375: Rich Burnett and John Garrish on Reactive Strength Development in Plyometric Training

Today’s podcast features sports performance coaches Rich Burnett and John Garrish. Rich Burnett is the President and Director of Athletic Development for Triple F Elite Sports Training in Knoxville, TN. He is also the Co-Founder and CEO of Athletic Assessment Technology, known more commonly as Plyomat, and has over 10 years of experience working in high school, and NCAA DI strength and conditioning. John Garrish is the Director of Athletic Development & Performance at North Broward Preparatory School in Coconut Creek, Florida, and the school’s Head Track and Field Coach. John was voted the 2022 National High School Strength Coach of the Year by the NHSSCA and has been a two-time guest previously on this podcast, speaking on a variety of plyometric and speed training topics. The standing vertical jump, or “countermovement” test is a very popular method of assessment for athletes and has been for some time. What the standing vertical leap test doesn’t tell you, is how fast an athlete gets off the ground, which is generally what matters in sport, more so than how high an athlete can reach. Reactivity is also a general coordination ability where athletes can both anticipate the ground and coordinate the proper muscle activation sequences to rebound themselves back into the air, which is critical for a variety of athletic jumping, throwing, cutting, and overall movement tasks. On today’s show, Rich and John will get into how they train reactive ability in plyometrics, with respect to ground contact times, and the function of power that being able to get off the ground quickly provides. We also discuss the differences between double and single-leg reactive strength tests and measurements, and how they correlate to athleticism, as well as the differences between simple plyometric movements based on contact time, versus more complex and coordinated movements, such as skips and gallops. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs, TeamBuildr, and the Plyomat 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. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at www.plyomat.net TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. I’ve continued to hear great things about the Teambuildr platform, and whether you are looking for an in-house training portal or an online training hub, be sure to check out Teambuildr training software. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 4:39 – What “Reactive Strength” is, and how Rich and John use it in the scope of their training programs. 18:32 – Comparing Double vs. Single-leg reactive strength measurements, and how single-leg RSI is a “gold standard” of explosive athletic ability. 35:00 – How Rich and John go about coaching or referencing ground contact times in plyometric exercises. 48:56 – Links between bilateral reactive strength scores, trap bar deadlift ability, and core strength. 58:07 – Thoughts on more “compressed” and simple, intense plyometrics, relative to more long, rhythmic, and coordinated plyometric-type movements. Rich Burnett and John Garrish Quotes “RSI provided a lot of value to the sprinters, triple jumpers, and athletes that had a high level of success at the state level, go figure, had the highest RSI values” Garrish “Just because a kid is good at the bilateral (RSI), doesn’t mean they are good at the single leg (RSI) and vice versa. One of our best pogo kids on the 5 hop is not good at the single leg one” Burnett “I have for sure noticed with the single leg RSI hop (single leg forward, onto one leg on the mat, land on two feet), that has had a huge correlation with my population with speed, with every sprint, in every split… even the early phase” Burnett “With a more advanced population, maybe there is more of a shift to where the elastic part shows out more in the back end; it’s also not a cyclic test (the single leg RSI)” Burnett “An athlete who had a high RSI value, or a high value in power skips for distance, that was an athlete who was going to succeed on the runway, or in athletics in general, regardless of sport” Garrish “If we using RSI, an athlete is going to use a more forefoot contact; if we are going out and trying to skip for height or distance, the ground contact is going to be more hind, or mid-foot” Garrish “.2 seconds is the threshold for me for bilateral ground contact times” Burnett “If I don’t have a jump mat, and want to see what athletes are elastic, have them jump rope, have them do a (speed) ladder” Burnett “A lot of (RSI) had a correlation with trap bar deadlift too, these same female athletes who were scoring really high (on RSI) were some of our highest relative trap bar deadlifters too, and Stu McGill did a study comparing RSI to core strength; lo and behold they are highly correlated with each other” Burnett Show Notes Single Leg RSI Jump Test https://www.youtube.com/shorts/6b3DVUtOico About Rich Burnett Rich Burnett is the President and Director of Athletic Development for Triple F Elite Sports Training in Knoxville, TN. He is also the Co-Founder and CEO of Athletic Assessment Technology, known more commonly as Plyomat. Rich came up with the idea to start Plyomat in the Spring of 2020 to be able to quantify Plyometric tasks in a simple and affordable way for himself, his athletes, and coaches all over the world to use. Rich came to Knoxville after a 6-year stint at Greater Atlanta Christian School outside of Atlanta, Georgia. At GAC, Rich trained 300+ High School student-athletes a day as Head of GAC’s renowned Performance Training program, which he took over from his mentor Gary Schofield Jr. Prior to joining the Spartans of GAC, Rich spent 5 years at the Division 1 level in his hometown of Corpus Christi, TX. He began his professional career as an Islander in 2010 as a Graduate Assistant S&C Coach. The Athletics Director then created a position of Assistant S&C Coach in order for Rich to stay in 2012, then Rich was eventually promoted to Head S&C Coach for the TAMU-CC Islanders from 2014-2016. During this span, Rich saw the program grow to be one of the premier programs in the Southland Conference. As a product himself of the Island University, Rich also worked in the NSCA-recognized Kinesiology department as an Adjunct professor and researcher, growing the S&C profession through sport science and curriculum design. About John Garrish John Garrish is the Director of Athletic Development & Performance at North Broward Preparatory School in Coconut Creek, Florida, and the school’s Head Track and Field Coach. John was recently voted the 2022 National High School Strength Coach of the Year by the National High School Strength Coach’s Association. A graduate of Wagner College and the University of North Texas, he is certified through the NSCA as a CSCS and through USAW as a Level-1 Sports Performance Coach. In addition to his role at North Broward, John has previously served as the Director of Athletic Performance with the Florida Rugby Union’s High-Performance Program 7’s team and as a volunteer coach with Delray Beach Sports’ Exhibitors. Coach Garrish has spoken at state and national events and serves as the National High School Strength Coaches Association Regional Board Member for the Southeast.