Day 3 & 4.

June 13th and 14th.

Nothing of consequence happened on day 3 really. We actually traveled to another Boyle facility for part of the day to help clean and set up some stuff. Nothing too exciting. One word of advice though the next time you plan on positioning and rolling out about 75 feet of outdoor turf. You’re going to need 4 very strong Olympic sized bars and about 10-12 very strong people.

Day 4 had a bit more in store for us as we saw another workout, a bit of setup and clean-up and staff training meeting for the entire summer staff numbering between 30-40 I’d say. Mike Boyle is an awesome speaker; he’s the most unassuming guy but when he opens his mouth you listen. I think he’s even got a future in comedy when he retires from the S&C realm. Some notes, thoughts and observations from the past couple days:

-Teaching Olympic lifting is a HANDS ON experience. You’re going to waste time, frustrate yourself and the athlete and get nowhere if you just stand next to someone and try to cue or demonstrate proper setup and positioning. While the athlete might be genuinely listening to you and trying to do what you’re asking they just may not be able to physically get into the position you ask them because it’s so foreign and unnatural. So you’ve got to grab their shoulders and pull them back. Grab their hips, pull them back. Push their chest out over the bar. Makes sense.

-At MBSC they do all their Olympic lifting from the hang position because;

1- If you do them from the floor you’ve got to teach a proper deadlift as well. Another exercise to learn, more time required, and with 300 athletes a day going through the facility for 10 weeks in the summer there’s no place for it.
2- The hang position more accurately represents the athletic posture or stance most athletes find themselves in.

-The best athletes will perform drills etc. best at higher speeds and will perform poorer at slower speeds.

-Better athletes will have the weakest stabilizers because their main muscle groups are so efficient they don’t require them to the same extent as a poorer athlete and thus they won’t be as developed.

-You can do wall slides on the floor. Floor slides, whoulda thunk? Not as difficult mind you as you’re not fighting gravity as much.

-There’s no such thing as too much glute activation.

-When you hear people referring to an athlete as having a great first step (heard a lot in basketball) it’s actually a great first PUSH. Leg drive, power.

-Coach Boyle said during the meeting that if he could only do one exercise with his athletes right now it would probably be sled marches. (Forward sled push) “It’s like a leg press in the best possible position.”

-A half kneeling position is a great starting position for various exercises that can then be progressed into a standing position.

-Mike has his athletes do scap pushups on their elbows as in a bridge (front support) position. Athletes were having a hard time doing them in a full pushup position (too much bend at the elbow) so one day he just thought “Why not take that joint out of the movement?”

-MBSC athletes do their X-band walks with sliced mini bands holding the bands with their arms straight in the Da Vinci position. Coach Boyle’s reasoning behind this is to take advantage of the cross body fascial chain. Instead of stopping the warm-up and activation at the hips, having the arms up hits the thoracolumbar fascia, QL (I believe), lats and other upper body muscle groups. More bang for the buck.

-Mike doesn’t test his athletes. People who are genetically gifted and are good at max effort lifts do well at testing and those who aren’t, don’t. They make so much progress in the first phase anyway that all the numbers change and the testing results quickly become useless. It can also be a psychological killer for athletes who test poorly, especially younger athletes. Some training facilities send testing repots home to the athletes parents. “Yeah so I can only bench press 95 pounds and I’ve got a 5.2, 40 yard dash, I’m already feeling pretty shitty about that and now you’re going to send home a report to my mom and dad to let them know how horrible I am too?”

-Boston is a cool place. Kind of touristy but tons of history and lots to see. It's got a neat vibe.

-Every time I order a coffee with cream at Dunkin' Donuts they ask again if I'd like sugar like it's odd that I don't get any...America Runs on Dunkin'...but if America (North America even.) gets any fatter it won't be running anywhere.

That’s all I can think of at the moment. Summer groups start Monday. I’m sure there will be much more to say come next week, if I can stay awake long enough to write about it when I get home.