Attn AndrewS/Ernie

[Kevin Bell]

Some references well worth a read. Ernie, your buddy Rob may be interested in these;

1,Theory and Application of Modern Strength & Power Methods by Christian Thibaudeau.

2, The Black Book of Training Secrets by Christian Thibaudeau.

[AndrewS]

Hey Kev,

thanks. I've followed some of Thibaudeau's stuff over on <t-mag.com>. He's got some good info, and I've heard his 'Black Book' is excellent. How's your lifting going?

Andrew

[Kevin Bell]

Hey Andrew,

Well last few weeks have been hectic, car engine blown up, seminars to attend etc, so ive been doing a maintenence programme really. Got a few issues with my squat form as well thats needs attention. Spending this week and next week putting in some submaximal effort work and some serious aerobic/anerobic work. had to knock Stiff legged DL's on the head due to an old back injury from years ago, but my normal DL form seems to be really coming along. Clean from hang positon is a major target for me as well in the forth coming weeks to polish up again poor form but i got an experienced ex-Marine Commando to lift with as of next week so on the whole looking quite rosey.

Are you still on the Sled for GPP days? Im pushing cars at the mo...well it i work with things as well so they're always accessible

I got hold of a Lat Sau dvd the other week and Emin looks pretty good shape though small in comparison to you if your the giant guy getting your shirt ripped have you converted him to conjugate yet?

[AndrewS]

Hey Kev,

sounds like you're having some fun. Clean from the hang position? I do mainly power cleans. Do feel that hang cleans are easier? I should mix some in sometime, I suppose, but my sense is that the static load of holding the weight burns energy I could be using lifting.

Cars- if I tried to push a car on the hill I live on, I be a f*ckin' corpse. I'm still doing a bunch of sled work, and probably always will. It's great recovery, and builds some killer strength, too. I've been using the handles around my head lately and am getting a crazy neck workout from it.

I haven't converted Emin to conjugate yet, and I don't know if he's the guy for it. If the lat sao video is the one I'm thinking of, then he was doing no weight training at the time. I think he's starting to lift a little now, but it's not a major portion of his training. Hopefully, I'll bring him over to the dark side at some point, but designing a program for him would be pretty challenging given his schedule.

Giant guy getting his shirt ripped? Bald? Or balding with a ponytail? I forget whether I made the sane fashion decision by the time we filmed the lat sao thing? Tattoo on L arm? Is there a black guy who looks like a small truck in that video? If yes, then that's probably me circa 2001-2002. Before I started lifting.

Andrew

[Kevin Bell]

Hey Andrew,

Dont know if this will get pulled as its another forum but there is an S&C corner on the new wsl forum found at
http://www.takeforum.com/forum/login.php?mforum=wongshunleung..

Cleans from hang are a little discomforting, my partner says they burn the cr@p out of his shoulders personally found no big problems myself

Been monitoring your blog with some interest, actually gave me a thought to break down some of the VT stuff into sections. Having said that on the link above fellow westsider going via the name S&C wrote a piece called Westside applied to a VT lesson which i thought pretty good. Guy knows his stuff doing a masters in sports science.

Actually quick question do you do the strength or power exercises first? personally i prefer the strength the guy S&C prefers the power down to personal preference i suppose.

Laterzzz

Kev

[AndrewS]

Hey Kev,

Power first. Power exercises are more technical and demanding. The general consensus is that they should be done first in a practice, though Siff mentions that older athletes (of more advanced training age) may do well to warm up with their strength exercises for ROM stuff, but I don't take that to mean do an RM1 squat then work on your snatches. 'Science and Practice of Sports Training' suggests that within both a practice and microcycle that exercise order should be speed-strength-endurance (can't find my copy right now, or I quote you chapter and verse).

I wrote a quick thing for S&C on how I like to structure training and posted it over there. Here it is. . .

Hey Kev M,

Kevin Bell directed me over here, so blame him for my bugging you.

I like the approach you present and see merit in it for the reasons you mentioned- staying fresh, and getting the most important work done first. I'll throw out some stuff on how I structure things (which has yielded good results) and why. . .

1). I try to put new material in as early in the lesson as possible, as new skills require more attention to acquire than refreshing older skills.

2). I try to pick one skill/mechanic as a focus for a session. As volume of repetion seems to promote learning, then distribute the reps in discrete blocks through the rest of the practice so everyone has some rest time, and can perform well each time they're called upon.

3). I try to work in 2-3 minute rounds to provide above volume. With a 1 minute rest between rounds, this gives you 20-30 rounds in an hour, usually with 3-4 minutes active rest (feeding your partner) between rounds.

4). Warm up- I work off of pure 'mechanical' isolation drills, done cooperatively, static with beginners, then with more and more motion and timing, drawing on said theme.

5). Isolation rounds- usually out of chi sao or dan chi. Burn in some reps. Sometimes I'll alternate these with more free rounds, so someone can work on the groove they're learning when some resistance and application comes.

6). Limited sparring rounds- I work these from WT's lat sao (my line), a thai clinch, a greco clinch, and from distance. Sometimes, if an idea translates, I'll put it on the ground, though there's rarely time for that.
7). Free sparring- if time and experience of those involved permits, I open things up a bit after the limited rounds.

8). Review last session's material- for retention.

9). Applying under variable conditions in practice seems key to applying under variable conditions in application. I base this off a nice study done on collegiate baseball batting that was up on soccercoach.com for a while. Basically- batting against 40 random pitches at the end of practice improved performance more than batting against 4 sets of 10 set pitches, even through the trainees performed worse in practice. There are some other nice notes there on rates of improvement and error in practice, implying that up to a 50% failure rate at a task is still fertile ground for learning, while 100% success in training makes for little improvement (a discussion unto itself).

The ultimate upshot of this sort of structure is that, if, say, you're practicing applications of tan, you'll log hundreds of reps with it, all under different situations, while getting some let 'theoretical' experience.

Not the only way I structure things, but one of my favorites.

Andrew

[Kevin Bell]

Good stuff Andrew and i hope you feel free to post there as often as you like, its pretty troll free at the moment :D

Ref the strength/power exercises im always open to ideas so i'll reverse the order in a few weeks and see what goes. Funny enough Siffs and Zatsiorsky's works sit right here by the PC so i know where there are. You ever seen the Sci-Fit machines?? Like pedalling a a bike with your hands one of my fav warm up machines at the mo biomechanically similar to resistance punching SPP possibly?