QUOTE OF THE DAY "How to, How fast, How Much"

"How to!"
"How fast!"
"How much!"

Chris Carlisle USC Strength Coach

I have been fortunate enough to meet many good strength coaches. Coach Carlisle is a very smart and hard working speed, agility and strength coach. He has an open door policy at USC, and makes himself accessible to just about anyone. His quote is one I share with all of the athletes I work with. It probably goes over the head of a large majority of them , but nevertheless I try.
When I say this to kids I sometimes think they are saying to themselves "No shoes, no shirt, no service" from the character Jeffrey Spiccoli in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High". I hope that is not the case. You can only give them the knowledge. What they do with it is an entirely different matter.
Technique should always be first priority in the coaches and hopefully the athletes mind. Most kids always ask each other how much they can do in a particular lift. As I mentioned in my Monday May 9th article "Dynamic Lifting", I'm trying to stress that bar speed is actually the most important thing, after they have mastered technique. If the technique is poor, they will end up having more injuries due to muscle imbalances, achieve slower bar speed, and progress at a slower rate.
How fast is the most important thing if you compete in the sports of football, basketball, baseball, hockey, soccer, swimming, volleyball, rugby, etc. It is nice to be strong, but if you can not convert it into speed-strength then you are not doing yourself any good. There are many ways to achieve this. They will be discussed at length in future articles. A stopwatch is needed to measure the progress in this area.
How much is sometimes the most overrated question. If you are in Powerlifting, Olympic Weightlifting, and other super strength oriented sports, that is the only question. But in sports where the big 5 are involved, then absolute strength has to take a back seat to the ability of the athlete to develop their explosiveness. In Chinese philosophy, it would be considered a yin and yang relationship. Buy the way, the "Big 5" are:
1) Linear speed both forward and backward
2) Lateral speed both left and right
3) Vertical explosiveness for both a single and multiple efforts (stationary and moving)
4) Change of direction speed in any of the 3 previous categories
5) Stop and go speed in any of the 4 previous categories.
These will be covered in an article next week.
Remember "How to, How fast, How much"!!!! Thank you Coach Carlisle.

If you have any questions I can be emailed at acudave@yahoo.com