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Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: This was one of my favorite podcasts and conversations that I have had in a very long time. And so we have Troy Jones with us joining today for the podcast. And Troy is the preeminent speed coach in America. He has worked with literally the world's absolute best athletes and made them even better. And we're talking about a range of sports from NHL, NFL now newly into the MLB. And we get into that a little bit as well. And what he's gonna teach you is very specific drills, a very specific mindset that one should have when trying to make your athletes faster. And really the ability to gain buy-in with your patient regardless of level, whether they be amateur athlete, all the way, obviously to the highest levels of the pros. Troy got his start here in Baltimore, and if you've rehabbed an athlete in Baltimore, you have rehabbed an athlete that has been touched by the knowledge of Troy Jones.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: And so whether he was training them years and years ago when his home base was Baltimore, or whether their trainer studied under Troy, there is most likely a very high chance that Troy Jones had an impact on the athletic development of nearly every single athlete in this area. And now he's moved down to a house of athlete down in Western Florida where he is in charge of their entire speed and development programming. And they work with the NFL's brightest athletes, the absolute best athletes on the planet. He works with professional fighters and like I mentioned, into the NHL and to baseball. And he brings a very unique outlook as to how to structure a program, how to really dive into the nuances of every single drill. And you're gonna hear all of that and way more in this coming podcast. So I'm really excited to hear from everyone what they loved, what they thought we could have done better.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: As always, you can reach me yoni, Y-O-N-I @truesportspt.com. And that's whether you want to join us at True Sports as a sports physical therapist. We're always looking for the brightest and the best, or you just wanna let me know what you think about the pod, what I could do better or what you want me to double down on. You can also reach us on Instagram @Truesportspt. Always looking for feedback, always looking to grow, always looking to improve. You can also shoot Troy Jones a DM. He's at Coach Troy Jones on Instagram. You can also find them online @coachtroyjones.com. Easy enough. So make sure you reach out to him. So much to learn. Look forward to hearing from you guys. Hope this makes you a little bit better clinician. And without further ado, here is Troy Jones.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Welcome back to the True Sports Physical Therapy Podcast. Every once in a while I do a pod like this and I'm star struck by the guy sitting across from me. So I'm excited to have Troy Jones with us. Troy is speed coach, performance coach, strength coach, to the world's absolute best athletes. That is not the way you would describe yourself, that's the way I'm describing you.
Troy Jones: Really should open my ego.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah, I'm trying, I'm trying. I'm also telling you to talk into that mic. Get closer to talking into that mic. Okay. Here's what I wanna start with 'cause I wanna dive right in 'cause your time is super valuable and all the sports PTs that are listening here, time is super valuable. I think as a profession, sports physical therapists struggle with the very specific question that I'm about to ask you. And that is how do you teach speed?
Troy Jones: Good question. One... First, in order to teach speed, you have to understand the speed is a skill. You hear all the cliches that were born fast and we have certain abilities and yeah, there's some merit to that, there's a lot of truth to that, but there's always room for improvement. And you get an app, you like to use a number, system one, two, and three. You can get a one to a two, you can get a two to a three. But there is a way to improve that. But it begins with first and foremost of just exposing what that athletes are weak at and then the realm of how they function and how they apply force. What are their strengths, what are their weaknesses and what do you expose them to when you identify those issues? And one of the things that helps me the most to answer your questions is our assessment protocols is that simple.
Troy Jones: What we assess for and in the very beginning begins to dictate our plan on how we introduce that athlete to where his weaknesses are, whether it's acceleration, whether it's transition, whether it's max velocity. And then we stay within that bucket once we find that exposure, or once we find that issue and expose them to that more often than the traditional three times a week, this is what we stay in that model. We stay within the model we give them, let's say for example, we give a guy mass velocity or if we do a short to long program where we start acceleration and early on in the week transition in the middle of the week and max velocity towards the end, we might say, okay, let's expose them to two acceleration models or two acceleration days in one max V just so he can be exposed to what he needs to improve on. So basically finding out and identifying where their issues are and then developing a plan around it. Just that simple. But just making sure your assessment protocols are up to speed to solve that problem.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Okay, great answer. Because it sounds like you get super specific.
Troy Jones: Yes.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: With the way you approach training these athletes and the way you approach just making them better. So I love to hear that 'cause we'd much rather be a sniper than a carpet bomber.
Troy Jones: Absolutely.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Now you broke up speed into kind of three different phases.
Troy Jones: Yes.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Talk to me about those, break those down for me.
Troy Jones: To simplify everything for me. I do things in threes. Okay. Always done that way because I try to be assembled to it as much as I possibly can. So when I look at speed, and let's look at the 40 as a model and being able to teach that, 'cause that's the quote unquote the sexy thing that everybody likes to talk about. So...
Troy Jones: Understanding first and foremost, the phases that occur within the 40 yard dashes, early acceleration, transition and Max V, but then determining how long do you stay in each phase based on the athlete's abilities of what they like to do. If you have a Max velocity guy that really likes to get up and cycle, then you have to say, I need to expose this guy the more of horizontal forces being able to generate force that needs to also transfer into the weight room to fit that dynamic or fit that what he needs to be exposed to based on what the force velocity curve is.
Troy Jones: So when and how we, and this might be getting ahead of everything, but how we, first and foremost, remember I said we determine on our assessment based on what type of force, what type of natural forces does this athlete generate and how does he generate force? We use acceleration profiling. So when we start seeing, okay, this guy needs more transition work to me was transition work is power. So how well does he produce power which is speed, you know, what speed he was velocity, so on and so on. I wanna get into that.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Get into whatever you want. I told, you got an educated audience, but you've an educated audience. I'd say more strength and conditioning, I'd say more rehab. I think this speed world is where we're lacking. And I'll, pull it outta you and really just educate me because God knows I'm here to learn. And this was a massive missing game in my rehab repertoire. Like I didn't know the speed mechanics, I didn't know how to teach speed. And I'm still trying to learn that we don't get that in graduate school. So, dig in is what I'm saying. So you have, just to kind of circle back, you got these three phases. You have acceleration, transition, Max velocity. Right. And so you're putting through these athletes through an assessment and you're gonna determine, Hey, where does my guy like to live? And wherever he likes to live, I'm gonna fill in the gaps and say...
Troy Jones: Correct.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Okay.
Troy Jones: That's a great analogy.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: And say, so he's a Max V guy. I'm gonna put him into, I want to, I gotta work on his transition. Here's how I'm gonna work on his transition. Or, what his ACL, the beginning acceleration phase, that sucked. Let me live there. Okay. So we can bring them all up to par. Okay. So you don't have force plates. There was a time Troy, you look like you've been training for a little bit.
Troy Jones: Yeah, we trained 30 years. There was [laughter] That was some time, had none of this stuff back then.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Okay. So, let's say 15 years ago, you're working up in Baltimore, which is how I know you don't have all these bells and whistles of house of athlete. How do you identify where an athlete wants to live and where you can fill in the gaps?
Troy Jones: Stopwatch is our best friend and our eyes, what we saw and how we begin to break dance based on what we would see and video. So we would video and we would do tests. Our tests were maybe short acceleration tests of 10 yards. We would use a stopwatch, we test them in, flying tens for Max velocity. And then when we would, after we look at those times and we look at where we'll see if he's weak in that first 10, where would, if need to focus on that, where within that first 10, where would the focus actually be? Is it early accel? Because early accel for me is the first three steps transition. When you start getting from steps three to 10 to me is transition. When I begin to lay out that athlete's progression over the course of eight weeks, the stopwatch would be my best friend in documenting my times to make sure I'm progressing him in the right direction.
Troy Jones: If his Max velocity time was off the chart, I would spend more time in the weight room and on the field in that weakness of either transition or Max V. And it was that simple, we just made sure we use spreadsheets, we use the stopwatch, we use the video and we try to keep our focus on effective in standpoint and where we go see it. The effective minimal dose where we don't want to fatigue an athlete. 'Cause if an athlete will hit his best time, if you hit a PR, let's save. If a guy is short accel and we're working tens and I say, okay, you got six tens. I want you to come in at this time. I don't want you to come in super fast. I don't want you to come in this slow. If you ran a 159, I want you to work on coming in between 155 and 157.
Troy Jones: That's what we wanna hit today. And I'm try to run any faster than that because I want rhythm. I'm trying to develop rhythm and rise in that process as well. So I don't want you to be outta control and try to run as fast as you can because the effort meter matters to me. Athletes who try to run past 90% effort gets tight and they shorten that ranges of motion. So in that regards to using the stopwatch and the time helps me regulate and control the effort that they're using to hit the goal. Once they hit those goals, workout's done. So if I hit 156, 155, if I hit that two or three times, I don't need six reps or multiple sets to hit it. I've already accomplished it at that point now we're going into something else that I compliment. We're going just getting in and out of our stance to working on first step exposure.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Okay. So that makes a lot of sense to me. 'Cause you're talking about, "Hey, I've achieved my goals," let's fill in the gaps elsewhere. Once you've achieved your goals, that's for the acceleration phase. Give me a little more, specificity of you. If you can't say to an athlete, I need you to run a 156, or 157. If they cannot do that, if you're coaching me, I obviously can't make those numbers right. How do you improve my acceleration? Give me some drills.
Troy Jones: Oh, absolutely. That's a different topic getting in the drills and concepts, again, that's a part of the buckets when we begin to isolate those athletes. And I'll go into a little bit deeper on how I actually look at it. There's three ways in my book to get fast. There's projection, they're switching, which is limb exchange. Limb exchange and air stiffness. Okay. Those concepts fit both vertically and horizontally, which is acceleration and max velocity. So if I get, if an athlete has a projection issue, then I'm going to, which usually tells me he doesn't start very well. Okay, then I'm going to introduce projection drills, those fits those concepts.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: And projection you're defining as what? Horizontal?
Troy Jones: Initial. So now when we get into projection, once I identify what those issues are, then I need to figure out exactly why he's not projecting well. I have to eliminate first and foremost, this is a strength issue. Okay. 'Cause he needs to be exposed to heavier loads in the weight room so you can learn the project his hip and dry, be able to use the ground to push. Okay. The second thing.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Hold on. Define the word projection for me.
Troy Jones: So Projection is intent in the direction that you're trying to go.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: It's like I'm talking to a textbook. Okay. [laughter] Love that. Okay, so makes a lot of sense. Intent in the direction, which I'm trying to go, I'm trying to go forward. How can... How successful or skilled am I at producing force?
Troy Jones: Horizontally.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Horizontally.
Troy Jones: Forward.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Forward.
Troy Jones: So in regards to projection, the first thing you have to think about, not only because projection is also carries over the max velocity 'cause we want to go vertical, but in initial acceleration it is horizontal. And then you have to add on that step of orientation. So it really, you wanna go forward before we go 'cause you'll gradually rise. Remember I said rhythm and rise. So when you initially push and project your hips, you have to go forward to get to that 45° angle. So I have to teach them how to roll that hip over that knee and roll that knee over that big toe to drop that shin ankle so they can drive out and up to the 45° angle. That's what the proper projection angle and the initial start should look like.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Okay. That makes total sense. What are the few barriers that people face to reaching a high level of projection or the ability to produce force horizontally.
Troy Jones: Trunk stability. A lot of times athletes don't have the core strength or understand what type of core strength to, use to fix that issue. A lot of coaches don't. To me when you, I'm thinking horizontal force. I'm thinking anti-rotation, I wanna minimize rotation. I don't wanna... 'Cause a lot of times people overextend 'cause everybody's, remember the keyword in our industry when everybody's teaching speed is push, push, push, push, push.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah.
Troy Jones: So you get these athletes are over pushing but they forget that they gotta retract and pull that leg back. So once you initially hit that ground with a maximum force, you have to then pull that leg back. A lot of 'em get so preoccupied by pushing it, they over push and then they causes a over rotation because they're overextended and they get stuck back side. So being able to control your torso and your trunk and keep the course stable, as you begin to push those forces transfer, then you have better control, which gives you the ability to switch and retract.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Makes a lot of sense. So now, you have a stable base, you have a stable core, you have a stable whole upper half. If that sucker's applied appropriately, by the way, that's gonna allow you to maintain that forwardly...
Troy Jones: That projection.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: And that projection.
Troy Jones: Yes.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: And so that's gonna let you start to work on turnover.
Troy Jones: Correct.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Underneath to increase your force.
Troy Jones: Yes.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Okay. How do you test for that? Hey they got a weak cord, they got too much rotation that's causing 'em to maybe rise too early or inability to keep that angle appropriately? How do you test like Yep, they're weak there.
Troy Jones: So while breaking down film and when we're looking at film, I remember I told you there's three aspects that we look at. We try to keep everything simplified into is projection orientation and switch our projection switching and stiffness. So I look at their ability to exchange their limbs and if there are stuck backside because they're late in their switch, I need to figure out why. And a lot of times people are stuck backside. One I told you we overextend two that overextension is usually because they lack pelvic control. And when I say core and trunk stability, is that there, I tie that pelvis into the upper trunk as one unit. If they don't have control of that pelvis, usually that's gonna have what we call a high backside score where they're gonna spend a lot of time stuck backside and lose that ability to retract. So the first and foremost, we gotta be able to get control of your pelvis and if you get control of your pelvis, then your cord's stable and you know what that feels like. The stronger and stable you are, the more, the better you're gonna transport that... Transfer that force, the better your projection is gonna be, the easier it's gonna be for you to retract that leg from the backside of underneath you and then be repetitive within that action.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Faster you're gonna be.
Troy Jones: The faster you're gonna go.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Okay, where the hell was this when I was in high school? Okay. So [laughter] as if that would've made the difference. So, and just to clarify, when you say getting stuck backside, go ahead and define that for me.
Troy Jones: So that means that backside heel we don't... We as soon as you driving first, and I don't wanna get ahead of where we at, but when you hit that ground and first thing foremost, you wanna be working down and back behind you. So you are okay having room to hit underneath your center mass, but we prefer you to hit slightly back behind your center mass in the initial projection and acceleration. And it's a lot of times you see a lot of people trying to... And I used to be guilty of this, where you're teaching bounding and then transferring bounding over to acceleration and that's not necessarily what's happening and they get stuck in trying to repeat that or you or mimic that same motion in real time sprinting. So what happens is they spend less time on the ground pushing to where an acceleration early max, early acceleration, you just wanna spend more time on the ground, less time in the air.
Troy Jones: And then they're starting to bound and then initial push they get kind of lost and stuck because they get this extra unnecessary airtime and then their legs and the heel where the path of what and within your retraction the heel goes up instead of initially coming forward. We like to tell our athletes to... I always want to think of your hip, your knee and your heel coming forward the path is what matters. And within that path, to me that's what separates the fastest athletes in the world. It's not necessarily always what's happening on the ground, it's the path, what's happening in the air and that one being stuck backside that interferes with the natural path of acceleration where the hip fires to go forward. Then the knee travels now as the heels coming forward, it's actually coming up as it loads back behind the hamstringing to come forward and then back down at its Crosspoint, which is usually at the knee. That path in the air is what separates the fastest athletes in the world and they can get consistent with that. That's when you begin to see the difference and you see there times begin to come.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Love that. Okay. So, I heard an error that people would make would be giving an athlete a bounding drill. 'cause that's gonna, first of all, that's gonna play with their projection, it's gonna change that orientation. They become far more vertical, whereas you're trying to work on acceleration, which is far more horizontal.
Troy Jones: Correct.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Did it, was I right?
Troy Jones: That's right, 100%. 'cause bounding is about generating forces.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yep.
Troy Jones: Okay. It's a power drill.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yep.
Troy Jones: Power is more, like I told you to me, identify that in transition.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Transition.
Troy Jones: That's the difference. But the early acceleration is not necessarily what's happening, but we use that as a tool. So to me, using resistance to help you get a better angle, creates a better environment for acceleration. That's when you start, you getting your sled play, your 10-80, your harness resistance sprints. It gets you into the angle so you can work on that path that you utilize in early acceleration.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Love that. Okay. Wall drills show up here.
Troy Jones: Wall drills show up as well because before we unload the athlete, we like to get into the wall, which helps you, which unloads the athlete to a point to where they can find that angle and work and identify that path. You see, a lot of times you see people do wall drills. They're not done correctly.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: They're so Vertical.
Troy Jones: Yeah, they're too vertical. There's not enough stability being talked about or encouraged. There's no stiffness at ground contact. And wonder for primarily more than anything else, you should be holding the wall up and the wall shouldn't be holding you up and everybody's just kind of just leaning on the walls. It's become a drill that it saddens me when I look on the internet and see what's going on. But it's such a useful tool if done right. So we do a lot of our wall drills now in sleds. So we use the sleds, because it allows us to now push our torso through instead of the wall being restricted. So we can work on vertical projection. We also can work on hards on that. We're working at just, for example, we're targeting just the hips. I'll use the wall and I'll keep them to a 40 and cite 45 degree angle.
Troy Jones: But I'm not worrying about projection and direction. I'm more so worrying about driving the hips and feeling torque being created around the hips to get to that point to where they feel when it's time to exchange. Torque is a big word. Big word that we're using more. It's something that I stumbled in years ago and I always used to keep it to myself. Now science is kind of caught onto to it. Again, that goes back to what's happening in the air. Because if I can create enough tension called the TAV thigh angle of velocity, that's the new science behind it. But back then we didn't have no terms behind it. Meaning if I can be a hammer in the air and hit down with more force from above, I'm gonna generate more force on the ground. So if I get more torque from above, I'm going to hammer down and hit the ground harder, which is gonna generate me more of a, generate more velocity and momentum in the direction that I want to go.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah. Okay. So that makes a ton of sense. Now when you're talking early acceleration, and this will be the last piece that we'd live in this phase. You're talking early acceleration, those first three steps. You're trying to live as horizontal as possible. You're looking for one fault might be lack of core control. What else could be a fault that is transpiring and preventing you?
Troy Jones: Well, let's take it back. Let's go back to what I initially looked at from the beginning, stance and starts. So being able to be able to push off and project your center mass as far as possible in the shortest amount of time possible. So that has to be a very aggressive initial push. A lot of athletes have to learn and understand what that feels like. They're not aware that they're not pushing, pushing. You'd be surprised. 'cause you know, people when they think about speed, a lot of athletes think about frequency. All they wanna do is move their legs and arms fast and just spin, spin, spin, spin, spinning and realizing that they're spinning. So initial push is, and moving your center mass forward is the first thing we focus on. Once you get into your stance, sometimes we start that on a kneeling concept, one knee, just to get that, what that ankle feels like to set up and being able to roll forward.
Troy Jones: Remember I said you have to roll that forward. I call that a hip drop, shin drop. Being able to get into that initial orientation. 'cause that will take you forward. If you don't roll that forward, you're gonna end up going vertically too soon. And we start from a half million standpoint and then we raise it up to a two-point. So once we get into a two-point, then we teach them to push off of both feet to push their center and mass out. So in the process, those same concepts of rolling everything forward, being able to push off two feet within that is the next thing skill that they have to master. And remember I said speed is a skill, so your's learning these steps and layers so it can kind of register more easily and more effectively. And once you get into being able to do a two-point stance and being able to initially push, then we work on getting into a three-point.
Troy Jones: 'cause now you're a little bit comfortable in understanding that and in the process of teaching you how to get into that three-point stance and initially project out, we are exposing whatever mobility issues you might have that might be restricting you from getting into a comfortable stance and whatever core weaknesses there are. 'cause a lot of times people can't get their spine extended and that core is stable, embraced to be able to create enough load into the ground to project out. Because that's really why we're getting into a three-point stance to begin with, is to be able to use the ground to push against, to launch us in the direction we want to go.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Okay. So that's awesome information. So I'm taking an athlete out, first time back, let's say on the field or first time back sprinting. They're coming off an ACL. So this is the, their first attempt at producing high levels of speed from a complete rest. Okay. I'm putting them in a kneeling position. Okay. Let's say their affected limb, their surgical limb is the left one. It's forward, they're on down on the right knee. Okay. We're five months, four months post-op. So no surgical considerations. You're gonna ask them to accelerate out as rapidly as possible for however many yards. And we're just gonna look at those first three steps.
Troy Jones: I'm looking at their first step.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: You're looking at their first step.
Troy Jones: I'm not gonna let the athlete do anything past the first step until I see I'm being able to project itself in the right direction. Fishing first. So that half kneeling drill, if they're strong enough, first and foremost, I gotta see it be strong enough to even push off one leg.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: How do you test that?
Troy Jones: You kneeling down Force Bay did. Okay. So when we do our force bay testing, we do a lot of, different variations of isometrics that we do. And with the isometric holes, we'll expose the, where the weaknesses within the chain on one leg, where's the ankle, the knee, the hip itself. And then if that's an issue, we won't expose that athlete to that drill until we feel like he's ready. And then when he's ready, then we will go ahead and begin to start working on getting him to willing to projection drills.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yep. Yep. Okay. Great. Say he's ready. We put him out there. He's in a split stance. He's in a kneeling stance. We ask him to propel out. What are you looking for that tells you this is an outstanding first step?
Troy Jones: I'm looking at the center of mass.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah.
Troy Jones: And how that center of mass pushes his torso out front. So is he able to drive that center of mass, keep his core stable and project himself initially forward out and up? And I'm looking, I tell my athletes, I encourage him. I say, I don't like to see your rise higher than six inches in the initial beginning because you start getting up above six inches, that's a little bit too fast, too soon you're gonna get vertical too soon. And the goal really in a 40 is staying in that horizontal phase of pushing as long as possible. But I'm more so looking at how far he can project his center of mass and his torso out in front of him in the shortest amount of time possible.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Okay. And 'cause I think just for what helps me the most is I gotta know what an awesome rep looks like.
Troy Jones: Yep.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: I gotta know the ideal because then I can deconstruct from there and say, he didn't do this. He didn't do that.
Troy Jones: So is his initial movement, when you see his initial center of mass at the hip begin to move forward? It's his core stable. Because if that's the case, it's pushing his torso out forward.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yep.
Troy Jones: Is it going forward first and not up?
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah.
Troy Jones: We wanted to go forward and then slightly up. If you look at the angle, you look at the normal graphs, you wanna be somewhere in the mean, in that medium, in that in between stage you got a line going down and going across. You want to kind of end up right in the middle instead of staying flat too long. So it's forward and then slightly up. I'm looking for that and I'm looking for that aggressive shin angle, the hip drop. And I'm looking for that shin to drop as he's pushing in real time.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah. Okay. So from that, that's super helpful. You realize he's not doing an awesome job of it. You don't think it's coming from his core. Where else could it be coming from?
Troy Jones: Just strength.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Strength of his lower extremity?
Troy Jones: Yes.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Okay. Now how do you determine whether it's quad, whether it's glute, whether it's calf? You're gonna say force plates, right?
Troy Jones: It depends. Well, yeah. Force plates will help identify where their weaknesses in the chain for an individual standpoint.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yep.
Troy Jones: Initially, but when we talking about, okay, say he's weaker than his ankles is. The thing about understanding true acceleration and from an ankle standpoint, there's no extension in the ankle that I'm looking for. I'm looking for the ankle more so to be stable and stiff. So it's the ground, it doesn't fold. It just drive projects the hip outward. I would address that in corrective exercises or I'll address that along with the accessory block to make sure we're building that. Or I might put that into fillers or we have these fillers that we build into our strength blocks to actually, that's maximizing rest and recovery. So I have to start sitting idle.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah.
Troy Jones: But the big thing for me is teaching horizontal force and what that feels like and being able to be expose the athlete to heavy loads. He's coming out of a hinge position. So for me, patterns are everything to answer your question. So when we talk about acceleration pattern, we talk about glutes and low back quads. So those are the things. Glutes, quads, low back. Okay. I'm building my whole acceleration max effort per workout day, 'cause I usually like to do horizontal focuses on our max effort day because it requires heavy lifts.
Troy Jones: And usually that phase of acceleration, everything is heavier loads. Anything that allows me to expose that athlete to a hinge position to where he could begin to launch himself out and feel that sequence come to life. Key point, I'm training the pattern, not isolating muscle groups. That tends to resonate with the athlete a little bit more effectively. Just focusing on, just say a squat. Now if that athlete does not stay in his push long enough, so we're talking about the initial push. I might use the hex if he's not staying in his push longer, if I need him to push longer within that push, I might use a box squat. So they both are similar, but it's more so what athletes ident... Or what exercise impacts that athlete the best.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yep.
Troy Jones: That's what I would stick with that particular end, why? Because I try not to be, I try not to be cookie cutter with our guys. I try to be individualized as much as I can, especially as we get into the later blocks. 'Cause I only got eight weeks, so I gotta figure it out very, very quickly.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: This is in combine prep?
Troy Jones: This is in combine prep boy. And any aspect, it's hard to get athletes nowadays for 12 weeks.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah.
Troy Jones: You're not gonna get 'em that long. So if I got four weeks, I got a lot of things, I gotta figure things out very quickly. So figuring out what to expose them to that's gonna give you the best advice for my buck is what I'm shooting for more than anything else. And I'm taking all that assessment information and trying to figure that out.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Okay. That makes a lot of sense. Talk to me about foot ankle. If your foot ankle isn't firm, you're getting too much heel drop, you're getting not enough control and you're seeing too much inversion, eversion around the ankle. Even in that first step, you should be able to pick that up, right?
Troy Jones: Yes.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: What's the carry over there in the weight room?
Troy Jones: We do a ton of drills on the wall for stiffness. We do a ton of drills for stiffness in general from a isometric standpoint and then a reactive standpoint. So again, going back to what the day is. The day is say, let's say it's a horizontal focus day for acceleration, that's gonna usually be on our max effort days, 'cause of the heavier loads. And based on the force velocity curve, we know that the heavier loads, you're at the end of the spectrum where everything needs to be heavy, but you're trying to overcome gravity and generate massive amounts of force. The stiffness component, putting them in those angles and being able to hold those angles at load at, using time as the load, but being able to put the foot in the right position.
Troy Jones: And also using mobility drills that mimic the hip shop shin drop that we're trying to create in real time. It takes a massive amount of stiffness to hold those positions. So it's this one of my favorite drills. It's like, it's a modified sissy squat that I do, that I'll put 'em on the wall, I'll load them in, like facing the wall in a hinge position, hinging their hips back, feet underneath their center mass. And I would just have them droll their hips forward just to get used to that shin angle so you can expose it on how it's gonna work in real time. So to answer your question, anything that creates stiffness and creates the mode of control around the hips of demotion, of dropping the hips above in front of the knee and the knee in front of the toes, no matter what that is to... That's what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to be specific to that concept. So it can translate over to when the athlete needs it, 'cause remember, we don't have a ton of time, so I gotta be specific as much as I can.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Okay. So in the Troy Jones sissy squat that you just described.
Troy Jones: Yeah. It is not mine. I've seen it. Right. Right.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: We're gonna call it that. We're gonna call it the TJ sissy squat. Their hands are on the wall. When you say you're in the hinge position and then you're dropping your knees forward, is your target the floor with those knees?
Troy Jones: Yeah.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Okay, you're dropping it down.
Troy Jones: Because what happens is, if you're in a hinge you think about if your back is flat, and if you're moving your center of mass, you have to keep your core gauge. The only way on the wall your torso is gonna go vertical. But the goal is to drop your hips in front of your knee and then your knee in front of your toes.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Gotcha.
Troy Jones: So it's the same drop that you're going to use in real time of that lower extremity from the knee over the toe. Because remember we're focused on the foot and ankle complex.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yep.
Troy Jones: So we try to build stiffness in that foot. I'm more so really more concerned with that knee dropping over that toe.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yep.
Troy Jones: Over that big toe specifically.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yep.
Troy Jones: And it mimics that motion perfectly. And first we start with isometric holds in that position and then begin to add the motor control and the motion to it. And it usually transfers over very, very well to the athletes.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: So that sounds like a great drill. The bottom of that position, the end of that rep, there are, what's their torso doing, is it facing the wall?
Troy Jones: The torso lean vertical facing the wall...
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Okay facing the wall, that means they are down...
Troy Jones: Their arms will be facing the walls. But they're holding themselves up.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yep.
Troy Jones: And their torso will be vertical, but their shin angles will be parallel to the ground and the foot ankle will be vertical holding stiff.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: That's aggressive.
Troy Jones: It's aggressive. But we don't start there.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah.
Troy Jones: We start there with ISOs.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yep.
Troy Jones: So just getting into a basic horizontal position of an ISO holding that position bilaterally. Unilateral building strength using the load and lift progressions to also build stiffness. We also use these switch drills on the wall to where we like the athlete to feel what projection or understand what projection feels like. So I will use, say, okay, you understand where your cross points need to be. If you hit down, remember our goal is to hit down and back so that you're hitting down and pushing. You should feel your hips project. So we'll put them at a 45 degree angle and we'll, I'll say cross the ankle, cross the calve crosses the knee and work your way up the wall. Every time you hit the ground, you should feel your hips project vertically. Enter that direction. And really all that's promoting is stiffness or projection as stiffness that ground contact so they can feel and understand what that feels like. And then last and not least, but anything else, sleds being able to correct the athlete getting in low level sled pushes high level, low handle sled pushes, high handle sled pushes, but getting them to think about, I want the foot to be stiff and I want the shin angle to stay locked in and I want you to attack it to certain cross point. Or just getting them to feel that translates over very easily.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah. What I love hearing is the intersection finally, I think between your world and my world where you've probably been coaching this for a long time, finally we're getting to the point with anterior knee pain. And really we have Mr. Curtis to thank for this, which is knees over toes guy, right?
Troy Jones: Yeah.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: And it's like the ability, so now we are putting, sorry, his last name's Patrick. Now we are putting the knee over the toe and holding in ISOs not as much for performance, but to desensitize that anterior knee.
Troy Jones: Yeah.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: It's gonna bring down pain. But that shin angle is essential for high level performance. It's also essential for a knee to be functioning pain free. And so we will see some of this creep into our world. The value you're bringing to me, Troy, is you are coming at it from a performance standpoint to say, Hey, the way you're getting your athletes pain free is also the way I'm gonna make them perform better.
Troy Jones: Absolutely.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: And that's the way it should be.
Troy Jones: That's the way it should be. That's the way I figured it out. When I figured this out years ago, I felt like I need to spend more time with the medical community to figure something, to problem solve some of these issues that I'm having real time with these athletes. And even if something as simple as the position of where the foot strike is determines everything. And I tell an athlete, I say, why are you getting so much heel drop? And they'd be like, well, I'm trying to do what you're asking me to do. I say, well, let me give you something simple to feel. Because everything's a more, I don't want you to think and you're thinking right now, I need you to feel it. And that's the worst thing in the world, is when I see a guy just smoke coming out of his ears and say, I gotta figure out a different way. This can't work. I'll put him in a pushup position. I'll put his feet in the ground in a push up position. And I said, find the ball of your foot, the end step, the ball of your foot where it's all bone. It's the same as the palm of your hand. Okay? Put that in the ground, push it straight down. And now I'll do a pushup on their foot and ankle. And they can't believe it. They're like, that didn't bother me at all. I said, so you hit the ground of your foot in the right position and it's bone, guess what? You're going to get an initial projection...
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Solid.
Troy Jones: It's solid. So just little cues like that gets them to feel okay, they can identify what you're asking them to do. You've successfully communicated a concept that they never maybe heard before. They can, that they can actually see and feel and mimic and think and not even think about it. Just it comes so natural because it's something that we naturally should be doing that it takes the guesswork out. And really what I try to do with every athlete when I'm coaching, I'm not afraid to correct an athlete in real time, which I see some coaches are afraid of an athlete not understanding. That's a part of the learning curve. That's a part of the skill development. You gotta get over that. I have no problem in challenging that athlete, but if I challenge that athlete, I'm gonna give them simple concepts to problem solve along the way.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: That's really powerful. What I really heard that was gold is your obsession with cueing, and cueing so that the athlete internalizes and can then change their patterns. And that's the hallmark, honestly, of a great sports PT, and of a great coach is how many cues do you have in your repertoire to say, "You know what, let me pull this out and let the athlete feel?" Maybe this works for the athlete, but the detail with which you are speaking about, dude, we've only covered the first step and you haven't... You've been talking for 35 minutes about the first step.
Troy Jones: It's crazy because I figured this out. I said... I might have to say the same thing 10 different ways, and that's okay.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah.
Troy Jones: That's okay, because everybody perceives information differently and we gotta be okay with that. We all learn differently. But once you figure out what that athlete response to, you should go home and write that down. Because then you should build all your cues around that same delivery system that you just... When you unlock something for them within their brain so they can understand you. Now they can connect with you. They can buy in. And once you can buy in, you can really get that athlete where they need to be.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah. Yeah. That level of detail and the care, I talked to young clinicians about this a ton, is you go home, see if you can go over your day, "Hey, what worked, what didn't?" Because tomorrow, double down on what worked.
Troy Jones: Yeah.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: And figure out what didn't. So every single day...
Troy Jones: Yeah.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: You're getting better. And you've been doing this for 30 years, so you've gotten pretty good at it.
[laughter]
Troy Jones: Lot of failure along the way.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah. But...
Troy Jones: Lot of banging my head against the wall, say hard hit.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: That that's...
Troy Jones: You need to go back and figure this out, man.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah. But it's a great outlook that firm foot contact is something that has finally reached our profession. So I think we're beginning to see more of that. And then what exactly transpires at gastroc-soleus and it's foot control and foot intrinsics. It shows up a lot in the pathology world.
Troy Jones: Yes.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: You think about like plantar fasciitis, you think about Achilles Tendonitis and Tendinopathies, and then you think about Patellar Tendinosis. That whole world very often is that force is not traveling perfectly up that chain. It's our job to figure it out from a pathology standpoint, it's your job to figure it out from a performance standpoint so that the athlete can accelerate forward. So when your teeth... Let me ask you this, what is the timing of these drills? 'Cause you mentioned how you have great carryover wall drill, high sled push, low sled push. When do you do those in tandem to realizing that it's a fault on the field or in speed? How do you sync those up?
Troy Jones: So sometimes when I see... There's only so many time... So much time in the day as we all know. So your programming from strength in your field, is it has to be precise, and it has to have intent behind it. And intent is one of my favorite words because I feel like so many people throw so many things against the wall to see what sticks in the today's world, because it looks sexy. I'm not gonna get into that. That's another...
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Oh, get... No, get into it. Get into the Instagram world. Troy, why don't we see more of you on Instagram, Troy?
Troy Jones: 'Cause I'm an old guy. I don't like Instagram.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: You're an old head. That's what Ty is telling. You're an old head. Okay.
Troy Jones: I'm an old head. But exposure to what the issues are and to things that matter. I'm always trying to pick what's the best buy for my buck to solve the problem. If I'm doing things in real time, and I told you we expose the athletes to whatever buckets they are on the field. So if they're having, let's say we just talked about projection. So if they have projection issues, they're gonna spend most time to them in their prehab on the field, in their warm ups on projection concepts and pattern concepts of acceleration and projection. That's what they're gonna focus on because that's what's gonna correct that issue at that time. And then when we get into the weight room, we'll use the filler exercise to support it. So we've accomplished that for that goal, for that particular day in that realm.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah.
Troy Jones: Of acceleration.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah.
Troy Jones: Depending on Max Velocity, it's the same exact thing, 'cause on power it's the same exact thing, but it's exposure to things that solve the problem, you should set that up individually for each client that you have, especially at the level of the athlete that we're working with. It goes back to intent. You have to have the intent. So now I look up, it might be a little lengthier in the prehab phase early on in the training sessions from the first to second week, but third week the motor control and that adaptation has carried over to now he's doing things at higher speeds and can handle more volume and more intensities, 'cause we took the time to prep the body for that. Instead of rushing and trying to induce... Introduce loads too early because we feel like that's where they need to be. That athlete's gotta be ready and resilient enough to handle those progressions and those loads, 'cause if he's not, you gonna just set them back.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah. Yeah. And so much of that can be weight room, right?
Troy Jones: Yeah.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: And just building the capacity of the entire system. So your warm ups will be athlete specific and will be geared towards...
Troy Jones: Pattern specific drill.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Pattern specific. And which is geared towards their deficiencies. Right? And...
Troy Jones: Yep.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Still in...
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Love that. Okay. Here's why that brings such a smile to me because this is the way I approach an ACL session. You see this athlete in gen popper like standard setup. You're seeing them three times a day. Sorry, three times a week. So what is your theme of today as a therapist? My theme is Plyometric activity. Great. So you have a working set of Plyos, which we want to itemize beforehand or delineate beforehand. I want 40 touches. You're gonna do 40 Plyometric activities. Right. Okay. What is your warm up? What is your strength phase after those 40? 'Cause it doesn't take that long. What are your rest time? You have to have a plan or a theme of the day.
Troy Jones: You have to.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: And by the way, if I'm the next treating therapist, I should be able to look at what you did and I should say, "Oh, here... The theme of the day obviously was this and the whole thing was geared to that". So it sounds like you have a similar kind of workflow.
Troy Jones: I do. I have a system. And my system's all built around the theme of the day. And from the initial thing you do in warm up from your soft tissue all the way up is built upon that theme and that pattern that we're working on for that day. To me it accelerates the learning curve. It makes more sense. I'm not gonna rush my warm up. My warm up. It's wrong... The warm up is the wrong name for it, honestly, because it's a part of everything that we're doing in trying to send the message into the brain.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Awesome. Okay. So give me some examples on transition, 'cause you covered the hell out of acceleration. So when we're talking transition now the athlete's a little bit more upright, Right. Talk to me about what flaws do you see most with the transition phase?
Troy Jones: People don't in running, in understanding acceleration and transition and getting to the right Plyos makes a big difference. Like if I'm working on initial projection or the first three to four steps, we're talking about single bounds, one bound at a time. I mean, or I'm sorry, broad jumps. One broad jump at a time just to produce max force. If we're looking at power, we're now looking at continuous bounds. Something that's repetitive. And a lot of times the athlete struggles in transition because they try to run before the run occurs. You have to think force first to power. So force transitions to power, which now the speed of how fast you're delivering that force has began to change. But you still have to stay within force instead of thinking run. The run will come because of the force. And if you can get an athlete to buy in this force, I say force to power because power into don't means speed in my world.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: With time. Yeah.
Troy Jones: Time, time.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: The time component.
Troy Jones: So stay within it. If I stay in the push and I don't rush to sprint or rush the run, the run will come. And when they get under, when they buy into that and they stay patient, they realize how when they'll look up when they get into their angles and they, and I say, keep your eyes down, gradually run. And they'll look up and they'll begin to see the distances that they're covering between each step changes and increases. And then they're covering more ground, they're producing more force. And then that last part of that is switching that limb exchange. Being on time and understanding their path in the air. When they bring those things together, that's when you see the best changes in transition.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah. Okay. What are the faults you see? What prevent athletes from...
Troy Jones: Rushing.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Okay.
Troy Jones: They always wanna rush, they wanna run.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: How do you coach...
Troy Jones: The fact that you, you gotta get, 'cause you, we use different drills. We use, we have this one drill we call an acceleration tape. Besides using video at, it's so, and then besides using... Besides also I didn't talk about acceleration profiling, but acceleration profiling will help me determine the weaknesses of where the athlete is in regards to transition or early acceleration. And use a certain amount of load to put them in that angle to where they begin to default within the sprint. So when they start getting too vertically and start spinning, being able to have the right load on the sled at that angle teaches them to push longer and stay aggressive or they cannot move the load. But it helps me identify where that weakness shows up within the profile. That's one way to fix it. The other way to fix it is just getting them to buy into looking at your speeds when we take those time. 'Cause we're doing everything GPS tracking in real time and we're doing... Where you also giving them feedback in real time, but based on what those speeds are.
Troy Jones: And then we sometimes we'll wait till the end of the session, sometimes if we got a golden nugget we wanna give to them right then and there, we'll give them a nugget. And that's all just breaking down film and letting them see themselves in real time. But then an environment change is what I'm big on. I love impacting the environment to get real time and real time results. So I like to use acceleration tapes and what they are is tapes that are measuring out of steps where if you... And it's very simple. If your centre of mass hits the cone and where you strike, you're right where you're supposed to be. If you're below it, you didn't push hard enough. It's that simple. And we gradually increase those distances over time until we find the optimum distance for each athlete. 'Cause everybody, sometimes you can create, you have to be careful 'cause sometimes you can create over stride, but I'm not... I'm gonna always start with the lowest tape. 'Cause they are predetermined. I didn't create that.
Troy Jones: But having the... 'Cause there's a formula that we have where there's necessarily, there's a already laid out paths that we have that are predetermined. We'll just start off the early path and just kind of just really be laid out over time until we think that athletes get an optimum point where they're very consistent with their stride length and their turnover. Then we stick there and we say, "Hey, you're hitting your best times here. This is what we are gonna stick with and go from there". And we'll even break that down into asymmetrical. So we'll start just symmetrical on just one side where it's focusing on your center of mass and then we'll use paint sticks to make it asymmetrical from the left or right from each leg. Just so they can get a feel or understanding what that feels like.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah.
Troy Jones: 'Cause again, it's impacting the environment which transitions to them not having to think.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Interesting. That's a very interesting way to use these cues, to educate the athlete. What about from a, whether it be mobility or a strength standpoint, do you see show up as a fault during this transition?
Troy Jones: Absolutely. Hips and torque and I don't wanna get into that, but we have a pretty educated audience. One thing.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: So educated.
Troy Jones: Yeah.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: I mean the smartest bastards I've ever met. Go ahead.
[laughter]
Troy Jones: Yeah. Guys are really smart in the days right. Way smarter than me. I'll tell you that. Torque is a big thing in regards to transition and speed in general overall. Because when you get the central nervous system, when you get the body being able to produce force within the cell on its own without you really starting to get in some things that's gonna be sweet. And a lot of times I'll do a simple drill that I learned from another coach Lawrence and I never... I remember when I first seen him do this, he talked about being able, the guy who learns how to be a Super Bowl is the guy who's going to learn. Or the athletes who learned to be a Super Bowl are the athletes that run faster than everybody else. I was like, "What is he talking about?" And he did this demonstration and he said... He was hitting the table and he's like, I don't know if you've seen this, but he's pushing this finger on the table and he said, this is me manufacturing force. That's my brain creating force on its own. Listen to the sound, looking through the speed of my finger and how it hit the table.
Troy Jones: And I'm like, okay. He means reflex. So how do I get everything to the point to where I create a stretch reflex? What does that entail? Posture and position. You gotta have great posture to get the pelvis in the right position so you can kind of begin to get the hip flexors, the hip extension and everything else working together. And a lot of times the range of motion around your hips and pelvis matters in regards to get to a certain point to where you create that torque. And that's all predicated on the path and the air that you take to get there. So when you can take the proper path to get there and feel the torque that creates within your pelvis, then that's your initial component in your mind to think now it's time to switch. So that's when your timing starts to come together for you within your sprint cycle and your rhythm. That's why if you go above 90% effort, you throw yourself off, because you never can feel the torque and the whipping action or the loading action around the hips and the pelvis come to life, 'cause you're now rushing.
Troy Jones: So finding that sweet spot of effort, which was gonna be is... And it's different for everybody 'cause everybody's different and unique. But teaching, making sure they have great mobility and pelvic control to be able to get to that point to where they can understand what that feels like. So we try to put them in positions early on in our warm ups to start teaching the brain on what that feels like.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Give me those warm ups. What is that dude? Just describe one of them.
Troy Jones: Oh man. Just different variations of glute bridges. Single leg glute bridges, dynamic glute bridges. We do manual hip whip drills.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Why is that helping?
Troy Jones: Because it's sending message into the brain on what that feels like. And I use... And understanding this... 'Cause everybody... You know the body works on the sling systems. So being able to get that sling system to connect and feel that rubber band effect within your body, within the itself around your spine. They don't have an idea what that feels like the people who run fast do. You look at Usain Bolt, he's like a big slingshot running down the track.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah.
Troy Jones: So, but they have great pelvis control, great spinal alignment and all that good stuff comes into play. So...
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: So you give them the single leg hip bridge. Right?
Troy Jones: Right.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: You're asking them to cue in on what that hip terminal extension?
Troy Jones: Range of motion first and foremost. And we go Iso. So initially we get to the maximum ranges of motion and we Iso it first. So we can make sure if the glutes firing and your knee's forward inflection, we're being able to drive that, you can lock your pelvis in. It gives you more stability if your cord breaks. We have layered exercises from the core up to that point, to put that together to teach the concept for us, so we can say less. So if I... I've learned to layer my exercises together to teach the lesson for me. And it begins to upload just like a computer. And once they start to feel that, then we start getting dynamically.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Okay. So give me a little taste. You get your... Walk me all the way through, give me three examples or so of saying, "Hey, this guy has no idea what his hip end range is. He has no idea how to live at 90%".
Troy Jones: Okay.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: How do you teach that?
Troy Jones: So let's go with that... Since we're talking about glute bridges.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah.
Troy Jones: Let's go with glute bridge. We'll go basic glute bridge bilateral.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Okay.
Troy Jones: Okay. Now, alot of times I've noticed and how the PT world used to teach glute bridge versus on how I teach glute bridge.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Okay.
Troy Jones: I want full spinal extension up through my cervical spine, because that's what's happening in real time in the sprint cycle. I'm not just getting to a point to where it stops in my thoracic spine. I've seen people teach that.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yep.
Troy Jones: It's not happening in real time.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Okay.
Troy Jones: So I make them use their upper body into a glute bridge and make it a total body event. So I want them to drive through that elbows and squeeze to an extend up through the cervical spine, but in the beginning, before that I teach breathing. So I can get that ribcage control to keep the ribcage down so they can brace. We'll use medicine balls and things of that magnitude to create that type of bracing and breathing. And then we'll go to the glute bridge using the elbows, driving through the ground to get the spine to move into extension. Then we're going to single leg flexion.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: What's their foot doing? Their foot...
Troy Jones: Their heels... What happens... But I like... There's a couple things that I play with. Sometimes I'll have them extend through their feet.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Hold on. While you're moving let me spin you a little bit towards me. Yeah. Just so we can see you a little bit.
Troy Jones: Yeah. So I have them on a glute bridge...
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: There you go.
Troy Jones: Heels down, toes up and drive through. And sometimes depending on the athlete and the message that I'm dealing with and trying to mimic what's happening in the air. I'll have them extend their toes down so they can get their glute bridge, their hips to come up higher.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: So what's on the ground? Toes or heel?
Troy Jones: Toes on some... I do both. I do both. Just so the athlete can feel the difference.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Awesome.
Troy Jones: Because I like to get them to experience. Again I depend on the environment to help teach the lesson for me. And when they feel comfortable, I say, "Okay, this is what's gonna happen in the air. This is the feelings you should be feeling in the air." So then we'll go into a single leg glute bridge, same concept, isometric holding at the time. And then sometimes I'll add tension and then I'll actually have them switch or I'll have them get into a glute bridge. This is when I want the foot flat and I'll say, "Lock your hips in." And I'll just have them switch. Just to stay dynamic in being able to feel a whipping at you and acceleration. If it's max velocity, I'll take them and bridge them into a straight leg bridge and I'll hold their heels and I'll have them bridge up and I'll just simply say, "Stay braced. Keep your core engaged. Feel the action of what happens at your hips." I'll drop a leg, the leg will whip back up on its own and then they laugh. Oh, I never realized that happened. But again, it starts with a two leg glute bridge, bilateral glute bridge, into a single leg glute bridge or using a single leg into a dynamic whipping action.
Troy Jones: And then we'll do some things where we'll get up on a band and start moving fast to keep the hips engaged. But we'll progress over time, over this throughout this stuff. But again, it's just impacting the environment to help with the messaging.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: And so... And what's on the ground? Cran like their neck is...
Troy Jones: We'll have the neck... We'll have them on the ground. We have these pillows.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah.
Troy Jones: So we put these pillows behind them that brings their head and spine to be in a neutral position. And we'll have them also always engage through their upper torso and driving their elbows down and back. So they can stay engaged, keep that torso in any requisition that we want, that mimics sprinting.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Awesome. I could totally see how that, that seems like it mimics certainly your transition towards your max phase. 'Cause you're all the way up, you're taught, you've come all the way upright. And that's what you're seeing more as you get higher level with the Glute bridge. Am I right about that?
Troy Jones: Yes, yes.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Okay.
Troy Jones: So I'm going bent knee to straight leg. Just the same as we transition in real time running. I'm going from hip projection to hip whip. The whipping action to hip is max velocity.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Awesome. Okay. So that's starting to make a lot of sense. You're interspersing this in between their max velocity efforts?
Troy Jones: I'm doing this is pre-AB. I'm already...
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: This is warming, it's pre-AB.
Troy Jones: I'm laying this down in the warm, in the early stages of the session. Even down to the core. I do an exercise called an AB 45 and an AB 45 is a laying on your back, heels is about six inches from your hamstrings. You have a partner that's holding down your ankles. You come out and I took this from Barry Ross.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Shout out to Barry Ross. I hope he's listening.
Troy Jones: Shout out to Barry Ross. Yes, sir. You should be listening.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Should be listening Barry. [laughter]
Troy Jones: Okay. But you'll come up, your torso six inches off the ground from the hip, keeping your spine elongated. It helps really to lock in your Soleus, and it mimics that sprint position and projection, and acceleration. So now, or that even in that just... And the angles change because that position doesn't change. The angle changes, but the position just goes horizontal, the vertical, it stays locked in. That's probably one of the best core exercises I've ever used in regards to mimic the position, the speed for acceleration for max velocity. I just do a six inch lift and a slight rotation and I tell them to wrap around their spine as if it is a pole.
Troy Jones: That now mimics the rotation of max velocity. So now I'm putting in the core, putting in messaging or exercises that's creating messaging in regards to what's gonna be happening from a trunk structure in real time.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Love that. That takes a lot of thought and a lot of prep, but that's why you get a great product.
Troy Jones: But that's why... And remember the volume. Remember in teaching speed, I just need to hit the mark or the goal. I don't need a ton time of reps because the central nervous system when it comes down to speed has to replenish itself. So if you're taking the adequate amounts of time, of rest to replenish between each set or each rep itself, you're not gonna have as so much time. So your prep is where all your success is. So you can get the bite to go out there and run fast when you needed to and then you can get done and get out of there.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Fast.
Troy Jones: Fast. [laughter] Fast.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Okay. Taking a step back from all that, tell me where plyometric training box jumps. Where does that come into your world?
Troy Jones: Two different ways. Plyometrics that I do in a, from a speed standpoint or on the field has to match up with what the goal is of the sprint. And then any type of force that I might use from a power standpoint. When I get into that power phase of training or if someone's bucket is power, I'll introduce them to different types of box... Different types of jumps and all my plyos aren't created equal. And let's say if it's combine time, I had to work on specific jumps. So it goes back to my days, because of my dynamic effort days are a reactive base. I stick on my vertical process... Vertical concepts there. So anything that's vertical jumping, anything that's box jumping. And if I use a box jump, well, you know what the reasons behind box jumps are, just to unload the jumps itself early on in stages.
Troy Jones: But if I use them, it's a vertical impulse. If I turn it into a horizontal jump on the box, I'm gonna put that on the max effort day because horizontal focus is on my max effort days. And if you look at the force velocity curve, heavier loads and acceleration matter, early first step explosion is you gotta have extremely heavy loads. 'Cause that's what's gonna help you overcome and gradually project your torso out and forward. We know that. So I try to stay aligned with mixing my Plyos in on those days too. So I gotta control my volume and I use it in my speed sessions. So I use it more as a PAP. So whatever prop Plyos I use in real time and when my acceleration, those are minimal, maybe one to two steps top just to get the concept off and they're slightly loaded as well. When I want to get into a certain number. And because I do so many Plyos, it's effective minimal dose 'cause I'm doing Plyos every day. And it's complementing movement and teaching transfer. So I'm probably 20,25 jumps tops per day.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Tight, small.
Troy Jones: Yeah. And I'm done.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Okay. And where does that fall in the session?
Troy Jones: So, It will fall early on in my Prehab phase. So when I come back in off the field, I'm a guy, I slow it back down when you're coming in off the field because I feel like the intensities of speed and when your running needs a reset before you go back into the weight room, I don't believe you should be jump right back in. So I'll go back and have medical there and they'll take... They'll do whatever state of readiness they need to prepare. Plus we'll do some testing to see where their central nervous system is.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Cool.
Troy Jones: Because if their central nervous system is dropped down a little bit because of the speed or if it's just 'cause of the volume for subsequent weeks coming, I might deload them in that program in that day.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Okay. And then what, you're just doing like countermovement, jump on a force plate to gauge up?
Troy Jones: Yeah. I'm just doing countermovement jumps, RSI jumps, depending on the day. If it's a horizontal day, just countermovement jump or it might even be a non countermovement jump. And then if it's a vertical day, it'll be a RSI jump or a countermovement jump. I'll have medical go with those guys and make sure they're feeling good and extra corrective type mobility. Maybe a little bit more soft tissue work, something like that, just to get them prepared around the joints. Bring everything down. Get it ready and then we'll go through a prep phase again to where we'll start firing everything back up and that's when we'll introduce our Plyos, things of that matter to get them right, ready and ready for the lift. It's almost like a pattern rehearsal, so to speak.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Awesome. Okay. So I'm gonna pivot just a little bit, 'cause I want to get some of your genius on change of direction and how you approach it. Again, I think this is majorly lacking in my world. Like when I take an athlete, I love to use ACL as an example and I'm beginning to teach them how to cut that first effort. I have like a whole thought process of how I want that to look. I want to first teach them decel, what does my decel look like? What are those steps? How are they dropping their center mass? What types of faults can I pick up there? Let's address them. Okay, come back. Now that they know how to decel, what does their accel look like? How well can they ramp things up?
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: What does their understanding or their ability to tolerate high loads on that limb? How does that look? How does that show up? How do they recover from that? And then I'm gonna start beginning to introduce a very small angle at which they're going to change planes. And then I'm just going to progress that. And so you just picture like, okay, we're gonna do a 15 degree cut, we're gonna go to 35, we're gonna go to 45 and this is all broken up and this is a number of reps. This is why planning is so important because I don't want to get ahead of where you are. I want to give you the minimal effective dose. That's the way I look at change of direction as a sports PT. 'Cause I'm worried about how they're gonna recover from that. When you're looking from a performance perspective, what's the first thing you look at?
Troy Jones: Yoni, you pretty much nailed it. I look at mechanical loads and what I mean by mechanical loads is how many times you start, is what I... How many times you start and stop is... That's one mechanical load. So it's like, I look at them the same way I look at the volume of how many sprints you run. So how many decelerations and loading times you actually accel and Decel. And I count those over the course of a session.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: That's a rep.
Troy Jones: That's a rep. So that helps me determine how much volume I'm gonna put over top of you because decelerating is very high intense and I don't think top people understand the loads your body go through, the centric force you gotta overcome. But you're right on point. And how I like to do it is Isometrics, that's one of my big things. I've been, Isometrics has been a best friend for me for so many years. And you talk about the guy on the wall, he was one of the original, well not originals, but he goes back to...
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Mr. Countess.
Troy Jones: Mr. Countess, he started with Isometrics.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Not to be confused with Amos who needs to call you. [laughter] Okay, go ahead. Just kidding. PJ. [laughter]
Troy Jones: Isometrics is more about getting into those end range positions of load and understanding what that feels like and exposing whatever weaknesses you have at those end ranges. And I always tell people, don't teach yourself looking for depth. Look for tension, look for torque, find stability. Okay. And then as we expose why you don't have the depth, let's address those issues so we can get more depth if need be. But let's meet you where you are right now. And so how to force feed you into something that you're not ready for.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: And by depth you mean just your ability to drop center of mass.
Troy Jones: Just your ability to be able to drop your center of mass. Some people will begin to compromise their position of their spine for the sake of chasing depth. Where I need more torque contention to absorb impact so you can get aboard of it. If you are dropping your center of mass way too low because that's what you're mimicking what you're seeing, how can you get outta that? If you're not in a position to be able to reapply force you're not. So we work on that through isometrics to expose whatever weaknesses we have early on. And then we go through these end range isometrics where we start addressing that phase of explosion.
Troy Jones: 'Cause our load explode and drive is how I called it. So that phase of explosion, when that amortization phase to where that contract relax phase has to come to life, is that's where the sweet spot is. And lot people don't understand that we begin to work on that phase before I even begin to start getting into any type of deceleration steps. So we'll go from a bilateral base position into a split stands position, and working on gradually being able to come out out of those phases being reactive. And then I'll move into stationary snap downs.
Troy Jones: I move into ball slams variations and I play with ball slams, very creative in trying to mimic the positions that you get in real time. And I also like to get into accelerated decel. But I do it stationary to where I accelerate from the fall first. I don't put a band on right away. I have been falling to the sprint or I'm sorry, fall into the decel pop. And then I had them do that over the course of 10 yards. And then also when I begin to build decel before I get into high velocities of the build tolerance, so I will do tempo decels over the course of a hundred yards and every 10 yards I'll have them decel.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Okay. When you say decel, that's awesome. When you say decel, is that a certain number of steps?
Troy Jones: That's 10 yards distance. But when... Depending on... So let's go back. When I go into the... To the falling Decels, I might say that's decel to base. So I gotta tell you about the position second way. So I'll go in base, I'll go in split stance, which are called a pressure step. I'll go into a lateral power cut, which that means flip your hips and reposition yourself to go back the other way. So those are my three go-tos. When I go pressure step, I usually like to go three steps for timing and rhythm.
Troy Jones: So I like to fall into it, pop, pop, pop, timing and rhythm. When I go snap down, just basically just go right to the split decel. So I'll go snap down, then I'll go fall into your decel. Then I'll go also go trying to jog into your decel. And then sometimes, depending on where the athlete is, I might go right over speeding with a band into your decel. Well, I'll pull them into those decels to gradually increase the intensity. That might be my volume for decel for that day early on 'cause that's my foundation work. And then I'll go temp off from that point on. I don't need to do anything else, because that was all those mechanical loads that I've basic gone over that's cumulative. So then I'm now I'm gonna go tempo. I might say I'm gonna do a thousand yards today, so a thousand yards of tempos every 10 yard, I want you to stop going to some type of decel. This is what we're gonna do for base. We're gonna go base for a hundred yards up base for a hundred yards back. You're gonna rest 45 seconds in between. So now I'm getting in a controlled environment, I'm getting that athlete under load and I'm building tolerance within those tendons.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: And that's beautiful. Base is what's the position of your feet?
Troy Jones: T Base. Base or even.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Even, okay.
Troy Jones: And then I'll do the same thing for a pressure step, which is a split. And I'll do everything for power cut. It's the same way.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Okay. And when you come to... Whether it be even or you're going to your three step, you're saying left, right, left, right, left, right.
Troy Jones: Correct. I'm saying up a hundred yards, every 10 yards left, right, left. Stay on the same thing.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: And they're trying to get lower as they approach.
Troy Jones: No. They're staying. Once they've gotten to where they are at that day, we'll say, "Okay, that's fine tension, that's fine torque, that's fine Load." So you can redirect yourself out. As you improve over time, you'll be able to get the necessary depth that's needed.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah. But as they decel, as they approach their 10 yard mark.
Troy Jones: They're decelerating down. Yes. They're dropping their center of gravity and the ti... It's the timing of those steps. So that 1, 2, 3, even when they're going base, I'm still thinking have them lead with the left leg versus lead with the right. So let's focus on leading with the left going up, leading with the right, coming back. And that's even going to base. So there's always a timing mechanism as they approach that. Think about that, to develop that rhythm.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Okay. And then as you begin to... So that's all kind of living down that sagittal plane, right?
Troy Jones: Yes.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: As you start to peel off.
Troy Jones: That's the next stages. Because I have to go into a... Before I get into any change in direction I want to get cognitive, I want to attack that cognitive element of decel because when I get into those higher, that's increasing velocities for me. When I add that brain element, it is totally different. So once we start building tolerance, I'll slowly start bleeding in some cognitive stuff. And there's two ways I do it. I have them come to me at 10 yards and I'll point to what foot I want them to step in. That's simple. But then I'll also put them into like a 5-10 yard window to where I have them do a base split stance or a quarter turn or a lateral cut depending on what I'm seeing. And I've seen you got six drops, you got six decels, but you can't stop moving. You just got to hit the decel, when I say hit, you got to hit it and then retreat. When you retreat, just go back into a casual backpedal, hit it again. So you are approaching different directions of deceling. And the way I like to decel on one leg and retreat versus one leg going forward is dropping your center of mass over the front leg to take the load and retreat, put the back foot instead of trying to put that back foot back behind you to stop, 'cause now you're wasting time. You understand. So now that's teaching them how to transfer force or redistribute their weight in the right and lower their center of mass.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Efficiently.
Troy Jones: Efficiently in real time and responding to stimuli. More so than to try to anticipate everything going forward. 'Cause DB is doing it a lot and that's why you see a lot of them spinning, trying to get up out of their brakes, 'cause then that's just not redistributing their weight correct. And it teaches that we do that going forward and back and it's quick, it's reactive. So now they're brain's speeding up. Now they're hitting with more force than they ever thought they could. They don't even realize that force they're hitting with. And then we'll also turn the hip into a T-step and then we'll also go lateral and we do things 'cause I want them to whip into that lateral cut, so I'll do it out of a karaoke. So I have them do a karaoke so they can whip into that pack.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Gotta put those hips.
Troy Jones: Yeah. So they can really whip back into it with the plank, and get a bot come back.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: So what's awesome about that last little spiel I would love to dig into T-step versus your pedal, but is they are number one being super reactive at the end. Number two, they're learning awesome mechanics of dropping center mass. Flipping hips. And they haven't even really cut yet.
Troy Jones: No.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: And so that's gold to schmucks like me because I'm on this cutting restriction of that you got to wait for the graft to start to heal up. But there's so much you can do before then.
Troy Jones: There's so much for people rush their progressions because they just don't know the other ways of getting there but you have to protect your athletes, you got to put your ego to the side and figure out how can I get my athletes to move and function at higher velocities or progressing to working within a higher velocities and develop tissue tolerance. And reduce the exposure to injury, but make them more resilient in that process. And that's to me is the goal, 'cause that's where my athlete, they be like, dang, we, I went out and did some things today with my coach and I felt great. We didn't even do any cone drill. 'Cause you know how to stop and start. You've been exposed to it and you feel good. And then we layer change the direction you on that. So once we master deceleration, to me change of direction is just another variation of deceleration. It really shouldn't be separated, it should just be layered. So now I'm just changing angles. That's it.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: You're changing, angles, you're decelerating, accelerating, decelerating, accelerating.
Troy Jones: That's it.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: From different angles and that's it in a well thought out constructive program.
Troy Jones: In a well thought constructive program.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: I think too often we get to this return to sports should look like this coming out of injury, what you just described too often, it's like, let's put, lacrosse players, we in Baltimore, let's put a stick in their hands. And can they do these drills with a... But are you coaching the nuance of their center of mass, of the angle of issue?
Troy Jones: That's where the money is. Because if you're hip, you aren't at the proper hip height, you're not gonna accelerate out well.
Troy Jones: If you aren't at the proper hip height, you're not gonna be able to decelerate.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Portion angle.
Troy Jones: More portion angles coming out. You're not, your timing and your rhythm coming out of those brakes aren't gonna be efficient. I mean there's so many things, but the problem I feel is that people just haven't dug deep enough into, and there's not enough information out there to teach them that doesn't look intimidating.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah.
Troy Jones: 'Cause when they see, if you look up Arabi Member researching agility and deceleration when he you would come up with stuff, man, it would be these studies and he would be like, I'm not gonna reading through all that.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah, Yeah.
Troy Jones: You know. [laughter]
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: They're Big. Yeah.
Troy Jones: So people would just say, I'm just gonna guesswork and figure it out. See what I see on Instagram and try to mimic what I see.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Well that's a problem. Now we're on the other end of the spectrum. I think you coming up self-described old head, you're opening textbooks. Right. And you're getting hit over the head with physics and biomechanics, and that's why you speak that language of torque, of acceleration and power. We've run from that and now we're living in very quick modes of... Oh, there's a stick in our hand. So I guess that's return to sport. Or there's a basketball and...
Troy Jones: You know why? People are trying to make money and they're trying to find their niche or on where they fit. And this is a pet peeve of mine, where you'll get the same two guys, a basketball coach and a football coach do the same mobility session and then one will say, "Oh, this is for basketball players."
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yep.
Troy Jones: But this is for football players.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah.
Troy Jones: And I'm like, and the athlete buys into that, he really believes that. And I'm like...
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Oh, he's a lacrosse guy.
Troy Jones: He's a lacrosse. So you figure, okay, to make me different as a coach, I'm just gonna stick a lacrosse stick in your hand and it's gonna be okay. Now this is lacrosse specific. It's the same fundamental movement patterns. Your training windows don't get specific till later on in the phase of training.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: So far down.
Troy Jones: It's so far down the road but the athlete across the board is general in regard, not the movements that we do, but specific to the athlete's movements. It is general across the board that any athlete should be able to plug and play into your program because you're teaching fundamentals of movement.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah. Yeah. You're teaching people to be athletic.
Troy Jones: Yes.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Or to be fast. And that's why I wanted to open with how do you teach speed? 'Cause that's the ticket to winning games. That's the ticket to getting athletes back on the field, by the way.
Troy Jones: 100%.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: If you can make them faster, they're gonna be healthier.
Troy Jones: Yeah.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Their tissues are healthier, their tendons are healthier. They can withstand, they're just more resilient. So that's why I loved seeing you [laughter] walk into the baseball world, especially as an Oriole fan.
Troy Jones: Yeah.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: So just give me a quick hitter on that. What was the biggest difference between training a major league baseball player and training a professional football player?
Troy Jones: Rotation.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Okay.
Troy Jones: Rotation.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: How'd you figure it out?
Troy Jones: Just looking at what athletes do on the field or in their particular realm of what they do, because that's what changes them. Linear speed, change of direction. Even football players rotate to a point.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Sure.
Troy Jones: But what do they spend the most time doing?
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yep. Linear.
Troy Jones: Correct.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah. Thank God I got that right. [laughter]
Troy Jones: Yeah. And baseball players. But it's the combination from linear that they go in 'cause baseball players rotate linear. Football players, linear, possibly rotate. Depending on what is required or collision. So it depends on what's required. So, because they spend so much time doing one thing, how do I make the body resilient to counter, they counteract that so they can stay healthy. Making sure joints are efficient within that concept so they don't get out of sequence, which begins to get them out there, get them off their timing.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah.
Troy Jones: They play a ton of volume. A Ton of volume. There're 162 games. You're not thinking about just try to play four games, fly here, four games fly here.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: It's nuts, the...
Troy Jones: Four games fly here.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: The recovery is... It's nuts.
Troy Jones: It's nuts. So it's like they're in, they're earning slumps because they're out of sequence because they're tired. And so their brains aren't connected to their bodies anymore. So just understanding the dynamics and impact of what the sport has on the player is why I had determined on how I approach that athlete in that sport. Which makes me come up with the training programs that I create.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Troy. Okay. Number one, how much of a deep dive did you feel like you needed to do into kinematic sequencing? Like the way you rotate through, was it a lot? Was it...
Troy Jones: Think about it. It started that way. It started out that way as thinking of a lot, but then it became simple. 'cause that's what we rotate as human beings. And if you look at, I look at agents after big martial. I did martial arts for years, coming up. And one of my idols that I loved was Bruce Lee. And Bruce Lee used to always talk about flow like water, be a bamboo tree in the air. All those kinds of, what does that mean? It means flow. What is flow? It's rotating. That's what it is. So athleticism. People who can dance, people who can, who run, who are very athletic, they flow well, they rotate well.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: They sequence well.
Troy Jones: They sequence well. That's it.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah.
Troy Jones: That tells the story in itself.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah. Yeah Yeah.
Troy Jones: So the better, the more I can keep my athletes in tune with that, the healthier they're gonna be able to be. That they can go do what they do. That simple. When that gets out of sequence, usually they'll tell you, and where does that begin with pain?
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah.
Troy Jones: Something hurts. And then you can see it 'cause then when something hurts the body starts downregulating things and then the sequence just starts to get disrupted. And then they start, they are less efficient in time and it's off in their guard. And you see all this cascade and things begin to come from it. Get them healthy or get that issue solved what's throwing them out of sequence. Talk to your medical team, work together within that, solve that problem. Keep them moving. That's it.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: It's awesome. It's awesome to hear. It's also unbelievable that I'm sure you've worked with high level baseball players before your most recent foray into working with major leaguers. But the fact that you said, I don't know if you heard yourself say this, but you said like, oh, when I got this baseball guy, or I was gonna work with this baseball, I did a deep dive into Troy, like, you're 30 years in, dude. A lot of 30, a lot of guys with 30 years under their belt. They're not doing deep dives into crap. So good on you for jumping into that. That's a lesson in and of itself, dude. That's this whole podcast. You've been at this goddamn game for 30 years and you're still trying to get better. I've met therapists that are at this game for four years and they're like, Ugh, I'm burnt out. Or, you know, I need this in order to continue to lock in. 30 years in, you're passionate about human movement and you're humble enough to say, I know there's something I gotta learn. That's, that's the lesson that Troy's leaving us with today. So, hold on. Do you agree with that?
Troy Jones: I agree.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Okay. Okay. I was like, you're looking at me like, this guy is really...
Troy Jones: 100%. I agree with that. I agree with that.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Okay. Let's move into our lightning round. I could talk to you forever, but let's move into our lightning round. You ready?
Troy Jones: Yeah.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Quick responses. Troy.
Troy Jones: Quick response.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: You ready?
Troy Jones: Yeah.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Who's the best athlete you ever worked with?
Troy Jones: Haash...
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Quick responses. [laughter]
Troy Jones: Hockey player. I'm brain freeze. Stop.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Couldn't have been that good.
Troy Jones: Oh my God. He's gonna kill me too if I can't think of his name easily.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: And you know, he's listening. I'm sure that guy's like [laughter]..
Troy Jones: He's always listening. He's gonna kill me. I'm on a brain freeze since I'm on this. I'm on the spot right now.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Why was he the best athlete?
Troy Jones: Because he Moved extremely well. He can pick up things in real time like that. You show him one time and it's done. He's gonna create, he's gonna just do it exactly the way you do it. But he's it's effortless. He's it's effortless, And he's a Canadian. Yeah.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Sign of a good athlete. Yeah. He's Canadian.
Troy Jones: He's Canadian.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Okay, fine. Who's the best NFL athlete you've ever worked with?
Troy Jones: The best NFL athlete. And you can put me on the spot 'cause this guy's not hearing this and they're gonna...
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Like I always say no one's listening.
Troy Jones: Oh I'll tag him. Right here. Honestly.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Don't say Blake Countess.
Troy Jones: No. That guy on the board right there is one of the best athletes I've ever worked with. You know why? Because he did things extremely well. All these see... Same concept, same thought process. Tell him to do it perfect. Mimics it to a T. I Promise you that. And it's funny you asked me that and his jersey is right there. And that's the truth.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: What did, okay, so I'll tell you of my favorite athlete, I wonder if I've said it on this pod before. The best athlete that I've worked with, they're two dudes. One dude is a guy named Sam Cook, who's a Punter with probably the best arm that the Ravens have ever had. And all he did was make his living with his right foot. And he was a linebacker when he went to college. So like, put all those things together. How insane is that?
Troy Jones: Wow.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: And the nicest guy I've ever met.
Troy Jones: Really.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: But yeah, a close second is a guy who never, I don't think he ever made the Ravens active roster. A guy named Tim White who dude couldn't put his heels on the ground 'cause his goddamn Achilles were so tight. But they were just springs. And he's a guy who, I think he's in the CFL now, but didn't even train for it and came in sixth in the country in the long jump or something. Like, almost made the goddamn Olympic field.
Troy Jones: Wow.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah, it's crazy. So I would put those two. Did you think of the hockey player yet?
Troy Jones: No, I'm still thinking...
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Oh my God. Okay, fine. Next question.
Troy Jones: Ah, man. I'm still...
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Ready?
Troy Jones: Yeah.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: What's the toughest position in sports.
Troy Jones: It's a position where you gotta react in a short areas, meaning a goalie, a soccer, a hockey.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: But they don't have to be fast.
Troy Jones: They don't have to be fast but They gotta have brain speed. The brain speed and things to react to in real time. See somebody in open field, you got time to process 'cause you're using leverage and you're processing the field. You understand the spacing on the field you got room to process information, but if somebody's throwing something at you a hundred miles an hour. You don't have no time. You gotta react to that and as goalies got it The worst because These dudes are coming at the ball with them full speed and they gotta protect this big mass...
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Giant, giant.
Troy Jones: Giant net. And you gotta dive and react. And if you go the wrong way, they make you look horrible.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: You ever train any of them?
Troy Jones: Yes a female. She played for Michigan. She was a beast.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Love it.
Troy Jones: She was a goalie. Very reactive. I mean, she's very fearless. But it was a tough position to play.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Goal go blue. A fun position to rehab or train, isn't it?
Troy Jones: Yeah.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Because they have to move laterally and insanely quickly. Yeah they're insane. They have to make awesome decisions. I love their depth perception because number one, you know that ball ain't coming straight, so they have to understand like the way it's approaching them number two is, as the attacker's coming forward with the ball, they're making this, when do I come off that line? When do I come off that line attack and how am I approaching them and cutting down that angle.
Troy Jones: You're stating the case for me.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Love it. Yeah. That's fair. That's fair. I used to be a goalie. No I'm just kidding.
Troy Jones: That is what it was.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Okay. So athlete that you've never worked with, that you would love to have a beer with.
Troy Jones: Dead or alive?
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yes.
Troy Jones: Bruce Lee.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Bruce Lee. And if it wasn't Bruce Lee, 'cause I would call him an actor, but okay.
Troy Jones: If it wasn't Bruce Lee. Yeah. Because he, before he was an actor, he was a marshal martial art.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Okay. I don't doubt that.
Troy Jones: Okay. If it wasn't Bruce Lee, then it would probably be, believe it or not, because I grew up in Oriole. And I was crazy about this guy he used... And I don't get starstruck often, but this guy just always...
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Let me guess.
Troy Jones: Who?
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Eddie Murray.
Troy Jones: Eddie Murray.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yes.
Troy Jones: Yes.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: There's something about him. It's the chops.
Troy Jones: Eddie man. Yes. The chops man that he used to sit back there and He just...
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Oh, what a freaking bad ass.
Troy Jones: Oh, he was man, Eddie was mad... When Eddie would come up to bat, bro, I stopped everything I was doing.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: He was freaking magic. And he was, he wasn't a bad first baseman. Nah. And just the fact that he came back here. I think he hit his 500th while he was here.
Troy Jones: He did.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: There just, there's a lot of, and I just loved what an asshole he was to the press. I love that. He just like, he just knew bounds. Okay. I'm with you. I totally hear that. Okay. What's your favorite thing about Baltimore.
Troy Jones: Crabs.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Good answer. I've never had one in my entire life.
Troy Jones: Are you, what are you waiting for?
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: It's a Kosher thing.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Wait Kosher crabs.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: No such thing. Dude.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: You can't.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: No.
Troy Jones: They're man, they're coming.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: They're bottom feeders.
Troy Jones: They're bottom feeders.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah. So lived in Baltimore my whole life.
Troy Jones: Jeez.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Never a crab. Are they awesome.
Troy Jones: Dude.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Dude? Lobster looks better.
Troy Jones: Lobster looks better. But sometimes lobster. It's not as consistent as the crab.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: What about the tail? Well, dude, what about the tail.
Troy Jones: Of the lobster?
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah.
Troy Jones: It's gotta be cooked, right so much...
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: What up? Butter. Anything in butter Sauce. Is that a thing? You put them in butter sauce.
Troy Jones: I did... A little bit. It just, it's the Old Bay does it all. And it's the way it's cooked in the steam and in the Old Bay. That thing comes out perfect. Some people are used to prefer butter sauce. Some don't lobster. The reason why lobster's a problem for me, I like lobster, but I always, no one cooks it consistent.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: 'Cause I guess it's difficult.
Troy Jones: It is difficult.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Okay. Where's the best place in Baltimore? You can get a crab.
Troy Jones: I would say Seapride off Liberty Road.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: I love it. Liberty Road. Okay. Crab or crab cake?
Troy Jones: Crab cakes.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Just cakes.
Troy Jones: Just the cakes.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: You're not cracking that thing.
Troy Jones: Just the cakes.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Okay. So when you say...
Troy Jones: Crab meat, period. Crab.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Okay.
Troy Jones: And, but it's gotta be cooked Baltimore style.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Which means.
Troy Jones: It Means, the way they prepare with the Old Bay and how we approach it is different
now. You know, me being in Florida, they have crab cakes on everything.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Not a big deal. And?
Troy Jones: And I'm like...
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: This ain't Maryland.
Troy Jones: From a Maryland fan. I'm like is this real Maryland crab cakes? No sir. It's not. I'm like, that's what I thought. Take it off your menu.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Troy. You should be on the radio. Forget this training thing. I'll listen to this forever. Okay, last but not least.
Troy Jones: What's that?
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Your favorite thing about your daughter Raquel?
Troy Jones: She loves me.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Dude. Good. Okay. But that's not your favorite thing about her.
Troy Jones: She was the best athlete in the family. My boy's gonna be pissed with me.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Good answer. Listen, I've worked with two of two of your kids. She's a hell of an athlete.
Troy Jones: Yeah she's great.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: And a hell of a person. And she obviously comes by it, honestly. So Troy, thanks for being here. Can you tell everyone listening what you got coming up and how they can follow and learn from you?
Troy Jones: I have the education system coming up we're gonna be releasing the theme of creating the ultimate athlete and going over a lot of the progressions and concepts on how we approach things that's been successful for us over time. You're talking 30 plus years of research and talking to people beside that, I looked up to that gave me guidance and putting it all into one place. So it makes it easier for you just to approach training the athlete. That's the goal of it, because we're saturated in our community in regards to the information. We're gonna be releasing that in the fall.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Hell yeah.
Troy Jones: We have some collaborations coming up with some companies around the world that helps solve puzzles and speed training. I'm gonna wait to announce that, but Cool, you can check that on my Instagram at Coach Troy or Coach Troy_IG. You know, I'm old so I use this...
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: You're an old head.
Troy Jones: IG stuff, but I know it's Coach Troy Jones_. I think.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: We'll put it in the show notes.
Troy Jones: We'll put it in the show notes. And then my website is coachtroyjones.com. You can find out more information about me and how you know some of the, some of the athletes that I've worked with and some of the things I've done in the past. And thank you for having me, Yoni. It was a pleasure being here.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Oh dude. You, you've done just awesome stuff for the field. You've been a mentor and a friend to me, so I appreciate everything you've done for me. And man, every athlete I work with in Baltimore has worked with Troy Jones. Has heard of Troy Jones. If they haven't worked with him, their coach has worked with him and learned from him. So you're doing great stuff. This podcast is evidence of it because you've taught me a tremendous amount just in our time together today. I look forward to doing it again.
Troy Jones: Yeah, we need to do this again man.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Oh, what a freaking pleasure.
Troy Jones: We ran out of time.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: It might've been my favorite.
Troy Jones: Oh really? That's saying a lot man.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: I've only done two of these. Oh... No, I'm just kidding.
Troy Jones: I didn't mention I also, I can be found, I'm at House of the Athlete in Western Florida.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: In Mecca.
Troy Jones: It's a great place. It's probably one of the best facilities when you walk in the doors you've ever seen. So pay us a visit when you get a chance. We have a location in Western Florida and a location in Tampa, Florida.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Hell yeah. Troy, I appreciate you dearly man.
Troy Jones: Appreciate you man. Thanks for having me brother.
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