We are going to be doing stuff that’s not in the book today.

Dr. Mann got thrown a curve ball at The 2017 edition of The Seminar and came up large with bringing the latest info on VBT in an impromptu presentation. This lecture was a first, and it gave us a candid look at the basis of this method. After a review of the general physiological principles that are behind all the things we do as coaches, he ties it in to the actual science behind why VBT is used and what it actually is. He then shows us how they found it (VBT) to be effective in building speed and power longer than “traditional” methods, and then asks the questions that this research has brought on and provides the reasons there are limits to being able to continue to evolve the methods. This also includes the limitations in the present information on the topic, and what we, as a profession, can do to tie up those loose ends when we use this method. Dr. Mann encourages coaches to select the proper KPI’s to help assist in the break down the exercises they select as most important for their athletes development and to drive how coaches find the “zones” for those exercises. He finishes off with a step by step process on how to implement VBT with your athlete’s if you’re not using it presently, and need to establish Force-Velocity profiles for the exercises that the KPI’s you utilize dictate.

Any opportunity you get to learn from the expert on the topic is worth its weight in gold to me, but, when you have the expert who is going to question what they’re doing, discuss the limitations, and then share the directions is could continue to go forward and improve, that is priceless.