Today’s episode features strength coach and sport scientist, Jake Schuster.  Jake is a coach who has brilliantly connected the dots in terms of research, technology and data collection, and transfer to athletic performance in both the team sport and individual (track and field) environment.

Jake Schuster leads the physical preparation of Florida State University sprints and hurdles groups on the Track and Field team and serves as the liaison between FSU Strength and Conditioning/Sports Performance and the ISSM. He works alongside Dr. Michael Ormsbee to oversee several MSc thesis students in applied research projects.

I’ve loved talking with coaches about the raw, specific qualities associated with high performance sprinting for a long time.  Although sprint derivatives are of the highest importance in getting faster, every coach I talk to is invariably interested in things seen in jumping or resistance exercise that could deliver transfer to speed and execution on the track or field of play.  After all, that’s the reason we train.

In this regards, Jake Schuster is an expert in blending data from tools such as the force plate and Nordbord hamstring unit, and integrating it into what is seen in on-track performance.  He also has great wisdom in how this process works in getting field sport athletes to their highest performance.

On today’s podcast, Jake delivers pragmatic information on asymmetry, force development in jump tests, isometric and hamstring training protocols for sprinters, approaching general strength means for track versus team sport athletes, and more.  As a former strength coach for track and field, this is one of my favorite podcasts on the topic to date. 

Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more.  



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Key Points:

Some recent lessons Jake has learned working as a strength and conditioning coach for track and field
Some of the quantitative things that Jake looks for using KPI data in regards to speed and sprinting
Asymmetries, when they are a big deal and when they aren’t
Top KPI movements in transfer to speed
Building performance in a individual sport athlete (such as track or swimming) versus a team sport athlete
Eccentric and isometric training concepts
Jake’s attitude towards maximal “general” strength work in training track speed, (squats and deadlifts)
Training track and field or team sport athletes based on squat patterning dominance versus deadlift patterning dominance
Jake’s thoughts on velocity based training

Quotes:
“We try too hard to put people into boxes in training, and it just doesn’t work that way”

“We try to look at the stability of asymmetries, we aren’t trying to get someone from 15% down to 10% that might not be a productive task, but if someone is normally 10% and one day they show up at 20%, then maybe we need to go to the physio table to make sure you don’t get hurt.”

“On the Nordbord our greatest asymmetry came in our horizontal jumpers… they have bigger asymmetries than our high jumpers…. their takeoff leg hamstring was stronger”

“We can cause more damage and injury risk by correcting asymmetries than leaving them alone”

“Supine single leg ISO push has huge transfer to 100m sprint proficiency”

“We know that longer fascicles means less injury risk; eccentrics yield longer fascicles”

“The most important thing we can do as practitioners is provide our athletes the ability to work on their skills as much as possible, and from a physical preparation standpoint the second best thing we can do is to bring them to the pitch healthy and ready to get maximal velocity exposure as often as possible”

“Olympic lifts are not as difficult to teach as we make them out to be”

“If you only have two coaches in the room and you are spending half of your t...