Stephen Walsh

Owner and Head of Performance at Atlas High Performance

[Stephen Walsh @sw_elite]

Bridging the gap between understanding whats important for Performance in sport & knowing how to coach it

Education focuses so much on measurable outcomes that coaches don't know to look for

This is the start of that change

[Stephen Walsh @sw_elite]

Taking a well earned break from arguing with Americans about S&C and how bad it is with most football/soccer teams ..

Too many opinions. Not enough educated people talking on the subject.

On the upside, shot a 95 & 100 in my last 2 rounds so we're getting somewhere..

[Stephen Walsh @sw_elite]

@Jass_Hugh42

[Stephen Walsh @sw_elite]

Still continues to baffle me how far behind football S&C feels sometimes that this comes as a surprise to people.

[Coach Wayland | Performance Expert | Craftsman @WSWayland]

People seem genuinely surprised to see Messi training and an upper session at that AND not a bunch of the usual football fitness chicanery

[Stephen Walsh @sw_elite]

@Fancy694 Exactly, morons ..

[Stephen Walsh @sw_elite]

@MoMetsMoMoney God given talent, no need for gym ..

[Stephen Walsh @sw_elite]

@slaywlrdsoldier You're not wrong..

[Stephen Walsh @sw_elite]

@jordyxcollins Because he's notoriously been used as the poster boy for why you dont need to do gym work as a footballer

I understand what the surprise

But S&C in football (in certain places) is still very bad ..

[Stephen Walsh @sw_elite]

@TheJgriff73 Are you referring to handegg as football?

[Stephen Walsh @sw_elite]

@michaelsnape 48 mins max versus about 55 mins of ball in play time ..

Granted different sports with very different demands ..

But dont tell me they dont lift heavy ..

People just don't understand the scope of how S&C should be done so they just assume you shouldn't do it as it doesn't help

[Stephen Walsh @sw_elite]

@Someone77457024

[Stephen Walsh @sw_elite]

@e11iotlfc @mccullagh_peter If what you've described happens , that poor programming and bad coaching ..

That's not strength and conditioning fault, its not the gym fault.

Its whoever told you to do it before trainings fault ..

[Stephen Walsh @sw_elite]

@e11iotlfc @mccullagh_peter Using some moderately heavy dumbbells to perform loaded jumps paired with some unloaded jumps as part of an S&C programme should not, if anything it should help with speed & power

What your referring to is doing a full lower strength session before training which is idiotic

[Stephen Walsh @sw_elite]

@TheJgriff73 Talking about the real football

[Stephen Walsh @sw_elite]

@spbwe11_2k At the elite level yet , but there's certain general qualities that playsrs would benefit from developing

Football/soccer players & managers especially, approach to S&C is so strange..

[Stephen Walsh @sw_elite]

@BladesBall @michaelsnape I don't disagree

But people will continue to celebrate players being lightning quick or ridiculously strong or being able to jump extremely high and yet villify those that try to develop those qualities in more athletes in that sport

It's a strange one ..

[Stephen Walsh @sw_elite]

@michaelsnape OK - but do you honestly consider soccer/football players not athletes?

NBA players play 82+ games per year & continue to lift heavy during the year

Too much volume of heavy strength training is bad yes, but its its not inherently bad on its own ..

[Stephen Walsh @sw_elite]

@FreddyL2719 Should strive to be an athlete in any sport - but don't say that too loud.. The purists about football fitness will hear ..

[Stephen Walsh @sw_elite]

@Sani________ I think there's an element of the fact that there's not a lot of teaching players to sprint fast and therefore don't work on it - so when they gym, they build muscle, get bigger and with no specific speed work, they do get slower

That's just poor programming

[Stephen Walsh @sw_elite]

@winterkommt 🤦🏽‍♂️

Nothing like the Internet to let everyone have their opinion on what they think is best and how things should be done ..

[Stephen Walsh @sw_elite]

@Tmac1872 I don't but this would be a pretty good template to follow . We use it for our athletic development groups during the week and its served us pretty well.

[Stephen Walsh @sw_elite]

@Sani________ Agreed. Just funny to me that literally every other sport does it but somehow soccer/football is immune from athletes getting stronger & more power and more resistant to injury in an already overloaded sport ..