The Latest From Gardner Performance Training

Acceleration Training with Tape Drills

Acceleration is a critical skill in field and court sports as well as Track  & Field.  Being able to build momentum explosively helps athletes beat competitors to the spot or outrun the competition.  Being able to do this efficiently allows athletes to be in position to execute other sport skills following acceleration.  For a football player this may be making a cut to avoid a defender, while for a track athlete the efficiency of the acceleration will influence their maximum speed and their … [Read More...]

Long Jump Development with A Case Study Part I

I used to tell people that long jump wasn’t the most coachable of events. It was about being fast and reactive, and becoming faster and more reactive, to jump further.  Those things are certainly true, but as it is across the events, there is a dance between details and development.  What follows is a case study of a high school long jumper between his sophomore year, when he was a 21 foot jumper from 16 steps, and the end of his senior year where he jumped 23'5" from a 16 step approach.  First … [Read More...]

Plyometrics-Multijumps: Pretension, Teaching, and Training

The question below is from a coach I met at the 2012 BSMPG  Summer Seminar where Boo Schexnayder spoke. In my response I’ll talk about what people popularly refer to as plyometrics or plyos, but I’m going to follow Boo’s lead and use the term multiple jumps or multijumps. Plyometric actions could be upper or lower body in nature and for lower body also include tasks like sprinting. Below I’m focusing on multiple jump exercises so it makes much more sense, and is a lot more accurate, to just call … [Read More...]