Jesse Collin's Background

● Jesse Collins started his journey at The University of Wilfrid Laurier where he played Football and obtained his undergraduate in Kinesiology. Through a multitude of severe injuries and surgeries, Jesse’s passion moved towards the academic side of how to improve athletic performance and recovery from injury. This led him to a Master’s Degree in Exercise Physiology at The University of Ohio. He is currently finishing his PHd in Neurophysiology and is the president and founder of Collins Athletic Performance. Jesse is a highly sought-after coach for both healthy and injured athletes alike , working with athletes of all levels – from youth sports to the professional ranks. While Jesse is best known for his work with football players – working with a countless number of CFL players each year – his scope is not limited to one sport. He works with athletes in a variety of sports to help them achieve their highest levels of performance first and foremost. Furthermore, his expertise in a wide array of training methods has made him one of the leading performance coaches in Ontario for injury prevention and rehabilitation. Although he is well versed in a variety of topics, Jesse specializes in applied kinesiology and biomechanics as they relate to program design, corrective exercise, mobility enhancement, maximal relative strength development, and athletic performance. 
Changes in Power Output From a Force Perspective and Velocity Perspective
● Power is equal to the amount of force produced multiplied by the velocity at which that force is produced. You can either affect someone’s power output by changing velocity or by changing force.● A force dominant athlete is one who is strong but can't convert it into explosive movement efficiently. These athletes may have difficulty translating their strength into athletic skill.● A velocity dominant athlete has a high rate of force development (how fast they can recruit motor units for sudden movement) but the total amount of force produced may be lower.● Study (1) uses a calculation to determine the optimal force/velocity curve to produce the greatest power output. The research team identified an athletes dominant attribute (force or velocity) and altered their training methods to better balance out these attributes. They found that training an athlete to get them closer to this optimal line resulted in massive improvements in overall athletic ability. This meant training force dominant athletes with more velocity style training (ballistics and olympic lift → see study for actual methods) and the velocity dominant athletes with more traditional strength training methods would improve the testing outcomes and performance measures.

Velocity Based Training  
● Easy way to get athletes to work at higher velocities while limiting risk of fatigue/injury and recovery from training sessions.● Improving power output for force dominant athletes (and velocity dominant ones).● Requires specialized equipment (linear transducer, inertia sensors, etc) to monitor the speed of the motion to quantify in real time and receive feedback. Its not only optimal for training velocity but also teaches the athlete to monitor their load and fatigue levels to make positive adaptations without overdoing it in the weightroom. This is especially important when trying to create adaptation in the nervous system which requires very specific stimulus.● Examples: plyometrics/ballistic movements, sprint training, explosive olympic lifts.


Mechanical vs Neurological Adaptations

● Mechanical adaptations are through changes in actual tissue structure. This would mainly be muscular hypertrophy which is the enlargement of muscle tissues and a conversion to more type 2 (fast twitch) muscle fibers from type 1 (slow twitch) muscle fibers.● Neurological adaptations are displayed through changes in how the nervous system fires that muscle. This is most often seen through changes in the motor units (a nerve and all muscle fibers it innervates) size, firing speed, firing frequency and the synchronization of that firing. ● When applying these concepts practically in the weightroom, Jesse postulates that mechanical adaptations will show greater influences on absolute force output while neurological adaptations will influence the rate of force development (velocity) generally speaking. Maximum strength seems to exist in the presence of both of these adaptations; significant muscular hypertrophy with maximal volition and neural recruitment of the muscle. Acknowledging that variations exist within a large range from person to person and these variations need to be better understood through testing, programming, and research.

What Jesse Hopes to Answer with his Research 
● Can an athlete be great at creating max strength through increased voluntary neural drive using a high weight (in training conditions) but not able to do the same at a relatively low weight (in sport performance conditions)?● The size principle states that you will recruit smaller motor units before larger ones which suggests that athletes can recruit larger groups of motor units during weight training but that speed of recruitment may not be able to be achieved to the same degree with less load. ● This is important for 2 main reasons, first smaller units are less [ and produce less force making them ideal for precise and postural tasks. While larger motor units are needed for high force/explosive tasks. Therefore, when performing max strength tasks, the whole motoneuron pool is recruited. However, with lighter weight, the whole motoneuron pool isn’t recruited by necessity instead maximal volition becomes the determinant factor for full recruitment. In layman terms, if maximal recruitment is done with lighter weight, then the velocity of the movement should inherently be much faster. Keeping this in mind, Jesse wants to look into what the limiting factors might be to not achieving this maximal velocity at lighter weights, and what the limiting relevant neural mechanisms might be.

How Unilateral vs Bilateral Movements Affect Neural Drive 
● During unilateral movements, neural drive of that limb is increased when compared to the same limb during bilateral movements. In more detail, when the left leg is measured for its performance during a single leg effort (unilateral), it is able to out-perform its relative performance if the left leg was performing in conjunction with the right leg together (bilateral).● If we think about how much weight or how fast we can move off of one limb versus two, there should be a relatively substantial increase. But there is not, there seems to be a factor that prevents both legs exerting maximal force relative to their capabilities that exist if they were to perform individually. ● Is this a potential protective mechanism based on the sensory feedback the CNS is gathering? Or could this be a part of the force velocity profile that limits the potential? (2).● Oscillatory training (Cal Deitz) may have a neural effect to better coordinate the effort of opposing muscle groups during a movement where co-contraction of the antagonist might otherwise hinder the rate of force development of the agonist muscle.● French Contrast training is a method that also stimulates neural adaptations in accordance with the size principle. By pairing similar exercises with diminishing loads without rest in between, it allows for a greater initial engagement of motor units while progressively lowering the load and increasing the velocity demands in the movement series.

Predispositions in Athletic Baseline and Training Adaptation

● We have all heard the concept that some athletes have “genetic advantages” in their athletic ability.● This can also apply to an athletes trainability, the ability to create change through their training efforts.● This means that genetics play both a role in an individuals athletic baseline but also their ability to create change in that baseline. ● Therefore, for the athlete who thinks they are genetically gifted and do not have to train, there is always a trainability effect that will serve them if they work for it.
 
Jesse's Approach to Assessment and Periodization

● Jesse breaks down assessment into phases which allows him to make it more specific and affordable for his student and professional athletes. These phases include general assessment and with the higher level athletes he will do force-velocity profiling as part two of the assessment process. After the assessment a program is created base off the assessment, sport specific goals/needs, and aesthetic goals/needs.● Jesse's assessments are very movement based. He focuses more on joint motion in active and passive ranges (including breathing mechanics) and joint health before looking at skilled abilities. These will not be specific measures but will be specific to the sport, or for the general population, specific to their lifestyle.● The force-velocity profiling is where Jesse takes the athlete through jumping scenarios with different loads to get an idea of where they are in the force/velocity/power curve (force dominant or velocity dominant).● After this, he moves into looking at movement patterns like the squat, hinge, and locomotive patterns. Jesse will also use some orthopedic tests (e.g. Thomas test) and proprioceptive tests.● Jesse uses an undulating approach to periodization, meaning there are changes in volume and intensity throughout the macrocycle but they are not linear. After the assessment, the program starts with the general physical preparedness phase (GPP) focused on improving motor patterns, addressing major motion issues and utilizing full ranges of motion. ● Next is the specific physical preparedness phase (SPP) which gets into athletic development for their sport (not sport specificity in terms of actual movement patterns). This means they will cater the strength and cardiovascular demands to the actual sport but not the movement specificity until the next phase. ● Lastly, the sport specific development phase (SDP) is where the focus on sport specific movements and power specific training happens. He will often use contrast techniques such as french contrast training (contrasting traditional strength lift with plyometrics that decrease in load every set) with shorter ranges of movement in the later peaking phases (which also utilizes post activation potentiation).● In terms of the time in which each phase will last is tailored to the athletes needs. If they need to stay in GPP longer, then they do. Jesse believes you need to get the athlete some capacity to be explosive, absorb force and have good metabolic capacity. However, they also need adequate time in the peaking phase to properly prepare for the demands of the sport so striking a balance between preparation and performance based on the individual needs is crucial.


The Selling of Singularity

● Singularity is the idea that there is only one way of accomplishing a given goal in training or rehabilitation for someone. Following a single model of movement or training approach that applies to every human being without acknowledging structural differences is incomplete. There are pros to this ideology in that it is easy to sell and easy to teach but it can’t serve as a long term approach for every person. ● The details behind why this ideology falls short is in the undeniable truth that everyone's situation is different, everyone's body is utilizing different motor patterns and movement compensations to achieve the tasks they are trying to accomplish. This means the strategies used to help them improve their ability should always be person dependent (considering injury history, genetic variability, daily demands of their system etc.)- There is no one size fits all program.● That's not to say these models are completely useless, their application for specific situations that they are most suited for can be very helpful in the short term. What this does is it requires the coach or rehab professional to conduct a thorough assessment to understand if it will be helpful for the person/athlete. How well can you assess an athlete to then properly assign exercises catered to what you have found, and understand when those exercises have reached their limits with that person to keep them progressing.


Jessie's Advice for Young Coaches and his Philosophy

● His advice is to never stop learning.● The research changes yearly, you need to keep in touch with what's going on so you can adapt when new information or practices are made available.● His philosophy is to compete with yourself for perfection. This is based off competing with oneself rather than competing against the people around you.● Understand that there is a process to success and development and some people have been on the same journey longer than you have, they have walked further. Don't worry if you're doing better or worse than others, did you do better than you did yesterday?


Resources
Where to find Jesse
Website: https://collinsathleticperformance.com/Instagram: collinsathleticperformance
References
1. Jimenéz-Reyes, P., Samozino, P., Brughelli, M., & Morin, J.-B. (2017). Effectiveness of an Individualized Training Based on Force-Velocity Profiling during Jumping. Frontiers in Physiology, 7(Jan). https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2016.00677
2. Maarten F. Bobbert, Wendy W. de Graaf, Jan N. Jonk, and L. J. Richard Casius (2013). Explanation of the bilateral deficit in human vertical squat jumping. Journal of Applied Physiology. 01 Feb 2006 https://doi.org/10.1152/japplphysiol.00637.2005