Stronger Athletes
June 10 "The fate of empires depends on the education of youth. -Aristotle
For the summer, we have decided to reduce our frequency and post once or maybe twice a week. We will be very busy training our athletes and taking vacations. We will pick up the frequency again in the fall. We will continue responding to your e-mails regularly so please do not hesitate to send us your thoughts or comments about training.Dear Coach Rody,
I am a physical therapist who gets the opportunity to work with athletes on occasion. Most of the time I work with older, injured, and very untrained individuals. I rarely get to progress them beyond the initial phase of lower weights with higher reps in order to establish better neuromuscular coordination without fear of re-injury before their time at my clinic is done. In the last few years I have had a chance to think more about young, healthy athletes as my boys are now in high school and are involved in their training programs. I am very interested in the approach you speak of and it sounds very similar to what some Nautilus proponents were espousing back in the 70's. I would appreciate it greatly if you could give me some references in scholarly journals that are supportive of your position.
Sincerely,
Bob Johnson
Mr. Johnson,
Thank you for your comments. There are many scientific publications
that support our methods. We have very strong feelings about how to
train athletes and believe that the non-Olympic approach is the safest
most productive and efficient method of strength training. Our approach
is similar to the old Nautilus approach that is actually still popular
in many strength programs.
You mentioned that you have boys entering in the high school. At this age particularly, they really need to make safety the first priority in training. The growth in the epiphyseal should not be interrupted by performing ballistic movements. These movements create injuries and make athletes more susceptible to injuries in their sport.
I am sending you a list of publications which you can use to find the science behind the issues we discuss. Included are various topics which includes safety, productivity, and efficiency of training. The first authors in this list of publications are very knowledgeable. Individuals such as Dr. Ralph Carpinelli, Dr. Ted Lambrinides, and Dr. Ken Leistner, Dr. Wayne Westcott are some of the best. In fact,Dr. Ralph Carpinelli is one of the most respected neuromuscular physiologists in the world. Any of his publications are worth reading.
In our articles on the website we have made reference to some of these publications particularly on the issue of safety. Dr. Ted Lambrinides has been very supportive in our efforts and has sent us many articles from scientific journals to back up our beliefs.
Other individuals that are very knowledgeable in the field of strength training are Ken Mannie, Matt Brzycki, Tom Kelso, Jim Bryan, and Fred Cantor. These individuals are strength trainers from major Universities or successful personal trainers.
I hope this helps and we would like to share ideas with you and help in any way that we can in your training of your boys.Good luck,
Coach Rody
StrongerAthletes.com
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