358: Mark McLaughlin on Play-Based Warmups, Athletic Mastery and Aerobic Capacity Building

Today’s podcast features Mark McLaughlin. Mark is the founder of Performance Training Center, and currently works as a physical preparation/strength coach in the Lake Oswego school district. Mark has had a diverse sporting history as a youth, and has been active in the field of physical preparation since 1997. Mark has trained over 700 athletes at all competitive levels, from Olympic to grade school athletes, and has worked with organizations such as the NFL, MLB, NBA, NCAA universities, high schools, and youth sports. The field of sports performance makes a lot of pendulum swings. We go from over-conditioning athletes to denouncing conditioning. From static stretching, to not stretching, to reconsidering stretching, to name a few. In the process of the swings, we do trend upwards (such as saving athletes from over-conditioning based practices with poor motor learning tactics). At the same time, I don’t believe we ask ourselves often enough if we are letting the pendulum swing too far. What I’ve found is that for every rule that seems to be created, there are instantly going to be athletes, or entire training groups that break that rule. The only way to understand it all, is to constantly be expanding your viewpoints. We need to look at the broader mechanisms of biology, psychology, motor learning, and the long-term developmental principles of athletes to really gain wisdom in our guidance of athletes and individuals to their highest potential. On today’s podcast, Mark talks about the polarity of his physical preparation process, on one end, giving the kids a dynamic pedagogical, free play-oriented training experience, and on the other, using technology to assess biological readiness markers and preparation levels for their sport. Mark finishes the show speaking on aerobic readiness as a recovery marker for explosive sport training. No matter where you are on the sport training spectrum, be it sport coaching, motor learning or purely physical development, there is a lot to be learned from Mark’s broad spectrum of knowledge in this episode. This show connects physical preparation with a depth of true sports development Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs. 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 2:57 – The diversity of groups that Mark works with, from football, to alpine skiing, to dance and many places in between 10:38 – Thoughts on fluidity and rhythm in the development of athleticism and even within injury prevention 17:16 – The use of gymnastics in athlete robustness and development 22:25 – Mark’s thoughts on helping to train kids in light of motor learning and a regular lack of general physical preparation 28:03 – The role of “economic constraints” in creativity and sport development 40:05 – The benefits of multi-age/multi-grade education, as well as athletic development and play possibilities, as well as a discussion of the Norwegian sport model and the success of Erling Haaland 49:16 – Mark’s system in terms of delaying intensive training stimuli in an athlete’s long term development 55:16 – The role of aerobic training in Mark’s system for team sport athletes, in capacity building and recovery 1:01:27 – “Zone 0” training in Mark’s system, inspired by the work of Landon Evans 1:05:37 – How to determine if athletes are in a resting sympathetic, or parasympathetic state for their training and workouts Mark McLaughlin Quotes “In dance, their events last two minutes, but their heart rates hit 200… there is a psychological driver of heart rates” “I actually use our dance team to teach our football players how to dance; sport and movement is rhythm” “Training with music is a big thing, gymnastics is a big thing, dance; I mean there are simple dance movements in the warmup that we do with all of the kids, and it is going to force them to learn a new skill” “Durability equals availability” “Ronaldinho grew up playing barefoot, and his dad said it was to improve his touch, but really, they didn’t have money to get shoes for him” “The first 30 minute of each (training) day is free play… then they come in and we start the formal session” “I have training sessions where I don’t speak for 4-5 minutes” “I let them be creative, because coaches want them to be creative on the field” “Wearing felt boots taught him to move at different speeds, and anticipate the opponent differently; these economic constraints made him the player he was” “When people say I have to run a 4.5s 40 yard dash, or get strong to do this, I think that’s such a narrow look at things; human performance is so much more than that” “When they would select teams, he would make sure he was on a team with less talent, so he would have to play on another level to win. I made kids play football and catch with their off hand… keep making it harder and harder so you get used to these difficult situations” “'Joy for sport, for all', that’s based on the Norwegian sport model” “Being a great human being is at the top of our pyramid” “In the Norwegian youth system, I don’t know if they even keep score until age 12-13” “There are a couple of things I look at when intensifying training, 1: How do they adapt to it when you look at heart rate variability” “If they have a resting heart rate of 75-80, we need to get them down through some extensive modes” “At the high school level, it’s kind of crazy all this velocity based training, it’s all output driven, which I get to a certain point, but team sport you need some biological development of your hormonal system, your cardiac system, your mitochondria, both the slow and the fast twitch fibers, how can you handle stress, which is a totally different training modality” “I can get guys powerful and fast, that’s not an issue, (the question is) how can I build their reserves to withstand a 3 hour game” “If you are always sympathetic driven at rest, you are not going to perform well, you are not going to recover well, so I look at it as, we are going to improve that aerobic system to improve your autonomic function, so you can recover better from harder work” “That’s why I like the long, extended warmups for kids because it’s going to give them that (cardiac) stimulus, because they are constantly moving” “If you are sympathetic over-reaching, we’re not going to go out and do a ton of sprints” “Right now, I would say on average the guys that are testing, the football players, the average heart rate is like 52” “We can facilitate the aerobic system even more through oxidative work of the slow fibers, slow weight-room movements at 4 seconds up 4 seconds down” “If players have a good aerobic base, they are not going to get into their glycolytic tissues so fast” “One of our athletes improved his standing two leg triple jump from 28’11”, to 30.5” and he was doing 3x a week of this oxidative work plus 5000 yards of tempo a week, and he’s 215lbs, and his resting heart rate was 46 this morning” Show Notes Johannes Klaebo Norway, Cross Country Skiing Technique https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8lw_tla_88 Erling Haaland and “As Many as Possible, as Long as Possible, as Good as Possible” https://footblogball.wordpress.com/2020/03/08/erling-braut-halland-as-many-as-possible-as-long-as-possible-as-good-as-possible/ Pavel Datsyuk “Becoming the Magic Man” https://www.researchgate.net/publication/357242592_Pavel_Datsyuk_Learning_Development_and_Becoming_the_Magic_Man About Mark McLaughlin Mark McLaughlin is the founder of Performance Training Center, and currently works as a physical preparation/strength coach in the Lake Oswego school district. He attended college at the College of Sante’Fe in New Mexico and is an Oregonian residing in Portland. Mark's love for athletics grew during his teenage years, where he participated and competed in various sports. Through his sports experience and education, he developed a strong dedication to the overall well-being of athletes. This dedication led him to continually educate himself in athletic performance enhancement, and he has been active in the field since 1997. Mark has trained over 700 athletes at all competitive levels, from Olympic to grade school athletes, and has worked with organizations such as the NFL, MLB, NBA, NCAA universities, high schools, and youth sports. Along with his online training and consulting services, Mark also speaks at various organizations locally, nationally, and internationally.