Today’s show welcomes back coach Bobby Stroupe. Bobby Stroupe is the Founder and President of Athlete Performance Enhancement Center (APEC) and has directed human performance systems for nearly 20 years, working with a full range of athletes from youth to professional.
In my search for higher-transfer, holistic methodology in sports performance training, I’ve met few coaches who have covered more bases than Bobby Stroupe. On our last show, which aired just over a month ago, we talked about several of Bobby’s “unorthodox” methods in training speed, power strength and more in light of athletic needs, and I still had about half of the questions left on my own list to ask him.
Bobby is back on the show to cover the rest of the questions we missed last time. He will discuss his influences and how he got to where he is today as a coach, including some of the mentors and coaches that have influenced the way he trains. Bobby explains how he incorporates heavier strength training into his sessions and how his single set mentality is a huge impactor on performance (and a defining factor of great athletes). Finally, Bobby shares his views on upper body training, as well as training the foot and the relationship between the two.
In the middle of the show, Bobby gets into the “8 factors” by which a strength coach can impact an athlete, which was such gold! I hope you come away from this show as excited as I was about coaching my next training session.
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Timestamps and Main Points
04:41 – The story behind DJ Stroupebob
06:01 – How Bobby differentiates himself and his unorthodox training system from other coaches
07:30 – Influential mentors and coaches Bobby has learned from + Lessons learned from studying animal movement and mastering gravity and space
14:49 – How much time do you spend on heavy-weight lifting versus other types of training?
19:52 – Lifting is like a drug + Metrics Bobby measures and pays attention to
23:17 – From 7-day cycles to 14 or 21-day cycles in assigning the frequency of heavy strength work
24:42 – Bobby’s thoughts on the single set mentality
29:20 – How to get improve your athletes’ single set mentality, especially for overly analytical athletes
31:19 – Applying Parkinson’s Law to athletes
34:36 – Ideas on partnering with sport coaches and incorporating sports specific movements in training
37:01 – Having a holistic influence to make our value seen: 10 ways coaches affect athletes
40:27 – Bobby’s perception of other successful coaches + How to expand your coaching capabilities
43:35 – His approach to and evolution with upper body training for athletes + The relationship between the feet and upper body
46:11 – How do you use weighted gloves, clubs, maces and other training tools?
50:25 – When you should not use weighted balls and gloves
54:12 – Complexities in training the foot + Basic foot functions to see before elevating training
1:01:43 – What is a driver?
“There’s no doubt that knowing what gets your athletes going is part of your job.”
“You can do high-level, max strength work and have minimal volume on that in the course of an entire training curriculum over time and still get incredible results with a little less of some of the effects of overdoing strength training that you really don’t want… strength training is more effective when it’s not overdone.”
“You can see how these different animals with their physiology and their climate and their environment approach tactical movement strategies and technical movement strategies… and for me, in watching that, I think you can learn a lot about how to utilize gravity as a resource instead of relying on strength.”
“If strength is what you do most,