Clean, Crisp, & Powerful outputs are the name of the game.
“The longer I train athletes, the less I care abut how much weight is on the bar.
These days I am far more focused on seeing quality outputs and violent intent.
I want my kids to own their weights.
I’d rather see 300 smoked than 350 slow and ugly any day of the week.”
-Ray Zingler on Twitter
To a lot of people, Strength & Conditioning is a metric-based field.
We use KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) to essentially prove what we are doing is working or not working.
The easiest way to tell if what you’re doing is effective is based on positive or negative feedback from data.
If a sprint time decreases from a 4.9 to a 4.6, this is positive feedback. Keep doing what you’re doing.
If a vertical jump is 29.5” at pre-testing, but then retested post block at 27.5”, this is an indicator that it’s time to go back to the drawing board (for that specific athlete(s))
Easy enough.
I use data like this all the time to help me make informed training-based decisions.
However, the longer I have been in the field, the less I am starting to care about how much weight is on the bar.
Of course getting athletes stronger and faster is the name of the game and some (many) athletes will benefit tremendously from simply getting stronger across the board, this isn’t always the case.
Knowing that there are no barbells on any fields or courts, it has to be the “right” strength.
The Number 1 KPI for a strength coach should always be performance IN sport.
What I mean by “right” strength is, how does it look?
Did the athlete lift that weight with crisp, powerful, explosive intent? Did he or she OWN that weight? Or did they simply “perform” the lift with that weight. Was it slow and sloppy?
See many Strength Coaches are focused totally on the numbers. They want to brag about how much their kids lifted (without regard to technique, competency, quality, etc.) they just want to see the lift completed so they can justify “what they are doing is working.” They do this so they can make their westside barbell chalk record boards look cool.
But who is it working for, coach? Is it improving the number 1 KPI (Performance IN Sport) or is it putting points on your ego scoreboard?
Don’t get me wrong, I want to add 5 pounds to the bar, hell I want to add 50 pounds to the bar, but I’m learning that quality and intent with lighter loads are proving to be more valuable for athletes, who again, don’t use barbells in their sports.
The goal of S&C is to enhance their outputs out there, not our egos in here.
