🥇 The Athlete Development Journal

Simple solutions for complex athletic problems.

For the full story, listen to this episode on your way to practice. ⬇️

You can also listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

If you just want the quick-hitters, you can read the summaries below. ⬇️

What’s going on at GT?

From our athletes:

Jocelyn Luft ran a 1.25 sec X/10 Fly… That’s cooking with serious gas.
Miss Mia Grove has been making some big strides. Here are some of her numbers: Vert 13.4” to 14.2”, X/10 Fly 1.56 sec to 1.50 sec, SLBJ R 53.0” to 56.0”, SLBJ L 41” to 44.5”
Nathan Myers is getting much more explosive: Broad Jump from 5’ 7.5” to 6’ 5”, SLBJ R from 4’ 5” to 6’ 6” and SLBJ L from 4’ 8” to 5’ 6”
Big time congrats to Emma Ruby being named captain of the volleyball team as a junior! She’s been through a lot of highs and lows, but stayed committed through it all. I’m really proud of her!

In our business:

We miss our college kids for sure… 😕

Physical deep dive: The 80% that actually matters for speed training

It’s easy to get lost in the weeds when it comes to the science of speed training. I want you to keep three things as your North Star throughout this entire process.

Apply a lot of force.
Apply that force quickly.
Direct that force backwards.

Every technical change we make and every training method we apply can come back to one of those three objectives.

To apply more force: get to triple extension, have violent arm swings, drive your front knee to 90°, and get stupid strong.
To apply force faster: check your ground contact time, have a stiff ankle, and turn over quickly.
To direct your force more horizontally: check your projection and shin angles, strike underneath yourself, and have a low heel recovery.

What’s going on in my life?

Grace is enjoying tee ball. Her coaches seem awesome. It’s definitely an adjustment for her. We don’t really pull out the gloves and throw in the backyard at our house, we’re more of a throw the football, shoot a basketball, or kick a soccer ball type of family. But, she’s learning, competing, cheering on her teammates, and listening to her coaches. What more can I ask?
Gymnastics was closed this week, so Evie didn’t have any sports. She did flip over the front bar of our mini trampoline, which was wild and scary, but she’s a tough little girl.
Rachel is being our rock as always.
I’m feeling much more confident in my dunk for the athletic hour… not so much the 5k.

Mental deep dive: Perfection is the enemy

Surely building a military spy plane that flies 3x faster than the speed of sound, 15,000 feet higher than any other plane in existence, and is built entirely from new material would require perfection in planning and execution, right?

Wrong.

Here’s a Ben Rich (from Skunk Works) quote:

“Perfection was seldom a Skunk Works goal. If we were off in our calculations by a pound or a degree, it didn’t particularly concern us. We aimed to achieve a Chevrolet’s functional reliability rather than a Mercedes’s supposed perfection.”

Whatever you’re working on, I don’t think it is more complex or has higher stakes than the Blackbird, so quit trying to be perfect. Focus on being excellent at the 80% that actually matters.

Let’s wrap it up with a couple of important things…

This newsletter and podcast are completely free. I spend many hours each week researching, writing, illustrating, recording, editing, and uploading. The best way you can support them and allow them to continue is to share them with people you know. You can just send them to gtperformance.co/newsletter and they can subscribe there!
Everything in these newsletters and podcasts, on social media, and on our website is for educational purposes only and should not be taken as medical advice for you or your athlete. Consult directly with a healthcare professional.

Thanks so much for your help in spreading the word about athlete development!

Go be great out there,

Zach

Dr. Zach Guiser, PT, DPT, CSCS