364: Mark Hoover on Evolving Concepts in Game Speed and Agility Training

Today’s podcast features guest Mark Hoover. Mark works for SimpliFaster in a coaching and technical consulting capacity and is the Director of Athletic Performance at Metrolina Christian Academy in Indian Trail, North Carolina. Coach Hoover started his career coaching football at both the high school and NCAA levels. After spending nearly 20 years in the dual role of sport coach/strength coach (including 11 years as a head football coach), he made the transition to full-time strength and conditioning in 2015. Mark is a growth minded coach who is continually evolving his training process. Mark is continually evaluating his program based bettering one’s abilities on the field of play. The qualities it takes to be a weight room warrior are not the same as the fundamental speed and decision-making elements happening in the game itself. As an individual who was better in the weight room than he was in sport, Mark has dedicated his own process in a different direction for those athletes he works with, doing what he can to ensure that they are adept movers, in addition to being strong and robust. On today’s podcast, Mark talks about his approach to building game speed, rehearsed vs. problem solving agility movements, the role of basketball in overall movement development, and we finish with a brief chat on the role of the 1x20 strength system in Mark’s program. This show delved into some really important concepts of athlete development, and although it primarily discusses work done with high school athletes, the concepts are helpful for those on all levels of performance. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs and Sprint Acceleration Essentials. 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. To learn more about the Sprint Acceleration Essentials course, head to justflysports.thinkific.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 2:13 – Mark’s original athletic journey, and how it has shaped the coach he is today 10:34 – What Mark would change in his own athletic journey to help himself become a better overall athlete 17:28 – Mark’s evolution in game-speed development, and how he has incorporated this into his training programs 22:44 – Training “fundamental” game speed, and agility movements, versus letting athletes purely self-organize in reactive game speed situations 37:07 – How to know when “fundamental” game speed training is linking into organic game-speed ability 41:32 – What sports the “planned” agility type work is most applicable towards, such as football on offense 53:25 – Sports that may need game-speed training more than others, and the “roll 90 test” that helps Mark find what athlete’s reactive speed deficits are 1:00:00 – Mark’s take on the edges of the feet, as it pertains to agility and game speed movement 1:03:59 – Mark’s usage of the 1x20 strength training system, and how he has used it and progressed it in his coaching Mark Hoover Quotes “As it turns out, the only time I was a star on that football field was when I was in that weight room” “If I could go back, I would convince my younger self to play every sport possible” “When people talk about mental toughness, it’s very task specific” “We don’t do a whole lot of A-skips, or things, we do a lot of where we partner up, and one person stands an arm’s length behind another one, and one person has to hop hop squat, and it has to be a variable squat, on one leg, on two legs” “This is probably blasphemy, but I would say (game speed agility/movement) is more important to master than squat, bench, deadlift” “We still, even as we progress the drills, build in those basic, “feel” cues, and then when they take it over into the reactivity stuff, they know” “That is probably the toughest concept of the whole thing, is showing them here is how fast you can run, but here is how fast you run to stop and separate effectively, and juke” “We try to get our guys to play football, at a basketball speed” “In most sports, basketball is actually the goal, if we can get our guys to move like basketball players, they are going to be really good at football” “Kids can get lost in 5x5 basketball, but not in 3x3 basketball” “I wish I had a gym where we could lower the basketball rims, so we could have a slam dunk contest. Imagine the stimulus of a 3x3 basketball and a dunk contest!” “It’s crazy to me that people will say I’m going to spend 4 of my 5 days lifting weights, and then 1 day running around… if you want athletic ability, maybe think about flipping that” “Where they are in that central nervous system place where they are smiling and laughing and moving, there is going to be a big imprint there” “We are really trying to get rid of the pivot, where you get on the big toe and pivot and push through the toe” “(after some time using the 1x20 system) I’m looking around the room… these guys are jacked” “They won a state (football) championship where they never had an athlete do more than 2 sets of one exercise, ever” “If I could get a strength adaptation from 20 reps, why would I add a whole bunch of weight and try to get that same adaptation from 3 reps, because you are adding a higher cost” “You could get strength adaptations with 3’s and 5’s with younger athletes, but what is going to happen later on?” About Mark Hoover Mark Hoover works for SimpliFaster in a coaching and technical consulting capacity and is the Director of Athletic Performance at Metrolina Christian Academy in Indian Trail, North Carolina. Coach Hoover started his career coaching football at both the high school and NCAA levels. After spending nearly 20 years in the dual role of sport coach/strength coach (including 11 years as a head football coach), he made the transition to full-time strength and conditioning in 2015. Coach Hoover holds bachelor’s degrees in communications and physical education and is fully certified in K–12 social studies and physical education. He is currently pursuing an MS in Exercise Science. He is a USAW Level 1 and 2 Certified Advanced Sports Performance Coach, as well as an NASM Performance Enhancement Specialist.