Just Fly Performance Podcast

In this episode, Julien explores resilience, energy allocation, and the deeper forces that shape athletic performance. He explains the phylogenetic hierarchy of the nervous system, how prior experiences influence behavior, and why emotions are better understood as questions rather than answers. The conversation also dives into competition, training environments, attention, and the role of meaningful challenge in athletic development. Throughout the discussion, Julien offers a unique perspective on performance that extends far beyond traditional strength and conditioning. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength

Today’s guest is Vern Gambetta. Vern is a world-renowned sports performance coach with over 50 years of experience across Olympic, professional, and collegiate sport. A pioneer in modern athletic development, he’s known for blending movement skill, strength, and long-term athlete development into a practical, coach-driven system. The more coaching and training leans into data points, KPI’s, rigid standards and an overly specialized model, the more true athleticism, movement and skill development gets choked out. By understanding all aspects of the athletic movement equation, we can give athletes a better total experience in their sport and movement practices. In this episode, Vern leans into his wisdom for a wide-ranging conversation on movement, skill, and the art of coaching. With over 50 years of experience across Olympic and professional sport, Vern shares insights on functional training, sport specificity, plyometrics, rhythm, and why skill expression, not rigid technical models, drives true performance. From jump rope to the dot drill to developing movement “signatures,” this episode is a masterclass in coaching the athlete in front of you. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength and the Just Fly Sports Online Courses Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer Use code “justfly20” for 20% off of LILA Exogen Wearable resistance gear at www.lilateam.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 3:00 – The Birth of Functional Training 10:39 – The Nature of Fascia 15:33 – Training Spectrum 28:16 – General vs. Specific Movements 38:00 – The Art of Movement 49:31 – Rhythm and Movement 55:15 – Plyometric Training Perspectives 59:50 – The Role of Technology 1:13:16 – Sketching Athletic Sequences About Vern Gambetta Vern Gambetta is a pioneering sports performance coach, educator, and author widely recognized as one of the foundational voices in modern athletic development. With more than five decades of coaching experience, Gambetta has worked across track & field, baseball, swimming, cricket, soccer, basketball, and rugby at youth, collegiate, professional, and Olympic levels. A former track and field coach and longtime advocate for holistic athlete development, Gambetta helped popularize the concept of “functional training” in the 1980s, while consistently emphasizing that training must serve the demands of sport, not marketing trends. His work integrates biomechanics, skill acquisition, rhythm and movement literacy, strength training, and long-term athletic development into a unified system. Gambetta has coached at the Olympic level, worked in Major League Baseball, and served as a consultant to professional teams worldwide. He is the author of multiple books, including Athletic Development and Building the Complete Athlete, and is a sought-after international speaker known for blending science, experience, and practical coaching wisdom. Above all, Gambetta advocates coaching the athlete in front of you, prioritizing movement quality, adaptability, and lifelong development over rigid systems or trends.

Today’s guest is Zac Cupples, PT, DPT, OCS, CSCS, a physical therapist and strength coach known for bridging rehabilitation and performance. He’s the founder of ZacCupples.com and is respected for translating complex concepts around respiration and movement mechanics into practical tools coaches and clinicians can immediately apply to improve efficiency, reduce pain, and enhance performance. The bridge between sports performance rehab is an important one. In the midst of movement mechanics that drive good rehab, and high intensity lifting, lies the knowledge that can help athletes make continual gains while staying robust and healthy for their sport. On today’s show, Zac explores how an athlete’s structure influences movement, strength training, and even injury risk. He shares his track background and how it shaped his coaching, then unpacks concepts like narrow vs. wide “ISA” builds, why some athletes struggle to feel their hamstrings in traditional lifts, and how tools like front loading, box squats, machines, and sprinting can solve it. He also digs into long-duration isometrics, mobility vs. flexibility, and finishes with a fun lightning round. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength. Use the code “LILAJUSTFLY10” for 10% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 1:23 – Early Athletic Experiences 5:36 – Muscle Activation Challenges 11:22 – Structural Constraints and Movement 25:17 – Rethinking Traditional Strength Training 29:17 – The Role of Machines in Training 36:54 – Weight Shifts and Mechanics 40:45 – Long Hold Activities in Rehab 53:21 – Internal vs. External Rotation 59:27 – Flexibility vs. Mobility 1:07:06 – Lightning Round Questions 1:14:04 – Future Plans and Coaching Focus Zac Cupples Quotes "You got to preserve moving fast because that's how you catch yourself from falling." "It assumes everyone has the same body but no two people are going to perform both of those movements the same way, and it's not going to load the same way." "I start the majority of people with a box squat, because the way I think about a hinge is it's different from a squat because the hips are going to be moving more along that horizontal path." "It's way more useful to think, am I moving up and down? Am I moving side to side? And then just pick exercises within what a person has available." "If someone can't produce certain rotations, and I know that you need those rotations to do this movement, you probably got to find something else to train that pattern within their constraints." "You just have to find the hinge variation that they can execute. And if they don't have much to do that, you have to create constraints." About Zac Cupples Zac Cupples, PT, DPT, OCS, CSCS is a physical therapist, strength coach, and educator specializing in human movement, respiration, and performance optimization. He is the founder of ZacCupples.com and has become widely known for translating complex biomechanical and neurophysiological concepts into practical strategies that clinicians and coaches can immediately apply. Zac earned his Doctorate in Physical Therapy from Marquette University and is board certified as an Orthopedic Clinical Specialist. He has completed extensive post-graduate education through the Postural Restoration Institute (PRI) and integrates principles of respiration, pelvic mechanics, thoracic positioning, and neuromuscular control into both rehabilitation and performance training. Through his online courses, seminars, and educational content, Zac has influenced thousands of clinicians and coaches worldwide. His work bridges the gap between rehab and high performance, helping athletes move more efficiently, reduce pain, and unlock higher levels of strength and speed through better positional awareness and strategic breathing. Zac currently treats clients and consults internationally, while continuing to produce educational resources aimed at elevating the standard of movement practice in both clinical and performance settings.

Today’s guest is Paul Cater. Paul is a veteran strength and conditioning coach with over 25 years of experience spanning professional baseball, collegiate athletics, and high-performance team environments. Paul is known for blending traditional strength training with rhythm, timing, gravity, and a deeply relational, art-driven approach to coaching. His work challenges purely formulaic or data-driven models and puts the live training session back at the center of athlete development. In an era where training is increasingly automated, optimized, and reduced to dashboards and numbers, it’s easy to lose the human element that actually drives performance. This conversation explores how rhythm, feel, load, and coaching presence shape not just outputs, but adaptability, resilience, and long-term athletic growth. If you’ve ever felt that “something is missing” in modern training environments, this episode speaks directly to that gap. In this episode, Paul and I explore training as a live performance rather than a static program. We discuss using early isometric and axial loading as a readiness anchor, how downbeat rhythm and eccentric timing drive better outputs, and why chasing numbers too aggressively can undermine real performance. We dive into music, movement, art, and coaching intuition, and how creating alive, rhythmic sessions builds stronger athletes, and better coaches, without relying solely on rigid protocols or excessive monitoring. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength and Lila Exogen. Use the code “LILAJUSTFLY10” for 10% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 0:00 – Mountain Training Inspirations 6:00 – The Role of Community in Training 12:15 – Performance and the Observer Effect 23:27 – Shifting Training Protocols 32:32 – Balancing Data and Intuition 42:14 – Efficacy of Isometric Training 47:23 – Five-Minute Wonders 53:28 – The Art of Adaptation 57:44 – Embracing the Subconscious 1:28:06 – A Playlist for Performance Quotes from Paul Cater "We're really just trying to create meaning with our training, to justify it to other people, or wives, or coaches, or whatever, but also to really harness what the weight's doing or the external stimulus is doing for us" "I do approach it like it's a performance. A coaching session. And if you pawn so much off to the to the robotics or the formula, it becomes almost like it's a prison." "20 minutes of rolling around on the ground and trying to do the stretching warm-ups- I've just almost eliminated those. Full stop. I can't remember the last time I did an active dynamic or same static stretching things like that." "Can you match time, and beat? ...And that's really everything, because what else is there in the transfer of training if it's not related to that timing tempo and rhythm" "I use the tech throughout the session quite heavily actually, but I don't use it as the primary validator or guider." "The world's greatest warm-up for me is always, we've called it bartending. Where the progression is how much can you hold on your back for five minutes... I just do whatever. Walk around. Rules, you just can't touch the bar to the ground." "Get to that at that perfect point where you feel the adaptation happen then you walk away, and you don't need to do anymore. Like what's the minimal dose you need to do?" About Paul Cater Paul Cater is a veteran strength and conditioning coach with over 25 years of experience working across professional baseball, collegiate athletics, tactical populations, and high-performance team sport environments. He has served in leadership and performance roles with organizations including Major League Baseball, NCAA programs, and private high-performance facilities, and is known for his ability to blend high-intensity strength training with rhythm, coordination, and ecological skill development. Paul’s coaching philosophy emphasizes gravity, timing, and rhythm as foundational drivers of athletic performance. Rather than relying solely on rigid programming or isolated testing, his sessions are built around early exposure to meaningful load, isometric and inertial work, and rhythmic constraints that reveal readiness, alignment, and intent in real time. His work integrates elements of sprint mechanics, change of direction, elastic strength, and movement artistry to create training environments that are both physically effective and psychologically engaging. Currently working in a collegiate performance setting, Paul is deeply interested in coaching as a live, relational craft; treating each session as a performance that develops not just outputs, but awareness, adaptability, and ownership in athletes. His approach bridges traditional strength training with concepts from sport, art, music, and survival movement, offering a perspective that challenges purely automated or data-driven models of performance.

Today’s guest is Aaron Uthoff. Aaron Uthoff, PhD, is a sport scientist and coach whose work sits right at the intersection of biomechanics, motor learning, and sprint performance. His research digs into acceleration, force application, and some less conventional forms of locomotion, including backward sprinting, with the goal of connecting solid science to what actually works on the field, track, or in rehab. Backward running shows up all the time in warm-ups and general prep. Most of the time, though, it’s thrown in casually, without much thought about what it might actually be doing for speed, coordination, or tissue loading. In this episode, Aaron walks through his path into performance science, which is anything but linear. From skiing in Montana and playing desert sports, to football and track, to a stretch training horses in Australia, his journey eventually led him to research mentors in Arizona, Scotland, and New Zealand. That broad background shows up clearly in how he thinks about movement. One of the big takeaways from our conversation is Aaron’s overview of research showing that structured backward running programs can improve forward acceleration and even jumping ability. We also get into how backward running can be used as a screening and coordination tool, and where it fits into rehabilitation, including what’s happening at the joints, how muscles are working, and how to progress it without forcing things. We finish by digging into wearable resistance, including asymmetrical loading, and why this emerging tool may have more upside for speed and movement development than most people realize. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength and Lila Exogen. Use the code “LILAJUSTFLY10” for 10% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Topics 0:00 – Aaron’s background and coaching lens 6:40 – Seeing movement through posture and orientation 13:25 – Why breathing changes how athletes move 20:45 – Tempo, rhythm, and shaping better movement 30:10 – Constraints based coaching and problem-solving 40:55 – Sprint mechanics without over cueing 51:20 – Using environment to guide adaptation 1:01:30 – Blending strength work with movement quality 1:12:15 – Coaching intuition, feedback, and learning to see Quotes from Aaron Uthoff "Backwards running is about 70 % of the speed of forward. 60 to 70 % of the speed of forwards running. So whatever your maximum speed forward is about 70 % of that backwards for somebody who's been doing it for a little while. So just there tells you that there's not going to be the same magnitude of force as there is with a forward sprint." "If you've got anterior knee pain, which happens with lot of plyometrics, jumping, you think a lot of court-based sports, jumping track-based sports, things like that, you can simply reduce their patellofemoral joint loading by having them go backwards." "What we see that I love preferentially is that we actually get really high hamstring activation concentrically, which is not the case with forwards running." "I've got an injured athlete who had a hamstring injury and just wasn't able to decelerate his shank when he was sprinting forwards. So I had him run backwards. And what that's done is that's trained his hamstring concentrically to basically contract really, really quickly without putting that undue eccentric stress onto the joint on the muscles." "I think it's a good screening tool to see, well, where are they at from a coordination proprioceptive perspective? And you might have somebody that's super duper fast going forwards, but you know, if they actually can apply that skill, then you know, their proprioception is likely off a little bit." "By removing that vision... you're just having to tap into a different system a little bit more. And I find that that's one of the things that allows athletes to really expand their skillset majorly. "Backside mechanics plays a large role in the elasticity that's going to happen and the power that you're to be able to deliver on the front side of the body. And if you shorten that up or you're inefficient or uncomfortable in that space, then you know, backwards running is a really cool way to learn how to do that in a way that is a little bit safer at a slightly lower speed where it's a new drill." "I want you to be racing your belly, basically your belly button and your chest are going to be racing to the finish line. But unlike forward running, I want your belly button just to slightly win. And that just puts them into a posture that allows them to have that, that slightly lean, but still be upright." "Another thing I really like is I want them to stack their hips, basically their ribcages on top of their hips. They've got nice intra-abdominal pressure to allow that elastic recoil to happen through the core." "I think there's a lot more spinal engine utilized intensively with a backwards run than we might realize. And that's one of the major things I'm seeing. So we integrate a lot of spinal engine work into our drills just to help with the ability to carry that in. "If you actively, concentrically contract the hamstring and try to kick that heel out back behind you, and use that as a leading mechanism, then that allows your hip flexor to act concentrically more powerfully as well as it comes down. So you're able to train the anterior side of the thigh much more exclusively." About Aaron Uthoff Aaron Uthoff, PhD, is a sport scientist, researcher, and coach focused on human movement, sprint mechanics, and motor learning. He holds a doctorate in kinesiology, with research centered on how neuromuscular factors influence speed, coordination, and efficiency. He is especially known for his work on acceleration, sprinting, and unconventional locomotor strategies such as backward running, and how these methods affect force application, tissue stress, and motor control. His work blends strong scientific foundations with practical coaching insight, making it highly relevant for track and field, team sports, and rehabilitation environments. Alongside his research, Aaron works closely with coaches and athletes to translate complex biomechanical and neurological ideas into simple, usable training concepts. His approach values curiosity, experimentation, and respecting how the body naturally adapts when it’s exposed to new movement challenges.

Today’s guest is Dustin Oranchuk, Ph.D. Dustin is a sport scientist focused on sprinting biomechanics, speed development, and force production. Known for blending research with practical coaching insight, his work explores how isometrics, elasticity, and coordination shape high-performance sprinting and athletic movement. Isometric training is one of the “original” forms of strength training, and in the modern day has become one of the most popular areas of discussion and training methodology. Although the practice has exploded, it often lacks an understanding of physiology of adaptation with various methods. In this episode, Dustin explores the evolving world of isometric training, including the origins of isometrics. We discuss differences between pushing and holding contractions, tendon and neural adaptations, and modern applications in performance, rehab, and longevity. The conversation also dives into eccentric quasi-isometrics (EQIs), motivation and measurement challenges, and how coaches can intelligently integrate isometrics alongside plyometrics and traditional strength work. Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength. Use the code “LILAJUSTFLY10” for 10% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to Lilateam.com Use code “justfly10” for 10% off the Vert Trainer View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 0:11 – Strength Training Beginnings 5:38 – Evolution of Isometric Training 8:38 – Modern Applications of Isometrics 9:52 – Neural vs. Morphological Adaptations 15:45 – The Importance of Long Holds 19:42 – Combining Isometrics and Plyometrics 39:22 – Exploring Eccentric Quasi-Isometrics 47:10 – Periodization and Isometric Training 1:05:48 – Future Research Directions 1:13:00 – Closing Thoughts and Reflections Quotes from Dustin Oranchuk "We can predict performance fairly well from a test where we're actually not moving at all." "I think the main evolution is getting a little bit less towards building peak strength for barbell purposes and a little bit more universal utility for rehabilitation and longevity." "Using isometrics at a variety of different muscle lengths and different contraction durations to try and rehab after a pectare or a quadriceps strain or something like that." "The general or the more popular goal with the longer muscle length movements, or lack thereof, would be morphological adaptations." "Instead of matching a position, you're just trying to get the most sort of bang for your buck out of the isometrics as far as causing hypertrophy, or being able to target tendon rehabilitation, or build work capacity, or some other sort of little bit more morphological adaptation." "Tendons tend to need a certain threshold of intensity to get noticeable or meaningful adaptations. I think it's probably somewhere around 70 % of MBIC or max isometric contraction of a pushing ISO." "It's okay for our SNC work to not look obviously like anything we do on the field." "You can create a really good weight room environment where there's camaraderie and there's competitiveness without any objective measurements." "Pushing into a rack is almost always going to be able to be done at a higher intensity than holding something." About Dustin Oranchuk Dustin Oranchuk, PhD, is a sport scientist specializing in speed development, biomechanics, and force production in sprinting and jumping. He holds a doctorate in sport science and has worked extensively with elite athletes across track and field, team sports, and high-performance environments. Dustin is widely known for his research-informed yet practical approach to sprint mechanics, isometric training, and elastic performance, bridging laboratory insights with real-world coaching application. Through consulting, research, and education, he helps coaches and athletes better understand how force, stiffness, and coordination influence maximal speed and performance.