Today’s episode features Erik Korem and Keir Wenham-Flatt.  Erik Korem is the associate athletic director for student athlete high-performance and Keir Wenham-Flatt is the coordinator of football performance.   Erik and Keir are a veritable all-star team of athletic development, with knowledge spanning all arenas of performance that transfers to the field.

Erik brings nearly two decades of national expertise to his current position at William and Mary at the professional and collegiate levels, most recently, serving as the Director of Sports Science for the National Football League's Houston Texans, and previously, the high-performance coordination at the University of Kentucky football.  Keir has extensive experience in rugby physical preparation, and recently has expanded his repertoire to American football and University Olympic sports in his employment in the USA, in addition to his founding of rugbystrengthcoach.com.

As we’ve talked about on other shows, strength, and even speed, is only a part of the equation on preparing athletes to be their best on the day of competition (albeit, an important part).  This podcast goes in depth on how Erik and Keir approach those two facets of performance from a perspective of maximal efficiency and effectiveness.

The show expands to more “global” topics of high performance which includes the specificity of “mental toughness” and performance in high-pressure situations, as well as the role of emotional state in long-term sport success.  We also cover ideas regarding a global model (James Smith’s book “Governing Dynamics” is a big one here) of sport training that can help synchronize sport and strength coaches in their combined efforts.  We also get into the data provided by GPS, focusing on how team speed readings are an indicator of the flow of game play.

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.







Key Points

Erik and Keir’s thoughts on agility and change of direction training on the field of play
The use of maximal speed training for the sake of injury prevention in American football
How GPS and game speed and acceleration can be a significant factor in looking at the strategy of how a football game is played
How Erik and Keir utilize athlete performance logs and wellness readings
The specificity of “toughness” and resilience in high pressure and over-time play situations
How the “Governing Dynamics of Sport” is impacting conversations that Erik and Keir are having with the sport coaches at their university
The importance of mental and emotional factors and sport success, especially at higher levels
Year to year progressions in strength training for athletes for maximal long-term development






Quotes
“You can have two athletes in the same position, with different physical gifts who solve a problem with two different means, and what we try and do is provide them with a guided learning environment to discover what works (for change of direction in a game like setting)”  Wenham-Flatt

“How many times do you have to see an elite athlete do something that’s “wrong” before you understand that they are probably doing it the right way”  Wenham-Flatt

“There are three ways to win warfare: More force, more speed, or misdirection… when everybody is different, everybody is going to be naturally geared towards solving sport problems by different means.  The less you have of one thing, the more you need of the others” Wenham-Flatt

“For the most part we are getting guys to that 90% (sprinting in season) threshold or greater, our skills and our mid-skill positions” Korem

“In games, it’s not always great to say “oh! We had all these players run over X amount of speed” because it could mean that they are chasing somebody” Korem

“Bryan Mann released a paper this year from his days at Mizzou,