2011 UCSD Baseball Speed Training

A Fireside Chat on CNS Fatigue

More is better. This methodology is predominant not just in the field of strength and conditioning, but also in general lifestyle of the average American. More stuff, more food, more money, more Starbucks. As coaches often time we want more effort from an athlete and it just isn’t there. More can be worse when it comes to working with higher level athletes. One of many reasons why more isn’t necessarily better is “Central Nervous System” fatigue.

CNS fatigue is the blanket term used by many professionals in athletics that usually encompasses two things: Peripheral Nervous System (PNS) fatigue and (CNS) Central Nervous System fatigue. PNS fatigue involves a breakdown in the interaction between the Nervous system and the Muscle cells. CNS involves a breakdown in the function of the brain and spinal cord’s ability to execute movements and motor programs. For all intents and purposes let’s call both terms CNS fatigue.

So how can you fatigue the CNS? Think shortest duration, highest intensity. For sprints the closer you get to 100% effort the more taxing on the CNS the activity is. Sprint starts, 100 yard sprints, high intensity (heavy) sled pulls, high volumes of max effort med-ball tosses are all CNS intensive. In the weight room doing heavy strength work on bigger movements (Deadlift, Squat, Clean) to failure also taxes the CNS. If athletes are moving weight heavy enough to keep their repetitions down to 5 or less, then the CNS is producing the lion’s share of the force. When intensity decreases to allow for more reps (6-12+) the muscle organ itself is mostly affected. Pretty basic stuff so far, right? What people tend to overlook is that there is a finite store of energy (for lack of a better term) that athletes can pull out of their CNS. Many coaches tend to overestimate this amount of energy and underestimate the amount of recovery time necessary to refill this “gas tank”.

If athletes “don’t have it today” in the weight room or aren’t hitting weights simply because they “don’t have it” many times it is due to their CNS being fatigued. If a high level sprinter has been hitting several 100% sprints at 100m and does a personal best that day in practice and then goes and tries to lift heavy on squat and is having trouble and the coach wonders “hey, what’s going on here?” then that coach needs to drop everything and go read Charlie Francis’ Training Systems and if that doesn’t work… well the world needs plenty of bartenders, my friend. Higher level athletes (college and above) should be treated like a high end sports car as opposed to a snow plow that you can work into the ground. Athletes should be fresh and be able to produce the highest quality in order to produce the best gains. The proper rest time to allow for full CNS recovery can be 48 hours to 10 full days depending on the athlete. An Olympic level athlete that completely drains their CNS will need 10 days. The lower the athletes level of skill and proficiency at the exercise the less time is needed for this recovery. A junior varsity sprinter at high school level won’t need 10 days for their CNS to recover from doing full sprints; they might need 2-3 days at the most. Again, much of this is dependant on the individual needs of the athlete.

So, how does a coach adjust their programming accordingly? First of all, coaches need to look at what athletes are doing before they come in to workout. Does the athlete have practice before they come in? If so, what are they doing in practice? Have they been sleeping well? Are they stressed (can anyone say Cortisol)? These are all things a coach should consider. Many coaches aren’t in a position to know all the details of their athletes’ personal life, however there are things that even coaches with multiple large teams can consider. Just one example is trying to Max cleans or squat during finals week. How much effort will a sleep deprived, stressed athlete coming down off of a week-long Caffeine high?

The coach should always be aware of the athlete’s CNS state. If an athlete is in a state where their CNS is fatigued it will many times look like a general state of malaise. Sleeplessness, lack of concentration, and even trembling post-workout are all signs CNS fatigue. Grip strength is a simple indicator of CNS readiness. Remember the homunculus model learned in college A&P? A huge area of the brain is dedicated to the hands. Using a grip dynamometer to measure baseline strength level and then testing where athletes measure up too can be a great indicator of how ready their CNS is for heavy work. A cheaper option would be to get some Captains of Crush grip trainers from Iron Mind (as recommended by Gray Cook and Brett Jones) and test how times the athletes can completely touch the ends.

According to Charlie Francis, “All CNS work should be very high quality work in terms of effort and technique.” If a player is lagging, sometimes it isn’t just because they’re lazy (sometimes they are just lazy) it could be because their CNS is fried. Not everything can be fixed by heavy back squats and power cleans. Rest needs to be thought of as a training element like any other.

UCSD Baseball Caveman Day

Lateral Speed Development Episode IV (really I) An Epic Description of Athletic Position in Prose Format.

Lateral Speed Development 101-
The development of lateral speed is not that far different from linear movement. The goals still remain the same, producing a big force, in a short amount of time, in the proper direction, and through an optimum range of motion. Note the proper direction in bold, it is probably the most critical part. Lateral speed development is multi directional and can be synonymous with the term agility. Agility can be defined as: The ability to execute a complex chain of movements in a fast and graceful manner. Developing agility and multi-direction skills is a summation of some specific qualities. These qualities are dynamic balance, coordination, strength and power, reaction and anticipation. Enhancement of these qualities is probably best accomplished with a part to whole method; they should be broken down into steps that are progressed from simple to complex. Very similar to the way you would develop linear acceleration via a wall drill march, to a wall drill 5 count. That is taking a complex motor pattern and breaking it down to a part (piston leg action) and simple (march) to complex (5count run). We shall treat the development of lateral speed in the same pedagologically sound manner.
The engine in lateral speed development is also very similar to that of linear acceleration, which is of course triple extension of the hip knees and ankles. The obvious difference is that rather than extending in the sagittal (or the sag as Coach Dobbler likes to call it) you are utilizing the hips in the frontal and transverse range of motion. Even though the direction of movement is changed the goal remains the same you are focused on projecting the center of mass towards the intended direction by using optimal body position and efficient mechanics that influence factors of force application.
Ok, so getting down to the nitty gritty before we get to the actual drills which will be in another section. Gray cook speaks of a term, I believe he coined called, Energy Leaks. What he means by this is that somewhere in your kinetic linking, lack of mobility, inefficient movement there is energy being wasted. The best real world example I can think of is a vertical jump. Vertical jump as high as you can, now try to match that same vertical jump while in a sand pit. Different? Even though you are expending the same amount of energy on sand as you are on the gym floor there is less force production in the proper direction. The sand was your energy leak. Your goal was to project you hips as vertical as possible (direction) however some of the energy was lost, leaked, eaten, is now floating around the cosmos somewhere. According to Newton it was lost as heat in the sand, since energy can’t be made or destroyed. I digress…. The point of the story is if all of your energy is not going in the intended direction, up,down,left,right, then you are not aligned right, and you are working a lot harder then you should be.
Proper alignment for lateral speed development is a difficult to put an exact method to, since sport is so unpredictable, no single body alignment can be described. However general guidelines can be put into place. This will act as your “base position” or your “athletic position. On a side note, I usually ask my athletes why it is called athletic position, they can all demo it, but why is it called that? DuH, it is the most athletic position and neutral position the human body can be in. You can see a derivative of it in any sport, from a linebacker, to a golfer, to Mike Phelps about to explode in the pool for a bazillionth gold medal.
So what is athletic position?... Oh Alright, I will tell you… Did you think I would leave you hanging? Athletic position is characterized by sitting the hips back, placing the feet shoulder width apart and leaning slightly forward at the waist, keeping your “pillar” rigid. Keeping your pillar rigid will help put the pelvic in a favorable position and make the thoracic spine rigid, helping in power transfer. The chest and shoulders should be over the knee, allowing the torso to be parallel to the forward (positive) shin angle of the shins. The knees should be aligned just inside the feet with the weight placed on the inside balls of the feet. This description of athletic position is favorable for two reasons: One being that a positive angle of the torso and shins are created when the athlete leans forward this is significant for forward movement because optimal leverage is made between the ground and the center of mass. Secondly with the knees inside the toes, another application of positive angles and leverage is made for lateral movement. The key thing to take away from this is positive shin angles within a base of support that will assist in an athlete’s ability to accelerate, decelerate cut and jump whenever it is necessary, in the proper direction. Note the bolding of proper direction. It was also bolded in paragraph one. Way to bring the article full circle!
Until next time! We will discuss how to move around out of the athletic position

Building a Strength and Conditioning Program

The development of a successful strength and conditioning program requires systematic planning and deliberate implementation of supported principles. My name is Rudy Thomas and I am the director of strength and conditioning at The University of California San Diego. All of my mentors and professional coaching experiences along with my own athletic career have molded my philosophy and approach in building a program from the ground up. The following is an inside look at the key principles and foundations that we adhere to.

Note: Below are merely generalities. Constructing an athlete is similar to constructing a house. You must start with a strong well built foundation before moving on to any of the finer points. Without that, the rest cannot be.

Keys to successful athletes

1. Durability – Build durable athletes who can tolerate intense training while resisting injury. An athlete cannot continue progressive overload when they are in the athletic training room instead of the weight room.
2. Speed – Speed is the most sought after attribute for athletes. Some athletes have it, all want and need it, but few are willing to train for it. “First to the ball, first up the court, first to the point of attack: wins”
3. Strength/Power – The aim is to maximize athletes’ force production and rate thereof. If the body is strong it has the ability to be powerful. Strength and power combine for overall athleticism.
4. Specificity – As a coach, train to augment specific attributes required by athletes to be successful in their given sport. Your job is not to mimic the sport directly in training, but to improve skills that will transcend to more efficient movement within competition. Focus on general qualities and improving them to the athlete’s genetic limit. Sport coaches can then utilize these improved qualities when teaching the specific movements of the sport. “We move, but we move to make them better movers, not to reproduce every movement of the sport. We lift weights, but not to make them better weight lifters. We lift to make them stronger, more durable, and confident, thus more successful.”
5. Intensity – Foster and encourage the competitive spirit of every athlete that enters the weight room. Athletes should learn to love working-out, and competing not only against the weight, but against each other and themselves.

Approach

General qualities to evaluate and improve

1. Evaluation- Start with a Functional Movement. It is important to have a baseline or benchmark of movement capability, whether good or bad.
2. Work Capacity –Increase an athlete’s ability to sustain effort.
3. Hypertrophy – Increase the size and mass of muscle.
4. Strength – Focus on increasing production and display of force
5. Strength Speed – Increase the rate at which an athlete produces force.
6. Speed Strength – Increase ability to produce force during high velocity movements.
7. Speed – Increase absolute acceleration, sprint and movement velocity.

Expectations and Treatment of Athletes

Responsibilities of Student - Athletes

1. Have a positive attitude and give a winner’s effort. Attitude and effort cannot be taught.
2. Always make selfless, team oriented decisions. Is this good for my team?
3. Be prepared to accept the consequences, positive or negative, of your actions.

Coaching healthy athletes

1. Expect more of athletes then they feel they are capable of. Provide the environment and tools necessary to succeed.
2. Different individuals will undoubtedly require certain coaching techniques, motivation, and instruction. However, the priority should be to train ATHLETES regardless of gender, sport, or skill. No matter what, maintain the same standards, professionalism, and commitment to all athletes.

Coaching injured athletes

1. Empathize. Be disappointed in their misfortune, but move forward. Never baby an injured athlete or ostracize them as if they’re no longer a part of their respective team. Discuss their capabilities not handicaps.

Wrap up

Building a successful collegiate strength and conditioning program should be a fluid process that can be adapted when novel obstacles and needs arise. However, it’s important to adhere to the central principles that will guide your training philosophy. A strong foundation and well-defined philosophy prevents the development of conflicting training approaches. With a strong foundation, the specific goals of different teams and athletes can be achieved while maintaining the integrity of a well-designed program.