Recent Posts
Periodization for the Everyday Athlete
If you’re over the age of 30, chances are you realize you can’t train like you used to. Back in the day, you could go four, five, or six days week for 90 minutes to two hours in the gym with no problem. But now, things are a bit different. You’ve got real, live sh*t to […]
Continue ReadingPhysical Preparation with Josh Bohnotal
Josh Bohnotal is a guy I’ve known for years. From his start with the Chicago Bulls to his current position at Purdue University, he’s a guy I’ve always respected and learned a thing or two from. And if you like basketball, this is going to be your show. In this in-depth interview, Josh and I […]
Continue Reading5 Updates to My In-Season Training
I’ve been doing this physical preparation thing for 16 years now, and it’s safe to say I’ve learned a thing or two along the way. While I’ve always spent more time coaching athletes in their off-season, the past three years have provided a new challenge: Keeping athletes fit, healthy and strong over the course of […]
Continue ReadingPhysical Preparation with Chris Merritt
Chris Merritt is a super interesting guy, and trying to narrow the scope of this show was tough. He has a successful gym, has trained high-level MMA fighters, and is doing some really cool stuff online as well. However, in this episode, we’re going to focus on his work with tactical athletes. Just a few […]
Continue ReadingPhysical Preparation with Gary Schofield
Gary Schofield is the head physical preparation coach at Greater Atlanta Christian, and a guy who is doing some really amazing work with his young athletes. In this episode Gary and I cover a ton of different topics including how he manages 409 athletes per day, his 5 principles for training, and what he means […]
Continue ReadingRTS Coaching: The Plate Squat
Anyone who is serious about training likes to squat. Well, let’s be honest – it’s probably more of a love-hate relationship. Maybe a better way to put it is that everyone who is serious about training respects the squat. But this leads us to a big question: How do you teach someone to squat safely, […]
Continue Reading5 Steps to Building Better Athletes
Today I’m giving you the goods. Not that I ever really hold back, but today, I want to give you something that will make a profound impact on how you train your athletes. As my good friend Joe Kenn says: The days of taking a kid and putting a bar on his back Day 1 […]
Continue ReadingPhysical Preparation with Mike Coval
Mike Coval is a gym owner in Ann Arbor Michigan, and a guy who is doing some amazing work with his young basketball players. He’s also a former IFAST intern, and I couldn’t be more excited to have him on the show. In this episode Mike and I are going to go in-depth into his […]
Continue ReadingRTS Coaching: The Crossover Step-up
If you’ve been training for any extended period of time, you’re familiar with the step-up. The step-up is a fantastic exercise for many reasons: It builds single-leg stability and control, It can help iron out side-to-side strength imbalances, and It’s a functional, real-world movement. Like most weight room lifts, however, the step-up is very sagittal […]
Continue ReadingRTS Coaching: The Sprinter Step-up
Step-ups are one of my favorite single-leg exercises. (Well if we’re being transparent, I think of them as pseudo single-leg exercises. But I’ll discuss that more in the EADS 3.0 videos coming soon!) There are numerous benefits to the step-up over similar exercises: It leads with a concentric (versus eccentric) movement. You can easily adjust […]
Continue ReadingWhy YOU Should Keep a Coaching Log
If you’ve been training for any period of time, chances are you’ve kept a training log at some point in your career. A training log is an invaluable tool, because it goes a step further than then typical tracking of sets, reps, etc. Instead, a training log digs deeper into each training session. What was your […]
Continue ReadingRTS Coaching: Thorax Rotation
Earlier this week, you and I had a little talk about alternating function. Needless to say, whether you want to play rotational sports, go for a leisurely jog from time-to-time, or simply want to be a better moving human being, you should find ways to emphasize alternating function in your programming. However, when I first […]
Continue ReadingThe What, Why and How of Alternating Function
(Lead photo courtesy of Keith Allison) One thing I’ve always tried to do is grow and evolve as a coach. When you’re just getting started you’re somewhat limited in your perspective, and we all have a tendency to model the coaches we spent time with early on. When I started coaching I was strongly influenced by powerlifting, […]
Continue ReadingRTS Coaching: Push-up to Downward Dog
We’ve focused a lot on the push-up in recent weeks (and in case you missed it, you see what I mean here, here, here, and the big push-up article here). With all of this focus on coaching and cuing, something I wanted to throw in this week was one of my favorite push-up variations of […]
Continue Reading4 Ways to Upgrade Your Programming and Coaching
As coaches and trainers, we’re constantly looking for tools to make us better. Maybe it’s a new style of programming. Maybe it’s a new exercise you’ve heard a lot about. And maybe it’s coaching and cuing one of our big-bang exercises in a slightly different way. The bottom line is that we coaches will leave […]
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