I have to laugh when I hear people justify how good of strength coach you are by who you have trained. Ninety-five percent of the time they want to hear names of players who are in the professional ranks or high profiled college players. As if these are the guys that don’t already have God-given ability.
What I have always said is show me what you can do as a strength and conditioning coach with a 13-year-old who doesn’t have much ability. You have to take someone who doesn’t have incredible …

There have been many name changes, many new products, and many services provided through Sports Speed, Etc. over the years but one thing has never changed…Education!
Sometimes I have to shake my head and just laugh it off when I have people commenting on how they didn’t like a DVD because there wasn’t enough drills in it.
I could agree if I promoted my products simply as sources for more drills. There is nothing wrong with this approach as long as you state the purpose. But I have always stated my products …

No one likes to win any more than I do. But over the past few years of coaching youth sports I have been able to fight the urge to go for the big win and sacrifice the big picture. Now I admit, I may not have created equal playing time for all my kids, but on that note I reward hard work and commitment to the team. The girls who played mostly are the same girls that worked their tails off all year long and committed.
A big issue with youth …

Monday morning at 1:30 am I pulled into my driveway after spending the last five days on the road.
I was in Iceland. It was a fantastic journey that started last Wednesday with a flight to Boston then an all night flight into Iceland. I arrived at 6:30 am and my first seminar was that night from 7 to 10 pm. The very next day I started at 9 am and went to 5 pm, virtually the same on Saturday, then culminated with an energizing seminar with 70 participants on Olympic …

As you are reading this blog post I am in Iceland preparing for the first of four seminars. I am so honored to be here in Iceland and meeting such wonderful people. It didn’t happen by chance.
A long time ago I worked very hard to put myself in the situation I am in today. I studied, researched, tried and tested, and kept learning the methods that make my athletes successful. I worked hard. But because I did, I am in a position where I get to travel and speak to …

It is often confusing to see all the different philosophies of training, especially when training athletes. There are people that focus more on strength, some put more time into speed, and others focus on flexibility. The best programs are derived from the needs of the athletes and adult clients.
I love Olympic lifting, but it isn’t the only thing I do. I like power lifting, but I only use it when needed. I am known as the Speed Guy, but I don’t only train speed. Flexibility is important too, so I …

I don’t think we know the exact science behind what makes some people more confident than others, but we do know certain components of it.
Why did Jordan, Montana, Gretzky, and Reggie always want to be in the spotlight during the big moments? It seemed when they came through in the clutch they weren’t surprised, but when they didn’t they were amazed. Why? They expected to win.
Why do some have it and most don’t? Like I wrote earlier; I don’t think we exactly know. A lot has to do with individual …

Frequently we receive calls or e-mails from people asking if it is really worth their time to attend a seminar, purchase a product, earn a certification or join a coaching program. When we launch a new product, we get calls from customers asking if they can return it if they don’t like it. This is before they even invest in the product.
I am not sure what determines a person’s views on investing in their own personal knowledge and improvement; could it be genetic, or a bad experience in the past, …

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for no charge, (Name).
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See what this coach had to say about the system:
“I have been using your ideas (first step quickness drills, etc.) the past 1.5 years and it has made a difference in us getting to the ball quicker. We are presently 8-1 (8-0 in region play and racked #5 in AAAAA Georgia HS Football). The difference has been getting our kids into a more powerful/efficient position quickly and …

Over the weekend I went to watch my nephew Jimmer Fredette play basketball.
In case you’ve not read my blog, Jimmer is one of the best college basketball players in the country.
A National Player of the Year candidate.
Needless to say, I’m proud.
But watching him play also reminded me how powerful being in the right environment can be for a young athlete.
Jimmer’s entire family played sports and I was lucky enough to be able to help him develop as an athlete as well.
So many kids miss out on that.
A lot of kids …

I’ve spent the past 20 years investing much of my time into helping young athletes improve their speed, quickness and athleticism.
I’ve also worked hard to help other parents and coaches do the same.
Over that time I’d guess that I’ve had some sort of impact on thousands of young athletes and probably just as many coaches.
But honestly, I want to do more.
Not too long ago, I decided that 2010 was the year I was going to help as many people in one year as I have in the past 10.
I started …

Here is a birthday wish to my son Brennen. He turns two years old today. He is such a special little guy and brings so much joy to our family. I absolutely love his personality and his caring nature.
Because I am “The Speed Guy”, I tend to watch him move while he plays. He is going to be small like his sisters, so quickness will be his “friend”.
 Brennen loves to shoot baskets. He has a little basketball hoop and we shoot all the time. Well, at least he shoots all …

Too often we allow volume to dictate our programs rather than skill development. In the past two weeks I have received workouts from many different coaches and athletes. These workouts are to build strength and power in their athletes. One of my athletes was given a workout by his football coach and the volume on one day of knee bending exercises was 120 repetitions per leg (this is just one day, not the entire week). Not to mention, many of the exercises were off machines. To give you an idea …

Sometimes my frustration level reaches such a high I do a poor job of communicating my feelings regarding poor training methods with young athletes.
There is a youth volleyball coach that coaches at a local club. She is currently working with 12- and 13-year-old girls. Her practices are absolutely brutal. An extreme volume of suicide runs, shuffles, holds in a defensive stance and more. Yet, none of that has to do with making the young kids better volleyball players.
At a young age it is all about skill development and motor programming. …

Have you ever noticed there are certain topics that are debated endlessly when it comes to
optimal training for athletes?
Boy, Jennifer, …. Do we ever miss the point with all these debates!
We argue about strength.
Disagree about speed.
Discuss flexibility.
Get confused about assessments.
But we are missing the most important, critical factor.
Sure, we debate this topic as well.
And believe it or not, this issue is even MORE full of myths, lies
and deceit than any of the one’s I mentioned above.
Optimal Nutrition.
And yes…. We get it wrong most of the time.
My good friends and elite …

Sometimes I wish I could work with athletes for free. Unfortunately, the timeframe many athletes stay in a program is dictated by finances. I would love to never have finances be an issue, but we all have bills to pay, want to make a living for our families, and need to pay staff. So the fees exist.
The other dilemma is the marketing of a program to get people in your door so you can train them. I am a big believer in doing what my athletes and clients need. I …

What are your feelings on experience versus talent? I mean when the players with experience have pretty close to the same talent, but not quite as good as the younger talented players.
I think talent wins when it doesn’t matter more than when it does matter. I think experience offers players opportunities to manage situations better and negates talent.
Let’s look at Mark Sanchez, the QB for the jets. He started out like fire. He definitely has talent. But after time, the experience of defenses and coaching negated his talent. Even his …

When I notice athletes having some difficulty with range of motion, most of the time it is an ankle or hip range of motion issue. The ankle issue drastically changes the loading during acceleration, but more so in deceleration. The issue with the hips will mostly cause athletes to not load well enough to accelerate out of their stance. But immobile hips will certainly cause deceleration issues as well because of the same inability to load.
Most of the time I can work on athletes’ range of motions issues right on …

Boy, oh Boy! I really want to slap myself sometimes. You know how I am with my writing skills. I simply don’t pay attention and just write. I don’t always pay attention to my spelling or words. Well, last week I posted a blog about my nephew, Jimmer Fredette and his great performances this year (especially his big 49 point performance against Arizona).
When I write my blog post it is super fast and I don’t pay attention to my spelling.  I made the mistake and typed Oscar Robinson instead of …

I want to take a moment to gloat and congratulate my nephew, Jimmer Fredette, a junior point guard at BYU. He just came off a 49 point performance win over Arizona. This was preceded by being named the MVP of the Las Vegas Basketball Classic, in which he averaged 28.5 points in the tourney.
What really makes me so proud and excited is to learn he was named the Oscar Robertson National player of the week through Jan. 3rd. This is a huge honor and Jimmer deserves it. He works extremely …