Today’s guest is Reinis Krēgers, a former champion decathlete turned track and physical education coach. Reinis is dedicated to building complete movers: fast, coordinated, confident athletes who understand their bodies. His training blends classical sprint development with exploratory tasks, helping athletes develop physical literacy and long-term adaptability.
In sports performance, we often fixate on exercises, cues, and optimizing micro-qualities in the moment. What we discuss far less, yet what often separates the elite, is the role of play, creativity, and culture. By looking closely at events like the pole vault and hurdles, we can see how a developmental, curiosity-driven approach benefits athletes of every sport.
In this episode, Reinis shares the remarkable story of losing a finger, training exclusively with his non-dominant hand, and still setting a shot put PR. This opens the door to a rich discussion on cross-education, novelty, and how the brain actually learns movement. We explore play-based coaching, pole vault as a developmental super-tool, contrasts between Eastern and American coaching philosophies, youth sport creativity, and sustainable tendon development.
It’s a conversation full of insight, storytelling, and reminders of what truly anchors a lifelong athletic journey: curiosity, joy, and the art of falling in love with movement.
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0:00 – Early upbringing in Latvia and falling in love with movement
6:18 – Play, curiosity, and environment driven athlete development
14:50 – Injuries, setbacks, and choosing to continue competing
23:40 – Czech training experience and constraints based coaching
33:05 – European versus American development and long term athlete philosophy
45:10 – Games, novelty, and bringing play back into training
59:47 – Specialization mistakes and the importance of multi sport development
1:11:48 – Plyometrics, bounding, and gradual tissue adaptation
1:22:40 – Injury lessons, tendon health, and the value of long term gradual loading
Actionable Takeaways
6:18 – Play, curiosity, and environment driven development
Reinis explains that his athletic foundation came from unstructured exploration, not early specialization.
Let athletes solve problems rather than repeat fixed patterns.
Encourage outdoor play and varied surfaces to build natural coordination.
Curiosity creates better movers than rigid instruction.
14:50 – Navigating injuries and staying in the sport
Reinis shares how setbacks led him to rethink training instead of quitting.
Use injuries as a signal to adjust training rather than push through blindly.
Keep a competitive outlet during rehab to maintain identity and motivation.
Return with smarter progression instead of trying to reclaim old numbers immediately.
23:40 – Constraints based learning from Czech training
Reinis describes how training environments shaped movement without heavy cueing.
Change the environment before changing the athlete.
Use simple tasks and small boundaries to create automatic technical improvements.
Let athletes feel solutions instead of chasing perfect positions.
33:05 – European versus American development
Reinis contrasts long term models focused on movement quality rather than short term output.
Early years should build durability, not just speed and strength metrics.
Avoid rushing physical qualities before coordination and play are established.
Development is a process of layering, not skipping steps.
45:10 – Bringing games and novelty back into training
Reinis highlights how playful constraints improve responsiveness and decision making.
Add game based movement to keep athletes adaptive under changing conditions.
Use novelty sparingly to reawaken coordination and intent.
Reduce scripted drills when athletes stop learning from them.
59:47 – Multi sport value and avoiding early specialization
Reinis explains why single sport paths can limit long term performance.
Multiple sports expand movement bandwidth and reduce overuse.
Delay specialization until athletes have broad coordination skills.
Early success does not guarantee long term development.
1:11:48 – Plyometrics and gradual tissue progression
Reinis stresses that bounding and plyos require patience and slow tissue adaptation.
Progress volume and intensity over seasons, not weeks.
Start with low amplitude contacts before higher velocity work.
Tendons adapt slower than muscles, so loading must reflect that timeline.
1:22:40 – Tendon health and long term loading approach
Reinis shares what he learned from repeated injury cyc