Ep. 15: “Jump Training” w/ Joel Smith
In episode 15, I am joined by one of the most interesting minds in the performance world, Joel Smith. Joel, founder of Just Fly Sports, is someone that I’ve looked up to and learned from for years now, so it was an honor to get him on the show to talk jump training for hoopers.
Joel has coached 2 national champions, multiple All-Americans and school record holders in his time as a track coach. In the realm of strength and conditioning, his programs have assisted 5 athletes to Olympic berths that produced 9 medals and a world record performance at Rio in 2016.
Aside from coaching and training, Joel is also a podcast host as well. His podcast, Just Fly Performance Podcast, is a premier source of info for the performance world — it’s hundreds of episodes deep, spanning across 6+ years of podcasting.
Joel and I start off the conversation about his podcasts, previous book & course releases and some general talk about coaching before transitioning into some deep topics on jump training.
We talk about how athletes should approach their training and what jump styles work best for certain types of athletes. We cover all of the different jump styles and how you can cater your training to those, if needed. We dig deep into a rabbit hole of rhythm and coordination, and why professional athletes may lack some of these basic attributes due to their elite talent at a young age. Lastly, we get into the topic of the relationship between your feet and the ground before, during and after a jump — which was my personal favorite part of the show.
The way Joel sees movement and talks about movement is next level. I know you guys will love this episode and gain a ton of value from it. Make sure you check Joel out on Instagram and check out his website to learn more about his coaching!
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