I sit here writing this blog in a bit of a funk for the industry I love. Maybe it is simply my algorithm sending me this stuff, but I feel like the industry has lot touch with its core - strength and conditioning. This field ain't rocket science y'all. It is strength and conditioning - yes with other things in there, but us practitioners NEED to be training in the weight room, training on the field (sprint, jump, condo, agility), do athletic stuff (play basketball, BJJ, etc...). I feel like I am saying the same thing that TK said on the Bevbois podcast, and I am doubling down because I do not feel like enough coaches do that.
There Was An Over-Correction
Why am I bringing this up? Because a legend in Strength and Conditioning keeps coming to my mind - the late Louis Simmons. Here is something wild - I spoke with an asipiring S&C coach who competes in powerlifting at their college and they didn't know WSB and Louie. HOW?!?!? How is this possible?
Sure, there might have been a time 20-30 years ago when coaches could make the argument that coaches were not "intelligent" enough, or "educated" enough, and the motto was just lift it bro, or just sprint it bro. But the pendulum has swung too far IMO. Enough is a enough. Now everything within the S&C world has to be backed by a research article. Listen, the SAID principle is as close to perfect for a reason - if you want to get better at something, do that something.
If you want athletes to get stronger, they have to lift heavy things. This is not rocket science. You define what strong is for your population of athletes, start with where they are now and work backwards from where you want them to be - and that is the path they need to follow. During this time they will HAVE to lift heavy weight. Now, heavy will be relative to them and in-season, etc...but this is where you as a coach HAVE TO TRAIN.
When you do this you know what 90% REALLY feels like when you have been doing tons of sprint work before hand, and have competed in a sport the day prior. That is what your athletes feel. if you skip this step you skip a huge part of your development as a coach. I am not the first person to say this. Like I said TK just talked about it less than 7 days ago from the date of this post. Will Ratelle has said this for a while now too. I feel like I have said this before, but want to emphasize it and shed light to Louie and how he would train himself and his athletes.
Westside Barbell and Multiple Rep Maxes
*DISCLAIMER* I have not trained at WSB so I cannot say I know 100% what happened there. What I can say is I have read his manuals and watched tons of content from Louie to know roughly how he and his athletes trained.
One of the things they would do at WSB is have a 1RM for every movement. For those who have trained there and can verify or shoot down this idea - please get in touch and prove me wrong if I am. Why does the multiple PR for every movement matter? It can allow an athlete to always feel good about themselves and pivot on a day of training.
An example I heard about (and we talked about at Iowa football) was if someone was supposed to be doing a heavy Buffalo Bar Back Squat for 1 rep. Say during the warm up reps they realize they are not "feeling" it and wont be near where they are for 1 rep. There would be an adjustment and go for a heavy 5 rep on buffalo bar with a 2 second pause of each rep. In this way a "new exercise" was created - and thus a new max established. In subsequent weeks this individual can try to beat that new 5RM that was established. Is this "perfect"? Nothing is, but it is good enough. Working in the 5RM is still lifting heavy and will drive strength adaptation, especially when they try to beat the prior 1RM.
The Power Complex and Multiple Rep Maxes
In the same way coaches and athletes can create new rep maxes for various jumps in the weight room, especially when paired with the Power Complex. This idea of various rep maxes on various jumps was from Louie, but it was introduced to me from Jeff Jones in his Cheeky Mid Weeky. In this episode is where Jeff first broke the news about the Power Complex, what it is and why it works. With respect to the loaded jumps portion of the Power Complex, this is where you can drive intent and have fun competing with the players.
When you program the jumps you have tons of ways to load (Dumbbell, Barbell, Band resisted, Trap bar), ways to start the jump (static, dynamic), things to land on (plyo box or ground), jump type (double leg, split stance, or SL). As you see, your imagination is the limiting factor. In doing so, you can create movements and reps that will allow athletes to have MULTIPLE PRs to try to break. Combine this with TeamBuildr's function to track 1RMs across movements, now you can have PR tacking in real time.
If you need to make new movements for the different jumps, just do that on your TeamBuildr. You should be programming at least 4 weeks out for your athletes. Once the program is the athlete's calendar then you can adjust as needed (if needed), but to the coaches who are not putting in training sessions until hours before athletes train; please do better and take better care of your time. Watch this video I made on how to program and make sure you hit all the needs of your athlete. The reason I have these added as Highest Entered Weight is now athletes can put in their jump height with a decimal and it will show up on their history.
Now athletes put in their best jump from the set of three. For example if in set 1 someone went 10.0, 10.2, 9.9 - they enter 10.2. They have not set a new PR here - so it does not show up in the max. But the next time they train they will, and you can hit the history function to see what you're best was.
Now imagine doing this with all the loaded jumps that you have. It can get competitive. Especially if you rank the jumps from the day, and publish it to the whole team.
For the jumps that you do just be sure to be consistent with the device you measue on from week to week. So if you jump on a Plyomat for week 1 of something, make sure you jump on the Plyomat again when trying to beat your rep max. Or if you use your Hawkin Dynamics force plates for the jumps in the first assessment, make sure you do the same in the following week. I think this goes without saying, but I just want to be sure.
IMO - you are not only limited to resisted jumps for power complex, especially if you are doing it twice per week. In the Jeff Jones CMW he talked about doing band assisted jumps as well. If you do these on the same day as sprinting you can make the main thing the main thing - speed of contraction. In this way you can have your Vitruve VBT encoder on the barbell for your RDL and pair it with a 10-20 yard sprint measured on your Dashr timing gates, ending with band assisted jumps performed on your Plyomat or HD plates. Same thing here - use the same Dashr gates in the week 1 and week 2 rather than using Blue one week and silver next, and same comment as prior paragraph on the Plyomat and HD plates for the band assisted jump.
Case for The Power Complex
As I have said recently, I went too far in saying get rid of cleans. I was excited to find something that I think can replace cleans if you want. I like having both in, and if you are a coach who has tons of athletes learning to clean, you can easily have half the group do Power Complex and the other half learn the clean - then flip flop once you feel the clean group is proficient. The Power Complex is also superior to the high pull for athletes who cannot catch a clean. So give it a shot with some athletes you coach AFTER you try it yourself. That is what I did. After my podcast with Jeff. I tried this on myself and loved it. Then I added it to athletes that had wrist limitations or didn't like cleaning. When we tested the speed and power (fly 10-30y build and CMJ with arms) there was no statically difference between groups. So I made the switch to not cleaning again.
Did I go too far by 100% removing it? Yes. It became more about the fact that "we won't clean and look what we can do" rather than just serving the athletes. And for that I was wrong. Don't be like me then, be like me now and use them both as tools in your tool box.
If you enjoyed this blog and are not a member of SCN consider checking out the site for our trial membership to learn who coaches from 40 different countries, coaches who work in the NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB, Premier League, etc...trust SCN for continued education. Click here to learn more about our trial membership.
