Here’s a link to a 3 day S&C accelerated development programme being run by a great coach Brendan Chaplin. It’s very practical focused will give any S&C coach the opportunity to learn and share ideas.

I studied with Brendan and know he’s a stickler for detail and this course will be no different!!

I had my first double macchiato this morning. I ventured away from my usual americano to see what all the fuss was about and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised…doesn’t last as long though. Maybe that’s a good thing depending on the company I guess. However this morning it was accompanied with some good S&C chat and a challenge set to write a blog around the macchiato. So hence about trying something new.

I think this is a very tough thing to get right as a coach. The S&C community is a very active and open one which is a hugely positive thing, but it means there are a million and one training ideas floating around and it’s almost a daily occurrence stumbling upon something that you like the look of. So how do you introduce your new protocols? What are your criteria for inclusion? Do you have a probation period? I’m going to open this up to the audience so please add comments below, but some of my (fairly basic) ideas around this are;

• I have to try it and like it
• It has to do something as good as or better than something I already do
• It has to be logistically plausible
• It has to have some kind of progression of fit in with other progressions

In the few days a week I work at Profeet in their running lab analysing people’s gait and I’ve been noticing something recently, picking up a few patterns. The ability of a high proportion of people to stabilise the hip joint while running, even at very slow speeds, is pretty poor. In essence Trendelenburg gait is frighteningly commonplace.

In reaction to a stance leg glute med weakness you see a hip drop on the swing side, this is either with a good upper body alignment or coupled with an upper body lean over the stance leg to lever the swing side up. In either case, it needs some work. Plenty of activation work and improvement of awareness are needed to help with this, even just to train the movements. For example, doing hip hikes incorrectly could exacerbate the problem rather than make it better.

The tough thing is that you might not know you’re doing it. It’s difficult to pick up with the naked eye while watching people run, this is one reason why I like gait analysis as a movement screen, you can pick lots more with a slowed down video.