Power cleans are not the same as jump squats
Firstly, I want to emphasise that, in this post, I am not arguing that your training programme must include Olympic lifts.
Every training decision is about weighing up the risk/reward ratio and choosing the most optimal means to achieve your training goal.
Dec 18, 2024 • 19 tweets • 4 min read
Myths of S&C: Part 3
Force-velocity profiling
This one is all smoke and mirrors and for this reason I hate it!
Force-velocity (Fv) profiling of jumping is based on measuring how an athlete's jump height changes with the addition of external load.
This data is of interest, and can be a useful diagnostic tool.
I would have no beef with the method if it was presented in this way.
Dec 9, 2024 • 21 tweets • 4 min read
Myths of S&C: Part 2
Misunderstanding the force-velocity relationship.
Although almost all S&C coaches know Newton's second law (F=ma), our intention tends to be more Aristotelian.
What does this mean? Aristotle said there was a relationship between force and velocity (sound familiar?). The harder you push something the faster it goes.
Newton said no. The relationship is between force and acceleration - the harder you push something the more it accelerates
Dec 2, 2024 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
Myths of S&C Part 1:
The Force-Velocity Curve of Exercises
Curves like this are taken as gospel, but are complete BS.
I was pretty disappointed with myself when I realised that I had been accepting these types of curves uncritically. Its pretty straightforward to see that this type of classification doesn't make sense.
Aug 21, 2020 • 35 tweets • 6 min read
I have some grave concerns about some of the underlying messages in this paper (thread).
For me, it is a good example of an argument that on the surface seems reasonable, but when you dig a bit deeper is badly flawed.
bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/…
First of all, I should state that I do have some sympathy for the problem highlighted by the authors. Yes, it is worrying when there are mistakes in published literature. However, the cure implicit to this article is worse than the problem.
Dec 12, 2018 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
I’ve seen quite a few “how to be a good coach” lists recently. They all seem a bit complicated and specific to me, so I thought I would put together my own.
How to be a better coach: 1. Coach 2. Think about coaching 3. Gather lots of information from a wide range of sources.
There is a lot of overlap between everyday language and technical mechanical terminology. This can lead to a lot of confusion when talking about movement.
It is very common for coaches to use language incorrectly when talking about mechanics. For instance, I talked about the misuse of the term "power" in a separate thread.
I don’t know enough about statistics to decide if the approach is appropriate or not...
And neither do you.
But that is OK.
Oct 19, 2018 • 13 tweets • 11 min read
It's always a huge achievement when a student publishes their MSc dissertation in a peer reviewed research journal. This is a celebration of the @StMarys_SandC students who have published their research in the last 2 years. 😃👏👨🎓🏋️♀️ @YourStMarys@SMUDocCollege
Paul Wood
Lighter and heavier initial loads yield similar gains in strength when employing a progressive wave loading scheme
The force-velocity curve is one of the most badly understood concepts in S&C.
Firstly, in classical mechanics there is no universal relationship between instantaneous force and instantaneous velocity. Many S&C coaches assume there is.
A big problem with justifying training by appealing to DST is that no one really understands it properly (including, I would suggest, most of its proponents).
However, because proponents of DST seem so confident in their delivery, they can appear to have some advanced knowledge of training (this is why they like it).
I'm always surprised by how many (experienced) coaches think that the bar is supposed to bang against the thigh/hips during the pull.
Do they really believe it is possible to "knee" the bar upwards? Not to mention that this seems like a pretty painful strategy.
Sep 1, 2018 • 17 tweets • 2 min read
What is the theory in Dynamic Systems Theory? (thread/rant)
One of @stevemagness's "Rules of Everything" is "We overemphasise the importance of what we can measure and what we already know".
Similarly, in skills coaching we overemphasise the importance of what we can see.
In Olympic weightlifting, one of the easiest positions to see is the so called “triple extension” that occurs at the end of the pull.
This leads many coaches to spend a great deal of time working on this position.
To be effective in your coaching you need to know why errors happen.
In squatting, most errors are due to the fact that athletes are afraid they are going to fall over.
When we squat, we need to keep the projection of our centre of mass (the arrow in the picture), within our base of support (the pink area in the picture). If the arrow moves outside of our base of support we will fall over.
Aug 15, 2018 • 14 tweets • 4 min read
#ForceVectorTheory. A force is, by definition, a vector. The name of the theory is thus a tautology and should really just be “Force Theory”. I thus propose the new name #TheoryOfTheMagicalHorizontalForceMuscle which more accurately captures the fundamental idea behind the theory
Biomechanics 101 - understand the distinction between global (relative to the world) and local (relative to the athlete) frames of reference. When people refer to “horizontal” forces they generally mean in the global frame #TheoryOfTheMagicalHorizontalForceMuscle