Tommy’s Background

• Tommy started his athletic endeavours in high school playing football but made his way to the University of Waterloo where he completed his undergrad in Kinesiology and competed in track and field as a varsity athlete. He found himself leaning more towards Track where he competed in the sprint events. After completing his undergrad, he quickly attained his certification from the NSCA as a certified strength and conditioning specialist and accepted a job as the Strength and Conditioning coach for the Varsity Basketball and Volleyball teams at the University of Waterloo. Currently, Tommy completed his education at the University of Alberta for a Masters of Coaching with a Sport Conditioning focus while in a blended role of Track and Field Coaching and Strength and Conditioning for their varsity teams. He also runs his own podcast, The Speed Strength show, that talks all things coaching and performance.
The Skills of Coaching

• Great coaching is largely a derivative of good interpersonal skills. Whether you are coaching a sport, a variety of sports, in the weight room, as a practitioner etc you need to be able to communicate, motivate and build relationships.• These skills are also transferable to many other applications. If you are a basketball coach, and are a great communicator and motivator, even if you are challenged to coach a different sport, like baseball for example, you can still achieve great outcomes even though you are not as knowledgeable in the logistics. This also allows for an ability for coaches to learn important skills from other coaches who may not even be within the same sport.• This is also an important factor from the perspective of the athlete or individual's outcomes. In the book “The Biology of Belief” Dr. Bruce Lipton takes a dive into how human biology can change and be optimized through the individual's perception of the potential task and outcome. Being able to build more trust and belief from your clients will improve their outcomes regardless of what the task is itself. • This is not to say knowing the X’s and O’s of the sport is not important but, if you cannot properly communicate them or motivate your client or athlete to do them, they are useless. That being said, individuals that can leverage both the interpersonal skills and the skills of understanding the intricacies of the sport or task, are some of the best coaches to ever live.• These skills, as much as they can be innate, can also be learned and improved upon.
Tommy’s Methodology for Coaching

• Tommy first starts by utilizing a Venn diagram model that allows him to pinpoint the key performance indicators (KPI’s) that are most consistently seen within the highest performers within that sport as well as what is taught through different schools of thought within the training aspect of the sport.• Tommy works more with the sprinting athletes within the domain of track and field so uses that as an example to display his methodology:o Neutral spine positiono 3- or 4-point stance with shoulders and hands stackedo Forward shin and torso angle to match during accelerationo Smooth gradual rise of the forward lean to the upright positiono Foot contact in front of center of masso Making ground contact with a dorsiflexed foot• These are the attributes that Tommy finds consistently throughout athletes of the sport, so these are the attributes he prioritizes in training. It also allows him to differentiate between a potential detrimental movement strategy from one that is just individualistic to that athlete. • This methodology allows you to better prioritize the attributes that will give the athlete the greatest success consistently.
How this methodology can be applied to treatment

• When it comes to treatment of the athletic population, it can be difficult for the practitioner to balance their goal of improved health but the athlete’s goal of improved performance. • An athlete can sacrifice healthy movement mechanics within their movement strategies/compensations to allow them to produce the force and rate of force development needed to be the high performing athlete they are• If a practitioner were to mobilize these areas that the athlete is using to stabilize their movement strategy, as much as this could be an improvement on their overall health, it could be a detriment to their performance• Utilizing this Venn diagram model to prioritize the important aspects of performance in a given sport, as well as an understanding of the individuals compensation pattern in front of you as it relates to their sport, the practitioner can better prioritize and balance the aspects of health and recovery while maintaining or even improving performance in the athlete.
Tommy’s Methodology in the Weight Room

• Tommy also uses the Venn diagram model in the weight room for exercises that he prioritizes depending on the demands of the sport and the needs of the athlete. • From a general sense, he does not try to overdue the “mimicking” of the sport within the exercise selection as he feels the biomechanical attributes are better coached on the field or track whereas any physiological adaptations can be addressed in the weight room. This is not to say each is not being considered when both in the weight room and on the field, but the priorities lie where they can be best addressed.• That being said, there is also a psychological piece to his exercise selection. He will either program an exercise that mimics the sport, or he will cue or communicate to the athlete how the movement will influence their performance in the sport so the athlete can one, have belief that it will improve performance, and two, allow the athlete to understand the intention they should have when completing the movement. • Knowing that the acceleration phase of sprinting, due to the larger grounder contact time, requires more force production vs the top speed phase where the foot contact time is smaller, Tommy pairs heavier strength days with acceleration focused days on the field. Then on the days where they are working on top speed mechanics (upright running), he will pair with more of an elastic/faster training day with plyometrics, reactive jumps, med ball throws, something where the tendons/muscles are working more in an elastic fashion verses a concentric orientation.
Training Track Athletes vs Other sports

• Two big areas that will change from track to other spots are the compression/decompression of the movement and the introduction of deceleration and change of direction• Within a sport like football or basketball, the athlete has to be able to decelerate and change direction as well as accelerate in compressed windows of space and time. A track athlete actually wants to distribute their acceleration so that they reach top speed later and therefore spend less time slowing down or decelerating. A football athlete wants to accelerate quickly as they may be impeded by other players, not have 80m to reach top speed and want to get upright to be able to see what is happening and adjust to the play• There are a lot of similarities within the sprinting mechanics between track sprinting and sprinting within a field or team sport.
Tommy’s Philosophy and Advice

• 2 things that stick out to Tommy with every great coach he has worked with is firstly a fantastic communicator. Communicator in the sense that they deliver instructions, ask questions, build trust, cultivate relationships, and spend time with their athletes. The second is constantly being an open-minded student of the game. They are always trying to learn more and are never dogmatic in their approach. • If you can continually work on being a great communicator and a student of the game, you will continually grow and improve. • Great coaches make complex things seem very simple.• Continually educate yourself and be open minded, read books that you initially don't agree with as it will help you continually be open minded.
Resources
Biology of Belief By Bruce LiptonLegacy - James KerrFootball Player DK Metcalf Sprint HighlightStrength Training and Co-ordination: An Integrative Approach - Frans BoschThe Constraints-Led Approach: Principles for Sports Coaching and Practice Design - Renshaw, Davids, Newcombe, Roberts
Where to find Tommy
@speedstrengthshow@speedstrengthperformance