Top Performance Strength

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05/14/2025

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12/02/2022

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

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

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

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

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

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

12/02/2022

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

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

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

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

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

11/26/2022

Developing strength, speed, and power in the frontal and transfer planes is essential for building a more well rounded athlete. No sport is purely linear. Athletes need to plant, cut, and change directions laterally and multi-directionally to make a play in the hole or track down a fly ball in the gap.

Every movement pattern we perform builds upon itself regardless of the physical qualities we’re chasing- strength, stability, mobility, speed, power, and rate of force development all play a role in teaching athletes proper body control, achieving optimal positions, and expressing maximal force and power potential.

As lateral or multi-directional movement occurs, athletes need to have the ability to demonstrate these qualities, produce force quickly and powerfully in the direction they intend to move. The ability to execute an explosive first step, change direction, and accelerate in a split second can be the difference in making a play or not making the play.

If the athlete can learn the ability to push the ground down and away in a explosive manner and make a fast transition in pursuit of the next push-off, the result is speed. Technique is essential, but so is the ability the ability to generate force into the ground with each stride. Quick, short, and choppy does not get the job done. Generating force production and creating proper stride length with each push off is the desirable result when athlete need to make a play in the hole or run down a fly ball in the gap.

There are a number of progressions we utilize to enhance performance in the transverse and frontal planes to develop athletes abilities to get stronger, accelerate, decelerate, change direction, and be more explosive.

- 1-Leg Landmine RDL
- 1-Leg KB RDL w/Roller
- Landmine Lateral Split Squat
- 1-Leg Lateral Hurdle Hop
- Band Resisted Lateral Heiden
- Kneeling Lateral MB Shotput
- Kneeling Lateral Starts
- Lateral Step Up
- Cross Behind MB Shotput
- Crossover Sled Drags

https://www.instagram.com/p/ClRiS8xOdRq/

11/26/2022

Isometrics consist of the athlete performing a static contraction, typically without any movement of the joint. There are a few different types of isometrics we use with athletes ranging from overcoming isometrics, yielding isometrics, and oscillating isometrics.

We want to choose a movement and position that best helps the athlete optimize positions they need to address. If they struggle to produce force in a split squat, we can use a split squat isometric to promote a compressive strategy to help them produce force in the desirable position. The athlete in the video is demonstrating a yielding isometric in the form of a safety bar isometric split squat to improve force producing capabilities. We can hold the position for 10-30 seconds or up to several minutes.

The goal is for the athlete to hold the weight in a position to prevent it from falling to forces of gravity/ the weight is pulling the athlete down. As the duration of the set increases, the tendon will become progressively longer as the muscle becomes shorter. They can translate to eccentric (muscle lengthening) strength and can elicit increases in tendon stiffness and joint health.

There are many other yielding isometrics we utilize to enhance tendon health benefits and force production capabilities such as the following.

- ISO Safety Bar or Front Loaded Squat
- ISO Trap Bar RDL
- ISO Swiss Bar Bench Press at lockout
- ISO Push-Up
- ISO Chin Up

These exercises are just a few examples of how we implement this strategy with athletes. The duration of the exercise and the position we hold the isomeric contraction in will be heavily dependent on the athlete.

We’ve also noticed increases in power output when we pair this strategy with explosive movements that are similar to the isometric position we’re using. An example of this would be pairing an isometric split squat (video) with a split squat jump. Another example for the upper body would be an isometric Swiss bar bench press at lockout paired with a medicine ball chest pass.

https://www.instagram.com/p/ClZYaHKpb9P/

11/25/2022

How do you choose the appropriate deadlift variation? What is the most optimal position/stance? Let’s look at the difference between a parallel stance, staggered stance, split stance, and single leg stance.

The parallel stance is most optimal when it comes to driving force production, just any exercise where the athlete is standing on both feet will drive maximal force production. If you’re weak and struggle to produce force, use this stance to establish getting stronger. Strength has diminishing returns and can take athletes movement variability if all we do is train in parallel stance, we limit their ability to rotate and move in multiple planes of movement.

This is where staggered stance, split stance, and single leg stance come into play. We’re giving athletes more movement options in multiple planes of direction to express force, power, and speed.

Take the staggered stance, the feet are slightly off-set from front-to-back. This small offset starts to create a small turn towards the rear or front side leg, depending on the loading implement and strategy we’re driving. We like to see 90% of the weight being distributed on the front side and 10% of the load being displaced on the back foot, serving as a kickstand or support leg.

A split stance position can be tweaked and customized in so many ways to fit the needs of the athlete. There is not one perfect or ideal set up position. We can use a safety bar for a reverse lunge and drive force production or we can use a heels elevated position for athletes who are limited in hip flexion and internal rotation and focus on mobility. It solely depends on the athletes needs. The implement we choose (safety bar, dumbbell, etc.), the loading strategy can bias loading/deceleration or propulsion/acceleration, and the placement of the load (goblet, 2DBs, offset) all factor.

The key is to always demonstrate the ability to position appropriately and control the positions throughout the movement. We always want to minimize the risk of injury, we need to find the best strategy and set up position to drive either strength or mobility as a result.

https://www.instagram.com/p/ClTy0z9ON1s/

11/19/2022

https://www.instagram.com/p/ClCN7TnP7jr/

11/19/2022

Resisted sprinting to improve acceleration development.

Acceleration is characterized by longer ground contact time and higher force production. We would place acceleration development closer to the force side of the force-velocity curve.

When looking at acceleration mechanics, the first step should be “down and back” and underneath the hip. This is why we perform build up drills that teach athletes this action of putting force into the ground in a manner that is “down and back” and underneath the hip.

The goal is to properly prepare them for the demands sprinting places on them. What is just as important is giving them content where they can learn how to self- organize their body in the most efficient and effective manner to drive force output. This comes in the form of teaching them proper body and shin angles to prepare them for the positions they need to be in to drive acceleration development and put high levels of force into the ground to propel themselves in a horizontal manner.

This is where resisted sprinting comes into play and the benefits include everything mentioned above in regards to teaching athletes proper body and shin angles. The load of the chains will put the athlete into a quality acceleration angle where they can drive “down and back” and underneath the hip increasing force production.

Coaching cues to focus on when performing resisted sprints
- “drive the ground down and back”- promotes force application into the ground to project in a horizontal manner as the athlete comes out of a static starting position

Focus on the foot underneath the hip front the start of acceleration:
- “drive the knee through the wall instead of up at the sky” or “knee forward, foot back”- both of these cues promotes lower heel recovery

Determine proper loading is a topic of conversation for another day. Administering performance testing and getting a force/velocity profile on each individual athlete is required in this case, along with other factors including body weight, where they need to train on the force/velocity curve based on where their deficiencies lie, and where they are in the off- season.

https://www.instagram.com/p/ClBuWhFv0Dp/