, Dr. Schofield has guided athletes to Olympic, World Championship, and Commonwealth Games finals in shot put, discus, and hammer, while also developing national-level sprinters and weightlifters. His expertise as a strength and conditioning coach spans a diverse range of sports, from stand-up paddleboarding to golf, applying a scientific yet practical approach to improving athletic performance. Driven by a passion for both research and applied coaching, Dr. Schofield continues to bridge the gap between cutting-edge sports science and the daily realities of high-performance sport.

Today’s guest is Boo Schexnayder. Irving “Boo” Schexnayder is a world-class coach and consultant with over 44 years of experience in track and field. Renowned for producing 26 NCAA Champions and 8 Olympic/World Championship medalists, he co-founded Schexnayder Athletic Consulting and founded the Track and Field Academy. A former LSU coach and USA Track and Field leader, Boo’s expertise in biomechanics and training design extends to multiple sports, making him a sought-after mentor worldwide. It's common to think that, as time moves forward in any discipline, that discipline becomes better. What seems to define much of athletic performance and sport itself is that outputs become the priority while movement quality and literacy become watered down. On today’s podcast, Boo gives wisdom into the process of comprehensive athletic development by leaning into general strength and movement training. He goes over his movement batteries, scramble circuits, training diversity, and tempo sprints. Boo also gives his take on the use of supramaximal eccentrics, covers hamstring injury prevention strategies, and discusses his sprint-float-sprint protocols, alongside a sea of further training wisdom. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength and LILA Exogen wearable resistance. Use the code “LILAJUSTFLY10” for 10% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 1:25 – The evolution of general strength since the 90s 23:12 – General strength across track and team sports 28:47 – Adding multi-directional work for linear athletes 37:18 – Managing tempo volume for higher intensity 42:50 – Polarized training over middle-ground tempo 44:14 – Using tempo for restoration, not breakdown 47:24 – Short sprints on low days to cap tissue load 48:50 – Eccentric overload within a balanced profile 57:08 – Sprinting and mobility for hamstring resilience 1:12:02 – Setting fly-float-fly zones by max velocity 1:12:52 – Coaching lessons that shaped training design Quotes “General strength is nothing more than organized calisthenics, hurdle mobility, medicine ball, and weight room circuits—things that prepare the athlete to do more specific work later.” “The problem is when coaches think more volume automatically means more adaptation. In reality, more often means less intensity, and intensity is the driver.” “You can’t just live in the weight room and call that athletic preparation. The body has to move in multiple planes and directions to be resilient.” “Sprinting itself is the best hamstring exercise—done well, it’s the most specific and most protective thing you can do.” “Tempo is not about running people into the ground. It’s about rhythm, relaxation, and restoration.” “We’re not trying to build superheroes in the weight room—we’re trying to build athletes who can apply force efficiently in their sport.” “Acceleration is simple: push hard, push long. Max velocity is rhythm and posture—completely different skills.” “Short accelerations, 10 meters or less, can safely live on low days. They touch speed without adding unnecessary tissue load.” “Coaches get too enamored with exercises. What matters is how the training fits into the bigger puzzle.” “The art of coaching is not how much you can add, but how much you can subtract while still making the athlete better.” About Boo Schexnayder Irving “Boo” Schexnayder is an internationally respected coach and consultant with over 44 years of experience in training design and biomechanics. Best known for his 18 years with LSU Track and Field, he is recognized as one of the greatest field event coaches in NCAA history, producing 26 NCAA Champions, 18 Olympians, and 8 Olympic or World Championship medalists, while contributing to 13 NCAA team titles. Beyond his success on the track, Boo co-founded Schexnayder Athletic Consulting and has been a leading voice in coaching education, serving as program director of the USTFCCCA Track and Field Academy and holding leadership roles with USA Track and Field. His expertise extends into professional and collegiate sports across football, basketball, soccer, golf, and volleyball, where he has designed programs for speed, power, and rehabilitation. A former mathematics teacher from Vacherie, Louisiana, Boo is known for blending science with simplicity, earning global recognition as a mentor, educator, and one of the most trusted figures in athletic performance.

Today’s guest is Kathy Sierra. Kathy Sierra is a computer scientist, author, and horse-movement innovator who bridges neuroscience, learning psychology, and equine training. Co-creator of the award-winning Head First programming series and founder of the JavaRanch community, she later turned her expertise in intrinsic motivation toward her lifelong passion for horses. Through her Panther Flow approach, Kathy helps horses and riders unlock confident, curious, and expressive movement, sharing her work worldwide through courses, workshops, and writing. In training and movement, drilling “perfect form” is standard practice. The more we get into how humans learn, the more we realize that “perfect form” is a myth, and learning is a far more complex venture. Using both differential learning (variety) and constraints helps athletes hone in on their own optimal (and robust) technique, without needing to constantly be looking for one “perfect” way to do things. This is not only true in animals, but also in humans and in machine learning. On this week’s episode, Kathy covers aspects of training horses using the same motor learning concepts that work best in humans. She also goes into how and why robots learn to move better based on constraints, trial and error, versus a “perfect technique” type of programming. This is a fascinating and wide-ranging discussion on human movement, learning, and sport skill. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 0:06 – Introduction to Horse Training Insights 11:16 – Discovering the Community of Movement 21:40 – The Power of Natural Movement 32:19 – Emotions in Movement and Skill Acquisition 41:22 – The Impact of Coaching on Authenticity 53:51 – Techniques for Encouraging Movement Exploration 1:00:23 – The Power of Pattern Interrupts 1:11:34 – The Role of Exploration in Coaching 1:15:18 – Adapting Like Animals 1:22:42 – Embracing Novelty for Movement 1:29:25 – The Myth of Optimality 1:35:18 – Serendipity in Learning Quotes “If they don’t feel safe, they’re not going to move in a way that’s authentic or open.” “Sometimes the best thing you can do as a coach is to wait and watch before you say anything.” “You can’t cue someone into confidence—it has to be experienced.” “When the environment invites them to explore, you don’t have to force the learning.” “I’d rather see ten different solutions than one perfect one that only works in one situation.” “Novelty wakes up the system. It changes the way they see and feel the task.” “If all you ever give them is the ‘right way,’ you’re taking away their ability to problem-solve.” “The emotions tied to the movement are as important as the mechanics.” “Animals adapt because they have to. We can train people to do the same by giving them variety.” “Sometimes the magic happens when the plan gets interrupted.” “There’s no one optimal way—there’s only what works for that body in that moment.” “When they discover it for themselves, it sticks in a way no amount of instruction can match.” About Kathy Sierra Kathy Sierra is a trailblazer who bridges technology, neuroscience, and horsemanship. Trained in exercise physiology at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and later in computer programming at UCLA, she built a remarkable career in tech as co-creator of the award-winning Head First programming book series, founder of the JavaRanch community, and instructor in interaction design for intrinsic motivation at UCLA Extension and Universal Studios. After years of shaping how people learn complex topics, Kathy turned her attention to her lifelong passion for horses, creating Intrinzen and later Panther Flow, an approach to equine movement and motivation rooted in neuroscience, learning psychology, and pain science. Inspired by her experience rehabilitating her own horse, Panther Flow emphasizes intrinsic motivation to help horses rediscover confidence, curiosity, and joy in movement. Today, Kathy shares her work through courses, workshops, and writing, helping both horses and humans move with more freedom, expression, and resilience.

Today’s guest is Tim Riley. Tim Riley is the Director of Sports Performance at Kollective in Austin, where he leads one of the nation’s top NFL off‑season training programs and works with elite athletes across the NFL, NBA, PLL, and AVP. He also serves as a Lead Performance Coach with C4 Energy and Head Strength and Conditioning Coach for the University of Texas Men’s Lacrosse team. Beyond the weight room, Tim shares his knowledge through his podcast, Coach Em Up, and his social media platforms. On today’s podcast, Tim speaks on how he synthesizes the complexities and possibilities of training into his intuitive process. On the show, we cover numerous items of speed and strength training, digging into the daily training process. We also cover the help and use of strength machines, conditioning, capacity, training stimulation, and much more. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 1:00 – The Need for Simplicity in a Complex Coaching World 6:08 – Is Complexity Distracting Us from What Actually Matters? 11:55 – What Are Athletes Actually Feeling During a Drill? 18:42 – How Do We Make Coaching Feel Less Robotic? 25:30 – What If the Goal Isn’t Perfection, But Exploration? 32:09 – Can We Trust Athletes to Self-Organize? 39:46 – When Do We Step In, and When Do We Step Back? 47:22 – How to Handle “Messy” Reps and Unscripted Movement 54:11 – Are You Coaching for Output or Adaptability? 1:01:18 – Letting Go of the Illusion of Total Control Tim Riley Quotes “I try to make our training something that gets them excited to walk into.” “We’re not playing for points in a warm-up. It’s okay to do things that look a little messy.” “The more you can create an environment where they’re not thinking about the constraints, they’re just immersed in it, the better the movement.” “It doesn’t always need to be, ‘You did this wrong. Do it again.’ It can be, ‘What did you notice? What did you feel?’” “You don’t always need to be the one solving the problem. Sometimes they’ll solve it better than you can.” “The more we can back out and just watch, the more we start to learn about what the athlete actually needs.” “We’ll run circuits that don’t have a ‘right way’—just a way that feels good and makes them think.” “I’ve had athletes say, ‘That felt smooth,’ and that’s more important to me than what the data says.” “I’d rather build something that sustains energy over time than something that just looks impressive on paper.” “A lot of athletes don’t need more drills—they need more ways to engage with what they already know.” “We’re not trying to fix people. We’re trying to help them organize themselves better.” “When they start to ask their own questions about movement, that’s when I know something is clicking.” About Tim Riley Tim Riley is the Director of Sports Performance at Kollective in Austin, TX, where he leads one of the nation’s premier NFL off‑season training programs and works with athletes from the NFL, NBA, PLL, and AVP. He also serves as Head Strength and Conditioning Coach for the University of Texas Men’s Lacrosse team and is a Lead Performance Coach with C4 Energy, designing strength and performance initiatives for athletes nationwide. Launching his career in 2017 through NPTI under Professor Dave Boetcher, Tim has since built Tim Riley Training LLC and earned certifications including NASM, Precision Nutrition, and USAW. Mentored by leaders such as Mo Wells, Trey Hardee, and Dr. Pat Davidson, he has developed a reputation for precision in off‑season and in‑season regimens. His holistic philosophy blends physical preparation with mental resilience, and he extends his impact through his podcast, Coach Em Up, and his social media platform @timrileytraining.

Joel Smith speaks on 12 reasons why athletes and coaches may hit a plateau in their performance programs. These include: 1. Lack of stimulation in the training environment 2. Too much stimulation in the training environment 3. Not enough creativity or novelty 4. Lack of a clear plan 5. Too much weightlifting 6. Not enough weightlifting 7. Monotony from failing to wave training loads 8. A lack of representative play and exploration 9. Deficits in skill learning 10. Programs that feel too constricting 11. Athletes not feeling truly seen or heard 12. Gaps in belief and motivation In this episode, we’ll unpack these elements one by one, while also exploring practical methods coaches and athletes can use to break through these plateaus and unlock new levels of performance. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 1:10 – Lack of Stimulation in the Training Environment3:18 – Too Much Stimulation in the Training Environment6:00 – Not Enough Creativity or Novelty7:36 – Lack of a Clear Plan10:20 – Too Much Weightlifting12:12 – Not Enough Weightlifting13:44 – Monotony from Failing to Wave Training Loads16:00 – A Lack of Representative Play and Exploration18:25 – Deficits in Skill Learning20:47 – Programs That Feel Too Constricting23:00 – Athletes Not Feeling Truly Seen or Heard25:03 – Gaps in Belief and Motivation Quotes “Lack of this stimulation threshold can be the thing that's keeping an athlete from breaking through to the next level of their performance.” “If you simply put a timer out, you’re timing your sprint now, maybe you’re still by yourself, but it’s actually timed. If I took an untimed sprint and a timed sprint and I put a GPS on that and you weren’t aware of it, but those timed sprints are typically, unless you’re overthinking, going to be faster than just running fast for the sake of running fast.” “When I take competition as well as a task and a little bit of a problem to solve and I mix those together, I can get things that really can stimulate athletes almost beyond what the individual pieces can do.” “The art of creating stimulus within a single training session is a very powerful thing.” “One of the best ways to warm up to dunk a basketball is to play pickup basketball 20 or 30 minutes. You’re feeling more activated and ready to go than just about any traditional canned activation series.” “I believe in those systems that actually are overly stimulating that a lot of that is also a coach is super intense, but can’t shut it off. You need to be stimulating, you just have to be able to shut it off and understand when and how to rest.” “Creativity in coaching and training is simply the ability of a coach to reinvent themselves in their training program and to deliver the basics in a new and fresh way.” “A lot of times those switches to another training group are met with instant gains and progress, and a lot of that instantaneous gain is just simply the novelty. It’s the change.” “Before you can break the rules you have to know the rules.” “Weightlifting itself initially is going to be a really powerful and good stimulus to the athlete, but you’re going to get to a point where the continued strength gains are more about squeezing and stiffness and compression than they are stimulating neuromuscular coordination.” The goal is to rely on the sport itself, to rely on speed itself, to rely on jumping itself, primarily more than how can I lever this weightlifting exercise to get me a little bit more.” One of the biggest deficits in ultimate athletic performance is how we learn, how we put together skills, and how we use things such as differential learning, constraints, analogies, and amplifying the error.” About Joel Smith Joel Smith is the founder of Just Fly Sports and is a sports performance and track coach in Cincinnati, Ohio. Joel hosts the Just Fly Performance Podcast and has authored several books and coaches in both the high school and private sectors. Joel was a strength coach for 8 years at UC Berkeley, working with the Swim teams and post-graduate professional swimmers, as well as tennis, water polo, and track and field. A track coach of 17 years, Joel coached for the Diablo Valley Track and Field Club for 7 years and also has 6 years of experience coaching on the collegiate level, working at Wilmington College, and the University of Wisconsin, LaCrosse. He is currently coaching high jump at Milford High School. Joel has coached 4 national champions, multiple All-Americans, and NCAA record holders in track and field. In the realm of strength and conditioning, his programs have assisted 5 athletes to Olympic berths that produced 9 medals and a world record performance at Rio in 2016.

Today’s guest is Michael Zweifel. Michael is the Defensive Coordinator and Defensive Backs Coach at UW–La Crosse, now in his fourth season with the program. He previously founded Building Better Athletes (BBA Performance) in Dubuque, Iowa, training athletes from youth to pro levels. Michael also coached at Clarke College and the University of Dubuque. A former record-setting wide receiver, he won the 2011 Gagliardi Trophy and still holds the NCAA all-divisions career receptions record (463). In athletic development, the “5 S’s of performance”: Strength, Speed, Stamina, Suppleness, and Skill are often brought up. What tends to be the case is that those 5 elements are weighted in that order, with skill mentioned, but rarely or ever studied in how to improve it. On today’s show, Michael discusses his own creative approach to skill development in American football players with an emphasis on building artistry and adaptability in his players. He speaks on the nature of constraint-based coaching that helps athletes improve their arsenal of movements on the field, as well as their decision-making skills amid chaos. We also touch on the crossover between basketball and football, and ultimately, the art of long-term development of skill in one’s sport and as an athlete in general. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength. Use the code "justfly25" for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 0:12 – Programming for High School vs. College-Level Athletes 5:03 – Balancing Strength and Movement Skill in Team Settings 11:09 – Developing the Skill of Lifting in Young Athletes 15:34 – Rethinking Readiness: Performance vs. Output 19:43 – Using Split Squats and Progressions for Movement Quality 26:30 – Training the Foot and Ankle Without Overengineering It 31:58 – Prioritizing Play and Variability in Movement Prep 36:30 – Gaining Buy-In Through Fun, Autonomy, and Context 44:52 – Avoiding the Trap of Over-Cueing and Technical Obsession 50:33 – Defining Transfer: Performance, Practice, and Perception 55:51 – Evolving Coaching Philosophy with Experience Quotes “I think we overplay how technical we have to be early on with lifting. It’s not wrong to be technical, but it can almost create fragility in the way we approach training.” “The lift is the skill. So when we coach that, it’s not just about strength—it’s about how you coordinate, how you stabilize, how you organize your body under load.” “I think fun and autonomy are critical. If an athlete walks out of a session with a smile, I don’t care how perfect the sets and reps were—they’re going to come back and buy in again.” “You can tell when someone’s trying to feel their way through a movement—that’s when you know you’re doing something valuable.” About Michael Zweifel Michael Zweifel is in his fourth season on the UW–La Crosse football staff in 2025, serving as the Eagles' Defensive Coordinator and Defensive Backs Coach Prior to UW-La Crosse Michael founded and led Building Better Athletes (BBA Performance) in Dubuque, Iowa, coaching athletes across youth, high school, college, and professional levels. From 2013 onward, Michael also contributed as the strength and conditioning coach for Clarke College baseball and as the wide receiver coach at the University of Dubuque (Iowa) beginning in 2022. A standout athlete, Michael won the 2011 Gagliardi Trophy as the nation’s top NCAA Division III football player. He holds NCAA records—including 140 receptions in a season and a career-total 463 receptions across all divisions. He earned his bachelor’s degree—summa cum laude—in exercise science from Dubuque University in 2011 and completed his master’s in kinesiology at the University of Texas at Tyler in 2015.

Today’s guest is Will “Hoss” Ratelle, former All-Big Sky linebacker turned strength and conditioning coach, with experience at the University of North Dakota, the NFL, and the CFL. Known for his intense, results-driven training style, Hoss blends his pro football background with evidence-based methods to build size, speed, and resilience in athletes. He’s also the creator of popular programs like “Hoss Concurrent” and a respected voice in the online performance space. Most fitness and training education tends to be rigid, centered around fixed sets, reps, heart rate zones, and prescribed loads and timing. While this structure has value, athletes eventually need to move beyond it and enter a more adaptive, natural rhythm of training. Sets and reps can serve as a starting point, but great coaching gives training a feel, one that fosters ownership, problem-solving, and deeper athlete engagement. On today’s episode, Will Ratelle shares practical strategies for building training protocols that allow for flexibility and athlete autonomy. He discusses how to keep athletes dialed in during strength and power work, while also diving into topics like hamstring rehab, velocity-based training, and more. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength. Use the code "justfly25" for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 0:12 – Transitioning from College S&C to Academia and Private Sector 5:41 – Training Adjustments for Harsh Winter Environments 9:35 – The Role of Giant Sets in Strength Training 15:11 – Building Competition and Problem-Solving into Small Group Training 18:05 – Time-Based Plyometrics for Better Autoregulation 22:50 – Applying Time-Based Models to Jumps and Olympic Lifts 27:21 – Minimalist Approach to Accessory Work in Training 30:54 – Using Velocity-Based Training for Autoregulation 41:25 – Hamstring Rehab Strategies Using Sled Work and Sprint Progressions 44:37 – Perspectives on Nordics and Eccentric Hamstring Training Quotes [27:37] “I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with accessory work. It’s just, do we need to be spending 45 minutes doing it after we’ve already done our main lifts and jumps and throws?” [9:59] “I try to keep the training process as simple as possible because it’s really easy to complicate things.” [11:40] “I’ve gravitated more toward giving people time constraints and letting them auto-regulate how much work they do within that time.” [23:01] “I think jumps and Olympic lifts lend themselves well to time-based prescriptions because the output tends to fall off naturally as people fatigue.” [15:42] “Competition tends to bring out the best in people. If you structure things in a way where it naturally encourages people to compete, it’s a win.” [45:06] “I’ve started to care less and less about Nordics being the answer for hamstring health. I just think sprinting is the best thing we can do.” [31:30] “Velocity-based training is helpful because it provides objective feedback—if you’re not hitting the numbers, there’s no argument to keep pushing.” About Will Ratelle Will “Hoss” Ratelle is a dedicated strength and conditioning coach with deep roots in collegiate athletics and professional football. Rising from a standout linebacker at the University of North Dakota, Ratelle earned All-Big Sky honors twice and set single-season tackle records before transitioning into a professional football career, with stints on special teams in the NFL (Atlanta Falcons and Kansas City Chiefs) and a return to linebacker with the CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders After earning his Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology from UND (2015), Ratelle moved into coaching, completing internships in the UND Strength & Conditioning Department (2015–2017). He played a pivotal role in developing the football program’s speed and agility systems during a historic 2016 Big Sky championship season. Fully integrating into the staff, Will served as Assistant Strength & Conditioning Coach, supporting football, men’s and women’s tennis, basketball, and volleyball teams Certified by the CSCS and CSCCA (2019), Ratelle combines elite athletic experience with practical training protocols. He is known for crafting holistic programs that fuse Olympic lifting, sprint/plyometric development, and fundamental athleticism, aimed at maximizing size, strength, speed, and resilience. In addition to his coaching roles, Will actively shares his expertise through published articles (e.g., SimpliFaster), podcasts, and TrainHeroic programs such as “Hoss Concurrent” and “Hoss Project 2.0,” training countless athletes to build robust, multi-sport athleticism across platforms

Today’s guests are Cameron Josse and Joel Reinhardt. Cameron Josse is an Assistant Strength & Conditioning Coach with the Detroit Lions. He’s previously led training at DeFranco’s and worked in college football at Auburn and Indiana, training athletes across the NFL, NHL, UFC, and WWE. Joel Reinhardt is the Director of Football Performance at Lafayette College. He’s coached at San José State, Stanford, UMass, and Nicholls State. Both Cameron and Joel are field leaders in applied performance, data-driven programming, and athletic movement for physical preparation in American Football. Details in athletic preparation change from the level of high school to college to professional. On today’s episode, Cameron and Joel speak on the nature of contact and collision preparation in their athlete populations, with a specific emphasis on the use of the ground and rolling patterns. They discuss the specific game demands of football, especially on the college and pro level, and how to prepare athletes for 25,000+ weekly yards of total on-field movement. They break down their approaches to speed, direction change, and capacity building work, with these ideas in mind. This was a show with lots of wisdom on helping players fully meet the needs of their sport. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength and LILA Exogen wearable resistance. Use the code "justfly25" for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 1:57 – In-Season Program Differences: NFL vs. College Strength Cycles 4:48 – Navigating Player Relationships with Private Trainers 15:57 – Adapting Contact Prep and Agility for Different Levels 32:38 – Tempo Running as a Foundation for Training Camp Readiness 37:44 – Total Yardage and Conditioning Strategy in Football Preparation 50:16 – Designing Multi-Directional Conditioning Sessions That Mimic Football 58:28 – Integrating Multi-Directional Movements in Conditioning for Athleticism 1:03:46 – Reframing Speed Development Within Annual Training Cycles 1:10:04 – Shifting Focus: From Pure Speed to Building Complete Players Quotes "Some of the better athletes on the team are not necessarily the fastest, but they are the ones who seem to control their bodies the best." - Cameron Josse "The ground is undefeated." - Cameron Josse "It's not about making the strongest guy, the fastest guy, any of that. It's about helping foster the best player you can." - Cameron Josse "If I have a wide receiver who adds half a mile an hour to his top speed over six months, sweet—that's a significant difference in a comeback route if he can push the guy off or have an extra half yard." - Joel Reinhardt "If a player is telling me that there's someone that makes them feel their best, I personally feel as though I would want to get in touch with that person just to learn about what they're doing." - Cameron Josse "Sometimes it's interesting to be like, oh, I wouldn't even think to do that because I'm doing it with 30 guys at one time." - Joel Reinhardt "If you're not working backwards from the game, I just don't know what you're doing." - Cameron Josse "When people say, 'How much should I run? How much should I sprint?' I always say it's based on whatever team you work with in the team setting." - Cameron Josse "If I have a team that is able to maturely execute good extensive tempo, it just opens up more avenues from an overall training perspective." - Joel Reinhardt "You're not just thinking about speed, power, strength, somebody that's isolated by motor abilities or qualities. You're thinking systemically, how am I creating the best integrated system of a player that I can?" - Cameron Josse "Recognizing the time of year and educating the guys around like, 'Hey, we had 26,000 total yards this week and you hit 94% of your all-time best speed—you don't need to be disappointed by that.'" - Joel Reinhardt "I always think it's funny when people try to decelerate on the balls of their feet like the same foot strike you'd have in acceleration. It's literally the opposite of accelerating—you need whole foot pressure." - Cameron Josse About Cameron Josse Cameron Josse is currently serving as an Assistant Strength & Conditioning Coach with the Detroit Lions. Cameron brings a wealth of experience shaped across collegiate and professional domains. Following a successful seven-year tenure in the private sector as Director of Sports Performance at DeFranco’s Training Systems (2014–2020), he transitioned into collegiate football, first with Auburn and then Indiana University, where he shaped high-level

Today’s guest is Jay DeMayo, Jay is the longtime strength coach for men’s basketball at the University of Richmond and the founder of CVASPS—the Central Virginia Sport Performance Seminar. He’s known for connecting top minds in sport science and coaching, and for his practical, athlete-first approach to physical preparation. Where the emphasis of an athletic performance program can easily be centered from a narrow perspective, Jay considers a wide variety of inputs, from an athlete’s underlying structure and positional abilities to their perception of workout adjustments, to specialized exercises and technical training elements. In this episode, Jay digs into the principles he uses to prepare athletes for the demands of the game. From a foundational perspective, he discusses building work capacity and progressing split squats. On the power side, he shares his take on Olympic lifts and French Contrast training, while also addressing the role of autonomy and individualization in his approach. Throughout the show, Jay unpacks practical tools and coaching strategies that drive long-term athletic development. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength. Use the code "justfly25" for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 8:21- Tailoring Training Methods for Athlete Engagement 11:01- Unveiling Louis Simmons' Strength Training Insights 14:24- Enhancing Basketball Players' Performance Through Tailored Training 21:37- Personalized Exercise Selection for Enhanced Performance 27:55- Engaging Exercise Progressions for Effective Training 30:22- Mastery of Bottom Position for Exercise Gains 34:49- Empowering Athletes through Autonomy and Structure 40:02- Enhancing Lift Performance through Positioning Techniques 49:28- Maximal Expression Circuit Training with Olympic Lifts 59:19- Hormone Spikes in Squat Training 1:14:38- Tailored Stimuli for Optimal Physiological Response 1:17:31- Strength-Speed Emphasis in Athletic Training Program Quotes "If you can find a little bit more engagement with them, you get a little bit more effort. And again, if intent drives adaptation, they. Then that's what matters." - Jay DeMayo "We probably don't want that the average for a 20 person basketball team to be what dictates the drill when one kid could run 0 meters and another kid could run a thousand meters." - Jay DeMayo "I think, though, that the, you know, we talk about therapeutic things and all that all the time as well. And we talk about how motion is lotion. Right. Like, it helps you get things going and get things moving and this and that. So sometimes just getting out of their way and letting them kind of work their way through things is the best thing for them too." - Jay DeMayo "We could talk about potentiation and this, that, and the third with it (with French Contrast) my favorite saying at the end of the bench is every time it works, it does. And the guys seem to love it. Yeah, I've never been yelled at about that day." - Jay DeMayo (Speaking on the oxidative split squat method) "So we take a week to build to it. We start with two sets of 10 per leg. And it's just a two count up, two count down. So it's a 40 second set, 40 on, 40 off." - Jay DeMayo "But I've got at least four guys that I know that when they get their plug and play for whatever that lunge strength exercise is on game day plus one are gonna pick oxidative split squats." - Jay DeMayo About Jay DeMayo Jay DeMayo is the founder of the Central Virginia Sport Performance Seminar (CVASPS) and a veteran strength and conditioning coach at the University of Richmond. With over two decades of collegiate coaching experience, Jay has become a respected voice in the field of physical preparation, known for his integrative and athlete-centered approach to training. At Richmond, he works primarily with men’s basketball, guiding athletes through long-term development with a blend of performance science, coaching intuition, and practical innovation. Through CVASPS, Jay has built one of the premier sport performance events in the world, bringing together top coaches, scientists, and therapists to share cutting-edge insights and applied wisdom. A passionate educator and connector, Jay is also the host of the CVASPS Podcast and author/editor of several eBooks on high-performance training. His work reflects a relentless pursuit of context, clarity, and continual improvement in sport preparation.

Today’s guest is Hunter Eisenhower, Associate Head Coach for Sports Performance at Arizona State Men’s Basketball. With experience in the NBA and NCAA, Hunter blends force production qualities, data analysis, and variability-driven human training methods to build explosive, adaptable athletes. He’s the creator of the “Force System” and a thought leader in modern athletic performance concepts. Most athletic performance training is centered around outputs. Movement abilities and qualities are discussed, but there isn’t much quantification process that goes towards an athlete’s raw abilities, such as variable jump strategies alongside stiffness and compliance competencies. On today’s episode, Hunter shares his approach to offseason prep using general physical means that build that “human strength”—developing capacity alongside movement variability. Hunter also breaks down how he quantifies an athlete’s movement capacities and library, their ability to, balance rigidity and compliance in line with force plate data. We wrap with ideas on foot training and using variable surfaces to meet the demands of dynamic sport. This is a great look at training beyond just big lifts—into the true movement needs of the game. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength and the Just Fly Sports Online Courses Check out the newest mini-course, Sprint Drills Reloaded on how to maximize sprint drills, their specific strength development, building of major sprint actions, along with better integration of sprint drills into sprinting technique. The special intro sale ends July 1st. (https://justflysports.thinkific.com/courses/sprint-drills-reloaded) Use the code "justfly25" for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Main Points 2:00- Sandbags, Suffering, and the Mental Edge 6:00- Let Hard and Fun Coexist in Your Program 10:19- The Importance of Variability in Program Design 12:53- Early Off-Season Program Design 19:27- Rewild Your Program: Crawl, Climb, Wrestle, Hang 23:28- Rethink GPP: Don’t Just Prep to Lift—Prep to Move 30:20- Break Barbell Monotony with Sandbags 34:49- Sleds Are a Movement Tool—Not Just a Finisher 41:03- Measure Movement Options—Not Just Output 48:39- Don’t Confuse Explosive with Efficient 54:31- Train Variability by Changing the Rules 58:05- Cue for Change: Let the Jump Reveal the Strategy 59:50- Start with the Foot—It Tells the Whole Story 1:05:07- Polish Boxes, Stall Bars, and DIY Creativity Quotes "The polarity in a training program I think is just like so powerful and so important." - Hunter Eisenhower "You, like, learn to appreciate the fun whenever you have to do the suck." - Hunter Eisenhower "And the way I structure (early off-season) is we go, we go a human force day, a slow force day, a human force day and a slow force day. And we just do that throughout a four day training schedule." - Hunter Eisenhower "A lot of people consider GPP like high volume, squat, hinge, push pull; to me, I think GPP is like going back to the absolute ground level, like basics of just like children, what they would do, they're crawling, they're climbing, they're doing gymnastics and flips, they're, they're roughhousing." - Hunter Eisenhower "It's like bigger, faster, stronger. It's like the, the old adage. Then I was thinking like, is that really the goal with elite athletes? Like, is the goal to increase outputs?." - Hunter Eisenhower "If their only strategy that they can rely on is rigidity, maybe I can begin to infuse some of this compliance." - Hunter Eisenhower "If your foot can't get into a position, the rest of your body won't be able to get into a variable position."- Hunter Eisenhower "I love that with like lunge variations because it's like, no, don't just step in a different way. Like contort your body in a different position. And I think that that exposed them to positions they've probably never been in before." - Hunter Eisenhower About Hunter Eisenhower Hunter Eisenhower is the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach for Arizona State Men’s Basketball, bringing a dynamic, force-based approach to athlete development. With experience in the NBA (Sacramento Kings), G League (Stockton Kings), and several NCAA programs, Hunter blends science, intent, and creativity to enhance performance. He played college basketball at Seattle Pacific University. At ASU, Hunter applies his “Force System” methodology—a framework combining data analytics, plyometrics, strength training, and play-based movement to build powerful, adaptable athletes. His work emphasizes not just raw output, but how athletes express force in real-game contexts. A frequent podcast guest and educator, Hunter co

Today’s guest is running and movement coach, Lawrence Van Lingen, a world-renowned movement coach known for helping athletes move better by blending scientific principles, psychology, biomechanics, and intuitive coaching methods. He’s worked with a range of athletes, from Olympians and elite runners, to everyday movers to unlock efficiency, fluidity, and performance. Running and what we would refer to as “functional strength” are closely related. Strength-based movements that train the gait cycle are amongst the most natural and effective versions available. In working the keys that make for better propulsion and effectiveness in locomotion, we can get insight into better strength practices in general. In this episode, Lawrence van Lingen shares how crawling, backward movement, foot training, and resisted walking can strengthen critical elements of the gait cycle. He explores the connection between natural rhythmic movement and running performance, the ways fear can disrupt quality motion, and how play and curiosity drive better movement learning. From syncing strides to music to mobilizing the feet, Lawrence offers a range of practical, creative methods to enhance coordination and speed. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength. Check out the newest mini-course, Sprint Drills Reloaded on how to maximize sprint drills, their specific strength development, building of major sprint actions, along with better integration of sprint drills into sprinting technique. (https://justflysports.thinkific.com/courses/sprint-drills-reloaded) Use the code "justfly25" for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 3:30- Barefoot Origins: Impact on Human Movement 9:40- The Impact of Fear on Athletic Performance 20:55- Enhancing Running Performance Through Rhythmic Variation 29:00- Syncing Music Tempo with Physical Movements 37:38- Optimizing Athletic Abilities through Strong Hips 40:08- Enhancing Running Mechanics Through Resisted Walking Exercises 42:19- Enhancing Movement Quality through Central Patterns 45:51- Enhancing Ankle Mechanics Through Foot Mobility 52:35- Enhancing Mobility Through Unique Movement Practices 59:06- Enhancing Muscle Activation and Injury Prevention 1:12:02- Enhancing Running Mechanics Through Foot Mobilization Quotes (12:55) "If you cut a chicken's head off, it still runs around, you know. So those are your central pattern generators…. a lot of running or bipedal movement is just totally ingrained in us and you know, and our heritage from anthropology." - Lawrence van Lingen (14:47) "Trust your movement better...that sort of deep, unshakable trust in your movement patterns that you really want on big occasions, that's what the big athletes have got." - Lawrence van Lingen (19:28) "When I was in South Africa with African runners, these guys, there was no coaching, no drills, and it was very, very organic and it was just amazing. I mean, money can't buy the beauty and, and the elegance and the grace that they moved with." - Lawrence van Lingen (27:37) "You have to relax into competence and let go to express yourself. And when you're forcing and trying too hard, it just doesn't work." - Lawrence van Lingen (32:10) "I like to say curiosity and play and neuroplasticity requires play and curiosity. And you, when you're in a parasympathetic mode, you tend to be curious." - Lawrence van Lingen (42:36) "Solve movement patterns as high upstream as possible because the consequences downstream tend to fall into place." - Lawrence van Lingen (1:17:23) "The line of force production is big toe, VMO, glute, max. And if you've got VMO issues, your first met head's not finding the ground." - Lawrence van Lingen About Lawrence van Lingen Lawrence van Lingen is a globally recognized movement coach known for his unique ability to blend biomechanics, biology, mental states, and intuitive coaching into transformative movement practices. With over two decades of experience working with elite athletes, high performers, and everyday movers, Lawrence helps people move with greater ease, efficiency, and purpose. Drawing on his background in sports science and chiropractic care, Lawrence developed a distinctive approach that focuses on restoring natural movement patterns, improving structural integrity, and enhancing overall body awareness. He is the founder of the Anatomy of Movement series, which breaks down complex concepts into accessible, actionable insights for coaches, therapists, and athletes alike. Lawrence’s work has taken him around the world, collaborating with Olympic teams, professional cyclists, runners, and top-tier fitness organizations. His coaching style is intuitive, precise, an

Today’s guest is Rett Larson, strength coach for the German Women’s Volleyball Team and creator of the "No Zombies" training philosophy. Rett coached Olympic medalists with China and the Netherlands, blending energy, rhythm, and purposeful movement into world-class performance. As sport expands into an increasingly more high-pressure, early specialization event that can easily suck fun and joy away, there grows a need for a "counter-culture" within athletic performance. Not only does a "physical preparation" process for athletes that is joyful and gamified lead to more fun within a training session, but it also develops important athletic qualities, within that umbrella of "fun" that may not be possible in more "traditional" sessions. Rett Larson is spearheading an active, engaging approach to the physical preparation process for athletes with warmups designed for joy, engagement, and a comprehensive stimulation of athletic qualities along the way. On today’s episode, Rett speaks on a variety of engaging tools and gamifications in the warmup process for both thermogenic and neurological preparation. He goes into his take on partner exercises and isometrics, and the process of using a physical challenge to "sneak" strength and skill elements in the program. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength and LILA Wearable Resistance Gear. Use the code "justfly25" for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 6:12- Enhancing Athlete Performance through Innovative Training 20:06- Rope Flow in the Warmup Process 25:19- Team Bonding through Partner Exercises and Gamification 29:39- Athletic Development through Diverse Warm-Ups 31:24- Engaging Training Games for Athletic Development 38:00- Enhancing Motor Learning Through Novel Activities 48:14- Isometric and "Sneaky Strength" Exercises 54:50- Tennis Balls as a Powerful Warmup Tool 1:05:36- Animal-Inspired Safari Warmup Routine 1:14:35- Dynamic Movement Enhancement with Wearable Resistance Gear Rett Larson Quotes (5:30) "I like this idea of breaking the script of what athletes expect." - Rett Larson (8:59) "Are we not trying to get to a place in team sports, at least where we have vulnerability? Are we not learning that vulnerability and looking like a little bit of an idiot in front of your teammates and, and knowing that everybody gets theirs at some point? And that is, that's, that's also something we should be striving for." - Rett Larson (20:06) "In the thermogenic bucket goes a lot of almost like movement puzzles to steal some Ido Portal: if it's the tennis ball on a string, a stick in their hand." - Rett Larson (21:00) "Similarly, the rope flow stuff fits really nicely in that bucket because it is really challenging to unlock some of these very difficult movements that get your body rotating, certainly get you hot and sweaty, but it also feels like you are leveling up every time you actually conquer it." - Rett Larson (29:45) "The great thing about warmup is you get to be competitive in a, in an extremely low stakes environment; when I'm programming the weight room well, it's not just my twitchy, 23-year-old phenom whose parents both played volleyball that wins every event. There should be enough variety in the weight room that we're getting winners all over the place, that we're manufacturing celebrations from every single person on my team in a given week or a couple of weeks or month." - Rett Larson (31:16) "I'm manufacturing smiles, I'm manufacturing the joy that I think you and I understand can come out of the weight room." - Rett Larson (51:20) "I'm trying to hide grinding strength within either other fun games or, you know, include like having it be a part of the fun as much as possible." - Rett Larson (54:30) "The great thing about tennis balls is that there's, they can be used for all of it is they can be movement puzzles, they can be balance challenges, anything that you need them to be." - Rett Larson (1:00:38) "There's no reason that coaches shouldn't be actually actively trying to find more moments, more memorable things that stick with athletes, that make you a remarkable coach, that not for nothing, like, why not be original?" - Rett Larson (1:13:10) "I don't have five favorite shoulder exercises. I have 50 favorite shoulder exercises. I believe in throwing a bunch of different challenges at the shoulder and making that shoulder adaptable and good at all of them." - Rett Larson About Rett Larson Rett Larson is the strength and performance coach for the German Women’s National Volleyball Team,

Today’s podcast guest is Stefan Holm—Olympic gold medalist and one of the most elite high jumpers in history. Standing just 5’11”, he cleared over 140 bars at 2.30m or higher, won the 2004 Athens Olympics, and holds an indoor best of 2.40m (co-owning the “height jumped over head world record). Now a coach for Sweden’s national team, Holm brings deep insight into jumping training and performance at the highest level. On today’s episode, I ask Stefan about his early life as an athlete, and formative sporting experiences, along with the tree of coaching that led to his own training methods. Stefan covers his history with high jump variations, plyometrics, strength training, technique development, and much more on today’s show. As Stefan is now a coach, he also discusses his philosophy based on his time as a world-class competitor. This is not only a great show on training ideas, but also a great opportunity to study one of the best of all time in their given sport discipline. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength and LILA Wearable Resistance Gear. Use the code “LILAJUSTFLY10” for 10% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 4:29- Stefan’s Early Training: Genetics, Childhood Sports, and High Jumping 15:21- Rituals in High Jump Training and Athletic Mastery 26:06- Strength Training and High Jump Performance 40:12- High Jump Training Methods, "Holm Hurdles," and Plyometrics 41:04- Emphasizing the Feeling of Flying in High Jump 52:36- Approach Dynamics in High Jump 1:01:17- Strength Training and Range of Motion Concepts 1:03:32- Gradual Plyometric Progression for High Jumpers Stefan Holm Quotes (2:50) "My dream was to be a professional soccer player." - Stefan Holm (3:00) "We played tennis, we played ice hockey, we tried track and field, we played football. Of course, we just played outside, trying to do everything." - Stefan Holm (6:50) "I think you can handle a lot, all of you, but I think you have to build it up year by year. I mean, doing these sort of plyometrics that I did at the age of 28, 30, I didn't start there." - Stefan Holm (9:23) "I started jumping for fun together with my best friend in his backyard when we were like six or seven years old. And we had to do the scissor kick because we had didn't have a mat to land on. We had to land on our feet." - Stefan Holm (24:45) "But then I starting lifting in the fall of 1995 when I was 19, one and a half years later, I jumped 230 for the first time. So I think that I, when I get used to it, the first six, seven months, that was rough because I, I got muscles that I couldn't control. I got so much stronger and slower and just felt heavy and everything. But after, I mean, six, seven, eight months, but I could get control of everything then. I really think that it, it helped me to jump higher and also to get stable on higher heights. I could do them more often." - Stefan Holm (27:01) "If I really, really, really wanted to jump a certain height, I jumped until I cleared it. For good and for bad." - Stefan Holm (37:20) "Whatever everybody sees is these viral clips, me jumping over like 170 hurdles or 150 hurdles or whatever there are. But I mean I. I started off on the usual lower hurdles. That's 107 their tops. And I was doing plenty of jumps as a kid and as a youth jumper as a junior. I didn't buy these high hurdles until I was 24." - Stefan Holm (41:10) "I had a session when I was jumping over hurdles, different kind of exercises, around 200 jumps in a session. I also did some, some bounding 60 meters. 24 times 16, 24 12. Left, right, left, right, left, right. And yeah, and then six times on your left leg, six times on your right leg. That was a very, very fun morning actually." - Stefan Holm (57:00) "Quiz games is actually my second best sport. But besides that, I would say long jump." - Stefan Holm (1:01:17) "For me I think the deep squat was a very good exercise. I could handle it technically I could do it well strength wise as well. So I think it was a very, very good for, for building up a good sort of ground strength to work from in the other exercises. So I did, during my ground training part of the year, I did 6x6 deep squats. I did 6 by 6 half squats as well, 5 by 5 when it came to snatch and cleats and stuff like that." - Stefan Holm (1:04:21) "It's all about reversing the speed to a vertical, vertical speed. I mean that's all what it comes down to in the end." - Stefan Holm (1:07:20) "Trying out new things all the time, I'm definitely the wrong coach for you because I'm going to give you like four weightlifting exercises, I'm going to give you five plyometrics and th