Why I do not coach team sports

You may have noticed that the sports I specialize in coaching (namely weightlifting, powerlifting, climbing, track and field, and martial arts) are all individual sports. Why don't I coach team sports? 

2 reasons:

Reason 1: I don't really coach sports in general! Instead, I prefer to coach physical qualities. 

Sports are part of the entertainment industry. They were created by humans as a form of entertainment, and the sport industry profits mainly through selling tickets to audiences. Therefore, sports are in a way artificial. They don't actually help us in day to day life, other than providing some small and indirect stimulus. Here, I'm talking about mainly mainstream team sports. Think soccer, American football, basketball, baseball, hockey, cricket and tennis. These sports are played purely for the entertainment of others. They don't really help us move better or become much fitter. Instead, these mainstream sports require hyper-specialization. In this sense, I consider training for mainstream sports a somewhat shallow pursuit. Also, most mainstream sports do not have any smart programming methods or periodization associated with them, which makes coaching these sports pretty difficult. 

The same CANNOT be said for some of the sports I coach. Sports like weightlifting and track & field have HUGE carryover to basically every sport. If a football player can increase their Olympic lifts and 40 yard dash, they can GREATLY improve their performance on the field! Even an average person can benefit from a weightlifting program: like when they have to help a buddy move to a new house or to help their mom with the shopping. Sports I coach like boxing, weightlifting and climbing develop PHYSICAL QUALITIES (like the ability to punch, to kick, to life off the floor, to climb) which playing sports do NOT develop adequately! Playing a hyper-specialized team sport like basketball only makes you better at basketball. But getting better at a sport like weightlifting and boxing helps so much more in life, whilst also carrying over to other sports. 

Reason 2: It's easy to blame other people.

In an individual sport like boxing, you have no one to blame but yourself. In team sports, it's way too easy to blame a defeat on a teammate not pulling their weight. In an individual sport, we are able to pinpoint exactly what went wrong and why it went wrong. In this sense, coaching individual sports is much easier and impactful than coaching a team sport.

 

So that is why I do not coach team sports! However, I can still help you get better at your sport. If your sport is heavily based on strength and speed, you can check out my sprinting and lifting programs. If your sport is dependent more on jumping, you can check out my athlete and vertical jump programs. These programs develop the necessary skills in the athlete, which will carry over to almost any endeavor! 

Quick Tip: How to program a DELOAD Week

Deloads are a necessary part of training. The truth is that fatigue masks fitness, and you will eventually need to deload in order for fatigue accumulated through a training cycle to dissipate. 

What exactly is a deload? Well, as the name suggests, a deload is a period in the training cycle in which an athlete either reduces their volume and/or intensity of training in order for their body to dissipate fatigue. Typically, you should deload after a peaking block or every 9-12 weeks as a beginner to intermediate lifter. The guidelines I provide here are not really suitable for advanced lifters as deloading type and frequency would vary on a case-by-case basis.

How should you deload? Well, I don't think your deload should last 1 week. Many people, especially on Youtube, say that your deload should be a full week. For almost all beginnner to intermediate lifters, this will be overkill. Your body does not need a full 7 days to recover (it only really need 2-3 days), and taking one week off every 9-12 weeks can actually take away from total training time, which could lead to slower long-term progress. 

I think you should train during your deload week with the same frequency that you train in a normal cycle. However, I think that during this week you should reduce the INTENSITY of work. So instead of doing lifts in the 80-90% range, I would usually recommend doing lifts in the 50-70% range. Also, your sets should not be pushed very hard (ideally 5 RIR [reps in reserve] on all compound lift sets). However, you should keep your volume of work roughly the same in the deload week as during a normal training week. I like this since it allows us to get in some low intensity work capacity development which can prepare to hit the ground running for our next training cycle. 

What does this look like? So a lifter training for powerlifting would do a deload after a peaking cycle. They would spend 1 week training with the same frequency as usual, but would train their squat, bench and deadlift in the 50-70% range for some higher rep sets at lower RIRs. If they do 20 sets per session during a normal workout, they would still do 20 sets per session during the deload, but they may choose to use lighter weight or not go to complete failure. Once they begin their next proper training cycle, they can be prepared and mentally ready to train hard again.

If you really don't want to be in the gym during your deload, you can spend 2-4 days doing some hiking, swimming or other active hobby to let your body recover. Just don't sit at home for a whole week. Remember, movement is medicine!

Machines VS Free Weights - THE FINAL ANSWER

I was recently asked by some friends to write a post on whether or not I think machines or free weights are more efficient to use when training for maximum athleticism.

Well, the answer is obviously free weights.

When's the last time you saw an olympic weightlifting using machines as a primary form of training. When's the last time you saw a boxer or football player using a machine as a primary form of muscle growth or power production. When's the last time you've seen a track and field athlete use machines to improve there numbers on the field? Your answer to these 3 questions is definitely a long time ago.

Athletes favour free weights as they build skill, coordination, strength, power and muscle like no machine. Free weight lifts are the basis of every strength sport (powerlifting, strongman AND weightlifting), and high level athletes in football, basketball or any other sport prefer free weight, compound lifts like power cleans to boost their athleticism. Machines have a place in training, but only after the hard and heavy free weight stuff has been completed. I think machines have value in providing a high stimulus to fatigue ratio. I personally do tons of machine rows and triceps work with cables, but this is done AFTER I have already completed my primary work on free weights.

Sorry for the short post, but I had the end this debate.