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Good morning. The Ravens explain how they track players who skip voluntary workouts, why the best coaches question everything they think they know, and how sprint-floats build speed capacity without chasing PRs. Let's get into it...
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🏈 How the Ravens Track Players Who Skip Voluntary Offseason Workouts
Ravens Director of Strength & Conditioning Scott Elliott breaks down their communication process when players don't attend voluntary offseason programs. The staff connects directly with players or their personal trainers to share conditioning benchmarks — yards at speed, run volume, lift intensity — so athletes can match or progress toward team standards before returning. Position group coaches in the weight room help coordinate these conversations throughout the offseason.
The key: making sure players arrive ready regardless of where they trained. Elliott says the vast majority of Baltimore's roster showed up, and those who didn't had varying reasons, which he respects since it's voluntary. Read More
🧠 Why the Best Coaches Question Everything They Think They Know
In a new Strength Coach Network article, a high school S&C director spent a day with Cal Dietz and learned the biggest lesson wasn't about Performance Pattern Cycling or RPR — it was about mindset. Dietz constantly questions assumptions and challenges norms. That's the foundation of coaching growth, not certifications or systems.
The Dunning-Kruger effect shows why: people with limited knowledge overestimate competence, while true experts often underestimate themselves. To break free from mental boxes, challenge your mentors respectfully, explore opposing ideas, experiment in the weight room, and reflect regularly. Companies like Netflix, Apple, and Amazon thrived by questioning the status quo. Real growth happens in unfamiliar territory. Mastery isn't about having all the answers — it's about asking better questions. Read More
⚾️ The Three Pillars of Pitching Performance: Strength, Biomechanics, Recovery
Sports scientist Joe Eisenmann breaks down the fundamentals Nolan Ryan and Tom House pioneered that still drive pitching performance today. The three pillars: functional strength and conditioning, biomechanical analysis (sequencing and timing), and recovery/arm care.
Eisenmann is putting theory into practice himself — attempting to throw 80 mph by August while staying healthy and injury-free. His approach tracks throwing load by both volume and intensity (not just pitch count), uses app-based motion analysis for biomechanics, and designs a weekly plan balancing lifting, throwing, recovery, mobility, and conditioning. The program mirrors Ryan's 5x lifting routine between starts and House's functional training methods. Exercise stimulus plus adequate rest equals adaptation. The whole is greater than the parts. Read More
🏃 Sprint-Floats Build Speed Capacity — Not Just PRs
Nick DiMarco challenges the Issurin residual training effect chart that claims speed degrades in 5 days. That number came from swimming research, not controlled sprint studies — and it's wrong. Athletes who return from weeks-long injuries don't lose speed capacity. What degrades without consistent exposure is tissue readiness to express speed safely.
The reframe: low-volume max-intensity sprint work builds output capacity but not robustness. DiMarco's solution is sprint-floats — 25 yards at full speed into a 15-yard float where athletes relax and hold velocity. In their last spring session, 90% of athletes hit max speed PRs. The goal isn't PRs — it's accumulating high-speed distance safely to prepare tissue for repeated efforts across a full season. Get them faster. Keep them available. That's the job. Read More
Director of Performance Nutrition
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