379: Clifton Harski on Athleticism and Adaptability in the Human Performance Model

Today’s podcast features Clifton Harski. Cliff has been in human performance for two decades and is highly active in movement education, leading over 450 workshops and certifications since 2011. Cliff is the COO for the Pain Free Performance Specialist Certification while developing and running the Functional Kettlebell Training Certification. Cliff developed a small group training fitness franchise, Fitwall, which had 7 locations across 5 states prior to Covid. He has over 15 certifications in movement training, strength and conditioning, and a masterful and inter-connected thought process on all things human movement, strength and performance. What is interesting with the human performance, strength and conditioning model is that it hinges heavily on things that a number can be tied to. Physical strength is very easy to track through various gym maxes, and conditioning is just as simple, based on whatever key test a coach decides to use with their group. At the same time, “movement” requires a greater intuition of the entire process of athleticism. For today’s podcast, Clifton discusses how he looks at the human performance industry in light of movement + strength + conditioning, and not just the latter two. He gives his model of the 3A’s (be able, be athletic, be adaptable, talks about the role of movement variability in training, speaks on rotational kettlebell training concepts, movement coaching, and much more. This episode puts the entirety of human performance coaching into perspective from an individual who has seen a massive range of training methods and philosophies. 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. 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Timestamps and Main Points 3:01 – Clifton’s journey to dunk on his birthday each year at 6’1”, now being 41 years old 9:27 – How to solve problems, using intuition, rather than memorizing exercise sequences 11:25 – Some of the big pillars of training that Cliff has compiled, throughout all of his movement certifications 18:55 – Approaching the “movement” aspect of training, for a general population athlete, versus a sport athlete 25:52 – Thoughts on how to technically coach “form” in exercises that are not an athlete’s actual sport movement 33:33 – The role of rhythmic and reflexive movement in training 36:00 – Cliff’s “BA” Progression: Be Able, Be Athletic, Be Adaptable 46:42 – Thoughts on working with high level athletes who are already “athletic”, in the gym, versus more general population type individuals who are getting very little, if any sort of athletic movement stimulus in their daily routine 53:34 – How Clifton approaches variability in training for clients 57:57 – How to coach movement based on variability, and working with errors, instead of a “universal perfect form” 1:01:15 – How Clifton fills gaps in training and performance in utilization of the kettlebell, particularly rotational pieces that can be adaptable to more athletic qualities 1:12:51 – How Clifton would look to approach training athletes, as opposed to general population type individuals Clifton Harski Quotes “Once a week I practiced dunking on a 9’ foot, for the skill acquisition element, with small balls, and big balls. Twice a week, I would do gym jumping with different approaches, different angles, different approaches. I’m a big believer that a peak expression of what we do is being adaptable” “BFR is monumentally important to me; if I do it two days a week, my knees play nice” “The strength and conditioning industry would be better if it was the “movement, strength and conditioning industry” “To move well means, can you do things on purpose?” “I think that people do need to be stronger, but I believe many people in the strength and conditioning industry over-value peak strength, for non-strength athletes” “The less options you have, the more problems you will have in living day to day, or in performing your sport” “I want to maximize (the amount of movement something has), I want to have it be something I am interacting with; that’s a big piece of athleticism; I’m interested in reflexivity, problem solving, explorative, adaptive” “I think that involving some type of rhythmic practice makes a ton of sense” “Be athletic means organizing and controlling more things” “Be Able (I want you to do the basics, sagittal lifts, bilateral lifts). Be Athletic (it means to me, doing and organizing more things) Be Adaptable (can you apply, can you go do something new… can I set up your kettlebell swing in a new stance or does it go to pieces, because if it goes to pieces, you are not adaptable” “I always get little bit of a giggle out of the minimalist crowd, do you expect to do more by doing less. I think that can work well for a short period of time; getting more out of a specific quality, but over the long term, I don’t think that’s going to work well” “I didn’t have any formal education on the kettlebell, but I liked how you could hold it in different positions” “Bilateral lifts are a huge part of what I do with clients, but they are not as rich in the timing, sequencing, dare I say athletic, execution” “For the upper body, it’s a little harder to define athleticism; and the way I like to define it is tool manipulation. Throw something, swing something, and it looks like clubs, maces, kettlebells, or go join one of these sword-fighting clubs, that sounds like fun. What’s unique to humans is manipulating tools” “Sometimes we treat people like they can’t do anything; you can’t do the basics, so we are going to do the basics forever… that’s boring; that dumbs down their movement potential. I like this idea of creating more opportunities, a better vocabulary” “Where some people go wrong is they throw too much crab at people out of the gate, which is where I go back to: Be Able, Be Athletic, Be Adaptable” “(Regarding error amplification in training) I make you feel it bad, so when you feel it good, I seem like a good coach” “Because a landmine falls at an angle, it is less predictable in how it is going to work, especially when you are new to it” “Contralateral kick-stand swings are a great way to go (for rotational athletic performance)” “I have a ton of people coming to my certs, and they generally have their shoulders rotated back and down, extension bias everything, and that’s how they try to do everything, and when I have them speed-skate, they have their knees and toes turned out, and they are like, 'I don’t know why I can’t go side to side'” “Sometimes it’s just that simple: 'Damn, that felt athletic'” About Clifton Harski Clifton Harski is the COO for the Pain Free Performance Specialist Certification, which also includes developing and running the Functional Kettlebell Training Certification. He has been a certification instructor for those two companies, but also for Animal Flow, Kettlebell Athletics, Spartan Obstacle course racing specialist, as well as teaching 88 workshops for Movnat. Since 2011 he has led over 450 workshops and certifications. Additionally he developed a small group training fitness franchise, Fitwall, which had 7 locations across 5 states prior to covid. In addition to his BS in Kinesiology he has obtained the following alphabet soup: NSCA PT, NSCA CSCS, NASM PT, NASM PET, NASM CES, ACE PT, FMS, CK-FMS, SFG, RKC, KBA, DVRT, FRC, CrossFit, CFFB, and CF-Mob.