Today’s episode features strength and track coach, John Garrish. John is the director of athletic development at North Broward Preparatory School in Coconut Creek, Florida, and the school’s head track coach. John was recently voted the 2022 National High School Strength Coach of the Year by the National High School Strength Coach’s Association. John appeared previously on the show discussing his speed training approach in episode 182.
The symbiosis of track and football is often discussed in the process of training, and importantly so. What is talked about less, are some of the specifics of what track has to offer, not just in the sprints, but also in events like triple jump, that can enhance an athletes speed, power, elasticity and overall movement profile, in their other sports.
John was a hammer thrower in his college years, as well as a former football player. The hammer throw is, of all the throws, the one that requires the greatest symbiosis and harmony with the implement. The triple jump (bounding) requires a tremendous symbiosis with the ground, and how one interacts with it. You can easily see John’s experience and intuition of track and S&C concepts emerge in his progression of bound, skip, hop and overall elastic training with his athletes.
On the show today, John covers thoughts on hand position and “elastic/rigidity” vs. “muscular” sprint strategies in athletes as they move from youth to high-school levels. This sets the stage for his talk on his galloping, skipping and bounding progressions, and how he keeps movement quality and velocity at the core of the progression. John talks about how he keeps the training fun and intentional, and how he changes emphasis as athletes move from middle school, to high school years. This show is a beautiful fusion of team sport S&C, and track and field concepts, and can be used to help any athlete develop more fluid, dynamic power outputs on the field of play.
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Timestamps and Main Points:
3:50 – What a typical workout looks like for John, and how he does bounds, skips and gallops himself to be a better coach in those movements
8:29 – Thoughts on hand-position in young athletes vs. older athletes, the use of rigid, splayed fingers, and how that rigid-open-hand strategy might change, as athletes get older
28:36 – How John evolved skips and gallops from elementary school, into their middle and high school years
37:21 – John’s take on more traditional extensive hops, in light of his use of skips, gallops and hops
44:37 – Different constraints and emphasis of skips and bounds are that John utilizes in his scholastic and open-large group training sessions
54:07 – How to give athletes balance in their skip and gallop profile without diminishing their “superpower”
1:00:59 – John’s thoughts on when to get bounding in the mix for athletes, and how to progress it
1:15:17 – Using backwards single leg hops for athletes, its benefits, and potential link to being able to bound forward for distance
“I felt that unless I at least had the comfort of the ability to demonstrate, or perform these movements (bounds, gallops, skips) myself, then I felt there was no way I could verbalize it to my athletes; or find lesser cues, or a tactile cue to get the athlete to feel it as well”
“Some of the fastest girls I’ve seen at track meets do display that splayed hand position (when sprinting)… but as they progress in middle school you see less dominance of that hand position”
“It’s an opportunity of our students to experiment with something, and then come out of that experimentation with the ideal (technical) model… of how they are going to sprint to the best of their ability”
“The best triple jumper I ever coached was a near 48 footer in high school, and he just did some really really weird things that presented itself in his hand (positions)”
“Testing some of these things (hops, skips, gallops, etc.) are the ideal way to put yourself in the athlete’s shoes”
“The most important thing about skips and gallops, is that skips and gallops are fun. I’ve never seen an athlete skip race against another kid and not have a smile on their face”
“Skips, gallops and hops we use throughout the year. The traditional hops in place; that is a good way to prepare the feet, ankle and shins for these skips, gallops and hops… where I use (traditional hops) is at the end of the session, closing the envelope, and accumulating that volume, not taking away from other things we want to do”
“When we are doing skips with the middle schoolers, it’s in class, it’s more dexterity based and coordination based. We’re cautious in our implementation of bounding; hopping 5x on the left, and 5x on the right continuously”
“When we get to the high school level, not only is that when we really start to introduce bounds, that’s when we use slightly different cues (on skips and gallops) to excite something in the athlete that helps them make a change”
“Gallops are a little bit easier for an athlete to feel what I’m trying to say with those high hips, quick ground contacts”
“If I tell an athlete to gallop, but to be as quick off of the ground as possible, they find it a lot easier than they do the power skip with much briefer ground contact; so gallop has been a little way to introduce it”
“You’ll see our young athletes gallop for height naturally, gallop for height squatting down into it; then maybe a gallop for height as quick as possible off the ground, and then let’s revisit a gallop for height, seeing what comes naturally. Given a few sessions, athletes may start to feel something new and start to adopt it”
“It’s not just about the progress they made in their event (triple jump), it’s about the progress they made in their other sport, whatever it may be. I felt as if coming off of a season of triple jump, I saw a lot of our football athletes, basketball athletes, or whatever, showing really good things”
“If an athlete gains comfort with hopping for distance, that’s half the battle”
“One of the best constraints we go through with hops; where it becomes a very good teaching point, is, tell kids “hop for speed”; hop 15m as fast as possible, the athlete is going to be more inclined towards forefoot and forward posture. Then I would say, “hop for distance”… then there will be more of a hindfoot contact.
“Definitely I would say those athletes who did hops backwards were our better bounders”
“The beauty is, pretty much everything you can do forward, you can do backwards”
Show Notes
Usain Bolt Hand Positioning (Left “soft”, Righter “somewhat rigid”). See Lemaitre with a more rigid hand action.
Yohan Blake Sprinting with Rigid Hand Positioning (See 3:20. Note Walter Dix, more muscle-oriented sprinter with “soft” hands:
About John Garrish
John Garrish is the Director of Athletic Development & Performance at North Broward Preparatory School in Coconut Creek, Florida, and the school’s Head Track and Field Coach. John was recently voted the 2022 National High School Strength Coach of the Year by the National High School Strength Coach’s Association. A graduate of Wagner College and the University of North Texas, he is certified through the NSCA as a CSCS and through USAW as a Level-1 Sports Performance Coach. In addition to his role at North Broward, John has previously served as the Director of Athletic Performance with the Florida Rugby Union’s High-Performance Program 7’s team and as a volunteer coach with Delray Beach Sports’ Exhibitors. Coach Garrish has spoken at state and national events and serves as the National High School Strength Coaches Association Regional Board Member for the Southeast.
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