Torn ACLs, Alpine Skiing Expert

Strength and power coaching – always one of our most popular topics. This week we’ve got a world leader in the area, especially when it comes to winter sports.

Matt Jordan is head of Strength and Power Science at The Canadian Sport Institute.

Matt has been personal strength coach to more than 20 Olympic and world championship medallists, and has worked extensively in speed skating, alpine skiing, cross country skiing, snowboarding, biathlon, hockey, football, volleyball and mixed martial arts.

Matt is currently completing his doctorate in medical science at the University of Calgary, focusing on ACL injury/re-injury prevention in elite alpine ski racers.

Matt Jordan on “Relentless and Purposeful Preparation”

Athletes, coaches and supporting cast members centralize and prepare every single day as a collective to deliver performance on demand.

The support team brings expertise to help remove physical barriers for performance on demand.  The coaches bring technical expertise and sport know-how to ensure the athletes have the ability to perform on demand.  And the athletes engage these experts and engage in rigorous preparation to deliver performance on demand.

This needs to be executed from the smallest scale (i.e. the passing seconds) to the large scale (i.e. the passing years), and done so in a highly repetitious manner to establish the mental and physical skills to deliver performance on demand

Strength and Power Coaching

Furthermore there is a requirement of consistency in the actions of the system/sport to pursue excellence — not over the short-term but the long-term.  The minimum time period for the fruits of purposeful and deliberate preparation to show up as medals is a quadrennial, but more often than not it takes two quadrennials.  Throughout this time, it can feel as though the hard work is done in vain.  However, as with any partnership, it requires commitment to fight for the cause through the good times and the bad times.  The hard times must strengthen the resolve to the best in the world and not weaken it.

S&C Strength and Power Coach Matt Jordan: Injury-Free Explosiveness, Strength and Power Coaching