Today’s episode is a special roundtable featuring all previous podcast guests, Jay DeMayo, Jeff Moyer and Michael Zweifel.
Jay DeMayo is a long time strength coach at the University of Richmond, working primarily with basketball along with several other sports. He also heads up the Central Virginia Sports Performance Seminar and Podcast.
Jeff Moyer is the owner at DC Sports Training and is well versed in all things Russian sports performance, and has appeared on this show multiple times, as well as having written a large number of articles on a variety of topics involving the transfer of training to sport.
Michael Zweifel has been a prior podcast guest twice and has written a large number of articles regarding the perception and reaction approach to improving in-game movement and agility.
In the world of agility training there is a big shift happening in terms of moving things into the perceptual space, and for good reason. Athletes who fail to make the right decisions in a game will be at a huge disadvantage, regardless of how good their raw ability to change direction devoid of a stimulus is. Does this mean, however, that all traditional agility and change of direction training is dead? What should we do with all of the more traditional thoughts on agility training in terms of developing the raw physical skills associated with change of direction?
This expert crew is going to dissect the answer to these questions and much more for us on the show today.
Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:20:51 — 64.8MB) | Embed
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | Pandora | iHeartRadio | JioSaavn | Podchaser | Gaana | Email | Deezer | Anghami | RSS
View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage.Key Points:
- Philosophy of what good change of direction on the field of play entails
- Thoughts on baseline physical abilities for better change of direction
- Change of direction KPI’s for athletes
- Different approaches to the value and integration of non-perceptive change of direction work
- How to record or quantify the results of an agility program (if this is even possible currently)
- Defining pieces of agility ability and who may need work beyond perceptive and decision making training
- Some of the special exercises Jeff Moyer and Jay DeMayo utilize in their work
- Summary statement of each coach in regards to agility, perception and reaction
“In field based sports, change of direction means the basics of what we are trying to teach, and agility means implementing into a situation where it is responsive to some sort of stimulus” DeMayo
“I want athletes to be able to solve problems on their own without me giving them the answers” Zweifel
“In the biomechanics of change of direction, you always have to look at it in the context it is going to be asked in sport… if we are going to change technique or biomechanics, we have to do it within the context of which it is going to be asked in sport” Zweifel
“I think that one thing is we would see a lot of carryover and success (into agility) with the integration of some form of extensive method jumping” Moyer
“I don’t think there’s so much a biomechanical model; there’s KPI’s” Moyer
“If you watch sports a lot of athletes don’t (decelerate) on two legs, they do it on one leg… one of the things I look for is how many steps does it take for an athlete to stop” Moyer
“What I hope for is that it looks crisper when they are doing it (COD in sport) and they shouldn’t be thinking about it when they are doing it” DeMayo
“In actual open sports, how well you perceive the information in the environment, that will directly dictate mechanics, kinematics” Zweifel
“(Regarding defining the results of a COD/agility program) A lot of it’s qualitative” Moyer
“It is a learned error, a perceptual error, or a physical error, those are the three things I go through” Moyer
“Know your sport more, watch practices, get Hudl and look at practice, go to games, that’s the number one way I’ve seen it, you can see it in the games” Zwiefel
“We do all versions of lateral jumping” Moyer
“We all know that if an athlete is reacting in a game, they are going to get beat, they are going to be a step behind… we want them to become attuned to information, not to react to information” Zweifel
“If you can’t do something slow, then you’re probably not going to be able to it very well fast, and if you can’t do something fast, then it’s not going to show up well in the game, and if you can’t do it against your buddies, you won’t be able to do it in front of 15,000 people telling you how bad you are!” DeMayo
Show Notes
Delay Squat
Cognitive-Reactive Agility Training
About Jay DeMayo
Jay DeMayo is in his 15th year as a strength and conditioning coach at the University of Richmond, and his eighth year working with the men’s basketball team.
DeMayo is directly responsible for the strength training, conditioning and flexibility development of the men and women’s basketball teams. He also educates the student-athletes on the proper nutrition to make sure their bodies are performing to their full potential.
Jay has presented at 10 different seminars and clinics in five different states and has coached and lectured for a month at Ningbo University in China. He came to Richmond from Indiana State, where he was a graduate assistant during the 2002-03 academic year. The Fairport, N.Y. native played on the soccer team at SUNY-Cortland.
About Jeff Moyer
Jeff Moyer is the owner of Dynamic Correspondence Sports Training, whose motto is, “We Build Better Athletes.” At DC Sports Training, athletes work on the physical, mental and visual aspects to the sports. Their goal is to deliver the athletes of the greater Pittsburgh area the highest, most efficient results year after year of training with us. We will exhaust our means in order for our athletes to achieve the highest results, and to create a system model that will develop our athletes both physically and intellectually. Education must be the road to which will help us set this standard. Our results will be the vehicle which to drive us.
Jeff graduated in 2004 from Hartwick College where he was a two sport athlete (Football & Track & Field). Jeff has been a sport coach (Basketball & Football) at the youth, JV, Varsity and College level for football for over 10years. Jeff has been in the strength in conditioning industry for over a decade, having worked in the medical, private, team, high school and collegiate settings, training clients from youth development, to rehabilitation and sport performance.
Jeff has a relentless passion for all things physical preparation. His pedagogy is heavily influenced by Eastern Bloc sport science, while apprenticing under Dr. Michael Yessis and Yosef Johnson of Ultimate Athlete Concepts. Jeff has also been fortunate enough to extensively study with and work with Dr. Natalia Verkhoshansky, Mike Woicik of the Dallas Cowboys, Louie Simmons of Wesitside Barbell and Fellowship under Dave Tate of EliteFTS.
About Michael Zweifel
Michael Zweifel is the owner and head of sports performance for “Building Better Athletes” performance center in Dubuque, Iowa.
Michael is a CSCS, IYCA certified practitioner, and was the all time NCAA leading receiver with 463 receptions in his playing days at University of Dubuque.
Building Better Athletes (BBA) is committed to an evidence based practice towards sports performance, and attaching physical preparation from every angle possible – physical, mental, nutritional, soft-tissue, mobility. Our focus is building the athlete from the ground up by mastering the fundamentals of movement mastery, strength/power training, recovery modalities, and giving athletes ownership of the Other 23.
Using these methods and principles, BBA has been fortunate to help athletes to:
- 5 NFL Players
- 1 CFL Player
- 1 Gatorade State Player of the Year (Basketball)
- 7 Collegiate All-Americans
- 12 Conference Player of the Year
- 11 Division I Athletes
- 52 All-Conference Athletes
Free Speed Training eBook - Velocity 101
Improving speed is one of the most popular topics in the athletic performance equation. Where there are many ideas and thoughts out there, as to particular training exercises, or setups, the more core aspects of speed training often go without mention. These include the fundamental aspects of what makes an athlete fast, specific sprint-power concepts, the relevance of "3D" motion, motor learning and more.
Velocity 101 will help you take a leap forward in understanding of what makes athletes fast, and how to train it effectively