I know you’ve been waiting for it, so without further ado here is the final part of The 10 Best Things at Endeavor!

5. The connections.  Before working at Endeavor, I really didn’t know many people in the industry, and sure enough pretty much no one knew who I was.  After a couple months, Kevin Neeld pushed me into starting my own blog, and I didn’t really know back then why he was being insistent on it.  Fast forward 2 and half years, and now I understand.  Sure it’s cool because you get to share your knowledge, but most importantly it puts your name out there and allows you to create you contacts within the field.  I’ll be the first to admit that I’m far from being the most knowledgeable guy out there even though sharing my knowledge is the original intent.  But getting in touch so many like-minded people is the main reason why I keep doing it.  My internet presence combined with attending seminars and the help of Kevin, who has introduced me to so many smart people in the business, are another reason why Endeavor was so awesome to me.

4. The Road Trips.  I mentioned on #6 that it was nice to host seminars because you didn’t have to travel, but quite honestly there’s something about road trips that I just love!  It does take a beating on you to spend 8, 10, 12 hours in the car in one day, but when you have good company, good music, decent weather, and the appropriate amount of stimulants road trips are A LOT of fun.

We always end up having great discussions, and it always does great to take my mind off of whatever is stressing me out, kinda like a mini-vacation.  Over the last 3 years we made road trips to Raleigh, Youngstown (OH), Chicago, Wilkes-Barre (PA), North Jersey, Baltimore, and Boston (on multiple occasions).  It’s been a blast, and definitely one of the best memories I keep from Endeavor….especially the one time we challenged Matt Siniscalchi to find beer at 1 in the morning (if you know him just ask him to tell you the story!).

3. The Learning.  Since I started working in this field it’s always been clear to me that continuing education had to be a top priority in order to keep getting better and be successful.  I always had that at heart and was always reading and attending seminars.  But honestly it’s not like I was hunting for continuing education opportunities; whenever I came across something that seemed interesting, I would buy it (or attend in the case of a nearby seminar).  But oh did I step up my game when I started at Endeavor!  I started learning at a much faster rate than I ever had.  At this point these days, I feel bad when one day goes by and I didn’t read something to help me get better.  Being surrounded by hungry like-minded coaches, and especially sharing an office with Kevin who’s more dedicated than anybody I know at learning new stuff, helped me kick my game up a couple notches.

2. The Athletes.  My experience at Endeavor would not be complete without the hundreds of unbelievable athletes I’ve had the chance to coach in the last 3 years.  There wasn’t many athletes walking through our door who weren’t extremely dedicated and focused on becoming a better (insert sport) player.  There is a big camaraderie component that was developed with all of them over time.  And thanks to them I will forever be famous for the “chest up” and “belly tight” coaching cues inside the walls of Endeavor (mostly because of my French-Canadian accent), as you can hear at the beginning of the following video:

And finally, as number one……(drum roll)

1. The Staff.  This is the main reason why Endeavor as been such an unbelievable experience for me.  From day one when I moved to a new country to pursue my dream, the guys at Endeavor made me feel at home.  They have been there for me and helped every step of the way into integrating myself to this new job, and really a new life.  If it wasn’t for them, I would not be where I am today.  Through fun times or tough times, with this crew that has always been wayyy more like friends than they ever been colleagues, I have shared everything.  Road trips, seminars, after-hour “meetings”, Halloween parties, Christmas parties, the ups and downs of building a business, the playoff beards, etc; it’s been a blast.  I will never be thankful enough for what they did for me.  They will be friends forever.  Thanks for all the memories guys!

Don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter; it’s FREE and I’ll send 3 reports on sports performance training as a bonus!! Just enter your info below:

Chest up.  Belly tight.  Finish with your hips.  Stay on your heels.

The most common coaching cues are pretty much the same ones for a lot of exercises.  The reasons are pretty simple; people in general have a tendency to be quad dominant, to use their lower back instead of their hips, and have a hard time maintaining a neutral spine.  So the same coaching cues come back constantly, no matter what clientele you’re working with- whether they’re athletes, weekend warriors or just soccer mom.

There are other coaching cues that are less common, or very exercise specific.  One of them that I use with all kneeling and half-kneeling exercises is the “toes under shin” cue.

This might seem like an unimportant cue in the tall kneeling or half kneeling positions, but to me it makes a huge difference.

There is a lot more stability in those positions with the toes pulled under the shin.  If you’re toes are pointed back there is basically no anchor to the ground.  Your down knee(s) are not really an anchor; it will only serve as a pivot for what is happening at the hip.  With internal or external rotation torque at the hip and no anchor at the foot, the lower leg will only follow the lead of the hip.

External rotation at the hip can transfer to the lower leg if there is no anchor at the foot

The toes under allow the big toe to anchor the whole limb to the ground.  You’ll have a greater proprioceptive feedback to the brain, and therefore more stability.

Don’t underestimate the importance of the toes in stability and proprioceptive control.  In 2012, conventional shoewear make our foot very lazy, so training gives us a good opportunity to re-establish some of this stability and control of the toes and feet.  Coaching the “toes under shin” for all half kneeling and tall kneeling exercises is a good place to start.

Don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter; I’ll send you 3 bonuses on sports performance training…and the best of it all?? It’s all FREE!  All you need is to enter your info below:

Being a strength and conditioning coach or a personal trainer requires many qualities.  One of them is the ability to pay attention to details.  When coaching exercises, there are many different body positions and subtleties in movements that one needs to be aware of.  Just demoing the exercises and throwing a couple coaching cues up in the air is usually not enough to get the result we want from our athletes and clients.

A coach (or trainer) needs to be able to identify and understand the subtleties in the different movement patterns to be able to coach the exercises in the most optimal way possible.  Here are some of the subtleties that a coach needs to be able to distinguish and correct (in no specific order):

1. Thoracic Spine Extension vs Thoraco-Lumbar (T-L) Junction Extension

I covered that in a previous blog post, but the “chest up” cue is not always interpreted the right way by the athlete or client.  Basically what we want to see when calling “chest up” is an extension at the thoracic spine so that the athlete maintains a more neutral spine.  Often times, the extension will come from the T-L junction which will put more stress on the lower back, will cause the anterior lower ribs to flare out and put the diaphragm in a less than optimal position.  That pretty subtle substitution will too often go unnoticed if the athlete is wearing a loose shirt.

Barely noticeable T-L junction hyperextension because of a loose shirt

2. Hip Flexion Compensation

In most athletes the psoas ends up being the weakest hip flexor.  The reason being that it is the only hip flexor effective above 90 degrees of hip flexion.  In most athletic endeavors the hip ends up being flexed above 90 degrees rarely, if ever; that in turn causes a higher recruitment of the 2 other main hip flexors, the TFL and the rectus femoris, and the psoas ends up weak.  It is a good idea to include psoas activation exercises in a training program to re-establish hip flexor strength in the end range of motion.  When doing these drills, athletes will be tempted to compensate because they are pretty weak in that position.  The seated psoas lift is one of my favorite psoas activation drill, but can be cheated pretty easily if not coached properly.

Often times, athletes will either lean back or hunch over to try to get the knee up as high as possible.  But in both situations, you’re really avoiding the above 90 degrees end range of motion; the angle of the hip flexion will be less than 90, and therefore you’re not getting that psoas activation you’re going after.

Bad Form- Leaning back will prevent your hip flexion to be above 90 degrees

Bad Form- Rounding of the lower back will also avoid that end range of motion

The same problem can occur if you perform a standing psoas hold, or any other type of exercise of that nature.

3. Full Hip Extension Compensation

The complete hip extension is definitely something important in many different exercises that are part of a training program.  An incomplete hip extension can expose some pretty serious problem going on around the hips.  Whether the problem is caused by a hip flexor restriction, a lack of glute activation or just poor coaching, this is a problem that a coach needs to be aware of to be  able to prevent injuries with his athletes.  This is another movement that can be very subtle and if you don’t pay attention to it can be missed altogether.  The incomplete hip extension can present in a wide variety of different movements, with posterior chain exercises (deadlift variations, pullthrough, slideboard hamstring curls, etc) being some of the most important ones.  An athlete not being able to finish his movement at the top with full hip extension will usually compensate with a hyperextension at the lower back.

Again, if no attention to details are paid during a deadlift (or just from coaching from different angle) this is something that can easily be missed.

4. Scapular Protraction vs Elbow Extension

This is something even more subtle.  The correct technique for pressing exercises is to keep the scapulae packed back together.  If unable to get a full elbow extension, the athlete might compensate by protracting the shoulder blades to get the end range of motion at the top.

Good Form- The shoulder blades stay packed back while getting full elbow extension

Bad Form- Protracted shoulders compensating for incomplete elbow extension

The biggest problem I see with this compensation pattern is for the following reps; if you’ve lost your packed scapulae position, when going for the next rep your shoulders are not going to be in a stable position to press a heavy weight anymore.  That can in turn have deleterious effects on the shoulders.

5. Feet Position

This is one that will go unnoticed more often than not.  One  of the main reasons is that the shoes your athletes are wearing might simply hide what’s going on at the foot and ankle.  During lower body exercises like squats, deadlifts, lunges and the like a lot can happen at the foot that might be detrimental to an athlete’s health because it will either cause problems further up the chain, or it might be in itself the result of a problem going on somewhere else.  An overpronation, or a loss of the arch of the foot are good examples.

Relatively neutral feet in the bottom of the squat

Feet overpronating at the bottom of the squat

In this last picture, it is easy to realize that it is something that be completely missed when the athlete is wearing shoes. (As a side note, I am not necessarily recommending that people squat without shoes on, but it clearly reveals a problem that might have otherwise been missed.)

This is really just a quick list of some of the most subtle body positions and compensated movement patterns you can see in athletes and clients.  Paying careful attention to details is such an important part of a coach or a trainer’s job because in the end, it plays an extremely important part of the injury prevention component of an effective training program.

There are 2 coaching cues that I’ve become more aware of lately that slipped under my radar for quite some time.  I didn’t realize the importance they had on efficient movement patterns and how they could impact they way the athlete moves.

1- Neck position.  By reading Weingroff’s stuff as well as watching his DVD set and seeing him speak, this is a big take home that I got from his message: you need to coach neck position.
It is part of the spine and has an important impact on inner core function.  This is something I feel like too many coaches would say “why the hell does it matter? It’s not a big deal”.  Well, in fact, IT IS a big deal!  When you deadlift, when you do chin ups, when you do lunges, and when you do any core exercises, the position of your neck affects how your whole body will react.  The goal is to get efficient at joint centration and therefore the body can maximize stability and power production.  The joint centration concept that Weingroff tallks about refers to your joints being in “optimal”, neutral and stable positions for the body to function and move as efficiently as possible.  The position of the neck is a big part of this joint centration concept.  Look carefully at your athletes and clients next time they lift; most of them naturally tend to compensate by reaching with their neck in many different positions.  Coaching athletes and clients to pack in their neck is of utmost importance and I’ve been guilty of overlooking this coaching cue for way too long.  I realize now it is as important as keeping a neutral spine, or keeping your shoulder blades back, etc.

2- Breathing.  We’ve all heard this before at some point in our lives: while lifting, you want to inhale on the eccentric phase and exhale on the concentric phase of any given movement.  Many of us have ditched this concept because we know that it is far from optimal when trying to move big weights and it is pretty inefficient strategy to create stability.  Although I still believe this last theory, I’ve been more aware of the importance of breathing and how it affects your body, just not in the old fashion exhale while you push way.  After taking the postural respiration home study course from the Postural Restoration Institute this past weekend, I realize how important breathing patterns really are.

It affects the position of your spine, your thorax and your ribs on both sides.  Most people have ribs flaring out on the left side and are not very efficient at using their right diaphragm (more on this in an upcoming blog post); because of that the whole orientation of the spine, the thorax and the ribs are affected; which in turn affect neck and shoulder muscle function.  Without going into too much details right now, breathing really does have a profound effect on how we move and position our body.  I’m still not going to tell my athletes to exhale on the way up on a heavy set of deadlift because they need stiffness, which they couldn’t get that way, but there are ways to incorporate breathing patterns into training.  Coaching effective breathing patterns is another often overlooked coaching cue that deserve more attention than it has had recently.

Have you signed up for my newsletter, yet?! …I dare you!! You might just get 3 FREE gifts!!!

Although my blog is mostly about strength and conditioning, this post could apply not only to strength coaches, but also to personal trainers, sport coaches or any kind of teacher in the fitness business.

The way we communicate to our athletes is one of the most important thing in our job.  If we can’t get an athlete to execute an exercise or a drill the way we want them to, we failed to do our job, whether it’s because of inappropriate coaching or because of an athlete’s physical limitations or whatever other reason.  In the end it’s still our fault if they don’t do something the right way.

That’s why coaching cues are so important and how we communicate them is of utmost importance.  One of the mistakes I made as a young strength coach when I started in this field a couple years ago, like most coaches who want to help their athletes, is over-coaching athletes.  You want to do everything the right way, and you want your athletes to perform everything perfectly right away.  Because of that, we end up overwhelming our athletes with coaching cues.  We tell them to get their chest up, shift their hips back, keep their weight on their heels, keep their chin tucked back, and keeping their shoulders packed back before they start a new movement.  How do you expect somebody to apply all of those things at the same time?  And then, when they don’t get it right away, we just cue them on every single rep they perform and stop them 3 times in the middle of their set to explain something.  This will cause a couple of things:

• athletes get confused by too many coaching cues
• they can’t apply any of them because they have too much going in their head at the same time
• they’ll get annoyed with you for talking  too much, and not letting them lift

Over-coaching biceps curls…my favorite!

In the end, too many coaching cues will negatively affect the outcome.  The KISS  principle(Keep It Simple Stupid) applies very well here.  When showing a new task (an exercise, a drill, a movement pattern, etc) you should give a very simple description (say as little as possible) of what you want the athlete to achieve and keep your coaching cues to 1 or 2.  This will ensure that the athlete doesn’t get confused with what he has to accomplish and can focus on one thing or two and execute it as best as he can.  Adjust your cues from there with how the athlete responds and reproduces what you taught him.  When gaining experience teaching specific exercises or skills, you also learn which coaching cues work best for different exercises in most cases (I say “most cases” because there are always exceptions).  Also, it’s okay to let your athletes do a couple reps wrong once in a while (as long as it doesn’t get dangerous for them), and just talk about it with them when the set is over; they need to differentiate what should feel “right” and what should feel “wrong”.  And in some cases, they might just need a couple extra practice reps to apply what you cued them to do.

All in all, the more you coach, the less you coach.  By that I mean, the more experienced you get, you’ll find yourself saying less and less; you’re not becoming careless, you’re just becoming a more efficient coach.  Your athletes will get better quicker, and they won’t get annoyed with you for trying to over-coach them.

For more insights on sports training and strength and conditioning, make sure to sign up for my newsletter!  Hey, you’ll also receive 3 reports on secrets to build better athletes, and all of this for FREE!!