Competition Coaching

Having just come back from the NFL Scouting Combine helped remind me how much I have been helped by my experiences coaching athletes in competition. I have been fortunate enough to have coached athletes internationally in weightlifting and in the high school setting in track as well. These experiences have given me both an appreciation for what an athletes goes through, and a mind set of preparing and protecting my athletes.
If you are going to be a performance coach, it can be a tremendous value to have the experience of coaching in competition. I believe track & field, and weightlifting, provide the perfect opportunity to do this. They are very different than coaching a team sport. In team sports its usually about group dynamics and an ongoing season. In these individual sports its about peaking and preparing the athlete for battle psychologically.

As I was at the combine, I can't help but notice how many performance coaches have spent weeks or months preparing their athletes physically, only to pay no attention to their preparation days before the event. As a weightlifting coach early in my career, I was brought up on some basic fundamentals; manage the stress of the athlete, be prepared for contingencies, keep them peaked physically while travelling.

Minimizing stress for your athlete is huge. As much as possible, it should be someone's responsibility to take care of schedules, travel, accommodations, eating arrangements, directions to venues/training sites, etc... Basically, the athlete should not have to focus on figuring stuff out. Make it easy for them. Their mental and emotional energy should be preparing for competition.


Another aspect of minimizing stress (and probably the bigger impact) is how the people around the athlete conduct themselves. As the coach, athletes can feed off your tone. You need to project calm and confidence for your athlete. EVEN WHEN YOU DON'T FEEL IT. Fake it in front of them. Few things can erode an athlete's confidence faster than doubt, anxiety and negativity in their coach.

I was an Eagle Scout so BE PREPARED is something I have had hammered in. As the coach, are you ready for problems, because something will not go as planned. Did you have your athlete put critical gear in their carry-on for when their luggage is lost? Do you build in extra travel time to arrive early so when the shuttle breaks down you don't miss the start? DO you have a back-up plan when you can't get into that room you were going to use for a dynamic warm-up the night before? The list is endless, and coaching/managing on national and international trips you will learn these things matter quickly.

Check out all of the venues and sites beforehand. Know the layout and what will happen where and when. How will things be run? What do you want to make sure your athlete knows ahead? Don't let them be surprised or thrown off their game.

The physical side is probably the most obvious for many performance coaches, but still often overlooked. I can't tell you how many athletes spent many weeks and lots of money preparing for the Combine, only to show up and have not done anything physical for 4-5 days before the biggest "track meet" of their careers. They don't sleep, eat poorly and do nothing physical, then hope they run and jump well on day 4. Worse of all, their performance coaches aren't taking steps to avoid this.

We often have the athlete whose family shows up and wants to keep him up late or the agent ho wants to go have a nice heavy steak dinner at 10:00PM when the athlete is getting up at 5:30 tomorrow to run. Its my job as a coach to try to manage these problems before hand and intercede when I can. I need to be the advocate looking out for my athletes.

Getting guys to do an early warm-pool workout after a day of travel, dynamic warm-ups, mental rehearsal, practicing starts, stretching, therapy, and soft tissue work are all pieces of the puzzle I try to manage. Make sure you have nutrition for them. At the NFL Combine, guys are stuck in interviews or medical exams for extended hours. Make sure they have healthy snacks.


Without having coached individual sport athletes in competition I would not have the same perspective. As a coach trying to develop, you should try to find those opportunities. Join a club and help coach track, weightlifting, or powerlifting. If you are not the competition coach, become a support for those clubs and coaches and travel to a competition. Learn by doing and see what you can add to your coaching toolbox.

40 Yd Dash Training Tools

Over this coming week I'll be posting about how we prepare our guys for the 40yd dash at the Scouting Combine. I'll be in Indianapolis with our guys for 8 days so I should be able to find the time.

One of the greatest challenges of preparing athletes for the NFL Combine is that we have such a short time. We need to find those places where we can have the most impact and which drills will be most effective.

One of the areas we can impact the most is the start. We are going to try and build power and impart some basic technique. I say basic because most of the guys never ran track. The mechanics of acceleration in football are generally in contrast to those that are best for the 40yd dash.

One of the common movement strategies is to stay low and to take quick, choppy steps. Great if you are a running back hitting the hole, or a lineman who needs to apply leverage against another 300lb guy, but really ineffective if you need to go straight ahead as fast as possible.

Acceleration bounds are a great tool for these guys. It helps then develop specific leg power and rate of force development. It reinforces applying them in a proper direction and often can help improve the range of motion.

We actually progress those short. choppy step guys using some 3pt starts directly into an acceleration bound. Though its an exaggeration, it helps them learn about building a drive phase. We do this as a contrast drill and progress towards an optimal 3pt start and first ten yards.

Some guys struggle with achieving a technically proficient bound however from a motor control standpoint. This is especially true for many of our "big uglies", the 300 lb linemen.

We have the FORCE treadmill from Woodway and its a great tool to help this. As you can see in the video below, it takes away some of the challenges and lets the athlete focus on 3 of our 4 main points; Big Force, Proper Direction, and Optimal Range of Motion.


We can add a significant load if the athlete can handle it since the FORCE has adjustable resistance. To facilitate motor learning we use it in a contrast method, where we go and do 10 yard starts after a few reps, and repeat this several times.

I find it very effective. We see instant improvements in fewer steps over ten yards, faster times, and a better drive action in the initial 1-4 steps. Then we have to keep reinforcing it and make sure they do it when the pressure is on.

When Feedback is Too Much

Feedback to athletes on their performance is very important to facilitate motor learning. They are always getting some feedback from their kinestethic sense. Whether that feedback is well tuned is an entirely different story.


We give feedback to coaches as to the quality of performance as well. Often this is just verbal, but we also use additional means.


To augment this as coaches we use methods such as video analysis, timing and more. When working on start and acceleration technique, a common scenario we may use is to utilize timers or stopwatch to time a start. Now this can occur in a few ways. One is to provide OUTCOME feedback. Did you run that short distance faster?

This is useful because it may be a specific goal that is a measuring stick for overall performance. For instance, we set 10yd goals for our NFL Combine athletes that are statistically related to their targeted 40yd dash time. We use this to get data on training progress and readiness.

Another reason we may time a start is for more PROCESS oriented goals. While experienced track athletes become very aware of differences in their performances, team sport athletes like football players seldom do. Individual sport athletes are taught to have a better awareness of the body and attention to movement detail. Its inherent in their events.

A football player is conditioned to the exact opposite. Ignore the pain, don't pay attention to the aches and pains. The is some practicality to this if your are going to play at a high level. Unfortunately it gets in the way of players training well. They don't know what their body needs and can't grade performance.

So using some feedback on reps can help this process. In the start example with our NFL Combine guys, we may do a technical drill like a wall drill. Then a few starts. Some of our guys will then be doing release starts, while others are doing bounds, and still others are doing sled pulls. After a number of reps, they will go and do a start or two.

Now here's the key. If I want them focusing on the PROCESS, how that rep felt relative to the time, I probably don't use 10yds. The reason is since they have goals for 10yds, they instantly throw how they FEEL out the window and focus on the result. They are under tremendous stress about this ultimate job interview that is the combine. They can become far to caught up in the outcome instead of getting quality training in.

Feedback is an important tool, just keep in mind what it will lead the athlete to focus on. Times and video are great tools in your coaching toolbelt, just be sure to wield it well.

Too Heavy for Speed?

During NFL Combine training, its always interesting to see some guys get freaked out when they gain weight. They are sure they can't weigh over XXX lbs or else they won't be fast.

Now I'm proud of the results we get with our guys in the area of body composition. We have most guys shed significant bodyfat while gaining muscle. Providing proper nutrients, at the proper time, to young healthy (college starved) muscles that are in need of good nutrition makes it easy. Our apporach is very close to the methods promoted by Dr. John Berardi. Read some of his articles for more info.

This does lead most of our players to gain some weight. Its usually only a couple of pounds total, but its the change in composition that is dramatic. We had one player who recently hit 250 after having been no heavier than 248 ever. Now he has dropped 15 lbs of fat, but added 17 of lean tissue. That 250 mark really had him worried. The same week, he set PRs in his 5-10-5,1yd, VJ, 3cone, and 20-40yd split. He's not as worried now.




By following sound nutrition principles these athletes are putting on muscle. Because of the training methods, its fast twitch, explosive muscle. Just as importantly good nutrition lets themtrain harder when they are going 2-3 times a day. To get quality speed work, they have to have quality fuel.