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Sample Articles/Programs from SportSpecific.com
Here's a few sample articles to give you an idea of the kinds of things you'll find in the Subscribers Area of SportSpecific.com These articles are reprinted as they originally appeared.
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My Top Coaching Influences
Michael Boyle
A blog reader posted this question recently and got me thinking. Who were my top coaching influences? I put a little thought in and came up with this list. Initially this was going to be a Top Ten but the more I thought the more the list expanded. Apologies to those I left out. I have been very lucky to have met so many great coaches. . . .
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The Tao of Boyle
Nate Green
Originally Printed at www.t-nation.com April 14, 2010 38 years of under-the-bar experience, the best exercises, and why back squats still suck. "... Tao is often referred . . .
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Does It All Come Down to the First Ten Yards?
Michael Boyle
I have always been a ten yard dash proponent. When we test speed, regardless of sport we test the ten yard dash. In fact, I wrote an article previously that questioned whether we really ever tested speed in most team sports. If we choose to be specific, what we really evaluate with tests like the 40 yard dash is acceleration. The best sprinters in the world accelerate for up to sixty meters. That means that each ten yard split continues to get lower up to sixty meters in a world-class sprint race. A forty yard dash is a test of acceleration ability, not speed if we want to get our physics right.
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"The Business"
Alwyn Cosgrove and Jason Ferruggia
This article was written in response to a trend that both Jay and I experienced. We were getting approached by trainers asking us for business advice and how to "jump the ladder, get out of the trenches and avoid training clients for a long time". We are all for helping motivated individuals fast-track their career, but the fact that a trainer is asking how to avoid training people, didn't sit well with us. We all get started in this industry through our desire to help people. If you don't want to be in the "trenches" helping people - maybe this industry is not for you. You know who you are. . . .
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Interval Training- HIIT or Miss?
Michael Boyle
I think every fat loss article we read espouses the value of interval training for fat loss. In fact the term HIIT ( for High Intensity Interval Training) is thrown around so much that many people just assume they know what it is. However among all the recommendations I see to perform HIIT, very few articles contain any practical information as to what to do or how to do it. I have to confess that I stumbled into this area somewhat accidentally. Two different processes converged to make me understand that I might be a fat loss expert and not know it. In my normal process of professional reading I read both Alwyn Cosgrove's Afterburn and Craig Ballantyne's Turbo Training. What struck me immediately was that what these experts were recommending for fat loss looked remarkably like the programs we used for conditioning. At the time I was reading these programs I was also training members of the US Women's Olympic Ice Hockey team. It seemed all of the female athletes I worked with attempted to use steady state cardio work as a weight loss or weight maintenance vehicle. I was diametrically opposed to this idea as I felt that steady state cardiovascular work undermined the strength and power work we were doing in the weightroom. My policy became "intervals only" if you wanted to do extra work. I did not do this as a fat loss strategy but rather as a "slowness prevention" strategy. However, a funny thing happened. The female athletes that we prevented from doing steady state cardiovascular work also began to get remarkably leaner. I was not bright enough to put two and two together until I read the above-mentioned manuals and realized that I was doing exactly what the fat loss experts recommended. We were on a vigorous strength program and we were doing lots of intervals. . . .
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Should You Stick to the Recipe?
Michael Boyle
Anyone who knows me knows how much I like analogies. One area that continues to frustrate me is talking to trainers about programming. Often the conversation goes something like this, "I use a little of your stuff, a little of Mark Verstegen's stuff and mix in a little of …". In trying to describe how this works or potentially doesn't work I've decided that a food analogy may be the best route. Some people can really cook, others need cookbooks and recipes. Some people write cookbooks, others read cookbooks. Even in the restaurant world, there are cooks and there are chefs. Cooks follow the recipes, chefs create the recipes. Even those who know anything about cooking understand that every ingredient in a recipe has a purpose. You wouldn't bake and simply leave out flour would you? The key is to figure out if you are a cook or a chef. Here are some basic guidelines. . . .
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25 Years, 25 Mistakes
Michael Boyle
This year I'll enter my twenty-fifth year as a strength and conditioning coach. Last month I watched Barbara Walters celebrate her thirtieth year with a special called "30 Mistakes in 30 Years." I'm going to celebrate my twenty-fifth anniversary by telling you my top twenty-five mistakes. . . .
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A Day in the Life
Michael Boyle
I often get asked, "How do you get so much done with your business, coaching, writing, speaking etc". I usually try to give a humble answer and mumble something about hard work etc. The truth is there is a method to the madness and I'd like to share some of the things that have increased my productivity: . . .
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Video of the Week
Video of the week this week is a variation of the One Leg Straight Leg Deadlift. I think the hip hinge action of the one leg straight leg deadlifts is one of the more difficult exercises to teach. Many trainees have difficulty maintaining upper back position as they forward bend and end up substituting spinal flexion for hip flexion to get range of motion. In order to prevent this we developed the concept of the Reaching One Leg Straight Leg Deadlift. The actions of reaching out with the hands and back with the foot "turn on" the entire posterior chain in an almost reflexive manner. Athletes and clients who could not conceptualize the exercise, suddenly "get it". . . .
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Female Strength
A forum post about women's inability to do chinups prompted me to post these videos. They are not and were not made to be technique videos. They were simply to show how strong our girls were in 1998. . . .
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ACL Injury Prevention Is Just Good Training
Michael Boyle
Is ACL injury prevention just good training? I think so. The program we use for ACL injury prevention is actually the same program we use with everyone! The truth is ACL injury prevention programs often consist more of packaging than new concepts. Calling a program an ACL prevention program may be nothing more than a way into the head of the athletic trainer, physical therapist or coach. But, if that's what it takes, I'm all for it. However, as coaches we have to realize that we should be practicing great injury prevention concepts with all our athletes and our weekend warriors. . . .
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