Derek M. Hansen - January 2025

As you approach the latter years of your career, you begin to review many of the decisions, philosophies and methodologies that you adopted in your younger years, wondering if you made the right choices and how circumstances could have possibly turned out different.  Did I attend the right schools?  Did I train too hard and fall short of my potential?  Did I choose the right career?  Should I have travelled more?  Am I a good parent?  It certainly is odd that you may find yourself with more questions than answers despite all of your accumulated wisdom and experiences.

The same goes for all of my coaching decisions over the past three decades.  Have I followed the correct philosophies and protocols?  Did I get the results I was hoping for?  As such, I am now reviewing a good deal of the training principles that have formed my approach, including the high-low approach to sprint and speed training that I have put into practice for the past 25 years.

One o...

Derek M. Hansen - September 2024

As more and more coaches and organizations are placing an emphasis on movement speed as part of physical preparation, strategic planning and athlete recruitment, we are seeing a greater commitment to protocols and programs directed at profoundly improving acceleration and sprint abilities.  Speed development has become an industry in itself in the last decade with new ‘experts’ arriving on the scene every year.  However, in the pursuit of enhanced performances and an expanded industry, we often see the pendulum swing too far to one side, with prior conventional wisdom potentially left behind as new ‘innovations’ are introduced.  The hype around an approach or new exercise protocol often precedes and overwhelms the true path to high performance and sustainable results.

In the case of improving sprint acceleration and top speed, it appears the last 15 years has seen an overwhelming shift to resisted acceleration methods being used as a primary stimulus ...

Derek M. Hansen - January 2024

As someone who is regularly involved in continuing education events and the professional development of coaches, fitness professionals and rehabilitation practitioners, I consistently find myself asking how I can better contribute to the ongoing education of motivated individuals.  It is one thing to be considered an ‘expert’ or a source of information on a particular topic or area.  It is quite another to actually make a significant change in the motivation, aptitude and abilities of a working professional through a weekend course or a conference presentation.  How can we make a lasting impact on the professional development of a person if you are not consistently around them on a daily or weekly basis, guiding their efforts and providing feedback at key moments?

We often hear about the 10,000 hour rule and the value of apprenticeships and internships to gradually mold young professionals into respected leaders in their field.  An extended period of ti...

Derek M. Hansen - September 2023

This past summer I have spent more time going back to my roots and watching the sport of Track and Field, also referred to ‘Athletics’ outside of North America.  All of my kids are still competing in the sport and I still have lots of friends coaching at all levels.  It was enjoyable to watch a sport where individual performances and results based on quantifiable times, distances and heights determined success and gratification.  Of course it is always nice to win and take home a medal.  However, achieving a measurable improvement in your discipline can still be rewarding and worth the thousands of hours of time and effort.

When you have had the chance to work with a multitude of sports over the years, it is both easy and embarrassing to try to take credit for the success of a team.  The aggravating reality of the situation is that there are so many factors that go into achieving a championship season.  Rarely is one person the source of the achiev...

Derek M. Hansen - August-September 2023

Fear-mongering is one of the best ways to get people’s attention these days.  It’s being used effectively by all groups – most notably, politicians, economists and virologists – so why not take full advantage of this phenomenon when advising strength and conditioning coaches, fitness experts and rehabilitation professionals.  Calling something a ‘disorder’ is also a good way to formalize and articulate a problem in society.  So now that I’ve got your attention, let’s get down to business.

I’m going to come out and say it right now.  I believe there are far too many exercises out there, and it is creating a problem for both athletes and the general population.  Injuries are continuing to rise at unacceptable rates in both of these groups, and it is debatable if any  performance improvements we are seeing are the result of savvy exercise programming versus general technological advances.  What is absolutely clear to me is that people love new ...

Derek M. Hansen - August 2023

Now that we are in the midst of NFL pre-season training camps, the combination of heavy training and competition for a roster spot tends to be a fertile ground for catastrophic injury.  While soft-tissue injuries such as hamstring pulls, calf strains and low back pain are a common side effect of training camp, it is the season and/or career ending injuries involving joints and connective tissues that are much more concerning to players and the teams’ head offices.

In particular, we are discussing the dreaded Achilles tendon rupture.  If you have ever been present when the thickest tendon in the human body decides to unravel instantaneously, the sound of the ‘pop’ that occurs will haunt you forever, especially if you are a middle-aged former athlete.  Individuals who have had the unfortunate experience of having their Achilles tendon rupture during an athletic pursuit will comment that the injury initially felt as though they were kicked or hit with a ...