Over the latest round of testing this past week 2 things became glaringly obvious…

1- It seems to me that the first athletic quality to diminish is explosive strength and jumping ability. Explosive strength is the ability to create large amounts of force in the shorts time possible. When most people think of great athletes those athletes are typically very explosive. As I’ve written about in the past explosiveness is the holy grail for athletes. We want to get stronger so we can in turn create more force and become more explosive. Just getting strong isn’t enough. Turning maximal strength into explosive strength is what transforms and athlete. The best way to train explosive force is through jumping and this is why we jump often here. Our advanced athletes typically jump 2x a week 40x ea session and our beginners jump 2-3x a week 20x each. Now what I noticed is that the athletes that have been less consistent or haven’t jumped as often because of being in-season struggled to match their old PR’s in vertical and broad jump even though many of them broke PR’s (personal records) in the squat, deadlift, chin ups, bench, etc… To sum it up it seems that many athletes can maintain maximal strength easier than they can maintain explosive strength. Something to think about for in-season athletes.

2- The most consistent athletes typically have the best results and the most improvements. Consistency is KING. This is why I love testing week… It puts a little pressure on the athletes to perform and reminds them if they have been consistent.