Joe Dores

Individualized training, nutrition guidance, and direct feedback on your lifts. Built around you. No cookie-cutter programs or long-term contracts. $250/month. joedores.com

Pain doesn’t mean someone needs to stop exercising. Modify the training, find what they can tolerate, and build from there. Help people build confidence, stay active, and get back to doing what they enjoy. Sometimes people don’t need to stop training. They need a better plan.

Hand-supported plyometrics are a great tool for getting athletes back into true plyometric work. You can reduce some of the loading demands while still working on reactivity and the stretch-shortening cycle before progressing to unsupported jumps.

If I have less than 4 days to train, I just do full body. Warm up, foam roll and stretch, med ball work and locomotion, then 3 supersets covering upper and lower push/pull. Finish with some core and arms. 45 minutes and I’m done.

I don’t train at 5am because I want to be tough or prove anything. I do it so I can be there for my family the rest of the day. It’s not ideal, but it works for me right now. Sometimes you just have to make training fit your life.

Your program is a plan, not a contract. If an athlete isn’t responding the way you expected, you need to be able to adjust. Being a good coach isn’t about proving your program works. It’s about figuring out what works for the athlete in front of you.

Understanding why training works will take you further than blindly following another coach’s system. Read the research, understand the principles, and learn how to apply them to the athlete in front of you.

The foot ladder has done a disservice to hockey players. The first step is about producing force. Get strong, learn to apply force into the ice, and attack it. You don’t get faster on the ice by getting better at dancing around a ladder.

Progressions and regressions aren’t equations. Athletes don’t automatically earn the next exercise after a set amount of time. Exercises are skills that need to be taught and learned. Progress or regress based on the athlete’s ability, not an arbitrary timeline.

Weight room design is one of the most important decisions in a team setting. If equipment collects dust or only allows one athlete to use it at a time, sell it and reinvest in your program. Build for athlete development, not recruiting tours.

Power is a quality not a method. Jumping, Olympic lifts, and med ball throws are exercises and using them doesn’t mean you’re developing power. Understand what you’re trying to develop before choosing how to train it. Turner et al. (2020) eprints.chi.ac.uk/id/eprint/…

Stop worrying about pleasing other coaches or getting their approval. Do your job. Make decisions based on what your athletes need, and stand behind them.

Some methods will never be practical in the setting you work in. Recognizing that and finding another way to develop the qualities your athletes need is what separates good coaches.

When coaching hockey, I individualized exercises across the roster based on what each athlete could perform pain-free with good technique. Same movement pattern, different exercise if needed. The goal was to develop the same physical qualities, not force exercises on athletes.

You don’t need a more complicated training program. You need a program that fits your goals, your schedule, your training history, and your ability to recover. Then you need a coach who knows when to adjust it. That’s the difference between getting a program and being coached.

Some strength coaches confuse intimidation with coaching. Yelling at and embarrassing athletes doesn’t make you a better coach. Research links controlling coaching to poorer athlete motivation. You’re there to teach athletes and help them improve. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3172…

Many times coaches overcomplicate things in the weight room. Get your setup right, get in the right position, and learn how to execute the exercise. Before changing an exercise, make sure you’re actually doing it right.

Understanding your sport’s demands should guide your training. For example, hockey players need to accelerate, change direction, produce force, and repeat high-intensity efforts throughout a game. Train to develop the qualities those demands require. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3651…

One of the biggest mistakes in S&C is assuming an athlete needs to be good at an exercise before it can benefit them. My job is to teach athletes how to lift, build proficiency, and develop the physical qualities they need for their sport. Don’t confuse skill with usefulness.

Saying athletes aren’t good in the weight room, so we shouldn’t try to make them better, is lazy coaching. Do better. James et al. (2023) outline five strength qualities. Identify what your athletes need and train for the demands of their sport. Study: ro.ecu.edu.au/ecuworks2022-2…