Nathan Spencer is an innovative and passionate practitioner with over 10 years experience developing and coordinating cutting edge strength and conditioning, sports science support and end stage rehabilitation service to elite athletes across the world at the professional level. Currently the Strength & Power Coach at the St. George Illawarra Dragons in the NRL, Nathan has worked extensively in both rugby league and basketball both domestically and internationally. Nathan has held roles at the Wests Tigers, Illawarra Hawks, New South Wales Institute of Sport and Orlando Magic. QUOTES “It was an epiphany moment when you think back to what we are taught and it is a bit more old school periodization; whereas the influence of CBAs, 3 games a week, TV deals etc, our ability to make decisions on training periodization are dictated by schedule which is dictated by money” “In the professional basketball environment, frequency of strength and power work wins out so the initial method was to try and get 2 sessions in a week in season” “The luggage crews with the airlines did not like us when we would travel with around 400kg of weight and bars when we went on the road” “We used CMJ eccentric peak velocity as a marker of whether the athletes were putting in and jumping with intent” “When you are measuring things with force plates, you always stick to the source of truth which is force and time” “Most of us would assume that after an activity that is high intensity in nature, it is fatiguing, not potentiating, but the fatiguing response typically occurs a day or two later so how you capitalise on that potentiation is the next question” SHOWNOTES 1) Nathan’s journey from UNSW undergrad to the NBA and back to professional rugby league 2) Strength and power periodization and programming in a heavily congested competition schedule 3) What to focus on after games in NBA for strength and power work and what these sessions would look like at the Orlando Magic 4) Monitoring neuromuscular responses to games from a CMJ and how these responses changed strength & power prescription 5) The metrics to focus on when using the CMJ and force plates to monitor neuromuscular response 6) The differences between pushing isometrics (overcoming) and holding isometrics (yielding) and their use in the NBA strength & power work 7) Adapting and taking what worked in the NBA to an different sport like Waterpolo 8) How to make this model work of monitoring responses and adapting strength & power work for athletes if you do not have force plates PEOPLE MENTIONED Alex Natera Julian Jones Beau Ryan Caitlin Foord Terence Ross Aaron Gordon

Tim Suchomel has a PhD in Sport Physiology and Performance from East Tennessee State University. He is currently an associate professor of exercise science and the program director for the Sport Physiology and Performance Coaching graduate program at Carroll University. In addition to his teaching, Tim is the Director of the Carroll University Sport Performance Institute (CUSPI) and works as a human performance coach with several teams. He has published 1 book, 10 book chapters and over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles on topics that include weightlifting movements and their derivatives, strength and power development, and athlete monitoring and was named the 2022 National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) Terry J. Housh Outstanding Young Investigator of the Year. Tim is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist with Distinction (CSCS,*D) and Registered Strength and Conditioning Coach (RSCC) through the NSCA and a Level I Performance Coach through USA Weightlifting. QUOTES “Accentuated Eccentric Loading (AEL) is prescribing an additional load that we can handle in the eccentric load before removing it in the concentric phase, and the other thing that has to be involved is pairing the eccentric and concentric phase so there is no delay between them” “The eccentric duration makes a big difference in the adaptation you will get with AEL” “If you were chasing strength from a loading standpoint, the gap between what is on the bar and what is on the weight releasers should be relatively small; however if I have a wider gap, that may favor RFD and power production” “With AEL, I would question is does the individual have the capacity to do it and do you need AEL on every repetition?” “One of things I would tell people first and foremost is when you are going to implement AEL 1) you don’t have to do it with everything and you shouldn’t be doing it with everything and 2) you’re probably not going to be doing this over consecutive training blocks for a long period of time" SHOWNOTES 1) The update on what Tim’s has been up to since our last episode (#31) 2) The ins and outs of Accentuated Eccentric Loading (AEL) and the benefits of using AEL 3) Why it is not always necessary to go supramaximal with athletes doing AEL and maintaining natural movement speed 4) The pros and cons of increasing the eccentric contraction duration e.g., tempo during training 5) AEL programming recommendations to target different training goals (e.g., hypertrophy, strength) 6) Practical advice for implementing AEL with weight releasers, dumbbells or other tools and the best upper body exercise variations for AEL 7) Different repetition schemes for AEL, moderating the influence on fatigue and why flywheel training is not necessarily AEL 8) Key aspects to programming AEL for athletes and factors that influence the time course of recovery for AEL 9) The benefits of keeping training simple for the vast majority of athletes and understanding the underpinning characteristics of how athletes achieve physical performances PEOPLE MENTIONED Jeremy Sheppard John Wagle John Hughes

Brendan Inkster obtained a Masters degree from the University of Technology – Sydney researching applied biomechanics and then went on to work with the Manly Sea Eagles (NRL) in rehabilitation and sports science. After a stint with the New Zealand Warriors (NRL), Brendan is now working for the Parramatta Eels (NRL) where he has gone from the rehabilitation space to heading up their pathways and women’s performance programs. Brendan is an accredited ASCA Elite L3 S&C Coach. During his 16 years in the NRL his passion for rehabilitation has never ceased, always looking for ways to improve player outcomes. When not training the Eels, Brendan has a keen interest in baseball & soccer and helping schools with their high-performance education programs. QUOTES "The basic model of rehabilitation has evolved for me from just supporting a physiotherapist with some running outside of the gym" "When resources are not available, do you need a scan? No, but from an NRL perspective, I believe there is merit to it on almost all occasions" "At the end of the day, the athlete is very accountable for the part they play in their own rehabilitation" "I am a big believer in that you should do at least a week and preferably two weeks of normal training before you start of playing again" "What does the normal week look like? Because if that is what they are used to doing they can probably do that in a rehabilitation schedule" "You can have a high load metabolically and a high load neurally and the main thing you have to remember is just don’t put two high load days back to back” SHOWNOTES 1) Brendan’s back story and how he got his start in professional rugby league 2) The evolution of the rehabilitation model in the NRL, interaction between different staff and the scan or no scan debate 3) The good and the bad of current return to play systems in rugby league 4) Roles and responsibilities in the rehabilitation and the interaction between a general S&C and a rehabilitation S&C 5) Consulting and including athletes in developing a rehabilitation plan 6) Roadblocks and traps in a rehabilitation process, including managing coach expectations, fast-tracking players and one person having to do it all 7) The most challenging rehabilitation in Brendan’s experience 8) Setting up a rehabilitation program for players, high-low days and aligning the program with the NRL squad 9) Balancing out physiotherapy exercises with performance programming 10) Metrics and data to focus on during a rehabilitation and appropriate exit criteria to return to play, including advantages to giving the player the final say PEOPLE MENTIONED Aaron Murphy Donny Singe Balin Cupples Roger Tuivasa Sheck

Gavin Pratt is currently the Director of Strength & Conditioning for the UFC Performance Institute in Las Vegas. He is an accredited ASCA Elite L3 coach and holds a Masters in Exercise Science (Strength & Conditioning) from Edith Cowan University. Prior to this role, he was the Performance Manager at EXOS in Shanghai, China. This involved working with multiple Olympic sports in preparation for the 2018 National Games, after which he then focused on assisting in the development of the country’s surfing program in preparation for the Asian and Olympic games. Gavin was also awarded the ASCA “Mentor Coach of the Year” in 2021 for his work with ASCA L1 & L2 coaches around the world. QUOTES “If we miss training the neck, we miss training a whole part of trunk-neck-head coupling” “We are not just giving any random neck exercises, it is actually in the force vector they are deficient in” "In MMA, strikes happen in around 300ms and as fast as 100ms with forces up to 10-40g” “We have something called an MMA warm up: movement, mobilisation, activation” “Another reason we use static neck exercises to start is to reinforce good posture” “If we have them twice a week, we need to accumulate at least that average force in a fight absorbed across the week” SHOWNOTES 1) Gavin’s journey from TV to strength and conditioning at the UFC 2) The benefits of neck strength for injury prevention in grappling and the trunk-neck-head couple 3) Different force vectors coaches should be concerned with neck strength and the neck strength matrix 4) How to test neck strength with a fixed frame dynamometer, and benefits and drawbacks of different body positions when testing 5) Practical examples of applying the neck strength matrix with a flexion deficiency 6) Reverse engineering neck strength from force absorption in MMA fights and differences in typical wrestler and striker neck strength profiles 7) Other assessments used by the UFC Performance Institute to determine athlete needs 8) The benefits of athlete feedback to improve your performance as a strength & conditioning coach PEOPLE MENTIONED Bo Sandoval Brett Grelle

Dr Lachlan James is a Senior Lecturer, Sport Scientist, Course Coordinator of the Master of Strength and Conditioning degree at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia, and an ASCA Professional L2 coach. He has published over 40 peer reviewed articles including 25 as first or senior author. Lachlan currently supervises 7 PhD students with research projects in the AFL, Super Rugby, Queensland Academy of Sport, the A-League and with VALD Performance. Prior to entering academia, he spent 10 years in professional practice as a strength and conditioning coach and applied sport scientist. QUOTES “The problem we are trying to solve is reducing the vast array of metrics we have available to us from technology down to just a few key ones” “Choose the metric in any cluster that is more reliable and is most interpretable by the end user” “Whatever variable we can get reliable at 100ms in the IMTP, which is typically force at 100ms, is the one I will take” “The reality is force at a certain timepoint, RFD and impulse all contain the same information but the reliability differs markedly” “If isometric strength doesn’t track heavy dynamic strength changes, and you are trying to use it to inform more heavy dynamic strength interventions from something like the DSI, then it might not respond in the way you think” “You have to give feedback on contact time after each rep if assessing reactive strength with a drop jump or 10-5” SHOWNOTES 1) Lachlan’s pathway to becoming a world leading strength researcher at LaTrobe University 2) Strength and power assessments and the vast array of metrics available for practitioners 3) Dimension reduction and making sense of the various clusters of metrics available 4) Picking between the Iso Squat and IMTP as the test of choice for lower body maximal isometric strength and the advantages of looking at net force 5) The importance of set up in the maximal isometric strength tests 6) Choosing between net force at 100ms, RFD or impulse? 7) Key metrics in the countermovement jump, unilateral variations and eccentric measures 8) What strength domains or qualities actually exist? The 5 strength qualities and their relationship to one another 9) Issues with the Dynamic Strength Index 10) Feasibility of assessing the different strength qualities and solutions with large squads of athletes 11) The effect of initial strength on strength training adaptations and the merging of strength qualities in weaker athletes PEOPLE MENTIONED Vince Kelly Warren Young Greg Haff Chris Bishop

Mike McGurn is Head of Athletic Performance at Queens University in Belfast. He has a BSc in Sports Science from Temple University in Philadelphia, U.S.A. and an ASCA Professional L2 accreditation. Mike has worked for over 20 years in Professional Sports as a S+C coach preparing athletes and players for 3 World cups, 3 Olympics, EPL, Commonwealth Games, Boxing, and many other sports. In that time winning 2 World Titles in 2 different sports as well as having the prestigious honour of training 3 National Senior Irish Teams in 3 different codes. His area of speciality is Olympic lifting and strength development in the gym along with energy system development on the pitch. Mike presents ASCA courses in Ireland, Malta and Poland as well as delivering lectures and talks in the USA, UK, Germany, and wider Europe. QUOTES "All they had was rugby league, tattoos and weight training” “Firstly, what does an athlete need to be fit for purpose? Then what does the sport demand?” “We need to look at the three P’s in athlete preparation: position, pattern and power” “You can’t fake fitness and you can’t fake strength” “Look at what is happening in the sport and in hard training blocks and stay away from that in your strength work” “Don’t set your athletes up to get gold medals in the gym and then a bronze on the weekend in competition” SHOWNOTES 1) Mike’s journey from Ireland to US collegiate running to elite S&C in field sports 2) The myth of sport specific training and differences between considering strength and energy system specificity for sports 3) Building athletes to be fit for purpose based on demands of their sport 4) The difference between sport specific and sport relevance with case studies of surfing and sprinting 5) Dynamic correspondence, force vectors and understanding what the sport is giving the athletes to be able to “fill in the blanks” 6) Periodisation differences between general and specifc prep 7) The importance of being comfortable with all the training you prescribe as an S&C 8) The influence Dan Baker has had on Mike’s coaching career PEOPLE MENTIONED David Boyle Kelvin Giles Yuri Verkoshansky Dan Baker Dan John Joe Kenn Paul Sculthorpe

Leading a multidisciplinary team at the Australian institute of Sport, Ross has over 25 years strength and conditioning experience working across multiple sports and organisations. Since 2004 at the AIS working with development and elite athletes across sports including netball, boxing, taekwondo, judo, athletics, cycling, rowing, basketball, modern pentathlon, water polo, winter sports, gymnastics, artistic swimming, and part of the leadership team in the AIS intensive rehabilitation program. He has also work with the Australian armed forces and lectured ASCA courses in Australia and overseas. Throughout his career coaching Athletics, sprint and agility and S&C the ability to tell a story and build athlete understanding has been an integral part of optimising outcomes. QUOTES “As an S&C coach we are highly time limited and time poor and sometimes our intervention with athletes doesn’t resonate” “So that understanding of what that data means is important and the last piece for is how to apply that data” “If I can make myself redundant on the basics, on the low level stuff, it gives me an opportunity to work on the high level stuff with athletes” “That separation between technical training and the gym is too large alot of the time with how we coach” “Anything high velocity, high speed, I want to do it in as fresh a state as possible and this also applies to the cognitive state, like teaching somebody something new.” SHOWNOTES 1) Ross’ update since the last episode and background 2) Concepts for S&C coaches to understand to maximize interventions with athletes 3) The first things to focus on when setting up strength & conditioning programs for athletes 4) Athletic models of movement and magnification of error learning techniques 5) Themes in warm ups and drills and how to link sessions together 6) Building the cognitive transfer between technical training and strength & conditioning sessions 7) An optimal structure and sequence of strength & conditioning within a head coach’s plan 8) Purposefully making yourself redundant with athletes 9) Do athletes have the capability to apply force and more importantly, the rate of force? 10) Barefoot work and core training with Kosta Tszyu PEOPLE MENTIONED Craig Purdham Kosta Tszyu Johnny Lewis Kelly Penfold

Sarah Hervert has a PhD in Sport and Exercise Science from James Cook University and is an ASCA Associate L2 Coach. She specialises in strength and conditioning for team sports, injury prevention and rehabilitation and has a keen interest in advocating for S&C in the wider community from adolescents through to older athletes. Following the completion of her PhD, Sarah co-founded Foundations Performance & Rehab with the aim of creating a safe and welcoming environment for athletes and the wider community to undertake S&C and rehabilitation services. Currently, Sarah is also a Lecturer at the University of Southern Queensland. QUOTES “Even simple things like financial projections, which you sound so boring, but at the start you need to have that stuff to have an idea of where you are going and what you need to put into action” “If you are trying to pump through a lot of individual clients, and that’s your only source of income, you’ll probably struggle to pay a lot of bills” “So if you’re going to open a business with a partner, you need to be really aware that if something did happen down the line, you need to have those back up plans with what you are going to do” “Have a plan but be flexible with that plan is a big thing in business” SHOWNOTES 1) Sarah’s journey from James Cook University to owning a private S&C facility 2) Advice for S&C coaches looking to open a private facility 3) The recommended model for private S&C facilities and setting up client agreements 4) How to implement service fee rises 5) Deciding when the right time is to bring on more staff in a business 6) The pros and cons of owning a business with a partner 7) The ins and outs of cash flow and marketing 8) Managing adversity and burnout as a business owner 9) Sarah’s PhD on sub-elite soccer players and preventing rate and severity of injuries in soccer

Nathan Parnham is the Head of Performance Development at Brisbane Grammar School. His career spans over two decades having set up multiple school athletic development programs across the country, to working in professional sport in the NRL and the Rugby Australia Women’s 7s. Nathan is a bestselling author of The Sporting Parent - an invaluable resource for parents, teachers, and coaches alike in the youth sporting landscape. QUOTES “I don’t think there is any parent that goes about intentionally setting up their kid to fail but it is just a lack of knowledge” “Our biggest challenge is the opportunity is very feasible for students to go elsewhere for S&C” “Pro sport cemented the idea that consistency is king with youth athletic development for me” “The biggest question in the youth athlete development setting is how do we try and sell the best multi-sport approach to parents?” SHOWNOTES 1) Nathan’s update since our last episode with him. 2) The nuances to coaching kids of this generation, immediate gratification strategies and the sandwich effect. 3) The importance of briefings to start and end sessions. 4) Nathan’s practical take on the current theories of long-term athlete development. 5) Athlete retention strategies and compliance strategies in the youth setting. 6) The day-to-day of Brisbane Grammar’s athletic development program. 7) Integration with PE Department and the session structure at Brisbane Grammar. 8) The biggest things taken from pro sport and put into the education / youth space. 9) Early specialisation and the cultural influences on its appropriateness. 10) The reality of coach: athlete ratios in the school youth athletic development setting. PEOPLE MENTIONED Istvan Balyi

Glenn Stewart is a physical and personal skills preparation specialist and manager. He has extensive experience as a S&C specialist and spent two decades developing Australia’s leading athletes and sporting teams professionals to international standards. He's a skilled researcher in physiology, biomechanics and team performance measurement. Glenn has published and presented in peer-reviewed journals and conferences. developing some of Australia’s leading athletes and sporting teams. With a key focus on winning, he offers his experience and knowledge as a leading voice in high performance sport to assist those seeking solutions and direction to improve on their sporting results. QUOTES “I see the role of the S&C coach and high performance manager to make recommendations to coaches about what would be ideal training loads and sessions… and at the end of the day, the coach is ultimately accountable on acting on those recommendations.” “When something is complex (like injury), you cannot apply rules, you can only apply guidelines” “My number one guideline to minimize risk of injury is to do high risk activities at low risk times and if you have a high risk time, choose low risk activities” “It’s not those events per se that are high risk (e.g., high speed running), its your preparedness for them that elevates the risk” “Injury minimisation is an understaning of your athlete and knowing that one extra rep could be the disaster you are trying to avoid whereas one less rep is not probably going to impact their performance down the track” “It is not always about injury risk minimization, we are in the world of high performance so we want our athletes to perform to the best of their abilities and they do that when they are injury free and have had massive training loads” SHOWNOTES 1) Glenn’s progression from PE teaching to the 20 plus years at the West Coast Eagles 2) The common mental model in sport that assigns blame to S&C staff for athlete injuries and the influence of sports coaches on injury 3) Factors leading to heightened injury risk in athletes and principles for dealing with complex scenarios 4) When load exceeds tissue threshold and what causes changes in tissue threshold 5) Managing training load and high risk times vs high risk activities 6) The concept of “great care with new” and applying progressive overload 7) How to determine how much training load is too much? 8) Glenn’s system of injury risk minimization and coach accountability 9) The latency period for injury after high risk periods 10) Monitoring and Glenn's preference for subjective measures 11) Chris Judd’s first day at the West Coast Eagles and witnessing greatness

Des is one of the leading youth coaches and performance managers in sport and a world-renowned practitioner and speaker in the field of youth athletic development. In joining Setanta College, Des contributes to the College’s mission to deliver industry defining Education, application and insight to communities at a local and global level. Des joined Setanta as Director of Coaching & Athletic Development, from his position as Head of Sport Medicine & Athletic Development at Arsenal Football Club Academy, which he has held for over 8 years and where he has re-shaped the concept of player development within the world of football. He has previously served as Head of S&C at Connacht Rugby, S&C to Ireland and as Fitness Education Manager within the IRFU, where he spent over 13 years developing the IRFU’s coach and player development system. u Over the years Des has presented at the UKSCA, ASCA and the NSCA conferences as well as many other conferences around the world. He also has worked as a consultant to World Rugby and the National Cricket academy in India. Des has a Masters in Strength and Conditioning and is also an Accredited Strength and Conditioning coach with the UKSCA. He also has achieved the High Performance Sports Accreditation from the British Association of Sports and Exercise Science and is a chartered scientist. QUOTES “What brings it all together is the performance plan and if I step into any environment, it should be apparent” “That language (of your performance pillars) should live and breathe in all the different departments” “We always get caught up in the negatives but we should also focus on what is good?!” “In a meeting, it is important to ask what does the group feel and is this a journey we are going to go on together?” “Apparently the science behind it is flawed, but I saw benefits from personality profiling with our players and staff” SHOWNOTES 1) Des’ journey in brief and update since our last episode including his latest work with Setanta College 2) How to approach management structures for performance teams including setting up your Vision, Mission, Objectives and Strategy (VMOS) and Performance Pillars 3) Refining the VMOS & making it as effective and efficient as possible 4) Maximising inter-disciplinary staff meetings and interventions with players 5) The power of staff ownership in department projects 6) Making performance development reviews/plans useful for staff and are you as good as Nic Gill? 7) Managing staff members that might disrupt group dynamic or are troublesome 8) The benefits of personality profiling for staff and player interaction, especially around communication preferences 9) The cornerstones of Des' management philosophy PEOPLE MENTIONED Liam Hennessy Nic Gill Dan Baker Philip Morrow Aled Walters Steve Nabo Bob Tisdall