Written by: Kevin Cann The world of sports has changed quite a bit over the years. Coaches and athletes are often trying to gain competitive edges over everyone else. This has led to a massive spike in data driven coaching. This can be seen across all of sports, even the NFL. In the documentary “The Art of Coaching” which interviewed Bill Belichick and Nick Saban, they discussed this. These coaches are the two most successful coaches in the history Read More
Written by: Kevin Cann I love taking singles. In any sport I have ever participated in, I would much rather scrimmage than drill various aspects of the sport. Singles to me are like getting to scrimmage in practice. I always felt that all of the sparring rounds that I did in mma made me a better fighter than anything else. I honestly believe that if we could do more singles in training, we could yield better results. I Read More
Written by: Kevin Cann Understanding motor control is important for any coach. I believe that all coaches will emphasize the importance of technique. In order to help guide a lifter to better technique in the lifts, the coach must understand how the human body solves movement problems. In order to do this, we must look into the Degrees of Freedom (DOF) problem. The DOF problem was introduced by Nikolai Bernstein, a Russian neurophysiologist, in 1967. Bernstein researched the repetitive Read More
Written by: Kevin Cann I will admit, this title is a bit of clickbait. I honestly did not know what to title it and have this weird OCD thing that makes me title it before I get started. With that said, here we are. This is a conversation that I have had quite a few times in the last few days. Not only with lifters of PPS, but other lifters as well. We have all heard someone tell us Read More
Written by: Kevin Cann When I first started coaching, this was the area of programming that interested me the most. I think that it interested me the most, because the biggest question that I think every coach has is “Where do I start?” I was always confused as where to start for volumes and intensities. We have had this general guidelines laid out in many textbooks, but they were not directed at the competitive strength athlete. I would Read More
Written by: Kevin Cann I had a conversation with Vince Anello and Jeremy Hartman last week. This conversation will be up on Boston’s Strongcast, probably next week. It was a really great episode, with a lot of good information, especially on the mental pieces of training. When we were signing off, Vince said “We are all brothers and sisters in the greatest sport on earth.” He genuinely meant this, and this really stuck out to me. I have had Read More
Written by: Kevin Cann I was having a conversation with a couple of people online that sparked the idea for this article. There is this current theme in the lifting world that everyone needs to find the best technique for them as an individual. This gives many lifters the ok to keep lifting how they are currently lifting, and in many cases, this is utilizing a technique that is very limited. When I first started powerlifting, I Read More
Written by: Kevin Cann I just finished up reading “The Forgotten Secrets of Westside Culver City.” This was a really fun read. It was mainly a collection of magazine articles that told the story of some of the pioneers of the sport. These pioneers were actually a major influence on Louie Simmons, who named his gym after this one to honor their memory. I really enjoyed reading about their training strategies. When this group was training, the internet did Read More
Written by: Kevin Cann I was doing a podcast earlier today and this topic dawned on me. I was discussing training with a coach and lifter that has been around a long time. We both do things very differently, but also have a lot in common. I love having these conversations. I love talking about training, telling stories, discussing the history, and discussing the philosophies that we all have. I also feel that these conversations are really important to Read More
Written by: Kevin Cann I say this a lot, that my training style is a thought process. We do not just follow a recipe when we are training. Earlier on in my coaching career we followed a recipe. I had a structure of the way that the programs went, and we stayed bound to that structure no matter what. I am not saying that I was wrong for doing that. In the beginning Read More