One of the toughest mindsets to break into is the idea that distance runners don’t need strength training or their strength training should only consist of light weight and high reps.
One of the best sayings I heard many years ago (I wish I could remember who said it) was, “The weight room is for strength training. If you want endurance training get out of the weight room.”
Distance running for competition isn’t about who can run the longest, it is about who can run the distance the fastest. Strength training serves …

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 …

Learn how a few simple tips can change how you run your business or organization more efficently. Listen to two very important people who help Lee run his “ship”.
Please Login or Register to read the rest of this content.

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, …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Back in the ’70s and ’80s training was all about isolation. In the ’90s we started to become more “functional” and now we are starting to figure out how it all works together. Speed training isn’t much different. There are times when we might need to isolate a movement to get the feel and to allow for a teaching moment. But we also know that we have to look at the entire body and how each level, foot to head, sets up or reacts to what the other level is …

The Fun, the Furious, and the Fantastic!
As we all know, when we are having fun time flies.  But, when we don’t like what we are doing time stands still. This is even more the case for youngsters. Yet, we still want to make tasks hard and expect positive results.
The most important factor in being successful when working with kids on their fitness, or any thing for that matter, is to have a complete clear understanding of the goal. If we look deep into the goal we have set for kids’ …

Thanks to those of you who supported my message on the welfare of our youth. There are so many people who have done much more than I will ever do to help kids lead better lives. My frustration comes from the lack of respect fitness receives from parents, school systems and other youth organizations. Please don’t get the impression I don’t think education is important. I agree it is so important. I just want people to realize how good health trumps good academics every time. If you don’t think so, …

Please Login or Register to read the rest of this content.

Check out this video I taped this morning. My good friends at the IYCA and I laugh some times at how often we are misunderstood when it comes to our philosophies on deceleration. We agree on each others methods. We just attack it from different directions. Take a listen to me rambling about this topic. I love your questions about this topic and hope they keep coming.

P.S. -  If you have not registered yet for the IYCA 2010 Summit, then jump on it now. It is going to be fantastic …