Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
EXOS NFL Combine Prep with Scott Salwasser, Head NFL Combine Coach at EXOS
353 Plays4 days ago
In this episode, Les Spellman sits down with Scott Salwasser, Head NFL Combine Coach at EXOS, to break down what goes into preparing elite athletes for the NFL Combine.
From managing 50+ athletes at once, to profiling speed safely, to using force plates, and the 1080 Sprint to drive real performance.
Scott walks through EXOS’s intake process, how data impacts programming and how low-volume, high-intensity speed work wins in the long run.
The Universal Speed Rating is seeking to partner with more elite training businesses nationwide through our Speed Lab initiative. If you are interested in systemizing your speed training and growing your business, click the link below to schedule a call with our team.
https://universalspeedrating.com/learn-more-partner-with-universal-speed-rating-speed-lab-podcast
Episode Timestamps
00:00 – 02:30: Reconnecting, Sparta roots, and why the old-school stuff still matters
02:30 – 05:30: Scott’s path to EXOS and stepping into a leadership role
05:30 – 08:30: How EXOS manages 50+ combine athletes without chaos
08:30 – 12:15: Weekly speed structure: acceleration, max velocity, resisted sprinting
12:15 – 16:45: Intake process: PT evals, force plates, LVP testing, and profiling safely
16:45 – 20:30: How data actually changes training (and when it should)
20:30 – 24:30: Force plate insights, asymmetries, RSI, and individualizing plyos
24:30 – 28:30: Strength profiling, OPR, and why some athletes need to train fast — and others heavy
28:30 – 31:00: Kaiser squats, barbell work, and combine-specific realities
31:00 – End: 225 bench pacing, combine lessons learned, and coaching takeaways
Recommended
Transcript
Reunion and Memories of Sparta
00:00:05
Speaker
We're live. Scott, thanks for coming on, man. It's an honor to have you. I know we've worked together in the past in 2022 and always just been fans of each other. And um I really just enjoy your work. And, you know, it's been a while since we caught up. So I was like, shoot, we might as well do it on a podcast.
00:00:23
Speaker
So here we are. Yeah. Likewise, man. I appreciate it, man. Obviously, ah like you said, have the good fortune of... working side by side and, you know, been following your work for a shoot. I mean, the first time we met was 2012. 2012. That's right.
00:00:38
Speaker
twenty twelve that's right That's Sparta. That's right. Sparta. Sparta is funny because I just had Brian Buck on here. I know. I listen. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy. And you know what? I found Sparta like randomly, like I was in the Bay.
00:00:52
Speaker
I was playing club rugby for East Palo Alto. Shout out. Shout out to the East Palo Alto team. And um I was, like, looking for a place to train. I Googled training facilities, and Sparta popped up. And I just randomly walked in, which is crazy.
00:01:07
Speaker
Yeah. and And then here, what, 14 years later? man. Here we are. Look at all the people that came out of there. It's crazy. Here are, bro. Yeah, man. Yeah. That place, dude, to this day, and Brian Buck and I were talking about it, like some of the stuff that like we were into and we were doing back then, like still holds so much value.
00:01:26
Speaker
you Still, and it's it's almost coming back to that, right? It's coming back to some of that original stuff Phil wrote on that whiteboard in his office, you know? Yeah, yes. Wild. infamous whiteboard, yeah. Infamous whiteboard.
Preparation for the Combine
00:01:39
Speaker
So this is going to be a dope episode because... I want to dive into Combine and I want to dive because we're both getting geared up for Combine. yeahp um How many guys you got?
00:01:50
Speaker
um We'll have between 50 and 55. Yeah. At my location. Yeah. In Plano, Texas. Yeah. And Exos is a beast, man. um It's incredible. It's incredible. The work that the system is produced year after year, including the record, um you know, well, 45 year.
00:02:09
Speaker
And we probably would had this convo offline regardless just to like compare notes. But here we are. So let's yeah, man, let's let's dive in. Let's do it. Let's do it. Yeah.
00:02:19
Speaker
So first thing is, ah I know Exos is across multiple facilities, um you know, a great brand.
Career Journey with Exos
00:02:27
Speaker
You guys do an incredible job. um Tell me about your journey, like just with Exos, like where you when you started, you know, yeah how you got to be leading everything now.
00:02:36
Speaker
Yeah. So actually, I've only been I've been with Exos just a little over a year. So this is my second combine with Exos um and how I ended up at Exos. So Brent Calloway, obviously, um you know, shut up in the field. Yeah. I mean, awesome coach. Awesome dude.
00:02:55
Speaker
I had known him for a long time. all the way back since I was at Cal, you know, probably 10 plus years ago. And obviously every year we'd send guys to Exos, you know, and I mean, you know, you get guys all over the map in terms of their knowledge of speed and yeah familiarity with the drills and movements and stuff like that. And, uh, you know, uh, he would typically, you know, reach out and be like, you know, thanks for sending me such and such, you know, he,
00:03:22
Speaker
knew how to carry himself, knew his way around the drills and and moved well and and all that. so we just developed a mutual respect. And then, you know, obviously he's with the Miami Dolphins now. um So I think he kind of realized that he was ready for the next chapter and was looking for, you know, somebody that he could bring in and um kind of, know Groomed to take his spot when he eventually rode off into the sunset. And so about a little over a year ago, um we made it happen. So here I am.
00:03:54
Speaker
So this this will be your first year just leading it from at Axos, right? At Axos, correct. Yeah. Yeah. yeah Yeah.
Managing Large Athlete Groups
00:04:02
Speaker
So how do you manage? You got 50 guys. um I'm actually asking you for advice because the last group that I did that was this big was with you.
00:04:11
Speaker
And ah we we had a lot of guys. Plus, i had i had that year I had Texas. We had, I don't know, 26. And then I had l LA and had Orange County. And I don't know if you remember, but I went to all three every week. Yeah.
00:04:25
Speaker
yeah I do remember. I would fly on Thursday to LA. And then I would do the LA group, drive down to OC. And and then go back to my house, which I Airbnb-ing, and then fly back every single week for eight, ten weeks. Grime, man. If you look at that people we had helping us, though, like dude, that was like an all-star squad.
00:04:49
Speaker
It was. you know yeah In terms of like Ryan Grubbs, Kyle Sammons, guys that are like yeah so sharp dudes. I recently saw Kyle yeah when the Cardinals were in town.
00:05:00
Speaker
um to play the Cowboys and we met up and talked shop. And, you know, ah I thought I was smart until i I got down the rabbit hole with him. You know, i i I cut the conversation off pretty quickly. Just say, Kyle, let's just talk about like our families or something. Cause I just feel stupid talking to you. Yeah. He's incredible. I got to get him on here, but he won't, he won't text me back. No, he does. but Yeah. So ah back to your question, how we manage that size. I mean, first of all, we break it up into multiple groups, multiple smaller groups.
00:05:33
Speaker
um So, you know, we'll have four, four smaller groups by position. So it'll be about 12 to 14 guys in a smaller group. um And Will, we typically have ah speed in the morning and then lift in the afternoon, and they stay in their group. So it's four four runs in the morning and then four lifts in the afternoon.
00:05:57
Speaker
um So last year, Brent... led the speed portion and I assisted him. And then I led the lift portion in the afternoon. And now this year I'll, I'll lead the speed portion. And, I still plan on being involved heavily in the lifting as well. Cause you know, I feel like that's another piece that's important and that and that I'm into. And we have a, another coach named Jimmy home.
00:06:25
Speaker
I don't know if you're familiar with, uh, he was in Arizona, but, uh,
00:06:31
Speaker
Outstanding coach as well. So um he'll be he'll be right there by my side and we'll we'll be getting it. So. Nice. Okay. And then you guys run on the hour, every hour group comes in, hour and a half.
00:06:43
Speaker
ah every Every hour on the hour. Yeah. Nice. guys will come in, you know, 15 to 20 minutes before that and do their pillar prep, their soft tissue, their activation, stuff like that.
00:06:56
Speaker
And then when I get them, um it's into the movement prep, dynamic warmup, if you will. And then we roll. Yeah. Yeah. And we go ah six days a week.
00:07:08
Speaker
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Four of those days are speed and two of those days are change of direction. Love it.
00:07:19
Speaker
So your speed is Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday? Correct. Yeah. And Saturday is literally just starts. Yeah. Because what was happening was Saturday used to just be like shakeout region type session.
00:07:35
Speaker
But like so many dudes were asking us like, hey, can like can I go outside and rip off a couple of starts and you'll watch me. And it ended up being that that was the majority of the guys were wanting to do that.
00:07:48
Speaker
So I was like, let's this year, let's just program it that way. Call it what it is and say, OK, Saturday, we're going to rip off some starts, you know, three steps, stance, heavy, film it.
00:08:02
Speaker
And, you know, only worry about that and and call it what it is. So, yeah, Friday, ah Saturday is purely starts. But the other three days are are speed. Wednesday is Max V. yeah Friday is short acceleration yeah um because usually by the end of the week they're obviously pretty cooked but ah Friday's a good day for heavy resistance on the 1080 and I'm sure well we'll go down that rabbit hole right but like yeah heavy 1080 short excel um and then Monday's the longer excel day okay walk me through what a Monday looks like
00:08:41
Speaker
Yeah, so Monday would be like a transition day.
Building Athlete Profiles and USR
00:08:43
Speaker
oh Obviously, we're going warm up. We're going to do ah probably the same technique drills that everybody does. The big thing for me um is the 1080. We'll use it on every day. You guys got one now.
00:09:00
Speaker
We have two of them. Yeah. There you go. Shout out. Shout out to actually, actually, actually to be correct. So Lucy has two of them. Yeah. Shout out Lucy. So, but obviously, you know, she's an incredible help to me dialing in the numbers and all that and, you know, making the whole thing go, but we'll, we'll do 10 80. That'll be 20 to 30 deck
00:09:25
Speaker
on Monday and you know a little bit longer Excel maybe 20 yards or so 20 to 30 and then Wednesday will be a max B day that's where we'll do if if we're doing 1080 it'll be 10% V deck but it'll be that's where we'll do our wickets our flying sprints things of that nature um like I said Friday 50% plus v deck yeah and
00:09:56
Speaker
And shorter excels 10, 15 yards to 20 yards. And then Saturday is purely starts. Nice. I love that.
00:10:07
Speaker
Now the volume, it sounds like a lot, but the volume is really low. And that's what people need to understand. Like when I say we're doing all that, we're not doing like eight reps of each of those things. You know what i mean? It's right literally two reps, maybe three reps all out.
00:10:23
Speaker
And that's it right now. Obviously, we're jumping and we're drilling and things of that nature. But those are the two big rocks. And, you know, yeah, it's very low volume, but very high intensity. And the biggest thing for me, it's been a game changer is we will track their PRs at each v deck.
00:10:47
Speaker
And then every time they come out, they try to beat that. Yeah. And that's that's that's been a big thing, because what I always say is you're not always going to PR on the laser. Right. Like, I mean, like you talk about the valley, right?
00:11:01
Speaker
Yeah. You know, was going to PR on the laser, but typically through effort, um you can PR on the 1080 almost every time. You know, and and I don't, you know, i don't get any kickbacks from 1080. Hopefully I will after this podcast. Shoot, me either. Come on. not just But you can usually PR on the 1080. So ah Lucy and her team will um run those numbers for me.
00:11:28
Speaker
And not only obviously we'll have individualized V decks for each guy, um but also, What they've hit at that V deck and I'll say, right, Les, you know, you're at 15 kilos and I need you to run, you know, 15 miles an hour or whatever it is. And then when you do, we'll, we'll bump it up. We'll raise your goal.
00:11:50
Speaker
And then before you know it, after four weeks, you know, you're over a mile an hour faster. yeah at your' at at that you know At that resistance.
00:12:01
Speaker
Right. 100%. going to go back to VDAC. I want to go. i have an order in my brain. And I didn't tell you it But here it is. So I want to i want to go through profiling. Okay.
00:12:16
Speaker
Then I want to go through how you adjust profiles based on what you see. So the first thing, first question is like, you get a guy coming from University of Alabama. It's January 21st. When do you test him? Yeah. So ah assuming health,
00:12:34
Speaker
Let's just say they're clear. healthy Yeah. Yeah. I mean, so as a company, um our policy is to get a preliminary 40 on these guys.
00:12:47
Speaker
I think mainly so that that they can, you know, say, well, we improved by... this much time on average, right? yeah Last year, I think it was 0.27 or something like that over the course of the program.
00:13:02
Speaker
But you know if a guy's not healthy, he's not going to do that. oh And that late in the game, you know January 21st, he's not going to do a 40. But if he's healthy, he'll profile.
00:13:13
Speaker
you know but yeah so okay let's Let's say it's January 8th, you do a 40. What that? Probably not even January 8th. I would probably only 40 guys that showed up like day one. Okay. Day one for us is January 2nd.
00:13:28
Speaker
Okay. And that's, and then that's, that's our company protocol. But obviously if a guy is not healthy or a guy is not capable, then obviously you're not going to force him to do it, but we'll profile,
00:13:40
Speaker
Whenever they come in, because for me, the resisted running is safer than and free free sprinting. Right. Like guys don't knock on wood. Right. But like guys aren't getting hurt against load.
00:13:53
Speaker
They're getting hurt, you know, maximal velocity or. you know, unresisted sprinting. So I don't, I'm not nervous. I don't have a guy. I don't have a problem profiling guys is assuming, assuming health, you know, and obviously they get a PT eval, you know, Savannah's our PT.
00:14:11
Speaker
She does a great job. She's going to take a look at them and give me the green light before I would just, no, man, he's going to profile, but if given yeah. is that Is that day one though? Like, is that like the first, first the first thing they'll do is get a PT eval. Yeah. Yeah.
00:14:25
Speaker
So, so that's, so right like, so our intake process, like I'm like bullish and obsessed with our intake process. Like I won't touch a dude until he goes through the intake process. Right. Because that's what, that's what I hang my hat on is number one, that's how that's going to dictate the programming. But number two, I don't want any surprises. Right.
00:14:49
Speaker
Right. right like so they'll come in though the first thing they'll do is get on a table um and do their pt eval um they will also after that jumped on a force plate um And we we were valve. We moved to Hawken recently. So, you know, obviously I worked, I talked to Brian Buck quite a bit.
00:15:13
Speaker
um So jump on a force plate. They'll do a LVP on the Kaiser squat, which is big for me as well, because that dictates a lot of the weight room loading as far as, do you need to lift heavy?
00:15:31
Speaker
Do you not need to lift heavy? You know, do you need to lift at, you know, loads that maximize power? Do you need, you know, what, what strength quality do you need emphasized in the weight room? Obviously we're not going to put all our eggs in one basket. You're going to get a comprehensive program, but what do you need emphasized?
00:15:48
Speaker
And also obviously they'll profile on the 10 80 and between all of those that will affect the programming um And honestly, in like very simple ways, that is not very, it seems intimidating.
00:16:05
Speaker
But it's honestly so simple. So like, you know, depending on how your LVP is on the air squat and how you jump on the force plate, it might just affect the load that you have to lift and the manner that you execute it.
00:16:19
Speaker
Right. So like you, you might, you might have to just have an ISO hold at some point during the movement. Cause I, that's what you need to work on. And I might need to, you know,
00:16:33
Speaker
fast eccentric and try to change direction at the bottom. Cause that's what I need to work on. And we both have different loads and that's, that's like so simple to implement. Um, it's a ton of work on the front end, but, uh, in practice, a lot less intimidating than it would seem.
00:16:50
Speaker
And a lot of people, you know, think like, Oh my God, like there's all these metrics and we're, we got 50 different things going on, but it can be that simple, you know? Yeah. All right, we got to take a second to talk about the universal speed rating because I literally just found this out and it blew my mind. We just hit over 500,000 verified speed tests inside the USR software.
00:17:12
Speaker
Half a million. That's coaches all over the country testing, tracking, and proving athlete progress with this system. It's not just data. It's giving athletes confidence and giving coaches real proof of results.
00:17:23
Speaker
I remember running our first speed lab test back in 2019 in a closet that my uncle helped me build, now half a million. If you're not testing speed yet, or you're doing it without a system, this is your chance to check it out.
00:17:36
Speaker
Hit the link in the description, book a free consult, and see how the USR could work in your program.
00:17:43
Speaker
I love that. Okay. And then, so you got, you got your PT eval, table, force plate, LVP on Kaiser, go out to the field. You're collecting, what does your profile look like on the field?
00:17:56
Speaker
So we go ah three kilos at 30 yards. We go five kilos at 25, 10 kilos 20 and 20 kilos at 15. and ah twenty kilos at fifteen
00:18:11
Speaker
You said 3-5 what? 3-5, 10-20. Nice. Okay. And you get you guys have the two, right? The 1080 sprint two? yeah, yeah had the small one.
00:18:23
Speaker
It's not like not not like the old days where CC had to, like, drag that thing over and you had to find something to hook it up to, right? Man, that was a grind. that was Yeah, now you just put two or three plates on there and you're you're good to go. right.
00:18:41
Speaker
and And for your, so you do your three kg at 30, which gives you your force velocity. Yeah. Are you also getting split times on that or do you do that as an in a separate run without any 1080?
00:18:52
Speaker
We get split times as well from that, but um we would typically look at splits unresisted. Yeah. Because even evenven with three kilos, you know, it's going to give you a max velocity that's probably not 100%, you know, well, in fact, it's not 100% accurate. So we would look at time ah ton splits from unresisted sprinting.
00:19:16
Speaker
Nice. Okay. And would you do your, like, 40 on that day? You do the LVP? No, the LVP would be on the first day of training as opposed to the intake day.
00:19:31
Speaker
Yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense. That's dope. Okay. So then you got your, you got your structural profile, you got your physical profile, like weight room stuff. And then you got like their speed profile.
00:19:45
Speaker
And then obviously you got 50 dudes. So what do you, what do you do? I got these dudes over here that are suck at this and great at so how how does it so work So great question. So basically, what what changes, right?
00:20:01
Speaker
What changes? Because i I'm always like, you can gather a bunch of data, but if you don't change anything, like then all you did was gather data and look cool. So what changes? Awesome question.
00:20:12
Speaker
So based off of their PT eval, and last year we did ah what's called Dari. Yeah, I love Daria. Yeah, i'm I think we're still um deciding if that's going to be mandatory this year um or only certain guys, but it gives you similar information as the PT eval, except the PT evals on the table.
00:20:38
Speaker
Right. It's, it's, it's safe. I always tell people if it shows up in the PT, you bow is darn sure going to show up when you're running 20 miles an hour. Right. Right. And then the, then the Dari is just a step up from that. Cause you're actually moving around, you're lunging, you're squatting, like, but you're looking for the same things, right? Ankle mobility, hip external rotation, things of that nature. We're still very foundational, fundamental things.
00:21:01
Speaker
That's going to affect what we call their pillar prep. So basically they're soft tissue, their mobility and their stability. Yeah. Work prior to the session and sometimes a superset or mixed into the session.
00:21:17
Speaker
That's what that'll affect that. Their ah force plate testing will affect several things. Number one, it will affect the manner in which they perform um Some of their strength exercises, specifically their Kaiser squatting.
00:21:37
Speaker
Like I said, some guys will have, ah you know, non-counter movement off of the safety rack. Some guys will have control-decentric with the ISO. Some guys will have fast-decentric with the ISO.
00:21:52
Speaker
Some guys will have a drop catch. um Some guys will have continuous, you know, three reps in three seconds. up It just depends on what I'm trying to tease out of their stretch shortening cycle based off of their strengths and weaknesses on the force plate.
00:22:08
Speaker
um Also, we identify asymmetries. So if a guy um is asymmetrical, obviously he'll do more single leg work. um than somebody who is symmetrical.
00:22:22
Speaker
It also affects the way their initiation of plyos, right? So like if you have... Counter movement versus non-counter movement. yeah Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or or some continuous double contact.
00:22:37
Speaker
um If you're poor RSI, but good jump height, then I know that you're... You know, your outcome or output is high, but you're not very reactive. So we're going to do stuff that has an initiation that tries to tease out you being a little quicker off the ground, springy or a little more elastic and vice versa. If you're elastic.
00:23:00
Speaker
but you don't jump very high. Well, then we're going to do things that focus more on height, distance, all out, get up, you know, maximize that component as opposed to just recycling elastic energy. yeah and that Those are, those are the main things that come from the force plate.
00:23:21
Speaker
And then, like I said, when we get to the Kaiser squat, um loading parameters, right? So we'll do an LVP. We'll get what's called your OPR, which is the load that you produce maximal power at.
00:23:34
Speaker
So what I do then is I look at that and you're either too slow, just right, or too fast. Okay. if yeah if If it occurs too low, like myself, like I'm too slow, my OPR is too slow, big time ah history of lifting heavy weights.
00:23:54
Speaker
ah You can tell, or look at you. Yeah. now Yeah, well, luckily it's just from but from you know here up because you know oh I'm a big bench spell now. But guys that come from, you brought up you know guys that come from different programs. you know If you were at a program where...
00:24:13
Speaker
you have to squat 600 pounds you know like at all costs. Those guys will typically test too slow, meaning that their highest power output is at a velocity that's suboptimal.
00:24:27
Speaker
So those guys will train fast. They're strong, right? Do I really think that making you squat 605 is going to help? No, right? But I'm going to have you train at...
00:24:39
Speaker
Again, we have that OPR number. I don't even look at one RMS. I look at yeah the OPR. I look at, all right, maximal power output. You'll train below that and try to move it faster. right And are you are you doing that um once a week, twice a week, like max speed days?
00:24:57
Speaker
Yeah, so will we will Kaiser squat twice a week, one leg one day double leg and one day single leg. um Unless you're asymmetrical.
00:25:09
Speaker
And my cutoff for asymmetrical is typically 15% or more asymmetry. Yeah. other them You would potentially do single leg on both days.
00:25:21
Speaker
Yeah, I like that. and And again, like your your single leg might be different from my single leg. You know, you you might be doing a drop catch, a single leg squat, you know, on the Kaiser. And and I might be doing, you know, continuous or I might be ah break pause at the bottom, whatever it may be.
00:25:42
Speaker
um so So they're still performing it differently. But yeah, it's either two ah two to one or single on both days. And do you do those on one day on, um I'm assuming you do bilateral or unilateral on the max V day or how do you, you those? on the max V day, we actually don't lift. We have regen session.
00:26:05
Speaker
Got it. Okay. Because we've got, right. We've got our big acceleration day on Monday. yeah um And then we've got Max V on Wednesday morning. So by that point, you know, they're pretty cooked.
00:26:18
Speaker
We'll come back and just do regen that afternoon. Regen recovery, active ah recovery, um and won't lift. yeah So then we'll come back and on. And we we had gone kind of back and forth on this. So.
00:26:34
Speaker
oh Obviously, Nick Hill. You know Nick Hill in Arizona. Of course. I'm going to get him on here soon. 421. Yeah, just the record. Yeah, I don't know him.
00:26:48
Speaker
And, you know, we had gone back and forth on that, but ah but we ended up landing with... um the second up or lower body day being on thursday being on okay yeah yeah because because friday is again short excel heavy 1080 grind it out it's not gonna put them you know in jeopardy you're good and then good to go obviously saturday's three-step So, but good to go yeah, so, so with the, with the strength LVP, you know, guys that test too slow, we'll train fast guys that test too fast, which is a thing usually means you're not that strong, not strong enough. Yeah. Yeah. You're not strong enough guys that test too fast.
00:27:35
Speaker
We'll train slow. And by, by slow, I mean heavy, like obviously we're never trying to move anything slow. But by nature of you got to go above your OPR, you know, some of those guys will be hitting 130 percent, you know, OPR.
00:27:50
Speaker
That's going to be heavy. um You're going to move slow oh just by nature of the load. And then guys that are right in that sweet spot. where where they should be max power, we'll just try to take the roof off.
00:28:02
Speaker
right we'll we'll just We'll just try to increase output, try to move you know try to move a little more weight at that speed or that weight at a little a little faster, just try to take the roof off. So those really there's really three camps of loading.
00:28:18
Speaker
And so obviously like you guys at Exos have tons of Kaiser units. um Is that your main like loading? are Are you guys back squatting? You guys deadlifting? Like what? Yeah. What is that? where're We are doing all of those things.
00:28:37
Speaker
um the For me, why I like the Kaiser squat is is and i i say it's like impossible to hurt yourself on ironically i actually tweaked my pec on the kaiser squat like hey must um like you must have been going hard of all the friggin peck well i was bombing my eccentric because the force plate told me i needed to bomb my eccentric and turn it around so that's what i was doing but tough to hurt somebody um on a kaiser squat um
00:29:09
Speaker
And also you get insane metrics.
Training Techniques and Speed Sessions
00:29:12
Speaker
So it's easy for me to like really, really dial it in, you know, versus maybe a trap bar deadlift or whatever.
00:29:19
Speaker
Even if you do get a VLO on it, you know, you're, you're not getting the depth of metrics you are, but we do that too. i mean, we'll, we'll squat, we' we'll, we'll deadlift. We'll, we'll do everything. You know, barbell movements, trap bar movements. But um for me, I love the Kaiser squat and for Exodus in general, Kaiser squat, because ah it's safe and the metrics you get are are pretty deep.
00:29:46
Speaker
Yeah, I love it. Okay, weight room, clear. Upper body, obviously, we don't need touch on it. Like, we're speed or speed guys. I know you guys do some cool stuff, upper body wise too. I will say this, though. I will say this. So I'll just, I'll be brief.
00:30:03
Speaker
The 225, all right? I get it It doesn't matter. Like, whatever. The biggest thing I've learned about combine 225 is pacing yeah pacing it's not it's not i mean obviously strength helps right endurance helps but it's pacing like i literally can do five more five reps more or five reps less as i'm sitting here just off of my pacing yeah if i go a little too slow or a little too fast
00:30:35
Speaker
Finding that exact right pacing. What's your PR? i go you can You can get about 28, 30. 30, 30. 30 is my PR. yeah And literally- I got 24.
00:30:47
Speaker
Yeah. And I was stuck at like mid-20s for the longest. And I didn't get any stronger. Like I didn't increase my 1RM. I just played with my pacing.
00:30:57
Speaker
you know So we have we have a strength day and a speed day, kind of like Westside in a way. A heavy day. It's not max effort necessarily, but a heavy day and a speed day. And on that speed day, that's that's where guys get a chance to really dial in.
00:31:15
Speaker
Their pacing. So they'll do, you know, obviously speed bench, find their pacing, which is fast, you know, and we had in the past done big bench Saturday.
00:31:28
Speaker
That's what Saturday used to be until this year, until we switched it to to starts. It had been big bench Saturday, but now we kind of combined that with the Thursday bench. So now though, which I like because you do speed bench, you get a chance to find your pacing and then you do one or two sets of, of high, one or two high rep sets and you get to use that speed. Right.
00:31:53
Speaker
Yeah. I find that tempo. Yeah. But anyway, long story short, man, I can do, i went ah I went from 25 to 30 literally just off of pacing and speed. yeah no I didn't get any stronger. ah So anyway, that's my that's my note on the 225. I love that.
00:32:10
Speaker
Okay. um All right. Switching gears. We're going back to speed. All right. You got your late Excel day, Monday. You got your max V day, Wednesday.
00:32:22
Speaker
You got your early Excel day, Friday. and you got starts on Saturday. Correct. Incredible mix. Tuesday, Thursday, obviously change of direction. Yeah, COD. And like I'm assuming those are lower in terms of like intensity. and there yeah Yeah, I mean, it's like the the agility drills are a dance.
00:32:44
Speaker
you know Literally. They're a dance. like I've seen i've seen dudes that were not great athletes run really good agility times because their steps were so on point.
00:32:57
Speaker
that that literally you couldn't you couldn't find a flaw and and you'll get a good time. It's literally a ballroom dance as much as it is a utility test. So you can always, I tell guys, dude, you can rehearse these steps in your hotel room, you know? Literally.
00:33:13
Speaker
Jogging back and forth. I mean, it doesn't even need to be full, like, Obviously, in order to hit the right number of steps in the actual event, you got to be moving because you got to cover ground. But the turns like, dude, you you could just jog back and forth and do that. I mean, you could practice that all day. Quick pause here. i want to talk about the universal speed rating.
00:33:33
Speaker
So many coaches I meet are just overwhelmed. They're running sessions, programming, dealing with parents and trying to prove their athletes are actually getting faster. One of the reasons why we built USR was to take some of this stress off the table.
00:33:46
Speaker
One software solution to help coaches test, track, and show improvement without adding hours to your week. If you feel like you're guessing with your speed training or drawing trying to make sense of your data, hit the link in the description.
00:33:58
Speaker
Schedule a free consult and see how the USR can help. It's simple. I started throwing it at the end of ah even my speed days. Hey, hit two reps real quick. You already warmed up. you're already running fast. Like hit two reps at the end of the session. i started doing it more often.
00:34:14
Speaker
Like a couple reps here, a couple reps there. Yeah, if you nail your steps, you're good, man. I love that. All right. So let's, let's go a little bit into the speed and just for context, like our audience is coaches, um, lot of speed labs, a lot of people that are into combine training, things like that. So like,
00:34:34
Speaker
Session design is an extremely like important factor for a lot of lot of coaches. And I feel like industry has a relatively similar structure to everything. You got something before, pre-session, some type of warm-up, some type of potentiation, some type of drills, some type of work.
00:34:53
Speaker
I want to know how how you design your your session flow and how it flows. You you pack a lot in an hour. You got 50 guys. like you're You're rolling through. How does that how does that look?
00:35:04
Speaker
So like I said, the the soft tissue mobility, all of that, like the the focused stuff where you're trying to increase your ankle mobility and I'm trying to increase my hip external rotation. because That's what the PT said. That's taking place outside of that hour.
00:35:22
Speaker
yeah So when that hour starts, we're doing movement prep. So we're doing, you know, dynamics. Dynamic flexibility and and all of that. Then we're going into, um as you mentioned, like drills.
00:35:35
Speaker
So like a skips, switches, bounding, like, you know, the it's honestly the same stuff that. we did that almost everyone does right wall drill oh i do it on the prowlers like you know you like you used to do yeah but um you know well at that point you can do some band resisted marches and skips and inbounds and stuff too but it's not rocket science it's really the execution you know because how much time do you do you spend there
00:36:09
Speaker
10 minutes, five minutes. Yeah, yeah. I mean, initially more, early on more. yeah Some guys don't know it, right? yeah Some guys don't know it. Some guys have never done it.
00:36:21
Speaker
You know, i I literally, I got a couple guys right now that ah reported early because they're not, the teams aren't in bowl games had never done wall drill in their lives. Not once, which is fine, you know, which is fine, which is great, but it's kind of surprising now with the amount of information out there that like they hadn't, you know, but so anyway, long story short, early on, um more time because you're talking more, teaching more, but hopefully eventually,
00:36:49
Speaker
you know, you're just able to bang that out because guys, guys know it. You just throw them a few cues and then you're on to the next thing. yeah. Yeah. 10, 15 minutes, you know, um, and hopefully you're spending,
00:37:02
Speaker
So I'll say this, the the piece that changes a little bit in the flow is like with my ah normal groups, like my NFL guys, because they're not, because there aren't jumps as part of their like testing protocol. So like the combine guys, right? You got to get them better at vert. You got to get them better at broad jump. So they got to do those things, right? right So we we don't necessarily jump as much in the movement session.
00:37:31
Speaker
Um, in, in combine, ah because the jump volume comes from practicing those tests or in the weight room, um, complexing depth jumps with your Kaiser squat or complexing broad jump with, with trap bar or something like that. So you're, you're getting your jump volume more there.
00:37:52
Speaker
Yeah. whereas like you know with with with my pro guys we might on a max v day do like single leg hops over hurdles and stuff like that you know and and we we'll do that too with combine guys but like ah the that's one thing the jump volume comes more from practicing and trying to get jumpnks that translate to the actual tests Yeah. But obviously, you know, it it doesn't sound like a super long session, but the volume is pretty low.
00:38:22
Speaker
The recovery is pretty high, um you know, and and so there's there's plenty of time to get everything in. So anyway, after your after your warm up, after your technical work, um you you would go into some type of typically depends on the day. Right. If I'm trying to get times.
00:38:42
Speaker
If I'm trying to get true times on that day um after the technical work, we'll get some times. um If it is just a training session, you know, we might go into the 1080 first and then the free sprints or we might complex it.
00:39:01
Speaker
Hey, hit a rep at 1080 and come over here and hit a free sprint. It just depends on the like what we're trying to do that day. Yeah. And you guys use Brower. You guys use VOD.
00:39:12
Speaker
guys Yeah. So, so as a company, we use Brower. Yeah. We had, again, so we're, we're kind of unique in Plano where we're part of Andrew's Institute or we're in an Andrew's Institute. We're not part of Andrew's Institute.
00:39:29
Speaker
Yeah. So we like our PTs, yeah, work for the hospital or it's a sports medicine clinic. I mean, Dr. James Andrews, legendary, um, surgeon.
00:39:42
Speaker
Um, so our sports science team, so Lucy and her team work for, um, the hospital, not exos. Yeah. So they obviously,
00:39:54
Speaker
I consider them a part of my team and obviously they are tremendous assets, but technically that's not, that's not XO. So I say, I bring that up to say that they have smart speed.
00:40:07
Speaker
um I like smart speed in the past. I've used smart speed um a ton. um I like it mainly because of the data dump. Like, I don't have to keep track of times because they'll be there.
00:40:21
Speaker
Right. All I got to do is line them up in the order that their names are on the queue and have them run. And I got I don't know. There's no intern there with a clipboard. And you know what mean? so I like that aspect.
00:40:36
Speaker
um But as a company, we use Brower. So I use Brower just so that it's apples to apples. Nice. And you guys do hand start or do you do like the box on the ground? or With Brower, we do hands ah coach hand start.
00:40:51
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Nice. Okay. And then, um yeah, like so how do you how do you keep track of your times and everything? like Do you guys do? Yeah, I mean, well, right on with Brower, you know, write them down. I mean, we have a We have a dashboard called Bear Cognition um that it's kind of our data hub.
00:41:13
Speaker
So that's where the Hawken data will go. That's where the Kaiser data will go. The PT eval will go in there. The nutrition, obviously we haven't spoke about nutrition yet, but that's that's a piece that'll go in there.
00:41:29
Speaker
And so you'll have a profile in there where I can go and and look up Les and it'll tell me, you know, his yeah PT needs. It'll tell me his first plate needs and and and so forth and so on. So that's where it'll end up those times. But yeah, initially, I mean, you either bring your laptop out there um or you write it down on a piece of paper or i have nightmares about it. Like we we'll definitely be ah head and paper this year because actually Brent,
00:41:57
Speaker
was cool about it but i actually lost some data last year i brought my laptop out there uh you know whatever swiped the wrong way and closed the window when i shouldn't have and i was that's like nice like he was like sal like yeah he's like sal you good
Health Monitoring and Wellness Checks
00:42:19
Speaker
i'm like yeah yeah i'm good i don't know what it's here somewhere But yeah, we're going to write everything down, write everything down. And then we'll, we'll worry about inputting it.
00:42:30
Speaker
I love that. So how many, like in an hour, you're probably getting four, five time reps max in a session. That's it. That's it. Two, two, two, two to three ah resisted and two to three free, you know, but as you know, it's, it's,
00:42:50
Speaker
maximal intensity in this unless dictated otherwise, right? Like some of our max V stuff, especially early on, won't be max intensity. Yeah. You know, because you're technical. And obviously, like some of those guys, especially like the big guys, haven't run that far before or that fast before. And so like the last thing, you know, you're going to come out there and hit them with a bunch of max V volume early on. Now, eventually they'll have to.
00:43:17
Speaker
if they're planning on running the 40, but early on, no. So we'll do wickets and we'll do wickets at distances that like, you know, are more kind of like a step over run, moving forward and, and, you know, more technical stuff. So that, that piece will be sub max.
00:43:34
Speaker
Yeah. but For a most part, man, you got to go get it because you know, high intensity all out, Yeah. No, I love that.
00:43:45
Speaker
um I had a question and I just forgot it, but I do have another one. So this process is is different for everybody. Like you got your guys that come January 20th or I guess this year, 21st is the championship, which means you don't see them until the you know,
00:44:07
Speaker
the combine starts February 25 this year, I think. Yeah. It's early. It's like, yeah you got, to you got a month. Yeah. You got a month. Right. And let's say the guy's like, I'm running a 40 and then you got another guy that's been there since November and they're in the same group.
00:44:24
Speaker
How do you do it? How do you manage it? Yeah, so, i mean, I guess, too, the question is, like, you got some pro day guys in there. You got some combine guys in there. um You got some guys that, like, last year we had Abdul Carter who wasn't going to do.
00:44:41
Speaker
I mean, he said he was, and and I love him, but, like, he wasn't going to do anything, right? Right, right. in they're all Yeah, they're all in the same group. Yeah. We typically, so like a guy that that is training for pro day, so you he' he maybe he's not even a invited to the combine, or let's say he is, and like you said, we just know he's not going to run.
00:45:03
Speaker
I mean, they'll train very similarly. The only difference is those other guys won't taper. you know Okay. go i So i up to up to that point, the training will look very, very similar.
00:45:18
Speaker
But yeah when you go to taper, I'm going to continue to lift heavy and and do the things that I need to do, right? Because I'm looking still three weeks out or whatever it is. Yeah.
00:45:32
Speaker
And what about the guys that come super late and they're put in the group and they're and one guy's on week five, you're on week one. Yeah, yeah. Priority number one is obviously get them healthy because usually those guys – oh usually those guys, like we had a with eight Texas guys last year, and every single one of them except for one – had some kind of problem just because they played so much football, right? They did play a lot of football.
00:46:00
Speaker
Yeah. So priority number one is get them healthy oh and then see where they're at. And then at that point, see how much time you have, because typically you're not going to get a dude on January 28th. That doesn't that that's fresh and ready to go and can just jump right in and do everything. Right.
00:46:20
Speaker
So we'll have to modify it. And that's the advantage of having two coaches out there at all times. So like, you know, whether it was me and Brent last year or whether it's me and Jimmy this year.
00:46:34
Speaker
You've got 50-some guys, but you've got four groups, right? So you're now already down to 12 guys. And now you've got two coaches, so now you're down to six guys. So it's not that hard to be like, hey, man, like you know I know these these guys are running a flying 20 plus 20. Why don't you just you know come over here? We have these wickets set up. Why don't you just...
00:46:56
Speaker
take two or three reps through that instead, you know? So there's always a modification or a regression that, uh, we're not, we're not afraid to make. And, and I'll, I'll be honest too. Like, I don't have the leash health wise that Brent did. Cause Brent had been with XOs 16 years, right? Brent,
00:47:22
Speaker
pop somebody's hammy and it's all good. I'll pop somebody's hammy. It's going be World War III, right? so i while So while riding the lightning and and knowing that, hey, no, these guys got to be right on the I got to be smart and I got to be air on the side of caution. So You know, obviously all the metrics we have still one thing that comes in handy is the old school. Hey, how you feeling today?
00:47:50
Speaker
Right. Oh, man. My hamstring is a little tight. OK, let me know how it feels after warm up. ah Still a little tight. OK, take this first one. Eighty percent.
00:48:01
Speaker
I still feel it. OK, you're good. Are you guys doing any wellness or any like collection of data collection on that wellness side or doing Forceplate weekly? or Great question. We do Forceplate weekly.
00:48:14
Speaker
Yeah, we do Forceplate weekly. We did ah Nordboard weekly last year when we were with Vald. um But now we're not with Valde anymore. So we have a Kaiser hamstring test we'll use instead um that we'll do weekly as well.
00:48:34
Speaker
um So that that would be our wellness. We don't have a questionnaire or or anything like that. But obviously that's always something to be conscious of, you know, just building rapport and talking to guys and how'd you sleep last night? Like you look tired, like you feeling good, like everything. All right. You know, because um that's, that's,
00:48:56
Speaker
That's information, too. Right. That's. Yeah. That's, you know, yeah. Force play Kaiser. it's in it But like, you know, that verbal communication and that that those relationships, I mean, that's information, too. And you've got to be, as you know, an information sponge.
00:49:11
Speaker
And I might see something I might even you might you may say you feel great. But I noticed that like you know after we did these ah you know straight leg shuffle and straight leg bound, you were you know flexing your knee yeah and rubbing your hamstring or something. Like, like man, what's up? I noticed you're kind of touching yourself over there. I'm a little tight. oh Good. yeah Good to know. you know Yeah. Yeah.
00:49:36
Speaker
now I love it. um when you guys When you guys are like tapering and you're coming down from your peak volume, what's your taper like? What's your from highest volume to combine?
00:49:52
Speaker
What's that process like? Yeah, I mean, so obviously the intensity will stay high, but the the volume will come down. And the volume is honestly like never really that high to begin with. So mean, like even if you do the math in a given day,
00:50:06
Speaker
you know Let's say we're doing the most we would ever do would be maybe three 30-yard 1080s and then like three flying 20s with like a 20 or 30-yard run-in.
00:50:20
Speaker
you know So whatever that adds up, that would be like a high-volume day. you know And then come down from that to maybe one of each, you know or maybe no 1080 and it's just one flying 20 or something like that. you know um But the intensity will will stay up.
00:50:36
Speaker
And then obviously 10 days out or so, we won't go. The distance will start coming down you know so that you can still get that stimulus, that output um without the velocities you towards the end.
00:50:54
Speaker
Have you guys played around with any assisted running? So I, so I, I guess, so there's combine and then there's like my pro guys. So I haven't, last year we did a little bit of assisted running um with some combine guys.
Assisted and Resistance Training Techniques
00:51:12
Speaker
um I initially don't plan to this year where I love the assisted diesel work. I'm nuts for assisted diesel work.
00:51:22
Speaker
Like, and I, I guess ah assisted diesel work would really be like the opposite. It'd be overloaded diesel work. Right. so like, cod we spoke about Kyle earlier. Kyle put me on this. He's like, yeah, man, he's like, crank it up heavy as hell and have them just like lunge walk, like kind of back towards the machine.
00:51:43
Speaker
um Yeah. And dude, we started doing that. And then obviously we'll lighten it up and then we'll jog towards the machine and then we'll lighten it up some more and run towards the machine. So like, and then these are, this is not the combine guys. These are my pro guys on like a linear G cell day.
00:51:59
Speaker
um But I've seen incredible results from improving guys breaks from that. And Kyle said that he had gotten guys, up to like 60 kilos on uh on the assisted walking like that yeah i'm like bro because anything over 30 my guys look like a fish on a hook man yeah so i guess we're not there yet but uh but assisted work like dude i'm nuts for the assisted or over in that case overloaded pulled towards the machine decel work yeah yeah
00:52:33
Speaker
That's dope. Yeah, we did, we implemented our first, we've done a lot of this just the assisted decal stuff, which has been great. um But we implemented some assisted sprint acceleration stuff um and doing assistance on even acceleration days, doing assistance on high-speed days towards the end. And like, dude,
00:52:51
Speaker
If you ever play around with it, just thank me later and you might get it you might get a record. It it really makes sense. You know what makes sense on the, especially on the Max B day, you know, it's like really is like three kilos or four kilos. Is that really going to move the needle?
00:53:09
Speaker
You know, in fact, JB, it does. Yeah. You know, ah ah but, but, and I actually misspoke Wednesday. We don't do 10% V deck. We do need,
00:53:21
Speaker
Need based. Oh, yeah. very basis Right. So, yeah, you're going to get 20 to 30 for sure. You're going to get 50 plus for sure. And then you're going to get whatever you need, which could be 50 again.
00:53:36
Speaker
um it could be 20 to 30 again, or it could be light, but the light could easily become assisted. You know, I'll have to pull it out myself, you know, try it. ah yeah I test everything out ah myself first. Like I've been through this combine program is like my third time through.
00:53:54
Speaker
so So like, you know, and um but I need to test it out on myself. Yeah, assisted dribbles, then assisted runs, and then assisted excels into a run.
00:54:07
Speaker
like So we'll do we'll do assisted like dribbles at like 3 to 4 kg, ah maybe get to 5 kg, and then we'll do assisted runs where it's like 3 kg, 4 kg, but you're running into it.
00:54:19
Speaker
And then we'll do um accommodating descending from 6 to 1. So it'll basically pull them really hard at the beginning and then drop off and they're running normal by the end. Yeah.
00:54:30
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. They can try to carry the momentum that they've got without help. Dude, it was insane. So we had guys that couldn't break like 22, five that started to run without assistance.
00:54:47
Speaker
That's wild. But they were 23-3, 23-4 with assistance. And then they started running 23 flat with yeah no assistance. And then they ran 4-3. then they ran 4-4. And these these were guys to guys.
00:55:06
Speaker
it was insane um No, I love it, man. there There's a lot. It's it's crazy. Obviously, like we we come from similar research backgrounds in terms of what we're studying, but like in terms of the output, it's very similar. Very similar.
00:55:22
Speaker
JB just posted on, was it today or yesterday or something about that new you know resistance study saying how effective, which we both like.
00:55:32
Speaker
we We use heavy resisted sprinting. you know yeah That used to be so taboo, but I think guys have – it's caught on more than it used to. you But I think to me, like the the real thing is knowing what the right load is because like you know you you you wouldn't go in the weight room and tell everyone to squat 315. Right. And that's where like people always – oh well what what's v deck well it's gonna be different for you than it is me right like you know the 20 kilos might slow me down and it might take 30 to slow you down you know yeah yeah did do you guys drop the 50 like towards the end do you guys keep rolling or how does that work no we'll we'll we'll keep it yeah we'll keep it because that's i mean i get that that like specificity wise like
00:56:26
Speaker
That's not super fast, but to me, that's your first three steps VLO. Yeah. Right. That's your first three steps VLO. So like after three steps, I'm trying to hit whatever it is I'm trying to hit for that 50 to 60 V deck, you know, miles per hour wise.
00:56:41
Speaker
So to me, it has transfer. And to me, i like it because it's so safe. Yeah, it is.
00:56:54
Speaker
and if savannah if you're listening i'm not saying that i'm going to do this but like you could take a guy with one with a grade one handy and put him at 60% VDAC and he can sprint 10 yards.
00:57:07
Speaker
I've done it a ton. Yeah. Like, like it's, you're not gonna, they're not gonna hurt themselves at that resistance because of the angles, because of the velocity that they're moving at.
00:57:20
Speaker
It is so freaking safe. It's concentric based. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. It's insane. It's insanely safe. You know what i mean? So, um, I, I love, I love, love the heavy loads.
00:57:33
Speaker
Yeah, I love that.
Team Dynamics and Industry Collaboration
00:57:35
Speaker
Tell me a little bit about, like, I know about Lucy, um Savannah. Who else you got on her team? Jimmy. Jimmy, tim yes. so Jimmy came from Arizona. He's a dog, man. Like,
00:57:49
Speaker
He's a dude. Like, he's the nicest dude. Like, and I get that this isn't really, like, this is more personality, right, than it is, like, science. But, like, he's that dude that, like, the nicest dude in the world ah when you meet him. But, like, if we were to get in a in a street fight or i was in an alley and getting jumped, this dude would come in from the top rope and have my back. you know what I mean? And, like, that's the type of people i'm want to be around, man. Yeah. I feel that. He's a...
00:58:17
Speaker
He's a freaking Delon man. So i I love that dude. So yeah. So ah Lucy, Savannah, oh Jimmy, and then nutrition wise, our nutritionist Noel is actually moving on.
00:58:32
Speaker
So we're we're actually bringing in, actually looking looking to hire somebody currently, but we have a contractor that we're bringing in for combine. Nice. Nice. I know your wife does nutrition too, right?
00:58:44
Speaker
Yeah. For, ah for, your rival good yeah oh we're not doing that so hey access people are gonna be pissed off we don't place we don't play sides everybody's cool in this industry everybody's cool that's right everybody's cool cool we're all cool well we can all win hey look there's enough athletes if you're not getting them shit get your studies up because this shit is this shit is a layup if you do it right you know