331: Lee Taft on The Flow of Sport Skill Development and Speed Training Integration

Today’s episode features Lee Taft. Lee is one of the most highly respected sport speed coaches in the world. His methods come from wisdom accumulated not just in sports performance, but also in physical education, sport coaching, as well as observing changes in athletes between the 1990s, into the modern day. Lee has been a three-time guest on the podcast, a mentor to many high-level coaches, and has incredible wisdom on the level of sport movement. In a world of specialists, athlete’s processes of mastery can start to become “atomized” (my new favorite word). Many modern athletes have a sport coach, a skill coach, a strength coach and a speed coach. At the end of the day, an athlete only has so much time, and all training is only as effective as it can be integrated. Training effectiveness is also magnified by the level of which the athlete’s learning process can be leveraged. Hand holding athletes through skill acquisition, or playing games on early levels to win, rather than to learn skills, create early ceilings of performance. What we need in the world of sport is an intuitive, interconnected model by which to better let flow the natural abilities of an athlete. To do so, having coaches like Lee who have experience in so many facets of movement, across a wide age group, multiple sports, and multiple decades is crucial. We need to understand movement and motor learning in sport if we are to truly understand speed in sport. On the podcast today, Lee details his process in terms of sport skills, constraints, and then when to step in and “connect the dots” on the level of external speed and strength development. Lee talks about his use of sport itself as “the screen” for athletes, developmental principles of sport skills, and assessing “hardware” vs. “software” limitations in athletic movement. He also detailed his own process of sport development with his own children, and finishes with an important discussion on how we can change the developmental sport system for the better through travel-ball alternatives. Lee is a sage in the world of sport, and we all can become better through his teaching. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Lost Empire Herbs, and the Elastic Essentials online course. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points: 4:28 – What Lee currently does in his own sport and movement practice 12:43 – If Lee could design an optimal environment for an athlete to develop through what that development would look like 17:34 – How Lee worked natural, simple speed development into the flow of game play with his own children 24:58 – Lee’s thoughts on the training environment athletes are developing skills and speed in 36:21 – Lee’s triage of games, constraints and more focused speed drills, in athletic development 44:36 – Some key things Lee is looking for within a game that Lee uses to assess an athlete’s movement potential 52:24 – Lee’s thoughts on “hardware” vs. “software” in athletic movement, and how he integrates “roll and reaches” to help develop the ability to level change 1:02:07 – More specific instances and practical examples of the effectiveness of speeding up a skill 1:10:35 – Lee’s take on a new model of developmental sport, and how more of the pure form of community and competition can be implemented as an alternative to the travel-ball model “I like doing a lot of stuff with reaction balls and d-balls (in my own training)” “(visual/perceptive/reactive work)creates the stuff that goes beyond the athlete, the athletes who things really quickly and moves, and I don’t think we develop that now as much as we used to when kids had more free play” “I can tell you to run from this cone to that, to that, but you’ll never do that in a game” “What we need to get more of; I love competition, competition is a good thing. Little toddlers compete for a toy, 7 year olds compete for the swing set… we’ve got to use that” “When you take 30-35 kids and you talk to them a lot, you lose them, so I get them in a game right away” “My model is, let them play, find opportunities and guide, and then let them play again” “With them, it wasn’t about a speed training session, it was about playing a game” “summary feedback is “what did you think”, “how did you feel”?” “A frisbee is great, because if you can teach the kid how to let it get air, the kid can learn how to run and track it” “The greatest athletes have the ability to adapt and adjust to their environment, they adapt really really well” “Growing up in the 70’s we had a lot of sports we just made up” “Let’s say we are watching this team play, and the missing link is some kind of quickness component, or speed component, or a lack of strength, now we get a little more into the nitty-gritty, because if you or I have the tools to be able to solve the problems for those kids (strength & speed programs) it’s not doing our jobs not to access that skillset that we have” “I never get away from the play, because the play is my assessment” “Softball, baseball, tennis, volleyball, they have to change levels constantly, and they have to be stable and dynamic” “There is no reason we can’t have (local) competition with small sided games, such as basketball 3x3, or soccer 4x4” Show Notes Polish Weightlifting GPP in the Woods (See 1-5’) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVdLmJ_bYCQ Deion Sanders 60 Minutes Feature https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz1YfvAw5Ow Roll and Reach Drill https://www.youtube.com/shorts/VQ_Uw58hjts Lee’s Basketball Game Model and Speed Specialist Pages https://www.basketballspeedspecialist.com/courses/the-basketball-game-model https://www.basketballspeedspecialist.com/ About Lee Taft Lee Taft, known to most simply as “The Speed Guy”, is highly respected as one of the top athletic movement specialists in the world. He has taught his multi-directional speed methods to top performance coaches and fitness professionals all over the world. Since 1989, Lee has taught foundation movement to beginning youngsters and helped young amateur athletes to professional athletes become quicker, faster and stronger. With the release of Ground Breaking Athletic Movement in 2003, Lee revolutionized the fitness industry with his movement techniques for multi-directional speed. His innovative approach to training has impacted how athletic movement speed is taught. Lee brought to light the importance and fine points of the “Plyo Step”, “Hip Turn”, “Directional Crossover Step” and athletic stance. According to Lee, “Speed and agility done right is about making sure we marry the natural movements athletes have with effective and efficient body control to maximize speed and quickness”.