399: Alex Kanellis on Explosive Rotational Strength Development

More show notes at https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-399/ Today’s podcast is with Alex Kanellis. Alex is the founder of Landmine University. He is a former state champion wrestler, Iowa Gatorade Player of the Year (Football), and University of Iowa football player. He has been a scholastic strength coach, wrestling and football coach, as well as having spent time as a performance coach for Weck Method. Currently, Alex’s focus is on training youth wrestlers, as well as his work with Landmine University. Strength training for athletes is fundamentally basic. The powerlift variations, as well as Olympic lifts recruit a large amount of muscle mass and are fundamentally stimulating. At the same time, with the potential to be over-used, “functional” training has emerged, offering light-weight movements with high demands for balance and coordination. Landmine oriented training movements offer a happy medium in a high potential for force application, a rotational and arc-like orientation, as well as short learning curves (unlike the longer learning curve of the Olympic lifts). On today’s podcast Alex goes into his experiences that brought him into landmine training, and how he uses the method with athletes. He also gets into the advantages and unique aspects of the method, and touches on the transfer points to a number of athletic movements and practices. Alex touches on isometric landmine variations, as well as gets into GPP methods for young athletes in general, and what we can learn from the athleticism of wrestling and combat sports. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs, TeamBuildr and the Plyomat. TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. Use the code “JUSTFLY” for a free 30 day trial of the TeamBuildr software at https://teambuildr.com. 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