The Just Fly Performance Podcast is dedicated to all aspects of athletic performance training, with an emphasis on speed and power development. Featured on the show are coaches and experts in the spectrum of sport performance, ranging from strength and conditioning, to track and field, to sport psychology. Hosted by Joel Smith, the Just Fly Performance Podcast brings you some of the best information on modern athletic performance available.
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Today’s podcast guest is Chris Korfist. Chris is a veteran speed coach and founder of Slow Guy Speed School, known for blending sprint biomechanics, neurology, and innovative training methods to help athletes improve acceleration, speed, and movement efficiency. In this episode, sprint coach, Chris Korfist dives into the intersection of speed development, neurology, biomechanics, and athletic performance. Chris shares insights from decades of coaching experience, discussing acceleration mechanic...
On today’s episode, Gary Gray goes into a deep dive on movement literacy, biomechanics, and the power of variability in athletic development. Gary shares lessons from decades of coaching and rehabilitation, covering everything from locomotor patterns and rhythm to adductor function, sprint mechanics, and why authentic movement should “feel like a dance.” The conversation explores how coaches can better understand human movement through context, three-dimensionality, and the body’s natural proble...
Today’s podcast guest is Chris Chase. Chris is a strength coach and performance specialist with extensive NBA experience, known for integrating biomechanics, movement quality, and strength training into practical systems for basketball athletes, with an emphasis on durability, adaptable movement, and long-term athletic development. Chris Chase returns to discuss the evolution of modern sports performance training, from force outputs and plyometrics to deceleration mechanics, movement constraints...
Today’s podcast guest is Ryan Banta. Ryan is a leading sprint coach at Parkway Central High School, known for blending sport science with practical training. He has guided athletes to multiple state championships and national-level success, and is the author of The Sprinter’s Compendium. In this episode, Ryan shares his unconventional path from politics to coaching, and how early success, and failure, shaped his evolution. He reflects on moving from ego-driven outcomes to athlete-centered develo...
Strength coach Dario Saisan joins to discuss how AI and research are evolving the field. We dive into biomechanics, skill acquisition, and why the next generation is moving toward adaptive systems that sharpen human intuition.
Today’s podcast guest is Håkan Andersson. Håkan is a veteran Swedish sprint coach with over 40 years of experience developing elite sprinters, jumpers, and team-sport athletes. Based in Sundsvall, Sweden, he has coached national record holders and Olympic finalists, and has played a key role in the evolution of Scandinavian sprint training. For today’s podcast I join Håkan to explore the evolution of speed training, from early interval-based systems to modern high-velocity methods. We discuss th...
Today’s podcast guest is Mike Guadango. Mike is a performance coach and founder of Freak Strength, known for developing athletes from youth to the professional level across sports like baseball and football. A former All-American collegiate baseball player, Guadango blends strength, speed, and movement quality into a systems-based approach focused on long-term development, resilience, and high-level performance. In this episode, Mike breaks down his evolving approach to athletic development, emp...
Today’s podcast guest is Daniel Coyle. Daniel is a bestselling author and journalist known for his work on talent development and team culture. He is the author of The Talent Code and The Culture Code, and has written extensively on performance for The New York Times and Sports Illustrated. In this episode, Daniel Coyle joins the show to discuss why elite performance is rooted in relationships and shared environments. Using stories from Alaska to professional sports organizations, he explains th...
Danny Lum is a Singaporean strength coach and sport scientist specializing in applied performance research. His work explores strength diagnostics, isometrics, and power development, and he is widely published and recognized for connecting sport science with practical coaching. In this episode, Danny explores the intersection of sport science and real-world performance. Danny shares insights from his research on isometric training, PNF stretching, and velocity-based training, emphasizing how dif...
Sarah Miller is a strength and conditioning coach at Georgia Tech Athletics, blending a background in dance, theater, and stunt performance with collegiate S&C. Her work emphasizes coordination, rhythm, and adaptable movement alongside traditional strength and power development. In this episode, Sarah Miller shares her unconventional path from dance, theater, and stunt performance into collegiate strength and conditioning, and how those roots shape her coaching philosophy. She explores how m...
Richard Burnett is a sports performance coach with experience working across high-level athletic environments, including NFL Combine preparation, where he specializes in speed and power assessment, plyometric development, and preparing athletes for elite testing and competition. In this episode, Rich Burnett digs into reactive strength testing, jump feedback, and what really matters when evaluating plyometric ability in athletes. Rich explains the differences between tools like the Just Jump mat...
In this solo episode, Joel Smith explores the principles of programming for speed and power training. Drawing from his own evolution as an athlete and coach, he discusses early influences like high-volume jump programs, Soviet-inspired plyometrics, and classic periodization models. Joel outlines five key programming systems: high-low structure, potentiation sequencing, weekly changeovers, factorization, and autoregulation, while highlighting common mistakes such as excessive volume, overemphasis...
Tyler Franklin is a strength and conditioning coach and physical education instructor based in Murray, Kentucky. He works with athletes to develop strength, speed, and resilient movement through practical training methods. Tyler is also the founder of Feed the Dogs, a platform dedicated to sharing ideas on athletic development and performance. On today’s episode, Tyler discusses building speed, intent, and athleticism through creative training environments. He shares how chase games, partner dri...
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...
Today’s guest is Dan Cleather. Dan Cleather is a sport scientist, author, and lecturer specializing in biomechanics and strength training. He has worked across elite sport and higher education, helping coaches apply research to real-world performance. Dan is the author of The Little Black Book of Training Wisdom and The Little Blue Book of Training Wisdom, known for challenging conventional ideas and promoting evidence-informed coaching. If you search the internet for training methods and advice...
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 ...
Today’s guest is Tanner Care. Tanner Care is a high-performance specialist, currently serving as the Director of Player Performance for the BC Lions (CFL) and the Director of Athletic Performance for the Vancouver Bandits (CEBL). Since 2023, he has also held the role of Head Strength and Conditioning Coach at Simon Fraser University, where he oversees the physical development of athletes across 13 collegiate sports. On the surface, strength and conditioning is about increasing an athlete’s physi...
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 wh...
Today’s guest is Martin Bingisser. Martin is the founder of HMMR Media, one of the most trusted independent voices in throws and track & field education. A former competitive hammer thrower, Martin blends firsthand experience with deep historical and technical insight to analyze training methods, athlete development, and coaching culture. Through articles, videos, and interviews, his work bridges elite practice and practical coaching, earning him respect from coaches and performance professi...
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, ...
Today’s guest is Hayden Mitchell, Ph.D. Hayden is a sports performance coach, educator, and researcher specializing in movement ecology and pedagogy, helping coaches design environments that support learning, resilience, self-actualization, and sustainable athletic performance through play and exploration. There is a great deal of conversation in sports performance around methods, including exercises, drills, systems, and models, but far less attention is given to coaching itself. Coaching metho...
Dr. Dustin Oranchuk explores the historical context and modern evolution of isometric training, from Bob Hoffman's early methods to current applications in sports performance, rehabilitation, and longevity. He details the differences between neural and morphological adaptations from various isometric types, including the importance of long holds and the challenges of Eccentric Quasi-Isometrics (EQIs). The discussion also covers the intelligent integration of isometrics with plyometrics, periodization strategies, and future research directions in force production and elastic performance.
Today’s guest is Kevin Secours. Kevin is a veteran martial arts coach, author, and former security professional with decades of experience across Japanese Jiu-Jitsu, Karate, and Russian Systema. Holding five black belts (including an 8th-dan), Kevin has worked extensively in real-world contexts while also teaching meditation, solo training, and strength rituals. He is the author of Rituals of Strength and Unconstrained, and is known for blending martial tradition, modern training theory, psychol...
Today’s guest is Quintin Torres, a strength and performance coach specializing in Marinovich/Heus inspired training methods. With a background in martial arts, Quintin focuses on movement quality, coordination, and individualized methods that help athletes build strength that truly transfers to sport. So often in athletic development, it is only the “hard” or easily quantifiable qualities that we look to develop. Although these are vital, sport itself (even output sports) live “in between the cr...
Today’s podcast is a solo episode on keys to athletic longevity and ability. This isn’t just a “stay strong as you age” show, but rather, speaks to principles of comprehensive embodiment of the movement and strength training process. Here I break down 10 core principles for true athletic longevity; physically, mentally, and creatively. Drawing from decades of coaching, training, and personal evolution, I explore why mastery of bodyweight skills, seasonal training rhythms, and “doing more with le...
Today’s guest is Dr. Jarod Burton. Jarod is a chiropractor and sports performance coach focused on neurology-driven movement. He blends manual therapy, strength modailities, and nervous system training to unlock better mechanics and athletic output. His work centers on identifying and clearing the neural limits that hold athletes back. In training, there are many layers to human performance and athletic outputs. One critical layer is the power transmission of the nervous system, and how to unloc...
Today’s guest is Reinis Krēgers, a former champion decathlete turned track and physical education coach. Reinis is dedicated to building complete movers: fast, coordinated, confident athletes who understand their bodies. His training blends classical sprint development with exploratory tasks, helping athletes develop physical literacy and long-term adaptability. In sports performance, we often fixate on exercises, cues, and optimizing micro-qualities in the moment. What we discuss far less, yet ...
Today’s guest is Austin Jochum. Austin Jochum is the founder of Jochum Strength, a former All-Conference safety turned performance coach known for playful, movement-rich training. He blends strength, speed, and adaptability to help athletes build real-world capability and enjoy the process. So often, coaches inadvertently play by the formal “rules” of coaching, through substantial instruction, within smaller boxes of training. Gameplay and sport itself are the ultimate example of task-based stim...
Today’s guest is Bill Smart. Bill is a sport scientist and physical preparation coach specializing in elite fight-sports performance. As the founder of Smarter Performance and the Strength & Conditioning lead for the CORE MMA team, Bill integrates cutting-edge evidence with real-world high-performance systems to enable combat athletes to show up on fight day in optimal physiological condition. Much of the conversation in sports performance hinges on speed and power development, or conditioni...
Today’s guest is Sam Elsner. Sam is a former NCAA Division III national champion thrower turned motor learning writer and educator. He’s the author of The Play Advantage and creator of the Substack CALIBRATE, where he explores how humans learn movement through play, perception, and environment design. Sam brings a rare blend of elite athletic experience and deep skill-acquisition insight to help coaches and athletes move beyond drills toward true adaptability and creativity in sport. As athletic...
