Been busy wrapping up the semester so not much to write, just thought id check in.  Started reading Charlie Francis, Key Concepts which lays out CF structure of workouts a little better than his other book I read, Training Systems.  On a personal note started listening to podcasts on these drives out to Jersey, getting tired of listening to music all day.  At least with podcasts I'm learning something new haha.  The biggest thing I've begun to learn is you ALWAYS have to learn.  I would get lazy and just come home and (for the most part) watch tv or bs on the computer, chaulk it up as, "Im in college I read enough during class and for my assignments".  I would definatly read articles posted online, but nothing like I've been doing lately with this internship, reading training books, research articles, etc.

I could still be doing better with it but slowly trying to get better habits, like reading more, getting up early even though I don't have to to get more done, whatever I have to do to be successful at training and more importantly life.  My thing is find the successful people and do what they are doing, and the guys at Defrancos get up early and read or get stuff done so they can read later.

So, now that you know my motivation (success) I'll leave you guys with a few pics ive taken over the past couple days.  I'll check back in with more notes soon.

Pro guys getting some sled pulls in.  

Joe recently sung the praises of the supplement company ONNIT.  He won't endorse it unless he uses it himself (he did even before they contacted him).  If its good enough for Defrancos then its good enough for you.

Still have regular internship duties, clean the bathrooms, keep the gym neat, put away apparel… really not bad at all though.

Kicker who recently started coming into Defrancos.  It was cool because the coach who works with him lets me take some of his guys through the warm up so even though its quick and only a warm up, its my first one-on-one time with athletes here.  Simple step but rewarding!

Hope everyone had a great thanksgiving!

I have been keeping a notepad with me on both my internships (NY Islanders and Defrancos) to write down everything I've been learning.  This notebook has become EXTREMELY valuable to me in that it has down a lot of what I have learned since August.  Decided I'd share some notes I've been taking down learning from these guys to share with everyone.  Really cool stuff in no particular order....

Coach M evals...
   -start from ground up
   -foot (arch collapse?)
   -cross correlation between hips and shoulder (in reference to pain)
   TREATMENT: 1.treat symptoms 1st   2. treat causes

Sprint Training (working with D1 baseball player)
   -knees all over during acceleration (strength of glute meds)
   -arm flair- shoulders off,hips off, arch
   -DON'T OVER COACH!!! do the best you can but don't stress over it, you can only undo so much years of habits of athlete in given time with them

Read Dan Paff

High/low-Med CNS workouts

-Cant use until certain training age/weights achieved
-For instance, a novice lifter will only stress the CNS so much because they can't produce enough force.  Fatigue and breakdown of technique will occur before CNS exhaustion.  Once experienced enough CNS will be tapped into.  This is why high/low, once experienced enough, the just performing sport specific movement stress the athletes bodies because they are so efficent at them now.  It has been described to me as a ferrari athlete vs a toyota camery, one can handle everyday stress of driving but one is all out everytime.  Complicated and still working on the finer details but good start to look into.  read more charlie francis about this.
High intense- Squat, sprints, Deads, Cleans    Low/mid- Bench, tempos, accessory mvments

Charlie francis breakdown of sprint over 100m










"NEVER LET AN ATHLETE FAIL"- challenge them but make sure they end a set/exercise on a high note.  athletes can be extremely sensitive and may limit themselves next time in the weightroom or field if they feel they aren't strong enough or whatever.  Adjust to make them succeed (don't make too easy but that they feel accomplished)


Cuff work:
  prone/supine, uni/bilateral "I", "Y", "T", "W",PRESS


Ecc/iso work for weaker athletes so they feel mvment pattern
experienced guys this may be too heavy
can switch accessory work every 2 weeks

1st focus on strength work with athletes before any CNS work (sprints, jumps, med ball) because this will prob increase speed and explosion just thru force increases.  Plus may not be strong enough to get quality runs anyway.

charlie francis goals of conditioning thru tempo work.  each box is energy pathway (anaerobic, lactic, aerobic)








Coach CJ eval-basic warm up and workout to see in general where conditioning/mobility/strength levels are.

Workload compatibility vs non compatible vladamir issurin

Charlie Francis Key Concepts

Max vs operational output levels



There are some more notes but to keep them confidential i will not be sharing those.  also some of my notes are directly from defrancos and freakstength.com so it would not be right to share their info for free.  i would suggest checking out there stuff though they have helped me.  check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zQHEs2TBr0 and defrancos other dvds and http://freakstrength.com/shop/.

Gonna check in real  quick before I head out to Defrancos,

Wanted to talk about how some of the coaches run their evals.  I've been with Coach M through a few evals, he likes to work from the ground up.  He starts by looking at the athletes feet and working up from there.  A good video describing how important he thinks an athletes feet are can be seen here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9PraNgj9NU.  From here he tends to find issues with the hips, shoulders, etc. through having them perform simple motions like horizontal abduction of the shoulders, simple squats, lunges, among a few others.  From here he can prescribe certain warm ups or exercises designed to enhance their functionality of certain movements and work on certain weak points.  Another benefit is he finds out how the athletes learn; some are good audible listeners and pick things up quickly, some need to "feel" out a motion and perform it physically before they know how to really get it, and some need a lot of time and coaching to learn new exercises.  All different types of motor learning in the gym.

While Coach CJ is more of Coach M's mindset when it comes to programming and actual training sessions, his evals are different in that he just jumps right into a workout without a typical "eval session".  He sets up his warm up to get the athlete or client moving through simple motions like squats and certain skips.  He uses these exercise to see if the person has proper ankle mobility, hip mobility, shoulder, etc.  Also he pushes the pace a little quicker than usual to see where their conditioning is at.  I can appreciate this method in that its practical and quick and lets you see the athlete in action.

Coach P is a version of Coach M's eval session in that he checks the feet and works up from there.  He does a few things different from Coach M, but also includes simple exercise like band pull aparts and push ups.  Its pretty neat because he include me and actually ask me what I see with certain things.  He has an incredible eye for things like certain muscles firing incorrectly around the shoulder girdle or the athletes foot being slightly externally rotated.  I'm ok at it because of some physical therapy background but with his help I should get a lot better at it.

Gotta head out there now, I'll update with some videos and pics next time.

PS- Still waiting to hear back from WP baseball coach about helping out with the programming for the team.  We'll see where that goes.

Hey guys,

Sorry I didn't get to post anything this past week until now, been crazy trying to juggle everything.  Internship, super busy at my other job, stuff in my personal life came up this week, and I am actually up in CT right now because my girlfriend (sorry ladies, taken) is taking a test for her Masters of Nutrition degree (the couple that gets degrees together, stays together!).  Still a great week at Defrancos, always learning...

One of the coaches who I've been following a lot got married this week.  A lot of people came through, including Arno Galmarini, a performance coach who has his own gym training center in Switzerland (http://articles.elitefts.com/training-articles/galmarini-elite-training/, http://www.elite-training.ch/).   Before the coach left on his honeymoon in the middle of the week however, his AAA pitcher started having issues with his throwing shoulder.  Turns out he slept on it wrong.  The was a learning experience for me however seeing how the "art of coaching" came in.  For the first time the coach wasn't 100% sure what his athlete was going to be doing.  He was just about to switch him to the next phase of his program as well.  He didn't freak though, just adjusted the training.  Instead of his general work he normally was doing baseball (see last post and Bondarchuk's general/sport specific model), he just wanted to take his pitcher through low intensity work bringing blood to the shoulder to loosen it up and bring some nutrients to the area.

Homemade bodyblade with pvc, duct tape, and two lacrosse balls.

Light rope work.

He also performed some ROM exercises and a few other light intensity drills.  He still hit some lower body strength work, but the main focus was getting that arm better.  After a day or two of this work, he came in Thursday saying he felt 100 times better and all the range was back to his arm.  

As far as working with the other coaches, I got some insight into their background and where they came from and their views on training.  Where as with Coach M, I sometimes get lost in some of the things he's talking about (super smart and relentless when it comes to learning), I find that with some of the other coaches I understand their methodologies a little better.  Coach P is a self-described, "basic and simple" coach.  His programming is straightfoward with a logical progression and is based on how much actual time he has with each athlete, such as 6, 18, 50 sessions.  Based on the time he has with the athlete, he can teach them what he can.  Coach CJ is more of Coach M's mindset in the type of programming (see Cal Dietz and his book Triphasic Training + Russian and Eastern block reseachers like Bondarchuk, Issurin, Verkhoshansky).  Coach C has been coaching for awhile now, and has worked under some of the best S&C coaches in football.  He knows Coach M/CJ's training style but has a "quicker" format.  Whereas Coach M's athletes may stay in the gym 2-3 hours running through everything their body may need like scap strengthening, better hip movement patterns, etc., Coach C will get to the nitty-gritty and hit the major problem areas or areas where the biggest improvement needs to be made.  

While each coach trains his own type of way, they could all switch their style to match the others very easily.  All these guys are VERY GOOD at what they do, and all are always staying up-to -date and evolving their own thinking.  However, I think its a testament to Joe Defranco that his coaches can coach they way they think will get the best results.  He could easily have an ego and tell his guys how he wants them coaching and that's it, but he realizes each of his guys brings something different and valuable to the table and the athletes benefit from this.  

As far as where I'm fitting in to the gym, I'm still getting to know all the athletes better and getting more comfortable with how things run in the gym and the methods that the coaches use.  It is still pretty slow, the gym gets maybe around 15 clients a day now, but as the coaches keep telling me, this is the "calm before the storm" when all the college guys come back from school over break.  Shortly after that, we'll probably get some NFL combine guys coming in for about 7-8 weeks getting ready for that.  I believe a local baseball team around high-school aged will start training 1-2 times a week, as well as other per-season baseball guys.  Looking forward to it!

Don't have my notes on me (stuck in CT), but I'll look over them later and let you guys know if there is anything valuable in there I can share.  I'm sure there is, one day in Defranco's learning from these guys is enough to have you researching the answers or what they talked about for hours! Can't wait til the semester's over so I can research and read some material some more...

powerlifter eccentric squat

11/05/13-

Update from Defrancos...

Starting to build some relationships with some of the athletes which is always key.  If you have that connection with the athlete it is so much better working with them because they begin to trust you and that mutual respect/caring starts to take place on both ends.  You genuinely start to care about their successes and failures and it drives you to be a better coach for them.  Charlie Francis wrote a lot about taking that genuine interest in his athletes in the book I read, Charlie Francis's Training System.  This is something I also realized while working at my previous job at a physical therapy office.  Once I got to know all the patients I was working with on a personal basis, I became to really care about the progress they were making so they could get back to their normal family, work, and personal life (all of which we would talk about).  So excited to start hearing about these athletes personal achievements once their season begins.

I also got to work with my first client one-on-one Monday.  The little guy is a twelve year old football player with some lower limb issues (one leg longer than the other).  Even got to talk to this guy about school and sports.  While his program wasn't very complicated (sprinting in place, planks, lunges, all bodyweight stuff), it was rewarding taking him through his workout and just talking to him.  Looking forward to working with him in the future.

Also been hanging more one-on-one with some of the baseball guys that come in on a regular clip.  One is a AAA pitcher with the Twins and another is a college player (not sure what position actually).  They have been coming in for two and three off-seasons, respectively.  Because they come three to five times a week for months a time, I usually ask them a few questions about their own programming and some of the exercises so I can get a better grasp on how the coaches program.  The college guy has walked me through a lot of the upper body "circuts" and med ball work that the guys go through on a regular basis.  The AAA guy opened my eyes to his programming (look up Cal Dietz's programs at the U of Minnesota) and some of his specific warm up.  This is the great thing about Defranco's.  They don't just "give you the fish, they teach you how to fish" if anyone has heard that before.  As I posted in the past, they teach the athletes to be self reliant, the only time they need the coaches is to watch their more explosive/sport specific exercises or to tell them the next part of the workout.

Starting to feel pretty comfortable here, which is strange for me settling in so fast in a new environment.  Usually I'll have incredible anxiety for awhile, but the coaches (specifically Coach M) have really welcomed me and been very open with all my questions.  I have received so much reading/video/audio material from Coach M also that it helps me understand the reasoning behind his and a few other coaches methods which helps me settle in as well.  I am also finally in a setting with athletes that I haven't been able to have since I played sports in my own undergrad.  Growing up primarily playing sports and then being thrust into the "grown-up" world without much transition, you miss those memories and experiences with your teammates.  This is a comfortable setting with familiar types of people (athletes) for me.

Been taking some pics and videos.  Take a look at what I get to be around everyday!!

                                          

AAA pitcher performing med ball work.

The pro guys getting some sled/speed work in.  SUPER FAST!!!!

Pitcher getting some throws in.

Pitchers programming.

Bondarchuk's general/sport specific model.

10/30/13

AWESOME second day!!

Before I get started with this post, let me just say a few things that every intern should learn before going into a internship that should help them out like it has help me so far...

1.   Work your ass off and take pride in your work.  This should be obvious but I have heard from multiple business owners and managers saying how some of their interns were lazy and constantly being told to get their butts in gear.  Big no-no.

2.  Be self motivated and always try to learn.  Always be looking for something for to do or trying to learn from the employees and pick their brains.  Make the most of your time that you have with these people.

3.  The rules that apply to the employees DO NOT apply to you.  Just because the employees can sit or talk on their cell phones at times does not mean you can.  You haven't earned the same privileges they have.

4.  Be respectful and introduce yourself to everyone.  Do this with a nice firm handshake and look them in the eye.  Its their house not yours, you go introduce yourself.

That being said I think I have earned most of the coaches and athletes respect by following these simple rules.  I was asked to come in an hour early today so I could do all the cleaning and other intern duties the staff had laid out for me.  Four hours later I was wrapping up cleaning up the gym.  From there I got to get started my learning process.

I thought I had read a lot of information on the training and programming of athletes.  A few questions into talking with one of the coaches (I'm sure he wouldn't mind but for now I will keep it anonymous like everyone's name at this point) Coach M, I realized I had SOOOO much to learn.

Watching Coach M go through an evaluation and determine that shoulder pain was coming from the athlete's right arch collapsing was pretty amazing.  From there we went into advanced programming in how an athletes intensity level (true intensity level that will actually break the CNS threshold).  I also got to see him work on sprint mechanics and compare two athletes with different types of general weakness at different stages of the sprint, starting sprint strength vs. the elastic/reactive ability.  My mind was blown to say the least.

The coolest part though was that as I was thinking, "Oh crap I am so far behind what the hell was I thinking becoming a Physical Preparedness Coach?" Coach M described that even though he was pretty well versed in a lot of fields and beginning to get pretty good at coaching, everything he had done didn't really start clicking until this past summer (4 or 5 years of serious training and many, many, many hours of reading and researching).  He went on to tell me how everything he had been studying seemed so distant and he couldn't make the connections.  This is how I feel now, reading so many different authors and coaches and trying to piece it all together seems pretty overwhelming.  However, he said it finally all "clicked"  and that the trick was to keep reading and researching.  Someday it will all click.  This calmed me down a lot.  If this coach who is one of the smartest people I have ever talked to regarding training told me how much of a struggle it was, I don't feel so lost anymore.  By the way this coach works his ass off to understand and grasp everything he can, usually waking up at 4 am just because that is when he can get all his reading and learning in for the day.  That's dedication and passion!!!

I'll update with another post possibly going into my notes from today more in depth.  Or I may begin talking about all the new material on the reading list courtesy of Coach M (seriously got a lot of great books, pdfs, videos, and audios from this guy today).  But I'll leave you with a pic of the gym in case you have never seen.  And the guy in the pic is Joe D. himself, 38 years old running a hugely successful business and the guy is still a beast!  Love being in this atmosphere; beasts and truly passionate/genius guys everywhere you turn in this place.

10/28/13

First day of internship at Defranco Training Systems!  So much to write about so I apologize if this seems jumbled a bit...

Overall really cool first day.  Got to meet all the coaches and Joe D. himself, who I have followed for a longgg time on the internet.  I wish I could do more, but gotta pick things up as I go along before I can really start helping coach.  So far I got my cleaning duties and the other intern duties but I don't mind that, as long as I get to learn as much as I can while here I'll do whatever they ask lol.  Saw a lot of really strong, really fast guy at the gym, but I got to see some more normal human beings walk through the doors as well.  I guess the thing about Defrancos is it while it has this whole aura about it that this is the spot where absolute beasts go, this absolutely isn't a requirement.  The thing that the athlete's had in common big or small was that they all seemed to love their sport and were willing to work hard to get better, even if that meant busting their ass for 2-3 hours and Defrancos.

Got in at 12 o'clock to 2 of the coaches warming up with one of the powerlifters doing some foam rolling and mobility drills.  From there about 5-6 athletes came in over the next 20-30 minutes.  The thing with Defrancos is that the athletes all have individualized warm-up, workouts, and programs so depending on the length of the warm up (anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour) athletes get to the gym for their session accordingly.  We had a triple A baseball player for the Twins, a sophomore Rutgers baseball player, a football lineman recovering from a "blown-out" knee, two NFL guys, and varying other athletes and non-athletes come in over the next few hours.

A big thing I took away from the day was how hands-off the coaches were.  I  guess the experience I have had is coaches watching over like a hawk and nit-picking everything, whereas these coaches step back and let the athlete be more responsible for a large part of their workout.  When I say this I don't mean the coaches don't watch at all or are lazy or reckless with their athletes; its actually the complete opposite.  The coaches teach the inexperienced athletes how to work out and how to go through the exercises so they become smarter with their own training.  This was especially evident since one of the athletes took me through some of the circuits they prescribe and actually taught me some exercises.  Also, even with the athletes who have worked out with the coaches for 2 years or more will be scrutinized and coached through the more difficult aspects of the training.  For instance a collegiate baseball athlete was performing some med ball accelerations to work on sprint performance and overall power development.  Because of it's explosive nature with a lot of focus on technique the coach took time to make sure everything looked good while working with 2 other athletes (while watching the coach had 2 stop watches going to let the other athletes know when to hit their next set).

I can already see why I was asked to read the Charlie Francis book coming in.  The "art of coaching" is something I never though about coming into this experience, but multiple times throughout my first few hours I saw the coach cut the exercise sets short to due either breakdown in form or the athlete hitting a PR, constantly asking how the athlete felt, and being able to treat different athletes differently.  Being able to adjust on the fly is a critical skill for strength and conditioning coaches.  It could save your athlete's performance or physical well being, as well as help you connect with your athlete!

As far as readings go, I definitely have to read more CF, as well as get into some of the older Russian texts which I have wanted to do for a while.  Whereas I got a lot of coaching aspects and certain sprint development strategies from CF, from what I have gathered the overall programming  of the Russians is huge with the coaches.  So much reading so little time!!

Day 2 tomorrow.  I'll be writing more frequently to keep you updated.  

Continuing on with getting these internships going…

As I had mentioned, the possibility of coaching some of the women's is still a possiblity, now may have even expanded to some of the men's teams.  I got to meet one of the Associate ADs on the topic today with my professor, and she seems to be a really great person.  She was super acceptive of my interning with athletics, and will send out some feeler emails to the coaches at the university to see if any teams would be interested in my helping out with the strength and conditioning.  Keeping my fingers crossed!

Also, my professor gave me a few examples of annual training plans that will definiatly help out as I begin designing these athletes training schedules.  I have recently tried experimenting with some periodization and designing all the different cycles (micro, meso, macro) based on my own readings and information I have come across my studies, but having these hard copies in front of me definatly helps keeps things straight.

The first is a more traditional approach to the yearly training plan.  It includes the months, competitions, periodisation phases, the macrocycle goals, endurance, strength, flexibility, speed development, technique (skill) development, tactics (team play), psychology development (NEVER THOUGHT OF THAT), testing period, % of training time in conditioning skill or tactical, and training load and intensity.  I had a lot of these in mind, but some (flexibility, psychology, tactical skills) I never thought to plan out.  I guess I am going to have to get every finite detail I can put together for these athletes…

The second is general outline for the Singapore Amateur Athletic Association (SAAA).  My professor spent a good amount of time in Singapore at the national university Nanyang Technological University where he conducted research, taught, and changed some of the physical activity and testing standards for the country.  So, he has some history with the country.  Surprisingly, this was written by their coach (not sure which sport), who is German.  Part of the page is cutoff, but this looks incredibly simple for a European program (even if it is an outline).  That part of the world is a hotbed for sport and lifting programs/coaches/athletes.

So I have some material to go over to help me prepare for the programming of the athletes.  Getting closer to these internships!!

Forgot to mention in my last post in order to prepare for my internship at Defranco's I have begun reading Charlie Francis' book The Charlie Francis Training System.

                                       
So far really interesting.  I have a lacking knowledge in sprint training and technique so this is something I have really been trying to pick up as of late.  Fortunately while with the Islanders this is something they work on constantly so I have been exposed to proper technique and training of the sprint.  I am really excited though because between learning from this book and from Defranco's, I feel I will definitely be able to competently teach the technique and develop a program for athletes to increase their sprint ability.

Oh for those of you who don't know who Charlie Francis is, he coached Ben Johnson and many other world class Canadian sprinters.  Witness the explosiveness and sheer speed that he developed... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SKlNUbyhwA (skip to 1:40).

Here is Defranco's demonstrating some similar technique and exercise selection... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnsF2mNuK8M.

Getting closer to starting in a world class facility at Defranco's gym in Wyckoff, NJ. This place works with the best of the best not just from the tri-state but also from overseas as well. I have been a huge fan of Defranco's for a long time now and I have implimented a lot of their stuff into my own program and some athletes programs as well. This is such a great oppurtunity and I am really looking forward to getting in there and learning for some of the best. Check out their youtube video...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekZYPGxQbno...if that doesn't get your blood pumping you must be dead!!!  They've also produced guys like this...

    

                                  
As you can see, whole lot of talent across many different sports.  This isn't just a typical meat-head gym, they use good science and practical experience to get guys bigger, faster, stronger, more powerful, and flexible.  Whatever it takes to make them a better athlete.

Also, have a chance to possibly begin working with a few of the women's teams at my university.  Barring a few meetings and everything working out, I hope to begin work with them very soon.  This gets me a little nervous as I have never worked with whole teams by myself before, but I know I have a solid knowledge base to get me started and help these girls achieve success this season.  Learning by doing is the best way in my opinion!

Unfortunately still waiting with this internship situation.  Gonna look into a few other opportunities though.

In the mean time, been moving a little closer to being a full fledged strength coach.   Got my results back from my CSCS (Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist), the golden standard in the strength and conditioning world.  thankfully, PASSED both sections so I am now officially a CSCS!!!

So, hopefully next time I post, I will be able to start talking about some actual training going on lol.  

1st post on this or any blog for me, so hopefully as time goes on this will get better and better.

For everyone who is reading this, this is an assigned blog for as part of my internship experience as a graduate student at William Paterson University in Wayne, NJ.  I am a second year student in the Exercise and Sports Studies program with a concentration in Exercise Physiology.  I am extremely passionate about this field, specifically Strength and Conditioning.  I think it is amazing how the body can adapt and change with stress placed on the body and transform a 100 lb soaking wet weaking(me in my younger days) to a Superman (still working on it) or Superwoman!  Through my internship experience I hope to further my knowledge with practical insight and experience from some of the top coaches in the area/field.

Beginning in early August, I had the opportunity to travel out to Long Island, NY and watch a rookie mini camp under the supervision of the entire Sports Performance Staff for the NY Islanders NHL team.  I got to ask a bunch of questions and pick the brains of the coaches/trainers involved.  It was an unbelievably amazing experience!  I got so much information and training ideas just from a few sessions I got to attend.  All the Islanders Performance Staff were very open and accommodating, true professionals and all around good guys!

They ended up offering me some volunteer hours with them and I got to take advantage by traveling out to the practice facility in Syosset, NY for a few sessions as well as assisting in the preseason fitness testing for the whole NY Islanders team at the Coliseum (NY Islanders home rink in LI).  Man they keep it cold in there!  Unfortunately my internship with the NY Islanders fell through because of reasons outside mine or the coaches' control.  Hopefully I will be able to get back with them once the off season comes around.

Still working on solidifying the internship, but got a few things in the mix and something will surely stick.  Can't keep a good man down!!

-Keiran

PS- For anyone who would like to reach out ask questions or network or whatever, you can email me at haltonk@student.wpunj.edu. Looking forward to hearing from you!