martin
Martin and the Parisi Team. I see that it is nfl combine time again. I look forward to watchin the event again on the nfl network. My question is since the time is so short from now until the combine what do you spend most of your time working on? What do you think of the athletes you have this year? Thank you Mitch Robertson
Pictured is Ryan Ojeda working with highly rated Michael Coe and David Harris during an abdominal plank series. Without properly developing the core musculature there will be "energy leaks" during performance.
Mitch,
Great to hear from you and thanks for writing in. Yes, it is that time of year again and it is almost amazing that this is year 7 for us really dedicating time to this program. I think back on all the different athletes and fantastic experiences we have had over the years, and I am sure this year will produce them as well.
When it comes to working with these athletes, or first step before we do anything is a comprehensive evaluation. Not just in terms of performance, but we are really looking for any glaring weaknesses and or areas of tightness or even hypermobility. Now you might be saying, "Areas of weakness?" "These are top athletes in the country!" Although that is true, many of the athletes commonly have imbalances developed over their years of training and the postures that they have put themselves in over the last decade. That coupled with what is usually a less than optimal diet leaves us a lot of room for improvement.
Common areas that we are seeing are weak are the lower abdominals, the obliques, and the hip abductors and adductors. These weaknesses lead to poor postures and possibilities for injury. So, to answer your question we spend a good bit of time everyday attempting to develop these regios of the body as we train. Since time is limited, we are always improving our program in terms of training economy. We adapt our warmup to hit these areas so that we dont have to waste valuable recovery time doing extra work.
As for this years class, I think we have many special athletes. Since we have not really maxed anyone on anything yet, I am unable to make definitive predictions. In the next few weeks, stay tuned during our mock combines and I will have answers for everyone.
Overall, we get tighter and more focused here every year. In the end, it will be these athletes that benefit, not just for the Combine, but remember, it is about teaching them things like diet, flexbility and about their own bodies that will be with them their whole career. Here is a nice shot of some of the guys blasting the sled at 7:45 am this morning.
Martin Rooney
Comments Closed
Martin. I have seen over the years the discussion of what is the BEST exercise in terms of strength for speed training. I have seen you are a big advocate of strength work for speed particularly having to do with the concept of relative body strength. Now the question of the hour.... What is your favorite exercise? My DVD is ordered and on the way. Glenn M.
Pictured is Fabian Washington, our 2005 NFL Combine's fastest man. When you look at this photo, you have to ask yourself what is going on with his body that makes him so fast and then figure out exercises on how best to develop that ability. When you look at a pic in motion here, you might just change what you think about strength training for speed.
Glenn,
Thanks for writing in and excellent question. As we have already sold out our first 1000 copies of the Strength Training for Speed DVD, I am glad to see that we are having an effect on how coaches and athletes are viewing their training and that we are helping to get them to ask the right questions. Your question is one of my favorites.
When I think of strength for speed, I do still believe that relative body strength is the first prerequisite of being fast along with motor skill. So what I am saying here is that I place equal importance on both MOVEMENT AND MUSCLE! All too often I see coaches working one area at the expense of the other, but as my DVD shows, I am about developing both at all times. That being said, you should see that strength and movement skill development are both all-year events.
Once the body is made strong enough to overcome it's own weight, then the job is to become maximally strong in the areas most important for speed. Now, that being said, it is again not at the expense of movement skill development while the athlete learns how to use the ever growing strength correctly.
As the maximal strength is increased, (a process that should take years) it is then time to add reactive strength or explosiveness to the equation. So the kids out there trying to improve their power when they are first not strong are going to be limiting their ultimate potential. I am not saying that all of these aspects cannot be worked on throughout (do some med ball throws even though you are not yet world class strong), but in terms of the overall emphasis, this would be a great pattern to follow.
Understanding all this, and that most coaches miss the first few steps and are seduced with certain exercises, I will give my few favorites that should be in every program and why. What I am saying here is that if your kids are focused mostly on bench, curls and triceps and dont spend much of the year running and working technique, there are some big holes in the program.
That all being said, I often see that snatch grip deadlift often gets cited as a top exercise for athletes. Although I dont really see many people working this exercise in their programs anyway, I do see some limitations in this sagittal plane, bilateral exercise. Yes, it is a great exercise for working a large amount of the muscle mass of the body which can help to satisfy the maximal strength aspect for some of the important muscles of the body, but if this is the staple and there is nothing that addresses single leg work in your program, there is something missing. So, the snatch grip dead is a nice lift, but when you look at the pic of Fabian above, there is obviously something missing. This brings me to the lunge.
Interestingly, over the years, I will see athletes that are huge squatters and deadlifters that are destroyed after a few sets of bodyweight lunges. How is this possible you ask? By switching to a unilateral exercise, now there are different muscles of the body worked differently than with bilateral exercises like squats and deads. For instance, two common areas of the body that are crushed with lunges are the glutes and adductors. Why is this so when it looks like the same motion that takes place in a squat as with the front leg in the lunge in the picture above? It is because of the stability that is now forced on those two counteracting muscles to control that front leg. That control and strength at the hip that is developed is essential with speed. Now look at the Fabian pic and the pic above and see if there are similar patterns.
So, the short answer to the question is that yes, strength is important, but it doesnt just mean bench, dead and now you have it. I would suggest that everyone have some unilateral lifts in their program like lunges, step ups, hamstring swiss ball work, or even sleds.
Finally, the last thing I will say is that the best resistance exercise for developing speed may just be the running itself. I hope everyone got the point that speed is not just built in a gym, it is as much or more built on the track. That is, after all, why we address both aspects here.
Check out the New Strength for Speed DVD for the 40 exercises that hammer home many of the ideas from above.
Martin Rooney
I want to know more about in season training. How am i going to train when I am at practice every day and games. I lost weight this season and next year is my senior year. What is good training to do for in season. Brian Rolzhausen
Pictured is coach John Ciurciu and stars of the 2006 State Champion Don Bosco football team. Don Bosco trained in-season with John at Parisi's and this helped them to finish out the season with 3 shutouts and 6 overall to finish 9th in the Nation according to USA Today. If that is not a lesson for in-season training, I dont know what is.
Brian,
Great to hear from you and I think looking into in-season training is very important. I dont know what sport it was that you played this year, but a sport season now can be months long. That is more than enough time to lose weight and many of the gains that were made in the offseason if they are not maintained with the proper in-season program.
As pictured above, athletes like Justin Trattou (committed to Notre Dame), Matt Simms (committed to Louisville), Dan Marcoux (offers all around the MAC) kept their strength as a result of constant training and had dominant seasons on a national level. WIthout the speed and strength work that they maintained during this time, some fo the results might not have been as impressive.
I understand that practicing 5 days a week and having games as well is tough to fit in some training. The great news is that you do not have to train 4-5 days a week to maintain or even gain in some cases. I recommend that if you could at least get 1 full body workout in per week (preferably early in the week following a competition) and 1 session where you are focused on speed, that would be 24 workouts over a 12 week season that could really keep you close to your best. 2 workouts a week doesnt sound like much, but when it is added up over those weeks to lead to 24 workouts, you start to see what kind of difference that can make. I know that schedules are often busy, but finding 2 hours a week should be possible.
Nutrition, as you also saw, is very important to maintain during the season. Since your caloric requirements during the season may be much higher, you have to adjust your diet accordingly. Extra calories during the day with a shake or a bar can come in handy at this time of year.
I hope this helps and now it is up to you to make sure that you are ready next in-season. Keep us posted on you progress.
Martin Rooney
Martin. This is a question for the strength section. I have been working on squatting and not sure of best form. I keep weights under my heels to keep them from coming up. I saw this in a book. Is this ok? I squat more weight when I do this. Matt A.
Pictured is Martin Rooney going through his big 5 stretches before every lower body and squat workout. Without the right flexibility, not only will performance suffer, but injuries are eventually bound to happen.
Matt,
Thanks for writing in and this is a great question. It is excellent that you are taking a look at this instead of just following what you might see someone else do. This type of questioning will eventually lead you to better understanding your own body and the best way to train it. Although you might not see that yet, that is the ultimate goal in training.
What you are talking about does refer to strength training, but it is directly related to your flexibility. One of the most common areas that I see athletes have tightness is in the calf complex and specifically in what is called the soleus muscle. This muscle is under the muscle that most people call the calf (which is really known as the gastrocnemius). How you would see if the tightness is here would be to bend your knee and then stretch the muscles in the calf. If this is much tighter than when you stretch the calf muscles with the knee straight, this may be an issue. If this is not the case, you may want to look at the flexibility at the ankle and make sure that there are no issues there.
In addition to the calf muscles, you also want to make sure that your hip rotators and hip flexors are also not too tight. If either one of these is tight, this could lead to decreased range of motion in the squat and you might see the heels again rise up as a result of the motions that those tightnesses might create.
I suggest trying out the stretches that I have pictured above. I do these before every lower body workout after I have gone through our dynamic warmup. Hold the stretch for about 5 seconds, relax and then repeat on the other side. Repeat each on each side 3-5 times. To show my athletes the power of this, I have them first try to squat before the stretches and then squat afterward to see the difference in flexibility. I am sure the results will be interesting.
I hope this helps and best of luck,
Martin Rooney
Martin. I am looking to improve my jumping ability. I want to jump higher and have been working on plyo jumps on boxes, ladder work and O lifts. How should I be using these to maximize my jump. What do you think of strength shoes? John Gorman
Here is muay thai fighter Joe Sampieri showing off a little vert at the facility. Although Joe spends a ton of time working on technique, he also knows that building his strength is a key to getting big air.
John,
Great to hear from you and thanks for writing in. Just like people like to get faster and stronger, a lot of people are always writing in looking to jump higher as well. I guess these basic qualities are ingrained into us and we naturally want to improve them.
From your list of activities, it looks like you are probably on track, but I dont know anything about you in terms of training history, current level of ability and what exactly the workouts consist of. Depending on the answers to those questions, we may have the bottleneck in your jumping ability.
On your list, I also see that most of the acitivities revolve around reactive movements like jumps and explosive movements like the Olympic lifts. In both cases, I would like to make sure that the preconditions are set to maximally benefit from them. What I mean here is that if you are not as strong as you need to be, you can still jump and Olympic lift, but that doesnt mean you will reach maximal height. I believe you need to have a high level of max strength and then learn to use that strength quickly. That is, after all, what happens during a vertical jump.
Speaking of those movements and jumps, there is also specific technique that is involved to maximize jump height as well. I would make sure that you are videoing or have a coach working with you on this. Also, remember that the training you have listed is taxing to the muscular and nervous systems. As a result, make sure that you are getting enough rest in between sessions. If you are not, this could be an issue behind the problem as well.
As for the shoes, I dont know enough about you to recommend them. Over the years, I have not had much experience with them, so I will choose not to comment on what I think. As for a product that could help you reach a new PR. Check out the vertical DVD we have. It goes over the technique to max out on the test.
Now, for all of you wondering what happened to me after the jump, I was ok, Joe didnt kick my head off. Here is a shot of him, however, recently from Thailand drilling into some ribs with jumping power.
I hope this helps.
Martin Rooney