Remember Monty Python’s Holy Grail? The scene from the movie during the great plague where the guy is pushing a cart yelling “bring out your dead”? They throw a guy on the cart who protests… “I’m not dead yet!”. The guy pushing the cart retorts… “Oh shut up, you’ll be dead soon”. “But I’m not dead yet!!”.
Lately, I feel like the guy that is thrown into that cart. The luminaries of the strength and conditioning world are all celebrating that HIT is dead. Fed up with “HIT Jedi” and SuperSlow/Ren-Ex agitators, they are happy to get on with “Strength-Speed, Speed-Strength, Acceleration, Explosiveness, Power, Strength-Endurance, Endurance-Strength, and just plain Strength” amongst other training variations applied through complex programming schedules that only the true athlete can understand or appreciate.
Mike Bradley (Strength Coach for the Florida State University Basketball team) recently dropped by for a visit when they came into town to play (and defeat) Clemson. Mike knows what I’m talking about. He is like that Japanese soldier from WW II that is still hunkered down in the Philippines. He lives (and enjoys) the life of a S&C hermit. There are still a handful of guys like him in the collegiate and professional S&C arena, but they are few and far between.
Mike loves his job like you wouldn’t believe. He gets to apply the most efficient and effective training programs to the most responsive athletes imaginable. He says… “Doug…it’s like Jurassic Park”. And, his head coach loves him. His players are strong, dominant and injury resistant. One of the most important aspects of sport at the collegiate level is recruiting. Mike feels that his S&C program gives them a recruiting advantage because the kids and their parents see something that is very different from the same old thing that they see at every other program. The players and their parents are impressed with the approach and with the emphasis on injury prevention, both on the court and in the training room.
Mike’s visit was a breath of fresh air. We had a great time in the gym and had a wonderful dinner and wine afterwards. My son was along and was absolutely mesmerized by Mike’s stories. My son and wife also got to enjoy a great game the next day (I, unfortunately, was in the ER). After the BBS site crashing, and HIT fading into the sunset, it was great to see a HIT/BBS approach proving itself at the highest level of competition.
Another breath of fresh air has been Lawrence Neal’s podcasts at https://highintensitybusiness.com. His interviews with HIT thought leaders, along with experts in diet, business and productivity, have made my drive time to and from the kids’ schools an absolute pleasure. In a recent podcast, Lawrence details how he has taken everything he has learned from his interviewees and applied it to his own life. It is really a great listen, and shows how the best of many different approaches can be combined to fit into a busy lifestyle. Give it a listen here:
Finally, I have another video up on my YouTube channel discussing my feelings on how BBS fits into the world of training in 2017. Check it out here: