Joel Smith: A Lens of my Coaching Viewpoints and Transformations

Today’s episode is a solo show, where unlike the question and answer shows I’ve done in the past, I wanted to speak at length on a single topic that I felt could offer value to coaches and the opportunity to sit and reflect on how each of us arrived at how we see the coaching of athletes.

Today’s show is all about my own development as a coach, and the evolution of viewpoints I have on various aspects of sports performance training. These viewpoints include ideas on cueing, maximal strength training, periodization, plyometrics, special strength, and mental training.

The coaching of athletes is not a robotic venture; athletes need to optimize their own machinery in a manner that reflects with own body-type, biochemistry and environmental preferences. In the same way as coaches, I don’t believe we should all hold the exact same slant of coaching athletes, and each of us how individual aspects of our system that can deliver a unique experience to athletes in line with our personal philosophy.

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 58:38 — 52.9MB) | Embed

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Key Points:

Reflections on how my own development as an athlete shaped my views as a coach
My journey in terms of viewpoints on maximal strength development, periodization and planning, plyometric training, and mental training

Joel Smith, MS, CSCS is a NCAA Division I Strength Coach working in the PAC12 conference. He has been a track and field jumper and javelin thrower, track coach, strength coach, personal trainer, researcher, writer and lecturer in his 8 years in the professional field. His degrees in exercise science have been earned from Cedarville University in 2006 (BA) and Wisconsin LaCrosse (MS) in 2008. Prior to California, Joel was a track coach, strength coach and lecturer at Wilmington College of Ohio. During Joel’s coaching tenure at Wilmington, he guided 8 athletes to NCAA All-American performances including a national champion in the women’s 55m dash. In 2011, Joel started Just Fly Sports with Jake Clark in an effort to bring relevant training information to the everyday coach and athlete. Aside from the NSCA, Joel is certified through USA Track and Field and his hope is to bridge the gap between understandable theory and current coaching practices.

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