Over the next week, we’ll be promoting two new programs, both of which I highly recommend.
I’m letting you know in advance, to be honest, in order to avoid returns from those of you who get the one coming out tomorrow and then realize, next week, that you’d rather have that one.
The first new program is Mike Boyle’s Functional Strength Coach 4.0.
It comes out tomorrow and it’s really good.
One area I’ve improved my coaching considerably is by studying more coaches who are not track and field coaches. I don’t think we do enough of that in our sport.
I don’t think we, especially college coaches with their low numbers, do enough FMS with individual athletes or in terms of making group assessments and prescribing corrective activities in the warm up and weight room in order to address those imbalances.
(If you don’t know what FMS is then my point is proven.)
I’ve stolen a great deal from Boyle since I really started studying his information when I got Functional Strength Coach 3 back in late 2009. Since then…
-I’ve made foam rolling a core part of my program (and seen considerably less soft tissue injuries).
-I’ve made ankle mobility and lower leg work a core part of my program (and seen shin splints decrease by almost comical numbers).
-I’ve drastically increased the amount of single leg work in our strength programming (once the event starts how much time is spent on two legs?).
-I now understand why hamstring issues are not hamstring issues, ‘quad’ issues are not ‘quad’ issues, knee pain isn’t about the knee and back pain isn’t about the back (as someone without a science background, the ‘joint by joint approach’ really helped me write better programs).
Strength training information is something I know people want. I know this isn’t ‘event specific’, but this program goes way beyond that. If strength training is an area of relative weakness for you, you should check it out.
You can wait for my email tomorrow or you can go watch this video:
Functional Strength Coach 4.0.
The second new program we are releasing is Boo Schexnayder’s ‘Workout Planning for the Jumps’ Master Class.
It comes out on Monday, April 30.
If you have Boo’s ‘Technique & Teaching’ DVDs you know how good they are.
But, after I watched them and took notes I said to myself,
“Sick. But where, when, how many times and how often do I do all this stuff?”
So I went straight to the source and I asked Boo to do a Master Class on the topic.
He did not disappoint.
In fact, now that I’ve gone through it several times, both for my own programming as well as in preparation for the release, I will say this:
Boo Schexnayder’s Workout Planning for the Jumps Master Class may be the best track and field coaching education resource I have ever seen.
I’m serious.
I have a healthy library of books, VHS tapes and DVDs. The only thing that is even in the ball park in terms of blowing my mind apart is the feeling I got after watching Loren Seagrave’s Speed Dynamics tapes when I was 22 and didn’t know my ass from my elbow. (And, yes, you could argue I still don’t.)
You could use this program for your sprints and sprint hurdles programming and not even miss a beat if you know what you’re doing.
Somehow he managed to make this program super basic, so less experienced coaches can almost cut and paste his templates based on the number of days per week you practice.
But it’s also amazingly complex. So if you tweak to coaching track and/or you’re an experienced coach, you can go all the way down the rabbit hole.
I had so many ‘palm to the forehead’ moments watching this that I’m almost embarrassed. (And if you’ve ever heard me speak at a conference or clinic, you know I don’t get embarrassed too easily.)
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So there you have it.
Obviously, if you can afford it, I recommend both programs. They both made me a better coach despite being wildly different products.
And we don’t endorse crap around here so you can be sure they will be worth it.
Regardless, I just wanted to give you a heads up about both programs.
If you have questions, you can post them below.
To your success,
Latif Thomas