Speaker 1: What's going on guys, Coach Matrix here from IOM Forum Center. Today's lecture is titled Assessing over Guessing using applicable metrics to enhance our training programs. We want to look at assessment through a lens of gathering clues. The more clues we gather the better funnel our training approach can be. We're going to kind of break this down into three components. The first being our needs analysis where we gather and research and consider a variety of factors that relate to the team, sport, and individual athlete we're working under. We also want to look at quantitative assessments. We'll talk about how we use jump analyses, sprint analyses, and everyday training maxes in our programming. And then we also want to include qualitative assessments. So for example, jump by joint theory, daily readiness, and observed behavior. So we'll talk about needs analysis first. So we typically focus on four main pillars. As you can see, biomechanical demands in the red, metabolic demands in the blue, individual needs in yellow, and of course injury risk in green. Now it really comes down to asking the right questions and having a critical thinking aspect of the sport, the athlete, and the environment you're working in. So for example, if we're looking at biomechanical demands, we might ask some questions. Is the sport and positions related bilateral or more unilateral in nature? Or are there different positions involved? Is the environment of competition open or closed? What are the reactionary demands? Those kinds of questions can help funnel the positions or athletes we put into. And this goes into the next column, which is metabolic demands or more energy system demands. Okay, is the sport anaerobic or more aerobic in nature? Okay, or is it a variety of both? Or how, you know, if you were to weigh those options, how much along the spectrum is which or what? Next, we can consider the intensity duration, right? If we look at soccer as an example, how much of the 90 minutes on the field is dedicated towards high intensity sprinting, jogging, walking, etc. And we can kind of break that down a little further to help us narrow what our athlete might need. We also want to consider injury risk. Are there multiple repetitive actions that may not be optimal for what the athlete has to do? And of course, you want to look at the most common injuries associated with that sport. So for example, if we look at basketball or volleyball, you're probably going to run into knee or ankle issues. If we're looking at hockey or soccer, you might run into groin issues, that kind of thing. So we want to keep those factors in mind. And we also want to consider the individual needs of our athletes. Okay, do they have different training ages? You might have freshmen that have multiple years of weight training experience under the belt. You also might have freshmen that have no experience under their belt, right? And that's, you know, greatly going to impact how they progress in our weight room. We also want to consider potential life stress, right? What does the athlete come from in life? Do they come from like a single-parent household? Do they have siblings, family members? Do they have to take care of their family or friends? Are they in a relationship? You know, how is their financial situation? Because all those life factors will impact their effort in the weight room and of course impact how they progress. Quantitative analysis. So we're going to talk about three columns here that we can use and how we implement them in our training programs. First one is jump testing. This can be done daily using simple devices, whether it be a jump mat or g-flight device. And we're going to examine three components. The first being the non-counter movement jump. This will give us a better idea of their starting strength. Counter movement jump, better overall idea of the relative strength. And RSI or reactive strength index. This kind of helps determine how springy they are. Of course, there's charts and factors that kind of give us a breakdown of where they fall in each category. Now again, this also can be used as an assessment of daily readiness. If you notice a significant drop, you know, from their numbers previous days or weeks, you might have a better idea that, okay, this athlete is, you know, not as ready as they have been and that might change how you implement their program work for the day, right? So let's say, for example, you're, you know, supposed to do more max effort work. You might have to readjust your focus point for the day, knowing that their readiness variable of jump testing is not where it should typically be. Another variable we can consider is sprint testing, right? We'll test the 10, 20, and 40 yard sprint times. And this will give us a better idea of like the relative weak link and the relative change. For example, if we notice that our athlete is falling behind atypically in the 10 yard, that might mean they need to work on more strength. If they're lacking in the 20 yard, they might need more power. And if they're lacking in the 40 yard mark, they might need more work at their top speed. Again, just another variable we can objectively measure to determine progress. Lastly, we'll use everyday training maxes. We know that there could be anywhere from 10 to 40% daily variance just based on life stressors, right? So if we know, let's say our athlete's squat max is 100 kilos. On any given day, we could see a drop of 10 to 40 kilos based on what's going on in their life. So for example, if they're on a good day, it might not be much variance at all. If they had, you know, a breakup or relationship separation, if they had a death in the family, that kind of thing, that's going to impact their ability to give full effort in the weight room. Of course, it can impact their effort on the lifts, right? So we safely use a window of 5 to 10% below their typical 1RM. It could be a true 1RM or it could be estimated, whichever you choose in your setting. And an easy indicator that we can implement in our programs to test that every cycle are AMRAPs. So for example, you might take 85% or 80-85% and see how many reps they can get with good technical form. And then based on the number they get, you simply plug that into your calculation and you can estimate a new training max for the next cycle, alright? So jump testing, sprint testing, and everyday training maxes are some quantitative measures we can implement when assessing your athletes. Qualitative analysis. First, we'll talk about joint by joint. I want to make a note here that it can also be quantitative. So first and foremost, what we're looking at are levels of stability and mobility of certain joints. So typically, we'll say they have certain, like, things are tight or what have you. What we'll do is we'll put, you know, them in certain positions of passive and active ranges of motion. If we can passively put them in a position but they cannot actively put themselves there, it gives us a better indicator of whether they actually are tight or if they are more weak. Now, of course, there's various factors that impact that, but generally speaking, from a broad perspective, it's a pretty safe bet that if we can passively put somebody in a position and they can't actively get there on their own, it's because they're lacking the strength to do so. Of course, like I said, there are other factors that affect that. We won't go into detail on that just yet, okay? So keep that in mind. When I say it can be quantitative, if we use a goniometer, we have certain angles, flexion, extension, rotation that we're looking to hit. And of course, we can compare that to overall scores or simply to themselves left and right side. Or you can simply just have an idea of the range window that you want to hit and see if they fit in that window. So it really is up to you how far you want to go to measure it. For sake of time and ease, we simply know the range we're looking for and we'll see if they fit into that window and we can make a better indicator from there. Alright, so that's the joint by joint analyses. Daily readiness and observed behavior, they kind of tie together, but we'll break it down into two categories here. So daily readiness, we can use a simple stoplight system, number scale, however you choose to measure it. We'll be asking the athlete questions in terms of how they slept, what they had to eat for the day, you know, how much water they drink in bottles, and their overall energy level. All this is, again, doing is giving us a better idea of like how their effort level might be in the weight room. And this is gonna be tied, like I said, to observed behavior in a second. I'll get there. But like I said, how they slept is gonna impact their energy levels. If they had sufficient food intake and hydration, that's gonna impact their ability to lift in the weight room or give you a full effort. Alright, next that ties into that observed behavior, you have to know your athletes first and foremost, right? So watch them when they walk in. Are they talkative? Are they quiet? Are their heads down? Are their, you know, their heads up and smiling? What's their mood looking like? Are they talking to their teammates? They're talking to their friends? Are they, you know, kind of, you know, withdrawn when they're normally more exaberant? That kind of thing. Knowing your athletes, knowing their mood, and knowing their behaviors, tie it in with how their days are by simply asking basic questions. Look your athletes in the eye and just ask them the question, hey, how are you doing? By doing that, you'll get a great idea of how they're gonna perform in their training session. Alright, because again, if we know that there could be anywhere from 10 to 4% variance in their lift, that's a big deal when looking to implement a training program. So we have to look at our athletes, see how they're doing, ask how they're doing, and make a judgment call based on what modifications we might need for the training program for that day. Finally, applying assessment data. What can we do with this? We want to make sure we're not wasting time. We have a whole battery of assessments and tests from textbooks and knowledge banks that we can use, but that could take hours and it's gonna get us nowhere. So it's important to remember that you have to use what you can and disregard what you can't. It's up to you to select assessments with practical application for your setting, i.e. if it doesn't change how you program, get rid of it. Trash it. It's of no use to you. There's no point in taking all these assessments and data, writing it on a card, and filing it and never using it again. There's absolutely no point. Use things that will impact your training plans and impact how you coach your athletes. Okay, we're looking to observe relative weak links because we know if a small hinge will swing the big door. Alright, so a couple of focus points on that. Make sure you select appropriately. Make sure it's time and environment efficient. Make sure it does impact or change the direction your program will go. Alright, look for relative weak links that might be impacted on a global scale. Alright, use what you can, disregard what you can't. Assess, don't guess. That's it for this lecture guys. As always, if you have any questions, reach out to us via email info at ironformance.ca. Reach out to us on social media, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. Click the subscribe button to our YouTube channel for the latest and greatest in strength conditioning. Until next time guys, take care.