Knowledge
Alex Vasquez Interview Pt. 1
This is an interview with a College Strength Coach. One of Alex's 'products' ended up on ESPN after this video surfaced. Lets just leave it that Alex knows a thing or two about what it takes to make an explosive athlete.. The second half of this interview will be posted shortly. Enjoy!
Question 1
In your experience as a strength coach, what are the two or three most common deficiencies you see with the incoming freshman you get and what is the first step you do to start correcting each?
The #1 problem is core strength. As much as I hate to turn into "that core guy" it is true. These athletes cannot stabilize their torso. So when they run you see either their gut spill out (anterior tilt) or their spines flex. That tells me that they are leaking energy through their core and if we can stabilize their core then all the forces they are generating will go where they are supposed to: into the ground.
How to fix it was a problem. The WGF core DVDs do a great job addressing this issue. So I use the non-tripod and chair exercises. We do them slow and focus on quality rather than quantity. When you think about the non-tripod, it really is the perfect ab exercise. Every layer has to fire if you maintain neutral. Now the key is that you should see NO MOVEMENT in the spine. As a coach watch their gut; if it pops up on the way up during the lowering phase then they are not maintaining neutral. So their stomach should not move during the exercise. We also use a plank progression a co-worker developed.
Problem #2 is glutes. When athletes lift they cannot load their hips properly. Take an RDL: you either get the guy rounding his back or you get the guy who over arches their spine and turns it into a hamstring and lower back exercise. The key is to maintain neutral and push the butt back. If you do it right your ass should light up. If you don't primarily feel your butt then you are not in neutral. The glute is your primary hip extensor, meaning that if you can incorporate the glutes into a sprint they will get faster, a squat, they will get stronger. You get the point.
This is another challenge because, basically, everyone has moved wrong their entire lives. So reprogramming them is tough. What do I do? I use the prone glute extension. Again maintain neutral spine. Also the glutes extend, abduct, and adduct the hip. People tend to do focus only on abduction for glute activation. In my experience this is dangerous. Over developed abduction strength relative to adduction leads to IT, knee, and hip problems. Many of my knee guys have poor glute adduction strength relative to abduction strength. So for the prone glute we squeeze a med ball between our knees to get the adduction. I will try to balance adduction with abduction in my glute activation, but tend to err on the side of adduction. So there may be x-band walks, or we may wrap bands around our knees during a glute bridge. Staples are the prone glute, glute bridge, and bird dog. For all three remember to maintain neutral. On the bird dog you should feel your obliques fire due to the rotational forces. On the prone glute the athlete should only be able to raise their knee off the ground about an inch or so. Any higher and the spine starts to move. Remember we are ingraining a proper hip extension pattern, teaching them how to extend without using their lower backs.
From there we learn a proper glute dominated RDL, and then on to the squat and lunge. We begin with bodyweight ISO holds and progress to dynamic movements from there.
One more biggie is ankle rocker. I just started noticing it but it seems every football player and most other athletes have poor ankle rocker. To fix it I use toe pulls, and the Mike Boyle ankle mobility drills seen on Youtube.
It's funny once you learn to see the issues in peoples movement you see them EVERYWHERE.
The last tip for these problems is: treat them from a motor learning perspective and not a working out perspective. So do them right or you are wasting your time. Do them daily because frequency helps motor learning. It's less about strengthening and more about learning to use the correct muscles.
Question 2
Sticking with the freshman, have you noticed any common trends among the athletes who come in and get major playing time right away? Put another way, what (besides sport skill which is obviously the most important) can an outgoing high school senior be doing to gain an advantage as a college freshman?
This one is easy. The most important thing is to be coachable. Don't think you know it all. Listen to what your coaches tell you to do and then do it. Work hard at your craft. Master the skills, drills, and lifts you are doing. When a coach offers a tip, actually try and implement what they are telling you. The coaches are your allies. They want you to succeed as much as you do because if you are successful, they win games. When you get your chance to show what you can do in scrimmage or the game go balls out.
Guys that play a lot basically live at the weight room and practice field. They get extra lifts in, which allows for more individual specific one on one coaching. Then they go to the field and do extra position work. They make sure you know who they are. They are always asking "What can I do to get better?" and they take the answer to heart. They are very intrinsically motivated.
Take pride in what you do and be a professional.
We have had walk-on freshmen take starting jobs from NFL prospects. So it is possible, if you really want it.
Question 3
Now let’s talk about how you develop an athlete once he or she gets to college. What are the major differences between a senior who has been in your program for four years and a newly arriving freshman? This could be in terms of muscle mass, proficiency at a certain exercise, psychological factors, whatever.
Physiologically the seniors will carry more muscle mass, have a greater work capacity, move well, and be able to load their hips.
As far as training techniques would go I begin with core work, glute activation, dynamic mobility, ankle stiffness, and lots of isometrics. Building on isometrics, we then include bodyweight full-range movements: rows, chins, push ups, lunge, squat, glute hams, RDL, etc.
The next step includes core, glute, mobility, and ankle stiffness (they are staples). The isometrics turn into dynamic-effort movements- sub-maximal loads with a focus on compensatory acceleration. I feel this is easier to learn than training to fatigue. I approach the progression from a learning perspective. Repetition training is great for mass but so many reps are performed under fatigue and with poor form that it is almost a waste. I'd rather have a quality 8x3 than horrendous 3x8 to failure. I also begin plyos with the teams. A lot of drops and EDI type jumping. In my mind with EDI jump squats (we use yielding isometrics for the hold) the iso hold pre fatigues the muscle so the subsequent jump is sub maximal. This allows the guys to focus on landing technique and rehearse proper landing during the hold.
Next we incorporate maximal effort and repeated effort method. Hopefully, the dynamic work has taught proper form for the ME and RE work. I also include Maximal EDI's a la Schroeder, and kettlebells. From inno-speak this is all your absolute strength and strength endurance stuff. Modalities include everything found in the inno-system. Essentially we do a strength block plus plyos. Most teams train 2-3x/week so they do whole body workouts. Sorry no AREG. A general template would be:
warm up - mobility, core, glute, ankle stiffness, prehab
Workout - depth jumps/drops, squat/lunge, glute ham/RDL, kettlebell swings, upper push, upper pull, finish
cool down - foam roll and stretch
After the strength block, we move into power blocks which are essentially the RATE and MAG versions of the lifts. So I use reactive/accelerative work in place of traditional movements. Prime times are added, swings, and the upper work alternates between strength and hypertrophy blocks. Obviously this is an OVERSIMPLIFICATION. But, for the most part it is accurate. We also have some athletes use the impulse trainer. Nothing hard core, just 3x30 on a few exercises.
So for lower we alternate MAG+DUR An1, DUR An-2 with a block of MAG+Rate An-1, Rate An-2
Upper is DUR An1+2 with a block of DUR An-2+3
I also like Schroeder’s limiting the number of exercises. This allows for a more proficient mastery of the movement. Again think learning not working out.
My focus lifts are:
Squat
Lunge
Glute Ham
RDL/KB Swing
Push Up
Body Row
Pull Up
As they advance we just modify the methods for the movements. Push Up becomes bench press. ISO becomes PIM, PIM becomed FDA, FDA becomes REA, etc...
Check out Alex's blog here, and stay tuned for the second half of this article coming soon!
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