As performance coaches we love to talk about the acute variables of training our athletes daily—the sets, the reps, the protocols and techniques that lead to our athletes getting bigger, faster and stronger on the road to high performance. We love to watch the most gifted athletes in our favorite sports perform on the biggest [...]
Just like there are 5 tools that every carpenter should have (hammer, screwdriver, saw, pliers, and a tape measure), there are 5 key exercises you should have in your training tool box. You can’t accomplish every project with these tools, but they will get the job done most of the time! Each of these tools [...]
As strength coaches we are always in the hunt for the best ways to help our athletes get faster and stronger. We are constantly reading the latest articles, scanning the latest blogs, attending the newest certification courses and hunting for the best new tools to push our athletes to the next levels of performance greatness. [...]
Training for power is usually one of the main goals for any strength & conditioning program. But what does that really mean? In its simplest terms, power = force x velocity (or in other terms, strength x speed). Applied to strength and conditioning, power is the amount of force you can transfer to an object, [...]
There is only one way to sprint, and that is fast. Training for Power in the weight room follows that analogy. To develop power you have to train fast. This analogy is also about recovery. To train for speed, do fewer reps with full recovery between sets. The same goes for lifting. To train for [...]
At Higher Power Training, we literally go ballistic over balls. We have a lot of balls at HPT. We have med balls that go from 5 to 100 pounds. We have med balls that bounce, med balls that don’t, med balls on ropes and med balls with handles. Why so many balls? Because when you [...]
Having sound principles of nutrition can have a large impact on the performance and recovery for your athletes. Typically, we want our athletes to be stronger, faster, and more explosive. A part of this is being properly fueled for athletic performance and having a leaner (more muscle, less fat) physique. Educating our athletes about what [...]
As fans of sports and coaches of athletes on many levels, we tune in daily to see amazing feats of athleticism. Agility is a major contributor to these “feats”. There are three important agility training components: acceleration, deceleration, and balance. The athlete’s ability to accelerate and decelerate both linearly and laterally is necessary to compete [...]
One of the hot topics in the world of strength & conditioning and sports performance is how to actually train for improving agility. The debate comes down to the definition of agility and how it differs from change of direction, and ultimately what you are actually training. There is one significant difference between the two [...]
Recently I had the opportunity to work with a freshman team sports physical education class. I don’t remember what our first unit was, but I remember what I did on day one. I started with agility drills. I figured if we were going to be teaching a group of youngsters how to play sports, we [...]