Movement Mastery: Lee Taft's Coaching Strategies for Speed, Agility, and Fundamental Skills

In this episode of the Coach U Podcast, movement specialist Lee Taft shares valuable insights on the connection between fundamental movements, speed development, and athletic performance. Taft's expertise extends beyond traditional speed coaching, as he emphasizes the crucial role of fundamental movement patterns in building a strong base for athletes. 

Let's explore the key takeaways from the episode and how they can benefit coaches and athletes in their training approach.

Embracing Mistakes and Learning:

Taft stresses the importance of allowing athletes to learn from their mistakes, acknowledging that learning often starts with failure. He emphasizes that it's okay for athletes not to be perfect from the beginning and encourages a growth mindset that values trial and error as a part of the learning process.

Progressive Skill Development:

The discussion highlights the value of starting athletes at a manageable pace and gradually increasing the difficulty of skills. By providing detailed feedback and allowing self-reflection, coaches can help athletes better understand skill execution, promoting steady skill development and motor control.

Coaching Flexibility and Problem-Solving:

Taft emphasizes the need for coaches to adapt and encourage athletes to think critically and problem-solve independently. This approach aligns with the evolving nature of coaching and supports comprehensive skill development.

Sprinting Techniques and Training:

Taft provides insights into sprinting mechanics, emphasizing the importance of maintaining specific angles and coordination between arm and leg movements for better efficiency and power output. He also discusses the use of training tools such as wickets to improve running mechanics and prevent overstriding.

Mastering Fundamental Movements:

Taft stresses the importance of mastering fundamental movement patterns before moving on to advanced skills. This emphasis on foundational movements prepares athletes for specific movements in their sports and contributes to injury prevention and long-term athletic development.

Coaches and athletes can apply these principles to create a learning environment that values mistakes, prioritizes gradual skill development, and emphasizes the mastery of fundamental movement patterns. By integrating these concepts into their training, coaches and athletes can establish a strong foundation for athletic success and continuous improvement.

Lee Taft Website 
Coach U Podcast YouTube

Episode Transcript

Coach U (00:00):
Hey everybody.
This is the coach you podcast,and I'm your host coach.
You, this podcast is about beingcurious, learning from others
and using what we've learned toevolve every single day.
Hey, what's up, everyone.
Thank you so much for tuninginto the coaching podcast.
This episode of Lee Taft isawesome.

(00:21):
He's been a coach that has beennothing but welcoming and
helpful to me since I became acoach back in 2017, I had my
first conference I visited myfirst conference and leave was
there.
And ever since day one, he'sbeen nothing but open, willing
to help answer any questions.
And this episode is much morethan just him being the speed
guy, which initially that's howI met him as.
But he's so much more than justthe speed guy.

(00:44):
He's a movement specialist.
He understands athletes and howthey move.
Even more so than just that, howthey think, how they operate and
how different situations callfor different types of coaching.
So it's a great episode tolisten to if you're a coach or
an athlete, because you do wantto understand how it is to think
with athletes as an athlete, asa coach, how can you communicate

(01:04):
better?
How can you make a betterrelationship and inevitably help
your athlete become a betterathlete and as an athlete,
become a better athlete withyour coach.
So I hope you enjoy this episodewith Lee Taft.
Hey, what's up, everybody?
Welcome to the Coach U podcast.
I'm your host, Coach U.

(01:25):
Today we're being joined by LeeTaft.
Hey, what's up, Lee?
How you

Lee Taft (01:27):
doing, man?
I'm good.
So great to see you.
It's been a while and I'vealways been a big fan of yours
and excited to spend some

Coach U (01:35):
time with you.
Yeah, I've learned so much fromyou.
Uh, you are, you know, there'sthe speed guy.
We know this.
Uh, I've heard you called thegodfather of speed before as
well.
So, you know, we know that youlove speed.
We're going to talk speed forsure.
But I have a lot of otherquestions about coaching and
it's not just, you know, onedimension, right?
So I really want to pick yourbrain on a few different topics
that have been, you know, I'veover my coaching years I've

(01:55):
picked up and you know, I'mlike, I really want to ask him
about these certain things.
So we're going to get into itbefore we start.
I want you to, you know, givethe, give everyone a little idea
of what you're doing.
Uh, you know, kind of how youtransition through the COVID
period and what you're doingnow.

Lee Taft (02:10):
Yeah, definitely.
So, you know, to kind of startin the beginning, you know, I
started out as a teacher, I wasa phys ed teacher.
I grew up in a family ofteachers.
And so that was kind of like,I'm excited.
You're going to talk about kindof the coaching teaching aspect
because Really, that's when itall starts.
It doesn't matter what we knowif we can't relay it to our, you

(02:31):
know, our people in a, in aconcise manner.
So, spent a lot of time there.
I, early on, transitioned intostrength and conditioning.
And, uh, over the years, I'veowned some facilities and I went
back into teaching and coachingagain.
And then now, a lot of my timeis spent, uh, consulting and,

(02:51):
you know, obviously creatingsome coaching courses.
But I also, John, I got backinto coaching last year, so, um,
yep, and we, we used to live,I'm from New York, we're there,
went to Indiana for about 15years, right during the
pandemic, we moved, thebeginning, we moved down to
Florida, and, uh, we were goingto move anyway, but it just kind

(03:13):
of seemed like the right time todo it, because, We just couldn't
travel.
You know, we couldn't, Icouldn't do any, you know, in
place seminars.
So we kind of jumped in our carsand drove down and found a
place.
And, uh, we've been here for alittle over three years now.
And, um, and then last year Igot asked to be a head
basketball coach again.
And that's like, that's likeasking a little kid if you want

(03:35):
another piece.

Coach U (03:37):
That's awesome.
Did you find the joy back in it

Lee Taft (03:39):
again?
Oh man.
You know, I did so much becauseNumber one, I missed it.
And it's, you know, you justgive me a ball in a gym and a
football field or whatever, itdoesn't matter.
I just love, yeah, I love beingaround the kids, love, you know,
being around the parents andsupporting, you know, a program
and I just, because I was awayfrom it for, you know, a couple

(04:02):
of years and, uh, you know, afew years from a, from a now
head coach, but I had coachedsome different levels in that
time.
But coming back and being thehead coach of the entire
program, which that's what Ilike.
Because now I can, I can moldthe little kids all the way up
to the, to the top.
What it did is the time off gaveme perspective, you know, like

(04:25):
as, as much as I can bedemanding at times, I also had a
greater perspective of, youknow, especially during the
pandemic, like, you know, thisisn't.
This isn't the end all be all,you know, it's just sports
still.
And we got to keep, and I'vealways been pretty good with
that, but I think I evenunderstand that more now and,
and really try to give somethingthe kids can be proud of, and
these are things that I was, youknow, I'm older now.

(04:46):
And you kind of look at it asalmost like a parent sometimes
for these kids, you know, soit's

Coach U (04:51):
been great.
That's awesome.
Yeah, it's, it's interestinglike getting, cause when you say
you got back into coaching, it'slike, you've been coaching, but
this is a different kind ofcoaching.
Can you, can you describe thedifference between the two
different styles of coachingthat you're, you're talking
about here?

Lee Taft (05:05):
Yeah, yeah, definitely.
So when you're a strength andconditioning coach or a
performance coach or, uh, youknow, a speed coach, whatever it
is, when you work in that area,there is a little bit of film,
right?
You can break down the techniqueof someone, you can do that.
But when you get into the sportsof coaching soccer, volleyball,
tennis, you know, whatever, inmy case, basketball right now,

(05:26):
there's a lot of prep work.
There's a lot of, um, uh, workwhere you have to look at all
your athletes that are going tobe competing on the court for
you, and you got to figure outhow to get them to play the best
way they can together, like youmight be my best shooter, but
you shoot best coming off ascreen.

(05:49):
I got to figure that out.
I can't just say, all right,well, we're going to do this and
we're going to pass the ball toJohn in the corner.
He's going to shoot it.
That might not be your shot.
You might like coming off a, aget action or whatever.
And you, that's just how youshoot off with them.
So that to me is the fun part,you know, because I made all the
mistakes.
I thought, Oh, this kid's apretty good athlete.
He could play.
No, they didn't, they didn't fitwell in that system.

(06:10):
So we have to make sure we dothat.
And that to me is the differencebetween.
You know, like when a kid goesinto a weight room, the weights
aren't moving, you know, they'renot, they're not setting up a
defense against sure they'renot, they're not, you don't have
to chase them around, you know,so you can pretty much go in
there and you can get your stuffdone and work at it as where you
got to plan for the other teamthat's trying to attack you just

(06:32):
as much as you're trying toattack down and that's, that's a
different mindset.

Coach U (06:36):
No, that's cool.
And, uh, that's for, forreference, the, the corner shot
actually was my shot.
It was like the only shot therein free throws.
That was great.
Everything else.
much.
Um, that's awesome.
I, uh, it's, it's cool to hearthe difference because I, you
know, playing, playing so manydifferent sports and then being
able to try to relate what we doas a performance speed coach,
strength coach, whatever we are.
And then actually being like.

(06:56):
There's skills coaches in thesedepartments, too, in every
single sport, too.
So it's, it's, you can break itdown even further.
But then to be the coach who hasto kind of tie it all in
together, it's, they're alldifferent aspects, uh, all
coaching.
So it's really cool to hear thedifferences, uh, of what you're
seeing, you know, in, in your,um, your experiences and like
how you see the actual coaching.
Uh, because it is an art, youknow, it's such an art to, uh.

(07:19):
To be able to dial that in, um,I have, I have this thing we'll,
we'll kind of, we'll go to this.
I told, I wrote it in the notes,but it's called an impact deck.
So here, there's just some funlittle things in here.
Uh, it's just some wisdom, youknow, not even about sports, so
there's an action card, there isa reflection card, and then
there is an affirmation card, Ibelieve, yes, so the

(07:39):
affirmations, um, and so whatI'm going to do is I'm just
going to shuffle them up here,it's a reflection.
Here we go.
So, ooh, this is a good one.
Uh, what's getting in the way ofyou being exactly who you want
to be?

Lee Taft (07:53):
Uh, my hair being this short.
I'm trying to...

Coach U (08:00):
The movies were trying to get you for the modeling

Lee Taft (08:03):
modeling life.
I keep trying to get in thereand be a stand in for one of
them.
Your head's getting in the way.
No, so.
Man, that's a great one.
I love this.
This is really good.
So, you know, I would say asflexible as I am as a of a, as a
coach mm-hmm.
I sometimes is not, I am not asflexible as I need to be as a,

(08:28):
uh, as a human being that'strying to grow.
And I try and I work at it.
And the reason is, is, um,Sometimes I get stuck in my way
when I have good success doingwhat I'm doing.
And I know I have to keep goingbecause I preach this all the
time.
I preach to like, you know, likeif you're a, you know, your own

(08:50):
worst patient, right?
I know, I know what I need to bedoing, but sometimes John, I
don't.
Always, um, allow myself to bevulnerable and to grow and to
learn from, you know, maybewatching and, and, uh, you know,
attending an event that, that Ireally need to do.

(09:11):
I'm kind of like, hi, you know,I'm good.
We're, we're doing really well.
I don't think I'm going to go tothat, you know, whatever.
And I think that's one thingthat, you know, kind of, I got
to put that in betterperspective because I'm really
big on growth and I do a lot ofstuff, but sometimes.
I'll get stuck in my ways alittle bit and that's an area
that I need to get better at.

Coach U (09:29):
I love it.
I love the honesty.
I love the ability to look atthat because that's how you
grow.
Right?
That's how you're able to, uh,as my shirt says here, evolve,
right?
That's, that's, I'm all aboutthat.
It's just about the lifelessons.
And, um, what would you think?
So, like, you know, you've beenin the coaching field for what?
How many years now?
So 35 years, that's threedecades of experience and

(09:50):
growth, um, you know, so I likehearing the evolution of
coaching.
I like hearing, uh, how you'vegrown and, you know, just even
talking about that right now,hearing you say, you know, Hey,
I still get in my own waysometimes.
And like, I think it'sinteresting because as a younger
coach and even like 10 yearsago, and I met you in 2017.
I've had so much growth in justthose six years mentally,
physically, and it's, it's, Ijust love hearing the experience

(10:11):
of others.
So what would you, what wouldyou say, you know, 20 years ago,
10 years ago, have been big,maybe moments in your life or
just throughout your coachingcareer.
How have you, uh, evolved?
From day one until now,

Lee Taft (10:25):
yeah, this is a, this is such a powerful question
because we could go on for afree podcast, you know, this one
because it's so it's thatimportant, really.
So, the 1 thing that I think allof us go through as young people
is so young professionals arejust young people in general is
we want to be heard.
We wanna be recognized andnotice we want what we say do,

(10:49):
um, what we teach, to berespected and um, you know, to
be honored to a degree.
In some ways we go about that bytalking a lot and maybe over
coaching or over teaching,because that's what we know.
We were taught, you know, I wasa physical education teacher, so
I was taught how to teach.

(11:11):
Plus I grew up around a fatherwho did it for 44 years.
My two brothers were teachersand coaches for 35 years, and my
sisters were teachers.
So that's all I heard.
So I was like, oh, I can't waitto teach.
I can't wait.
So I go in and I'm just yap,yap, yap, yap, yap the whole
time.
And so over the years, Irealized, gosh, I actually get

(11:33):
better results when I shut up.
And I just, I give them adirection.
I do what I like to call guideddiscovery.
And I allow my athletes to kindof experience things themselves.
And I, and I think so from, fromthe, from the 80s till now,
that's been the biggest growth.

(11:54):
As I think I'm really, reallygood now at understanding when I
need to roll my sleeves up andstart chirping a lot.
Versus just kind of saying,you're okay.
Try it again.
You're going in the rightdirection.
I'll tell you if you get off thetracks, go.
And then the kids kind of startto realize, and here's the other

(12:14):
part to that story, it's you andI, it's our story, like we feel
like we're talking too much, butit's It's the athletes end of
the story where they becomereliant on us talking too much
so they don't problem solve.
When you stop talking, they'relike, okay, he's not going to
tell me what to do, so I need tofigure this thing out.

(12:35):
And I'm like, yes, that's what Iwant.
I am not going to tell you whatto do because you're heading in
the right direction.
I don't want rote memory.
I want your nervous system tocreate a pathway of learning.
And so now I've learned to backoff and kind of let that go.
And that's really been a bigpart of my teaching now.
And, you know, from, fromfeedback to anything I give
it's.

(12:55):
It's well, what do you think?
You know, you just did it.
What do you think?
And let's solve it together.
Yeah.

Coach U (13:02):
Yeah, no, that's it's it's funny because I leads right
into the next thing that I hadin terms of like my topics.
I was like, you know, I, I feellike we're expected as coaches,
like you said, to, you know,give that feedback on almost
every move.
And especially if you're lookingat specific skills, you know, if
it is speed or if it is aspecific weightlifting exercise,
we're, we're, you know, We'retaught as coaches to, to correct

(13:25):
and to assess and to givefeedback, but it's not always
great.
And I, I did notice, like I'veactually experienced what you
just talked about firsthand,where, you know, the more cues I
give, it could be confusingbecause there's too many things
to think about.
And then the more I've backedoff, the more I've seen them try
things.
And also I think too, and I wantto hear your opinion on this,

(13:46):
but.
Let them mess up and let themhave bad reps.
We don't want them hurtingthemselves, but they're going to
be bad reps.
Just like on the field, they'regoing to be bad reps, just like
in life, there's going to be badreps.
And so I think it's a biggercorrelation there.
What do you

Lee Taft (13:59):
think?
Yeah.
Oh, that's, that's so, soimportant because It is
absolutely, um, insane for us tothink that doing a bad rep, a
less than proficient rep, orwhatever we want to say, is to
be expected because that's nothow the nervous system works.

(14:19):
That's not how the brain, uh,evolves.
As your shirt says, we, we trysomething.
The brain hasn't created apathway for that yet.
So how can we be so.
stubborn to think that theyshould have did it right on the
first time.
It's one thing if we're going totalk about effort and attitude,

(14:41):
right?
We can get, we can have a greateffort right off and a great
attitude right off.
That's different.
But if we're talking about theskill, we have to be, uh, smart
enough to understand learningstarts with failure.
Because the failing process iswhat actually ignites the brain,
the chemistry and theelectricity to start forming

(15:02):
pathways.
And so if we're going to be sonaive to say, you know, you got
to get this right, you've triedit five times and it's pull
holding.
Yeah, you might try that forfive years and not get it down,
right?
I think when we start tounderstand that, um, you know,
the feedback we give.

(15:23):
Or the queuing we give has tocome in progressions and steps.
So when I'm working with youshooting in the corner, your
jump shot and you keep missingit to the left, right?
And you're a young kid, you're asixth grader and you're off the
cues that I'm going to give younow won't be the same ones when

(15:44):
you're a freshman in college,shooting that same shot.
Sure.
It can't be, it's I've got, itmight have to, I might have to
touch on it.
But I have to evolve becauseyour understanding is greater
and your execution of the skillis greater.
There just might be some mentalthings that are off and I could
give you a, one of the cues Igive my basketball players all

(16:07):
the time is stop shooting theball 50 miles an hour, shoot it
at 35.
All of a sudden, what happens istheir arc goes up, the ball
slows down, their rotationimproves, and they don't bang
it.
You know, like it's not, bam,this hard shot.
And that cue works for the kidwho understands that cue.

(16:27):
For the younger kid, it's adifferent cue because they don't
get that yet.

Coach U (16:31):
Right.
So two things came up for me.
I do want to ask about queuingand how you get feedback, but
hold on to that one.
Cause I actually want to ask youabout something else that came
up first, which, which is whatyou said, you know, don't shoot
it a certain mile per hour.
Let's shoot a little bit softer.
I tell people, find your 100 andwork between 70, 80 in terms of
it and be really, really good atthat at a slower level and then

(16:51):
start to amp it up.
Cause I always, I always bringthis one up and it's Tiger Woods
father.
Who said I want you to swing ashard as you possibly can every
swing as long as you're incontrol and it's the same
concept I feel like the, um, youknow, to grasp things like you
have to learn how to do it.
I can tell you all day what todo, but if you're not grasping
it., with motor control andyou're not grasping it with your

(17:11):
body and like understanding howit feels.
So what do you think aboutstarting athletes at a lesser
level, you know, and saying, Iwant you to start this at a
slower pace and then start toamp it up.

Lee Taft (17:25):
I think you got to meet them where they're at and
you got to do that.
It's very skill dependent.
So let's say we're working on aforehand in tennis.
If you swing too slow.
You sometimes actually changethe, you change the result of

(17:46):
what you're trying to do in thegame of tennis today.
It's very topspin dominant.
Okay.
We want to come over the top.
This, this, this goes back to,you know, what Tiger Woods dad
said is hitting it.
We'll fix.
We'll fix stuff later.
But let's make sure that wetrain that nervous system to
have some energy.

(18:08):
And so when I work with tennis,if I've worked with tennis
players and the ground stroke islike, okay, let's learn how to
swing first.
Once you know how to swing, Iwant you to generate speed and
take the fuzz off the ball.
And so they get when I say thatthat means I want to brush
through the ball or up the balland I want you to do that at a

(18:29):
massive speed because thatcreates the spin.
It drops it down to the courtand what they start to realize.
Oh, that actually makes thecourt bigger versus hitting it
really soft and flat, which theball can easily sail out.
So it's it's taking that skill.
Meeting the kids where they'reat, and then being able to give

(18:50):
them the cue that helps them.
So, that's why when I use thecue on shooting, if I say 50
miles an hour, kid can say,okay, yeah, 50, I know what that
is.
But then when I say 35, they'relike, oh yeah, that's a lot
slower.
So that immediately, that cuehelps them.
If I were to say to them, hey,shoot the ball slower, I don't
know that they get it completelythough, like, okay, but like,

(19:13):
what, what do you mean slower?
So when I tell them that, theyget it.
They understand.
Yes, the ball should travel likea dart at the rim.
It should get there, but at 35miles an hour, that means it's
going to be more arc softer.
The ball can actually see thewhole of the rim versus kind of
peeking over the edge.
We never want that.
We want it to come down.

(19:33):
So the cueing and the words thatyou use connect the meaning of
what we're asking them.
Versus a cue, just giving themsomething additional to work on
what they don't really connectit to how it's going to improve
what they're doing.
And that's what we have to do.

Coach U (19:51):
Right, right if, if they're just, like you said, if
they're just not having a goodtime with a drill, how do you
progress, regress, how do youcommunicate with them?
Because it could be a reallyfrustrating thing, too, for an
athlete.
Yeah,

Lee Taft (20:02):
this is probably going back to your question a few
minutes ago about how I've grownover the years.
I went from very direct feedbackto now most of my feedback is
summary feedback.
So, what I'll do is an athletewill perform a skill Or, or a
repetition and I'll say, sowhat'd you think, you know,

(20:24):
based on what, you know, we wantyou to do.
What did you think of that rep?
And they're like, well, I feltlike I just, you know, I was off
to the right or I didn't jumphigh enough or my foot plant was
off and I'll say, you know, Ithink the same thing.
And so what we did is we got ayes, yes.

(20:45):
You gave me what you thought.
I looked at it and said, yep, Isaw that.
We want yes, yes.
If you said to me something, andit was not very good, you agreed
it wasn't very good, and I agreeto it, that's a no, no.
I want those two.
I want a yes, yes, or a no, no,because that means you and I are
on the same page.

(21:05):
If I get a yes from you and a nofrom me, that's, I don't want
that.
Because now I know you're notthinking the same, or vice
versa.
If I think, oh man, that was agreat rep, and you said, ah, I
didn't like that, well, whatthat's telling me, and what I
gotta get across to you is, youknow what, you actually did it
right, but because it's so newto your brain, it felt awful.

(21:28):
So, I said, trust me, you did itright, and it's gonna feel bad
for maybe the next 10 to 20reps, but then all of a sudden,
it'll feel not as bad.
And then, by next week, it'sgonna feel like, oh, okay, this
is pretty good, and then in, youknow, a couple months, you're
gonna be like, ah.
How did I ever do it the otherway, you know, that's so it's
that kind of yin yang type thingyou got to have with your

(21:50):
athletes, let them, and here'sthe other important part john
and I think a lot of coachesdon't do this very well, is if,
if you don't allow.
Your athletes to learn how toexplain what it felt like.
I don't know that they'relearning well enough.

(22:11):
So if they just say, Oh, I don'tknow.
You know, cause that's whatthey'll do.
Hey, how did you, how did youfeel?
And you go, I don't know.
I need you to know.
So here's what I want you to dothis time.
I want you to feel like, did youfeel like you popped off the
ground?
Or did you feel heavy gettingoff the ground?
And now I'm giving them alanguage, right?
Exactly.

(22:32):
Now I've given you two choices.
I didn't give you this, this,uh, discovering, try to, how to
come up with a, uh, you know, anevaluation on your own.
I said, just tell me, was it,was it slow or was it fast?
Was it, you know, popped off theground or felt heavy off the
ground?
Now you can, and that teachesthem.
I have to be aware of how I feelwhen I'm performing reps and

(22:53):
then they can start helpingthemselves.

Coach U (22:56):
I love that.
It can be tough to understandwhat we're seeing so much and
what your brain has processedover the years and how much
you've learned.
Yep.
You have to simplify it, uh, toan extent that, you know, to
help them understand and buildtheir language.
And I think that's something,um, I've definitely learned, uh,
you know, even just being ableto relay it.
Cause once you get that down, Ithink it does become way easier.

(23:16):
And I've seen that happen whereit becomes easier to have the
conversations.
And I like to collaborate withthem too and like allow them to
see some video feedback.
Allow them to see how they'removing.
And see, are you seeing some ofthe same stuff that I am?
Cause it also can connect themtoo.
Um, how do you, how often doyou, are you using video with
your, with your guys and girls?

Lee Taft (23:34):
A lot.
A lot.
I'm a big, I always have myphone and my iPad, depending on
where I'm at, phone's easiersometimes to keep in my pocket.
But if I can, like here in mylittle garage, I have apps when
they come in, I get my iPad andI show them and then I'll sit
down.
If the parents are here, I'llshow them.
I said, this is what you need tobe looking for when they're
training at home with you.
And so we'll just take themthrough it.

(23:54):
And sometimes I'll just say,here it is.
What do you see based on what Itold you we're looking for?
And then they can say, Oh gosh,I didn't realize my knees.
You know, do this or do that,you know, so you kind of give
them that feedback.
And here's the other part.
I want your listeners to kind ofrealize this is so important to
understand from the day we're,we're able to move at all.

(24:18):
Okay.
As a baby to, to, we can get upand we can reach and we can roll
a little bit and then start tocrawl and then crawl, stand and
then stand to move.
But anytime we're trying tomaybe accomplish something,
okay, moving our bodies.
We don't, as adults, have no sayin that.
Like, we don't tell these littletoddlers how to waddle over and

(24:41):
go get that ball over there.
So that goes to show you howpowerful our circuitry is and
how it allows us to develop.
Now, all of a sudden, the kidhits, you know, 6, 7, 8 years
old, and we think we have toinvolve ourselves completely to
make these kids...
Learn, but that's not what thebrain really likes.

(25:02):
What we have to do is figureout, okay, can this child,
meaning a 10 year old, right?
They're still children.
Can this child throw the ballcorrectly on their own by
watching their peers or watchingtheir older friends and
eventually establish a prettygood throwing action or a

(25:23):
serving action or a kickingaction?
Can they do it on their own?
The answer is yes, they can.
If they want to become advancedor elite, they're going to need
some input to fine tune things.
And if we see them throwing andlearning how to throw
incorrectly, where it mightcause harm, that's when we
interject.
But most of the time they'regoing to figure it out just by

(25:46):
modeling someone else,especially higher level talent.
We think I got a class today.
We think they have to be righttoday or perfect today, right?
No, it might be next month atthis time.
That's what they're gonna get.
So are we patient enough?
And smart enough as coaches tosay, hey, we're going to get a

(26:08):
win today, but the win might beyour feet were positioned
correctly today.
And then next Monday, now yourfeet were really good and you
connected your lower and upperbody.
And that's what we tell thekids.
We don't tell them, hey, youhave to hit a perfect home run
today.
We just want you to hold the batand have your feet right and
rotate your hips the right way.

(26:29):
And then each day we progressthe win.
And then that's how we learn

Coach U (26:34):
I do think to patients that you said the key word.
There's patients because we'redefinitely in a very Impatient
society now, but I mean that'sthat's just the world we live in
So kids are seeing things nowand they're wanting to try stuff
and they want to advance quicklywe, we always, when I was a kid
playing little league andbasketball, I played all, I
played five sports.
It was always fundamentals,learn the fundamentals, learn

(26:55):
the fundamentals.
For you, what, what are yourabsolute fundamentals that you
want your athletes to hammerdown?

Lee Taft (27:02):
Yeah, this, this hits home with me hard because I'm
watching our sport ofbasketball, especially because I
made it, but I've seen it withevery sport across the board.
They, they are getting theseyoung kids to do higher level
skills, for example, in mathbooks, your readers will make,
or your listeners willunderstand this.

(27:24):
We're getting kids learning aEurostep before they can do a
clean right and left hand layup.
So their, their, their motorprogram is built where they're
doing this Eurostep when that'snot the skill they need to learn
right now.
They need to be able to.
Fundamentally, go through a onefoot takeoff, a two foot stride

(27:44):
stop, or whatever it is we wantto do, and then be able to work
up from there.
A Eurostep is a great move.
It's an important move.
But that's not a basicfundamental initially.
We have to be able to do otherthings first.
So, something like that.
Now, let's take our world ofathleticism.
I spend a lot of time on thefundamental of seven patterns.

(28:05):
Seven patterns I want, and thenthe other...
abilities or skills or change ofdirection, which evolved
deceleration, reacceleration.
We add those to these sevenpatterns, and now we got an
athlete that can do pretty muchany movement.
And then when they go to theirsport, now they can make that
movement specific to the sport.

(28:26):
So, for example, my sevenpatterns, the two linear
acceleration and sprinting.
The two lateral shuffle andlateral run, the two retreating
or back pedal and hip turn, andthe one, uh, the seventh one is
the vertical jump, just jump.
Now, all of those have so manyvariations.

(28:46):
Just take jumping, gosh, you gotjumping and hopping and leaping
and, you know, twisting.
You got all these things.
But if my kids can do thosereally well, now I can start
coupling skills.
I could do a shuffle to alateral run.
To a stop in a 180.
Which I do in basketball all thetime.
That's denial defense tosomebody going back door on me.

(29:08):
I go from this shuffle to alateral run.
Cause I need more speed.
All of a sudden they beat me.
Now I get a one 80 and go chasethem.
Right?
So we get kids to be able to dothe fundamentals really well.
And what that does, and this iswhat a lot of young coaches now,
John, that are coming into ourfield don't understand is they,
they think by giving the kidsthe higher level, more advanced

(29:29):
skills early, they're going tohave more bandwidth, but it
actually shortens theirbandwidth.
If we give them really goodfundamentals.
Now they can do as much as theywant because they're building
the new skills off thefundamental.
That's the framework.
Drives me nuts to see, um, doingthese super high advanced
skills, but they don't know howto properly like locomote, you

(29:53):
know, forwards and backwards.
So yeah, so I'm big.
I mean, we could go into anyarea you want.
And I'm always going to say, ifI had the fundamentals now, I've
bought myself so much more realestate to grow it.
And that's so important.

Coach U (30:07):
I love all of that.
Um, it's, it is great.
Cause being in the coachingworld too, I've just seen so
many coaches.
I'm not saying they're skippingsteps.
It's just more like they want topush a little bit too much into
that realm of things where it'slike, have we even gotten down
our basic movement patterns?
Can you even balance on one leg?
Like, you know, and, and, andthen what do you think is going
to happen at high speed?

(30:29):
You know,

Lee Taft (30:30):
so the parents are like, Hey, they got tryouts in
two weeks.
Come on.
So what do we do to keep thempaying for service?
A lot of times we'll be like,okay, you know, we'll start
doing that when we know gutwell, it's not the right thing
to do, but you're also trying tofeed your family sometimes.
And so I, I completely get itwith, so it's almost like we

(30:52):
have to trick these athletessometimes into the, because you
can, you can, you can putlipstick on it, right?
You can make it look fancy andit's still fundamentals.
That's the art of coaching thatwe've learned.
Yeah.
Yeah,

Coach U (31:04):
it's like it's, I think it is one thing where it's like
we need that there are so manythings in the training world
that are tedious and I don'tlike doing.
I'm sure you don't like doingeither.
It's just part of training andour bodies don't always want to
do what we're being asked to do,but being able to manipulate,
you know, with, with the bestintentions of getting them to do
what they need to do in orderbecause we know the backside, we

(31:24):
know the other side of it.
If you don't do that.
So that's right.
I like that.
Um, I, I had, I wrote this oneout and it's so true.
I have a love hate thing withprogramming because it can, it
can be very fun.
It can be very fun, but it couldbe stressful, but it could be
exciting.
But when you learn so manythings and so you want to
implement stuff and you want totry stuff and it's like, what's

(31:45):
when, when's the right time todo it?
You know, when's the right timeto get away from the
fundamentals for a second?
Or how can we add on to thefundamentals?
Um, but that So that could bethe fun part.
The stressful part is, I think,redirecting.
You know, when you, when youwrite out a plan or a program,
and I don't think I've everwritten out a program that has
ever gone exactly how I'vewritten it out.
So, so, uh, what, what, uh, whatgoes into your programming and

(32:09):
how do you deal with things onthe fly?

Lee Taft (32:11):
Yeah, yeah, that, I'm telling you, when I was, when I
was young, this, this questionkilled me because...
That's so true.
It's like, uh, it's like beingback in school and doing
homework so I coach a basketballteam, and that's at least four
months of the season, and thenwe got some preseason, and then
offseason, it'll do some stuff,and I push the kids to do other

(32:34):
sports, that's part of my plan,but, but anyway, so what I try
to do is, I'll say, okay, I got,let me give an example, I got a
kid who joins with me, and theywant to train for a couple
months, two months, And I'llalways ask the kid in the past,
what's your goal?
What do you want to do?
And then I'll look at the kidand I'll say, okay, that's

(32:56):
possible or not possible withinthe two months.
And then I back up from there.
I'll say, okay, at the end ofthis, I want to see if we can
run a 20 yard, you know, faster,obviously, uh, I want the
starting speed to be better.
I want the acceleration to bebetter and I want the mechanics
to be more efficient.
So that we're just an efficientmove.

(33:18):
So now all of a sudden I cankind of periodize a program to
start building it.
I know, okay, I need strengthand why would I need strength?
Well, because they have tostart.
They got to start from astandstill.
Well, you need some strength andpower to do it.
So I'm going to periodize somestrength in there.
I need to make sure they havegood mechanical ability.

(33:38):
So how can I improve mechanics?
Well, there's a lot of ways Ican do that.
Video analysis, uh, bandedassist, uh, banded runs, where
they get to spend more timeunder tension, which slows down
the action, but it increases thepower output, and I can actually
work on their mechanics there.
Works really well.
And, and then there's going tobe some other things, like I
have to get the plyometrics inthere, because the plyometrics

(34:01):
are going to increase theelasticity.
So now my program has thesereally big, broad buckets.
And then I can just pull fromthose and write my program.
Alright, we're going to warm up,we're going to go through this,
but I'm going to make sure I hitthose key things to make sure in
two months we have a betterproduct than we started with.
And that's kind of what myprogram looks like right now.

(34:22):
And I have all the stuff and thesets and reps.
I put that stuff down.
But what I do more than anythingnow is I evolve from exercise to
exercise.
throughout the workout.
So let's say we're going to do,um, a, I'm going to work on five
yard accelerations from a crouchstart because I'm trying to get

(34:43):
them to be able to pushthemselves with a little bit
more power through space.
Okay.
So I started working on that andI noticed they're struggling.
With, um, balance and they'restruggling with being able to
express some distance on theirstride.
So what I do is I'll go add aband.
I'll put a lighter band aroundthem and make them push.

(35:04):
And what it does is it letstheir their peak power be
reached.
Every step.
Mm.
But when they're running withjust body weight, each step,
they accelerate faster and theycan't get their leg through fast
enough to get separation.
But when I have a band aroundthem, or if they ran up a a
hill, they get to push hardenough, multiple rests.

(35:28):
So that is on the fly.
I'm like, this just isn'tworking.
Let me try this.
And I do that with almost everyexercise I do and every workout,
you know, it's constantly theevolution of that particular
drill and how can I make itbetter so that we get the
results we want.

Coach U (35:45):
After hearing that answer, I'm going to clear, I'm
just going to clearly say that Ifeel so much better about my
coaching.
So much better.
It's true because like, youknow, it's hard, right?
There's this protocol to followThere's these principles to
follow and obviously principlesare gonna drive everything But
you have to be creative withwhat you're doing, you know in
not every athletes the sameMaybe that band doesn't

(36:07):
necessarily work for one athleteSo maybe I go to the front side
and have them push against methat way like, you know What
what can we do as coaches tohelp them?
Help that particular athlete infront of us to the best of their
capabilities, right?
And so you have to be creative

Lee Taft (36:20):
so you do and you know what?
Here's another thing that'sinterrupted But I think this is
a point and like so let's sayyou and I are coaching
basketball And I'm playing yourteam, and your team consistently
beats us backdoor, consistently.
Well, I'm a fool if I don'tadjust on the fly, right?

(36:41):
I gotta do something.
I gotta change my defense.
I gotta back my kids up a littlebit so they're not, you know,
they don't get beat on thebackdoor so easy.
I gotta put more pressure on theball.
So sport coaching needs to bestudied more by teachers up in
classrooms.
And teachers of strength andconditioning because we easily

(37:04):
see in sport where ifsomething's not going right, we
change like that, like we don'tforce it.
If something's not working, weimmediately change it.
We'll go to a different offenseor a different set play or a
different flow or whatever, adifferent out of bounds play,
right?
But in our field, sometimeswe're like, now it's kind of a
gun, now I'm going to make thisthing work.
And that's not the answer.

(37:24):
The answer is, can you be fluidand still accomplish the result
you want?
So that's why I love studyingsports, because we have to
adjust, otherwise the opponentgets the upper hand.
And if that's what makes this,you know, you beat me, I beat
you.
We, that's it.
We got to do the same thing intraining.

Coach U (37:42):
I like that.
I like that a lot.
That's, that's a, that's a goodpoint.
And it's not often thoughtabout.
I don't think in the coachingworld, cause it, you know, it's,
it's very rigid sometimes.
And, um, that's it.
Ridge

Lee Taft (37:52):
is a good word.
Sometimes we're too structuredwhen learning isn't structured.
Learning is a process oftripping and falling and getting
back up and keep doing thatuntil eventually you don't fall
as much.
You know, that's really what itis.

Coach U (38:05):
All right.
We're going to talk speed.
We, we have to, I can't bringyou on and not talk speed and
movement.
So let's do this, can you breakdown, uh, backside mechanics
versus frontside mechanics andgive me some of your favorite
drills that you love adding in,um, that obviously you can
spruce up if you want to, youknow, put your own touch on
them, but what do you like touse, uh, to help with that
frontside mechanic improvement?
Yeah, yeah,

Lee Taft (38:25):
certainly.
This is great.
So in sprinting.
One of the evils that we don'twant is this long backside
command, uh, commitment to thestride.
We don't want to get, we don'twant to hang out there.
Obviously we know we have to gothere, but it, but it should be
a result of momentum, notexertion.

(38:47):
So I shouldn't be purposelyextending my hip back and
pushing my foot way behind me.
When I'm sprinting, it should bethe result of striking the
ground hard as my leg comesthrough me moving over the earth
and my leg ends up behind mebecause that's, that's physics.
Right now, all of a sudden I'vegot to get that leg in front of

(39:09):
me.
So what we see with backsiderunners is we end up getting the
knee over flexes too long on thebackside in the bottom of the
feet.
So let's say the cleats.
Well, the spikes or the treadends up facing the sky for too
long and ends up, you know, somy foot goes way back and then

(39:32):
my shoelaces are facing theground and it puts up all of a
sudden, I've kind of lost somehamstring control.
I've lost the gastroc helping tocontract the knee to bring it
forward.
That's really important.
So now that's the backside whenI get stuck there, then what
happens?
I'm trying to bring thatforward, but because it got
stuck behind my front leg isalready struck the ground.

(39:54):
And I got this big gap betweenthe two legs, the two thigh
bones.
And because the other one'sback, that front leg comes
through, the back leg eventuallycomes forward, but because it
hung out on the backside solong, and my front leg is
already at mid stance, I neverget to the real good front side
mechanics.
I end up stepping down sooner,and we call that forward

(40:16):
rotation.
You start rolling forwardbecause my pelvis, everything
tips forward because I washanging it out on the backside.
If you and I are racing and youjust keep edging ahead of me
little by little and I can feelit and I start getting tight and
I start trying to push harder asI start to push harder.

(40:38):
I end up hanging out on thebackside.
What I should be doing.
Staying as relaxed as I can andlifting my knees quicker and
striking fast, pop, pop, pop,pop, get them up.
And now I become more frontsidemechanic, uh, mechanic based.
And I'm using the elasticitybetter versus sitting on the
ground longer trying to push.
That's what I need to do duringthe acceleration.

(41:00):
That was a long time ago.
I have to get out of that one.
So, so that's the backside.
Okay.
So we got this leg that hungout.
Now we're going to say, allright, let's change that.
Let's let's, I don't want myathletes to do that.
How can I do that in maxvelocity sprinting?
Well, I could say it till I'mblue in the face, or I could
give them exercises that startto Uh, bring that response to

(41:23):
life.
One of the ways I like to do itis we'll, we'll run over cones
or, or little hurdles, we callthem wicket runs.
And what, what that does is thatintuitively tells the athlete, I
better not trip over this cone.
Come, so I'm going to lift myleg really fast.
And if we, if we, um.
Uh, uh, position the cones atthe right distance and it takes

(41:45):
a little bit of work, but onceyou get them there, the athletes
just start to get to the frontside so fast because, and I only
use, you know, like six inchcones because I don't want them
running like they're runningthrough deep water.
I don't want to overemphasize,right?
And that all of a sudden.
Cues them externally, right?

(42:06):
Or internally, I should say, butthe external driver is the cone
and now they immediately get thefront and they don't they don't
hang out on the backside.
Now, the other way I could doit, John, is I could say, Hey,
guys, we're going to do a skips.
We're going to do high knees ata fast tempo, or we're going to
do, uh, a skips or somethinglike that.
And that starts to bring them tothe front side, but I still have

(42:29):
to teach them to do it at fullspeed.
That's where the wickets comein.
The wickets start that.
So yeah, that gets them there.
So those are a couple of waysthat we can really work on that
to get in it.
I have watched my own kids, myown daughters and sons improve
drastically, but hundreds ofathletes over the years of being
a track coach.
football and basketball.
My basketball team goes throughmy sprint program.

(42:50):
They've gotten so much better atit because we do it over and
over and

Coach U (42:54):
over.
Over and over and over.
I love hearing that too, becauseit is, you have to drill it.
It's a motor control thing.
I don't even think becausespeed.
Okay.
So, and that was one of myquestions is.
What is speed?
What actually makes speed?
Because it's not just strength.
It's not just power.
It's not just the ability to,you know, have core control.
It's a mixture of stuff.
So, what are, you know, what arethe biggest things that go into

(43:15):
building, uh, somebody for morespeed?

Lee Taft (43:18):
Yeah.
So, all the things youmentioned.
One of them, one of them isestablishing really good
coordination of the nervoussystem, which, you know, a
little bit sciencey here, butkind of like, you know,
contraction modes of being ableto contract and relax really
quick, which is coordination,inter and intramuscular
coordination.

(43:39):
So, and that's why you said.
We got to swing the golf club ata high rate of speed because
we're trying to tell the nervoussystem.
This is ultimately where I wantto be.
I'll fix the rest after that.
Well, speed is like that.
If you train speed sub maximal,you're going to get good at

(43:59):
running sub maximal.
And then when you try to go fullspeed or you need to, you're
just not going to have thecoordination and the nervous
system is wired to shut you downwhen it feels unsafe.
So the more I get to thosemaximal speeds, the more the
body says, Okay, I can do thatnow.

(44:20):
I'm getting better.
I can coordinate and shut thingsoff and turn them on.
And I could use the elasticenergy better.
I can Use your Achilles tendonbetter and you know all these
functions that have to occur andthen if you give me some
strength Okay, now I'm justworking with a bigger engine,
you know, yeah, but it's thecoordination that really has to
be developed That's the divider.

(44:41):
Oh Even when I've had littlekids that aren't real fast But
we did things fast all the timethey all they get faster because
their nervous system thirsty forit.
They want it.

Coach U (44:50):
Yeah, yeah No, that's uh, let's say you see a kid over
striding, but they're goingsuper fast All right.
So is this and then obviouslythis is where the wickets can
come in and play But you knowover striding is essentially
what we talked about earlierwith backside mechanics versus
that front side, right?
So the, you know, having a drilllike the wickets, being able to
get them to do that over andover again, building it at a
fast pace, I see that.

(45:11):
So, when you set up your wicketsactually, uh, when it's a little
play, you have to play with thedistance and stuff, what are you
looking for when you do set that

Lee Taft (45:17):
up?
Yep, for distance you mean?
Yeah.
Yeah, so if I'm working withyoung kids, it's about four feet
to four feet.
And then middle school, goodathlete, you know, age, about
five feet.
Four and a half to five feet,and then, and then we go to the
older kids anywhere five and ahalf to six feet, and then I
adjust accordingly, and the,the, here's the mistake a lot of

(45:41):
coaches make when they put themout is.
Let's say you're going to go sixfeet.
Well, they'll start the firstones at six feet, all the way to
the last ones at six feet, whichis fine if you give them a build
up.
Right.
You got to give them at least 15meters, 20 meters, because they
have to be at the speed thatthey can handle those.

(46:02):
Some of them will start at liketwo feet in front of it as they
go.
Right, yeah, you can't do that.
Well, the first two look like atriple jump.
You know, they're trying to getover it.
They don't have any momentumyet.
So you got to make sure youbuild it up.
Now, if you're going to startthem close, have your first ones
be three feet, and then threeand a half, and then four, four

(46:22):
and a half, five, and theneventually they'll get out to
that length.
But you can't start them at thedistance you want, unless you
give them a big build up, andthey got to get a high speed.
So, so that's how I do it, andI'm honest about this.
I, so I helped coach track thisyear, because they started a
club.
Next year will be an actualsanctioned program, but the
first year you have a club.

(46:42):
And so they wanted me to help.
So I helped and I did all thesprinters and jumpers and
everybody.
And we did wickets a lot.
And every single day, every timeI did them, it was constantly
adjusting.
This one has to go like anothersix inch and this one moving.
So you just got to be willing toadjust to it.
And that's just part of thedeal.
If you're going to use them,because if you use them and the

(47:03):
kids aren't fast enough, you'rejust feeding over striding,
you're feeding them, having toomuch of a cast.
of the lower leg and then theyland on their heel and then they
roll and then they're stuck onthe back side again.
So I just, so you got, I'drather it be too short than too
long because at least if it'sshort, they go pop, pop, pop,

(47:24):
pop, pop real quick and that's,that's better than the over
stride.

Coach U (47:28):
When you're talking about, um, speed in general, and
we're talking aboutacceleration, then top end
speed, what are the thingsyou're looking for on the
acceleration?
You know, why is theacceleration so important for
kids to work on or just evenathletes in general?

Lee Taft (47:41):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So we, we want to make sure thekids have a separation of limbs.
So first, because in mostsports, the first step is
critical, but that gets me to a50, 50 ball, at least gives me
leverage.
So if I have separation oflimbs, meaning, My arms get away
from each other, my legs getaway from each other, that is

(48:02):
helping me change inertia.
It's helping me go from astandstill to moving, and in
order to do that, I have to putmore force into the ground
longer.
And if I don't separate my limbslong enough, I end up picking
them off the ground and movingthem forward before I finish my
push.
It'd be like doing a verticaljump, but don't ever straighten
your knees out or your hips, youknow, you gotta stay bent.

(48:23):
You gotta finish it.
So we need to make sure we seethat.
The other, a couple of cues thatI give them to help them
understand angle of running is Ialways tell them, uh, win the
race with your shoulders.
Or, you know, chase yourshoulder.
It says a QIU.
Chase your shoulder, then theyunderstand.
Okay, my shoulders have to be infront.
The other one is, I always tellthem, have your pinky about

(48:46):
shoulder blade height on thefirst and second arm action.
So they separate my front hand,that thumb comes up around my
collarbone to my jaw, somewherethere pretty tight.
But I want that pinky at leastat shoulder blade height, if not
higher.
Now I know I'm encouragingseparation, and if my arms
separate, my legs will separate.

(49:07):
Um, and then they start moving,and then I tell them, I want
your first steps to be prettylow to the ground, and then we
start driving a little higher,because I think it's like,
correct me if I'm wrong, but Ithink it's something like, Every
step.
It's about six degrees, sevendegrees.
We come up.
Then all of a sudden, I wantthem to go from this kind of

(49:29):
this push mode to punch mode.
Because push just sounds longer.
Acceleration sounds longer.
As we're sprinting.
You know, now we get into this,you know, step, step, step,
step.
And so we start talking aboutthat and then we, you know, we
break down the mechanics and thearm action and all that stuff to
which we thought when we werelittle kids.

(49:50):
So, yeah, and kind of keepingit, uh, keeping it just don't
let it cross the midline.
If it does, it can't do it verymuch.
It's gotta be a little bit, butit does have to go towards the
midline if we wanna load thesystem correctly.

Coach U (50:03):
Are you good with me pulling up my screen and putting
up uh, me sprinting on here?
Got it.
Cool.
so let's let's just go i'm goingto start this here so you can
see Let and let me know if youmean to pause it rewind it But
you know you're watching whatare you watching for here and
i'll bring it back to this spot.
Let's say right

Lee Taft (50:20):
Okay, so I can kind of see the other hand so I saw the
elbow come up, which is good Sowe're starting to get separation
right and I want to see that Iwant to see a little bit longer
back Uh, back arm action becauseit had, that's your right arm
because I wanted to match thelength of the left leg or as
close as possible.

(50:40):
I see.
Yeah, because joint segments,oppositional joint segments,
right arm, left leg, twodifferent joints, but they're
coordinating together.
So the force output, those twoare working together.
Now.
On the other side, if younotice, you're at 90 degrees on
your left elbow right now, andyou're about 90 degrees in your

(51:04):
left leg, your knee, okay?
I would want you to be a littlebit more collapsed.
Um, the left elbow.
So you're a little bit tighter.
So that arm is almost thatthumbs coming in closer to your
collarbone.
And the reason why is now youcan throw that thing down and
back to bring the left legthrough on the next step.

(51:25):
So right now you Yep.
So your shin there.
That's pretty good.
Now right there.
If we look at where your leftshin is, a little bit vertical,
too vertical, okay?
A little bit, maybe your body'sa little bit upright, and that's
why, okay?
Uh, in that position, which isnot uncommon at all.

(51:48):
We're not elite sprinters, so,so right there,

Coach U (51:51):
what we I was hoping I was, Lee.
I was hoping so badly I was.

Lee Taft (51:56):
What we want to see is a scissors action of that left
quadricep, And the rightquadriceps starting to come
towards each other sooner,because as you go ahead and
creep it, creep it forward alittle bit, right there.
Okay.
So now as you're coming forward,keep going until you hit ground,

(52:17):
like right there.
Okay.
So now you're touching ground.
So you're getting better.
And you're, you're actuallygetting the front side pretty
quick there.
We want to see that right kneepretty close to the same or in
front.
Um, the other knee because whatthat does is that accentuates
the power output and thecoordination.
It doesn't keep you on thebackside.

(52:38):
You're actually pretty good onthis right here.
And then, um, so go ahead.
Yep.
So this right arm, excuse me,the left arm right there, just
if it collapses just a littlemore, I wouldn't be.

Coach U (52:52):
When you say collapse, you're talking about that hand
getting a little tighter in,yeah?
So a little less of a 90 degree,more of a, we're trying to get
almost, not necessarily zero,but let's say like 10 15 degrees
with the arm.

Lee Taft (53:03):
Yeah, and here's why.
And this is if we're being, solike, let's say you were, let's
say you were a...
Volleyball player.
I don't care if your arm isthere or back, but if we're
going to, if you and I want totalk shot about acceleration,
then we can get into the weeds alittle bit here.
And that's the fun part.
But, you know, I want listenersto understand.

(53:24):
Don't go nuts if your 10 yearold doesn't have perfect, you
know, Usain Bolt arm action.
We're not worried about that.
But here's why, though.
This is the fun part.
The angle that you have rightnow, which is just about 90, a
little, maybe about 87 degreesin that range right there.
Well, because that arm is goingto have a certain speed to come

(53:47):
out of that, your right leg hasto match it.
That's coordination.
So your right knee won't bend asmuch if your arm doesn't bend as
much.
Okay.
And so if you want to collapsethe knee joint a little more,
Then we need to make sure thatwe help, help that with the
elbow because they worktogether.

(54:09):
See how they're both open?

Coach U (54:11):
Yeah, I'm going to rewind that so you can kind of,
yeah, but what do you see inhere when you say open, what

Lee Taft (54:16):
do you see?
So your left arm is open.
Your right leg is open.
Now your left arm is kind ofopen and then the right.
So that what I mean by open isthey're not, the joint isn't
collapsing.
They're staying open.
Which sometimes makes the foot alittle bit vertical, but you
actually do like your shadow.
Deceives us a little bit becauseit looks like you're closer to

(54:38):
the ground and you're not sureyou actually do a good job of
punching down and back as you go

Coach U (54:44):
and can you talk about that punching?
Because that's something I oftentalk about with my kids, you
know, and the athletes I workwith is get that punch down and
back because a lot of people winthat over stride.
It's almost like they're tryingto get ahead so fast, right?
And I think that's kind of whatyou're talking about.
If you watch that left knee andit's a little vertical that
shin, right?
That's what you're talking aboutis where we kind of lose that
ability to punch down and backright when we're in that

(55:05):
acceleration phase.

Lee Taft (55:06):
Exactly, exactly.
And so being able to drive downand back on your first two to
three steps especially is how webuy the later race.
Or the later acceleration for a50, 50 ball or whatever.
If I were to over stride inthese first couple of steps and
be flat footed or on my heel, insome cases, I've lost all the

(55:31):
leverage of being faster lateron.
Right.
And that, so it's, it'simportant that we drive down and
back and we do that by stayingcloser to the ground early on
and having quick, quick armactions on the front side.
Getting to this side and thenbeing able to throw the hand
down.
So if you watch your left handhere, when you go through this

(55:53):
action, what we can see herewith the right.
Your right is going to open uplook at your elbow almost as
straight.
You can't see it on that sideIt's it's going to be virtually
straight right there right thereIt's trying to match your right
knee joint

Coach U (56:11):
and that angle that the body's in right exactly I think
that's something that has reallystuck out to me too is just the
to keep the body straight and inline, but it's a smooth
violence.
Like you have to be smooth.
You have to be violent.
What's really

Lee Taft (56:27):
good that you do is you intuitively dorsiflex
because of the effort you'reputting in.
So look at your back foot comeoff the ground, that left foot
comes off, yep, so right thereyou push and then watch it,
watch it reflexively dorsiflexright there and then it comes
right into it.
Now you're dorsiflexing as youpull, which helps you collapse.

(56:50):
You're in the figure fourposition.
Collapse, and now look at yoursetup to be a spring.
When you strike

Coach U (56:57):
right there, right?
And that's something we talkabout a lot too, is the heel
strike.
You know, do you hit, you know,you're not supposed to heel
strike.
You are supposed to heel strike.
You hit the, what are we talkingabout here?
What, what, what it, so can youtalk about that a little bit?
Yeah.

Lee Taft (57:08):
So hitting the heel isn't wrong if the heel doesn't
hit first.
So if I come down, so if I wereto see your left leg come
forward again, so go ahead andgo forward and I'll tell you
when to stop it.
Let it go until it's just aboutcasting.
Okay, right there.
You can see right there.
You're going to land on theouter upper third of your foot.

(57:32):
Okay, that that's supination.
We want that because then it'sgoing to roll into pronation,
but watch your heel So you cansee even though we're not Right
up.
We can tell your heel probablytapped the ground.
You can see that it struckbecause you were in such good
position leading up to theground strike, like you're in a
good position, you're on thatoutside, now it strikes, and

(57:54):
when you get the pronation, onceyou strike the ground, having
the heel touch actually acts asa little bit of a spring, and
we're not talking about puttinga ton of weight on it, it just
helps the whole kinetic chain,because the talus, everything
goes from external to internalrotation.
moves the tibia.
It moves up the chain.

(58:15):
If you were only on the ball ofyour foot all the time, I would
suspect you'd probably have somekind of tendonitis or plantar
fasciitis.
For sure.
Yeah, right now you're usingsome really good massaging
through that whole joint system.
But look at your right leg, thatright there, that's good
position.
Now you're going to pull overthat foot.

(58:37):
And then you'll come down intothat position right there.
Yeah, so it really really Andnow because you're putting your
brakes on you go to your heelfirst, which is actually really
important As you start slowingdown you should be on the heel.

Coach U (58:50):
I love that No, thank you for doing that That's that's
just fun to see and like I thinkit gives a visualization to
people too because i'm gonna putthis up on youtube So people can
watch and go like oh, that'swhat we're talking about when
we're talking about front sideback side

Lee Taft (59:00):
Great questions.
Really good flow.
It was really good.
And having that video analysis,I think it's just a lot of fun.
You know, it's just, uh, yeah,yeah, yeah.
It really

Coach U (59:10):
is.
I love bringing people togetherto learn and talk shop and just
to, you know, communicate.

Lee Taft (59:17):
So that's the evolution, right?
That's the evolution of thecoach.
You go from being taught.
To teaching students andathletes to eventually want to
help teach coaches and sharewhat you learn.
That's the evolution.

Coach U (59:29):
Oh, I'm on the right path and I like that.
Yeah.
Like that.
Uh, Lee, thank, uh, real quick.
I just want to make sure thatyou, I have your links.
I'll put the links in.
The, uh, the show notes andeverything, but I wanted you
just to give a second.
Hey, where can people reach outto you?
Where can people find out aboutwhat you're offering?

Lee Taft (59:45):
I appreciate that.
Well, if they go to at leetaft.
com, they pretty much find me onsocial media.
I'm pretty active on there.
I I'm really big on engagementand trying to change our youth
development.
And so they can find me there.
If they go to leetaft.
com, that's kind of themothership of all our.
you know, courses and stuff.
And then if they're a basketballperson, we have a pretty neat

(01:00:07):
course we did, um, at basketballspeed specialist.
com.
And that's a lot about what wetalked about and a lot about
language and teaching and how todo it.
So it's, yeah, it's pretty fun.
So, but thank you.

Coach U (01:00:19):
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Uh, Lee, thank you so much forjoining today.
I'm going to make sure you getthis out this episode out,
People are going to be learning.
I'm going to have them withtheir pens.
They're going to be writingthese things down and hopefully
they'll be reaching out to youand learn more from you as well.

Lee Taft (01:00:31):
Awesome.
Thanks so much, John.
You do a great job.

Coach U (01:00:33):
Thanks Lee.
Appreciate it.