Here is something to consider: how “alive” is your training program and coaching process when athletes are in the gym?
When I first started in my internships in athletic performance at age 21 and 22, my first impression was that the primary tenants of working with athletes in the gym was having a program, some exercises in the program, and then 2-3 instructions for each movement to execute it “properly”.
On a very basic level (and many athletes definitely need basic) this can work. Athletes who need basic strength need to be able to execute simple movements properly to be able to put on muscle if this is needed in where they are at as an athlete.
On the level of using the gym to make athletes… athletes, there must be a consideration of making things alive and dynamic. There is a symbiosis between the coach and athlete in my training experiences with those who are a master or the craft.
Coaching is “deadened” in terms of things like:
- Giving cues that you don’t fully understand the purpose of
- Carrying out the program on paper to the “T” unwaveringly every day (i.e. forced reps just so the athlete hits what is on paper or never adjusting the program based on readiness)
- Failure to observe fluidity of movement in favor of rigidity, strain and “grinding”
My ability to make my coaching more alive was enhanced a week ago when I got to spend some time with Gary Marinovich of Marinovich Training Systems. Gary is the brother of world famous sports performance trainer Marv Marinovich.
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One of the things that originally kept me out of the strength and conditioning industry (back when I was doing my first internships at age 21-22) was that I didn’t feel I was able to fully engage my creative and intuitive resources during the course of a training set.
Simply spotting an athlete, telling them to keep their hips back and chest up just wasn’t something I felt like I was harnessing the full potential of my mind in coaching, and also it seemed like the athlete was missing out on something potent in the process. Telling an athlete to keep their feet on the ground at all times during Olympic lifts “because I said so, and that’s how you do it” pushed me out of the weight room and onto the track for my graduate school volunteer coaching experience. I’ve always viewed human movement and training as a puzzle to be solved, not as dogma to be disseminated (how we view life in general does link up with how we view coaching athletes in many cases).
More Than Sets and Reps
In working with Gary, I learned that each set an athlete performs is much more than 1-2 cues and a particular amount of sets and reps. Each set Gary coached was “alive” just as sport (and combat as the method is popular to train fighters) is alive.
A good portion of Marv Marinovich’s program revolved around work on the physio ball, see the video below for a good example.
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This type of work is awesome for reclaiming “lost athleticism” that comes from too much emphasis on heavy barbell training for too long of a time period. Athletes pick up patterns of tension that are no longer representative of the sporting elites, as well as too much muscle in their movement when it should not be there.
The way Gary coaches the movements is with the exact intention of getting muscles to fire when they are supposed to, and relax when they are supposed to… essentially making everything a “plyometric” activity.
If you bought the book “ProBodX” you may have noticed that there is also an advanced version of these exercises. The advanced version adds the element of unpredictability as brought about by the commands or even resistance of a partner in various portions of the movement.
Here, a set truly comes alive.
Commanding the Training Set
Some of the commands that were utilized by Gary were “full”, “half” or “quarter” reps, where you would have to instantly switch the range of motion you were utilizing in the exercise on the fly.
The set was also “alive” because it ended when Gary wanted it to end, which was before the athlete lost quality of movement. This was done to create the most positive possible imprint on the nervous system as a result of training.
This creates an intuitive link between coach and athlete, and makes each set more of an art form versus carrying out a set of instructions.
The unpredictability also honed me into being in the moment in the set, rather than the only indicator of progress being measured by the weight on the bar. A problem with always measuring the success of our program with a lift number is that the number will inevitably drop off at some point, which is usually met with “trying harder” which isn’t great for building the optimal firing pattern, not to mention the depletion of CNS freshness that comes from grinding out heavy reps (Easy Strength Principles).
The answer is programming and training in general is always somewhere between “yin and yang”, never “full yang” all the time. Intention of maximal performance is critical, but different strategies should be taught to create a maximal performance in context of breathing, rhythm, timing and patterning, lest extra compensators be continually brought into movement execution.
Pure force without consideration of timing will never yield great results and often just leads to injury. Remember, our muscles are capable of outputs strong enough to rip muscle off bone, so getting in a proper joint position for them to do their thing is critical.
This all being said some of my favorite commands that Gary utilized were “full-half-quarter” reps, and then a call to reverse your movement. The rep range work corresponded to the linear-sagittal reps, and the reversal was more for rotational and tri-planar motions.
Finally, in working with Gary and the “Supercat” machines, Gary would put active resistance on the eccentric portion of the movement (for leg press throws and bench press throws, which was much more fast than it was heavy), requiring focus and timing in catching and throwing the weight. Every set was alive, and Gary had all his attention and focus in what you were doing and getting the most out of the set that he could for you.
How then can we apply this to our own training? Well, it’s pretty simple in starting with the three principles as follows:
- Get some spontaneity in the set. Call for instant reversals of motion on rotational movements.
- Call for quarter, half and full range reps through the course of fast sagittal plane work and have the athlete instantly switch modes.
- Don’t work off a set number or repetitions, but rather, work off of when you feel the athlete is falling off in execution.
Also, if you ever have a chance to observe, or be trained by Gary Marinovich, I’d highly recommend it.
My Integrations
Note: While the first part of this article is an accurate representation of the philosophy of the Marinovich system, this section is my own takeaway and integration of it, and doesn’t represent the attitudes or ideas of Marinovich training (their system does not utilize traditional barbell/weight training at all).
By doing these things, not only will you create a more “live” environment for the athlete, but you will also become more attuned to what makes great athletic movement and execution as a coach. You’ll also have another element of progression in the system aside from “more weight on the bar”.
Knowing a handful of cues relative to common lifts doesn’t take long to learn, and our own learning from “passive” sets on traditional lifts hits a ceiling early in our own coaching career. Knowing how to make high velocity work more unpredictable can really help make training more game-like while making the process more fun and challenging for the coach.
Coaches looking to dip their toes in this water of this system is to use this type of work in the first portion of a workout before the traditional strength session is done. Not only will it light up the nervous system of athletes while opening our eyes to new movements as coaches, but it also helps us to draw a stark contrast between the two training methods, and where value is derived from the workout for each athlete. I’ve found a lot of value in watching athletes play sports, or even warming up for training with a game, and then using what I saw during the course of the game to instruct athletes.
At the end of the day, I believe in finding FLOW whenever possible, and achieving FLOW in the gym for the sake of our own growth, as well as that of serving our athletes better.
About Joel Smith
Joel Smith is the founder of Just Fly Sports and trains athletes and clients in partnership with Evolutionary Fitness in Cincinnati, Ohio. Joel hosts the Just Fly Performance Podcast, has authored several books on athletic performance, and trains numerous clients in the in-person and online space.
In 2011, Joel began Just Fly Sports as a central platform to promote information for athletes and coaches to reach their highest potential. In 2016 the first episode of the “Just Fly Performance Podcast” was released, now a leading source of education in the sports performance field. The evolving mission of Just Fly Sports is focused on teaching athletes to realize their true, innate power, and achieve the highest joy in their training, competition, and in the community.
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