Long Term Athletic DevelopmentLast week, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Mike Lane, Associate Professor in the Department of Exercise and Sports Science at Eastern Kentucky University. We discussed long term athletic development. I’m going to discuss my thoughts regarding the discussion and the available evidence regarding long term athletic development. If you want to listen in to our discussion on The Barbell Life Podcast, here’s the link:
⇒ Long Term Athletic Development with Dr. Mike Lane
At Rise Indoor Sports, I am privileged to witness the development of so many athletes both young men and young women. We work with sports like volleyball, baseball, football, basketball, football, wrestling, and of course, all of the strength sports (weightlifting, powerlifting, and strongman). I have witnessed success, and I have witnessed several mistakes.
In this article, I hope to help you avoid those mistakes, but more importantly, I hope to help guide your success. You might come to see that success might not look the way you envision it, but yet still, success indeed. In this article, you can expect to find:
- How to quantify your goal more objectively and as precisely as possible
- How to measure where you are in relation to those precise goals and why like
- Energy systems
- Strength quality
- Nutrition and recovery
- What information you might find by training the athlete for a few months
- Their response to training?
- Were they compliant?
- Their thoughts on the task at hand?
- Now you can have a conversation
- Response
Phase 1 Quantifying Goals Objectively and Precisely-
When an athlete, or anyone really, sets out to obtain a goal, it’s important to explore the goal as deeply as possible. What are the minimum qualifications? What are the characteristics of the majority of people that have already obtained the goal? Unfortunately, the majority of time, I witness athletes blindly pursuing a goal without even considering what it’s going to take, and normally there is a parent fueling this goal.
I love athletes. I have worked with athletes since 1997. My first athlete was Jenny Driscoll, a college volleyball player that I met in Colorado Springs. I’m the most optimistic coach on earth, and yet, I will always encourage athletes to find out where they stack up in regards to the task at hand. Let me give you a couple of examples.
Example 1 I want to be a Running Back in the NFL-
Awesome, the average running back is 5’11” and weighs 215lb. He also runs a 4.5 second 40-yard dash. He has a 35” vertical leap, performs the 5-10-5 pro agility in 4.35 seconds, and bench presses 225lb x 15. By the way, I coached the man that still holds the NFL 225lb bench press for reps record, Tommy Bohanon, and he performed the exercise for 36 repetitions. You should also know that he was 6’1”, weighed in at 250 pounds, and still ran the 40-yard dash in 4.5 seconds.
Example 2 I want to be a Navy Seal-
Wonderful, you have to perform a 500-yard swim in under 12 minutes 30 seconds, 50 push-ups & sit-ups in 2 minutes, 10 strict pull-ups, and complete a 1.5 mile run in under 10 minutes 30 seconds. Then, there’s a medical examination, and each candidate must score high enough on the ASVAB (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery) test. Then the fun really begins with BUD/S (Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL Training), which is going to push them physically and mentally to the very edge of what they believe is possible. They will also need to pass a Psychological Evaluation test, manage the Dive Phase, and some will also need to Assessment and Selection (A&S). Phase 3 will be critical for this group.
Phase 2 Measure the Current State of the Athlete and Clarification Testing-
It’s easy enough to test the athlete’s current state of fitness. You can test their 40-yard dash and pro-agility test. You can test their 1.5 mile test, push-ups, and pull-ups. However, it’s more important that you find out why the athlete is succeeding or not. Let me give you a few examples of tests that you might perform.
Tests for Speed, Strength, and Power-
- Phases of Sprinting: we use the ShredMill to test an athlete’s acceleration, transition phase, and top end speed. This tool is even better for ongoing monitoring and training because you can cue the athlete in real time.
- Timing Gates: at Rise Indoor Sports, we use the best timing gates in the world, Swift Performance Timing Gates, to precisely measure the 40-yard dash, but the gates allow us to track the 10-yard sprint for acceleration and the flying 30-yard dash over the final 30 yards. All of this is tracked in one sprint. Then we know if it’s the athlete’s acceleration or speed endurance holding them back.
- Dynamic Strength Index– this is a test that will measure an athlete’s peak force capability with exercises like the back squat, isometric mid-thigh pull (IMTP), or trap bar deadlift. Then we measure the amount of peak force an athlete is using during an actual explosive movement like a countermovement jump aka vertical leap. If they’re using every bit of their available peak force, then they need to get stronger. If they’re not using very much of their peak force, they need to focus on sprinting, bounding, and plyometrics. If they’re using a perfect amount, then they can focus on a bit of both strength, speed, and power expression. Here’s an article that will explain the test exactly:
- Practical Uses of the Dynamic Strength Index an article I wrote for GymAware.
- Reactive Strength Index– this is a test that will measure an athlete’s reactive ability. This means the test will measure an athlete’s ability to store elastic energy in their joints. Tendons, other connective tissue, and Titin Protein Molecules along with other components of an athlete’s physiology that resists stretch are responsible for this ability. It’s also a look at the athlete’s efficient use of their stretch shortening cycle. All of this explains why athlete’s seem to glide when they sprint, and why Michael Jordan seemed to take flight leaping from the foul line for a slam dunk. Here’s a look at another article from GymAware:
- Force Velocity Profile– if you want to discover the quality of strength that is lagging with an athlete, this is the test for you. Performing this test correctly will also determine at what point maximum power is taking place. All of these are important for an athlete’s focus in training.
Measuring Energy Systems-
Alright guys, let’s break it down like this—VO2 Max and lactate threshold are two key players in your performance game, but they measure different aspects of your fitness.
VO2 Max is all about your body’s ability to take in and utilize oxygen during intense exercise. Think of it as the maximum amount of oxygen your muscles can use while you’re pushing hard. It’s a solid indicator of your aerobic capacity; the higher it is, the better you can perform in endurance activities.
Lactate Threshold– Now, on the flip side, we have the lactate threshold. This is where things get a bit spicy. It’s the point during exercise where lactate starts to accumulate in the blood faster than your body can clear it out. When you hit that threshold, you’re entering the zone where fatigue starts creeping in quicker, meaning your endurance isn’t as effective anymore. Essentially, it tells you how hard you can work before fatigue sets in.
So, while VO2 Max focuses on the oxygen your body can use, the lactate threshold shows us how efficiently you can perform before hitting that wall. Understanding both is crucial for athletes to train smart and optimize performance. For tactical athletes and endurance sports, these measurements are crucial.
Other Tests to Consider-
My friends Dr. Andy Galpin, Coach Dan Garner, Doug Larson, and Anders Varner have created a company, Rapid Health Optimization. These guys have taken testing to a whole new level. They truly consider everything with tests like:
- Urine analysis
- Blood analysis
- Saliva
- Feces
- Hair
- Movement
- Sleep testing
- HRV
- Psych evaluation
It’s one thing to find out a person’s VO2 Max, strength levels, and other performance measures, but it’s more important to find out why they’re coming up short. Is it something that nutrition, recovery, or better sleep hygiene might help? Is it more elasticity in the joints needed to perform? Once you gather all the possible information, it’s time to get to work.
Phase 3 Coach Them for 3 Months Implementing Suggested Protocols
Coach them for ~3 months and implement necessary protocols:
- Nutrition
- Supplementation
- Sleep
- Recovery
- Conditioning
- Strength and power
- Sprinting, bounding, and plyometrics
- Muscle Biopsy (slow twitch, fast twitch, or hybrid)
- Subjective questionnaires, etc).
Then record:
- How they responded?
- How compliant?
- What did they think of that lifestyle?
Then you have an idea of how far they’re from the target. You also know how they respond to training, and how compliant they are to the protocols set in place. At the end of the training, it’s important to have a conversation as well.
Phase 4 Time to Have a Conversation-
Are they willing to do what it takes to reach the goal? This is what gets most folks. Everyone wants to be an Olympian, a professional athlete, or a Navy Seal until they actually start the work. The work isn’t glamorous. No one is going to be there to tell the athlete to go to bed or to get off of their cell phones. No one is going to make them get out of bed at 5am.
Do they have the potential for the desired goal, and how long it will take? This is the hard part. This is the conversation that has to happen. One last thing, I think there is another conversation that has to happen that isn’t taking place right now. Would the athlete be cut out for something better? This was one of the ideas proposed from Dr. Mike Lane, and I love it.
What if during testing you discovered that an athlete with the goal of playing college football would be a better weightlifter, thrower, or sprinter? Yes, this is still a hard conversation to have, but this is the very conversation that put me on my current path. My college strength and conditioning coach at Appalachian State University, Coach Mike Kent, is the one that told me about Olympic weightlifting. This conversation is the reason I have been all over the world, and the reason I live a life that doesn’t really feel like a job.
Phase 5 How to Respond-
You have all the information. All that’s left is to determine the plan. If the athlete decides to take an alternate route, then I recommend circling back to Phase 3. They might seem to have everything needed genetically, but you will still need to look at their response to the new training protocol. You will also need to see if the athlete enjoys the new protocol.
You will have a timeline, but that timeline might change along the way. It might not take as long as you anticipated, or it might take longer. Those changes can be implemented along the way. You will find that the finish line will be a constant moving carrot.
Conclusion-
I know that this can be hard to read sometimes for athletes, parents, and even coaches. If my child came to me desiring to be a professional baseball player, I would run the same protocols. Ultimately, the decision is up to him or her, but I will do my best to give them clear expectations with as many emotions set aside as possible.
I will end with a few words of encouragement. There will be many forks in the road in life. All you can do is make an educated choice. I believe that God’s decretive will is going to happen regardless of my choice, but of course, you might not believe the same. I’m ok with that, but the rest of my advice is true for all. Whichever road you choose, own that road and see it through. When I am lying on my death bed someday, I will be able to look my children in the eye and tell them I had big dreams, and I saw those dreams to the bitter end. Some of those dreams worked out, and some I came up short.
Coming up short or not isn’t the point. The point is going down that road. I had the courage to go down that road, and I owned that choice. That’s all that I can hope for my children and anyone else reading this article.
Coach Travis Mash
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